Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Glutamatergic Control of Dopamine Release in the Rat Striatum: Evidence for Presynaptic N‐Methyl‐D‐Aspartate Receptors on Dopaminergic Nerve Terminals

Abstract: The N‐methyl‐D‐aspartate (NMDA) receptor‐mediated regulation of the release of newly synthesized [3H]dopamine ([3H]DA) was studied in vitro, both on rat striatal slices using a new microsuperfusion device and on rat striatal synaptosomes. Under Mg2+‐free medium conditions, the NMDA (5 × 10−5M)‐evoked release of [3H]DA from slices was found to be partly insensitive to tetrodotoxin (TTX). This TTX‐resistant stimulatory effect of NMDA was blocked by either Mg2+ (10−3M) or the noncompetitive antagonist MK‐801 (10−6M). In addition, the TTX‐resistant NMDA‐evoked response could be potentiated by glycine (10−6M) in the presence of strychnine (10−6M). The coapplication of NMDA (5 × 10−5M) and glycine (10−6M) stimulated the release of [3H]DA from striatal synaptosomes. This effect was blocked by Mg2+ (10−3M) or MK‐801 (10−5M). These results indicate that some of the NMDA receptors involved in the facilitation of DA release are located on DA nerve terminals. These presynaptic receptors exhibit pharmacological properties similar to those described in electro‐physiological studies for postsynaptic NMDA receptors.
JNK-dependent Phosphorylation of c-Jun on Serine 63 Mediates Nitric Oxide-induced Apoptosis of Neuroblastoma Cells*

c-Jun NH2-terminal kinases (JNKs) potentiate transcriptional activity of c-Jun by phosphorylating serines 63 and 73. Moreover, JNK and c-Jun can modulate apoptosis. However, an involvement of nitric oxide (NO)-induced phosphorylation of c-Jun on Ser-63 and Ser-73 in apoptosis has not been explored. We report that in SH-Sy5y neuroblastoma cells, NO induced apoptosis following JNK activation and phosphorylation of c-Jun almost exclusively on Ser-63. Importantly, NO-induced apoptosis and caspase-3 activity were inhibited in cells stably transformed with dominant-negative c-Jun in which Ser-63 is mutated to alanine (S63A), but not in cells transformed with dominant-negative c-Jun (S73A). Ser-63 of c-Jun (but not Ser-73) was required for NO-induced, c-Jun-dependent transcriptional activity. NO-induced apoptosis, Ser-63 phosphorylation of c-Jun, and caspase-3 activity were all inhibited in SH-Sy5y cells transformed with dominant-negative jnk. A caspase-3 inhibitor prevented apoptosis but not c-Jun phosphorylation. In a different neuroblastoma cell line, NO-induced Ser-63 phosphorylation of c-Jun and apoptosis were blocked by a specific JNK inhibitor. We conclude that NO-inducible apoptosis is mediated by JNK-dependent Ser-63 phosphorylation of c-Jun upstream of caspase-3 activation in neuroblastoma cells.
Combination of EuroSCORE and Cardiac Troponin I Improves the Prediction of Adverse Outcome after Cardiac Surgery

