Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Regional Analysis of Soft Tissue Thickness on Korean Buttocks and Application to Fasciocutaneous Flap Design

Background Various shapes and designs of the gluteal artery perforator flap have been used for treating sacral pressure sores and reconstructing breasts. To establish the ideal fasciocutaneous flap design for use in the gluteal area, the soft tissue thickness distribution was measured. Methods Twenty-one buttocks of adult Korean cadavers were analyzed through rectangular subfascial dissection. Each buttock was divided horizontally into 10 sections and vertically into 10 sections, and then, the thickness at the corners of the sections was measured. For the sake of comparison and statistical verification with living bodies, computed tomography (CT) images of 120 buttocks of patients were randomly selected. Five horizontal sections and 4 vertical sections were made, and the thickness at each corner was recorded. Results According to the dissection and the CT images, the area with the thinnest soft tissues in the buttock was around the posterior superior iliac spine, close to the sacral area. The thickest area was the superolateral area of the buttock, which was 3.24 times and 2.15 times thicker than the thinnest area in the studies on cadaver anatomy and the CT images, respectively. Conclusions The thickness of the soft tissues in the buttocks differed by area. The superolateral area had the thickest soft tissues, and the superomedial area had the thinnest. This study includes information on the distribution of the thickness of the gluteal soft tissues of Koreans. The outcome of this study may contribute to the design of effective local flaps for pressure sore reconstruction and free flaps for breast reconstruction.
Shear Coefficient in Orthotropic Thin-Walled Composite Beams

The shear coefficient in Timoshenko beam theory is derived for thin-walled beams constructed of orthotropic laminated composite panels and new formulas for the common forms of thin-walled section are presented. The results are identical to Cowper's for the case of isotropic beams. Comparison is also made with the shear coefficient presented by Bank (1987). A parametric study is conducted to evaluate the effect of cross section dimensions and the mechanical properties of the laminated panels on the shear coefficient. The transverse shear deformation and its relative importance compared to bending deformation is investigated for this class of composite beams. For thin-walled sections constructed from laminated panels made of a combination of 0° unidirectional and angle-ply laminae, the optimal ply angle for different percentages of angle-ply laminae, is found to minimize the total static deflection of the beam. This lay-up configuration is the most practical and effective distribution of plies in laminated .
Adaptive sub-linear Fourier algorithms

We present a new deterministic algorithm for the sparse Fourier transform problem, in which we seek to identify k << N significant Fourier coefficients from a signal of bandwidth N. Previous deterministic algorithms exhibit quadratic runtime scaling, while our algorithm scales linearly with k in the average case. Underlying our algorithm are a few simple observations relating the Fourier coefficients of time-shifted samples to unshifted samples of the input function. This allows us to detect when aliasing between two or more frequencies has occurred, as well as to determine the value of unaliased frequencies. We show that empirically our algorithm is orders of magnitude faster than competing algorithms.
Visualization and interaction techniques for the exploration of vascular structures

We describe a pipeline of image processing steps for deriving symbolic models of vascular structures from radiological data which reflect the branching pattern and diameter of vessels. For the visualization of these symbolic models, concatenated truncated cones are smoothly blended at branching points. We put emphasis on the quality of the visualizations which is achieved by anti-aliasing operations in different stages of the visualization. The methods presented are referred to as HQVV (high quality vessel visualization). Scalable techniques are provided to explore vascular structures of different orders of magnitude. The hierarchy as well as the diameter of the branches of vascular systems are used to restrict visualizations to relevant subtrees and to emphasize parts of vascular systems. Our research is inspired by clear visualizations in textbooks and is targeted toward medical education and therapy planning. We describe the application of vessel visualization techniques for liver surgery planning. For this application it is crucial to recognize the morphology and branching pattern of vascular systems as well as the basic spatial relations between vessels and other anatomic structures.
Alternative structures in duplex DNA formed within the trinucleotide repeats of the myotonic dystrophy and fragile X loci.

