Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Gender Differences in Emotion Regulation and Relationships with Perceived Health in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis

ABSTRACT Emotion regulation has been associated with perceived health in rheumatoid arthritis, which is diagnosed three times more often in women than men. Our aim was to examine gender differences in styles of emotion regulation (ambiguity, control, orientation, and expression) and gender-specificity of the associations between emotion regulation and perceived health (psychological well-being, social functioning, physical functioning, and disease activity) in 244 female and 91 male patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Women reported more emotional orientation than men, but did not differ from men with regard to ambiguity, control, and expression. Structural equation modelling showed that relationships between emotion regulation and perceived health were more frequent and stronger for women than men. This held especially for the affective dimension of health, while associations were similar for both women and men with regard to social and physical functioning. Only for women, the association between ambiguity and disease activity was significant, which appeared to be mediated by affective functioning. The observations that women are more emotionally oriented than men and that emotion regulation is more interwoven with psychological health in women than men, support the usefulness of a gender-sensitive approach in research and health care of patients with rheumatoid arthritis.
Monitoring NF-kappa B transactivation potential via real-time PCR quantification of I kappa B-alpha gene expression.

BACKGROUND Nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-kappa B) is an important transcription factor involved in the regulation of immune responses as well as in cell proliferation and survival. An abnormal and constitutive activation of NF-kappa B is observed in many pathological states as diverse as inflammation, neurological diseases, and cancer. METHODS AND RESULTS Termination of NF-kappa B transcription is mediated through the NF-kappa B-dependent synthesis of the I kappa B-alpha inhibitory subunit. To quantify NF-kappa B activation we measured by real-time PCR the expression of I kappa B-alpha mRNA. The PCR data perfectly matched the results obtained by Northern blot or gene reporter analysis when Jurkat leukemic T cells or HeLa carcinoma cells were stimulated with various activators of NF-kappa B, such as the cytokine tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha or the phorbol ester PMA. Constitutive NF-kappa B activation in Hodgkin's lymphoma cell line could also be evaluated by this approach. Kinetic experiments in HeLa cells show that TNF stimulation first induced NF-kappa B DNA binding within 30 minutes, followed by I kappa B-alpha gene transcription 30 minutes later. Removal of TNF after stimulation resulted in a faster decrease in both NF-kappa B DNA binding activity and I kappa B-alpha mRNA levels. No accumulation or stabilization of I kappa B-alpha mRNA was detected that could bias interpretation of the results. The sensitivity of the method allowed the detection of NF-kappa B activation in stimulated normal peripheral blood lymphocytes. CONCLUSION The real-time PCR measure of I kappa B-alpha mRNA levels is a rapid, sensitive, and powerful method to quantify the transcriptional power of NF-kappa B. It can be easily used for clinical evaluation of NF-kappa B status.
Contribution of auxiliary coherent radar receiver to target's velocity estimation

Recent progress in bistatic radar techniques can be used to improve performances of classical monostatic radar. A prominent limitation of coherent radar is its inability to measure the complete velocity vector (magnitude and direction) of a detected target. A single coherent detection can provide range-rate only. At least two detections, separated in time, are needed to estimate the target's velocity vector. This study discusses how the velocity vector can be determined by two simultaneous detections spaced in distance. The second detection is obtained by an auxiliary distant bistatic coherent receiver; an approach proposed in the 1990s to enhance meteorological radar. Being a very simple case of a distributed radar system allows for a simple demonstration of how to calculate the target's position and velocity vector and how to analyse the estimation accuracy, including geometric dilution of precision plots of the velocity error. Also discussed are two methods to identify correct data association when more than one target is detected.
Assessing the assessments: U.K. dermatology trainees’ views of the workplace assessment tools

Background The workplace assessments, direct observation of procedural skills (DOPS), mini‐clinical evaluation exercise (mini‐CEX) and multisource feedback (MSF, formerly known as 360° appraisal), are now mandatory during dermatology specialist training in the U.K. The opinions of those undergoing such assessments in any medical specialty have rarely been sought.
Contrast Learning for Conceptual Proximity Matching

