Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The pathogenesis of experimental membranous glomerulonephritis induced with homologous nephritogenic tubular antigen

The renal tubular epithelial antigen (Tub-Ag) of rats was solublized by Pronase and purified by gel filtration and acrylamide gel electrophoresis. Purified Tub-Ag was a glycoprotein with S20,W value of 8.4. Utilizing radiolabeled Tug-Ag, a sensitive radioimmunoassay for Tub-Ag and homologous antibody (anti-Tub-Ag) was developed. Tub-Ag activity associated with a protein of the same molecular size was demonstrated in the serum, as well as in Pronase extracts of all the organs tested, including kidney, liver, lung, spleen, intestine, stomach, and heart. The physiochemical properties of the Tub-Ag of rats and its distribution were essentially the same as the Tub-Ag of humans, which had been found in immune deposits in the kidney of some patients with idiopathic membranous glomerulonephritis. Rats were immunized with the purified Tub-Ag emulsified in Freund's complete adjuvant and followed for Tub-Ag and anti-Tub-Ag in the serum, as well as for proteinuria and immunohistological changes in the kidney. Serum Tub-Ag dropped sharply after 20 days, when anti-Tub-Ag appeared in the circulation. Persistent, massive proteinuria appeared still later, more than 30 days after injection, when anti-Tub-Ag disappeared and Tub-Ag reappeared in the serum of some of those rats. In others, anti-Tub-Ag in the serum persisted throughout the observation period of 90 days. The pathology of the kidney of the rats with proteinuria was that of a typical membranous glomerulonephritis; thickening of glomerular capillary walls with granular deposits of gamma-globulin and Tub-Ag was observed. On the basis of these results, Tub-Ag in the serum, probably released from cellular membranes of various organs as a physiological metabolite, is considered to maintain the pathological process in the kidney by providing the antigen continuously to form immune complexes.
Constructing of an Ontology-based Lexicon for Bulgarian

In this paper we report on the progress in the creation of an Ontology-based lexicon for Bulgarian. We have started with the concept set from an upper ontology (DOLCE). Then it was extended with concepts selected from the OntoWordNet, which correspond to Core WordNet and EuroWordNet Basic concepts. The underlying idea behind the ontology-based lexicon is its organization via two semantic relations - equivalence and subsumption. These relations reflect the distribution of lexical unit senses with respect to the concepts in the ontology. The lexical unit candidates for concept mapping have been selected from two large and well-developed lexical resources for Bulgarian - a machine readable explanatory dictionary and a morphological lexicon. In the initial step, the lexical units were handled that have equivalent senses to the concepts in the ontology (2500 at the moment). Then, in the second stage, we are proceeding with lexical units selected on their frequency distribution in a large Bulgarian corpus. This step is the more challenging one, since it might require also additions of concepts to the ontology. The main applications of the lexicon are envisaged to be the semantic annotation and semantic IR for Bulgarian.
Dynamical simulations of the planetary system HD 69830

The star HD 69830 exhibits radial velocity variations attri buted to three planets as well as infrared emission at 8− 35� m attributed to a warm debris disk. Previous studies have developed models for the planet migration and mass growth (Alibert et al. 2005, 2006) and the replenishment of warm grains (Wyatt et al. 2007). In this paper, we perform n-body integrations in order to explore the implications of these models for: 1) the excitation of planetary eccentricity, 2) the accretion and clearing of a putative pl anetesimal disk, 3) the distribution of planetesimal orbits following migration, and 4) the implications for the origin of the infrared emission from the HD 69830 system. We find that: i) It is not possible to explain the observed plan etary eccentricities (∼ 0.1) purely as the result of planetary perturbations during migr ation unless the planetary system is nearly face-on. However, the presence of gas damping in the system only serves to exacerbate the problem again. ii) The rate of accretion of planetesimals onto planets in our n-body simulations is significantly di fferent to that assumed in the semi-analytic models, with our inner planet accreting at a rate an order of magnitude greater than the outer ones, suggesting that one cannot successfully treat planetesimal accretion in th e simplified manner of Alibert et al. (2006). iii ) We find that the eccentricity damping of planete simals does not act as an insurmountable obstacle to the existence of an excited eccentric disk: All simulations result in a significant fraction (∼15%) of the total planetesimal disk mass, corresponding to∼ 25M⊕, remaining bound in the region∼1-9 AU, even after all three planets have migrated through the region iv) This swarm of planetesimals has orbital distributions that are size-sorted by gas drag, with the largest planetesimals (∼ 1, 000km), which may contain a large proportion of the system mass, preferentially occupying the highest eccentricity (and thus longest-lived) orbits. Although such planetesimals would be expected to collide and produce a disk of warm dust, further work will be required to understand whether these eccentricity distributions are high enough to explain the level of dust emission observed despite mass loss via steady state collisional evolution.
The impact of halo shapes on the bispectrum in cosmology

