Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
N-ACETYLCYSTEINE IMPROVES THE HEMODYNAMICS AND OXIDATIVE STRESS IN HYPOXIC NEWBORN PIGS REOXYGENATED WITH 100% OXYGEN

Neonatal asphyxia may lead to cardiac and renal complications perhaps mediated by oxygen free radicals. Using a model of neonatal hypoxia-reoxygenation, we tested the hypothesis that N-acetylcysteine (NAC) would improve cardiac function and renal blood flow. Eighteen piglets (aged 1-4 days old, weighing 1.4-2.2 kg) were anesthetized and acutely instrumented for continuous monitoring of pulmonary and renal artery flow (cardiac index [CI] and renal artery flow index [RAFI], respectively) and mean blood pressure. Alveolar hypoxia was induced for 2 h, followed by resuscitation with 100% oxygen for 1 h and 21% oxygen for 3 h. Animals were randomized to sham-operated, hypoxic control, and NAC treatment (i.v. bolus of 150 mg/kg given at 10 min of reoxygenation followed by 100 mg/kg per h infusion) groups. Myocardial and renal tissue glutathione content and lipid hydroperoxide levels were assayed, and histology was examined. After 2 h of hypoxia, all animals were acidotic (pH 6.96 ± 0.04) and in cardiogenic shock with depressed renal blood flow. Upon reoxygenation, CI and RAFI increased but gradually deteriorated later. The NAC treatment prevented the decreased CI, stroke volume, mean blood pressure, systemic oxygen delivery, RAFI, and renal oxygen delivery at 2 to 4 h of reoxygenation observed in hypoxic controls (versus shams, all P < 0.05). The myocardial and renal tissue glutathione content was significantly higher in the NAC treatment group (versus controls). The CI and RAFI at 4 h of reoxygenation correlated with the tissue glutathione redox ratio (r = 0.5 and 0.6, respectively, P < 0.05). There were no significant differences in heart rate, pulmonary artery pressure, systemic oxygen uptake, and tissue lipid hydroperoxide levels between groups. No histologic injury was found in the heart or kidney. In this porcine model of neonatal hypoxia and 100% reoxygenation, NAC improved cardiac function and renal perfusion, with improved tissue glutathione content.
Between social awareness and productivity: Results of a survey about real-time microblogging

In April 2010, we conducted a survey towards 256 users of real-time microblogging platforms, mostly Twitter users, in order to analyze the usage of those platforms and evaluate the induced cognitive impact. In this article, after reporting and discussing the results of this survey, we identify opportunities for improvement towards reducing information overload and frequent disruptions. Then, we propose a novel approach for filtering status updates from real-time microblogging platforms, based on contextual relevance between their authors.
Feature Weighting Method Based On Instance Correlation Using Discretization

In Machine Learning Process, several issues arise in identifying a suitable and quality set of features from which a classification model for a particular domain to be constructed. This paper addresses the problem of feature selection for machine learning through discretization approach. RELIEF is considered to be one of the most successful algorithms for assessing the quality of features. RELIEF algorithm selects the near instance and far away instance and assigns weight to the selected instance by sampling method. Sampling method will deviate in selecting the relevant features. So, a new feature weighting method is proposed which gives high correlation between the instances and the main objective is to select features that have highly correlated instances with the class. Experimental analysis shows better performance of the new algorithm in comparison with the existing RELIEF algorithm. The data set is taken from UCI ML repository for experiment. Results show that the new method can be successfully used with classifiers.
Isolation of Novel Bacteria Including Rarely Cultivated Phyla, Acidobacteria and Verrucomicrobia, from the Roots of Emergent Plants by Simple Culturing Method

