Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
HIF-1, GLUT1, endoglin, and BIRC5 expression in urine samples obtained from patients with bladder malignancies – after photodynamic diagnosis (PDD)

Introduction Bladder cancer (BC) is a serious medical problem. The high rate of recurrence and progression demands the development of new methods, such as genetic markers, which allow diagnosis and patient follow-up. Objectives The aim of this study was to compare expression of HIF-1, GLUT1, endoglin, and BRIC5 in patients without and those with BC. The second group was divided into sub-groups: those without a history of PDD (photodynamic diagnosis) in the diagnostic process and those after PDD. Methods Patients with BC were diagnosed using the PDD method using hexaminolevulinate (Hexvix®). The expressions of HIF-1, GLUT1, endoglin, and BRIC5 genes were established in urine specimens by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Results The expressions of all tested genes were higher in the group of patients with BC than in the group without BC. In the group after PDD, a statistically significant overexpression of HIF-1 was observed. In this group, changes were not observed in cases of the other three tested genes. Conclusions The differences between the group with PDD and the group without it can be connected with the direct influence of PDD on malignant tissue, which can cause overexpression of HIF-1 only. This is, however, only a hypothesis and needs further study.
BAF250a Expression in Atypical Endometriosis and Endometriosis-Associated Ovarian Cancer

Background and Objective Atypical endometriosis (AE) is thought to be a precursor lesion to the ovarian cancer subtypes associated with endometriosis, namely, endometrioid and clear cell carcinomas. ARID1A encodes a nuclear protein (BAF250a) governing chromatin remodeling, and mutations in ARID1A have been found in 30% to 50% of clear cell and endometrioid ovarian cancers. As BAF250a expression loss by immunohistochemistry (IHC) has been documented in the endometriosis precursor lesions closely associated with these ovarian cancers subtypes, our goal was to further study the association between BAF250a expression in cases of AE with and without an associated cancer. Methods Three separate databases were screened for suspected cases of AE. Based on a detailed review of the pathology reports, we selected cases likely to contain AE for slide review. After slide review, tissue blocks were recalled to perform IHC for BAF250a in the associated cancer, AE, or typical endometriosis when present. Results There were 35 cases of endometriosis-associated cancer and 8 cases of AE not associated with cancer. Atypical endometriosis was found on pathology review in 23 endometriosis-associated cancer cases (66%). In the 35 cancer cases, BAF250a IHC showed loss of expression in 14 cases. Atypical endometriosis was present in 10 of these cases, 6 of which showed BAF250a loss (60%). BAF250a loss was not observed in the 8 cases of AE not associated with cancer or in the contiguous AE of 13 cases, whereby BAF250a expression was retained in the associated cancer. Conclusions BAF250a loss in AE is consistently associated with the development of BAF250a-negative endometriosis-associated cancers and appears to be an early event in most of these cases. This research provides additional evidence that in the absence of cancer, BAF250a expression should be evaluated as a biomarker of cancer risk in patients diagnosed with AE.
SILCA-Newton-Krylov : Robust and Efficient Time-Domain VLSI Circuit Simulation by Krylov-Subspace Iterative Methods with Quasi-Newton Preconditioners

