Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Inhalation anesthesia of rats: influence of the fraction of inspired oxygen on limb ischemia/reperfusion injury

Inhalation anesthesia with isoflurane is a well-established and safe method used in small laboratory animals. In most cases oxygen is used as a carrier gas for isoflurane, but room air or mixtures of oxygen with air or nitrous oxide are also being used. Anesthesia is therefore administered using different fractions of inspired oxygen (FiO2), and this may have consequences for the outcome of experiments. The aim of the present study was to investigate the influence of FiO2 on rat hind limb ischemia/reperfusion injury and to refine the used inhalation anesthesia. Male Wistar rats were subjected to 3.5 h of ischemia and 2 h of reperfusion, and divided into three groups according to FiO2 in the O2/air/isoflurane anesthesia gas mixture: 40%, 60%, and 100% O2. Normal, healthy rats were used as controls. Muscle edema and creatine kinase MM, a marker for myocyte necrosis, were significantly increased with 40% FiO2 as compared with 100% FiO2 (P < 0.05). Partial pressure of oxygen, oxygen saturation, and oxyhemoglobin were significantly higher in the 100% O2 group as compared with 40% O2. No significant differences were detected for other parameters, such as the oxidative stress markers malondialdehyde and superoxide dismutase. We conclude that a refined inhalation anesthesia setting using 40% FiO2, reflecting more or less the clinical situation, leads to a more severe and more physiologically relevant reperfusion injury than higher FiO2. Oxidative stress did not correlate with FiO2 and seemed to have no influence on reperfusion injury.
Dendritic cell secretion of IL-15 is induced by recombinant huCD40LT and augments the stimulation of antigen-specific cytolytic T cells.

Dendritic cells (DC) are professional antigen-presenting cells which stimulate strong proliferative and cytolytic T cell responses. Stimulation of CD40 on dendritic cells by its ligands and anti-CD40 antibodies induces maturation and enhances DC stimulatory ability. In order to understand the mechanism by which ligand:CD40 interactions augment DC function, we assessed the role of T cell stimulatory cytokines IL-12 and IL-15 in the function of DC stimulated with soluble trimeric CD40L, a recombinant fusion protein incorporating three covalently linked extracellular CD40L domains (huCD40LT). Peripheral blood derived DC treated with huCD40LT and/or IFN-gamma were used to stimulate T cell responses in vitro to specific antigens. DC treated with huCD40LT or IFN-gamma/huCD40LT stimulated enhanced T cell proliferation to CASTA, a soluble protein from C. albicans, induced T cells with augmented antigen-specific lysis, and increased the yield of antigen-specific IFN-gamma-producing T cells. IL-15 production by DC was enhanced in cultures treated with huCD40LT and correlated with expansion of antigen-specific cytolytic T cells. Addition of a neutralizing anti-IL-15 monoclonal antibody inhibited the expansion of viral and tumor antigen-specific T cells stimulated by IFN-gamma and huCD40LT-treated DC. In contrast, this enhanced stimulatory ability of DC did not appear to depend on synthesis of IL-12 since huCD40LT treatment stimulated the generation of antigen-specific cytokine producing and cytolytic T cells without increased IL-12 production. Addition of anti-IL-12 monoclonal antibody did not inhibit expansion of these cells. These data suggest that production of IL-15 but not IL-12 is an important factor in the enhanced immunostimulatory ability of huCD40LT-treated DC.
System design of optronic processing for azimuth signal reconstruction in HRWS SAR based on filterbank framework

With the high programmability of spatial light modulator (SLM), an optronic processor which is capable of processing synthetic aperture radar (SAR) raw data in real time is newly developed. Azimuth signal reconstruction is an essential problem with regarding to high-resolution wide-swath (HRWS) SAR, which is always time consuming. This paper proposes an optronic system for reconstructing azimuth signal of HRWS SAR. In the optronic system, the major computation is performed by optical devices, whereas electronic devices control the data. This system can be a promising solution to azimuth reconstruction of spaceborne HRWS SAR.
Systemic inflammatory response syndrome criteria in defining severe sepsis.

