Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Antithrombotic Fucoidan, Unlike Heparin, Does Not Prolong Bleeding Time in a Murine Arterial Thrombosis Model: A Comparative Study of Undaria pinnatifida sporophylls and Fucus vesiculosus

The antithrombotic activities and bleeding effects of selected fucoidans (source from either Undaria pinnatifida sporophylls or from Fucus vesiculosus) have been compared with heparin in the ferric chloride‐induced arterial thrombus mouse model. Thrombosis was induced by applying 5% ferric chloride for 3 min on the carotid artery region of Balb/c mouse. Five minutes prior to thrombus induction, mice were infused through the tail vein with either saline (control) or polysaccharides. Either fucoidan or heparin was dosed at 0.1, 1.25, 2.5, 5.0, 10, 25, or 50 mg/kg intravenously (i.v.) The carotid blood flow was monitored until more than 60 min post‐thrombus induction. Mouse tail transection bleeding time was measured up to 60 min after making a cut in the mouse tail. Both antithrombotic and bleeding effects were observed in a dose‐dependent manner for both fucoidans and heparin. Thrombus formation was totally (reflected by Doppler flow meter) inhibited at either 5 or 50 mg/kg of unfractionated Undaria fucoidan or a low‐molecular‐weight Undaria fucoidan fraction, respectively, without prolonging the time‐to‐stop bleeding compared with the control (p < 0.01). The total inhibition of thrombus formation was observed for unfractionated Fucus fucoidan at 25 mg/kg where the time‐to‐stop bleeding was still significantly prolonged, by as much as 8 ± 1.7 min (p < 0.02). In contrast the heparin‐treated group showed total inhibition of thrombus formation even at a small dose of 0.8 mg/kg (400 IU) at which bleeding continued until 60 min. In conclusion algal fucoidans are highly antithrombotic without potential haemorrhagic effects compared with heparin in the arterial thrombus model, but this property differs from algal species to species, and from the molecular structure of fucoidans. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Power allocation algorithm for OFDM distributed antenna systems

We solve the power allocation problem for distributed antenna system (DAS) in [1] with a simple algorithm running in polynomial time. Simulations in two scenarios with single and three sectors per cell show that the proposed power allocation scheme in DAS achieves higher system capacity by 50.1%, and 45.9%, respectively, in comparison with macro base station. Our proposal provides a practical and cost effective solution to address the issues of deployment cost and system capacity.
Screening for lupus anticoagulant: improving the performance of the lupus‐sensitive PTT‐LA

Introduction: The aim of the present work was to verify whether calculating a ratio between clotting times obtained with the sensitive PTT‐LA and a less sensitive activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT)‐reagent may represent a valuable aPTT‐based screening strategy for lupus anticoagulants (LA).
An Approach for Automated Service Selection and Ranking using Services Choreography

In today's highly competitive market, it is critical to provide customers services with a high level of configuration to answer their business needs. Knowing in advance the performance associated with a specific choreography of services (e.g., by taking into account the expected results of each component service) represents an important asset that allows businesses to provide a global service tailored to customers' specific requests. This research work aims at advancing the state-of-the-art in this area by proposing an approach for service selection and ranking using services choreography, predicting the behavior of the services considering customers' requirements and preferences, business process constraints and characteristics of the execution environment.
Update XML Data by Using Graphical Languages

To be a full-featured data exchange format, XML should support not only queries but also updates on its contents. The new W3C XML update facility has proposed a set of operators (insert, delete, replace and rename) and expressions to modify XML data. However, the new update standard is an extension of XPath/XQuery. As a result, it requires the full knowledge about complex XPath/XQuery writing techniques, which is too difficult for common users to use. In this paper, we intuitively represent XML update expressions as graphs. Based on our previous works of GLASS (Graphical query LAnguages for Semi-Structured data), we make an extension, named as GLASSU, to support the new XML update facility. To our best knowledge, it is the world first graphical language that supports XML updates.
Online Adaptive PCA for Inverse Kinematics Hand Tracking

