Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Estimation of pulmonary capillary pressure in intact dog lungs using the arterial occlusion technique.

We describe a technique for the estimation of pulmonary capillary pressure from arterial pressure profiles recorded during occlusion of blood flow in a quasi-intact dog lung preparation. In this preparation, the lower lobe of the left lung was perfused directly by the right ventricle while its venous outflow was collected in a reservoir before being recirculated into the animal. Arterial occlusion maneuvers were accomplished by inflating the balloon of a Swan-Ganz catheter positioned in the left lower lobe artery. The instant of occlusion was precisely determined as the time during the balloon inflation when the pressure inside the balloon reached a maximal value. The arterial pressure profile recorded after inflation of the Swan-Ganz balloon was analyzed in the following manner to estimate the capillary pressure: first, a single exponential approximation of the pressure decay was computed over a short segment of the postocclusion pressure data. The extrapolation of the exponential fit toward the instant of occlusion (Pa0) yielded a first estimate of the capillary pressure. A second estimate was selected as point at which the pressure tracing merged with the exponential fit (Pa0+). These estimates were compared to the double occlusion pressure, which was used as a reference value of the capillary pressure (Pcap). Our results show that the extrapolation of the exponential fit toward the instant of occlusion gave an accurate estimation of the pulmonary capillary pressure over a wide range of pressures: Pa0 = 0.95 (+/- 0.04). Pcap, and the slope of this relationship was not statistically different from 1. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Who Makes Trends? Understanding Demographic Biases in Crowdsourced Recommendations

Users of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter rely on crowdsourced content recommendation systems (for example, Trending Topics) to retrieve important and useful information. Contents selected for recommendation indirectly give the initial users who promoted (by liking or posting) the content an opportunity to propagate their messages to a wider audience. Hence, it is important to understand the demographics of people who make a content worthy of recommendation, and explore whether they are representative of the media site's overall population. In this work, using extensive data collected from Twitter, we make the first attempt to quantify and explore the demographic biases in the crowdsourced recommendations. Our analysis, focusing on the selection of trending topics, finds that a large fraction of trends are promoted by crowds whose demographics are significantly different from the overall Twitter population. More worryingly, we find that certain demographic groups are systematically under-represented among the promoters of the trending topics. To make the demographic biases in Twitter trends more transparent, we developed and deployed a Web-based service Who-Makes-Trends at twitter-app.mpi-sws.org/who-makes-trends.
Speech disorders in students in Belo Horizonte.

PURPOSE To describe speech disorders in students from 1st to 4th grades, and to investigate possible associations between these disorders and stomatognathic system and auditory processing disorders. METHODS Cross-sectional study with stratified random sample composed of 288 students, calculated based on an universe of 1,189 children enrolled in public schools from the area covered by a health center in Belo Horizonte. The median age was 8.9 years, and 49.7% were male. Assessment used a stomatognathic system protocol adapted from the Myofunctional Evaluation Guidelines, the Phonology task of the ABFW - Child Language Test, and a simplified auditory processing evaluation. Data were statistically analyzed. RESULTS From the subjects studied, 31.9% had speech disorder. From these, 18% presented phonetic deviation, 9.7% phonological deviation, and 4.2% phonetic and phonological deviation. Linguistic variation was observed in 38.5% of the children. There was a higher proportion of children with phonetic deviation in 1st grade, and a higher proportion of children younger than 8 years old with both phonetic and phonological deviations. Phonetic deviation was associated to stomatognathic system disorder, and phonological deviation was associated to auditory processing disorder. CONCLUSION The prevalence of speech disorders in 1st to 4th grade students is considered high. Moreover, these disorders are associated to other Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology alterations, which suggest that one disorder may be a consequence of the other, indicating the need for early diagnosis and intervention.
Profound Depletion of HIV-1 Transcription in Patients Initiating Antiretroviral Therapy during Acute Infection

Background Although combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) initiated in the acute phase of HIV-1 infection may prevent expansion of the latent reservoir, its benefits remain controversial. In the current study, HIV-1 RNA transcription patterns in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) were monitored during acute cART to assess the effect of early treatment on cellular viral reservoirs. Methodology/Principal Findings Acutely HIV-1 infected patients (n = 24) were treated within 3–15 weeks after infection. Patients elected to cease treatment after ≥1 year of therapy. HIV-1 DNA (vDNA), HIV-1 RNA species expressed both in latently and productively infected cells, unspliced (UsRNA), multiply spliced (MsRNA-tatrev; MsRNA-nef), and PBMC-associated extracellular virion RNA (vRex), expressed specifically by productively infected cells, were quantified in PBMC by patient matched real-time PCR prior, during and post cART. In a matched control-group of patients on successful cART started during chronic infection (n = 15), UsRNA in PBMC and vDNA were measured cross-sectionally. In contrast to previous reports, PBMC-associated HIV-1 RNAs declined to predominantly undetectable levels on cART. After cART cessation, UsRNA, vRex, and MsRNA-tatrev rebounded to levels not significantly different to those at baseline (p>0.1). In contrast, MsRNA-nef remained significantly lower as compared to pretreatment (p = 0.015). UsRNA expressed at the highest levels of all viral RNAs, was detectable on cART in 42% of patients with cART initiated during acute infection as opposed to 87% of patients on cART initiated during chronic infection (Fisher's exact test; p = 0.008). Accordingly, UsRNA levels were 105–fold lower in the acute as compared to the chronic group. Conclusion Early intervention resulted in profound depletion of PBMC expressing HIV-1 RNA. This is contrary to chronically infected patients who predominantly showed continuous UsRNA expression on cART. Thus, antiretroviral treatment initiated during the acute phase of infection prevented establishment or expansion of long-lived transcriptionally active viral cellular reservoirs in peripheral blood.
Homo- and heteromeric assembly of TRPV channel subunits

The vanilloid receptor-related TRP channels (TRPV1-6) mediate thermosensation, pain perception and epithelial Ca2+ entry. As the specificity of TRPV channel heteromerization and determinants governing the assembly of TRPV subunits were largely elusive, we investigated the TRPV homo- and heteromultimerization. To analyze the assembly of TRPV subunits in living cells, we generated fluorescent fusion proteins or FLAG-tagged TRPV channel subunits. The interaction between TRPV subunits was assessed by analysis of the subcellular colocalization, fluorescence resonance energy transfer and coimmunoprecipitation. Our results demonstrate that TRPV channel subunits do not combine arbitrarily. With the exception of TRPV5 and TRPV6, TRPV channel subunits preferentially assemble into homomeric complexes. Truncation of TRPV1, expression of cytosolic termini of TRPV1 or TRPV4 and construction of chimeric TRPV channel subunits revealed that the specificity and the affinity of the subunit interaction is synergistically provided by interaction modules located in the transmembrane domains and in the cytosolic termini. The relative contribution of intramolecularly linked interaction modules presumably controls the overall affinity and the specificity of TRPV channel assembly.
Reduced BACE1 Activity Enhances Clearance of Myelin Debris and Regeneration of Axons in the Injured Peripheral Nervous System

β-Site amyloid precursor protein (APP) cleaving enzyme 1 (BACE1) is an aspartyl protease best known for its role in generating the amyloid-β peptides that are present in plaques of Alzheimer's disease. BACE1 has been an attractive target for drug development. In cultured embryonic neurons, BACE1-cleaved N-terminal APP is further processed to generate a fragment that can trigger axonal degeneration, suggesting a vital role for BACE1 in axonal health. In addition, BACE1 cleaves neuregulin 1 type III, a protein critical for myelination of peripheral axons by Schwann cells during development. Here, we asked whether axonal degeneration or axonal regeneration in adult nerves might be affected by inhibition or elimination of BACE1. We report that BACE1 knock-out and wild-type nerves degenerated at a similar rate after axotomy and to a similar extent in the experimental neuropathies produced by administration of paclitaxel and acrylamide. These data indicate N-APP is not the sole culprit in axonal degeneration in adult nerves. Unexpectedly, however, we observed that BACE1 knock-out mice had markedly enhanced clearance of axonal and myelin debris from degenerated fibers, accelerated axonal regeneration, and earlier reinnervation of neuromuscular junctions, compared with littermate controls. These observations were reproduced in part by pharmacological inhibition of BACE1. These data suggest BACE1 inhibition as a therapeutic approach to accelerate regeneration and recovery after peripheral nerve damage.
Enhancing Corporate Performance Management with Performatica Application

This paper presents the use of a software tool, called Performatica, to enhance Corporate Performance Management (CPM) in organizations. CPM has been recognized as having an important role to play in the effective management of organizations. However, a number of researchers have identified that developing IT support for CPM systems can be difficult. Organization s needs clear idea of the characteristics of CPM, and clear guidelines on how to bring IT support to effective CPM. This paper demonstrates the use of Performatica constructed based on the concept of evolutionary development, data quality, and data warehousing. The feasibility and effectiveness of Performatica was evaluated in two participatory case studies at large Thai companies.
Effects of cold temperature, moisture and freeze-thaw cycles on the mechanical properties of unidirectional glass fiber-epoxy composites

´The durability of composite materials used for wind turbines blades exposed to a northern climate presents uncertainties as their behavior for very cold temperature applications is not completely understood. The goal of this project is to confront actual theories to experimental results for mechanical properties of unidirectional glass-epoxy composites exposed to moisture, cold temperature and freeze-thaw cycles. Tests were made at ambient temperature and -40℃ on four sample families. The families consisted of either dry or moisture saturated specimens, of which half of the families were further conditioned with 100 freeze-thaw cycles between -40℃ and 40℃. Tensile, compressive and short beam shear tests were conducted. Results showed the inadequacy of classical theories for predicting strength of the specimens exposed to low temperature and/or moisture. Contrary to the results presented in most of the literature, freeze-thaw cycles did not significantly change the strength or modulus of the test specimens. However, low temperature provided an important increase in strength while modulus was retained. Moisture had a stronger effect on properties than models would predict but there was no evidence of a synergistic effect between moisture and temperature. Comparison of the results with those presented in the literature shows that the behavior of composites exposed to low temperatures or freezethaw cycles is very sensitive to the nature of the constituents and the molding process used to produce the parts.
Molecular mechanisms of vascular effects of High-density lipoprotein: alterations in cardiovascular disease

Low high‐density lipoprotein (HDL)‐cholesterol levels are associated with an increased risk of coronary artery disease (CAD) and myocardial infarction, which has triggered the hypothesis that HDL, in contrast to low‐density lipoprotein (LDL), acts as an anti‐atherogenic lipoprotein. Moreover, experimental studies have identified potential anti‐atherogenic properties of HDL, including promotion of macrophage cholesterol efflux and direct endothelial‐protective effects of HDL, such as stimulation of endothelial nitric oxide production and repair, anti‐apoptotic, anti‐inflammatory and anti‐thrombotic properties. Studies in gene‐targeted mice, however, have also indicated that increasing HDL‐cholesterol plasma levels can either limit (e.g. apolipoprotein A‐I) or accelerate (e.g. Scavenger receptor class B type I) atherosclerosis. Moreover, vascular effects of HDL have been observed to be heterogenous and are altered in patients with CAD or diabetes, a condition that has been termed ‘HDL dysfunction’. These alterations in biological functions of HDL may need to be taken into account for HDL‐targeted therapies and considering raising of HDL‐cholesterol levels alone is likely not sufficient in this respect. It will therefore be important to further determine, which biological functions of HDL are critical for its anti‐atherosclerotic properties, as well as how these can be measured and targeted.
Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery

Surgical treatment of coronary artery disease should increase regional coronary flow re‐ serve and not increase any early or late morbidity and mortality more than the other treatment modalities. In the past 50 years, surgical treatment of coronary artery disease has been adapted rapidly worldwide and several techniques have been developed to de‐ crease total surgical risks and to improve early and late results with the highest level of quality of life. In spite of the last guidelines that offer stents for single or multiple vessels disease, the fact is that surgical revascularization has better outcomes in all groups of cor‐ onary artery patients. In the past two decades, the main target has been to limit or elimi‐ nate side effects of extracorporeal circulation and cardioplegia (off-pump), and general anesthesia (awake coronary bypass). The prime goal of surgical revascularization is to ob‐ tain complete revascularization by bypassing all severe stenotic coronary arteries having a diameter larger than 1 mm. Surgical revascularization with cardiopulmonary bypass through a full sternotomy remains the most widely used surgical technique. With the de‐ velopment of stabilization devices, off-pump procedures can be safely performed in most patients with single or multivessel disease. Minimal invasive and/or robotic surgery is an attractive procedure to catch invasive cardiology. The gold standard strategy involves single graft to single target vessel bypass, especially the left internal mammary artery to the left anterior descending artery. The early cumulative mortality rate is below 3%, but lower than 1% in lower-risk patients. There are some variables most predictive of early mortality: older age, female, reoperation, non-elective surgery, left ventricular dysfunc‐ tion, accelerated atherosclerosis. The survival rate is higher than 65% for 15 years. Late mortality is dependent not only on non-use of internal mammarian artery, closure of grafts, progression of native arterial disease but also on comorbidities. Satisfactory quali‐ ty of life after surgery depends on the long-term duration of the freedom from angina, heart failure, rehospitalization and reintervention, and improvement of the exercise ca‐ pacity. Return of angina during the first 6 months depends on incomplete revasculariza‐ tion or graft failure, whereas progression of native-vessel disease and grafts are serious risk factors for the late recurrence of angina. Venous graft occlusion is the most common reason for reintervention, and native vessel disease is the second.
Provable algorithms for machine learning problems

Modern machine learning algorithms can extract useful information from text, images and videos. All these applications involve solving NP-hard problems in average case using heuristics. What properties of the input allow it to be solved efficiently? Theoretically analyzing the heuristics is often very challenging. Few results were known. This thesis takes a different approach: we identify natural properties of the input, then design new algorithms that provably works assuming the input has these properties. We are able to give new, provable and sometimes practical algorithms for learning tasks related to text corpus, images and social networks. The first part of the thesis presents new algorithms for learning thematic structure in documents. We show under a reasonable assumption, it is possible to provably learn many topic models, including the famous Latent Dirichlet Allocation. Our algorithm is the first provable algorithms for topic modeling. An implementation runs 50 times faster than latest MCMC implementation and produces comparable results. The second part of the thesis provides ideas for provably learning deep, sparse representations. We start with sparse linear representations, and give the first algorithm for dictionary learning problem with provable guarantees. Then we apply similar ideas to deep learning: under reasonable assumptions our algorithms can learn a deep network built by denoising autoencoders. The final part of the thesis develops a framework for learning latent variable models. We demonstrate how various latent variable models can be reduced to orthogonal tensor decomposition, and then be solved using tensor power method. We give a tight perturbation analysis for tensor power method, which reduces the number of samples required to learn many latent variable models. In theory, the assumptions in this thesis help us understand why intractable problems in machine learning can often be solved; in practice, the results suggest inherently new approaches for machine learning. We hope the assumptions and algorithms inspire new research problems and learning algorithms.
Recent advances in loss minimization algorithms for IPMSM drives

This paper provides a comprehensive review of different loss minimization algorithms (LMAs) for interior permanent magnet synchronous motor (IPMSM) drives. The modelling of IPMSM incorporating the iron loss is also presented in this paper. The two major loss minimization algorithms such as search-based and loss model-based are compared. The loss minimization techniques using those two algorithms are presented. The real-time implementation of the IPMSM drive incorporating the LMA is discussed. Finally, sample simulation and experimental results of the IPMSM drive with some LMA are presented.
Combination benefit of treatment with the cytokine inhibitors interleukin-1 receptor antagonist and PEGylated soluble tumor necrosis factor receptor type I in animal models of rheumatoid arthritis.

OBJECTIVE To determine the potential for additive or synergistic effects of combination therapy with the recombinant anticytokine agents interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1Ra) and PEGylated soluble tumor necrosis factor receptor type I (PEG sTNFRI) in established type H collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) and developing adjuvant-induced arthritis (AIA) in rats. METHODS Rats with established CIA or developing AIA were treated with various doses of IL-1Ra in a slow-release hyaluronic acid vehicle or with PEG sTNFRI, either alone or in combination with the IL-1Ra. The effects of treatment were monitored by sequential caliper measurements of the ankle joints or hind paw volumes, final paw weights, and histologic evaluation with particular emphasis on bone and cartilage lesions. RESULTS Combination therapy with IL-1Ra and PEG sTNFRI in rats with CIA resulted in an additive effect on clinical and histologic parameters when moderately to highly efficacious doses of each protein were administered. Greater-than-additive effects were seen when an inactive dose of IL-1Ra was given in combination with moderately to minimally active doses of PEG sTNFRI. Plasma levels associated with the latter effect (for both proteins) were similar to those seen in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients in clinical trials with these agents. Combination therapy in the AIA model generally resulted in additive effects, but some parameters showed a greater-than-additive benefit. CONCLUSION The results provide preclinical support for the hypothesis that IL-1Ra administered in combination with PEG sTNFRI might provide substantially more clinical benefit to RA patients than either agent alone at blood levels that are currently achievable in patients.
Long-term in situ measurements of NO x and NO y at Jungfraujoch 1998–2009: time series analysis and evaluation

Abstract. We present an analysis of the NO y (NO x + other oxidized species) measurements at the high alpine site Jungfraujoch (JFJ, 3580 m a.s.l.) for the period 1998–2009, which is the longest continous NO y data set reported from the lower free troposphere worldwide. Due to stringent emission control regulations, nitrogen oxides (NO x ) emissions have been reduced significantly in Europe since the late 1980s as well as during the investigation period. However, the time series of NO y at JFJ does not show a consistent trend but a maximum during 2002 to 2004 and a decreasing tendency thereafter. The seasonal cycle of NO y exhibits a maximum in the warm season and a minimum in the cold months, opposite to measurements in the PBL, reflecting the seasonal changes in vertical transport and mixing. Except for summer, the seasonal mean NO x concentrations at JFJ show a high year-to-year variability which is strongly controlled by short episodic pollution events obscuring any long-term trends. The low variability in mean and median NO x values in summer is quite remarkable indicating rapid photochemical conversion of NO x to higher oxidized species (NO z ) of the NO y family on a timescale shorter than the time required to transport polluted air from the boundary layer to JFJ. In order to evaluate the quality of the NO y data series, an in-situ intercomparison with a second collocated NO y analyzer with a separate inlet was performed in 2009–2010 which showed an overall agreement within 10% including all uncertainties and errors.
Effects of Sintering Conditions on Microstructure Changes of Wood-Ceramics Impregnated with Low-Molecular-Weight Phenol-Formaldehyde Resin

The microstructure of a new type of wood-ceramics made from poplar fiber impregnated with low-molecular-weight phenol-formaldehyde (PF) resin under atmospheric pressure was studied under changing sintering conditions. X-ray diffraction analysis indicated that the d002 value was reduced with increasing sintering temperature. The wood-ceramic structure also became more uniform and orderly, but still was nongraphitic carbon. Scanning electron microscopy showed that the pore structure partially retained the microstructural characteristics of wood fiber, and a graphitic phase was formed with increased sintering temperature and longer holding time. All analyses showed PF resin molecular weight had little impact on phase composition and graphitization. The apparent specific gravity of woodceramics increased as sintering temperature increased to 1200°C but decreased as temperature rose further. Specific surface area and apparent porosity were increased with higher sintering temperature, greater sintering rates, and longer holding times. In addition, specific surface area was also affected by the molecular weight of PF resin and the impregnation method, in which low-molecular-weight resin increased the specific surface area.