BACKGROUND The consensus definition of severe sepsis requires suspected or proven infection, organ failure, and signs that meet two or more criteria for the systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS). We aimed to test the sensitivity, face validity, and construct validity of this approach. METHODS We studied data from patients from 172 intensive care units in Australia and New Zealand from 2000 through 2013. We identified patients with infection and organ failure and categorized them according to whether they had signs meeting two or more SIRS criteria (SIRS-positive severe sepsis) or less than two SIRS criteria (SIRS-negative severe sepsis). We compared their characteristics and outcomes and assessed them for the presence of a step increase in the risk of death at a threshold of two SIRS criteria. RESULTS Of 1,171,797 patients, a total of 109,663 had infection and organ failure. Among these, 96,385 patients (87.9%) had SIRS-positive severe sepsis and 13,278 (12.1%) had SIRS-negative severe sepsis. Over a period of 14 years, these groups had similar characteristics and changes in mortality (SIRS-positive group: from 36.1% [829 of 2296 patients] to 18.3% [2037 of 11,119], P<0.001; SIRS-negative group: from 27.7% [100 of 361] to 9.3% [122 of 1315], P<0.001). Moreover, this pattern remained similar after adjustment for baseline characteristics (odds ratio in the SIRS-positive group, 0.96; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.96 to 0.97; odds ratio in the SIRS-negative group, 0.96; 95% CI, 0.94 to 0.98; P=0.12 for between-group difference). In the adjusted analysis, mortality increased linearly with each additional SIRS criterion (odds ratio for each additional criterion, 1.13; 95% CI, 1.11 to 1.15; P<0.001) without any transitional increase in risk at a threshold of two SIRS criteria. CONCLUSIONS The need for two or more SIRS criteria to define severe sepsis excluded one in eight otherwise similar patients with infection, organ failure, and substantial mortality and failed to define a transition point in the risk of death. (Funded by the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Research Centre.).
FAR-INFRARED PROPERTIES OF SPITZER-SELECTED LUMINOUS STARBURSTS

We present SHARC-2 350 μm data on 20 luminous z ∼ 2 starbursts with S1.2 mm > 2 mJy from the Spitzer-selected samples of Lonsdale et al. and Fiolet et al. All the sources were detected, with S350 μm > 25 mJy for 18 of them. With the data, we determine precise dust temperatures and luminosities for these galaxies using both single-temperature fits and models with power-law mass–temperature distributions. We derive appropriate formulae to use when optical depths are non-negligible. Our models provide an excellent fit to the 6 μm–2 mm measurements of local starbursts. We find characteristic single-component temperatures T1 ≃ 35.5 ± 2.2 K and integrated infrared (IR) luminosities around 1012.9 ± 0.1 L☉ for the SWIRE-selected sources. Molecular gas masses are estimated at ≃4 × 1010 M☉, assuming κ850 μm = 0.15 m2 kg−1 and a submillimeter-selected galaxy (SMG)-like gas-to-dust mass ratio. The best-fit models imply ≳2 kpc emission scales. We also note a tight correlation between rest-frame 1.4 GHz radio and IR luminosities confirming star formation as the predominant power source. The far-IR properties of our sample are indistinguishable from the purely submillimeter-selected populations from current surveys. We therefore conclude that our original selection criteria, based on mid-IR colors and 24 μm flux densities, provides an effective means for the study of SMGs at z ∼ 1.5–2.5.
A user rating based collaborative filtering approach to predict movie preferences

