Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Evolving Classification of Pulmonary Hypertension.

CONTEXT - An explosion of information on pulmonary hypertension has occurred during the past few decades. The perception of this disease has shifted from purely clinical to incorporate new knowledge of the underlying pathology. This transfer has occurred in light of advancements in pathophysiology, histology, and molecular medical diagnostics. OBJECTIVES - To update readers about the evolving understanding of the etiology and pathogenesis of pulmonary hypertension and to demonstrate how pathology has shaped the current classification. DATA SOURCES - Information presented at the 5 World Symposia on pulmonary hypertension held since 1973, with the last meeting occurring in 2013, was used in this review. CONCLUSIONS - Pulmonary hypertension represents a heterogeneous group of disorders that are differentiated based on differences in clinical, hemodynamic, and histopathologic features. Early concepts of pulmonary hypertension were largely influenced by pharmacotherapy, hemodynamic function, and clinical presentation of the disease. The initial nomenclature for pulmonary hypertension segregated the clinical classifications from pathologic subtypes. Major restructuring of this disease classification occurred between the first and second symposia, which was the first to unite clinical and pathologic information in the categorization scheme. Additional changes were introduced in subsequent meetings, particularly between the third and fourth World Symposia meetings, when additional pathophysiologic information was gained. Discoveries in molecular diagnostics significantly progressed the understanding of idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension. Continued advancements in imaging modalities, mechanistic pathogenicity, and molecular biomarkers will enable physicians to define pulmonary hypertension phenotypes based on the pathobiology and allow for treatment customization.
Privacy risks in named data networking: what is the cost of performance?

Named Data Networking architectures have been proposed to improve various shortcomings of the current Internet architecture. A key part of these proposals is the capability of caching arbitrary content in arbitrary network locations. While caching has the potential to improve network performance, the data stored in caches can be seen as transient traces of past communication that attackers can exploit to compromise the users' privacy. With this editorial note, we aim to raise awareness of privacy attacks as an intrinsic and relevant issue in Named Data Networking architectures. Countermeasures against privacy attacks are subject to a trade-off between performance and privacy. We discuss several approaches to countermeasures representing different incarnations of this tradeoff, along with open issues to be looked at by the research community.
MADS-domain transcription factors and the floral quartet model of flower development: linking plant development and evolution

The floral quartet model of floral organ specification poses that different tetramers of MIKC-type MADS-domain transcription factors control gene expression and hence the identity of floral organs during development. Here, we provide a brief history of the floral quartet model and review several lines of recent evidence that support the model. We also describe how the model has been used in contemporary developmental and evolutionary biology to shed light on enigmatic topics such as the origin of land and flowering plants. Finally, we suggest a novel hypothesis describing how floral quartet-like complexes may interact with chromatin during target gene activation and repression. Summary: This Review discusses recent evidence supporting the floral quartet model and suggests a novel hypothesis that explains how floral quartet-like complexes may interact with chromatin.
Middle East Conflict

EU Foreign Policymaking and the Middle East ConflictThe Statehood of PalestineMiddle Eastern ConflictThe Middle East ConflictSamson Blinded: A Machiavellian Perspective on the Middle East ConflictWater Resources and Conflict in the Middle EastThe Middle East ConflictCulture and Conflict in the Middle EastConflict and War in the Middle EastWater In The Middle EastWater and Conflict in the Middle EastConflicts in the Middle East Since 1945Arabs and IsraelisMiddle East ConflictsBordering the Middle EastWar and Conflict in the Middle East and North AfricaConflict in the Middle EastChina and Middle East ConflictsThe Lingering ConflictManaging Water ConflictThe Movement and the Middle EastLogic of Conflict: Making War and Peace in the Middle EastChristians and the Middle East ConflictThe Cold War in the Middle EastMiddle East Conflict: a Tale of Two PeoplesConflict, Democratization, and the Kurds in the Middle EastConflict and Insurgency in the Contemporary Middle EastA War of WordsModern Conflict in the Greater Middle East: A Country-by-Country GuideConflict in World PoliticsEscaping the Conflict TrapNarrating Conflict in the Middle EastConflict and Diplomacy in the Middle EastThe Complete Idiot's Guide to Middle East Conflict, 4th EditionThe Decline of the Arab-Israeli ConflictConflict in the Modern Middle East: An Encyclopedia of Civil War, Revolutions, and Regime ChangeThe Middle East in Turmoil: Conflict, Revolution, and ChangeChristians and the Middle East ConflictThe Other Arab-Israeli ConflictInternational Law and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Subspace identification of continuous-time models using generalized orthonormal bases

