Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Augmentation of natural cytotoxicity by chronic low-dose ionizing radiation in murine natural killer cells primed by IL-2

The possible beneficial effects of chronic low-dose irradiation (LDR) and its mechanism of action in a variety of pathophysiological processes such as cancer are a subject of intense investigation. While animal studies involving long-term exposure to LDR have yielded encouraging results, the influence of LDR at the cellular level has been less well defined. We reasoned that since natural killer (NK) cells constitute an early responder to exogenous stress, NK cells may reveal sentinel alterations in function upon exposure to LDR. When purified NK cells received LDR at 4.2 mGy/h for a total of 0.2 Gy in vitro, no significant difference in cell viability was observed. Likewise, no functional changes were detected in LDR-exposed NK cells, demonstrating that LDR alone was insufficient to generate changes at the cellular level. Nonetheless, significant augmentation of cytotoxic, but not proliferative, function was detected when NK cells were stimulated with low-dose IL-2 prior to irradiation. This enhancement of NK cytotoxicity was not due to alterations in NK-activating receptors, NK1.1, NKG2D, CD69 and 2B4, or changes in the rate of early or late apoptosis. Therefore, LDR, in the presence of suboptimal cytokine levels, can facilitate anti-tumor cytotoxicity of NK cells without influencing cellular proliferation or apoptosis. Whether these results translate to in vivo consequences remains to be seen; however, our data provide initial evidence that exposure to LDR can lead to subtle immune-enhancing effects on NK cells and may explain, in part, the functional basis underlying, diverse beneficial effects seen in the animals chronically exposed to LDR.
Vibrations Analysis of Two-Dimensional Model of Metal Turning Process

This article focuses on nonlinear vibrations of a workpiece during the turning process. Applying numerical methods, the two degree of freedom model has been analysed. A cutting force possesses two kinds of nonlinearities. One of them is connected with the depth of the cut and the other results from a relative velocity between a tool and a chip. The cutting force acting on the workpiece causes a displacement of workpiece symmetry axis relative to the rotation axis. It produces an appearance of an additional inertia force, which can be essential during high rotational speed.
APOE genotype predicts AD and other dementia but not ischemic cerebrovascular disease

Background: The APOE polymorphism is an important modulator of plasma lipoproteins and a risk factor for AD. The hypothesis that APOE genotype, through its effect on lipoproteins, is a common risk factor for ischemic cerebrovascular disease (ICVD), AD, and other dementia (OD) was tested. Methods: The authors genotyped 9241 individuals from the general population, 452 patients with ICVD and ≥50% stenosis of the carotid arteries, and 75 patients with ICVD before the age of 50 years. Among the individuals from the general population, 211 had ICVD, 26 had AD, and 28 had OD. Results: The APOE polymorphism was not associated with ICVD in any of the three patient groups. In contrast, the ε43 and ε44 genotypes were associated with 3- and 10-fold risks of AD (95% CI = 1.4 to 8.0 and 2.5 to 41.0), and the ε43 genotype was also associated with a 2.5-fold risk of OD (95% CI = 1.1 to 5.5). These increases in risk were not abolished by adjustment for lipids and lipoproteins. The fraction of AD that could be attributed to the ε43 and ε44 genotypes was 37 and 20% in the general population, whereas the fraction of OD that could be attributed to the ε43 genotype was 26%. Conclusion: The APOE polymorphism is a risk factor for AD and OD independent of lipid and lipoprotein levels but does not affect the risk of ICVD.
Endothelial Dysfunction in Preeclampsia

