Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Eradication of small intestinal bacterial overgrowth reduces symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome

OBJECTIVES:Irritable bowel syndrome is the most common gastrointestinal diagnosis. The symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome are similar to those of small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. The purpose of this study was to test whether overgrowth is associated with irritable bowel syndrome and whether treatment of overgrowth reduces their intestinal complaints.METHODS:Two hundred two subjects in a prospective database of subjects referred from the community undergoing a lactulose hydrogen breath test for assessment of overgrowth were Rome I criteria positive for irritable bowel syndrome. They were treated with open label antibiotics after positive breath test. Subjects returning for follow-up breath test to confirm eradication of overgrowth were also assessed. Subjects with inflammatory bowel disease, abdominal surgery, or subjects demonstrating rapid transit were excluded. Baseline and after treatment symptoms were rated on visual analog scales for bloating, diarrhea, abdominal pain, defecation relief, mucous, sensation of incomplete evacuation, straining, and urgency. Subjects were blinded to their breath test results until completion of the questionnaire.RESULTS:Of 202 irritable bowel syndrome patients, 157 (78%) had overgrowth. Of these, 47 had follow-up testing. Twenty-five of 47 follow-up subjects had eradication of small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. Comparison of those that eradicated to those that failed to eradicate revealed an improvement in irritable bowel syndrome symptoms with diarrhea and abdominal pain being statistically significant after Bonferroni correction (p < 0.05). Furthermore, 48% of eradicated subjects no longer met Rome criteria (χ2= 12.0, p < 0.001). No difference was seen if eradication was not successful.CONCLUSIONS:Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth is associated with irritable bowel syndrome. Eradication of the overgrowth eliminates irritable bowel syndrome by study criteria in 48% of subjects.
Negative side effects of customer integration

Customer integration has many recognised advantages, but also entails negative side effects that may impair the success of innovative activities. These negative side effects have not yet been sufficiently investigated. Whereas some may occur within the entire early innovation phase, others are likely to affect only few sub-phases. Each sub-phase, defined in a slightly new way as compared with existing models to meet the investigation subject, has different activities and aims, and therefore requires special integration methods and customer types. On the basis of extensive research and empirical studies, the paper illustrates different integration methods, negative effects of customer integration, and measures to avoid them.
Endothelial dysfunction, impaired endogenous fibrinolysis, and cigarette smoking: a mechanism for arterial thrombosis and myocardial infarction.

BACKGROUND Effective endogenous fibrinolysis requires rapid release of tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) from the vascular endothelium. Smoking is a known risk factor for arterial thrombosis and myocardial infarction, and it causes endothelial dysfunction. We therefore examined the effects of cigarette smoking on substance P-induced tPA release in vivo in humans. METHODS AND RESULTS Blood flow and plasma fibrinolytic factors were measured in both forearms of 12 smokers and 12 age- and sex-matched nonsmokers who received unilateral brachial artery infusions of substance P (2 to 8 pmol/min). In both smokers and nonsmokers, substance P caused dose-dependent increases in blood flow and local release of plasma tPA antigen and activity (P<0.001 for all) but had no effect on the local release of plasminogen activator inhibitor type 1. Compared with nonsmokers, increases in forearm blood flow (P=0.03) and release of tPA antigen (P=0.04) and activity (P<0.001) caused by substance P were reduced in smokers. The area under the curve for release of tPA antigen and activity decreased by 51% and 53%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS Cigarette smoking causes marked inhibition of substance P-induced tPA release in vivo in humans. This provides an important mechanism whereby endothelial dysfunction may increase the risk of atherothrombosis through a reduction in the acute fibrinolytic capacity.
Microblogging without Borders:Differences and Similarities

The fast increase in the ease of access to computing, coupled with the rapid growth of social media has provided the space and motivated people all over the world to publicly share many kinds of information, from general interest topics such as elections and fashion to private topics such as the user’s mood. The widespread use of microblogging services such as Twitter, in particular, have led to vast amounts of data generated by users in many different countries. In spite of this, very little is known about the differences and similarities in the way that people in different countries use such microblogging services. In this paper, we describe the analysis of a large-scale collection of Twitter data. First, we collected more than 550 million tweets from over 76 million users during August 20-29, 2010. Then, we identified the 10 countries with the highest volume of tweets during that period, and finally, selected the users from that period for those 10 countries, and collected all of their tweets for an entire year. Our analysis is based on over 5 billion tweets for 4.7 million anonymous users. We highlighting differences and similarities among these 10 countries with respect to language use, sentiment, and content of tweets.
Mechanisms of Biomaterial-Mediated Cardiac and Esophageal Repair

