Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The use of the terms bipolar and tetrapolar

I read with great interest the recent paper by Dr. Dittmar, entitled ‘‘Comparison of Bipolar and Tetrapolar Impedance Techniques for Assessing Fat Mass’’ published in a recent issue of the American Journal of Human Biology (Dittmar, 2004). This paper provides a valuable contribution to the assessment of body composition using bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA). While I agree entirely with the conclusions drawn by Dr. Dittmar, I would like to take the opportunity to correct a misconception regarding the use of the terms bipolar and tetrapolar. All of the BIA instruments used by Dr. Dittmar in her study use the tetrapolar technique for measuring biological impedances. The tetrapolar technique refers to the electrical measurement system adopted by the instrument manufacturer and not to the body region being measured. In the tetrapolar or four-terminal method, the test current is introduced through one pair of terminals and the voltage drop, and hence, impedance is measured through a second pair of terminals placed, typically, a few centimetres proximal to the current injection terminals. In contrast, the bipolar, or two-terminal technique, both the current and voltage sensing circuits use a single pair of terminals. Since the aim in BIA is to measure the impedance of the deep tissues, the four-terminal method is preferred as the voltage drop measured using a separate set of electrodes will be that of the deep tissues, since negligible current is drawn through the electrode. Indeed a combination of the bipolar and tetrapolar techniques has been proposed as a method for the estimation of subcutaneous adipose tissue thickness [Elia and Ward, 1999; for a more detailed explanation the reader is referred to the paper by Oldham (Oldham, 1996)]. Both the foot-to-foot instrument (Tanita, TBF-538) and the hand-to-hand instrument (Omron, BF-302) are tetrapolar instruments. It is incorrect to refer to these instruments as bipolar. In the case of the TBF-538, current is injected through the electrode pads under the front of each foot and the voltage measured by the electrodes under the heel. The Omron device incorporates the two pairs of electrodes in the grip handles on either side of the display unit. Although the misreporting of the two segmental approaches as bipolar techniques in no way invalidates the conclusions drawn by Dr. Dittmar, it is important that readers of this and other articles on BIA appreciate the difference between bipolar and tetrapolar BIA.
Structural factors influencing outflow facility and its changeability under drugs. A study in Macaca arctoides.

he anatomic features which determine the size of the outflow resistance in a primate eye and especially the extent to which it can be changed by cycloplegics or miotics are not well understood. Since considerable species differences exist,' a comparative study of the outflow system in two contrasting species was made with the light microscope. The two species were the vervet monkey, Cercopithecus ethiops, and the cynomolgus monkey, Macaca irus (more recently called Macaca fascicularis). The former reacts very regularly to pilocarpine, the latter much more irregularly. Characteristic anatomic differ-
Pre-clipping method to reduce clipping-induced degradation in hybrid analog/digital subcarrier-multiplexed optical transmission systems

The authors newly propose a pre-clipping method that can reduce the impairment due to LD clipping in hybrid analog/digital subcarrier-multiplexed optical transmission for future interactive CATV systems. It is experimentally confirmed that a CNR improvement of 1.3 dB is achieved with the proposed method. <<ETX>>
Prevention of free fatty acid–induced hepatic lipotoxicity by 18β‐glycyrrhetinic acid through lysosomal and mitochondrial pathways