Background:Reclassification tables have never been used to compare concentrations of cardiac troponin I (cTnI) with predictive models of risk in the perioperative setting. The current study aimed to evaluate the prognostic value of pre- and/or postoperative serum cTnI when combined with The European System for Cardiac Operative Risk Evaluation (EuroSCORE) in predicting adverse outcome after cardiac surgery. Methods:Nine hundred five consecutive patients were included. Standard EuroSCORE as well as preoperative and 24-h postoperative cTnI were measured in all patients. Major adverse cardiac events and in-hospital mortality were chosen as study endpoints. The performance of EuroSCORE with and without pre- and/or postoperative cTnI were assessed by means of receiver operating characteristic curves, net reclassification index, and integrated discrimination improvement analyses. Data are expressed as ±SD. Results:Death occurred in 28 of 905 (3%) patients and major adverse cardiac events in 202/905 (22%) patients. Models including EuroSCORE alone were characterized by a low discriminative power (c-index = 0.60 ± 0.05) in predicting major adverse cardiac events. The c-index increased to 0.61 ± 0.05 (P = 0.46), 0.70 ± 0.04 (P < 0.001), and 0.71 ± 0.04 (P < 0.001) when preoperative, postoperative, and pre/postoperative cTnI were included, respectively. The better predictive ability was confirmed by net reclassification index (0.41 ± 0.08, P < 0.001; 0.67 ± 0.08, P < 0.001; and 0.68 ± 0.08, P < 0.001, respectively) and integrated discrimination improvement (0.003 ± 0.002, P = 0.12; 0.099 ± 0.015, P < 0.001; and 0.094 ± 0.016, P < 0.001, respectively). Similar results were observed for in-hospital mortality. Conclusions:The combination of EuroSCORE and postoperative cTnI provides the best discriminative power and performance in predicting adverse outcome after cardiac surgery and is suggested as being an effective model that improves early identification of high-risk patients.
Changes in gingival crevicular fluid matrix metalloproteinase-8 levels during periodontal treatment and maintenance.

OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of scaling and root planing (SRP) and the maintenance phase of treatment on the gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) matrix metalloproteinase-8 (MMP-8) levels. MATERIALS AND METHODS Clinical measurements and GCF samples were taken from four sites in 20 adult periodontitis patients before and after SRP and during a 3-month maintenance phase of treatment. MMP-8 levels were measured from GCF samples by time-resolved immunofluorometric assay (IFMA) with monoclonal antibodies. RESULTS SRP improved the clinical indices as would be predicted, 6.1 mm (SD = 1.4) at baseline compared with 4.3 mm (SD = 1.6) post-treatment (P < 0.001). Attachment level (AL) reduced but not significantly between these two visits 13.4 mm (SD = 2.4) compared with 12.8 mm (SD = 2.4) (P < 0.08) post therapy. GCF MMP-8 levels reduced after initial treatment from 33.8 micro g/30 s sample to 23.5 micro g/30 s, which just failed to reach statistical significance (P = 0.07). However, when MMP-8 levels were expressed as a concentration, the differences following initial therapy were significant (54.1 ng/ micro L at baseline compared with 34.2 ng/micro L post treatment; P < 0.005). The difference, however, between the baseline MMP-8 levels (33.8 ng/30 s) and the final visit (16 ng/30 s) following maintenance was markedly significant (P < 0.001) for both absolute amounts and on a concentration basis. CONCLUSION In conclusion, clinical improvement following SRP was associated with significant reductions in MMP-8 levels. The GCF concentration of MMP-8 decreased after initial therapy but reduced even more dramatically (approximately 50%) following a 3-month period of maintenance (P < 0.001).
Using Robust Mean and Robust Variance Estimates to Calculate Robust Effect Size

This month we demonstrate the calculation of robust effect sizes. The GNU S language, "R" is used to implement this procedure. R is a statistical programming environment that is a clone of the S and S-Plus language developed at Lucent Technologies. In the following document we illustrate the use of a GNU Web interface to the R engine on the "rss" server, http://rss.acs. unt.edu/cgi-bin/R/Rprog. This GNU Web interface is a derivative of the "Rcgi" Perl scripts available for download from the CRAN website, http://www.cran. r-project.org (the main "R" website). Scripts can be submitted interactively, edited, and be re-submitted with changed parameters by selecting the hypertext link buttons that appear below the figures. For example, clicking the "Run Program" button below creates a vector of 100 random normal deviates; displays the results; sorts and displays the results; then creates a histogram and a density plot of the random numbers. To view any text output, scroll to the bottom of the browser window. To view any graphical output, select the "Display Graphic" link. The script can be edited and resubmitted by changing the script in the form window and then selecting "Run the R Program". Selecting the browser "back page" button will return the reader to this document.
C&C tracer: Botnet command and control behavior tracing

