Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Five-year mortality and related prognostic factors after inpatient stroke rehabilitation: a European multi-centre study.

OBJECTIVE To determine 5-year mortality and its association with baseline characteristics and functional status 6 months post-stroke for patients who received inpatient rehabilitation. DESIGN A prospective rehabilitation-based cohort study. SUBJECTS A total of 532 consecutive stroke patients from 4 European rehabilitation centres. METHODS Predictors were recorded on admission. Barthel Index was assessed at 6 months (BI6mths) and patients were followed for 5 years post-stroke. Survival probability was computed using Kaplan-Meier analysis and compared across 3 BI6mths-classes (0-60, 65-90, 95-100) (log-rank test). Significant independent predictors were determined using multivariate Cox regression analysis (hazard ratio (HR)). RESULTS Five-year cumulative risk of death was 29.12% (95% confidence interval (CI): 22.86-35.38). Age (HR=1.06, 95% CI: 1.04-1.09), cognitive impairment (HR=1.77, 95% CI: 1.21-2.57), diabetes mellitus (HR=1.68, 95% CI: 1.16-2.41) and atrial fibrillation (HR=1.52, 95% CI: 1.08-2.14) were independent predictors of increased mortality. Hyperlipidaemia (HR=0.66, 95% CI: 0.46-0.94), and higher BI6mths (HR=0.98, 95% CI: 0.97-0.99) were independent predictors of decreased mortality. Five-year survival probability was 0.85 (95% CI: 0.80-0.89) for patients in BI6mths-class: 95-100, 0.72 (95% CI: 0.63-0.79) in BI6mths-class: 65-90 and 0.50 (95% CI: 0.40-0.60) in BI6mths-class: 0-60 (p<0.0001). CONCLUSION Nearly one-third of rehabilitation patients died during the first 5 years following stroke. Functional status at 6 months was a powerful predictor of long-term mortality. Maximum functional independence at 6 months post-stroke should be promoted through medical interventions and rehabilitation. Future studies are recommended to evaluate the direct effect of rehabilitation on long-term survival.
The retinotectal projections after uncrossing the optic chiasma in Xenopus with one compound eye.

The nature of the retinotectal projection from a compound (NN or TT) eye in Xenopus raises certain problems concerning the mode of formation of connexions between the eye and the tectum. Each half of the compound eye appears to spread its connexions across the entire extent of the (apparently normal) contralateral tectum. This could indicate a certain plasticity in the way in which optic fibres can connect with the tectum. Alternatively, it is conceivable that each (similar) half of the compound eye is only able to innervate its corresponding half-tectum; in which case the uninnervated half-tectum could remain undeveloped and the innervated half-tectum could overgrow to resemble a normal tectum. This mechanism would preserve the idea of a rigidly fixed cell-to-cell specificity between retina and tectum. In an attempt to distinguish between these two mechanisms (spreading or overgrown half-tectum) we have given each of a series of Xenopus embryos at stage 32 one compound eye (NN or TT). Then, shortly after metamorphosis, we uncrossed the optic chiasma and 6 months later recorded the retinotectal projections from each eye to the tecta. Thus by connecting up the normal eye to the suspect tectum, and the compound eye to the normal tectum, we used the normal side in each case to provide an indication of the degree of abnormality with which the other side was connected. The results showed that a compound eye (NN or TT), connected to a normal tectum, gave a typical reduplicated map across the entire tectum, whereas the normal eye, when connected to the tectum which was previously innervated by the compound eye, gave an approximately normal projection across the whole of that tectum. These results lead us to conclude that, in the Xenopus visual system, no strict cell-to-cell type specificity exists; rather, what is preserved throughout these experimental manoeuvres is the polarity and extent of the projection.
Low-Resource Speech Recognition of 500-Word Vocabularies

We describe techniques for enhancing the accuracy, efﬁciency and features of a low-resource, medium-vocabulary, grammar-based speech recognition system. Among the issues and techniques we explore are front-end speech / silence detection to reduce computational workload, the use of the Bayesian information criterion ( BIC ) to build smaller and better acoustic models, the minimization of ﬁnite state grammars, the use of hybrid maximum likelihood and discriminative models, and the automatic generation of baseforms from single new-word utterances. We report WER ﬁgures throughout, as appropriate.
Human emotion recognition through short time Electroencephalogram (EEG) signals using Fast Fourier Transform (FFT)

