Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prothrombin time derived fibrinogen determination on Sysmex CA-6000.

AIM: To evaluate PT derived fibrinogen determinations with reference to the Clauss fibrinogen assay using a Sysmex CA-6000 random access coagulation analyser. METHODS: Samples were analysed from normal subjects (n = 20), patients with renal or liver dysfunction (n = 25), critically ill patients (n = 25), patients receiving oral anticoagulant treatment (n = 50), and patients with a haemoglobinopathy (n = 127). Prothrombin times were performed using two thromboplastins: one derived from rabbit brain (Dade: Thromboplastin IS) and the other from recombinant human tissue factor (Dade: Innovin). Fibrinogen was assayed by the Clauss method using a commercial kit (Dade: Fibrinogen). RESULTS: The relation between Clauss fibrinogen and PT derived fibrinogen was found to be dependent on the patient's clinical group and source of the thromboplastin used. When the data from the above sample groups were pooled there was still a significant difference (p < 0.001) between Clauss fibrinogen and PT derived fibrinogen, irrespective of thromboplastin used. CONCLUSIONS: It is unsafe to use the PT derived fibrinogen for patient monitoring owing to non-uniform variability in response to clinical status and reagent employed; however, it may prove to be a useful screening test in a research environment for estimating fibrinogen levels among defined patient groups.
Speed bumps ahead for electric-vehicle charging

As major automakers like Nissan, Mitsubishi, General Motors, and others are preparing plug-in hybrid electric cars, electric utilities are both salivating at the business opportunity and quietly fretting over potential outages that could mar the electric-vehicle rollout. Thousands of EVs use the power grid for charging at night, using otherwise idle generating plants because of this power grids are breaking down. Utilities worry that EV charging could black out the neighborhoods of some early EV adopters and give the emerging technology a black eye. Policy experts worry that the change in the grid's use could unintentionally muck up their green energy plans.
A game with a purpose for annotating Greek folk music in a web content management system

A web content management system (Web CMS) has been developed to host a corpus of 405 folk songs for media sharing. It is based on Drupal 7. Exploring various modules, the system offers multiple functionalities, including user registration, layered information about each song in different pages, similar content search, friendship relationships between the registered users, favorite lists, etc. Users can visit song pages, listen to the songs, and provide feedback. In addition to the Web CMS, a game with a purpose (GWAP), called Erasitechnis GWAP, has been designed and deployed on Facebook as an enjoyable way encouraging users to enroll and provide music annotations. Erasitechnis GWAP is a combined approach of existing games with a purpose, which focuses on tagging Greek folk music promoting less frequent tags. By doing so, descriptive tags are collected enabling the creation of a fully annotated dataset, which is exploited to train recommendation or autotagging systems.
Interactive Effects of Stress and Aging on Structural Plasticity in the Prefrontal Cortex

Neuronal networks in the prefrontal cortex mediate the highest levels of cognitive processing and decision making, and the capacity to perform these functions is among the cognitive features most vulnerable to aging. Despite much research, the neurobiological basis of age-related compromised prefrontal function remains elusive. Many investigators have hypothesized that exposure to stress may accelerate cognitive aging, though few studies have directly tested this hypothesis and even fewer have investigated a neuronal basis for such effects. It is known that in young animals, stress causes morphological remodeling of prefrontal pyramidal neurons that is reversible. The present studies sought to determine whether age influences the reversibility of stress-induced morphological plasticity in rat prefrontal neurons. We hypothesized that neocortical structural resilience is compromised in normal aging. To directly test this hypothesis we used a well characterized chronic restraint stress paradigm, with an additional group allowed to recover from the stress paradigm, in 3-, 12-, and 20-month-old male rats. In young animals, stress induced reductions of apical dendritic length and branch number, which were reversed with recovery; in contrast, middle-aged and aged rats failed to show reversible morphological remodeling when subjected to the same stress and recovery paradigm. The data presented here provide evidence that aging is accompanied by selective impairments in long-term neocortical morphological plasticity.
Online semi-supervised learning with KL distance weighting for Motor Imagery-based BCI

