Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The varying w spread spectrum effect for radio interferometric imaging

We study the impact of the spread spectrum effect in radio interferometry on the quality of image reconstruction. This spread spectrum effect will be induced by the wide ﬁeld-of-view of forthcoming radio interferometric telescopes. The resulting chirp modulation improves the quality of reconstructed interferometric images by increasing the incoherence of the measurement and sparsity dictionaries. We extend previous studies of this effect to consider the more realistic setting where the chirp modulation varies for each visibility measurement made by the telescope. In these ﬁrst preliminary results, we show that for this setting the quality of reconstruction improves signiﬁcantly over the case without chirp modulation and achieves almost the reconstruction quality of the case of maximal, constant chirp modulation.
A genetic screen reveals Foxa3 and TNFR1 as key regulators of liver repopulation

Wangensteen et al. employed a parallel screen to test the impact of 43 selected genes on liver repopulation in the Fah−/− mouse model of hereditary tyrosinemia. The transcription factor Foxa3 was a strong promoter of liver regeneration, while tumor necrosis factor receptor 1 (TNFR1) was the most significant suppressor of repopulation among all of the genes tested.
The physical boundaries of public goods cooperation between surface-attached bacterial cells

Bacteria secrete a variety of compounds important for nutrient scavenging, competition mediation and infection establishment. While there is a general consensus that secreted compounds can be shared and therefore have social consequences for the bacterial collective, we know little about the physical limits of such bacterial social interactions. Here, we address this issue by studying the sharing of iron-scavenging siderophores between surface-attached microcolonies of the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Using single-cell fluorescent microscopy, we show that siderophores, secreted by producers, quickly reach non-producers within a range of 100 μm, and significantly boost their fitness. Producers in turn respond to variation in sharing efficiency by adjusting their pyoverdine investment levels. These social effects wane with larger cell-to-cell distances and on hard surfaces. Thus, our findings reveal the boundaries of compound sharing, and show that sharing is particularly relevant between nearby yet physically separated bacteria on soft surfaces, matching realistic natural conditions such as those encountered in soft tissue infections.
Sound symbolic effects of intrinsic pitch and intrinsic intensity in Dutch vowels

Listeners associate certain vowels and consonants with specific meanings, known as phonetic/sound symbolism. For example, the vowel // is often associated with small, thin and more female entities compared to the vowel //. Sound symbolism studies so far mainly focused on the effects of intrinsic pitch (F0) of vowels while no research has taken other intrinsic properties, such as intensity, into account. The present research investigates the effect of both intrinsic pitch and intrinsic intensity, which can be directly linked to vowel articulation, on perceptual associations. To this end a production task and a perception experiment have been carried out. The production task elicits read-aloud vowels from which measurements of intrinsic pitch and intrinsic intensity were taken. Results of an articulatory analysis on these measures show that intrinsic pitch and intrinsic intensity correlate negatively. Using a subset of the elicited vowels in the production task, the subsequent perception experiment investigated the effects of intrinsic pitch and intrinsic intensity on associated meanings. Results show that both intrinsic properties contribute to sound symbolism with intrinsic pitch being a stronger cue than intrinsic intensity.
Coupling microcirculation to systemic hemodynamics

Purpose of reviewTo discuss the role of microcirculatory abnormalities in critically ill patients and the link between systemic hemodynamics and microvascular perfusion. Recent findingsMicrocirculatory alterations have been repeatedly observed in patients with severe sepsis, but recent findings show that these also occur in patients with severe heart failure and in those submitted to high-risk surgery. More severe and more persistent alterations are observed in patients with a poor outcome. Even though a minimal cardiac output and arterial pressure is mandatory to sustain the microcirculation, this level is not yet well defined and seems to be submitted to high individual variability. Above this level, microcirculation and systemic circulation are relatively dissociated, so that microcirculatory alterations can be observed even when systemic hemodynamics are within satisfactory goals. In addition, the response of the microcirculation to therapeutic interventions is often dissociated from systemic effects. However, microcirculatory perfusion can be affected by cardiac output and arterial pressure when these are critically altered. SummaryMicrovascular alterations frequently occur in critically ill patients and these may be implicated in the development of organ failure and are associated with outcome. The link between systemic hemodynamics and microcirculation is relatively loose.
Assessment of myocardial viability by MRI

Assessment of myocardial viability has become an important issue in patients presenting with either acute myocardial infarction or presenting with chronic ischemic left ventricular dysfunction. In patients with viable myocardium recovery of left ventricular function can be anticipatedm, spontaneously in patients with acute myocardial infarction or following revascularization in patients with ischemic cardiomyopathy. In contrast, patients without viable tissue are not likely to improve in left ventricular function. Currently, nuclear imaging techniques and dobutamine stress echocardiography are used for assessment of viability; recent studies with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have however demonstrated the potential usefulness of this technique for the assessment of viability. Various parameters, derived from resting MRI, can be used as markers of myocardial viability, including the end‐diastolic wall thickness, systolic wall thickening and signal intensity without contrast‐enhancement. Other studies have combined the information from resting MRI with the assessment of contractile reserve during dobutamine stimulation. Finally, recent studies have evaluated the use of contrast‐enhanced MRI to detect viable myocardium. All of these parameters are potentially useful and MRI provide an alternative approach for the assessment of viable myocardium. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 1999;10:418–422. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Deferral vs. performance of percutaneous coronary intervention of functionally non-significant coronary stenosis: 15-year follow-up of the DEFER trial.

