Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
International consensus on (ICON) pediatric asthma

Asthma is the most common chronic lower respiratory disease in childhood throughout the world. Several guidelines and/or consensus documents are available to support medical decisions on pediatric asthma. Although there is no doubt that the use of common systematic approaches for management can considerably improve outcomes, dissemination and implementation of these are still major challenges. Consequently, the International Collaboration in Asthma, Allergy and Immunology (iCAALL), recently formed by the EAACI, AAAAI, ACAAI, and WAO, has decided to propose an International Consensus on (ICON) Pediatric Asthma. The purpose of this document is to highlight the key messages that are common to many of the existing guidelines, while critically reviewing and commenting on any differences, thus providing a concise reference. The principles of pediatric asthma management are generally accepted. Overall, the treatment goal is disease control. To achieve this, patients and their parents should be educated to optimally manage the disease, in collaboration with healthcare professionals. Identification and avoidance of triggers is also of significant importance. Assessment and monitoring should be performed regularly to re‐evaluate and fine‐tune treatment. Pharmacotherapy is the cornerstone of treatment. The optimal use of medication can, in most cases, help patients control symptoms and reduce the risk for future morbidity. The management of exacerbations is a major consideration, independent of chronic treatment. There is a trend toward considering phenotype‐specific treatment choices; however, this goal has not yet been achieved.
Inhibition of Major Histocompatibility Complex II Expression and Antigen Processing in Murine Alveolar Macrophages by Mycobacterium bovis BCG and the 19-Kilodalton Mycobacterial Lipoprotein

ABSTRACT Alveolar macrophages constitute a primary defense against Mycobacterium tuberculosis, but they are unable to control M. tuberculosis without acquired T-cell immunity. This study determined the antigen-presenting cell function of murine alveolar macrophages and the ability of the model mycobacterium, Mycobacterium bovis BCG, to modulate it. The majority (80 to 85%) of alveolar macrophages expressed both CD80 (B7.1) and CD11c, and 20 to 30% coexpressed major histocompatibility complex II (MHC-II). Gamma interferon (IFN-γ) enhanced MHC-II but not B7.1 expression. Naive or IFN-γ-treated alveolar macrophages did not express CD86 (B7.2), CD11b, Mac-3, CD40, or F4/80. M. bovis BCG and the 19-kDa mycobacterial lipoprotein inhibited IFN-γ-regulated MHC-II expression on alveolar macrophages, and inhibition was dependent on Toll-like receptor 2. The inhibition of MHC-II expression by the 19-kDa lipoprotein was associated with decreased presentation of soluble antigen to T cells. Thus, susceptibility to tuberculosis may result from the ability of mycobacteria to interfere with MHC-II expression and antigen presentation by alveolar macrophages.
Immunoregulatory Effects of Bone Marrow-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells in the Nasal Polyp Microenvironment

Nasal polyposis is a severe, chronic inflammatory condition of the paranasal sinuses and is frequently associated with asthma and aspirin sensitivity. Mesenchymal stem cells exhibit a potent immunosuppressive effect in several inflammatory conditions, and their role in nasal polyposis remains little explored. Hence, we investigated whether bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells could modulate cell phenotype in the nasal polyp milieu. After coculture with mesenchymal stem cells, the frequency of these inflammatory cells was found to decrease. Furthermore, mesenchymal stem cells promoted strong inhibition of CD4+ and CD8+ T cell proliferation, increased the frequency of CD4+CD25+Foxp3 T cells, and changed the global cytokine profile from an inflammatory to an anti-inflammatory response. We believe that mesenchymal stem cells may be a very useful adjunct for investigation of the inflammatory process in nasal polyposis, contributing to better understanding of the inflammatory course of this condition.
Fuzzy logic in control: truck backer-upper problem revisited

