Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Selective recruitment of Th2‐type cells and evasion from a cytotoxic immune response mediated by viral macrophage inhibitory protein‐II

The viral CC chemokine macrophage inhibitory protein‐II (vMIP‐II) encoded by human herpes virus 8 (HHV‐8) binds to multiple chemokine receptors, however, its ability to control the initial recruitment of specific leukocyte subtypes from the peripheral circulation has not been fully clarified. Here we show that vMIP‐II blocks the firm arrest and transmigration of monocytes or Th1‐like T lymphocytes triggered by RANTES immobilized on activated human microvascular endothelium (HMVEC) under flow conditions. The internalization of the receptors CCR1 and CCR5 that mediate arrest and transmigration of these cells in response to RANTES was prevented by vMIP‐II, supporting its role as an antagonist of CCR1 and CCR5. In contrast, vMIP‐II triggered the firm arrest of eosinophils and Th2‐like T cells by engaging CCR3, as confirmed by its down‐regulation. Immunohistochemical analysis of HHV‐8‐associated Kaposi's sarcoma lesions marked by vMIP‐II expression and mononuclear cell infiltration revealed a predominance of Th2‐type CCR3+ lymphocytes over Th1‐type CXCR3+/CCR5+ leukocytes, indicating that as a CCR3 agonist vMIP‐II can drive a Th2‐type immune responsein vivo. Thus, our data provide evidence for a immunomodulatory role of vMIP‐II in directing inflammatory cell recruitment away from a Th1‐type towards a Th2‐type response and thereby facilitating evasion from cytotoxic reactions.
Biomedicine on the spatial periphery: the (re)production of a metaphorical landscape by rural health care practitioners in northern California.

I examine the use of spatial concepts by rural health care practitioners in Northern California and suggest that rural and urban spatial metaphors are important means of expressing and (re)producing problems associated with their search for legitimacy and moral authority within a field of relations defined by biomedicine. I present three broad ways in which spatial metaphors are used by rural health care practitioners to continuously enact a "metaphorical landscape. " I situate this landscape in the context of a hierarchical field of relations within biomedicine, which is itself underpinned by a distinct urban bias and the uneven distribution of material and technological resources. I suggest that this landscape is partly the result of the rural health care practitioners' position within this field of relations and partly the result of implicit and historically situated frameworks of spatial meanings derived from capitalism.
High performance elliptic curve GF(2/sup k/) cryptoprocessor architecture for multimedia

A high performance GF(2/sup k/) elliptic curve crypto processor architecture suitable for multimedia security is proposed. To meet the high data rates of multimedia, the new architecture exploits parallelism within elliptic curve point operations after using projective coordinates. In this paper, the decision on which projective coordinate to use is based on its efficiency with regard to its parallel implementation. Two different projective coordinates are compared here. This parallelism is exploited in the new architecture by using three separate bit-level pipelined digit serial-parallel multipliers that can operate in parallel. It is worth pointing that such multipliers are ideally suited for the repetitive multiplications inherent in elliptic curve cryptography. it is believed that such high performance architectures are needed for high end servers that need to support the security of many multimedia streams at the same time.
Generation of conditional Cited2 null alleles

Cited2 is a transcriptional co‐factor that is widely expressed in both embryonic and extraembryonic cells during early development. It is essential for embryonic development with Cited2 null embryos showing abnormal development of organs including heart, neural tube, adrenal glands, and placenta (both in trophoblast derivatives and invading fetal vasculature), as well as having defects in the establishment of the left‐right body axis. We report the generation of two conditional null alleles allowing Cre‐recombinase‐mediated somatic cell gene inactivation. Mice heterozygous or homozygous for these alleles are viable and fertile. Crossing conditional mutants with CMV‐Cre transgenic mice produces an embryonic‐lethal phenotype in the offspring indistinguishable from germline null mutants. We also demonstrate that conditional deletion results in lacZ expression under the control of the Cited2 promoter. These alleles are therefore useful genetic tools for dissecting the functions of Cited2 in the formation of different organs and patterning of the developing embryo. genesis 44:579–583, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Evaluating TIMP‐1, Ki67, and HER2 as markers for non‐sentinel node metastases in breast cancer patients with micrometastases to the sentinel node