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common liver disease and affects millions of people worldwide. Despite the increasing prevalence of NAFLD, the exact molecular/cellular mechanisms remain obscure and effective therapeutic strategies are still limited. It is well‐accepted that free fatty acid (FFA)‐induced lipotoxicity plays a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of NAFLD. Inhibition of FFA‐associated hepatic toxicity represents a potential therapeutic strategy. Glycyrrhizin (GL), the major bioactive component of licorice root extract, has a variety of pharmacological properties including anti‐inflammatory, antioxidant, and immune‐modulating activities. GL has been used to treat hepatitis to reduce liver inflammation and hepatic injury; however, the mechanism underlying the antihepatic injury property of GL is still poorly understood. In this report, we provide evidence that 18 β‐glycyrrhetinic acid (GA), the biologically active metabolite of GL, prevented FFA‐induced lipid accumulation and cell apoptosis in in vitro HepG2 (human liver cell line) NAFLD models. GA also prevented high fat diet (HFD)‐induced hepatic lipotoxicity and liver injury in in vivo rat NAFLD models. GA was found to stabilize lysosomal membranes, inhibit cathepsin B expression and enzyme activity, inhibit mitochondrial cytochrome c release, and reduce FFA‐induced oxidative stress. These characteristics may represent major cellular mechanisms, which account for its protective effects on FFA/HFD‐induced hepatic lipotoxicity. Conclusion: GA significantly reduced FFA/HFD‐induced hepatic lipotoxicity by stabilizing the integrity of lysosomes and mitochondria and inhibiting cathepsin B expression and enzyme activity. (HEPATOLOGY 2008.)
Extending business objects with business rules

It is common to embed business rules within the code of distributed object systems. When business practices and/or policies change, as they often do, it is difficult if not impossible to correctly reflect those changes in the applications implementing them. The paper describes a framework that enables enterprises to develop distributed business applications that systematically externalize the time- and situation-variable parts of their business logic as externally applied entities called business rules. Decoupling business rules from the application can provide a number of advantages. Because business rules are external to the applications that depend upon them, the variable business logic contained in them can easily be changed. Because the management of the externalized business rules is done explicitly through a rule management facility, it is easy to understand what rules exist and to locate those that need to be changed. The Accessible Business Rule (ABR) framework is available as early test function in IBM Component Broker 2.0 and 3.0 (a part of WebSphere Enterprise).
A source-filter based adaptive harmonic model and its application to speech prosody modification

This paper presents a source-ﬁlter based adaptive harmonic model (aHM) that can modify prosody of given speech signals. Although the conventional aHM generates a homogeneous replication of the input speech, it is not suitable for prosody modiﬁcation since temporal and spectral information are in-terweaved. The proposed method overcomes such limitation by further decomposing the harmonic parameter extracted from aHM into source and ﬁlter related components. By applying source-ﬁlter structure to aHM, the proposed algorithm can modify pitch of the synthesized speech with introducing only minor degradation. Both objective and subjective test results show that the proposed algorithm can naturally manipulate pitch contour, of which performance is much better than conventional algorithms such as pitch synchronous overlap add (PSOLA) and speech transformation and representation using adaptive interpolation of weighted spectrum (STRAIGHT).
Protection of the rat lung from the harmful effects of laser smoke

Fourteen Sprague‐Dawley rats were exposed to CO2 laser exhaust that had first passed through smoke‐evacuator filters. Six rats breathed laser vapors that were filtered through commercially available, standard production model smoke‐evacuator systems. These animals demonstrated pulmonary lesions identical to but qualitatively less severe than those observed in animals breathing unfiltered vapor. Six additional rats were protected by the interposition of a cartridge filter plus an ultra‐low penetration air filter, which trapped 0.1 μm particles; the microscopic sections of the lungs of these experimental rats and two control rats were similar in appearance, i.e., no pathological changes were observed.
When to Initiate Combined Antiretroviral Therapy to Reduce Mortality and AIDS-Defining Illness in HIV-Infected Persons in Developed Countries

