Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Resident and Fellow Section

INTRODUCTION Through the practice of peer review, biomedical journals operate a process of self-regulation to guard the integrity of scientific literature. This system is built upon trust: that authors have been honest, can attest to the veracity of their manuscript, and that reviewers have upheld their duty to vigorously assess the submission while being cognizant of any potential bias they may introduce during their evaluation. Publication ethics, unfortunately, seems to be an after thought receiving little attention compared with research conduct and patient practice ethics. The implications, however, are significant if readers can no longer have faith in what they read. Consequently, journals are gradually increasing their scrutiny and implementing efforts to force authors and reviewers alike to think about their actions, sometimes to the extent that these run counter to timeworn traditions. It is imperative that junior researchers become aware of these issues and become accustomed to good practice early in their career. To aid in that education process, two common scenarios that create early career conundrums, often exacerbated by erroneous advice from senior colleagues, are examined in this paper: The first on authorship, and the second on the topic of plagiarism. A case vignette is presented, background information on the issue is presented, and then questions for discussion are provided.
Comparison of heat-sensitive moxibustion versus fluticasone / salmeterol ( seretide ) combination in the treatment of chronic persistent asthma : design of a multicenter randomized controlled trial

Background: Asthma is a major health problem and has significant mortality around the world. Although the symptoms can be controlled by drug treatment in most patients, effective low-risk, non-drug strategies could constitute a significant advance in asthma management. An increasing number of patients with asthma are attracted by acupuncture and moxibustion. Therefore, it is of importance that scientific evidence about the efficacy of this type of therapy is regarded. Our past researches suggested heat-sensitive moxibustion might be effective in treatment of asthma. Our objective is to investigate the effectiveness of heat-sensitive moxibustion compared with conventional drug treatment. Methods/Design: This study is comprised of a multi-centre (12 centers in China), randomized, controlled trial with two parallel arms (A: heat-sensitive moxibustion; B: conventional drug). Group A selects heatsensitive acupoints from the rectangle region which consist of two outer lateral lines of dorsal Bladder Meridian of Foot-Taiyang, and two horizontal lines of BL13(Fei Shu) and BL17 (Ge Shu);6 inch outer the first and second rib gap of anterior chest. Group B treats with fluticasone/salmeterol (seretide). The outcome measures will be assessed over a 3-month period before each clinic visit at days 15, 30, 60, and 90. Follow-up visit will be at 3, 6 months after the last treatment session. Adverse event information will be collected at each clinic visit. Discussion: This trial will utilize high quality trial methodologies in accordance with CONSORT guidelines. It may provide evidence for the effectiveness of heat-sensitive moxibustion as a treatment for chronic moderate persistent asthma. Moreover, the result may propose a new type moxibustion to control asthma. Trial Registration: The trial is registered at Chinese Clinical Trials Registry: ChiCTR-TRC-09000599
Surgical stress index as a measure of nociception/antinociception balance during general anesthesia

Background: No validated monitoring method is available for evaluating the nociception/antinociception balance. We assessed the surgical stress index (SSI), computed from finger photoplethysmographic waveform amplitudes and pulse‐to‐pulse intervals, in patients undergoing shoulder surgery under general anesthesia (GA) and interscalene plexus block and in patients with GA only.
Degradable implants made of magnesium alloys

