Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Therapy of short‐term memory disorders in fluent aphasia: A single case study

Background: Repetition conduction aphasia is defined as a phonological short‐term memory (STM) deficit. The interactive activation model of verbal STM proposed by N. Martin and Saffran (1992) accounts for this deficit by an increased activation decay rate. Recently Majerus and van der Linden (2001) suggested that these short‐term memory impairments could be improved by therapy. Aims: The purpose of our single case study was to investigate whether the temporary storage of verbal information could be improved by therapy in a patient with repetition conduction aphasia. Methods & Procedures: A patient suffering from a fluent aphasia was trained over 31 therapy sessions. In the therapy task he had to repeat sentences of four to seven words with an increasing delay between stimulus and response. The control task consisted of repeating sentences of four to six words without delay. Outcomes & Results: The treatment improved sentence repetition significantly. In addition, sentence length in oral production and spans for digits and bisyllabic words, i.e., measures for phonological STM, improved. Conclusions: Verbal STM performances were improved through therapy. It is argued that in the light of N. Martin and Saffran's theory, these improvements reflect a partially normalised activation decay, although the role of a probably very mild reduction of connection strength remains unclear.
Transforming growth factor‐β3 regulates assembly of a non‐fibrotic matrix in a 3D corneal model

Corneal tissue engineering has attracted the attention of many researchers over the years, in part due to the cornea's avascularity and relatively straightforward structure. However, the highly organized and structured nature of this optically clear tissue has presented a great challenge. We have previously developed a model in which human corneal fibroblasts (HCFs) are stimulated by a stable vitamin C (VitC) derivative to self‐assemble an extracellular matrix (ECM). Addition of TGFβ1 enhanced the assembly of ECM; however, it was accompanied by the upregulation of specific fibrotic markers. In this study, we tested the effects of all three TGFβ isoforms (‐β1, ‐β2 and ‐β3) on ECM production, as well as expression of fibrotic markers. HCFs were grown in four media conditions for 4 weeks: control, VitC only; T1, VitC + TGFβ1; T2, VitC + TGFβ2; and T3, VitC + TGFβ3. The cultures were analysed with western blots, TEM and indirect immunofluorescence (IF). Compared to controls, all TGFβ isoforms stimulated matrix production by about three‐fold. IF showed the presence of type III collagen and smooth muscle actin (SMA) in T1 and T2; however, T3 showed little to no expression. In western blots, T3 stimulated a lower type III:type I collagen ratio when compared to the other conditions. In addition, TEM indicated that T3 stimulated a higher level of matrix alignment and organization. HCFs stimulated by VitC and TGFβ3 appear to generate a matrix that mimics the normal adult or developing human cornea, whereas TGF‐β1 and ‐β2 drive the constructs towards a more fibrotic path. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Plant Bioactive Metabolites and Drugs Produced by Endophytic Fungi of Spermatophyta

It is known that plant-based ethnomedicine represented the foundation of modern pharmacology and that many pharmaceuticals are derived from compounds occurring in plant extracts. This track still stimulates a worldwide investigational activity aimed at identifying novel bioactive products of plant origin. However, the discovery that endophytic fungi are able to produce many plant-derived drugs has disclosed new horizons for their availability and production on a large scale by the pharmaceutical industry. In fact, following the path traced by the blockbuster drug taxol, an increasing number of valuable compounds originally characterized as secondary metabolites of plant species belonging to the Spermatophyta have been reported as fermentation products of endophytic fungal strains. Aspects concerning sources and bioactive properties of these compounds are reviewed in this paper.
ACCESSING IMAGINED COMMUNITIES AND REINSCRIBING REGIMES OF TRUTH

