Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Relationship of plasma interleukin-18 concentrations to traditional and non-traditional cardiovascular risk factors in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus.

OBJECTIVES Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is associated with premature atherosclerosis. Recent studies indicated that the concentrations of circulating interleukin (IL)-18, a novel proinflammatory T helper-1 cytokine, in SLE patients were significantly higher than those in healthy control subjects. The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between IL-18 and cardiovascular risk factors in patients with SLE. METHODS Both traditional and non-traditional cardiovascular risk factors including body mass index (BMI), systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure (DBP), fasting insulin and glucose, plasma lipid profile, plasma homocysteine, thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances, titres of autoantibodies against oxidized low-density lipoprotein, and brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV) were determined in a total of 72 female SLE patients. All patients were further classified into subgroups based on tertiles of plasma IL-18 concentrations. RESULTS Plasma concentrations of IL-18 were significantly higher in SLE patients than age-matched healthy controls. SLE patients with IL-18 concentration in the top tertile compared with the bottom tertile had significantly higher plasma levels of insulin, triglyceride, homocysteine and values of homeostasis model assessment insulin resistance (HOMA IR) and HOMA beta-cell. In addition, plasma concentrations of IL-18 correlated positively and significantly with BMI, insulin, HOMA IR, HOMA beta-cell, triglyceride, homocysteine, DBP and baPWV in all SLE patients. CONCLUSIONS This is th first report showing the relationship between IL-18 and cardiovascular risk factors in SLE. In patients with SLE, the synergistic effects of hyperinsulinaemia, insulin resistance, hyperhomocysteinaemia, and vascular stiffness most likely contribute to the elevation of plasma IL-18 concentrations.
Surface Properties of Top‐ and Bottom‐Fermenting Yeast

The surface physico‐chemical properties (hydrophobicity, electrophoretic mobility, chemical composition) of a large set of top‐ and bottom‐fermenting brewing yeasts, harvested in the exponential and stationary growth phases, have been investigated. Bottom‐ and top‐fermenting strains showed different surface properties. Top strains were generally more hydrophobic than bottom strains, due to higher surface protein concentrations. Bottom strains possessed higher surface phosphate concentrations. The different profiles of electrophoretic mobility versus pH for top and bottom strains could be explained by modelling the surface charge according to the surface chemical composition as given by X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy. For bottom strains, the electrical properties were mainly controlled by phosphate, resulting in a low isoelectric point (pH 2 or below) and an electrophoretic mobility that did not become much more negative above pH 4. For the top strains, they were mainly determined by the balance of protonated amino‐ and carboxylate groups in proteins, which gave a high isoelectric point (pH 4) and an electrophoretic mobility changing greatly with pH in the range of 2 to 7. No difference in surface properties was found between flocculating and non‐flocculating strains, or between cells from the exponential and stationary growth phases, even for strains where flocculation occurred during the transition from one growth phase to the other. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A Critical Appraisal of the Effect of Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormon Analog Treatment on Adult Height of Girls with Central Precocious Puberty

Central precocious puberty (CPP) is a diagnosis that pediatric endocrinologists worldwide increasingly make in girls of age 6-8 years and is mostly idiopathic. Part of the reason for increasing referral and diagnosis is the perception among the doctors as well as the patients that treatment of CPP with long-acting gonadotropin-releasing hormon analogues (GnRHa) promote height of the child. Although, the timing and the tempo of puberty does influence statural growth and achieved adult height, the extent of this effect is variable depending on several factors and is modest in most cases. Studies investigating GnRHa treatment in girls with idiopathic CPP demonstrate that treatment is able to restore adult height compromised by precocious puberty. However, reports on untreated girls with precocious puberty demonstrate that some of these girls achieve their target height without treatment as well, thus, blurring the net effect of GnRHa treatment on height in girls with CPP. Clinical studies on treatment of girls with idiopathic CPP on adult stature suffers from the solid evidence-base due mainly to the lack of well-designed randomized controlled studies and our insufficiencies of predicting adult height of a child with narrow precision. This is particularly true for girls in whom age of pubertal onset is close to physiological age of puberty, which are the majority of cases treated with GnRHa nowadays. Heterogeneous nature of pubertal tempo (progressive vs. nonprogressive) leading to different height outcomes also complicates the interpretation of the results in both treated and untreated cases. This review will attemp to summarize and critically appraise available data in the field.
Simulated annealing with constraints aggregation for control of the multistage processes

