Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Analysis of Meteoroid Ablation Based on Plasma Wind-tunnel Experiments, Surface Characterization, and Numerical Simulations

Meteoroids largely disintegrate during their entry into the atmosphere, contributing significantly to the input of cosmic material to Earth. Yet, their atmospheric entry is not well understood. Experimental studies on meteoroid material degradation in high-enthalpy facilities are scarce and when the material is recovered after testing, it rarely provides sufficient quantitative data for the validation of simulation tools. In this work, we investigate the thermo-chemical degradation mechanism of a meteorite in a high-enthalpy ground facility able to reproduce atmospheric entry conditions. A testing methodology involving measurement techniques previously used for the characterization of thermal protection systems for spacecraft is adapted for the investigation of ablation of alkali basalt (employed here as meteorite analog) and ordinary chondrite samples. Both materials are exposed to a cold-wall stagnation point heat flux of 1.2 MW m−2. Numerous local pockets that formed on the surface of the samples by the emergence of gas bubbles reveal the frothing phenomenon characteristic of material degradation. Time-resolved optical emission spectroscopy data of ablated species allow us to identify the main radiating atoms and ions of potassium, calcium, magnesium, and iron. Surface temperature measurements provide maximum values of 2280 K for the basalt and 2360 K for the chondrite samples. We also develop a material response model by solving the heat conduction equation and accounting for evaporation and oxidation reaction processes in a 1D Cartesian domain. The simulation results are in good agreement with the data collected during the experiments, highlighting the importance of iron oxidation to the material degradation.
The proteome of Mycoplasma pneumoniae, a supposedly “simple” cell

This review covers progress in proteome research on Mycoplasma pneumoniae made over the last 5 years. This bacterium is one of the smallest known self‐replicating bacteria. With fewer than 700 proposed proteins, it is well suited to a comprehensive proteome analysis. While all of the proposed genes are transcribed, thus far 620 proteins, about 90% of the predicted proteome, have been identified experimentally. To study the proteome organization of M. pneumoniae, 178 soluble protein complexes were isolated under non‐denaturing conditions by tandem affinity chromatography and their composition determined by SDS‐PAGE and mass spectrometry. The 62 homomultimeric and 116 heteromultimeric protein complexes could be classified according to 12 different COG functional categories. The complexes interacted with each other to some extent, forming larger assemblies. Protein complexes that were large enough and had specific structures (e.g. ribosomes or DNA‐dependent RNA polymerase) were visible and countable in their natural environment by cryo‐electron tomography. In addition to characterization of the soluble complexes, the analysis of the Triton X‐100 insoluble fraction has a major role in the elucidation of the cytoskeleton‐like structure, because by analogy with eukaryotic cells, almost all of the structural proteins involved in its formation, and enriched sub‐cellular structures, can be found in this fraction.
Longitudinal patterns of Medicare use by cause of death

To study the use of health services before death for different causes, a 6-year file of Medicare use and cost data was linked to a file of death certificate information for persons dying at ages 65 years or over in 1979. Patterns of medical care use during the last years of life varied substantially by cause of death, reflecting the degree of chronicity of the disease that resulted in death and the nature of treatment. Persons dying of nephritis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and diabetes mellitus incurred consistently high expenses for 6 years before death. Costs for cancer decedents were also high, especially in the last 2 years of life. Persons in their last 2 years of life have a considerable impact on Medicare expenses. An estimated 13 percent of annual Medicare expenses were attributable to persons who were within 2 years of death from heart disease and 10.7 percent to persons who were within 2 years of death from cancer.
A Simple Extension of Ziegler-Nichols&#146; Method Based on Damped Oscillations

This paper proposes a simple extension of the well-known Ziegler-Nichols’ (ZN) method. As in the standard ZN method, the experiment may be performed using the controller only, without any extra equipment. But, in opposite to the ZN method, the experiment may be performed using damped oscillations. Also, the proposed method allows more complex models of the plant, so a better tuning may be obtained.
Treatment of 94 Outpatients With Chronic Discogenic Low Back Pain with the DRX9000: A Retrospective Chart Review

