Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Increased spontaneous secretion of IL‐6 from B cells of patients with B chronic lymphatic leukaemia (B‐CLL) and autoimmunity

We studied B cells from 18 patients with B‐CLL, six of them with autoimmune haemolytic anaemia, for spontaneous secretion of IL‐6. Our aim was to determine whether the increased incidence of autoimmune disease found in B‐CLL patients is associated with enhanced spontaneous IL‐6 secretion. IL‐6 was measured by the effect of B cell supernatants on the proliferation of an IL‐6 dependent plasmacytoma cell line T1165. The highest IL‐6 values (7.4±1.8 U/ml) were measured in supernatants derived on day 3 of culture from lymphocytes of the six patients with B‐CLL and concomitant autoimmune disease. The maximal IL‐6 values for 10 patients with B‐CLL only were 2.8±0.3 U/ml and for 10 age‐matched controls, 0.8±0.3 U/ml (P < 0.01, each group compared with the other). We conclude that there is an association between B‐CLL, autoimmune disease and the spontaneous in vitro secretion of IL‐6. Further studies are needed to determine whether the IL‐6 secretion plays a role in the pathogenesis of autoimmune disease in patients with B‐CLL.
An Efficient Source Code Auditing using Fuzzy Decision Tree

Here in this paper the discovery of Vulnerabilities in the Source Codes is proposed. The Proposed Methodology applied is based on the Concept of Fuzzy Based Decision Tree. The Methodology adopted here for the Checking of Codes Vulnerabilities provides efficient discovery of Vulnerabilities and hence provides improved performance and high precision and Recall. The Proposed Methodology Audits the source code and searches the possible vulnerabilities on the basis of Rules generated Fuzzy Decision Tree. Various Experimental results are achieved on numerous datasets and shows that the proposed methodology provides better accuracy in comparison
Contrast of slightly complex patterns: computing the perceived contrast of Gabor patches

The local contrast in an image may be approximated by the contrast of a Gabor patch of varying phase and bandwidth. In a search for a metric for such local contrast, perceived (apparent) contrast, as indicated by matching of such patterns, were compared here to the physical contrast calculated by a number of methods. The 2 cycles/deg 1-octave Gabor patch stimuli of different phases were presented side by side separated by 4 degrees. During each session the subjects (n equals 5) were adapted to the average luminance, and four different contrast levels (0.1, 0.3, 0.6, and 0.8) were randomly interleaved. The task was repeated at four mean luminance levels between 0.75 and 37.5 cd/m2. The subject's task was to indicate which of the two patterns was lower in contrast. Equal apparent contrast was determined by fitting a psychometric function to the data from 40 to 70 presentations. There was no effect of mean luminance on the subjects settings. The matching results rejected the hypothesis that either the Michelson formula or the King-Smith & Kulikowski contrast (CKK equals (Lmax-Laverage)/Laverage) was used by the subjects to set the match. The use of the Nominal contrast (the Michelson contrast of the underlying sinusoid) as an estimate of apparent contrast could not be rejected. In a second experiment the apparent contrast of a 1-octave Gabor patch was matched to the apparent contrast of a 2-octave Gabor patch (of Nominal contrast of 0.1, 0.3, 0.6, 0.8) using the method of adjustment. The result of this experiment rejected the prediction of the Nominal contrast definition. The local band limited contrast measure (Peli, 1990), when used with the modifications suggested by Lubin (1995), as an estimate of apparent contrast could not be rejected by the results of either experiment. These results suggest that a computational contrast measure based on multi scale bandpass filtering is a better estimate of apparent perceived contrast than any of the other measures tested.
Role of TP53 P72R polymorphism in human papillomavirus associated premalignant laryngeal neoplasm

