Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Interleukin-18 Impairs the Pulmonary Host Response to Pseudomonas aeruginosa

ABSTRACT Interleukin-18 (IL-18) is a potent cytokine with many different proinflammatory activities. To study the role of IL-18 in the pathogenesis of Pseudomonas pneumonia, IL-18-deficient (IL-18−/−) and wild-type mice were intranasally inoculated with Pseudomonasaeruginosa. IL-18 deficiency was associated with reduced outgrowth of Pseudomonas in the lungs and diminished dissemination of the infection. In addition, pulmonary inflammation (histopathology) and levels of tumor necrosis factor alpha, IL-6, and macrophage inflammatory protein-2 in lungs and plasma were lower in IL-18−/− mice. Consistent with results obtained for IL-18−/− mice, treatment of wild-type mice with a neutralizing IL-18 binding protein-immunoglobulin G Fc fusion construct also attenuated outgrowth of Pseudomonas compared with that for mice treated with a control protein. These results demonstrate that the presence of endogenous IL-18 activity facilitates inflammatory responses in the lung during Pseudomonas pneumonia, concurrently impairing bacterial clearance.
Characterization of Egg Laying Hen and Broiler Fecal Microbiota in Poultry Farms in Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovenia

Poultry meat is the most common protein source of animal origin for humans. However, intensive breeding of animals in confined spaces has led to poultry colonisation by microbiota with a zoonotic potential or encoding antibiotic resistances. In this study we were therefore interested in the prevalence of selected antibiotic resistance genes and microbiota composition in feces of egg laying hens and broilers originating from 4 different Central European countries determined by real-time PCR and 16S rRNA gene pyrosequencing, respectively. strA gene was present in 1 out of 10,000 bacteria. The prevalence of sul1, sul2 and tet(B) in poultry microbiota was approx. 6 times lower than that of the strA gene. tet(A) and cat were the least prevalent being present in around 3 out of 10,000,000 bacteria forming fecal microbiome. The core chicken fecal microbiota was formed by 26 different families. Rather unexpectedly, representatives of Desulfovibrionaceae and Campylobacteraceae, both capable of hydrogen utilisation in complex microbial communities, belonged among core microbiota families. Understanding the roles of individual population members in the total metabolism of the complex community may allow for interventions which might result in the replacement of Campylobacteraceae with Desulfovibrionaceae and a reduction of Campylobacter colonisation in broilers, carcasses, and consequently poultry meat products.
Robust Wi-Fi location fingerprinting against device diversity based on spatial mean normalization

Received signal strength (RSS) in Wi-Fi networks is commonly employed in indoor positioning systems; however, device diversity is a fundamental problem in such RSS-based systems. The variation in hardware is inevitable in the real world due to the tremendous growth in recent years of new Wi-Fi devices, such as iPhones, iPads, and Android devices, which is expected to continue. Different Wi-Fi devices performed differently in respect to the RSS values even at a fixed location, thus degrading localization performance significantly. This study proposes an enhanced approach, called spatial mean normalization (SMN), to design localization systems that are robust against heterogeneous devices. The main idea of SMN is to remove the spatial mean of RSS to compensate for the shift effect resulted from device diversity. The proposed algorithm was evaluated on an indoor Wi-Fi environment, where realistic RSS measurements were collected through heterogeneous laptops and smart phones. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of SMN. Results show that SMN outperforms previous positioning features for heterogeneous devices.
Dilemmas of Desire

This article interrogates gendered ideologies of sexuality in two teen magazines, Seventeen and YM. The method of analysis involves a close reading of written texts and images relating to sex or sexuality. The patterns that emerge from this analysis reveal tensions that center around sexual decision making versus sexual signification via costuming, cosmetics, and body image. The analysis uncovers a representation of sexuality that parallels sociocultural norms of contradiction and antilogy in the characterization of girls' desire.
Darwin and human nature

The debate about the credentials of sociobiology has persisted because scholars have failed to distinguish the varieties of sociobiology and because too little attention has been paid to the details of the arguments that are supposed to support the provocative claims about human social behavior. I seek to remedy both deficiencies. After analysis of the relationships among different kinds of sociobiology and contemporary evolutionary theory, I attempt to show how some of the studies of the behavior of nonhuman animals meet the methodological standards appropriate to evolutionary research. I contend that the efforts of E. O. Wilson, Richard Alexander, Charles Lumsden, and others to generate conclusions about human nature are flawed, both because they apply evolutionary ideas in an unrigorous fashion and because they use dubious assumptions to connect their evolutionary analyses with their conclusions. This contention rests on analyses of many of the major sociobiological proposals about human social behavior, including: differences in sex roles, racial hostility, homosexuality, conflict between parents and adolescent offspring, incest avoidance, the avunculate, alliances in combat, female infanticide, and gene-culture coevolution. Vaulting Ambition thus seeks to identify what is good in sociobiology, to expose the errors of premature speculations about human nature, and to prepare the way for serious study of the evolution of human social behavior.
Pulmonic control, nasal venting, and aspiration in Khoisan languages

