Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Gait-specific energetics contributes to economical walking and running in emus and ostriches

A widely held assumption is that metabolic rate (Ėmet) during legged locomotion is linked to the mechanics of different gaits and this linkage helps explain the preferred speeds of animals in nature. However, despite several prominent exceptions, Ėmet of walking and running vertebrates has been nearly uniformly characterized as increasing linearly with speed across all gaits. This description of locomotor energetics does not predict energetically optimal speeds for minimal cost of transport (Ecot). We tested whether large bipedal ratite birds (emus and ostriches) have gait-specific energetics during walking and running similar to those found in humans. We found that during locomotion, emus showed a curvilinear relationship between Ėmet and speed during walking, and both emus and ostriches demonstrated an abrupt change in the slope of Ėmet versus speed at the gait transition with a linear increase during running. Similar to human locomotion, the minimum net Ecot calculated after subtracting resting metabolism was lower in walking than in running in both species. However, the difference in net Ecot between walking and running was less than is found in humans because of a greater change in the slope of Ėmet versus speed at the gait transition, which lowers the cost of running for the avian bipeds. For emus, we also show that animals moving freely overground avoid a range of speeds surrounding the gait-transition speed within which the Ecot is large. These data suggest that deviations from a linear relation of metabolic rate and speed and variations in transport costs with speed are more widespread than is often assumed, and provide new evidence that locomotor energetics influences the choice of speed in bipedal animals. The low cost of transport for walking is probably ecologically important for emus and ostriches because they spend the majority of their active day walking, and thus the energy used for locomotion is a large part of their daily energy budget.
Avian Influenza A (H5N1) Virus Antibodies in Poultry Cullers, South Korea, 2003–2004

Transmission of influenza (H5N1) virus from birds to humans is a serious public health threat. In South Korea, serologic investigation among 2,512 poultry workers exposed during December 2003–March 2004 to poultry with confirmed or suspected influenza (H5N1) virus infection found antibodies in 9. Frequency of bird-to-human transmission was low.
A phase 1, double-blind, placebo-controlled study evaluating single subcutaneous administrations of a human interleukin-12/23 monoclonal antibody in subjects with plaque psoriasis

ABSTRACT Objective: To evaluate safety, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and clinical response of single subcutaneous (SC) administrations of a human monoclonal antibody against the p40 subunit of IL‑12/23 (IL‑12/23 mAb) in subjects with moderate-to-severe psoriasis. Methods: Twenty-one subjects were enrolled sequentially into 4 dose cohorts (0.27, 0.675, 1.35, and 2.7 mg/kg) and randomized to IL‑12/23 mAb or placebo in a 4:1 ratio. Laboratory/clinical parameters and pharmacokinetics were evaluated through Week 24; mRNA cytokine expression was measured in psoriatic plaques at Week 1. Results: Mostly mild adverse events and no serious adverse events were reported. The pharmacokinetics (Cmax and AUC) of IL‑12/23 mAb increased in an approximately dose-proportional manner. Of the 17 subjects who received IL‑12/23 mAb, 13 achieved PASI 75 (compared with no placebo subjects). mRNA expression of IL‑8, IL‑18, and IFN‑γ in psoriatic plaques decreased in subjects with sustained Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI) improvement. Limitations: Interpretation of results is limited due to the small sample size in each dose cohort. Conclusion: A single SC administration of IL‑12/23 mAb was well tolerated and showed clinical response in subjects with moderate-to-severe psoriasis.
Quantitative telomerase enzyme activity determination using droplet digital PCR with single cell resolution

