Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Modulation of the inflammatory response by increasing fetal wound size or interleukin‐10 overexpression determines wound phenotype and scar formation

Wound size impacts the threshold between scarless regeneration and reparative healing in the fetus with increased inflammation showed in fetal scar formation. We hypothesized that increased fetal wound size increases pro‐inflammatory and fibrotic genes with resultant inflammation and fibroplasia and that transition to scar formation could be reversed by overexpression of interleukin‐10 (IL‐10). To test this hypothesis, 2‐mm and 8‐mm dermal wounds were created in mid‐gestation fetal sheep. A subset of 8‐mm wounds were injected with a lentiviral vector containing the IL‐10 transgene (n = 4) or vehicle (n = 4). Wounds were harvested at 3 or 30 days for histology, immunohistochemistry, analysis of gene expression by microarray, and validation with real‐time polymerase chain reaction. In contrast to the scarless 2‐mm wounds, 8‐mm wounds showed scar formation with a differential gene expression profile, increased inflammatory cytokines, decreased CD45+ cells, and subsequent inflammation. Lentiviral‐mediated overexpression of the IL‐10 gene resulted in conversion to a regenerative phenotype with decreased inflammatory cytokines and regeneration of dermal architecture. In conclusion, increased fetal wounds size leads to a unique gene expression profile that promotes inflammation and leads to scar formation and furthermore, these results show the significance of attenuated inflammation and IL‐10 in the transition from fibroplasia to fetal regenerative healing.
Complete Software Package for Transformer Design Optimization and Economic Evaluation Analysis

In the present paper, a Transformer Design Optimization (TDO) software package is developed providing a user-friendly transformer design and visualization environment. This software consists of a collection of design optimization, visualization and verification tools, able to provide transformer designers all the proper interactive capabilities required for the enhancement of the automated design process of a manufacturing industry.
Antifungal susceptibility patterns of germ tube positive versus germ

Background : Germ tube test is commonly used for presumptive identification of Candida species. This study compared the antifungal susceptibility patterns of germ tube positive with germ tube negative Candida isolates. Methods : A prospective study on Candida isolates from various clinical specimens was conducted at Hospital Sungai Buloh, Malaysia. Yeasts isolates were subjected to germ tube tests and classified as germ tube positive or germ tube negative. The species were then confirmed using API 20C AUX kit. Antifungal susceptibility testing was performed using commercially prepared broth microdilution method, Sensititre YeastOne. Results: Out of 78 isolates, 44 were germ tube positive yeasts (40 C. albicans and 4 C. dubliniensis ) and 34 germ tube negative yeasts (12 C. tropicalis , 11 C. glabrata , 9 C. parapsilosis and 2 C. krusei ). Antifungal susceptibilities of germ tube positive/negative yeasts were (%): amphotericin B, 100/100; fluconazole, 61.4/61.8; itraconazole, 52.3/20.6; voriconazole, 65.9/91.2; caspofungin, 97.7/100; and flucyto-sine, 100/94.1, respectively. Conclusions : Antifungal susceptibility patterns between germ tube positive and germ tube negative Can-dida isolates differed significantly especially for the azoles. Combination of germ tube and antifungal susceptibility testing may be a useful tool for early selection of appropriate empirical antifungal therapy.
In-switch dynamic flow aggregation in software defined networks

