Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Plasma and Cerebrospinal Fluid Interleukin-6 Concentrations in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Background: Interleukin-6 (IL-6) secretion is suppressed by glucocorticoids and stimulated by catecholamines. Patients with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have decreased cortisol and increased catecholamine secretion. The purpose of this study was to assess the relation of IL-6 levels and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal and noradrenergic activity in patients with well-characterized PTSD. Methods: Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) was withdrawn via a lumbar subarachnoid catheter over 6 h from 11 combat veterans with PTSD and 8 age- and sex-matched healthy controls. Blood was withdrawn concurrently. We measured IL-6, CRH and norepinephrine concentrations in the CSF and IL-6, ACTH, cortisol and norepinephrine in plasma. Results: Mean and median CSF IL-6 concentrations were higher in PTSD than in controls (mean = 24.0 vs. 14.6, p = 0.05; median = 26.7 vs. 14.3, p < 0.03): plasma IL-6 concentrations, however, were not different between the two groups. Plasma IL-6 and norepinephrine were positively correlated in the PTSD group (r = +0.74, p < 0.04), but not in normals (r = –0.55, p = 0.20). Conclusions: PTSD patients have increased CSF concentrations of IL-6. Their plasma IL-6 is not elevated but is more tightly associated with noradrenergic output in these patients than in normals. Both findings might be explained by the low cortisol secretion previously reported in PTSD as a result of lowered glucocorticoid suppression of IL-6 secretion. High levels of CSF IL-6 may reflect neurodegeneration or compensatory neuroprotection.
La relation au verbe principal dans les relatives prédicatives en français

Les relatives predicatives sont des verbes conjugues a fonction de predicat, se rattachant a un sujet semantique actant d'une principale. On distingue trois types de constructions: dans le premier, la principale est un simple introducteur de theme; dans les deux autres, l'action de la principale selectionne un actant qui est soit le nom, avec une extension actancielle a l'action verbale subordonnee, soit l'action verbale, avec une extension au nom (cas des verbes de perception).
Capacity analysis of amplify-and-forward free-space optical communication systems over atmospheric turbulence channels

In an amplify-and-forward (AF) relaying channel, the signal from source node travels to destination node through a number of relaying nodes, in which each node forwards the received signal from the previous node to the next node. In this paper, we mathematically analyze the channel capacity of AF free-space optical (FSO) systems over atmospheric turbulence channels modeled by log-normal distribution in case of weak turbulence strength and the gamma-gamma distribution in case of moderate and strong turbulence strength. In particularly, the average channel capacity (ACC), which is expressed in terms of average spectral efficiency (ASE), is attained by changing between weak and strong turbulence conditions. A closed form expressions was also acquired for evaluating the system performance by considering the effects of different number of relay stations, turbulence strength, and link distance.
Survey of Smartphone applications based on OBD-II for Intelligent Transportation Systems

Highway transportation is supported with several technologies to decrease risk factors and to obtain secure drive. With improved software and hardware smartphone technology is able to monitor the useful information from information network and especially it helps to maintain and control better traffic management for ITS. In this study accession systems to electronic control unit are examined and also access procedure to vehicle status via onboard diagnostic (OBD) also demonstrated. Additionally vehicle and environment information evaluation and prevention of accident risks with smartphone technology are also indicated.
Weight and prognosis for influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 infection during the pandemic period between 2009 and 2011: a systematic review of observational studies with meta-analysis

