Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Embryonic Chicken Trachea as a New In Vitro Model for the Investigation of Mucociliary Particle Clearance in the Airways

Mucociliary clearance (MC) is an important defense mechanism of the respiratory system to eliminate inhaled and possibly noxious particles from the lung. Although the principal mechanics of MC seem to be relatively clear there are still open questions regarding the long-term clearance of particles. Therefore, we have developed a new set-up based on embryonic chicken trachea (ECT) to investigate mucociliary particle clearance in more detail. ECT was placed in an incubation chamber after carbon particles were applied and tracked using optical microscopy. The aim of the study was to validate this model by investigating the impact of temperature, humidity and drugs on particle transport rates. Particles were transported reproducibly along the trachea and clearance velocity (2.39 ± 0.25) mm/min was found to be in accordance to data reported in literature. Variation in temperature resulted in significantly reduced MC: (0.40 ± 0.12) mm/min (20 °C); (0.42 ± 0.10) mm/min (45 °C). Decreasing humidity (99–60%) had no significant effect on MC, whereas reduction to 20% humidity showed a significant influence on particle clearance. The use of different cilio- and muco-active drugs (Propranolol, Terbutalin, N-acetylcysteine) resulted in altered MC according to the pharmacological effect of the substances: a concentration dependent decrease of MC was found for Propranolol. From our results we conclude that this model can be employed to investigate MC of particles in more detail. Hence, the model may help to understand and identify decisive physico-chemical parameters for MC and to answer open questions regarding the long-term clearance phenomenon.
Change detection in heterogeneous remote sensing images based on the fusion of pixel transformation

A new change detection method for heterogeneous remote sensing images (i.e. SAR & optics) has been proposed via pixel transformation. It is difficult to directly compare the pixels from heterogeneous images for detecting changes. We propose to transfer the pixels in different images to a common feature space for convenience of comparison. For each pixel in the 1st image, it will be transferred to the 2nd feature space associated with the 2nd image according to the given unchanged pixel pairs. In fact, this transformation is done assuming that the pixel is not affected by the events. Then the difference value between the estimation of transferred pixel and the actual one in the same location of the 2nd image can be calculated. The bigger difference value, the higher possibility of change happening. We can similarly do the opposite transformation from the 2nd image to the 1st image, and one more difference value is obtained in the 1st feature space. Change occurrences will be detected using Fuzzy C-means clustering method based on the sum of two difference values. The flood detection in the SAR and optical images is given in the experiments, and it shows that the proposed method is able to efficiently detect changes.
Volatility Forecasting in Futures Markets: A Statistical and Value-at-Risk Evaluation

Volatility forecasting has paramount importance in position sizing and risk management of CTAs. In this paper we examine the out-of-sample forecasts of widely used volatility estimators for the S&P 500 and the 10-Year US Note from a statistical and Value-at-Risk perspective. Although we do not find evidence for a volatility estimator that is statistically superior, we show that the volatility process of each asset is different with asymmetric GARCH models generating superior forecasts for the S&P 500, whereas symmetric GARCH, the Yang-Zhang estimator along with the implied volatility forecasting better the 10-Year US Note volatility. We also show that the volatility of the 10-Year US Note is more forecastable than that of the S&P 500 producing smaller errors. More importantly, we find that improving the volatility forecast can generate superior VaR estimates that can be accurate under the normal distribution failing only at the lowest quantiles mainly because the distribution is mispecified and badly approximated by the normal. Semi-parametric QML-GARCH models that use the empirical quantiles of the distribution along with GARCH forecasts address that issue and generate superior VaR estimates outperforming all other methods.
A new baseband equivalent model for sense mode dynamics and its effects on force-feedback controller design for MEMS gyroscopes

