Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia Early Changes Leading to Long-Term Consequences

Neonatal chronic lung disease, i.e., bronchopulmonary dysplasia, is characterized by impaired pulmonary development resulting from the impact of different risk factors including infections, hyperoxia, and mechanical ventilation on the immature lung. Remodeling of the extracellular matrix, apoptosis as well as altered growth factor signaling characterize the disease. The immediate consequences of these early insults have been studied in different animal models supported by results from in vitro approaches leading to the successful application of some findings to the clinical setting in the past. Nonetheless, existing information about long-term consequences of the identified early and most likely sustained changes to the developing lung is limited. Interesting results point towards a tremendous impact of these early injuries on the pulmonary repair capacity as well as aging related processes in the adult lung.
RNASEN Regulates Cell Proliferation and Affects Survival in Esophageal Cancer Patients

Purpose: MicroRNAs (miRNA) are small noncoding RNAs thought to be involved in physiologic and developmental processes by negatively regulating the expression of target genes. Little is known about the role of miRNAs in normal and cancer cells. It is possible that deregulation of miRNA may contribute to the oncogenesis of some cancers. We studied the expression level of the miRNA processing enzyme (DICER1, DGCR8, and RNASEN) in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Experimental Design: The expression levels of DICER1, DGCR8, and RNASEN mRNA in 73 ESCC tissues were compared with that in corresponding normal esophageal epithelium by Taqman real-time reverse-transcription PCR. We also examined RNASEN protein expression in 27 cell lines. The role of RNASEN in cell proliferation in ESCC cells was assessed by small interfering RNA. Paraffin sections of ESCC patients were immunohistochemically investigated. Results: We found that RNASEN expression levels were enhanced in a fraction of esophageal cancers. Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that the prognostic effect of RNASEN (P = 0.0036) seems to be independent of disease stage (P = 0.0060). Knockdown of RNASEN in esophageal cancer cell lines resulted in a 46% to 85% reduction in cell number. In an immunohistochemical study, the intensity of RNASEN expression was often increased in the tumor compared with that in normal epithelium. Conclusions: The relationship between the RNASEN expression and the prognosis of the ESCC patients warrants a further study on the role of miRNA and tumor progression.
Reference Signals Design for Hybrid Analog and Digital Beamforming

There are many issues regarding the implementation of digital beamforming (BF) structures in massive MIMO: calibration, complexity, and cost. In a practical massive MIMO deployment, hybrid digital and analog BF structures with active antennas can be an alternative choice. In this letter, an N (the number of transceivers) by M (the number of active antennas per transceiver) hybrid BF structure is investigated, where the analog BF (ABF) is performed per transceiver and digital BF (DBF) is performed across N transceivers. A hybrid BF scheme is proposed, where the same ABF is applied to each transceiver, on top of which a DBF is designed to maximize the gain in a certain direction around the ABFs main beam direction. The proposed hybrid BF design establishes an inherent connection between the DBF and the beam direction of hybrid BF. Therefore, beam domain reference signals (RSs) can be conveniently implemented via applying properly designed DBF on subcarriers within the coherent bandwidth. Simulation results are given to show the validity of the proposed scheme.
Association between genetic polymorphisms of interleukins and cerebral infarction risk: a meta-analysis

Interleukins (ILs) are the most typical inflammatory and immunoregulatory cytokines. Evidences have shown that polymorphisms in ILs are associated with cerebral infarction risk. However, the results remain inconclusive. The present study was to evaluate the role of ILs polymorphisms in cerebral infarction susceptibility. Relevant case-control studies published between January 2000 and December 2015 were searched and retrieved from the electronic databases of Web of Science, PubMed, Embase and the Chinese Biomedical Database. The odds ratio (OR) with its 95% confidence interval (CI) were employed to calculate the strength of association. A total of 55 articles including 12619 cerebral infarction patients and 14436 controls were screened out. Four ILs (IL-1, IL-6, IL-10 and IL-18) contained nine single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs; IL-1α −899C/T, IL-1β −511C/T and IL-1β +3953C/T; IL-6 −174G/C and −572C/G; IL-10 −819C/T and −1082A/G; IL-18 −607C/A and −137G/C). Our result showed that IL-1α −899C/T and IL-18 −607C/A (under all the genetic models), and IL-6 −572C/G (under the allelic model, heterogeneity model and dominant model) were associated with increased the risk of cerebral infarction (P<0.05). Subgroup analysis by ethnicity showed that IL-6 −174G/C polymorphism (under all the five models) and IL-10 −1082A/G polymorphism (under the allelic model and heterologous model) were significantly associated with increased the cerebral infarction risk in Asians. Other genetic polymorphisms were not related with cerebral infarction susceptibility under any genetic models. In conclusion, IL-1α −899C/T, IL-6 −572C/G and IL-18 −607C/A might be risk factors for cerebral infarction development. Further studies with well-designed and large sample size are still required.
The role(s) of lipophosphoglycan (LPG) in the establishment of Leishmania major infections in mammalian hosts

