Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Análise dos efeitos fisiológicos em pacientes com estresse submetidos à técnica Watsu

O estresse faz-se presente em todas as reacoes do organismo desencadeadas por agressoes de ordem fisica, psiquica ou infecciosa. Situacoes de grande tensao pode provocar o estresse patologico, facilitando ou agravando disturbios transitorios ou doencas graves. Verificaram-se os efeitos do Watsu em dezoito pacientes sob experimentacao com caracteristicas de estresse, submetendo-os aos procedimentos descritos pelos autores para a referida tecnica hidroterapica. As diversas posicoes recomendadas pela tecnica associadas aos beneficios da agua aquecida mostrou promover momentos de profundo relaxamento. Mais de 50% dos participantes ja havia realizado tratamento fisioterapico classico com resultados insatisfatorios. Com o Watsu®, alem dos pacientes relatarem melhoras das algias musculares, acrescentaram que houve um aumento no rendimento do trabalho, maior disposicao para atividades da vida diaria, mais flexibilidade e ponderacao para resolver situacoes conflitantes, enfim uma melhora na homeostase. Pode-se concluir que e vantajosa a associacao da hidroterapia com agua hipertermica e o uso de exercicios e alongamentos pela tecnica de Watsu para controle do estresse.
Monoethylglicinexylidide test: A prognostic indicator of survival in cirrhosis

The aim of this study was to assess the value of the monoethylglicinexylidide assay, a dynamic liver function test based on the determination of the serum concentration of lidocaine major metabolite, as a predictor of survival in cirrhosis. For this purpose, the predictive value of monoethylglicinexylidide was evaluated in comparison with the Pugh score, ascites, encephalopathy and a number of different biochemical parameters as collected from the prospective follow‐up of 118 patients with cirrhosis. A stepwise regression analysis was performed on the variables of prognostic value according to the Cox model and with respect to 1‐yr survival; because Pugh score and monoethylglicinexylidide were the sole variables selected, they were proved to supply independent prognostic information. The most reliable cutoff values for discrimination between death and survival were 25 ng/ml or less for monoethylglicinexylidide and less than 9 for the Pugh score. In 74 patients without overt signs of liver failure (i.e., Pugh ≤ 9), monoethylglicinexylidide provided a wide range of results (i.e., 4 to 77 ng/ml), namely values ranging from very low to elevated. Of the 38 patients with satisfactory Pugh scores (≤ 9) but poor monoethylglicinexylidide values (≤ 25), 11 died during follow‐up and 3 underwent liver transplantation, despite having shown no clinical signs of liver failure at entry. On the bases of discriminant levels, the monoethylglicinexylidide test is suitable for adoption as a reliable and sensitive indicator of survival in patients with cirrhosis because it supplies more accurate prognostic information compared with the Pugh score. In these patients, a low monoethylglicinexylidide value may indicate that liver grafting should no longer be delayed regardless of apparently stable clinical conditions. (Hepatology 1994;20:383–387.)
Real-Time PCR as a New Tool for QuantifyingLeishmania infantum in Liver in Infected Mice

ABSTRACT The parasitic loads of mouse livers experimentally infected withLeishmania infantum were determined using a double real-time quantitative PCR test targeted to the parasite DNA polymerase gene and to the mouse brain-derived neutrophic factor gene. TheLeishmania DNA copy number was normalized to the number of mouse gene copies in order to quantify the former independently of liver weight. The correlation coefficient with the microtitration method was 0.66. This PCR assay can be considered for experimental pharmaceutical studies.
Performance comparision of Hadoop and spark engine

Data has been growing at an exponential rate in the recent era. This data has to be processed and analyzed carefully to get new insights. So there is a need for a platform that can perform efficient data processing, which leads to the building up of platforms like Hadoop and Spark. Hadoop Map Reduce model helped to process it in a distributed fashion with computation being done at multiple nodes. In spite of the remarkable processing power it still, has some shortcomings. Spark, a computation engine can solve some of the problems involving Iterative/Machine learning queries by caching some of the results from previous queries. Although Spark is faster than Hadoop in most of the iterative applications it is constrained by memory requirements. This paper briefly discusses Spark and Hadoop architecture, their theoretical differences and the comparison of their performance.
Jouer avec des analyseurs syntaxiques

