Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ancient Pneumatics Transformed during the Early Modern Period

The paper aims to show how sixteenth century hydraulic and pneumatic engineers appropriated ancient science and technology - codified in the text of Hero of Alexandria? s Pneumatics - to enter into scientific discourse, for instance, with natural philosophers. They drew on the logical structure, content and narrative style passed down from antiquity to generate and codify their own theoretical approach and to document their new technological achievements. They did so by using the form of commented and enlarged editions, just as Aristotelian natural philosophers had been doing for centuries. The argument aims to detail the exact role of ancient science and the process of transformation it underwent during the early modern period. In particular, it aims to show how pneumatic engineers first tested the ancient technology codified by Hero while carrying out their own practical activities. Once these tests were successfully concluded, in the spirit of early modern humanism they finally presented these activities as being associated with the work of their discipline's most authoritative author, Hero of Alexandria, whose technology was tested during the construction of the hydraulic and pneumatic system of the garden of Pratolino.
Changes of Intestinal Microflora in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis during Fasting or a Mediterranean Diet

Background: Therapeutic dietary interventions are effective treatments for rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The mechanisms to affect inflammation and clinical outcome in rheumatoid arthritis are only partly understood. Alterations in intestinal microflora are believed to be associated with disease activity in RA. Aim: To evaluate changes in short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) profiles and clinical outcome in RA during medical fasting or mediterranean diet. Methods: Fifty consecutive in-patients from an Integrative Medicine Department were included in a prospective observational, non-randomised, clinical trial. Patients underwent a 7-day fasting (MF) therapy or a Mediterranean diet (MD) as part of a multimodal therapeutic treatment approach. Results: The mean Disease Activity Score (DAS-28) significantly decreased in both groups (p < 0.001) from 5.7 ± 0.9 to 4.1 ± 1.3 in the MF and from 5.4 ± 1.4 to 4.5 ± 1.3 in the MG group, with no significant difference between the groups (p = 0.115). VAS showed a consecutive decrease of pain in both study groups which was significantly higher in the fasting group on day 7 (p = 0.049). No significant differences between the study groups were found in the profile of total-fatty acids (p = 0.069), butyrate (p = 0.611) and propionate (p = 0.419). Measurement of acetate, however, showed significant differences (p = 0.044) with an increase from 17,4 ± 9.8 µmol/g to 21,4 ± 16.4 µmol/g in MF compared to a decrease from 15,2 ± 10.4 µmol/g to 13,8 ± 9.3 µmol/g in MD. There was no significant correlation between dietary induced changes of SCFA and changes of disease activity. Conclusion: Alterations in SCFA were found in terms of significant changes to increased acetate levels in the fasting group. A correlation between changes of SCFA from intestinal microflora and disease activity in RA could not be revealed. Further studies are needed in the field of dietary inducible changes of the intestinal microflora in patients with RA.
Molecular and Cellular Pathobiology A Novel Signaling Axis of Matriptase / PDGF-D / b-PDGFR in Human Prostate Cancer

Increasing evidence indicates the significance of platelet-derived growth factor receptor-b (b-PDGFR) signaling in prostate cancer (PCa). Accordingly, preclinical studies suggest the potential of b-PDGFR as a therapeutic target in metastatic PCa. However, a ligand responsible for b-PDGFR activation in PCa was unknown, and recent clinical trials with imatinib mesylate showed limited success due to normal tissue toxicity. Similarly, in spite of mounting evidence indicating the significance of matriptase in PCa, little is known about its substrates or molecular actions during PCa progression. Here, we identified PDGF-D as a ligand for b-PDGFR in PCa and discovered matriptase as its regulator. Matriptase activates PDGF-D by proteolytic removal of the CUB domain in a 2-step process, creating a hemidimer, followed by growth factor domain dimer (GFD-D) generation. Matriptase can deactivate PDGF-D by further proteolytic cleavage within the GFD, revealing its biphasic regulation. Importantly, PDGF-D/matriptase colocalization is accompanied with b-PDGFR phosphorylation in human PCa tissues. This study unveiled a novel signaling axis of matriptase/PDGF-D/b-PDGFR in PCa, providing new insights into functional interplay between serine protease and growth factor signaling networks. Cancer Res; 70(23); 9631–40. 2010 AACR.
Inhibition of ATP-Sensitive K+ Channels in Pancreatic β-Cells by Nonsulfonylurea Drug Linogliride