Recent approaches to real-time bare hand tracking estimate the hand’s pose and posture by fitting a virtual hand model to RGBD sensor data using inverse kinematics. It has been shown that exploiting natural hand synergies can improve the efficiency and quality of the tracking, by performing the optimization in a reduced parameter space consisting of realistic hand postures [SMRB14]. The downside, however, is that only postures within this subspace can be tracked reliably, thereby trading off flexibility and accuracy for performance and robustness. In this paper we extend the previous method by introducing an adaptive synergistic model that is automatically adjusted to observed hand articulations that are not covered by the initial subspace. Our adaptive model combines the robustness of tracking in a reduced parameter space with the flexibility of optimizing for the full articulation of the hand, which we demonstrate in several synthetic and real-world experiments.
Identity-Based Anonymous Remote Authentication for Value-Added Services in Mobile Networks

Based on identity-based cryptography, this paper proposes a remote authentication protocol featured with client anonymity, nonrepudiation, and improved efficiency for value-added services in a mobile environment. First, an identity-based signature scheme is proposed, and the verification result of the signature is a constant with respect to the signer's identifier. Then, a remote authentication protocol is constructed by combining the proposed signature scheme with a new concept called the client account index, which helps to realize client anonymity with no encryption operations. A formal proof and a theoretical analysis are provided to show the security strength of the proposals. Performance evaluation shows that compared with previous identity-based remote authentication schemes, the new protocol reduces at least 21.7% of the overall running time with stronger security; the reductions in the overall running time and signaling traffic reach 31.9% and 82.0%, respectively, compared with previous Rivest-Shamir-Adleman-based schemes.
Clinical assessment for identifying causes of acute respiratory failure in cancer patients

In cancer patients with acute respiratory failure (ARF), early adequate therapy is associated with better outcomes. We investigated the performance of the DIRECT approach, which uses criteria available at the bedside at admission to the intensive care unit (ICU), to identify causes of ARF in cancer patients. This cohort study included cancer patients with ARF of determined aetiology. Associations of aetiological groups with the selected criteria were evaluated using correspondence analysis. 424 cancer patients were included: 201 (47%) with bacterial pneumonia, 131 (31%) with opportunistic infections and 92 (22%) with noninfectious disorders. Mechanical ventilation (both invasive and noninvasive) was needed in 328 (77%) patients, treatment for shock in 217 (51%) patients and dialysis in 82 (19%) patients. 142 (34%) patients died in the ICU. Correspondence plots showed that bacterial pneumonia was associated with neutropenia, solid tumour, multiple myeloma, <3 days since symptom onset, shock, unilateral crackles and unilateral radiographic pattern. Opportunistic infections were associated with steroids, lymphoproliferative disorders and haematopoietic stem-cell transplantation, whereas noninfectious disorders were associated with acute leukaemia The selected criteria are strongly associated with causes of ARF in cancer patients and could be used to develop an algorithm for selecting first-line diagnostic investigations and empirical treatments.
Effect of high-fat diet prior to pregnancy on hepatic gene expression and histology in mouse offspring

Abstract Maternal overnutrition and obesity are associated with fetal development and cause long-term effects in offspring. However, the effects of a high-fat diet specific to the pre-pregnancy period are not determined. The present study aimed to examine the effect of high-fat diet prior to pregnancy on the liver of mouse offspring. Female C57BL/6J mice were fed a normal chow (15.2% fat by energy) [control diet (CTR) and CTR pre-pregnancy (PP) groups] or a high-fat chow (31.2% fat by energy) [high-fat diet (HFD) and HFD-pre-pregnancy (PP) groups] for 3–4 weeks and then mated with male C57BL/6J mice fed normal chow. Some mothers continued on the same diet until pups reached 21 days of age (CTR and HFD), and others were fed the different chows from gestational day 0 (CTR-PP and HFD-PP) to determine the effects of a high-fat diet during the pre-pregnancy period in HFD-PP/CTR and HFD/CTR-PP comparisons. Liver tissues from pups were subjected to gene expression analysis by quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and microarray, and histological analysis using Oil Red O staining (Sigma Chemical Co., Ltd., Balcatta, WA, USA). Lipid droplets were increased in hepatocytes of mice in HFD-PP compared to CTR and those in HFD compared to CTR-PP. Expression of stearoyl-coenzyme A desaturase 1 (Scd1), acetyl-coenzyme A carboxylase beta (Acacb), and fatty acid binding protein 5 (Fabp5) was increased by maternal high-fat diet during pre-pregnancy. The results showed that maternal high-fat diet intake prior to pregnancy uniquely affects metabolic phenotype related to health and disease in the liver of the next generation.
Identification of Avian Pathogenic Escherichia coli Genes That Are Induced In Vivo during Infection in Chickens

