Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Clinical Predictors Inﬂuencing the Length of Stay in Emergency Department Patients Presenting with Acute Heart Failure

: Background and objectives: Acute heart failure is a common problem encountered in the emergency department (ED). More than 80% of the patients with the condition subsequently require lengthy and repeated hospitalization. In a setting with limited in-patient capacity, the patient ﬂow is often obstructed. Appropriate disposition decisions must be made by emergency physicians to deliver e ﬀ ective care and alleviate ED overcrowding. This study aimed to explore clinical predictors inﬂuencing the length of stay (LOS) in patients with acute heart failure who present to the ED. Materials and Methods: We conducted prognostic factor research with a retrospective cohort design. Medical records of patients with acute heart failure who presented to the ED of Ramathibodi Hospital from January to December 2015 were assessed for eligibility. Thirteen potential clinical predictors were selected as candidates for statistical modeling based on previous reports. Multivariable Poisson regression was used to estimate the di ﬀ erence in LOS between patients with and without potential predictors. Results: A total of 207 patients were included in the analysis. Most patients were male with a mean age of 74.2 ± 12.5 years. The median LOS was 54.6 h (Interquartile range 17.5, 149.3 h). From the multivariable analysis, four clinical characteristics were identiﬁed as independent predictors with an increase in LOS. These were patients with New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional class III / IV ( + 72.9 h, 95%Conﬁdence interval (CI) 23.9, 121.8, p = 0.004), respiratory rate > 24 per minute ( + 80.7 h, 95%CI 28.0, 133.3, p = 0.003), hemoglobin level < 10 mg / dL ( + 60.4 h, 95%CI 8.6, 112.3, p = 0.022), and serum albumin < 3.5 g / dL ( + 52.8 h, 95%CI 3.6, 102.0, p = 0.035). Conclusions: Poor NYHA functional class, tachypnea, anemia, and hypoalbuminemia are signiﬁcant clinical predictors of patients with acute heart failure who required longer LOS.
Function In Vivo Their Cells with High Frequency and Impairs Infects Dendritic Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) is thought to reside in macrophages, although infected dendritic cells (DCs) have been observed. Thus, although cellular associations have been made, global characterization of the cells harboring Mtb is lacking. We have performed temporal and quantitative characterization of the cells harboring Mtb following aerosol infection of mice by using GFP-expressing bacteria and ﬂow cytometry. We discovered that Mtb infects phagocytic cells of diverse phenotypes, that the predominant infected cell populations change with time, and that myeloid DCs are the major cell population infected with Mtb in the lungs and lymph nodes. We also found that the bacteria in the lung-draining lymph node are transported there from the lungs by a CCL19/21-dependent mechanism and that the transport of bacteria to the lymph node is a transient phenomenon despite chronic infection. In addition, we found that the lymph node cell subsets that are most efﬁcacious in stimulating Mtb-speciﬁc, TCR-transgenic CD4 (cid:1) T lymphocytes are not infected with the bacteria and are scarce or absent from the lungs of infected mice. Finally, we found that the lung cell populations that are infected with Mtb at high frequency are relatively ineffective at stimulating Ag-speciﬁc CD4 (cid:1) T lymphocytes, and we have obtained evidence that live Mtb can inhibit MHC class II Ag presentation without a decrease in the surface expression of MHC class II. These results indicate that Mtb targets DC migration and Ag presentation in vivo to promote persistent infection. The Journal of Immunology, 2007, 179: 2509–2519.
Extremes and Related Properties of Random Sequences and Processes: Springer Series in Statistics

A semi-moist pet food having the appearance and texture of meat, which formerly required sodium caseinate to achieve the meat-like texture and appearance after processing, now includes a pregelatinized or modified amylaceous material, a non-caseinate protein source, and a substantially neutral chelating agent in a combination to replace at least part of the casein salt in the semi-moist pet food to still achieve the meat-like texture and appearance after processing.
Entry Pathway 2+ CaMouse Dendritic Cells: CRAC Is the Major Signaling Mechanisms in 2+ Fundamental Ca

