Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Illness perceptions and outcome in mild head injury: a longitudinal study

Background: A range of neuropathological and psychosocial factors have been implicated in the aetiology and maintenance of post-concussional syndrome (PCS), with a growing consensus in the literature that this is a complex, multifactorial condition. The role of patients’ perceptions in PCS has not been examined to date. Objective: This longitudinal study examines the role of illness perceptions in predicting outcome following mild head injury, controlling for severity of injury, post-traumatic stress symptoms, anxiety and depression, using a logistic regression analysis. Method: 73 patients were admitted to an accident and emergency department with mild head injury (Glasgow Coma Scale score 13–15; loss of consciousness <20 min; post-traumatic amnesia <24 h). Data on PCS symptomatology, illness perceptions, post-traumatic stress symptoms, anxiety and depression were collected after the injury and at the 3 month follow-up. Logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate predictors of outcome. Results: Following a mild head injury, symptomatic patients who believe that their symptoms have serious negative consequences on their lives and will continue to do so, are at heightened risk of experiencing significant enduring post-concussional symptoms (p<0.001). Adding measures of severity of injury, post-traumatic stress symptoms, anxiety and depression to the regression model did not improve prediction of outcome. Conclusion: Whatever other physical or psychological factors may be involved, patients’ perceptions of their illness early after head injury play a part in the persistence of PCS.
Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems ( PACIS ) 2010 Understanding the Antecedents of SCM Process Performance : The Perspective of IT-Enabled Resources

This study aims to better understand how a firm’s resources can be used to improve performance of supply chain. Extending prior research on the resources-based view, this study develops an integrated model, which delineates the relationship among three IT-related resources, absorptive capacity, and supply chain (SC) process performance. Through a field survey of 205 managers from Taiwan’s firms, most proposed hypotheses are supported, showing that IT-related resources in terms of managerial skills and partner support affect absorptive capacity, which in turn influences performance. This paper offers a new perspective on using firms’ resources from which their SC performance can be improved.
Design and analysis of a visible-light-communication enhanced WiFi system

Visible light communication (VLC) has wide unlicensed bandwidth, enables communication in radiofrequency-sensitive environments, realizes energy-efficient data transmission, and has the potential to boost the capacity of wireless access networks through spatial reuse. On the other hand, WiFi provides more coverage than VLC and does not suffer from the likelihood of blockage due to the line-of-sight requirement of VLC. In order to take the advantages of both WiFi and VLC, we propose and implement two heterogeneous systems with Internet access. One is the hybrid WiFi-VLC system, utilizing a unidirectional VLC channel as the downlink and reserving the WiFi backchannel as the uplink. The asymmetric solution resolves the optical uplink challenges and benefits from the full-duplex communication based on VLC. To further enhance the robustness and increase throughput, the other system is presented, in which we aggregate WiFi and VLC in parallel by leveraging the bonding technique in the Linux operating system. We also theoretically prove the superiority of the aggregated system in terms of average system delay. Online experiment results reveal that the hybrid system outperforms the conventional WiFi for crowded environments in terms of throughput and Web page loading time, and also demonstrate the further improved performance of the aggregated system when considering the blocking duration and the distance between the access point and the user device.
Superoxide Contributes to Development of Salt Sensitivity and Hypertension Induced by Nitric Oxide Deficiency

