Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Intermittent quantized Kalman filtering and LQG control based on Lloyd-Max quantizer

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the batch intermittent quantized Kalman filter(BIQKF) and LQG control over lossy digital links using dynamic Lloyd-Max quantizer. A necessary and sufficient condition is presented for the Stability of the BIQKF. The condition, which is expressed in terms of the bit rate and the arrival probability initially. Under the assumption that the observation is approximately Gaussian, it is shown that the separation principle remains valid under the quantized output signal which is used to be transmitted over lossy networks. The optimal LQG controller is then given in terms of two Riccati difference equations associated respectively with the Kalman filter with intermittent quantized observations and the standard LQR control. The corresponding minimum cost is also derived.
Sleep parameters and health-related quality of life with bazedoxifene/conjugated estrogens: a randomized trial

ObjectiveThe effects of bazedoxifene (BZA)/conjugated estrogens (CE) on sleep and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) were evaluated in nonhysterectomized postmenopausal women who were enrolled in a randomized, double-blind, placebo- and active-controlled phase 3 trial. MethodsThe sleep/HRQoL substudy enrolled 459 women with bothersome moderate to severe vasomotor symptoms who were randomized to BZA 20 mg/CE 0.45 mg, BZA 20 mg/CE 0.625 mg, BZA 20 mg, CE 0.45 mg/medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA) 1.5 mg, or placebo for 1 year. On months 3 and 12, sleep parameters were evaluated using the Medical Outcomes Study sleep scale, and HRQoL was assessed using the Menopause-Specific Quality of Life (MENQOL) questionnaire. ResultsBZA/CE and CE/MPA significantly improved sleep and HRQoL compared with placebo. On month 3, most Medical Outcomes Study sleep parameter improvements with BZA/CE and CE/MPA versus placebo were not significant. On month 12, both BZA/CE doses and CE/MPA significantly improved time to fall asleep and sleep disturbance (P < 0.05 vs placebo); BZA 20 mg/CE 0.625 mg and CE/MPA also showed significant improvements in sleep adequacy and sleep problem indices I and II (P < 0.01 vs placebo). Both BZA/CE doses and CE/MPA significantly improved MENQOL vasomotor function score versus placebo at 3 and 12 months (P < 0.001). At 3 months, total MENQOL score was significantly improved with BZA 20 mg/CE 0.625 mg and CE/MPA versus placebo (P < 0.05); at 12 months, both BZA/CE doses and CE/MPA showed significant improvements (P < 0.001). ConclusionsSymptomatic postmenopausal women who are treated with BZA/CE for 1 year demonstrate significant improvements in sleep and HRQoL, similar to women treated with CE/MPA.
Pharmacophore Pattern Identification of Tachykinin Receptor Selective Peptide Agonists: Implications in Receptor Selectivity

The mammalian tachykinin (TK) peptides and their three Neurokinin (NK1, NK2 and NK3) receptors represent an effector system with wide-ranging actions on neuronal, airway smooth muscle, mucosal, endothelial, immune, inflammatory and remodeling cell function. Recent clinical and preclinical data suggests the pathophysiological role of TKs in various diseases including asthma, emesis and depression. The TK-NK receptor interactions and overlapping functions mediated by each NK receptor indicate added therapeutic benefit of using multiple NK receptor blockade. In the absence of structural data on neurokinin receptors, the membrane-induced structure of tachykinins play an important role as a first step towards understanding structure-activity relationship. A comparison of the conformational features of different NK1, NK2 and NK3 receptor agonists highlights several features which might be responsible for determining selectivity for the particular receptor subtype. An attempt has been made to correlate the observed conformational differences to the binding ability and biological activity of various NK1, NK2 and NK3 receptor agonists. The membrane bound conformations of tachykinins have been used as a starting point, leading to useful pharmacophore patterns that can be used for identifying lead structures with novel scaffolds.
Peginterferon alpha‐2b plus ribavirin vs interferon alpha‐2b plus ribavirin for chronic hepatitis C in HIV‐coinfected patients

