Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pilot Quasi-Randomized Controlled Study of Herbal Medicine Hochuekkito as an Adjunct to Conventional Treatment for Progressed Pulmonary Mycobacterium avium Complex Disease

Introduction Hochuekkito, a traditional herbal medicine, is occasionally prescribed in Japan to treat patients with a poor general condition. We aimed to examine whether this medicine was beneficial and tolerable for patients with progressed pulmonary Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) disease. Methods This pilot open-label quasi-randomized controlled trial enrolled 18 patients with progressed pulmonary MAC disease who had initiated antimycobacterial treatment over one year ago but were persistently culture-positive or intolerant. All patients continued their baseline treatment regimens with (n = 9) or without (n = 9) oral Hochuekkito for 24 weeks. Results Baseline characteristics were generally similar between the groups. Most patients were elderly (median age 70 years), female, had a low body mass index (<20 kg/m2), and a long-term disease duration (median approximately 8 years). After the 24-week treatment period, no patient achieved sputum conversion. Although the number of colonies in sputum tended to increase in the control group, it generally remained stable in the Hochuekkito group. Radiological disease control was frequently observed in the Hochuekkito group than the control group (8/9 vs. 3/9; p = 0.05). Patients in the Hochuekkito group tended to experience increase in body weight and serum albumin level compared with those in the control group (median body weight change: +0.4 kg vs. −0.8 kg; median albumin change: +0.2 g/dl vs. ±0.0 g/dl). No severe adverse events occurred. Conclusions Hochuekkito could be an effective, feasible adjunct to conventional therapy for patients with progressed pulmonary MAC disease. Future study is needed to explore this possibility. Trial Registration UMIN Clinical Trials Registry UMIN000009920
Antigen Is Limiting Immunodominance Hierarchies When T Cell + Influenza A Virus-Specific CD8 Addition of a Prominent Epitope Affects

A reverse genetics strategy was used to insert the OVA peptide (amino acid sequence SIINFEKL; OVA 257–264 ) into the neuraminidase stalk of both the A/PR8 (H1N1) and A/HK (cid:2) 31 (H3N2) inﬂuenza A viruses. Initial characterization determined that K b OVA 257 is presented on targets infected with PR8-OVA and HK-OVA without signiﬁcantly altering D b nucleoprotein (NP) 366 presentation. There were similar levels of K b OVA 257 - and D b NP 366 -speciﬁc CTL expansion following both primary and secondary intranasal challenge. Interestingly, while variable, the presence of the immunodominant K b OVA 257 -speciﬁc response resulted in diminished D b acidic polymerase 224 - and K b basic polymerase subunit 1 703 -, but not D b NP 366 -speciﬁc responses and didn’t alter endogenous inﬂuenza A virus-speciﬁc immunodominance hierarchies. However, challenging PR8-OVA-primed mice with HK-OVA via the i.p. route, and thereby limiting Ag dose, led to a reduction in the magnitude of all the inﬂuenza A virus-speciﬁc responses measured. A similar reduction in CTL response to native epitopes was also seen following primary respiratory HK-OVA infection of mice that received substantial numbers of K b OVA 257 -speciﬁc TCR transgenic T cells. Thus, during the course of infection, the generation of individual virus-speciﬁc CTL responses is independently regulated. However, in cases in which Ag is limiting, or high precursor frequency, the presence of immunodominant CTL responses can impact on the magnitude of other speciﬁc populations. Therefore, depending on both the size of the T cell precursor pool and the
Abrogation of growth arrest signals by human papillomavirus type 16 E7 is mediated by sequences required for transformation

