Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Difficult-to-manage asthma

PREVIEW Asthma can be difficult to manage in some patients, and the reason may not be readily apparent to either physician or patient. When even aggressive treatment fails to control asthma symptoms, where do you begin to look for the possible cause or causes? This article provides a brief overview of the pathogenesis of asthma and a discussion of exacerbating factors to consider in evaluation of difficult-to-manage cases. A handy algorithm showing a stepwise approach to evaluation is included.
Perinatal infection of human T‐lymphotropic virus type I, the etiologic virus of adult T‐cell leukemia/lymphoma. DNA amplification of specific human T‐lymphotropic virus type I sequences

A gene amplification technique, polymerase chain reaction, was used to detect human T‐lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV‐I), the etiologic agent of adult T‐cell leukemia/lymphoma, in mononuclear cells in peripheral blood and breast milk of ten HTLV‐I carrier gravida. The DNA in umbilical cord blood mononuclear cells of the neonates born to the HTLV‐I carrier gravida were also amplified and examined for the possibility of HTLV‐I infection via placenta during pregnancy. The HTLV‐I sequences were detected both in the peripheral blood and milk of all ten carrier gravida by Southern blot analysis of amplified DNA. However, HTLV‐I proviral DNA could not be detected in the cord blood of the carriers' neonates, indicating that transplacental infection of HTLV‐I should be rare and that postpartum infection via breast milk is a likely major perinatal transmission route.
A Review of Hybrid Renewable/Alternative Energy Systems for Electric Power Generation: Configurations, Control, and Applications

This paper, prepared by a special task force of the IEEE PES Renewable Technologies Subcommittee, is a review of hybrid renewable/alternative energy (RE/AE) power generation systems focusing on energy sustainability. It highlights some important issues and challenges in the design and energy management of hybrid RE/AE systems. System configurations, generation unit sizing, storage needs, and energy management and control are addressed. Statistics on the current status and future trend of renewable power generation, as well as some critical challenges facing the widespread deployment of RE/AE power generation technologies and vision for future research in this area are also presented. The comprehensive list of references given at the end of the paper should be helpful to researchers working in this area.
The quality of care: how can it be assessed?

To the Editor. — A critical problem in the schema of quality assessment described by Dr Donabedian 1 in his recent superb article lies in the area of measuring standards of care. With regard to technical aspects of care, the great time, effort, and expense needed to conduct studies from which generally accepted standards of care may be derived ensures that most clinical decisions are based on art rather than science. Furthermore, we live in an era of such rapid scientific and technological advances that study results may be outmoded by the time of publication. A kind of medical Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle exists: the act of deriving standards changes (advances) those standards. Therefore, technical aspects of care are difficult to measure and, when measured, are often inapplicable to assessing quality of care. Another method for establishing standards of quality technical care is that of consensus of experts. These standards, too,
Online Multitask Relative Similarity Learning

Relative similarity learning (RSL) aims to learn similarity functions from data with relative constraints. Most previous algorithms developed for RSL are batch-based learning approaches which suffer from poor scalability when dealing with real-world data arriving sequentially. These methods are often designed to learn a single similarity function for a speciﬁc task. Therefore, they may be sub-optimal to solve multiple task learning problems. To overcome these limitations, we propose a scalable RSL framework named OMTRSL (Online Multi-Task Relative Similarity Learning). Speciﬁ-cally, we ﬁrst develop a simple yet effective online learning algorithm for multi-task relative similarity learning. Then, we also propose an active learning algorithm to save the labeling cost. The proposed algorithms not only enjoy theoretical guarantee, but also show high efﬁcacy and efﬁciency in extensive experiments on real-world datasets.
The 15-Country Collaborative Study of Cancer Risk among Radiation Workers in the Nuclear Industry: Estimates of Radiation-Related Cancer Risks

