Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Demonstration of Aquaporin-Chip in Peritoneal Tissue of Uremic and Capd Patients

Aquaporin-CHIP is a 28 kD channel forming integral membrane protein. It acts as an osmotically driven, water-selective pore. The presence of aquaporin-CHIP has been demonstrated in the proximal tubule in the kidney and in the pleura, as well as in other tissues. During peritoneal dialysis a dissociation between the transport of water and sodium using hyperosmolar solutions has been reported, suggesting the presence of ultrasmall pores. Water channels, like aquaporin-CHIP, could be the morphological equivalent of these pores. We investigated the possible presence of aquaporinCHIP in cryo-sections of peritoneal tissue using affinity purified human anti-CHIP IgG (P. Agre, Baltimore, MD). Peritoneal biopsies (omenta) were obtained at catheter insertion in 2 uremic patients with end-stage renal disease, and at catheter reimplantation of 1 patient treated with continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) for two years. Peritoneal tissue obtained at autopsy from 1 patient who had been on CAPD for four years, but in whom CAPD had been discontinued for five months, was also studied. Aquaporin-CHIP antiserum specific staining was found in the endothelial cells of the peritoneal capillaries in all patients. No obvious difference in the intensity of staining was seen between uremic and CAPD patients. This demonstration of aquaporin-CHIP in human peritoneal endothelial cells supports the hypothesis of the existence of ultrasmall pores within the peritoneal membrane. These water channels facilitate the transcellular transport of water, induced by an osmotic gradient, in the absence of sodium transport. It may be the explanation for the dissociation of water and sodium transport that occurs during hyperosmolar solutions. Aquaporin-CHIP is present in human peritoneal endothelial cells in both uremic and CAPD patients. Aquaporin-CHIP may be the morphological equivalent of the ultrasmall pores within the peritoneal membrane.
Differentiation in the absorption of olive oil and oleic acid in the rat

In studies of fat absorption various triglycerides have been fed to animals, but the absorption of ingested fatty acids has never been systematically investigated. According to the current hypothesis fat is completely hydrolysed before it can be absorbed, and resynthesis of neutral fat occurs in the intestinal cell with the aid of intermediate phosphorylation and the adrenal cortical hormone [Verzar & McDougall, 1936]. The reconstituted triglyceride passes by the lacteals to the thoracic duct and so to the systemic circulation. No significant quantity of fat is thought to pass by the portal vein nor is the absorption of unhydrolysed fat considered a possibility. If this hypothesis is correct, one would expect fatty acid and glycerol to behave during and after absorption in a manner similar to neutral fat. The object of this paper is to show that such a correlation does not exist, and to offer a possible explanation of the differences observed. METHODS Animals. Throughout the experiments described, adult male rats from our own stock were used. Materials. The fats used were olive oil and redistilled oleic acid. When oleic acid was administered glycerol was given as well in amounts equivalent to the corresponding triglyceride. Except where stated elsewhere, the fatty materials fed to the animals were stained prior to use with Sudan IV to make a 0x1% solution of the stain in oil. By the use of fat or fatty acid labelled with Sudan IV, its passage to the depots or the liver can be determined. Feeding. The animals were fed by stomach tube without anaesthesia when detailed measurement of the quantity of olive oil administered was required. This method was not found suitable for long-term experiments. In these the fatty material was fed mixed with the food and the amount consumed was checked against faecal analyses.
Simultaneous clustering and outlier detection using dominant sets

We present a unified approach for simultaneous clustering and outlier detection in data. We utilize some properties of a family of quadratic optimization problems related to dominant sets, a well-known graph-theoretic notion of a cluster which generalizes the concept of a maximal clique to edge-weighted graphs. Unlike most (all) of the previous techniques, in our framework the number of clusters arises intuitively and outliers are obliterated automatically. The resulting algorithm discovers both parameters from the data. Experiments on real and on large scale synthetic dataset demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach and the utility of carrying out both clustering and outlier detection in a concurrent manner.
Cost Analysis of Movement-Based Location Management in PCS Networks: An Embedded Markov Chain Approach

