Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Educational Implications of Drug Abuse

Observing the steady decrease in SAT scores during the past decade, while noting the steady increase in licit and illicit drug use during the same time period, several conclusions emphasized the potentially deleterious effects of such drug use upon emerging adolescent cognitive processes, especially learning and memory. Possible drug-behavior relationships were viewed from a developmental perspective (e.g., sex, age, and maturation rate), insofar as drug effects will be directly related to the level of physiological and psychological maturation achieved by the drug user. Consequently, proposals were made dealing with drug education in the schools, as well as the need for graduate and undergraduate programs in substance abuse.
Downward slope driving control for electric powered wheelchair based on capacitor regenerative brake

This paper describes a novel capacitor regenerative braking control scheme of electric powered wheelchairs for efficient driving on downward slopes. ”Electric powered wheelchair” which generates the driving force by electric motors is expected to be widely used as a mobility support system for elderly people and disabled people, however, the energy efficiency has to be further improved because it is driven only by the battery energy. This study proposes a capacitor regenerative braking circuit and two types of velocity control schemes with variable duty ratio. The proposed regenerative braking circuit is based on the step up/down circuit with additional resistance and connects the right and left motors in series. Some driving experiments on the practical downward slopes show the effectiveness of the proposed control system.
Developmental Switches in Chemokine Response Profiles during B Cell Differentiation and Maturation

Developing B cells undergo dramatic changes in their responses to chemoattractant cytokines (chemokines) and in expression of chemokine receptors. Bone marrow pre–pro-B cells (AA4.1+/natural killer 1.1− Fraction A cells) and cells capable of generating pro-B colonies in the presence of interleukin 7 and flt3 ligand migrate to thymus-expressed chemokine (TECK), a response lost in later stages of B cell development. B cell–attracting chemokine 1 (BCA-1) responses correlate with CXC chemokine receptor (CXCR)5 expression, are first displayed by a pro-B cell subset, are lost in pre-B cells, and then are regained just before and after egress from the marrow. All peripheral B cell subsets, including follicular and germinal center as well as marginal zone and peritoneal B1 B cells, respond to BCA-1, implying that responsiveness to this follicular chemokine is not sufficient to predict follicle localization. Responses to the CC chemokine receptor (CCR)7 ligands secondary lymphoid tissue chemoattractant (SLC) and macrophage inflammatory protein (MIP)-3β, implicated in homing to lymphoid tissues, are upregulated before B cell exit from the marrow, but increase further in the periphery and are shared by all peripheral B cells. In contrast, responsiveness to MIP-3α and expression of CCR6 are acquired only after emigration to the periphery and during maturation into the recirculating B cell pool. Chemotaxis to stromal cell–derived factor 1α is observed at all stages of B cell differentiation. Thus, unique patterns of chemokine responses may help define developing B cell populations and direct their maturation in the marrow and migration to the periphery.
In Vivo Measurement of Lumbar Facet Joint Area in Asymptomatic and Chronic Low Back Pain Subjects

Study Design. In vivo measurement of lumbar facet joint surface area. Objective. To investigate lumbar facet joint surface area in relation to age and the presence of chronic low back pain. Summary of Background Data. Facet joint surface area is an important parameter for understanding facet joint function and pathology, but information on the lumbar facet joint is limited, especially in relation with age and low back pain symptoms. Methods. In vivo measurements of the lumbar facet joints (L3/L4-L5/S1) were performed on 90 volunteers (57 asymptomatic subjects and 33 chronic low back pain subjects) using subject-based 3-dimensional facet joint surface computed tomography models. Results. The facet joint surface area increased significantly at each successive inferior level. In the low back pain subjects aged >40 years, both superior and inferior facet surface areas increased except superior facets at L5/S1 compared with younger subjects. In the asymptomatic subjects aged >40 years, only the superior facets showed an increase in the L3/4 facet surface area compared with younger subjects. Conclusion. The lumbar facet areas measured in vivo in this study were similar to previous cadaveric studies. The lumbar facet area was significantly greater at the inferior lumbar levels and also increased with age. This age-related increase in the facet joint surface was observed more in the low back pain subjects compared with asymptomatic subjects. The increase in the area of the facet joint surface is probably secondary to increased load-bearing in the lower lumbar segments and facet joint osteoarthritis.
Attenuation of unfavorable remodeling by exercise training in postinfarction patients with left ventricular dysfunction: results of the Exercise in Left Ventricular Dysfunction (ELVD) trial.

