Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Local Inflammatory Markers and Systemic Endotoxin in Aggressive Periodontitis

While much research has focused on local and systemic factors contributing to periodontal disease, little is known regarding mechanisms linking these factors. We have previously reported a systemic hyper-inflammatory response to bacterial endotoxin in localized aggressive periodontitis (LAP). The objectives of this study were to delineate cyto/chemokines in gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) and evaluate systemic levels of endotoxin associated with LAP. Clinical parameters, GCF, and peripheral blood were collected from: 34 LAP, 10 healthy siblings, and nine healthy unrelated control individuals. Cyto/chemokines were quantified in GCF, systemic endotoxin levels were quantified in plasma, and correlation analysis was performed among all parameters. Nine mediators were elevated in LAP diseased sites as compared with healthy sites (TNFα, INFγ, IL1β, IL2, IL6, IL10, Il12p40, GMCSF, and MIP1α, p < 0.001), while MCP1, IL4, and IL8 were elevated in healthy sites (p < 0.01). Four- to five-fold-higher endotoxin levels were detected in LAP plasma compared with that from healthy participants (p < 0.0001), which correlated with all clinical parameters and most cyto/chemokines analyzed. In conclusion, higher systemic levels of endotoxin were found in LAP, which correlates with an exacerbated local inflammatory response and clinical signs of disease. (Clinicaltrials.gov number, NCT01330719).
An Assimilated Face Recognition System With effective Gender Recognition Rate

— Gender Recognition in Face Recognition System has prevalent applications in the fields of demographic data collection, video surveillance, security, retail advertising and marketing and it also plays a vital role on object recognition in robot research area, which has shown an intensive attention in the past few years.However, face recognition is still a challenging task since face images are easily confused by changes of the facial factors, such as illumination, pose, the different expressions, or glasses. The goal of this paper is to improve the effectiveness of gender recognition when there are affected(blurred) images in the dataset. We applied novel descriptor based COSFIRE filters to achieve the Gender Recognition[1] in the Face Recognition System. A COSFIRE filter is trainable, in that its selectivity is determined in an automatic configuration process that analyses a given prototype pattern of interest on FERET training set. Extensive experiments were conducted on the GENDER-FERET dataset which contains 474 training and 472 test samples and demonstrated robustness and effectiveness of the proposed model. It also outperforms an approach that relies on handcrafted features and an ensemble of classifiers.
Role of scuticociliate proteinases in infection success in turbot, Psetta maxima (L.)

Scuticociliatosis caused by Philasterides dicentrarchi is one of the most severe diseases of farmed turbot, Psetta maxima (L.). Immunized fish showed elevated levels of specific antibodies (Ab), which caused the destruction of parasites through the activation of complement by the alternative and classical pathways. By using affinity chromatography on bacitracin–sepharose columns, we demonstrated the existence of high levels of parasite proteinases in the serum and, to a lesser extent, in the ascitic fluid of experimentally infected fish, and the absence of such proteinases in the serum of uninfected fish. Serum from uninfected fish displayed haemolytic activity against sheep red blood cells. However, incubation of this serum with parasite proteinases led to a decrease in serum haemolytic activity, suggesting that proteinases are able to destroy fish complement. Proteinases isolated from serum or ascitic fluid of infected fish were also able to degrade turbot Ab. Preincubation of turbot serum containing specific Ab for P. dicentrarchi with the proteinases led to a significant decrease in the killing activity of the serum. The results confirm that P. dicentrarchi proteinases in serum from infected fish may provide a mechanism for circumventing normal host immunity by inactivating the Ab and complement factors required for complement activation.
Gas chromatographic analysis of anomeric composition of lactose.

