Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mechano‐sensing and transduction by endothelial surface glycocalyx: composition, structure, and function

The endothelial cells (ECs) lining every blood vessel wall are constantly exposed to the mechanical forces generated by blood flow. The EC responses to these hemodynamic forces play a critical role in the homeostasis of the circulatory system. To ensure proper EC mechano‐sensing and transduction, there are a variety of mechano‐sensors and transducers that have been identified on the EC surface, intra‐ and trans‐EC membrane and within the EC cytoskeleton. Among them, the most recent candidate is the endothelial surface glycocalyx (ESG), which is a matrix‐like thin layer covering the luminal surface of the EC. It consists of various proteoglycans, glycosaminoglycans, and plasma proteins, and is close to other prominent EC mechano‐sensors and transducers. The ESG thickness was found to be in the order of 0.1–1 µm by different visualization techniques and in different types of vessels. Detailed analysis on the electron microscopy (EM) images of the microvascular ESG revealed a quasi‐periodic substructure with the ESG fiber diameter of 10–12 and 20 nm spacing between adjacent fibers. Atomic force microscopy and optical tweezers were applied to investigate the mechanical properties of the ESG on the cultured EC monolayers and in solutions. Enzymatic degradation of specific ESG glycosaminoglycan components was used to directly elucidate the role of the ESG in EC mechano‐sensing and transduction by measuring the shear‐induced productions of nitric oxide and prostacyclin, two characteristic responses of the ECs to the flow. The unique location, composition, and structure of the ESG determine its role in EC mechano‐sensing and transduction. WIREs Syst Biol Med 2013, 5:381–390. doi: 10.1002/wsbm.1211
Comparative study and development of new intracardiac QRS detection algorithms

The work described here arises of a collaboration between the ELA Medical company and the Centre de Recherche en Automatique de Nancy, CNRS URA No 821. ELA Medical manufactures and markets pacemakers, so that one of the tasks of its Research & Development department is to develop fast, reliable, low power intracardiac QRS detection algorithms. This study, situated at the beginning of pacemaker specifications, is aimed to test different detection algorithms and to find out their implementation constraints. This communication presents a comparative study between, on one hand, several classical QRS detection procedures and on the other hand two algorithms derived from the statistical techniques of fault detection in a signal which will be detailed in the second paragraph. These different algorithms have been tested on real signal sequences which represent the principal morphologies frequently found and the third paragraph summarizes their respective performances.
CREATIVE THINKING, CRITICAL THINKING AND SYSTEMIC THINKING - KEY INSTRUMENTS TO DEEPLY TRANSFORM THE HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM IN ALBANIA: THE CASE OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

Albania has experienced tremendous changes during the past several decades, as it applied a rapid model of transition to a market economy. Since 2001, the higher education system has been involved with a new restructuring process according to the "Bologna Declaration". While structural changes are radical, we cannot say the same for the process of teaching and learning. The influences of old education system, which was focused on transmitting knowledge and building a storehouse of information in the students’ brain, are still evident. This presentation is a review of best theories and practices of higher education and it concludes that the new system should help learners to deal with ideas and information to construct their understanding. This system should produce a sustained influence on the way people think, act and feel. It is more evident for multi-disciplinary fields like landscape architecture and ecology, where creative thinking, critical thinking and systems thinking are crucial.
VARIANCES AND COVARIANCES OF PHENOLOGICAL TRAITS IN A WILD MAMMAL POPULATION

