Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Noninvasive assessment of the early progression of atherosclerosis in adolescents with Kawasaki disease and coronary artery lesions.

OBJECTIVES The severity of carotid arteriosclerosis, defined as increased intima-media thickness (IMT) visible with B-mode ultrasound, is correlated with risk factors for coronary heart disease. Little is known, however, about the relation of IMT, the stiffness of the common carotid artery, and the progression of atherosclerosis in children with Kawasaki disease (KD) and coronary artery lesions (CAL). DESIGN We investigated the associations among total cholesterol (TC), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), triglyceride, TC/HDL-C, ApoE genotype, glycohemoglobin, IMT, and arterial stiffness by high resolution ultrasound in 20 adolescents with KD and CAL (age: 16.6 +/- 4.1 years, males: 60%) and 20 sex- and age-matched healthy controls (Cont). RESULTS No significant differences were observed in the values of body mass index and blood pressure between the 2 groups. Also no significant differences were observed in the levels of TC, LDL-C, HDL-C, triglyceride, TC/HDL-C within normal values, or the allele frequency of Apo E4 between the 2 groups. However, the values of IMT, stiffness, and glycohemoglobin in patients with KD were significantly higher than those in Cont (0.53 +/- 0.07 vs 0.46 +/- 0.05 mm, P <.05; 4.11 +/- 0.86 vs 2.94 +/- 0.91, P <.001; 5.0 +/- 0.4 vs 4.6 +/- 0.2%, P <.05). A significant relationship was observed between sex and the mean IMT (r = 0.46) in Cont; however, no significant correlation was found between mean IMT and other variables in either group. Although the arterial stiffness was strongly related to body mass index (r = 0.58) and systolic blood pressure (r = 0.55) in Cont, no significant relationship was observed between the stiffness and any variable tested in patients with KD. CONCLUSIONS The less distensible carotid wall in patients with KD compared with that in Cont without major alteration of the lipid profile is likely to be secondary to the changes in arterial walls after a diffuse vasculitis involving noncoronary arteries. These results indicate that the coronary arteries may be predisposed to accelerated atherosclerosis in patients with KD and CAL.
Valuing the effects of sildenafil in erectile dysfunction

Papers p 1165 Sildenafil is a true breakthrough drug in the sense that it provides a potential treatment for a condition for which there was no existing acceptable alternative. This complicates any attempt to describe the cost effectiveness of sildenafil in erectile dysfunction, such as that by Stolk et al in this week's BMJ (p 1165). 1 They compare sildenafil with papaverine-phentolamine injections, which they argue are rationed on “medical grounds” and will not achieve the population benefits that might be achieved by sildenafil. More controversially, they argue that “the incremental cost-effectiveness of sildenafil lies at the favourable end of the scale when compared with interventions in health care for other diseases. ” The comparator therapy Stolk et al refer to, papaverine-phentolamine injections, seems not to have been rigorously evaluated and is not widely used. They used a cost utility approach in which a representative sample of the general population were asked to value the effects of treatment (for a condition that they did not have) to generate a cost per quality adjusted life year (QALY). Why might we question the validity of these findings? Generating values for …
Predicting the Urge to Smoke in a Population-Based Sample of Adolescent Smokers

Little is known about the relationship between smoking urges and situations in adolescence, although adolescent smoking is specifically bound to characteristics, such as peer group situations. Therefore, we performed ordinal regression analyses to predict this situational urge to smoke by smoking-related variables. A sample of N = 1,093 adolescents in North-Eastern Germany was used in 2005/2006. High parameter values on all predictors had the highest odds for situational urge followed by moderate and low parameter values. Implications/limitations are described.
Distortion of pulse signatures penetrated obliquely through tunnel in a cross-borehole pulse radar

The finite-difference time-domain method is employed to calculate the radar signatures of an obliquely penetrating tunnel. The relatively faster propagation and stronger distortion of the electromagnetic pulse are discovered due to the existence of an empty tunnel as its penetration angle becomes more oblique. To analyze the different behaviors of two arrival times, the electrical fields in 3 different tracks as transmitter side, tunnel inside and receiver side are collected around tunnel. Those data are analyzed in time and frequency domains. It renders the arrival time of the first peak to be increased relatively slower than that of the first received signal.
Evidence that two latency-associated transcripts of herpes simplex virus type 1 are nonlinear