Laryngeal papillomatosis, a disease in which malignant transformation takes place in 3-7% of patients,1 2 is caused by low risk human papillomavirus (HPV) types 6 and 11. The mechanism by which HPV affects TP53 involves the HPV E6 oncoprotein, which has been shown to bind TP53 protein and cause its degradation through the ubiquitin pathway.3 It has been proposed that subjects with homozygous arginine (Arg) at position 72 in the TP53 amino acid sequence are more susceptible to HPV associated uterine cervical and cutaneous tumorigenesis than are heterozygotes, and that the TP 53 Arg allele is susceptible to TP53 E6 mediated …
The Exopolygalacturonate Lyase PelW and the Oligogalacturonate Lyase Ogl, Two Cytoplasmic Enzymes of Pectin Catabolism in Erwinia chrysanthemi 3937

ABSTRACT Erwinia chrysanthemi 3937 secretes into the external medium several pectinolytic enzymes, among which are eight isoenzymes of the endo-cleaving pectate lyases: PelA, PelB, PelC, PelD, and PelE (family 1); PelI (family 4); PelL (family 3); and PelZ (family 5). In addition, one exo-cleaving pectate lyase, PelX (family 3), has been found in the periplasm of E. chrysanthemi. The E. chrysanthemi 3937 gene kdgC has been shown to exhibit a high degree of similarity to the genes pelY ofYersinia pseudotuberculosis and pelB ofErwinia carotovora, which encode family 2 pectate lyases. However, no pectinolytic activity has been assigned to the KdgC protein. After verification of the corresponding nucleotide sequence, we cloned a longer DNA fragment and showed that this gene encodes a 553-amino-acid protein exhibiting an exo-cleaving pectate lyase activity. Thus, the kdgC gene was renamed pelW. PelW catalyzes the formation of unsaturated digalacturonates from polygalacturonate or short oligogalacturonates. PelW is located in the bacterial cytoplasm. In this compartment, PelW action could complete the degradation of pectic oligomers that was initiated by the extracellular or periplasmic pectinases and precede the action of the cytoplasmic oligogalacturonate lyase, Ogl. Both cytoplasmic pectinases, PelW and Ogl, seem to act in sequence during oligogalacturonate depolymerization, since oligomers longer than dimers are very poor substrates for Ogl but are good substrates for PelW. The estimated number of binding subsites for PelW is three, extending from subsite −2 to +1, while it is probably two for Ogl, extending from subsite −1 to +1. The activities of the two cytoplasmic lyases, PelW and Ogl, are dependent on the presence of divalent cations, since both enzymes are inhibited by EDTA. In contrast to the extracellular pectate lyases, Ca2+ is unable to restore the activity of PelW or Ogl, while several other cations, including Co2+, Mn2+, and Ni2+, can activate both cytoplasmic lyases.
Arbeitskreis Quantitative Steuerlehre Quantitative Research in Taxation – Discussion Papers

We examine whether companies voluntarily disclose additional information about tax loss carryforwards when the recoverability is more uncertain. With this study, we aim to explain part of the huge cross-sectional variation in the tax footnote. To assess disclosure behavior, we hand-collect data from notes of large German firms’ IFRS financial statements and identify voluntarily disclosed information. First, our results support prior literature’s evidence of a considerable cross-sectional variation of disclosure in the tax footnote. Second, we find that uncertainty about the usability of tax losses has a significantly positive relation to the amount and quality of disclosure, controlling for other disclosure determinants derived from prior literature and for sample selection. Third, our results indicate that the observed disclosure behavior is not simply a reflection of the firm’s general disclosure behavior but specific to the tax footnote. These findings are robust to several historic and forward-looking indicators representing uncertainty. Our findings suggest that managers anticipate the investors’ need for more private information and disclose them voluntarily to reduce information asymmetries. This result indicates that part of the cross-sectional variation in the tax footnote can be explained by firms anticipating investors’ demand for additional information.
Ischaemia induced alternans of action potential duration in the intact-heart: dependence on coronary flow, preload and cycle length.

