Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
MicroRNA-181 Variants Regulate T Cell Phenotype in the Context of Autoimmune Neuroinflammation

Background Recent studies have revealed that multiple sclerosis (MS) lesions have distinct microRNA (miRNA) expression profiles. miR-181 family members show altered expression in MS tissues although their participation in MS pathogenesis remains uncertain. Herein, we investigated the involvement of miR-181a and miR-181b in the pathogenesis of MS and its animal model, experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). Methods miR-181a and -b levels were measured in the central nervous system (CNS) of patients with MS and mice with EAE as well as relevant leukocyte cultures by real-time RT-PCR. To examine the role of the miRNAs in leukocyte differentiation and function, miR-181a and -b mimic sequences were transfected into cultured primary macrophages and purified CD4+ T cells which were then analyzed by RT-PCR and flow cytometry. Luciferase reporter assays were performed to investigate the interaction of miR-181a and -b with the 3′-UTR of potential target transcripts, and the expression of target genes was measured in the CNS of EAE mice, activated lymphocytes, and macrophages. Results Expression analyses revealed a significant decrease in miR-181a and -b levels in brain white matter from MS patients as well as in spinal cords of EAE mice during the acute and chronic phases of disease. Suppression of miR-181a was observed following antigen-specific or polyclonal activation of lymphocytes as well as in macrophages following LPS treatment. Overexpression of miR-181a and -b mimic sequences reduced proinflammatory gene expression in macrophages and polarization toward M1 phenotype. miR-181a and -b mimic sequences inhibited Th1 generation in CD4+ T cells and miR-181a mimic sequences also promoted Treg differentiation. Luciferase assays revealed Suppressor of mothers against decapentaplegic 7 (Smad7), as a direct target of miR-181a and -b. Conclusion Our data highlight the anti-inflammatory actions of miR-181a and -b in the context of autoimmune neuroinflammation. miR-181a and -b influence differentiation of T helper cell and activation of macrophages, providing potential therapeutic options for controlling inflammation in MS.
Bleeding Events Following Concurrent Use of Warfarin and Oseltamivir by Medicare Beneficiaries

Background: During the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic, the UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency received case reports suggesting a potentiation of warfarin anticoagulation by the antiviral drug oseltamivir. We evaluated this putative interaction using Medicare data. Objective: To determine the frequency of bleeding following addition of oseltamivir or comparator drugs among Medicare beneficiaries taking warfarin. Methods: This was a retrospective cohort evaluation using Medicare nationwide data. Cohort members were Medicare Parts A, B, and D beneficiaries from June 30, 2006 to October 31, 2010 receiving warfarin for at least 1 month prior to a concomitant drug of interest (oseltamivir, ampicillin, trimethoprim–sulfamethoxazole (TMP-SMX), and angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors). Bleeding within 14 days of new prescriptions for oseltamivir or comparators was identified using inpatient or emergency department ICD-9 (International Classification of Diseases, ninth revision) discharge diagnosis codes for gastrointestinal hemorrhage, epistaxis, hematuria, and intracranial bleeding. Patients with bleeding within 30 days preceding the prescription concomitant to warfarin were excluded. Results: With concomitant ACE inhibitors as reference, adjusted odds ratios (ORs) for any bleeding events within 14 days were 1.47 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.08-1.88), 1.24 (95% CI = 0.97-1.57), and 2.74 (95% CI = 2.53-3.03), for warfarin plus ampicillin, oseltamivir, and TMP-SMX, respectively. In a sensitivity analysis, adjusted ORs over a 7-day period were 1.89 (95% CI = 1.29-2.59), 1.47 (95% CI = 1.06-2.02), and 3.07 (95% CI = 2.76-3.49) for warfarin plus ampicillin, oseltamivir, and TMP-SMX, respectively. Conclusions: Bleeding with oseltamivir plus warfarin was not significantly increased over a 14-day observation period; a sensitivity analysis showed a statistically significant increase over a 7-day period; in contrast, the data consistently showed the known tendency of TMP-SMX to potentiate the effects of warfarin. The results should be interpreted with the limitations of this approach in mind, including the inability to control for unmeasured confounders.
An examination of usability and usability engineering with the contemporary systems thinking lenses

