Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cytokine Profiles Contribute to Understanding the Pathogenic Difference Between Good Syndrome and Oral Lichen Planus

AbstractWe described and analyzed the pathogenic difference between Good syndrome (GS) and oral lichen planus (OLP) in oral mucosa.Good syndrome (GS) is a rare disease characterized by B and T cell immunodeficiency associated with hypogammaglobulinemia and thymoma. GS patients frequently develop oral lichenoid lesions with lymphocytic infiltration beneath the basal layer. Oral lichen planus (OLP) is a chronic inflammatory disease of the oral mucosa characterized by destruction of basal cells by Langerhans cells, macrophages, and T lymphocytes. Although the histological features of the lesions of both diseases are very similar, the pathogenesis of GS in the oral mucosa remains unknown. In this study, we thus investigated the expression of infiltrating lymphocyte subsets (CD3, CD20, CD4, and CD8) and T helper (Th) cytokines including interferon (IFN)-&ggr; (Th1 type), interleukin (IL)-4 (Th2 type), IL-17 (Th17 type), and IL-10 (regulatory T cell type) by immunohistochemistry in buccal mucosa specimens from 2 GS patients compared with 15 OLP patients. All patients showed a predominance of CD3+ T cells over CD20+ B cells, and CD4+ Th cells over CD8+ cytotoxic T cells. This polarization was especially prominent in GS. IFN-&ggr; and IL-10 were strongly detected in the infiltrating lymphocytes of all patients. However, IL-4 and IL-17 were detected in OLP patients only.These results suggest that the pathogenesis of GS is different from that of OLP. GS is a unique inflammatory disorder characterized by dysfunction of Th2 and Th17 immune reactions via abnormal T–B cell interaction.
Ontario Kindergarten Teachers' Social Media Discussions about Full Day Kindergarten.

This exploratory netnographic study describes how a sample of Ontario kindergarten teachers perceives the new Ontario Full Day Kindergarten (FDK) curriculum. Discussions from teacher message boards, the comment sections of online news articles, and interviews with kindergarten teachers were analyzed and coded using a qualitative approach. Analysis revealed three major themes: 1) Class size concerns, 2) Team teaching concerns, and 3) Play-based curriculum concerns. Results are in broad agreement with those reported in existing research into Ontario’s FDK initiative. Findings highlight the need for further research with educators involved in Ontario’s FDK and also contribute to the burgeoning field of netnography research. Suggestions for future research and practice are included.
Predictors of good outcome in medium to large spontaneous supratentorial intracerebral haemorrhages

Objective: To determine potential predictors of good outcome in primary medium to large intracerebral haemorrhages (ICH) which could be useful for selecting patients for surgical procedures. Methods: Subjects were 138 patients with spontaneous hemispheric ICH >20 ml. They were non-surgically treated and were admitted consecutively to 15 hospitals within the first 12 hours of symptom onset (mean (SD), 5.8 (3.1) hours). Haematoma volume was measured on computed tomography (CT) at admission. Stroke severity was assessed by the Canadian stroke scale (CSS). Good outcome was defined as modified Rankin score ⩽2 at three months. Results: At the end of the follow up period, 45 patients (32.6%) had good outcome. Baseline stroke severity, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, body temperature, and acute phase reaction biochemical markers (ESR, C-reactive protein, fibrinogen, neutrophil count) were significantly associated with good outcome in bivariate analyses. Of the initial CT scan variables, intraventricular contamination, deep location, mass effect, and greater ICH volume were related to poor outcome. On multiple logistic regression analysis, cortical location of bleeding (odds ratio 3.79 (95% confidence interval 1.2 to 12.01); p = 0.023), high CSS score (OR 2.3 (1.6 to 3.1); p<0.0001), and low fibrinogen concentrations (OR 0.92 (0.87 to 0.97); p = 0.001) were independent predictors of good outcome. These three factors correctly classified 85% of patients. Conclusions: Good outcome in medium to large ICH can be predicted on admission by three readily assessable factors (CSS score, ICH location, and fibrinogen levels). These predictors may be helpful in selecting patients for surgical treatment.
New Characterization of an Improved Numerical Method for Solving the Electrical Impedance Equation in the Plane: An Approach from the Modern Pseudoanalytic Function Theory

