Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Autoimmune Hepatitis: Single-center Experience of Clinical Presentation, Response to Treatment and Prognosis in Saudi Arabia

Background /Aim: Autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) is a common cause of end-stage liver disease worldwide. It is a disease prevalent in children and adults, with female predominance and variable clinical presentations. AIH has favorable responses to steroids and immunomodulators. Diagnosis of AIH is based on clinical and laboratory criteria, as suggested by the International Autoimmune Hepatitis Group. Data on the disease pattern of AIH from the Middle East countries is scarce. Materials and Methods: In this retrospective analysis, we studied clinical and laboratory features, immunological data, radiological findings, liver biopsy findings and response to therapy in patients with AIH from the hepatology clinics of King Abdul Aziz, University Hospital, Jeddah, from 1994 to 2008. Results: We diagnosed 41 patients with AIH, and 33 were included in the analysis. The mean age was 32.3 years, with female predominance of 75.7%. De-compensated cirrhosis at presentation was found in 45.5% of the patients. Acute hepatitis was associated with significantly higher levels of the serum ALT and bilirubin (P=0.001 and P=0.03, respectively). All our patients had type 1 AIH. Treatment with prednisolone and azathioprine resulted in complete or partial remission in majority of the patients (54.8%). However, patients with advanced disease showed a poorer response to treatment (P=0.016). Six patients with poor compliance had relapse of AIH. Two patients had a flare of the disease during pregnancy, and they responded well with prednisolone. The longest follow-up was 14 years and the shortest was 2 months. Four patients died from liver disease. Conclusion: AIH patients in Saudi Arabia are likely to present with advanced disease at a young age and would have a poorer response to therapy as compared with patients in other countries worldwide.
Runs versus Lemons: Information Disclosure, Fiscal Capacity and Financial Stability

We study how information disclosure and fiscal backstops affect financial stability in an economy that is subject to runs and adverse selection. When choosing how much information to disclose, the planner faces a trade-off between mitigating adverse selection and causing inefficient bank runs. The planner can also intervene directly to stop bank runs and unfreeze credit markets, but these intervention are costly. The optimal policy mix depends on the fiscal capacity available to the planner. Fiscal capacity provides insurance against bank runs and makes the planner more willing to disclose information. Conversely, when fiscal capacity is low, the planner is more likely to hide information and use bailouts to deal with unfreeze credit markets. JEL: E5, E6, G1, G2. New York University; Stern School of Business, New York University, NBER and CEPR.
Reducing trihalomethane concentrations by using chloramines as a disinfectant

ii Acknowledgements. iv List of Figures . vii List of Tables . viii 1.0 Introduction. 1 2.0 Literature Review. 4 2.1 Types of Disinfectants . 5 2.1. 1 Chlorine Disinfection. 5 2.1. 2 Chloramine Disinfection. 6 2.1. 3 Chlorine Dioxide Disinfection. 8 2.1. 4 Ozone Disinfection . 8 2.1. 5 Ultraviolet Disinfection . 10 2.2 Disinfection By-products . 10 2.2.1 History of Disinfection By-products. 11 2.2.2 Trihalomethanes. 12 2.2.3 Haloacetic Acids . 13 2.2.4 Other Disinfection By-products. 14 2.3 Factors Affecting the Formation of DBPs . 15 2.3.1 Type of Disinfectant . 15 2.3.2 Disinfectant Concentration . 16 2.3.3 Residence Time. 16 2.3.4 Temperature . 17 2.3. 5 pH. 18 2.3. 6 Total Organic Carbon Concentrations . 19 2.3. 7 Bromide Concentrations . 20 2.4 Health Risks . 21 2.4. 1 Animal Studies. 21 2.4. 2 Human Studies . 22 2.5 Regulations . 24 2.5. 1 Stage I D/DBP Rule . 25 2.5. 2 Stage II D/DBP Rule. 27 2.5. 3 Other Regulations . 29 2.6 Disinfection By-product Control . 31 2.6. 1 Removal of DBPs Precursor Material. 32 2.6. 2 Altering Disinfection Conditions. 32 2.6. 3 Removal of DBPs After Formation . 34 2.6. 3.1 Oxidation. 34 2.6. 3.2 Aeration. 35 2.6. 3.3 Granular Activated Carbon Adsorption. 36 2.6. 3.4 Advantages and Disadvantages of Trihalomethane Removal . 37 2.7 Worcester Water Filtration Plant . 37 2.7. 1 Disinfection By-products in Worcester . 40 3.0 Methodology. 41 3.1 Experimental Plan. 41
Development of ferromagnetism in the doped topological insulator<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mrow><mml:msub><mml:mrow><mml:mtext>Bi</mml:mtext></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mn>2</mml:mn><mml:mo>−</mml:mo><mml:mi>x</mml:mi></mml:mrow></mml:msub><mml:msub>