The truck backer-upper problem, considered an acknowledged benchmark in nonlinear system identification, is an excellent test-bed for fuzzy control systems. A fuzzy controller, formulated on the basis of human understanding of the process or identified from measured control actions, can be regarded as an emulator of human operator. Controller design, however, may become difficult, especially if the number of state variables is large. In the paper, a supervisory control system is proposed that reduces the complexity of the control problem and enhances control. This is demonstrated with backing simulations in comparison with other fuzzy control techniques.
Fixed points of abelian actions on S2

Abstract We prove that if ${\mathcal F}$ is a finitely generated abelian group of orientation preserving C1 diffeomorphisms of $\mathbb {R}^2$ which leaves invariant a compact set then there is a common fixed point for all elements of ${\mathcal F}$. We also show that if ${\mathcal F}$ is any abelian subgroup of orientation preserving C1 diffeomorphisms of S2 then there is a common fixed point for all elements of a subgroup of ${\mathcal F}$ with index at most two.
Gender- und geschlechtsspezifische Aspekte in der psychiatrischen und psychotherapeutischen Forschung: eine bibliometrische Analyse

Zusammenfassung. Inwiefern spiegeln sich geschlechtsspezifische Aspekte in der aktuellen psychiatrisch-psychotherapeutischen Forschung in Deutschland wider? Analyse aller in den Jahren 2009 und 2010 in den Zeitschriften Psychotherapeut, Psychiatrische Praxis sowie Psychotherapie · Psychosomatik · Medizinische Psychologie erschienenen Originalarbeiten. In 16 der 191 Originalarbeiten wurden geschlechtsspezifische Fragestellungen als primarer Forschungsgegenstand untersucht. Nur 3 davon befassten sich mit einer geschlechtsspezifischen/Gender-Analyse in die beide Geschlechter einbezogen wurden. Wahrend insgesamt die Zahl der Erstautoren und Erst­autorinnen nahezu gleich war, wurden mehr als 2 Drittel (69%) der Arbeiten mit geschlechtspezifischem Forschungsgegenstand von Frauen in Erstautorenschaft publiziert. In nur einem Viertel (25%) aller Originalarbeiten wurde das Geschlecht als soziodemographische Variable in die Auswertung einbezogen. Die Betrachtung beider Geschlechter und ihrer Spezifika erweist sich .
Identifying communicator roles in twitter

Twitter has redefined the way social activities can be coordinated; used for mobilizing people during natural disasters, studying health epidemics, and recently, as a communication platform during social and political change. As a large scale system, the volume of data transmitted per day presents Twitter users with a problem: how can valuable content be distilled from the back chatter, how can the providers of valuable information be promoted, and ultimately how can influential individuals be identified? To tackle this, we have developed a model based upon the Twitter message exchange which enables us to analyze conversations around specific topics and identify key players in a conversation. A working implementation of the model helps categorize Twitter users by specific roles based on their dynamic communication behavior rather than an analysis of their static friendship network. This provides a method of identifying users who are potentially producers or distributers of valuable knowledge.
Randomized Near Neighbor Graphs, Giant Components, and Applications in Data Science

If we pick $n$ random points uniformly in $[0,1]^d$ and connect each point to its $k-$nearest neighbors, then it is well known that there exists a giant connected component with high probability. We prove that in $[0,1]^d$ it suffices to connect every point to $ c_{d,1} \log{\log{n}}$ points chosen randomly among its $ c_{d,2} \log{n}-$nearest neighbors to ensure a giant component of size $n - o(n)$ with high probability. This construction yields a much sparser random graph with $\sim n \log\log{n}$ instead of $\sim n \log{n}$ edges that has comparable connectivity properties. This result has nontrivial implications for problems in data science where an affinity matrix is constructed: instead of picking the $k-$nearest neighbors, one can often pick $k' \ll k$ random points out of the $k-$nearest neighbors without sacrificing efficiency. This can massively simplify and accelerate computation, we illustrate this with several numerical examples.
Genetic algorithm with adaptive immigrants for dynamic flight path planning

