Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluating the effect of fabric type on thermal insulation properties of sports clothing

In the present study, evaluating the fabric characteristics on thermal insulation properties of garments was aimed. For that purpose, two fiber combinations and seven different knitting structures were chosen and seven long sleeve basic shirts were manufactured from these fabrics. As a water-repellent finishing treatment, all shirts were treated with 5% of a fluorocarbon-based product. A thermal manikin of PT-Teknik made in Denmark was used to measure the heat loss of the shirts and the surface of manikin was kept at a constant temperature. Afterwards, the total and effective clothing insulation values were calculated for each shirt. The comparisons of heat loss values according to the body parts, and also for the effective clothing insulations were done. Moreover, the heat flux according to the body parts were determined. In the light of these obtained data, a new shirt design was designed and proposed by combining the evaluated fabrics in order to enhance the comfort and performance of the user.
Literacy and Learning in Health Care

The relationship between literacy and health outcomes are well documented in adult medicine, yet specific causal pathways are not entirely clear. Despite an incomplete understanding of the problem, numerous interventions have already been implemented with variable success. Many of those who proposed earlier strategies assumed the problem to originate from reading difficulties only. Given the timely need for more effective interventions, it is of increasing importance to reconsider the meaning of health literacy to advance our conceptual understanding of the problem and how best to respond. One potentially effective approach might involve recognizing the known associations between a larger set of cognitive and psychosocial abilities with functional literacy skills. Here we review the current health literacy definition and literature and draw on relevant research from the fields of education, cognitive science, and psychology. In this framework, a research agenda is proposed that considers an individual's “health-learning capacity,” which refers to the broad constellation of cognitive and psychosocial skills from which patients or family members must draw to effectively promote, protect, and manage their own or a child's health. This new, related concept will lead, ideally, to more effective ways of thinking about health literacy interventions, including the design of health-education materials, instructional strategies, and the delivery of health care services to support patients and families across the life span.
Accuracy of Contrast-Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Predicting Improvement of Regional Myocardial Function in Patients After Acute Myocardial Infarction

Background—Contrast-enhanced (CE) MRI demonstrates a pattern of hypoenhancement early after contrast injection in acute myocardial infarction (MI) and a pattern of hyperenhancement late after contrast injection. Because the significance of these CE patterns for myocardial viability remains debated, we evaluated their diagnostic accuracy to quantitatively predict late functional improvement of regional contractility. Methods and Results—Twenty patients underwent CE and tagged MRI at 4 days and again at 7 months after acute MI. Resting circumferential shortening strain (Ecc) was analyzed in 24 segments per patient, and its improvement was correlated with the presence or absence of the CE patterns. Immediately after MI, 389 segments were considered dysfunctional because of having less than mean±2 SD Ecc of the remote region (−18±4%). At follow-up, significant improvement of Ecc occurred in 170 dysfunctional segments with normal CE (from −4±7% to −12±7%, P <0.001) but not in 60 segments with early hypoenhancement (from −2±6% to −6±9% Ecc, P =NS). In 240 dysfunctional segments with delayed hyperenhancement, the improvement of Ecc (from −2±6% to −5±8%, P <0.001) decreased with increasing transmural extent of hyperenhancement. Receiver operating characteristic analysis demonstrated that absence of delayed hyperenhancement, compared with absence of early hypoenhancement, had better sensitivity (82% versus 19%, respectively;P <0.001) and accuracy (74% versus 49%, respectively;P <0.001) in predicting recovery of Ecc to any given level. Conclusions—Compared with lack of early hypoenhancement, lack of delayed hyperenhancement has better diagnostic accuracy in predicting functional improvement in dysfunctional segments. The early hypoenhanced regions, which represent only the fraction of infarcted tissue with concomitant microvascular obstruction, greatly underestimate the amount of irreversibly injured myocardium present after acute MI.
Hybrid Mean-Variance Mapping Optimization for solving the IEEE-CEC 2013 competition problems

