Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mortality Associated With Pulmonary Hypertension in Congenital Rubella Syndrome

OBJECTIVE: Outbreaks of rubella and congenital rubella syndrome (CRS) continue to arise in various countries where a rubella-containing vaccine is not included in the national immunization program. After a large-scale rubella outbreak in 2011, CRS cases emerged in Vietnam. The aim of this study was to clarify the clinical features of these cases with an emphasis on cardiovascular complications and outcomes. METHODS: From October 2011 to September 2012, we conducted a prospective surveillance study of infants <12 months of age who had manifestations suggesting CRS at the only referral hospital in Khanh Hoa Province. These infants underwent standard examinations, echocardiography, cranial ultrasonography, automated auditory brainstem responses, blood cell count measurements, and rubella-specific antibody testing. Detected cardiovascular defects were regularly followed with echocardiography. RESULTS: We enrolled 38 cases of CRS characterized by a low birth weight (71%), cardiovascular defects (72%), cataracts (13%), hearing impairment (93%), purpura (84%), hepatosplenomegaly (68%), and thrombocytopenia (76%). Patent ductus arteriosus, the most common cardiovascular complication, was often associated with progressive pulmonary hypertension (PH). As of January 2013, 13 infants (34%) had died, and PH was significantly more frequent among the fatalities (P = .004); however, therapeutic closure of the ductus reversed the PH in several cases. CONCLUSIONS: PH-associated mortality is high among infants who have CRS in Vietnam. Providing proper assessments, continuous follow-up, and timely intervention for cardiovascular defects is critical for the management of CRS patients. Echocardiography is of diagnostic and prognostic value and can support better clinical management of CRS, even in a developing country setting.
Human B cell activation. Evidence for diverse signals provided by various monoclonal anti-IgM antibodies

Seven murine monoclonal antibodies (mAb) with different binding characteristics for human IgM varied markedly in their ability to induce proliferation of T cell-depleted human splenocytes. Two mAb (HB57 and 5D7) that bound to distinct epitopes on IgM were highly effective initiators of B cell proliferation at very low concentrations, in the presence of a T cell factor source. In the absence of T cell supernatant, both HB57 and 5D7 mAbs produced a markedly reduced degree of stimulation at all concentrations. Two additional anti-IgM mAb (VIIIE11 and Mu53) were distinctive in that, even at high concentrations, only limited proliferation was observed compared with the first group of mAb. This proliferation depended on the presence of T cell supernatant. Competitive-binding studies revealed that the epitope recognized by mAb Mu53 may be identical or very proximate to that recognized by HB57. Three other mAb (1G6, XG9, and P24) induced little or no proliferation. 1G6 bound to a unique epitope on the IgM molecule, whereas XG9 shared a determinant with VIIIE11 mAb. Regulatory influences of Fc receptor binding cannot account for all the diversity in proliferation observed with the individual anti-IgM mAb. Markedly augmented proliferation was obtained when B cells were cultured with certain combinations of anti-IgM mAb in the presence of exogenous T cell supernatant. The proliferation induced in the absence of T cell supernatant by high concentrations of mAb mixtures that included 1G6 approached that observed for the same mixtures in the presence of T cell supernatant. The data suggest that certain signals delivered through membrane IgM can bypass the need for T cell supernatant in the activation of human B lymphocytes.
Isolation of an enzyme complex with carbon monoxide dehydrogenase activity containing corrinoid and nickel from acetate-grown Methanosarcina thermophila