Although Ca 2 1 -signaling processes are thought to underlie many dendritic cell (DC) functions, the Ca 2 1 entry pathways are unknown. Therefore, we investigated Ca 2 1 -signaling in mouse myeloid DC using Ca 2 1 imaging and electrophysiological tech-niques. Neither Ca 2 1 currents nor changes in intracellular Ca 2 1 were detected following membrane depolarization, ruling out the presence of functional voltage-dependent Ca 2 1 channels. ATP, a purinergic receptor ligand, and 1–4 dihydropyridines, previously suggested to activate a plasma membrane Ca 2 1 channel in human myeloid DC, both elicited Ca 2 1 rises in murine DC. However, in this study these responses were found to be due to mobilization from intracellular stores rather than by Ca 2 1 entry. In contrast, Ca 2 1 inﬂux was activated by depletion of intracellular Ca 2 1 stores with thapsigargin, or inositol trisphosphate. This Ca 2 1 inﬂux was enhanced by membrane hyperpolarization, inhibited by SKF 96365, and exhibited a cation permeability similar to the Ca 2 1 release-activated Ca 2 1 channel (CRAC) found in T lymphocytes. Furthermore, ATP, a putative DC chemotactic and maturation factor, induced a delayed Ca 2 1 entry with a voltage dependence similar to CRAC. Moreover, the level of phenotypic DC maturation was correlated with the extracellular Ca 2 1 concentration and enhanced by thapsigargin treatment. These results suggest that CRAC is a major pathway for Ca 2 1 entry in mouse myeloid DC and support the proposal that CRAC participates in DC maturation and migration. The Journal of Immunology, 2001, 166: 6126–6133. predominantly to Ca 2 1 mobilization rather than entry via plasma membrane channels. We show that the major Ca 2 1 entry pathway in DC is through the Ca 2 1 release-activated Ca 2 1 channel (CRAC) (12–14), a plasma membrane channel expressed in many cell types and activated by the depletion of intracellular Ca 2 1 stores. Furthermore, we show that CRAC is activated during phys-iologic DC signaling and that activation of CRAC promotes DC maturation.
Analysis of the Factors that Inﬂuence Olive Oil Demand in the Veneto Region (Italy)

: The present study analyzes the demand for extra virgin olive oil of Veneto region consumers in relation to some extrinsic characteristics of the oil, such as the place of production (with particular reference to the Veneto region), the designation of origin, the organic certiﬁcation, the type of transformation (artisanal or industrial), and the cultivation of olive trees in landscapes that have preserved traditional forms, which are typically the result of irregular plantations or the reduced densities of plants per hectare of cultivated areas. To this aim, a discrete choice experiment was carried out that allowed us to identify the e ﬀ ect of each of the attributes on the choices of the interviewees and to highlight the presence of heterogeneity in consumer preferences. The analysis carried out highlights the presence of a strong segmentation of the extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) market in the Veneto region. In the estimated model, the heterogeneity of preferences is particularly relevant in the case of Protected Denomination of Origin (PDO) production, handicraft milling, and organic production. In contrast, the interviewees’ preferences appear to be very homogeneous for the Italian or Veneto EVOO. The results of our research conﬁrm that the place of production is one of the most important clues considered by consumers when buying EVOO. This e ﬀ ect, however, appears to be less important in the areas where olive tree cultivation occupies only a reduced fraction of the cultivated area. In these situations, people tend to prioritize the consumption of EVOO from other regions where production is more widespread. Olive growing that preserves the traditional landscape appears to have a signiﬁcant e ﬀ ect on consumer behavior, but only for some market segments.
Integrin Activity 7 b , and 3 b , 2 b Chemoattractant-Stimulated Differential Regulation of

