Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A mixed phenotype of airway wall thickening and emphysema is associated with dyspnea and hospitalization for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

RATIONALE Quantitative computed tomography (CT) has been used to phenotype patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). A mixed phenotype is defined as the presence of both airway wall thickening and emphysema on quantitative CT. Little is known about patients with COPD with the mixed phenotype. OBJECTIVES To propose a method of phenotyping COPD based on quantitative CT and to compare clinically relevant outcomes between patients with COPD with the mixed phenotype and those with other CT-based phenotypes. METHODS Each of 427 male smokers (187 without COPD, 240 with COPD) underwent a complete medical interview, pulmonary function testing, and whole-lung CT on the same day. The percentage of low-attenuation volume at the threshold of -950 Hounsfield units (%LAV) and the square root of wall area of a hypothetical airway with an internal perimeter of 10 mm (Pi10) were measured. Patients with COPD were classified into four distinct phenotypes based on the upper limits of normal for %LAV and Pi10, which were derived from the data of smokers without COPD by using quantile regression. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS Of 240 patients with COPD, 52 (21.7%) were classified as CT-normal phenotype, 39 (16.3%) as airway-dominant phenotype, 103 (42.9%) as emphysema-dominant phenotype, and 46 (19.2%) as mixed phenotype. Patients with COPD with the mixed phenotype were associated with more severe dyspnea than those with each of the remaining CT-based phenotypes (P < 0.01 for all comparisons). The number of hospitalizations for COPD exacerbations during the preceding year was 2.0 to 3.6 times higher in patients with the mixed phenotype than in those with each of the remaining CT-based phenotypes (P < 0.05 for all comparisons). Findings persisted after adjustment for age, pack-years of smoking, smoking status, body mass index, and FEV1. CONCLUSIONS Patients with COPD with the mixed phenotype are associated with more severe dyspnea and more frequent hospitalizations than those with each of the remaining CT-based phenotypes. Thus, patients with COPD with the mixed phenotype may need more attention and interventions.
Regulation of microtubule organization and functions by septin GTPases

Septins comprise an evolutionarily conserved family of oligomeric GTPases that regulate the intracellular localization of proteins by functioning as protein scaffolds and diffusion barriers. Recent studies reveal that septins associate with microtubules, microtubule‐associated proteins (MAPs), and microtubule motors. Here, I review these findings and consider how septins may spatially regulate the interaction of microtubules with MAPs and motor proteins. Thus, septins may constitute a novel regulatory module of microtubule organization and function with important implications in the understanding and treatment of cancer and neurodegeneration. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Complications of catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation in a high-volume centre with the use of intracardiac echocardiography.

AIMS Catheter ablation (CA) for atrial fibrillation (AF) is a complex procedure that is associated with higher risk of complications. This study aimed at exploring the complication rate and corresponding risk factors in a high-volume centre with routine use of intracardiac echocardiography (ICE). METHODS AND RESULTS In total 1192 consecutive AF ablation procedures (100% ICE-guided; 96.4% 3D-navigated; point-by-point radiofrequency ablation with open-irrigated tip catheter; 22.4% robotic navigation; 25.4% repeated ablation) were performed in 959 patients (aged 58 ± 9 years; 70.8% males; 35.9% persistent AF) between March 2006 and December 2010. Ablation endpoint in paroxysmal AF was complete electrical pulmonary vein isolation (PVI). Complex ablation was defined as PVI plus stepwise strategy for left atrial substrate ablation (43.5%) in persistent AF. Forty major complications (3.3%) during the procedure or within the 3 month follow-up were observed. No death or atrioesophageal fistula occurred. Three patients (0.25%) had cardiac tamponade/hemopericardium and five patients (0.42%) had cerebrovascular embolic event. Vascular injury was the most frequent (2.3%) complication. Low body weight was the only significant risk factor with 0.8% increase of complication rate per 10 kg of body weight decrease (P = 0.013). A trend for increase in complication rate was also observed for advanced age, female gender, and complex procedure. CONCLUSION Atrial fibrillation ablation procedures guided by ICE in a high-volume centre are associated with low rate of serious complications. The composite risk score consisting of body weight, age, gender, and complexity of procedure predicted complications.
Coatings with improved chip resistance and methods of making the same

