Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
CoReach: Cooperative Gestures for Data Manipulation on Wall-sized Displays

Multi-touch wall-sized displays afford collaborative exploration of large datasets and re-organization of digital content. However, standard touch interactions, such as dragging to move content, do not scale well to large surfaces and were not designed to support collaboration, such as passing an object around. This paper introduces CoReach, a set of collaborative gestures that combine input from multiple users in order to manipulate content, facilitate data exchange and support communication. We conducted an observational study to inform the design of CoReach, and a controlled study showing that it reduced physical fatigue and facilitated collaboration when compared with traditional multi-touch gestures. A final study assessed the value of also allowing input through a handheld tablet to manipulate content from a distance.
Phytoestrogens directly inhibit TNF‐α‐induced bone resorption in RAW264.7 cells by suppressing c‐fos‐induced NFATc1 expression

TNF‐α‐induced osteoclastogenesis is central to post‐menopausal and inflammatory bone loss, however, the effect of phytoestrogens on TNF‐α‐induced bone resorption has not been studied. The phytoestrogens genistein, daidzein, and coumestrol directly suppressed TNF‐α‐induced osteoclastogenesis and bone resorption. TRAP positive osteoclast formation and resorption area were significantly reduced by genistein (10−7 M), daidzein (10−5 M), and coumestrol (10−7 M), which was prevented by the estrogen antagonist ICI 182,780. TRAP expression in mature TNF‐α‐induced osteoclasts was also significantly reduced by these phytoestrogen concentrations. In addition, in the presence of ICI 182,780 genistein and coumestrol (10−5–10−6 M) augmented TNF‐α‐induced osteoclast formation and resorption. However, this effect was not observed in the absence of estrogen antagonist indicating that genistein's and coumestrol's ER‐dependent anti‐osteoclastic action normally negates this pro‐osteoclastic effect. To determine the mechanism mediating the anti‐osteoclastic action we examined the effect of genistein, coumestrol, and daidzein on caspase 3/7 activity, cell viability and expression of key genes regulating osteoclast differentiation and fusion. While anti‐osteoclastic phytoestrogen concentrations had no effect on caspase 3/7 activity or cell viability they did significantly reduce TNF‐α‐induced c‐fos and NFATc1 expression in an ER dependent manner and also inhibited NFATc1 nuclear translocation. Significant decreases in NFκB and DC‐STAMP levels were also noted. Interestingly, constitutive c‐fos expression prevented the anti‐osteoclastic action of phytoestrogens on differentiation, resorption and NFATc1. This suggests that phytoestrogens suppress TNF‐α‐induced osteoclastogenesis via inhibition of c‐fos‐dependent NFATc1 expression. Our data provides further evidence that phytoestrogens have a potential role in the treatment of post‐menopausal and inflammatory bone loss directly inhibiting TNF‐α‐induced resorption. J. Cell. Biochem. 112: 476–487, 2011. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Text and Mobile Media Smoking Cessation Service for Young Adults in South Texas: Operation and Cost-Effectiveness Estimation

To realize the promising potential of services delivered via smart phones to help young adults quit smoking at a high level of cost-efficiency, we constructed a texting and mobile media system that was promoted in South Texas via social media advertising and other recruitment channels. During the 6-month service period described here, enrollments were achieved for 798 participants with a mean age of 29.3 years. Seven-month texted follow-up found that 21% (171) of the enrollees reported abstinence at that point. This is consistent with high rates of success found in studies of telephone counseling for young adults and confirms that text and mobile media service specifically designed for young adults provide a feasible and potentially cost-effective approach to promoting cessation.
A Ship Routing Problem with Hold and Draft Constraints Charity

