Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Temporal and Spatial Analysis of Clinical and Molecular Parameters in Dextran Sodium Sulfate Induced Colitis

Background Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), including mainly ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD), are inflammatory disorders of the gastrointestinal tract caused by an interplay of genetic and environmental factors. Murine colitis model induced by Dextran Sulfate Sodium (DSS) is an animal model of IBD that is commonly used to address the pathogenesis of IBD as well as to test efficacy of therapies. In this study we systematically analyzed clinical parameters, histological changes, intestinal barrier properties and cytokine profile during the colitic and recovery phase. Methods C57BL/6 mice were administered with 3.5% of DSS in drinking water for various times. Clinical and histological features were determined using standard criteria. Myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity, transepithelial permeability and proinflammatory mediators were determined in whole colon or proximal and distal parts of colon. Results As expected after administration of DSS, mice manifest loss of body weight, shortening of colon length and bloody feces. Histological manifestations included shortening and loss of crypts, infiltration of lymphocytes and neutrophil, symptoms attenuated after DSS withdrawal. The MPO value, as inflammation indicator, also increases significantly at all periods of DSS treatment, and even after DSS withdrawal, it still held at very high levels. Trans-mucosal permeability increased during DSS treatment, but recovered to almost control level after DSS withdrawal. The production of proinflammatory mediators by colonic mucosa were enhanced during DSS treatment, and then recovered to pre-treated level after DSS withdrawal. Finally, enhanced expression of proinflammatory mediators also revealed a different profile feature in proximal and distal parts of the colon. Conclusion Experimental colitis induced by DSS is a good animal model to study the mechanisms underlying the pathogenesis and intervention against IBD, especially UC.
Construction and Characterization ofMoraxella catarrhalis Mutants Defective in Expression of Transferrin Receptors

ABSTRACT We have previously reported the construction of an isogenic mutant defective in expression of OmpB1, the TbpB homologue, inMoraxella catarrhalis 7169. In this report, we have extended these studies by constructing and characterizing two new isogenic mutants in this clinical isolate. One mutant is defective in expression of TbpA, and the other mutant is defective in expression of both TbpA and TbpB. These isogenic mutants were confirmed by using PCR analysis, sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, and sequencing. In vitro growth studies, comparing all three mutants, demonstrated that the tbpA mutant and the tbpABmutant were severely limited in their ability to grow with human holotransferrin as the sole source of iron. In contrast, theompB1 (tbpB) mutant was capable of utilizing iron from human transferrin, although not to the extent of the parental strain. While affinity chromatography with human holotransferrin showed that each Tbp was capable of binding independently to transferrin, solid-phase transferrin binding studies using whole cells demonstrated that the tbpA mutant exhibited binding characteristics similar to those seen with the wild-type bacteria. However, theompB1 (tbpB) mutant exhibited a diminished capacity for binding transferrin, and no binding was detected with the double mutant. These data suggest that the M. catarrhalisTbpA is necessary for the acquisition of iron from transferrin. In contrast, TbpB is not essential but may serve as a facilitory protein that functions to optimize this process. Together these mutants are essential to provide a more thorough understanding of iron acquisition mechanisms utilized by M. catarrhalis.
Cognitive Dysfunction in Patients with Renal Failure Requiring Hemodialysis

Background and Objectives: Renal failure patients show significant impairment on measures of attention and memory, and consistently perform significantly better on neuropsychological measures of memory and attention, approximately 24 hours after hemodialysis treatment. The objectives are to determine the cognitive dysfunction in patients with renal failure requiring hemodialysis. Materials and Methods: A total of 60 subjects comprising of 30 renal failure patients and 30 controls were recruited. The sample was matched for age, sex, and socioeconomic status. The tools used were the Standardized Mini-Mental State Examination and the Brief Cognitive Rating Scale. Results: The patients showed high cognitive dysfunction in the pre-dialysis group, in all the five dimensions (concentration, recent memory, past memory, orientation and functioning, and self-care), and the least in the 24-hour post dialysis group. This difference was found to be statistically significant (P=0.001). Conclusion: Patients with renal failure exhibited pronounced cognitive impairment and these functions significantly improved after the introduction of hemodialysis.
Opinion Dynamics with Confirmation Bias

