Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Impaired Myofibrillar Energetics and Oxidative Injury During Human Atrial Fibrillation

Background—Atrial fibrillation (AF) is associated with severe contractile dysfunction and structural and electrophysiological remodeling. Mechanisms responsible for impaired contractility are undefined, and current therapies do not address this dysfunction. We have found that myofibrillar creatine kinase (MM-CK), an important controller of myocyte contractility, is highly sensitive to oxidative injury, and we hypothesized that increased oxidative stress and energetic impairment during AF could contribute to contractile dysfunction. Methods and Results—Right atrial appendages were obtained from AF patients undergoing the Maze procedure and from control patients who were in normal sinus rhythm and undergoing cardiac surgery. MM-CK activity was reduced in AF patients compared with controls (25.4±3.4 versus 18.2±3.8 &mgr;mol/mg of myofibrillar protein per minute; control versus AF;P <0.05). No reduction in total CK activity or myosin ATPase activity was detected. This selective reduction in MM-CK activity was associated with increased relative expression of the &bgr;-myosin isoform (25±6 versus 63±5%&bgr;, CTRL versus AF;P <0.05). Western blotting of AF myofibrillar isolates demonstrated no changes in protein composition but showed increased prevalence of protein oxidation as detected by Western blotting for 3-nitrotyrosine (peroxynitrite biomarker) and protein carbonyls (hydroxyl radical biomarker;P <0.05). Patterns of these oxidative markers were distinct, which suggests discrete chemical events and differential protein vulnerabilities in vivo. MM-CK inhibition was statistically correlated to extent of nitration (P <0.01) but not to carbonyl presence. Conclusions—The present results provide novel evidence of oxidative damage in human AF that altered myofibrillar energetics may contribute to atrial contractile dysfunction and that protein nitration may be an important participant in this condition.
DEAL: Discover and Exploit Asymmetric Links in Dense Wireless Sensor Networks

Asymmetric links commonly exist in low power wireless sensor networks. However, it is difficult to discover and exploit them efficiently. In this work, we propose DEAL, a link management scheme to Discover and Exploit Asymmetric Links efficiently in dense wireless sensor networks. Equipped with a novel feedback mechanism, DEAL dynamically adapts its link maintenance mechanism based on the estimated link quality, and manages the (small) neighbor table so as to retain the most useful information. We implement DEAL in TinyOS and evaluate its performance using both TOSSIM and testbed. The simulation results show that more than 80% of asymmetric links can be discovered and maintained with minimum overhead. Using a collection tree application and ETX as the routing metric, the average path ETX can be reduced by up to 20%. Testbed evaluation also shows that DEAL improves the network routing performance by identifying useful asymmetric links.
Variational Bayesian Matching

Matching of samples refers to the problem of inferring unknown co-occurrence or alignment between observations in two data sets. Given two sets of equally many samples, the task is to nd for each sample a representative sample in the other set, without prior knowledge on a distance measure between the sets. Recently a few alternative solutions have been suggested, based on maximization of joint likelihood or various measures of between-data statistical dependency. In this work we present an variational Bayesian solution for the problem, learning a Bayesian canonical correlation analysis model with a permutation parameter for re-ordering the samples in one of the sets. We approximate the posterior over the permutations, and demonstrate that the resulting matching algorithm clearly outperforms all of the earlier solutions.
Does Sex Influence the Response to Intravenous Thrombolysis in Ischemic Stroke?: Answers From Safe Implementation of Treatments in Stroke-International Stroke Thrombolysis Register

