Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Structural alterations of the bladder induced by detrusor instability. Experimental study in rabbits.

OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to evaluate the histopathological and immunohistochemical alterations induced by detrusor instability in the bladder of rabbits submitted to partial bladder outlet obstruction. MATERIALS AND METHODS Thirty male Norfolk rabbits were divided into 2 groups, a clinical control and a group with detrusor instability. Urine culture, cystometric study, histopathological and immunohistochemical analysis were performed in all animals prior to surgery (M1) and 4 weeks after-surgery (M2). RESULTS Partial obstruction (G2) resulted in a 2.5 fold increment (p < 0.05) in bladder weight when compared to control (G1). Four weeks after surgery, 93% of animals in G2 developed cystitis. Partial obstruction resulted in detrusor instability at M2 and bladder capacity was significantly increased (p < 0.05) from M1 to M2. The incidence of mild to moderate mucosal and adventitious fibrosis at M2 was higher in G2 (p < 0.05) when compared to G1. Inflammatory reaction at M2 was statistically higher (p < 0.05) in G2. There was no difference in muscular hypertrophy between M1 and M2 in G1. However, 67% of G2 bladders showed a moderate to intense muscular hypertrophy at M2. Hyperplasia of the epithelium was also increased in G2 when M1 and M2 were compared (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION Detrusor instability induced by partial bladder outlet obstruction caused significant histopathological and immunohistochemical alterations in the bladder of rabbits.
Design of passive fault-tolerant controllers of a quadrotor based on sliding mode theory

Abstract In this paper, sliding mode control is used to develop two passive fault tolerant controllers for an AscTec Pelican UAV quadrotor. In the first approach, a regular sliding mode controller (SMC) augmented with an integrator uses the robustness property of variable structure control to tolerate partial actuator faults. The second approach is a cascaded sliding mode controller with an inner and outer SMC loops. In this configuration, faults are tolerated in the fast inner loop controlling the velocity system. Tuning the controllers to find the optimal values of the sliding mode controller gains is made using the ecological systems algorithm (ESA), a biologically inspired stochastic search algorithm based on the natural equilibrium of animal species. The controllers are tested using SIMULINK in the presence of two different types of actuator faults, partial loss of motor power affecting all the motors at once, and partial loss of motor speed. Results of the quadrotor following a continuous path demonstrated the effectiveness of the controllers, which are able to tolerate a significant number of actuator faults despite the lack of hardware redundancy in the quadrotor system. Tuning the controller using a faulty system improves further its ability to afford more severe faults. Simulation results show that passive schemes reserve their important role in fault tolerant control and are complementary to active techniques
Role of Biofunctionalized Nanoparticles in Digestive Cancer Vaccine Development

Nanotechnology has provided an opportunity for unparalleled development of the treatment of various severe diseases. The unique properties of nanoparticles offer a promising strategy for enhancing antitumor immunity by enhancing immunogenicity and presentation of tumor autoantigens for cancer immunotherapy. Polymeric, liposomal, carbon or silica-based nanoparticles are among those with major immunomodulatory roles in various cancer treatments. Cancer vaccines, in particular digestive cancer vaccines, have been researched and developed on nanotechnological platforms. Due to their safety, controlled release, targeting of dendritic cells (DCs) and improved antigen uptake, as well as enhanced immunogenicity, nanoparticles have been used as carriers, as adjuvants for increased effect at the tumor level, for their immunomodulating effect, or for targeting the tumor microenvironment, thereby increasing tumor immunogenicity and reducing tumor inflammatory response. This review looks at digestive cancer vaccines developed on nanoparticle platforms and the impact nanoparticles have on the effects of these vaccines.
A comparison of ESPAR-MIM O and LMA-MIMO for single-RF transmission of spatially multiplexed QAM Signals

By use of electronically steerable parasitic array radiators (ESPAR) antenna and load modulated array (LMA) antenna, single-RF MIMO transmission has been proposed to support spatially multiplexed QAM signals with the benefits of hardware complexity, size and cost. In this paper, we compare our LMA-MIMO with ESPAR-MIMO in terms of the dissipated power, circuit robustness, and bit error rate performance. Owing to both pure reactance and phase control loading as well as self-matched impedance loading, we show that the LMA-MIMO outperforms the ESPAR-MIMO by reduction of 50∼81% in power consumption and 5.3∼41.8% in BER without any problems of the circuit oscillation.
Mediation of the attachment or fusion step in vesicular transport by the GTP-binding Ypt1 protein

The function of the guanosine triphosphate (GTP)-binding protein Ypt1 in regulating vesicular traffic was studied in a cell-free system that reconstitutes transport from the endoplasmic reticulum to the Golgi. Blocking the Ypt1 protein activity resulted in accumulation of vesicles that act as an intermediate passing between the two compartments. The Ypt1 protein was found on the outer side of these vesicles. The transport process is completed by fusion of these vesicles with the acceptor compartment, and Ypt1 protein activity was needed for this step. Thus, a specific GTP-binding protein is required for either attachment or fusion (or both) of secretory vesicles with the acceptor compartment during protein secretion.
Ideomotor apraxia in Alzheimer disease and left hemisphere stroke: limb transitive and intransitive movements.

