Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Churg‐Strauss syndrome with coexistence of eosinophilic vasculitis, granulomatous phlebitis and granulomatous dermatitis in bullous pemphigoid‐like blisters

The main histopathological features in the cutaneous lesions of Churg‐Strauss syndrome (CSS) are dermal leukocytoclastic vasculitis with a variable eosinophilic infiltrate and non‐vasculitic tissue eosinophilia with granuloma formation. This wide histopathological spectrum may account for the various skin manifestations of CSS. However, the unique histopathological combination of dermal eosinophilic vasculitis and subcutaneous granulomatous phlebitis accompanied by bulla formation has not been previously described. We report an unusual CSS case showing dermal necrotizing eosinophilic vasculitis and granulomatous phlebitis in purpuric lesions coupled with subepidermal blistering. The blisters showed dermal granulomatous dermatitis and eosinophilia without evidence of vasculitis. Dermal necrotizing eosinophilic vasculitis was characterized by fibrinoid alteration of the vessel wall, a prominent perivascular eosinophilic infiltrate, a few infiltrating histiocytes along the affected vessel wall, and the absence of neutrophilic infiltration. The underlying subcutaneous granulomatous phlebitis was characterized by an angiocentric histiocytic infiltrate surrounded by marked eosinophilic infiltrate. Deposition of cytotoxic proteins and radicals derived from eosinophils in the vessel walls and papillary dermis followed by a secondary granulomatous response may account for the unique clinical and histopathological features in this case.
Voltage clamp measurements of sodium channel properties in rabbit cardiac Purkinje fibres.

1. Voltage clamp studies of the excitatory sodium current, INa, were carried out in rabbit cardiac Purkinje fibres using th two‐micro‐electrode technique. Previous work has shown the rabbit Purkinje fibre to have relatively simple morphology (Sommer & Johnson, 1968) and electrical structure (Colatsky & Tsien, 1979a) compared to other cardiac preparations. 2. Non‐uniformities in membrane potential were kept small by reducing the size of INa to less than 50 microA/cm2 of total membrane surface area through prepulse inactivation or removal of external sodium, Nao. Temporal resolution was improved by cooling to 10‐26 degrees C. These adjustments did not greatly alter the measured properties of the sodium channel. 3. Under these conditions, sodium currents were recorded satisfying a number of criteria for adequate voltage control. Direct measurement of longitudinal non‐uniformity using a second voltage electrode showed only small deviations at the time of peak current. 4. The properties of the sodium channel were examined using conventional protocols. Both peak sodium permeability, PNa, and steady‐state sodium inactivation, h infinity, showed a sigmoidal dependence on membrane potential. PNa rose steeply with small depolarizations, increasing roughly e‐fold per 3.2 mV, and reaching half‐maximal activation at ‐30 +/‐ 2 mV. The h infinity ‐V curve had a midpoint of ‐74.9 +/‐ 2 mV and a reciprocal slope of 4.56 +/‐ 0.13 mV at temperatures of 10‐19.5 degrees C, and showed a dependence on temperature, shifting to more negative potentials with cooling (approximately 3 mV/10 degrees C). Recovery of INa from inactivation in double pulse experiments followed a single exponential time course with time constants of 108‐200 msec at 19 degrees C for holding potentials near ‐80 mV. No attempt was made to describe the activation kinetics because of uncertainties about the early time course of the current. 5. These data predict a maximum duration for INa of less than 1‐2 msec and a maximum peak current density of about 500 microA/cm2 under physiological conditions, i.e. 37 degrees C and 150 mM‐Nao. This current magnitude is sufficient to discharge the membrane capacitance at rates comparable to those measured experimentally (311 +/‐ 27 V/sec, Colatsky & Tsien, 1979a). 6. The limitations of the method are discussed. The major problem is the longitudinal cable delay which limits the speed of voltage control. This makes it difficult to separate the activation of INa from the decay of the capacity transient for potentials positive to ‐15 mV. 7. It is concluded that the approach described is valid for measurements of sodium currents in the potential range where action potentials are initiated, making it possible to study cardiac sodium channels in an adult mammalian preparation which is free of enzymatic treatment.
Drug Use among African Americans: Ethnic Identity as a Protective Factor

