Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Alpha-Tocopherol Reduces Brain Edema and Protects Blood-Brain Barrier Integrity following Focal Cerebral Ischemia in Rats

Objective: This study was conducted to examine the neuroprotective effects of α-tocopherol against edema formation and disruption of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) following transient focal cerebral ischemia in rats. Materials and Methods: Ninety-six male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into 3 major groups (n = 32 in each), namely the sham, and control and α-tocopherol-treated (30 mg/kg) ischemic groups. Transient focal cerebral ischemia (90 min) was induced by occlusion of the left middle cerebral artery. At the end of the 24-hour reperfusion period, the animals were randomly selected and used for 4 investigations (n = 8) in each of the 3 main groups: (a) assessment of neurological score and measurement of infarct size, (b) detection of brain edema formation by the wet/dry method, (c) evaluation of BBB permeability using the Evans blue (EB) extravasation technique, and (d) assessment of the malondialdehyde (MDA) and reduced glutathione (GSH) concentrations using high-performance liquid chromatography methods. Results: Induction of cerebral ischemia in the control group produced extensive brain edema (brain water content 83.8 ± 0.11%) and EB leakage into brain parenchyma (14.58 ± 1.29 µg/g) in conjunction with reduced GSH and elevated MDA levels (5.86 ± 0.31 mmol/mg and 63.57 ± 5.42 nmol/mg, respectively). Treatment with α-tocopherol significantly lowered brain edema formation and reduced EB leakage compared with the control group (p < 0.001, 80.1 ± 0.32% and 6.66 ± 0.87 µg/g, respectively). Meanwhile, treatment with α-tocopherol retained tissue GSH levels and led to a lower MDA level (p < 0.01, 10.17 ± 0.83 mmol/mg, and p < 0.001, 26.84 ± 4.79 nmol/mg, respectively). Conclusion: Treatment with α-tocopherol reduced ischemic edema formation and produced protective effects on BBB function following ischemic stroke occurrence. This effect could be through increasing antioxidant activity.
The feasibility of in-beam PET for accurate monitoring of proton therapy: results of a comprehensive experimental study

Positron emission tomography is currently the only feasible method for in-situ and non-invasive 3D monitoring of the precision of the treatment in highly conformal ion therapy. Its positive clinical impact has been proven for fractionated carbon ion therapy of head and neck tumours at the experimental facility at the Gesellschaft fur Schwerionenforschung Darmstadt (GSI), Germany. Following previous promising experiments, the possible extension of the method to the monitoring of proton therapy has been investigated further in extensive in-beam measurements at GSI. Millimetre accuracy for verification of the lateral field position and for the most challenging issue of range monitoring has been demonstrated in mono-energetic and SOBP proton irradiation of PMMA targets. The irradiation of an inhomogeneous phantom with tissue equivalent inserts in combination with further dynamic analysis has supported the extension of such millimetre precision to real clinical cases, at least in regions of interest for low perfused tissues. All the experimental investigations have been reproduced by the developed modeling rather well. This indicates the possible extraction of valuable clinical information as particle range in-vivo, irradiation field position and even local deviations from the dose prescription on the basis of the comparison between measured and predicted activity distributions. Hence, the clinical feasibility of in-beam PET for proton therapy monitoring is strongly supported.
The relationship between education and food consumption in the 1995 Australian National Nutrition Survey

Abstract Objective: To assess the relationship between education and the intake of a variety of individual foods, as well as groups of foods, for Australian men and women in different age groups. Design: Cross-sectional national survey of free-living men and women. Subjects: A sample of 2501 men and 2739 women aged 18 years and over who completed the National Nutrition Survey (NNS) 1995. Methods: Information about the frequency of consumption of 88 food items was obtained using a food-frequency questionnaire in a nation-wide nutrition survey. Irregular and regular consumers of foods were identified according to whether they consumed individual foods less than or more than once per month. The relationship between single foods and an index of education (no post-school qualifications, vocational, university) was analysed via contingency table chi-square statistics for men and women. Food group variety scores were derived by assigning individual foods to conventional food group taxonomies, and then summing the dichotomised intake scores for individual foods within each food group. Two-way analyses of variance (education by age groups) were performed on food variety scores for men and women, separately. Results: While university-educated men and women consumed many individual foods more regularly than less-educated people, they were less likely to be regular consumers of several meat products. The relationship between education and food consumption was less apparent when individual food scores were aggregated into food group scores. University-educated men and women exhibited higher scores on total food group variety than the other educational groups. Conclusions: Higher education is associated with the regular consumption of a wider variety of foods. Aggregation of individual food consumption indices into food variety scores may mask the apparent effects of educational background on food consumption.
Improved Medium Resolution Line Spread Functions for COS FUV Spectra

