Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Macro-trend and a future expectation of innovations in power electronics and power devices

The improvement of power conversion efficiency is important for preventing global warming and for protecting global environment. Expecting the direction of future innovations in this field is also important and effective. Macro-trend of innovations in power electronics and power devices are reviewed to derive two laws of innovations in this field. According to these laws, an expectation to future innovation of power electronics, PDM technology using soft switching of SiC or GaN devices at high frequency, is presented.
Classification with NormalBoost

Abstract This paper presents a new boosting algorithm called NormalBoost which is capable of classifying a multi-dimensional binary class dataset. It adaptively combines several weak classifiers to form a strong classifier. Unlike many boosting algorithms which have high computation and memory complexities, NormalBoost is capable of classification with low complexity. Since NormalBoost assumes the dataset to be continuous, it is also noise resistant because it only deals with the means and standard deviations of each dimension. Experiments conducted to evaluate its performance shows that NormalBoost performs almost the same as AdaBoost in the classification rate. However, NormalBoost performs 189 times faster than AdaBoost and employs a very little amount of memory when a dataset of 2 million samples with 50 dimensions is invoked.
Implementing a parallel world model using Linux containers for efficient system administration ( Paper )

This paper describes the implementation of a parallel world model using Linux containers. A parallel world (or parallel universe) model allows a user to create multiple execution environments, called worlds, in a single operating system and to manipulate these worlds. This model enables a system administrator to create a new test world that looks like a production world. The system administrator upgrades fundamental software and tests applications in the new test world while running the production world. If the applications do not pass the tests, the administrator deletes the new world. If the applications pass the tests, the administrator merges the test world into the production world. Prior to the merge, the administrator can examine the differences between these two worlds, and identify any unintentional file modifications. The parallel world model has been implemented using Linux containers and Aufs, a union filesystem. In addition, this implementation uses Auditd, an audit tool, to trace file accesses in worlds. This paper describes the effectiveness of the parallel world model by analyzing a software upgrade process. Experimental results show that the world-related operations are completed within a few seconds, and that it is difficult for remote users to notice the overhead caused by running in parallel worlds.
Drinking patterns and problems of the "stably insured": a study of the membership of a health maintenance organization.

OBJECTIVE This article describes drinking patterns and examines the prevalence of heavy drinking and alcohol problems, and their association with other behavioral and social problems within the membership of a health maintenance organization, a setting in which increasing numbers of Americans receive services. METHOD The sample is representative of the stably insured membership of the Northern California Region of Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program; i.e., those who have been insured continuously under that plan for 30 months or longer. A telephone survey of the adult membership (N = 10,292) was conducted between June 1994 and February 1996. RESULTS As in other studies, health and mental health status and smoking were related to drinking levels, with symptoms higher for those in the heaviest drinking group. However, in contrast to studies of those using medical services, demographic characteristics (e.g., young age) were not associated with heavy drinking in this population. When controlling for drug use and drinking, however, women and those reporting any mental health symptom were more likely to report alcohol problems. CONCLUSIONS Findings suggest that in private managed care populations, particular behavioral indicators may be more important than demographic characteristics in screening for problem drinkers. The identification of individuals who report a mental health symptom, who drink a large number of drinks occasionally or who report any drug use may be important in a health maintenance approach to prevention and case finding.
Kaempferol Attenuates Cardiac Hypertrophy via Regulation of ASK1/MAPK Signaling Pathway and Oxidative Stress

Abstract Kaempferol has been demonstrated to provide benefits for the treatment of atherosclerosis, coronary heart disease, hyperlipidemia, and diabetes through its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. However, its role in cardiac hypertrophy remains to be elucidated. The aim of our study was to investigate the effects of kaempferol on cardiac hypertrophy and the underlying mechanism. Mice subjected to aorta banding were treated with or without kaempferol (100 mg/kg/d, p. o.) for 6 weeks. Echocardiography was performed to evaluate cardiac function. Mice hearts were collected for pathological observation and molecular mechanism investigation. H9c2 cardiomyocytes were stimulated with or without phenylephrine for in vitro study. Kaempferol significantly attenuated cardiac hypertrophy induced by aorta banding as evidenced by decreased cardiomyocyte areas and interstitial fibrosis, accompanied with improved cardiac functions and decreased apoptosis. The ASK1/MAPK signaling pathways (JNK1/2 and p38) were markedly activated in the aorta banding mouse heart but inhibited by kaempferol treatment. In in vitro experiments, kaempferol also inhibited the activity of ASK1/JNK1/2/p38 signaling pathway and the enlargement of H9c2 cardiomyocytes. Furthermore, our study revealed that kaempferol could protect the mouse heart and H9c2 cells from pathological oxidative stress. Our investigation indicated that treatment with kaempferol protects against cardiac hypertrophy, and its cardioprotection may be partially explained by the inhibition of the ASK1/MAPK signaling pathway and the regulation of oxidative stress.
Psychophysiological Assessment Of Fear Experience In Response To Sound During Computer Video Gameplay

