Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cerebellar atrophy in Schimke‐immuno‐osseous dysplasia

Schimke‐immuno‐osseous dysplasia is an autosomal‐recessive multisystem disorder with the prominent clinical features disproportionate growth failure, progressive renal failure, and T‐cell immunodeficiency. Neurological symptoms caused by transient ischemic attacks (TIAs) and strokes are a typical clinical finding in severe SIOD. Cerebral ischemia and white matter changes, moyamoya phenomena and absence of a cerebellar hemisphere and partial absence of the cerebellar vermis have been described in patients with severe SIOD. We present three SIOD patients with atrophy of the caudal parts of the cerebellar vermis (posterior lobule) and of the cerebellar hemispheres. We hypothesize that these cerebellar abnormalities are a continuum of the ongoing vascular disease in severe SIOD. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Automatische Selektion von Mehrweggütern der Lebensmittel- und Getränkeindustrie mittels Neurostatistik

Die meisten derzeit in der Getrankeindustrie eingesetzten Verfahren zur Erkennung von Schaden an Getrankekasten weisen eine niedrige Erkennungsrate auf. Als Folge verbleiben betroffene Kasten im Mehrwegbestand der Unternehmen und gelangen uber den Einzelhandel zum Kunden. Zwar tauschen viele Abfuller regelmasig einen festen Prozentsatz an Kasten aus, allerdings fallen dieser Methode unbeschadigte Kasten zum Opfer, wahrend beschadigte im Pool verbleiben. Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit war die Entwicklung einer industrietauglichen Kasteninspektionsmaschine zur Erkennung sichtbarer und unsichtbarer Schaden an Getrankekasten. Hauptanforderungen waren eine hohe Erkennungsrate sowie eine gute Integrierbarkeit in bestehende Abfulllinien. Grundvoraussetzung hierfur war u. a. eine maximale Inspektionsdauer von einer Sekunde pro Kasten. Zur Beurteilung des Zustands von Getrankekasten kam erstmalig die Methode der Neurostatistik zum Einsatz, welche die Vorteile von Kunstlichen Neuronalen Netzen (KNN) und der Hauptkomponentenanalyse (HKA) vereint. Physikalische Grundlage des Prufverfahrens war die mechanische Signalausbreitung in Festkorpern, mit der, im Gegensatz zu den praxisgangigen Standardverfahren, auch Latenzmangel am Getrankekasten detektierbar sind. Mit Hilfe der Finite-Elemente-Methode (FEM) wurden grundsatzliche Zusammenhange des Schwingungsverhaltens von Getrankekasten in Abhangigkeit von Art und Ort eines mechanischen Erregungsimpulses auf dessen Oberflache gezeigt. Uber Fouriertransformation wurden charakteristische Schwingungsspektren von beschadigten und unbeschadigten Kasten erzeugt, uber deren Vergleich eine optimale Erregung der Kasten ermittelt wurde. Auf Basis der FEM-Ergebnisse erfolgte der Bau eines Funktionsmusters einer Kasteninspektionsmaschine. Dieser musste zunachst die sichere Entnahme und Ruckfuhrung der einzelnen Kasten aus dem Forderstrom der Abfullanlage gewahrleisten. Ein Laservibrometer erfasste das resultierende Schwingungsspektrum des jeweiligen Kastens, auf den ein ca. 0,2 s andauernder, vertikal wirkender Schockimpuls einwirkte. Insgesamt wurden Vergleichsspektren von 129 Kasten in unterschiedlichen Zustandsformen aufgenommen, von fabrikneu bis gebrochen. Die Programmierung der Steuerung sowie die Auswertung erfolgten mittels LabView. Uber die HKA erfolgte ein Vorauswertung und Komprimierung der Rohdaten der Schwingungsspektren, bevor diese in zuvor trainierte KNN gespeist wurden. Diese Kombination erlaubte eine Schadensbeurteilung des Getrankekastens in einer Zeitspanne im Millisekundenbereich, wodurch die Gesamtprufdauer eines Kastens inklusive Ein- und Ausschleusung von maximal 1 s gewahrleistet werden konnte. Durch anschliesende Optimierung der Frequenzbereiche der Schwingungsspektren konnte eine Erkennungsquote von 98,5 % realisiert werden. Ergebnis der Arbeit ist eine technisch und wirtschaftlich praxistaugliche Kasteninspektionsmaschine, die durch hochspezifische Sortierung eine signifikante Qualitatsverbesserung des Kastenpools eines Getrankeherstellers gewahrleistet.
Vegetation and soil lines in visible spectral space: A concept and technique for remote estimation of vegetation fraction

