Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Use of pressure waves to confirm the correct placement of epidural needles in dogs

An epidural puncture was performed using the lumbosacral approach in 18 dogs, and the lack of resistance to an injection of saline was used to determine that the needle was positioned correctly. The dogs' arterial blood pressure and epidural pressure were recorded. They were randomly assigned to two groups: in one group an injection of a mixture of local anaesthetic agents was made slowly over 90 seconds and in the other it was made over 30 seconds. After 10 minutes contrast radiography was used to confirm the correct placement of the needle. The mean (sd) initial pressure in the epidural space was 0·1 (0·7) kPa. After the injection the mean maximum epidural pressure in the group injected slowly was 5·5 (2·1) kPa and in the group injected more quickly it was 6·0 (1·9) kPa. At the end of the period of measurement, the epidural pressure in the slow group was 0·8 (0·5) kPa and in the rapid group it was 0·7 (0·5) kPa. Waves synchronous with the arterial pulse wave were observed in 15 of the dogs before the epidural injection, and in all the dogs after the epidural injection.
The Ankle Brachial Index and Change in Lower Extremity Functioning over Time: The Women's Health and Aging Study

OBJECTIVES To define the association between baseline ankle brachial index (ABI) level and subsequent onset of severe disability. DESIGN Prospective cohort study. SETTING Baltimore community. PARTICIPANTS Eight hundred forty-seven disabled women aged 65 and older participating in the Women's Health and Aging Study. MEASUREMENTS At baseline, participants underwent measurement of ABI and lower extremity functioning. Measures of lower extremity functioning included patient's report of their ability to walk one-quarter of a mile, number of city blocks walked last week, number of stair flights climbed last week, and performance-based measures including walking speed over 4 meters, five repeated chair stands, and a summary performance score. Functioning was remeasured every 6 months for 3 years. Definitions of severe disability were developed a priori, and participants who met these definitions at baseline were excluded from subsequent analyses. RESULTS Participants with an ABI of less than 0.60 at baseline had significantly higher cumulative probabilities of developing severe disability than participants with a baseline ABI of 0.90 to 1.50 for walking-specific outcomes (ability to walk a quarter of a mile, number of city blocks walked last week, and walking velocity) but not for the remaining functional outcomes. In age-adjusted Cox proportional hazards analyses, hazard ratios for participants with a baseline ABI of less than 0.60 were 1.63 for becoming unable to walk a quarter of a mile (P = .044), 2.00 for developing severe disability in the number of blocks walked last week (P = .004), and 1.61 for developing severe disability in walking speed (P = .041), compared with participants with a baseline ABI of 0.90 to 1.50. Adjusting for age, race, baseline performance, and comorbidities, an ABI of less than 0.60 remained associated with becoming severely disabled in the number of blocks walked last week (hazard ratio = 1.97, P = .009) and nearly significantly associated with becoming unable to walk a quarter of a mile (hazard ratio = 1.54, P = .09). In fully adjusted random effects models, a baseline ABI of less than 0.60 was associated with significantly greater decline in walking speed per year (P = .019) and nearly significantly greater decline in number of blocks walked last week per year (P = .053) compared with a baseline ABI of 0.90 to 1.50. CONCLUSION In community-dwelling disabled older women, a low ABI is associated with a greater incidence of severe disability in walking-specific but not other lower extremity functional outcomes, compared with persons with a normal ABI over 3 years.
Filtering 3D Keypoints Using GIST For Accurate Image-Based Localization

Image-Based Localization (IBL) is the problem of estimating the 3D pose of a camera with respect to a 3D representation of the scene. IBL is quite challenging in largescale environments spanning a wide variety of viewpoints, illumination, and areas where matching a query image against hundreds of thousands of 3D points becomes prone to a large number of outliers and ambiguous situations. The current state of the art IBL solutions attempted to address the problem using paradigms such as bag-of-words, features co-occurrence, deep learning and others, with varying degrees of success. This paper presents GIST-based Search Space Reduction (GSSR) for indoor and large scale Image-Based Localization applications such as relocalization, loop closure and location recognition. GSSR explores the use of global descriptors, in particular GIST, to introduce a new similarity measure for keyframes that combines the GIST descriptor scores of all neighboring frames to qualify a limited number of 3D points for the matching process, hence reducing the problem to its small size counterpart. Our results on standard datasets show that our system can achieve better localization accuracy and speed than the main state of the art. It obtains approximately 0.24m and 0.3◦ in less than 0.1 seconds.
Preliminary Investigation of Multilobe Fighter Jet Noise Sources Using Acoustical Holography