ABSTRACT Avian pathogenic Escherichia coli (APEC) is associated with extraintestinal infections in poultry causing a variety of diseases collectively known as colibacillosis. The host and bacterial factors influencing and/or responsible for carriage and systemic translocation of APEC inside the host are poorly understood. Identification of such factors could help in the understanding of its pathogenesis and in the subsequent development of control strategies. Recombination-based in vivo expression technology (RIVET) was used to identify APEC genes specifically expressed during infection in chickens. A total of 21 clones with in vivo-induced promoters were isolated from chicken livers and spleens, indicative of systemic infection. DNA sequencing of the cloned fragments revealed that 12 of the genes were conserved E. coli genes (metH, lysA, pntA, purL, serS, ybjE, ycdK [rutC], wcaJ, gspL, sdsR, ylbE, and yjiY), 6 of the genes were phage related/associated, and 3 genes were pathogen specific (tkt1, irp2, and eitD). These genes are involved in various cellular functions, such as metabolism, cell envelope and integrity, transport systems, and virulence. Others were phage related or have yet-unknown functions.
Does Improvised Waterbed Reduce the Incidence of Pressure Ulcers in Patients with Spinal Injury?

Background: Pressure ulcers are lesions caused by unrelieved pressure over bony prominences, resulting in damage to underlying tissues. The etiology is multifactorial including prolonged immobility. They usually complicate spinal cord injuries with long periods of bed confinement. The use of bed replacements markedly reduces the incidence of pressure ulcers, but the unaffordability of these replacements in low-income countries has necessitated the need to explore cheaper alternatives. Aim and Objective: The aim of this study was to ascertain whether the use of our cheap and locally improvised waterbeds would reduce the incidence of pressure ulcers in patients on prolonged bed confinement due to spinal injury. Methodology: Over a 16-month period, 51 patients (age range 1-80 years) with spinal injuries were managed conservatively in our service using improvised waterbeds in 21 (41.2%), while using the regular hospital bed/foam in 30 (58.8%). Biodata, the time interval between injury and presentation to the hospital, nature of the injury, use of improvised waterbed and development of pressure ulcer, were collected, collated, and analyzed. Statistical significance was calculated with the Chi-square test. Results: Most were males (98%), in the age range of 21-30 years (25.5%), and due to fall from heights (35.3%). Of 21 patients who were managed on improvised waterbeds, 6 (28.6%) had pressure ulcers, and of the 30 who did not use the waterbed, 17 (56.7%) developed ulcers. The c2 = 3.9381, while P = 0.0472. This difference was statistically significant. Conclusion: The improvised waterbed, which is much cheaper than the standard waterbed, was observed to have significantly reduced the incidence of pressure ulcers among our patients. Nonetheless, further studies would still be needed to confirm this observation.
Effects of Acute Treatment With Pravastatin on Cerebral Vasospasm, Autoregulation, and Delayed Ischemic Deficits After Aneurysmal Subarachnoid Hemorrhage: A Phase II Randomized Placebo-Controlled Trial