Human emotion recognition plays a vital role in psychology, psycho-physiology and human machine interface (HMI) design. Electroencephalogram (EEG) reflects the internal emotional state changes of the subject compared to other conventional methods (face recognition, gestures, speech, etc). In this work, EEG signals are collected using 62 channels from 20 subjects in the age group of 21~39 years for determining discrete emotions. Audio-visual stimuli (video clips) is used for inducing five different emotions (happy, surprise, fear, disgust, neutral). EEG signals are preprocessed through Butterworth 4th order filter with a cut off frequency of 0.5 Hz-60 Hz and smoothened using Surface Laplacian filter. EEG signals are framed into a short time duration of 5s and two statistical features (spectral centroid and spectral entropy) in four frequency bands namely alpha (8 Hz-16 Hz), beta (16 Hz-32 Hz), gamma (32 Hz-60 Hz) and alpha to gamma (8 Hz-60 Hz) are extracted using Fast Fourier Transform (FFT). These features are mapped into the corresponding emotions using two simple classifiers such as K Nearest Neighbor(KNN) and Probabilistic Neural Network (PNN). In this work, KNN outperforms PNN by offering the maximum mean classification accuracy of 91.33 % on beta band. This experimental results indicates the short time duration of EEG signals is highly essential for detecting the emotional state changes of the subjects.
The SI Strain of Measles Virus Derived from a Patient with Subacute Sclerosing Panencephalitis Possesses Typical Genome Alterations and Unique Amino Acid Changes That Modulate Receptor Specificity and Reduce Membrane Fusion Activity

ABSTRACT Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE) is a fatal sequela associated with measles and is caused by persistent infection of the brain with measles virus (MV). The SI strain was isolated in 1976 from a patient with SSPE and shows neurovirulence in animals. Genome nucleotide sequence analyses showed that the SI strain genome possesses typical genome alterations for SSPE-derived strains, namely, accumulated amino acid substitutions in the M protein and cytoplasmic tail truncation of the F protein. Through the establishment of an efficient reverse genetics system, a recombinant SI strain expressing a green fluorescent protein (rSI-AcGFP) was generated. The infection of various cell types with rSI-AcGFP was evaluated by fluorescence microscopy. rSI-AcGFP exhibited limited syncytium-forming activity and spread poorly in cells. Analyses using a recombinant MV possessing a chimeric genome between those of the SI strain and a wild-type MV strain indicated that the membrane-associated protein genes (M, F, and H) were responsible for the altered growth phenotype of the SI strain. Functional analyses of viral glycoproteins showed that the F protein of the SI strain exhibited reduced fusion activity because of an E300G substitution and that the H protein of the SI strain used CD46 efficiently but used the original MV receptors on immune and epithelial cells poorly because of L482F, S546G, and F555L substitutions. The data obtained in the present study provide a new platform for analyses of SSPE-derived strains as well as a clear example of an SSPE-derived strain that exhibits altered receptor specificity and limited fusion activity.
miR396-targeted AtGRF transcription factors are required for coordination of cell division and differentiation during leaf development in Arabidopsis

In plants, cell proliferation and polarized cell differentiation along the adaxial–abaxial axis in the primordium is critical for leaf morphogenesis, while the temporal–spatial relationships between these two processes remain largely unexplored. Here, it is reported that microRNA396 (miR396)-targeted Arabidopsis growth-regulating factors (AtGRFs) are required for leaf adaxial–abaxial polarity in Arabidopsis. Reduction of the expression of AtGRF genes by transgenic miR396 overexpression in leaf polarity mutants asymmetric leaves1 (as1) and as2 resulted in plants with enhanced leaf adaxial–abaxial defects, as a consequence of reduced cell proliferation. Moreover, transgenic miR396 overexpression markedly decreased the cell division activity and the expression of cell cycle-related genes, but resulted in an increased percentage of leaf cells with a higher ploidy level, indicating that miR396 negatively regulates cell proliferation by controlling entry into the mitotic cell cycle. miR396 is mainly expressed in the leaf cells arrested for cell division, coinciding with its roles in cell cycle regulation. These results together suggest that cell division activity mediated by miR396-targeted AtGRFs is important for polarized cell differentiation along the adaxial–abaxial axis during leaf morphogenesis in Arabidopsis.
Word Embeddings through Hellinger PCA

