Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Low-dose naltrexone for the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome

Purpose: Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a common and often debilitating syndrome of abdominal pain or discomfort, accompanied by a change in bowel habits. The efficacy and safety of current pharmacological treatment is questionable. Previous studies have shown that very low doses of an opiate antagonist, such as naltrexone, block excitatory but not inhibitory opioid receptors. While the etiology of IBS remains elusive, we speculate that opioid receptors in the gut might be converting from an inhibitory state to an excitatory state in patients with IBS. If so, it stands to reason that an experimental drug, PTI-901 (low-dose naltrexone), might relieve abdominal pain in IBS patients by reversing opioid receptors in the gut back to an inhibitory state. Our aim was to assess the efficacy and safety of PTI-901 for the treatment of IBS.
Media(ted)discourses and climate change: a focus on political subjectivity and (dis)engagement

Research has shown that the media are the main source of information and the main factor shaping people's awareness and concern in relation to climate change and therefore have an important role in setting the public agenda. As a key forum for the production, reproduction, and transformation of the meaning of public issues, the media influence understandings of risks, responsibilities, as well as the functioning of democratic politics. This article argues that the media also matter to citizens' perception of their (potential) political agency or their political subjectivity. Media representations construct particular ‘subject positions’ for individuals and cultivate dispositions to action or inaction. The article discusses the importance of citizens' political engagement with climate change and points out some aspects of media(ted) discourses that may constrain the perceived possibilities of participation in the politics of climate change. While engagement with climate change has multiple dimensions and a number of barriers have been identified through empirical studies, this article offers a critique of the role of the media in political engagement with the problem and suggests avenues for future research. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Asynchronously assisted FPGA for variability

The effect of variability has become increasingly significant as a result of technology geometry scaling. This paper describes Asynchronous Assisting Logic (AAL) blocks and the method of introducing them into modern FPGA architecture, in order to increase tolerance of the wide range latency variations caused by parametric variation, and temperature and supply voltage fluctuations. The proposed method leverages the availability of variation maps and suggests deploying configurable AAL blocks only into the variation critical paths - reinforcing rather rerouting/remapping. This method reduces the size overhead significantly which normally will be incurred by fully asynchronous designs. The proposed technique maintains the existing FPGA architecture allowing potential reuse of design flow. Simulations show correct functionality given regularly variable, randomly variable and capacitor switching energy harvester voltage supplies.
Integrity Auditing of Outsourced Data

An increasing number of enterprises outsource their IT services to third parties who can offer these services for a much lower cost due to economy of scale. Quality of service is a major concern in outsourcing. In particular, query integrity, which means that query results returned by the service provider are both correct and complete, must be assured. Previous work requires clients to manage data locally to audit the results sent back by the server, or database engine to be modified for generating authenticated results. In this paper, we introduce a novel integrity audit mechanism that eliminating these costly requirements. In our approach, we insert a small amount of records into an outsourced database so that the integrity of the system can be effectively audited by analyzing the inserted records in the query results. We study both randomized and deterministic approaches for generating the inserted records, as how these records are generated has significant implications for storage and performance. Furthermore, we show that our method is provable secure, which means it can withstand any attacks by an adversary whose computation power is bounded. Our analytical and empirical results demonstrate the effectiveness of our method.
Code-mixing in mother-child interaction in deaf families

In this paper we discuss the mixed language input of four deaf mothers and the mixed output of their three deaf and three hearing children. Taking a strict definition of code-mixing (as defined by Muysken 2000) we find that the deaf mothers mainly use a form of code-mixing, or mixed code-blending, called congruent lexicalization, which results in a mixed form between NGT (Sign Language of the Netherlands) and Dutch in a structure which is compatible with both NGT and Dutch. The deaf children (up to 3 years), who are only just beginning to become bilingual, hardly produce any code-mixed utterances. The hearing children, however, are clearly bilingual in NGT and Dutch, and use code-blending of the mixed type in more or less the same form as their mother does.
Correlation by Compression