Analyse d'echantillons commerciaux de lactose par chromatographie gazeuse utilisant un detecteur a ionisation de flamme apres derivatisation avec le trimethylsilyl-1 imidazole. Presentation d'un tableau de resultats donnant la composition en anomeres α et β de chaque echantillon
Oral administration of dahi containing probiotic Lactobacillus acidophilus and Lactobacillus casei delayed the progression of streptozotocin-induced diabetes in rats

In this study, the effect of dahi containing probiotic Lactobacillus acidophilus NCDC14 and Lactobacillus casei NCDC19 (∼73×108 cfu/g) on progression of streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetes in rats (15 g/day/rat) for 28 days was investigated. Feeding of probiotic dahi significantly suppressed the incremental peaks and area under the curve and delayed reduction of insulin secretion during oral glucose tolerance test more than skim milk or control dahi. The feeding of milk products reduced the total cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL and VLDL-cholesterol and increased HDL-cholesterol levels (P<0·05). Moreover, probiotic dahi significantly suppressed STZ-induced oxidative damage in pancreatic tissues by inhibiting the lipid peroxidation and formation of nitric oxide, and preserving antioxidant pool such as glutathione content and activities of superoxide dismutase, catalase and glutathione peroxidase. The results suggest that the supplementation of probiotic Lb. acidophilus and Lb. casei with dahi cultures increased the efficacy of dahi to suppress STZ-induced diabetes in rats by inhibiting depletion of insulin as well as preserving diabetic dyslipidemia, and inhibiting lipid peroxidation and nitrite formation. This may empower antioxidant system of β-cells and may slow down the reduction of insulin and elevation of blood glucose levels.
Energy Efficiency Optimization for MIMO Distributed Antenna Systems

In this paper, we propose a transmit covariance optimization method to maximize the energy efficiency (EE) for a single-user distributed antenna system, where both the remote access units (RAUs) and the user are equipped with multiple antennas. Unlike previous related work, both the rate requirement and the RAU selection are taken into consideration. Here, the total circuit power consumption is related to the number of active RAUs. Given this setup, we first propose an optimal transmit covariance optimization method to solve the EE optimization problem under a fixed set of active RAUs. More specifically, we split this problem into three subproblems, namely, the rate maximization problem, the EE maximization problem without rate constraint, and the power minimization problem, and each subproblem can be efficiently solved. Then, a novel distance-based RAU selection method is proposed to determine the optimal set of active RAUs. Simulation results show that the performance of the proposed RAU selection is almost identical to the optimal exhaustive search method with significantly reduced computational complexity, and the performance of the proposed algorithm significantly outperforms the existing EE optimization methods.
A Metric for Line Segments

This correspondence presents a metric for describing line segments. This metric measures how well two line segments can be replaced by a single longer one. This depends for example on collinearity and nearness of the line segments. The metric is constructed using a new technique using so-called neighborhood functions. The behavior of the metric depends on the neighborhood function chosen. In this correspondence, an appropriate choice for the case of line segments is presented. The quality of the metric is verified by using it in a simple clustering algorithm that groups line segments found by an edge detection algorithm in an image. The fact that the clustering algorithm can detect long linear structures in an image shows that the metric is a good measure for the groupability of line segments. >
The circumoval precipitin test for the serodiagnosis of human schistosomiasis mansoni and haematobia.

Abstract The circumoval precipitin (COP) test was used to detect serum antibodies to Schistosoma mansoni, S. haematobium, or both species by using eggs of either species of schistosome. Eggs of either species were adequate as antigens but, in general, the sera of S. mansoni-infected individuals caused more circumoval precipitates for form around S. mansoni eggs (higher reactivity) than did the sera of S. haematobium-infected individuals. However, sera from individuals with either or double infections reacted equally with S. haematobium eggs. In addition, more circumoval precipitates were formed around S. haematobium eggs obtained from human urine than around S. mansoni eggs obtained from mouse livers. We demonstrate that human infection with either species of schistosome can be diagnosed by the COP test, but that identification of the schistosome species involved in the infection is not possible with this test. In addition, by eliminating the need for maintaining a schistosome life cycle in the laboratory the demonstration of the high reactivity of S. haematobium eggs from urine greatly simplifes the performance of the COP test in areas where S. haematobium-infected individuals can be found and will cooperate by providing urine. We also obtained serum specimens by venipuncture, and capillary blood dried on filter paper, from Egyptians infected with S. mansoni, S. haematobium, or with both species of schistosome. Serum eluted from the filter paper was then compared with serum from venipunctures with respect to their reactivity in the COP test done with fresh S. haematobium eggs as antigen. Serum eluates from freshly dried blood were significantly less reactive than serum obtained by venipuncture in terms of positive reactions and characteristics of the COP precipitate. Storage of the filter paper blood at 4°C for 6–12 months resulted in an even greater reduction of reactivity. Thus, for the COP test serum obtained by venipuncture is preferable to serum eluates obtained from blood on filter paper for the serodiagnosis of infection with S. mansoni and S. haematobium.
Demonstration of AlGaN/GaN High-Electron-Mobility Transistors Grown by Molecular Beam Epitaxy on Si(110)