In this article, we explore the complex and nebulous terrain between two theoretical concepts, imagined communities (Norton, 2000, 2001), that is, individuals' imagined affiliations with certain groups, and regimes of truth (Foucault, 1980), dominant images inscribed and reinscribed into individual consciousness until they become normative. Using the context of two research studies, one a critical narrative study of life-story narratives of L2 users and the other a critical feminist ethnography of beginning ESOL teachers, the researchers examine the ways in which social structures and contexts can behave simultaneously as tyrannizing regimes of truth and as liberating imagined communities. This inherent contradiction illuminates the ways in which the two theoretical constructs taken together can lead to a more complex and nuanced understanding of identity construction. 1Authors' names are listed in alphabetical order and do not represent any hierarchy.
DNA methylation levels within the CD14 promoter region are lower in placentas of mothers living on a farm

Epigenetic regulation has been suggested to be a link between environmental intrauterine exposures and development of asthma and allergy. The placenta is an essential part of the intrauterine environment. We have previously found the innate immune receptor CD14 to be differentially expressed on the mRNA level in placentas in relation to lifestyle and parental allergen sensitization. We here hypothesized that the promoter region of CD14 may be subject to differential DNA methylation and therefore a link between intrauterine exposure and mRNA expression.
The effects of atmospheric turbulence and misalignment fading on performance of serial relaying Mary PPM FSO systems with partially coherent Gaussian beam

In this paper, we present a novel method to analyze the effects of atmospheric turbulence and misalignment fading (or pointing error) on performance of serial relaying M -ary pulse-position modulation (PPM) free-space optical (FSO) systems. Our study is more comprehensive than previous ones since we take into account the effect of beam size variation due to turbulence by using the partially coherent Gaussian beam model. In addition, we formulate a closedform expression for bit-error rate (BER) of serial relaying M -ary PPM FSO systems over Gamma-Gamma atmospheric turbulence channel taking into account the effects of atmospheric attenuation, extinction ratio, and signal-dependent noise. We find that the laser source’s coherent parameter, which governs the beam size at the receiver, plays an important role in the system design. If this parameter is not chosen properly, the system impairment will be either dominated by pointing error or geometric spreading loss. Thanks to the use of serial relaying and M -ary PPM, the effects of atmospheric turbulence and misalignment fading is mitigated hence the ability of combating atmospheric turbulence and the transmission distance of FSO systems are significantly improved. In addition, useful information for system design, such as the required number of relays for a specific turbulence strength and transmission distance, could be obtained from the numerical results. Index Terms Free-space optical communication, serial relaying, atmospheric turbulence, partial coherent source, gamma-gamma distribution.
Classification and possible bacterial infection in outpatients with eczema and dermatitis in China

Abstract Little is known about the classification and bacterial infection in outpatients with eczema and dermatitis in China. To investigate the prevalence of eczema and dermatitis in outpatients of dermatology clinics in China, examine classification and proportion of common types of dermatitis and the possible bacterial infection, and analyze the possible related factors. Outpatients with eczema or dermatitis from 39 tertiary hospitals of 15 provinces in mainland China from July 1 to September 30, 2014, were enrolled in this cross-sectional and multicenter study. Among 9393 enrolled outpatients, 636 patients (6.7%) were excluded because of incomplete information. The leading subtypes of dermatitis were unclassified eczema (35.5%), atopic dermatitis (13.4%), irritant dermatitis (9.2%), and widespread eczema (8.7%). Total bacterial infection rate was 52.3%, with widespread eczema, stasis dermatitis, and atopic dermatitis being the leading three (65.7%, 61.8%, and 61.4%, respectively). Clinically very likely bacterial infection has a significant positive correlation with disease duration, history of allergic disease, history of flexion dermatitis, and severe itching. Atopic dermatitis has become a common subtype of dermatitis in China. Secondary bacterial infection is common in all patients with dermatitis, and more attentions should be paid on this issue in other type of dermatitis apart from atopic dermatitis.
The Limits of Influence: Psychokinesis and the Philosophy Of Science