This paper introduces a new baseband equivalent model for the sense mode dynamics of a MEMS gyroscope providing a more accurate force-feedback controller design applicable to high-performance sensors with a small frequency separation between drive and sense modes. This new baseband equivalent model for sense dynamics correctly models the step response of the system allowing both “true prediction of the system bandwidth”, with an error less than 1%, and “proper control of the transient behavior” such as ringing, settling time, etc. It has also been demonstrated that the designed force-feedback controller based on the new model improves the angle random walk and bias stability performance of a MEMS gyroscope by a factor of 9 and 3, respectively, compared to the same controller architecture design based on the conventional over-simplified sense dynamic model.
Periacetabular Osteotomy: the Bernese Experience

The first periacetabular osteotomy was performed in April 1984. More than 700 osteotomies have been performed since then at our institute. Increasing experience over the years has resulted in the addition of several new aspects with respect to patient assessment, indications for surgery, surgical exposure, and evaluation of acetabular reorientation. Some of the issues have been addressed in previous reports and will now be correlated with our recently published results of the first seventy-five periacetabular osteotomies1,2. The first seventy‐five periacetabular osteotomies were performed in sixty-three patients between April 1984 and December 1987. The male:female ratio was 1:3.4, and the average age was 29.3 years (range, thirteen to fifty-six years). An underlying neurological disease was found in six hip joints, a posttraumatic acetabular deficiency was found in two, and a proximal femoral focal dysplasia was seen in another two. Twenty‐three hip joints (31 percent) had undergone previous surgery because of dysplasia (Table I). Thirty-seven hips (49 percent) were classified as having group-III dysplasia (dysplasia without subluxation of the femoral head) according to the Severin system3. Thirty‐three hips (44 percent) were classified as group IV (with femoral head subluxation); four hips (5 percent), as group V (a secondary acetabulum); and one hip (1 percent), as group II. All patients presented with pain at the time of surgery, and fifty-five (73 percent) of the hips restricted the patients’ ability to walk. View this table: TABLE I: Previous Operations on Twenty-three Affected Hip Joints Radiographic evaluations were performed on a standard anteroposterior pelvic radiograph and a false-profile radiograph according to the technique described by Lequesne and de Seze4. The dysplasia was measured on the basis of the lateral center-edge angle of Wiberg5, the anterior center-edge angle of Lequesne and de Seze4, and the acetabular index described by Tonnis6 …
Lung Model Parameter Estimation by Unscented Kalman Filter

Dynamic nonlinear models are the best choice to analyze respiratory systems and to describe system mechanics. In this work, unscented Kalman filtering (UKF) was used to estimate the dynamic nonlinear model parameters of the lung model by using the measured airway flow, mask pressure and integrated lung volume. Artificially generated data and the data from chronic obstructive pulmonary diseased (COPD) patients were analyzed by the proposed model and the proposed UKF algorithm. Simulation results for both cases demonstrated that UKF is a promising estimation method for the respiratory system analysis.
Brief announcement: multilane - a concurrent blocking multiset

We introduce an extremely simple transformation that allows composition of a more scalable concurrent blocking multiset, or bag, from multiple "lanes" of a potentially less scalable underlying multiset. Our design disperses accesses over the various lanes, reducing contention and memory coherence hot spots. Implemented in Java, for instance, we construct a multiset from multiple lanes of java.util. concurrent.SynchronousQueue that yields more than 8 times the aggregate throughput of a single instance of SynchronousQueue when run on a 64-way Sun Niagara-2 system with 16 producer threads and 16 consumer threads. We experimented with various queues from java.util. conconcurrent and found that in general a MultiLane form will outperform its underlying counterpart.
Estimation of soil hydraulic parameters by integrated hydrogeophysical inversion of time-lapse GPR data measured at Selhausen, Germany