The subject of usability and usability engineering has long been an influential one in the computer science field, notably in the subject of Human-computer interaction. Meanwhile, the importance of developing usable new software products has been widely recognized in the business community. Nevertheless, the theoretical and methodological strengths and weaknesses of usability engineering methodologies have not been seriously examined in the usability field. The writer draws on the experience on this topic of evaluation of various strands of systems thinking in the systems thinking field to inform this topic in the usability subject. It argues for the theoretical justification to adopt the theoretically enriched view on usability and usability engineering (TEVUAUE), which is essentially grounded on multi-perspective, systems-based research thinking (Ho, 2013) and creative holism (Jackson, 2003). As a vaguely conceived notion, the paper encourages further research effort to develop the notion of the theoretically enriched view on usability and usability engineering
Regulation of Kinetochore Recruitment of Two Essential Mitotic Spindle Checkpoint Proteins by Mps 1 Phosphorylation

Mps1 is a protein kinase that plays essential roles in spindle checkpoint signaling. Unattached kinetochores or lack of tension triggers recruitment of several key spindle checkpoint proteins to the kinetochore, which delays anaphase onset until proper attachment or tension is reestablished. Mps1 acts upstream in the spindle checkpoint signaling cascade, and kinetochore targeting of Mps1 is required for subsequent recruitment of Mad1 and Mad2 to the kinetochore. The mechanisms that govern recruitment of Mps1 or other checkpoint proteins to the kinetochore upon spindle checkpoint activation are incompletely understood. Here, we demonstrate that phosphorylation of Mps1 at T12 and S15 is required for Mps1 recruitment to the kinetochore. Mps1 kinetochore recruitment requires its kinase activity and autophosphorylation at T12 and S15. Mutation of T12 and S15 severely impairs its kinetochore association and markedly reduces recruitment of Mad2 to the kinetochore. Our studies underscore the importance of Mps1 autophosphorylation in kinetochore targeting and spindle checkpoint signaling.
Le modèle d'intervention précoce dans les troubles du spectre autistique : état des lieux et réflexion sur les obstacles à son application à partir de l'analyse rétrospective de trente-huit parcours précoces dans le département des Alpes-Maritimes

INTRODUCTION : Le modele d’intervention precoce est un modele qui preconise, pour des enfants avant l’âge de trois ans presentant un risque ou un diagnostic de trouble du spectre autistique, une prise en charge intensive basee sur des approches educatives, developpementales et comportementales. La France travaille a la mise en place d’un reseau de reperage, de diagnostic et d’intervention des dix-huit mois. Les premiers elements de clinique quotidienne, notamment a travers les recits parentaux et les constats des autorites de sante laissent toutefois apparaitre des parcours de soins heterogenes, souvent marques par d’importants retards au diagnostic et a la prise en charge, tres frequemment teintes d’insatisfaction parentale. METHODE : L’objectif de ce travail etait de presenter un etat des lieux de trente-huit parcours de soins d’enfants avec autisme dans le departement des Alpes-Maritimes ainsi qu’une reflexion preliminaire sur les obstacles a l’application d’un modele d’intervention precoce et enfin de proposer quelques pistes afin de les ameliorer. RESULTATS : Notre etat des lieux fait ressortir certains points forts des parcours de nos enfants comme le reperage parental precoce, l’accessibilite aux services specialises du secteur public ou encore la precocite des prises en charge des enfants dans notre departement. Neanmoins, le vecu et le ressenti des familles restent tres negatifs, marques par l’insatisfaction, le sentiment d’un manque d’ecoute et d’accompagnement. Certains constats comme le defaut de reperage et d’adressage des professionnels de premiere ligne, revenant alors frequemment a l’initiative parentale ou le manque de pluralite des prises en charge pourraient en partie expliquer ce mecontentement et representent autant d’obstacles a l’application du modele d’intervention en France. CONCLUSION : Le modele d’intervention precoce est un modele prometteur sur lequel reposent de nombreux espoirs dans l’amelioration des prises en charge globales d’enfants avec autisme. Malgre l’existence actuelle de plusieurs difficultes qu’il semble indispensable de prendre en compte pour permettre une mise en place efficace de ce modele, le systeme de soins francais semble toutefois disposer des principales ressources necessaires a son application. De plus, la poursuite des efforts des autorites de sante et des structures specialisees en ce sens pourrait permettre bientot son fonctionnement optimal.
Medical comorbidity in polycystic ovary syndrome with special focus on cardiometabolic, autoimmune, hepatic and cancer diseases: an updated review