This study was performed to examine the role of superoxide (O2−) in the development of salt sensitivity and hypertension induced by inhibition of nitric oxide (NO) generation. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were fed with diet containing either normal salt (NS) (0.4% NaCl) or high salt (HS) (4% NaCl). These rats were treated with or without an NO synthase inhibitor, nitro-l-arginine methylester (l-NAME) (15 mg/kg/d) and O2− scavenger, tempol (30 mg/kg per day) in the drinking water for 4 weeks. Systolic blood pressure (SBP) was measured by tail-cuff plethysmography and urine collection was performed during the course of experimental periods. At the end of 4 weeks, l-NAME treatment resulted in greater increases in SBP in HS rats (127±2 to 172±3 mm Hg; n=8) than in NS rats (130±2 to 156±2 mm Hg; n=9). Co-administration of tempol with l-NAME markedly attenuated these SBP responses to a similar level in both HS (128±3 to 147±2 mm Hg; n=8) and NS rats (126±2 to 142±3 mm Hg; n=8). Urinary 8-isoprostane excretion (UIsoV) increased in response to l-NAME treatment that was higher in HS (10.6±0.5 to 21.5±0.8 ng/d) than in NS rats (10.8±0.7 to 16.9±0.6 ng/d). Co-treatment with tempol completely abolished these UIsoV responses to l-NAME in both HS and NS rats but did not alter urinary H2O2 excretion rate. The decreases in urinary nitrate/nitrite excretion in response to l-NAME treatment were not altered by co-administration of tempol in both HS and NS rats. These data suggest that enhancement of O2− activity during NO inhibition contributes to the development of salt sensitivity that is associated with NO-deficient hypertension.
Isolated beacon identification using statistical approach

Location-based services (LBS) have an increasing demand for high accuracy but accurate positioning is available only for outdoor areas. Multiple indoor positioning algorithms have been researched and improved to provide better accuracy. For the purpose of the internet of things Bluetooth 4 (BLE) was introduced. However, a Bluetooth 4 signal is highly affected by obstruction attenuation and multipath. Deploying the BLE beacon could impose a significant cost if a large number of beacons need to be employed to avoid the obstacle attenuation and multipath effects. This paper proposes an algorithm to identify a beacon placed in a different room (isolated beacon). The proposed algorithm has a 68% probability of estimating the correct condition with an accuracy of up to 78% for a high attenuation obstruction. By implementing the algorithm, the results show an average accuracy improvement of 48% with RMSE error decreasing from 7.8 metres to 4.64 metres.
Performance Evolution of Optical Code Conversion Architectures in Hybrid WDM/OCDM OBS Network

This paper investigates the performance of optical code conversion architectures in hybrid technology using wavelength and optical code division multiplexing for optical burst switching network. An OCDM-based multigranularity optical cross-connect is used to enable and convert the optical path switching in bandwidth granularity finer than the wavelength-based path. Such an optical path switched by OCDM-based MG-OXC is capable of hybrid optical code/wavelength conversion along the path from a source to destination. Simulation results indicate that increasing the number of optical codes per wavelength and applying optical code conversion considerably decreases the burst blocking probability and latency, and also increases network throughput. In addition, the results show the advantages of are using sparse-partial optical code conversion architecture in WDM/OCDM OBS network.
Associations between renal function, atrial substrate properties and outcome of catheter ablation in patients with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation.

BACKGROUND Renal dysfunction was reported to be associated with a higher recurrence rate after electric cardioversion of atrial fibrillation (AF). The aim of this study was to investigate the associations between renal function, atrial substrate properties and outcome of catheter ablation in paroxysmal AF patients. METHODS AND RESULTS A total of 232 paroxysmal AF patients that underwent catheter ablation were enrolled in the study. The estimated glomerular filtration rate (GFR) was calculated using the Cockcroft-Gaut equation normalized by the body surface area, and the patients were divided into 3 groups according to their GFR (group 1: ≥ 90 ml·min⁻¹·1.73 m⁻², group 2: 60-90 ml·min⁻¹·1.73 m⁻² and group 3: < 60 ml·min⁻¹·1.73 m⁻²). The left atrial (LA) voltage became lower and the activation time longer when the GFR decreased from group 1 to group 3. During a follow up of 25.4 ± 13.3 months, 15.9% of the study population suffered from AF recurrences. The recurrence rates of those 3 groups were 6.9%, 14.5% and 38.9%, respectively. The LA dimension, LA voltage and groups of renal function were identified to be the independent predictors of an AF recurrence in the multivariate analysis. CONCLUSIONS A decreased GFR was associated with an abnormal LA substrate and high recurrence rate of catheter ablation in patients with paroxysmal AF.
Effects of a semi-synthetic N-,O-sulfated glycosaminoglycan K5 polysaccharide derivative in a rat model of cerebral ischaemia/ reperfusion injury

