Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The value of N-terminal fragment of brain natriuretic peptide and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-1 levels as predictors of cardiovascular outcome in the LIPID study.

AIMS We sought to determine the association between two major biomarkers, the inactive N-terminal fragment of brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-1 (TIMP-1) and long-term cardiovascular outcomes in a cohort of subjects who had a myocardial infarction or unstable angina 3-36 months previously. METHODS AND RESULTS Plasma NT-proBNP and TIMP-1 were measured in a nested case control study of 250 randomly matched subject pairs enrolled in the long-term intervention with pravastatin in ischaemic disease (LIPID) and LIPID extended follow-up studies. Cases (n = 250) were defined as those who had a cardiovascular death, non-fatal myocardial infarction or stroke during the studies. Controls (n = 250) remained event-free for the same follow-up duration (average 2.5 years) as the matched cases. The relationships between cases and plasma NT-proBNP and TIMP-1 were adjusted for the LIPID risk score, treatment allocation and other biomarkers (CRP, IL-6 and white cell count), and examined using a multivariable conditional logistic regression model. NT-proBNP levels were significantly higher in the cases than in the controls [389 (152-864) vs. 198 (93-416) pg/mL, median (25%-75% percentiles), P < 0.001]. The odds ratio (OR) of recurrent cardiovascular events in individuals in the highest quartile was three times higher than those in the lowest quartile (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.8-5.1; P < 0.001). Similarly, TIMP-1 levels were significantly higher among cases compared with controls (806 vs. 736 pg/mL, median: highest vs. lowest quartile: OR 2.8, 95% CI 1.6-4.7; P < 0.001). After adjustment for the LIPID risk score, treatment with pravastatin and other biomarkers, both NT-proBNP and TIMP-1 predicted cardiovascular events significantly and independently of each other. CONCLUSION The study suggests that in subjects with stable ischaemic disease, NT-proBNP and TIMP-1 are independent predictive markers of coronary heart disease outcome.
3D wave digital filter implementation on a virtex2 FPGA board with external SDRAM

Many n-D signal processing applications require realization in real time. We propose the realization of a 3-D spatio-temporal wave digital filter (WDF) in an FPGA. Optimization of the implemented hardware architecture includes evaluation of two different kinds of overflow handling, namely by saturation and a “modulo 2” type operation. The FPGA board is processing DVI signals that can be provided by usual PC hardware. The processing output is observed in real time on an LCD monitor.
The Effects of the Communication Accompanied with Music Therapy on the Anxiety of the Patients during the MRI Examination

Abstract This study examined effects of the communication accompanied with music therapy on the anxiety ofpatients during a MRI examination. In the experiment group consisting of thirty patients and the control group consisting of thirty patients, the experiment was performed from February 1st 2014 to March 31st 2014 in hospitalC located in Daegu Korea. The research design was a non-equivalent control group quasi-experimental study. Theresults showed that the anxiety score (VAS score) on communication with music therapy of the experimental group was significantly lower (p=.001), than that of the control group. Among the vital signs, the blood pressure was similarin both groups. On the other hand, the pulse rate of the experiment group was significantly lower (p=.001). Four categories of the physical discomfort (perspiration, facial change, change in physical posture, and change in vocal sound) did not show any statistically significant difference between the control and experiment group. Among the mental discomforts, dizziness did not have a significant difference between the experiment group and the control group, but the experimental group had significantly low fear (p=.001) and anxiety (p=.001). From the above results,communication accompanying music therapy proves is an effective alternative examination method that reduces theanxiety of patients. Keywords : Anxiety, Distress, Vital sign, Music Therapy, MRI Examination
Glioactive ATP controls BDNF recycling in cortical astrocytes

ABSTRACT We have recently reported that long-term memory retention requires synaptic glia for proBDNF uptake and recycling. Through the recycling course, glial cells release endocytic BDNF, a mechanism that is activated in response to glutamate via AMPA and mGluRI/II receptors. Cortical astrocytes express receptors for many different transmitters suggesting for a complex signaling controlling endocytic BDNF secretion. Here, we demonstrated that the extracellular nucleotide ATP, activating P2X and P2Y receptors, regulates endocytic BDNF secretion in cultured astrocytes. Our data indicate that distinct glioactive molecules can participate in BDNF glial recycling and suggest that cortical astrocytes contributing to neuronal plasticity can be influenced by neurotransmitters in tune with synaptic needs.
Resonant subharmonic absorption and second-harmonic generation by a fluctuating nonlinear oscillator.