In the article the control and optimization of multistage technological processes were discussed. In the presented research, it was assumed, that in the complex technological processes, the multistage differential-algebraic constraints with unknown consistent initial conditions were considered. To rewrite the infinite-dimensional optimal control problem into the finite-dimensional optimization task, the direct shooting method was applied. Simulated annealing algorithm was proposed as the method for solving nonlinear optimization problem with constraints. Stretching function was used to allow us to locate the globally optimal solution. The complex process constraints were treated using constraints aggregation methods. The presented methodology was tested with optimal control problem of the two-reactors system. The numerical simulations were executed in MATLAB environment using Wroclaw Center for Networking and Supercomputing.
Pro-atrial natriuretic peptide and pro-vasopressin for predicting short-term and long-term survival in community-acquired pneumonia: results from the German Competence Network CAPNETZ

Background Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is the most important clinical infection with a high long-term mortality rate. The aim of this study was to evaluate the value of biomarkers for the prediction of short-term and long-term mortality in CAP. Methods A total of 1740 patients of mean±SD age 60±18 years (45% female) with proven CAP were enrolled in the study. Mid-regional pro-atrial natriuretic peptide (MR-proANP), C-terminal pro-atrial vasopressin (CT-proAVP), procalcitonin, C-reactive protein, leucocyte count (WBC) and CRB-65 score were determined on admission. Patients were followed up for 180 days. Results MR-proANP and CT-proAVP levels increased with increasing severity of CAP, classified according to CRB-65 score. In patients who died within 28 and 180 days, median MR-proANP (313.9 vs 80.0 and 277.8 vs 76.0 pmol/l, each p<0.0001) and CT-proAVP (42.6 vs 11.2 and 33.2 vs 10.7 pmol/l, each p<0.0001) levels were significantly higher than the levels in survivors. In receiver operating characteristics analysis for survival at 28 and 180 days, the areas under the curves (AUCs) for CT-proAVP (0.84, 95% CI 0.82 to 0.86 and 0.78, 95% CI 0.76 to 0.80) and MR-proANP (0.81, 95% CI 0.79 to 0.83 and 0.81, 95% CI 0.79 to 0.83) were superior to the AUC of CRB-65 (0.74, 95% CI 0.71 to 0.76 and 0.71, 95% CI 0.69 to 0.74, p<0.05), procalcitonin, C-reactive protein and WBC. In multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression analyses adjusted for comorbidity and pneumonia severity, MR-proANP and CT-proAVP were independent and the strongest predictors of short-term and long-term mortality. Conclusions MR-proANP and CT-proAVP are powerful tools for the prediction of short-term and long-term risk stratification of patients with CAP.
CORONA, PHABULOSA and PHAVOLUTA collaborate with BELL1 to confine WUSCHEL expression to the nucellus in Arabidopsis ovules

Angiosperm ovules consist of three proximal-distal domains – the nucellus, chalaza and funiculus – demarcated by developmental fate and specific gene expression. Mutation in three paralogous class III homeodomain leucine zipper (HD-ZIPIII) genes leads to aberrations in ovule integument development. Expression of WUSCHEL (WUS) is normally confined to the nucellar domain, but in this triple mutant expression expands into the chalaza. MicroRNA-induced suppression of this expansion partially suppresses the effects of the HD-ZIPIII mutations on ovule development, implicating ectopic WUS expression as a component of the mutant phenotype. bell1 (bel1) mutants produce aberrant structures in place of the integuments and WUS is ectopically expressed in these structures. Combination of bel1 with the HD-ZIPIII triple mutant leads to a striking phenotype in which ectopic ovules emerge from nodes of ectopic WUS expression along the funiculi of the primary ovules. The synergistic phenotype indicates that BEL1 and the HD-ZIPIII genes act in at least partial independence in confining WUS expression to the nucellus and maintaining ovule morphology. The branching ovules of the mutant resemble those of some fossil gymnosperms, implicating BEL1 and HD-ZIPIII genes as players in the evolution of the unbranched ovule form in extant angiosperms. Summary: Transgenic analysis identifies transcription factors necessary for boundary demarcation between the nucellus and chalaza of the Arabidopsis ovule, and for patterning of WUS expression.
Protocol Adaption of NAC in Mobile Telecommunication Networks

The NAC (Network Access Control) technology which enforces the endpoint access decision based on the collected endpoint security status information and platform measurement information has been developed by various companies and has been widely deployed in intranets. Besides intranet, mobile telecommunication networks also find NAC is required. This paper introduces the main NAC solutions in industry and analyzes the essential of current NAC technologies in the perspective of protocol. And then this paper describes the explicit requirement of remote platform integrity validation which may utilize the NAC in the mobile telecommunication networks and discus a feasible way of implementing the NAC technology into a scenario by using protocol adaption of EAP over IKEv2. Keyword-Network Access Control; Trusted Network Connection; Home Access Point; EAP; IKEv2 I� INTRODUCTION As security is becoming one of the most important problems of current network, it is necessary to protect the network from the endpoint side. A feasible way is that the network side measures the security status of endpoints while they are requesting to access the network. This kind of technology which is called as NAC (Network Access Control) has been widely developed and deployed in intranets. But NAC is not only suitable for intranet. It can be forecasted that it will a fundamental infrastructure of various network in the future. Now some requirements of NAC have emerged in mobile telecommunication networks. This paper introduces current NAC technologies, analyzes the essential problem of NAC in the perspective of protocol, and then discus a feasible way of implementing the NAC technology into a scenario of mobile telecommunication by using protocol adaption of EAP over IKEv2.
Detection and Summarization of Genuine Review using Visual Data Mining