This study examined the multiple components of ethnic identity, the place of this ethnic identity set in the mediational model of the path to drug use predicted by our family interactional framework, and the protective role of each component of ethnic identity. The participants were 259 male and 368 female African Americans in late adolescence. They responded to a structured questionnaire in individual interviews. We found that few of the specific components of ethnic identity were significantly related as main effects to drug use. Most of the effect of ethnic identity was mediated by the family set of variables. Each of the components of ethnic identity offset risks or enhanced protective factors from the ecology, family, personality, and peer domains, thereby lessening drug use. This pattern highlights the importance of incorporating ethnic identity into drug prevention programs which serve African-American youth.
Modeling the Broad-Band Emission from the Gamma-Ray Emitting Narrow-Line Seyfert-1 Galaxies 1H 0323+342 and B2 0954+25A

Prior to the Fermi-LAT era, only two classes of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) were thought to harbor relativistic jets that radiate up to gamma-ray energies: blazars and radio galaxies. The detection of variable gamma-ray emission from Narrow Line Seyfert 1 (NLSy1) galaxies has put them on the spotlight as a new class of gamma-ray emitting AGN. \textbf{In this respect, gamma-ray emitting NLSy1s seem to be situated between blazars (dominated by non-thermal emission) and Seyferts (accretion disc dominated). In this work, we model the Spectral Energy Distribution (SED) of two gamma-loud NLSy1s, 1H 0323+ 342 and B2 0954+25A, during quiescent and flaring episodes via a multi-component radiative model that features a relativistic jet and external photon fields from the torus, disk, corona and Broad Line Region (BLR). We find that the interpretation of the high-energy emission of jetted NLSy1s requires taking into account Inverse Compton emission from particles in the relativistic jet that interact with external photon fields. Minimal changes are applied to the model parameters to transition from average to flaring states. In this scenario, the observed variability is explained mainly by means of changes in the jet density and Doppler factor.
Vers des systèmes de fenêtrage distribués : l'évolution du drag-and-drop

Ce memoire a pour objectif l'etude des interactions qui interviennent dans les environnements ou plusieurs surfaces d'affichage et dispositifs de pointage sont mis a disposition du ou des utilisateurs, que ces environnements soient distribues ou non. Nous nous sommes plus particulierement interesses aux techniques de type drag-and-drop dans le contexte du mur-ecran. Le drag-and-drop est une technique tres repandue qui atteint ses limites dans certaines conditions d'utilisation. Ces limites peuvent etre physiques -- avec des ecrans interactifs par exemple -- ou dues a l'implementation. D'une part, ce memoire propose plusieurs evolutions du drag-and-drop, avec comme objectif de depasser les limites physiques du drag-and-drop. En particulier, il devient possible de depasser les limites de la loi de Fitts ainsi que les limites physiques des surfaces d'affichage. Un ensemble de techniques de types drag-and-drop issues de l'etat de l'art ou proposees dans ce memoire font l'objet d'etudes utilisateurs. A l'issue de ces etudes, deux techniques ressortent principalement : le push-and-pop et le push-and-throw accelere. D'autre part, afin de depasser les limites dues a l'implementation du drag-and-drop, nous proposons un modele d'implementation pour le drag-and-drop et l'ensemble de ses evolutions. Ce modele d'implementation s'appuie sur le modele d'interaction instrumentale. Ce modele d'implementation est mis en oeuvre dans l'API PoIP, elle-meme utilisee dans l'application Orchis. Grâce a ce modele, il est possible d'effectuer des operations de type drag-and-drop distribuees, la technique d'interaction pouvant etre personnalisee en fonction des contraintes materielles ou des preferences de l'utilisateur.
Trends and patterns in sustainable tourism research: a 25-year bibliometric analysis

