Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Optimization of the Mixing Ratio of Two Different Clays Used for Ceramic Roof Tiles

Brick- and tile manufacturing is one of the most rapidly developing industries. Professionals are constantly seeking modern technological solutions with which much better and longer lifetime of ceramic roof tiles can be reached. The aim of this R&D work was to optimize the mixing ratio of two different clay minerals of the industrial partner. The Authors have tried to develop a mixture by increasing the mixing ratio of the clay „Jamina”, which reaches or exceeds the mechanical strength and frost-resistance of the ceramic roof tiles which were made according to the present recipe used by the industrial partner. After XRD tests in virtue of preliminary mixture design, the Authors have made clay mineral mixtures that were milled and homogenized in an edge mill for an appropriate grain size. After mixing and homogenizing, samples with different length were made for further investigations with the use of a laboratory vacuum extrusion system. Shrinkage after drying and firing, apparent porosity and water absorption were measured on these samples. Mechanical test were also executed, as well as bending strength tests and compressive strength tests. On the basis of the results of the executed tests, it can be seen that the Authors were successfully developed clay mixtures, with which ceramic roof tiles can be produced with properties that are more favourable than the present mixture used by the industrial partner. The increase of the ratio of ‘Csaba I. ’ clay increases the bending and compressive strength of the fired ceramic roof tiles. So the reduction of the amount of clay „Jamina” affects the mechanical properties of the ceramic roof tiles favourably.
Vaccine Hesitancy: Clarifying a Theoretical Framework for an Ambiguous Notion

Today, according to many public health experts, public confidence in vaccines is waning. The term “vaccine hesitancy” (VH) is increasingly used to describe the spread of such vaccine reluctance. But VH is an ambiguous notion and its theoretical background appears uncertain. To clarify this concept, we first review the current definitions of VH in the public health literature and examine its most prominent characteristics. VH has been defined as a set of beliefs, attitudes, or behaviours, or some combination of them, shared by a large and heterogeneous portion of the population and including people who exhibit reluctant conformism (they may either decline a vaccine, delay it or accept it despite their doubts) and vaccine-specific behaviours. Secondly, we underline some of the ambiguities of this notion and argue that it is more a catchall category than a real concept. We also call into question the usefulness of understanding VH as an intermediate position along a continuum ranging from anti-vaccine to pro-vaccine attitudes, and we discuss its qualification as a belief, attitude or behaviour. Thirdly, we propose a theoretical framework, based on previous literature and taking into account some major structural features of contemporary societies, that considers VH as a kind of decision-making process that depends on people’s level of commitment to healthism/risk culture and on their level of confidence in the health authorities and mainstream medicine.
F-spondin inhibits differentiation of clastic precursors via lipoprotein receptor-related protein 8 (LRP8).

BACKGROUND F-spondin, known to be a secreted neuronal glycoprotein, is highly expressed on the tooth root surface. The authors previously reported that F-spondin is one of the specific markers of cementoblasts in periodontal tissue. In chronic periodontitis, significant cemental resorption rarely occurs on the root side, although alveolar bone resorption by osteoclasts is one of the major pathologic changes. Thus, it was hypothesized that secretory F-spondin from cementoblasts might be involved in differentiation of clastic cells on the root surface. The authors studied effects of secretory F-spondin from F-spondin-expressing cells and its pathway on receptor activator of nuclear factor-κB ligand (RANKL)-mediated differentiation of clastic cells. METHODS Osteoclast precursors were used in this study. With a chamber assay, the authors examined effects of secretory molecules from F-spondin-expressing cells of transgenic mice on RANKL-induced clastic cell differentiation. RESULTS Secretory molecules from F-spondin-overexpressing cells significantly inhibited the RANKL-mediated tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP)-positive cells from primary progenitor cells with the chamber system. F-spondin suppressed RANKL-mediated nuclear factor of activated T-cells, cytoplasmic 1 (NFATc1); TRAP; cathepsin K; and dendritic cell-specific transmembrane protein (DC-STAMP) expression in the cells. The suppressive effect of F-spondin on RANKL-induced differentiation of clastic cells was partially blocked by knockdown of low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 8 (LRP8). CONCLUSIONS These findings indicate that secretory factors from F-spondin-expressing cells, including F-spondin, downregulate differentiation of clastic precursors. Moreover, F-spondin inhibits RANKL-mediated differentiation of clastic cells partially via LRP8. It is suggested that secretory F-spondin may act protectively from cemental resorption partially via LRP8 in periodontal tissue.
A Greedy Approach to Adapting the Trace Parameter for Temporal Difference Learning