The limited size of the flow table, usually implemented by ternary content addressable memory (TCAM), may result in the flow table overflow problem, which becomes severer in software defined networks (SDN). To conquer this problem, this paper proposes an in-switch dynamic flow aggregation (IDFA) mechanism, which can be dynamically triggered. In the IDFA, redundant flow entries are inserted to speed up flow aggregation convergence time. The uniqueness of the proposed IDFA is that it resides in an OpenFlow switch, instead of acting as an application in an SDN controller, which avoids link delays between the controller and switches. This paper also proposes two novel techniques, degradation and repermutation, to aggregate flows effectively while keeping semantic equivalence. Evaluation results show that, the average compression ratio of the IDFA in a fat-tree topology under a LAN (random IP) environment is 26.3% (43%) better than that of the Flow Table Reduction Scheme (FTRS), a representative related work. The average flow aggregation convergence time of the IDFA in the fat-tree topology is 84% shorter than that of the FTRS. In addition, the occurrence probability of flow table overflow in the fat-tree topology is 26.71 % lower than that of the FTRS.
Automatic recognition of myeloma cells in microscopic images using bottleneck algorithm, modified watershed and SVM classifier

Plasma cells are developed from B lymphocytes, a type of white blood cells that is generated in the bone marrow. The plasma cells produce antibodies to fight with bacteria and viruses and stop infection and disease. Multiple myeloma is a cancer of plasma cells that collections of abnormal plasma cells (myeloma cells) accumulate in the bone marrow. The definitive diagnosis of multiple myeloma is done by searching for myeloma cells in the bone marrow slides through a microscope. Diagnosis of myeloma cells from bone marrow smears is a subjective and time‐consuming task for pathologists. Also, because of depending on final decision on human eye and opinion, error risk in decision may occur. Sometimes, existence of infection in body causes plasma cell's increment which could be diagnosed wrongly as multiple myeloma. The computer diagnostic process will reduce the diagnostic time and also can be worked as a second opinion for pathologists.
Automatic Labelling of Topics with Neural Embeddings

Topics generated by topic models are typically represented as list of terms. To reduce the cognitive overhead of interpreting these topics for end-users, we propose labelling a topic with a succinct phrase that summarises its theme or idea. Using Wikipedia document titles as label candidates, we compute neural embeddings for documents and words to select the most relevant labels for topics. Comparing to a state-of-the-art topic labelling system, our methodology is simpler, more efficient and finds better topic labels.
Corpus-dependent Association Thesauri for Information Retrieval

This paper presents a method for automatically generating an association thesaurus from a text corpus, and demonstrates its application to information retrieval. The thesaurus generation method consists of extracting terms and co-occurrence data from a corpus and analyzing the correlation between terms statistically. A new method for disambiguating the structure of compound nouns, which is a key component for term extraction, is also proposed. The automatically generated thesaurus is effectively used as a tool for exploring information. A thesaurus navigator having novel functions such as term clustering, thesaurus overview, and zooming-in is proposed.
Cigarette smoking exacerbates nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in obese rats

The prevalence of cigarette smoking (CS) is increased among obese subjects, who are susceptible to develop nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). We investigated the hepatic effects of CS in control and obese rats. Control and obese Zucker rats were divided into smokers and nonsmokers (n = 12 per group). Smoker rats were exposed to 2 cigarettes/day, 5 days/week for 4 weeks. The effects of CS were assessed by biochemical analysis, hepatic histological examination, immunohistochemistry, and gene expression analysis. Phosphorylation of AKT and extracellular signal‐regulated kinase (ERK) and quantification of carbonylated proteins were assessed by western blotting. As expected, obese rats showed hypercholesterolemia, insulin resistance, and histological features of NAFLD. Smoking did not modify the lipidic or glucidic serum profiles. Smoking increased alanine aminotransferase serum levels and the degree of liver injury in obese rats, whereas it only induced minor changes in control rats. Importantly, CS increased the histological severity of NAFLD in obese rats. We also explored the potential mechanisms involved in the deleterious effects of CS. Smoking increased the degree of oxidative stress and hepatocellular apoptosis in obese rats, but not in controls. Similarly, smoking increased the hepatic expression of tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase‐1 and procollagen‐alpha2(I) in obese rats, but not in controls. Finally, smoking regulated ERK and AKT phosphorylation. The deleterious effects of CS were not observed after a short exposure (5 days). Conclusion: CS causes oxidative stress and worsens the severity of NAFLD in obese rats. Further studies should assess whether this finding also occurs in patients with obesity and NAFLD. (HEPATOLOGY 2010.)
Trabectedin therapy for sarcomas

