Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Interleukin-10 Deficiency Impairs Bone Marrow–Derived Endothelial Progenitor Cell Survival and Function in Ischemic Myocardium

Rationale: Endothelial progenitor cell (EPC) survival and function in the injured myocardium is adversely influenced by hostile microenvironment such as ischemia, hypoxia, and inflammatory response, thereby compromising full benefits of EPC-mediated myocardial repair. Objective: We hypothesized that interleukin-10 (IL-10) modulates EPC biology leading to enhanced survival and function after transplantation in the ischemic myocardium. Methods and Results: Myocardial infarction (MI)-induced mobilization of bone marrow EPC (Sca-1+Flk1+cells) into the circulation was significantly impaired in IL-10 knockout (KO) mice. Bone marrow transplantation to replace IL-10 KO marrow with wild-type (WT) marrow attenuated these effects. Impaired mobilization was associated with lower stromal cell–derived factor (SDF)-1 expression levels in the myocardium of KO mice. Interestingly, SDF-1 administration reversed mobilization defect in KO mice. In vitro, hypoxia-mediated increases in CXCR4 expression and cell survival were lower in IL-10–deficient EPCs. Furthermore, SDF-1–induced migration of WT EPCs was inhibited by AMD3100, an inhibitor of CXCR4. To further study the effect of IL-10 on in vivo EPC survival and engraftment into vascular structures, GFP-labeled EPC were injected intramyocardially after induction of MI, and the mice were treated with either saline or recombinant IL-10. The IL-10–treated group showed increased retention of transplanted EPCs in the myocardium and was associated with significantly reduced EPC apoptosis after MI. Interestingly, increased EPC retention and their association with the vascular structures was observed in IL-10–treated mice. Increased EPC survival and angiogenesis in the myocardium of IL-10–treated mice corroborated with improved left ventricular function, reduced infarct size, and fibrosis in the myocardium. In vitro, IL-10–induced increase in VEGF expression in WT EPC was abrogated by STAT3 inhibitor, suggesting IL-10 signals through STAT3 activation. Conclusions: Taken together, our studies demonstrate that MI-induced EPC mobilization was impaired in IL-10 KO mice and that IL-10 increases EPC survival and function possibly through activation of STAT3/VEGF signaling cascades, leading to attenuation of MI-induced left ventricular dysfunction and remodeling.
Endothelium-derived Hyperpolarizing Factor: A Cousin to Nitric Oxide and Prostacyclin

There is now strong evidence that an endothelial mechanism, other than nitric oxide or prostacyclin, exists for dilating arteries and arterioles. This third pathway has been named endothelium-derived hyperpolarizing factor (EDHF) and should not be confused with endothelium-derived relaxing factor, which is nitric oxide. Currently, there are several ideas for the mechanism of EDHF, which may vary among vessels of different organs and species. During some pathologic states, EDHF can be up-regulated. This up-regulation often occurs as the dilator effects of endothelium-derived nitric oxide are suppressed. The up-regulated EDHF may serve in a protective capacity to help maintain blood flow to organs and tissues during these stressful states. Many anesthetics attenuate the dilator actions of EDHF; however, the full clinical implications of this anesthetic-related attenuation are not known. Like its cousins, nitric oxide and prostacyclin, EDHF is an important regulator of blood flow and should prove to be an important clinical consideration as we gain more knowledge of its mechanisms of action.
Effects of Acoustic Variability in the Perceptual Learning of Non-Native-Accented Speech Sounds