The article presents results of an interdisciplinary project focusing on the development of degradable magnesium-implants. Those implants do not need to be removed after the healing process and therefore provide a huge benefit for patients and the health care system. Different magnesium fracture-screw designs are investigated. Furthermore, the influence of the machining on the surface and subsurface layers of the specimen is analysed. In laboratory corrosion tests AZ91 samples show a strong local corrosion attack. A more homogenous corrosion attack is observed on Magnesium-Calcium-alloys, which suggests that this alloy is more suitable for degradable implants. However, the corrosion resistance of the investigated magnesium alloys still needs to be increased significantly. The implant geometry has to be adapted to the material loss during in vivo degradation. Degradable Implants Annually around 5.5 Mio. accidents occur in Germany causing bone fractures [1]. Approximately 10% of those fractures are too complex to be simply medicated externally and thus have to be fixated by surgical bone implants. Traditional methods of osteosynthesis or osteotomy use metal implants made of steel or titanium. Durable implants represent a foreign body, bearing the enduring risk of a local inflammation. Furthermore they permanently protect the healing bone against mechanical exposure. This effect called stress-shielding obstructs the stabilization of the bone tissue that needs mechanical loads to obtain and maintain its rigidity. To avoid those negative effects annually about 300.000 revision surgeries have to be performed, in which the implants are excised, causing the risk of a refracture and additional days of after-treatment. Expenses exceeding 500 Mio. € annually have to be incurred by the national health care system [2]. Degradable, biocompatible implants, which dissolve in the human organism represent an appropriate solution. Currently used absorbable materials are different poly-lactides. However, these materials have unsatisfactory mechanical properties as cortical-screws. Magnesium as an Implant Material Previous in vivo studies have shown that magnesium alloys may be suitable as degradable biomaterial for use in medical implants [3]. The mechanical properties of magnesium are superior to poly-lactides by far, but still inferior to surgical steel or titanium alloys. The characteristic values are dimensionally comparable to the cortical bone substance. That could even reduce the negative effects of stressshielding. Furthermore magnesium as an essential component of the human body is biocompatible. The base character of the element with an electrochemical
PROTEOMIC ANALYSIS OF VITREOUS BIOPSY TECHNIQUES

Purpose: To compare vitreous biopsy methods using analysis platforms used in proteomics biomarker discovery. Methods: Vitreous biopsies from 10 eyes were collected sequentially using a 23-gauge needle and a 23-gauge vitreous cutter instrument. Paired specimens were evaluated by UV absorbance spectroscopy, sodium dodecyl sulfate–polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, and liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Results: The total protein concentration obtained with a needle and vitrectomy instrument biopsy averaged 1.10 mg/mL (standard error of the mean = 0.35) and 1.13 mg/mL (standard error of the mean = 0.25), respectively. In eight eyes with low or medium viscidity, there was a very high correlation (R2 = 0.934) between the biopsy methods. When data from 2 eyes with high viscidity vitreous were included, the correlation was reduced (R2 = 0.704). The molecular weight protein sodium dodecyl sulfate–polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis profiles of paired needle and vitreous cutter samples were similar, except for a minority of pairs with single band intensity variance. Using LC-MS/MS, equivalent peptides were identified with similar frequencies (R2 ≥ 0.90) in paired samples. Conclusion: Proteins and peptides collected from vitreous needle biopsies are nearly equivalent to those obtained from a vitreous cutter instrument. This study suggests both techniques may be used for most proteomic and biomarker discovery studies of vitreoretinal diseases, although a minority of proteins and peptides may differ in concentration.
Design and Fabrication of a Bistable Unit Actuator With Multi-Material Additive Manufacturing

Bistable systems have two stable equilibrium states around which they can be perturbed. Bistability in a mechanical system requires large deformation, which is commonly accommodated by means of springs or soft joints. In this paper, the authors leverage the ability of advanced Additive Manufacturing (AM) technology that enables printing of materials of varying stiffness values to design and fabricate monolithic bistable unit actuators that maximize the stroke length. A Von Mises Truss (VMT) based bistable structure utilizing snap-through buckling behavior is designed and fabricated. By varying the material stiffness and length of the joints, the authors are able to adjust the activation forces while keeping the geometry constant. 56 specimens are fabricated and tested in tension and compression. Numerical simulation models are constructed and the results are found to correlate well with experimental data. The required activation force can be increased with a decrease in joint length or an increase in joint material stiffness.
Scalable Variational Inference for Extracting Hierarchical Phrase-based Translation Rules

We present a Variational-Bayes model for learning rules for the Hierarchical phrasebased model directly from the phrasal alignments. Our model is an alternative to heuristic rule extraction in hierarchical phrase-based translation (Chiang, 2007), which uniformly distributes the probability mass to the extracted rules locally. In contrast, in our approach the probability assigned to a rule is globally determined by its contribution towards all phrase pairs and results in a sparser rule set. We also propose a distributed framework for efficiently running inference for realistic MT corpora. Our experiments translating Korean, Arabic and Chinese into English demonstrate that they are able to exceed or retain the performance of baseline hierarchical phrase-based models.
Migraine prevalence, disease burden, and the need for preventive therapy