Discovering correlated variables is one of the core problems in data analysis. Many measures for correlation have been proposed, yet it is surprisingly ill-defined in general. That is, most, if not all, measures make very strong assumptions on the data distribution or type of dependency they can detect. In this work, we provide a general theory on correlation, without making any such assumptions. Simply put, we propose correlation by compression. To this end, we propose two correlation measures based on solid information theoretic foundations, i.e. Kolmogorov complexity. The proposed correlation measures possess interesting properties desirable for any sensible correlation measure. However, Kolmogorov complexity is not computable, and hence we propose practical and computable instantiations based on the Minimum Description Length (MDL) principle. In practice, we can apply the proposed measures on any type of data by instantiating them with any lossless real-world compressors that reward dependencies. Extensive experiments show that the correlation measures works well in practice, have high statistical power, and find meaningful correlations on binary data, while they are easily extendible to other data types.
Persistent Diastolic Dysfunction Late After Valve Replacement in Severe Aortic Regurgitation

Background— Regression of left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy with normalization of diastolic function has been reported in patients with aortic stenosis late after aortic valve replacement (AVR). The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effect of AVR on LV function and structure in chronic aortic regurgitation early and late after AVR. Methods and Results— Twenty-six patients were included in the present analysis. Eleven patients with severe aortic regurgitation were studied before, early (21 months) and late (89 months) after AVR through the use of LV biplane angiograms, high-fidelity pressure measurements, and LV endomyocardial biopsies. Fifteen healthy subjects were used as controls. LV systolic function was determined from biplane ejection fraction and midwall fractional shortening. LV diastolic function was calculated from the time constant of LV relaxation, peak filling rates, and myocardial stiffness constant. LV structure was assessed from muscle fiber diameter, interstitial fibrosis, and fibrous content. LV muscle mass decreased significantly by 38% early and 55% late after surgery. Ejection fraction was significantly reduced preoperatively and did not change after AVR (P=NS). LV relaxation was significantly prolonged before surgery (89±28 ms) but was normalized late after AVR (42±14 ms). Early and late peak filling rates were increased preoperatively but normalized postoperatively. Diastolic stiffness constant was increased before surgery (22±6 versus 9±3 in control subjects; P=0.0003) and remained elevated early and late after AVR (23±4; P=0.002). Muscle fiber diameter decreased significantly after AVR but remained increased at late follow-up. Interstitial fibrosis was increased preoperatively and increased even further early but decreased late after AVR. Fibrosis was positively linearly correlated to myocardial stiffness and inversely correlated to LV ejection fraction. Conclusions— Patients with aortic regurgitation show normalization of macroscopic LV hypertrophy late after AVR, although fiber hypertrophy persists. These changes in LV myocardial structure late after AVR are accompanied by a change in passive elastic properties with persistent diastolic dysfunction. Clinical Trial Registration— URL: http://www.clinicaltrial. gov. Unique identifier: NCT00976625.
Does Audience Skepticism of the Media Matter in Agenda Setting?

This article explores whether skepticism towards the media moderates agenda setting effects. It is hypothesized that agenda setting will be weaker for those who mistrust the media. This hypothesis was tested on three large-sample data sets. The findings show that the aggregate-level correlation of media and public agenda was weaker for skeptics, compared to non-skeptics. On the individual level, there was a significant association between skepticism and the perception of the most important problem facing the nation, controlling for various demographic and political variables.
An Artificial Discourse Language for Collaborative Negotiation

Collaborations to accomplish common goals necessitate negotiation to share and reach agreement on the beliefs that agents hold as part of the collaboration. Negotiation in communication can be simulated by a series of exchanges in which agents propose, reject, counterpropose or seek supporting information for beliefs they wish to be held mutually. In an artificial language of negotiation, messages display the state of the agents' beliefs. Dialogues consisting of such messages clarify the means by which agents come to agree or fail to agree on mutual beliefs and individual intentions.
Host Cell Factors in Filovirus Entry: Novel Players, New Insights