Summary Heparin and low molecular weight heparins may reduce brain damage evoked by ischaemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury, although their use is hampered by the risk of haemorrhage. Chemical and enzymatic modifications of K5 polysaccharide have shown the possibility to produce heparin-like compounds with low anticoagulant activity and strong anti-inflammatory effects. Using a rat model of transient cerebral I/R, we investigated the effects of an epimerised N-,O-sulfated K5 polysaccharide derivative, K5-N,OSepi, on the infarct size, motor activity and injury caused by ischaemia (30 min) and reperfusion. Reperfusion was allowed for 60 min or 1–5 days. Rats reperfused for 5 days showed an infarct volume of 30.7 ±3.1% and K5-N,OSepi (0.1–1 mg/kg) caused dose-dependent reduction in infarct size (maximum at 1 mg/kg: 13.1 ±2.1% infarct volume). This effect was associated with a significant improvement in motor performance. In the rat hippocampus, one of the brain areas most sensitive to I/R injury, I/R induced a robust increase in myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity, a marker of neutrophil infiltration, that was halved by K5-N,OSepi administration (66.38 ±7.75 µU MPO/tissue g, 30.78 ±5.67 µU MPO/tissue g, respectively). K5-N,OSepi drastically reduced the expression of cyclooxygenase-2,inducible-nitric-oxide-synthase and intercellular-adhesion-molecule-1. I/R-induced activation of nuclear factor-kB was attenuated by drug treatment. Furthermore, K5-N,OSepi administration was associated with a significant modulation of apoptosis markers, such as Bid and Bcl-2. In conclusion, the results demonstrated that the sulfated semi-synthetic K5 derivative K5-N,OSepi protects the brain against I/R injury by disrupting multiple levels of the apoptotic and inflammatory cascade, including inhibition of NF-κB activation.
Spatially Resolved Distribution of Fe Species around Microbes at the Submicron Scale in Natural Bacteriogenic Iron Oxides

Natural bacteriogenic iron oxides (BIOS) were investigated using local-analyzable synchrotron-based scanning transmission X-ray microscopy (STXM) with a submicron-scale resolution. Cell, cell sheath interface (EPS), and sheath in the BIOS were clearly depicted using C-, N-, and O- near edge X-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) obtained through STXM measurements. Fe-NEXAFS obtained from different regions of BIOS indicated that the most dominant iron mineral species was ferrihydrite. Fe(II)- and/or Fe(III)-acidic polysaccharides accompanied ferrihydrite near the cell and EPS regions. Our STXM/NEXAFS analysis showed that Fe species change continuously between the cell, EPS, and sheath under several 10-nm scales.
CitySee: Urban CO2 monitoring with sensors

Motivated by the needs of precise carbon emission measurement and real-time surveillance for CO2 management in cities, we present CitySee, a real-time CO2-monitoring system using sensor networks for an urban area (around 100 square kilometers). In order to conduct environment monitoring in a real-time and long-term manner, CitySee has to address the following challenges, including sensor deployment, data collection, data processing, and network management. In this discussion, we mainly focus on the sensor deployment problem so that necessary requirements like connectivity, coverage, data representability are satisfied. We also briefly go through the solutions for the remaining challenges. In CitySee, the sensor deployment problem can be abstracted as a relay node placement problem under hole-constraint. By carefully taking all constraints and real deployment situations into account, we propose efficient and effective approaches and prove that our scheme uses additional relay nodes at most twice of the minimum. We evaluate the performance of our approach through extensive simulations resembling realistic deployment. The results show that our approach outperforms previous strategies. We successfully apply this design into CitySee, a large-scale wireless sensor network consisting of 1096 relay nodes and 100 sensor nodes in Wuxi City, China.
TGF‐alpha, EGF, and their cognate EGF receptor are co‐expressed with desmin during embryonic, fetal, and neonatal myogenesis in mouse tongue development

