Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pulmonary Hypertension Due to Common Respiratory Conditions: Classification, Evaluation and Management Strategies

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) due to chronic respiratory disease and/or hypoxia is classified as World Health Organization (WHO) Group III pulmonary hypertension. The patients most commonly encountered in clinical practice with group III PH include those with chronic obstructive lung disease (COPD), diffuse parenchymal lung disease, and sleep-disordered breathing. The purpose of this review is to outline the variable clinical significance of pulmonary hypertension in the most common pulmonary disease states and how a clinician may approach the management of these patients.
Expression and Antigenic Evaluation of VacA Antigenic Fragment of Helicobacter Pylori

Objective(s) : Helicobacter pylori, a human specific gastric pathogen is a causative agent of chronic active gastritis. The vacuolating cytotoxin (VacA) is an effective virulence factor involved in gastric injury. The aim of this study was to construct a recombinant protein containing antigenic region of VacA gene and determine its antigenicity. Materials and Methods: The antigenic region of VacA gene was detected by bioinformatics methods. The polymerase chain reaction method was used to amplify a highly antigenic region of VacA gene from chromosomal DNA of H. pylori. The eluted product was cloned into the prokaryotic expression vector pET32a. The target protein was expressed in the Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3) pLysS. The bacteria including pET32a-VacA plasmids were induced by IPTG. The antigenicity was finally studied by western blotting using sera of 15 H. pylori infected patients after purification. Results: Enzyme digestion analysis, PCR and DNA sequencing results showed that the target gene was inserted correctly into the recombinant vector. The expressed protein was purified successfully via affinity chromatography. Data indicated that antigenic region of VacA protein from Helicobacter pylori was recognized by all 15 patient’s sera. Conclusion : Our data showed that antigenic region of VacA protein can be expressed by in E. co.li. This protein was recognized by sera patients suffering from H. pylori infection. the recombinant protein has similar epitopes and close antigenic properties to the natural form of this antigen. Recombinant antigenic region of VacA protein also seems to be a promising antigen for protective and serologic diagnosis .
The public image of the contemporary Russian police : impact of personal experiences of policing, wider social implications and the potential for change

Purpose – The paper aims to discuss the perception of the police by members of the public in post‐Soviet Russia following their personal experiences of policing, identify broader social implications of the contemporary public image of the Russian police and assess the potential for changing the current situation.Design/methodology/approach – The discussion is conducted on the basis of findings derived from an empirical study carried out by the author which involved qualitative interviews with members of the public who had personal experiences of policing, and with police officers.Findings – Findings indicate a very negative perception of the police by members of the public. Personal experiences of police misconduct appear to affect negatively citizens' general evaluations of the entire institution.Research limitations/implications – The study was small, and only those who have had personal encounters with the police were interviewed, so the findings should not be treated as necessarily representing attitu.
Volatility Managed Portfolios

Managed portfolios that take less risk when volatility is high produce large alphas, substantially increase factor Sharpe ratios, and produce large utility gains for mean-variance investors. We document this for the market, value, momentum, profitability, return on equity, and investment factors in equities, as well as the currency carry trade. Volatility timing increases Sharpe ratios because changes in factor volatilities are not offset by proportional changes in expected returns. Our strategy is contrary to conventional wisdom because it takes relatively less risk in recessions and crises yet still earns high average returns. This rules out typical risk-based explanations and is a challenge to structural models of time-varying expected returns.
Zipping, weaving: control of vehicle group behavior in non-signalized intersection

This paper proposes a control method of vehicle cooperative behavior in an intersection and junction without infrastructures such as a signal system, a road-vehicle communication system, and so on. The vehicle cooperative behavior enables vehicles to pass through an intersection one by one or to interflow at junction one by one without vehicle collision like a weaving and zipping manner. These behaviors are achieved by generating a special-temporal pattern of a reaction diffusion system, where a mutual communication between vehicles is realized only by TVC device. The mutual communication between vehicles can be expressed in the diffusion system of a certain morphogen so that only simple broadcasting communication could be enough for vehicle communication. Van der Pol model is used as one of the reaction diffusion system. Finally, the proposed algorithm for vehicle cooperative behavior is experimentally verified using actual autonomous mobile robots.
PRESERVATION OF TOTAL, LYO-, AND DESMOENZYME ACTIVITY IN MAMMALIAN SALIVARY GLANDS FOLLOWING CHLORAL HYDRATE FORMALIN FIXATION

