Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Urine Club Cell 16-kDa Secretory Protein and Childhood Wheezing Illnesses After Lower Respiratory Tract Infections in Infancy.

Background: Infants with lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs) are at an increased risk of developing childhood wheezing illnesses (including asthma), but it is not currently possible to predict those at risk for these long-term outcomes. The current objective was to examine whether urine levels of club cell 16-kDa secretory protein (CC16) at the time of an infant LRTI are associated with the development of childhood wheezing illnesses. Methods: Prospective study of 133 previously healthy infants enrolled during a healthcare visit for a LRTI and followed longitudinally for childhood wheezing illnesses. Urine levels of CC16 at the time of enrollment were measured after validating a commercially available enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kit for serum. The outcome of interest was parental report of subsequent childhood wheeze (defined as ≥1 episode of wheezing following the initial LRTI) at the 1-year follow-up visit. Logistic regression was used for the main analysis. Results: The median (interquartile range) urine levels of CC16 (ng/mg of creatinine) at the time of an infant LRTI were 11.1 (7.7-20.1) for infants with subsequent childhood wheeze and 13.4 (8.3-61.1) for those without (p = 0.11). In the main multivariate analysis using a logarithmic transformation of the urine levels of CC16, a twofold increase in urine levels of CC16 was associated with ∼30% decreased odds (OR = 0.74 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.56-0.98], p = 0.04) of subsequent childhood wheeze after adjustment for potential confounders. Conclusions: An inverse association was found between urine levels of CC16 at the time of an infant LRTI and the odds of subsequent childhood wheeze. Urine CC16 may be a useful biomarker of the development of childhood wheezing illnesses after LRTIs in infancy.
Analytical evaluation of higher-order binding corrections to the Lamb shift.

Abstract In this work a new analytical method for calculating the one-loop self-energy correction to the Lamb shift is presented in detail. The technique relies on division into the low and the high energy parts. The low energy part is calculated using the multipole expansion and the high energy part is calculated by expanding the Dirac-Coulomb propagator in powers of the Coulomb field. The obtained results are in agreement with those previously known, but are more accurate. A new theoretical value of the Lamb shift is also given.
Nutrients are assimilated efficiently by Lymantria dispar caterpillars from the mature leaves of trees in the Salicaceae

The efficient aquisition of nutrients from leaves by insect herbivores increases their nutrient assimilation rates and overall fitness. Caterpillars of the gypsy moth (Lymantria dispar L.) have high protein assimilation efficiencies (PAE) from the immature leaves of trees such as red oak (Quercus rubra) and sugar maple (Acer saccharum) (71–81%) but significantly lower PAE from their mature leaves (45–52%). By contrast to this pattern, both PAE and carbohydrate assimilation efficiencies (CAE) remain high for L. dispar larvae on the mature leaves of poplar (Populus alba × Populus tremula) grown in greenhouse conditions. The present study tests two alternative hypotheses: (i) outdoor environmental stresses cause decreased nutrient assimilation efficiencies from mature poplar leaves and (ii) nutrients in the mature leaves of trees in the poplar family (Salicaceae) remain readily available for L. dispar larvae. When poplar trees are grown in ambient outdoor conditions, PAE and CAE remain high (approximately 75% and 78%, respectively) in L. dispar larvae, in contrast to the first hypothesis. When larvae feed on the mature leaves of species in the Salicaceae [aspen (Populus tremuloides), cottonwood (Populus deltoides), willow (Salix nigra) and poplar], PAE and CAE also remain high (68–76% and 72–92%, respectively), consistent with the second hypothesis. Larval growth rates are strongly associated with protein assimilation rates, and more strongly associated with protein assimilation rates than with carbohydrate assimilation rates. It is concluded that tree species in the Salicaceae are relatively high‐quality host plants for L. dispar larvae, in part, because nutrients in their mature leaves remain readily available.
Phased Array Coils for Upper Extremity MRA