The latency-associated transcripts (LATs) of herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) are the only viral gene products that accumulate to abundant levels in latently infected cells. Others have reported species of 2.0, 1.50, and 1.45 kb; only the 2.0-kb species is seen in productively infected cells, and there is evidence that it behaves as an intron. We examined the LATs both in trigeminal ganglia of latently infected mice and in productively infected cultures of monkey CV-1 cells. After glyoxalation, RNA was subjected to high-resolution agarose gel electrophoresis and Northern (RNA) analysis, a procedure capable of resolving linear and nonlinear RNA species. Under these conditions, we resolved the 2.0-kb LAT into two species; the slower species was much more abundant and had a mobility significantly slower than expected for a linear RNA. To test the hypothesis that this RNA was in fact nonlinear, we used partial hydrolysis by sodium carbonate and oligonucleotide-directed RNase H digestion. These procedures changed the mobility of the slower species into that of the faster species. Similarly, the mobility of the 1.50-kb LAT, which was much more abundant than the 1.45-kb LAT, was changed by these procedures to that of the 1.45-kb LAT. Our data show that the two major LAT species are nonlinear, and they support an interpretation of stable lariat structures.
Allosteric regulation of SERCA by phosphorylation-mediated conformational shift of phospholamban

Significance The sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+-ATPase (SERCA)/phospholamban complex regulates cardiac muscle contractility by controlling Ca2+ transport from the cytosol to the lumen of the sarcoplasmic reticulum. By mapping the interactions between these two membrane proteins, we found that SERCA function depends on the equilibria between transient conformational states of phospholamban. Phosphorylation of phospholamban shifts the equilibria, enhancing SERCA function. This mechanism explains why tuning phospholamban’s structural dynamics can modulate SERCA function and may aid in designing innovative therapeutic approaches to heart failure. The membrane protein complex between the sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+-ATPase (SERCA) and phospholamban (PLN) controls Ca2+ transport in cardiomyocytes, thereby modulating cardiac contractility. β-Adrenergic-stimulated phosphorylation of PLN at Ser-16 enhances SERCA activity via an unknown mechanism. Using solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, we mapped the physical interactions between SERCA and both unphosphorylated and phosphorylated PLN in membrane bilayers. We found that the allosteric regulation of SERCA depends on the conformational equilibrium of PLN, whose cytoplasmic regulatory domain interconverts between three different states: a ground T state (helical and membrane associated), an excited R state (unfolded and membrane detached), and a B state (extended and enzyme-bound), which is noninhibitory. Phosphorylation at Ser-16 of PLN shifts the populations toward the B state, increasing SERCA activity. We conclude that PLN’s conformational equilibrium is central to maintain SERCA’s apparent Ca2+ affinity within a physiological window. This model represents a paradigm shift in our understanding of SERCA regulation by posttranslational phosphorylation and suggests strategies for designing innovative therapeutic approaches to enhance cardiac muscle contractility.
A bi-objective parallel machine problem with eligibility, release dates and delivery times of the jobs

The scheduling of parallel machines is a well-known problem in many companies. Nevertheless, not always all the jobs can be manufactured in any machine and the eligibility appears. Based on a real-life problem, we present a model which has m parallel machines with different level of quality from the highest level for the first machine till the lowest level for the last machine. The set of jobs to be scheduled on these m parallel machines are also distributed among these m levels: one job from a level can be manufactured in a machine of the same or higher level but a penalty, depending on the level, appears when a job is manufactured in a machine different from the highest level i.e. different from the first machine. Besides, there are release dates and delivery times associated to each job. The tackled problem is bi-objective with the criteria: minimisation of the final date – i.e. the maximum for all the jobs of their completion time plus the delivery time – and the minimisation of the total penalty generated by the jobs. In a first step, we analyse the sub-problem of minimisation of the final date on a single machine for jobs with release dates and delivery times. Four heuristics and an improvement algorithm are proposed and compared on didactic examples and on a large set of instances. In a second step an algorithm is proposed to approximate the set of efficient solutions and the Pareto front of the bi-objective problem. This algorithm contains two phases: the first is a depth search phase and the second is a backtracking phase. The procedure is illustrated in detail on an instance with 20 jobs and 3 machines. Then extensive numerical experiments are realised on two different sets of instances, with 20, 30 and 50 jobs, 3 or 4 machines and various values of penalties. Except for the case of 50 jobs, the results are compared with the exact Pareto front.
Mm Wave LNA Using feedback guanella transmission line transformer

