Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Level and determinants of kidney function in a South Asian population in Pakistan.

BACKGROUND People of South Asian origin are at high risk of chronic kidney disease. Some have suggested that the usual level of glomerular filtration rate (GFR) in South Asians may be lower than in populations of European origin. However, measured GFR in a general adult population of South Asian origin has not been studied. DESIGN Cross-sectional observational study. SETTING & PARTICIPANTS 530 patients 40 years or older randomly selected from communities in Karachi, Pakistan, using multistage cluster sampling. Patients with both diabetes and hypertension were excluded. PREDICTOR Age, sex, diabetes, and hypertension. OUTCOME Measured GFR using urinary clearance of inulin. RESULTS Mean age of participants was 49.7 ± 9.5 (standard deviation [SD]) years, 51% were men, 34.9% had hypertension, and 30.5% had diabetes. Mean measured GFR was 94.1 ± 28.6 mL/min/1.73 m(2). GFR was lower by 0.79 ± 0.11 mL/min/1.73 m(2) for each 1-year older age. The 5-year age- and sex-specific mean GFR of the study population generally was within 1 SD of the mean of previously reported values for US adults. Factors independently associated with GFR were younger age (β coefficient, -3.84 [95% CI, -5.46 to -2.21] mL/min/1.73 m(2) per 5 years older), higher serum albumin level (4.58 [95% CI, 0.74-8.42] mL/min/1.73 m(2) per 0.5-g/dL increase), higher fasting plasma glucose level (0.81 [95% CI, 0.44-1.18] mL/min/1.73 m(2) per 10-mg/dL increase), high versus low meat intake (7.81 [95% CI, 1.14-14.48] mL/min/1.73 m(2) for ≥11 vs ≤5 servings/wk), and higher estimated protein intake (1.46 [95% CI, 0.41-2.51] mL/min/1.73 m(2) per 1.0-g/d increase) from urine urea nitrogen. LIMITATIONS Moderate sample size, lack of validation of some items in the dietary assessment for this study population. CONCLUSIONS Mean measured GFR in South Asian adults from the general population in Karachi, Pakistan, is only modestly lower than in European-origin counterparts, with similar age association. This may reflect lower dietary protein intake in South Asians.
BK channel activators and their therapeutic perspectives

The large conductance calcium- and voltage-activated K+ channel (KCa1.1, BK, MaxiK) is ubiquitously expressed in the body, and holds the ability to integrate changes in intracellular calcium and membrane potential. This makes the BK channel an important negative feedback system linking increases in intracellular calcium to outward hyperpolarizing potassium currents. Consequently, the channel has many important physiological roles including regulation of smooth muscle tone, neurotransmitter release and neuronal excitability. Additionally, cardioprotective roles have been revealed in recent years. After a short introduction to the structure, function and regulation of BK channels, we review the small organic molecules activating BK channels and how these tool compounds have helped delineate the roles of BK channels in health and disease.
Similar Pattern Discriminant Analysis for Improving Chinese Character Recognition Accuracy

In this paper, a similar pattern discriminant analysis method is proposed. It optimizes the feature projection matrix based on similar pattern pairs and aims to extract targeted features for similar pattern discrimination. For improving Chinese character recognition accuracy, we introduce a cascade modified quadratic discriminant function (MQDF) model to combine linear discriminant analysis (LDA) and similar pattern discriminant analysis. The proposed method is investigated and compared with compound Mahalanobis function (CMF) on two data sets. The results indicate that the cascade MQDF achieves a better improvement and higher recognition accuracies than CMF. The relative recognition errors have been decreased up to 19.73% and 15.59% respectively on HCL2000 and THU-HCD datasets with respect to single MQDF.
A proportional fairness backoff scheme for funnelling effect in wireless sensor networks

