Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Acute Necrotizing Encephalopathy in a Child during the 2009 Influenza A(H1N1) Pandemia: MR Imaging in Diagnosis and Follow-Up

SUMMARY: The recently emerged novel influenza A(H1N1) virus continues to spread globally. The clinical disease generally appears mild, but unfavorable outcomes have been reported. We describe a case of a 3-year-old Italian girl infected with influenza A(H1N1) virus presenting with neurologic deterioration. CT findings were negative, but MR imaging findings were consistent with ANE. To our knowledge, this is the first case reported in Europe and the second in worldwide pediatric radiology literature.
Implementation of auto-rectification and depth estimation of stereo video in a real-time smart camera system

In this paper, we present a real-time, low power, and wireless embedded stereo vision system. The system consists of WiCa board (wireless camera board) and the methods developed using a smart camera processor, IC3D. IC3D is an SIMD video-analysis processor that has 320 processor elements. The proposed auto-rectification method is suitable for a parallel stereo system like WiCa. It is based on the matching of a planar background. After rectification, the two images of the background are coincident with each other, i.e., both the vertical and horizontal disparity of the background plane is removed. Then a dense matching method is implemented to achieve the depth map of the foreground object. Left-to-right checking and reliability checking is applied to reduce the error of the estimated depth. The system runs at 30 fps and handles disparity up to 37 pixels in CIF (320times240 pixels) mode.
Asymmetric triangular body-cover model of the VFs with bilateral intrinsic muscle activation

Many voice disorders are linked to imbalanced muscle activity and known to exhibit asymmetric vocal fold vibration. However, the relation between imbalanced muscle activation and asymmetric vocal fold vibration is not well understood. This study introduces an asymmetric triangular body-cover model of the vocal folds, controlled by the activation of intrinsic laryngeal muscles, to investigate the effects of muscle imbalance on vocal fold oscillation. Various scenarios were considered, encompassing imbalance in individual muscles and muscle pairs, as well as accounting for asymmetry in lumped element parameters. The results highlight the antagonistic effect between the thyroarytenoid and cricothyroid muscles on the elastic and mass components of the vocal folds, as well as the impact on the vocal process from the imbalance in the lateral cricoarytenoid and interarytenoid adductor muscles. Measurements of amplitude and phase asymmetry were employed to emulate the oscillatory behavior of two pathological cases: unilateral paralysis and muscle tension dysphonia. The resulting simulations exhibit muscle imbalance consistent with expectations in the composition of these voice disorders, yielding asymmetries exceeding 30% for paralysis and below 5% for dysphonia. This underscores the versatility of muscle imbalance in representing phonatory scenarios and its potential for characterizing asymmetry in vocal fold vibration.
Is There an Opportunity for Current Chemotherapeutics to Up-regulate MIC-A/B Ligands?

Natural killer (NK) cells are critical effectors of the immune system. NK cells recognize unhealthy cells by specific ligands [e.g., MHC- class I chain related protein A or B (MIC-A/B)] for further elimination by cytotoxicity. Paradoxically, cancer cells down-regulate MIC-A/B and evade NK cell’s anticancer activity. Recent data indicate that cellular-stress induces MIC-A/B, leading to enhanced sensitivity of cancer cells to NK cell-mediated cytotoxicity. In this Perspective article, we hypothesize that current chemotherapeutics at sub-lethal, non-toxic dose may promote cellular-stress and up-regulate the expression of MIC-A/B ligands to augment cancer’s sensitivity to NK cell-mediated cytotoxicity. Preliminary data from two human breast cancer cell lines, MDA-MB-231 and T47D treated with clinically relevant therapeutics such as doxorubicin, paclitaxel and methotrexate support the hypothesis. The goal of this Perspective is to underscore the prospects of current chemotherapeutics in NK cell immunotherapy, and discuss potential challenges and opportunities to improve cancer therapy.
Optimised plasmids for sustained transgene expression in vivo

