Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Urinary Excretion of Porphyrin Precursors and Coproporphyrin in Healthy Females on Oral Contraceptives

One infant was microcephalic, and both infants showed delay in motor development. The C.S. F. protein was increased in both cases, but the fits which occurred in the first two days of life in Case 1 may have been due to hypoglycaemia. An episode of collapse and loss of consciousness in this infant at 21 months of age was associated with a bulging fontanelle and high C.S. F. protein. Virus was not isolated from the C.S. F. as it has been in some cases (Korones et al., 1965). Eye defects were found in both cases. In Case 1 cataract, corneal oedema, and buphthalmos were present, and in Case 2 the cataracts were not apparent until 4 weeks of age. Development of cataracts after birth has been reported by Banatvala et al. (1965). Deafness was detected in Case 2. The persistence of rubella neutralizing antibody was demonstrated in both infants. In Case 1 serum taken on the second day of life had an antibody titre of 4, which was much lower than the mother's (128). This finding may represent rapid elimination of maternal antibody due to virus infection in the infant (Soothill, personal communication, 1965). Subsequent antibody titres in the child's serum at 3, 4, 6, and 9 months of age were 32, 32, 64, and 64 respectively. Unfortunately, owing to a shortage of serum, it was not possible to repeat the test on the first specimen of serum to determine whether there was in fact a significant rise in titre between the initial and subsequent sera, the latter being tested together. Apart from this possible rise in titre, active immunity was indicated by the persistence of antibody to the age of 9 months, by which time passively transferred maternal antibody is unlikely to be detected. In Case 2 antibody persisted in the infant's serum from 3 to 6 months of age, again confirming active rather than passive immunity. Estimation of immunoglobulin levels showed that both infants had high levels of IgM for their ages. This confirms by a quantitative method the findings of Alford (1965) and of Bellanti et al. (1965), who used the qualitative technique of immunoelectrophoresis. IgG levels were relatively high in Case 1 at 8 months and in Case 2 at 6 months of age. The absence of IgA in Case 2 at 6 months may be abnormal for her age, but further follow-up is required. In both cases it is probable that the elevated IgM was due to the antigenic stimulus of rubella virus, but the presence of liver disease must be regarded as a possible factor (Soothill, personal communication, 1965). The infectiousness of congenital rubella is illustrated by both cases, as several contacts developed rubella. The period of virus excretion was found to be three months in Case 1 and at least eight months in Case 2. It may occasionally be as long as nine months (Lambert et al., 1965). This presents a problem in providing the necessary isolation facilities during the prolonged period of hospitalization that may be necessary, and in avoiding contact with anyone in the early months of pregnancy.
Comparison of 3-D Cellular Imaging Techniques using Scanned Electron Probes

The use of scanned focused electron probes, rather than wide-beam illumination in the TEM, enables determination of 3-D cellular and tissue ultrastructure by taking advantage quantitatively of the physical interactions between incoming electrons and the specimen. Here, we compare the relative advantages of two techniques developed in the past decade, which are finding increasing applications: serial block face SEM [1], and STEM tomography [2].
Designing online experiments

A psychological theory is a set of statements that satisfies five philosophical criteria. The first criterion is that the proposed explanation can be used to deduce the behavioural phenomena to be explained. For example, suppose someone asks, ‘Why is bread good to eat? ’ We use operational definitions of ‘bread’ and ‘good to eat’ in order to link these concepts to the world of observations. Define a substance as ‘good to eat’ if more than 75 per cent of 1-year-old rats given access to water and that substance under standard lab conditions survive on this diet for six months. Define ‘bread’ as what comes from the market in a package marked ‘Weber’s bread’. The following argument illustrates deduction:
Fill and Transfer: A Simple Physics-Based Approach for Containability Reasoning

The visual perception of object affordances has emerged as a useful ingredient for building powerful computer vision and robotic applications. In this paper we introduce a novel approach to reason about liquid containability - the affordance of containing liquid. Our approach analyzes container objects based on two simple physical processes: the Fill and Transfer of liquid. First, it reasons about whether a given 3D object is a liquid container and its best filling direction. Second, it proposes directions to transfer its contained liquid to the outside while avoiding spillage. We compare our simplified model with a common fluid dynamics simulation and demonstrate that our algorithm makes human-like choices about the best directions to fill containers and transfer liquid from them. We apply our approach to reason about the containability of several real-world objects acquired using a consumer-grade depth camera.
Differential Effects of Notch Ligands Delta-1 and Jagged-1 in Human Lymphoid Differentiation

