Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Magnetic resonance assessment of aortic pulse wave velocity, aortic distensibility, and cardiac function in uncomplicated type 2 diabetes mellitus.

BACKGROUND Type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM2) may augment arterial stiffening and thereby modulates left ventricular (LV) function. Cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) is well suited to assess aortic pulse wave velocity (PWV) and aortic distensibility, both markers of arterial stiffness, without the use of geometric assumptions. Furthermore, CMR is a reliable method for assessing left ventricular (LV) function. The purpose of this study was to assess LV function, PWV, and aortic distensibility in patients with DM2 using MR. METHODS Fourteen patients with well controlled, uncomplicated DM2, and 16 age and gender matched healthy subjects were included. PWV was calculated based on MR velocity mapping at two predefined aortic locations. Aortic distensibility was measured in the mid ascending aorta. LV volumes were measured by fast gradient-echo imaging to assess systolic function. Furthermore, mitral inflow was measured by MR velocity mapping to assess diastolic LV function. RESULTS Mean PWV was higher in patients as compared to healthy subjects (6.83 +/- 1.60 m/s vs. 5.65 +/- 0.75 m/s, p < 0.05). This difference was independent of blood pressure. PWV correlated significantly (p < 0.05) with fasting plasma glucose and insulin levels. Aortic distensibility was lower in patients as compared to healthy subjects (4.50 x 10(- 3)+/- 2.24 x 10(- 3) mmHg(- 1) vs. 7.42 x 10(- 3)+/- 3.34 x 10(- 3) mmHg(- 1), p < 0.05). Distensibility correlated negatively with PWV and positively with LV diastolic function (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION A combined CMR assessment of aortic PWV, aortic distensibility, and heart function reveals abnormal PWV and distensibility in patients with DM2, independent of blood pressure. Furthermore, aortic distensibility correlates with diastolic left ventricular function.
Loss of myelin-associated glycoprotein in kearns-sayre syndrome.

OBJECTIVE To explore myelin components and mitochondrial changes within the central nervous system in patients with well-characterized mitochondrial disorders due to nuclear DNA or mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutations. DESIGN Immunohistochemical analysis, histochemical analysis, mtDNA sequencing, and real-time and long-range polymerase chain reaction were used to determine the pathogenicity of mtDNA deletions. SETTING Department of Clinical Pathology, Columbia University Medical Center, and Newcastle Brain Tissue Resource. PATIENTS Seventeen patients with mitochondrial disorders and 7 controls were studied from August 1, 2009, to August 1, 2010. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE Regions of myelin-associated glycoprotein (MAG) loss. RESULTS Myelin-associated glycoprotein loss in Kearns-Sayre syndrome was associated with oligodendrocyte loss and nuclear translocation of apoptosis-inducing factor, whereas inflammation, neuronal loss, and axonal injury were minimal. In a Kearns-Sayre syndrome MAG loss region, high levels of mtDNA deletions together with cytochrome- c oxidase-deficient cells and loss of mitochondrial respiratory chain subunits (more prominent in the white than gray matter and glia than axons) confirmed the pathogenicity of mtDNA deletions. CONCLUSION Primary mitochondrial respiratory chain defects affecting the white matter, and unrelated to inflammation, are associated with MAG loss and central nervous system demyelination.
Nonlocal Extensions of Similarity Methods

Abstract Similarity methods include the calculation and use of symmetries and conservation laws for a given partial differential equation (PDE). There exists a variety of software to calculate and use local symmetries and local conservation laws. However, it is often the case that a given PDE admits no useful local symmetry or local conservation law. It is shown how to construct systematically trees of nonlocally related but equivalent systems of PDEs. A local symmetry or local conservation law of a PDE in such a tree could yield a useful nonlocal symmetry or nonlocal conservation law for a given PDE within such a tree. If this is the case, one can extend the usefulness of similarity methods for a given PDE. Many examples are given.
Investigation on influencing factors of sexual behaviors among college students in Nanjing

