Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Declining Stroke and Vascular Event Recurrence Rates in Secondary Prevention Trials Over the Past 50 Years and Consequences for Current Trial Design

Background— It is widely supposed, but not well-demonstrated, that cumulative advances in standard care have reduced recurrent stroke and cardiovascular events in secondary prevention trials. Methods and Results— Systematic search identified all randomized, controlled trials of medical secondary stroke prevention therapies published from 1960 to 2009. Randomized, controlled trials narrowly focused on single stroke mechanisms, including atrial fibrillation, cervical carotid stenosis, and intracranial stenosis, were excluded. From control arms of individual trials, we extracted data for baseline characteristics and annual event rates for recurrent stroke, fatal stroke, and major vascular events and analyzed trends over time. Fifty-nine randomized controlled trials were identified, enrolling 66 157 patients in control arms. Over the 5 decade periods, annual event rates declined, per decade, for recurrent stroke by 0.996% (P=0.001), fatal stroke by 0.282% (P=0.003), and major vascular events by 1.331% (P=0.001). Multiple regression analyses identified increasing antithrombotic use and lower blood pressures as major contributors to the decline in recurrent stroke. For recurrent stroke, annual rates fell from 8.71% in trials launched in the 1960s to 6.10% in the 1970s, 5.41% in the 1980s, 4.04% in the 1990s, and 4.98% in the 2000s. The sample size required for a trial to have adequate power to detect a 20% reduction in recurrent stroke increased 2.2-fold during this period. Conclusions— Recurrent stroke and vascular event rates have declined substantially over the last 5 decades, with improved blood pressure control and more frequent use of antiplatelet therapy as the leading causes. Considerably larger sample sizes are now needed to demonstrate incremental improvements in medical secondary prevention.
Thermal characteristics of diamond film coatings for GaN HEMT devices

Diamond as a heat spreading film for Gallium Nitride (GaN) based devices has been proposed. For the successful integration and heat management, these films need to exhibit high in-plane thermal conductivity. We present a measurement method based on the laser flash method for thin films below 10 μm. The method uses free-standing diamond films on a silicon frame. The method has been used to show the high thermal conductivity of thin diamond films.
Spontaneous Pain, Both Neuropathic and Inflammatory, Is Related to Frequency of Spontaneous Firing in Intact C-Fiber Nociceptors

Spontaneous pain, a poorly understood aspect of human neuropathic pain, is indicated in animals by spontaneous foot lifting (SFL). To determine whether SFL is caused by spontaneous firing in nociceptive neurons, we studied the following groups of rats: (1) untreated; (2) spinal nerve axotomy (SNA), L5 SNA 1 week earlier; (3) mSNA (modified SNA), SNA plus loose ligation of the adjacent L4 spinal nerve with inflammation-inducing chromic gut; and (4) CFA (complete Freund’s adjuvant), intradermal complete Freund’s adjuvant-induced hindlimb inflammation 1 and 4 d earlier. In all groups, recordings of SFL and of spontaneous activity (SA) in ipsilateral dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons (intracellularly) were made. Evoked pain behaviors were measured in nerve injury (SNA/mSNA) groups. Percentages of nociceptive-type C-fiber neurons (C-nociceptors) with SA increased in intact L4 but not axotomized L5 DRGs in SNA and mSNA (to 35%), and in L4/L5 DRGs 1–4 d after CFA (to 38–25%). SFL occurred in mSNA but not SNA rats. It was not correlated with mechanical allodynia, extent of L4 fiber damage [ATF3 (activation transcription factor 3) immunostaining], or percentage of L4 C-nociceptors with SA. However, L4 C-nociceptors with SA fired faster after mSNA (1.8 Hz) than SNA (0.02 Hz); estimated L4 total firing rates were ∼5.0 and ∼0.6 kHz, respectively. Similarly, after CFA, faster L4 C-nociceptor SA after 1 d was associated with SFL, whereas slower SA after 4 d was not. Thus, inflammation causes L4 C-nociceptor SA and SFL. Overall, SFL was related to SA rate in intact C-nociceptors. Both L5 degeneration and chromic gut cause inflammation. Therefore, both SA and SFL/spontaneous pain after nerve injury (mSNA) may result from cumulative neuroinflammation.
Muscle energy metabolism in duchenne dystrophy studied by 31P‐NMR: Controlled trials show no effect of allopurinol or ribose

