Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bronchoalveolar lavage fluid from patients with acute lung injury/acute respiratory distress syndrome induces myofibroblast differentiation

Objective:Myofibroblasts express &agr;-smooth muscle actin (&agr;SMA), are important in tissue repair, and are present in the early phase of acute lung injury/acute respiratory distress syndrome (ALI/ARDS). We wished to determine whether bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) from ALI/ARDS patients can induce myofibroblast differentiation and if this induction is associated with outcome. Design:A single-center cohort study enrolling patients between 2002 and 2005. Setting:Medical intensive care unit of a tertiary care medical center. Patients:Adult patients meeting the American-European Consensus Conference definition of ALI/ARDS. Interventions:BALF was collected from ALI/ARDS patients within 48 hrs of intubation and incubated with normal human lung fibroblasts in vitro, and &agr;SMA expression was assessed by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. BALF was also collected and tested from negative control patients. ALI/ARDS patients were followed for 28 days or death. Measurements and Main Results:Thirty-one lung injury and 11 negative control patients were enrolled from 2002 to 2005. ALI/ARDS BALF demonstrated potent &agr;SMA induction with a mean value 92% greater than negative controls (34.5% ± 7.6% vs. 18% ± 2.4% of maximal transforming growth factor [TGF]-&bgr;1 [5 ng/mL], p < .02). The specific TGF-&bgr;1 receptor inhibitor SB431542 reduced ALI/ARDS BALF-stimulated &agr;SMA induction by 52% (p < .005). There was no correlation between ALI/ARDS BALF-induced &agr;SMA and procollagen 3 induction (r = −.08, p = .66). The odds ratio for survival was 6.75 (1.15–39.80) times higher for ALI/ARDS patients with &agr;SMA induction between 15% and 75% of maximal TGF-&bgr;1 induction (5 ng/mL) than outside this range. Conclusions:ALI/ARDS BALF-induced myofibroblast differentiation is partially attributable to TGF-&bgr;1. Procollagen 3 and &agr;SMA are regulated by distinct mechanisms in ALI/ARDS and there may be an optimal level of myofibroblast induction that is associated with better outcome.
Two tagSNPs rs352493 and rs3760908 within SIRT6 Gene Are Associated with the Severity of Coronary Artery Disease in a Chinese Han Population

SIRT6 has been demonstrated to exert protective effects on endothelial cells and is closely associated with lipid metabolism, glucose metabolism, and obesity, indicating an important role in the pathogenesis and progression of coronary artery disease (CAD). Nonetheless, the biological significance of SIRT6 variants on CAD is far to be elucidated. Here we aimed to investigate the influence of SIRT6 polymorphisms on individual susceptibility and severity of CAD. Multivariate logistic regression analysis exhibited no significant association between these five polymorphisms and CAD risk in the genotype and allele frequencies. However, we found that the rs352493 polymorphism in SIRT6 exhibited a significant effect on the severity of CAD; C allele (χ 2 = 7.793, adjusted P = 0.013) and the combined CC/CT genotypes (χ 2 = 5.609, adjusted P = 0.031) presented the greater CAD severity. In addition, A allele (χ 2 = 5.208, adjusted P = 0.046) and AA (χ 2 = 4.842, adjusted P = 0.054) of rs3760908 were also associated with greater CAD severity in Chinese subjects. Our data provided the first evidence that SIRT6 tagSNPs rs352493 and rs3760908 play significant roles in the severity of CAD in Chinese Han subjects, which might be useful predictors of the severity of CAD.
Opposed effects of hypertonic saline on contusions and noncontused brain tissue in patients with severe traumatic brain injury*

