Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reduction of new coronary events and new atherothrombotic brain infarction in older persons with diabetes mellitus, prior myocardial infarction, and serum low-density lipoprotein cholesterol >/=125 mg/dl treated with statins.

BACKGROUND We report the incidence of new coronary events and new atherothrombotic brain infarction (ABI) in older men and women with diabetes mellitus, prior myocardial infarction, and a serum low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol of >/=125 mg/dl treated with statins and with no lipid-lowering drug. METHODS The incidence of new coronary events and of new ABI was investigated in an observational prospective study of 529 diabetics, mean age 79 +/- 9 years, with prior myocardial infarction and a serum LDL cholesterol of >/=125 mg/dl treated with statins (279 persons or 53%) and no lipid-lowering drug (250 persons or 47%). Follow-up was 29 +/- 18 months. RESULTS At follow-up, the stepwise Cox regression model showed that after controlling for other risk factors, the use of statins was associated with a 37% significant independent reduction in the incidence of new coronary events and with a 47% significant independent reduction in the incidence of new ABI. CONCLUSIONS Use of statins was associated with a 37% significant, independent reduction in new coronary events and a 47% significant, independent reduction in new ABI in older men and women with diabetes mellitus, prior myocardial infarction, and a serum LDL cholesterol of >/=125 mg/dl. Elderly diabetics with prior myocardial infarction and increased serum LDL cholesterol should especially be treated with statins.
Understanding the Mechanism of Prosegment-catalyzed Folding by Solution NMR Spectroscopy*

Background: Native pepsin can be irreversibly denatured into a thermodynamically stable but non-active form. Results: Prosegment converts the misfolded pepsin to a structure similar to the precursor form of pepsin. Conclusion: Hydrophobic interactions between prosegment and pepsin lower the barrier of pepsin folding toward the native complex. Significance: The mechanism for how the prosegment mediates formation of native pepsin is proposed. Multidomain protein folding is often more complex than a two-state process, which leads to the spontaneous folding of the native state. Pepsin, a zymogen-derived enzyme, without its prosegment (PS), is irreversibly denatured and folds to a thermodynamically stable, non-native conformation, termed refolded pepsin, which is separated from native pepsin by a large activation barrier. While it is known that PS binds refolded pepsin and catalyzes its conversion to the native form, little structural details are known regarding this conversion. In this study, solution NMR was used to elucidate the PS-catalyzed folding mechanism by examining the key equilibrium states, e.g. native and refolded pepsin, both in the free and PS-bound states, and pepsinogen, the zymogen form of pepsin. Refolded pepsin was found to be partially structured and lacked the correct domain-domain structure and active-site cleft formed in the native state. Analysis of chemical shift data revealed that upon PS binding refolded pepsin folds into a state more similar to that of pepsinogen than to native pepsin. Comparison of pepsin folding by wild-type and mutant PSs, including a double mutant PS, indicated that hydrophobic interactions between residues of prosegment and refolded pepsin lower the folding activation barrier. A mechanism is proposed for the binding of PS to refolded pepsin and how the formation of the native structure is mediated.
Mechanism- and experience-based strategies to optimize treatment response to the capsaicin 8% cutaneous patch in patients with localized neuropathic pain