In the quarter of a century since the release of the 1987 Brundtland Report, sustainable tourism has emerged as the dominant paradigm in tourism development. However, the debate, discourse, and criticism of this subfield of tourism research continues. To address such concerns the purpose of this paper is to explore trends and patterns in sustainable tourism research over the past 25 years. A 25-year bibliometric analysis was conducted for the four highest ranked journals in the tourism field. Results indicate that the growth in sustainable tourism research has been remarkable, with 492 papers published in these four journals and almost half of these in the last two years of the analysis. The largest proportion of papers published on sustainable tourism was case studies, empirical studies, and critical reviews. This study found that while the theoretical and methodological approaches appear to have matured over time, the subjects and themes in sustainable tourism research, with some exceptions, have remained constant. However, the field is clearly maturing with a move away from definitional and conceptual papers to papers focused on testing and applying theory through empirical research.
Spam detection system: A new approach based on interval type-2 fuzzy sets

Rapid growth of the internet users and their use of email on one hand and the exponential increase of unsolicited users sending spam have made the email system unreliable. There are several intelligent anti spam systems which use different AI techniques to filter out spam including Neural Networks and Fuzzy Logic systems. This paper presents a spam detection system based on interval type-2 fuzzy sets. Obtained results demonstrate the potentials of interval type-2 fuzzy set as an effective technique in spam detection and email classification. The proposed system also enables the user to have more control over the various categories of spam and permits the personalization of the spam filter.
Ongoing TCP Research Related to Satellites

This document outlines possible TCP enhancements that may allow TCP to better utilize the available bandwidth provided by networks containing satellite links. The algorithms and mechanisms outlined have not been judged to be mature enough to be recommended by the IETF. The goal of this document is to educate researchers as to the current work and progress being done in TCP research related to satellite networks.
Ecology of mites (Acarina) on small mammals (Eulipotyphla, Rodentia) in Podunajská nížina plain

This study deals with the species distribution and structure of mite communities living in the fur of small mammals. Mesostigmatic mites (Acarina: Mesostigmata) of several small mammal species were studied at several sites of Slovakia situated in the Podunajská nížna lowland. The aims deal with ecological evaluation of mesostigmatic mites and their small mammal hosts. The research was done from 2005 to 2007. Several small mammal species were caught at 16 sites in the research area. These represent 13 types of biotopes. On the captured small mammals we recorded 3,141 individuals of mesostigmatic mites (7 families and 22 species). The dominance and the diversity of the recorded mites were analysed. Mites being interpreted as the variable one were evaluated by cluster analysis and multifactor analysis (detrended correspondence analysis, principal components analysis, redundancy analysis). Small terrestrial mammals as hosts of mites represent “holders” of environmental factors, in the analysis they are being evaluated as explanatory variable mainly. They transform direct impact of the environment and for that reason the ecological evaluation of mites is specific comparing to other taxonomical and ecological groups of animals.
Induction of erythroid differentiation and modulation of gene expression by tiazofurin in K-562 leukemia cells.

Tiazofurin (2-beta-D-ribofuranosyl-4-thiazole-carboxamide; NSC 286193), an antitumor carbon-linked nucleoside that inhibits IMP dehydrogenase (IMP:NAD+ oxidoreductase; EC 1.1.1.205) and depletes guanylate levels, can activate the erythroid differentiation program of K-562 human leukemia cells. Tiazofurin-mediated cell differentiation is a multistep process. The inducer initiates early (less than 6 hr) metabolic changes that precede commitment to differentiation; among these early changes are decreases in IMP dehydrogenase activity and in GTP concentration, as well as alterations in the expression of certain protooncogenes (c-Ki-ras). K-562 cells do express commitment-i.e., cells exhibit differentiation without tiazofurin. Guanosine was effective in preventing the action of tiazofurin, thus providing evidence that the guanine nucleotides are critically involved in tiazofurin-initiated differentiation. Activation of transcription of the erythroid-specific gene that encodes A gamma-globin is a late (48 hr) but striking effect of tiazofurin. Down-regulation of the c-ras gene appears to be part of the complex process associated with tiazofurin-induced erythroid differentiation and relates to the perturbations of GTP metabolism.
Detecting Protein Complexes Based on Uncertain Graph Model