Levitations, materializations, healings, earthquake-like rocking. The evidence of large scale spontaneous psychokinesis through history is a neglected and unjustly maligned aspect of the science of parapsychology. In "The Limits of Influence" Stephen E. Braude argues that the familiar card-guessing experiments and statistical proofs' of PSI will never elicit important or revealing facts about the phenomena. Instead he turns our attention to the substantial (if sometimes bizarre) qualitative evidence. Not only does this pose no threat to the fabric of science, but it holds out hope for substantial progress in psychology, as well as in the philosophy of science and the philosophy of mind which have so far have failed to solve fundamental problems of consciousness and intentionality. This book should be of interest to students and teachers of philosophy and psychology.
Glycopeptide-Based Antibody Detection in Multiple Sclerosis by Surface Plasmon Resonance

In multiple sclerosis (MS) the gold standard for the diagnosis and prognosis is, up to now, the use of magnetic resonance imaging markers. No alternative simpler assays proven of use, except for cerebrospinal fluid analysis, have been provided in MS diagnosis. Therefore, there is a need to develop non-invasive, sensitive, simple new techniques for the clinical routine. Herein we present the evaluation of the feasibility of a glycopeptide-based biosensor to detect MS specific antibodies in sera using the surface plasmon resonance technology. The previously described glycopeptide antigen CSF114(Glc) has been immobilized on a gold sensor chip and the method has been optimized for real-time specific autoantibody detection directly in sera. A population of 60 healthy blood donors and 61 multiple sclerosis patients has been screened. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC)-based analysis has established the optimal diagnostic cut-off value for the method obtaining a sensitivity of 36% and a specificity of 95%. Sample sera have been also screened with a previously validated ELISA.
Mechanism of oxygen detoxification by the surprisingly oxygen-tolerant hyperthermophilic archaeon, Pyrococcus furiosus

The anaerobic archaeon Pyrococcus furiosus grows by fermenting carbohydrates producing H2, CO2, and acetate. We show here that it is surprisingly tolerant to oxygen, growing well in the presence of 8% (vol/vol) O2. Although cell growth and acetate production were not significantly affected by O2, H2 production was reduced by 50% (using 8% O2). The amount of H2 produced decreased in a linear manner with increasing concentrations of O2 over the range 2–12% (vol/vol), and for each mole of O2 consumed, the amount of H2 produced decreased by approximately 2 mol. The recycling of H2 by the two cytoplasmic hydrogenases appeared not to play a role in O2 resistance because a mutant strain lacking both enzymes was not more sensitive to O2 than the parent strain. Decreased H2 production was also not due to inactivation of the H2-producing, ferredoxin-dependent membrane-bound hydrogenase because its activity was unaffected by O2 exposure. Electrons from carbohydrate oxidation must therefore be diverted to relieve O2 stress at the level of reduced ferredoxin before H2 production. Deletion strains lacking superoxide reductase (SOR) and putative flavodiiron protein A showed increased sensitivity to O2, indicating that these enzymes play primary roles in resisting O2. However, a mutant strain lacking the proposed electron donor to SOR, rubredoxin, was unaffected in response to O2. Hence, electrons from sugar oxidation normally used to produce H2 are diverted to O2 detoxification by SOR and putative flavodiiron protein A, but the electron flow pathway from ferredoxin does not necessarily involve rubredoxin. |
Identification of multiple loci linked to inflammation and autoantibody production by a genome scan of a murine model of rheumatoid arthritis.

