Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Smoking p66Shc Knocked Out Mice Develop Respiratory Bronchiolitis with Fibrosis but Not Emphysema

The adaptor protein p66Shc regulates intracellular oxidant levels through the modulation of a forkhead-related transcription factor (FOXO3a). The genetic ablation of p66Shc (p66Shc–/–) renders mice resistant to oxidative stress and p53-dependent apoptosis. We investigated whether p66Shc ablation in mice modifies lung cellular and molecular responses to cigarette smoke (CS) exposure. No differences between wild type (WT) and p66Shc–/– mice were observed in terms of inflammation and oxidant burden after acute CS exposure; however,p66Shc ablation modifies specific features of chronic inflammation induced by repeated exposure to CS. Unlike WT mice, p66Shc–/– mice did not develop emphysema, showing protection toward oxidative damage to DNA and apoptosis as revealed by a trivial 8-hydroxyguanosine staining and faint TUNEL and caspase-3 positivity on alveolar epithelial cells. Unexpectedly, CS exposure in p66Shc–/– mice resulted in respiratory bronchiolitis with fibrosis in surrounded alveoli. Respiratory bronchiolitis was characterized by peribronchiolar infiltrates of lymphocytes and histiocytes, accumulation of ageing pigmented macrophages within and around bronchioles, and peribronchiolar fibrosis. The blockage of apoptosis interferes with the macrophage “clearance” from alveolar spaces, favouring the accumulation of aging macrophages into alveoli and the progressive accumulation of iron pigment in long-lived senescent cells. The presence of areas of interstitial and alveolar fibrosis in peripheral parenchyma often accompanied the bronchiolar changes. Macrophages from smoking p66Shc–/– mice elaborate M2 cytokines (i.e., IL-4 and IL-13) and enzymes (i.e., chitinase and arginase I), which can promote TGF-beta expression, collagen deposition, and fibrosis in the surrounding areas. We demonstrate here that resistance to oxidative stress and p53-dependent apoptosis can modify tissue responses to CS caused by chronic inflammation without influencing early inflammatory response to CS exposure.
Seroepidemiology in Chlamydia pneumoniae-- atherosclerosis association.

[1] van Hout BA, Simoons ML. Cost-effectiveness of HMG coenzyme reductase inhibitors. Whom to treat? Eur Heart J 2001; 22: 751–61. [2] Houterman S, Boshuizen HC, Verschuren VMM et al. Predicting cardiovascular risk in the elderly in different European countries. Eur Heart J 2002; 23: 294–300, doi:10.1053/euhj.2001. 2898. [3] Clarke R, Lewington S, Youngman L, Sherliker P, Peto R, Collins R. Underestimation of the importance of blood pressure and cholesterol for coronary heart disease mortality in old age. Eur Heart J 2002; 23: 286–93, doi:10.1053/euhj.2001. 2781. [4] Miettinen TA, Pyörälä K, Olsson AG et al. Cholesterollowering therapy in women and elderly patients with myocardial infarction or angina pectoris: findings from the Scandinavian Simvastatin Survival Study (4S). Circulation 1997; 96: 4211–18. [5] Lewis SJ, Moye LA, Sacks FM et al. Effect of pravastatin on cardiovascular events in older patients with myocardial infarction and cholesterol levels in the average range. Results of the Cholesterol and Recurrent Events (CARE) trial. Ann Intern Med 1998; 129: 681–9. [6] Hunt D, Young P, Simes J et al. Benefits of pravastatin on cardiovascular events and mortality in older patients with coronary heart disease are equal to or exceed those seen in younger patients: results from the LIPID trial. Ann Intern Med 2001; 134: 931–40. [7] SHEP Cooperative Research Group. Prevention of stroke by antihypertensive drug treatment in older persons with isolated systolic hypertension. Final results of the Systolic Hypertension in the Elderly Program (SHEP). JAMA 1991; 265: 3255–64. [8] MRC Working Party. Medical Research Council trial of treatment of hypertension in older adults: principal results. BMJ 1992; 304: 405–12. [9] Staessen JA, Fagard R, Thijs L et al. Randomised double-blind comparison of placebo and active treatment for older patients with isolated systolic hypertension. The Systolic Hypertension in Europe (Syst-Eur) Trial. Lancet 1997; 350: 757–64. Editorials 263
Real-Time Segmentation of Moving Objects in H.264 Compressed Domain with Dynamic Design of Fuzzy Sets