Studies had shown that Motor Imagery-based Brain Computer Interface (MI-based BCI) system can be used as a therapeutic tool such as for stroke rehabilitation, but had shown that not all subjects could perform MI well. Studies had also shown that MI and passive movement (PM) could similarly activate the motor system. Although the idea of calibrating MI-based BCI system from PM data is promising, there is an inherent difference between features extracted from MI and PM. Therefore, there is a need for online learning to alleviate the difference and improve the performance. Hence, in this study we propose an online batch mode semi-supervised learning with KL distance weighting to update the model trained from the calibration session by using unlabeled data from the online test session. In this study, the Filter Bank Common Spatial Pattern (FBCSP) algorithm is used to compute the most discriminative features of the EEG data in the calibration session and is updated iteratively on each band after a batch of online data is available for performing semi-supervised learning. The performance of the proposed method was compared with offline FBCSP, and results showed that the proposed method yielded slightly better results in comparison with offline FBCSP. The results also showed that the use of the model trained from PM for online session-to-session transfer compared to the use of the calibration model trained from MI yielded slightly better performance. The results suggest that using PM, due to its better performance and ease of recording is feasible and performance can be improved by using the proposed method to perform online semi-supervised learning while subjects perform MI.
Data integration with dependent sources

Data integration systems offer users a uniform interface to a set of data sources. Previous work has typically assumed that the data sources are independent of each other; however, in scenarios involving large numbers of sources, such as the Web or large enterprises, there is an eco-system of dependent sources, where some sources copy parts of their data from others. This paper considers the new optimization problems that arise while answering queries over large number of dependent sources. These are the (1) cost-minimization problem: what is the minimum cost we must incur to get all answer tuples, (2) maximum-coverage problem: given a bound on the cost, how can we get the maximum possible coverage, and (3) the source-ordering problem: for a set of data sources, what is the best order to query them so as to retrieve answer tuples as fast as possible. We consider these optimization problems under several cost models and we show that, in general, they are intractable. We describe effective approximation algorithms that enable us to solve these problems in practice. We then identify the causes of the high complexity and show that for restricted classes, the optimization problems can be solved in polynomial time.
Quantitative Morphometric Analysis of Brain Growth Using Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Using a simple image analysis system, we have established normative data obtained from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans for the relative size and growth of the major structural domains of the brain. Midsagittal scans of the head were analyzed in 95 subjects aged 0 to 20 years. Only scans with no demonstrable structural abnormalities of the brain were utilized. Age-related changes in the relative growth of specific structures were calculated by dividing patients into 5-year age increments. No age-related changes were found in the size of the posterior fossa, supratentorial intracranial space, or cisterna magna relative to the total intracranial vault space. A significant (P < .01) increase in the size of the corpus callosum relative to that of the supratentorial structures and relative to the total intracranial vault space was noted to occur between the 6- to 10-year-old and 11- to 15-year-old age groups. This may reflect an increase in myelination of the corpus callosum that occurs during this period. A small reduction in the ratio of the posterior fossa to the supratentorial space was found between the 0- to 5-year-old and the 6- to 10-year-old age groups, but the biological significance of this difference is uncertain. It appears from these data that quantitative analysis of MRI scans can be used to draw objective conclusions about the relative sizes and growth of the major brain structures. The development of normative data for these structures and the simplicity of the methodology should have many clinical applications in the assessment of aberrant brain development. (J Child Neurol 1990;5:127-130).
Spinal Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase Phosphatase-3 (MKP-3) is Necessary for the Normal Resolution of Mechanical Allodynia in a Mouse Model of Acute Postoperative Pain