Fast protein liquid chromatography of cell extract from methanol- or acetate-grown Methanosarcina thermophila resolved two peaks of CO dehydrogenase activity. The activity of one of the CO dehydrogenases was sixfold greater in acetate-grown compared with methanol-grown cells. This CO dehydrogenase was purified to apparent homogeneity (70 mumol of methyl viologen reduced per min per mg of protein) and made up greater than 10% of the cellular protein of acetate-grown cells. The native enzyme (Mr 250,000) formed aggregates with an Mr of approximately 1,000,000. The enzyme contained five subunits (Mrs 89,000, 71,000, 60,000, 58,000, and 19,000), suggesting a multifunctional enzyme complex. Nickel, iron, cobalt, zinc, inorganic sulfide, and a corrinoid were present in the complex. The UV-visible spectrum suggested the presence of iron-sulfur centers. The electron paramagnetic resonance spectrum contained g values of 2.073, 2.049, and 2.028; these features were broadened in enzyme that was purified from cells grown in the presence of medium enriched with 61Ni, indicating the involvement of this metal in the spectrum. The pattern of potassium cyanide inhibition indicated that cyanide binds at or near the CO binding site. The properties of the enzyme imply an involvement in the dissimilation of acetate to methane, possibly by cleavage of acetate or activated acetate.
Integrated Droplet Routing in the Synthesis of Microfluidic Biochips

Microfluidic biochips are revolutionizing many areas of biochemistry and biomedical sciences. Several synthesis tools have recently been proposed for the automated design of biochips from the specifications of laboratory protocols. However, only a few of these tools address the problem of droplet routing in microfluidic arrays. These methods typically rely on post-synthesis droplet routing to implement biochemical protocols. Such an approach is not only time-consuming, but it also imposes an undue burden on the chip user. Moreover, post-synthesis droplet routing does not guarantee that feasible droplet pathways can be found for area-constrained biochip layouts; non-routable fabricated biochips must be discarded. We present a droplet-routing-aware automated synthesis tool for microfluidic biochips. Droplet routability, defined as the ease with which droplet pathways can be determined, is estimated and integrated in the synthesis flow. The proposed approach allows architectural-level design choices and droplet-routing-aware physical design decisions to be made simultaneously. We use a large-scale protein assay as a case study to evaluate the proposed synthesis method.
Experimental analysis of the thermal performance of plastering mortars comprising hybrid phase change materials for increased energy efficiency in buildings

Several research studies have forwarded the possibility of incorporating microencapsulated phase change materials (PCM) in plastering mortars for building façades, in pursuit of increased energy efficiency associated to the heat storage capacity of PCM. Nonetheless, most of these studies are centred in the use of a single type of PCM, which is bound to be more adequate for a given season of the year (e.g. winter or summer) than for other seasons, particularly in the case of South-European countries. The study proposed in this work regards the evaluation of the possibility of using more than one kind of PCM (with distinct melting ranges) in plastering mortars, in order to achieve adequately advantageous performance in both heating and cooling seasons. In order to characterize the PCM there are two parameters (enthalpy and phase change temperature) that should be adequately measured. The main purpose of this study was to show feasibility and to evaluate the behaviour of mortars that contain hybrid PCM’s with Differential Scanning Calorimeter testing (DSC). The knowledge obtained from the experimental testing shall establish bases for a framework of numerical simulation of real scale applications, which can be used to ascertain the feasibility of the hybrid PCM concept for increased energy efficiency in buildings.
Automatic detection of sentence boundaries and disfluencies based on recognized words

We study the problem of detecting linguistic events at interword boundaries, such as sentence boundaries and disfluency locations, in speech transcribed by an automatic recognizer. Recovering such events is crucial to facilitate speech understanding and other natural language processing tasks. Our approach is based on a combination of prosodic cues modeled by decision trees, and word-based event N-gram language models. Several model combination approaches are investigated. The techniques are evaluated on conversational speech from the Switchboard corpus. Model combination is shown to give a significant win over individual knowledge sources.
Algorithmic and architectural enhancements for real-time MPEG-1 decoding on a general purpose RISC workstation