The abundant cell surface glycolipid lipophosphoglycan (LPG) was implicated in many steps of the Leishmania infectious cycle by biochemical tests. The presence of other abundant surface or secreted glycoconjugates sharing LPG domains, however, has led to uncertainty about the relative contribution of LPG in vivo. Here we used an Leishmania major lpg1- mutant, which lacks LPG alone and shows attenuated virulence, to dissect the role of LPG in the establishment of macrophage infections in vivo. lpg1- was highly susceptible to human complement, had lost the ability to inhibit phagolysosomal fusion transiently, and was oxidant sensitive. Studies of mouse mutants defective in relevant defense mechanisms confirmed the role of LPG in oxidant resistance but called into question the importance of transient inhibition of phagolysosomal fusion for Leishmania macrophage survival. Moreover, the limited lytic activity of mouse complement appears to be an ineffective pathogen defense mechanism in vitro and in vivo, unlike human hosts. In contrast, lpg1- parasites bound C3b and resisted low pH and proteases normally, entered macrophages efficiently and silently, and continued to inhibit host-signaling pathways. These studies illustrate the value of mechanistic approaches focusing on both parasite and host defense pathways in dissecting the specific biological roles of complex virulence factors such as LPG.
Overloading an IEEE 802.15.4 Point-to-Point Connection with Real-Time Messages

The paper investigates the scheduling of packets under overload in the context of wireless building control networks. We focus on the transmission specification of the IEEE 802.15. 4 standard to provide actual transmission estimates. The paper analyses the optimal conditions for sending periodic packets with 1 or 2 transmission times and fixed deadlines. Simulations provide the transceiver usage values under the calculated optimal scheduling conditions. The simulations extend the results by looking at 8 transmission times and an exponential distribution of packet release times. A counterintuitive result is the occurrence of a performance decrease with increasing deadline, other conditions remaining constant.
Trauma and the Avoidant Client: Attachment-Based Strategies for Healing

A large segment of the therapy population consist of those who are in denial or retreat from their traumatic experiences. Here, drawing on attachment-based research, the author provides clinical techniques, specific intervention strategies, and practical advice for successfully addressing the often intractable issues of trauma. Trauma and the Avoidant Client will enhance the skills of all mental health practitioners and trauma workers, and will serve as a valuable, useful resource to facilitate change and progress in psychotherapy.
SCANNING THE ISSUE Special Issue on Technology of Networked Control Systems

N etworked control systems are control systems comprised of the system to be controlled and of actuators, sensors, and controllers, the operation of which is coordinated via a communication network. These systems are typically spatially distributed, may operate in an asynchronous manner, but have their operation coordinated to achieve desired overall objectives. Control systems with spatially distributed components have existed for several decades. Examples include control systems in chemical process plants, refineries, power plants, and airplanes. In the past, in such systems the components were connected via hardwired connections and the systems were designed to bring all the information from the sensors to a central location where the conditions were being monitored and decisions were made on how to control the system. The control policies then were implemented via the actuators, which could be valves, motors, etc. What is different today is that technology can put low-cost processing power at remote locations via microprocessors and that information can be transmitted reliably via shared digital networks or even wireless connections. These technology driven changes are fueled by the high costs of wiring and the difficulty in introducing additional components into the systems as the needs change. The changes in the scope and implementation of control systems have caused two main changes in the emphasis in control system analysis and design. The first has to do with the explicit consideration of the interconnections; the network now must be considered explicitly as it affects significantly the dynamic behavior of the control system. The second change has to do with a renewed emphasis on distributed control systems. Because of these changes in control systems, several new concerns need to be addressed. Several areas such as communication protocols for scheduling and routing have become important in control when considering, for example, stability, performance, and reliability. Algorithms and software that are capable of dealing with hard and soft time constraints are very important in control implementation and design and so areas such as real-time systems from computer science are becoming increasingly important. There is also some reordering of priorities and importance of control concepts due to changes in importance to control applications. There had also been renewed emphasis on methodologies for increased autonomy that allows the system to run without feedback information for extended periods of time. At a more fundamental level, control theorists have been led to reexamine the open-(feedforward) versus closed-loop (feedback) control issues. …
Sentiment Analysis and E-Learning : a Proposal

