Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Bidirectional Nonisolated Multi-Input DC–DC Converter for Hybrid Energy Storage Systems in Electric Vehicles

To process the power in hybrid energy systems using a reduced part count, researchers have proposed several multiinput dc-dc power converter topologies to transfer power from different input voltage sources to the output. This paper proposes a novel bidirectional nonisolated multi-input converter (MIC) topology for hybrid systems to be used in electric vehicles composed of energy storage systems (ESSs) with different electrical characteristics. The proposed converter has the ability to control the power of ESSs by allowing active power sharing. The voltage levels of utilized ESSs can be higher or lower than the output voltage. The inductors of the converter are connected to a single switch; therefore, the converter requires only one extra active switch for each input, unlike its counterparts, hence resulting in reduced element count. The proposed MIC topology is compared with its counterparts concerning various parameters. It is analyzed in detail, and then, this analysis is validated by simulation and through a 1-kW prototype based on a battery/ultracapacitor hybrid ESS.
Influence of donor age on vinblastine-induced chromosome malsegregation in cultured peripheral lymphocytes.

The incidence of spontaneous aneuploidy in human somatic and germ cells is known to be positively associated with aging. However, the influence of age on the individual susceptibility to chemically induced chromosome malsegregation has not been elucidated. In this study the spindle poison vinblastine (VBL) was used as a model compound to assess the influence of donor age on chemically induced chromosome malsegregation in cultured lymphocytes. Blood cultures from 20 female donors belonging to two different age groups (10 <30 years and 10 >50 years) were treated with VBL (7.5 ng/ml) from 43 h after mitogen stimulation until harvest at 60 h, i.e. during the time interval corresponding to G2/M. In order to block cytokinesis, cytochalasin B (6 microg/ml) was added to cultures at 44 h. For each donor the incidence of micronuclei, polyploidy and malsegregation (non-disjunction and loss) of chromosomes X and 8 was determined using fluorescence in situ hybridization with chromosome-specific centromeric probes. Both background incidence of micronuclei and spontaneous chromosome X non-disjunction were significantly elevated in older donors. Individual responses to VBL treatment showed wide interindividual variability, which was not significantly associated with the age of the donor. In both age classes chromosome X was more susceptible than chromosome 8 to both spontaneous and VBL-induced malsegregation. These results indicate that donor age has a limited influence on the aneugenic effects exerted by VBL in peripheral lymphocytes in vitro. Other factors have to be considered to account for the large interindividual variation in sensitivity to VBL challenge observed in this work.
How Long Can Patients Sit Up for Before Lying Down after Combined Spinal-Epidural Anesthesia For Cesarean Delivery? A Randomized Trial

Objective: Sitting patients up for 5 min after spinal anesthesia decreases hypotension and ephedrine requirement. This study aimed at determining how long patients can sit up for after combined spinal-epidural (CSE) anesthesia without requiring epidural supplementation. Methods: Ninety women booked for elective cesarean section under CSE anesthesia were randomized to sit up for 5 min (group 1), 7 min (group 2), or 9 min (group 3) after spinal anesthetic administration before lying down supine with a tilt. Sensory anesthesia level, systolic blood pressure, heart rate, ephedrine requirement, rescue epidural use, and time to achieving a modified Bromage score of two were documented by a blinded observer. Results: The maximum height of sensory anesthesia was [T3 (1) vs. T4 (1) vs. T5 (1) for groups 1-3, respectively, P<0.001]. Group 1 required more ephedrine (16.7% vs. 3.3% vs. 0%, P=0.024). Changes over time in systolic blood pressure (P=0.117) and heart rate (P =0.793), and time to achieving a modified Bromage score of two [112 (17) vs. 110 (16) vs. 100 (28) min, P=0.437] were similar amongest groups. Rescue epidural anesthesia was required in eight (26.7%) patients in group 3 compared to none in the other groups (P<0.001). Conclusion: Sitting the patient up for up to 7 min after CSE anesthesia for cesarean section reduced intraoperative ephedrine requirement without affecting the success of the spinal anesthetic. In contrast, sitting up for 9 min resulted in the need for rescue epidural anesthesia without additional benefit.
Multicenter Evaluation of Geometric Accuracy of MRI Protocols Used in Experimental Stroke