The goal of this study is to investigate the information content of reflectance spectra of crops in the visible and near infrared range of the spectrum and develop a technique for remote estimation of vegetation fraction ( VF ). For four wheat species with VF =100% in a wide range of pigment contents and compositions, a high degree of covariance was found for paired reflectances ( R ) at 550 nm versus 700 nm ( R 550 versus R 700) and 500 nm versus 670 nm ( R 500 versus R 670). Both relationships, defined as 'vegetation lines', were linear with determination coefficients r 2 >0.9 and the plotted points were tightly clustered. Using the same coordinates to plot reflectances for a variety of soils, a high degree of covariance ( r 2 >0.94) and a distinct 'soil line' were found. The vegetation and soil lines define a two-dimensional spectral construct within which canopy reflectances, regardless of VF, may be located. Based on these optical properties of vegetation and soils, an attempt was made to estimate VF remotely for selected plant canopies. It is suggested that the coordinate location within the constructs, as defined by reflectances at 500 nm and 670 nm as well as at 550 nm and 700 nm, be used to measure VF . Algorithms for VF assessment in wheat for a wide range of soil brightness were devised and validated. The root mean square error (RMSE) of VF prediction was less than 10%. The technique was also validated by means of independent datasets taken above cornfields in Nebraska. The RMSE of VF prediction did not exceed 9.7%.
New Strategies for Human Papillomavirus-Based Cervical Screening

Human papillomavirus testing has been shown to be far more sensitive and robust in detecting cervical intraepithelial neoplasia 2 and above (and cervical intraepithelial neoplasia 3 and above) for cervical screening than approaches based on either cytology or visual inspection; however, there are a number of issues that need to be overcome if it is to substantially reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with cervical cancer at the population level. The two main issues are coverage (increasing the number of women who participate in screening) and the management of women who test positive for high-risk human papillomavirus. This article will review the potential for vaginal self-collection to improve coverage and the options for triage of high-risk human papillomavirus-positive women in high-resource and low-resource settings.
Recommendations for standardization and specifications in automated electrocardiography: bandwidth and digital signal processing. A report for health professionals by an ad hoc writing group of the Committee on Electrocardiography and Cardiac Electrophysiology of the Council on Clinical Cardiology, 

R ecent technologic advances and published studies point to the need to reevaluate requirements for recording and analysis of electrocardiographic (ECG) data. Several issues have arisen from recent developments. First, approximately 52 million ECGs were processed by computer in 1987 (up from 4 million in 1975), and more than 15,000 digital ECG systems are now in use (up from 85 in 1975). 1 In addition, computer-assisted electrocardiography is spreading rapidly from academic medical centers to private hospitals, clinics, and physicians' offices. A major factor in this diffusion of technology is the introduction of inexpensive (less than $5,000) stand-alone interpretative carts using microchip technology. ' Second, a large number of ECG systems, particularly stand-alone carts, convert data into digital form immediately after amplification and process it digitally. This type of processing, combined with preamplifiers with lower noise characteristics than those available earlier, permits higher resolutions and signal-to-noise ratios than conventional linear analog systems. Third, high-frequency components and lowamplitude signals in the ECG known primarily to researchers are now regarded with wider interest. Distinguishing between the needs of researchers and requirements for routine ECG recording has become more difficult.
In vitro activities of the lichen secondary metabolites vulpinic acid, (+)-usnic acid, and (-)-usnic acid against aerobic and anaerobic microorganisms

Secondary metabolites of different species of lichen were tested for their activities against a variety of microbial species. While gram-negative rods and fungi were not inhibited by these compounds, Staphylococcus aureus, Enterococcus faecalis, Enterococcus faecium, and some anaerobic species (Bacteroides and Clostridium species) were susceptible at the concentrations tested. Vulpinic acid generally was less active than usnic acid, regardless of its stereochemistry. The susceptibility to usnic acid was not impaired in clinical isolates of S. aureus resistant to methicillin and/or mupirocin.
An analysis of hospital-acquired bacteraemia in intensive care unit patients in a university hospital in Kuwait.

