Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Graphical analysis of ferroresonance modes in a voltage transformer energized through grading capacitance using correlation function

This paper presents a new algorithm of identifying the different modes of ferroresonance (FR) using voltage signals. The voltage signals are simulated from a ferroresonance model that represents a voltage transformer energized through a grading capacitance of opened circuit breakers. Different modes of ferroresonance voltage signals were obtained by simulating various value of grading capacitance, system voltage and interrupting time. The mode's identification is automatically determined by correlating the sustained period of different ferroresonance mode signal and the sustained period of tested voltage signal. Detecting the types of ferroresonant modes plays an important role as a pre-testing tool or diagnostic tool to identify the range of parameters that would lead to the fundamental frequency ferroresonance phenomenon. The simulation is carried out by using Matlab.
Does the potential for selection bias in semen quality studies depend on study design? Experience from a study conducted within an infertility clinic.

BACKGROUND The low participation rates in human semen quality studies raises concern for the potential of differential participation based on semen quality (or a surrogate). To explore the potential for differential participation, we compared semen analysis results from study subjects with those of non-study subjects. METHODS We obtained semen analysis results from 235 study subjects and retrospectively obtained results from a subset of 235 infertility clinic patients that were not study subjects but met the same eligibility criteria. The study was conducted at the Massachusetts General Hospital Infertility Clinic. All semen samples (study subjects and non-study subjects) were analysed for sperm concentration and motility by computer-aided semen analysis (CASA), and morphology was assessed using strict criteria. Semen analysis parameters for the non-study subjects were compared with the semen analysis results from study subjects. RESULTS For all semen characteristics (sperm concentration, total sperm count, sperm motility and morphology), there were only marginal (non-significant) differences between study subjects and non-study subjects. CONCLUSIONS Among men from an infertility clinic, we found no strong evidence of differential participation based on semen quality. This is reassuring since the potential for selection bias is of concern in semen quality studies. However, the potential for selection bias in other study designs remains unclear.
A Systematic Review of Patient- or Proxy-Reported Validated Instruments Assessing Pediatric Dysphagia

Objective Pediatric dysphagia occurs in 500,000 children each year; however, there is not a common tool to assess these children. Our aim was to identify validated patient- or parent-reported outcome assessment tools evaluating pediatric dysphagia. Data Sources Scopus, EMBASE, PubMed, Cochrane Library, and CINAHL electronic databases (all indexed years through August 2014). Review Methods Inclusion criteria included English-language articles containing instruments evaluated in children. Two investigators independently reviewed all articles, and the review was performed according to PRISMA guidelines (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses). Results The initial search yielded 1697 abstracts; 158 studies were assessed further. Four symptom questionnaires, validated in adults, were used to report pediatric dysphagia outcomes. Four outcomes tools assessing dysphagia were validated in pediatrics in selected populations. The Dysphagia in Multiple Sclerosis questionnaire and the Dysphagia Symptom Questionnaire for eosinophilic esophagitis were validated in adolescents and adults. The Symptom Questionnaire for Eosinophilic Esophagitis was validated in children with eosinophilic esophagitis. The Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory Gastrointestinal Symptoms Module, validated in children with gastrointestinal disorders, includes 2 domains that assess swallowing function. Conclusion We did not identify any validated patient- or parent-reported outcome assessment tools examining dysphagia symptoms in a general pediatric population. However, we identified 4 questionnaires that have been validated in specific pediatric disease cohorts. Having a standardized assessment instrument validated in all children would allow clinicians to systematically report symptoms and compare results of pediatric clinical trials. With this in mind, we recommend establishing a standard questionnaire for the broader pediatric population.
Biosynthesis of Ascorbic Acid in Legume Root Nodules1