Summary. Treatment of chronic hepatitis C in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)‐infected patients is associated with low response rates and high incidence of side effects. One hundred twenty‐one hepatitis C virus (HCV)–HIV‐coinfected patients were randomized to receive interferon alpha‐2b (3 MU thrice weekly; n = 61) or peginterferon alpha‐2b (1.5 μg/kg/week; n = 60), plus ribavirin (800 mg daily), for 24 (genotype 2 or 3) or 48 weeks (genotype 1 or 4). We assessed early virological response at 4, 8 and 12 weeks to predict sustained virological response (SVR). Safety assessment included frequent blood lactate measurement and relative quantitation of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) content in peripheral blood mononuclear cells. In intention‐to‐treat analysis, the SVR rate was higher in the peginterferon group (55%vs 26%; P = 0.002). The difference for HCV genotypes 1 and 4 was 45%vs 14% (P = 0.009) and 50%vs 27% (P = 0.387), respectively, and for genotype 2 or 3, 71%vs 43% (P = 0.12) Viral response at 4, 8 and 12 weeks of treatment was highly predictive of SVR. Among genotype 3 patients, 17 of 20 (85%) whose HCV RNA was already undetectable at 4 weeks had an SVR after 24 weeks of treatment. Hyperlactataemia occurred in 22 patients and was clinically significant in six, two of whom died. mtDNA decreased significantly 4–12 weeks after the start of treatment in patients developing clinically significant hyperlactataemia. Peginterferon alpha‐2b plus ribavirin was more effective than interferon alpha‐2b plus ribavirin in HIV‐coinfected patients. Frequent monitoring of virological response may be very helpful to optimize treatment compliance, to tailor treatment duration and to minimize side effects.
Anti-inflammatory effect of pristimerin on TNFα-induced inflammatory responses in murine macrophages

Purpose: To investigate the anti-inflammatory effect of pristimerin using RAW 264.7 macrophage cells. Methods: The effect of pristimerin on the RAW 264.7 cells proliferation was determined by CCK8 test. The expression of cyclin D1 and cyclin E1 in RAW 264.7 cells treated with TNF-α and pristimerin was measured by qRT-PCR. The regulation of cytokine IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, and PGE2 in RAW 264.7 cells treated by pristimerin was measured by ELISA. Results: TNF-α can induce the proliferation of RAW 264.7 cells in a dose-dependent manner, co-treatment with pristimerin results in a significant suppression in the proliferation of RAW 264.7 cells. Besides, pristimerin suppressed the expression of cyclin D1 and cyclin E1 induced by TNF-α. TNF-α had a dose-dependent induction on the production of IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, and PGE2. Pristimerin inhibited the production of IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, and PGE2 in RAW 264.7 cells. TNF-α increased the production of NO and iNOS in RAW 264.7 cells, which can be blocked by pristimerin. Conclusion: Pristimerin is an anti-inflammatory agent on macrophage, it realize this function through the following ways, first pristimerin reduce the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines; then pristimerin inhibit the expression of inflammatory mediators NO and iNOS; finally pristimerin inhibits the proliferation of RAW 264.7 cells through cell cycle arrest.
Design and optimization of 16×16 Bit multiplier using Vedic mathematics

Multiplication is basic function in arithmetic operations. Multiplication based operations such as multiply and Accumulate unit (MAC), convolution, Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), filtering are widely used in signal processing applications. As, multiplication dominates the execution time of DSP systems, there is need to develop high speed multipliers. Ancient Vedic mathematics facilitates the solution to some extent. In this paper, concept of Urdhwa-Tiryagbhyam is used i.e., vertically and crosswise multiplication to implement 16×16 Bit Vedic multiplier and optimization is achieved by using carry save adders. Comparing with previous architectures, proposed architecture achieves 33.26% reduction in combinational path delay. The Vedic multiplier proposed is implemented in VHDL whereas synthesized and simulated using Xilinx ISE Design Suite 14.5.
Temporal order of RNA-processing reactions in trypanosomes: rapid trans splicing precedes polyadenylation of newly synthesized tubulin transcripts