An understanding of jet noise source mechanisms can facilitate targeted noise reduction efforts. This understanding has been enhanced with acoustic imaging technologies, such as near-field acoustical holography (NAH). In this study, multisource statistically optimized NAH (M-SONAH) was used to image the sound field near a tethered F-35 aircraft at multiple frequencies. A linear microphone array, placed along the ground, spanned the length of the jet exhaust plume. A multisource model of the sound field was included in the algorithm to incorporate the effects of the ground reflection on the measurement. Narrowband reconstructions elucidated fine details of the radiation patterns, such as multilobe radiation patterns (which may supersede “dual-lobe” patterns shown in previous studies), and broadband shock-associated noise. [Work supported by F-35 JPO. ]
Genome-wide DNA methylation changes with age in disease-free human skeletal muscle

A decline in skeletal muscle mass and function with aging is well recognized, but remains poorly characterized at the molecular level. Here, we report for the first time a genome‐wide study of DNA methylation dynamics in skeletal muscle of healthy male individuals during normal human aging. We predominantly observed hypermethylation throughout the genome within the aged group as compared to the young subjects. Differentially methylated CpG (dmCpG) nucleotides tend to arise intragenically and are underrepresented in promoters and are overrepresented in the middle and 3′ end of genes. The intragenic methylation changes are overrepresented in genes that guide the formation of the junction of the motor neuron and myofibers. We report a low level of correlation of gene expression from previous studies of aged muscle with our current analysis of DNA methylation status. For those genes that had both changes in methylation and gene expression with age, we observed a reverse correlation, with the exception of intragenic hypermethylated genes that were correlated with an increased gene expression. We suggest that a minimal number of dmCpG sites or select sites are required to be altered in order to correlate with gene expression changes. Finally, we identified 500 dmCpG sites that perform well in discriminating young from old samples. Our findings highlight epigenetic links between aging postmitotic skeletal muscle and DNA methylation.
Exploring the influence of social media on employee work performance

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of social media on employees’ work performance, as well as the underlying mechanism for how they create value at work. Design/methodology/approach – Based on media synchronicity and social capital theories, the authors propose that social media can foster employees’ social capital and subsequently facilitate knowledge transfer. Both social capital and knowledge transfer help promote work performance. Specifically, the authors adopt shared vision, network ties and trust to represent, respectively, the cognitive, structural and relational dimensions of social capital. The research model is tested using data collected from 379 Chinese working professionals. Findings – The empirical results reveal that social media can promote the formation of employees’ social capital indicated by network ties, shared vision and trust, which, in turn, can facilitate knowledge transfer. Shared vision and knowledge transfer positively influence work performanc.
Strangers in the archaeal world: osmostress-responsive biosynthesis of ectoine and hydroxyectoine by the marine thaumarchaeon Nitrosopumilus maritimus.

