Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Endotoxin Induced Chorioamnionitis Prevents Intestinal Development during Gestation in Fetal Sheep

Chorioamnionitis is the most significant source of prenatal inflammation and preterm delivery. Prematurity and prenatal inflammation are associated with compromised postnatal developmental outcomes, of the intestinal immune defence, gut barrier function and the vascular system. We developed a sheep model to study how the antenatal development of the gut was affected by gestation and/or by endotoxin induced chorioamnionitis. Chorioamnionitis was induced at different gestational ages (GA). Animals were sacrificed at low GA after 2d or 14d exposure to chorioamnionitis. Long term effects of 30d exposure to chorioamnionitis were studied in near term animals after induction of chorioamnionitis. The cellular distribution of tight junction protein ZO-1 was shown to be underdeveloped at low GA whereas endotoxin induced chorioamnionitis prevented the maturation of tight junctions during later gestation. Endotoxin induced chorioamnionitis did not induce an early (2d) inflammatory response in the gut in preterm animals. However, 14d after endotoxin administration preterm animals had increased numbers of T-lymphocytes, myeloperoxidase-positive cells and gammadelta T-cells which lasted till 30d after induction of chorioamnionitis in then near term animals. At early GA, low intestinal TLR-4 and MD-2 mRNA levels were detected which were further down regulated during endotoxin-induced chorioamnionitis. Predisposition to organ injury by ischemia was assessed by the vascular function of third-generation mesenteric arteries. Endotoxin-exposed animals of low GA had increased contractile response to the thromboxane A2 mimetic U46619 and reduced endothelium-dependent relaxation in responses to acetylcholine. The administration of a nitric oxide (NO) donor completely restored endothelial dysfunction suggesting reduced NO bioavailability which was not due to low expression of endothelial nitric oxide synthase. Our results indicate that the distribution of the tight junctional protein ZO-1, the immune defence and vascular function are immature at low GA and are further compromised by endotoxin-induced chorioamnionitis. This study suggests that both prematurity and inflammation in utero disturb fetal gut development, potentially predisposing to postnatal intestinal pathology.
Cerebral perfusion and diffusion in stroke: Association with aphasia severity in the early phases of recovery

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between cerebral perfusion, diffusion, and aphasia severity in stroke. Nine subjects with acute ischemic stroke were examined within 24 hours of symptom onset and six were reexamined at onemonth post-stroke. Examination included aphasia testing, testing of face discrimination ability, administration of the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale, and perfusion MRI (PI), diffusion MRI (DWl), and T2-weighted MRI (T2-MRI). Subjects with a variety of aphasia types and severity participated in the study. MR images were visually inspected to verify perfusion and diffusion abnormalities. Perfusion abnormality was quantified by calculating a perfusion signal ratio of the affected hemisphere over the whole image (left/whole = ratio). Lesion volume was calculated from the DWI and T2MRI. A visual inspection of the MR images suggested that perfusion abnormality was larger than the DWI lesion in 8 of 9 subjects. Minimal lesions were observed on DWI in three of the subjects while their PI revealed significant perfusion abnormality. The correlation (Spearman) between aphasia severity and hypoperfusion was significant in the acute stage and again at one-month post-stroke. Five of six subjects that were reexamined at one-month post-stroke experienced significant aphasia recovery. Visual inspection of their PI scans suggests that aphasia recovery was accompanied by increase in cerebral perfusion. The correlation between aphasia severity and lesion size was not statistically significant in the acute stage or at one-month post-stroke. Consequently, it is probable that cerebral hypoperfusion is a better predictor of aphasia severity and recovery in early stroke than lesion volume seen on DWI and T2-MRI.
An adaptive wireless powering and data telemetry system for optic nerve stimulation

To treat retinal degenerative diseases, a transcorneal electrical stimulation-based system is proposed which consists of an in vivo eye implant and an in vitro control device. The eye implant is wirelessly powered and controlled by the in vitro device to generate the required bi-phase current pattern for the transcorneal stimulation with an amplitude range of 5μA~320μA, a frequency range of 10Hz~160Hz and a duty ratio range of 2.5%~20%. Only one pair of coils is used for both the power link and the bi-directional data link. Except the secondary coil, the eye implant is fully integrated on chip and fabricated using UMC 0. 13μm CMOS process with a size of 1.5mm by 1.5mm. The secondary coil is tiny and fabricated on a PCB with an outer diameter of only 4.4mm. After packaging with biocompatible silicone, the whole implant has a dimension of 6mm diameter with a thickness of less than 1mm. The whole device can be put on the sclera and beneath the eye's conjunctiva. Measurement results verify the system's functionality and demonstrate the performance.
The Myth of Individualism: How Social Forces Shape Our Lives

Preface to the Second Edition Introduction 1. Individualism: The Power of a Myth 2. Becoming a Person: The Power of Symbols 3. Conformity and Disobedience: The Power of the Group 4. Family Matters: The Power of Social Class 5. Globalization: The Power of Capitalism 6. Violence, Sex, and Politics: The Power of Mass Media 7. From "Me" to "We": The Power of Collective Action Conclusion
A dynamic and static study of hepatic arterioles and hepatic sphincters.