The growth of AlGaN/GaN-based heterostructure on Si(110) substrates by molecular beam epitaxy using ammonia as the nitrogen precursor is reported. The structural, optical, and electrical properties of such heterostructure are assessed and are quite similar to the ones obtained on Si(111). A 2-D electron gas is formed at the Al0.3Ga0. 7N/GaN interface with a sheet carrier density of 9.6 times 1012 cm-2 and a mobility of 1980 cm2/V middots at room temperature. Preliminary results concerning high-electron-mobility-transistor static characteristics are presented and compared with that of devices realized on other orientations of silicon.
Regional metabolite concentrations in human brain as determined by quantitative localized proton MRS

The regional distribution of brain metabolites was studied in several cortical white and gray matter areas, cerebellum, and thalamus of young adults with use of quantitative single‐voxel proton MRS at 2.0 T. Whereas the neuronal compound N‐acetylaspartate is distributed homogeneously throughout the brain, N‐acetylaspartylglutamate increases caudally and exhibits higher concentrations in white matter than in gray matter. Creatine, myo‐inositol, glutamate, and glutamine are less concentrated in cortical white matter than in gray matter. The highest creatine levels are found in cerebellum, parallel to the distribution of creatine kinase and energy‐requiring processes in the brain. Also myo‐inositol has highest concentrations in the cerebellum. Choline‐containing compounds exhibit a marked regional variability with again highest concentrations in cerebellum and lowest levels and a strong caudally decreasing gradient in gray matter. The present findings neither support a metabolic gender difference (except for a 1.3‐fold higher myo‐inositol level in parietal white matter of female subjects) nor a metabolic hemispheric asymmetry.
Topical Treatment of Hidradenitis Suppurativa with Clindamycin

Thirty patients with recurrent suppurative hidradenitis entered a double blind trial to evaluate the effect of topical clindamycin against placebo in hidradenitis. Twenty seven patients concluded the 3 months' treatment. The overall effect of clindamycin treatment based on patients' assessments, number of abscesses, inflammatory nodules and pustules was significantly better than placebo at each monthly evaluation (P < 0.01). When each parameter was evaluated separately, clindamycin was significantly superior to placebo except for inflammatory nodules and abscesses on the second and third months' evaluation. No side effects were recorded and the treatment was easy to administer. Topical clindamycin may be helpful prior to radical surgery or spontaneous remission.
Gaia Data Release 1 - Reference frame and optical properties of ICRF sources

Context. As part of the data processing for Gaia Data Release 1 (Gaia DR1) a special astrometric solution was computed, the so-called auxiliary quasar solution. This gives positions for selected extragalactic objects, including radio sources in the second realisation of the International Celestial Reference Frame (ICRF2) that have optical counterparts bright enough to be observed with Gaia. A subset of these positions was used to align the positional reference frame of Gaia DR1 with the ICRF2. Although the auxiliary quasar solution was important for internal validation and calibration purposes, the resulting positions are in general not published in Gaia DR1. Aims. We describe the properties of the Gaia auxiliary quasar solution for a subset of sources matched to ICRF2, and compare their optical and radio positions at the sub-mas level. Methods. Descriptive statistics are used to characterise the optical data for the ICRF sources and the optical-radio differences. The most discrepant cases are examined using online resources to find possible alternative explanations than a physical optical-radio offset of the quasars. Results. In the auxiliary quasar solution 2191 sources have good optical positions matched to ICRF2 sources with high probability. Their formal standard errors are better than 0.76 milliarcsec (mas) for 50% of the sources and better than 3.35 mas for 90%. Optical magnitudes are obtained in Gaia’s unfiltered photometric G band. The Gaia results for these sources are given as a separate table in Gaia DR1. The comparison with the radio positions of the defining sources shows no systematic differences larger than a few tenths of a mas. The fraction of questionable solutions, not readily accounted for by the statistics, is less than 6%. Normalised differences have extended tails requiring case-by-case investigations for around 100 sources, but we have not seen any difference indisputably linked to an optical-radio offset in the sources. Conclusions. With less than a quarter of the data expected from the nominal mission it has been possible to obtain positions at the sub-mas level for most of the ICRF sources having an optical counterpart brighter than 20.5 mag.
Separate receptors mediate oxytocin and vasopressin stimulation of cAMP in rat inner medullary collecting duct cells