Clinical and experimental evidence relate action potential duration (APD) alternans to ischaemic heart disease and ventricular arrhythmias. The present investigation was performed to study the quantitative relationship between APD alternans and the degree of ischaemia, loading conditions and cycle length (CL) in an intact heart. Monophasic action potentials (MAP) were simultaneously recorded by contact electrodes from two left (LV) and one right ventricular (RV) sites in 20 Langendorff-perfused rabbit hearts. The preparations were subjected to global ischaemia at flow rates ranging from 40% of normal flow to complete cessation of flow. Pacing was performed at either constant or regularly changing CL. The magnitude of APD alternans was expressed as beat-to-beat differences in action potential duration of two consecutive MAPs. During normal perfusion, neither very fast pacing at a CL of 200 ms nor periodical rate switches resulted in persistent APD alternans. Pacing at a constant CL of 800 ms did not induce APD alternans at complete cessation of flow for 6 min. However, alternans developed progressively at a constant CL of 400 ms after 2.8 +/- 0.3 min of complete ischaemia at the pre-loaded LV, and after 4.6 +/- 0.4 min at the unloaded RV (P < 0.01). The reduction of preload at the LV from 15 to 5 mmHg end-diastolic pressure delayed development of APD alternans from 2.8 +/- 03 min to 4.3 +/- 0.4 min (P < 0.05) at 400 ms CL. Following graded underperfusion of 40%, 20% and 10% of initial flow, persistent APD alternans developed in relation to the degree of flow reduction and increased progressively with duration of ischaemia. APD alternans at the LV always preceded the onset of APD alternans at the RV. In experiments with identical flow rates the shortest CL of 200 ms resulted in the greatest and earliest initiation of APD alternans compared to the longer CL (P < 0.01, P < 0.001). An increase in CL from 400 to 800 ms immediately abolished APD alternans, generated by the shorter CL, at any time during the 6 min period of complete ischaemia. Similarly, increasing the cycle length from 200 or 400 to 600 ms eliminated APD alternans up to 6 min of ischaemia and significantly reduced its magnitude between 7 and 10 min within a few beats. We conclude that persistent APD alternans is a characteristic findings in the rabbit heart during global ischaemia4 It is a sensitive parameter of the severity of ischaemia and depends. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Phylogeny of Vibrio cholerae Based onrecA Sequence

ABSTRACT We sequenced a 705-bp fragment of the recA gene from 113 Vibrio cholerae strains and closely related species. One hundred eighty-seven nucleotides were phylogenetically informative, 55 were phylogenetically uninformative, and 463 were invariant. Not unexpectedly, Vibrio parahaemolyticus and Vibrio vulnificus strains formed out-groups; we also identified isolates which resembled V. cholerae biochemically but which did not cluster with V. cholerae. In many instances, V. cholerae serogroup designations did not correlate with phylogeny, as reflected by recA sequence divergence. This observation is consistent with the idea that there is horizontal transfer of O-antigen biosynthesis genes among V. cholerae strains.
A biomimetic microfluidic chip to study the circulation and mechanical retention of red blood cells in the spleen

Red blood cells (RBCs) are deformable and flow through vessels narrower than their own size. Their deformability is most stringently challenged when they cross micrometer‐wide slits in the spleen. In several inherited or acquired RBC disorders, blockade of small vessels by stiff RBCs can trigger organ damage, but a functional spleen is expected to clear these abnormal RBCs from the circulation before they induce such complications. We analyzed flow behavior of RBCs in a microfluidic chip that replicates the mechanical constraints imposed on RBCs as they cross the human spleen. Polymer microchannels obtained by soft lithography with a hydraulic diameter of 25 μm drove flow into mechanical filtering units where RBCs flew either slowly through 5‐ to 2‐μm‐wide slits or rapidly along 10‐μm‐wide channels, these parallel paths mimicking the splenic microcirculation. Stiff heated RBCs accumulated in narrow slits seven times more frequently than normal RBCs infused simultaneously. Stage‐dependent retention of Plasmodium falciparum‐infected RBCs was also observed in these slits. We also analyzed RBCs from patients with hereditary spherocytosis and observed retention for those having the most altered mechanical properties as determined by ektacytometry. Thus, in keeping with previous observations in vivo and ex vivo, the chip successfully discriminated poorly deformable RBCs based on their distinct mechanical properties and on the intensity of the cell alteration. Applications to the exploration of the pathogenesis of malaria, hereditary spherocytosis, sickle cell disease and other RBC disorders are envisioned.Am. J. Hematol. 90:339–345, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Electrical Stimulation of the Upper Limb in Stroke: Stimulation of the Extensors of the Hand vs. Alternate Stimulation of Flexors and Extensors

