Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Particle percolation through a porous medium

In this paper we study transport of particles due to gravity in a porous medium simulated by a packing of large beads. We determine the dependency of the mean transit time for different percolating particle batches and for different packing heights. We compare our results with numerical simulations based on the Discrete Element Method to extend experimental studies and to analyze the part play by the coefficient of restitution and the aspect ratio between the two size of beads.
Changes in prolactin secretion in the short- and long-term after adrenalectomy.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the modulation of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA) on prolactin secretion in rats after adrenalectomy (ADX). MATERIALS AND METHODS Plasma corticosterone, ACTH, and prolactin concentrations were measured by radioimmunoassay in rats after bilateral ADX in the short- (3 hours and 1 day) and long-term (3, 7, and 14 days). RESULTS Animals that underwent ADX showed undetectable corticosterone levels and a triphasic ACTH response with a transient increase (3h), a decrease (1d), and further increase in the long-term after ADX. Sham animals showed a marked increase in corticosterone and ACTH levels three hours after surgery, with a decrease to basal levels thereafter. Plasma prolactin levels were not changed after ADX. CONCLUSION There are different points of equilibrium in the HPA axis after the glucocorticoid negative feedback is removed. Prolactin plasma secretion is not altered in the short or long- term after ADX, suggesting that the peptidergic neurons essential for prolactin release are not activated after ADX.
Symptomatic neonatal polycythemia: comparison of partial exchange transfusion with saline versus plasma.

A prospective study to evaluate efficacy and safety of partial exchange blood transfusion (PEBT) with normal saline or plasma was conducted in 30 symptomatic polycythemic newborns. Babies were randomly assigned to receive PEBT either with normal saline or plasma. Both groups were comparable in terms of birth weight, gestational age, preexchange hematocrit and viscosity. A significant fall in hematocrit and viscosity was noticed at 6 hours following PEBT which persisted even at 24 hours (P < 0.001). Hematocrit and viscosity were comparable in the two groups at 6 and 24 hours (p > 0.05 for both). Majority of babies became asymptomatic after 24 hours of PEBT, but one baby in the saline group remained polycythemic and symptomatic requiring repeat PEBT. No complications related to the procedure were encountered in the two groups. Partial exchange with normal saline was as effective and safe as plasma in symptomatic polycythemic newborns.
A Data Driven Approach for Person Name Disambiguation in Web Search Results

This paper presents an unsupervised approach for the task of clustering the results of a search engine when the query is a person name shared by different individuals. We propose an algorithm that calculates the number of clusters and establishes the groups of web pages according to the different individuals without the need to any training data or predefined thresholds, as the successful state of the art systems do. In addition, most of those systems do not deal with social media web pages and their performance could fail in a real scenario. In this paper we also propose a heuristic method for the treatment of social networking profiles. Our approach is compared with four gold standard collections for this task obtaining really competitive results, comparable to those obtained by some approaches with supervision.
Evidence for Composite Cost Functions in Arm Movement Planning: An Inverse Optimal Control Approach

An important issue in motor control is understanding the basic principles underlying the accomplishment of natural movements. According to optimal control theory, the problem can be stated in these terms: what cost function do we optimize to coordinate the many more degrees of freedom than necessary to fulfill a specific motor goal? This question has not received a final answer yet, since what is optimized partly depends on the requirements of the task. Many cost functions were proposed in the past, and most of them were found to be in agreement with experimental data. Therefore, the actual principles on which the brain relies to achieve a certain motor behavior are still unclear. Existing results might suggest that movements are not the results of the minimization of single but rather of composite cost functions. In order to better clarify this last point, we consider an innovative experimental paradigm characterized by arm reaching with target redundancy. Within this framework, we make use of an inverse optimal control technique to automatically infer the (combination of) optimality criteria that best fit the experimental data. Results show that the subjects exhibited a consistent behavior during each experimental condition, even though the target point was not prescribed in advance. Inverse and direct optimal control together reveal that the average arm trajectories were best replicated when optimizing the combination of two cost functions, nominally a mix between the absolute work of torques and the integrated squared joint acceleration. Our results thus support the cost combination hypothesis and demonstrate that the recorded movements were closely linked to the combination of two complementary functions related to mechanical energy expenditure and joint-level smoothness.
TGR5 contributes to hepatic cystogenesis in rodents with polycystic liver diseases through cyclic adenosine monophosphate/Gαs signaling

