Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Journal of Immune Based Therapies and Vaccines Prospects for Control of Emerging Infectious Diseases with Plasmid Dna Vaccines History of Dna Vaccines

Experiments almost 20 years ago demonstrated that injections of a sequence of DNA encoding part of a pathogen could stimulate immunity. It was soon realized that "DNA vaccination" had numerous potential advantages over conventional vaccine approaches including inherent safety and a more rapid production time. These and other attributes make DNA vaccines ideal for development against emerging pathogens. Recent advances in optimizing various aspects of DNA vaccination have accelerated this approach from concept to reality in contemporary human trials. Although not yet licensed for human use, several DNA vaccines have now been approved for animal health indications. The rapid manufacturing capabilities of DNA vaccines may be particularly important for emerging infectious diseases including the current novel H1N1 Influenza A pandemic, where pre-existing immunity is limited. Because of recent advances in DNA vaccination, this approach has the potential to be a powerful new weapon in protecting against emerging and potentially pandemic human pathogens. Throughout recorded history, infectious diseases have plagued human existence. One effective approach to limiting these diseases has been vaccination. For example, in a recent report by Roush and colleagues at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), ever since the introduction of vaccines the incidence of infectious diseases like diphtheria, mumps, pertussis, tetanus, hepatitis A and B, Haemophilus influenza and varicella zoster has declined by more than 80% in the U.S [1]. Furthermore , after the introduction of vaccines, large scale transmission of measles, rubella, and polio has been eliminated in the U.S., while smallpox has been eradicated worldwide. However, new emerging infectious pathogens such as HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), SARS coronavirus (severe acute respiratory syndrome virus), and highly pathogenic avian influenza (H5N1) viruses have adapted strategies to rapidly change their genetic compositions. As the influenza pandemic of 1918 (H1N1) killed approximately 20 to 50 million people worldwide, massive disease and death is similarly feared from newly emerging pathogens. In addition, the current novel swine derived H1N1 pandemic further exemplifies the need for a rapid and effective vaccine against emerging pathogens [2]. Thus a vaccination strategy to control emerging diseases will require a more effective and rapid response than available from conventional approaches such as live-attenuated vaccines, inactivated vaccines, or protein subunit vaccines. Plasmid DNA vaccines, as reviewed in this article, may be an option to effectively combat current emerging infectious diseases. which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work …
Cancer Incidence and Mortality and Vitamin D in Black and White Male Health Professionals

Blacks have been documented to have low vitamin D levels. We thus examined whether total cancer incidence and mortality rates differ between Blacks and Whites in a population of male health professionals, and particularly for digestive system cancers (oral, esophagus, stomach, pancreas, and colorectum), which have been most consistently linked to poor vitamin D status. Second, we examined whether Blacks might be more susceptible to these cancers if they concurrently had other risk factors for hypovitaminosis D. In the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, from 1986 to 2002, 99 of 481 Black men and 7,019 of 43,468 White men were diagnosed with cancer. Adjusting for multiple dietary, lifestyle, and medical risk factors, using Cox modeling, Black men were at higher risk of total cancer incidence [relative risk (RR), 1.32; 95% confidence interval (95% CI), 1.08-1.61; P = 0.007] and total cancer mortality (RR, 1.89; 95% CI, 1.40-2.56; P < 0.0001) and especially digestive system cancer mortality (RR, 2.24; 95% CI, 1.35-3.70). Compared with Whites with relatively few risk factors for hypovitaminosis D, Blacks also with few risk factors for hypovitaminosis D were not at appreciably higher risk of total cancer incidence (RR, 0.95; 95% CI, 0.60-1.51) or mortality (RR, 1.55; 95% CI, 0.91-2.62), but Black men with additional risk factors for poorer vitamin D status had a much higher cancer incidence (RR, 1.57; 95% CI, 1.16-2.11) and mortality risk (RR, 2.27; 95% CI, 1.57-3.28). This pattern was even more pronounced for digestive system cancer. Our results suggest that the high frequency of hypovitaminosis D in Blacks may be an important, and easily modifiable, contributor to their higher risk of cancer incidence and mortality. (Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2006;15(12):2467–72)
Th17 functions as an osteoclastogenic helper T cell subset that links T cell activation and bone destruction

