Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Can a systems biology approach unlock the mysteries of Kawasaki disease?

Kawasaki disease (KD) is a systemic inflammatory illness of childhood that particularly affects the coronary arteries. It can lead to coronary artery aneurysms, myocardial infarction, and sudden death. Clinical and epidemiologic data support an infectious cause, and the etiology remains unknown, but recent data support infection with a ‘new’ virus. Genetic factors influence KD susceptibility; the incidence is 10‐fold higher in children of Asian when compared with Caucasian ethnicity. Recent research has identified genes affecting immune response that are associated with KD susceptibility and outcome. A re‐examination of the pathologic features of KD has yielded a three process model of KD vasculopathy, providing a framework for understanding the KD arterial immune response and the damage it inflicts and for identifying new therapeutic targets for KD patients with coronary artery abnormalities. The researcher is faced with many challenges in determining the pathogenesis of KD. A systems biology approach incorporating genomics, proteomics, transcriptomics, and microbial bioinformatics analysis of high‐throughput sequence data from KD tissues could provide the keys to unlocking the mysteries of this potentially fatal illness of childhood. WIREs Syst Biol Med 2013, 5:221–229. doi: 10.1002/wsbm.1202
Effects of Colchicine on Pelvic Adhesions Associated With the Intrauterine Inoculation of Neisseria gonorrhoeae in Rabbits

Objective: To determine whether colchicine, an antiinflammatory drug, is effective in reducing adhesion formation in a rabbit model in which pelvic inflammation was produced by injection of a suspension of Neisseria gonorrhoeae into the uterine horn. Methods: Following inoculation, the rabbits were divided into four groups of 11 animals each. The control group received 1 mL saline intramuscularly (IM) for 14 days. Another group received one 100-mg dose of ceftriaxone IM 2-4 hours after inoculation. The third group received one 100-mg dose of ceftriaxone IM 2-4 hours after inoculation and 1 mg colchicine IM daily for 14 days. The fourth group received 1 mg colchicine IM daily for 14 days. The day after the last injection of colchicine, the rabbits were sacrificed and the abdominal cavities were explored to determine the number and grade of adhesions. Results: The incidence of adhesions in the control group was similar to that in the antibiotic-treated group, suggesting that antibiotics do not prevent adhesions in this model. Similarly, the incidence of adhesions in the colchicine and antibiotic group was not different from that in the group receiving colchicine alone. However, the colchicine-treated groups had significantly fewer adhesions than the groups not treated with colchicine (P<.0005). Conclusions: In this model, antibiotics alone did not prevent the formation of adhesions. Colchicine, alone or in combination with antibiotics, was effective in preventing bacteria-induced pelvic adhesions. Therefore, colchicine may offer a novel approach to the prevention of adhesions associated with pelvic inflammatory disease in women. (Obstet Gynecol 1993;81:118-21)
The Aggregate and Residential Electricity Demand in Indonesia

This paper presents an empirical analysis on electricity demand in Indonesia applying a double-log demand equation for aggregate and residential. This propose s static and dynamic model s employing fixed effects and bias-corrected least square dummy variable estimators, respectively. Particular attention is paid to the effects of income, price, and the numbers of customers. The paper concludes that all regressors function as the determinants of electricity consumption. P rice elasticities are inelastically negative as expected , and further, profound in elastic for residential . Meanwhile, income level and the number of customers are quite elastic for both model s. In addition, interregional analysis reports the differential impacts of the price on energy consumption between Java Bali and non-Java Bali regions, showing less responsiveness of consumption to price in Java Bali. The long-run estimates give information on modest values of price elasticities for aggregate and residential. From an energy policy point of view, electricity price would be moderately effective in achieving efficiency and conservation programs. On the other hand, it give s an economic rationale for tariff adjustment and region-based tariff restructuring.
Stimulatory effect of undecylenic acid on mouse osteoblast differentiation

Natural compounds with bone‐forming (or anabolic) activity have been recently focused on in bone research. The present study investigated the effect of undecylenic acid (UA) on osteoblast differentiation in mouse osteoblastic MC3T3‐E1 subclone 4 cells and primary mouse calvarial cells. Low concentrations of UA (up to 5 μM) exhibited no cytotoxicity and significantly increased the expression and activity of alkaline phosphatase (early differentiation marker of osteoblast) and calcium deposition with the induction of expression of the osteocalcin gene in both cells. Interestingly, at low concentration of UA, the induction of NF‐κB p65 translocation into nucleus and the up‐regulation of AP‐1 and NFATc1 transcript levels were also observed, suggesting that the stimulatory effect of UA on osteoblast differentiation could be mediated through the activation of transcription factors. Additionally, although the patterns of UA‐induced activation of MAP kinases (JNK and p38) were not completely consistent with the increase of both ALP activity and calcium deposition by UA, MAP kinases might be partially involved in the biological function of UA during the early and late stages of osteoblast differentiation. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Computer analysis of maternal–fetal heart rate recordings during labor in relation with maternal–fetal attachment and prediction of newborn acidemia

