LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Tumour necrosis factor-alpha infusion produced insulin resistance but no change in the incretin effect in healthy volunteers.

BACKGROUND
Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is associated with peripheral insulin resistance, impaired incretin effect, and increased plasma levels of tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α). Although TNF-α infusion at a dose that induces systemic inflammation in healthy volunteers has been demonstrated to induce peripheral insulin resistance, the influence of this cytokine on the incretin effect is unknown.


METHODS
We investigated whether systemic inflammation induced by TNF-α infusion in healthy volunteers alters the incretin hormone response to oral and intravenous glucose loads in a crossover study design with ten healthy male volunteers (mean age 24 years, mean body mass index 23.7 kg/m(2) ). The study consisted of four study days: days 1 and 2, 6-h infusion of saline; days 3 and 4, 6-h infusion of TNF-α; days 1 and 3, 4-h oral glucose tolerance test; and days 2 and 4, 4-h corresponding intravenous isoglycaemic glucose tolerance test. Glucose tolerance tests were initiated after 2 h of saline/TNF-α infusion. Plasma concentrations of TNF-α, interleukin 6, glucose, incretin hormones, and cortisol, and serum concentrations of C-peptide and insulin were measured throughout the study days. Insulin sensitivity was estimated by the Matsuda index and homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR). Prehepatic insulin secretion rates were calculated.


RESULTS
TNF-α infusion induced symptoms of systemic inflammation; increased plasma levels of cortisol, TNF-α, and interleukin 6; and increased the HOMA-IR. The secretion of incretin hormones as well as the incretin effect remained unchanged.


CONCLUSION
In healthy young male volunteers, acute systemic inflammation induced by infusion of TNF-α is associated with insulin resistance with no change in the incretin effect.
Area-time efficient hardware architecture for factoring integers with the elliptic curve method

Since the introduction of public key cryptography, the problem of factoring large composites is of increased interest. The security of the most popular asymmetric cryptographic scheme RSA depends on the hardness of factoring large numbers. The best known method for factoring large integers is the General Number Field Sieve (GNFS). One important step within the GNFS is the factorization of mid-size numbers for smoothness testing, an efficient algorithm for which is the Elliptic Curve Method (ECM). Since the smoothness testing is also suitable for parallelization, it is promising to improve ECM via special-purpose hardware. We show that massive parallel and cost efficient ECM hardware engines can improve the cost-time product of the RSA moduli factorization via the GNFS considerably.
Combinatorial aspects of C.A.R. Hoare's FIND algorithm

D.H. Anderson l Operations Research Section, Civil Aviation Authority, Australia, GPO Box 367, Canberra, ACT, 2601 and R. Brown CRA Y Research (Australia) Pty. Ltd. 283 Normanby Rd. Port Melbourne, Vic, 3207 In his invited address to the 1971 IFIP Congress, Donald E: Knuth [1] examined the average performance of C.A.R. Hoare's FIND algorithm [2] for finding the j-th largest out of n elements. Knuth commented that the recurrence relation that he derived was "not the kind of recurrence that we would normally expect to solve". Nevertheless, he went on to solve it, commenting on the "extra.ordinary coincidence" of a certain co:~nmon factor in each of the terms of a derived recurence relation. An extension due to R.C. Singleton [3} to the basic algorithm, knov.;n as "median-of-three selection", has seen widespread use in many important computational techniques applied to a. diverse set of problems. Because of the renewed interest in median-of-three selection, this paper addresses itself to a serious study of its average performance. In this paper the median-of-three selection problem is formulated in combinatorial terms and solved by generating function techniques. Closed form expressions are presented for the average of the underlying distribution. research was undertaken while this author was employed in the Computer Science Department, University College, University of New South 'Vales, Australian Defence Force Academy, Canberra, ACT, 2600. Australasian Journal of Combinatorics ~(1992), pp.l09-119
Efficient Algorithms for Finding Maximum Matching in Graphs

This paper surveys the techniques used for designing the most efficient algorithms for finding a maximum cardinality or weighted matching in (general or bipartite) graphs. It also lists some open problems concerning possible improvements in existing algorithms and the existence of fast parallel algorithms for these problems.
Understanding Urban Hydrology and Stormwater

This lecture was presented as part of CP 6241 - Water Resources Planning on September 24, 2015 in the School of Architecture room 107.
Salvage radical prostatectomy for radiation-recurrent prostate cancer: a multi-institutional collaboration.