Abstract This study addressed whether acoustic variability and category overlap innon-native speech contribute to difficulty in its recognition, and more generallywhether the benefits of exposure to acoustic variability during categorizationtraining are stable across differences in category confusability. Three experimentsconsidered a set of Spanish-accented English productions. The set was seen topose learning and recognition difficulty (experiment 1) and was more variable andconfusable than a parallel set of native productions (experiment 2). A trainingstudy (experiment 3) probed the relative contributions of category central tendencyand variability to difficulty in vowel identification using derived inventoriesin which these dimensions were manipulated based on the results of experiments1 and 2. Training and test difficulty related straightforwardly to category confusabilitybut not to location in the vowel space. Benefits of high-variability exposurealso varied across vowel categories, and seemed to be diminished for highly confusablevowels. Overall, variability was implicated in perception and learning difficultyin ways that warrant further investigation.
Scenario 1 : Speculative Prefetching for Reducing Input Delay

MapReduce job execution typically occurs in sequential phases of parallel steps. These phases can experience unpredictable delays when available computing and network capacities fluctuate or when there are large disparities in inter-node communication delays, as can occur on shared compute clouds. We propose a pipeline-based scheduling strategy, called speculative pipelining, which uses speculative prefetching and computing to minimize execution delays in subsequent stages due to varying resource availability. Our proposed method can mask the time required to perform speculative operations by overlapping with other ongoing operations. We introduce the notion of “open-option” prefetching, which, via coding techniques, allows speculative prefetching to begin even before knowing exactly which input will be needed. On a compute cloud testbed, we apply speculative pipelining to the Hadoop sorting benchmark and show that sorting time is shortened significantly.
WEIGHTED COMPOSITION OPERATORS BETWEEN BERGMAN-TYPE SPACES

In this paper, we characterize the boundedness and compactness of weighted composition operatorsC'f = ˆfo' act- ing between Bergman-type spaces. LetD be the open unit disk in the complex planeC: Denote byH(D) the space of holomorphic functions on D: A weighted composition op- eratorC'(f)(z) = ˆ(z)f('(z)); for all z 2 D; where ' andare holomorphic functions deflned in D such that '(D) ‰ D: When ˆ = 1; we just have the composition operator C' deflned by C'(f) = fo' and when '(z) = z we have the multiplication operator Mdeflned by Mˆ(f) = ˆf: During the last century, composition operators have been studied extensively on spaces of analytic functions with the aim to explore the connection between the behavior of C' and function the- oretic properties of ': During the past few decades this subject has undergone explosive growth. As a consequence of the Littlewood Subor- dination principle (10) it is known that every analytic self map ' induces a bounded composition on Hardy and weighted Bergman spaces of the unit disk. However characterizing the compact composition operators acting on Hardy spaces of the disk was a di-cult problem. Commend- able work in this direction was done by Schwartz (14), Shapiro and Taylor (15), MacCluer and Shapiro (11) and Shapiro (16). Many other impor- tant properties of C' have also been studied on these spaces. We refer
Opacity proof for CaPR+ algorithm

In this paper, we describe an enhanced Automatic Checkpointing and Partial Rollback algorithm(CaPR+) to realize Software Transactional Memory(STM) that is based on continuous conflict detection, lazy versioning with automatic checkpointing, and partial rollback. Further, we provide a proof of correctness of CaPR+ algorithm, in particular, Opacity, a STM correctness criterion, that precisely captures the intuitive correctness guarantees required of transactional memories. The algorithm provides a natural way to realize a hybrid system of pure aborts and partial rollbacks. We have also implemented the algorithm, and shown its effectiveness with reference to the Red-black tree micro-benchmark and STAMP benchmarks. The results obtained demonstrate the effectiveness of the Partial Rollback mechanism over pure abort mechanisms, particularly in applications consisting of large transaction lengths.
Calcium, vitamin D, casein and whey protein intakes and periodontitis among Danish adults

