Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Neuroinflammation in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease. A rational framework for the search of novel therapeutic approaches

Alzheimer disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia in people over 60 years old. The molecular and cellular alterations that trigger this disease are still diffuse, one of the reasons for the delay in finding an effective treatment. In the search for new targets to search for novel therapeutic avenues, clinical studies in patients who used anti-inflammatory drugs indicating a lower incidence of AD have been of value to support the neuroinflammatory hypothesis of the neurodegenerative processes and the role of innate immunity in this disease. Neuroinflammation appears to occur as a consequence of a series of damage signals, including trauma, infection, oxidative agents, redox iron, oligomers of τ and β-amyloid, etc. In this context, our theory of Neuroimmunomodulation focus on the link between neuronal damage and brain inflammatory process, mediated by the progressive activation of astrocytes and microglial cells with the consequent overproduction of proinflammatory agents. Here, we discuss about the role of microglial and astrocytic cells, the principal agents in neuroinflammation process, in the development of neurodegenerative diseases such as AD. In this context, we also evaluated the potential relevance of natural anti-inflammatory components, which include curcumin and the novel Andean Compound, as agents for AD prevention and as a coadjuvant for AD treatments.
‘Neurophobia’– attitudes of medical students and doctors in Ireland to neurological teaching

(i) To determine whether neurology is the medical specialty with which Irish students and doctors have most difficulty, (ii) appraise attitudes towards how neurology is taught, and (iii) suggest ways teaching might be improved. A questionnaire on medical teaching was given to 457 medical students and junior doctors in Ireland. Perceived difficulties with neurology compared with seven other medical specialties were analysed. Other aspects of teaching were assessed including why neurology is perceived as difficult and ways teaching could be improved. Neurology was perceived as the most difficult of the eight medical specialties assessed. Participants felt they learned most at bedside tutorials with surprisingly few learning online. Neurology was perceived as difficult because of insufficient exposure to the subject, lack of teaching, and perceived complexity. Neurology teaching could be improved by increasing the number of bedside tutorials and by greater exposure to neurological patients for the students in clinical training. Medical students and doctors find neurology difficult. The teaching of neurology is reported as moderate to poor. The reasons for this are wide ranging but an emphasis on increased numbers of tutorials and greater integration of pre‐clinical neurology to clinical years would improve teaching.
Source authoring for multilingual generation of personalised object descriptions

We present the source authoring facilities of a natural language generation system that produces personalised descriptions of objects in multiple natural languages starting from language-independent symbolic information in ontologies and databases as well as pieces of canned text. The system has been tested in applications ranging from museum exhibitions to presentations of computer equipment for sale. We discuss the architecture of the overall system, the resources that the authors manipulate, the functionality of the authoring facilities, the system's personalisation mechanisms, and how they relate to source authoring. A usability evaluation of the authoring facilities is also presented, followed by more recent work on reusing information extracted from existing databases and documents, and supporting the OWL ontology specification language.
Transduodenal Ampullectomy for Ampullary Adenomas: A Safe and Effective Procedure with Long-term Salutary Outcomes

With widespread use of endoscopy, ampullary adenomas are more frequently identified, many of which are not amenable to endoscopic resection. Pancreatoduodenctomy is curative for these lesions but carries high morbidity. The purpose of this study was to determine the safety and efficacy of transduodenal ampullectomy for these lesions. Data were collected on 32 patients who underwent transduodenal ampullectomy from 2002 to 2010. The median age of patients was 64 years. Adenomas were found because of abdominal pain in 34 per cent, jaundice in 22 per cent, and incidentally on endoscopic screening in 16 per cent and on computed tomography scan of the abdomen in 9 per cent. All patients had a preoperative diagnosis of premalignant disease; 6 per cent required intraoperative conversion to pancreaticoduodenectomy after frozen section evaluation documented carcinoma. Of ampullectomies, 97 per cent had clear margins. Follow-up was 28 months. Four (13%) patients developed recurrent disease at 4 years, 2 years, 1.5 years, and 4 months; all had clear margins at ampullectomy and underwent subsequent pancreaticoduodenectomy with invasive malignancy in a single patient. After preoperative biopsy documenting premalignant disease, malignancy at ampullectomy is unusual. Recurrence is uncommon but occurs even with clear margins necessitating diligent follow-up; even with diligent follow-up, recurrence can be malignant.
Validation of the Bleeding Academic Research Consortium Definition of Bleeding in Patients With Coronary Artery Disease Undergoing Percutaneous Coronary Intervention

