Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Acute pain induces an instant increase in natural killer cell cytotoxicity in humans and this response is abolished by local anaesthesia.

We have investigated the effect of pain without tissue injury on natural killer (NK) cell activity in peripheral blood in humans and the effect of local anaesthesia on the response. Ten subjects were investigated during two sessions. First, self-controlled painful electric stimulation was applied to abdominal skin for 30 min to an intensity of 8 on a visual analogue scale (0-10). Next, the electric intensity profile was reproduced during local anaesthesia (mepivacaine 10 mg ml-1 s.c. to a total dose of 2.5 mg kg-1). NK cell cytotoxicity was measured using a 4-h 51Cr-release assay against K562 target cells. NK cell activity increased from mean 22 (SEM 4)% (baseline) to 35 (6)% and 36 (5)% after 15 and 30 min of painful stimulation, respectively (P < 0.02). A simultaneous increase in the number of CD56+ cells in peripheral blood during pain was found. Stimulation after local anaesthesia did not change either NK cell activity or number. Parallel and significant increases in concentrations of plasma epinephrine and serum cortisol were observed. These changes were abolished by local anaesthesia. We conclude that acute severe pain without tissue injury markedly increased NK cell cytotoxicity. Local anaesthesia completely abolished this immunological and hormonal response.
Introduction of an ionic liquid into the micropores of a metal-organic framework and its anomalous phase behavior.

Controlling the dynamics of ionic liquids (ILs) is a significant issue for widespread use. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are ideal host materials for ILs because of their small micropores and tunable host-guest interactions. Herein, we demonstrate the first example of an IL incorporated within the micropores of a MOF. The system studied consisted of EMI-TFSA (1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)amide) and ZIF-8 (composed of Zn(MeIM)2 ; H(MeIM)=2-methylimidazole) as the IL and MOF, respectively. Construction of the EMI-TFSA in ZIF-8 was confirmed by X-ray powder diffraction, nitrogen gas adsorption, and infrared absorption spectroscopy. Differential scanning calorimetry and solid-state NMR measurements showed that the EMI-TFSA inside the micropores demonstrated no freezing transition down to 123 K, whereas bulk EMI-TFSA froze at 231 K. Such anomalous phase behavior originates from the nanosize effect of the MOF on the IL. This result provides a novel strategy for stabilizing the liquid phase of the ILs down to a lower temperature region.
Medically unexplained symptoms in primary care

Adult patients with medically unexplained symptoms (somatisation) in primary care are numerous and make disproportionately high demands on health services. Most of these individuals are open to the suggestion that their illness reflects psychological needs. Empowering explanations from doctors can enable patient and doctor to work collaboratively in managing the problem and can reduce healthcare contacts. Parental medically unexplained symptoms, sexual and physical abuse in childhood and childhood neglect are associated with a greater risk of medically unexplained symptoms in adulthood. The overall prognosis for the majority of primary care patients with medically unexplained symptoms is very good. The two most common approaches to dealing with medically unexplained symptoms in primary care are stepped-care approaches and teaching general practitioners new skills to manage consultations more effectively.
Phonon-interface scattering in multilayer graphene on an amorphous support

Significance The thermal conductivity of suspended graphene can be even higher than the basal-plane value of graphite, which is among the highest found in solids. However, when graphene is in contact with an amorphous material, the thermal conductivity is suppressed considerably. This paper reports that the thickness of multilayer graphene supported on an amorphous substrate needs to be more than 30 atomic layers to recover the graphite thermal conductivity. The finding is explained by long phonon mean free paths in graphite even along the cross-plane direction, and is used to clarify interface leakage of phonons as an important mechanism for the observed suppression. The result is relevant for the application of graphene for electronics, thermal management, and other applications. The recent studies of thermal transport in suspended, supported, and encased graphene just began to uncover the richness of two-dimensional phonon physics, which is relevant to the performance and reliability of graphene-based functional materials and devices. Among the outstanding questions are the exact causes of the suppressed basal-plane thermal conductivity measured in graphene in contact with an amorphous material, and the layer thickness needed for supported or embedded multilayer graphene (MLG) to recover the high thermal conductivity of graphite. Here we use sensitive in-plane thermal transport measurements of graphene samples on amorphous silicon dioxide to show that full recovery to the thermal conductivity of the natural graphite source has yet to occur even after the MLG thickness is increased to 34 layers, considerably thicker than previously thought. This seemingly surprising finding is explained by long intrinsic scattering mean free paths of phonons in graphite along both basal-plane and cross-plane directions, as well as partially diffuse scattering of MLG phonons by the MLG-amorphous support interface, which is treated by an interface scattering model developed for highly anisotropic materials. Based on the phonon transmission coefficient calculated from reported experimental thermal interface conductance results, phonons emerging from the interface consist of a large component that is scattered across the interface, making rational choice of the support materials a potential approach to increasing the thermal conductivity of supported MLG.
On the selection of the impulse responses for distant-speech recognition based on contaminated speech training

