Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Importance of adequate heparin dosage in arterial angioplasty in a porcine model.

Acute occlusion after a successful angioplasty is a severe complication that has been reported in 2-12% of patients. Therefore, to determine whether there was a relation between the dosage of heparin and the presence of mural thrombosis, we studied in a pig model the relation between the dosage of heparin and acute platelet-thrombus deposition on the site of arterial injury. We retrospectively analyzed the effect of three heparin regimens on platelet deposition in 32 normal pigs (mean weight, 32.7 kg) that underwent bilateral carotid angioplasty and were sacrificed 90 +/- 26 minutes later. Pigs in protocol 1 (n = 7) received an intravenous bolus injection of 4,000 units heparin 10 minutes before angioplasty. Pigs in protocol 2 (n = 11) received two bolus injections of 4,000 units heparin 40 minutes apart; the angioplasty was performed immediately after the second bolus. Pigs in protocol 3 (n = 14) had an initial 4,000-unit bolus injection of heparin followed immediately by an infusion of 4,000 units/hr; angioplasty was performed 20 minutes after starting the infusion. 111In-labeled platelet deposition on deeply injured (torn into the media) arterial segments were 86.3 +/- 68, 56.2 +/- 56.9, and 37.7 +/- 37.7 X 10(6)/cm2 for protocols 1, 2, and 3, respectively. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Two-weight norm inequalities for maximal operators and fractional integrals on non-homogeneous spaces

Let μ be a non-negative Borel measure on R d . Fix a real number n, 0 < n ≤ d, and assume that μ is "n-dimensional" in the following sense: the measure of a cube is smaller than the length of its side raised to the n-th power. CalderOn-Zygmund operators, Hardy and BMO spaces, and some other topics in Harmonic Analysis have been successfully handled in this setting recently, although the measure may be non-doubling. The aim of this paper is to study two-weight norm inequalities for radial fractional maximal functions associated to such p. Namely, we characterize those pairs of weights for which these maximal operators satisfy strong and weak type inequalities. Sawyer and radial Muckenhoupt type conditions are respectively the solutions for these problems. Furthermore, if we strengthen Muckenhoupt conditions by adding a "power-bump" to the right-hand side weight or even by introducing a certain Orlicz norm, strong type inequalities can be achieved. As a consequence, two-weight norm inequalities for fractional integrals associated to μ are obtained. Finally, for the particular case of the Hardy-Littlewood radial maximal function, we show how, in contrast with the classical situation, radial Muckenhoupt weights may fail to satisfy a reverse Holder's inequality and also strong type inequalities do not necessarily hold for them.
InAs/AlSb double-barrier structure with large peak-to-valley current ratio: a candidate for high-frequency microwave devices

Negative differential resistance (NDR) in InAs/AlSb/InAs/AlSb/InAs double-barrier structures with peak-to-valley current (PVC) ratios as large as 11 at room temperature and 28 at 77 K is reported. This is a large improvement over previous results for these materials and is also considerably better than those obtained for the extensively studied GaAs/AlGaAs material system. The peak current density was also improved by reducing the barrier thickness, and values exceeding 10/sup 5/ A/cm/sup 2/ have been observed. These results suggest that InAs/AlSb structures are interesting alternatives to conventional GaAs/AlGaAs structures in high-frequency devices. NDR in a InAs/AlSb superlattice double-barrier structure with a lower PVC ratio than in the solid barrier case has also been observed. This result indicates that valley current contributions arising from X-point tunneling are negligible in these structures, consistent with the large band offset. <<ETX>>
PPARγ ligand ciglitazone inhibits TNFα-induced ICAM-1 in human airway smooth muscle cells

