Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Regulation of glial development by cystatin C

Cystatin C (CysC) is an endogenous cysteine proteases inhibitor produced by mature astrocytes in the adult brain. Previously we isolated CysC as a factor activating the glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) promoter, and showed that CysC is expressed in astrocyte progenitors during development. Here we show that protease inhibitor activity increased daily in conditioned medium, and that this activity was mainly a result of CysC released from primary cultured cells. Human CysC added to the culture medium of primary brain cells increased the number of GFAP‐positive and nestin‐positive cells. Human CysC also increased the number of neurospheres formed from embryonic brain, and thus it increases the number of neural stem/precursor cells in a manner similar to glycosylated rat CysC. The addition of a neutralizing antibody, on the other hand, greatly decreased the number of GFAP and glutamate aspartate transporter (GLAST)‐positive astrocytes. This decrease was reversed by the addition of CysC but not by another cysteine protease inhibitor. Thus, the promotion of astrocyte development by CysC appears to be independent of its protease inhibitor activity. The antibody increased the number of oligodendrocytes and their precursors. Therefore, CysC modifies glial development in addition to its activity against neural stem/precursor cells.
A Survey on the Automatic Indexing of Video Data,

Today a considerable amount of video data in multimedia databases requires sophisticated indices for its effective use. Manual indexing is the most effective method to do this, but it is also the slowest and the most expensive. Automated methods have then to be developed. This paper surveys several approaches and algorithms that have been recently proposed to automatically structure audio? visual data, both for annotation and access.
Leucine catabolism in mammary tissue, liver and skeletal muscle of dam rat during lactation and weaning.

BACKGROUND This study was designed to determine the effect of lactation and weaning on the catabolism of branched-chain amino acids (BCAA). METHODS Rates of transamination and oxidation of leucine and branched chain alpha-ketoacid dehydrogenase (BCKD) activity were measured in homogenates of mammary gland, skeletal muscle and liver on day 12 of lactation and 24 h after separation of dams from the litter (weaning). RESULTS Lactating dams consumed 250% more protein than control rats, extra protein is required for protein synthesis by the mammary gland, the extent to which the excess of amino acids consumed during lactation is utilized or oxidized by different tissues is not known. The rate of transamination of [1-14C] leucine by mammary tissue of lactating dams was sixfold higher than in virgin rats. The rate of transamination remained elevated fourfold in postweaning dams. Rates of transamination were three times higher in mammary tissue than in muscle of lactating dams. Rate of oxidation [1-14C] leucine by lactating mammary tissue was tenfold higher than in control tissue. CONCLUSIONS The capacity of mammary tissue for transamination and oxidation of leucine increased greatly during lactation, suggesting that the mammary gland may play an important role in the catabolism of BCAA during lactation.
Neurobehavioral Outcomes After Early Versus Late Childhood Traumatic Brain Injury

ObjectivesTo examine differences in outcomes at transition age (17–21 years) between individuals who sustained complicated mild-to-severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) in early or middle childhood and those who were injured in late adolescence. ParticipantsFifteen persons who sustained TBI between the ages of 6 and 12 years (early-onset) and 30 persons who sustained TBI between the ages of 16 and 20 years (late-onset). MeasuresPeabody Picture Vocabulary Test—Third Edition, Trail-Making Test, Buschke Selective Reminding Test, Benton Visual Retention Test, Dysexecutive Questionnaire, Community Integration Questionnaire, Satisfaction with Life Scale. ResultsThe groups did not differ in overall cognitive ability level, postinjury education or vocational accomplishments, or current living situation. However the early-onset group demonstrated worse outcomes in higher-level cognitive skills, social integration, driving, and legal guardianship. ConclusionsComplicated mild-to-severe TBI earlier in childhood is associated with worse long-term neurocognitive and psychosocial outcomes than injury sustained in late adolescence. Findings provide further support for theories that early brain injury onset interferes with development of immature or rapidly developing skills, and may be associated with further magnification of deficits during the course of later development.
Intra-airway gas transport during high-frequency chest vibration with tracheal insufflation in dogs.

