Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Blockade of brain mineralocorticoid receptors or Na+ channels prevents sympathetic hyperactivity and improves cardiac function in rats post-MI.

In rats post-myocardial infarction (MI), sympathetic hyperactivity can be prevented by blockade of brain mineralocorticoid receptors (MR). Stimulatory responses to central infusion of aldosterone can be blocked by benzamil and therefore appear to be mediated via Na+ channels, presumably epithelial Na+ channels (ENaC), in the brain. To evaluate this concept of endogenous mineralocorticoids in Wistar rats post-MI, we examined effects of blockade of MR and Na+ channels in the brain. At 3 days after coronary artery ligation, intracerebroventricular infusions were started with spironolactone (400 ng.kg(-1). h(-1)) or its vehicle, or with benzamil (4 microg.kg(-1). h(-1)) or its vehicle, using osmotic minipumps. Rats with sham ligation served as control. After 4 wk, in conscious rats, mean arterial pressure, heart rate, and renal sympathetic nerve activity were recorded at rest and in response to air-jet stress, intracerebroventricular injection of the alpha2-adrenoceptor agonist guanabenz, and intravenous infusion of phenylephrine and nitroprusside for baroreflex function. MI size was similar among the four groups of rats (approximately 31%). In rats treated post-MI with vehicles, cardiac function was decreased, sympathetic reactivity was enhanced, and baroreflex function was impaired. Blockade of brain Na+ channels or brain MR similarly prevented sympathetic hyperactivity and impairment of baroreflex function and improved cardiac function. These findings suggest that in rats post-MI, increased binding of endogenous agonists to MR increases ENaC activity in the brain and thereby leads to sympathetic hyperactivity and progressive left ventricular dysfunction.
Factors Affecting Printing Quality of Paper from Bagasse Pulp

The printing industry is the largest collective con sumer of paper products and estimated that around 43 trillion papers are used for printing annually a cross the country. As the printing industry continu es to reduce the cost and improve the quality of paper, the effe ctiv measurement of printing quality is very impor tant. Most common problems affecting a bagasse pulp printing paper includes pulping, piling, linting, warm weath er complaints, cold weather complaints, effect of pres s moisture, grain long, pH problems and types of pi cking. This paper reviews about various problems occurring in printing a paper produced from bagasse pulp, ca uses for problem during printing and their corrective ac tions to be taken to improve the printing quality.
MELB-KB: Nominal Classification as Noun Compound Interpretation

In this paper, we outline our approach to interpreting semantic relations in nominal pairs in SemEval-2007 task #4: Classification of Semantic Relations between Nominals. We build on two baseline approaches to interpreting noun compounds: sense collocation, and constituent similarity. These are consolidated into an overall system in combination with co-training, to expand the training data. Our two systems attained an average F-score over the test data of 58.7% and 57.8%, respectively.
Current and novel approaches to treat patients presenting with ST elevation myocardial infarction

ABSTRACT Introduction: Primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) represents the gold-standard treatment for patients presenting with an ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). Acute myocardial infarction is a complex clinical scenario, and an appropriate therapeutic approach could be represented by a balanced integration between healthcare system and medical competence. Areas covered: In this review we discuss how a primary PCI network, and the new therapeutic options could be coupled in order to obtain improved clinical outcomes. The present report will focus on three main issues related to STEMI patients, namely, out of hospital management, primary PCI and pharmacological treatment. Expert commentary: A possible correct approach to a patient presenting a STEMI could be considered as a stepwise process, given by 5 steps: reducing the time to reperfusion; dual antiplatelet administration; radial access; new generation drug eluting stent implantation; long term management.
Sensing through structure: designing soft silicone sensors