Tvedskov TF, Bartels A, Jensen M‐B, Paaschburg B, Kroman N, Balslev E, Brünner N. Evaluating TIMP‐1, Ki67 and HER2 as markers for non‐sentinel node metastases in breast cancer patients with micrometastases to the sentinel node. APMIS 2011; 119: 844–52.
Research Methods for Human Activity Space Based on Vicon Motion Capture System

This study put forward two methods to gain the human activity space data based on Vicon motion capture system, which were key frame superstitious method and key points combination method, and described the process of data processing and the extraction of human activity space data. The advantages and disadvantages were concluded through the comparison and analysis of the two methods. This study can provide reference for the extraction of human activity space.
A CFSK system with iterative detection

A multiple access/multiple user system called collision frequency shift-keying (CFSK) is investigated. Maximum-likelihood sequence detection (MLSD) provides optimal multiuser detection for the CFSK system but is too complex for practical applications so iterative detection is investigated as a suboptimal approach. The MAP-consensus decoder is given as an example of iterative detection and studied for both the synchronous and asynchronous system. A channel interleaver is introduced so that the performance of the MAP-consensus decoder is asymptotically optimal. The metric of the CFSK system has nonpolynomial complexity so suboptimal metrics with linear complexity are considered. Simulation results show that iterative detection with reduced complexity metrics achieve good performance for moderate spreading factors.
The Presence of Sarcolipin Results in Increased Heat Production by Ca2+-ATPase*

Skeletal muscle sarcoplasmic reticulum of large mammals such as rabbit contains sarcolipin (SLN), a small peptide with a single transmembrane α-helix. When reconstituted with the Ca2+-ATPase from skeletal muscle sarcoplasmic reticulum into sealed vesicles, the presence of SLN leads to a reduced level of accumulation of Ca2+. Heats of reaction of the reconstituted Ca2+-ATPase with ATP were measured using isothermal calorimetry. The heat released increased linearly with time over 30 min and increased with increasing SLN content. Rates ATP hydrolysis by the reconstituted Ca2+-ATPase were constant over a 30-min time period and were the same when measured in the presence or absence of an ATP-regenerating system. The calculated values of heat released per mol of ATP hydrolyzed increased with increasing SLN content and fitted to a simple binding equation with a dissociation constant for the SLN·ATPase complex of 6.9 × 10–4 ± 2.9 × 10–4 in units of mol fraction per monolayer. It is suggested that the interaction between Ca2+-ATPase and SLN in the sarcoplasmic reticulum could be important in thermogenesis by the sarcoplasmic reticulum.
Protective Immunity of Microsphere-Based Mucosal Vaccines against Lethal Intranasal Challenge withStreptococcus pneumoniae

ABSTRACT Mucosal vaccination of capsular polysaccharide (PS) ofStreptococcus pneumoniae and subsequent creation of the first line of immunological defense in mucosa were examined. Mucosal as well as systemic antibody responses to PS were evoked by peroral or intranasal immunization of BALB/c mice with PS-cholera toxin B subunit (CTB) conjugates entrapped in the alginate microspheres (AM). The bacterial colonization at the lung mucosa was most profoundly inhibited (<95%) by intranasal immunization with the naked conjugate (PS-CTB). The mice vaccinated orally with encapsulated conjugate [AM(PS-CTB)] showed significant reduction on the level of pneumococcal bacteremia (<99%). Eighty percent of the mice perorally immunized with AM (PS-CTB) were protected from lethal intranasal challenge with S. pneumoniae, whereas more than 60% of the mice in the other control groups died of infection. Our novel approach may prove to be important in the development of a mucosal vaccine that will provide protection of mucosal surfaces of host.
Cognitive decline in elderly bipolar disorder patients: a follow‐up study