Distant-speech recognition represents a technology of fundamental importance for future development of assistive applications characterized by ﬂexible and unobtrusive interaction in home environments. State-of-the-art speech recognition still exhibits lack of robustness, and an unacceptable performance variability, due to environmental noise, reverberation effects, and speaker position. In the past, multi-condition training and contamination methods were explored to reduce the mismatch be-tween training and test conditions. However, the performance evaluation can be biased by factors as limited number of positions of speaker and microphones, adopted set of impulse responses, vocabulary and grammars deﬁning the recognition task. The purpose of this paper is to investigate in more detail some critical aspects that characterize such experimental context. To this purpose, our work addressed a microphone network distributed over different rooms of an apartment and a related set of speaker-microphone pairs leading to a very large set of impulse responses. Besides simulations, the experiments also tackled real speech interactions. The performance evaluation was based on a phone-loop task, in order to minimize the in-ﬂuence of linguistic constraints. The experimental results show how less critical is an accurate selection of impulse responses, if compared to other factors as the signal-to-noise ratio introduced by additive background noise.
Colonic fermentation of dietary fibre to short chain fatty acids in patients with adenomatous polyps and colonic cancer.

Short chain (C2-C6) fatty acids are produced in the colon through bacterial fermentation of mainly dietary fibre. Butyrate (C4) possesses antineoplastic effects on human colon carcinoma cells, and epidemiological studies indicate that high fibre diets may reduce the incidence of colorectal cancer. The role of dietary fibre during colorectal carcinogenesis might therefore be related to its fermentation to butyrate. Faecal concentrations of total short chain fatty acids and concentrations and ratios of the individual C2-C6 fatty acids did not differ between 16 healthy controls, 17 patients with colonic adenomas, and 17 patients with colonic cancer. Comparison of the molar production velocities (mmol/l.hour) of total and individual short chain fatty acids from glucose, ispagula, wheat bran, and albumin in six and 24 hour faecal incubations showed no differences. The ratio of butyrate production to total short chain fatty acid production from fibre, however, was reduced in patients with colonic cancer and adenomas compared with healthy controls (ispagula, six hours: 6.4, 7.6, and 11.5% respectively, p = 0.005 and 24 hour: 9.1, 9.9, and 15.4%, p = 0.002; wheat bran, six hours: 9.9, 10.2, and 14.7% respectively, p = 0.06 and 24 hours: 15.1, 16.8, and 21.0%, p = 0.01). It may be that the low ratios of colonic butyrate formation combined with low fibre diets increase the risk of colonic neoplasia.
CARAMEL: Detecting and Fixing Performance Problems That Have Non-Intrusive Fixes