A number of novel bacteria including members of rarely cultivated phyla, Acidobacteria and Verrucomicrobia, were successfully isolated from the roots of two emergent plants, Iris pseudacorus and Scirpus juncoides, by a simple culturing method. A total of 47.1% (66 strains) for I. pseudacorus and 42.1% (59 strains) for S. juncoides of all isolates (140 strains from each sample) were phylogenetically novel. Furthermore, Acidobacteria and Verrucomicrobia occupied 10.7% (15 strains) and 2.9% (4 strains) of I. pseudacorus isolates, and 2.1% (3 strains) and 3.6% (5 strains) of S. juncoides isolates, respectively, indicating that plant roots are attractive sources for isolating rarely cultivated microbes.
Capacity fade estimation using supervised learning

Reliability of energy storage systems, for stationary as well as mobile applications, is crucial for their stable long term operation. Among all the components that are susceptible to failure, modules made up of individual batteries determine the useful life of such a system. Hence, estimating health quotients of battery packs in typical energy storage systems takes on a high priority. The computational complexity and large volumes of data required in such calculations are well documented. In this article we present an approach for trend prediction of capacity fade while reducing the amount of test data required. This is accomplished through the use of clustering techniques and a supervised learning system, further reducing computation with the use of a recurrent neural network based system. Data for training and validation, mimicking drive cycle data with multiple current pulses, is provided by extensive charge and discharge experimentation in the lab on a commercially available battery pack.
Which Entry is More Similar? A Non-linear Visualisation of Query Results in Image Retrieval and Image Recognition Problem

Content based image retrieval (CBIR) has been a subject of exploration in digital humanities since 1990’s (Gudivada 1995). Various descriptors were implemented to represent shape, texture and colour content of the image as sequences of numerical values (Zhang & Lu 2004, Veltkamp, Latecki 2006, Zha & Yang 2010). At the same time similarity measures and learning algorithms were designed to enable efficient image classification and retrieval (LeCun 1998). The issue, however, remains in a simple question: which descriptor and which similarity measure best reflects the human perception of similarity of visual objects? And is this the same one, that best responds to the ground truth in a retrieval query?
Periodontal repair in dogs: effect of recombinant human bone morphogenetic protein-12 (rhBMP-12) on regeneration of alveolar bone and periodontal attachment.

OBJECTIVES Recombinant human bone morphogenetic protein-2 (rhBMP-2) has been shown to stimulate alveolar bone and cementum formation in periodontal defects but not a functionally oriented periodontal ligament (PDL). Subcutaneous and intramuscular implants of BMP-12 have been shown to induce tendon formation and ligament-like tissue. The objective of this study was to evaluate rhBMP-12 for periodontal regeneration, in particular PDL formation. METHODS Six young adult Hound Labrador mongrel dogs were used. Routine supraalveolar periodontal defects were created around the mandibular premolar teeth. Three animals received rhBMP-12(0.04 mg/ml) in an absorbable collagen sponge (ACS) carrier vs. rhBMP-12(0.2 mg/mL)/ACS in contralateral defects. Three animals received rhBMP-12(1.0 mg/ml)/ACS vs. rhBMP-2(0.2 mg/ml)/ACS (total implant volume/defect approximately 1 ml). The animals were euthanized 8 weeks postsurgery and block biopsies were processed for histometric analysis. RESULTS Bone regeneration appeared increased in sites receiving rhBMP-2/ACS compared to sites receiving rhBMP-12/ACS. Cementum regeneration was similar comparing sites implanted with rhBMP-2/ACS to sites implanted with rhBMP-12/ACS. In contrast, sites receiving rhBMP-12/ACS exhibited a functionally oriented PDL bridging the gap between newly formed bone and cementum whereas this was a rare observation in sites receiving rhBMP-2/ACS. Ankylosis appeared increased in sites receiving rhBMP-2/ACS compared to those receiving rhBMP-12/ACS. CONCLUSIONS The outcomes of this study suggest that rhBMP-12 may have significant effects on regeneration of the PDL. Additional preclinical evaluation is needed to confirm these initial observations prior to clinical application.
A Fuzzy Approach to Speaker Verification