We present an integrated hydrogeophysical inversion approach that uses time-lapse off-ground ground-penetrating radar (GPR) data to estimate soil hydraulic parameters, and apply it to a dataset collected in the field. Off-ground GPR data are mainly sensitive to the near-surface water content profile and dynamics, and are thus related to soil hydraulic parameters, such as the parameters of the hydraulic conductivity and water retention functions. The hydrological simulator HYDRUS 1-D was used with a two-layer single- and dual-porosity model. To monitor the soil water content dynamics, time-lapse GPR and time domain reflectometry (TDR) measurements were performed, whereby only GPR data was used in the inversion. The dual porosity model provided better results compared to the single porosity model for describing the soil water dynamics, which is supported by field observations of macropores. Furthermore, the GPR-derived water content profiles reconstructed from the integrated hydrogeophysical inversion were in good agreement with TDR observations. These results suggest that the proposed method is promising for non-invasive characterization of the shallow subsurface hydraulic properties and monitoring water dynamics at the field scale.
Metabolic Syndrome and Ischemic Heart Disease in Gout

Background:For decades, gout has been associated with several metabolic abnormalities and with ischemic heart disease (IHD). Objective:Our aim was to determine the prevalence of metabolic syndrome by Adult Treatment Panel III criteria (ATP III) and ischemic heart disease (IHD) by electrocardiogram (EKG) and/or single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) in patients with gout. Methods:We included 64 consecutive outpatients with primary gout, but no history of IHD, attending our clinic for the first time. Demographic and clinical data were recorded and resting electrocardiogram, lipid profile, fasting insulin, and SPECT with Tc sestamibi were performed. Metabolic syndrome was defined according to ATP III criteria (≥3 of the following data: 1) hyperglycemia (fasting glucose ≥110 mg/dL) or previous diagnosis of diabetes mellitus, 2) hypertension (≥130/85 mm Hg) or previous diagnosis, 3) high-density lipoprotein (HDL) <40 mg/dL (men) or <50 mg/dL (women), 4) triglycerides ≥150 mg/dL, and 5) obesity. Results:IHD was diagnosed in 10 patients (16%); 2 had EKG changes compatible with previous silent myocardial necrosis and the other 8 had abnormal SPECT. The prevalence of metabolic syndrome was 82%, all patients had at least 1 metabolic abnormality, but all the patients with IHD had metabolic syndrome (3 criteria according with ATP III). Patients with IHD differed from those without IHD in the percentage of HDL levels <40 mg/dL (100% vs. 82%; P = 0.05) as well as glucose and insulin levels in the fasting state (129.3 ± 6.1 mg/dL vs. 92.7 ± 16.7 mg/dL; P = 0.000; and 21.1 ± 6.0 vs. 17.5 ± 8.6 UI/mL; P = 0.03) and low-density lipoproteins (143.9 ± 21.3 mg/dL vs. 118.2 ± 47.7 mg/dL; P = 0.014). In contrast, serum creatinine and urea (1.02 ± 0.13 mg/dL vs. 1.5 ± 1.5 mg/dL; P = 0.024; and 33.9 ± 9.3 mg/dL vs. 48.7 ± 46.1 mg/dL; P = 0.039) and creatinine clearance <50 mL/min (10% vs. 37%; P = 0.06) were higher in patients without IHD. Conclusions:In this work, metabolic syndrome was very common among patients with gout. Sixteen percent of the patients, although previously asymptomatic, had IHD, they all had metabolic syndrome. Gouty patients frequently first seek medical care from a rheumatologist. The rheumatologist can have an important role in detecting metabolic syndrome and risk factors for cardiovascular disease.
‘Cultural proximity’ as a determinant of destination image

This article studies the effect of ‘cultural proximity’ on the way tourists perceive North Portugal as a rural holiday destination. Based on results of a one-year-long survey (N= 2280), the author questions if there is a relationship ‘the culturally closer the tourist, the better destination image’, as expected when following assumptions from product[destination]-self-congruity theory. Eventual moderating effects of Plog’s ‘psycho-graphic traveler type’ are also studied. Results confirm an impact of ‘cultural proximity’ on destination image, however not exactly in the direction indicated by product-self-congruity theory. Indeed, those visitors that are neither closest nor most distant in terms of ‘cultural proximity’ reveal the most positive destination image. The need most tourists feel for a balance between novelty and familiarity, as suggested by some researchers, appears as a reasonable explanation of these findings.
UNESCO and Unidroit: a Partnership against Trafficking in Cultural Objects