Mean-Variance Mapping Optimization (MVMO) is a recent addition to the emerging field of heuristic optimization algorithms, which has been quite successful in solving a variety of power system optimization problems. This paper introduces a hybrid variant of MVMO (MVMO-SH) for solving the IEEECEC 2013 competition test suite. MVMO-SH is based on a swarm scheme of MVMO with embedded local search and multi-parent crossover strategies to increase search diversity and solution quality. Numerical results attest to the promising prospect of MVMO-SH to become a general purpose optimization algorithm.
Retroviral DNA Integration: Viral and Cellular Determinants of Target-Site Selection

Retroviruses differ in their preferences for sites for viral DNA integration in the chromosomes of infected cells. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) integrates preferentially within active transcription units, whereas murine leukemia virus (MLV) integrates preferentially near transcription start sites and CpG islands. We investigated the viral determinants of integration-site selection using HIV chimeras with MLV genes substituted for their HIV counterparts. We found that transferring the MLV integrase (IN) coding region into HIV (to make HIVmIN) caused the hybrid to integrate with a specificity close to that of MLV. Addition of MLV gag (to make HIVmGagmIN) further increased the similarity of target-site selection to that of MLV. A chimeric virus with MLV Gag only (HIVmGag) displayed targeting preferences different from that of both HIV and MLV, further implicating Gag proteins in targeting as well as IN. We also report a genome-wide analysis indicating that MLV, but not HIV, favors integration near DNase I–hypersensitive sites (i.e., +/− 1 kb), and that HIVmIN and HIVmGagmIN also favored integration near these features. These findings reveal that IN is the principal viral determinant of integration specificity; they also reveal a new role for Gag-derived proteins, and strengthen models for integration targeting based on tethering of viral IN proteins to host proteins.
In Vitro–In Vivo Correlation of the Inhibition Potency of Sodium-Glucose Cotransporter Inhibitors in Rat: A Pharmacokinetic and Pharmacodynamic Modeling Approach

To evaluate the relationship between the in vitro and in vivo potency of sodium-glucose cotransporter (SGLT) inhibitors, a pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic (PK-PD) study was performed using normal rats. A highly selective SGLT2 inhibitor, tofogliflozin, and four other inhibitors with different in vitro inhibition potency to SGLT2 and selectivity toward SGLT2, versus SGLT1 were used as test compounds, and the time courses for urinary glucose excretion (UGE) and the plasma glucose and compound concentrations were monitored after administration of the compounds. A PK-PD analysis of the UGE caused by SGLT inhibition was performed on the basis of a nonlinear parallel tube model that took into consideration the consecutive reabsorption by different glucose transport properties of SGLT2 and SGLT1. The model adequately captured the time course of cumulative UGE caused by SGLT inhibition; then, the in vivo inhibition constants (Ki) of inhibitors for both SGLT1 and SGLT2 were estimated. The in vivo selectivity toward SGLT2 showed a good correlation with the in vitro data (r = 0.985; P < 0.05), with in vivo Ki values for SGLT2 in the range of 0.3–3.4-fold the in vitro data. This suggests that in vitro inhibition potency to both SGLT2 and SGLT1 is reflected in vivo. Furthermore, the complementary role of SGLT1 to SGLT2 and how selectivity toward SGLT2 affects the inhibitory potency for renal glucose reabsorption were discussed using the PK-PD model.
Higher-Order Wavefront Aberrations in Retinitis Pigmentosa