It has recently been suggested that multicenter preclinical stroke studies should be carried out to improve translation from bench to bedside, but the accuracy of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners routinely used in experimental stroke has not yet been evaluated. We aimed to assess and compare geometric accuracy of preclinical scanners and examine the longitudinal stability of one scanner using a simple quality assurance (QA) protocol. Six 7 Tesla animal scanners across six different preclinical imaging centers throughout Europe were used to scan a small structural phantom and estimate linear scaling errors in all orthogonal directions and volumetric errors. Between-scanner imaging consisted of a standard sequence and each center’s preferred sequence for the assessment of infarct size in rat models of stroke. The standard sequence was also used to evaluate the drift in accuracy of the worst performing scanner over a period of six months following basic gradient calibration. Scaling and volumetric errors using the standard sequence were less variable than corresponding errors using different stroke sequences. The errors for one scanner, estimated using the standard sequence, were very high (above 4% scaling errors for each orthogonal direction, 18.73% volumetric error). Calibration of the gradient coils in this system reduced scaling errors to within ±1.0%; these remained stable during the subsequent 6-month assessment. In conclusion, despite decades of use in experimental studies, preclinical MRI still suffers from poor and variable geometric accuracy, influenced by the use of miscalibrated systems and various types of sequences for the same purpose. For effective pooling of data in multicenter studies, centers should adopt standardized procedures for system QA and in vivo imaging.
a Elevated in liver of very old rats Cuervo and Dice 2000 Hsp 70 a Unchanged in rat skeletal muscle Locke 2000 Changes in chaperone stress inducibility in aging Hsp 27 Heat induction is impaired in human peripheral blood

Chaperone function plays a key role in repairing proteotoxic damage, in the maintenance of cell architecture, and in cell survival. Here, we summarize our current knowledge about changes in chaperone expression and function in the aging process, as well as their involvement in longevity and cellular senescence. INTRODUCTION: CONVENTIONAL AND NONCONVENTIONAL ROLES OF MOLECULAR
The polymeric immunoglobulin receptor accumulates in specialized endosomes but not synaptic vesicles within the neurites of transfected neuroendocrine PC12 cells

We have expressed in neuroendocrine PC12 cells the polymeric immunoglobulin receptor (pIgR), which is normally targeted from the basolateral to the apical surface of epithelial cells. In the presence of nerve growth factor, PC12 cells extend neurites which contain synaptic vesicle-like structures and regulated secretory granules. By immunofluorescence microscopy, pIgR, like the synaptic vesicle protein synaptophysin, accumulates in both the cell body and the neurites. On the other hand, the transferrin receptor, which normally recycles at the basolateral surface in epithelial cells, and the cation-independent mannose 6-phosphate receptor, a marker of late endosomes, are largely restricted to the cell body. pIgR internalizes ligand into endosomes within the cell body and the neurites, while uptake of ligand by the low density lipoprotein receptor occurs primarily into endosomes within the cell body. We conclude that transport of membrane proteins to PC12 neurites as well as to specialized endosomes within these processes is selective and appears to be governed by similar mechanisms that dictate sorting in epithelial cells. Additionally, two types of endosomes can be identified in polarized PC12 cells by the differential uptake of ligand, a housekeeping type in the cell bodies and a specialized endosome in the neurites. Recent findings suggest that specialized axonal endosomes in neurons are likely to give rise to synaptic vesicles (Mundigl, O., M. Matteoli, L. Daniell, A. Thomas-Reetz, A. Metcalf, R. Jahn, and P. De Camilli. 1993. J. Cell Biol. 122:1207- 1221). Although pIgR reaches the specialized endosomes in the neurites of PC12 cells, we find by subcellular fractionation that under a variety of conditions it is efficiently excluded from synaptic vesicle- like structures as well as from secretory granules.
Design and fi eld procedures in the US National Comorbidity Survey Replication Adolescent Supplement ( NCSA )