The development of ferromagnetism in Mn-doped Bi_2Te_3 is characterized through measurements on a series of single crystals with different Mn content. Scanning tunneling microscopy analysis shows that the Mn substitutes on the Bi sites, forming compounds of the type Bi_(2−x)Mn_xTe_3, and that the Mn substitutions are randomly distributed, not clustered. Mn doping first gives rise to local magnetic moments with Curie-like behavior, but by the compositions Bi_(1.96)Mn_(0.04)Te_3 and Bi_(1.91)Mn_(0.09)Te_3, a second-order ferromagnetic transition is observed, with T_C∼9–12 K. The easy axis of magnetization in the ferromagnetic phase is perpendicular to the Bi2Te3 basal plane. Thermoelectric power and Hall effect measurements show that the Mn-doped Bi_2Te_3 crystals are p-type. Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy measurements show that the topological surface states that are present in pristine Bi_2Te_3 are also present at 15 K in ferromagnetic Mn-doped Bi2−xMnxTe3 and that the dispersion relations of the surface states are changed in a subtle fashion.
Asymmetric hamming embedding: taking the best of our bits for large scale image search

This paper proposes an asymmetric Hamming Embedding scheme for large scale image search based on local descriptors. The comparison of two descriptors relies on an vector-to-binary code comparison, which limits the quantization error associated with the query compared with the original Hamming Embedding method. The approach is used in combination with an inverted file structure that offers high efficiency, comparable to that of a regular bag-of-features retrieval system. The comparison is performed on two popular datasets. Our method consistently improves the search quality over the symmetric version. The trade-off between memory usage and precision is evaluated, showing that the method is especially useful for short binary signatures.
Differential inhibitory effects of several pyrimidine 2',3'-dideoxynucleoside 5'-triphosphates on the activities of reverse transcriptase and various cellular DNA polymerases.

Several analogues of 2',3'-dideoxythymidine 5'-triphosphate [i.e., 3'-azido-2', 3'-dideoxythymidine 5'-triphosphate(Azdd TTP), 2',3'-didehydro-2',3'-dideoxythymidine 5'-triphosphate (ddeTTP), alpha, beta-methylene 3'-azido-2',3'-dideoxythymidine 5'-diphosphate, alpha, beta-methylene 3'-azido-2',3'-dideoxythymidine 5'-triphosphate, and beta, gamma-methylene 3'-azido-2',3'-dideoxythymidine 5'-triphosphate] and 2',3'-didehydro-2',3'-dideoxycytidine 5'-triphosphate (ddeCTP) have been evaluated for their inhibitory effects on murine retroviral reverse transcriptase and various other DNA polymerases, including DNA polymerases alpha, beta, and gamma, terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase, and DNA polymerase I. None of the compounds inhibited the activity of DNA polymerase alpha under the reaction conditions employed. When Mg2+ was replaced by Mn2+, however, DNA polymerase alpha was strongly inhibited only by ddeTTP. DNA polymerase beta activity was inhibited only by ddeTTP and ddeCTP. All the compounds, except for ddeCTP, inhibited DNA polymerase gamma activity, ddeTTP being a particularly strong inhibitor of gamma-polymerase (Ki = 3.5 nM). Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase was only slightly inhibited by any of the compounds. AzddTTP was a potent inhibitor of reverse transcriptase (Ki = 42 nM), but it also inhibited the activities of DNA polymerase gamma and DNA polymerase I.
Ulceration and delayed healing following pressure loading in hyperglycemic rats with an immature dermal collagen fiber network ﻿.

UNLABELLED ﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿ ﻿The collagen fiber network plays a key role regarding mechanical properties that maintain tissue shape, absorb stress, and recover from tissue deformation. The purpose of this study was to reveal the effects of hyperglycemia on the process of ulceration and wound healing, and on the structure of dermal collagen network. METHODS A spontaneous type 2 diabetic, non-obese rat without hyperlipidemia (GK rat) was used. On the right abdominal flank region, 8 kg/3 cm2 of pressure was loaded, and then the morphological change in wound area was macroscopically observed. The tissue of wounded area and healthy area on opposite side of the abdomen was collected and histologically analyzed on days 3, 5, 7, and 14 after wounding. RESULTS The hyperglycemic animals showed severer ulceration and delayed wound healing after pressure loading compared to control rats. The diabetic rat had an immature collagen fiber network with poor cross-linkage in the dermis. In the wounded area, collagen fibrils were packed more densely and reconstruction of the fiber network was delayed. CONCLUSION These results suggest that the disrupted structure of the collagen network lowers the tolerance of diabetic skin to external pressure loading, and that this delayed reconstruction increases time to healing.
Quinoline sorption to subsurface materials: role of pH and retention of the organic cation.

