Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
SCUOLA DI DOTTORATO IN SCIENZE MOLECOLARI INDIRIZZO IN SCIENZE FARMACEUTICHE

Supramolecular drug delivery systems (DDSs) include a variety of carriers: polymer therapeutics and colloidal vehicles (micelles, liposomes, polyplexes, and nanoparticles). Polymer chemistry and bioconjugation techniques allow to generate novel materials with diverse physicochemical and biological features that can be assembled into DDSs with controlled and efficient biopharmaceutical performances. It is known that the biopharmaceutical behavior of nanocarriers is mainly provided by properties such as chemical composition, size, morphology, architecture that determine their interface features. In particular, the interfacial characteristics govern how the DDSs interact with the physiological environment, after administration thus affecting their PK, biodistribution and toxicity. These properties can be properly modulated to bestow the carriers with responsiveness when exposed to altered physiopathological conditions. Sensitive nanosystems generated by either physical assembly or chemical bioconjugation can be designed to obtain a precise response to a specific biological microenvironment. Many examples are present in the literature that exploit the tissue features (pH, temperature) to achieve selective accumulation or controlled drug release. Modern pharmaceutical technology strives to provide performing formulations and delivery solutions for drugs to overcome the biopharmaceutical limitations to their use which include high systemic toxicity, limited localization at the disease and off-site effects.
Conceptual framework development to explore the service experience in customer care centre of Telecom industry in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia

Customer care centres have become a major business field over the past few years. Efficiency and service excellence are the two major goals for customer care centre. Efficiency depends on speed and delivery that leads to get excellent service. The objectives of the research is to identify and explore the influential factors of the service experience in customer care centre in Malaysia. The research will identify the critical factors of service experience of customer care centre to eliminate the rigidity of service near future. Questionnaire survey is appropriate for this research because the research method is quantitative and experimental. Data will be collected from the people who are attached with the customer care centre activities in terms of usage of the product or seeking services through customer care centre. Before that in this theoretical paper, it tried to analyse the three theories that is to comprehend the factors influencing the customer’s service experience in a modern customer care centre in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. Results of this study will show that how different factors influence and shape a better service experience and whether the factors will have positive and significant influences on customer’s service experience in a customer care centre in Malaysia. The service marketing mix, the servuction framework and the services theatre framework are the major theories that will explain and discuss the service experience in this research to determine the outcome later on.
Mindstorms robots and the application of cognitive load theory in introductory programming

This paper reports on a series of introductory programming workshops, initially targeting female high school students, which utilised Lego Mindstorms robots. Cognitive load theory (CLT) was applied to the instructional design of the workshops, and a controlled experiment was also conducted investigating aspects of the interface. Results indicated that a truncated interface led to better learning by novice programmers as measured by test performance by participants, as well as enhanced shifts in self-efficacy and lowered perception of difficulty. There was also a transfer effect to another programming environment (Alice). It is argued that the results indicate that for novice programmers, the mere presence on-screen of additional (redundant) entities acts as a form of tacit distraction, thus impeding learning. The utility of CLT to analyse, design and deliver aspects of computer programming environments and instructional materials is discussed.
Novel Navigation Algorithm for Wireless Sensor Networks without Information of Locations

In this paper, we propose a novel distributed navigation algorithm for people to escape from critical event region in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Unlike existing works, the scenario discussed in the paper has no goal or exit as guidance, leading to a big challenge for the navigation problem. To solve it, our proposed navigation algorithm computes the convex hull of the event region just by some topological methods. With the reference of the convex hull, people can be easily navigated out of the event region. Both the computation complexity and communication overhead of the proposed algorithm are very low, as it only needs to flood two shortest path trees in a limited area around the event region with a distance $\lfloor L/2\pi\rfloor+1$ to the event boundary, where $L$ is the length of the boundary. Conducted simulations have verified the effectiveness and scalability of the proposed algorithm.
Antimicrobial peptide defense in Drosophila