Abstract Objective To investigate whether intakes of Ca, vitamin D, casein and whey are associated with periodontitis and to investigate the possibility of interactions between them. Design Cross-sectional study. An Internet-based, 267-item FFQ was used to assess dietary intake. Intakes of casein (32·0 g/d), whey proteins (9·6 g/d) and vitamin D (5·8 μg/d) were classified as within v. above the 50th percentile. Ca intake was classified as within v. below age-specific recommendations. Severe periodontitis was defined as having ≥2 inter-proximal sites with clinical attachment loss ≥6 mm (not on the same tooth) and ≥1 inter-proximal site with pocket depth ≥5 mm. Since vitamin D influences Ca absorption, models were stratified by lower and higher (<5·8 v. ≥5·8 µg/d) vitamin D intake. Setting Danish Health Examination Survey (DANHES) 2007–2008. Subjects Adult participants (n 3287) in the oral health study of DANHES 2007–2008. Results Intakes of Ca within recommendations (OR=0·76; 95 % CI 0·58, 0·99), whey ≥9·6 g/d (OR=0·75; 95 % CI 0·58, 0·97) and casein ≥32 g/d (OR=0·75 95 % CI 0·58, 0·97) were associated with lower likelihood of severe periodontitis after adjustment for age, gender, education, smoking, sucrose intake, alcohol consumption, number of teeth, daily brushing, regular visits to the dentist and chronic illness, irrespective of vitamin D intake levels. Intake of vitamin D alone was not associated severe with periodontitis. Conclusions Intakes of Ca, casein and whey protein were inversely associated with periodontitis. Consumption of foods rich in Ca, casein and whey (e.g. dairy foods) should be promoted, as they may contribute to the prevention of periodontitis. Further longitudinal studies are required to confirm these associations.
Strategic Manipulations for Associative Memory and the Role of Verbal Processing Abilities in Schizophrenia

Abstract Individuals with schizophrenia demonstrate episodic memory (EM) deficits and abnormal EM-related brain activity. Experimental encoding manipulations significantly benefit memory performance in schizophrenia, suggesting that a strategic processing deficit may contribute to memory impairment. However, few studies have investigated the combined effects of encoding and retrieval strategies on EM in schizophrenia. The current study examined the impact of encoding and retrieval strategies on associative memory and brain activity in schizophrenia. We also assessed the role of verbal processing ability in response to strategic memory interventions in schizophrenia. Behavioral and functional neuroimaging data were collected from 23 participants with schizophrenia and 24 comparison subjects while performing associative memory encoding and recall tasks. Behaviorally, both schizophrenia participants and controls benefited from memory strategies and showed significant associations between verbal processing ability and recall. Additionally, among schizophrenia participants, encoding strategy use was associated with enhanced brain activity in multiple brain areas. Schizophrenia participants also demonstrated significant associations between verbal processing ability and encoding-related brain activity in prefrontal cortex. Findings suggest that memory performance and brain activity in schizophrenia can be enhanced via strategic manipulations, and individual differences in cognitive abilities in schizophrenia can affect behavioral and neurobiological responses to strategic memory interventions. (JINS, 2011, 17, 796–806)
An optimized cooperative interference alignment algorithm for MIMO interference channel

Interference alignment is a kind of transmission technique which is able to align the interference from other transmitters into the same channel space. This paper proposes a novel optimized cooperative interference alignment (IA) scheme for a K user Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) M × M interference channel (IC). In order to maximized decrease the effect of the interference from unwanted transmitters, we will not only choose a group of optimized eigen-channels to transport the signals, but also select a group of precoding vectors to leave the desired signal away from interference, which are based on the decomposition of channel and the chord distance of matrix. What is more, we also design the interference suppress matrix using the optimized precoding matrix. The cooperative algorithm in this paper not use the iterative to get the precoding matrix or the suppress matrix so that it minimizes the complexity of the whole system. Further, the results of simulation show that it obviously improves both the capacity and the energy efficiency by this optimized algorithm, which also accord with the green communication.
Expression of λ and K Genes Can Occur in all B Cells and is Initiated Around the Same Pre-B-Cell Developmental Stage

