Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
CXCL16 Influences the Nature and Specificity of CpG-Induced Immune Activation12

Unmethylated CpG motifs are present at high frequency in bacterial DNA. They provide a danger signal to the mammalian immune system that triggers a protective immune response characterized by the production of Th1 and proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines. Although the recognition of CpG DNA by B cells and plasmacytoid dendritic cells is mediated by TLR 9, these cell types differ in their ability to bind and respond to structurally distinct classes of CpG oligonucleotides. This work establishes that CXCL16, a membrane-bound scavenger receptor, influences the uptake, subcellular localization, and cytokine profile induced by D oligonucleotides. This is the first example of a surface receptor modifying the cellular specificity and nature of the immune response mediated by an intracellular TLR.
Pericontusional brain tissue exhibits persistent elevation of lactate/pyruvate ratio independent of cerebral perfusion pressure*

Objective:To determine whether pericontusional tissue exhibits neurochemical responsiveness to changes in cerebral perfusion pressure as measured by microdialysis lactate/pyruvate ratio. Design:Prospective monitoring with retrospective data analysis. Setting:Single-center academic neurologic intensive care unit. Patients:Twenty-one patients with severe traumatic brain injury (Glasgow Coma Scale score 3–8). Interventions:None. Measurements and Main Results:Cerebral microdialysis was performed for the initial 7 days after traumatic brain injury. Thirteen patients had microdialysis probes in normal tissue and eight had two probes, one of which was located in pericontusional tissue. Retrospective analysis was performed to determine if microdialysis levels in pericontusional tissue demonstrates higher levels of lactate/pyruvate ratio than normal tissue and if lactate/pyruvate ratio increased with reductions in cerebral perfusion pressure. Univariate analysis revealed higher values for glutamate and lactate/pyruvate ratio in pericontusional tissue compared with normal tissue. However, based on the mixed-effects model analysis, the percent time of elevated lactate/pyruvate ratio was significantly higher in pericontusional tissue (40 ± 59% vs. 17 ± 37%, p < .05), and the mean lactate/pyruvate ratio values showed only a trend relationship (62 ± 134 vs. 34 ± 78, p < .06). When examined by cerebral perfusion pressure threshold, cerebral perfusion pressure <60 mm Hg was not associated with higher lactate/pyruvate ratio values in normal or pericontusional tissue. In addition, no single cerebral perfusion pressure threshold was associated with a significant reduction in lactate/pyruvate ratio in either pericontusional or normal tissue (p < .08). Conclusions:Sustained increases in lactate/pyruvate ratio occurred more frequently in pericontusional tissue compared with normal brain tissue. The lactate/pyruvate ratio was not related to cerebral perfusion pressure, nor was the percent time-burden of elevated lactate/pyruvate ratio related to any particular sustained cerebral perfusion pressure threshold. Lactate/pyruvate ratio values appear to be elevated despite cerebral perfusion pressure values customarily considered to be adequate.
Fisher Information Maximization for Distributed Vector Estimation in Wireless Sensor Networks

In this paper we consider the problem of distributed estimation of a Gaussian vector with linear observation model in a wireless sensor network (WSN). Each sensor employs a uniform multi-bit quantizer to quantize its noisy observation, maps it to a digitally modulated symbol, and transmits the symbol over power-constrained wireless channels (subject to fading and noise) to a fusion center (FC), which is tasked with fusing the received signals and estimating the unknown vector. We derive the Bayesian Fisher Information Matrix (FIM) from the collectively received signals at the FC, and also, mean square error (MSE) of linear minimum mean square error (LMMSE) estimator. Our derivations reveal how these two metrics depend on the observation model and its parameters, including observation noise as well as quantizer, and the physical layer parameters (e.g., channel gain, channel noise, transmit power, and quantization bits). Moreover, we consider two problems of transmit power allocation schemes that maximize the trace and log-determinant of FIM under total network power constraint (FI-max schemes). In our simulations, we compare the system performance using the solutions of such schemes, with that of uniform power allocation scheme, in which, for the given total network power, all power is uniformly allocated among all sensors. Our simulations demonstrate the superior performances of FI-max schemes. Furthermore, we investigate how the power allocation depends on the sensors observation qualities and physical layer parameters and on the total transmit power constraint. A comparison will also be made between the performances of coherent and noncoherent reception techniques.
Crystal Structure of the von Willebrand Factor A1 Domain and Implications for the Binding of Platelet Glycoprotein Ib*