AIMS Stenting an angiographically intermediate but functionally non-significant stenosis is controversial. Nevertheless, it has been questioned if deferral of a functionally non-significant lesion on the basis of fractional flow reserve (FFR) measurement, is safe, especially on the long term. Five-year follow-up of the DEFER trial showed that outcome after deferral of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) of an intermediate coronary stenosis based on FFR ≥ 0.75 is excellent and was not improved by stenting. The aim of this study was to investigate the validity of this position on the very long term. METHODS AND RESULTS In 325 patients scheduled for PCI of an intermediate stenosis, FFR was measured just before the planned intervention. If FFR was ≥0.75, patients were randomly assigned to deferral (Defer group; n = 91) or performance (Perform group; n = 90) of PCI. If FFR was <0.75, PCI was performed as planned (Reference group; n = 144). Clinical follow-up was 15 years. There were no differences in baseline clinical characteristics between the randomized groups. Complete 15-year follow-up was obtained in 92% of patients. After 15 years of follow-up, the rate of death was not different between the three groups: 33.0% in the Defer group, 31.1% in the Perform group, and 36.1% in the Reference group (Defer vs. Perform, RR 1.06, 95% CI: 0.69-1.62, P = 0.79). The rate of myocardial infarction was significantly lower in the Defer group (2.2%) compared with the Perform group (10.0%), RR 0.22, 95% CI: 0.05-0.99, P = 0.03. CONCLUSION Deferral of PCI of a functionally non-significant stenosis is associated with a favourable very long-term follow-up without signs of late 'catch-up' phenomenon.
Update in mechanical ventilation 2010.

This article reviews selected contributions published in 2010 regarding epidemiology, clinical use, and consequences of invasive and noninvasive mechanical ventilation (MV). This includes the use of protective ventilation and of different modes, some specific risks of MV, such as ventilator-induced diaphragm dysfunction, and the importance of spontaneous breathing activity under MV, with or without sedation.
Efficient persist barriers for multicores

Emerging non-volatile memory technologies enable fast, fine-grained persistence compared to slow block-based devices. In order to ensure consistency of persistent state, dirty cache lines need to be periodically flushed from caches and made persistent in an order specified by the persistency model. A persist barrier is one mechanism for enforcing this ordering. In this paper, we first show that current persist barrier implementations, owing to certain ordering dependencies, add cache line flushes to the critical path. Our main contribution is an efficient persist barrier, that reduces the number of cache line flushes happening in the critical path. We evaluate our proposed persist barrier by using it to enforce two persistency models: buffered epoch persistency with programmer inserted barriers; and buffered strict persistency in bulk mode with hardware inserted barriers. Experimental evaluations using micro-benchmarks (buffered epoch persistency) and multi-threaded workloads (buffered strict persistency) show that using our persist barrier improves performance by 22% and 20% respectively over the state-of-the-art.
Correction of Maxwell's Equations for Signals II

In the first of two companion papers it was shown that the addition of a magnetic current density to Maxwell's equations is a sufficient condition to obtain solutions in lossy propagation media for waves that are not infinitely extended periodic waves. The solutions obtained represented transients that may be used to represent signals having a beginning and an end. This second paper shows that the addition of a magnetic current density is also a necessary condition for the existence of transient solutions in lossy media. The modification of Maxwell's equations is thus necessary and sufficient for the study of the propagation of signals in lossy media.
Clinical Value of Assisted Hatching in IVF / ICSI Programme

The failure of embryonic zona pellucida to hatch following blastocyst expansion has been considered as a contributing factor in implantation failure. Assisted hatching, a commonly performed micromanupulation of zona pellucida, aims to improve implantation and pregnancy rates in assisted reproduction by helping natural hatching process. The techniques used for assisted hatching, the indications of the procedure, the association of the procedure with monozygotic twinning, and the use of this method in combination with blastocyst transfer is clearly discussed in this review. The outcome of IVF with the use of this method in fresh and frozen thawed cycles is clarified. In our opinion, further research with prospective randomized studies is needed for this technique to be used in assisted reproduction.
Cardioprotective effects of mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists at reperfusion.