Abstract Background: In 2009, a novel influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 virus was detected and caused influenza pandemic. It is important to identify the risk factors for severe outcomes. However, inconsistent results regarding the effect of obesity were reported in previous studies. Methods: We conducted a systematic review to assess the association between obesity and poor prognosis for laboratory-confirmed A(H1N1)pdm09 influenza. We searched three English databases and three Chinese databases for relevant studies from April 2009 to October 2015: PubMed, the Cochrane library, Embase, CNKI, CBM, and Wanfang. Two investigators independently identified eligible articles, assessed quality using NOS, and extracted data. We performed meta-analyses and meta-regressions to estimate the association between weight and poor prognosis for influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 infection, when data were available. Results: We identified 22 articles enrolling 25,189 laboratory confirmed patients. The pooled estimates indicated obesity significantly increased the risk of fatal and critical complications of influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 infection (for fatal, OR = 1.81, 95% CI: 1.23−2.65; for critical complications, OR = 1.67, 95% CI: 1.13−2.47). However, we found significant interaction between early antiviral treatment and obesity (β = −0.28). After adjustment for early antiviral treatment, relationship between obesity and poor outcomes disappeared (OR = 1.14, 95% CI: 0.94−1.39). Conclusions: The results of the meta-analyses showed obesity significantly increased the risk of death, critical complications, and severe complications for influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 infection, especially among high-quality studies and in Asia region. Importantly, the result from our meta-regression indicated that the conclusion should be interpreted with caution, because early antiviral treatment might be a key confounding factor.
In Memoriam: Pierce Brodkorb, 1908-1992

Thus proclaimed the bold black letters painted on the door of Pierce Brodkorb's old office in Flint Hall at the University of Florida, simultaneously reflecting a great dislike and a great passion. Brodkorb hated Josselyn Van Tyne, his former supervisor at the University of Michigan, whose door had borne a card saying "Please knock and come in," whereas his great passion was his osteological collection and he did not want the custodial staff knocking over jars of macerating skeletons, trays of drying bones, or the great piles of reprints and correspondence that towered precariously on every surface of his inner office. Strictures on emptying trash were superfluous; Brodkorb never threw anything away. Pierce Brodkorb's life and accomplishments have been celebrated recently in an impressive festschrift volume (1992, Nat. Hist. Mus. Los Angeles Co. Sci. Ser. 36) that includes a detailed
Adenovirus’s last trick: You say lysis, we say autophagy

The last stage of the adenovirus replication cycle, lysis, is considered not very efficient and remains poorly understood. Pathogen infection induces autophagy in eukaryotic cells. In the case of viruses, autophagy is a double-edged sword that can either facilitate or impede replication. On one hand, autophagy reduces the replication capability of the herpesviruses. On the other hand, the RNA virus poliovirus uses autophagosomes to form replication complexes. Recently we characterized the autophagy induced by the oncolytic adenovirus Delta-24-RGD in brain tumor stem cells. Late in the adenoviral infectious cycle, we observed remarkable up-regulation of the Atg12-Atg5 complex and prominent autophagy. In addition, adenovirus-induced autophagy results in disruption of the cytoplasmic structure and the continuity of the cellular membrane. We speculate that adenoviruses induce autophagy to facilitate the release of viral progeny at the end of the infectious cycle. The substitution of “autophagy” for “lysis” is not just semantic. Because autophagy is a genetically programmed process and not a passive phenomenon, it immediately suggests interactions between adenovirus proteins and autophagy regulators. Understanding the mechanism underlying adenovirus-mediated autophagy should propel the development of novel vectors with enhanced capability to release viral progeny and, as a result, more potent oncolytic effect. Addendum to: Jiang H, Gomez-Manzano C, Aoki H, Alonso MM, Kondo S, McCormick F, Xu J, Kondo Y, Bekele BN, Colman H, Lang FF, Fueyo J. Examination of the therapeutic potential of Delta-24-RGD in brain tumor stem cells: Role of autophagic cell death. J Natl Cancer Inst 2007; 99:1410-4.
Obesity and diabetes: never say never again!

