Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Lipoxin A4 mitigates experimental autoimmune myocarditis by regulating inflammatory response, NF-κB and PI3K/Akt signaling pathway in mice.

OBJECTIVE Myocarditis, an acute inflammation disease of the heart, is a potentially lethal disease and can lead to sudden death. This study aims to investigate the therapeutic effect of lipoxin A4 (LXA4) on experimental autoimmune myocarditis (EAM) and to explore the underlying mechanism. MATERIALS AND METHODS EAM was induced in BALB/c mice by injection of porcine cardiac myosin and LAX4 at doses of 10 or 50 μg/kg was administrated from day 1 to 21. The severity of myocarditis was evaluated by detection of heart weight/body weight (HW/BW) ratio and histopathological examination of the heart. Cardiac function and heart structure were assessed by echocardiography. Serum levels of Th1 and Th2 cytokines were determined by ELISA. Protein expression was detected by Western blot analysis. RESULTS The results demonstrated that LXA4 mitigated the severity of myocarditis by decreasing HW/BW ratio and reducing infiltration of inflammatory cells. Echocardiographic analysis indicated that cardiac function of LXA4-treated rats was significantly improved compared with non-treated group. LXA4 treatment significantly increased the levels of Th1 cytokines (TNF-α and IL-6) and decreased Th2 cytokines (IL-4 and IL-10). Furthermore, LXA4 administration effectively inhibited NF-κB nuclear translocation and deactivated PI3K/Akt pathway. CONCLUSIONS LXA4 has a protective effect against EAM by reducing the inflammatory response and inhibiting NF-κB and PI3K/Akt signaling pathway.
COMPARATIVE PERFORMANCE OF GEOPOLYMER CONCRETE EXPOSED TO ACIDIC ENVIRONMENT

Geopolymer concrete is emerging as an alternate green material in the construction industry. It is produced from the reaction of silica and alumina rich materials with alkaline liquid. Reviews of literatures have indicated that geopolymer concrete (GPC) have better acid resistant and hence can be used in many applications, including its use as sewer pipes. However, very few studies have comparatively assessed performance of GPC as acid resistant material when compared with conventional concrete. This paper presents the experimental investigation done on compressive strength of geopolymer concrete subjected to acidic conditions and compared with conventional concrete performance under the same acidic conditions. The grades chosen for the investigation is M-40&G40, the mixes were designed for molarity of 8M, 12M and 16M.Initially Geopolymer concrete and Conventional concrete cubes were immersed in 5 % acid solutions consisting of H2SO4 and MgSO4,for a period of 7, 14 and 28 days. The mass loss, compressive strength reductions were determined.The results confirmed that Geopolymer concrete is highly resistant to acid in terms of low mass loss and compressive strength loss when compared to conventional concrete
Change in Mechanical Properties of Ion-Irradiated Ceramics Studied by Nanoindentation Method

Changes in hardness of several representative ceramics and semiconductors associated with ion irradiation were systematically studied, using a combined method of nanoindentation and finite element analysis. We established a new method for precisely extracting hardness of the embedded damaged layer of ion-irradiated samples. The method was applied to silicon carbide, α-quartz, silica glass and silicon. To semi-quantitatively discuss their mechanical properties changed by irradiation, we introduced a phenomenological model expressed by a set of kinetic equations, and extracted material parameters by fitting the experimental data with the theoretical model. Finally we propose a new atomistic mechanism for plastic deformations of covalent amorphous materials. The present results would give a standard framework to discuss the mechanical property changes of ceramics irradiated with energetic particle.
Effects of ENSO and Temporal Rainfall Variation on the Dynamics of Successional Communities in Old-Field Succession of a Tropical Dry Forest