Schouws SNTM, Stek ML, Comijs HC, Dols A, Beekman ATF. Cognitive decline in elderly bipolar disorder patients: a follow‐up study. Bipolar Disord 2012: 14: 749–755. © 2012 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2012 John Wiley & Sons A/S.
Internet Streaming and Network Neutrality: Comparing the Performance of Video Hosting Services

Network neutrality is a hot topic since a few years and involves different aspects of interest (e.g. economic, regulatory and privacy) for a wide range of stakeholders, including policy makers, researchers, economists, and service providers. When referring to video streaming, a killer web service of the Internet, much has been discussed regarding if and how video providers violate or may violate neutrality principles, in order to give users a “better” service compared to other services or to other providers. In this paper we provide a contribution to this discussion analyzing the performance of three main video hosting providers (i.e. YouTube, Vimeo, and Dailymotion) from an user viewpoint. We measure the throughput and RTT experienced by users watching real videos of different popularity, at different day hours and at several locations from around the world. We uncover the performance differences of these providers as a function of the different variables under control and move a step forward to understand what causes such differences. Our results allow to understand what are the real performance users currently get from these providers and if the performance differences observed can be due or to considered as a violation of network neutrality principles, providing a ground for people interested in legal and regulatory issues of web applications and services.
The Industrial Use of Formal Methods: Was Darwin Right?

Even though the use of formal methods in industry has been documented in numerous case studies, skepticism about their usefulness remains widespread. However, formalisms have evolved rapidly over the last decade and are doing a much better job of meeting the needs of industry. This paper briefly describes several of the experiments in formal methods that have been conducted at Rockwell Collins and attempts to pull these observations together into a profile of what industry needs from the re-
Improvements in machine translation for English/iraqi speech translation

In this paper, we describe techniques for improving machine translation quality in the context of speech-to-speech translation for significantly different language pairs. Specifically, we explore three broad approaches for improving translation from English to Iraqi and vice versa. First, we investigate normalization techniques which address the differences in spoken and written forms of both languages. Second, we incorporate additional knowledge sources into the translation process such as a bilingual lexicon and named entity detection. Third, we exploit the rich morphological structure of Iraqi Arabic using two different approaches. The first approach decomposes words in Iraqi Arabic whereas the second approach, a novel one inflects English by combining key phrases into words using the minimum descriptive length criterion. Significant gains in accuracy are observed, while translating from text as well as speech recognition output.
An Inductively Filtered Multiwinding Rectifier Transformer and Its Application in Industrial DC Power Supply System

In this paper, a new industrial direct-current (dc) power supply system with the four-winding inductively filtered rectifier transformer (FW-IFRT) is proposed based on an inductive filtering (IF) method, which can effectively solve the power quality problems generally existing in the high-power rectifier system, such as high energy consumption, serious harmonic pollution, low power factor, and so on. The single-phase equivalent circuit model of such a new system is established based on the multiwinding transformer theory, and then its operating characteristics are investigated in detail. The harmonic suppression factor is proposed, and the influences of system and transformer impedances on the harmonic suppression characteristic are revealed. Finally, the simulation and experimental case studies are used to verify the effectiveness of the proposed system on the comprehensive improvement of power quality and operating efficiency.
Matrix sentence intelligibility prediction using an automatic speech recognition system

Objective: The feasibility of predicting the outcome of the German matrix sentence test for different types of stationary background noise using an automatic speech recognition (ASR) system was studied. Design: Speech reception thresholds (SRT) of 50% intelligibility were predicted in seven noise conditions. The ASR system used Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients as a front-end and employed whole-word Hidden Markov models on the back-end side. The ASR system was trained and tested with noisy matrix sentences on a broad range of signal-to-noise ratios. Study sample: The ASR-based predictions were compared to data from the literature (Hochmuth et al, 2015) obtained with 10 native German listeners with normal hearing and predictions of the speech intelligibility index (SII). Results: The ASR-based predictions showed a high and significant correlation (R² = 0.95, p < 0.001) with the empirical data across different noise conditions, outperforming the SII-based predictions which showed no correlation with the empirical data (R² = 0.00, p = 0.987). Conclusions: The SRTs for the German matrix test for listeners with normal hearing in different stationary noise conditions could well be predicted based on the acoustical properties of the speech and noise signals. Minimum assumptions were made about human speech processing already incorporated in a reference-free ordinary ASR system.
Fibreoptic and Videoscopic Indirect Intubation Techniques for Intubation in Children