Background and Purpose— Women are more likely to have a worse outcome after an acute stroke than men. Some studies have suggested that women also benefit less from intravenous thrombolysis after an acute ischemic stroke, but others found no sex differences in safety and efficacy. We aimed to evaluate differences in 3-month outcome between sexes in intravenous tissue-type plasminogen activator–treated patients registered in the Safe Implementation of Treatments in Stroke-International Stroke Thrombolysis Register. Methods— A total of 45 079 patients treated with intravenous alteplase were recorded from 2002 to 2011. Main outcome measures were symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage, functional independence (modified Rankin Scale score, 0–2), and mortality at 3 months. Results— Among 25 777 (57.2%) men and 19 302 (42.8%) women, we found no difference in the rate of symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage (P=0.13), a significantly higher likelihood of functional independence at 3 months in men (P<0.0001) and a higher mortality in women when compared with men (P<0.00001). After adjustment for confounding variables, we did not observe any difference between sexes in functional outcome (odds ratio, 1.03; 95% confidence interval, 0.97–1.09; P=0.39), whereas male sex was related to a higher risk of mortality (odds ratio, 1.19; 95% confidence interval, 1.10–1.29; P=0.00003) and symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage (odds ratio, 1.25, 95% confidence interval, 1.04–1.51; P=0.02). Conclusions— Data from Safe Implementation of Treatments in Stroke-International Stroke Thrombolysis Register suggest that intravenous thrombolysis may modify the observed survival and recovery advantage for men expected in the natural course of an ischemic stroke, with a possible larger beneficial treatment effect in women when compared with men.
A Comparison Between Decision Trees and Decision Tree Forest Models for Software Effort Estimation

Accurate software effort estimation has been a challenge for many software practitioners and project managers. Underestimation leads to disruption in the project’s estimated cost and delivery. On the other hand, overestimation causes outbidding and financial losses in business. Many software estimation models exist; however, none has been proven to be the best in all situations. In this paper, a decision tree forest (DTF) model is compared to a traditional decision tree (DT) model, as well as a multiple linear regression model (MLR). The evaluation was conducted using ISBSG and Desharnais industrial datasets. Results show that the DTFmodel is competitive and can be used as an alternative in software effort prediction. Keywords-Software Effort Estimation, Decision Tree, Decision Tree Forests, Project Management.
Image Classification and Retrieval using Correlation

Image retrieval methods aim to retrieve relevant images from an image database that are similar to the query image. The ability to effectively retrieve non-alphanumeric data is a complex issue. The problem becomes even more difficult due to the high dimension of the variable space associated with the images. Image classification is a very active and promising research domain in the area of image management and retrieval. In this paper, we propose a new image classification and retrieval scheme that automatically selects the discriminating features. Our method consists of two phases: (i) classification of images on the basis of maximum cross correlation and (ii) retrieval of images from the database against a given query image. The proposed retrieval algorithm recursively searches similar images on the basis of their correlation against a given query image from a set of registered images in the database. The algorithm is very efficient, provided that the mean images of all of the classes are computed and available in advance. The proposed method classifies the images on the basis of maximum correlation so that the images with more similarities and, hence, exhibiting maximum correlation with each other are grouped in the same class and, are retrieved accordingly.
The human neutrophil serine proteinases, elastase and cathepsin G, can mediate glomerular injury in vivo

We infused microgram quantities of active or inactive PMN elastase and cathepsin G into the renal arteries of rats. Both active and inactive elastase localized to the glomerular capillary wall equally, and in amounts that could be achieved physiologically in GN. However, elastase- perfused rats developed marked proteinuria (196 +/- 32 mg/24 h) compared with control rats receiving inactive elastase (19 +/- 2 mg/24 h, p less than 0.005). Similar results were seen with active and inactive cathepsin G. Neither elastase nor cathepsin G infusion was associated with histologic evidence of glomerular injury. We conclude that the PMN neutral serine proteinases elastase and cathepsin G can mediate marked changes in glomerular permeability in vivo due to their proteolytic activity, and thus, may contribute to the proteinuria observed in PMN-dependent models of GN.
HIGHER ORDER THINKING SKILLS ASSESSMENT (HOTS)