Most models proposed to explain the disease-associated expansion of (CTG)n. (CAG)n and (CGG)n. (CCG)n trinucleotide repeats include the formation of slipped strand DNA structures during replication; however, physical evidence for these alternative DNA secondary structures has not been reported. Using cloned fragments from the myotonic dystrophy (DM) and fragile X syndrome (FRAXA) loci containing normal, premutation, and full mutation lengths of repeats, we report the formation of novel alternative DNA secondary structures that map within the repeat tracts during reannealing of complementary strands, containing equal lengths of repeats, into linear duplex DNA molecules. Linear duplex DNA molecules containing these alternative DNA secondary structures are characterized by reduced electrophoretic mobilities in polyacrylamide gels. These alternative secondary structures are stable at physiological ionic strengths and to temperatures up to at least 55 degrees C. Following reduplexing, the CAG strand of the (CTG)n. (CAG)n repeats is preferentially sensitive to mung bean nuclease, suggesting the presence of single-stranded DNA in the alternative DNA structure. For (CTG)17, which is a repeat length found in normal individuals, less than 3% of the DNA molecules formed alternative DNA structures upon reduplexing. DNA molecules containing (CTG)50 or (CTG)255, which represent premutation and full mutation lengths of triplet repeats, respectively, formed a heterogeneous population of alternative DNA structures in >50% of DNA molecules. The complexity of the structures formed increased with the length of the triplet repeat. The relationship between repeat length and the propensity of formation and complexity of the novel structures correlates with the effect of repeat length on genetic instability in human diseases. These are the first results consistent with the existence of slipped strand DNA structures. The potential involvement of these structures, which we term S-DNA, in the gentic instability of triplet repeats is discussed.
Pediatric day case surgery: experience from a tertiary health institution in Nigeria.

BACKGROUND The general observation that children achieve better convalescence in the home environment supports the need for adoption of day case surgery, which is gaining considerable acceptance in developing countries. Pediatric surgical service is in great demand in developing countries, and in-patient beds and surgical supplies are insufficient. METHOD A prospective collection of data on all pediatric day surgeries (PDSs) by the pediatric surgical unit University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH, Ilorin, was done. Parents had pre-operative outpatient briefing and postoperative interviews on the second and ninth days for consultation regarding post-operative complications and events at home. Study period was between April 2005 and September 2007 (2(1/2) years). RESULTS Of the 660 elective cases, 449 (68.02%) children were recruited as day cases. The male-to-female ratio was 14.3:1. Age ranged between 20 days and 15 years with a mean of 37.6 months and standard deviation (SD) of 34.4 months. Congenital hernias/ hydroceles were the highest indications (71.2%), followed by lump/ masses (12.9%), undescended testes (8.7%), umbilical hernias (4.8%) and thyroglossal duct cyst (2.5%). In 98.9% of cases, the parents resided within 20 km radius of the hospital, and 91.5% of them could reach the hospital within 1 hour. Fathers and mothers of 80.1% and 77.1% of children, respectively, had above-primary education. More than half of the fathers (55%) were civil servants, while 30% were self-employed. The mothers were civil servants in 37.3% of cases, and 34% were self-employed. The average number of outpatient clinic visits before surgery was 2-3 visits (41.2%) with mean interval to surgery of 4-5 weeks (60.3%). Logistics (investigations and availability of operation list) and patient's fitness for surgery were statistically significant delay factors (P= 0.001). CONCLUSION Parents reported 14 children to be irritable at home due to pain, while the others reported satisfactory day case experience. No unplanned admission or mortality was recorded, and only 3 (0.8%) parents would not recommend day case surgery to other people. CONCLUSION Pediatric day case surgery is feasible for well-selected and monitored cases in our environment. Term neonates with informed parents are suitable for pediatric day case surgery. There is a need for a day case center to reduce waiting list at UITH.
Modified Weaver-Dunn Procedure Versus The Use of Semitendinosus Autogenous Tendon Graft for Acromioclavicular Joint Reconstruction

