Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evidence for a vasodepressor effect of the angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor, MK421 (enalapril), independent of blockade of angiotensin II formation.

The effects of acute and chronic angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibition with MK421 (enalapril maleate) on angiotensin II formation were studied in sodium-restricted rats. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were placed on a low-sodium diet (less than 0.04 mEq Na+/24 h) with daily injections of furosemide (1 mg/kg i.p.) for 5 days, and were studied at either 5 days or 3 weeks. Half the rats were given MK421 (300 mg/L) in the drinking water. Parallel groups of rats were fed a standard diet (0.26 mEq Na+/24 h) without MK421. As expected, rats maintained on the low-sodium regimen for either 5 or 21 days had marked stimulation of plasma renin activity and increased angiotensin I, angiotensin II, and aldosterone formation. When MK421 was added to the drinking water, there was inhibition of angiotensin II formation at 5 days (low sodium, 99.4 +/- 25.8 pg/ml; low sodium + MK421, 26.3 +/- 10.5 pg/ml; p less than 0.02), but angiotensin II formation at 3 weeks was not different from the control group (low sodium, 499 +/- 147 pg/ml; low sodium + MK421, 306 +/- 110 pg/ml). Plasma aldosterone levels closely paralleled those of angiotensin II in all groups (r = 0.94, p less than 0.05) compatible with angiotensin II stimulation of aldosterone production, even in the face of ACE inhibition. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Imaging the Optical near Field in Plasmonic Nanostructures

Over the past five years, new developments in the field of plasmonics have emerged with the goal of finely tuning a variety of metallic nanostructures to enable a desired function. The use of plasmonics in spectroscopy is of course of great interest, due to large local enhancements in the optical near field confined in the vicinity of a metal nanostructure. For a given metal, such enhancements are dependent on the shape of the structure as well as the optical properties (wavelength, phase, polarization) of the impinging light, offering a large degree of control over the optical and spatial localization of the plasmon resonance. In this focal point, we highlight recent work that aims at revealing the spatial position of the localized plasmon resonances using a variety of optical and non-optical methods.
Neuropsychological patterns in right versus left frontotemporal dementia

Patients with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) often present with an asymmetric left or right-sided anterior cerebral perfusion abnormality that is associated with differential behavioral symptoms. However, whether patients with primarily right versus left FTD also have unique neuropsychological characteristics has not been previously investigated. Comparisons of 11 patients with right-sided FTD and 11 with left FTD indicated that the 2 patient groups showed relatively distinct cognitive profiles. Patients with right FTD exhibited relatively worse performance on PIQ than VIQ, and on select nonverbal executive tasks relative to their verbal analogs (e.g., design fluency < word generation; Picture Arrangement < word sequencing). In contrast, patients with left FTD showed the opposite pattern. In addition, the 2 patient groups differed on several absolute test scores; patients with right FTD demonstrated more errors and perseverative responses, and worse percent conceptual level responses, on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, while the left FTD patients obtained significantly worse scores on the Boston Naming Test, and Stroop word reading and color naming. Verbal and nonverbal memory, mental speed, visual perceptual–constructional skill, and IQ subtest scaled scores did not significantly differ between groups. These data indicate that FTD should not be viewed as a unitary disorder, and that neuropsychological testing holds promise for the differential diagnosis of right versus left FTD. (JINS, 1999, 5, 616–622.)
Virtual Reality Surgery: Neurosurgery and the Contemporary Landscape

OBJECTIVEVirtual reality-simulated environments have been used for the training of personnel, most notably for military applications, for more than 35 years. The advantages conferred by being able to train novice personnel in a low- to no-risk simulated environment have long been appreciated by the medical community. The recent availability of affordable gigahertz-range microprocessors (once the exclusive domain of the Cray supercomputer) has made photorealistic graphical rendering and manipulation of virtual surgical substrates a reality. Concomitant advances in artificial intelligence systems and the portability of patient-specific magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomographic scanning, and angiographic image data presage the emergence of the surgical simulator as a modern surgical training adjunct. An overview of the status of surgical simulation with regard to its adaptability to current surgical training regimens is presented. METHODSExtensive MEDLINE, Internet, and other database searches spanning the years 1960 to 2002 were conducted in an effort to delineate the status of simulated surgical environments. RESULTSAs would be expected, most articles addressing surgical simulation as their primary focus have been published in the past decade. A review of this literature demonstrates the broadest application in the field of endoscopic (and laparoscopic) procedures, most likely as a result of the reduced engineering burden with respect to incorporation of a haptic interface. CONCLUSIONThe realization of ergonomically acceptable haptic interfaces remains elusive. Improvements in graphical rendering and the incorporation of artificial intelligence functions signal the certain emergence of surgical simulators as a viable supplement to the Halstedian method of surgical training.
Classification of human motion using radar micro-Doppler signatures with hidden Markov models