The effects of temporal variation of rainfall on secondary succession of tropical dry ecosystems are poorly understood. We studied effects of inter-seasonal and inter-year rainfall variation on the dynamics of regenerative successional communities of a tropical dry forest in Mexico. We emphasized the effects caused by the severe El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) occurred in 2005. We established permanent plots in sites representing a chronosequence of Pasture (abandoned pastures, 0–1 years fallow age), Early (3–5), Intermediate (8–12), and Old-Growth Forest categories (n = 3 per category). In total, 8210 shrubs and trees 10 to 100-cm height were identified, measured, and monitored over four years. Rates of plant recruitment, growth and mortality, and gain and loss of species were quantified per season (dry vs. rainy), year, and successional category, considering whole communities and separating seedlings from sprouts and shrubs from trees. Community rates changed with rainfall variation without almost any effect of successional stage. Mortality and species loss rates peaked during the ENSO year and the following year; however, after two rainy years mortality peaked in the rainy season. Such changes could result from the severe drought in the ENSO year, and of the outbreak of biotic agents during the following rainy years. Growth, recruitment and species gain rates were higher in the rainy season but they were significantly reduced after the ENSO year. Seedlings exhibited higher recruitment and mortality rate than sprouts, and shrubs showed higher recruitment than trees. ENSO strongly impacted both the dynamics and trajectory of succession, creating transient fluctuations in the abundance and species richness of the communities. Overall, there was a net decline in plant and species density in most successional stages along the years. Therefore, strong drought events have critical consequences for regeneration dynamics, delaying the successional process and modifying the resilience of these systems.
Microsurgery for “wrist” arteriovenous fistula creation in children: a retrospective cohort study

Introduction: Creating functional arteriovenous fistulae (AVF) at the wrist is challenging in paediatric patients because of the small calibre of the blood vessels. Methods: We report our experience with AVF surgery in children younger than 15 years of age using microsurgical techniques. Twenty-five patients underwent AVF surgery between 2003 and 2015 (20 for haemodialysis, 4 for plasmapheresis and 1 for parenteral nutrition). Median (range) age was 9 (2-15) years and median weight was 24 (8-61) kg. Results: The one-month occlusion rate was 8%. The primary and secondary patency rates at 1, 2, 3 years were: 60%, 49%, 42%, and 82%, 72%, 54%, respectively. The median (range) maturation time was 4.53 (0.5-11.2) months. We found no statistically significant effect of patient age, body weight, type of AVF and indication for AVF creation on the primary and secondary patency rates. Conclusions: Microsurgical AVF creation at the wrist can be performed with satisfactory results and should be the preferred technique in the paediatric population.
Tobacco Use Patterns in a Southern US HIV Clinic

Objectives Smoking rates are two to three times higher among people living with HIV and AIDS compared with the general population, but the prevalence of tobacco use among this population in the Charleston, SC region has not been established. To understand cigarette use, previous quit attempts, historic use of cessation therapies, and interest in cessation, a quality improvement project was implemented to survey smoking behaviors among this population. Methods During January-May 2010, HIV-infected patients arriving to the Medical University of South Carolina Infectious Diseases clinic were asked to complete a survey. Clinical and sociodemographic data were collected and analyzed using &khgr;2, and one-way analysis of variance models. Results Of unduplicated clinic encounters, 514 (75%) of patients completed the smoking survey. Less than half of responders were current (205, 40%) or former (42, 8%) smokers, with smoking prevalence higher for Caucasian males. Among current smokers, 170 (85%) reported having ever attempted to quit with the majority making a quit attempt without medication therapy (143, 83%). Nearly half of all current smokers (97, 49%) reported an active interest in speaking with a physician about quitting. Smoking status did not have meaningful relationships with HIV biomarkers, even when stratified by race and gender. Conclusions This study supports that high rates of smoking exist in the south among people living with HIV and AIDS and demonstrated a need for smoking cessation interventions among these patients. These data have potentiated the hiring of a clinical pharmacist to aid in implementation of smoking cessation therapies in a more systematic and formal way.
Drugs and Mental Health Problems among the Roma: Protective Factors Promoted by the Iglesia Evangélica Filadelfia