We present a method for designing and constructing rugged and soft multi-point sensors. Interactions applied to a soft material are reduced to structural units of deformation. These structures can then be embedded and instrumented anywhere inside a soft sensor. This simplification lets us design complex, durable sensors in easily manufacturable ways. In particular, we present a construction method of layering electronics between silicone pours to easily create sensors for arbitrary combinations of these deformations. We present several prototype sensors and discuss applications including toys, games, and therapy.
White Matter Lesion Subtypes and Cognitive Deficits in Patients with Memory Impairment

Aim: To analyze the relationship between periventricular (PV) and subcortical (SC) white matter lesions (WML) and cognitive function in patients with memory impairment. Methods: In total, 253 patients with Global Deterioration Scale scores ≧3 who had been referred to a university-based memory unit due to memory complaints were included (mean age 69.7 years, 124 females). Cognitive function was assessed with the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and the Neurobehavioral Cognitive Status Examination (Cognistat), and full test results were available for 217 patients. PV and SC WML loads (semi-quantitative rating on axial T2-weighted MRI scans) were used in linear regression as predictors of cognition. Results: MMSE was significantly correlated with SC WML (p = 0.005), but not with PV WML (p = 0.19). Cognistat tests for orientation, comprehension, visuoconstruction, calculation, similarities, and judgment were negatively correlated with SC WML (p < 0.01), as was verbal memory with parieto-occipital SC WML (p < 0.05). Visuoconstruction and calculation were negatively correlated with PV WML (p < 0.05). Parieto-occipital WML were more strongly related to cognition than fronto-temporal WML. Only SC WML were significantly correlated with cognition when PV and SC WML were entered simultaneously in the regression model. Conclusion: In patients with cognitive impairment, SC WML, in particular in parieto-occipital regions, were associated with reduced cognitive function.
Correlations between complement system’s activation factors and anti-angiogenesis factors in plasma of patients with early/late-onset severe preeclampsia

ABSTRACT Objective: To investigate the expression of complement system’s activation factors in plasma of patients with severe preeclampsia and their correlations with anti-angiogenesis factors.Methods: A case–control study was performed. The study group consisted of 30 cases of early-onset severe preeclampsia (EOSPE) and 30 cases of late-onset severe preeclampsia (LOSPE). Thirty cases were selected as the early-onset control group (E-control) and 30 as the late-onset control group (L-control), with the weeks of gestation matched. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to test C3a, C5a, MAC, sEng, and sflt-1 in the maternal peripheral circulation.Results: The complement system’s activation factors C3a, C5a, and MAC were increased significantly in EOSPE and LOSPE (all P < 0.01) compared with E/L-control. Plasma levels of C3a correlated inversely with plasma sEng (r = –0.454, P < 0.001) and sflt-1 (r = –0.326, P = 0.011) in preeclampsia patients, while MAC correlated with soluble endoglin (sEng; r = 0.343, P = 0.007) and soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase-1 (sflt-1; r = 0.318, P = 0.013). There were no significant correlations between complement system’s activation–related factors and the anti-angiogenesis factors in healthy control group.Conclusions: Abnormal activation of the complement system exists in the maternal circulation of patients with E/L-onset severe preeclampsia. There were correlations between the abnormal activation of the complement system and the abnormal expression of anti-angiogenesis factors in patients with severe preeclampsia, but the correlation was not strong.
Intercloud Architecture Framework for Heterogeneous Cloud Based Infrastructure Services Provisioning On-Demand