The potential value of a looping biometric feedback system as a key component of adaptive computer video games is significant. Psychophysiological measures are essential to the development of an automated emotion recognition program, capable of interpreting physiological data into models of affect and systematically altering the game environment in response. This article presents empirical data the analysis of which advocates electrodermal activity and electromyography as suitable physiological measures to work effectively within a computer video game-based biometric feedback loop, within which sound is the primary affective stimuli.
TTSS2-deficient hha mutant of Salmonella Typhimurium exhibits significant systemic attenuation in immunocompromised hosts

Non-typhoidal Salmonella (NTS) infections are emerging as leading problem worldwide and the variations in host immune status append to the concern of NTS. Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium is one of the causative agents of NTS infections and has been extensively studied. The inactivation of Salmonella pathogenicity island 2 (SPI2) encoded type-III secretion system 2 (TTSS2) has been reported rendering the strain incapable for systemic dissemination to host sites and has also been proposed as live-attenuated vaccine. However, infections from TTSS2-deficient Salmonella have also been reported. In this study, mutant strain MT15 was developed by inactivation of the hemolysin expression modulating protein (hha) in TTSS2-deficient S. Typhimurium background. The MT15 strain showed significant level of attenuation in immune-deprived murine colitis model when tested in iNos−/−, IL10−/−, and CD40L−/− mice groups in C57BL/6 background. Further, the mutation in hha does not implicate any defect in bacterial colonization to the host gut. The long-term infection of developed mutant strain conferred protective immune responses to suitably immunized streptomycin pre-treated C57BL/6 mice. The immunization enhanced the CD4+ and CD8+ cell types involved in bacterial clearance. The serum IgG and luminal secretory IgA (sIgA) was also found to be elevated after the due course of infection. Additionally, the immunized C57BL/6 mice were protected from the subsequent lethal infection of Salmonella Typhimurium. Collectively, these findings implicate the involvement of hemolysin expression modulating protein (Hha) in establishment of bacterial infection. In light of the observed attenuation of the developed mutant strain, this study proposes the possible significance of SPI2-deficient hha mutant as an alternative live-attenuated vaccine strain for use against lethal Salmonella infections.
Chondroitin sulfate glycosaminoglycans as major P‐selectin ligands on metastatic breast cancer cell lines

The metastatic breast cancer cell line, 4T1, abundantly expresses the oligosaccharide sialylated Lewis x (sLex). SLex oligosaccharide on tumor cells can be recognized by E‐ and P‐selectin, contributing to tumor metastatic process. We observed that both selectins reacted with this cell line. However, contrary to the E‐selectin reactivity, which was sLex dependent, P‐selectin reactivity with this cell line was sLex‐independent. The sLex‐Neg variant of the 4T1 cell line with markedly diminished expression of sLex and lack of sLea, provided a unique opportunity to characterize P‐selectin ligands and their contribution to metastasis in the absence of overlapping selectin ligands and E‐selectin binding. We observed that P‐selectin binding was Ca2+‐independent and sulfation‐dependent. We found that P‐selectin reacted primarily with cell surface chondroitin sulfate (CS) proteoglycans, which were abundantly and stably expressed on the surface of the 4T1 cell line. P‐selectin binding to the 4T1 cells was inhibited by heparin and CS glycosaminoglycans (GAGs). Moreover, Heparin administration significantly inhibited experimental lung metastasis. In addition, the data suggest that surface CS GAG chains were involved in P‐selectin mediated adhesion of the 4T1 cells to murine platelets and human umbilical vein endothelial cells. The data suggest that CS GAGs are also the major P‐selectin‐reactive ligands on the surface of human MDA‐MET cells. The results warrant conducting clinical studies on the involvement of cell surface CS chains in breast cancer metastasis and evaluation of various CS types and their biosynthetic pathways as target for development of treatment strategies for antimetastatic therapy of this disease. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The Double Immunization Strategy Research Based on the Tibetan Web Community Division

Through real time crawling network topology structure of Tibetan Web, analyzing the topology structure, first of all do the community division to find the nodes with the weak ties features by network topology structure and the theory of the community division. At the beginning of the immune, the nodes with weak ties are immune first, then the maximum degree of acquaintance immunization strategy were used according to the structure features of the community. Through analyzing the experimental data, the computation and immune cost of immunization strategy proposed in this paper are relatively smaller, and the immune effect are better, the method can effectively reduce the harm of the virus spreading to the network.
[GC-MS analysis of volatile constituents from Chinese eaglewood produced by artificial methods].