The spread of social networks allows sharing opinions on different aspects of life and daily millions of messages appear on the web. This textual information can be divided in facts and opinions. Opinions reflect people’s sentiments about products, personalities and events. Therefore this information is a rich source of data for opinion mining and sentiment analysis: the computational study of opinions, sentiments and emotions expressed in a text. Its main aim is the identification of the agreement or disagreement statements that deal with positive or negative feelings in comments or reviews. In this paper, we investigate the adoption, in the field of the e-learning, of a probabilistic approach based on the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) as Sentiment grabber. By this approach, for a set of documents belonging to a same knowledge domain, a graph, the Mixed Graph of Terms, can be automatically extracted. The paper shows how this graph contains a set of weighted word pairs, which are discriminative for sentiment classification. In this way, the system can detect the feeling of students on some topics. In fact, the proposed method has been tested on datasets coming from e-learning platforms. The experimental evaluation shows how the proposed approach is effective and satisfactory.
Computing as compression: the SP theory of intelligence

This paper provides an overview of the SP theory of intelligence and its central idea that artificial intelligence, mainstream computing, and much of human perception and cognition, may be understood as information compression. The background and origins of the SP theory are described, and the main elements of the theory, including the key concept of multiple alignment, borrowed from bioinformatics but with important differences. Associated with the SP theory is the idea that redundancy in information may be understood as repetition of patterns, that compression of information may be achieved via the matching and unification (merging) of patterns, and that computing and information compression are both fundamentally probabilistic. It appears that the SP system is Turing-equivalent in the sense that anything that may be computed with a Turing machine may, in principle, also be computed with an SP machine. One of the main strengths of the SP theory and the multiple alignment concept is in modelling concepts and phenomena in artificial intelligence. Within that area, the SP theory provides a simple but versatile means of representing different kinds of knowledge, it can model both the parsing and production of natural language, with potential for the understanding and translation of natural languages, it has strengths in pattern recognition, with potential in computer vision, it can model several kinds of reasoning, and it has capabilities in planning, problem solving, and unsupervised learning. The paper includes two examples showing how alternative parsings of an ambiguous sentence may be modelled as multiple alignments, and another example showing how the concept of multiple alignment may be applied in medical diagnosis.
Emerging Cooperation in N-Person Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma over Dynamic Complex Networks

The N-Person Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma (NIPD) is an interesting game that has proved to be very useful to explore the emergence of cooperation in multi-player scenarios. Within this game, the way that agents are interconnected is a key element that influences cooperation. In this context, complex networks provide a realistic model of the topological features found in Nature and in many social and technological networks. Considering these networks, it is interesting to study the network evolution, given the possibility that agents can change their neighbors (dynamic rewire), when non-cooperative behaviors are detected. In this paper, we present a model of the NIPD game where a population of genetically-coded agents compete altogether. We analyze how different game parameters, and the network topology, affect the emergence of cooperation in static complex networks. Based on that, we present the main contribution of the paper that concerns the influence of dynamic rewiring in the emergence of cooperation over the NIPD.
Low Dead Time, Multi-hit FPGA-Based Time-to-Digital Converter

This paper presents improvements on a novel FPGA-based multi-hit time-to-digital converter (TDC) to measure time intervals with a resolution of 100ps and a variable dynamic range controlled by a binary coarse counter. We use a matrix topology to provide a two-level resolution, aiming to minimize the overall measurement time. The conventional dead time is eliminated by the continuous detection and processing of data by two delay matrices operating in parallel. A back-resetting scheme eliminates the erroneous multi-detection of an event along matrix tap lines. The circuit was tested on a XILINX SPARTAN-3 FPGA platform
Aerial remote sensing in agriculture: A practical approach to area coverage and path planning for fleets of mini aerial robots

In this paper, a system that allows applying precision agriculture techniques is described. The application is based on the deployment of a team of unmanned aerial vehicles that are able to take georeferenced pictures in order to create a full map by applying mosaicking procedures for postprocessing. The main contribution of this work is practical experimentation with an integrated tool. Contributions in different fields are also reported. Among them is a new one‐phase automatic task partitioning manager, which is based on negotiation among the aerial vehicles, considering their state and capabilities. Once the individual tasks are assigned, an optimal path planning algorithm is in charge of determining the best path for each vehicle to follow. Also, a robust flight control based on the use of a control law that improves the maneuverability of the quadrotors has been designed. A set of field tests was performed in order to analyze all the capabilities of the system, from task negotiations to final performance. These experiments also allowed testing control robustness under different weather conditions. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Multiple RTK pathways downregulate Groucho-mediated repression in Drosophila embryogenesis

