Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Plasma-sprayed CaTiSiO5 ceramic coating on Ti-6Al-4V with excellent bonding strength, stability and cellular bioactivity

Novel Ca-Si-Ti-based sphene (CaTiSiO5) ceramics possess excellent chemical stability and cytocompatibility. The aim of this study was to prepare sphene coating on titanium alloy (Ti-6Al-4V) for orthopaedic applications using the plasma spray method. The phase composition, surface and interface microstructure, coating thickness, surface roughness and bonding strength of the plasma-sprayed sphene coating were analysed using X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy and the standard mechanical testing of the American Society for Testing and Materials, respectively. The results indicated that sphene coating was obtained with a uniform and dense microstructure at the interface of the Ti-6Al-4V surface and the thickness and surface roughness of the coating were approximately 150 and 10 μm, respectively. Plasma-sprayed sphene coating on Ti-6Al-4V possessed a significantly improved bonding strength and chemical stability compared with plasma-sprayed hydroxyapatite (HAp) coating. Plasma-sprayed sphene coating supported human osteoblast-like cell (HOB) attachment and significantly enhanced HOB proliferation and differentiation compared with plasma-sprayed HAp coating and uncoated Ti-6Al-4V. Taken together, plasma-sprayed sphene coating on Ti-6Al-4V possessed excellent bonding strength, chemical stability and cellular bioactivity, indicating its potential application for orthopaedic implants.
Surgical rescue: The next pillar of acute care surgery

BACKGROUND The evolving field of acute care surgery (ACS) traditionally includes trauma, emergency general surgery, and critical care. However, the critical role of ACS in the rescue of patients with a surgical complication has not been explored. We here describe the role of “surgical rescue” in the practice of ACS. METHODS A prospective, electronic medical record-based ACS registry spanning January 2013 to May 2014 at a large urban academic medical center was screened by ICD-9 codes for acute surgical complications of an operative or interventional procedure. Long-term outcomes were derived from the Social Security Death Index. RESULTS Of 2,410 ACS patients, 320 (13%) required “surgical rescue”: most commonly, from wound complications (32%), uncontrolled sepsis (19%), and acute obstruction (15%). The majority of complications (85%) were related to an operation; 15% were related to interventional procedures. The most common rescue interventions required were bowel resection (23%), wound debridement (18%), and source control of infection (17%); 63% of patients required operative intervention, and 22% required surgical critical care. Thirty-six percent of complications occurred in ACS primary patients (“local”), whereas 38% were referred from another surgical service (“institutional”) and 26% referred from another institution (“regional”). Hospital length of stay was longer, and in-hospital and 1-year mortalities were higher in rescue patients compared with those without a complication. Outcomes were equivalent between “local” and “institutional” patients, but hospital length of stay and discharge to home were significantly worse in “institutional” referrals. CONCLUSION We here describe the distinct role of the acute care surgeon in the surgical management of complications; this is an additional pillar of ACS. In this vital role, the acute care surgeon provides crucial support to other providers as well as direct patient care in the “surgical rescue” of surgical and procedural complications. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE Epidemiological study, level III; therapeutic/care management study, level IV.
Common Sense and Sociological Explanations1

Sociologists have long advocated a sociological approach to explanation by contrasting it with common sense. The argument of this article, however, is that sociologists rely on common sense more than they realize. Moreover, this unacknowledged reliance causes serious problems for their explanations of social action, that is, for why people do what they do. Many such explanations, it is argued, conflate understandability with causality in ways that are not valid by the standards of scientific explanation. It follows that if sociologists want their explanations to be scientifically valid, they must evaluate them specifically on those grounds—in particular, by forcing them to make predictions. In becoming more scientific, however, it is predicted that sociologists’ explanations will also become less satisfying from an intuitive, sense-making perspective. Even as novel sources of data and improved methods open exciting new directions for sociological research, therefore, sociologists will increasingly have to choose between unsatisfying scientific explanations and satisfying but unscientific stories.
Atrial Fibrillation in Heart Failure US Ambulatory Cardiology Practices and the Potential for Uptake of Catheter Ablation: An National Cardiovascular Data Registry (NCDR ®) Research to Practice (R2P) Project

