Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of Collagen Turnover on the Accumulation of Advanced Glycation End Products*

Collagen molecules in articular cartilage have an exceptionally long lifetime, which makes them susceptible to the accumulation of advanced glycation end products (AGEs). In fact, in comparison to other collagen-rich tissues, articular cartilage contains relatively high amounts of the AGE pentosidine. To test the hypothesis that this higher AGE accumulation is primarily the result of the slow turnover of cartilage collagen, AGE levels in cartilage and skin collagen were compared with the degree of racemization of aspartic acid (% d-Asp, a measure of the residence time of a protein). AGE (N ε-(carboxymethyl)lysine,N ε-(carboxyethyl)lysine, and pentosidine) and % d-Asp concentrations increased linearly with age in both cartilage and skin collagen (p < 0.0001). The rate of increase in AGEs was greater in cartilage collagen than in skin collagen (p < 0.0001). % d-Asp was also higher in cartilage collagen than in skin collagen (p< 0.0001), indicating that cartilage collagen has a longer residence time in the tissue, and thus a slower turnover, than skin collagen. In both types of collagen, AGE concentrations increased linearly with % d-Asp (p < 0.0005). Interestingly, the slopes of the curves of AGEs versus% d-Asp, i.e. the rates of accumulation of AGEs corrected for turnover, were identical for cartilage and skin collagen. The present study thus provides the first experimental evidence that protein turnover is a major determinant in AGE accumulation in different collagen types. From the age-related increases in % d-Asp the half-life of cartilage collagen was calculated to be 117 years and that of skin collagen 15 years, thereby providing the first reasonable estimates of the half-lives of these collagens.
On persistent directed graphs

The concept of persistent directed graphs was introduced by Hendrickx et al. to help analyze the stability of autonomous agent systems. They provided a combinatorial characterization for persistence but the complexity of testing persistence remained open. In this note we show that for directed graphs D with ∑vεV(D) min{δD(v), 2} ≤ 2∣V(D)∣ − 3 persistence can be tested in polynomial time, where δD(v) denotes the out‐degree of vertex v in D. This family of directed graphs includes acyclic digraphs (for which an efficient algorithm was known) as well as all digraphs with a leader‐follower structure. We also discuss some related orientation problems. Among others we point out that the existence of an acyclic persistent orientation can be tested in polynomial time for all graphs. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. NETWORKS, 2008
A preliminary report on the evaluation of changes in water quality in a stream following the implementation of agricultural best management practices

Otsego Lake (Otsego County, NY), of glacial origin, forms the headwaters of the Susquehanna River. It is a deep (50.5 m max) dimictic waterbody of 4,167 acres having a catchment of 46,482 acres. The lake serves as the potable water supply of Cooperstown and it is noted for its cold water fishery, which includes native lake trout and whitefish as well as stocked brown trout and Atlantic salmon. The lake provides many recreational opportunities and it provides an aesthetic backdrop for the historically preserved Village of Cooperstown, which depends heavily upon a tourist-based economy (Harman et al. 1997).
A contribution to indexing in legal information retrieval

Ongoing research in information retrieval offers new approaches, demonstrating that the traditional methods may have reached their limitations. In fact, actual results to date have shown that advanced systems will demonstrate effectiveness at combining multiple text and user need representations. The paper suggests supplementing the traditional conceptual abstracts with a syntactical description designed to improve retrieval performance. This choice is carefully motivated and examples are given. Without attempting to reason about the document contents, a domain specific knowledge representation is used to form clusters of concepts. The point is to represent the joint structure of the component concepts involved in a composite concept. This approach extends the reach of key concept assignment to: interactive query elicitation; multiword phrase search; finer grained thesaurus relationships. The paper emphasizes that intellectual assignment of features is part of an artificial intelligence approach to information retrieval. The principles of implementation are also described.
Identification Based Computerized Adaptive Test for Latent Class − A Mixture Rasch Model