Purpose of review Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is defined by hyperandrogenism, irregular menses and polycystic ovaries when other causes are excluded. The possible implication of increased morbidity in PCOS for screening and follow-up is uncertain and is reviewed in this article. Recent findings The increased risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease in PCOS is closely associated with BMI. Women with PCOS should be screened for the elements of the metabolic syndrome upon diagnosis. Measurement of HbA1c and the lipid accumulation product could be important tools to differentiate women with high metabolic risk. The immune function in PCOS is impaired with increased secretion of autoantibodies and increased risk of type 1 diabetes, asthma and thyroid disease. The occurrence of thyroid disease could be modified by BMI and D-vitamin status. Screening for diabetes and thyroid disease is part of routine evaluation for endocrine diseases at baseline in PCOS, whereas the necessity of prospective screening for thyroid disease awaits future studies. Especially obese women with PCOS are at an increased risk of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, gall bladder disease and endometrial cancer. Summary Recent data support that screening and follow-up in patients with PCOS should be stratified according to BMI.
Near-Field Gain Correction for Transmission between Horn Antennas

When the gain of a horn antenna is to be measured from the power transmission loss between it and a standard horn, the Friis transmission formula must be corrected if the horn separation is not considerably greater than 2d2/¿. Expressions for the correction between a pyramidal horn and a conical horn, and between dissimilar pyramidal horns, are presented with sample results. A method of applying these corrections to minimize the errors in the horn gain measurements is described.
The effect of an integrated care approach for heart failure on general practice.

BACKGROUND Recent studies have investigated specific strategies for heart failure management. None has involved collaboration between primary and secondary care. Potential gains for patients may result from collaborative strategies. OBJECTIVE To assess the effect of an integrated management approach for patients with heart failure on general practice. METHODS The study design was a cluster randomized controlled trial of integrated primary/ secondary care compared with usual care for heart failure patients. The study took place at Auckland Hospital, New Zealand and involved 197 patients admitted with an episode of heart failure. Patients were randomized to management group or control group (who received "usual" care). Management group patients received early clinical review, education sessions, a personal diary for medications and weight, and regular clinical follow-up alternating between GP and hospital clinic. Follow-up was for 12 months. RESULTS Patients visited GPs frequently (median 14 visits, range 0-40), with no statistical difference between the two groups. Heart failure was the most common reason for consulting the GP. There was no relationship between GP consultations and patients' attendance at the study clinic, or hospital admissions. Management group GPs and patients expressed a high level of satisfaction. CONCLUSION GP consultation rates were not affected by the programme. Further research will determine if general practice based programmes result in further gains.
Object classification by color normalization or calibration?