The effect of fluctuations on the nonlinear response of an underdamped oscillator to an external periodic field at a subharmonic frequency has been investigated theoretically, numerically, and with an analog electronic circuit model. The system studied has often been analyzed in nonlinear optics in the context of two-photon absorption and second-harmonic generation. We consider its nonlinear spectroscopy. Its resonant nonlinear response is described over a broad range of the fluctuation intensities. It is shown that the fluctuation intensity can be used to "tune" the oscillator so as to maximize the nonlinear response. The dependence of the absorption cross section on the fluctuation intensity displays a clearly resolved maximum. If the eigenfrequency of the oscillator is a nonmonotonic function of its energy, the signal at the second harmonic displays a resonant peak at one of two different frequencies, depending on the noise intensity.
Correlation of CCL20 expression in rectal mucosa with the development of ulcerative colitis-associated neoplasia

Chronic inflammation increases the risk of developing several gastrointestinal malignancies. Chemokines that are produced by colonic epithelial cells play significant roles in the maintenance and repair of the epithelial barrier. The present study aimed to clarify whether the expression of CCL20 and its receptor, CCR6, was correlated with the development of ulcerative colitis (UC)-associated neoplasia. A total of 93 patients with UC who underwent proctocolectomies were enrolled in the present study. Immunohistochemical analysis for CCL20 and CCR6 expression in the rectal mucosa was performed and the correlation between expression and the pathogenesis of UC-associated neoplasia was investigated. A total of 16 (17.2%) patients presented with UC-associated neoplasia. The immunohistochemistry (IHC) score for CCL20 was significantly increased in the patients with a mild form of the disease (P=0.0363). The IHC score for CCL20 expression in the patients with UC-associated neoplasia was higher compared with the patients without neoplasia (P=0.0294). In contrast, there was no significant correlation between CCR6 expression and the clinicopathological variables. The logistic regression analysis revealed that a high IHC score for CCL20 expression in the rectal mucosa and a disease duration of more than eight years were significantly correlated with the development of UC-associated neoplasia (P<0.05). The results suggest that an evaluation of CCL20 expression in the rectal mucosa may be useful to identify patients who are at a high risk for developing UC-associated neoplasia. However, a selection bias existed in the present study due to the fact that the patient population that was enrolled was not representative of a typical surveillance patient population.
DanQ: a hybrid convolutional and recurrent deep neural network for quantifying the function of DNA sequences

Modeling the properties and functions of DNA sequences is an important, but challenging task in the broad field of genomics. This task is particularly difficult for noncoding DNA, the vast majority of which is still poorly understood in terms of function. A powerful predictive model for the function of noncoding DNA can have enormous benefit for both basic science and translational research because over 98% of the human genome is noncoding and 93% of disease-associated variants lie in these regions. To address this need, we propose DanQ, a novel hybrid convolutional and bi-directional long short-term memory recurrent neural network framework for predicting noncoding function de novo from sequence. In the DanQ model, the convolution layer captures regulatory motifs, while the recurrent layer captures long-term dependencies between the motifs in order to learn a regulatory “grammar” to improve predictions. DanQ improves considerably upon other models across several metrics. For some regulatory markers, DanQ can achieve over a 50% relative improvement in the area under the precision-recall curve metric compared to related models. Availability and implementation All source code is available at the github repository http://github.com/uci-cbcl/DanQ.
Geometric Considerations of Micro‐ to Nanoscale Elastomeric Post Arrays to Study Cellular Traction Forces

Mechanical interactions between cells and their surrounding extracellular matrix (ECM) play an important role in regulating many cellular functions, such as migration, proliferation and differentiation. Cells adhere to a substrate through an integrated process that involves binding and clustering of integrins to ECM ligands, actin polymerizationdriven plasma membrane extension, and contraction of the actomyosin cytoskeleton which transmits traction forces to the substrate through sites of adhesion. Interestingly, mechanical properties of the substrate, such as stiffness and ECM ligand topology, feedback to affect the ability of cells to exert these forces and spread across the substrate. To elucidate the relationship between substrate mechanics, cell adhesion and traction forces, several approaches have been developed and continually refined. The first approach was to engineer soft materials such as partially crosslinked silicone elastomers and polyacrylamide gels. Cells cultured on these substrates generated deformations that could be mapped by the displacement of embedded fluorescent markers and used to calculate traction forces. In contrast to the continuous elastic substrata method, we pioneered another approach using microfabrication tools to develop an elastomeric micropost array (mPADs). Cells cultured on this substrate deflect underlying posts as they contract. Traction forces could be calculated from these post deflections using a simple force-displacement relationship for pure bending of an elastic cylindrical beam (Eq. 1),
Seroprevalence of Human Hydatidosis Using ELISA Method in Qom Province, Central Iran