Abstract Cardis, E. , Vrijheid, M. , Blettner, M. , Gilbert, E. , Hakama, M. , Hill, C. , Howe, G. , Kaldor, J., Muirhead, C. R. , Schubauer-Berigan, M. , Yoshimura, T. , Bermann, F. , Cowper, G. , Fix, J., Hacker, C. , Heinmiller, B. , Marshall, M. , Thierry-Chef, I. , Utterback, D. , Ahn, Y-O. , Amoros, E. , Ashmore, P., Auvinen, A. , Bae, J-M. , Bernar, J. S. , Biau, A. , Combalot, E. , Deboodt, P., Diez Sacristan, A. , Eklöf, M. , Engels, H. , Engholm, G. , Gulis, G. , Habib, R. R. , Holan, K. , Hyvonen, H. , Kerekes, A. , Kurtinaitis, J., Malker, H. , Martuzzi, M. , Mastauskas, A. , Monnet, A. , Moser, M. , Pearce, M. S. , Richardson, D. B. , Rodriguez-Artalejo, F. , Rogel, A. , Tardy, H. , Telle-Lamberton, M. , Turai, I. , Usel, M. and Veress, K. The 15-Country Collaborative Study of Cancer Risk among Radiation Workers in the Nuclear Industry: Estimates of Radiation-Related Cancer Risks. Radiat. Res. 167, 396– 416 (2007). A 15-Country collaborative cohort study was conducted to provide direct estimates of cancer risk following protracted low doses of ionizing radiation. Analyses included 407,391 nuclear industry workers monitored individually for external radiation and 5.2 million person-years of follow-up. A significant association was seen between radiation dose and all-cause mortality [excess relative risk (ERR) 0.42 per Sv, 90% CI 0.07, 0.79; 18,993 deaths]. This was mainly attributable to a dose-related increase in all cancer mortality (ERR/Sv 0.97, 90% CI 0.28, 1.77; 5233 deaths). Among 31 specific types of malignancies studied, a significant association was found for lung cancer (ERR/Sv 1.86, 90% CI 0.49, 3.63; 1457 deaths) and a borderline significant (P = 0.06) association for multiple myeloma (ERR/Sv 6.15, 90% CI <0, 20.6; 83 deaths) and ill-defined and secondary cancers (ERR/Sv 1.96, 90% CI −0.26, 5.90; 328 deaths). Stratification on duration of employment had a large effect on the ERR/Sv, reflecting a strong healthy worker survivor effect in these cohorts. This is the largest analytical epidemiological study of the effects of low-dose protracted exposures to ionizing radiation to date. Further studies will be important to better assess the role of tobacco and other occupational exposures in our risk estimates.
Reconhecimento de fala e a previsibilidade da palavra em idosos: Revisão de literatura

No envelhecimento, juntamente com o declinio da funcao auditiva, mudancas cognitivas relacionadas a idade contribuem para as dificuldades no processamento de fala em idosos. Na literatura sao vastos os estudos que focalizam o funcionamento cognitivo e o sensorial como dominios independentes. Um teste de sentencas com controle da previsibilidade da palavra mostra-se como uma boa opcao para avaliacao da dinâmica da interacao audicao e cognicao. Foi realizada uma pesquisa bibliografica por meio da analise documental da producao obtida nas bases de dados LILACS, MEDLINE, SciELO e Biblioteca Cochrane, vinculadas a biblioteca virtual BIREME e tambem na base PUBMED. A revisao da literatura mostrou a importância da avaliacao conjunta da audicao e da cognicao para os idosos. Os estudos mostram consenso quanto a influencia negativa da perda auditiva e o beneficio das pistas contextuais no reconhecimento de fala, bem como um maior prejuizo quando a fala e apresentada de forma distorcida ou juntamente com ruido.
Early Growth Response (Egr)-1 Gene Induction in the Thymus in Response to TCR Ligation During Early Steps in Positive Selection Is Not Required for CD8 Lineage Commitment1

The early growth response gene 1 (Egr-1) is induced during positive selection in the thymus and has been implicated in the differentiation of CD4+ thymocytes. Here, we show that signals that specifically direct CD8 lineage commitment also induce Egr-1 DNA-binding activity in the nucleus. However, we find that pharmacological inhibition of mitogen-activated protein kinase/extracellular signal-related kinase kinase activity potently inhibits Egr-1 DNA-binding function at concentrations that promote differentiation of CD8+ thymocytes, suggesting Egr-1 activity is not essential for CD8 commitment. To further determine the role of Egr-1 in thymocyte development, we compare steady-state Egr-1 DNA-binding activity in thymocytes from mice with defined defects in positive selection. The data indicate that the appearance of functional Egr-1 is downstream of signals induced by TCR/MHC engagement, whereas it is less sensitive to alterations in Lck-mediated signals, and does not correlate directly with proficient positive selection. Egr-1 is one of the earliest transcription factors induced upon TCR ligation on immature thymocytes, and plays a potential role in the transcription of genes involved in thymocyte selection.
Automated Planar Rectification from Repeated Patterns

