Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cep57 Protein Is Required for Cytokinesis by Facilitating Central Spindle Microtubule Organization*

Background: Cep57 has been shown to be a centrosome protein with microtubule-binding and microtubule-bundling activities. Results: Cep57 localizes to the midbody and plays roles in central spindle microtubule organization to ensure the completion of cytokinesis. Conclusion: Cep57 is required for cytokinesis. Significance: We identified the function of Cep57 in cytokinesis as a novel factor of central spindle microtubule organization. Cytokinesis is the final stage of cell division in which the cytoplasm of a cell is divided into two daughter cells after the segregation of genetic material, and the central spindle and midbody are considered to be the essential structures required for the initiation and completion of cytokinesis. Here, we determined that the centrosome protein Cep57, which is localized to the central spindle and midbody, acts as a spindle organizer and is required for cytokinesis. Depletion of Cep57 disrupted microtubule assembly of the central spindle and further led to abnormal midbody localization of MKLP1, Plk1, and Aurora B, which resulted in cytokinesis failure and the formation of binuclear cells. Furthermore, we found that Cep57 directly recruited Tektin 1 to the midbody matrix to regulate microtubule organization. Thus, our data reveal that Cep57 is essential for cytokinesis via regulation of central spindle assembly and formation of the midbody.
Nephrolithiasis and renal failure among patients exposed to atazanavir, other PIs and PI-free regimens

Recent single‐site studies and case reports have linked atazanavir (ATV) with the occurrence of nephrolithiasis. The purpose of this study was to estimate and compare the incidence rate of nephrolithiasis and to characterize the occurrence of subsequent renal failure among patients on ATV, other protease inhibitors (PIs) and PI‐free regimens using real world data.
Adaptation to Future Water Shortages in the United States Caused by Population Growth and Climate Change

Population growth and climate change will combine to pose substantial challenges for water management in the United States. Projections of water supply and demand over the 21st century show that in the absence of further adaptation efforts, serious water shortages are likely in some regions. Continued improvements in water use efficiency are likely but will be insufficient to avoid future shortages. Some adaptation measures that have been effective in the past, most importantly large additions to reservoir storage, have little promise. Other major adaptations commonly used in the past, especially instream flow removals and groundwater mining, can substantially lower shortages but have serious external costs. If those costs are to be avoided, transfers from irrigated agriculture probably will be needed and could be substantial.
The minimal volume orientable hyperbolic 3-manifold with 4 cusps

We prove that the 8^4_2 link complement is the minimal volume orientable hyperbolic manifold with 4 cusps. Its volume is twice of the volume V_8 of the ideal regular octahedron, i.e. 7.32. = 2V_8. The proof relies on Agol's argument used to determine the minimal volume hyperbolic 3-manifolds with 2 cusps. We also need to estimate the volume of a hyperbolic 3-manifold with totally geodesic boundary which contains an essential surface with non-separating boundary.
Three Faces of the Bentall Procedure

Since the original description of composite replacement of the aortic valve and ascending aorta by Bentall in 1968, several modifications of the technique have been described. In order to evaluate the results of these different techniques, we have retrospectively reviewed our results with 140 consecutive patients who underwent Bentall operations between October 1986 and March 1994, using three different anastomotic techniques: Classic, n = 30; Button, n = 95, and Cabrol, n = 15. Overall hospital mortality was 5%. In univariate analysis, acute type A dissection, rupture, new preoperative neurological symptoms, and the Cabrol technique were associated with a higher hospital mortality, but by multivariate analysis no independent risk factors were demonstrated. Overall rates of reoperation did not differ among the three techniques (Classic 4.1%/pt‐yr, Button 2.7%/pt‐yr, Cabrol 0%/pt‐yr; p = 0.44). The actuarial freedom from reoperation was 87% at 5 years. The 5‐year actuarial survival for all patients was 79% (Classic 85%, Button 82%, Cabroi 52%): the poorer results with the Cabroi modification are likely due to patient selection, complicated by a higher early mortality in this small group of patients. The presence of dissection was associated with a higher mortality in Marfan patients (50% vs 8%, p = 0.03). The rate of aortic valve‐related complications was 3.6%/pt per year. Actuarial event‐free survival was 67% at 5 years. Current indications for an elective Bentall procedure include an ascending aortic diameter of 6 cm or greater, with significant aortic valvular dysfunction, and dilatation of the ascending aorta greater than 5 cm in patients with Marfan syndrome or a bicuspid aortic valve. The routine procedure of choice is the Button Bentall techniaue. with the Classic Bentall and the Cabrol variation reserved for use under special circumstances. (J Card Surg 1994;9:466–481)
Monocyte infiltration is highly associated with loss of the tight junction protein zonula occludens in HIV‐1‐associated dementia