Drosophila responds to a septic injury by the rapid synthesis of antimicrobial peptides. These molecules are predominantly produced by the fat body, a functional equivalent of mammalian liver, and are secreted into the hemolymph where their concentrations can reach up to 100 μM. Six distinct antibacterial peptides (plus isoforms) and one antifungal peptide have been characterized in Drosophila and their genes cloned. The induction of the gene encoding the antifungal peptide relies on the spätzle/Toll/cactus gene cassette, which is involved in the control of dorsoventral patterning in the embryo, and shows interesting structural and functional similarities with cytokine‐induced activation of NF‐ϰB in mammalian cells. An additional pathway, dependent on the as yet unidentified imd (for immune‐deficiency) gene, is required for the full induction of the antibacterial peptide genes. Mutants deficient for the Toll and imd pathways exhibit a severely reduced survival to fungal and bacterial infections, respectively. Recent data on the molecular mechanisms underlying recognition of non‐self are also discussed in this review.
The projections of principal cells of the medial nucleus of the trapezoid body in the cat

Previous studies suggest that the principal cells of the medial nucleus of the trapezoid body (MNTB) give rise to the projection from MNTB to the lateral superior olivary nucleus (LSO) of the same side, where they mediate rapid inhibitory effects of contralateral sound stimulation. In the present study, we explored certain morphological features of this connection as well as several other projections of the MNTB by using anterograde and retrograde axonal tracing methods. Following injections of tritiated leucine into MNTB, labeled axons reached LSO by passing ventral to, dorsal to, and through the medial superior olivary nucleus, and gave rise to labeling around the somata and proximal dendrites of LSO fusiform cells. As measured in autoradiograms of 2 μm plastic sections, these axons had a modal diameter of 5–6 μ. Terminal labeling, tentatively attributed to principal cell axons, was also seen in the ventral nucleus of the lateral lemniscus (VNLL) and the dorsomedial and ventromedial periolivary nuclei. HRP injections into the LSO and the VNLL showed that the prinicpal cell projected to both of these nuclei and revealed a topographic arrangement of the projection to the LSO which is consistent with tonotopic maps determined electrophysiologically. Control HRP injections demonstrated that other minor projections of the MNTB arose from minor cell populations in this nucleus. The findings provide a morphological correlate of certain physiological findings and suggest a wider role for the MNTB in the ascending auditory system than previously has been supposed.
Assessment of National Program of Learning Regions in Slovakia – Design and Testing

Abstract In May 2007, the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic approved the National Program for Learning Regions. It states that the long-term strategic objective for the development of Slovak regions is the gradual reduction of disparities in living standards in regions and to improve regional economic performance. One of the tools for achieving this goal is considered the learning region concept. The main aim of this article is to streamline the presentation and monitoring of the partial progress made in achieving the objectives of the National Program for Learning Regions in the Slovak Republic to policy-makers and to make this relatively complex issue accessible to a wider audience through one aggregated index and two partial indices; the PCA method was used. The results showed relatively large differences between regions. The highest value of the aggregated LR index was reached by the Trnava region, followed by the Bratislava region; these two regions seems to be in accordance with reaching the objectives of the National Program for Learning Regions. The lowest values were found in the Banská Bystrica, Prešov and Košice regions. Moreover, we found a positive correlation between aggregated and economical-innovative indices with average GDP during the years 2008–2014 at the NUTS 3 level.
Human immunodeficiency virus neutralizing antibodies in sera from North Americans and Africans.

Neutralizing antibodies (NAs) against four isolates of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) were assayed in HIV-1 antibody positive sera from the United States, Haiti, Zimbabwe, and Zaire. Overall, there were NAs detected in 95, 81, 60, and 73% of sera with reciprocal geometric mean titers (GMTs) of 626, 23, 10, and 20, respectively, against HIV-1MN, HIV-1IIIB, HIV-1RF, and HIV-1Z3. Sera from North America had significantly higher NA titers against HIV-1MN. In each country, the highest antibody titers observed were against the MN strain. Otherwise, sera from the U.S. neutralized most strongly HIV-1IIIB, sera from Zaire neutralized most strongly HIV-1Z3, and sera from Zimbabwe had equal titers against all three viruses. The differences between countries were reflected in analyses of NA titers of subgroups classified on the basis of clinical status, indicating that the differences were not likely to be related to differences in clinical status of the patients being tested. Some of this antigenic variation is reflective of known genetic diversity, while some is not. The results suggest that undefined preserved and variable regions containing neutralization epitope(s) exist. These data do not indicate a need to define antigenic subtypes of HIV-1 at present. The existence of conserved neutralization epitope(s) may indicate the potential for broad immunogenicity of appropriately selected vaccine antigens.
Anion Gap as a Predictor of Trauma Outcomes in the Older Trauma Population: Correlations with Injury Severity and Mortality