Performance bugs are programming errors that slow down program execution. While existing techniques can detect various types of performance bugs, a crucial and practical aspect of performance bugs has not received the attention it deserves: how likely are developers to fix a performance bug? In practice, fixing a performance bug can have both benefits and drawbacks, and developers fix a performance bug only when the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. Unfortunately, for many performance bugs, the benefits and drawbacks are difficult to assess accurately. This paper presents CARAMEL, a novel static technique that detects and fixes performance bugs that have non-intrusive fixes likely to be adopted by developers. Each performance bug detected by CARAMEL is associated with a loop and a condition. When the condition becomes true during the loop execution, all the remaining computation performed by the loop is wasted. Developers typically fix such performance bugs because these bugs waste computation in loops and have non-intrusive fixes: when some condition becomes true dynamically, just break out of the loop. Given a program, CARAMEL detects such bugs statically and gives developers a potential source-level fix for each bug. We evaluate CARAMEL on real-world applications, including 11 popular Java applications (e.g., Groovy, Log4J, Lucene, Struts, Tomcat, etc) and 4 widely used C/C++ applications (Chromium, GCC, Mozilla, and My SQL). CARAMEL finds 61 new performance bugs in the Java applications and 89 new performance bugs in the C/C++ applications. Based on our bug reports, developers so far have fixed 51 and 65 performance bugs in the Java and C/C++ applications, respectively. Most of the remaining bugs are still under consideration by developers.
Lymphedema surgery: Patient selection and an overview of surgical techniques

Evaluation of the lymphedema patients with appropriate staging is fundamental for further treatment. Treatment includes compressive decongestive therapy for stage 0 and 1 patients, lymphovenous anastomosis for stage 1 and 2 patients, vascularized lymph node transfer for stage 2 and above patients. Wedge resection, liposuction, and the Charles procedure are alternatives or additions to physiological procedures. The selection of donor lymph node flap and recipient site depends on the patient's lymphedema status and surgeon's expertise. J. Surg. Oncol. 2016;113:923–931. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Bone Anabolic Responses to Mechanical Load In Vitro Involve COX-2 and Constitutive NOS

Mechanical stimulation is essential for maintaining the homeostasis and architecture of connective tissues including bone. The purpose of our study was to test the importance of several potential signaling intermediates in the anabolic responses of bone to loads applied with a newly developed micromechanical loading device. Tibial bones excised from 7- to 8-day-old CD-1 mice were cyclically loaded at 1 Hz, 1000 μ ε (microstrain) at a peak load of 100 mN. DNA and protein synthesis were evaluated by measuring the incorporation of 3H-thymidine and 14C-proline, respectively. The roles of cyclooxygenase (COX) isoforms, nitric oxide synthase (NOS) isoforms, and glutamate receptor-gated Ca2+ channeling were examined by incubating the bones in the presence of each of their specific inhibitors. The results indicate that COX-2 and constitutive NOS are important signaling molecules in the anabolic responses of neonatal tibial bone to the micromechanical load in vitro.
Respiratory syncytial virus genotypes circulating in urban Ghana: february to november 2006

Introduction Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the major cause of acute lower respiratory tract infection (ALRI) in young children. RSV strains have been divided into 2 major antigenic groups (A and B), which are further divided into several genotypes, but very little is known about its circulating genotypes in Ghana. This study characterized RSV genotypes detected in children with ALRI in Accra between February and November 2006. Methods Nasopharyngeal aspirates (NPA) were obtained from children diagnosed with ALRI between February and November 2006. The NPA were screened for RSV using a nested multiplex reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) method for genotyping RSV. Viral RNA was extracted from the NPA using guanidinium isothiocyanate method and purified with an RNAID commercial kit. Care-givers gave their consent prior to specimen collection. Administered questionnaires captured information on patient demographic and clinical history. Results A total of 53 children were enrolled in the study with a male to female ratio of 3:1. Of the 53 NPA analyzed, 60.4% (32/53) were positive for RSV. Subsequent genotypic analysis showed that 72% (23/32) of the 60.4% RSV infections were RSV B only and 28% (9/32) were co-infections of both RSV A and B. Children between the ages of 2 - 12 months were the most affected age group per an RSV infection rate of 37.5% (12/32). No significant difference was detected in the recovery rate of ALRI (98.1%) and RSV (96.9%) positive patients from the infection. One patient died resulting in a mortality rate of 3.1%. Bronchopneumonia (20 out of 32 cases) was the major diagnosis on admission. RSV infection was seasonal dependent, described by 2 peaks in October and April-May. Conclusion Both RSV A and RSV B genotypes co-circulated during the study period with RSV B predominating. RSV may possibly be the main pathogen of lower respiratory tract illness during epidemics in the wet seasons. Genotyping by the multiplex RT-PCR is one of the first attempts at molecular diagnosis of RSV infection in Ghana.
Calcium dependency of frequency-stimulated atrial natriuretic peptide secretion.