31P nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) was used to investigate the resting energy metabolism of the calf muscle in boys with Duchenne's muscular dystrophy. Reductions in the phosphocreatine/adenosine triphosphate (PCr/ATP) and the PCr/Pi ratios were found, but ATP as a fraction of the total mobile phosphorus signal was not reduced, and intracellular pH was normal in the Duchenne muscle. Attempts at quantitation of the NMR signal suggested that the reduced total phosphorus signal seen in the Duchenne muscle was a result of muscle fiber loss only and that the muscle fiber ATP concentration was probably normal in the diseased tissue. An exercise study in one 7‐year‐old boy with Duchenne's dystrophy demonstrated that the muscle had a normal ability to break down and resynthesize phosphocreatine. Presented here are the first reported trials of the effects of two putative therapeutic agents on energy metabolism determined by NMR in Duchenne's muscular dystrophy.
Translational repression of a C. elegans Notch mRNA by the STAR/KH domain protein GLD-1

In C. elegans, the Notch receptor GLP-1 is localized within the germline and early embryo by translational control of glp-1 mRNA. RNA elements in the glp-1 3′untranslated region (3′ UTR) are necessary for repression of glp-1 translation in germ cells, and for localization of translation to anterior cells of the early embryo. The direct regulators of glp-1 mRNA are not known. Here, we show that a 34 nucleotide region of the glp-1 3′ UTR contains two regulatory elements, an element that represses translation in germ cells and posterior cells of the early embryo, and an element that inhibits repressor activity to promote translation in the embryo. Furthermore, we show that the STAR/KH domain protein GLD-1 binds directly and specifically to the repressor element. Depletion of GLD-1 activity by RNA interference causes loss of endogenous glp-1 mRNA repression in early meiotic germ cells, and in posterior cells of the early embryo. Therefore, GLD-1 is a direct repressor of glp-1 translation at two developmental stages. These results suggest a new function for GLD-1 in regulating early embryonic asymmetry. Furthermore, these observations indicate that precise control of GLD-1 activity by other regulatory factors is important to localize this Notch receptor, and contributes to the spatial organization of Notch signaling.
A composite tracer analysis approach to reservoir characterization

A Composite Tracer Analysis Approach to Reservoir Characterization. (August 2004) Adedayo Stephen Oyerinde, B.S., University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria; Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. Akhil Datta-Gupta In the quest for production optimization from established resources, there is a continual interest in secondary and tertiary recovery methods. The success of these enhanced recovery methods, however, rely to a large extent on a sound understanding of fluid dynamics and migration paths in the reservoir. To this end, several approaches to reservoir characterization have been put to test with varying degrees of success. The unique ability of tracers to provide direct information on preferential fluid flow paths in the reservoir, and the sensitivity of partitioning tracers to fluid saturation distribution has highlighted the prospects of a detailed reservoir characterization through interwell tracer tests. In a broad sense, analysis of interwell tracer tests fall into two categories, analytical and inverse modeling. While most of the analytical methods are laden with limiting assumptions, the method of moments boasts rigorous formulation and accurate estimates of swept volume and average saturation of bypassed oil. The inverse modeling infers permeability and saturation distribution by matching the tracer response. An extremely effective approach to the inverse modeling methods computes sensitivities based on streamlines. The accurate modeling of tracer flow requires accounting for complex phenomena such as transverse dispersion. Also, it is sometimes desired to model pertinent tracer components through compositional simulation. This necessitates the inclusion of a physical dispersion tensor and, hence, the well established finite difference formulation. In this work, we have coupled the finite difference and streamline simulation techniques for the inversion-based reservoir characterization to take advantage of the robustness of the finite difference formulation and computational efficiency of streamline simulation. We have also extended the formalism of the inversion technique for fluid distribution estimation to scenarios with mobile oil saturations and have attempted integrating the analytical and inverse-modeling techniques to facilitate detailed reservoir characterization. We have demonstrated the feasibility of our approach on both synthetic and field cases.
Optimizing radar signal to noise ratio for tracking maneuvering targets