Abstract The capsaicin 8% cutaneous patch is an emergent new treatment option for patients with peripheral neuropathic pain. In randomized controlled clinical studies relevant pain relief for 12 weeks was achieved in about one third of patients following a single application. The first part of this paper is a review of the pathophysiology, pharmacology, and published clinical trials with the capsaicin 8% cutaneous patch. The second part reports on outcomes of an interdisciplinary expert workshop, where new treatment results of three major German pain centers were presented and reviewed with the objectives of obtaining responder rates for different pain syndromes, assessing maintenance of effect under real-life conditions, and giving recommendations for practical care. The 12 week responder rates with pain relief of ≥30% were comparable in patients with mononeuropathies (37.9%) and postherpetic neuralgia (38.8%). Similar responder rates were seen in a subgroup of patients with cervical spine radiculopathy and back pain (46.7%). In HIV-associated neuropathy the responder rates were high (47.8%) but lower in patients with other polyneuropathies (17.6%). Response rates were nearly identical after 1 week (46.6%) and 4 weeks (43.3) and dropped only slightly at 12 weeks (37.4%). In a subgroup of 54 patients who underwent a second treatment, efficacy was maintained. Response rates in patients with or without lidocaine pretreatment were comparable. Treatment with the capsaicin 8% cutaneous patch was generally safe and well tolerated. The workshop panel recommended further investigation of opportunities to improve the application procedure and to perform studies on the skin penetration and distribution of capsaicin. A modified quantitative sensory testing (QST) should be developed for clinical practice in order to better understand the correlation of sensory profiles and response to capsaicin treatment.
Mutual-inductance modelling in line-start permanent-magnet synchronous machines based on winding-function theory

In this paper an analytic method to study space-harmonic effects and to map the influences of geometric design parameters on the line-start permanent-magnet synchronous machine (LSPMSM) dynamic performance (start-up and other transients) is presented, based on Winding Function Theory (WFT). The mutual inductances between a rotor, containing barriers and iron bridges near the magnets, and a stator with concentric windings are computed. As the iron bridges near the magnets are in saturation due to the high magnetic field of the magnets, the assumption is made to represent the rotor in different parts. Each part has a high permeability, and is separated by a layer of low permeable material, i.e. the magnets, the saturated bridges and the barriers. The magnetic coupling is described, and the different computation methods to obtain mutual inductance values are given. Using finite element methods (FEM) the WFT-resulting inductances are verified.
Potentiating Effect of Mandelate and Lactate on Chemically Induced Germination in Members of Bacillus cereus Sensu Lato

ABSTRACT Endospores of the genus Bacillus can be triggered to germinate by a limited number of chemicals. Mandelate had powerful additive effects on the levels and rates of germination produced in non-heat-shocked spores of Bacillus anthracis strain Sterne, Bacillus cereus, and Bacillus thuringiensis when combined with l-alanine and inosine. Mandelate had no germinant effect on its own but was active with these germinants in a dose-dependent manner at concentrations higher than 0.5 mM. The maximum rate and extent of germination were produced in B. anthracis by 100 mM l-alanine with 10 mM inosine; this was equaled by just 25% of these germinants when supplemented with 10 mM mandelate. Half the maximal germination rate was produced by 40% of the optimum germinant concentrations or 15% of them when supplemented with 0.8 mM mandelate. Germination rates in B. thuringiensis were highest around neutrality, but the potentiating effect of mandelate was maintained over a wider pH range than was germination with l-alanine and inosine alone. For all species, lactate also promoted germination in the presence of l-alanine and inosine; this was further increased by mandelate. Ammonium ions also enhanced l-alanine- and inosine-induced germination but only when mandelate was present. In spite of the structural similarities, mandelate did not compete with phenylalanine as a germinant. Mandelate appeared to bind to spores while enhancing germination. There was no effect when mandelate was used in conjunction with nonnutrient germinants. No effect was produced with spores of Bacillus subtilis, Clostridium sporogenes, or C. difficile. IMPORTANCE The number of chemicals that can induce germination in the species related to Bacillus cereus has been defined for many years, and they conform to specific chemical types. Although not a germinant itself, mandelate has a structure that is different from these germination-active compounds, and its addition to this list represents a significant discovery in the fundamental biology of spore germination. This novel activity may also have important applied relevance given the impact of spores of B. cereus in foodborne disease and B. anthracis as a threat agent. The destruction of spores of B. anthracis, for example, particularly over large outdoor areas, poses significant scientific and logistical problems. The addition of mandelate and lactate to the established mixtures of l-alanine and inosine would decrease the amount of the established germinants required and increase the speed and level of germination achieved. The large-scale application of “germinate to decontaminate” strategy may thus become more practicable.
A fuzzy logic based neural network classifier for qualitative classification of odors/gases

