Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Resequencing and association analysis of MIR137 with schizophrenia in a Japanese population

MicroRNA may play a role in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. A recent meta‐analysis of genome‐wide association studies indicated a significant association between schizophrenia and a common intronic variation in MIR137HG (microRNA 137 host gene) encoding the primary microRNA‐137. To explore additional risk variations for schizophrenia, we resequenced MIR137 and performed an association analysis in 1321 Japanese individuals. By resequencing, we detected four sequence variations in the 5' and 3' flanking regions. There were no significant associations between these variations and schizophrenia. Our resequencing and association analysis of MIR137 failed to find additional risk variations for schizophrenia.
Longer-term outcomes of darbepoetin alfa versus epoetin alfa in patients with ESRD initiating hemodialysis: a quasi-experimental cohort study.

BACKGROUND Adequately powered studies directly comparing hard clinical outcomes of darbepoetin alfa (DPO) versus epoetin alfa (EPO) in patients undergoing dialysis are lacking. STUDY DESIGN Observational, registry-based, retrospective cohort study; we mimicked a cluster-randomized trial by comparing mortality and cardiovascular events in US patients initiating hemodialysis therapy in facilities (almost) exclusively using DPO versus EPO. SETTING & PARTICIPANTS Nonchain US hemodialysis facilities; each facility switching from EPO to DPO (2003-2010) was matched for location, profit status, and facility type with one EPO facility. Patients subsequently initiating hemodialysis therapy in these facilities were assigned their facility-level exposure. INTERVENTION DPO versus EPO. OUTCOMES All-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality; composite of cardiovascular death, nonfatal myocardial infarction (MI), and nonfatal stroke. MEASUREMENTS Unadjusted and adjusted HRs from Cox proportional hazards regression models. RESULTS Of 508 dialysis facilities that switched to DPO, 492 were matched with a similar EPO facility; 19,932 (DPO: 9,465 [47.5%]; EPO: 10,467 [52.5%]) incident hemodialysis patients were followed up for 21,918 person-years during which 5,550 deaths occurred. Almost all baseline characteristics were tightly balanced. The demographics-adjusted mortality HR for DPO (vs EPO) was 1.06 (95% CI, 1.00-1.13) and was materially unchanged after adjustment for all other baseline characteristics (HR, 1.05; 95% CI, 0.99-1.12). Cardiovascular mortality did not differ between groups (HR, 1.05; 95% CI, 0.94-1.16). Nonfatal outcomes were evaluated among 9,455 patients with fee-for-service Medicare: 4,542 (48.0%) in DPO and 4,913 (52.0%) in EPO facilities. During 10,457 and 10,363 person-years, 248 and 372 events were recorded, respectively, for strokes and MIs. We found no differences in adjusted stroke or MI rates or their composite with cardiovascular death (HR, 1.10; 95% CI, 0.96-1.25). LIMITATIONS Nonrandom treatment assignment, potential residual confounding. CONCLUSIONS In incident hemodialysis patients, mortality and cardiovascular event rates did not differ between patients treated at facilities predominantly using DPO versus EPO.
Cutting Edge: Conventional Dendritic Cells Are the Critical APC Required for the Induction of Experimental Cerebral Malaria1

Cerebral malaria (CM) is a serious complication of Plasmodium falciparum infection, causing significant morbidity and mortality among young children and nonimmune adults in the developing world. Although previous work on experimental CM has identified T cells as key mediators of pathology, the APCs and subsets therein required to initiate immunopathology remain unknown. In this study, we show that conventional dendritic cells but not plasmacytoid dendritic cells are required for the induction of malaria parasite-specific CD4+ T cell responses and subsequent experimental CM. These data have important implications for the development of malaria vaccines and the therapeutic management of CM.
An embedded filtering antenna using multiple layers with dielectric lens

