Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sequential Cooperation of CD2 and CD48 in the Buildup of the Early TCR Signalosome1

The buildup of TCR signaling microclusters containing adaptor proteins and kinases is prerequisite for T cell activation. One hallmark in this process is association of the TCR with lipid raft microdomains enriched in GPI-proteins that have potential to act as accessory molecules for TCR signaling. In this study, we show that GPI-anchored CD48 but not CD59 was recruited to the immobilized TCR/CD3 complex upon activation of T cells. CD48 reorganization was vital for T cell IL-2 production by mediating lateral association of the early signaling component linker for activated T cells (LAT) to the TCR/CD3 complex. Furthermore, we identified CD2 as an adaptor linking the Src protein tyrosine kinase Lck and the CD48/LAT complex to TCR/CD3: CD2 associated with TCR/CD3 upon T cell activation irrespective of CD48 expression, while association of CD48 and LAT with the TCR/CD3 complex depended on CD2. Consequently, our data indicate that CD2 and CD48 cooperate hierarchically in the buildup of the early TCR signalosome; CD2 functions as the master switch recruiting CD48 and Lck. CD48 in turn shuttles the transmembrane adapter molecule LAT.
European Integration - a Downward Bias in Employment Policies?

Even when labour mobility is low, international integration affects labour markets by making jobs more mobile. This runs via product market integration, which is an essential element of European integration. Increasing job mobility aects the possibilities single countries perceive in pursuing employment policies. In a setting where trade is driven by comparative advantages, and thus wage competitiveness plays an important role for employment, it is shown that there is a tendency that a bias arises in employment policies. Policies expanding private employment tend to be used too little, while policies harming private employment tend to be used too much. These effects are stronger the more integrated product markets are.
Personal Routes with High-Dimensional Costs and Dynamic Approximation Guarantees

In a personalized route planning query, a user can specify how relevant different criteria as travel time, gas consumption, scenicness, etc. are for his individual definition of an optimal route. Recently developed acceleration schemes for personalized route planning, which rely on preprocessing, achieve a significant speed-up over the Dijkstra baseline for a small number of criteria. But for more than five criteria, either the preprocessing becomes too complicated or the query answering is slow. In this paper, we first present a new LP-based preprocessing technique which allows to deal with many criteria efficiently. In addition, we show how to further reduce query times for all known personalized route planning acceleration schemes by considering approximate queries. We design a data structure which allows not only to have personalized costs but also individual approximation guarantees per query, allowing to trade solution quality against query time at the user’s discretion. This data structure is the first to enable a speed-up of more than 100 for ten criteria while accepting only 0.01% increased costs. 1998 ACM Subject Classification E.1 [Data Structures] Graphs and Networks
Low Power Wireless Sensor Network for Building Monitoring

A wireless sensor network is proposed for monitoring buildings to assess earthquake damage. The sensor nodes use custom-developed capacitive microelectromechanical systems strain and 3-D acceleration sensors and a low power readout application-specified integrated circuit for a battery life of up to 12 years. The strain sensors are mounted at the base of the building to measure the settlement and plastic hinge activation of the building after an earthquake. They measure periodically or on-demand from the base station. The accelerometers are mounted at every floor of the building to measure the seismic response of the building during an earthquake. They record during an earthquake event using a combination of the local acceleration data and remote triggering from the base station based on the acceleration data from multiple sensors across the building. A low power network architecture was implemented over an 802.15. 4 MAC in the 900-MHz band. A custom patch antenna was designed in this frequency band to obtain robust links in real-world conditions. The modules have been validated in a full-scale laboratory setup with simulated earthquakes.
Resource Allocation in the Public Sector: Values, Priorities and Markets in the Management of Public Services

In the public sector at the moment resources are scarce - or at the very least finite and limited - how they are allocated is therefore of crucial importance. This book analyses this process and examines the competing values that underlie the public service ethic, including the role of markets and quasi-markets, in the delivery of public services. Topics discussed include: * whether people should be denied the public services they need because public bodies are short of money * what balance we should strike between markets and public organisations to provide public services * whether the use of markets has gone too far and whether we need to return to a public service ethic
Accurate Estimation of Genomic Deletions and Normal Cell Contamination by Bayesian Analysis of Mixtures