Ascorbic acid (vitamin C) is a major antioxidant and redox buffer, but is also involved in other critical processes of plants. Recently, the hypothesis has been proposed that legume nodules are unable to synthesize ascorbate and have to import it from the shoot or root, thus providing a means by which the plant regulates nodule senescence. The last step of ascorbate biosynthesis in plants is catalyzed by l-galactono-1,4-lactone dehydrogenase (GalLDH). The mRNAs encoding GalLDH and three other enzymes involved in ascorbate biosynthesis are clearly detectable in nodules. Furthermore, an active membrane-bound GalLDH enzyme is present in nodule mitochondria. Biochemical assays on dissected nodules reveal that GalLDH activity and ascorbate are correlated in nodule tissues and predominantly localized in the infected zone, with lower levels of both parameters (relative to the infected tissues) in the apex (87%) and senescent region (43%) of indeterminate nodules and in the peripheral tissues (65%) of determinate nodules. In situ RNA hybridization showed that the GalLDH mRNA is particularly abundant in the infected zone of indeterminate and determinate nodules. Thus, our results refute the hypothesis that ascorbate is not synthesized in nodules and lend support to a previous conclusion that ascorbate in the infected zone is primarily involved in the protection of host cells against peroxide damage. Likewise, the high ascorbate and GalLDH activity levels found in the apex of indeterminate nodules strongly suggest a participation of ascorbate in additional functions during symbiosis, possibly related to cell growth and division and to molecular signaling.
Role of apoptosis in gastric epithelial turnover

Gastric epithelial turnover is a dynamic process. It is characterized by continous cell proliferation, which is counterbalanced by cell loss. The biological principle that mediates the homeostasis of epithelium is programmed cell death, or apoptosis. Currently, several subtypes of apoptosis are distinguished, which are mediated by different mechanisms. Various subtypes of apoptosis also occur in the gastric epithelium under various conditions. In the normal stomach, apoptosis due to cell isolation (anoikis) mediates the physiological epithelial turnover. Albeit rarely seen in routine histology, approximately 2% of epithelial cells in the normal stomach are apoptotic. In Helicobacter pylori‐induced gastritis, apoptosis and epithelial proliferation are moderately increased, with approximately 8% apoptotic epithelial cells. In gastritis, factors such as CD95 ligand or tumor necrosis factor (TNF) alpha act as death factors. They bind to specific receptors, CD95 and TNF‐R, which are induced either by other cytokines, such as interferon gamma, or by Helicobacter pylori itself. In addition to CD95, H.pylorican also induce upregulation of CD95 ligand expression. Taken together, the upregulated expression of CD95, and the presence of CD95L in the close proximity to apoptotic gastric epithelial cells suggest a functional role of the CD95‐CD95L system in the induction of apoptosis in H.pylori‐gastritis. The role of other pathways to apoptosis is currently under study. Apart from being a biological phenomenon, apoptosis in the stomach may also have direct clinical consequences. An extreme example is given in gastric graft‐vs.‐host disease when epithelial denudement occurs. Microsc. Res. Tech. 48:303–311, 2000 © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Possible role of preproghrelin gene polymorphisms in susceptibility to bulimia nervosa

Previous investigations have suggested that ghrelin, an endogenous orexigenic peptide, is involved in the pathology of eating disorders. We conducted a study to determine whether any preproghrelin gene polymorphisms are associated with eating disorders. Three hundred thirty‐six eating disorder patients, including 131 anorexia nervosa (AN)‐restricting types (AN‐R), 97 AN‐binge eating/purging types (AN‐BP) and 108 bulimia nervosa (BN)‐purging types (BN‐P), and 300 healthy control subjects participated in the study. Genotyping was performed to determine the polymorphisms present, and with this information, linkage disequilibrium (LD) between the markers was analyzed and the distributions of the genotypes, the allele frequencies, and the haplotype frequencies were compared between the groups. The Leu72Met (408 C > A) (rs696217) polymorphism in exon 2 and the 3056 T > C (rs2075356) polymorphism in intron 2 were in LD (D′ = 0.902, r2 = 0.454). Both polymorphisms were significantly associated with BN‐P (allele‐wise: P = 0.0410, odds ratio (OR) = 1.48; P = 0.0035, OR = 1.63, for Leu72Met and 3056 T > C, respectively). In addition, we observed a significant increase in the frequency of the haplotype Met72‐3056C in BN‐P patients (P = 0.0059, OR = 1.71). Our findings suggest that the Leu72Met (408 C > A) and the 3056 T > C polymorphisms of the preproghrelin gene are associated with susceptibility to BN‐P. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
A social network analysis of internal communication in a matrix organisation - the context of project business

