Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of left ventricular outflow tract obstruction on clinical outcome in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

BACKGROUND The influence of left ventricular outflow tract obstruction on the clinical outcome of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy remains unresolved. METHODS We assessed the effect of outflow tract obstruction on morbidity and mortality in a large cohort of patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy who were followed for a mean (+/-SD) of 6.3+/-6.2 years. RESULTS Of the 1101 consecutive patients, 273 (25 percent) had obstruction of left ventricular outflow under basal (resting) conditions with a peak instantaneous gradient of at least 30 mm Hg. A total of 127 patients (12 percent) died of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, and 216 surviving patients (20 percent) had severe, disabling symptoms of progressive heart failure (New York Heart Association [NYHA] functional class III or IV). The overall probability of death related to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy was significantly greater among patients with outflow tract obstruction than among those without obstruction (relative risk, 2.0; P=0.001). The risk of progression to NYHA class III or IV or death specifically from heart failure or stroke was also greater among patients with obstruction (relative risk, 4.4; P<0.001), particularly among patients 40 years of age or older (P<0.001). Age-adjusted multivariate analysis confirmed that outflow tract obstruction was independently associated with an increased risk of both death related to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (relative risk, 1.6; P=0.02) and progression to NYHA class III or IV or death from heart failure or stroke (relative risk, 2.7; P<0.001). The likelihood of severe symptoms and death related to outflow tract obstruction did not increase as the gradient increased above the threshold of 30 mm Hg. CONCLUSIONS In patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, left ventricular outflow tract obstruction at rest is a strong, independent predictor of progression to severe symptoms of heart failure and of death.
G A ] 2 A pr 2 01 5 Maser Astrometry with VLBI and the SKA

We discuss the unique opportunities for maser astrometry wi h the inclusion of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) in Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLB I) networks. The first phase of the SKA will enable observations of hydroxyl and methanol ma sers, positioning the latter to an accuracy of 5 microarcseconds, and the second phase may allo w water maser observations. These observations will provide trigonometric distances with er rors as small as 1%. The unrivalled sensitivity of the SKA will enable large-scale surveys and, thr ough joint operations, will turn any VLBI network into a fast astrometry device. Both evolved sta r nd high mass star formation regions will be accessible throughout the (Southern) Milky Way, completing our understanding of the content, dynamics and history of our Galaxy. Maser vel ocities and proper motions will be measurable in the Local Group of galaxies and beyond, provid ing new insights into their kinematics and evolution.
Potassium Channel-blockers as Therapeutic Agents to Interfere with Bone Resorption of Periodontal Disease

Inflammatory lesions of periodontal disease contain all the cellular components, including abundant activated/memory T- and B-cells, necessary to control immunological interactive networks and to accelerate bone resorption by RANKL-dependent and -independent mechanisms. Blockade of RANKL function has been shown to ameliorate periodontal bone resorption and other osteopenic disorders without affecting inflammation. Development of therapies aimed at decreasing the expression of RANKL and pro-inflammatory cytokines by T-cells constitutes a promising strategy to ameliorate not only bone resorption, but also inflammation. Several reports have demonstrated that the potassium channels Kv1.3 and IKCa1, through the use of selective blockers, play important roles in T-cell-mediated events, including T-cell proliferation and the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines. More recently, a potassium channel-blocker for Kv1.3 has been shown to down-regulate bone resorption by decreasing the ratio of RANKL-to-OPG expression by memory-activated T-cells. In this article, we first summarize the mechanisms by which chronically activated/memory T-cells, in concert with B-cells and macrophages, trigger inflammatory bone resorption. Then, we describe the main structural and functional characteristics of potassium channels Kv1.3 and IKCa1 in some of the cells implicated in periodontal disease progression. Finally, this review elucidates some recent advances in the use of potassium channel-blockers of Kv1.3 and IKCa1 to ameliorate the clinical signs or side-effects of several immunological disorders and to decrease inflammatory bone resorption in periodontal disease. ABBREVIATIONS: AICD, activation-induced cell death; APC, antigen-presenting cells; B(K), large conductance; CRAC, calcium release-activated calcium channels; DC, dendritic cell; GAPDH, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase; IFN-γ, interferon-γ; IP3, inositol (1,4,5)-triphosphate; (K)ir, inward rectifier; JNK, c-Jun N-terminal kinase; I(K), intermediate conductance; LPS, lipopolysaccharide; L, ligand; MCSF, macrophage colony-stimulating factor; MHC, major histocompatibility complex; NFAT, nuclear factor of activated T-cells; RANK, receptor activator of nuclear factor-κB; TCM, central memory T-cells; TEM, effector memory T-cells; TNF, tumor necrosis factor; TRAIL, TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand; OPG, osteoprotegerin; Omp29, 29-kDa outer membrane protein; PKC, protein kinase C; PLC, phospholipase C; RT-PCR, reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain-reaction; S(K), small conductance; TCR, T-cell receptor; and (K)v, voltage-gated.
Effect of electrode geometry on voltage reduction in EWOD based devices

