Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Atorvastatin Treatment of Rats with Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury Improves Adipose-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cell Migration and Survival via the SDF-1α/CXCR-4 Axis

Background Adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (ASCs) transplantation is a promising approach for myocardium repair. Promotion of ASCs migration and survival is the key for improving ASCs efficiency. SDF-1α is a critical factor responsible for ASCs migration and survival. Atorvastatin (Ator) is capable of up-regulating SDF-1α. Therefore, we're going to investigate whether ASCs migration and survival could be improved with atorvastatin. Methods In vitro study, cardiomyocytes were subjected to anoxia-reoxygenation injury and subsequently divided into different groups: group blank control, Ator, Ator plus L-NAME (A+L-NAME) and Ator plus AMD3100 (A+AMD3100). When migration analysis completed, cardiomyocytes were used for subsequent analyses. In vivo study, rats underwent ischemia-reperfusion injury were assigned into different groups corresponding to in vitro protocols. ASCs were transplanted on the seventh day of atorvastatin therapy. Seven days later, the rates of migration, differentiation and apoptosis were evaluated. Results Compared with other groups, ASCs migration in vitro was significantly improved in group Ator, which was dependent on SDF-1α/CXCR-4 coupling. Results of in vivo study were consistent with that of in vitro study, further supporting the notion that the efficacy of atorvastatin on ASCs migration improvement was related to SDF-1α/CXCR-4 axis. Higher vessel density in group Ator might be another mechanism responsible for migration improvement. Concomitantly, apoptosis was significantly reduced in group Ator, whereas no significant difference of differentiation was found. Conclusion Migration and survival of ASCs could be improved by atorvastatin under ischemia-reperfusion injury, which were ascribed to SDF-1α/CXCR-4 axis.
Relative Importance of Rehabilitation Therapy Characteristics on Functional Outcomes for Persons With Stroke

Background and Purpose— The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relative importance of therapy focus, intensity, and length of stay on greater than expected functional gain, controlling for stroke severity. Methods— This observational study included 198 first-stroke patients who were recruited from 8 in-patient rehabilitation facilities and 5 subacute programs. Stroke severity (motor, sensory and cognitive impairment) at admission was measured using an instrument combining all 3 aspects; self-care, mobility, and cognitive status at admission and discharge were measured with the Functional Independence Measure. Time spent by physical, occupational, and speech-language therapists on function- and impairment-focused activities were used to compute therapy intensity by discipline and type of activity. Residual change scores, estimated by regressing discharge on admission functional status, were modeled using patient and therapy characteristics. Results— Controlling for the stroke severity, greater than expected gains in self-care were predicted by longer lengths of stay and more intensive function-focused occupational therapy, and greater than expected cognitive gains were predicted by longer stays alone. Predictors of residual change in mobility, however, differed by gender: greater than expected gains in mobility for men were predicted by longer lengths of stay and more intense function-focused physical therapy whereas, for women, they were predicted by stroke severity alone. Conclusions— Unlike previous studies using raw functional gains, therapies accounted for a significant proportion of the variance in residual functional change. The results support studies suggesting that both content and amount of therapy are important aspects.
Optimizing terrestrial laser scanning measurement set-up

One of the main applications of the terrestrial laser scanner is the visualization, modeling and monitoring of man-made structures like buildings. Especially surveying applications require on one hand a quickly obtainable, high resolution point cloud but also need observations with a known and well described quality. To obtain a 3D point cloud, the scene is scanned from different positions around the considered object. The scanning geometry plays an important role in the quality of the resulting point cloud. The ideal set-up for scanning a surface of an object is to position the laser scanner in such a way that the laser beam is near perpendicular to the surface. Due to scanning conditions, such an ideal set-up is in practice not possible. The different incidence angles and ranges of the laser beam on the surface result in 3D points of varying quality. The stand-point of the scanner that gives the best accuracy is generally not known. Using an optimal stand-point of the laser scanner on a scene will improve the quality of individual point measurements and results in a more uniform registered point cloud. The design of an optimum measurement setup is defined such that the optimum stand-points are identified to fulfill predefined quality requirements and to ensure a complete spatial coverage. The additional incidence angle and range constraints on the visibility from a view point ensure that individual scans are not affected by bad scanning geometry effects. A complex and large room that would normally require five view point to be fully covered, would require nineteen view points to obtain full coverage under the range and incidence angle constraints.
Bayesian Language Model based on Mixture of Segmental Contexts for Spontaneous Utterances with Unexpected Words