Acid phosphatase, alkaline phosphatase, nonspecific esterase, pseudocholinesterase, leucine aminopeptidase, and β-d-galactosidase activities of parotid and submandibular salivary glands were evaluated in six animal species. Assays for total enzyme, lyoenzyme, and demoenzyme were performed on unfixed and chloral hydrate formalin (CHF) fixed frozen cryostat sections. Following fixation lyoenzyme (soluble fraction) activity exhibited extreme reduction for all enzymes except pseudocholinesterase, while the demoenzyme (insoluble fraction) activity of acid phosphatase, nonspecific esterase, pseudocholinesterase, and β-d-galactosidase was maintained at a high level or increased. Since removal of lyoenzyme activity and retention of desmoenzyme activity are requisites in histochemical localization, this fixative may be the preferred method for handling tissues prior to the localization of the above cited enzymes. Several hypotheses are proposed to explain the increased desmoenzyme (nonspecific esterase and β-d-galactosidase) noted subsequent to fixation.
On the Verification of Behavioral and Probabilistic Web Services Using Transformation

In this paper, we propose a preliminary approach for automating web service verification. We use Semantic Markup for Web Services (OWL-S) to describe web service behavior. We parse the OWL-S file and transform it automatically to a corresponding Markov chain diagram or Markov decision process, which are then transformed to a PRISM model to be used as input by PRISM, a probabilistic model checker, to verify automatically the web service behavior. We provide an implementation of the transformation algorithm through a developed software tool automating all the transformation and verification activities.
A new model for the ns-3 simulator of a novel routing protocol applied to underwater WSN

Providing reliability, scalability and energy efficiency in Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks (UWSN) is very challenging due to its special features. UWSNs usually employ acoustic channels for communications, which compared with radio-frequency channels, allow much lower bandwidths and have several orders of magnitude longer propagation delays. Some routing protocols have been proposed to address these problems, but these approaches usually present unrealistic assumptions or do not consider important questions such as energy consumption or reliability. In this paper we propose the application of EDETA (Energy-efficient aDaptive hiErarchical and robusT Architecture) to the subaquatic acoustic medium. This routing protocol allows a multiple-sink architecture without introducing extra cost. Furthermore, it adds fault tolerant mechanisms to the network structure. An implementation of a subset of EDETA in the ns3 simulator has been carried out. Extensive simulations have been executed. The results show very high packet delivery ratios with reduced energy consumption while offering scalability and reliability.
Comparative Whole-Genomic Analysis of an Ancient L2 Lineage Mycobacterium tuberculosis Reveals a Novel Phylogenetic Clade and Common Genetic Determinants of Hypervirulent Strains

Background: Development of improved therapeutics against tuberculosis (TB) is hindered by an inadequate understanding of the relationship between disease severity and genetic diversity of its causative agent, Mycobacterium tuberculosis. We previously isolated a hypervirulent M. tuberculosis strain H112 from an HIV-negative patient with an aggressive disease progression from pulmonary TB to tuberculous meningitis—the most severe manifestation of tuberculosis. Human macrophage challenge experiment demonstrated that the strain H112 exhibited significantly better intracellular survivability and induced lower level of TNF-α than the reference virulent strain H37Rv and other 123 clinical isolates. Aim: The present study aimed to identify the potential genetic determinants of mycobacterial virulence that were common to strain H112 and hypervirulent M. tuberculosis strains of the same phylogenetic clade isolated in other global regions. Methods: A low-virulent M. tuberculosis strain H54 which belonged to the same phylogenetic lineage (L2) as strain H112 was selected from a collection of 115 clinical isolates. Both H112 and H54 were whole-genome-sequenced using PacBio sequencing technology. A comparative genomics approach was adopted to identify mutations present in strain H112 but absent in strain H54. Subsequently, an extensive phylogenetic analysis was conducted by including all publically available M. tuberculosis genomes. Single-nucleotide-polymorphisms (SNPs) and structural variations (SVs) common to hypervirulent strains in the global collection of genomes were considered as potential genetic determinants of hypervirulence. Results:Sequencing data revealed that both H112 and H54 were identified as members of the same sub-lineage L2.2. 1. After excluding the lineage-related mutations shared between H112 and H54, we analyzed the phylogenetic relatedness of H112 with global collection of M. tuberculosis genomes (n = 4,338), and identified a novel phylogenetic clade in which four hypervirulent strains isolated from geographically diverse regions were clustered together. All hypervirulent strains in the clade shared 12 SNPs and 5 SVs with H112, including those affecting key virulence-associated loci, notably, a deleterious SNP (rv0178 p. D150E) within mce1 operon and an intergenic deletion (854259_ 854261delCC) in close-proximity to phoP. Conclusion: The present study identified common genetic factors in a novel phylogenetic clade of hypervirulent M. tuberculosis. The causative role of these mutations in mycobacterial virulence should be validated in future study.
Feature Extraction of Brain-Computer Interface based on Second Order Blind Identification and ICA