Background— The Bleeding Academic Research Consortium (BARC) has recently proposed a unified definition of bleeding in patients receiving antithrombotic therapy. We investigated the relationship between bleeding events as defined by BARC and 1-year mortality in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and assessed whether the BARC bleeding definition is superior to existing bleeding definitions in regard to mortality prediction in patients after PCI procedures. Methods and Results— This study represents a patient-level pooled analysis of 12 459 patients recruited in 6 randomized trials of patients undergoing PCI. Bleeding events were assessed with the use of BARC, Thrombolysis in Myocardial Infarction (TIMI), and Randomized Evaluation in PCI Linking Angiomax to Reduced Clinical Events (REPLACE-2) trial criteria. The primary outcome was 1-year mortality. Bleeding occurred in 1233 patients (9.9%) according to BARC (679 patients or 5.4% with BARC class ≥2 bleeding), in 374 patients (3.0%) according to TIMI, and in 491 patients (3.9%) according to REPLACE-2 criteria. There were 340 deaths (2.7%) over the first year after PCI. BARC class ≥2 bleeding was associated with a significant increase in 1-year mortality (adjusted hazard ratio 2.72; 95% confidence interval, 2.03–3.63). The predictivity of a multivariable model for 1-year mortality was significantly improved after inclusion of bleeding defined according to BARC to an extent comparable to that provided by TIMI and REPLACE-2 criteria. Conclusions— The present study demonstrated a close association between bleeding events defined according to BARC and 1-year mortality after PCI.
A reconfigurable antenna with multiband characteristics for GPS and mobile communication

A simple Coaxial-fed antenna with frequency-band reconfigurable characteristics is presented here. This proposed antenna consists of a modified patch structure with annular-ring slots etched on it. In order to generate frequency reconfigurable characteristics different combination of ON/OFF states PIN diodes are used. These diodes are situated as switches in curve type slots. Antenna is operable in three modes on the basis of combination of ON/OFF states of the switches. This antenna is able to maintain a return loss below -10 dB for the GPS L5 Band (1.164 GHz to 1.189 GHz) exactly and 2.6 GHz for mobile broadband.
Real-Time Pupil-Tracking embedded-system based on neural networks

This paper proposes a low-cost video-based Real-Time Pupil-Tracking embedded system which will allow people with reduced mobility to control a wheelchair through their eyes. The main aspect of the method is its capacity to be implemented in a portable computing system, reduced both in computing power and in RAM memory. The Pupil-Tracking system is based on Feedforward Neural Networks-using offline training-, and in the “dark pupil effect”. The performance of the method was validated using an own database, built under different ambient lighting conditions.
Science to Practice : Can MR Imaging Be Used to Predict the Degree and Prognosis of Peripheral Nerve Injuries ?

See page 409 Summary: In this issue of Radiology, Yamabe et al (1) demonstrated the potential to use T2 measurements of muscle tissue to predict the degree and prognosis of nerve injury. This technique could become a useful diagnostic tool in cases in which reliable results from electrophysiologic testing are more difficult to obtain—for example, in children or in patients with complex or partial injuries of a peripheral nerve.
Retrieval effectiveness of machine translated queries

This article describes and evaluates various information retrieval models used to search document collections written in English through submitting queries written in various other languages, either members of the IndoEuropean family (English, French, German, and Spanish) or radically different language groups such as Chinese. This evaluation method involves searching a rather large number of topics (around 300) and using two commercial machine translation systems to translate across the language barriers. In this study, mean average precision is used to measure variances in retrieval effectiveness when a query language differs from the document language. Although performance differences are rather large for certain languages pairs, this does not mean that bilingual search methods are not commercially viable. Causes of the difficulties incurred when searching or during translation are analyzed and the results of concrete examples are explained.
A comprehensive simulation modeling of an emergency department: A case study for simulation optimization of staffing levels