This paper describes a Bayesian language model for predicting spontaneous utterances. People sometimes say unexpected words, such as fillers or hesitations, that cause the miss-prediction of words in normal N-gram models. Our proposed model considers mixtures of possible segmental contexts, that is, a kind of context-word selection. It can reduce negative effects caused by unexpected words because it represents conditional occurrence probabilities of a word as weighted mixtures of possible segmental contexts. The tuning of mixture weights is the key issue in this approach as the segment patterns becomes numerous, thus we resolve it by using Bayesian model. The generative process is achieved by combining the stick-breaking process and the process used in the variable order Pitman-Yor language model. Experimental evaluations revealed that our model outperformed contiguous N-gram models in terms of perplexity for noisy text including hesitations.
Identifying users from their rating patterns

This paper reports on our analysis of the 2011 CAMRa Challenge dataset (Track 2) for context-aware movie recommendation systems. The train dataset comprises 4 536 891 ratings provided by 171 670 users on 23 974 movies, as well as the household groupings of a subset of the users. The test dataset comprises 5 450 ratings for which the user label is missing, but the household label is provided. The challenge required to identify the user labels for the ratings in the test set. Our main finding is that temporal information (time labels of the ratings) is significantly more useful for achieving this objective than the user preferences (the actual ratings). Using a model that leverages on this fact, we are able to identify users within a known household with an accuracy of approximately 96% (i.e. misclassification rate around 4%).
Sexuality in Adults with Differences/Disorders of Sex Development (DSD): Findings from the dsd-LIFE Study

Abstract For various reasons, sexuality of individuals with differences/disorders of sex development (DSD) may be affected. The aim of the study was to describe sexual activity, satisfaction with sex life, satisfaction with genital function, and sexual problems in people with different DSD conditions. Data were collected from 1,040 participants in Europe. Many people with a variety of DSD conditions do not appear to be satisfied with their sex life, experience a variety of sexual problems, and are less sexually active than the general population; therefore sexuality should be explicitly addressed in the care of people with DSD.
SSRIs in the treatment of panic disorder

Received for publication 8 August 1997; Accepted 2 September 1997 INTRODUCTION The treatment of panic disorder with agoraphobia (PDA) or without agoraphobia (PD) has been an area of active research over the last decade or two, spurred on by the inclusion of formal diagnostic criteria for the disorder in DSM-III and III-R (APA, 1980, 1987), ongoing recognition of the disorder as a distinct condition with specific treatments (Panic Consensus Statement, 1991), and standardization of assessment procedures (Shear and Maser, 1994). PD is a condition with a lifetime prevalence of up to 4% in the general community (Eaton et al., 1994). It is frequently a chronic relapsing or persistent illness (Pollack and Otto, 1997) that can profoundly affect functioning and quality of life (Markowitz et al., 1989), is often associated with significant comorbidity (particularly with depression, other anxiety disorders, and substance abuse) (Keller and Hanks, 1993), and may predispose to suicide attempts (Weissman et al., 1989). In summary, PD is a significant public health problem. There is a pressing need to identify and develop better therapies that will address the needs of the PD patient. While the tricyclic antidepressant (TCA) imipramine and the benzodiazepine, alprazolam, have been the standard medications for PD, there is now considerable and generally consistent evidence for the antipanic efficacy of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). It would be no exaggeration to say that these agents are now the first-line medications used by clinicians for the stabilization of active PD, even though the research data lags behind that accumulated for imipramine and alprazolam. The favorable side-effect profile of the SSRIs relative to these older agents, their convenience of administration, safety in overdose, ability to treat comorbid conditions (mentioned above), and relative safety during pregnancy (Chambers et al., 1996), are some of the major factors behind this preferment. This article will review the evidence for the clinical efficacy of the SSRIs in PD and will outline and discuss some major issues in their clinical use. We will focus primarily on the SSRIs, as the evidence documenting the antipanic efficacy of the SRI, clomipramine, has been thoroughly reviewed elsewhere (Sheehan and Harnett-Sheehan, 1996). There will be a brief discussion of their possible therapeutic mechanisms in PD and some comment about areas for future research. SHORT-TERM EFFICACY OF THE SSRIs IN PANIC DISORDER
Evaluation of leg ulcer treatment with stereophotogrammetry

This report describes stereophotogrammetric measurements of leg ulcers. A basic technical description of the method and its application in a pilot study are presented. The clinical evaluation of the healing of leg ulcers is compared to the photogrammetrically determined parameters—edge length, surface area, and volume—of the ulcers, and seems to fulfil the need for an objective method in the evaluation of leg ulcer treatment.
Modeling & Simulation of Supersonic Flow Using McCormack's Technique

