Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cellular localization of 2-[3H]deoxy-D-glucose from paraffin-embedded brains

Results of experiments in which regional neuronal activity is revealed by a 2-[3H]deoxy-D-glucose (3H-2-DG)-paraffin section-emulsion autoradiography method are described. The trigeminal pathway of freely behaving mice was activated differentially by selective patterns of whisker removal. One hour after injection of concentrated 3H-2-DG, the animals were perfused systemically with a periodate/lysine/paraformaldehyde mixture (McLean, I. W., and P. K. Nakane (1974) J. Histochem. Cytochem. 22: 1077–1083), the brains were embedded in paraffin, and serial sections were taken and coated with emulsion for autoradiography. Diffusion of the isotope out of the tissue was assessed visually and by liquid scintillation counting. While substantial loss of 3H isotope into the embedding fluids (about 95%) was found, the scintillation counts and the autoradiograms showed good fixation of the isotope in situ, no evidence of isotope movement into the emulsion, and no gradients of diffusion in the sectioned material. Patterns of regional labeling were similar to those reported from brains prepared by conventional 2-[14C]deoxy-D-glucose (14C-2-DG) autoradiography; for instance, auditory and vestibular pathways in the brainstem were heavily and specifically labeled. Trigeminal structures associated with the intact (stimulated) whiskers were labeled relatively heavily, indicating that label uptake is specific with respect to neuronal activity. In the cortex, the patterns of label corresponded directly and precisely to those barrels known to receive inputs from the intact whiskers. Distribution of silver grains in the cortex and in the brainstem was correlated directly with neuronal profiles, including processes, some of which were identified by means of a Nissl counterstain. Clearly, this approach offers considerable technical advantages, in particular, the ease with which the histological material is prepared. The resolution of the autoradiograms and the quality of the histology are excellent.
Resistance to Blood Flow in Nonuniform Capillaries

Objective: Microvessels in living tissues are not uniform cylinders, and red blood cells (RBCs) are continually deformed when traversing them. This may contribute to higher resistance to blood flow observed in microvessels compared with that in corresponding uniform glass tubes. Here, a theoretical model was used to estimate flow resistance in nonuniform capillaries and its dependence on hematocrit, flow rate, and mechanical properties of RBCs.
X-Ray Emission from the Nucleus of the Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy NGC 3226

We present the first high-resolution X-ray image of the dwarf elliptical galaxy NGC 3226. The data were obtained during an observation of the nearby Seyfert Galaxy NGC 3227 using the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. We detect a point X-ray source spatially consistent with the optical nucleus of NGC 3226 and a recently detected, compact, flat-spectrum radio source. The X-ray spectrum can be measured up to ~10 keV and is consistent with a power law with a photon index 1.7 ≲ Γ ≲ 2.2 or thermal bremsstrahlung emission with 4 keV≲ kT ≲ 10 keV. In both cases, the luminosity in the 2-10 keV band ≃1040 h ergs s-1. We find marginal evidence that the nucleus varies within the observation. These characteristics support evidence from other wave bands that NGC 3226 harbors a low-luminosity active nucleus. We also comment on two previously unknown, fainter X-ray sources ≲15'' from the nucleus of NGC 3226. Their proximity to the nucleus (with projected distances of ≲1.3 h kpc) suggests both are within NGC 3226 and thus have luminosities (approximately a few times 1038 to a few times 1039 ergs s-1) consistent with black hole binary systems.
N-Glycosylation Modification of Plant-Derived Virus-Like Particles: An Application in Vaccines

Plants have been developed as an alternative system to mammalian cells for production of recombinant prophylactic or therapeutic proteins for human and animal use. Effective plant expression systems for recombinant proteins have been established with the optimal combination of gene expression regulatory elements and control of posttranslational processing of recombinant glycoproteins. In plant, virus-like particles (VLPs), viral “empty shells” which maintain the same structural characteristics of virions but are genome-free, are considered extremely promising as vaccine platforms and therapeutic delivery systems. Unlike microbial fermentation, plants are capable of carrying out N-glycosylation as a posttranslational modification of glycoproteins. Recent advances in the glycoengineering in plant allow human-like glycomodification and optimization of desired glycan structures for enhancing safety and functionality of recombinant pharmaceutical glycoproteins. In this review, the current plant-derived VLP approaches are focused, and N-glycosylation and its in planta modifications are discussed.
Prospective, randomized trial of steroid withdrawal in kidney recipients treated with mycophenolate mofetil and cyclosporine