This paper proposes a fuzzy approach to speaker verification. For an input utterance and a claimed identity, most of the current methods compute a claimed speaker's score, which is the ratio of the claimed speaker's and the impostors' likelihood functions, and compare this score with a given threshold to accept or reject this speaker. Considering the speaker verification problem based on fuzzy set theory, the claimed speaker's score is viewed as the fuzzy membership function of the input utterance in the claimed speaker's fuzzy set of utterances. Fuzzy entropy and fuzzy c-means membership functions are proposed as fuzzy membership scores, which are the ratios of functions of the claimed speaker's and impostors' likelihood functions. A likelihood transformation is also considered to relate current likelihood and fuzzy membership scores. We also proposed fuzzy scores using membership functions similar to those produced by noise-clustering-based method. This noise clustering concept provides very effective modifications to several methods, which can overcome some of the problems of ratio-type scores and greatly reduce the false acceptance rate. Experiments were performed to evaluate proposed normalization methods for speaker verification using the YOHO corpus. Experiments demonstrate that fuzzy methods and their noise clustering versions outperform conventional methods.
Thought leaders during crises in massive social networks

Making vast amounts of online social media data comprehensible to an analyst is a key question in operational analytics. Twitter and micro‐blog conversations can easily be gathered from Internet services such as Spinn3r to create graphs representing the interactions between the entities in an online community that contains billions of vertices and tens of billions of edges. Graphs of this size can easily be represented in a modern laptop or workstation. The challenge lies in making them comprehensible. This paper focuses on methods to assemble social network graphs from online social media to reveal nodes that are ‘interesting’ in the context of operational analysis—meaning that the computational results can be interpreted by a human analyst wishing to answer some operational questions. Only metrics based on the structure of the graph are utilized, which avoid the challenges and costs involved in message content analysis. We further restrict ourselves to the use of metrics that are computational tractable on billion node graphs. The reported results demonstrate that nodes with a high impact or disproportionally large agency on the whole network (e.g., online community) can be found in a variety of online communities. Validation of the importance of these high‐agency nodes by human and computational methods is discussed, and the efficacy of our approach by both quantitative methods and tests against the null hypothesis is reported. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Statistical Analysis and Data Mining 5: 205–217, 2012
A novel MDMA analogue, UWA‐101, that lacks psychoactivity and cytotoxicity, enhances l‐DOPA benefit in parkinsonian primates

Treatment of Parkinson's disease with dopaminergic agents, such as l‐DOPA, is frequently compromised by disabling side effects, particularly dyskinesia and a shortening in duration of antiparkinsonian action. Studies in animal models and anecdotal evidence from a patient with Parkinson's disease show that the illicit drug ecstasy (MDMA) can alleviate these side effects, though with many drawbacks (e.g., psychoactivity). MDMA itself thus has little therapeutic potential. On the basis of known structure‐psychoactivity relationships, we designed a series of α‐substituted MDMA analogues, one of which, bearing an α‐cyclopropyl substituent (UWA‐101), enhanced the quality of l‐DOPA actions in animal models. Indeed, UWA‐101 was more effective than MDMA. Unlike MDMA, UWA‐101 did not reduce viability of serotonergic cells, exhibit psychoactive properties, or reduce food intake, and did not substitute for MDMA in drug discrimination assays. UWA‐101 displayed a unique receptor/transporter binding profile relative to MDMA, with a > 5‐fold decrease in affinity for NET and 5‐HT2A receptors and a 10‐fold increase in affinity for DAT. Furthermore, in a functional reuptake assay, UWA‐101 inhibited both 5‐HT and dopamine reuptake, while having no effect on the reuptake of noradrenaline. UWA‐101 is the first selective DAT/SERT inhibitor described with comparable affinities for these two sites. These data identify a new class of therapeutic in Parkinson's disease and highlight the potential benefits of studying illicit drugs that in themselves would never be considered safe for long‐term therapy. —Johnston, T. H. , Millar, Z. , Huot, P., Wagg, K. , Thiele, S. , Salomonczyk, D. , Yong‐Kee, C. J., Gandy, M. N. , McIldowie, M. , Lewis, K. D. , Gomez‐Ramirez, J., Lee, J., Fox, S. H. , Martin‐Iverson, M. , Nash, J. E. , Piggott, M. J., Brotchie, J. M. A novel MDMA analogue, UWA‐101, that lacks psychoactivity and cytotoxicity, enhances l‐DOPA benefit in parkinsonian primates. FASEB J. 26, 2154‐2163 (2012). www.fasebj. org
Plasticity and innovation of regulatory mechanisms underlying seed oil content mediated by duplicated genes in the palaeopolyploid soybean