Several years ago the hypothesis was advanced that alterations of endothelial function could explain much of the pathophysiology of preeclampsia. Since that time, extensive data have been generated to support the hypothesis. Markers of endothelial activation can be demonstrated in women with overt preeclampsia. More importantly, many of these markers precede clinically evident disease and disappear with resolution of the disease. The original postulate was that materials produced by the poorly perfused placenta, which is characteristic of preeclampsia, entered the systemic circulation and altered endothelial cell activity. This was proposed to change vascular sensitivity to circulating pressors, activate coagulation, and reduce vascular integrity resulting in the pathophysiological changes of preeclampsia. As data have accumulated it has become increasingly evident that the insult to the endothelium is neither toxicity nor nonspecific injury but rather can better be characterized as endothelial activation. Candidate molecules have been suggested but not established. It seems likely that the responsible agent(s) will not be unique molecules but rather usual molecules present in excessive amounts. The hypothesis has been expanded to invoke involvement of the maternal constitution in the generation of endothelial injury and injurants. This concept is stimulated by the observation that reduced placental perfusion per se is not sufficient to generate the maternal syndrome. Women with growth-restricted fetuses frequently are not preeclamptic. Placental bed biopsies from not only growth-restricted but also prematurely born infants demonstrate failure of the physiological remodeling of decidual vessels responsible for the reduced placental perfusion of preeclampsia. This has led to the concept that preeclampsia is secondary to an interaction of reduced placental perfusion and maternal factors. Interestingly these maternal factors, obesity, insulin resistance, black race, hypertension, and elevated plasma homocysteine concentration are all risk factors for atherosclerosis in later life.
Htm1 protein generates the N-glycan signal for glycoprotein degradation in the endoplasmic reticulum

To maintain protein homeostasis in secretory compartments, eukaryotic cells harbor a quality control system that monitors protein folding and protein complex assembly in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Proteins that do not fold properly or integrate into cognate complexes are degraded by ER-associated degradation (ERAD) involving retrotranslocation to the cytoplasm and proteasomal peptide hydrolysis. N-linked glycans are essential in glycoprotein ERAD; the covalent oligosaccharide structure is used as a signal to display the folding status of the host protein. In this study, we define the function of the Htm1 protein as an α1,2-specific exomannosidase that generates the Man7GlcNAc2 oligosaccharide with a terminal α1,6-linked mannosyl residue on degradation substrates. This oligosaccharide signal is decoded by the ER-localized lectin Yos9p that in conjunction with Hrd3p triggers the ubiquitin-proteasome–dependent hydrolysis of these glycoproteins. The Htm1p exomannosidase activity requires processing of the N-glycan by glucosidase I, glucosidase II, and mannosidase I, resulting in a sequential order of specific N-glycan structures that reflect the folding status of the glycoprotein.
Phase transitions in advanced relaxor-ferroelectric materials with a perovskite-type structure

Perovskite-type compounds of the general formula ABO3 play a key role in modern materials science. In particular, relaxor ferroelectrics are of great technological importance due to their outstanding dielectric, optoelectric, and electromechanical properties related to the complex nanoscale structure of these materials, i.e. polar nanoregions (PNR) dispersed in a paraelectric matrix. Relaxor behaviour is most commonly found in lead-based compounds with partial or complete chemical B-site disorder. Although relaxors have been extensively studied over the last decades, the relationship between chemistry, polar nanostructure, local and macroscopic properties is still not clarified and requires further structural analysis. In order to elucidate the impact of A-site doping on the structure of relaxors, a comparative X-ray/neutron diffraction study on selected A-site doped model relaxor systems lead scandium tantalate (PST) and lead scandium niobate (PSN) was performed for the first time in this thesis. In particular, the effect of disturbed orientational order of lone-pair electrons (LPE) associated with A-site doping is analysed in regard to local elastic and local electric fields. The detailed analysis of temperature-induced structural phase transformations highlights the importance of an undisturbed LPE system for the formation of ferroelectric long-range order (LRO). Substitution of Bi3+ for Pb2+ enhances the fraction of ferroelectrically ordered domains in PSN due to its affinity to form LPE, regardless of the additional local electric fields resulting from the aliovalent doping. In contrast, the isovalent substitution of the larger Ba2+, without LPE, for Pb2+ disturbs the LPE system of Pb2+. At the same time local elastic fields are introduced which lead to suppression of the ferroelectric LRO. Pressure as a thermodynamical variable is a much stronger driving force as compared to temperature. Therefore, complementary high-pressure structural analysis on the same model compounds can reveal better structural peculiarities of perovskite-type relaxors. In the limited number of published high-pressure studies rearrangement and/or suppression of PNR was suggested, without however to specify the structure of the high-pressure phase in detail. This comparative study of the pure and doped PST and PSN reveals a pressure-induced structural phase transition involving elastic softening of both phases in all the samples. For the first time the high-pressure structural state of lead-based perovskite-type relaxor ferroelectrics was revealed to consist of anti-phase tilts of BO6 octahedra that continuously evolve with increasing pressure. Local elastic fields due to isovalent doping free of LPE hamper the development of structural distortions associated with the high-pressure phase whereas orientational order of LPE even enhances the distortions and lowers the critical pressure. Hence, the effect of A-dopants on the pressure-driven phase transition displays their impact on the temperature-induced structural transformations.
Building a Quasi Regular Network from Randomly Distributed Wireless Sensor Network