Endotracheal intubation in the pediatric emergency department can be challenging. Direct laryngoscopy is the primary intubation technique used in pediatric emergency intubations. However, cases arise where abnormalities of the upper airway prevent a direct view of the laryngeal opening. Under these circumstances, indirect means of visualization of the laryngeal opening using fiberoptic and videoscopic devices can be used to successfully achieve intubation. A wide range of instruments including flexible, rigid, and semirigid devices are available. Those who practice emergency medicine should be aware of these devices and be skilled in their use and aware of their limitations.
Contingency Training

When applied to high-dimensional datasets, feature selection algorithms might still leave dozens of irrelevant variables in the dataset. Therefore, even after feature selection has been applied, classifiers must be prepared to the presence of irrelevant variables. This paper investigates a new training method called Contingency Training which increases the accuracy as well as the robustness against irrelevant attributes. Contingency training is classifier independent. By subsampling and removing information from each sample, it creates a set of constraints. These constraints aid the method to automatically find proper importance weights of the dataset's features. Experiments are conducted with the contingency training applied to neural networks over traditional datasets as well as datasets with additional irrelevant variables. For all of the tests, contingency training surpassed the unmodified training on datasets with irrelevant variables and even outperformed slightly when only a few or no irrelevant variables were present.
OUTCOMES of Clinical Simulation for Novice Nursing Students: Communication, Confidence, Clinical Judgment

&NA; The use of clinical simulation in nursing education provides many opportunities for students to learn and apply theoretical principles of nursing care in a safe environment. The purpose of this study was to evaluate simulated clinical experiences as a teaching/learning method to increase the self‐efficacy of nursing students during their initial clinical course in a prelicensure program. An integrated, quasiexperimental, repeated measures design was used. A sample of 112 students completed surveys, indicating their confidence in various skills necessary for postpartum and newborn nursing, both before and after the simulation experience. Results indicated that students experienced a significant increase in overall self‐efficacy (p < .01). Students also experienced an increase in confidence in assessing vital signs (p < .01), breasts (p < .01), the fundus (p < .001), and lochia (p < .001), and in providing patient education (p < .001). Three themes that emerged in the qualitative results were communication, confidence, and clinical judgment.
Virtual placement of frontal ventricular catheters using frameless neuronavigation: an "unbloody training" for young neurosurgeons.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate virtually the reliability of freehand puncture of the anterior horn of the lateral ventricle and to provide realistic, but unbloody training for young neurosurgeons. METHODS Virtual placement of ventricular catheters was performed repeatedly by neurosurgical doctors and thereafter controlled by neuronavigation. With the help of a frameless stereotactic navigation device they virtually had to hit the anterior horn of the lateral ventricle on the MRI of 29 brains with normal ventricular sizes and 60 pathological ventricles, respectively. The catheter placement was simulated using the pointer of the navigation system (EasyGuide Neuro). The monitor screen was blinded, so that on-line control was impossible. Virtual elongation of the pointer tip was performed on the workstation and the position of the virtual catheter was evaluated on a printout. RESULTS Virtual freehand catheter placement was performed 145 times into the MRIs of the normal brains. In 66 cases (45%) the site of the catheter tip was judged as accurate as shown by the navigation system. No difference concerning the number of correctly placed catheters was observed when comparing more and less experienced doctors. The results in the 60 pathological MRIs of patients differed with respect to the size of the ventricles: in narrow ventricles an accurate placement succeeded in 7 of 22 cases (32%), moderately enlarged ventricles were accurately hit in 15 out of 32 cases (46%) and wide ventricles in 5 of 6 attempts (83%), respectively. CONCLUSION This setup is a simple, practicable tool for neurosurgical education. The virtual freehand placement of ventricular drains controlled by neuronavigation provides an unbloody training of a routine neurosurgical procedure in a realistic setting without the risk of injuring a patient. Neuronavigation systems can serve therefore as a link between learning from observation and handling the real situation.
EFFECT OF TAURINE , SELENIUM AND AZATHIOPRINE SUPPLEMENTS ON BLOOD GLUCOSE , LIPID PEROXIDATION AND LIPID PROFILE IN EXPERIMENTAL DIABETES MELLITUS