Blind Source Separation (BSS) is a technique for recovering unobservable source signals from their mixtures such as EEG signals. Second Order Blind Identification (SOBI) is one of algorithms of BSS and it is a suitable method for analyzing EEG components for its typical non-stationary and weakness. Independent component analysis (ICA) is used to select non Gaussianity component of mixed signals. In this woke we study feature extraction of EEG signals for classifying spontaneous mental activities in brain computer interface (BCI). Three subjects participated in the BCI experiment which contains two mental tasks including imagination of left hand and right hand movement. After preprocessing, SOBI and ICA were applied to achieve special components of EEG signals. Then, the features were extracted and Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) was used to classify the feature extracted. The result shows that SOBI plus ICA is an effective feature extraction method for subjects whose accuracy was lower when using tradition feature extracted methods.
Combinatorial proteomic analysis of intercellular signaling applied to the CD28 T-cell costimulatory receptor

Significance Intracellular signaling during complex cell–cell interactions, such as between immune cells, provides essential cues leading to cell responses. Global characterization of these signaling events is critical for systematically exploring and understanding how they eventually control cell fate. However, proteome-wide characterization of intercellular signaling under physiologically relevant conditions involving multiple interacting receptors during cell–cell interactions remains challenging. We developed an integrated proteomic strategy for quantitatively profiling intercellular-signaling events mediated by protein phosphorylation and protein–protein interaction. We applied this approach to determine the influence of a single receptor-ligand pair during T-cell stimulation by blocking the interaction of the CD28 costimulatory receptor with its ligand. This approach is generally applicable to other transmembrane receptors involved in signaling during complex cell interactions. Systematic characterization of intercellular signaling approximating the physiological conditions of stimulation that involve direct cell–cell contact is challenging. We describe a proteomic strategy to analyze physiological signaling mediated by the T-cell costimulatory receptor CD28. We identified signaling pathways activated by CD28 during direct cell–cell contact by global analysis of protein phosphorylation. To define immediate CD28 targets, we used phosphorylated forms of the CD28 cytoplasmic region to obtain the CD28 interactome. The interaction profiles of selected CD28-interacting proteins were further characterized in vivo for amplifying the CD28 interactome. The combination of the global phosphorylation and interactome analyses revealed broad regulation of CD28 and its interactome by phosphorylation. Among the cellular phosphoproteins influenced by CD28 signaling, CapZ-interacting protein (CapZIP), a regulator of the actin cytoskeleton, was implicated by functional studies. The combinatorial approach applied herein is widely applicable for characterizing signaling networks associated with membrane receptors with short cytoplasmic tails.
Afferent and Efferent Connections of the Cortex-Amygdala Transition Zone in Mice

The transitional zone between the ventral part of the piriform cortex and the anterior cortical nucleus of the amygdala, named the cortex-amygdala transition zone (CxA), shows two differential features that allow its identification as a particular structure. First, it receives dense cholinergic and dopaminergic innervations as compared to the adjacent piriform cortex and amygdala, and second, it receives projections from the main and accessory olfactory bulbs. In this work we have studied the pattern of afferent and efferent projections of the CxA, which are mainly unknown, by using the retrograde tracer Fluorogold and the anterograde tracer biotinylated dextranamine. The results show that the CxA receives a relatively restricted set of intratelencephalic connections, originated mainly by the olfactory system and basal forebrain, with minor afferents from the amygdala. The only relevant extratelencephalic afference originates in the ventral tegmental area (VTA). The efferent projections of the CxA reciprocate the inputs from the piriform cortex and olfactory amygdala. In addition, the CxA projects densely to the basolateral amygdaloid nucleus and the olfactory tubercle. The extratelencephalic projections of the CxA are very scarce, and target mainly hypothalamic structures. The pattern of connections of the CxA suggests that it is indeed a transitional area between the piriform cortex and the cortical amygdala. Double labeling with choline acetyltransferase indicates that the afferent projection from the basal forebrain is the origin of its distinctive cholinergic innervation, and double labeling with dopamine transporter shows that the projection from the VTA is the source of dopaminergic innervation. These connectivity and neurochemical features, together with the fact that it receives vomeronasal in addition to olfactory information, suggest that the CxA may be involved in processing olfactory information endowed with relevant biological meaning, such as odors related to reproductive or defensive behaviors.
Cycles in the Generalized Fibonacci Sequence modulo a Prime