The continuous-time subspace identification using state-variable filtering has been investigated for a long time. Due to the simple orthogonal basis functions that were adopted by the existing methods, the identification performance is quite sensitive to the selection of the system-dynamic parameter associated with an orthogonal basis. To cope with this problem, a subspace identification method using generalized orthonormal (Takenaka-Malmquist) basis functions is developed, which has the potential to perform better than the existing state-variable filtering methods since the adopted Takenaka-Malmquist basis has more degree of freedom in selecting the system-dynamic parameters. As a price for the flexibility of the generalized orthonormal bases, the transformed state-space model is time-varying or parameter-varying which cannot be identified using traditional subspace identification methods. To this end, a new subspace identification algorithm is developed by exploiting the structural properties of the time-variant system matrices, which is then validated by numerical simulations.
Surfaces of Low Degree Containing a Canonical Curve Izzet Coskun

In this paper, we generalize a classical theorem of del Pezzo [D] and Fujita [F1] and a recent theorem of Casnati [Ca] about low degree surfaces containing a canonical curve Ccan. Every canonical curve of genus g is contained in a surface of degree less than or equal to 2g− 3. We study canonical curves that are contained in a surface of degree smaller than 2g−3. Fix an integer κ ≥ −1. Our main theorem is that if g > 3κ+12 and (g, κ) 6= (10,−1), then the minimal degree surface S containing Ccan has degree d = g+κ if and only if κ is odd and C is a double cover f : C → B of a curve B of genus κ+3 2 . In this case, S is the image of X = P(f∗KC) under the linear system |OX(1)|. Our methods also apply to curves embedded with complete linear systems of
Optimal Recursive Power Allocation for Energy Harvesting System With Multiple Antennas

In this paper, we investigate the optimal recursive power-allocation policies with energy harvesting wireless nodes equipped with multiple antennas in a fading channel. This optimization problem includes several complex matrices as optimization variables. As a difference, existing optimization theory and methods have been designed to solve these problems over real space. Naturally, the optimization variables have been assumed points in the real space. We proposed a transform approach and designed the algorithms for solving the throughput maximization problem and transmission completion time minimization problem for a multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) system. The algorithms were further extended to solve the throughput maximization problem of a hybrid system with both harvesting energy and grid power. Numerical results illustrated the algorithm steps and significant efficiency of the proposed algorithms. To the best of the authors' knowledge, there are no existing algorithms reported in the open literature to obtain exact solutions to the proposed problems. Significant features of the proposed algorithms are that 1) they provide the exact optimal solutions via efficient finite computation and that 2) optimality of the proposed algorithms is strictly proven.
Reifying Concepts in Description Logics

Practical applications of description logics (DLs) in knowledge-based systems have forced us to introduce the following features which are absent from existing DLs: • allowing a concept to be regarded at the same time as an individual (the instance of some other meta-level concept) • allowing an individual to represent a collection (set) of other individuals. The first extension, called concept reification, is more general and thus can cover the second one too. We argue that the absence of these features from existing DLs is an important reason for the lack of a unified approach to description logics and object-oriented databases. We also show that concept reification cannot be dealt with by the standard DL semantics and propose a slightly modified semantics that takes care of the inherent higher-order features of reification in a first-order setting. A sound and complete inference algorithm for checking consistency in reified ACCOE knowledge bases is subsequently put forward.
Relationship Between Obesity, Hypertension, and Aldosterone Production in Postmenopausal African American Women: A Pilot Study