Cells arrest in the G1 or G0 phase of the cell cycle in response to a variety of negative growth signals that induce arrest by different molecular pathways. The ability of human papillomavirus (HPV) oncogenes to bypass these signals and allow cells to progress into the S phase probably contributes to the neoplastic potential of the virus. The E7 protein of HPV-16 was able to disrupt the response of epithelial cells to three different negative growth arrest signals: quiescence imposed upon suprabasal epithelial cells, G1 arrest induced by DNA damage, and inhibition of DNA synthesis caused by treatment with transforming growth factor beta. The same set of mutated E7 proteins was able to abrogate all three growth arrest signals. Mutant proteins that failed to abrogate growth arrest signals were transformation deficient and included E7 proteins that bound retinoblastoma protein in vitro. In contrast, HPV-16 E6 was able to bypass only DNA damage-induced G1 arrest, not suprabasal quiescence or transforming growth factor beta-induced arrest. The E6 and E7 proteins from the low-risk virus HPV-6 were not able to bypass any of the growth arrest signals.
Sub-band adaptive filtering for acoustic echo cancellation

Sub-band filtering is employed in various system identification applications. It reduces the computational complexity and adaptation time. The paper focuses on sub-band filtering for acoustic echo cancellation. A Simulink model for 2, 4, 8 sub-bands was created and simulated. The echo is created by applying a vocal test to a first Schroeder reverberator. The performance of the full- and sub-band echo canceller is measured in terms of error signal and echo-return loss enhancement.
QESTRAL (Part 1): Quality Evaluation of Spatial Transmission and Reproduction Using an Artificial Listener

Most current perceptual models for audio quality have so far tended to concentrate on the audibility of distortions and noises that mainly affect the timbre of reproduced sound. The QESTRAL model, however, is specifically designed to take account of distortions in the spatial domain such as changes in source location, width and envelopment. It is not aimed only at codec quality evaluation but at a wider range of spatial distortions that can arise in audio processing and reproduction systems. The model has been calibrated against a large database of listening tests designed to evaluate typical audio processes, comparing spatially degraded multichannel audio material against a reference. Using a range of relevant metrics and a sophisticated multivariate regression model, results are obtained that closely match those obtained in listening tests.
Capacity of Network-Coded Wireless Multicast using Node-Based Scheduling

Multicast throughput from one source to multiple sinks in a network can be improved using network coding. In wireless networks, the maximum possible multicast throughput has been recently evaluated using a linear programming optimization model that incorporates constraints due to interference between nodes. The model uses conflict graphs involving all possible hyperarcs in a graph representing the wireless network to determine an interference-free transmission schedule. In this paper, we propose a simple pseudo-random transmission scheduling algorithm that selects non-interfering hyperarcs node-bynode in an iterative fashion. This results in a significant reduction in the number of variables in the optimization model, while still achieving an identical multicast throughput. For instance, in a 10 × 3 rectangular grid network, our approach requires only 74 hyperarcs out of a total of 336 hyperarcs for achieving the maximum multicast throughput of 2/3.
A Novel Membrane Potential-Sensitive Fluorescent Dye Improves Cell-Based Assays for Ion Channels

The study of ion channel-mediated changes in membrane potential using the conventional bisoxonol fluorescent dye DiBAC4(3) has several limitations, including a slow onset of response and multistep preparation, that limit both the fidelity of the results and the throughput of membrane potential assays. Here, we report the characterization of the FLIPR Membrane Potential Assay Kit (FMP) in cells expressing voltage- and ligand-gated ion channels. The steady-state and kinetics fluorescence properties of FMP were compared with those of DiBAC4(3), using both FLIPR and whole-cell patch-clamp recording. Our experiments with the voltage-gated K+ channel, hElk-1, revealed that FMP was 14-fold faster than DiBAC4(3) in response to depolarization. On addition of 60 mM KCl, the kinetics of fluorescence changes of FMP using FLIPR were identical to those observed in the electrophysiological studies using whole-cell current clamp. In addition, KCl concentration-dependent increases in FMP fluorescence correlated with the changes of membrane potential recorded in whole-cell patch clamp. In studies examining vanilloid receptor-1, a ligand-gated nonselective cation channel, FMP was superior to DiBAC4(3) with respect to both kinetics and amplitude of capsaicin-induced fluorescence changes. FMP has also been used to measure the activation of KATP 1 and hERG.2 Thus this novel membrane potential dye represents a powerful tool for developing high-throughput screening assays for ion channels.
Resonant tidal disruption in galactic nuclei