Notch signaling is known to differentially affect the development of lymphoid B and T cell lineages, but it remains unclear whether such effects are specifically dependent on distinct Notch ligands. Using a cell coculture assay we observed that the Notch ligand Delta-1 completely inhibits the differentiation of human hematopoietic progenitors into the B cell lineage while promoting the emergence of cells with a phenotype of T cell/natural killer (NK) precursors. In contrast, Jagged-1 did not disturb either B or T cell/NK development. Furthermore, cells cultured in the presence of either Delta-1 or Jagged-1 can acquire a phenotype of NK cells, and Delta-1, but not Jagged-1, permits the emergence of a de novo cell population coexpressing CD4 and CD8. Our results thus indicate that distinct Notch ligands can mediate differential effects of Notch signaling and provide a useful system to further address cell-fate decision processes in lymphopoiesis.
Study on characterization and properties of nanosilica-filled thermoplastic vulcanizates

Thermoplastic vulcanizates (TPVs) are a special class of thermoplastic elastomer, produced by simultaneously mixing and cross-linking a rubber with a thermoplastic at elevated temperature. Dicumyl peroxide-cured TPVs based on blends of maleated ethylene propylene rubber (m-EPM) and polypropylene (PP) thermoplastic using maleated-PP as a compatibilizer have been developed. To reinforce the properties of these TPVs, nanosilica was added at different levels. With the increase of nanosilica concentrations, significant improvement in tensile strength, modulus, and impact strength of TPVs have been achieved. Morphology study shows that nanosilica is uniformly dispersed in the polymer matrices. Dynamic mechanical analysis shows that tan δ value at low temperature decreases with increasing nanosilica concentration indicating less damping characteristics. Thermogravimetric study revealed that thermal stability of TPVs is improved in presence of nanosilica. Equilibrium swelling study confirms that solvent resistance of TPVs could be improved by nanofiller incorporation. Rubber process analyzer found a very useful tool to understand the melt rheology of nanosilica filled TPVs in terms of dynamic functions over a wide range of strain amplitude and frequency. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 2008. © 2008 Society of Plastics Engineers
Circulating Contact-Pathway-Activating Microparticles Together with Factors IXa and XIa Induce Spontaneous Clotting in Plasma of Hematology and Cardiologic Patients

Background and Objective Using an in vitro experimental model of immobilized tissue factor-initiated clot growth in platelet-free plasma (thrombodynamics), we observed formation of activator-independent isolated spontaneous clots (SC) throughout the plasma volume in patients with cardiac infarction, acute leukemia, hemolytic anemia, and some other disorders. The aim of this work was to characterize this phenomenon and to identify the mechanisms of SC formation. Methods and Results Tissue factor inhibitor (VIIai) prevented SC in only 2 out of 23 patient plasma samples. Specific inhibitors of factors IXa and XIa were efficient in all 8 cases that we tested. Also, only factors IXa and XIa added to normal donors’ plasma induced SC formations from isolated centers, in a pattern similar to that in patients’ plasma. In contrast, factors VIIa, Va, tissue factor induced uniform plasma clotting. SC disappeared after high-speed centrifugation. However, phospholipid supplementation of centrifuged plasma returned them at least partially in 5 out of 22 patients’ plasmas, indicating some other role of microparticles than providing phospholipid surface. Circulating procoagulant microparticles isolated from plasma directly activated factor XII in buffer and in diluted plasma. Flow cytometry revealed an increase in procoagulant microparticles in patients’ plasmas with SC. Conclusion Our data suggest that combination of circulating active factors (specifically, factors IXa and XIa) with circulating procoagulant and contact-pathway-activating microparticles is the predominant mechanism causing spontaneous clotting in patient plasma.
Recovery Before Redemption: A Theory of Delays in Sovereign Debt Renegotiations

Negotiations to restructure sovereign debts are protracted, taking on average almost 8 years to complete. In this paper we construct a new database (the most extensive of its kind covering ninety recent sovereign defaults) and use it to document that these negotiations are also ineective in both repaying creditors and reducing the debt burden countries face. Specifically, we find that creditor losses average roughly 40 per-cent, and that the average debtor exits default more highly indebted than when they entered default. To explain this apparent large ineciency in negotiations, we present a theory of sovereign debt renegotiation in which delay arises from the same commitment problems that lead to default in the first place. A debt restructuring generates surplus for the parties at both the time of settlement and in the future. However, a creditor’s ability to share in the future surplus is limited by the risk that the debtor will default on the settlement agreement. Hence, the debtor and creditor find it privately optimal to delay restructuring until future default risk is low, even though delay means some gains from trade remain unexploited. We show that a quantitative version of our theory can account for a number of stylized facts about sovereign default, as well as the new facts about debt restructurings that we document in this paper. Finally, we argue that our findings shed light on the existence of delays in bargaining in a wider range of contexts.
Localizing Search in Reinforcement Learning