Nous presentons DYALOG-SR un analyseur syntaxique statistique par dependances developpe dans le cadre de la tâche SPRML 2013 portant sur un jeu de 9 langues tres differentes. L'analyseur DYALOG-SR implemente un algorithme d'analyse par transition (a la MALT), etendu par utilisation de faisceaux et de techniques de programmation dynamique. Une des particularite de DYALOG-SR provient de sa capacite a prendre en entree des treillis de mots, particularite utilisee lors de SPMRL13 pour traiter des treillis en Hebreu et reprise plus recemment sur des treillis produits par SXPIPE pour le francais. Disposant par ailleurs avec FRMG d'un analyseur alternatif pour le francais, nous avons experimente un couplage avec DYALOG-SR nous permettant ainsi d'obtenir les meilleurs resultats obtenus a ce jour sur le French TreeBank.
Guided, stochastic model-based GUI testing of Android apps

Mobile apps are ubiquitous, operate in complex environments and are developed under the time-to-market pressure. Ensuring their correctness and reliability thus becomes an important challenge. This paper introduces Stoat, a novel guided approach to perform stochastic model-based testing on Android apps. Stoat operates in two phases: (1) Given an app as input, it uses dynamic analysis enhanced by a weighted UI exploration strategy and static analysis to reverse engineer a stochastic model of the app's GUI interactions; and (2) it adapts Gibbs sampling to iteratively mutate/refine the stochastic model and guides test generation from the mutated models toward achieving high code and model coverage and exhibiting diverse sequences. During testing, system-level events are randomly injected to further enhance the testing effectiveness. Stoat was evaluated on 93 open-source apps. The results show (1) the models produced by Stoat cover 17~31% more code than those by existing modeling tools; (2) Stoat detects 3X more unique crashes than two state-of-the-art testing tools, Monkey and Sapienz. Furthermore, Stoat tested 1661 most popular Google Play apps, and detected 2110 previously unknown and unique crashes. So far, 43 developers have responded that they are investigating our reports. 20 of reported crashes have been confirmed, and 8 already fixed.
Practical Design Approach of a Transverse Flux Linear Synchronous Motor for Compact Size, Small Mover Weight, High Efficiency, and Low Material Cost

This paper presents a practical design approach of a transverse flux (TF) linear synchronous motor. It is useful in the selection of appropriate volume as a starting point of the thrust requirement design to achieve compact size, small mover weight, high efficiency, and low material cost during the preliminary design stage. First, the concept of the proposed design approach is described. Second, the volume design of a double-sided TF (DSTF) permanent magnet linear synchronous motor (PMLSM) proposed in a previous work is conducted. Finally, based on the experimental results of the prototype model, the feasibility of the proposed design approach is verified by comparing the performance of the DSTF-PMLSM designed using the volume obtained by the proposed design approach with that of the other recent proposals.
Molecular identification of zeaxanthin epoxidase of Nicotiana plumbaginifolia, a gene involved in abscisic acid biosynthesis and corresponding to the ABA locus of Arabidopsis thaliana.

Abscisic acid (ABA) is a plant hormone which plays an important role in seed development and dormancy and in plant response to environmental stresses. An ABA‐deficient mutant of Nicotiana plumbaginifolia, aba2, was isolated by transposon tagging using the maize Activator transposon. The aba2 mutant exhibits precocious seed germination and a severe wilty phenotype. The mutant is impaired in the first step of the ABA biosynthesis pathway, the zeaxanthin epoxidation reaction. ABA2 cDNA is able to complement N.plumbaginifolia aba2 and Arabidopsis thaliana aba mutations indicating that these mutants are homologous. ABA2 cDNA encodes a chloroplast‐imported protein of 72.5 kDa, sharing similarities with different mono‐oxigenases and oxidases of bacterial origin and having an ADP‐binding fold and an FAD‐binding domain. ABA2 protein, produced in Escherichia coli, exhibits in vitro zeaxanthin epoxidase activity. This is the first report of the isolation of a gene of the ABA biosynthetic pathway. The molecular identification of ABA2 opens the possibility to study the regulation of ABA biosynthesis and its cellular location.
Glucocorticoids inhibit tenocyte proliferation and Tendon progenitor cell recruitment

