Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Overexpression of miR-155-5p Inhibits the Proliferation and Migration of IL-13-Induced Human Bronchial Smooth Muscle Cells by Suppressing TGF-β-Activated Kinase 1/MAP3K7-Binding Protein 2

Purpose Molecular mechanisms leading to asthma is still ill-defined. Though the function of microRNAs (miRNAs) in asthma was previously reported, the involvement of miR-155 in important features of this disease remains unknown. The present study was designed to uncover the probable involvement of miR-155-5p in the proliferation and migration of IL-13-induced human bronchial smooth muscle cells (BSMCs) and the intrinsic regulatory mechanism. Methods The effects of different concentrations of IL-13 on the proliferation and migration of BSMCs as well as the expression of miR-155-5p and its predicted target transforming growth factor (TGF)-β-activated kinase 1/MAP3K7-binding protein 2 (TAB2) were investigated. The effects of miR-155-5p on the proliferation and migration of interleukin (IL)-13-induced BSMCs was determined in vitro using BSMCs transfected with miR-155 mimic/inhibitor and induced by a high concentration of IL-13. The quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRTPCR) was employed for determining the expression of miR-155-5p and TAB2. Western blotting was applied to analyze the expression of TAB2 at the protein level. Cell proliferation and migration were assessed using the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) and Transwell assays, respectively. Results The proliferation and migration of BSMCs were dose-dependently increased with IL-13 treatment. Contrariwise, IL-13 dose-dependently inhibited the expression of miR-155-5p in BSMCs. Mechanistic studies showed that inhibition of miR-155-5p further promoted the stimulatory effects of IL-13, whereas overexpression of miR-155 significantly inhibited these effects. In silico studies and luciferase reporter assays indicated that TAB2 was a negatively regulated miR-155-5p target. Conclusions These results suggested that miR-155-5p-inhibit the IL-13-induced proliferation and migration of BSMCs by targeting TAB2 and that the IL-13/miR-155/TAB2 pathway could serve as a therapeutic target for pulmonary diseases, especially asthma.
Neural crest delamination and migration: Looking forward to the next 150 years

Neural crest (NC) cells were described for the first time in 1868 by Wilhelm His. Since then, this amazing population of migratory stem cells has been intensively studied. It took a century to fully unravel their incredible abilities to contribute to nearly every organ of the body. Yet, our understanding of the cell and molecular mechanisms controlling their migration is far from complete. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge on epithelial‐mesenchymal transition and collective behavior of NC cells and propose further stops at which the NC train might be calling in the near future.
Allergies and Diabetes as Risk Factors for Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever: Results of a Case Control Study

Background The physiopathology of dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF), a severe form of Dengue Fever, is poorly understood. We are unable to identify patients likely to progress to DHF for closer monitoring and early intervention during epidemics, so most cases are sent home. This study explored whether patients with selected co-morbidities are at higher risk of developing DHF. Methods A matched case-control study was conducted in a dengue sero-positive population in two Brazilian cities. For each case of DHF, 7 sero-positive controls were selected. Cases and controls were interviewed and information collected on demographic and socio-economic status, reported co-morbidities (diabetes, hypertension, allergy) and use of medication. Conditional logistic regression was used to calculate the strength of the association between the co-morbidities and occurrence of DHF. Results 170 cases of DHF and 1,175 controls were included. Significant associations were found between DHF and white ethnicity (OR = 4.70; 2.17–10.20), high income (OR = 6.84; 4.09–11.43), high education (OR = 4.67; 2.35–9.27), reported diabetes (OR = 2.75; 1.12–6.73) and reported allergy treated with steroids (OR = 2.94; 1.01–8.54). Black individuals who reported being treated for hypertension had 13 times higher risk of DHF then black individuals reporting no hypertension. Conclusions This is the first study to find an association between DHF and diabetes, allergy and hypertension. Given the high case fatality rate of DHF (1–5%), we believe that the evidence produced in this study, when confirmed in other studies, suggests that screening criteria might be used to identify adult patients at a greater risk of developing DHF with a recommendation that they remain under observation and monitoring in hospital.
OPTICAL DISPERSION TECHNIQUES APPLICATION IN PHASED ARRAY ANTENNA BEAM STEERING

