Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Single systemic administration of Ag85B of mycobacteria DNA inhibits allergic airway inflammation in a mouse model of asthma

The immune responses of T-helper (Th) and T-regulatory cells are thought to play a crucial role in the pathogenesis of allergic airway inflammation observed in asthma. The correction of immune response by these cells should be considered in the prevention and treatment of asthma. Native antigen 85B (Ag85B) of mycobacteria, which cross-reacts among mycobacteria species, may play an important biological role in host–pathogen interaction since it elicits various immune responses by activation of Th cells. The current study investigated the antiallergic inflammatory effects of DNA administration of Ag85B from Mycobacterium kansasii in a mouse model of asthma. Immunization of BALB/c mice with alum-adsorbed ovalbumin followed by aspiration with aerosolized ovalbumin resulted in the development of allergic airway inflammation. Administration of Ag85B DNA before the aerosolized ovalbumin challenge protected the mice from subsequent induction of allergic airway inflammation. Serum and bronchoalveolar lavage immunoglobulin E levels, extent of eosinophil infiltration, and levels of Th2-type cytokines in Ag85B DNA-administered mice were significantly lower than those in control plasmid-immunized mice, and levels of Th1-and T-regulatory-type cytokines were enhanced by Ag85B administration. The results of this study provide evidence for the potential utility of Ag85B DNA inoculation as a novel approach for the treatment of asthma.
The Novel Functions of High-Molecular-Mass Complexes Containing Insulin Receptor Substrates in Mediation and Modulation of Insulin-Like Activities: Emerging Concept of Diverse Functions by IRS-Associated Proteins

Insulin-like peptides, such as insulin-like growth factors (IGFs) and insulin, induce a variety of bioactivities, such as growth, differentiation, survival, increased anabolism, and decreased catabolism in many cell types and in vivo. In general, IGFs or insulin bind to IGF-I receptor (IGF-IR) or insulin receptor (IR), activating the receptor tyrosine kinase. Insulin receptor substrates (IRSs) are known to be major substrates of receptor kinases, mediating IGF/insulin signals to direct bioactivities. Recently, we discovered that IRSs form high-molecular-mass complexes (referred to here as IRSomes) even without IGF/insulin stimulation. These complexes contain proteins (referred to here as IRSAPs; IRS-associated proteins), which modulate tyrosine phosphorylation of IRSs by receptor kinases, control IRS stability, and determine intracellular localization of IRSs. In addition, in these complexes, we found not only proteins that are involved in RNA metabolism but also RNAs themselves. Thus, IRSAPs possibly contribute to modulation of IGF/insulin bioactivities. Since it is established that disorder of modulation of insulin-like activities causes various age-related diseases including cancer, we could propose that the IRSome is an important target for treatment of these diseases.
High-Performance Architecture of Elliptic Curve Scalar Multiplication

A high performance architecture of elliptic curve scalar multiplication based on the Montgomery ladder method over finite field GF(2m) is proposed. A pseudo-pipelined word serial finite field multiplier with word size w, suitable for the scalar multiplication is also developed. Implemented in hardware, this system performs a scalar multiplication in approximately 6lceilm/wrceil(m-1) clock cycles and the gate delay in the critical path is equal to TAND + lceillog2(w/k)rceilTXOR, where TAND and TXOR are delays due to two-input AND and XOR gates respectively and 1 les k Lt w is used to shorten the critical path.
Neuroscientific implications for situated and embodied artificial intelligence

While classic artificial intelligence systems still struggle to incorporate commonsense knowledge properly, situated and embodied artificial intelligence (SEAI) aims to build animats that acquire a common-sense understanding of the world via interactions between simulated brains, bodies and environments. Neuroscientists believe that much of this common sense involves predictive models for physical activities, but the transfer of sensorimotor skill knowledge to cognition is non-trivial, indicating that SEAI may meet a daunting challenge of its own. This paper considers the neurological bases for implicit procedural and explicit declarative common sense, and the possibilities for its transfer from the former to the latter. This helps assess the prospects for SEAI eventually to surpass GOFAI (good old-fashioned AI) in the quest for generally intelligent systems.
Surface water flow theory application to public policy development and adaptation for arid and semi-arid regions

Abstract Regions that had acceptable levels of water resources are becoming arid due to global warming and human-caused damage. Yet, public policies in such regions remain unsuitable for local conditions. Although this is owed to broad economic, political, and engineering factors, this paper focuses on water project methodologies and local policy design toward sustainable development. Water surface flow formulas utilize simplified assumptions adequate for perennial rivers, but require upgrades to accommodate arid regions and seasonal river behavior. The paper proposes a framework that links engineering to public policy using field data collected in Mount Lebanon, where drought periods are increasing. A dependent variable is defined as an index about community benefits based on water projects. Four independent variables are defined as (X1) the extent to which local communities would contribute to the engineering management and maintenance of water facilities, (X2) the ability to use project output for power supply, (X3) the potential use for agricultural purposes, and (X4) local community amenability and support for the privatization of water civil works. Results showed a statistically significant and positive relationship with X1, X2, and X3 and negative correlation with X4. Public policies need to be designed to involve local communities.
A Novel Gender Recognition in Emotional Environment using GMM