Purpose. The purpose of this study was to characterize higher-order wavefront aberrations associated with posterior subcapsular (PSC) cataracts in patients with retinitis pigmentosa (RP). Methods. Wavefront aberrations were measured by Shack-Hartmann (SH) aberrometry in eight patients with RP who had PSC cataracts, 10 patients with RP who had minimal or no PSC cataracts, and 16 age-equivalent visually normal control subjects. Higher-order wavefront aberrations for 3-mm and 6-mm pupil diameters were defined as the root mean square (RMS) of the wavefront aberration functions. Results. For a 6-mm pupil diameter, the mean RMS for total higher-order wavefront aberrations was significantly larger for the patients with RP than for the control subjects, both for patients with PSC cataract (F = 17.30, p < 0.001) and for those with minimal or no PSC cataract (F = 4.80, p < 0.05). The mean RMS for third-order aberrations was not significantly different for patients with RP than for the control subjects. However, the mean RMS for fourth-order aberrations was significantly larger for the patients with RP than for the control subjects, both for patients with PSC cataract (F = 8.85, p < 0.01) and those with minimal or no PSC cataract (F = 5.07, p < 0.05). There were no significant differences in higher-order aberrations between the patients with RP and the control subjects for a 3-mm pupil diameter. Conclusions. Increased higher-order wavefront aberrations were present in patients with RP with and without clinically observable PSC cataracts. The measurement of wavefront aberrations in patients with RP provides an objective and quantitative method for detecting and monitoring disease-related changes in the optics of the eye.
ADAM12 Produced by Tumor Cells Rather than Stromal Cells Accelerates Breast Tumor Progression

Expression of ADAM12 is low in most normal tissues but is markedly increased in numerous human cancers, including breast carcinomas. We have previously shown that overexpression of ADAM12 accelerates tumor progression in a mouse model of breast cancer (PyMT). In this study, we found that ADAM12 deficiency reduces breast tumor progression in the PyMT model. However, the catalytic activity of ADAM12 seems to be dispensable for its tumor-promoting effect. Interestingly, we show that ADAM12 endogenously expressed in tumor-associated stroma in the PyMT model does not influence tumor progression, but that ADAM12 expression by tumor cells is necessary for tumor progression in these mice. This finding is consistent with our observation that in human breast carcinoma, ADAM12 is almost exclusively located in tumor cells and, only rarely, seen in the tumor-associated stroma. We hypothesized, however, that the tumor-associated stroma may stimulate ADAM12 expression in tumor cells, on the basis of the fact that TGF-β1 stimulates ADAM12 expression and is a well-known growth factor released from tumor-associated stroma. TGF-β1 stimulation of ADAM12-negative Lewis lung tumor cells induced ADAM12 synthesis, and growth of these cells in vivo induced more than 200-fold increase in ADAM12 expression. Our observation that ADAM12 expression is significantly higher in the terminal duct lobular units (TDLU) adjacent to human breast carcinoma compared with TDLUs found in normal breast tissue supports our hypothesis that tumor-associated stroma triggers ADAM12 expression. Mol Cancer Res; 9(11); 1449–61. ©2011 AACR.
IMMUNOCHEMICAL STUDIES OF TWENTY MOUSE MYELOMA PROTEINS: EVIDENCE FOR TWO GROUPS OF PROTEINS SIMILAR TO GAMMA AND BETA-2A GLOBULINS IN MAN

The serum myeloma proteins associated with 20 mouse plasma cell tumors in C3H or BALB/c mice that had proved transplantable were characterized by electrophoretic and immunochemical techniques. Although the myeloma proteins ranged in electrophoretic mobility from gamma to alpha globulins, they could be divided into two groups, the gamma type and the beta type myeloma globulins, on the basis of characteristic immunochemical properties. Gamma type myeloma proteins (5563, MPC-11) showed a close immunochemical relationship to normal mouse gamma globulins. Eighteen beta type mouse myeloma proteins migrated as beta or alpha globulins on zone electrophoresis. These proteins shared common antigenic features which permitted their recognition, separate from gamma myeloma proteins. The beta type myeloma proteins were shown to be related to a beta globulin component present in normal serum. Strain differences were observed for the normal beta globulin component believed to be formed in plasma cells. The proteins formed in mouse plasma cells were found to be antigenically complex. Shared antigenic determinants as well as distinctive antigenic determinants were detected when representative myeloma proteins were purified and compared by the Ouchterlony double diffusion technique. The myeloma proteins associated with each of the transplantable plasma cell tumors in mice are regarded as distinctive and characteristic products of plasma cell metabolism. The variety of myeloma globulins was similar for plasma cell tumors arising in C3H as well as in BALB/c mice, indicating that differences in mouse strains would not account for the differences among the myeloma globulins. These differences, however, may be due to differences among the normal plasma cells from which the malignant cells are derived. If this is so, the variety of myeloma globulins reflect the variety of plasma cells present normally.
Physical Activity Frequency and Risk of Incident Stroke in a National US Study of Blacks and Whites

