Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Computed Tomographic‐Angiographic Findings Within the First Five Hours of Cerebral Infarction

Background and Purpose Modern management of acute stroke necessitates early diagnosis. To this end, we sought to delineate the radiographic features of focal hemispheric infarction within 5 hours of ictus. Methods Fifty patients, ages 54-79, with ischemic strokes productive of at least hemiparesis underwent computed tomographic scanning and cerebral angiography (n=38) or carotid ultrasound (n=12). Radiographic lesions were characterized for location, size, and pathophysiology. Results Acute abnormalities, hypodensity, and mass effect were seen in 56% of scans and confirmed on a second scan 5–7 days later. Intracranial angiographic abnormalities occurred in 61% of patients: arterial occlusions in 45% and delayed arterial filling in 16%. Hemorrhagic infarctions occurred in 26% of second scans and were associated with mass effect (100%) and arterial occlusions (89%). Infarcts with hemorrhagic transformation were larger on both scans than those without (p=0.001). Of four patients with infarctions in watershed territories on the scans, two had middle cerebral artery occlusions on angiography, thereby questioning the specificity of such scan lesions to low-flow states. Conclusions We conclude that cerebral infarctions are often visible on early scans, but their locations may not be etiologically determinative. The infarcts associated with intracranial arterial occlusions (45%) were of thromboembolic origin, but, given current controversies as to the pathophysiology of lacunar and watershed infarctions, we cannot ascertain the etiology in the remainder. These findings are relevant to the new stroke therapies that require administration in the first hours after infarction.
Efficacy and tolerability of treatment with azacitidine for 5 days in elderly patients with acute myeloid leukemia

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients aged ≥60 years tolerate standard induction chemotherapy poorly. Therapy with azacitidine at a dose of 75 mg/m2/day for 7 days appears to be better tolerated, and is approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of elderly AML patients with bone marrow (BM) blast counts of 20–30%. Here, we report the results of a prospective, phase 2, open‐label study that evaluated the tolerability and efficacy of a 5‐day regimen of single‐agent subcutaneous azacitidine 100 mg/m2/day administered every 28 days in 15 elderly patients with newly diagnosed AML, 14 of whom had BM blast counts >30%. The overall response rate was 47%. Complete remission, partial remission, and hematologic improvement were achieved by 20, 13, and 13% of patients, respectively. Median overall survival was 355 days for the entire cohort, and 532 days for responders. Median time to best response was 95 days, and median treatment duration was 198 days (range = 13–724 days). Grade 3–4 hematologic toxicities comprised predominantly febrile neutropenia (40%) and thrombocytopenia (20%). Febrile neutropenia was the most common cause of hospitalization. Nonhematologic toxicities, consisting of injection‐site skin reactions and fatigue (Grades 1–2), occurred in 73% (n = 11) of patients. No treatment‐related deaths occurred during the study. The dose and schedule of therapy remained constant in all but four patients. The findings of this study suggest that administration of subcutaneous azacitidine 100 mg/m2/day for 5 days every 28 days is a feasible, well‐tolerated, and effective alternative to standard induction chemotherapy in elderly patients with AML.
Naïve Rat NK Cells Control the Onset of T Cell Response

NK cell function in the rat is only defined in a rudimentary way due to missing tools for clear NK cell identification. The present study introduces the congenic LEW.BH-NKC rat strain which allows distinct detection of rat NK cells using commercial antibodies. LEW.BH-NKC rats were exposed in vivo to the porcine B cell line L23 by subcutaneous transfer of L23 cell suspension. We used Luciferase transgeneic L23 cells to follow the course of rejection by living imaging. L23 cells were rejected within five days after placement under the skin thus the rejection is mediated by innate immune responses in the first place. Indeed we found increased percentages of NK cells in the blood, spleen and in draining lymph nodes using flow cytometry methods. Surprisingly, we found as a consequence a decrease in proliferative T cell response in the draining lymph nodes. We identified NK cells as mediators of this regulation by in vitro performed mixed lymphocyte reactions. The remarkable feature was the naive state of NK cells exhibiting the regulative capacity. Furthermore, the regulation was not exclusively mediated by IL-10 as it has been reported before for influence of T cell response by activated NK cells but predominantly by TGF-β. Interestingly, after initiation of the adaptive immune response, NK cells failed to take influence on the proliferation of T cells. We conclude that naive NK cells build up a threshold of activation impulse that T cells have to overcome.
Reversible Lipid Accumulation and Associated Division Arrest of Mycobacterium avium in Lipoprotein-Induced Foamy Macrophages May Resemble Key Events during Latency and Reactivation of Tuberculosis