The purpose of this investigation was to demonstrate the cytology of the sphincters of hepatic sinusoids, to elucidate further the pathway by which arterial blood is distributed to the sinusoids, and to study the hormonal and local regulation of arterial and portal venous blood flow through the sinusoids. The sphincters were found to consist of reticulo-endothelial cells and were the primary site for the regulation of blood flow through the sinusoids. By contracting independently or in unison the flow of blood was regulated through individual sinusoids, through sinusoids supplying a portion of a lobule, or through sinusoids supplying a whole lobule. When the sphincter cells contracted, their nuclear region bulged into the lumen, thereby occluding it. Hepatic arterioles were found to wind around adjacent portal venules with an average curvature of 42° and communicated with sinusoids via arterio-sinus twigs. No structural arterio-portal anastomoses were observed; however, functional “arterioportal anastomoses” were formed by short twigs which terminated in sinusoids near their origins. No branches were found to terminate near central venules. The data suggest that the local regulation of blood flow through the hepatic sinusoids is mediated by vasodilator metabolites (adenosine and/or potassium) released from hypoxic hepatic cells as a result of the rapid glycogenolysis that accompanies hepatic cellular hypoxia.
Mechanism-Based Inactivation of Human Cytochrome P450 Enzymes and the Prediction of Drug-Drug Interactions

The ability to use vitro inactivation kinetic parameters in scaling to in vivo drug-drug interactions (DDIs) for mechanism-based inactivators of human cytochrome P450 (P450) enzymes was examined using eight human P450-selective marker activities in pooled human liver microsomes. These data were combined with other parameters (systemic Cmax, estimated hepatic inlet Cmax, fraction unbound, in vivo P450 enzyme degradation rate constants estimated from clinical pharmacokinetic data, and fraction of the affected drug cleared by the inhibited enzyme) to predict increases in exposure to drugs, and the predictions were compared with in vivo DDIs gathered from clinical studies reported in the scientific literature. In general, the use of unbound systemic Cmax as the inactivator concentration in vivo yielded the most accurate predictions of DDI with a mean -fold error of 1.64. Abbreviated in vitro approaches to identifying mechanism-based inactivators were developed. Testing potential inactivators at a single concentration (IC25) in a 30-min preincubation with human liver microsomes in the absence and presence of NADPH followed by assessment of P450 marker activities readily identified those compounds known to be mechanism-based inactivators and represents an approach that can be used with greater throughput. Measurement of decreases in IC50 occurring with a 30-min preincubation with liver microsomes and NADPH was also useful in identifying mechanism-based inactivators, and the IC50 measured after such a preincubation was highly correlated with the kinact/KI ratio measured after a full characterization of inactivation. Overall, these findings support the conclusion that P450 in vitro inactivation data are valuable in predicting clinical DDIs that can occur via this mechanism.
Postpartum physical activity and related psychosocial factors among women with recent gestational diabetes mellitus.

OBJECTIVE In this study, we examined patterns of postpartum physical activity among women with recent gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and psychosocial factors related to this behavior that could be addressed in diabetes prevention interventions. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS A random sample of women who had attended diabetes clinics in Sydney, Australia, in the past 6-24 months for treatment of GDM were surveyed by telephone. Variables measured included physical activity behaviors, self-efficacy, social support, and barriers to participation. RESULTS Of 226 women who completed the survey (mean age 33.4 years), 26.5% were classified as sedentary, and only 33.6% reported sufficient physical activity as recommended by health authorities. Walking was the most popular physical activity, and most women reported no other moderate- or vigorous-intensity activity. Lack of assistance with child care (49.1%) and insufficient time (37.6%) were the most common barriers to physical activity. The type of social support most often reported was verbal encouragement (39.1%), with more than half of the women never receiving assistance with housework or others exercising with them. Self-efficacy for physical activity was lowest when women were under time pressure or tired. Multivariate analyses showed that sufficient physical activity was associated with high social support (odds ratio 2.5 [95% CI 1.21-3.79]) and high self-efficacy (2.09 [1.06-3.20]). CONCLUSIONS The prevalence of sufficient physical activity was found to be low and strongly related to social support and self-efficacy. This is an important group to whom diabetes prevention strategies can be targeted.
SPATIAL ANALYSIS OF SCHIZOPHRENIA PREVALENCE USING A MULTIOBJECTIVE EVOLUTIONARY ALGORITHM