Purpose of review The therapeutic armamentarium of adult soft-tissue sarcomas (STS) has widened in recent years. This was also due to increased consideration of their variegated histology. Trabectedin is a new chemotherapeutic agent, which significantly strengthens the armamentarium along this direction. Recent findings Trabectedin has proven efficacy in STS, mainly in leiomyosarcomas, liposarcomas, and other translocation-related sarcomas. Among further subgroups, its activity in uterine leiomyosarcomas is noteworthy. Moreover, it exerts special antitumor activity in myxoid liposarcomas, with distinct patterns of tumor response. Also, its mechanism of action is distinct in myxoid liposarcoma, apparently overcoming lipogenic cell differentiation block due to the tumor chromosomal translocation. Apart from histology, DNA repair mechanisms have been investigated as a predictive factor, with retrospective evidence in support. Combination of trabectedin with doxorubicin has limitations due to additive toxicity. Trabectedin is well tolerated as a single agent. Occasional major myelosuppression is possible but proper patient selection (with a focus on liver tests) and possibly steroid premedication are of help. Summary Trabectedin is a new marine-derived drug with a definite role in the ‘histology-driven’ medical therapy of STS. There is room for further investigation, to fully elucidate its efficacy in all STS and optimize tolerability.
The cross-partitioning scheme for an OFDM signal in multiple transmit antenna systems

The reduction of the potentially large peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) of an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signal in multiple transmit antenna systems is considered in this paper. Multi-carrier signaling can support high-rate data transmission in a wireless channel environment. A large number of subchannels in a multi-carrier signal cause a large PAPR, which requires linearity of the transmission. Thus, highly linear power amplifiers can be caused to handle the large PAPR of the transmitted signals at the cost of power efficiency. Recently, partial transmit sequence (PTS) method has been proposed. In PTS, the transmitted signal is partitioned into subblocks and combined together with phase rotations to lower PAPR. This technique provides good performance with low complexity and some required side information. Using the concept of partitioning and phase rotation as in PTS, a combining method of an OFDM signal is proposed for multiple transmit antenna systems. Side information needs to be sent to the receiver together with data transmission to reconfigure the combined data blocks in multiple transmit antennas. Simulation results show that performance improvement can be achieved with the proposed scheme.
Homoarginine and mortality in an older population: the Hoorn study

Homoarginine is an amino acid that may be involved in nitric oxide and energy metabolism. Previous studies in patient populations showed that low homoarginine levels indicate an increased risk of mortality and cardiovascular disease. We evaluated whether low plasma levels of homoarginine are associated with elevated, overall and cause‐specific mortality.
Tinel's Sign and Phalen's Maneuver: Physical Signs of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

arpal tunnel syndrome is a common condition that results from compression of the median nerve at the wrist. 1‐ 3 The syndrome is characterized by pain that begins in the distal arm or wrist and radiates into the thumb, index finger, and middle finger. 3 Patients may also complain of numbness and tingling in the distribution of the median nerve, as well as nocturnal pain, which occurs in as many as 95% of patients. 4 Diagnosis is usually based on clinical grounds but is often confirmed with electrophysiologic testing. Several physical signs are associated with carpal tunnel syndrome, including Tinel’s sign and Phalen’s maneuver (Sidebar). Since the initial description of Tinel’s sign and Phalen’s maneuver, the significance of these two signs and their usefulness in the diagnosis of carpal tunnel syndrome have been extensively debated. HISTORIC PERSPECTIVE
The Electronic Structure of Mixed Self-Assembled Monolayers