The sorption of quinoline (pK/sub a/ = 4.94) was investigated on low-organic-carbon subsurface materials that varied in pH. Sorption isotherms were measured from 10/sup -7/ to 10/sup -4/ M quinoline and were found to be nonlinear. The resulting Freundlich constant (K/sub F/), based on total aqueous quinoline concentration, were poorly correlated with subsoil properties, including organic carbon. Higher sorption in the acidic subsoils and favorable coefficients for regression of K/sub F/, normalized to cation-exchange capacity vs. the ionization fraction (Q), point to the importance of ion exchange of the protonated compound. When the subsoil pH is adjusted, it is shown that sorption parallels the ionization fraction and retention of the organic cation far exceeds that of the neutral species. Calculations of surface speciation and thermodynamic parameters of sorption (.delta.H/sup 0/, .delta.S/sup 0/) point to ion exchange and/or surface protonation at pH, levels exceeding pK/sub a/ by greater than 2 log units. It is suggested that in subsurface materials of low carbon content, quinoline sorption is controlled by pH the nature and capacity of the exchange complex, and groundwater ion composition. 46 references, 5 figures, 4 tables.
COSMOLOGICAL CONSTRAINTS FROM THE SLOAN DIGITAL SKY SURVEY MaxBCG CLUSTER CATALOG

We use the abundance and weak-lensing mass measurements of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey maxBCG cluster catalog to simultaneously constrain cosmology and the richness–mass relation of the clusters. Assuming a flat ΛCDM cosmology, we find σ8(Ωm/0.25)0.41 = 0.832 ± 0.033 after marginalization over all systematics. In common with previous studies, our error budget is dominated by systematic uncertainties, the primary two being the absolute mass scale of the weak-lensing masses of the maxBCG clusters, and uncertainty in the scatter of the richness–mass relation. Our constraints are fully consistent with the WMAP five-year data, and in a joint analysis we find σ8 = 0.807 ± 0.020 and Ωm = 0.265 ± 0.016, an improvement of nearly a factor of 2 relative to WMAP5 alone. Our results are also in excellent agreement with and comparable in precision to the latest cosmological constraints from X-ray cluster abundances. The remarkable consistency among these results demonstrates that cluster abundance constraints are not only tight but also robust, and highlight the power of optically selected cluster samples to produce precision constraints on cosmological parameters.
48 Trends in stage-specific breast cancer incidence in new south wales, australia: insights from 25 years of screening mammography

Objectives Screening mammography aims to improve breast cancer (BC) prognosis by increasing the incidence of early-stage tumours in order to decrease the incidence of late-stage cancer, but no reports have investigated these potential effects in an Australian population. Therefore, we aim to describe temporal trends in the incidence of stage-specific breast cancer in New South Wales, Australia, between 1972 and 2012. Method An observational study of all women who received a diagnosis of BC from 1972–2012 as recorded in the NSW Cancer Registry, a population-based registry with almost complete coverage and high rates of histological verification. We analysed trends in stage-specific incidence before screening and compared them to periods after screening began. Our primary group of interest was women in the target age range of 50–69 years, though trends in women outside the target age were also assessed. Results Screening was not associated with lower incidence of late-stage BC at diagnosis. Incidence for all stages remained higher than prescreening levels. In women aged 50–69 years, the incidence of carcinoma in situ (CIS), localised and regional BC has more than doubled compared to the prescreening era, with incidence rate ratios ranging from 2.0 for regional (95% CI 1.95 to 2.13) to 121.8 for CIS (95% CI 82.58 to 179.72). Before the introduction of screening there was a downward trend in distant metastatic BC incidence, and after the introduction of screening there was an increase (IRR 1.8; 95% CI 1.62 to 2.00). In women too young to screen the incidence of late-stage BC at diagnosis also increased, whereas localised disease was stable. Conclusions The incidence of all stages of BC has increased over the past forty years, with the greatest rise seen during the established screening period for women aged 50–69 years. Our findings suggest that some of the expected benefits of screening may not have been realised and are consistent with overdiagnosis.
Reconstruction of Soft‐tissue Injury Associated With Lower Extremity Fracture