Background Atrial fibrillation (AF) and heart failure with reduced ejection fraction frequently coexist. The AATAC (Ablation versus Amiodarone for Treatment of persistent Atrial fibrillation in patients with Congestive heart failure and an implantable device) trial suggests that catheter ablation may benefit these patients. However, applicability to contemporary ambulatory cardiology practice is unknown. Methods and Results Using the outpatient National Cardiovascular Data Registry® Practice Innovation and Clinical Excellence Registry, we identified participants meeting AATAC enrollment criteria between 2013 and 2014. Treatment with medications and procedures was assessed at registry inclusion. From 164 166 patients with AF and heart failure, 8483 (7%) patients potentially met AATAC inclusion criteria. Eligible subjects, compared to AATAC trial participants, were older (mean age, 71.2±11.4 years) and had greater comorbidity (coronary artery disease 79.2%, hypertension 82.4%, and diabetes mellitus 31.8%). AF was predominantly paroxysmal (65.5%), rather than persistent/permanent (16.7%) or new onset (17.8%), whereas all patients in the AATAC trial had persistent AF. Commonly used atrioventricular‐nodal blocking agents were carvedilol (71.2%), digoxin (31.9%), and metoprolol (27.1%). Rhythm control with anti‐arrhythmic drugs was reported in 29.0% of AATAC eligible patients (predominantly amiodarone [24.6%]) and 9.3% had undergone catheter ablation. Patients who underwent ablation were more likely to be younger and have less comorbidities than those who did not. Conclusions Among the contemporary ambulatory AF/heart failure with reduced ejection fraction population, treatment is predominantly rate control with few catheter ablations. Application of AATAC findings has the potential to markedly increase the use of catheter ablation in this population, although significant differences in clinical profiles might influence ablation outcomes in practice.
Collective cell migration: leadership, invasion and segregation

A number of biological processes, such as embryo development, cancer metastasis or wound healing, rely on cells moving in concert. The mechanisms leading to the emergence of coordinated motion remain however largely unexplored. Although biomolecular signalling is known to be involved in most occurrences of collective migration, the role of physical and mechanical interactions has only been recently investigated. In this study, a versatile framework for cell motility is implemented in silico in order to study the minimal requirements for the coordination of a group of epithelial cells. We find that cell motility and cell–cell mechanical interactions are sufficient to generate a broad array of behaviours commonly observed in vitro and in vivo. Cell streaming, sheet migration and susceptibility to leader cells are examples of behaviours spontaneously emerging from these simple assumptions, which might explain why collective effects are so ubiquitous in nature. The size of the population and its confinement appear, in particular, to play an important role in the coordination process. In all cases, the complex response of the population can be predicted from the knowledge of the correlation length of the velocity field measured in the bulk of the epithelial layer. This analysis provides also new insights into cancer metastasis and cell sorting, suggesting, in particular, that collective invasion might result from an emerging coordination in a system where single cells are mechanically unable to invade.
Comparing implementations of penalized weighted least-squares sinogram restoration.