Leukocyte adhesion to endothelium and extravasation are dynamic processes that require activation of integrins. Chemoattractants such as IL-8 and FMLP are potent activators of leukocyte integrins. To compare the chemoattractant-stimulated activation of three integrins, a 4 b 7 , a L b 2 , and a V b 3 , in the same cellular context, we expressed an IL-8 receptor (IL-8RA) and FMLP receptor (FPR) in the lymphoid cell line JY. Chemoattractants induced a rapid increase in a L b 2 - and a V b 3 -dependent JY adhesion within 5 min, and it was sustained for 30 min. In contrast, stimulation of a 4 b 7 -dependent adhesion was transient, returning to basal levels by 30 min. The activation proﬁles of the integrins were similar regardless of whether IL-8 or FMLP was used for induction. We also demonstrate that a 4 b 7 -dependent adhesion was uniquely responsive to the F actin-disrupting agent cytochalasin D and the protein kinase C (PKC) inhibitor chelerythrin. While a V b 3 - and a L b 2 -mediated cell adhesion was signiﬁcantly reduced by cytochalasin D, a 4 b 7 -mediated adhesion was enhanced. Chelerythrin inhibited both the IL-8 and PMA activation of a L b 2 and a V b 3 . In contrast, inducible a 4 b 7 activity was unaffected, and basal activity was increased. These ﬁndings demonstrate that the mechanism of a 4 b 7 regulation by chemoattractants is different from that of a L b 2 and a V b 3 and that it appears to involve distinct cytoskeletal and PKC dependencies. In addition, PKC activity may be a positive or negative regulator of integrin-dependent adhesion. The Journal of Immunology, 1998, 160: 5622–5628.
OTT_A_263728 10373..10385

1Department of Radiotherapy, Yantaishan Hospital, Yantai City, Shandong Province 264000, People’s Republic ofChina; 2Department of Thoracic Surgery, Yantaishan Hospital, Yantai City, Shandong Province 264001, People’s Republic of China Purpose: Cervical cancer (CC) is the fourth most common cancer with high death rate in females. The study aims to detect the mechanism of long non-coding RNA (LncRNA) PCAT1 on radiosensitivity of CC. Methods: The expression of PCAT1, miR-128 and GOLM1 in CC tissues and cells was measured by qRT-PCR. Different doses of X-ray were used for radiation treatment of CC cells and 6 Gy was chosen to perform the following experiments. The proliferation, migration and invasion of CC cells were measured by MTT assay, wound healing assay and transwell assay, respectively. The target relationships among PCAT1, miR-128 and GOLM1 were predicted by StarBase and TargetScan and verified by luciferase reporter assay. The protein level of GOLM1 was determined by Western blot. The xenograft tumor model was constructed in nude mice to verify the effect of PCAT1 on radiosensitivity of CC in vivo. Results: The PCAT1 expression was upregulated in CC tissues and cells. PCAT1 silencing enhances radiosensitivity of CC cells on proliferation, migration and invasion. MiR-128 was the target of PCAT1 and was negatively regulated by PCAT1. Upregulation of miR-128 enhances radiosensitivity of CC cells on proliferation, migration and invasion. GOLM1 was a target of miR-128 and was negatively regulated by miR-128. Upregulation of GOLM1 and downregulation of miR-128 both reversed the enhanced effect of PCAT1 knockdown on radiosensitivity of CC cells, which partly promoted the proliferation, migration and invasion of CC cells. Conclusion: Silencing of PCAT1 enhanced radiosensitivity of CC via targeting miR-128/ GOLM1, which provided a new idea for treating CC.
Recent Research and Applications in Variational Autoencoders for Industrial Prognosis and Health Management: A Survey

Whether in the industrial, medical, or real-world domains, more and more data are being collected. The common particularity of all these application domains is that a great part of this data is mostly unlabeled. Thus, designing a learning model with a minimum of labeled data represents a major challenge in the coming years. A particular emphasis has recently been put on unsupervised learning methods based on the idea of autoencoding. The objective of these methods is twofold: to reduce the dimensionality of the input space and to reconstruct the original observation from this lower dimensional representation space. The variational form of these autoencoders, called the Variational Autoencoders (VAEs), is particularly successful in almost all application areas. This enthusiasm comes from the fact that VAEs allow to take advantage of the theoretical foundations of the Variational Bayesian methods and the learning capabilities of artificial neural networks. This review paper gives to the PHM community a synthesis of the latest publications in the PHM domain using the VAEs related to four topics: 1) Data-Driven Soft Sensors for missing values and data outliers, 2) reconstruction error for fault detection, 3) resampling approach for imbalanced data generation and minority class and 4) the variational embedding as PHM preprocessing pipelines and data transformations. After a review of the theoretical foundations and some practical tricks to succeed the implementation of the VAEs in industrial applications, the four main topics used to exploit the VAEs in the PHM domain are detailed. Finally, a global view of the research done at the research institute of Hydro-Québec regarding the diagnosis and failure detection of hydro-generators with VAEs are presented.
Timing Deviations in Wireless Networks using Bluetooth Periodic Advertising