A new algorithm named QRNA (Quasi Regular Node Activation) is proposed in this paper, which employ equilateral triangular structure to control topology distribution of active nodes. In QRNA, sufficient and necessary conditions for full coverage and connectivity are deduced based on a new metric, irregularity. In addition, a distributed back-off competition scheme is designed to schedule the activation of nodes to form a quasi regular network. Simulations will show that, compared to the reference algorithms, QRNA can efficiently reduce the number of active nodes, and prolong the coverage lifetime.
Near-Optimal Load Balancing in Dense Wireless Multi-Hop Networks

We consider the load balancing problem in wireless multi-hop networks. In the limit of a dense network, there is a strong separation between the macroscopic and microscopic scales, and the load balancing problem can be formulated as finding continuous curves ("routes") between all source-destination pairs that minimize the maximum of the so-called scalar packet flux ("traffic load"). In this paper we re-formulate the problem by focusing entirely on the so-called d-flows (vector flow field of packets with a common destination x) and by looking at the equation these flows have to satisfy. The general solution to this equation can be written in terms of a single unknown scalar function, psi(r, x), related to the circulation density of the d-flow, for which function the optimization task can be presented as a problem of variational calculus. In this approach, we avoid completely dealing with systems of paths and calculating the load distribution resulting from the use of a given set of paths. Once the optimal solution for psi(r, x) is found the corresponding paths are obtained as the flow lines of the d-flows. In the example of a unit disk with uniform traffic demands we are able to find a set of paths which is considerably better than any previously published results, yielding a low maximal scalar flux and an extraordinarily flat load distribution. We further illustrate the methodology for a unit square with comparable improvements achieved.
Cerebral Infarction with ICA Occlusion after Gamma Knife Radiosurgery for Pituitary Adenoma: A Case Report

Cranial irradiation may lead to accelerated atherosclerotic changes to small or medium sized arteries, but stroke associated with pituitary irradiation is not frequent. A patient treated with Gamma Knife radio-surgery (GKRS) for a pituitary adenoma suffered a cerebral infarction with internal carotid artery occlusion 4 years after radiosurgery. The patient was a 35-year-old male presenting with a visual disturbance. Endocrinological tests were normal. MRI revealed a 4.3 by 4.3 cm diameter invasive macroadenoma of the pituitary, projecting toward the suprasellar region and with cavernous sinus involvement with encasement of both internal carotid arteries (ICAs). GKRS was performed for residual tumor after a transcranial resection. The maximum dose was 40 Gy and the dose to the right carotid artery was below 20 Gy. The delayed hemiparesis was accompanied by a right capsular lacunar infarct shown on MRI. The images also showed a marked reduction in tumor size. Total, right ICA occlusion was confirmed by Doppler ultrasound. The patient had no history or signs of heart disease or metabolic disorder which could predispose to cerebrovascular
Taskforce on Innovative International Financing for Health Systems: showing the way forward.