It is generally accepted in the descriptive phonetic literature that most variations in pulmonic pressure observed during the production of speeech are passive reactions to changing glottal and supra-glottal resistance (Ladefoged 1968, Ohala et al. 1979, Rothenberg 1968). Active short-term positive changes in lung volume are only found with heavily stressed syllables (Ladefoged 1968, Ohala et al. 1979 ), and in rare cases with with particular consonants such as LuGanda geminates (Ladefoged 1971), Korean fortis stops (but see Rothenberg 1968) and possibly with certain Jingpho segments (Ladefoged 1968). It is assumed therefore that pulmonic speech sounds are normally produced against a constant mean background pressure by movement of air that occurs with decreasing volume of the lungs (Ladefoged 1967, 1968) and with constant respiratory muscle innervation (Rothenberg 1968). The two reported exceptions to this are the pulmonic suction [1] found in the ritual language Damin (Catford 1977) and the recently reported two ingressive fricatives in an ideolect of a Tsou dialect (an Austronesian language) (Fuller 1990). In all other cases, pulmonic initiation is pressure.
Compelled Body Weight Shift Technique to Facilitate Rehabilitation of Individuals with Acute Stroke

Background The study evaluates the effectiveness of Compelled Body Weight Shift (CBWS) approach in the rehabilitation of individuals with stroke. CBWS involves a forced shift of body weight towards a person’s affected side by means of a shoe insert that establishes a lift of the nonaffected lower extremity. Methods Eleven patients with acute stroke were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. The experimental group received a two-week conventional physical therapy combined with CBWS and the control group received only a two-week conventional therapy. Weight bearing, Gait velocity, Berg’s Balance, and Fugl-Meyer’s Scores were recorded before and after the intervention. Results Weight bearing on the affected side increased in the experimental group and decreased in the control group. The increase in gait velocity with treatment was significant in both the groups (P < 0.05). However, experimental group (P = 0.01) demonstrated larger improvements in gait velocity compared to the control group (P = 0.002). Berg Balance and Fugl-Meyer scores increased for both the groups. Conclusion The implementation of a two-week intervention with CBWS resulted in the improvement in weight bearing and gait velocity of individuals with acute stroke. The present preliminary study suggests that CBWS technique could be implemented as an adjunct to conventional rehabilitation program for individuals with acute stroke.
A possible protective effect of nut consumption on risk of coronary heart disease. The Adventist Health Study.

BACKGROUND Although dietary factors are suspected to be important determinants of coronary heart disease (CHD) risk, the direct evidence is relatively sparse. METHODS The Adventist Health Study is a prospective cohort investigation of 31,208 non-Hispanic white California Seventh-Day Adventists. Extensive dietary information was obtained at baseline, along with the values of traditional coronary risk factors. These were related to risk of definite fatal CHD or definite nonfatal myocardial infarction. RESULTS Subjects who consumed nuts frequently (more than four times per week) experienced substantially fewer definite fatal CHD events (relative risk, 0.52; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.36 to 0.76) and definite nonfatal myocardial infarctions (relative risk, 0.49; 95% CI, 0.28 to 0.85), when compared with those who consumed nuts less than once per week. These findings persisted on covariate adjustment and were seen in almost all of 16 different subgroups of the population. Subjects who usually consumed whole wheat bread also experienced lower rates of definite nonfatal myocardial infarction (relative risk, 0.56; 95% CI, 0.35 to 0.89) and definite fatal CHD (relative risk, 0.89; 95% CI, 0.60 to 1.33) when compared with those who usually ate white bread. Men who ate beef at least three times each week had a higher risk of definite fatal CHD (relative risk, 2.31; 95% CI, 1.11 to 4.78), but this effect was not seen in women or for the nonfatal myocardial infarction end point. CONCLUSION Our data strongly suggest that the frequent consumption of nuts may protect against risk of CHD events. The favorable fatty acid profile of many nuts is one possible explanation for such an effect.
Activity of cisplatin and ICI 182,780 on estrogen receptor negative ovarian cancer cells: Cell cycle and cell replication rate perturbation, chromatin texture alteration and apoptosis induction

