Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Variant cystic fibrosis phenotypes in the absence of CFTR mutations.

BACKGROUND Cystic fibrosis is a life-limiting autosomal recessive disorder with a highly variable clinical presentation. The classic form involves characteristic findings in the respiratory tract, gastrointestinal tract, male reproductive tract, and sweat glands and is caused by loss-of-function mutations in the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR ) gene. Nonclassic forms of cystic fibrosis have been associated with mutations that reduce but do not eliminate the function of the CFTR protein. We assessed whether alteration in CFTR function is responsible for the entire spectrum of variant cystic fibrosis phenotypes. METHODS Extensive genetic analysis of the CFTR gene was performed in 74 patients with nonclassic cystic fibrosis who had been referred by 34 medical centers. We evaluated two families that each included a proband without identified mutations and a sibling with nonclassic cystic fibrosis to determine whether there was linkage to the CFTR locus and to measure the extent of CFTR function in the sweat gland and nasal epithelium. RESULTS Of the 74 patients studied, 29 had two mutations in the CFTR gene, 15 had one mutation, and 30 had no mutations. A final genotype of two mutations was more common among patients who had been referred after screening for common cystic fibrosis-causing mutations identified one mutation than among those who had been referred after screening had identified no such mutations (26 of 34 patients vs. 3 of 40 patients, P<0.001). Comparison of clinical features and sweat chloride concentrations revealed no significant differences among patients with two, one, or no CFTR mutations. Haplotype analysis in the two families revealed no linkage to CFTR. Although each of the affected siblings had elevated sweat chloride concentrations, measurements of cyclic AMP-mediated ion and fluid transport in the sweat gland and nasal epithelium demonstrated the presence of functional CFTR. CONCLUSIONS Factors other than mutations in the CFTR gene can produce phenotypes clinically indistinguishable from nonclassic cystic fibrosis caused by CFTR dysfunction.
CPCCOEt, a noncompetitive metabotropic glutamate receptor 1 antagonist, inhibits receptor signaling without affecting glutamate binding.

Metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs) are a family of G protein-coupled receptors characterized by a large, extracellular N-terminal domain comprising the glutamate-binding site. In the current study, we examined the pharmacological profile and site of action of the non-amino-acid antagonist 7-hydroxyiminocyclopropan[b]chromen-1a-carboxylic acid ethyl ester (CPCCOEt). CPCCOEt selectively inhibited glutamate-induced increases in intracellular calcium at human mGluR1b (hmGluR1b) with an apparent IC50 of 6.5 microM while having no agonist or antagonist activity at hmGluR2, -4a, -5a, -7b, and -8a up to 100 microM. Schild analysis indicated that CPCCOEt acts in a noncompetitive manner by decreasing the efficacy of glutamate-stimulated phosphoinositide hydrolysis without affecting the EC50 value or Hill coefficient of glutamate. Similarly, CPCCOEt did not displace [3H]glutamate binding to membranes prepared from mGluR1a-expressing cells. To elucidate the site of action, we systematically exchanged segments and single amino acids between hmGluR1b and the related subtype, hmGluR5a. Substitution of Thr815 and Ala818, located at the extracellular surface of transmembrane segment VII, with the homologous amino acids of hmGluR5a eliminated CPCCOEt inhibition of hmGluR1b. In contrast, introduction of Thr815 and Ala818 at the homologous positions of hmGluR5a conferred complete inhibition by CPCCOEt (IC50 = 6.6 microM), i.e., a gain of function. These data suggest that CPCCOEt represents a novel class of G protein-coupled receptor antagonists inhibiting receptor signaling without affecting ligand binding. We propose that the interaction of CPCCOEt with Thr815 and Ala818 of mGluR1 disrupts receptor activation by inhibiting an intramolecular interaction between the agonist-bound extracellular domain and the transmembrane domain.
Postoperative Recovery After Desflurane, Propofol, or Isoflurane Anesthesia Among Morbidly Obese Patients: A Prospective, Randomized Study