The subject of illicit traffic in cultural objects arouses high emotions – nor were these lacking in negotiations for the new UNIDROIT Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects. Strong feelings sometimes distort the view of those affected by them: during the eight years of active negotiation various views were expressed about the relationship between UNESCO and UNIDROIT on this topic which were quite mistaken. For example, it was said by some that the initiative for a UNIDROIT Convention on the topic was a manoeuvre by “art importing” countries to weaken the UNESCO Convention. Others thought that the negotiations were a kind of extension of the UNESCO Convention at the behest of the “exporting” States. Some thought that the UNESCO Convention of 1970 and the developing UNIDROIT text were incompatible, and many were curious as to the views of UNESCO on it. The reality was quite different to any of these assumptions. It was at UNESCO’s request that UNIDROIT took up the matter of illicit traffic in cultural movables. Illicit traffic is an enormously complex problem. UNESCO knew this very well since it had been active against the practice since its early days. The Protocol to the Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict (the Hague Convention) 1954 controls the removal and illegal export of cultural property from occupied territory. There are currently 73 States Parties to the Protocol, including a number of European States with substantial art markets and collecting interests such as Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland. In view of the amount of cultural property taken in recent conflicts in Afghanistan, Cambodia, from the occupied area of Cyprus, from Iraq, Kuwait and territories once part of the former Yugoslavia, this Protocol remains highly relevant. Already this instrument raised important questions of both public and private law: indeed it was the insistence of some States on maintaining the separation between public and private law which led to the relegation of the repatriation provisions to a Protocol, rather than their inclusion in the main text of the Convention. In 1970 the General Conference of UNESCO adopted the UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property 1970 which deals with theft and illegal export generally. There are currently 82 States Parties to that Convention. During the negotiations the differences in private law between systems which protected the “good faith” acquirer
Embeded fusion of visual and acoustic for active acoustic source detection with SGGMM

In this paper, we investigate the problem of reliable detection and localization of active sound source using a new fusion approach of the vision and the acoustic data. The usefulness of the solution is fundamental for both video surveillance and video conference systems. In this aim, we propose combining the two heterogeneous modalities of data by augmenting the 3-D vector of RGB colors used by the Spatially Global Gaussians Mixture Model (SGGMM) for background modeling and segmentation using the acoustic Data. The proposed model provides accurate detection of the targets of interest and evaluation results using an implementation version on wireless sensors network (WSN) of the fusion approach shows performance improvement of the proposed detection and localization solution. This technique enabled a better detection of the moving acoustic source in comparison with the SGGMM only.
CHRNA5 variants moderate the effect of nicotine deprivation on a neural index of cognitive control

Individuals with reduced attention and memory cognitive control‐related processes may be motivated to smoke as a result of the cognitive enhancing effects of nicotine. Further, nicotine deprivation‐induced reductions in cognitive control may negatively reinforce smoking. Minor allele carriers at rs16969968 in the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor α5 subunit gene (CHRNA5) have been shown to exhibit both reduced cognitive control and greater nicotine dependence. It is therefore of interest to see if variants in this gene moderate the influence of nicotine deprivation on cognitive control. P3b and P3a components of the event‐related brain potential waveform evoked by a three‐stimulus visual oddball task are widely viewed as positive indices of cognitive control‐related processes. We tested the hypothesis that individuals possessing at least one minor allele at rs16969968 in CHRNA5 would show greater nicotine deprivation‐induced reductions in P3b and P3a amplitude. The sample included 72 non‐Hispanic, Caucasian heavy smokers (54 men and 18 women) with a mean age of 36.11 years (SD = 11.57). Participants completed the visual oddball task during counterbalanced nicotine and placebo smoking sessions. Findings indicated that rs16969968 status did not moderate nicotine effects on P3b or P3a, whereas variation in other CHRNA5 polymorphisms, which are not as well characterized and are not in linkage disequilibrium with rs16969968, predicted nicotine deprivation‐induced reduction of P3a amplitude: rs588765 (F1,68 = 7.74, P = 0.007) and rs17408276 (F1,67 = 7.34, P = 0.009). Findings are interpreted in the context of vulnerability alleles that may predict nicotine effects on cognitive control.
Upcycling Waste Lard Oil into Vertical Graphene Sheets by Inductively Coupled Plasma Assisted Chemical Vapor Deposition