Since their invention in the thirteenth century, Fibonacci sequences have intrigued mathematicians. As well as modeling the population patterns of overly energetic rabbits, however, they have sparked developments in more serious mathematics. For example, generalized Fibonacci sequences crop up in all manner of situations, from fiber optic networks [3] to computer algorithms [1] to probability theory [2]. In this article, we study generalized Fibonacci sequences {G(n)}, given by the recurrence relation: G(n) = aG(n − 1)+ bG(n − 2) for a, b, G(0) and G(1) integers. We also study the periods of repetition in such sequences when considered modulo p, a prime. For one particular class of generalized Fibonacci numbers, we find a surprising connection with Fermat’s Last Theorem. Other connections between these two seemingly unrelated subjects have been discovered in the past [8], but the one unearthed here allows us to calculate the length of these repetitions or cycles exactly.
Mutations in the Transcription Elongation Factor SPT5 Disrupt a Reporter for Dosage Compensation in Drosophila

In Drosophila, the MSL (Male Specific Lethal) complex up regulates transcription of active genes on the single male X-chromosome to equalize gene expression between sexes. One model argues that the MSL complex acts upon the elongation step of transcription rather than initiation. In an unbiased forward genetic screen for new factors required for dosage compensation, we found that mutations in the universally conserved transcription elongation factor Spt5 lower MSL complex dependent expression from the miniwhite reporter gene in vivo. We show that SPT5 interacts directly with MSL1 in vitro and is required downstream of MSL complex recruitment, providing the first mechanistic data corroborating the elongation model of dosage compensation.
Speech perception in individuals with auditory neuropathy.

PURPOSE Speech perception in participants with auditory neuropathy (AN) was systematically studied to answer the following 2 questions: Does noise present a particular problem for people with AN? Can clear speech and cochlear implants alleviate this problem? METHOD The researchers evaluated the advantage in intelligibility of clear speech over conversational speech in 13 participants with AN. Of these participants, 7 had received a cochlear implant. Eight sentence-recognition experiments were conducted to examine the clear speech advantage in 2 listening conditions (quiet and noise) using 4 stimulation modes (monaural acoustic, diotic acoustic, monaural electric, and binaurally combined acoustic and electric stimulation). RESULTS Participants with AN performed more poorly in speech recognition in noise than did the normal-hearing, cochlear-impaired, and cochlear implant controls. A significant clear speech advantage was observed, ranging from 9 to 23 percentage points in intelligibility for all listening conditions and stimulation modes. Electric stimulation via a cochlear implant produced significantly higher intelligibility than acoustic stimulation in both quiet and in noise. Binaural hearing with either diotic acoustic stimulation or combined acoustic and electric stimulation produced significantly higher intelligibility than monaural stimulation in quiet but not in noise. CONCLUSIONS Participants with AN most likely derive the clear speech advantage from enhanced temporal properties in clear speech and improved neural synchrony with electric stimulation. Although the present result supports cochlear implantation as one treatment choice for people with AN, it suggests that the use of innovative hearing aids may be another viable option to improve speech perception in noise.
SlyA regulates phytotoxin production and virulence in Dickeya zeae EC1.

Dickeya zeae is a causal agent of rice root rot disease. The pathogen is known to produce a range of virulence factors, including phytotoxic zeamines and extracellular enzymes, but the mechanisms of virulence regulation remain vague. In this study, we identified a SlyA/MarR family transcription factor SlyA in D. zeae strain EC1. Disruption of slyA significantly decreased zeamine production, enhanced swimming and swarming motility, reduced biofilm formation and significantly decreased pathogenicity on rice. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) analysis confirmed the role of SlyA in transcriptional modulation of a range of genes associated with bacterial virulence. In trans expression of slyA in expI mutants recovered the phenotypes of motility and biofilm formation, suggesting that SlyA is downstream of the acylhomoserine lactone-mediated quorum sensing pathway. Taken together, the findings from this study unveil a key transcriptional regulatory factor involved in the modulation of virulence factor production and overall pathogenicity of D. zeae EC1.
Huygens' Principle

A short review on Huygens' principle prepared for the " Encyclopedia of Nonlinear Science ". The notion of the Huygens' principle (HP) goes back to the classical " Traité de lalumì ere " (" Treatise on light ") by the great Christiaan Huygens published in 1690. In its original meaning HP gives the following geometric description of the wave fronts. Consider a wave front at the moment t as the source of the new (secondary) waves emanating from the points of this front. The HP states that the new wave front at a later time is the envelope of the fronts of these secondary waves (see Fig. 1). new wave front wave front Figure 1 This principle was further elaborated by Fresnel who added the super-position principle for the amplitudes of the secondary waves to explain the phenomenon of diffraction. In the second half of the XIX-th century various mathematical aspects of the HP were discussed in the pioneering works of Kirchhoff, Beltrami and 1