Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Hyperthermia impairs short-term memory and peripheral motor drive transmission

The aims of this study were to determine (i) the effect of passive hyperthermia on motor drive and cognitive function, and (ii) whether head cooling can limit the hyperthermia‐induced alterations. Sixteen subjects were randomly exposed for 2 h to three different conditions: control (Con, 20°C), hot (Hot, 50°C) and hot head cool (HHC – where cold packs were applied to the head under Hot conditions). Three cognitive tests measuring attention and two measuring memory were performed. Neuromuscular testing included electrically evoked muscle action potentials (M‐waves) and reflex waves (H‐reflex) at rest and during brief (4–5 s) and sustained (120 s) maximal voluntary contractions (MVC) of the plantar flexors. All the tests were performed in the environmental room. During brief MVC, torque was significantly lower in both Hot and HHC as compared to Con (P < 0.05). The decrease in muscle activation was significant in Hot (P < 0.05) but not in HBC (P= 0.07). This was accompanied by peripheral failures in the transmission of the neural drive at both spinal (significant decrements in H‐reflexes and V‐waves, P < 0.05) and neuromuscular junction (significant decrements in M‐waves, P < 0.05) levels. During sustained MVC, muscle activation was further depressed (P < 0.05) without any concomitant failures in M‐waves, suggesting neural activation adjustments occurring probably at the supraspinal level. Cerebral perturbations were confirmed by significant decrements in both memory tests in Hot as compared with Con (P < 0.05) but not in simple tests (attention tests) that were not affected by hyperthermia. The decrement in memory capacity suggested the existence of frontal lobe activity impairments. Thus, HHC preserved memory capacity but not the visual memory.
FOXP3 mRNA Levels are Decreased in Peripheral Blood CD4+ Lymphocytes From HIV-Positive Patients

The impact of HIV infection on regulatory CD4+CD25high (Treg) lymphocyte subpopulations was evaluated by FOXP3 quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction and by flow cytometry. FOXP3 mRNA was quantified in peripheral blood mononuclear cells or purified CD4+ lymphocytes from HIV+ lymphopenic patients. Patients were distributed among clinical stages A, B, and C and received highly active antiretroviral therapy. The frequency of CD4+CD25high lymphocytes, measured by flow cytometry, was decreased in HIV+ patients (n = 38) compared with the group of uninfected subjects (n = 39). FOXP3 mRNA levels were found decreased in HIV+ patients (n = 25) compared with controls (n = 17) when expression of CD3γ or β-actin but not that of TATA box binding protein 1 was used for data normalization. Our results are compatible with a decrease of the Treg lymphocytes during HIV infection. The consequences of a Treg decrease are discussed in the context of immunologic anomalies observed during HIV infection.
MEMS-based inertial navigation based on a magnetic field map

This paper presents an approach for 6D pose estimation where MEMS inertial measurements are complemented with magnetometer measurements assuming that a model (map) of the magnetic field is known. The resulting estimation problem is solved using a Rao-Blackwellized particle filter. In our experimental study the magnetic field is generated by a magnetic coil giving rise to a magnetic field that we can model using analytical expressions. The experimental results show that accurate position estimates can be obtained in the vicinity of the coil, where the magnetic field is strong.
Effects of environmental tobacco smoke on respiratory health of boys and girls from kindergarten: results from 15 districts of northern China.