We use the triaxial halo model formalism of Smith & Watts to investigate the impact of dark matter halo shapes on the cosmological bispectrum. Analytical expressions for the dark matter distribution are derived and subsequently evaluated through numerical integration. Two models for the ellipsoidal halo profiles are considered: a toy model designed to isolate the effects of halo shape on the clustering alone; and the more realistic model of Jing & Suto. For equilateral k-space triangles, we show that the predictions of the triaxial model are suppressed, relative to the spherical model, by up to ∼7 and ∼4 per cent for the two profiles, respectively. When the reduced bispectrum is considered as a function of triangle configuration, it is found to be highly sensitive to halo shapes on small scales. The generic features of our predictions are that, relative to the spherical halo model, the signal is suppressed for k-vector configurations that are close to equilateral triangles and boosted for configurations that are colinear. This appears to be a unique signature of halo triaxiality and potentially provides a means for measuring halo shapes in forthcoming cosmic shear surveys. The galaxy bispectrum is also explored. Two models for the halo occupation distribution (HOD) are considered: the binomial distribution of Scoccimarro et al. and the Poisson satellite model of Kravtsov et al. Our predictions show that the galaxy bispectrum is also sensitive to halo shapes, although relative to the mass the effects are reduced. The HOD of Kravtsov et al. is found to be more sensitive. This owes to the fact that the first moment of the occupation probability is a steeper function of mass in this model, and hence the high-mass (more triaxial) haloes are more strongly weighted. Interestingly, the functional form of the configuration-dependent bispectrum is, modulo an amplitude shift, not strongly sensitive to the exact form of the HOD, but is mainly determined by the halo shape. However, a combination of measurements made on different scales and for different k-space triangle configurations is sensitive to both halo shape and the HOD.
Roles of Prostaglandin I2 and Thromboxane A2 in Cardiac Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury: A Study Using Mice Lacking Their Respective Receptors

Background—Prostaglandin (PG) I2 and thromboxane (TX) A2, the most common prostanoids in the cardiovascular system, are produced abundantly during cardiac ischemia/reperfusion (I/R); their roles in I/R injury, however, remain undetermined. We intended to clarify these roles of PGI2 and TXA2 using mice lacking the PGI2 receptor, IP−/− mice, or the TXA2 receptor, TP−/− mice. Methods and Results—The left anterior descending coronary artery was occluded for 1 hour and then reperfused for 24 hours. The size of myocardial infarct in IP−/− mice was significantly larger than that in wild-type mice, although the size of the area at risk was similar between the 2 groups of mice. In contrast, there was no such difference between TP−/− and wild-type mice. To further determine whether PGI2 and TXA2 act directly on the cardiac tissue or indirectly through their action on blood constituents, we perfused excised heart according to the Langendorff technique. The isolated heart was then subjected to global ischemia followed by reperfusion. In IP−/− mice, developed tension and coronary flow rate during reperfusion were significantly lower and release of creatine kinase was significantly higher than those in wild-type mice. There were no such differences, however, between TP−/− and wild-type mice. Conclusions—PGI2, which was produced endogenously during cardiac I/R, exerts a protective effect on cardiomyocytes independent of its effects on platelets and neutrophils. In contrast, TXA2 has little role in the cardiac I/R injury.
The economics of HIV/AIDS in low-income countries: the case for prevention.