In earlier days we were asking our friends or relatives for their opinions regarding products which we want to purchase from the merchants. But now a day’s E-commerce is gaining more and more popularity. Whatever query we are having, we can find its answer from World Wide Web. Merchants are also selling their products online and at a same time they are asking customer’s review regarding products, which customer has bought. This would be beneficial to merchants as well as customers also. As the numbers of customers are growing, reviews received by products are also growing in large amount. Thus, mining opinions from product reviews is an important research topic. However, existing research is more focused towards classification and summarization of such online opinions. An important issue related to the trustworthiness of online opinions has been neglected most often. There is no reported study on assessing the trustworthiness of reviews. This research paper aims to first classify the opinion (positive or negative) carried out by detection of a review( spam or a nonspam ) based on rating behavior and finally removing spam reviews, which provides a trusted review to help the customer in taking appropriate buying decision. This paper proposes a novel and effective technique, which will represent classified opinion in form of “chernoff face”. General Terms Opinion mining, Visual data mining
Designing a Resilient L1 Cache Architecture to Process Variation-Induced Access-Time Failures

Continuous scaling of process technology increases variations in transistors. The process variations cause large fluctuations in the access times of static random-access memory (SRAM) cells. Caches made of those SRAM cells cannot be accessed within the target clock cycle time, which reduces the yield of processors. Many schemes have been proposed to combat these access time failures in caches. However, these schemes are limited in their coverage and do not scale well at high failure rates. We propose a new level one (L1) cache architecture employing multi-cycle cell access (MCCA) and subarray-level parallel access (SLPA). MCCA eliminates all access-time failures in L1 caches. SLPA minimizes the performance impact of cache bandwidth loss due to MCCA. For further performance improvement, architectural techniques are proposed. Our experimental results show that our proposed L1 cache architecture incurs a performance hit of less than 1.2 percent compared to the conventional cache architecture with no access time failure. Our proposed architecture is not sensitive to access time failure rates and has a low overhead compared with previously proposed competitive schemes.
Standardization of sample collection, isolation and analysis methods in extracellular vesicle research

The emergence of publications on extracellular RNA (exRNA) and extracellular vesicles (EV) has highlighted the potential of these molecules and vehicles as biomarkers of disease and therapeutic targets. These findings have created a paradigm shift, most prominently in the field of oncology, prompting expanded interest in the field and dedication of funds for EV research. At the same time, understanding of EV subtypes, biogenesis, cargo and mechanisms of shuttling remains incomplete. The techniques that can be harnessed to address the many gaps in our current knowledge were the subject of a special workshop of the International Society for Extracellular Vesicles (ISEV) in New York City in October 2012. As part of the “ISEV Research Seminar: Analysis and Function of RNA in Extracellular Vesicles (evRNA)”, 6 round-table discussions were held to provide an evidence-based framework for isolation and analysis of EV, purification and analysis of associated RNA molecules, and molecular engineering of EV for therapeutic intervention. This article arises from the discussion of EV isolation and analysis at that meeting. The conclusions of the round table are supplemented with a review of published materials and our experience. Controversies and outstanding questions are identified that may inform future research and funding priorities. While we emphasize the need for standardization of specimen handling, appropriate normative controls, and isolation and analysis techniques to facilitate comparison of results, we also recognize that continual development and evaluation of techniques will be necessary as new knowledge is amassed. On many points, consensus has not yet been achieved and must be built through the reporting of well-controlled experiments.
Band-notched characteristic using meandered ground stubs for compact UWB antennas

In this paper, a pair of meandered ground stubs is used to design a single band-notched characteristic in a compact planar-monopole antenna for ultrawide band (UWB) applications. The single-band notch covers the wireless area network (WLAN) band from 5.15 GHz to 5.825 GHz. The center-notch frequency and notch bandwidth can be adjusted using the dimensions of the meandered ground stubs. Prototype of the proposed antenna is designed, fabricated and studied. The band-notched characteristics, return loss, radiation patterns, peak gains and efficiencies of the antenna are studied using both computer simulation and measurements.
A preliminary in vitro study into the use of IL‐1Ra gene therapy for the inhibition of intervertebral disc degeneration

