Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Substance P and norepinephrine modulate murine chondrocyte proliferation and apoptosis.

OBJECTIVE Substance P (SP) and norepinephrine (NE) containing sensory and sympathetic nerve fibers innervate bone and fracture callus. They are involved in controlling vascularization and matrix differentiation during skeletal growth. Both types of nerve fibers are known to modulate growth and metabolic activity of osteoblasts and osteoclasts. The aim of this study was to understand the roles of SP and NE in chondrocyte metabolism and their impact on chondrocyte proliferation, apoptosis, and cell adhesion. METHODS Primary costal chondrocytes were isolated from newborn mice. Micromass and monolayer cell culture regimens were used to analyze the effects of SP and NE on matrix formation, as determined by quantitative polymerase chain reaction and immunohistochemistry. The effects of SP and NE on proliferation, adhesion, and apoptosis of chondrocytes were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, bromodeoxyuridine, TUNEL, and morphometric analyses. RESULTS SP, neurokinin type 1 (NK-1) receptor, α-adrenergic receptor (α-AR), and β-AR were abundantly expressed in primary costal chondrocytes. Stimulation with SP or NE did not affect extracellular matrix formation with respect to types I, II, and IX collagen and aggrecan in micromass pellets. SP dose-dependently increased the rate of proliferation of chondrocytes via the NK-1 receptor, whereas NE decreased the apoptosis rate of chondrocytes by stimulating β-AR. Both neurotransmitters induced the formation of focal adhesion contacts. CONCLUSION Transmitters of sympathetic and sensory nerve fibers modulate the metabolic activity of chondrocytes. Endogenous SP, NK-1 receptor, and adrenoceptor expression in chondrocytes implicates as-yet-unknown, presumably trophic, functions of neurotransmitter for skeletal growth and might be of interest for use in cartilage regenerative medicine.
Videomicroscopic investigation of the microcirculation requires uniform definitions

On article : Wright IM, Latter JL, Dyson RM, Levi CR, Clifton VL. Videomicroscopy as a tool for investigation of the microcirculation in the newborn. Physiol Rep. 2016;4(19):e12941 Dear Editor, We would like to compliment Wright et al. (2016) for their extensive data which can aid ongoing research in a very important field and like to share a number of important considerations. Multiple generations of video microscopy techniques are available for the assessment of the microcirculation. The first video microscopy technique is based on orthogonal polarization spectral (OPS) imaging (Groner et al. 1999). The reported Microscan (Microvision Medical) is a second generation video microscopy which operates with sidestream dark field (SDF) imaging (Goedhart et al. 2007). This technique is superior to OPS imaging in capillary contrast and quality (Groner et al. 1999). However, unlike stated in …
Reemerging H5N1 Influenza Viruses in Hong Kong in 2002 Are Highly Pathogenic to Ducks

ABSTRACT Waterfowl are the natural reservoir of all influenza A viruses, which are usually nonpathogenic in wild aquatic birds. However, in late 2002, outbreaks of highly pathogenic H5N1 influenza virus caused deaths among wild migratory birds and resident waterfowl, including ducks, in two Hong Kong parks. In February 2003, an avian H5N1 virus closely related to one of these viruses was isolated from two humans with acute respiratory distress, one of whom died. Antigenic analysis of the new avian isolates showed a reactivity pattern different from that of H5N1 viruses isolated in 1997 and 2001. This finding suggests that significant antigenic variation has recently occurred among H5N1 viruses. We inoculated mallards with antigenically different H5N1 influenza viruses isolated between 1997 and 2003. The new 2002 avian isolates caused systemic infection in the ducks, with high virus titers and pathology in multiple organs, particularly the brain. Ducks developed acute disease, including severe neurological dysfunction and death. Virus was also isolated at high titers from the birds' drinking water and from contact birds, demonstrating efficient transmission. In contrast, H5N1 isolates from 1997 and 2001 were not consistently transmitted efficiently among ducks and did not cause significant disease. Despite a high level of genomic homology, the human isolate showed striking biological differences from its avian homologue in a duck model. This is the first reported case of lethal influenza virus infection in wild aquatic birds since 1961.
Path-Analytic Distributed Object Prefetching

This paper presents our studies on the connectivity between objects and traversal behavior over the access paths among objects in order to devise profitable prefetching policies for object-based distributed systems. We propose a profiling strategy that can classify classes and fields into a handful of generic types exhibiting distinctive and exploitable access patterns during the runtime. Based on the classifications, we propose an improved algorithm of object prefetching to select best candidates to prefetch under practical message size limits. We implement the methodology into our JESSICA2 distributed Java virtual machine and evaluate its effectiveness. Our experimental results show that our prefetching policies are able to eliminate over 93% cache coherence protocol messages and halve the execution time for fine-grained applications.
Aspects for Stages: Cross Cutting Concerns for Metaprograms

