Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Detection of influenza virus RNA by reverse transcription‐PCR and proinflammatory cytokines in influenza‐virus‐associated encephalopathy

Eleven children with acute encephalopathy associated with an influenza virus infection were treated during the 1997–1998 influenza season. Reverse transcription‐polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR) assay was used to detect the viral genome in peripheral blood and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples. The results were compared with those of control influenza patients without neurological complications. Viral RNA was detected only in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells of one patient with influenza‐virus‐associated encephalopathy (1 of 9; 11%) and in the CSF of another patient (1 of 11; 9%). RT‐PCR was negative in the blood of all the controls, but the percentage of RT‐PCR‐positive samples in the two groups was not significantly different. Cytokines and soluble cytokine receptors in plasma and CSF were then quantified using an enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay. The CSF concentrations of soluble tumor necrosis factor receptor‐1 were elevated in two patients and interleukin‐6 (IL‐6) was elevated in one patient with influenza‐virus‐associated encephalopathy. On the other hand, the plasma concentrations of IL‐6 were elevated in four of nine patients. The number of encephalopathy patients who had elevated plasma concentrations of IL‐6 100 pg/ml was significantly higher than that of controls (P = .01). In conclusion, the infrequent detection of the viral genome in the CSF and blood showed that direct invasion of the virus into the central nervous system was an uncommon event. Proinflammatory cytokines and soluble cytokine receptors may mediate the disease. The high plasma concentration of IL‐6 could be an indicator of the progression to encephalopathy. J. Med. Virol. 58:420–425, 1999. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Development of Korean version of World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule II (WHODAS II-K) in Community Dwelling Elders

Objectives：This study aimed to develop the Korean version of World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule II (WHODAS II-K) with community dwelling elderly population. Methods：The WHODAS II-K was administered to 1204 community residents aged 65 or over in two areas of Kwangju, South Korea, in 2001. For assessing ‘health condition’, data on physical illness, depression (Korean version of Geriatric Mental State Schedule B3), and cognitive dysfunction (Korean version of Mini-Mental State Examination) were collected. For evaluating ‘contextual factors’, informations on demographic characteristics (age, gender, living area, marital state, and religiou), socioeconomic status (education, type of accommodation, number of room, previous occupation, and current employment), and social network were obtained. Results：WHODAS II-K showed high levels of internal consistency, split-half reliability, and inter-rater and test-retest reliabilities. In the correlation analyses, scores on the WHODAS II-K were significantly correlated with the unfavorable conditions in the all variables on health condition and contextual factors. Partial correlations of scores on the WHODAS II-K with health condition were significant even after controlling for contextual factors. Conclusion：The WHODAS II-K is a reliable and valid instrument for assessing disability in elderly population since it reflects physical illness, depression, and cognitive impairment, which are common in elderly
Curvature-estimated burn patch synthesis for a round shaped body part

In recent years, 3d modeling techniques have drawn a great attention from research fields. However, few methods have been conducted in synthesizing burns. In this paper, we present a method to synthesize burn patches for a round shaped 3d body parts taking into account curvature estimation. At first depth maps have to be acquired with horizontal and vertical orientations. Then camera parameters called IPD are assigned in order to create multiple disparity images (MDI). Then intensity to disparity mapping (IDM) is employed to select a target pixel among multiple pixels in MDI. Also curvature estimation mapping (CEM) is introduced. We have show experimental results to verify the proposed method.
The Polymorphism Frequency Spectrum of Finitely Many Sites Under Selection