Repetitive patterns typically arise from man-made objects and are ubiquitous in image collections. Because of their highly repetitive structure, imaged patterns violate statistical assumptions typically made in scene understanding algorithms, often negatively impacting algorithm efficacy. Conversely, repetitive patterns could be detected and modeled so that their distinctive structures are leveraged to uniquely characterize the scenes in which they are present. With that goal in mind, this thesis presents a novel method for the automated detection and sparse 3-D reconstruction of imaged coplanar repetitive patterns. The proposed method applies to a very general class of patterns that encompasses nearly all man-made patterns. Particular contributions include a new set of geometric constraints to eliminate the geometric ambiguity between the imaged and scene pattern, a method to reconstruct the pattern’s motif, and a robust framework that successfully detects and reconstructs patterns in the presence of clutter and imaged from lens distorted cameras.
Gait models and mechanical energy in three cross-country skiing techniques

Fluctuations in mechanical energy of the body center of mass (COM) have been widely analyzed when investigating different gaits in human and animal locomotion. We applied this approach to estimate the mechanical work in cross-country skiing and to identify the fundamental mechanisms of this particular form of locomotion. We acquired movements of body segments, skis, poles and plantar pressures for eight skiers while they roller skied on a treadmill at 14 km h−1 and a 2 deg slope using three different techniques (diagonal stride, DS; double poling, DP; double poling with kick, DK). The work associated with kinetic energy (KE) changes of COM was not different between techniques; the work against gravity associated with potential energy (PE) changes was higher for DP than for DK and was lowest for DS. Mechanical work against the external environment was 0.87 J m−1 kg−1 for DS, 0.70 J m−1 kg−1 for DP and 0.79 J m−1 kg−1 for DK. The work done to overcome frictional forces, which is negligible in walking and running, was 17.8%, 32.3% and 24.8% of external mechanical work for DS, DP and DK, respectively. The pendulum-like recovery (R%) between PE and KE was ~45%, ~26% and ~9% for DP, DK and DS, respectively, but energy losses by friction are not accounted for in this computation. The pattern of fluctuations of PE and KE indicates that DS can be described as a ‘grounded running’, where aerial phases are substituted by ski gliding phases, DP can be described as a pendular gait, whereas DK is a combination of both.
Corridors for aliens but not for natives: effects of marine urban sprawl at a regional scale

The global sprawl of marine hard infrastructure (e.g. breakwaters, sea walls and jetties) can extensively modify coastal seascapes, but the knowledge of such impacts remains limited to local scales. We examined the regional‐scale effects of marine artificial habitats on the distribution and abundance of assemblages of ascidians, a key group of ecosystem engineer species in benthic fouling systems.
Les systèmes de tons en Asie orientale : typologie, schémas évolutifs et modélisation

La presente contribution recapitule certaines avancees majeures realisees dans l'etude des systemes tonals d'Asie orientale, et discute leurs implications pour la typologie tonale et la modelisation phonologique. Les travaux phonologiques et typologiques accordent une place relativement limitee aux langues dans lesquelles les tons ne sont pas definis simplement en termes de hauteur, et ne se pretent pas a une decomposition en niveaux tonals (par exemple le tamang et le vietnamien). Ces langues manquent assurement d'attrait au plan morpho-phonologique, etant denuees d'alternances tonales. Elles n'en presentent pas moins une complexite bien reelle, qui doit etre prise en consideration dans la modelisation phonologique et les generalisations typologiques. Le panorama presente ici ramene a une distinction proposee il y a plus d'un demi-siecle (Pike 1948) entre deux types d'organisation tonale : d'une part les systemes de tons ponctuels*, d'autre part les systemes de tons complexes*. Pour approfondir cette distinction synchronique, une attention particuliere est accordee a l'evolution des systemes tonals : les faits d'evolution sont en effet d'excellents revelateurs de la nature des systemes phonologiques.
If you can’t beat me, join me: collaborating oncogenes circumventing senescence and causing cancer