Plasmid based gene therapy approaches often lack long term transgene expression in vivo due to silencing or loss of the vector. One way to overcome these limitations is to combine non-silenced promoters with strong viral enhancers. Here we combine cytomegalovirus (CMV) derived enhancer elements with the strong, human elongation factor 1 alpha (EF1a) promoter in a plasmid backbone devoid of potentially immunostimulating CpG sequences. The transgene expression of plasmids containing either the murine or human immediate early enhancer were monitored in vivo. The human CMV enhancer led to an enhanced and prolonged transgene signal compared to the murine enhancer. The elevated expression in the case of the human enhancer correlated with a higher plasmid copy number found in the liver two months after gene delivery. The transgene expression could be even further increased by using a new synthetic promoter, SCEP (shuffled CMV EF1 promoter) instead of the EF1 promoter, in combination with the human CMV enhancer. Secondly, to reach a tissue specific and high expression in liver carcinoma a plasmid with the AFP promoter was combined with the human CMV enhancer.
Exploring organizational citizenship behaviour from an organizational perspective: The relationship between organizational learning and organizational citizenship behaviour

The present study explored the issue of organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB) as a context-related phenomenon, from a multidimensional perspective. More specifically, it was hypothesized that organizational learning (structures and learning values) would be positively related to (a) OCB that benefited the organization as a whole (OCBO) and (b) OCB that immediately benefited particular individuals (OCBI). The hypotheses identified the school as the unit of analysis; so all variables were aggregates of individual responses to the organizational level of analysis. Justification for aggregation was provided by a within-group similarity index (r wg ) and a within- and between-entities analysis (WABA). Results from a sample of 31 schools confirmed the main hypotheses, and generally supported the notion that OCB could be treated as a context-related phenomenon. These results should encourage researchers and practitioners to focus more attention on the organizational context and its characteristics as related to OCB.
Signal peptide fragments of preprolactin and HIV‐1 p‐gp160 interact with calmodulin

Secretory proteins and most membrane proteins are synthesized with a signal sequence that is usually cleaved from the nascent polypeptide during transport into the lumen of the endoplasmic reticulum. Using site‐specific photo‐crosslinking we have followed the fate of the signal sequence of preprolactin in a cell‐free system. This signal sequence has an unusually long hydrophilic n‐region containing several positively charged amino acid residues. We found that after cleavage by signal peptidase the signal sequence is in contact with lipids and subunits of the signal peptidase complex. The cleaved signal sequence is processed further and an N‐terminal fragment is released into the cytosol. This signal peptide fragment was found to interact efficiently with calmodulin. Similar to preprolactin, the signal sequence of the HIV‐1 envelope protein p‐gp160 has the characteristic feature for calmodulin binding in its n‐region. We found that a signal peptide fragment of p‐gp160 was released into the cytosol and interacts with calmodulin. Our results suggest that signal peptide fragments of some cellular and viral proteins can interact with cytosolic target molecules. The functional consequences of such interactions remain to be established. However, our data suggest that signal sequences may be functionally more versatile than anticipated up to now.
Eptifibatide: a potent inhibitor of the platelet receptor integrin glycoprotein IIb/IIIa

