Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Decompressive craniectomy for cerebral infarction. An experimental study in rats.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Acute ischemia in the territory of the carotid artery can lead to massive cerebral edema with raised intracranial pressure and progression to coma and death due to uncal, cingulate, or tonsillar herniation. Thus far, only anecdotal experience with supratentorial ischemia treated by decompressive craniectomy has been reported; and there are no published experimental data dealing with this kind of therapy in acute supratentorial stroke. In this study, we present our results on the effect of decompressive craniectomy in an endovascular model of cerebral infarction in rats. METHODS Focal cerebral ischemia was induced in 50 rats using an endovascular occlusion technique of the middle cerebral artery. Decompressive craniectomy was performed in 30 animals: in 15 animals after 1 hour and in the remaining 15 animals 24 hours after vessel occlusion. Twenty animals were not treated by decompressive craniectomy (control group). RESULTS Mortality in the nontreated group was 35%, whereas none of the animals treated by decompressive craniectomy died. Neurological behavior, weight loss, and infarction size were all significantly better in the animals treated by decompressive craniectomy, regardless of whether they had been treated after 1 or 24 hours (P < .01). CONCLUSIONS Our results suggest that decompressive craniectomy for cerebral ischemia not only reduces mortality but also significantly improves outcome and reduces infarction size, probably because of increased perfusion pressure through leptomeningeal collaterals. This experimental study suggests that a controlled study of decompressive craniectomy in patients with acute internal carotid or middle cerebral artery occlusion would be worthwhile. By performing decompressive craniectomy in a small, selected group of patients, neurosurgeons may play an important role in the management of these patients.
Representative Explanations for Over-Constrained Problems

In many interactive decision making scenarios there is often no solution that satisfies all of the user's preferences. The decision process can be helped by providing explanations. Relaxation show sets of consistent preferences and, thus, indicate Which preferences can be enforced, while exclusion sets show which preferences can be relaxed to obtain a solution. We propose a new approach to explanation based on the notion of a representative set of explanations. The size of the set of explanations we compute is exponentially more compact than that found using common approaches from the literature based on finding all minimal conflicts.
Recombinant guinea pig CCL5 (RANTES) differentially modulates cytokine production in alveolar and peritoneal macrophages

The CC chemokine ligand 5 (CCL5; regulated on activation, normal T expressed and secreted) is known to recruit and activate leukocytes; however, its role in altering the responses of host cells to a subsequent encounter with a microbial pathogen has rarely been studied. Recombinant guinea pig (rgp)CCL5 was prepared, and its influence on peritoneal and alveolar macrophage activation was examined by measuring cytokine and chemokine mRNA expression in cells stimulated with rgpCCL5 alone or exposed to rgpCCL5 prior to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) stimulation. Levels of mRNA for guinea pig tumor necrosis factor α (TNF‐α), interleukin (IL)‐1β, CCL2 (monocyte chemoattractant protein‐1), and CXC chemokine ligand 8 (IL‐8) were analyzed by reverse transcription followed by real‐time polymerase chain reaction analysis using SYBR Green. Bioactive TNF‐α protein concentration was measured using the L929 bioassay. Both macrophage populations displayed significant enhancement of all the genes and TNF‐α protein levels when stimulated with rgpCCL5, except for CCL2 in alveolar macrophages. When peritoneal or alveolar macrophages were pretreated with rgpCCL5 for 2 h and then exposed to low concentrations of LPS, diminished cytokine and chemokine mRNA levels were apparent at 6 h compared with LPS alone. At the protein level, there was a reduction in TNF‐α protein at 6 h in the CCL5‐pretreated cells compared with LPS alone. These results further support a role for CCL5 in macrophage activation in addition to chemotactic properties and suggest a role in regulating the inflammatory response to LPS in the guinea pig by modulating the production of proinflammatory cytokines by macrophages.
The effect of emotion and time pressure on risk decision-making