The Botnet command and control (C&C) behavior becomes more and more dynamic and rapid so that information security analyst is difficult to capture the Botnet behavior in real time. In this work, we proposed a Botnet C&C behavior tracing system (naming C&C Tracer) for capturing the Botnet C&C behavior. The C&C Tracer consists of three components, such as: C&C active behavior feature extracting (CAFE), domain name status querying (DNSQ) and C&C status tracing analyzer (CSTA). In CAFE, different sources of Botnet URLs with diverse representing formats could be parsed for behavior feature generation. According to the parsed URLs, DNSQ can automatic query the C&C domains to the online domain name resolution repository and extract the domain name resolution result. Finally, CSTA considers different observed C&C live and active ability and schedules the tracing strategies. The proposed system not only can incorporate different public blacklist of Botnet C&C, but also dynamically tracing the Botnet C&C behavior for expanding the blacklist in time. This system is fully implemented and operating in real network environment since 2009. The C&C Tracer can reduce the non-active C&C domain name close to 80% with only 0.69% false postive rate. We demonstrate the real cases that identify the Botnet C&C servers by C&C tracer for showing the effectiveness of proposed system.
Development of a GPS Herd Activity and Well-Being Kit (GPS HAWK) to Monitor Cattle Behavior and the Effect of Sample Interval on Travel Distance

As an alternative to commercial GPS tracking collars, a low-cost GPS Herd Activity and Well-being Kit (GPS HAWK) was developed to monitor locomotion behavior of cattle at a high sampling frequency (20 s). The operational goal of the GPS HAWK was to collect GPS location data at a user-specified frequency and store the data in a secure format (compact flash media) for retrieval and optimize power consumption to extend the sampling period. The GPS HAWK uses a Garmin 12-channel low-power GPS receiver powered by a sealed-lead acid battery housed in an aluminum enclosure on a shoulder-mounted harness. Data gathered by the GPS HAWKs were used to determine individual daily travel distance (DTD) and the effect of sample interval (SI) on this measurement. Differences (P < 0.0001) were shown in DTD across four days using animals with available data. The Angus cows (Bos Tarus L.) averaged 4.05 ± 0.14 km/d (2.52 ± 0.09 mi/d) during the four days. Sample interval (SI) had an effect on DTD. Differences in DTD were detected for all SIs (P < 0.0001) except between the 60- and 120-s intervals. By changing the SI from 20 s to 20 min, the mean DTD decreased by 1.68 km or 44%. Significant errors in estimates of cattle energetics from GPS monitoring can be introduced by increasing sampling interval. Therefore, researchers must account for increasing error in DTD due to undersampling as SI is increased to save battery power and to increase the interval between animal handling periods. Holding the GPS system in place consistently with a shoulder mounted harness proved to be somewhat challenging.
Letter to the editor. [letter].

The authors of this letter to the editor argue that it is vital for the clinical community to understand the critical issues regarding drug levels and the development of resistance in light of the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) recent record-breaking approvals of protease inhibitors. These issues are discussed in relation to research involving Abbott Laboratories' drug Norvir. The inhibition of a specific cytochrome P450 isoform by Norvir uniquely elevates the plasma levels of other protease inhibitors upon coadministration. Dual protease inhibitor therapy with Norvir and Invirase can provide substantial antiviral benefit.
ffi ciency and the Choice of Media Mix : A Case of Beer

In this paper we use techniques from the efficiency measurement literature to evaluate the performance of six U.S. beer Þrms in terms of their ability to translate advertising messages into sales. We employ quarterly data from the 1983-1993 period. Our results suggest that Anheuser-Busch was relatively efficient in its advertising and its choice of media mix, whereas most of the other Þrms in our sample were not. ∗Thanks to Kumiko Okuyama for her patience and care with the empirical work. Thanks to Carol Tremblay; two anonymous referees; Steve Martin, editor; and our discussant, Douglas J. Young, at an Industrial Organization Society session at the 2001 Western Economic Association Annual Conference for helpful comments.
Hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC)/Lynch syndrome.