Traditional video decoders require use of specially designed video decompression processors. We present novel algorithmic and architectural enhancements that allowed for the first time the real-time decompression of MPEG-1 video and audio streams on a low-end, general purpose RISC processor. For video decompression, efficient algorithmic implementations were derived by examining the Huffman decoder, the inverse quantizer and the inverse DCT as a single system. For audio decompression, a new DCT based implementation of the subband filtering operation yields 30% speed improvement in the audio decoding process and 17% speed improvement in overall audio and video decoding. Besides algorithmic enhancements, a new set of "multimedia" instructions and minor changes in the design of a traditional RISC ALU allowed increased parallelism of pixel-based operations with minimal design and control overhead. Experimental results show that with the synergistic combination of algorithmic and architectural enhancements a multimedia-enhanced RISC processor can achieve higher decoding rates than generic RISC and CISC processors, even when these processors operate at higher clock rates and have larger instruction and data caches. >
Impact of Transistor Architecture (Bulk Planar, Trigate on Bulk, Ultrathin-Body Planar SOI) and Material (Silicon or III–V Semiconductor) on Variation for Logic and SRAM Applications

The need to enhance transistor performance below 22-nm node has brought in a change in transistor architecture from planar bulk to either ultrathin-body SOI (UTB SOI) or 3-D trigate transistors. Further improvement in transistor performance at sub-7-nm node is likely to require replacement of silicon channel with high-mobility compound semiconductor (III-V) materials. This paper presents a numerical 3-D simulation study of process variation and sidewall roughness/surface roughness effects on 3-D trigate (tapered and rectangular cross sections) on bulk and UTB SOI devices. We also investigate the effects of variation on future III-V trigate transistors using the same 3-D TCAD scheme. The results show that the threshold voltage variation value, ΔVT, in rectangular Si trigate and UTB SOI due to all the variation sources are 13.1 and 24.6 mV, respectively. Moreover, between Si and III-V compound semiconductors, the In0.53Ga0.47As trigate shows 1.5 times lower total ΔVT value making it a promising candidate for Si replacement. A Monte Carlo study of 6T SRAM cell with fin width or body thickness variation show that the 3σ value of read static noise margin [3σ (RSNM)] is least in SRAMs with rectangular Si trigate. This paper also shows that a 6T SRAM cell at different VCC shows that a Si trigate has VCCmin below 0.4 V.
USF1 Contributes to High Serum Lipid Levels in Dutch FCHL Families and U.S. Whites With Coronary Artery Disease

Objective— Familial combined hyperlipidemia (FCHL) characterized by high serum total cholesterol and/or triglycerides (TGs) is a common dyslipidemia predisposing to coronary artery disease (CAD). Recently, the upstream transcription factor 1 (USF1) was linked and associated with FCHL and TGs in Finnish FCHL families. Here we examined the previously associated rs3737787 SNP in extended Dutch FCHL families (n=532) and in a cohort of US subjects who underwent diagnostic coronary angiography (n=1533). Methods and Results— In males of the Dutch FCHL families, we observed significant sex-dependent associations between the common allele of rs3737787 and FCHL, TGs, and related metabolic traits (P=0.02 to 0.006). In the U.S. Whites, sex-dependent associations with TGs and related metabolic traits were observed for the common allele of rs3737787 in males (P=0.04 to 0.02) and rare allele in females (P=0.05 to 0.002). This intriguing relationship was further supported by the highly significant genotype x sex interactions observed for TGs in the Dutch and TGs and body mass index (BMI) in U.S. White subjects with CAD (P=0.0005 to 0.00004). Conclusion— These data show that USF1 influences several cardiovascular risk factors in a sex-dependent manner in Dutch FCHL families and U.S. Whites with CAD. A significant interaction between sex and genotype was shown to affect TGs and BMI.
Functional Recovery of Damaged Skeletal Muscle Through Synchronized Vasculogenesis, Myogenesis, and Neurogenesis by Muscle-Derived Stem Cells

