Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Gender dimorphic increase in RBP‐4 and NGAL in children born after IVF: an epigenetic phenomenon?

In vitro fertilisation (IVF) has been widely used during the last decades. Recent studies demonstrated some alterations in IVF children's metabolic profile compared with controls. The recently reported lipocalins retinol‐binding protein 4 (RBP‐4) and neutrophil gelatinase‐associated lipocalin (NGAL), as well as visfatin, which are associated with glucose intolerance and could help in the early detection of metabolic abnormalities, have not been studied in IVF children as yet. We studied the lipocalins RBP‐4 and NGAL as well as visfatin in children born after IVF.
A Robust Parametric Technique for Multipath Channel Estimation in the Uplink of a DS-CDMA System

The problem of estimating the multipath channel parameters of a new user entering the uplink of an asynchronous direct sequence-code division multiple access (DS-CDMA) system is addressed. The problem is described via a least squares (LS) cost function with a rich structure. This cost function, which is nonlinear with respect to the time delays and linear with respect to the gains of the multipath channel, is proved to be approximately decoupled in terms of the path delays. Due to this structure, an iterative procedure of 1D searches is adequate for time delays estimation. The resulting method is computationally efficient, does not require any specific pilot signal, and performs well for a small number of training symbols. Simulation results show that the proposed technique offers a better estimation accuracy compared to existing related methods, and is robust to multiple access interference.
Medical Yoga Therapy

Medical yoga is defined as the use of yoga practices for the prevention and treatment of medical conditions. Beyond the physical elements of yoga, which are important and effective for strengthening the body, medical yoga also incorporates appropriate breathing techniques, mindfulness, and meditation in order to achieve the maximum benefits. Multiple studies have shown that yoga can positively impact the body in many ways, including helping to regulate blood glucose levels, improve musculoskeletal ailments and keeping the cardiovascular system in tune. It also has been shown to have important psychological benefits, as the practice of yoga can help to increase mental energy and positive feelings, and decrease negative feelings of aggressiveness, depression and anxiety.
Single channel properties of P2X ATP receptors in outside‐out patches from rat hippocampal granule cells

1 The single channel properties of P2X ATP receptors were investigated in outside‐out patches from hippocampal granule cells in brain slices from 12‐day‐old rats. The results demonstrate that functional P2X ATP receptors are expressed in hippocampal granule cells and, combined with previously published information on the P2X subunits expressed in the hippocampus, suggest that the receptors may be heteromers of the P2X4 and P2X6 subunits or P2X1, P2X2, P2X4 and P2X6 subunits. 2 Two distinct types of P2X channel openings were observed. A flickery P2X receptor channel was observed in three patches with a mean chord conductance of 32 ± 6 pS, a mean open time of 1.0 ± 0.3 ms and a mean burst length of 11 ± 5 ms at a membrane potential of −60 mV. A large conductance P2X receptor was observed in 19 out of 98 patches with a mean conductance of 56 ± 1.8 pS, a linear current‐voltage relationship between −80 and +60 mV with a reversal potential around 0 mV, a mean open time of 2.6 ± 0.2 ms and a mean burst length of 8.8 ± 1.8 ms at −60 mV. At an ATP concentration of 1 mm, these channels exhibited a low steady‐state open probability (Popen, 0.07 ± 0.008; n= 15), little apparent desensitisation and were also activated by α,β‐methylene ATP (α,β‐meATP, 40 μm; Popen, 0.007 ± 0.0002; conductance, 57 ± 1.1 pS; n= 3). No decrease in the single channel conductance was observed on increasing the free extracellular calcium concentration from 0.3 to 0.85 mm. 3 Channel closed time distributions were fitted with five exponential components with time constants (and relative areas) of 90 μs (20 %), 0.77 ms (32 %), 10 ms (15 %), 90 ms (18 %) and 403 ms (15 %) at 1 mm ATP. Of these, the first two components are suggested to represent gaps within single activations of the receptor based on the lack of agonist concentration dependence of these two shut time components between 1 μm and 1 mm ATP. 4 Suramin (40 μm) significantly increased the single channel conductance (19 ± 7 %; n= 5) and produced a small decrease in Popen (39 ± 9 %; n= 5) by decreasing mean open time, burst length and total open time per burst. These actions of suramin are not consistent with simple competitive antagonism.
Inhibitory Effects of the Antiangiogenic Agent TNP‐470 on Establishment and Growth of Hematogenous Metastasis of Human Pancreatic Carcinoma in SCID Beige Mice In Vivo