An analysis of hospital-acquired bacteraemia among ICU patients was carried out over a two-year period in order to determine the incidence, associated mortality rate and susceptibility pattern of causative pathogens. There was a high incidence of bacteraemia, occurring in 127 (18.4%) of 692 patients. Mortality attributable to nosocomial bacteraemia was 52% of the total 79 deaths from all causes. The highest mortality rate (58.5%) occurred in patients with fungal infections, whilst death from Gram-negative bacteraemia was only 17%. Over 98% of patients had underlying disease. Nearly half (46.8%) of 267 organisms isolated were Gram-positive. In comparison, Gram-negative bacteria accounted for 36.6% and the rest (17.6%) were fungi (mainly Candida albicans). The majority of the bactereamic episodes were monomicrobial (90.2%). Coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS) were the commonest pathogens isolated, representing 32.6% of all organisms. Inducible beta-lactamase producing organism (Enterobacter spp. 9.7%, Serratia marcescens 6.7%, Klebsiella pneumoniae 6% and Pseudomonas aeruginosa 6%) formed the bulk of Gram-negative bacteria. In contrast, Escherichia coli (7.5%) and K. pneumoniae (4%) were the commonest Gram-negative bacteria from hospital-acquired bacteraemia in the general hospital population. The majority (80%) of CNS were resistant to methicillin (MRSE) but susceptible to vancomycin; they were relatively resistant to erythromycin, clindamycin and beta-lactams antibiotics. Whilst Gram-negative organisms were relatively susceptible to imipenem (85%), ciprofloxacin (88%) and amikacin (87%), they had unacceptably low levels of susceptibility to cefuroxime (59.3%), cefotaxime (71%), ceftazidime (60.9%), and piperacillin (51.1%). This study shows that hospital-acquired bacteraemia in ICU patients carries a poor prognosis. Information regarding the infective agents and their susceptibility in the ICU setting is valuable for the selection of empirical therapy before culture and susceptibility results are known.
Socially isolated? How parents and neighbourhood adults influence youth behaviour in disadvantaged communities

William Julius Wilson’s model of adult joblessness, community disorganization and their effects on youth problem behaviour de-emphasizes the range in children’s outcomes across socially disorganized communities, and says little about the factors that influence this variation. It also does not address the processes by which family structure and relationships affect the well-being of African-American and poor youth. My work is part of a larger research agenda that has begun to address these issues by focusing on the differential rates of sexual activity among youth living in disadvantaged environments, and developing models to explain this variation. This work suggests that units of socially cohesive, stable adults exist among the social networks of successful children and families in poor neighbourhoods. It also points to the existence and functioning of alternative two-parent family structures and offers hypotheses for how family environment interacts with neighbourhood context to influence youth behaviour.
Joint routing and scheduling in multi-radio multi-channel multi-hop wireless networks

Recent advances in multi-radio multi-channel transmission technology have the potential of substantially improving the system capacity in multi-hop wireless networks. While previous work has primarily focused on the link level protocol design, in this paper we investigate the achievable performance gain, by jointly optimizing routing and scheduling in a multi-radio multichannel multi-hop network. We formulate the optimization under a deterministic model, and we seek to minimize overall system activation time in use to satisfy given end-to-end traffic demands subjected to the multi-access interference among neighboring transmissions and the radio interface constraint at each node. The exact solution to such an optimization problem is prohibitively complex due to the combinatorial complexity, particularly with the deployment of multi-radio and multi-channel. We develop a column generation based approach to solve this problem, which decomposes the original problem into sub-problems and solves them iteratively. Numerical results are given, and discussions as well as insights into the performance aspects for multi-radio multichannel deployment are provided.
Rapamycin extends lifespan and delays tumorigenesis in heterozygous p53+/− mice