1 Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA 2 Division of Developmental Translational Research, National Institute of Mental Health 3 Center for Developmental Epidemiology, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical School 4 Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan 5 Section on Developmental Genetic Epidemiology, Intramural Research Branch, National Institute of Mental Health
Tir8/Sigirr prevents murine lupus by suppressing the immunostimulatory effects of lupus autoantigens

The Sigirr gene (also known as Tir8) encodes for an orphan receptor of the Toll-like receptor (TLR)/interleukin 1 receptor family that inhibits TLR-mediated pathogen recognition in dendritic cells. Here, we show that Sigirr also inhibits the activation of dendritic cells and B cells upon exposure to RNA and DNA lupus autoantigens. To evaluate the functional role of Sigirr in the pathogenesis of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), we generated Sigirr-deficient C57BL/6-lpr/lpr mice. These mice developed a progressive lymphoproliferative syndrome followed by severe autoimmune lung disease and lupus nephritis within 6 mo of age as compared with the minor abnormalities observed in C57BL/6-lpr/lpr mice. Lack of Sigirr was associated with enhanced activation of dendritic cells and increased expression of multiple proinflammatory and antiapoptotic mediators. In the absence of Sigirr, CD4 T cell numbers were increased and CD4+CD25+ T cell numbers were reduced. Furthermore, lack of Sigirr enhanced the activation and proliferation of B cells, including the production of autoantibodies against multiple nuclear lupus autoantigens. These data identify Sigirr as a novel SLE susceptibility gene in mice.
Changes in GABA and glutamate concentrations during memory tasks in patients with Parkinson’s disease undergoing DBS surgery

Until now direct neurochemical measurements during memory tasks have not been accomplished in the human basal ganglia. It has been proposed, based on both functional imaging studies and psychometric testing in normal subjects and in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD), that the basal ganglia is responsible for the performance of feedback-contingent implicit memory tasks. To measure neurotransmitters, we used in vivo microdialysis during deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery. We show in the right subthalamic nucleus (STN) of patients with PD a task-dependent change in the concentrations of glutamate and GABA during an implicit memory task relative to baseline, while no difference was found between declarative memory tasks. The five patients studied had a significant decrease in the percent concentration of GABA and glutamate during the performance of the weather prediction task (WPT). We hypothesize, based on current models of basal ganglia function, that this decrease in the concentration is consistent with expected dysfunction in basal ganglia networks in patients with PD.
Reversal of Pulmonary Hypertension by Prolonged Oxygen Administration to Patients with Chronic Bronchitis

Established pulmonary hypertension associated with hypoxemia in patients with chronic bronchitis is probably secondary to hyperplasia of the smooth muscle of pulmonary arterioles. To investigate the possibility that this increase in pulmonary arterial pressure was reversible, the floating catheter technique was used to study the effects of continuous administration of oxygen for 4 to 8 weeks on the pulmonary circulation. In six patients, there was a gradual fall in pulmonary arterial pressure, the mean pressure for the group being 42.5 mm Hg before, and 32.3 mm Hg after, the period of oxygen administration. All measurements were made when the patients breathed air. There was no change in cardiac output. Hematocrit decreased from 51.4% to 42.5%, but total blood volume remained unchanged. It has been shown previously that brief inhalation of oxygen can cause a slight temporary reduction in the pulmonary hypertension associated with chronic bronchitis and anoxemia. The present findings show that the residual, established hypertension is also reversible if oxygen therapy is continued for weeks. It is suggested that this reversal may be brought about by regression of the muscular hyperplasia of the small pulmonary vessels consequent to longterm relief of hypoxia.
The Use of Electronic Voting Systems in Lectures within Business and Marketing: A Case Study of Their Impact on Student Learning.