There is no doubt that the obesity ‘epidemic’ is with us. The complex relationship between the environment and the development of obesity is highly studied, but the interaction between the environment, genetic predisposition and life style is not easy to understand. Energy balance, biological function and body composition are three closely correlated entities in the study of obesity, and it is often not easy to tease out cause and effect [1]. In both adults and children, the high prevalence of obesity is a concern, given the associated health risks that included elevated blood pressure, hyperinsulinemia, glucose intolerance and type 2 diabetes, dislipidaemia and other risks for cardiac disease [2]. However, prevalence of type 2 diabetes is increasing alarmingly too. Among middle-aged subjects, prevalence of type 2 diabetes has doubled during the past three decades [3]. The World Health Organization has placed the number of persons with diabetes worldwide at approximately 170 million, a figure expected to rise to 366 million by 2030 [4]. Obesity of course is highly correlated with an increased risk of developing glycaemic disorders. Diabetes is also frequently associated with other co-morbidities such as hypertension, cardiovascular diseases and microvascular disorders [5]. The US Centers for Disease Control reported that 55% of person with diabetes are obese and 85% are overweight; approximately 80% of person with type 2 diabetes are also insulin resistant, and insulin resistance itself is highly correlated with weight gain [6]. The lifetime risk of diabetes is greatly increased by overweight and obesity, particularly in young age [5], whereas even modest weight loss has been shown to reduce the risk substantially [6]. Resnick et al. [7] showed that overweight individuals who gained 1 kg of weight annually over 10 years had a 49% increase in the risk of developing diabetes in the subsequent 10 years compared with stable-weight individuals. Many consider diabetes and obesity to be ‘common-source’ epidemics that are rooted in our culture, as evidenced by national trends towards larger portion sizes and more meals built around calorically dense fast food, sugar-sweetened drinks and sedentary behaviour [8]. Western lifestyle leads to high food consumption, inactivity during the active period, enhanced activity in the rest period and shortened sleep period. This lifestyle may cause high parasympathetic output to the viscera leading to obesity, hyperinsulinemia and hyperlipidemia, or high sympathetic output to the muscle and heart leading to vasoconstriction and hypertension [9].
Towards robust and flexible blind watermarking system for copyright protection of 3D models

Recently, much interest is being taken to protect the copyright of digital data and prevent illegal duplication of it. Towards this purpose, this paper presents a robust and flexible blind watermarking system suitable for proving ownership claims for 3D models. The basic idea is to decompose the original model into a series of details at different scales by using particular basis functions derived from wavelet transform; the watermark is then inserted in different resolution levels by modifying the norms of basis coefficients. The robustness of the presented system is achieved by embedding the watermark in a normalized and resampled version of the host mesh, which are quite insensible to geometrical attacks. While, the flexibility is obtained by increasing embedding strength on low frequency components, in which alterations are less visible for human eyes. Experimental results show the validity of the proposed system both in terms of imperceptibility and robustness against a wide class of attacks.
Impact of Social Networking on College Students: A Comparative Study in India and the Netherlands

In todayâ€™s world where Internet has experienced tremendous growth, social networking sites have become highly significant in peoplesâ€™ lives. This comparative study between India and the Netherlands will concentrate on youngsters more precisely college going students in Chennai and Maastricht. The research explores how college students create identity for themselves in the virtual world and how they relate to others online. It will analyze the cultural differences from the youth perspective in both the countries and discuss whether social networking sites isolate youngsters from the society or help them to build relationships; the participation in these sites is also explored. Survey technique, interview, and online observation were the research methods used. Findings show that Indian students spend more time in these sites than Dutch students and Dutch students participate more actively than Indian students. It was also found that virtual interaction taking place in these sites is just a supplement to real life interaction.
MMR vaccine and autism: an update of the scientific evidence

An hypothesis published in 1998 suggested that measles–mumps–rubella vaccine may cause autism as a result of persistent measles virus infection of the gastrointestinal tract. Results of early studies were not supportive and in 2001 a review by the Institute of Medicine concluded that the evidence favors the rejection of a causal relationship at the population level between measles–mumps–rubella vaccine and autistic spectrum disorder. Studies published since the Institue of Medicine report have continued not to find an increased risk of autistic spectrum disorder associated with measles–mumps–rubella. The vaccine also has not been found to be associated with a unique syndrome of developmental regression and gastrointestinal disorders. The evidence now is convincing that the measles–mumps–rubella vaccine does not cause autism or any particular subtypes of autistic spectrum disorder.
Revisión de la Seguridad en la Implementación de Servicios sobre IPv6 * Safety Review in Implementing Services Over IPv6