The scheduling of track dwells to minimize radar energy and time with an agile beam radar is considered. Typically, a radar scheduler picks a waveform pulsewidth to achieve a desired signal-to-noise (SNR) level, and this is called the nominal tracking SNR. In theory, the combination of high quality measurements and good kinematic modeling in the tracker yields longer track revisit periods, thus minimizing total radar time allocated to the track. However, high quality measurements are at the cost of higher tracking SNR, thus higher energy. In this study, the trade between higher energy waveforms and radar time is further investigated. The role of those higher energy waveforms with more accurate measurements in the performance of the Interacting Multiple Model (IMM) estimator is also investigated. Using simulation studies, the optimal tracking SNR levels that minimize radar time and energy are investigated.
Suppression of Late Reverberation Effect on Speech Signal Using Long-Term Multiple-step Linear Prediction

A speech signal captured by a distant microphone is generally smeared by reverberation, which severely degrades automatic speech recognition (ASR) performance. One way to solve this problem is to dereverberate the observed signal prior to ASR. In this paper, a room impulse response is assumed to consist of three parts: a direct-path response, early reflections and late reverberations. Since late reverberations are known to be a major cause of ASR performance degradation, this paper focuses on dealing with the effect of late reverberations. The proposed method first estimates the late reverberations using long-term multi-step linear prediction, and then reduces the late reverberation effect by employing spectral subtraction. The algorithm provided good dereverberation with training data corresponding to the duration of one speech utterance, in our case, less than 6 s. This paper describes the proposed framework for both single-channel and multichannel scenarios. Experimental results showed substantial improvements in ASR performance with real recordings under severe reverberant conditions.
Synergistic activity of the histone deacetylase inhibitor trichostatin A and the proteasome inhibitor PS-341 against taxane-resistant ovarian cancer cell lines

Although a combination of platinum- and taxane-based chemotherapy is recommended for at least 70% patients with ovarian cancer as treatment subsequent to surgery, the initial response to the chemotherapy is not durable and tumors become resistant. Histone deacetylase and proteasome inhibitors are novel therapeutic agents. However, the moderate antitumoral effect of the inhibitors has restricted their clinical use when used as single agents. The aim of the present study was to investigate the synergistic activity of trichostatin A (TSA) and PS-341 in ovarian cancer cells, along with the investigation of the molecular mechanisms of taxane resistance. The taxane-sensitive ovarian cancer A2780 cell line and its resistant variant, A2780T, were treated with taxane, TSA and PS-341 at various concentrations. An Annexin V assay was performed to determine the levels of cell viability and apoptosis, while flow cytometry and immunofluorescence staining for the mitotic phase-specific protein phosphorylated-histone H3 (Ser10) were used for cell cycle detection. The effects of combined TSA and PS-341 on cell cycle-associated proteins were tested by western blot analysis. Furthermore, the present study examined the apoptosis and cell cycle arrest induced by the 3 agents subsequent to overexpression or downregulation of cyclin B1 in A2780 and A2780T cells, respectively. It was found that TSA interacted synergistically with PS-341, resulting in a marked increase in apoptosis and the rate of G2/M arrest in A2780T cells. A lower basal level of cyclin B1 expression and the incompetence of the upregulation of the cyclin may explain the taxane resistance found in A2780T cells. Collectively, the combination of TSA and PS-341 increased cyclin B1 expression level regardless of the basal expression level, resulting in the proliferation inhibition and apoptosis in A2780 and A2780T cells, which raised the possibility that a combination of the two drugs may represent a novel strategy for the treatment of ovarian cancer, particularly in taxane-resistant ovarian cancer.
Mobile Ad-Hoc Network: Optimization of Routing Algorithms for Mobility Model

Many wireless networking problems have to be solved for the efficient design and deployment of these communications devices that operate in a Mobile Ad-hoc Network (MANET) environment. A Mobile Ad hoc Network (MANET) is an infrastructure less network of mobile devices which are equipped with a transmitter and receiver. If any node want to communicate with the other node then each node act as a router for the establishment of the route in the Mobile Ad hoc Network. Therefore, if two nodes (devices) in a Mobile Ad hoc network want to communicate with each other, then packets can be transmitted directly or through some intermediate nodes i.e. Mobile Ad hoc Network is a collection of self organized network of flexible wireless nodes without a centralized control or infrastructure. In this paper, we are comparing an optimized routing algorithm for Mobile Ad hoc Network using NS2.
Use of Multiple Features for Extracting Topics from News Clusters