When the high-level Taskforce on Innovative International Financing for Health Systems was launched in September 2008, with a 12-month timetable, it faced a vast array of challenges. A global financial crisis was gaining momentum, leading many to think that there was no chance of getting political support for raising additional funds for the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for low-income countries. Other challenges included differing views on how to define and handle international investments in “health systems”, concerns by some donors on the value for money of much official development assistance, and a growing number of competing priorities such as the food crisis and climate change. However, by the end of the 12-month period, a large number of world leaders met in New York to announce expanding support to several initiatives valued at more than 5 billion United States dollars (US$) in low-income countries, with a particular focus on maternal and child health services. These announcements came at the end of a year of detailed analyses by some leading figures in international health and a series of lively consultations and debates that have brought much needed energy to previously ignored areas. This paper summarizes how the taskforce was conducted, its key achievements and progress made since the work was completed. A detailed description of the challenges the workforce faced has already been published.1
A New Wideband Circularly Polarized Hybrid Dielectric Resonator Antenna

Dielectric resonator antennas (DRAs) have been targeted in the past two decades as a potential solution for wideband antennas. Although DRAs offer wider frequency band and smaller size than patch antennas, their design to obtain good circular polarization over a wide frequency band can be challenging. In this letter, a new hybrid DRA has been investigated to produce circular polarization over a wide frequency band. The targeted application is to produce a compact antenna for satellite navigation systems. The obtained design was fabricated and measured, showing impedance matching from 1.08 to 1.82 GHz, i.e. over 50% bandwidth. The radiation characteristics of the antennas were also characterized. The achieved gain is over 1.5 dBic, and the axial ratio (AR) is under 1 dB at boresight over the 1.131. 63 GHz frequency band. The half-power beamwidth is greater than 75°, and the axial ratio beamwidth (AR < 3 dB) is over 100° .
Protein targeting to subnuclear higher order structures: A new level of regulation and coordination of nuclear processes

Though there are no separating membranes within the nucleus, different factors are often concentrated at sites where their respective function is required, a phenomenum referred to as functional organization of the nucleus. How is then this organization achieved and how are the different metabolic processes integrated in the nucleus? One emerging principle was revealed by the identification of protein domains that, though not involved in catalysis, regulate enzyme activity at a higher order level by targeting enzymes to the right place at the right time. These targeting sequences constitute an assembly code for nuclear ‘protein factories,’ which ensure the extremely high efficiency and accuracy needed in a complex and competitive environment as the living mammalian cell. J. Cell. Biochem. 70:222– 230, 1998. © 1998 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Is service priority useful in networks?

A key question in the definition of new services for the Internet is whether to provide a single class of relaxed real-time service or multiple levels differentiated by their delay characteristics. In that context we pose the question: is service priority useful in networks? We argue that, contrary to some of our earlier work, to properly address this question one cannot just consider raw network-centric performance numbers, such as the delay distribution. Rather, one must incorporate two new elements into the analysis: the utility functions of the applications (how application performance depends on network service), and the adaptive nature of applications (how applications react to changing network service). This last point is especially crucial; modern Internet applications are designed to tolerate a wide range of network service quality, and they do so by adapting to the current network conditions. Most previous investigations of network performance have neglected to include this adaptive behavior.In this paper we present an analysis of service priority in the context of audio applications embodying these two elements: utility functions and adaptation. Our investigation is far from conclusive. The definitive answer to the question depends on many factors that are outside the scope of this paper and are, at present, unknowable, such as the burstiness of future Internet traffic and the relative offered loads of best-effort and real-time applications. Despite these shortcomings, our analysis illustrates this new approach to evaluating network design decisions, and sheds some light on the properties of adaptive applications.
Micro-optical element on SiN membrane

