Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Airflow-induced bronchospasm. Imbalance between airway cooling and airway drying?

We used an animal model of airflow-induced bronchospasm (AIB) to examine the role of airway cooling in responses to dry air challenge. A bronchoscope was wedged in situ into perfused lower lobes of anesthetized dogs. Through the bronchoscope, dry air was delivered, resistance to collateral flow (Rcs) was measured, and airway wall temperature (Taw) was monitored. A dry-air challenge through the bronchoscope produced a fall in Taw and a rise in Rcs, presumably related to evaporative heat loss (EHL) and/or an increase in osmolarity. By changing the temperature of blood perfusing the lobe it was possible to lower Taw without affecting either EHL or osmolarity. Four series of experiments were performed. In the first series, Taw was lowered in 2 ways: by increasing dry air flow and by cooling the pulmonary perfusate. After a 2-min challenge with dry air, Rcs rose. After lowering Taw with cooled blood for 2 min, Rcs did not rise. In the second series of studies, Taw was lowered for 15-min periods by reducing the temperature of blood. Neither cooling per se nor rewarming after the 15 min of cooling initiated increases in lung tone. In the third series of experiments, a 2-min dry air challenge was performed while the lobe was perfused with cool blood. Despite greater reductions in Taw during the dry-air challenge, responses after the challenge were virtually abolished. In a final series of experiments in which pulmonary perfusion was stopped during challenge, airway cooling was enhanced, and responses were again significantly attenuated. Thus, cooling actually depressed increases in Rcs produced by dry-air challenge. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
MAPL - microphone array processing library

This paper deals with issues in the field of sound processing captured by microphone arrays where the processed speech is used as the input signal in an automatic speech recognition system. The software tools for operating microphone arrays had been designed and developed in the form of software library for digital processing of sound captured by microphone arrays and demonstration application, which shows possible uses of the library. The library is open for extension by processing algorithms for microphone arrays, while selected algorithms for processing sound from spherical arrays are already implemented in it. These algorithms incorporate functionality for automatic localization of sound sources and obtained information are then used to adapting directivity pattern of spatial filter to the directions of localized sources in the process of beamforming.
Detection of VIM-5 metallo-beta-lactamase in a Pseudomonas aeruginosa clinical isolate from Turkey.

pneumoniae than the HEp-2 cells used in the present study, which may lead to lower endpoints. The discrepancy of MICs between these studies illustrates the problems of in vitro susceptibility testing of Chlamydia spp. in general and C. pneumoniae specifically. The methods are not standardized and the number of isolates available for testing are limited. Wide isolate-to-isolate variation in MICs has been seen with some antibiotics, most notably telithromycin. Data on the actual microbiological efficacy of quinolones for eradication of C. pneumoniae from patients with respiratory infection are limited; most treatment studies that have been published in the literature have used serology alone. The limited data that are available suggest that in vitro activity does not necessarily predict in vivo efficacy. Indeed, there are no data that demonstrate that an antibiotic with an MIC of 0.1 mg/L is more effective in eradication of C. pneumoniae than one with an MIC of 1 mg/L.
p-adically closed fields with nonstandard analytic structure

Abstract We prove quantifier elimination for the field ℚp((tℚ)) (the completion of the field of Puiseux series over ℚp) in Macintyre's language together with symbols for functions in a class containing both t-adically and p-adically overconvergent functions. We also show that the theory of ℚp((tℚ)) is b-minimal in this language.
Method and instruments for modeling integrated knowledge

MIMIK (Method and Instruments for Modeling Integrated Knowledge) is a set of tools used to formalize and represent knowledge within organizations. It furthermore supports knowledge creation and sharing within communities of interest or communities of practice. In this paper we show that MIMIK is based on a model theory approach and builds on other existing methods and techniques. We also explain how to use the method and its instruments in order to model strategic objectives, processes, knowledge, and roles found within an organization, as well as relations existing between these elements. Indeed MIMIK provides eight types of models in order to describe what is commonly called know-how, know-why and know-what; it uses matrices in order to formally and semantically link strategic objectives, knowledge and actors. We close this paper with a presentation of a prototype we built in order to demonstrate a technical architecture allowing for knowledge creation, formalization and sharing.
The validity of predicting prognosis by the number of lymph node metastases in node-positive colon cancer

Background: We examined the possibility of predicting prognosis by the number of lymph node metastases. Methods: Two hundred and forty nine patients with lymph node metastases who underwent curative surgery for colon cancer were enrolled in this study. We calculated cancer-specific survival according to the number of lymph node metastases. Results: There was a tendency toward better rates of cancer-specific survivals among the patients with 1 LNM, compared with those with 2 LNM (p = 0.07). When comparing cancer-specific survival between the patients with 1, 2-3 and 4 or more lymph node metastases, cancer-specific survival was well stratified (p i.e., the patients with 1, 2 and 3 and 4 or more lymph node metastases. This study was in favor of the TNM classification in which N category is classified by the number of lymph node metastases.
Likelihood-ratio propagation and consensus in wireless networks with Markov Random Field models