Recommender systems are arguably one the most successful and widely popular commercial application of machine learning. This paper discusses and presents a collaborative filtering based movie recommender system. One of the most challenging issues in machine learning is choosing perfect features for learning algorithms. However, choosing features manually can be quite difficult and tiresome work in many complex situations. The traditional content-based recommender systems require well-defined feature matrix for the movies. However, such features are not readily available for a large dataset of movies. This is where collaborative filtering comes to rescue. It can select and learn the features all by itself. Here prediction is based on user behavior. The real advantage is that the features learned by the algorithm do not need to be human defined. A user rating based low-rank matrix factorization collaborative filtering approach has been selected for this research. MovieLens 100k dataset [1] from GroupLens research has been used in this research. To minimize the squared error of the cost function gradient descent algorithm has been used in this approach. Here all the users collaboratively contribute to the development of different features that will help new users in the future. This approach saves the time consuming, expensive and difficult nature of content based recommender as well as saving the user from a lot of hassles like filling up a long survey form. This paper is based on the study of popular Coursera course “Machine Learning” [2] by professor Andrew Ng from Stanford University. The cost function minimization to minimize the squared error is done using gradient descent algorithm which ensured the visual confirmation of the cost minimization and to provide a visual representation of the cost minimization. Also, the outliers in the prediction matrix are eliminated using a threshold value. A prototype has been proposed and implemented with the help of Matlab.
[Biomechanical studies of 9 tibial interlocking nails in a bone-implant unit].

Various different interlocking intramedullary nail designs are now available for the tibia the designs resulting from a different approaches to achieving stability for fracture fixation. During recent years small-diameter unreamed interlocking nails have been developed. So far there are no data on stiffness of different nail designs that can justify the use of certain nail types. We compared different nail types in the bone-implant complex (BIC) with reference to stiffness under axial load, bending and torsion of the BIC. We simulated comminuted mid-shaft fractures by a 2-cm defect osteotomy in paired human cadaver tibiae. We fixed each tibia with one of nine different interlocking nails (AO Unreamed Tibial Nail 9 mm [UTN9], AO Unreamed Tibial Nail 8 mm [UTN8], Russell & Taylor Delta Tibial Nail 9 mm [RTD], Russell & Taylor Reconstruction Tibial Nail 11 mm [RTR], Brooker & Wills Nail 11 mm [B-W], Grosse & Kempf Tibial Nail 11 mm [G-K], AO Universal Tibial Nail 11 mm [AOU], Klemm & Schellmann Tibial Nail 11 mm [K-S], Börner & Mattheck Tibial Nail 11 mm [B-M]) according to the manufacturers' recommendations. Each BIC was tested mechanically using a Zwick universal testing machine. Torque testing was performed with a maximum moment of 5 Nm in both directions. Maximum axial load was 1100 N. Four-point bending was done up to a moment of 66 Nm. For each implant bending and torque stiffness of the nail were calculated and compared with the test results obtained in the cadaver study. A P-value less than 0.05 (least significance difference test, ANOVA) was considered significant. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Fully Automated One-Step Production of Functional 3D Tumor Spheroids for High-Content Screening

Adoption of spheroids within high-content screening (HCS) has lagged behind high-throughput screening (HTS) due to issues with running complex assays on large three-dimensional (3D) structures. To enable multiplexed imaging and analysis of spheroids, different cancer cell lines were grown in 3D on micropatterned 96-well plates with automated production of nine uniform spheroids per well. Spheroids achieve diameters of up to 600 µm, and reproducibility was experimentally validated (interwell and interplate CVdiameter <5%). Biphoton imaging confirmed that micropatterned spheroids exhibit characteristic cell heterogeneity with distinct microregions. Furthermore, central necrosis appears at a consistent spheroid size, suggesting standardized growth. Using three reference compounds (fluorouracil, irinotecan, and staurosporine), we validated HT-29 micropatterned spheroids on an HCS platform, benchmarking against hanging-drop spheroids. Spheroid formation and imaging in a single plate accelerate assay workflow, and fixed positioning prevents structures from overlapping or sticking to the well wall, augmenting image processing reliability. Furthermore, multiple spheroids per well increase the statistical confidence sufficiently to discriminate compound mechanisms of action and generate EC50 values for endpoints of cell death, architectural change, and size within a single-pass read. Higher quality data and a more efficient HCS work chain should encourage integration of micropatterned spheroid models within fundamental research and drug discovery applications.
A dual-path three-stage VCO with wide tuning range