Background Confirmation bias is the tendency to acquire or evaluate new information in a way that is consistent with one's preexisting beliefs. It is omnipresent in psychology, economics, and even scientific practices. Prior theoretical research of this phenomenon has mainly focused on its economic implications possibly missing its potential connections with broader notions of cognitive science. Methodology/Principal Findings We formulate a (non-Bayesian) model for revising subjective probabilistic opinion of a confirmationally-biased agent in the light of a persuasive opinion. The revision rule ensures that the agent does not react to persuasion that is either far from his current opinion or coincides with it. We demonstrate that the model accounts for the basic phenomenology of the social judgment theory, and allows to study various phenomena such as cognitive dissonance and boomerang effect. The model also displays the order of presentation effect–when consecutively exposed to two opinions, the preference is given to the last opinion (recency) or the first opinion (primacy) –and relates recency to confirmation bias. Finally, we study the model in the case of repeated persuasion and analyze its convergence properties. Conclusions The standard Bayesian approach to probabilistic opinion revision is inadequate for describing the observed phenomenology of persuasion process. The simple non-Bayesian model proposed here does agree with this phenomenology and is capable of reproducing a spectrum of effects observed in psychology: primacy-recency phenomenon, boomerang effect and cognitive dissonance. We point out several limitations of the model that should motivate its future development.
Living on the Extreme Margin: Social Exclusion of the Transgender Population (Hijra) in Bangladesh

The transgender people (hijra), who claim to be neither male nor female, are socially excluded in Bangladesh. This paper describes social exclusion of hijra [The term is used in this abstract both in singular and plural sense] focusing on the pathway between exclusion and sexual health. In an ethnographic study, 50 in-depth interviews with hijra, 20 key-informant interviews, and 10 focus-group discussions (FGDs), along with extensive field observations, were conducted. The findings revealed that hijra are located at the extreme margin of exclusion having no sociopolitical space where a hijra can lead life of a human being with dignity. Their deprivations are grounded in non-recognition as a separate gendered human being beyond the male-female dichotomy. Being outside this norm has prevented them from positioning themselves in greater society with human potential and security. They are physically, verbally, and sexually abused. Extreme social exclusion diminishes self-esteem and sense of social responsibility. Before safer sex interventions can be effective in a broader scale, hijra need to be recognized as having a space on society's gender continuum. Hijra, as the citizens of Bangladesh and part of society's diversity, have gender, sexual and citizenship rights, that need to be protected.
Time after time: The coordinating influence of tempo in music and speech

Music is one of the most complex and popular of human behaviors. People enjoy listening to music and respond to it with clapping, foot tapping, humming, and other natu- ral behaviors. We consider the role of timing in how performers coordinate with other per- formers. Like speech, music is a joint activity; timing must be relatively consistent for musi- cians to coordinate their individual actions with those of others. We address the role of pro- duction rate or tempo as a coordinating device among producers and listeners. We discuss evidence that musicians' choices of tempi are influenced by contextual information, specif- ically, by tempi of previously heard sequences. We also describe a persistence of production rates and global phrase patterns in speakers' sentence productions. In addition to contex- tual influences, producers' preferred rates influence their choice of production rates in both music and speech; preferred rate affected speech more than primed rate, whereas primed rate affected music more than preferred rate. Tempo persistence is considered as a coordi- nating device for communication domains.
Comparison of three automated stacking alternatives by means of simulation

Container terminals are struggling with ever-increasing volumes, and are therefore searching for solutions to increase throughput capacity without expanding their physical footprint. They are also looking for cost-efficient solutions, leading to the application of semi-automated high density stacking systems for container storage. However, when selecting such a system, it needs to be determined what the best configuration for that particular terminal is, and secondly: how to make such a system productive? So far, we have seen various applications in practice that are quite different. How come? In this paper, we compare three different automated container storage concepts on their efficiency in terms of productivity, flexibility, area utilization, and cost to come to a verdict: what are the best automated high-density concept yet existing? Furthermore, we define the conditions under which a certain concept has to be preferred over another one
Bacterial Community and PHB-Accumulating Bacteria Associated with the Wall and Specialized Niches of the Hindgut of the Forest Cockchafer (Melolontha hippocastani)