OBJECTIVE Ideomotor apraxia was studied in patients with Alzheimer disease (AD) and unilateral left hemispheric damaged (LHD) stroke to determine whether these groups differed. BACKGROUND Given that the neuropathology of AD is bilateral and more diffuse than the localized involvement in patients after an LHD stroke, and given that the cognitive deficits in AD are more widespread than in LHD stroke, the authors predicted that patients with these disorders would differ in response to an auditory command task administered to evaluate ideomotor apraxia, and that the two patient groups would be significantly more impaired than healthy matched control subjects. METHODS Twenty-one persons were studied, including equal numbers of patients with AD, patients with unilateral LHD stroke, and control subjects. An auditory command test of limb apraxia was administered and videotaped to score performance and to code spatial-temporal or content errors. RESULTS The patients with AD and LHD stroke were significantly more impaired than healthy control subjects. Whereas the patients with AD and LHD stroke were equally apraxic and did not differ in their performance of transitive limb movements, the patients with AD were significantly more impaired than the patients with stroke when performing intransitive limb movements. A positive correlation was found between severity of dementia and severity of apraxia in the patients with AD. The patients with LHD stroke were as likely to make spatial-temporal as content errors when performing intransitive limb movements, whereas the patients with AD made content errors only. Error types produced with transitive limb movements did not differ between groups; spatial-temporal errors were the most common errors made both by patients with AD and patients with LHD stroke. CONCLUSIONS As predicted, patients with AD and with LHD stroke were impaired when producing limb movements after auditory command, and both patient groups were significantly more impaired than the healthy adults. Patients with AD were significantly more impaired than patients with stroke when performing intransitive limb movements, and error types differed by group. Patients with AD and patients with stroke were equally impaired when performing transitive movements, and error types did not differ by group. Patients with ideomotor apraxia are often degraded in their production of transitive and intransitive movements, and the observation that performance may differ depending on the type of limb movement suggests that movement representations for transitive and intransitive movements may be at least partially independent.
Aldose Reductase Mediates the Lipopolysaccharide-induced Release of Inflammatory Mediators in RAW264.7 Murine Macrophages*

Abnormal production of inflammatory cytokines and chemokines is a key feature of bacterial endotoxin, lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced inflammation, and cytotoxicity; however, the mechanisms regulating production of inflammatory markers remain unclear. Herein, we show that inhibition of the aldehyde-metabolizing enzyme aldose reductase (AR; AKR1B3) modulates NF-κB-dependent activation of inflammatory cytokines and chemokines in mouse serum, liver, heart, and spleen. Pharmacological inhibition or small interfering RNA ablation of AR prevented the biosynthesis of tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin 1β, interleukin-6, macrophage-chemoattractant protein-1, and cyclooxygenase-2 and prostaglandin E2 in LPS-activated RAW264.7 murine macrophages. The AR inhibition or ablation significantly attenuated LPS-induced activation of protein kinase C (PKC) and phospholipase C (PLC), nuclear translocation of NF-κB, and phosphorylation and proteolytic degradation of IκBα in macrophages. Furthermore, treatment of macrophages with 4-hydroxy-trans-2-nonenal (HNE), and cell-permeable esters of glutathionyl-4-hydroxynonanal (GS-HNE) and glutathionyl-1,4-dihydroxynonane (GS-DHN) activated NF-κB and PLC/PKC. Pharmacological inhibition or antisense ablation of AR that catalyzes the reduction of GS-HNE to GS-DHN prevented PLC, PKC, IKKα/β, and NF-κB activation caused by HNE and GS-HNE, but not by GS-DHN, suggesting that reduced GS-lipid aldehydes catalyzed by AR propagate LPS-induced production of inflammatory markers. Collectively, these data provide evidence that inhibition of AR may be a significant therapeutic approach in preventing bacterial endotoxin-induced sepsis and tissue damage.
Cognitive Dysfunction and Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Several previous studies showed that age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) share common risk factors and histopathology changes, and there is epidemiological evidence linking AMD to cognitive impairment. We tested this theory in 51 patients with late-stage AMD and 24 controls by analyzing their neuropsychological profiles. In this study, data showed that patients affected by late-stage AMD have a worse global cognitive function than those of the controls and, in particular, show worse performances in memory tasks. Moreover, patients affected by the dry form of AMD are significantly impaired in executive functions in addition to memory. Data support the hypothesis of a possible association between AMD and cognitive impairment. In particular, patients affected by the dry form of AMD may be at greater risk of developing subsequent dementia.
Chronic aspergillus infections of the respiratory tract: diagnosis, management and antifungal resistance

