Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fungal Microbiota in Chronic Airway Inflammatory Disease and Emerging Relationships with the Host Immune Response

The respiratory tract is a complex system that is inhabited by niche-specific communities of microbes including bacteria, fungi, and viruses. These complex microbial assemblages are in constant contact with the mucosal immune system and play a critical role in airway health and immune homeostasis. Changes in the composition and diversity of airway microbiota are frequently observed in patients with chronic inflammatory diseases including chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS), cystic fibrosis, allergy, and asthma. While the bacterial microbiome of the upper and lower airways has been the focus of many recent studies, the contribution of fungal microbiota to inflammation is an emerging research interest. Within the context of allergic airway disease, fungal products are important allergens and fungi are potent inducers of inflammation. In addition, murine models have provided experimental evidence that fungal microbiota in peripheral organs, notably the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, influence pulmonary health. In this review, we explore the role of the respiratory and GI microbial communities in chronic airway inflammatory disease development with a specific focus on fungal microbiome interactions with the airway immune system and fungal-bacterial interactions that likely contribute to inflammatory disease. These findings are discussed in the context of clinical and immunological features of fungal-mediated disease in CRS, allergy, and asthmatic patients. While this field is still nascent, emerging evidence suggests that dysbiotic fungal and bacterial microbiota interact to drive or exacerbate chronic airway inflammatory disease.
Modeling Goal-Directed Players in Digital Games

The pursuit of a viable model of player behaviour has gained momentum in research in recent years, and it is beginning to attract the attention of the designers of next-generation digital games. In this paper, we present a novel enhancement to player modelling that is well-suited to the digital role-playing and puzzle game industries, titled Goal-Directed- Player Modelling, in which state abstraction based on a player's goals is used to improve the performance of a classifier for predicting player actions. We survey a set of related research, formally introduce a method for Goal-Directed-Player Modelling, and present empirical results which clearly show the ability of Goal-Directed-Player Modelling to greatly improve the accuracy of a simple, online, low cost incremental classi ier to a level near those of more advanced and complex of line methods.
District Policy and Beginning Teachers: A Lens on Teacher Learning

This analysis considers the role district policy environments play in the lives of beginning teachers. As part of a larger longitudinal study of teacher learning in the language arts, the authors analyzed the experiences of three first-year teachers in two contrasting school districts. This article assesses the role of policies concerning curriculum, professional development, and mentoring in teachers’ opportunities in learning to teach language arts. The ways in which districts were organized had consequences for what these beginning teachers learned about teaching; district structures either encouraged or deflected conversations about teaching English. In addition, the authors found that districts served powerful roles as teacher educators. The tasks the districts assigned the teachers, the resources they provided, the learning environments they created, and the conversations they provoked proved to be consequential in shaping both teachers’ concerns and their opportunities for learning about teaching language arts.
Role for NLRP3 Inflammasome‐mediated, IL‐1&bgr;‐Dependent Responses in Severe, Steroid‐Resistant Asthma

&NA; Rationale: Severe, steroid‐resistant asthma is the major unmet need in asthma therapy. Disease heterogeneity and poor understanding of pathogenic mechanisms hampers the identification of therapeutic targets. Excessive nucleotide‐binding oligomerization domain‐like receptor family, pyrin domain‐containing 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome and concomitant IL‐1&bgr; responses occur in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, respiratory infections, and neutrophilic asthma. However, the direct contributions to pathogenesis, mechanisms involved, and potential for therapeutic targeting remain poorly understood, and are unknown in severe, steroid‐resistant asthma. Objectives: To investigate the roles and therapeutic targeting of the NLRP3 inflammasome and IL‐1&bgr; in severe, steroid‐resistant asthma. Methods: We developed mouse models of Chlamydia and Haemophilus respiratory infection‐mediated, ovalbumin‐induced severe, steroid‐resistant allergic airway disease. These models share the hallmark features of human disease, including elevated airway neutrophils, and NLRP3 inflammasome and IL‐1&bgr; responses. The roles and potential for targeting of NLRP3 inflammasome, caspase‐1, and IL‐1&bgr; responses in experimental severe, steroid‐resistant asthma were examined using a highly selective NLRP3 inhibitor, MCC950; the specific caspase‐1 inhibitor Ac‐YVAD‐cho; and neutralizing anti‐IL‐1&bgr; antibody. Roles for IL‐1&bgr;‐induced neutrophilic inflammation were examined using IL‐1&bgr; and anti‐Ly6G. Measurements and Main Results: Chlamydia and Haemophilus infections increase NLRP3, caspase‐1, IL‐1&bgr; responses that drive steroid‐resistant neutrophilic inflammation and airway hyperresponsiveness. Neutrophilic airway inflammation, disease severity, and steroid resistance in human asthma correlate with NLRP3 and IL‐1&bgr; expression. Treatment with anti‐IL‐1&bgr;, Ac‐YVAD‐cho, and MCC950 suppressed IL‐1&bgr; responses and the important steroid‐resistant features of disease in mice, whereas IL‐1&bgr; administration recapitulated these features. Neutrophil depletion suppressed IL‐1&bgr;‐induced steroid‐resistant airway hyperresponsiveness. Conclusions: NLRP3 inflammasome responses drive experimental severe, steroid‐resistant asthma and are potential therapeutic targets in this disease.
Understanding Suicide Across the Lifespan: A United States Perspective of Suicide Risk Factors, Assessment & Management