Model-based approaches to object recognition rely on shape and contours while appearance-based approaches use information provided by the object intensity or color. Color histograms as an object characteristics are commonly used to solve this task. TheRGBcolor values formed by a camera depend heavily on the image formation process - especially the illumination involved. Mainly for this reason color normalization algorithms are applied to estimate the impact of position and color of the illumination and eliminate or at least minimize their influence to the image appearance. Providing information about the image acquisition settings another color normalization is applicable: color calibration. We compare several color normalization procedures to a colorimetric calibration method proposed by Raymond L. Lee, Jr. By estimating the spectral reflectance of object surfaces one obtain a colorimetrically correct image representation. The impact of color normalization on the recognition rates is explored and is set in contrast to a calibration approach. Additionally our experiments test several histogram distance measures for histogram based object recognition. We vary the number of bins, the order of two processing steps, and the dimensionality of color histograms to determine a most suitable parameter setting for object recognition.
Improved endurance of RRAM by optimizing reset bias scheme in 1T1R configuration to suppress reset breakdown

In this study, we reported suppressed reset breakdown, which causes endurance failure, by optimizing reset bias scheme in HfO2-based 1T1R RRAM device. Since the resistance of RRAM in reset operation controls effective transistor gate bias (VGSeff=VGS-ID*RRRAM) which limits saturation drain current, optimum gate bias can supply sufficient reset current in low resistance state and limit current in high resistance state. As a result, the reset breakdown was successfully suppressed by applying optimum gate voltage and the endurance was significantly improved with maintaining high resistance ratio.
The susceptibility of small fruits and cherries to the spotted-wing drosophila, Drosophila suzukii.

BACKGROUND The spotted-wing drosophila, Drosophila suzukii Matsumura, is native to Asia and was first detected in the North American mainland and Europe in 2008-2010. Drosophila suzukii is a serious economic pest to stone and small fruits because the female lays eggs within ripening fruit on a plant before harvest, which can lead to crop loss. The aim of this study was to evaluate the susceptibility of blackberries, blueberries, cherries, grapes, raspberries and strawberries to D. suzukii among various ripeness stages and cultivars. RESULTS In 26 no-choice and choice replicated laboratory cage tests on ripeness stages, fruits were generally susceptible to D. suzukii once fruits started to color. Few D. suzukii developed on green fruit, wine grapes or overripe blueberries. In seven cultivar tests, D. suzukii preferences ranged from no differences to fourfold differences for specific cultivars of blackberries, blueberries, raspberries and wine grapes. As brix levels increased, more eggs were laid or more D. suzukii developed on blackberries, blueberries, cherries, raspberries and strawberries. In a choice test of various fruit types, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, cherries and blueberries were more susceptible to D. suzukii than green table grapes ('Thompson'). CONCLUSION The results suggest that fruits may become susceptible to D. suzukii as they start to turn color, and that specific varieties of grapes and overripe blueberries have low susceptibility to D. suzukii.
Chemokine receptor allelic polymorphisms: relationships to HIV resistance and disease progression.

It is now well established that an array of CC and CXC chemokine receptors, in association with the CD4 molecule, can interact with the HIV-1 gp120 protein to facilitate viral fusion. A 32bp deletion in the CC chemokine receptor CCR5, the major M-tropic viral co-receptor, provides considerable protection against HIV-1 transmission and has been associated with a delay in disease progression. The effects of the Delta32 allele appear to be mediated through the phenotype of CCR5 expression as opposed to genotype. Here we discuss the potential effects that the Delta32 allele and other polymorphisms in the chemokine receptor repertoire may have on both HIV-1 transmission and disease progression.
A dual two-level inverter scheme with common mode voltage elimination for an induction motor drive

Pulse-width modulated (PWM) inverters are known to generate common mode voltages which cause motor bearing currents in the induction motor drives. They also result in leakage currents which act as sources of conducted electromagnetic interference in the drive system. The common mode voltage generated by a conventional three-level inverter can be eliminated by switching only the voltage space vectors which do not produce the common mode voltage. This paper presents a PWM switching strategy to eliminate common mode voltage using the open-end winding configuration for the induction motor. The switching strategy presented in this paper, does not generate any alternating common mode voltages in the drive system and hence the electrostatic coupling of the common mode voltage, which results in the bearing currents and the leakage currents, is avoided. The proposed scheme is devoid of neutral point voltage fluctuations and does not require neutral point clamping diodes, when compared to the common mode elimination scheme based on the conventional three-level inverter topology. Also, the present scheme uses a single dc-link with half the voltage compared to the conventional three-level inverter based scheme.
State-of-charge balancing control of battery energy storage system based on cascaded H-bridge multilevel inverter