Purpose of review Chronic pulmonary aspergillosis (CPA) is a relatively rare, slowly progressive pulmonary syndrome due to Aspergillus spp. that requires specific knowledge in terms of disease entity, diagnosis, management and azole resistance. This review focuses on the recent understanding of CPA entity and the emergence of azole resistance in CPA. Recent findings Due to complexities related to patients' background and limited pathological evidence, the disease entity of CPA was incomprehensive and numerous names were previously used. The disease entities and nomenclature of subtypes of CPA have recently been proposed, though previous literature had grouped several different forms of CPA together. Recent advances in the methodology of susceptibility testing have indicated increasing azole resistance in Aspergillus spp. CPA is potentially involved in producing azole resistance and associated with poor response to azoles. Summary As there are few publications regarding CPA, there are still many unanswered questions. However, updating of disease entity will promote the clinical and basic research in this field. Moreover, the emergence of antifungal drug resistance of Aspergillus is becoming a major concern. Thus, more evidence and research regarding drug resistance are required to improve the outcome of CPA.
Water stress affects Tomicus destruens host pine preference and performance during the shoot feeding phase

Abstract• The effect of water stress on host selection and performance during the shoot feeding phase, by the Mediterranean pine shoot beetle Tomicus destruens, was studied. • Young potted Pinus pinaster plants were subjected to two water supply regimes: (i) well watered; (ii) 4–5 months of moderate drought stress. Plant volatile organic compound (VOCs) emissions were collected by SPME and analysed by GC/MS.• In tests with paired plants, the number of holes and tunnels excavated by beetles in well watered pines was significantly larger than in stressed plants, whereas in no-choice tests no differences occurred. • Beetle survival was significantly higher on well watered, than on stressed pines (p = 0.006), while fat contents also increased (p = 0.09). • Plants could be assigned to treatments based on VOCs emissions, stressed pines emitting more myrcene and less β-pinene than well watered ones. • It is concluded that during the shoot feeding phase, T. destruens preferentially attacks non-stressed plants, in detriment of stressed ones, upon which a higher fitness is attained. • The role of pines VOCs emissions under moderate drought stress, in the host selection and colonization process by the pine shoot beetle, is discussed.
Entire Thickness Profiles of the Epithelium and Contact Lens In Vivo Imaged With High-Speed and High-Resolution Optical Coherence Tomography

Purpose: To test the feasibility of measuring the entire thickness profiles of the epithelium and contact lens (CL) in vivo, using high-speed and high-resolution spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT). Methods: A custom-built, long scan depth SD-OCT was developed based on a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) camera, and the axial resolution was approximately 5.1 &mgr;m in tissue. Five eyes of five subjects were imaged twice across the horizontal meridian before and while wearing one CL. Semiautomatic measurement was done to yield the entire thickness profiles of the epithelium, total cornea, and CL after correcting for optical distortion. Results: The full width and depth of the epithelium, ocular surface, and CL were clearly visualized. The epithelial thickness at the center was 51.9±3.5 &mgr;m; it remained at this thickness across the central 7 mm diameter and then increased at both temporal and nasal peripheries. The CL profile showed the thinnest point at the center with thickness of 100.3±4.9 &mgr;m. The thickness increased toward the midperiphery and then decreased at the edge. Conclusions: This pilot study demonstrated the feasibility of using high-speed CMOS-based OCT to evaluate the entire thickness profiles of the epithelium and CL in vivo. Further development will be needed to extend the scanning from 2D to 3D with a robust automatic image processing ability.
Enhanced subband JND model with textural image

Just Noticeable Difference (JND) model in transform domain is determined by the contrast sensitivity function, luminance masking and contrast masking. In this paper, we propose an improved JND model with a new method for contrast masking factor estimation. We decompose an image into structural image and textural image, and the textural image is used for an accurate block classification. The proposed algorithm can remove the interference from the edge pixels thus the accurate JND in DCT domain is obtained. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can improve the JND thresholds and reduce more data redundancy than the relevant existing JND estimators. This model can be widely used in many image/video processing fields, such as perceptual video coding.
Adaptive wavelet frame domain decomposition methods for nonlinear elliptic equations