The developing mouse tongue provides a model for discrete patterns of morphogenesis during short periods of embryonic development. Occipital somite‐derived myogenic cells interact with cranial neural crest‐derived ectomesenchymal cells to form the musculature of the tongue. The biochemical signals that control close range autocrine and/or paracrine signaling processes required to establish the fast‐twitch complex tongue musculature are not known. The present study was designed to test the hypothesis that desmin, epidermal growth factor (EGF), and transforming growth factor‐alpha (TGFα) and their cognate receptor, epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFr), are co‐expressed during tongue myogenesis and define specific developmental stages of tongue muscle cell differentiation. To test this hypothesis, we performed studies to analyze the timing, position, and concentration of desmin, TGFα, EGF, and EGFr from embryonic day 9 (E9) through birth in Swiss Webster mouse tongue development. Desmin, TGFα, EGF, and EGFr co‐localized to cells of myogenic lineage in the four occipital somites and subsequently in myoblasts and myotubes from E9 through E17. By newborn stage, desmin is localized to discrete regions in myofibers corresponding to Z‐line delimiting sarcomeres, and A‐band within sarcomeres; immunostaining for desmin, TGFα, and EGF persisted in differentiated myotubes and striated skeletal muscle. Desmin increased from 0.01% at E11 to 0.5% of the total protein by E17 and at birth. Concomitantly, the patterns and increases in TGFα, EGF, and EGFr showed significant increases during the same developmental period. The temporal and positional co‐localization of TGFα, EGF, and EGFr support the hypothesis that autocrine and paracrine regulation of desmin by actions of growth factor ligand and receptor defines critical stages of tongue myogenesis. Dev. Dyn. 209:353–366, 1997. © 1997 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Statistics of Free Surface Flow Through a Stochastic Earth

Even though soil is a highly variable material, the analysis of flow through earth dams typically proceeds deterministically and results can sometimes be quite misleading. In fact it is well known that soil permeability varies randomly from point to point in space and an improved earth dam model should incorporate this variability. In this paper the soil permeability in an earth dam of variable geometry is viewed as a weakly stationary spatially random field following a lognormal distribution with prescribed mean, variance, and spatial correlation structure. The mean and variance of the total flow rate through the dam and free surface drawdown are estimated using Monte Carlo simulations. A simplified empirical approach to the prediction of the mean and variance of the flow rate is presented to allow these quantities to be approximated easily and without resorting to simulation.
Towards a Computational History of Ideas

The History of Ideas is presently enjoying a certain renaissance after a long period of disrepute. Increasing quantities of digitally available historical texts and the availability of computational tools for the exploration of such masses of sources, it is suggested, can be of invaluable help to historians of ideas. The question is: how exactly? In this paper, we argue that a computational history of ideas is possible if the following two conditions are satisfied: (i) Sound Method . A computational history of ideas must be built upon a sound theoretical foundation for its methodology, and the only such foundation is given by the use of models , i.e., fully explicit and revisable interpretive frameworks or networks of concepts developed by the historians of ideas themselves. (ii) Data Organisation. Interpretive models in our sense must be seen as topic-specific k nowledge o rganisation s ystems (KOS) implementable (i.e. formalisable) as e.g. computer science ontologies. We thus require historians of ideas to provide explicitly structured semantic framing of domain knowledge before investigating texts computationally, and to constantly re-input findings from the interpretive point of view. In this way, a computational history of ideas maximally profits from computer methods while also keeping humanities experts in the loop. We elucidate our proposal with reference to a model of the notion of axiomatic science in 18 th -19 th century Europe.
Loss of matrilin 1 does not exacerbate the skeletal phenotype in a mouse model of multiple epiphyseal dysplasia caused by a Matn3 V194D mutation