The paper presents an optoelectronic system for antenna beam control. Dispersion technique has been applied to build variable delay lines for wide bandwidth microwave signals. Optoelectronic beam scanning system configuration and measurements results have been presented. Key-Words: antenna, fibre optic, beam forming, optoelectronics, laser.
Health Care Utilization and Expenditures of Homeless Family Members Before and After Emergency Housing.

OBJECTIVES To describe longitudinal health service utilization and expenditures for homeless family members before and after entering an emergency shelter. METHODS We linked Massachusetts emergency housing assistance data with Medicaid claims between July 2008 and June 2015, constructing episodes of health care 12 months before and 12 months after families entered a shelter. We modeled emergency department visits, hospital admissions, and expenditures over the 24-month period separately for children and adults. RESULTS Emergency department visits, hospital admissions, and expenditures rose steadily before shelter entry and declined gradually afterward, ending, in most cases, near the starting point. Infants, pregnant women, and individuals with depression, anxiety, or substance use disorder had significantly higher rates of all outcomes. Many children's emergency department visits were potentially preventable. CONCLUSIONS Increased service utilization and expenditures begin months before families become homeless and are potentially preventable with early intervention. Infants are at greater risk. Public Health Implications. Early identification and intervention to prevent homeless episodes, focusing on family members with behavioral health disorders, who are pregnant, or who have young children, may save money and improve family health.
Unusual case of IgE multiple myeloma: case report

Plasma cell myeloma (PCM) comprises 10-15% of all hematopoietic neoplasms. The disease shows a male predominance with a median age of diagnosis of 70 years. Clinically, patients are either symptomatic or asymptomatic upon presentation. Symptomatic patients present with signs of end-organ damage, such as hypercalcemia, renal insufficiency, anemia, and lytic bone lesions with serum and urine studies showing elevated M-protein levels [1]. PCM demonstrates disseminated bone marrow involvement by a clonal plasma cell infiltrate. IgG PCM represents 70% of cases followed by IgA. While IgD or IgE PCM has been reported, these cases are rarely seen, with less than 50 cases of IgE PCM reported in current literature.
Prize-collecting set multicovering with submodular pricing

We consider a ground set E and a submodular function f¯:2E→R acting on it. We first propose a “set multicovering” problem in which the value (price) of any S⊆E is f¯(S). We show that the linear program (LP) of this problem can be directly solved by applying a submodular function minimization (SFM) algorithm on the dual LP. However, the main results of this study concern prize-collecting multicovering with submodular pricing, that is, a more general and more difficult “multicovering” problem in which elements can be left uncovered by paying a penalty. We formulate it as a large-scale LP (with 2|E| variables representing all subsets of E) that could be tackled by column generation (CG; for a CG algorithm for “set-covering” problems with submodular pricing). However, we do not solve this large-scale LP by CG, but we solve it in polynomial time by exploiting its integrality properties. More exactly, after appropriate restructuring, the dual LP can be transformed into an LP that has been thoroughly studied (as a primal) in the SFM theory. Solving this LP reduces to optimizing a strong map of O(n) submodular functions. For this, we use the Fleischer–Iwata framework that optimizes all these O(n) functions within the same asymptotic running time as solving a single SFM, that is, in O(n7γ+n8), where n=|E| and γ is the complexity of one submodular evaluation. Besides solving the problem, the proposed approach can be useful to (a) simultaneously find the best solution of up to O(n5) functions under strong map relations in O(n8γ+n9) time, (b) perform sensitivity analysis in very short time (even at no extra cost), and (c) reveal combinatorial insight into the primal–dual optimal solutions. We present several potential applications throughout the paper, from production planning to combinatorial auctions.
Adaptively Brokering Continuous Queries for Exploiting Streams