PURPOSE A CT scanner measures the energy that is deposited in each channel of a detector array by x rays that have been partially absorbed on their way through the object. The measurement process is complex and quantitative measurements are always and inevitably associated with errors, so CT data must be preprocessed prior to reconstruction. In recent years, the authors have formulated CT sinogram preprocessing as a statistical restoration problem in which the goal is to obtain the best estimate of the line integrals needed for reconstruction from the set of noisy, degraded measurements. The authors have explored both penalized Poisson likelihood (PL) and penalized weighted least-squares (PWLS) objective functions. At low doses, the authors found that the PL approach outperforms PWLS in terms of resolution-noise tradeoffs, but at standard doses they perform similarly. The PWLS objective function, being quadratic, is more amenable to computational acceleration than the PL objective. In this work, the authors develop and compare two different methods for implementing PWLS sinogram restoration with the hope of improving computational performance relative to PL in the standard-dose regime. Sinogram restoration is still significant in the standard-dose regime since it can still outperform standard approaches and it allows for correction of effects that are not usually modeled in standard CT preprocessing. METHODS The authors have explored and compared two implementation strategies for PWLS sinogram restoration: (1) A direct matrix-inversion strategy based on the closed-form solution to the PWLS optimization problem and (2) an iterative approach based on the conjugate-gradient algorithm. Obtaining optimal performance from each strategy required modifying the naive off-the-shelf implementations of the algorithms to exploit the particular symmetry and sparseness of the sinogram-restoration problem. For the closed-form approach, the authors subdivided the large matrix inversion into smaller coupled problems and exploited sparseness to minimize matrix operations. For the conjugate-gradient approach, the authors exploited sparseness and preconditioned the problem to speed up convergence. RESULTS All methods produced qualitatively and quantitatively similar images as measured by resolution-variance tradeoffs and difference images. Despite the acceleration strategies, the direct matrix-inversion approach was found to be uncompetitive with iterative approaches, with a computational burden higher by an order of magnitude or more. The iterative conjugate-gradient approach, however, does appear promising, with computation times half that of the authors' previous penalized-likelihood implementation. CONCLUSIONS Iterative conjugate-gradient based PWLS sinogram restoration with careful matrix optimizations has computational advantages over direct matrix PWLS inversion and over penalized-likelihood sinogram restoration and can be considered a good alternative in standard-dose regimes.
Preliminary Study on Biological Effects of MiR-702-3p in Epithelial–mesenchymal Transition Induced by Nano-SiO2 Particles

Nano-sized SiO2 particles are gradually applied in numerous fields, the biosecurity of nano-sized SiO2 particles remains to be controversial. The objective of this study was investigating the biological effects of miR-702-3p in epithelial– mesenchymal transition (EMT) induced by nano-SiO2 particles. In our previous study, results from Illumina Hiseq2000 high throughput sequencing has shown that miR-702-3p is an up-regulated miRNA in fibrotic pulmonary tissue induced by nanoSiO2 particles on day 60 and 90. In this study, rats’ lung tissue treated by nano-SiO2 particles of 12.5 mg/ml on day 60 was chosen for the research while the control group was rats’ lung tissue treated by equivalent saline. Target genes of miR-702-3p were predicted using the Target Scan (http://www.targetscan.org/). With the analysis of Gene Ontology and KEGG, BMP-7 was filtrated to be the target genes of miR-702-3p for further study. Dual-Luciferase Reporter Assay was used to verify the relationship betweenmiR-702-3p and BMP-7. The expression level of miR-702-3p and BMP-7 in pulmonary fibrosis induced by nano-SiO2 particles was detected by Quantitative real-time PCR and western blot analysis respectively. To analyze the correlation of EMT and pulmonary fibrosis induced by nano-SiO2 particles, the expressions of TGF-β1, Smad3, E-cad, α-SMA and COL3 were determined by Quantitative realtime PCR and western blot analysis respectively. Result of Dual-Luciferase Reporter Assay indicated that miR-702-3p directly regulates the post-transcriptional manner of BMP-7.The expression of miR-702-3p in the lung tissue of nano-SiO2 particles group was up-regulated (fold changes > 2.0) when compared with the saline group, which was consistent with the result of Illumina Hiseq2000 high throughput sequencing. The expression of BMP-7 mRNA and protein in the lung tissue of nano-SiO2 particles group was down-regulated (fold changes < 0.5) when compared with the saline group (P<0.05). The expression of TGF-β1, Smad3, α-SMA, and COL3 were up-regulated (P<0.05) compared with the saline group both at mRNA and protein level. E-cad mRNA and protein were both down-regulated (P<0.05). In conclusion, miR-702-3p may be a positive regulator in pulmonary fibrosis induced by nano-SiO2 particles, and BMP-7 was a target gene of miR-702-3p in regulating pulmonary fibrosis. MiR*Corresponding author: Hong Yang, Key Laboratory of Environmental Medicine Engineering, Ministry of Education, School of Public Health, Southeast University, Nanjing 210009, Jiangsu, China, E-mail: yanghongr@seu.edu. cn Mingyue Li, Key Laboratory of Environmental Medicine Engineering, Ministry of Education, School of Public Health, Southeast University, Nanjing 210009, Jiangsu, China 138 Preliminary Study on Biological Effects of MiR-702-3p 702-3p may directly weaken the post-transcriptional manner of BMP-7 to promote the process of EMT which contributes to pulmonary fibrosis induced by nano-SiO2 particles.
Glypican-3 Expression in Wilms Tumor and Hepatoblastoma