The emotional speech is considered as a prominent aspect in human speech communication. Emotional Speech based gender recognition has its efficacy in real world applications like biometrics, human computer related fields, voice synthesis etc. The goal of gender recognition is to extract the information from speech signal depending on speaker identity. The recognition of the gender of the speaker in emotional state is main premise of this proposed work. Both prosodic features and spectral domain features are used. The parameters of prosodic features include pitch, energy and formant; spatial features include Mel Frequency Cepstral Co efficient (MFCC). Gaussian Mixture Model is used as classifier to train and classify the gender from the features extracted from Berlin database. The accuracy of the proposed techniques is measured using metrics like Sensitivity, Specificity and likelihood ratio.
Degradation of Degradable Starch-Polyethylene Plastics in a Compost Environment

The degradation performance of 11 types of commercially produced degradable starch-polyethylene plastic compost bags was evaluated in municipal yard waste compost sites at Iowa State University (Ames) and in Carroll, Dubuque, and Grinnell, Iowa. Masterbatches for plastic production were provided by Archer Daniels Midland Co. (Decatur, Ill.), St. Lawrence Starch Co. Ltd. (Mississauga, Ontario, Canada), and Fully Compounded Plastics (Decatur, Ill.). Bags differed in starch content (5 to 9%) and prooxidant additives (transition metals and a type of unsaturated vegetable oil). Chemical and photodegradation properties of each material were evaluated. Materials from St. Lawrence Starch Co. Ltd. and Fully Compounded Plastics photodegraded faster than did materials from Archer Daniels Midland Co., whereas all materials containing transition metals demonstrated rapid thermal oxidative degradation in 70°C-oven (dry) and high-temperature, high-humidity (steam chamber) treatments. Each compost site was seeded with test strips (200 to 800 of each type) taped together, which were recovered periodically over an 8- to 12-month period. At each sampling date, the compost row temperature was measured (65 to 95°C), the location of the recovered test strip was recorded (interior or exterior), and at least four strips were recovered for evaluation. Degradation was followed by measuring the change in polyethylene molecular weight distribution via high-temperature gel permeation chromatography. Our initial 8-month study indicated that materials recovered from the interior of the compost row demonstrated very little degradation, whereas materials recovered from the exterior degraded well. In the second-year study, however, degradation was observed in several plastic materials recovered from the interior of the compost row by month 5 at the Carroll site and almost every material by month 12 at the Grinnell site. The plastic bags collected from each community followed a similar degradation pattern. To our knowledge, this is the first scientific study demonstrating significant polyethylene degradation by these materials in a compost environment.
A Test for Common Genetic and Environmental Vulnerability to Depression and Diabetes

Molecular genetic research has provided some evidence for the association between depression and metabolic disorders. We sought to determine if molecular findings are reflected in twin analyses testing if common genetic and environmental risk factors contribute to the co-occurrence of diabetes and depression. Data to derive depression and diabetes were collected from 1,237 male-male twins who participated in the 2005 Vietnam Era Twin Study of Aging (VETSA). The 1,237 twins were comprised of 347 MZ pairs, 3 MZ singletons, 267 DZ pairs and 6 unpaired twins. Depression was defined as a score below 46 on the Short Form-36 mental component summary score. Diabetes was defined by self report, use of anti-diabetic medications and insulin. Twin models were fit to estimate the correlation of genetic and environmental contributions to depression and diabetes. Consistent with other studies these data support the association between depression and diabetes (OR = 1.7; 95%CI: 1.1–2.7). Genetic vulnerability accounted for 50% (95%CI: 32%–65%) of the variance in risk for depression and 69% (95%CI: 52%–81%) of the variance in risk for diabetes. The genetic correlation between depression and diabetes was r = 0.19 (95%CI: 0–0.46) and the non-shared environmental correlation was r = 0.09 (95% CI: 0–0.45). Overall there is little evidence that common genetic and environmental factors account for the co-occurrence of depression and diabetes in middle aged men. Further research in female twins and larger cohorts is warranted.
Assessing the total economic value of ranching in mountain communities : an overview