Filoviruses cause severe hemorrhagic fever in humans with high case-fatality rates. The cellular factors exploited by filoviruses for their spread constitute potential targets for intervention, but are incompletely defined. The viral glycoprotein (GP) mediates filovirus entry into host cells. Recent studies revealed important insights into the host cell molecules engaged by GP for cellular entry. The binding of GP to cellular lectins was found to concentrate virions onto susceptible cells and might contribute to the early and sustained infection of macrophages and dendritic cells, important viral targets. Tyrosine kinase receptors were shown to promote macropinocytic uptake of filoviruses into a subset of susceptible cells without binding to GP, while interactions between GP and human T cell Ig mucin 1 (TIM-1) might contribute to filovirus infection of mucosal epithelial cells. Moreover, GP engagement of the cholesterol transporter Niemann-Pick C1 was demonstrated to be essential for GP-mediated fusion of the viral envelope with a host cell membrane. Finally, mutagenic and structural analyses defined GP domains which interact with these host cell factors. Here, we will review the recent progress in elucidating the molecular interactions underlying filovirus entry and discuss their implications for our understanding of the viral cell tropism.
A wide-tuning range 1.8 GHz quadrature VCO utilizing coupled ring oscillators

This paper presents a fully integrated 1.8 GHz, 0.35-mum CMOS quadrature voltage-controlled oscillator (QVCO) design. The topology uses coupled ring oscillators to produce quadrature outputs. In order to gain better phase noise performance LC-based filtering is introduced to QVCO. Also using variable inductance concept, a 1.2 GHz tuning range is achieved. According to simulation results, proposed QVCO draws 26.1 mA from 3.3V supply and exhibits a worst-case phase noise of -117.3 dBc/Hz at 1-MHz offset over the tuning range
Sharing of variables among threads in heterogeneous grid systems by Aspect-Oriented Programming

Nowadays, the need for grid systems is becoming more and more relevant to applications demanding either large amount of data storage or computation. In this paper, we propose an approach that permits thread’s distribution in hetereogenous grid systems without any middleware layer or thread’s API modifications so that the programmer feels comfortable and shares variables in complete transparency. In order to achieve this task, we will use the Aspect-Oriented Programming and Java’s mechanism such as introspection and RMI.
Comparison of pedometer and accelerometer accuracy under controlled conditions.

PURPOSE The purpose of this investigation was to compare the concurrent accuracy of the CSA accelerometer and the Yamax pedometer under two conditions: 1) on a treadmill at five different speeds and 2) riding in a motorized vehicle on paved roads. METHODS In study 1, motion sensor performance was evaluated against actual steps taken during 5-min bouts at five different treadmill walking speeds (54, 67, 80, 94, and 107 m.min-1). In study 2, performance was evaluated during a roundtrip (drive 1 and drive 2) motor vehicle travel on paved roads (total distance traveled was 32.6 km or 20.4 miles). Any steps detected during motor vehicle travel were considered error. RESULTS In study 1, the Yamax pedometer detected significantly (P < 0.05) fewer steps than actually taken at the slowest treadmill speed (54 m.min-1). Further, the pedometer detected fewer steps than the accelerometer at this speed (75.4% vs 98.9%, P < 0.05). There were no differences between instruments compared with actual steps taken at all other walking speeds. In study 2, the CSA detected approximately 17-fold more erroneous steps than the pedometer (approximately 250 vs 15 steps for the total distance traveled, P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS The magnitude of the error (for either instrument) is not likely an important threat to the assessment of free-living ambulatory populations but may be a problem for pedometers when monitoring frail older adults with slow gaits. On the other hand, CSA accelerometers erroneously detect more nonsteps than the Yamax pedometer under typical motor vehicle traveling conditions. This threat to validity is likely only problematic when using the accelerometer to assess physical activity in sedentary individuals who travel extensively by motor vehicle.
Murine CD8+ Recent Thymic Emigrants are αE Integrin-Positive and CC Chemokine Ligand 25 Responsive1