Abstract Objective: To assess combined maternal (MHR) and fetal heart rate (FHR) recordings during labor, in relation with maternal–fetal attachment and prediction of newborn acidemia. Study design: Fifty-nine simultaneous MHR and FHR recordings were acquired in the final minutes of labor. Computer analysis followed the FIGO guidelines with estimation of MHR and FHR baselines, accelerations, decelerations, short- (STV) and long-term variabilities. MHR and FHR characteristics, their differences and correlations were assessed in relation to labor progression and to newborn umbilical artery blood (UAB) pH lower than 7.15 and 7.20. To assess prediction of acidemia, areas under ROC curves (auROC) were calculated. Results: Progression of labor was associated with a significant increase in MHR accelerations and FHR decelerations both in the non-acidemic and acidemic fetuses (p < 0.01). At the same time there was an increase in MHR–FHR correlations and differences in accelerations and decelerations in acidemic fetuses. The auROC ranged between 0.50 for FHR accelerations and 0.77 for MHR baseline plus FHR STV. Conclusions: MHR and FHR respond differently during labor with signs of increased maternal–fetal attachment during labor progression in acidemic fetuses. Combined MHR–FHR analysis may help to improve prediction of newborn acidemia compared with FHR analysis alone.
Met-enkephalin secretion from mixed cultures of hypothalamic neurons and astrocytes.

Release of the endogenous opioid pentapeptide, met-enkephalin, from primary cultures of dissociated fetal rat hypothalamic cells was studied using an assay system which could both measure and differentiate between free met-enkephalin and the larger enkephalin-containing peptides (ECPs), which are the processing intermediates of the enkephalin precursor. The cultures were maintained in fully defined, serum-free medium and contained both neurons and astrocytes. Free met-enkephalin was secreted from the cultures in significant quantities in response to nonspecific depolarisation with 56 mM potassium, by a mechanism dependent upon extracellular calcium. Under basal conditions, barely detectable amounts of free peptide were released, whereas ECPs were secreted in significant quantities which were not reduced by the removal of extracellular calcium. As the period of culture increased, so did the quantitative importance of this constitutive ECP secretion, relative to the stimulated release of free peptide. Treatment of the cultures with the cytotoxic agent, cytosine arabinoside, attenuated this temporal increase of ECP secretion, whilst leaving the stimulated release of free met-enkephalin relatively unaffected. This suggested that the met-enkephalin secretion seen within the cultures reflected the presence of at least two distinct enkephalinergic cell types and that the change in the nature of the secreted enkephalin was at least in part, due to the proliferation of one of these cell populations. These results are consistent with secretion of met-enkephalin from both neurons and astrocytes within these cultures. We propose that the neurons secreted essentially fully processed peptide in a regulated manner, whilst the mitotic glial cells constitutively secreted non- or partially processed precursor peptides. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Overlapped block-based adaptive bilateral motion estimation

Frame rate up conversion has been discussed for several years. Especially in the emerge of large-size LCD display devices, frame rate up conversion erase the motion blur caused by liquid crystal rotation. Among existing techniques, frame rate up conversion by motion compensation is more and more popular. In this paper, a novel frame rate up conversion method, overlapped block-based adaptive bilateral motion estimation, is proposed combining adaptive sum of bilateral absolute difference and overlapped block motion estimation. Based on the analysis of block size transition, smaller block size compensation is applied while the search block size is large. According to the experiment results, the proposed work outperforms existing work by 6.25 dB on average. This concludes a high video quality frame rate up converter design.
Prediagnosis soy food consumption and lung cancer survival in women.

PURPOSE We recently reported an inverse association between soy food intake and lung cancer risk among nonsmoking women. The effect size for aggressive lung cancers was larger than that observed for other types of lung cancer. Therefore, we hypothesized that soy consumption may favorably affect the overall survival of patients with lung cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS This analysis included 444 women with incident lung cancer identified from the Shanghai Women's Health Study. Prediagnosis soy food intake was assessed at enrollment and reassessed 2 years later. Proportional hazards models were used to evaluate the association between soy food intake and overall survival. RESULTS Of the 444 patients with lung cancer, 318 died during follow-up. Initial analyses including all patients showed that higher intake of soy food was associated with better overall survival after adjusting for demographic and lifestyle characteristics and other nonclinical factors. Larger effect sizes for the association were found after additional adjustment for tumor stage and treatment in analyses including 301 patients with data available on these clinical factors. Compared with the median intake of soy food, fully adjusted hazard ratios for total mortality associated with the 10th, 30th, 70th, and 90th percentiles of intake were 1.81 (95% CI, 1.26 to 2.59), 1.25 (95% CI, 1.09 to 1.42), 0.88 (95% CI, 0.80 to 0.97), and 0.89 (95% CI, 0.68 to 1.16), respectively. Similar inverse associations were observed for dietary isoflavone intake. CONCLUSION This study suggests, to the best of our knowledge for the first time, that, among women with lung cancer, prediagnosis intake of soy food is associated with better overall survival.
Qualitative policies for bandwidth priorities in ad-hoc networks