Dynamic flight path planning is an important part of UAV mission planning, and it turns out to be a dynamic optimization problem. In this paper, a dynamic flight path planning model is built up. We propose an adaptive immigrant scheme genetic algorithm for this path planning problem. This algorithm could combine the random immigrant scheme and elitism-based immigrant scheme adaptively according to the number of feasible candidate solutions in the current population, and improve the diversity and convergence of GAs. Simulation studies show that the algorithm has good performance in finding near-optimal, obstacles-free paths in dynamically changing environments.
Mass Loss during Late Stellar Evolution

Extensive post-main sequence mass loss occurs for low and intermediate mass stars on the asymptotic giant branch (AGB), and for the higher mass stars during their red supergiant evolution. These winds aaect the evolution of the stars profoundly, as well as the enrichment of the interstellar medium with heavy elements and grain particles. The mass loss on the AGB is the by far the most well studied, but the basic processes are still not understood or cannot be described in a proper quantitative way, e.g., the mass loss mechanism itself. These objects also provide us with fascinating systems, in which intricate interplays between various physical and chemical processes take place, and their relative simplicity in terms of geometry, density distribution, and kinematics makes them excellent astrophysical laboratories. In this review I will concentrate on the aspects of AGB mass loss which are of particular interest in connection with the ALMA. Stars enter the scene, at least on an average, according to a mass spectrum in the form of a power-law dN=dM / M ? , where depends on the mass range 2.3 for M>0.5 M , Scalo (1998)], with a low mass cut-oo at 0.08M and an upper mass limit at 100 M. The stars will all evolve through the main sequence, and a phase of central He-burning (provided that the mass is above 0.5M), but the subsequent evolution depends strongly on the mass. There is an important dividing line at 6{9M the exact value depends on the treatment of convection, Bressan et al. (1993)]. Less massive stars will develop an electron-degenerate core, and will hence not go through an additional central nuclear-burning unless a gravitational collapse ensues. The eeect of an intense surface mass loss will prevent the latter from happening to stars with masses up to 8M. Stars more massive than about 6{9 M will go through additional central nuclear-burning stages. Thus, the nal evolutionary stellar stage of stars slightly less massive than 10 M (and M >0.5 M) will be that of red giants on the asymptotic giant branch (AGB), while the more massive ones will become supergiants. The nal stellar remnant will be a white dwarf and a neutron star/black hole, respectively. This means that more than 95% of all stars which have left the main sequence and ended their lives as stars during a Hubble time have done so after the AGB evolution. In this …
High Natural Aerosol Loading over Boreal Forests

Aerosols play a key role in the radiation balance of the atmosphere. Here, we present evidence that the European boreal region is a substantial source of both aerosol mass and aerosol number. The investigation supplies a straightforward relation between emissions of monoterpenes and gas-to-particle formation over regions substantially lacking in anthropogenic aerosol sources. Our results show that the forest provides an aerosol population of 1000 to 2000 particles of climatically active sizes per cubic centimeter during the late spring to early fall period. This has important implications for radiation budget estimates and relevancy for the evaluation of feedback loops believed to determine our future climate.
Highly Specific Detection of Myostatin Prodomain by an Immunoradiometric Sandwich Assay in Serum of Healthy Individuals and Patients

Background Myostatin is a muscle derived factor that functions as a negative regulator of skeletal muscle growth. Induction of myostatin expression was observed in rodent models of muscle wasting and in cachectic patients with cancer or pulmonary disease. Therefore, there is an increasing interest to use serum myostatin as a biomarker. Methods We established an immunoradiometric sandwich assay (IRMA), which uses a commercially available chicken polyclonal, affinity purified antibody directed against human myostatin prodomain. We determined the serum concentrations of myostatin prodomain in 249 healthy individuals as well as 169 patients with heart failure, 53 patients with cancer and 44 patients with chronic pulmonary disease. Results The IRMA had a detection limit of 0.7ng/ml, an intraassay imprecision of ≤14.1% and an interassay imprecision of ≤ 18.9%. The specificity of our assay was demonstrated by size exclusion chromatography, detection of myostatin by Western-blotting and a SMAD-dependent transcriptional-reporter assay in the signal-rich serum fractions, as well as lack of interference by unspecific substances like albumin, hemoglobin or lipids. Myostatin prodomain was stable at room temperature and resistant to freeze-thaw cycles. Apparently healthy individuals over the age of 55 had a median myostatin prodomain serum concentration of 3.9ng/ml (25th-75th percentiles, 2-7ng/ml) and we could not detect increased levels in patients with stable chronic heart failure or cancer related weight loss. In contrast, we found strongly elevated concentrations of myostatin prodomain (median 26.9ng/ml, 25th-75th percentiles, 7-100ng/ml) in the serum of underweight patients with chronic pulmonary disease. Conclusions We established a highly specific IRMA for the quantification of myostatin prodomain concentration in human serum. Our assay could be useful to study myostatin as a biomarker for example in patients with chronic pulmonary disease, as we detected highly elevated myostatin prodomain serum levels in underweight individuals of this group.
Online client-server load balancing without global information