Annotation. In this paper we consider a method for extraction of alternative names of a concept or a named entity mentioned in a news cluster. The method is based on the structural organization of news clusters and exploits comparison of various contexts of words. The word contexts are used as basis for multiword expression extraction and main entity detection. At the end of cluster processing we obtain groups of near-synonyms, in which the main synonym of a group is determined.
The diagnostic value of SYT‐SSX detected by reverse transcriptase–polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR) and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) for synovial sarcoma: A review and prospective study of 255 cases

This study aimed to evaluate the diagnostic value of SYT‐SSX detected by reverse transcriptase–polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR) and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) for synovial sarcoma (SS) in known and potential cases. SYT‐SSX was analyzed in formalin‐fixed, paraffin‐embedded tissues of 62 known SS, 60 non‐SS and 133 potential SS by RT‐PCR and FISH. FISH was mainly performed on a tissue microarray with some modifications. SYT‐SSX was detected in 94.7% (54/57) of known SS and 70.5% (86/122) of potential SS by RT‐PCR and in 96.7% (58/60) of known SS and 78.1% (100/128) of potential SS by FISH. Moreover, SYT‐SSX was negative in 100% (58/58) of non‐SS by RT‐PCR and in 100% (59/59) of non‐SS by FISH. Accordingly, SYT‐SSX was detected in 106 potential SS by RT‐PCR or FISH, including 80 cases manifested by both methods, 20 specimens verified only by FISH and 6 samples confirmed only by RT‐PCR. Clinical findings and immunohistochemistry data were analyzed in potential SS with final molecular diagnosis. The positive ratio of cytokeratin (CK) and epithelial membrane antigen (EMA) in finally diagnosed SS was 51.9% (55/106) and 61.3% (65/106), respectively. Except EMA, clinical parameters (age, sex, tumor size, tumor sites) and other immunohistochemistry indexes (CK, S‐100, neurone specific enolase (NSE), CD99, myoglobin, smooth muscle actin (SMA), cluster of differentiation (CD) 68 and mesothelial cell) had no significant difference between finally diagnosed SS and non‐SS. It is indicated that the efficiency of FISH is comparable to or even higher than that of RT‐PCR for SYT‐SSX detection. The detection of SYT‐SSX by RT‐PCR or FISH is very useful for the final diagnosis of potential synovial sarcomas. (Cancer Sci 2008; 99: 1355–1361)
The pathway of myofibrillogenesis determines the interrelationship between myosin and paramyosin synthesis in Caenorhabditis elegans

SUMMARY Examination of null mutants in myosin B and paramyosin yields insights into the complex mechanisms that regulate expression of the three major components of Caenorhabditis elegans body-wall muscle thick filaments myosin A, myosin B and paramyosin. In the absence of myosin B, paramyosin accumulation is reduced, although neither its synthesis nor that of myosin A is affected. This implies that the interaction of myosin B with paramyosin inhibits paramyosin degradation. By contrast, the absence of paramyosin results in reduced synthesis and accumulation of myosin B but has no effect on myosin A synthesis. The non-reciprocal effects of the null mutants on turnover and synthesis are best understood as an epigenetic phenomenon that reflects the pathway of thick filament assembly. The synthesis of myosin A and paramyosin, which are involved in the initial steps of thick filament formation, is independent of myosin B; however, a properly assembled paramyosin-containing thick filament core is essential for efficient synthesis of myosin B.
Energy/temperature diagram and compression behavior of the polymorphs of D-mannitol.