In this paper, we present SILCA-Newton-Krylov, a new method for accurate, efficient and robust timedomain VLSI circuit simulation. Similar to SPICE, SILCA-Newton-Krylov uses time-difference and Newton-Raphson for solving nonlinear differential equations from circuit simulation. But different from SPICE, SILCA-Newton-Krylov explores a preconditioned flexible generalized minimal residual (FGMRES) method, instead of traditional LU factorization, to solve the system of linear equations in the inner iteration loop. Our key contribution is to introduce an effective and robust quasi-Newton preconditioning scheme to ensure both the robustness and efficiency of iterative methods. Quasi-Newton methods have been explored previously to reduce the number of LU factorization for circuit simulation, however, their converge rate and stability often deteriorate. In this paper, quasi-Newton methods are applied to construct the preconditioners instead of directly to construct and solve circuit equations. Specifically, a systematic method for adaptive time-step size control and a systematic method to generate piecewise weakly nonlinear (PWNL) definition of nonlinear devices are proposed to construct quasi-Newton preconditioners so that the total number of LU factorization for preconditioning is minimized during the entire time-domain simulation. With the PWNL definition, the preconditioner is kept constant if all nonlinear devices reside in their present operating PWNL regions. When nonlinear devices switch their operating PWNL regions, the low-rank update technique is applied to update the preconditioner efficiently rather than to perform new LU factorization. To reduce further the preconditioning cost, we test incomplete LU preconditioners derived from the factorized full L and U matrices, as well as incomplete LU preconditioners followed by an FGMRES preconditioner. All these techniques combined lead to a new time-domain circuit simulation method, named SILCA-Newton-Krylov, which has been implemented into SPICE3. Experimental results on a collection of analog and digital circuits have shown that SILCA-Newton-Krylov is as robust and accurate as SPICE. SILCA-Newton-Krylov is especially attractive for simulating circuits with a massive amount of parasitic RLC elements for post-layout verification. For example, for a nonlinear circuit with power/ground networks with tens of thousand elements, SILCA-Newton-Krylov is shown to yield the SPICE-like accuracy and over 20X overall CPU time speedup over SPICE3, and furthermore the speedup increases with the size of a circuit.
A Weighted Error Metric and Optimization Method for Antialiasing Patterns

Displaying a synthetic image on a computer display requires determining the colors of individual pixels. To avoid aliasing, multiple samples of the image can be taken per pixel, after which the color of a pixel may be computed as a weighted sum of the samples. The positions and weights of the samples play a major role in the resulting image quality, especially in real‐time applications where usually only a handful of samples can be afforded per pixel. This paper presents a new error metric and an optimization method for antialiasing patterns used in image reconstruction. The metric is based on comparing the pattern against a given reference reconstruction filter in spatial domain, and it takes into account psychovisually measured angle‐specific acuities for sharp features.
Evaluating the content and quality of intrapartum care in vaginal births: An example of a state hospital

Objective: The purpose of the research was to assess the content and quality of the intrapartum care offered in vaginal births in Turkey, based on the example of a state hospital. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted between January 1st, 2013 and December 31st, 2014 at Aydın Maternity and Children’s Hospital. The study sample consisted of 303 women giving vaginal birth, who were recruited into the study using the method of convenience sampling. Research data were collected with a questionnaire created by the researchers and assessed using the Bologna score. Numbers and percentages were assessed in the data analysis. Results: The mean age of the women was 25.14±5.37 years and 40.5% had given one live birth. Of the women, 45.2% were admitted to hospital in the latent phase, 76.6% were administered an enema, 3.3% had epidural anesthesia, 2.6% delivered using vacuum extraction, and 54.1% underwent an episiotomy. Some 23.8% of the women experienced spontaneous laceration that needed sutures. The babies of two women exhibited an Apgar score below 7 in the fifth minute. When the quality of the intrapartum care given to the women was assessed with the Bologna score, it was found that 92.7% went into labor spontaneously, 100% of the births were supervised by midwives and doctors, 97.7% of the women had no supporting companion, and the nonsupine position was only used in 0.3% of the women. A partogram was used to follow up on the birth process in 72.6% of the women, and 82.5% achieved contact with their babies within the first hour after birth. Induction was applied in 76.6% of the women and fundal pressure in 27.4%. Conclusion: The study revealed that the quality of intrapartum care in vaginal births was inadequate. Reformulating the guidelines regarding intrapartum care in accordance with World Health Organization recommendations and evidence-based practices may contribute to improving mother and infant health.
TEACHING THE COMMUNICATIVE USE OF ENGLISH