We consider distributed online algorithms for maximizing through-put in a network of clients and servers, modeled as a bipartite graph. Unlike most prior work on online load balancing, we do not assume centralized control and seek algorithms and lower bounds for decentralized algorithms in which each participant has only local knowledge about the state of itself and its neighbors. Our problem can be seen as analogous to the recent work on oblivious routing in [8, 14, 19], but with the objective of maximizing through-put rather than minimizing congestion. In contrast to that work, we prove a strong lower bound (polynomial in n, the size of the graph) on the competitive ratio of any oblivious algorithm. This is accompanied by simple algorithms achieving upper bounds which are tight in terms of k, the maximum throughput achievable by an omniscient algorithm. Finally, we examine a restricted model in which clients, upon becoming active, must remain so for at least log(n) time steps. In contrast to the primarily negative results in the oblivious case, here we present an algorithm which is constant-competitive. Our lower bounds justify the intuition, implicit in earlier work on the subject [2], that some such restriction (i.e. requiring some stability in the demand pattern over time) is necessary in order to achieve a constant --- or even polylogarithmic --- competitive ratio.
Mesenchymal Stem Cells from Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis Display Impaired Function in Inhibiting Th17 Cells

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) possess multipotent and immunomodulatory properties and are suggested to be involved in the pathogenesis of immune-related diseases. This study explored the function of bone marrow MSCs from rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients, focusing on immunomodulatory effects. RA MSCs showed decreased proliferative activity and aberrant migration capacity. No significant differences were observed in cytokine profiles between RA and control MSCs. The effects of RA MSCs on proliferation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and distribution of specific CD4+ T cell subtypes (Th17, Treg, and Tfh cells) were investigated. RA MSCs appeared to be indistinguishable from controls in suppressing PBMC proliferation, decreasing the proportion of Tfh cells, and inducing the polarization of Treg cells. However, the capacity to inhibit Th17 cell polarization was impaired in RA MSCs, which was related to the low expression of CCL2 in RA MSCs after coculture with CD4+ T cells. These findings indicated that RA MSCs display defects in several important biological activities, especially the capacity to inhibit Th17 cell polarization. These functionally impaired MSCs may contribute to the development of RA disease.
Replication fork collisions cause pathological chromosomal amplification in cells lacking RecG DNA translocase

Duplication and transmission of chromosomes require precise control of chromosome replication and segregation. Here we present evidence that RecG is a major factor influencing these processes in bacteria. We show that the extensive DnaA‐independent stable DNA replication observed without RecG can lead to replication of any area of the chromosome. This replication is further elevated following irradiation with UV light and appears to be perpetuated by secondary events that continue long after the elimination of UV lesions. The resulting pathological cascade is associated with an increased number of replication forks traversing the chromosome, sometimes with extensive regional amplification of the chromosome, and with the accumulation of highly branched DNA intermediates containing few Holliday junctions. We propose that the cascade is triggered by replication fork collisions that generate 3′ single‐strand DNA flaps, providing sites for PriA to initiate re‐replication of the DNA and thus to generate linear duplexes that provoke recombination, allowing priming of even further replication. Our results shed light on why termination of replication in bacteria is normally limited to a single encounter of two forks and carefully orchestrated within a restricted area, and explain how a system of multiple forks and random termination can operate in eukaryotes.
Mobile phone technologies improve adherence to antiretroviral treatment in a resource-limited setting: a randomized controlled trial of text message reminders