One of the desirable features in a ground surveillance radar is to provide information about what a detected person is doing. This would give a law enforcement organization ability to detect suspicious activities remotely and act accordingly. Previously, micro-Doppler radar signatures from humans were shown to have the necessary features to make that distinction. Typically, micro-Doppler signal spectrograms are used to obtain features to classify what the person is doing. However, most of these techniques treat the spectrogram as an image, and obtain features through some image processing techniques. In this work, we propose the use of hidden Markov models as an alternative method to statistically model both instantaneous and correlated long-term variations within the micro-Doppler signal to classify a motion. In addition, we propose use of principle component analysis (PCA) as a data driven feature extraction approach that captures vital statistics of the input at a much reduced dimension. Experiments show that with the proposed methods, perfect classification of four different motions can be attained when training and testing set both contains data from same people, and 90% accuracy is obtained when training and testing set has data from different people.
Technical Terminology as a Critical Resource

Technical documentation is riddled with domain specic terminology which needs to be detected and properly organized in order to be meaningfully used. In this paper we describe how we coped with the problem of terminology detection for a specic type of document and how the extracted terminology was used within the context of our Answer Extraction System.
Predicting Parent-Child Differences in Perceptions of How Children Use the Internet for Help With Homework, Identity Development, and Health Information

Bioecological systems theory provides a framework to understand how factors in the child's environment contribute to parent-child differences in estimations of how often children are helped by their Internet use. A national sample survey of 456 matched parent-child pairs investigated how parents-child relational factors, parental attitudes toward the Internet, and the bio-ecology of the child, are related to differing perceptions of the frequency of using the Internet to seek help with homework assignments, to aid in identity development, and to find health information. While previous research shows that parents underestimate risky online behaviors, we investigate whether parent-child differences will emerge in regards to how often the child engages in the behaviors under investigation here. The findings show that parents overestimate these online activities, suggesting they are biased in their estimations. Parent-child relational factors emerged as predictors of parental overestimation for each of these online activities, with trust perceptions as the most consistent predictor. Parental attitudes toward the Internet predicted parent-child differences in perceptions of how frequently the child used the Internet for help with homework and identity development, while the bioecology of the child was only predictive in the case of using the Internet for help with homework.
Modelling radiation-effects in semiconductor lasers for use in SLHC experiments

Optical link components in the SLHC inner detectors are to be exposed to intense radiation fields during operation, and, hence, their qualification in terms of radiation tolerance is required. We have created a model that describes a semiconductor laser undergoing irradiation to enable the extrapolation to full lifetime total fluences from lower fluence radiation tests. This model uses a rate-equation approach with modified gain calculation that takes thermal rollover into account. The model is used to fit experimental data obtained during high-fluence (in excess of 1015 particles/cm2) neutron and pion irradiation tests and evaluate its prediction capability.
Quantitative Trait Loci Mapping in Five New Large Recombinant Inbred Line Populations of Arabidopsis thaliana Genotyped With Consensus Single-Nucleotide Polymorphism Markers

Quantitative approaches conducted in a single mapping population are limited by the extent of genetic variation distinguishing the parental genotypes. To overcome this limitation and allow a more complete dissection of the genetic architecture of complex traits, we built an integrated set of 15 new large Arabidopsis thaliana recombinant inbred line (RIL) populations optimized for quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping, having Columbia as a common parent crossed to distant accessions. Here we present 5 of these populations that were validated by investigating three traits: flowering time, rosette size, and seed production as an estimate of fitness. The large number of RILs in each population (between 319 and 377 lines) and the high density of evenly spaced genetic markers scored ensure high power and precision in QTL mapping even under a minimal phenotyping framework. Moreover, the use of common markers across the different maps allows a direct comparison of the QTL detected within the different RIL sets. In addition, we show that following a selective phenotyping strategy by performing QTL analyses on genotypically chosen subsets of 164 RILs (core populations) does not impair the power of detection of QTL with phenotypic contributions >7%.
Social Studies Preservice Teachers’ First-Order Documents

This article presents the findings of a study that sought to gain an insight into social studies preservice teachers’ reported reasons for selecting a primary source document they believe will be at the heart of their curriculum. Their selections included founding documents, historical speeches, inspirational sources, as well as personal mementos. The authors conclude with a discussion of implications for social studies teacher education.
Some aspects of students’ understanding of a representational model of the particulate nature of matter in chemistry in three different countries