Three modifications of D-mannitol were produced and investigated: mod. I (mp 166.5 degrees C, heat of fusion 53.5 kJ mol(-1)), mod. II (mp 166 degrees C, heat of fusion 52.1 kJ mol(-1)), and mod. III (mp incongruent 150-158 degrees C, heat of transition, III to I 0.2 kJ mol(-1)). The measured densities are 1.490 +/- 0.000 g cm(-3) [95% confidence interval (CI)] for mod. I, 1.468 +/- 0.002 g cm(-3) (95% CI) for mod. II, and 1.499 +/- 0.004 g cm(-3) (95% CI) for mod. III. It was possible to relate the different modifications given in the literature to one of the three pure crystal forms or to mixtures of two or all three modifications. The thermodynamic relationship among the crystal forms is represented in a semi-schematic energy/temperature diagram. From these data we can conclude that mod. III is thermodynamically stable at absolute zero. It is enantiotropically related to mod. I and mod. II. FTIR and Raman spectra, differential scanning calorimetry curves, and X-ray powder patterns of these crystal forms are depicted for doubtless assignment in the future. The water uptake of the three modifications at 92% relative humidity and 25 degrees C is less than 1%. The differences of the heat capacities and the heats of solution between mod. II and III are not significant, whereas mod. I shows small significant differences compared with the other modifications. In addition, compaction studies of these crystal forms were performed by means of an instrumented hydraulic press. The results show that mod. III should have the best tableting behavior under these conditions.
AL-FEC Raptor Code Implementation Over 3GPP eMBMS Network

Long Term Evolution (LTE) is the next step beyond the third generation mobile networks based on Third Generation Partnership Project. LTE includes enhanced Multimedia Broadcast and Multicast Services (MBMS), also called as Evolved multimedia broadcast and multicast services (eMBMS) where the same content is transmitted to multiple users in one specific area. eMBMS is a new function defined in 3GPP Release 8 specification that supports the delivery of content and streaming to group users into LTE mobile networks. In LTE an important point of demanding multimedia services is to improve the robustness against packet losses. In this direction, in order to support effective point-tomultipoint download and streaming delivery, 3GPP has included an Application Layer Forward Error Correction (AL-FEC) scheme in the standard eMBMS. The standard AL-FEC system is based on systematic, fountain Raptor codes. Raptor coding is very useful in case of packet loss during transmission as it recover all video frame back from insufficient data at receiver terminal . In our work, in response to the emergence of an enhanced AL-FEC scheme, a raptor code has been implemented and performance is evaluated on image and the simulation results are obtained.
Learning to Transform Time Series with a Few Examples

We describe a semisupervised regression algorithm that learns to transform one time series into another time series given examples of the transformation. This algorithm is applied to tracking, where a time series of observations from sensors is transformed to a time series describing the pose of a target. Instead of defining and implementing such transformations for each tracking task separately, our algorithm learns a memoryless transformation of time series from a few example input-output mappings. The algorithm searches for a smooth function that fits the training examples and, when applied to the input time series, produces a time series that evolves according to assumed dynamics. The learning procedure is fast and lends itself to a closed-form solution. It is closely related to nonlinear system identification and manifold learning techniques. We demonstrate our algorithm on the tasks of tracking RFID tags from signal strength measurements, recovering the pose of rigid objects, deformable bodies, and articulated bodies from video sequences. For these tasks, this algorithm requires significantly fewer examples compared to fully supervised regression algorithms or semisupervised learning algorithms that do not take the dynamics of the output time series into account.
Antibody Recognition of a Highly Conserved Influenza Virus Epitope

Influenza virus presents an important and persistent threat to public health worldwide, and current vaccines provide immunity to viral isolates similar to the vaccine strain. High-affinity antibodies against a conserved epitope could provide immunity to the diverse influenza subtypes and protection against future pandemic viruses. Cocrystal structures were determined at 2.2 and 2.7 angstrom resolutions for broadly neutralizing human antibody CR6261 Fab in complexes with the major surface antigen (hemagglutinin, HA) from viruses responsible for the 1918 H1N1 influenza pandemic and a recent lethal case of H5N1 avian influenza. In contrast to other structurally characterized influenza antibodies, CR6261 recognizes a highly conserved helical region in the membrane-proximal stem of HA1 and HA2. The antibody neutralizes the virus by blocking conformational rearrangements associated with membrane fusion. The CR6261 epitope identified here should accelerate the design and implementation of improved vaccines that can elicit CR6261-like antibodies, as well as antibody-based therapies for the treatment of influenza.