The many‐to‐one and hop‐by‐hop traffic pattern in wireless sensor networks exhibits a unique funnelling effect that results in a significant increase in transit traffic intensity, package collision among different links and congestion as closing toward the sink. Some techniques, such as congestion control and aggregation, can help counter these problems. However, they cannot fully alleviate funnelling effect. In this paper, we use a different and novel approach to solve this problem. The proportional fairness backoff scheme is based on the carrier sense multiple access/collision avoidance protocol and makes the network's throughput maximum with proportional fairness (data transmission fairness between different nodes). Furthermore, this proportional fairness backoff scheduling scheme can dynamically adjust each sensor node's backoff window on the basis of Kelly's shadow price theory. Further, on the basis of the newly designed throughput analysis model, we discuss the throughput of the carrier sense multiple access/collision avoidance‐type network. With theoretical analysis and extensive simulations, we show that proportional fairness backoff can effectively mitigate funnelling effect and then improve the network's throughput; at the same time, it keeps effective throughput increase even if the network is high‐loaded. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Neuropsychiatric symptoms in Vascular Cognitive Impairment: a systematic review

Neuropsychiatric symptoms or Behavioral and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia (BPSD) are common and invariably appear at some point during the course of the disease, mediated both by cerebrovascular disease and neurodegenerative processes. Few studies have compared the profiles of BPSD in Vascular Cognitive Impairment (VCI) of different subtypes (subcortical or cortical) and clinical stages (Vascular Cognitive Impairment No Dementia [VaCIND] and Vascular Dementia [VaD]). Objective To review the BPSD associated with different subtypes and stages of VCI using the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI). Methods Medline, Scielo and Lilacs databases were searched for the period January 2000 to December 2014, with the key words: "BPSD AND Vascular Dementia, "NPI AND Vascular Dementia" and "NPI AND VCI. Qualitative analysis was performed on studies evaluating BPSD in VCI, using the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI). Results A total of 82 studies were retrieved of which 13 were eligible and thus included. Among the articles selected, 4 compared BPSD in Subcortical Vascular Dementia (SVaD) versus Cortical-Subcortical Vascular Dementia (CSVaD), 3 involved comparisons between SVaD and VaCIND, 1 study analyzed differences between CSVaD and VaCIND, while 5 studies assessed BPSD in CSVaD. Subcortical and Cortical-Subcortical VaD were associated predominantly with Apathy and Depression. VaCIND may present fewer behavioral symptoms than VaD. Conclusion The profile of BPSD differs for different stages of VCI. Determining the most prevalent BPSD in VCI subtypes might be helpful for improving early diagnosis and management of these symptoms.
Killer cell immunoglobulin receptor profile on CD4+ CD28− T cells and their pathogenic role in non‐dialysis‐dependent and dialysis‐dependent chronic kidney disease patients

There is a progressive increase in cardiovascular disease with declining renal function, unexplained by traditional risk factors. A CD4+ T‐cell subpopulation (CD4+ CD28−), activated by human heat‐shock protein 60 (hHSP 60), expands in patients with acute coronary syndrome and is associated with vascular damage. These cells exhibit cytotoxicity via expression of activating killer cell‐immunoglobulin‐like receptor KIR2DS2, mainly in the absence of inhibitory KIR2DL3. We investigated expansion of these cells and the pathogenic role of the KIR in non‐dialysis‐dependent chronic kidney disease (NDD‐CKD) and end‐stage haemodialysis‐dependent renal disease (HD‐ESRD) patients. CD4+ CD28− cells were present in 27% of the NDD‐CKD and HD‐ESRD patients (8–11% and 10–11% of CD4+ compartment, respectively). CD4+ CD28− cells were phenotyped for KIR and DAP12 expression. Cytotoxicity was assessed by perforin and pro‐inflammatory function by interferon‐γ expression on CD4+ CD28− clones (NDD‐CKD n = 97, HD‐ESRD n = 262). Thirty‐four per cent of the CD4+ CD28− cells from NDD‐CKD expressed KIR2DS2 compared with 56% in HD‐ESRD patients (P = 0·03). However, 20% of clones expressed KIR2DL3 in NDD‐CKD compared with 7% in HD‐ESRD patients (P = 0·004). DAP12 expression in CD28− 2DS2+ clones was more prevalent in HD‐ESRD than NDD‐CKD (92% versus 60%; P < 0·001). Only 2DS2+ 2DL3− DAP12+ clones were cytotoxic in response to hHSP 60. CD4+ CD28− cells exhibited increased KIR2DS2, reduced KIR2DL3 and increased DAP12 expression in HD‐ESRD compared with NDD‐CKD patients. These findings suggest a gradual loss of expression, functionality and protective role of inhibitory KIR2DL3 as well as increased cytotoxic potential of CD4+ C28− cells with progressive renal impairment. Clonal expansion of these T cells may contribute to heightened cardiovascular events in HD‐ESRD.
Pattern shape design for ceramic ware: an integrated solution