This study explored a computerized adaptive test delivery algorithm for latent class identification based on the mixture Rasch model. Four item selection methods based on the Kullback– Leibler (KL) information were proposed and compared with the reversed and the adaptive KL information under simulated testing conditions. When item separation was large, all item selection methods did not differ evidently in terms of accuracy in classifying examinees into different latent classes and estimating latent ability. However, when item separation was small, two methods with class-specific ability estimates performed better than the other two methods based on a single latent ability estimate across all latent classes. The three types of KL information distributions were compared. The KL and the reversed KL information could be the same or different depending on the ability level and the item difficulty difference between latent classes. Although the KL information and the reversed KL information were different at some ability levels and item difficulty difference levels, the use of the KL, the reversed KL, or the adaptive KL information did not affect the results substantially due to the symmetric distribution of item difficulty differences between latent classes in the simulated item pools. Item pool usage and classification convergence points were examined as well.
Predictive value of sensory and cognitive evoked potentials for awakening from coma

Objectives: To determine the prognostic role of late auditory (N100) and cognitive evoked potentials (MMN) for awakening in a cohort of comatose patients categorized by etiology. Methods: The authors prospectively studied a series of 346 comatose patients. Coma was caused by stroke (n = 125), trauma (n = 96), anoxia (n = 64), complications of neurosurgery (n = 54), and encephalitis (n = 7). Patients were followed for 12 months and classified as awake or unawake. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed using regression logistic and Cox models. Results: Pupillary light reflex, N100, middle-latency auditory evoked potentials, age, and etiology were the most discriminating factors for awakening. Statistical analysis showed that pupillary reflex was the strongest prognostic variable for awakening (estimated probability 79.7%). The estimated probability of awakening rose to 87% when N100 was present and to 89.9% when middle-latency evoked potentials (MLAEPs) were present. It was 13.7% when pupillary reflex was absent in anoxic patients. When MMN was present, 88.6% of patients awakened. No patient in whom MMN was present became permanently vegetative. Conclusion: Pupillary reflex is the strongest prognostic variable, followed by N100 and MLAEPs allowing a reliable model for awakening. The presence of MMN is a predictor of awakening and precludes comatose patients from moving to a permanent vegetative state. Evaluation of primary sensory cortex and higher-order processes by middle-latency-, late, and cognitive evoked potentials should be performed in the prognosis for awakening in comatose patients.
Rhamnolipid biosurfactant against Fusarium sacchari—the causal organism of pokkah boeng disease of sugarcane

Pokkah boeng disease on sugarcane caused by the fungus Fusarium sacchari results considerable damage to the crop leading to top rot, the most serious and advanced stage of pokkah boeng, where the growing point is killed and the entire top of the plant dies. In the present study, the effect of rhamnolipid biosurfactant as an antifungal agent against F. sacchari to control pokkah boeng disease was investigated. On the basis of surface tension reduction, 12 bacterial isolates were selected as potent biosurfactant producers and eight of them showed antagonistic effect against F. sacchari. Among the eight, the isolate DS9 was found as the effective inhibitor of the fungus in vitro which was further evaluated using its biosurfactant present in whole culture, cell‐free culture supernatant and crude biosurfactant at various concentrations. Reductions of fungal growths were found more with crude biosurfactant. By sequencing 16S rRNA, DS9 was identified as P. aeruginosa and the produced biosurfactant was characterized as rhamnolipid by Liquid Chromatography‐Mass Spectrometry (LC‐MS) analysis. The rhamnolipid biosurfactant inhibits phytopathogenic fungi F. sacchari and therefore seems to be a good biocontrol agent to control pokkah boeng disease of sugarcane.
Ambiguity in argument