Background Glypican-3 (GPC3) is a heparan sulfate proteoglycan. When it is disrupted, it causes the X-linked gigantism-overgrowth Simpson-Golabi-Behmel syndrome. Its involvement in growth control is consistent with recent reports that it can bind to growth factors, possibly including insulin-like growth factor 2. Further, it has been hypothesized that it may function as a tumor suppressor gene in breast and ovarian carcinomas and mesotheliomas. Patients and Methods RNA and protein were extracted from Wilms tumor and hepatoblastoma tissue samples and GPC3 levels were measured in these extracts by Northern blotting, reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, and immunoblotting. Results In contrast to published results with carcinomas, high levels of GPC3 expression were found in Wilms tumor and hepatoblastoma. Low or undetectable expressions of this gene were found in normal tissue surrounding the tumor. Conclusions Increased expression of GPC3 in Wilms tumor and hepatoblastoma suggests a growth-promoting or neutral activity for this gene product rather than a growth-suppressive effect.
Comparison of analgesic efficacy of transversus abdominis plane block with direct infiltration of local anesthetic into surgical incision in lower abdominal gynecological surgeries

Background: Transversus abdominis plane block is a safe, simple and effective technique of providing analgesia for lower abdominal surgeries with easily identifiable landmarks. Aims: To compare the analgesic efficacy of transversus abdominis plane block with that of direct infiltration of local anesthetic into surgical incision in lower abdominal procedures. Settings and Design: Prospective randomized controlled trial in lower abdominal surgeries done under general anesthesia. Materials and Methods: 52 ASA I-II patients undergoing lower abdominal gynecological procedures under general anesthesia were divided randomly into two groups each after written informed consent. A bilateral TAP block was performed on Group T with 0.25% bupivacaine 0.6 ml/kg with half the volume on either side intra-operatively after skin closure before extubation using a short bevelled needle, whereas Group I received local infiltration intra-operatively after skin closure with the same amount of drug. The time taken for the first rescue analgesic and visual analog score (VAS) was noted, following which, the patient was administered intravenous morphine 0.1 mg/kg and connected to an intravenous patient controlled analgesia system with morphine for 24 hrs from the time of block administration. 24 h morphine requirement was noted. VAS and sedation scores were noted at 2, 4, 6 and 24 h postoperatively. Statistical Analysis Used: The results were analyzed with SPSS 16. A P value < 0.05 was considered significant. Duration of analgesia and 24 h morphine requirement was analysed by Student's t-test. VAS scores, with paired comparisons at each time interval, were performed using the t-test or Mann-Whitney U-test, as appropriate. Categorical data were analyzed using Chi square or Fisher's exact test. Results: In Group T, the time to rescue analgesic was significantly more and the VAS scores were lower (P = 0.001 and 0.003 respectively). The 24 hr morphine requirement and VAS at 2, 4, 6 and 24 h were less in the Group T (P = 0.001). Incidence of PONV was significant in Group I (P = 0.043), whereas Group T were less sedated at 2 and 4 h (P = 0.001 and 0.014). Conclusions: Transversus abdominis plane block proved to be an effective means of analgesia for lower abdominal surgeries with minimal side-effects.
Shock Waves and High-Strain-Rate Phenomena in Metals. Concepts and Applications.