The relationship among traumatic injury, the associated metabolic/physiologic responses, and mortality is well established. Tissue hypoperfusion and metabolic derangement may not universally correlate with initial clinical presentation. We hypothesized that anion gap (AG) could be a useful gauge of trauma-related physiologic response and mortality in older patients with relatively lower injury acuity. We retrospectively analyzed data from 711 trauma patients older than 45 years. Parameters examined included demographics, injury characteristics, laboratories, morbidity, and mortality. Univariate and survival analyses were performed using PASW 18. A step-wise correlation exists between increasing Injury Severity Score and AG. Although AG less than 8 to 15 was not associated with a significant increase in mortality, greater mortality was seen for AG greater than 16 with further stepwise increases for AGs greater than 22. Anion gap correlated moderately with serum lactate and poorly with base excess. Increasing AG also correlated with morbidity and greater incidence of intensive care admissions. The presence of any complication increased from 28.6 per cent for patients with AG 12 or less to 45.5 per cent for patients with AG 22 or greater (P < 0.04). These findings support the contention that “low acuity” trauma patients with high AGs may not appear acutely ill but may harbor significant underlying metabolic and physiologic disturbances that could contribute to morbidity and mortality. Higher AG values (i.e., greater than 16) may be associated with worse clinical outcomes.
MAKING MOUNTAINS OF DEBT OUT OF MOLEHILLS: THE PRO-CYCLICAL IMPLICATIONS OF TAX AND EXPENDITURE LIMITATIONS

This paper presents evidence that property tax limits have detrimental effects on state and local revenues during recessions. Property tax limits cause states to rely on income-elastic revenue sources, such as the income tax or charges and fees. Greater reliance on these revenue sources results in greater revenue declines during economic downturns. We present analysis of time-series, cross-sectional data for the U.S. states for each of these conclusions. Our results suggest that states would have fewer and more modest financial problems during economic downturns if they did not enact property tax limitations.
Optimization of geographic area to a Web page for two-dimensional range query processing

We have been developing a geographic Web search system to retrieve proper Web pages for a user-specified geographic area. One of location specification methods possible in the system is a two-dimensional range query, which is specified by a rectangle region corresponding to a geographic area. In order to handle such a geographic query, we propose: i) a geographic Web index method which is possible to manage each Web pages by optimized geographic scope; and ii) geometric operations such as 'Contain' as a function to retrieve geographic Web pages. However, recall and precision of search results by raw geometric search operations become very low, if we do not optimize a geographic area to a Web page. By considering of geowords' characterics, we can improve the result by geometric operations in range query processing.
The unruptured intracranial aneurysm treatment score: A multidisciplinary consensus

Editors' Note: In WriteClick this week, Dr. Sethi and authors Seneviratne et al. discuss the importance of differentiating seizure prodromes from focal seizure symptoms in patients with idiopathic generalized epilepsies. Responding to “The unruptured intracranial aneurysm treatment score: A multidisciplinary consensus,” Dr. Mayer comments on the continued uncertainties involved in the decision to treat unruptured intracranial aneurysms. Authors Etminan et al. respond. —Megan Alcauskas, MD, and Robert C. Griggs, MD I …
Monkey somatosensory cerebrocerebellar pathways: Uneven densities of corticopontine neurons in different body representations of areas 3b, 1, and 2

