Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
BAFF: B cell survival factor and emerging therapeutic target for autoimmune disorders

The prevailing treatment strategies for autoimmune disorders employ global immunosuppressants that have harmful side effects with long-term use. A new vision for drug development relies on the generation of therapeutics that have specific and narrow targets, such as pathogenic cell populations. The cellular processes that initiate and maintain B cell dysregulation are not well understood and autoimmune disease results, in part, from the survival and activation of self-reactive B cells. Such B cells produce tissue-damaging pathogenic autoantibodies. BAFF (B cell-activating factor belonging to the TNF family), a member of the TNF family of ligands, may play a role in B cell-mediated diseases. BAFF is a survival factor for peripheral B cells. When BAFF is overexpressed in mice, B cell number and immunoglobulin production is increased and an autoimmune-like phenotype is observed. Mouse models of lupus-nephritis have been shown to exhibit increased serum BAFF levels correlating with disease severity, and many autoimmune patients were found to have higher levels of circulating BAFF than healthy volunteers. Thus, modulating the level and activity of BAFF in these patients may alleviate symptoms associated with their disease. Several potential therapeutic inhibitors targeting BAFF are under investigation, including an anti-BAFF antibody and receptor–Fc fusion proteins.
Experimental stress fractures of the tibia: biological and mechanical aetiology in rabbits

We have shown that stress fractures can be induced in the tibial diaphysis of an animal model by the repeated application of non-traumatic impulsive loads. The right hind limbs of 31 rabbits were loaded for three to nine weeks and changes in the bone were monitored by radiography and bone scintigraphy. The presence of stress fractures was confirmed histologically in some cases. Most animals sustained a stress fracture within six weeks and there was a positive correspondence between scintigraphic change and radiological evidence. Microscopic damage was evident at the sites of positive bone scans. The progression, location, and time of onset of stress fractures in this animal model were similar to those in clinical reports, making the model a useful one for the study of the aetiology of stress fractures.
An original adaptation of photosynthesis in the marine green alga Ostreococcus

Adaptation of photosynthesis in marine environment has been examined in two strains of the green, picoeukaryote Ostreococcus: OTH95, a surface/high-light strain, and RCC809, a deep-sea/low-light strain. Differences between the two strains include changes in the light-harvesting capacity, which is lower in OTH95, and in the photoprotection capacity, which is enhanced in OTH95. Furthermore, RCC809 has a reduced maximum rate of O2 evolution, which is limited by its decreased photosystem I (PSI) level, a possible adaptation to Fe limitation in the open oceans. This decrease is, however, accompanied by a substantial rerouting of the electron flow to establish an H2O-to-H2O cycle, involving PSII and a potential plastid plastoquinol terminal oxidase. This pathway bypasses electron transfer through the cytochrome b6f complex and allows the pumping of “extra” protons into the thylakoid lumen. By promoting the generation of a large ΔpH, it facilitates ATP synthesis and nonphotochemical quenching when RCC809 cells are exposed to excess excitation energy. We propose that the diversion of electrons to oxygen downstream of PSII, but before PSI, reflects a common and compulsory strategy in marine phytoplankton to bypass the constraints imposed by light and/or nutrient limitation and allow successful colonization of the open-ocean marine environment.
Nicotinamide extends replicative lifespan of human cells

We found that an ongoing application of nicotinamide to normal human fibroblasts not only attenuated expression of the aging phenotype but also increased their replicative lifespan, causing a greater than 1.6‐fold increase in the number of population doublings. Although nicotinamide by itself does not act as an antioxidant, the cells cultured in the presence of nicotinamide exhibited reduced levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and oxidative damage products associated with cellular senescence, and a decelerated telomere shortening rate without a detectable increase in telomerase activity. Furthermore, in the treated cells growing beyond the original Hayflick limit, the levels of p53, p21WAF1, and phospho‐Rb proteins were similar to those in actively proliferating cells. The nicotinamide treatment caused a decrease in ATP levels, which was stably maintained until the delayed senescence point. Nicotinamide‐treated cells also maintained high mitochondrial membrane potential but a lower respiration rate and superoxide anion level. Taken together, in contrast to its demonstrated pro‐aging effect in yeast, nicotinamide extends the lifespan of human fibroblasts, possibly through reduction in mitochondrial activity and ROS production.
An Extensible, Multi-paradigm Message-oriented Mobile Middleware