The activity of cisplatin (CP, range of concentrations 0.25–1 μg/ml), the pure steroidal antiestrogen compound ICI 182,780 (range of concentrations, 0.01–10 μM) and various combinations of, was investigated on an estrogen receptor negative ovarian cancer cell line (A2780 WT) and its CP‐resistant derivative subline (A2780 CP3). CP markedly reduced A2780 WT cell growth but marginally affected A2780 CP3, whereas ICI 182,780 was effective on both cell lines. CP but not ICI 182,780 provoked a significant blockade in late S/G2 phase in both cell lines, particularly in the parental line. Measuring the number of rounds of cell replications showed that CP diminished the cell replication rate of both cell lines, partcularly in A2780 WT. Conversely, ICI 182,780 reduced the cell replication rate of A2780 CP3 but not A2780 WT cells. Both drugs provoked apoptosis in A2780 WT cells, as assessed by the appearance of large (50–300 kbp) DNA fragmentation. However, laser scanning cytometry showed that only CP induced a measurable alteration of chromatin texture in A2780 WT but not in A2780 CP3 cells. The combination CP and ICI 182,780 resulted in a synergistic inhibitory activity of cell growth with a CP potentiation up to 4 and 11‐fold in A2780 WT and A2780 CP3 cells, respectively. This reflected an enhanced reduction of the cell replication rate and did not involve perturbations of the cell cycle other than those provoked by CP alone. Apoptosis induction and the level of CP‐DNA adducts were not influenced by adding ICI 182,780 to CP in both cell lines. Int. J. Cancer 85:98–103, 2000. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Content-Adaptive Refined Error Concealment Schemes for H.264/AVC Video Coding

this paper, we propose content-adaptive refined error concealment schemes for video transmission over packet lossy networks. The proposed spatial and temporal error concealment algorithms improve the reconstructed video quality at the common loss rates encountered on the networks. To reduce the computational complexity, the proposed schemes make use of the existing information of Intra prediction modes from the coded bit-stream for spatial error concealment. Neighboring macroblocks mode information is used to adapt the partition size of the lost macroblock to enhance the temporal error concealment performance. In addition, overlapped motion compensation is used to avoid the spatial discontinuities. A hybrid spatio-temporal concealment scheme is also proposed to use the appropriate algorithm for the lost macroblocks in the Inter frames. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed schemes improve the concealment performance and reduce the structural degradations.
Anaerobic corrosion of granular iron: measurement and interpretation of hydrogen evolution rates.

Anaerobic corrosion of iron metal produces Fe 2+ , OH - , and H 2 (g). Growing interest in the use of granular iron in groundwater remediation demands accurate corrosion rates to assess impacts on groundwater chemical composition. In this study, corrosion rates are measured by monitoring the hydrogen pressure increase in sealed cells containing iron granules and water. The principal interference is hydrogen entry and entrapment by the iron. The entry rate is described by Sievert's low (R = kP H2 0.5 ), and the rate constant, k, is evaluated by reducing the cell pressure once during a test. For the 10-32 mesh iron used in this study, k initially was 0.015 but decreased to 0.009 mmol kg -1 d -1 kPa -0.5 in 150 d. The corrosion rate in a saline groundwater was 0.7 ± 0.05 mmol of Fe kg -1 d -1 at 25 °C-identical under water-saturated or fully-drained conditions. The rate decreased by 50% in 150 d due to alteration product buildup. The first 40-200 h of a corrosion test are characterized by progressively increasing rates of pressure increase. The time before steady-state rates develop depends on the solution composition. Data from this period should be discarded in calculating corrosion rates. Tests on pure sodium salt solutions at identical equivalent concentrations (0.02 equiv/L) show the following anion effect on corrosion rate : HCO 3 > SO 4 2- > Cl - . For NaCl solutions, corrosion rates decrease from 0.02 to 3.0 m.
Laser desorption ionization of proteins with molecular masses exceeding 10,000 daltons.

In the following, the first results on ultraviolet laser desorption (UVLD) of bioorganic compounds in the mass range above 10000 daltons are reported. Strong molecular ion signals were registered by use of an organic matrix with strong absorption at the wavelength used for controlled energy deposition and soft desorption (7)
Reducing transfer delay using Java class file splitting and prefetching

The proliferation of the Internet is fueling the development of mobile computing environments in which mobile code is executed on remote sites. In such environments, the end user must often wait while the mobile program is transferred from the server to the client where it executes. This downloading can create significant delays, hurting the interactive experience of users. We propose Java class file splitting and class file prefetching optimizations in order to reduce transfer delay. Class file splitting moves the infrequently used part of a class file into a corresponding cold class file to reduce the number of bytes transferred. Java class file prefetching is used to overlap program transfer delays with program execution. Our splitting and prefetching compiler optimizations do not require any change to the Java Virtual Machine, and thus can be used with existing Java implementations. Class file splitting reduces the startup time for Java programs by 10% on average, and class file splitting used with prefetching reduces the overall transfer delay encountered during a mobile program's execution by 25% to 30% on average.
Help One Another, Use One Another: Toward an Anthropology of Family Business*