Objectives: 1) To reassess the prevalence of migraine in the United States; 2) to assess patterns of migraine treatment in the population; and 3) to contrast current patterns of preventive treatment use with recommendations for use from an expert headache panel. Methods: A validated self-administered headache questionnaire was mailed to 120,000 US households, representative of the US population. Migraineurs were identified according to the criteria of the second edition of the International Classification of Headache Disorders. Guidelines for preventive medication use were developed by a panel of headache experts. Criteria for consider or offer prevention were based on headache frequency and impairment. Results: We assessed 162,576 individuals aged 12 years or older. The 1-year period prevalence for migraine was 11.7% (17.1% in women and 5.6% in men). Prevalence peaked in middle life and was lower in adolescents and those older than age 60 years. Of all migraineurs, 31.3% had an attack frequency of three or more per month, and 53.7% reported severe impairment or the need for bed rest. In total, 25.7% met criteria for “offer prevention,” and in an additional 13.1%, prevention should be considered. Just 13.0% reported current use of daily preventive migraine medication. Conclusions: Compared with previous studies, the epidemiologic profile of migraine has remained stable in the United States during the past 15 years. More than one in four migraineurs are candidates for preventive therapy, and a substantial proportion of those who might benefit from prevention do not receive it.
Thermal Aging Behaviors of Weather Resistant Rubber Composites of EPDM, IIR, and BIIR

EPDM, IIR, and BIIR composites were thermally aged and the crosslink density changes were investigated. Crosslink densities of the EPDM composite increased with increasing the aging time and temperature, whereas those of IIR and BIIR composites for long-term aging at high temperatures tended to decrease. Activation energies for the crosslink density changes of the EPDM composite were higher than those of the BIIR one. The experimental results were explained with the number of allylic hydrogens, activation of the zinc complex, the steric hindrance effect, and oxidation of rubber chain.
A generalized surface-volume integral-equation (SVIE) approach for analysis of hybrid planar/NRD-guide integrated circuits

A generalized surface-volume integral-equation approach (SVIE) has been proposed and developed for accurate modeling and analysis of hybrid planar/nonradiating dielectric (NRD)-guide integrated circuits. On the basis of vertical modes in basis functions for NRD-guide circuits, vertical integration in space-domain is carried out analytically and a set of first-order Green's functions is constructed. Then, the solution of the volume integral-equation concerning with the NRD-guide circuits has been reduced to a two-dimensional planar problem in connection with each vertical mode. In this way, only the diagonal submatrices need to be calculated due to the orthogonal property of different vertical modes. A reduced calculation region technique is used for handling higher order vertical modes in which the fields are confined in the slot areas and their vicinities. The method was applied to a class of different hybrid structures. The results are in good agreement with measured results or the results obtained with other methods.
How large are projected 21st century storm track changes?

Projected changes in the extra‐tropical wintertime storm tracks are investigated using the multi‐model ensembles from both the third and fifth phases of the World Climate Research Programme's Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP3 and CMIP5). The aim is to characterize the magnitude of the storm track responses relative to their present‐day year‐to‐year variability. For the experiments considered, the ‘middle‐of‐the‐road’ scenarios in each CMIP, there are regions of the Northern Hemisphere where the responses of up to 40% of the models exceed half of the inter‐annual variability, and for the Southern Hemisphere there are regions where up to 60% of the model responses exceed half of the inter‐annual variability.
Large Artery Function in Patients With Chronic Heart Failure: Studies of Brachial Artery Diameter and Hemodynamics