In this study we examined the mechanism whereby atrial natriuretic peptide secretion is increased when the frequency of contraction is raised from 2 to 5 Hz. We tested the hypothesis that calcium plays a significant role in the frequency-stimulated response. Using superfused rat left atria, we found that lowering the superfusate calcium concentration from 1.8 to 0.2 mmol/L abolished the frequency-stimulated atrial natriuretic peptide secretory response. Superfusion with ryanodine (1 mumol/L), an inhibitor of sarcoplasmic reticulum calcium release, resulted in a minimal inhibitory effect. Superfusion with 50 mumol/L nitrendipine or 10 mumol/L diltiazem inhibited the frequency-stimulated response by 46% to 48%. The lack of total inhibition suggested that an additional mechanism of calcium influx was involved, namely, inward calcium movement carried by Na(+)-Ca2+ exchange. As intracellular sodium has been reported to rise with an increase in beat frequency, a fall in the sodium gradient would favor inward calcium movement by Na(+)-Ca2+ exchange. Because we could not directly assess the role of Na(+)-Ca2+ exchange in this experimental paradigm, we examined the effect of lowering the transmembrane sodium gradient on atrial natriuretic peptide secretion by superfusion with the sodium channel activator veratridine or the sodium ionophore monensin. Superfusion with 1 mumol/L veratridine increased atrial natriuretic peptide secretion by 2.3-fold, and 1, 5, and 10 mumol/L monensin increased secretion by 1.1-, 2.1-, and 15.7-fold, respectively. In addition, we examined the possibility that the reported rise in intracellular sodium associated with increased beat frequency was due to enhanced Na(+)-H+ antiporter activity. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
On the use and performance of content distribution networks

Content distribution networks (CDNs) are a mechanism to deliver content to end users on behalf of origin Web sites. Content distribution offloads work from origin servers by serving some or all of the contents of Web pages. We found an order of magnitude increase in the number and percentage of popular origin sites using CDNs between November 1999 and December 2000.In this paper we discuss how CDNs are commonly used on the Web and define a methodology to study how well they perform. A performance study was conducted over a period of months on a set of CDN companies employing the techniques of DNS redirection and URL rewriting to balance load among their servers. Some CDNs generally provide better results than others when we examine results from a set of clients. The performance of one CDN company clearly improved between the two testing periods in our study due to a dramatic increase in the number of distinct servers employed in its network. More generally, the results indicate that use of a DNS lookup in the critical path of a resource retrieval does not generally result in better server choices being made relative to client response time in either average or worst case situations.
Mga2p Processing by Hypoxia and Unsaturated Fatty Acids in Saccharomyces cerevisiae: Impact on LORE-Dependent Gene Expression

ABSTRACT In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, OLE1 encodes a Δ9 fatty acid desaturase, an enzyme that plays a critical role in maintaining the correct ratio of saturated to monounsaturated fatty acids in the cell membrane. Previous studies have demonstrated that (i) OLE1 expression is repressed by unsaturated fatty acids (UFAs) and induced by low oxygen tension, (ii) a component of this regulation is mediated through the same low oxygen response element (LORE) in the OLE1 promoter, and (iii) Mga2p is involved in LORE-dependent hypoxic induction of OLE1. We now report that LORE-CYC1 basal promoter-lacZ fusion reporter assays demonstrate that UFAs repress the reporter expression under hypoxic conditions in a dose-dependent manner via LORE. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays show that UFAs repress the hypoxia-induced complex formation with LORE. Studies with a construct encoding a truncated form of Mga2p support the hypothesis that both hypoxia and UFA signals affect the processing of Mga2p and the UFA repression of OLE1 hypoxic induction is mediated through Mga2p. Data from Western blot assays provide evidence that under normoxic conditions, Mga2p processing produces approximately equimolar levels of the membrane-bound and processed forms and is unaffected by UFAs. Hypoxic induction of OLE1, however, is associated with increased processing of the protein, resulting in an approximately fivefold increase in the soluble active form that is counteracted by exposure of the cells to unsaturated fatty acids. Data from this study suggest that the Mga2p-LORE interaction plays an important role in OLE1 expression under both normoxic and hypoxic conditions.
Comparative Study on the Effects of Boiling, Steaming, Grilling, Microwaving and Superheated Steaming on Quality Characteristics of Marinated Chicken Steak