In this work, two-dimensional inviscid supersonic flow around a wedge has been investigated using CFD scheme. The employed scheme is McCormack's predictor-corrector scheme. Our own code, CFMOD was written using MATLAB environment. Proper boundary conditions and the grid parameters were decided on the basis of standard techniques. The results are verified using classic theories for supersonic flows and a standard CFD package; Fluent. The proper grid generation around the airfoil was decided on the basis of numerical experimentation. Various flow parameters were found to be in good agreement with the results obtained from theory and Fluent.
Design and Implementation of the Second Extended Filesystem

Linux is a Unix-like operating system, which runs on PC-386 computers. It was implemented first as extension to the Minix operating system [Tanenbaum 1987] and its first versions included support for the Minix filesystem only. The Minix filesystem contains two serious limitations: block addresses are stored in 16 bit integers, thus the maximal filesystem size is restricted to 64 mega bytes, and directories contain fixed-size entries and the maximal file name is 14 characters.
Determining the True Polarity and Amplitude of Synaptic Currents Underlying Gamma Oscillations of Local Field Potentials

Fluctuations in successive waves of oscillatory local field potentials (LFPs) reflect the ongoing processing of neuron populations. However, their amplitude, polarity and synaptic origin are uncertain due to the blending of electric fields produced by multiple converging inputs, and the lack of a baseline in standard AC-coupled recordings. Consequently, the estimation of underlying currents by laminar analysis yields spurious sequences of inward and outward currents. We devised a combined analytical/experimental approach that is suitable to study laminated structures. The approach was essayed on an experimental oscillatory LFP as the Schaffer-CA1 gamma input in anesthetized rats, and it was verified by parallel processing of model LFPs obtained through a realistic CA1 aggregate of compartmental units. This approach requires laminar LFP recordings and the isolation of the oscillatory input from other converging pathways, which was achieved through an independent component analysis. It also allows the spatial and temporal components of pathway-specific LFPs to be separated. While reconstructed Schaffer-specific LFPs still show spurious inward/outward current sequences, these were clearly stratified into distinct subcellular domains. These spatial bands guided the localized delivery of neurotransmitter blockers in experiments. As expected, only Glutamate but not GABA blockers abolished Schaffer LFPs when applied to the active but not passive subcellular domains of pyramidal cells. The known chemical nature of the oscillatory LFP allowed an empirical offset of the temporal component of Schaffer LFPs, such that following reconstruction they yield only sinks or sources at the appropriate sites. In terms of number and polarity, some waves increased and others decreased proportional to the concomitant inputs in native multisynaptic LFPs. Interestingly, the processing also retrieved the initiation time for each wave, which can be used to discriminate afferent from postsynaptic cells in standard spike-phase correlations. The applicability of this approach to other pathways and structures is discussed.
Using the basic reproduction number to assess the risk of transmission of lumpy skin disease virus by biting insects

In recent years, lumpy skin disease virus (LSDV) has emerged as a major threat to cattle outside Africa, where it is endemic. Although evidence suggests that LSDV is transmitted by the bites of blood sucking arthropods, few studies have assessed the risk of transmission posed by particular vector species. Here this risk is assessed by calculating the basic reproduction number (R0) for transmission of LSDV by five species of biting insect: the stable fly, Stomoxys calcitrans, the biting midge, Culicoides nubeculosus, and three mosquito species, Aedes aegypti, Anopheles stephensi and Culex quinquefasciatus. Parameters relating to mechanical transmission of LSDV were estimated using new analyses of previously-published data from transmission experiments, while vector life history parameters were derived from the published literature. Uncertainty and sensitivity analyses were used to compute R0 for each species and to identify those parameters which influence its magnitude. Results suggest that S. calcitrans is likely to be the most efficient at transmitting LSDV, with Ae. aegypti also an efficient vector. By contrast, C. nubeculosus, An. stephensi, and Cx. quinquefasciatus are likely to be inefficient vectors of LSDV. However, there is considerable uncertainty associated with the estimates of R0, reflecting uncertainty in most of the constituent parameters. Sensitivity analysis suggests that future experimental work should focus on estimating the probability of transmission from insect to bovine and on the virus inactivation rate in insects.
Weaving the Semantic Link Network of Events

Event processing is a significant evolution in the field of information technology. Semantic link network (SLN) is a semantic data model for managing resources and their semantic relations. This paper proposes a two-layered SLN model for event processing: the matter level and the event level. The event SLN aims to record and manage the evolving process of the matter level. We propose a domain independent schema for the event SLN consisting of a set of primary link types and a set of reasoning rules. The model is useful in data encapsulating, knowledge retrieving, knowledge flow discovery, and intelligent applications for the internet of things.
What the 4-metre gait speed measures and why it cannot replace functional capacity tests

