Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Age‐associated decrease in histamine‐induced vasodilatation may be due to reduction of cyclic GMP formation

1 The effects of aging on histamine‐induced vasodilatation and cyclic GMP production in rat thoracic aorta were investigated. 2 This histamine‐induced dilatation of the aorta was mediated by H1‐receptors and was dependent on the endothelium. 3 Histamine induced the greatest dilatation of arteries of 3–4 week old rats, progressively less of those of rats of 8 to 56 weeks old, and scarcely detectable dilatation of those of 100 week old rats. 4 Histamine induced cyclic GMP production in aorta from rats of 4 weeks old, with no change in the cyclic AMP level. This increase in the cyclic GMP level induced by histamine also decreased with age, being about 70% as great at 8 weeks, 50% as great at 50–60 weeks, and 10% as great at 130 weeks of age. 5 Removal of the endothelium completely abolished the histamine‐induced increase in cyclic GMP. 6 The dilator effect of nitroprusside, which enhances cyclic GMP production by stimulating guanylate cyclase directly (not indirectly via the endothelium derived relaxing factor, EDRF), also snowed age‐related attenuation. 7 The dilator effect of 8‐bromo cyclic GMP, which stimulates cyclic GMP‐dependent protein kinase, also decreased during aging. 8 These results suggest that aging reduces the ability of the endothelium to produce EDRF, which stimulates guanylate cyclase, and so decreases cyclic GMP production. Thus the decreased dilator response of the arteries to histamine during aging is probably due to both loss of endothelial function and reduction of guanylate cyclase activity. Alteration of cyclic GMP‐dependent protein kinase activity may also participate in the age‐related changes.
Effects of lifestyle intervention on neck, shoulder, elbow and wrist symptoms.

OBJECTIVES The objective of this study was to determine whether lifestyle intervention to control hypertension can affect neck, shoulder, elbow, and wrist symptoms. METHODS In a randomized controlled trial, 731 employees from 45 worksites were assigned for 12 months to lifestyle intervention in a rehabilitation center or to usual care provided by occupational or primary health care services. The participants had a systolic blood pressure of 140-179 mm Hg or a diastolic blood pressure of 90-109 mm Hg, or antihypertensive drug treatment. In addition to the cardiovascular risk factors, the occurrences of neck, shoulder, elbow, and wrist symptoms and disability during the previous 12 months were recorded before the intervention and 1 year later. RESULTS The reported disability due to neck pain during the previous 12 months fell significantly more (-7%) in the intervention group than in the group in usual care (-2%). The perceived shoulder pain during the previous 7 days also decreased significantly more in the intervention group than in the control group among the women (net change 16%) and among the participants who were more highly physically active (net change 10%). Weight, body mass index, and waist and hip circumferences decreased, and physical activity increased, substantially more in the intervention group. The changes in elbow or wrist pain and related disability did not differ significantly between the intervention and control groups. CONCLUSIONS Lifestyle intervention to control hypertension has a favorable impact on perceived disability due to neck pain.
Performance evaluation of cyber reconnaissance tools

The stealthy reconnaissance phase is crucial in a cyber-attack. The reconnaissance tools usually limit themselves from balancing between collecting most targets' information possible while hiding itself from being detected by target's defence systems. We assert the role of reconnaissance in web application security attack and evaluate the selected reconnaissance tools in both effectiveness (information gained) and stealth level. We experimentally realised that the reconnaissance tools employing a botnet (or bot, or zombie)-based model has high performance (high level of stealth and little information loss).
Job satisfaction and quality of life among home care workers: a comparison of home care workers who are and who are not informal carers