In this paper, a full integrated high-speed ring VCO is designed. The VCO consists of three stages, each of which is composed of a fast path and a slow path while the outputs of both paths are summed. Since the 0.25 um CMOS technology and 3.3 v voltage supply, the VCO has a wide operating frequency ranging from 800 MHz to 2.1 GHz with a high gain of 1.08 GHz/V PLL and frequency synthesizer will be the potential applications.
Separating the Wheat from the Chaff: Events Detection in Twitter Data

In this paper we present a system for the detection and validation of macro and micro-events in cities (e.g. concerts, business meetings, car accidents) through the analysis of geolocalized messages from Twitter. A simple but effective method is proposed for unknown event detection designed to alleviate computational issues in traditional approaches. The method is exploited by a web interface that in addition to visualizing the results of the automatic computation exposes interactive tools to inspect, validate the data and refine the processing pipeline. Researchers can exploit the web application for the rapid creation of macro and micro-events datasets of geolocalized messages currently unavailable and needed to improve supervised and unsupervised events classification on Twitter. The system has been evaluated in terms of precision.
Did New Regulations Target the Relevant Corporate Governance Attributes?

Recent corporate scandals have led to new governance rules that include the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation (SOX) and additional regulations by stock exchanges. This study examines the changes in corporate governance practices during 2001-2005, which covers the period before and after the new regulations. We analyze a comprehensive set of 64 governance attributes for more than 5,200 firms. Our findings indicate that corporate governance practices beyond those mandated by new regulations changed substantially over this period. We find statistically significant differences in governance across firm size and industries. After controlling for size and industry we find a positive and significant relation between governance and firm value. We find that new regulations are associated with higher firm value in firms that adopted the regulations prior to them being mandated. The results are statistically and economically significant. In this sense our findings suggest that the new regulations did target relevant governance attributes. However, the analysis also indicates that the markets were already rewarding firms that had better governance. Therefore, it is not clear that mandatory rules for all firms were required. Clearly the costs of imposing new regulations on certain types of firms, for example, small firms, were potentially too costly. In the post-regulatory period, as expected, the relationship between the regulatory governance attributes and firm value does not exist. We find that the positive relationship between governance attributes not mandated by regulations and firm value continues even in the post-regulatory period.
A Comparison of Pinch Force between Finger and Palm Grasp techniques in Laparoscopic Grasping

Laparoscopic surgery is a new abdominal surgical procedure which helps the patients in many ways like less hospital stay, faster recovery and reduced pain. The main disadvantage in this surgical procedure is the reduced haptic perception by the surgeons due to the usage of laparoscopic instrument to handle tissues which in turn cause damage of it as compared to an open surgery. The primary aim of this investigation was to compare the pinch force applied during two different methods of laparoscopic grasping: Finger and Palm grasp. A low cost force sensing resistor tailor made for the grasper tip was designed and fabricated for quantifying the grasper tip force in the study. The results indicate more pinch force was applied during palm grasp as compared to finger grasp so as to prevent the slippage of the tissues from the jaws of the laparoscopic graspers.
Checking security properties by model checking

A method is proposed for checking security properties in programs written in high‐level languages. The method is based on the model checking technique. The SMV tool is used. The representation of the program is a Kripke structure modelling the control flow graph enriched with security information. The properties considered are secure information flow and the absence of covert channels caused by program termination. The formulae expressing these security properties are given using the logic CTL. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Lumazine proteins from photobacteria: localization of the single ligand binding site to the N-terminal domain