A coating composition, formed of a film- forming component comprising a functional group-containing resinous binder and, optionally, a crosslinking agent having at least two functional groups that are reactive with the functional groups of the film-forming component, wherein, when the composition is applied and cured to form a cured coating, the cured coating is characterized as having a bicontinuous morphology. Methods of making the coating composition and coatings prepared therefrom are also provided. The coating composition can provide improved physical properties, such as chip resistance, when incorporated into a coating.
A Co-operative Web Services Paradigm for Supporting Crawlers

The traditional crawlers used by search engines to build their collection of Web pages frequently gather unmodified pages that already exist in their collection. This creates unnecessary Internet traffic and wastes search engine resources during page collection and indexing. Generally, the crawlers are also unable to collect dynamic pages, causing them to miss valuable information, and they cannot easily detect deleted pages, resulting in outdated search engine collections. To address these issues, we propose a new Web services paradigm for Website/crawler interaction that is co-operative and exploits the information present in the Web logs and file system. Our system supports a querying mechanism wherein the crawler can issue queries to the Web service on the Website and then collect pages based on the information provided in response to the query. We present experimental results demonstrating that, when compared to traditional crawlers, this approach provides bandwidth savings, more complete Web page collections, and collections that are notified of deleted pages. We experimentally compare the relative merits of using only Web logs, only file system information, and combinations of the two sources to provide information for the Web service.
Information Visualisation and Virtual Environments

Information Visualisation is a fast growing research field and an industry with tremendous potential. Virtual environments provide a unique medium for people to communicate and interact over computer networks. Information Visualisation and Virtual Environments links the two areas together and presents the latest research and development, highlighting the potential of information visualisation as an enabling technology in the design of new generations of virtual environments. This book will be an invaluable source of reference for courses in Information Visualisation, User Interface Design, Virtual Environments, HCI, and Information Retrieval, as well as being a useful resource for consultants and practitioners. The book contains 144 wonderful colour images of intriguing and influential works in information visualisation.
Aflatoxin M1 in milk by immunoaffinity column cleanup with TLC/HPLC determination

During 2002 and 2003, a total of 107 samples of raw, pasteurized and ultrahigh treated temperature (UHT) milk commercialized in the cities of Sao Paulo and Marilia (SP) were analyzed for the presence of aflatoxin M1 (AFM1). AFM1 was detected in 79 (73.8%) of milk samples, ranging from <0.02 to 0.26 mg/L.The samples were analyzed using an immunoaffinity column for cleanup and a thin layer chromatography for determining AFM1. The parameters, such as recovery, repeatibility, detection and quantification limit were evaluated to optimize this method (in-house). Based on spiked samples, the recovery values ranged from 85.83 to 73.86% at levels of 0.010-0.50 mg/L, respectively, and the relative standard deviation for repeatibility ranged from 7.73 to 2.08%. The quantification limit was 0.02 mg/L. The results of some samples analyzed by this method demonstrated a satisfatory correlation when compared with High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). In conclusion, immunoaffinity column cleanup gave excellent results for recovery, sensibility and sample through put. Despite the high rate of occurrence of AFM1 in samples in both cities, the contamination level could not be considered a serious public health hazard, according to Brazilian legislation.
Solution precursor plasma sprayed tungsten oxide particles and coatings