Background and Purpose— Regular physical activity (PA) is an important recommendation for stroke prevention. We compared the associations of self-reported PA with incident stroke in the Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study. Methods— REGARDS recruited 30 239 US blacks (42%) and whites, aged ≥45 years with follow-up every 6 months for stroke events. Excluding those with prior stroke, analysis involved 27 348 participants who reported their frequency of moderate to vigorous intensity PA at baseline according to 3 categories: none (physical inactivity), 1 to 3×, and ≥4× per week. Stroke and transient ischemic attack cases were identified during an average of 5.7 years of follow-up. Cox proportional hazards models were constructed to examine whether self-reported PA was associated with risk of incident stroke. Results— Physical inactivity was reported by 33% of participants and was associated with a hazard ratio of 1.20 (95% confidence intervals, 1.02–1.42; P=0.035). Adjustment for demographic and socioeconomic factors did not affect hazard ratio, but further adjustment for traditional stroke risk factors (diabetes mellitus, hypertension, body mass index, alcohol use, and smoking) partially attenuated this risk (hazard ratio, 1.14 [0.95–1.37]; P=0.17). There was no significant association between PA frequency and risk of stroke by sex groups, although there was a trend toward increased risk for men reporting PA 0 to 3× a week compared with ≥4× a week. Conclusions— Self-reported low PA frequency is associated with increased risk of incident stroke. Any effect of PA is likely to be mediated through reducing traditional risk factors.
A novel stimulation for multi-class SSVEP-based brain-computer interface using patterns of time-varying frequencies

Steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP) has become one of the most widely employed modalities in online brain computer interface (BCI) because of its high signal-to-noise ratio. However, due to the limitations of brain physiology and the refresh rate of the display devices, the available stimulation frequencies that evoke strong SSVEPs are generally limited for practical applications. In this paper, we introduce a novel stimulation method using patterns of time-varying frequencies that can increase the number of visual stimuli with a fixed number of stimulation frequencies for use in multi-class SSVEP-based BCI systems. We then propose a probabilistic framework and investigate three approaches to detect different patterns of time-varying frequencies. The results confirmed that our proposed stimulation is a promising method for multi-class SSVEP-based BCI tasks. Our pattern detection approaches improved the detection performance significantly by extracting higher quality discriminative information from the input signal.
A novel algorithm for the estimation of the parameters of a real sinusoid in noise

In this paper, we put forward a computationally efficient algorithm to estimate the frequency and complex amplitude of a real sinusoidal signal in additive Gaussian noise. The novel method extends an iterative frequency estimator for single complex exponentials that is based on interpolation on Fourier coefficients to the real case by incorporating an iterative leakage subtraction strategy. Simulation results are presented to verify that the proposed algorithm can obtain more accurate estimation than both time and frequency domain parameter estimators in the literature, and the estimation variance of the method sits on the Cramer-Rao lower bound with only a few iterations required.
A Hierarchical Global Wiring Algorithm for Custom Chip Design

We present a global wiring algorithm used in a top-down physical design environment, i.e., macros are laid out after global wiring is done, and wires are allowed to pass through macros (the wiring-through model). The floorplan of the chip is in the form of a slicing structure. The algorithm is based on a hierarchical scheme. The final result is obtained through a series of refinement as the problem is recursively decomposed into a set of small-sized problems and then solved efficiently. The worst-case run-time for an arbitrary slicing tree (totally skewed) is O(M /sup 2/ N). When the floorplan is represented by a balanced slicing tree, the run-time of the overall algorithm is O(MN), where M is the number of macros and N the number of nets. The algorithm has been implemented in the C language and is used for chip designs. Experiments on both real and randomly generated designs show that the hierarchical router performs equally well as a flat global router in terms of wire length and wireability handling, but much faster in run-time (at least 10 times for an example with 100 macros and 1000 nets, and the gap being even larger for bigger-size problems).
Stretching tethered DNA chains in shear flow