This paper introduces an approach for adaptively brokering queries for exploiting streams produced and consumed by devices with limited computing and storage capacities. Such devices can be mobile and static and they can build networks for exploiting streams by evaluating queries in a collaborative way. Query brokering strategies are based on the notion of relevance which depends on application requirements and execution contexts used to associate priority to queries and streams. Since query brokering can be done in dynamic environments, relevance can change and thus brokering strategies can be dynamically adapted. The paper illustrates the feasibility of the approach by showing how it can be customized for three different application scenarios: a system for observing industrial environments, a system to share events (e.g., accidents,available parking spaces, emergency vehicles) in a vehicular network, and a P2P application to compare prices of products in different stores.
AB0259 Clinical management of seronegative and seropositive rheumatoid arthritis: a comparative study

Background Both rheumatoid factor (RF) and anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibody (ACPA) are associated with poor radiologic outcomes in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). In general, RA patients positive for RF or ACPA (SPRA) are considered to manifest an aggressive disease course compared with seronegative RA patients (SNRA). However, the relationship between seropositivity and measures of disease severity other than radiologic outcome is disputed. Objectives In this study, we sought to compare the clinical presentations and treatment outcomes of SNRA and SPRA patients. Methods A total of 241 patients diagnosed with DMARD-naïve RA under either 1987 American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria or 2010 ACR/European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) criteria were identified (40 with SNRA and 201 with SPRA). We investigated the disease activity measures including ESR, CRP, patient VAS, 28 tender/swollen joint count (28 TJC, 28 SJC) and DAS28 as well as radiologic outcomes at baseline, 1 and 2 years after conventional treatment with DMARD. Results Age, sex and disease duration were similar between SNRA and SPRA. However, the baseline 28 TJC (4.7±2.9 vs. 3.3±2.7, p=0.004), 28 SJC (4.3±3.0 vs. 2.9±2.3, p=0.001) and DAS28 (5.1±1.0 vs. 4.7±1.0, p=0.043) components were significantly higher in SNRA than in SPRA. Over 2 years of similar treatment with DMARDs, all disease activity measures significantly improved in both groups. Notably, ΔDAS28 from baseline at 1 year was significantly greater in SNRA compared with SPRA (−2.9±1.2 vs. −2.2±1.8, p=0.002). Radiologic outcomes at baseline and at 1- or 2 year follow-up were similar between the 2 groups Conclusions SNRA patients manifested more active disease at baseline, but showed a better response to treatment compared with SPRA. SNRA does not appear to be a benign subtype of RA Disclosure of Interest None declared
Minimization of Expected Distortion with Layer-Selective Relaying of Two-Layer Superposition Coding

This paper considers a relay system using two-layer superposition coding to minimize the expected distortion of a Gaussian source at the destination node. For the system, we propose two types of layer- selective relaying based on the local decoding result at the relay and the decoding result at the destination node fed back to the relay. One type of the proposed scheme uses decode-and-forward (DF) in the design of the relay signals, while the other type uses both DF and amplify-and-forward (AF). For the proposed scheme, we analyze the outage probabilities and evaluate the expected distortion according to the relay location. The results reveal that the proposed scheme improves the finite SNR performance, in particular when the relay node is closer to the source node than it is to the destination node.
DYNAMIC PROGRAMMING-BASED OPTIMIZATION FOR AUDIO-VISUAL SKIMS