Objective:The aim of this study was to quantify the effect of hypertonic saline solution on contused and noncontused brain tissue in patients with traumatic brain injury. We hypothesize that hypertonic saline would increase the volume of brain contusion while decreasing the volume of noncontused hemispheric areas. Design:Prospective observational study. Setting:Neurosciences critical care unit of a university hospital. Patients:Fourteen traumatic brain injury patients with increased intracranial pressure. Interventions:A computed tomography scan was performed before and after a 20-min infusion of 40 mL of 20% saline. Measurements and Main Results:The volume, weight, and specific gravity of contused and noncontused hemispheric areas were assessed from computed tomography DICOM images by using a custom-designed software (BrainView). Physiologic variables and natremia were measured before and after infusion. Hypertonic saline significantly increased natremia from 143 ± 5 to 146 ± 5 mmol/L and decreased intracranial pressure from 23 ± 3 to 17 ± 5 mm Hg. The volume of the noncontused hemispheric areas decreased by 13 ± 8 mL whereas the specific gravity increased by 0.029 ± 0.027%. The volume of contused hemispheric tissue increased by 5 ± 5 mL without any con-comitant change in density. There was a wide interindividual variability in the response of the noncontused hemispheric tissue with changes in specific gravity varying between −0.0124% and 0.0998%. Conclusions:Three days after traumatic brain injury, the blood- brain barrier remains semipermeable in noncontused areas but not in contusions. Further studies are needed to tailor the use of hypertonic saline in patients with traumatic brain injury according to the volume of contusions assessed on computed tomography.
A generation model to unify topic relevance and lexicon-based sentiment for opinion retrieval

Opinion retrieval is a task of growing interest in social life and academic research, which is to find relevant and opinionate documents according to a user's query. One of the key issues is how to combine a document's opinionate score (the ranking score of to what extent it is subjective or objective) and topic relevance score. Current solutions to document ranking in opinion retrieval are generally ad-hoc linear combination, which is short of theoretical foundation and careful analysis. In this paper, we focus on lexicon-based opinion retrieval. A novel generation model that unifies topic-relevance and opinion generation by a quadratic combination is proposed in this paper. With this model, the relevance-based ranking serves as the weighting factor of the lexicon-based sentiment ranking function, which is essentially different from the popular heuristic linear combination approaches. The effect of different sentiment dictionaries is also discussed. Experimental results on TREC blog datasets show the significant effectiveness of the proposed unified model. Improvements of 28.1% and 40.3% have been obtained in terms of MAP and p@10 respectively. The conclusion is not limited to blog environment. Besides the unified generation model, another contribution is that our work demonstrates that in the opinion retrieval task, a Bayesian approach to combining multiple ranking functions is superior to using a linear combination. It is also applicable to other result re-ranking applications in similar scenario.
Prevalence and Determinants of the Gender Differentials Risk Factors of Child Deaths in Bangladesh: Evidence from the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey, 2011

Background The number of child deaths is a potential indicator to assess the health condition of a country, and represents a major health challenge in Bangladesh. Although the country has performed exceptionally well in decreasing the mortality rate among children under five over the last few decades, mortality still remains relatively high. The main objective of this study is to identify the prevalence and determinants of the risk factors of child mortality in Bangladesh. Methods The data were based on a cross-sectional study collected from the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS), 2011. The women participants numbered 16,025 from seven divisions of Bangladesh – Rajshahi, Dhaka, Chittagong, Barisal, Khulna, Rangpur and Sylhet. The 𝟀2 test and logistic regression model were applied to determine the prevalence and factors associated with child deaths in Bangladesh. Results In 2011, the prevalence of child deaths in Bangladesh for boys and girls was 13.0% and 11.6%, respectively. The results showed that birth interval and birth order were the most important factors associated with child death risks; mothers’ education and socioeconomic status were also significant (males and females). The results also indicated that a higher birth order (7 & more) of child (OR=21.421 & 95%CI=16.879-27.186) with a short birth interval ≤ 2 years was more risky for child mortality, and lower birth order with longer birth interval >2 were significantly associated with child deaths. Other risk factors that affected child deaths in Bangladesh included young mothers of less than 25 years (mothers’ median age (26-36 years): OR=0.670, 95%CI=0.551-0.815), women without education compared to those with secondary and higher education (OR =0 .711 & .628, 95%CI=0.606-0.833 & 0.437-0.903), mothers who perceived their child body size to be larger than average and small size (OR= 1.525 & 1.068, 95%CI=1.221-1.905 & 0.913-1.249), and mothers who delivered their child by non-caesarean (OR= 1.687, 95%CI=1.253-2.272). Conclusion Community-based educational programs or awareness programs are required to reduce the child death in Bangladesh, especially for younger women should be increase the birth interval and decrease the birth order. The government should apply the strategies to enhance the socioeconomic conditions, especially in rural areas, increase the awareness program through media and expand schooling, particularly for girls.
A Novel Adaptive P&O MPPT Algorithm Considering Sudden Changes in the Irradiance