OBJECTIVE Proteoglycan-induced arthritis (PGIA) is a murine model of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), both in terms of its pathology and its genetics. PGIA can only be induced in susceptible murine strains and their F2 progeny. As with RA, the genetics are complex, containing both major histocompatibility complex (MHC)-related and non-MHC-related components. Our goal was to identify the underlying non-MHC-related loci that confer PGIA susceptibility. METHODS We used 106 polymorphic markers to perform simple sequence-length polymorphism analysis on F2 hybrids of susceptible (BALB/c) and nonsusceptible (DBA/2) strains of mice. Because both strains of mice share the H2d haplotype, this cross permits identification and analysis of non-MHC-related genes. RESULTS We identified a total of 12 separate quantitative trait loci (QTL) associated with PGIA, which we have named Pgia1 through Pgia12. QTLs associated with the inflammatory symptoms of PGIA were linked to chromosomes 7, 9, 15 (2 separate loci), 16, and 19. QTLs associated with autoantibody production were identified on chromosomes 1, 2, 7, 8, 10, 11, 16, and 18. QTLs on chromosomes 7 and 16 showed linkage to both inflammation and autoantibody production, suggesting a shared regulatory component in arthritis induction. The first inflammation QTL on chromosome 15 and the autoantibody QTL on chromosome 7 originate from the DBA/2 background, which indicates that as in RA, susceptibility genes can originate from heterogeneous backgrounds. CONCLUSION These data demonstrate the complexity of PGIA, where QTLs may be involved in multiple traits or even originate from a genetic background previously determined to be resistant.
Academic Implications of a High School Entrance Examination for Economically Disadvantaged and other Students1

AbstractComparison, over 4 years, of academic performance (reading, algebra, and weighted GPA’s) of two groups of students regularly admitted, via an admissions test, and one group specially admitted, via a summer program, to a specialized high school in New York City, showed significant differences at the . 05 level. Mean scores in reading were significantly lower in the specially admitted group but mean scores in algebra and weighted GPA’s were as high or higher in this group than in the regularly admitted group scoring in the lower quarter on the admissions test. Predictive relationships between scores on the admissions test and scores on the three measures of academic performance were significant for the regularly admitted groups only.
Approximating propositional calculi by finite-valued logics

The problem of approximating a propositional calculus is to find many-valued logics which are sound for the calculus (i.e., all theorems of the calculus are tautologies) with as few tautologies as possible. This has potential applications for representing (computationally complex) logics used in AI by (computationally easy) many-valued logics. It is investigated how far this method can be carried using (1) one or (2) an infinite sequence of many-valued logics. It is shown that the optimal candidate matrices for (1) can be computed from the calculus. <<ETX>>
Impact of Intermittent Preventive Treatment with Sulfadoxine-Pyrimethamine on Antibody Responses to Erythrocytic-Stage Plasmodium falciparum Antigens in Infants in Mozambique

ABSTRACT We evaluated the impact of intermittent preventive treatment in infants (IPTi) with sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP), which was given at ages 3, 4, and 9 months through the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI), on the development of antibody responses to Plasmodium falciparum in Mozambique. Immunoglobulin M (IgM) and IgG subclass antibodies specific to whole asexual parasites and to recombinant MSP-119, AMA-1, and EBA-175 were measured at ages 5, 9, 12, and 24 months for 302 children by immunofluorescence antibody tests and by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. Antibody responses did not significantly differ between children receiving IPTi with SP and those receiving a placebo at any time point measured, with the exception of the responses of IgG and IgG1 to AMA-1 and/or MSP-119, which were significantly higher in the SP-treated group than in the placebo group at ages 5, 9, and/or 24 months. IPTi with SP given through the EPI reduces the frequency of malarial illness while allowing the development of naturally acquired antibody responses to P. falciparum antigens.
A presentation language for controlling the formatting process in multimedia presentations

Multimedia information encapsulated inside documents is more and more specific because its content is specified using domain vocabularies. Their integration in space and time to form a document implies transformation steps to produce "presentation structures". In this context presentation languages and formatters must be enhanced to cover new needs of rendering such as: multiple output of the same information or dynamic changing of the reader context. These new document models and processing architectures induce new editing and formatting services to be proposed to the author.This paper describes new presentation properties that can be added to existing presentation languages and that allow the author to express: priorities, more abstract properties and fall-back positions. These properties are used by our formatter in order to provide more adaptive renderings. The architecture of this formatting service is open in order to be used for different presentation systems with different presentation languages. In this paper, we describe our experiment using priorities and optimization requests for temporal formatting.
The Use of Spatial Decompositions for Constructing Street Centerlines