Increased abdominal obesity is associated with increased cardiovascular risk, especially in African American women. The adipocyte is documented to produce a number of inflammatory factors including the hormone aldosterone. There are very few data documenting aldosterone production from adipocytes of postmenopausal women as well as data demonstrating the effects of angiotensin receptor blockade (ARB) on its production in predominately African American women. The authors hypothesize that increased central adipocyte mass in obese postmenopausal women contributes to increased production of aldosterone that is suppressed with the ARB azilsartan medoxomil. The authors tested this hypothesis in a double‐blind, placebo‐controlled pilot study of 34 hypertensive postmenopausal women (mean age 57.5±7.5 years), 91% of whom were African American. Patients had a mean 24‐hour ambulatory systolic blood pressure of 127±13 mm Hg off any blocker of the renin‐angiotensin system but while taking other antihypertensive medications. The authors further validated aldosterone production in a nested cohort of women using fat cells from a fat pad biopsy. Azilsartan reduced 24‐hour urinary aldosterone by 47.3% from baseline (P=.03), with between‐groups differences in urine aldosterone of −5.3±52.3% placebo vs −47.3±32.9% azilsartan (P=.07) at 6 months. An adrenal cell line treated with adipocyte‐conditioned media from subcutaneous abdominal adipocytes of postmenopausal women (n=3) showed an increase in aldosterone production blocked by an ARB (1948±1297 pg/mL fat alone vs 894±438 pg/mL fat + ARB; P=.022). The authors conclude that aldosterone is produced from subcutaneous adipocytes of obese postmenopausal women. Moreover, use of an ARB significantly reduces aldosterone production within 6 months of use in these women as well as in cells exposed to their adipocytes.
Leishmania in phlebotomid sandflies: VI. Importance of hindgut development in distinguishing between parasites of the Leishmania mexicana and L. braziliensis complexes

In addition to their growth in the midgut and foregut of the sandfly vectors, parasites of the Leishmania braziliensis complex undergo development in the hindgut, where they are predominantly attached to the wall of the pylorus and, to a lesser extent, the ileum. Such development is absent in the life-cycle of members of the Leishmania mexicana complex, which develop only in the midgut and foregut. This difference was maintained in the sandfly Lutzomyia longipalpis experimentally infected with a variety of leishmaniae, some of which have also been studied in their natural vectors. Development in this laboratory-bred insect therefore serves as a quick means of distinguishing between isolates of the mexicana and braziliensis complexes. Subspecies of Leishmania hertigi, from neotropical porcupines, were not found to develop in the hindgut of Lu. longipalpis: for this and other reasons they are removed from the L. braziliensis complex and placed in a group of their own. Leishmania enriettii, of the guinea-pig, similarly failed to develop in the hindgut: this, with additional features of the parasite, supports its continued inclusion in the L. mexicana complex. The significance of hindgut development of certain leishmaniae is discussed, particularly with regard to the evolution of the genus Leishmania.
Integrated low-ripple fast-transient switching power converter with dynamic current compensation and sensor-free quasi-SCB hysteretic control

A low-ripple, fast-transient, switching power converter is presented in this paper. It employs a dynamic current compensation (DCC) technique to enhance load or dynamic voltage scaling (DVS) tracking transient responses. A sensor-free, quasi-single-current-band (quasi-SCB) control is proposed to obviate the use of large-ESR filtering capacitor in conventional hysteretic control, leading to highly reduced output voltage ripples. The converter was designed with a TSMC 0. 35μm CMOS process. Its input voltage can vary from 2.7 to 3.3V while the output can be regulated at any voltage level from 0.5 to 1.8V, at a switching frequency of 500kHz. Compared with its conventional counterpart, the converter achieves 153 times and 15 times speed improvement on load transient and DVS tracking, respectively.
A taxonomy of motives to cite