Abstract: Our transplant centre began a prospective, randomized trial of steroid withdrawal in low risk renal transplant recipients on triple immunosuppression consisting of mycophenolate mofetil (MMF), microemulsion cyclosporine (CSA), and prednisone. One hundred and twenty patients were randomized either to discontinue or remain on steroids (60 patients per group). Study design consisted of analyses of 1‐yr outcomes after study entry. This report includes the 1‐yr results plus results at last follow‐up (mean follow‐up 3.7 yr). There were no significant differences in rates of patient and graft survival at 1 yr or at last follow‐up. Additionally, the incidences of acute and chronic rejection as well as graft function were the same at 1 yr and at last follow‐up. Significant improvement was noted in total serum cholesterol and bone density at 1 yr and last follow‐up. Initial improvement in patient weight at 1 yr was not sustained at last follow‐up. No significant impact of steroid withdrawal on serum triglycerides, blood pressure, or post‐transplant diabetes mellitus was observed. To date, we have observed no immunologic risk, and some significant benefit in regards to side effects, of steroid withdrawal between 6 and 36 months after transplantation in low risk renal transplant recipients maintained on prednisone, MMF, and microemulsion CSA.
Ethanol Alters Alveolar Fluid Balance via Nadph Oxidase (NOX) Signaling to Epithelial Sodium Channels (ENaC) in the Lung

Chronic alcohol consumption is associated with increased incidence of ICU-related morbidity and mortality, primarily from acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). However, the mechanisms involved are unknown. One explanation is that alcohol regulates epithelial sodium channels (ENaC) via oxidant signaling to promote a pro- injury environment. We used small rodent models to mimic acute and chronic alcohol consumption and tested the hypothesis that ethanol (EtOH) would affect lung fluid clearance by up-regulating ENaC activity in the lung. Fluorescence labeling of rat lung slices and in vivo mouse lung revealed an increase in ROS production in response to acute EtOH exposure. Using western blots and fluorescein-5-maleimide labeling, we conclude that EtOH exposure modifies cysteines of α-ENaC while data from single channel patch clamp analysis confirm that 0.16% EtOH increased ENaC activity in rat alveolar cells. In vivo lung fluid clearance demonstrated a latent increase in fluid clearance in mice receiving EtOH diet. Ethanol mice given a tracheal instillation of LPS demonstrated early lung fluid clearance compared to caloric control mice and C57Bl/6 mice. Standard biochemical techniques reveal that chronic EtOH consumption resulted in greater protein expression of the catalytic gp91phox subunit and the obligate Rac1 protein. Collectively these data suggest that chronic EtOH consumption may lead to altered regulation of ENaC, contributing to a ‘pro-injury’ environment in the alcohol lung.
MECHANISM OF CRYSTALLIZATION FOULING DURING POOL BOILING OF FINNED TUBES

The formation of deposits on heat transfer surfaces is the main hurdle in optimum operation of thermal desalination units. It is, therefore, common practice to operate these units i.e. MSF under sub-atmospheric pressure to boil saline water below saturation temperature of which depositions occurs. However this comes with high price-tag for excessive use of energy for pumping. Alternative and environmentallyfriendly approach is to modify the surface at such that it could produce lager number of bubbles which cause high scale of turbulence. The present study aims at investigating experimentally the mechanism of crystallization fouling of finned tubes during nucleate pool boiling of CaSO 4 solutions. The investigated finned tubes are low finned tube type with fins density of 19 fins per inch, 1.35 fins pitch, and Cu-Ni as substrate. Fouling runs during pool boiling of CaSO4 were carried out at atmospheric pressure for different heat fluxes. A set of video recordings and pictures during clean and fouling runs were also used to interpret the fouling results. Experimental results showed that for the finned tubes: 1) substantial reduction of deposition occurred in comparison to those of stainless steel smooth tubes and 2) if any deposition builds-up on the finned tubes, then it is only a thin layer of crystals which can be easily removed. The superiority of finned tubes to stainless steel smooth tubes is due to the mechanism of bubble formation and detachment from the finned tubes that play a key role in reduction of CaSO4 scale formation on the surface.
A perspective on re‐evaluating digoxin's role in the current management of patients with chronic systolic heart failure: targeting serum concentration to reduce hospitalization and improve safety profile

Digoxin improves exercise tolerance and reduces hospitalizations in patients with systolic heart failure, but its use has declined progressively for the past two decades. The Digitalis Investigation Group trial showed that digoxin reduced hospitalizations but had a neutral effect on total mortality. There was evidence that mortality caused by worsening heart failure was less, but there was also a signal suggesting an increase in other cardiac (presumed arrhythmic) death. Use of digoxin has declined substantially and recent guideline recommendations have significantly de‐emphasized the importance of this drug in the management of heart failure. Two developments suggest that re‐evaluation of the contemporary role of digoxin in the management of heart failure with reduced ejection fraction is warranted. First, heart failure remains progressive, characterized by chronic debility, exercise intolerance, and frequent and costly hospitalizations, despite evidence‐based drug and device therapies that prolong survival. Health economics have made reducing hospitalizations in patients with heart failure a major priority. Second, a strong association has emerged between serum concentration and the safety and efficacy of digoxin, which indicates a change in our approach to dosing this agent is needed. Experimental and clinical results suggest that optimizing therapeutic benefit and avoiding harm means dosing to achieve low serum digoxin concentrations (0.5–0.9 ng/mL). Digoxin is an inexpensive agent and the totality of evidence indicates that it reduces hospitalizations and improves symptoms safely when dosed to achieve low serum concentrations. These findings suggest digoxin should have a more prominent therapeutic role in patients with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction.
Detecting destabilizing wheelchair conditions for maintaining seated posture