UNLABELLED The effects of childhood environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) exposure on respiratory symptoms were investigated in 6053 kindergarten-aged children residing in 15 districts of northern China. Responses to a self-administered questionnaire completed by parents of children from 30 kindergartens were used to ascertain children with persistent cough, persistent phlegm, asthma symptom, current asthma, wheeze and wheeze without asthma. In first 2 years ETS exposure and current ETS exposure were associated with increased prevalence of persistent cough, persistent phlegm, wheeze and wheeze without asthma. Among boys, ETS exposure was associated with more respiratory symptoms and diseases than in girls. ETS exposure during pregnancy was associated with asthma symptom [odds ratio (OR), 3.00; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.28-7.03], current asthma (OR, 3.38; 95% CI: 1.25-9.14), persistent cough (OR, 1.64; 95% CI: 1.13-2.37), persistent phlegm (OR, 1.74; 95% CI: 1.01-3.01), wheeze (OR, 1.75; 95% CI: 1.15-2.68), and wheeze without asthma (OR, 1.46; 95% CI: 1.01-2.37) only among boys. In boys, the adjusted ORs for increased risk of asthma symptom and current asthma for household exposures (> or =10 cigarettes smoked per day vs. none smoked) during workday were 2.04 (95% CI: 1.01-3.89) and 2.76 (95% CI: 1.06-9.58), respectively. We conclude that ETS exposure increases the occurrence of respiratory symptoms and diseases during childhood. Boys may be more susceptible to ETS than girls. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS Environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) is a highly prevalent respiratory irritant. In agreement with previous cross-sectional studies, our study indicates that exposure to ETS may increase the occurrence of respiratory symptoms and diseases in children, and the association of ETS exposure and respiratory health of children increased in strength with number of cigarettes smoked inside the house per day during workday and day-off. Boys may be more susceptible to ETS than girls. These findings support the view that measures should be taken to reduce ETS exposure for children.
[The level of anxiety and depression in the early puerperium - preliminary communication].

INTRODUCTION Childbirth is both joyful and stressful life event. This stressful life event results in different emotions occurring with different strength among new mothers, one of them is postpartum depression. However, postnatal depression received the predominance of research attention in recent years, and several authors have pointed attention to the importance of distinguishing between postpartum depression and postpartum anxiety. AIM The primary purpose of the presented research was to assess the level of anxiety and depression among women who were hospitalised after delivery. The second purpose was to determine if some additional factors influence the level of anxiety and depression. MATERIAL The study was conducted on the sample of 46 women who had delivered infants in the Gynecology - Obstetrics Clinical Hospital UM in Poznań, Poland in 2010. Method. Polish adaptations of standard questionnaires were used to measure variables such as anxiety (STAI), depression (BDI), styles of coping (CISS) and temperament (PTS). Additional data were collected using a questionnaire developed by the authors. RESULTS Statistical analysis assessed the level and frequency of anxiety (as a state and as a trait) and depression and associations between these factors as well as associations with additional variables (including: mode of delivery, styles of coping with stress and temperament). CONCLUSIONS The score in BDI in mothers after delivery was associated positively with emotion - oriented style of coping and anxiety as a state and as a trait and negatively with strength of inhibition processes. Anxiety as a trait was positively related to c-section.
Visualizing and Manipulating Complex Calendar Scheduling Information

Calendar scheduling is a difficult task for people who have overbooked calendars and many constraints. We are collabo-rating with artificial intelligence researchers, who are develop-ing an intelligent calendar scheduling agent that gathers avail-ability constraints, searches for times that satisfy the con-straints, and negotiates with invitees when no satisfactory time is found for the constraints. The agent will never be able to act with complete autonomy because, just like a good human as-sistant, it will need to consult its supervisor when a task is under-specified, has ambiguous instructions, deviates from the normal, or when the task has changed. Furthermore, users need an interface to tell the agent all of their constraints, to see the agent’s proposed solutions, and to respond to the agent’s questions. Currently, calendar applications do not allow users to specify scheduling constraints such as how preferable a free time is for scheduling a new meeting or to what extent an ex-isting meeting can be rescheduled. These requirements in-spired the “availability bar,” an interaction and visualization technique for complex, multi-dimensional calendar scheduling constraints. Availability bars were specifically designed to be embedded in calendar applications. Additionally, availability bars will help people who schedule their calendar by hand.
The vertical flux of particulate matter in the polynya of Terra Nova Bay. Part II. Biological components