In human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)‐1‐associated dementia (HAD), consequences of interactions between infiltrating monocytes and brain endothelial cells are not yet fully understood. This study investigated whether the blood–brain barrier is affected in brain tissue of patients suffering from HAD and whether it was possible to find a correlation with the presence or absence of monocytic cells, which have been suggested to play a major role in HAD. Immunohistochemical analysis for zonula occludens 1, a tight junction protein, and CD68, a macrophage marker, revealed that loss of tight junction immunoreactivity was highly correlated with monocyte infiltration and with HAD. This suggests that the presence of perivascular macrophages cells is associated with breakdown of the blood–brain barrier thereby facilitating infiltration of more monocytic cells hence enhancing disease progression.
Blood pressure and hypertension in relation to levels of serum polychlorinated biphenyls in residents of Anniston, Alabama

Objective To determine risk factors for elevated blood pressure and hypertension in residents of Anniston, Alabama who live near a plant that manufactured polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Methods A total of 758 Anniston residents had multiple measurements of blood pressure, provided information on demographic factors, medications, smoking, and exercise, and provided blood samples for determination of PCBs and total serum lipid. Results Rates of hypertension increased significantly (P < 0.05) with age and concentration of serum PCBs and were higher in African–Americans (n = 351) than in whites (n = 407). Hypertension also increased with BMI, but was not related to total serum lipid, sex, smoking, or exercise. Among 394 persons not on antihypertensive medication, linear regression analysis demonstrated a significant positive relation between serum PCB level and both systolic and diastolic blood pressure. After adjustment for potentially confounding variables, logistic regression gave odds ratios for the highest to lowest tertiles of total serum PCBs that exceeded 3.5 for both systolic and diastolic hypertension. When analyzed by quintiles of PCBs, the highest odds ratio was in the third quintile, suggesting a low dose effect. Conclusion In individuals not on antihypertensive medication, serum PCB levels were significantly associated with prevalence of hypertension. Significant positive associations were also observed between PCB concentrations and systolic and diastolic blood pressure even in normotensive ranges. The strength of the relationships between PCB exposure and both hypertension and blood pressure suggests that PCB exposure may be an important contributing factor in regulation of blood pressure.
Toward accessible 3D virtual environments for the blind and visually impaired

3D virtual environments are increasingly used for education, business and recreation but are often inaccessible to users who are visually impaired, effectively creating a digital divide. Interviews with 8 visually impaired expert users were conducted to guide design proposals, and a review of current research into haptics and 3D sound for auditory displays is presented with suggestions for navigation and feedback techniques to address these accessibility issues. The diversity and volatility of the environment makes Second Life an unusually complex research object, suggesting the applicability of our work for the field of HCI and accessibility in 3D virtual environments.
The Effect of Varied Doses of Epinephrine on Duration of Lidocaine Spinal Anesthesia in the Thoracic and Lumbosacral Dermatomes