death. Signaling routes commonly altered in cancer include the RAS-MAP Kinase and PI3 Kinase (PI3K) pathways. Activation of the first can take place at many levels, most frequently through mutations in members of the RAS and RAF families, while also further upstream receptor tyrosine kinases can be activated by mutation or amplification. PI3K pathway activation occurs largely through mutations in its catalytic subunit PIK3CA or amplification of AKT family members. Additionally, the Phosphatase and Tensin Homolog (PTEN), a phosphatase negatively regulating the PI3K pathway by dephosphorylating the lipid phosphatidylinositol-3,4,5-trisphosphate (PIP3), is inactivated in several tumor types by different mechanisms including mutation, deletion, and epigenetic silencing. Perhaps somewhat counter intuitively, although PI3K is an established downstream effector of RAS in oncogenic transformation, simultaneous mutations in RAS and in the PIK3CA ⁄ PTEN ⁄AKT pathway do occur in human cancer. Consistently, in several mouse models, they have been shown to cooperate in accelerating tumorigenesis. While it is reasonably well understood why mutant RAS and deficiencies in the pRB or p53 pathways collaborate in cancer, it is less clear what the mechanistic basis is for activating mutations at two points in a presumed single signaling pathway, like RAS and PI3K. Kennedy et al. recently reported on a molecular interplay model in which the second oncogene, acting downstream, counteracts the senescence-inducing effect of the first (Kennedy et al.,
Latex Allergy and Sensitization in Cities: A Survey in a Population at Risk

The constant increase in allergic diseases in western countries is correlated with changes in lifestyle and with the deterioration of the air inhaled by the inhabitants because of the growing concentrations of pollutant substances present. Within a population at risk, i.e., the inhabitants of cities, a group of subjects at even higher risk was selected, whose job exposes them to automobile exhaust fumes for many hours a day. All the study subjects underwent allergological screening and spirometry. The results obtained show an overall increase of respiratory allergic diseases but no increased sensitisation to latex. It therefore seems plausible that, besides social and lifestyle changes, the deterioration of the quality of the air could be considered responsible, at least in part, for the growing numbers of allergic subjects. This study offers an opportunity to reconsider the validity of the “hygiene hypothesis” as an explanation for the increase of allergic disease in western countries, although recent reports have indicated that a sedentary lifestyle may also contribute, together with environmental degradation, to the notably increased prevalence of allergic diseases in large cities in industrialized nations.
Continuous Steady-State Method Using Tenax for Delivering Tetrachloroethene to Chloro-Respiring Bacteria

ABSTRACT Tenax-TA, a solid-phase sorbent, was used as an alternative to hexadecane for continuous delivery of tetrachloroethene (PCE) to Desulfuromonas strain BB1, a chloro-respiring microorganism. In both batch and bioreactor configurations, Tenax not only maintained low, steady-state concentrations of PCE in an active culture for several months but also adsorbed the product of dechlorination, cis-1,2-dichloroethene, before it approached toxic levels.
An Experience Report of Flipped Classroom Strategy Implementation for Java Programming Course

Graduate engineering students with lifelong learning skill can be achieved using flipped classroom strategy. Flipped classroom is one of the active learning strategy in which class time is used for problem-solving, application building, activities and to give more attain to individual student understanding whereas out-of-class time used for content delivery through video lecture. This paper presents an experiment conducted using flipped classroom strategy to teach Java programming course to sixty students of Third year Information Technology. The objective of this work is to study how effectively we can use flipped classroom strategy to teach Java programming concepts. In this paper, information about experimental methodology, students' experience about the flipped classroom activities and effectiveness of these activities in terms of result are presented.
Pharmacokinetics of pretargeted monoclonal antibody 2D12.5 and 88Y-Janus-2-(p-nitrobenzyl)-1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecanetetraacetic acid (DOTA) in BALB/c mice with KHJJ mouse adenocarcinoma: a model for 90Y radioimmunotherapy.