This paper presents an integrated approach to producing a two-dimensional decorative pattern for ceramic bone china cast ware components. The novelty of the approach is to integrate the approximate unwrapping of a generally non-developable surface with the constraints of the manufacturing process. The key components of the solution are an unwrapping algorithm to determine the shape of the pattern from the CAD model and an estimation of the scaling factors for the mould to compensate for shrinkage in drying and firing. The approach produces patterns that are at least as good as the traditional manual approach, which distort less when wrapped onto the final ceramic ware. Furthermore, because the unwrapping is produced from the CAD definition, the pattern design can be completed much earlier in the manufacturing process with a reduction in the lead time.
Risk of subarachnoid hemorrhage from a de novo aneurysm.

To the Editor: I read with interest a recent article1 concerning risk of de novo aneurysm formation and recommendations for future screening for these aneurysms after successful clipping of an intracranial aneurysm. Although the results of the study are reliable, the conclusions are not based on the data of this and previous studies. The patients whose aneurysms have been treated successfully should not unnecessarily be made anxious and fearful for decades because of a very low risk for subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) from a potential de novo aneurysm. In our first angiographic follow-up study (published in 19932), of 31 patients with a mean follow-up of 9 years (range 0.8 to 23.0 years; total follow-up of 279 person-years), formation rate of a de novo aneurysm cases was 2.2%/y, which was similar to that in a recent study (1.8%/y). 3 In both of these studies, the formation rate of new aneurysms was likely too high, because new SAH cases were overrepresented in these study populations. Interestingly, in the study of Tsutsumi and colleagues,1 the formation rate of a de novo aneurysm was lower and similar (0.89% per year) to that in our recent study (0.84%/y), obtained among 89 patients with a mean follow-up time of 20.1 years per patient (range 1.2 to 38.9 years; total follow-up time 1789 person-years),4 which suggests that aneurysm formation rate is lower if the follow-up is not restricted to a high-risk population. In our study, there were 15 de novo aneurysm cases, and female gender and cigarette smoking increased this risk. De novo aneurysms developed during a mean follow-up time of 18.8±7.7 years, a period not differing significantly from that of those without …
Serum ferritin has correlation with HbA1c in type 2 diabetic patients

Background: Serum C-reactive protein (CRP) and ferritin are two acute phase reactants. CRP may be related to metabolic syndrome and ferritin which in turn could cause resistance to insulin and dysfunction of b cells of pancreases. The aim of the study was the evaluation of the relationship of these two acute phase reactants with some indices of diabetic control. Materials and Methods: In a quasi-experimental study, 67 patients with type 2 diabetes, serum CRP, ferritin, Fasting Blood Sugar (FBS), post prandial BS, Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), triglyceride, Low Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol (LDL) and High Density Lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL) were checked before and 3 months after the control of hyperglycemia and hyperlipidemia. Results: The mean age of the patients was 56.5 ± 9.7 (30 to 82) years. There was no significant difference between CRP before and after study; however, serum ferritin significantly decreased after study with control of hyperglycemia. FBS, 2 hours post-prandial blood sugar (2hppBS), HbA1c and triglyceride of patients decreased significantly after control of hyperglycemia and hyperlipidemia (P < 0.05); however, HDL and LDL cholesterol didn′t change (P > 0.05). Conclusion: Based on our results, serum ferritin decreased after decline of patients′ blood sugar, so might be we used it as one of the diabetes control indices for diabetic patients.
Nf1 Regulates Hematopoietic Progenitor Cell Growth and Ras Signaling in Response to Multiple Cytokines