Empirical studies addressing the internal communication interface between the matrix organisation structures in the context of project business are scarce. In particular, there seem to be no studies on the early phases of project selling, even though those phases have a substantial impact on ultimate project success. This study addresses the gap by researching a well selected project selling case through social network analysis and content analysis of in-depth interview. The study offers an insight into the complexity of internal communication in a matrix organisation in the context of project business. The results indicate that internal communication is imbalanced in the matrix structures at the early phases of project selling. The study proposes that the matrix organisation is a rather inadequate agent for the improvement of internal communication flow in the early phases of project selling.
Obligate Multivalent Recognition of Cell Surface Tomoregulin following Selection from a Multivalent Phage Antibody Library

A therapeutic antibody candidate (AT-19) isolated using multivalent phage display binds native tomoregulin (TR) as a mul-timer not as a monomer. This report raises the importance of screening and selecting phage antibodies on native antigen and reemphasizes the possibility that potentially valuable antibodies are discarded when a monomeric phage display system is used for screening. A detailed live cell panning selection and screening method to isolate multivalently active antibodies is described. AT-19 is a fully human antibody recognizing the cell surface protein TR, a proposed prostate cancer target for therapeutic antibody internalization. AT-19 was isolated from a multivalent single-chain variable fragment (scFv) antibody library rescued with hyperphage. The required multivalency for isolation of AT-19 is supported by fluorescence activated cell sorting data demonstrating binding of the multivalent AT-19 phage particles at high phage concentrations and failure of monovalent particles to bind. Pure monomeric scFv AT-19 does not bind native receptor on cells, whereas dimeric scFv or immunoglobulin G binds with nanomolar affinity. The isolation of AT-19 antibody with obligate bivalent binding activity to native TR is attributed to the use of a multivalent display of scFv on phage and the method for selecting and screening by alternate use of 2 recombinant cell lines.
Comparison of Diets of Diabetic and Nondiabetic Women

OBJECTIVE To assess the dietary habits of diabetic women. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Participants in the Nurses Health Study, a cohort of 121,700 registered female nurses, were followed since 1976. We compared the usual dietary intakes of women who had been diagnosed with diabetes mellitus by 1980 and age-matched nondiabetic control women; diets of these women were assessed in 1980 and 1984 by a semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire. The study examined 162 IDDM women and 738 NIDDM women. Similar comparisons were made for 429 women who developed NIDDM between 1980 and 1984. RESULTS Although differences were small, women with IDDM in 1984 and women with NIDDM in 1980 and 1984 consumed less energy from carbohydrates, especially from sucrose, and more energy from protein and fat than did control women. Similar results were also found in 1984 for the 429 women who developed NIDDM between 1980 and 1984. In 1980, energy from nonsucrose carbohydrate was slightly higher in both IDDM and NIDDM women than in the control women. However, in 1984, using a dietary questionnaire designed to assess more complete dietary intake, less consistent results were obtained. Diabetic women tended to avoid desserts and sweets, sugar-containing beverages, and alcoholic beverages but consumed more meat and meat products. Intakes of foods high in complex carbohydrates (e.g., bread, rice, pasta, and potatoes) were similar between diabetic and control women. CONCLUSIONS The results suggest that these diabetic women did not consume the high-carbohydrate, low-fat diets that the American Diabetes Association has been recommending over the past decade.
In vivo anterior tibial post contact after posterior stabilizing total knee arthroplasty

