Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Rali System Description For TAC 2014 Biomedical Summerization Track

We present our solution to the 2014 Biomedical Summerization Track. We propose a technique to determine the discourse role of a sentence. We differentiate words linked to the topic of the paper from the ones that link to the facet of the scientific discourse. Using that information, simple histograms are built over training data to infer a facet for each sentence of the paper (result, method, implication, hypothesis and discussion). This helps us isolate the sentences best representing a citation of the same facet.
Calmodulin regulates the trafficking of KCNQ2 potassium channels

Voltage‐dependent potassium KCNQ2 (Kv7.2) channels play a prominent role in the control of neuronal excitability. These channels must associate with calmodulin to function correctly and, indeed, a mutation (R353G) that impairs this association provokes the onset of a form of human neonatal epilepsy known as benign familial neonatal convulsions (BFNC). We show here that perturbation of calmodulin binding leads to endoplasmic reticulum (ER) retention of KCNQ2, reducing the number of channels that reach the plasma membrane. Interestingly, elevating the expression of calmodulin in the BFNC mutant partially restores the intracellular distribution of the KCNQ channel. In contrast, overexpression of a Ca2+‐binding incompetent calmodulin or sequestering of calmodulin promotes the retention of wild‐type channels in the ER. Thus, a direct interaction with Ca2+‐calmodulin appears to be critical for the correct activity of KCNQ2 potassium channels as it controls the channels’ exit from the ER. Etxeberria A. , Aivar, P., Rodriguez‐Alfaro, J. A. , Alaimo, A. , Villace, P., Gómez‐Posada J. C. , Areso, P., Villarroel A. Calmodulin regulates the trafficking of KCNQ2 potassium channels. FASEB J. 22, 1135–1143 (2008)
Comparison of optical microscopy and quantitative polymerase chain reaction for estimating parasitaemia in patients with kala-azar and modelling infectiousness to the vector Lutzomyia longipalpis

Currently, the only method for identifying infective hosts with Leishmania infantum to the vector Lutzomyia longipalpis is xenodiagnosis. More recently, quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) has been used to model human reservoir competence by assuming that detection of parasite DNA indicates the presence of viable parasites for infecting vectors. Since this assumption has not been proven, this study aimed to verify this hypothesis. The concentration of amastigotes in the peripheral blood of 30 patients with kala-azar was microscopically verified by leukoconcentration and was compared to qPCR estimates. Parasites were identified in 4.8 mL of peripheral blood from 67% of the patients, at a very low concentration (average 0.3 parasites/mL). However, qPCR showed 93% sensitivity and the estimated parasitaemia was over a thousand times greater, both in blood and plasma, with higher levels in plasma than in blood. Furthermore, the microscopic count of circulating parasites and the qPCR parasitaemia estimates were not mathematically compatible with the published proportions of infected sandflies in xenodiagnostic studies. These findings suggest that qPCR does not measure the concentration of circulating parasites, but rather measures DNA from other sites, and that blood might not be the main source of infection for vectors.
Dietary antioxidants and long-term risk of dementia.