High-frequency external chest vibration with tracheal insufflation (high-frequency vibration ventilation) has previously been shown to be an effective mode of artificial ventilation in experimental animals. To investigate the intra-airway gas mixing during high-frequency vibration ventilation (frequency 30 Hz, amplitude 0.4 cm), we used an analysis of the single-breath washout curve that gives the vibration-induced mixing coefficient distribution relative to the no-vibration situation. Data from four anesthetized dogs were collected during constant-flow insufflation at six rates (0.05-0.4 l.min-1.kg-1), at three insufflation durations (2, 4, and 7 s), and with the insufflation catheter outlet at three positions (carina, trachea, and a bronchus) while the vibration was on and off. Vibration enhanced intra-airway gas mixing 14.1 +/- 3.9-fold, with the peak of the enhancement distribution located 125 +/- 29 ml from the airway opening and a distribution width of 121 +/- 29 ml. As insufflation flow increased, the position of the peak enhancement shifted toward the alveolar zone and diminished in peak amplitude. Changing the insufflation duration and the catheter position did not affect the intra-airway mixing induced by vibration. External chest vibration causes a substantial increase of intra-airway gas mixing, bringing alveolar gas to central airways. This leads to overall increased pulmonary gas transport when fresh gas is insufflating the tracheal carina area.
Mixed chimerism and graft failure following conditioning with the fludarabine and cyclophosphamide nonablative regimen; Conversion to full donor chimerism

Twenty‐one patients with hematologic malignancies were treated with the fludarabine (120–125 mg/m2) and cyclophosphamide (120 mg/kg) nonmyeloablative conditioning regimen. Graft versus host disease (GVHD) and graft rejection prophylaxis was with tacrolimus and mycophenolate mofetil. Thirteen of the 21 patients (62%) had mixed chimerism (≤≤90% donor cells) at day 60 and 11 (52%) of these patients had mixed chimerism which persisted until day 100. Immunosuppression was discontinued in 12 of 13 patients and two of them converted to full chimerism by day 100. Eight patients received a donor lymphocyte infusion (DLI) and five of them converted to full donor chimerism with DLI alone. Two patients were given GM‐CSF in addition to a DLI with conversion to full donor chimerism. Three patients (14%) had graft failure requiring a second transplant using fludarabine (125 mg/m2) and melphalan (140 mg/m2). With a median followup of 2.8 years, 15 patients are alive—one with disease and 14 with no disease. Two patients died of acute GVHD, one of chronic GVHD, and three due to progressive disease. We conclude that the nonmyeloablative fludarabine/cyclophosphamide regimen results in a significant incidence of mixed chimerism and graft rejection but is well tolerated. We suggest a more intense regimen, such as fludarabine and melphalan, be used in patients with a high risk of early disease progression to establish early engraftment and graft versus tumor effect. Am. J. Hematol. , 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Effects of Temperature on Early-Phase Transmission of Yersina pestis by the Flea, Xenopsylla cheopis

ABSTRACT Sharp declines in human and animal cases of plague, caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis (Yersin), have been observed when outbreaks coincide with hot weather. Failure of biofilm production, or blockage, to occur in the flea, as temperatures reach 30°C has been suggested as an explanation for these declines. Recent work demonstrating efficient flea transmission during the first few days after fleas have taken an infectious blood meal, in the absence of blockage (e.g., early-phase transmission), however, has called this hypothesis into question. To explore the potential effects of temperature on early-phase transmission, we infected colony-reared Xenopsylla cheopis (Rothchild) fleas with a wild-type strain of plague bacteria using an artificial feeding system, and held groups of fleas at 10, 23, 27, and 30°C. Naive Swiss Webster mice were exposed to fleas from each of these temperatures on days 1–4 postinfection, and monitored for signs of infection for 21 d. Temperature did not significantly influence the rates of transmission observed for fleas held at 23, 27, and 30°C. Estimated per flea transmission efficiencies for these higher temperatures ranged from 2.32 to 4.96% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.96–8.74). In contrast, no transmission was observed in mice challenged by fleas held at 10°C (per flea transmission efficiency estimates, 0–1.68%). These results suggest that declines in human and animal cases during hot weather are not related to changes in the abilities of X. cheopis fleas to transmit Y. pestis infections during the early-phase period. By contrast, transmission may be delayed or inhibited at low temperatures, indicating that epizootic spread of Y. pestis by X. cheopis via early-phase transmission is unlikely during colder periods of the year.
Efficient computation of meson and four-quark correlation functions