Background and Purpose— Statins may improve cerebral vasomotor reactivity through cholesterol-dependent and -independent mechanisms. A phase II randomized controlled trial was conducted to examine the hypothesis that acute pravastatin treatment could improve cerebrovascular autoregulation and reduce vasospasm-related complications after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). Methods— A total of 80 aneurysmal SAH (aSAH) patients (18 to 84 years of age) within 72 hours from the ictus were randomized equally to receive either oral pravastatin (40 mg) or placebo daily for up to 14 days. Primary end points were the incidence, duration, and severity of cerebral vasospasm, and duration of impaired autoregulation estimated from transcranial Doppler ultrasonography. Secondary end points were the incidence of vasospasm-related delayed ischemic deficits (DIDs) and disability at discharge. Results— Prerandomization characteristics were balanced between the 2 groups. No treatment-related complication was observed. The incidences of vasospasm and severe vasospasm were reduced by 32% (P=0.006) and 42% (P=0.044), respectively, and the duration of severe vasospasm was shortened by 0.8 days (P=0.068) in the pravastatin group. These measurements were maximal on the ipsilateral side of ruptured aneurysms. The duration of impaired autoregulation was shortened bilaterally (P≤0.01), and the incidence of vasospasm-related DIDs and mortality were decreased by 83% (P<0.001) and 75% (P=0.037), respectively, in the pravastatin group. Conclusion— Acute treatment with pravastatin after aSAH is safe and ameliorates cerebral vasospasm, improves cerebral autoregulation, and reduces vasospasm-related DID. Unfavorable outcome at discharge was reduced primarily because of a reduction in overall mortality. This is the first demonstration of clinical benefits with immediate statin therapy for an acute cerebrovascular disorder.
A hybrid algorithm based on gravitational search algorithm for unimodal optimization

Nowadays, utilizing heuristic algorithms is highly appreciated in solving optimization problems. The fundamental of these algorithms are inspired by nature. The gravitational search algorithm (GSA) is a novel heuristic search algorithm which is invented by using law of gravity and mass interactions. In this paper, a new operator is presented which is called “the black hole”. This operator is inspired by the concept of an astronomy phenomenon. By adding the black hole operator, the exploitation of the GSA is improved. The proposed algorithm is evaluated by seven standard unimodal benchmarks. The results obtained demonstrate better performance of the proposed algorithm in comparison with those of the standard GSA and other version of GSA which is equipped with the disruption operator.
Characterization of inflammatory bowel disease in elderly hospitalized patients in a large central Canadian Health region.

OBJECTIVE To determine differences in phenotype and treatment among hospitalized elderly and young patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and the utility of International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision (ICD)-10 codes in hospital discharge abstracts in diagnosing IBD in elderly patients. METHODS A large Canadian health region hospitalization discharge database was used to identify elderly (>65 years of age) and young (19 to 50 years of age) patients with IBD admitted between April 1, 2007 and March 31, 2012, and a random sample of elderly patients with other colonic conditions. Medical records were reviewed to confirm IBD diagnosis and extract clinical information. The characteristics of elderly versus young hospitalized IBD patients and accuracy of ICD-10 IBD discharge codes in the elderly were assessed. RESULTS One hundred forty-three elderly and 82 young patients with an IBD discharge diagnosis, and 135 elderly patients with other gastrointestinal discharge diagnoses were included. Elderly IBD patients were less likely to have ileocolonic Crohn disease (21.4% versus 50.9%; P=0.001), more likely to be prescribed 5-aminosalicylates (61% versus 43%; P=0.04), and less likely to be prescribed biologics (6% versus 21%; P=0.016) or immunomodulators (21% versus 42%; P=0.01). The sensitivity, specificity and positive predictive value of a single ICD code for CD were 98%, 96% and 94%, respectively, and for ulcerative colitis (UC) were 98%, 92% and 70%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS Treatment approaches in elderly patients were different than in younger IBD patients despite having disease sufficiently severe to require hospitalization. While less accurate in UC, a single ICD-10 IBD code was sufficient to identify elderly CD and UC hospitalized patients.
FCM-based clustering performance analysis in network topology

This paper compared the clustering performance of the proposed FCM-based clustering scheme with HCM to the hierarchical topology optimization in overlay multicast. The paper firstly depicts the proposed scheme including 1) defining the clustering feature distance based on overlay path latency, 2) calculating the Euclidean distance within each pair of overlay nodes to construct the fuzzy membership matrix, and 3) dynamically adapting the fuzzy clustering threshold. Then it designed the experiments to analyze the clustering performance with HCM. The experiments illustrated that the FCM-based clustering scheme achieves better clustering performance for the topology optimization.
Sibling incest, madness, and the Jews