Word embeddings resulting from neural language models have been shown to be a great asset for a large variety of NLP tasks. However, such architecture might be difficult and time-consuming to train. Instead, we propose to drastically simplify the word embeddings computation through a Hellinger PCA of the word co- occurence matrix. We compare those new word embeddings with some well-known embeddings on named entity recognition and movie review tasks and show that we can reach similar or even better performance. Although deep learning is not really necessary for generating good word embeddings, we show that it can provide an easy way to adapt embeddings to specific tasks.
EVALUATION OF SALINE WATER RESOURCES THROUGH DRIP IRRIGATION FOR TOMATO

contd. D.N. Palande The paired planting of tomato crop was adopted with the spacing 45-60 x 90 cm. The irrigation was applied at the interval of 3 days, while the quantity of water was determined by following the climatological approach. The optimum pressure in the system was kept at 1 kg/cm . The analysis of soil and plant was carried out at 20, 40, 60, 80, 100, 120 and 140 days stage of tomato crop. It was found that ECe of soil increased due to application of saline water. The cations viz., sodium, magnesium and anions chlorides, bicarbonates were increased in soil due to application of saline water. It was found that dry matter accumulation and N,P,K concentration in plant decreased as the salinity of the applied water increased. The tomato yield (25.83 t/ha) was highest in the best available water treatment (SW0). There was reduction in the yield to the extent, of about 2.3, 5.5, 9.6, 14.9 and 22.9 per cent for SW3, SW2, SW3, SW4 and SW5 treatments^respectively. The quality parameters such as TSS and acidity of fruit increased with salinity of water. The yield of tomato fruit after saline water irrigation is lower but this is offset by the higher fruit quality. The fruits of salt treated plants were s mailer and tasted better than did fruits of control plants. Pages 1 to 107
Diallyl Trisulfide Is More Cytotoxic to Prostate Cancer Cells PC-3 than to Noncancerous Epithelial Cell Line PNT1A: A Possible Role of p66Shc signaling Axis

Diallyl trisulfide (DATS) is an organosulfur compound isolated from garlic, and has been shown to have anticancer activity both in vitro and in vivo. The aim of this study was to compare cytotoxic effects of DATS on prostate cancer cells PC-3 and noncancerous human prostate epithelial cells PNT1A. PC-3 prostate cancer and noncancerous human prostate epithelial cells PNT1A were used in the study. We observed that PNT1A cells had higher resistance to DATS-induced cell death than PC-3 cells. Investigating signaling pathways involved in the cell death we observed that p66Shc phosphorylation at serine 36 and extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 activation induced by DATS, were significantly attenuated in PNT1A cells as compared to PC-3 cells. Moreover, DATS-induced Akt inactivation was also significantly reduced in PNT1A cells. In addition to that, DATS-induced reactive oxygen species generation was nearly completely abolished in PNT1A cells. Interestingly, DATS induced only slight decrease in the level of ferritin H, whereas ferritin L was elevated. These data suggest that cytotoxicity of DATS toward PNT1A cells is strongly reduced as opposed to PC-3 cancer cells, which corresponds to the lower activation of prodeath signaling pathway mediated by the adaptor protein p66Shc in the noncancerous PNT1A cells.
Gastric Cancer Exosomes Trigger Differentiation of Umbilical Cord Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells to Carcinoma-Associated Fibroblasts through TGF-β/Smad Pathway

Background Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) promote tumor growth by differentiating into carcinoma-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) and composing the tumor microenvironment. However, the mechanisms responsible for the transition of MSCs to CAFs are not well understood. Exosomes regulate cellular activities by mediating cell-cell communication. In this study, we aimed to investigate whether cancer cell-derived exosomes were involved in regulating the differentiation of human umbilical cord-derived MSCs (hucMSCs) to CAFs. Methodology/Principal Findings We first showed that gastric cancer cell-derived exosomes induced the expression of CAF markers in hucMSCs. We then demonstrated that gastric cancer cell-derived exosomes stimulated the phosphorylation of Smad-2 in hucMSCs. We further confirmed that TGF-β receptor 1 kinase inhibitor attenuated Smad-2 phosphorylation and CAF marker expression in hucMSCs after exposure to gastric cancer cell-derived exosomes. Conclusion/Significance Our results suggest that gastric cancer cells triggered the differentiation of hucMSCs to CAFs by exosomes-mediated TGF-β transfer and TGF-β/Smad pathway activation, which may represent a novel mechanism for MSCs to CAFs transition in cancer.
Hypertension is an independent predictor of survival disparity between African‐American and white breast cancer patients