In this paper we address the problem of distributed Bayesian hypothesis testing in wireless networks where correlations among nodes are modeled as exponential Markov Random Fields (MRF). Applying distributed Belief Propagation (BP), we first derive message and belief update rules for the above model expressed under a likelihood ratio formulation. Then we analyze the properties of BP when the MRF correlation values tend to infinity, and we show that in this limit BP behaves as a consensus scheme. As a result, both problems of heterogeneous hypothesis testing (i.e., MRF estimation) and homogeneous hypothesis testing (i.e., consensus building) can be seen under a unified framework.
Actions of BAFF in B cell maturation and its effects on the development of autoimmune disease

BAFF, a member of the family of tumour necrosis factor (TNF) ligands, is essential for the development of peripheral mature, long lived B lymphocytes. It binds to three different receptors, BCMA, TACI, and BAFF-R, which are all members of the family of TNF receptors. Defects in the genes encoding BAFF or BAFF-R abolish the generation of mature B cells. BAFF is made by myeloid cells whereas BAFF-R is expressed preferentially on B cells. BAFF induces polyclonal maturation of resting, short lived immature B cells to resting, long lived mature B cells without proliferation. Lupus erythematodes prone mice have elevated blood levels of BAFF, and treatment of these mice with the BAFF decoy receptor (BCMA-Ig) prevents the onset of this systemic autoimmune disease. Human lupus patients also have elevated blood levels of BAFF. Treatment with BAFF neutralising agents (decoy receptors, monoclonal antibodies) should prevent, delay, or, at least, slow down the disease.
Beyond Incremental Processing: Tracking Concept Drift

Learning in complex, changing environments requires methods that are able to tolerate noise (less than perfect feedback) and drift (concepts that change over time). These two aspects of complex environments interact with each other: when some particular learned predictor fails to correctly predict the expected outcome (or when the outcome occurs without having been preceded by the learned predictor), a learner must be able to determine whether the situation is an instance of noise or an indication that the concept is beginning to drift. We present a learning method that is able to learn complex Boolean characterizations while tolerating noise and drift. An analysis of the algorithm illustrates why it has these desirable behaviors, and empirical results from an implementation (called STAGGER) are presented to show its ability to track changing concepts over time.
Functional‐adaptive analysis of the hindlimb anatomy of extant marsupials and the paleobiology of the Paleocene marsupials Mayulestes ferox and Pucadelphys andinus

This article analyzes the adaptations of the hindlimb of two Early Paleocene marsupials, Mayulestes ferox and Pucadelphys andinus. This analysis is based on detailed comparisons with various extant marsupials, both South American and Australian. In the case of the South American opossums, original myological data were collected and osteological–myological associations were related to their locomotor behavior. The use of Australian genera helped to improve the appraisal of the locomotory habits of the fossil taxa. Several features are indicative of the ability of Mayulestes to climb or walk on uneven surfaces (e.g., very mobile hip joint, astragalocalcaneal joint pattern), and some other features emphasize a relative agility (e.g., strongly everted iliac blades, morphology of the distal epiphysis of the femur, medially stabilized cruroastragalar joint). Pucadelphys exhibits a hindlimb relatively similar morphologically to that of Mayulestes, but with features indicating slightly increased agility and a terrestrial component that is more emphasized than in Mayulestes. The Tiupampa fossils were therefore more agile than most living didelphids and resembled the condition observed in living dasyurids more. These conclusions complement a previous study performed on the forelimb of these fossils. J. Morphol. 253:76–108, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Secure Processing Offload in Recombining Media Segments for Mobile Access

We develop an architecture for a federation of home gateways. We distinguish inner and outer circle friends and describe a mechanism for social-aware backup of content and sharing with friends. To facilitate remote access, content can be segmented and redundantly stored at gateways of friends. We develop innovative solutions that allow secure and redundant storage of segments with inner and outer circle friends. They enable decoding of segments in the encrypted domain without the need of sharing a decryption key with friends, which relieves the computational effort of mobile devices accessing the content. We combine Vandermonde-Reed-Solomon codes with homomorphic encryption to three different solutions and describe their differences in complexity.
Gene-centromere distances in wheat by aneuploid f(2) observations.