We propose a Discrete Event Simulation (DES) model for an emergency department (ED). The model is developed in close collaboration with the French hospital Saint Camille, and is validated using real data. The objective of this model is to help ED managers better understand the behavior of the system and to improve the ED operations performance. The most essential features of an ED are considered in the model. A case study is conducted in order to allow decision makers select the most relevant investment in the human staffing budget. A simulation-based optimization algorithm is adopted to minimize the average Length of Stay (LOS) under a budget constraint. We conduct a sensitivity analysis on the optimal average LOS as a function of the staffing budget, and derive useful recommendations to managers on how the budget can impact the performance of the system.
Bone mineral density and stroke risk.

To the Editor: In their recent article, Jorgensen et al1 examined the relationship between bone mineral density (BMD) and stroke. They reported that female, but not male, stroke patients had lower BMD than population controls. Like the few other previous reports, it was based on fewer than 85 total cases. We attempted to replicate their findings by analyzing data from a population-based study. We looked at stroke prevalence and BMD, using data from the cross-sectional Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III). 2 NHANES III collected data from a nationally representative sample of the civilian noninstitutionalized US population from 1988 to 1994. Analyses were limited to 6298 non-Hispanic white, non-Hispanic black, and Mexican-American men and women whose BMD levels were measured and who were aged 45 years and older at the time of the NHANES III examination, because relatively few strokes occur at younger ages. BMD was measured by trained examiners in mobile examination centers. Total proximal femoral BMD was measured by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (Hologic QDR-1000; Hologic, …
Serum Resistance of Neisseria gonorrhoeae Does It Thwart the Inflammatory Response and Facilitate the Transmission of Infection? a

N. gonorrhoeae differentially subvert the effectiveness of complement (C) and alter the inflammatory responses elicited in human infection. Disseminated (DGI) isolates typically resist killing by normal serum (are serum-resistant), inactivate more C3b (to iC3b preferentially bound via amide linkages), generate less C5a, and result in less inflammation at local sites. Pelvic inflammatory disease isolates are serum-sensitive, inactivate less C3b (while maintaining active C3b via stable amide linkages), generate more C5a, and result in more inflammation at local sites. Sialylation of SS gonococci, presumed to occur in vivo, converts them to serum-resistant, but it does not change the patterns of C3b inactivation and therefore may not affect local inflammation. IgG antibody directed against gonococcal reduction modifiable protein (Rmp) blocks C-mediated killing of N. gonorrhoeae. Anti-Rmp blocking antibodies may harbor specificity for OmpA sequences shared with other neisserial species or Enterobacteriaceae or may be directed against unique Rmp upstream cysteine loop specific sequences, or both. Preexisting antibodies directed against Rmp facilitate transmission of gonococcal infection to exposed women; exclusion of highly immunogenic Rmp antigens from vaccine candidates may be important.
The association of resting heart rate with cardiovascular, cancer and all-cause mortality. Eight year follow-up of 3527 male Israeli employees (the CORDIS Study)

BACKGROUND Resting heart rate has frequently been shown to be a predictor of coronary heart disease mortality. Elevated heart rate could also be a marker for the presence of other risk factors, which have not been taken into consideration in previous studies. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effect of resting heart rate on the risk of all-cause cardiovascular and cancer mortality, taking into consideration haematological variables. METHOD The association between resting heart rate and mortality was assessed applying Cox's proportional hazard models to data obtained in an 8 year follow-up of 3527 Israeli male industrial employees. During this period 135 deaths were recorded, 57 from cardiovascular disease and 45 from cancer. Resting heart rate was assessed at entry; potential confounding demographic, anthropometric and socioeconomic variables, haematological data, serum lipid levels and health-related habits were accounted for. RESULTS We found that the relative risk of all-cause mortality increased with increasing resting heart rate, workers with resting heart rate >90 beats. min(-1)had an adjusted relative risk of 2.23 (95% CI 1.4-3.6) compared with those with a heart rate <70 beats. min(-1). A similar result was achieved for cardiovascular disease mortality (adjusted relative risk 2.02, 95% CI 1.1-4.0). Cancer mortality was not associated with resting heart rate. CONCLUSION This study found that resting heart rate is associated with all-cause and cardiovascular disease mortality after controlling (in various statistical models) for platelet counts, haemoglobin concentration, white blood cell counts, total protein, and other recognized risk factors.
Recombinant Adeno-Associated Viral Vectors Are Deficient in Provoking a DNA Damage Response