In autoimmune arthritis, traditionally classified as a T helper (Th) type 1 disease, the activation of T cells results in bone destruction mediated by osteoclasts, but how T cells enhance osteoclastogenesis despite the anti-osteoclastogenic effect of interferon (IFN)-γ remains to be elucidated. Here, we examine the effect of various Th cell subsets on osteoclastogenesis and identify Th17, a specialized inflammatory subset, as an osteoclastogenic Th cell subset that links T cell activation and bone resorption. The interleukin (IL)-23–IL-17 axis, rather than the IL-12–IFN-γ axis, is critical not only for the onset phase, but also for the bone destruction phase of autoimmune arthritis. Thus, Th17 is a powerful therapeutic target for the bone destruction associated with T cell activation.
The Adaptive Heartbeat Design of High Availability RAID Dual-Controller

Designing storage systems to provide high availability in the face of failures needs the use of various data protection techniques, such as dual-controller RAID. The failure of RAID controller may cause RAID storage system to fail to respond to ongoing requests and to no longer be available to new requests. Heartbeat is used to detect controllers whether survival. So, the heartbeat cycle's impact on the high availability of a dual-controller hot-standby system has become the key of current research. To address the problem of fixed setting heartbeat in building high availability system currently, a self-adaptive heartbeat model of dual-controller, which can adjust heartbeat cycle based on the frequency of data read-write request, is designed to improve the high availability of dual-controller RAID storage system. Based on this model, the high availability stochastic Petri net model of fault detection was established and used to evaluate the effect of the availability. In addition, we define a SHA (self-adaptive heart ability) parameter to scale the ability of system heartbeat cycle to adapt to the environment when high availability system is at a changing environment of read and write requests. The results show that, relatively speaking with fixed configuration, the design can enhance dual controller RAID system high availability.
Adaptive pressure ultrasonic precise bonding method for polymer micro joint

Ultrasonic precise bonding for polymer micro joint was studied. Considering shape deviation as the key issue to successful micro bonding, an ultrasonic bonding system was established, which employed 60 kHz ultrasonic transducer that achieved bonding at low amplitude. Adaptive ultrasonic bonding with bonding energy auto-selected was proposed. In this method, continues decreasing pressure was imposed on the micro components, the heat was accumulated and when the interface reached the melting point of the polymer, the pressure skip detected by the sensor and treated as the signal to turn off the ultrasonic vibration by the system. Polymer mechanical behavior was the control parameter in this method, precise energy for each component was auto-selected by system, and this solved the problem of surface roughness deviation form micro component and made small deformation of microstructure. Based on this method, linear guide was chosen to drive the ultrasonic horn. A kind of micro pump seat was bonded by this system. The joint had a transparent bonding interface and shear strength of 8 MPa which met the demand of MEMS. The interfacial temperature was measured during bonding. The influence of bonding pressure to the bonding quality was obtained. The result is contributed to ultrasonic bonding process optimizing and system design.
Review of the Acuity Scoring Systems for the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit and Their Use in Quality Improvement

Acuity scoring systems quantitate the severity of clinical conditions and stratify patients according to presenting patient condition. In the pediatric intensive care unit, the complexity and number of clinical scoring systems are increasing as their applications for clinicians, health services researches, and quality improvement broaden. This article is a review of acuity scoring systems for the pediatric intensive care unit, including examples of scoring systems available, the methods used in assessing these tools, the ways in which these systems are used, and the utility of acuity scoring systems in accurate benchmarking. It is anticipated that with increasing health care costs and competition and increased focus on medical error reduction and quality improvement, the demands for risk-adjusted outcomes and institutional benchmarking will increase; therefore, as clinicians, academicians, and administrators, it is imperative that we be knowledgeable of the methods and applications of these acuity scoring systems to ensure their quality and appropriate use.
Formation of porous hydrophobic stainless steel surfaces by maskless electrochemical machining