Advanced biological technologies are producing large-scale protein-protein interaction (PPI) data at an ever increasing pace, which enable us to identify protein complexes from PPI networks. Pair-wise protein interactions can be modeled as a graph, where vertices represent proteins and edges represent PPIs. However most of current algorithms detect protein complexes based on deterministic graphs, whose edges are either present or absent. Neighboring information is neglected in these methods. Based on the uncertain graph model, we propose the concept of expected density to assess the density degree of a subgraph, the concept of relative degree to describe the relationship between a protein and a subgraph in a PPI network. We develop an algorithm called DCU (detecting complex based on uncertain graph model) to detect complexes from PPI networks. In our method, the expected density combined with the relative degree is used to determine whether a subgraph represents a complex with high cohesion and low coupling. We apply our method and the existing competing algorithms to two yeast PPI networks. Experimental results indicate that our method performs significantly better than the state-of-the-art methods and the proposed model can provide more insights for future study in PPI networks.
Stochastic analysis of distributed deadlock scheduling

Deadlock detection scheduling is an important, yet oft-overlooked problem that can significantly affect the overall performance of deadlock handling.An excessive initiation of deadlock detection increases overall message usage, resulting in degraded system performance in the absence of deadlocks; while a deficient initiation of deadlock detection increases the deadlock persistence time, resulting in an increased deadlock resolution cost in the presence of deadlocks. Such a performance tradeoff, however, is generally missing in literature. In this paper we study the impact of deadlock detection scheduling on the system performance, and show that there exists an optimal deadlock detection frequency that yields the minimum long-run mean average cost associated with the message complexity of deadlock detection and resolution algorithms, and the rate of deadlock formation, λ. Based on the up-to-date deadlock detection and resolution algorithms, we show that the asymptotically optimal frequency of deadlock detection scheduling that minimizes the message overhead is cal O((λ n)1/3), when the total number of processes n is sufficiently large. Furthermore, we show that in general fully distributed (uncoordinated) deadlock detection scheduling can not be performed as efficiently as centralized (coordinated) deadlock detection scheduling.
9 Bioheat Transfer

Heat transfer in living tissues is a complicated process because it involves a combination of thermal conduction in tissues, convection and perfusion of blood, and metabolic heat production. Over the years, several mathematical models have been developed to describe heat transfer within living biological tissues. These models have been widely used in the analysis of hyperthermia in cancer treatment, laser surgery, cryosurgery, cryopreservation, thermal comfort, and many other applications. The most widely used bioheat model was introduced by Pennes in 1948. Pennes proposed a new simplified bioheat model to describe the effect of blood perfusion and metabolic heat generation on heat transfer within a living tissue. Since the landmark paper by Pennes (1948), his model has been widely used by many researchers for the analysis of bioheat transfer phenomena. And, also a large number of bioheat transfer models have been proposed to overcome the shortcomings of Pennes’ equation. These models include the continuum models which consider the thermal impact of all blood vessels as a global parameter and the vascular models which consider the thermal impact of each vessel individually. Although, several bioheat models have been developed in the recent years, the thermoregulatory control mechanisms of the human body such as shivering, regulatory sweating, vasodilation, and vasoconstriction have not been considered in these models. On the other hand, these mechanisms may significantly influence the thermal conditions of the human body. This causes a serious limitation in using the bioheat models for evaluating the human body thermal response. In order to remove this limitation, Zolfaghari and Maerefat (2010) developed a new Simplified Thermoregulatory Bioheat (STB) model based on the combination of the well-known Pennes’ equation and Gagge’s thermal comfort model. The present chapter aims at giving a concise introduction to bioheat transfer and the mathematical models for evaluating the heat transfer within biological tissues. This chapter is divided into six sections. The first section presents an introduction to the concept and history of bioheat transfer. The structure of living tissues with blood perfusion is described in section 2. Next, third section focuses on the mathematical modelling of heat transfer in living tissues. In the mentioned section, a brief description of some of the most important bioheat models (i.e. Pennes (1948) model, Wulff (1974) model, Klinger (1974) model, Chen and Holmes (1980) model and so on) is presented. Afterwards, section 4 explains the complexity of evaluating heat transfer within the tissues that thermally controlled by thermoregulatory mechanisms such as shivering, regulatory sweating, vasodilation, and
The heart-forming fields: one or multiple?