A phased array coil was constructed for imaging the upper extremity vasculature for patients undergoing dialysis treatment. The phased array coil exhibits improved signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR) over the body coil and allows imaging of the entire upper extremity. SNR as a function of depth was measured on a homogeneous phantom with the arm coil and compared with the body coil. Near the coil there is an improvement of a factor of 7 and at a depth of approximately 6–7 cm, there is an improvement of factor 2. In vivo SNR measurements resulted in similar improvements. Images of the upper extremity vasculature of healthy volunteers were generated using 2D‐time‐of‐flight (2DTOF) angiography. Blood flow velocity was assessed in a CINE‐phase contrast study.
Verifying Programs via Intermediate Interpretation

We explore an approach to verification of programs via program transformation applied to an interpreter of a programming language. A specialization technique known as Turchin's supercompilation is used to specialize some interpreters with respect to the program models. We show that several safety properties of functional programs modeling a class of cache coherence protocols can be proved by a supercompiler and compare the results with our earlier work on direct verification via supercompilation not using intermediate interpretation. Our approach was in part inspired by an earlier work by De E. Angelis et al. (2014-2015) where verification via program transformation and intermediate interpretation was studied in the context of specialization of constraint logic programs.
Recognition of Handwritten Chinese Characters by Combining Regularization, Fisher's Discriminant and Distorted Sample Generation

The problem of offline handwritten Chinese character recognition has been extensively studied by many researchers and very high recognition rates have been reported. In this paper, we propose to further boost the recognition rate by incorporating a distortion model that artificially generates a huge number of virtual training samples from existing ones. We achieve a record high recognition rate of 99.46% on the ETL-9B database. Traditionally, when the dimension of the feature vector is high and the number of training samples is not sufficient, the remedies are to (i) regularize the class covariance matrices in the discriminant functions, (ii) employ Fisher's dimension reduction technique to reduce the feature dimension, and (iii) generate a huge number of virtual training samples from existing ones. The second contribution of this paper is the investigation of the relative effectiveness of these three methods for boosting the recognition rate.
Mucosal and Systemic Immune Responses to Chimeric Fimbriae Expressed by Salmonella enterica Serovar Typhimurium Vaccine Strains

ABSTRACT Recombinant live oral vaccines expressing pathogen-derived antigens offer a unique set of attractive properties. Among these are the simplicity of administration, the capacity to induce mucosal and systemic immunity, and the advantage of permitting genetic manipulation for optimal antigen presentation. In this study, the benefit of having a heterologous antigen expressed on the surface of a live vector rather than intracellularly was evaluated. Accordingly, the immune response of mice immunized with a Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium vaccine strain expressing the Escherichia coli 987P fimbrial antigen on its surface (Fas+) was compared with the expression in the periplasmic compartment (Fas−). Orally immunized BALB/c mice showed that 987P fimbriated Salmonella serovar Typhimurium CS3263 (aroA asd) with pCS151 (fas+asd+) elicited a significantly higher level of 987P-specific systemic immunoglobulin G (IgG) and mucosal IgA than serovar Typhimurium CS3263 with pCS152 (fasD mutant,asd+) expressing 987P periplasmic antigen. Further studies were aimed at determining whether the 987P fimbriae expressed by serovar Typhimurium χ4550 (cya crp asd) could be used as carriers of foreign epitopes. For this, the vaccine strain was genetically engineered to express chimeric fimbriae carrying the transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV) C (379-388) and A (521-531) epitopes of the spike protein inserted into the 987P major fimbrial subunit FasA. BALB/c mice administered orally serovar Typhimurium χ4550 expressing the chimeric fimbriae from thetet promoter in pCS154 (fas+asd+) produced systemic antibodies against both fimbria and the TGEV C epitope but not against the TGEV A epitope. To improve the immunogenicity of the chimeric fimbriae, the in vivo inducible nirB promoter was inserted into pCS154, upstream of the fas genes, to create pCS155. In comparison with the previously used vaccine, BALB/c mice immunized orally with serovar Typhimurium χ4550/pCS155 demonstrated significantly higher levels of serum IgG and mucosal IgA against 987P fimbria. Moreover, mucosal IgA against the TGEV C epitope was only detected with serovar Typhimurium χ4550/pCS155. The induced antibodies also recognized the epitopes in the context of the full-length TGEV spike protein. Hence, immune responses to heterologous chimeric fimbriae onSalmonella vaccine vectors can be optimized by using promoters known to be activated in vivo.
COMPARISON OF DATA MINING ALGORITHMS IN THE DIAGNOSIS OF TYPE II DIABETES

