Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Alterations of Colonic Contractility in an Interleukin-10 Knockout Mouse Model of Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Background/Aims Inflammatory bowel disease is commonly accompanied by colonic dysmotility and causes changes in intestinal smooth muscle contractility. In this study, colonic smooth muscle contractility in a chronic inflammatory condition was investigated using smooth muscle tissues prepared from interleukin-10 knockout (IL-10−/−) mice. Methods Prepared smooth muscle sections were placed in an organ bath system. Cholinergic and nitrergic neuronal responses were observed using carbachol and electrical field stimulation with L-NG-nitroarginine methyl ester (L-NAME). The expression of interstitial cells of Cajal (ICC) networks, muscarinic receptors, neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) was observed via immunofluorescent staining. Results The spontaneous contractility and expression of ICC networks in the proximal and distal colon was significantly decreased in IL-10−/− mice compared to IL-10+/+ mice. The contractility in response to carbachol was significantly decreased in the proximal colon of IL-10−/− mice compared to IL-10+/+ mice, but no significant difference was found in the distal colon. In addition, the expression of muscarinic receptor type 2 was reduced in the proximal colon of IL-10−/− mice. The nictric oxide-mediated relaxation after electrical field stimulation was significantly decreased in the proximal and distal colon of IL-10−/− mice. In inflamed colon, the expression of nNOS decreased, whereas the expression of iNOS increased. Conclusions These results suggest that damage to the ICC network and NOS system in the proximal and distal colon, as well as damage to the smooth muscle cholinergic receptor in the proximal colon may play an important role in the dysmotility of the inflamed colon.
Who is eating what: diet assessment using next generation sequencing

The analysis of food webs and their dynamics facilitates understanding of the mechanistic processes behind community ecology and ecosystem functions. Having accurate techniques for determining dietary ranges and components is critical for this endeavour. While visual analyses and early molecular approaches are highly labour intensive and often lack resolution, recent DNA‐based approaches potentially provide more accurate methods for dietary studies. A suite of approaches have been used based on the identification of consumed species by characterization of DNA present in gut or faecal samples. In one approach, a standardized DNA region (DNA barcode) is PCR amplified, amplicons are sequenced and then compared to a reference database for identification. Initially, this involved sequencing clones from PCR products, and studies were limited in scale because of the costs and effort required. The recent development of next generation sequencing (NGS) has made this approach much more powerful, by allowing the direct characterization of dozens of samples with several thousand sequences per PCR product, and has the potential to reveal many consumed species simultaneously (DNA metabarcoding). Continual improvement of NGS technologies, on‐going decreases in costs and current massive expansion of reference databases make this approach promising. Here we review the power and pitfalls of NGS diet methods. We present the critical factors to take into account when choosing or designing a suitable barcode. Then, we consider both technical and analytical aspects of NGS diet studies. Finally, we discuss the validation of data accuracy including the viability of producing quantitative data.
Deliberative Democratic Evaluation in Preschools

In this study, the merit of using deliberative democratic evaluations is studied in light of ten questions asked by House and Howe, which defined the approach and raise issues of interests, representation, and choice of stakeholders, power balances and procedures for controlling them, participation, reflection and deliberation. Suggestions by Clark and Moss for using a mosaic approach were followed. This indicates, when listening to children, many fragments integrate into a whole picture. The emphasis here was on listening to children's views and defining values and evaluation criteria so that they reflect our definition of childhood and quality of childcare. Children had other priorities than parents and staff in some instances, for example regarding length of stay and autonomy. Greene's issues of power, core matters, and biases were utilized for reflection on issues.
A Scoring Scheme for Online Feature Selection: Simulating Model Performance Without Retraining

Increasing the number of features increases the complexity of a model even if the additional feature does not improve its decision-making capacity. Irrelevant features may also cause overfitting and reduce interpretability of the concerned model. It is, therefore, important that the features are optimally selected before a model is built. In the case of online learning, new instances are periodically discovered, and the respective model is tactically retrained as required. Similarly, there are many real-life situations where hundreds of new features are discovered periodically, and the existing model needs to be retrained or tested for its performance improvement. Supervised selection of feature subset usually requires creation of multiple suboptimal models, thus incurring time-intensive computations. Unsupervised selections, although faster, largely rely on some subjective definition of feature relevance. In this paper, we introduce a score that accurately determines the importance of the features. The proposed score is appropriate for online feature selection scenarios for its low time complexity and ability to interpret performance improvement of the current model after the addition of a new feature, without invoking a retraining.
Dynamic data integration using Web services