Background The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of cystic echinococcosis (CE) in Qom Province, central Iran using ELISA test. Methods Overall, 1564 serum samples (800 males and 764 females) were collected from selected subjects by randomized cluster sampling in 2011-2012. Sera were analyzed by ELISA test using AgB. Before sampling, a questionnaire was filled out for each case. Data were analyzed using Chi-square test and multivariate logistic regression for risk factors analysis. Results Seropositivity was 1.6% (25 cases). Males (2.2%) showed significantly more positivity than females (0.9%) (P= 0.03). There was no significant association between CE seropositivity and age group, occupation, and region. Age group of 30-60 years encompassed the highest rate of positivity. The seropositivity of CE was 2.1% and 1.2% for urban and rural cases respectively. Binary logistic regression showed that males were 2.5 times at higher risk for infection than females. Conclusion Although seroprevalence of CE is relatively low in Qom Province, yet due to the importance of the disease, all preventive measures should be taken into consideration.
Evaluation of Muscle Damage Marker after Mixed Martial Arts Matches

The aim of this paper is to identify predictors of serum muscle damage marker (MDM) response following mixed martial arts (MMA) matches. Creatine kinase activity (CK) and myoglobin concentration (Mb) were measured in ten male elite MMA fighters (aged 28±5.7 years) prior to, 2 h, 24 h, and 96 h following 9 different MMA matches. The number of performed upright punches and kicks (UKF) that failed the opponent, the number of obtained hits to the upper and lower body (LBH), as well as the total fight duration (TFD) were evaluated as potential predictors from video recordings. CK peaked 24 h (829±753 U/L-1) and Mb peaked 2 h (210±122 µg/L-1) post matches. Almost 80% of the peak CK variance could be explained by LBH and UKF, whereas 87% of the Mb variation was explained by TFD and LBH. MMA result in a significant skeletal muscle damage, which largely depends on LBH. Furthermore, eccentric contractions to decelerate kicks that missed the opponent and the TFD seem to contribute to the MDM response.
A Fourth-Order Upwinding Embedded Boundary Method (UEBM) for Maxwell's Equations in Media with Material Interfaces: Part I

In this paper, we present a new fourth-order upwinding embedded boundary method (UEBM) over Cartesian grids, originally proposed in the Journal of Computational Physics (190, pp. 159, 2003) as a second-order method for treating material interfaces for Maxwell's equations. In addition to the idea of the UEBM to evolve solutions at interfaces, we utilize the ghost fluid method to construct finite dierence approximation of spatial deriva- tives at Cartesian grid points near the material interfaces. As a result, Runge-Kutta type time discretization can be used for the semi-discretized system to yield an overall fourth-order method, in contrast to the original second-order UEBM based on a Lax-Wendro type dier- ence. The final scheme allows time step sizes independent of the interface locations. Numerical examples are given to demonstrate the fourth-order accuracy as well as the stability of the method. We tested the scheme for several wave problems with various material interface lo- cations, including electromagnetic scattering of a plane wave incident on a planar boundary and a two-dimensional electromagnetic application with an interface parallel to the y-axis.
Continuous wave terahertz transmission imaging of nonmelanoma skin cancers

Continuous wave terahertz imaging has the potential to offer a safe, noninvasive medical imaging modality for delineating human skin cancers. Terahertz pulse imaging (TPI) has already shown that there is contrast between basal cell carcinoma and normal skin. Continuous‐wave imaging offers a simpler, lower cost alternative to TPI. The goal of this study was to investigate the feasibility of continuous wave terahertz imaging for delineating skin cancers by demonstrating contrast between cancerous and normal tissue in transmission mode.
The assembly bias of dark matter haloes to higher orders

We use an extremely large volume (2.4h 3 Gpc 3 ), high resolution N-body simulation to measure the higher order clustering of dark matter haloes as a function of mass and internal structure. As a result of the large simulation volume and the use of a novel “cross-moment” counts-in-cells technique which suppresses discreteness noise, we are able to measure the clustering of haloes corresponding to rarer peaks than was possible in previous studies; the rarest haloes for which we measure the variance are 100 times more clustered than the dark matter. We are able to extract, for the first time, halo bias parameters from linear up to fourth order. For all orders measured, we find that the bias parameters are a strong function of mass for haloes more massive than the characteristic mass M�. Currently, no theoretical model is able to reproduce this mass dependence closely. We find that the bias parameters also depend on the internal structure of the halo up to fourth order. For haloes more massive than M�, we find that the more concentrated haloes are more weakly clustered than the less concentrated ones. We see no dependence of clustering on concentration for haloes with masses M < M�; this is contrary to the trend reported in the literature when segregating haloes by their formation time. Our results are insensitive to whether haloes are labelled by the total mass returned by the friends-of-friends group finder or by the mass of the most massive substructure. This implies that our conclusions are not an artefact of the particular choice of group finding algorithm. Our results will provide important input to theoretical models of galaxy clustering.
Are plant species inherently harder to discriminate than animal species using DNA barcoding markers?