Transgenic mice that carry a λ2 transgene under the control of the Vλ2 promoter and the Eλ2-4 enhancer (λ2Eλ mice) are described. A high proportion of B cells in the spleen and the bone marrow express the λ transgene on the cell membrane. λ2 protein is synthesized by all λ2Eλ-derived spleen B-cell hybridomas that have retained the transgene, suggesting that all B cells have the ability to express λ genes. Feedback inhibition of endogenous K-gene rearrangement is significant, but not complete. The results are similar to those with transgenic mice expressing the same λ2 transgene under the control of the heavy-chain enhancer (λ2EH mice). Although the λ2EH transgene is expressed before the λ2Eλ transgene, feedback inhibition seems to occur at about the same stage of B-cell development, regardless of the timing of expression of the λ transgenes. Apparently, feedback is not necessarily coincident with the assembly of a heavy-chain/light-chain complex in pre-B cells. Expression of λ in the normal fetal liver coincides with the expression of K; thus, it appears that λ-gene transcription is not delayed. The differential rearrangement of K and λ genes is discussed in the light of these findings.
Seismic Velocity Structure of the Crust Beneath the Aira Caldera in Southern Kyushu by Tomography of Travel Times of Local Earthquake Data

We applied the tomography method to the Pand S-wave arrival times of 829 local earthquakes observed at 101 stations in central and southern Kyushu, and revealed the detailed three-dimensional seismic velocity structure of the crust, especially the region beneath the Aira caldera. The structure obtained beneath the Aira caldera was characterized by a compacted high Poisson’s ratio zone at about 20 km depth, suggesting fluid saturation such as partial melts relating to volcanism. We also found that the low frequency earthquakes occurred so as to infill the lower crust between the high Poisson’s ratio zone and the moho discontinuity beneath the Aira caldera. It was also obvious that earthquakes clearly concentrated in regions with low Vp/Vs (low Poisson’s ratio) in the upper crust of the whole of southern Kyushu.
Semantic Web Personalization in a Scientific Congress Scenario

Suppose you registered to a large scientific congress and you got from the Web site the conference program containing a long list of papers which will be presented. Which presentations do you choose to attend? Usually either you try to guess the most interesting talks from their titles and authors or you are forced to have a quick look at the conference proceedings. A recommender system able to learn your research interests from the latest papers you wrote or read, and use them to provide suggestions, might be of valuable help for you in this scenario. Content-based recommenders analyze documents previously rated by a target user, and build a profile exploited to recommend new interesting documents. One of the main limitations of traditional keywordbased approaches is that they are unable to capture the semantics of the user interests, due to the natural language ambiguity. We developed a semantic recommender system, called ITem Recommender, able to disambiguate documents before using them to learn the user profile. The Conference Participant Advisor service relies on the profiles learned by ITem Recommender to build a personalized conference program, in which relevant talks are highlighted according to the participant’s interests.
Analysis of Simple Algorithms for Dynamic Load Balancing

The principle of load balancing is examined for dynamic resource allocation subject to certain constraints. The emphasis is on the performance of simple allocation strategies which can be implemented on-line. Either finite capacity constraints on resources or migration of load can be incorporated into the setup. The load balancing problem is formulated as a stochastic optimal control problem. Variants of a “Least Load Routing” policy are shown to lead to a fluid type limit and to be asymptotically optimal.
Attribute Based Search in Encrypted Data: ABSE

Searchable encryption enables users to delegate search functionalities to third-parties without giving them the ability to decrypt. Existing schemes assume that the sender knows the identity of the receiver. In this paper we relax this assumption by proposing the first Attribute Based Searchable Encryption Scheme (ABSE). An ABSE is a type of public key encryption with keyword search that allows the user encrypting the data to specify a policy that determines, among the users of the system, who is eligible to decrypt and search the data. Each user of the system owns a set of attributes and the policy is a function of these attributes expressed as a predicate. Only members who own sufficient attributes to satisfy that policy can send the server a valid search query. In our work we introduce the concept of a secure ABSE by defining the functionalities and the relevant security notions such as correctness, chosen keyword attacks, and attribute forgeability attacks. Our definitions are based on provable security formalizations. We further propose a secure construction of an ABSE based on bilinear maps. We illustrate the use of our proposed scheme in a shared storage for medical records.
Low Complexity Antenna Subset Selection for Massive MIMO Systems with Multi-Cell Cooperation