Neurofibromin, the protein encoded by the NF1 tumor-suppressor gene, negatively regulates the output of p21ras (Ras) proteins by accelerating the hydrolysis of active Ras-guanosine triphosphate to inactive Ras-guanosine diphosphate. Children with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) are predisposed to juvenile chronic myelogenous leukemia (JCML) and other malignant myeloid disorders, and heterozygous Nf1 knockout mice spontaneously develop a myeloid disorder that resembles JCML. Both human and murine leukemias show loss of the normal allele. JCML cells and Nf1 −/− hematopoietic cells isolated from fetal livers selectively form abnormally high numbers of colonies derived from granulocyte-macrophage progenitors in cultures supplemented with low concentrations of granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF). Taken together, these data suggest that neurofibromin is required to downregulate Ras activation in myeloid cells exposed to GM-CSF. We have investigated the growth and proliferation of purified populations of hematopoietic progenitor cells isolated from Nf1 knockout mice in response to the cytokines interleukin (IL)-3 and stem cell factor (SCF), as well as to GM-CSF. We found abnormal proliferation of both immature and lineage-restricted progenitor populations, and we observed increased synergy between SCF and either IL-3 or GM-CSF in Nf1 −/− progenitors. Nf1 −/− fetal livers also showed an absolute increase in the numbers of immature progenitors. We further demonstrate constitutive activation of the Ras-Raf-MAP (mitogen-activated protein) kinase signaling pathway in primary c-kit+ Nf1 −/− progenitors and hyperactivation of MAP kinase after growth factor stimulation. The results of these experiments in primary hematopoietic cells implicate Nf1 as playing a central role in regulating the proliferation and survival of primitive and lineage-restricted myeloid progenitors in response to multiple cytokines by modulating Ras output.
Truncated Soluble Nogo Receptor Binds Nogo-66 and Blocks Inhibition of Axon Growth by Myelin

CNS myelin contains axon outgrowth inhibitors, such as Nogo, that restrict regenerative growth after injury. An understanding of the mechanism of Nogo signaling through its receptor (NgR) is critical to developing strategies for overcoming Nogo-mediated inhibition. Here we analyze the function of NgR domains in outgrowth inhibition. Analysis of alkaline phosphatase (AP)-Nogo binding in COS-7 cells reveals that the leucine-rich repeat domain is necessary and sufficient for Nogo binding and NgR multimerization. Viral infection of embryonic day 7 chick retinal ganglion cells with mutated NgR demonstrates that the NgR C-terminal domain is required for inhibitory signaling but not ligand binding. The NgR glycosylphosphatidylinositol domain is not essential for inhibitory signaling but may facilitate Nogo responses. From this analysis, we have developed a soluble, truncated version of the Nogo receptor that antagonizes outgrowth inhibition on both myelin and Nogo substrates. These data suggest that NgR mediates a significant fraction of myelin inhibition of axon outgrowth.
Twitter at the Grammys: A Social Media Corpus for Entity Linking and Disambiguation

Work on cross document coreference resolution (CDCR) has primarily focused on news articles, with little to no work for social media. Yet social media may be particularly challenging since short messages provide little context, and informal names are pervasive. We introduce a new Twitter corpus that contains entity annotations for entity clusters that supports CDCR. Our corpus draws from Twitter data surrounding the 2013 Grammy music awards ceremony, providing a large set of annotated tweets focusing on a single event. To establish a baseline we evaluate two CDCR systems and consider the performance impact of each system component. Furthermore, we augment one system to include temporal information, which can be helpful when documents (such as tweets) arrive in a speciﬁc order. Finally, we include annotations linking the entities to a knowledge base to support entity linking. Our corpus is available: https: /
Differences in the expression of endogenous efflux transporters in MDR1‐transfected versus wildtype cell lines affect P‐glycoprotein mediated drug transport

Background and purpose: P‐glycoprotein (Pgp) efflux assays are widely used to identify Pgp substrates. The kidney cell lines Madin‐Darby canine kidney (MDCK)‐II and LLC‐PK1, transfected with human MDR1 (ABCB1) are used to provide recombinant models of drug transport. Endogenous transporters in these cells may contribute to the activities of recombinant transporters, so that drug transport in MDR1‐transfected cells is often corrected for the transport obtained in parental (wildtype) cells. However, expression of endogenous transporters may vary between transfected and wildtype cells, so that this correction may cause erroneous data. Here, we have measured the expression of endogenous efflux transporters in transfected and wildtype MDCK‐II or LLC cells and the consequences for Pgp‐mediated drug transport.
A Probabilistic Feature Map-Based Localization System Using a Monocular Camera