BACKGROUND
Oncologic outcomes in men with radiation-recurrent prostate cancer (PCa) treated with salvage radical prostatectomy (SRP) are poorly defined.


OBJECTIVE
To identify predictors of biochemical recurrence (BCR), metastasis, and death following SRP to help select patients who may benefit from SRP.


DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS
This is a retrospective, international, multi-institutional cohort analysis. There was a median follow-up of 4.4 yr following SRP performed on 404 men with radiation-recurrent PCa from 1985 to 2009 in tertiary centers.


INTERVENTION
Open SRP.


MEASUREMENTS
BCR after SRP was defined as a serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) ≥ 0.1 or ≥ 0.2 ng/ml (depending on the institution). Secondary end points included progression to metastasis and cancer-specific death.


RESULTS AND LIMITATIONS
Median age at SRP was 65 yr of age, and median pre-SRP PSA was 4.5 ng/ml. Following SRP, 195 patients experienced BCR, 64 developed metastases, and 40 died from PCa. At 10 yr after SRP, BCR-free survival, metastasis-free survival, and cancer-specific survival (CSS) probabilities were 37% (95% confidence interval [CI], 31-43), 77% (95% CI, 71-82), and 83% (95% CI, 76-88), respectively. On preoperative multivariable analysis, pre-SRP PSA and Gleason score at postradiation prostate biopsy predicted BCR (p = 0.022; global p < 0.001) and metastasis (p = 0.022; global p < 0.001). On postoperative multivariable analysis, pre-SRP PSA and pathologic Gleason score at SRP predicted BCR (p = 0.014; global p < 0.001) and metastasis (p < 0.001; global p < 0.001). Lymph node involvement (LNI) also predicted metastasis (p = 0.017). The main limitations of this study are its retrospective design and the follow-up period.


CONCLUSIONS
In a select group of patients who underwent SRP for radiation-recurrent PCa, freedom from clinical metastasis was observed in >75% of patients 10 yr after surgery. Patients with lower pre-SRP PSA levels and lower postradiation prostate biopsy Gleason score have the highest probability of cure from SRP.
Association of obesity with pulmonary and nonpulmonary complications of pregnancy in asthmatic women.

OBJECTIVE
To evaluate whether maternal obesity is associated with pulmonary and nonpulmonary pregnancy complications in asthmatic women.


METHODS
This is a secondary analysis of the prospective cohort Asthma During Pregnancy Study. Asthma patients were classified as having either mild or moderate to severe disease at the beginning of the study. Rates of pulmonary complications of asthma in asthmatic women and rates of nonpulmonary complications of pregnancy among asthma patients and controls, were compared between obese (body mass index > or = 30 kg/m2) and nonobese women.


RESULTS
Maternal body mass index and pregnancy outcome data were available for 1,699 of 1,812 asthmatic women and for 867 of 881 controls. Of the asthma subjects, 30.7% (521) were obese compared with 25.5% of the controls, P = .006. Obese women, regardless of whether they had asthma, were more likely to undergo cesarean delivery (OR 1.6, 95% confidence interval [CI]1.3-2.0) to develop preeclampsia or gestational hypertension (OR 1.7 95% CI 1.3-2.3) and gestational diabetes (OR 4.2, 95% CI 2.8-6.3). There were no differences in the rates of overall asthma improvement (20.6% compared with 23.6%, P = .36) or deterioration (33.3% compared with 28.8%, P = .20) between obese and nonobese asthma patients. After adjustment for confounding variables, obesity, not asthma, was associated with nonpulmonary complications of pregnancy, and obesity was associated with an increase in asthma exacerbations as well (OR 1.3, 95% CI 1.1-1.7).


