Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Expression and regulation of hemeoxygenase 1 in healthy human lung and interstitial lung disorders.

Hemeoxygenase 1 (HO-1) has been implicated in the protection of lung tissue against exogenous oxidant exposure. However, the expression and cellular distribution of HO-1 in human lung continue to be poorly characterized. The localization of HO-1 was studied in histopathologically healthy lung from nonsmoking patients with a carcinoid or other lung tumor (5 cases), pulmonary sarcoidosis (13 cases), and chronic interstitial pneumonias (9 cases, usual interstitial pneumonia; 10 cases, desquamative interstitial pneumonia). Immunostaining was graded from 0 (no immunoreactivity) to +++ (intense immunoreactivity). In healthy lung, HO-1 was localized to alveolar macrophages with reactivity varying from moderate to intense, and in bronchial epithelium, alveolar epithelium, endothelium, and interstitium, the immunoreactivity was not detectable or was very low. Sarcoidosis and interstitial pneumonias showed intense HO-1 immunoreactivity in alveolar macrophages in most of the cases and weak to intense immunoreactivity in the granulomas of sarcoidosis. The immunoreactivity of interstitium was negative or weak in the fibrotic areas of the lung and also in the samples of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid obtained from the patients with UIP. Western blotting indicated that HO-1 is up-regulated by exposure of monocytes to formylated peptide, fMLP, which causes respiratory burst in the cells, and that inhibition of HO-1 by tin protoporphyrin potentiates the injury of fMLP-exposed cells. In conclusion, these data show differential distribution of HO-1 in human lung cells and strongly suggest the importance of HO-1, especially in the defense of alveolar macrophages in normal human lung and in the inflammatory, but not in the fibrotic, stage of interstitial lung disorders.
Assessment of sustained effects of levosimendan and dobutamine on left ventricular systolic functions by using novel tissue Doppler derived indices in patients with advanced heart failure.

BACKGROUND Previous studies comparing levosimendan vs. dobutamine have revealed that levosimendan is better in relieving symptoms. Echocardiographic studies have been done using second measurements immediately following a dobutamine infusion or while it was still being administered. The aim of our study was assessment of sustained effects of 24 h levosimendan and dobutamine infusions on left ventricular systolic functions. METHODS A total of 61 patients with acutely decompensated heart failure with New York Heart Association (NYHA) class III or IV symptoms were randomized to receive either levosimendan or dobutamine 2:1 in an open label fashion. Before and 5 days after the initiation of infusions, functional class was assessed, N-terminal prohormone of B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) levels and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), mitral inflow peak E and A wave velocity, and E/A ratios were measured; using tissue Doppler imaging, isovolumic myocardial acceleration (IVA), peak myocardial velocity during isovolumic contraction (IVV), peak systolic velocity during ejection period (Sa), early (E') and late (A') diastolic velocities, and E'/A' and E/E' ratios were measured. RESULTS The NYHA class improved in both groups, but improvements were prominent in the levosimendan group. NT-proBNP levels were significantly reduced in the levosimendan group. Improvements in LVEF and diastolic indices were significant in the levosimendan group. Tissue Doppler-derived systolic indices of IVV and IVA increased significantly in the levosimendan group. CONCLUSIONS Improvements in left ventricular systolic and diastolic functions continue after a levosimendan infusion.
Coping and Resilience in Refugees from the Sudan: A Narrative Account

Objective: The purpose of this paper was to identify and explicate coping and resilience themes employed by 13 resettled Sudanese refugees. Method: A sample of 13 Sudanese refugees was asked to describe their experience of coping in the three periods of their migration, namely: pre migration from Sudan, transit, and post migration in their host country. Members of the sample participated in qualitative interviews conducted with the assistance a bilingual community worker. Results: Three themes that characterized the experience of resettled refugees across all periods were: religious beliefs, social support and personal qualities. A fourth less salient, theme, comparison with others, also emerged in the post-migration context. Conclusions: A number of themes associated with coping and resilience in response to trauma were identified. These themes may be translated into strategies to assist in responding constructively to trauma. Such approaches may be used to improve the well-being of resettled refugees in Australia.
Neuroprotection against ischemic brain injury by knockdown of hematopietic progenitor kinase 1 expression