Objective To describe the status of sexual behaviors and its influencing factors among college students in Nanjing,and to provide scientific reference for carrying out AIDS and sex health education.Methods A self-administered questionnaire survey was conducted among 3238 students chosen from five universities in Nanjing by cluster multistage sampling.Face to face interview was done in 90 students for qualitative analysis.Results 10.7% of students had sex experiences.70. 0% of sexually active students did not use condom every time and 33.4% had more than one sexual partner.13. 5% of sexually active students or their partner had the experience of abortion.Logistic regression analysis showed that the sexual behaviors positively correlated with the urban students,senior class,art college students,logging in sexy website and approving of premarital sex(P0.01). The qualitative results showed that though the cognition of premarital sexual behavior presented diversified trend,few students recognized the relationship between the premarital sexual behavior and the health problem.Conclusion It is important to provide college students with AIDS and sex health education and behavior intervention.
When to use what feature? SIFT, SURF, ORB, or A-KAZE features for monocular visual odometry

Image feature-based ego-motion estimation has been dominating the development of visual odometry (VO) visual simultaneously localisation and mapping (V-SLAM) and structure-from-motion (SfM) for several years. The detection extraction or representation of image features play crucial roles when solving camera pose estimation problems in terms of accuracy and computational cost. In this paper we review three popular classes of image features namely SIFT SURF and ORB as well as the recently proposed A-KAZE features. These image features are evaluated using the KITTI benchmark dataset to conclude about reasons for deciding about the selection of a particular feature when implementing monocular visual odometry.
Anticoagulation Endpoints With Clinical Implementation of Warfarin Pharmacogenetic Dosing in a Real‐World Setting: A Proposal for a New Pharmacogenetic Dosing Approach

Achieving therapeutic anticoagulation efficiently with warfarin is important to reduce thrombotic and bleeding risks and is influenced by genotype. Utilizing data from a diverse population of 257 patients who received VKORC1 and CYP2C9 genotype‐guided warfarin dosing, we aimed to examine genotype‐associated differences in anticoagulation endpoints and derive a novel pharmacogenetic nomogram to more optimally dose warfarin. We observed significant differences across patients with 0, 1, or ≥2 reduced‐function VKORC1 or CYP2C9 alleles, respectively, in time to achieve therapeutic international normalized ratio (INR) (7.8 ± 5.8, 7.2 ± 4.7, and 5.4 ± 4.6 days, P = 0.0004) and mean percentage of time in therapeutic range in the first 28 days (22.2, 27.8, and 32.2%, P = 0.0127) with use of existing pharmacogenetic algorithms. These data suggest that more aggressive dosing is necessary for patients with 0 to 1 VKORC1/CYP2C9 variants to more efficiently achieve therapeutic anticoagulation. Herein, we provide a novel kinetic/pharmacodynamic‐derived dosing nomogram optimized for a heterogeneous patient population.
Molecular Fingerprints to Identify Candida Species

A wide range of molecular techniques have been developed for genotyping Candida species. Among them, multilocus sequence typing (MLST) and microsatellite length polymorphisms (MLP) analysis have recently emerged. MLST relies on DNA sequences of internal regions of various independent housekeeping genes, while MLP identifies microsatellite instability. Both methods generate unambiguous and highly reproducible data. Here, we review the results achieved by using these two techniques and also provide a brief overview of a new method based on high-resolution DNA melting (HRM). This method identifies sequence differences by subtle deviations in sample melting profiles in the presence of saturating fluorescent DNA binding dyes.
A Maximum Likelihood Framework for Integrating Taxonomies

Many approaches have been proposed for the problem of mapping categories (classes) from a source taxonomy to classes in a master taxonomy. Most of these techniques, however, ignore the hierarchical structure of the taxonomies. In this paper, we propose a maximum likelihood based framework which exploits the hierarchical structure to obtain a more natural mapping between the source classes and the master taxonomy. Furthermore, unlike previous work, our technique also inserts source classes into appropriate places of the master hierarchy creating new categories if required. We evaluate our approach on text and hyperspectral datasets.
TH01, a Tetrameric Short Tandem Repeat Locus in the Tyrosine Hydroxylase Gene: Association with Myocardial Hypertrophy and Death from Myocardial Infarction?