There are two approaches to reducing the burden of sickness and death associated with HIV/AIDS: treatment and prevention. With limited resources, should the focus be on prevention or treatment? I discuss the range of prevention and treatment alternatives, examine their cost effectiveness, and consider various arguments that have been raised against the use of cost-effectiveness analysis in setting priorities for health. I conclude that promoting AIDS treatment using antiretrovirals in resource-constrained countries comes at a huge cost in terms of avoidable deaths that could be prevented through interventions that would substantially lower the scale of the epidemic.
Effects of Preseason Intermittent Complex Training on Body Composition, Aerobic-Anaerobic Capacity, and Hematologic Parameters in High School Soccer Players

The purpose of this study was to compare body composition, anaerobic capacity, and hematologic parameters after intermittent complex training in high school soccer players. The subjects were 15 high school soccer players (age, 15.60±0.82 years; height, 171.93±5.65 cm; body weight, 61.32±7.43 kg). Clinical variables included body composition, anaerobic capacity, and hematologic parameters. Data were analyzed to compare between trials by paired sample t-test. As a result, there were significant differences in body weight (p<0.05) and muscle mass (p<0.05) of body composition after 4 weeks. There were significant differences in shuttle run (p<0.001) and heart rate in rest (p<0.05) of aerobic performance after 4 weeks. There were significant differences in lactate dehydrogenase (p<0.001), creatine kinase (p<0.001), all out lactic acid (p<0.01), and red blood cell (p<0.001) of hematologic parameters after 4 weeks. In summary, intermittent complex training for 4 weeks showed strong influences on body composition and hematologic parameters variables in high school soccer players.
Explicit OR-dispersers with polylogarithmic degree

An (<italic>N, M, T</italic>)-OR-disperser is a bipartite multigraph <italic>G</italic>=(<italic>V, W, E</italic>) with |<italic>V</italic>| = <italic>N</italic>, and |<italic>W</italic>| = <italic>M</italic>, having the following expansion property: any subset of <italic>V</italic> having at least <italic>T</italic> vertices has a neighbor set of size at least <italic>M</italic>/2. For any pair of constants &xgr;, λ, 1 ≥ &xgr; > λ ≥ 0, any sufficiently large <italic>N</italic>, and for any <italic>T</italic> ≥ 2<supscrpt>(log<italic>N</italic>)</supscrpt> <italic>M</italic> ≤ 2<supscrpt>(log <italic>N</italic>)<supscrpt>λ</supscrpt></supscrpt>, we give an explicit elementary construction of an (<italic>N, M, T</italic>)-OR-disperser such that the out-degree of any vertex in <italic>V</italic> is at most polylogarithmic in <italic>N</italic>. Using this with known applications of OR-dispersers yields several results. First, our construction implies that the complexity class Strong-RP defined by Sipser, equals RP. Second, for any fixed &eegr; > 0, we give the first polynomial-time simulation of RP algorithms using the output of any “&eegr;-minimally random” source. For any integral <italic>R</italic> > 0, such a source accepts a single request for an <italic>R</italic>-bit string and generates the string according to a distribution that assigns probability at most 2<supscrpt>−R<supscrpt>&eegr;</supscrpt></supscrpt> to any string. It is minimally random in the sense that any weaker source is insufficient to do a black-box polynomial-time simulation of RP algorithms.
Achieving High-Level Functionality through Complexification