OBJECTIVE To study the volatile constituents from Chinese eaglewood samples produced by three different methods. METHODS Essential oils of the three Chinese eaglewood samples were extracted with aether at room temperature. The chemical constituents and relative contents of the volatile oils were analyzed by GC-MS. RESULTS The results showed that all the three volatile oils were mainly composed of sesquiterpenes, aromatic constituents, and fatty acids. CONCLUSION The quality of the three Chinese eaglewood samples was evaluated by comparison of the characteristic constituents and their contents, of them, the quality of the Chinese eaglewood samples produced by methods of nail insetting and holing was better.
u-Healthcare SensorGrid Gateway for connecting Wireless Sensor Network and Grid Network

Researchers nowadays are trying to implement u-Healthcare (ubiquitous Healthcare) systems for real-time monitoring and analysis of patients' health status regardless of time and space through a low-cost and low-power wireless sensor network. u-Healthcare system should provide reliable and fast medical services for patients by transmitting to doctors, nurses and other caregivers a large quantity of real-time vital signs collected from sensor network. Currently existing u-Healthcare systems can merely monitor patients' health status. However, they do not derive physiologically meaningful results by analyzing vital signs. In order to solve the problem we introduce a Grid computing technology for deriving the results by analyzing rapidly the vital signs collected from the sensor network. Since both sensor network and Grid computing use different protocols, a gateway is needed. Thus, in this paper, to build an advanced u-Healthcare system by using these two technologies most efficiently, we design and implement a SensorGrid gateway which connects transparently the sensor network and the Grid network. In addition, we implement a middleware for control and management of the sensor network and a mobile monitoring system for observing patient's health status on the move.
A culture change in aged care : The Eden AlternativeTM AUTHOR

Objective The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of the values that The Eden AlternativeTM represents. The benefits, challenges and potential risks, associated with implementing this model for culture change will also be discussed. Setting Currently, 36 residential aged care facilities in Australia and New Zealand have implemented The Eden AlternativeTM. Alzheimer’s Australia has recently adopted The Eden AlternativeTM in two Western Australia respite centres to advance care practices. Primary argument The Eden AlternativeTM is a model for culture change in aged care that aims to enrich the lives of all who live and work in residential aged care facilities. Children, animals and plants enliven the environment and create an atmosphere reminiscent of home. The Eden AlternativeTM promotes human growth in aged care environments and strives to empower and enable older people to fulfil their right to construct and pursue meaningful lives. Conclusions In the United States of America (USA), The Eden AlternativeTM is associated with numerous benefits, including reductions in the total number and type of medications used by residents, (i.e. a decline in mind and mood‐altering drugs); reduced infection rates among residents; improved levels of sociability among residents; reduced levels of boredom and feelings of helplessness among residents, and improved staff retention rates. However, these findings need to be interpreted cautiously due to lack of information about, and limitations in, study designs. Further research is needed in Australia to establish the impact of this model for culture change on residents and nurses who live and work in these facilities.
Regulation by Overlapping Promoters of the Rate of Synthesis and Deposition into Crystalline Inclusions ofBacillus thuringiensis δ-Endotoxins

ABSTRACT During sporulation, Bacillus thuringiensis produces intracellular, crystalline inclusions comprised of a mixture of protoxins active on insect larvae. A major class of these protoxin genes, designated cry1, is transcribed from two overlapping promoters (BtI and BtII) utilizing RNA polymerase containing sporulation sigma factors ςE and ςK, respectively. Fusions of these promoters to lacZ were constructed in order to analyze transcription patterns. Mutations within the −10 region of the BtII promoter (within the spacer region of the BtI promoter) which departed from the consensus −10 sequence for either ςE or ςK resulted in inactivation of transcription from BtII and a fivefold stimulation of transcription from BtI. In contrast, transcription from both promoters was inhibited with a change to the ςE consensus. One of the “promoter-up” mutations was fused to the cry1Ac1gene, and enhanced transcription was confirmed by Northern blotting. There was an increase in the accumulation of Cry1Ac antigen at early but not later times in sporulation in the mutant. This shift was due to the rapid turnover of much of the excessively accumulated protoxin at the early times as measured by pulse-chase labeling. As a result of the turnover and the inactivation of the BtII promoter, the mutant produced smaller inclusions which contained two- to threefold-less protoxin than inclusions from the wild type. Promoter overlap is a mechanism for modulating protoxin synthesis, thus ensuring the efficient packaging of these protoxins into inclusions.
Control strategies of thermostatically controlled appliances in a competitive electricity market

This paper discusses setpoint-control strategies for thermostatically controlled appliances (TCAs) in a competitive electricity market, with the electric water heater load used as an example. By varying the TCA thermostat settings, the TCA power consumption can be shifted from the high-price period to the low-price period to reduce the peak-load and energy cost. Economic benefits and impacts on distribution feeder load shapes when applying different setpoint-control strategies are studied.
Simple goiter and its variants: euthyroid and hyperthyroid multinodular goiters.