Livestock (mostly beef cattle and sheep) ranches have been dominant private land use in the high valleys of the Rocky Mountains for more than a century. As other natural resource based industries, including mining, forestry, oil and gas, tourism and retirees have risen, fallen, and, in some cases, risen again, ranching has filled a rather consistent and widespread, if not always clearly dominant, role throughout the local economies of the Rocky Mountain region. Within the past three decades, tourism, and its closely related cousins, retirees and other ‘amenity migrants,’ have come to play an increasingly important role in both the economies and the landscapes of mountain communities. The decade of the 1990s brought unprecedented rates of population growth and wealth to the Intermountain West, particularly in mountain communities with desirable natural features and recreational opportunities. The links between the land and the economic health of communities have rarely been more closely linked.
A Symbolic SAT-Based Algorithm for Almost-Sure Reachability with Small Strategies in POMDPs

POMDPs are standard models for probabilistic planning problems, where an agent interacts with an uncertain environment. We study the problem of almost-sure reachability, where given a set of target states, the question is to decide whether there is a policy to ensure that the target set is reached with probability 1 (almost-surely). While in general the problem is EXPTIME-complete, in many practical cases policies with a small amount of memory suffice. Moreover, the existing solution to the problem is explicit, which first requires to construct explicitly an exponential reduction to a belief-support MDP. In this work, we first study the existence of observation-stationary strategies, which is NP-complete, and then small-memory strategies. We present a symbolic algorithm by an efficient encoding to SAT and using a SAT solver for the problem. We report experimental results demonstrating the scalability of our symbolic (SAT-based) approach.
Radiotherapy prolongs the survival of advanced non-small-cell lung cancer patients undergone to an immune-modulating treatment with dose-fractioned cisplatin and metronomic etoposide and bevacizumab (mPEBev)

Radiotherapy (RT), together with a direct cytolytic effect on tumor tissue, also elicits systemic immunological events, which sometimes result in the regression of distant metastases (abscopal effect). We have shown the safety and anti-tumor activity of a novel metronomic chemotherapy (mCH) regimen with dose-fractioned cisplatin, oral etoposide and bevacizumab, a mAb against the vasculo-endothelial-growth-factor (mPEBev regimen), in metastatic non-small-cell-lung cancer (mNSCLC). This regimen, designed on the results of translational studies, showed immune-modulating effects that could trigger and empower the immunological effects associated with tumor irradiation. In order to assess this, we carried out a retrospective analysis in a subset of 69 consecutive patients who received the mPEBev regimen within the BEVA2007 trial. Forty-five of these patients, also received palliative RT of one or more metastatic sites. Statistical analysis (a Log-rank test) revealed a much longer median survival in the group of patients who received RT [mCH vs mCH + RT: 12.1 +/-2.5 (95%CI 3.35-8.6) vs 22.12 +/-4.3 (95%CI 11.9-26.087) months; P=0.015] with no difference in progression-free survival. In particular, their survival correlated with the mPEBev regimen ability to induce the percentage of activated dendritic cells (DCs) (CD3-CD11b+CD15-CD83+CD80+) [Fold to baseline value (FBV) ≤1 vs >1: 4+/-5.389 (95%CI,0- 14.56) vs 56+/-23.05 (95%CI,10.8-101.2) months; P:0.049)] and central-memory- T-cells (CD3+CD8+CD45RA-CCR7+) [FBV ≤ 1 vs >1: 8+/-5.96 (95%CI,0-19.68) vs 31+/-12.3 (95%CI,6.94-55.1) months; P:0.045]. These results suggest that tumor irradiation may prolong the survival of NSCLC patients undergone mPEBev regimen presumably by eliciting an immune-mediated effect and provide the rationale for further perspective clinical studies.
A new perspective on microtubules and axon growth

role of the cell body in generating the axonal microtubule array, whereas the other emphasizes the role of local mechanisms within the axon itself. Recent work suggests that events significant to the generation of the axonal microtubule array occur within both of these compartments, and that axon growth is dependent upon the coordinated efforts of several types of microtubule behavior. Our goal in this article is to evaluate the existing models in light of more recent data, and provide new perspectives on the manner by which the axonal microtubule array is generated.
2D and 3D Ultrasonographic Evaluation of Fetal Midface Hypoplasia in Two Cases with 3-M Syndrome

Abstract This paper highlights the utility of 2D and 3D ultrasonography in the prenatal diagnosis of facial dysmorphisms suggestive of very rare syndromes such as 3-M syndrome. Two pregnant women at risk for fetal skeletal dysplasias were referred to our clinic for 2D/3D ultrasound scan in the second trimester of pregnancy. Only one of the patients had a familial history of 3-M syndrome. Karyotyping and genetic testing of abortion material were performed in both cases. 2D ultrasonography revealed growth retardation of the long bones in both cases. In the case without a familial history of the syndrome, 2D and 3D ultrasonography showed an absence of nasal bones and a flat malar region suggestive of 3-M syndrome, although the difficult differential diagnosis included other dysmorphic growth disorders with prenatal onset. The karyotype was normal but the pregnancy was terminated in both cases. Postmortem examination confirmed 3-M syndrome as indicated by prenatal findings. In high-risk cases with a familial history of 3-M syndrome, prenatal diagnosis of 3-M syndrome is possible by analyzing fetal DNA. In the absence of risk, a definitive prenatal diagnosis is often not possible but may be suspected in the presence of shortened long bones, normal head size and typical flattened malar region (midface hypoplasia) shown on complementary 2D and 3D sonograms. 2D and 3D ultrasonography has been shown to offer reliable information for the prenatal study of skeletal and facial anomalies and can be useful if there is a suspicion of 3-M syndrome in a pregnancy not known to be at risk.
Query Modification through External Sources to Support Clinical Decisions