Linogliride is a nonsulfonylurea drug that lowers blood glucose levels in nondiabetic and diabetic humans and animals. Linogliride also stimulates insulin release in vitro. In the perfused pancreas, pretreatment with tolbutamide desensitizes β-cells to the action of linogliride. We tested the hypothesis that linogliride, like tolbutamide, affects the activity of ATP-sensitive K+ channels, which are thought to control insulin release. We used the whole-cell voltage-clamping technique to measure the K+ current through ATP-sensitive K+ channels in the plasma membrane of single rat β-cells, which were dialyzed with 30 μM ATP. Linogliride (10–300 μM) inhibited the K+ current; half-maximal inhibition was observed at 6–25 μM, depending on how much time was allowed for equilibration of the drug. Reversal of the inhibition was slow (t½ ∼4 min). In summary, linogliride leads to a decrease in the activity of ATP-sensitive K+ channels.
A dual-mode DC/DC converter for ultra-low-voltage microcontrollers

Ultra-low-voltage processors of highly duty-cycled applications such as wireless sensor nodes must support two modes of operation: active mode and sleep mode. Even in sleep mode some critical blocks such as retentive SRAM, timer and interrupt controller must remain powered-on. The DC/DC converter thus need to be able to supply ultra-low loads corresponding to sleep mode. In this paper, we propose a dual-mode switched-capacitor DC/DC converter to power such ultra-low-voltage processors with high efficiencies in both modes. It delivers a 0.3-0.4V output voltage from a 1-1.2V input source. The 0.12mm2 chip was manufactured in a 0. 13μm CMOS technology. The efficiency reaches 74% with a 100 μW load and 63% with a 100nW load, corresponding to the processor active and sleep mode respectively. Adaptive body biasing and adaptive internal clock generation supplied by the output voltage allow the converter to correctly operate over a wide load range from 25nW to 125 μW, i.e. nearly 4 orders of magnitude.
Emerging Ubiquitous Systems and Pervasive Networks ( EUSPN-2014 ) A semantic-based variables selection for ontology learning Taking Jaccard alignment as case

In the past decade, research on numerical schemes on ontology learning has been quite intensive. Several learning approaches have been proposed to help developers during the maintenance process. Most of the proposed approaches do not process the curse of dimensionality and the semantic contained in the information structure. A novel semantic-based method for ontology learning, which can provide improvement in both alignment and learning, is described. Good comparisons with the experimental studies demonstrate the multidisciplinary applications of our approach. © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of Elhadi M. Shakshuki.
A Gnotobiotic Transgenic Mouse Model for Studying Interactions between Small Intestinal Enterocytes and Intraepithelial Lymphocytes* 210

The mouse intestinal epithelium undergoes continuous renewal throughout life. Intraepithelial lymphocytes (IELs) represent a significant fraction of this epithelium and play an important role in intestinal mucosal barrier function. We have generated a germ-free transgenic mouse model to examine the effects of a genetically engineered proliferative abnormality in the principal epithelial cell lineage (enterocytes) on IEL census and on IEL-enterocytic cross-talk. SV40 large T antigen (TAgWt) or a mutant derivative (TAgK107/8) that does not bind pRB was expressed in small intestinal villus enterocytes under the control of elements from the intestinal fatty acid binding protein gene (Fabpi). Quantitative immunohistochemical and flow cytometric analyses of conventionally raised and germ-free FVB/NFabpi-TAgWt,Fabpi-TAgK107/8, and nontransgenic mice disclosed that forced reentry of enterocytes into the cell cycle is accompanied by an influx of thymically educated αβ T cell receptor (TCR)+ CD4+ and αβ TCR+CD8αβ+ IELs and a decrease in intestinally derived γδ TCR+ CD8αα IELs. Real time quantitative reverse transcriptase-PCR studies of jejunal villus epithelium recovered from germ-free transgenic and normal mice by laser capture microdissection and γδ TCR+ jejunal IELs purified by flow cytometry disclosed that the proliferative abnormality is accompanied by decreased expression of enterocytic interleukin-7 as well as IEL interleukin-7Rα and transforming growth factor β3. The analysis also revealed that normal villus epithelium expresses Fms-like tyrosine kinase 3 (Flt3), a known regulator of hematopoietic stem cell proliferation and neuronal cell survival, and its ligand (Flt3L). Epithelial expression of this receptor and its ligand is reduced by the proliferative abnormality, whereas IEL expression of Flt3L remains constant. Together, these findings demonstrate that changes in the proliferative status of the intestinal epithelium affects maturation of γδ TCR+ IELs and produces an influx of αβ TCR+ IELs even in the absence of a microflora.
Effect of tidal volume on extravascular lung water content during one-lung ventilation for video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery: A randomised, controlled trial