Electrowetting(EW) has been used sophistically in the fields of biomedical and optical applications. The major problem posing challenge in EW is to reduce its operating voltage. The study consist of understanding the effect of device parameters that affect EW phenomenon to reduce the actuation voltage with optimum velocity. Using EDEW 2.0 simulation tools [8] and Surface Evolver software [9, 11] EW is simulated. By varying the different parameters (electrode length, gap between electrodes, dielectric thickness, shape of electrode edge and dielectric constant) the corresponding energy curves (surface energy versus centroid position) are obtained. The main goal is to reduce the voltage. It is observed that voltage bears inverse relation with the surface energy and thus actuation voltage can be reduced by reducing the surface energy. There is direct influence of Electrode's parameters in reducing the surface energy.
Rapid method for separation of bacterial DNA from humic substances in sediments for polymerase chain reaction

The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to amplify an Escherichia coli 16S ribosomal gene fragment from sediments with high contents of humic substances. Total DNA was extracted from 1 g of E. coli seeded or unseeded samples by a rapid freeze-and-thaw method. Several approaches (use of Bio-Gel P-6 and P-30 and Sephadex G-50 and G-200 columns, as well as use of the Stoffel fragment) were used to reduce interference with the PCR. The best results were obtained when crude DNA extracts containing humic substances were purified by using Sephadex G-200 spun columns saturated with Tris-EDTA buffer (pH 8.0). Eluted fractions were collected for PCR analyses. The amplified DNA fragment was obtained from seeded sediments containing fewer than 70 E. coli cells per g. Because only 1/100 of the eluted fractions containing DNA extracts from 70 cells per g was used for the PCR, the sensitivity of detection was determined to be less than 1 E. coli cell. Thus, DNA direct extraction coupled with this technique to remove interference by humic substances and followed by the PCR can be a powerful tool to detect low numbers of bacterial cells in environmental samples containing humic substances.
Edge based Blind Single Image Deblurring with Sparse Priors

Blind image deblurring is the estimation of the blur kernel and the latent sharp image from a blurry image. This makes it a significant ill-posed problem with various investigations looking for adequate solutions. The recourse to image priors have been noticed in recent approaches to improve final results. One of the most interesting results are based on data priors. This has been the starting point to the proposed blind image deblurring system. In particular, this study explores the potential of the sparse representation widely known for its efficiency in several reconstruction tasks. In fact, we propose a sparse representation based iterative deblurring method that exploits sparse constraints of edge based image patches. This process includes the KSVD algorithm useful for the dictionary definition. Our main contributions are (1) the application of a shock filter as a pre-processing step followed by filter sub-bands applications for an effective contour detection, (2) the use of an online training data-sets with elementary patterns to describe edge-based information and (3) the recourse to an adaptative dictionary training. The experimental study illustrates promising results of the proposed deblurring method compared to the well-known state-of-the-art methods.
Heat shock response of Saccharomyces cerevisiae mutants altered in cyclic AMP-dependent protein phosphorylation

When Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells grown at 23 degrees C were transferred to 36 degrees C, they initiated synthesis of heat shock proteins, acquired thermotolerance to a lethal heat treatment given after the temperature shift, and arrested their growth transiently at the G1 phase of the cell division cycle. The bcy1 mutant which resulted in production of cyclic AMP (cAMP)-independent protein kinase did not synthesize the three heat shock proteins hsp72A, hsp72B, and hsp41 after the temperature shift. The bcy1 cells failed to acquire thermotolerance to the lethal heat treatment and were not arrested at the G1 phase after the temperature shift. In contrast, the cyr1-2 mutant, which produced a low level of cAMP, constitutively produced three heat shock proteins and four other proteins without the temperature shift and was resistant to the lethal heat treatment. The results suggest that a decrease in the level of cAMP-dependent protein phosphorylation results in the heat shock response, including elevated synthesis of three heat shock proteins, acquisition of thermotolerance, and transient arrest of the cell cycle.
Study on state estimation due to biological signal analysis

Long term monotonous driving has been often found to decrease the driver's arousal level and affect on his/her property of perception, cognition and judgment. It is necessary to support safety driving according to driver's physical and mental state. In this study, we examined the influence of seat characteristics on the driver's psychosomatic state by measuring biological signal measurement including brain wave and electrocardiogram and finger plethysmograph. As a result, it has been understood that the seating posture has an influence on the driver's drowsiness as well as long term seating fatigue. Moreover, we proposed four term hypothesis for driving state which classifies the mind-and-body state of a driver at four states. This hypothesis was also tried to verify with these biological signal analysis in this study.
Archaeal JAB1/MPN/MOV34 metalloenzyme (HvJAMM1) cleaves ubiquitin‐like small archaeal modifier proteins (SAMPs) from protein‐conjugates