An embedded filtering-antenna which is composed of an embedded filter and horn antenna working at millimeter-wave is proposed in this paper. Each device of filter and antenna, independently, is designed with metallic via fences and H-plane sectoral horn employing dielectric lens. It is shown that the radiation pattern obtained from three-layered dielectric lens is nearly the same as that of the conventional pyramidal horn antenna. In addition, the design procedures and electrical performances are described briefly and verified using commercially available software and measured result.
Impact of Intermittent Preventive Treatment in Pregnancy with Azithromycin-Containing Regimens on Maternal Nasopharyngeal Carriage and Antibiotic Sensitivity of Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae, and Staphylococcus aureus: a Cross-Sectional Survey at Delivery

ABSTRACT Sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) plus azithromycin (AZ) (SPAZ) has the potential for intermittent preventive treatment of malaria in pregnancy (IPTp), but its use could increase circulation of antibiotic-resistant bacteria associated with severe pediatric infections. We evaluated the effect of monthly SPAZ-IPTp compared to a single course of SP plus chloroquine (SPCQ) on maternal nasopharyngeal carriage and antibiotic susceptibility of Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae, and Staphylococcus aureus at delivery among 854 women participating in a randomized controlled trial in Papua New Guinea. Serotyping was performed, and antibiotic susceptibility was evaluated by disk diffusion and Etest. Potential risk factors for carriage were examined. Nasopharyngeal carriage at delivery of S. pneumoniae (SPAZ, 7.2% [30/418], versus SPCQ, 19.3% [84/436]; P < 0.001) and H. influenzae (2.9% [12/418] versus 6.0% [26/436], P = 0.028), but not S. aureus, was significantly reduced among women who had received SPAZ-IPTp. The number of macrolide-resistant pneumococcal isolates was small but increased in the SPAZ group (13.3% [4/30], versus SPCQ, 2.2% [2/91]; P = 0.033). The proportions of isolates with serotypes covered by the 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine were similar (SPAZ, 10.3% [3/29], versus SPCQ, 17.6% [16/91]; P = 0.352). Although macrolide-resistant isolates were rare, they were more commonly detected in women who had received SPAZ-IPTp, despite the significant reduction of maternal carriage of S. pneumoniae and H. influenzae observed in this group. Future studies on SPAZ-IPTp should evaluate carriage and persistence of macrolide-resistant S. pneumoniae and other pathogenic bacteria in both mothers and infants and assess the clinical significance of their circulation.
Design of multilayered substrate-integrated waveguide cross-slot couplers

This paper introduces multilayered cross-guide cross-slot directional coupler designs in substrate-integrated waveguide (SIW) technology. Interface ports are modeled by dielectric-filled waveguides which allow for a higher dynamic range in scattering parameters than conventionally used microstrip-to-SIW transitions. It is demonstrated that in double-or triple-layered configurations, coupling values between 10 dB and 25 dB can be achieved over almost an entire waveguide band. Several Ka-band double- or triple-layered cross-guide coupler designs are presented using an Ansoft's HFSS design environment. CST's Microwave Studio is used for performance verification
Rural base station powering

The number of BTS (Base transceiver stations) are increasing as the number of cellphone subscriber base is expanding and hence the need for analyzing the energy consumption of the constituents of the shelter becomes important. This paper briefly considers the various sources and loads at the telecom towers, introduces an simulation tool developed using Matlab, and ends by demonstrating alternate strategies to significantly reduce costs, energy consumption and carbon footprints.
The influence of dietary choline intake upon liver ethanolamine metabolism.

The effect of dietary choline upon liver ethanolamine metabolism was investigated by measurement of the changes in the liver levels of phospholipids and their precursors and in the metabolism of intraportally administered [14C]ethanolamine which occur when choline feeding is restored to 3-day choline deficient rats. The earliest detectable actions of choline were restoration of the decreased liver phosphatidyl choline level and beginning decreases in the elevated levels of liver ethanolamine, ethanolamine phosphate, CDP-ethanolamine, and phosphatidyl ethanolamine. The impairment at the CTP:ethanolaminephosphate cytidylyltransferase (EC 2.7.7.14) reaction induced by choline deficiency was reversed more slowly than were the increased levels of the ethanolamine-containing intermediates.In a further experiment it was observed that the liver levels of all of the ethanolamine-containing compounds were progressively diminished when the content of dietary choline was increased up to 1.2%. These findings indicate .
Lack of Dystrophin Affects Bronchial Epithelium in mdx Mice