BACKGROUND Exercise is currently recommended for patients after myocardial infarction; however, the effects of regular exercise on the remodeling process remain to be defined. The aim of this multicenter, randomized study was to investigate whether a long-term physical training program influences left ventricular size and function in postinfarction patients with systolic dysfunction. METHODS AND RESULTS Consecutive patients with <40% ejection fraction after a first Q-wave myocardial infarction were randomly assigned to a 6-month exercise training program (n=39) or control group (n=38). After 6 months, a significant increase in work capacity was observed only in the training group (from 4.462+/-1.095 to 5.752+/-1.749 kilopond-meters [Kp-m], P<.01), not in the control group (from 4.375+/-1.143 to 4.388+/-1.199 Kp-m), whereas left ventricular volumes had increased in the control group (end-diastolic volume, from 94+/-26 to 99+/-27 mL/m2, P<.01; end-systolic volume, from 62+/-20 to 67+/-23 mL/m2, P<.01) but not in the training group (end-diastolic volume, from 93+/-28 to 92+/-28 mL/m2, P=NS; end-systolic volume, from 61+/-22 to 57+/-23 mL/m2, P=NS). Conversely, ejection fraction had improved in the training group (from 34+/-5% to 38+/-8%, P<.01) but not in the control group (from 34+/-5% to 33+/-7%, P=NS). CONCLUSIONS In postinfarction patients with systolic dysfunction, long-term exercise training may attenuate the unfavorable remodeling response and even improve ventricular function over time.
Echocardiography in the emergency room

The evaluation and management of patients who arrive at the emergency department with acute symptoms and/or worrying clinical condition is a daily challenge. Careful history taking—when it is possible—and clinical examination remain the mandatory first steps. It is of the utmost importance to obtain a timely accurate diagnosis and to immediately stratify the risk to the patient’s life. Therefore, choice of the correct investigation is essential. Among the possible tools, imaging modalities are frequently required. Echocardiography is the most versatile method. It is non-invasive, can be performed at the bedside, provides rapid results, and avoids contrast injection and exposure of the patient to radiation. Echocardiography is now available in most emergency rooms, allowing immediate, standard transthoracic examination by an emergency department physician. For some indications and some ultrasonic modalities, specialised and trained physicians or sonographers are necessary for performance and interpretation. This article focuses on the clinical information that can be obtained from echocardiography according to the most frequent presentations suggesting a cardiovascular emergency. Patients with acute chest pain account for a notable proportion (20–30%) of medical admissions to the emergency department.1 Acute coronary syndromes can be easily identified in the presence of typical chest pain and a diagnostic ECG, and confirmed by serial changes in cardiac enzymes. However, a vast majority of patients have atypical chest pain and/or normal or non-diagnostic ECG; early determination of serum troponin frequently is negative. Marginal elevations of troponin in this clinical setting result in uncertainty. To avoid unnecessary prolonged hospital observation (which is costly) and mistaken discharge (with the associated potential for litigation), rapid cost effective and accurate risk stratification is important. Numerous alternative strategies are possible (table 1). View this table: Table 1 Resting imaging modalities for triage of patients with acute chest pain and non-diagnostic ECG Echocardiography can be performed only at rest, conventionally or with implementation of an ultrasound contrast agent. Echocardiography can also be coupled with …
Low-molecular-weight (4.5S) ribonucleic acid in higher-plant chloroplast ribosomes.