Biologic scaffolds derived from mammalian extracellular matrix (ECM) have been extensively used in pre-clinical and clinical applications to promote constructive tissue remodeling in a number of anatomic locations. The clinical success of these technologies depends on a number of factors including the species and tissues from which they are derived, the efficacy of the decellularization process, and post-processing modifications such as crosslinking and solubilization, among others. The ECM is produced by the resident cells of every tissue and hence, it is thought to constitute the ideal substrate for each unique cell population. It is therefore logical to assume that a substrate composed of site-specific ECM would be favorable for clinical use in homologous anatomic locations. However, the advantages of using site-specific (homologous) ECM scaffolds in clinical applications is still a matter of debate. Part of the difficulty in addressing this issue arises from the fact that most studies have investigated the application of ECM-derived scaffolds in either homologous or non-homologous locations independently, but they have rarely been directly compared in properly designed studies. The present dissertation shows the development of ECM-based biomaterials derived from cardiac and esophageal tissues. The decellularized scaffolds are compliant with decellularization standards and are then used to evaluate the tissue specific effects of homologous ECM in vitro and in a preclinical models of cardiac and esophageal repair.
Distributed Estimation in Distributed Sensor Networks

A distributed sensor network (DSN) provides a very rich scenario for the study of distributed estimation problems. Two important distributed estimation problems in DSN which hitherto have not received much attention in the literature are considered in this paper. The first problem is distributed multi-target tracking and classification. A distributed multi-target tracker and classifier, obtained by decomposing a centralized Generalized Tracker/Classifier is presented. The second problem is related to the network structure of a DSN. By considering a static estimation problem, we illustrate the main issues and present some results.
Integrated Network-Based Model Predictive Control for Setpoints Compensation in Industrial Processes

Complex industrial processes are controlled by the local regulation controllers at the field level, and the setpoints for the regulation are usually made by manual decomposition of the overall economic objective according to the operators' experience. If a precise static process model can be built, real-time optimization (RTO) can be used to generate the setpoints. Nevertheless, since the aforementioned control structure is actually open-loop, the desired economic objective of the whole processes may not be tracked when disturbances exist. Aiming at solving this problem, a novel network based model predictive control method (MPC) for setpoints compensation is proposed in this paper. Firstly, a multivariable proportional integral (PI) controller is designed to perform the local regulation control. Secondly, a stochastic packet dropout model is adopted to characterize the measurement and human-in-the-loop delay effect. Then, a model predictive controller considering the random dropout effect is developed to compensate the setpoints dynamically according to the changing conditions of the processes, such that the prescribed performance objective can be obtained. Finally, a flotation process model is employed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Adenovirus-mediated gene transfer of FKHRL1 triple mutant efficiently induces apoptosis in melanoma cells

The PTEN/Akt signal pathway plays an important role in tumorigenesis. Mutations or deletions of PTEN have been observed in up to 60% of melanoma cell lines, resulting in PI3K/Akt activation. The Forkhead family of transcription factors induce apoptosis in their unphosphorylated forms and were recently reported to be a substrate of Akt kinase. In the present study, an adenovirus expressing a triple mutant (TM) of FKHRL1, which cannot be phosphorylated by Akt, was assessed for its ability to induce apoptosis in melanoma cells. Marked overexpression of FKHRL1/TM was evident in the SK-MEL-2 cell line 24 hours after infection with Ad-FKHRL1/TM by Western blot analysis. The expression of FKHRL1/TM was moderately delayed in SK-MEL-28 cells. Overexpression of FKHRL1/TM can efficiently inhibit melanoma cell growth and result in rapid loss of cell viability. Cell cycle analysis showed overexpression of FKHRL1/TM in both melanoma cell lines resulted in development of a sub-G1 population, indicating apoptosis by Ad-FKHRL1/TM infection. Apoptosis was confirmed by morphologic inspection, poly-ADP-ribosepolymerase (PARP) cleavage assay, and annexin V-PE analysis. After Ad-FKHRL1/TM infection, the expression of Bax and Bak did not differ markedly, whereas Mcl-1 and Bcl-xL levels decreased markedly. Involvement of caspase 3 and 6 in FKHRL1/TM-mediated apoptosis was demonstrated by cleavage of caspase 3/CPP32 and PARP as well as fragmentation of the caspase 6 substrate lamin B in SK-MEL-2 cells as early as 24 hours after Ad-FKHRL1/TM infection, but those events were delayed 72 hours in SK-MEL-28. In addition, we found that p27kip1 was cleaved in SK-MEL-2 cells at 24 hours after treatment with Ad-FKHRL1/TM. This cleavage was observed in SK-MEL-28 cells until 72 hours after infection with Ad-FKHRL1/TM. Our data suggest that adenovirus expressing a FKHRL1 triple mutant could be a useful vector for gene therapy of cancers resistant to chemotherapy and radiotherapy induced by hyperactivity of PI3K/Akt.
Dry friction and wear behavior of in-situ Al/Al3Ti composite