We have developed an improved line spread function (LSF) for the medium resolution farultraviolet gratings (G130M and G160M) of the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) by taking into account scattering in the far wings due to microroughness on the HST primary mirror. We start with the preliminary model LSFs that include the broad, non-Gaussian wings caused by mid-frequency wave-front errors (MFWFEs) that are produced by the zonal polishing errors on the HST primary and secondary mirrors. Since these LSFs only extend to ±50 pixels from line center, we extend these profiles to the full width of ±100 pixels observed for geocoronal Lyα using a power law profile. We optimize the normalization and index of the power-law extension by convolving a grid of model PSFs with high-resolution STIS echelle spectra of the star Sk-155 and comparing these to onorbit COS spectra. The best fits give a power-law index of -2.25 and show that additional light of ~3% in the extended wings is required. This low level of scattering is less than prelaunch expectations for HST, as also found by Hasan & Burroughs (1993) in longerwavelength WFPC observations. It also implies that COS internal scattering is nearly negligible. Overall, the system as a whole has impressively low scattering. We demonstrate the improvement in our characterization of the LSFs by deconvolving the Sk 155 COS spectrum in regions of saturated interstellar absorption lines. These lines are black and saturated in the deconvolved spectra, as seen in high-resolution STIS echelle spectra of the same target. We have placed the new model LSFs online for use by COS observers in analyzing their COS spectra.
Retroelements and the human genome: New perspectives on an old relation

Retroelements constitute a large portion of our genomes. One class of these elements, the human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs), is comprised of remnants of ancient exogenous retroviruses that have gained access to the germ line. After integration, most proviruses have been the subject of numerous amplifications and have suffered extensive deletions and mutations. Nevertheless, HERV-derived transcripts and proteins have been detected in healthy and diseased human tissues, and HERV-K, the youngest, most conserved family, is able to form virus-like particles. Although it is generally accepted that the integration of retroelements can cause significant harm by disrupting or disregulating essential genes, the role of HERV expression in the etiology of malignancies and autoimmune and neurologic diseases remains controversial. In recent years, striking evidence has accumulated indicating that some proviral sequences and HERV proteins might even serve the needs of the host and are therefore under positive selection. The remarkable progress in the analysis of host genomes has brought to light the significant impact of HERVs and other retroelements on genetic variation, genome evolution, and gene regulation.
RTV: Tree Kernels for Thematic Role Classification

We present a simple, two-steps supervised strategy for the identification and classification of thematic roles in natural language texts. We employ no external source of information but automatic parse trees of the input sentences. We use a few attribute-value features and tree kernel functions applied to specialized structured features. The resulting system has an F1 of 75.44 on the SemEval2007 closed task on semantic role labeling.
Transport in the XX chain at zero temperature: emergence of flat magnetization profiles.

We study the connection between magnetization transport and magnetization profiles in zero-temperature XX chains. The time evolution of the transverse magnetization m(x,t) is calculated using an inhomogeneous initial state that is the ground state at fixed magnetization but with m reversed from -m(0) for x<0 to m(0) for x>0. In the long-time limit, the magnetization evolves into a scaling form m(x,t)=Phi(x/t) and the profile develops a flat part (m=Phi=0) in the (x/t)<or=c(m(0)) region. The flat region shrinks to zero if m(0)-->1/2 while it expands with the maximum velocity c(0)=1 for m(0)-->0. The states emerging in the scaling limit are compared to those of a homogeneous system where the same magnetization current is driven by a bulk field, and we find that the expectation values of various quantities (energy, occupation number in the fermionic representation) agree in the two systems.
Commentary-based video categorization and concept discovery

Social network contents are not limited to text but also multimedia. Dailymotion, YouTube, and MySpace are examples of successful sites which allow users to share videos among themselves. Due to the huge amount of videos, grouping videos with similar contents together can help users to search videos more efficiently. Unlike the traditional approach to group videos into some predefined categories, we propose a novel comment-based matrix factorization technique to categorize videos and generate concept words to facilitate searching and indexing. Since the categorization is learnt from users feedback, it can accurately represent the user sentiment on the videos. Experiments conducted by using empirical data collected from YouTube shows the effectiveness of our proposed methodologies.
Plasmonic triple-wavelength demultiplexing structure based on metal-insulator-metal waveguides side-coupled with nanoring cavities

从理论上和数值上研究了一种基于金属-绝缘体-金属波导耦合纳米腔的等离子体三波分复用结构。 该结构由三个输出通道组成，每个通道由两个纳米腔分布于直波导两侧。 通过改变环的几何参数、填充介质和内圆和外圆的相对位置，可以动态地调节每个通道的反射和透射光谱。 最后，根据三个通道的反射和透射特性，研究了在三个通信波长1 310、1 490和1 550 nm处实现的解复用，并具有优良的性能。 将时域耦合模理论和时域有限差分法（FDTD）结合起来进行仿真和分析，为芯片集成全光电路的应用提供了可能。
Increased plasma concentrations of soluble ST2 are predictive for 1-year mortality in patients with acute destabilized heart failure.

