Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Infant Rabbit Model for Diarrheal Diseases

Vibrio cholerae is the agent of cholera, a potentially lethal diarrheal disease that remains a significant threat to populations in developing nations. The infant rabbit model of cholera is the only non‐surgical small animal model system that closely mimics human cholera. Following orogastric inoculation, V. cholerae colonizes the intestines of infant rabbits, and the animals develop severe cholera‐like diarrhea. In this unit, we provide a detailed description of the preparation of the V. cholerae inoculum, the inoculation process and the collection and processing of tissue samples. This infection model is useful for studies of V. cholerae factors and mechanisms that promote its intestinal colonization and enterotoxicity, as well as the host response to infection. The infant rabbit model of cholera enables investigations that will further our understanding of the pathophysiology of cholera and provides a platform for testing new therapeutics. © 2015 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Reconfigurable dual-band frequency selective surfaces using a new hybrid element

In this paper, a new active frequency selective surface (AFSS) is proposed as an electromagnetic (EM) window for TE-polarized incident waves. A unit cell of this AFSS includes of a strip dipole and an elliptical loop, deliberately combined in a single layer configuration to create a dual-band transmission/reflection coefficient response. High frequency PIN-diodes are also integrated into the surface to reconfigure the transmission/reflection coefficients of the EM window across two close frequency bands of 1.8GHz and 2.45GHz. In this configuration, the effect of the diode parasitic capacitance is used as a potential feature in creating the first operating band. The achieved results show that the proposed surface can be a good candidate for reconfigurable reflectors or it can be used in electromagnetic shielding applications.
The MOS 36-Item Short form Health Survey

The SF-36 is a practical and widely-tested instrument for measuring health status and medical outcomes. This article is not a critique of the SF-36, rather, it underscores its viability as an instrument for measuring physical and mental health and well-being. The article is a conceptual analysis of the SF-36, from the viewpoint of four models of health: medical, World Health Organization, wellness, and environmental All four models suggest that the SF-36 be expanded to include other dimensions of health, especially mental and social. Specific dimensions to be included are: incidents of morbidity, satisfaction with quality of life, absence of mental disorders, social adjustment, social support, higher states offunctioning, and adjustment to the environment. The end result of the suggested additions would be an instrument with greater conceptual meaning, for use in medical outcomes studies or surveys of the general population.
Stability of protein production from recombinant mammalian cells

One of the most important criteria for successful generation of a therapeutic protein from a recombinant cell is to obtain a cell line that maintains stability of production. If this is not achieved it can generate problems for process yields, effective use of time and money, and for regulatory approval of products. However, selection of a cell line that sustains stability of production over the required time period may be difficult to achieve during development of a therapeutic protein. There are several studies in the literature that have reported on the instability of protein production from recombinant cell lines. The causes of instability of production are varied and, in many cases, the exact molecular mechanisms are unknown. The production of proteins by cells is modulated by molecular events at levels ranging from transcription, posttranscriptional processing, translation, posttranslational processing, to secretion. There is potential for regulation of stability of protein production at many or all of these stages. In this study we review published information on stability of protein production for three industrially important cell lines: hybridoma, Chinese hamster ovary (CHO), and nonsecreting (NS0) myeloma cell lines. We highlight the most likely molecular loci at which instability may be engendered and indicate other areas of protein production that may affect stability from mammalian cells. We also outline approaches that could help to overcome the problems associated with unpredictable expression levels and maximized production, and indicate the consequences these might have for stability of production. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals Inc. Biotechnol Bioeng 81: 631–639; 2003.
A Novel Genetic Algorithm Based Method for Building Accurate and Comprehensible Churn Prediction Models