L'apprentissagc d'une languc ctrangcre suppose, a cotc d'une connaissance des regles grammaticalcs, aussi que l'eleve se familiarise avec les regles qui determinent l'usage linguistique correct dans differentes situations communicatives. Ces dernieres regles ont ete jusqu'ici negligees dans Penseignement des langues etrangeres. L'article s'occupe des possibilites qui existent d'apprendrc aux eleves les regles qui, en anglais, determinent la competence communicative du locuteur.
A vernacular way of “safeguarding” intangible heritage: the fall and rise of rituals in Gouliang Miao village

This paper documents a vernacular method of interpreting and safeguarding intangible heritage in an ethnic Miao village in China. Tracing the conflicting discourses of ritual in different stages of the past and the present, it shows how ritual practices were transformed by imperial Qing officials in the mid-nineteenth century, demonised and denounced as feudal superstition during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), exploited as cultural resources for ethnic tourism since the early twentieth century and involved in the evaluation system of intangible cultural heritage in the twenty-first century. Based on ethnographic materials collected in 2008 and 2009, this paper argues that it is the inherited vernacular narratives and ritual performances that are negotiating with the state’s constant effort of shaping the ritual through various discourses, constructing the meaning of inheritance and safeguarding the intangible heritage within the community.
FREQUENCY EFFECTS ON THE INTELLIGIBILITY OF ENGLISH WORDS WITH HIGH FRONT VOWELS

The aim of the present study is to examine to what extent intelligibility scores, as measured through word transcription, correlate with lexical frequency and with listeners’ familiarity with the target words. 32 listeners from different language backgrounds had to orthographically transcribe ten missing target-words (all CVC words, five with the tense high front vowel and five with its lax counterpart), which were produced by Brazilian Portuguese learners of English. In order to assess word frequency, the Corpus of Contemporary American English (DAVIES, 2013) was used. Moreover, listeners’ familiarity with the target lexical items was assessed using a four-point rating scale. Spearman correlations revealed significant, and moderate to strong relationships between intelligibility, frequency and familiarity, showing that the more frequent the lexical item, the more intelligible it was according to listeners’ performance; the more familiar listeners were to a certain lexical item, the more intelligible it was. Furthermore, the semantic and syntactic cotext of the sentences containing the target words influenced listeners’ performance to a certain extent, depending both on the listeners’ L2 proficiency level, the acoustic features of the target words, and lexical frequency
Série Scientifique Scientific Series 2011 s20 Peer Effects , Fast Food Consumption and Adolescent Weight Gain

This paper aims at opening the black box of peer effects in adolescent weight gain. Using Add Health data on secondary schools in the U.S., we investigate whether these effects partly flow through the eating habits channel. Adolescents are assumed to interact through a friendship social network. We first propose a social interaction model of fast food consumption using a generalized spatial autoregressive approach. We exploit results by Bramoullé, Djebbari and Fortin (2009) which show that intransitive links within a network (i.e., a friend of one of my friends is not my friend) help identify peer effects. The model is estimated using maximum likelihood and generalized 2SLS strategies. We also estimate a panel dynamic weight gain production function relating an adolescent’s Body Mass Index (BMI) to his current fast food consumption and his lagged BMI level. Results show that there are positive significant peer effects in fast food consumption among adolescents belonging to a same friendship school network. The estimated social multiplier is 1.59. Our results also suggest that, at the network level, an extra day of weekly fast food restaurant visits increases BMI by 2.4%, when peer effects are taken into account. Mots clés : Obesity, overweight, peer effects, social interactions, fast food, spatial models.
The Importance of Innovative Management Practices as Part of Business Success in a Developing Nation: A Case Study of Communications Fiji Ltd.