Emotion and time pressure are two important factors affecting risk decision-making. This study explored the interaction of emotion and time pressure on risk decision-making by adopting 3 (emotion state: positive emotion, negative emotion, and control group) × 2 (time constraint: high time constraint and no time constraint) between-subject experiment design. The results showed that (1) both emotion and time pressure exerted significant effect on risk decision-making (generally, positive emotion renders participants more risk prone than negative emotion, and high time pressure promotes people more risk seeking than no time pressure); (2) time pressure polarized the effects of different emotions on risk decision-making. As effects of emotions were polarized under high time pressure, two distinct cognitive pathways may function in human decision-making. Based on our experimental result and previous neuroeconomic works, we proposed a novel dual cognitive pathways model to explain phenomenon in the current article.
Benzo[c]phenanthridine bases and their antituberculosis activity

The antituberculosis activity of fully‐aromatized quaternary benzo[c]phenanthridine bases prepared in our laboratory was tested under the Tuberculosis Antimicrobial Acquisition and Coordinating Facility (TAACF) program. This review summarizes our syntheses of these bases and discusses their structure–activity relationships against primary tuberculosis. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Med Res Rev, 21, No. 1, 61–72, 2001
A guided tour through quadratic hedging approaches

This paper gives an overview of results and developments in the area of pricing and hedging contingent claims in an incomplete market by means of a quadratic criterion. We first present the approach of risk-minimization in the case where the underlying discounted price process X is a local martingale. We then discuss the extension to local risk-minimization when X is a semimartingale and explain the relations to the Follmer-Schweizer decomposition and the minimal martingale measure. Finally we study mean-variance hedging, the variance-optimal martingale measure and the connections to closeness properties of spaces of stochastic integrals.
Language Assessment: A Linguametric Perspective

Within the last few decades, there have been multidimensional advancements in language assessment. Some of the advancements have been in the direction of developing theoretical models of the construct of language ability, others in the line of measuring that construct, and still some others toward materializing the outcomes of measuring the defined construct. These developments can be attributed to 3 major areas of inquiry, namely, applied linguistics, psychometrics, and edumetrics. The purpose of this article is to make certain arguments about the necessity of an eagle's eye view, which I call linguametric perspective, on language assessment. More specifically, it is argued that (a) most of the developments in language assessment have been rooted in the aforementioned disciplines; (b) most language ability models have been based on intradisciplinary rather than interdisciplinary perspectives; (c) beyond intradisciplinary and interdisciplinary relations, certain supradisciplinary factors should also be included in the models of language assessment; and (d) some of the inadequacies of the existing models can be attributed to the ignorance of such interdisciplinary and supradisciplinary relations. Finally, a linguametric perspective is suggested and its applications to and implications for research are discussed.
E C O N O M E T R I C a Macroeconomics and Reality'

Existing strategies for econometric analysis related to macroeconomics are subject to a number of serious objections, some recently formulated, some old. These objections are summarized in this paper, and it is argued that taken together they make it unlikely that macroeconomic models are in fact over identified, as the existing statistical theory usually assumes. The implications of this conclusion are explored, and an example of econometric work in a non-standard style, taking account of the objections to the standard style, is presented.
Are Critical to Cross-Presentation Efficiency Antigen Release Kinetics in the Phagosome

Shanshan W. Howland and K. Dane Wittruphttp://www.jimmunol.org/content/180/3/1576J Immunol€2008; 180:1576-1583; ;Referenceshttp://www.jimmunol.org/content/180/3/1576.full#ref-list-1This article cites 43 articles, 13 of which you can access for free at: Subscriptionshttp://jimmunol.org/subscriptionsInformation about subscribing to The Journal of Immunology is online at: Permissionshttp://www.aai. org/ji/copyright.htmlSubmit copyright permission requests at: Email Alertshttp://jimmunol.org/cgi/alerts/etocReceive free email-alerts when new articles cite this article. Sign up at:
Document-based service architecture for communication between health and wellness service providers and customers