A characterization of the bacterial community of the hindgut wall of two larval and the adult stages of the forest cockchafer (Melolontha hippocastani) was carried out using amplicon sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene fragment. We found that, in second-instar larvae, Caulobacteraceae and Pseudomonadaceae showed the highest relative abundances, while in third-instar larvae, the dominant families were Porphyromonadaceae and Bacteroidales-related. In adults, an increase of the relative abundance of Bacteroidetes, Proteobacteria (γ- and δ- classes) and the family Enterococcaceae (Firmicutes) was observed. This suggests that the composition of the hindgut wall community may depend on the insect’s life stage. Additionally, specialized bacterial niches hitherto very poorly described in the literature were spotted at both sides of the distal part of the hindgut chamber. We named these structures “pockets. ” Amplicon sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene fragment revealed that the pockets contained a different bacterial community than the surrounding hindgut wall, dominated by Alcaligenaceae and Micrococcaceae-related families. Poly-β-hydroxybutyrate (PHB) accumulation in the pocket was suggested in isolated Achromobacter sp. by Nile Blue staining, and confirmed by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry analysis (GC-MS) on cultured bacterial mass and whole pocket tissue. Raman micro-spectroscopy allowed to visualize the spatial distribution of PHB accumulating bacteria within the pocket tissue. The presence of this polymer might play a role in the colonization of these specialized niches.
OpenCounter: Counting unknown flows in Software Defined Networks

The software defined paradigm is recently emerging as a very promising approach to simplify the way complex network applications are designed and integrated in large scale network scenarios. Typical examples of network-wide applications that may well benefit for such an approach are monitoring and security applications that collect information from multiple vantage points to provide higher lever analyses. In this context, this paper adopts the software defined approach to propose a novel distributed architecture that permits to effectively count the number of unknown flows in an SDN network, allowing the development of several monitoring security applications on top of it. The presented work relies on standard OpenFlow switches and on ad-hoc probabilistic variations of the sketch data structure. The proposed architecture is fully seamless for the underlying network behavior and the performance analysis carried out in laboratory test-bed proves its practical effectiveness.
Searchable Encryption with Secure and Efficient Updates

Searchable (symmetric) encryption allows encryption while still enabling search for keywords. Its immediate application is cloud storage where a client outsources its files while the (cloud) service provider should search and selectively retrieve those. Searchable encryption is an active area of research and a number of schemes with different efficiency and security characteristics have been proposed in the literature. Any scheme for practical adoption should be efficient -- i.e. have sub-linear search time --, dynamic -- i.e. allow updates -- and semantically secure to the most possible extent. Unfortunately, efficient, dynamic searchable encryption schemes suffer from various drawbacks. Either they deteriorate from semantic security to the security of deterministic encryption under updates, they require to store information on the client and for deleted files and keywords or they have very large index sizes. All of this is a problem, since we can expect the majority of data to be later added or changed. Since these schemes are also less efficient than deterministic encryption, they are currently an unfavorable choice for encryption in the cloud. In this paper we present the first searchable encryption scheme whose updates leak no more information than the access pattern, that still has asymptotically optimal search time, linear, very small and asymptotically optimal index size and can be implemented without storage on the client (except the key). Our construction is based on the novel idea of learning the index for efficient access from the access pattern itself. Furthermore, we implement our system and show that it is highly efficient for cloud storage.
Activation of reverse Na+–Ca2+ exchange by the Na+ current augments the cardiac Ca2+ transient: evidence from NCX knockout mice

The hypothesis that Na+ influx during the action potential (AP) activates reverse Na+–Ca2+ exchange (NCX) and subsequent entry of trigger Ca2+ is controversial. We tested this hypothesis by monitoring intracellular Ca2+ before and after selective inactivation of INa prior to a simulated action potential in patch‐clamped ventricular myocytes isolated from adult wild‐type (WT) and NCX knockout (KO) mice. First, we inactivated INa using a ramp prepulse to −45 mV. In WT cells, inactivation of INa decreased the Ca2+ transient amplitude by 51.1 ± 4.6% (P < 0.001, n= 14) and reduced its maximum release flux by 53.0 ± 4.6% (P < 0.001, n= 14). There was no effect on diastolic Ca2+. In striking contrast, Ca2+ transients in NCX KO cardiomyocytes were unaffected by the presence or absence of INa (n= 8). We obtained similar results when measuring trigger Ca2+ influx in myocytes with depleted sarcoplasmic reticulum. In WT cells, inactivation of INa decreased trigger Ca2+ influx by 37.8 ± 6% and maximum rate of flux by 30.6 ± 7.7% at 2.5 mm external Ca2+ (P < 0.001 and P < 0.05, n= 9). This effect was again absent in the KO cells (n= 8). Second, exposure to 10 μm tetrodotoxin to block INa also reduced the Ca2+ transients in WT myocytes but not in NCX KO myocytes. We conclude that INa and reverse NCX modulate Ca2+ release in murine WT cardiomyocytes by augmenting the pool of Ca2+ that triggers ryanodine receptors. This is an important mechanism for regulation of Ca2+ release and contractility in murine heart.
A SINGLE-CHIP BALANCED SIS MIXER FOR 200-300 GHz