Customer churn has become a critical problem for all companies in particular for those that are operating in service-based industries such as telecommunication industry. Data mining techniques have been used for constructing churn prediction models. Past research in churn prediction context have mainly focused on the accuracy aspect of the constructed churn models. However, in addition to the accuracy, comprehensibility aspect should be considered in evaluating a churn prediction model. Being comprehensible, a model can reveal the main reasons for customer churn; thereby mangers can use such information for effective decisions making about marketing actions. In this paper, we demonstrate the application of a genetic-algorithm (GA) method for building accurate and comprehensible churn prediction model. The proposed method, GA-based method uses a wrapper based feature selection approach for choosing the best feature subset. The key advantage of this method, is taking into account the comprehensibility measure (measured as the number of rules extracted from C4.5 decision tree) in evaluating the performance of a candidate model. The GA-based method is compared to the two filter feature selection methods including Chi-squared based and Correlation based feature selection using two telecommunication churn datasets. The results of experiments indicated that the GA-based method performs better than the two filter methods in terms of both accuracy and comprehensibility
Response and specificity of anti-Shigella rabbit antibody.

Antibodies produced by immunization of rabbits with Shigella flexneri 1b and 2a were demonstrated in both the IgM and IgG fractions of the serum. A procedure for fractionation of antibodies by salting out followed by gel filtration and diethylaminoethyl column chromatography was found to be the best method for the purification and subfractionation of IgM and IgG from rabbit antiserum. Studies on the specificities of the two types of immune globulins demonstrated a high specificity for the IgG and a low specificity for the IgM. The subfractions derived from each type, however, demonstrated almost the same reactive pattern notwithstanding that they were slightly different from each other chromatographically and electrophoretically. The antibody pattern for type specific antigen I was predominant in IgM, and that for group antigen 6 was predominant in IgG of the anti-Shigella flexneri 1b serum. The possible mechanism for the different specificities of the two types of antibodies was discussed.
A Novel Study of Biometric Speaker Identification Using Neural Networks and Multi-Level Wavelet Decomposition

Researchers in voice and speaker recognition systems has been entered a new stage. The overall researches concern on trials to enhance the accuracy and precession of the developed system techniques, especially in intelligent systems. The use of Digital Signal Processing (DSP) with cooperation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is common in such researches. But the main inertia in that is to developing the algorithm in trial and error in most cases. This research aims to find the hot spot points in merging specific techniques of DSP with AI. Neural networks based speaker recognition was been developed in order to test the results of the proposed algorithm and record the study results. Multi-level decomposition of wavelet transformation is adopted to extract the features of the speaker person. The feature extraction using wavelet transformation is studied and this paper determines the best level and condition of applying that technique. Keywords-Wavelet Transform; Multi-Level Decomposition; Voice; Neural Networks; Speaker Identification; Biometrics.
Determinants of Genital Human Papillomavirus Infection in Low‐Income Women in Washington, D.C

OBJECTIVES To confirm the risk factors for genital human papillomavirus (HPV) infection. GOAL OF THIS STUDY To investigate risk factors for HPV detection independent of the correlated risk factors for cervical neoplasia, in a high-risk population. STUDY DESIGN We investigated 404 cytologically normal women attending medical assistance clinics in the Washington, D.C. area. Risk factor information was obtained and a cervicovaginal lavage was collected and used for HPV detection and typing by a PCR-based technique. RESULTS The point prevalence of HPV was 33.7%. This contrasts with the 17.7% and 44.3% observed in the companion reports published in this issue of the journal. HPV prevalence decreased with age and increased with greater numbers of sexual partners. Moreover, more recent sexual behavior was a better predictor of current HPV detection than lifetime number of sexual partners. Numbers of pregnancies and current pregnancy were positively associated with HPV prevalence and there was an indication that current oral contraceptive users had a higher prevalence of HPV compared to never users. Smoking was not associated with increased HPV prevalence. CONCLUSION Findings support the sexual route of transmission of HPV and confirm the association of HPV detection with age, suggesting the host's ability to clear infection or the virus' ability to become latent.
Modern Fluoroscopy Imaging Systems