In this article, we are concerned with the numerical treatment of nonlinear elliptic boundary value problems. Our method of choice is a domain decomposition strategy. Partially following the lines from (Cohen, Dahmen and deVore, SIAM J Numer Anal 41 (2003), 1785–1823; Kappei, Appl Anal J Sci 90 (2011), 1323–1353; Lui, SIAM J Sci Comput 21 (2000), 1506–1523; Stevenson and Werner, Math Comp 78 (2009), 619–644), we develop an adaptive additive Schwarz method using wavelet frames. We show that the method converges with an asymptotically optimal rate and support our theoretical results with numerical tests in one and two space dimensions. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 2013
Augmentation of Additional Arabic Dataset for Jawi Writing and Classification Using Deep Learning

This research aims to create an additional dataset containing Arabic characters for writing Jawi script and to train classification models using deep learning architectures such as InceptionV3 and ResNet34. The initial stage of the study involves digital image processing to obtain the additional Arabic character dataset from several sources, including HMBD, AHAWP, and HUCD, encompassing various connected and disconnected forms of Jawi script. Image processing includes steps such as preprocessing to enhance image quality, segmentation to separate Arabic characters from the background, and augmentation to increase dataset variability. Once the dataset is formed, we train the models using appropriate training data for each InceptionV3 and ResNet34 architecture. The classification evaluation results indicate that the model with ResNet34 architecture achieved the best performance with an accuracy of 96%. This model successfully recognizes Jawi script accurately and consistently, even for classes with similar shapes. The main contribution of this research is the availability of the additional Arabic character dataset that can be utilized for Jawi script recognition and performance assessment of various deep learning models. The study also emphasizes the importance of selecting the appropriate architecture for specific character recognition tasks. The research findings affirm that the model with ResNet34 architecture has excellent capability in recognizing the additional Arabic characters for writing Jawi. The results of this research have the potential to support further developments in Jawi character recognition applications and provide valuable insights for researchers in the field of character recognition sourced from Arabic characters. Dataset augmentation results can be accessed at https://singkat.usk. ac.id/g/En0skCKGAR
The Presence of Lepidobatrachus (Anura, Ceratophryidae) in the Neogene of the La Pampa Province, Argentina

Neogene anuran remains from central Argentina were assigned to Lepidobatrachus, in base on its exclusive combination of maxillary characters. Although it would represent one of the oldest Lepidobatrachus, the age of the anuran bearing beds, attributed to the Fm. Cerro Azul, has been traditionally inferred in base on questioned methodology. The presence in these sediments of some mammals also recovered in other sequences whit known age, allows propose a preliminary Late Miocene age for the fossils. This and others Lepidobatrachus remains suggest that the genus would be already distributed and that a seasonal environment would be developed in the central Argentina by the middle Neogene.
Social Equality in the Number of Choice Options Is Represented in the Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex

A distinct aspect of the sense of fairness in humans is that we care not only about equality in material rewards but also about equality in nonmaterial values. One such value is the opportunity to choose freely among many options, often regarded as a fundamental right to economic freedom. In modern developed societies, equal opportunities in work, living, and lifestyle are enforced by antidiscrimination laws. Despite the widespread endorsement of equal opportunity, no studies have explored how people assign value to it. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to identify the neural substrates for subjective valuation of equality in choice opportunity. Participants performed a two-person choice task in which the number of choices available was varied across trials independently of choice outcomes. By using this procedure, we manipulated the degree of equality in choice opportunity between players and dissociated it from the value of reward outcomes and their equality. We found that activation in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) tracked the degree to which the number of options between the two players was equal. In contrast, activation in the ventral striatum tracked the number of options available to participants themselves but not the equality between players. Our results demonstrate that the vmPFC, a key brain region previously implicated in the processing of social values, is also involved in valuation of equality in choice opportunity between individuals. These findings may provide valuable insight into the human ability to value equal opportunity, a characteristic long emphasized in politics, economics, and philosophy.
Radiofrequency ablation of colorectal liver metastases: long-term survival

Purpose: To evaluate the results of radiofrequency ablation (RFA) therapy with regard to long-term survival and rate of complications in patients with liver metastases from colorectal carcinoma. Material and Methods: A total of 102 patients were included and treated with RFA. In 100 patients, resection was not possible; two patients refused surgery. The patients had a total of 332 colorectal liver metastases. Pre- and post-treatment evaluation was performed with contrast-enhanced computed tomography. Survival from time of diagnosis of liver metastases was calculated by Kaplan-Meier analysis. Complications were recorded as minor or major in accordance with the definitions of the Society for Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiology. Results: Estimated median survival from time of diagnosis of liver metastases was 52 months (95% CI 34–82). Estimated 1-, 2-, 3-, 4-, and 5-year survival was 96%, 79%, 64%, 52%, and 44%, respectively. Minor complications were recorded following seven RFA treatments (4.0%) and major complications following 12 RFA treatments (6.9%). Conclusion: RFA is an effective method to treat liver metastases from colorectal carcinoma. Survival is improved and comparable with survival following surgical resection. The rate of complications is low.