The platelet glycoprotein (GP) IIb/IIIa integrin plays a key role in mediating platelet aggregation. Blockade of the platelet GP IIb/IIIa receptor prevents arterial thrombosis in animal models much better than does aspirin. Among the most specific inhibitors in this class of drugs is eptifibatide (IntegrilinTMMillennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc.), a cyclic heptapeptide based on a peptide recognition sequence found in snake venom. Peptide inhibitors, such as eptifibatide, bind competitively to GP IIb/IIIa and have a short half-life, allowing the effect to be rapidly reversible and providing a favourable overall safety profile. Eptifibatide has been studied in a broad range of ischaemic coronary conditions including percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), ST-segment and non-ST-segment acute myocardial infarction (MI) and unstable angina. In PCI and non-ST-segment MI, therapy with eptifibatide has been shown to reduce acute ischaemic complications without any increased risk of life-threatening adverse events. In the recently reported Enhanced Suppression of the Platelet IIb/IIIa Receptor with Integrilin Therapy (ESPRIT) trial, two 180 μg/kg boluses of eptifibatide, 10 min apart, followed by an 18 – 24 h infusion at 2 μg/kg/min given as adjunctive therapy in non-urgent PCI reduced the 30-day composite of death, MI and need for urgent target vessel revascularisation from 10.4 to 6.8% compared with placebo. These results were achieved under conditions of typical contemporary PCI, namely the implantation of second- and third-generation stents deployed at high balloon pressures along with modern adjunctive pharmacological treatment, particularly the universal use of thienopyridines and lower-dose heparin. Few significant pharmacological effects other than inhibition of platelet aggregation and the effect on bleeding time have been reported. Future research will focus on alternative clinical applications and combinations with other therapies to further improve cardiovascular outcomes.
VMAT–SBRT planning based on an average intensity projection for lung tumors located in close proximity to the diaphragm: a phantom and clinical validity study

The aim of the this study was to validate the use of an average intensity projection (AIP) for volumetric-modulated arc therapy for stereotactic body radiation therapy (VMAT–SBRT) planning for a moving lung tumor located near the diaphragm. VMAT–SBRT plans were created using AIPs reconstructed from 10 phases of 4DCT images that were acquired with a target phantom moving with amplitudes of 5, 10, 20 and 30 mm. To generate a 4D dose distribution, the static dose for each phase was recalculated and the doses were accumulated by using the phantom position known for each phase. For 10 patients with lung tumors, a deformable registration was used to generate 4D dose distributions. Doses to the target volume obtained from the AIP plan and the 4D plan were compared, as were the doses obtained from each plan to the organs at risk (OARs). In both phantom and clinical study, dose discrepancies for all parameters of the dose volume (Dmin, D99, Dmax, D1 and Dmean) to the target were <3%. The discrepancies of Dmax for spinal cord, esophagus and heart were <1 Gy, and the discrepancy of V20 for lung tissue was <1%. However, for OARs with large respiratory motion, the discrepancy of the Dmax was as much as 9.6 Gy for liver and 5.7 Gy for stomach. Thus, AIP is clinically acceptable as a planning CT image for predicting 4D dose, but doses to the OARs with large respiratory motion were underestimated with the AIP approach.
Approaches to personality inventory construction: A comparison of merits.

The three major approaches to personality scale construction, the external, inductive, and deductive strategies, are discussed and their rationales compared. It is suggested that all scales should possess validity, communicability, and economy. The relative importance of these characteristics, however, varies with the purpose for which the instrument is being constructed. A review of more than a dozen comparative studies revealed no consistent superiority of any strategy in terms of validity or predictive effectiveness. But deductive scales normally communicate information more directly to an assessor, and they are definitely more economical to build and to administer. Thus, wherever there is a genuine choice, the simple deductive approach is recommended. Furthermore, self-rating scales narrowly but consistently outdo questionnaire scales in terms of validity and are clearly superior in terms of communicability and economy. There may not be many situations in which the widespread preference for questionnaires is justified. It is concluded that the more commonsensical approaches to personality measurement have a lot to offer. Anyone who is bold enough today to develop a general-purpose personality inventory has basically three options for how to go about it. They are the external approach (also called "empirical," or "criterion group"), the inductive approach (also called "internal," "internal consistency," or "itemetric"), and the deductive approach (also called "rational," "intuitive," or "theoretical"). This article reviews their respective merits on both a priori and empirical grounds. For clarity's sake I will exaggerate the differences between the philosophies associated with these three approaches.
Cancer Management and Research Dovepress Open Access to Scientific and Medical Research Open Access Full Text Article Validation of the Cell Cycle G 2 Delay Assay in Assessing Ionizing Radiation Sensitivity and Breast Cancer Risk