This article presents a case study of the impact on student learning of introducing an electronic voting system (EVS) into large-group lectures for first-year undergraduate students undertaking degrees in marketing and business systems. We discuss the potential for using EVS-style interactive lectures in marketing and business programmes. We then describe how we planned the session and selected and implemented the EVS system. We go on to present an evaluative research project, which was undertaken on the innovation using case-study methodology, and assess its impact on student learning. Data for the evaluation were collected through questionnaire and focus groups with a sample of students. The data were analysed using thematic analysis. The findings show how students perceived the use of EVS in large lectures and how their learning was affected. A ‘threefold typology’ emerged that explains how students related to the EVS and how their perceptions of EVS changed over time. The discussion links these findings to the literature on different paradigms of learning and teaching, using Renshaw’s framework, and examines how the EVS-style lectures promote deep and active learning within the constructivist, social constructivist and metacognitive learning paradigms identified in Renshaw’s model. The conclusions show how the use of a userfriendly EVS in large lectures motivates students, develops students’ cognitive and social learning skills, and improves learning effectiveness. DOI: 10.1080/09687760600837090
ADAMTS5 Deficiency in Calcified Aortic Valves Is Associated With Elevated Pro-Osteogenic Activity in Valvular Interstitial Cells

Objective— Extracellular matrix proteinases are implicated in the pathogenesis of calcific aortic valve disease. The ADAMTS5 (a disintegrin and metalloproteinase with thrombospondin motifs 5) enzyme is secreted, matrix-associated metalloendopeptidase, capable of degrading extracellular matrix proteins, particularly matrilin 2. We sought to determine the role of the ADAMTS5/matrilin 2 axis in mediating the phenotype transition of valvular interstitial cells (VICs) associated with calcific aortic valve disease. Approach and Results— Levels of ADAMTS5, matrilin 2, and &agr;-SMA (&agr;-smooth muscle actin) were evaluated in calcified and normal human aortic valve tissues and VICs. Calcified aortic valves have reduced levels of ADAMTS5 and higher levels of matrilin 2 and &agr;-SMA. Treatment of normal VICs with soluble matrilin 2 caused an increase in &agr;-SMA level through Toll-like receptors 2 and 4, which was accompanied by upregulation of runt-related transcription factor 2 and alkaline phosphatase. In addition, ADAMTS5 knockdown in normal VICs enhanced the effect of matrilin 2. Matrilin 2 activated nuclear factor (NF) &kgr;B and NF of activated T cells complex 1 and induced the interaction of these 2 NFs. Inhibition of either NF-&kgr;B or NF of activated T cells complex 1 suppressed matrilin 2’s effect on VIC phenotype change. Knockdown of &agr;-SMA reduced and overexpression of &agr;-SMA enhanced the expression of pro-osteogenic factors and calcium deposit formation in human VICs. Conclusions— Matrilin 2 induces myofibroblastic transition and elevates pro-osteogenic activity in human VICs via activation of NF-&kgr;B and NF of activated T cells complex 1. Myofibroblastic transition in human VICs is an important mechanism of elevating the pro-osteogenic activity. Matrilin 2 accumulation associated with relative ADAMTS5 deficiency may contribute to the mechanism underlying calcific aortic valve disease progression.
Lighter-Communication Distributed Machine Learning via Sufficient Factor Broadcasting

Matrix-parametrized models (MPMs) are widely used in machine learning (ML) applications. In large-scale ML problems, the parameter matrix of a MPM can grow at an unexpected rate, resulting in high communication and parameter synchronization costs. To address this issue, we offer two contributions: first, we develop a computation model for a large family of MPMs, which share the following property: the parameter update computed on each data sample is a rank-1 matrix, i.e. the outer product of two "sufficient factors" (SFs). Second, we implement a decentralized, peer-to-peer system, Sufficient Factor Broadcasting (SFB), which broadcasts the SFs among worker machines, and reconstructs the update matrices locally at each worker. SFB takes advantage of small rank-1 matrix updates and efficient partial broadcasting strategies to dramatically improve communication efficiency. We propose a graph optimization based partial broadcasting scheme, which minimizes the delay of information dissemination under the constraint that each machine only communicates with a subset rather than all of machines. Furthermore, we provide theoretical analysis to show that SFB guarantees convergence of algorithms (under full broadcasting) without requiring a centralized synchronization mechanism. Experiments corroborate SFB's efficiency on four MPMs.
Acquisition of English Word Stress by Japanese Learners