This paper presents a real-time segmentation algo- rithm to obtain moving objects from the H.264 compressed domain. The proposed segmentation works with very little information and is based on two features of the H.264 compressed video: motion vec- tors associated to the macroblocks and decision modes. The algo- rithm uses fuzzy logic and allows to describe position, velocity and size of the detected regions in a comprehensive way, so the proposed approach works with low level information but manages highly com- prehensive linguistic concepts. The performance of the algorithm is improved using dynamic design of fuzzy sets that avoids merge and split problems. Experimental results for several traffic scenes demonstrate the real-time performance and the encouraging results in diverse situations. Keywords— Moving object detection, image segmentation, H.264 advanced video coding, dynamic fuzzy sets.
Evaluating pedagogical affordances of media sharing Web 2.0 technologies: A case study

This short paper describes a small, ongoing case study exploring how the affordances of a media sharing Web 2.0 application (VoiceThread) can be evaluated for its pedagogical value. Web 2.0 technologies emerge so quickly it is difficult for educators to gauge their actual value in practical terms. In many cases the latest Web 2.0 technologies are superseded almost before they emerge from their beta testing phase. Rather than focusing on the individual characteristics or details of the technology itself, this case study uses a new learning design framework (the Digital Artefacts for Learner Engagement framework: DiAL-e) to chart the affordances and uses which educators might find valuable. The tool has been used as the basis of an on-line pilot project for the Joint Information Service Committee in the UK (JISC) in which academics from further and higher education have been learning how to harness the potential of digital artefacts and Web 2.0 tools to enhance teaching and student learning. The initial responses from participants and tutors indicate this is a useful instrument through which to evaluate the potential pedagogical value of a particular application set within a wider socio-cultural context.
Optimization in SciDAC applications

We present a brief overview of optimization tools that are being developed for SciDAC applications. We emphasize derivative-free and gradient-based methods since these tools make minimal demands on the user and the application. We discuss the performance of these tools and point out developments that have led to significant improvements in performance. A parameter estimation problem that arises in nuclear fission is used to illustrate the challenges that arise as we attack nonlinear, noisy, computationally-intensive optimization applications.
A Novel Airborne Self-Organising Architecture for 5G+ Networks

Network Flying Platforms (NFPs) such as unmanned aerial vehicles, unmanned balloons or drones flying at low/medium/high altitude can be employed to enhance network coverage and capacity by deploying a swarm of flying platforms that implement novel radio resource management techniques. In this paper, we propose a novel layered architecture where NFPs, of various types and flying at low/medium/high layers in a swarm of flying platforms, are considered as an integrated part of the future cellular networks to inject additional capacity and expand the coverage for exceptional scenarios (sports events, concerts, etc.) and hard-to-reach areas (rural or sparsely populated areas). Successful roll-out of the proposed architecture depends on several factors including, but are not limited to: network optimisation for NFP placement and association, safety operations of NFP for network/equipment security, and reliability for NFP transport and control/signaling mechanisms. In this work, we formulate the optimum placement of NFP at a Lower Layer (LL) by exploiting the airborne Self-organising Network (SON) features. Our initial simulations show the NFP- LL can serve more User Equipment (UE)s using this placement technique.
Smartphone-based Human Fall Detection System