This study aims to: 1) provide knowledge and understanding to the teachers about the concept and characteristics of the HOTS (Higher Order Thinking Skills) assessment extensively and deep; and 2) improve the skills of the teachers to develop HOTS assessment. To achieve Reviews These objectives, the research literature sourced from journals, reference books, modules, Internet, and other sources such as the print and electronic media that are relevant to the topic HOTS development assessment. Data collected by documentation and observation techniques. The research of data were Analyzed using descriptive exploratory methods. The results of the data analysis are as follows: 1) HOTS assessments are questions or tasks that have Reviews These characteristics: to assess students abilities to analyze, Evaluate, and create based on contextual issues, and are not routine (not familiar); 2) steps compose HOTS items are: a) analyze the KD that can be created HOTS items, b) arrange the blueprint of HOTS items, c) write down the items on the card matter, d) Determine the answer key (multiple choice questions form) or arrange rubric / scoring guidelines (essay form), e) perform qualitative analysis, and f) perform quantitative analysis; 3) the advantage of HOTS assessments are: a) Increase the stundents motivation to learn and b) improve learning outcomes. and f) perform quantitative analysis; 3) the advantage of HOTS assessments are: a) Increase the stundents motivation to learn and b) improve learning outcomes. and f) perform quantitative analysis; 3) the advantage of HOTS assessments are: a) Increase the stundents motivation to learn and b) improve learning outcomes.
The Effect of a Tae Bo Exercise Program on Physical Fitness and Some Kinesthetic Perceptions for University Level Basketball Players in Egypt

The aim of this study was to examine the effect of a modified Tae Bo training program on some kinesthetic perceptions of basketball players. The kinesthetic perceptions tested in this study were perceptions of speed, motion, strength and distance. The special elements of physical fitness tested were musclar ability, circular respiratory endurance, speed and agility. The study was conducted on 20 players (M age = 19.45 , SD = 1.2; males) divided into two groups of Suez Canal University team. The Tae Bo exercises were modified from martial arts exercises to exercises suitable for performance in basketball - dribbling, passing, shooting and footwork. Training is performed in the physical preparation part using modified Tae Bo exercises and last for the rest of the training unit for the skilful and tactic part in basketball. Post measures showed differences of statistical significance in the physical abilities and kinesthetic perceptions in favor of the experimental group.
Fuzzy neural modeling via clustering and support vector machines

This paper describes a novel fuzzy rule-based modeling approach for some industrial processes. Structure identification is realized by clustering and support vector machines. When the process is slow, fuzzy rules can be obtained automatically. Parameters identification uses the techniques of fuzzy neural networks. A time-varying learning rate assures stability of the modeling error.
Text Expansion a Question/answer Explanation Based Approach 2 the Text Representation 2.1 Harris's Operator System Overview

1 Presentation I present in this paper the related work to my PhD thesis. It deals with an explanation approach for the generation of extended versions of text. The explanation is considered in the sense that an expansion is intended to make what is evoked into the text version understood. In order to give an account of this aspect, we resort to the notion of text questionnability deened by Virbel (1996), while exploiting the question/answer structure (Nespoulous and Virbel, 1991). The appropriate framework for the representation of the question/answer structure is that proposed by Harris (1968) which allows to represent a text in terms of syntactic and semantic structure knowledges, and linguistic operators that are associated to the sentence structures. We proceed by decomposition of a text into a set of elementary sentences, each step of this process allows to obtain a natural sentence, and a set of transformation operators which allows to reconstitute the complex sentence from the elementary sentences. The question/answer structure, within this scope, consists in a set of links among the elementary sentences that are the result of the text decomposition. These links are question/answer relations such as how ? , when ? , where ? and why ? This structure describes the elementary sentence meaning which depends on the text. These semantic links among the elementary sentences characterize the events and states corresponding to the elementary sentences in terms of manner and instrument, temporals links, localization, reason, causality and purpose. From this basis, and be inspired on the one hand by the notion of text of several structures (Nespoulous and Virbel, 1991), and on the other hand by the prediction that says that every text have a kernel version which constitutes its synopsis (Mann and Thompson, 1987), we make use of the sentence expansion principle into a text, bringing the distinction between the diierent versions of the same text. We propose below a text representation and a planning technique on which is based the generation of diierent versions of a same text. (Harris, 1968) formulates in terms of mathematical system all the necessary and suucient properties and relations of natural language. He proves that the sentences have, except some degeneracy cases, the property to be decomposable into elementary sentences (K), in a one-to-one relation ; inversely there is a recursive process which allows to produce the complex sentences from this set of assertions and with the help …
Stress induces the assembly of RNA granules in the chloroplast of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