CONCLUSION
Obesity is associated with an increased risk of asthma exacerbations during pregnancy. The increased rate of nonpulmonary complications of pregnancy in asthma patients is associated with obesity in this population and not with asthma status.


LEVEL OF EVIDENCE
II-1.
Factors associated with the appearance of gingival papillae.

AIM
The purpose of this study was to evaluate factors associated with the fill of inter-dental spaces by gingival papillae.


MATERIALS AND METHODS
Ninety-six adult subjects were evaluated. Papilla score (PS), tooth form/shape, interproximal contact length and gingival thickness were recorded for 672 maxillary anterior and first pre-molar interproximal sites. Statistical analyses included a non-parametric chi(2) test, anova, the Mixed Procedure for SAS and Pearson's correlation coefficient (r).


RESULTS
Papilla deficiency was more frequent in older subjects (p<0.05), as papilla height decreased 0.012 mm with each year of increasing age (p<0.05). Competent papillae (complete fill inter-dentally) were associated with: (1) crown width: length >or=0.87; (2) proximal contact length >or=2.8 mm; (3) bone crest-contact point <or=5 mm; and (4) interproximal gingival tissue thickness >or=1.5 mm. Gingival thickness correlated negatively with PS (r=-0.37 to -0.54) and positively with tissue height (r=0.23-0.43). Tooth form (i.e. crown width to length ratio) correlated negatively with PS (r=-0.37 to -0.61). Other parameters failed to show any significant effects.


CONCLUSIONS
Gingival papilla appearance was associated significantly with subject age, tooth form/shape, proximal contact length, crestal bone height and interproximal gingival thickness.
Creativity in the Making : Vygotsky ’ s Contemporary Contribution to the Dialectic of Creativity & Development By

Vygotsky was a Russian Jew who worked as a literary critic and schoolteacher before turning to psychology. A brief overview of his life and work is included in the Encyclopedia of Creativity (Gajdamaschko, 1999) and in the first volume of his collected works (1987). Because of Vygotsky's early death at age 38 of tuberculosis, the stifling of his work in the Soviet Union under Stalin, and the cold war between the West and the USSR, Vygotsky's work was little known until the Cognitive Revolution got underway in the second half of the 20 th century. Since the 1960s and 1970s, when Thought and Language, followed by Mind in Society, were published in English, Lev Semenovich Vygotsky has been portrayed as a counterpoint to Jean Piaget in developmental psychology and education departments and journals. Whereas Piaget said that maturational development precedes learning and a child independently constructs his or her knowledge of the world, Vygotsky theorized that learning jumpstarted mental development and knowledge construction was a social, cooperative venture. Because of his notion of the zone of proximal development, through which a less capable person learns with the aid of a more capable person, and his extensive work on the role of language in mediating relationships, Vygotsky's strongest influence has been in teacher training and linguistics. Less familiar is Vygotsky's work on the development and use of creativity, a topic Piaget barely touched upon (Gardner, 1994). Vygotsky gave two papers and a lecture focusing directly on the development of creative ability: that creative imagination is a goal-directed, culturally mediated psychological system that emerges from the internalization of children's play and the functional interweaving of fantasy and thinking in concepts. But Vygotsky's work on creativity does not end there. His career in psychology actually begins with a study of the aesthetic reaction to literary arts, The Psychology of Art, which was accepted as his dissertation in 1922 but was not published in his lifetime. Furthermore, a short paper a couple years before he died, On the Problem of the Psychology of the Actor's Creative Work, written in 1932 but also not published until after his death, revisited issues
Google Web 1T 5-Grams Made Easy (but not for the computer)

This paper introduces Web1T5-Easy, a simple indexing solution that allows interactive searches of the Web 1T 5-gram database and a derived database of quasi-collocations. The latter is validated against co-occurrence data from the BNC and ukWaC on the automatic identification of non-compositional VPC.
Experimental Approach and Evaluation on Dynamic Reliability of PBGA Assembly