This work deals with the efficiency of different methods for computing correlation functions of bound states in twisted mass lattice QCD with Nf = 2 flavors of seaquarks. In particular, the focus will be on pseudo-scalar and scalar meson correlators as well as correlation functions generated by a four-quark operator. The main part of this thesis will be the comparison of three methods used to compute the quark propagator, namely the point-source method, the stochastic-source method and the one-end trick. All possible combinations of three valence quark masses which corresponds to light, strange and charmed mesons will be studied. For the four-quark study, the focus of this work will be on four-quark operators with the same quantum numbers as the D∗ s0 and a0(980) mesons. This work shows results for the connected part of their correlator as well as presents and compares methods to compute the singly disconnected part.
Self-hypnotic relaxation during interventional radiological procedures: effects on pain perception and intravenous drug use.

The authors evaluated whether self-hypnotic relaxation can reduce the need for intravenous conscious sedation during interventional radiological procedures. Sixteen patients were randomized to a test group, and 14 patients were randomized to a control group. All had patient-controlled analgesia. Test patients additionally had self-hypnotic relaxation and underwent a Hypnotic Induction Profile test. Compared to controls, test patients used less drugs (0.28 vs. 2.01 drug units; p < .01) and reported less pain (median pain rating 2 vs. 5 on a 0-10 scale; p < .01). Significantly more control patients exhibited oxygen desaturation and/or needed interruptions of their procedures for hemodynamic instability. Benefit did not correlate with hypnotizability. Self-hypnotic relaxation can reduce drug use and improve procedural safety.
A Novel Eight-level Inverter System for an Open-end Winding Induction Motor

A novel eight-level inverter scheme, for an open-end winding induction motor drive, is proposed in this paper. The open-end winding induction motor is fed from four-level inverter from one end and two-level inverter from the other end. The four-level inverter used in this proposed drive is realized by cascading three two-level inverters. The combined inverter system with open-end winding induction motor produces voltage space phasor levels identical to a conventional eight-level inverter. The proposed eight-level inverter configuration requires lesser number of switching devices as compared to the conventional eight-level inverter scheme. Similarly, lesser- isolated power supplies are required when compared to the cascaded H-bridge configuration. This inverter scheme does not experience neutral-point fluctuations. In the multi-level carrier based SPWM used for the proposed drive, a progressive discrete DC bias depending on the speed range is given to the reference wave to reduce the inverter switching.
Second order similarity for exploring multilingual textual databases (Similarité de second ordre pour l’exploration de bases textuelles multilingues) [in French]

RÉSUMÉ Cet article décrit l’utilisation de la technique de similarité de second ordre pour l’identification de textes semblables au sein d’une base de rapports d’incidents aéronautiques mélangeant les langues française et anglaise. L’objectif du système est, pour un document donné, de retrouver des documents au contenu similaire quelle que soit leur langue. Nous utilisons un corpus bilingue aligné de rapports d’accidents aéronautiques pour construire des paires de pivots et indexons les documents avec des vecteurs de similarités, tels que chaque coordonnée correspond au score de similarité entre un document dans une langue donnée et la partie du pivot de la même langue. Nous évaluons les performances du système sur un volumineux corpus de rapports d’incidents aéronautiques pour lesquels nous disposons de traductions. Les résultats sont prometteurs et valident la technique.
Factors Affecting the Learning of the Holy Quran among Severely and Profoundly Hearing-Impaired Children with a Cochlear Implant