Many trypanosome genes are expressed as part of large polycistronic transcription units. This finding suggests that regulation of mRNA biogenesis may emphasize RNA-processing reactions more so than in other organisms. This study was undertaken to understand the temporal order of two RNA-processing reactions, trans splicing and polyadenylation, in the maturation of trypanosome mRNAs in vivo. Kinetic studies revealed rapid trans splicing of alpha-tubulin, beta-tubulin, and actin pre-mRNAs within 1 to 2 min after synthesis of the 3' splice site. Furthermore, following blockage of pre-mRNA synthesis, newly synthesized spliced leader RNA cannot be used for trans splicing, suggesting that trypanosomes do not accumulate substantial amounts of pre-mRNA which can provide splice acceptor sites. Thus, trans splicing is cotranscriptional. In addition, we show that trans splicing precedes polyadenylation in the processing of trypanosome tubulin pre-mRNAs.
Wavelet analysis for EEG feature extraction in deception detection

Deception detection has important clinical and legal implications. However, the reliability of methods for the discrimination between truthful and deceptive responses is still limited. Efforts to improve reliability have examined measures of central nervous system function such as EEG. However, EEG analyses based on either time- or frequency-domain parameters have had mixed results. Because EEG is a nonstationary signal, the use of joint time-frequency features may yield more reliable results for detecting deception. The goal of this study was to investigate the feasibility of deception detection based on EEG features extracted through wavelet transformation. EEG was recorded from 4 electrode sites (F3, F4, F7, F8) during a modified version of the Guilty Knowledge Test (GKT) in 5 subjects. Wavelet analysis revealed significant differences between deceptive and truthful responses. These differences were detected in features whose frequency range roughly corresponds to the EEG beta rhythm and within a time window which coincides with the P300 component. These preliminary results indicate that joint time-frequency EEG features extracted through wavelet analysis may provide a more reliable method for detecting deception than standard ERPs
The effects of an intrauterine device on pregnancy in the golden hamster.

A unilaterally placed silk suture IUD in the golden hamster effectively prevented pregnancy in the containing horn. There was no effect in the contralateral horn. Implantation was not prevented by sham operation. The silk suture IUD did not effect the estrous cycle of the hamsters. On histological examination inflammatory reaction was noted only in uteri containing the silk suture.
Mark/Recapture Experiments at Clifton Court Forebay to Estimate Pre-Screening Loss to Juvenile Fishes: 1976-1993

From October 1976 through November 1993, the California Department of Fish and Game conducted mark/recapture experiments at Clifton Court Forebay, designed to estimate pre-screen loss to entrained juvenile fishes. Ten studies were conducted; eight evaluated losses to hatchery-reared juvenile chinook salmon, and two evaluated losses to hatchery-reared juvenile striped bass. Pre-screen loss was calculated from the proportion of marked fish released at the radial gates that were subsequently recap­ tured during salvage operations at Skinner Fish Facility. The proportion was adjusted for handling mortality, fish facility louver effiCiency, and any subsampling at the facility. Studies were conducted across a wide range of environmental conditions and State Water Project operations, with a wide range in the size of experimental fish. Pre-screen loss estimates for juvenile chinook salmon were 63-99%. Potential biases in estimates of pre-screen loss may be due to (1) the calculation for pre-screen loss, (2) under­ representative and over-representative salvage of experimental fish at Skinner Fish Facility, and (3) the introduction of experimental fish directly into Clifton Court Forebay. A multiple-regression analysis of pre-screen loss to juvenile salmon showed that 91% of the variance in pre-screen loss can be explained by export rate, experimental fish size, and water
Modeling the Retention and Clearance of Manmade Vitreous Fibers in the Rat Lung