Background: This study's goal was a retrospective chart audit of 100 outpatients with discogenic low back pain (LBP) lasting more than 12 weeks treated with a 2‐month course of motorized spinal decompression via the DRX9000 (Axiom Worldwide, Tampa, FL, U.S.A.).
Kontextmodellierung für Verkehrssituationen auf Grundlage von Kamerabildern

Zusammenfassung Der Beitrag untersucht die Klassifikation von Verkehrssituationen auf Grundlage von Kamerabildern. Der Kontext der Verkehrssituationen wird dabei durch eine diskrete Systematik charakterisiert. Hierzu werden durch maschinelles Lernen datenbasierte Modelle jeweils für spezielle Kategorien von Verkehrssituationen ermittelt. Die vorgeschlagene Methode extrahiert zunächst charakteristische globale Merkmale aus dem Kamerabild, welche anschließend durch universelle Klassifikationsmodelle ausgewertet werden. Die Verifikation erfolgt anhand exemplarischer Bilder und Verkehrssituationen.
Hyperammonemia increases GABAergic tone in the cerebellum but decreases it in the rat cortex.

BACKGROUND & AIMS GABAA receptors modulate the function of the glutamate-nitric oxide-guanosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate (cGMP) pathway, which is reduced in cerebellum in hyperammonemic rats. It has been proposed that hyperammonemia-induced increases in gamma-aminobutyric acid "(GABAergic) tone" contribute to the pathogenesis of hepatic encephalopathy (HE), although this has not been assessed in vivo in animal models. We studied whether chronic hyperammonemia in rats increases GABAergic tone in the cerebellum and/or cerebral cortex and whether this increase contributes to cognitive impairment. METHODS We blocked GABAA receptors of rats with bicuculline and analyzed the function of this pathway in cerebellum and effects on learning ability. RESULTS Hyperammonemia increased GABAergic tone in cerebellum but decreased it in the cerebral cortex of rats. Increased GABAergic tone in the cerebellum of rats with hyperammonemia could have been caused by increases in extracellular GABA; tetrahydrodeoxy-corticosterone (a neurosteroid that enhances GABAA receptor activation); or amounts of the alpha1, alpha6, and gamma2 subunits of GABAA receptors. The decrease in GABAergic tone observed in the cortex could have resulted from the reduced amount of GABAA receptors delta and gamma2 subunits or increased levels of pregnanolone (5-fold), which selectively reduces activation of GABAA receptors that contain alpha4 subunits (widely expressed in cortex but not in cerebellum). Treatment with bicuculline normalized GABAergic tone and restored the increase in cGMP that was induced by activation of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors and learning ability in hyperammonemic rats. CONCLUSIONS Increased GABAergic tone in the cerebellum contributes to cognitive impairment in hyperammonemic rats.
Public Attitudes About Body-Worn Cameras in Police Work: A National Study of the Sources of Their Contextual Variability

Based on a large national sample of U.S. adults, the current study examines the nature and correlates of public support for body-worn cameras (BWCs) in various policing activities. Multivariate analyses were performed to assess the direct and moderating effects of individuals’ socioeconomic characteristics, general police attitudes and experiences, and specific beliefs about benefits of BWCs on the level of public support for this technology. Strong public support for BWC usage is found across different areas of police work. However, substantial contextual variability in this support is also evident when the analysis focused on the conjunctive influences of individuals’ level of confidence in social institutions, personal involvement in these institutions, and beliefs about police legitimacy and their effectiveness. These results are discussed in terms of their implications for future research on the sources of public receptivity, resistance, and change in these attitudes about BWCs over time.
Mass spectrometry-based protein assays for in vitro diagnostic testing