Eukaryotic cells under stress repress translation and localize these messenger RNAs (mRNAs) to cytoplasmic RNA granules. We show that specific stress stimuli induce the assembly of RNA granules in an organelle with bacterial ancestry, the chloroplast of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. These chloroplast stress granules (cpSGs) form during oxidative stress and disassemble during recovery from stress. Like mammalian stress granules, cpSGs contain poly(A)-binding protein and the small, but not the large, ribosomal subunit. In addition, mRNAs are in continuous flux between polysomes and cpSGs during stress. Localization of cpSGs within the pyrenoid reveals that this chloroplast compartment functions in this stress response. The large subunit of ribulosebisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase also assembles into cpSGs and is known to bind mRNAs during oxidative stress, raising the possibility that it plays a role in cpSG assembly. This discovery within such an organelle suggests that mRNA localization to granules during stress is a more general phenomenon than currently realized.
Temporal Variables in Parkisonian Speech

Temporal variables were detailed and compared in a text read by ten French subjects with mild to moderate Parkinson disease (PDS’s) and ten French healthy control subjects (CS’s). Longer total pause times were found for PDS’s, correlated to higher numbers of pauses and longer mean pause duration. The typical relationship observed between the distributional scheme of pauses and syntactic structure of the text remained largely intact for PDS’s. However, PDS’s also made strikingly long and unexpected within-phrase and within-word pauses, most often associated with a dysfluency. Pause time and pattern were found to be highly variable across PDS’s, some of whom had a fast speech rate, others a slow one. The results can be viewed as manifestations of deficient timing of motor events which appears to be a strong pathomechanism in Parkinson disease.
GROWTH CHARACTERISTICS OF TUBERCLE BACILLI AND CERTAIN OTHER MYCOBACTERIA IN HELA CELLS

By making use of the increased phagocytosis which follows the exposure of HeLa cells to tissue culture media containing selected horse sera, it was possible to introduce all of the mycobacterial species studied into the cells, where many of them proceeded to grow. Fully virulent strains of tubercle bacilli filled much of the cytoplasm in a few days and formed characteristic cords not seen with other strains. The strains said to be less virulent, R1Rv, BCG, H37Ra, and R1Ra, grew less rapidly and in characteristic patterns. Their rates of multiplication in HeLa cells were in the order named and correlated well with their reported pathogenicity for mice and guinea pigs. Six INH-resistant strains grew at rates characteristic of fully virulent strains. Among the "rapidly growing" species, M. phlei and M. smegmatis did not show evidence of growth in the cells, although M. fortuitum did. Some strains with optimal temperatures on bacteriological media below 37°C, M. balnei, M. marinum, and M. platypoecilus, grew rapidly in HeLa cells, especially at temperatures of 31 to 35°C. The growth patterns of the bacilli in HeLa cells appear sufficiently specific to be useful in differentiation among the mycobacteria.
On Monetary Policy Implications of Credit Rationing under Asymmetric Information

This paper analyses the monetary policy transmission mechanisms through the banking sector. Banks are assumed to compete a la Bertrand in a loan market characterized by adverse selection. Stiglitz and Weiss' (1981) set-up is extended to introduce leakages of reserves from the banking system, compulsory reserves, and loans from the central bank. The paper shows that the banks' re- serves management strategy is totally subordinated to the dictates of competition in the loan market. This generates some unusual results. For instance, if the central bank increases the legal reserve requirement, the banks' reserve ratio may decrease. In addition, the paper confirms that when credit is rationed, monetary policy is transmitted through quantities. Nevertheless, in spite of a rigid credit rate, some price adjustment transmission mechanism does actually occur under credit rationing since the deposit rate reacts.
QoS-based AMC and dynamic SINR margin scheduling in wireless multimedia transmission systems