BACKGROUND Most clinical guidelines recommend that AIDS-free, HIV-infected persons with CD4 cell counts below 0.350 × 10(9) cells/L initiate combined antiretroviral therapy (cART), but the optimal CD4 cell count at which cART should be initiated remains a matter of debate. OBJECTIVE To identify the optimal CD4 cell count at which cART should be initiated. DESIGN Prospective observational data from the HIV-CAUSAL Collaboration and dynamic marginal structural models were used to compare cART initiation strategies for CD4 thresholds between 0.200 and 0.500 × 10(9) cells/L. SETTING HIV clinics in Europe and the Veterans Health Administration system in the United States. PATIENTS 20, 971 HIV-infected, therapy-naive persons with baseline CD4 cell counts at or above 0.500 × 10(9) cells/L and no previous AIDS-defining illnesses, of whom 8392 had a CD4 cell count that decreased into the range of 0.200 to 0.499 × 10(9) cells/L and were included in the analysis. MEASUREMENTS Hazard ratios and survival proportions for all-cause mortality and a combined end point of AIDS-defining illness or death. RESULTS Compared with initiating cART at the CD4 cell count threshold of 0.500 × 10(9) cells/L, the mortality hazard ratio was 1.01 (95% CI, 0.84 to 1.22) for the 0.350 threshold and 1.20 (CI, 0.97 to 1.48) for the 0.200 threshold. The corresponding hazard ratios were 1.38 (CI, 1.23 to 1.56) and 1.90 (CI, 1.67 to 2.15), respectively, for the combined end point of AIDS-defining illness or death. LIMITATIONS CD4 cell count at cART initiation was not randomized. Residual confounding may exist. CONCLUSION Initiation of cART at a threshold CD4 count of 0.500 × 10(9) cells/L increases AIDS-free survival. However, mortality did not vary substantially with the use of CD4 thresholds between 0.300 and 0.500 × 10(9) cells/L.
Fisheries-induced evolution: present status and future directions

This essay comments on recent research on Darwinian fisheries science and on the future development of this field. From a practical point of view, the key question is: how fast are evo- lutionary changes caused by fishing happening? To answer this question, there is a need to under- stand intensities of selection generated by fishing, heritabilities and genetic correlations of the traits under selection, and whether the rates of change in traits predicted from this information are consis- tent with the changes observed. Although there is little doubt about the existence of phenotypic change in life-history traits of exploited fish stocks, there are few direct estimates of selection differ- entials caused by fishing. Results that are available, together with the relatively low heritabilities of life-history traits, suggest that the evolution caused by fishing occurs at a modest rate, and is likely to need a decadal time scale to be clearly observable. Given the pressing need for attention to fisheries in the short term, measures to control the longer-term evolutionary impact of fishing are most likely to be adopted if they also help to meet short-term objectives of management. With this in mind, the essay mounts a defence of large, old fish, the presence of which would be beneficial to stocks in the short term, and the conservation of which would set in motion selection for improved growth in the longer term.
Speech and expression: a computer solution to face animation

Animation which uses three dimensional computer graphics relies heavily on geometric transformations over time for the motions of camera and objects. To make a figure walk or make a liquid bubble requires sophisticated motion control not usually available in commercial animation system,. This paper describes a way to animate a model of the human face . The animator can build a sequence of facial movements, including speech, by manipulating a sma.1I set of keywords . Synchronized speech is possible because the same encoding of the phonetic elements (segments) is used to drive both the animation and a speech generator. Any facial expression , or string of segments, may be given a name and used as a key element. The final animated sequence is then generated automatically by expansion (if necessary) followed by interpolation between the resulting key frames. We present two alternative modelling techniques for constructing the face : a polygon mesh and a functional description using a technique called 80ft objects.
Liquidity Biases and the Pricing of Cross-Sectional Idiosyncratic Volatility around the World

Abstract This paper examines data from 45 world markets and shows that the previously documented relation between mean returns and idiosyncratic volatility arises because of biases in volatility estimates that we can attribute to the bid–ask bounce in trade prices. We show that no significant relation exists between mean returns and idiosyncratic volatility estimated from quote-midpoint returns. Further, there is no significant relation between mean returns and the portion of transaction-price-based idiosyncratic volatility that is orthogonal to bid–ask spreads. The pricing of idiosyncratic volatility is due to the negative pricing of the bid–ask spread.
Cell cycle regulation in retinal progenitors by glia-derived neurotrophic factor and docosahexaenoic acid.