de Kroon JR, IJzerman MJ, Lankhorst GJ, Zilvold G: Electrical stimulation of the upper limb in stroke: Stimulation of the extensors of the hand vs. alternate stimulation of flexors and extensors. Am J Phys Med Rehabil 2004;83:592–600. Objective:To investigate whether there is a difference in functional improvement in the affected arm of chronic stroke patients when comparing two methods of electrical stimulation. Design:Explanatory trial in which 30 chronic stroke patients with impaired arm function were randomly allocated to either alternating electrical stimulation of the extensor and flexor muscles of the hand (group A) or electrical stimulation of the extensors only (group B). Primary outcome measure was the Action Research Arm test to assess arm function. Grip strength, Motricity Index, Ashworth Scale, and range of motion of the wrist were secondary outcome measures. Results:Improvement on the Action Research Arm test was 1.0 point in group A and 3.3 points in group B; the difference in functional gain was 2.3 points (95% confidence interval, −1.06 to 5.60). The success rate (i.e., percentage of patients with a clinically relevant improvement of >5.7 points on the Action Research Arm test) was 27% in group B (four patients) and 8% in group A (one patient). The differences in functional gain and success rate were not statistically significant, neither were the differences between the two groups on the secondary outcome measures. Conclusion:The difference between the two stimulation strategies was not statistically significant.
Dietary fat intake and the risk of coronary heart disease in women.

BACKGROUND The relation between dietary intake of specific types of fat, particularly trans unsaturated fat and the risk of coronary disease remains unclear. We therefore studied this relation in women enrolled in the Nurses' Health Study. METHODS We prospectively studied 80,082 women who were 34 to 59 years of age and had no known coronary disease, stroke, cancer, hypercholesterolemia, or diabetes in 1980. Information on diet was obtained at base line and updated during follow-up by means of validated questionnaires. During 14 years of follow-up, we documented 939 cases of nonfatal myocardial infarction or death from coronary heart disease. Mutivariate analyses included age, smoking status, total energy intake, dietary cholesterol intake, percentages of energy obtained from protein and specific types of fat, and other risk factors. RESULTS Each increase of 5 percent of energy intake from saturated fat, as compared with equivalent energy intake from carbohydrates, was associated with a 17 percent increase in the risk of coronary disease (relative risk, 1.17; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.97 to 1.41; P=0.10). As compared with equivalent energy from carbohydrates, the relative risk for a 2 percent increment in energy intake from trans unsaturated fat was 1.93 (95 percent confidence interval, 1.43 to 2.61; P<0.001); that for a 5 percent increment in energy from monounsaturated fat was 0.81 (95 percent confidence interval, 0.65 to 1.00; P=0.05); and that for a 5 percent increment in energy from polyunsaturated fat was 0.62 (95 percent confidence interval, 0.46 to 0.85; P= 0.003). Total fat intake was not signficantly related to the risk of coronary disease (for a 5 percent increase in energy from fat, the relative risk was 1.02; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.97 to 1.07; P=0.55). We estimated that the replacement of 5 percent of energy from saturated fat with energy from unsaturated fats would reduce risk by 42 percent (95 percent confidence interval, 23 to 56; P<0.001) and that the replacement of 2 percent of energy from trans fat with energy from unhydrogenated, unsaturated fats would reduce risk by 53 percent (95 percent confidence interval, 34 to 67; P<.001). CONCLUSIONS Our findings suggest that replacing saturated and trans unsaturated fats with unhydrogenated monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats is more effective in preventing coronary heart disease in women than reducing overall fat intake.
Design of a modified one-against-all SVM classifier