von Willebrand Factor (vWF) is a multimeric protein that mediates platelet adhesion to exposed subendothelium at sites of vascular injury under conditions of high flow/shear. The A1 domain of vWF (vWF-A1) forms the principal binding site for platelet glycoprotein Ib (GpIb), an interaction that is tightly regulated. We report here the crystal structure of the vWF-A1 domain at 2.3-Å resolution. As expected, the overall fold is similar to that of the vWF-A3 and integrin I domains. However, the structure also contains N- and C-terminal arms that wrap across the lower surface of the domain. Unlike the integrin I domains, vWF-A1 does not contain a metal ion-dependent adhesion site motif. Analysis of the available mutagenesis data suggests that the activator botrocetin binds to the right-hand face of the domain containing helices α5 and α6. Possible binding sites for GpIb are the front and upper surfaces of the domain. Natural mutations that lead to constitutive GpIb binding (von Willebrand type IIb disease) cluster in a different site, at the interface between the lower surface and the terminal arms, suggesting that they disrupt a regulatory region rather than forming part of the primary GpIb binding site. A possible pathway for propagating structural changes from the regulatory region to the ligand-binding surface is discussed.
Characterization of the Small RNA Transcriptome of the Marine Coccolithophorid, Emiliania huxleyi

Small RNAs (smRNAs) control a variety of cellular processes by silencing target genes at the transcriptional or post-transcription level. While extensively studied in plants, relatively little is known about smRNAs and their targets in marine phytoplankton, such as Emiliania huxleyi (E. huxleyi). Deep sequencing was performed of smRNAs extracted at different time points as E. huxleyi cells transition from logarithmic to stationary phase growth in batch culture. Computational analyses predicted 18 E. huxleyi specific miRNAs. The 18 miRNA candidates and their precursors vary in length (18–24 nt and 71–252 nt, respectively), genome copy number (3–1,459), and the number of genes targeted (2–107). Stem-loop real time reverse transcriptase (RT) PCR was used to validate miRNA expression which varied by nearly three orders of magnitude when growth slows and cells enter stationary phase. Stem-loop RT PCR was also used to examine the expression profiles of miRNA in calcifying and non-calcifying cultures, and a small subset was found to be differentially expressed when nutrients become limiting and calcification is enhanced. In addition to miRNAs, endogenous small RNAs such as ra-siRNAs, ta-siRNAs, nat-siRNAs, and piwiRNAs were predicted along with the machinery for the biogenesis and processing of si-RNAs. This study is the first genome-wide investigation smRNAs pathways in E. huxleyi. Results provide new insights into the importance of smRNAs in regulating aspects of physiological growth and adaptation in marine phytoplankton and further challenge the notion that smRNAs evolved with multicellularity, expanding our perspective of these ancient regulatory pathways.
Left Ventricular Long‐Axis Function Is Reduced in Patients with Rheumatic Mitral Stenosis