Many plants have undergone whole genome duplication (WGD). However, how regulatory networks underlying a particular trait are reshaped in polyploids has not been experimentally investigated. Here we show that the regulatory pathways modulating seed oil content, which involve WRINKLED1 (WRI1), LEAFY COTYLEDON1 (LEC1), and LEC2 in Arabidopsis, have been modified in the palaeopolyploid soybean. Such modifications include functional reduction of GmWRI1b of the GmWRI1a/GmWRI1b homoeologous pair relevant to WRI1, complementary non-allelic dosage effects of the GmLEC1a/GmLEC1b homoeologous pair relevant to LEC1, pseudogenization of the singleton GmLEC2 relevant to LEC2, and the rise of the LEC2-like function of GmABI3b, contrasting to its homoeolog GmABI3a, which maintains the ABSCISIC ACID INSENSITIVE 3 (ABI3)-like function in modulating seed maturation and dormancy. The function of GmABI3b in modulating seed oil biosynthesis was fulfilled by direct binding to a RY (CATGCA) cis-regulatory element in the GmWRI1a promoter, which was absent in the GmWRI1b promoter, resulting in reduction of the GmWRI1b expression. Nevertheless, the three regulators each exhibited similar intensities of purifying selection to their respective duplicates since these pairs were formed by a WGD event that is proposed to have occurred approximately 13 million years ago (mya), suggesting that the differentiation in spatiotemporal expression between the duplicated genes is more likely to be the outcome of neutral variation in regulatory sequences. This study thus exemplifies the plasticity, dynamics, and novelty of regulatory networks mediated by WGD.
Rotavirus Spike Protein VP4 Is Present at the Plasma Membrane and Is Associated with Microtubules in Infected Cells

ABSTRACT VP4 is an unglycosylated protein of the outer layer of the capsid of rotavirus. It forms spikes that project from the outer layer of mature virions, which is mainly constituted by glycoprotein VP7. VP4 has been implicated in several important functions, such as cell attachment, penetration, hemagglutination, neutralization, virulence, and host range. Previous studies indicated that VP4 is located in the space between the periphery of the viroplasm and the outside of the endoplasmic reticulum in rotavirus-infected cells. Confocal microscopy of infected MA104 monolayers, immunostained with specific monoclonal antibodies, revealed that a significant fraction of VP4 was present at the plasma membrane early after infection. Another fraction of VP4 is cytoplasmic and colocalizes with β-tubulin. Flow cytometry analysis confirmed that at the early stage of viral infection, VP4 was present on the plasma membrane and that its N-terminal region, the VP8* subunit, was accessible to antibodies. Biotin labeling of the infected cell surface monolayer with a cell-impermeable reagent allowed the identification of the noncleaved form of VP4 that was associated with the glycoprotein VP7. The localization of VP4 was not modified in cells transfected with a plasmid allowing the expression of a fusion protein consisting of VP4 and the green fluorescent protein. The present data suggest that VP4 reaches the plasma membrane through the microtubule network and that other viral proteins are dispensable for its targeting and transport.
The Health Utilities Index (HUI®) system for assessing health-related quality of life in clinical studies