Fluoroscopy, or real-time projection X-ray imaging, has been in clinical use since shortly after Roentgen’s discovery of X-rays. Early fluoroscopes consisted simply of an X-ray source and a fluorescent screen, between which the patient was placed. After passing through the patient, the remnant beam impinged upon the fluorescent screen and produced a visible glow, which was directly observed by the practitioner.
Use of wireless signal characteristics for mobile robotics localization and access point mapping

Mobile robotics is an interesting and challenging emerging field in computer science. To properly achieve true autonomy, a robot must be able to determine where it is in relationship to a global frame of reference and it must be able to do so with a minimum of interaction from human operators and impose as few constraints on its surroundings as possible. The uncertain nature of mobility and perception requires that advanced probabilistic inference techniques be applied to minimize error. This work examines the applicability of radio-frequency signals to the mobile robot localization problem to localize quickly over a wide area. Particle filtering techniques are employed to adjust for anticipated errors in both the motion model and the perception model. Radio hardware designed to capture time of flight and received signal-strength indicators (RSSI) is used to infer relative distances and triangulate the most likely position of a mobile node, taking into account a priori knowledge about past poses. CHAPTER
Complex Permittivity and Permeability Measurements and Numerical Simulation of Carbonyl Iron Rubber in X-Band frequency

Recognizing the importance of an adequate characterization of radar absorbing materials (RAM), and consequently their development, the present study aims to contribute for the establishment and validation of experimental determination and numerical simulation of complex permittivity and permeability of electromagnetic materials, using for this a carbonyl iron was seventy percent of the mass concentration. The present work branches out into two related topics. The first one is concerned with the implementation of a computational modeling to predict the behavior of electromagnetic materials in confined environment by using electromagnetic three-dimensional simulation. The second topic re-examines the Nicolson-Ross-Weir mathematical model to retrieve the constitutive parameters (complex permittivity and permeability) of a homogeneous sample (carbonyl iron) from scattering coefficient measurements. The measured and calculated results show a good convergence that guarantees the application of the used methodologies for the characterization of carbonyl iron rubber in x-band frequency.
Important Role of Phosphodiesterase 3B for the Stimulatory Action of cAMP on Pancreatic β-Cell Exocytosis and Release of Insulin*

Cyclic AMP potentiates glucose-stimulated insulin release and mediates the stimulatory effects of hormones such as glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) on pancreatic β-cells. By inhibition of cAMP-degrading phosphodiesterase (PDE) and, in particular, selective inhibition of PDE3 activity, stimulatory effects on insulin secretion have been observed. Molecular and functional information on β-cell PDE3 is, however, scarce. To provide such information, we have studied the specific effects of the PDE3B isoform by adenovirus-mediated overexpression. In rat islets and rat insulinoma cells, approximate 10-fold overexpression of PDE3B was accompanied by a 6–8-fold increase in membrane-associated PDE3B activity. The cAMP concentration was significantly lowered in transduced cells (INS-1(832/13)), and insulin secretion in response to stimulation with high glucose (11.1 mm) was reduced by 40% (islets) and 50% (INS-1). Further, the ability of GLP-1 (100 nm) to augment glucose-stimulated insulin secretion was inhibited by ∼30% (islets) and 70% (INS-1). Accordingly, when stimulating with cAMP, a substantial decrease (65%) in exocytotic capacity was demonstrated in patch-clamped single β-cells. In untransduced insulinoma cells, application of the PDE3-selective inhibitor OPC3911 (10 μm) was shown to increase glucose-stimulated insulin release as well as cAMP-enhanced exocytosis. The findings suggest a significant role of PDE3B as an important regulator of insulin secretory processes.
Clinical indications of CT Colonography : European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy ( ESGE ) and European Society of Gastrointestinal and Abdominal Radiology ( ESGAR ) guidelines

Background and aim: This paper is an official guideline of the European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ESGE) and the European Society of Gastrointestinal and Abdominal Radiology (ESGAR). It addresses the clinical indications for the use of CT Colonography (CTC). Methods: A targeted literature search was performed to evaluate the evidence supporting the use of CTC. The Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) system was adopted to define the strength of recommendation and the
Procedures for estimation of genetic persistency indices for milk production for the South African dairy industry