A species of RNA that migrates on 10% (w/v) polyacrylamide gels between 5S and 4S RNA was detected in spinach chloroplasts. This RNA (referred to as 4.5 S RNA) was present in amounts equimolar to the 5S RNA and its molecular weight was estimated to be approx. 33 000. Fractionation of the chloroplast components showed that the 4.5S RNA was associated with the 50 S ribosomal subunit and that it could be removed by washing the ribosomes with a buffer containing 0.01 M-EDTA and 0.5 M-KCl. It did not appear to be a cleavage product of the labile 23 S RNA of spinach chloroplast ribosomes. When 125I-labelled 4.5 S RNA was hybridized to fragments of spinach chloroplast DNA produced by SmaI restriction endonuclease, a single fragment (mol.wt. 1.15 times 10(6)) became labelled. The same DNA fragment also hybridized to chloroplast 5 S RNA and part of the 23 S RNA. It was concluded that the coding sequence for 4.5 S RNA was part of, or immediately adjacent to, the rRNA-gene region in chloroplast DNA . A comparable RNA species was observed in chloroplasts of tobacco and pea leaves.
Redefinition, Differentiation, and the Farm Animal Welfare Debate

Animal welfare advocates have increased publics' scrutiny of the way animals are handled by everyone from pet owners to circuses to farmers. The case of farmer Gary Conklin illustrates a popular recent tactic of activists to secretly film working farms and then release videos that purport to show abuse. This essay uses the concepts of legitimacy and image restoration to examine how Conklin, with a small farming operation in Ohio, responded to allegations spread by social media. Two important principles emerged: first, an effective differentiation strategy for reducing offensiveness is “redefining the act,” a combination of image repair tactics where an undisputed fact is redefined and transformed with support from third-party affirmations. Second, even small organizations like this dairy cattle business face the same challenges and opportunities as larger organizational rhetors. The essay concludes with applications both for agriculture and for crisis communication scholars, asserting that agricultural enterprises will continue to face struggles over meaning that will require sophisticated methods of issue and crisis management.
The timing of the “fertile window” in the menstrual cycle: day specific estimates from a prospective study

Abstract Objectives: To provide specific estimates of the likely occurrence of the six fertile days (the “fertile window”) during the menstrual cycle. Design: Prospective cohort study. Participants: 221 healthy women who were planning a pregnancy. Main outcome measures: The timing of ovulation in 696 menstrual cycles, estimated using urinary metabolites of oestrogen and progesterone. Results: The fertile window occurred during a broad range of days in the menstrual cycle. On every day between days 6 and 21, women had at minimum a 10% probability of being in their fertile window. Women cannot predict a sporadic late ovulation; 4-6% of women whose cycles had not yet resumed were potentially fertile in the fifth week of their cycle. Conclusions: In only about 30% of women is the fertile window entirely within the days of the menstrual cycle identified by clinical guidelines—that is, between days 10 and 17. Most women reach their fertile window earlier and others much later. Women should be advised that the timing of their fertile window can be highly unpredictable, even if their cycles are usually regular.
Perfect Cell Partitioning Scheme for Micro-Cellular Networks

A perfect cell partitioning (PCP) scheme is described for controlling the transmission power of base stations in a cellular communication system to prevent radio frequency interference among adjacent base stations. A base station using this scheme can use its entire frequency range, while one using the conventional scheme can use only a quarter of it. Simulation and analytic results showed that the PCP scheme is more effective than the conventional one when the node density is lower than 6. However, the probability of successful communication is relatively low. A modified version of this scheme in which the base station sacrifices the nodes near its border has a significantly higher probability. Simulation and analytic results showed that the success probability of the modified scheme is as much as 0.67 higher than that of the original one when the occupation ratio is 1.2 and that a base station using the modified scheme can use its frequency range more effectively than one using the original or conventional scheme.
Investigational therapies for hypercholesterolemia