Recent thymic emigrants (RTE) are an important subpopulation of naive CD8+ T cells because of their ability to reconstitute a diverse immune system after periods of T cell depletion. In neonatal mice, the majority of peripheral T lymphocytes are RTE, cells that have recently left the thymus to populate the periphery. Postulating that these cells could have unique trafficking mechanisms, we compared adhesion molecule and chemokine receptor expression of neonatal RTE with mature adult lymphocytes. Neonatal CD8+ splenocytes uniformly express αE integrin and exhibit a high responsiveness to CC chemokine ligand (CCL25) (as compared with adult CD8+ splenocytes). Mature CD8+ thymocytes have a similar αE integrin+ CCL25 responsive phenotype, as do adult CD8+ RTE identified by intrathymic FITC injection. With increasing age, the frequency of CD8+ αE integrin+ splenocytes decreases, roughly correlating with thymic involution. Moreover, halting thymic output by thymectomy accelerates the age-dependent decline in peripheral CD8+ αE integrin+ RTE phenotype cells. Low expression of CD44 distinguishes these CD8+ RTE from a population of memory phenotype αE integrin+ CD8+ cells that are CD44high. We conclude that CD8+ RTE have unique adhesive and chemotactic properties that distinguish them from naive CD8+ T cells. These properties may enable specialized microenvironmental and cell-cell interactions contributing to the fate of RTE in the periphery during the early post-thymic period. This phenotype will also facilitate the identification and isolation of RTE for further studies.
Levosimendan: A Cardiovascular Drug to Prevent Liver Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury?

Introduction Temporary occlusion of the hepatoduodenal ligament leads to an ischemic-reperfusion (IR) injury in the liver. Levosimendan is a new positive inotropic drug, which induces preconditioning-like adaptive mechanisms due to opening of mitochondrial KATP channels. The aim of this study was to examine possible protective effects of levosimendan in a rat model of hepatic IR injury. Material and Methods Levosimendan was administered to male Wistar rats 1 hour (early pretreatment) or 24 hours (late pretreatment) before induction of 60-minute segmental liver ischemia. Microcirculation of the liver was monitored by laser Doppler flowmeter. After 24 hours of reperfusion, liver and blood samples were taken for histology, immuno- and enzyme-histochemistry (TUNEL; PARP; NADH-TR) as well as for laboratory tests. Furthermore, liver antioxidant status was assessed and HSP72 expression was measured. Results In both groups pretreated with levosimendan, significantly better hepatic microcirculation was observed compared to respective IR control groups. Similarly, histological damage was also reduced after levosimendan administration. This observation was supported by significantly lower activities of serum ALT (pearly = 0.02; plate = 0.005), AST (pearly = 0.02; plate = 0.004) and less DNA damage by TUNEL test (pearly = 0.05; plate = 0.034) and PAR positivity (pearly = 0.02; plate = 0.04). Levosimendan pretreatment resulted in significant improvement of liver redox homeostasis. Further, significantly better mitochondrial function was detected in animals receiving late pretreatment. Finally, HSP72 expression was increased by IR injury, but it was not affected by levosimendan pretreatment. Conclusion Levosimendan pretreatment can be hepatoprotective and it could be useful before extensive liver resection.
The Maternally Inheritable Wolbachia wAlbB Induces Refractoriness to Plasmodium berghei in Anopheles stephensi

The endosymbiont Wolbachia wAlbB induces refractoriness to Plasmodium falciparum in Anopheles stephensi, the primary mosquito vector of human malaria in the Middle East and South Asia. However, it remains unknown whether such refractoriness can be extended to other malaria species. In particular, it was reported that under very specific conditions, wAlbB can enhance Plasmodium infection in some hosts. Here, we measured the impact of wAlbB on the rodent malaria parasite Plasmodium berghei in A. stephensi by comparing the load of oocysts and sporozoites in midguts and salivary glands, respectively, between wAlbB-infected and -uninfected mosquitoes. To investigate whether wAlbB modulated mosquito immune defense against parasites, we compared the expression of the immune genes, which were previously reported to involve in antimalarial response, in both midguts and the remaining carcass tissues of mosquitoes. The stable association of wAlbB with A. stephensi resulted in reduction of parasites by more than half at the oocyst stage, and up to 91.8% at the sporzoite stage. The anti-plasmodium immune genes, including TEP1, LRIM1, Toll pathway gene Rel1 and the effector Defensin 1, were induced by wAlbB in different mosquito body tissues. These findings suggest that immune priming is a potential cause of wAlbB-mediated antimalarial response in A. stephensi. More importantly, no evidence was found for any enhancement of Plasmodium infection in A. stephensi stably infected with wAlbB. We discuss these findings with possible implementations of Wolbachia for malaria control in disease endemic areas.
The independence of the Prime Ideal Theorem from the Order-Extension Principle