ABSTRACT Adeno-associated virus type 2 (AAV2) provokes a DNA damage response that mimics a stalled replication fork. We have previously shown that this response is dependent on ataxia telangiectasia-mutated and Rad3-related kinase and involves recruitment of DNA repair proteins into foci associated with AAV2 DNA. Here, we investigated whether recombinant AAV2 (rAAV2) vectors are able to produce a similar response. Surprisingly, the results show that both single-stranded and double-stranded green fluorescent protein-expressing rAAV2 vectors are defective in producing such a response. We show that the DNA damage signaling initiated by AAV2 was not due to the virus-encoded Rep or viral capsid proteins. UV-inactivated AAV2 induced a response similar to that of untreated AAV2. This type of DNA damage response was not provoked by other DNA molecules, such as single-stranded bacteriophage M13 or plasmid DNAs. Rather, the results indicate that the ability of AAV2 to produce a DNA damage response can be attributed to the presence of cis-acting AAV2 DNA sequences, which are absent in rAAV2 vectors and could function as origins of replication creating stalled replication complexes. This hypothesis was tested by using a single-stranded rAAV2 vector containing the p5 AAV2 sequence that has previously been shown to enhance AAV2 replication. This vector was indeed able to trigger DNA damage signaling. These findings support the conclusion that efficient formation of AAV2 replication complexes is required for this AAV2-induced DNA damage response and provide an explanation for the poor response in rAAV2-infected cells.
Down‐modulation of CD2 delays deletion of superantigen‐responsive T cells

CD2 is a cell surface glycoprotein expressed on most T lymphocytes that is generally viewed as a cell adhesion molecule and, in this capacity, contributes to T cell receptor (TCR) signaling. CD2 has a relatively long cytoplasmic tail which associates with the src family tyrosine kinases, p56lck and p59 fyn , and could potentially signal directly. Down‐modulation of CD2 on T cells has been shown to result in diminished proliferative capacity and interleukin (IL)‐2 production. Furthermore, re‐expression of CD2 can result in the restoration of these functions. This suggests that CD2 can influence the intensity of TCR signaling. As TCR signal intensity is pivotal to the induction of T cell apoptosis, we considered the hypothesis that the level of CD2 on the T cell surface may influence its propensity toward apoptosis. Using an anti‐CD2 antibody, CD2 was down‐modulated in vivo on mouse T lymphocytes without affecting the levels of surface CD3, TCR α β, CD4 or CD8. Deletion of superantigen‐responsive T cells was delayed in mice with down‐modulated CD2 following the administration of staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB). This was paralleled by diminished apoptosis of SEB‐responsive cells. The findings suggest a model whereby the level of CD2 expression influences the intensity of TCR signaling and the ability to undergo apoptosis.
Practice Guidelines : Clinical Characteristics and Utilization of Biochemical Markers in Acute Coronary Syndromes