PURPOSE A recent study has shown that glia-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) promote the survival and differentiation of retina photoreceptors. The current study was undertaken to investigate whether these molecules participate in cell cycle regulation in retinal progenitors in vitro. METHODS Developmental changes in the expression of the stem cell marker nestin and of cell cycle and differentiated neuron markers were analyzed in neuroblasts obtained from 1-day-old rat retinas. The effects of GDNF and DHA on those changes were then determined. RESULTS Expression of nestin, found in more than one third of neuroblasts at day 1, rapidly decreased during development, with most neuroblasts acquiring the photoreceptor phenotype. GDNF increased the percentage of photoreceptor progenitors expressing nestin, whereas DHA reduced it, simultaneously enhancing photoreceptor differentiation. Several markers of cell cycle progression indicated that photoreceptor progenitors maintained an active cell cycle during the first 2 days in vitro. GDNF stimulated the cell cycle, increasing the number of dividing cells and generating more photoreceptor progenitors, whereas DHA induced cell cycle exit and photoreceptor differentiation. Analysis of the expression of the cyclin-Cdk inhibitor p27(Kip1) confirmed these results. CONCLUSIONS GDNF and DHA acted as molecular cues, counterbalancing the decision of photoreceptors to remain in or exit the cell cycle. The results strongly suggest that both factors participate in determining the number of photoreceptors in vitro, regulating the cell cycle and survival at early and late stages of development, respectively. Hence, GDNF and DHA may coordinately control the histogenesis of photoreceptors in the retina by modulating both neurogenesis and apoptosis.
A Genetic Programming-Based Learning Algorithms for Pruning Cost-Sensitive Classifiers

In this paper, we introduce a new hybrid learning algorithm, called DTGP, to construct cost-sensitive classifiers. This algorithm uses a decision tree as its basic classifier and the constructed decision tree will be pruned by a genetic programming algorithm using a fitness function that is sensitive to misclassification costs. The proposed learning algorithm has been examined through six cost-sensitive problems. The experimental results show that the proposed learning algorithm outperforms in comparison to some other known learning algorithms like C4.5 or naive Bayesian.
Graph Processing in RDBMSs

To support analytics on massive graphs such as online social networks, RDF , Semantic Web, etc. many new graph algorithms are designed to query graphs for a speciﬁc problem, and many distributed graph processing systems are developed to support graph querying by programming. A main issue to be addressed is how RDBMS can support graph processing. And the ﬁrst thing is how RDBMS can support graph processing at the SQL level. Our work is motivated by the fact that there are many relations stored in RDBMS that are closely related to a graph in real applications and need to be used together to query the graph, and RDBMS is a system that can query and manage data while data may be updated over time. To support graph processing, we propose 4 new relational algebra operations, MM -join, MV -join, anti-join, and union-by-update. Here, MM -join and MV -join are join operations between two matrices and between a matrix and a vector, respectively, followed by aggregation computing over groups, given a matrix/vector can be represented by a relation. Both deal with the semiring by which many graph algorithms can be supported. The anti-join removes nodes/edges in a graph when they are unnecessary for the following computing. The union-by-update addresses value updates to compute PageRank , for example. The 4 new relational algebra operations can be deﬁned by the 6 basic relational algebra operations with group-by & aggregation. We revisit SQL recursive queries and show that the 4 operations with others are ensured to have a ﬁxpoint, following the techniques studied in D ATALOG , and we enhance the recursive with clause in SQL ’99. RDBMS s are capable of dealing with graph processing in reasonable time.
Development of Gesture Recognition Sub-system for BELONG - Increasing the Sense of Immersion for Dinosaurian Environment Learning Support System

We are developing an immersive learning support system for paleontological environments in museums. The system measures the body movement of the learner using a Kinect sensor, and provides a sense of immersion in the paleontological environment. Conventional systems are only able to recognize simple body movements, which is insufficient to completely immerse learners in the paleontological environment. On the other hand, when they need to perform complicated body movements, learners move their bodies eagerly while thinking. This emphasizes the importance of developing a sub-system capable of recognizing complicated body movements. In this paper, we describe a sub-system developed to recognize the body movement of the most important learner in the immersive learning support system.
Voltage‐dependence of Ca2+ agonist effect of YC‐170 on cardiac L‐type Ca2+ channels