Mass spectrometry-based protein assays hold great promise for in vitro diagnostic testing. Technological advances in mass spectrometry have given rise to instruments and methods that are fully capable of automated and high-throughput protein assaying. Yet, the numerous steps involved in such assays can lead to difficulties in assay characterization and validation, and can also make them unnecessarily complex and prohibitively expensive for everyday use. Simplification of both approaches and instrumentation seems to be the solution to the fast introduction of the mass spectrometry-based assays into the clinical laboratories. One such simplified approach is the mass spectrometric immunoassay, which couples targeted immunoaffinity protein separation with the power of mass spectrometry detection. Several mass spectrometric immunoassays have been extensively characterized and have found their way into clinical laboratory improvement amendments-certified laboratories in the form of laboratory developed tests. Reviewed in this special report is the development and validation of one of those assays – a Cystatin mass spectrometric immunoassay. With the added advantage of protein variant detection and quantification, these assays can redefine our view of protein diversity, with clear implications in biomarker discovery, validation, and ultimately, in vitro diagnostic testing.
Identification of neoplastic cells in the lymphocytic infiltrate associated with thin melanomas

Sir: The incidence of cutaneous malignant melanoma has increased in human populations with a doubling time of 10–14 years. Owing to the use of sophisticated detection techniques as well as continuous skin health programmes, a higher proportion of early lesions has been diagnosed in recent years. Although survival in patients with thin melanoma in its early phases is usually excellent, the potential of these lesions to metastasize has been demonstrated. Therefore, it is of considerable clinical interest to identify risk factors and to establish efficient followup in these troublesome cases. The presence of a dense lymphocytic infiltrate extending across the entire base of the lesion associated with the presence of melanophages may conceal malignant melanocytic cells. As a result, the true thickness of the tumour may be masked. The aim of this study was to identify melanoma cells interspersed among the dense lymphocytic infiltrate associated with in situ and microinvasive melanomas by means of immunohistochemistry, in order to determine the correct tumour thickness. All specimens were retrieved from archival paraffin blocks of the Pathology Service of the Amaral Carvalho Hospital Jaú, SP, Brazil. A total of 40 cases of in situ melanoma with a dense lymphocytic infiltrate and 30 cases of thin melanoma < 2 mm thick (Breslow) and Clark I to III, whose limits were blurred by a dense lymphocytic infiltrate, were selected for this study group. Histopathological diagnoses of in situ and microinvasive melanoma were assessed in all cases by haematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining (Figures 1A and 2A, respectively). Tissue sections of 4 lm were deparaffinized in xylene, rehydrated in graded ethanol and then incubated with anti-Melan-A (clone A 103; Dako Corp., Carpinteria, CA, USA) at a concentration of 1 : 100 for 18 h at 4 C, followed by incubation with biotin-conjugated secondary antibody to mouse IgG (Vector Laboratories, Burlingame, CA, USA) at a concentration of 1 : 200 in phosphate-buffered saline for 1 h. The sections were then treated with avidin– biotin complex conjugated to peroxidase (Vector Laboratories) for 45 min. The bound complexes could be seen when a 0.05% solution of 3-3¢-diaminobenzidine solution was applied. In order to distinguish melanin in macrophage cytoplasm from brown-staining melanocytes, the slides were counterstained by Giemsa. For control studies of the antibodies, serial sections were treated with mouse IgG in place of the primary antibody. All experimental protocols used in this A
Intrusion Detection System Technique Based on BP-SVM