The mechanisms that drive the normal resolution of acute postoperative pain are not completely understood. We hypothesize a pivotal role of a major spinal mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPKs) regulator, MAPK phosphatase (MKP)-3, in the resolution of postoperative pain. We used wild-type and MKP-3 knock-out (KO) mice, a paw incision model of acute postoperative pain, and behavioral and molecular biology experiments. We observed persistent mechanical allodynia in mice lacking MKP-3 (postoperative day 21), concurrently with persistent phosphorylation of spinal p38 and extracellular signal-regulated kinases (ERK)-1/2 on postoperative day 12, while both MAPK phosphorylation and allodynia resolved on postoperative day 7 in wild-type mice. Spinal p-ERK was expressed mainly in neurons and microglia, while spinal p-p38 was expressed mostly in microglia in MKP-3 KO mice, and their selective pharmacological inhibition reduced the persistent allodynia observed in these mice. Our findings strongly suggest that dysregulation of MKP-3 prevents spontaneous resolution of acute postoperative pain and drives its transition to persistent pain via persistent neuronal and microglial MAPK phosphorylation in the spinal cord.
An Assessment of Two Models of Wave Propagation in an Estuary Protected by Breakwaters

Breakwaters influence coastal wave climate and circulation by blocking and dissipating wave energy. In a large harbor, these effects are combined with wave generation, refraction and reflection. Accurate representation of these processes is essential to the determination of coastal circulation and wave processes. MIKE21SW and SWAN are two third-generation spectral wave models which are used widely in coastal research and engineering applications. Recently improved versions of the models are able to consider the influence of breakwater structures. In this study, we used available observations to evaluate the accuracy of model simulations of waves in New Haven Harbor, Connecticut, USA, an estuary with three detached breakwaters near the mouth. The models were executed on their optimum unstructured triangular grid. The boundary conditions were derived from a bottom mounted Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers (ADCP) on the offshore side of the breakwaters. Wind forcing was applied using data from the Central Long Island Sound buoy. We found that both models were largely consistent with observations during storms. However, MIKE21SW predicted some of storm peaks slightly better. SWAN required the finer grid to achieve the optimum condition, but as it uses a fast, fully implicit algorithm, the computational times were similar. Also, the sensitivity analysis represents that wind forcing and the breakwaters have significant impact on the results.
Linking social network accounts by modeling user spatiotemporal habits

Identifying the physical person behind an SNS account has become a critical issue in investigations of SNS-involved crime cases. It is a challenging task because information provided by users on an SNS platform could be false, conflicting, missing and deceptive. One way to gain an accurate profile of a user is to link up all their multiple accounts created on different social platforms, which is referred to as Account Linkage (AL). However, existing AL techniques suffer from the problem of information unreliability. Recent advances in location acquisition and wireless communication technologies give rise to new opportunities for AL. In this paper, we propose a framework that links up multiple accounts belonging to the same individual by comparing habit patterns extracted from user-generated location data. We built a topic model to capture users habit patterns in both spatial and temporal dimensions. Results of experiments carried out on a real-world dataset demonstrate the feasibility and validity of the proposed framework.
Effects of increased systemic blood pressure on the tissue fluid pressure threshold of peripheral nerve

This study was designed to evaluate the functional response of the median nerve at the wrist to various degrees of acute, local compression in hypertensive patients. After measuring resting tissue fluid pressure in the carpal tunnel of the nondominant hand of nine subjects (diastolic pressures of 90 mm Hg or greater), localized pressures of 50, 60, or 70 mm Hg were applied to the palmar aspect of the wrist. Motor and sensory latencies and amplitudes of the median nerve were evaluated before compression, during 30–240 min of compression, and during the postcompression recovery phase. Sensory responses were completely blocked at a threshold tissue fluid pressure of 60–70 mm Hg, measured by the wick catheter technique. This pressure threshold was greater than the 40–50 mm Hg previously found in normotensive subjects. The tissue pressure threshold of normotensive and hypertensive subjects was consistently 30 mm Hg below diastolic blood pressure (approximately 45 mm Hg below mean arterial blood pressure). These results support the concept that ischemia is the prime mechanism of conduction block in low pressure, nerve‐compression syndromes.
Quality Evaluation of Scrophulariae Radix Processed by Different ‘Sweating’ Methods Based on Simultaneous Determination of Multiple Bioactive Constituents Combined with Grey Relational Analysis