ABSTRACT Background: Job satisfaction and quality of life among home care workers who serve simultaneously as informal carers for their own family members have seldom been explored. This study examined how this dual role influences job satisfaction and quality of life by comparing these dual carers with home care workers who do not provide informal care. The study also explored whether the factors related to job satisfaction and quality of life between these two groups were different. Method: Standardized self-administered questionnaires (Job Satisfaction Survey, the World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL) scales and various social demographic questions) were administered to the two groups of home care workers in Taiwan from March to April 2009. A total of 1,641 home care workers working in 119 non-government organizations sponsored by 23 local authorities completed and returned the questionnaires. Results: The two groups did not differ in individual characteristics, work characteristics or job satisfaction. Analysis results indicate that the lowest mean scores for all home care workers were the domains of promotion and pay within their job satisfaction and the domain of environment within their quality of life. Conclusions: Multiple regression analysis revealed a significant effect of unpaid caregiving in terms of quality of life but not in terms of job satisfaction. Moreover, job satisfaction and quality of life among home care workers were significantly determined by both their work conditions (e.g. travelling time, salary and length of work experience) and personal variables (e.g. age, family income and family support).
Space-time equalization and interference cancellation for MIMO OFDM

The paper develops equalization techniques that facilitate aggressive frequency reuse in cellular OFDM systems. The initial focus is on the case of a single strong interfering base at the mobile. The interfering base is asynchronous in that its cyclic prefix is not time-aligned with the desired base's cyclic prefix. Various methods for combating the asynchronous, interfering base are developed, based on channel shortening ideas. The most promising method works to align the cyclic prefixes while holding all channel lengths equal to the cyclic prefix length or less. For the case of two receive antennas at the mobile, two sets of space-time filters are designed so that the respective channels at either output for either base are time-aligned with length no greater than the cyclic prefix length. As a result, standard frequency-domain equalization/interference suppression techniques (e.g., MMSE combining) can be applied to the outputs of the space-time filters on a per frequency bin basis to obtain symbol estimates for the desired base. Simulations are presented comparing the BER performance of the candidate techniques.
Comparison between the Story Recall Test and the Word-List Learning Test in Korean patients with mild cognitive impairment and early stage of Alzheimer's disease

Among verbal memory tests, two that are commonly used to measure the ability of verbal memory function in cognitive impairment are story recall tests and word-list learning tests. However, research is limited regarding which test might be more sensitive in discriminating between normal cognitive aging and patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) in the Korean population. The purpose of the current study was to compare the word-list learning test (Seoul Verbal Learning Test; SVLT) and the story recall test (Korean Story Recall Test; KSRT) to determine which test is more sensitive in discriminating between individuals with normal cognitive aging and patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and early stage of AD in Korea. A total of 53 healthy adults, 127 patients with MCI, and 72 patients with early stage of AD participated in this study. The receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve and area under the curve (AUC) were evaluated to compare these two tests. The results showed that the AUC of the SVLT was significantly larger than the AUC of the KSRT in all three groups (healthy adults vs. MCI and early stage of AD; healthy adults vs. MCI; healthy adults vs. early stage of AD). However, in comparison of patients with MCI and early stage of AD, the AUC of SVLT and the AUC of KSRT were not significant. The word-list learning test is a more useful tool for examining verbal memory function for older adults in Korea than the story recall test.
A long noncoding RNA, lincRNA‐Tnfaip3, acts as a coregulator of NF‐κB to modulate inflammatory gene transcription in mouse macrophages