To enable a viewer to understand the original plot by just watching a condensed video, a successful video summarization system should yield a summary that preserves both content highlights and information coverage. Content highlights include a set of diverse concept patterns, each of which corresponds to semantically similar video shots and video scenes, each of which represents a sequence of highly related and temporally adjacent shots. Decent information coverage helps to eliminate the distant jump between two nearby shots in the summary. In this paper, we propose an efficient Dynamic Programming algorithm to select salient video shots as well as balance the two above criteria in a global optimization framework. In this framework, a saliency tuning method is proposed to fuse information from multimodal (visualaural-motion) features through hierarchical (scene, concept pattern, shot and sub-shot) structures. From experimental results, the performance of our approach behaves well in informativeness and enjoyability of a video summary.
A Collaborative Group Developing Method of Open Source Software by Mimicking Altruism Behavior of Army Ant

Recently, the developing software project is complex tasks because many projects in developing process are processed parallel and many developers join two or more projects. To improve the efficiency of group developing software, various methods are executed and the analysis of their behaviors is important. The community of the developers are analyzed by using analyzing method of network structure. We develop the simulation system of developing software with altruism behaviors. The system was developed on the basis of developers behaviors of SourceForge.net. In this paper, we observed the community growing process under the agent’s altruism behaviors. This paper reports the efficiency of altruism behavior in the software developing community.
Advances in the design of macroporous polymer scaffolds for potential applications in dentistry

A paradigm shift is taking place in medicine and dentistry from using synthetic implants and tissue grafts to a tissue engineering approach that uses degradable porous three-dimensional (3D) material hydrogels integrated with cells and bioactive factors to regenerate tissues such as dental bone and other oral tissues. Hydrogels have been established as a biomaterial of choice for many years, as they offer diverse properties that make them ideal in regenerative medicine, including dental applications. Being highly biocompatible and similar to native extracellular matrix, hydrogels have emerged as ideal candidates in the design of 3D scaffolds for tissue regeneration and drug delivery applications. However, precise control over hydrogel properties, such as porosity, pore size, and pore interconnectivity, remains a challenge. Traditional techniques for creating conventional crosslinked polymers have demonstrated limited success in the formation of hydrogels with large pore size, thus limiting cellular infiltration, tissue ingrowth, vascularization, and matrix mineralization (in the case of bone) of tissue-engineered constructs. Emerging technologies have demonstrated the ability to control microarchitectural features in hydrogels such as the creation of large pore size, porosity, and pore interconnectivity, thus allowing the creation of engineered hydrogel scaffolds with a structure and function closely mimicking native tissues. In this review, we explore the various technologies available for the preparation of macroporous scaffolds and their potential applications.
Leaf development in Lolium temulentum L.: photosynthesis in relation to growth and senescence

summary Length, area, weight and concentrations of pigment were measured from just after emergence until senescence of the fourth leaf of Lolium temulentum L. seedlings grown in nutrient solution in a controlled environment. At the same time the progress of photosynthesis, respiration and carbon contents of the leaf were recorded. A new approach to calculating photosynthesis indices for grasses was developed, based on logistic curves fitted to leaf lengths. Dry weight and photosynthetic rates per unit area were greatest in young leaves. Subsequently photosynthetic capacity at light saturation declined, as did photosynthetic rates at the light incident on the leaf, although the decrease was less pronounced in the latter case. Dry weight per leaf remained fairly constant once full expansion was reached, with perhaps a slight rise in the oldest leaves. The photosynthesis and carbon content data were combined to calculate the carbon balance of leaf 4, with respect both to the atmosphere and to the rest of the plant. Net gas exchange became positive about 7 d before full leaf expansion. Leaf weight continued to increase so that the carbon balance with the rest of the plant did not become positive until just after final leaf size had been attained. These results are discussed in relation to the likely contribution of the various components of the balance to plant productivity.
Calibrated imputation of numerical data under linear edit restrictions

A common problem faced by statistical offices is that data may be missing from collected data sets. The typical way to overcome this problem is to impute the missing data. The problem of imputing missing data is complicated by the fact that statistical data often have to satisfy certain edit rules and that values of variables sometimes have to sum up to known totals. Standard imputation methods for numerical data as described in the literature generally do not take such edit rules and totals into account. In the paper we describe algorithms for imputation of missing numerical data that do take edit restrictions into account and that ensure that sums are calibrated to known totals. The methods sequentially impute the missing data, i.e. the variables with missing values are imputed one by one. To assess the performance of the imputation methods a simulation study is carried out as well as an evaluation study based on a real dataset.
Early Postoperative Complications of Peritoneal Dialysis Catheter Surgery Conducted by Nephrologists: A Single-Center Experience Over an Eight-Year Period.