An appropriate but challenging goal for evolutionary computation (EC) is to evolve systems of biological complexity. However, specifying complex structures requires many genes, and searching for a solution in such a highdimensional space can be intractable. In this paper, we propose a method for finding high-dimensional solutions incrementally, by starting with an initial population of very small genomes and gradually complexifying those genomes by adding new genes over generations. That way, search begins in an easily-optimized low-dimensional space and increments into increasingly high-dimensional spaces. We describe an existing method for implementing complexification, and further propose that combining complexification with an indirect genetic encoding, in which genes are reused in the specification of the phenotype, can lead to the discovery of highly complex solutions.
Atrial conduction times and left atrial mechanical functions and their relation with diastolic function in prediabetic patients

Background/Aims The aim of this study was to investigate atrial conduction times and left atrial mechanical functions, the noninvasive predictors of atrial fibrillation, in prediabetic patients with impaired fasting glucose (IFG) and impaired glucose tolerance (IGT). Methods Study included 59 patients (23 males, 36 females; mean age 52.5 ± 10.6 years) diagnosed with IFG or IGT by the American Diabetes Association criteria, and 43 healthy adults (22 males, 21 females; mean age 48.5 ± 12.1 years). Conventional and tissue Doppler echocardiography were performed. The electromechanical delay parameters were measured from the onset of the P wave on the surface electrocardiogram to the onset of the atrial systolic wave on tissue Doppler imaging from septum, lateral, and right ventricular annuli. The left atrial volumes were calculated by the disk method. Left atrial mechanical functions were calculated. Results The mitral E/A and E’/A’ ratios measured from the lateral and septal annuli were significantly lower in the prediabetics compared to the controls. The interatrial and left atrial electromechanical delay were significantly longer in prediabetic group compared to the controls. Left atrial active emptying volume (LAAEV) and fraction (LAAEF) were significantly higher in the prediabetics than the controls. LAAEV and LAAEF were significantly correlated with E/A, lateral and septal E’/A’. Conclusions In the prediabetic patients, the atrial conduction times and P wave dispersion on surface electrocardiographic were longer before the development of overt diabetes. In addition, the left atrial mechanical functions were impaired secondary to a deterioration in the diastolic functions in the prediabetic patients.
H-2L-restricted recognition of viral antigens In the H-2d haplotype, anti-vesicular stomatitis virus cytotoxic T cells are restricted solely by H-2L

H-2d-encoded gene products were analyzed as restriction antigens for anti-vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL). Cold target competition experiments revealed that VSV recognition was H- 2D region-restricted; H-2K-end-restricted recognition of VSV could not be demonstrated. That VSV is not recognized in the context of K-region- encoded gene products is also supported by the observation that H-2dm1 and H-2dm2 mice, strains that contain H-2Kd but have an alteration in H- 2L and/or H-2D/L, are nonresponders in the CTL assay. Two different lines of evidence eliminated H-2Dd, H-2Md, and H-2Rd as the restriction antigens: (a) H-2dm2-VSV inhibitors that express H-2Dd and H-2Md did not block the lysis of P815-VSV targets by Balb/c anti-VSV killer cells, and (b) a hybridoma specific for H-2Dd failed to inhibit killer cell activity in this same effector/target combination. However, two monoclonal antibodies specific for H-2Ld but not H-2Rd completely blocked anti-VSV cytotoxic activity. Taken together, in the H-2d haplotype, anti-VSV CTL recognize VSV solely in the context of the H- 2Ld molecule. This is the first demonstration of the exclusive use by a mouse stain of the H-2L molecule only for H-2-restricted recognition, and thus supports the notion that H-2L plays a major role in restricting antigen specific recognition. Finally, the fact that an anti-H-2Ld monoclone completely blocked an H-2dm2 anti-BALB/c CTL response indicates that H-2R, a molecule absent in H-2dm2 anti-BALB/c CTL response indicates that H-2R, a molecule absent in H-2dm2 but not BALB/c, does not sensitize H-2 alloreactive CTL.
Communicated beliefs: The interplay of evidence and truth values in erroneous belief acquisition and maintenance