Objective Mutations in matrilin 3 can result in multiple epiphyseal dysplasia (MED), a disease characterized by delayed and irregular bone growth and early-onset osteoarthritis. Although intracellular retention of the majority of mutant matrilin 3 was previously observed in a murine model of MED caused by a Matn3 V194D mutation, some mutant protein was secreted into the extracellular matrix. Thus, it was proposed that secretion of mutant matrilin 3 may be dependent on the formation of hetero-oligomers with matrilin 1. The aim of this study was to investigate the hypothesis that deletion of matrilin 1 would abolish the formation of matrilin 1/matrilin 3 hetero-oligomers, eliminate the secretion of mutant matrilin 3, and influence disease severity. Methods Mice with a Matn3 V194D mutation were crossed with Matn1-null mice, generating mice that were homozygous for V194D and null for matrilin 1. This novel mouse was used for in-depth phenotyping, while cartilage and chondrocytes were studied both histochemically and biochemically. Results Endochondral ossification was not disrupted any further in mice with a double V194D mutation compared with mice with a single mutation. A similar proportion of mutant matrilin 3 was present in the extracellular matrix, and the amount of retained mutant matrilin 3 was not noticeably increased. Retained mutant matrilin 3 formed disulfide-bonded aggregates and caused the co-retention of matrilin 1. Conclusion We showed that secretion of matrilin 3 V194D mutant protein is not dependent on hetero-oligomerization with matrilin 1, and that the total ablation of matrilin 1 expression has no impact on disease severity in mice with MED. Mutant matrilin 3 oligomers form non-native disulfide-bonded aggregates through the misfolded A domain.
Black-box modeling of a Two-Stroke Racing Motorcycle Engine for Virtual Prototyping Applications

In the design process of complex systems, the use of physical prototypes presents many drawbacks in terms of both costs and time. Virtual prototyping tools allow instead the designer to extensively study the system behavior in a variety of configurations, providing the possibility of performing focussed tests and comparing the effectiveness of different solutions before the physical realization of the prototype. When building the virtual prototype, the choice of a suitable model for each of the interacting components is crucial for achieving reliable results. In the simulation of racing vehicles, such as cars or motorcycles, it is common practice to represent the engine torque by means of stationary maps depending on a finite number of constant values of the throttle fraction and the rotational speed of the crankshaft. Although simple to implement and characterize, such model cannot reproduce dynamic transients, and therefore may not be adequate when a detailed analysis of the vehicle behavior is required. In this paper we present the characterization and identification of a nonlinear dynamic model for a two-stroke internal combustion high-performance engine, to be used in the ADAMS multibody virtual prototyping environment. The model is obtained by using neural networks and validated on experimental data
Small intestinal CD103+ dendritic cells display unique functional properties that are conserved between mice and humans

A functionally distinct subset of CD103+ dendritic cells (DCs) has recently been identified in murine mesenteric lymph nodes (MLN) that induces enhanced FoxP3+ T cell differentiation, retinoic acid receptor signaling, and gut-homing receptor (CCR9 and α4β7) expression in responding T cells. We show that this function is specific to small intestinal lamina propria (SI-LP) and MLN CD103+ DCs. CD103+ SI-LP DCs appeared to derive from circulating DC precursors that continually seed the SI-LP. BrdU pulse-chase experiments suggested that most CD103+ DCs do not derive from a CD103− SI-LP DC intermediate. The majority of CD103+ MLN DCs appear to represent a tissue-derived migratory population that plays a central role in presenting orally derived soluble antigen to CD8+ and CD4+ T cells. In contrast, most CD103− MLN DCs appear to derive from blood precursors, and these cells could proliferate within the MLN and present systemic soluble antigen. Critically, CD103+ DCs with similar phenotype and functional properties were present in human MLN, and their selective ability to induce CCR9 was maintained by CD103+ MLN DCs isolated from SB Crohn's patients. Thus, small intestinal CD103+ DCs represent a potential novel target for regulating human intestinal inflammatory responses.