In a seasonal environment, there are multiple aspects of timing, or phenology, that contribute to an individual's fitness. Several studies have shown a genetic basis to variation between individuals in breeding time, but we know little about the heritability of other phenological traits in wild populations. Furthermore, the presence of genetic correlations between phenological variables could act to constrain or promote any response to selection, but less is known of the multivariate genetic relationships underlying phenological traits in the wild. Here, we use data from a wild population of red deer on the Isle of Rum, Scotland, to investigate covariances between eight phenological traits. Variation was characterized at the level of the phenotype, genotype, and year, and traits measured in different sexes enabled us to test for cross‐sex genetic correlations. Phenotypic correlations were broadly strong and positive, as were correlations between traits expressed in the same year. We found evidence of significant additive genetic variation in five of the eight phenological traits studied. However there was little evidence of genetic correlations between traits, implying that much of the observed phenotypic correlation was environmentally induced. Our results suggest that different phenological traits may be free to move along independent evolutionary trajectories.
Non-Linear Technical Progress in Translog Cost Functions: Implications for Energy-Capital Substitutability

This paper revisits the seminal results of Berndt and Wood (1975, 1979) who place an empirical value on the elasticity of substitution between energy and capital [for US Manufacturing] using parameter estimates derived from a Translog production function. Hunt (1986) extended Berndt and Wood’s results to test for the inclusion of linear (non-neutral) technical progress which was rejected for US Manufacturing, whilst conversely finding for the UK [Industrial sector] that linear technical progress was statistically preferred. This study seeks to extend the efforts of these earlier studies, particularly testing the hypothesis that;
A Bayesian approach for generalized linear models with explanatory biomarker measurement variables subject to detection limit: an application to acute lung injury

Biomarkers have the potential to improve our understanding of disease diagnosis and prognosis. Biomarker levels that fall below the assay detection limits (DLs), however, compromise the application of biomarkers in research and practice. Most existing methods to handle non-detects focus on a scenario in which the response variable is subject to the DL; only a few methods consider explanatory variables when dealing with DLs. We propose a Bayesian approach for generalized linear models with explanatory variables subject to lower, upper, or interval DLs. In simulation studies, we compared the proposed Bayesian approach to four commonly used methods in a logistic regression model with explanatory variable measurements subject to the DL. We also applied the Bayesian approach and other four methods in a real study, in which a panel of cytokine biomarkers was studied for their association with acute lung injury (ALI). We found that IL8 was associated with a moderate increase in risk for ALI in the model based on the proposed Bayesian approach.
An Optimization Procedure of the Lagrange Multiplier Method for Polarimetric Power Optimization

The Lagrange multiplier method is one of the basic optimization procedures to find the optimum polarizations for the incoherent scattering case. This letter proves for the first time that a fixed relationship exists between the optimum polarization and the Lagrange multiplier. Then, an optimization procedure is proposed to simplify the computational complexity of the Lagrange multiplier method. To speed up the convergence of the proposed procedure, the minimum search intervals are discussed and given theoretically. A numerical example is shown to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed procedure.
Performance evaluation of feature selection algorithms on human activity classification

In this work, four human activities were classified by using multi layer perceptron and k-nearest neighbours algorithm. Due to mass amount of data, two different feature selection methods, which are ReliefF and t-score, were applied to the data. The best result is obtained as 97.6% with 51 features selected by ReliefF.
Incremental Learning of Tasks From User Demonstrations, Past Experiences, and Vocal Comments

Since many years the robotics community is envisioning robot assistants sharing the same environment with humans. It became obvious that they have to interact with humans and should adapt to individual user needs. Especially the high variety of tasks robot assistants will be facing requires a highly adaptive and user-friendly programming interface. One possible solution to this programming problem is the learning-by-demonstration paradigm, where the robot is supposed to observe the execution of a task, acquire task knowledge, and reproduce it. In this paper, a system to record, interpret, and reason over demonstrations of household tasks is presented. The focus is on the model-based representation of manipulation tasks, which serves as a basis for incremental reasoning over the acquired task knowledge. The aim of the reasoning is to condense and interconnect the data, resulting in more general task knowledge. A measure for the assessment of information content of task features is introduced. This measure for the relevance of certain features relies both on general background knowledge as well as task-specific knowledge gathered from the user demonstrations. Beside the autonomous information estimation of features, speech comments during the execution, pointing out the relevance of features are considered as well. The results of the incremental growth of the task knowledge when more task demonstrations become available and their fusion with relevance information gained from speech comments is demonstrated within the task of laying a table
Transporting Efficacious Treatments to Field Settings: The Link Between Supervisory Practices and Therapist Fidelity in MST Programs