The two neurohypophysial hormones arginine vasopressin (AVP) and oxytocin have actions in the inner medullary collecting duct (IMCD) where both peptides induce an increase in cAMP accumulation. The present study has employed a novel IMCD cell line to determine whether these two hormones induce cAMP accumulation via common or separate receptors, and to characterize the potential receptors responsible. Equal volumes of vehicle (150 mM NaCl) or hormone/antagonist solutions were added to aliquots of 104 IMCD cells in the presence of 10‐3 m 3‐isobutylmethylxanthine (IBMX) and incubated at 37 °C for 4 min. cAMP levels were determined by radioimmunoassay and protein concentration by Bradford assay. Both AVP and oxytocin elicited dose‐dependent increases in cAMP generation, though oxytocin was less potent than AVP (EC50 = 1.6 × 10‐8 M vs. 7.4 × 10‐10 m). AVP at 10‐8 m and oxytocin at 10‐6 m, concentrations sufficient to elicit near‐maximal cAMP accumulation, resulted in cAMP levels of 73.4 ±1.7 and 69.0 ± 3.3 pmol (mg protein)−1 (4 min)−1, respectively (n = 10), compared with the vehicle‐treated basal value of 37.7 ± 2.2 pmol (mg protein)−1 (4 min)−1 (P < 0.001, n = 10). Combined AVP (10‐8 m) and oxytocin (10‐6 m) resulted in cAMP accumulation of 63.8 ± 3.1 pmol (mg protein)−1 (4 min)−1 (n = 10), which was not significantly different from the effect of oxytocin alone, but slightly less than that for AVP alone (P < 0.05). A submaximal concentration of AVP (10‐10 m) induced cAMP accumulation of 48.6 ± 2.5 pmol (mg protein)−1 (4 min)−1 (P < 0.01 compared with basal level of 34.9 ± 2.4 pmol (mg protein)−1 (4 min)−1, n = 10), which was blocked in the presence of a vasopressin V2 receptor antagonist (10‐7 m OPC‐31260) but not by the oxytocin receptor antagonist (10‐6 m [Pen1,pMePhe2,Thr4,Orn8]oxytocin) (36.3 ± 6.1 and 45.1 ± 1.3 pmol (mg protein)−1 (4 min)−1 respectively, P < 0.05, n = 10). A submaximal concentration of oxytocin (10‐7 m) induced a cAMP accumulation of 45.8 ± 1.8 pmol (mg protein)−1 (4 min)−1 (n = 10), which was reduced by addition of 10‐6 m oxytocin antagonist (36.3 ± 2.1 pmol (mg protein)−1 (4 min)−1, P < 0.05, n = 10), whereas co‐incubation with 10‐6 m of the V2 receptor antagonist had no effect (43.2 ± 1.3 pmol (mg protein)−1 (4 min)−1, n = 10). These results indicate that AVP and oxytocin induce cAMP accumulation from a common ATP pool in IMCD cells, and that separate vasopressin V2 and oxytocin receptor systems are involved, perhaps coupled to a common adenylate cyclase system.
Dynamic rupture analysis: Inversion for the source process of the 1990 Izu‐Oshima, Japan, earthquake (M = 6.5)