Cascaded H-bridge is a promising topology for high-voltage high-power applications. And in this paper, a cascaded H-bridge multilevel inverter for BESS applications is introduced. In order to manage the state-of-charge (SOC) value of each battery to be equal to avoid the over charge or over discharge, phase-phase SOC-balancing control and inter-phase SOC-balancing control are analyzed in this paper. 2MW/10kV high-voltage BESS based on cascaded H-bridge inverter has been completed and put into operation. Experimental results show the validity of proposed control method.
The Role of E-Cadherin-Catenin Complex in Prostate Cancer Progression

The genetic changes that promote progression of prostate adenocarcinomas are multifactori‐ al and include alterations in several genes. The aberrations include those in genes that affect normal cell adhesion. The long arm of chromosome 16 (16q22.1) is deleted in 30% of primary prostatic tumors and more than 70% of metastatic prostate cancers. The E-cadherin gene is located in this region. E-cadherin is involved in maintaining homotypic cell-cell adhesion between normal prostatic glandular cells. The loss of E-cadherin expression is associated with metastatic progression of prostate cancer (Mason, 2002). Recent data suggests that ab‐ normal expression of E-cadherin, leading to impaired adhesion, correlates with hematoge‐ nous spread of primary tumor cells in prostate cancer patients (Loric, 2001). The study further suggests that abnormal E-cadherin expression is a significant independent indicator of prostate cancer recurrence in patients.
A proposed key escrow system for secure patient information disclosure in biomedical research databases

Access to clinical data is of increasing importance to biomedical research. The pending HIPAA privacy regulations provide specific requirements for the release of protected health information. Under the regulations, biomedical researchers may utilize anonymized data, or adhere to HIPAA requirements regarding protected health information. In order to provide researchers with anonymized data from a clinical research database, we reviewed several published strategies for de-identification of protected health information. Critical analysis with respect to this project suggests that de-identification alone is problematic when applied to clinical research databases. We propose a hybrid system; utilizing secure key escrow, de-identification, and role-based access for IRB approved researchers.
Mode-Locked Erbium-Doped Fiber Lasers Using 45° Tilted Fiber Grating

We have systematically studied the 45° tilted fiber grating (45TFG) as a functional device for erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) mode locking. A number of 45TFGs with different polarization-dependent loss (PDL) have been fabricated. Mode-locked (EDFL) using these devices have been characterized in terms of threshold, pulse duration, signal-to-noise ratio, and spectral width. Our results show that a 45TFG with higher PDL could achieve better laser results. By using a 45TFG with 24 dB PDL, the mode-locked laser has 8.1% conversion efficiency and a threshold of 200 mW.
Evaluation of Cancelable Biometric Systems: Application to Finger-Knuckle-Prints

With more and more applications using biometrics, new privacy and security risks arise. Some new biometric systems have been proposed in the last decade following a privacy by design approach: cancelable biometric systems. Their evaluation is still an open issue in research. The objective of this paper is first to define an evaluation methodology for these particular biometric systems by proposing some metrics for testing their robustness. Second, we show through the example of a cancelable biometric system using finger-knuckle-prints how some privacy properties can be checked by simulating attacks.
Return to Learn: A review of cognitive rest versus rehabilitation after sports concussion.

BACKGROUND Cognitive rest is the recommendation for all patients with acute sports concussion. OBJECTIVE/METHODS A comprehensive literature search was conducted for the research question "What is the optimal cognitive load for patients with a sports concussion? " RESULTS Seven studies met the inclusion criteria. The optimal cognitive load for patients after sports concussion is yet to be determined. CONCLUSIONS Additional controlled trials of cognitive rehabilitation are needed to establish best clinical practice. The authors suggest memory training, cognitive behavioral therapy, and environmental interventions as areas of future research for sports concussion injuries.