Long intergenic noncoding RNAs (lincRNAs) are long noncoding transcripts (>200 nt) from the intergenic regions of annotated protein‐coding genes. We report here that the lincRNA gene lincRNA‐Tnfaip3, located at mouse chromosome 10 proximal to the tumor necrosis factor α‐induced protein 3 (Tnfaip3) gene, is an early‐primary response gene controlled by nuclear factor‐κB (NF‐κB) signaling in murine macrophages. Functionally, lincRNA‐ Tnfaip3 appears to mediate both the activation and repression of distinct classes of inflammatory genes in macrophages. Specifically, induction of lincRNA‐Tnfaip3 is required for the transactivation of NF‐κB‐regulated inflammatory genes in response to bacterial LPSs stimulation. LincRNA‐Tnfaip3 physically interacts with the high‐mobility group box 1 (Hmgb1), assembling a NF‐κB/Hmgb1/lincRNA‐Tnfaip3 complex in macrophages after LPS stimulation. This resultant NF‐κB/Hmgb1/lincRNA‐Tnfaip3 complex can modulate Hmgb1‐associated histone modifications and, ultimately, transactivation of inflammatory genes in mouse macrophages in response to microbial challenge. Therefore, our data indicate a new regulatory role of NF‐κB‐induced lincRNA‐Tnfaip3 to act as a coactivator of NF‐κB for the transcription of inflammatory genes in innate immune cells through modulation of epigenetic chromatin remodeling. —Ma, S. , Ming, Z. , Gong, A. ‐Y. , Wang, Y. , Chen, X. , Hu, G. , Zhou, R. , Shibata, A. , Swanson, P. C. , Chen, X. ‐M. A long noncoding RNA, LincRNA‐Tnfaip3, acts as a coregulator of NF‐κB to modulate inflammatory gene transcription in mouse macrophages. FASEB J. 31, 1215–1225 (2017). www.fasebj. org
Effect of Combination Therapy of Ezetimibe and Atorvastatin on Remnant Lipoprotein Versus Double Atorvastatin Dose in Egyptian Diabetic Patients

A high level of remnant lipoprotein cholesterol (RLP‐C) is a predominant feature in diabetic patients with atherosclerosis. This study aimed to investigate the effect of ezetimibe added to statin therapy compared to doubling standard statin dose. Sixty‐five eligible patients were recruited then prospectively randomized to receive ezetimibe 10 mg/day plus their 40 mg daily atorvastatin dose (group 1) or atorvastatin 80 mg/day (group 2) for 3 months. Efficacy was evaluated using plasma levels of RLP‐C, apolipoprotein B, non–high‐density lipoprotein cholesterol (non‐HDL), percentage of brachial artery flow‐mediated dilation, and lipid profile. Forty patients completed the study and provided efficacy data. Group 1 showed more reduction in RLP‐C (45.7% vs 31.7%, P = .02), apolipoprotein B (28.5% vs 9.5%, P = .01), total cholesterol (34.7% vs 24.6%, P = .003), triglycerides (49% vs 24.4%, P = .000), non‐HDL (49.3% vs 33%, P = .002), and low‐density lipoprotein cholesterol (49.6% vs 35.2%, P = .02) compared to group 2. Group 1 showed a greater increase in HDL (66% vs 35%, P = .002); and flow‐mediated dilation (30% vs 17%, P = .01) compared to group 2. It is concluded that adding ezetimibe 10 mg to atorvastatin 40 mg may be a better choice than doubling atorvastatin dose in improving RLPs, endothelial function, and lipid profile in diabetic cardiovascular patients who could not achieve their therapeutic treatment goals with the standard atorvastatin dose.
Relationship between Napping and Melatonin in the Blind

Daytime sleepiness is a common complaint in blind subjects. Abnor mally timed melatonin has been invoked as a possible cause of both daytime sleepiness and nighttime awakening. In free-running blind individuals, there is an opportunity to assess the relationship between endogenous melatonin rhythms and subjective sleepiness and naps. The aim of this study was to characterize melatonin rhythms and simultaneously to evaluate subjective nap ping. A total of 15 subjects with no conscious light perception (NPL) were studied for 1 month. Prior to the study, sleep disorders were assessed using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. Cosinor and regression analysis revealed that 9 of the 15 NPL subjects had free-running 6-sulphatoxymelatonin (aMT6s) rhythms (period [τ] range = 24.34 to 24.79 h), 3 were entrained with an abnormal phase, and 3 were normally entrained. Most of the subjects (13 of 15) had daytime naps; the 2 individuals who did not made conscious efforts not to do so. Subjects with abnormal aMT6s rhythms had more naps of a longer duration than did those with normal rhythms. Free-running nap rhythms occurred only in subjects with free-running aMT6s rhythms. The 2 abnormally entrained subjects who napped did so at times that coincided with high levels of aMT6s (mean aMT6s acrophase [phi] ± SD = 14.30 ± 1.08 h, 20.30 ± 0.62 h; mean nap time ± SD = 14.01 ± 3.60 h, 18.23 ± 3.20 h, respectively). Regardless of aMT6s rhythm abnormality, signifi cantly more naps occurred within a 4-h period before and after the estimated aMT6s acrophase. In 4 free-running subjects, aMT6s acrophase (phi) passed through an entire 24-h period. When aMT6s was in a normal phase position (24:00 to 06:00 h), night-sleep duration tended to increase with a significant reduction in the number and duration of naps. Sleep onset and offset times tended to advance and delay as the aMT6s rhythms advanced and delayed. Our results show a striking relationship between the timing of daytime production of melatonin and the timing of daytime naps. This suggests that abnormally timed endogenous melatonin may induce sleepiness in blind subjects.
High-throughput pipelined realization of adaptive FIR filter based on distributed arithmetic