Background: Modification of human airway smooth muscle (ASM) function by proinflammatory cytokines has been regarded as a potential mechanism underlying bronchial hyperresponsiveness in asthma. Human ASM cells express intercellular adhesion molecule (ICAM)-1 in response to cytokines. Synthetic ligands for peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR)γ reportedly possess anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory properties. In this study, we examined whether ciglitazone, a synthetic PPARγ ligand, can modulate the basal and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)α-induced ICAM1 gene expression in human ASM cells. Methods: Human ASM cells were treated with TNFα. ICAM-1 expression was assessed by flow cytometry and reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis. PPARγ activity was inhibited by target-specific small interfering (si) RNA targeting PPARγ and GW9662, a PPARγ antagonist. Activity of nuclear factor (NF)-κB was assessed by using immunoblot analysis, immune-confocal images, and electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA). Results: By flow cytometry, ciglitazone alone had no effect on ICAM-1 expression in ASM cells, but inhibited ICAM-1 expression in response to TNFα (10 ng/ml) in a dose-dependent manner (1-10 μM). It also inhibited TNFα-induced ICAM1 gene expression by RT-PCR analysis. Knockdown of PPARγ gene by target-specific siRNA targeting PPARγ enhanced ICAM-1 expression and the inhibitory effect of ciglitazone on TNFα-induced ICAM-1 expression was reversed by PPARγ siRNA and GW9662. SN-50 (10 μg/ml), an inhibitor for nuclear translocation of NF-κB, inhibited TNFα-induced ICAM-1 expression. Ciglitazone did not prevent TNFα-induced degradation of the cytosolic inhibitor of NF-κB (IκB), but inhibited the nuclear translocation of p65 induced by TNFα and suppressed the NF-κB/DNA binding activity. Conclusion: These findings suggest that ciglitazone inhibits TNFα-induced ICAM1 gene expression in human ASM cells through the ligand-dependent PPARγ activation and NF-κB-dependent pathway.
Joint 2D-DOA and Carrier Frequency Estimation Technique Using Nonlinear Kalman Filters for Cognitive Radio

The problem of jointly estimating carrier frequencies and their corresponding two-dimension direction of arrivals (DOA) of band-limited source signals is considered in this paper for cognitive radio. The main problem of estimating carrier frequencies spread over a wideband spectrum is the requirement of high sampling rates. Thus, the Kalman filters are applied in the spatial domain instead of the temporal domain in the proposed algorithm to relax hardware complexity. The proposed algorithm exploits both the azimuth and elevation angles instead of a single DOA to increase the spatial capacity. Two approaches are proposed using two different types of nonlinear Kalman filter: extended Kalman filter (EKF) and unscented Kalman filter (UKF). Using simulations, the factors that affect the performance of both the filters are discussed. Scaling the estimated parameters to the same range and the proper tuning and initialization of the filters are crucial factors to prevent the filter divergence. Although UKF is supposed to have a better performance than EKF, reducing the inter-element spacing of the employed arrays and the proper filter initialization can make EKF approach the performance of UKF. On the other hand, UKF suffers from high processing time. Overall, both filters are able to converge to the true values of the unknown parameters using a number of relaxed analog-to-digital converters equal to the number of the array elements in the employed arrays. However, the approaches can detect a number of source signals higher than one-third of the total number of the array elements.
Alternate Healthy Eating Index 2010 and risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease among US women and men: prospective study

Objective To investigate the association between the Alternate Healthy Eating Index 2010 (AHEI-2010)—a measure of diet quality—and the risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Design Prospective cohort study. Setting Participants in the Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, United States. Participants 73 228 female nurses from 1984 to 2000 and 47 026 men from 1986 to 1998, who completed biennial questionnaires. Main outcome measures The primary outcome was the self report of newly diagnosed COPD. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards models were adjusted for age, physical activity, body mass index, total energy intake, smoking, second hand tobacco exposure (only in the Nurses’ Health Study), race/ethnicity, physician visits, US region, spouse’s highest educational attainment (only in the Nurses’ Health Study), and menopausal status (only in the Nurses’ Health Study). Results Over the study period, 723 cases of newly diagnosed COPD occurred in women and 167 in men. In the pooled analysis, a significant negative association was seen between the risk of newly diagnosed COPD and fifths of the AHEI-2010: hazard ratios were 0.81 (95% confidence interval 0.51 to 1.29) for the second fifth, 0.98 (0.80 to 1.18) for the third fifth, 0.74 (0.59 to 0.92) for the fourth fifth, and 0.67 (0.53 to 0.85) for participants who ate the healthiest diet according to the AHEI-2010 (that is, were in the highest fifth), compared with those who ate the less healthy diet (participants in the lowest fifth). Similar findings were observed among ex-smokers and current smokers. Conclusions A higher AHEI-2010 diet score (reflecting high intakes of whole grains, polyunsaturated fatty acids, nuts, and long chain omega-3 fats and low intakes of red/processed meats, refined grains, and sugar sweetened drinks) was associated with a lower risk of COPD in both women and men. These findings support the importance of a healthy diet in multi-interventional programs to prevent COPD.
DO ASIAN EXCHANGE RATES FOLLOW A RANDOM WALK ? EVIDENCE FROM UNIVARIATE AND PANEL LM UNIT ROOT TESTS WITH ONE AND TWO STRUCTURAL BREAKS