In this paper, we develop an approach of embedded Markov chain to analyze the signaling cost of a movement-based location management (MBLM) scheme. This approach distinguishes itself from those developed in the literature in the following aspects. 1) It considers the location area (LA) architecture used by personal communication service (PCS) networks for location management. 2) It considers two different call handling models that determine after a call whether a location update should be performed. 3) It considers the effect of the call holding time on the call handling models. 4) It proposes to use a fluid flow model to describe the dependence between the cell and the LA residence time. We derive closed-form analytical formulas for the signaling cost, whose accuracy is manifested by a simulation. Based on the analytical formulas, we conduct a numerical study to evaluate the influence of various parameters on the signaling cost. The formulas can contribute to the implementation of the MBLM scheme in PCS networks including Fourth-Generation (4G) Long-Term Evolution. The modeling approach developed in this paper can be exploited to model other location management schemes.
Internet of Things (IoT): A vision, architectural elements, and security issues

The Internet of Things is an emerging technology across the world, which helps to connect sensors, vehicles, hospitals, industries and consumers through internet connectivity. This type of architecture leads to Smart Cities, Smart home, Smart agriculture and Smart World. Architecture of IoT is very complex because of the large number of devices, link layer technology and services that are involved in this system. However, security in IoT is the most important parameter. In this paper, we give an overview of the architecture of IoT with the help of Smart World. In the second phase of this paper, we discuss the security challenges in IoT followed by the security measures in IoT. Finally, these challenges, which are discussed in the paper, could be research direction for future work in security for IoT.
Dynamics of Thrombin Generation and Flux from Clots during Whole Human Blood Flow over Collagen/Tissue Factor Surfaces*

Coagulation kinetics are well established for purified blood proteases or human plasma clotting isotropically. However, less is known about thrombin generation kinetics and transport within blood clots formed under hemodynamic flow. Using microfluidic perfusion (wall shear rate, 200 s−1) of corn trypsin inhibitor-treated whole blood over a 250-μm long patch of type I fibrillar collagen/lipidated tissue factor (TF; ∼1 TF molecule/μm2), we measured thrombin released from clots using thrombin-antithrombin immunoassay. The majority (>85%) of generated thrombin was captured by intrathrombus fibrin as thrombin-antithrombin was largely undetectable in the effluent unless Gly-Pro-Arg-Pro (GPRP) was added to block fibrin polymerization. With GPRP present, the flux of thrombin increased to ∼0.5 × 10−12 nmol/μm2-s over the first 500 s of perfusion and then further increased by ∼2–3-fold over the next 300 s. The increased thrombin flux after 500 s was blocked by anti-FXIa antibody (O1A6), consistent with thrombin-feedback activation of FXI. Over the first 500 s, ∼92,000 molecules of thrombin were generated per surface TF molecule for the 250-μm-long coating. A single layer of platelets (obtained with αIIbβ3 antagonism preventing continued platelet deposition) was largely sufficient for thrombin production. Also, the overall thrombin-generating potential of a 1000-μm-long coating became less efficient on a per μm2 basis, likely due to distal boundary layer depletion of platelets. Overall, thrombin is robustly generated within clots by the extrinsic pathway followed by late-stage FXIa contributions, with fibrin localizing thrombin via its antithrombin-I activity as a potentially self-limiting hemostatic mechanism.
The XTREEM Methods for Ontology Learning from Web Documents

Ontology Learning is up to now dominated by techniques which use text as input. There are only few methods which use a different data source. The techniques which use highly structured data as input have the disadvantage that such data sources are rare. On the other side, there are enormous amounts of Web content present today. We present the XTREEM (Xhtml TREE Mining) methods which enable Ontology Learning from Web Documents. Those methods rely on the semi-structure of Web Documents. The added value of Web document markup is exploited by the XTREEM methods. We show methods for the acquisition of terms, synonyms and semantic relations. The XTREEM techniques are based on the structure of Web documents; they are domain and language independent. There is no need for NLP software nor for training. They do not rely on domain or document collection specific resources or background knowledge, such as patterns, rules or other heuristics; nor do they rely on manually assembling a document collection.
Towards Constant-Time Robot Localization in Large Dynamic Environments