The distribution of genetic polymorphisms in a population contains information about evolutionary processes. The Poisson random field (PRF) model uses the polymorphism frequency spectrum to infer the mutation rate and the strength of directional selection. The PRF model relies on an infinite-sites approximation that is reasonable for most eukaryotic populations, but that becomes problematic when θ is large (θ ≳ 0.05). Here, we show that at large mutation rates characteristic of microbes and viruses the infinite-sites approximation of the PRF model induces systematic biases that lead it to underestimate negative selection pressures and mutation rates and erroneously infer positive selection. We introduce two new methods that extend our ability to infer selection pressures and mutation rates at large θ: a finite-site modification of the PRF model and a new technique based on diffusion theory. Our methods can be used to infer not only a “weighted average” of selection pressures acting on a gene sequence, but also the distribution of selection pressures across sites. We evaluate the accuracy of our methods, as well that of the original PRF approach, by comparison with Wright–Fisher simulations.
Higgs bundles and surface group representations in the real symplectic group

In this paper, we study the moduli space of representations of a surface group (that is, the fundamental group of a closed oriented surface) in the real symplectic group Sp(2n, ℝ). The moduli space is partitioned by an integer invariant, called the Toledo invariant. This invariant is bounded by a Milnor–Wood‐type inequality. Our main result is a count of the number of connected components of the moduli space of maximal representations, that is, representations with maximal Toledo invariant. Our approach uses the non‐abelian Hodge theory correspondence proved in a companion paper (O. García‐Prada, P. B. Gothen and I. Mundet i Riera, The Hitchin–Kobayashi correspondence, Higgs pairs and surface group representations, Preprint, 2012, arXiv:0909.4487 [math.AG].) to identify the space of representations with the moduli space of polystable Sp(2n, ℝ)‐Higgs bundles. A key step is provided by the discovery of new discrete invariants of maximal representations. These new invariants arise from an identification, in the maximal case, of the moduli space of Sp(2n, ℝ)‐Higgs bundles with a moduli space of twisted Higgs bundles for the group GL(n, ℝ).
Improving workers’ health in project-based work: job security considerations

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of health promotion interventions in Queensland, Australia. During the research period, the workers’ employing organization, a large contracting organization, was engaged in a competitive tender to renew their service contract. The research therefore provided an opportunity to examine the impact of health promotion interventions in project-based work environments under conditions of job insecurity. Design/methodology/approach – The sample comprised of workers contracted to provide facility maintenance and management services for a power station. Data were collected using a longitudinal survey of workers’ health, weekly logs recording health behaviour, and a post-intervention evaluation workshop. Health interventions implemented sought to encourage workers to eat more fruit and participate in a physical exercise programme. Findings – Findings revealed that workers’ health was generally lower than the Queensland male population when measured u.
Parent perceptions comparing times of parental mental wellness and illness using a family functioning model

ABSTRACT This qualitative study ascertained how parents with an affective disorder perceived their family to function during times with and without symptoms of their mental health concern. Fourteen parents with depression and/or anxiety responded to theoretically derived questions about family functioning when mentally well and ill. The data were subject to thematic content analysis, in conjunction with being coded using seven a priori codes originating from the domains within a family functioning model. Four identified themes pertained to enjoyment of parenting, mental health concerns as a barrier to parenting and family interaction, psychological outcomes of parenting with mental health concerns and incentives to focus on parenting and family functioning. At least 12 parents reported three domains of family functioning (communication, role performance, affective involvement) changed between times of mental illness and wellness. Some parents perceived changes to family values and norms, and approximately half reported that affective expression, control of family members and overall task achievement was affected. This study may deepen understanding of family experiences and parent interpretations of their experience, and inform the design of interventions.
Perfdiff: a framework for performance difference analysis in a virtual machine environment