BACKGROUND The use of low tidal volume during one-lung ventilation (OLV) has been shown to attenuate the incidence of acute lung injury after thoracic surgery. OBJECTIVE To test the effect of tidal volume during OLV for video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery on the extravascular lung water content index (EVLWI). DESIGN A randomised, double-blind, controlled study. SETTING Single university hospital. PARTICIPANTS Thirty-nine patients scheduled for elective video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery. INTERVENTIONS Patients were randomly assigned to one of three groups (n = 13 per group) to ventilate the dependent lung with a tidal volume of 4, 6 or 8 ml kg−1 predicted body weight with I:E ratio of 1:2.5 and PEEP of 5 cmH2O. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES The primary outcomes were perioperative changes in EVLWI and EVLWI to intrathoracic blood volume index (ITBVI) ratio. Secondary outcomes included haemodynamics, oxygenation indices, incidences of postoperative acute lung injury, atelectasis, pneumonia, morbidity and 30-day mortality. RESULTS A tidal volume of 4 compared with 6 and 8 ml kg−1 after 45 min of OLV resulted in an EVLWI of 4.1 [95% confidence interval (CI) 3.5 to 4.7] compared with 7.7 (95% CI 6.7 to 8.6) and 8.6 (95% CI 7.5 to 9.7) ml kg−1, respectively (P < 0.003). EVLWI/ITBVI ratios were 0.57 (95% CI 0.46 to 0.68) compared with 0.90 (95% CI 0.75 to 1.05) and 1.00 (95% CI 0.80 to 1.21), respectively (P < 0.05). The incidences of postoperative acute lung injury, atelectasis, pneumonia, morbidity, hospitalisation and 30-day mortality were similar in the three groups. CONCLUSION The use of a tidal volume of 4 ml kg−1 during OLV was associated with less lung water content than with larger tidal volumes of 6 to 8 ml kg−1, although no patient developed acute lung injury. Further studies are required to address the usefulness of EVLWI as a marker for the development of postoperative acute lung injury after the use of a low tidal volume during OLV in patients undergoing pulmonary resection. TRIAL REGISTRATION Clinicaltrials.gov identifier: NCT01762709.
Minimal Load Shedding Using the Swing Equation

Load shedding constitutes the very last resort for preventing total blackouts and cascading events. Conventional load shedding schemes, which are massively applied in industrial practice, adopt a step-wise approach that usually causes overshedding or fails to prevent frequency decay above the allowable limits. Recently proposed schemes based on real time intelligent control and neural networks achieve the control objective, but fail to minimize the amount of load to be shed due to the delay incurred in consecutive control decisions. This letter proposes a new load shedding scheme, decoupled from the conventional scheme. This scheme, based on the equivalent swing equation of the system, determines the minimal amount of load that should be shed immediately (in a single step) after the load event/disturbance occurs, in order to guarantee system stability.
Privacy-Aware Genome Mining: Server-Assisted Protocols for Private Set Intersection and Pattern Matching

The Human Genome Project has generated a great wealth of information. Currently, almost all human genome has been sequenced and now it is time to identify the functionality of each gene. The sequence of base pairs accounts for approximately 3 billion elements. While there are many efficient algorithms and implementations to mine this information, doing it privately is a great challenge. Current state-of-the-art methods have improved their efficiency, but they are not practical yet. In this article, we introduce several protocols to drastically boost the performance of genome mining processes while guaranteeing privacy, thus, enabling practical implementations. We describe how to solve the private set intersection problem and a set of pattern matching queries with privacy. The proposed protocols are server-assisted and we prove that they are secure under the semi-honest model. We report the assessment of our solution using synthetic datasets and prove their efficiency.
Estimation of induction motor parameters using hybrid algorithms for power system dynamic studies