TH01 is a tetrameric short tandem repeat locus located in intron 01 of the tyrosine hydroxylase gene. The tyrosine hydroxylase catalyzes the hydroxylation of L-tyrosine to L-DOPA and is the rate limiting enzyme in the synthesis of catecholamines like noradrenaline or adrenaline, which are pivotal in the regulation of blood pressure. In a clinical study a strong correlation between alleles *9.3 and *10 and essential hypertension was observed ([2] Hypertension 32: 676–682). To further investigate this association, we typed TH01 in 296 autopsy cases and correlated the genotypes to the heart weight as parameter for myocardial hypertrophy. No significant correlation was observed. Moreover, dividing the studied cases into 2 groups, one including 172 casualties from hypertension-associated diseases (myocardial infarction, left heart failure, aortic aneurysm, spontaneous intracerebral bleeding and cerebral infarction) and one consisting of 124 cases of death unrelated to hypertension, revealed similar allelic frequencies for both groups. Our data thus suggest that TH01 long alleles appear not to lead to a significant increase in the incidence of myocardial hypertrophy or other hypertension associated diseases. This could be explained by a relatively small impact of the TH01 genotype on the blood pressure or by counteraction of another mechanism related to catecholamines and their effect on the human body.
On the plastic deformation of soda-lime glass–a Cr3+ luminescence study of densification

Silicate glasses are known to experience anomalous plastic behavior at micron scales: (1) they exhibit densification when flowing plastically; and (2) hydrostatic pressure affects the yield point. We have previously shown that densification maps are useful to infer a reliable constitutive law for the plastic response of silicate glasses. It is shown here that for soda-lime glass Cr3+ luminescence microspectroscopy may be used for that purpose. We also show that the constitutive law we have previously developed for amorphous silica provides a qualitative description of normal glasses, although it is unable to account for the finer details. More work is needed to quantitatively model normal-glass plasticity at the continuum length-scale.
Hybrid Model Of E-Learning With Knowledge Management

The world is moving towards digitization of knowledge which makes E-learning an important issue and prime concern that can be enhanced by combining it with another separate world of knowledge called knowledge management. This research paper introduces the complementary structure E-learning and knowledge management and their relationship. E-learning is used by education providers only and it is the application of Internet technology in teaching and learning process while knowledge Management is the process of capturing, disseminating, applying and managing organizational knowledge. E-learning value chain focus on knowledge delivery as knowledge management is aimed at knowledge capturing but they are two complementary processes if they are properly integrated. Knowledge management and E-learning have some basic functions or features in common which indicate the compatibility of the two structures. This research paper proposes a hybrid model which accommodates the services of E-learning and the knowledge management simultaneously. This model can be used by all types of educational providers including consulting firms and other learning organizations. The proposed model has functions of capturing both tacit and explicit knowledge as well as knowledge sharing and delivery mechanisms. As a result, the hybrid model puts life of components of E-learning and major features of KM together which would make this model very useful for both academic and non-academic institutions including business service providers.
A 5-GHz direct-conversion receiver with I/Q phase and gain error calibration [WLAN applications]

This paper describes the design of a 5-GHz direct conversion receiver with phase and gain error calibration for WLAN applications. Integrating both LNA and mixer in a single chip, the conversion gain of the RF receiver is switchable to compromise between linearity and noise performance. In addition, calibration schemes are proposed to compensate gain and phase errors in the I/Q signal paths. By means of this technique, the measured phase error is reduced to less than 0.6/spl deg/ and gain error less than 0.2 dB. The receiver provides a conversion gain of 28.2 dB in the high gain mode and 11.6 dB in the low gain mode within the signal bandwidth. The overall noise figure is 6.4 dB in the high gain mode, and the third-order input intercept point (IIP3) is about -6.8 dBm in the low gain mode. Implemented in a 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS technology, it consumes 37.4 mW from a 1.8 V supply. The chip area is 1.64 mm/sup 2/.
What next for preimplantation genetic screening? High mitotic chromosome instability rate provides the biological basis for the low success rate