Although applications running on virtual machines, such as Java, can achieve platform independence, performance evaluation and analysis becomes difficult due to extra intermediate layers and the dynamic nature of virtual execution environment. We present a framework for analyzing performance across multiple runs of a program, possibly in dramatically different execution environments. Our framework is based upon our prior lightweight instrumentation technique for building a calling context tree (CCT) of methods at runtime. We first represent each run of a program by a CCT, annotating its edges and nodes with various performance attributes such as call counts or elapsed times. We then identify components of the CCTs that are topologically identical but with significant performance-attribute differences. Next, the topological differences of two CCTs are identified, while ignoring the performance attributes. Finally, we identify the differences in both topology and performance attributes that can be fed back to the software developers or performance analyzers for further scrutiny. We have applied our methodology to a number of well-known Java benchmarks and a large J2EE application, using call counters as the performance attribute. Our results indicate that this approach can efficiently and effectively relate differences to a small percentage of nodes on the CCT. We present an iterative framework for program analysis, where topological changes are performed to identify differences in CCTs. For most of the test programs, applying a few topological changes such as deletion, addition, and renaming of nodes - are needed to make any two CCTs from the same program identical, whereas less than 2% of performance-attribute changes are needed to achieve a 90% overlap of any two CCTs in performance attributes, after the two CCTs are topologically matched. We have applied our framework to identify subtle configuration differences for complex server applications.
Hepatic Cytochrome P450 Gene Regulation during Endotoxin-Induced Inflammation in Nuclear Receptor Knockout Mice

Inflammatory agents such as lipopolysaccharide (LPS) down-regulate the hepatic expression of many cytochrome P450 (P450) mRNAs and proteins. Previous studies suggested that suppression of some P450 mRNAs could involve the regulation or modulation of the nuclear receptors peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor α (PPARα) or pregnane X receptor (PXR). To determine the involvement of these receptors in P450 down-regulation, PPARα knockout (KO), PXR KO, and appropriate wild-type (WT) mice were administered either saline or 1 mg/kg LPS. Hepatic mRNA and protein expression of several P450 isoforms, interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, tumor necrosis factor (TNF) α, α1-acid glycoprotein (AGP), and fibrinogen (FBG) were examined 16 h later. LPS administration significantly decreased the hepatic expression of CYP1A2, 2A5, 2C29, 2E1, 3A11, 4A10, and 4A14 mRNAs in both groups of PPARα and PXR mice, whereas CYP3A13 mRNA was increased slightly in PPARα WT and KO mice, but not in PXR mice. Effects of LPS administration on mouse hepatic P450 proteins (probed using rat P450 2C, 3A, 4A, and 2E antibodies) were consistent with mRNA results in most cases. LPS treatment significantly increased IL-1β, IL-6, TNFα, AGP, and FBG mRNA in both PPARα and PXR mice, with the greatest effect observed with TNFα. Because decreases in P450 mRNA expression were essentially identical in both WT and KO mice for both nuclear receptors, these data indicate that down-regulation of P450 during inflammation does not require the nuclear receptors PPARα and PXR.
Accelerating benders decomposition with heuristicmaster problem solutions

In this paper, a general scheme for generating extra cuts during the execution of a Benders decomposition algorithm is presented. These cuts are based on feasible and infeasible master problem solutions generated by means of a heuristic. This article includes general guidelines and a case study with a fixed charge network design problem. Computational tests with instances of this problem show the efficiency of the strategy. The most important aspect of the proposed ideas is their generality, which allows them to be used in virtually any Benders decomposition implementation.
A Cellular Automaton Model of Traffic with Railroad Crossing

It has been shown that a cellular automaton is useful to simulate traffic flow. Kashii Sando in Fukuoka City is known as a notoriously busy road that approaches a shrine. Therefore, we focus on the road and introduce a cellular automaton model to simulate the bottleneck situation due to a railroad crossing. We introduce parameters such as traffic volume, initial traffic volume, and car stop time in front of the crossing. We show that a traffic jam is considerably affected by the time that cars are stopped at the railroad crossing.
Fast Logistic Regression for Data Mining , Text Classification and Link Detection