For the Clinical Decision Support Track of TREC 2014, we looked into the effect of modifying queries by adding or removing terms. We considered both automatic and manual query modifications that use either external data sources or a domain expert. While each method gave slightly different results, we discovered that the manual method still performed slightly better among the methods we considered. This is despite the fact that the manual queries were formed through just term removal; no new terms were added.
Role of the autonomic nervous system and baroreflex in stress-evoked cardiovascular responses in rats

Abstract Restraint stress (RS) is an experimental model to study stress-related cardiovascular responses, characterized by sustained pressor and tachycardiac responses. We used pharmacologic and surgical procedures to investigate the role played by sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and parasympathetic nervous system (PSNS) in the mediation of stress-evoked cardiovascular responses. Ganglionic blockade with pentolinium significantly reduced RS-evoked pressor and tachycardiac responses. Intravenous treatment with homatropine methyl bromide did not affect the pressor response but increased tachycardia. Pretreatment with prazosin reduced the pressor and increased the tachycardiac response. Pretreatment with atenolol did not affect the pressor response but reduced tachycardia. The combined treatment with atenolol and prazosin reduced both pressor and tachycardiac responses. Adrenal demedullation reduced the pressor response without affecting tachycardia. Sinoaortic denervation increased pressor and tachycardiac responses. The results indicate that: (1) the RS-evoked cardiovascular response is mediated by the autonomic nervous system without an important involvement of humoral factors; (2) hypertension results primarily from sympathovascular and sympathoadrenal activation, without a significant involvement of the cardiac sympathetic component (CSNS); (3) the abrupt initial peak in the hypertensive response to restraint is sympathovascular-mediated, whereas the less intense but sustained hypertensive response observed throughout the remaining restraint session is mainly mediated by sympathoadrenal activation and epinephrine release; (4) tachycardia results from CSNS activation, and not from PSNS inhibition; (5) RS evokes simultaneous CSNS and PSNS activation, and heart rate changes are a vector of both influences; (6) the baroreflex is functional during restraint, and modulates both the vascular and cardiac responses to restraint.
A case study in rumor transmission based on the Leo Frank case

A passive oculometer is a device that measures the position of the eye by utilizing the corneo-retinal potential (CRP) generated by the eye. In this thesis, the Bandpass Oculometer replaces the joystick of a personal computer, allowing the viewer to use a computer simply by moving his eyes. Low frequency noise, present in all electronic circuits, produces an offset from the reference point, the center of the screen. In previous lowpass oculometry studies at University of Central Florida, this offset caused the cursor to drift toward the edge of the field of view within a period of 30 seconds, decreasing the ability to precisely control the cursor on the monitor. The Bandpass Oculometer is different from its predecessors in that bandpass filtering is utilized. By filtering all frequencies except where eye movement occurs, low frequency drift noise and higher frequency interference signals are eliminated. Consequently, the viewer can achieve a reference with no offset and no drift, resulting in smoother tracking and better control of the computer. An additional improvement to previous oculometers is the new computer interface. A diode shaping network is used to simulate a joystick resistance, and an optocoupler relays the output current to the computer. The optocoupler electrically isolates the viewer from the computer, thus making the system safer to use.
A new method for hierarchical clustering combination

In the field of pattern recognition, combining different classifiers into a robust classifier is a common approach for improving classification accuracy. Recently, this trend has also been used to improve clustering performance especially in non-hierarchical clustering approaches. Generally hierarchical clustering is preferred in comparison with the partitional clustering for applications when the exact number of the clusters is not determined or when we are interested in finding the relation between clusters. To the best of our knowledge clustering combination methods proposed so far are based on partitional clustering and hierarchical clustering has been ignored. In this paper, a new method for combining hierarchical clustering is proposed. In this method, in the first step the primary hierarchical clustering dendrograms are converted to matrices. Then these matrices, which describe the dendrograms, are aggregated (using the matrix summation operator) into a final matrix with which the final clustering is formed. The effectiveness of different well known dendrogram descriptors and the one proposed by us for representing the dendrograms are evaluated and compared. The results show that all these descriptor work well and more accurate results (hierarchy of clusters) are obtained using hierarchical combination than combination of partitional clusterings.