We have studied the anatomic organization of corticopontine neurons in the monkey cytoarchitectonic areas 3a, 3b, 1, and 2. The purpose was to provide information about the composition of somatosensory cortical influence on cerebellar operations. Large tracer injections were made in the pontine nuclei. Retrogradely labeled neurons were confined to cortical layer 5, with the largest cell bodies located in area 3a and the smallest in area 3b. The distribution of labeled cells was quantitatively recorded and displayed in three‐dimensional reconstructions and in flat maps. We have: (1) compared the average densities of labeled cells among the cytoarchitectonic areas, and (2) outlined the distribution of labeled cells within the cortical map of the body surface representation. The average density of labeled cells was considerably higher in areas 3a, 1, and 2, compared to area 3b. This finding suggests that areas 3a, 1, and 2 are more engaged in cerebellar operations than area 3b. We found marked density gradients of labeled cells within areas 3b, 1, and 2, but not within area 3a. When the density maps from areas 3b, 1, and 2 were superimposed on previously published somatotopic maps, we found higher average densities of corticopontine neurons in regions representing the trunk and proximal limbs, than in regions representing the distal forelimb. Thus, the distal forelimb representation, which is known to be strongly emphasized in terms of cortical volume, appears not to be correspondingly emphasized in the corticopontine projection. J. Comp. Neurol. 406:109–128, 1999. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Timescales and timetrees.

Aslam SN, Newman MA, Erbs G, Morrissey KL, Chinchilla D, Boller T, Jensen TT, de Castro C, Ierano T, Molinaro A et al. 2008. Bacterial polysaccharides suppress induced innate immunity by calcium chelation. Current Biology 18: 1078–1083. Boudsocq M, Willmann MR, McCormack M, Lee H, Shan L, He P, Bush J, Cheng SH, Sheen J. 2010. Differential innate immune signalling via Ca sensor protein kinases. Nature 464: 418– 422. Bourque S, Dutartre A, Hammoudi V, Blanc S, Dahan J, Jeandroz S, Pichereaux C, Rossignol M, Wendehenne D. 2011. Type-2 histone deacetylases as new regulators of elicitor-induced cell death in plants. New Phytologist 192: 127–139. Coll NS, Epple P, Dangl JL. 2011. Programmed cell death in the plant immune system. Cell Death & Differentiation 18: 1247–1256. Dahan J, Pichereaux C, Rossignol M, Blanc S, Wendehenne D, Pugin A, Bourque S. 2009. Activation of a nuclear localized-SIPK in tobacco cells challenged by cryptogein, an elicitor of plant defence reactions. Biochemical Journal 418: 191–200. Garcia-Brügger A, Lamotte O, Vandelle E, Bourque S, Lecourieux D, Poinssot B, Wendehenne D, Pugin A. 2006. Early signaling events induced by elicitors of plant defenses. Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions 19: 711–724. Jones JDG, Dangl JL. 2006. The plant immune system. Nature 444: 323–329. Krol E, Mentzel T, Chinchilla D, Boller T, Felix G, Kemmerling B, Postel S, Arents M, Jeworutzki E, Al-Rasheid KA et al. 2010. Perception of the Arabidopsis danger signal peptide 1 involves the pattern recognition receptor AtPEPR1 and its close homologue AtPEPR2. Journal of Biological Chemistry 285: 13471–13479. Lecourieux D, Lamotte O, Bourque S, Wendehenne D, Mazars C, Ranjeva R, Pugin A. 2005. Proteinaceous and oligosaccharidic elicitors induce different calcium signatures in the nucleus of tobacco cells. Cell Calcium 38: 527–538. Ma W, Qi Z, Smigel A, Walker RK, Verma R, Berkowitz GA. 2009. Ca, cAMP, and transduction of non-self perception during plant immune responses. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 106: 20995–21000. Mao G, Meng X, Liu Y, Zheng Z, Chen Z, Zhang S. 2011. Phosphorylation of a WRKY ranscription factor by two pathogenresponsive MAPKs drives phytoalexin biosynthesis in Arabidopsis. Plant Cell 23: 1639–1653. Mazars C, Thuleau P, Lamotte O, Bourque S. 2010. Cross-talk between ROS and calcium in regulation of nuclear activities. Molecular Plant 3: 706–718. Naito K, Taguchi F, Suzuki T, Inagaki Y, Toyoda K, Shiraishi T, Ichinose Y. 2008. Amino acid sequence of bacterial microbe-associated molecular pattern flg22 is required for virulence. Molecular PlantMicrobe Interaction 21: 1165–1174. Thomma BP, Nurnberger T, Joosten MH. 2011. Of PAMPs and effectors: the blurred PTI-ETI dichotomy. Plant Cell 23: 4–15. Yu CW, Liu X, Luo M, Chen C, Lin X, Tian G, Lu Q, Cui Y, Wu K. 2011. HISTONE DEACETYLASE6 interacts with FLOWERING LOCUS D and regulates flowering in Arabidopsis. Plant Physiology 156: 173–184. Zhu X, Caplan J, Mamillapalli P, Czymmek K, Dinesh-Kumar SP. 2010. Function of endoplasmic reticulum calcium ATPase in innate immunity-mediated programmed cell death. EMBO Journal 29: 1007–1018.
Modeling of Electromigration Induced Resistance Change in Three-Dimensional Interconnects with Through Silicon