Hepatic cystogenesis in polycystic liver disease is associated with increased levels of cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) in cholangiocytes lining liver cysts. Takeda G protein receptor 5 (TGR5), a G protein–coupled bile acid receptor, is linked to cAMP and expressed in cholangiocytes. Therefore, we hypothesized that TGR5 might contribute to disease progression. We examined expression of TGR5 and Gα proteins in cultured cholangiocytes and in livers of animal models and humans with polycystic liver disease. In vitro, we assessed cholangiocyte proliferation, cAMP levels, and cyst growth in response to (1) TGR5 agonists (taurolithocholic acid, oleanolic acid [OA], and two synthetic compounds), (2) a novel TGR5 antagonist (m‐tolyl 5‐chloro‐2‐[ethylsulfonyl] pyrimidine‐4‐carboxylate [SBI‐115]), and (3) a combination of SBI‐115 and pasireotide, a somatostatin receptor analogue. In vivo, we examined hepatic cystogenesis in OA‐treated polycystic kidney rats and after genetic elimination of TGR5 in double mutant TGR5−/−;Pkhd1del2/del2 mice. Compared to control, expression of TGR5 and Gαs (but not Gαi and Gαq) proteins was increased 2‐fold to 3‐fold in cystic cholangiocytes in vitro and in vivo. In vitro, TGR5 stimulation enhanced cAMP production, cell proliferation, and cyst growth by ∼40%; these effects were abolished after TGR5 reduction by short hairpin RNA. OA increased cystogenesis in polycystic kidney rats by 35%; in contrast, hepatic cystic areas were decreased by 45% in TGR5‐deficient TGR5−/−;Pkhd1del2/del2 mice. TGR5 expression and its colocalization with Gαs were increased ∼2‐fold upon OA treatment. Levels of cAMP, cell proliferation, and cyst growth in vitro were decreased by ∼30% in cystic cholangiocytes after treatment with SBI‐115 alone and by ∼50% when SBI‐115 was combined with pasireotide. Conclusion: TGR5 contributes to hepatic cystogenesis by increasing cAMP and enhancing cholangiocyte proliferation; our data suggest that a TGR5 antagonist alone or concurrently with somatostatin receptor agonists represents a potential therapeutic approach in polycystic liver disease. (Hepatology 2017;66:1197‐1218).
Pulmonary artery catheterization in anaesthesia and intensive care.

Since its introduction nearly 30 yr ago, the pulmonary artery catheter (PAC) has become part of everyday management in cardiology, anaesthesia and intensive care but remains controversial. 37 78 136 164 The apparent failure to demonstrate improvements in patient outcome 66 68 192 and the risks associated with its use 153 have long been criticized. Failure to explore its full use and redundancy of the catheter after initial placement are additional concerns. More worrying is the incorrect interpretation of data 82 97 and consequent misdirection of therapy. Others are disturbed by a reliance on measurements rather than on clinical signs. However, many argue that the PAC enhances bedside understanding of cardiorespiratory interactions, complements the interpretation of clinical signs and benefits management of haemodynamic disorders. 53 62 65 77 136 157 170 The first part of this article reviews the history, technical aspects and practical uses of pulmonary artery catheterization. The second part evaluates the clinical impact of the PAC on anaesthesia and intensive care medicine.
Altered Titin Expression, Myocardial Stiffness, and Left Ventricular Function in Patients With Dilated Cardiomyopathy