Effects on the liver of the antiangiogenesis agent O-(chloroacetyl-carbamoyl) fumagillol (TNP-470) on hematogenous metastasis of a human pancreatic carcinoma cell line were examined. One million PCI-43 cells, a human pancreas carcinoma cell line, were injected into the spleen of SCID beige mice, then TNP-470 at 30 mg/kg was administered subcutaneously every other day. The mice were killed 6 or 10 weeks thereafter and metastatic nodules in the liver were counted and measured microscopically. Metastases were inhibited and an ∼10% loss of weight was evident in the TNP-470-administered mice. There was no suppression in maximal size of metastatic colonies in mice given the agent for 6 weeks, while inhibition was apparent in mice given the drug for 10 weeks. Suppression of proliferation and an increase in apoptosis were evident in metastatic nodules in the TNP-470-administered groups, following stainings for proliferative cell nuclear antigen and terminal deoxytransferase-mediated dUTP-biotin nick endlabeling, respectively. TNP-470 inhibited the proliferation of human umbilical vein endothelial cells but not PCI-43 in vitro. TNP-470 did not suppress production of vascular endothelial growth factor by PCI-43 cells. Neovascularization in vivo induced by PCI-43 cells was suppressed in the TNP-470-administered mice, using a diffusion chamber placed in subcutaneous tissues of SCID beige mice. These observations suggest that inhibition of angiogenesis is effective in suppressing establishment and subsequent growth of hematogenous micrometastases of pancreatic adenocarcinoma to the liver.
Understanding Systematic Risk: A High-Frequency Approach

Under a large dimensional approximate factor model for asset returns, I use high-frequency data for the S&P 500 firms to estimate the latent continuous and jump factors. I estimate four very persistent continuous systematic factors for 2007 to 2012 and three from 2003 to 2006. These four continuous factors can be approximated very well by a market, an oil, a finance and an electricity portfolio. The value, size and momentum factors play no significant role in explaining these factors. For the time period 2003 to 2006 the finance factor seems to disappear. There exists only one persistent jump factor, namely a market jump factor. Using implied volatilities from option price data, I analyze the systematic factor structure of the volatilities. There is only one persistent market volatility factor, while during the financial crisis an additional temporary banking volatility factor appears. Based on the estimated factors, I can decompose the leverage effect, i.e. the correlation of the asset return with its volatility, into a systematic and an idiosyncratic component. The negative leverage effect is mainly driven by the systematic component, while it can be non-existent for idiosyncratic risk.
Drug dependence and abuse potential of tramadol.

AIM To assess the drug dependence and abuse liability of tramadol. METHODS Subjects of opiate addicts with history of tramadol abuse were 219. Physical dependence of tramadol was assessed using opiate withdrawal scale (OWS), psychic dependence was assessed by association test of Addiction Research Center Inventory-Chinese Version (ARCI-CV); the degrees of craving experienced for tramadol was self-reported on visual analogue scale (VAS). RESULTS The scores of OWS of tramadol were 0.05-1.07; 3 scores on scales in particular being used the identify euphoric effects--MBG, sedative effects--PCAG, and psychotomimetic effects--LSD of ARCI were 7.3, 6.1, and 3.4, respectively (F = 38.1, P < 0.01); 57.1% of tramadol abuse subjects had craving for tramadol (chi 2 = 75.86, P < 0.01). CONCLUSION Tramadol produced high abuse potential among opiate addicts.
Agents and Service-Oriented Computing for Autonomic Computing: A Research Agenda