Surface topography is an important feature, which directly affects the friction, corrosion and flow characteristics of a workpiece. In this study, a new approach was explored to produce a microporous structure by maskless electrochemical machining (ECM). A rough surface with a microporous structure was created on a stainless steel substrate, and the principle of the micropore formation was investigated. It was found that the microporosity could form, grow and interconnect when the potential of the anodic surface was higher than the pitting potential of the material. The electric field is an important factor, and the surface topography can be altered by changing the electrical parameters. The porous microstructure was observed by laser scanning confocal microscopy. The rough and porous surface, modified with 1-dodecanethiol, exhibits hydrophobic characteristics, with a static contact angle of 137° for water droplets. This is a significant improvement in the wetting properties for stainless steels.
Optical Losses of Thin Solar Cells on the Basis of n-ZnS / p-CdTe and n-CdS / p-CdTe Hetero- junctions

The optical reflection and absorption losses in the accessory layers of solar cells based on n-ZnS / pCdTe and n-CdS / p-CdTe heterojunctions are defined in this work. Aluminum doped zinc oxide is used as the front conductive layer material. It is shown that the replacement of traditional window material (CdS) for a wide-one (ZnS) leads to an increase in accessory solar cells layers transmittance. When the thickness of the window layers is 50 nm, the transmittance using ZnS windows with the wavelength of 380-500 nm is higher in 7-40 % than the corresponding value for CdS. At 300 nm for the same spectral field the difference increases to 8-89 %.
Adaptive control and identification using one neural network for a class of plants with uncertainties

This paper proposes a new neural adaptive control method that can perform adaptive control and identification for a class of controlled plants with linear and nonlinear uncertainties. This method uses a single neural network for both control and identification, and a sufficient condition of the local asymptotic stability is derived. Then, in order to illustrate the applicability of the proposed method, it is applied to the torque control of a flexible beam that includes linear and nonlinear structural uncertainties.
Polarized Couples in Therapy: Recognizing Indifference as the Opposite of Love

How can a couple “fall in love” and then subsequently “stumble out of love”? For centuries, this question has perplexed partners, researchers, and therapists alike. Unlike falling out of love, which may be a long-term gradual decline in love, falling in love may occur without much deliberation like the famous “love at first sight. ” During a developing love relationship, couples are more susceptible to ignoring a myriad of factors that will eventually influence their relationship. These ignored personal and general factors become increasingly conspicuous after the relationship is established. When facing relationship difficulties, the presence or absence of mutual love and intimacy steers the couple's relationship toward continuity or termination. Emotional indifference (which is the opposite of love) diminishes love and care; the terms marital disaffection and romantic disengagement are used synonymously to represent emotional indifference in couples. Marital disaffection is one of the central concerns of couples entering therapy. Nevertheless, spouses may enter therapy with divergent goals that may be polar opposites. Therefore, treatment of polarized or different agenda couples is challenging because disaffected spouses may be seeking counseling to break the bond at a safe venue, while their partners may still be obliviously hoping for the rebirth of their lost love. This article reviews marital disaffection/romantic disengagement and discusses counseling options for polarized couples.
CommonRoad: Composable benchmarks for motion planning on roads