BACKGROUND The soluble isoform of the interleukin-1 receptor family member ST2 (sST2) has been implicated in heart failure. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the capability of sST2 as a prognostic marker in patients with acute destabilized heart failure. METHODS sST2 plasma concentrations were obtained in 137 patients with acute destabilized heart failure attending the emergency department of a tertiary care hospital. The endpoint was defined as all-cause mortality, and the study participants were followed up for 365 days. RESULTS Of the 137 patients enrolled, 41 died and 96 survived during follow-up. At baseline the median sST2 plasma concentration was significantly higher in the patients who died than in those who survived (870 vs 342 ng/L, P <0.001). Kaplan-Meier curve analyses demonstrated that the risk ratios for mortality were 2.45 (95% CI, 0.88-6.31; P = 0.086) and 6.63 (95% CI, 2.55-10.89; P <0.001) in the second tercile (sST2, 300-700 ng/L; 11 deaths vs 34 survivors) and third tercile (sST2, >700 ng/L; 25 deaths vs 21 survivors) of sST2 plasma concentrations compared with the first tercile (sST2, < or =300 ng/L; 5 deaths vs 41 survivors). In multivariable Cox proportional-hazards regression analyses, an sST2 plasma concentration in the upper tercile was a strong and independent predictor of all-cause mortality. CONCLUSIONS Increased sST2 concentrations determined in plasma samples drawn from patients with acute destabilized heart failure at their initial presentation indicate increased risk of future mortality. Increased sST2 plasma concentrations are independently and strongly associated with one-year all-cause mortality in these patients.
Price Modification Attack and Protection Scheme in Smart Grid

Smart grid addresses the problem of existing power grid’s increasing complexity, growing demand, and requirement for greater reliability through two-way communication and automated residential load control among others. These features also make the smart grid a target for a number of cyber attacks. In this paper, we study the problem of price modification attack (PMA) through fabrication of price messages, which induces changes in load profiles of individual users and eventually causes major alteration in the load profile of the entire network. Combining with cascading failure, it ends up with a highly damaging attack. We prove that the problem is nondeterministic polynomial-time-complete and provide its inapproximability. We devise two approaches for the problem, the former deals with maximizing failure of lines with the given resource and then extending the effect with cascading failure, while the later takes cascading potential into account while choosing the lines to fail. We formulate new protection strategy against PMA and this includes two new algorithms, namely bi-level programming with new branching method and an effective heuristic to improve the running time. Empirical results on both IEEE bus data and real network help us evaluate our approaches under various settings of grid parameters.
Multifunctional analysis of Chlamydia‐specific genes in a yeast expression system

Our understanding of how obligate intracellular pathogens co‐opt eukaryotic cellular functions has been limited by their intractability to genetic manipulation and by the abundance of pathogen‐specific genes with no known functional homologues. In this report we describe a gene expression system to characterize proteins of unknown function from the obligate intracellular bacterial pathogen Chlamydia trachomatis. We have devised a homologous recombination‐based cloning strategy to construct an ordered array of Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains expressing all Chlamydia‐specific genes. These strains were screened to identify chlamydial proteins that impaired various yeast cellular functions or that displayed tropism towards eukaryotic organelles. In addition, to identify bacterial factors that are secreted into the host cell, recombinant chlamydial proteins were screened for reactivity towards antisera raised against vacuolar membranes purified from infected mammalian cells. We report the identification of 34 C. trachomatis proteins that impact yeast cellular functions or are tropic for a range of eukaryotic organelles including mitochondria, nucleus and cytoplasmic lipid droplets, and a new family of Chlamydia‐specific proteins that are exported from the parasitopherous vacuole. The versatility of molecular manipulations and protein expression in yeast allows for the rapid construction of comprehensive protein expression arrays to explore the function of pathogen‐specific gene products from microorganisms that are difficult to genetically manipulate, grow in culture or too dangerous for routine analysis in the laboratory.
Plasmids carrying antimicrobial resistance genes in Enterobacteriaceae