This work aims to present the post layout simulation of a fully differential implementation of two-stage low noise amplifier (LNA) using feedback transformer in TSMC 65nm CMOS technology. The transformer is used to neutralize with Miller capacitance of the FET. Guanella transmission line transformer (TLT) is implemented using coupled transmission line. This transformer is easier to design than other conventional types of transformers. The LNA achieves transducer gain (Gt) of 12.2dB with noise figure (NF) of 4.27dB and IIP3 is 5.6dBm, while it consumes 30mW from 1.2v. This design has almost a perfect input output isolation of more than 60dB.
A sparse view approach for microwave diffraction tomography

A sparse view approach for the reconstruction of object profile has been proposed for Microwave Diffraction Tomography. The forward scattered fields are acquired through sensing elements with the object illuminated from limited number of angles by a plane wave. A Re-weighted Basic Pursuit Algorithm is used to solve the inverse ill-posed problem. It is shown that the reconstructed image preserves the features of the original even after reducing the number of views by a factor of three. This further leads to reduction in data acquisition time and computational complexity.
Patterns of DSM-III-R alcohol dependence symptom progression in a general population survey

Synopsis Age of onset reports obtained retrospectively for each symptom of DSM-III-R alcohol dependence (AD) are used to study patterns of lifetime symptom progression in a large general-population survey of people in the United States. It is shown that symptom progression among a substantial majority of respondents can be summarized as movement across three clusters. Cluster A is defined by symptoms of role impairment/hazardous use (A4), use despite social, psychological or physical problems (A6), and drinking larger amounts or over a longer period of time than intended (A1). Cluster B is defined by tolerance (A7) and impaired control (A2, A3). Cluster C is defined by withdrawal (A8, A9) and giving up activities in order to drink (A5). Clusters are shown to follow a time sequence, with at least one symptom in Cluster A usually occurring first, followed by symptoms in Clusters B and C. In all, 83·4% of the symptom cluster transitions estimated from retrospective age of onset reports are consistent with this progression. Progression to AD is differentially predicted by symptom profiles reported at the age of first symptom onset, with persons reporting Cluster C symptoms most likely to progress subsequently to AD. Furthermore, profiles of AD defined by the highest symptom cluster present at AD onset are differentially predicted by prior personal and parental histories of psychopathology and, among men, are predictive of diagnosis persistence.
Rho‐associated kinase, a novel serine/threonine kinase, as a putative target for small GTP binding protein Rho.

The small GTP binding protein Rho is implicated in cytoskeletal responses to extracellular signals such as lysophosphatidic acid to form stress fibers and focal contacts. Here we have purified a Rho‐interacting protein with a molecular mass of approximately 164 kDa (p164) from bovine brain. This protein bound to GTPgammaS (a non‐hydrolyzable GTP analog). RhoA but not to GDP.RhoA or GTPgammaS.RhoA with a mutation in the effector domain (RhoAA37). p164 had a kinase activity which was specifically stimulated by GTPgammaS.RhoA. We obtained the cDNA encoding p164 on the basis of its partial amino acid sequences and named it Rho‐associated kinase (Rho‐kinase). Rho‐kinase has a catalytic domain in the N‐terminal portion, a coiled coil domain in the middle portion and a zinc finger‐like motif in the C‐terminal portion. The catalytic domain shares 72% sequence homology with that of myotonic dystrophy kinase and the coiled coil domain contains a Rho‐interacting interface. When COS7 cells were cotransfected with Rho‐kinase and activated RhoA, some Rho‐kinase was recruited to membranes. Thus it is likely that Rho‐kinase is a putative target serine/threonine kinase for Rho and serves as a mediator of the Rho‐dependent signaling pathway.
Robot Scavenger Hunt: A Standardized Framework for Evaluating Intelligent Mobile Robots