Preimplantation genetic screening is being scrutinized, as recent randomized clinical trials failed to observe the expected significant increase in live birth rates following fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH)-based screening. Although these randomized clinical trials are criticized on their design, skills or premature stop, it is generally believed that well-designed and well-executed randomized clinical trials would resolve the debate about the potential benefit of preimplantation genetic screening. Since FISH can analyze only a limited number of chromosomal loci, some of the embryos transferred might be diagnosed as ‘normal’ but in fact be aneuploid for one or more chromosomes not tested. Hence, genome-wide array comparative genome hybridization screening enabling aneuploidy detection of all chromosomes was thought to be a first step toward a better design. We recently showed array screening indeed enables accurate determination of the copy number state of all chromosomes in a single cell. Surprisingly, however, this genome-wide array screening revealed a much higher frequency and complexity of chromosomal aberrations in early embryos than anticipated, with imbalances in a staggering 90% of all embryos. The mitotic error rate in cleavage stage embryos was proven to be higher than the meiotic aneuploidy rate and as a consequence, the genome of a single blastomere is not representative for the genome of the other cells of the embryo. Hence, potentially viable embryos will be discarded upon screening a single blastomere. This observation provides a biological basis for the failure of the randomized clinical trials to increase baby-take-home rates using FISH on cleavage stage embroys.
Body stiffness in orthogonal directions oppositely affects worm-like robot turning and straight-line locomotion

Earthworms locomote using traveling waves of segment contraction and expansion, which when symmetric result in straight-line locomotion and when biased result in turning. The mechanics of the soft body permit a large range of possible body shapes which both comply with the environment and contribute to directed locomotion. Inspired by earthworms, our new platform Compliant Modular Mesh Worm robot with Steering (CMMWorm-S) has been developed to study this type of locomotion. Compared with our previous robots, CMMWorm-S is capable of an entirely new movement (turning) using two actuated degrees of freedom per segment (a total of 12 motors). The modularity of the mesh, composed of 3D printed rigid pieces and flexible tubes, allows for the interchange of components to vary the stiffness of the robot. On this robotic platform, we show that locomotion efficiency is sensitive to body stiffness. In particular, greater bending stiffness improves turning locomotion, whereas greater circumferential stiffness speeds straight-line locomotion. The data presented demonstrate the contribution of each component towards the longitudinal, circumferential and bending stiffness of mesh-based robots. These analyses can help in the development of design criteria useful for future soft robotic peristaltic devices.
An argument for thread-level speculation and just-in-time compilation in the Google's V8 JavaScript engine

Thread-Level Speculation can be used to take advantage of multicore architectures for web applications. We have implemented Thread-Level Speculation in the state-of-the-art JavaScript engine V8 instead of using an interpreted JavaScript engine. We evaluate the implementation with the Chromium web browser on 15 popular web applications for 2, 4, and 8 cores. The results show that it is beneficial to combine Thread-Level Speculation and Just-in-time compilation and that it is possible to take advantage of multicore architectures while hiding the details of parallel programming from the programmer of web applications.
Experience in developing the urbanSim system: tools and processes

UrbanSim is a sophisticated simulation system for modeling urban land use, transportation, and environmental impacts, over a period of 20 or more years, under alternate possible scenarios [5, 6, 7]. Our purpose is to support democratic decision-making on such issues as building new transit systems or freeways, or changing zoning or economic incentives, as well as on broader issues such as sustainable, livable cities, economic vitality, social equity, and environmental preservation. The domain is politically charged, with different stakeholders bringing strongly held values to the table. Our goal is not to favor any particular stakeholder values, but rather to let the stakeholders evaluate the results themselves. This need for neutrality has several implications for the development process, among other things resulting in our choice of an open source/open process model. UrbanSim is also an NSF-funded infrastructure project with a mix of research and development goals. Unlike most academic
Differentiation of Cyclooxygenase 1- and 2–Derived Prostanoids in Mouse Kidney and Aorta