ABSTRACT During the dormant phase of tuberculosis, Mycobacterium tuberculosis persists in lung granulomas by residing in foamy macrophages (FM) that contain abundant lipid bodies (LB) in their cytoplasm, allowing bacilli to accumulate lipids as intracytoplasmic lipid inclusions (ILI). An experimental model of FM is presented where bone marrow-derived mouse macrophages are infected with M. avium and exposed to very-low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) as a lipid source. Quantitative analysis of detailed electron microscope observations showed the following results. (i) Macrophages became foamy, and mycobacteria formed ILI, for which host triacylglycerides, rather than cholesterol, was essential. (ii) Lipid transfer occurred via mycobacterium-induced fusion between LB and phagosomes. (iii) Mycobacteria showed a thinned cell wall and became elongated but did not divide. (iv) Upon removal of VLDL, LB and ILI declined within hours, and simultaneous resumption of mycobacterial division restored the number of mycobacteria to the same level as that found in untreated control macrophages. This showed that the presence of ILI resulted in a reversible block of division without causing a change in the mycobacterial replication rate. Fluctuation between ILI either partially or fully extending throughout the mycobacterial cytoplasm was suggestive of bacterial cell cycle events. We propose that VLDL-driven FM constitute a well-defined cellular system in which to study changed metabolic states of intracellular mycobacteria that may relate to persistence and reactivation of tuberculosis.
Synthesis of speech from a dynamic model of the vocal cords and vocal tract

We describe a computer model of the human vocal cords and vocal tract that is amenable to dynamic control by parameters directly identified in the human physiology. The control format consequently provides an efficient, parsimonious description of speech information. The control parameters represent subglottal lung pressure, vocal-cord tension and rest opening, vocal-tract shape, and nasal coupling. Using these inputs, we synthesize vowel-consonant-vowel syllables to demonstrate the dynamic behavior of the cord/tract model. We show that inherent properties of the model duplicate phenomena observed in human speech; in particular, cord/tract acoustic interaction, cord vibration, and tract-wall radiation during occlusion, and voicing onset-offset behavior. Finally, we describe an approach to deriving the physiological controls automatically from printed text, and we present sentence-length synthesis obtained from a preliminary system.
Generalized compressed tree machines

Parallel machines interconnecting up to thousands of processors have been proposed and recently built. One of the earliest and the most prominent one is a complete binary tree machine. The authors propose a family of tree machines called generalized compressed tree machines. Generalized compressed tree machines may, in general, be viewed as a derivative of the complete binary tree networks. <<ETX>>
[Effects of ecdysterone on the expression of NF-kappaB p65 in H2O2 induced oxidative damage of human lens epithelial cells].

OBJECTIVE To study the effects of ecdysterone (ECR) on the expression of nuclear factor (NF)-kappaB in H2O2 induced oxidative damage of human lens epithelial cells (HLECs). METHODS The cultured HLECs were divided into 5 groups, i.e., the control group, the H2O2 group, the beta-estradiol (E2) group, the ECR group, and the pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate group (PDTC) group. The expression rate of NF-kappaB p65 in the HLECs were detected by flow cytometer (FCM). RESULTS The expression of NF-kappaB p65 occurred in normal HLECs (9. 53%). The expression rate of NF-kappaB p65 in the H2O2 group obviously increased (39.87%, P < 0.01). The expression rate of NF-kappaB p65 in the PDTC group obviously decreased (5.90%, P < 0.01). The expression rates of NF-kappaB p65 in the ECR group (13.99%) and the E2 group (25.18%) ranged between the control group and the H2O2 group, but still lower than that of the H2O2 group (P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS The activation of NF-kappaB in the HLECs could be induced by H2O2 ECR with the estrogenic activity could effectively inhibit the activation of NF-kappaB.
Note on side-channel attacks and their countermeasures