AIMS Pre-treatment with mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) antagonists is reported to reduce myocardial infarct size from ischaemia/reperfusion. Here, we tested whether the MR antagonists potassium canrenoate and eplerenone could protect in the more clinically relevant schedule of administration at the end of ischaemia. METHODS AND RESULTS In all models, hearts were subjected to 30 min regional ischaemia followed by 120 min (rabbits 4 h) reperfusion. A bolus of canrenoate 5 min prior to reperfusion in open-chest mice decreased infarct size in a dose-dependent manner. Maximum protection was seen at 1 mg/kg where infarction was 18% of that in the control (P < 0.001). Ecto-5'-nucleotidase (CD73) as well as adenosine A(2b) receptor knock-out mice could no longer be protected, suggesting a role for adenosine and the A(2b) receptor in the mechanism. A 1 mg/kg bolus of canrenoate prior reperfusion also reduced infarct size in open-chest rabbits. To explore the underlying mechanisms, we studied isolated rat hearts. Eplerenone (10 microM) at the end of ischaemia was similarly protective in the rat heart and the protection was abolished by co-treatment with inhibitors of the adenosine receptor, protein kinase C, PI3-kinase, and ERK. In addition, eplerenone or canrenoate treatment increased phosphorylation of the pro-survival kinases Akt and ERK1/2 at reperfusion in the rat hearts. CONCLUSION Taken together, MR antagonists when given at the end of ischaemia are highly effective and potent cardioprotective drugs with a signalling similar to that of ischaemic pre-conditioning and, hence, could be a very promising candidate for the treatment of acute myocardial infarction in man.
Soft switching approach to reducing transition losses in an on/off hydraulic valve

A method for significantly reducing the losses associated with an on/off controlled hydraulic system is proposed. There has been a growing interest in the use of on/off valves to control hydraulic systems as a means of improving system efficiency. While on/off valves are efficient when they are fully open or fully closed, a significant amount of energy can be lost in throttling as the valve transitions between the two states. A soft switching approach is proposed as a method of eliminating the majority of these transition losses. The operating principle of soft switching is that fluid can temporarily flow through a check valve or into a small chamber while valve orifices are partially closed. The fluid can then flow out of the chamber once the valve has fully transitioned. Thus, fluid flows through the valve only when it is in its most efficient fully open state. A model of the system is derived and simulated, with results indicating that the soft switching approach can reduce transition and compressibility losses by 79%, and total system losses by 66%. Design equations are also derived. The soft switching approach has the potential to improve the efficiency of on/off controlled systems and is particularly important as switching frequencies are increased. The soft switching approach will also facilitate the use of slower on/off valves for effective on/off control; in simulation, a valve with soft switching matched the efficiency an on/off valve that was 5 times faster.
Altered distribution and expression pattern of E-cadherin in hepatocellular carcinomas: correlations with prognosis and clinical features.

OBJECTIVE E-cadherin has been identified as a tumor suppressor in many types of carcinoma. However, some studies recently suggested that the role and expression of E-cadherin might be more complex and diverse. In the present study, we evaluated the prognostic value of E-cadherin expression with reference to levels in membranes and cytoplasm, and the membrane/cytoplasm ratio, in hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs) after curative hepatectomy. METHODS The expression of E-cadherin was assessed by immunohistochemistry in HCC tissue microarrays from 125 patients, and its prognostic values and other clinicopathlogical data were retrospectively analyzed. Patients were followed for a median period of 43.7 months (range 1 to 126 months). RESULTS Univariate analysis demonstrated that a high membrane/cytoplasm (M/C) ratio of E-cadherin expression was associated with poor overall survival (OS) (P =0.001) and shorter time to recurrence (TTR) (P =0.038), as well as tumor size, intrahepatic metastasis, and TNM stage. In contrast, neither membrane nor cytoplasmic expression of E-cadherin was related with OS and TTR. Furthermore, multivariate analysis confirmed the M/C ratio to be an independent predictor of OS (P =0.031). 2 tests additionally showed that the M/C ratio of E-cadherin expression was related with early stage recurrence (P =0.012), rather than later stage recurrence. CONCLUSION The M/C ratio of E-cadherin expression is a strong predictor of postoperative survival and is associated with early stage recurrence in patients with HCC.
Mortality after cancer diagnosis in HIV-infected individuals treated with antiretroviral therapy