This paper presents a novel approach to odor discrimination using data obtained from the responses of thick film tin oxide sensor array fabricated at our laboratory and employing backpropagation algorithm trained artificial neural network based on fuzzy logic. Fuzzy membership values were used as target vectors to the proposed neural classifier. Three different versions of backpropagation algorithm were used to train the network and their performances have been compared. Superior learning and classification performance was obtained using proposed model trained with TRAINLM version of the backpropagation algorithm.
Decolonizing UNESCO's post-2015 education agenda : global social justice and a view from UNDRIP

As education actors gather to review the failure of the 1990 – 2015 global Education for All (EFA) agendas to achieve their goals of universal delivery and access to education, there are few new ideas being submitted on how to change directions. This study brings together the two worlds of UNESCO’s Post-2015 Education Agenda and the United Nations Declaration of the Rights on Indigenous People (UNDRIP) in a policy encounter that not only highlights the colonial legacies present in global education policy but suggests how renewed efforts for EFA might be a decolonizing contribution if UNDRIP was taken as a starting place for policy development. It is my objective, in this article, to provide a de-colonial and anticolonial lens on the processes, objectives, and aims of Post-2015 EFA, as well as to propose some alternatives that could enhance global education goals of equity and enhanced citizenship and democracy.
Using the EM simulation tools to predict EMC immunity behavior of a automotive electronic board after a component change

Integrated Circuit obsolescence is a strong economic constraint for electronic suppliers. It becomes essential to develop a methodology aiming to guarantee the non regression of EMC performances of equipments during an immunity test. The use of numerical simulation tools seems to be a way to reach this target. But these tools need first EMC behavioral component's models built from the most appropriate EMC measurements.
CD4+ TCR Repertoire Heterogeneity in Schistosoma mansoni-Induced Granulomas1

The hallmark of Schistosoma mansoni infection is the formation of liver granulomas around deposited ova. The initiation of granuloma formation is T cell-dependent since granulomas are not formed in their absence. We investigated whether a few T cells arrive to initiate the inflammatory lesion and subsequently expand locally, or whether a large repertoire of systemically activated T cells home to the delayed type hypersensitivity reaction induced by the ova. The TCR repertoire of single granulomas from the same liver were analyzed by PCR using Vβ-specific primers and CDR3 analysis. Each granuloma has a very diverse TCR repertoire indicating that most of the T cells recruited to these lesions are activated systemically. At the same time, sequence analysis of individually sized CDR3 products from single granuloma indicate that a fraction of T cells expand locally at the lesion site. Using TCR transgenic mice containing a pigeon cytochrome c-specific T cell population or lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus infection tracked with lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus-specific tetramers, we demonstrated that nonspecific T cells home to the granuloma if they are activated. However, recombinase-activating gene 2−/− pigeon cytochrome c-specific TCR transgenic mice fail to form granulomas in response to S. mansoni ova even after T cell activation, suggesting a requirement for egg-specific T cells in the initiation of these inflammatory lesions. Understanding the mechanism of T cell recruitment into granulomas has important implications for the rational design of immunotherapies for granulomatous diseases.
On the estimation of short memory components in long memory time series models

Abstract A substantial amount of recent time series research has emphasized semi-parameteric estimators of a long memory parameter and we provide a selective review of the literature on this issue. We consider such estimators applied to the issue of estimating the parameters relating to a short memory process which is embedded within the long memory process. We consider the fractional differencing filter and the subsequent properties of a two step estimator of the short memory parameters. We conclude that while the semi-parametric estimators can have excellent properties in terms of estimating the long memory parameter, they do not have good properties when applied to the two step estimator of short memory I(0) parameters. In particular, these estimators compare poorly in terms of bias and mean squared error (MSE) with the systems based maximum likelihood estimator (MLE).
Incidence of hyperthyroidism in Sweden.