Recovery from anesthesia might be compromised in obese patients. Because of its pharmacological properties, desflurane might allow rapid postoperative recovery for these patients. We compared postoperative recovery for 36 obese patients randomized to receive either desflurane, propofol, or isoflurane to maintain anesthesia during laparoscopic gastroplasties. Anesthesia was induced with propofol and succinylcholine IV and was maintained with rocuronium, alfentanil, inhaled nitrous oxide, and the study drug. Immediate recovery (i.e., times from the discontinuation of anesthesia to tracheal extubation, eye opening, and the ability to state one’s name) was measured. At the time of postanesthesia care unit (PACU) admission, arterial saturation and the ability of patients to move were recorded. In the PACU, intermediate recovery was measured by using sedation and psychometric evaluations, 30, 60, and 120 min postoperatively. Data were compared between groups by using the Kruskal-Wallis and &khgr;2 tests. Results were reported as means ± sd. P < 0.05, compared with desflurane, was considered significant. Immediate recovery occurred faster, and was more consistent, after desflurane than after propofol or isoflurane (times to extubation were 6 ± 1 min, 13 ± 8 min [P < 0.05, compared with desflurane], and 12 ± 6 min [P < 0.05, compared with desflurane], respectively). At PACU admission, Spo2 values were significantly higher and patient mobility was significantly better after desflurane than after isoflurane or propofol. Sedation was significantly less pronounced with desflurane at 30 and 120 min postoperatively. In morbidly obese patients, postoperative immediate and intermediate recoveries are more rapid after desflurane than after propofol or isoflurane anesthesia. This advantage of desflurane persists at least for 2 h after surgery and is associated with both an improvement in patient mobility and a reduced incidence of postoperative desaturation. Implications In morbidly obese patients, postoperative immediate and intermediate recoveries are more rapid and consistent after desflurane than after propofol or isoflurane anesthesia.
Vast Educational Mobile Content Broadcasting using ARMrayan Multimedia Mobile CMS

Abstract — The huge information flow currently available to young generation makes it difficult for educational centers to train them as needed. Most of these information flows occur in transportation time or while on tpublic areas. Competing with commercial information streams is far out of educational centers time and budget. For creating enough mobile applications for vast educational mobile content broadcasting that can match young spirits as well, we designed and developed the ARMrayan Multimedia Mobile CMS as the software that helps communities, educational, cultural or marketing centers in a way that ordinary operators be able to create a variety of fully functional multimedia mobile applications such as tutorials, catalogues, books, and guides in minutes without writing even a line of code. In this paper, we present the role of our developed software in our proposed vast educational content broadcasting system using kiosks and Bluetooth advertising, which will lead to a great leap in M-commerce marketing and public education solutions. Related experiences are described and diagrams are used to illustrate the solution. Upon release of the software, it achieved two titles and prizes in different festivals and various cultural and commercial centers became its customers.
Linking the emotional reactions to coping: a closer look at gender differences among Israeli managers

This study investigates male and female's coping strategies while encountering daily managerial stressors, by deciphering their appraisals of stressors and the emotional reactions to these appraisals, i.e., perceived stress or subjective well-being. Findings indicated that men and women managers (n = 389) differ in appraising stressors; these appraisals affected both genders' emotional reactions and then their coping strategies. Multivariate results also showed that perceived stress produced emotion-oriented coping in both gender groups. The main contribution of this study is that men and women managers manifest identical coping patterns and coping behaviour is dependent upon context rather than on gender. Implications are discussed.
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Knowledge and Perception of Dental Care Providers