BACKGROUND Hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer HNPCC, Lynch syndrome) is a genetic disease of autosomal dominant inheritance. It is caused by a mutation in one of four genes of the DNA mismatch repair system and confers a markedly increased risk for various types of cancer, particularly of the colon and the endometrium. Its prevalence in the general population is about 1 in 500, and it causes about 2% to 3% of all colorectal cancers. Lynch syndrome is diagnosed in two steps: If it is suspected (because a patient develops cancer at an unusually young age or because of familial clustering), the tumor tissue is analyzed for evidence of deficient mismatch repair (microsatellite instability, loss of mismatch repair protein expression). If such evidence is found, a genetic mutation is sought. The identification of a pathogenic mutation confirms the diagnosis in the patient and enables predictive testing of other family members. Diagnostic evaluations for Lynch syndrome should be carried out with appropriate genetic counseling. METHOD Selective literature review. RESULTS Prospective cohort studies from Germany, Finland and the Netherlands have shown that colorectal cancers detected by systematic colonoscopic surveillance tend to be at an earlier stage than those that are discovered after the patients present with symptoms. The Finnish study also showed an overall reduction in cancer risk from colonoscopic polypectomy at regular intervals. CONCLUSION The studies conducted so far have not yet clearly documented the putative benefit of an individualized, risk-adapted surveillance strategy. Until this is done, patients with Lynch syndrome and healthy carriers of causative mutations should be monitored with annual colonoscopy and (for women) annual gynecological examination.
Examination of a Polycrystalline Thin-Film Model to Explore the Relation between Probe Size and Structural Correlation Length in Fluctuation Electron Microscopy

Abstract We examine simulated electron microdiffraction patterns from models of thin polycrystalline silicon. The models are made by a Voronoi tessellation of random points in a box. The Voronoi domains are randomly selected to contain either a randomly-oriented cubic crystalline grain or a region of continuous random network material. The microdiffraction simulations from coherent probes of different widths are computed at the ideal kinematical limit, ignoring inelastic and multiple scattering. By examining the normalized intensity variance that is obtained in fluctuation electron microscopy experiments, we confirm that intensity fluctuations increase monotonically with the percentage of crystalline grains in the material. However, anomalously high variance is observed for models that have 100% crystalline grains with no imperfections. We confirm that the reduced normalized variance, V(k,R) − 1, that is associated with four-body correlations at scattering vector k, varies inversely with specimen thickness. Further, for probe sizes R larger than the mean grain size, we confirm that the reduced normalized variance obeys the predicted form given by Gibson et al. [Ultramicroscopy, 83, 169–178 (2000)] for the kinematical coherent scattering limit.
Scalability of Non-Rigid 3D Shape Retrieval

Due to recent advances in 3D acquisition and modeling, increasingly large amounts of 3D shape data become available in many application domains. This rises not only the need for effective methods for 3D shape retrieval, but also efficient retrieval and robust implementations. Previous 3D retrieval challenges have mainly considered data sets in the range of a few thousands of queries. In the 2015 SHREC track on Scalability of 3D Shape Retrieval we provide a benchmark with more than 96 thousand shapes. The data set is based on a non-rigid retrieval benchmark enhanced by other existing shape benchmarks. From the baseline models, a large set of partial objects were automatically created by simulating a range-image acquisition process. Four teams have participated in the track, with most methods providing very good to near-perfect retrieval results, and one less complex baseline method providing fair performance. Timing results indicate that three of the methods including the latter baseline one provide near- interactive time query execution. Generally, the cost of data pre-processing varies depending on the method.
Aetiological Aspects of Ammon's Horn Sclerosis Associated with Temporal Lobe Epilepsy*