The telomere repeat amplification protocol (TRAP) for the human reverse transcriptase, telomerase, is a PCR-based assay developed two decades ago and is still used for routine determination of telomerase activity. The TRAP assay can only reproducibly detect ∼2-fold differences and is only quantitative when compared to internal standards and reference cell lines. The method generally involves laborious radioactive gel electrophoresis and is not conducive to high-throughput analyzes. Recently droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) technologies have become available that allow for absolute quantification of input deoxyribonucleic acid molecules following PCR. We describe the reproducibility and provide several examples of a droplet digital TRAP (ddTRAP) assay for telomerase activity, including quantitation of telomerase activity in single cells, telomerase activity across several common telomerase positive cancer cells lines and in human primary peripheral blood mononuclear cells following mitogen stimulation. Adaptation of the TRAP assay to digital format allows accurate and reproducible quantification of the number of telomerase-extended products (i.e. telomerase activity; 57.8 ± 7.5) in a single HeLa cell. The tools developed in this study allow changes in telomerase enzyme activity to be monitored on a single cell basis and may have utility in designing novel therapeutic approaches that target telomerase.
Pathology of a mouse mutation in peripheral myelin protein P0 is characteristic of a severe and early onset form of human Charcot-Marie-Tooth type 1B disorder

Mutations in the gene of the peripheral myelin protein zero (P0) give rise to the peripheral neuropathies Charcot-Marie-Tooth type 1B disease (CMT1B), Déjérine-Sottas syndrome, and congenital hypomyelinating neuropathy. To investigate the pathomechanisms of a specific point mutation in the P0 gene, we generated two independent transgenic mouse lines expressing the pathogenic CMT1B missense mutation Ile106Leu (P0sub) under the control of the P0 promoter on a wild-type background. Both P0sub-transgenic mouse lines showed shivering and ultrastructural abnormalities including retarded myelination, onion bulb formation, and dysmyelination seen as aberrantly folded myelin sheaths and tomacula in all nerve fibers. Functionally, the mutation leads to dispersed compound muscle action potentials and severely reduced conduction velocities. Our observations support the view that the Ile106Leu mutation acts by a dominant-negative gain of function and that the P0sub-transgenic mouse represents an animal model for a severe, tomaculous form of CMT1B.
Expressions of angiopoietins and Tie2 in human choroidal neovascular membranes.

PURPOSE To elucidate the potential role of angiopoietins and the Tie2 system in choroidal neovascularization. METHODS Surgically excised choroidal neovascular membranes (CNVMs) were obtained at vitrectomy from five eyes with age-related macular degeneration, three eyes with idiopathic neovascular maculopathy, and two eyes had degenerative myopia and two eyes had angioid streaks. Light microscopic immunohistochemistry was performed to detect cytokines such as vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), Ang1, and Ang2 and cellular components such as retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells, macrophages, and endothelial cells. Immunofluorescent double staining using confocal microscopy was performed to identify the cell types that secrete specific cytokines. RESULTS Ang1 and Ang2 were positive in all surgically excised CNVMs, regardless of the primary disease. Double staining revealed that many of the cytokeratin, CD68 and factor VIII positive cells also had Ang1 and Ang2 immunoreactivities. In contrast to Ang1, Ang2 immunoreactivity tends to be higher in the highly vascularized regions of many CNVMs, and the localization was very similar to that of VEGF staining. Almost all vascular structures had prominent immunoreactivity for Tie2, which was confirmed by double staining for Tie2 and factor VIII. Tie2 immunoreactivity was also observed in the RPE monolayer and in pigmented, polygonal, and fibroblast-like cells in the stroma. CONCLUSIONS Present findings that Ang2 and VEGF are co-upregulated and that Tie2 is expressed in a variety of cell types in CNVMs further support a crucial role of the interaction between VEGF and Ang2 in pathologic angiogenesis of CNVM formation.
State space reduction for nonstationary stochastic shortest path problems with real-time traffic information

Routing vehicles based on real-time traffic conditions has been shown to significantly reduce travel time, and hence cost, in high-volume traffic situations. However, taking real-time traffic data and transforming them into optimal route decisions are a computational challenge. This is in a large part due to the amount of data available that could be valuable in the route selection. The authors model the dynamic route determination problem as a Markov decision process (MDP) and present procedures for identifying traffic data having no decision-making value. Such identification can be used to reduce the state space of the MDP, thereby improving its computational tractability. This reduction can be achieved by a two-step process. The first is an a priori reduction that may be performed using a stationary deterministic network with upper and lower bounds on the cost functions before the trip begins. The second part of the process reduces the state space further on the nonstationary stochastic road network as the trip optimally progresses. The authors demonstrate the potential computational advantages of the introduced methods based on actual data collected on a road network in southeast Michigan.
Planning and optimization of multi-service computer networks