Three-step pretargeting for radioimmunotherapy in BALB/c mice with KHJJ tumors was done with monoclonal antibody (mAb) 2D12.5, which is specific for yttrium-1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecanetetraacetic acid (DOTA) but nonspecific for the tumor. Tumor uptake was by passive diffusion of mAb through leaky neovasculature in the tumor. The three steps were: (a) anti-hapten mAb 2D12.5 (0 h); (b) polyvalent haptenprotein conjugate chase (20 h); and (c) 88Y-labeled monovalent DOTA or bivalent Janus-DOTA haptens (21 h) and organ and tumor bioassay (24 h). Rapid tumor (T) uptake and high tumor:blood ratio (T:BL) was seen 3 h after injection after step c. For monovalent 88Y-DOTA, T = 1.7%/g* and T:BL = 16:1; for bivalent 88Y-Janus-DOTA, T = 4.41%/g* and T:BL = 21:1 at 3 h (*, P < 0.001). Blood and bone plus marrow were << 1%/g, and liver was < 1%/g. The 24-h whole body retention was approximately 5% of injected dose with 1% in tumor (20% of total), 1.8% in other organs, and 2.2% in carcass; the 24-h whole body retention of covalent nonspecific antibody conjugates was > 80% of injected dose. The biological half-life in the tumor of 0.9 microCi 88Y-Janus-DOTA was approximately 24 h, measured daily for 5 days. Activity in microCi/g of tumor and blood for 90Y equimolar to the amount of 88Y injected (0.9 microCi 88Y = 0.744 pmol = 36.47 microCi 90Y) was used for calculating the area under the curve of tumor and blood in microCi-h/g of 90Y. The 90Y radiation absorbed dose (RAD) from multiplying microCi-h/g x the 90Y absorbed dose constant, 1.99 RAD-g/microCi-h, gave T = 89 RAD and BL = 3.7 RAD. The therapeutic ratio from RAD T:RAD BL = 24:1. These results indicate that pretargeting 90Y hapten-specific mAb for radioimmunotherapy has considerable promise.
Evolução de componentes compartilhados por multiplas linhas de produto de software

O uso de Linhas de Produto de Software e uma pratica comum entre as empresas de software, tendo como objetivo promover o desenvolvimento de um conjunto de produtos de software relacionados atraves da reutilizacao de um nucleo comum de ativos de software. Dentre estas empresas, podemos mencionar a Motorola, cujo ambiente de desenvolvimento em que multiplas linhas de produto sao mantidas em paralelo serviu de motivacao para este trabalho. Na pratica, a complexidade de alguns tipos de negocios apoiados por linhas de produto implica em mudancas na forma como a adocao da abordagem e sugerida pela literatura. Em particular na Motorola, as linhas de produto sao baseadas em componentes e a arquitetura da linha de produto possui diversos pontos de variacao, onde variantes de componentes representando diversas alternativas de projeto podem ser escolhidas. Alem disso, varias linhas de produto sao mantidas em paralelo e os componentes e suas variantes podem ser compartilhados entre elas. Neste contexto, a evolucao de componentes e uma tarefa complexa, pois a inclusao de novas caracteristicas nas variantes dos componentes pode impactar nao somente a arquitetura e os ativos de uma unica linha de produto, mas tambem das diversas linhas que as utilizam. A principal contribuicao deste trabalho e a documentacao de uma familia de padroes de evolucao de componentes compartilhados por multiplas linhas de produto de software. Alem desta familia de padroes, tambem e apresentado um processo para auxiliar na analise do padrao de evolucao a ser adotado para implementar uma determinada requisicao de mudanca Abstract
Dicer-dependent and -independent Argonaute2 Protein Interaction Networks in Mammalian Cells*

Argonaute (Ago) proteins interact with small regulatory RNAs such as microRNAs (miRNAs) and facilitate gene-silencing processes. miRNAs guide Ago proteins to specific mRNAs leading to translational silencing or mRNA decay. In order to understand the mechanistic details of miRNA function, it is important to characterize Ago protein interactors. Although several proteomic studies have been performed, it is not clear how the Ago interactome changes on miRNA or mRNA binding. Here, we report the analysis of Ago protein interactions in miRNA-containing and miRNA-depleted cells. Using stable isotope labeling in cell culture in conjunction with Dicer knock out mouse embryonic fibroblasts, we identify proteins that interact with Ago2 in the presence or the absence of Dicer. In contrast to our current view, we find that Ago-mRNA interactions can also take place in the absence of miRNAs. Our proteomics approach provides a rich resource for further functional studies on the cellular roles of Ago proteins.
Measuring the Impedance and Efficiency of Differentially Driven Microstrip Antenna by Two Balun Methods

Two balun methods for measuring the impedance and efficiency of a differentially driven microstrip antenna with a two-port vector network analyzer are evaluated. It is shown that the non-ideal nature of real baluns will cause measurement errors. This paper proposes and describes the new calibration techniques for the removal of the effects of actual baluns. The balun methods and obtained experimental results are discussed and validated.