Copy number change is an important form of structural variation in human genomes. Somatic copy number alterations can cause the acquisition of oncogenes and loss of tumor suppressor genes in tumorigenesis. Recent development of SNP array technology facilitates studies on copy number changes in a genome-wide scale with high resolution. However, tumor samples often consist of mixed cancer and normal cells. Such tissue heterogeneity poses as a serious hurdle to analyzing copy number changes and could confound subsequent marker identification and diagnostic classification rooted in specific cells. We report here a statistically-principled in silico approach to accurately estimate genomic deletions and normal tissue contamination, and accordingly recover the true copy number profile in cancer cells. We tested the proposed method on three simulation and one real datasets and obtained highly promising results validated by the ground truth and figure of merit. We expect this newly developed method to be a useful tool in routine copy number analysis of heterogeneous tissues.
Balancing environmental impacts and benefits of wastewater reuse

Wastewater reuse is being widely promulgated to help address the global freshwater resource crisis. It can assist in reducing extraction of freshwater from the environment, and reuse of wastewater lessens the need for environmental discharge, which is clearly beneficial to receiving waters. But the practice itself also has the potential to be detrimental to natural and human environments: soil structure can become degraded, aquifers may be polluted, and human health may be threatened. The challenge facing natural resource managers is to identify the potential benefits and risks, and to achieve an appropriate balance. This paper describes environmental benefits and threats concomitant with the reuse of wastewater. We frequently draw upon examples from China and Australia-two countries that face particularly daunting water resource challenges-but the principles can be.extended far beyond these geographical bounds and are applicable to many parts of the world.
Effects of cyclic AMP‐affecting agents on contractile reactivity of isolated mesenteric and renal resistance arteries of the rat

1 Effects of adenosine 3′:5′‐cyclic monophosphate (cyclic AMP)‐affecting agents were compared in mesenteric and renal resistance arteries that had been isolated from 20 week old Wistar‐Kyoto rats, chemically sympathectomized, stretched to their optimal diameter for mechanical performance and made to contract in response to 30 mm potassium. 2 In mesenteric resistance arteries, isoprenaline, dopamine, NaF, forskolin, isobutyl‐methylxanthine, milrinone and dibutyryl‐cyclic AMP induced relaxation. Clonidine induced further increases in tension that could be reduced by pertussis toxin and prazosin but not by yohimbine. Clonidine also reduced relaxant responses to isoprenaline. 3 In renal resistance arteries, isoprenaline and dopamine failed to induce relaxation. Compared to mesenteric resistance arteries, renal vessels were less sensitive to the relaxant effect of NaF, forskolin and isobutyl‐methylxanthine. Relaxant responses to dibutyryl‐cyclic AMP did not differ between the two resistance arteries. 4 Indirect evidence thus suggests that in mesenteric resistance arteries, adenylate cyclase is susceptible to pharmacological activation and inhibition and is functionally coupled to relaxation. The refractory nature of renal resistance arteries to the relaxant effects of isoprenaline and dopamine could be due primarily to absence of appropriate receptors and to a relatively low activity of adenylate cyclase.
Zoned near-zero refractive index fishnet lens antenna: Steering millimeter waves

A zoned fishnet metamaterial lens is designed, fabricated, and experimentally demonstrated at millimeter wavelengths to work as a negative near-zero refractive index lens suitable for compact lens antenna configurations. At the design frequency f = 56.7 GHz (λ0 = 5.29 mm), the zoned fishnet metamaterial lens, designed to have a focal length FL = 9λ0, exhibits a refractive index n = −0.25. The focusing performance of the diffractive optical element is briefly compared with that of a non-zoned fishnet metamaterial lens and an isotropic homogeneous zoned lens made of a material with the same refractive index. Experimental and numerically-computed radiation diagrams of the fabricated zoned lens are presented and compared in detail with that of a simulated non-zoned lens. Simulation and experimental results are in good agreement, demonstrating an enhancement generated by the zoned lens of 10.7 dB, corresponding to a gain of 12.26 dB. Moreover, beam steering capability of the structure by shifting the feeder on.
LINEARIZATION IMPROVING AN LMI-BASED DESIGN : APPLICATION TO POWER SYSTEMS