This paper presents the performance of scheduling for adaptive modulation and coding based on the dynamic margin control. To cover various wireless channel conditions and requirements for multimedia traffic QoS, the selection of suitable MCS (Modulation and Coding Scheme) is important technique in real deployment and management fields. In this paper, we propose dynamic margin control schemes based on feedback information and measurement values without some efforts for optimizing additional parameters for the algorithm. Compared with existing algorithms, simulation results show that the proposed scheme is well adapted to dynamically change in the radio environment, while ensuring the QoS performance.
Which Option Pricing Model is the Best? High Frequency Data for Nikkei225 Index Options

Option pricing models are the main subject of many research papers prepared both in academia and financial industry. Using high-frequency data for Nikkei225 index options, we check the properties of option pricing models with different assumptions concerning the volatility process (historical, realized, implied, stochastic or based on GARCH model). In order to relax the continuous dividend payout assumption, we use the Black model for pricing options on futures, instead of the Black-Scholes-Merton model. The results are presented separately for 5 classes of moneyness ratio and 5 classes of time to maturity in order to show some patterns in option pricing and to check the robustness of our results. The Black model with implied volatility (BIV) comes out as the best one. Highest average pricing errors we obtain for the Black model with realized volatility (BRV). As a result, we do not see any additional gain from using more complex and time-consuming models (SV and GARCH models. Additionally, we describe liquidity of the Nikkei225 option pricing market and try to compare our results with a detailed study for the emerging market of WIG20 index options (Kokoszczynski et al. 2010b).
Wild Wild WEB : Wildlifew enthusiasts ’ use of the Internet

ARKive is a web site on endangered species. We describe e-learning aspects of wildlife enthusiasts, consisting of two (overlapping) segments: conservationists and general public wildlife enthusiasts. Both segments are passionate about wildlife and conservation issues, with conservationists being most passionate. Conservationists have used the Internet longer and also use email more. Work is still the main place to access Internet but 90% of the conservationists also have Internet at home. Most find information through specific searches, rather than visiting a familiar website, entering simple and general keywords. The Internet is seen as an awesome source of references whilst at the same time it is taken for granted. Although they are critical, people are not cynical about information on the Internet. They trust known and respected sites. Most people are hesitant about partaking in forums or chat groups and prefer email. Almost a quarter of the combined sample regularly downloads video and this much more Internet experienced group has a faster connection at home, look for wildlife information more often, are more likely to use chat groups, download photographs and they are more likely to use search engines. Potentially there is a large audience for a site like ARKive, consisting of motivated and experienced Internet users with a passion for conservation and wildlife issues.
Digital‐to‐analog converter with gamma correction on glass substrate for TFT‐panel applications

Abstract— Low‐temperature polysilicon (LTPS) technology has a tendency towards integrating all circuits on glass substrate. However, the poly‐Si TFTs suffered poor uniformity with large variations in the device characteristics due to a narrow laser process window for producing large‐grained poly‐Si TFTs. The device variation is a serious problem for circuit realization on the LCD panel, so how to design reliable on‐panel circuits is a challenge for system‐on‐panel (SOP) applications. In this work, a 6‐bit R‐string digital‐to‐analog converter (DAC) with gamma correction on glass substrate for TFT‐panel applications is proposed. The proposed circuit, which is composed of a folded R‐string circuit, a segmented digital decoder, and reordering of the decoding circuit, has been designed and fabricated in a 3‐μm LTPS technology. The area of the new proposed DAC circuit is effectively reduced to about one‐sixth compared to that of the conventional circuit for the same LTPS process.