The electronic structure of mixed self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) on Au(111) surfaces is modeled using slab-type density-functional theory calculations. The studied molecules have a dipolar character induced by polar and electron donating or accepting tail-group substituents. The resulting electronic structure of mixed layers is found to differ qualitatively from a simple superposition of those of the respective pure layers. Specifically, the positions of the frontier electronic states are shifted relative to the metal Fermi level, with the sign and magnitude of that shift depending on the dipole moment of the molecules and the mixing ratio in the film. This appears counterintuitive considering previous investigations, in which it has been shown that, for densely packed layers, tail-group substituents have no impact on the interfacial energy-level alignment. The seeming contradiction can be lifted by considering the local electrostatic interactions within the films in both mixed and homogeneous monolayers. Beyond that, we show that mixed SAMs provide an efficient tool for continuously tuning substrate work functions over a range that far exceeds that accessible by merely changing the coverage of homogeneous layers, with the net effect depending linearly on the mixing ratio in agreement with recent experimental findings.
Predictors of WAIS–R vocabulary in late life: Differences by race

ABSTRACT Background: Vocabulary scores tend to be significantly related to education in heterogeneous groups of older adults, even after controlling for confounding variables. However, there may be other factors that impinge on cognitive functioning for certain demographic groups, particularly those whose educational opportunities were limited, and who may have experienced considerable stress as a result of their minority status. Objectives: This study sought to explore possible predictors of vocabulary scores among African American and White older adults. Method: In this study, samples of African American (N = 165) and White (N = 146) community-dwelling older adults reported their level of education, perceived health status, and number of stressful life events, and were administered the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale–Revised (WAIS–R) Vocabulary subtest. Results: Among the White participants, level of education was the only significant predictor of vocabulary score after controlling for perceived health and exposure to stress. Among African American participants, education was also a significant predictor of vocabulary score. However perceived health and number of stressful life events were also significantly predictors of vocabulary score. Conclusions: Findings indicate that for certain cohorts of older adults, especially those who may have experienced stressful life circumstances and health disparities as a result of racial inequality, education may not be the only variable that predicts verbal intelligence. The importance of investigating cognitive functioning within a broader sociocultural context is discussed.
Investigating the Influence of Waste Basalt Powder on Selected Properties of Cement Paste and Mortar

Concrete is the most widely used man-made construction material in civil engineering applications. The consumption of cement and thus concrete, increases day by day along with the growth of urbanization and industrialization and due to new developments in construction technologies, population growing, increasing of living standard. Concrete production consumes much energy and large amounts of natural resources. It causes environmental, energy and economic losses. The most important material in concrete production is cement. Cement industry contributes to production of about 7% of all CO2 generated in the world. Every ton of cement production releases nearly one ton of CO2 to atmosphere. Thus the concrete and cement industry changes the environment appearance and influences it very much. Therefore, it has become very important for construction industry to focus on minimizing the environmental impact, reducing energy consumption and limiting CO2 emission. The need to meet these challenges has spurred an interest in the development of a blended Portland cement in which the amount of clinker is reduced and partially replaced with mineral additives – supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs). Many researchers have studied the possibility of using another mineral powder in mortar and concrete production. The addition of marble dust, basalt powder, granite or limestone powder positively affects some properties of cement mortar and concrete. This paper presents an experimental study on the properties of cement paste and mortar containing basalt powder. The basalt powder is a waste emerged from the preparation of aggregate used in asphalt mixture production. Previous studies have shown that analysed waste used as a fine aggregate replacement, has a beneficial effect on some properties of mortar and concrete, i.e. compressive strength, flexural strength and freeze resistance also. The present study shows the results of the research concerning the modification of cement paste and mortar with basalt powder. The modification consists in that the powder waste was added as partial replacement of cement. Four types of common cement were examined, i.e. CEM I, CEM II/A-S, CEM II/A-V and CEM II/B-V. The percentages of basalt powder in this research are 0%, 1%, 2%, 3%, 4%, 6%, 8% and 10% by mass. Results showed that the addition of basalt powder improved the strength of cement mortar. The use of mineral powder as the partial substitution of cement allows the effective management of industrial waste and improves some properties of cement mortar.
Secular changes in BMI and the associations between risk factors and BMI in children born 29 years apart