&NA; Soft‐tissue loss associated with lower extremity fracture poses a substantial reconstructive challenge. Following stabilization of life‐threatening conditions and bony disruptions, the reconstructive team must address the soft‐tissue envelope of the limb. The wound is managed with débridement followed by coverage. Coverage options range from basic to complex and include delayed primary closure, healing by secondary intention, skin grafting, local flap coverage, and distant tissue transfer. The choice of soft‐tissue coverage method is based on its ability to provide an environment conducive to fracture healing. Understanding the merits and disadvantages of each reconstructive option helps to avoid undertreatment or overtreatment.
Oscillation Criteria for Nonlinear Second-order Damped Delay Dynamic Equations on Time Scales

The paper present some oscillation criteria for the nonlinear second-order damped delay dynamic equation ‡ r(t)jx ¢ (t)j fli1 x ¢ (t) ·¢ + p(t)jx ¢ ae (t)j fli1 x ¢ ae (t) + q(t)f(x(? (t))) = 0 on an arbitrary time scaleT, where fl > 0 is a constant, supT = 1, ae(t) := inffs 2 T : s > tg is the forward jump operator on T, and x ¢ ae := x ¢ ‐ ae. Our results improve and extend some known results in which fl > 0 is a quotient of odd positive integers. Examples are given to illustrate our main results.
The Protein Kinase A Pathway Contributes to Hg2+-Induced Alterations in Phosphorylation and Subcellular Distribution of Occludin Associated with Increased Tight Junction Permeability of Salivary Epithelial Cell Monolayers

Hg2+ is commonly used as an inhibitor of many aquaporins during measurements of transcellular water transport. To investigate whether it could also act on the paracellular water transport pathway, we asked whether addition of Hg2+ affected transport of radiolabeled probes through tight junctions of a salivary epithelial cell monolayer. Inclusion of 1 mM Hg2+ decreased transepithelial electrical resistance by 8-fold and augmented mannitol and raffinose flux by 13-fold, which translated into an estimated 44% increase in pore radius at the tight junction. These Hg2+-induced effects could be partially blocked by the protein kinase A (PKA) inhibitor N-[2-((p-bromocinnamyl) amino) ethyl]-5-isoquinolinesulfonamide, 2HCl (H89), suggesting that both-PKA dependent and PKA-independent mechanisms contribute to tight junction regulation. Western blot analyses showed a 2-fold decrease in tight junction-associated occludin after Hg2+ treatment and the presence of a novel hyperphosphorylated form of occludin in the cytoplasmic fraction. These findings were corroborated by confocal imaging. The results from this study reveal a novel contribution of the PKA pathway in Hg2+-induced regulation of tight junction permeability in the salivary epithelial barrier. Therapeutically, this could be explored for pharmacological intervention in the treatment of dry mouth, Sjögren's syndrome, and possibly other disorders of fluid transport.
Video Content Delivery Using Multiple Devices to Single Device Communications

Content caching between multiple devices to single device (MD2SD) using device to device (D2D) link is studied in this paper. A general outage probability for video content delivery using the popularity and storage size of the user equipment (UE) is derived. This outage probability is modelled as a function of popularity of video, storage size, and signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR). Our main contribution is a closed form expression and a tractable approximation. The simulation results show that as the popularity of the video increases, the outage probability of the system decreases. It is also analysed that increasing the storage space on the UE decreases the outage probability of the system.
High glucose induces adipogenic differentiation of muscle-derived stem cells

Regeneration of mesenchymal tissues depends on a resident stem cell population, that in most cases remains elusive in terms of cellular identity and differentiation signals. We here show that primary cell cultures derived from adipose tissue or skeletal muscle differentiate into adipocytes when cultured in high glucose. High glucose induces ROS production and PKCβ activation. These two events appear crucial steps in this differentiation process that can be directly induced by oxidizing agents and inhibited by PKCβ siRNA silencing. The differentiated adipocytes, when implanted in vivo, form viable and vascularized adipose tissue. Overall, the data highlight a previously uncharacterized differentiation route triggered by high glucose that drives not only resident stem cells of the adipose tissue but also uncommitted precursors present in muscle cells to form adipose depots. This process may represent a feed-forward cycle between the regional increase in adiposity and insulin resistance that plays a key role in the pathogenesis of diabetes mellitus.
Applying Neural Networks to English-Chinese Named Entity Transliteration