Availability of general knowledge is considered essential in intelligent systems design to avoid brittle behavior. However, knowledge is long and tedious to acquire. This paper proposes a knowledge acquisition method that allows for the acquisition of useful general knowledge for semantic matching. The approach is based on the idea that processing example cases that contrast with existing knowledge but are conceptually close provide a learning opportunity. There are many possible applications for the proposed knowledge acquisition approach including eliciting knowledge for the semantic web and semantic bridging of heterogeneous databases. We present experimental results with a set of real life examples and demonstrate that the newly acquired knowledge facilitates processing of novel cases.
Hessian Interest Points on GPU

This paper is about interest point detection and GPU programming. We take a popular GPGPU implementation of SIFT – the de-facto standard in fast interest point detectors – SiftGPU and implement modifications that according to recent research result in better performance in terms of repeatability of the detected points. The interest points found at local extrema of the Difference of Gaussians (DoG) function in the original SIFT are replaced by the local extrema of determinant of Hessian matrix of the intensity function. Experimentally we show that the GPU implementation of Hessian-based detector (i) surpasses in repeatability the original DoG-based implementation, (ii) gives result very close to those of a reference CPU implementation, and (iii) is significantly faster than the CPU implementation. We show what speedup is achieved for different image sizes and provide analysis of computational cost of individual steps of the algorithm. The source code is publicly available.
A Text-To-Speech Synthesis for Marathi Language using Festival and Festvox

This research paper describes the Impalement of the first, usable, Marathi Text to Speech system for Maharashtra Marathi using the open source Festival TTS engine. Besides that, this research paper also discusses a few practical applications that use this system. This system is developed using di-phone concatenation approach in its waveform generation phase. Construction of a di-phone database and implementation of the natural language processing modules are described. Natural language processing modules include text processing, tokenizing and grapheme to phoneme (G2P) conversion that were written in Festival's format. Finally, a test was conducted to evaluate the intelligibility of the synthesized speech.
Ordinary image retrieval in a multilingual context: A comparison of two indexing vocabularies

Purpose – This paper seeks to examine image retrieval within two different contexts: a monolingual context where the language of the query is the same as the indexing language and a multilingual context where the language of the query is different from the indexing language. The study also aims to compare two different approaches for the indexing of ordinary images representing common objects: traditional image indexing with the use of a controlled vocabulary and free image indexing using uncontrolled vocabulary.Design/methodology/approach – This research uses three data collection methods. An analysis of the indexing terms was employed in order to examine the multiplicity of term types assigned to images. A simulation of the retrieval process involving a set of 30 images was performed with 60 participants. The quantification of the retrieval performance of each indexing approach was based on the usability measures, that is, effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction of the user. Finally, a questionnaire .
A Filter with Three Voltage-inputs and One Voltage-output and One Current-output Using Current Conveyors

A new biquadratic filter with three voltage-inputs and one voltage-output and one current-output is presented. The filter employs two types of current conveyors, grounded resistors and grounded capacitors to realize the lowpass, highpass and bandpass responses by selecting different input signals. The proposed circuit has high input impedance, independent adjustments of angular frequency ω0 and quality factor Q using capacitors and resistors, in addition to low active and passive sensitivities. Hspice simulation results are given to demonstrate the new proposed biquadratic filter.
Association of glutathione S-transferase T1 and M1 gene polymorphisms with ischemic stroke risk in the Chinese Han population

