Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Hypertension in CB57BL/6J mouse model of non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus.

The C57BL/6J (BL/6) mouse develops non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) when fed a high fat-high simple carbohydrate (HFHSC) diet, whereas A/J mice do not. The purpose of the study was to determine whether hypertension occurred with NIDDM and whether it was sustained by sympathetic nervous system (SNS) hyperactivity. After 3 mo on an HFHSC diet with a low Na content (0.06%), awake, tail-cuff systolic blood pressure (BP) increased 20% above the control diet in BL/6 (138 +/- 3 vs. 115 +/- 4) but not in A/J (115 +/- 6 vs. 113 +/- 2 mmHg) mice. On a normal Na (0.4%)-HFHSC diet, BL/6 mice had a higher BP than on 0.06% Na (149 +/- 3 at 3 mo, 162 +/- 6 at 4.5 mo). After 1 mo on the 0.06% Na-HFHSC diet, direct BP of anesthetized BL/6 mice was 18% higher than control. The hypotensive response to interruption of SNS activity by ganglionic blockade (chlorisondamine) increased in the BL/6 mice (50%), whereas the heart rate response increased in both strains (20-30%). Analysis of variance (ANOVA) on glucose detected significant effects of strain and diet and a strain x diet interaction (P = 0.0007). At 1 or 3 mo, HFHSC-fed BL/6 mice were hyperglycemic (> 11 mM) compared with diet or strain controls. The ANOVA on insulin detected strain and diet effects but not a strain x diet interaction (P = 0.3). HFHSC increased insulin above the control of 140-160 pM in A/J and BL/6 strain (20-70% at 1 mo, 400% at 3 mo). (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Explanatory opinions: to whom or what is all the fuzz about?

Exploiting sentiment relations to improve the accuracy of sentiment analysis has caught the interest of recent research. When expressing their opinions, users apply different sentence syntactic constructions styles. This analysis leverages on a sentiment lexicon that includes general sentiment words that characterize the overall sentiment towards the targeted named-entity. However, in most cases, target entities are themselves part of the sentiment lexicon, creating a loop from which it is difficult to infer the overall sentiment to the target entities. We propose the application of conditional random fields (CRF) to predict opinion target labels. More specifically, we exploit a set of opinion patterns to extend an opinion word lexicon and then propose to apply a CRF algorithm to detect the interactions between opinion expressions and opinion targets.
Change in the Organization of Degrees of Freedom With Learning

The authors examined the effects of learning on the change in the organization of the mechanical and dynamical degrees of freedom in 5 men who performed a ski-simulator task. A 3-dimensional analysis of the motion of the total-body center of mass and the segmental centers of mass (head, torso, thighs, and shanks) over practice showed that the recruitment of mechanical degrees of freedom was strongly influenced by anatomical and task constraints. Principal components analysis of the body segments' motions revealed that practice shifted their relative contributions but did not change the number of principal components. The present findings show that there can be independence in the patterns of change in the mechanical and dynamical degrees of freedom that arise from practice.
Leptomeningeal Carcinomatosis: Presenting Features and Prognostic Factors

Objective: To determine factors that are predictive of survival among patients with leptomeningeal carcinomatosis. Background: Studies of potential prognostic factors in leptomeningeal carcinomatosis have produced conflicting results. Reasons for the discrepancies may be methodological differences in case ascertainment, treatment protocols, and limitations due to the size of the study group. Design and Methods: We reviewed the medical records of 126 patients with cytologically confirmed leptomeningeal carcinomatosis seen at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn, from 1983 to 1994. Clinical, radiographic, and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) parameters at the time of presentation are summarized. Treatment response, complications, and cause of death are also discussed. Using the forward stepwise Cox model, independent predictors of survival were identified. Results: Independent negative predictors of survival include elevated CSF protein ( P P =.05). Independent positive predictors of survival were longer duration of neurological symptoms at the time of presentation ( P P =.01), and female sex ( P =.02). Other variables, including age, primary tumor type, and extent of systemic disease, were not predictive. Conclusions: We conclude that female sex, longer duration of neurological symptoms, absence of cerebral leptomeningeal clinical involvement, and absence of elevated CSF protein independently predict better survival. Patients treated with intra-CSF chemotherapy also survived longer.
Effect of transient ischemia on the expression of glucose transporters GLUT-1 and GLUT-4 in rat myocardium.

A number of observations indicate that myocardial glucose utilization is increased late during post-ischemic reperfusion. The present study was designed to examine whether transient ischemia elicits altered expression of glucose transporters GLUT-1 and GLUT-4. In rats, the left anterior descending coronary artery was occluded for 20 min followed by reperfusion for 1, 3 or 7 days. Regional myocardial uptake and phosphorylation of glucose was determined based on myocardial accumulation of 2-deoxy-D-[2, 6-3H]glucose-6-phosphate. In hearts from fasted rats, after 3 days of reperfusion, myocardial uptake and phosphorylation of glucose was 48% higher in the reperfused region compared to a remote control region. No regional difference in myocardial glucose uptake and phosphorylation was detectable in hearts from fed rats. After 1 day of reperfusion, expression of myocardial glucose transporter GLUT-1 mRNA was increased to 195+/-24% (mean+/-SEM) of the value measured in the remote region and the expression of GLUT-4 mRNA was decreased to 58+/-7%. After 3 days of reperfusion both mRNA and protein of GLUT-1 were higher in the reperfused region, averaging 133+/-23% and 249+/-36%, respectively. The corresponding values for GLUT-4 mRNA and protein were 77+/-7% and 62+/-6%, respectively. The results indicate that a short period of ischemia alters the expression of glucose transporter isoforms GLUT-1 and GLUT-4. Observed changes may be involved in the mechanisms underlying late changes of substrate metabolism during reperfusion.
Estimating acceptable noise-levels on gaze and mouse selection by zooming

The goal of this research is to estimate the maximum amount of noise of a pointing device that still makes interaction with a Windows interface possible. This work proposes zoom as an alternative activation method to the more well-known interaction methods (dwell and two-step- dwell activation). We present a magnifier called ZoomNavigator that uses the zoom principle to interact with an interface. Selection by zooming was tested with white noise in a range of 0 to 160 pixels in radius on an eye tracker and a standard mouse. The mouse was found to be more accurate than the eye tracker. The zoom principle applied allowed successful interaction with the smallest targets found in the Windows environment even with noise up to about 80 pixels in radius. The work suggests that the zoom interaction gives the user a possibility to make corrective movement during activation time eliminating the waiting time found in all types of dwell activations. Furthermore zooming can be a promising way to compensate for inaccuracies on low-resolution eye trackers or for instance if people have problems controlling the mouse due to hand tremors.
Characterization of binding of human alpha 2-macroglobulin to group G streptococci

An interaction was observed between human alpha 2-macroglobulin (alpha 2M) and streptococci belonging to group A, C, and G. Of 27 group C and 19 group G streptococcal cultures, 13 and 14, respectively, bound 125I-labeled alpha 2M. Some group A streptococci also interacted with alpha 2M. A number of other bacterial species tested did not react with alpha 2M. The binding of 125I-labeled alpha 2M to group G streptococci was time dependent, saturable, and could be inhibited by unlabeled alpha 2M. Inhibition experiments indicated that the streptococcal binding site for alpha 2M differed from the receptors for immunoglobulin G, fibrinogen, aggregated beta 2-microglobulin, albumin, and fibronectin. The alpha 2M binding activity was remarkably sensitive to trypsin and heat treatment indicating its protein nature. Kinetic analysis indicated a homogenous population of binding sites. The number of binding sites per bacterial cell was estimated to be approximately 20,000.
Anaphylaxis to amidotrizoate proved by skin testing and flow cytometry‐based basophil activation test

hypersensitivity to bosentan. This higher sensitivity of the LTT has been observed in other studies concerning non immediate reactions to b-lactams (7) and other drugs, such as non b-lactam antibiotics and anticonvulsants (8). On the other hand, the activation of drug-specific T cells plays a central role in many non immediate drug hypersensitivity reactions, such as MPE, toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN), DRESS, and acute generalized exanthematous pustolosis (AGEP) (8, 9). Therefore, a more extensive diagnostic use of the LTT – which is still generally considered merely a research tool – could improve the sensitivity of the diagnostic workup for non immediate reactions to drugs, reducing the number of drug provocation tests, which are not only harmful, but are also contraindicated in severe reactions such as TEN, DRESS, and AGEP. However, a recent study by Kano et al. (9) proved that the LTT sensitivity varies depending on the type of drug reaction and the time interval between such reactions and testing. In fact, positive results were obtained when the test was performed at the acute stage, but not at the recovery stage, in MPE and TEN, while positive responses were observed at the recovery stage, but not at the acute one, in DRESS, as in our case. All authors have no relationships to declare.
Innervating sympathetic neurons regulate heart size and the timing of cardiomyocyte cell cycle withdrawal

Cardiomyocytes withdraw from the cell cycle late in prenatal and early in postnatal life and subsequent heart growth occurs via cellular hypertrophy. The signals regulating this transition remain unknown. Lesion of the neonatal sympathetic nervous system results in decreased heart size. In vitro investigations show that sympathetic neurons delay cardiomyocyte maturation and cell cycle withdrawal. Early sympathetic innervation may contribute to the determination of adult heart size by regulating the total number of cardiomyocytes via regulation of the proliferative/hypertrophic transition. Early perturbations of sympathetic structure or function could have long‐term effects on adult heart function.
Task space stiffness analysis of wire driven parallel manipulator

A wire driven parallel manipulator is pulled by several wires on motors or passive devices over pulleys at the other ends. The motors or passive ends are mounted on a framed structure and the platform moves within the volume. Wires can apply only unilateral force and so these manipulators need redundancy in actuation and characterized by Force closure of the wire tensions. This article presents an analysis of and method for determining the force-closure workspace. Due to elastic behaviour of wires and proportional gain of motor controller, the moving platform exhibits directional stiffness in any position within workspace. The stiffness again also varies on all over the workspace. This article presents a detailed analysis of the task space stiffness behaviour of the moving platform. Illustrations are given with numerical results of analyses on example cases of 4-wire driven planar and 8-wire driven spatial manipulators.
The phylogenetic position of the giant devil ray Mobula mobular (Bonnaterre, 1788) (Myliobatiformes, Myliobatidae) inferred from the mitochondrial genome

Abstract The giant devil ray, Mobula mobular, is a member of one of the most distinct groups of cartilaginous fishes, the Mobulidae (manta and devil rays), and is the only mobulid assessed as Endangered due its restricted distribution, high bycatch mortality and suspected population decline. The complete mitochondrial genome is 18 913 base pairs in length and comprises 2 rRNAs, 13 protein-coding genes, 22 tRNAs and 2 non-coding regions. Comparison with the partial mitogenome of M. japanica suggests a sister-cryptic species complex and two different taxonomic units. However, the limited divergence within the species (>99.9% genetic identity) may be the result of a geographically and numerically restricted population of M. mobular within the Mediterranean Sea.
The Structure of American Income Tax Policy Preferences

In recent decades inequality in the United States has increased dramatically, but policy responses in terms of redistribution have been limited. This is not easily explained by standard political economy theory, which predicts a positive relationship between inequality and redistribution. One set of explanations for this puzzle focuses on whether and why redistributive preferences are muted in the presence of high inequality. While much recent research has focused on citizens’ preferences over government spending, we argue that preferences over taxation are a central piece of this puzzle. This article implements an experimental conjoint survey design to measure American income tax preferences across six income brackets. We find that policy opinions are generally progressive but that preferences do not vary substantially from current tax policies, and support for taxing the rich is highly inelastic. We show that both economic and fairness concerns affect individual tax preferences and find that conflict is primarily over taxing high incomes.
Immunogenicity of Constitutively Active V599EBRaf

Activating BRAF somatic missense mutations within the kinase domain are present in 60–66% of melanomas. The vast majority of these represent a single substitution of glutamate for valine (V599E). Here, we demonstrate spontaneous HLA-B*2705-restricted cytotoxic T-cell responses against an epitope derived from V599EBRaf. These T-cell responses were mutation specific as the corresponding epitope derived from wild-type BRaf was not recognized. The loss of the V599EBRAF genotype during progression from primary to metastatic melanoma in patients with V599EBRaf specific T-cell responses suggests an active immune selection of nonmutated melanoma clones by the tumor-bearing host.
One-step solution for the multistep out-of-sequence-measurement problem in tracking

In multisensor target tracking systems measurements from the same target can arrive out of sequence. Such "out-of-sequence" measurement (OOSM) arrivals can occur even in the absence of scan/frame communication time delays. The resulting problem - how to update the current state estimate with an "older" measurement - is a nonstandard estimation problem. It was solved first (suboptimally, then optimally) for the case where the OOSM lies between the two last measurements, i.e, its lag is less than a sampling interval - the 1-step-lag case. The real world has, however, OOSMs with arbitrary lag. Subsequently, the suboptimal algorithm was extended to the case of an arbitrary (multistep) lag, but the resulting algorithm required a significant amount of storage. The present work shows how the 1-step-lag algorithms can be generalized to handle an arbitrary (multistep) lag while preserving their main feature of solving the update problem without iterating. This leads only to a very small (a few percent) degradation of MSE performance. The incorporation of an OOSM into the data association process is also discussed. A realistic example with two GMTI radars is presented. The consistency of the proposed algorithm is also evaluated and it is found that its calculated covariances are reliable.
Online and other ICT-based Training Tools for Problem-solving Skills

Problem-solving requires creative skills, critical thinking as well the ability to implement ideas and theories in practical ways. Moreover, interactive and self-managed problem-solving experiences promote students’ motivation as expressed through the developmental progression of learners’ metacognitive skills, such as self-monitoring and self-reinforcement. Effective learning based on constructivist didactics, encompassing self-organized learning in combination with active and creative problem-solving in collaborative settings, advances students’ concomitant cognitive and meta-cognitive processes. Hence, students’ co-construction of knowledge embodied in social dynamic learning environments, such as school-based tasks leverage the semantic relationships rising from exercising, verifying and testing of knowledge through information sharing and discussion. Future studies should focus on designing interactive, adaptable, ill-defined, real-world learning environments to elicit students’ cognitive and meta-cognitive processes as a key factor for the effective training of problem-solving skills.
FT-Matrix: A Coordination-Aware Architecture for Signal Processing

Vector-SIMD architectures have gained increasing attention because of their high performance in signal-processing applications. However, the performance of existing vector-SIMD architectures remains limited because of their inefficiency in the coordinated exploitation of different hardware units. To solve this problem, this article proposes the FT-Matrix architecture, which improves the coordination of traditional vector-SIMD architectures from three aspects: the cooperation between the scalar and SIMD unit is refined with the dynamic coupling execution scheme, the communication among SIMD lanes is enhanced with the matrix-style communication, and data sharing among vector memory banks is accomplished by the unaligned vector memory accessing scheme. Evaluation results show an average performance gain of 58.5 percent against vector-SIMD architectures without the proposed improvements. A four-core chip with each core built on the FT-Matrix architecture is also under fabrication.
Marital Support and Recovery from Depression

A prospective study of 47 married women who met RDC for major depressive disorder investigated the relationship between the social support provided by the husbands and the post-hospital symptom course of the women. Separate taped semistructured interviews were held with the patient and husband at the time of admission. Six months later, symptom course was rated using the LIFE psychiatric status schedule. Only 51 % of the sample recovered in the six months. Few demographic or clinical factors were related to symptom course. Recovery was predicted by the depressed woman's ratings of the current marital relationship and by the husband's rating of the pre-morbid relationship but not by the husband's level of expressed criticism or his ratings of the current relationship.
Trajectory generation for manipulators based on artificial potential field approach with adjustable temporal behavior

This paper presents a new trajectory generation method of the artificial potential field approach to a real-time motion planning problem. In the artificial potential field approach, the goal is represented by an attractive artificial potential and the obstacles are represented by repulsive ones, so that the robot reaches the goal without colliding with obstacles by using a gradient vector of the potential field. Although this approach is simple and computationally much less expensive than other methods based on the global information on the task space, little attention has been paid to temporal behavior of the generated trajectories such as a movement time from the initial position to the goal and the velocity profile of the end-effector motion. We argue that temporal behavior of the generated arm trajectory should be taken into account within the framework of the artificial potential field approach and introduce a time base generator that determines a dynamic behavior of the arm trajectory as a part of a feedback controller. By synchronizing a time course of the potential function used as an artificial potential field with the time base generator, the temporal behavior of the generated arm trajectory can be adjusted through the time base generator without any change of the potential function to be used.
A Fetus with Hydropic Change Secondary to Fetal Supraventricular Tachycardia

Fetal tachyarrhythmia is a rare but serious disease. Without treatment, it may progress to fetal cardiac failure, hydrops fetalis and in utero fetal death. With the rapid advancement in fetal echocardiographic equipment and techniques, such arrhythmia can be diagnosed accurately during prenatal life by using M-mode echocardiogram and doppler. Prenatal control of the tachyarrhythmia can be achieved by either transplacental or direct fetal treatment with a wide-range of antiarrhythmic drugs. We report a 20 weeks gestation hydropic fetus secondary to supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) who was successfully treated by transplacental flecainide. Abstract Supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) is a well-recognised cause of non-immune hydrops fetalis, which is associated with a high incidence of perinatal mortality. The arrhythmia can be diagnosed accurately during prenatal life. We report here a case of fetal hydrops secondary to SVT at 20 weeks of gestation successfully treated with transplacental flecainide. The controversy on the types of drugs used and the optimal route of administration were discussed.
A consideration of open- and short-end type helical antennas for magnetic-coupled resonant wireless power transfer

Antenna geometry for coupled-resonant wireless power transfer is discussed. We compared open-ended type self-resonant helical antenna and short-ended type capacitor loaded helical antenna from a viewpoint of 1) undesired emission, 2) effect of conductivity, 3) transfer distance, and 4) effect of human body. We have found that short-ended helical antenna has an advantage in low emission, long transfer distance, and low influence of resonant frequency from human body. On the other hands, the open-ended antenna has an advantage in low transmission loss due to a conductivity of wire. This is because both electric-field coupling and magnetic-field coupling are dominant for the open-ended antenna while only magnetic-field coupling is dominant in the short-ended antenna.