This thesis explores the interplay between evidence (in terms of clarity, quantity and order) and source factors in the uptake and maintenance of second-hand, erroneous beliefs. Through a series of online paradigms, we demonstrate the uptake of a communicated belief (e.g., “Option A is better than option B”) is conditional upon early experiences, given an unknown source. Further, we show that such a consolidation of belief then leads to a confirmation bias, wherein beliefs are maintained despite long-run contradictory evidence. Importantly, we demonstrate that such a bias occurs despite participants being motivated towards accuracy (as opposed to belief-maintenance), and the presence of counterfactual information. We accordingly forward an integrative confirmation bias account of consolidated belief maintenance. The focus then turns to explore the gatekeeping role of early experiences. Using short-term fluctuations in evidence, we not only demonstrate the impact of the first few pieces of evidence in consolidating beliefs, but that such effects are interruptible. Taking insights yielded from the Bayesian source credibility model, the perceived expertise and trustworthiness of the source are then manipulated in conjunction with initial evidence. In line with predictions, beliefs from credible sources show consolidation prior to initial evidence, subsuming its role. Conversely, beliefs from dubious sources once again demonstrate the critical impact of initial evidence. Findings are related to the role of source cues and early experiences in increasing the confidence in a belief’s validity, placed within the wider theoretical context, and novel implications for reliability updating are demonstrated. These empirical findings are then extrapolated to belief propagation in online networks using Agent-Based Modelling. This work demonstrates that the structure and incentives present in online networks exacerbate societal level erroneous belief uptake. Implications are drawn to literature including persuasion, placebo effects, and opinion dynamics, along with phenomena including superstition and pseudoscientific beliefs.
A Grounded Model of Reference Use : the Representation and Expression of Referring Cases by a Communicating Agent

Numerous attempts have been made to model the phenomenon of reference to individual entities, or denotation. This paper presents a unified and grounded approach to the function of articles, inspired from French noun phrases. It is claimed that entities occupy in reality various referring cases, which an agent capable to perceive its environment may represent and express. The model attempts to simulate the emergence of function words corresponding to articles, provided the distinct expression of referring cases is relevant for the tasks required from the agents in a computer simulation.
Interpenetration of Natural Polymer Aerogels by Supercritical Drying

Natural polymers, such as alginate and gelatin, can be used to produce scaffolds for tissue engineering applications; but, their mechanical and biochemical performance should be improved. A possible solution to obtain this result, is the generation of multi-component scaffolds, by blending two or more polymers. One way to realize it, is the formation of an interpenetrating polymer network (IPN). In this work, the interpenetration of alginate and gelatin hydrogels has been successfully obtained and preserved by supercritical CO2 (SC-CO2) drying performed at 200 bar and 35 °C, using different blend compositions: from alginate/gelatin = 20:80 v/v to alginate/gelatin = 80:20 v/v. The process allowed modulation of morphology and mechanical properties of these blends. The overall result was made possible by the supercritical drying process that, working at zero surface tension, allows preserving the hydrogels nanostructure in the corresponding aerogels.
The Impact of Stress, Burnout, and Personality on Physician Attitudes and Behaviors that Impact Patient Care

Physicians just want to practice good medical care. Years ago physicians would practice in a relatively autonomous environment depending upon their accrued knowledge, technical skills, and experience to make the appropriate medical decisions and provide the necessary interventions to deliver high quality care. Over the past twenty years the introduction of managed care, utilization controls, and risk based contracting started the era of external oversight of physician practices and outside intrusions telling physicians what they can and cannot do. Health Care Reform has added further fuel to the fire by introducing accountable health care initiatives holding physicians accountable for their performance by introducing a number of different performance metrics that measure satisfaction, quality, and safety, financially rewarding or penalizing physicians for their reported outcomes.
An Experiment on the Role of Pitch Intervals in Melodic Segmentation

This paper presents the results of an experiment to test the influence of IOI, dynamics, pitch change, and pitch direction change on melodic segmentation, extending an an earlier experiment [4]. The new results show little to no significant influence of pitch, when evaluated by a linear or log-linear statistical model with regression. This supports the earlier findings, which are in contrast to the commonly made assumption that greater pitch intervals lead to melodic segmentation.