ABSTRACT Solution precursor plasma spray process was used to deposit single particles and coatings of tungsten oxide (WO3), and the microstructures of single particles and coatings were characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy. The effects of substrate temperature and spraying distance on the microstructure of single particles and coatings were studied. In the case of WO3 particles, the particle spheroidization degree became better as the increase in substrate temperature. When the substrate temperature increased up to 200°C, bubble-like morphologies appeared. For the deposited WO3 coatings, a highly porous structure was obtained when a 100 mm spraying distance was used. Besides, the grain size of coatings decreased through increasing the spraying distance from 60 to 100 mm.
Phylogenetic evidence of noteworthy microflora from the subsurface of the former Homestake gold mine, Lead, South Dakota

Molecular characterization of subsurface microbial communities in the former Homestake gold mine, South Dakota, was carried out by 16S rDNA sequence analysis using a water sample and a weathered soil‐like sample. Geochemical analyses indicated that both samples were high in sulphur, rich in nitrogen and salt, but with significantly different metal concentrations. Microbial diversity comparisons unexpectedly revealed three distinct operational taxonomic units (OTUs) belonging to the archaeal phylum Thaumarchaeota, typically identified from marine environments, and one OTU belonging to a potentially novel phylum that fell sister to Thaumarchaeota. To our knowledge this is only the second report of Thaumarchaeota in a terrestrial environment. The majority of the clones from Archaea sequence libraries fell into two closely related OTUs and were grouped most closely to an ammonia‐oxidizing, carbon‐fixing and halophilic thaumarchaeote genus, Nitrosopumilus. The two samples showed neither Euryarchaeota nor Crenarchaeota members that have often been identified from other subsurface terrestrial ecosystems. Bacteria OTUs containing the highest percentage of sequences were related to sulphur‐oxidizing bacteria of the orders Chromatiales and Thiotrichales. Community members of Bacteria from individual Homestake ecosystems were heterogeneous and distinctive to each community, with unique phylotypes identified within each sample.
Phase separation in thermally-drawn fibers: From porous domains to structured Si-Ge spheres

The preform-to-fiber thermal drawing method is a versatile process that allows the fabrication of polymer or glass-based fibers with complex multimaterial internal structures, which grant them functions ranging from optical transmission to chemical detection. However, while a wide range of materials have been successfully drawn in various phases such as metals, semiconductors, and ferroelectric polymers the overall structure of the fiber is typically axially-invariant and the incorporation of heterogeneous materials with isotropic microstructures such as porous domains has remained elusive thus far. In this thesis we investigate the use of in-fiber phase separation as a means to control the microstructure of different components within thermally-drawn fibers. In particular we propose a novel method based on controlled phase separation of a polymer solution that we use to embed isotropically porous polymeric domains inside multimaterial fibers. We achieve this by thermal-drawing a hollow polymer preform filled with a liquid polymer solution in its core. We later apply this method to the fabrication and characterization of scaffolds for neural regeneration. In addition, we show that the same principle can also be used to draw a functional lithium-ion fiber battery; a fiber device capable of electrochemical energy storage. Finally, we demonstrate how to produce structured Si-Ge spheres encapsulated within a silica cladding by inducing capillary breakup of a continuous Si-Ge core fiber in a strong axial thermal gradient. The thermal gradient causes a "kinetic phase separation" of the alloy, leading to structured Janus particles. Thesis Supervisor: Yoel Fink Title: Professor of Materials Science and Engineering Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Lossless Image Compression using Binary Field Transform