Corticosteroid injection is commonly used to treat tendon injuries but is often associated with tendon rupture and impaired tendon healing. The effects of dexamethasone on tenocytes have been studied in vitro but only using high concentrations of dexamethasone in monolayer cultures of tenocytes over short periods of time. We have therefore investigated the effects of physiological and pharmacological concentrations of dexamethasone on monolayer cultures of tenocytes over extended time periods. We have also used fibroblastic‐colony forming unit cultures to examine the effects of dexamethasone on a progenitor cell population located in tendons. Culturing tenocytes in the presence of dexamethasone for a period of 24 days resulted in a concentration‐related decrease in cell number and collagen synthesis as compared to control cultures. This effect was time dependent with cell number in both dexamethasone‐treated and control cultures leveling off after 14 days with the control cultures reaching higher cell densities. In contrast in control cultures, collagen accumulation continued to increase until week 4, whereas in the presence of dexamethasone, this tended to level off after 14 days. To study the role of progenitor cell recruitment, the effects of dexamethasone were investigated using the fibroblastic‐colony forming unit assay. Treatment with dexamethasone at concentrations of 0.1 nM to 10 µM leads to a progressive reduction in mean colony size as compared to control cultures. Colony number remained constant at concentrations below 10 nM but fell progressively at concentrations above this. In conclusion, dexamethasone reduces both cell number and collagen synthesis in tenocyte cultures in a concentration‐dependent manner by both direct effects on tenocyte proliferation and collagen accumulation, and also by modulating the recruitment of tendon progenitor cells. © 2005 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res
Structure Determination of Secondary Transport Proteins by Electron Crystallography: Two-Dimensional Crystallization of the Betaine Uptake System BetP

Structure determination at high resolution is still a challenge for membrane proteins in general, but in particular for secondary transporters due to their highly dynamic nature. X-ray structures of ten secondary transporters have recently been determined, but a thorough understanding of transport mechanisms necessitates structures at different functional states. Electron cryo-microscopy of two-dimensional (2D) crystals offers an alternative to obtain structural information at intermediate resolution. Electron crystallography is a sophisticated way to study proteins in a natural membrane environment and to track conformational changes in situ. Furthermore, basic interactions between protein and lipids can be investigated. Projection and 3-dimensional maps of six secondary transporters from different families have been determined by electron crystallography of 2D crystals at a resolution of 8 Å and better. In this review, we give an overview about the principles of 2D crystallization, in particular of secondary transporters, and summarize the important steps successfully applied to establish and improve the 2D crystallization of the high-affinity glycine betaine uptake system from Corynebacterium glutamicum, BetP.
Effect of unintentional charges, on the performance of nanoscale DGMOSFETs

A model of the nano DGMOSFET employing Non-Equilibrium Green's Function (NEGF) formalism is used to analyse the influence of the presence of ac stray negative charge in the channel on the perfomance of the device. As done preciously, the MOSFET is considered as essentially a 2D charge sheet, since the width of the device is very large, and the eigen vectors in that direction are effectively taken as plane waves. We then use the uncoupled mode space approach to reduce the problem to ID, enabling one to use two-dimensional electrostatics to model transport through the device. The NEGF equations and the Poisson equation are solved self-consistently to obtain subband energy and current in the device. Taking the position of the trapped charge as random, we compute its effect on the threshold voltage, sub-threshold swing, and drive current, and compare these results with that of a device having a pure channel, devoid of any such trapped charges.
Consumption of a 5-mg Melatonin Supplement Does Not Affect 32.2-km Cycling Time Trial Performance