A group of geographically close spatial units that shows a similar prevalence pattern – significantly highis called a hotspot and, when i t is low or drain-like –outlet effect, this area is called a coldspot. Both areas can be identified thr ough the evaluation of the degree of agreement between Local Indicators of Spatial Aggregation (LI SA) and Bayesian Conditional Autorregresive (CAR) scores. A Multi Objective Evol utionary Algorithm (MOEA) has been designed and tested to evaluate this degree of agre ement and QQ-Plots are used to identify hot and cold-spots. The MOEA uses four different strate gies to evaluate the fitness function including a fuzzy approach and the standard SPEA2. Using this methodology the spatial distribution throughout the time span (years 2004, 2006, 2007 and 2008) of schizophrenia prevalence has been analysed in 770 municipalities in Andalusia (southern region in Spain). Our procedure is a robust method to identify both hot a nd cold-spots in the space and can be useful to organize the spatial distribution of health-care se rvic s.
Localization as a feature of mmWave communication

mmWave (millimeter-Wave) is a very promising technology for the future wireless communication. To mitigate its high attenuation characteristics, mmWave communication frequently employs directional beamforming for both transmission and reception. Localization commonly takes advantage of directionality in RF frequencies in urban and indoor environments. In this paper, we use lessons learned from classical RF-based localization for discussing a set of feasible localization approaches in the context of mmWave bands. We further map the requirements of each discussed localization approach to design requirements for future mmWave devices and assess the expected accuracy of such approaches for a set of realistic scenarios. Our results show that mmWave-based localization is promising in both its availability and accuracy, even in the presence of a limited number of localization anchor nodes.
Reduced fractional anisotropy in the uncinate fasciculus in patients with major depression carrying the met‐allele of the Val66Met brain‐derived neurotrophic factor genotype

Experimental studies support a neurotrophic hypothesis of major depressive disorder (MDD). The aim of this study was to determine the effect of Val66Met brain‐derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) polymorphism on the white matter fiber tracts connecting hippocampus and amygdala with the prefrontal lobe in a sample of patients with MDD and healthy controls. Thirty‐seven patients with MDD and 42 healthy volunteers were recruited. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data with 61 diffusion directions were obtained with MRI 3 Tesla scanner. Deterministic tractography was applied with ExploreDTI and Val66Met BDNF SNP (rs6265) was genotyped. Fiber tracts connecting the hippocampus and amygdala with the prefrontal lobe, namely uncinate fasciculus (UF), fornix, and cingulum were analyzed. A significant interaction was found in the UF between BDNF alleles and diagnosis. Patients carrying the BDNF met‐allele had smaller fractional anisotropy (FA) in the UF compared to those patients homozygous for val‐allele and compared to healthy subjects carrying the met‐allele. A significant three‐way interaction was detected between region of the cingulum (dorsal, rostral, and parahippocampal regions), brain hemisphere and BDNF genotype. Larger FA was detectable in the left rostral cingulum for met‐allele carriers when compared to val/val alelle carriers. We provide evidence for the importance of the neurotrophic involvement in limbic and prefrontal connections. The met‐allele of the BDNF polymorphism seems to render subjects more vulnerable for dysfunctions associated with the UF, a tract known to be related to negative emotional–cognitive processing bias, declarative memory problems, and autonoetic self awareness. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Evaluating Changes in Attentional Biases following Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Social Phobia

The purpose of the current study was to evaluate changes in attentional biases following CBT for Social Phobia. It was found that 1. ) consistent with previous investigations, the overall sample displayed vigilance toward threatening facial stimuli prior to receiving treatment, and 2. ) participants' pattern of responding to threatening facial stimuli changed following treat‐ ment, but only when the sample was divided into those who were vigilant and those who were avoidant prior to treatment. Findings provide support for the presence of two distinct sub‐ groups with differing attentional styles, one with a tendency for vigilance toward social threats, and a second with a tendency to avoid threat cues. These findings have important implications for how individuals may differentially respond to treatment and may help explain some of the mixed findings in the extant literature on Social Phobia and attention bias.
Named Entity Extraction and Linking in #Microposts

The task of Named Entity Extraction and Linking (NEEL) challange 2015 [5] is considered as two successive tasks : Named Entity Extraction (NEE) from the tweets and Named Entity Linking (NEL) with DBpedia. For NEE task we use CRF++ [1] to create a language model on the given training data. For entity linking, we use DBpedia Spotlight.
Analyzing Learned Convnet Features with Dirichlet Process Gaussian Mixture Models