Effects of different volume fractions of reinforcement and various loads applied in wear testing on dry tribological behavior of Al-Al3Ti in-situ composite were investigated. Mixture of aluminum and different amount of titanium powders has been compacted and combustion synthesized to obtain Al-Al3Ti composite with different percent of reinforcements. The results of pin-on-disk wear tests indicated that addition of Al3Ti to aluminum matrix increase wear resistance of the composite samples by 4 times compared to that of pure aluminum. In addition, presence of Al3Ti reinforcement reduced friction coefficient of the composites. Oxidation/abrasive mechanism was revealed to be dominant on wear behavior of Al-Al3Ti composites; adhesive wear decreased as volume fraction of the intermetallic increased in the composites.
Are All Placebo Effects Equal? Placebo Pills, Sham Acupuncture, Cue Conditioning and Their Association

Placebo treatments and healing rituals have been used to treat pain throughout history. The present within-subject crossover study examines the variability in individual responses to placebo treatment with verbal suggestion and visual cue conditioning by investigating whether responses to different types of placebo treatment, as well as conditioning responses, correlate with one another. Secondarily, this study also examines whether responses to sham acupuncture correlate with responses to genuine acupuncture. Healthy subjects were recruited to participate in two sequential experiments. Experiment one is a five-session crossover study. In each session, subjects received one of four treatments: placebo pills (described as Tylenol), sham acupuncture, genuine acupuncture, or no treatment rest control condition. Before and after each treatment, paired with a verbal suggestion of positive effect, each subject's pain threshold, pain tolerance, and pain ratings to calibrated heat pain were measured. At least 14 days after completing experiment one, all subjects were invited to participate in experiment two, during which their analgesic responses to conditioned visual cues were tested. Forty-eight healthy subjects completed experiment one, and 45 completed experiment two. The results showed significantly different effects of genuine acupuncture, placebo pill and rest control on pain threshold. There was no significant association between placebo pills, sham acupuncture and cue conditioning effects, indicating that individuals may respond to unique healing rituals in different ways. This outcome suggests that placebo response may be a complex behavioral phenomenon that has properties that comprise a state, rather than a trait characteristic. This could explain the difficulty of detecting a signature for “placebo responders. ” However, a significant association was found between the genuine and sham acupuncture treatments, implying that the non-specific effects of acupuncture may contribute to the analgesic effect observed in genuine acupuncture analgesia.
Cerebral misery perfusion due to carotid occlusive disease

Purpose Cerebral misery perfusion (CMP) is a condition where cerebral autoregulatory capacity is exhausted, and cerebral blood supply in insufficient to meet metabolic demand. We present an educational review of this important condition, which has a range of clinical manifestations. Method A non-systematic review of published literature was undertaken on CMP and major cerebral artery occlusive disease, using Pubmed and Sciencedirect. Findings Patients with CMP may present with strokes in watershed territories, collapses and transient ischaemic attacks or episodic movements associated with an orthostatic component. While positron emission tomography is the gold standard investigation for misery perfusion, advanced MRI is being increasingly used as an alternative investigation modality. The presence of CMP increases the risk of strokes. In addition to the devastating effect of stroke, there is accumulating evidence of impaired cognition and quality of life with carotid occlusive disease (COD) and misery perfusion. The evidence for revascularisation in the setting of complete carotid occlusion is weak. Medical management constitutes careful blood pressure management while addressing other vascular risk factors. Discussion The evidence for the management of patients with COD and CMP is discussed, together with recommendations based on our local experience. In this review, we focus on misery perfusion due to COD. Conclusion Patients with CMP and COD may present with a wide-ranging clinical phenotype and therefore to many specialties. Early identification of patients with misery perfusion may allow appropriate management and focus on strategies to maintain or improve cerebral blood flow, while avoiding potentially harmful treatment.
From Glauber dynamics to Metropolis algorithm: Smaller delay in optimal CSMA

Glauber dynamics, a method of sampling a given probability distribution via a Markov chain, has recently made considerable contribution to the MAC scheduling research, providing a tool to solve a long-standing open issue - achieving throughput-optimality with light message passing under CSMA. In this paper, we propose a way of reducing delay by studying generalized Glauber dynamics parameterized by βϵ[0, 1], ranging from Glauber dynamics (β=0) to the Metropolis algorithm (β =1). The same stationary distribution is sustained across this generalization, thus maintaining the long-term optimality. However, a different choice of β results in a significantly different second-order behavior (or variability) that has large impact on delay, which is hardly captured by the recent research focusing on delay in the large n (the number of nodes) asymptotic. We formally study such second-order behavior and its resulting delay performance, and show that larger β achieves smaller delay. Our results provide new insight into how to operate CSMA for large throughput and small delay in real, finite-sized systems.
Strengthening Loyalty of Online Gamers: Goal Gradient Perspective