Procedures have been developed for calculation of a Persistency Index for South African dairy breeds. This index is based on the Canadian Persistency Index, which is simple and easy to understand. Data used in this study were test-day records of the first three lactations, as included in the National Dairy Genetic Evaluations of South Africa, of the Ayrshire, Guernsey, Holstein and Jersey breeds. Interpolation, using the Wilmink curve, was done on these test-day records to calculate 60-day and 280-day yields for each cow and lactation. Variance components have been estimated for these yields to be used in breeding value estimations, using bivariate evaluations and a repeatability model. To obtain independence of persistency from total milk yield, 305-day milk yield estimated breeding values were included as covariates in the genetic model for estimation of breeding values for 60- and 280-day yields. The Persistency Index will be released for sires with progeny following each national dairy genetic evaluation, allowing the South African dairy industry to select for changes in persistency in future.
Interactive comment on “ Chemical composition , microstructure , and hygroscopic properties of aerosol particles at the Zotino Tall Tower Observatory ( ZOTTO ) , Siberia , during a summer campaign ” by E . F .

gle particle images (Section 4.2) that seem outside of the analytical capabilities of the instruments and the figures provided. While a core-shell morphology appears to be present in particles shown in Figures 7d-f, it is not clear that they are solid organic shells since the images provided by Figures 5 and 6 do not match the spatial resolution of the structural variations. Furthermore, it is not stated how many of the observed particles shared this morphology so it is not yet convincing that the observed dehydration experiments of the larger population of particles can be explained by this proposition.
Acquired C1 esterase inhibitor deficiency in two patients presenting with a lupus-like syndrome and anticardiolipin antibodies.

Introduction The clinical and biochemical profile of acquired C1 esterase inhibitor (C1-INH) deficiency, also known as acquired angioedema (AAE) syndrome, has been described in association with B cell lymphoproliferative disorders (1–4) and, less commonly, with autoimmune diseases, especially systemic lupus erythematosus– (SLE) like syndromes (1,4–6). Two types of AAE have been proposed based on the immunopathologic origin of the deficiency. AAE-1 is usually associated with a lymphoma and may result from idiotype-antiidiotype antibody interactions leading to excessive complement activation and consumption of C1 and C1-INH (2). In AAE-2, autoantibodies block C1-INH function (3,7). With increasing clinical recognition of AAE, and more sensitive tests for the detection of autoantibodies to the C1-INH, the distinction between these two conditions has blurred (3,8,9). For example, in some patients the paraprotein is an autoantibody that inhibits the function of the C1-INH (3). We report 2 patients with C1-INH deficiency secondary to an autoantibody that presented diagnostic difficulties because of the lack of typical angioedema, and clinical syndromes and laboratory profiles suggesting SLE.
Small-angle x-ray scattering under grazing incidence: The cross section in the distorted-wave Born approximation.

The specular and nonspecular intensity of x rays scattered from a rough surface with fluctuations in the electron density is calculated in the distorted-wave Born approximation. The contributions to the nonspecular intensity of roughness and density fluctuations can be separated. The structure factor is given by a convolution integral of the Fourier transform of the density correlation function. Special geometries of density fluctuations are discussed.
Signals through CD8 or CD4 can induce commitment to the CD4 lineage in the thymus