One of the main obstacles to broad application of reinforcement learning methods is the parameter sensitivity of our core learning algorithms. In many large-scale applications, online computation and function approximation represent key strategies in scaling up reinforcement learning algorithms. In this setting, we have effective and reasonably well understood algorithms for adapting the learning-rate parameter, online during learning. Such meta-learning approaches can improve robustness of learning and enable specialization to current task, improving learning speed. For temporal-difference learning algorithms which we study here, there is yet another parameter, $\lambda$, that similarly impacts learning speed and stability in practice. Unfortunately, unlike the learning-rate parameter, $\lambda$ parametrizes the objective function that temporal-difference methods optimize. Different choices of $\lambda$ produce different fixed-point solutions, and thus adapting $\lambda$ online and characterizing the optimization is substantially more complex than adapting the learning-rate parameter. There are no meta-learning method for $\lambda$ that can achieve (1) incremental updating, (2) compatibility with function approximation, and (3) maintain stability of learning under both on and off-policy sampling. In this paper we contribute a novel objective function for optimizing $\lambda$ as a function of state rather than time. We derive a new incremental, linear complexity $\lambda$-adaption algorithm that does not require offline batch updating or access to a model of the world, and present a suite of experiments illustrating the practicality of our new algorithm in three different settings. Taken together, our contributions represent a concrete step towards black-box application of temporal-difference learning methods in real world problems.
Reflex Tachycardia Due to Temporary Coronary Occlusion in the Conscious Dog

Reflex increases in heart rate which occurred during 1-minute occlusions of the left circumflex coronary artery were studied in conscious dogs. The results indicated that occlusion produced tachycardia (latency to onset 8.5 seconds) preceded by a rise in left atrial pressure (7.2 seconds) and followed by a small fall in arterial pressure (19.5 seconds). Bilateral baroreceptor denervation indicated that the onset of the changes in heart rate could not be accounted for by subtle baroreceptor sensitivity, although the peak response was much reduced (from 34.0 beats/min to 17.5 beats/min), indicating that the magnitude of the response did depend on intact baroreceptors. Beta-receptor blockade with propranolol or cardiac sympathectomy reduced the peak response from 34.0 beats/min to 16.1 beats/min or 12.2 beats/min, respectively. Vagal blockade with atropine reduced the response to 5.3 beats/min, indicating that the remainder of the response was carried in the vagus. Responses were much reduced after baroreceptor denervation plus β-receptor blockade (5.2 beats/min), indicating that the efferent vagal branch of the reflex originated primarily in the arterial baroreceptors. Tachycardia during coronary occlusion, then, is initiated by receptors in or near the heart, and the magnitude of the response is a combination response from these receptors and the arterial baroreceptors.
Low Cost Portability for Statistical Machine Translation based on N-gram Coverage

Statistical machine translation relies heavily on the available training data. However, in some cases, it is necessary to limit the amount of training data that can be created for or actually used by the systems. To solve that problem, we introduce a weighting scheme that tries to select more informative sentences first. This selection is based on the previously unseen n-grams the sentences contain, and it allows us to sort the sentences according to their estimated importance. After sorting, we can construct smaller training corpora, and we are able to demonstrate that systems trained on much less training data show a very competitive performance compared to baseline systems using all available training data.
Urinary Markers of Tubular Injury in HIV-Infected Patients