Previous work by the authors [1] demonstrated that logistic regression can be a fast and accurate data mining tool for life sciences d atasets, competitive with modern tools like support vector machines and balltree based K-NN. This paper has two objectives. The first obje ctive is a serious empirical comparison of logistic regression to se veral classical and modern learners on a variety of learning tasks. The secon d is to describe our use of conjugate gradient inside an iterativel y re-weighted least squares fitting procedure.
Place categorization using sparse and redundant representations

Place categorization addresses the problem of determining the semantic label of the current position of a robot, given a snapshot of the environment as well as previously labeled information about different places that the robot has already seen. State-of-the-art approaches use machine learning techniques that require extensive and often time consuming training. This work proposes a novel formulation by posing place categorization as an efficient ℓ1-minimization problem, leading to both a faster training phase and to performance comparable to state-of-the-art methods. The formulation allows online robot operation particularly in the case when the training phase has to be learned on-the-fly and in an active manner. To validate the performance of the proposed method, extensive experimental results carried out on real data under different lighting conditions as well as structural changes in the environment are provided.
Decreased Laminin Expression by Human Lung Epithelial Cells and Fibroblasts Cultured in Acellular Lung Scaffolds from Aged Mice

The lung changes functionally and structurally with aging. However, age-related effects on the extracellular matrix (ECM) and corresponding effects on lung cell behavior are not well understood. We hypothesized that ECM from aged animals would induce aging-related phenotypic changes in healthy inoculated cells. Decellularized whole organ scaffolds provide a powerful model for examining how ECM cues affect cell phenotype. The effects of age on ECM composition in both native and decellularized mouse lungs were assessed as was the effect of young vs old acellular ECM on human bronchial epithelial cells (hBECs) and lung fibroblasts (hLFs). Native aged (1 year) lungs demonstrated decreased expression of laminins α3 and α4, elastin and fibronectin, and elevated collagen, compared to young (3 week) lungs. Proteomic analyses of decellularized ECM demonstrated similar findings, and decellularized aged lung ECM contained less diversity in structural proteins compared to young ECM. When seeded in old ECM, hBECs and hLFs demonstrated lower gene expression of laminins α3 and α4, respectively, as compared to young ECM, paralleling the laminin deficiency of aged ECM. ECM changes appear to be important factors in potentiating aging-related phenotypes and may provide clues to mechanisms that allow for aging-related lung diseases.
Efficient models for photoionization produced by non-thermal gas discharges in air based on radiative transfer and the Helmholtz equations

This paper presents formulation of computationally efficient models of photoionization produced by non-thermal gas discharges in air based on three-group Eddington and improved Eddington (SP3) approximations to the radiative transfer equation, and on effective representation of the classic integral model for photoionization in air developed by Zheleznyak et al (1982) by a set of three Helmholtz differential equations. The reported formulations represent extensions of ideas advanced recently by Ségur et al (2006) and Luque et al (2007), and allow fast and accurate solution of photoionization problems at different air pressures for the range , where is the partial pressure of molecular oxygen in air in units of Torr ( at atmospheric pressure) and R in cm is an effective geometrical size of the physical system of interest. The presented formulations can be extended to other gases and gas mixtures subject to availability of related emission, absorption and photoionization coefficients. The validity of the developed models is demonstrated by performing direct comparisons of the results from these models and results obtained from the classic integral model. Specific validation comparisons are presented for a set of artificial sources of photoionizing radiation with different Gaussian dimensions, and for a realistic problem involving development of a double-headed streamer at ground pressure. The reported results demonstrate the importance of accurate definition of the boundary conditions for the photoionization production rate for the solution of second order partial differential equations involved in the Eddington, SP3 and the Helmholtz formulations. The specific algorithms derived from the classic photoionization model of Zheleznyak et al (1982), allowing accurate calculations of boundary conditions for differential equations involved in all three new models described in this paper, are presented. It is noted that the accurate formulation of boundary conditions represents an important task needed for a successful extension of the proposed formulations to two- and three-dimensional physical systems with obstacles of complex geometry (i.e. electrodes, dust particles, aerosols, etc), which are opaque for the photoionizing UV photons.
v 1 1 0 N ov 2 00 5 Medium-modified Casimir forces