Abstract Lumazine protein is believed to serve as an optical transponder in bioluminescence emission by certain marine bacteria. Sequence arguments suggest that the protein comprises two similarly folded riboflavin synthase-type domains, but earlier work also suggested that only one domain binds 6,7-dimethyl-8-ribityllumazine (DMRL). We show that the replacement of serine-48 or threonine-50 in the N-terminal domain of lumazine protein of Photobacterium leiognathi modulates the absorbance and fluorescence properties of bound DMRL or riboflavin. Moreover, the replacement of these amino acids is accompanied by reduced ligand affinity. Replacement of serine-48 by tryptophan shifts the 13C NMR signal of the 6-methyl group in bound DMRL upfield by 2.9 ppm as compared to the wild-type protein complex. Replacement of threonine-50 causes a downfield shift of approximately 20 ppm for the 15N NMR signal of N-5, as well as an upfield shift of 3 ppm for the 13C NMR signal of C-7 in bound DMRL, respectively. The replacement of the topologically equivalent serine-144 and proline-146 in the C-terminal domain had no significant impact on optical properties, chemical shifts and apparent binding constants of bound DMRL. These data show that the N-terminal domain is the unique site for ligand binding in lumazine protein.
The relationship between DSM‐5 PTSD symptom clusters and alcohol misuse among military veterans

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Prior research has revealed a strong relationship between Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and alcohol misuse. However, previous attempts to understand nuanced associations between PTSD symptom clusters and alcohol misuse within military veteran samples have produced mixed results. In an attempt to better understand the associations between PTSD and alcohol misuse, the current study examined the unique relationships between the newly classified Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) PTSD symptom clusters and alcohol misuse in an outpatient sample of military veterans seeking treatment for PTSD and Substance Use Disorders. METHODS Veterans (N = 100) were administered a brief battery of self-report questionnaires prior to receiving psychological services to aid in diagnostic assessment and treatment planning. RESULTS Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that PTSD intrusions (cluster B), negative alterations in cognition and mood (cluster D), and arousal/reactivity (cluster E) symptoms were associated with alcohol misuse. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS The positive association between alcohol misuse and PTSD symptom severity is consistent with a broader body of literature demonstrating the co-occurrence of these disorders, particularly in military samples. SCIENTIFIC SIGNIFICANCE Increased alcohol consumption may interfere with current front-line treatments for PTSD, which encourages patients to experience a full range of emotions. As such, future research should explore the impact of substance use on the effectiveness of trauma focused treatments in the alleviation of DSM-5 PTSD symptoms. (Am J Addict 2018;27:23-28).
An 8×8 CMOS microelectrode array for electrochemical dopamine detection

This work presents the design and characterization of an integrated CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) electrochemical sensor array for dopamine (DA) detection. The chip is intended to provide as a platform for high-throughput measurement of neurotransmitter release during exocytosis. Interdigitated gold microelectrodes with a 5-µm gap are fabricated on CMOS chips by a post-CMOS lithographic process. A buffer with a class-AB output stage is used for on-chip cell stimulation. The sensing circuits are placed beneath the microelectrodes and each sensor has a size of 160 × 150 µm2. Both reduction and oxidation currents are successfully detected under a dopamine concentration of 10 µM.
The accuracy of community-based automated blood pressure machines.

BACKGROUND Despite widespread use, the accuracy of community-based automated blood pressure machines has been questioned. We sought to determine if these machines are as accurate and reliable as those obtained by a clinician with a mercury manometer. METHODS We randomly selected 25 pharmacies and compared blood pressure readings obtained from their automated machines with from a mercury manometer. We used 3 volunteers with arm circumferences at the low, medium, and high ends of the acceptable range of a normal adult cuff size. RESULTS For the subject with the small arm size, store machines reported systolic pressure readings that were, on average, 10 mm Hg higher than those obtained by the clinician (P <.001) and diastolic pressures 9 mm Hg higher (P <.001). The mean systolic pressure readings for the subject with the medium arm size were not significantly different between the store machine and the mercury manometer, and the readings were only modestly different for diastolic pressure. For the subject with the large arm size, store machines reported diastolic pressure readings that were, on average, 8.3 mm Hg lower than those obtained using the mercury manometer (P <.001), but with no significant difference in the systolic pressure. CONCLUSIONS We found that automated blood pressure machines from a representative community-based sample of pharmacies did not meet the accepted standards of accuracy and reliability. Accuracy of readings is especially uncertain for patients having arm sizes larger or smaller than average.