The efficacy of epinephrine in prolonging spinal analgesia has recently been confirmed in the lumbosacral but not in the thoracic, segments.Most previous studies used doses of epinephrine smaller than 0.3 mg. We studied the effects of 0.2, 0.4, or 0.6 mg of epinephrine added to hyperbaric lidocaine 60 mg in 7.5% dextrose solution for spinal anesthesia. Eighty patients were randomly divided into four groups: Group A received lidocaine without epinephrine, Group B received lidocaine plus 0.2 mL (0.2 mg) of epinephrine 1:1000 solution, Group C received lidocaine plus 0.4 mL (0.4 mg) of epinephrine, and Group D received lidocaine plus 0.6 mL (0.6 mg) of epinephrine. The maximal cephalad sensory level was between T2 and T3 for all groups. The median times for analgesia to regress two and four segments were significantly prolonged in Group D, but not in either Group B or C, compared with those in Group A. Times for regression to T12 and L3 were significantly prolonged in Groups B, C, and D compared with Group A. We conclude that the dose-dependent relationship of spinal analgesia can be applied to epinephrine, and that larger doses prolong lidocaine spinal anesthesia in the thoracic as well as the lumbosacral dermatomes. Implications: Prolongation of lidocaine spinal analgesia by intrathecal epinephrine is established in the lumbosacral, but not in the thoracic, dermatomes. Three doses of epinephrine-0.2, 0.4, and 0.6 mg-were compared. A dose-dependent response and significant prolongation with the 0.6-mg dose in the thoracic dermatomes were confirmed. (Anesth Analg 1998;86:1018-22)
The examination of relationship between socioeconomic factors and number of tuberculosis using quantile regression model for count data in Iran 2010-2011

Background: Poverty and low socioeconomic status are the most important reasons of increasing the global burden of tuberculosis, not only in developing countries but also in developed countries for particular groups. The purpose of this study was to assess the association between socioeconomic factors and the number of tuberculosis patients using quantile regression for count data. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 11,320 tuberculosis patients from March 2010 to March 201 in Iran. Data was gathered from the 345 sections of Iran by Ministry of Health and Medical Education and Statistical Center of Iran. The jittering method was applied for smoothing, and then, the quantile regression for count data was fitted. The AIC was used to compare the fitness of quantile regression for count data model and Poisson log-linear model. The R (3.0.1) software and Quantreg and AER packages were used for all analysis and modeling of the data. Results: The results of fitting the quantile regression for count data showed that in all percentiles, the more increase in immigration rate, illiteracy rate, unemployment and urbanization rates, the more tuberculosis morbidity rate was increased. The maximum increase of tuberculosis due to immigration rate, urbanization rate, unemployment rate, and illiteracy rate was in 95th percentile (β^=0.315), 85'Th percentile (β^=0.162), 75'Th percentile (β^=0.114 ), and 95'Th percentile (β^=0.304), respectively. For 50th percentiles and higher percentiles, with increasing the sum of physicians to the number of population, the tuberculosis morbidity rate was decreased, and the maximum decrease was in 95'Th percentile ( β^=-0.1). For all percentiles, the AIC showed that quantile regression for count data had been a better fit to data. Conclusion: With respect to the relationship between socioeconomic factors and TB rate, health care observers should pay close attention to improving these factors in Iran to reduce the TB mortality and morbidity.
A Recommender System to tackle Enterprise Collaboration

In order to survive, companies depend on their capacity to generate and manage knowledge while promoting alignment among its employees. To tackle this problem, it was developed an enterprise collaboration platform named Smart Canvas, a service whose goal is to leverage companies' knowledge and tear down silos by connecting people, teams, and content. These connections are suggested by a Recommender System, using techniques like Topic Modeling, Content-Based Filtering and Graph traversing. Smart Canvas is a multi-tenant Software as a Service, featuring a scalable cloud-based Recommender System architecture, including tools like Spark and Titan Graph Database, deployed on Google Cloud Platform.
Precise vehicle localization in dense urban environments

In this contribution we introduce a framework for precise vehicle localization in dense urban environments which are characterized by high rates of dynamic and semi-static objects. The proposed localization method is specifically designed to handle inconsistencies between map material and sensor measurements. This is achieved by means of a robust map matching procedure based on the Fourier-Mellin transformation (FMT) for global vehicle pose estimation. Accurate and reliable relative localization is obtained from a LiDAR odometry. Consistency checks based on the cumulative sum (CUSUM) test are instrumented for rejection of inconsistent map matching results from the fusion procedure. Our key contributions are: i) Introduction and adaptation of a spectral map matching procedure based on the FMT for urban automated driving, ii) Presentation of a framework for efficient and robust localization in dense urban environments based on a novel LiDAR odometry, map matching, wheel odometry and GPS, iii) Proposal of a procedure for localization integrity monitoring which leads to significantly increased pose estimation accuracy. Evaluation results show the superior performance of the proposed approach compared to another state-of-the-art localization algorithm for a challenging urban dataset. All maps were recorded two years in advance of the evaluation test run. Furthermore, different LiDAR-based sensor setups were used for mapping and localization.
Automated Computation of Glycemic Index for Foodstuffs Using Continuous Glucose Monitoring