This paper presents a new control scheme for the design of damping controllers for power systems. The scheme is based on the combination of two powerful control design techniques, namely the Linear Matrix Inequalities (LMI) techniques and the Direct Feedback Linearization (DFL). It is shown that the DFL can cancel nonlinearities in the power system model, thus reducing the uncertainty in the LMI design. The obtained results show the proposed controller provides smooth control actions and fast transient response, being wellsuited for the low frequency oscillations problem.
The Role of Engagement in a Tailored Web-Based Smoking Cessation Program: Randomized Controlled Trial

Background Web-based programs for health promotion, disease prevention, and disease management often experience high rates of attrition. There are 3 questions which are particularly relevant to this issue. First, does engagement with program content predict long-term outcomes? Second, which users are most likely to drop out or disengage from the program? Third, do particular intervention strategies enhance engagement? Objective To determine: (1) whether engagement (defined by the number of Web sections opened) in a Web-based smoking cessation intervention predicts 6-month abstinence, (2) whether particular sociodemographic and psychographic groups are more likely to have lower engagement, and (3) whether particular components of a Web-based smoking cessation program influence engagement. Methods A randomized trial of 1866 smokers was used to examine the efficacy of 5 different treatment components of a Web-based smoking cessation intervention. The components were: high- versus low-personalized message source, high- versus low-tailored outcome expectation, efficacy expectation, and success story messages. Moreover, the timing of exposure to these sections was manipulated, with participants randomized to either a single unified Web program with all sections available at once, or sequential exposure to each section over a 5-week period of time. Participants from 2 large health plans enrolled to receive the online behavioral smoking cessation program and a free course of nicotine replacement therapy (patch). The program included: an introduction section, a section focusing on outcome expectations, 2 sections focusing on efficacy expectations, and a section with a narrative success story (5 sections altogether, each with multiple screens). Most of the analyses were conducted with a stratification of the 2 exposure types. Measures included: sociodemographic and psychosocial characteristics, Web sections opened, perceived message relevance, and smoking cessation 6-months following quit date. Results The total number of Web sections opened was related to subsequent smoking cessation. Participants who were younger, were male, or had less formal education were more likely to disengage from the Web-based cessation program, particularly when the program sections were delivered sequentially over time. More personalized source and high-depth tailored self-efficacy components were related to a greater number of Web sections opened. A path analysis model suggested that the impact of high-depth message tailoring on engagement in the sequentially delivered Web program was mediated by perceived message relevance. Conclusions Results of this study suggest that one of the mechanisms underlying the impact of Web-based smoking cessation interventions is engagement with the program. The source of the message, the degree of message tailoring, and the timing of exposure appear to influence Web-based program engagement.
Statin-induced diabetes: perhaps, it's the tip of the iceberg.