This paper reviews the Health Utilities Index (HUI? systems as means to describe health status and obtain utility scores reflecting health-related quality of life (HRQoL). The HUI Mark 2 (HUI2) and Mark 3 (HUI3) classification and scoring systems are described. The methods used to estimate multiattribute utility functions for HUI2 and HUI3 are reviewed. The use of HUI in clinical studies for a wide variety of conditions in a large number of countries is illustrated. HUI provides a comprehensive description of the health status of subjects in clinical studies. HUI has been shown to be a reliable, responsive and valid measure in a wide variety of clinical studies. Utility scores provide an overall assessment of the HRQoL of patients. Utility scores are also useful in cost-utility analyses and related studies. General population norm data are available. The widespread use of HUI facilitates the interpretation of results and permits comparisons. HUI is a useful tool for assessing health status and HRQoL in clinical studies.
Macroelement and Macropatch Approaches to Structural Topology Optimization Using the Ground Structure Method

AbstractTopology optimization can be divided into continuum and discrete types, the latter being the emphasis of the present work. In the field of discrete structural topology optimization of trusses, the generation of an initial ground structure is crucial. Thus, this paper examines the generation of ground structures for generic structural domains in two and three dimensions. It compares two methods of discretization, Voronoi-based and structured quadrilateral discretizations, and proposes two simple and effective ground structure generation approaches: the macroelement and macropatch approaches. Both can be implemented with either type of discretization. This work presents several features of these approaches, including the efficient generation of initial ground structures, a reduction in matrix bandwidth for the global stiffness matrix, finer control of bar connectivity, and a reduction in the number of overlapped bars. Generic examples and practical structural engineering designs are presented. They .
Biomimetic optical directional microphone with structurally coupled diaphragms

A biomimetic directional microphone based on structurally coupled diaphragms and a fiber-optic detection system is presented. The microphone design aims to mimic the fly Ormia Ochracea’s ear structure and capture its performance. Experiments show that the designed microphone amplifies the interaural time difference ITD by 4.4 times and has a directional sensitivity of 6.5 s /deg. An important finding is that one needs to utilize both the rocking and translational vibration modes to obtain the appropriate ITD amplification without sacrifice of directional sensitivity. This work can serve as a foundation for realizing fly-ear inspired miniature directional microphones. © 2008 American Institute of Physics. DOI: 10.1063/1.3043724
Discriminative semi-supervised training for keyword search in low resource languages

In this paper, we investigate semi-supervised training for low resource languages where the initial systems may have high error rate (≥ 70.0% word eror rate). To handle the lack of data, we study semi-supervised techniques including data selection, data weighting, discriminative training and multilayer perceptron learning to improve system performance. The entire suite of semi-supervised methods presented in this paper was evaluated under the IARPA Babel program for the keyword spotting tasks. Our semi-supervised system had the best performance in the OpenKWS13 surprise language evaluation for the limited condition. In this paper, we describe our work on the Turkish and Vietnamese systems.
Supporting Landmark Image Retrieval with Skyline Extraction Techniques

The problem of image retrieval is much more challenging than that of text retrieval since significant features for representing and searching an arbitrary image vary with the image content. In this work, we focus on processing images containing landmarks which are easily recognizable by human users. Our observations show that through the use of proper techniques for skyline extraction, the retrieval task of landmark images can be feasible. Specifically, after conducting edge detection on an image, an approach which works in the similar fashion as depth-first search is proposed to extract the corresponding skyline precisely. In addition to theoretical analysis of relevant issues, empirical studies show that our approach is advantageous to be utilized in practical applications due to its high efficiency, effectiveness and scalability.
Control of DFIG-based wind generation for power network support

This paper addresses the design and implementation of a novel control scheme for a doubly fed induction generator (DFIG), of the type employed with wind turbines, to provide support to power system operation. It is shown that this controller provides a DFIG-based wind farm with operational and control compatibility with conventional power stations, the ability to contribute to voltage support and recovery following network faults, the ability to provide a power system stabilizer capability that improves overall system damping, and the capability of contributing short-term frequency support following loss of network generation. A simple but realistic test network that combines synchronous and wind farm generation has been modeled and used to assess dynamic performance. Simulation results are presented and discussed that demonstrate the capabilities and contributions of the new DFIG controller to network support.