The main goal of this article is to present a new model for planning of multi-service computer networks under particular consideration of QoS required by elastic and stream applications as well as their service differentiations at the routers. The model consists of several iterative integrated phases: (1) the IP traffic dimension phase deals with estimating the bandwidth needed for a given set of traffic demands; (2) the traffic mapping phase computes a optimal path used for delivering traffic demands and allocates the estimated bandwidth on this path; (3) the phase "capacity assignment and link dimension" deals with determination of an optimal physical network structure used for delivering the given traffic demands with required QoS. The model can be used for analyzing, optimizing, extending and for planning the computer to support new multimedia applications. This article also shows numerical results of some practical examples.
Altered Hepatic Transport by Fetal Arsenite Exposure in Diet‐Induced Fatty Liver Disease

Non‐alcoholic fatty liver disease can result in changes to drug metabolism and disposition potentiating adverse drug reactions. Furthermore, arsenite exposure during development compounds the severity of diet‐induced fatty liver disease. This study examines the effects of arsenite potentiated diet‐induced fatty liver disease on hepatic transport in male mice. Changes were detected for Mrp2/3/4 hepatic transporter gene expression as well as for Oatp1a4/2b1/1b2. Plasma concentrations of Mrp and Oatp substrates were increased in arsenic exposure groups compared with diet‐only controls. In addition, murine embryonic hepatocytes and adult primary hepatocytes show significantly altered transporter expression after exposure to arsenite alone: a previously unreported phenomenon. These data indicate that developmental exposure to arsenite leads to changes in hepatic transport which could increase the risk for ADRs during fatty liver disease.
From neural-based object recognition toward microelectronic eyes

Engineering neural network systems are best known for their abilities to adapt to the changing characteristics of the surrounding environment by adjusting system parameter values during the learning process. Rapid advances in analog current-mode design techniques have made possible the implementation of major neural network functions in custom VLSI chips. An electrically programmable analog synapse cell with large dynamic range can be realized in a compact silicon area. New designs of the synapse cells, neurons, and analog processor are presented. A synapse cell based on Gilbert multiplier structure can perform the linear multiplication for back-propagation networks. A double differential-pair synapse cell can perform the Gaussian function for radial-basis network. The synapse cells can be biased in the strong inversion region for high-speed operation or biased in the subthreshold region for low-power operation. The voltage gain of the sigmoid-function neurons is externally adjustable which greatly facilitates the search of optimal solutions in certain networks. Various building blocks can be intelligently connected to form useful industrial applications. Efficient data communication is a key system-level design issue for large-scale networks. We also present analog neural processors based on perceptron architecture and Hopfield network for communication applications. Biologically inspired neural networks have played an important role towards the creation of powerful intelligent machines. Accuracy, limitations, and prospects of analog current-mode design of the biologically inspired vision processing chips and cellular neural network chips are key design issues.
Named Entity Recognition using Statistical Model Approach

Entities (NE) are atomic elements like names of person, places, locations, organizations, quantity etc. Named Entity Recognition is a classification problem. It involves the task of identifying and classifying certain elements in text into predefined categories of named entities. Main subtasks for the Named Entity Recognition involves (1) The Document corpus construction (2) The preprocessing of the documents (3) Determine the contexts (4) Applying the hidden Markov model. In this paper, the hidden Markov model is adopted for the purpose of effective recognition of Named Entities from a document corpus.
Energy and Air Quality Impacts of Truck-Only Lanes: A Case Study of Interstate 75 Between Macon and McDonough, Georgia