INTRODUCTION The incidence of hyperthyroidism has been reported in various countries to be 23-93/100,000 inhabitants per year. This extended study has evaluated the incidence for ~40% of the Swedish population of 9 million inhabitants. Sweden is considered to be iodine sufficient country. METHODS All patients including children, who were newly diagnosed with overt hyperthyroidism in the years 2003-2005, were prospectively registered in a multicenter study. The inclusion criteria are as follows: clinical symptoms and/or signs of hyperthyroidism with plasma TSH concentration below 0.2 mIE/l and increased plasma levels of free/total triiodothyronine and/or free/total thyroxine. Patients with relapse of hyperthyroidism or thyroiditis were not included. The diagnosis of Graves' disease (GD), toxic multinodular goiter (TMNG) and solitary toxic adenoma (STA), smoking, initial treatment, occurrence of thyroid-associated eye symptoms/signs, and demographic data were registered. RESULTS A total of 2916 patients were diagnosed with de novo hyperthyroidism showing the total incidence of 27.6/100,000 inhabitants per year. The incidence of GD was 21.0/100,000 and toxic nodular goiter (TNG=STA+TMNG) occurred in 692 patients, corresponding to an annual incidence of 6.5/100,000. The incidence was higher in women compared with men (4.2:1). Seventy-five percent of the patients were diagnosed with GD, in whom thyroid-associated eye symptoms/signs occurred during diagnosis in every fifth patient. Geographical differences were observed. CONCLUSION The incidence of hyperthyroidism in Sweden is in a lower range compared with international reports. Seventy-five percent of patients with hyperthyroidism had GD and 20% of them had thyroid-associated eye symptoms/signs during diagnosis. The observed geographical differences require further studies.
Localization of license plates using optimized edge and contour detection technique

There are a lot of existing studies in the field of plate detection. However, most of them focused on using still images and only a few have applied the process on video streams. This research proposes to automate the plate detection process by the use of intelligent transport system through image processing techniques such as edge detection and contour matching. The region of interest of the vehicle image was reduced to the lower half since statistically, license plates were located on the bottom half of a vehicle to improve the computational complexity of the system. The edges of the vehicle image were computed, from which contours were calculated. The detected contours were filtered based on three parameters — area, aspect ratio and diagonal. The results show that the system achieved 96.67% accuracy.
Sevoflurane postconditioning alleviates action potential duration shortening and L-type calcium current suppression induced by ischemia/reperfusion injury in rat epicardial myocytes.

BACKGROUND It has been proved that sevoflurane postconditioning (SpostC) could protect the heart against myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury, however, there has been few research focused on the electrophysiological effects of SpostC. The objective of the study was to investigate the effects of SpostC on action potential duration (APD) and L-type calcium current (I(Ca, L)) in isolated cardiomyocytes. METHODS Langendorff perfused SD rat hearts were randomly assigned to one of the time control (TC), ischemia/reperfusion (I/R, 25 minutes of ischemia followed by 30 minutes of reperfusion), and SpostC (postconditioned with 3% sevoflurane) groups. At the end of reperfusion, epicardial myocytes were dissociated enzymatically for patch clamp studies. RESULTS Sevoflurane directly prolonged APD and decreased peak I(Ca, L) densities in epicardial myocytes of the TC group (P < 0.05). I/R injury shortened APD and decreased peak I(Ca, L) densities in epicardial myocytes of the I/R group (P < 0.05). SpostC prolonged APD and increased peak I(Ca, L) densities in epicardial myocytes exposed to I/R injury (P < 0.05). SpostC decreased intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels, reduced the incidence of ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation, and decreased reperfusion arrhythmia scores compared with the I/R group (all P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS SpostC attenuates APD shortening and I(Ca, L) suppression induced by I/R injury. The regulation of APD and I(Ca, L) by SpostC might be related with intracellular ROS modulation, which contributes to the alleviation of reperfusion ventricular arrhythmia.
A new method to determine the work-function difference and its application to calibrate the boron-segregation coefficient