There are a number of studies that examine the purchasing power parity (PPP) hypothesis. The empirical findings from the extant literature for the PPP hypothesis are mixed. This paper applies univariate and panel LM unit root tests with one and two structural breaks to real exchange rates for 15 Asian countries. The univariate LM unit root tests find evidence of PPP for two-thirds of the sample. The results from the panel LM unit root test support long-run PPP for the Asian countries in the sample. The results from the LM panel unit root tests differ from those of existing panel unit root tests of PPP for Asian countries that have not allowed for the existence of structural breaks. 1 Department of Economics, Monash University. 2 Department of Economics, Monash University. E-mail: Russell.Smyth@BusEco.monash. edu.au; Telephone: (03) 9903 2134; Fax: (03) 9903 1128.
Breaking the News or Fueling the Epidemic? Temporal Association between News Media Report Volume and Opioid-Related Mortality

Background Historical studies of news media have suggested an association between reporting and increased drug abuse. Period effects for substance use have been documented for different classes of legal and illicit substances, with the suspicion that media publicity may have played major roles in their emergence. Previous analyses have drawn primarily from qualitative evidence; the temporal relationship between media reporting volume and adverse health consequences has not been quantified nationally. We set out to explore whether we could find a quantitative relationship between media reports about prescription opioid abuse and overdose mortality associated with these drugs. We assessed whether increases in news media reports occurred before or after increases in overdose deaths. Methodology/Principal Findings Our ecological study compared a monthly time series of unintentional poisoning deaths involving short-acting prescription opioid substances, from 1999 to 2005 using multiple cause-of-death data published by the National Center for Health Statistics, to monthly counts of English-language news articles mentioning generic and branded names of prescription opioids obtained from Google News Archives from 1999 to 2005. We estimated the association between media volume and mortality rates by time-lagged regression analyses. There were 24,272 articles and 30,916 deaths involving prescription opioids during the seven-year study period. Nationally, the number of articles mentioning prescription opioids increased dramatically starting in early 2001, following prominent coverage about the nonmedical use of OxyContin. We found a significant association between news reports and deaths, with media reporting preceding fatal opioid poisonings by two to six months and explaining 88% (p<0.0001, df 78) of the variation in mortality. Conclusions/Significance While availability, structural, and individual predispositions are key factors influencing substance use, news reporting may enhance the popularity of psychoactive substances. Albeit ecological in nature, our finding suggests the need for further evaluation of the influence of news media on health. Reporting on prescription opioids conforms to historical patterns of news reporting on other psychoactive substances.
Effects of Early Round Venture Capital Syndication on IPO Exits in Europe and the United States