Validated a measure of clinical supervision practices, further validated a measure of therapist adherence, and examined the association between supervisory practices and therapist adherence to an evidence-based treatment model (i.e., multisystemic therapy [MST]) in real-world clinical settings. Evidence of linkages between supervisor adherence to the MST supervisory protocol, as assessed through therapist reports, and therapist adherence to MST principles, as assessed through caregiver reports, was obtained from 285 families of youths presenting serious clinical problems, and 74 therapists and 12 supervisors of 16 teams in 9 organizations providing MST across 3 states. The findings provide a valuable step in examining the determinants of therapist fidelity to complex treatments in real-world clinical settings.
Public expenditure and economic growth in a petroleum-based economy: Nigeria 1960-1992

The study analyses the contribution of government expenditure to the economic growth process in Nigeria over the period 1960-1992. The results indicate that public expenditures on transport, communication and agriculture crowd-in private investment, while public spending on manufacturing and construction crowd-out private investment. Also, expenditures on education and health have a positive influence on private sector investment. Government must continue to perceive the creation of an enabling environment, at the least, as its own contribution to the economic growth process.
Age-Specific Relationship between Blood Pressure and the Risk of Total and Cardiovascular Mortality in Japanese Men and Women

To examine the impact of age on the relationship between blood pressure (BP) levels and each of cardiovascular disease mortality and all-cause mortality, a total of 30,226 men and 58,798 women aged 40–79 years who had no history of stroke or heart disease underwent health checkups in Ibaraki-ken, Japan, in 1993 and were followed through 2002. Risk ratios for mortality by BP category based on the 1999 WHO-ISH guidelines were calculated by age subgroups (40–59 years, 60–79 years) using a Cox proportional hazards model. Compared with optimal BP levels, the multivariate risk ratios of cardiovascular mortality for stage 2 or 3 hypertension were 5.99 (95% confidence interval: 2.13–16.8) in middle-aged men and 4.09 (1.70–9.85) in middle-aged women. These excess cardiovascular mortality risks were larger in the 40–59 years age group than in the 60–79 years age group for both genders (p for interaction=0.01 for both). In men, the population attributable risk percents of cardiovascular mortality were 60% for younger men and 28% for older men, while for women they were 15% for younger women and 7% for older women. Weaker but significant excess risks of total mortality were observed for stage 2 or 3 hypertension in men of both age groups and in the older age group for women. The impact of BP on the risk of cardiovascular mortality was larger among middle-aged persons than among the elderly in both men and women. Our findings indicate the importance of BP control to prevent cardiovascular disease among middle-aged individuals.
A Popularity-Based Cache Consistency Mechanism for Information-Centric Networking

Information-Centric Networking (ICN) has emerged as a promising way for the efficient content delivery over the Internet, and it can be seen as a super large-scale caching distributed system. However, as one of the most important problems, the cache consistency issue, which refers to whether cached contents in routers are outdated, is still not investigated thoroughly in ICN. Thus, in this paper, we propose a cost-effective Popularity-based Cache Consistency (PCC) mechanism to guarantee the freshness of cached contents in ICN routers. PCC is able to balance the trade between the consistency strength and related costs since it only maintains the strong consistency for popular contents while the weak for unpopular ones. Besides, we improve another two cache consistency mechanisms used in the web caching, namely Polling-Every-Time (PET) and Time-To-Live (TTL), to be suitable for ICN, and use them as the benchmarks for comparisons with PCC. To evaluate their performance, we firstly analyse the costs of these mechanisms including the user latency in terms of hop counts and corresponding signaling overheads, and then conduct extensive simulations using a real topology. The simulation results show the high efficiency of PCC compared with the improved PET and TTL.
Randomized double-blind comparison of chimeric monoclonal antibody to tumor necrosis factor alpha (infliximab) versus placebo in active spondylarthropathy.