Abstract Brandenberger, KJ, Ingalls, CP, Rupp, JC, and Doyle, JA. Consumption of a 5-mg melatonin supplement does not affect 32.2-km cycling time trial performance. J Strength Cond Res 32(10): 2872–2877, 2018—Some studies suggest that exogenous melatonin supplementation may improve athletic performance in hot humid environments because of its precooling effect. However, melatonin is also consumed as a sleep aid for its depressive effects on the central nervous system (CNS), which may hinder performance. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine whether consuming a 5-mg supplement of melatonin would affect performance in a laboratory-simulated 32.2-km cycling time trial. The time trial was conducted in a thermoneutral environment to separate CNS depressive effects of the melatonin from the cooling effects. Trained male subjects (n = 10; V[Combining Dot Above]O2max = 62.7 ± 6.3 ml·kg−1·min−1; age = 25.1 ± 4.0 years; mass = 69.9 ± 9.1 kg; height = 176.0 ± 7.1 cm) performed three 32.2-km time trials on an electronically braked cycle ergometer. The first trial was a familiarization. During the 2 experimental trials, subjects received in a random order either a placebo or a 5-mg melatonin supplement 15 minutes before exercise in a double-blind, crossover design. Variables were measured before exercise and at 8-km intervals. The mean 32.2-km time trial completion times for the melatonin (64.94 ± 5.95 minutes) and placebo (65.26 ± 6.85 minutes) trials were not different (p = 0.682). The mean time trial power output for the melatonin (190.4 ± 40.4 watts) and placebo (190.0 ± 45.7 watts) trials was not different (p = 0.927). Rectal temperature was not significantly different for melatonin compared with placebo (p = 0.827). These results suggest that a 5-mg melatonin supplement administered 15 minutes before exercise does not measurably impact the performance of a 32.2-km cycling time trial in a thermoneutral environment.
Antifungal Activity of a Human Antiglucuronoxylomannan Antibody

ABSTRACT The human immunoglobulin M (IgM) monoclonal antibody (MAb) 2E9 binds the glucuronoxylomannan (GXM) of Cryptococcus neoformans serotypes A, B, and D. This study was undertaken to determine the opsonic efficacy of 2E9 and its ability to promote the antifungal activity of human polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMNs) against C. neoformans. We incubated purified PMNs with fluorescein isothiocyanate-labeled C. neoformans cells that were treated with the GXM IgM 2E9, IgM antibodies that do not bind GXM, and rabbit and human factor-B-deficient serum as complement sources. PMN-associated C. neoformans cells fluoresced and were detected with a fluorescence-activated cell sorter. The amount of phagocytosis was defined as the percent fluorescing PMNs, which was 37% for yeast cells opsonized with 2E9 plus rabbit serum and 57% for yeast cells opsonized with 2E9 plus factor-B-deficient serum. Phagocytosis was significantly greater for yeast cells that were treated with 2E9 plus a complement source than for yeast cells treated with the complement sources alone or treated with the control IgMs alone or with the complement sources. Fluorescence quenching and light and electron microscopy of the phagocytosis mixtures revealed that 2E9-opsonized yeast cells were internalized by PMNs. Maximal inhibition of C. neoformans growth occurred when PMNs were cocultured with yeast cells that were opsonized with 2E9 plus a complement source. Our data demonstrate that the human GXM IgM 2E9 can mediate PMN phagocytosis and C. neoformans growth inhibition in vitro. These findings strongly suggest that antibody-mediated deposition of complement components on the cryptococcal capsule can augment PMN complement receptor-mediated antifungal activity. Antibody activation of complement-mediated effector cell antifungal mechanisms may play a role in host defense against cryptococcosis and represents a goal for the use of MAbs to treat or prevent human C. neoformansinfections.
Comparing QMT1 and HMMs for the synthesis of american English prosody

Three models are compared for the duration and pitch contour of American English in a speech synthesis framework. These models combine duration prediction by Quantification Metho d Type 1 (QMT1), a Codebook-based method for the F0 contour and a Hidden Markov Model-based method for both durations and F0. Subjective listening tests show that the HMMs are preferred over the Codebook for the F0 contour, but that their duration modelling performances are not significantly differen t from those of QMT1 in the tested setup. An analysis of naive freeform listener comments supports this fact, and suggests that such comments can give useful hints regarding the performance of each system.
A Tri-State Bidirectional Buck-Boost Converter for a Battery/Supercapacitor Hybrid Energy Storage System in Electric Vehicle Applications