In this study, we investigated the role of hematopietic progenitor kinase 1 (HPK1) in delayed neuronal damage after cerebral ischemia and the possible regulatory mechanisms of this event. Our data show that tyrosine phosphorylation of HPK1 was significantly increased at 6 h of ischemic-reperfusion compared with sham control. The increase in p-HPK1, p-MLK3, p-MKK7, and p-JNK3 was attenuated by HPK1 antisense oligodeoxynucleotides intra-cerebroventricular infusion, but not MS-ODNs or vehicle. Intracerebroventricular infusion of antisense oligodeoxynucleotides also increased the number of surviving pyramidal neurons, whereas MS-ODNs or vehicle (TE) groups had no effects. These results indicate that knockdown of HPK1 expression provides neuroprotection through downregulation activation of the MLK3-MKK7-JNK3 pathway following cerebral ischemia in the rat hippocampus CA1 subfield.
Growth and development of the laboratory cultured sea urchin.

A method is described for raising sea urchins from egg to egg in the laboratory. The larvae are raised on flagellated marine algae and the young urchins on a substrate-dwelling diatom. The major features in the developmental process are: growth of the larva, development of the urchin inside the larva, metamorphosis and growth of the young urchin to sexual maturity. The entire life cycle takes about six months.
140GHz waveguide H ladder bandpass filter

A low insertion loss 140GHz rectangular waveguide H ladder bandpass filter is presented in this paper. The filter is synthesized by 7-pole Chebyshev filtering function and simulated by mode matching method. It is fabricated based on micrometer precision high speed CNC milling machines. The measured center frequency is 139.2GHz. The 3dB bandwidth is 11.6GHz, 8.3%. The minimum insertion loss is -1.0dB. The passband return loss is lower than -16.4dB. The stopband rejection is -48.1dB at 130GHz.
MulCh: a multi-layer channel router using one, two, and three layer partitions

Chameleon, a channel router for three layers of interconnect, has been implemented to accept specification of an arbitrary number of layers. Chameleon is based on a strategy of decomposing the multilayer problem into two- and three-layer problems in which one of the layers is reserved primarily for vertical wire runs and the other layer(s) for horizontal runs. In some situations, however, it is advantageous to consider also layers that allow the routing of entire nets, using both horizontal and vertical wires. MulCh is a multilayer channel router that extends the algorithms of Chameleon in this direction. MulCh can route channels with any number of layers and automatically chooses a good assignment of wiring strategies to the different layers. In test cases, MulCh shows significant improvement over Chameleon in terms of channel width, net length, and number of vias. <<ETX>>
Application of a Microcalorimetric Method for Determining Drug Susceptibility in Mycobacterium Species

ABSTRACT Mycobacterium tuberculosis is a global public health concern, particularly with the emergence of drug-resistant strains. Immediate identification of drug-resistant strains is crucial to administering appropriate treatment before the bacteria are allowed to spread. However, developing countries, which are most affected by drug resistance, are struggling to combat the disease without the facilities or funds for expensive diagnostics. Recent studies have emphasized the suitability of isothermal microcalorimetry (IMC) for the rapid detection of mycobacteria. In this study, we investigate its suitability for rapid and reliable M. tuberculosis drug susceptibility testing. Specifically, IMC was used to determine the MICs of three drugs, namely, isoniazid, ethambutol, and moxifloxacin, against three mycobacteria, namely, Mycobacterium smegmatis, Mycobacterium avium, and Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The Richards growth model was used to calculate growth parameters, namely, the maximum bacterial growth rate and the lag phase duration from integrated heat flow-versus-time results. For example, MICs of isoniazid, ethambutol, and moxifloxacin were determined to be 1.00, 8.00, and 0.25 μg/ml, respectively. IMC, as described here, could be used not just in industrialized countries but also in developing countries because inexpensive and sensitive microcalorimeters are now available.
Use of Recurrence Plot Analysis for Detecting Chaos and Noise in Nonlinear Switching Circuits