This paper proposes a hybrid Newton-Raphson and genetic algorithm for the estimation of double cage induction motor parameters from commonly available manufacturer data. The hybrid algorithm was tested on a large data set of 6,380 IEC and NEMA motors and then compared with a baseline Newton-Raphson algorithm. The simulation results show that while the proposed hybrid algorithm is more computationally intensive, it does make significant improvements to convergence and error rates.
Supervector LDA: A New Approach to Reduced-Complexity I-vector Language Recognition

In this paper, we extend our previous analysis of Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) subspace compensation techniques using Gaussian modeling in the supervector space combined with additive channel and observation noise. We show that under the modeling assumptions of a total-variability i-vector system, full Gaussian supervector scoring can also be performed cheaply in the total subspace, and that i-vector scoring can be viewed as an approximation to this. Next, we show that covariance matrix estimation in the i-vector space can be used to generate PCA estimates of supervector covariance matrices needed for Joint Factor Analysis (JFA). Finally, we derive a new technique for reduced-dimension i-vector extraction which we call Supervector LDA (SV-LDA), and demonstrate a 100-dimensional i-vector language recognition system with equivalent performance to a 600-dimensional version at much lower complexity.
Inhibition of Eosinophil Activation Mediated by a Toll-Like Receptor 7 Ligand with a Combination of Procaterol and Budesonide

Background: Viral respiratory tract infections play an important role in the inception and exacerbation of asthma. Eosinophils, major effector cells in asthma, often accumulate in the airways during viral infections and are possibly activated by respiratory RNA viruses through Toll-like receptor (TLR) 7. We investigated the effect of a β2-agonist, i.e. procaterol, and a corticosteroid, i.e. budesonide, that are commonly used for viral-induced asthma, on TLR7 ligand-induced activation of eosinophils in vitro. Methods: Purified peripheral blood eosinophils were incubated with procaterol and/or budesonide and stimulated with a TLR7 ligand, i.e. R-837. Expression of CD11b was analyzed by flow cytometry. Superoxide generation was measured via the cytochrome C reduction method. IL-8 in the supernatants was assayed by ELISA. Results: Although procaterol or budesonide alone did not inhibit R-837-induced CD11b expression, combinations of the 2 drugs significantly inhibited CD11b. Likewise, the combinations significantly inhibited O2– generation at low concentrations. Budesonide significantly inhibited R-837-induced IL-8 production in a concentration-dependent manner, and procaterol potentiated inhibition by budesonide although single-agent procaterol had no effect. Conclusion: A combination of procaterol and budesonide inhibits the TLR7-mediated effector function of eosinophils, indicating their possible anti-inflammatory effect for virus-induced asthma.
Contribution of dot-blot assay to the diagnosis and management of myositis: a three-year practice at a university hospital centre.

OBJECTIVES Idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIM) are heterogeneous autoimmune diseases with wide clinical spectrum that may lead to delayed diagnosis. The aim of this study was to examine the impact of IIM-specific dot-blot assay on diagnostic process of patients presenting with muscular or systemic symptoms evocating of IIM. METHODS We collected all the prescriptions of an IIM specific dot-blot assay (8 autoantigens including Jo-1, PL-7, PL-12, SRP, Mi-2, Ku, PM/Scl and Scl-70) over a 38-month period. RESULTS 316 myositis dot-blot assays (MSD) were performed in 274 patients (156 women, mean age 53±10.6 years) referring for muscular and/or systemic symptoms suggesting IIM. The timing of dot prescription through the diagnostic process was highly variable: without (35%), concomitantly (16%) or after electromyographic studies (35%). Fifty-nine patients (22%) had IIM according to Bohan and Peter's criteria. Among them, 29 (49%) had positive dot (8 Jo-1, 6 PM-Scl, 5 PL-12, 5 SRP, 2 Mi-2, 2 PL-7 and 1 Ku). Various other diagnoses were performed including 35 autoimmune disease or granulomatosis (12%), 19 inflammatory rheumatic disease (7%), 16 non inflammatory muscular disorders (6%), 10 drug-induced myalgia (4%), 11 infectious myositis (4%). Except 11 borderline SRP results and one transient PM-Scl, MSD was positive only in one case of IIM. Dot allowed clinicians to correct diagnosis in 4 cases and improved the diagnosis of IIM subtypes in 4 cases. CONCLUSIONS This study reflects the interest of myositis dot in the rapid diagnosis process of patients with non-specific muscular symptoms leading to various diagnoses including IIM.
The association of the human herpesvirus-6 and MS