PECIAL techniques are necessary for determining gene-centromere distances in higher organisms. SEARS (1962, 1963) has employed telocentric stocks for this purpose in hexaploid wheat (Triticum aestiuum L. em. Thell.) . This method involves using plants that are heterozygous for the gene under consideration and which contain a heteromorphic bivalent involving a chromosome that is telocentric for the arm bearing this gene. These individuals are backcrossed as males to normal wheat homozygous for the recessive allele (see DRISCOLL and SEARS 1963, 1965). The present paper involves determinations of gene-centromere distances in selfed populations of F, plants of the same constitution as those referred to above. The genetic length can in this way be determined concurrently with the determination of the specific chromosome arm location. A dominant gene for inhibition of waxy foliage has been mapped by this F, method.
An evidence‐based review and guidelines for patient self‐testing and management of oral anticoagulation

There is a limited evidence base for self‐testing and ‐management for oral anticoagulation management. Available data suggest that these are credible models for a significant minority of patients if underpinned by structured training and follow‐up. The guidelines presented are necessarily consensual and outline procedures for patient selection, training, product procurement, product maintenance, quality assurance procedures, dosage adjustment and clinical supervision. The cost‐effectiveness of these models remains to be elucidated within the UK. Further data on both health economic and clinical outcomes are required from UK based studies before widespread implementation of self‐testing and management can be recommended on a wider scale.
Autophagy attenuates noise-induced hearing loss by reducing oxidative stress.

AIMS Reactive oxygen species play a dual role in mediating both cell stress and defense pathways. Here, we used pharmacological manipulations and siRNA silencing to investigate the relationship between autophagy and oxidative stress under conditions of noise-induced temporary, permanent, and severe permanent auditory threshold shifts (temporary threshold shift [TTS], permanent threshold shift [PTS], and severe PTS [sPTS], respectively) in adult CBA/J mice. RESULTS Levels of oxidative stress markers (4-hydroxynonenal [4-HNE] and 3-nitrotyrosine [3-NT]) increased in outer hair cells (OHCs) in a noise-dose-dependent manner, whereas levels of the autophagy marker microtubule-associated protein light chain 3 B (LC3B) were sharply elevated after TTS but rose only slightly in response to PTS and were unaltered by sPTS noise. Furthermore, green fluorescent protein (GFP) intensity increased in GFP-LC3 mice after TTS-noise exposure. Treatment with rapamycin, an autophagy activator, significantly increased LC3B expression, while diminishing 4-HNE and 3-NT levels, reducing noise-induced hair cell loss, and, subsequently, noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL). In contrast, treatment with either the autophagy inhibitor 3-methyladenine (3MA) or LC3B siRNA reduced LC3B expression, increased 3-NT and 4-HNE levels, and exacerbated TTS to PTS. INNOVATION This study demonstrates a relationship between oxidative stress and autophagy in OHCs and reveals that autophagy is an intrinsic cellular process that protects against NIHL by attenuating oxidative stress. CONCLUSIONS The results suggest that the lower levels of oxidative stress incurred by TTS-noise exposure induce autophagy, which promotes OHC survival. However, excessive oxidative stress under sPTS-noise conditions overwhelms the beneficial potential of autophagy in OHCs and leads to OHC death and NIHL.
Design and reliability of a micro-relay technology for zero-standby-power digital logic applications

Micro-electro-mechanical (MEM) relays recently have been proposed for ultra-low-power digital logic applications because their ideal switching behavior can potentially allow the supply voltage (V<inf>DD</inf>) to be scaled down further than for CMOS devices [1–3]. This paper describes design techniques to achieve reliable (high-endurance) MEM relay operation. Prototype relays fabricated using a CMOS-compatible process are demonstrated to operate with low surface adhesion force, adequately low on-state resistance (≪ 100kΩ) over a wide temperature range (20°C–200°C), and ≫10<sup>9</sup> on/off switching cycles in N<inf>2</inf> ambient without stiction- or welding-induced failure. Measured characteristics are well predicted by both ANSYS simulations and an analytical model. Using the calibrated analytical model, scaled relay technology is projected to achieve ≫10× energy savings over comparably sized CMOS technology at throughputs up to ∼100MHz.
Transvaginal sonography—detection of findings suggestive of fetal chromosomal anomalies in the first and early second trimesters

Over a 4‐year period, 14 dyskaryotic fetuses were diagnosed by amniocentesis, performed after early detection of malformations using transvaginal sonography (TVS). These 14 dyskaryotic fetuses were detected out of 4878 sonographic screenings performed by TVS between 9 and 16 weeks' gestation. Twenty‐eight per cent of the referrals were at high risk and 72 per cent were at low risk for fetal malformations. Two hundred and twenty‐nine fetuses (4.7 per cent) of the screened population had 265 anomalies, 39 per cent of them being transient. In 7 of the 14 dyskaryotic fetuses (50 per cent), the sonographically detected anomalies were transient, being undetected by follow‐up sonographic screenings at later gestational ages (⩾18 weeks). Postponing the first sonographic scan aimed at malformation detection to a later gestational age may lead to transient anomalies and their associated dyskaryosis being missed.
Near-infrared spectroscopy and hyperspectral imaging: non-destructive analysis of biological materials.