Abstract It is shown that the boolean prime ideal theorem BPIT: every boolean algebra has a prime ideal, does not follow from the order-extension principle OE: every partial ordering can be extended to a linear ordering. The proof uses a Fraenkel–Mostowski model, where the family of atoms is indexed by a countable universal-homogeneous boolean algebra whose boolean partial ordering has a ‘generic’ extension to a linear ordering. To illustrate the technique for proving that the order-extension principle holds in the model we also study Mostowski's ordered model, and give a direct verification of OE there. The key technical point needed to verify OE in each case is the existence of a support structure.
The Direct and Cross-Examination of Complainants and Defendants in Rape Trials: A Quantitative Analysis of Question Type

This paper is a post-hoc examination of the questioning used in six rape trials. Questions asked in the evidence-in-chief and cross-examination of six complainants and five defendants were coded into different categories. The categories comprised "open", "closed", "leading", "heavily-leading" and "yes/no" questions; questions that are known to increasingly constrain witness responses. Additionally, the frequency of "multiple questions", and questions with "negatives" and "double negatives" were recorded; questions that witnesses have difficulty understanding. Broadly speaking, results showed that questions in both evidence-in-chief and cross-examination were of a constraining nature and allowed witnesses little opportunity to provide complete accounts of alleged events, particularly during cross-examination. Multiple questions were frequent although negatives were comparatively rare, and double negatives did not occur. Similar forms of questioning were used for complainants as for defendants, although more questions were asked of complainants than defendants in cross-examination. The results are discussed in terms of the adverse influence of these questioning strategies on the completeness and accuracy of witnesses' responses, and the similarity in "combativeness" of lawyers in their examination of complainants and defendants.
Accuracy of external form of individual trees acquired by high-resolution airborne LiDAR

This study examined the accuracy of external form assessments of individual trees acquired by high-resolution airborne LiDAR in an urban area. The airborne LiDAR points obtained for the crown surface were extracted using multiple extraction intervals. The spatial accuracy of these points was then verified using the terrestrial LiDAR data. The external form of the tree crown was then reconstructed using voxels. External voxels that include one or more points were extracted as areas in which foliage was distributed. The distribution accuracy of the extracted voxels was verified by comparing with the data against terrestrial LiDAR data. The reasons for voxels not being extracted by the airborne LiDAR were also investigated using the Leaf Area Density in voxels derived from terrestrial LiDAR.
Dyadic Play in Hamadryas Baboons

Play behavior was observed in a captive group of four juvenile Hamadryas baboons at the Brookfield Zoo, Brookfield, Illinois, U.S.A. The group consisted of a male, aged 37 months, a female, aged 28 months and two young males aged 16 and 11 months at the beginning of the 3 month study. Tape recorded commentary of 1006 play bouts was analyzed, and this data was supplemented with material gathered by other methods. Three play behaviors - chase, face-off, and wrestling - and two "adult" behaviors - aggression/submission and grooming - were identified. These behaviors were found to be ordered temporally and socially. Sequences of behavior were nonrandom and highly predictable. Amount of time played, play partnerships and types of play behaviors displayed varied with the age and sex of the animals. The "adult" patterns were found with greater frequency in the older animals, wrestling in the younger ones. The chase-face-off sequence was largely confined to males. These results suggest that the development and sequencing of play are important questions for further investigation.