Scrophulariae Radix is one of the most popular traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs), which needs to be processed by ‘sweating’ methods. Primary processing of Scrophulariae Radix is an important link which closely relates to the quality of products in this TCM. To facilitate selection of the suitable ‘sweating’ processing method for Scrophulariae Radix, in this study the quality of Scrophulariae Radix processed by different ‘sweating’ methods was evaluated based on simultaneous determination of multiple bioactive constituents combined with grey relational analysis. The contents of iridoid glycosides, phenylpropanoid glycosides, and organic acids in Scrophulariae Radix processed by different ‘sweating’ methods were simultaneously determined using ultra high performance liquid chromatography coupled with triple quadrupole-linear ion trap mass spectrometry (UPLC-QTRAP-MS/MS). Furthermore, grey relational analysis (GRA) was performed to evaluate the ‘sweating’ processed samples according to the contents of twelve constituents. All of the results demonstrated that the quality of Scrophulariae Radix processed by oven drying at 35 °C and ‘sweating’ for three days was better. The developed method was useful for the overall assessment on quality of Scrophulariae Radix, and this study may provide the foundation and support for ‘sweating’ processing of Scrophulariae Radix in normalization and standardization.
DIMSpan: Transactional Frequent Subgraph Mining with Distributed In-Memory Dataflow Systems

Transactional frequent subgraph mining identifies frequent structural patterns in a collection of graphs. This research problem has wide applicability and increasingly requires higher scalability over single machine solutions to address the needs of Big Data use cases. We introduce DIMSpan, an advanced approach to frequent subgraph mining that utilizes the features provided by distributed in-memory dataflow systems such as Apache Flink or Apache Spark. It determines the complete set of frequent subgraphs from arbitrary string-labeled directed multigraphs as they occur in social, business and knowledge networks. DIMSpan is optimized to runtime and minimal network traffic but memory-aware. An extensive performance evaluation on large graph collections shows the scalability of DIMSpan and the effectiveness of its optimization techniques.
Determinants of the cellular specificity of acetaminophen as an inhibitor of prostaglandin H2 synthases

Acetaminophen has antipyretic and analgesic properties yet differs from the nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs and inhibitors of prostaglandin H synthase (PGHS)-2 by exhibiting little effect on platelets or inflammation. We find parallel selectivity at a cellular level; acetaminophen inhibits PGHS activity with an IC50 of 4.3 μM in interleukin (IL)-1α-stimulated human umbilical vein endothelial cells, in contrast with an IC50 of 1,870 μM for the platelet, with 2 μM arachidonic acid as substrate. This difference is not caused by isoform selectivity, because acetaminophen inhibits purified ovine PGHS-1 and murine recombinant PGHS-2 equally. We explored the hypothesis that this difference in cellular responsiveness results from antagonism of the reductant action of acetaminophen on the PGHSs by cellular peroxides. Increasing the peroxide product of the PGHS-cyclooxygenase, prostaglandin G2 (PGG2), by elevating the concentration of either enzyme or substrate reverses the inhibitory action of acetaminophen, as does the addition of PGG2 itself. 12-Hydroperoxyeicosatetraenoic acid (0.3 μM), a major product of the platelet, completely reverses the action of acetaminophen on PGHS-1. Inhibition of PGHS activity by acetaminophen in human umbilical vein endothelial cells is abrogated by t-butyl hydroperoxide. Together these findings support the hypothesis that the clinical action of acetaminophen is mediated by inhibition of PGHS activity, and that hydroperoxide concentration contributes to its cellular selectivity.
Antibody mimetics: promising complementary agents to animal-sourced antibodies