The study aimed to examine three factors, namely self-factors, parental and teaching factors, which might affect the learning of the Arabic sounds used in the holy Quran among a group of Malay hearingimpaired children. This cross-sectional study involved fourteen severely and profoundly hearing-impaired children with a cochlear implant, aged between 8 to 15 years old, selected from those attending the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Cochlear Implant Program. The duration of cochlear implant experience was between 5 to 10 years. All subjects used oral communication mode and attended normal mainstream schools. A set of questionnaires was adapted and subjects were interviewed directly to fill up this questionnaire. In addition, the children were also asked to read a surah in the holy Quran and these readings were rated by an expert in the recitation of the Quran. Bivariate Pearson correlation analyses revealed significant positive correlations between self-factors and teaching factors with the reading scores. However, parents’ factors were insignificant. Stepwise multiple linear regression showed that self-factors were the only significant predicting factor and contributed about 55.1% of the variance seen in the reading scores suggesting self-factors were most significant to facilitate the learning of the holy Quran among hearing-impaired children with a cochlear implant.
Battleship : Byzantine Fault Tolerant Raft

We propose Battleship: a Byzantine Fault Tolerant version of the consensus protocol Raft [1]. Battleship retains Raft’s centralized nature, aligning with Raft’s original objective of an understandable consensus algorithm while maintaining safety, fault tolerance, and liveness under weak synchrony in a Byzantine environment. We implement a prototype of Battleship in Python, building off a previously existing open source implementation of Raft called Zatt [3].
Expert Decision-support Systems for Decision-making

Computers have made tremendous contributions towards transactional processing. However, the highest pay-off the computer can make is not in transactional processing but in decision-making. Recently, expert systems have just begun to be used in the decision-making process. Individual technologies alone are inadequate for an effective decision support. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the related issues in decision support and to develop an expert decision support system (EDSS) for combining decision support systems and expert systems into a unified whole for decision support. The emphasis will be on developing a DSS/ES model which can be used to integrate the traditional DSS database and ES knowledge-base for building a user-friendly EDSS.
CME and clinical competence: is it time for mandatory relicensure and recertification?

After 30 years of experience in developing CME programs for practicing physicians and 15 years as the responsible party of a CME office in a medical school, 1 have concluded that the medical profession must seriously consider a move in the direction of mandatory relicensure and recertification. A careful review of the literature as well as discussions with others working in the field have reinforced this conclusion. The term continuing medical education (CME) was adopted in 1960 to avoid confusion with graduate medical education which as currently used applies to residency programs. However, CME is as old as the profession; “I will impart knowledge of the art” is in the oath of Hippocrates. There have been organized teaching programs in this country long before the formalization of CME. The Physician’s Recognition Award (PRA) was established by the AMA in 1968. The basic requirement for this certificate was the completion of a total of 150 hours of CME during a three-year cycle with at least 60 hours provided by accredited sponsors, the so-called Category I credits. National accreditation of organizations providing CME initially started with the AMA and at present is the responsibility of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) composed of representatives of the AMA, the Association of American Medical Colleges, the American Board of Medical Specialties, the American Hospital Association, the Council on Medical Specialty Societies, the Federation of State Medical Boards, and the Association for Hospital Medical Education. ACCME is responsible for accreditation of organizations which have national or regional audiences of physicians. State medical societies are responsible for the accreditation of organizations that design CME activities for intrastate physicians. I have participated in the accreditation process through ACCME, since this is the route which medical schools must take for CME accreditation, and also on the state level as a member of the Accreditation Council of the Pennsylvania Medical Society. There is no doubt that the process is of the highest quality, but despite this cannot guarantee high quality medical care. Along with these rather sophisticated developments in the accreditation and review process has been another development, namely the requirement of CME
Genetic and Experimental Evidence for Cross-Species Infection by Swine Hepatitis E Virus