The Analytic Hierarchic Process (AHP) is used for presenting a method for setting up policies that define priorities among services sharing a limited measure of bandwidth in an ad-hoc radio network. We examine the issue of ensuring the autonomy of the users of the bandwidth, as well as the issue of ensuring that the priority policies result in efficient bandwidth usage even when the priority decisions involve uncertainty about the dynamics of the network and the services.
Involvement of Nucleotide Excision Repair in a Recombination-Independent and Error-Prone Pathway of DNA Interstrand Cross-Link Repair

ABSTRACT DNA interstrand cross-links (ICLs) block the strand separation necessary for essential DNA functions such as transcription and replication and, hence, represent an important class of DNA lesion. Since both strands of the double helix are affected in cross-linked DNA, it is likely that conservative recombination using undamaged homologous regions as a donor may be required to repair ICLs in an error-free manner. However, in Escherichia coli and yeast, recombination-independent mechanisms of ICL repair have been identified in addition to recombinational repair pathways. To study the repair mechanisms of interstrand cross-links in mammalian cells, we developed an in vivo reactivation assay to examine the removal of interstrand cross-links in cultured cells. A site-specific psoralen cross-link was placed between the promoter and the coding region to inactivate the expression of green fluorescent protein or luciferase genes from reporter plasmids. By monitoring the reactivation of the reporter gene, we showed that a single defined psoralen cross-link was removed in repair-proficient cells in the absence of undamaged homologous sequences, suggesting the existence of an ICL repair pathway that is independent of homologous recombination. Mutant cell lines deficient in the nucleotide excision repair pathway were examined and found to be highly defective in the recombination-independent repair of ICLs, while mutants deficient in homologous recombination were found to be proficient. Mutation analysis of plasmids recovered from transfected cells showed frequent base substitutions at or near positions opposing a cross-linked thymidine residue. Based on these results, we suggest a distinct pathway for DNA interstrand cross-link repair involving nucleotide excision repair and a putative lesion bypass mechanism.
Increased risk of attempted suicide in Australian veterans is associated with total and permanent incapacitation, unemployment and posttraumatic stress disorder severity

Background: Military veterans have higher rates of suicidality and completed suicides compared to the general population. Previous research has demonstrated suicidal behaviour is higher in US combat veterans who are younger, suffer from posttraumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety and score lower on measures of health. However, research on predictors of suicide for Australian veterans is limited. The aim of this study was to identify significant demographic and psychological differences between veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder who had attempted suicide and those with posttraumatic stress disorder who had not, as well as determine predictors of suicide attempts within an Australian cohort. Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted on 229 ex-service personnel diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder who had attended a Military Service Trauma Recovery Day Program as outpatients at Toowong Private Hospital from 2007 to 2014. Patients completed a battery of mental health self-report questionnaires assessing symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder, alcohol use, anger, depression, anxiety and quality of life. Demographic information and self-reported history of suicide attempts were also recorded. Results: Results indicated the average age was significantly lower, and the rates of posttraumatic stress disorder, anger, anxiety and depression symptoms were significantly higher in those veterans with history of a suicide attempt. Multivariate logistic regression analyses indicated posttraumatic stress disorder symptom severity, unemployment or total and permanent incapacity pension status significantly predicted suicide attempt history. Conclusion: Among a cohort of Australian veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder, psychopathology severity, unemployment and total and permanent incapacity status are significantly associated with suicidality. This study highlights the importance of early identification of posttraumatic stress disorder and psychopathology, therapeutic and social engagement, and prioritisation of tangible employment options or meaningful and goal-directed activities for veterans deemed unable to work.
Poly[[diaquabis(μ-oxalato-κ4 O 1,O 2:O 1′,O 2′)bis(μ3-5-oxidopyridin-1-ium-3-carboxylato-κ3 O 3:O 3′:O 5)diholmium(III)] dihydrate]

In the title compound, {[Ho2(C6H4NO3)2(C2O4)2(H2O)2]·2H2O}n, the HoIII atom is coordinated by three O atoms from three 5-hydroxynicotinate ligands, four O atoms from two oxalate ligands, each lying on an inversion center, and one water molecule in a distorted square-antiprismatic geometry. The 5-hydroxynicotinate ligand is protonated at the N atom and deprotonated at the hydroxy group. The HoIII atoms are bridged by the carboxylate and phenolate O atoms, forming a three-dimensional framework. N—H⋯O and O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds, as well as π–π interactions between the pyridine rings [centroid–centroid distance = 3.794 (2) Å], are observed.
Do the Markov Switching-based Hybrid Models Perform Better in Forecasting Exchange Rates?