OBJECTIVE To confirm in a placebo-controlled trial the safety and efficacy profile of infliximab in short-term treatment of patients with active spondylarthropathy (SpA). METHODS Forty patients with active SpA were randomly assigned to receive an intravenous loading dose (weeks 0, 2, and 6) of 5 mg/kg infliximab or placebo. Evaluations for efficacy and safety were performed at weeks 1, 2, 6, 8, and 12. The primary end points of this study were the improvements in patient and physician global assessments of disease activity on a 100-mm visual analog scale. RESULTS Both primary end points improved significantly in the infliximab group compared with the baseline value, with no improvement in the placebo group. As early as week 2 and sustained up to week 12, there was a highly statistically significant difference between the values for these 2 end points in the infliximab versus the placebo group. In most of the other assessments of disease activity (laboratory measures, assessments of specific peripheral and/or axial disease), significant improvements were observed in the infliximab group compared with the baseline value and compared with placebo. Minor adverse events not causing discontinuation were equally observed in both treatment groups. There was one severe drug-related adverse event, in which a patient developed disseminated tuberculosis. CONCLUSION Tumor necrosis factor alpha blockade with infliximab in patients with active SpA was well tolerated and resulted in significant clinical and laboratory improvements in this short-term, placebo-controlled study. However, the occurrence of tuberculosis in one patient necessitates strict inclusion criteria and long-term followup.
Orai1‐mediated calcium entry plays a critical role in osteoclast differentiation and function by regulating activation of the transcription factor NFATc1

Bone diseases such as postmenopausal osteoporosis are primarily caused by excessive formation and activity of osteoclasts (OCLs). Receptor activator of nuclear factor‐κB ligand (RANKL) is a key initiating cytokine for OCL differentiation and function. RANKL induces calcium (Ca2+) oscillations, resulting in selective and robust induction of nuclear factor of activated T cells c1 (NFATc1), a Ca2+‐responsive transcription factor that drives osteoclastogenesis. Store‐operated Ca2+ entry (SOCE) is a major Ca2+ influx pathway in most nonexcitable cell types and is activated by any stimulus that depletes Ca2+ stores in the endoplasmic reticulum. Although the role of Orai1, a SOCE channel in the plasma membrane, in maintaining Ca2+ oscillations and transactivation of NFAT in other cell types is well known, its contribution to osteoclastogenesis remains unclear. We show here that silencing of the Orai1 gene with viral delivery of shRNA reduces SOCE and inhibits RANKL‐induced osteoclastogenesis of RAW264.7 cells, a murine monocyte/ macrophage cell line, by suppressing the induction of NFATc1. This was accompanied by defective induction of OCL‐specific genes, such as tartrate‐resistant acid phosphatase and immunoreceptor OCL‐associated receptor, which are known to be direct transcriptional targets of NFATc1 during osteoclastogenesis. In addition, maturation of OCLs was abrogated by defective cell fusion of pre‐OCLs depleted of Orai1, consistent with defective RANKL‐mediated induction of d2 isoform of vacuolar ATPase Vo domain that is involved in cell fusion of pre‐OCLs. We found that the functional bone resorbing capacity was severely impaired in OCLs depleted of Orai1, potentially related to the observed decrease in the induction of cathepsin K, a major bone matrix degrading protease. Our results indicate that Orai1 plays a critical role in the differentiation and function of OCLs, suggesting that Orai1 might be a potential therapeutic target for the treatment or prevention of bone loss caused by OCLs. —Hwang, S. ‐Y. , Putney, J. W. Orai1‐mediated calcium entry plays a critical role in osteoclast differentiation and function by regulating activation of the transcription factor NFATc1. FASEB J. 26, 1484‐1492 (2012). www.fasebj. org
Mutant Strain of Bradyrhizobium japonicum with Increased Symbiotic N2 Fixation Rates and Altered Mo Metabolism Properties