Optical elements, such as grating, holographic optical element and Fresnel lens, are made on the SiN membrane. The SiN film was deposited on the silicon wafer by low pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD). Its advantages include the high transmission efficiency, light weight, and easy packaging for the Si-based optical pickup head.
Cortical Morphometric Subclassification of Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) is a primary neurodegenerative disease comprising 3 clinical subtypes: frontotemporal dementia (FTD), semantic dementia (SD), and progressive nonfluent aphasia (PNFA). The subdivision is primarily based on the characteristic clinical symptoms displayed by each subtype. We hypothesized that these symptoms would be correlated to characteristic patterns of brain atrophy, which could be indentified and used for subclassification of subjects with FTLD. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Volumes of 9 cortical regions were manually parcellated and measured on both hemispheres on 27 controls, 12 patients with FTD, 9 patients with PNFA, and 13 patients with SD. The volumetric data were analyzed by traditional t tests and by a multivariate discriminant analysis (partial least squares discriminant analysis). RESULTS: The ensemble or pattern of atrophy was a good discriminator in pair-wise comparison between the subtypes: FTD compared with SD (sensitivity 100% [12/12], specificity 100% [13/13]); FTD compared with PNFA (sensitivity 92% [11/12], specificity 89% [8/9]); and SD compared with PNFA (sensitivity 86% [11/13], specificity 100% [9/9]). Temporal-versus-frontal atrophy was the most important pattern for discriminating SD from the other 2 subtypes. Right-sided versus left-sided atrophy was the most important pattern for discriminating between subjects with FTD and PNFA. CONCLUSIONS: FTLD subtypes generally display a characteristic pattern of atrophy, which may be considered in diagnosing patients with FTLD.
Spinal Somatostatin SSTR2A Receptors Are Preferentially Up-regulated and Involved in Thermonociception but Not Mechanonociception

The present study was undertaken to investigate the role of spinal somatostatin SSTR2A receptors in nociceptive processing. SSTR2A receptor-like immunoreactivity was found in a dense network in the spinal cord of normal rats. With Western blot analysis a major band of approximately 80-85 kDa was detected. Both immunohistochemistry and immunoblot analysis indicated a significant increase in SSTR2A receptor content in the spinal cord 6 h after noxious thermal stimulation that lasted for at least 24 h. However, there were no notable changes in SSTR2A receptor content 3, 6, 12, or 24 h after noxious mechanical stimulation. Effects of intrathecally administered polyclonal antiserum to SSTR2A receptor (anti-SSTR2A) on thermal and mechanical pain thresholds were determined with behavioral tests. In normal rats, pretreatment with anti-SSTR2A (1 microl, intrathecal) did not affect paw withdrawal latency or pinch threshold. Hindpaw inflammation induced by complete Freund's adjuvant led to thermal and mechanical hyperalgesia as reflected by a robust decrease in paw withdrawal latency and pinch threshold. Significant attenuation of the thermal hyperalgesia was observed 3, 5, 7, 9, and 24 h after pretreatment with anti-SSTR2A. This effect disappeared in another 24 h. In contrast, pretreatment with anti-SSTR2A failed to exert any notable effect on adjuvant-induced mechanical hyperalgesia. The present findings provide the first evidence that SSTR2A receptors are responsible for thermal, but not mechanical, nociceptive transmission in the spinal cord. The results also suggest that somatostatin has an excitatory role in spinal nociceptive processing and that there are differential receptor responses to different types of noxious stimuli.
A search-based approach for test suite generation from extended finite state machines

Extended Finite State Machines (EFSMs) are widely used to model the behavior of a system. Testing from EFSMs is expressed in terms of generating transition paths and then deriving test data to trigger these paths. However, a transition path may be infeasible, thus it is impossible to generate test data to execute it. In this paper, after generating a set of transition paths that satisfy the requirement-based and constrained path coverage criteria, we apply a search-based approach using two techniques: (1) A fitness metric using dependence analysis to estimate the feasibility of a transition path; and (2) A total fitness function for the whole test suite fitness estimation. This paper also reports on a case study to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed approach.