Downward fluxes of particulate matter were investigated in the polynya of Terra Nova Bay (western Ross Sea) from February 1995 to December 1997. The main biological components were siliceous phytoplankton (diatoms, silicoflagellates and parmales), abundant faecal pellets of several types and zooplankton (mainly shelled pteropods). Vertical fluxes of particles occurred mainly through diatoms and faecal pellets in the first and second part of the summer, respectively. The highest fluxes were recurrently observed in late summer, when faeces contributed up to 100% of organic carbon. Unusually high fluxes were recorded in winter 1995, when faecal pellets accounted for 84.6% of the organic carbon. Peak fluxes were always driven by the sinking of faecal pellets, that hence appear to be the most efficient vector of export in the polynya of Terra Nova Bay. A major flux component was the pteropod Limacina helicina, which repeatedly sank in high amounts after the growing season. In April–June, L. helicina probably transported biogenic carbon to deep layers as a passive sinker. The inclusion of pteropods in flux estimates resulted in values that were up to 20 (for total mass), 25 (for organic matter) and 48 (for carbonate) times higher than the previously measured fluxes. Fluxes are known to be biased by swimmers, but ultimately attention must be paid to a possible erroneous categorization of some zooplankton as swimmers to avoid severe underestimation of fluxes of total mass (up to 95% in our study), organic matter (up to 96%) and carbonate (up to 100%).
Surgical discharge summaries: improving the record.

The problem area of communication between hospital and general practitioners may potentially be improved by the advent of new information technology. The introduction of a regional computer database for general surgery allows the rapid automated production of discharge summaries and has provided us with the opportunity for auditing the quality of old and new styles of discharge communication. A total of 118 general practitioners were sent a postal questionnaire to establish their views on the relative importance of various aspects of patient information and management after discharge. A high response rate (97%) indicated the interest of general practitioners in this topic. The majority (73%) believed that summaries should be delayed no more than 3 days. The structured and shortened new format was preferred to the older style of discharge summary. The older format rarely arrived within an appropriate time and its content was often felt to be either inadequate (35%) or excessive (7%) compared with the new format (8% and 1%, respectively). The diagnosis, information given to the patient, clinic date, list of medications and investigations
Switching off Embolization From Symptomatic Carotid Plaque Using S-Nitrosoglutathione

Background—Current antiplatelet regimens fail to prevent the majority of recurrent strokes. Asymptomatic circulating emboli can be detected by transcranial Doppler ultrasound, are frequent in patients with symptomatic carotid stenosis, and predict recurrent stroke risk. S-Nitrosoglutathione (GSNO) is a nitric oxide donor that appears to have relative platelet specificity. We evaluated its effectiveness in reducing embolization in patients with symptomatic carotid stenosis who already were taking aspirin. Methods and Results—Twenty patients with ≥50% internal carotid artery stenosis and with ≥3 embolic signals detected during a half-hour screening recording were recruited. All had taken aspirin for at least 7 days. They were randomly assigned in a double-blind fashion to either GSNO (4.4 mmol/kg per minute) or saline placebo for 90 minutes. Transcranial Doppler recordings were made from the ipsilateral middle cerebral artery for 1 hour before treatment and at 0 to 3, 6, and 24 hours after treatment. Before treatment, the mean (range) of embolic signals per hour was 6.9 (3 to 13) in the GSNO group and 7.3 (4 to 12) in the placebo group (P =0.68). GSNO resulted in a rapid reduction in the frequency of embolic signals of 84% at 0 to 3 hours, 95% at 6 hours, and 100% at 24 hours (P <0.0001, P =0.003, and P <0.0001 versus placebo, respectively). Conclusions—Continued embolization is common in patients with carotid stenosis despite aspirin therapy. GSNO was highly effective in rapidly reducing the frequency of embolic signals in this patient group. Despite its short administration time and its short half-life, it resulted in therapeutic effects lasting 24 hours.
Diversin regulates heart formation and gastrulation movements in development