We address the problem of large-scale data integration, where the data sources are unknown at design time, are from autonomous organisations, and may evolve. Experiments are described involving a demonstrator system in the field of health services data integration within the UK. Current Web services technology has been used extensively and largely successfully in these distributed prototype systems. The work shows that Web services provide a good infrastructure layer, but integration demands a higher level "broker" architectural layer; the paper identifies eight specific requirements for such an architecture that have emerged from the experiments, derived from an analysis of shortcomings which are collectively due to the static nature of the initial prototype. The way in which these are being met in the current version in order to achieve a more dynamic integration is described.
Simulation and Prediction of Storm Surges and Waves Driven by Hurricanes and Assessment of Coastal Flooding and Inundation

This paper presents an integrated coastal/estuarine/riverine/ocean process modeling system, CCHE2D-Coast, for simulating and predicting coastal flooding and inundation induced by storm surges, wave setup, tides, and river flood inflow during a hurricane period. A brief description on the framework of mathematical theories and numerical technologies is given. Model validations by hindcasting surface water levels and waves of Hurricane Gustav (2008) in the Gulf of Mexico and Hurricane Sandy (2012) in the Atlantic Ocean are presented. A real-time prediction capability of CCHE2D-Coast is demonstrated by forecasting flooding risk of Hurricane Isaac (2012) in the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
b-SPECS+: Batch Verification for Secure Pseudonymous Authentication in VANET

The security and privacy preservation issues are prerequisites for vehicular ad hoc networks. Recently, secure and privacy enhancing communication schemes (SPECS) was proposed and focused on intervehicle communications. SPECS provided a software-based solution to satisfy the privacy requirement and gave lower message overhead and higher successful rate than previous solutions in the message verification phase. SPECS also presented the first group communication protocol to allow vehicles to authenticate and securely communicate with others in a group of known vehicles. Unfortunately, we find out that SPECS is vulnerable to impersonation attack. SPECS has a flow such that a malicious vehicle can force arbitrary vehicles to broadcast fake messages to other vehicles or even a malicious vehicle in the group can counterfeit another group member to send fake messages securely among themselves. In this paper, we provide a secure scheme that can achieve the security and privacy requirements, and overcome the weaknesses of SPECS. Moreover, we show the efficiency merits of our scheme through performance evaluations in terms of verification delay and transmission overhead.
Application of E α Nets to Feature Recognition of Articulation Manner in Knowledge-Based Automatic Speech Recognition

Speech recognition has become common in many application domains. Incorporating acoustic-phonetic knowledge into Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) systems design has been proven a viable approach to rise ASR accuracy. Manner of articulation attributes such as vowel, stop, fricative, approximant, nasal, and silence are examples of such knowledge. Neural networks have already been used successfully as detectors for manner of articulation attributes starting from representations of speech signal frames. In this paper, a set of six detectors for the above mentioned attributes is designed based on the E-αNet model of neural networks. This model was chosen for its capability to learn hidden activation functions that results in better generalization properties. Experimental set-up and results are presented that show an average 3.5% improvement over a baseline neural network implementation.
Derivation of a Simple Clinical Model to Categorize Patients Probability of Pulmonary Embolism: Increasing the Models Utility with the SimpliRED D-dimer