In this paper, a short-circuit current-based adaptive perturb and observe maximum power point tracking algorithm is proposed to extract the maximum power from photovoltaic (PV) panel under sudden changes in the irradiance. This scheme is divided into two algorithms: 1) current perturbation algorithm; and 2) adaptive control algorithm. The current perturbation algorithm makes the PV panel operate at maximum power point. The adaptive control algorithm identifies the operating limit violation and sets a new operating point nearer to maximum power point. These limits are derived in terms of changes in the irradiance and current. The new operating point is set by estimating the short-circuit current. This algorithm proposes variable current perturbation, which varies continuously with the irradiance. A boost converter is used to realize the proposed algorithm. The proposed algorithm is compared with a conventional algorithm and validated for sudden changes in the irradiance through the experimental results.
Novel electrical and chemical findings on SIOx-based ReRAM devices

Existing non-volatile flash memory technologies are characterised by slow access time, high power consumption and a quickly approaching scaling limit. Filamentary resistive RAM (ReRAM) is an emerging type of storage device that relies on the electrically driven change in resistance of a thin film sandwiched between two electrodes. The active region is often a binary oxide that develops a restorable conductive filament thanks to the electrically driven movement of oxygen. This technology offers potential sub-10 nm scalability, nanosecond programming with direct overwriting (unlike FLASH) and an appealing sub pJ/bit power consumption (compared to nJ/bit of FLASH). In this thesis, metal-insulator-metal ReRAM devices with a TiN/SiOx/TiN structure are used. While other binary oxides have been used in the literature, SiOx must be used in its amorphous form allowing for easier fabrication, and is an extremely well-studied material as its CMOS compatibility dates back 40 years. Using the above devices, it was possible to observe data storage performance comparable to the one of other types of ReRAM. More interestingly, it was observed that the resistance states of this family of devices may be programmed using nanosecond pulses of identical magnitude, possibly leading to simple programming circuits. Consequently, it is shown that this programming method may also be used to gradually increase or decrease the device resistance state as well as have devices enter states that relax over time. These types of behaviour mean that SiOx devices may be used in neuromorphic networks that require components whose behaviour resembles the one of the neuronal synapsis or the mammalian brain’s forgetting process. The literature reports on endurance-hindering electrode deformation phenomena during the operation of oxide-based ReRAM devices. A residual gas analyser (RGA) was used to detect that oxygen species are emitted during operation and therefore confirmed that such phenomena are caused by oxygen emission. Using SIMS (secondary ion mass spectroscopy) analysis on devices switched in atmospheres containing isotopically labelled oxygen, it was observed that, under deformed regions, it is possible to find incorporated atmospheric oxygen. Additionally, reducing atmospheric pressure had negative impact on device reliability. SiOx-based filamentary ReRAM is a strong candidate in the search for alternatives to flash memory. Moreover, these devices display behaviour that may be useful in applications trying to emulate the mammalian brain. Having observed device dependence on its atmosphere, endurance issues may now be addressed using electrodes capable of either adsorbing oxygen without bubbling or letting it go through without cracking.
Association of Race/Ethnicity with Emergency Department Wait Times