Diabetes is one of the most prevalent diseases in the world today with high mortality and morbidity rate, thus one of the biggest health problems in the world. There are many ways to diagnose the disease; one of these methods is data mining algorithms. The use of data mining on medical data has brought about important, valuable, and effective achievements, which can enhance the medical knowledge to make necessary decisions. In this paper, the diagnosis of type II diabetes is done through data mining algorithms. The dataset used for the diagnosis of type II diabetes includes 768 samples from diabetic patients taken from Pima Indians Dataset. In this article, Naive Bayes, RBF Network, and J48 are the data mining algorithms used to diagnose type II diabetes. The so-called algorithms perform diagnosis using Weka. Finally, the algorithms were compared to determine which one was more accurate in diagnosis of type II diabetes. The results revealed that Naive Bayes, having accuracy rate of 76.95%, enjoyed the highest accuracy for diagnosis of type II diabetes.
Workflow Recommendation for Text Classification Problems

Ever since writing was invented, text is used to communicate crossing the boundaries of time and space. Text classification is the task of categorising documents according to pre-defined labels. This task has always played an important role in organizing human life and society. Internet and in particular, mobile internet has enabled us to write and read just about anywhere. The amount of text created and stored every day has made it imperative that the task of classifying text is automated. From email filtering to query routing or social media content personalization, the applications of text classification are boundless. However, it is not always entirely clear how to solve these problems. The options may seem overwhelming, particularly when time is of the essence if preprocessing methods, classification algorithms and even hyperparameter tuning are considered. In this study we looked at 384 combinations of preprocessing methods and classification algorithms – workflows, applied to 50 text classification tasks. The performance and runtime of these workflows were used to construct rankings, where workflows were graded according to a measure that combined accuracy and runtime, A3R. We adapted two methods for ranking that use a metalearning approach, Average Ranking and Active Testing (Abdulrahman, 2017) to the workflow selection problem for text classification. In this study we also propose a new tool for analysis of the elements of workflows, a meta-regression. This tool has shown very promising results by accurately measuring the most beneficial elements of workflows and
Ultracytochemical localization of Na+,K+‐activated ATPase in chloride cells from the gills of a euryhaline teleost

The activity of the electrolyte transport enzyme, sodium, potassium‐activated adenosine triphosphatase (Na+,K+‐ATPase), in the gills of the pinfish, Lagodon rhomboides, increased markedly following transfer of fish from brackish water to seawater. Cytochemical localization of Na+,K+‐ATPase via its potassium‐dependent phosphatase (K+‐NPPase) activity in the branchial epithelium of pinfish adapted to seawater demonstrated that chloride cells are the major sites for the enzyme. Subcellularly, the heaviest depositions of reaction product were observed lining the cytoplasmic membrane surfaces of the labyrinth of anastomosing plasma membrane tubules that ramifies throughout the chloride cell cytoplasm. Enzyme activity was demonstrated also on the cytoplasmic surface of the apical crypt membrane and on the cytoplasmic surfaces of vesicles in the cytoplasm subjacent to the crypt. Deletion of potassium from the cytochemical incubation medium or inclusion of 10 mM ouabain abolished the reaction products associated with these membranes. The significance of these cytochemical results is discussed with reference to current hypotheses of chloride cell function.
Living With Changing Expectations for Women With High-Risk Pregnancies

The purpose of this research was to uncover the structure of the lived experience of living with changing expectations from the perspectives of women with high-risk pregnancies. The researchers' nursing theoretical perspective is the humanbecoming theory and the Parse research method was used. For the participants, living with changing expectations is foreboding disquietude arising with arduous restrictions, while envisioning the yearned-for with mitigating nurturing engagements. Findings enhance the theory of humanbecoming as well as enhance understanding of the experience of living with changing expectations. Recommendations for future research and practice are discussed.
Regional heterogeneity in the developing palate: morphological and molecular evidence for normal and abnormal palatogenesis

ABSTRACT Development of the mammalian secondary palate involves the growth, elevation, medial elongation and midline fusion of palatal shelves. Recent morphological and molecular studies on palatogenesis suggest that the developing palate is not a homogeneous organ but each part may behave differently during organogenesis. Especially, some key molecules involved in palate development have been shown to exhibit heterogeneous patterns of expression in the palatal tissue. Therefore it seems necessary to recognize the regional heterogeneity of the developing palate along the dorsoventral and anteroposterior axes when analyzing the mechanisms of normal and abnormal morphogenesis. Based on recent studies, we discuss the issue of the regional heterogeneity in the fetal palate and propose a principle that divides the fetal palate into several regions from the morphological and molecular standpoint.
Performance analysis of AF cooperative systems with HPA nonlinearity in semi-blind relays

In this paper, dual-hop amplify-and-forward (AF) cooperative systems in the presence of high-power amplifier (HPA) nonlinearity at semi-blind relays, are investigated. Based on the modified AF cooperative system model taking into account the HPA nonlinearity, the expression for the output signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at the destination node is derived, where the interference due to both the AF relaying mechanism and the HPA nonlinearity is characterized. The performance of the AF cooperative system under study is evaluated in terms of average symbol error probability (SEP), which is derived using the moment-generating function (MGF) approach, considering transmissions over Nakagami-m fading channels. Numerical results are provided and show the effects of some system parameters, such as the HPA parameters, numbers of relays, quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) order, Nakagami parameters, on performance.
Running Head: VISUAL AND AUDITORY VELOCITY

Although ambiguous and conflicting sensory information from different sensory modalities is common, people seldom experience perceptual ambiguities or conflict between senses. Just as the retinal nerve blind spot is “filled in” and seldom seen, conflicting or otherwise confusing sensory information is resolved in favor of the most appropriate modality, eliminating the confusion from conscious experience. The ventriloquism effect and auditory driving are two examples of perceptual phenomena arising from this sensory override. This research explores the hypothesis that velocity perception is subject to the same effects. Subjects were presented with two bimodal (auditory-visual) stimulus pairs and asked to determine which of the visual stimuli was moving faster. In a V2A2/V2A1 condition, participants responded significantly more frequently that the first visual stimulus was faster than in any non-target condition. This effect was not found for V2A2/V2A3 trials.
4‐1BB T‐cell antigen binds to mature B cells and macrophages, and costimulates anti‐μ‐primed splenic B cells

4‐1BB is expressed on activated murine T cells and may function as an accessory signaling molecule during T‐cell activation. To identify putative 4‐1BB ligands, a fusion protein consisting of the extracellular domain of 4‐1BB fused to human placental alkaline phosphatase (4‐1BB‐AP) was constructed. Alkaline phosphatase activity could then be used as an indicator of the relative amount of bound 4‐1BB. These studies indicated that 4‐1BB‐AP specifically bound to the surface of various mature B and macrophage cell lines. 4‐1BB‐AP bound at low levels to T cell lines (non‐activated and anti‐CD3‐activated), pre‐B‐cell lines, and an immature macrophage cell line. 4‐1BB‐AP did not bind to a glial tumor cell line, HeLa cells, or COS cells. In addition, 4‐1BB‐AP bound at higher levels to F(ab′)2 anti‐μ‐activated primary B cells compared to anti‐CD3‐activated primary T cells. Scatchard analysis indicated that the A20 B cell lymphoma expressed 3680 binding sites per cell with a Kd of 1.86 nM. Affinity cross‐linking studies demonstrated that a major cell surface species of 120 kDa bound to 4‐1BB‐AP 4‐1BB‐AP also bound to a minor species of approximately 60 kDa. The addition of paraformaldehyde‐fixed SF21 cells expressing recombinant 4‐1BB synergized with F(ab′)2 anti‐μ in inducing splenic B cell proliferation suggesting that 4‐1BB may function as a regulator of B cell growth.
THE IMPACT OF UNIVERSITY INTERNAL FACTORS ON ACADEMIC ENTREPRENEURSHIP: EVIDENCE FROM UNIVERSITY RESEARCH

Academic entrepreneurship, as a practice and a field for scholarly investigation, provides an opportunity to challenge questions and rethink about the nature and scope of publication. This paper puts forward an aspect for the research universities of Pakistan that can result in new value generation and job creation. Academic entrepreneur is missing forms of entrepreneurship in the relatively higher priority given to promoting or capturing economic value. Current research aims to fill this gap by adapting the corporate entrepreneur as a construct for academic entrepreneurship and internal environment as a motivational factor in order to propose a model for this study. Findings support that university reward system; support, leadership, and organization structure are the key indicator of academic entrepreneur within these research universities. Results provide evidence that academic entrepreneurship has a positive influence on research commercialization and technology transfer for these higher education institutes.
A wideband coplanar stripline to microstrip transition

A wideband coplanar stripline (CPS)-to-microstrip line was developed. The transition has a simple structure for the ease of fabrication with low cost. The measured performance of two back-to-back transitions exhibits an insertion loss of less than 3 dB and a return loss of better than 10 dB over a bandwidth from 1.3 GHz to 13.3 GHz (1:10.2). For narrower bandwidth, an insertion loss of less than 1 dB with a return loss of better than 10 dB was achieved from 1.4 GHz to 7.3 GHz (1:5.2).
Sift - An Efficient Method for Co-residency Detection on Amazon EC2

Cloud computing, an emerging computing and service paradigm, where the computing and storage capabilities are outsourced on demand, offers the advanced capabilities of sharing and multi-tenancy. But security has been a major barrier for its adoption to enterprise, as being placed with other tenants on the same physical machine (i.e. co-residency or co-location) poses a particular risk. Former research has shown how side channels in shared hardware may enable attackers to exfiltrate sensitive data across virtual machines (VMs). In view of such risks, tenants need to be able to verify physical isolation of their VMs. This paper presents Sift, an efficient and reliable approach for co-residency detection. Through a prefiltration procedure, the time for co-residency detection could be significantly reduced. We describe the cloud scenarios envisaged for use of Sift and the accompanying threat model. A preliminary validation of Sift has been carried out in a local lab Xen virtualization experimental platform. Then, using the Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) as the test platform, we evaluate its practicability in production cloud environment. It appears that Sift can confirm co-residency with a target VM instance in less than 5 seconds with an extremely low false rate.
Rationale and design of the Investigator-Steered Project on intravascular Renal Denervation for Management of Drug-Resistant Hypertension (INSPiRED) trial

Abstract The SYMPLICITY studies showed that renal denervation (RDN) is feasible as novel treatment for resistant hypertension. However, RDN is a costly and invasive procedure, the long-term efficacy and safety of which has not yet been proven. Therefore, we designed the INSPiRED trial to compare the blood pressure lowering efficacy and safety of RDN vs usual medical therapy. INSPiRED is a randomized controlled trial enrolling 240 treatment-resistant hypertensive patients at 16 expert hypertension centres in Belgium. Eligible patients, aged 20–69 years old, have a 24-h ambulatory blood pressure of 130 mmHg systolic or 80 mmHg diastolic or more, while taking at least three antihypertensive drugs. They are randomized to RDN (EnligHTNTM, SJM system) plus usual care (intervention group) or usual care alone (control group) in a ratio of 1:1. The primary endpoints for efficacy and safety, measured after 6 months, are the baseline-adjusted between-group differences in 24h systolic blood pressure and in glomerular filtration rate as estimated by the Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration equation. Follow-up will continue up to 36 months after randomization. INSPiRED is powered to demonstrate a 10-mmHg difference in systolic blood pressure between randomized groups with a two-sided p-value of 0.01 and 90% power. It will generate long-term efficacy and safety data, identify the subset of treatment-resistant hypertensive patients responsive to RDN, provide information on cost-effectiveness, and by doing so INSPiRED will inform guideline committees and health policy makers. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01505010.