Background: The optimal operative method for acromioclavicular joint reconstruction remains controversial. The modified Weaver-Dunn method is one of the most popular methods. Anatomic reconstruction of coracoclavicular ligaments with autogenous tendon grafts, widely used in treating chronic acromioclavicular joint instability, reportedly diminishes pain, eliminates sequelae, and improves function as well as strength. Objective: To compare clinical and radiologic outcomes between a modified Weaver-Dunn procedure and an anatomic coracoclavicular ligaments reconstruction technique using autogenous semitendinosus tendon graft. Methods: Twenty patients (mean age, 39 years) with painful, chronic Rockwood type III acromioclavicular joint dislocations were subjected to surgical reconstruction. In ten patients, a modified Weaver-Dunn procedure was performed, in the other ten patients; autogenous semitendinosus tendon graft was used. The mean time between injury and the index procedure was 18 month (range from 9 – 28). Clinical evaluation was performed using the Oxford Shoulder Score and Nottingham Clavicle Score after a mean follow-up time of 27.8 months. Preoperative and postoperative radiographs were compared. Results: In the Weaver-Dunn group the Oxford Shoulder Score improved from 25±4 to 40±2 points. While the Nottingham Clavicle Score increased from 48±7 to 84±11. In semitendinosus tendon graft group, the Oxford Shoulder Score improved from 25±3 points to 50±2 points and the Nottingham Clavicle Score from 48±8 points to 95±8, respectively. Conclusion: Acromioclavicular joint reconstruction using the semitendinosus tendon graft achieved better Oxford Shoulder Score and Nottingham Clavicle Score compared to the modified Weaver-Dunn procedure.
Simulating threshold circuits by majority circuits

We prove that a single threshold gate with arbitrary weights can be simulated by an explicit polynomial-size, depth-2 majority circuit. In general we show that a polynomial-size, depth-d threshold circuit can be simulated uniformly by a polynomial-size majority circuit of depth d + 1. Goldmann, Hastad, and Razborov showed in [Comput. Complexity, 2 (1992), pp. 277--300] that a nonuniform simulation exists. Our construction answers two open questions posed by them: we give an explicit construction, whereas they use a randomized existence argument, and we show that such a simulation is possible even if the depth d grows with the number of variables n (their simulation gives polynomial-size circuits only when d is constant).
Attention and memory functioning among pediatric patients with medulloblastoma.

OBJECTIVE To test the hypotheses that memory and attention deficits are prevalent in survivors of childhood medulloblastoma (MB) and that these deficits are associated with problems with academic achievement. METHODS The medical charts of 38 child survivors of MB, who were administered the California Verbal Learning Test, Child Version (CVLT-C), Conners' Continuous Performance Test (CPT), and the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test (WIAT) as part of a comprehensive neurocognitive test battery, were retrospectively reviewed. RESULTS Although no significant verbal memory deficits were found, 8 of 11 CPT variables were significantly below the standardization mean (p < or = .01). Additionally, stepwise regression analyses found that increased omission errors were significantly associated with lower reading and math performance (p < or = .01). CONCLUSIONS These findings confirm previous reports of attention deficits among survivors of MB and provide a better understanding of how the dysfunction of particular attentional substrates (e.g., perceptual sensitivity, response bias) may result in learning problems in this population.
Nonlinear Population Codes