Reinforcement learning (RL) can be impractical for many high dimensional problems because of the computational cost of doing stochastic search in large state spaces. We propose a new RL method, Boundary Localized Reinforcement Learning (BLRL), which maps RL into a mode switching problem where an agent deterministically chooses an action based on its state, and limits stochastic search to small areas around mode boundaries, drastically reducing computational cost. BLRL starts with an initial set of parameterized boundaries that partition the state space into distinct control modes. Reinforcement reward is used to update the boundary parameters using the policy gradient formulation of Sutton et al. (2000). We demonstrate that stochastic search can be limited to regions near mode boundaries, thus greatly reducing search, while still guaranteeing convergence to a locally optimal deterministic mode switching policy. Further, we give conditions under which the policy gradient can be arbitrarily well approximated without the use of any stochastic search. These theoretical results are supported experimentally via simulation.
Pulmonary hypertension in children

www.thoracic. org C LI P A N D C O P Y In a structurally normal heart, oxygen-poor blood flows to the right side of the heart from the body. The blood then flows into the right atrium and finally into the right ventricle. The right ventricle pumps this blood through the pulmonary artery into the lungs. In the lungs, the blood becomes enriched with oxygen. This oxygenrich blood then flows to the left side of the heart so the body’s organs can get enough oxygen to function properly.
Role of Cytokines in the Pathogenesis of Acne

The aim of this study was to investigate the role of cytokines in light of recently discovered aspects of acne immunopathogenesis. Materials and Methods: The study included 276 patients aged between 16 to 44 years with various forms of acne vulgaris. Severe manifestations of the disease were identified in 126/45.6% patients; disease lasted 1 to 5 years in 157/56.9% patients. The serum levels of cytokines were determined by ELISA using standard kits. The cells were characterized using flow cytometry. Results: The obtained data on an excessive secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-1α, IL-2) and VEGF on the background of decreasing the content of anti-inflammatory cytokines (IL-4, IL-10) indicate an insufficient activity of antiinflammatory immune response. It was concluded that acne is a model of chronic immunodeficiency inflammatory dermatoses with the activation of innate immunity and the subsequent development of the adaptive T-cell immune response. (Int J Biomed. 2017;7(1):37-40. )
Caspase activation and neuroprotection in caspase-3- deficient mice after in vivo cerebral ischemia and in vitro oxygen glucose deprivation

Caspase-3 is a major cell death effector protease in the adult and neonatal nervous system. We found a greater number and higher density of cells in the cortex of caspase-3−/− adult mice, consistent with a defect in developmental cell death. Caspase-3−/− mice were also more resistant to ischemic stress both in vivo and in vitro. After 2 h of ischemia and 48 h of reperfusion, cortical infarct volume was reduced by 55%, and the density of terminal deoxynucleotidyltransferase-mediated dUTP nick end labeling-positive cells was decreased by 36% compared with wild type. When subjected to oxygen-glucose deprivation (2 h), cortical neurons cultured from mice deficient in caspase-3 expression were also more resistant to cell death by 59%. Mutant brains showed caspase-specific poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase cleavage product (85-kDa fragment) in vivo and in vitro, suggesting redundant mechanisms and persistence of caspase-mediated cell death. In the present study, we found that caspase-8 mediated poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase cleavage in caspase-3−/− neurons in vivo and in vitro. In addition, mutant neurons showed no evidence of compensatory activation by caspase-6 or caspase-7 after ischemia. Taken together, these data extend the pharmacological evidence supporting an important role for caspase-3 and caspase-8 as cell death mediators in mammalian cortex and indicate the potential advantages of targeting more than a single caspase family member to treat ischemic cell injury.
An integrated framework For modelling the adoptive behaviour of online product recommendations

A new-product recommendation system supports users in making buying decisions. The method representing recommending results in accordance with users' preferences is one of the crucial technologies for persuading users to adopt the recommendations. A body of literature proposes technical improvements in recommendation systems (RS). However, the research that investigates users' behaviour toward adopting results presented by the RS is scarce. This paper targets the online scenario that customers provide post-purchase opinions; in this case, e-word-of-mouth (eWOMs). It investigates the choice model in terms of adoptive and evaluative behaviour of the eWOMs receivers (users of the recommendation systems). This paper presents ongoing research that proposes an integrated framework that links literature on the use of product recommendation systems.
Speeding up Warehouse Physical Design Using a Randomized Algorithm