Anterior polyethylene post failure in posterior stabilizing total knee arthroplasty (TKA) has been reported in recent patient follow‐up studies. However, no data have been reported on the biomechanic interaction between the anterior tibial post and femoral component in posterior stabilizing TKA patients under physiological conditions. The objective of this study was to measure the in vivo anterior tibial post contact area at full knee extension using a dual‐orthogonal fluoroscopic imaging technique. Eleven osteoarthritic patients were investigated after posterior stabilizing TKA to measure the contact between the femoral component box and anterior aspect of the tibial post. Anterior tibial post contact, ranging between 0.5 and 80.9 mm2, was detected in 63% of the healthy patients (seven out of the eleven patients) at weight‐bearing full extension of the knee. The patients with anterior tibial post contact had significantly higher hyperextension angles (−8.4 ± 4.3°) than those without contact (1.4 ± 7.2°). A statistically significant difference was also detected in the femoral component flexion with respect to the femoral shaft between the patients with anterior post contact (2.7 ± 2.7°) and without anterior post contact (−1.3 ± 2.2°). These data indicated that anterior post contact did occur in hyperextension within posterior stabilizing TKA patients. While excessive anterior tibial post contact may cause polyethylene wear and potentially lead to post failure, the tibial post may also act as a substitute for the ACL at low flexion, thus providing stability to the joint after posterior stabilizing TKA. © 2007 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 25:1447–1453, 2007
Battery Status Sensing Software-Defined Multicast for V2G Regulation in Smart Grid

During the bidirectional exchange of electricity between electric vehicles (EVs) and smart grid, plenty of sensors have been deployed to sense the EVs’ battery status and monitor the electricity regulation requirements. When electricity consumption at power grid demand-side sharply increases/decreases, charging points (CPs) access these sensors by multicast technology to aggregate the EVs’ battery status, publish electricity regulation requests and assign the state of charge (SOC) transition instructs in vehicle-to-grid (V2G). However, intermittent connections arising from distributed and mobile energy storage bring many challenging problems on multicast scheduling. First, in smart grid, peak shaving and load shifting require V2G to sense and regulate the EVs’ SOC according to their battery status precisely, while the traditional multicast only considers their mutable network locations (e.g., WLAN, IP, and MAC). Second, as the number of EVs that participate into V2G increases, V2G needs to schedule the massive multicast traffic with priority to satisfy the dynamic and real-time regulation requirements. To address these problems, in this paper, we first aim to demonstrate that the appreciable battery status is more adaptive than network location to act as a multicast primitive in V2G. We propose a battery status sensing software-defined multicast (BSS-SDM) scheme to reduce the latency of V2G regulation services. In the BSS-SDM scheme, the battery status of each EV is identified during SOC transitions and maintained by a centralized controller. Besides, we propose a battery-status-based multicast scheduling algorithm to implement the V2G regulation optimization. Simulation results verify the effectiveness of proposed schemes.
Altered body water distribution in subjects with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and its effects on the measurement of water compartments from bioelectric impedance.