Objective:There is limited evidence on whether growing mobile phone availability in sub-Saharan Africa can be used to promote high adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART). This study tested the efficacy of short message service (SMS) reminders on adherence to ART among patients attending a rural clinic in Kenya. Design:A randomized controlled trial of four SMS reminder interventions with 48 weeks of follow-up. Methods:Four hundred and thirty-one adult patients who had initiated ART within 3 months were enrolled and randomly assigned to a control group or one of the four intervention groups. Participants in the intervention groups received SMS reminders that were either short or long and sent at a daily or weekly frequency. Adherence was measured using the medication event monitoring system. The primary outcome was whether adherence exceeded 90% during each 12-week period of analysis and the 48-week study period. The secondary outcome was whether there were treatment interruptions lasting at least 48 h. Results:In intention-to-treat analysis, 53% of participants receiving weekly SMS reminders achieved adherence of at least 90% during the 48 weeks of the study, compared with 40% of participants in the control group (P = 0.03). Participants in groups receiving weekly reminders were also significantly less likely to experience treatment interruptions exceeding 48 h during the 48-week follow-up period than participants in the control group (81 vs. 90%, P = 0.03). Conclusion:These results suggest that SMS reminders may be an important tool to achieve optimal treatment response in resource-limited settings.
Snapshot Identification of Gamma-Ray Burst Optical Afterglows

Gamma-ray burst afterglows can be identified in single-epoch observations using three or more optical filters. This method relies on color measurements to distinguish the power-law spectrum of an afterglow from the curved spectra of stars. Observations in a fourth filter will further distinguish between afterglows and most galaxies up to redshifts z ≈ 1. Many afterglows can also be identified with fewer filters using ultraviolet-excess, infrared-excess, or Lyman break techniques. By allowing faster identification of gamma-ray burst afterglows, these color methods will increase the fraction of bursts for which optical spectroscopy and other narrow-field observations can be obtained. Because quasar colors can match those of afterglows, the maximum error box size where an unambiguous identification can be expected is set by the flux limit of the afterglow search and the quasar number-flux relation. For currently typical error boxes (10-100 arcmin2), little contamination is expected at magnitudes R ≲ 21.5 ± 0.5. Archival data demonstrate that the afterglow of GRB 000301C could have been identified using this method. In addition to finding gamma-ray burst counterparts, this method will have applications in "orphan afterglow" searches used to constrain gamma-ray burst collimation.
Developing wisdom and moral duty in management

Purpose – The primary purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that the writings of Aristotle and Cicero can be used to as a conceptual tool to promote an understanding of wisdom, moral duty, and related subjects in respect to contemporary business management practice.Design/methodology/approach – The methodology comprised a critical reading and analysis of Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics and Cicero's De Officiis (On Duties). The approach combines both historical and philosophical research. An earlier version of the paper was presented to a group of early/middle managers, and then to a group of more senior/experienced managers.Findings – Both groups supported the idea that the article was appropriate for highlighting moral issues in contemporary business management practice.Research limitations/implications – A limitation was dealing with the amount of material that Aristotle and Cicero produced. A secondary limitation was translating the original Greek and Latin (notwithstanding the Loeb Classical Library.
Consumer Memory and Mental Categoriztation in International Travel Destination Decision Making

In this paper research we analyze consumer judgments and associations of retrievals from their long-term memories of competing international service alternatives. We hypothesize and find strong positive links between mental categories with affective, cognitive and association judgments about competing service alternatives. The study is set within the context of international consumer holiday/vacation destination behavior. Based on the results of the study, including tracking studies when planning international marketing strategies are suggested to assess changes in how consumers categorize competing international purchase alternatives in their long-term and working memories