Suicide is a troubling, preventable phenomenon. Prior to attempts, individuals often seek help, prompting practitioners to perform risk assessments that ideally use evidence‐based risk management strategies. A literature review was performed using Harvard Countway Library of Medicine, Google Scholar, PubMed. Key words used were “Forensic Science,” “Suicide Risk Management,” “Pediatric Suicide Risk Factors,” “Adult Suicide Risk Factors,” “Geriatric Suicide Risk Factors,” “Suicide Risk Assessment. ” Parameters limited articles to studies/reviews completed in the past twenty years in the United States. Results indicated predictors of suicide in juveniles were insomnia, burdensomeness, and recent conflicts with family or a romantic partner. Adults had greater risk if male, substance abusing, with marital/job loss. Elderly individuals with multiple medical comorbidities, hopelessness, and isolation were at higher risk. Everyone evaluated should be screened for access to firearms. Management of suicide risk involves providing the least restrictive form of treatment which maintains an individual's safety.
Ivermectin for the treatment of periodic malayan filariasis: a study of efficacy and side effects following a single oral dose and retreatment at six months.

Ivermectin, a new antifilarial drug and currently the drug of choice for the treatment of onchocerciasis, has been shown to be effective in bancroftian filariasis. We report here, for the first time, the efficacy and safety of the drug in the treatment of filariasis caused by periodic Brugia malayi. Sixty male, asymptomatic microfilaraemics of Alleppey district, Kerala, South India, received single oral doses of ivermectin in a double blind study. Four dosages were used: 20, 50, 100 and 200 micrograms kg-1 body weight. Clearance of microfilariae, which was not complete, began as early as 12 hours post-treatment and was maximal at the end of one month. Microfilaria levels began to rise thereafter and reached 20-50% of pretreatment levels at six months. The two higher doses (100 and 200 micrograms kg-1) were more effective in suppressing microfilaraemia at six months (P < 0.05). After six months, 32 patients were retreated using the same dose of ivermectin that they had received initially. The pattern of clearance was essentially similar to that seen during the first treatment phase and microfilaria levels were 10-35% of pretreatment levels at the end of the next six months. Twenty-eight individuals who were not retreated at six months continued to have increasing levels of microfilariae, reaching 60% of pretreatment levels at the end of the next six months. Side effects (such as fever, headache, myalgia), which were mild to moderate, were seen in most patients and were unrelated to the dose (P > 0.05) or pretreatment levels of microfilariae. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
A model for varying speaking style in TTS systems

This paper aims to enhance the performance of a TTS system by generating various speaking styles. First we describe three speaking styles (Radio News, Political Address and Conversation) and compare the prosodic features found in these authentic styles with the prosody in “neutral” speech uttered by the eLite TTS system. Differences concern about 20 prosodic characteristics (F0 span, speech rate, pauses and hesitation, primary and secondary accentuation, schwa deletion, etc.). In order to make the neutral speech similar to a typical speaking style, prosodic characteristics are implemented within the TTS system itself or during a postprocessing step. The quality of the “stylized” synthesis is evaluated by comparing it to the original style.
Systemic hyperoxia and retinal vasomotor responses.