BackgroundAlthough progressive chronic congestive heart failure (CHF) is associated with elevated systemic vascular resistance and increased impedance to ventricular outflow, the contribution of changes in large artery function has not been well documented in humans. Methods and ResultsWe studied 45 patients with a broad range of clinical severity ofCHF and compared noninvasive measurements of brachial artery diameter, flow, and pulse wave velocity with 22 normal controls of similar age. In CHF, mean arterial pressure was lower than in controls (85 ± 1 versus 93 ± 2 mm Hg, p < 0.001), as were brachial artery diameter (4.07 ± 0.10 versus 4.53 ± 0.09 mm, p < 0.00l), flow (40.9 ± 4.1 versus 70.9 ± 11.5 ml min'l, p < 0.02), compliance (1.29 % 0.12 versus 2.00 ± 0.18 cm4 · dyne−1 · 10−7, p < 0.002), and conductance (0.49 ± 0.05 versus 0.76 ± 0.13 units, p = 0.06). Limb vascular resistance (40.2 ± 5.0 versus 20.5 ± 3.1 units, O.OO1) and pulse wave velocity (10.6 ± 0.5 versus 9.2 % 0.4 m · sec−1, p < 0.03) were higher than controls. Brachial artery diameter was progressively lower than in controls as severity of CHF increased (New York Heart Association class II, 4.47 % 0.23 mm p = NS; class III, 4.05 % 0.10 mm, p < 0.05; class IV, 3.71 ± 0.28 mm, p < 0.05). Similar changes were observed for arterial compliance (class II, 1.76 ± 0.32 cm4 dyne−1 · 10−7, p = NS; class III, 1.21 % 0.13 cm4 dyne−1 · 10−7, p < 0.05; class IV, 0.95 ± 0.10 cm4 dyne−1 · 10−7, p < 0.05). While the lower arterial pressure and flow might be expected to passively reduce arterial diameter, this would be associated with a reduced pulse wave velocity and improved arterial compliance, yet the opposite was observed. Differences in large artery function were not likely caused by underlying atherosclerosis alone, because patients with dilated cardiomyopathy and patients with ischemic heart disease of the same sex, age, left ventricular ejection fraction, and exercise treadmill duration had similar changes in large artery function. ConclusionsWe conclude that alterations in brachial artery function are present in patients with moderate and severe CHF. The observed reduction in arterial compliance, if present diffusely throughout the arterial tree, could increase left ventricular end-systolic stress directly and through increased velocity of reflected pressure waves from the periphery.
On the Helmholtz equation and Dancer’s-type entire solutions for nonlinear elliptic equations

Starting from a bound state (positive or sign-changing) solution to $$ -\Delta \omega_m =|\omega_m|^{p-1} \omega_m -\omega_m \ \ \mbox{in}\ \R^n, \ \omega_m \in H^2 (\R^n)$$ and solutions to the Helmholtz equation $$ \Delta u_0 + \lambda u_0=0 \ \ \mbox{in} \ \R^n, \ \lambda>0, $$ we build new Dancer's type entire solutions to the nonlinear scalar equation $$ -\Delta u =|u|^{p-1} u-u \ \ \mbox{in} \ \R^{m+n}. $$
Identification of MYO18A as a Novel Interacting Partner of the PAK2/βPIX/GIT1 Complex and Its Potential Function in Modulating Epithelial Cell Migration

MYO18A is found as a novel PAK2 binding partner via βPIX/GIT1. MYO18A-depleted cells showed dramatic changes in shape, actin stress fiber and membrane ruffle formation, and displayed increases in the number and size of focal adhesions and a decrease in cell migration, suggesting an important role of MYO18A in regulating epithelial cell migration.
Preliminary Study on the Durability Properties of High-Volume Fly Ash Mortar Composites

The use of fly ash, a common industrial byproduct waste, is gaining popularity, especially in developing countries, in addressing environmental concerns surrounding the construction industry, such as reducing waste and CO2 emissions. However, the full potential of fly ash usage is yet to be exploited. The physical, mechanical, and durability properties of fly ash in concrete are well documented; in contrast, its durability properties in mortar require further investigations. The present study investigated the durability properties of high-volume fly ash (HVFA) mortar composites. Specifically, varying proportions of sand were replaced with cement and fly ash to examine the effects on the durability properties of the resulting mortar composites by studying the porosity, weight loss upon sodium sulfate attack, and ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV). Specimens with a diameter of 50 mm and height of 100 mm were examined. The results showed that UPVmortar > UPVpastes. Increasing the amount of cement led to a decrease in weight loss for the 50-, 150-, and 250-mm slumps. The maximum weight loss (15 %) was recorded for the HVFA mortar composites comprising 80 % sand. Furthermore, all prepared samples displayed adequate resistance to sulfate (weight loss was below 16 %). Based on the dry unit weight values, all the final products, aside from that comprising 20 wt. % fly ash and 80 wt. % cement, can be considered as a lightweight material, at ∼12.58 kN/m3, and can satisfactorily be used in the manufacture of lightweight aggregates and semi-isolating materials.
Effect of vitamin B6 vitamers on platelet aggregation