Background—The role of the giant protein titin in patients with heart failure is not well established. We investigated titin expression in patients with end-stage heart failure resulting from nonischemic dilated cardiomyopathy, in particular as it relates to left ventricular (LV) myocardial stiffness and LV function. Methods and Results—SDS-agarose gels revealed small N2B (stiff) and large N2BA (compliant) cardiac titin isoforms with a mean N2BA:N2B expression ratio that was significantly (P <0.003) increased in 20 heart failure patients versus 6 controls. However, total titin was unchanged. The coexpression ratio was highest in a subsample of patients with an impaired LV relaxation pattern (n=7), intermediate in those with pseudonormal filling (n=6), and lowest in the group with restrictive filling (n=7). Mechanical measurements on LV muscle strips dissected from these hearts (n=8) revealed that passive muscle stiffness was significantly reduced in patients with a high N2BA:N2B expression ratio. Clinical correlations support the relevance of these changes for LV function (assessed by invasive hemodynamics and Doppler echocardiography). A positive correlation between the N2BA:N2B titin isoform ratio and deceleration time of mitral E velocity, A wave transit time, and end diastolic volume/pressure ratio was found. These changes affect exercise tolerance, as indicated by the positive correlation between the N2BA:N2B isoform ratio and peak O2 consumption (n=10). Upregulated N2BA expression was accompanied by increased expression levels of titin-binding proteins (cardiac ankyrin repeat protein, ankrd2, and diabetes ankyrin repeat protein) that bind to the N2A element of N2BA titin (studied in 13 patients). Conclusions—Total titin content was unchanged in end-stage failing hearts and the more compliant N2BA isoform comprised a greater percentage of titin in these hearts. Changes in titin isoform expression in heart failure patients with dilated cardiomyopathy significantly impact diastolic filling by lowering myocardial stiffness. Upregulation of titin-binding proteins indicates that the importance of altered titin expression might extend to cell signaling and regulation of gene expression.
The evolution of stellar exponential discs

Models of disc galaxies which invoke viscosity-driven radial flows have long been known to provide a natural explanation for the origin of stellar exponential discs, under the assumption that the star formation and viscous time-scales are comparable. We present models which invoke simultaneous star formation, viscous redistribution of gas and cosmologically-motivated gaseous infall and explore the predictions such models make for the scale-length evolution and radial star formation history of galactic stellar discs. While the inclusion of viscous flows is essential for ensuring that the stellar disc is always exponential over a significant range in radius, we find that such flows play only a minor role in determining the evolution of the disc scalelength. In models in which the main infall phase precedes the onset of star formation and viscous evolution, we find the exponential scalelength to be rather invariant with time, with the bulk of the disc stars at all radii out to similar to5 scalelengths being relatively old (i.e. ages greater than or similar to6-8 Gyr for an assumed disc age of 11 Gyr). On the other hand, models in which star formation/viscous evolution and infall occur concurrently result in a smoothly increasing scalelength with time, reflecting the mean angular momentum of material which has fallen in at any given epoch. The disc stellar populations in these models are predominantly young (i.e. ages less than or similar to5 Gyr) beyond a few scalelengths. In both cases, viscous flows are entirely responsible for transporting material to very large radii. Our results are robust for a range of currently popular star formation laws and infall prescriptions. We discuss existing observational constraints on these models from studies of both local and moderate redshift disc galaxies. In particular, a good agreement is found between the solar neighbourhood star formation history predicted by our infall model and the recent observational determination of this quantity by Rocha-Pinto et al.
Phonetic effects on listener detection of vowel concatenation

Concatenative speech synthesis quality depends in part on the minimization of audible discontinuities between two successive concatenated units. This study focuses on human detection of concatenation discontinuities in synthetic speech. Statistical analyses compared for various phonetic categories the results observed in perceptual tests with two voices – one female and one male. Neither a comprehensive phonetic analysis nor a comparison of discontinuity detection between voices has been reported previously. Although discontinuities were generally more detectable for the female than the male voice, there were many similarities between results obtained from the two speakers. A reliably higher rate of detection of discontinuities was observed for diphthongs than for monophthong vowels. Post-vocalic consonants influenced concatenation discontinuities significantly more than pre-vocalic consonants, and postvocalic sonorants were associated with higher detection rates than post-vocalic non-sonorants. The differences in discontinuity detection among vowels and among consonantal contexts for both voices consistently suggest that highly audible discontinuity is related to concatenation in regions of spectral change.
Impact of functional status at six months on long term survival in patients with ischaemic stroke: prospective cohort studies