The effects of five different cooking methods (boiling, steaming, grilling, microwaving, and superheated steaming) on proximate composition, pH, color, cooking loss, textural properties, and sensory characteristics of chicken steak were studied. Moisture content and lightness value (L*-value) were higher in superheated steam cooked chicken steak than that of the other cooking treatments such as boiling, steaming, grilling and microwaving cooking (p<0.05), whereas protein content, redness value (a*-value), hardness, gumminess, and chewiness of superheated steam cooked chicken steak was lower than that in the other cooking treatments (p<0.05). Fat content and ash content, springiness, and cohesiveness were not significantly different among the chicken steak cooked using various methods (p>0.05). Among the sensory characteristics, tenderness score, juiciness score and overall acceptability score were the highest for the superheated steam samples (p<0.05), whereas no difference in flavor scores were observed among the other treatments (p>0.05). These results show that marinated chicken steak treated with superheated steam in a preheated 250℃ oven and 380℃ steam for 5 min until core temperature reached 75℃ improved the quality characteristics and sensory properties the best. Therefore, superheated steam was useful to improve cooked chicken steak.
Aortic Reservoir Pressure Corresponds to Cyclic Changes in Aortic Volume: Physiological Validation in Humans

Objective—Aortic reservoir pressure indices independently predict cardiovascular events and mortality. Despite this, there has never been a study in humans to determine whether the theoretical principles of the mathematically derived aortic reservoir pressure (RPderived) and excess pressure (XPderived) model have a real physiological basis. This study aimed to directly measure the aortic reservoir (ARdirect; by cyclic change in aortic volume) and determine its relationship with RPderived, XPderived, and aortic blood pressure (BP). Approach and Results—Ascending aortic BP and Doppler flow velocity were recorded via intra-arterial wire in 10 men (aged 62±12 years) during coronary artery bypass surgery. Simultaneous ascending aortic transesophageal echocardiography was used to measure ARdirect. Published mathematical formulae were used to determine RPderived and XPderived. ARdirect was strongly and linearly related to RPderived during systole (r=0.988; P<0.001) and diastole (r=0.985; P<0.001). Peak cross-correlation (r=0.98) occurred at a phase lag of 0.004 s into the cardiac cycle, suggesting close temporal agreement between waveforms. The relationship between aortic BP and ARdirect was qualitatively similar to the cyclic relationship between aortic BP and RPderived, with peak cross-correlations occurring at identical phase lags (ARdirect versus aortic BP, r=0.96 at 0.06 s; RPderived versus aortic BP, r=0.98 at 0.06 s). Conclusions—RPderived is highly correlated with changes in proximal aortic volume, consistent with its physiological interpretation as corresponding to the instantaneous volume of blood stored in the aorta. Thus, aortic reservoir pressure should be considered in the interpretation of the central BP waveform.
[Pathological gambling in patients with Parkinson disease].

Pathological gambling implies an inadequate, persistent and chronic practice of gambling which has major impact on affected individuals, their families and the society (APA, 2003). Many risk factors of social, psychological and biological nature contribute to the development of pathological gambling. New populations have been found to be at risk to develop pathological gambling : patients who suffer of Parkinson Disease's. Development of pathological gambling in those patients would mainly be related to the medication used to treat Parkinson Disease's, dopaminergic agonist. Numerous neurological studies have been conducted on the subject since recent years, but few psychologists know this problem and almost no studies have been made to understand the psychological aspect of this problem.