Global localization is the problem in which a mobile robot has to estimate the self-position with respect to an a priori map of landmarks using the perception and the motion measurements without using any knowledge of the initial self-position. Recently, random sample consensus (RANSAC), a robust multi-hypothesis estimator, has been successfully applied to offline global localization in static environments. However, online global localization in dynamic environments is still a difficult problem, due to incrementally arriving measurements as well as many outlier measurements. To realize a real time algorithm for such an online process, we have developed an incremental version of RANSAC algorithm by extending an efficient preemptive RANSAC scheme, in order to find inlier hypotheses of self-positions out of a large number of outlier hypotheses contaminated by the outlier measurements
Language models using feedforward neural networks with fixed length context

A new recurrent neural network based language model (RNN LM) with applications to speech recognition is presented. Results indicate that it is possible to obtain around 50% reduction of perplexity by using mixture of several RNN LMs, compared to a state of the art backoff language model. Speech recognition experiments show around 18% reduction of word error rate on the Wall Street Journal task when comparing models trained on the same amount of data, and around 5% on the much harder NIST RT05 task, even when the backoff model is trained on much more data than the RNN LM. We provide ample empirical evidence to suggest that connectionist language models are superior to standard n-gram techniques, except their high computational (training) complexity.
Development and in vivo imaging of a PET/MRI nanoprobe with enhanced NIR fluorescence by dye encapsulation.

AIM To monitor cells in vivo or to detect the sentinel lymph node, we developed a PET/MRI silica nanoprobe with an enhanced near-infrared fluorescence signal. METHODS We developed enhanced near-infrared fluorescent (NIRF) magnetic silica nanoparticles, MNP-SiO2(NIR797), that encapsulate NIRF dye in the silica. We applied this probe to visualizing cells in the deep tissue of mice using NIRF imaging. After labeling with a radioisotope, (68)Ga, on the surface of MNP-SiO2(NIR797), we injected it into the forepaw of mice to visualize the sentinel lymph node. RESULTS This encapsulated nanoprobe showed enhancement of fluorescent intensity and stability compared with the nanoprobe, which had the same dyes on the surface of the silica nanoparticles. We also obtained multimodal in vivo imaging of (68)Ga-{MNP-SiO2(NIR797)} applied to sentinel lymph node detection of mice using PET/MRI/NIRF images. CONCLUSION This multimodal nanoprobe with enhanced fluorescence may provide a useful tool for imaging diagnostics and cell tracking.
Compensatory Changes in Calcium Metabolism Accompany the Loss of Vitamin D Receptor (VDR) From the Distal Intestine and Kidney of Mice

1,25 Dihydroxyvitamin D3 (1,25(OH)2D) increases intestinal Ca absorption when dietary Ca intake is low by inducing gene expression through the vitamin D receptor (VDR). 1,25(OH)2D‐regulated Ca absorption has been studied extensively in the small intestine, but VDR is also present in the large intestine. Our goal was to determine the impact of large intestinal VDR deletion on Ca and bone metabolism. We used transgenic mice expressing Cre‐recombinase driven by the 9.5‐kb human caudal type homeobox 2 (CDX2) promoter to delete floxed VDR alleles from the caudal region of the mouse (CDX2‐KO). Weanling CDX2‐KO mice and control littermates were fed low (0.25%) or normal (0.5%) Ca diets for 7 weeks. Serum and urinary Ca, vitamin D metabolites, bone parameters, and gene expression were analyzed. Loss of the VDR in CDX2‐KO was confirmed in colon and kidney. Unexpectedly, CDX2‐KO had lower serum PTH (–65% of controls, p < 0.001) but normal serum 1,25(OH)2D and Ca levels. Despite elevated urinary Ca loss (eightfold higher in CDX2‐KO) and reduced colonic target genes TRPV6 (–90%) and CaBPD9k (–80%) mRNA levels, CDX2‐KO mice had only modestly lower femoral bone density. Interestingly, duodenal TRPV6 and CaBPD9k mRNA expression was fourfold and threefold higher, respectively, and there was a trend toward increased duodenal Ca absorption (+19%, p = 0.076) in the CDX2‐KO mice. The major finding of this study is that large intestine VDR significantly contributes to whole‐body Ca metabolism but that duodenal compensation may prevent the consequences of VDR deletion from large intestine and kidney in growing mice. © 2015 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.
Modeling burned area in Europe with the Community Land Model