Abstract Despite their wide use as therapeutic, diagnostic and detection agents, the limitations of polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies have inspired scientists to design the next generation biomedical agents, so-called antibody mimetics that offer many advantages over conventional antibodies. Antibody mimetics can be constructed by protein-directed evolution or fusion of complementarity-determining regions through intervening framework regions. Substantial progress in exploiting human, butterfly (Pieris brassicae) and bacterial systems to design and select mimetics using display technologies has been made in the past 10 years, and one of these mimetics [Kalbitor® (Dyax)] has made its way to market. Many challenges lie ahead to develop mimetics for various biomedical applications, especially those for which conventional antibodies are ineffective, and this review describes the current characteristics, construction and applications of antibody mimetics compared to animal-sourced antibodies. The possible limitations of mimetics and future perspectives are also discussed.
Signal Recovery in Compressive Sensing via Multiple Sparsifying Bases

Compressive sensing theory asserts that, under certain conditions, a high dimensional but compressible signal can be recovered from a small number of random linear projections by utilizing computationally efficient algorithms. The a priori knowledge of the basis in which the signal of interest is sparse is the key assumption utilized by such algorithms. However, the basis in which the signal is the sparsest is unknown for many natural signals of interest. Instead there may exist multiple bases which lead to a compressible representation of the signal: e.g., an image is compressible in different wavelet transforms. We show that a significant performance improvement can be achieved by utilizing multiple estimates of the signal using sparsifying bases in the context of signal reconstruction from compressive samples. Further, we derive a customized interior-point method to jointly obtain multiple estimates of a 2-D signal (image) from compressive measurements utilizing multiple sparsifying bases as well as the fact that the images usually have a sparse gradient.
Comparison of linear and nonlinear feedback control for a half-car model with MR dampers

The paper deals with linear and nonlinear feedback control for a half-car model including Spencer model of the magnetorheological damper. The vehicle model was subjected to sinusoidal road excitation corresponding to a rough road of class F and selected according to the ISO 8608. All control schemes were assessed using a quality index closely related to the ride comfort and evaluated based on an averaged vehicle body acceleration. For the linear state-feedback control, the LQ problem was solved for different variants of weights in a cost function dedicated to mitigation of vehicle body velocities or accelerations. Resultant control gains were obtained by selecting the best case for each variant. Furthermore, control quality was enhanced by analysing the neighbourhood of each solution within the space of control gains. Also, nonlinear separate suspension control schemes based on squared and cubic front and rear vehicle body velocities or accelerations were validated. Simulation results of the presented algorithms were compared with those obtained for the well-known separate Skyhook and ADD (acceleration-driven damping). It was shown that the LQ-based state-feedback control offers better control quality in comparison to the classical Skyhook and ADD, but the additional tuning of resultant control gains is recommended. Besides, it was stated that the acceleration-based LQ gives better performance comparing to velocity-based LQ. It was also stated that nonlinear algorithms exhibit similar performance as classical Skyhook, but in this case, better results were obtained for velocity-based control.
Automated social skills training with audiovisual information

People with social communication difficulties tend to have superior skills using computers, and as a result computer-based social skills training systems are flourishing. Social skills training, performed by human trainers, is a well-established method to obtain appropriate skills in social interaction. Previous works have attempted to automate one or several parts of social skills training through human-computer interaction. However, while previous work on simulating social skills training considered only acoustic and linguistic features, human social skills trainers take into account visual features (e.g. facial expression, posture). In this paper, we create and evaluate a social skills training system that closes this gap by considering audiovisual features regarding ratio of smiling, yaw, and pitch. An experimental evaluation measures the difference in effectiveness of social skill training when using audio features and audiovisual features. Results showed that the visual features were effective to improve users' social skills.