Background— Recent studies have shown that skeletal muscle–derived stem cells (MDSCs) can give rise to several cell lineages after transplantation. However, the potential therapeutic uses of MDSCs, the functional significance of the transplanted tissue, and vasculogenesis, myogenesis, and reconstitution of other tissues have yet to be investigated in detail. In addition, the relationship between MDSCs and mesenchymal bone marrow cells is of interest. Methods and Results— We developed a severe-damage model of mouse tibialis anterior muscle with a large deficit of nerve fibers, muscle fibers, and blood vessels. We investigated the potential therapeutic use of freshly isolated CD34+/45− (Sk-34) cells. Results showed that, after transplantation, implanted cells give rise to myogenic, vascular (pericytes, vascular smooth muscle cells, and endothelial cells), and neural (Schwann) cells, as well as contributing to the synchronized reconstitution of blood vessels, muscle fibers, and peripheral nerves, with significant recovery of both mass and contractile function after transplantation. Investigation of Sk-34 cell transplantation to the renal capsule (nonmuscle tissue) and fluorescence in situ hybridization analysis for the transplanted muscle detecting the Y chromosome revealed the intrinsic plasticity of the Sk-34 cell population. In addition, there were no donor-derived Sk-34 cells in the muscle of lethally irradiated bone marrow–transplanted animals, indicating that the Sk-34 cells were not derived from bone marrow. Conclusions— These findings indicate that freshly isolated skeletal muscle–derived Sk-34 cells are potentially useful for reconstitution therapy of the vascular, muscular, and peripheral nervous systems. These results provide new insights into somatic stem and/or progenitor cells with regard to vasculogenesis, myogenesis, and neurogenesis.
Where's @wally?: a classification approach to geolocating users based on their social ties

This paper presents an approach to geolocating users of online social networks, based solely on their 'friendship' connections. We observe that users interact more regularly with those closer to themselves and hypothesise that, in many cases, a person's social network is sufficient to reveal their location. The geolocation problem is formulated as a classification task, where the most likely city for a user without an explicit location is chosen amongst the known locations of their social ties. Our method uses an SVM classifier and a number of features that reflect different aspects and characteristics of Twitter user networks. The SVM classifier is trained and evaluated on a dataset of Twitter users with known locations. Our method outperforms a state-of-the-art method for geolocating users based on their social ties.
A divisive spectral method for network community detection

Community detection is a fundamental problem in the domain of complex network analysis. It has received great attention, and many community detection methods have been proposed in the last decade. In this paper, we propose a divisive spectral method for identifying community structures from networks which utilizes a sparsification operation to pre-process the networks first, and then uses a repeated bisection spectral algorithm to partition the networks into communities. The sparsification operation makes the community boundaries clearer and sharper, so that the repeated spectral bisection algorithm extract high-quality community structures accurately from the sparsified networks. Experiments show that the combination of network sparsification and a spectral bisection algorithm is highly successful, the proposed method is more effective in detecting community structures from networks than the others.
EFFECT OF RUBBER-BITUMEN INTERACTION ON THE MECHANICAL DURABILITY OF IMPACT ABSORBING ASPHALT

This paper describes results from a laboratory investigation that has been undertaken to investigate the effects of the interaction between an SBS modified bitumen and recycled crumb rubber on the mechanical performance of Impact Absorbing Asphalt (IAA) which has sports, safety surface and civil engineering applications. Curing tests at high temperatures have been undertaken using different rubber-bitumen ratios to assess the amount of bitumen absorbed by the rubber. To assess the effect of the rubber-bitumen interaction on the mechanical durability of the IAA, an abrasive wear test has been developed to simulate the contact between a twisting foot and the surface. This test has been used to compare the mechanical durability of laboratory prepared specimens that have been artificially aged at high temperatures (to simulate the mixing and transportation period before the material is laid and compacted). Results show that there is an effect on the mechanical durability of the aged material due to the interaction between the rubber and the bitumen. To assess the cause of the reduction in mechanical durability of the material, residual bitumen from the curing tests has been tested using the Dynamic Shear Rheometer (DSR) to assess the effect of the rubber-bitumen interaction on the rheological characteristics of the residual bitumen. The results show that significant absorption takes place and the residual bitumen undergoes alterations in terms of its stiffness and viscoelastic balance. For the covering abstract see ITRD E107185.
Resolving the Trophic Relations of Cryptic Species: An Example Using Stable Isotope Analysis of Dolphin Teeth