The use of ambiguous expressions in argumentative dialogues can lead to misunderstanding and equivocation. Such ambiguities are here called active ambiguities. However, even a normative model of persuasion dialogue ought not to ban active ambiguities altogether, one reason being that it is not always possible to determine beforehand which expressions will prove to be actively ambiguous. Thus, it is proposed that argumentative norms should enable each participant to put forward ambiguity criticisms as well as self-critical ambiguity corrections, inducing them to improve their language if necessary. In order to discourage them from nitpicking and from arriving at excessively high levels of precision, the parties are also provided with devices with which to examine whether the ambiguity corrections or ambiguity criticisms have been appropriate. A formal dialectical system is proposed, in the Hamblin style, that satisfies these and some other philosophical desiderata.
The influence of meteorological variables on the performance of outdoor wireless local area networks

Improving the performance and the behavior of outdoor wireless local area networks (WLAN) is a very important objective for almost all researchers in the telematics field. In this paper, a clear relation between the weather and the performance of an outdoor WLAN is shown. This relation is extracted from a correlation analysis between several meteorological variables and the control and management frames of the data link layer of a WLAN at the Universitat Politècnica de València campus. In order to carry out this study, it was necessary to collect the required data during two months from an outdoor WLAN, as well as the meteorological variables from the weather station located at the same university campus. Then, we processed all this data and concluded that the temperature and the solar radiation affect the RTS frames, CTS frames, acknowledgments, and others.
FOR ELECTRIC VEHICLE DIRECT DRIVE USING SIZING EQUATION AND FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS

The design process of a double-sided slotted TORUS axialflux permanent-magnet (AFPM) motor suitable for direct drive of electric vehicle (EV) is presented. It used sizing equation and Finite Element Analysis (FEA). AFPM motor is a high-torque-density motor easily mounted compactly onto a vehicle wheel, fitting the wheel rim perfectly. A preliminary design is a double-sided slotted AFPM motor with 6 rotor poles for high torque-density and stable rotation. In determining the design requirements, a simple vehicle-dynamics model that evaluates vehicle performance through the typical cruising trip of an automobile was considered. To obtain, with the highest possible torque, the initial design parameters of the motor, AFPM’s fundamental theory and sizing equation were applied. Vector Field Opera-3D 14.0 commercial software ran the FEA of the motor design, evaluating and enhancing accuracy of the design parameters. Results of the FEA simulation were compared with those obtained from the sizing equation; at no-load condition, the flux density at every part of the motor agreed. The motor’s design meets all the requirements and limits of EV, and fits the shape and size of a classical-vehicle wheel rim. The design process is comprehensive and can be used for an arbitrary EV with an arbitrary cruising scenario.
Superpixel-based depth image super-resolution

Due to the development of depth sensors, such as time-of-flight (ToF) cameras, it becomes easier to acquire depth information directly from a scene. Although such devices enable us to obtain depth maps at video frame rates, the depth maps often have low resolutions only. A typical ToF camera retrieves depth maps of resolution 320 x 200, which is much lower than the resolutions of high definition color images. In this work, we propose a depth image super-resolution algorithm, which operates robustly even when there is a large resolution gap between a depth image and a reference color image. To prevent edge smoothing artifacts, which are the main drawback of conventional techniques, we adopt a superpixel-based approach and develop an edge enhancing scheme. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm aligns the edges of a depth map to accurately coincide with those of a high resolution color image.
DIRECT DETERMINATION OF UNBOUND INTRINSIC DRUG CLEARANCE IN THE MICROSOMAL STABILITY ASSAY

The microsomal stability assay is commonly used to rank compounds according to their metabolic stability. Determination of the unbound intrinsic clearance (CLin,u) is essential for the accurate comparison of compounds, since nonspecific binding to microsomes can lead to an underestimation of the microsomal clearance. In this study, a new method (linear extrapolation in the stability assay, LESA) was established, which allows direct calculation of CLin,u from microsomal stability data, without the need to independently determine the fraction of free (unbound) drug. The method was validated using nine drugs with different chemical structures and physicochemical properties. The CLin,u of these compounds was extrapolated from the intrinsic clearance values obtained at different concentrations of human liver microsomes and compared with that calculated by the conventional method, using microsomal intrinsic clearance values and the free fraction of drug determined by equilibrium dialysis, ultracentrifugation, or ultrafiltration. A good agreement was observed between the data generated by the LESA method and those determined by conventional procedures. The method was further evaluated using a published dataset for 10 additional drugs and found to yield intrinsic clearance data comparable to the previously reported values. LESA provides a convenient and rapid method to determine the influence of microsome binding on intrinsic clearance in a single assay.
Multilocus sequence typing and CTX-M characterization of ESBL-producing E. coli: a prospective single-centre study in Lower Saxony, Germany

