Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
This information is current as Migration Inhibitory Factor Alternative Activation by Macrophage Control of Tumor-Associated Macrophage

Tumor stromal alternatively activated macrophages are important determinants of antitumor T lymphocyte responses, intratumoral neovascularization, and metastatic dissemination. Our recent efforts to investigate the mechanism of macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) in antagonizing antimelanoma immune responses reveal that macrophage-derived MIF participates in macrophage alternative activation in melanoma-bearing mice. Both peripheral and tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) isolated from melanoma bearing MIF-deﬁcient mice display elevated proinﬂammatory cytokine expression and reduced anti-inﬂammatory, immunosuppressive, and proangiogenic gene products compared with macrophages from tumor-bearing MIF wild-type mice. Moreover, TAMs and myeloid-derived suppressor cells from MIF-deﬁcient mice exhibit reduced T lymphocyte immunosuppressive activities compared with those from their wild-type littermates. Corresponding with reduced tumor immunosuppression and neo-angiogenic potential by TAMs, MIF deﬁciency confers protection against transplantable s.c. melanoma outgrowth and melanoma lung metastatic colonization. Finally, we report for the ﬁrst time, to our knowledge, that our previously discovered MIF small molecule antagonist, 4-iodo-6-phenylpyrimidine, recapitulates MIF deﬁciency in vitro and in vivo, and attenuates tumor-polarized macrophage alternative activation, immunosuppression, neoangiogenesis, and melanoma tumor outgrowth. These studies describe an important functional contribution by MIF to TAM alternative activation and provide justiﬁ-cation for immunotherapeutic targeting of MIF in melanoma
The Irony of Michael Novak Democratic Capitalism, and Climate Change

The late influential American intellectual Michael Novak was a self-declared devotee of Reinhold Niebuhr, arguably the foremost twentieth-century American theologian. Novak’s The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism (1982) was an attempt to fill the political-economic lacuna in Niebuhr’s thought. The present article offers a Niebuhrian irony–focused response to Novak’s democratic capitalism in view of climate change as probably the greatest threat facing humanity. Novak quite successfully extended Niebuhrian ideas into a theology-based vision of democratic capitalism as the only political-economic system effective in widely lifting people out of poverty. Yet he failed to acknowledge human-induced climate change as beyond reasonable doubt and rooted in the predominantly American invention of a fossil energy–based capitalist political economy. This article’s thesis is that Novak’s democratic capitalism entails Niebuhrian irony: the virtue it displays about resources becomes a vice due to Novak’s irresponsible post– Spirit of Democratic Capitalism attempt to represent democratic capitalism as innocent of any dangerous climate-change implications.
Microsoft Word-85740523-file00.docx

Department of Pharmaceutics, School of Pharmacy, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA (D.L.S., L.J.R., D.D.S., K.E.T., Q.M.) Department of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA (C.J.L., K.M.R.) Department of Pharmacy, School of Pharmacy, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA (M.F.H., D.D.S.) Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, School of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA (M.F.H.) JPET Fast Forward. Published on June 4, 2014 as DOI:10.1124/jpet.114. 213470
Socio-technical gambits that destroy cyber security & organisational resilience

This chapter summarises how an organisation (and key individuals within it) could be subject to smart targeting by cyber and other attacks - underpinned by re-conceptualising the ways in which decision-making by individuals and bureaucracies can be influenced or even directed. Beginning with a short summary of the author’s practical experience, the chapter then presents the notion of the choice architecture, followed by a dissection of some of the ways in which malign influence can be generated by or over decision-makers – underpinned by the author’s observation of such phenomena in the real world. The chapter concludes by arguing that organisations can and should accrue competitive advantage by recognising that their decision-making competences are vulnerable to the imaginative and determined adversary. The use of fast, frequent and cheap exercises to enhance scanning for threats placed (or placeable) within an organisation and to supplement the situational awareness, alertness and robust response of individuals and structures is recommended.
Staphy-Caracterização fenotípica, produção de biofilme e resistência aos antimicrobianos em isolados de Staphylococcus spp. obtidos de casos de mastite em bovinos e bubalinos 1

Phemotypic characterization, biofilm production and antimicrobial resistance of Staphylococcus spp. Isolates from cattle and buffaloes mastitis. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the antimicrobial susceptibility pattern and to perform the phenotypic and genotypic characterization of the Staphylococcus spp. isolates from mastitis cases in cattle (n=30) and buffaloes (n=30). The susceptibility to antimicrobial drugs was performed by disk diffusion test and the presence of efflux pump was evaluated in Mueller Hinton (MH) Agar supplemented with ethidium bromide as well as by detection of msr A gene. Similarly, the PCR technique was done to detect mec A, bla Z and erm A, B e C genes, that were related after with the presence of antimicrobial resistance in disk diffusion test. The formation of biofilm was characterized using Congo Red Agar (CRA), microplate adherence and detection of ica D gene. high antimicrobial susceptibility in disk diffusion test. The multidrug resistance (MDR) rate ranged from 0 and 0,5. In the efflux pump test, 26.7% of were positive in phenotypic method and 6.7% in PCR for msr A gene. The erm , mec A and bla Z genes were detected in 1.7%, 6.7% and 11.7% of Staphylococcus strains respec-tively. In biofilm production tests, 23.3% of the samples were positive in CRA, 50% in mi croplate adherence test and 8.3% in ica D gene PCR. The cattle isolates were less sensitive to antimicrobial drugs when compared to the buffaloes ones. The characterization of these isolates is very important to guide a successful antimicrobial therapy. The biofilm presence in the isolates may be associated with other factors besides antimicrobial resistance.
Experimental Investigation on The Electromagnetic Clutch Water pump and Pneumatic Compressor for Improving the Efficiency of an Engine

Considering the fuel crises today many work and research were conducted to reduce the fuel consumption of the internal combustion engine. The fuel consumption of an internal combustion engine can be relatively reduced by use of the electromagnetic clutch water pump and pneumatic compressor. Normally in an engine, the water pump is driven by the crankshaft, with an aid of belt, for the circulation of the water for the cooling process. The circulation of coolant is resisted by the thermostat valve, while the temperature inside the coolant jacket of the engine is below 375K the thermostat is closed only above 375K it tends to open. But water pump run continuously even when thermostat is closed. In pneumatic braking system, pneumatic or air compressor purpose is to compress the air and stored into the storage tank for the brake operation. When the air pressure of the storage tanks gets increases above its storage capacity pressure is regulated by governor, by passing them to atmosphere. Such unnecessary work of this water pump and air compressor can be minimized by use of the electromagnetic clutch water pump and air compressor. The European Driving Cycle is used to evaluate the performance of this water pump and air compressor when used in an engine. The result shows that the fuel economy of the engine while using electromagnetic water pump and pneumatic compressor were improved by 8.0% compared with conventional types which already exist. The application of these electromagnetic water pump and pneumatic compressor are expected to contribute for the improvement of engine performance because of their effect in reduction of the rate of fuel consumption.
Trends in low power low voltage d.c./d.c. converters

Abstract New integrated circuits are demanding very low supply voltages (1.5 V, 1.2 V, .) with a very high quality. Low supply voltages allow for reducing the power consumption and increasing the integration density as well as the operation speed of the integrated circuits. Powering properly these new electronics loads is not a trivial question at all. New dynamic response specifications affect dramatically the design of the power supply. Topology selection does not depend only on size and efficiency considerations but also on its dynamic response. Size, efficiency and dynamic response are strongly related (Fig. 1). Critical issues in the design of low voltage power sup-plies are the topology selection, switching frequency, efficiency, dynamic response, packaging, input voltage, transformer design, etc. Design of these new power supplies is very complex, and all these aspects should be considered together Design of the transformer becomes very critical when auxiliary windings are needed to drive the Synchronous Rectifiers. Modern technologies are necessary to couple properly all the windings. Topologies used in the last years to supply low voltage circuits (forward with active clamp, half bridge with complementary control) are not the best option now, because their dynamic response is not good enough to supply properly the new loads. Topologies that drive symmetrically the transformer (classical half bridge, push pull) are a better option, but new techniques to implement self-driven synchronous rectification are necessary. Two possible solutions for powering the new IC are analyzed in this paper, and validated with experimental results.
User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product

User story mapping is a valuable tool for software development, once you understand why and how to use it. This insightful book examines how this often misunderstood technique can help your team stay focused on users and their needs without getting lost in the enthusiasm for individual product features. Author Jeff Patton shows you how changeable story maps enable your team to hold better conversations about the project throughout the development process. Your team will learn to come away with a shared understanding of what youre attempting to build and why. Get a high-level view of story mapping, with an exercise to learn key concepts quickly Understand how stories really work, and how they come to life in Agile and Lean projects Dive into a storys lifecycle, starting with opportunities and moving deeper into discovery Prepare your stories, pay attention while theyre built, and learn from those you convert to working software
Intensity and Prevalence of Psychological Distress in Cancer Inpatients: Cross-Sectional Study Using New Case-Finding Criteria for the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale

Psychological distress includes all negative subjective experiences elicited by a disease and its treatments. Since psychological distress in oncology is associated with negative outcomes, its detection and description are helpful for designing tailored supportive interventions. This study used the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) to assess the intensity and prevalence of psychological distress (i.e., anxiety and depression) in cancer inpatients and examined the relationships between these variables and sociodemographic and clinical factors. An existing dataset of HADS results, from 2021 consecutive adult cancer inpatients at a single hospital, was analyzed. Only those questionnaires with complete responses were used. The intensity of anxiety and depression was determined from HADS sub-scores. The prevalence of anxiety and depression was calculated using, as case-finding criteria, cut-offs of ≥ 10 and ≥ 8, respectively. The mean HADS scores describing intensity were 7.3 for anxiety (n = 1,990) and 5.8 (n = 1,970) for depression. The prevalence rates for anxiety and depression were 26.6 and 28.6%, respectively. Among the 1,916 patients who completed both subscales, 17.2% had both anxiety and depression, 21.0% had either anxiety or depression, and 61.7% had neither. Gender, age, occupational status, and cancer diagnosis were associated with anxiety intensity or prevalence, while age, occupational status, and cancer diagnosis were associated with depression intensity or prevalence. Anxiety intensity was affected by the interaction effect between gender and diagnosis. Our study showed anxiety and depression being distinct entities, with more intense anxiety overall. From a research perspective, it reaffirms the usefulness for assessing both intensity and prevalence concurrently to gain a more detailed description of anxiety and depression.
Digital Library for PDA Facilities

Masaryk University has access to many well-known digital libraries, such as Springer-Link, ACM Portal, and IEEE etc. These electronic sources could be used for improving the quality of education but their effective deployment is quite problematic. For this reason Masaryk University has started to develop a new system which should create a better integration of all of these electronic sources into the education process. It has a web-based interface which provides accessibility from PDA facilities. It is designed as a highly modular system, to allow for the addition of adding new components in the future. For analyzes we used Unified Process with UML modeling. The structure of the system is designed according to Model View Controller and it is implemented as Java Servlets/JSP. The system also contains a natural language analyzer unit. And a Web Services transparent cache for improving performance.
Uncertainty-Aware and Lesion-Specific Image Synthesis in Multiple Sclerosis Magnetic Resonance Imaging: A Multicentric Validation Study

Generative adversarial networks (GANs) can synthesize high-contrast MRI from lower-contrast input. Targeted translation of parenchymal lesions in multiple sclerosis (MS), as well as visualization of model confidence further augment their utility, provided that the GAN generalizes reliably across different scanners. We here investigate the generalizability of a refined GAN for synthesizing high-contrast double inversion recovery (DIR) images and propose the use of uncertainty maps to further enhance its clinical utility and trustworthiness. A GAN was trained to synthesize DIR from input fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) and T1w of 50 MS patients (training data). In another 50 patients (test data), two blinded readers (R1 and R2) independently quantified lesions in synthetic DIR (synthDIR), acquired DIR (trueDIR) and FLAIR. Of the 50 test patients, 20 were acquired on the same scanner as training data (internal data), while 30 were scanned at different scanners with heterogeneous field strengths and protocols (external data). Lesion-to-Background ratios (LBR) for MS-lesions vs. normal appearing white matter, as well as image quality parameters were calculated. Uncertainty maps were generated to visualize model confidence. Significantly more MS-specific lesions were found in synthDIR compared to FLAIR (R1: 26.7 ± 2.6 vs. 22.5 ± 2.2 p < 0.0001; R2: 22.8 ± 2.2 vs. 19.9 ± 2.0, p = 0.0005). While trueDIR remained superior to synthDIR in R1 [28.6 ± 2.9 vs. 26.7 ± 2.6 (p = 0.0021)], both sequences showed comparable lesion conspicuity in R2 [23.3 ± 2.4 vs. 22.8 ± 2.2 (p = 0.98)]. Importantly, improvements in lesion counts were similar in internal and external data. Measurements of LBR confirmed that lesion-focused GAN training significantly improved lesion conspicuity. The use of uncertainty maps furthermore helped discriminate between MS lesions and artifacts. In conclusion, this multicentric study confirms the external validity of a lesion-focused Deep-Learning tool aimed at MS imaging. When implemented, uncertainty maps are promising to increase the trustworthiness of synthetic MRI.
A Novel Blood Inflammatory Indicator for Predicting Deterioration Risk of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) has a relatively higher incidence in aging people due to walking problems. Cranial computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging provide the standard diagnostic tool to identify intracranial complications in patients with mTBI. However, it is still necessary to further explore blood biomarkers for evaluating the deterioration risk at the early stage of mTBI to improve medical decision-making in the emergency department. The activation of the inflammatory response is one of the main pathological mechanisms leading to unfavorable outcomes of mTBI. As complete blood count (CBC) analysis is the most extensively used laboratory test in practice, we extracted clinical data of 994 patients with mTBI from two large clinical cohorts (MIMIC-IV and eICU-CRD) and selected inflammation-related indicators from CBC analysis to investigate their relationship with the deterioration after mTBI. The combinatorial indices neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), red cell distribution width-to-platelet ratio (RPR), and NLR times RPR (NLTRP) were supposed to be potential risk predictors, and the data from the above cohorts were integratively analyzed using our previously reported method named MeDICS. We found that NLR, RPR, and NLTRP levels were higher among deteriorated patients than non-deteriorated patients with mTBI. Besides, high NLTRP was associated with increased deterioration risk, with the odds ratio increasing from NLTRP of 1–2 (2.69, 1.48–4.89) to > 2 (4.44, 1.51–13.08), using NLTRP of 0–1 as the reference. NLTRP had a moderately good prognostic performance with an area under the ROC curve of 0.7554 and a higher prediction value than both NLR and RPR, indicated by the integrated discrimination improvement index. The decision curve analysis also showed greater clinical benefits of NLTRP than NLR and RPR in a large range of threshold probabilities. Subgroup analysis further suggested that NLTRP is an independent risk factor for the deterioration after mTBI. In addition, in vivo experiments confirmed the association between NLTRP and neural/systemic inflammatory response after mTBI, which emphasized the importance of controlling inflammation in clinical treatment. Consequently, NLTRP is a promising biomarker for the deterioration risk of mTBI. It can be used in resource-limited settings, thus being proposed as a routinely available tool at all levels of the medical system.
2-Methoxyestradiol Alleviates Neuroinflammation and Brain Edema in Early Brain Injury After Subarachnoid Hemorrhage in Rats

Objective Numerous studies have shown that neuroinflammation and brain edema play an important role in early brain injury (EBI) after subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). 2-Methoxyestradiol (2-ME) has been shown to have anti-inflammatory and anti-angiogenic effects. This study aimed to investigate the effects of 2-ME on neuroinflammation and brain edema after SAH and its underlying mechanism of action. Methods Rats were used to produce an endovascular puncture model of SAH. 2-ME or the control agent was injected intraperitoneally 1 h after SAH induction. At 24 h after surgery, the neurological score, SAH grading, brain water content, and blood–brain barrier (BBB) permeability were examined. The microglial activation level in the rat brain tissue was determined using immunofluorescence staining, whereas the cell apoptosis in the rat brain tissue was assessed using terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick-end labeling assay, the levels of Interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6 and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α were measured by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay, and the expression levels of ZO-1, occludin, hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and matrix metallopeptidase (MMP)-9 in the rat brain tissue were determined using western blotting. Results Twenty-four hours after SAH, brain water content, BBB permeability, microglial activation, and cell apoptosis were significantly increased, whereas neurological function deteriorated significantly in rats. Treatment with 2-ME significantly decreased brain water content, BBB permeability, microglial cell activation, and cell apoptosis and improved neurological dysfunction in rats. Treatment with 2-ME reduced the expression levels of inflammatory factors (IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α), which were significantly elevated 24 h after SAH. Treatment with 2-ME alleviated the disruption of tight junction proteins (ZO-1 and occludin), which significantly decreased 24 h after SAH. To further determine the mechanism of this protective effect, we found that 2-ME inhibited the expression of HIF-1α, MMP-9, and VEGF, which was associated with the inflammatory response to EBI and BBB disruption after SAH. Conclusion 2-ME alleviated neuroinflammation and brain edema as well as improved neurological deficits after SAH in rats. The neuroprotective effect of 2-ME on EBI after SAH in rats may be related to the inhibition of neuroinflammation and brain edema.
Making Pretrained Language Models Good Long-tailed Learners

Prompt-tuning has shown appealing performance in few-shot classification by virtue of its capability in effectively exploiting pre-trained knowledge. This motivates us to check the hypothesis that prompt-tuning is also a promising choice for long-tailed classification, since the tail classes are intuitively few-shot ones. To achieve this aim, we conduct empirical studies to examine the hypothesis. The results demonstrate that prompt-tuning makes pretrained language models at least good long-tailed learners. For intuitions on why prompt-tuning can achieve good performance in long-tailed classification, we carry out in-depth analyses by progressively bridging the gap between prompt-tuning and commonly used finetuning. The summary is that the classifier structure and parameterization form the key to making good long-tailed learners, in comparison with the less important input structure. Finally, we verify the applicability of our finding to few-shot classification.
AutoLC: Search Lightweight and Top-Performing Architecture for Remote Sensing Image Land-Cover Classification

Land-cover classification has long been a hot and difficult challenge in remote sensing community. With massive High-resolution Remote Sensing (HRS) images available, manually and automatically designed Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) have already shown their great latent capacity on HRS land-cover classification in recent years. Especially, the former can achieve better performance while the latter is able to generate lightweight architecture. Unfortunately, they both have shortcomings. On the one hand, because manual CNNs are almost proposed for natural image processing, it becomes very redundant and inefficient to process HRS images. On the other hand, nascent Neural Architecture Search (NAS) techniques for dense prediction tasks are mainly based on encoder-decoder architecture, and just focus on the automatic design of the encoder, which makes it still difficult to recover the refined mapping when confronting complicated HRS scenes.To overcome their defects and tackle the HRS land-cover classification problems better, we propose AutoLC which combines the advantages of two methods. First, we devise a hierarchical search space and gain the lightweight encoder underlying gradient-based search strategy. Second, we meticulously design a lightweight but top-performing decoder that is adaptive to the searched encoder of itself. Finally, experimental results on the LoveDA land-cover dataset demonstrate that our AutoLC method outperforms the state-of-art manual and automatic methods with much less computational consumption.