i i Acknowledgements I would like to thank the truly unique faculty at the Robert Day of Economics and Finance for their continued dedication and contribution to my understanding of Economics and Finance. I am especially grateful to Professor Smith for helping me specify a thesis topic and for providing continued guidance throughout the progression of this thesis. The final product would not have been possible without her constant input and expertise on the subject matter. I would also like to extend a special thank you to Professor Ozbeklik, for his input on complex Econometric models that were utilized in this thesis, and to Professor Antecol, for being a phenomenal advisor throughout these last four years. I would also like to thank the Financial Economics Institute (FEI) for granting me access to the computer lab and its facilities. The available software packages and the intellectual exchange with peers experienced at the FEI were instrumental to the completion of this thesis. Lastly, I would like to thank my friends and family for providing an invaluable support system throughout these last four years. There are no words to describe how much I have cherished your company, emotional support, and humor. ii Abstract While the importance of venture capital (VC) can be highlighted by policy goals outlined in the 'Lisbon agenda', the European VC industry remains nascent in comparison to the more sophisticated VC market in the US. Researchers have identified key determinants that foster VC success on a broad level, and have often identified syndication as an important factor of success. This paper seeks to understand the role of syndication on the VC-backed company's success. I take a novel departure from past research in this area in three ways 1) I measure performance from the perspective of the portfolio company, rather than the VC firm which invests in the company 2) I isolate syndication in the first financing round and 3) I utilize a logistical model as well as a simultaneous equation model for which I introduce an instrumental variable. I gather VC data for both Europe and the US from the VentureXpert database to test various hypotheses regarding syndication. The results are significant and provide evidence to support that syndication in the first financing round is associated with greater success in achieving IPO exit in both regions. This should encourage VC firms, VC-backed companies, and policymakers to increase the practice of …
Networked sensor monitoring using the universal IEEE 1451 Standard

The advantages of the IEEE 1451 smart transducer standard for both wired and wireless networks, in particular for monitoring applications, were discussed. A description of the transducer electronic data sheets (TEDS), a key feature of the standard, and a compiler for its preparation were presented. Several types of transducer interface module (TIM) and network capable application processor (NCAP) implementations were given. Finally, the use of this basic protocol in national scale sensor networks on the Internet was described.
Magnocellular Projections as the Trigger of Top-Down Facilitation in Recognition

Object recognition is traditionally viewed as a hierarchical, bottom-up neural process. This view has been challenged recently by theoretical models and by findings indicating that top-down processes are involved in facilitating recognition. However, how such high-level information can be activated quickly enough to facilitate the bottom-up processing is yet unknown. We propose that such top-down facilitation is triggered by magnocellular information projected early and rapidly to the orbitofrontal cortex. Using human neuroimaging, we show that stimuli designed to bias processing toward the magnocellular pathway differentially activated the orbitofrontal cortex compared with parvocellular-biased stimuli. Although the magnocellular stimuli had a lower contrast than the parvocellular stimuli, they were recognized faster and just as accurately. Moreover, orbitofrontal activity predicted the performance advantage for the magnocellular, but not for the parvocellular-biased, stimuli, whereas the opposite was true in the fusiform gyrus. Last, analyses of effective connectivity using dynamic causal modeling showed that magnocellular-biased stimuli significantly activated pathways from occipital visual cortex to orbitofrontal cortex and from orbitofrontal cortex to fusiform gyrus. Conversely, parvocellular-biased stimuli significantly activated a pathway from the occipital visual cortex to fusiform gyrus. Our findings support the proposal that fast magnocellular projections linking early visual and inferotemporal object recognition regions with the orbitofrontal cortex facilitate object recognition by enabling the generation of early predictions.
Physical Activity and Risk of Stroke in Women