Summary We have previously demonstrated that a clinical model can be safely used in a management strategy in patients with suspected pulmonary embolism (PE). We sought to simplify the clinical model and determine a scoring system, that when combined with D-dimer results, would safely exclude PE without the need for other tests, in a large proportion of patients. We used a randomly selected sample of 80% of the patients that participated in a prospective cohort study of patients with suspected PE to perform a logistic regression analysis on 40 clinical variables to create a simple clinical prediction rule. Cut points on the new rule were determined to create two scoring systems. In the first scoring system patients were classified as having low, moderate and high probability of PE with the proportions being similar to those determined in our original study. The second system was designed to create two categories, PE likely and unlikely. The goal in the latter was that PE unlikely patients with a negative D-dimer result would have PE in less than 2% of cases. The proportion of patients with PE in each category was determined overall and according to a positive or negative SimpliRED D-dimer result. After these determinations we applied the models to the remaining 20% of patients as a validation of the results. The following seven variables and assigned scores (in brackets) were included in the clinical prediction rule: Clinical symptoms of DVT (3.0), no alternative diagnosis (3.0), heart rate >100 (1.5), immobilization or surgery in the previous four weeks (1.5), previous DVT/PE (1.5), hemoptysis (1.0) and malignancy (1.0). Patients were considered low probability if the score was <2.0, moderate of the score was 2.0 to 6.0 and high if the score was over 6.0. Pulmonary embolism unlikely was assigned to patients with scores <4.0 and PE likely if the score was >4.0. 7.8% of patients with scores of less than or equal to 4 had PE but if the D-dimer was negative in these patients the rate of PE was only 2.2% (95% CI = 1.0% to 4.0%) in the derivation set and 1.7% in the validation set. Importantly this combination occurred in 46% of our study patients. A score of <2.0 and a negative D-dimer results in a PE rate of 1.5% (95% CI = 0.4% to 3.7%) in the derivation set and 2.7% (95% CI = 0.3% to 9.0%) in the validation set and only occurred in 29% of patients. The combination of a score <4.0 by our simple clinical prediction rule and a negative SimpliRED D-Dimer result may safely exclude PE in a large proportion of patients with suspected PE.
Event registry: learning about world events from news

Event Registry is a system that can analyze news articles and identify in them mentioned world events. The system is able to identify groups of articles that describe the same event. It can identify groups of articles in different languages that describe the same event and represent them as a single event. From articles in each event it can then extract event's core information, such as event location, date, who is involved and what is it about. Extracted information is stored in a database. A user interface is available that allows users to search for events using extensive search options, to visualize and aggregate the search results, to inspect individual events and to identify related events.
A comparison of the activity, sequence specificity, and CRM1-dependence of different nuclear export signals.

Nuclear export sequences (NESs) have been identified in many cellular proteins, but it remains unclear how different NESs compare in activity. We describe a sensitive new in vivo export assay which we have used to assess the relative export activity of different types of NES. The most common type of export sequence resembles that first identified in the HIV-1 Rev protein and typically comprises a core of large hydrophobic amino acids that specify recognition by the CRM1 export receptor. We compared 10 previously identified Rev-type NESs in our assay, and whereas all were functional, the relative export activities of these signals varied considerably. We further identified 3 new Rev-type NESs from a computer database search, and each export signal was assigned a score of 1 to 9 and ranked in order of activity (e.g., PKI > c-ABL > Ran-BP1 > FMRP > PML > IkappaB-alpha > hdm2). The weakest NESs were found in the p53 tumor suppressor and the p53-regulated proteins p21 and hdm2, which are all normally localized to the nucleus. All of the Rev-type NESs were inactivated by mutation of key hydrophobic residues and by treatment with the CRM1-specific export inhibitor, leptomycin B. In contrast, a different type of export signal, the KNS shuttling element derived from hnRNP K, exhibited a modest export activity that was insensitive to leptomycin B treatment. KNS thus appears to mediate export via a CRM1-independent pathway. Mutagenesis of the KNS sequence identified, for the first time, specific serines and acidic residues necessary for its export activity, thereby distinguishing KNS from other types of nuclear transport signal. We have shown that different nuclear export signals can vary profoundly in activity and therefore conclude that the nuclear export rate of a specific shuttling protein largely depends on both the strength and the accessibility of its NES.
A Comparison of Print Advertisements from the United States and France

Abstract This study extends the research on cross-cultural advertising by comparing print advertisements from the United States and France in terms of emotional appeals, information content, and use of humor and sex. A content analysis of advertisements from two types of magazines from the United States and France revealed that French advertisements make greater use of emotional appeals, humor, and sex appeals. Advertisements from the United States were found to contain more information cues.
Learning to Learn: teacher research in the Zone of Proximal Development

This article draws on an action research project in primary and secondary schools which was funded through the Campaign for Learning, and supported by Newcastle University with a focus on ‘Learning to Learn’. This is a potentially useful concept for teachers and academics as attempts are made to move beyond curriculum‐driven and assessment‐dominated education towards inclusive and lifelong learning. At the end of the academic years 2003–2004 and 2004–2005, a total of 43 teachers from schools involved in researching Learning to Learn completed questionnaires and were interviewed about the progress of their individual research projects in the context of the wider programme. They were asked to discuss issues of autonomy and control, expectations and motivation and how change was manifesting itself in their contexts. Clear messages about the need for teacher ownership of the research balanced with the need for scaffolding emerged from the analysis.
Microwave-assisted sample preparation for rapid and sensitive analysis of H. pylori lipid A applicable to a single colony[S]