Atherosclerosis plays an important role in ischemic stroke, and oxidative stress participates in the entire process of atherosclerosis. Glutathione S-transferase (GST) acting with other antioxidant enzymes can eliminate reactive oxygen species and protect cells against oxidative damage. To assess the association of glutathione S-transferase (GSTT1 and GSTM1) gene polymorphisms with ischemic stroke in the Chinese Han population, the present study selected 315 patients with ischemic stroke and 210 healthy controls for comparison. GSTT1 and GSTM1 genotypes were determined using polymerase chain reactions, electrophoresis and imaging analysis. No obvious evidence of GSTT1-null, GSTM1-null and GSTT1/GSTM1-double null genotype distribution differences was found between case and control groups or between genders. Subgroup analysis showed that the risk of stroke was increased when hypertension was accompanied by GSTT1-null (odds ratio (OR) = 2.996, P < 0.001) and GSTM1-null (OR = 3.680, P < 0.001) genotypes; diabetes mellitus was accompanied by GSTT1-null (OR = 1.860, P = 0.031) and GSTM1-null (OR = 2.444, P = 0.002) genotypes, and smokers showed a GSTT1-null genotype (OR = 2.276, P = 0.003). GSTT1- and GSTM1-null genotypes may interact synergistically with hypertension, diabetes mellitus and smoking to increase the incidence risk of ischemic stroke.
Suction Instrumentation Decreases Intramedullary Pressure and Pulmonary Embolism during Total Knee Arthroplasty

The risk of pulmonary embolism as a grave conse- quence of lower extremity total joint arthroplasty is well docu- mented. Increased intramedullary pressure created during femoral instrumentation has been positively correlated with increased mar- row particle content embolization. The purpose of this two part study is to demonstrate that the use of suction devices during femoral canal instrumentation during total knee arthroplasty de- creases femoral intramedullary pressure and the amount of marrow content embolized to the pulmonary circulation. The first phase of the study included 6 fresh frozen complete cadaveric femurs. Three of the distal femurs were instrumented with a standard intramedullary knee alignment guide. The other three femurs were instrumented with the same alignment rod placed inside of a cannulated suction sleeve connected to wall suction (˛22 in Hg). Intramedullary pressure was monitored with specialized transducers attached at multiple sites along the speci- mens. The second phase of the study included 24 patients who underwent unilateral cemented total knee arthroplasty. Twelve ran- domly selected patients were instrumented with the standard in- tramedullary guide and twelve patients were instrumented with the suction adapted guide. Transesophageal echocardiography and a computerized pixel counter was used to record and quantify em- bolic activity intraoperatively in both groups. The average intramedullary pressures (in Torr) monitored in the cadaveric specimens was 303 with the standard equipment and ˛248 with the suction device. The group of 12 patients who un- derwent femoral preparation with the standard equipment exhib- ited an average of 89 embolic particles registered upon tourniquet release. The average particle count was 31 when the suction equip- ment was used. Postoperatively, 2 patients in the standard group exhibited transient confusion. The knee scores averages were 89 in both groups and there was no notable radiographic differences at an average of 1-year follow-up. Although compliance and pressures are different in the cadaver compared to in vivo, the intramedullary pressures in the distal femurs were consistently reduced with use of the suction device. This model allowed measurement at multiple sites to more accu- rately reflect the pressure changes observed. The device also de- creased the number of embolic particles by 65% during knee ar- throplasty with no increase in operative time. This data supports the use of these devices to decrease femoral pressure and embolic matter in the pulmonary circulation.
Voltage control of DC islanded microgrids: A decentralized scalable approach

We propose a new decentralized control scheme for DC Islanded microGrids (ImGs) composed by several Distributed Generation Units (DGUs) with a general interconnection topology. Each local controller regulates to a reference value the voltage of the Point of Common Coupling (PCC) of the corresponding DGU. Notably, off-line control design is conducted in a Plug-and-Play (PnP) fashion meaning that (i) the possibility of adding/removing a DGU without spoiling stability of the overall ImG is checked through an optimization problem; (ii) when a DGU is plugged in or out at most neighbouring DGUs have to update their controllers and (iii) the synthesis of a local controller uses only information on the corresponding DGU and lines connected to it. This guarantee total scalability of control synthesis as the ImG size grows or DGUs gets replaced. Yet, under mild approximations of line dynamics, we formally guarantee stability of the overall closed-loop ImG. The performance of the proposed controllers is analyzed simulating different scenarios in PSCAD.
MetaEdit+: defining and using domain-specific modeling languages and code generators