In this study, we present simulations of a burned area at a European scale for the period 1990–2009 conducted with the Community Land Model (CLM). By using statistics on fire counts and mean fire suppression time from the European Fire Database, we refined the parameterization of the functions describing human ignition/suppression, and we modified the description of biomass availability for fires. The results obtained with the modified model show an improvement of the description of the spatial and interannual variability of the burned area: the model bias is reduced by 45%, and the explained variance is increased by about 9% compared to the original parameterization of the model. The observed relationships between burned area, climate (temperature and precipitation), and aboveground biomass are also reproduced more accurately by the modified model. This is particularly relevant for the applicability of the model to simulate future fire regimes under different climate conditions. However, results showed an overestimation of the burned area for some European countries (e.g., Spain and France) and an underestimation in years with an extreme fire season in Mediterranean countries. Our results highlight the need for refining the parameterization of human ignition/suppression and fuel availability for regional application of fire models implemented in land surface models.
Public Engagement in Prioritizing Research Proposals

Australia has reflected an international shift toward public participation in governance and science. Researchers have critiqued this shift as insufficient. Meanwhile, studies of how research funds are allocated also found room for improvement. This experiment tested a way to add value to the effort researchers put into research proposals by using them for deliberative public engagement. Three Australian events tested a model of deliberative participation in decision-making about science funding. These events were shorter than most deliberative processes, based on a model tested in the United Kingdom. Although recruitment was aimed at broad representation, participants had more formal education than Australia’s average. Voting decisions were most influenced by potential benefits to society of the planned research, as well as participants’ understanding of plans presented. Some reported that their decisions were influenced by whether benefits would happen locally. Results suggested that participants’ voting decisions were more influenced by the research plans than who presented them. However, unconscious biases cannot be ruled out as factors in decision-making. Participants reported they would be keen to participate in such a process again; however, this enthusiasm was linked to a meal incentive. The impact of brevity on deliberative decision-making is discussed, along with potential modifications for future experiments.
Evaluation system for mechanobiology of three-dimensional tissue multilayered in vitro

This paper reports the mechanical properties of 3D layered tissue were measured by using a special fixture (micro vacuum chuck) and a measurement system. In this study, the mechanical properties of 3D layered tissue were measured by tensile test. Since difficulty of fixing the 3D layered tissue to tensile test system, the micro vacuum chuck which could fix the 3D layered tissue to tensile test system without damage was developed. Additionally, because there has been no system which can measure tensile force of 3D layered tissue, special tensile system was also developed. By using micro vacuum chuck and developed system, the tensile force of 3D layered tissue was measured and the maximum force was about about 907μN (Strain = 1.35).
Increasing Rates of Nasal Carriage of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus in Healthy Children