In the last few years ciphers making use of table-lookups in large tables—and most notably AES [12, 6]—have received a lot of bad publicity due to their vulnerability to cache attacks [15, 1, 13]. These attacks target the secret key by exploiting the variable time that an AES computation takes due to the storage of the large table in cache. From this one may conclude that algorithms that do not make use of table-lookups are better suited for secure implementations. The subject of this note is to point out that this is in general not the case, more particularly if we consider attacks that exploit measurements of power consumption and electromagnetic radiation. These attacks are relevant if one wants to perform cryptographic computations involving a secret key in a device to which an adversary has physical access. As employees of STMicroelectronics and NXP, we have come across numerous such products and applications. Historically smart cards has been the first commercial product to embed countermeasures against this kind of attacks but this is spreading to RFID, electronic passport and more complex systems. More generally, note that the attacks under consideration do not exploit an inherent weakness of an algorithm, but rather a characteristic of the implementation. For this reason they are called side-channel attacks as opposed to cryptanalytic attacks. Particularly good sources of information on side channel attacks and countermeasures are the proceedings of the yearly CHES conferences (http://www.chesworkshop.org/) and the text book [14]. As an example, we consider on the one hand a class of algorithms that do not make use of table-lookups but instead of addition (or subtraction) modulo 2n, bitwise XOR, shift and rotation. This class of algorithms is denoted by the acronym ARX (AdditionRotation-XOR) and seems hard to protect against certain side-channel attacks. On the other hand, algorithms that restrict their choice of operations to bitwise Boolean operations, and (cyclic) shifts can be protected much more efficiently if certain conditions are satisfied. We will illustrate this point with our SHA-3 submission KECCAK[2].
Effects of dynamic pitch and relative scaling on the perception of duration and prosodic grouping in American English

Results of two perception experiments suggest that using timing measures alone to compute prosodic structure misses valuable information from pitch. Previous research showed that pitch can distort perceived duration: tokens with dynamic or higher f0 are perceived as longer than comparable level-f0 or lower-f0 tokens, and silent intervals bounded by tokens of widely differing pitch are heard as longer than those bounded by tokens closer in pitch (the kappa effect). Phrase edges (signalled by increased duration, pause, phrase tones, and f0 reset) set the scene for pitch to modulate perceived duration. Two new experiments used the same duration and f0 manipulations (level vs. varying-slope rises, at varying pitch ranges) of segmentally-identical base files, in two separate tasks: 1) a linguistic grouping task using an ambiguously-structured phrase and 2) a psychoacoustic study on perceived duration. Results show that effects on perceived duration due to dynamic pitch can be either strengthened or nullified depending on relative scaling of compared tokens. These same manipulations push grouping judgments beyond what would be expected from distortions of perceived duration. This suggests that listeners integrate pitch and timing cues when judging linguistic structure, supporting measures of relative boundary size that combine duration and pitch measures.
TRPC4 Can Be Activated by G-protein-coupled Receptors and Provides Sufficient Ca2+ to Trigger Exocytosis in Neuroendocrine Cells*

Transient receptorpotential (TRP) channels form a large family of plasma membrane cation channels. Mammalian members of the “short” TRP family (TRP channel (TRPC) 1–7 are Ca2+-permeant, non-selective cation channels that are widely expressed in various cell types, including neurons. TRPC activity is linked through unknown mechanisms to G-protein-coupled receptors or receptor tyrosine kinases that activate phospholipase C. To investigate the properties and function of TRPC4 in neuronally derived cells, we transiently expressed mouse TRPC4 and histamine H1 receptor in mouse adrenal chromaffin cells and PC12 cells. Histamine, but not thapsigargin, stimulated Mn2+ influx in transfected cells. In the whole-cell patch clamp mode, histamine triggered a transient current in TRPC4-expressing cells. No current was evoked by perfusion with inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate. When exocytosis was monitored with the capacitance detection technique, the magnitude of the membrane capacitance increase (ΔC m ) on application of histamine in H1 receptor/TRPC4-expressing chromaffin cells was comparable with that triggered by a train of depolarizing pulses. Our results indicate that TRPC4 channels behave as receptor, but not store-operated, channels in neuronally derived cells. TRPC4 channels can provide sufficient Ca2+ influx to trigger a robust secretory response in voltage-clamped neurosecretory cells. Similar mechanisms may modulate exocytosis in other neuronal systems.
Molecular Modeling-Based Evaluation of hTLR10 and Identification of Potential Ligands in Toll-Like Receptor Signaling

Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are pattern recognition receptors that recognize pathogens based on distinct molecular signatures. The human (h)TLR1, 2, 6 and 10 belong to the hTLR1 subfamilies, which are localized in the extracellular regions and activated in response to diverse ligand molecules. Due to the unavailability of the hTLR10 crystal structure, the understanding of its homo and heterodimerization with hTLR2 and hTLR1 and the ligand responsible for its activation is limited. To improve our understanding of the TLR10 receptor-ligand interaction, we used homology modeling to construct a three dimensional (3D) structure of hTLR10 and refined the model through molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. We utilized the optimized structures for the molecular docking in order to identify the potential site of interactions between the homo and heterodimer (hTLR10/2 and hTLR10/1). The docked complexes were then used for interaction with ligands (Pam3CSK4 and PamCysPamSK4) using MOE-Dock and ASEDock. Our docking studies have shown the binding orientations of hTLR10 heterodimer to be similar with other TLR2 family members. However, the binding orientation of hTLR10 homodimer is different from the heterodimer due to the presence of negative charged surfaces at the LRR11-14, thereby providing a specific cavity for ligand binding. Moreover, the multiple protein-ligand docking approach revealed that Pam3CSK4 might be the ligand for the hTLR10/2 complex and PamCysPamSK4, a di-acylated peptide, might activate hTLR10/1 hetero and hTLR10 homodimer. Therefore, the current modeled complexes can be a useful tool for further experimental studies on TLR biology.
Distribution of Pathogenicity Islands OI-122, OI-43/48, and OI-57 and a High-Pathogenicity Island in Shiga Toxin-Producing Escherichia coli

ABSTRACT Pathogenicity islands (PAIs) play an important role in Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) pathogenicity. The distribution of PAIs OI-122, OI-43/48, and OI-57 and a high-pathogenicity island (HPI) were determined among 98 STEC strains assigned to seropathotypes (SPTs) A to E. PCR and PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism assays were used to identify 14 virulence genes that belonged to the four PAIs and to subtype eae and stx genes, respectively. Phylogenetic trees were constructed based on the sequences of pagC among 34 STEC strains and iha among 67 diverse pathogenic E. coli, respectively. Statistical analysis demonstrated that the prevalences of OI-122 (55.82%) and OI-57 (82.35%) were significantly greater in SPTs (i.e., SPTs A, B, and C) that are frequently associated with severe disease than in other SPTs. terC (62.5%) and ureC (62.5%) in OI-43/48 were also significantly more prevalent in SPTs A, B, and C than in SPTs D and E. In addition, OI-122, OI-57, and OI-43/48 and their associated virulence genes (except iha) were found to be primarily associated with eae-positive STEC, whereas HPI occurred independently of the eae presence. The strong association of OI-122, OI-43/48, and OI-57 with eae-positive STEC suggests in part that different pathogenic mechanisms exist between eae-positive and eae-negative STEC strains. Virulence genes in PAIs that are associated with severe diseases can be used as potential markers to aid in identifying highly virulent STEC.
Estimating soil moisture content using GNSS-R technique based on statistics

More and More efforts have been made concerning the GNSS Reflectometry (GNSS-R) technique since GPS signals being found to be sensitive to geophysical properties, i.e., ocean surface roughness and soil moisture. Compared to airborne observations, ground-based research could focus on the models using the reflected GNSS signal, regardless of the atmospheric attenuation and the reflection zone's movement. Two ground-based GNSS-R experiments were conducted recently in Beijing. This paper proposes a statistical model based on least squares histogram fitting to process the acquired data. Although either the model error or the mismatching of the measuring depth could lead to the discrepancy between the estimated and in situ soil moisture, this approach can isolate the estimated values from different parts of the mixed surface and estimate soil moisture of a homogeneous surface more reasonably than the simply averaging method.
3-phase high power ups