Aim: The aim was to measure the level of perception and knowledge of dental care providers to Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) at King Abdulaziz University faculty of dentistry (KAUFD), Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Materials and Methods: Three-part questionnaire with an explanatory method were mailed to 50 specialist pediatric faculty members and residents (Master, Doctorate degrees and Saudi Board) and 140 dental interns and externs. The first part of the questionnaire includes the participants’ demographic information. The second part related to the participants previous clinical and educational experiences with ADHD and the third part included questions related to the participants’ knowledge and management of ADHD. The respondents were asked to choose only one choice from 3 choices (agree, disagree, I do not know). Results: Working experience was found to be a significant factor (P ≤ 0.05) in relation to the background knowledge of the participants when comparing those with 10+ years of work experience to those with 1-3 years and 4-9 years work experience. Additionally, female participants had better knowledge than their male counterpart (p<0.001), as did married participants (p=0.007) and those who have children especially with regards to the adverse effects of drugs, oral health and dental management for ADHD patients (p=0.001, p=0.011, p=0.011). Interns also reported significant differences than consultants (P ≤ 0.05) in their knowledge and general information about oral health and dental management for ADHD. Conclusion: The background knowledge among a sample of oral health care providers in KAUFD was found to be statistically and positively related to the work experience in terms of years of practice as well as the social and demographic status of the participants.
Voiced-speech analysis based on the residual interfering signal canceler (RISC) algorithm

We describe an improved version of our previously proposed feed-back residual interfering signal canceler (RISC) algorithm that can now track the phases and amplitudes of the sinewave components present in a signal without any a priori knowledge. We also give the details of the feed-forward RISC algorithm for tracking the sinewave components present in voiced speech. The effectiveness of these algorithms is demonstrated by processing both synthetic and clean natural speech. <<ETX>>
Prion Seeding Activities of Mouse Scrapie Strains with Divergent PrPSc Protease Sensitivities and Amyloid Plaque Content Using RT-QuIC and eQuIC

Different transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE)-associated forms of prion protein (e.g. PrPSc) can vary markedly in ultrastructure and biochemical characteristics, but each is propagated in the host. PrPSc propagation involves conversion from its normal isoform, PrPC, by a seeded or templated polymerization mechanism. Such a mechanism is also the basis of the RT-QuIC and eQuIC prion assays which use recombinant PrP (rPrPSen) as a substrate. These ultrasensitive detection assays have been developed for TSE prions of several host species and sample tissues, but not for murine models which are central to TSE pathogenesis research. Here we have adapted RT-QuIC and eQuIC to various murine prions and evaluated how seeding activity depends on glycophosphatidylinositol (GPI) anchoring and the abundance of amyloid plaques and protease-resistant PrPSc (PrPRes). Scrapie brain dilutions up to 10−8 and 10−13 were detected by RT-QuIC and eQuIC, respectively. Comparisons of scrapie-affected wild-type mice and transgenic mice expressing GPI anchorless PrP showed that, although similar concentrations of seeding activity accumulated in brain, the heavily amyloid-laden anchorless mouse tissue seeded more rapid reactions. Next we compared seeding activities in the brains of mice with similar infectivity titers, but widely divergent PrPRes levels. For this purpose we compared the 263K and 139A scrapie strains in transgenic mice expressing P101L PrPC. Although the brains of 263K-affected mice had little immunoblot-detectable PrPRes, RT-QuIC indicated that seeding activity was comparable to that associated with a high-PrPRes strain, 139A. Thus, in this comparison, RT-QuIC seeding activity correlated more closely with infectivity than with PrPRes levels. We also found that eQuIC, which incorporates a PrPSc immunoprecipitation step, detected seeding activity in plasma from wild-type and anchorless PrP transgenic mice inoculated with 22L, 79A and/or RML scrapie strains. Overall, we conclude that these new mouse-adapted prion seeding assays detect diverse types of PrPSc.
Social Media Research in Advertising, Communication, Marketing, and Public Relations, 1997–2010

Drawing upon the social media phenomena in both practical and academic arenas, this study explored patterns and trends of social media research over the past fourteen years across four disciplines. Findings exhibit a definite increasing number of social-media-related studies. This indicates that social media have gained incremental attention among scholars, and who have, in turn, been responding and keeping pace with the increased usage and impact of this new medium. The authors suggest that future scholarly endeavors emphasize prospective aspects of social media, foreseeing applications and technological progress and elaborating theory.
Two-level dynamic index pruning