In this study, we explicate citing behavior in the writing of scientific papers by presenting a taxonomy of motives to cite. The suggested taxonomy consists of four main categories, which are purely descriptive: Argumentation, Social Alignment, Mercantile Alignment, and Data. These categories are divided into a suggested set of subcategories. We argue that the complexities of citing practice show how little can be assumed about actual citing behavior when studying a finished paper. The discussion supports the claim that it might be misleading to treat all citations as equal in quantitative citation analysis.
Effects of current–bed form induced fluid flow on the thermal regime of sediments

Heat transport associated with current–bed form fluid exchange affects biogeochemical and ecological process in a variety of aquatic settings. We simulate turbulent flow over dunes, induced Darcy flow in sediments, and sediment heat transport forced by a diel variation of water column temperature. Heat conduction dominates when the water column current cannot induce rapid fluid exchange. Heat advection becomes important with increasing sediment permeability and/or current velocity, resulting in a complicated space‐time temperature pattern. Weak temperature variations are found beneath dune crests, where water upwells out of the sediments; strong variations are located below dune stoss faces, where water downwells. The relative dominance of heat conduction versus advection is captured by a global Peclet number that depends on dune geometry, and hydrodynamic and thermal properties, including the period of thermal forcing. Thermally induced fluid viscosity variations cause periodic but nonsymmetric changes in fluid flux through the sediments, but do not significantly influence temperature patterns.
Intelligent system for testing of object information state

The observed measuring processes are sampled by a multiplex measuring system based at the adaptive commutation principle. The object state numerical reflecting unit processes non-redundant samples. The numerical procedure makes it possible to yield a concrete number associated with its vector presentation. The information uncertainty numerical coding algorithm and its practical realization have been found. It enables us to perform a current real time object state testing.
Towards optimal placement of phasor measurement units for smart distribution systems

Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs) have potential role in power system monitoring, protection and control. PMUs directly measure and provide synchronized measurements of voltage and current phasors at various system locations. This offer numerous possibilities for ascertaining information related to the state and health of a power system. The aim of an optimal PMU placement is to provide minimal PMU installations to ensure complete observability of a power system. Several methods have been proposed in the past and significant work has been carried out till date to ensure observability of transmission networks. Penetration of new technologies at distribution level raises concern about system operation. These concerns can be addressed by synchrophasor applications. Hence, PMUs play an equally important role at distribution level also. Since, distribution systems are large in size as compared to transmission systems, the algorithms reported may take longer computational time for optimization. Hence, an approach towards optimal PMU placement for distribution system is required. This paper presents a simple and effective algorithm of PMU placement for distribution networks that saves considerable amount of computational time. The proposed algorithm is tested on IEEE-13, 34 and 123 Node Test Feeders and results show that computational time is considerably reduced without significantly affecting the number of PMUs.
On Alleviating Beacon Overhead in Routing Protocols for Urban VANETs

Vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) have been attracting increasing research interests for the past decade. To address the routing problem, many protocols have been proposed in the past several years. Routing protocols for VANETs, mostly based on the ideas of “Geographical Routing” (or geo-routing for short), typically have nodes periodically broadcast one-hop beacon messages to reveal their positions to neighbors. Nevertheless, packet loss and thus deterioration of routing performance in these protocols are anticipated in urban areas due to high density of vehicles in the network. In this paper, we propose two new VANET routing protocols, namely, Routing Protocol with Beacon Control (RPBC) and Routing Protocol with BeaconLess (RPBL), to alleviate packet losses. In RPBC, each vehicle determines whether to transmit a beacon message based on a new beacon control scheme proposed in this paper, which by minimizing redundant beacon messages reduces transmission overhead significantly. On the other hand, RPBL is a beaconless protocol where a node broadcasts a packet to its neighboring nodes and transmits packet via multiple paths to achieve high delivery ratio. Moreover, as packets in geo-routing protocols include the location of the sender, it can be used for routing without heavily relying on beacons. Accordingly, we propose the idea of virtual beacons and use it to further improve our proposed protocols. We conduct comprehensive experiments by simulation to validate our ideas and evaluate the proposed protocols. The simulation results show that our proposals can achieve high delivery ratios, short delays, and small overhead.
Development of a debugger for a concurrent language