This paper presents the machine transliteration systems that we employ for our participation in the NEWS 2016 machine transliteration shared task. Based on the prevalent deep learning models developed for general sequence processing tasks, we use convolutional neural networks to extract character level information from the transliteration units and stack a simple recurrent neural network on top for sequence processing. The systems are applied to the standard runs for both English to Chinese and Chinese to English transliteration tasks. Our systems achieve competitive results according to the official evaluation.
NUTRITIONAL CONTROL OF MORPHOGENESIS IN ARTHROBACTER CRYSTALLOPOIETES

Ensign, Jerald C. (University of Illinois, Urbana), and R. S. Wolfe. Nutritional control of morphogenesis in Arthrobacter crystallopoietes. J. Bacteriol. 87:924–932. 1964. —Arthrobacter crystallopoietes exhibits the cyclic, morphological variation which is a characteristic of this genus. A simple chemically defined medium was developed in which this organism is restricted to growth and division entirely in the coccoid form. Addition singly to this medium of l-arginine, l-phenylalanine, l-asparagine, l-lysine, succinate, malate, fumarate, lactate, or butyrate results in the formation of the rod-shaped stage. A large number of other compounds either increase, have no effect on, or inhibit growth without inducing morphological change in the organisms.
Human endometrial stem cells confer enhanced myocardial salvage and regeneration by paracrine mechanisms

Human endometrial stem cells (EnSCs) have the potential to be ‘off the shelf’ clinical reagents for the treatment of heart failure. Here, using an immunocompetent rat model of myocardial infarction (MI), we provide evidence that the functional benefits of EnSC transplantation are principally and possibly exclusively through a paracrine effect. Human EnSCs were delivered by intramyocardial injection into rats 30 min. after coronary ligation. EnSC therapy significantly preserved viable myocardium in the infarct zone and improved cardiac function at 28 days. Despite increased viable myocardium and vascular density, there was scant evidence of differentiation of EnSCs into any cardiovascular cell type. Cultured human EnSCs expressed a distinctive profile of cytokines that enhanced the survival, proliferation and function of endothelial cells in vitro. When injected into the peri‐infarct zone, human EnSCs activated AKT, ERK1/2 and STAT3 and inhibited the p38 signalling pathway. EnSC therapy decreased apoptosis and promoted cell proliferation and c‐kit+ cell recruitment in vivo. Myocardial protection and enhanced post‐infarction regeneration by EnSCs is mediated primarily by paracrine effects conferred by secreted cytokines that activate survival pathways and recruit endogenous progenitor stem cells. Menstrual blood provides a potentially limitless source of biologically competent ‘off the shelf’ EnSCs for allogeneic myocardial regenerative medicine.
Effect of the no-flow interval and hypothermia on cerebral blood flow and metabolism during cardiopulmonary resuscitation in dogs.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE We sought (1) to determine the effect of brief periods of no flow on the subsequent forebrain blood flow during cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and (2) to test the hypothesis that hypothermia prevents the impact of the no-flow duration on cerebral blood flow (CBF) during CPR. METHODS No-flow intervals of 1.5, 3, and 6 minutes before CPR at brain temperatures of 28 degreesC and 38 degreesC were compared in 6 groups of anesthetized dogs. Microsphere-determined CBF and metabolism were measured before and during vest CPR adjusted to maintain cerebral perfusion pressure at 25 mm Hg. RESULTS Increasing the no-flow interval from 1.5 to 6 minutes at 38 degreesC decreased the CBF (18. 6+/-3.6 to 6.1+/-1.7 mL/100 g per minute) and the cerebral metabolic rate (2.1+/-0.3 to 0.7+/-0.2 mL/100 g per minute) during CPR. Cooling to 28 degreesC before and during the arrest eliminated the detrimental effects of increasing the no-flow interval on CBF (16. 8+/-1.0 to 14.8+/-1.9 mL/100 g per minute) and cerebral metabolic rate (1.1+/-0.1 to 1.3+/-0.1 mL/100 g per minute). Unlike the forebrain, 6 minutes of preceding cardiac arrest did not affect brain stem blood flow during CPR. CONCLUSIONS Increasing the no-flow interval to 6 minutes in normothermic animals decreases the supratentorial blood flow and cerebral metabolic rate during CPR at a cerebral perfusion pressure of 25 mm Hg. Cooling to 28 degreesC eliminates the detrimental impact of the 6-minute no-flow interval on the reflow produced during CPR. The brain-protective effects of hypothermia include improving reflow during CPR after cardiac arrest. The effect of hypothermia and the impact of short durations of no flow on reperfusion indicate that increasing viscosity and reflex vasoconstriction are unlikely causes of the "no-reflow" phenomenon.