In this paper, we propose two-level dynamic index pruning for improving retrieval efficiency without degrading the quality of query results. Analyzing the ClueWeb09 data set, we observe that most terms appear in thousands of different websites, while internet search engines typically just display the top-10 search results. We conclude that retrieval efficiency would be substantially improved, if one could prune entire websites by knowing that the scores of all their web pages will not make it in the top-10 scores of the query. Thus, two-level dynamic index pruning utilizes a hierarchical document numbering scheme to subdivide posting lists into sorted runs of the pages of one website rather than the flat inverted index of all web pages. Experimental results on the ClueWeb09 data set illustrate the benefits of two-level dynamic index pruning for improving retrieval efficiency.
Military Base Closure Effects on a Community: The Case of Fort Ritchie Army Garrison and Cascade, Maryland

Title of dissertation: MILITARY BASE CLOSURE EFFECTS ON A COMMUNITY: THE CASE OF FORT RITCHIE ARMY GARRISON AND CASCADE, MARYLAND Meridith Hill Thanner, Doctor of Philosophy, 2006 Dissertation direction by: Professor Mady W. Segal Department of Sociology Fort Ritchie Army Garrison in Cascade, Maryland, slated for closure as part of the 1995 Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) round, officially ceased military operations three years later on September 30, 1998. Despite the fact that Ritchie shut its gates more than seven years ago, a confluence of circumstances has prevented its reuse; the property remains the possession of the U.S. Army and the community has yet to benefit from reuse efforts. To understand how such base closings affect the local community (the place), as well as the character of the place, an ethnographic case study was undertaken. Interwoven with this understanding of place are individual stories of those affected by the closing and how they, based on their relationship to the place and the meanings they attach to it, responded to the closing and the ensuing reuse process. I conducted in-depth interviews, spent time in the community, reviewed archival records, and collected and analyzed demographic and economic data to quantify some of the social and economic impacts on the area over time, and conducted a post hoc Social Impact Assessment. By employing concepts of place to understand how the community came to see itself in relation to the fort (Ritchie), and how residents came to value and use the fort, several predominant themes emerged. Specifically, I found that residents have a strong sense of place and place attachment, in spite of obvious imbalances of power between different segments of the community, which result in feelings of disenfranchisement by residents from the local political structure. Though this dissertation is the story of how one community has responded and adjusted to the loss of the military, lessons can be learned by other communities facing base closings, as well as by federal entities tasked with overseeing and facilitating the process. MILITARY BASE CLOSURE EFFECTS ON A COMMUNITY: THE CASE OF FORT RITCHIE ARMY GARRISON AND CASCADE, MARYLAND By Meridith Hill Thanner Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2006 Dissertation Committee: Professor Mady W. Segal, Chair Professor William Falk Professor Kurt Finsterbusch Professor Louis Hicks, St. Mary’s College of Maryland Professor Michael Paolisso Professor David R. Segal © Copyright by Meridith Hill Thanner 2006
Integer Polynomial Optimization in Fixed Dimension

We classify, according to their computational complexity, integer optimization problems whose constraints and objective functions are polynomials with integer coefficients, and the number of variables is fixed. For the optimization of an integer polynomial over the lattice points of a convex polytope, we show an algorithm to compute lower and upper bounds for the optimal value. For polynomials that are nonnegative over the polytope, these sequences of bounds lead to a fully polynomial-time approximation scheme for the optimization problem.
Bernoulli Filter for Track-Before-Detect using MIMO Radar

In this letter, we apply a Bernoulli Filter for moving target detection and tracking using real Multiple Input Multiple Output radar data in a challenging environment. The interest in MIMO radars has been growing since they can provide high performance at lower cost than conventional antenna arrays. The Bernoulli Filter performs tracking using the Track-Before-Detect approach, which is required to achieve satisfactory tracking performance in low signal-to-noise scenarios. The algorithm is validated with real MIMO data of a walking person.
A Minimal Model Describing Hexapedal Interlimb Coordination: The Tegotae-Based Approach