The objective of this study was to determine whether comorbidity, or pre‐existing conditions, can account for some of the disparity in survival between African‐American and white breast cancer patients. A historical cohort study was conducted of 416 African‐American and 838 white women diagnosed with breast cancer between 1973 and 1986, and followed through 1999 in the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Medical Care Program. Information on comorbidity, tumor characteristics and breast cancer treatment was obtained from medical records, and Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results, Northern California Cancer Center Registry. Associations between comorbidity and survival were analyzed with multiple Cox proportional hazards regression. Over a mean follow‐up of 9 years, African Americans had higher overall crude mortality than whites: 165 (39.7%) versus 279 (33.3%), respectively. When age, race, tumor characteristics and breast cancer treatment were controlled, the presence of hypertension was associated with all cause survival [hazard ratio (HR) = 1.33, 95% confidence intervals (CI) 1.07–1.67] and it accounted for 30% of racial disparity in this outcome. Hypertension‐augmented Charlson Comorbidity Index was a significant predictor of survival from all causes (HR = 1.32, 95%CI 1.18–1.49), competing causes (HR = 1.52, 95%CI 1.32–1.76) and breast cancer specific causes (HR = 1.18, 95%CI 1.03–1.35). In conclusion, hypertension has prognostic significance in relation to survival disparity between African‐American and white breast cancer patients. If our findings are replicated in contemporary cohorts, it may be necessary to include hypertension in the Charlson Comorbidity Index and other comorbidity measures. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Immunocytochemical demonstration of the GABA-ergic neurons in rat globus pallidus and nucleus entopeduncularis and their GABA-ergic innervation.

GAD (E.C. 4.1.1.15), the endogenous biosynthetic marker enzyme for GABA, was localized in rat globus pallidus and nucleus entopeduncularis (pallidum) by peroxidase-antiperoxidase immunocytochemistry. In the two nuclei we observed numerous GAD-like immunoreactive boutons containing large pleomorphic vesicles. These boutons formed axodendritic and axosomatic synaptic contacts mostly of the symmetric type. Following colchicine injection near the border of globus pallidus or nucleus entopeduncularis, the vast majority of both larger and smaller neurons exhibited GAD immunoreactivity and were contacted by numerous GAD-immunoreactive boutons. These data demonstrate that pallidal neurons are of predominately GABA-ergic nature and receive an extensive GABA-ergic input. Thus, the globus pallidus and the nucleus entopeduncularis major output stations of the basal ganglia may represent sites of extensive GABA-mediated inhibition of GABA-ergic inhibitory neurons.
Reversal mechanisms and interactions in magnetic systems: coercivity versus switching field and thermally assisted demagnetization