Maritime transportation is an important industry, with seaborne trade estimated to be up to 85% in terms of weight of total international trade in 2007. Capital investment for ships is substantial, and the operating costs of a ship may range from thousands to tens of thousands of US dollars daily, thus the potential benefits of optimized approaches to fleet planning are significant. Despite this, there has been relatively sparse attention paid in the literature to maritime transportation in comparison to other forms of transportation such aircraft and road. We consider a single time-period ship routing problem with the following properties: a heterogeneous fleet, draft constraints, loading and discharging ports with pre-specified amounts of supply and demand, multiple material types, and capacity constrained holds in which different material types cannot be mixed. Our objective is to minimize the shipping costs while meeting the specified demands. We review a mixed integer programming model for the problem, and discuss some improvement techniques that have been implemented. We also investigate an attempt at reformulating the model, to address some inherent symmetry, using decomposition techniques: a combination of Benders Decomposition and Dantzig-Wolfe Decomposition with column generation. We find the best results for improving our original formulation are produced by a combination of methods including symmetry breaking and various types of bounding. This combination of methods performed faster than the original formulation in all attempted problem sets where it solved to completion. The performance results for the investigated decomposition reformulation are at this stage inconclusive, and some ideas for further research are suggested.
Some Properties of Chromatic , Domination , and Independence Numbers of a Graph

Consider G(E,V) be a finite, undirected and simple connected graph. This paper includes study of some properties that illustrate the relations between three numbers in a graph which are chromatic, domination, and independence with special restrictions. Finally, we compute these parameters in a new graph namely K4 -isosceles triangular graph.
Control of Dynamical Systems with Temporal Logic Specifications

This thesis is motivated by safety-critical applications involving autonomous air, ground, and space vehicles carrying out complex tasks in uncertain and adversarial environments. We use temporal logic as a language to formally specify complex tasks and system properties. Temporal logic specifications generalize the classical notions of stability and reachability that are studied in the control and hybrid systems communities. Given a system model and a formal task specification, the goal is to automatically synthesize a control policy for the system that ensures that the system satisfies the specification. This thesis presents novel control policy synthesis algorithms for optimal and robust control of dynamical systems with temporal logic specifications. Furthermore, it introduces algorithms that are efficient and extend to high-dimensional dynamical systems. The first contribution of this thesis is the generalization of a classical linear temporal logic (LTL) control synthesis approach to optimal and robust control. We show how we can extend automata-based synthesis techniques for discrete abstractions of dynamical systems to create optimal and robust controllers that are guaranteed to satisfy an LTL specification. Such optimal and robust controllers can be computed at little extra computational cost compared to computing a feasible controller. The second contribution of this thesis addresses the scalability of control synthesis with LTL specifications. A major limitation of the standard automaton-based approach for control with LTL specifications is that the automaton might be doubly-exponential in the size of the LTL specification. We introduce a fragment of LTL for which one can compute feasible control policies in time polynomial in the size of the system and specification. Additionally, we show how to compute optimal control policies for a variety of cost functions, and identify interesting cases when this can be done in polynomial time. These techniques are particularly relevant for online control, as one can guarantee that a feasible solution can be found quickly, and then iteratively improve on the quality as time permits. The final contribution of this thesis is a set of algorithms for computing feasible trajectories for high-dimensional, nonlinear systems with LTL specifications. These algorithms avoid a potentially computationally-expensive process of computing a discrete abstraction, and instead compute directly on the system's continuous state space. The first method uses an automaton representing the specification to directly encode a series of constrained-reachability subproblems, which can be solved in a modular fashion by using standard techniques. The second method encodes an LTL formula as mixed-integer linear programming constraints on the dynamical system. We demonstrate these approaches with numerical experiments on temporal logic motion planning problems with high-dimensional (10+ states) continuous systems.
Non-adherence to treatment : A psychological and communications perspective