Anthropological kinship theory is explored for potential contributions to a theory of family business. This article considers the costs and benefits of a role for kinship in business. Both derive from the discrepancy between the normative orders of kinship and markets; respectively, long–term generalized reciprocity and short–term balanced reciprocity. Because the former reflects the morality of society as a whole, kinship integrates social fields more readily than more specialized orders like markets.
A Fuzzy Conceptual Model for Multimedia Data with Application to News Video Domain

The size of multimedia data is increasing fast due to the abundance of multimedia applications. Modeling the semantics of the data effectively is crucial for proper management of it. In this paper, we present a fuzzy conceptual data model for multimedia data which is also generic in the sense that it can be adapted to all multimedia domains. The model takes an object-oriented approach and it handles fuzziness at different representation levels where fuzziness is inherent in multimedia applications and should be properly modeled. The proposed model also has the nice feature of representing the structural hierarchy of multimedia data as well as the spatial and temporal relations of the data. The model is applied to the news video domain and implemented as a fuzzy multimedia database system where it turns out to be effective in representing this domain and thereby provides an evidence for the general applicability of the model.
Amyloid oligomers: dynamics and toxicity in the cytosol and nucleus

The accumulation of misfolded proteins in the cytosol and nucleus of neuronal cells leads to neurodegenerative disorders. Polyglutamine diseases are caused by polyglutamine‐expanded proteins, whereas mutations in superoxide dismutase 1 lead to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. These structurally unstable mutant species perturb essential interactions between normal proteins and tend to aggregate because of the presence of exposed hydrophobic surfaces. Accumulating evidence suggests that soluble species, including misfolded monomers and oligomers, are more toxic than large insoluble aggregates or inclusions. Spectroscopic analysis, including fluorescence recovery after photobleaching and fluorescence loss in photobleaching, in living cells revealed that protein aggregates of misfolded proteins are dynamic structures that interact with other proteins, such as molecular chaperones. Fluorescence correlation spectroscopy analysis detected soluble oligomers/aggregates of misfolded proteins in cell extracts. Fluorescence resonance energy transfer analysis supported the notion that soluble oligomers/aggregates are formed before the formation of inclusions in vivo. Here, we reviewed the characteristics of oligomers and aggregates of misfolded proteins, with a particular focus on those revealed by spectroscopic analysis, and discussed how these oligomers may be toxic to cells.
Non-Asymptotic Theory of Random Matrices Lecture 18: Strong invertibility of subgaussian matrices and Small ball probability via arithmetic progression

1 Strong invertibility of subgaussian matrices In the last lecture, we derived an estimate for the smallest singular value of a subgaussian random matrix; Theorem 1. Let A be a n × n subgaussian matrix. Then, for any > 0, P(s n (A) < ε √ n) ≤ cε + Cn −1 2 (1) In particular, this implies s n (A) ∼ 1 √ n with high probability. However, (1) cannot show P(s n (A) < ε √ n) → 0 as → 0 because of the Cn −1 2 term. If s n (A) 0, then the matrix is not invertible. We want to know whether Cn −1 2 can be removed or not.
Work-in-Progress: Real-Time Containers for Large-Scale Mixed-Criticality Systems

This paper presents the notion of real-time containers, or rt-cases, conceived as the convergence of software container technologies, such as Linux Containers and/or Docker, and real-time operating systems. The idea is to allow critical containers, characterized by stringent timeliness and reliability requirements, to cohabit with traditional non real-time containers on the same hardware. The approach allows to keep the advantages of real-time virtualization, largely adopted in the industry, while reducing its inherent scalability limitation when to be applied to large-scale mixed-criticality systems. The paper provides a reference architecture scheme for implementing the real-time container concept on top on a patched real-time Linux kernel, and it overviews the challenges to be faced to implement the rt-case vision.
Reconnecting broken ridges in fingerprints

Fingerprint is the oldest and the most widely used biometric. The performance of any Automatic Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) highly depends on the quality of the fingerprint used. Fingerprint comprises of parallel ridges and valleys. For various reasons, ridges could be broken. Most of the fingerprint recognition algorithms are based on minutiae information. The accuracy of minutiae extraction could be affected by the presence of unwanted broken ridges. A technique for automatically detecting and reconnecting broken ridges is presented here. This technique utilizes a combination of directional information and watershed transform to identify the regions of the broken area. Results using real fingerprint data are presented and discussed.