In multi-stage languages the program code is finalized though a sequence of transformations defined in the program itself, a process known as staging, with stages also referred as metaprograms. Since stages are essentially programs, they may also require application of aspectoriented methods to handle crosscutting concerns, something not considered or supported in existing aspect systems. We introduce aspect-oriented support for multi-stage languages by identifying three aspect types for the staging pipeline, namely pre-, inand poststaging. We discuss their implementation in a language supporting compile-time metaprogramming, where aspects are realized as batches of AST transformation metaprograms, accompanied by an AOP-specific library. We also provide example scenarios where the proposed aspect types may be used in practice. Finally, we show how full-scale source-level aspect debugging is facilitated during the program compilation process.
Di-μ-methacrylato-bis[diaquabis(methacrylato)europium(III)] methacrylic acid disolvate

In the title centrosymmetric complex, [Eu2(C4H5O2)6(H2O)4]·2C4H6O2, the unique EuIII cation is coordinated by seven carboxylate O atoms from four methacrylate ligands and two water molecules in a slightly disorted tricapped trigonal–prismatic environment. Two EuIII ions are bridged by carboxylate groups, forming a dinuclear complex. The formula unit also contains two molecules of methacrylic acid. In the crystal structure, molecules are linked via intermolecular O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds, forming one-dimensional chains propagating along the b-axis direction
The specificity of the Loughborough Intermittent Shuttle Test for recreational soccer players is independent of their intermittent running ability

ABSTRACT The aim of the present study was to evaluate whether or not recreational soccer players (SP) and non-soccer players (non-SP) with similar intermittent-running ability had similar physiological responses to a soccer match-simulation protocol. Twenty-two recreational SP and 19 fitness-matched non-SP participated. Yo-Yo level 1 assessed intermittent-running ability, while the Loughborough Intermittent Shuttle Test served as soccer match-simulation protocol. Heart rate (HR), blood lactate concentration [La−] and rating of perceived exertion (RPE) were recorded after each bout (1–5, plus an exhaustive task). SP had lower HR after the third, fourth and fifth bout, compared to non-SP. Similarly, SP had lower [La−] after the third, fourth and the fifth bout. SP also had lower RPE after the third, fourth and fifth bout. The appropriateness of intermittent-running ability as the main determinant of physical performance in SP was questioned.
European Conference on Information Systems ( ECIS ) 2008 Application of Social Network Analysis in Knowledge Processes

Social network analysis (SNA) is increasingly applied to analyze existing knowledge exchange processes in companies. In the past, these processes were mainly analyzed by traditional business process modeling methods. Same of these methods are working with a specific knowledge perspective, e.g. KMDL (Knowledge Modeling and Description Language). The knowledge needs and demands are modeled along knowledge-intensive business processes. The SNA however has no direct reference to processes; here persons with specific relationships (e.g. knowledge exchange) are mainly the object of interest. Therefore a combination of both views – the SNA and knowledge-intensive business process modeling – is valuable. In the following contribution two approaches are introduced to combine social network analysis with the modeling of knowledge intensive business processes based on KMDL. In addition to a theoretical introduction to SNA and KMDL there are two examples introduced, which illustrate the practical implementation of these approaches. In this work in progress traditional techniques like interviews are combined with electronically gathered data. Also by using different perspectives a better understanding of all events in knowledge processes can be extracted.
Minimizing cell-to-cell interference by exploiting differential bit impact characteristics of scaled MLC NAND flash memories

Appealed by the market, flash memory density is being increasingly improved, and the technology scale is being reduced. Currently, scaled multi-level-cell (MLC) flash memory has been the dominant in the global flash memory markets. However, the reliability of MLC flash memory becomes the urgent challenge, where cell-to-cell interference has been well recognized as the major error source. In this work, we propose to minimize cell-to-cell interference through exploiting the differential impacts on the multiple-bit of MLC flash memories. MLC flash memory generally has two or more bits per cell, such as 2-bit/cell or 4- bit/cell, which can be differentially interfered by neighboring cell programming. Based on the understanding of the programming characteristics of MLC flash memory, we found that higher-order bits can be higher interfered and be more significant interference sources. In order to understand the characteristics of cell-tocell interference on the multiple bits, we first present cell-to-cell interference models for multiple bits, respectively. Then based on the model, a state mapping scheme is designed to minimize cell-to-cell interference through mapping the states of high-order bits. The mapping scheme is motivated by the recent studies on the cell-to-cell interference characteristics of the multiple cell states of flash memory, where different states have varying interferences. In this case, high-order bits should be mapped from high interference states to a low one. A series of experiments show that the proposed scheme is efficient on reducing cell-to-cell interference with negligible overhead.
Understanding Autism : From Basic Neuroscience to Treatment

