Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Chronic kinin receptor blockade attenuates the antihypertensive effect of ramipril.

The contribution of endogenous kinins to the chronic antihypertensive effect of angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors was investigated in two-kidney, one clip hypertensive Wistar rats, using the new bradykinin B2-receptor antagonist HOE 140 (D-Arg, [Hyp3, Thi5, D-Tic7, Oic8]-bradykinin). In a first protocol, rats were pretreated orally with the angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor ramipril (1 mg/kg per day), for 4 weeks. Acute blockade of bradykinin receptors by intravenous injections of HOE 140 at doses of 8.4 and 100 micrograms/kg, which inhibited the depressor responses to exogenous bradykinin, did not affect the antihypertensive effect of ramipril in these animals. Bradykinin receptors were then blocked chronically by subcutaneous infusion of HOE 140 (500 micrograms/kg per day) via osmotic minipumps for 6 weeks, while ramipril treatment was continued. HOE 140 partially reversed the antihypertensive effect of ramipril from 115.3 +/- 4.6 to 123.8 +/- 3.3 mm Hg (mean arterial blood pressure) after 3 weeks and to 121.3 +/- 2.9 mm Hg after 6 weeks. In contrast, in controls (ramipril plus subcutaneous vehicle infusion) mean arterial blood pressure decreased further from 112.0 +/- 6.0 to 110.3 +/- 4.9 mm Hg after 3 weeks and to 103.7 +/- 5.0 mm Hg after 6 weeks (p less than 0.05 and p less than 0.01, HOE 140 versus controls). Plasma catecholamines were not significantly different between the two groups at the end of the experiment, indicating that the partial reversal of the antihypertensive effect was not due to a bradykinin-like agonistic effect on catecholamine release. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
B-tree concurrency control and recovery in page-server database systems

We develop new algorithms for the management of transactions in a page-shipping client-server database system in which the physical database is organized as a sparse B-tree index. Our starvation-free fine-grained locking protocol combines adaptive callbacks with key-range locking and guarantees repeatable-read-level isolation (i.e., serializability) for transactions containing any number of record insertions, record deletions, and key-range scans. Partial and total rollbacks of client transactions are performed by the client. Each structure modification such as a page split or merge is defined as an atomic action that affects only two levels of the B-tree and is logged using a single redo-only log record, so that the modification never needs to be undone during transaction rollback or restart recovery. The steal-and-no-force buffering policy is applied by the server when flushing updated pages onto disk and by the clients when shipping updated data pages to the server, while pages involved in a structure modification are forced to the server when the modification is finished. The server performs the restart recovery from client and system failures using an ARIES/CSA-based recovery protocol. Our algorithms avoid accessing stale data but allow a data page to be updated by one client transaction and read by many other client transactions simultaneously, and updates may migrate from a data page to another in structure modifications caused by other transactions while the updating transaction is still active.
State of charge estimation and battery balancing control

In this paper, we propose an algorithm to solve the balancing problem of multi-cell battery systems consisting in the equalization of all cells state of charge (SoC). A nonlinear cell model is presented and experimental LiFePO4 battery cell parameters are used. By considering the main cell nonlinear dynamics, ultimate balancing is guaranteed via state feedback. Output feedback versions of the proposed balancing algorithm based on Kalman filtering are evaluated via numerical simulations using the identified model. For the case when the SoC is not available and, in addition, the cell parameters are unknown, a novel SoC/parameter joint estimator is developed for a class of nonlinear cells via amplitude demodulation and online normalized least squares estimation techniques.
Histopathologic findings predicting lymph node metastasis and prognosis of patients with superficial esophageal carcinoma

If it were possible to elucidate the histopathologic findings predicting lymph node metastasis and prognosis in superficial squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus (SSCCE), they could be used as markers to identify patients who do not require additional surgical resection after endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR).
ECOLOGY OF SCHISTOSOMA SNAIL VECTORS IN ADO-EKITI LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, EKITI STATE, NIGERIA

A study on the ecology of snail hosts of Schistosoma was carried out in River Ogbesse and River Ureje in Ado - Ekiti Local Government Area, Ekiti State Nigeria between February 2009 and January 2010. Fourteen sampling stations were selected for the study. Stations 1-7 were located on River Ureje while Stations 8-14 were located on River Ogbesse. Each station was randomly sampled fortnightly every month for snail taxa composition, physico - chemical characteristics of water and vegetation cover. The data were analyzed using non-parametric statistical methods. A total of 2559 snails belonging to six species, five genera, three families and two subclasses were recorded in the two rivers. These were 446 (17.4%) specimens of Bulinus globosus, 122 (4.8%) B. truncatus, 264 (10.3%) Potadoma freethi, 1628 (63.6%) Melanoides tuberculata, 58 (2.3%) Lanistes varicus and 16 (0.6%) Biomphalaria pfeifferi. Two of the six snail species (B. globosus and Biomphalaria pfeifferi), which are established intermediate hosts of schistosomiasis were recovered from River Ureje only. Furcocercous cercaria was recovered from Bulinus globosus species. The relationship between snail vectors and aquatic macrophytes is discussed.
Photoacoustic determination of blood vessel diameter