Drug treatment adherence is probably the most daunting challenge today’s health professionals face. It can be a source of great concern and frustration. Statistics on non-adherence are alarming. Despite tremendous effort made in recent years to find a solution to the problem, 20% to 80% of patients who are supposed to take medication are non-adherent. Studies suggest that 50% of patients on longterm therapy are non-adherent after one year. These high rates of non-adherence can be attributed to the complexity of the phenomenon of adherence. A whole set of interrelated variables—patient cognitive characteristics, behavioural factors, social support and environment-related factors—must be considered in order to understand treatment non-adherence. Like smoking cessation, exercising or eating healthy, having to take medication regularly involves a conscious commitment to a new healthy behaviour and requires a change in daily habits. This is how we will approach the idea of treatment adherence in this lesson. Change is usually difficult for most people. Several psychological approaches may be helpful in intervening with non-adherent patients. These theories, models and methods offer an interesting and innovative conceptual framework. Ways to improve therapeutic results have been suggested and studied for more than 30 years. Despite these efforts, adherence rates have not improved much, and the situation is especially difficult in the case of drugs used to control chronic, asymptomatic diseases such as hyperNon-adherence to treatment: A psychological and communications perspective
Prevalence of Ocular Surface Symptoms, Signs, and Uncomfortable Hours of Wear in Contact Lens Wearers: The Effect of Refitting with Daily-Wear Silicone Hydrogel Lenses (Senofilcon A)

Purpose. Many soft contact lens wearers have symptoms or signs that compromise successful lens wear. This study estimated the prevalence of problems in current wearers of soft contact lenses and tested the effect of refitting patients with senofilcon A silicone hydrogel lenses (ACUVUE Oasys). Methods. Prevalence was estimated from 1,092 current lens wearers for frequent or constant discomfort or dryness, at least 2 hours of uncomfortable wear, at least grade 2 limbal or bulbar hyperemia (0–4), or at least grade 3 corneal staining (0–15). In the second part of the study, 112 of the 564 wearers classified as problem patients were refitted with senofilcon A lenses and reassessed 2 weeks later. Results. Fifty-two percent (564 of 1,092) had some qualifying criteria, with dryness reported by 23%, discomfort by 13%, and at least 2 hours of uncomfortable wear by 27%. Six percent of subjects had qualifying limbal hyperemia; 10% had bulbar hyperemia; and 12% had corneal staining. After refitting 112 problem patients, 75% had less dryness; 88% had better comfort (P<0.0001 each); and 76% had fewer uncomfortable hours of wear (P=0.004). Although the average wearing time was unchanged, comfortable wearing time increased significantly (10.4 to 11.6 hours) (P=0.004). All (35 of 35) eyes with qualifying limbal hyperemia before the refit also improved (P<0.0001), as did 80% (40 of 50) of those with bulbar hyperemia (P<0.0001) and 76% (26 of 34) of those with corneal staining (P=0.005). Conclusions. Most soft lens wearers encounter clinically significant signs or symptoms with their current contact lenses. Refitting with new-generation silicone hydrogel lenses (senofilcon A) can alleviate some of these common problems.
Down-regulation of Seladin-1 Increases BACE1 Levels and Activity through Enhanced GGA3 Depletion during Apoptosis*

Seladin-1 is a neuroprotective protein selectively down-regulated in brain regions affected in Alzheimer disease (AD). Seladin-1 protects cells against β-amyloid (Aβ) peptide 42- and oxidative stress-induced apoptosis activated by caspase-3, a key mediator of apoptosis. Here, we have employed RNA interference to assess the molecular effects of seladin-1 down-regulation on the β-secretase (BACE1) function and β-amyloid precursor protein (APP) processing in SH-SY5Y human neuroblastoma cells in both normal and apoptotic conditions. Our results show that ∼60% reduction in seladin-1 protein levels, resembling the decrease observed in AD brain, did not significantly affect APP processing or Aβ secretion in normal growth conditions. However, under apoptosis, seladin-1 small interfering RNA (siRNA)-transfected cells showed increased caspase-3 activity on average by 2-fold when compared with control siRNA-transfected cells. Increased caspase-3 activity coincided with a significant depletion of the BACE1-sorting protein, GGA3 (Golgi-localized γ-ear-containing ADP-ribosylation factor-binding protein), and subsequently augmented BACE1 protein levels and activity. Augmented BACE1 activity in turn correlated with the enhanced β-amyloidogenic processing of APP and ultimately increased Aβ production. These adverse changes associated with decreased cell viability in seladin-1 siRNA-transfected cells under apoptosis. No changes in GGA3 or BACE1 levels were found after seladin-1 knockdown in normal growth conditions. Collectively, our results suggest that under stress conditions, reduced seladin-1 expression results in enhanced GGA3 depletion, which further leads to augmented post-translational stabilization of BACE1 and increased β-amyloidogenic processing of APP. These mechanistic findings related to seladin-1 down-regulation are important in the context of AD as the oxidative stress-induced apoptosis plays a key role in the disease pathogenesis.
Facial Pose and Action Tracking using SIFT