Monitoring and control systems, including spatially distributed devices, often require simultaneous responses to control commands. Especially when timing is crucial a synchronized connection between all devices is necessary to minimize differences in response time. This paper introduces a method which uses Bluetooth periodic advertising to establish a wireless synchronized multicast to simultaneously control devices. Results of time difference measurements between two devices, reacting on control commands received by the same periodic advertising packet, are introduced and discussed using large scale experimental data. Device configurations, where an impact on timing was experienced, are presented. Time difference values with a low maximum delay of 11 µs were achieved.
Microwave Harmonic Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Imaging for Detecting Weak-Scattering Defects Exhibiting Nonlinear Behavior

Microwave harmonic synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging technique is investigated for detecting weak-scattering defects that produce nonlinear effect. The ability to generate such effect allows for a potentially capable nondestructive evaluation (NDE) techniques in several critical applications, particularly those involving detection of surface-breaking fatigue cracks in metallic structures. These nonlinear effects generally produce weak harmonic scattering that are difficult to detect using normal approaches. Numerical simulations were performed to illustrate that the system signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) can be significantly enhanced by using harmonic SAR, as compared with traditional harmonic radar single-antenna measurement. Illustrative measurement was conducted using a metallic sample, with a surface-breaking defect, containing metal-metal (MM) contacts capable of producing such nonlinear effect. The measurement results confirm the validity of the proposed harmonic SAR technique.
A Bioimpedance-based Transducer for Insulin Bioavailability Assessment after Subcutaneous Administration

The prototyping and metrological characterization of a transducer for monitoring insulin bioavailability after subcutaneous administration is presented. The measurement of local impedance allows to assess the disappearance of insulin from the injection site and thus to indirectly estimate its bioavailability. The device is designed to replace the impedance meter of a noninvasive and painless instrument, namely the Insulin Meter, already presented by the authors in previous studies. In the first part of the article, the prototyping of the hardware, firmware, and software is discussed. Then, the metrological characterization in the laboratory (on passive electronic components), in-vitro (on eggplants), and in-vivo (on a human volunteer) is reported. The results showed sensitivity compatible with the previous version of the bio-impedance meter. Instead, the repeatability improved by an order of magnitude. Finally, the impedance phase can be performed (unlike the previous device) and exhibit a smooth trend as the amount of drug under the skin changes.
Panoptic Segmentation of Animal Fibers

Animal fiber identification is an essential aspect of fabric production, since specialty fibers such as cashmere are often targeted by adulteration attempts. Current, automated fiber identification methods are often based on the optical analysis of fiber surface morphology, and require a panoptic segmentation (i.e. the complete, non-overlapping instance segmentation) of animal fibers. To date, these are provided manually in a labor-intensive manner, reducing the applicability of developed solutions. In our work, we tackle the automated, panoptic segmentation of animal fibers, overcoming the above limitation. We propose a two-step procedure consisting of (I) the non-overlapping, binary segmentation of fiber "scale edges", followed by (II) the rule-based conversion of the binary "scale edge" mask to the panoptic segmentation of the animal fiber. For the first step, we investigate whether semi-supervised learning outperforms supervised learning in the low-data regime. We motivate this by the fact that acquiring fiber scale images is much less time-consuming than segmenting them, and find it not to be the case. For the second step, we propose a rule-based post-processing of generated "scale edge" heatmaps for improved separability of "fiber scale" instances, and show that the post-processing improves performance across all evaluated configurations. In total, we demonstrate that the automated, panoptic segmentation of animal fibers is feasible.
Integration of Onboard Batteries and Supercapacitors Based on the Multi-Source Inverter for Light Rail Vehicles