Background: High incidences of drug consumption and mental health problems are found among the Roma population in Spain, a reality that remains understudied. Past studies have indicated the positive role played by the Iglesia Evangélica Filadelfia (IEF) in promoting rehabilitation and prevention of these practices. Objective: In this article, authors analyze in which ways the IEF favors processes of drug rehabilitation and mental health recovery as well as the prevention of these problems among its Roma members. Methods: A communicative qualitative approach was developed. It was communicative because new knowledge was created by dialogically contrasting the existing state of the art with study participants. It was qualitative because everyday life stories were collected, gathering the experiences, perceptions and interpretations of Roma people who are actively involved in three different IEF churches based in Barcelona. Results: This article identifies these protective factors: anti-drug discourse, a supportive environment, new social relations, role model status, the promotion of interactions, the revaluation of oneself, spiritual activities and the improvement of the feeling of belonging and the creation of meaning. Conclusion: The present research contributes new evidence to the current understanding of the role played by the IEF in improving Roma health status and how the identified protective factors can contribute to rehabilitation and recovery from such problems in other contexts.
BLEach: Exploiting the Full Potential of IPv6 over BLE in Constrained Embedded IoT Devices

The ability to fine-tune communication performance is key to meeting the requirements of Internet of Things applications. While years of low-power wireless research now allows developers to fully optimize the performance of applications built on top of IEEE 802.15. 4, this has not yet happened with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), whose networking performance is still largely unexplored and whose potential is not yet fully exploited. Indeed, BLE radios are often treated as a black box, because they are meant to only execute data transfer commands and manufacturers build BLE soft devices with closed-source network stacks. As a result, developers working with BLE cannot modify the radio driver or the link-layer, and hence have no direct control over radio duty cycling and packet re-transmissions. To tackle these challenges, we analyze and model how specific BLE features can be used to fine-tune communication performance at run-time. We further present the design and implementation of BLEach, an IPv6-over-BLE stack that exposes tuning knobs for controlling the energy usage and timeliness of BLE transmissions and that allows to enforce a variety of quality-of-service (QoS) metrics. We design three exemplary modules for BLEach providing novel BLE functionality: adaptive radio duty cycling, IPv6-over-BLE traffic prioritization and multiplexing, as well as indirect link-quality monitoring. We integrate BLEach into Contiki and release its code, thus addressing the lack of a full-fledged open-source IPv6-over-BLE stack. Experiments demonstrate that BLEach is lightweight, interoperable with other standard-compliant devices, and reduces energy costs by up to 50 % while giving QoS guarantees by quickly adapting to changes in interference, traffic priority, and traffic load.
A COMPARISON OF THE TENSILE STRENGTH OF PLASTIC PARTS PRODUCED BY A FUSED DEPOSITION MODELING DEVICE

Rapid Prototyping systems are nowadays increasingly used in many areas of industry, not only for producing design models but also for producing parts for final use. We need to know the properties of these parts. When we talk about the Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) technique and FDM devices, there are many possible settings for devices and models which could influence the properties of a final part. In addition, devices based on the same principle may use different operational software for calculating the tool path, and this may have a major impact. The aim of this paper is to show the tensile strength value for parts produced from different materials on the Fused Deposition Modeling device when the horizontal orientation of the specimens is changed.
Human–Robot Interaction Control of Rehabilitation Robots With Series Elastic Actuators

Rehabilitation robots, by necessity, have direct physical interaction with humans. Physical interaction affects the controlled variables and may even cause system instability. Thus, human-robot interaction control design is critical in rehabilitation robotics research. This paper presents an interaction control strategy for a gait rehabilitation robot. The robot is driven by a novel compact series elastic actuator, which provides intrinsic compliance and backdrivablility for safe human-robot interaction. The control design is based on the actuator model with consideration of interaction dynamics. It consists mainly of human interaction compensation, friction compensation, and is enhanced with a disturbance observer. Such a control scheme enables the robot to achieve low output impedance when operating in human-in-charge mode and achieve accurate force tracking when operating in force control mode. Due to the direct physical interaction with humans, the controller design must also meet the stability requirement. A theoretical proof is provided to show the guaranteed stability of the closed-loop system under the proposed controller. The proposed design is verified with an ankle robot in walking experiments. The results can be readily extended to other rehabilitation and assistive robots driven with compliant actuators without much difficulty.
Fluid ow simulations using the lattice Boltzmann method with multiple relaxation times