Autism Spectrum Disorders: Phenotype and Diagnosis, C. Lord and S. Spence Past and Future Perspectives on Autism Epidemiology, E. Fombonne Genetic Basis of Autism, E. Bonora, J.A. Lamb, G. Barnby, A.J. Bailey, and A.P. Monaco Finding Genes in Spite of Heterogeneity: Endophenotypes, QTL Mapping, and Expression Profiling in Autism, D.H Geschwind and M. Alarcon A Mixed Epigenetic and Genetic and Mixed De Novo and Inherited Model for Autism, A.L. Beaudet and H.Y. Zoghbi Neurobiology of Related Disorders: Fragile X Syndrome, U. Narayanan and S.T. Warren Fear and Anxiety Pathways, K.S. LaBar and J.E. LeDoux Cerebellar Networks and Autism: An Anatomical Hypothesis, R.P. Dum and P.L. Strick Language in Autism, M. Walenski, H. Tager-Flusberg, and M.T. Ullman Prefrontal Cortex, J.L. Price The Social Brain, Amygdala, and Autism, C.M. Schumann, M.D. Bauman, C.J. Machado, and D.G. Amaral The Thalamus and Neuromodulatory Systems, M. Steriade Modeling Features of Autism in Animals, P.H. Patterson Neuroanatomical and Neurochemical Studies of the Autistic Brain: Current Thought and Future Directions, M.L. Bauman, G. Anderson, E. Perry, and M. Ray The Social Brain in Autism: Perspectives from Neuropsychology and Neuroimaging, R.T. Schultz, K. Chawarska, and F.R. Volkmar Structural Neuroimaging, R.A. Carper, G.M. Wideman, and E. Courchesne Neuropsychology and Neurophysiology of Autism Spectrum Disorders, N. Minshew, S.J. Webb, D.L. Williams, and G. Dawson Pharmacological Treatments, C.J. McDougle, D.J. Posey, and K.A. Stigler Behavioral, Educational, and Developmental Treatments for Autism, S.J. Rogers and S. Ozonoff The Costs of Autism, M.L Ganz Index
Toxins-antitoxins: diversity, evolution and function

Genes for toxin-antitoxin (TA) complexes are widespread in prokaryote genomes, and species frequently possess tens of plasmid and chromosomal TA loci. The complexes are categorized into three types based on genetic organization and mode of action. The toxins universally are proteins directed against specific intracellular targets, whereas the antitoxins are either proteins or small RNAs that neutralize the toxin or inhibit toxin synthesis. Within the three types of complex, there has been extensive evolutionary shuffling of toxin and antitoxin genes leading to considerable diversity in TA combinations. The intracellular targets of the protein toxins similarly are varied. Numerous toxins, many of which are sequence-specific endoribonucleases, dampen protein synthesis levels in response to a range of stress and nutritional stimuli. Key resources are conserved as a result ensuring the survival of individual cells and therefore the bacterial population. The toxin effects generally are transient and reversible permitting a set of dynamic, tunable responses that reflect environmental conditions. Moreover, by harboring multiple toxins that intercede in protein synthesis in response to different physiological cues, bacteria potentially sense an assortment of metabolic perturbations that are channeled through different TA complexes. Other toxins interfere with the action of topoisomersases, cell wall assembly, or cytoskeletal structures. TAs also play important roles in bacterial persistence, biofilm formation and multidrug tolerance, and have considerable potential both as new components of the genetic toolbox and as targets for novel antibacterial drugs.
Active Sequential Hypothesis Testing

Consider a decision maker who is responsible to dynamically collect observations so as to enhance his information about an underlying phenomena of interest in a speedy manner while accounting for the penalty of wrong declaration. Due to the sequential nature of the problem, the decision maker relies on his current information state to adaptively select the most ``informative'' sensing action among the available ones. In this paper, using results in dynamic programming, lower bounds for the optimal total cost are established. The lower bounds characterize the fundamental limits on the maximum achievable information acquisition rate and the optimal reliability. Moreover, upper bounds are obtained via an analysis of two heuristic policies for dynamic selection of actions. It is shown that the first proposed heuristic achieves asymptotic optimality, where the notion of asymptotic optimality, due to Chernoff, implies that the relative difference between the total cost achieved by the proposed policy and the optimal total cost approaches zero as the penalty of wrong declaration (hence the number of collected samples) increases. The second heuristic is shown to achieve asymptotic optimality only in a limited setting such as the problem of a noisy dynamic search. However, by considering the dependency on the number of hypotheses, under a technical condition, this second heuristic is shown to achieve a nonzero information acquisition rate, establishing a lower bound for the maximum achievable rate and error exponent. In the case of a noisy dynamic search with size-independent noise, the obtained nonzero rate and error exponent are shown to be maximum.
Growth, regeneration, and tumorigenesis of the prostate activates the PSCA promoter