Thus, the venous ulcer, far from being an ischaemic lesion, is a hyperaemnic lesion. It is sitting on a honeycomb of dilated venules which in fact is rather like a haemangioma. The longer the ulcer has been present the more profuse and sponge-like is the venous sump on which the ulcer sits. Moreover, as time goes on, this hyperaemic area acquires an increased arterial supply; and this venous " sump " under the ulcer can be filled equally well from the arterial or venous side of the circulation, and therefore can be shown equally well by an arteriogram or a venogram (see Fig. 9). Finally, the cause of destruction of the strategic valve in the ankle-perforating veins, and therefore the cause of their incompetence, is deep thrombosis in the majority of cases. Post-thrombotic ankle-perforator incompetence is therefore the main immediate cause of the ulceration, induration, and swelling of the ankle, which is such a prominent feature of the post-thrombotic syndrome of the leg.
Differential Evolution Algorithms for the Generalized Assignment problem

In this paper, differential evolution (DE) algorithms are presented to solve the generalized assignment problem (GAP), which is basically concerned with finding the minimum cost assignment of jobs to agents such that each job is assigned to exactly one agent, subject to capacity constraint of agents. The first algorithm is unique in terms of solving a discrete optimization problem on a continuous domain. The second one is a discrete/combinatorial variant of the traditional differential evolution algorithm working on a discrete domain. The objective is to present a continuous optimization algorithm dealing with discrete spaces hence to solve a discrete optimization problem. Both algorithms are hybridized with a “blind” variable neighborhood search (VNS) algorithm to further enhance the solution quality, especially to end up with feasible solutions. They are tested on a benchmark suite from OR Library. Computational results are promising for a continuous algorithm such that without employing any problem-specific heuristics and speed-up methods, the DE variant hybridized with a “blind” VNS local search was able to generate competitive results to its discrete counterpart.
Insights from the X-ray Crystal Structure of Coral 8R-Lipoxygenase

Lipoxygenases (LOXs) catalyze the regio- and stereospecific dioxygenation of polyunsaturated membrane-embedded fatty acids. We report here the 3.2 Å resolution structure of 8R-LOX from the Caribbean sea whip coral Plexaura homomalla, a LOX isozyme with calcium dependence and the uncommon R chiral stereospecificity. Structural and spectroscopic analyses demonstrated calcium binding in a C2-like membrane-binding domain, illuminating the function of similar amino acids in calcium-activated mammalian 5-LOX, the key enzyme in the pathway to the pro-inflammatory leukotrienes. Mutation of Ca2+-ligating amino acids in 8R-LOX resulted not only in a diminished capacity to bind membranes, as monitored by fluorescence resonance energy transfer, but also in an associated loss of Ca2+-regulated enzyme activity. Moreover, a structural basis for R chiral specificity is also revealed; creation of a small oxygen pocket next to Gly428 (Ala in all S-LOX isozymes) promoted C-8 oxygenation with R chirality on the activated fatty acid substrate.
Channels with asymptotically decreasing memory and anticipation

A definition for channels with asymptotically decreasing memory and anticipation is given. The relation to indecomposable finite-state channels and to a certain class of infinite-state channels is established. It is shown that for channels with asymptotically decreasing memory and anticipation every ergodic input source is admissible and that the coding theorem holds.
A Initial Attempt on Task-Specific Adaptation for Deep Neural Network-based Large Vocabulary Continuous Speech Recognition

In the state-of-the-art automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems, adaption techniques are used to the mitigate performance degradation caused by the mismatch in the training and testing procedure. Although there are bunch of adaption techniques for the hidden Markov models (HMM)-GMM-based system[3], there is rare work about the adaption in the hybrid artiﬁcial neural network (ANN)/HMM-based system [7][8]. Recently, there is a resurgence on ANN/HMM scheme for ASR with the success of context dependent deep neural network HMM (CD-DNN/HMM). Therefore in this paper, we present our initial efforts on the adaption techniques in the CD-DNN/HMM system. Specially, a linear input network(LIN)- based method and a neural network retraining(NNR)-based method is experimentally explored for the the task-adaptation purpose. Experiments on conversation telephone speech data set shows that these techniques can improve the system sig-niﬁcantly and LIN-based method seems to work better with medium mount of adaptation data.