This preliminary study is part of a cross-cultural study that investigates students’ understanding of a particulate model used for relating submicroscopic entities and processes to macroscopic events in chemistry. The study initially involved some selected secondary school science students in Nigeria (Grade 10; n = 224) and in Japan (Grade 12; n = 72) and was later repeated with first year preservice university science teachers (n = 27) in South Africa. Subjects were presented with several test items in which they were required to use the particle model to infer the macroscopic chemical events they are meant to depict. The results show that for many of the subjects across the three countries, making the association between submicroscopic models and macroscopic events was problematic and not entirely straightforward. Intuitive misunderstandings abounded. One implication of the findings so far for chemistry education is that students are not always able to display consistent reasoning about the particulate nature of matter unless they have appropriate representational model on which to base their thinking. The knowledge of their conceptual misunderstandings, however, provides a basis for a good teaching point and for changing pedagogical approaches. [Chem. Educ. Res. Pract. , 2006, 7 (4), 226-239]
REINFORCEMENT AND THE GENETICS OF NONRANDOM MATING

Abstract The occurrence of reinforcement is compared when premating isolation is caused by the spread of a gene causing females to prefer to mate with males carrying a population-specific trait (a “preference” model) and by a gene that causes females to prefer to mate with males that share their own trait phenotype (an “assortative mating” model). Both two-island models, which have symmetric gene flow, and continent-island models, which have one-way gene flow, are explored. Reinforcement is found to occur much more easily in a two-island assortative mating model than in any of the other three models. This is due primarily to the fact that in this model the assortative mating allele will automatically become genetically associated in each population with the trait allele that is favored by natural selection on that island. In contrast, natural selection on the trait both favors and opposes the evolution of premating isolation in the two-island preference model, depending on the particular population. These results imply that species recognition in the context of mating may evolve particularly easily when it targets cues that are favored by natural selection in each population. In the continent-island models, reinforcement is found to occur more often under the preference model than the assortative mating model, thus reversing the trend from the two-island models. Patterns of population subdivision may therefore play a role in determining what types of premating isolation may evolve. Corresponding Editor: H. A. Orr
Distinctive MRI abnormalities in a man with dentatorubral-pallidoluysian atrophy

Dentatorubral-pallidoluysian atrophy (DRPLA) is a rare autosomal dominant neurodegenerative condition characterised by gradual onset of a variable combination of ataxia, chorea, epilepsy and dementia1 and is due to a (CAG)n expansion in the atrophin-1 gene.2 The pathological abnormalities consist of atrophy of the dentatorubral and pallidoluysian systems.3 Previously reported changes on brain MRI in DRPLA include atrophy of the affected areas and high-signal lesions on T2-weighted imaging in the cerebral white matter, brainstem and thalamus.4 Susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI) has not been reported in DRPLA. ### Case report Three male subjects over three generations were symptomatic (figure 1). Figure 1 Family tree showing three generations. Proband is III:3. …
Limits of effective cough-augmentation techniques in patients with neuromuscular disease.

BACKGROUND Manual and mechanical cough-augmentation techniques can improve peak cough flow (PCF) in patients with respiratory insufficiency caused by neuromuscular disease. METHODS We studied cough-augmentation techniques in 179 clinically stable patients with various neuromuscular diseases. We measured vital capacity (VC), maximum expiratory pressure (MEP), and PCF, with and without 3 cough-augmentation techniques: manually assisted cough (MAC); breath-stacking (in a subgroup of 60 patients receiving noninvasive mechanical ventilation); and breath-stacking in combination with MAC (also in the 60-patient subgroup). We analyzed the data with the receiver operating characteristic (ROC), to predict the lower limits (assisted PCF > or = 180 L/min) and upper limits (assisted PCF < unassisted PCF) of effectiveness of the 3 cough-augmentation techniques. RESULTS The lower limit of effective assisted cough with MAC, breath-stacking, and breath-stacking plus MAC was best predicted by VC > 1,030 mL (ROC 0.86, P < .001), VC > 558 mL (ROC 0.92, P < .001), and VC > 340 mL (ROC 0.90, P < .001). The upper limit of effective MAC was best predicted by MEP > 34 cm H(2)O (ROC 0.89, P < .001), whereas the ROC prediction of the upper limit of effective cough with breath-stacking and with breath-stacking plus MAC was not better than random. With each of the cough-augmentation techniques the benefits decreased linearly with increasing MEP and VC (P < .001). Compared to MAC and breath-stacking alone, breath-stacking plus MAC best improved unassisted PCF (P < .001). CONCLUSIONS In clinically stable patients with neuromuscular diseases, the effectiveness of cough-augmentation techniques can be predicted with measurements of maximum respiratory capacity. Patients with VC > 340 mL and MEP < 34 cm H(2)O would optimally benefit from the combination of breath-stacking plus manually assisted cough to improve PCF to > 180 L/min.
Aspectos do cuidado cooperativo em dois grupos de Callithrix jacchus selvagens