Abstract : The subject matter addressed by the chapters which compose this book is organized into nine sections followed by a number of appendices. Section 1 consists of a Historical Perspective followed by sections on High Strain-Rate Deformation, Dynamic Fracture, and Adiabatic Shearing (2,3,4). The next three sections deal with shock waves and constitute the core of the book: Shock Waves I: Experimental Techniques, Shock Waves II: Fundamentals, and Shock Waves III: Microstructural and Mechanical Effects, (5,6,7). The last two chapters treat the major applications: Dynamic Compaction of Powders (8) and Explosive Metal Working and Welding (9).
A Review of the Updated Pharmacophore for the Alpha 5 GABA(A) Benzodiazepine Receptor Model

An updated model of the GABA(A) benzodiazepine receptor pharmacophore of the α5-BzR/GABA(A) subtype has been constructed prompted by the synthesis of subtype selective ligands in light of the recent developments in both ligand synthesis, behavioral studies, and molecular modeling studies of the binding site itself. A number of BzR/GABA(A) α5 subtype selective compounds were synthesized, notably α5-subtype selective inverse agonist PWZ-029 (1) which is active in enhancing cognition in both rodents and primates. In addition, a chiral positive allosteric modulator (PAM), SH-053-2′F-R-CH3 (2), has been shown to reverse the deleterious effects in the MAM-model of schizophrenia as well as alleviate constriction in airway smooth muscle. Presented here is an updated model of the pharmacophore for α5β2γ2 Bz/GABA(A) receptors, including a rendering of PWZ-029 docked within the α5-binding pocket showing specific interactions of the molecule with the receptor. Differences in the included volume as compared to α1β2γ2, α2β2γ2, and α3β2γ2 will be illustrated for clarity. These new models enhance the ability to understand structural characteristics of ligands which act as agonists, antagonists, or inverse agonists at the Bz BS of GABA(A) receptors.
Simultaneous activated sludge wastewater treatment and odour control.

Lab-scale tests were used to determine the amount of H2S that can be treated using a range of different activated sludges. Static vessels were used to study the effects of different H2S concentrations (5, 25, 50 and 75 ppm). The data indicated that odour control may be carried out using certain types of sludge, but sludge type, e.g. carbonaceous, nitrifying, with or without coagulant, affects removal efficiency. The presence of the biomass resulted in greater H2S removal than the use of wet scrubbing and the adverse effects on mixed liquor were negligible. A pilot plant was used to study the removal efficiencies of activated sludge diffusion using a typical wastewater treatment plant H2S concentration and investigated the effects that the diffusion of H2S had on the process performance. Results indicated that the levels of H2S produced by other unit processes on a wastewater treatment site (approximately 5 ppm) can be treated using activated sludge diffusion without compromising the performance of the wastewater treatment process. The only effects on the activated sludge plant observed were: (1) nitrification was interrupted briefly as H2S diffusion commenced and (2) the species' diversity in the sludge decreased.
A Comparative Study of Land Cover Classification by Using Multispectral and Texture Data

The main objective of this study is to find out the importance of machine vision approach for the classification of five types of land cover data such as bare land, desert rangeland, green pasture, fertile cultivated land, and Sutlej river land. A novel spectra-statistical framework is designed to classify the subjective land cover data types accurately. Multispectral data of these land covers were acquired by using a handheld device named multispectral radiometer in the form of five spectral bands (blue, green, red, near infrared, and shortwave infrared) while texture data were acquired with a digital camera by the transformation of acquired images into 229 texture features for each image. The most discriminant 30 features of each image were obtained by integrating the three statistical features selection techniques such as Fisher, Probability of Error plus Average Correlation, and Mutual Information (F + PA + MI). Selected texture data clustering was verified by nonlinear discriminant analysis while linear discriminant analysis approach was applied for multispectral data. For classification, the texture and multispectral data were deployed to artificial neural network (ANN: n-class). By implementing a cross validation method (80-20), we received an accuracy of 91.332% for texture data and 96.40% for multispectral data, respectively.
Adolescent Girls' Parasocial Interactions With Media Figures

ABSTRACT We examined aspects of adolescent girls’ parasocial interactions in the context of typical development. Parasocial interactions are defined as symbolic, one-sided quasi-interactions between a viewer and a media figure. In total, 107 adolescent girls were examined; 94% reported engaging in parasocial interactions to some degree. Preoccupied attachment style predicted the degree of involvement in and emotional intensity of parasocial interactions. Results suggest that parasocial interactions are characteristic of girls with preoccupied attachment, but are also part of normative development.