OBJECTIVE To assess the reliability of bioelectric impedance analysis (BIA) for predicting total body water (TBW) and extracellular water (ECW) in children affected by juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA). SUBJECTS Thirty-nine children affected by JRA and 23 healthy children of similar age (11.0 +/- 3.6, range 3.0-19.0 y) were recruited for the study. METHODS TBW and ECW were measured by deuterium oxide and bromide dilution, respectively. Bioelectric impedance (Z) was measured at frequencies of 5, 50 and 100 kHz. The prediction of TBW and ECW from BIA was based on the impedance index (ZI = height2/Z, cm2/omega). RESULTS TBW standardized per kg of body weight and ECW standardized per litre of TBW were significantly higher in JRA as compared to control patients (59.7 +/- 2.4 vs 57.7 +/- 2.7% and 44.5 +/- 4.6 vs 38.1 +/- 7.9%, with P < 0.005 and P < 0.0001, respectively). Moreover, intracellular water standardized per litre of TBW was significantly lower in JRA than in control subjects (55.5 +/- 4.6 vs 62.5 +/- 8.1, with P < 0.0001). In both controls and patients, the use of ZI at 5kHz offered the more accurate prediction of ECW. However, the use of ZI at 100 kHz did not offer a better prediction of TBW as compared to its value of 50 kHz. Control-generated formulae for predicting water compartments from BIA [TBW = 0.716 x ZI at 100 kHz-1.504, r = 0.934, s.e. e. = 2.2 l;:ECW = 0.430 x ZI5-3.652, r = 0.869(7) s.e. e. = 1.7 l] underestimated TBW and ECW in JRA patients. However, population-specific formulae [TBW (1) = 0.766 x ZI at 100 kHz-0.053, r = 0.939, s.e. e. = 2.8 l; ECW (l) = 0.399 x ZI at 5 kHz-0.283, r = 0.886, s.e. e. = 1.7 l] allowed an accurate prediction of TBW and ECW in JRA patients, taking into account their altered body water distribution. CONCLUSIONS Altered water distribution impedes the use of formulae developed on healthy children to predict TBW and ECW from BIA and JRA patients. It is hypothesized that chronic inflammation and subclinical malnutrition may be responsible for the altered body water distribution of JRA patients. Traditional body composition models may require adjustments for use in JRA children due to their altered body hydration and water distribution.
Taking Drones to the Next Level: Cooperative Distributed Unmanned-Aerial-Vehicular Networks for Small and Mini Drones

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been widely used in both military and civilian applications. However, the cooperation of small and mini drones in a network is capable of further improving the performance and the coverage area of UAVs. There are numerous new challenges to be solved before the widespread introduction of multi-UAV-based heterogeneous flying ad hoc networks (FANET), including the formulation of a stable network structure. Meanwhile, an efficient gateway-selection algorithm and management mechanism is required. However, the stability control of the hierarchical UAV network guarantees the efficient collaboration of the drones. In this article, we begin by surveying the FANET structure and its protocol architecture. Then, a variety of distributed gateway-selection algorithms and cloud-based stability-control mechanisms are addressed, complemented by a range of open challenges.
Linkage of angiotensinogen gene polymorphisms with hypertension in a sibling study of Hong Kong Chinese

Objective The angiotensinogen gene has been linked with human essential hypertension in whites but the relationship in Asian populations has been less consistent. This study aimed to examine genetic associations between hypertension and the M235T, T174M, and G-217A polymorphisms of the angiotensinogen gene in Chinese siblings. Methods We studied members of 126 families with a hypertensive proband, including 434 siblings, of which 178 were hypertensive. Parental history of hypertension was recorded. The M235T, T174M, and G-217A polymorphisms were examined using a microarray method, validated by sequencing. The transmission disequilibrium test was applied to identify whether the genetic polymorphism loci were related to hypertension. Haplotype analysis of the combined polymorphisms was applied using the TRANSMIT program. Linkage study was conducted by applying the affected pedigree member method. Results A significant overtransmission was observed for the T235 allele at the M235T polymorphism and hypertension (χ2 = 4.41, P = 0.036) but not for the T174M and G-217A polymorphisms. The haplotype analysis showed a significant association with the haplotypes of paired markers (T174 and T235) with χ2 value of 8.131 (P = 0.004; global test χ2 = 9.131, P = 0.028). Linkage between M235T and hypertension was detected (T = −2.25, P = 0.019), and a tendency for linkage with central obesity-related hypertension was found for the M235T and T174M polymorphisms (P = 0.0087 and P = 0.01). Conclusion The M235T and T174M variants, especially the T235 allele, contribute to an increased risk of hypertension in these Chinese patients.