Canonical and noncanonical Wnt signaling regulate crucial events in the development of vertebrates and invertebrates. In this work we show that vertebrate Diversin, a potential orthologue of Drosophila Diego, controls fusion of heart precursors and gastrulation movements in zebrafish embryogenesis. These events are regulated by noncanonical Wnt signaling, which is independent of β-catenin. We found that Diversin directly interacts with Dishevelled and that this interaction is necessary and sufficient to mediate signals of the noncanonical Wnt pathway to downstream effectors like Rho family GTPases and Jun N-terminal kinase. The ankyrin repeats of Diversin are required for the interaction with Dishevelled, for the activation of noncanonical Wnt signaling, and for the biological responses. The mutation K446M in the DEP domain of vertebrate Dishevelled, which mimics a classical Drosophila loss of function mutation, prevents functional interaction with Diversin's ankyrin repeats. Diversin also affects planar cell polarity in Drosophila, which is controlled by the noncanonical Wnt signaling pathway. Our data thus demonstrate that Diversin and Dishevelled function together in a mutually dependent fashion in zebrafish gastrulation and organ formation.
Extracellular Vesicle (EV) Array: microarray capturing of exosomes and other extracellular vesicles for multiplexed phenotyping

Background Exosomes are one of the several types of cell-derived vesicles with a diameter of 30–100 nm. These extracellular vesicles are recognized as potential markers of human diseases such as cancer. However, their use in diagnostic tests requires an objective and high-throughput method to define their phenotype and determine their concentration in biological fluids. To identify circulating as well as cell culture-derived vesicles, the current standard is immunoblotting or a flow cytometrical analysis for specific proteins, both of which requires large amounts of purified vesicles. Methods Based on the technology of protein microarray, we hereby present a highly sensitive Extracellular Vesicle (EV) Array capable of detecting and phenotyping exosomes and other extracellular vesicles from unpurified starting material in a high-throughput manner. To only detect the exosomes captured on the EV Array, a cocktail of antibodies against the tetraspanins CD9, CD63 and CD81 was used. These antibodies were selected to ensure that all exosomes captured are detected, and concomitantly excluding the detection of other types of microvesicles. Results The limit of detection (LOD) was determined on exosomes derived from the colon cancer cell line LS180. It clarified that supernatant from only approximately 104 cells was needed to obtain signals or that only 2.5×104 exosomes were required for each microarray spot (~1 nL). Phenotyping was performed on plasma (1–10 µL) from 7 healthy donors, which were applied to the EV Array with a panel of antibodies against 21 different cellular surface antigens and cancer antigens. For each donor, there was considerable heterogeneity in the expression levels of individual markers. The protein profiles of the exosomes (defined as positive for CD9, CD63 and CD81) revealed that only the expression level of CD9 and CD81 was approximately equal in the 7 donors. This implies questioning the use of CD63 as a standard exosomal marker since the expression level of this tetraspanin was considerably lower.
Nearshore wave height variation in unsaturated surf

The nearshore evolution of wave height is presented from field observations during unsaturated surf conditions from 10 different beaches characterized by microtidal conditions and predominantly swell-dominated wave climates. Wave evolution is presented in terms of wave height to water depth ratio (gamma) for comparison with previous data from saturated surf. Both conventional time-averaged (gamma(rms)) and a new wave-by-wave analysis (gamma(w)) are performed. Values of gamma increase with increasing offshore wave height, indicating unsaturated surf. The observations show a variation in gamma values from near constant values in the mid surf zone to rapidly and asymptotically increasing gamma values in the inner surf zone. In contrast to previous data from saturated surf, gamma shows no dependence on either the absolute beach slope or the relative beach slope beta/k (h) over bar. The skewness of the distributions of gamma(w) is consistent with waves that are not depth limited. The inner surf zone wave heights are approximately equally dependent on the water depth and offshore wave height. The previous observations of gamma from saturated surf are shown to be consistent with a terminal bore height at the shoreline which is in excellent agreement with a previously derived value for the Miche parameter. In contrast, for the present unsaturated surf conditions, the terminal bore height at the shoreline can be approximated by H-b approximate to 0.12H(o), which is consistent with recent laboratory data sets.
Photosynthesis and carbon isotope discrimination in boreal forest ecosystems: A comparison of functional characteristics in plants from three mature forest types