Conventional therapies for low back pain (LBP) are purely symptomatic and do not target the cause of LBP, which in approximately 40% of cases is caused by degeneration of the intervertebral disc (DIVD). Targeting therapies to inhibit the process of degeneration would be a potentially valuable treatment for LBP. There is increasing evidence for a role for IL‐1 in DIVD. A natural inhibitor of IL‐1 exists, IL‐1Ra, which would be an ideal molecular target for inhibiting IL‐1‐mediated effects involved in DIVD and LBP. In this study, the feasibility of ex vivo gene transfer of IL‐1Ra to the IVD was investigated. Monolayer and alginate cultures of normal and degenerate human intervertebral disc (IVD) cells were infected with an adenoviral vector carrying the IL‐1Ra gene (Ad‐IL‐1Ra) and protein production measured using an enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay. The ability of these infected cells to inhibit the effects of IL‐1 was also investigated. In addition, normal and degenerate IVD cells infected with Ad‐IL‐1Ra were injected into degenerate disc tissue explants and IL‐1Ra production in these discs was assessed. This demonstrated that both nucleus pulposus and annulus fibrosus cells infected with Ad‐IL‐1Ra produced elevated levels of IL‐1Ra for prolonged time periods, and these infected cells were resistant to IL‐1. When the infected cells were injected into disc explants, IL‐1Ra protein expression was increased which was maintained for 2 weeks of investigation. This in vitro study has shown that the use of ex vivo gene transfer to degenerate disc tissue is a feasible therapy for the inhibition of IL‐1‐mediated events during disc degeneration.
Spheres of Control: An Approach to Advanced Recovery

Recovery from failures and erroneous executions is a crucial but complicated issue for concurrently accessed data systems. Increasingly sophisticated techniques are being developed to improve performance and functionality of recovery protocols. To better understand and analyze recovery schemes, we reex-amine the concept of spheres of control [Dav78], using it as a unifying framework for specifying diverse recovery models simply and precisely. We constrain sphere-of-control formulations appropriately to capture transaction-oriented recovery in both centralized and distributed environments and with di(cid:11)erent types of schedules, as well as semantics-based recovery and compensation. In addition, we discuss how the operational semantics methodology of evolving algebras[Gur95] can model spheres of control formally and re(cid:12)ne them to lower levels of abstraction.
Data Networks are Lightly Utilized, and will Stay that Way

The popular press often extolls packet networks as much more efficient than switched voice networks in utilizing transmission lines. This impression is reinforced by the delays experienced on the Internet and the famous graphs for traffic patterns through the major exchange points on the Internet, which suggest that networks are running at full capacity. This paper shows the popular impression is incorrect; data networks are very lightly utilized compared to the telephone network. Even the backbones of the Internet are run at lower fractions (10% to 15%) of their capacity than the switched voice network (which operates at over 30% of capacity on average). Private line networks are utilized far less intensively (at 3% to 5%). Further, this situation is likely to persist. The low utilization of data networks compared to voice phone networks is not a symptom of waste. It comes from different patterns of use, lumpy capacity of transmission facilities, and the high growth rate of the industry.
Guess who?: enriching the social graph through a crowdsourcing game

Despite the tremendous popularity of social network sites both on the web and within enterprises, the relationship information they contain may be often incomplete or outdated. We suggest a novel crowdsourcing approach that uses a game to help enrich and expand the social network topology. The game prompts players to provide the names of people who have a relationship with individuals they know. The game was deployed for a one-month period within a large global organization. We provide an analysis of the data collected through this deployment, in comparison with the data from the organization's social network site. Our results indicate that the game rapidly collects large volumes of valid information that can be used to enrich and reinforce an existing social network site's data. We point out other aspects and benefits of using a crowdsourcing game to harvest social network information.
L.A.B.E.L. (Liste d'Adjectifs Bipolaires et en Echelles de Likert) : Un modèle d'évaluation de la personnalité à visée universelle

L.A. B.E. L. est un instrument d'evaluation de la personnalite unique en son genre, utilisant comme stimuli des adjectifs descriptifs de la personnalite. Il propose des mesures de controle exclusives (coherence, fidelite intrapersonnelle) ainsi que la mise en evidence de reponses singulieres et incorpore toutes les mesures issues de questionnaires du meme type. La determination par cakul matriciel de la strategie de reponse du sujet et l'utilisation de la signature des echelles pour le calcul des scores determine un mode de construction original, dit methode fonctionnelle, autorisant le cakul d'une fiabilite du score du sujet a toute echelle sans qu'il ait a repondre directement ni de facon stereotypee a l'echelle dichotomique ou de Likert presentee ici.
Secrecy correctness for security protocols

In this paper we address security protocol correctness with respect to secrecy and present a formal reasoning for evaluating such correctness. The proposed framework includes a comprehensive analysis and a bounding model for multisession attacks that is sufficient for our correctness proofs. We examine the possible behavior of the intruder and draw conclusions about how his knowledge evolves and what actions he can take to gain as much information as possible for building winning strategies for an attack.