Autonomic computing is the solution proposed to cope with the complexity of today's computing environments. Self-management, an important element of autonomic computing, is also characteristic of single and multiagent systems, as well as systems based on service-oriented architectures. Combining these technologies can be profitable for all - in particular, for the development of autonomic computing systems.
FiGMR: A fine-grained MapReduce scheduler in the heterogeneous cloud

MapReduce is a distributed programming model for expressing distributed computation on the massive amounts of data. It also is an execution framework for large-scale data processing on clusters. However, Hadoop is a serious limitation due to its MapReduce scheduler exhiting poor performance in a heterogeneous Cloud environment. LATE scheduler for MapReduce takes heterogeneous systems into consideration. Unfortunately, it still falls the poor performance due to its static manner during the progress of tasks computation. To further improve the total performance on the computation efficiency in a heterogeneous cloud, a Fine-Grained and dynamic MapReduce scheduling algorithm (FiGMR) is proposed. Based on the historical and real-time information obtained from each node in a cloud, FiGMR can select the appropriate parameters to dynamically detect the slow tasks. Map or reduce slow nodes means nodes which execute map or reduce tasks for a longer timespan than other nodes. Furthermore, the map nodes are classified into high-performance nodes and low-performance nodes. The corresponding slow tasks are also classified into slow map tasks and slow reduce tasks. Adopting the reasonable scheduling scheme, FiGMR can launch backup map tasks on the high-performance map nodes. The experimental results indicate that the proposed FiGMR can significantly reduce the tasks execution time and improve the resources' utilization. , compared with the Hadoop default scheduler and LATE scheduler.
Alpha 2-adrenoceptors mediate inhibition of cyclic AMP production in the spinal cord after stimulation of cyclic AMP with forskolin but not after stimulation with capsaicin or vasoactive intestinal peptide.

In slices obtained from the ventral and the dorsal guinea pig spinal cord both forskolin and vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) caused a dose-dependent stimulation of the production of cyclic AMP. By contrast capsaicin stimulated cyclic AMP formation only in the dorsal cord; no effect was observed in the ventral cord. The alpha 2-adrenergic agonist UK-14,304 dose-dependently inhibited the production of cyclic AMP in both the dorsal and ventral aspects of the cord when the formation of cyclic AMP had been stimulated with 3 microM forskolin, the maximal inhibition amounting to 25-32%. Also the basal (i.e., unstimulated) production of cyclic AMP was inhibited, the inhibition amounting to about 16-18%. However, after stimulation of cyclic AMP formation in the dorsal cord with capsaicin, UK-14,304 was virtually ineffective in inhibiting the accumulation of cyclic AMP. Also, when the formation of cyclic AMP was stimulated with VIP, UK-14,304 was virtually ineffective in inhibiting the formation of cyclic AMP both in the ventral and the dorsal parts of the cord. When cyclic AMP production had been stimulated with forskolin the ability of UK-14,304 to inhibit the formation of cyclic AMP was not attenuated by capsaicin, either in the ventral or in the dorsal cord. The results are discussed with the notion that cyclic AMP inhibitory spinal cord alpha 2-adrenoceptors are located on cells accessible to stimulation of cyclic AMP with forskolin but not with capsaicin or VIP.
Intestinal Microbiota Succession and Immunomodulatory Consequences after Introduction of Lactobacillus reuteri I5007 in Neonatal Piglets