Theoretical and experimental studies of distributed neuronal representations of sensory and behavioral variables usually assume that the tuning of the mean firing rates is the main source of information. However, recent theoretical studies have investigated the effect of cross-correlations in the trial-to-trial fluctuations of the neuronal responses on the accuracy of the representation. Assuming that only the first-order statistics of the neuronal responses are tuned to the stimulus, these studies have shown that n the presence of correlations, similar to those observed experimentally in cortical ensembles of neurons, the amount of information in the population is limited, yielding nonzero error levels even in the limit of infinitely large populations of neurons. In this letter, we study correlated neuronal populations whose higher-order statistics, and in particular response variances, are also modulated by the stimulus. We ask two questions: Does the correlated noise limit the accuracy of the neuronal representation of the stimulus? and, How can a biological mechanism extract most of the information embedded in the higher-order statistics of the neuronal responses? Specifically, we address these questions in the context of a population of neurons coding an angular variable. We show that the information embedded in the variances grows linearly with the population size despite the presence of strong correlated noise. This information cannot be extracted by linear readout schemes, including the linear population vector. Instead, we propose a bilinear readout scheme that involves spatial decorrelation, quadratic nonlinearity, and population vector summation. We show that this nonlinear population vector scheme yields accurate estimates of stimulus parameters, with an efficiency that grows linearly with the population size. This code can be implemented using biologically plausible neurons.
Median and musculocutaneous nerves: Variant formation and distribution

An unusual formation of the median and musculocutaneous nerves was observed during routine dissection of the left upper limb of a 60‐year‐old Caucasian male cadaver. The median nerve was formed by the fusion of three roots, two from the lateral and one from the medial cord of the brachial plexus. The variant lateral root of the median nerve followed an anomalous course, crossing anterior to the distal part of the axillary artery. Moreover, in the distal half of the arm, the median nerve contributed a communicating branch to the musculocutaneous nerve. Injury to such a variant median nerve in the proximal arm may lead to paresthesia along the preaxial border of the forearm, weakness of elbow flexion, in addition to other manifestations of median nerve injury. The developmental and clinical significance of this anomaly is discussed. Clin. Anat. 16:453–457, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Combined Radix-10 and Radix-16 Division Unit

In this work we extend a previously proposed digit- recurrence radix-10 division unit to be able to perform also radix-16 division. The extension is simplified by the fact that in the radix-10 implementation the quotient digit is decomposed into two parts and that this decomposition is also appropriate for the radix-16 case. Moreover, to reduce the latency in the radix- 10 the most-significant portion of the datapath, including the selection function, has been implemented in radix-2, so that the modifications of that part to include radix-16 consists mainly in combining the two modules to obtain the selection constants. The rest of the modifications relate to the generation of multiples, to the carry-save adder, to the carry-propagate adder, and to the on-the-fly conversion and rounding. The implementation results show that the delay of an iteration is similar to that of the radix-10 case and that the area is about thirty percent larger.
Arrangement of the Translocator of the Autotransporter Adhesin Involved in Diffuse Adherence on the Bacterial Surface

ABSTRACT Autotransporters of gram-negative bacteria are single-peptide secretion systems that consist of a functional N-terminal α-domain (“passenger”) fused to a C-terminal β-domain (“translocator”). How passenger proteins are translocated through the outer membrane has not been resolved, and at present essentially three different models are discussed. In the widely accepted “hairpin model” the passenger proteins are translocated through a channel formed by the β-barrel of the translocator that is integrated in the outer membrane. This model has been challenged by a recent proposal for a general autotransporter model suggesting that there is a hexameric translocation pore that is generated by the oligomerization of six β-domains. A third model suggests that conserved Omp85 participates in autotransporter integration and passenger protein translocation. To examine these models, in this study we investigated the presence of putative oligomeric structures of the translocator of the autotransporter adhesin involved in diffuse adherence (AIDA) in vivo by cross-linking techniques. Furthermore, the capacity of isolated AIDA fusion proteins to form oligomers was studied in vitro by several complementary analytical techniques, such as analytical gel filtration, electron microscopy, immunogold labeling, and cross-linking of recombinant autotransporter proteins in which different passenger proteins were fused to the AIDA translocator. Our results show that the AIDA translocator is mostly present as a monomer. Only a fraction of the AIDA autotransporter was found to form dimers on the bacterial surface and in solution. Higher-order structures, such as hexamers, were not detected either in vivo or in vitro and can therefore be excluded as functional moieties for the AIDA autotransporter.
Effect of Crack Length Measurement Technique and Data Reduction Procedures on the Perceived Toughness from Four-Point Bend End-Notched Flexure Tests