A waveform inversion has been applied to strong motion data using a dynamic shear crack model. We studied the 1990 Izu-Oshima earthquake (MJMA = 6.5), which has vertical strike-slip faulting with unilateral rupture propagation. The inversion has two steps, a waveform inversion and a crack inversion, that are applied iteratively. A waveform inversion is used to determine the distribution of rupture starting times and slip dislocations using the slip functions calculated by the initial crack model, or by previous crack inversion. A crack inversion is used to calculate dynamic crack propagation that explains the results of the above inversion. In this step, we use the estimated rupture times as a locking fracture criterion; the maximum shear stress attained before a fault segment breaks gives a lower bound estimate of the peak shear strength at each fault segment. Then the dynamic stress drop distribution is estimated from the slip distribution obtained from waveform inversion assuming a dynamic crack model. From the results, we determine the rise time distribution and the distribution of a dimensionless stress ratio S defined as (strength excess)/(stress drop). Our analysis gives the following picture of the rupture process of the 1990 Izu-Oshima earthquake: (1) An asperity-type faulting having large slip and high stress drop was detected in the region around the initiation point of rupture. (2) South of the asperity zone, barrier-type faulting characterized by incoherent propagating rupture, small slip, long rise time, and high strength excess was detected. This zone corresponds to the intersection of the fault with the 1978 earthquake (MJMA = 7.0).
A Computer-Based Approach for Deriving and Measuring Individual and Team Knowledge Structure from Essay Questions

This proof-of-concept investigation describes a computer-based approach for deriving the knowledge structure of individuals and of groups from their written essays, and considers the convergent criterion-related validity of the computer-based scores relative to human rater essay scores and multiple-choice test scores. After completing a classroom-based course, undergraduate participants in a sophomore-level management course completed a 100-item multiple-choice final examination and then answered an extended-response essay question comparing four management theories. The essays were quantified with ALA-Reader software applying both sentence-wise and linear lexical aggregate approaches, and then analyzed with Pathfinder KNOT software. The linear aggregate approach was a better measure of essay content structure relative to the sentence-wise approach, with significant Spearman correlations of 0.60 and 0.45 with the human rater essay scores. The group network representations of low and high performing students were reasonable and straightforward to interpret, with the high group being more similar to the expert, and the low and high groups more similar to each other than to the expert. Suggestions for further research are provided.
Flexible Neo-fuzzy Neuron and Neuro-fuzzy Network for Monitoring Time Series Properties

Abstract In the paper, a new flexible modification of neofuzzy neuron, neuro-fuzzy network based on these neurons and adaptive learning algorithms for the tuning of their all parameters are proposed. The algorithms are of interest because they ensure the on-line tuning of not only the synaptic weights and membership function parameters but also forms of these functions that provide improving approximation properties and allow avoiding the occurrence of “gaps” in the space of inputs.
Mobile sensing, BYOD and Big Data Analytics: New technologies for audience research in museums

Over the past four decades, varied information technology and communication tools were incorporated in standard audience research methodologies thus becoming a ubiquitous feature of fieldwork and data analysis. In this paper, we highlight the costs and benefits of the application of these technologies to audience research through specific case studies set within varied museum environments. Collectively the findings of these studies suggest that mobile sensing supports the acquisition of richer and deeper data sets relating to the visitor experience that can potentially reveal a greater diversity of patterns of visitor behaviour as well as the changing dynamics of visiting over time. This can considerably extend our capability to conduct audience research and rethink the way museums conceptualize and deliver their interpretation. This paper also discusses the methodological, ethical and practical challenges emerging from the use of these technologies in the field as well as the limits of their application.
Abduction of distributed theories through local interactions

What happens when distributed sources of information (agents) hold and acquire information locally, and have to communicate with neighbouring agents in order to refine their hypothesis regarding the actual global state of this environment? This question occurs when it is not be possible (e. g. for practical or privacy concerns) to collect observations and knowledge, and centrally compute the resulting theory. In this paper, we assume that agents are equipped with full clausal theories and individually face abductive tasks, in a globally consistent environment. We adopt a learner/critic approach. Previous work in this line mostly relied on some assumptions of compositionality (which allow to treat each piece of exchanged information separately). Because no shared background knowledge is assumed to start with, this does not hold here. We design a protocol guaranteeing convergence to a situation “sufficiently” satisfying as far as consistency of the system is concerned, and discuss its other properties.