In recent years, many different types of intelligent mobile robots have been developed in research and industrial labs. Although there are significant differences in both hardware and software over these robots, many of them share a common set of AI capabilities, e.g., planning, learning, vision and natural language processing. At the same time, almost all of them are equipped with traditional robotic capabilities such as mapping, localization, and navigation. However, to date it has been difficult to compare and contrast their capabilities in any controlled way. The main goal of the Robot Scavenger Hunt is to provide a standardized framework that includes a set of standardized tasks for evaluating the AI and robotic capabilities of medium-sized intelligent mobile robots. Compared to existing benchmarks, e.g., RoboCup@Home1, Robot Scavenger Hunt aims at evaluations in larger spaces (multi-floor buildings vs. rooms) over longer periods of time (hours vs. minutes) while interacting with real human residents.
Limb regeneration in larvae and metamorphosing individuals of the South African clawed toad

Early investigators reported that, whereas the newly formed limbs of anuran tadpoles regenerated readily upon amputation, the capacity to regenerate limbs was lost entirely during metamorphosis (Barfurth, 1894; Byrnes, '04; Bauer, '05). Although this information is, in general, essentially correct it has been qualified in several ways. The stage at which the ability to regenerate limb parts is lost varies among different species (Kammerer, '05; Forsyth, '46); it is, however, in any particular anuran lost first in the proximal portion of the limb and then, gradually, in more and more distal regions (Marcucci, '16; Schotte and Harland, '43). It can be reconstituted experimentally to a limited degree in post-metamorphic animals (Polezaiev, '36; Rose, '44, '45; Gidge and Rose, '44; Singer, '54; Singer, Kamrin, and Ashbaugh, '57; Malinin and Deck, '58; SchottC and Wilber, '58). There are a few reports of isolated instances of spontaneous regenerative response in various adult anurans (Gadow, '01; Thornton and Shields, '45; Polezaiev, '45, '47), but the only anuran in which adults have been found to regenerate consistently without the use of stimulatory procedures is the South African clawed toad, Xenopus Zaevis (Daudin) (Gallien and Beetchen, '51 ; Beetchen, '52; Gitlin, '56). Although the adult of Xenopus essentially always produces a regenerate after a limb is amputated, the regenerate is heteromorphic, consisting of a single spike-like structure occasionally bifurcated at the tip (Beetchen, '52). Internally, the spike is made up mainly of cartilage with some dense connective tissue but with scarcely any bone or muscle (Skowron and Komala, '57). Some attention has been given to the regenerative potencies of larvae and metamorphosing individuals of Xenopus (Komala, '57). Because of the unusual responses of the adult to limb amputation, however, it was felt that further study of regeneration in the limbs of developing Xenopus was warranted, and the present investigation was undertaken. Some preliminary statements of the results were given in an abstract (Dent, '60).
Neural cell adhesion molecule‐mediated neurite outgrowth is repressed by overexpression of HES‐1

The neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM) stimulates neurite outgrowth by activating intracellular signaling cascades. We investigated the role of the transcriptional repressor HES‐1 in NCAM‐dependent neurite outgrowth by estimating neurite extension from PC12‐E2 cells grown in coculture with NCAM‐negative or NCAM‐positive fibroblasts. PC12‐E2 cells were transiently transfected with an expression plasmid encoding HES‐1. We found that expression of HES‐1 inhibited NCAM‐dependent neurite outgrowth. Treatment with arachidonic acid (an important messenger in NCAM‐dependent signaling) restored NCAM‐induced neurite outgrowth inhibited by HES‐1. These results suggest that HES‐1 is a regulator of intracellular signal transduction stimulated by cell adhesion molecules involved in neurite outgrowth. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The Research of Thermal Analysis of Cast Iron Based on Wavelet Filter and Support Vector Machine