A mathematical model describing the dissolution and disintegration of long fibers and the clearance of short fibers is developed. For short fiber clearance, the model is based on previous modeling of the retention and clearance of particles, and most model parameters are taken from that particulate model. In addition to modeling the disappearance of long fibers, the present study includes a quantitative measure of goodness of fit of the model to observed data. Data from chronic inhalation experiments with insulation glass wools (MMVF10 and MMVF11) and rockwool (MMVF21) were provided for this study. These data comprised lung burdens at 10 time points at each of 3 concentrations for each fiber in inhalation experiments lasting up to 104 wk. At the two higher concentrations, the model had to take into account the effects of lung burden on macrophage-mediated clearance. The modeling shows that the overload dependence appears remarkably similar to that for low-toxicity particles in that the critical volumetric lung burden is similar to that for low toxicity dust. The model describes overload as leading to alveolar sequestration of short fibers or particles, and the estimated rate of alveolar sequestration for MMVF10 was similar to that for particles, but the estimated rate was lower for the other two fibers. Two alternative hypotheses to describe the process of the disappearance of longer fibers were tested by assessing their effect on a quantitative measure of fit of model predictions to the lung-burden data. These tests indicated that (a) dissolution leading to disintegration of long fibers into shorter fibers gave a much better fit than the alternative assumption that dissolution would leave only nonfibrous residue and (b) the relative rates of disintegration of the fibers in the lung appear to be directly dependent on their rates of in vitro dissolution and their diameters.
Angelica sinensis reduced Aβ-induced memory impairment in rats

Abstract Background: Studies have shown that Angelica sinensis (JiLin AoDong Medicine Industry Groups Co., Ltd., Jilin, China) root (AS) ameliorates various diseases, although its effects in Alzheimer's disease (AD) have not been elucidated. Purpose: The present study examined the effects of AS in a rat model of AD. Methods: Positional Aβ injections were administered to rats. The behavioral effects of AS administration were examined using the Morris water maze, and the molecular effects on gene and protein expression, and apoptosis, were determined. Results: AS reversed the social behavioral impairments observed in this rat model of Aβ-induced memory impairment. Western blot analysis also revealed lower hippocampal levels of Aβ and β-site amyloid precursor protein-cleaving enzyme. Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferased UTP nick end labeling indicated that AS significantly inhibited apoptosis via effects on nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) signaling. Real-time PCR, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and immunohistochemical staining indicated that AS effectively inhibited inflammation and upregulated expression of glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in the hippocampus of this rat AD model. Discussion: AS effectively rescued the symptoms of AD in a rat model by inhibiting inflammation, apoptosis, and NF-κB signaling pathway. Conclusion: These findings suggested that AS could provide a potential drug for the treatment of AD.
Metabolomics studies identify novel diagnostic and prognostic indicators in patients with alcoholic hepatitis.

AIM To identify plasma analytes using metabolomics that correlate with the diagnosis and severity of liver disease in patients with alcoholic hepatitis (AH). METHODS We prospectively recruited patients with cirrhosis from AH (n = 23) and those with cirrhosis with acute decompensation (AD) from etiologies other than alcohol (n = 25). We used mass spectrometry to identify 29 metabolic compounds in plasma samples from fasted subjects. A receiver operating characteristics analysis was performed to assess the utility of biomarkers in distinguishing acute AH from alcoholic cirrhosis. Logistic regression analysis was performed to build a predictive model for AH based on clinical characteristics. A survival analysis was used to construct Kaplan Meier curves evaluating transplant-free survival. RESULTS A comparison of model for end-stage liver disease (MELD)-adjusted metabolomics levels between cirrhosis patients who had AD or AH showed that patients with AH had significantly higher levels of betaine, and lower creatinine, phenylalanine, homocitrulline, citrulline, tyrosine, octenoyl-carnitine, and symmetric dimethylarginine. When considering combined levels, betaine and citrulline were highly accurate predictors for differentiation between AH and AD (area under receiver operating characteristics curve = 0.84). The plasma levels of carnitine [0.54 (0.18, 0.91); P = 0.005], homocitrulline [0.66 (0.34, 0.99); P < 0.001] and pentanoyl-carnitine [0.53 (0.16, 0.90); P = 0.007] correlated with MELD scores in patients diagnosed with AH. Increased levels of many biomarkers (carnitine P = 0.005, butyrobetaine P = 0.32, homocitrulline P = 0.002, leucine P = 0.027, valine P = 0.024, phenylalanine P = 0.037, tyrosine P = 0.012, acetyl-carnitine P = 0.006, propionyl-carnitine P = 0.03, butyryl-carnitine P = 0.03, trimethyl-lisine P = 0.034, pentanoyl-carnitine P = 0.03, hexanoyl-carnitine P = 0.026) were associated with increased mortality in patients with AH. CONCLUSION Metabolomics plasma analyte levels might be used to diagnose of AH or help predict patient prognoses.
Política y políticas públicas