The balanced mixer is fabricated on a 2 x 1 mm quartz substrate which contains an RF quadrature hybrid and two SIS mixers. These components are realized in capacitively-loaded coplanar waveguide, which minimizes stray coupling between adjacent components and coupling to undesired modes in the thick quartz substrate. Signal and LO waveguides are coupled to separate ports of the main substrate via suspended striplines. The mixers were fabricated using the UVA Nb/Al-oxide /Nb process. Over the 225-300 GHz band, the mixer noise temperature was 37-48 K and the overall receiver noise temperature was 46-78 K DSB, both referred to outside the cryostat. The LO-to-RF isolation was >12 dB, which we hope to improve by reducing leakage of power under the substrate between the LO and signal ports.
The mass assembly of fossil groups of galaxies in the Millennium simulation

The evolution of present-day fossil galaxy groups is studied in the Millennium simulation. Using the corresponding Millennium gas simulation and semi-analytic galaxy catalogues, we select fossil groups at redshift zero according to the conventional observational criteria, and trace the haloes corresponding to these groups backwards in time, extracting the associated dark matter, gas and galaxy properties. The space density of the fossils from this study is remarkably close to the observed estimates and various possibilities for the remaining discrepancy are discussed. The fraction of X-ray bright systems which are fossils appears to be in reasonable agreement with observations, and the simulations predict that fossil systems will be found in significant numbers (3-4 per cent of the population) even in quite rich clusters. We find that fossils assemble a higher fraction of their mass at high redshifts, compared to non-fossil groups, with the ratio of the currently assembled halo mass to final mass, at any epoch, being about 10-20 per cent higher for fossils. This supports the paradigm whereby fossils represent undisturbed, early-forming systems in which large galaxies have merged to form a single dominant elliptical.
Is Sound Field Control Determined at All Frequencies? How Is It Related to Numerical Acoustics?

Long before audio technologists have been researching the acoustic reproduction of entire sound fields using loudspeaker arrays, numerical acousticians began to study the solution of boundary integral equations. This is particularly interesting because the fundamental question of uniqueness also appeared in numerical acoustics much earlier than it recently did in the theory of sound field synthesis, where it still appears to be pending. There were two main approaches that proved non-uniqueness at certain frequencies to be soluble by enforcing all the necessary mathematical constraints. Both are directly applicable to generally ensure uniqueness in the sound field synthesis theory based on free field monopole sources.
Frustración de las necesidades psicológicas básicas, autodeterminación y burnout en entrenadores: incidencia sobre la intención de persistencia

Coach is considered a key significative for personal and sport development in adolescents. Thus, the main aim of the study was to examine the relationships between motivational processes and concerning burnout factors, such as professional efficacy, emotional burnout and design coaches from teaching categories, assessing the influence that those variables might have on intention to persist training. Hence, a total amount of 147 coaches developing their work in 22 sport modalities were analyzed, and several instruments that measure thwarting of basic psychological needs, self-determination level, burnout and intention to persist were used. Results showed that thwarting of basic psychological needs was positively related with amotivation and feeling of emotional burnout. On the other side, external motivation and intrinsic motivation emerged as the strongest predictor of professional efficacy, whereas amotivation and thwarting of competence were negative predictors. Coaches who showed more self-determined motivation, with high professional efficacy and low emotional burnout had the intention to persist training for more time. Therefore, taking into account the results, in teaching sport is necessary to consider motivational variables related to coach, as well as examines his incidence on athletes ́ psychological variables.
How Environmental Uncertainty Moderates the Effect of Relative Advantage and Perceived Credibility on the Adoption of Mobile Health Services by Chinese Organizations in the Big Data Era

Despite the importance of adoption of mobile health services by an organization on the diffusion of mobile technology in the big data era, it has received minimal attention in literature. This study investigates how relative advantage and perceived credibility affect an organization's adoption of mobile health services, as well as how environmental uncertainty changes the relationship of relative advantage and perceived credibility with adoption. A research model that integrates relative advantage, perceived credibility, environmental uncertainty, and an organization's intention to use mobile health service is developed. Quantitative data are collected from senior managers and information systems managers in 320 Chinese healthcare organizations. The empirical findings show that while relative advantage and perceived credibility both have positive effects on an organization's intention to use mobile health services, relative advantage plays a more important role than perceived credibility. Moreover, environmental uncertainty positively moderates the effect of relative advantage on an organization's adoption of mobile health services. Thus, mobile health services in environments characterized with high levels of uncertainty are more likely to be adopted because of relative advantage than in environments with low levels of uncertainty.