Left ventricular long‐axis function evaluated by M‐mode or tissue Doppler echocardiography has been shown to be useful indexes of left ventricular systolic function; however it has not been evaluated in patients with mitral stenosis. We examined the left ventricular long‐axis function of the patients with pure mitral stenosis and normal global systolic function as assessed by fractional shortening of the left ventricle (LV). Fifty‐two patients with pure mitral stenosis and twenty‐two healthy controls were evaluated by echocardiography. Although there was no statistically significant difference in global systolic function, M‐mode derived systolic motion of the septal side and (12 ± 3 vs 14.4 ± 1.5 mm, P = 0.016) the lateral side of mitral annulus (13.2 ± 3 vs 16.8 ± 2 mm, P = 0.001) were both significantly lower in the patients with mitral stenosis than control subjects. Similarly tissue Doppler systolic velocity of the septal annulus (7.6 ± 1.1 vs 10.4 ± 3.2 cm/s, P = 0.03) and lateral mitral annulus (7.6 ± 1.1 vs 10.4 ± 3.2 cm/s, P = 0.003) were also significantly lower in patients with mitral stenosis than in controls. There was a statistically significant correlation between septal annular motion and annular velocity (r = 0.643, P = 0.002). Septal annular motion and annular velocity were also correlated with left atrial ejection fraction (r = 0.338, P = 0.005 and r = 0.676, P = 0.001, respectively). Thus, patients with mitral stenosis had significantly impaired long‐axis function evaluated by M‐mode or tissue Doppler echocardiography despite normal global systolic function. (ECHOCARDIOGRAPHY, Volume 21, February 2004)
Classification of Sleep Stages Using Multi-wavelet Time Frequency Entropy and LDA

Summary Background: The process of automatic sleep stage scoring consists of two major parts: feature extraction and classification. Features are normally extracted from the polysomno-graphic recordings, mainly electroencephalograph (EEG) signals. The EEG is considered a non-stationary signal which increases the complexity of the detection of different waves in it. Objectives: This work presents a new technique for automatic sleep stage scoring based on employing continuous wavelet transform (CWT) and linear discriminant analysis (LDA) using different mother wavelets to detect different waves embedded in the EEG signal. Methods: The use of different mother wave-lets increases the ability to detect waves in the EEG signal. The extracted features were formed based on CWT time frequency entropy using three mother wavelets, and the classification was performed using the linear discriminant analysis. Thirty-two data sets from the MIT-BIH database were used to evaluate the performance of the proposed method. Results: Features of a single EEG signal were extracted successfully based on the time frequency entropy using the continuous wavelet transform with three mother wavelets. The proposed method has shown to outperform the classification based on a CWT using a single mother wavelet. The accuracy was found to be 0.84, while the kappa coefficient was 0.78. Conclusions: This work has shown that wavelet time frequency entropy provides a powerful tool for feature extraction for the non-stationary EEG signal; the accuracy of the classification procedure improved when using multiple wavelets compared to the use of single wavelet time frequency entropy.
The Elderly Mentally Retarded Person: Current Perspectives and Future Directions

The elderly retarded population continues to grow rapidly, yet there remains a lack of understanding regarding many of the characteristics and needs of these individuals. The aging retarded person presents unique difficulties to care providers because of inconsistencies in population definition, lack of coordination between resources for the aging and retarded, and past neglect in the research literature. The literature regarding the elderly retarded individual is reviewed relative to (1) physical, behavioral, and emotional characteristics, (2) service delivery and programming needs, and (3) suggestions for improved research methodology which emphasize a consumer-oriented knowledge base. Caveats regarding the application of programming mandates for mentally retarded individuals to an aging population are also presented. Future work relating to elderly retarded individuals must take into consideration the rapidly shifting nature of the population through changes in the quality of health care, extent of programming, and governmental policies concerning care of the aged and the mentally retarded person.
Analysis for upper limit of air cooling by engineered porous metal heat sinks