The authors present a technique to determine the work-function difference from a plot of the threshold voltage (V/sub T/) versus oxide thickness (T/sub ox/) curve. The extraction errors caused by the electrical characteristics of the oxide and the SiO/sub 2//Si interface can be minimized by the V/sub T/-T/sub ox/ technique. The boron segregation coefficient can be calibrated from the slope of the V/sub T/-T/sub ox/ curve. Comparisons between the experimental data and simulation results are made, and good agreement is obtained. <<ETX>>
Nonlinear dynamics approach in modeling of the on-state-spreading - related voltage and current transients in 90nm CMOS silicon controlled rectifiers

Using a theory of front propagation in nonlinear active media we model the on-state spreading related voltage, current and on-state width transients in 90nm CMOS silicon controlled rectifiers. The model explains well voltage transients during the rising edge of ESD pulses and predicts a non-trivial dependence of device voltage on number of triggering regions.
Concept for a simulation-based approach towards automated handling of deformable objects — A bin picking scenario

Handling of deformable objects with industrial robots holds many unresolved challenges. Especially, describing and predicting the deformed state is computationally expensive and therefore difficult under the requirements of manufacturing environments. A concept for a simulation-based approach towards bin picking of deformable objects, is presented in this paper. The emphasis of the approach lies on the subtask of localisation and pose estimation, but regards the context of gripping and manipulation as well. A multi-body modelling approach is considered to model the deformation of soft objects. The basic idea is to provide a reduced order model accounting for the requirements of short computation times. At last, the implementation of the proposed bin picking system is discussed and further research activities with the presented system are outlined.
Narratives of thriving : Black lesbian and queer women negotiating racism, sexism, and heterosexism

This qualitative exploratory study explores the narratives that Black lesbian and queer women age 21 to 35 tell about their lived experience by addressing racism, sexism, and heterosexism and how Black lesbian and queer women live and negotiate in the world. In exploring these narratives, the research focused on the following questions: What are the ways in which Black Lesbian and Queer Women create their own story as they negotiate at the margins of society? How do Black lesbian women create meaning out of their experiences in the face of racism, sexism, and heterosexism? The study found that these 12 self-identified Black lesbian and queer Women were proactive and intentional about creating public and private spaces where they and other Black lesbian queer women could feel safe, comfortable, and free in being their full complex selves. The major findings included each participant exercised resistance strategies to maintain the integrity and expression of their identities, including engaging in practices of renaming to allow space for an intersectional and complex understanding of their identities. They were proactive in finding and building homeplaces to help them manage their complex and individually unique experiences of racism, sexism, and heterosexism. Their narratives revealed important themes regarding coming out and negotiating their identities within their family, faith communities, work, and other social groups. This study revealed Black lesbian and queer women are not simply surviving they are thriving in their communities and in their lives. I conclude with a recommendation that clinicians develop a sense of how their own identities interact and intersect within systems of oppression, and of how Black lesbian and queer women might be impacted by racism, sexism, heterosexism, and other oppressions.
The Role of Industry Effects in Simultaneous Reversal and Momentum Patterns in One-Month Stock Returns

ABSTRACT When stocks are ranked by returns in one month, the portfolio of loser stocks tends to outperform the portfolio of winner stocks in the subsequent month. Yet industry portfolios tend to display momentum. We develop a model of information diffusion among agents with constrained information processing ability that reconciles these well-documented phenomena. We test whether this model or the overreaction hypothesis is consistent with the data. Additionally, a trading strategy based on the model outperforms strategies based on overreaction and on industry momentum. The strategy produces abnormal returns while controlling for market–risk and the size, book value, January, momentum, and liquidity effects.