In this paper we compare measurements of photosynthesis and carbon isotope discrimination characteristics among plants from three mature boreal forest types (Black spruce, Jack pine, and aspen) in order to help explain variation in ecosystem-level gas exchange processes. Measurements were made at the southern study area (SSA) and northern study area (NSA) of the boreal forest in central Canada as part of the Boreal Ecosystem-Atmosphere Study (BOREAS). In both the NSA and the SSA there were significant differences in photosynthesis among the major tree species, with aspen having the highest CO2 assimilation rates and spruce the lowest. Within a species, photosynthetic rates in the SSA were approximately twice those measured in the NSA, and this was correlated with similar variations in stomatal conductance. Calculations of the ratio of leaf intercellular to ambient CO2 concentration (ci/ca) from leaf carbon isotope discrimination (Δ) values indicated a relatively low degree of stomatal limitation of photosynthesis, despite the low absolute values of stomatal conductance in these boreal tree species. Within each ecosystem, leaf Δ values were strongly correlated with life-form groups (trees, shrubs, forbs, and mosses), and these differences are maintained between years. Although we observed significant variation in the 13C content of tree rings at the old Jack pine site in the NSA during the past decade (indicating interannual variation in the degree of stomatal limitation), changes in summer precipitation and temperature accounted for only 44% of the isotopic variance. We scaled leaf-level processes to the ecosystem level through analyses of well-mixed canopy air. On average, all three forest types had similar ecosystem-level Δ values (average value ± standard deviation, 19.1‰±0.5‰), calculated from measurements of change in the concentration and carbon isotope ratio of atmospheric CO2 during a diurnal cycle within a forest canopy. However, there were seasonal changes in ecosystem discrimination for aspen forests, while the evergreen conifer forests exhibited relatively constant discrimination values throughout the active growing season.
Pleomorphic Adenoma With Extensive Lipometaplasia: Report of Three Cases

We report a series of three cases of pleomorphic adenoma with extensive lipometaplasia, a recently described subtype of pleomorphic adenoma of salivary gland origin. Two patients were female and one male, ranging in age from 30 to 45 years. Two occurred in the minor salivary glands of the lip and palate, respectively, and one in the parotid. Typical histologic findings are presented. In addition, one case consists of a proliferation of spindle cells with an interesting combination of mature adipose tissue, hyaline cartilage, and bone in the absence of ductal structures. The differential diagnosis, as it pertains to other fat-containing tumors (such as lipoadenoma, spindle cell lipoma, interstitial lipomatosis, and benign mesenchymoma), is discussed. It is likely that the ability of myoepithelial cells to undergo various metaplasias is the cause of the unusual histologic appearances of this tumor.
AHD: The alternate hierarchical decomposition of nonconvex polytopes (generalization of a convex polytope based spatial data model)

Robust convex decomposition, RCD, of polytopes is the convex decomposition of nonconvex polytopes using algorithms whose implementation is based on arbitrary precision arithmetic. Decomposing nonconvex polytopes using RCD can make the data representation model consistent enabling generalization with level of detail. Our approach, alternate hierarchical decomposition, AHD, for the decomposition of nonconvex polytopes with arbitrary genus, is a recursive approach whose implementation is robust, efficient and scalable to any dimension. Our approach decomposes the given nonconvex polytope with arbitrary genus into a set of component convex hulls, which are represented hierarchically in a tree structure, convex hull tree, CHT.
General Analysis on the Use of Tesla's Resonators in Domino Forms for Wireless Power Transfer

In this paper, we present a brief overview of historical developments of wireless power and an analysis on the use of Tesla's resonators in domino forms for wireless power transfer. Relay resonators are spaced between the transmitter and receiver coils with the objectives of maximizing energy efficiency and increasing the overall transmission distance between the power source and the load. Analytical expressions for the optimal load and maximum efficiency at resonance frequency are derived. These equations are verified with practical measurements obtained from both coaxial and noncoaxial domino resonator systems. To avoid the use of high operating frequency for wireless power transfer in previous related research, the technique presented here can be used at submegahertz operation so as to minimize the power loss in both the power supply and the output stage. We demonstrated both theoretically and practically that unequal spacing for the coaxial straight domino systems has better efficiency performance than the equal-spacing method. Also, the flexibility of using resonators in various domino forms is demonstrated.