In this paper we present a comparative analysis of the magnetic interactions and reversal mechanisms of two different systems: NdFeB-type alloys with grain sizes in the single domain range and Fe-SiO 2 nanocomposites with Fe concentrations above and below the percolation threshold. We evidence that the use of the coercivity as the main parameter to analyse them might be misleading due to the convolution of both reversible and irreversible magnetization variations. We show that the switching field and thermally assisted demagnetization allow a better understanding of these mechanisms since they involve just irreversible magnetization changes. Specifically, the experimental analysis of the coercivity adquisition process for the NdFeB-type system suggests that the magnetization reversal is nucleated at the spin misalignments present due to intergranular exchange interactions. On the other hand, the study of the magnetic viscosity and of the isothermal remanent magnetization (IRM) and direct field demagnetization (DCD) remanence curves indicates that the dipolar interactions are responsible for the propagation of the switching started at individual particles.
Insights on Molecular Mechanisms of Chondrocytes Death in Osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a joint pathology characterized by progressive cartilage degradation. Medical care is mainly based on alleviating pain symptoms. Compelling studies report the presence of empty lacunae and hypocellularity in cartilage with aging and OA progression, suggesting that chondrocyte cell death occurs and participates to OA development. However, the relative contribution of apoptosis per se in OA pathogenesis appears complex to evaluate. Indeed, depending on technical approaches, OA stages, cartilage layers, animal models, as well as in vivo or in vitro experiments, the percentage of apoptosis and cell death types can vary. Apoptosis, chondroptosis, necrosis, and autophagic cell death are described in this review. The question of cell death causality in OA progression is also addressed, as well as the molecular pathways leading to cell death in response to the following inducers: Fas, Interleukin-1β (IL-1β), Tumor Necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), leptin, nitric oxide (NO) donors, and mechanical stresses. Furthermore, the protective role of autophagy in chondrocytes is highlighted, as well as its decline during OA progression, enhancing chondrocyte cell death; the transition being mainly controlled by HIF-1α/HIF-2α imbalance. Finally, we have considered whether interfering in chondrocyte apoptosis or promoting autophagy could constitute therapeutic strategies to impede OA progression.
Mouse differentiation-specific keratins 1 and 10 require a preexisting keratin scaffold to form a filament network

Keratins 1 (K1) and 10 (K10) are the predominant cytoskeletal intermediate filaments of epidermal cells during transition from the proliferative to the terminal differentiation stage. In situ, formation of the K1/K10 intermediate filament network occurs in the cytoplasm of cells with a preexisting cytoskeleton composed of keratins 5 and 14. To define cytoskeletal interactions permissive for formation of the K1/K10 filamentous network, active copies of mouse K1 and K10 genes were introduced into fibroblasts (NIH 3T3) which do not normally express these proteins. Transient and stable transfectants, as well as heterokaryons produced by fusions with epithelial cells, were evaluated for expression of K1 and K10 proteins and filament formation using specific antibodies. In contrast to keratin pairs K5/K14 and K8/K18, the K1/K10 pair failed to form an extensive keratin filament network on its own, although small isolated dense K1/K10 filament bundles were observed throughout the cytoplasm by EM. K1 and K10 filaments integrated only into the preexisting K5/K14 network upon fusion of the NIH 3T3 (K1/K10) cells with epithelial cells expressing endogenous K5/K14 or with NIH 3T3 cells which were transfected with active copies of the K5 and K14 genes. When combinations of active recombinant gene constructs for keratins 1, 5, 10, and 14 were tested in transient NIH 3T3 transfections, the most intact cytokeratin network observed by immunofluorescence was formed by the K5/K14 pair. The K1/K14 pair was capable of forming a cytoskeletal network, but the network was poorly developed, and usually perinuclear. Transfection of K10 in combination with K5 or K1 resulted in cytoplasmic agglomerates, but not a cytoskeleton. These results suggest that the formation of the suprabasal cytoskeleton in epidermis is dependent on the preexisting basal cell intermediate filament network. Furthermore, restrictions on filament formation appear to be more stringent for K10 than for K1.
Satellite Determination of Particulate Load over Port Harcourt during Black Soot Incidents

Port Harcourt is a coastal city in Nigeria that has been experiencing large deposits of soot whose origin is not well known since the last quarter of 2016. Laboratory analysis however showed the soot to be a by-product of petroleum combustion. The HYSPLIT model developed by NOAA and Australia's Bureau of Meteorology was used to compute airborne particulate load, trajectory and dispersion over the city. Model outputs of ground level concentrations of particulates from area sources across receptors over the city for the hours of 0100, 0300 and 0700 when the soot incidence was most prevalent is here presented. Minimum and maximum emission concentrations dispersion across Port Harcourt ranged from 0.000035 mg/m3 to 0.18mg/m3 (0.035-180 µg/m3), respectively, for the hours considered. The maximum value obtained from these modelling results exceed the national annual average limits of 40-60 µg/m3 by 77-85% for suspended particulate matter and black smoke. Particulates emissions as observed from the HYSPLIT model platform indicates that emission sources south of Port Harcourt contribute vastly to the particulate load across the lower atmosphere of Port Harcourt and environs especially during the night time and early hours of dawn. It is thus crucial that active measures and workable solutions be evolved to safeguard the air quality of the city.