Ectoine and hydroxyectoine are compatible solutes widely synthesized by members of the Bacteria to cope with high osmolarity surroundings. Inspection of 557 archaeal genomes revealed that only 12 strains affiliated with the Nitrosopumilus, Methanothrix or Methanobacterium genera harbour ectoine/hydroxyectoine gene clusters. Phylogenetic considerations suggest that these Archaea have acquired these genes through horizontal gene transfer events. Using the Thaumarchaeon 'Candidatus Nitrosopumilus maritimus' as an example, we demonstrate that the transcription of its ectABCD genes is osmotically induced and functional since it leads to the production of both ectoine and hydroxyectoine. The ectoine synthase and the ectoine hydroxylase were biochemically characterized, and their properties resemble those of their counterparts from Bacteria. Transcriptional analysis of osmotically stressed 'Ca. N. maritimus' cells demonstrated that they possess an ectoine/hydroxyectoine gene cluster (hyp-ectABCD-mscS) different from those recognized previously since it contains a gene for an MscS-type mechanosensitive channel. Complementation experiments with an Escherichia coli mutant lacking all known mechanosensitive channel proteins demonstrated that the (Nm)MscS protein is functional. Hence, 'Ca. N. maritimus' cells cope with high salinity not only through enhanced synthesis of osmostress-protective ectoines but they already prepare themselves simultaneously for an eventually occurring osmotic down-shock by enhancing the production of a safety-valve (NmMscS).
The Lactococcal Abortive Phage Infection System AbiP Prevents both Phage DNA Replication and Temporal Transcription Switch

ABSTRACT We describe here a new lactococcal abortive phage infection system, designated AbiP. AbiP is effective against some lactococcal phages of one prevalent group, 936, but not against phages from the other two groups (c6A and P335). It was identified in the Lactococcus lactis subsp. cremoris strain IL420, on the native plasmid pIL2614. AbiP is encoded by a single gene, expressed in an operon with a second gene. In this work, abiP is shown to affect both the replication and transcription of phage DNA. In AbiP+ cells, phage DNA replication is arrested approximately 10 min after infection. Levels of middle and late phage transcripts are lower in AbiP+ than in AbiP− cells, probably due to the smaller amount of phage DNA. By contrast, early phage transcripts are more abundant in AbiP+ than in AbiP− cells, suggesting that the switch-off, which occurs 15 min after infection in AbiP− cells, is prevented in AbiP+ cells.
Interaction of arousal states and low dose halothane on the acute hypercapnic ventilatory response in humans

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of low dose halothane on the acute ventilatory response to hypercapnia, and to assess whether arousal (due to audiovisual (AV) stimulation or pain) modulates the response to halothane. Single step increases in end‐tidal Pco2 using dynamic end‐tidal forcing were performed from eucapnia (end‐tidal Pco2 held 1 mmHg (0.13 kPa) above ambient) to hypercapnia (end‐tidal Pco2 6 mmHg (0.79 kPa) above ambient) in eight healthy volunteers, with end‐tidal PO2 held at 100 mmHg (13.2 kPa), in six protocols: 1) control conditions (darkened, quiet room, eyes closed) without halothane; 2) control conditions with 0.1 MAC halothane; 3) AV stimulation (bright room, loud television) without halothane; 4) AV stimulation with 0.1 MAC halothane; 5) pain (electrical stimulation of skin over tibia to produce visual analogue pain score 5–6/10) without halothane; 6) pain with 0.1 MAC halothane. Both AV stimulation (p = 0.014) and pain (p = 0.0003) significantly increased the baseline eucapnic minute ventilation modestly (by ∼ 1.5–4 l.min−1). Halothane did not influence the baseline minute ventilation in any arousal state (p = 0.572), nor did it affect the hypercapnic ventilatory response in any arousal state (p = 0.208). Arousal (either AV stimulation or pain) did not affect the ventilatory response to CO2, regardless of the presence or absence of halothane (p = 0.585). We conclude that halothane affects neither baseline minute ventilation nor the response to CO2. Arousal can increase baseline ventilation but has no influence on the ventilatory response to CO2.
Preparation and Thermal Characterization of Annealed Gold Coated Porous Silicon

Porous silicon (PSi) layers were formed on a p-type Si wafer. Six samples were anodised electrically with a 30 mA/cm2 fixed current density for different etching times. The samples were coated with a 50–60 nm gold layer and annealed at different temperatures under Ar flow. The morphology of the layers, before and after annealing, formed by this method was investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Photoacoustic spectroscopy (PAS) measurements were carried out to measure the thermal diffusivity (TD) of the PSi and Au/PSi samples. For the Au/PSi samples, the thermal diffusivity was measured before and after annealing to study the effect of annealing. Also to study the aging effect, a comparison was made between freshly annealed samples and samples 30 days after annealing.
The use of intra-aortic balloon counterpulsation in patients with cardiogenic shock complicating acute myocardial infarction: data from the National Registry of Myocardial Infarction 2.