The vitamers of vitamin B6 inhibit platelet aggregation. However, their effect is weak when used separately. After the supplementation of one vitamer, the concentrations of the other ones also increase in plasma due to the interconversion of vitamin B6 forms. It can be suggested that different vitamers in blood can interact with each other. The aim of this work was to test the effect of different vitamer combinations on platelet aggregation in vitro. Platelet aggregation was induced by ADP, collagen or arachidonic acid and measured photometrically in a Chronolog aggregometer. The inhibition of platelet aggregation by the pairwise combinations of the vitamers was significantly stronger than that of each vitamer separately. The combinations of three and four vitamers were yet more effective, inhibiting platelet aggregation at the concentration of 4 μM. Possible involvement of inhibitory prostaglandins in the effect of vitamin B6 was studied. The inhibition of platelet aggregation by the vitamers could be prevented by the antagonist of prostacyclin receptors, CAY10441 while the antagonist of prostaglandin D2 receptors, MK 0524 was ineffective. The results suggest that vitamin B6 vitamers cause a synergistic inhibitory effect on platelet aggregation at concentrations that can be mediated by the activation of prostacyclin receptors with prostaglandin E1.
Tumor Antigen-Dependent and Tumor Antigen-Independent Activation of Antitumor Activity in T Cells by a Bispecific Antibody-Modified Tumor Vaccine

New approaches of therapeutic cancer vaccination are needed to improve the antitumor activity of T cells from cancer patients. We studied over the last years the activation of human T cells for tumor attack. To this end, we combined the personalized therapeutic tumor vaccine ATV-NDV—which is obtained by isolation, short in vitro culture, irradiation, and infection of patient's tumor cells by Newcastle Disease Virus (NDV)—with bispecific antibodies (bsAbs) binding to this vaccine and introducing anti-CD3 (signal 1) and anti-CD28 (signal 2) antibody activities. This vaccine called ATV-NDV/bsAb showed the unique ability to reactivate a preexisting potentially anergized antitumor memory T cell repertoire. But it also activated naive T cells to have antitumor properties in vitro and in vivo. This innovative concept of direct activation of cancer patients' T cells via cognate and noncognate interactions provides potential for inducing strong antitumor activities aiming at overriding T cell anergy and tumor immune escape mechanisms.
Effects of an Eight-Week Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation Stretching Program on Kicking Speed and Range of Motion in Young Male Soccer Players

Abstract Akbulut, T and Agopyan, A. Effects of an eight-week proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation stretching program on kicking speed and range of motion in young male soccer players. J Strength Cond Res 29(12): 3412–3423, 2015—The aim of this study was to determine the effect of the 8-week proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF) exercises that were carried out on lower extremity on kicking speed and range of motion (ROM) performance in young soccer players. Twenty-four soccer players (15.6 ± 0.4 years) were selected from nonprofessional young soccer team. All players' height, weight, ROM (ankle plantar and dorsal flexions, hip flexions and extensions), and kicking speed tests were evaluated before and after 8 weeks. The participants were divided into PNF (n = 11) and control (n = 11) groups. Both groups continued technical and tactical soccer training together 3 days (120 min·d−1) a week. The PNF group attended additionally unassisted PNF–contract-relax (CR) stretching through 8 weeks, 2 days per week, 20 minutes' session duration. The control group did not participate in any additional PNF stretching sessions. There were significant differences in kicking speed, right ankle active dorsal flexion, and hip active flexion (right and left) (p ⩽ 0.05) of the PNF group, whereas there were no significant differences between groups in left ankle active dorsal flexion, hip active extension (right and left), and ankle active plantar flexion (right and left) (p > 0.05). We conclude that an 8-week unassisted PNF-CR improved on the ROM of particular lower extremity joints and the kicking speed in the young male soccer players. These results provide strength and conditioning coaches with a practical way to use unassisted PNF-CR in warm-up for positive improvements in the ROM of the hip and ankle and the applications of the kicking speed.