In this paper, we propose an efficient pipelined architecture for high-speed adaptive filter based on distributed arithmetic (DA). We have shown that the sampling period could be substantially reduced by using carry-save accumulation instead of shift-accumulation for DA-based inner-product implementation for the computation of filter output. Unlike the existing design, the proposed design does not involve any lookup table (LUT). It involves half the number of registers compared to the existing DA-based design to store the sum of different combinations of input samples. The proposed design involves nearly 17% more hardware but offers nearly 7 times throughput and nearly 14 times less energy per sample, in average for filter orders N = 8, 16 and 32 over the existing DA-based design for adaptive filter.
Firm Bankruptcies and Violations of Law: An Analysis of Different Offences

Purpose — The main aim of the paper is to study the occurrence and connections of different pre-insolvency violations of law on the example of Estonian firms.Design/methodology/approach — The study is based on the whole population financial data of Estonian bankrupt firms and all publicly available court judgments about firm insolvencies from the period 2002–2009. Three types of violations have been considered: non-submission of annual reports, violations of net asset requirement and elements of criminal offence.Findings — The paper shows that non-submission of annual reports is common for insolvent firms but its occurrence varies through insolvency years and types. A similar finding can be attributed to net asset requirement violations. Elements of criminal offence are also frequent, but their occurrence is not different through insolvency years, industries and firm size groups. Elements of criminal offence and net asset requirement violations are not likely to exist together. Although medians of several pre-insolvency financial variables are significantly different in case of firms where criminal offence elements were found, they are not useful for offence prediction.Research limitations/implications — Statistical analysis limitations of the current study are mainly associated with the content of the data, because the dataset itself covers the whole population of publicly available information. The application of some results in different countries might be limited because of differences in legislation and its implementation. The study outlines novel information about and connections of different pre-insolvency violations which could be applied for relevant theory-building or more elaborate empirical research in the future.Practical implications — The study can be used by managers, owners, creditors and other stakeholders of firms to improve detection of possible pre-insolvency violations.Social implications — Regulators and regulation implementers can make use of the study when considering a change in legal framework or in its practice.Originality/value — The paper shows the presence of selected pre-insolvency violations on an extensive dataset. Previous studies have mainly been theoretical, qualitative or using small datasets.
A search for synaptonemal complexes in Ustilago maydis.

Germinating spores, germ-tubes (promycelia), gall tissue and spores developing in the gall were examined. No synaptonemal complexes (SCs) were found in any of these cell types. There are 3 possible explanations for this: (1) Ustilago maydis does not have SCs. This is the case in Schizosaccharomyces pombe (Olson, Eden, Egel-Mitani & Egel, 1978) and in many strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae (e.g. see Byers & Goetch, 1975). (2) The SC might occur in spores either in the gall or before germination when the spore wall was too solid to allow examination of the contents by the methods used. (3) The SC was present, but for a very short time, and most of the cells examined were in any case not undergoing meiosis, so the SCs were not seen. (Large numbers of spores were examined, but few spores germinate and undergo normal meiotic division; also a minority of the cells in the gall are forming spores at any one time.) The gall was found to contain uninucleate single cells (i.e. it is a yeast, as it is in artificial culture medium) and virtually all these cells were haploid, 1 in 3000 recovered cells was diploid. It appears that the haploids fuse to form a heterokaryotic or diploid cell immediately before spore formation. A heterokaryotic phase is presumed to exist to establish and maintain the infection.
Value of the revised Atlanta classification (RAC) and determinant-based classification (DBC) systems in the evaluation of acute pancreatitis

