Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Focused review: myofascial pain.

Myofascial pain is defined as pain that originates from myofascial trigger points in skeletal muscle. It is prevalent in regional musculoskeletal pain syndromes, either alone or in combination with other pain generators. The appropriate evaluation and management of myofascial pain is an important part of musculoskeletal rehabilitation of regional axial and limb pain syndromes. This article reviews the current hypotheses regarding the pathophysiology of myofascial trigger points and muscle pain. A critical evidence-based review of the pharmacologic, nonpharmacologic, alternative medicine, and exercise treatments of myofascial pain is provided, as well as future research directions. OVERALL LEARNING OBJECTIVE: To review critically the state of the art knowledge of myofascial pain, including pathophysiology and comprehensive management. Areas of future research are identified.
Age-Related CD8+ T Cell Clonal Expansions Express Elevated Levels of CD122 and CD127 and Display Defects in Perceiving Homeostatic Signals1

Aging is accompanied by numerous changes in T cell biology. Among the most dramatic changes at the population level are the appearance and persistence of CD8+ T cell clonal expansions (TCE), whose frequency increases steadily with age, and whose biology is incompletely understood. In this study, we examined trafficking, phenotypic makeup, and homeostatic responsiveness of TCE, which arise spontaneously in specific pathogen-free mice. We show that these cells make up a specialized subset of central memory T cells with distinguishable phenotypic characteristics, most notably the higher expression of CD122 and CD127, molecules that make up IL-15R and IL-7R, respectively, than other memory T cells. We confirm that these cells proliferate at a continuous pace upon adoptive transfer into the eulymphoid recipient, unlike their non-TCE memory-phenotype counterparts, which remain undivided and die. However, upon transfer into lymphopenic recipients, TCE fail to rapidly expand, but rather resume their slow, continuous proliferation. The above results are discussed in light of possible mechanisms that afford selective survival advantage to TCE over other T cells in an aged T lymphocyte pool.
Effects of isoflurane on Nfκb p65, Gadd45a and Jnk1 expression in the vital organs of CBA/CA mice.

BACKGROUND Isoflurane is administered to patients during general anaesthesia to diminish the effects of surgical invasion. MATERIALS AND METHODS CBA/CA mice were exposed to 2% isoflurane during general anaesthesia. Gene expressions were measured 6 and 12 hours later by quantitative real-time PCR on total RNA isolated from the lung, liver and kidneys of the animals. Expressions of growth arrest and DNA-damage-inducible 45 alpha (Gadd45 α), Jun N-terminal kinase 1 (Jnk1) and nuclear factor of kappa light polypeptide gene enhancer in B-cells p65 subunit (Nfκb p65) were analyzed. RESULTS Gadd45α and Jnk1 showed significant inverse expression changes in the different tissues compared to the Nfκb p65. The length of anaesthesia also modified the gene induction. CONCLUSION Isoflurane has significant modulatory effect on the transcription of genes regulating inflammation and apoptotic signalling.
Exploiting spatial information to estimate metabolite levels in two‐dimensional MRSI of heterogeneous brain lesions

MRSI provides MR spectra from multiple adjacent voxels within a body volume represented as a two‐ or three‐dimensional matrix, allowing the measurement of the distribution of metabolites over this volume. The spectra of these voxels are usually analyzed one by one, without exploiting their spatial context. In this article, we present an advanced metabolite quantification method for MRSI data, in which the available spatial information is considered. A nonlinear least‐squares algorithm is proposed in which prior knowledge is included in the form of proximity constraints on the spectral parameters within a grid and optimized starting values. A penalty term that promotes a spatially smooth spectral parameter map is added to the fitting algorithm. This method is adaptive, in the sense that several sweeps through the grid are performed and each solution may tune some hyperparameters at run‐time. Simulation studies of MRSI data showed significantly improved metabolite estimates after the inclusion of spatial information. Improved metabolite maps were also demonstrated by applying the method to in vivo MRSI data. Overlapping peaks or peaks of compounds present at low concentration can be better quantified with the proposed method than with single‐voxel approaches. The new approach compares favorably against the multivoxel approach embedded in the well‐known quantification software LCModel. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Embedded vision systems for ship recognition

Maritime security includes reliable identification of ship entering and leaving a nation's territorial waters. Automated systems that could identify a ship could complement existing electronic signal identification methods. The use of Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR) and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) enables ship image acquisition round-the-clock but their cost and complexity means few installations are available. The use of lower cost embedded vision systems using visible light for surveillance in a low-bandwidth sensor network could complement existing surveillance methods to improve surveillance coverage. This paper presents an overview of automatic ship detection methods with a view towards embedded implementation of suitable algorithms on optical smart cameras. We present results on applying Hu's moment invariants for feature extraction on several classification algorithms. We achieved accuracies of close to 80% using the KStar and multilayer perceptron classifiers in recognizing one of four ship classes.
A simple in vitro site directed mutagenesis of concatamerized cDNA by inverse polymerase chain reaction.