Numerical experiments for motion planning of road vehicles require numerous components: vehicle dynamics, a road network, static obstacles, dynamic obstacles and their movement over time, goal regions, a cost function, etc. Providing a description of the numerical experiment precise enough to reproduce it might require several pages of information. Thus, only key aspects are typically described in scientific publications, making it impossible to reproduce results — yet, re-producibility is an important asset of good science. Composable benchmarks for motion planning on roads (CommonRoad) are proposed so that numerical experiments are fully defined by a unique ID; all information required to reconstruct the experiment can be found on the CommonRoad website. Each benchmark is composed by a vehicle model, a cost function, and a scenario (including goals and constraints). The scenarios are partly recorded from real traffic and partly hand-crafted to create dangerous situations. We hope that CommonRoad saves researchers time since one does not have to search for realistic parameters of vehicle dynamics or realistic traffic situations, yet provides the freedom to compose a benchmark that fits one's needs.
Unusual Armadillo Fold in the Human General Vesicular Transport Factor p115

The golgin family gives identity and structure to the Golgi apparatus and is part of a complex protein network at the Golgi membrane. The golgin p115 is targeted by the GTPase Rab1a, contains a large globular head region and a long region of coiled-coil which forms an extended rod-like structure. p115 serves as vesicle tethering factor and plays an important role at different steps of vesicular transport. Here we present the 2.2 Å-resolution X-ray structure of the globular head region of p115. The structure exhibits an armadillo fold that is decorated by elongated loops and carries a C-terminal non-canonical repeat. This terminal repeat folds into the armadillo superhelical groove and allows homodimeric association with important implications for p115 mediated multiple protein interactions and tethering.
Conservative application-level performance analysis through simulation of MPSoCs

Applications, often with real-time requirements, are mapped onto Multiprocessor Systems on Chip (MPSoCs). Hard real-time applications require no deadline misses, and a formal modelling approach must be used to analyse the worst-case performance, which is complicated and time consuming. Such models are restricted to specific application behaviours and not generally applicable. Soft real-time applications such as video decoders often do not fit these models while having less strict requirements. An infrequent frame drop is barely noticeable, and a worst-case analysis is too pessimistic. For such applications it suffices to meet deadlines for a given set of traces. In this work we propose conservative simulation as an alternative approach to formal modelling for soft real-time applications. We introduce a hybrid simulation method which enables performance guarantees on a per-trace basis, without any modelling effort. Furthermore we evaluate an implementation of the described technique and compare it with an actual MPSoC instance implemented on an FPGA. Our results show that the simulation technique is conservative, with less than a 10% difference in timing compared to the actual implementation, for a software JPEG decoder.
Computers getting the drift

Natural language processing is the study of computer programs that can understand and produce human language. An important goal in the research to produce such technology is identifying the right meaning of words and phrases. In this paper, we give an overview of current research in three areas: (i) inducing word meaning; (ii) distinguishing different meanings of words used in context; and (iii) determining when the meaning of a phrase cannot straightforwardly be obtained from its parts. Manual construction of resources is labour intensive and costly and furthermore may not reflect the meanings that are useful for the task or data at hand. For this reason, we focus particularly on systems that use samples of language data to learn about meanings, rather than examples annotated by humans.
Determining Restricted Damerau-Levenshtein Edit-Distance of Two Languages by Extended Automata

Restricted Damerau-Levenshtein edit-distance is applied in many fields such as language processing, speech recognition, detecting theft of information, biology computation, etc. Modifying from the method of Mehryar Mohri (2003) which uses the composition of transducers combined with a single-source shortest-paths algorithm to compute Levenshtein edit- distance of the two languages, we propose a type of an extended automaton in order to compute the restricted Damerau-Levenshtein edit-distance of the two languages.
Reliability of Tethered Swimming Evaluation in Age Group Swimmers

Abstract The aim of the present study was to examine the reliability of tethered swimming in the evaluation of age group swimmers. The sample was composed of 8 male national level swimmers with at least 4 years of experience in competitive swimming. Each swimmer performed two 30 second maximal intensity tethered swimming tests, on separate days. Individual force-time curves were registered to assess maximum force, mean force and the mean impulse of force. Both consistency and reliability were very strong, with Cronbach's Alpha values ranging from 0.970 to 0.995. All the applied metrics presented a very high agreement between tests, with the mean impulse of force presenting the highest. These results indicate that tethered swimming can be used to evaluate age group swimmers. Furthermore, better comprehension of the swimmers ability to effectively exert force in the water can be obtained using the impulse of force.
Carotid Artery Stenting in Octogenarians Periprocedural Stroke