It has recently been shown by Rauch 38 Tremaine that the rate of angular momentum relaxation in nearly Keplerian star clusters is greatly increased by a process termed ‘resonant relaxation’; it was also argued, via a series of scaling arguments, that tidal disruption of stars in galactic nuclei containing massive black holes could be noticeably enhanced by this process. We describe here the results of numerical simulations of resonant tidal disruption which quantitatively test the predictions made by Rauch 38 Tremaine. The simulation method is based on an N-body routine incorporating cloning of stars near the loss cone and a semirelativistic symplectic integration scheme. Normalized disruption rates for resonant and non-resonant nuclei are derived at orbital energies both above and below the critical energy, and the corresponding angular momentum distribution functions are found. The black hole mass above which resonant tidal disruption is quenched by relativistic precession is determined. We also briefly describe the discovery of chaos in the Wisdom–Holman symplectic integrator applied to highly eccentric orbits and propose a modified integration scheme that remains robust under these conditions. We find that resonant disruption rates exceed their non-resonant counterparts by an amount consistent with the predictions; in particular, we estimate the net tidal disruption rate for a fully resonant cluster to be about twice that of its non-resonant counterpart. No significant enhancement in rates is observed outside the critical radius. Relativistic quenching of the effect is found to occur for hole masses M > MQ = (8 ± 3) × 107 M. The numerical results combined with the observed properties of galactic nuclei indicate that for most galaxies the resonant enhancement to tidal disruption rates will be very small.
Characterization of lpa2 (Edg4) and lpa1/lpa2 (Edg2/Edg4) Lysophosphatidic Acid Receptor Knockout Mice: Signaling Deficits without Obvious Phenotypic Abnormality Attributable to lpa2

ABSTRACT Lysophosphatidic acid (LPA), a bioactive lipid produced by several cell types including postmitotic neurons and activated platelets, is thought to be involved in various biological processes, including brain development. Three cognate G protein-coupled receptors encoded by lpa1 /lp A1/Edg-2/Gpcr26, lpa2 /lp A2/Edg-4, and lpa3 /lp A3/Edg-7 mediate the cellular effects of LPA. We have previously shown that deletion of lpa1 in mice results in craniofacial dysmorphism, semilethality due to defective suckling behavior, and generation of a small fraction of pups with frontal hematoma. To further investigate the role of these receptors and LPA signaling in the organism, we deleted lpa2 in mice. Homozygous knockout (lpa2 (−/−)) mice were born at the expected frequency and displayed no obvious phenotypic abnormalities. Intercrosses allowed generation of lpa1 (−/−) lpa2 (−/−) double knockout mice, which displayed no additional phenotypic abnormalities relative to lpa1 (−/−) mice except for an increased incidence of perinatal frontal hematoma. Histological analyses of lpa1 (−/−) lpa2 (−/−) embryonic cerebral cortices did not reveal obvious differences in the proliferating cell population. However, many LPA-induced responses, including phospholipase C activation, Ca2+ mobilization, adenylyl cyclase activation, proliferation, JNK activation, Akt activation, and stress fiber formation, were absent or severely reduced in embryonic fibroblasts derived from lpa1 (−/−) lpa2 (−/−) mice. Except for adenylyl cyclase activation [which was nearly abolished in lpa1 (−/−) fibroblasts], these responses were only partially affected in lpa1 (−/−) and lpa2 (−/−) fibroblasts. Thus, although LPA2 is not essential for normal mouse development, it does act redundantly with LPA1 to mediate most LPA responses in fibroblasts.
Multi-robot 3D coverage path planning for First Responders teams

It is known that the first hours after a disaster are critical to maximize the rescue and recovery of victims. However, in disaster scenarios, with the communication infrastructure damaged and cluttered environment, first responders can be in disadvantage without proper communication and global information about the mission. In this sense, the use of aerial robots have a clear advantage over other kind of robots, since they are able to navigate over large areas faster and with a privileged view from above. This paper proposes a methodology for three-dimensional area coverage using multiple small UAVs based upon a customized cell decomposition algorithm using regular hexagons. The approach has been thoroughly evaluated in different simulated scenarios. We also report on the results of experiments performed with real UAVs in an outdoor environment.
TRIDENT: A Framework for Autonomous Underwater Intervention Missions with Dexterous Manipulation Capabilities