This paper presents on-going research to develop the Intercloud Architecture Framework (ICAF) that addresses problems in multi-provider multi-domain heterogeneous cloud based infrastructure services and applications integration and interoperability, to allow their on-demand provisioning. The paper refers to existing standards and ongoing standardisation activity in Cloud Computing, in particular, recently published NIST Cloud Computing Reference Architecture (CCRA) and ITU-T JCA-Cloud activity. The proposed ICAF defines four complementary components addressing Intercloud integration and interoperability: multi-layer Cloud Services Model that combines commonly adopted cloud service models, such as IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, in one multilayer model with corresponding inter-layer interfaces, Intercloud Control and Management Plane that supports cloud based applications interaction, Intercloud Federation Framework, and Intercloud Operations Framework. The paper briefly describes the Service delivery and lifecycle management as an important ICAF component that provides a basis for consistent management and security of the provisioned on-demand complex cloud based services. The paper describes an implementation of the Intercloud Control and Management Plane in the GEYSERS project to allow optimal provisioning of the combined Network+IT resources in the inter-cloud environment. The proposed architecture is intended to provide an architectural model for developing Intercloud middleware and in this way will facilitate clouds interoperability and integration.
Increased knee joint loads during walking are present in subjects with knee osteoarthritis.

OBJECTIVE This study tests the hypothesis that the peak external knee adduction moment during gait is increased in a group of ambulatory subjects with knee osteoarthritis (OA) of varying radiographic severity who are being managed with medical therapy. Tibiofemoral knee OA more commonly affects the medial compartment. The external knee adduction moment can be used to assess the load distribution between the medial and lateral compartments of the knee joint. Additionally, this study tests if changes in the knee angles, such as a reduced midstance knee flexion angle, or reduced sagittal plane moments previously identified by others as load reducing mechanisms are present in this OA group. DESIGN Thirty-one subjects with radiographic evidence of knee OA and medial compartment cartilage damage were gait tested after a 2-week drug washout period. Thirty-one normal subjects (asymptomatic control subjects) with a comparable age, weight and height distribution were also tested. Significant differences in the sagittal plane knee motion and peak external moments between the normal and knee OA groups were identified using t tests. RESULTS Subjects with knee OA walked with a greater than normal peak external knee adduction moment (P=0.003). The midstance knee flexion angle was not significantly different between the two groups (P=0.625) nor were the peak flexion and extension moments (P> 0.037). CONCLUSIONS Load reducing mechanisms, such as a decreased midstance knee flexion angle, identified by others in subjects with endstage knee OA or reduced external flexion or extension moments were not present in this group of subjects with knee OA who were being managed by conservative treatment. The finding of a significantly greater than normal external knee adduction moment in the knee OA group lends support to the hypothesis that an increased knee adduction moment during gait is associated with knee OA.
Combinatorics and Genus of Tropical Intersections and Ehrhart Theory

Let $g_1,\dots,g_k$ be tropical polynomials in $n$ variables with Newton polytopes $P_1,\dots,\allowbreak P_k$. We study combinatorial questions on the intersection of the tropical hypersurfaces defined by $g_1,\dots,g_k$, such as the $f$-vector, the number of unbounded faces, and (in the case of a curve) the genus. Our point of departure is Vigeland's work [Tropical complete intersection curves, preprint, arXiv:math/0711.1962, 2007] which considered the special case $k=n-1$ and where all Newton polytopes are standard simplices. We generalize these results to arbitrary $k$ and arbitrary Newton polytopes $P_1,\dots,P_k$. This provides new formulas for the number of faces and the genus in terms of mixed volumes. By establishing some aspects of a mixed version of Ehrhart theory we show that the genus of a tropical intersection curve equals the genus of a toric intersection curve corresponding to the same Newton polytopes.
Contribution of cone photoreceptors and post‐receptoral mechanisms to the human photopic electroretinogram