ABSTRACT Prior to the recent discovery of the swine hepatitis E virus (swine HEV) in pigs from the midwestern United States, HEV was not considered endemic to this country. Since swine HEV is antigenically and genetically related to human strains of HEV, it was important to characterize this new virus further. The infectivity titer of a pool of swine HEV in pigs was determined in order to prepare a standardized reagent and to evaluate the dose response in pigs. Although the sequence of swine HEV varied extensively from those of most human strains of HEV, it was very closely related to the two strains of human HEV (US-1 and US-2) isolated in the United States. The U.S. strains which were recently recovered from two patients with clinical hepatitis E in the United States shared ≥97% amino acid identity with swine HEV in open reading frames 1 and 2. Phylogenetic analyses of different regions of the genome revealed that swine HEV and the U.S. strains grouped together and formed a distinct branch. These results suggested that swine HEV may infect humans. When we inoculated rhesus monkeys and a chimpanzee, experimental surrogates of humans, with swine HEV, the primates became infected. Furthermore, in a reciprocal experiment, specific-pathogen-free pigs were experimentally infected with the US-2 strain of human HEV that is genetically similar to swine HEV. These results provided experimental evidence for cross-species infection by the swine virus. Thus, humans appear to be at risk of infection with swine HEV or closely related viruses.
Analysis of Driver Point of Regard Determinations with Eye-Gesture Templates Using Receiver Operating Characteristic

An Advance Driver Assistance System (ADAS) is a computer system on board a vehicle which is used to reduce the risk of vehicular accidents by monitoring factors relating to the driver, vehicle and environment and taking some action when a risk is identified. Much work has been done on assessing vehicle and environmental state but there is still comparatively little published work that tackles the problem of driver state. Visual attention is one such driver state. In fact, some researchers claim that lack of attention is the main cause of accidents as factors such as fatigue, alcohol or drug use, distraction and speeding all impair the driver’s capacity to pay attention to the vehicle and road conditions [1]. This seems to imply that the main cause of accidents is inappropriate driver behaviour in cases where the driver is not giving full attention while driving. The work presented in this paper proposes an ADAS system which uses an image based template matching algorithm to detect if a driver is failing to observe particular windscreen cells. This is achieved by dividing the windscreen into 24 uniform cells (4 rows of 6 columns) and matching video images of the driver’s left eye with eye-gesture templates drawn from images of the driver looking at the centre of each windscreen cell. The main contribution of this paper is to assess the accuracy of this approach using Receiver Operating Characteristic analysis. The results of our evaluation give a sensitivity value of 84.3% and a specificity value of 85.0% for the eye-gesture template approach indicating that it may be useful for driver point of regard determinations. Keywords—Advanced Driver Assistance Systems, Eye-Tracking, Hazard Detection.
Effects of renal sympathetic denervation using saline-irrigated radiofrequency ablation catheter on the activity of the renin-angiotensin system and endothelin-1

Introduction: Excessive activation of the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) are crucial and interacted closely in the pathogenesis of chronic cardiovascular diseases. This study investigated the effects of renal denervation (RDN) on the RAS. Materials and methods: Eight Chinese Kunming dogs underwent bilateral RDN utilizing saline-irrigated radiofrequency ablation catheter. Blood pressure (BP) measurements, blood sampling assays and renal angiography were performed at baseline, 30 min, one month and three months after ablation. Results: During three months of follow-up, RDN caused a significant and uniform reduction in plasma level of renin, angiotensin II, and endothelin-1(ET-1), with the reduction of –5.7±6.8 (p=0.049), –19.4±19.3 (p=0.025), and –22.4±21 pg/ml (p=0.02) for plasma renin, –10.6±7.2 (p=0.004), –15.9±8.8 (p=0.001), and –15.2±9.6 pg/ml (p=0.003) for plasma angiotensin II, as well as –3.9±3 (p=0.007), –10.8±5 (p<0.001), and –14.6±6.1 pg/ml (p<0.001) for plasma ET-1. RDN utilizing a saline-irrigated catheter also caused a progressive and substantial BP reduction of –19±22/–8±13, –30±13/–13±14, and –36±20/–16±14 mm Hg (p=0.045, p<0.001, and p<0.002 for systolic BP; p=0.14, p=0.036, and p=0.014 for diastolic BP) without ablation-related complications. Conclusion: RDN substantially decreased BP and also significantly decreased the plasma levels of RAS and ET-1, which might be implicated in the mechanism of BP reduction by RDN.