Message-oriented middleware (MOM) platforms are usually based in asynchronous, peer-to-peer interaction styles, leading to more loosely coupled architectures. As a consequence, MOMs have the potential for supporting the development of networked mobile applications. However, MOM platforms have been implemented under a limited set of message-based communication paradigms, each one being specifically adapted to a given application domain or network model. In such a context, this paper proposes a mobile middleware solution which offers a comprehensive set of extensible, message-based communication paradigms, such as publish/subscribe, message queue and tuple spaces. Supported by a Software Product Line (SPL) approach, the proposed middleware is suitable for constrained devices as all supported communication paradigms share and reuse a reasonable number of software components that deal with common messaging features. Additionally, by means of an extensible design, new communication paradigms can be easily accommodated, as well as existing ones can be removed in order to better fit in more constrained devices.
Quantifying external load in Australian football matches and training using accelerometers.

PURPOSE To describe the external load of Australian football matches and training using accelerometers. METHODS Nineteen elite and 21 subelite Australian footballers wore accelerometers during matches and training. Accelerometer data were expressed in 2 ways: from all 3 axes (player load; PL) and from all axes when velocity was below 2 m/s (PLSLOW). Differences were determined between 4 playing positions (midfielders, nomadics, deeps, and ruckmen), 2 playing levels (elite and subelite), and matches and training using percentage change and effect size with 90% confidence intervals. RESULTS In the elite group, midfielders recorded higher PL than nomadics and deeps did (8.8%, 0.59 ± 0.24; 34.2%, 1.83 ± 0.39 respectively), and ruckmen were higher than deeps (37.2%, 1.27 ± 0.51). Elite midfielders, nomadics, and ruckmen recorded higher PLSLOW than deeps (13.5%, 0.65 ± 0.37; 11.7%, 0.55 ± 0.36; and 19.5%, 0.83 ± 0.50, respectively). Subelite midfielders were higher than nomadics, deeps, and ruckmen (14.0%, 1.08 ± 0.30; 31.7%, 2.61 ± 0.42; and 19.9%, 0.81 ± 0.55, respectively), and nomadics and ruckmen were higher than deeps for PL (20.6%, 1.45 ± 0.38; and 17.4%, 0.57 ± 0.55, respectively). Elite midfielders, nomadics, and ruckmen recorded higher PL (7.8%, 0.59 ± 0.29; 12.9%, 0.89 ± 0.25; and 18.0%, 0.67 ± 0.59, respectively) and PLSLOW (9.4%, 0.52 ± 0.30; 11.3%, 0.68 ± 0.25; and 14.1%, 0.84 ± 0.61, respectively) than subelite players. Small-sided games recorded the highest PL and PLSLOW and were the only training drill to equal or exceed the load from matches across positions and playing levels. CONCLUSION PL differed between positions, with midfielders the highest, and between playing levels, with elite higher. Differences between matches and training were also evident, with PL from small-sided games equivalent to or higher than matches.
Drilling- and withdrawing-related thermal changes during implant site osteotomies.

BACKGROUND Intrabony temperature increase is not only dependent on shearing energy and mechanical friction between bone and surgical drill but is also related to heat capacity and thermal conductivity of the surrounding bone and the applied surgical instrument. Thus time of occurrence of the highest temperature rise can be expected after the shearing process of the osteotomy, potentially affecting the process of osseointegration. PURPOSE The aim of this study was to evaluate temperature changes during the shearing and withdrawing processes during osteotomies. MATERIALS AND METHODS An overall 160 automated intermittent osteotomies (10/16 mm drilling depth) with 2 mm diameter twist drills and 3.5 mm diameter conical drills and different irrigation methods (without/external/internal/combined) were performed on standardized bone specimens. The drilling cycles were operated by a computer-controlled surgical system, while a linear motion potentiometer and multichannel temperature sensors in various intrabony levels ensured the real-time documentation of temperature changes during the shearing and withdrawing processes. RESULTS The highest temperature changes were invariably recorded during the process of withdrawal. Significantly lower temperature changes (p < .02) could be recorded at maximum drilling depths during the shearing process regardless of drilling depth, diameter or irrigation method. During coolant supply, 2 mm diameter twist drills showed higher temperatures (10 mm, p < .01/16 mm, p < .03) compared with 3.5 mm diameter conical implant drills. Internal (10 mm, p < .01) or combined irrigation (16 mm, p < .01) was associated with significantly lower temperatures compared with external irrigation by the use of conical implant drills. CONCLUSIONS Considering that heat generation during osteotomies is a multifactorial scenario, this study could demonstrate that the highest temperature rise during implant osteotomies occurs during the withdrawing process and that the time of occurrence is influenced by predominant factors such as osteotomy depth and mode of irrigation.
Changes in morphology and behaviour of retinal growth cones before and after crossing the midline of the mouse chiasm – a confocal microscopy study