In this paper, we have described the theory of binary wavelet decomposition as applied to the compression of binary images. It has been shown that this is similar to other transforms like the real field transforms. Applying real field transforms for binary images results in increased complexity, and so we have used a transform called the Binary Field Transform. By using this transform, the computation is considerably reduced, since computation in the binary field involves only modulo-2 operations. We have developed a filter with 8 taps with decimation factor of 4 to decompose the binary images into their constituent subbands. These subbands are losslessly compressed. The performance of this coding technique is found to be better than JBIG with an overall increase in performance by about sixteen percent.
The Role of Cytokines in Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is commonly associated with obesity and diabetes, and is characterized by insulin resistance (IR). Cytokines and adipocytokines (i.e. mediators mainly derived from adipose tissue) play a major role in the orchestration of inflammatory processes throughout the body. In addition, many of these mediators are able to regulate very diverse functions including inflammatory, immune and metabolic processes such as IR. The pro-inflammatory cytokines tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) are critically involved in the pathophysiology of various aspects of human NAFLD. The importance of TNF-α in human and animal fatty liver diseases, both due to genetic manipulation and overnutrition, has been demonstrated. Furthermore, neutralization of TNF-α activity improves IR and fatty liver disease in animals. IL-6 is derived from many cells throughout the body including adipocytes. Serum levels of this cytokine correlate remarkably well with the presence of IR, and adipose tissue-derived IL-6 has been shown to regulate hepatic IR via upregulation of SOCS3. Adiponectin is a potent TNF-α-neutralizing and anti-inflammatory adipocytokine, and in vitro and experimental animal studies have proven the importance of this mediator in counteracting inflammation and IR. Anti-inflammatory effects of adiponectin are mediated via suppression of TNF-α synthesis as well as induction of anti-inflammatory cytokines such as IL-10 or IL-1 receptor antagonist. Therefore, the balance between pro- and anti-inflammatory acting cytokines/adipocytokines appears to play a key role in hepatic and systemic insulin action, and they are supposed to have important functions in the development of NAFLD.
Comparison and Evaluation of Sonification Strategies for Guidance Tasks

This paper aims to reveal the efficiency of sonification strategies in terms of rapidity, precision, and overshooting in the case of a one-dimensional guidance task. The sonification strategies are based on the four main perceptual attributes of a sound (pitch, loudness, duration/tempo, and timbre) and classified with respect to the presence or not of one or several auditory references. Perceptual evaluations are used to display the strategies in a precision/rapidity space and enable prediction of user behavior for a chosen sonification strategy. The evaluation of sonification strategies constitutes a first step toward general guidelines for sound design in interactive multimedia systems that involve guidance issues.
Nitric oxide and its putative role in hypertension.

In the past 5 years, nitric oxide (NO) has become recognized as a major player in most physiological and pathophysiological processes. So much has been learned about the involvement of this molecule in these processes that it seems appropriate to survey the current state of this insight, with the goal of creating a solid foundation on which these studies can continue. In this review we deal first with the basic metabolism and actions of NO, emphasizing aspects of the subject that may have bearing on hypertension. We close with a review of studies that deal specifically with the involvement of NO in experimental and clinical hypertension. The involvement cannot now be clearly defined; however, this survey indicates that promising insights are within reach. ### NO Synthase NO synthase (NOS) is the ubiquitous enzyme that generates NO. Three isoenzymes have been described1 : isoform I, present in neuronal and epithelial cells; isoform II, first described in macrophages but now known to be present in other cells including vascular smooth muscle; and isoform III, the enzyme in endothelial cells that has received the most attention in connection with hypertension. These three isoenzymes have been purified and their cDNAs cloned. Isoform I is constitutively expressed in the brain, spinal cord, sympathetic ganglia, adrenal glands, and peripheral “nitroxidergic” nerves.2 3 4 It is calcium-calmodulin regulated. The gene for NOS isoform I has been localized recently to the 12q24.2→24.31 region of chromosome 12 by fluorescent in situ hybridization.5 NOS isoform II can be induced in macrophages, vascular smooth muscle cells, hepatocytes, chondrocytes, and human adenocarcinoma cell line.6 7 8 It appears that NOS isoform II in different cells of the same species is a product of a single gene that has been localized to the 17p11→17q11 region of chromosome 17.9 Isoform III is …
Working Sets, Cache Sizes, And Node Granularity Issues For Large-scale Multiprocessors

The distribution of resources among processors, memory and caches is a crucial question faced by designers of large-scale parallel machines. If a machine is to solve problems with a certain data set size, should it be built with a large number of processors each with a small amount of memory, or a smaller number of processors each with a large amount of memory? How much cache memory should be provided per processor for cost-effectiveness? And how do these decisions change as larger problems are run on larger machines? In this paper, we explore the above questions based on the characteristics of five important classes of large-scale parallel scientific applications. We first show that all the applications have a hierarchy of well-defined per-processor working sets, whose size, performance impact and scaling characteristics can help determine how large different levels of a multiprocessor's cache hierarchy should be. Then, we use these working sets together with certain other important characteristics of the applications—such as communication to computation ratios, concurrency, and load balancing behavior—to reflect upon the broader question of the granularity of processing nodes in high-performance multiprocessors. We find that very small caches whose sizes do not increase with the problem or machine size are adequate for all but two of the application classes. Even in the two exceptions, the working sets scale quite slowly with problem size, and the cache sizes needed for problems that will be run in the foreseeable future are small. We also find that relatively fine-grained machines, with large numbers of processors and quite small amounts of memory per processor, are appropriate for all the applications.
Enhanced Subtyping Scheme for Salmonella Enteritidis

To improve pulsed-field gel electrophoresis–based strain discrimination of 76 Salmonella Enteritidis strains, we evaluated 6 macro-restriction endonucleases, separately and in various combinations. One 3-enzyme subset, SfiI/PacI/NotI, was highly discriminatory. Five different indices, including the Simpson diversity index, supported this 3-enzyme combination for improved differentiation of S. Enteritidis.
Nonlinear factorization in sparsely encoded Hopfield-like neural networks

Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology*Institute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology of the RAS**Institute of Computer Science AS of the CRThe problem of binary factorization of complex patterns in recurrent Hopfield-like neural network was studied both theoretically and by means of computersimulation. The number and sparseness of factors mixed in patterns cruciallydetermines the ability of an autoassociator to perform a factorization. Basing onexperimental data on memory and learning one may suggest, that there exists aneural system of intermediate storage of information, which fulfills the functionof binary factorization of the incoming polysensory information for its furthereffective storage in the form of elementary associatively bound factors. Wesuppose that field CA3 of the hippocampus possessing all properties of theautoassociative memory performs such function. This functional idea could befruitfully applied to various memory related tasks (e.g. spatial navigation) andlead to some critical experiments.
Dental Implant Practice Among Hong Kong General Dental Practitioners in 2004 and 2008

Objective:To describe the dental implant practice profile of Hong Kong general dental practitioners in 2008 and the trend since 2004. Materials and Methods.A self-administered questionnaire was mailed to 630 dentists through systematic sampling of registered dentists. Results:A total of 290 completed questionnaires were returned (response rate, 53%). Implant dentistry was practiced by 61% of the respondents. The survey also revealed that 84% of those respondents who own their private practice performed implant dentistry. About half of the dentists (49%) who performed implant dentistry placed or restored 5 or more implants per quarter. Among those dentists not practicing implant dentistry, the majority (85%) were interested in attending continuing education courses in dental implantology. Conclusion:There has been a significant increase in the number of general dental practitioners practicing implant dentistry in Hong Kong since 2004. By 2008, more than half of the general dental practitioners (61%) are practicing implant dentistry. Most of them not practicing implant dentistry expressed a desire to learn more about dental implants. This survey revealed a high demand for continuing professional development in implant dentistry in Hong Kong.
Fission for reprogramming

Juan Pablo Mu~ noz and Antonio Zorzano a,b,c Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biomedicine, Faculty of Biology, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain; Institute for Research in Biomedicine Barcelona, (IRB Barcelona), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Barcelona, Spain; Centro de Investigaci on Biom edica en Red de Diabetes y Enfermedades Metab olicas Asociadas (CIBERDEM), Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), Madrid, Spain