Mutant strains of Bradyrhizobium japonicum that required higher levels of molybdate than the wild-type strain for growth on NO3-containing medium were obtained after transposon Tn5 mutagenesis of the wild-type strain. The mutant strains expressed more than fivefold-greater nitrate reductase activities in the range of 0.1 to 1.0 mM added molybdate compared with activities expressed upon incubation in non-Mo-supplemented medium, whereas the nitrate reductase activity of the wild-type strain (JH) was not markedly influenced by Mo supplementation. In free-living culture, mutant strains JH310 and JH359 expressed substantial nitrogenase activity, even in medium treated to remove molybdate, and nitrogenase activity was influenced little by Mo supplementation, whereas the wild-type strain required 100 nM added Mo for highest nitrogenase activity. Double-reciprocal plots of Mo uptake rates versus Mo concentration showed that both bacteroids and free-living cells of mutant strain JH359 had about the same affinity for Mo as did the parent strain. Bacteroids of both the mutants and the wild type also exhibited similar Mo accumulation rates over a 9-min period under very-low-Mo (4 nM) conditions. Nitrogenase activities for strain JH359 and for the wild-type strain in free-living culture were both strongly inhibited by tungsten; thus, the nitrogenase activities of both strains are probably the result of a “conventional” Mo-containing nitrogenase. Soybeans inoculated with strain JH359 and grown under either Mo-supplemented or Mo-deficient conditions had greater specific acetylene reduction rates and significantly greater plant fresh weight than those inoculated with the wild-type strain. Under Mo-deficient conditions, the acetylene reduction rates and plant fresh weights were up to 35 and 58% greater, respectively, for mutant-nodulated plants compared with wild-type-strain-nodulated plants.
The Location of Contralateral Breast Cancers After Radiation Therapy

Radiation therapy following conservative surgery results in scattered radiation to the contralateral breast, with higher doses to the medial breast and lower doses laterally. The purpose of the current study is to determine whether the location of contralateral breast cancers developing following breast conserving surgery and radiation is indicative of radiation‐induced malignancies. The charts of 1,755 patients treated with conservative surgery and radiation therapy between 1970 and 1998 were reviewed. Fifty‐nine patients who developed a contralateral malignancy following conservative surgery and radiation therapy and who had complete information and documentation of the location of the second lesion served as the primary focus of the current study. The location of the contralateral malignancy was compared with the location of the primary tumors of the overall patient population. The location of breast cancers developing in the contralateral breast following breast conserving therapy and radiation was not consistent with radiation‐induced malignancies. Specifically, there was not a preponderance of medially located tumors in patients developing contralateral breast cancers following radiation. There was a slight excess of central lesions that cannot be explained by higher doses of radiation. The location of breast cancers in the contralateral breast following conservative surgery and radiation is not indicative of radiation‐induced lesions. These data should be reassuring to women considering breast conserving surgery and radiation.
Practitioner Perceptions of School Library Advocacy.

School library advocacy is increasingly important due to decreases in funding and staff. National organizations attempt to engage school librarians in advocacy and have developed resources and tools to assist with this task. However, there is little research examining how practicing school librarians engage in advocacy and how their advocacy efforts impact their library programs. This study explored school librarians’ perceptions of advocacy within the context of their school library setting. Findings suggest school librarians must continue to build relationships with stakeholders and create awareness for the school library position as they define the activities of advocacy unique to their library setting. An emphasis should also be placed on creating meaningful advocacy training in school library preparation courses.
A phase 2 trial of fludarabine and mitoxantrone chemotherapy followed by yttrium‐90 ibritumomab tiuxetan for patients with previously untreated, indolent, nonfollicular, non‐Hodgkin lymphoma

A prospective, single‐arm, open‐label, nonrandomized Phase 2 study of combined fludarabine and mitoxantrone (FM) plus radioimmunotherapy was conducted to evaluate efficacy and safety in patients with untreated, indolent, nonfollicular non‐Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL).