Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Adiponectin Promotes Revascularization of Ischemic Muscle through a Cyclooxygenase 2-Dependent Mechanism

ABSTRACT Adiponectin is a fat-derived plasma protein that has cardioprotective roles in obesity-linked diseases. Because cyclooxygenase 2 (COX-2) is an important modulator of endothelial function, we investigated the possible contribution of COX-2 to adiponectin-mediated vascular responses in a mouse hind limb model of vascular insufficiency. Ischemic insult increased COX-2 expression in endothelial cells of wild-type mice, but this induction was attenuated in adiponectin knockout mice. Ischemia-induced revascularization was impaired in mice in which the Cox-2 gene is deleted in Tie2-Cre-expressing cells. Adenovirus-mediated overexpression of adiponectin enhanced COX-2 expression and revascularization of ischemic limbs in control mice, but not in targeted Cox-2-deficient mice. In cultured endothelial cells, adiponectin protein increased COX-2 expression, and ablation of COX-2 abrogated the adiponectin-stimulated increases in endothelial cell migration, differentiation, and survival. Ablation of calreticulin (CRT) or its adaptor protein CD91 diminished adiponectin-stimulated COX-2 expression and endothelial cell responses. These observations provide evidence that adiponectin promotes endothelial cell function through CRT/CD91-mediated increases in COX-2 signaling. Thus, disruption of the adiponectin-COX-2 regulatory axis in endothelial cells could participate in the pathogenesis of obesity-related vascular diseases.
A Multichannel Magnetic Flux Controller for Periodic Magnetizing Conditions

International standards for testing soft magnetic materials require that the magnetic flux density remain sinusoidal with respect to time. Traditionally, this has been achieved via control of the magnetic flux using either analog feedback, which provides real-time control, or iterative digital feedback, which yields more accurate solutions with the cost of increased convergence time. In certain applications, such as magnetic nondestructive testing, rapid convergence of multiple interacting flux controlled channels is required. In this paper, a multichannel flux controller design is presented that combines the real-time performance of analog feedback with an iterative digital feedback algorithm to reduce error. The system demonstrates a 95% reduction in convergence time at power line frequencies over a comparable system using only digital feedback. Several examples of the system's ability to control arbitrary periodic waveforms are presented over the frequency range from 0.735 Hz to 100 Hz. Sinusoidal form factor errors are shown to be 0.1% from 2 Hz to 100 Hz across four strongly coupled channels with highly nonlinear magnetizing conditions. A detailed description of both analog circuit and digital algorithms is provided.
Plyometrics' Trainability in Preadolescent Soccer Athletes

Abstract Michailidis, Y, Fatouros, IG, Primpa, E, Michailidis, C, Avloniti, A, Chatzinikolaou, A, Barbero-Álvarez, JC, Tsoukas, D, Douroudos, II, Draganidis, D, Leontsini, D, Margonis, K, Berberidou, F, and Kambas, A. Plyometrics' trainability in preadolescent soccer athletes. J Strength Cond Res 27(1): 38–49, 2013—Plyometric training (PT) is a widely used method to improve muscle ability to generate explosive power. This study aimed to determine whether preadolescent boys exhibit plyometric trainability or not. Forty-five children were randomly assigned to either a control (CG, N = 21, 10.6 ± 0.5 years; participated only in regular soccer practice) or a plyometric training group (PTG, N = 24, 10.6 ± 0.6 years; participated in regular soccer practice plus a plyometric exercise protocol). Both groups trained for 12 weeks during the in-season period. The PT exercises (forward hopping, lateral hopping, shuffles, skipping, ladder drills, skipping, box jumps, low-intensity depth jumps) were performed twice a week. Preadolescence was verified by measuring Tanner stages, bone age, and serum testosterone. Speed (0–10, 10–20, 20–30 m), leg muscle power (static jumping, countermovement jumping, depth jumping [DJ], standing long jump [SLJ], multiple 5-bound hopping [MB5]), leg strength (10 repetition maximum), anaerobic power (Wingate testing), and soccer-specific performance (agility, kicking distance) were measured at baseline, midtraining, and posttraining. The CG caused only a modest (1.2–1.8%) increase in speed posttraining. The PTG induced a marked (p < 0.05) improvement in all speed tests (1.9–3.1% at midtraining and 3–5% at posttraining) and vertical jump tests (10–18.5% at midtraining and 16–23% at posttraining), SLJ (2.6% at midtraining and 4.2% at posttraining), MB5 (14.6% at midtraining and 23% at posttraining), leg strength (15% at midtraining and 28% at posttraining), agility (5% at midtraining and 23% at posttraining), and kicking distance (13.6% at midtraining and 22.5% at posttraining). Anaerobic power remained unaffected in both groups. These data indicate that (a) prepubertal boys exhibit considerable plyometric trainability, and (b) when soccer practice is supplemented with a PT protocol, it leads to greater performance gains.
Efficient incoherent ray traversal on GPUs through compressed wide BVHs

We present a GPU-based ray traversal algorithm that operates on compressed wide BVHs and maintains the traversal stack in a compressed format. Our method reduces the amount of memory traffic significantly, which translates to 1.9--2.1× improvement in incoherent ray traversal performance compared to the current state of the art. Furthermore, the memory consumption of our hierarchy is 35--60% of a typical uncompressed BVH. In addition, we present an algorithmically efficient method for converting a binary BVH into a wide BVH in a SAH-optimal fashion, and an improved method for ordering the child nodes at build time for the purposes of octant-aware fixed-order traversal.
Monotonic algorithm for joint entropy-based anatomical priors in parametric PET image reconstruction

In this paper we aim reconstruct kinetic parameters directly from dynamic PET sinograms. The reconstruction is performed by maximising the log-likelihood with a penalty term that is based on the joint-entropy (JE) with an anatomical prior. We used the surrogates by another group, combined with our own surrogates for the JE term. We developed 2 methods: the first method utilises the JE of the dynamic activity and the anatomical prior and the second one utilises the JE of the parameters and the anatomical priors. Results show the 2 approaches are monotonic and perform better than non-anatomically driven reconstruction in absence of inconsistencies between the activity and the anatomical prior. Also results suggest it is better to apply the prior on the dynamic activity rather than on the parameters.
Automated Speech Rate Measurement in Dysarthria.

PURPOSE In this study, a new algorithm for automated determination of speech rate (SR) in dysarthric speech is evaluated. We investigated how reliably the algorithm calculates the SR of dysarthric speech samples when compared with calculation performed by speech-language pathologists. METHOD The new algorithm was trained and tested using Dutch speech samples of 36 speakers with no history of speech impairment and 40 speakers with mild to moderate dysarthria. We tested the algorithm under various conditions: according to speech task type (sentence reading, passage reading, and storytelling) and algorithm optimization method (speaker group optimization and individual speaker optimization). Correlations between automated and human SR determination were calculated for each condition. RESULTS High correlations between automated and human SR determination were found in the various testing conditions. CONCLUSIONS The new algorithm measures SR in a sufficiently reliable manner. It is currently being integrated in a clinical software tool for assessing and managing prosody in dysarthric speech. Further research is needed to fine-tune the algorithm to severely dysarthric speech, to make the algorithm less sensitive to background noise, and to evaluate how the algorithm deals with syllabic consonants.
Cloning and characterization of microbial activated Aedes aegypti MEK4 (AaMEK4): influences of noncatalytic domains on enzymatic activity

Protein kinases are known to be involved in a number of signal transduction cascades. Both the stress‐activated Jun N‐terminal kinase (JNK) and mitogen‐activated protein kinase (MAPK) p38 pathways have been shown to correlate with the insect immune response to microbial infection. MAP kinase kinase 4 (MEK4) is an upstream kinase of JNK and p38 kinase. The cDNA of AaMEK4 was cloned and characterized. AaMEK4 was activated by microbial lysates of Gram‐positive, Gram‐negative bacteria and yeast. The conserved lysine (K112) and the putative phosphorylation sites (S238 and T242) were shown to be important for kinase activity by site‐directed mutagenesis. A common MAPK docking site (MAPK_dsA) was found and in addition, a new nearby docking site, MAPK_dsB, was identified in the N‐terminal noncatalytic domain of AaMEK4. MAPK_dsB was shown to be a unique element in the MEK4 family. In this study, both MAPK_dsA and _dsB were demonstrated to be important to AaMEK4 enzymatic activity for the downstream protein kinase, Aap38.
Gait-Based Gender classification Using Zernike Moments

Most biometric systems necessitating human identification encompass techniques of finger-print systems, iris sensing, DNA, palm print and odour/scent. With these paramount advantages Gait is emerging rapidly and gaining wide attention as a biometric identifier, and Minor variations in gait features can be used to classify the gender of a person. Human Gait recognition has been a major concern because of its immense applications’ in the field of autonomous video surveillance, video retrieval, which require methods for recognizing human actions in various scenarios. This paper focuses on a novel method of incorporating the techniques of utilizing the Motion History Images and Zernike moments of each person to classify their genders. Exceptional videos solely based on deducing the gait movements of a person were gained from Dgait a Gait database, acquired with a depth camera. This database comprises of videos from 53 subjects walking in different directions. Each of these videos were processed individually to obtain their Motion history Images. From these images, calculations for Zernike moments were built up based on which gender of a person were classified using a SVM classifier. The recognition rate for RGB Zernike moments is 82.3%. Keyword: Video surveillance, Biometric Identifier, Gait, Kinect, Motion History Images, Zernike moments, SVM classifier. ——————————  ——————————
Joint Tx/Rx MMSE Filtering for Single-Carrier MIMO Eigenmode Transmission Using Iterative Interference Cancellation

SUMMARY In this paper, we propose a new joint transmit and receive spatial/frequency-domain filtering for single-carrier (SC) multipleinput multiple-output (MIMO) eigenmode transmission using iterative interference cancellation (IC). Iterative IC is introduced to a previously proposed joint transmit and receive spatial/frequency-domain filtering based on minimum mean square error criterion (called joint Tx/Rx MMSE filtering) to reduce the residual inter-symbol interference (ISI) after the Rx filtering. The optimal Tx/Rx filters are derived based on the MMSE criterion taking into account the iterative IC. The superiority of our proposed
Lysophosphatidic Acid Increases Proximal Tubule Cell Secretion of Profibrotic Cytokines PDGF-B and CTGF through LPA2- and G (cid:1) q-Mediated Rho and (cid:1) v (cid:2) 6 Integrin-Dependent Activation of TGF- (cid:2)

After ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI), kidney tubules show activated transforming growth factor (cid:1) (TGF- (cid:1) ) signaling and increased expression of profibrotic peptides, platelet-derived growth factor-B (PDGF-B) and connective tissue growth factor (CTGF). If tubule repair after IRI is incomplete, sustained paracrine activity of these peptides can activate interstitial fibroblast progenitors and cause fibrosis. We show that lysophosphatidic acid (LPA), a ubiquitous phos-pholipid that is increased at sites of injury and inflammation, signals through LPA2 receptors and G (cid:2) q proteins of cultured proximal tubule cells to transactivate latent TGF- (cid:1) in a Rho/Rho-kinase and (cid:2) v (cid:1) 6 integrin-dependent manner. Active TGF- (cid:1) peptide then initi-ates signaling to increase the production and secretion of PDGF-B and CTGF. In a rat following LPA LPA1, 5 = -CATGGTGGCAATCTACGTCAA-3 = (sense) 5 = -AGGC-CAATCCAGCGAAGAA-3 = (antisense); LPA2, 5 = -TGTCT-GACTGCACAGCTTGGA-3 = (sense) and 5 = -CTC-ATGGAGTTTTCTGGTGCC-3 = (antisense); LPA3, 5 -GTACCTGAGCCCCCCATTG-3 (sense) and 5 = -AAAC-CCATGCGGAAACAACT-3 = (antisense); LPA4, 5 = -CCTTAC-CAACATCTATGGGAGCAT-3 (sense) and 5 = -TGGC-CAGGAAACGATCCA-3 = (antisense); and LPA5, 5 = -GGGGTGCTGATGAT-3 = (sense) and 5 = -TTCTGAGGG-TAGTT-3 (antisense). Other primers used were as follows: PDGF-B, 5 and 5 -AAGTCCAGCTCAGCCCCAT-5 -GAGGCCCTTGTGTGGGTCGC-3 Appro-priate no-RT and nontemplate were included in the PCR, and dissociation analysis was performed at the end run to confirm the specificity of the reaction. Relative mRNA calculated.
An open-label study of levopromazine (methotrimeprazine) as an add-on therapy in fibromyalgia management.

OBJECTIVES To assess the potential efficacy and tolerability of levopromazine(methotrimeprazine) in the treatment of fibromyalgia. METHODS Unicentre, open-label study conducted in thirty-five outpatients, aged 18 years or older, who met the ACR criteria for fibromyalgia and had not satisfactorily responded to previous fibromyalgia treatment. Levopromazine, flexibly dosed (12.5-100 mg/d), was added to the outpatients' original treatment regimens for 12 weeks. The primary outcome measure was the mean change from baseline to endpoint in the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ) total score in the intent-to-treat sample. Secondary outcomes included the Clinical Global Impression (CGI) of Severity scale, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Beck Depression Inventory, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, 12-Item Short Form Health Survey, and individual items of the FIQ. RESULTS The mean FIQ total score did not decrease significantly at the study endpoint (63.37 SD 11.32 vs. 61.19 SD 9.32, p=0.73). Pain intensity, as evaluated by the Visual Analogue Scale, remained unchanged at study endpoint (8.5 SD 1.6 vs. 8.2 SD 1.2, p=0.49). A statistically significant reduction was observed in the PSQI score (15.65 SD 3.33 vs. 12.23 SD 3.79, p<0.001, effect size: 1.03) and the CGI-severity score (4.71 SD 0.64 vs. 4.03 SD 1.01, p<0.002, effect size: 1.06). No significant or relevant changes were seen in the remaining fibromyalgia symptoms, psychopathological scales or quality-of-life. The drug was well tolerated. CONCLUSIONS Despite its efficacy in improving sleep quality, levopromazine does not appear to be a useful alternative treatment for fibromyalgia.
Assessing, Representing and Transmitting Positional Uncertainty in Maps

This paper considers a model for positional uncertainty in maps with applications in geographical information systems. Using the model it is shown how uncertainty in map boundaries can be assessed, represented and transmitted through set operations such as intersection (map overlaying). Expressions for uncertainty in lengths, perimeters and areas calculated from maps are given. Simulation of maps and other quantities of interest derived from them is also discussed. The ideas are illustrated with examples.
Toxic Effects of Methanolic Extract of Aspilia africana Leaf on the Estrous Cycle and Uterine Tissues of Wistar Rats

Se examinaron los efectos de las distintas dosificaciones de extracto de metanol de Aspilia africana, en los ciclos estrales, peso uterino y en la histologia para determinar sus efectos en las funciones reproductivas de 25 ratas hembra. Las ratas fueron randomizadas en cinco grupos: A, B, C, D y E y recibieron 0 mg/kg de peso corporal, 150 mg/kg de peso corporal, 200 mg/kg de peso corporal, 250 mg/kg de peso corporal y 300 mg/kg de peso corporal respectivamente. El efecto en el ciclo estral fue determinado por frotis vaginal, preparado con tecnicas histologicas de rutina y tenido con hematoxilina-eosina. Todos los valores fueron estadisticamente comparados con intervalos de confianza adecuados. Los ciclos estrales fueron significativamente reducidos en forma dosis dependiente y la histologia revelo una toxicidad dosis dependiente
Control Flow Confinement: An Empirical Prospect

Dictating program control-flow transfers to be within a reference control-flow graph (CFG) can make a sound software protection. Control flow confinement (CFC) is to ensure the program execution to follow the reference of a control flow graph (CFG) obtained via profiled execution traces with various input data sets. CFC allows only the tested and expected control flows in program execution. This paper gauges the prospect of the CFC in practice by investigating how many unique control flow transfer instances there are in the execution profiles of various applications including popular sever programs and embedded routines. The profiled execution traces with various input data sets show that the number of unique control flow transfer instances are surprisingly low, which suggest that confining the program control flow within the set of the unique control flow transfers is feasible in practice. With the CFC, software behavior would be within the expected behavior space, avoiding unexpected mis-behavior, which leads to more dependable and secure environment for IoT (Internet of Things) and CPS (Cyber Physical System).
The costs and economic impact of violence against children

• This study estimates that the global economic impacts and costs resulting from the consequences of physical, psychological and sexual violence against children can be as high as $7 trillion. This massive cost is higher than the investment required to prevent much of that violence. • The annual global costs of the worst forms of child labour are approximately $97 billion, and those resulting from children’s association with armed forces or groups can be up to $144 million annually. • The evidence clearly shows that ‘prevention pays’, but current levels of government spending on preventive and responsive actions in relation to violence against children remain very low. Research and advocacy efforts need to continue, with a focus on promoting good practices for prevention. Funding for this should be scaled up. • More specific data and in-depth primary research needs to be generated on the different forms of violence against children, particularly in lowand middleincome countries. Calculating and reporting the economic costs will lead to stronger arguments for policy-making.
Vascular effects of arginine vasotocin in toad skin.

Fluid balance in amphibians is regulated, in large part, by arginine vasotocin (AVT). One important action of this hormone is to facilitate water uptake by increasing the water permeability of the skin. Cutaneous blood flow also affects water uptake, but the effects of AVT on skin perfusion are unknown. This study tested the hypothesis that AVT facilitates water uptake, not only by increasing cutaneous water permeability, but also by promoting cutaneous blood flow. The effects of AVT on blood flow through the ventral pelvic skin, a region specialized for water uptake, were assessed in Bufo marinus by determining the conductance of the skin to acetylene (GsAc), an index of cutaneous blood flow. A pump-perfused skin preparation was used to study the effects of AVT on the cutaneous vascular resistance (CVR) of the ventral pelvic skin and the dorsal skin (a region not normally involved in water uptake). Bolus AVT injections (iv) of 10 pmol/kg and below had no significant effect on GsAc (P > 0.45). However, 100 and 300 pmol/kg of AVT decreased GsAc by 39 +/- 7 (P < 0.001) and 63 +/- 6% (P < 0.001), respectively. The higher AVT doses increased mean arterial pressure. AVT increased CVR in both pump-perfused preparations. The lowest concentration of AVT tested that significantly raised CVR was 1 x 10(-10) M for the dorsal skin (P = 0.006) and 3 x 10(-10) M for the ventral pelvic skin (P = 0.038). (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
A reliable and lightweight opportunistic routing protocol for inter-region data gathering in VSNs

The inter-region interest data gathering service in vehicular sensor networks (VSNs) can help improve the driving safety and efficiency in city. In this paper, based on moving behaviors of vehicles, we divide vehicles into different communities. In a community, the vehicles usually visit similar regions and have higher probabilities to encounter each other. Taking it into account, we propose a reliable and lightweight opportunistic routing (RLOR) protocol for inter-region interest data gathering in VSNs. The RLOR protocol consists of quota-style message replication procedure (MRP) and community-aware message forwarding procedure (MFP). In MRP, one vehicle node sprays its limited message copies to vehicle nodes that have more stable link connections with itself until the left message is one. Furthermore, in MFP the left message copy is forwarded to a vehicle node that belongs to same community with the collector, or an active vehicle node that may encounter more different vehicle nodes. Simulation results show that the RLOR protocol outperforms other popular routing protocols.
Identification of Adrenomedullin in Avian Type II Pneumocytes: Increased Expression after Exposure to Air Pollutants

Adrenomedullin (AM) is a potent vasodilator peptide present in the lung of mammals where it is expressed mainly in the columnar epithelium and alveolar macrophages. AM increases the secretion of phosphatidylcholine by type II pneumocytes, which suggests a role as an autocrine modulator of surfactant secretion. In this study we show the expression of an AM-like protein in the lung of the pigeon, Columba livia. Using an antibody against its human ortholog, AM-like immunoreactivity was found to be associated with membranous structures of the multivesicular bodies of type II pneumocytes. We also studied the differential expression of AM-like peptide in the lung of pigeons exposed to polluted city air vs cleaner countryside conditions and found that AM-like expression was higher in city animals. Similar results were obtained in an experimental study in which pigeons were exposed to increasing concentrations of a single pollutant, ozone. Taken together, our findings support the implication of AM in the response of type II pneumocytes to air pollutants.
An energy storage system combining a 320-V, 12-F electric double layer capacitor bank with a bidirectional isolated DC-DC converter

This paper describes the design and construction of a 320-V, 12-F EDLC energy storage bank connected to a bidirectional isolated DC-DC converter. A trade-off between two types of EDLC bank configurations is considered with focus on voltage balancing circuits. This paper also proposes a center-tapped-transformer voltage balancing circuit for the EDLC bank, and includes its experimental verifications. Following that, the experimental charge-discharge characteristics of the EDLC energy storage system, along with a self-starting result is discussed. The power loss in the voltage balancing circuit in the charge-discharge operation is found to be negligibly small. An observed low ripple current flowing into the EDLC bank is also theoretically analyzed.