Background: The glycemic index (GI) is a measure of the ability of a food to raise glucose levels after it is eaten. Continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) has been shown to give identical values of GI when compared to traditional methods. However, there has been no standardized protocol for measuring GI that takes into account interindividual variability and chronophysiological glycemic response to food. Our aim was (1) to create and describe software based on a Microsoft Excel 2000 spreadsheet to facilitate rapid, automated, accurate, and standardized processing of data obtained using recent CGM methodology to measure GI and its variability and (2) to assess the benefits of this new approach. Method: Twenty healthy subjects consumed 50 grams of glucose or four alternative foodstuffs (chocolate, apple baby food, rice squares, or yogurt) at breakfast and dinner during 1 week, resulting in 300 CGMS glucose profiles; 92% of meal tests were satisfactory for evaluation. Application and functions of the software DegifXL are described. Results: Using the new spreadsheet software DegifXL, time required for data processing for the 15 data sets for each subject was reduced from 2000 to 160 minutes relative to previously used manual methods. We characterized the GI for four foodstuffs with three replicate measurements in each of 20 subjects and evaluated between person, between time period, and between replicate GI variabilities. Conclusion: DegifXL, combined with CGM, was an efficient and effective tool for routine measurement of group- and subject-related GI.
The Dynamics of Disorder

Equilibrium and disequilibium 1 Equilibrium . 2 1.1 The canonical ensemble . 2 1.2 Microscopic reversibility . 2 2 . and disequilibrium. 4 2.1 Experimental protocols . 4 2.2 Work and Heat . 4 2.3 Microscopic irreversibility . 4 3 The uctuations of dissipation . 6 3.1 Transient protocols . 6 3.2 Conjugate uctuation theorem . 6 3.3 The Jarzynski Identity . 6 3.4 Clausius inequality and the second law . 7
A Study of Comparative Blood Pressure Measures in Predicting Risk of Coronary Heart Disease

The Western Collaborative Group Study is a prospective study of 3,154 employed men, aged 39–59 years. Coronary heart disease (CHD) occurred in 257 subjects during 8.5 years of follow-up. The multiple logistic risk model was used to assess the comparative strength of systolic, diastolic, mean arterial and pulse pressure for the prediction of CHD in two age decades after adjustment for age, serum cholesterol, cigarette smoking, behavior pattern and weight.The risk of CHD was more strongly associated with the systolic than the diastolic pressure. The general practice of assessing the importance of blood pressure based only on the diastolic component should be reassessed.
Water-soluble organic carbon over the Pearl River Delta region during fall–winter: spatial variations and source apportionment

Abstract. Water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC) is a major component of carbonaceous aerosols. However, the detailed information of WSOC origins is still unclear. In the current study, fine particles (PM2.5) were collected at one sub-urban and two rural sites in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region, south China during fall–winter 2008 to measure WSOC and organic tracers of biomass burning (BB) and secondary organic aerosols (SOA) from isoprene, monoterpenes, β-caryophyllene, aromatics and 2-ring polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). WSOC concentrations ranged from 7.63 to 11.5 μg C m−3 and accounted for 38.8–57.9% of organic carbon (OC). Both WSOC and water-insoluble organic carbon (WIOC) exhibited higher levels at the sub-urban site than the rural sites. Subtracting BB-derived WSOC (WSOCBB) from measured WSOC, secondary OC (SOC) and primary OC (POC) were estimated that POC exhibited dominance over SOC and contributed 68–79% to OC. Significant correlation between WSOC and EC was observed, suggesting that BB could have important contributions to ambient WSOC in the PRD region during fall–winter. Organic tracers were applied to do source apportionment of WSOC, which further confirmed that BB was the dominant contributor, accounting for 42–47% of measured WSOC. SOC estimated by SOA tracers totally contributed 22–40% of WSOC, among which anthropogenic SOC (sum of aromatics and 2-ring PAHs, 18–25%) exhibited dominance over biogenic SOC (sum of isoprene, monoterpenes and β-caryophyllene, 4–15%). The unexplained WSOC (18–31%) showed a positive correlation with POC, indicating that this portion might be associated with POC aging.
Effects of Three Different Fibrates on Intrahepatic Cholestasis Experimentally Induced in Rats