The TOR (Target of Rapamycin) pathway accelerates cellular and organismal aging. Similar to rapamycin, p53 can inhibit the mTOR pathway in some mammalian cells. Mice lacking one copy of p53 (p53+/− mice) have an increased cancer incidence and a shorter lifespan. We hypothesize that rapamycin can delay cancer in heterozygous p53+/− mice. Here we show that rapamycin (given in a drinking water) extended the mean lifespan of p53+/− mice by 10% and when treatment started early in life (at the age less than 5 months) by 28%. In addition, rapamycin decreased the incidence of spontaneous tumors. This observation may have applications in management of Li-Fraumeni syndrome patients characterized by heterozygous mutations in the p53 gene.
The kallikrein–kinin system and oxidative stress

Purpose of reviewThe kallikrein–kinin system (KKS) constitutes a complex multienzyme cascade that produces several bioactive kinin peptides and their derivatives including bradykinin. In addition to the classical notion of the KKS as a potent vasodilator and a mediator of inflammatory responses, recent studies suggest a link between the KKS and oxidative stress. A number of established mouse models with altered levels of KKS components opened the way to evaluate precise functions of the KKS. Here we review recent findings on the role of the KKS in cardiovascular diseases and chronic kidney diseases, and discuss potential benefits of KKS activation in these diseases. Recent findingsDeletion of both B1R and B2R in a diabetic mouse model exacerbates its renal phenotypes, suggesting that the KKS exerts protective effects on diabetic nephropathy by suppressing oxidative stress, presumably via nitric oxide and prostaglandins. SummaryAccumulating evidence has highlighted the importance of the KKS as a protective system against oxidative stress and organ damage in the heart and kidney. The activation of the KKS by angiotensin I-converting enzyme inhibitors and vasopeptidase inhibitors is likely to be beneficial in senescence-associated cardiovascular diseases and chronic kidney diseases.
Evaluating Actions Towards Sustainable Aviation: A Case Study Using Action Interdependence in Multiple Criteria Decision Making

Multiple criteria decision analysis with action interdependence is presented of potential investments for the aviation industry to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The aviation industry has an interest in increased efficiency due to political and public pressure to reduce GHGs, and a finite fuel supply that will lead to increased costs. This analysis utilizes four criteria (return on investment, carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, minimal disruption, and popularity) to evaluate combinations of actions. Possible interdependencies between any two actions are also taken into account. This paper ascertains that the use of algae bio fuels and high bypass engines are the most preferred actions based on the synergistic interdependence between these two actions. The results of the study are supported by the preferences of the aviation industry as described in public releases.
Rotor design techniques for reducing the cogging torque in a novel dual-rotor axial field flux-switching permanent magnet machine

Dual-rotor axial field flux-switching permanent magnet (DRAFFSPM) machine is a novel permanent magnet (PM) machine which incorporates the merits of both the flux-switching PM machine and the axial field PM machine. The cogging torque of the DRAFFSPM machine is high due to the flux focusing which is caused by the double salient structure. In order to reduce the cogging torque, the influence of the rotor pole width and shape on the cogging torque is analyzed based on the 3D finite element (FE) method. The cogging torque reduction methods, such as the rotor skewing, rotor notching, and rotor pole displacement, etc., are investigated. The results show that increasing the rotor pole width and adopting fan-shaped rotor pole can decrease the cogging torque greatly. The cogging torque can be reduced by ~77% when the rotor pole width and rotor fan-shaped angle are optimized to 15.5 deg. and 3 deg. , respectively. The cogging torque can't be decreased by the rotor skewing for DRAFFSPM machine. However, the cogging torque can be reduced by rotor notching and rotor pole displacement.
Effect of curcumin on lipid peroxidation, early ultrastructural findings and neurological recovery after experimental spinal cord contusion injury in rats.