The Callitrichidae family presents cooperative breeding, where breeders and non breeders take care of the offspring. The aspects of care analyzed in this study were infant carrying, supervision, proximity and food transfer. Three sets of infants from two wild groups of Callithrix jacchus were studied in the environments of Caatinga (Assu group) and Atlantic Forest (Jundiai group). The methods used in the study were instantaneous focal sampling (infant carrying, supervision and proximity) and continuous focal sampling (food transfer). In the two sets observed in Assu group, the father carried and transferred food to infants more than the rest of the group. The biggest contribution in supervision was from the father and from another adult male. The members that remained in proximity to the infants in both groups were the younger in the groups (juveniles and sub-adults). In the Jundiai group, the father and the adult male helper of the group were the main caregivers; one of the sub-adult females was responsible for supervision of the infants. With the disappearance of the reproductive male and one of the sub-adults females in 3o month of infants’ life, the care was redistributed and the only adult male left in the group was the animal that contributed more in provisioning of the infant. In the Assu group, there were adult females in its composition which were involved in agonistic interactions with breeders and adult males, and seemed to influence their low participation in care. Food transfer initiates early in the development of the infants, as a way to encourage nutritional independence. Different types of food transfer (active food transfer, food steal, food steal attempt, passive food transfer and food handling) were observed in the study and frequency of each one varied with developmental phase and tolerance by the members. One relevant data of the study was the presence of active food transfer in Assu group, since in literature there are very few registers of this type of transfer for this species. It is important that groups from distinct environments and composition be studied for a better understanding of the dynamics of infants development. Aspectos do cuidado cooperativo em dois grupos de Callithrix jacchus selvagens Fernanda Helena Ribeiro Cutrim 1
Contents Delivery Method Using Route Prediction in Traffic Offloading by V2X

Currently, there are ongoing research and development efforts directed to data offloading. Data offloading allows load distribution by suitably allocating data communication traffic to other systems, such as wireless LANs or vehicle-to-vehicle communication systems. Especially, there is also ongoing research into traffic offloading using vehicle-to-vehicle communication. In traffic offloading using vehicle-to-vehicle communication, generally, while effectively utilizing mobile phone communication (V2I communication), vehicle-to-vehicle communication (V2V communication), in which content is shared among neighboring vehicles, is additionally used. In V2V communication, since the amount of data that can be transmitted at one time is not so large, and the opportunities for exchanging content are limited due to movement of vehicles, it is not easy to efficiently share relevant content within a certain period of time. Accordingly, we have designed an efficient content-delivery controlling algorithm for use in a situation where vehicles generate content in real time. The algorithm utilizes route prediction information in order to efficiently share content among the vehicles by way of V2X communication (i.e., V2I communication and V2V communication used in combination). This paper proposes the algorithm and reports its effectiveness demonstrated through simulated performance evaluation.
On the composition of secure systems

When complex systems are constructed from simpler components it is important to know how properties of the components behave under composition. We present various compositionality results for security properties. In particular we introduce a novel security property and show that this property is, in general, composable although it is weaker than forward correctability. Moreover we demonstrate that certain nontrivial security properties emerge under composition and illustrate how this fact can be exploited. All compositionality results that we present are verified with the help of a single, quite powerful lemma. Basing on this lemma, we also re-prove several already known compositionality results with the objective to unify these results. As a side effect, we obtain a classification of known compositionality results for security properties.
Functional Evolution in the Plant SQUAMOSA-PROMOTER BINDING PROTEIN-LIKE (SPL) Gene Family

The SQUAMOSA-PROMOTER BINDING PROTEIN-LIKE (SPL) family of transcription factors is functionally diverse, controlling a number of fundamental aspects of plant growth and development, including vegetative phase change, flowering time, branching, and leaf initiation rate. In natural plant populations, variation in flowering time and shoot architecture have major consequences for fitness. Likewise, in crop species, variation in branching and developmental rate impact biomass and yield. Thus, studies aimed at dissecting how the various functions are partitioned among different SPL genes in diverse plant lineages are key to providing insight into the genetic basis of local adaptation and have already garnered attention by crop breeders. Here we use phylogenetic reconstruction to reveal nine major SPL gene lineages, each of which is described in terms of function and diversification. To assess evidence for ancestral and derived functions within each SPL gene lineage, we use ancestral character state reconstructions. Our analyses suggest an emerging pattern of sub-functionalization, neo-functionalization, and possible convergent evolution following both ancient and recent gene duplication. Based on these analyses we suggest future avenues of research that may prove fruitful for elucidating the importance of SPL gene evolution in plant growth and development.