Seventy-two, suckling piglets, obtained from 9 litters standardized to 8 piglets, were assigned to 1 of 3 treatments (n = 24) to compare short-term, early administration with intermittent, longer-term administration of Lactobacillus reuteri I5007. The treatments were a control (given a placebo of 0.1% peptone water from day 1 to 5) or treatments in which 1.7 × 1010 CFU L. reuteri was administrated either daily for 4 days starting on day 1 or every 4th day from day 1 to 17. Five piglets per treatment were killed at 3 time points (day 7, 14 and 21). Denaturing Gradient Electrophoresis of ileal digesta revealed an increase in the presence of L. reuteri I5007 and Clostridium lentocellum (on day 14 and 21) in the every 4th-day treatment and Actinobacillus porcinus (on day 7 and 14) in both L. reuteri treatments, while reducing the abundance of E. coli on day 21 in the every 4th-day treatment. Real-time qPCR of ileal digesta showed an increase in Bifidobacterium spp. on day 14 for both L. reuteri I5007 treatments. An increase in the concentration of lactic acid and a lower pH was observed in the first 4-day treatment on day 7 and the every 4th day treatment on day 14. The relative abundance of mRNA for TGF-β was increased while that for IFN-γ was decreased in the mesenteric lymph nodes of piglets treated with L. reuteri every 4th day. In conclusion, early intervention with L. reuteri increases the presence of beneficial bacteria and decreases the presence of undesirable microbes in the lower gastrointestinal tract. The changes appear to be mediated by altering the intestinal pH through lactic acid production resulting in favorable bacterial species colonization. A prolonged duration of treatment (i.e. every 4th day) would appear to be superior to treatment only during the first 4 days.
Feeling personal: the emotional SIDE of media selection dilemmas

Virtual organisations are made up of the relationships maintained between people across geographical and temporal boundaries. Their members are linked by myriad connections that support both the co-ordination of their mutual activities and the combination of their individual skills so that they can accomplish collective goals. The technologies of 'virtualization' serve not only to permit collaboration where it was formerly difficult or impossible, but they also stand to transform the socio-emotional fabric of the underlying relationships themselves. This paper explores the nature of virtualized relationships in terms of the emotional and strategic aspects of self-presentation, use of communication technologies and trust. We report an Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis of interview transcripts together with an analysis of 'media choice dilemma' diary entries. Our studies show that virtual interaction is characterised by an entangled set of consequential relationships. We anticipated that most media usage dilemmas would be rooted in concerns about compromising a person's social identity. We found that, where choice was not predominantly driven by functional or economic factors, choice was predominantly governed by emotional concerns about personal identity. The emotional concerns of participants are a reference point in their use of media as they strive to project their own identity in a positive way, and to protect their own interests.
A Provenance Model for Key-value Systems

In this paper we present key-value provenance model (KVPM). In KVPM, provenance information can be collected for both, the data and the data's schema in a key-value system. Collection of the information is application-driven, and it can collected at different levels of the data model hierarchy. Here we present the capabilities of the KVPM system along with its design and implementation for Cassandra and initial evaluation.
Identifying Strong Statistical Bias in the Local Structure of Metabolic Networks - The Metabolic Network of Saccharomyces Cerevisiae as a Test Case

The detection of strong statistical bias in metabolic networks is of much interest for highlighting potential selective preferences. However, previous approaches to this problem have relied on ambiguous representations of the coupling among chemical reactions or in physically unrealizable null models, which raise interpretation problems. Here we present an approach that avoids these problems. It relies in a bipartite-graph representation of chemical reactions, and it prompts a near-comprehensive examination of statistical bias in the relative frequencies of topologically related metabolic structures within a predefined scope. It also lends naturally to a comprehensive visualization of such statistical relationships. The approach was applied to the metabolic network of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, where it highlighted a preference for sparse local structures and flagged strong context-dependences of the reversibility of reactions and of the presence/absence of some types of reactions.
Influence of topology on bacterial social interaction