In this paper, a robust method to estimate the head pose and facial actions in uncalibrated monocular video sequences is described. We do not assume the knowledge of the camera parameters unlike most other methods. The face is modelled in 3D using the Candide-3 face model. A simple graphical user interface is designed to initialize the tracking algorithm. Tracking of facial feature points is achieved using a novel SIFT-based point tracking algorithm. The head pose is estimated using the POSIT algorithm in a RANSAC framework. The animation parameter vector is computed in an optimization procedure. The proposed algorithm is tested on two standard data sets. The qualitative and quantitative analysis is similar to the analysis of competing methods reported in literature. Experimental results validates that, the proposed system accurately estimates the pose and the facial actions. The proposed system can also be used for facial expression classification and
Loss of Gata 5 in mice leads to bicuspid aortic valve

Bicuspid aortic valve (BAV), the leading congenital heart disease, occurs in 1%–2% of the population. Genetic studies suggest that BAV is an autosomal-dominant disease with reduced penetrance. However, only 1 gene, NOTCH1, has been linked to cases of BAV. Here, we show that targeted deletion of Gata5 in mice leads to hypoplastic hearts and partially penetrant BAV formation. Endocardial cell–specific inactivation of Gata5 led to BAV, similar to that observed in Gata5–/– mice. In all cases, the observed BAVs resulted from fusion of the right-coronary and noncoronary leaflets, the subtype associated with the more severe valve dysfunction in humans. Neither endocardial cell proliferation nor cushion formation was altered in the absence of Gata5. Rather, defective endocardial cell differentiation, resulting from the deregulation of several components of the Notch pathway and other important endocardial cell regulators, may be the underlying mechanism of disease. The results unravel a critical cell-autonomous role for endocardial Gata5 in aortic valve formation and identify GATA5 as a potential gene responsible for congenital heart disease in humans. Mice with mutated Gata5 alleles represent unique models to dissect the mechanisms underlying degenerative aortic valve disease and to develop much-needed preventive and therapeutic interventions.
Validation of IMP Dehydrogenase Inhibitors in a Mouse Model of Cryptosporidiosis

ABSTRACT Cryptosporidium parasites are a major cause of diarrhea and malnutrition in the developing world, a frequent cause of waterborne disease in the developed world, and a potential bioterrorism agent. Currently, available treatment is limited, and Cryptosporidium drug discovery remains largely unsuccessful. As a result, the pharmacokinetic properties required for in vivo efficacy have not been established. We have been engaged in a Cryptosporidium drug discovery program targeting IMP dehydrogenase (CpIMPDH). Here, we report the activity of eight potent and selective inhibitors of CpIMPDH in the interleukin-12 (IL-12) knockout mouse model, which mimics acute human cryptosporidiosis. Two compounds displayed significant antiparasitic activity, validating CpIMPDH as a drug target. The best compound, P131 (250 mg/kg of body weight/day), performed equivalently to paromomycin (2,000 mg/kg/day) when administered in a single dose and better than paromomycin when administered in three daily doses. One compound, A110, appeared to promote Cryptosporidium infection. The pharmacokinetic, uptake, and permeability properties of the eight compounds were measured. P131 had the lowest systemic distribution but accumulated to high concentrations within intestinal cells. A110 had the highest systemic distribution. These observations suggest that systemic distribution is not required, and may be a liability, for in vivo antiparasitic activity. Intriguingly, A110 caused specific alterations in fecal microbiota that were not observed with P131 or vehicle alone. Such changes may explain how A110 promotes parasitemia. Collectively, these observations suggest a blueprint for the development of anticryptosporidial therapy.
A framework for benchmarking public websites in the labour sector