MetaEdit+ is an environment that allows building modeling tools and generators fitting to application domains, without having to write a single line of code. The capability to define modeling tools and generators is relevant as it provides the ability to raise the abstraction of design work from code to domain concepts, and a raise in abstraction leads to an imminent raise in productivity, as illustrated by the past years' experiences.In domain-specific modeling and MetaEdit+, one expert defines a domain-specific language as a metamodel containing the domain concepts and rules, and specifies the mapping from that to code in a domain-specific code generator. For the method implementation, MetaEdit+ provides a metamodeling language and tool suite for defining the method concepts, their properties, associated rules, symbols, checking reports, and generators. Once the expert defines a modeling method, or even a partial prototype, the rest of the team can start to use it in MetaEdit+ to make models with the modeling language and the required code is automatically generated from those models. Based on the metamodel, MetaEdit+ automatically provides CASE tool functionality: diagramming editors, browsers, generators, multi-user/project/platform support, etc.The MetaEdit+ demo will focus on showing how the domain-specific languages and generators are made; complete with several examples of domain-specific methods and related code generators.
A 0.18μm SOI BCD technology for automotive application

This paper presents a new SOI BCD technology at the 0. 18μm node to fulfill the requirements for smart power IC technology targeted for automotive application. Built on a 1.8V and 5.0V CMOS core, there are 40V and 60V rated N/Pch MOS, with 25mΩ. mm2 RonA/57V BVdss having been achieved for the 40V NMOS with excellent process stability. Depletion NMOS, LV&HV diodes, 5V zener diode, high gain BJT, excellent matching well resistor, capacitors, top thick Copper Metallization option, embedded memory (OTP, CEEPROM, etc.) are also offered on this comprehensive technology platform.
Self-configuration and self-optimization for LTE networks

With the rapid growth of mobile communications, deployment and maintenance of cellular mobile networks are becoming more and more complex, time consuming, and expensive. In order to meet the requirements of network operators and service providers, the telecommunication industry and international standardization bodies have recently paid intensive attention to the research and development of self-organizing networks. In this article we first introduce both the market and technological perspectives for SONs. Then we focus on the self-configuration procedure and illustrate a self-booting mechanism for a newly added evolved NodeB without a dedicated backhaul interface. Finally, mobility load balancing as one of the most important selfoptimization issues for Long Term Evolution networks is discussed, and a distributed MLB algorithm with low handover cost is proposed and evaluated.
Comparison between symmetrical and asymmetrical single phase multilevel inverter with diode-clamped topology

In this paper, a different configuration based on different DC bus voltage for a diode-clamped multilevel inverter has been presented. Two different symmetrical and asymmetrical arrangements of a four-level diode clamped inverters have been compared, in order to find an optimum arrangement with lower switching losses and optimised output voltage quality. The optimised asymmetrical arrangement has been compared with a conventional four- level inverter. The comparison results show that an asymmetrical configuration can obtain more voltage levels in output voltage with same number of component compared with the conventional four-level inverter and this will lead to the reduction of harmonic content of output voltage. A predictive current control technique has been carried out to verify the viability of new configuration. The advantages of this control method are simplicity and applicability for n-level multilevel inverters, without a significant change in the control circuit.
On physical-layer security in underlay cognitive radio networks with full-duplex wireless-powered secondary system

In this paper, we consider an underlay cognitive radio system, in which a source in a secondary system transmits information to a full-duplex (FD) wireless-powered destination node in the presence of an eavesdropper. In particular, the destination node is equipped with a single receiving antenna and a single transmitting antenna to enable FD operation. The receiving antenna can simultaneously receive information and energy from the source through power-splitter architecture. The received energy is then used in the transmitting antenna to send jamming signals to degrade the eavesdropper's decoding capacity. Upper and lower bounds of probability of strictly positive secrecy capacity (SPSC) have been derived. Numerical results show that under the condition that the interference from the source and destination at primary user's receiver is smaller than the interference temperature limit, upper and lower bounds merge together to become the exact SPSC.
Uptake of systemically administered magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) in areas of experimental spinal cord injury (SCI)