Objective To estimate the impact on long term survival of functional status at six months after ischaemic stroke. Design Prospective cohort study. Settings Three cohorts: Oxfordshire community stroke project, Lothian stroke register, and the first international stroke trial (in the United Kingdom). Participants 7710 patients with ischaemic stroke registered between 1981 and 2000 and followed up for a maximum of 19 years. Main outcome measures Functional status at six months after stroke assessed with modified Rankin scale or “two simple questions. ” Mortality during follow-up. Survival analysis with Kaplan-Meier curves, log rank test, and Cox’s regression model. Results In a combined analysis of all three cohorts, among patients who survived to assessment six months after the index stroke, the subsequent median length of survival among those independent in daily living and those dependent was 9.7 years (95% confidence interval 8.9 to 10.6) and 6.0 years (5.7 to 6.4), respectively. In a combined analysis of the Oxfordshire and Lothian cohorts, subsequent median survival fell progressively from 12.9 years (10.0 to 15.9) for patients with a Rankin score of 0-1 at six months after the stroke to 2.5 years (1.4 to 3.5) for patients with a Rankin score of 5. All previously stated differences in median survival were significant (log rank test P<0.001). The influence of functional outcome on survival remained significant (P<0.05) in each cohort after adjustment for relevant covariates (such as age, presence of atrial fibrillation, visible infarct on computed tomography, subtype of stroke) in a Cox’s regression model. Conclusion Functional status six months after an ischaemic stroke is associated with long term survival. Early interventions that reduce dependency at six months might have positive effects on long term survival.
Effects of Spatial Discretization Schemes on Numerical Solutions of Viscoelastic Fluid Flows

This study examines the effects of the discretization schemes on numerical solutions of viscoelastic fluid flows. For this purpose, a temporally evolving mixing layer, a two-dimensional vortex pair interacting with a wall, and a turbulent channel flow are selected as the test cases. We adopt a fourth-order compact scheme (COM4) for polymeric stress derivatives in the momentum equations. For convective derivatives in the constitutive equations, the first-order upwind difference scheme (UD) and artificial diffusion scheme (AD), which are commonly used in the literature, show most stable and smooth solutions even for highly extensional flows. However, the stress fields are smeared too much and the flow fields are quite different from those obtained by higher-order upwind difference schemes for the same flow parameters. Among higher-order upwind difference schemes, a third-order compact upwind difference scheme (CUD3) shows most stable and accurate solutions. Therefore, a combination of CUD3 for the convective derivatives in the constitutive equations and COM4 for the polymeric stress derivatives in the momentum equations is recommended to be used for numerical simulation of highly extensional flows.
Measurement of packet loss probability by optimal design of packet probing experiments

Packet-level measurement is now critical to many aspects of broadband networking, for example for guaranteeing service level agreements, facilitating measurement-based admission control algorithms and performing network tomography. Because it is often impossible to measure all the data passing across a network, the most widely used method of measurement works by injecting probe packets. The probes provide samples of the packet loss and delay, and from these samples the loss and delay performance of the traffic as a whole can be deduced. However, measuring performance like this is prone to errors. Recent work has shown that some of these errors are minimised by using a gamma renewal process as the optimal pattern for the time instants at which to inject probes. This leaves the best rate at which to inject probes as the key unsolved problem, and this is addressed here by using the statistical principles of the design of experiments. The experimental design approach allows one to treat packet-level measurements as numerical experiments that can be designed optimally. Modelling the overflow of buffers as a 2-state Markov chain, the system's likelihood function is deduced, and from this a technique (using the Fisher information matrix) to determine the upper-bound on the optimal rate of probing is developed. A generalisation of this method accounts for the effect of the probed observations interfering with the experiment. The numerical results focus on VoIP traffic, allowing one to show how this methodology would be used in practice. One application of this is in measurement-based admission control algorithms, where the technique can be used to provide an upper-bound on the rate at which probes should be injected to monitor the loss performance of the target network, prior to making an admit/do not admit decision.
Loading of the G-Factor in Human Figure Drawing