BACKGROUND Cardiogenic shock complicating acute myocardial infarction (AMI) remains the leading cause of death in patients hospitalized with AMI. Although several studies have demonstrated the importance of establishing and maintaining a patent infarct-related artery, it remains unclear as to whether intra-aortic balloon counterpulsation (IABP) provides incremental benefit to reperfusion therapy. The purpose of this study was to determine whether IABP use is associated with lower in-hospital mortality rates in patients with AMI complicated by cardiogenic shock in a large AMI registry. METHODS We evaluated patients participating in the National Registry of Myocardial Infarction 2 who had cardiogenic shock at initial examination or in whom cardiogenic shock developed during hospitalization (n = 23,180). RESULTS The mean age of patients in the study was 72 years, 54% were men, and the majority were white. The overall mortality rate in all patients who had cardiogenic shock or in whom cardiogenic shock developed was 70%. IABP was used in 7268 (31%) patients. IABP use was associated with a significant reduction in mortality rates in patients who received thrombolytic therapy (67% vs 49%) but was not associated with any benefit in patients treated with primary angioplasty (45% vs 47%). In a multivariate model, the use of IABP in conjunction with thrombolytic therapy decreased the odds of death by 18% (odds ratio, 0.82; 95% confidence interval, 0.72 to 0.93). CONCLUSIONS Patients with AMI complicated by cardiogenic shock may have substantial benefit from IABP when used in combination with thrombolytic therapy.
Sequence‐based characterization of the eight SLA loci in Korean native pigs

Eight swine leucocyte antigen (SLA) gene (SLA‐1, SLA‐2, SLA‐3, SLA‐6, DRA, DRB1, DQA, DQB1) alleles were identified using sequence‐based typing method in three Korean native pigs used for breeding at the National Institute of Animal Science in Korea. Six new alleles in class I genes and three new alleles in class II genes have been identified in this breed and can give valuable information for xenotransplantation and disease resistance.
Multidimensional digital signal processing

You must turn in your code as well as output files. Please generate a report that contains the code and ouput in a single readable format. Getting Started  You may want to download Irfanview image viewing software. It handles pretty much any image type, lets you convert, and provides batch processing.  Download the sample images from the class website. The following question operates on the city.jpg image. (a) Perform image smoothing using a 7×7 averaging filter and a Gaussian filter with σ = 0.5 and 3. Compare the outputs. (b) Perform edge enhancement using the Sobel operator (Matlab's default parameters). Repeat using the Laplacian and Laplacian of Guassian operators. Compare the outputs 2. Frequency Domain Filtering The following question operates on the city.jpg image. (a) Find the Fourier transform of the image. Be sure to center the frequencies. (b) Perform image smoothing in the frequency domain using the filters defined in the previous problem. Compare the output images from the two methods (spatial and frequency) and the time for operation. (c) Perform edge enhancement using the filters defined in the previous problem. (d) Define a lowpass filter in the frequency domain with radius of 1/4 the height. Show the result. Repeat with a similar sized Guassian and compare the results. Give the σ parameter you used and show the output transform image. (e) Repeat with a rectangular filter with the same dimension as the ideal lowpass. Compare the results between the ideal filter and the rectangular approximation. 3. Canny Edge Detection (a) Give the convolution kernels for determining the gradient. You may examine the function gradient.m to help with the explanation. (It may be easiest to apply the gradient to an impulse and inspect the results. (b) Implement the simplified version of the Canny edge detector (single scale). The syntax of the function should be where E contains the detected edges, M the smoothed gradient magnitude, A contains the gradient angle, I is the input image, sig is the σ parameter for the smoothing filter, and tau= [τ h , τ l ] is the two element vector containing the hysteresis thresholds. See Algorithm 6.4 for non-maximal suppression and Algorithm 6.5 for hysteresis thresh-olding. (It may be more efficient to implement the hysteresis as edge tracking)
Distinct kinetics of synaptic structural plasticity, memory formation, and memory decay in massed and spaced learning