Employing an improved numerical method, we approach solutions for the Dirichlet boundary value forward problem of the Electrical Impedance Equation in the plane. Some of the considered conductivity functions posses an exact mathematical representation. The rest arise from geometrical figures. Both classes of conductivity functions are analyzed within bounded domains, emphasizing the results corresponding to non-smooth boundaries, for which not any additional regularization method was required.
CONTEXTUAL CLASSIFICATION OF POINT CLOUD DATA BY EXPLOITING INDIVIDUAL 3D NEIGBOURHOODS

Abstract. The fully automated analysis of 3D point clouds is of great importance in photogrammetry, remote sensing and computer vision. For reliably extracting objects such as buildings, road inventory or vegetation, many approaches rely on the results of a point cloud classification, where each 3D point is assigned a respective semantic class label. Such an assignment, in turn, typically involves statistical methods for feature extraction and machine learning. Whereas the different components in the processing workflow have extensively, but separately been investigated in recent years, the respective connection by sharing the results of crucial tasks across all components has not yet been addressed. This connection not only encapsulates the interrelated issues of neighborhood selection and feature extraction, but also the issue of how to involve spatial context in the classification step. In this paper, we present a novel and generic approach for 3D scene analysis which relies on (i) individually optimized 3D neighborhoods for (ii) the extraction of distinctive geometric features and (iii) the contextual classification of point cloud data. For a labeled benchmark dataset, we demonstrate the beneficial impact of involving contextual information in the classification process and that using individual 3D neighborhoods of optimal size significantly increases the quality of the results for both pointwise and contextual classification.
Experimental Investigation and Micro Mechanics Assessment for Longitudinal Elastic Modulus in Unidirectional Cotton-Polyester Composites

Several billion tons of fillers and reinforcements are used annually in the plastics industry, and there is a huge potential market for recyclable, energy efficient and more environmentally friendly composite materials. The use of medium strength and low strength fiber available in nature are having enough potential for other application where high strength are not critical but it can provide a feasible range of alternative materials to suitable conventional material. The systematic experimental study using developed mould-punch set up and testing aids was carried out for the effect of volume fraction of reinforcement on longitudinal elastic modulus of unidirectional cotton fiber reinforced polyester composites. The testing was carried out as per ASTM D3039/D3039M-08. The micro mechanics assessment of obtained experimental results with models available in literature for longitudinal elastic modulus forms an equally important constituent of present work. Keywords—Cotton fibers; unidirectional composites; testing, experimental study, micro mechanics.
News vertical search: when and what to display to users

News reporting has seen a shift toward fast-paced online reporting in new sources such as social media. Web Search engines that support a news vertical have historically relied upon articles published by major newswire providers when serving news-related queries. In this paper, we investigate to what extent real-time content from newswire, blogs, Twitter and Wikipedia sources are useful to return to the user in the current fast-paced news search setting. In particular, we perform a detailed user study using the emerging medium of crowdsourcing to determine when and where integrating news-related content from these various sources can better serve the user's news need. We sampled approximately 300 news-related search queries using Google Trends and Bitly data in real-time for two time periods. For these queries, we have crowdsourced workers compare Web search rankings for each, with similar rankings integrating real-time news content from sources such as Twitter or the blogosphere. Our results show that users exhibited a preference for rankings integrating newswire articles for only half of our queries, indicating that relying solely on newswire providers for news-related content is now insufficient. Moreover, our results show that users preferred rankings that integrate tweets more often than those that integrate newswire articles, showing the potential of using social media to better serve news queries.
KBQA: Learning Question Answering over QA Corpora and Knowledge Bases

