Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Air pollution and the elderly: oxidant/antioxidant issues worth consideration

The elderly are frequently classified as being particularly susceptible to air pollution. The basis of this increased sensitivity is not known but it is likely that it is linked to age-related impaired function of the lung. However, given this uncertainty and increased impact of air pollution of this section of the community there is a need to explore the mechanisms involved. Gaseous air pollutants such as ozone and nitrogen dioxide, or many of the components adsorbed onto the surface of respirable particles, are either powerful oxidants or capable of generating free radicals. If unabated, oxidants can cause injury to the delicate cells that line the respiratory tract. Small molecular weight antioxidant defences present in respiratory tract lining fluid (RTLF) represent the first line of defence against a range of oxidants that enter the lung. The quantity and quality of the RTLF airways antioxidant network are, therefore, likely to be important determinants of the impact of the oxidant challenge on the underlying respiratory epithelium. As yet, comprehensive information on the distribution and variability of respiratory tract lining fluid antioxidant defences is only available in young, mainly healthy volunteers. Studies undertaken in patients with a range of respiratory diseases suggest that marked changes in the distribution of respiratory tract lining fluid antioxidants can occur. Information is not currently available on the impact of ageing on the respiratory tract lining fluid antioxidant defence network. As several respiratory tract lining fluid antioxidants are of dietary origin, the elderly, who often have different dietary patterns to younger individuals, may have decreased availability of important antioxidants. Given these possibilities, a better understanding of respiratory tract lining fluid antioxidant defences in the aged lung is warranted.
Coordination et robustesse des systèmes dynamiques multi-agents

Nous nous interessons a l'etude de la dynamique des reseaux composes d'une multitude d'agents. Les motivations de ce travail trouvent leurs sources dans de nombreux domaines et notamment la biologie avec l'etude de l'emergence de comportements collectifs coherents chez les animaux (vol en formation d'oiseaux migrateurs). Considerons un certain nombre d’agents (animaux) dont le comportement dynamique individuel peut etre modelise par une equation differentielle. Les agents communiquent : les liens sont representes sous la forme d’un graphe dont les sommets sont les agents du systeme. Chaque agent a la connaissance de l’etat des agents auxquels il est connecte et ajuste sa dynamique a l’aide de cette information. Des comportements collectifs peuvent alors emerger comme par exemple le phenomene de flocking (tous les agents se deplacent dans la meme direction). Plusieurs modeles d'interaction ont ete proposes, les plus connus etant le modele de Viscek (1995) ou le modele de Cucker-Smale (2007). L'etude de ces modeles repose generalement sur des methodes d'analyse de stabilite des systemes dynamiques ou des systemes hybrides, lorsque le graphe de communication evolue dans le temps. Nous souhaitons dans cette these evaluer la robustesse de l'emergence de ces comportements collectifs en etudiant l'influence de divers facteurs: parametres du modele, topologie du graphe, nombre d'agents, presences de perturbations. Nous nous interesserons notamment au phenomene de scission du groupe d'agents en plusieurs groupes d'agents coordonnes.
Executing JML specifications of Java card applications: a case study

Executability provides an important mechanism for validating formal specifications and allows such specifications to serve as prototypes and test oracles. In this case study, we used the jmle tool to execute the JML specification of an electronic purse application written in the Java Card dialect of Java. This effort resulted in numerous improvements to the specification and to the jmle tool itself, as well as insight into how executability can contribute to the use of formal methods in the software development process.
Comparison of Intracarotid and Intravenous Propofol for Electrocerebral Silence in Rabbits