TRIDENT is a STREP project recently approved by the European Commission whose proposal was submitted to the ICT call 4 of the 7th Framework Program. The project proposes a new methodology for multipurpose underwater intervention tasks. To that end, a cooperative team formed with an Autonomous Surface Craft and an Intervention Autonomous Underwater Vehicle will be used. The proposed methodology splits the mission in two stages mainly devoted to survey and intervention tasks, respectively. The project brings together research skills specific to the marine environments in navigation and mapping for underwater robotics, multi-sensory perception, intelligent control architectures, vehicle-manipulator systems and dexterous manipulation. TRIDENT is a three years project and its start is planned by first months of 2010.
Which Program for Whom? Evidence on the Comparative Effectiveness of Public Sponsored Training Programs in Germany

We use a new and exceptionally rich administrative data set for Germany to evaluate the employment effects of a variety of public sponsored training programs in the early 2000s. Building on the work of Sianesi (2003, 2004), we employ propensity score matching methods in a dynamic, multiple treatment framework in order to address program heterogeneity and dynamic selection into programs. Our results suggest that in West Germany both short-term and medium-term programs show considerable employment effects for certain population subgroups but in some cases the effects are zero in the medium run. Short-term programs are surprisingly effective when compared to the traditional and more expensive longer-term programs. With a few exceptions, we find little evidence for significant positive treatment effects in East Germany. There is some evidence that the employment effects decline for older workers and for low-skilled workers.
An extension of the ICA model using latent variables

The Independent Component Analysis (ICA) model is extended to the case where the components are not necessarily independent: depending on the value a hidden latent process at the same time, the unknown components of the linear mixture are assumed either mutually independent or dependent. We propose for this model a separation method which combines: (i) a classical ICA separation performed using the set of samples whose components are conditionally independent, and (ii) a method for estimation of the latent process. The latter task is performed by Iterative Conditional Estimation (ICE). It is an estimation technique in the case of incomplete data, which is particularly appealing because it requires only weak conditions. Finally, simulations validate our method and show that the separation quality is improved for sources generated according to our model.
Study on Collision Detection Algorithm of Hybrid Bounding Box

We propose a collision detection algorithm of hybrid bounding box based on the merits of Sphere and OBB: S-OBB. It is applicable to solid objects. We construct simpler bounding volume tree and apply improved data structure to decrease storage space. During the period of traverse S-OBBTree, we have applied single traverse method to improve the efficiency of collision detection, and its effect is more obvious especially when the depth of trees is different greatly.
The Activated SA and JA Signaling Pathways Have an Influence on flg22-Triggered Oxidative Burst and Callose Deposition

The first line of defense in plants against pathogens is induced by the recognition of microbe-associated molecular patterns (MAMP). Perception of bacterial flagellin (flg22) by the pattern recognition receptor flagellin-sensing 2 (FLS2) is the best characterized MAMP response, although the underlying molecular mechanisms are not fully understood. Here we studied the relationship between salicylic acid (SA) or jasmonic acid (JA) signaling and FLS2-mediated signaling by monitoring flg22-triggered responses in known SA or JA related mutants of Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh. The sid2 mutant, impaired in SA biosynthesis, had less basal FLS2 mRNA accumulation than the wild type, which correlated with suppression of early flg22 responses such as ROS production and induction of marker genes, WRKY29 and FRK1. The JA-signaling mutants, jar1 and coi1, exhibited an enhanced flg22-triggered oxidative burst and more callose accumulation than the wild type, and pretreatment with SA or coronatine (COR), a structural mimic of JA-isoleucine, altered these flg22-induced responses. Nonexpressor of pathogenesis-related genes 1 (NPR1) acted downstream of SID2 and required SA-dependent priming for the enhanced flg22-triggered oxidative burst and callose deposition. Activation of JA signaling by COR pretreatment suppressed the flg22-triggered oxidative burst and callose accumulation in a coronatine insensitive 1 (COI1) dependent manner. COR had a negative effect on flg22 responses but only the flg22-triggered oxidative burst depended on SA-JA/COR signaling antagonism. Thus the activated SA and JA signaling pathways have an influence on flg22-triggered oxidative burst and callose deposition. These results may explain how SA and JA signaling are cross talked for regulation of flg22-triggered responses.
Guided bone regeneration with beta-tricalcium phosphate and poly L-lactide-co-glycolide-co-epsilon-caprolactone membrane in partial defects of canine humerus