DC–DC converters controlled by naturally sampled, constant frequency pulse width modulation give rise to a wide range of bifurcation and chaos depending on the change in the system parameter values. Knowledge of transitions from regular to chaotic behavior is essential to understand the underlying dynamics of nonlinear switching circuits. While linear approaches are often insufficient to describe such processes, there are nonlinear methods available but requires long time observations. To overcome these difficulties, a newly developed pattern recognition method of nonlinear dynamics called Recurrence plot analysis method is proposed to detect transitions between periodic and chaotic states. The recurrence plot is a two-dimensional representation technique that brings out distance correlations in a time series and make it instantly apparent whether a system is periodic or chaotic. In this paper, the proposed method is applied to a nonlinear switching Buck converter, Boost converter, and Buck–Boost converters to analyze their period doubling route to chaos behavior and to distinguish chaos from noisy behavior. This may lead to a better understanding of the nonlinear switching systems, that may allow us to design stable, chaotic free switching circuits.
The pathogenesis and diagnosis of canine hip dysplasia: a review.

Hip dysplasia is a common developmental problem affecting the canine population. Despite extensive research into the condition, many questions remain unanswered and numerous misconceptions are present among the general public. The purpose of this paper is to review the current knowledge on the development of hip dysplasia, factors modifying its development, and current diagnostic techniques.A computerized literature search was conducted for the period of January 1983 to April 1985 using the MEDLINE and CAB databases, and the keywords hip dysplasia, hip, dog, and canine. Other articles,wherever possible original research articles, published before 1983 were also reviewed. Animals affected by hip dysplasia are born with normal hips, but quickly develop subluxation of the femoral head. Degenerative joint disease follows. Hip dysplasia is a complex, inherited, polygenic trait. Selective breeding of only normal dogs with normal littermates, parents, and grandparents is there commended method of reducing the incidence in the general population.Gene expression in affected individuals may be modified by a number of environmental factors. These factors do not cause hip dysplasia, but they alter manifestations of the trait and its severity. Nutrition is a major environmental factor. Excess energy consumption increases the frequency and severity of hip dysplasia in genetically predisposed dogs. Food intake should be regulated to maintain a slender figure with the ribs and dorsal vertebral spines easily palpable, but not visible. Excess dietary calcium and vitamin D contribute to hip dysplasia in genetically predisposed individuals and should be avoided. High dose vitamin C supplementation ingrowing puppies does not prevent hip dysplasia, and this practice should be discontinued. Animals must be 2 years old before they can be certified as normal, but the disease may be diagnosed earlier. Earlier diagnosis of the condition would be very useful for the selection of breeding stock, but palpation techniques and the standard extended view radiographs have unacceptably high rates of error in young puppies. Stress radiography techniques may improve the accuracy of early diagnosis in the future.
Low-Density Lattice Coded Relaying With Joint Iterative Decoding

Low-density lattice codes (LDLCs) are known for their high decoding efficiency and near-capacity performance on point-to-point Gaussian channels. In this paper, we present a distributed LDLC-based cooperative relaying scheme for the multiple-access relay channel (MARC). The relay node decodes LDLC-coded packets from two sources and forwards a network-coded combination to the destination. At the destination, a joint iterative decoding structure is designed to exploit the diversity gain as well as coding gain. For the LDLC-based network coding operation at the relay, we consider two alternative methods which offer a tradeoff between implementation complexity and performance, called superposition LDLC (S-LDLC) and modulo-addition LDLC (MA-LDLC). Soft symbol relaying is considered as an alternative to hard decision relaying which is capable of reducing the effect of error propagation at the relay. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme can provide greater diversity gain and up to 6.2 dB coding gain when compared with noncooperative LDLC coding and uncoded network-coded transmission. The proposed scheme also achieves 2.5 dB gain over network-turbo-coded cooperation, for the same code rate and overall transmitted power. Also, soft symbol relaying is shown to provide approximately 2 dB gain over hard decision relaying when the source-relay link suffers from deep fading.
Fast Symbol Detection for Massive G-STBC MIMOs