Site directed mutagenesis can be performed in plasmids by inverse polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with 'back to back' primers one of which contains the mutation. The PCR product is then ligated in order to recircularize the plasmid for further transformation (1). This method is limited by the size of the plasmid, since plasmids used as expression vectors in nucleated cells are often too large for PCR. A modification of this methods is presented here, where the inverse PCR is performed with concatamerized DNA. Thus the entire site directed mutagenesis procedure is performed in vitro; independent of plasmids, and the mutagenized cDNA is devoid of the wild type molecules. The mutations can be inserted at any site in the cDNA (Figure This simple approach is potentially useful for the identification of catalytic domains in enzymes, and functional domains in various biologically reactive proteins. The A -Z agarose DNA nanogram or
The Effect of Elite Polarization: A Comparative Perspective on How Party Elites Influence Attitudes and Behavior on Climate Change in the European Union

There is considerable variability in attitudes towards climate change between citizens of different countries. By using individual-level and country-level data, I examine if this variability in public opinion is partially caused by political party elites. The results show that when elites are united in their support for environmental issues, the perceived threat of climate change is higher than in countries where party elites are divided. The results also demonstrate that the perceived threat influences behavior related to climate change, and that threat mediates the effect of party positions. Consequently, the effect of party elites is stronger than previously acknowledged. The models rely on Generalized Method of Moments estimation and instrumental variables with clustering on EU member-states.
A study on the consistency of human perception and machine recognition of an emotional corpus

Emotion plays a critical role in human interaction. Listeners can perceive the emotional state of speakers from their facial expression, gestures and/or speech. In this paper, we investigate the relationship of the intended emotion expressed by speakers and the emotion perceived by listeners of a newly recorded corpus. We investigate the consistency of the emotion expressed by speakers and the emotion perceived by listeners. Furthermore, we also compare the results with the outcomes of a speech emotion recognition system. The results indicate that females have a better ability in expressing emotion than males. However, females have greater variance in perceiving emotion. Another finding is that the recognition rates will increase as the duration of an utterance getting longer in length.
Automata for Web Services Fault Monitoring and Diagnosis

Like any software, web service fault management is also required to go through different phases of fault management lifecycle. Model based diagnosis has been a well established practice for its several positive aspects including cognitively being better understood by development and testing teams. Automata is a simple and formally well defined model being used for monitoring and diagnosis of system faults. For the reason, here we have reviewed works on automata for web service fault management and also propose a model of stochastic automata for the purpose.
Floating-point multiply-add-fused with reduced latency

We propose architecture for the computation of the double-precision floating-point multiply-add-fused (MAP) operation A + (B /spl times/ C). This architecture is based on the combined addition and rounding (using a dual adder) and in the anticipation of the normalization step before the addition. Because the normalization is performed before the addition, it is not possible to overlap the leading-zero-anticipator with the adder. Consequently, to avoid the increase in delay, we modify the design of the LZA so that the leading bits of its output are produced first and can be used to begin the normalization. Moreover, parts of the addition are also anticipated. We have estimated the delay of the resulting architecture considering the load introduced by long connections, and we estimate a delay reduction of between 15 percent and 20 percent, with respect to previous implementations.
Restaurant managers learning styles: implications for management development programs