Differentiation of thymocytes into mature single‐positive T cells is an ordered process involving sequential interactions between T cell receptor (TCR), coreceptors (CD4 or CD8) and their appropriate major histocompatibility complex‐encoded ligands. Precisely how these receptor/co‐receptor engagements determine lineage commitment is still controversial, but recently it has been suggested that quantitative differences in the signal transmitted by coligation of CD4 versus CD8 with TCR might provide the discriminating signal. We examine this hypothesis, using bispecific F(ab')2 antibodies to mimic TCR/co‐receptor engagement during thymocyte differentiation. These bispecific antibodies lack Fc and can engage surface molecules without extensive cross‐linking or targeting to Fc receptor‐bearing cells. We show that TCR/CD3 co‐ligation with CD4 induces efficient differentiation of mature CD4 lineage cells, irrespective of their TCR specificity. Interestingly, TCR/CD3 co‐ligation with CD8 also induces maturation of CD4T cells, although less efficiently, but not of CD8 T cells. Thus, although the signals delivered by co‐ligation of TCR and CD8 appear weaker than from co‐ligation of TCR and CD4, the outcome from either engagement is the same. These data suggest that differences in signal intensity alone do not determine lineage commitment in the thymus, but that distinct signals are required for CD4 and CD8 single‐positive cell differentiation.
Development and Evaluation of “Aging Well and Healthily”: A Health-Education and Exercise Program for Community-Living Older Adults

The Aging Well and Healthily (AWH) program consists of health education by peers and low-intensity exercise. It was evaluated via a small randomized controlled trial and a community intervention trial involving older adults in the Netherlands. Reasons stated for participation were to exercise (35%), to acquire information about health (28%), and for social reasons (12%). The program was rated 8.2 on a 10-point scale. Twenty-five percent of participants joined exercise groups after the program ended, and 28% intended to do so. The mean physical activity score improved from 2.6 to 4.6 at follow-up (F = 16.9, p =.00) and was for the least active participants significantly different from that of the control group (F = 22.9, p = .02). Four to 6 months later, 60% of respondents reported still doing the exercises regularly at home. It is concluded that AWH is a potentially effective program for older adults.
Thermohaline Circulation Stability: A Box Model Study. Part II: Coupled Atmosphere–Ocean Model

Abstract A thorough analysis of the stability of a coupled version of an interhemispheric three-box model of thermohaline circulation (THC) is presented. This study follows a similarly structured analysis of an uncoupled version of the same model presented in Part I of this paper. The model consists of a northern high-latitude box, a tropical box, and a southern high-latitude box, which can be thought of as corresponding to the northern, tropical, and southern Atlantic Ocean, respectively. This paper examines how the strength of THC changes when the system undergoes forcings representing global warming conditions. Since a coupled model is used, a direct representation of the radiative forcing is possible because the main atmospheric physical processes responsible for freshwater and heat fluxes are formulated separately. Each perturbation to the initial equilibrium is characterized by the total radiative forcing realized, by the rate of increase, and by the north–south asymmetry. Although only weakly asymm.
cis-3-(tert-Butoxycarbonylamino)cyclohexanecarboxylic acid

The title compound, C12H21NO4, a γ-aminobutyric acid derivative, crystallizes with two molecules in the asymmetric unit. The crystal structure is stabilized by intermolecular N—H⋯O and O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds, forming a strand. An intramolecular N—H⋯O hydrogen bond is also observed.
Differential antitumor effect of interleukin‐12 family cytokines on orthotopic hepatocellular carcinoma

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most difficult cancers to treat. The interleukin (IL)‐12 family cytokines, including IL‐12, IL‐23 and IL‐27, display overlapping, but not redundant, roles in regulating lymphocyte subpopulations. IL‐12 is known as a potent antitumor cytokine, whereas the results of the antitumor effect of IL‐23 and IL‐27 are inconsistent. The present study aimed to directly compare the relative antitumor efficacy of these three IL‐12 family cytokines on HCC.
Ultra-high-capacity DWDM transmission system by multilevel modulations and digital coherent detection

In this paper, we will report our latest experimental results. These includes 20×112-Gb/s PDM-RZ-QPSK transmission over 1540-km of standard single mode fiber (SSMF), a record capacity of 17 Tb/s within the C-band optical bandwidth (4.025 THz) over 660km of ultra-low-loss fiber using 161×114-Gbps PDM-RZ-8PSK formats, and hybrid 10×112 Gb/s PDM-RZ-QPSK and 10×44 Gb/s PDM-NRZ-QPSK transmission with 25-GHz channel spacing over 1600 km of SSMF.