In this thesis, the multiple-relaxation-time model of the collision operator in the lattice Boltzmann method is presented. In contrast to the simple Bhatnagar-GrossKrook approximation, not only a single but various relaxation parameters are available and can be used to optimise the simulation results. The main idea behind this approach is the construction of a space based on the moments of the particle distribution functions and the usage of a collision matrix. The consequently increased flexibility allows independent control over certain physical properties, like the kinematic and bulk viscosity of the fluid and the placement of the walls represented by no-slip boundary conditions. To compare different collision models and to obtain more insight into the effect of the various relaxation parameters, simulations featuring a Poiseuille flow, a lid-driven cavity flow and a flow past a square cylinder are carried out. The results allow to identify those relaxation parameters that influence certain flow properties the most. Finally, some guidelines are formulated on how to choose the parameters to achieve accurate and stable outcomes.
Walking Aid Use in Canada: Prevalence and Demographic Characteristics Among Community‐Dwelling Users

Background. Mobility limitations represent the third most prevalent cause of disability, affecting more than 1.9 million community‐dwelling Canadians. Walking aids are often prescribed to reduce the impacts of mobility impairments. There are limited data on walking aids since 2004. Objective. The objectives of this study were to investigate the prevalence of walking aid use in Canada and to explore demographic characteristics among users of walking aids. Design. The design used was a secondary analysis of a cross‐sectional national survey. Methods. Data were obtained from the 2012 Canadian Survey on Disability from community‐dwelling individuals who were 15 years old or older, had a self‐identified activity limitation, and indicated that they used at least 1 walking aid (cane/walking stick/crutches or walker). Prevalence estimates were calculated as weighted frequencies. Analytic variables included walking aid type, sex, age, province/territory of residence, and main cause of activity limitation. Results. Approximately 1,125,000 community‐dwelling individuals who were 15 years old or older used walking aids, representing 4.1% of the Canadian population. Of these individuals, 962,290 used canes/walking sticks/crutches, and 465,340 used a walker. Users of walking aids were predominantly female, with a mean age of 68 years. Limitations. Self‐reported results reflect only the perceptions of individuals living in Canadian communities. Analyses excluded individuals in residential or long‐term care settings and individuals living on First Nations reserves. Conclusions. Since 2004, there has been a 2% increase in the prevalence of walking aid use by the Canadian population, which is likely related to the aging of the population. The high prevalence of walking aid use highlights the need for better use of existing resources to ensure that individuals are receiving the correct devices. Results of this study suggest a need to evaluate the impact of device use to better understand how resources should be allocated for prescription and maintenance of walking aids and training of users.
Evaluation of individual phenolic compounds and antioxidant properties of black, green, herbal and fruit tea infusions consumed in Serbia: spectrophotometrical and electrochemical approaches