Background The high lipid solubility that permits rapid transfer across the blood–brain barrier makes propofol attractive for intracarotid injection. The authors hypothesized that intracarotid injection produces electrocerebral silence at a fraction of the intravenous dose and with less adverse systemic and cerebrovascular side effects. Methods The authors compared the systemic and cerebrovascular effects of intracarotid and intravenous propofol during transient (10 s) and sustained (1 h) electrocerebral silence in anesthetized New Zealand White rabbits. Hemispheric electrocerebral activity, mean arterial blood pressure, ipsilateral and contralateral cerebral blood flow, tympanic temperature, and end-tidal carbon dioxide were continuously monitored in these animals. Changes in outcome variables were analyzed at four time points: at baseline, during electrical silence, during burst suppression, and after recovery of electrocerebral activity. Propofol (1%) was injected as intracarotid (0.1 ml) or intravenous (0.5 ml) boluses. Results Intracarotid propofol produced electrocerebral silence at one fifth (sustained silence) to one tenth (transient silence) of the intravenous dose. Compared with baseline values, the mean arterial pressure and ipsilateral cerebral blood flow remained unchanged or decreased transiently during electrocerebral silence with intracarotid propofol. In contrast, intravenous propofol resulted in systemic hypotension and a decrease in ipsilateral cerebral blood flow. Conclusions Intracarotid propofol resulted in electrocerebral silence at a fraction of the intravenous dose that was not associated with systemic hypotension or a sustained decrease in the cerebral blood flow. Intracarotid propofol could be potentially useful for providing electrocerebral silence when cerebral perfusion is at risk.
Combined Confocal Microscopy and Stereology: a Highly Efficient and Unbiased Approach to Quantitative Structural Measurement in Tissues

Understanding the relationship of the structure of organs to their function is a key component of integrative physiological research. The structure of the organs of the body is not constant but changes, both during growth and development and under conditions of sustained stress (e.g. high altitude exposure and disease). Recently, powerful new techniques have become available in molecular biology, which promise to provide novel insights into the mechanisms and consequences of these altered structure‐function relationships. Conventionally structure‐function relationships are studied by microscopic examination of tissue sections. However, drawing conclusions about the three‐dimensional structure of an organ based on this two‐dimensional information frequently leads to serious errors. The techniques of stereology allow precise and accurate quantification of structural features within three‐dimensional organs that relate in a meaningful way to integrated function. For example, knowledge of changes in the total surface area of the capillary endothelium in an organ can be related directly to changes in fluid filtration and permeability, or knowledge of total vessel length and mean radius allows deductions about vascular resistance. Confocal microscopy adds enormously to the power of stereological approaches. It reduces the difficulties and labour involved in obtaining suitable images. Moreover, when used in conjunction with new analytical software, it allows convenient application of stereology to small samples and those in which it is essential to maintain a specific orientation for interpretation. The information obtained will allow us to examine in a quantitative manner the altered structure‐function relationships produced by manipulation of single genes and regulatory pathways in whole organisms.
VEGFR2 targeted antibody fused with MICA stimulates NKG2D mediated immunosurveillance and exhibits potent anti-tumor activity against breast cancer

Binding of MHC class I-related chain molecules A and B (MICA/B) to the natural killer (NK) cell receptor NK group 2, member D (NKG2D) is thought critical for activating NK-mediated immunosurveillance. Angiogenesis is important for tumor growth and interfering with angiogenesis using the fully human IgG1 anti-VEGFR2 (vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2) antibody (mAb04) can be effective in treating malignancy. In an effort to make mAb04 more effective we have generated a novel antibody fusion protein (mAb04-MICA) consisting of mAb04 and MICA. We found that mAb04-MICA maintained the anti-angiogenic and antineoplastic activities of mAb04, and also enhanced immunosurveillance activated by the NKG2D pathway. Moreover, in human breast tumor-bearing nude mice, mAb04-MICA demonstrated superior anti-tumor efficacy compared to combination therapy of mAb04 + Docetaxel or Avastin + Docetaxel, highlighting the immunostimulatory effect of MICA. In conclusion, mAb04-MICA provided new inspiration for anti-tumor treatment and had prospects for clinical application.
Regulation of cytotoxic T lymphocyte triggering by PIR-B on dendritic cells

Priming of cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) by dendritic cells (DCs) is crucial for elimination of pathogens and malignant cells. To activate CTLs, DCs present antigenic peptide-complexed MHC class I molecules (MHC-I) that will be recognized by the CTLs with T cell receptors and CD8 molecules. Here we show that paired Ig-like receptor (PIR)-B, an MHC-I receptor expressed on antigen-presenting cells, can regulate CTL triggering by blocking the access of CD8 molecules to MHC-I. PIR-B-deficient DCs evoked CTLs more efficiently, leading to accelerated graft and tumor rejection. PIR-B+ non-DC transfectant cells served as less efficient stimulators and targets for CTLs than PIR-B− cells at the effector phase in vitro. On surface plasmon resonance analysis, PIR-B and CD8αα were revealed to compete in binding to MHC-I. Our results may provide a novel strategy for regulating CTL-mediated immunity and diseases in a sterical manner.
What can the first 2 months tell us about outcomes after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction?