ABSTRACT Introduction: Cardiovascular morbidity and mortality are of increasing concern, not only to patients but also to the health care profession and service providers. The preventative benefit of treatment of dyslipidaemia is unquestioned but there is a large, so far unmet need to improve clinical outcome. There are exciting new discoveries of targets that may translate into improved clinical outcome. Areas covered: This review highlights some new pathways in cholesterol and triglyceride metabolism and examines new targets, new drugs and new molecules. The review includes the results of recent trials of relatively new drugs that have shown benefit in cardiovascular endpoint outcomes, drugs that have been licenced without endpoint trials yet available and new drugs that have not yet been licenced but have produced exciting results in animal studies and some in early phase 2 human studies. Expert opinion: The new areas that have been discovered as the cause of dyslipidaemia have opened up a host of new targets for new drugs including antisense RNA’s, microRNA’s and human monoclonal antibodies. The plethora of new targets and new drugs has made it an extraordinarily exciting time in the development of therapeutics to combat atherosclerosis.
Desiccating Stress Induces T Cell-Mediated Sjögren’s Syndrome-Like Lacrimal Keratoconjunctivitis1

Chronic dry eye syndrome affects over 10 million people in the United States; it is associated with inflammation of the lacrimal gland (LG) and in some cases involves T cell infiltration of the conjunctiva. We demonstrate that environmental desiccating stress (DS) elicits T cell-mediated inflammation of the cornea, conjunctiva, and LG, but not other organs in mice. The lacrimal keratoconjunctivitis (LKC) was mediated by CD4+ T cells, which, when adoptively transferred to T cell-deficient nude mice, produced inflammation in the LG, cornea, and conjunctiva, but not in any other organ. Adoptively transferred CD4+ T cells produced LKC even though recipients were not exposed to DS. LKC was exacerbated in euthymic mice depleted of CD4+CD25+forkhead/winged helix transcription factor+ regulatory T cells. The results suggest that DS exposes shared epitopes in the cornea, conjunctiva, and LG that induce pathogenic CD4+ T cells that produce LKC, which under normal circumstances is restrained by CD4+CD25+forkhead/winged helix transcription factor+ regulatory T cells.
Causal Frequency-Specific Contributions of Frontal Spatiotemporal Patterns Induced by Non-Invasive Neurostimulation to Human Visual Performance

Neural oscillatory activity is known to play a crucial role in brain function. In the particular domain of visual perception, specific frequency bands in different brain regions and networks, from sensory areas to large-scale frontoparietal systems, have been associated with distinct aspects of visual behavior. Nonetheless, their contributions to human visual cognition remain to be causally demonstrated. We hereby used non-uniform (and thus non-frequency-specific) and uniform (frequency-specific) high-beta and gamma patterns of noninvasive neurostimulation over the right frontal eye field (FEF) to isolate the behavioral effects of oscillation frequency and provide causal evidence that distinct visual behavioral outcomes could be modulated by frequency-specific activity emerging from a single cortical region. In a visual detection task using near-threshold targets, high-beta frequency enhanced perceptual sensitivity (d′) without changing response criterion (beta), whereas gamma frequency shifted response criterion but showed no effects on perceptual sensitivity. The lack of behavioral modulations by non-frequency-specific patterns demonstrates that these behavioral effects were specifically driven by burst frequency. We hypothesize that such frequency-coded behavioral impact of oscillatory activity may reflect a general brain mechanism to multiplex functions within the same neural substrate. Furthermore, pathological conditions involving impaired cerebral oscillations could potentially benefit in the near future from the use of neurostimulation to restore the characteristic oscillatory patterns of healthy systems.
Natural Killer Cells—An Epigenetic Perspective of Development and Regulation

Based on their ability to recognize and eliminate various endo- and exogenous pathogens as well as pathological alterations, Natural Killer (NK) cells represent an important part of the cellular innate immune system. Although the knowledge about their function is growing, little is known about their development and regulation on the molecular level. Research of the past decade suggests that modifications of the chromatin, which do not affect the base sequence of the DNA, also known as epigenetic alterations, are strongly involved in these processes. Here, the impact of epigenetic modifications on the development as well as the expression of important activating and inhibiting NK-cell receptors and their effector function is reviewed. Furthermore, external stimuli such as physical activity and their influence on the epigenetic level are discussed.
Influence of binning in Histograms of Oriented Gradients method representation