Objective. To determine whether wait times for children treated in emergency departments (EDs) nationally are associated with patient race/ethnicity. Methods. Data were obtained from the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, which collects information on patient visits to EDs throughout the United States. We examined data for patients ≤15 years of age who presented to EDs during the 4-year period of 1997–2000. Sample weights were applied to the identified patient records to yield national estimates. For the purposes of this study, race/ethnicity was analyzed for 3 major groups, ie, non-Hispanic white (NHW), non-Hispanic black (NHB), and Hispanic white (HW). Results. During the 4-year study period, 20633 patient visits were surveyed, representing a national sample of 92.9 million children ≤15 years of age. The race/ethnicity distribution included 9019 NHW children (59.5%), 3910 NHB children (23.9%), and 2991 HW children (16.6%). The wait time for all groups was 43.6 ± 1.7 minutes (mean ± SEM). There were significant unadjusted intergroup differences in wait times (38.5 ± 1.6 minutes, 48.7 ± 0.5 minutes, and 54.5 ± 0.1 minutes for NHW, NHB, and HW children, respectively). Visit immediacy (triage status), when reported, was categorized as <15 minutes for 2203 children (17.1%), 15 to 60 minutes for 5324 (41.4%), 1 to 2 hours for 3010 (25.1%), and >2 to 24 hours for 1910 (16.4%). There were significant unadjusted differences in triage status according to race, with 14.6% of NHW patients being placed in the >2-hour immediacy range, compared with 18.8% of NHB patients and 20.0% of HW patients. In a linear regression analysis with logarithmically transformed wait time as a dependent variable and with adjustment for potential confounders, including hospital location, geographic region, and payer status, both NHB and HW patients waited longer than NHW patients, although the results were statistically significant only for HW patients. Conclusions. These nationally representative data suggest that children who come to EDs have wait times that vary according to race/ethnicity. There are several potential explanations for this observation, including discrimination, cultural incompetence, language barriers, and other social factors. These data and similar data from the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey are useful in identifying nonclinical influences on the delivery of pediatric emergency care.
Listeriolysin is a potent inducer of the phosphatidylinositol response and lipid mediator generation in human endothelial cells

The impact of Listeria monocytogenes listeriolysin O (LLO) secretion on phosphoinositide metabolism and mediator (platelet-activating factor and prostaglandin I2) generation was investigated in human umbilical vein endothelial cells. Wild-type L. monocytogenes, purified LLO, and an L. innocua strain engineered to secrete LLO all elicited a strong response, whereas mutant strains defective in LLO production were ineffective. Thus, human umbilical vein endothelial cell stimulation by listeriae is linked to production of LLO.
Parallel processing and sentence comprehension difficulty

Eye fixation durations during normal reading correlate with processing difficulty, but the specific cognitive mechanisms reflected in these measures are not well understood. This study finds support in German readers' eye fixations for two distinct difficulty metrics: surprisal, which reflects the change in probabilities across syntactic analyses as new words are integrated; and retrieval, which quantifies comprehension difficulty in terms of working memory constraints. We examine the predictions of both metrics using a family of dependency parsers indexed by an upper limit on the number of candidate syntactic analyses they retain at successive words. Surprisal models all fixation measures and regression probability. By contrast, retrieval does not model any measure in serial processing. As more candidate analyses are considered in parallel at each word, retrieval can account for the same measures as surprisal. This pattern suggests an important role for ranked parallelism in theories of sentence comprehension.
How Many People Do You Know in Prison?

Networks—sets of objects connected by relationships—are important in a number of fields. The study of networks has long been central to sociology, where researchers have attempted to understand the causes and consequences of the structure of relationships in large groups of people. Using insight from previous network research, Killworth et al. and McCarty et al. have developed and evaluated a method for estimating the sizes of hard-to-count populations using network data collected from a simple random sample of Americans. In this article we show how, using a multilevel overdispersed Poisson regression model, these data also can be used to estimate aspects of social structure in the population. Our work goes beyond most previous research on networks by using variation, as well as average responses, as a source of information. We apply our method to the data of McCarty et al. and find that Americans vary greatly in their number of acquaintances. Further, Americans show great variation in propensity to form ties to people in some groups (e.g., males in prison, the homeless, and American Indians), but little variation for other groups (e.g., twins, people named Michael or Nicole). We also explore other features of these data and consider ways in which survey data can be used to estimate network structure.
Experimental perspective on fallback foods and dietary adaptations in early hominins