A data warehouse stores information that is collected from multiple, heterogeneous information sources for the purpose of complex querying and analysis. Information in the warehouse is typically stored in the form of materialized views. One of the most important tasks when designing a warehouse is the selection of materialized views to be maintained in the warehouse. The goal is to select a set of views in such a way as to minimize the total query response time over all queries, given a limited amount of time for maintaining the views (maintenance-cost view selection problem). The paper focuses on an efficient solution to the maintenance-cost view selection problem using a genetic algorithm for computing a near-optimal set of views. Specifically, we explore the view selection problem in the context of OR view graphs. We show that our approach represents a dramatic improvement in time complexity over existing search-based approaches using heuristics. Our analysis shows that the algorithm consistently yields a solution that lies within 10% of the optimal query benefit while at the same time exhibiting only a linear increase in execution time. We have implemented a prototype version of our algorithm which is used to simulate the measurements used in the analysis of our approach.
Adaptive Defense Against Various Network Attacks

In defending against various network attacks, such as distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks or worm attacks, a defense system needs to deal with various network conditions and dynamically changing attacks. Therefore, a good defense system needs to have a built-in "adaptive defense" functionality based on cost minimization-adaptively adjusting its configurations according to the network condition and attack severity in order to minimize the combined cost introduced by false positives (misidentify normal traffic as attack) and false negatives (misidentify attack traffic as normal) at any time. In this way, the adaptive defense system can generate fewer false alarms in normal situations or under light attacks with relaxed defense configurations, while protecting a network or a server more vigorously under severe attacks. In this paper, we present concrete adaptive defense system designs for defending against two major network attacks: SYN flood DDoS attack and Internet worm infection. The adaptive defense is a high-level system design that can be built on various underlying nonadaptive detection and filtering algorithms, which makes it applicable for a wide range of security defenses
Plasma membrane organization and function: moving past lipid rafts

“Lipid raft” is the name given to the tiny, dynamic, and ordered domains of cholesterol and sphingolipids that are hypothesized to exist in the plasma membranes of eukaryotic cells. According to the lipid raft hypothesis, these cholesterol- and sphingolipid-enriched domains modulate the protein–protein interactions that are essential for cellular function. Indeed, many studies have shown that cellular levels of cholesterol and sphingolipids influence plasma membrane organization, cell signaling, and other important biological processes. Despite 15 years of research and the application of highly advanced imaging techniques, data that unambiguously demonstrate the existence of lipid rafts in mammalian cells are still lacking. This Perspective summarizes the results that challenge the lipid raft hypothesis and discusses alternative hypothetical models of plasma membrane organization and lipid-mediated cellular function.
The influence of the complex refractive index of tissues on the image contrast of phase-contrast microscopy

Most of the materials in nature have complex refractive indexes, especially for biological tissues. The real and imaginary components of the complex refractive index are respectively responsible for the phase delay and absorption of light traveled in the tissues. Taking the complex refractive index into consideration, we modified the imaging theory of phase contrast microscopy. A relationship between the distributions of complex refractive index in measured samples and the intensity distributions of phase contrast micrographs is obtained. Based on this relationship, the influences of the refractive index and thickness of biological slices on the image contrast of phase contrast micrographs are analyzed in detail.
A Meta-Process to Support Trade-Off Analysis in Software Product Line Architecture

The software product line approach has been applied as a successful software reuse technique for specific domains. Such an approach takes advantage of domain and application engineering concepts. One of its most important artifacts is the product line architecture because it explicitly represents similarities and variabilities of a product line, as well as the products that can be generated. Product line architecture evaluation can serve as a basis for analyzing the managerial and economical values of a product line for software managers and architects. Such an evaluation might be carried out in terms of a trade-off analysis of the architecture quality attributes. Thus, this paper presents a Trade-off Analysis Meta-Process for Product Line Architecture, the TAMPro-PLA. TAMPro-PLA must be instantiated to define the essential artifacts for product line architecture trade-off analysis, such as business drivers, quality attributes, and respective scenarios. Therefore, TAMPro-PLA can be used to carry out product line architecture evaluations. It differs from current literature as it allows the definition and application of prodcut line architecture quality attribute metrics to provide support for performing quantitative and qualitative analysis. A proof of concept example based on the SEI’s Arcade Game Maker (AGM) product line is presented. Keywords-meta-process, metrics, product line architecture, quality attributes, software product line, trade-off analysis.