Question answering (QA) has become a popular way for humans to access billion-scale knowledge bases. Unlike web search, QA over a knowledge base gives out accurate and concise results, provided that natural language questions can be understood and mapped precisely to structured queries over the knowledge base. The challenge, however, is that a human can ask one question in many different ways. Previous approaches have natural limits due to their representations: rule based approaches only understand a small set of "canned" questions, while keyword based or synonym based approaches cannot fully understand the questions. In this paper, we design a new kind of question representation: templates, over a billion scale knowledge base and a million scale QA corpora. For example, for questions about a city's population, we learn templates such as What's the population of $city? , How many people are there in $city? We learned 27 million templates for 2782 intents. Based on these templates, our QA system KBQA effectively supports binary factoid questions, as well as complex questions which are composed of a series of binary factoid questions. Furthermore, we expand predicates in RDF knowledge base, which boosts the coverage of knowledge base by 57 times. Our QA system beats all other state-of-art works on both effectiveness and efficiency over QALD benchmarks.
Comprehensive Survey of Genetic Diversity in Chloroplast Genomes and 45S nrDNAs within Panax ginseng Species

We report complete sequences of chloroplast (cp) genome and 45S nuclear ribosomal DNA (45S nrDNA) for 11 Panax ginseng cultivars. We have obtained complete sequences of cp and 45S nrDNA, the representative barcoding target sequences for cytoplasm and nuclear genome, respectively, based on low coverage NGS sequence of each cultivar. The cp genomes sizes ranged from 156,241 to 156,425 bp and the major size variation was derived from differences in copy number of tandem repeats in the ycf1 gene and in the intergenic regions of rps16-trnUUG and rpl32-trnUAG. The complete 45S nrDNA unit sequences were 11,091 bp, representing a consensus single transcriptional unit with an intergenic spacer region. Comparative analysis of these sequences as well as those previously reported for three Chinese accessions identified very rare but unique polymorphism in the cp genome within P. ginseng cultivars. There were 12 intra-species polymorphisms (six SNPs and six InDels) among 14 cultivars. We also identified five SNPs from 45S nrDNA of 11 Korean ginseng cultivars. From the 17 unique informative polymorphic sites, we developed six reliable markers for analysis of ginseng diversity and cultivar authentication.
Random holomorphic iterations and degenerate subdomains of the unit disk

Given a random sequence of holomorphic maps f 1 , f 2 , f 3 ,. of the unit disk A to a subdomain X, we consider the compositions F n = fl f 2 . f n-1 0 f n . The sequence {F n } is called the iterated function system coming from the sequence f 1 , f 2 , f 3 . We prove that a sufficient condition on the domain X for all limit functions of any {F n } to be constant is also necessary. We prove that the condition is a quasiconformal invariant. Finally, we address the question of uniqueness of limit functions.
Three Essays on Contingent Valuation

ii DEDICATION . iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . v LIST OF TABLES . ix LIST OF FIGURES . xi CHAPTER 1. GENERAL INTRODUCTION . 1 1.1. Elicitation Formats and Estimation Methods Employed in the CV Methodology. 2 1.2. Dissertation Objectives and Overview . 3 1.3. References . 5 2. THE THEORETICAL STRUCTURE OF PRODUCER WILLIGNESS TO PAY ESTIMATES . 8 2.1. Abstract . 8 2.2. Introduction . 9 2.3. Literature Review . 10 2.4. Theoretical Model and Comparative Statics . 12 2.5. Implications for Current Practice . 21 2.6. Summary and Conclusions . 25 2.7. References . 27
Nuclear Export of Pre-Ribosomal Subunits Requires Dbp5, but Not as an RNA-Helicase as for mRNA Export

The DEAD-box RNA-helicase Dbp5/Rat8 is known for its function in nuclear mRNA export, where it displaces the export receptor Mex67 from the mRNA at the cytoplasmic side of the nuclear pore complex (NPC). Here we show that Dbp5 is also required for the nuclear export of both pre-ribosomal subunits. Yeast temperature-sensitive dbp5 mutants accumulate both ribosomal particles in their nuclei. Furthermore, Dbp5 genetically and physically interacts with known ribosomal transport factors such as Nmd3. Similar to mRNA export we show that also for ribosomal transport Dbp5 is required at the cytoplasmic side of the NPC. However, unlike its role in mRNA export, Dbp5 does not seem to undergo its ATPase cycle for this function, as ATPase-deficient dbp5 mutants that selectively inhibit mRNA export do not affect ribosomal transport. Furthermore, mutants of GLE1, the ATPase stimulating factor of Dbp5, show no major ribosomal export defects. Consequently, while Dbp5 uses its ATPase cycle to displace the export receptor Mex67 from the translocated mRNAs, Mex67 remains bound to ribosomal subunits upon transit to the cytoplasm, where it is detectable on translating ribosomes. Therefore, we propose a model, in which Dbp5 supports ribosomal transport by capturing ribosomal subunits upon their cytoplasmic appearance at the NPC, possibly by binding export factors such as Mex67. Thus, our findings reveal that although different ribonucleoparticles, mRNAs and pre-ribosomal subunits, use shared export factors, they utilize different transport mechanisms.
Hepatic Glucose Intolerance Precedes Hepatic Steatosis in the Male Aromatase Knockout (ArKO) Mouse