BACKGROUND The Rotterdam Study previously found that higher dietary intakes of vitamins E and C related to lower risk of dementia and Alzheimer disease (AD) over 6 years of follow-up. OBJECTIVE To study consumption of major dietary antioxidants relative to long-term risk of dementia. DESIGN Population-based prospective cohort study. SETTING The Rotterdam Study in the Netherlands. PARTICIPANTS A total of 5395 participants, 55 years and older, who were free of dementia and provided dietary information at study baseline. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Incidence of dementia and AD, based on internationally accepted criteria, relative to dietary intake of vitamin E, vitamin C, beta carotene, and flavonoids. RESULTS During a mean follow-up period of 9.6 years, dementia developed in 465 participants, of whom 365 were diagnosed as having AD. In multivariate models adjusted for age, education, apolipoprotein E epsilon4 genotype, total energy intake, alcohol intake, smoking habits, body mass index, and supplement use, higher intake of vitamin E at study baseline was associated with lower long-term risk of dementia (P = .02 for trend). Compared with participants in the lowest tertile of vitamin E intake, those in the highest tertile were 25% less likely to develop dementia (hazard ratio, 0.75; 95% confidence interval, 0.59-0.95 with adjustment for potential confounders). Dietary intake levels of vitamin C, beta carotene, and flavonoids were not associated with dementia risk after multivariate adjustment (P > .99 for trend for vitamin C and beta carotene and P = .60 for trend for flavonoids). Results were similar when risk for AD was specifically assessed. CONCLUSION Higher intake of foods rich in vitamin E may modestly reduce long-term risk of dementia and AD.
Binding of neurotrophin‐3 to its neuronal receptors and interactions with nerve growth factor and brain‐derived neurotrophic factor.

Neurotrophin‐3 (NT‐3) has low‐affinity (Kd = 8 × 10(−10) M), as well as high‐affinity receptors (Kd = 1.8 × 10(−11) M) on embryonic chick sensory neurons, the latter in surprisingly high numbers. Like the structurally related proteins nerve growth factor (NGF) and brain‐derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), NT‐3 also binds to the low‐affinity NGF receptor, a molecule that we suggest to designate low‐affinity neurotrophin receptor (LANR). NT‐3 dissociates from the LANR much more rapidly than BDNF, and more slowly than NGF. The binding of labelled NT‐3 to the LANR can be reduced by half using a concentration of BDNF corresponding to the Kd of BDNF to the LANR. In contrast, the binding of NT‐3 to its high‐affinity neuronal receptors can only be prevented by BDNF or NGF when used at concentrations several thousand‐fold higher than those corresponding to their Kd to their high‐affinity neuronal receptors. Thus, specific high‐affinity NT‐3 receptors exist on sensory neurons that can readily discriminate between three structurally related ligands. These findings, including the remarkable property of the LANR to bind three related ligands with similar affinity, but different rate constants, are discussed.
A study on distributed transcoding using dynamic allocation of virtual machines in a cloud computing environment

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is a transcoding system based on a virtual machine in a cloud computing environment. There are many studies about transmitting realistic media through a network. As the size of realistic media data is very large, it is difficult to transmit them using current network bandwidth. Thus, a method of encoding by compressing the data using a new encoding technique is necessary. The next-generation encoding technique high-efficiency video coding (HEVC) can encode video at a high compressibility rate compared to the existing encoding techniques, MPEG-2 and H.264. Yet, encoding the information takes at least ten times longer than existing encoding techniques. Design/methodology/approach – This paper attempts to solve the tome problem using a virtual machine in a cloud computing environment. Findings – In addition, by calculating the transcoding time of the proposed technique, it found that the time was reduced compared to existing techniques. Originality/value – To this end, thi.
An efficient location management technique using frequently visited location areas and limited pointer forwarding technique

With the rapid enhancement in mobile & wireless network, especially with the upcoming of 3G and 4G, location management become more challenging. We propose a probability based location management technique which finds the probability of user movement in different Location Areas. Apart from traditional two databases HLR (Home Location Register) & VLR (Visitor Location Register) another database called LDR (Local signal transfer point Data Register) is introduced to reduce the costly SS7 message traffic and database access traffic from RSTP (Remote Signal Transfer Point) to HLR. Depending on the Frequently Visited Location Areas of MTs users are assigned under a particular LSTP Area called home LDR. Location pointers are set up at home LDR to indicate the current Location of the MTs that crosses the home LSTP Database Area. An analytical model is developed with different set of probabilities for studying the performance of the proposed scheme. Numerical Results show that such a method significantly improves the location Management procedures.
Promoter polymorphism G-50T of a human CYP2J2 epoxygenase gene is associated with common susceptibility to asthma.