Since heavy-duty truck operations can significantly affect traffic congestion, especially on road grade, the creation of exclusive lanes for trucks has been viewed as a potential alternative to reduce congestion delay, fuel consumption, and emissions. However, few studies have rigorously evaluated the effectiveness of truck-only lanes in achieving these benefits. This study demonstrates a model framework that combines a microscopic traffic simulation with emissions and microscale dispersion models to quantify the potential impacts of truck-only lanes on fuel consumption, emissions, and near-road pollutant concentrations. As a case study, the framework was used to evaluate a proposed $2 billion project to construct 40-miles of truck-only lanes on Interstate 75 (I-75) between Atlanta and Macon, Georgia (USA). The findings of this study suggest that truck-only lanes could significantly improve the traffic flow, and reduce energy, emissions, and pollutant concentrations. The research team expects that the extensive simulation results of this study help to understand the performance of truck-only lanes on a large-scale network with a heavy mixture of truck and general purpose lane traffic. The methodology and framework developed in this study can be effectively and efficiently applied to a wide variety of scenarios to evaluate the environmental impacts of other transportation projects under various conditions. View the NCST Project Webpage
Low Dose Rabbit Anti-Thymocyte Globulin as an Induction immunosuppression in High-Risk Renal Transplant Recipients

High immunologic risk recipients pose a major challenge in transplantation. It is associated with early acute rejection post-transplantation and leads to decrease patient and graft survival. The need for effective immunosuppression early post-transplantation has resulted in emerging of induction protocols. Biologic agents used for induction are classified to monoclonal and polyclonal which are either depletive or non-depletive antibody therapies. Choosing the best agent and optimal dose remains a controversial issue and depends on many factors including the proper assessment of the immunologic risk, efficacy and safety of the used agent. There is no consensus for the optimal agent used as induction immunosuppression in kidney transplantation. rATG use is associated with decreased incidence of delayed graft function and acute rejection episodes.
A Combinatorial Formula for Orthogonal Idempotents in the 0-Hecke Algebra of S N

Building on the work of P.N. Norton, we give combinatorial formulae for two maximal decompositions of the identity into orthogonal idempotents in the 0-Hecke algebra of the symmetric group, CH0(SN). This construction is compatible with the branching from H0(SN 1) to H0(SN). R´ esum´ e. En s'appuyant sur le travail de P.N. Norton, nous donnons des formules combinatoires pour deux d´ positions maximales de l'identit´ e en idempotents orthogonaux dans l'alg` ebre de HeckeH0(SN) du groupe sym´ etrique ` q = 0. Ces constructions sont compatibles avec le branchement de H0(SN 1) ` H0(SN).
Multiwavelength observations of the γ-ray-emitting narrow-line Seyfert 1 PMN J0948+0022 in 2011

We report on radio-to-gamma-ray observations during 2011 May-September of PMN J0948+0022, the first narrow-line Seyfert 1 (NLSy1) galaxy detected in gamma-rays by Fermi-Large Area Telescope. Strong variability was observed in gamma-rays, with two flaring periods peaking on 2011 June 20 and July 28. The variability observed in optical and near-infrared seems to have no counterpart in gamma-rays. This different behaviour could be related to a bending and inhomogeneous jet or a turbulent extreme multicell scenario. The radio spectra showed a variability pattern typical of relativistic jets. The XMM spectrum shows that the emission from the jet dominates above similar to 2 keV, while a soft X-ray excess is evident in the low-energy part of the X-ray spectrum. Models where the soft emission is partly produced by blurred reflection or Comptonization of the thermal disc emission provide good fits to the data. The X-ray spectral slope is similar to that found in radio-quiet NLSy1, suggesting that a standard accretion disc is present, as expected from the high accretion rate. Except for the soft X-ray excess, unusual in jet-dominated active galactic nuclei, PMN J0948+0022, shows all characteristics of the blazar class.
Cytokine induction by the immunomodulators imiquimod and S‐27609