Abstract. We compare vacuum forces on a slab and on an atom embedded in a magnetodielectric medium near a mirror as obtained in a traditional and a recently suggested Lorentz-force approach to the Casimir effect. We also extend a number of classical results concerning the atom-mirror and atom-atom force in vacuum and dielectrics to magnetodielectric systems. This reveals, for example, that the (repulsive) interaction between atoms of different polarizability type is at small distances unaffected by the surrounding medium.
Journal of Nanotechnology and Materials Science

Recently, the bimetallic nanoparticles (BNPs) have received great attention due to their unique optical, electronic, magnetic, and catalytic characteristics which are greatly difference from those of corresponding monometallic nanoparticles[1]. Bimetallic nanoparticles composed of two type metal elements, metallic nanoparticles can be categorized as bi-metallic or tri-metallic depending on the number of component metallic ingredients[1]. To prepare bimetallic nanoparticles from metal salts we can use two methods; co-reduction and successive reduction of two metal salts. The co-reduction protocol is easy method to combine the bimetallic nanoparticles, that is, the same as that of monometallic nanoparticles. The mean size of the bimetallic nanoparticles depends on the metal composition. A sol–gel process and stabilized in liquid and solid matrices were used to synthesize nanobimetallic particles consisting of Au–Pd, Au–Ag, and Au–Pt. The colloidal Au-Ag bimetallic nanoparticles (NPs) was studied as a friendly method to construct two metal element using glycerol as a reducing chemical in alkaline medium. The composition of colloidal NPs was confirmed by characterization method including; Ultraviolet spectroscopy (UV-Vis) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM)[2]. It was reported that the effect of pH on the synthesis of Ni-Au. Bimetallic nanomaterial have wide applications such as catalysts[3], staining pigments, antimicrobials[4], larvicidal and pupicidal[5], anti-malarial[6], coating on solar cells, photonics[7], sensors[8], in drug delivery, gene therapy, DNA detection and cancer management.
Subendomyocardial Exhaustion of Blood Flow Reserve and Increased Fibrosis in Conscious Dogs With Heart Failure

The effects of near-maximal coronary vasodilation were examined in conscious dogs with left ventricular (LV) failure after pressure overload hypertrophy induced by either aortic banding alone or aortic banding plus a peripheral arteriovenous shunt. The findings were compared with results in littermates with compensated LV hypertrophy and with a third group of normal dogs. At rest, there was a marked difference in the intramyocardial distribution of coronary flow, measured with radiolabeled microspheres. The endocardial/epicardial (endo/epi) flow ratio in the LV failure dogs was 0.96 ± 0.08 as compared with control dogs (1.28 ± 0.06, p <0.05) or dogs with compensated LV hypertrophy (1.23 ± 0.08, p <0.05). During near-maximal coronary vasodilation with adenosine, all groups showed similar increases in subepimyocardial (epi) flow. While significant increases in subendomyocardial (endo) flow during adenosine infusion were seen in the control group (0.88 ± 0.10 to 3.53 ± 0.24 ml/min/g) and in dogs with compensated LV hypertrophy (1.12 ± 0.14 to 3.60 ± 0.16 ml/min/g), there was no change in endo flow in the LV failure dogs (1.55 ± 0.20 to 1.71 ± 0.47 ml/min/g) and a further significant reduction in the endo/epi flow ratio was observed (030 ± 0.06, p <0.01). These hemodynamic changes were associated with chronic multifocal interstitial or discrete areas of fibrosis observed preferentially in endo layers. Thus, endo flow reserve is nearly exhausted in dogs with decompensated pressure overload LV hypertrophy, which may induce periodic episodes of endo ischemia resulting in myocyte necrosis and fibrosis, which in turn results in exacerbation of LV failure.