The use of technology has proven to be a value asset in the health department. Nowadays, from computers to smartphones, technology helps people in their activities, being these personally or cooperativily. Thanks to these advantages, new research has develop to create systems and applications to help with people's health, in our case detecting fall accidents with the use of smartphones. This paper presents an approach to detect falls using different proposed algorithms with the goal of helping people with their health and security. The system es composed of three different components: data collection, location selection, and fall detection. It utilizes the smartphone's built-in sensors (accelerometer, gyroscope) to identify the location of the smartphone in the user's body (chest, pocket, holster, etc.) and once a location is identified, the fall detection component takes place. A general description on fall detection systems is provided, including the different types of sensors used nowadays. The proposed solution is presented and described in great detail. A total accuracy of 81.3% was calculated from the fall detection proposed algorithm. The top three locations to detect a fall were: texting with a 95.8% fall detection accuracy, pants' side pocket with an 87.5% accuracy, and shirt chest pocket with an 83.3% accuracy. Also an extra study was done using only the holster location generating an excellent 100% location selection accuracy.
Identification of Microbial Communities in Open and Closed Circuit Bioelectrochemical MBRs by High-Throughput 454 Pyrosequencing

Two bioelectrochemical membrane bioreactors (MBRs) developed by integrating microbial fuel cell and MBR technology were operated under closed-circuit and open-circuit modes, and high-throughput 454 pyrosequencing was used to investigate the effects of the power generation on the microbial community of bio-anode and bio-cathode. Microbes on the anode under open-circuit operation (AO) were enriched and highly diverse when compared to those on the anode under closed-circuit operation (AC). However, among the cathodes the closed-circuit mode (CC) had richer and more diverse microbial community compared to the cathode under open-circuit mode (CO). On the anodes AO and AC, Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes were the dominant phyla, while Firmicutes was enriched only on AC. Deltaproteobacteria affiliated to Proteobacteria were also more abundant on AC than AO. Furthermore, the relative abundance of Desulfuromonas, which are well-known electrogenic bacteria, were much higher on AC (10.2%) when compared to AO (0.11%), indicating that closed-circuit operation was more conducive for the growth of electrogenic bacteria on the anodes. On the cathodes, Protebacteria was robust on CC while Bacteroidetes was more abundant on CO. Rhodobacter and Hydrogenophaga were also enriched on CC than CO, suggesting that these genera play a role in electron transfer from the cathode surface to the terminal electron acceptors in the bioelectrochemical MBR under closed-circuit operation.
Modelling human emotions for tactical decision-making games

The training of tactical decision making increasingly occurs through serious computer games. A challenging aspect of designing such games is the modelling of human emotions. Two studies were performed to investigate the relation between fidelity and human emotion recognition in virtual human characters. Study 1 compared five versions of a virtual character that expressed emotions through different combinations of posture, facial expression, and tone of voice. Results showed that emotion recognition was best when all three behavioural cues were present; posture + face and posture + tone of voice were joint second best. In study 2, these three versions were supplemented with contextual information. Cross-variant comparisons yielded marginal differences in emotion recognition and no differences in tactical decision making. Together, these findings suggest that the combination of posture with either facial expression or tone of voice is sufficient to ensure recognition of human emotions in tactical decision-making games
Automatic Semantic Tagging of Unknown Proper Names

Implemented methods for proper names recognition rely on large gazetteers of common proper nouns and a set of heuristic rules (e.g. Mr. as an indicator of a PERSON entity type). Though the performance of current PN recognizers is very high (over 90%), it is important to note that this problem is by no means a "solved problem". Existing systems perform extremely well on newswire corpora by virtue of the availability of large gazetteers and rule bases designed for specific tasks (e.g. recognition of Organization and Person entity types as specified in recent Message Understanding Conferences MUC). However, large gazetteers are not available for most languages and applications other than newswire texts and, in any case, proper nouns are an open class.In this paper we describe a context-based method to assign an entity type to unknown proper names (PNs). Like many others, our system relies on a gazetteer and a set of context-dependent heuristics to classify proper nouns. However, due to the unavailability of large gazetteers in Italian, over 20% detected PNs cannot be semantically tagged.The algorithm that we propose assigns an entity type to an unknown PN based on the analysis of syntactically and semantically similar contexts already seen in the application corpus.The performance of the algorithm is evaluated not only in terms of precision, following the tradition of MUC conferences, but also in terms of Information Gain, an information theoretic measure that takes into account the complexity of the classification task.
M ay 2 00 4 Parametric Oscillation with Squeezed Vacuum Reservoirs