ABSTRACT The growing popularity of online gaming emphasizes the importance of understanding how loyalty among online gamers can be strengthened. The goal gradient theory has not yet been adopted to examine how relationship characteristics (i.e., length, depth, and breadth) impact online gamer loyalty. Therefore, this study develops hypotheses based on that theory and uses structural equation modeling to test them. Responses from 5,144 online gamers were used for the analysis and the results indicate that relationship length, depth, and breadth were positively related to goal proximity (defined as the perception that a goal is close), which was further positively related to motivation to attain gaming goals, and consequently online gamer loyalty. This study is the first to explore—by using the goal gradient theoretical perspective—how relationship length, depth, and breadth are related to online gamer loyalty.
A DRTM-Based Method for Trusted Network Connection

Trusted Network Connection (TNC for short) can prevent insecure terminal from accessing protected network and thus strengthen the security of network. Existing TNC solutions face a serious problem called lying endpoint problem (LEP for short). If an attacker modifies the terminal agent software which is responsible for collecting the integrity state of an endpoint platform, Trusted Network Connection will lose its meanings. Trusted Computing Group (TCG) adds the functionality of trusted computing to prevent lying endpoint problem, but TCG's TNC relies on the traditional Static Root of Trust for Measurement (SRTM) which has too big TCB (Trusted Computing Base) and has been proved unsafe. In this paper, we design and implement an improved TNC scheme with high reliability and scalability based on trusted integrity status of terminal. While focusing on LEP problem under the context of Network Access Control (NAC), we leverage Dynamic Root of Trust for Measurement (DRTM) technology to realize desired security requirements such as smaller TCB. We also use the Logic of Secure Systems (LS2) to prove the security properties of our improved TNC system. Our experimental evaluation demonstrates that our method is feasible.
A Novel Framework for Context-Smart Sentiment and Mindset Analysis

The enormous amount of opinionated data on the web lends itself open to the need of intelligent tools for analyzing and interpreting this huge amount of data. In this work we propose a novel framework that provides an approach for interpreting and categorizing opinions in a structured way. The framework classifies any annotated sentence-level opinion on the criteria of favor ability and mindset analysis. After employing our method we observe that the difference between favorable and unfavorable opinions expressed under intelligent mindset is far greater than the same expressed under emotional mindset.
Mechanical Modeling of Biological Cells in Microinjection

Microinjection is an effective technique to introduce foreign materials into a biological cell. Although some semi-automatic and fully-automatic microinjection systems have been developed, a full understanding of the mechanical response of biological cells to injection operation remains deficient. In this paper, a new mechanical model based on membrane theory is proposed. This model establishes a relationship between the injection force and the deformation of biological cells with the quasi-static equilibrium equations, which are solved by the Runge-Kutta numerical method. Based on this model, other mechanical responses can also be inferred, such as the effect of the injector radius, the membrane stress and tension distribution, internal cell pressure, and the deformed cell shape. To verify the proposed model, experiments are performed on microinjection of zebrafish embryos at different developmental stages and medaka embryos at the blastula stage. It is demonstrated that the modeling results agree well with the experimental data, which shows that the proposed model can be used to estimate the mechanical properties of cell biomembranes. (In this paper, biomembrane refers to the membrane-like structures enveloping cells).
Impacts of Dynamic Probabilistic Reserve Sizing Techniques on Reserve Requirements and System Costs

The increasing share of intermittent renewable energy sources (RES) potentially endangers a reliable power system operation. Due to the variability and unpredictability of added RES, reserve requirements will increase in the future. To counter this, adequate reserve sizing techniques are of major importance. While most system operators apply simple deterministic or probabilistic models assuming RES forecast errors to follow a Gaussian distribution, we propose an improved dynamic reserve sizing method using nonparametric distributions as a forecast error description. The added value of the presented methodology is the use of a conditional kernel-based estimator in combination with a clustering approach to derive dynamic reserves through a convolution of conditional load, wind and solar forecast errors, and plant outage distributions. For comparability, traditional static and deterministic approaches are applied. Based on recent historical data for the German power system, we quantify reserves and demonstrate the feasibility and economic benefits of this improved approach using a scheduling model.
Applying Safe Regression Test Selection Techniques to Java Web Services

Existing safe regression test selection techniques, especially the white-box testing methods, do not work with Web service applications due to the inherent distributed nature of Web service systems. In this paper, we have presented a code transformation approach to regression test selection. The transformed code forms a local Java program which simulates the functionality and behavior of the Web service applications in an end-to-end manner. Safe regression test selection techniques can then be applied to the transformed code and safely reduce test cases for the Web service applications. A safe regression test selection technique has an additional quality in that it guarantees that nothing that could produce an error in the first set of tests will be left untested in the second set of tests under certain well-defined conditions. Additionally, we provide implementation details as well as an example