Accumulating evidence indicates cyclooxygenase (COX) 1 and COX2 differentially regulate cardiovascular and renal function. We have demonstrated previously in mice that COX2 inhibition enhances angiotensin II–induced hypertension, and COX1 inhibition attenuates the pressor effect of angiotensin II. To further elucidate the mechanism underlying the functional difference of COX1 versus COX2 inhibition, the present studies examined the prostaglandin (PG) profiles derived in COX1- or COX2-inhibited mouse kidney and aorta using gas chromatographic/mass spectrometric assays. PGE2 is the most abundant prostanoid in both renal cortex and medulla in normal C57BL/6J mice, followed by PGI2, PGF2&agr; and thromboxane A2. In contrast PGI2 was most abundant in aorta followed by thromboxane A2, PGE2, and PGF2&agr;. PGD2 was undetectable in control kidney or aorta. At baseline, inhibition of COX1 decreased total prostaglandins in renal cortex, medulla, and aorta, whereas COX2 inhibition decreased total prostaglandins only in renal medulla. Angiotensin II infusion significantly increased COX2-dependent/COX1-independent PGE2 and PGI2 in renal cortex and medulla. Angiotensin II also significantly increased renal PGF2&agr; in cortex, but not in medulla, through both COX1- and COX2-dependent mechanisms. These studies demonstrate that although COX1 primarily contributes to basal prostanoid production in the kidney and aorta, angiotensin II increases renal vasodilator prostanoids predominately via COX2 activity. These effects may contribute to the specific effect of COX2 inhibitors to increase blood pressure.
Unraveling the Reactions of Nitric Oxide, Nitrite, and Hemoglobin in Physiology and Therapeutics

The ability of oxyhemoglobin to inhibit nitric oxide (NO)-dependent activation of soluble guanylate cyclase and vasodilation provided some of the earliest experimental evidence that NO was the endothelium-derived relaxing factor (EDRF). The chemical behavior of this dioxygenation reaction, producing nearly diffusion limited and irreversible NO scavenging, presents a major paradox in vascular biology: The proximity of large amounts of oxyhemoglobin (10 mmol/L) to the endothelium should severely limit paracrine NO diffusion from endothelium to smooth muscle. However, several physical factors are now known to mitigate NO scavenging by red blood cell encapsulated hemoglobin. These include diffusional boundaries around the erythrocyte and a red blood cell free zone along the endothelium in laminar flowing blood, which reduce reaction rates between NO and red cell hemoglobin by 100- to 600-fold. Beyond these mechanisms that reduce NO scavenging by hemoglobin within the red cell, 2 additional mechanisms have been proposed suggesting that NO can be stored in the red blood cell either as nitrite or as an S-nitrosothiol (S-nitroso-hemoglobin). The latter controversial hypothesis contends that NO is stabilized, transported, and delivered by intra-molecular NO group transfers between the heme iron and &bgr;-93 cysteine to form S-nitroso-hemoglobin (SNO-Hb), followed by hypoxia-dependent delivery of the S-nitrosothiol in a process that links regional oxygen deficits with S-nitrosothiol–mediated vasodilation. Although this model has generated a field of research examining the potential endocrine properties of intravascular NO molecules, including S-nitrosothiols, nitrite, and nitrated lipids, a number of mechanistic elements of the theory have been challenged. Recent data from several groups suggest that the nitrite anion (NO2−) may represent the major intravascular NO storage molecule whose transduction to NO is made possible through an allosterically controlled nitrite reductase reaction with the heme moiety of hemoglobin. As subsequently understood, the hypoxic generation of NO from nitrite is likely to prove important in many aspects of physiology, pathophysiology, and therapeutics.