Renal disease is a common complication of HIV-infected patients, associated with increased risk of cardiovascular events, progression to AIDS, AIDS-defining illness, and mortality. Early and accurate identification of renal disease is therefore crucial to improve patient outcomes. The use of serum creatinine, along with proteinuria, to detect renal involvement is essentially to screen for markers of glomerular disease and may not be effective in detecting earlier stages of renal injury. Therefore, more sensitive and specific markers are needed in order to early identify HIV-infected patients at risk of renal disease. This review article summarizes some new and important urinary markers of tubular injury in HIV-infected patients and their clinical usefulness in the renal safety follow-up of TDF-treated patients.
Less is More: Similarity of Time Series under Linear Transformations

When comparing time series, z-normalization preprocessing and dynamic time warping (DTW) distance became almost standard procedure. This paper makes a point against carelessly using this setup by discussing implications and alternatives. A (conceptually) simpler distance measure is proposed that allows for a linear transformation of amplitude and time only, but is also open for other normalizations (unachievable by z-normalization preprocessing). Lower bounding techniques are presented for this measure that apply directly to raw series.
Classification of Highly Nonlinear Boolean Power Functions with a Randomised Algorithm for Checking Normality

A Boolean function is called normal if it is constant on flats of certain dimensions. This property is relevant for the construction and analysis of cryptosystems. This paper presents an asymmetric Monte Carlo algorithm to determine whether a given Boolean function is normal. Our algorithm is far faster than the best known (deterministic) algorithm of Daum et al. In a first phase, it checks for flats of low dimension whether the given Boolean function is constant on them and combines such flats to flats of higher dimension in a second phase. This way, the algorithm is much faster than exhaustive search. Moreover, the algorithm benefits from randomising the first phase. As an application, we determine the level of normality for several, highly nonlinear Boolean power functions.
NUCLEOSIDES, NUCLEOTIDES & NUCLEIC ACIDS

Resistance to, the hydrophilic drug ara-C, might be meditated by decreased membrane transport. Lipophillic prodrugs were synthesized to facilitate uptake. These compounds were equally active as ara-C, while the compounds with the shortest fatty-acid group and highest number of double bonds were the more active. These compounds also show a better retention profile, their effect is retained longer than for ara-C.
Ultrastructure of the Bronchial Epithelium in Chronic Inflammation

Light-optic and electron microscopic study of the bronchial biopsy specimens from 208 patients with primary and secondary chronic bronchitis was carried out. Variants of the bronchial epithelium states were described and classified according to characteristics of differentiation processes. As a result, groups with relatively normal structure, with deviated differentiation processes (hyperplasia of goblet glandular cells, hyperplasia of basal epithelial cells, hypoplasia and degeneration of goblet glandular cells), with incomplete differentiation processes (proliferative transformation and transitory state), and with altered differentiation processes (squamous metaplasia and atrophy) were described. These variants of the bronchial epithelium states arenot only indicative of different levels of change or structural disorders, but may also represent a dynamic scheme of itsconsecutive changesduring the development of chronic inflammatory process.
Brain‐bladder control network: The unsolved 21st century urological mystery

A review of functional brain imaging studies of bladder control in participants with normal control and pathological conditions. In the normal condition, bladder and urethral afferents received in the periaqueductal gray relay the information to the insula, the anterior cingulate cortex and the prefrontal cortex. During the storage phase, these superior regions control the pontine micturition center to inhibit voiding. In overactive bladder patients, brain responses are different. Cortical responses become exaggerated, especially in the anterior cingulate cortex and the supplementary motor area. That is what presumably evokes the “urgency”. The supplementary motor area is activated during contraction of the pelvic floor muscles, and provides protection against incontinence. We believe that functional brain imaging studies are promising not only for the understanding of bladder dysfunction, but also as an aid to the development of therapeutic options for chronic disorders.
Helical Structures of ESCRT-III Are Disassembled by VPS4