A framework related to how to benchmark public websites in the labour sector is proposed using approaches coming from eGovernment. A methodological approach to benchmark these sites is presented consisting of a set of indicators to be applied step-by-step to labour websites to evaluate their usage and effectiveness. The paper shows how this approach, although general enough, does not work for some cases. These cases are illustrated for two information systems offering Public Employment Services, namely the information system of Lombardy - Italy (Borsa Lavoro Lombardia) and the information system of Catalonia - Spain (Servei d'Ocupacio de Catalunya). The paper tries to find out the motivations of success and of failure of these two cases, which relate to very similar social, economic, and territorial situations and yet evolved into very different systems with diverse stories and a different final result in usage and success. In fact, while Borsa Lavoro Lombardia is currently non-operative, SOC (https://gia.oficinadetreball.cat/) is fully operative and widely used with a network of employment services offered by private agencies as well.
Distinct Roles for STAT1, STAT3, and STAT5 in Differentiation Gene Induction and Apoptosis Inhibition by Interleukin-9*

Interleukin-9 (IL-9) activates three distinct STAT proteins: STAT1, STAT3, and STAT5. This process depends on one tyrosine of the IL-9 receptor, which is necessary for proliferation, gene induction, and inhibition of apoptosis induced by glucocorticoids. By introduction of point mutations in amino acids surrounding this tyrosine, we obtained receptors that activated either STAT5 alone or both STAT1 and STAT3, thus providing us with the possibility to study the respective roles of these factors in the biological activities of IL-9. Both mutant receptors were able to prevent apoptosis, but only the mutant that activated STAT1 and STAT3 was able to support induction of granzyme A and L-selectin. In line with these results, constitutively activated STAT5 blocked glucocorticoid-induced apoptosis. In Ba/F3 cells, significant proliferation andpim-1 induction were observed with both STAT-restricted mutants, though proliferation was lower than with the wild-type receptor. These results suggest that survival and cell growth are redundantly controlled by multiple STAT factors, whereas differentiation gene induction is more specifically correlated with individual STAT activation by IL-9.
Cuttlefish Early Development and Behavior Under Future High CO2 Conditions

The oceanic uptake of carbon dioxide (CO2) is increasing and changing the seawater chemistry, a phenomenon known as ocean acidification (OA). Besides the expected physiological impairments, there is an increasing evidence of detrimental OA effects on the behavioral ecology of certain marine taxa, including cephalopods. Within this context, the main goal of this study was to investigate, for the first time, the OA effects (∼1000 μatm; ΔpH = 0.4) in the development and behavioral ecology (namely shelter-seeking, hunting and response to a visual alarm cue) of the common cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) early life stages, throughout the entire embryogenesis until 20 days after hatching. There was no evidence that OA conditions compromised the cuttlefish embryogenesis – namely development time, hatching success, survival rate and biometric data (length, weight and Fulton’s condition index) of newly hatched cuttlefish were similar between the normocapnic and hypercapnic treatments. The present findings also suggest a certain behavioral resilience of the cuttlefish hatchlings toward near-future OA conditions. Shelter-seeking, hunting and response to a visual alarm cue did not show significant differences between treatments. Thus, we argue that cuttlefishes’ nekton-benthic (and active) lifestyle, their adaptability to highly dynamic coastal and estuarine zones, and the already harsh conditions (hypoxia and hypercapnia) inside their eggs provide a degree of phenotypic plasticity that may favor the odds of the recruits in a future acidified ocean. Nonetheless, the interacting effects of multiple stressors should be further addressed, to accurately predict the resilience of this ecologically and economically important species in the oceans of tomorrow.