Diabetes is associated with high risk for vascular disease, and aggressive lipid management is generally necessary. The management of dyslipidemia in patients with diabetes requires attention to the full lipid profile, since hypertriglyceridemia is particularly common. This study aimed to determine the effect of taurine, selenium and azathioprine on diabetic complications, including plasma glucose, plasma insulin, oxidative stress (lipid peroxides), and lipid profile (serum total lipid, total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, HDLcholesterol, and triglycerides). Adult male rats (Sprague Dawley strain) were divided into 3 groups (Groups I and II of 15 rats each and group III of 45 rats). The first group was used as a normal control, the second group was used as a diabetic control, and the third group was divided into three subgroups: IIIa: diabetic rats supplemented with taurine (2.5g/kg b.wt) and selenium as sodium selinate (50μ /kg b.wt) as antioxidants. Group IIIb: diabetic rats supplemented with azathioprine as immunosuppressive agent (1mg/Kg b.wt). Group IIIc: diabetic rats supplemented with taurine and selenium (sodium selinate) as antioxidants and azathioprine as immunosuppressive agent. Supplement of both antioxidants and immunosuppressive agent, at the time of induction of diabetes, conducted by daily oral intubations for 90 days. Diabetes was induced by intraperitonial induction of streptozotocin (STZ, 60 mg/kg/body weight) in two doses. Diabetes elevated plasma glucose, erythrocytic LPX, serum total lipid, serum total cholesterol, serum triglycerides, and LDL-cholesterol level and declined plasma insulin and serum HDL-cholesterol in comparison with control group. The supplement of taurine, selenium, and azathioprine showed ameliorative effect than that to diabetic supplemented either with antioxidants (taurine and selenium) or immunosuppressive agent (azathioprine) alone which declined plasma glucose, erythrocytic LPX, serum total lipid, serum total cholesterol, serum triglycerides, and LDL-cholesterol level and elevated plasma insulin and serum HDL-cholesterol to approximately normal level. Daily supplement of taurine, selenium and azathioprine for three months is effective in lipid management in experimental diabetic rats. That supplement at the time of diabetes onset or at early diagnosis is needed to be considered in preventing or at least delay the diabetic complications.
An integrated CFD-approch to deisgn micro-tubular Solid Oxide Fuel Cells

The development of kW-size stacks of Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFCs) requires the solution of many and different technological issues to improve reliability and reduce costs. The use of micro-tubular technology may help to solve some of these issues, especially by utilizing a modular approach to build the largest as possible "repeatable units". However, reactant flows and geometries must be carefully designed to get a good behavior in terms of power output and homogeneity of exploitation of all the electrochemical material. An integrated CFD approach based on multi-dimensional analysis to design modular micro-tubular SOFCs is proposed in this paper. It is composed by two distinct tools (namely detailed and fast): they are characterized by different accuracy and computational expenses. The whole model is first validated with a specifically implemented experiment of a single channel SOFC. Then, it is applied to analyze the coupling among heat transfer, fluid-dynamics and electrochemistry of increasingly complex systems (micro and midi-reactors, constituting respectively 15 and 45 tube assemblies). Finally, it is utilized to optimize the geometry of the cited modular systems in terms of air and heat release management to get the maximum performance in terms of power density keeping as low as possible the impact of thermal stresses on cell durability.