The growth of retinal axons was investigated in different regions of the optic chiasm in C57 pigmented mouse embryos aged embryonic day 13 (E13) to E15. Individual retinal axons and their growth cones were labelled anterogradely by DiI and imaged using a confocal imaging system. In aldehyde‐fixed embryos, retinal growth cones display a simple form in the optic nerve and become more complex in morphology in the chiasm. The complex form is particularly prominent in those axons that turn to the ipsilateral tract in the premidline region of chiasm. Moreover, complex growth cones are also commonly found in axons in the postmidline chiasm, which are markedly different in morphology from those axons in the premidline region, suggesting that the postmidline chiasm contains a novel environment for the pathfinding of retinal axons. In another experiment, the dynamic growth of retinal axons is studied in a brain slice preparation of the living retinofugal pathway. Retinal axons show an intermittent growth across the premidline and postmidline chiasm. Extensive remodelling of growth cone form followed by a shift in growth direction is commonly seen during the pause periods, indicating that signals that guide axon growth across the chiasm are not restricted to the midline, but are laid down throughout the chiasm. Moreover, dramatic changes in axon trajectory are noted first at the premidline chiasm where the uncrossed axons segregate from the crossed axons, and second at the postmidline chiasm where specific sorting of retinal axons according to their position in the dorsal ventral retinal axis and their ages are known to take place. These results show that there are two distinct environments, separated by the midline in the chiasm, where axons show different responses to local guidance cues and develop the distinct fibre orders.
CNLAC1 Is Required for Extrapulmonary Dissemination of Cryptococcus neoformans but Not Pulmonary Persistence

ABSTRACT The pathogenic yeast Cryptococcus neoformans produces a laccase enzyme (CNLAC1), which catalyzes the synthesis of melanin in the presence of phenolic compounds. A number of genes have been implicated in the regulation of laccase and melanization, including IPC1, GPA1, MET3, and STE12. Albino mutants derived from random mutagenesis techniques may contain mutations in genes that regulate multiple virulence factors, including CNLAC1. The goal of our study is to investigate the role of CNLAC1 in virulence and evasion of pulmonary host defenses after infection via the respiratory tract. Using a set of congenic laccase-positive (2E-TUC-4) and laccase-deficient (2E-TU-4) strains, we found that both strains are avirulent at a lower dose (104 CFU/mouse) in mice. After the infectious dose was increased to 106 CFU/mouse, 70% mortality was observed in mice infected with 2E-TUC-4 compared to no mortality in mice infected with 2E-TU-4 at day 30 postinfection. This observation confirms the requirement for CNLAC1 in virulence. Interestingly, we observed no differences between the two strains in pulmonary growth or in elicitation of cellular immune responses in the lung. The only measurable defect of 2E-TU-4 was in dissemination to extrapulmonary sites. To examine the role of CNLAC1 in dissemination, mice were infected intravenously. By week 3 postinfection, equal numbers of strains 2E-TUC-4 and 2E-TU-4 were recovered from the brain and spleen. This observation indicates that CNLAC1 facilitates escape from the lung, but not growth in the lungs or brain, and suggests a novel role for CNLAC1 in virulence during an infection aquired via the respiratory tract.
Measles elimination in the United States.