Sir, The meta-analysis by Mills et al. 1 involving 170 255 patients randomized in 76 trials reported on the efficacy and safety of statin therapy for the prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and found a relative 9% increased risk in the development of incident diabetes ( P = 0.001) among subjects randomized to statins compared with placebo in the 17 trials reporting on diabetes development. It is noteworthy that the average age of the subjects in the meta-analysis was 59.6 years, average follow-up was 2.7 years and more than half of the subjects were randomized for the primary prevention of CVD. We feel that the implications of statin-induced diabetes are not trivial, but of major concern, particularly in the primary prevention of CVD when statin therapy might be used for decades in individuals at relatively low risk2; many questions need answering before statin therapy can be safely recommended across broad populations. Interestingly, a recently published meta-analysis involving 91 140 patients randomized in 13 trials3 specifically looking at the risk of incident diabetes from statin therapy also revealed a significant 9% increased relative risk of the development of diabetes over a mean overall trial period of 4 years. Disturbingly, 2 of the 13 trials demonstrated very high incidence of the development of diabetes among the statin-treated subjects. The Justification for the Use of Statins in Prevention: an Intervention Trial Evaluating Rosuvastatin (JUPITER),4 a primary prevention trial of 1.9-year duration in subjects with a mean age of 66 years, demonstrated a significant relative increase in diabetes incidence of 26% among subjects randomized to rosuvastatin; the absolute rate of incident diabetes expressed in events per 1000 patient-years was 13 and 16 among the placebo and rosuvastatin subjects, respectively. Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol was decreased robustly by 50% in the rosuvastatin subjects and the …
Understanding the Burden Experienced by Caregivers of Older Adults Who Use a Powered Wheelchair: A Cross-Sectional Study

Objective: In this study, we aimed to describe the burden of family caregivers providing powered wheelchair-related and overall assistance and test the hypotheses that caregiver burden correlates with participation, wheelchair skills capacity, anxiety, depression, and social support. Methods: Cross-sectional study. Participants included 35 family caregivers of powered wheelchair users. Caregivers were assessed using the Power Mobility Caregiver Assistive Technology Outcome Measure, Late Life Disability Instrument, Wheelchair Skills Test Questionnaire for caregivers, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, and Interpersonal Support Evaluation List–12. Results: The most burdensome powered wheelchair assistance items were providing verbal hints/directions, needing to be nearby, anxiety, and fear that user may be harmed. The most burdensome overall assistance item was feeling limited in recreational/leisure activities. Caregiver burden was significantly correlated with participation limitations, anxiety, depression, and social support. Discussion: Caregivers experience burden for wheelchair-related and overall help, especially psychological burden. Such results have implications for the type of resources required to support family caregivers.
Internal capital markets and analysts' earnings forecast errors

Corporate investment decisions are among the most important decisions of a firm. Internal capital markets play a key role in facilitating the allocation of capital resources in order to finance investment projects within diversified firms. This thesis investigates internal capital markets and its relationship with analysts earnings forecast errors in three countries with two distinct financial systems, namely, the market-based and bank-based financial system. Using segment level data for public listed companies in the UK, France and Germany between 2005 and 2010, we examine the operation and efficiency of internal capital markets in market- and bank-based systems. We also examine the impact of the financial crisis of 2008 on internal capital markets and analysts earnings forecasts errors, namely, the accuracy, bias and dispersion. The findings indicate internal capital markets actively facilitate the allocation of resources within diversified firms and, in general, operate inefficiently. Furthermore, internal capital markets appear to be more active in France compared with the UK. On the other hand, their role appears to be limited in Germany, as segments appear to rely more on their own resources and less on internal capital markets for investments. In addition, we find that internal capital market activity declines and efficiency improves during the financial crisis in UK. In contrast, there is no significant evidence to suggest that efficiency improves during the crisis in France or Germany. This research also finds some evidence to suggest internal capital markets operations aggravate firm complexity and, in turn, negatively affect short-term forecast accuracy in the UK. In addition to this, our analysis shows there is a positive relationship between the size of internal capital markets and dispersion in analysts earnings forecasts. In general, our study shows analysts are optimistic about firms future performance; however, the level of optimism significantly declines during the financial crisis. Lastly, we report a positive relationship between efficiency of internal capital markets and optimism in earnings forecasts.
Low and High Dietary Protein : Carbohydrate Ratios during Pregnancy Affect Materno-Fetal Glucose Metabolism in Pigs 1 – 3