Proteins with JAB1/MPN/MOV34 metalloenzyme (JAMM/MPN+) domains are widespread among all domains of life, yet poorly understood. Here we report the purification and characterization of an archaeal JAMM/MPN+ domain protein (HvJAMM1) from Haloferax volcanii that cleaves ubiquitin‐like small archaeal modifier proteins (SAMP1/2) from protein conjugates. HvJAMM1 cleaved SAMP1/2 conjugates generated in H. volcanii as well as isopeptide‐ and linear‐linked SAMP1–MoaE in purified form. Cleavage of linear linked SAMP1–MoaE was dependent on the presence of the SAMP domain and the C‐terminal VSGG motif of this domain. While HvJAMM1 was inhibited by size exclusion chromatography and metal chelators, its activity could be restored by addition of excess ZnCl2. HvJAMM1 residues (Glu31, His88, His90, Ser98 and Asp101) that were conserved with the JAMM/MPN+ active‐site motif were required for enzyme activity. Together, these results provide the first example of a JAMM/MPN+ zinc metalloprotease that independently catalyses the cleavage of ubiquitin‐like (isopeptide and linear) bonds from target proteins. In archaea, HvJAMM1 likely regulates sampylation and the pools of ‘free’ SAMP available for protein modification. HvJAMM1‐type proteins are thought to release the SAMPs from proteins modified post‐translationally as well as those synthesized as domain fusions.
Improvement of superheated steam generator by induction heating

Induction heating is an effective method for metal heating. As one of the unique applications of induction heating, there is a superheated steam generator. In the previous study, we have proposed a novel superheated steam generator having both advantages for cooling of induction coil and for warming of water in advance. But its steamer wasn't satisfactory for temperature rising of superheated steam. So we studied a heating up method with improvement of heated metal shape and succeeded making a higher temperature steam. Therefore the practicability of our steamer was progressed.
Laboratory Growth and Maintenance of Haemophilus influenzae

Haemophilus influenzae is a non‐spore forming, non‐motile, pleomorphic Gram‐negative coccobacilli. H. influenzae is a strict human pathogen that can cause a variety of systemic and localized infections, depending on the strain. The three Basic Protocols in this unit will describe how to culture and prepare H. influenzae for the use in biological studies of the organism. Curr. Protoc. Microbiol. 18:6D.1. 1‐6D.1. 5. © 2010 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
GNSS code and phase processing techniques in a ground-based mobile altimetry system

This article is dedicated to a ground-based altimeter using GNSS signals. This altimeter has been developed in order to be easily movable and able to estimate soil moisture as well, for swamps monitoring. New signal processing techniques are proposed in order to estimate the code, frequency and phase observables of a GNSS signal needed to solve the altimetry problem.
Tetracyclines inhibit Porphyromonas gingivalis-induced alveolar bone loss in rats by a non-antimicrobial mechanism.

Tetracyclines have been widely used as adjuncts in periodontal therapy due to the antimicrobial efficacy of these drugs. Recently, their ability to inhibit host-derived matrix metalloproteinases (collagenase and gelatinase) and bone resorption in organ culture has also been invoked as a therapeutic rationale. The current study was undertaken to determine whether tetracyclines can inhibit alveolar bone loss in vivo due to a non-antimicrobial action of these drugs. Experimental periodontitis was induced by inoculating adult, male Sprague-Dawley rats with P. gingivalis (strain 381) following kanamycin/ampicillin pretreatment. Doxycycline, non-antimicrobial chemically-modified tetracycline (CMT-1) and vehicle alone were administered daily to 3 infected groups of rats (n = 6 rats per group; each group housed in a sterilized inflatable isolator) beginning 10 days after P. gingivalis inoculation. The control group (n = 6; non-infected rats) received only vehicle. After 5 weeks of daily drug administration by gastric intubation, the experiment was terminated and blood samples were taken from each animal to determine antibody levels against P. gingivalis. Plaque samples were collected from each group of animals before and after P. gingivalis inoculation and at the end of the experiment for microbiological examination. The jaws were removed from each rat, defleshed and then analyzed morphometrically and radiographically to assess bone loss. Serum antibody levels against P. gingivalis were significantly elevated in the 3 infected groups compared to the non-infected controls. This, together with the microbiologic findings, indicated that these groups of rats were infected with P. gingivalis. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Prolyl isomerase: enzymatic catalysis of slow protein-folding reactions.