Support Vector Machine (SVM) is one of the state of-the-art tools for linear and nonlinear pattern classification. One of the design issues in SVM classifier is reducing the number of support vectors without compromising the classification accuracy. In this paper, a novel technique which requires only a subset of the support vectors is proposed. The subset is obtained by including only those support vectors for which Lagrange multiplier is greater than a threshold. In order to find the subset which yields the highest classification accuracy with the least number of support vectors in the subset, the recognition performance corresponding to subsets with different threshold values are to be evaluated and compared. The proposed technique is applied for SVM based isolated digit recognition system and is studied using speaker dependent as well as multispeaker dependent TI46 database of isolated digits. Two feature extraction techniques, one using LPC and another using MFCC are applied to the speech from the above database and the features are mapped using SOFM. This in turn is used by the SVM classifier to evaluate the recognition accuracy. The proposed technique is applied to One-Against-All (OAA) scheme and is denoted as Modified One-Against-All (M-OAA) approach in this paper. Based on this study, it is found that for MFCC feature input, the proposed M-OAA based SVM classifier approach results in reduction of support vectors by a factor of 1.86 to 18.3 with no compromise in recognition accuracy. For LPC feature input, the M-OAA based SVM classifier results in reduction of support vectors by a factor of 1.59 to 2.52 without any compromise in recognition accuracy for some cases and with a maximum of 1% degradation in recognition accuracy for some cases. The proposed approach is also applicable for other schemes such as Half-Against-Half (HAH) and Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAG) based SVM classifiers as well as for any other classification problem such as face recognition, fingerprint recognition, target recognition, speaker recognition and speaker verification.
Unsupervised Deep Autoencoders for Feature Extraction with Educational Data

The goal of this paper is to describe methods for automatically extracting features for student modeling from educational data, and students’ interaction-log data in particular, by training deep neural networks with unsupervised training. Several different types of autoencoder networks and structures are discussed, including deep neural networks, recurrent neural networks, variational autoencoders, convolutional neural networks, and asymmetric network structures. Autoencoder networks are trained to find lowdimensional, predictive embeddings of raw interaction-log data. These embeddings are then entered into a model as features for supervised classification tasks. We discuss the implications for training these network structures with educational data, including peculiarities that arise for interaction-log data that are not as commonly encountered in domains such as computer vision and natural language processing. Methods for evaluating the network training process are also discussed, with examples showing the importance and efficacy of visualizing neuron activations to diagnose common problems encountered during training and verifying that embedded representations of data follow desired distributions. We provide an example of how automatically extracted features can be used in a classification problem for the detection of student affect. In this example, student boredom was detected at levels above chance (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve = .673 versus .5 chance). Finally, opportunities for future work are discussed, including transfer learning and semisupervised methods.
The degradation properties of co-continuous calcium phosphate polyester composites: insights with synchrotron micro-computer tomography

This study investigates the in vitro degradation properties of composites consisting of a porous tricalcium phosphate (TCP) foam filled with degradable poly(dl-lactic acid) (PDLLA) via either in situ polymerization or infiltration. The motivation was to develop a material for bone repair that would be initially mechanically strong and would develop porosity during degradation of one of the components. A thorough analysis of the physical in vitro degradation properties has been conducted and reported by the same authors elsewhere. Synchrotron micro-computer tomography analysis (conducted at ID19, ESRF, Grenoble, France) allowed detailed insights to be gained into the process of the composites' degradation, which was discovered to be strongly influenced by the manufacturing method. The polymer phase of in situ-polymerized TCP–PDLLA degraded as a bulk sample, with faster degradation in the centre of the sample as a whole. In contrast, the polymer phase of infiltrated TCP–PDLLA degraded as individual polymer spheres with faster degradation in the centre of each sphere.
La adaptación de la empresa a las presiones competitivas en el ambito internacional: una aportación empírica

Una de las piedras angulares de la Direccion Estrategica de la empresa se centra en la adecuacion de la estrategia competitiva a las presiones del entorno sectorial. En el contexto internacional, estas pueden adoptar dos formas puras: eficiencia global y sensibilidad nacional. En el primer caso, se aboga por la estandarizacion e integracion de las actividades; en el segundo, se hace necesaria una adaptacion competitiva a cada mercado nacional. La razon de ser de este trabajo se fundamenta en comprobar empiricamente estas prescripciones, a partir de una muestra de empresas con un elevado grado de compromiso en las operaciones internacionales.