Abstract: Employing the quantum Hamiltonian describing the interaction of two-mode light (signalidler modes) generated by a nondegenerate parametric oscillator (NDPO) with two uncorrelated squeezed vacuum reservoirs (USVR), we derive the master equation. The corresponding Fokker-Planck equation for the Q-function is then solved employing a propagator method developed in Ref. [1]. Making use of this Q-function, we calculate the quadrature fluctuations of the optical system. From these results we infer that the signal-idler modes are in squeezed states and the squeezing occurs in the first quadrature. When the NDPO operates below threshold we show that, for a large squeezing parameter, a squeezing amounting to a noise suppression approaching 100% below the vacuum level in the first quadrature can be achieved.
Long-term outcomes of a loop electrosurgical excision procedure for cervical intraepithelial neoplasia in a high incidence country.

AIM To evaluate the operative, oncologic and obstetric outcomes of the loop electrosurgical excision procedure (LEEP) in cases with cervical neoplasia. MATERIALS AND METHODS A retrospective cohort study was conducted on patients who were suspected of cervical neoplasia and therefore undergoing LEEP at Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University, Thailand, during 1995-2000. Outcome measures included operative complications in 407 LEEP patients and long-term outcomes in the 248 patients with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) who were treated with only LEEP. RESULTS There were 407 patients undergoing LEEP; their mean age was 39.7±10.5 years. The histopathology of LEEP specimens revealed that 89 patients (21.9%) had lesions ≤CIN I, 295 patients (72.5%) had CIN II or III, and 23 patients (5.6%) had invasive lesions. Operative complications were found in 15 patients and included bleeding (n=9), and infection (n=7). After diagnostic LEEP, 133 patients underwent hysterectomy as the definite treatment for cervical neoplasia. Of 248 CIN patients who had LEEP only, seven (2.8%) had suffered recurrence after a median of 16 (range 6-93) months; one had CIN I, one had CIN II, and five had CIN III. All of these recurrent patients achieved remission on surgical treatment with re-LEEP (n=6) or simple hysterectomy (n=1). A significant factor affecting recurrent disease was the LEEP margin involved with the lesion (p=0.05). Kaplan-Meier analysis showed 5-year and 10-year disease-free survival (DFS) estimates of 99.9%. Twelve patients became pregnant a total of 14 times, resulting in 12 term deliveries and two miscarriages - one of which was due to an incompetent cervix. CONCLUSIONS LEEP for patients with cervical neoplasia delivers favorable surgical, oncologic and obstetric outcomes.
Durability of wood flour‐plastic composites exposed to accelerated freeze–thaw cycling. Part I. Rigid PVC matrix

This study examined the effects of accelerated freeze–thaw actions on the durability of wood fiber‐plastic composites. Rigid PVC formulations filled with various concentrations of wood flour (both pine and maple) were processed in a counterrotating twin‐screw extruder and exposed to cyclic freeze–thaw actions according to ASTM Standard D6662. Freeze–thaw cycling was also modified by omitting portions of the test (either the water or freezing) to verify whether or not moisture was the primary cause for property loss. The durability of exposed samples was assessed in terms of flexural properties, density, and dimensional stability. Scanning electron micrographs of unexposed and freeze–thaw‐exposed samples were taken to qualitatively evaluate the interfacial adhesion between the wood flour and PVC matrix. The experimental results indicated that the density was not affected by freeze–thaw cycling. The dimensional stability was also relatively unaffected, although greater wood flour content exhibited greater dimensional change. The loss in stiffness of the composites was statistically significant after only two freeze–thaw cycles, regardless of both the wood species and content. Conversely, the strength of the composites was not significantly affected by five freeze–thaw cycles at lower wood flour contents (50 and 75 phr). The deleterious effects of the freeze–thaw actions on the strength of the composites became apparent at higher wood flour content (100 phr) after only two freeze–thaw cycles for maple flour and five freeze–thaw cycles for pine flour. The property loss was attributed primarily to the water portion of the cycling, which appears to have led to the decreased interfacial adhesion between the wood flour and the rigid PVC matrix. J. VINYL. ADDIT. TECHNOL. 11:1–8, 2005. © 2005 Society of Plastics Engineers.
Evidence for TeV Gamma-Ray Emission from the Galactic Plane