In 1962, immediately preceding the licensure of the first measles vaccines in the United States, when measles was a nearly universal disease, Alexander Langmuir described the medical importance of measles to the country and put forth the challenge of measles eradication [1]. Although most patients recovered without permanent sequelae, the high number of cases each year made measles a significant cause of serious morbidity and mortality. Langmuir showed that 190% of Americans were infected with the measles virus by age 15 years [1]. This equated to roughly 1 birth cohort (4 million people) infected with measles each year. Not all cases were reported to the public health system; from 1956 to 1960, an average of 542,000 cases were reported annually. By the late 1950s, even before the introduction of measles vaccine, measles-related deaths and case fatality rates in the United States had decreased markedly, presumably as a result of improvement in health care and nutrition. From 1956 to 1960, an average of 450 measles-related deaths were reported each year (∼1 death/ 1000 reported cases), compared with an average of 5300 measles-related deaths during 1912‐1916 (26 deaths/ 1000 reported cases) [2]. Nevertheless, in the late 1950s, serious complications due to measles remained frequent and costly. As a result of measles virus infections, an average of 150,000 patients had respiratory complications and 4000 patients had encephalitis each year; the latter was associated with a high risk of neurological sequelae and death. These complications and others resulted in an estimated 48,000 persons with measles being hospitalized every year [3].
Reverse Engineering the Peer to Peer Streaming Media System

Peer to peer (P2P) content distribution network like BitTorrent (BT) is one of most popular Internet applications today. Its success heavily lies on the ability to share the capacity of all the individuals as a whole. As the first deployed prototype on the real Internet, CoolStreaming (Zhang et al., 2005) for the first time manifests what a great application potential and huge business opportunity it can reach if the content is delivered not only in large scale but also on real-time. Along the way to the large-scale Along the way to such as system, people (Vlavianos et al., 2006) find there is no natural connection between the abilities of mass data delivering and real-time distributing in any protocol. This discovery stimulates people to study how to modify protocols like BT to meet the real-time demand. Since 2004, a series of large-scale systems like PPLive and PPStream have been deployed in China and all over the world, and become the world-class popular platforms. Many research reports on them also mark their success.
Confidence estimation for speech recognition systems using conditional random fields trained with partially annotated data

Conditional random fields (CRF) can generate high-quality confidence measure scores (CMS) for speech recognition systems. However, like many other real-world machine learning tasks, there are only limited annotated data for training but always abundant unlabeled data, which requires too much human efforts and expertise to annotate. To address this issue, we use a scheme of CRF training for ASR confidence estimation, which does not require full annotation transcripts but exploits partially annotated data. We use multiple ASR systems and other freely accessible resources (e.g. caption texts) to generate partially annotated data. Compared with only using a small amount of annotated data and totally using automatically generated unfaithful annotations, the CMS can be enhanced by our proposed method.
Ethylene, carbon dioxide, and anthocyanin synthesis.

Ethylene has been shown to influence the biosynthesis of light-induced anthocyanin formation in plants (5, 7, 8, 12). In most studies on physiological activity of ethylene in plants, CO. is reported to interfere with plant response to ethylene (1, 3, 4), and it has been suggested that changes in the concentrations of ethylene and CO, around plant tissue may regulate plant development (9). The purpose of these experiments was to determine whether CO, could modify the effect of ethylene on anthocyanin synthesis.
Empirically Derived Relational Pattern Prototypes in the Treatment of Personality Disorders

Background: Patient transference patterns play a central role in the psychotherapy of personality disorders. Objective: The aims of this study were to: (1) explore the relationship between patients' personality disorders and specific relational patterns and (2) construct empirically derived prototypes of relational patterns for each personality disorder. Sampling and Methods: A random national sample of 314 clinicians completed the Psychotherapy Relationship Questionnaire, which evaluates patients' relational patterns, and the Shedler-Westen Assessment Procedure-200, which assesses personality disorders in a randomly selected patient currently in the clinician's care and with whom the clinician has worked for a minimum of 8 sessions and a maximum of 6 months (1 session per week). Results: The avoidant/counterdependent transference pattern was associated with all cluster A personality disorders; the angry/entitled transference pattern was strongly positively associated with all cluster B personality disorders, and the anxious/preoccupied transference pattern was positively associated in a significant way with all cluster C personality disorders. Moreover, our empirically derived prototypes showed how the transference phenomena characteristic of each personality disorder are strongly coherent with the personality traits and mental and relational functioning of each specific disorder. Conclusions: The results strongly support a fundamental hypothesis that the patterns emerging in the therapeutic relationship are not arbitrary, and they clearly reflect patterns seen elsewhere in patients' lives that can be crucial to address. Regarding limitations, the same clinician provided data on both the personality pathology and the transference phenomena for each patient.
Communication efficient matrix multiplication on hypercubes