Insects exhibit adaptive and versatile locomotion despite their minimal neural computing. Such locomotor patterns are generated via coordination between leg movements, i.e., an interlimb coordination, which is largely controlled in a distributed manner by neural circuits located in thoracic ganglia. However, the mechanism responsible for the interlimb coordination still remains elusive. Understanding this mechanism will help us to elucidate the fundamental control principle of animals' agile locomotion and to realize robots with legs that are truly adaptive and could not be developed solely by conventional control theories. This study aims at providing a “minimal" model of the interlimb coordination mechanism underlying hexapedal locomotion, in the hope that a single control principle could satisfactorily reproduce various aspects of insect locomotion. To this end, we introduce a novel concept we named “Tegotae,” a Japanese concept describing the extent to which a perceived reaction matches an expectation. By using the Tegotae-based approach, we show that a surprisingly systematic design of local sensory feedback mechanisms essential for the interlimb coordination can be realized. We also use a hexapod robot we developed to show that our mathematical model of the interlimb coordination mechanism satisfactorily reproduces various insects' gait patterns.
Improving Syllabification Models with Phonotactic Knowledge

We report on a series of experiments with probabilistic context-free grammars predicting English and German syllable structure. The treebank-trained grammars are evaluated on a syllabification task. The grammar used by Muller (2002) serves as point of comparison. As she evaluates the grammar only for German, we reimplement the grammar and experiment with additional phonotactic features. Using bi-grams within the syllable, we can model the dependency from the previous consonant in the onset and coda. A 10-fold cross validation procedure shows that syllabification can be improved by incorporating this type of phonotactic knowledge. Compared to the grammar of Muller (2002), syllable boundary accuracy increases from 95.8% to 97.2% for English, and from 95.9% to 97.2% for German. Moreover, our experiments with different syllable structures point out that there are dependencies between the onset on the nucleus for German but not for English. The analysis of one of our phonotactic grammars shows that interesting phonotactic constraints are learned. For instance, unvoiced consonants are the most likely first consonants and liquids and glides are preferred as second consonants in two-consonantal onsets.
Research on Web-Based Collaborative Markup System of Product Model

Collaborative browsing and markup of product models is an important research direction of computer supported collaborative design. To develop a collaborative browsing and markup system, designers usually run into some problems, such as network transmission of complex product data and data exchange and sharing resulting from the use of different 3D modeling software. In order to resolve the above mentioned problems, a synchronized collaborative markup model is developed based on the analysis of the collaborative markup process, and application sharing mechanism of collaborative markup is also proposed based on message-driven mode. Furthermore, the need to of transmit, exchange and share 3D model data is satisfied by the application of the extensible virtual world description language (XVL). At last, a real time collaborative design management system based on XVL is developed and confirms that this scheme is feasible and able to tackle the three problems encountered in the process of collaborative design.
Emergence of a new clone carrying Panton-Valentine leukocidin genes and staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec type V among methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in Greece

Clonal analysis and PCR screening for the presence of Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL) genes was performed among 694 methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) cases collected during a 2-y period in Greece. The detection rate of PVL-positive MRSA is high, both in the community and in hospital. Clonal analysis revealed the predominance among the PVL-positive strains of the clonal complex CC80 (ST80-IV) and the emergence of ST377 clone carrying agr1 allele and SCCmec type V.
Survey on Dynamic Slicing over Distributed Computing

In this paper, discussed on dynamic program slicing algorithm which simplifies dependence and discussed the intermediate representation of a dynamic program slicing technique a Concurrent System Dependence Graph (CSDG) and intermediate representation of a distributed Java program in the form of a set of Distributed Program Dependence Graphs (DPDG). The algorithm can run parallel on a network of computers, with each node in the network contributing to the dynamic slice in a fully distributed fashion. The approaches discussed will not require any trace files to be maintained. Another advantage of this approach is that a slice is available even before a request for a slice is made. Analysis of the complexities of both the algorithm for dynamic program slicing technique and distributed dynamic slicing in Java