Image-based localization is one of the most widely researched localization techniques in the robotics and computer vision communities. As enormous image data sets are provided through the Internet, many studies on estimating a location with a pre-built image-based 3D map have been conducted. Most research groups use numerous image data sets that contain sufficient features. In contrast, this paper focuses on image-based localization in the case of insufficient images and features. A more accurate localization method is proposed based on a probabilistic map using 3D-to-2D matching correspondences between a map and a query image. The probabilistic feature map is generated in advance by probabilistic modeling of the sensor system as well as the uncertainties of camera poses. Using the conventional PnP algorithm, an initial camera pose is estimated on the probabilistic feature map. The proposed algorithm is optimized from the initial pose by minimizing Mahalanobis distance errors between features from the query image and the map to improve accuracy. To verify that the localization accuracy is improved, the proposed algorithm is compared with the conventional algorithm in a simulation and realenvironments.
On the possible use of exogenous histones in cell technology

The prospect of developing transport systems using histones for site‐specific delivery of therapeutic agents that have poor penetration characteristics through cellular membranes and tissue barriers has been investigated. Histones immobilized on microspheres can also be used to modify surfaces intended for cell cultivation, facilitating adhesion, proliferation and network formation by interactions of cells through contacts with several microspheres. They can be applied to three‐dimensional pore matrices that are designed for producing tissue‐like structures in vitro.
Electrospinning of Collagen: Formation of Biomedical Scaffold

In order to mimic the cellular microenvironment, several techniques using both synthetic and natural polymer were considered. Electrospinning of collagen is one of the most successful and useful techniques: it produces scaffolds that could be used especially in the human body. Thanks to being biocompatible, low antigenic, promoter of cell attachment and non-immunogenic, collagen is considered the best biomedical device. Depending on its application field, collagen generally couldn’t be used alone. To ameliorate its performance, the scaffolds of the collagen-based scaffold are normally composed also of another kind of polymer nanofibers such as chitosan, Silk fibroin, Poly (Lactic Acid) (PLA), Polycaprolactone (PCL). In this review article, we will introduce the novelties in solving and Electrospinning collagen, evaluation of scaffold properties and their application fields.
A resonant driver for a piezoelectric motor with single transistor direction switches

A resonant driver for a piezoelectric motor (PZM) is presented, analyzed and tested experimentally. Following a short description of the linear PZM applied in this study, the paper covers the analytical relationships of the buck driven push-pull parallel resonant inverter stage that includes novel single transistor direction switches. It is shown that the proposed topology is compatible with the drive requirements of the PZM powered from a low voltage (24 V). It is also demonstrated that, unlike simple resonant converters, the proposed topology is relatively insensitive to the resonant component values and that it can tolerate added capacitance as introduced when connecting a PZM to the driver via a long cable.
Quantum lower bound for the collision problem

(MATH) The collision problem is to decide whether a function X: { 1,&ldots;,n} → { 1, &ldots;,n} is one-to-one or two-to-one, given that one of these is the case. We show a lower bound of Ω(n1/5) on the number of queries needed by a quantum computer to solve this problem with bounded error probability. The best known upper bound is O(n1/3), but obtaining any lower bound better than Ω(1) was an open problem since 1997. Our proof uses the polynomial method augmented by some new ideas. We also give a lower bound of Ω(n1/7) for the problem of deciding whether two sets are equal or disjoint on a constant fraction of elements. Finally we give implications of these results for quantum complexity theory.
ArcB1, a Homolog of Escherichia coli ArcB, Regulates Dimethyl Sulfoxide Reduction in Shewanella oneidensis MR-1

ABSTRACT Shewanella oneidensis is a metal reducer that uses the cyclic AMP receptor protein, CRP, to regulate anaerobic respiration. In addition, ArcA So is required for anaerobic growth with dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and plays a role in aerobic respiration. The sensor kinase that activates ArcA So in S. oneidensis is not known. ArcB1 So , a homolog of the Escherichia coli sensor kinase ArcB Ec , was identified and found to be required for DMSO reductase gene expression. In combination with HptA, ArcB1 So complemented an E. coli arcBEc mutant. ArcA So , ArcB1 So , and HptA appear to constitute a two-component signal transduction system that regulates DMSO reduction in S. oneidensis.