Bacterial antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is constantly evolving and horizontal gene transfer through plasmids plays a major role. The identification of plasmid characteristics and their association with different bacterial hosts provides crucial knowledge that is essential to understand the contribution of plasmids to the transmission of AMR determinants. Molecular identification of plasmid and strain genotypes elicits a distinction between spread of AMR genes by plasmids and dissemination of these genes by spread of bacterial clones. For this reason several methods are used to type the plasmids, e.g. PCR-based replicon typing (PBRT) or relaxase typing. Currently, there are 28 known plasmid types in Enterobacteriaceae distinguished by PBRT. Frequently reported plasmids [IncF, IncI, IncA/C, IncL (previously designated IncL/M), IncN and IncH] are the ones that bear the greatest variety of resistance genes. The purpose of this review is to provide an overview of all known AMR-related plasmid families in Enterobacteriaceae, the resistance genes they carry and their geographical distribution.
Genomic analysis of diversity, population structure, virulence, and antimicrobial resistance in Klebsiella pneumoniae, an urgent threat to public health

Significance Klebsiella pneumoniae is rapidly becoming untreatable using last-line antibiotics. It is especially problematic in hospitals, where it causes a range of acute infections. To approach controlling such a bacterium, we first must define what it is and how it varies genetically. Here we have determined the DNA sequence of K. pneumoniae isolates from around the world and present a detailed analysis of these data. We show that there is a wide spectrum of diversity, including variation within shared sequences and gain and loss of whole genes. Using this detailed blueprint, we show that there is an unrecognized association between the possession of specific gene profiles associated with virulence and antibiotic resistance and the differing disease outcomes seen for K. pneumoniae. Klebsiella pneumoniae is now recognized as an urgent threat to human health because of the emergence of multidrug-resistant strains associated with hospital outbreaks and hypervirulent strains associated with severe community-acquired infections. K. pneumoniae is ubiquitous in the environment and can colonize and infect both plants and animals. However, little is known about the population structure of K. pneumoniae, so it is difficult to recognize or understand the emergence of clinically important clones within this highly genetically diverse species. Here we present a detailed genomic framework for K. pneumoniae based on whole-genome sequencing of more than 300 human and animal isolates spanning four continents. Our data provide genome-wide support for the splitting of K. pneumoniae into three distinct species, KpI (K. pneumoniae), KpII (K. quasipneumoniae), and KpIII (K. variicola). Further, for K. pneumoniae (KpI), the entity most frequently associated with human infection, we show the existence of >150 deeply branching lineages including numerous multidrug-resistant or hypervirulent clones. We show K. pneumoniae has a large accessory genome approaching 30,000 protein-coding genes, including a number of virulence functions that are significantly associated with invasive community-acquired disease in humans. In our dataset, antimicrobial resistance genes were common among human carriage isolates and hospital-acquired infections, which generally lacked the genes associated with invasive disease. The convergence of virulence and resistance genes potentially could lead to the emergence of untreatable invasive K. pneumoniae infections; our data provide the whole-genome framework against which to track the emergence of such threats.
Managing derivative SoC design projects to better results

Many companies have moved to implementing a "platform chip" or derivative design strategy to preserve their investment in design tools. But physical design is proving to be a broken link in the efficiency chain. In most cases, SoC derivatives are completely new from a physical design standpoint. This paper presents techniques and tools a design manager can use to improve predictability, quality and throughput, including a design maturity workflow model that breaks down the SoC design process into four successive standard phases.
Family-Centered Early Intervention Services: Factors Contributing to Increased Parent Involvement and Participation

The focus of early intervention and the roles that parents play in planning and implementing services have evolved from an institution/agency approach to a child-centered approach and finally to a family-centered approach. Parents, in their roles as consumers of early intervention services and advocates on behalf of their children, have had a significant impact on the development and implementation of family-centered services. This article provides an overview of two major factors that have influenced the level of parent/family participation in early intervention services. These include (a) an increased focus on families in both state and federal early intervention legislation and (b) the incorporation of social systems frameworks for better understanding child, parent, and family functioning. These conceptual frameworks include family systems theory, ecological theory, the transactional model of development, and social support theory. The article also summarizes the dimensions of family participation in early intervention program practices. Involvement of families in early intervention program services has generally taken two forms, one as teacher/therapist participant in service provision and the other as client or recipient of intervention services. This new client or recipient role for families continues to be the focus of many early intervention programs today.
GPUnet

Despite the popularity of GPUs in high-performance and scientific computing, and despite increasingly general-purpose hardware capabilities, the use of GPUs in network servers or distributed systems poses significant challenges. GPUnet is a native GPU networking layer that provides a socket abstraction and high-level networking APIs for GPU programs. We use GPUnet to streamline the development of high-performance, distributed applications like in-GPU-memory MapReduce and a new class of low-latency, high-throughput GPU-native network services such as a face verification server.