Conceptualization FIGURE 2. Kolb's Learning Styles 16 The divergers prefer to perceive information by concrete experience and process it by reflective observation. Their strengths are in their imaginative ability. They like to view situations from different perspectives and then weave relationships into a meaningful whole. They are called divergers because they are good at generating ideas and brainstorming. They tend to be people oriented and emotional. The assimilators prefer to perceive information by abstract conceptualization and process it by reflective observation. Their strengths are in creating theoretical models. They are called assimilators because they like to assimilate disparate observations into an integrated whole. They are primarily interested in abstract concepts and are more concerned about the soundness of the ideas or theories themselves than their application. They tend to be less interested in people. The convergers prefer to perceive information by abstract conceptualization and process it by active experimentation. Their strengths lie in the practical application of ideas. They are called convergers because they appear to do well when there is a single correct answer or solution to a question or a problem. They are relatively unemotional and prefer dealing with things rather than people. 17 Accommodators prefer to perceive information by concrete experience and process it by active experimentation. Their strengths lie in doing things, in carrying out plans and experiments and involving themselves in new experiences. They are risk takers and are called accommodators because they do well in situations in which they must adapt to meet specific immediate circumstances. They tend to solve problems in an intuitive trial and error manner and rely heavily on other people for information rather than their own analytic ability. According to Kolb (1984), a person's current job role is one of the factors influencing learning style. The task demands and pressures of a job tend to shape a person's adaptive orientation. Executive jobs that require a strong orientation to task accomplishment and decision making in uncertain emergent circumstances require an accommodative learning style. Personal jobs that require the establishment of personal relationships and effective communication with other people demand a divergent learning style. Technical jobs that require technical and problem-solving skills require a convergent learning orientation. Another learning style instrument that measures the cognitive mode of learning style is the Gregorc Style Delineator. Gregorc (1979) identified learning style as
Preliminary characterization of the antigens recognized by sera from vax-SPIRAL ® vaccinees in outer membrane preparations of Leptospira pomona serovar mozdok

The preliminary identification of antigens recognized by sera from individuals vaccinated with the antileptospirosis vaccine vax-SPIRAL in outer membrane protein preparations from Leptospira pomoma serovar mozdok was made. In this paper we start with the solubilization of the outer membrane components of Leptospira interrogans serovar mozdok, using the Nunes-Edward method. In addition, we characterized the obtained fractions; the molecular weight of the protein present in this fraction and its immunogenic capacity by western and dot blot were determined. Our results show that this is an appropriate method to identify antigens for vaccine purposes. Humoral response was addressed to antigens absents in the outer membrane preparations with the aforementioned method. Coomassie stain showed a profile characterised by 16 bands; 6 main bands, 49.4, 45.8, 36.7, 28.3 and 21.0 kDa and 10 minor bands such as 66.4, 57.2, 34.1 y 32.8 kDa. The silver stain showed the presence of lipopolysaccharide. Dot and western blot techniques showed the recognition of these proteins by the sera from vaccinated individuals. The humoral response was addressed mainly to the bands of 66.1, 58.3, 47.2, 45.3, 34.5, 30.0, 29.8 and 17.2 kDa.
How First Mover Advantages and Agglomeration Economies Affect Foreign Entry Survival

While entry timing literatures suggest firms to enter a foreign market as pioneers to gain the first mover advantages, studies on entry locations recommend firms to enter a market where there is already a critical mass of their peers, i.e., to be late movers in order to benefit from the agglomeration effects. As two important dimensions of foreign entry strategy, entry timing and location literatures seem to offer opposite recommendations. To resolve this apparent paradox, this study builds a network-based foreign entry and performance model. We argue that these two dimensions of market entry are interdependent. Entry strategies that can achieve fit between these two dimensions will perform better. We found support for our arguments in an empirical analysis of a sample of Japanese MNEs’ nearly 10,000 FDI market entries spanning 16 years and in over 50 countries.
Capacity of MIMO wireless channel with full-duplex amplify-and-forward relay

In this paper, a full-duplex amplify-and-forward (AF) relay is considered that suffers from self-interference in a MIMO wireless channel. We derive the optimal transformation matrix that maximizes the mutual information under average power constraint at the relay output. The capacity of the channel without a direct path is derived and it is shown that the relay maximizes the throughput as if there is no interference from the relay itself. A comparison is made to the channel with a half-duplex relay having the same average transmission power. In particular, a necessary and sufficient condition is derived in terms only of the signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) for a full-duplex relay to perform better than a half-duplex relay in SISO cases. A simple rule of thumb shows that a full-duplex relay outperforms a half-duplex relay if the sum of the SNR in dB at the relay input and that at the destination input is greater than 0.75. Numerical results show that this result also holds for MIMO channels approximately.
Physicochemical principles that regulate the competition between functional and dysfunctional association of proteins