Genetic variations in cell cycle checkpoints and DNA repair genes are associated with prolonged cell cycle G 2 delay following ionizing radiation (IR) treatment and breast cancer risk. However, different studies reported conflicting results examining the association between post-IR cell cycle delay and breast cancer risk utilizing four different parameters: cell cycle G 2 delay index, %G 2 –M, G 2 /G 0 –G 1 , and (G 2 /G 0 –G 1)/S. Therefore, we evaluated whether different parameters may influence study results using a data set from 118 breast cancer cases and 225 controls as well as lymphoblastoid and breast cancer cell lines with different genetic defects. Our results suggest that cell cycle G 2 delay index may serve as the best parameter in assessing breast cancer risk, genetic regulation of IR-sensitivity, and mutations of ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM) and TP53. Cell cycle delay in 21 lymphoblastoid cell lines derived from BRCA1 mutation carriers was not different from that in controls. We also showed that IR-induced DNA-damage signaling, as measured by phosphorylation of H2AX on serine 139 (γ-H2AX) was inversely associated with cell cycle G 2 delay index. In summary, the cellular responses to IR are extremely complex; mutations or genetic variations in DNA damage signaling, cell cycle checkpoints, and DNA repair contribute to cell cycle G 2 delay and breast cancer risk. The cell cycle G 2 delay assay characterized in this study may help identify subpopulations with elevated risk of breast cancer or susceptibility to adverse effects in normal tissue following radiotherapy.
Interpretation Reduces Ecological Impacts of Visitors to World Heritage Site

Abstract Minimal-impact interpretation is widely used to reduce the ecological impacts of visitors to protected areas. We tested whether verbal appeals and/or role-model demonstrations of minimal-impact behavior by a trained guide reduced noise, litter, and trampling impacts on hiking trails in a subtropical rainforest. Interpretation did reduce impacts significantly. Different interpretive techniques were more effective for different impacts. The experimental groups were mature, well-educated professionals; interpretation may differ in effectiveness for different visitors. Interpretation by skilled guides can indeed reduce visitor impacts in protected areas, especially if role modeling is combined with verbal appeals.
Dynamic Thermal Management through Task Scheduling

The evolution of microprocessors has been hindered by their increasing power consumption and the heat generation speed on-die. High temperature impairs the processor's reliability and reduces its lifetime. While hardware level dynamic thermal management (DTM) techniques, such as voltage and frequency scaling, can effectively lower the chip temperature when it surpasses the thermal threshold, they inevitably come at the cost of performance degradation. We propose an OS level technique that performs thermal- aware job scheduling to reduce the number of thermal trespasses. Our scheduler reduces the amount of hardware DTMs and achieves higher performance while keeping the temperature low. Our methods leverage the natural discrepancies in thermal behavior among different workloads, and schedule them to keep the chip temperature below a given budget. We develop a heuristic algorithm based on the observation that there is a difference in the resulting temperature when a hot and a cool job are executed in a different order. To evaluate our scheduling algorithms, we developed a lightweight runtime temperature monitor to enable informed scheduling decisions. We have implemented our scheduling algorithm and the entire temperature monitoring framework in the Linux kernel. Our proposed scheduler can remove 10.5-73.6% of the hardware DTMs in various combinations of workloads in a medium thermal environment. As a result, the CPU throughput was improved by up to 7.6% (4.1% on average) even under a severe thermal environment.
Long-Term Results of the Subclavian Flap Repair for Coarctation of the Aorta in Infants