The ability to discriminate between species using barcoding loci has proved more difficult in plants than animals, raising the possibility that plant species boundaries are less well defined. Here, we review a selection of published barcoding data sets to compare species discrimination in plants vs. animals. Although the use of different genetic markers, analytical methods and depths of taxon sampling may complicate comparisons, our results using common metrics demonstrate that the number of species supported as monophyletic using barcoding markers is higher in animals (> 90%) than plants (~70%), even after controlling for the amount of parsimony‐informative information per species. This suggests that more than a simple lack of variability limits species discrimination in plants. Both animal and plant species pairs have variable size gaps between intra‐ and interspecific genetic distances, but animal species tend to have larger gaps than plants, even in relatively densely sampled genera. An analysis of 12 plant genera suggests that hybridization contributes significantly to variation in genetic discontinuity in plants. Barcoding success may be improved in some plant groups by careful choice of markers and appropriate sampling; however, overall fine‐scale species discrimination in plants relative to animals may be inherently more difficult because of greater levels of gene‐tree paraphyly.
The Classification of Accidental Situations’ Scenarios on Hydropower Plants

The collapse of hydropower plant could lead to significant financial, social and environmental damages. Accordingly the issue of safety and reliability is one of major problems of designing, maintenance and operation. The proposed solution consists in evaluation of implementation frequency of emergencies scenario, which can be defined by suggested classification of accidental situations’ scenarios based on systems analysis to implement incidents on hydropower plants. Emergency scenarios on hydropower plants were proposed to classify by three criteria: the cause, place and character
A Comparison of Reading Levels of High School and Freshmen University Students in Jordan

This study aimed to analyze the readability, appropriateness and difficulty level of the reading texts in Action Pack 11 ( hereafter AP11) which is taught for grade 11 , Action Pack 12 ( hereafter AP 12) that is taught for grade 12 at the schools of The Jordanian Ministry of Education and New Headway Plus Pre-intermediate (hereafter NHWP) that is taught for an introductory English language course in the Jordanian Universities. The sample of the study involved 274 eleventh grade students, 300 twelfth grade students, and 310 freshmen students who were studying CL 099 at Yarmouk University in the academic year 2011/2012. The study employed Flesch Grade Level and Flesch Kincaid Reading Ease formulas to identify the readability level of each textbook. Furthermore, a sixth- word deletion cloze test version of a representative text from each textbook was used to identify the match between the textbooks and the students. The findings of the study revealed that the secondary school textbooks are on average about three grade levels higher in reading difficulty than the textbook of the university level. Furthermore, the cloze test results showed that the majority of the students studying each textbook were at their frustration reading levels.
Effects of Relative Humidity During Incubation on Hatchability and Body Weight of Broiler Chicks from Young Breeder Flocks 1

We conducted an experiment to determine the effect of relative humidity (RH) during incubation on characteristics of hatched chicks from eggs produced by young broiler breeders. Eggs were collected for 6 consecutive d, every other week, in each of two trials from broiler breeder flocks at 26, 28, and 30 wk of age. The eggs were randomly distributed in machines according to RH treatments that were 43, 53, and 63% RH from set to pulling time at 21.75 and 22 d of incubation for Trials 1 and 2, respectively. The same dry bulb temperature (37.5 C) was used throughout incubation for both trials. Body weight at hatch, but not BW at pull (removal from machine), increased significantly with increasing (
A novel modified SFTA approach for feature extraction

To increase the efficiency of conventional Segmentation Based Fractal Texture Analysis (SFTA), we propose a new approach on SFTA algorithm. We use an optimum multilevel thresholding hybrid method of Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), called HGAPSO with the optimization technique for classification based on grey level range to get more accurate output. Experimental results show that proposed approach exhibits average 2% higher classification accuracy than conventional SFTA for our tested dataset.
A satellite view of internal waves induced by the Indian Ocean tsunami

At 08:45 local time (02:45 GMT) on 26 December 2004, 1 h and 45 min after the Sumatra Earthquakes of magnitude 9.3, a devastating tsunami struck the east coast of Sri Lanka. Nearly 2 h and 30 min after the wave hit the coast, a weather satellite passed over Sri Lanka's coastal zone providing a rare glimpse of internal waves along the continental slope due to this tsunami. The satellite imagery indicates wave‐like features from the tsunami being reflected, diffracted, and scattered off the steep continental slope and submarine canyons adjacent to Sri Lanka. The energetic wave and its modification to internal waves possibly eroded sediment from the sea floor and transported it to the sea surface. Solitary features generated by internal waves can explain the observed pattern. Future modelling approaches considering these nonlinear interactions would be required for a better understanding of the tsunami behaviour in the coastal zone, where its destructive effects are most prominent.