BACKGROUND Cytochrome P-450 2J2 (CYP2J2) has recently been shown to be an important enzyme in the metabolism of epoxygenase-derived eicosanoids that play important functional roles in pulmonary physiology and may contribute to the pathogenesis of asthma. STUDY OBJECTIVE The focus of our pilot study was to evaluate whether common polymorphism G-50T within the proximal promoter of human CYP2J2 gene is associated with the susceptibility to bronchial asthma. DESIGN AND PARTICIPANTS A total of 429 unrelated Russian subjects were recruited in this case-control study, including 215 sex-matched and age-matched patients with asthma and 214 healthy control subjects. The blood samples were analyzed for genetic polymorphism G-50T in the CYP2J2 gene by polymerase chain reaction followed by restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis. RESULTS The frequency of variant allele -50T of the CYP2J2 gene was significantly higher in asthmatic patients than in healthy subjects (odds ratio [OR], 5.04; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.99 to 12.77; p = 0.0003). In addition, the heterozygous genotype -50GT of the CYP2J2 gene was found to be significantly associated with susceptibility to allergic asthma (OR, 5.40; 95% CI, 2.05 to 14.26; p = 0.0003) as well as nonallergic asthma (OR, 5.77; 95% CI, 1.84 to 18.10; p = 0.004). The associations of the CYP2J2 gene G-50T polymorphism with asthma remained significant after adjustment for age and gender using multiple logistic regression analysis. CONCLUSIONS Our data demonstrate for the first time that the CYP2J2 gene might be considered as a novel candidate gene for common susceptibility to asthma and highlight the importance of the P-450 epoxygenase pathway of metabolism of arachidonic acid in the pathogenesis of the disease.
Association between carotid intima-media thickness and presence of coronary artery disease in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients

Objective: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD). Carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) is the sign of subclinical atherosclerosis. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate whether CIMT measurement is related with significant coronary artery disease (CAD) in patients with COPD, similar to those without COPD. Methods: One hundred and eight patients with previously diagnosed COPD and 78 patients without COPD who underwent coronary angiography (CAG) were enrolled in this prospective cross-sectional study. Carotid artery ultrasonography was performed on all patients after coronary angiography by another operator who was blind to the CAG results. The patients were divided into four subgroups as follows: group 1: COPD (-) and CAD (-); group 2: COPD (-) and CAD (+); group 3: COPD (+) and CAD (+); and group 4: COPD (+) and CAD (-). Patients with previous coronary revascularization, carotid artery disease, and lung disease other than COPD were not enrolled in this study. The student’s t-test, chi-square analysis, multiple logistic regression analysis, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve were used for statistical analysis. Results: CIMT was found to be highest in patients with both significant CAD and COPD (group 3) (p<0.05). Among the 108 COPD patients, the odds ratio associated with the CIMT >1.25 mm to predict CAD was 12.4. The area under the ROC curve for a cut-off value of 1.25 mm for CIMT to predict CAD in COPD patients was calculated as 0.913, with a sensitivity of 89.7% and specificity of 86.7%. Conclusion: CIMT has a predictive value for the presence of CAD in patients with COPD. Further studies are needed to validate our results. (Anatol J Cardiol 2016; 16: 601-7)
Modulation of the attentional blink by differential resource allocation.

When one masked target (T2) follows another (T1) in close temporal proximity, identification accuracy of the second target is reduced for a period referred to as the attentional blink. Analysis of the attentional blink literature suggests that increasing the difficulty of T1 processing increases the magnitude of the blink. In a previous study that eliminated several untoward features of the typical attentional blink design (e.g., task switching, location switching, and stream contribution), we found no effect on blink magnitude when three levels of T1 difficulty (manipulated in a data-limited manner) were randomly intermixed. Here, when we repeated the previous study using a blocked manipulation of T1 difficulty, which is characteristic of the literature, a significant positive relation between T1 difficulty and blink magnitude was found. Resource allocation put in place to encode T1 in advance of a dual-target trial thus seems to be the critical factor in mediating this relation.
Sonographic Measurements of the Thymus in Male and Female Fetuses