Light rail vehicles with onboard energy storage systems have gained increasing interest due to higher efficiency and lower or null local emissions in catenary-less operation. Their traction circuit conventionally employs inverters to drive the traction motors and DC/DC converters to manage the onboard sources. Recently, the concept of multi-source inverter (MSI) was introduced for single-stage integration of AC loads and multiple DC sources without. This paper evaluates the feasibility and attractiveness of the MSI for single-stage integration of batteries and supercapacitors to the traction motors in a catenary-less tramway vehicle. The configuration of the MSI-based hybrid energy storage system is detailed. Numerical simulations are carried out to assess its performance over a typical driving cycle. Furthermore, the proposed architecture is compared to a standard configuration employing a DC/DC converter to control the supercapacitors, with focus on power losses and volumes of the converters and DC sources.
Energy Management Algorithm of Fuel Cell/Supercapacitor System for Electrical Vehicle

The main objective of this work is to apply rule-based energy management algorithm between two sources and a load using two interleaved floating DC/DC converters dedicated to vehicular applications; the first is a two-way converter, the second is a one-way converter. These two converters are combined to interface the hybrid power which is composed of a fuel cell as the primary source for the vehicle and a storage system (supercapacitor) as a secondary source. This article provides a modelling of the two proposed DC-DC converters as well as a control strategy for each of them. However, the studied system being powered by two sources, it is essential to apply an energy management algorithm which must ensure the distribution of the energy flows between the sources and the load in order to satisfy the required power. A rule based algorithm is applied as well to generate source power references considering state-of-charge limitation to avoid overcharging and deep discharging in order to decrease the lifetime of the supercapacitor. To evaluate the performance of the studied converters, simulation results of the hybrid system with the energy management algorithm are presented.
RFID-based robot localisation: an unconstrained optimisation problem by exploiting RSSI

This paper presents a Linear Least-Squares approach to estimate the pose of a mobile robot based on passive Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology at the Ultra-High Frequency (UHF) band. The mobile robot leverages the received signal power to obtain ranging data from a set of reference landmark RFID tags. Then, an optimisation algorithm merges RFID and odometry data to reconstruct the entire robot trajectory. The proposed method does not require precise placement of the landmarks and it is therefore fast and easy to deploy. Both numerical and experimental analysis are presented.
Reconfigurable Transformer-less Fault Tolerant Multiple Input Boost DC-DC Converter

This paper gives an outline of the topology of a four-switch boost multiple-input converter, which has the capability of tolerating the fault. The fault detection approach which has been approached here in this paper uses the floating MOSFETs source-to-drain voltage to diagnose the fault. If any of the MOSFETs experiences an open-circuit defect, the source voltage will drop to zero. To maintain the converter output regulated, the designed controller will identify the defect and another MOSFET switch is used to activate a different channel. During normal and problematic operation, this topology’s redundancy concept employs the same output inductor and capacitor. The results of the MATLAB simulation are shown in the paper to ensure that the proposed design is correct and the fault tolerance system is working properly.
Wireless Glucose Sensing System Based on Dual-Tag RFID Technology

Glucose sensing is an important way to improve the efficiency of diagnosis and treatment of diabetic patients. A glucose sensing system with low-cost, penetrability and safety is necessary. In this paper, a wireless sensing system for continuous glucose monitoring based on dual-tag radio frequency identification (RFID) technology was proposed. A modified system model incorporating Cole-Cole dielectric model is built to describe the relationship among glucose concentration, matching capacitance of tags and operating frequency, and the related parameters were determined by particle swarm optimization based on linear descending weights (LDW-PSO). The experiments were performed in the frequency range from 902 MHz to 928 MHz, and the results show that the maximum relative error between measured glucose concentration and estimated one is 4.15%, and all the measured glucose concentration lie in the reasonable region in Clarke’s error grid, indicating that our proposed monitoring method has a great potential in the healthcare field.