In this paper, a group-based fast symbol detection scheme is proposed for massive G-STBC MIMO systems. The proposed scheme first chooses a number G, (e.g. G = 4, 6, 8) as the size of each group and then conducts the MMSE detectors to facilitate symbol detection group by group. In particular, instead of directly using huge computational complexity to compute the MMSE detectors, the proposed scheme recursively finds the corresponding assistant matrices to determine the groups and calculate the MMSE detectors. As a result, the transmitted symbols can be recursively estimated group by group. Finally, simulation results and complexity analysis show the proposed scheme outperforms the existing methods, while using lower computational complexity.
Fate of a single dose of 14C-labelled fumonisin B1 in vervet monkeys.

The mycotoxin fumonisin B1 (FB1) was dosed as 14C-labelled FB1, to male vervet monkeys (Cercopithecus aethiops) both by intravenous (i.v.) injection (2 monkeys, dose 1.72 mg [86 kBq]/kg body weight) and by gavage (2 monkeys, dose 6.42 mg [321 kBq]/kg body weight). Excreta were collected over a 24-hr period, whereafter the monkeys were sacrificed and selected organs and contents of the gut collected to determine the distribution of the 14C-label. The bulk of the radioactivity recovered from tissue was found in the liver (mean of 1.92% in i.v.-dosed monkeys; 0.64% in gavage-dosed monkeys). Of the other organs analysed, the following mean amounts of radioactivity were recovered in organs of i.v. - and gavage-dosed monkeys, respectively: muscle, 0.62% and 0.14%; kidney, 0.37% and 0.03%; brain, 0.08% and 0.02%; lung, 0.07% and 0.03%; heart, 0.04% and 0.01%; spleen, 0.02% and < 0.01%; plasma, 0.66% and 0.12%; red blood cells, 0.11% and 0.01%; while a further 68.1% and 64.0% were recovered in excreta, bile, and the gut contents. Analysis of faeces and gut contents showed that radioactivity was due to FB1, its partially hydrolysed metabolites, and trace amounts of the fully hydrolysed aminopentol moiety. Analysis of bile showed an absence of hydrolysis products, indicating that hydrolysis occurred only in the gut, resulting in the removal of the tricarballylic acid moiety at the C14-position. Determination of FB1, levels in plasma following a gavage dose indicated that only limited amounts of FB1 were absorbed, as plasma levels peaked after 1-2 hr with levels below 210 ng/ml.
Postcanine tooth size in female primates.

The results of many allometric studies of postcanine tooth size in mammals have not corresponded to expectations of tooth size based on energy requirements and dental function. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between postcanine occlusal surface area, body size, and the metabolic demands of pregnancy and lactation in female primates. Tooth and body sizes from 38 primate species were taken from the literature to test two hypotheses: 1) females should have relatively larger teeth than males in order to masticate additional food for the energetic costs of reproduction; 2) taxa with the largest neonatal size (a measure of average metabolic costs of pregnancy and lactation) should have females with a greater degree of relative dental enlargement. The results show that relatively large female teeth are not found consistently in primate species. Females have less occlusal surface area than expected on the basis of the male tooth and body size regression in 21% of the species, and there is no correlation between relative female tooth size and relative newborn size across higher primate taxa. The degree of female dental enlargement is most closely related to degree of sexual dimorphism in body weight. The correlation between degree of body weight dimorphism and relatively larger postcanine teeth in females than in males is 0.87 in the 38 species. Species that are monomorphic in weight tend to be monomorphic in tooth size even though females apparently require more food than males. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Lightweight authentication with key-agreement protocol for mobile network environment using smart cards