This study reports the results of a bifactorial analysis of the criteria of the Human Figure Drawing Test, based on the original Goodenough system. This analysis was designed to assess the loading of the general factor of intelligence for that test. 541 children (52.9% boys, 47.1% girls; ages 5-10 years) attending preschool through Grade 4 in public and private schools were studied. Principal component analysis with oblimin rotation identified four components which were not highly correlated, making it possible to conduct a bifactorial analysis. The results were interpreted as showing the predominance of a single general factor, so the existence of a latent variable capable of explaining most of the variance (56.84%) between the items seems likely.
Bioefficacy of budesonide loaded crosslinked polyeletrolyte microparticles in rat model of induced colitis

A targeted delivery system for inflammatory bowel diseases, chitosan-Ca-alginate microparticles efficiently loaded with budesonide (BDS), were designed using one-step spray-drying process. They were eudragit-coated and examined for in vivo efficacy. Experimental colitis was induced by rectal instillation of 2,4,6-trinitrobenzene sulphonic acid (TNBS) into male Wistar rats. Drugs were administered by oral gavage daily for 5 days. Colon/body weight ratio, gross morphological and histological evaluation, and clinical activity score were determined as inflammatory indices. Individual clinical and histological evaluation showed that colitis severity was suppressed the most greatly in order BDS < BDS/C-Ca-A < E-BDS/C-Ca-A. Clinical activity score decreased in the same order. Statistical analyses of total score points indicate that the incorporation of BDS in microparticles had significant differences in favor of efficacy of designed delivery system with mucoadhesive and controlled release properties (one-way ANOVA, P < 0.05). The results established the prediction by previous in vitro studies.
Role of endogenous IL‐10 in LPS‐induced STAT3 activation and IL‐1 receptor antagonist gene expression

The regulation of secretory interleukin (IL)‐1 receptor antagonist (sIL‐1Ra) in response to IL‐10 is unique. In contrast to most cytokines, the lipopolysaccharide (LPS)‐induced expression of the sIL‐1Ra gene is enhanced by concomitant treatment with IL‐10. Cotreatment of RAW 264.7 cells with IL‐10 + LPS resulted in at least a twofold increase in sIL‐1Ra promoter activity and mRNA expression compared with LPS alone; IL‐10 alone had no effect on promoter activity or mRNA expression. Examination of sIL‐1Ra mRNA expression in bone marrow‐derived macrophages (BMDM) resulted in identical results. Transfection of RAW 264.7 cells with the sIL‐1Ra/luc reporter and a dominant‐negative signal transducer and activator of transcripton (STAT)3 (Y705A) expression plasmid inhibited the enhanced response induced by exogenous IL‐10 in the presence of LPS. The presence of a functional STAT3‐bininding site within the proximal sIL‐1Ra promoter was demonstrated. As IL‐10 is produced by LPS‐stimulated macrophages, a role for endogenously produced IL‐10 in the response of the sIL‐1Ra gene to LPS was suggested. This was confirmed in IL‐10‐deficient BMDM, which when compared with normal BMDM, had significantly decreased LPS‐induced sIL‐1Ra mRNA levels that could be restored by exogenously provided IL‐10, which induced a fivefold increase of LPS‐induced IL‐1Ra mRNA in cells from IL‐10−/− BMDM. Western blot analysis of phosphorylated STAT3 from wild‐type and IL‐10−/− BMDM and IL‐10 neutralization experiments demonstrated a role for endogenously produced IL‐10 in the LPS‐induced STAT3 activity. Together, these results demonstrate that endogenously produced IL‐10 plays a significant role in LPS‐induced sIL‐1Ra gene expression via the activation of STAT3.