The regenerative potential of the adult central nervous system (CNS) is limited, contributing to poor recovery from neurological insult. Many genes have been identified that promote neural regeneration, but the current viral methods used to mediate neural gene transfer have a range of drawbacks, notably safety. Non‐viral magnetic nanoparticle (MNP)‐based vector systems offer significant advantages over viral systems, including: (a) safety; (b) flexibility of functionalization with genetic material; (c) potential for non‐invasive magnetic targeting; and (d) imaging potential. The applications of such a system to promote intrinsic neural regeneration have not been assessed. We examined uptake of intravenously administered MNPs (diameter, 320 nm) into areas of experimental rodent spinal cord injury (SCI), using a transection model. We found focal uptake of MNPs in areas of SCI associated with breakdown of the blood–brain barrier (BBB) within 6 h of injury; a spatial association was observed between MNPs and nuclei in lesions, suggesting that particle uptake was occurring in cells within injury sites. Our data suggest that there may be a ‘therapeutic window of opportunity’ during post‐injury BBB compromise within which MNPs can be used to mediate gene transfer to sites of spinal cord trauma. Taking into account the relatively superficial anatomical location of the spinal cord, these findings also raise the possibility that the spinal cord could be an attractive target for MNP‐based delivery of biomolecules, particularly when combined with magnetic targeting strategies. We discuss factors that will need to be addressed in order to optimize such an approach. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Arabidopsis FIMBRIN5, an Actin Bundling Factor, Is Required for Pollen Germination and Pollen Tube Growth[W]

Fimbrins are major regulators of actin dynamics and organization. This article reports that Arabidopsis FIMBRIN5 (FIM5) mediates actin bundling and is required for proper spatial organization of actin filaments in pollen. Through these activities, FIM5 regulates pollen germination and pollen tube growth. Actin cables in pollen tubes serve as molecular tracks for cytoplasmic streaming and organelle movement and are formed by actin bundling factors like villins and fimbrins. However, the precise mechanisms by which actin cables are generated and maintained remain largely unknown. Fimbrins comprise a family of five members in Arabidopsis thaliana. Here, we characterized a fimbrin isoform, Arabidopsis FIMBRIN5 (FIM5). Our results show that FIM5 is required for the organization of actin cytoskeleton in pollen grains and pollen tubes, and FIM5 loss-of-function associates with a delay of pollen germination and inhibition of pollen tube growth. FIM5 decorates actin filaments throughout pollen grains and tubes. Actin filaments become redistributed in fim5 pollen grains and disorganized in fim5 pollen tubes. Specifically, actin cables protrude into the extreme tips, and their longitudinal arrangement is disrupted in the shank of fim5 pollen tubes. Consequently, the pattern and velocity of cytoplasmic streaming were altered in fim5 pollen tubes. Additionally, loss of FIM5 function rendered pollen germination and tube growth hypersensitive to the actin-depolymerizing drug latrunculin B. In vitro biochemical analyses indicated that FIM5 exhibits actin bundling activity and stabilizes actin filaments. Thus, we propose that FIM5 regulates actin dynamics and organization during pollen germination and tube growth via stabilizing actin filaments and organizing them into higher-order structures.
Relationship Between Fluoride Concentration in Enamel, DMFT Index, and Degree of Fluorosis in a Community Residing in an Area with a High Level of Fluoride

The DMFT index, degree of fluorosis (DEGF), fluoride concentration in enamel (F), and depth of etch (D) were determined in participants living in an area with a high fluoride level. A statistically significant difference was found between men and women for F and D. A significant correlation was established between F and DEGF and between F and age for men, but not for women.