Objective. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the size of the thymus is different in male and female fetuses. Methods. In this prospective study, the transverse diameter and perimeter of the thymus were measured in healthy fetuses between 24 and 37 weeks' gestation. The means of the study variables from male and female fetuses were compared by the Student t test, and the relationships between the transverse diameter and perimeter of the thymus and gestational age and other common fetal biometric parameters were determined by linear regression modeling. Results. No differences were noted between male and female fetuses for the means of the study variables. After the relationship between the transverse diameter and perimeter of the thymus and gestational age was confirmed (R2 = 0.8 and 0.75, respectively; both P < .01), the 95% confidence interval–predicted changes were calculated, and the scatterplots of the measurements suggested that sex did not affect the size of the thymus. Bland‐Altman plots were used to analyze intraobserver variability and showed good agreement for both of these thymic measurements for male and female fetuses. Conclusions. These results suggest that fetal sex does not affect the size of the thymus and, together with previous reports, support the hypothesis that a quantitative reduction in fetal thymus size could serve as an indirect marker of abnormal thymopoiesis and congenital thymic insufficiency.
The Carnegie Supernova Project

The Carnegie Supernova Project (CSP) is aimed at providing an independent measure of change in the the Hubble expansion as a function of redshift, and setting constraints dark energy contribution to the total energy content of the universe. Using type Ia supernovae (SNIa), the CSP differs from other projects to date in its goal of providing an I-band restframe Hubble diagram. The CSP is focused on testing for and reducing systematic uncertainties, obtaining a sample of multiwavelength observations of approximately 200 supernovae over the redshift range 0 < z < 0.6. The UBVRIYJHK data for low-redshift supernova are intended to provide a database for the determination of the Hubble constant, accurate K- and S-corrections, comparison with theoretical models of supernovae, and for comparison with the RIYJ data of high-redshift supernovae. The goal is to measure the evolution of the expansion rate, to characterize the acceleration of the Universe, and constrain the equation of state, w, to a precision and accuracy of 10%. We are also exploring the use of Type II SNae as independent distance indicators. Following an ongoing, initial test period, the project has begun during the fall of 2004. Here an overview of the project is given, and some preliminary results from the pilot program are presented.
p35, the Neuronal-specific Activator of Cyclin-dependent Kinase 5 (Cdk5) Is Degraded by the Ubiquitin-Proteasome Pathway*

Cyclin-dependent kinase 5 (Cdk5) was originally isolated by its close homology to the human CDC2gene, which is a key regulator of cell cycle progression. However, unlike other Cdks, the activity of Cdk5 is required in post-mitotic neurons. The neuronal-specific p35 protein, which shares no homology to cyclins, was identified by virtue of its association and activation of Cdk5. Gene targeting studies in mice have shown that the p35/Cdk5 kinase is required for the proper neuronal migration and development of the mammalian cortex. We have investigated the regulation of the p35/Cdk5 kinase. Here we show that p35, the activator of Cdk5, is a short-lived protein with a half-life (t 1/2) of 20 to 30 min. Specific proteasome inhibitors such as lactacystin greatly stabilize p35 in vivo. Ubiquitination of p35 can be readily demonstrated in vitro and in vivo. Inhibition of Cdk5 activity by a specific Cdk inhibitor, roscovitine, or by overexpression of a dominant negative mutant of Cdk5 increases the stability of p35 by 2- to 3-fold. Furthermore, phosphorylation mutants of p35 also stabilize p35 2- to 3-fold. Together, these observations demonstrate that the p35/Cdk5 kinase can be subject to rapid turnover in vivo and suggest that phosphorylation of p35 upon Cdk5 kinase activation plays a autoregulatory role in p35 degradation mediated by ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis.
A dual-element MIMO antenna system with a mm-wave antenna array