AIM After acute spinal cord injury (SCI), a large number of axons are lost by a cascade of pathophysiological events known as a secondary injury. The main aim of the current study was to investigate the potential neuroprotective effects of curcumin on lipid peroxidation (LPO), neurological function, and ultrastructural findings after SCI. MATERIAL AND METHODS Forty adult Wistar albino rats were randomized into five groups: control, SCI alone (50 g/cm weight drop), methylprednisolone sodium succinate (MPSS) (30 mg/kg), curcumin + dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) (300 mg/kg), and DMSO alone (0.1 mg/kg). RESULTS Administration of curcumin significantly decreased LPO in first 24 hours. However, there were no differences in the neurological scores of injured rats between the medication groups and the control group. Curcumin was more effective than DMSO and MPSS in reducing LPO, whereas DMSO was more effective than curcumin and MPSS in minimizing ultrastuctural changes. The results of this study indicate that curcumin exerts a beneficial effect by decreasing LPO and may reduce tissue damage. CONCLUSION Since ultrastructural and neurological findings does not support biochemical finding, our findings do not exclude the possibility that curcumin has a protective effect on the spinal cord ultrastructure and neurological recovery after SCI. A combination of curcumin with other vehicle may also have a considerable synergy in protecting spinal cord.
Bio-inspired self-organised mechatronic-agent interactions to support product emergence

The emergence of modern manufacturing paradigms together with the growing interest on distributed architectures has been increasing the use of biologically inspired solutions. However, somehow along the way, developed approaches have converged towards more traditional systems where the physical and logical decoupled nature of the system has been partially lost. In this context, the presented work aims to introduce and analyse a new fully physically and logically decoupled bio-inspired self-organising approach that tries to bring to the mechatronic-agent based manufacturing architectures the dynamics of biological systems. Furthermore, the manufacturing systems are approached from a bottom-up perspective in an attempt to reduce the specification of the production processes to the minimum.
Strouhal numbers and optimization of swimming by odontocete cetaceans

SUMMARY Swimming efficiencies of fish and cetaceans have been related to a certain synchrony between stroke cycle frequency, peak-to-peak tail/fluke amplitude and mean swimming speed. These kinematic parameters form a non-dimensional wake parameter, referred to as a Strouhal number, which for the range between 0.20 and 0.40 has been associated with enhanced swimming efficiency for fish and cetaceans. Yet to date there has been no direct experimental substantiation of what Strouhal numbers are preferred by swimming cetaceans. To address this lack of data, a total of 248 Strouhal numbers were calculated for the captive odontocete cetaceans Tursiops truncatus, Pseudorca crassidens, Orcinus orca, Globicephala melaena, Lagenorhynchus obliquidens and Stenella frontalis. Although the average Strouhal number calculated for each species is within the accepted range, considerable scatter is found in the data both within species and among individuals. A greater proportion of Strouhal values occur between 0.20 and 0.30 (74%) than the 0.25–0.35 (55%) range predicted for maximum swimming efficiency. Within 0.05 Strouhal increments, the greatest number of Strouhal values was found between 0.225 and 0.275 (44%). Where propulsive efficiency data were available (Tursiops truncatus, Pseudorca crassidens, Orcinus orca), peak swimming efficiency corresponded to this same Strouhal range. The odontocete cetacean data show that, besides being generally limited to a range of Strouhal numbers between 0.20 and 0.40, the kinematic parameters comprising the Strouhal number provide additional constraints. Fluke-beat frequency normalized by the ratio of swimming speed to body length was generally restricted from 1 to 2, whereas peak-to-peak fluke amplitude normalized by body length occurred predominantly between 0.15 and 0.25. The results indicate that the kinematics of the propulsive flukes of odontocete cetaceans are not solely dependent on Strouhal number, and the Strouhal number range for odontocete cetaceans occurs at slightly (∼20%) lower values than previously predicted for maximum swimming efficiency.
Isomorphism between Differential and Moment Invariants under Affine Transform

The invariant is one of central topics in science, technology and engineering. The differential invariant is essential in understanding or describing some important phenomena or procedures in mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology or computer science etc. The derivation of differential invariants is usually difficult or complicated. This paper reports a discovery that under the affine transform, differential invariants have similar structures with moment invariants up to a scalar function of transform parameters. If moment invariants are known, relative differential invariants can be obtained by the substitution of moments by derivatives with the same order. Whereas moment invariants can be calculated by multiple integrals, this method provides a simple way to derive differential invariants without the need to resolve any equation system. Since the definition of moments on different manifolds or in different dimension of spaces is well established, differential invariants on or in them will also be well defined. Considering that moments have a strong background in mathematics and physics, this technique offers a new view angle to the inner structure of invariants. Projective differential invariants can also be found in this way with a screening process.