Mild exercise training may positively affect the course of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD). Training causes mild bronchial epithelial injury in both humans and mice, but no study assessed the effects of exercise in mdx mice, a well known model of DMD. The airway epithelium was examined in mdx (C57BL/10ScSn‐Dmdmdx) mice, and in wild type (WT, C57BL/10ScSc) mice either under sedentary conditions (mdx‐SD, WT‐SD) or during mild exercise training (mdx‐EX, WT‐EX). At baseline, and after 30 and 45 days of training (5 d/wk for 6 weeks), epithelial morphology and markers of regeneration, apoptosis, and cellular stress were assessed. The number of goblet cells in bronchial epithelium was much lower in mdx than in WT mice under all conditions. At 30 days, epithelial regeneration (PCNA positive cells) was higher in EX than SD animals in both groups; however, at 45 days, epithelial regeneration decreased in mdx mice irrespective of training, and the percentage of apoptotic (TUNEL positive) cells was higher in mdx‐EX than in WT‐EX mice. Epithelial expression of HSP60 (marker of stress) progressively decreased, and inversely correlated with epithelial apoptosis (r = −0.66, P = 0.01) only in mdx mice. Lack of dystrophin in mdx mice appears associated with defective epithelial differentiation, and transient epithelial regeneration during mild exercise training. Hence, lack of dystrophin might impair repair in bronchial epithelium, with potential clinical consequences in DMD patients. J. Cell. Physiol. 231: 2218–2223, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Parameters Relevant to the Experimental Production of “Stress” in the Mouse

&NA; The interactions between an unconditioned noxious stimulus (electric shock) and a conditioned stimulus (light) were systematically investigated in mice, utilizing change in body weight as a quantitative manifestation of “stress. ” Merely moving mice from standard laboratory cages to experimental cages resulted in a significant decrease in weight gain. Mice subjected to periodic shock preceded by a stimulus light lost a greater amount of weight during the observation period than mice subjected to any of the other experimental conditions.
Abortion as a vice crime: a "what if" story.

It is most important in terms of predicting a societys response to abortion where it is illegal whether it is classified as either a vice consensual victimless or invisible crime. If Roe v. Wade the Supreme Courts landmark abortion decision in 1973 is overruled political battles over abortion would escalate and the law would not automatically return to the status quo and recriminalize abortion. It is likely that for a considerable time after any overruling of Roe v. Wade abortion would be illegal in some states but legal in others because of an inability to pass the requisite criminalizing statutes. If the political battles fought within states result in a national patchwork with some states prohibiting and others allowing abortion the antiabortion effort would be pushed to move at the national level. Unless a statute making it a federal crime to perform an abortion on a resident of another state or something similar would be enacted any anti-abortion laws passed could be evaded so easily that the number of abortions performed in the US would not change significantly. The fact that abortion is a medical procedure is possibly the most important reason for whatever success criminal law achieved in preventing abortion. As technology has advanced in the areas of pregnancy testing and the performance of abortion it is unlikely that new abortion laws comparable to those prevailing prior to 1973 would reduce the number of abortions to a level between the 1/2 and 1/3 as has been predicted.
A CMOS cyclic folding A/D converter with a new compact layout technique

In this paper, a 9-bit 2MS/s CMOS cyclic folding A/D Converter(ADC) for a Battery Management System(BMS) is described. The scheme of the ADC is based on a cyclic style to reduce chip area and power consumption. To obtain a high speed ADC performance, further, we use a folding-interpolation architecture. The prototype ADC is implemented with a 0. 35μm 2P4M n-well CMOS process. The measured results for INL and DNL are within ±1.5/±1.0 LSB. The ADC demonstrates a maximum SNDR and SFDR of 48dB and 60dB, respectively, and the power consumption is about 1mW at 3.3V. The occupied active die area is 10mm2.
Physical conditions in the planetary nebula NGC 6543