Electronic communication between health and wellness service providers and customers is becoming more common. The paper introduces a new document-based service approach - PIR (personal information repository) - supporting information to be sent between the provider and the customer. The advantage compared to existing solutions is that the service can be shared with several service providers, which allows the customer to use the same interface for many services. Furthermore, transmission of structured (HL7/CDA R2) documents is supported allowing semantic compatibility of exchanged health information. A user trial has been carried out for testing the solution. The results are encouraging and reflect considerable interest towards exchange of personal health and wellness information.
Active Categorical Perception of Object Shapes in a Simulated Anthropomorphic Robotic Arm

Active perception refers to a theoretical approach to the study of perception grounded on the idea that perceiving is a way of acting, rather than a process whereby the brain constructs an internal representation of the world. The operational principles of active perception can be effectively tested by building robot-based models in which the relationship between perceptual categories and the body-environment interactions can be experimentally manipulated. In this paper, we study the mechanisms of tactile perception in a task in which a neuro-controlled anthropomorphic robotic arm, equipped with coarse-grained tactile sensors, is required to perceptually categorize spherical and ellipsoid objects. We show that best individuals, synthesized by artificial evolution techniques, develop a close to optimal ability to discriminate the shape of the objects as well as an ability to generalize their skill in new circumstances. The results show that the agents solve the categorization task in an effective and robust way by self-selecting the required information through action and by integrating experienced sensory-motor states over time.
Quinazolin-4-one Coupled with Pyrrolidin-2-iminium Alkaloids from Marine-Derived Fungus Penicillium aurantiogriseum

Three new alkaloids, including auranomides A and B (1 and 2), a new scaffold containing quinazolin-4-one substituted with a pyrrolidin-2-iminium moiety, and auranomide C (3), as well as two known metabolites auranthine (4) and aurantiomides C (5) were isolated from the marine-derived fungus Penicillium aurantiogriseum. The chemical structures of compounds 1–3 were elucidated by extensive spectroscopic methods, including IR, HRESIMS and 2D NMR spectroscopic analysis. The absolute configurations of compounds 1–3 were suggested from the perspective of a plausible biosynthesis pathway. Compounds 1–3 were subjected to antitumor and antimicrobial screening models. Auranomides A–C exhibited moderate cytotoxic activity against human tumor cells. Auranomides B was the most potent among them with an IC50 value of 0.097 μmol/mL against HEPG2 cells.
A Nonlinearity Minimization-Oriented Resource-Saving Time-to-Digital Converter Implemented in a 28 nm Xilinx FPGA

Because large nonlinearity errors exist in the current tapped-delay line (TDL) style field programmable gate array (FPGA)-based time-to-digital converters (TDC), bin-by-bin calibration techniques have to be resorted for gaining a high measurement resolution. If the TDL in selected FPGAs is significantly affected by changes in ambient temperature, the bin-by-bin calibration table has to be updated as frequently as possible. The on-line calibration and calibration table updating increase the TDC design complexity and limit the system performance to some extent. This paper proposes a method to minimize the nonlinearity errors of TDC bins, so that the bin-by-bin calibration may not be needed while maintaining a reasonably high time resolution. The method is a two pass approach: By a bin realignment, the large number of wasted zero-width bins in the original TDL is reused and the granularity of the bins is improved; by a bin decimation, the bin size and its uniformity is traded-off, and the time interpolation by the delay line turns more precise so that the bin-by-bin calibration is not necessary. Using Xilinx 28 nm FPGAs, in which the TDL property is not very sensitive to ambient temperature, the proposed TDC achieves approximately 15 ps root-mean-square (RMS) time resolution by dual-channel measurements of time-intervals over the range of operating temperature. Because of removing the calibration and less logic resources required for the data post-processing, the method has bigger multi-channel capability.
Organizational learning: debates past, present and future

In this paper we attempt to map the development of organizational learning as a field of academic study by examining the rise and fall of specific debates. This does not pretend to be a comprehensive review of the field since there is now far too much material available to allow full coverage in any single publication. Rather, we have identified some of the key debates, and these have been organized along the simplistic time-line of past, present and future. Our purpose is two-fold: first, to note how the nature and language of the key ideas in organizational learning have changed over time; and second, to locate the papers in this Special Issue within the context of the developing field. It is perhaps no accident that we see most of the papers as closely associated with new, and emerging, issues, but we also find it interesting to note that many of these current or emergent issues actually have roots within some of the earlier debates.
Brothers' Keepers: Situating Kinship Relations in Broader Networks of Social Support