We discuss the stretching of tethered chains subject to a shear flow. Fluorescence microscopy measurements of the extension of sheared tethered DNA, model polymers, of various lengths are presented. The tethered chains approach full extension as the flow rate is increased, but very slowly. We show that a general theory to understand the large deformation of any sheared tethered chain must include both the correct nonlinear force-extension relation and chain fluctuations transverse to the flow direction, which themselves depend on the nonlinear elasticity of the chain. Direct comparison of derived scaling laws to simulations and experiments support our theory.
An MDL Method for Finding Haplotype Blocks and for Estimating the Strength of Haplotype Block Boundaries

We describe a new method for finding haplotype blocks based on the use of the minimum description length principle. We give a rigorous definition of the quality of a segmentation of a genomic region into blocks, and describe a dynamic programming algorithm for finding the optimal segmentation with respect to this measure. We also describe a method for finding the probability of a block boundary for each pair of adjacent markers: this gives a tool for evaluating the significance of each block boundary. We have applied the method to the published data of Daly et al. The results are in relatively good agreement with the published results, but also show clear differences in the predicted block boundaries and their strengths. We also give results on the block structure in population isolates.
Evolutionary Optimization of Kernel Weights Improves Protein Complex Comembership Prediction

In recent years, more and more high-throughput data sources useful for protein complex prediction have become available (e.g., gene sequence, mRNA expression, and interactions). The integration of these different data sources can be challenging. Recently, it has been recognized that kernel-based classifiers are well suited for this task. However, the different kernels (data sources) are often combined using equal weights. Although several methods have been developed to optimize kernel weights, no large-scale example of an improvement in classifier performance has been shown yet. In this work, we employ an evolutionary algorithm to determine weights for a larger set of kernels by optimizing a criterion based on the area under the ROC curve. We show that setting the right kernel weights can indeed improve performance. We compare this to the existing kernel weight optimization methods (i.e., (regularized) optimization of the SVM criterion or aligning the kernel with an ideal kernel) and find that these do not result in a significant performance improvement and can even cause a decrease in performance. Results also show that an expert approach of assigning high weights to features with high individual performance is not necessarily the best strategy.
Epsilon-Toxin Plasmids of Clostridium perfringens Type D Are Conjugative

ABSTRACT Isolates of Clostridium perfringens type D produce the potent epsilon-toxin (a CDC/U.S. Department of Agriculture overlap class B select agent) and are responsible for several economically significant enterotoxemias of domestic livestock. It is well established that the epsilon-toxin structural gene, etx, occurs on large plasmids. We show here that at least two of these plasmids are conjugative. The etx gene on these plasmids was insertionally inactivated using a chloramphenicol resistance cassette to phenotypically tag the plasmid. High-frequency conjugative transfer of the tagged plasmids into the C. perfringens type A strain JIR325 was demonstrated, and the resultant transconjugants were shown to act as donors in subsequent mating experiments. We also demonstrated the transfer of “unmarked” native ε-toxin plasmids into strain JIR325 by exploiting the high transfer frequency. The transconjugants isolated in these experiments expressed functional ε-toxin since their supernatants had cytopathic effects on MDCK cells and were toxic in mice. Using the widely accepted multiplex PCR approach for toxin genotyping, these type A-derived transconjugants were genotypically type D. These findings have significant implications for the C. perfringens typing system since it is based on the toxin profile of each strain. Our study demonstrated the fluid nature of the toxinotypes and their dependence upon the presence or absence of toxin plasmids, some of which have for the first time been shown to be conjugative.