Results are presented from a study to determine the most appropriate crack length measurement and data reduction techniques for use with the four-point bend end-notched flexure test. Using two different graphite/epoxy materials, the variability in crack length measurements due to different observers and/or measurement techniques, including visual observation and ultrasonic inspection, and their effects on the perceived values of the mode II delamination toughness, GIIc, were evaluated for two different data reduction techniques. It was found that a technique using pretest compliance calibrations is the only approach that will produce accurate non-precracked and precracked values of GIIc regardless of the material being tested or the nature of crack advance. For those materials where GIIc values, as obtained by the more common approach that utilizes compliance values obtained during the test, agree with those obtained by compliance calibration, the results from the more common approach may be applied to obtain resistance curve toughnesses.
Effect of adjuvant chemotherapy in postmenopausal patients with invasive ductal versus lobular breast cancer.

BACKGROUND On the basis of the lack of response of invasive lobular breast cancer to neoadjuvant chemotherapy, we questioned the effectiveness of adjuvant chemotherapy in relation to histology. PATIENTS AND METHODS Women with primary nonmetastatic invasive ductal or (mixed type) lobular breast cancer, aged 50-70 years, diagnosed between 1995 and 2008, were selected from the Netherlands Cancer Registry and followed until January 1, 2010. The patients were divided in two groups: one group receiving adjuvant hormonal therapy only and the other receiving adjuvant hormonal therapy in combination with adjuvant chemotherapy. RESULTS In total, 19,609 patients had ductal cancer and 3685 had lobular cancer. The 10-year overall survival rate in ductal cancer when treated with hormonal therapy alone was 69%, compared with 74% with the combination therapy (P < 0.0001). In lobular cancer, 10-year survival rates were 68% after hormonal treatment alone and 66% after the combination therapy (P = 0.45). The hazard ratio (HR) for mortality in ductal cancer after combination therapy was 0.70 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.64-0.76; P < 0.0001], compared with hormonal treatment alone. The HR in lobular cancer was 1.00 (95% CI 0.82-1.21; P = 0.97). CONCLUSION Adjuvant chemotherapy seems to confer no additional beneficial effects in postmenopausal patients with pure or mixed type lobular breast cancer receiving hormonal therapy.
An Increase in Epithelial Cell Apoptosis Is Associated with Chronic Intestinal Nematode Infection

ABSTRACT It is well established that homeostasis of the intestinal epithelium becomes dysregulated during gastrointestinal helminth infection and is under immune control. An increase in both enterocyte proliferation and the subsequent generation of crypt hyperplasia are hallmarks of chronic infection with Trichuris muris, a large intestinal dwelling nematode. The effect of this parasitic infection on apoptosis induction in the large intestine and its regulation has been neglected. To address this, mice of resistant and susceptible phenotypes were infected with different doses of T. muris, and the levels of epithelial cell apoptosis were determined. It is clear that apoptosis is induced during chronic T. muris infection. This occurs mainly at the base of the cecal crypt, within the stem cell region. The level of apoptosis induced is independent of worm number, suggesting that it is not a consequence of worm-induced damage but rather a mechanism for controlling cell number within the crypt. Neutralization of both gamma interferon and tumor necrosis factor alpha caused a significant reduction in the levels of apoptosis, showing that proinflammatory cytokines generated in response to chronic infection play an important role in apoptosis induction in this system. It is proposed that the generation of proinflammatory cytokines during chronic T. muris infection may play a positive role, by promoting intestinal epithelial cell apoptosis, to counter infection-induced epithelial hyperplasia.