Archibald (1997) argues that Japanese learners store the English stress lexically and do not compute metrical structures. This paper, based on the results of two stress assignment tests by university students, argues that they develop a computation system by modifying their native loanword accentuation system, which happens to be quite similar to the English stress system, i.e., no final stressing, heavy penult stressed and if penult is light, then antepenult stressed. One difference between the two systems lies in the final unit to be ignored in the computation. In the native system it is either a light syllable (below, CV, where C stands for a consonant and V stands for a vowel) or a syllable with coda nasal (below, CVN), while in English it can be a syllable with one or more coda consonants (e.g., CVO, CVN, CVNO, CVOO, where O stands for an obstruent). The difference reflects the difference of permissible coda consonants between the two languages. This paper tries to clarify how learners modify the native system to accommodate the difference in syllable structures. In this section, loanword accentuation system within Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky 1993) proposed in Katayama (1995) will be presented and in section 2 and 3, experimental results will be presented that lead us to a discussion of the final phenomena to be ignored in stress computation. In section 4, implications for the stress acquisition process will be discussed. On the basis of the constraints on foot formation given in (1), Katayama (1995) proposes three constraints as in (2) in the following ranking order for Japanese loanword accent as in (2): NonFinality >> Accent-to-Head >> Rightmost.
A ranking-based scoring function for peptide-spectrum matches.

The analysis of the large volume of tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) proteomics data that is generated these days relies on automated algorithms that identify peptides from their mass spectra. An essential component of these algorithms is the scoring function used to evaluate the quality of peptide-spectrum matches (PSMs). In this paper, we present new approach to scoring of PSMs. We argue that since this problem is at its core a ranking task (especially in the case of de novo sequencing), it can be solved effectively using machine learning ranking algorithms. We developed a new discriminative boosting-based approach to scoring. Our scoring models draw upon a large set of diverse feature functions that measure different qualities of PSMs. Our method improves the performance of our de novo sequencing algorithm beyond the current state-of-the-art, and also greatly enhances the performance of database search programs. Furthermore, by increasing the efficiency of tag filtration and improving the sensitivity of PSM scoring, we make it practical to perform large-scale MS/MS analysis, such as proteogenomic search of a six-frame translation of the human genome (in which we achieve a reduction of the running time by a factor of 15 and a 60% increase in the number of identified peptides, compared to the InsPecT database search tool). Our scoring function is incorporated into PepNovo+ which is available for download or can be run online at http://bix.ucsd. edu.
Provenance-Aware Tracing ofWorm Break-in and Contaminations: A Process Coloring Approach

To investigate the exploitation and contamination by self-propagating Internet worms, a provenance-aware tracing mechanism is highly desirable. Provenance unawareness causes difficulties in fast, accurate identification of a worm’s break-in point, and incurs significant log inspection overhead. This paper presents the design, implementation, and evaluation of process coloring, an efficient provenance-aware approach to worm break-in and contamination tracing. More specifically, process coloring assigns a "color", a unique system-wide identifier, to each remotely-accessible server or process. The color will then be either inherited by spawned child processes or diffused indirectly through process actions (e.g., read/write operations). Process coloring brings two major advantages: (1) It enables fast color-based identification of a worm’s break-in point even before detailed log analysis; (2) It naturally partitions log data based on their colors, effectively reducing the volume of log data that need to be examined for worm investigation. A tamper-resistant log collection method is developed based on the virtual machine introspection technique. Our experiments with a number of real-world worms demonstrate the advantages of processing coloring.