Background and Purpose—Carotid ACCULINK/ACCUNET Post Approval Trial to Uncover Rare Events (CAPTURE 2) is an ongoing prospective, nonrandomized, multicenter clinical trial enrolling patients undergoing carotid artery stenting. The aim of this analysis is to identify risk predictors for periprocedural stroke in patients 80 years old. Methods—Symptomatic patients with 50% stenosis and asymptomatic patients with 80% stenosis were enrolled. Patients’ neurological status was assessed by an independent neurologist before as well as 24 hours and 30 days postprocedure. All strokes and suspected strokes were adjudicated by an independent committee. Logistic regression analysis was conducted to identify baseline demographic, lesion, procedural, or comorbidity parameters associated with outcomes in patients 80 years of age. Results—As of January 10, 2009, 5297 patients underwent carotid artery stenting in 186 US CAPTURE 2 clinical centers and 1166 were 80 years old. Octogenarians were similar to nonoctogenarians in terms of gender and symptomatic status but had fewer of certain risk factors (prior myocardial infarction or carotid endarterectomy, diabetes, smoking history) and more cardiac arrhythmia and renal insufficiency. For the overall cohort, death/stroke rate was 3.3%; stroke rate was 2.7% (0.8% major, 1.9% minor). Death/stroke rates were significantly higher for octogenarians than nonoctogenarians (4.5% versus 3.0%) as were stroke rates (3.8% versus 2.4%). Symptomatic status, embolic protection device dwell time, and lesion length were risk predictors for periprocedural stroke in octogenarians. Conclusions—Patients 80 years old have higher periprocedural event rates than nonoctogenarians. Age, symptomatic status, and lesion length should be considered when identifying appropriate candidates for the procedure. (Stroke. 2010; 41:757-764.)
Nanocrystalline NiAl-TiC Composites Sintered by the Pulse Plasma Method

The paper presents the results of the examination of nanocrystalline NiAl-TiC composites with 25 wt. % and 40 wt. % of TiC. The starting materials were coarse-grained powders which were subjected to mechanical refining to obtain a nano-crystalline grain size. These powders were then sintered using the pulse plasma method. After sintering the NiAl-TiC composites have a density of 99.9% of the theoretical value. The grain size, determined by X-ray diffraction using the Hall-Williamson method; density; hardness and fracture toughness of the composites were investigated. The results obtained showed that the pulse plasma sintered NiAl-TiC have a density very close to the theoretical value and that the nano-crystalline microstructure was maintained. The NiAl-TiC composites containing 25wt. % of TiC have a hardness of 750 HV1 and a stress intensity factor KIC of 7 MPa⋅m1/2, whereas those containing 40 wt. % of TiC have a hardness of 1070 HV1 and KIC of 11.8 MPa⋅m1/2.
Using Gene Ontology to Enhance Effectiveness of Similarity Measures for Microarray Data

Feature selection is a necessary processing step for class prediction using microarray expression data. Traditional methods select top-ranked genes in terms of their discriminative powers. This strategy unavoidably results in redundancy, whereby correlated features with comparable discriminative powers are equally favorable. Redundancy has many drawbacks among other aspects. As a result, reducing redundancy is an important goal for most feature selection methods. Almost all methods for redundancy reduction are based on the correlation between gene expression levels. In this paper, we utilize the knowledge in gene ontology to provide a new model for measuring redundancy among genes. We propose a novel method to evaluate the GO semantic similarity and a similarity metric, which incorporates semantic and expression level similarities. We compare our method with traditional expression value-only similarity model on several public microarray datasets. The experimental results show that our approach is capable of offering higher or the same classification accuracy while providing a smaller gene feature subset.