The robust jaws and large, thick-enameled molars of the Plio–Pleistocene hominins Australopithecus and Paranthropus have long been interpreted as adaptations for hard-object feeding. Recent studies of dental microwear indicate that only Paranthropus robustus regularly ate hard items, suggesting that the dentognathic anatomy of other australopiths reflects rare, seasonal exploitation of hard fallback foods. Here, we show that hard-object feeding cannot explain the extreme morphology of Paranthropus boisei. Rather, analysis of long-term dietary plasticity in an animal model suggests year-round reliance on tough foods requiring prolonged postcanine processing in P. boisei. Increased consumption of such items may have marked the earlier transition from Ardipithecus to Australopithecus, with routine hard-object feeding in P. robustus representing a novel behaviour.
Individualized Early Prediction of Familial Risk of Dyslexia: A Study of Infant Vocabulary Development

We examined early vocabulary development in children at familial risk (FR) of dyslexia and typically developing (TD) children between 17 and 35 months of age. We trained a support vector machine to classify TD and FR using these vocabulary data at the individual level. The Dutch version of the McArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (Words and Sentences) (N-CDI) was used to measure vocabulary development. We analyzed group-level differences for both total vocabulary as well as lexical classes: common nouns, predicates, and closed class words. The generalizability of the classification model was tested using cross-validation. At the group level, for both total vocabulary and the composites, the difference between TD and FR was most pronounced at 19–20 months, with FRs having lower scores. For the individual prediction, highest cross-validation accuracy (68%) was obtained at 19–20 months, with sensitivity (correctly classified FR) being 70% and specificity (correctly classified TD) being 67%. There is a sensitive window in which the difference between FR and TD is most evident. Machine learning methods are promising techniques for separating FR and TD children at an early age, before they start reading.
The Endothelial Nitric-oxide Synthase-Caveolin Regulatory Cycle*

Nitric oxide production in the vascular endothelium is promoted by diverse agonists that transiently increase intracellular Ca2+ concentration and activate the endothelial nitric-oxide synthase (eNOS), a Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent enzyme. eNOS is acylated by the fatty acids myristate and palmitate and is targeted thereby to plasmalemmal signal-transducing domains termed caveolae. eNOS enzyme activity is markedly attenuated by its interactions with caveolin, the structural scaffolding protein of caveolae. We have discovered that in living cells, the eNOS-caveolin heteromeric complex undergoes cycles of dissociation and re-association modulated by Ca2+-mobilizing agonists. Calcium ionophore A23187 and the muscarinic cholinergic agonist carbachol both promote the dissociation of eNOS from caveolin in cultured cells, associated with translocation of eNOS from caveolae. As [Ca2+] i returns to basal levels, eNOS re-associates with caveolin, and the inhibited enzyme complex is then restored to caveolae, a process accelerated by palmitoylation of the enzyme. These data establish an eNOS-caveolin regulatory cycle, wherein enzyme activation is modulated by reversible protein-protein interactions controlled by Ca2+/calmodulin and by enzyme palmitoylation. Alterations in this cycle are likely to have an important influence on nitric oxide-dependent signaling in the vascular wall.
Movement of borate from liquid borate inserts in dual-treated bridge timbers

ABSTRACT Creosote-treated wooden bridge ties in the South-Eastern U.S.A. last about 15–20 years, which falls well below the national average of 40 years for crossties. It was demonstrated that diffusion of inserted liquid disodium octaborate tetrahydrate within wooden bridge ties was dramatically increased during Boulton treatment. The objective of this study was to determine how much diffusion of borate inside the bridge tie occurred over time, after initial treatment. Green hardwood bridge ties were ported, borate treated and then Boulton treated with copper naphthenate at a commercial tie treatment plant. Retention and location of borate within the wood was tested at 3, 14 and 40 weeks after the treatment. As previously found, movement of borate within the wood was significantly enhanced by the elevated temperature and steam generated during the Boulton cycle. It appeared that borate continued to diffuse inside of the tie and would likely treat and protect a significant volume of the heartwood over time and thus increase bridge tie life in a similar way to crossties. It is hoped that the results will reduce environmental impact, improve safety and enable railroads to continue to use wood with confidence.