We present analysis of spectra and Hubble Space Telescope (HST) images of NGC 6543, the Cat's Eye Nebula. Using HST WFPC2 images taken in narrow-band filters isolating Halpha and Hbeta, we have produced an extinction map towards the nebula, and find that c(Hbeta)is low, at similar to0.1, and exhibits only very small spatial variations across the surface of the nebula. Using filters isolating [O III] emission lines, we have produced a temperature map of NGC 6543, accounting carefully for contamination due to continuum emission and other lines within the filter bandpasses. We find that the temperature over most of the nebula is between 7000 and 9000 K, with higher values seen towards the edge of the bright core. The value of t(A)(2), the temperature fluctuation parameter, is low at around 0.005 in the central regions. We have obtained long-slit scanning spectra of NGC 6453, which, when combined with the total Hbeta flux, give integrated fluxes for all the lines in our spectra. We determine ionic and total abundances within the nebula from both recombination lines and forbidden lines, and we find that recombination lines yield a higher abundance by a factor of approximately three. A temperature fluctuation parameter of 0.053 would resolve the discrepancy, but several factors argue against temperature fluctuations as the main cause: the value of t(2) required is inconsistent with the results derived from the temperature map; the agreement of the temperatures derived from the hydrogen Balmer jump and [O III] line diagnostics also implies a low value of t(2); and the agreement of abundances derived from temperature-insensitive infrared fine-structure lines and temperature-sensitive optical forbidden lines is inconsistent with the temperature fluctuation scenario.We argue that a more likely explanation for the observed temperature and abundance discrepancies is the presence within the nebula of some hydrogen-deficient material at low temperatures. Weakly temperature-dependent line ratios of He I and O II imply lower temperatures than those found from forbidden-line temperature diagnostics and the hydrogen Balmer jump, as is expected in the presence of cold hydrogen-deficient material.
Screening Tool for Hollow‐Fiber Bioreactor Process Development

Fundamental research of factors affecting cell growth in hollow‐fiber bioreactors is hindered by the lack of an efficient screening tool. To address this issue, a hollow‐fiber micro‐bioreactor has been developed. Hollow fibers with 10 kDa molecular weight cutoffs are housed within a piece of silicone tubing. Cells are inoculated within the hollow fibers which provides a 0.2‐mL culture volume. The space between the fibers and silicone tubing (5 or 16 mL) is used as a medium reservoir sufficient to feed the cells for at least 24 h. Oxygenation is provided directly through the silicone tubing so that a pump for medium recirculation is not required. As a result, many conditions can be tested simultaneously in a single incubator. Three days after inoculation at 5 × 106 cells/mL in the micro‐bioreactor, the rho 1D4 murine hybridoma cell line reached 2.8 × 107 cells/mL with an antibody concentration of 0.17 mg/mL. When inoculated at 5 × 107 cells/mL, the cell concentration reached 1.8 × 108/mL after 3 days with an antibody concentration of 1.0 mg/mL. Results from a series of experiments with the micro‐bioreactor suggested that the initial growth phase of this cell line in a hollow‐fiber system is dependent on the serum concentration in the medium reservoir. This prediction was tested by simultaneously inoculating two production‐scale hollow‐fiber bioreactor systems. The cell side of the membrane for each bioreactor contained 10% serum, but serum was added to the reservoir side of only one of the bioreactors. The cells with only basal medium in the reservoir died after a few days, while the cells with 10% serum in the medium reservoir grew rapidly. These results demonstrate that the micro‐bioreactor developed here can support good cell growth and that it can be used as a research tool to predict the performance of large‐scale hollow‐fiber systems.
Role of Dihydropyridine‐Sensitive Calcium Channels in the Regulation of Norepinephrine Release in Hypertension