Hybrid Energy Storage System (HESS) are commonly used when a combination of features and advantages from different energy storage devices are needed. Due to their characteristics, when batteries and Supercapacitors (SC) are implemented in HESS they become a good option for Electric Vehicle (EV) applications. This paper presents a bidirectional DC-DC converter as an interface between the battery and the SC, this will allow the control of the power flow. A tri-state operation for a bidirectional Buck-Boost converter is proposed in order to improve the performance of the control and reduce losses in the HESS.
Rosiglitazone selectively inhibits KATP channels by acting on the KIR6 subunit

Rosiglitazone is an anti‐diabetic drug acting as an insulin sensitizer. We recently found that rosiglitazone also inhibits the vascular isoform of ATP‐sensitive K+ channels and compromises vasodilatory effects of β‐adrenoceptor activation and pinacidil. As its potency for the channel inhibition is in the micromolar range, rosiglitazone may be used as an effective KATP channel inhibitor for research and therapeutic purposes. Therefore, we performed experiments to determine whether other isoforms of KATP channels are also sensitive to rosiglitazone and what their sensitivities are.
A study on deep convolutional neural networks for computer vision applications

Apresenta um modelo de Cortex Artificial para solucao de problemas complexos. No arcabouco do cortex, destaca-se o uso de aprendizagem de maquina (machine learning) baseada em multiplas redes neurais artificiais cooperativas. A concepcao do modelo parte da observacao do funcionamento do cerebro como um conjunto de areas funcionais que atuam no processo de cognicao e, posteriormente, usa o conhecimento adquirido na tomada de decisoes e execucao de acoes complexas. Para experimentar, observar e analisar a eficiencia do Cortex decide-se pela aplicacao em um Sistema Tutor Inteligente baseado em Jogos Digitais, por considerar o processo de ensino-aprendizagem um tema complexo, subjetivo e que exige dinamismo em sua execucao (variacao de estrategias para tornar o processo flexivel e personalizado). Delimitam-se as ferramentas propostas por meio de pesquisa exploratoria, gerando conhecimentos para aproveitamento pratico na solucao de problemas relativos a educacao, como uma pesquisa aplicada. Por fim, sao utilizados recursos estatisticos a fim de explicar a realidade do fenomeno, apontando resultados significativos (significância de 5%) na melhoria de aprendizado, comparando-se tecnicas de ensino.
Structures of the Recurrence Plot of Heart Rate Variability Signal as a Tool for Predicting the Onset of Paroxysmal Atrial Fibrillation

This paper aims to propose an effective paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (PAF) predictor which is based on the analysis of the heart rate variability (HRV) signal. Predicting the onset of PAF, based on non-invasive techniques, is clinically important and can be invaluable in order to avoid useless therapeutic interventions and to minimize the risks for the patients. This method consists of four steps: Preprocessing, feature extraction, feature reduction, and classification. In the first step, the QRS complexes are detected from the electrocardiogram (ECG) signal and then the HRV signal is extracted. In the next step, the recurrence plot (RP) of HRV signal is obtained and six features are extracted to characterize the basic patterns of the RP. These features consist of length of longest diagonal segments, average length of the diagonal lines, entropy, trapping time, length of longest vertical line, and recurrence trend. In the third step, these features are reduced to three features by the linear discriminant analysis (LDA) technique. Using LDA not only reduces the number of the input features, but also increases the classification accuracy by selecting the most discriminating features. Finally, a support vector machine-based classifier is used to classify the HRV signals. The performance of the proposed method in prediction of PAF episodes was evaluated using the Atrial Fibrillation Prediction Database which consists of both 30-minutes ECG recordings end just prior to the onset of PAF and segments at least 45 min distant from any PAF events. The obtained sensitivity, specificity, and positive predictivity were 96.55%, 100%, and 100%, respectively.
Manager Impact on Retention of Hospital Staff‐ Part 2

This is the second article in a two-part series based on a study of the impact of middle managers on retention of 71 hospital professionals. Research design, methods, and descriptive results were presented in Part 1 (March 1989). In Part 2, the impact of managers' motivation to manage, power, influence, and leadership style on retention is detailed. Recommendations for improving retention include interventions to increase employee job satisfaction and intent to stay, and to improve managers' performance and leadership.