Near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy has come of age and is now prominent among major analytical technologies after the NIR region was discovered in 1800, revived and developed in the early 1950s and put into practice in the 1970s. Since its first use in the cereal industry, it has become the quality control method of choice for many more applications due to the advancement in instrumentation, computing power and multivariate data analysis. NIR spectroscopy is also increasingly used during basic research performed to better understand complex biological systems, e.g. by means of studying characteristic water absorption bands. The shorter NIR wavelengths (800-2500 nm), compared to those in the mid-infrared (MIR) range (2500-15 000 nm) enable increased penetration depth and subsequent non-destructive, non-invasive, chemical-free, rapid analysis possibilities for a wide range of biological materials. A disadvantage of NIR spectroscopy is its reliance on reference methods and model development using chemometrics. NIR measurements and predictions are, however, considered more reproducible than the usually more accurate and precise reference methods. The advantages of NIR spectroscopy contribute to it now often being favoured over other spectroscopic (colourimetry and MIR) and analytical methods, using chemicals and producing chemical waste, such as gas chromatography (GC) and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). This tutorial review intends to provide a brief overview of the basic theoretical principles and most investigated applications of NIR spectroscopy. In addition, it considers the recent development, principles and applications of NIR hyperspectral imaging. NIR hyperspectral imaging provides NIR spectral data as a set of images, each representing a narrow wavelength range or spectral band. The advantage compared to NIR spectroscopy is that, due to the additional spatial dimension provided by this technology, the images can be analysed and visualised as chemical images providing identification as well as localisation of chemical compounds in non-homogenous samples.
Knowledge management systems: finding a way with technology

Purpose - To consider the role of technology in knowledge management in organizations, both actual and desired. Design/methodology/approach - Facilitated, computer-supported group workshops were conducted with 78 people from ten different organizations. The objective of each workshop was to review the current state of knowledge management in that organization and develop an action plan for the future. Findings - Only three organizations had adopted a strongly technology-based "solution" to knowledge management problems, and these followed three substantially different routes. There was a clear emphasis on the use of general information technology tools to support knowledge management activities, rather than the use of tools specific to knowledge management. Research limitations/implications - Further research is needed to help organizations make best use of generally available software such as intranets and e-mail for knowledge management. Many issues, especially human, relate to the implementation of any technology. Participation was restricted to organizations that wished to produce an action plan for knowledge management. The findings may therefore represent only "average" organizations, not the very best practice. Practical implications - Each organization must resolve four tensions: Between the quantity and quality of information/knowledge, between centralized and decentralized organization, between head office and organizational knowledge, and between "push" and "pull" processes. Originality/value - Although it is the group rather than an individual that determines what counts as knowledge, hardly any previous studies of knowledge management have collected data in a group context.
A Robust Named-Entity Recognition System Using Syllable Bigram Embedding with Eojeol Prefix Information

Korean named-entity recognition (NER) systems have been developed mainly on the morphological-level, and they are commonly based on a pipeline framework that identifies named-entities (NEs) following the morphological analysis. However, this framework can mean that the performance of NER systems is degraded, because errors from the morphological analysis propagate into NER systems. This paper proposes a novel syllable-level NER system, which does not require a morphological analysis and can achieve a similar or better performance compared with the morphological-level NER systems. In addition, because the proposed system does not require a morphological analysis step, its processing speed is about 1.9 times faster than those of the previous morphological-level NER systems.
An ultra-low power asynchronous quasi-delay-insensitive (QDI) sub-threshold memory with bit-interleaving and completion detection

We propose a 256×8-bit ultra-low power asynchronous memory design with emphases on micropower, improved soft errors, and operation robustness (i.e. innately self-timed operation which can tolerate Process, Temperature, and Voltage variations) for sub-threshold operation (i.e. the supply voltage VDD is below the threshold voltage of transistors). The proposed memory, to the best of our knowledge, is the first asynchronous memory appropriate not only for bit-interleaving to reduce the impact of soft error, but also for robust full dynamic voltage range operation (from nominal to near-threshold to sub-threshold voltage operation). These attributes a re achieved in several ways. First, the 4-phase dual-rail a synchronous quasi-delay-insensitive (QDI) implementation is employed. Second, a Write Completion Detector and Read Completion Detector are proposed to respectively monitor the computation time required for a write and a read operation. Third, a novel 11-transitor memory cell embodying decoupled read buffers is proposed to improve read static-noise-margin (SNM) and applicable for bit-interleaving. The proposed memory is realized using a 130nm CMOS process, and we show that it can operate robustly from 0.2V to 1.2V, dissipates 96.7nW @ (0.2V, 2 kHz), and operate at average speed of 8. 7µs @ 0.2V.