The prostate gland undergoes dramatic changes in growth status during normal physiologic development, following androgen administration to castrate animals, and during tumor development. The prostate stem cell antigen (PSCA, named for its strong sequence homology to the thymocyte marker stem cell antigen 2) is a cell surface molecule associated with human and murine prostate cancer. To help define the regulation of this molecule, we created a transgenic mouse strain, which uses the human PSCA promoter region to control the expression of enhanced green fluorescent protein (GFP). Expression of GFP was detected in mid-gestation following the appearance of prostatic buds from the urogenital sinus. In adult mice, GFP expression was restricted to a subset of cells located in the distal tips of the glands. GFP expression increased during puberty and regeneration driven by androgen and associated with expansive growth of the prostate. GFP-positive cells coexpressed markers associated with both basal and secretory cells in the human prostate. Prostate carcinogenesis driven by T antigen in the transgenic adenocarcinoma of the mouse prostate (TRAMP) model results in an increased percentage and intensity level for PSCA promoter-driven GFP-positive cells. This transgenic system helps define the range of cellular changes associated with altered expression of PSCA, shows that transcriptional control is a major component regulating PSCA levels, and provides a useful tool to study subpopulations of prostate epithelial cells and factors that regulate the PSCA promoter.
Variation-aware task scheduling and power mode selection for MPSoC power optimization

Increasing delay and power variation has become a major challenge to designing high performance Multiprocessor System-On-Chips (MPSoC) in deep sub-micron technologies. As a result, a paradigm shift from deterministic to statistical design methodology at all levels of the design hierarchy is inevitable. In this paper, we propose a static variation-aware task scheduling and power mode selection algorithm for MPSoCs. The proposed algorithm is able to maximize the total power yield of the chip under a given performance yield constraint by searching for the optimal task scheduling and power mode selection policy for a specified multiprocessor platform. Experimental results are gathered by simulating the algorithm with two different statistical analysis methods called Monte Carlo and Event-Reference-Table-based method. We have shown that by considering both leakage and frequency variation during the simultaneous selection of task scheduling and power mode switching policies, our algorithm achieves significant improvement over conventional methods.
The Murine mCLCA3 (Alias gob-5) Protein Is Located in the Mucin Granule Membranes of Intestinal, Respiratory, and Uterine Goblet Cells

The putative anion channel mCLCA3 (alias gob-5) is the third murine member of the recently discovered family of calcium-activated chloride channels (CLCA family). Preliminary data suggest that mCLCA3 may play a significant role in diseases with secretory dysfunctions, including asthma and cystic fibrosis. In this study, the mCLCA3 protein was characterized biochemically and its cellular and subcellular distribution pattern was established in normal murine tissues. Polyclonal rabbit antibodies were generated and affinity-immunopurified using synthetic oligopeptides corresponding to the extracellular amino terminus of the mCLCA3 polypeptide. After in vitro translation and glycosylation, protein-ase K protection assay, and heterologous expression in COS-7 or HEK 293 cells, SDS-PAGE and immunoblotting revealed a protein structure similar to that of previously characterized CLCA proteins. A systematic light, confocal laser scanning, and transmission electron microscopic immunolocalization study, including virtually all murine tissues, identified the mCLCA3 protein exclusively associated with mucin granule membranes of gastrointestinal, respiratory, and uterine goblet cells and other mucin-producing cells. The results suggest that mCLCA3 may be involved in the synthesis, condensation, or secretion of mucins.
Pedagogy for Addressing the Worldview Challenge in Sustainable Development of Agriculture

Agriculture is offering new forms of support to society, as evidenced by rapid development of an agricultural "bio-economy," and increasing emphasis on production of ecological services in farmed landscapes. The advent of these innovations will engage agricultural professionals in critical civic debates about matters that are complex and that will often be controversial, and thus demand new sets of professional capacities that extend significantly beyond technical expertise. Specifically, agriculturalists will need a capacity to facilitating challenges to, and where appropriate, changes in prevailing worldviews--their own as well as those of others. In this article we report on pedagogy that aims to build such capacity, via a semester-length course on critical engagement in sustainable development of agricultural and other managed ecosystems. In the course we aimed to help prepare students to engage as professionals in critical discourse under circumstances where prevailing worldviews about agricultural development vary significantly among different stakeholders. We used experiential learning to encourage students to critically examine individual and collective worldviews and "mental models" relevant to sustainable development challenges. Experiential learning was particularly featured in an extended exercise in "scenario planning," a method of systemic analysis of alternative scenarios of future development in which the students began to function as a critical learning system. In reflective and evaluative essays, students indicated favorable evaluations of their learning experience and provided evidence of increased capacities highly relevant to civic professionalism within the context of the quest for sustainability as agriculture offers new forms of life support to society.