To maintain protein homeostasis, a variety of quality control mechanisms, such as the unfolded protein response and the heat shock response, enable proteins to fold and to assemble into functional complexes while avoiding the formation of aberrant and potentially harmful aggregates. We show here that a complementary contribution to the regulation of the interactions between proteins is provided by the physicochemical properties of their amino acid sequences. The results of a systematic analysis of the protein–protein complexes in the Protein Data Bank (PDB) show that interface regions are more prone to aggregate than other surface regions, indicating that many of the interactions that promote the formation of functional complexes, including hydrophobic and electrostatic forces, can potentially also cause abnormal intermolecular association. We also show, however, that aggregation-prone interfaces are prevented from triggering uncontrolled assembly by being stabilized into their functional conformations by disulfide bonds and salt bridges. These results indicate that functional and dysfunctional association of proteins are promoted by similar forces but also that they are closely regulated by the presence of specific interactions that stabilize native states.
Are Foreign Short-Sellers to Blame? Evidence from Daily Short-Selling in Korean Stock Market

We investigate the daily short-selling by foreign investors and their impact on stock price, liquidity, and volatility in the Korean stock market. From January 1, 2006 to May 31, 2010, we find that the majority of short-selling is performed by foreign, rather than by domestic, investors and that foreign short-sellers are contrarians, whose large short-selling predicts short-run future return. We also find that foreign investors’ short-selling is performed when buying-pressure is high, but does not improve stock liquidity. Furthermore, we find that foreign investors’ short-selling does not increase volatility, providing evidence against the foreign investors’ destabilizing role in emerging markets.
Fruits and Vegetables Consumption and Associated Factors among In-School Adolescents in Five Southeast Asian Countries

The aim of the study was to assess the prevalence of fruits and vegetable consumption and associated factors among Southeast Asian in-school adolescents. Data were collected by self-report questionnaire from nationally representative samples (total 16,084) of school children aged 13 to 15 years in five Southeast Asian countries. Overall, 76.3% of the 13 to 15 year-olds had inadequate fruits and vegetables consumptions (less than five servings per day); 28% reported consuming fruits less than once per day and 13.8% indicated consuming vegetables less than once per day. In multivariable analysis, lack of protective factors and being physically inactive were associated with inadequate fruits and vegetable consumption, and sedentary behaviour and being overweight was protective of inadequate fruits and vegetable consumption. The results stress the need for intervention programmes aimed at increased consumption of fruits and vegetables, targeting proximal factors such as the family environment and distal factors by aiming at integrating other risk factors such as physical activity into health promotion among adolescents.
Development and optimisation of mucoadhesive nanoparticles of acyclovir using design of experiments approach

Abstract The aim of our study was to improve the bioavailability of acyclovir (ACV) by delivery of mucoadhesive nanoparticles (NPs) and controlled delivery of drug at its absorption window. Central composite design was used by which the effects of independent variables (gelatin and Pluronic F-68) on various responses such as particle size, polydispersity index, entrapment efficiency, loading efficiency, drug release and mucoadhesive strength were studied. The optimised formulation was evaluated for morphology, stability, pharmacokinetic and gastrointestinal tracking. The optimised NPs were found to be nearly spherical. Changes in characteristics of NPs were not significant after six months of accelerated stability studies. In vivo mucoadhesion study showed significant retention of mucoadhesive NPs in upper gastro-intestinal tract for more than 12 h. Pharmacokinetic study in rats revealed that mucoadhesive NPs could maintain relatively steady plasma concentration of ACV for more than 10 h. The AUC0–∞ and mean residence time of optimised formulation (7527.9 ng h/mL and 12.09 h) were significantly high than tablet dispersion (3841.13 ng h/mL and 7.97 h).
Topic-based content and sentiment analysis of Ebola virus on Twitter and in the news

The present study investigates topic coverage and sentiment dynamics of two different media sources, Twitter and news publications, on the hot health issue of Ebola. We conduct content and sentiment analysis by: (1) applying vocabulary control to collected datasets; (2) employing the n-gram LDA topic modeling technique; (3) adopting entity extraction and entity network; and (4) introducing the concept of topic-based sentiment scores. With the query term ‘Ebola’ or ‘Ebola virus’, we collected 16,189 news articles from 1006 different publications and 7,106,297 tweets with the Twitter stream API. The experiments indicate that topic coverage of Twitter is narrower and more blurry than that of the news media. In terms of sentiment dynamics, the life span and variance of sentiment on Twitter is shorter and smaller than in the news. In addition, we observe that news articles focus more on event-related entities such as person, organization and location, whereas Twitter covers more time-oriented entities. Based on the results, we report on the characteristics of Twitter and news media as two distinct news outlets in terms of content coverage and sentiment dynamics.