CONTEXT Substantial research has been conducted on anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR) to evaluate patient outcomes. However, little attention has been given to outcomes during the early phase of recovery and how early deficits affect both short- and long-term outcomes. OBJECTIVE To identify relationships between demographic (age, sex, and body mass index [BMI]) and intraoperative (isolated ACLR versus primary ACLR + secondary procedures), and postoperative (range-of-motion [ROM] and peak isometric knee-extension force [PIF]) variables during the first 2 months after ACLR using self-reported outcomes. DESIGN Cohort study. SETTING Outpatient orthopaedic hospital. PATIENTS OR OTHER PARTICIPANTS A total of 63 patients (38 men, 25 women; age = 33.0 ± 12.1 years; BMI = 26.3 ± 6.5 kg/m(2)) who underwent ACLR. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S) Demographic, intraoperative, and postoperative variables were collected at 1 and 2 months after ACLR and were compared with International Knee Documentation Committee (IKDC) Subjective Knee Evaluation Form scores at 1, 2, and ≥12 months. RESULTS Significant relationships were identified between ≥12-month IKDC scores and the 1-month (Pearson correlation, r = 0.283, r(2) = 0.08; P = . 025) and 2-month (r = 0.301, r(2) = 0.09; P = . 017) IKDC scores. After controlling for other variables, we found that the PIF ratio measures at 1 and 2 months were positively associated with 1- and 2-month IKDC scores (P < .001) and BMI was negatively associated with both 1- and 2-month IKDC scores (P < .05). One-month IKDC scores were related to the 1-month difference in knee-flexion ROM (P = .04). CONCLUSIONS The IKDC scores during the first 2 months were positively correlated with patients' perceptions of function on long-term IKDC scores. It also appears that improvements in lower extremity strength and flexion ROM deficits were positively associated with short-term IKDC scores. Higher BMI was negatively associated with patients' perceptions of function on short-term IKDC scores.
Identifying and Mapping Systematic Errors in Passive Microwave Snow Water Equivalent Observations

Understanding remote sensing retrieval errors is important for correct interpretation of observations, and successful assimilation of observations into numerical models. Passive microwave sensors onboard satellites can provide global snow water equivalent (SWE) observations day or night and under cloudy conditions. However, there are errors associated with the passive microwave measurements, which are well known but have not been adequately quantified so far. This study proposes a new algorithm for passive microwave SWE retrievals that removes known systematic errors. Specifically, we consider the impact of vegetation cover and snow crystal growth on passive microwave responses. As a case study, systematic errors (difference between the old and new algorithms) are presented for the snow season 1990-91. Standard error propagation theory is used to estimate the uncertainty in the new retrieval algorithm (not shown here). An unbiased SWE dataset is produced and monthly SWE error maps (October-May) are derived for the Northern Hemisphere. The next step is to fine tune and test the bias-free algorithm, which will be applied to the combined passive microwave dataset from SMMR and SSM/I over 20 years.
Early age at onset of bipolar disorder is associated with more severe clinical features but delayed treatment seeking.