Thermal analysis becomes an important tool to reflect the solidification behavior of cast irons. In this paper, wavelet filter and Support Vector Machine (SVM) are used to search six important characteristic numbers of thermal analysis in order to improve the calculating reliability and accuracy of thermal analysis. Firstly, wavelet filter is used to filter the cooling curve and cooling rate curve. Then the equations of cooling curve and cooling rate curve are established by SVM. At last, six important characteristic numbers of thermal analysis are calculated. The experiment demonstrates that using this method can obtain better performance than other method.
Simulation of Warpage During Fabrication of Printed Circuit Boards

This paper presents a simulation method for the warpage that take places after the patterning process of printed circuit boards. To conduct an efficient as well as realistic simulation, a nonlinear thermo-elasticity problem with cure kinetics is approximated to a linear one by adjusting the thermal loading condition, which is the processing temperature where the stress-free state is assumed. This paper proposes a method that can determine such temperature based on a simple experiment. Moreover, methods for geometric modeling and meshing with finite elements are also proposed. With the use of the contact boundary conditions, complex copper patterns and dielectric layers are separately meshed and joined later. An experimental system is built for adjusting the thermal loading and verifying the simulation results. The numerical results are compared with experimental data to examine the validity of the method.
Strong Approximations for Queues with Customer Choice and Constant Delays

Many service systems provide queue length information to customers thereby allowing customers to choose among many options of service. However, queue length information is often delayed and is often not provided in real time. Recent work by Dong et al. [7] explores the impact of these delays in an empirical study in U.S. hospitals. Work by Pender et al. [27] uses a two-dimensional fluid model to study the impact of delayed information and determine the exact threshold under which delayed information can cause oscillations in the dynamics of the queue length. In this work, we confirm that the fluid model analyzed by Pender et al. [27] can be rigorously obtained as a functional law of large numbers limit of a stochastic queueing process and we generalize their threshold analysis to arbitrary dimensions. Moreover, we prove a functional central limit theorem for the queue length process and show that the scaled
Expression and Regulation of a Silent Operon, hyf, Coding for Hydrogenase 4 Isoenzyme in Escherichia coli

ABSTRACT On the basis of hyf-lacZ fusion studies, the hyf operon of Escherichia coli, noted for encoding the fourth hydrogenase isoenzyme (HYD4), is not expressed at a significant level in a wild-type strain. However, mutant FhlA proteins (constitutive activators of the hyc-encoded hydrogenase 3 isoenzyme) activated hyf-lacZ. HyfR, an FhlA homolog encoded by the hyfR gene present at the end of the hyf operon, also activated transcription of hyf-lacZ but did so only when hyfR was expressed from a heterologous promoter. The HYD4 isoenzyme did not substitute for HYD3 in H2 production. Optimum expression of hyf-lacZ required the presence of cyclic AMP receptor protein-cyclic AMP complex and anaerobic conditions when HyfR was the activator.
Studies of the Extracellular ATP-Adenosine Pathway in Human Urinary Tract Epithelial Cells

Aims: Extracellular ATP may be metabolized to AMP and adenosine by the ectonucleotidases CD39 and CD73 and, in this study, we characterized the pathways for adenosine formation in human urinary tract epithelial cells. Methods: Bladder (RT4) and kidney (A498) epithelial cells were grown in cell culture and the expression of CD39 and CD73 was investigated by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and immunohistochemistry. High-performance liquid chromatography was used to determine adenosine formation in cell medium. Results: RT-PCR and immunohistochemistry revealed a high CD73 and a low CD39 expression in human urinary tract epithelial cells, whereas neutrophils had a higher CD39 than CD73 expression. Adenosine was produced when the cells were exposed to 5′-AMP (substrate for CD73), but not when exposed to 5′-ATP (substrate for CD39). A pronounced inhibition of 5′-AMP-induced adenosine formation by the CD73 inhibitor AMP-CP confirmed the involvement of CD73. Adenosine production from 5′-ATP was slightly increased (p < 0.05) when epithelial cells were cocultured with neutrophils. Conclusions: The data demonstrate that adenosine formation from extracellular ATP is negligible in urinary tract epithelial cells due to low CD39 expression in this cell type. However, the epithelial cells express CD73 and are able to convert extracellular AMP to adenosine.