INGE CUC vol. 12 no. 1, pp. 86-93. Enero Junio, 2016 Barranquilla. ISSN 0122-6517 Impreso, ISSN 2382-4700 Online Resumen-En la actualidad los sistemas de transmision e interconexion presentan varias vulnerabilidades, entre ellas, la facilidad de analizar trafico que permite una tasa alta de ataques propios del protocolo IPv4, por ello se hace necesario que servicios como FTP, DHCP y SSH busquen la migracion e implementacion de redes IP bajo IPv6, la cual cuenta con caracteristicas propias de la seguridad informatica mediante el protocolo IPsec, sin importar el sistema operativo libre o propietario de los clientes finales. El presente articulo evalua, mediante pruebas de configuracion, la funcionalidad del estandar o protocolo IPv6 y sus caracteristicas de seguridad en la implementacion como opcion de configuracion en un escenario controlado para mitigar ataques en la autenticacion, integridad y confidencialidad de la informacion, permitiendo determinar que los servicios analizados garantizan un mayor nivel de confiabilidad propio y nativo a traves de IPsec por cualquier medio sobre el cual viajen los datos.
Recognition Versus Adaptive Up-regulation and Degradation of CC Chemokines by the Chemokine Decoy Receptor D6 Are Determined by Their N-terminal Sequence*

The chemokine decoy receptor D6 controls inflammatory responses by selective recognition and degradation of most CCR1 to CCR5 agonistic ligands. CCL14 is a homeostatic chemokine present at high concentrations in the serum with a weak agonist activity on CCR1. Under inflammatory conditions, plasmin and UPA-mediated truncation of 8 amino acids generates the potent CCR1/CCR3/CCR5 isoform CCL14(9–74), which is further processed and inactivated by dipeptidyl peptidase IV/CD26 that generates CCL14(11–74). Here we report that D6 efficiently binds both CCL14 and its truncated isoforms. Like other D6 ligands, the biologically active CCL14(9–74) induces adaptive up-regulation of D6 expression on the cell membrane and is rapidly and efficiently degraded. In contrast, the D6-mediated degradation of the biologically inactive isoforms CCL14(1–74) and CCL14(11–74) is very inefficient. Thus, D6 cooperates with CD26 in the negative regulation of CCL14 by the selective degradation of its biologically active isoform. Analysis of a panel of CC chemokines and their truncated isoforms revealed that D6-mediated chemokine degradation does not correlate with binding affinity. Conversely, degradation efficiency is positively correlated with D6 adaptive up-regulation. Sequence analysis indicated that a proline residue in position 2 of D6 ligands is dispensable for binding but crucial for D6 adaptive up-regulation and efficient degradation.
Automated manipulation of magnetic micro beads with electromagnetic coil system

Magnetic manipulation of micro particles has exhibited a great potential in clinical applications due to its non-invasive feature. The demand for precise motion control with high throughput highlights the necessity of bringing the automation technology to this important area. In this paper, we attempt to use an electromagnetic coil system for achieving automated manipulation of micro beads. Utilizing visual position feedback, a closed-loop control law based on input-to-state stability and backstepping is proposed, which guarantees that the bead can successfully follow the desired trajectory in three dimensions while maintaining stability of the overall system.
Tactical Medical Coordination System (TacMedCS)