Las politicas publicas son un factor comun de la politica y de las decisiones del gobierno y de la oposicion. Asi, la politica puede ser analizada como la busqueda de establecer o de bloquear politicas publicas sobre determinados temas, o de influir en ellas. A su vez, parte fundamental del quehacer del gobierno se refiere al diseno, gestion y evaluacion de las politicas publicas. La busqueda reciproca de la politica y las politicas publicas representa una modernizacion de la esfera publica. En torno a politicas publicas se puede: acotar las discusiones politicas, diferenciar problemas y soluciones de manera especifica, precisar las diferencias, vincular los temas a soluciones mas amplias o secuenciales, plantearse esfuerzos compartidos, participar de manera especifica. Tal mejora requiere cambios en el sistema politico y en el gobierno. Los partidos, los grupos sociales y las personas requieren interiorizarse el analisis de politicas publicas, sea que esten en el gobierno o en la oposicion. Y la reforma del estado debe hacerse en torno a decisiones de politicas publicas. Primero la funcion, despues el organigrama y solo hasta que cambie la funcion; un gobierno con entradas y salidas.
Systematic approach to managing vernal keratoconjunctivitis in clinical practice: Severity grading system and a treatment algorithm

Vernal keratoconjunctivitis is an ocular allergy that is common in the pediatric age group. It is often chronic, severe, and nonresponsive to the available treatment options. Management of these children is difficult and often a dilemma for the practitioner. There is a need to simplify and standardize its management. To achieve this goal, we require a grading system to judge the severity of inflammation and an algorithm to select the appropriate medications. This article provides a simple and practically useful grading system and a stepladder algorithm for systematic treatment of these patients. Use of appropriate treatment modalities can reduce treatment and disease-related complications.
Effect of age and surgical approach on perioperative wound complication following ovariohysterectomy in shelter-housed cats in Australia

Objectives The aim of the study was to investigate the effects of age and/or surgical approach on perioperative wound complication following ovariohysterectomy (OHE). Methods A retrospective search of perioperative monitoring records from a shelter desexing program was conducted to identify cats that underwent OHE between 1 June 2010 and 31 December 2012 inclusive. A wound complication was defined as gross observation of inflammation or wound dehiscence at the surgical site in the 5 day postoperative period. Cases were grouped according to age (≤12 weeks or >12 weeks) and surgical approach (flank or midline). Stratified analyses were conducted to evaluate the association between surgical approach and wound complications, after adjusting for age. Mantel–Haenszel adjusted risk ratio, Cochran–Mantel–Haenszel test statistic and their 95% confidence intervals were presented. Results A total of 312 cases met the study criteria. The overall wound complication risk was low (6.09%) and was not related to age. A midline approach was associated with a 4.59-times increased risk of wound complication, compared with a flank approach in cats up to 12 weeks of age (P = 0.015) but not in older cats. Conclusions and relevance These findings support the practice of prepubertal desexing for cats.
Genome-Wide Relationships between TAF1 and Histone Acetyltransferases in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

ABSTRACT Histone acetylation regulates gene expression, yet the functional contributions of the numerous histone acetyltransferases (HATs) to gene expression and their relationships with each other remain largely unexplored. The central role of the putative HAT-containing TAF1 subunit of TFIID in gene expression raises the fundamental question as to what extent, if any, TAF1 contributes to acetylation in vivo and to what extent it is redundant with other HATs. Our findings herein do not support the basic tenet that TAF1 is a major HAT in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, nor do we find that TAF1 is functionally redundant with other HATs, including Gcn5, Elp3, Hat1, Hpa2, Sas3, and Esa1, which is in contrast to previous conclusions regarding Gcn5. Our findings do reveal that of these HATs, only Gcn5 and Esa1 contribute substantially to gene expression genome wide. Interestingly, histone acetylation at promoter regions throughout the genome does not require TAF1 or RNA polymerase II, indicating that most acetylation is likely to precede transcription and not depend upon it. TAF1 function has been linked to Bdf1, which binds TFIID and acetylated histone H4 tails, but no linkage between TAF1 and the H4 HAT Esa1 has been established. Here, we present evidence for such a linkage through Bdf1.