What is already known about this subject Factors associated with children's body mass index (BMI) include parents’ BMIs, birth weight, maternal smoking, sleep duration and television watching. Few studies have attempted to quantify either changes in the association between risk factors and BMI or the contribution of changes in the risk factors to increases in BMI over a generation.
Characterization of the Expressivity of Existential Rule Queries

Existential rules (also known as Datalog± or tuple-generating dependencies) have been intensively studied in recent years as a prominent formalism in knowledge representation and database systems. We consider them here as a querying formalism, extending classical Datalog, the language of deductive databases. It is well known that the classes of databases recognized by (Boolean) existential rule queries are closed under homomorphisms. Also, due to the existence of a semi-decision procedure (the chase), these database classes are recursively enumerable. We show that, conversely, every homomorphism-closed recursively enumerable query can be expressed as an existential rule query, thus arriving at a precise characterization of existential rules by model-theoretic and computational properties. Although the result is very intuitive, the proof turns out to be non-trivial. This result can be seen as a very expressive counterpart of the prominent Lyndon-Łos-Tarski-Theorem characterizing the homomorphism-closed fragment of first-order logic. Notably, our result does not presume the existence of any additional built-in structure on the queried data, such as a linear order on the domain, which is a typical requirement for other characterizations in the spirit of descriptive complexity.
Optimization of a Mechanical Design Problem with the Modified Bacterial Foraging Algorithm

This paper presents the solution of a real-world constrained bi-objective mechanical design problem in presence of a dynamic cons- traint by using the Modified Bacterial Foraging Optimization Algorithm. This algorithm, originally designed to solve single-objective optimization problems, is adapted to include in its processes Pareto dominance as selection criterion, an external archive for elitism, and crowding distance as a diversity mechanism. The results obtained are compared with those provided by two evolutionary algorithms. The bacterial-based approach is able to provide a highly competitive performance and the type of solutions found are more suitable, based on the opinion of the expert mechanical designer.
The Heavy Metal-Responsive Transcription Factor-1 (MTF-1) Is Not Required for Neural Differentiation

Abstract The zinc finger transcription factor MTF-1 is essential for proper response to heavy metal load and other stress conditions in vertebrates, and also contributes to the maintenance of the cellular redox state. Target genes include metallothioneins (MT-I and MT-II) and gamma-glutamylcysteine synthetase (gamma-GCS), an enzyme involved in glutathione biosynthesis. Although MTF-1 is expressed ubiquitously, the primary defect in null mutant mice is hepatocyte necrosis, which results in embryonic lethality around day E14 and prevents the analysis of delayed effects on other organs. To assess the impact of MTF-1 deficiency on the function of the mature central nervous system, we employed the neural grafting strategy. Neuroectodermal brain tissue obtained from transgenic mouse embryos at gestational day 12.5 was transplanted into the caudoputamen of adult wild-type mice. 33 days later, grafts derived from MTF-1 deficient mice consisted of fully differentiated neuroectodermal tissue and showed no differences to heterozygous control grafts. This indicates that MTF-1 is dispensable for the development and differentiation of the nervous system. Such transplants devoid of MTF-1 may provide a useful tool for the further investigation of the effect of cell stress, including oxidative stress.
Agents assisted software project management

The market opportunities for the field of software engineering have been on the rise for the last three decades. This field of engineering is relatively new and the management of projects in this field, though experiencing greater degrees of assistance from tools, still requires improvements. We present here details of our experiments on how the multi-agent technology can be used to improve the productivity and quality of software project management (SPM) process. We have picked up the quality review management sub-process of SPM and described its modeling using GAIA and its implementation using the JADE framework. We also present a case study and the productivity and quality improvements observed.