The aim of this paper is to provide a systematic method to perform experimental test and theoretical evaluation on fatigue characteristics of plastic-ball-grid-array (PBGA) assembly under random vibration. A specified PBGA assembly which contains different structural and material parameters was manufactured. The fatigue characteristics of PBGA assembly under random vibration were tested. Manson-Coffin empirically derived formula and rain-flow algorithm were used to achieve the fatigue life of solder joints. In the meantime, the failure curve (reliability-cycle number curve) can be obtained by using Weibull distribution method when PBGA assembly is on different working situation. Finally, life prediction of corner solder balls was deduced based on three-band technology and cumulative damage index. Test results lay a basis for high-reliability design of PBGA assembly for engineering application.
Estimation Stability with Cross Validation (ESCV)

Cross-validation (CV) is often used to select the regularization parameter in high dimensional problems. However, when applied to the sparse modeling method Lasso, CV leads to models that are unstable in high-dimensions, and consequently not suited for reliable interpretation. In this paper, we propose a model-free criterion ESCV based on a new estimation stability (ES) metric and CV . Our proposed ESCV finds a smaller and locally ES -optimal model smaller than the CV choice so that the it fits the data and also enjoys estimation stability property. We demonstrate that ESCV is an effective alternative to CV at a similar easily parallelizable computational cost. In particular, we compare the two approaches with respect to several performance measures when applied to the Lasso on both simulated and real data sets. For dependent predictors common in practice, our main finding is that, ESCV cuts down false positive rates often by a large margin, while sacrificing little of true positive rates. ESCV usually outperforms CV in terms of parameter estimation while giving similar performance as CV in terms of prediction. For the two real data sets from neuroscience and cell biology, the models found by ESCV are less than half of the model sizes by CV , but preserves CV’s predictive performance and corroborates with subject knowledge and independent work. We also discuss some regularization parameter alignment issues that come up in both approaches. Supplementary materials are available online.
The Prefrontal Cortex—An Update Time Is of the Essence

Review The Prefrontal Cortex—An Update: Time Is of the Essence many of the principles discussed below apply also to the PFC of nonprimate species. Anatomy and Connections The PFC is the association cortex of the frontal lobe. In Los Angeles, California 90095 primates, it comprises areas 8–13, 24, 32, 46, and 47 according to the cytoarchitectonic map of Brodmann The physiology of the cerebral cortex is organized in (1909), recently updated for the monkey by Petrides and hierarchical manner. At the bottom of the cortical organi-Pandya (Figure 1). Phylogenetically, it is one of the latest zation, sensory and motor areas support specific sen-cortices to develop, having attained maximum relative sory and motor functions. Progressively higher areas—of growth in the human brain (Brodmann, 1912; Jerison, later phylogenetic and ontogenetic development—support 1994), where it constitutes nearly one-third of the neocor-functions that are progressively more integrative. The tex. Furthermore, the PFC undergoes late development in prefrontal cortex (PFC) constitutes the highest level of the course of ontogeny. In the human, by myelogenic and the cortical hierarchy dedicated to the representation synaptogenic criteria, the PFC is clearly late-maturing and execution of actions. The PFC can be subdivided in three major regions: Huttenlocher and Dabholkar, 1997). In the monkey's orbital, medial, and lateral. The orbital and medial re-PFC, myelogenesis also seems to develop late (Gibson, gions are involved in emotional behavior. The lateral 1991). However, the assumption that the synaptic struc-region, which is maximally developed in the human, pro-ture of the PFC lags behind that of other neocortical vides the cognitive support to the temporal organization areas has been challenged with morphometric data of behavior, speech, and reasoning. This function of (Bourgeois et al., 1994). In any case, imaging studies temporal organization is served by several subordinate indicate that, in the human, prefrontal areas do not attain functions that are closely intertwined (e.g., temporal in-full maturity until adolescence (Chugani et al., 1987; tegration, working memory, set). Whatever areal special-Paus et al., 1999; Sowell et al., 1999). This conclusion ization can be discerned in the PFC is not so much is consistent with the behavioral evidence that these attributable to the topographical distribution of those areas are critical for those higher cognitive functions functions as to the nature of the cognitive information that develop late, such as propositional speech and with which they operate. Much of the prevalent confu-reasoning. sion in the PFC literature derives from …
Dentinal tubule disinfection with 2% chlorhexidine gel, propolis, morinda citrifolia juice, 2% povidone iodine, and calcium hydroxide.

AIM
To investigate the antimicrobial activity of 2% chlorhexidine gel, propolis, Morinda citrifolia juice (MCJ), 2% povidone Iodine (POV-I), and calcium hydroxide on Enterococcus faecalis-infected root canal dentine at two different depths (200 microm and 400 microm) and three time intervals (day 1, 3 & 5).


METHODOLOGY
One hundred and eighty extracted human teeth were infected for 21 days with E. faecalis. Samples were divided into six groups. Group I (Saline) (Negative control), Group II (Propolis), Group III (MCJ), Group IV (2% Povidone Iodine), Group V (2% Chlorhexidine Gel), Group VI (Calcium hydroxide). At the end of 1, 3, and 5 days, the remaining vital bacterial population was assessed. Dentine shavings were collected at two depths (200 microm and 400 microm), and total numbers of colony forming units were determined. The values were analysed statistically with one-way analysis of variance followed by Tukey multiple comparison test. The paired t-test was used to check for differences in growth at different time intervals within groups and for differences at the two depths (P < 0.01)


RESULTS
The number of colony-forming units was statistically significant in all groups compared to the control group (Saline). Group V (chlorhexidine gluconate) (100%) produced better antimicrobial efficacy followed by 2% POV-I (87%), propolis (71%), MCJ (69%), and calcium hydroxide (55%). There was no significant difference between propolis and MCJ and no significant difference between data at 200 microm and 400 microm.


CONCLUSION
Propolis and MCJ were effective against E. faecalis in dentine of extracted teeth.
Contaminated lead environments of man: reviewing the lead isotopic evidence in sediments, peat, and soils for the temporal and spatial patterns of atmospheric lead pollution in Sweden.

Clair Patterson and colleagues demonstrated already four decades ago that the lead cycle was greatly altered on a global scale by humans. Moreover, this change occurred long before the implementation of monitoring programs designed to study lead and other trace metals. Patterson and colleagues also developed stable lead isotope analyses as a tool to differentiate between natural and pollution-derived lead. Since then, stable isotope analyses of sediment, peat, herbaria collections, soils, and forest plants have given us new insights into lead biogeochemical cycling in space and time. Three important conclusions from our studies of lead in the Swedish environment conducted over the past 15 years, which are well supported by extensive results from elsewhere in Europe and in North America, are: (1) lead deposition rates at sites removed from major point sources during the twentieth century were about 1,000 times higher than natural background deposition rates a few thousand years ago (~10 mg Pb m(-2) year(-1) vs. 0.01 mg Pb m(-2) year(-1)), and even today (~1 mg Pb m(-2) year(-1)) are still almost 100 times greater than natural rates. This increase from natural background to maximum fluxes is similar to estimated changes in body burdens of lead from ancient times to the twentieth century. (2) Stable lead isotopes ((206)Pb/(207)Pb ratios shown in this paper) are an effective tool to distinguish anthropogenic lead from the natural lead present in sediments, peat, and soils for both the majority of sites receiving diffuse inputs from long range and regional sources and for sites in close proximity to point sources. In sediments >3,500 years and in the parent soil material of the C-horizon, (206)Pb/(207)Pb ratios are higher, 1.3 to >2.0, whereas pollution sources and surface soils and peat have lower ratios that have been in the range 1.14-1.18. (3) Using stable lead isotopes, we have estimated that in southern Sweden the cumulative anthropogenic burden of atmospherically deposited lead is ~2-5 g Pb m(-2) and ~1 g Pb m(-2) in the "pristine" north. Half of this cumulative total was deposited before industrialization. (4) In the vicinity of the Rönnskär smelter in northern Sweden, a major point source during the twentieth century, there is an isotopic pattern that deviates from the general trends elsewhere, reflecting the particular history of ore usage at Rönnskär, which further demonstrates the chronological record of lead loading recorded in peat and in soil mor horizons.