The environmental topology of complex structures is used by Escherichia coli to create traveling waves of high cell density, a prelude to quorum sensing. When cells are grown to a moderate density within a confining microenvironment, these traveling waves of cell density allow the cells to find and collapse into confining topologies, which are unstable to population fluctuations above a critical threshold. This was first observed in mazes designed to mimic complex environments, then more clearly in a simpler geometry consisting of a large open area surrounding a square (250 × 250 μm) with a narrow opening of 10–30 μm. Our results thus show that under nutrient-deprived conditions bacteria search out each other in a collective manner and that the bacteria can dynamically confine themselves to highly enclosed spaces.
An integrative approach to understanding the combinatorial histone code at functional elements

SUMMARY The rapid advancement of genomic technology has revealed the enormous complexity and combinatorial nature of chromatin modifications. To facilitate interpretation of the combinatorial nature of chromatin, we have developed a novel method to integrate all chromatin datasets into distinct nucleosome types (nucleosome alphabet). We have applied this approach to Saccharomyces cerevisiae, generating a nucleosome alphabet, which forms chromatin motifs when mapped back to the genome. By applying novel chromatin alignment and global word search approaches, we have defined distinctive chromatin motifs for introns, origins of replication, tRNAs, antisense transcripts, double-strand-break hotspots and DNase hypersensitive sites, and can distinguish genes by expression level. We have also uncovered strong associations between transcription factor binding and specific types of nucleosomes. Our results demonstrate the uses and functionality of defining a chromatin alphabet and provide a unique and novel framework for exploring chromatin architecture. CONTACT mjbuck@buffalo.edu SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Dynamic Model of Visual Recognition Predicts Neural Response Properties in the Visual Cortex

The responses of visual cortical neurons during fixation tasks can be significantly modulated by stimuli from beyond the classical receptive field. Modulatory effects in neural responses have also been recently reported in a task where a monkey freely views a natural scene. In this article, we describe a hierarchical network model of visual recognition that explains these experimental observations by using a form of the extended Kalman filter as given by the minimum description length (MDL) principle. The model dynamically combines input-driven bottom-up signals with expectation-driven top-down signals to predict current recognition state. Synaptic weights in the model are adapted in a Hebbian manner according to a learning rule also derived from the MDL principle. The resulting prediction-learning scheme can be viewed as implementing a form of the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm. The architecture of the model posits an active computational role for the reciprocal connections between adjoining visual cortical areas in determining neural response properties. In particular, the model demonstrates the possible role of feedback from higher cortical areas in mediating neurophysiological effects due to stimuli from beyond the classical receptive field. Simulations of the model are provided that help explain the experimental observations regarding neural responses in both free viewing and fixating conditions.
Evaluation of cardiac function during laparoscopic gastrostomy in pediatric patients with hypoplastic left heart syndrome using intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography.

INTRODUCTION Patients with single ventricle physiology (SVP)--specifically, hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS)--frequently need long-term enteral access; however, they are at an extremely high operative risk. Nothing has been published on the physiologic impact on single ventricle function during laparoscopy in this patient population. Therefore, we performed intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) to study the physiologic effects of laparoscopic surgery in these patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS After Internal Review Board approval, patients with SVP undergoing laparoscopic gastrostomy were studied with intraoperative TEE, and fractional shortening was determined. Patients were separated into those with HLHS and others with SVP. Data are reported as mean ± standard deviation values. Analysis of variance was used for continuous variables. RESULTS From August 2011 to February 2013, in total, 11 patients with SVP underwent laparoscopic gastrostomy, including 6 with HLHS. One of the 6 HLHS patients and 1 of the SVP patients underwent concurrent fundoplication. All patients were post-first-stage palliation; two had completed post-second stage. Fractional shortening tended to decrease during insufflation and return to baseline after desufflation. There was no 30-day mortality. CONCLUSIONS Pneumoperitoneum associated with laparoscopic gastrostomy tube placement results in a reversible decrease in fractional shortening in patients with HLHS and SVP. Overall, the children tolerated pneumoperitoneum. TEE allows for real-time assessment of ventricular function and volume and may improve safety during longer procedures.