The recent identification of a second mesodermal region as a source of cardiomyocytes has challenged the views on the formation of the heart. This second source of cardiomyocytes is localized centrally on the embryonic disc relative to the remainder of the classic cardiac crescent, a region also called the pharyngeal mesoderm. In this review, we discuss the concept of the primary and secondary cardiogenic fields in the context of folding of the embryo, and the subsequent temporal events involved in formation of the heart. We suggest that, during evolution, the heart developed initially only with the components required for a systemic circulation, namely a sinus venosus, a common atrium, a ‘left’ ventricle and an arterial cone, the latter being the myocardial outflow tract as seen in the heart of primitive fishes. These components developed in their entirety from the classic cardiac crescent. Only later in the course of evolution did the appearance of novel signalling pathways permit the central part of the cardiac crescent, and possibly the contiguous pharyngeal mesoderm, to develop into the cardiac components required for the pulmonary circulation. These latter components comprise the right ventricle, and that part of the left atrium that derives from the mediastinal myocardium, namely the dorsal atrial wall and the atrial septum. It is these elements which are now recognized as developing from the second field of pharyngeal mesoderm. We suggest that, rather than representing development from separate fields, the cardiac components required for both the systemic and pulmonary circulations are derived by patterning from a single cardiac field, albeit with temporal delay in the process of formation.
OLD-GROWTH SPRUCE-FIR FORESTS IN THE PLAIN AREA OF THE KOMI REPUBLIC

Old-growth spruce and spruce-fir forests can be extremely variable in the composition and diversity of their ground layer of vegetation, sometimes with over 10 times difference in diversity between various forests. What is the reason for such a big difference? Here we propose a hypothesis that the ground layer of vegetation is most strongly affected by fire history of boreal forest ecosystems. We estimated composition, structure and diversity of vascular plant and bryophyte species in seven forest types in old-growth forests dominated by either Picea obovate or Picea obovate together with Abies sibirica, which were located in the plains of the Komi Republic. All the study areas were either at elevated or hilly plains with good and moderate drainage, or in valleys of small rivers and streams, away from wets and bogs. We analyzed Landolt’s species ecological values, coverage of vegetation layers and deadwoods at different stages of decay, bedrock parameters, and soil charcoals in order to explain differences in the plant species composition and diversity. We showed that there are weak but statistically significant correlations between the coverage of deadwoods at different decay stages and vascular species composition and a positive correlation between the total deadwood coverage and bryophyte species diversity. Among the studied forests, those that are dominated by boreal and nitrophilous tall herbs (located in watersheds and in river valleys respectively), have no fire scars on stems of Pinus spp. and almost no charcoal in the soil and demonstrate the highest species diversity. We estimated that these forests have not experienced fires for over 400 years. In contrast, the diversity of vascular plants in the forests dominated by green mosses, dwarf shrubs, small boreal herbs and large ferns was low; we evaluated that the last time when these forests suffered intense multiple fires was at least 150 years ago.
Effect of vitamin K2 on experimental calcinosis induced by vitamin D2 in rat soft tissue.

The effect of vitamin K2 on calcium (Ca) and inorganic phosphorus (P) levels in the aorta and kidney obtained from experimental calcinosis induced by vitamin D2(2.5 x 10(5) I.U. / kg b.w. ) of male rats was investigated. A high dose of vitamin K2 (100 mg/kg b.w.) inhibited the increase in the aortic Ca and P or in the renal Ca and P induced by vitamin D2, and a low dose of vitamin K2 (10 mg/kg b.w.) showed the same tendency, but the degree of the efficacy was small. It may be suggested that a high dose of vitamin K2 suppressed experimental calcification of soft tissues induced by vitamin D2. Therefore, a pharmacological dose of vitamin K2 might have a usefulness for the prevention and treatment of arteriosclerosis with calcification.