PURPOSE Several studies have investigated the changes in retinal vessel diameter during physiological stress or pathologic conditions. These studies were principally based on individual fundus photographs and as such did not allow the evaluation of vessel dynamics over time. The research objective was to detail the time course and amplitude changes in the diameter of arteries and veins across all retinal quadrants, during and after hyperoxic vascular stress. METHODS The dynamics of changes in retinal vessel diameter were quantified with a retinal vessel analyzer, which digitizes fundus images in real time and simultaneously quantifies vessel diameter. The arterial and venous diameters within one disc diameter of the optic nerve head in each quadrant were studied. Twenty young adults participated in this study in which the vessel diameters were measured during successive phases of breathing either room air or pure oxygen. The oxygen saturation level (SaO(2)), end-tidal carbon dioxide (EtCO(2)), pulse rate (PR), respiratory rate (RR), and blood pressure (BP) were also monitored throughout testing. RESULTS Breathing 100% O(2) caused an increase in SaO(2) and a decrease in the EtCO(2). All other systemic parameters measured (PR, RR, BP, and ocular perfusion pressure [OPP]) remained unchanged. However, the retinal veins and arteries constricted by approximately 14% and approximately 9% respectively, in all retinal quadrants. After experimental hyperoxia, inhalation of room air was associated with a progressive increase in the caliber of vessels toward their pretest size. The amplitude and overall profile of vessel reactivity to and recovery from hyperoxia was the same across retinal quadrants. CONCLUSIONS These data indicate that, during systemic hyperoxic stress, the retinal vessels change in caliber uniformly across retinal quadrants in healthy young adults. This type of physiological vascular provocation could be used to investigate the quality of vascular regulation during aging and in vascular diseases of the eye.
Drone formation algorithm on 3D space for a drone-based network infrastructure

With the rapid proliferation of drones, there have been numbers of opportunities and challenges in drone application research area. One of the highlighted topics about the drones is constructing an ad-hoc network of drones and utilizing each as an access point (AP) to build an instant network infrastructure. However, there has been no research about drones optimal position improving network service quality of end users. We analyze the drone-based network infrastructure in terms of the network capacity allocation, and propose a drone formation algorithm that determines the 3D geographic location of each drone. Since each drone is hovering in the air while acting as an AP, its altitude must be also considered for the efficiency and performance of wireless communication. We assume the signal propagation model of the drone to be the shape of a sphere and define the relationship between the altitude and the coverage area of the drone. With this property, our algorithm finds the appropriate coordinates of drones one by one. Through the mathematical analysis, we show that the proposed algorithm can make drone-based network infrastructure provide reliable and user-satisfying network service.
Heterogeneity of Brain Gene Expression in Alzheimer's Disease a

We have examined the expression of several genes whose transcripts have increased levels in Alzheimer's disease and have found heterogeneity in these levels in different patients with this condition. The level of expression of these genes was compared to different clinical and pathological aspects of the disease. A case with markedly elevated alpha 1-antichymotrypsin mRNA levels demonstrated prominent neuronal accumulation of this protein. Many of the neurons which demonstrated alpha 1-antichymotrypsin staining did not have neurofibrillary tangles, and vice versa. This suggests that alpha 1-antichymotrypsin staining might identify a different facet of the pathology of Alzheimer's disease than does neurofibrillary tangle staining and may provide new information in the study of this condition.
Application of Pulse Doubling in Star-Connected Autotransformer Based 12-Pulse AC-DC Converter for Power Quality Improvement

— This paper presents a pulse doubling technique in a 12-pulse ac-dc converter which supplies direct torque controlled motor drives (DTCIMD’s) in order to have better power quality conditions at the point of common coupling. The proposed technique increases the number of rectification pulses without significant changes in the installations and yields in harmonic reduction in both ac and dc sides. The 12-pulse rectified output voltage is accomplished via two paralleled six-pulse ac-dc converters each of them consisting of three-phase diode bridge rectifier. An autotransformer is designed to supply the rectifiers. The design procedure of magnetics is in a way such that makes it suitable for retrofit applications where a six-pulse diode bridge rectifier is being utilized. Independent operation of paralleled diode-bridge rectifiers, i.e. dc-ripple re-injection methodology, requires a Zero Sequence Blocking Transformer (ZSBT). Finally, a tapped interphase reactor is connected at the output of ZSBT to double the pulse numbers of output voltage up to 24 pulses. The aforementioned structure improves power quality criteria at ac mains and makes them consistent with the IEEE-519 standard requirements for varying loads. Furthermore, near unity power factor is obtained for a wide range of DTCIMD operation. A comparison is made between 6-pulse, 12-pulse, and proposed converters from view point of power quality indices. Results show that input current total harmonic distortion (THD) is less than 5% for the proposed topology at various loads.
ON THE STABILITY OF NONLINEAR CONSERVATION LAWS IN THE HAUSDORFF METRIC

The mapping properties of the time evolution operator E(t) of nonlinear hyperbolic scalar conservation laws is investigated. It is shown that this operator is Lipschitz in the Hausdorff metric in one space dimension whenever the flux is convex and one of the initial conditions satisfies a one-sided Lipschitz condition. The Hausdorff distance between the graphs of the solutions measures the closeness in L∞ in the regions where the solutions are smooth, as well as the closeness between the locations of shocks. A similar result on Hausdorff stability is proved with respect to a perturbation of the flux function. These results complement the well known L1 contractivity of the solution operator. They are used in a subsequent paper to prove new smoothness results for solutions to such conservation laws. Negative results are proved in the case of non-convex and genuinely multidimensional fluxes.
Analysis and modeling of world wide web traffic