We recorded the electroretinogram (ERG) from human subjects with normal vision, using ganzfeld stimulation in the presence of rod‐suppressing blue background light. In families of responses to flashes of increasing intensity, we investigated features of both receptoral and post‐receptoral origin. Firstly, we found that the oscillatory potentials (OPs, that have long been known to be post‐receptoral) exhibited a time course that was invariant over a range of bright flash intensities. Secondly, we found that the photopic b‐wave (which probably originates in cone ON bipolar cells) was most pronounced after test flashes of around 20 Td s, and could be suppressed either by increasing the test flash intensity or by applying a second flash after the test flash. We obtained estimates of the time course of the cone photoreceptor response using the paired‐flash technique, in which an intense ‘probe’ flash was delivered at different times after a test flash. The response to the probe flash was recorded and, its amplitude was measured at early times after the probe flash. Estimates obtained in this way were of normalized amplitude, but could be scaled to an absolute amplitude by making an assumption about the level of probe‐flash response that corresponded to complete suppression of photoreceptor current. For moderately bright test flashes the estimated cone photoreceptor response at early times coincided closely with the a‐wave of the test flash ERG. However, the maximal size of this estimated response accounted for only about 70% of the peak a‐wave amplitude in the case of bright flashes, and for an even smaller proportion after flashes of lower intensity, and we take this to indicate the existence of a third substantial post‐receptoral contribution to the a‐wave. For dim flashes, the time‐to‐peak of the cone response was around 15–20 ms, and for saturating flashes the dominant time constant of recovery was about 18 ms. The intensity dependence of the estimated cone response amplitude at fixed times followed an exponential saturation relation. We provide a comparison between our estimates of photoreceptor responses from human cones, and recent estimates from monkey cones obtained using related ERG approaches, and earlier single‐cell measurements from isolated primate cones.
Fault Detection and Analysis of Control Software for a Mobile Robot

In certain circumstances mobile robots are unreachable from human being, for example Mars exploration rover. So robots should detect and handle faults of control software themselves. This paper is intended to detect faults of control software by computers. Support vector machine (SVM) based classification is applied to fault diagnostics of control software for a mobile robot. Both training and testing data are sampled by simulating several fault software strategies and recording the operation parameters of the robot. The correct classification percentages for different situations are discussed
Agent-Based Modelling and Sensitivity Analysis by Experimental Design and Metamodelling: An Application to Modelling Regional Structural Change

This paper presents the application of the sensitivity analysis techniques Design of Experiments (DOE) and metamodelling to the agent-based model AgriPoliS, which is a spatial and dynamic simulation model of regional structural change. DOE and metamodelling provide a more systematic analysis of results of complex simulation models. When summarising the results, it becomes clear that interest rates, technical change and managerial ability influence average economic land rent the most.
DWT-SVD Combined Full Band Robust Watermarking Technique for Color Images in YUV Color Space

Abstract- Due to the advancement in Computer technology and readily available tools, it is very easy for the unknown users to produce illegal copies of multimedia data which are floating across the Internet. In order to protect those multimedia data on the Internet many techniques are available including various encryption techniques, steganography techniques, watermarking techniques and information hiding techniques. Digital watermarking is a technique in which a piece of digital information is embedded into an image and extracted later for ownership verification. Secret digital data can be embedded either in spatial domain or in frequency domain of the cover data. In this paper, a new singular value decomposition (SVD) and discrete wavelet transformation (DWT) based technique is proposed for hiding watermark in full frequency band of color images (DSFW). The quality of the watermarked image and extracted watermark is measured using peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR) and normalized correlation (NC) respectively. It is observed that the quality of the watermarked image is maintained with the value of 36dB. Robustness of proposed algorithm is tested for various attacks including salt and pepper noise and Gaussian noise, cropping and JPEG compression.
On Failure Localization in Optical Networks

— Recent advances in WDM technology enable an optical fiber to carry up to 200 wavelengths operating at 40 Gbps each. In such networks, service disruptions caused by network faults (e.g., fiber cut, amplifier dysfunction) may lead to high data losses. Therefore, it is mandatory for a network operator to be able to find such faults promptly. Fault detection and localization in meshed WDM networks have been deeply investigated in the literature. Numerous schemes have been proposed to achieve fast but accurate failure localization. In this field, four main paradigms have proved their mettle, namely link-based, cycle-based, trail-based, and tree-based monitoring schemes. In this paper, we provide a comparative study of the aforementioned monitoring schemes through numerical analysis.
Transcriptomic response of red grouse to gastro‐intestinal nematode parasites and testosterone: implications for population dynamics