IN THE past two decades, research on simple goiter has concentrated on the mechanisms which govern the adaptation of the thyroid gland to iodine deficiency. As a result of these investigations, the pathogenesis of goiters induced by shortage of iodine is rather well understood at the present time. The accumulated knowledge has been laid down in a number of easily accessible reviews (1–57). In contrast to previously published work, the present review is devoted to those aspects of simple goiter which have not been explained by the investigations on iodine deficiency. They include structural and functional heterogeneity between single follicles or between different regions of a goiter, the growth of goiters in spite of abundant iodine supply, the development of single and multiple nodules, the pathogenesis of cold and hot follicles, and the pathogenesis of hyperthyroidism in simple goiter. A. Definition of Simple Goiter Simple goiter is a slowly developing diffuse or nodular enlargement of the thyroid gland.
Update On Pharmaceutical Trials In Acute Spinal Cord Injury

Abstract Objective: To review the major pharmacological trials in acute spinal cord injury (SCI) that have been conducted over the past 25 years. Methods: Review article. Results: The publication of the firstNational Acute Spinal Cord lnjury (NASCIS) trial in 1 9 84 ushered in the era of pharmacological tri als of therapies intended to improve neurologic outcome in acute SC I. Subsequent trials of methylprednisolone sodium succinate (MPSS) and GM-1 have added to the evidence basis that informs the current management practices for acute SCI. Conclusion: The last 50 years have seen a conceptual shift from the pessimism of the past to a cautious optimism that the meager prognosis for neurologic recovery in acute SCI will yield to the progress of medical science. Major advances in the understanding of primary and secondary injury mechanisms have led to the preclinical study of many promising pharmacological therapies, all with the goal of improving neurologic outcome. A few of these drugs have stood the test of animal model experiments and have made it to the forum of human clinical tri als. The NASCIS tri als of methylprednisolone have been acknowledged widely as the firsthuman studies to claim improved neurologic outcome. Although the results of these trials remain controversial, the MPSS therapy that they reported has been adopted widely by clinicians around the world as the best currently available, even if not a consensus “standard of care. ” Clearly, the challenge for medical science remains. The search for effective treatment has only begun. J Spinal Cord Med. 2004;27:319-–325
A Software Program to Calculate Goodman and Kruskal's Gamma: A Method to Monitor Surgical-Site Infection Rates

Abstract Several studies have described a need for a valid statistical methodology to facilitate interhospital and intrahospital infection rates for their operative procedures. Physician awareness of postoperative surgical-site infection rates has been demonstrated as an effective means to reduce infection rates in both high- and low-risk surgical patients. This article presents a new software program that allows for simple data entry and provides results including the gamma statistic, sample size, variance, standard error, and Z value and P value of the gamma result. This software also provides a data interpretation table, allowing infectious disease department physicians or staff to determine if a significant relation exists between operative procedure infection rates and patient risk factors.
Computationally efficient methods of clustering ensemble construction for satellite image segmentation

Combining multiple partitions into single ensemble clustering solution is a prominent way to improve accuracy and stability of clustering solutions. One of the major problems in constructing clustering ensembles is high computational complexity of the common methods. In this paper two computationally efficient methods of constructing ensembles of nonparametric clustering algorithms are introduced. They are based on the use of co-association matrix and subclusters. The results of experiments on synthetic and real datasets confirm their effectiveness and show the stability of the obtained solutions. The performance of the proposed methods allows to process large images including multispectral satellite data.
The core configuration for fuzzy games

This paper extends the solution concept of the core for cooperative games to fuzzy games by taking into consideration the activity levels, which we term the core configuration. Unlike the core introduced by Aubin in 1981, the core configuration has an inherently inessential games property. Moreover, we propose a necessary and sufficient condition to investigate the non-emptiness of the core configuration. Based on the properties of consistency and its converse, an axiomatization of the core configuration is also proposed.
Chapter 12 Protein Dynamics : From Structure to Function

Understanding protein function requires detailed knowledge about protein dynamics, i.e. the different conformational states the system can adopt. Despite substantial experimental progress, simulation techniques such as molecular dynamics (MD) currently provide the only routine means to obtain dynamical information at an atomic level on timescales of nanoto microseconds. Even with the current development of computational power, sampling techniques beyond MD are necessary to enhance conformational sampling of large proteins and assemblies thereof. The use of collective coordinates has proven to be a promising means in this respect, either as a tool for analysis or as part of new sampling algorithms. Starting from MD simulations, several enhanced sampling algorithms for biomolecular simulations are reviewed in this chapter. Examples are given throughout illustrating how consideration of the dynamic properties of a protein sheds light on its function.