I. OVERVIEW OF THE ACUTE CORONARY SYNDROME . e357 A. Definition of Terms.e357 B. Pathogenesis and Management of ACS.e357 II. USE OF BIOCHEMICAL MARKERS IN THE INITIAL EVALUATION OF ACS . e358 A. Diagnosis of Myocardial Infarction . e358 1. Biochemical Markers of Myocardial Necrosis . e358 2. Optimal Timing of Sample Acquisition.e359 3. Criteria for Diagnosis of MI.e360 4. Additional Considerations in the Use of Biomarkers for Diagnosis of MI . e360 B. Early Risk Stratification . e361 1. Biochemical Markers of Cardiac Injury.e361 a. Pathophysiology.e361 b. Relationship to Clinical Outcomes . e361 c. Decision-Limits . e362 d. Therapeutic Decision-Making . e362 2. Natriuretic Peptides.e362 a. Pathophysiology.e362 b. Relationship to Clinical Outcomes . e363 c. Decision-Limits . e364 d. Therapeutic Decision-Making . e365 3. Biochemical Markers of Inflammation . e365 a. Pathophysiology.e365 b. Relationship to Clinical Outcomes . e365 c. Decision-Limits . e365 d. Therapeutic Decision-Making . e367 4. Biochemical Markers of Ischemia.e367 5. Multimarker Approach.e367 6. Other Novel Markers . e368 III. USE OF BIOCHEMICAL MARKERS IN THE MANAGEMENT OF NSTEACS . e368 A. Clinical Decision-Making.e368 1. Biochemical Markers of Cardiac Injury.e368 2. Other Biochemical Markers.e369
Ieee Transactions on Wireless Communications 1 a Glrt Approach to Data-aided Timing Acquisition in Uwb Radios – Part I: Algorithms

— Realizing the great potential of impulse radio communications depends critically on the success of timing acquisition. To this end, optimum data-aided timing offset estimators are derived in this paper based on the maximum likelihood (ML) criterion. Specifically, generalized likelihood ratio tests (GLRTs) are employed to detect an ultra-wideband waveform propagating through dense multipath, as well as to estimate the associated timing and channel parameters in closed form. Capitalizing on the pulse repetition pattern, the GLRT boils down to an amplitude estimation problem, based on which closed-form timing acquisition estimates can be obtained without invoking any line search. The proposed algorithms only employ digital samples collected at a low symbol rate, thus reducing considerably the implementation complexity and acquisition time. Analytical acquisition performance bounds and corroborating simulations are also provided.
The biochemical characterization of the native pancreatic cholecystokinin receptor using affinity labeling approaches.

Affinity labeling has been a powerful tool for the biochemical characterization of sparse molecules which bind to a ligand probe in a specific, high-affinity manner. The rat pancreatic acinar cell receptor for cholecystokinin (CCK), the major physiologic hormonal stimulant of pancreatic exocrine secretion, has been the target of such investigation. Of interest, affinity-labeling studies have identified two distinct plasma membrane glycoproteins as candidates to represent this receptor. The initial candidate, which was identified using 125I-Bolton Hunter-labeled CCK-33 as probe, migrates on a SDS-polyacrylamide gel as a broad band in the M(r) = 80,000 range. Subsequently, using shorter probes in which the site of covalent attachment was closer to the receptor-binding domain of the probe, a band of M(r) = 85,000-95,000 was specifically labeled. Deglycosylation and protease-peptide mapping demonstrated that these bands represent distinct molecules. Using "intrinsic" probes of the receptor, in which a photolabile residue was sited within the pharmacophoric domain of the ligand, attention was focused on the latter candidate as representing the binding protein. Insight into the relationship between these proteins as they reside in the plasma membrane was contributed by labeling with a "topographical mapping" probe, which incorporates a flexible spacer of variable length between a CCK-like ligand and a photolabile residue. This procedure confirmed that these two minor membrane proteins are spatially associated with each other. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS) ImagesFIG. 1
Spam Classification With Artificial Neural Network and Negative Selection Algorithm

This paper apply neural network and spam model based on Negative selection algorithm for solving complex problems in spam detection. This is achieved by distinguishing spam from non-spam (self from non-self). We propose an optimized technique for e-mail classification; The e-mail are classified as self and non-self whose redundancy was removed from the detector set in the previous research to generate a self and non-self detector memory. A vector with an array of two element self and non-self concentration vector are generated into a feature vector used as an input in neural network classifier to classify the self and non-self feature vector of self and nonself program. The hybridization of both neural network and our previous model will further enhance our spam detector by improving the false rate and also enable the two different detectors to have a uniform platform for effective performance rate.