Background: Prior studies, including one from our institution performed in 2001, suggest that nasal colonization with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) occurs infrequently in the healthy pediatric population (0.2–2.2%). However, infections caused by community-associated MRSA have increased remarkably in recent years. As a result, we restudied the prevalence of MRSA nasal colonization in healthy children, comparing results from 2001 and 2004. Patients and Methods: Nasal swabs were collected from 500 children presenting for health maintenance visits. Samples were cultured quantitatively, and MRSA isolates were confirmed by growth on selective media, coagulase testing and the presence of the mecA resistance gene. MRSA isolates were further analyzed for antibiotic susceptibilities, genetic relatedness by pulsed field gel electrophoresis and polymerase chain reaction for the detection of the gene encoding Panton-Valentine leukocidin. Results: There were 182 children (36.4%) colonized with S. aureus, and 46 (9.2%) colonized with MRSA. This is significantly higher than the MRSA colonization rate in 2001 (0.8%; P < 0.001). There were no significant associations between potential risk factors and MRSA colonization except for having a family member work in a hospital (odds ratio, 2.0; 95% confidence interval, 1.03–4.1). Pulsed field gel electrophoresis revealed heterogeneity of circulating strains, and the Panton-Valentine leukocidin gene locus was detected in 10 of 46 MRSA isolates (22%). Conclusion: Nasal MRSA colonization in healthy children in Nashville has increased significantly in the past 3 years. As colonization typically precedes infection, this increase may be a major factor in the emergence of community-associated MRSA as a pathogen of healthy children.
Years of life lost due to obesity.

CONTEXT Public health officials and organizations have disseminated health messages regarding the dangers of obesity, but these have not produced the desired effect. OBJECTIVE To estimate the expected number of years of life lost (YLL) due to overweight and obesity across the life span of an adult. DESIGN, SETTING, AND SUBJECTS Data from the (1) US Life Tables (1999); (2) Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III; 1988-1994); and (3) First National Health and Nutrition Epidemiologic Follow-up Study (NHANES I and II; 1971-1992) and NHANES II Mortality Study (1976-1992) were used to derive YLL estimates for adults aged 18 to 85 years. Body mass index (BMI) integer-defined categories were used (ie, <17; 17 to <18; 18 to <19; 20 to <21; 21 to 45; or > or =45). A BMI of 24 was used as the reference category. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE The difference between the number of years of life expected if an individual were obese vs not obese, which was designated YLL. RESULTS Marked race and sex differences were observed in estimated YLL. Among whites, a J- or U-shaped association was found between overweight or obesity and YLL. The optimal BMI (associated with the least YLL or greatest longevity) is approximately 23 to 25 for whites and 23 to 30 for blacks. For any given degree of overweight, younger adults generally had greater YLL than did older adults. The maximum YLL for white men aged 20 to 30 years with a severe level of obesity (BMI >45) is 13 and is 8 for white women. For men, this could represent a 22% reduction in expected remaining life span. Among black men and black women older than 60 years, overweight and moderate obesity were generally not associated with an increased YLL and only severe obesity resulted in YLL. However, blacks at younger ages with severe levels of obesity had a maximum YLL of 20 for men and 5 for women. CONCLUSION Obesity appears to lessen life expectancy markedly, especially among younger adults.
Reproducibility of non‐standardised autonomic function testing in the pre‐operative assessment screening clinic *

By convention, autonomic function tests are undertaken under standard test conditions that limit their implementation during routine pre‐operative assessment. We therefore evaluated the comparability of autonomic function tests under both non‐standardised and standardised test conditions in 20 healthy male subjects. Autonomic function was assessed using an ECG monitor and a continuous non‐invasive blood pressure measurement device. Under non‐standardised conditions, intraclass correlation for heart rate variability analysis was good for the low and high frequency bands (0.87; 95% CI 0.58–0.96 and 0.83; 95% CI 0.56–0.94, respectively), but moderate (0.65; 95% CI 0.14–0.86) for the very low frequency band; reproducibility was high for the expiration/inspiration ratio (0.89; 95% CI 0.71–0.96), Valsalva ratio (0.76; 95% CI 0.37–0.91) and handgrip test (0.76; 95% CI 0.35–0.91) (all p < 0.05) but was low for the response to quick standing. Reproducibility under standardised conditions was comparable to the above values. We demonstrated that reproducibility for most autonomic tests under non‐standardised conditions is acceptable and suggest that implementation of these tests during pre‐operative assessment may be feasible.