To the Editor: In a recent issue of the European Respiratory Journal , Kon et al. [1] explored the responsiveness of the 4-m gait speed (4MGS) test to pulmonary rehabilitation and provided its longitudinal modifications in a sample of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients. That article may be considered complementary to a previous one published by the same group of authors a few months ago, in which the reliability and validity of the physical performance test were determined in older persons referred to an outpatient respiratory clinic [2]. Consistent with previous evidence from different medical specialties and settings [3], the 4MGS was confirmed to be a robust, clinically friendly instrument capable of improving the patient’s assessment and monitoring over time. We strongly believe that both studies by Kon and co-workers [1, 2] are extremely interesting and meritorious for proposing the widely studied 4MGS test in the field of respiratory medicine. Nevertheless, in both contributions, the authors tend to present the 4MGS …
Topochemical Polymerization of C70 Controlled by Monomer Crystal Packing

Polymeric forms of C60 are now well known, but numerous attempts to obtain C70 in a polymeric state have yielded only dimers. Polymeric C70 has now been synthesized by treatment of hexagonally packed C70 single crystals under moderate hydrostatic pressure (2 gigapascals) at elevated temperature (300°C), which confirms predictions from our modeling of polymeric structures of C70. Single-crystal x-ray diffraction shows that the molecules are bridged into polymeric zigzag chains that extend along the c axis of the parent structure. Solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance and Raman data provide evidence for covalent chemical bonding between the C70 cages.
ABOUT EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND LEADERSHIP

This article is, because of its topic of study, a part of management and includes details regarding the important role of emotional intelligence in management and leadership. The importance of this problem is related to the fact that, in Romanian management, this concept (being of a psycho-management nature), is poorly understood. Emotional intelligence is still a highly publicized concept in the West, subject to many controversies between recognized experts in various fields: organizational management, leadership, psychology, sociology. The target of the article is to highlight the fact that there are few management or recruitment consulting firms in Romania that support emotional intelligence development programs, and fewer are the organizations that realize the impact it has in running a business. Since 1995, from the first publication of Daniel Goleman\'s book, \"Emotional intelligence\", EQ has become one of the most debated concepts in U.S management. The content of the article calls for a new business climate, ensuring professional excellence. We want this to be \"a guide\" in cultivating emotional intelligence in individuals, groups and organizations, through leadership, trying to validate the scientific aspect. Because we live in a time when future projects depend increasingly more on self-control and on the art with which we know to maintain interpersonal relationships, such guidelines are necessary to prevent future challenges. The contribution of the authors brings to the forefront the debate about management, behavior management, the concept of emotional intelligence and the importance of understanding, knowing its substance, and the manner in which the management process has to be adopted in order to achieve positive results in an organization, as a system. Businessmen with a preemptive mind will encourage and support such an education in business, not only to improve the quality of management in their organization but also for the vitality of the economy. Thus, the benefits will increase, not only for a new generation of managers, but also for our families and communities, and for society as a whole.
The Influence of Climate Change on Atmospheric Deposition of Mercury in the Arctic—A Model Sensitivity Study

Mercury (Hg) is a global pollutant with adverse health effects on humans and wildlife. It is of special concern in the Arctic due to accumulation in the food web and exposure of the Arctic population through a rich marine diet. Climate change may alter the exposure of the Arctic population to Hg. We have investigated the effect of climate change on the atmospheric Hg transport to and deposition within the Arctic by making a sensitivity study of how the atmospheric chemistry-transport model Danish Eulerian Hemispheric Model (DEHM) reacts to climate change forcing. The total deposition of Hg to the Arctic is 18% lower in the 2090s compared to the 1990s under the applied Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES-A1B) climate scenario. Asia is the major anthropogenic source area (25% of the deposition to the Arctic) followed by Europe (6%) and North America (5%), with the rest arising from the background concentration, and this is independent of the climate. DEHM predicts between a 6% increase (Status Quo scenario) and a 37% decrease (zero anthropogenic emissions scenario) in Hg deposition to the Arctic depending on the applied emission scenario, while the combined effect of future climate and emission changes results in up to 47% lower Hg deposition.
Optimal Transmission Switching With Contingency Analysis

In this paper, we analyze the N-1 reliable dc optimal dispatch with transmission switching. The model is a mixed integer program (MIP) with binary variables representing the state of the transmission element (line or transformer) and the model can be used for planning and/or operations. We then attempt to find solutions to this problem using the IEEE 118-bus and the RTS 96 system test cases. The IEEE 118-bus test case is analyzed at varying load levels. Using simple heuristics, we demonstrate that these networks can be operated to satisfy N-1 standards while cutting costs by incorporating transmission switching into the dispatch. In some cases, the percent savings from transmission switching was higher with an N-1 DCOPF formulation than with a DCOPF formulation.