A double-ring sensor was applied in photoacoustic tomographic imaging of artificial blood vessels as well as blood vessels in a rabbit ear. The peak-to-peak time (τpp) of the laser (1064 nm) induced pressure transient was used to estimate the axial vessel diameter. Comparison with the actual vessel diameter showed that the diameter could be approximated by 2cτpp, with c the speed of sound in blood. Using this relation, the lateral diameter could also precisely be determined. In vivo imaging and monitoring of changes in vessel diameters was feasible. Finally, acoustic time traces were recorded while flushing a vessel in the rabbit ear with saline, which proved that the main contribution to the laser-induced pressure transient is caused by blood inside the vessel and that the vessel wall gives only a minor contribution.
European Conference on Information Systems ( ECIS ) 5-15-2012 WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE METHODS ?-AN EXAMINATION ON THE FREQUENCY OF RESEARCH METHODS FOR IS CONFERENCES FROM 2006 TO 2010

The objective of this study was to analyze, which research methodologies are currently being used in the field of Information Systems (IS). To analyze research activities from different parts of the world, the proceedings of five conferences “on Information Systems” were included over a five year period from 2006 to 2010. In addition to the “International Conference on Information Systems” (ICIS), papers were also taken from the regional Americas (AMCIS), Australasian (ACIS), European (ECIS) and Pacific Asia (PACIS) conferences on information systems. The results of this study indicated that two methods were most popular at conferences by far: “survey” and “concept implementation / proof of concept”. Both at conferences and in journals in the IS field, researchers concentrated on only a few research methods, which meant that many other research methods were rarely used. Across all conferences, a trend towards methods orientation could be observed. Only few conference-specific differences in method usage could be found. Across all conferences, researchers noted a slightly increasing trend towards using combinations of methods. Some differences in preferred method combinations could be identified among regional conferences and ICIS. Compared to recent journalbased studies, the favored research methods were quite similar.
Biological and Medical Big Data Mining

This paper discusses the concept of big data mining in the domain of biology and medicine. Biological and medical data are increasing at very rapid rates, which in many cases outpace even Moore's law. This is the result of recent technological development, as well as the exploratory attitude of human beings, that prompts scientists to answer more questions by conducting more experiments. Representative examples are the advances in sequencing and medical imaging technologies. Challenges posed by this data deluge, and the emerging opportunities of their efficient management and analysis are also part of the discussion. The major emphasis is given to the most common biological and medical data mining applications.
Erratum for Sze and Schloss, “Looking for a Signal in the Noise: Revisiting Obesity and the Microbiome”

Volume 7, no. 4, e01018-16, 2016, https://doi.org/10.1128/mBio.01018-16. The definitions of the colored dots in Fig. 2 and Fig. S1 in the supplemental material were inadvertently reversed. The text in the body of the paper correctly describes the colors in the figures (blue indicates obesity, and red indicates nonobesity). This change does not affect the conclusions of the paper. The following funding and data availability information should have been included.
Performance analysis of a three-phase Active Front-End PWM Rectifier without current loop PI controller

This work investigates the performance of an Active Front-End (AFE) Rectifier with direct and quadrature axis current control method. Most of the research works describe that the controller for an AFE Rectifier requires three Proportional-Integral (PI) controllers to regulate DC voltage, d-axis and q-axis current. Normally, the outer loop for DC voltage control requires high gain value to stabilize the DC voltage and the inner loop for current control requires low gain values to regulate the current. In this proposed work, due to lower gain of the inner current loop, the PI controllers for that specific loop has been omitted to deal with the easy control of the controller.
Spatial Structure of Helminth Communities in the Golden Grey Mullet, Liza aurata (Actinopterygii: Mugilidae), from the Western Mediterranean

Abstract: Ecological investigations regarding the parasite fauna of grey mullets are scarce. The present study provides a detailed description of the helminth communities of Liza aurata in the Spanish western Mediterranean and analyzes the role of spatial, temporal, and host variables in shaping the infracommunities. In total, 204 fish were collected in 2 localities, situated ca. 290 km apart, in spring and fall of 2004 and 2005. A non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) was used to visualize an ordination of the infracommunities according to their relative similarities in parasite abundances. The relationship between infracommunity composition and explanatory variables (host size, locality, year, and season of harvest) was examined by permutational analysis of variance (PERMANOVA) applied to species abundances. Permutational tests for homogeneity of multivariate dispersion were used to test the null hypothesis of no differences in dispersion among groups formed by the factors whose effects were significant in PERMANOVA. A total of 33,241 helminth parasites, belonging to 18 species, was collected, i.e., 12 species of adult digeneans (23% of the parasite specimens), 3 digeneans as metacercariae (68%), 1 acanthocephalan (2.1%), and 2 monogeneans (6.5%). An important part of this helminth fauna is specialized to grey mullets, with a sizable portion of the component community restricted to the Mediterranean and northeast Atlantic. The NMDS ordination indicated high heterogeneity among infrapopulations. However, most differences at both the component and infracommunity level were related to geographic locality. In fact, the PERMANOVA showed that, among the explanatory variables considered, sampling locality accounted for the largest share of variation. The geographical differences observed may be related to local environmental characteristics or to the limited spatial dispersal of the species forming the component community. The latter was supported by the significant portion of variation explained by a 3-way interaction term. Thus, the spatial structure of our helminth infracommunities seems to be determined by a combination of differences in local environmental conditions and the transmission ability of each species at small local and time scales.
Modeling and online-identification of electrically stimulated antagonistic muscles for horizontal shoulder abduction and adduction

A comparison of two different models of a pair of antagonistic muscles for horizontal shoulder abduction and adduction is presented. The proposed models are based on the so called Hill-model: a mechanical framework (inertia, dampers and springs) is used for their development. The models consider as inputs the estimates of the activation states of the muscles based on digital filtering of the evoked electromyogram (eEMG). Model outputs are angular velocity and position. Both models show good results in terms of performance, but they are different in terms of number of parameters that need to be identified and in terms of physical interpretation. One of the models, in fact, describes the muscle as a spring that generates torque by changing its stiffness parameter depending on its activation level. In order to enable adaptive model-based feed-forward and feedback control strategies for angular position/velocity control, an online-identification method based on an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) is introduced for one of the two models. Simulation and experimental results show the good performance in terms of convergence time and accuracy of the estimation.
Topics in Social Media for Disaster Management-A German Case Study on the Flood 2013

The paper presents the results of a German case study on social media use during the flood 2013 in Central Europe. During this event, thousands of volunteers organized themselves via social media without being motivated or guided by professional disaster management. The aim of our research was to show and analyze the real potential of social media for disaster management and to enable the public organizations to get into touch with the people and take advantage as well as control of the power of social media. In our investigation, we applied state-of-the-art technology from Natural Language Processing, mainly topic modeling, to test and demonstrate its usefulness for computer-based media analysis in modern disaster management. At the same time, the analysis was a comparative study of social media content in context of a disaster. We found that Twitter played its most prominent part in the exchange of current factual information on the state of the event, while Facebook prevalently was used for emotional support and organization of volunteers help. Accordingly, social media are powerful not only with respect to their volume, velocity and variety but also come with their own content, language and ways of structuring information.
Random-Dopant-Induced Drain Current Variation in Nano-MOSFETs: A Three-Dimensional Self-Consistent Monte Carlo Simulation Study Using “Ab Initio” Ionized Impurity Scattering

A comprehensive simulation study of random-dopant-induced drain current variability is presented for a series of well-scaled n-channel MOSFETs representative of the 90-, 65-, 45-, 35-, and 22-nm technology nodes. Simulations are performed at low and high drain biases using both 3-D drift diffusion (DD) and 3-D Monte Carlo (MC). The ensemble MC simulator incorporates an ldquo ab initiordquo treatment of ionized impurity scattering through the real-space trajectories of the carriers in the Coulomb potential of the random discrete impurities. When compared with DD simulations, the MC simulations reveal a significant increase in the drain current variability as a result of additional transport variations due to position-dependent Coulomb scattering that is not captured within the DD mobility model. Such transport variations are in addition to the electrostatic variation in carrier density that is alone captured within the DD approach. Through comparison of the DD and MC results, we estimate the relative importance of electrostatic and transport-induced variability at different drain bias conditions.
Pattern distillation methods in grammar induction

The natural language processing module is an important implementation form of intelligent human-machine interaction. The NLP engine requires an efficient grammar description to convert sentences into semantic models. Automated grammar induction is the area to discover rules in the sentences of a given language. An important phase of grammar induction is the pattern distillation phase. The paper presents a survey of pattern distillation methods for generation of context free grammars. The paper proposes a link-based pattern distillation method as a good alternative of the most widely used MEX algorithm. Beside the methodological analysis, test results are also presented to compare the efficiency of the main pattern distillation algorithms.
Design and test of HTS coils for resistive fault current limiter

This paper presents the design, manufacturing and test results of HTS coils for single-phase resistive current limiters using two different Bi-2223/Ag tapes. Two coils were separately wound on cylindrical G-10 tubes with helical path. One of the coil was wound in a bifilar conductor arrangement aiming at reducing the self-inductance. The maximum flux density is 40 mT on the HTS tape for both coils and the calculated inductance is 5.76/spl mu/H for the non-inductively wound coil and 28.3/spl mu/H for the conventional one. The two coils were individually tested under DC and AC currents. The DC power loss was calculated from the measured voltage-current values product and the AC power loss was determined by the liquid nitrogen mass boil-off measurement. The acquired voltage AC waveforms were analyzed through the separation of distinct contributions due to magnetic flux and to a resistive component in-phase with the current. It was observed an inflection point common to the DC and AC power losses curves close to I/sub c/ attributed to the AC transition current.
On the Data Complexity of Ontology-Mediated Queries with a Covering Axiom

This paper reports on our ongoing work that aims at a classification of conjunctive queries q according to the data complexity of answering ontologymediated queries ({A T F}; q). We give examples of queries from the complexity classes ϵ {AC0; L; NL; P; CONP}, and obtain a few syntactical conditions for -membership and -hardness.
A Structural Model of the Erythrocyte Spectrin Heterodimer Initiation Site Determined Using Homology Modeling and Chemical Cross-linking*

Spectrin assembles into an anti-parallel heterodimeric flexible rod-like molecule through a multistep process initiated by a high affinity interaction between discrete complementary homologous motifs or “repeats” near the actin binding domain. Attempts to determine crystallographic structures of this critical dimer initiation complex have so far been unsuccessful. Therefore, in this study we determined the subunit-subunit docking interface and a plausible medium resolution structure of the heterodimer initiation site using homology modeling coupled with structural refinement based on experimentally determined distance constraints. Intramolecular and intermolecular cross-links formed by the “zero length” cross-linking reagent, 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)carbodiimide were identified after trypsin digestion of cross-linked heterodimer complex using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry analysis. High confidence assignment of cross-linked peptides was facilitated by determination of cross-linked peptide masses with an uncertainty of a few parts per million using a high sensitivity linear ion trap mass spectrometer equipped with a Fouriertransform ion cyclotron resonance detector. Six interchain cross-links distinguished between alternative docking models, and these distance constraints, as well as three intrachain cross-links, were used to further refine an initial homology-based structure. The final model is consistent with all available physical data, including protease protection experiments, isothermal titration calorimetry analyses, and location of a common polymorphism that destabilizes dimerization. This model supports the hypothesis that initial docking of the correct α and β repeats from among many very similar repeats in both subunits is driven primarily by long range electrostatic interactions.
Cardiac resynchronisation therapy in patients with heart failure and a normal QRS duration: the RESPOND study

Objectives To evaluate the clinical response to cardiac resynchronisation therapy (CRT) in patients with heart failure and a normal QRS duration (<120 ms). Setting Single centre. Patients 60 patients with heart failure and a normal QRS duration receiving optimal pharmacological treatment (OPT). Interventions Patients were randomly assigned to CRT (n=29) or to a control group (OPT, n=31). Cardiovascular magnetic resonance was used in order to avoid scar at the site of left ventricular (LV) lead deployment. Main outcome measures The primary end point was a change in 6 min walking distance (6-MWD). Other measures included a change in quality of life scores (Minnesota Living with Heart Failure questionnaire) and New York Heart Association class. Results In 93% of implantations, the LV lead was deployed over non-scarred myocardium. At 6 months, the 6-MWD increased with CRT compared with OPT (p<0.0001), with more patients reaching a ≥25% increase (51.7% vs 12.9%, p=0.0019). Compared with OPT, CRT led to an improvement in quality-of-life scores (p=0.0265) and a reduction in NYHA class (p<0.0001). The composite clinical score (survival for 6 months free of heart failure hospitalisations plus improvement by one or more NYHA class or by ≥25% in 6-MWD) was better in CRT than in OPT (83% vs 23%, respectively; p<0.0001). Although no differences in total or cardiovascular mortality emerged between OPT and CRT, patients receiving OPT had a higher risk of death from pump failure than patients assigned to CRT (HR=8.41, p=0.0447) after a median follow-up of 677.5 days. Conclusions CRT leads to an improvement in symptoms, exercise capacity and quality of life in patients with heart failure and a normal QRS duration. (ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00480051.)
A boundary based classifier combination method

In this paper, a new classifier combination method is proposed for two-class problems. The boundaries of the classes are extracted directly from the given training set, and a set of linear combination rules are defined based on each sample on the class boundaries. The new approach is tested on two large public datasets, and the experimental results show its good performances. Comparing with combination methods such as linear combination, voting, decision templates, our method has higher classification accuracy; comparing with the k-NN rule, its computational complexity is much lower.