We analyzed a new approach on porous metal heat sinks for highly integrated electronic applications aiming to address the exponential increase in the thermal management requirements of higher coefficient of performance (COP). Since the applications will be targeted to electronics cooling, we particularly look into air as the working fluid. The large area-to-volume ratio of porous structures could potentially provide high performance. The engineering challenge is to enhance lateral and vertical internal heat transport without substantial increasing the pressure drop. A Coefficient of Performance (COP) was introduced as a performance measure for evaluating this trade off as a function of the geometric design parameters (pore size and porosity). The pressure drop for porous structures has reported to be an order of magnitude larger than the conventional fin heat sinks in multiple articles. However even the effective heat transfer coefficient for porous metals is considerably larger (~600 W/m2K) owing to the large surface area in comparison. Relative lower density of porous medium is an additional advantage for light-weight heat sink designs. A study on the energy efficiency with respect to combined overall effect of parameters such as heat transfer, pressure drop and the mass of the material metal is done in this paper. A figure-of-merit (FOM) is defined to evaluate heat sink performance per unit mass. The optimum value for the structure is evaluated with respect to pore size and porosity in a comparison to conventional heat sinks. The analysis is done for aluminum foams targeted at a porosity of 0.85 up to near 1.0. The pore size considered for this analysis ranges from standard 1-2 mm to as small as 0.1 mm. We address a potential upper limit of air cooling for higher heat flux electronics applications. In our previous work, we showed existence of optimum porosity which results in better heat transfer. The analysis was restricted to a constant pore size model. In this paper we present the combined impact of porosity and pore size for COP. A study is done on multiple models available in literature for estimating permeability and heat transfer coefficient. The ultimate aim is to have a generic model characterizing the performance of porous heat sinks to evaluate optimum design for a specific set of operating conditions as a function of porosity and pore size. A CFD simulation over the length of three unit cells is provided to study the general flow and temperature trends.
Economic Evaluation of Zoledronic Acid Versus Pamidronate for the Prevention of Skeletal-Related Events in Metastatic Breast Cancer and Multiple Myeloma

Skeletal complications of cancer decrease health-related quality of life. Bisphosphonates can prevent skeletal-related events. We collected resource use data prospectively for 930 patients alongside a multinational trial of zoledronic acid versus pamidronate for patients with metastatic multiple myeloma or breast cancer and ≥1 bone lesion. Country-specific unit costs were assigned to counts of resource use from randomization through last trial visit. Total costs were calculated by summing costs for medical resources, plus costs of institutional care and study medications and administration. Resource use was similar for both groups. Approximately half of the patients were hospitalized at least once during the mean follow-up of 10 months (52.8% for zoledronic acid versus 52.6% for pamidronate; P = 0.9504). The average number of hospital days was 8.9 for zoledronic acid versus 9.2 for pamidronate (P = 0.728). The mean total cost was $16,434 for zoledronic acid and $15,735 for pamidronate, an incremental cost of $699 (95% confidence interval [CI], −1047 to 2163). Mean total costs for patients with multiple myeloma were $1982 (95% CI, −1491 to 5335) higher for zoledronic acid ($17,958) than for pamidronate ($15,976). However, among patients with breast cancer, total costs in both groups were approximately equal ($15,703 for zoledronic acid versus $15,680 for pamidronate; 95% CI for the difference: −1875 to 2012). There were no significant cost differences between patients receiving zoledronic acid and those receiving pamidronate.
Effects of eccentric rotation on the human pitch vestibulo-ocular reflex

Conclusion. The pitch plane vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) gain and symmetry at low frequencies (≤0.3 Hz) are enhanced by otoliths and/or somatosensory sensory cues during combined angular and linear stimuli. We conclude that neural processing of these linear motion cues is used to improve the VOR when stimulus frequencies are below the optimal range for the canals. Objective. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of eccentric rotation on the passive pitch VOR responses in humans. Subjects and methods. Eleven subjects were placed on their left sides (90° roll position) and rotated in the pitch plane about an earth-vertical axis at 0.13, 0.3, and 0.56 Hz. The inter-aural axis was either aligned with the axis of rotation (no modulation of linear acceleration) or offset from it by 50 cm (centripetal linear acceleration directed feet-ward). The modulation of pitch VOR responses was measured in the dark with a binocular videography system. Results. The pitch VOR gain was significantly increased and the VOR asymmetry was significantly reduced at the lowest stimulus frequencies during eccentric rotation. There was no effect of eccentric rotation on the pitch gain or asymmetry at the highest frequency tested.
Caffeine Use and Associations With Sleep in Adolescents With and Without ADHD.

OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to compare caffeine consumption in the morning, afternoon, and evening in adolescents with and without attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and examine associations with sleep functioning. METHODS Participants were 302 adolescents (ages 12-14) with (N = 140) and without (N = 162) ADHD. Adolescents wore actigraph watches to assess total sleep time and wake after sleep onset and reported on sleep-wake problems and the number of caffeinated beverages consumed per day in the morning, afternoon, and evening. Parents reported on adolescents' difficulties initiating and maintaining sleep. Chi-square tests, odds ratios, and path analyses were conducted. RESULTS Analyses controlled for sex, medication status, and pubertal development. Adolescents with ADHD were 2.47 times more likely to consume caffeine in the afternoon and evening than adolescents without ADHD. Path analyses indicated significant associations between afternoon caffeine use and more self-reported sleep problems for adolescents with and without ADHD, and an association between evening caffeine use and self-reported sleep problems only in adolescents with ADHD. Afternoon caffeine use was associated with parent-reported sleep problems in adolescents with ADHD only. Caffeine use was not associated with actigraphy-assessed sleep. CONCLUSION This is the first study to show that adolescents with ADHD consume more caffeine than peers during later times of the day. Additionally, caffeine use is more consistently associated with poorer subjective sleep functioning in adolescents with ADHD. Pediatricians and mental health professionals should assess for caffeine use in adolescents with ADHD and co-occurring sleep problems.
Quantitative Genetic Variation in Populations of Amsinckia spectabilis That Differ in Rate of Self-Fertilization

Self-fertilization is expected to reduce genetic diversity within populations and consequently to limit adaptability to changing environments. Little is known, however, about the way the evolution of self-fertilization changes the amount or pattern of the components of genetic variation in natural populations. In this study, a reciprocal North Carolina II design and maximum-likelihood methods were implemented to investigate the genetic basis of variation for 15 floral and vegetative traits in four populations of the annual plant Amsinckia spectabilis (Boraginaceae) differing in mating system. Six variance components were estimated according to Cockerham and Weir's “bio” model c. Compared to the three partially selfing populations, we found significantly lower levels of nuclear variance for several traits in the nearly completely self-fertilizing population. Furthermore, for 11 of 15 traits we did not detect nuclear variation to be significantly greater than zero. We also found high maternal variance in one of the partially selfing populations for several traits, and little dominance variance in any population. These results are in agreement with the evolutionary dead-end hypothesis for highly self-fertilizing taxa.
Effect of different catalysts on the decomposition of VOCs using flow-type plasma-driven catalysis

This paper presents the effect of different catalysts on the decomposition of benzene and toluene using flow-type plasma-driven catalyst (PDC) system. Three representative materials of titanium dioxide, two types of gamma-alumina and two zeolites were tested. Several types of metal catalysts (Ag, Ni, Pt, Pd) and their loading amount were also investigated for the optimization of the PDC system. Three key factors of energy consumption, carbon balance and safety of products were emphasized in evaluating the performance of different catalysts. The type of catalysts greatly influenced on the carbon balance, CO<sub>2</sub> selectivity, ozone formation, while no much difference was observed in the degree of enhancement in energy efficiency. Pt/gamma-Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> catalyst was found to be effective in enhancing the CO<sub>2</sub> selectivity. The CO<sub>2 </sub> selectivity increased as Ag-loading amount on TiO<sub>2</sub> catalyst increased. The 4.0 wt% Ag/TiO<sub>2</sub> catalyst was effective in suppressing the formation of NO<sub>2</sub> and N<sub>2 </sub>O. Zeolites showed comparable decomposition efficiency and good carbon balance, while the CO<sub>2</sub> selectivity was poor compared to the other catalysts. Mechanical mixing of 2.0 wt% Ag/H-Y zeolite with Pt/gamma-Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> was effective in enhancing the CO <sub>2</sub> selectivity without changing other performance