During intracellular membrane trafficking and remodeling, protein complexes known as the ESCRTs (endosomal sorting complexes required for transport) interact with membranes and are required for budding processes directed away from the cytosol, including the budding of intralumenal vesicles to form multivesicular bodies; for the budding of some enveloped viruses; and for daughter cell scission in cytokinesis. We found that the ESCRT-III proteins CHMP2A and CHMP3 (charged multivesicular body proteins 2A and 3) could assemble in vitro into helical tubular structures that expose their membrane interaction sites on the outside of the tubule, whereas the AAA-type adenosine triphosphatase VPS4 could bind on the inside of the tubule and disassemble the tubes upon adenosine triphosphate hydrolysis. CHMP2A and CHMP3 copolymerized in solution, and their membrane targeting was cooperatively enhanced on planar lipid bilayers. Such helical CHMP structures could thus assemble within the neck of an inwardly budding vesicle, catalyzing late steps in budding under the control of VPS4.
Characterization of Renal Glucose Reabsorption in Response to Dapagliflozin in Healthy Subjects and Subjects With Type 2 Diabetes

OBJECTIVE To examine the effect of dapagliflozin, a sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitor, on the major components of renal glucose reabsorption (decreased maximum renal glucose reabsorptive capacity [TmG], increased splay, and reduced threshold), using the pancreatic/stepped hyperglycemic clamp (SHC) technique. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Subjects with type 2 diabetes (n = 12) and matched healthy subjects (n = 12) underwent pancreatic/SHC (plasma glucose range 5.5–30.5 mmol/L) at baseline and after 7 days of dapagliflozin treatment. A pharmacodynamic model was developed to describe the major components of renal glucose reabsorption for both groups and then used to estimate these parameters from individual glucose titration curves. RESULTS At baseline, type 2 diabetic subjects had elevated TmG, splay, and threshold compared with controls. Dapagliflozin treatment reduced the TmG and splay in both groups. However, the most significant effect of dapagliflozin was a reduction of the renal threshold for glucose excretion in type 2 diabetic and control subjects. CONCLUSIONS The SGLT2 inhibitor dapagliflozin improves glycemic control in diabetic patients by reducing the TmG and threshold at which glucose is excreted in the urine.
RecSys Challenge 2016: Job Recommendations

The 2016 ACM Recommender Systems Challenge focused on the problem of job recommendations. Given a large dataset from XING that consisted of anonymized user profiles, job postings, and interactions between them, the participating teams had to predict postings that a user will interact with. The challenge ran for four months with 366 registered teams. 119 of those teams actively participated and submitted together 4,232 solutions yielding in an impressive neck-and-neck race that was decided within the last days of the challenge.
Effect of Estrogen on Lipoprotein Lipase Activity and Cytoplasmic Progestin Binding Sites in Lean and Obese Zucker Rats

Abstract Injections of 5 μg estradiol benzoate (EB) for 5 days resulted in decreases in the rate of body weight gain in both lean (Fafa) and obese (fafa) Zucker rats. EB administration also resulted in significant induction of cytoplasmic progestin binding sites in both hypothalamic-preoptic area (H-POA) and adipose tissues from rats of both genotypes. However, EB treatment significantly decreased lipoprotein lipase (LPL) activity in adipose tissue from lean, but not obese, Zucker rats and the same treatment increased LPL activity in the uteri from lean, but not obese, Zucker rats. The data are discussed in terms of the metabolic and reproductive dysfunctions observed in the genetically obese rat.
Anterior Cruciate Ligament Rupture: Differences Between Males and Females