Estrogens are known to play a role in modulating metabolic processes within the body. The Aromatase knockout (ArKO) mice have been shown to harbor factors of Metabolic syndrome with central adiposity, hyperinsulinemia and male-specific hepatic steatosis. To determine the effects of estrogen ablation and subsequent replacement in males on whole body glucose metabolism, three- and six-month-old male ArKO mice were subjected to whole body glucose, insulin and pyruvate tolerance tests and analyzed for ensuing metabolic changes in liver, adipose tissue, and skeletal muscle. Estrogen-deficient male ArKO mice showed increased gonadal adiposity which was significantly reduced upon 17β-estradiol (E2) treatment. Concurrently, elevated ArKO serum leptin levels were significantly reduced upon E2 treatment and lowered serum adiponectin levels were restored to wild type levels. Three-month-old male ArKO mice were hyperglycemic, and both glucose and pyruvate intolerant. These phenotypes continued through to 6 months of age, highlighting a loss of glycemic control. ArKO livers displayed changes in gluconeogenic enzyme expression, and in insulin signaling pathways upon E2 treatment. Liver triglycerides were increased in the ArKO males only after 6 months of age, which could be reversed by E2 treatment. No differences were observed in insulin-stimulated ex vivo muscle glucose uptake nor changes in ArKO adipose tissue and muscle insulin signaling pathways. Therefore, we conclude that male ArKO mice develop hepatic glucose intolerance by the age of 3 months which precedes the sex-specific development of hepatic steatosis. This can be reversed upon the administration of exogenous E2.
Treatment Outcomes in Tuberculosis Patients with Diabetes: A Polytomous Analysis Using Brazilian Surveillance System

Background The impact of non-communicable diseases on tuberculosis incidence has received significant attention. It has been suggested that the risk of tuberculosis is higher among subjects with diabetes and these subjects also has poor TB treatment outcomes.This study was aimed at assessing the socio-demographic and clinical factors that may influence different outcome of TB in patients with DM (TB-DM) identified in the Brazilian national database from 2001 to 2011. Methods TB-DM cases reported in the Brazilian information system were identified and compared.Covariates associated with the outcomes of interest (cure, default, deaths, and development of TB MDR) were included in a hierarchical regression model. Results TB-DM cases increased from 380/100,000/year in 2001 to 6,150/100,000/year in 2011. Some of the main associations found are pointed. The odds of default was higher among those in the age group 20–39 years (OR = 2.07, 95%CI 1.32–3.24); alcoholics (OR = 2.17, 95%CI 1.86–2.54), and HIV/AIDS (OR = 2.16, 95%CI 1.70–2.74);positive monitoring smear (OR = 1.94, 95%CI 1.55–2.43); prior default (OR = 5.41, 95%CI 4.47–6.54), and unknown type of treatment (OR = 3.33, 95%CI 1.54–7.22). The odds of death was greater for subjects ≥60 years old (OR = 2.74, 95%CI 1.74–4.29); institutionalized in shelter (OR = 2.69, 95%CI 1.07–6.77); alcoholics (OR = 2.70, 95%CI 2.27–3.22); HIV/AIDS (OR = 2.87, 95%CI 2.13–3.86); pulmonary+extrapulmonary TB (OR = 2.49, 95%CI 1.79–3.46); with unknown type of treatment (OR = 14.12, 95%CI 7.04–28.32). Development of MDR TB was more related to relapse (OR = 9.60, 95%CI 6.07–15.14);previous default (OR = 17.13, 95%CI 9.58–30.63); and transfer of treatment center (OR = 7.87, 95%CI 4.74–13.07). Conclusions Older subjects and those with comorbidities and with a previous treatment of TB had poorest outcomes. TB control program in Brazil will need to expand efforts to focus on treatment of TB-DM patients to improve their cure rates in order to achieve the goals of tuberculosis elimination.
Noise Robust Multichannel Frequency-Domain LMS Algorithms for Blind Channel Identification