Background and Purpose— Physical activity has generally been inversely related to the risk of developing stroke, but details regarding the amount and kinds of activity required are unclear as are associations for specific stroke subtypes. Methods— Eligible subjects were 39 315 healthy US women, ≥45 years of age, from the Women's Health Study. Women reported physical activity at baseline (1992 to 1995) and at 36, 72, 96, 125, and 149 months' follow-up. During an average follow-up of 11.9 years, 579 women developed incident stroke (473 ischemic, 102 hemorrhagic, and 4 of unknown type). Proportional hazards models related physical activity, updated over time, to the risk of incident stroke. Results— The multivariable relative risks associated with <200, 200 to 599, 600 to 1499, and ≥1500 kcal/week of leisure-time physical activity were 1.00 (referent), 1.11 (95% CI, 0.87 to 1.41), 0.86 (95% CI, 0.67 to 1.10), and 0.83 (95% CI, 0.63 to 1.08), respectively (P trend=0.06). Similar results were observed for ischemic stroke, whereas no associations were observed for hemorrhagic stroke. Vigorous physical activity was not related to stroke risk (P trend=0.50); however, walking time and walking pace were inversely related, either significantly or with borderline significance, to total, ischemic, and hemorrhagic stroke risks (P trend between 0.002 and 0.07). Conclusions— This study shows a tendency for leisure-time physical activity to be associated with lower stroke risk in women. In particular, walking was generally associated with lower risks of total, ischemic, and hemorrhagic stroke.
CYP3A5 *1 Allele: Impacts on Early Acute Rejection and Graft Function in Tacrolimus-Based Renal Transplant Recipients

Background. Tacrolimus is a major immunosuppressant, which has a narrow therapeutic range and wide interindividual variation. The effects of genetic polymorphisms of cytochrome P450 3A (CYP3A) 5 and Adenosine triphosphate-binding cassette subfamily B member 1 (ABCB1) genes on the achievement of target tacrolimus trough levels and clinical outcomes in renal transplants were evaluated. Methods. A total of 62 patients participated in this prospective study. After an initial fixed oral dose (0.08 mg/kg two times per day), tacrolimus doses were adjusted to a target range based on daily measurement of blood trough concentration. Every patient underwent 10-day scheduled biopsy. Both the patients and investigators were blinded for the genetic polymorphisms. Results. Those subjects expressing CYP3A5 (n=29) evidenced significantly lower tacrolimus trough levels between days 1 and 5 after transplantation, when compared with nonexpressers (n=33). Significantly higher overall incidences of early T-cell-mediated rejection (TCR) of at least Banff grade 1 in severity (P=0.017), including clinical rejection within 10 days and subclinical rejection in biopsies at postoperative day 10 were detected in CYP3A5 expressers. The severity of TCR according to Banff '07 classification was associated with CYP3A5 genotypes (P=0.012). Moreover, multivariate analysis identified CYP3A5 expression as an independent risk factor for TCR (odds ratio: 2.79; P=0.043). Significantly lower estimated glomerular filtration rates until 1 month and numerically lower estimated glomerular filtration rates by 12 months were noted in the CYP3A5 expressers. The genetic polymorphisms of the ABCB1 genes exerted no significant effects. Conclusion. We confirmed the significant effects of CYP3A5 polymorphism on the achievement of target tacrolimus trough levels and the development of acute rejection in early period after transplantation and consequent renal allograft function.
Tooth-derived bone graft material

With successful extraction of growth factors and bone morphogenic proteins (BMPs) from mammalian teeth, many researchers have supported development of a bone substitute using tooth-derived substances. Some studies have also expanded the potential use of teeth as a carrier for growth factors and stem cells. A broad overview of the published findings with regard to tooth-derived regenerative tissue engineering technique is outlined. Considering more than 100 published papers, our team has developed the protocols and techniques for processing of bone graft material using extracted teeth. Based on current studies and studies that will be needed in the future, we can anticipate development of scaffolds, homogenous and xenogenous tooth bone grafts, and dental restorative materials using extracted teeth.
A COMPARATIVE STUDY FOR PREDICTING STUDENT'S ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE USING BAYESIAN NETWORK CLASSIFIERS

The main objective of educational institutions is to provide high quality of education. Providing a high quality of education depends on predicting the unmotivated students before they entering in to final examination. In this paper, we compare the Bayesian network classifiers for predicting the student's academic performance and generates a Model. This model helps earlier in identifying the drop outs and students who need special attention and allow the teacher to provide appropriate counselling / Advising. In Addition to this, Accurately predicting student performance is useful in many different contexts. For example, identifying exceptional students for scholarships is an essential part of the admissions process and identifying weak students who are likely to fail is also important for allocating limited tutoring resources.