Significance Learning with resting intervals induces longer-lasting memories. However, how structural alterations in neuronal synapses correlate with temporal regulation in learning with or without intervals remain unclear. We used a cerebellar motor learning paradigm in mice using massed or spaced training. Just after the training, we found similar acquisition and AMPA-type glutamate receptor reduction in parallel fiber–Purkinje cell synapses by both protocols. However, spacing induced quicker structural modifications with halving of the synapses and spines within 4 h, thus resulting in persistent long-term memory. We demonstrate the quick development of the synaptic plasticity as a structural basis for spacing effect. Long-lasting memories are formed when the stimulus is temporally distributed (spacing effect). However, the synaptic mechanisms underlying this robust phenomenon and the precise time course of the synaptic modifications that occur during learning remain unclear. Here we examined the adaptation of horizontal optokinetic response in mice that underwent 1 h of massed and spaced training at varying intervals. Despite similar acquisition by all training protocols, 1 h of spacing produced the highest memory retention at 24 h, which lasted for 1 mo. The distinct kinetics of memory are strongly correlated with the reduction of floccular parallel fiber–Purkinje cell synapses but not with AMPA receptor (AMPAR) number and synapse size. After the spaced training, we observed 25%, 23%, and 12% reduction in AMPAR density, synapse size, and synapse number, respectively. Four hours after the spaced training, half of the synapses and Purkinje cell spines had been eliminated, whereas AMPAR density and synapse size were recovered in remaining synapses. Surprisingly, massed training also produced long-term memory and halving of synapses; however, this occurred slowly over days, and the memory lasted for only 1 wk. This distinct kinetics of structural plasticity may serve as a basis for unique temporal profiles in the formation and decay of memory with or without intervals.
An antibody against the exosite of the cloned thrombin receptor inhibits experimental arterial thrombosis in the African green monkey.

BACKGROUND Thrombin inhibitors have been shown to be efficacious in animal models of thrombosis and in initial human clinical trials. It is unknown if their efficacy is due to their prevention of thrombin-mediated fibrin formation or to an inhibitory effect on thrombin-stimulated platelet activation. Appropriate tools to address this question have not been available. Therefore, to evaluate the role of the platelet thrombin receptor in intravascular thrombus formation, a polyclonal antibody was raised against a peptide derived from the thrombin-binding exosite region of the cloned human thrombin receptor. This antibody serves as a selective inhibitor of the thrombin receptor for in vivo evaluation. METHODS AND RESULTS The immune IgG (IgG 9600) inhibited thrombin-stimulated aggregation and secretion of human platelets. In contrast, it had no effect on platelet activation induced by other agonists including ADP, collagen, or the thrombin receptor-derived peptide SFLLR-NH2. IgG 9600 also inhibited thrombin-induced aggregation of African Green monkey (AGM) platelets. By Western blot analysis, the IgG identified a protein of approximately 64 kD in homogenates of both human and AGM platelets. The effect of thrombin receptor blockade by this antibody on arterial thrombosis was evaluated in an in vivo model of platelet-dependent cyclic flow reductions (CFRs) in the carotid artery of the AGM. The intravenous administration of IgG 9600 (10 mg/kg) abolished CFRs in three monkeys and reduced CFR frequency by 50% in a fourth monkey. Ex vivo platelet aggregation in response to up to 100 nmol/L thrombin was completely inhibited during the 120-minute postbolus observation period in all four animals. There was a twofold increase in bleeding time, which was not statistically different from baseline, and ex vivo clotting time (APTT) was not changed. The glycoprotein IIb/IIIa receptor antagonist MK-0852 and the thrombin inhibitor recombinant hirudin also demonstrated inhibitory effects on CFRs at doses that did not significantly prolong template bleeding time. Control IgG had no effect on CFRs, ex vivo platelet aggregation, bleeding time, or APTT. CONCLUSIONS These results demonstrate that blockade of the platelet thrombin receptor can prevent arterial thrombosis in this animal model without significantly altering hemostatic parameters and suggest that the thrombin receptor is an attractive antithrombotic target.