Given the clinical and pathological nature of multiple sclerosis (MS), a viral infection has long been hypothesized as part of the etiology. In this study we investigated the possibility that the human herpesvirus-6 (HHV-6) is present in a dormant or active phase in the tissue of MS patients, specifically oligodendrocytes. Using PCR assays of MS and non-MS brain sections with primers prepared against the HHV-6 structural protein 101, the results demonstrated that 36% of MS brains were positive for the virus, while 13.5% of non-MS brains were positive. Antibody to the HHV-6 structural protein was also used in immunohistochemical experiments in brain tissue. 47% (7/15) of MS brains were positive for HHV-6, whereas 0/16 controls were positive. In addition, MS patients demonstrated high immune reactivity to this virus, even when compared to auto-immune diseases, which might cause polyclonal activation. Sera obtained from MS and control patients revealed that the IgM response to the HHV-6 virus was significantly elevated in 80% patients compared to 16% non-MS controls, P5.001. The above experiments strongly suggest that a significant number of MS brain samples contain HHV-6 antigens and genomic fragments in a dormant or active phase compared to control specimens and that MS patients mount a brisk, early IgM response.
THE BIOLOGICAL DEGRADATION OF SOLUBLE CELLULOSE DERIVATIVES AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO THE MECHANISM OF CELLULOSE HYDROLYSIS

The use of soluble cellulose derivatives in the form of gels for pharmaceutical and other purposes depends in part upon the resistance of the preparation to liquefaction. Reports have reached us that products containing soluble carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) liquefied on standing. From one of the deteriorated samples Woodward (1948) isolated Aspergillus niger and AspergiUus flavus; from another preparation Freeman et al. (1948) obtained gram-negative bacteria, which on reinoculation, again liquefied the CMC. Contaminated hydroxyethyl cellulose preparations behave in a similar fashion. From one sample Harry (1948) isolated two bacterial organisms. In a study of the availability of cellulose derivatives to Myrothecium verrucaria, Siu et al. (1949) found that CMC-Na salt and methocel (soluble methyl cellulose) were metabolized. From our viewpoint several points appeared to require further elucidation. How widespread is the ability of microorganisms to utilize soluble cellulose derivatives as carbon sources? How do the number, nature, and location of the substituents affect the availability of the modified cellulose? And, finally, is there any relationship between the enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose derivatives and the hydrolysis of cellulose itself? These are the questions to which the following data are partial answers.
Validity of the modified back-saver sit-and-reach test: a comparison with other protocols.

PURPOSE Studies have shown that the classical sit-and-reach (CSR) test, the modified sit-and-reach (MSR), and the newly developed back-saver sit-and-reach (BS) test have poor criterion-related validity in estimating low-back flexibility but yielded moderate criterion-related validity in hamstring flexibility. The V sit-and-reach (VSR) test was found to be practical but the validity has not been established. The purpose of this study was to propose a modified back-saver sit-and-reach (MBS) test, which incorporated all advantages of the various protocols, and to compare the criterion-related validity and reliability of all these tests. METHODS 158 college students (F = 96, and M = 62; age = 20.77 +/- 2.51) performed CSR, VSR, BS (left and right leg), and MBS (left and right leg) tests in a randomized order. Scores from each test were then correlated with the criterion measures. RESULTS For all sit-reach tests, intraclass reliability (single trial) was very high (r = 0.89-0.98). MBS yielded significant and highest r with low-back and hamstring criterion for men (r = 0.47-0.67) and women (r = 0.23-0.54). The low-back and right hamstring validity of MBS for men were significantly (P < 0.01) higher than those from BS and CSR, whereas no differences in criterion-related validity were found between the MBS and other protocols in women. The ratings of perceived comfort among the sit-and-reach protocols were significantly different (P < 0.001) from each other. The rating for MBS was observed the most comfortable test as compared with other protocols. CONCLUSION The MBS test is not only a reliable test for hamstring and low-back flexibility, it is also a more practical with improved validity for hamstring and low-back flexibility in men than previous protocols.