Electromigration (EM) is one of the main reliability concerns in copper interconnects. In particular, it is a critical issue for new emerging technologies, such as through silicon via (TSV) technology. In this work the impact of formation and growth of voids under a TSV located at the cathode end of a typical dual-damascene line is analyzed. The resistance change of the structure is numerically simulated and modeled. It is shown that there exist two modes of resistance development caused by large and small voids.
The posterior part of the human cerebral arterial circle (CAC): arterial caliber from gestational weeks 13 to 24

Numerous studies have reported that all components of the cerebral arterial circle in the 4‐month‐old human fetus are more slender than adult vessels, and of equal caliber. After that period, a degree of caliber differentiation is present, especially at the level of the posterior communicating arteries. The aim of this study was to determine arterial diameters in the posterior part of the fetal cerebral arterial circle from the 4th month (IV) to the 6th (VI). One hundred and seventy‐two fetal cerebral arterial circles were examined by means of a surgical microscope. It was determined that average diameters of the left (right) pre‐communicating parts of the posterior cerebral artery ranged from 0.30 ± 0.03 (0.29 ± 0.02) mm in month IV, to 0.36 ± 0.04 (0.36 ± 0.03) mm during month V and up to 0.55 ± 0.22 (0.50 ± 0.18) mm in month VI. The average diameters of the left (right) posterior communicating artery ranged from 0.24 ± 0.02 mm (0.25 ± 0.02) in month IV, to 0.30 ± 0.03 mm (0.29 ± 0.05) during month V and up to 0.38 ± 0.08 (0.44 ± 0.10) in month VI. Gender differences between posterior cerebral artery and posterior communicating artery diameters were not significant. Average posterior cerebral artery diameters were significantly larger than posterior communicating artery diameters in months IV and V, but not in month VI. It was established that caliber differentiation in the posterior part of the cerebral arterial circle began from gestational month IV, and that gender differences in arterial diameters were not significant until month VI of gestation.
Deepwater rice: A model plant to study stem elongation

Semiaquatic plants grow mostly in flood plains and along river beds and are adapted to survive partial submergence during periods of flooding ([Blom and Voesenek, 1996][1]). Among their adaptive features are the development of internal air channels (aerenchyma) that facilitate aeration of submerged
Hierarchical Complexity Control of HEVC for Live Video Encoding

As the latest video coding standard, High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) tremendously improves the encoding efficiency compared with the preceding H.264/AVC standard, but at the cost of higher encoding complexity. This huge encoding complexity makes the implementation of HEVC intractable on live videos. For coping with this problem, two major challenges need to be solved: 1) How to accurately reduce the encoding complexity to achieve the target complexity? and 2) How to maintain the video quality after encoding complexity reduction? To solve these two challenges, we propose, in this paper, a hierarchical complexity control approach of HEVC. For the first goal, the complexity control is implemented in two levels to assure the control accuracy. In the largest coding unit (LCU) level, we adjust the maximum depths of LCUs in a frame to reduce the encoding complexity to the target. Since each frame has numerous LCUs, and each LCU can choose its maximum depth from one of the four maximum depths, the large degree of freedom contributes to the high control accuracy. However, there may be still some errors. These errors can be compensated in the frame level by a proposed frame level complexity control algorithm. For the second goal, one objective weight map and one subjective weight map are proposed to use in the process of complexity control to keep the objective and subjective video quality simultaneously. Finally, The experimental results show that our approach outperforms other state-of-the-art approaches, in terms of both control accuracy and video quality.