Due to the fact that the detection of intrusion is inefficient and lacks intelligence in current intrusion detection system, this paper integrates BP neural network and support vector machine (SVM) based on the theory of neural network integration, applying fuzzy clustering technology to cluster data, choosing data from the cluster centre to train ensemble individuals, then selecting and integrating those individuals of significant diversity. The theoretical analysis and experimental results show that this ensemble method is efficient for detection rates and unknown attacks. Intrusion detection system (IDS) is used to detect intrusion action. By collecting and analyzing the information of key position of network or system, the system can find the actions of violating security policy and detect the traces of being attacked from network or system. Intrusion detection is becoming a hot topic as an important component of network security. Ensemble learning (1) has become one of the research fields of machine learning. It dramatically improves generalization performance of classifier. Two popular methods for creating accurate ensembles are Bagging (2) and Boosting. Bagging is based on bootstrap sampling. Training set is random selection which size is similar to original training dataset. There are independent among all round training dataset. Some samples of original training dataset may appear many times in new training datasets, while others may not appear even once. Bagging can improve the forecast accuracy of instability learning algorithm. However, it has no obvious effect of stable learning algorithm, even lower the forecast precision. Boosting needs to know beforehand the lower limit of weak learner's correct ratio, and it tends to over-fit in some cases. These problems show that the Bagging and Boosting have their limitations. Clustering is the process of grouping physical or abstract object sets into classes or clusters. Cluster generated by clustering is a group of data objects. These objects are similar to each other within one cluster, and different in other clusters. Based on the clustering thought, we cluster the training data and select samples from the clustered samples. The selected samples not only keep the distribution of old data, but also eliminate a large number of redundant data, and increase the difference degree of training data. This paper proposes a method of integrating BP neural network and support vector machine (SVM) based on the fuzzy clustering(3~4).
Chemical Studies in Periodontal Disease

O CCLUSAL trauma has long been considered one of the etiologic factors in periodontal disease. Miller' lists occlusal trauma as a primary inciting factor of periodontal disease and Box2 lists increasing depth of the pocket and crevicular pus formation as diagnostic signs of ocelusal trauma. Another school of thought includes Becks3 who holds that ocelusal trauma is not necessarily the primary etiologic factor, but that it may be one of the local factors which precipitate the disease when the systemic predisposing condition is present. These two concepts are still widely accepted in spite of the fact that experimental evidence is lacking and in spite of the experimental findings of Gottlieb and Orban.4 Orban5 stated that in his opinion occlusal trauma and its effects is a separate entity from and not a causal agent of periodontitis and that the two are found together in 90 per cent of periodontitis cases is a coincidence brought about by the relatively high incidence of both pathological conditions. It has been shown that traumatized tissue will have a reduced glycogen concentration.6'7 8 Further, Berg, Lundquist, Schram, and Fosdick8 reported altered gingival glycogen concentrations both in periodontoclasia and in cases of experimental trauma of gingivae. From this basis it is suggested that experimental ocelusal trauma might alter the gingival glycogen concentration. This study was undertaken to test the hypothesis that occlusal trauma is a primary etiologic factor in the production of periodontal disease. This hypothesis would receive substantiation if experimental ocelusal trauma were shown to alter the gingival glycogen concentration.
Non‐alcoholic fatty liver disease: An overview

Non‐alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFL) includes a spectrum of clinicopathological conditions with increasing prevalence in the developed world. Although steatosis alone seems to have a benign course, those patients with the diagnosis of non‐alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) can have a progressive course. Additionally, there is now evolving, indirect evidence that some of the patients with cryptogenic cirrhosis may be the result of ‘burned‐out’ NASH. Although NAFL and NASH are associated with insulin‐resistance syndrome, some patients with NAFL may have no obvious risk factors. Despite preliminary data from a number of pilot studies, no established therapies can be offered to patients with NASH. Over the next few years, a number of exciting research projects dealing with the epidemiology as well as the pathogenesis of NAFL are expected to be completed. It is anticipated that, through a better understanding of NAFL, more effective treatment protocols can be developed targeting only those patients with NASH that are at the highest risk for progression to cirrhosis and liver failure.
p53 Induces Apoptosis by Caspase Activation through Mitochondrial Cytochrome c Release*