Vertical graphene (VG) sheets were single-step synthesized via inductively coupled plasma (ICP)-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) using waste lard oil as a sustainable and economical carbon source. Interweaved few-layer VG sheets, H2, and other hydrocarbon gases were obtained after the decomposition of waste lard oil. The influence of parameters such as temperature, gas proportion, ICP power was investigated to tune the nanostructures of obtained VG, which indicated that a proper temperature and H2 concentration was indispensable for the synthesis of VG sheets. Rich defects of VG were formed with a high ID/IG ratio (1.29), consistent with the dense edges structure observed in electron microscopy. Additionally, the morphologies, crystalline degree, and wettability of nanostructure carbon induced by PECVD and ICP separately were comparatively analyzed. The present work demonstrated the potential of our PECVD recipe to synthesize VG from abundant natural waste oil, which paved the way to upgrade the low-value hydrocarbons into advanced carbon material.
[Construction of eukaryotic expression vector of hMTH1 gene antisense RNA].

OBJECTIVE To construct pEGFP-C1-T vector, an eukaryotic expression plasmid of hMTH1 gene antisense RNA. METHODS The conservative region of hMTH1 gene was amplified by RT-PCR after total RNA being extracted from human embryo lung fibroblast (HLF) and then cloned into pGEM-T vector. After the recombinant plasmid was certified by DNA sequencing, the conservative region of hMTH1 gene was inserted into pEGFP-C1 vector reversedly and pEGFP-C1-T vector was constructed. The efficiency of antisense inhibition was verified by Western blotting after cell transfection. RESULTS 423 bp fragment including conservative region of hMTH1 gene was obtained by RT-PCR. After cloned by pGEM-T vector and certified by DNA sequencing, pEGFP-C1-T vector was successfully constructed by means of recombinant DNA technology. Additionally pEGFP-C1-T vector could efficiently decrease hMTH1 protein level by 46%. CONCLUSION The efficient expression vector of hMTH1 gene antisense RNA, pEGFP-C1-T has been constructed successfully.
Mammalian paramutation: a tail's tale?

Coat color variations have long been invaluable for analyzing modes of genetic inheritance in mammals. In the mouse, for instance, Mendelian inheritance was first demonstrated with the albino mutation (Cuénot, 1902), and non-Mendelian inheritance was shown with the coat color allele Agouti-viable yellow ( A vy ; Morgan et al., 1999; Wolff, 1978). Now, Minoo Rassoulzadegan and collaborators up the ante with their report (Rassoulzadegan et al., 2006) that a targeted mutation of the melanocyte gene Kit can modify a wild type Kit allele in such a way that the wild type copy henceforth produces a Kit mutant-like coat color phenotype. If confirmed, these findings would add to the increasing evidence that genes control the fitness of offspring in more ways than simply by passing on DNA copies of themselves. Trans-chromosomal modifications that lead to heritable changes in a phenotype but are not accompanied by DNA sequence changes are called ‘paramutations’ or ‘paramutation-like’ phenomena (Brink, 1956, reviewed in Chandler and Stam, 2004). To understand these phenomena, we have to distinguish between the ‘paramutagenic’ locus (the one capable of inducing a paramutation), the ‘paramutable’ locus (the one that can be paramutated), and the ‘paramutated’ locus (the paramutable locus after its modification). Two models that are not mutually exclusive have been proposed to explain paramutations at the molecular level. In one, the pairing model, a region of one chromosome with altered chromatin structure interacts with a homologous region of another and forces upon it a similar modification, perhaps by transfer of altered chromatin complexes from one sequence to the other. In a second model, the trans RNA model, either long RNAs interfere with the function of a paramutable locus, or small interfering RNAs (siRNA) lead to degradation of RNAs transcribed from