Summary The aim of this study was evaluation of individual phenolic compounds and antioxidant activity of commercially consumed black, green, fruit and herbal tea infusions in Serbia in order to characterize the quantity and quality of teas. The most abundant compound was gallic acid, followed by caffeic acid, rutin, (+)-catechin and (–)-epicatechin. The main procyanidin was procyanidin B1. The antioxidant activity was measured using five in vitro methods: determination of 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical-scavenging activity (DPPH), 2,2’-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulphonic acid) radical cation-scavenging activity (ABTS), ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), reduction power (RP) Fe(III) to Fe(II) and cyclic voltammetry (CV). Obtained results of FRAP and of the Fe(III)/Fe(III) method correlated strongly with the total phenolics content (R2 = 0.92246, R2 = 0.88084, p < 0.0001). Antioxidant power of green tea and bearberry tea was considerably higher than that of black tea. Raspberry and cherry showed the highest antioxidant power among fruit tea infusions. Contribution of phenolic compounds to tea antioxidant activity was also quantified in this study. Stepwise linear regression demonstrated that quantification of different phenolic compounds responsible for tea antioxidant activity was dependent on the method used. Gallic acid, caffeic acid (+)-catechin, (–)-epicatechin, (–)-epigallocatechin, procyanidin B1, procyanidin B2 together made up 43.6–99.9% of the antioxidant activity of tea.
A toolkit for managing user attention in peripheral displays

Traditionally, computer interfaces have been confined to conventional displays and focused activities. However, as displays become embedded throughout our environment and daily lives, increasing numbers of them must operate on the periphery of our attention. <i>Peripheral displays</i> can allow a person to be aware of information while she is attending to some other primary task or activity. We present the Peripheral Displays Toolkit (PTK), a toolkit that provides structured support for managing user attention in the development of peripheral displays. Our goal is to enable designers to explore different approaches to managing user attention. The PTK supports three issues specific to conveying information on the periphery of human attention. These issues are <i>abstraction</i> of raw input, rules for assigning <i>notification levels</i> to input, and <i>transitions</i> for updating a display when input arrives. Our contribution is the investigation of issues specific to attention in peripheral display design and a toolkit that encapsulates support for these issues. We describe our toolkit architecture and present five sample peripheral displays demonstrating our toolkit's capabilities.
New markers for murine memory B cells that define mutated and unmutated subsets

The study of murine memory B cells has been limited by small cell numbers and the lack of a definitive marker. We have addressed some of these difficulties with hapten-specific transgenic (Tg) mouse models that yield relatively large numbers of antigen-specific memory B cells upon immunization. Using these models, along with a 5-bromo-2′-deoxyuridine (BrdU) pulse-label strategy, we compared memory cells to their naive precursors in a comprehensive flow cytometric survey, thus revealing several new murine memory B cell markers. Most interestingly, memory cells were phenotypically heterogeneous. Particularly surprising was the finding of an unmutated memory B cell subset identified by the expression of CD80 and CD35. We confirmed these findings in an analogous V region knock-in mouse and/or in non-Tg mice. There also was anatomic heterogeneity, with BrdU+ memory cells residing not just in the marginal zone, as had been thought, but also in splenic follicles. These studies impact the current understanding of murine memory B cells by identifying new phenotypes and by challenging assumptions about the location and V region mutation status of memory cells. The apparent heterogeneity in the memory compartment implies either different origins and/or different functions, which we discuss.
Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Reduced Cerebellar Brain Activity during Reward Processing in Adolescent Binge Drinkers

Due to ongoing development, adolescence may be a period of heightened vulnerability to the neurotoxic effects of alcohol. Binge drinking may alter reward-driven behavior and neurocircuitry, thereby increasing risk for escalating alcohol use. Therefore, we compared reward processing in adolescents with and without a history of recent binge drinking. At their baseline study visit, all participants (age = 14.86 ± 0.88) were free of heavy alcohol use and completed a modified version of the Wheel of Fortune (WOF) functional magnetic resonance imaging task. Following this visit, 17 youth reported binge drinking on ≥3 occasions within a 90 day period and were matched to 17 youth who remained alcohol and substance-naïve. All participants repeated the WOF task during a second visit (age = 16.83 ± 1.22). No significant effects were found in a region of interest analysis of the ventral striatum, but whole-brain analyses showed significant group differences in reward response at the second study visit in the left cerebellum, controlling for baseline visit brain activity (p/˛ < 0.05), which was negatively correlated with mean number of drinks consumed/drinking day in the last 90 days. These findings suggest that binge drinking during adolescence may alter brain activity during reward processing in a dose-dependent manner.