ABSTRACT In this study, we extend the traditional monetary model and the random walk model with Markov-switching method and propose two new forecasting models called the Markov switching monetary model (MSMM) and Markov switching random walk model (MSRW). Then, we evaluate the forecasting ability of these two new mixed models, MSMM and MSRW, and compare their performance with the traditional pure monetary model and pure Random walk model based on Mean Squared Forecast Error and Mean Absolute Forecast Error. The results show that the two hybrid models significantly improve the forecasting ability compared with the two traditional models in most scenarios. Moreover, we reexamine the role of data frequency in determining the number of regimes and in affecting the accuracy of forecast evaluation with different data frequency.
A Bayesian model for system level reliability estimation

Nowadays, the scientific community is looking for ways to understand the effect of software execution on the reliability of a complex system when the hardware layer is unreliable. This paper proposes a statistical reliability analysis model able to estimate system reliability considering both the hardware and the software layer of a system. Bayesian Networks are employed to model hardware resources of the processor and instructions of program traces. They are exploited to investigate the probability of input errors to alter both the correct behavior and the output of the program. Experimental results show that Bayesian networks prove to be a promising model, allowing to get accurate and fast reliability estimations w.r. t. fault injection/simulation approaches.
Preparatory attention in visual cortex

Top‐down attention is the mechanism that allows us to selectively process goal‐relevant aspects of a scene while ignoring irrelevant aspects. A large body of research has characterized the effects of attention on neural activity evoked by a visual stimulus. However, attention also includes a preparatory phase before stimulus onset in which the attended dimension is internally represented. Here, we review neurophysiological, functional magnetic resonance imaging, magnetoencephalography, electroencephalography, and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) studies investigating the neural basis of preparatory attention, both when attention is directed to a location in space and when it is directed to nonspatial stimulus attributes (content‐based attention) ranging from low‐level features to object categories. Results show that both spatial and content‐based attention lead to increased baseline activity in neural populations that selectively code for the attended attribute. TMS studies provide evidence that this preparatory activity is causally related to subsequent attentional selection and behavioral performance. Attention thus acts by preactivating selective neurons in the visual cortex before stimulus onset. This appears to be a general mechanism that can operate on multiple levels of representation. We discuss the functional relevance of this mechanism, its limitations, and its relation to working memory, imagery, and expectation. We conclude by outlining open questions and future directions.
Cryogenic electronics in advanced sensor systems

Cryogenic Electronics technologies are discussed from the standpoint of meeting sensor performance requirements. Capabilities that are provided by cryogenic electronics are described. Radar and Electronic Warfare (EW) Systems requirements are based on the need to detect and track targets in the presence of clutter and jamming signals. Radars must transmit high fidelity signals, and receive returns with high fidelity and wide dynamic range for Doppler Processing, to discriminate targets from clutter and jamming. Requirements are translated into radar specifications: transmitter, receiver, antenna array, and other components must produce low phase noise. The receiver and analog to digital converter (ADC) need wide linear dynamic range. HTS technology provides key devices to achieve phase noise supression and large signal dynamic range. Examples include: HTS resonators generate stable reference signals in the radar; switchable preselectors remove out of band jamming; HTS circuits enable digital to analog converters (DACs) and ADCs to provide direct synthesis of complex waveforms and digitization of received signals. EW System requirements are high dynamic range reception, and real-time signal processing; they must be wide-band and recognize a diverse set of waveforms. An HTS switchable preselector and delay line provide the front end for an advanced EW receiver and processor. The application of HTS technology to Radar and EW Systems will be addressed, and progress to date in development of analog and digital HTS devices will be described. <<ETX>>
Power Electronics and Control of Renewable Energy Systems

The global electrical energy consumption is still rising and there is a demand to double the power capacity within 20 years. The production, distribution and use of energy should be as technological efficient as possible and incentives to save energy at the end-user should also be set up. Deregulation of energy has in the past lowered the investment in larger power plants, which means the need for new electrical power sources may be very high in the near future. Two major technologies will play important roles to solve the future problems. One is to change the electrical power production sources from the conventional, fossil (and short term) based energy sources to renewable energy resources. Another is to use high efficient power electronics in power generation, power transmission/distribution and end-user application. This paper discuss some of the most emerging renewable energy sources, wind energy and photovoltaics, which by means of power electronics are changing from being minor energy sources to be acting as important power sources in the energy system.