This dissertation deals with monitoring, collecting, analyzing, and modeling of World Wide Web (WWW) traffic and client interactions. The rapid growth of WWW usage has not been accompanied by an overall understanding of models of information resources and their deployment strategies. Consequently, the current Web architecture often faces performance and reliability problems. Scalability, latency, bandwidth, and disconnected operations are some of the important issues that should be considered when attempting to adjust for the growth in Web usage. The WWW Consortium launched an effort to design a new protocol that will be able to support future demands. Before doing that, however, we need to characterize current users' interactions with the WWW and understand how it is being used. We focus on proxies since they provide a good medium for caching, filtering information, payment methods, and copyright management. We collected proxy data from our environment over a period of more than two years. We also collected data from other sources such as schools, information service providers, and commercial sites. Sampling times range from days to years. We analyzed the collected data looking for important characteristics that can help in designing a better HTTP protocol. We developed a modeling approach that considers Web traffic characteristics such as self-similarity and long-range dependency. We developed an algorithm to characterize users' sessions. Finally we developed a high-level Web traffic model suitable for sensitivity analysis. As a result of this work we develop statistical models of parameters such as arrival times, file sizes, file types, and locality of reference. We describe an approach to model long-range and dependent Web traffic and we characterize activities of users accessing a digital library courseware server or Web search tools. Temporal and spatial locality of reference within examined user communities is high, so caching can be an effective tool to help reduce network traffic and to help solve the scalability problem. We recommend utilizing our findings to promote a smart distribution or push model to cache documents when there is likelihood of repeat accesses.
Analysis of the effects of ultrafine particulate matter while accounting for human exposure

Particulate matter (PM) has been associated with mortality in several epidemiological studies. The US EPA currently regulates PM10 and PM2.5 (mass concentration of particles with diameter less than 10 and 2.5 µm, respectively), but it is not clear which size of particles are most responsible for adverse heath outcomes. A current hypothesis is that ultrafine particles with diameter less than 0.1 µm are particularly harmful because their small size allows them to deeply penetrate the lungs. This paper investigates the association between exposure to particles of varying diameter and daily mortality. We propose a new dynamic factor analysis model to relate the ambient concentrations of several sizes of particles with diameters ranging from 0.01 to 0.40 µm with mortality. We introduce a Bayesian model that converts ambient concentrations into simulated personal exposure using the EPA's Stochastic Human Exposure and Dose Simulator, and relates simulated exposure with mortality. Using new data from Fresno, CA, we find that the 4‐day lag of particles with diameter between 0.02 and 0.08 µm is associated with mortality. This is consistent with the small particles hypothesis. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
News event summarization complemented by micropoints

In this paper, we propose a framework to produce comprehensive summarization of news event complemented by microblog. Given a basic summary extracted from traditional news articles, we extract micropoints from microblog to complement it. A micropoint is a micro-viewpoint composed of a few sentences from several relevant microblog tweets. We first filter microblog tweets and get candidate ones according to a combination of the degree of relevance and complementarity. Then we extract micropoints through tweet clustering, scattering and micropoint rebuilding. The last step - micropoint selection is based on three criteria, which guarantee high informativeness, popularity and conciseness. Experiments conducted on real data demonstrate a good coverage and content coherence.
Face recognition with occlusion using Dynamic Image-to-Class Warping (DICW)

A novel approach Dynamic Image-to-Class Warping (DICW) is proposed to deal with partially occluded face recognition in this work. An image is partitioned into sub-patches, which are then concatenated in the raster scan order to form a sequence. A face consists of forehead, eyes, nose, mouth and chin in a natural order and this order does not change despite occlusion or small rotation. Thus, in this work, a face is represented by the aforementioned sequence which contains the order of facial features. Taking the order information into account, DICW computes the distance between a query face and an enrolled person by finding the optimal alignment between the query sequence and all sequences of that person along both time dimension and within-class dimension. Extensive experiments on public face databases with various types of occlusion have verified the effectiveness of the proposed method. In addition, our method, which considers the inherent structure of the face, performs with greater consistency than current methods when the number of enrolled images per person is limited. Our method does not require any training process and has a low computational cost, which makes it applicable for real-world FR applications.
Cognitive functioning and pain reactions in hospitalized elders

BACKGROUND: Objectively coded facial activity provides a useful index of pain among elders who have difficulty in reporting pain because of cognitive impairments. However, limitations of previous research include no direct assessment of participants' level of cognitive impairment; no comparison of the reactions of elders with cognitive impairments with those of nonimpaired elders; observers' expectations about pain levels could have influenced judgements about the severity of pain experienced when global rather than objectively coded measures were used because the painful medical procedure was visible on film.