In 2012, Mun et al. proposed an enhanced secure authentication with key-agreement protocol for roaming service in global mobility networks environment based on elliptic curve cryptography. They claimed that their protocol is efficient and resistant to prominent security attacks. The careful analysis of this study proves that Mun et al. 's protocol is susceptible to several attacks such as replay attack, man-in-middle attack, user impersonation attack, privileged insider attack, denial-of-service attack, no login phase and imperfect mutual authentication phase. In addition, this study proposes an enhanced lightweight authentication with key-agreement protocol for mobile networks based on elliptic curve cryptography using smart cards. The proposed protocol is lightweight and perfectly suitable for real-time applications as it accomplishes simple one-way hash function, message authentication code and exclusive-OR operation. Furthermore, it achieves all the eminent security properties and is resistant to various possible attacks. The security analysis and comparison section demonstrates that the proposed protocol is robust compared with Mun et al. 's protocol.
Modeling Strategic Dynamics Under Alternative Information Conditions

In this paper we present a computational cognitive model of two-player interaction under different information conditions. In particular, the model aims at reproducing human behavior in a laboratory experiment based on repeated “Chicken Game”. This research shows that information availability deeply influences the strategies and cognitive mechanisms chosen by players and the resulting outcomes. In general, we claim that alternative information conditions can be modeled in ACT-R by adopting a compositional approach.
Prognostic factors in Ewing's tumor of bone: analysis of 975 patients from the European Intergroup Cooperative Ewing's Sarcoma Study Group.

PURPOSE To further elaborate on prognostic factors for Ewing's sarcoma of bone and to document improvements in relapse-free survival (RFS) and trends in local therapy over the study period (1977 to 1993). PATIENTS AND METHODS A retrospective analysis was performed on a combined Gesellschaft Für Pädiatrische Onkologie und Hämatologie/Cooperative Ewing Sarcoma Study and United Kingdom Children's Cancer Study Group/Medical Research Council data set of 975 patients registered with the respective trial offices before the current collaborative European Intergroup Cooperative Ewing's Sarcoma Study trial. Both groups independently undertook studies with similar chemotherapy during the period. RESULTS The key adverse prognostic factor is metastases at diagnosis (5-year RFS, 22% of patients with metastases at diagnosis v 55% of patients without metastases at diagnosis; P: <.0001). For the group with metastases, there was a trend for better survival for those with lung involvement compared with those with bone metastases or a combination of lung and bone metastases (P: <.0001). In the group of patients with no metastases at diagnosis, multivariate analysis demonstrated that site (axial v other), age-group (< 15 v > or = 15 years), and period of diagnosis had significant influence on RFS (all P: <.005). RFS was superior in the period after 1985 compared with the period before 1985 for nonmetastatic patients (45% v 60%, respectively; P: <.0001) and for metastatic patients (16% v 30%, respectively; P: =.016). Patients who relapsed within 2 years of diagnosis had a less favorable prognosis than patients who relapsed later (5-year survival after relapse, 4% v 23%, respectively; P: <. 0001). There were other changes over the period; in particular, radiotherapy or amputation were more common in the period before 1986, whereas endoprosthetic surgery was widely used in the later period. CONCLUSION Survival and RFS improved over the period. Prognostic factors are metastases at diagnosis, primary site, and age.
Influence of retinal ganglion cell morphology on neuronal response properties - a simulation study

Retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) in the vertebrate retina display a wide range of dendritic morphologies. In order to isolate the contribution of this physical property, we employed a neural morphology generator to study the differences in firing patterns among RGCs with different dendritic geometrical factors but with identical voltage-gated channel kinetics and distributions. Our results suggest that cell morphology alone is sufficient to generate quantitatively distinct electrophysiological responses, serving as a basis for understanding how structural factors influence RGC behavior.
Role of primary intrahepatic T‐cell activation in the ‘liver tolerance effect’

There is accumulating evidence suggesting that hepatic permeability to both naive and activated T lymphocytes may be unique among the solid organs. The possibility that the liver may act as a site of primary activation for CD8+ T lymphocytes is supported by experimental data and may contribute to some of the unique immunological properties of this organ, particularly its ability to induce antigen‐specific tolerance. This review discusses the nature of the liver APC inducing primary T‐cell activation within the liver: Kupffer cells, liver dendritic cells, liver sinusoidal endothelial cells and hepatocytes are favourably located to allow physical contact with circulating T lymphocytes. Here, we examine the capability of each cell type to act as APC for naive CD4+ or CD8+ T cells and to induce tolerance.