OBJECTIVE Our aim was to obtain a comprehensive view of differences between bipolar disorder (BD) patients with onset at early versus adult age in a representative study cohort. METHODS In the Jorvi Bipolar Study (JoBS), 1,630 psychiatric in- and outpatients were systematically screened for BD using the Mood Disorder Questionnaire (MDQ). A total of 191 bipolar I and II patients with a current DSM-IV episode were interviewed to obtain information about age at onset of mood symptoms, clinical course, treatment, comorbidity, and functional status. The patients were classified as either early onset (<18 years) or adult onset. RESULTS One-third of subjects with BD (58/191, 30%) had early onset. This was associated with female gender, more lifetime psychotic symptoms, greater overall comorbidity, and a greater length of time from first episode to treatment. CONCLUSIONS Although BD patients with early age at onset have more severe clinical features and illness course, the delays from first episode to treatment and to correct diagnosis are longer than for those with adult onset disorder. To reduce morbidity rates related to the most severe forms of BD, the recognition and diagnosis of BD during adolescence needs to be improved.
'Owl' and 'Lizard': patterns of head pose and eye pose in driver gaze classification

Accurate, robust, inexpensive gaze tracking in the car can help keep a driver safe by facilitating the more effective study of how to improve (1) vehicle interfaces and (2) the design of future Advanced Driver Assistance Systems. In this paper, we estimate head pose and eye pose from monocular video using methods developed extensively in prior work and ask two new interesting questions. First, how much better can we classify driver gaze using head and eye pose versus just using head pose? Second, are there individual-specific gaze strategies that strongly correlate with how much gaze classification improves with the addition of eye pose information? We answer these questions by evaluating data drawn from an on-road study of 40 drivers. The main insight of the paper is conveyed through the analogy of an "owl" and "lizard" which describes the degree to which the eyes and the head move when shifting gaze. When the head moves a lot ("owl"), not much classification improvement is attained by estimating eye pose on top of head pose. On the other hand, when the head stays still and only the eyes move ("lizard"), classification accuracy increases significantly from adding in eye pose. We characterize how that accuracy varies between people, gaze strategies, and gaze regions.
Comparison of Three Baseball-Specific 6-Week Training Programs on Throwing Velocity in High School Baseball Players

Abstract Escamilla, RF, Ionno, M, deMahy, MS, Fleisig, GS, Wilk, KE, Yamashiro, K, Mikla, T, Paulos, L, and Andrews, JR. Comparison of three baseball-specific 6-week training programs on throwing velocity in high school baseball players. J Strength Cond Res 26(7): 1767–1781, 2012. Throwing velocity is an important baseball performance variable for baseball pitchers, because greater throwing velocity results in less time for hitters to make a decision to swing. Throwing velocity is also an important baseball performance variable for position players, because greater throwing velocity results in decreased time for a runner to advance to the next base. This study compared the effects of 3 baseball-specific 6-week training programs on maximum throwing velocity. Sixty-eight high school baseball players 14–17 years of age were randomly and equally divided into 3 training groups and a nontraining control group. The 3 training groups were the Throwers Ten (TT), Keiser Pneumatic (KP), and Plyometric (PLY). Each training group trained 3 d·wk−1 for 6 weeks, which comprised approximately 5–10 minutes for warm-up, 45 minutes of resistance training, and 5–10 for cool-down. Throwing velocity was assessed before (pretest) and just after (posttest) the 6-week training program for all the subjects. A 2-factor repeated measures analysis of variance with post hoc paired t-tests was used to assess throwing velocity differences (p < 0.05). Compared with pretest throwing velocity values, posttest throwing velocity values were significantly greater in the TT group (1.7% increase), the KP group (1.2% increase), and the PLY group (2.0% increase) but not significantly different in the control group. These results demonstrate that all 3 training programs were effective in increasing throwing velocity in high school baseball players, but the results of this study did not demonstrate that 1 resistance training program was more effective than another resistance training program in increasing throwing velocity.
Cell Type-Specific Tuning of Hippocampal Interneuron Firing during Gamma Oscillations In Vivo