The results of several recent studies indicate that the practice of peritoneal dialysis catheter (PDC) insertion by nephrologists is safe. However, few studies have addressed the important issue of safety in surgeries related to PD, including PDC removal and other types of surgery. In the present study, we aimed to verify whether the incidence of early postoperative complications for surgical procedures related to PD and performed by nephrologists meets the audit standards of clinical practice guidelines for peritoneal access.Between April 2008 and July 2016 at our hospital, 282 patients underwent various types of PD-related surgery conducted by 17 nephrologists. The surgery types were the Moncrief-Popovich technique (n = 74), PDC exteriorization (n = 62), conventional laparotomy insertion (n = 29), PDC removal (n = 70), partial replacement (n = 32), unroofing or cuff shaving (n = 7), and others (n = 8). Bowel perforation and significant hemorrhage did not occur at the time of PDC insertion and removal. Although peritonitis was not evident, exit-site and tunnel infection within 2 weeks of PDC insertion by conventional laparotomy or exteriorization after the Moncrief-Popovich technique occurred in 3 of 91 patients (3.3%). The PDC malfunctioned in 2 of 103 patients (1.9%) after the Moncrief-Popovich technique because of PDC occlusion with a fibrin plug. Dialysate leaks occurred in 2 of 103 patients (1.9%). Partial replacement and unroofing or cuff shaving for refractory PDC infection and other type of surgeries were not associated with serious complications.The incidence of complications after surgery related to PD was low at our institution. The incidences of complications met the audit standards in the guidelines, indicating that surgery by nephrologists is safe and effective.
Embodied pain in fibromyalgia: Disturbed somatorepresentations and increased plasticity of the body schema

Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) is a highly prevalent, chronic musculoskeletal condition characterized by widespread pain and evoked pain at tender points. This study evaluated various aspects of body awareness in a sample of 14 women with FMS and 13 healthy controls, such as plasticity of the body schema, body esteem, and interoceptive awareness. To this end, the Rubber Hand Illusion (RHI), the Body Esteem Scale (BES), and the Body Perception Questionnaire (BPQ) were used, respectively. Consistent with increased plasticity of the body schema, FMS patients scored higher, with large or very large effect sizes, across all three domains evaluated in the RHI paradigm, namely proprioceptive drift and perceived ownership and motor control over the rubber hand. Scores on all items addressed by the BES were consistently lower among FMS subjects (2.52, SEM .19 vs 3.89, SEM .16, respectively, p < .01, Cohen’s d = .38-.66). In the FMS sample, BES scores assigned to most painful regions also were lower than those assigned to the remaining body sites (1.58, SEM .19 vs 2.87, SEM .18, respectively, p < .01). Significantly higher scores (p < .01, Cohen’s d = .51-.87) were found in the FMS sample across awareness (3.57 SEM .15 vs 1.87 SEM .11), stress response (3.76 SEM .11 vs 1.78 SEM .11), autonomic nervous system reactivity (2.59 SEM .17 vs 1.35 SEM .07), and stress style 2 (2.73 SEM .27 vs 1.13 SEM .04) subscales of the BPQ. Intensity of ongoing clinical pain was found to be strongly correlated with interoceptive awareness (r = .75, p = .002). The results suggest a disturbed embodiment in FMS, characterized by instability of the body schema, negatively biased cognitions regarding one’s own body, and increased vigilance to internal bodily cues. These manifestations may be interpreted as related with the inability of incoming sensory inputs to adequately update negatively biased off-line somatorepresentations stored as long-term memory.