PROLYL ISOMERIZATION . 125 Isomerization 0/ Peptide Bonds. 125 Prolyllsomerizations in Protein Folding . 126
Stimulation of Radiation Damage Recovery of Lead Tungstate Scintillation Crystals Operating in a High Dose-Rate Radiation Environment

Scintillation crystals of the lead tungstate family - PWO, PWO-II - became widely used in electromagnetic calorimeters in high energy physics experiments at high-luminosity accelerator facilities. During the operation of electromagnetic calorimeters a degradation of the optical transmission of these crystals occurs due to creation of color centers. In addition to the recharge by γ-radiation of the point structure defects, which exist a priori in the crystals, additional damage occurs to the crystal matrix due to the interaction of hadrons. Thus radiation induced optical absorption can limit the energy resolution of the calorimeter. To reduce the recharge by γ-radiation we have both minimized the concentration of point structure defects during manufacture, and used light from visible to infrared to stimulate the recovery of the color centers. In this paper we show that method of stimulated recovery is also applicable to recover from degradation of the crystal's optical transmission caused by hadron interactions. The mechanisms of the damage under γ- and hadron-irradiation are discussed.
A comparison of approaches to on-line handwritten character recognition

Speech and handwriting are manifestations of a common need for linguistic communication. The similar nature of speech and handwriting recognition problems suggests that a largely shared solution may be possible. Recent advances in speech recognition can be partly attributed to changes in the research paradigm. These changes include using large corpora of common training and testing data, adopting statistical modeling over rule-based approaches, and ensuring meaningful comparisons between candidate technologies. The resulting improvements in system performance and robustness permit the study of increasingly difficult recognition tasks. The primary goal of my thesis is to compare handwriting representations for on-line, printed, alphanumeric character recognition without striving to construct the highest-performance system. My studies are based on a carefully collected body of data containing some 87,000 characters from 150 writers. Material was selected automatically to ensure compact coverage of significant letter sequences. Subjects were instructed and prompted so as to minimally influence the writing they produced. A time-aligned transcription was entered for all of this data. I conducted an authentication study to understand better the classification difficulty of this writing. Only 81.7% of testing characters were identified correctly. I examined a number of potential representations for handwriting classification including bitmaps, projections, transforms, chain codes, and point-sampling, paying particular attention to pen motion as an information source. All experiments were based on Gaussian mixture models because of their flexibility. The best representation features Cartesian coordinates of 10 equally-spaced samples along the pen trajectory. Without the benefit of relative size information, this representation resulted in 77.2% correct character classification on testing data. Finally, I adapted the scSUMMIT segment-based speech recognition system developed at MIT to handwriting. Segmentation is based primarily on pen-lifts, but strokes are divided to account for connected character pairs. The parameter described above is computed for each segment and the resulting graph passed to the recognition engine for classification and search. This system was able to correctly recognize 65.1% of the test-set characters. Incorporating a bigram character grammar with perplexity 11.3 improved this performance to 76.4%. (Copies available exclusively from MIT Libraries, Rm. 14-0551, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307. Ph. 617-253-5668; Fax 617-253-1690.)
Is DSM widely accepted by Japanese clinicians?

Abstract The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 3rd edition (DSM‐III), a new standardized diagnostic system with multiaxial diagnosis, operational criteria and renewed definitions of mental disorders, was introduced in 1980 and prompted movements to reform conventions in Japanese psychiatry. This review overviews the initial response of Japanese clinicians to accept DSM‐III, and its effects on the development of systematic research of psychiatric diagnosis. These new research activities include those on reliability of psychiatric diagnosis, application of various evaluation tools, discussion on the concept of mental disorders, relation of personality disorders with depressive disorders, and Taijin‐kyofusho, or culturally distinctive phobia in Japan. A reference database search to survey the latest trend on psychiatric research indicated that the number of papers published by Japanese workers increased sharply after 1987, and DSM apparently greatly influenced their internationalization. Twenty years after the publication of DSM‐III, a questionnaire on the use of DSM‐IV was set out in 2000 to survey how widely DSM is utilized in clinical practice in Japan. Two hundred and twelve psychiatrists answered the questionnaire, and the results show that DSM has been accepted positively by the younger generation, while the older generation (over 40s) has still less interest in DSM, and DSM is used mainly for research purposes rather than in daily practice.
The low light level potential of a CCD imaging array

Some limitations to the operation of a CCD TV camera sensor at low light levels are discussed. Transfer inefficiency with small charge packets is analyzed theoretically, and the prediction made that with good processing this should not be a serious problem. The principal limitation is seen to be the output amplifier, and a new low-noise output detector, the "floating surface detector," is described in detail. At -50°C it yields a noise equivalent signal of 16 electrons and a dynamic range of 85 dB over a 1-MHz video bandwidth.