Summary: In the present study, in order to elucidate the role of dihydropyridine (DHP)‐sensitive calcium (Ca) channels in the regulation of neurotransmitter release in hypertension, we examined the effects of the DHP‐sensitive Ca channel blocker nicardipine on norepinephrine (NE) release in blood vessels of spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) and normotensive Wistar‐Kyoto (WKY) rats. The stimulation‐evoked pressor responses and NE release were significantly greater in the mesenteric arteries of SHR than in the mesenteric arteries of WKY rats. Nicardipine significantly inhibited the stimulation‐evoked NE release as well as vasoconstrictor responses in the mesenteric arteries to a greater extent in SHR than in WKY rats. These results demonstrated that nicardipine markedly reduced the stimulation‐evoked NE release in blood vessels of SHR, which might suggest that the DHP‐sensitive Ca channels could be involved, at least in part, in the regulation of NE release in hypertension.
The Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation Safeguards and Separations Reprocessing Plant Toolkit

This report details the progress made in the development of the Reprocessing Plant Toolkit (RPTk) for the DOE Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) program. RPTk is an ongoing development effort intended to provide users with an extensible, integrated, and scalable software framework for the modeling and simulation of spent nuclear fuel reprocessing plants by enabling the insertion and coupling of user-developed physicochemical modules of variable fidelity. The NEAMS Safeguards and Separations IPSC (SafeSeps) and the Enabling Computational Technologies (ECT) supporting program element have partnered to release an initial version of the RPTk with a focus on software usability and utility. RPTk implements a data flow architecture that is the source of the system's extensibility and scalability. Data flows through physicochemical modules sequentially, with each module importing data, evolving it, and exporting the updated data to the next downstream module. This is accomplished through various architectural abstractions designed to give RPTk true plug-and-play capabilities. A simple application of this architecture, as well as RPTk data flow and evolution, is demonstrated in Section 6 with an application consisting of two coupled physicochemical modules. The remaining sections describe this ongoing work in full, from system vision and design inception to fullmore » implementation. Section 3 describes the relevant software development processes used by the RPTk development team. These processes allow the team to manage system complexity and ensure stakeholder satisfaction. This section also details the work done on the RPTk ``black box'' and ``white box'' models, with a special focus on the separation of concerns between the RPTk user interface and application runtime. Section 4 and 5 discuss that application runtime component in more detail, and describe the dependencies, behavior, and rigorous testing of its constituent components. « less
Improving Safety Messages Dissemination in IEEE 802.11e Based VANETs Using Controlled Repetition Technique

Vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) have been proposed to provide safety and non-safety services for the passengers on board. Reliability in broadcasting of safety messages is one of the fundamental challenges in the design of such networks. In this paper, we study the impact of employment of repetition and piggybacking techniques on the performance of safety messages dissemination in an IEEE 802.11e-based VANET. The adequacy of the proposed techniques has been evaluated by a simulation. The results of this simulation show that the performance of VANET improves by setting proper parameters and the number of repetitions per priority class. Further, controlling the number of repetitions by piggyback technique can highly improve the performance of VANET for broadcasting of safety messages.
A Case Study of Object Identification Using a Kinect Sensor

The RGB camera and LIDAR have been applied in object identification for robots. However, Kinect has changed this situation. Because of the wide use of three-dimensional (3D) processing, the point cloud library (PCL) now enables people to easily use in a 3D environment. Iterative closest point (ICP) is an ideal method for identifying a target, but it involves first reconstructing an object. Therefore, this paper presents an alternative method using geometry of surface for identifying the features of an object and differentiating it from other objects.
Quenching Star Formation in the Green Valley: The Mass Flux at Intermediate Redshifts

Abstract We have obtained several hundred very deep spectra with DEIMOS/Keck in order to estimate the galactic mass flux density at intermediate redshifts (0.6 < z < 0.9) from the "blue cloud" to the red sequence across the so-called “green valley”, the intermediate region in the color-magnitude plot between those two populations. We use spectral indices (specifically Dn(4000) and Hδ, A) to determine star formation histories. Together with an independent measurement of number density of galaxies in each bin of the color-magnitude plot, one can infer the rate at which galaxies from a given sample are transiting through that bin. Measuring this value for all magnitude values, studies at lower redshift determined that the mass flux density in the green valley is comparable to both the mass build-up rate of the red sequence and the mass loss rate from the blue cloud. We show preliminary results for our intermediate redshift sample.