Background. Activation of PPARα modulates cholesterol metabolism and suppresses bile acid synthesis. This study aims to evaluate the effect of PPARα agonists, fenofibrate, bezafibrate, and gemfibrozil, on acute cholestasis induced by ethinylestradiol (EE) plus chlorpromazine (CPZ) in rats. Method. 100 male albino rats (150–200 gm) were divided randomly into 10 equal groups. Control group received 1% methylcellulose vehicle; disease group received CPZ plus EE for 5 consecutive days; four groups received either ursodeoxycholic acid, fenofibrate, bezafibrate, or gemfibrozil for 7 days; 2 days before EE + CPZ, three other groups received one of the three fibrates after GW6471, a selective PPARα antagonist in addition to EE + CPZ. The final group received GW6471 alone. Results. The three fibrates showed marked reduction (P < 0.05) in serum levels of ALP, GGT, ALT, AST, total bile acids, bilirubin, TNFα, and IL-1β and in hepatic malondialdehyde level as well as a significant increase in bile flow rate (P < 0.05) in addition to improvements in histopathological parameters compared to diseased group. In groups which received GW6471, these effects were completely abolished with fenofibrate and partially blocked with bezafibrate and gemfibrozil. Conclusion. Short-term administration of fibrates to EE/CPZ-induced intrahepatic cholestatic rats exerted beneficial effects on hepatocellular damage and apoptosis. Fenofibrate anticholestatic effect was solely PPARα dependent while other mechanisms played part in bezafibrate and gemfibrozil actions.
Fundamental Limits on Sensing Capacity for Sensor Networks and Compressed Sensing

A synthetic resin valve in which a body is connected end-to-end in abutting relationship to a cylindrical body cap having a flange at one end and a seat at the other end by screwing the two together with a cap nut. The seat includes a ring-like element having a lesser diameter portion which is fitted into an annular groove adjacent to a front end portion of the body cap, and a greater diameter portion which engages the outer peripheral surface of the front end portion of the body cap, the front face of the larger diameter portion of the ring-like element preferably resting in the same plane as the front face of the body cap which abuts the body. The ring-like element is cut radially in one circumferential region so that it may be deformed around the body cap such that its smaller diameter region may be fitted into the annular groove, and has a rear wall for engaging the cap nut. This structure permits the seat to be formed after the cap nut has been provided around the body cap with the flange previously integrally connected to the remaining cylindrical portion of the body cap.
Hidden Conditional Neural Fields for Continuous Phoneme Speech Recognition

SUMMARY In this paper, we propose Hidden Conditional Neural Fields (HCNF) for continuous phoneme speech recognition, which are a combination of Hidden Conditional Random Fields (HCRF) and a MultiLayer Perceptron (MLP), and inherit their merits, namely, the discriminative property for sequences from HCRF and the ability to extract non-linear features from an MLP. HCNF can incorporate many types of features from which non-linear features can be extracted, and is trained by sequential criteria. We first present the formulation of HCNF and then examine three methods to further improve automatic speech recognition using HCNF, which is an objective function that explicitly considers training errors, provides a hierarchical tandem-style feature and includes a deep non-linear feature extractor for the observation function. We show that HCNF can be trained realistically without any initial model and outperforms HCRF and the triphone hidden Markov model trained by the minimum phone error (MPE) manner using experimental results for continuous English phoneme recognition on the TIMIT core test set and Japanese phoneme recognition
Active particle in MCL: An evolutionary view

Mobile robot localization is the task of determining a robot's pose in a known environment, which is one of the most important problems in mobile robotics. The state-of-the-art Monte Carlo Localization (MCL) algorithm requires a large amount of particles and thus converges slowly. Also, MCL performs poorly in low noise sensor input.