In this paper, an integrated antenna system is proposed for existing 4G as well as upcoming 5G broad-band communication systems. The integrated solution is a combination of a microwave multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) antenna system along with a millimeter(mm)-wave antenna array. The MIMO antennas are operating over a wide-band covering several well-known wireless standards between 1870 ~ 2530 MHz, while the mm-wave antenna array is operating at 28 GHz with a minimum bandwidth of 1.7 GHz. The proposed design is simple in structure and with low profile antenna elements. The integrated antenna system is fabricated on a multi-layer printed circuit board of typical smart phone handset size. The dimensions of the fabricated board are 60×100×0.965 mm3. The proposed design is suitable for small wireless handheld devices and mobile terminals complying with both 4G and 5G standards.
Revised WHO classification and treatment of childhood pneumonia at health facilities

Original recommendations for pneumonia case management were based on data generated in the 1970s and early 1980s. These recommendations have recently been modified and published as a result of new evidence, reviewed and assessed in two consultations.1,2 A separate document presents summaries of the studies reviewed, the main findings, and the subsequent revised recommendations for the management of childhood pneumonia. Oral amoxicillin was identified as the recommended first-line antibiotic. The number of categories of severity of pneumonia was reduced from three to two, and the treatment regimen was simplified to a three or five-day course of oral amoxicillin, depending on the prevalence of HIV. In countries with a high burden of pneumonia, implementation of the revised guidelines will increase the proportion of children receiving care at the outpatient or community levels, reduce the need for referrals, and improve treatment outcomes.
Regulatory peptides in Barrett's oesophagus

Barrett's epithelium refers to the presence of ectopic mucosal types in the squamous‐lined oesophagus. Previous studies have documented argentaffin and argyrophil‐positive cells as well as gastrin‐like immunoreactivity in oesopha‐geal tissue extracts from patients with Barrett's mucosa. In the present study, 125 oesophageal biopsies obtained under direct vision at endoscopy from 22 patients with Barrett's oesophagus were systematically studied using fluorescence and peroxidase antiperoxidase single and double‐staining immunocytochemical methods employing highly specific antibodies to localize the following peptide‐containing cell types in Barrett's mucosa: gastrin, somatostatin, gastric inhibitory polypeptide, motilin, neurotensin and pancreatic glucagon. In addition, EC cells were localized using a cytochemical silver staining method. The results of this study indicate that EC cells and gastrin‐ and somatostatin‐containing endocrine cells are detectable in Barrett's epithelium.
Comparison of Speech Features on the Speech Recognition Task

In the present work we overview some recently proposed discrete Fourier transform (DFT)- and discrete wavelet packet transform (DWPT)-based speech parameterization methods and evaluate their performance on the speech recognition task. Specifically, in order to assess the practical value of these less studied speech parameterization methods, we evaluate them in a common experimental setup and compare their performance against traditional techniques, such as the Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCC) and perceptual linear predictive (PLP) cepstral coefficients which presently dominate the speech recognition field. In particular, utilizing the well established TIMIT speech corpus and employing the Sphinx-III speech recognizer, we present comparative results of 8 different speech parameterization techniques.
Accelerating Markov chain Monte Carlo via parallel predictive prefetching

We present a general framework for accelerating a large class of widely used Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithms. This dissertation demonstrates that MCMC inference can be accelerated in a model of parallel computation that uses speculation to predict and complete computational work ahead of when it is known to be useful. By exploiting fast, iterative approximations to the target density, we can speculatively evaluate many potential future steps of the chain in parallel. In Bayesian inference problems, this approach can accelerate sampling from the target distribution, without compromising exactness, by exploiting subsets of data. It takes advantage of whatever parallel resources are available, but produces results exactly equivalent to standard serial execution. In the initial burn-in phase of chain evaluation, it achieves speedup over serial evaluation that is close to linear in the number of available cores.