Convolutional Neural Networks (Convnets) have achieved good results in a range of computer vision tasks the recent years. Though given a lot of attention, visualizing the learned representations to interpret Convnets, still remains a challenging task. The high dimensionality of internal representations and the high abstractions of deep layers are the main challenges when visualizing Convnet functionality. We present in this paper a technique based on clustering internal Convnet representations with a Dirichlet Process Gaussian Mixture Model, for visualization of learned representations in Convnets. Our method copes with the high dimensionality of a Convnet by clustering representations across all nodes of each layer. We will discuss how this application is useful when considering transfer learning, i.e.\ transferring a model trained on one dataset to solve a task on a different one.
Nonlinear optimization for matroid intersection and extensions

We address optimization of nonlinear functions of the form $f(Wx)$, where $f:\R^d\to \R$ is a nonlinear function, $W$ is a $d\times n$ matrix, and feasible $x$ are in some large finite set $F$ of integer points in $\R^n$. One motivation is multi-objective discrete optimization, where $f$ trades off the linear functions given by the rows of $W$. Another motivation is to extend known results about polynomial-time linear optimization over discrete structures to nonlinear optimization. We assume that the convex hull of $F$ is well-described by linear inequalities. For example, the set of characteristic vectors of common bases of a pair of matroids on a common ground set. When $F$ is well described, $f$ is convex (or even quasiconvex), and $W$ has a fixed number of rows and is unary encoded or with entries in a fixed set, we give an efficient deterministic algorithm for maximization. When $F$ is well described, $f$ is a norm, and binary-encoded $W$ is nonnegative, we give an efficient deterministic constant-approximation algorithm for maximization. When $F$ is well described, $f$ is ``ray concave'' and non-decreasing, and $W$ has a fixed number of rows and is unary encoded or with entries in a fixed set, we give an efficient deterministic constant-approximation algorithm for minimization. When $F$ is the set of characteristic vectors of common bases of a pair of vectorial matroids on a common ground set, $f$ is arbitrary, and $W$ has a fixed number of rows and is unary encoded, we give an efficient randomized algorithm for optimization.
The relationship between living arrangement and preventive care use among community-dwelling elderly persons.

OBJECTIVES We sought to examine the relationship between living arrangements and obtaining preventive care among the elderly population. METHODS We obtained data on 13,038 community-dwelling elderly persons from the 2002 to 2005 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey and used multivariate logistic regression models to estimate the likelihood of preventive care use among elderly persons in 4 living arrangements: living alone (38%), living with one's spouse only (52%), living with one's spouse and with one's adult offspring (5%), and living with one's adult offspring only (5%). Preventive care services included influenza vaccination, physical and dental checkup, and screenings for hypertension, cholesterol, and colorectal cancer. RESULTS After we controlled for age, gender, race, education, income, health insurance, comorbidities, self-reported health, physical function status, and residence location, we found that elderly persons living with a spouse only were more likely than were those living alone to obtain all preventive care services, except for hypertension screening. However, those living with their adult offspring were not more likely to obtain recommended preventive care compared with those living alone. These results did not change when the employment status and functional status of adult offspring were considered. CONCLUSIONS Interventions to improve preventive care use should target not only those elderly persons who live alone but also those living with adult offspring.
Using a Potential Game for Power Reduction in Distributed Storage Systems

We present a game-theoretic approach for power reduction in large-scale distributed storage systems. The key idea is to use distributed hash tables to dynamically migrate virtual nodes, thus skewing the workload towards a subset of physical disks without overloading them. To realize this idea in an autonomous way (i.e., without any kind of central controller), virtual nodes are considered to be selfish agents playing a game in which each node receives a payoff according to the workload of the disk on which it currently resides. We model this setting as a potential game, where an increase in the payoff to a virtual node reduces the power of the system. This game consists of a pair of global and private utility functions, derived by means of the Wonderful Life Utility technique. The former function evaluates the state of the system, and the latter provides criteria for the migration of each node. The performance of our method is measured by simulations and a prototype implementation. From these evaluations, we find that our method reduces the running time of the disks in active mode by 12.7-18.7%, with an overall average response time of 50-190 ms.
First Results on Long-Term Multiwavelength Variability Analysis in Mrk 421

Due to the broad-band nature of the emission from blazars, strong efforts are being placed in recent years on simultaneous multiwavelength campaigns as a way to understand the mechanisms responsible for the acceleration of ultra-relativistic particles in these objects. The present work aims at providing a systematic study of the broadband long-term variability properties of the TeV blazar, Mrk 421, by gathering archival multiwavelength data spanning nearly two decades in time over several energy bands, from radio frequencies through x-rays to high and very high γ -ray energies. The lightcurves at these energies have been characterized over long periods (≈months) using several statistical methods, in order to study variability over long-term timescales and the dependence of this variability with flux and energy, aiming ultimately at shedding some light onto the physical mechanisms that drive blazar emission. We present in this work the preliminary results of the variability analysis for Mrk 421, and it will be extended in the future to see if the properties found are particular of this source or if they can be extended to the blazar class.