Objectives:To evaluate survival and predictors of mortality after cancer diagnosis among HIV-infected persons receiving combination antiretroviral therapy (cART). Design:Multisite cohort study. Methods:We examined all-cause mortality among HIV-infected patients treated with cART in routine care at eight US sites and diagnosed with cancer between 1996 and 2009, and predictors of mortality using Cox proportional hazards regression models. Non-AIDS-defining cancers (NADCs) were classified as related and unrelated to viral coinfections. Results:Out of 20 677 persons in the Centers for AIDS Research Network of Integrated Clinical Systems cohort, 650 cART-treated individuals developed invasive cancer. Of these, 305 died during 1480 person-years of follow-up; crude mortality rate was 20.6 per 100 person-years [95% confidence interval (CI) 18.4, 23.1] and overall 2-year survival was 58% (95% CI 54, 62). Highest mortality was seen in primary central nervous system non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, liver, and lung cancer with rates of 90.6, 84.3, and 68.1 per 100 person-years, respectively. Adjusted hazard of death was higher among those who were older and had stage IV cancer. Adjusted hazard of death was lower among those with higher CD4 cell counts at cancer diagnosis, who achieved HIV-RNA suppression (≤400 copies/ml) on cART, received any cancer treatment, and had AIDS-defining cancer or infection-related NADCs compared to infection-unrelated NADCs. Conclusion:Independent predictors of mortality after cancer diagnosis among HIV-infected persons include poor immune status, failure to suppress HIV-RNA on cART, cancer stage, and lack of cancer treatment. Modification of these factors with improved strategies for the prevention and treatment of HIV and HIV-associated malignancies are needed.
Sequences in the Cytoplasmic Tail of the Gibbon Ape Leukemia Virus Envelope Protein That Prevent Its Incorporation into Lentivirus Vectors

ABSTRACT Pseudotyping retrovirus and lentivirus vectors with different viral fusion proteins is a useful strategy to alter the host range of the vectors. Although lentivirus vectors are efficiently pseudotyped by Env proteins from several different subtypes of murine leukemia virus (MuLV), the related protein from gibbon ape leukemia virus (GaLV) does not form functional pseudotypes. We have determined that this arises because of an inability of GaLV Env to be incorporated into lentivirus vector particles. By exploiting the homology between the GaLV and MuLV Env proteins, we have mapped the determinants of incompatibility in the GaLV Env. Three modifications that allowed GaLV Env to pseudotype human immunodeficiency virus type 1 particles were identified: removal of the R peptide (C-terminal half of the cytoplasmic domain), replacement of the whole cytoplasmic tail with the corresponding MuLV region, and mutation of two residues upstream of the R peptide cleavage site. In addition, we have previously proposed that removal of the R peptide from MuLV Env proteins enhances their fusogenicity by transmitting a conformational change to the ectodomain of the protein (Y. Zhao et al., J. Virol. 72:5392–5398, 1998). Our analysis of chimeric MuLV/GaLV Env proteins provides further evidence in support of this model and suggests that proper Env function involves both interactions within the cytoplasmic tail and more long-range interactions between the cytoplasmic tail, the membrane-spanning region, and the ectodomain of the protein.
Is Timing Everything? Temporal Considerations in Emotion Regulation

It is often said that timing is everything. The process model of emotion regulation has taken this aphorism to heart, suggesting that down-regulating emotions before they are “up and running” is always easier than down-regulating emotions once they have gathered force (i.e., generic timing hypothesis). But does timing (i.e., emotion intensity) matter equally for all forms of regulation? In this article, the authors offer an alternative process-specific timing hypothesis, in which emotion-generative and emotion-regulatory processes compete at either earlier or later stages of information processing. Regulation strategies that target early processing stages require minimal effort. Therefore, their efficacy should be relatively unaffected by emotion intensity. By contrast, regulation strategies that target later processing stages require effort that is proportional to the intensity of the emotional response. Therefore, their efficacy should be determined by the relative strength of regulatory versus emotional processes. Implications of this revised conception are considered.
Why do I hear but not understand? Stochastic undersampling as a model of degraded neural encoding of speech

Hearing impairment is a serious disease with increasing prevalence. It is defined based on increased audiometric thresholds but increased thresholds are only partly responsible for the greater difficulty understanding speech in noisy environments experienced by some older listeners or by hearing-impaired listeners. Identifying the additional factors and mechanisms that impair intelligibility is fundamental to understanding hearing impairment but these factors remain uncertain. Traditionally, these additional factors have been sought in the way the speech spectrum is encoded in the pattern of impaired mechanical cochlear responses. Recent studies, however, are steering the focus toward impaired encoding of the speech waveform in the auditory nerve. In our recent work, we gave evidence that a significant factor might be the loss of afferent auditory nerve fibers, a pathology that comes with aging or noise overexposure. Our approach was based on a signal-processing analogy whereby the auditory nerve may be regarded as a stochastic sampler of the sound waveform and deafferentation may be described in terms of waveform undersampling. We showed that stochastic undersampling simultaneously degrades the encoding of soft and rapid waveform features, and that this degrades speech intelligibility in noise more than in quiet without significant increases in audiometric thresholds. Here, we review our recent work in a broader context and argue that the stochastic undersampling analogy may be extended to study the perceptual consequences of various different hearing pathologies and their treatment.