This paper focuses on comparing orientation binning to perform Histograms of Oriented Gradients algorithm for the feature extraction process. The HOG algorithm comprises of gradient computation, orientation binning and block normalization aimed towards object detection. Three angles of binning are considered for (3bins, 6bins, and 9bins) with angles.64×128 image sample is taken from INRIA Person Data set to extract the feature points, using which human detection can be enhanced. The HOG technique is observed through various orientation binning obtained from experimental simulation results on MATLAB.
Inflammatory Cytokines in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease of unknown origin affecting virtually all organ systems. Beyond genetic and environmental factors, cytokine imbalances contribute to immune dysfunction, trigger inflammation, and induce organ damage. The key cytokine that is involved in SLE pathogenesis is interferon alpha. Interferon secretion is induced by immune complexes and leads to upregulation of several inflammatory proteins, which account for the so-called IFN signature that can be found in the majority of SLE PBMCs. Additionally IL-6 and IFN-y as well as T-cell-derived cytokines like IL-17, IL-21, and IL-2 are dysregulated in SLE. The latter induce a T-cell phenotype that is characterized by enhanced B-cell help and enhanced secretion of proinflammatory cytokines but reduced induction of suppressive T cells and activation-induced cell death. This paper will focus on these cytokines and highlights pathophysiological approaches and therapeutic potential.
Acquisition of categorized named entities for web search

The recognition of names and their associated categories within unstructured text traditionally relies on semantic lexicons and gazetteers. The amount of effort required to assemble large lexicons confines the recognition to either a limited domain (e.g., <i>medical imaging</i>), or a small set of pre-defined, broader categories of interest (e.g., <i>persons</i>, <i>countries</i>, <i>organizations</i>, <i>products</i>). This constitutes a serious limitation in an information seeking context. In this case, the categories of potential interest to users are more diverse (<i>universities</i>, <i>agencies</i>, <i>retailers</i>, <i>celebrities</i>), often refined (e.g., <i>SLR digital cameras</i>, <i>programming languages</i>, <i>multinational oil companies</i>), and usually overlapping (e.g., the same entity may be concurrently a <i>brand name</i>, a <i>technology company</i>, and an <i>industry leader</i>). We present a lightly supervised method for acquiring named entities in arbitrary categories. The method applies lightweight lexico-syntactic extraction patterns to the unstructured text of Web documents. The method is a departure from traditional approaches to named entity recognition in that: 1) it does not require any start-up seed names or training; 2) it does not encode any domain knowledge in its extraction patterns; 3) it is only lightly supervised, and data-driven; 4) it does not impose any a-priori restriction on the categories of extracted names. We illustrate applications of the method in Web search, and describe experiments on 500 million Web documents and news articles.
A New Mixed Index Method for XML Documents Updating

Traditional mixed index method combines the inverted file with a structure index and implements the retrieval of both context and structure. However, it is neither efficient nor supports for xml documents updating. This study presents a novel mixed index method to overcome these disadvantages. It can be used to optimize the query of path expression, decrease the number of update operations, accelerate the process of real-time update and shorten the response time. Experiments show that our strategy is effective and efficient.
Speckle Tracking in Intracardiac Echocardiography for the Assessment of Myocardial Deformation

Intracardiac echocardiography (ICE) has proven to be useful for online anatomical imaging during catheterization. Our objective was to develop a speckle tracking method for myocardial motion estimation from ICE image sequences in order to provide a mean for regional functional imaging. Our approach was to solve two problems in motion estimation from 2-D ICE image sequences: nonrigid myocardial deformation and speckle decorrelation. To achieve robust noise resistance, we employed maximum likelihood estimation while fully exploiting ultrasound speckle statistics, and treated the maximization of motion probability as the minimization of an energy function. Nonrigid myocardial deformation was estimated by optimizing this energy function within a framework of parametric elastic registration. Evaluation of the method was carried out using a computer model that synthesized echocardiographic image sequences, and subsequently an animal model that provided continuous ICE images as well as reference measurements using sonomicrometry crystals. In conclusion, accurate estimation of regional myocardial deformation from ICE by novel speckle tracking is feasible. This approach may have important clinical implications for multimodal imaging during catheterization.