RTK pathways establish cell fates in a wide range of developmental processes. However, how the pathway effector MAPK coordinately regulates the expression of multiple target genes is not fully understood. We have previously shown that the EGFR RTK pathway causes phosphorylation and downregulation of Groucho, a global co-repressor that is widely used by many developmentally important repressors for silencing their various targets. Here, we use specific antibodies that reveal the dynamics of Groucho phosphorylation by MAPK, and show that Groucho is phosphorylated in response to several RTK pathways during Drosophila embryogenesis. Focusing on the regulation of terminal patterning by the Torso RTK pathway, we demonstrate that attenuation of Groucho's repressor function via phosphorylation is essential for the transcriptional output of the pathway and for terminal cell specification. Importantly, Groucho is phosphorylated by an efficient mechanism that does not alter its subcellular localisation or decrease its stability; rather, modified Groucho endures long after MAPK activation has terminated. We propose that phosphorylation of Groucho provides a widespread, long-term mechanism by which RTK signals control target gene expression.
Ligamentotaxis versus Open Reduction and Internal Fixation for Distal Radius Intra-Articular Fractures

Objectives: This study compared the clinical and radiological outcomes of two different methods for the treatment of distal radial intra-articular fractures. Patients and Methods: Forty-six patients with distal radius intra-arti-cular fractures were divided into two groups. Group I included 24 patients with type C fracture treated by external fixator augmented by percutaneous K-wires. Group II included 22 patients with type C fracture treated by volar locked distal radial plate augmented by K-wires. Two patients had complex injuries necessitating double plating (sandwich). All patients were evaluated clinically by Mayo Wrist Score and radiologically by Sarmiento’s radiological score. Results: Both groups reported good personal satisfaction according to Mayo Wrist Score, and the results were not statistically different between the two groups. In Group I, 19 patients (79.2%) had excellent radiological outcome and five patients (20.9%) had good radiological outcome according to Sarmiento’s radiological score. In Group II, 20 patients (90.9%) had excellent outcome, and two (9.1%) had good radiological outcome; there was no or insignificant deformity. Conclusions: Complex distal radial fractures can be treated either by external fixation (ligamentotaxis) or by locked pre-contoured plating. The clinical outcome of plating and external fixator in our study did not show any statistically significant difference. The radiological outcome had no correlation with the clinical outcome.
Nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs) for gonorrhoea diagnosis in women: Experience of a tertiary care hospital in north India

Background & objectives: Gonorrhoea is among the most frequent of the estimated bacterial sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and has significant health implications in women. The use of nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs) has been shown to provide enhanced diagnosis of gonorrhoea in female patients. However, it is recommended that an on-going assessment of the test assays should be performed to check for any probable sequence variation occurring in the targeted region. In this study, an in-house PCR targeting opa-gene of Neisseria gonorrhoeae was used in conjunction with 16S ribosomal PCR to determine the presence of gonorrhoea in female patients attending the tertiary care hospitals. Methods: Endocervical samples collected from 250 female patients with complaints of vaginal or cervical discharge or pain in lower abdomen were tested using opa and 16S ribosomal assay. The samples were also processed by conventional methods. Results: Of the 250 female patients included in the study, only one was positive by conventional methods (microscopy and culture) whereas 17 patients were found to be positive based on PCR results. Interpretation & conclusions: The clinical sensitivity of conventional methods for the detection of N. gonorrhoeae in female patients was low. The gonococcal detection rates increased when molecular method was used giving 16 additional positives. Studies should be done to find out other gene targets that may be used in the screening assays to detect the presence of gonorrhoea.
Test Complement Exclusion: Guarantees from Dynamic Analysis

Modern test generation techniques allow to generate as many executions as needed, combined with dynamic analysis, they allow for understanding program behavior in situations where static analysis is challenged or impossible. However, all these dynamic techniques would still suffer from the incompleteness of testing: If some behavior has not been observed so far, there is no guarantee that it may not occur in the future. In this talk, I introduce a method called Test Complement Exclusion that combines test generation and sand boxing to provide such a guarantee. Test Complement Exclusion will have significant impact in the security domain, as it effectively detects and protects against unexpected changes of program behavior, however, guarantees would also strengthen findings in dynamic software comprehension. First experiments on real-world ANDROID programs demonstrate the feasibility of the approach.
Can a Manipulated Mind Alter Matter? : The Effects of Verbal Feedback on Self-Efficacy, Exercise Intention, and Exercise Behaviour among Low-Active College-Aged Women

Self-efficacy (SE), a person’s confidence in the ability to perform a task, is an important predictor of the adoption and maintenance of physical activity. The present study examined the effects of SE manipulated through verbal persuasion on exercise intentions and behaviour during a 4-week follow-up period and investigated the role of social physique anxiety (SPA) as a moderator. Female college infrequent exercisers (n = 66) were randomly assigned into one of three groups (high-efficacy [HE], low-efficacy [LE], or control) and asked to complete several questionnaires at baseline. The HE and LE groups were provided with positive and negative exercise adherence feedback, respectively. The HE group reported higher SE from preto post-feedback. Both the HE and LE groups reported increases in exercise behaviour at the 4-week follow-up. Preto post-feedback changes in SE, exercise intention, and exercise behaviour did not depend on level of SPA reported.