1 We investigated the voltage‐dependence of the agonist actions of YC‐170, a dihydropyridine (DHP) derivative, on cardiac L‐type Ca2+ channels in rabbit ventricular cells, using the patch clamp technique. The characteristics of YC‐170 were compared with those of other DHP Ca2+ agonists (Bay K 8644, CGP 28392). Ca2+ channel activities were elicited by depolarizing pulses to 0 mV from a holding potential (HP) of either −80 mV or −40 mV. 2 YC‐170 (10 μM) increased Ca2+ channel activities when HP was set at −80 mV. However, decreasing HP to −40 mV abolished the agonist action. The agonist effect of Bay K 8644 (1 μM) on Ca2+ channels was elicited to the same extent at either HP. CGP 28392 (10 μm) also increased Ca2+ channel activities at both HPs, but its agonist effect was significantly larger at an HP of −80 mV than at −40 mV. 3 All of the three DHP Ca2+ agonists prolonged open times of Ca2+ channels, but the prolongation did not correspond to the voltage‐dependence of Ca2+ agonist effects of the three DHPs. 4 YC‐170 markedly reduced the closed time of the Ca2+ channel when the HP was at −80 mV, but prolonged it at HP of −40 mV. Bay K 8644 reduced closed times at an HP of −80 mV. At an HP of −40 mV, Bay K 8644 slightly reduced closed times. CGP 28392 reduced closed times at an HP of −80 mV and prolonged those at an HP of −40 mV. Thus the voltage‐dependence of the agonist effects of these agents was in good agreement with the voltage‐dependence of changes in closed times of Ca2+ channel. 5 Two mechanisms may be involved in the agonist action of YC‐170; a prolongation of open times, and a reduction of closed times of Ca2+ channels, i.e. an increase in reopening. The former mechanism is not dependent on HP and the latter mechanism is highly dependent on HP. Thus, the voltage‐dependence of the agonist action may be attributed to the voltage‐dependence of their enhancing effect on reopening of Ca2+ channels.
Histamine‐mediated neuronal death in a rat model of Wernicke's encephalopathy

Three experiments were conducted to examine the role of histamine in neuronal degeneration in a rat model of Wernick's encephalopathy induced by an acute bout of pyrithiamine‐induced thiamine deficiency (PTD). In the first experiment, histamine levels in medial thalamus of freely moving PTD rats measured by microdialysis were increased (180% of controls) at a prelesion stage of thiamine deficiency (treatment day 12) and further elevated 48 hr later (380%) in the same animals when necrosis was evident. Histamine levels in dialysates of the hippocampus collected simultaneously from the same animals were unchanged at either stage of thiamine deficiency. Glutamate levels in microdialysates from the same animals were unchanged at the prelesion stage but were significantly elevated on the second collection day. In a second experiment, separate groups of PTD and pairfed control (CT) rats were infused continuously with either α‐fluoromethylhistidine (FMH; 80 mg/day, i. p.), an irreversible inhibitor of histamine synthesis, or saline. FMH pretreatment produced a significant protection against PTD‐induced neuronal loss within the midline‐intralaminar and anteromedial thalamic nuclei, but had no effect on damage to ventrolateral nuclei, anteroventral nucleus, or the mammillary bodies. In a third study, histamine (80 μg, free base) or vehicle was directly infused into the same region of medial thalamus dialyzed in experiments 1. Histamine infusion into prelesion PTD but not CT animals resulted in severe neuronal loss and gliosis. Infusion of vehicle into the same regions of PTD and CT rats produced a mild gliosis restricted to the needle tract with no evidence of neuronal loss. These observations together with recent evidence of a histamine enhancement of glutamate receptor activation suggest that early histamine release may contribute significantly to glutamate‐N‐methyl‐D‐aspartate (NMDA)‐mediated excitotoxic neuronal death in thiamine deficiency‐induced Wernicke's encephalopathy. © 1994 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
On the Uniform Poincaré Inequality

We give a proof of the Poincaré inequality in W 1, p (Ω) with a constant that is independent of Ω ∈ 𝒰, where 𝒰 is a set of uniformly bounded and uniformly Lipschitz domains in ℝ n . As a byproduct, we obtain the following: The first non vanishing eigenvalues λ2(Ω) of the standard Neumann (variational) boundary value problem on Ω for the Laplace operator are bounded below by a positive constant if the domains Ω vary and remain uniformly bounded and uniformly Lipschitz regular.