According to one aspect, embodiments of the invention provide power converter circuitry including an input including a plurality of input lines each configured to be coupled to a phase of a multiphase AC power source having a sinusoidal waveform, a plurality of DC buses including a first positive DC bus having a first nominal DC voltage, a second positive DC bus having a second nominal DC voltage, a first negative DC bus having a third nominal DC voltage and a second negative DC bus having a fourth nominal DC voltage; a first power converter coupled to the input and configured to supply power from the multiphase AC power source to the plurality of DC buses during a first positive region of the sinusoidal waveform and a first negative region of the sinusoidal waveform; ; and a second power converter coupled to the input and configured to supply power from the multiphase AC power source to at least some of the plurality of DC buses during a second positive region of the sinusoidal waveform and a second negative region of the sinusoidal waveform.
Enhanced axonal growth into a spinal cord contusion injury site in a strain of mouse (129X1/SvJ) with a diminished inflammatory response

After injury in the adult central nervous system, invading and intrinsic cells contribute to the formation of a lesion site that is refractory to axonal growth. To test the hypothesis that the inflammatory response to trauma dictates the extent of axonal growth after spinal cord injury, the time course of lesion evolution was compared in two mouse strains with contrasting cellular responses to peripheral inflammatory challenge. Adult C57Bl/6 and 129X1/SvJ mice received identical contusion injuries to the mid‐thoracic spinal cord and were allowed to recover for 6 hours to 9 weeks. Both strains responded with a rapid, transient increase in chemokine expression, but the magnitude of this early response was slightly reduced in the 129X1/SvJ mice. Morphological indicators of inflammation were similar during the first week postinjury. After 7 days postinjury, however, the cellular responses differed between strains. The C57Bl/6 lesion core was chronically occupied by macrophages, devoid of astrocytes, and contained few axonal profiles. In contrast, as the macrophage density decreased a network of astrocytic processes and axons of central and peripheral origin invaded the center of the lesion site in 129X1Sv/J mice. Growth of axons in the 129X1Sv/J mice was accompanied by increased extravascular laminin in the lesion core and a reduced expression of chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan glycosaminoglycan sidechains in the periphery of the lesion. These results demonstrate that the diminished chronic inflammatory response in 129X1/SvJ mice is associated with enhanced cellular repair and increased axonal growth after spinal cord injury. J. Comp. Neurol. 474:469–486, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Design and performance of Small scale sensory consumer tests

Small scale internal consumer tests provide a company with a cheap way to get valuable information regarding their products advantages and flaws. Therefore the demand for possibilities to do this kind of test has increased. This report is part of a new sensory project at Unilever. It presents a method for sensory comparison of the company’s own products with the corresponding competitor products. The method allows the company to identify possibly poor performing products and also outstanding good performing products, why expensive big scale consumer tests can be limited into only including products that likely needs improvements or that in a larger scale test could be proven “best in test”. Out of many potential tests for affective evaluation of foods the 9-point hedonic scale test and the ranking test was chosen. Questionnaires and preparation procedures were constructed, where after 16 evaluations including 23 Unilever products, performed on different food categories, were conducted. The results showed that indications and also significant differences in liking and preference could be seen in test groups of only ten participants. Among the evaluations performed seven Unilever products showed potential of being best in test, and six Unilever products got results indicating they were less preferred/liked compared to the competitor, why further evaluations are needed. As an example of a possible way to proceed with the identified poor performing products, a second method, including the 9-point hedonic scale with added attributes and Just-About- Right scales, was presented and practiced on one product. The results showed that a product can be poor performing and graded as disliked among participants when compared to competitor products, but when tested on its own regarded as acceptable or even good performing. Further evaluations will have to be performed before determination if this is a successful method of identifying which attributes causes the product flaws.