Abstract Objective: Since increasing acute pancreatitis (AP) severity is significantly associated with mortality, accurate and rapid determination of severity is crucial for effective clinical management. This study investigated the value of the revised Atlanta classification (RAC) and the determinant-based classification (DBC) systems in stratifying severity of acute pancreatitis. Methods: This retrospective observational cohort study included 480 AP patients. Patient demographics and clinical characteristics were recorded. The primary outcome was mortality, and secondary outcomes were admission to intensive care unit (ICU), duration of ICU stay, and duration of hospital stay. Results: Based on the RAC classification, there were 295 patients with mild AP (MAP), 146 patients with moderate-to-severe AP (MSAP), and 39 patients with severe AP (SAP). Based on the DBC classification, there were 389 patients with MAP, 41 patients with MSAP, 32 patients with SAP, and 18 patients with critical AP (CAP). ROC curve analysis showed that the DBC system had a significantly higher accuracy at predicting organ failure compared to the RAC system (p < .001). Multivariate regression analysis showed that age and ICU stay were independent risk factors of mortality. Conclusion: The DBC system had a higher accuracy at predicting organ failure. Age and ICU stay were significantly associated with risk of death in AP patients. A classification of CAP by the DBC system should warrant close attention, and rapid implementation of effective measures to reduce mortality.
Phylogeography of the freshwater fish, Mogurnda adspersa, in streams of northeastern Queensland, Australia: evidence for altered drainage patterns

A phylogeographic survey was used to elucidate the relative roles of historical processes and contemporary gene flow in structuring the genetic pattern observed with Mogurnda adspersa. This species of freshwater fish is found in the rivers and streams of the northeastern highlands of Queensland, Australia. Specifically, this project focused on populations in the Tully and Herbert Rivers in the Atherton Tablelands. Sequence analysis indicated that three distinct clades exist in the headwaters of the Tully River. The population sampled from one of the Tully River streams (Cheetah Creek) contained haplotypes that displayed ≈ 3.4% sequence divergence from other haplotypes detected in this river. Furthermore, these haplotypes formed part of the clade which exists throughout not only the Herbert River but other surrounding drainages in the area. These results support the hypothesis that the current genetic structure is strongly affected by changes in drainage patterns due to geomorphological processes that occurred in the recent past.
Retinal Thickness in Healthy and Diabetic Subjects Measured Using Optical Coherence Tomography Mapping Software

Purpose To define the normal retinal thickness in healthy subjects using optical coherence tomography (OCT) mapping software and to assess the ability of OCT to detect early macular thickening in diabetic patients. Methods Six radial scans centered on the fixation point were done on 60 healthy eyes and 70 eyes of 35 diabetic patients without macular edema on biomicroscopy. Retinal thickness was measured automatically with OCT mapping software. Mean retinal thickness was compared in subgroups of healthy patients based on age, sex, and eye, and in the eyes of diabetic patients and healthy subjects. Thickening was diagnosed if mean retinal thickness of an area was greater than the mean thickness + 2SD in the corresponding area in healthy subjects; or if the difference between right and left eye exceeded the mean difference + 2 SD in a given area in healthy subjects. Results In healthy subjects, mean retinal thickness in the central macular area 1000 μm in diameter was 170±18 μm. There was no significant difference according to age, or left or right eye, but central macular thickness was significantly greater in men than women (p=0.0139). No difference was observed between the eyes of healthy subjects and diabetic patients without macular edema on biomicroscopy, but OCT detected early macular thickening in 12 diabetic eyes. Conclusions In this study average retinal thickness and mean local variations in a normal population were defined using a commercially available mapping software. OCT seems a sensitive tool for detecting early retinal thickening.