Imiquimod (R‐837, S‐26308) and the analogue S‐27609 were evaluated for cytokine induction in human blood cells. Both compounds induced interferon‐α (EFN), tumor necrosis factor‐α (TNF), interleukin (IL)‐1β, and EL‐6 with S‐27609 being 5 to 10 times more potent. Imiquimod and S‐27609 also induced IL‐1α, IL‐1 receptor antagonist, IL‐10, granulocyte‐macrophage colony‐stimulating factor (GM‐CSF), granulocyte CSF (G‐CSF), and macrophage inflammatory protein‐1α. The profile of cytokines induced by imiquimod and S‐27609 was different from those seen with lipopolysaccharide and polyinosinic‐polycytidylic acid. Kinetic studies with both imiquimod and S‐27609 revealed induction of cytokines as early as 1‐4 h after stimulation. Although most of the cytokines produced by S‐27609 were secreted, significant concentrations of IL‐1α and BL‐1β remained intracellular. Monocytes were largely responsible for the cytokines produced. Finally, S‐27609‐induced mRNA expression for TNF, IFN, and IL‐8, and this induction did not require protein synthesis. Taken together, these studies extend previous findings by showing induction of additional cytokines and providing insight into the mechanism of cytokine induction by these molecules.
Early induction of hypothermia during cardiac arrest improves neurological outcomes in patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest who undergo emergency cardiopulmonary bypass and percutaneous coronary intervention.

BACKGROUND Therapeutic hypothermia for comatose survivors of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest has demonstrated neurological benefits. Although early cooling during cardiac arrest enhances efficacy in animal studies, few clinical studies are available. METHODS AND RESULTS The 171 patients who failed to respond to conventional cardiopulmonary resuscitation were studied prospectively. Patients underwent emergency cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) plus intra-aortic balloon pumping, with subsequent percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) if needed. Mild hypothermia (34 degrees C for 3 days) was induced during cardiac arrest or after return of spontaneous circulation. Of the 171 patients, 21 (12.3%) had a favorable neurological outcome at hospital discharge. An unadjusted rate of favorable outcome decreased in a stepwise fashion for increasing quartiles of collapse-to-34 degrees C interval (P=0.016). An adjusted odds ratio for favorable outcome after collapse-to-CPB interval was 0.89 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.82-0.97) and after CPB-to-34 degrees C interval, 0.99 (95%CI 0.98-0.99) when collapse-to-34 degrees C interval was divided into 2 components. Favorable neurological accuracy of a collapse-to-CPB interval at a cutoff of 55.5 min and CPB-to-34 degrees C interval at a cutoff of 21.5 min was 85.4% and 89.5%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS Early attainment of a core temperature had neurological benefits for patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest who underwent CPB and PCI. (Circ J 2010; 74: 77 - 85).
Area spectral efficiency of cellular mobile radio systems

We consider the average area spectral efficiency (ASE) of variable-rate transmission cellular mobile systems. This efficiency is defined as the sum of the maximum average data rates/Hz/unit area supported by a cell's base station. We study this efficiency as a function of the reuse distance for the uplink of FDMA and TDMA systems under different interference configurations. Results indicate that, based on the worst-case interference configuration, the optimal reuse distance is approximately four. However, this optimal reuse distance is two for the best-case and the average interference configurations (i.e. frequencies should be reused every cell). In addition, the ASE decreases as an exponential of a 4th order polynomial relative to the cell size. This result quantities exactly how much cellular system capacity increases with decreased cell size. We also quantify the increase in ASE due to antenna sectorization. We conclude by analyzing the effect of traffic loading on the ASE when a fixed channel assignment is employed.
Automatic optical and IR image fusion for plant water stress analysis

Automatic registration of an optical image and an associated IR image is a key step toward to automation of canopy temperature measurement in the process of plant water stress analysis. In this context, the scene of the IR image is completely included in the optical image and the transform between the two images may involve translation and rotation by a small angle, though a small scale difference may also be present. This automatic registration of data from two quite different imaging regimes presents several challenges, and is not susceptible to several common image processing techniques. In this paper, an automatic image registration algorithm, based on the fundamental cross correlation method is designed, which can avoid human intervention in the alignment process and is suitable for the application to plant water stress analysis where significant numbers of images need to be processed. The effectiveness of the software design is demonstrated via our experiments and the registration error performance is compared to the cases where the similarity criterion is replaced by that of mutual information and correlation ratio respectively.