Abstract Purpose: The purpose of this study was to detect and classify potentially destabilizing conditions encountered by manual wheelchair users with spinal cord injuries (SCI) to dynamically increase stability and prevent falls. Methods: A volunteer with motor complete T11 paraplegia repeatedly propelled his manual wheelchair over level ground and simulated destabilizing conditions including sudden stops, bumps and rough terrain. Wireless inertial measurement units attached to the wheelchair frame and his sternum recorded associated accelerations and angular velocities. Algorithms based on mean, standard deviation and minimum Mahalanobis distance between conditions were constructed and applied to the data off-line to discriminate between events. Classification accuracy was computed to assess effects of sensor position and potential for automatically selecting a dynamic intervention to best stabilize the wheelchair user. Results: The decision algorithm based on acceleration signals successfully differentiated destabilizing conditions and level over-ground propulsion with classification accuracies of 95.8, 58.3 and 91.7% for the chest, wheelchair and both sensors, respectively. Conclusion: Mahalanobis distance classification based on trunk accelerations is a feasible method for detecting destabilizing events encountered by wheelchair users and may serve as an effective trigger for protective interventions. Incorporating data from wheelchair-mounted sensors decreases the false negative rate. Implications for Rehabilitation SCI has a significant impact on quality of life, compromising the ability to participate in social or leisure activities, and complete other activities of daily living for an independent lifestyle. Using inertial measurement units to build an event classifier for control the actions of a neuroprosthetic device for maintaining seated posture in wheelchair users. Varying muscle activation increases user stability reducing the risk of injury.
Oracle inequalities for computationally adaptive model selection

We analyze general model selection procedures using penalized empirical loss minimization under computational constraints. While classical model selection approaches do not consider computational aspects of performing model selection, we argue that any practical model selection procedure must not only trade off estimation and approximation error, but also the computational effort required to compute empirical minimizers for different function classes. We provide a framework for analyzing such problems, and we give algorithms for model selection under a computational budget. These algorithms satisfy oracle inequalities that show that the risk of the selected model is not much worse than if we had devoted all of our omputational budget to the optimal function class.
Detrusor Activity Is Impaired during Thoracic Epidural Analgesia after Open Renal Surgery

Background:There are no data on lower urinary tract function during postoperative thoracic epidural analgesia (TEA). Because selected segmental blockade can be achieved with epidural analgesia, we hypothesized that lower urinary tract function remains unchanged during TEA within segments T4–T11 after open renal surgery. Methods:In a prospective, open, observational, follow-up study, 13 male patients with no preexisting lower urinary tract symptoms (International Prostate Symptom Score ≤7) and postvoid residual less than 100 ml underwent urodynamic investigations the day before open renal surgery (lumbotomy) and 2–3 days postoperatively during TEA. Primary outcome was the difference in postvoid residual before versus after surgery during TEA. Results:The median postvoid residual increased from 25 ml before surgery (range, 0–95) to 420 ml (15–1020) 2–3 days postoperatively (P = 0.002). Maximum detrusor pressure, detrusor pressure at maximum flow rate, and maximum flow rate were significantly reduced during TEA (37 [28–84] to 27 cm H2O [13–51], P = 0.004; 31 [27–52] to 19 cm H2O [0–33], P = 0.003; and 14 [4–35] to 4 ml/s [0–13], P = 0.001), respectively. Bladder capacity and sensation were not changed during TEA. All patients had a postvoid residual determined by ultrasound of less than 100 ml 1 day after removal of the epidural catheter. Conclusions:In contrast to our initial hypothesis, detrusor activity was significantly impaired during TEA after open renal surgery. This resulted in clinically relevant postvoid residuals.
The Curious Incident of the Photo that was Accused of Being False: Issues of Domain Specificity in Development, Autism, and Brain Imaging