&NA; The rate of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) rupture is three times higher in female athletes than in male athletes. Intrinsic factors such as increased quadriceps angle and increased posterior tibial slope may predispose girls and women to ACL injury. Compared with males, females have smaller notch widths and smaller ACL cross‐sectional area; however, no conclusive correlation between ACL size and notch dimension exists, especially in relation to risk of ACL injury. Female athletes who land with the knees in inadequate flexion and in greater‐than‐normal valgus and external rotation are at increased risk of ACL injury. No conclusive link has been made between ACL injury and the menstrual cycle. Neuromuscular intervention protocols have been shown to reduce the rate of injury in girls and women. Females are more likely than males to have a narrow A‐shaped intercondylar notch, and special surgical considerations are required in such cases. Following ACL reconstruction, female athletes are more likely than male athletes to rupture the contralateral ACL; however, males and females are equally likely to rupture the reconstructed knee. Although self‐reported outcomes in the first 2 years following reconstruction are worse for females than for males, longer‐term studies demonstrate no difference between males and females.
Nrf2 deficiency leads to behavioral, neurochemical and transcriptional changes in mice

Nrf2 is a transcription factor that regulates the antioxidant and detoxification enzyme genes and provides defense against oxidative and electrophilic stresses in various tissues. In brain, while neuroprotective functions of Nrf2 have been well documented, Nrf2 contribution to the brain function remains to be elucidated. To address this issue, we investigated whether Nrf2 deficiency affects psychological behaviors, neurotransmitter systems and gene expressions in mice. We conducted four behavioral tests, social interaction, open‐field, rotarod and forced swimming tests and found that Nrf2 knockout mice exhibited reduced immobility in the forced swimming test. Neurochemical analyses revealed that the dopamine and serotonin metabolites increased in the brains of Nrf2 knockout mice. We also present a catalog of genes whose expression is Nrf2‐dependent in brain under unstressed conditions, which includes a number of xenobiotic‐metabolizing enzyme genes. These results thus support our contention that Nrf2 regulates its target genes in brain under unstressed conditions and loss of Nrf2 affects various brain functions.
ANTIGENIC VARIATION AMONG STRAINS OF WESTERN EQUINE ENCEPHALOMYELITIS VIRUS.

Summary Comparison of seven strains of WEE virus by neutralization, hemagglutination-inhibition and complement-fixation indicated considerable antigenic differences among these strains. Four strains (RI-Y, RI-C, A-42 and McM) maintained for several passages in the laboratory were indistinguishable by any of the serologic methods employed. Three other strains (Florida, Massachusetts, and HJ), representing relatively recent isolates, showed significant differences from the four laboratory-maintained strains in at least two or all three of the serological tests. In addition, significant one-way cross-differences were recognizable among these three strains by one or more of the serologic methods utilized. These antigenic variations were further reflected by differences in the prevalence of HI antibodies to WEE in approximately 1000 bloods screened with RI-Y and HJ strains. The number of positive HI reactors was twice as high with the HJ strain as with the RI-Y strain.
Ofatumumab in poor-prognosis chronic lymphocytic leukemia: a Phase IV, non-interventional, observational study from the European Research Initiative on Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia

We report the largest retrospective, phase IV non-interventional, observational study of ofatumumab therapy in heavily pre-treated patients with poor-prognosis chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Total number of patients was 103; median age was 65 years (range 39–85). Median number of prior lines of therapy was 4 (range 1–13), including, in most cases, rituximab-, fludarabine- and alemtuzumab-based regimens; 13 patients had been allografted. Of 113 adverse events, 28 (29%) were considered to be directly related to ofatumumab. Grade 3–4 toxicities included neutropenia (10%), thrombocytopenia (5%), anemia (3%), pneumonia (17%), and fever (3%). Two heavily pre-treated patients developed progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy. On an intention-to-treat analysis, the overall response rate was 22% (3 complete response, 1 incomplete complete response). Median progression-free and overall survival times were 5 and 11 months, respectively. This study confirms in a daily-life setting the feasibility and acceptable toxicity of ofatumumab treatment in advanced chronic lymphocytic leukemia. The complete response rate, however, was low. Therefore, treatment with ofatumumab should be moved to earlier phases of the disease. Ideally, this should be done in combination with other agents, as recently approved for ofatumumab plus chlorambucil as front-line treatment for patients unfit for fludarabine. This study is registered at clinicaltrials.gov identifier:01453062.