A central issue in ecology is in understanding the relative influences of intrinsic and extrinsic effects on population regulation. Previous studies on the cyclic population dynamics of red grouse (Lagopus lagopus scoticus) have emphasized the destabilizing effects of either nematode parasites or territorial behaviour and aggression. The potential interacting effects of these processes, mediated through density‐dependent, environmentally induced alterations of host immunocompetence influencing susceptibility to parasites have not been considered. Male red grouse at high density are more aggressive, associated with increased testosterone, which potentially could lead to reduced immunocompetence at a stage when parasites are most prevalent. This could depress individual condition, breeding performance and survival and thus drive or contribute to overall reductions in population size. Here, we characterize the transcriptomic response of grouse to nematode parasite infection and investigate how this is subsequently affected by testosterone, using a microarray approach contrasting red grouse with high and low parasite load at both high and low testosterone titre. A suite of 52 transcripts showed a significant level of up‐regulation to either chronic parasite load or experimental parasite infection. Of these, 51 (98%) showed a reduced level of expression under conditions of high parasite load and high testosterone. The genes up‐regulated by parasites and then down‐regulated at high testosterone titre were not necessarily associated with immune response, as might be intuitively expected. The results are discussed in relation to the fitness and condition of individual red grouse and factors influencing the regulation of abundance in natural populations.
Optoelectronics Based Dynamic Advancement of Graphene: Characteristics and Applications

Graphene has impressive features that make it an exceptional material for sophisticated applications in next generation electronics and opto-electronics devices. This peremptory material has attracted researchers’ attention in various fields of recent advancement since its discovery in 2004. Its applied fields are increasing day by day. This two-dimensional material (2D) is using mellifluously for the development in different types of devices in the field of optics, photonics, light emitting diode (LED), medical diagnosis, sensing, and so on. In this review, the relevant optical properties and the applications areas with available results in various fields are discussed. Again, the optical conductivity of strained graphene is reviewed in a wavelength related regime that depends on strain modulus and position with field arrangements. Graphene shows a saturation and reverse saturation process due to the increase of light intensity. In addition, strong absorption is observed from the visible to mid-infrared (MIR) wavelength range. Moreover, the application areas of graphene including optics, photonics, plasmonics, mode-locked laser, optical modulator, etc., and the comparison of various results obtained from different sources are presented.
Homozygosity mapping in an anophthalmic pedigree provides evidence of additional genetic heterogeneity

Purpose: Anophthalmia is a heterogeneous developmental disorder characterized by absent eyes whose diverse etiology encompasses chromosomal and monogenic aberrations, as well as environmental causes. Since the molecular basis has been defined in only a small proportion of cases and extending this offers potential to enhance understanding of key steps in ocular development, a consanguineous anophthalmic pedigree was investigated using homozygosity mapping. Methods: DNA samples from six individuals, two anophthalmic, were genotyped with an array featuring approximately 620,000 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in order to identify homozygous or copy number variant (CNV) regions. Candidate genes located in regions of identity by descent (IBD) defined by homozygosity mapping were subsequently screened by direct sequencing. Results: Genotyping identified five homozygous intervals (4q26-28.1, 13q12.11, 14q22.1-22.2, 15q26.2-26.3 and 19q13.12) larger than 1 Mb that do not correspond with the known loci and which contain a total of 205 annotated genes. No CNVs were identified that segregated with the disease phenotype, and sequencing of five candidate genes (PRDM5, FGF2, SOS2, POU2F2 and CIC) did not identify any mutations. Conclusions: Although constrained by the pedigree’s size, the homozygosity mapping approach employed in this study extends the locus heterogeneity of anophthalmia. The results indicate that a novel molecular cause remains to be determined in this pedigree with the causative gene likely located within one of the five IBD regions.