Cooperative massive MIMO systems have emerged as an attractive solution to meet the demands of the next generation wireless communication systems. Antenna selection at the base stations can significantly reduce the hardware and computational complexities of such systems. In this paper, we propose three sub-optimal antenna subset selection schemes based on the SNR maximization at the scheduled users with zero-forced beamforming transmission at the base stations. Simulation results show that our proposed schemes outperform other schemes with similar computational complexities and even surpass some of the higher computational complexity schemes in a massive MIMO setting.
Impact of a statewide intensive care unit quality improvement initiative on hospital mortality and length of stay: retrospective comparative analysis

Objective To evaluate whether implementation of the Michigan Keystone ICU project, a comprehensive statewide quality improvement initiative focused on reduction of infections, was associated with reductions in hospital mortality and length of stay for adults aged 65 or more admitted to intensive care units. Design Retrospective comparative study, using data from Medicare claims. Setting Michigan and Midwest region, United States. Population The study period (October 2001 to December 2006) spanned two years before the project was initiated to 22 months after its implementation. The study sample included hospital admissions for patients treated in 95 study hospitals in Michigan (238 937 total admissions) compared with 364 hospitals in the surrounding Midwest region (1 091 547 total admissions). Main outcome measures Hospital mortality and length of hospital stay. Results The overall trajectory of mortality outcomes differed significantly between the two groups upon implementation of the project (Wald test χ2=8.73, P=0.033). Reductions in mortality were significantly greater for the study group than for the comparison group 1-12 months (odds ratio 0.83, 95% confidence interval 0.79 to 0.87 v 0.88, 0.85 to 0.90, P=0.041) and 13-22 months (0.76, 0.72 to 0.81 v 0.84, 0.81 to 0.86, P=0.007) after implementation of the project. The overall trajectory of length of stay did not differ significantly between the groups upon implementation of the project (Wald test χ2=2.05, P=0.560). Group differences in adjusted length of stay compared with baseline did not reach significance during implementation of the project (−0.45 days, 95% confidence interval −0.62 to −0.28 v −0.35, −0.52 to −0.19) or during post-implementation months 1-12 (−0.59, −0.80 to −0.37 v −0.42, −0.59 to −0.25) and 13-22 (−0.67, −0.91 to −0.43 v −0.54, −0.72 to −0.37). Conclusions Implementation of the Keystone ICU project was associated with a significant decrease in hospital mortality in Michigan compared with the surrounding area. The project was not, however, sufficiently powered to show a significant difference in length of stay.
Elaboration of a rehabilitation method based on a pathogenetic hypothesis of “theory of mind” impairment in schizophrenia

"Theory of mind" skills have repeatedly been shown to be impaired in schizophrenic patients. The purpose of this paper is to develop a therapeutic intervention targeting schizophrenic patients' abilities to attribute mental states to others. This preliminary study tried to test the hypothesis that this kind of intervention should improve patients' communication abilities; we also wondered if this would have a positive impact on their more general psychopathology. Eight chronic schizophrenic patients were asked to analyse video scenes (showing interactions between two or more persons), with particular attention being paid to the characters' mental states. Their clinical assessments (general clinical symptoms, communication, and the ability to attribute intentions to others, rated before and after two training sessions, over a one-week period) were compared with those of a control group of six chronic schizophrenic patients. The results support our hypothesis of a possible improvement of patients' communication disorders and an improvement of their abilities to attribute intentions to others. The more general psychopathology ratings, however, remained unchanged. Although these results need further development and confirmation, they suggest a possible promising approach for psychosocial rehabilitation therapies based on "theory of mind" skills.