Gamma-ray emission from a narrow band at the Galactic equator has previously been detected up to 30 GeV. We report evidence for a TeV gamma-ray signal from the Galactic plane by Milagro, a large field of view water Cherenkov detector for extensive air showers. An excess with a significance of 4.5 standard deviations has been observed from the region of Galactic longitude between 40 and 100 deg and latitude |b|<5 deg. Under the assumption of a simple power law spectrum, with no cutoff, in the EGRET-Milagro energy range, the measured integral flux is phi(>3.5TeV) = (6.4 +/- 1.4 +/- 2.1) 10^{-11} cm^{-2}s^{-1} str^{-1}. This flux is consistent with an extrapolation of the EGRET spectrum between 1 and 30 GeV in this Galactic region.
A COMMENTARY ON RUPPEINER METRICS FOR BLACK HOLES

There has been some recent controversy regarding the Ruppeiner metrics that are induced by Reissner–Nordstrom (and Reissner–Nordstrom-like) black holes. Most infamously, why does this family of metrics turn out to be flat, how is this outcome to be physically understood, and can/should the formalism be suitably modified to induce curvature? In this paper, we provide a novel interpretation of this debate. For the sake of maximal analytic clarity and tractability, some supporting calculations are carried out for the relatively simple model of a rotating BTZ black hole.
Practical solutions for calibration of optical see-through devices

Registration is a crucial task in a see-through augmented reality (AR) system. The importance stems not only from the fact that registration requires careful calibration but also from the necessity that any calibration procedure should take users into account. Tuceryan et al. (2002) proposed a general method for calibrating a see-through device based on dynamic alignment of virtual and real points. Although a powerful tool, our experiments showed that users find alignment of many points overwhelming. We introduce improvements to simplify the calibration process and increase the success rate. We first identified why calibration parameters differ from user to user and how this can be prevented by adopting particular configurations for the tracker sensor and display. This allowed us to re-use the existing calibrations. Furthermore, we have introduced a simpler model for the calibration that requires fewer user inputs, typically four, to calibrate the system.
Distributed cooperative multicast in wireless networks: Performance analysis and optimal power allocation

For wireless multicast applications where a group of users subscribe to the same service and receive the same data, a promising solution to combat channel fading is to explore the cooperative diversity and let users help each other forward packets. This paper investigates a distributed cooperative multicast scheme that uses a maximal ratio combiner to enhance the received signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and provides a thorough performance analysis. We derive a close-form formulation of the average outage probability, examine its asymptotic behavior in the high SNR regime, and investigate the optimal power allocation. Our analytical and simulation results show that cooperative multicast performs better in denser networks with more relays helping, and user cooperation can significantly reduce the outage probability, especially in the high SNR region.
Functional Profiling Reveals Critical Role for miRNA in Differentiation of Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells

Background Mesenchymal stem (MS) cells are excellent candidates for cell-based therapeutic strategies to regenerate injured tissue. Although human MS cells can be isolated from bone marrow and directed to differentiate by means of an osteogenic pathway, the regulation of cell-fate determination is not well understood. Recent reports identify critical roles for microRNAs (miRNAs), regulators of gene expression either by inhibiting the translation or by stimulating the degradation of target mRNAs. Methodology/Principal Findings In this study, we employed a library of miRNA inhibitors to evaluate the role of miRNAs in early osteogenic differentiation of human MS cells. We discovered that miR-148b, -27a and -489 are essential for the regulation of osteogenesis: miR-27a and miR-489 down-regulate while miR-148b up-regulates differentiation. Modulation of these miRNAs induced osteogenesis in the absence of other external differentiation cues and restored osteogenic potential in high passage number human MS cells. Conclusions/Significance Overall, we have demonstrated the utility of the functional profiling strategy for unraveling complex miRNA pathways. Our findings indicate that miRNAs regulate early osteogenic differentiation in human MS cells: miR-148b, -27a, and -489 were found to play a critical role in osteogenesis.