L'A. decrit de quelle maniere les juifs dans l'Europe du 19 e siecle et de la premiere moitie du 20 e siecle etaient associes a certaines formes de deviance comme a la folie. Il souligne que l'endogamie au sein de la communaute juive a encourage l'idee selon laquelle l'inceste entre freres et soeurs etaient une pratique courante dans cette communaute. Il met en exergue le fait que les juifs etait ordinairement suspectes d'hyper-sexualite. Il presente et examine les representations des juifs dans l'oeuvre de Richard Wagner et dans le roman de Thomas Mann «Mort a Venise»
Information retrieval models for recovering traceability links between code and documentation

The research described in the paper is concerned with the application of information retrieval to software maintenance, and in particular to the problem of recovering traceability links between the source code of a system and its free text documentation. We introduce a method based on the general idea of vector space information retrieval and apply it in two case studies to trace C++ source code onto manual pages and Java code onto functional requirements. The case studies discussed in the paper replicate the studies presented by G. Antoniol et al. (1999; 2000), respectively where a probabilistic information retrieval model was applied. We compare the results of vector space and probabilistic models and formulate hypotheses to explain the differences.
X-RAY ENHANCEMENT AND LONG-TERM EVOLUTION OF SWIFT J1822.3−1606

We investigate the X-ray enhancement and the long-term evolution of the recently discovered second “low-B magnetar” Swift J1822.3–1606 in the frame of the fallback disk model. During a soft gamma burst episode, the inner disk matter is pushed back to larger radii, forming a density gradient at the inner disk. Subsequent relaxation of the inner disk could account for the observed X-ray enhancement light curve of Swift J1822.3–1606. We obtain model fits to the X-ray data with basic disk parameters similar to those employed to explain the X-ray outburst light curves of other anomalous X-ray pulsars and soft gamma repeaters. The long period (8.4 s) of the neutron star can be reached by the effect of the disk torques in the long-term accretion phase ((1–3) × 105 yr). The currently ongoing X-ray enhancement could be due to a transient accretion epoch, or the source could still be in the accretion phase in quiescence. Considering these different possibilities, we determine the model curves that could represent the long-term rotational and the X-ray luminosity evolution of Swift J1822.3–1606, which constrain the strength of the magnetic dipole field to the range of (1–2) × 1012 G on the surface of the neutron star.
Total tau and phosphorylated tau 181 levels in the cerebrospinal fluid of patients with frontotemporal dementia due to P301L and G272V tau mutations.

BACKGROUND Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is a pathologically heterogeneous group of presenile neurodegenerative disorders, with or without the deposition of hyperphosphorylated tau protein in affected brain regions. Mutations in the tau gene have been found in the familial form of FTD, linked to chromosome 17q21-22, showing a spectrum of tauopathy. OBJECTIVE To evaluate levels of total tau, phosphorylated tau 181 (Ptau-181), and amyloid-beta1-42 in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of patients with FTD, with special emphasis on FTD due to tau mutations. DESIGN Case-control study. SETTING Outpatient neurology clinics at 2 university medical centers, in Rotterdam and Amsterdam (the Netherlands). PATIENTS Twenty-six patients with FTD (9 with tau mutations 7 P301L and 2 G272V), 18 patients with Alzheimer disease (AD), and 13 nondemented controls. METHODS Total tau, Ptau-181, and amyloid-beta1-42 levels in CSF, obtained by lumbar puncture, were determined by sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Patients were diagnosed after clinical examination, neuropsychologic evaluation, and neuroimaging. Differences between patient groups were statistically evaluated using nonparametric tests. RESULTS Although CSF levels of total tau were mildly increased in FTD patients compared with nondemented controls (P =.05), median CSF total tau levels were low in the subgroup with tau mutations compared with AD patients. Furthermore, CSF levels of Ptau-181 and amyloid-beta1-42 were not different in FTD patients, including the patients with tau mutations, compared with nondemented controls. CONCLUSIONS The tauopathy in P301L and G272V does not appear to be associated with an evident increase in CSF levels of Ptau-181 in FTD patients with these tau mutations, in contrast with findings in patients with AD.