Abstract : The Tactical Medical Coordination System (TacMedCS) provides rapid casualty identification under adverse conditions, enables visibility of casualty status from the point of injury through medical treatment in higher echelons of care, maintains an electronic treatment record for the patient, utilizes non-physical-contact data transmission and storage media, and uplinks casualty information to a theater information network. Additionally, the current version of TacMedCS provides information to the corpsman in the field about patient location and status using a stand-along handheld device. This mature prototype (DoD Technology Readiness Level 7) was tested at Fleet Hospital 3 during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003, shipboard in the Health Services Support Exercise in 2004, in Coalition Warrior Interoperability Demonstration 2005 where it was determined to be a top performer, and during several Limited Technology Assessments conducted at the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory. Near real-time awareness of casualty status and location will allow medical personnel to respond with needed evacuation resources and will facilitate planning for the treatment of incoming casualties by more quickly identifying the resources required to treat specific injury types and severity, while providing medical managers with advanced situational awareness.
Canonical Text Services in CLARIN-Reaching out to the Digital Classics and beyond

Providing both user-friendly and machine-readable interfaces to digital resources is one of the key tasks of highly integrated research infrastructures like CLARIN. The presented implementation of the Canonical Text Service Protocol CTS covers many of the associated problems, like dealing with varying levels of text granularity, persistent identification and address resolution, and simple interfaces for an integration in various automatic workflows. The paper also demonstrates additional benefits of our CTS implementation in form of built-in text mining techniques.
[Effects of aerobic exercise using a flex-band on physical functions & body image in women undergoing radiation therapy after a mastectomy].

PURPOSE This study examined the effects of aerobic exercise using a flex band on the improvement of physical functions & body image in breast cancer women undergoing radiation therapy after a mastectomy. METHOD Women with breast cancer(n = 26) were assigned to an experimental group(EG, n = 15) and control group(CG, n = 11). The E.G. participated in an aerobic exercise program with a 60% to 80% intensity of maximal heart rate for 25 minutes during the main exercise, 3 times per week, for 6 weeks. The EG did not exercise regularly for 3 months before participating in this program. The CG received no exercise treatment during the research period. Data were analyzed using the chi(2)-test and Mann-Whitney U test by the SPSS version 11.0 program at a 5% significant level. RESULTS Group analysis revealed that the EGwomen had significantly more improved cardiopulmonary functions, ROM of the affected shoulder joint, and body image compared to the CG. CONCLUSION Aerobic exercise using a flex band may be an effective rehabilitative measure for mastectomy women with respect to cardio-pulmonary functions, ROM, & body image. Further studies are recommended to study early rehabilitation programs within 10 days post-operatively.
A controlled trial of HA-1A in a canine model of gram-negative septic shock.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the therapeutic efficacy and microbiological and physiological effects of a human IgM monoclonal antibody (HA-1A) directed against the lipid A component of endotoxin in a canine model of sepsis that simulates the cardiovascular abnormalities of human septic shock. DESIGN Blinded, placebo-controlled 28-day trial. INTERVENTIONS Purpose-bred beagles were implanted with an intraperitoneal clot infected with Escherichia coli O111:B4. At clot placement, animals received HA-1A (10 mg.kg-1), control human IgM antibody (10 mg.kg-1), or control human serum albumin intravenously. All animals were given antibiotic and fluid therapy. MEASURES Survival and microbiological and physiological events. RESULTS Only two (15%) of 13 animals in the HA-1A group, compared with eight (57%) of 14 control animals (combined control human IgM antibody and control human serum albumin groups) (P = .05), survived 28 days. At 24 hours, the HA-1A group had lower mean arterial pressure (P = .04) and cardiac index (P = .004) and higher lactate levels (P = .05) compared with the combined-controls group. In addition, these parameters in the HA-1A group were significantly more predictive of death. The HA-1A and combined-controls groups had similar significant increases in the level of endotoxemia and bacteremia. Studies of toxic effects showed no harmful effects of control human IgM antibody in infected animals or HA-1A in non-infected animals. CONCLUSION In a canine model of E coli sepsis, HA-1A did not alter levels of bacteremia or endotoxemia and actually decreased survival. If these data are relevant to human septic shock, HA-1A therapy should be limited until the conditions under which this monoclonal antibody has beneficial or deleterious effects are more completely defined.