We resume an exchange of ideas with Uta Frith that started before the turn of the century. The curious incident responsible for this exchange was the finding that children with autism fail tests of false belief, while they pass Zaitchik's (1990) photograph task (Leekam & Perner, 1991). This finding led to the conclusion that children with autism have a domain-specific impairment in Theory of Mind (mental representations), because the photograph task and the false-belief task are structurally equivalent except for the nonmental character of photographs. In this paper we argue that the false-belief task and the false-photograph task are not structurally equivalent and are not empirically associated. Instead a truly structurally equivalent task is the false-sign task. Performance on this task is strongly associated with the false-belief task. A version of this task, the misleading-signal task, also poses severe problems for children with autism (Bowler, Briskman, Gurvidi, & Fornells-Ambrojo, 2005). These new findings therefore challenge the earlier interpretation of a domain-specific difficulty in inferring mental states and suggest that children with autism also have difficulty understanding misleading nonmental objects. Brain imaging data using false-belief, “false”-photo, and false-sign scenarios provide further supporting evidence for our conclusions.
Architecture for Integration of Simulations with SCORM in E-Learning Environments

The integration of interaction and simulation in e- learning systems represents a milestone in educational research and supports the student's learning process in innumerable ways. Nevertheless, current standards do not provide appropriate mechanisms to obtain a significant assessment about the student's performance while interacting with a simulation neither to influence on the teaching-learning process. This work proposes a SCORM-compliant architecture which includes a tutoring module for simulations (TMS). The main objective consists in providing mechanisms to track and "observe" the student's performance (while interacting with a simulation), thus enabling the TMS to take decisions or intervene when necessary, and/or to modify the course of the simulation.
Toward an affordable and user-friendly visual motion capture system

The present study aims at designing and evaluating a low-cost, simple and portable system for arm joint angle estimation during grasping-like motions. The system is based on a single RGB-D camera and three customized markers. The automatically detected and tracked marker positions were used as inputs to an offline inverse kinematic process based on bio-mechanical constraints to reduce noise effect and handle marker occlusion. The method was validated on 4 subjects with different motions. The joint angles were estimated both with the proposed low-cost system and, a stereophotogrammetric system. Comparative analysis shows good accuracy with high correlation coefficient (r= 0.92) and low average RMS error (3.8 deg).
Delay performance of the new explicit loss notification TCP technique for wireless networks

TCP performs at an acceptable efficiency over the traditional wired networks where packet losses are usually caused by network congestion. However, in networks with wireless links in addition to wired segments this assumption would be insufficient, as the high wireless bit error rate could become the dominant cause of packet loss and thus TCP performs sub-optimum under these new conditions. As the main reason of this poor performance for TCP we may raise the fact that TCP cannot distinguish between packet losses due to wireless errors from those due to congestion. Moreover, TCP sender cannot keep the size of its congestion window at optimum level and always has to retransmit packets after waiting for timeout, which significantly degrades end-to-end delay performance of TCP. We evaluate the delay and loss recovery performance of a new algorithm named explicit loss notification with acknowledgement. Experimental results show that the proposed scheme improves both throughput and delay performance of TCP in wireless environment significantly.
Resource evaluation: a novel application of opinion mining for competitive intelligence

Competitive intelligence CI is known as identification of potential risk and opportunities by collecting and analysing information about the environment and competitors to help managers in making strategic decisions for an enterprise or company right on time. Information sources are always one of the difficulties to gain CI goals. With rapid development of internet and its usages in many areas, the web has become an excellent source for gathering information and also customer opinions. Recent opinion mining methods and application has only focused on product features and sentiment polarity detection. In this paper, we proposed a new method to extract opinion patterns from customer reviews and its application to evaluate resources or internal factors in an enterprise. Result, with a reasonable precision and recall, show that this method can be used for resource evaluation. Furthermore, this study opens a new way to competitive positioning and strategy development for any enterprise.
Youth , armed violence and job creation programmes

The Governance and Social Development Resource Centre (GSDRC) provides cutting-edge knowledge services on demand and online and aims to help reduce poverty by informing policy and practice in relation to governance, conflict and social development issues. The Norwegian Peacebuilding Centre (Noref, Norsk Ressurssenter for Fredsbygging) is a resource centre integrating knowledge and experience to strengthen peacebuilding policy and practice within the fields of peacebuilding and peace mediation by bringing together research communities and practitioners.
A neural network-based machine learning approach for supporting synthesis

Abstract The goal of machine learning for artifact synthesis is the acquisition of the relationships among form, function, and behavior properties that can be used to determine more directly form attributes that satisfy design requirements. The proposed approach to synthesis knowledge acquisition and use (SKAU) described in this paper, called NETSYN, creates a function to estimate the probability of each possible value of each design property being used in a given design context. NETSYN uses a connectionist learning approach to acquire and represent this probability estimation function and exhibits good performance when tested on an artificial design problem. This paper presents the NETSYN approach for SKAU, a preliminary test of its capability, and a discussion of issues that need to be addressed in future work.