This study was performed to evaluate the effect of beta-tricalcium phosphate and poly L-lactide-co-glycolide-co-epsilon-caprolactone (TCP/PLGC) membrane in the repair of partial bone defects in canine proximal humerus. Three adult mixed-breed dogs were used during the experimental period. The length of the defect was quarter of the full length of humerus, and width of the defect was quarter of middle diameter of the lateral aspect of humerus. The humeri of each dog were divided into treatment (TCP/PLGC) and control groups. The defect was covered with TCP/PLGC membrane in treatment group. To evaluate regeneration of the bone, computerized tomography (CT) and histopathologic examination were performed. The radiopaque lines were appeared at the original defect sites in TCP/PLGC group but below the original site in control at 4th week. Radiopacity and thickness of the defect sites, and radiopaque lines were more increased at 8th week than those of 4th week. Histopathologic findings revealed fibrous connective tissue migration into the defect and the migration inhibited the structure of new cortex to be placed in the original level in control whereas new cortex growth was found in the level of original line in TCP/PLGC group. However, the new cortical bone in the TCP/PLGC group was thinner and less organized than the adjacent intact cortex, and the amount of new cancellous bones were also scanty. The result suggested that TCP/PLGC membrane is a good guided bone regeneration material to restore the original morphology of humerus in partial defect.
ALLARM: Optimizing sparse directories for thread-local data

Large-scale cache-coherent systems often impose unnecessary overhead on data that is thread-private for the whole of its lifetime. These include resources devoted to tracking the coherence state of the data, as well as unnecessary coherence messages sent out over the interconnect. In this paper we show how the memory allocation strategy for non-uniform memory access (NUMA) systems can be exploited to remove any coherence-related traffic for thread-local data, as well removing the need to track those cache lines in sparse directories. Our strategy is to allocate directory state only on a miss from a node in a different affinity domain from the directory. We call this ALLocAte on Remote Miss, or ALLARM. Our solution is entirely backward compatible with existing operating systems and software, and provides a means to scale cache coherence into the many-core era. On a mix of SPLASH2 and Parsec workloads, ALLARM is able to improve performance by 13% on average while reducing dynamic energy consumption by 9% in the on-chip network and 15% in the directory controller. This is achieved through a 46% reduction in the number of sparse directory entries evicted.
Basic Conditioning Factors' Influences on Adolescents' Healthy Behaviors, Self-Efficacy, and Self-Care

This article reports a secondary statistical analysis of data from a study investigating the relationships among health-promoting self-care behaviors, self-care self-efficacy, and self-care agency in an adolescent population (). The purpose of this study was to identify the influences of selected basic conditioning factors on the practice of healthy behaviors, self-efficacy beliefs, and ability for self-care in 256 adolescents. The research instruments used to collect data for this study include: Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile II Scale; Self-Rated Abilities for Health Practices Scale; Exercise of Self-Care Agency Scale; demographic questionnaire assessing basic conditioning factors. The results of this analysis identified significant relationships between the following basic conditioning factors and adolescents' practice of healthy behaviors, self-efficacy of those behaviors, and self-care abilities: support system, adequate income, adequate living conditions, gender, routine practice of religion, and reported medical problems/disabilities. These findings can give adolescent health nurses direction in developing interventions that promote the self-care and health in this specific population.