Background: Coarctation is a congenital narrowing of the aorta that often requires repair during infancy. The subclavian flap aortoplasty was once widely favored for its avoidance of a circumferential suture line and low incidence of recoarctation. The aim of this study is to report the long-term results of the subclavian flap repair for coarctation of the aorta in infants. Methods: Our operative database was queried for infants with coarctation who underwent subclavian flap aortoplasty from 1966 to 1991. Medical records were reviewed for patient characteristics and outcomes. Survivors were identified for additional phone interview. Results: Fifty-five patients met the inclusion criteria. There were 7 early deaths (in hospital), 11 late deaths, 5 patients lost to follow-up, and 32 known long-term survivors with a mean follow-up of 22.0 years (range 2.4-34.9). Hospital mortality was not associated with patient characteristics but was associated with earlier year of surgery (P = .015). A trend toward decreased overall survival was seen in patients with coarctation with associated cardiac defects (P = .072). Reintervention for recoarctation was required in 3 (6.6%) patients and was not related to the patient characteristics. There were no apparent complications related to subclavian artery sacrifice. Conclusions: Subclavian flap aortoplasty provides excellent long-term results for the repair of coarctation in infants. The incidence of recoarctation requiring reintervention is low and compares favorably with other techniques. Compromise of growth or function of the left arm was not appreciated. The subclavian flap technique remains a viable surgical option for the repair of coarctation in infants.
PHOM : une base de données de 14 000 pseudo-homophones

Les pseudo-homophones (c’est-a-dire, suite de lettres qui se prononcent comme un mot reel, comme « siel » a partir de « ciel ») jouent un role important dans les experiences psycholinguistiques, soit parce qu’ils sont utilises dans l’execution de tâches de decision lexicale, ou qu’ils deviennent le principal objet d’etude, comme dans la lecture de non-mots. Nous presentons une base de donnees, PHOM, de plus de 14 000 pseudo-homophones du francais. Nous decrivons egalement un generateur qui ameliore les methodes habituelles de construction. Il permet la fabrication de pseudo-homophones qui respectent les contraintes phonotactiques du francais. La base de donnees est librement disponible sur le site web : http://sites.google. com/site/ludovicferrand/Home/data.
Posttranslational regulation of the NKG2D ligand Mult1 in response to cell stress

NKG2D is a major stimulatory receptor expressed by natural killer (NK) cells and some T cells. The receptor recognizes major histocompatability complex class I–like cell surface ligands that are poorly expressed by normal tissues but are often induced in transformed and infected cells. The existence of several NKG2D ligands in each individual, some with strikingly divergent protein sequences, raises the possibility that different ligands are regulated by distinct disease-associated stresses. The transcripts for some ligands, including murine UL16-binding proteinlike transcript 1 (Mult1), are abundant in certain normal tissues where cell surface expression is absent, suggesting the existence of translational or posttranslational regulation. We report here that under normal conditions, Mult1 protein undergoes ubiquitination dependent on lysines in its cytoplasmic tail and lysosomal degradation. Mult1 degradation and ubiquitination is reduced in response to stress imparted by heat shock or ultraviolet irradiation, but not by other forms of genotoxicity, providing a novel mechanism for stress-mediated cellular control of NKG2D ligand expression.
Multimode multiband power amplifier with tapped transformer for efficiency enhancement in low power mode

Multimode multiband connectivity has become a defacto requirement for smartphones with 3G WCDMA/4G LTE applications. In this research, a two-stage multimode multiband (MMMB) power amplifier (PA) with multiple gated transistor (MGTR) and configurable tapped transformer is designed and analysed in view of enhancing the efficiency in low power mode. The designed MMMB PA offers a 900MHz of operating bandwidth starting from the frequency of 1400MHz up to 2300MHz, covering 16 LTE FDD bands with peak output power of 27.8dBm and peak PAE of 31% in the high power mode. In low power mode, the PA offers the same bandwidth with peak output power of 25.5dBm and PAE of 30%. Use of the multiple gated transistor with tapped transformer for matching has increased the PAE in low power mode by 19% compared with that PAE in the high power mode.
Numerical Methods for Fluid-Structure Interaction — A Review

The interactions between incompressible fluid flows and immersed struc- tures are nonlinear multi-physics phenomena that have applications to a wide range of scientific and engineering disciplines. In this article, we review representative numeri- cal methods based onconforming and non-conforming meshes that arecurrentlyavail- able for computing fluid-structure interaction problems, with an emphasis on some of the recent developments in the field. A goal is to categorize the selected methods and assess their accuracy and efficiency. We discuss challenges faced by researchers in this field, and we emphasize the importance of interdisciplinary effort for advancing the study in fluid-structure interactions.