Abstract Although national data sets are becoming readily available at low cost, scale usually limits their utility for planning and managing small municipalities. As a result, most communities are faced with the construction of their own municipal Geographic Information Systems (GIS), information systems that are critical in handling land-related activities where high accuracy is essential. Most small municipalities cannot afford to begin by commissioning a large scale cadastral map and thus must opt for spatially questionable facsimiles where surveys showing administrative boundaries, property lines and street centerlines are suspect. The accuracy in these data can be enhanced and the results of great value to most city operations. We introduce a new method that applies theoretically based spatial decompositions to automate the generation of street centerlines from spatially corrected block and parcel data. This new centerline data base is a vast improvement over existing data bases for most municipalities.
Institutional Office and the Person

Conscious fulfilling of formally defined offices distinguishes institutions from elementary collective behavior. In office, personal role and social status meet. In some offices, ritual is dominant; in others, judgment and enterprise are called for. A career is the person's sequence of role and realized status and office. In rigid societies, careers are of standard type; and each person's is somewhat predetermined. In a freer society, they are less so; but nevertheless, types of careers appear. The institutions of a society may not be understood without understanding offices and careers.
Interleukin 17 induced nitric oxide suppresses matrix synthesis and protects cartilage from matrix breakdown.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the role of nitric oxide (NO) in basal and cytokine induced cartilage matrix breakdown and synthesis across different species and in chondrocytes cultured as isolated cells or as tissue explants. METHODS Articular cartilage from bovine, porcine, or human joints was cultured as explants in serum-free media. Explants or monolayer cultures of primary chondrocytes were treated with cytokines in the absence or presence of inhibitors [antibodies to leukemia inhibitory factor (anti-LIF) or tumor necrosis factor-alpha, dexamethasone, or inhibitors of aggrecanase or NO synthase]. NO production and matrix breakdown and synthesis were measured. RESULTS At low concentrations, a novel interleukin 17 (IL-17) family member induced matrix breakdown without altering NO production. Treatment of articular cartilage explants with dexamethasone or anti-LIF blocked NO production by IL-17, but not by IL-1alpha. Inhibition of NO production in cytokine treated cartilage explants enhanced matrix breakdown and partially overcame suppression of matrix synthesis. In isolated chondrocytes, inhibition of NO production decreased expression of gelatinase and increased expression of stromelysin. CONCLUSION Endogenous NO serves a dual function in cartilage: to protect the tissue from matrix breakdown and to mediate suppression of proteoglycan synthesis by cytokines. Despite the similarities in biological function between IL-I and IL-17, their downstream signaling pathways are distinct and appear to be affected by extracellular matrix degradation.
Analysis and Optimization of Sleep Modes in Subthreshold Circuit Design

Subthreshold operation is a promising method for reducing power consumption in ultra-low power applications, such as active RFIDs and sensor networks. It was shown in previous works that operating at the Vmin supply voltage results in optimal energy operation, where Vmin typically falls below the threshold voltage. However, all previous subthreshold analyses ignore the leakage current in standby mode. Hence, for applications where operation at Vmin results in completion of the task well ahead of the required deadline, the energy consumption can be significantly under-estimated In this paper, we investigate the effect of the non-zero standby energy on the optimal energy consumption in subthreshold operation. We first analyze energy consumption both with and without a cutoff technique in standby mode. Two parameters are proposed to capture the cutoff structure's effect on the energy consumption. Second, a methodology to minimize the total energy consumption is addressed The selection of the cutoff structure is examined by comparing three different structures. Then, a co-optimization method to optimize the size of the cutoff structure concurrently with the supply voltage, is proposed. This approach reduces energy by 99.2% compared to standby-energy-unaware optimization.