Understanding the foraging ecology and diet of animals can play a crucial role in conservation of a species. This is particularly true where species are cryptic and coexist in environments where observing feeding behaviour directly is difficult. Here we present the first information on the foraging ecology of a recently identified species of dolphin (Southern Australian bottlenose dolphin (SABD)) and comparisons to the common bottlenose dolphin (CBD) in Victoria, Australia, using stable isotope analysis of teeth. Stable isotope signatures differed significantly between SABD and CBD for both δ13C (−14.4‰ vs. −15.5‰ respectively) and δ15N (15.9‰ vs. 15.0‰ respectively), suggesting that the two species forage in different areas and consume different prey. This finding supports genetic and morphological data indicating that SABD are distinct from CBD. In Victoria, the SABD is divided into two distinct populations, one in the large drowned river system of Port Phillip Bay and the other in a series of coastal lakes and lagoons called the Gippsland Lakes. Within the SABD species, population differences were apparent. The Port Phillip Bay population displayed a significantly higher δ15N than the Gippsland Lakes population (17.0‰ vs. 15.5‰), suggesting that the Port Phillip Bay population may feed at a higher trophic level - a result which is supported by analysis of local food chains. Important future work is required to further understand the foraging ecology and diet of this newly described, endemic, and potentially endangered species of dolphin.
Grain Size Effect in Sheet Metal Microforming Simulation Adopting Strain Gradient Concept

A strain gradient dependent crystal plasticity approach is adopted to model the size effect in the microforming process of sheet metal. To take into account the grain size effect in the simulation, the total slip resistance in each active system was assumed to be due to a mixed population of forest obstacles arising from both statistically stored and geometrically necessary dislocations. The non-local crystal plasticity has been established by directly incorporating the above slip resistance into the conventional rate-dependent crystal plasticity and implemented into the Abaqus/Standard FE platform by developing the user subroutine UMAT. The formulation has been recapitulated and followed by presentation of the numerical examples employing both the local and non-local formulation. The comparison of the counterpart simulation results reveals the grain size effect in the microforming process and demonstrates the availability of the code developed.
Epigallocatechin-Gallate Enhances the Activity of Tetracycline in Staphylococci by Inhibiting Its Efflux from Bacterial Cells

ABSTRACT Epigallocatechin-gallate (EGCg), the major catechin present in green tea extracts, has been shown to have several antibacterial activities, limiting bacterial growth and invasion and acting in synergy with β-lactam antibiotics. In this article, we report that EGCg at doses half and below its calculated MIC of 100 μg/ml, is able to reverse tetracycline resistance in staphylococcal isolates expressing the specific efflux pump Tet(K) and appears to improve the MICs of tetracycline for susceptible staphylococcal isolates as well. The visible effect of EGCg is an increased accumulation of tetracycline inside bacterial cells. This effect is likely due to the inhibition of pump activity, and it is evident not only for Tet(K) pumps but also for efflux pumps of a different class [Tet(B)]. In summary, our data indicate that the observed dramatic enhancement by EGCg of tetracycline activity for resistant staphylococcal isolates is caused by impairment of tetracycline efflux pump activity and increased intracellular retention of the drug, suggesting a possible use of EGCg as an adjuvant in antibacterial therapy.
Towards a novel generation of haptic and robotic interfaces: Integrating affective physiology in human-robot interaction

Haptic interfaces are special robots that interact with people to convey touch-related information. In addition to such a discriminative aspect, touch is also a highly emotion-related sense. However, while a lot of effort has been spent to investigate the perceptual mechanisms of discriminative touch and to suitably replicate them through haptic systems in human robot interaction (HRI), there is still a lot of work to do in order to take into account also the emotional aspects of tactual experience (i.e., the so-called affective haptics), for a more naturalistic human-robot communication. In this paper, we report evidences on how a haptic device designed to convey caress-like stimuli can influence physiological measures related to the autonomous nervous system (ANS), which is intimately connected to evoked emotions in humans. Specifically, a discriminant role of electrodermal response and heart rate variability can be associated to two different caressing velocities, which can also be linked to two different levels of pleasantness. Finally, we discuss how the results from this study could be profitably employed and generalized to pave the path towards a novel generation of robotic devices for HRI.