Inadequate dietary protein during pregnancy causes intrauterine growth retardation. Whether this is related to altered maternal and fetal glucose metabolism was examined in pregnant sows comparing a high-protein:low-carbohydrate diet (HP-LC; 30% protein, 39% carbohydrates) with a moderately low-protein:high-carbohydrate diet (LP-HC; 6.5% protein, 68% carbohydrates) and the isoenergetic standard diet (ST; 12.1% protein, 60% carbohydrates). During late pregnancy, maternal and umbilical glucose metabolism and fetal hepatic mRNA expression of gluconeogenic enzymes were examined. During an i.v. glucose tolerance test (IVGTT), the LP-HC–fed sows had lower insulin concentrations and area under the curve (AUC), and higher glucose:insulin ratios than the ST– and the HP-LC–fed sows (P < 0.05). Insulin sensitivity and glucose clearance were higher in the LP-HC sows compared with ST sows (P < 0.05). Glucagon concentrations during postabsorptive conditions and IVGTT, and glucose AUC during IVGTT, were higher in the HP-LC group compared with the other groups (P < 0.001). C glucose oxidation was lower in the HP-LC sows than in the ST and LP-HC sows (P < 0.05). The HP-LC fetuses were lighter and had a higher brain:liver ratio than the ST group (P < 0.05). The umbilical arterial inositol concentration was greater in the HP-LC group (P < 0.05) and overall small fetuses (230–572 g) had higher values than medium and heavy fetuses ($573 g) (P < 0.05). Placental lactate release was lower in the LP-HC group than in the ST group (P < 0.05). Fetal glucose extraction tended to be lower in the LP-HC group than in the ST group (P = 0.07). In the HP-LC and LP-HC fetuses, hepatic mRNA expression of cytosolic phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PCK1) and glucose-6-phosphatase (G6PC) was higher than in the ST fetuses (P < 0.05). In conclusion, the HP-LC and LP-HC sows adapted by reducing glucose turnover and oxidation and having higher glucose utilization, respectively. The HP-LC and LP-HC fetuses adapted via prematurely expressed hepatic gluconeogenic enzymes. J. Nutr. doi: 10.3945/jn.113. 182691.
Estimation of physical transformer parameters from frequency response analysis

The wideband frequency response of a power transformer will yield a signature unique to its mechanical geometry. A change in the frequency response can be indicative of winding deformation. Frequency Response Analysis (FRA) is a diagnostic tool used to monitor frequency response changes. The aim of this paper is to facilitate FRA interpretation through the development of a three phase transformer model that is based on the estimation of physical parameters. The paper will demonstrate the applicability of the model by using FRA data sets of a 1.3MVA distribution transformer and assessing the accuracy of key parameter estimates.
Interposed Control Design Conditions for Linear Discrete-time Systems

The paper establishes the design procedure for the state feedback control of linear discrete-time systems, considerable as an interposed design criterium in the form of linear matrix inequalities. The goal is to design the feedback control which guarantees bounded H2 performance index for the system transfer function matrix and H∞ norm attenuation for the disturbance transfer function matrix, both combined with D-stable circle region parameters. Analyzing the criteria observance, the task is formulated as a feasible problem subject to integral quadratic constraints included in the Lyapunov discrete-time stability condition.
Transformation textures in post‐perovskite: Understanding mantle flow in the D″ layer of the Earth

Deformation and texture formation in (Mg, Fe)SiO3 post perovskite (ppv) is a potential explanation for the strong seismic anisotropy that is found in the D″ layer of the Earth. However, different experimental approaches have resulted in different lattice preferred orientations (LPO) in deformed ppv that have led to ambiguity in the interpretation of deformation in the lowermost mantle. Here, we show that deformation of the analogue substance CaIrO3 during a phase transformation from perovskite to ppv leads to a transformation texture that differs from the CaIrO3 ppv deformation texture but resembles the results from ppv deformation experiments in diamond anvil cells. Assuming material spreading parallel to the core‐mantle boundary, our results predict a widespread shear wave splitting with fast horizontal S‐waves, which is compatible with seismic studies. Downwelling material that undergoes a phase transformation may develop a transformation texture that would locally result in vertically polarized fast S‐waves.