SUMMARY The increasing prevalence of extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Gram-negative bacteria is a serious threat for current healthcare settings. In this study we investigated the molecular epidemiology of ESBL-producing E. coli at the University Medical Center Göttingen in Lower Saxony, Germany. All E. coli isolates with an ESBL phenotype were collected during a 6-month period in 2014. Multilocus sequence typing and CTX-M characterization were performed on 160 isolates. Of the ESBL-producing isolates 95·6% were CTX-M positive. Compared to recent Germany-wide studies, we found CTX-M-1 to occur in higher frequency than CTX-M-15 (44·4% vs. 34·4%). CTX-M-14 and CTX-M-27 were detected at 9·4% and 5·0%, respectively. The globally dominant sequence type (ST) 131, which is often associated with CTX-M-15, occurred at a relatively low rate of 24%. Major non-ST131 sequence types were ST101 (5%), ST58 (5%), ST10 (4·4%), ST38 (4·4%), ST410 (3·8%) and ST453 (3·1%). Several of these major sequence types were previously shown to be associated with livestock farming. Together, our study indicates that E. coli lineage distribution in individual healthcare settings can significantly differ from average numbers obtained in nationwide studies.
Mechanisms of Aortic Blunt Rupture in Fatally Injured Front-Seat Passengers in Frontal Car Collisions: An Autopsy Study

We tried to explain the mechanisms of the aortic blunt ruptures in fatally injured drivers and front passengers, unrestrained by seatbelts, by analyzing the frequencies of both aortic ruptures and concomitant injuries to 12 organs and body regions. The sample consisted of 393 subjects: 251 drivers and 142 front passengers (325 male and 68 female passengers, the mean age 41.0 ± 15.5). The total number of the complete blunt aortic ruptures in the sample was 116 (80 in the drivers and 36 in the front passengers). The weakest part of the aorta seems to be the isthmus (47 isthmus ruptures in the drivers and 27 in the front passengers). The statistically significant concomitant injured organs and body regions with the aortic ruptures were the liver, the sternum, and the diaphragm in the car drivers and the head and the neck in the front passengers. According to these results, the mechanisms of thoracic aorta rupture are different for fatally injured drivers and front passengers. For car drivers, they are associated and simultaneous with both thoracic and abdominal compression due to deceleration of the body at the moment when the driver's body slides forward and flexes across and against the steering wheel. For the front passengers, the mechanism is the caudorostral hyperextension of the thoracic aorta at the moment when the body is stopped by a dashboard, but the head continues forward with great velocity: the carotid vessels pull the aortic arch forward at the same time as the intercostal arteries fix the thoracic part of the aorta and pull it downwards.
Setting Graph Cut Weights for Automatic Foreground Extraction in Wood Log Images

The automatic extraction of foreground objects from the background is a well known problem. Much research has been done to solve the foreground/background segmentation with graph cuts. The major challenge is to determine the weights of the graph in order to obtain a good segmentation. In this paper we address this problem with a focus on the automatic segmentation of wood logs. We introduce a new solution to get information about foreground and background. This information is used to set the weights of the graph cut method. We compare four different methods to set these weights and show that the best results are obtained with our novel method, which is based on density estimation.
Numerical modal analysis in dispersive and dissipative plasmonic structures

Modal analysis is an essential tool since it straightly provides the lighting conditions under which a plasmonic structure can “sing”. Modes appear as solutions of source free Maxwell’s equations. For dispersive and dissipative structures, the associated spectral problem is not standard, being generally non linear in frequency and not selfadjoint. We developed and implemented two finite element formulations to tackle this non standard eigenvalue problem in a 2D multi-domain closed cavity. Their numerical validity are checked against the analytical solution.
A study of the effect of cardiac gating in myocardial SPECT using the 4D NCAT