Cortical gamma oscillations contribute to cognitive processing and are thought to be supported by perisomatic-innervating GABAergic interneurons. We performed extracellular recordings of identified interneurons in the hippocampal CA1 area of anesthetized rats, revealing that the firing patterns of five distinct interneuron types are differentially correlated to spontaneous gamma oscillations. The firing of bistratified cells, which target dendrites of pyramidal cells coaligned with the glutamatergic input from hippocampal area CA3, is strongly phase locked to field gamma oscillations. Parvalbumin-expressing basket, axo-axonic, and cholecystokinin-expressing interneurons exhibit moderate gamma modulation, whereas the spike timing of distal dendrite-innervating oriens-lacunosum moleculare interneurons is not correlated to field gamma oscillations. Cholecystokinin-expressing interneurons fire earliest in the gamma cycle, a finding that is consistent with their suggested function of thresholding individual pyramidal cells. Furthermore, we show that field gamma amplitude correlates with interneuronal spike-timing precision and firing rate. Overall, our recordings suggest that gamma synchronization in vivo is assisted by temporal- and domain-specific GABAergic inputs to pyramidal cells and is initiated in pyramidal cell dendrites in addition to somata and axon initial segments.
Évolution et folklorisation des traditions culturelles

Cet article est base sur des recherches d'histoire et d'anthropologie des traditions culturelles albanaises dans les conditions de regime autocratique et totalitaire. En Albanie, les tendances principales du systeme des formes actuelle des traditions culturelles, outre la reduction generale, ont aussi concerne les reconstitutions et les actualisations folklorisantes. Sous pretexte d'efficacite, ou plus simplement par absence de veritable projet culturel et social, une telle entreprise, "pseudo-culturaliste", a generalement reduit la legitimite des revendications d'identite a des valeurs figees, comme par exemple le recours a une conception idealiste de la culture traditionnelle, qui malgre la terminologie avancee par l'ethnologie albanaise officielle, est concue en dehors de l'histoire et des contradictions sociales. Un tel enfermement des identites est devenu dangereux a plusieurs egards. En plus de la manipulation politique qu'elle a autorisee, la vision officielle de la culture traditionnelle, appauvrie et reductrice, a nie en son propre sein les tendances universalistes, les traits communs qu'elle partage avec les autres cultures et societes, notamment avec les voisins, les Slaves au Nord et a l'Est ou les Grecs au Sud, allant de ce fait a l'encontre de la dynamique de l'echange interculturel dont resultent toutes les societes sans exception.
BJTU TRECVID 2006 Video Retrieval System

In this paper, we describe our experiments of search task for TRECVID 2006. This year we participated in the automatic video search subtask and the interactive video search subtask, and submitted two runs to NIST, one for the automatic search (runid: F_A_1_JTU_FA_1_1), one for the interactive search(runid: I_B_2_JTU_I_1_1 ). The paper presents the approaches as well as the results analysis in details. In an effort to obtain an initial answer set and to provide an entrance for user interaction, a fully automatic video search engine is developed, which depends mainly on the transcribed speech text and some natural language processing techniques. After that, a Co-EM based interactive search scheme, which utilizes unlabeled data by explicitly splitting the feature space into two approximately independent views, is proposed to mitigate the burden and enhance the search performance at the same time. In automatic video search task, we were able to achieve the median or better performance for most of the topics and even achieve the best average precision for one topic. For the interactive search task, our approach gives high scores to the true relevant results by only labeling a very small set of positives.
On Design of Collaborative Beamforming for Two-Way Relay Networks

This paper studies the achievable rate region for an amplify-and-forward (AF)-based two-way relay network with collaborative beamforming. With different assumptions of channel reciprocity between the source-relay and relay-source channels, the achievable rate region is characterized under two setups. First, with reciprocal channels, we investigate the achievable rate regions when the relay cluster is subject to a sum-power constraint or individual-power constraints. We show that the optimal beamforming vectors obtained from solving the weighted sum inverse-SNR minimization (WSISMin) problems are sufficient to characterize the corresponding achievable rate region. Furthermore, we derive the closed-form solutions for those optimal beamforming vectors and consequently propose the partially distributed algorithms to implement the optimal beamforming, where each relay node only needs the local channel information and one global parameter. Second, with the nonreciprocal channels, the achievable rate regions are also characterized for both the sum-power constraint case and the individual-power constraint case. Although no closed-form solutions are available under this setup, we present efficient numerical algorithms by solving a sequence of semi-definite programming (SDP) problems after semi-definite relaxation(SDR), where the optimal beamformer can be obtained under the sum-power constraint and approximate optimal solutions can be obtained under the individual power constraints.