A number of multichannel least mean square (LMS)-type algorithms have been proposed in the literature to identify single-input multi-output finite impulse response channels. All of these algorithms share the common characteristic of good initial convergence followed by a rapid misconvergence in the presence of noise. This misconvergence characteristic is due to the nonuniform spectral attenuation of the estimated channel coefficients as reported in some research results. In this letter, we formulate a novel cost function that inherently oppose such spectral attenuation resulting from the noisy update vector. We show analytically that the gradient of the proposed penalty term enforces uniform distribution of the estimated channel spectral energy over the entire frequency band and thus contribute to ameliorating the misconvergence of these multichannel algorithms in the presence of noise. The robustness of the proposed algorithm is verified using numerical examples for different channels in a wide range of signal-to-noise ratios.
Lovastatin lactone elicits human lung cancer cell apoptosis via a COX-2/PPARγ-dependent pathway

Statins (3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A [HMG-CoA] reductase inhibitors) are well-established agents to treat hyperlipidemic states. Experimental and epidemiological evidence further implies an anticancer effect of these substances. This study investigates the mechanism underlying human lung cancer cell death by lovastatin and the role of the prostaglandin (PG)-synthesizing enzyme cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) in this process. In A549 and H358 lung carcinoma cells the lipophilic prodrug lovastatin lactone led to a concentration-dependent decrease of viability and induction of DNA fragmentation, whereas its HMG-CoA-inhibitory, ring-open acid form was inactive in this respect. Apoptotic cell death by lovastatin was accompanied by high intracellular levels of the lactone form, by upregulation of COX-2 mRNA and protein, as well as by increased formation of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ)-activating PGD2 and 15-deoxy-Δ12,14-PGJ2. Cells were significantly less sensitive to lovastatin-induced apoptotic cell death, when the expression or activity of COX-2 was suppressed by siRNA or by the COX-2 inhibitor NS-398. Apoptosis by lovastatin was likewise reversed by the PPARγ antagonist GW9662. Fluorescence microscopy analyses revealed a lovastatin-induced cytosol-to-nucleus translocation of PPARγ that was inhibited by NS-398. Collectively, this study demonstrates COX-2 induction and subsequent COX-2-dependent activation of PPARγ as a hitherto unknown mechanism by which lovastatin lactone induces human lung cancer cell death.
Three-dimensional imaging techniques: A literature review

Imaging is one of the most important tools for orthodontists to evaluate and record size and form of craniofacial structures. Orthodontists routinely use 2-dimensional (2D) static imaging techniques, but deepness of structures cannot be obtained and localized with 2D imaging. Three-dimensional (3D) imaging has been developed in the early of 1990′s and has gained a precious place in dentistry, especially in orthodontics. The aims of this literature review are to summarize the current state of the 3D imaging techniques and to evaluate the applications in orthodontics.
Experimental comparison of a directed and a non-directed potential field approach to formation navigation

The field of multirobot systems (MRS) is continuously drawing more attention. The DARPA SDR program and the RoboSoccer/RobotRescue contests have shown the great potential of this field. One of the increasingly popular uses of the field of MRS is in communication and sensor-networks. These applications require a task depended navigation. The MRS sub-problem of formation navigation is predestined for this purpose. This paper presents an improvement of the classical potential field approach for motion co-ordination in formations of MRS. The approach is briefly compared to related work. For the subtask of moving in formation, a solution based on a directed potential field is presented. Different forces belonging to other robots, obstacles and the aspired shape of formation are combined and used to move each robot to its desired position inside the formation. While moving in formation, the group is able to avoid obstacles and approach towards a specified target. First experiments that show the differences and improvements in comparison to the classical method are presented.