The purpose of the study is to investigate the effect of cardiac gating in myocardial SPECT obtained from different gating schemes and image reconstruction methods using the 4D NURBS-based cardiac-torso (NCAT) phantom. We generated 144 phantoms over a cardiac cycle modeling a typical Tc-99m Sestamibi study. The cardiac cycle was divided into different gating schemes (8, 12, 16, and 24 gates) by summing combinations of these phantoms. For each gate, we generated projection data using an analytical projector that included the effects of attenuation, collimator-detector response and scatter, and reconstructed using different image reconstruction methods including FBP, OS-EM (with and without attenuation, scatter, and collimator-detector response corrections), and a 4D MAP-RBI-EM algorithm. The amount of motion blur (measured by mean square error) and percentage fluctuation of the reconstructed images were evaluated as measures for temporal resolution and noise level. The ejection fraction was also calculated to further evaluate the different gating schemes and reconstruction methods. The results show a dramatic improvement in temporal resolution in gated versus ungated images. The level of noise was found to increase significantly with an increase in the number of gates. Using a smaller number of gates was found to have a higher variation in estimating the ejection fraction. For each gating scheme, FBP and OS-EM without correction were found to have the poorest temporal resolution and the highest level of image noise while OS-EM with corrections was found to significantly improve temporal resolution and reduce image noise. We conclude that the 4D NCAT phantom is a useful tool in the study of optimal gating schemes and 4D image reconstruction methods for improved gated myocardial SPECT.
An efficient algorithm for virtual network function placement and chaining

The virtualized network functions placement and chaining problem is formulated as a decision tree to reduce significantly the complexity of service function chaining (SFC) in clouds. Each node in the tree corresponds to a virtual resource embedding and each tree branch to the mapping of a client request in some physical candidate. This transforms the placement problem to a decision tree search. We devise a new algorithm based on the Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) to incrementally build and search within the decision tree. Thanks to the proposed SFC-MTCS strategy, an optimized solution is computed in a reasonable time. Extensive simulations assess the performance and show that SFC-MCTS outperforms state of the art strategies in terms of: i) acceptance rate, ii) providers revenue and iii) execution time.
Women’s Management of Recurrent Bacterial Vaginosis and Experiences of Clinical Care: A Qualitative Study

Background Few data are available on how women manage recurring bacterial vaginosis (BV) and their experiences of the clinical care of this condition. This study aimed to explore women’s recurrent BV management approaches and clinical care experiences, with a view to informing and improving the clinical management of BV. Methods A descriptive, social constructionist approach was chosen as the framework for the study. Thirty-five women of varying sexual orientation who had experienced recurrent BV in the past 5 years took part in semi-structured interviews. Results The majority of women reported frustration and dissatisfaction with current treatment regimens and low levels of satisfaction with the clinical management of BV. Overall, women disliked taking antibiotics regularly, commonly experienced adverse side effects from treatment and felt frustrated at having symptoms recur quite quickly after treatment. Issues in clinical care included inconsistency in advice, misdiagnosis and inappropriate diagnostic approaches and insensitive or dismissive attitudes. Women were more inclined to report positive clinical experiences with sexual health physicians than primary care providers. Women’s frustrations led most to try their own self-help remedies and lifestyle modifications in an attempt to treat symptoms and prevent recurrences, including well-known risk practices such as douching. Conclusion In the face of considerable uncertainty about the cause of BV, high rates of recurrence, unacceptable treatment options and often insensitive and inconsistent clinical management, women are trying their own self-help remedies and lifestyle modifications to prevent recurrences, often with little effect. Clinical management of BV could be improved through the use of standardised diagnostic approaches, increased sensitivity and understanding of the impact of BV, and the provision of evidence based advice about known BV related risk factors.