The p53 tumor suppressor gene is critically involved in cell cycle regulation, DNA repair, and programmed cell death. Several lines of evidence suggest that p53 death signals lead to caspase activation; however, the mechanism of caspase activation by p53 still is unclear. Expressing wild type p53 by means of an adenoviral expression vector, we were able to induce apoptotic cell death, as characterized by morphological changes, phosphatidylserine externalization, and internucleosomal DNA fragmentation, in p53null Saos-2 cells. This cell death was accompanied by caspase activation as well as by cleavage of caspase substrates and was preceded by mitochondrial cytochrome c release. The addition of the broad-spectrum caspase inhibitor benzyloxycarbonyl-Val-Ala-Asp-fluoromethyl ketone (zVAD-fmk) directly after transduction almost completely prevented p53-induced apoptotic cell death but did not inhibit mitochondrial cytochrome crelease. In contrast, N-acetylcysteine, even at high concentrations, could not prevent induction of programmed cell death by p53 expression. Cytosolic extracts from Saos-2 cells transduced with p53, but not from Saos-2 cells transduced with the empty adenoviral vector, contained a cytochrome c-releasing activityin vitro, which was still active in the presence of zVAD-fmk. When Bax was immunodepleted from the cytosolic extracts of p53-expressing cells before incubation with isolated mitochondria, thein vitro cytochrome c release was abolished. Thus, we could demonstrate in cells and in vitro that p53 activates the apoptotic machinery through induction of the release of cytochrome c from the mitochondrial intermembrane space. Furthermore, we provide in vitro evidence for the requirement of cytosolic Bax for this cytochromec-releasing activity of p53 in Saos-2 cells.
The MprF protein is required for lysinylation of phospholipids in listerial membranes and confers resistance to cationic antimicrobial peptides (CAMPs) on Listeria monocytogenes

Pathogenic bacteria have to cope with defence mechanisms mediated by adaptive and innate immunity of the host cells. Cationic antimicrobial peptides (CAMPs) represent one of the most effective components of the host innate immune response. Here we establish the function of Lmo1695, a member of the VirR‐dependent virulence regulon, recently identified in Listeria monocytogenes. Lmo1695 encodes a membrane protein of 98 kDa with strong homology to the multiple peptide resistance factor (MprF) of Staphylococcus aureus. Like staphylococcal MprF, we found that Lmo1695 is involved in the synthesis of the membrane phospholipid lysylphosphatidylglycerol (L‐PG). In addition, Lmo1695 is also essential for lysinylation of diphosphatidylglycerol (DPG), another phospholipid widely distributed in bacterial membranes. A Δlmo1695 mutant lacking the lysinylated phospholipids was particularly susceptible to CAMPs of human and bacterial origin. The mutant strain infected both epithelial cells and macrophages only poorly and was attenuated for virulence when tested in a mouse model of infection. Lmo1695 is a member of a growing list of survival factors which enable growth of L. monocytogenes in different environments.
Acceptor Specificity of the Pasteurella Hyaluronan and Chondroitin Synthases and Production of Chimeric Glycosaminoglycans*

The hyaluronan (HA) synthase, PmHAS, and the chondroitin synthase, PmCS, from the Gram-negative bacterium Pasteurella multocida polymerize the glycosaminoglycan (GAG) sugar chains HA or chondroitin, respectively. The recombinant Escherichia coli-derived enzymes were shown previously to elongate exogenously supplied oligosaccharides of their cognate GAG (e.g. HA elongated by PmHAS). Here we show that oligosaccharides and polysaccharides of certain noncognate GAGs (including sulfated and iduronic acid-containing forms) are elongated by PmHAS (e.g. chondroitin elongated by PmHAS) or PmCS. Various acceptors were tested in assays where the synthase extended the molecule with either a single monosaccharide or a long chain (∼102-4 sugars). Certain GAGs were very poor acceptors in comparison to the cognate molecules, but elongated products were detected nonetheless. Overall, these findings suggest that for the interaction between the acceptor and the enzyme (a) the orientation of the hydroxyl at the C-4 position of the hexosamine is not critical, (b) the conformation of C-5 of the hexuronic acid (glucuronic versus iduronic) is not crucial, and (c) additional negative sulfate groups are well tolerated in certain cases, such as on C-6 of the hexosamine, but others, including C-4 sulfates, were not or were poorly tolerated. In vivo, the bacterial enzymes only process unsulfated polymers; thus it is not expected that the PmCS and PmHAS catalysts would exhibit such relative relaxed sugar specificity by acting on a variety of animal-derived sulfated or epimerized GAGs. However, this feature allows the chemoenzymatic synthesis of a variety of chimeric GAG polymers, including mimics of proteoglycan complexes.