In this paper we present an efficient dense matrix multiplication algorithm for distributed memory computers with a hypercube topology. The proposed algorithm performs better than all previously proposed algorithms for a wide range of matrix sizes and number of processors, especially for large matrices. We analyze the performance of the algorithms for two types of hypercube architectures, one in which each node can use (to send and receive) at most one communication link at a time and the other in which each node can use all communication links simultaneously.
YCSB-replay: Framework de evaluación realista de bases de datos de clave-valor

En la era de los Grandes Datos, las empresas de servicios de Internet necesitan construir sistemas de alto rendimiento para atender a sus usuarios. Uno de los componentes importantes de dichos sistemas son las caches distribuidas, tipicamente implementadas con bases de datos clave-valor como Redis y Memcached. Un paso importante en la implementacion de estos sistemas es el dimensionamiento de sus componentes, realizado a traves de estudios previos usando herramientas de evaluacion de rendimiento (benchmarks). En la actualidad, el Yahoo Cloud Serving Benchmark (YCSB) es la herramienta mas utilizada para la evaluacion de las bases de datos clave-valor. Lastimosamente, YCSB solamente puede generar cargas de trabajo sinteticas, basadas en distribuciones probabilisticas configurables que pueden reproducir la popularidad de accesos reales observados, mas no su localidad temporal. En este trabajo, se propone YCSB-replay , una mejora a YCSB a traves de la cual se adiciona a este framework la habilidad para generar cargas de trabajo realistas, basadas en la repeticion de trazas de sistemas reales en produccion. Para demostrar la utilidad de las mejoras propuestas, se ha evaluado YCSB-replay a traves de un estudio del rendimiento de la base de datos clave-valor Redis, en su funcion como cache de datos, utilizando una carga de trabajo real de videos de YouTube descargados desde la Universidad de Massachusetts. Esta evaluacion demuestra que las cargas sinteticas generadas por YCSB no permiten aproximar los resultados obtenidos con cargas reales (YouTube), por lo que su uso es inadecuado para el dimensionamiento de bases de datos clave-valor. En cambio, YCSB-replay permite obtener una evaluacion realista de la base de datos, manteniendo el alto rendimiento en la generacion de cargas de YCSB.
PROCESSOS QUÍMICOS E BIOLÓGICOS ASSOCIADOS À FISIOPATOLOGIA DO DIABETES MELLITUS

O Diabetes Mellitus (DM) e uma doenca metabolica de grande repercussao mundial. Dados epidemiologicos mostram que em 2010 foram 285 milhoes de individuos acometidos com a doenca no mundo e estima-se que no ano de 2030 tenhamos cerca 440 milhoes de diabeticos (Shaw et al., 2010). O Diabetes Mellitus (DM) pode ser classificado em dois tipos predominantes, o DM tipo 1 (DM1), definido pela destruicao das celulas βpancreaticas e ausencia de insulina endogena, e o DM tipo 2 (DM2), caracterizado por um quadro de resistencia insulinica, geralmente associado com a obesidade. Ambos os tipos sao marcados por um quadro de hiperglicemia e por desequilibrio metabolico em niveis celular e sistemico. O desbalanco na homeostase metabolica e acompanhado por condicoes de estresse celular, desencadeando alteracao na expressao e concentracao circulante de proteinas de choque termico (Hsp, do ingles: Heat shock protein) e citocinas (pro e anti-inflamatorias), alem de alterar o estado redox (estresse oxidativo) e parâmetros eritrocitarios. Este conjunto de alteracoes moleculares, bioquimicas e imuno hematologicas, em geral subclinicas, caracterizam processos quimicos e biologicos associados ao desenvolvimento da resistencia insulinica e a fisiopatologia do Diabetes Mellitus.