The authors discuss issues related to the debugging of concurrent programs. A set of desirable characteristics for a debugger for concurrent languages is deduced from a review of the differences between the debugging of concurrent programs and that of sequential ones. A debugger for concurrent language based upon CSP is then described. The debugger makes it possible to compare a description of the expected program behavior to the actual behaviour. The description of the behavior is given in terms of expressions composed by events and/or assertions on the process state. The developed formalism is able to describe behaviors at various levels of abstraction. Lastly, some guidelines for the implementation of the debugger are given and a detailed example of program debugging is analyzed.
[Clinical significance of preoperative biliary drainage for patients with moderate jaundice: a prospective non-randomized controlled study].

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the preoperative necessity of reducing moderate icterus index (preoperative serum total bilirubin of 171 to 342 mmol/L) in obstructive jaundice patients. METHODS A prospective non- randomized control method was used to divide 105 patients into jaundice-reducing (n = 58) and non-reducing (n = 47) group. And the intraoperative and postoperative parameters were compared between two groups. RESULTS In jaundice-reducing group, the level of total bilirubin decreased from (264 ± 76) mmol/L to (183 ± 44) mmol/L after biliary drainage (P < 0.001). There were no significant inter-group differences in operative duration, blood loss, inpatient days or postoperative inpatient days (P > 0.05). There was no perioperative mortality in jaundice-reducing group while two perioperative mortalities occurred in another group. There was no significant inter-group difference in perioperative mortality rate (P = 0.423). The postoperative complication rate of jaundice-reducing group (n = 16, 27.59%) was slightly lower than that of non-reducing group (n = 14, 29.79%). However, the difference was insignificant (P = 0.471). Stratified analysis showed that there was no significant inter-group difference in single complication (wound infection, postoperative hemorrhage, pancreatic fistula, biliary fistula, delayed gastric emptying, abdominal infection, lung infection or cardiovascular complications, etc.) (all P > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS The preoperative necessity is limited for reducing moderate icterus index in obstructive jaundice patients. They should be operated as soon as possible once there is a definite diagnosis.
Toll-Like Receptor 4 Expression and Cytokine Responses in the Human Urinary Tract Mucosa

ABSTRACT Mucosal pathogens trigger a local innate host response by activating epithelial cells. Bacterial adherence and Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) signaling have been implicated as key events in this process. This study addressed the molecular basis of the epithelial response to gram-negative infection in the human urinary tract. Mucosal biopsies were obtained from kidneys, ureters, and bladders of patients undergoing urinary tract surgery, and epithelial TLR4 and CD14 expression was examined by immunohistochemistry. TLR4 was detected in epithelial cells lining the entire urinary tract and in the renal tubular epithelium. CD14, in contrast, was completely absent from the epithelial tissue. The response of the epithelial cells to infection was studied by in vitro challenge of the biopsies with uropathogenic Escherichia coli bacteria. A rapid cytokine response was observed, with production of interleukin-1β (IL-1β), IL-6, and IL-8 but not of IL-4 or gamma interferon. Adhering, P- or type 1-fimbriated E. coli activated IL-6 and IL-8 production more efficiently than the nonfimbriated control, as shown by cellular staining and analysis of secreted cytokines. The results demonstrate that human uroepithelial cells possess the molecular machinery needed to respond to uropathogenic E. coli. This includes recognition receptors for fimbriae and TLR4 for transmembrane signaling. We speculate that the lack of membrane-bound CD14 allows the epithelium to regulate its sensitivity to lipopolysaccharide and to discriminate between more-virulent and less-virulent strains.