The lipid A of Gram-negative bacteria plays a major role in the pathogenesis of bacterial infections. Lipid A diversity is observed both in the number and length of fatty-acid side chains and in the presence of terminal phosphate residues and associated modifications. In this report, we describe a new sample preparation method based on microwave-assisted enzymatic digestion and detergent-free mild hydrolysis, in conjunction with a MALDI-time-of-flight (TOF)/TOF analysis, to determine the structures of lipid A from Helicobacter pylori. The total time for sample preparation and mass spectrometric analysis is within 2 h and applicable to profiling the lipid A structures from dried bacterial cells on as little as 1 &mgr;g. The reliability of the technique was further demonstrated through the analysis of the lipid A from bacterial cells of different H. pylori strains. The phosphorylation and acylation patterns of lipid A could be elucidated using material from a single colony. Furthermore, we found unusual heptaacyl lipid A species present in H. pylori mutant that have not been previously reported, although the abundance was relatively low. The present study provides the first characterization of the lipid A component from a single bacterial colony sample by mass spectrometry.
Letter by Alfonso et al Regarding Article, "Comparison of the Efficacy of Paclitaxel-Eluting Balloon Catheters and Everolimus-Eluting Stents in the Treatment of Coronary In-Stent Restenosis: The Treatment of In-Stent Restenosis Study".

We read with great interest the study of Pleva et al1 comparing paclitaxel-eluting balloons (PEBs) with everolimus-eluting stents (EES) in patients with bare-metal in-stent restenosis. The results of this randomized trial suggest that PEBs reduce angiographic late lumen loss compared with EES in this scenario. However, other relevant late angiographic findings, including minimal lumen diameter and percent diameter stenosis, were similar in the 2 arms. Clinical outcome was also similar. Because these findings are of potential clinical value, but differ from the results of the RIBS V randomized trial …
The role of nonlinear dynamics in quantitative atomic force microscopy

Various methods of force measurement with the atomic force microscope are compared for their ability to accurately determine the tip–surface force from analysis of the nonlinear cantilever motion. It is explained how intermodulation, or the frequency mixing of multiple drive tones by the nonlinear tip–surface force, can be used to concentrate the nonlinear motion in a narrow band of frequency near the cantilever’s fundamental resonance, where accuracy and sensitivity of force measurement are greatest. Two different methods for reconstructing tip–surface forces from intermodulation spectra are explained. The reconstruction of both conservative and dissipative tip–surface interactions from intermodulation spectra are demonstrated on simulated data.
An Empirical Study Of Semi-Supervised Chinese Word Segmentation Using Co-Training

In this paper we report an empirical study on semi-supervised Chinese word segmentation using co-training. We utilize two segmenters: 1) a word-based segmenter leveraging a word-level language model, and 2) a character-based segmenter using characterlevel features within a CRF-based sequence labeler. These two segmenters are initially trained with a small amount of segmented data, and then iteratively improve each other using the large amount of unlabelled data. Our experimental results show that co-training captures 20% and 31% of the performance improvement achieved by supervised training with an order of magnitude more data for the SIGHAN Bakeoff 2005 PKU and CU corpora respectively.
Does generalised ligamentous laxity increase seasonal incidence of injuries in male first division club rugby players?

Objectives: To investigate if ligamentous laxity increases seasonal incidence of injury in male first division club rugby players, and to determine if strength protects against injury in hypermobile and tight players. Methods: Fifty one male first division club rugby players were examined for ligamentous laxity using the Beighton-Horan assessment and graded with an overall laxity score ranging from 0 (tight) to 9 (hyperlax). Each participant was classified into a group determined by their laxity score: tight (0–3), hypermobile (4–6), or excessively hypermobile (7–9). The incidence of joint injuries was recorded prospectively throughout the rugby season and correlated with laxity score. Differences between the groups were analysed. Results: The overall prevalence of generalised joint hypermobility was 24% (12/51). The incidence of injuries was significantly higher in hypermobile (116.7 per 1000 hours) than tight (43.6 per 1000 hours) players (p = 0.034). There were no significant differences in peak strength between the hypermobile and tight groups. Conclusions: The laxity of the players may explain the differences in injury rates between these groups. Peak strength does not protect the hypermobile joint against injury. It appears that hypermobility may cause an increase in the injury rate of male first division club rugby players.