The authors evaluate the importance of kin in providing four different dimensions of social support: emotional aid, services, financial aid, and companionship. The authors analysis uses both quantitative and interview data from the East York (Toronto) studies of social networks. Kin comprise slightly less than half of these networks: an average of five ties out of twelve. Parents and adult children are highly supportive network members, providing high levels of emotional aid, services and financial aid (they avoid companionship, however). Siblings complement and substitute for parents and children, especially in the provision of services. Because there are many more ties between siblings than there are between parents and children, siblings (along with friends and neighbors) provide a substantial proportion of the support East Yorkers receive. By contrast, extended kin tend to be the least supportive and least companionable of network members. If kinship systems did not keep extended kin in contact, few would be active network members.
Transcriptional Regulation of the IGF Signaling Pathway by Amino Acids and Insulin-Like Growth Factors during Myogenesis in Atlantic Salmon

The insulin-like growth factor signalling pathway is an important regulator of skeletal muscle growth. We examined the mRNA expression of components of the insulin-like growth factor (IGF) signalling pathway as well as Fibroblast Growth Factor 2 (FGF2) during maturation of myotubes in primary cell cultures isolated from fast myotomal muscle of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar). The transcriptional regulation of IGFs and IGFBP expression by amino acids and insulin-like growth factors was also investigated. Proliferation of cells was 15% d−1 at days 2 and 3 of the culture, increasing to 66% d−1 at day 6. Three clusters of elevated gene expression were observed during the maturation of the culture associated with mono-nucleic cells (IGFBP5.1 and 5.2, IGFBP-6, IGFBP-rP1, IGFBP-2.2 and IGF-II), the initial proliferation phase (IGF-I, IGFBP-4, FGF2 and IGF-IRb) and terminal differentiation and myotube production (IGF2R, IGF-IRa). In cells starved of amino acids and serum for 72 h, IGF-I mRNA decreased 10-fold which was reversed by amino acid replacement. Addition of IGF-I and amino acids to starved cells resulted in an 18-fold increase in IGF-I mRNA indicating synergistic effects and the activation of additional pathway(s) leading to IGF-I production via a positive feedback mechanism. IGF-II, IGFBP-5.1 and IGFBP-5.2 expression was unchanged in starved cells, but increased with amino acid replacement. Synergistic increases in expression of IGFBP5.2 and IGFBP-4, but not IGFBP5.1 were observed with addition of IGF-I, IGF-II or insulin and amino acids to the medium. IGF-I and IGF-II directly stimulated IGFBP-6 expression, but not when amino acids were present. These findings indicate that amino acids alone are sufficient to stimulate myogenesis in myoblasts and that IGF-I production is controlled by both endocrine and paracrine pathways. A model depicting the transcriptional regulation of the IGF pathway in Atlantic salmon muscle following feeding is proposed.
USING INTERVIEWS TO EXPLORE TEACHER KNOWLEDGE PROFILES IN THE AREA OF PERMUTATIONS

This paper illustrates consideration of multiple facets of mathematics teacher knowledge through interviews, demonstrates how teachers have different knowledge profiles, and discusses the implications for professional development. This study focuses on interviews with eight teachers, which were analyzed using Ball, Thames, and Phelps’ (2008) framework of teacher knowledge, assigning knowledge types to statements made during the interview. All teachers exhibited multifaceted knowledge, but different profiles emerged. The implication is that teacher profiles should be considered in designing professional development. In addition, this analysis supports the use of teacher interviews as a tool to consider professional development needs.
Comparative evaluation of three commercially available complement fixation test antigens for the diagnosis of glanders

The sensitivity and specificity of three commercially available complement fixation test (CFT) antigens from c.c. pro (c.c.pro), Central Veterinary Institute of Wageningen UR (CIDC) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) were comparatively evaluated by testing 410 sera collected from glanders-endemic and non-endemic areas (200 true-negative randomly collected sera and 210 sera collected from experimentally immunised animals (12 rabbits, 19 horses), clinically positive (135) and culture-positive (44) horses, donkeys and mules). Immunoblotting (IB) was used as the gold standard test. Highest sensitivity was shown for the CIDC antigen (100 per cent) followed by the c.c. pro antigen (99.39 per cent). However, the USDA antigen showed substantially less (p<0.05) sensitivity (62.19 per cent). Highest specificity was found for the USDA antigen (100 per cent) followed by the CIDC (97.5 per cent) and c.c. pro antigen (96.5 per cent). Positive and negative predictive values (assumed glanders prevalence of <0.1 per cent) for each antigen were calculated to be 95.88 and 99.48 (c.c.pro), 97.04 and 100 (CIDC), 100 and 76.33 per cent (USDA), respectively. Almost perfect agreement (0.96) was found between CFT using either c.c. pro or CIDC and IB.
Anti-inflammatory and antinociceptive effect of Pachygone ovata leaves

Abstract Context: Pachygone ovata (Poir.) Miers ex Hook. F. et Thoms (Menispermaceae) is a rich source of bioactive bisbenzylisoquinoline and aporphine alkaloids. Objective: This study investigates the in vitro and in vivo anti-inflammatory and antinociceptive potential of Pachygone ovata leaves. Materials and methods: Lipoxygenase (LOX) assay for anti-inflammatory activity was conducted using MeOH, EA, H and Aq extracts; followed by alkaloid isolation. The anti-inflammatory potential was determined using carrageenan-induced paw oedema and formalin tests for evaluation of Pachygone ovata analgesic effect. Different doses (100, 300 and 400 μg/kg) were administered orally to Wistar rats for a period of one week, once daily. Results: MeOH and EA extract efficiently inhibited LOX (IC50 1.43 and 2.15 μg/mL, respectively). MeOH extract had better inhibiting capacity (57%) than indomethacin (51%) in carrageenan induced rats. MeOH extract (300 μg/kg) significantly reduced the increased levels of nitric oxide (8 ± 0.57 M), total leukocyte count (4.5 ± 0.05 cells 103/cells) and C-reactive protein (55 ± 0.45 mg/mL). There was a decrease in various serum biochemical markers (ALT, AST). Histopathological studies revealed reduction in oedema and decreased cellular infiltration on supplementation with MeOH extract. Furthermore, MeOH extract (300 μg/kg) and alkaloid fraction (400 μg/kg) effected both phases (neurogenic and inflammatory) of formalin injected models. Discussion and conclusion: Inflammatory mediators play a key role in inflammation; therefore, keeping it in control is of utmost importance. The usefulness of Pachygone ovata leaves on pain and inflammation has been described, probably due to its effect on inflammatory mediators and high alkaloid content.
Molecular dynamics study of DNA binding by INT‐DBD under a polarized force field

The DNA binding domain of transposon Tn916 integrase (INT‐DBD) binds to DNA target site by positioning the face of a three‐stranded antiparallel β‐sheet within the major groove. As the negatively charged DNA directly interacts with the positively charged residues (such as Arg and Lys) of INT‐DBD, the electrostatic interaction is expected to play an important role in the dynamical stability of the protein–DNA binding complex. In the current work, the combined use of quantum‐based polarized protein‐specific charge (PPC) for protein and polarized nucleic acid‐specific charge (PNC) for DNA were employed in molecular dynamics simulation to study the interaction dynamics between INT‐DBD and DNA. Our study shows that the protein–DNA structure is stabilized by polarization and the calculated protein–DNA binding free energy is in good agreement with the experimental data. Furthermore, our study revealed a positive correlation between the measured binding energy difference in alanine mutation and the occupancy of the corresponding residue's hydrogen bond. This correlation relation directly relates the contribution of a specific residue to protein–DNA binding energy to the strength of the hydrogen bond formed between the specific residue and DNA. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.