Abstract Communications Fiji Limited (CFL) is a profitable, high-profile, publicly owned media organisation originally set up in Fiji by William Parkinson in 1986. This company is a market leader and has expanded throughout the Pacific over the last decade to include radio stations in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. Much of the success of this small medium enterprise (SME) has been due to the innovative management practices employed and encouraged by Parkinson. Awareness of cultural differences, knowledge of indigenous traditions and viewpoints, and sensitivity to macro, societal, and internal influences, has allowed the company to successfully incorporate these sensibilities into everyday management philosophy. The CFL experience provides an example of functional and innovative management practices that may have utility for other SMEs in developing nations.
Proportion of unaffected sites in a reaction-diffusion process

We consider the probability P(t) that a given site remains unvisited by any of a set of random walkers in d dimensions undergoing the reaction A+A to 0 when they meet. We find that, asymptotically, P(t) approximately t- phi with a universal exponent theta = 1/2 approximately O( epsilon ) for d=2- epsilon , while, for d>2, theta is non-universal and depends on the reaction rate. The analysis, which uses field-theoretic renormalization-group methods, is also applied to the reaction kA to 0 with k>2. In this case, a stretched exponential behaviour is found for all d>or=1, except in the case k=3, d=1, where P(t) approximately e(-const(Int)32/).
Caspase-3 and -6 Expression and Enzyme Activity in Hen Granulosa Cells1

Abstract We have cloned and sequenced cDNAs corresponding to the complete coding regions of the chicken homologues to mammalian caspase-3 and caspase-6. Both caspases are included among members of the cysteine protease (caspase) family that are most closely identified with mediating apoptosis. The deduced amino acid sequences for chicken caspase-3 and -6 show 65% and 68% identity with the respective human sequences, with complete conservation found within the QACRG active peptide region. Both caspase-3 and -6 are widely expressed within various tissues from the hen. Within the ovary, levels of caspase-3 and caspase-6 mRNA and protein do not change significantly in theca tissue during follicle development. On the other hand, procaspase-3 and -6 protein levels are elevated by 2- to 5-fold in preovulatory, compared to prehierarchal (6- to 8-mm diameter), follicle granulosa cells. Nevertheless, the function of this family of cell death-inducing proteins requires activation of the proenzyme caspase, which occurs after cleavage at predictable sites within the N-terminal domain. Accordingly, it was determined that okadaic acid, a pharmacologic inducer of apoptotic cell death in cultured apoptosis-resistant, preovulatory follicle granulosa cells, induced both caspase-3- and caspase-6-like activity within 8–16 h of treatment. By comparison, spontaneous apoptotic cell death that occurs in apoptosis-sensitive, prehierarchal follicle granulosa cells after short-term suspension culture is accompanied by a more rapid increase (within 2 h) in both caspase-3- and -6-like activity. Treatment with 8-bromo-cAMP, which has previously been shown to attenuate, or at least slow, the onset of apoptosis in prehierarchal follicle granulosa cells, mitigates this suspension culture-induced increase in caspase activity. While the present results provide further support for the relationship between caspase activation and apoptotic cell death in hen granulosa cells, the molecular ordering of enzymatic events and the caspase-specific substrates remain to be elucidated.
Students' Misconceptions About Hypothesis Test

Students’ misconceptions about hypothesis test have been discussed for decades by many researchers in the developed countries. However, documented studies in the non-developed countries are lacking. The purpose of this study is to fill the gap by identifying misconceptions about hypothesis test made by students in the higher education institutions in a developing country. Descriptive analysis namely percentages and pie charts have been used to analyze students’ responses to open-ended items. The misconceptions identified in this study are similar to those discussed in earlier literature implying that students in different educational settings are prone to similar misconceptions about hypothesis test.
Comparing clean intermittent catheterisation and transurethral indwelling catheterisation for incomplete voiding after vaginal prolapse surgery: a multicentre randomised trial

participate was in all cases that the physician taking care of the woman either forgot to inform her about the randomised controlled trial or had no time to do so because of other clinical challenges at the time. We can confirm that there were no differences in baseline characteristics between women that were approached to participate and those who were not. Second, concerning their surprise that the body mass index (BMI) of our study population seemed low; in the Netherlands a BMI of 23–26 is representative for the population undergoing prolapse surgery. Furthermore, there is no known association between BMI and voiding difficulty. Third, concerning clean intermittent self-catheterisation, we would like to emphasise that in the trial, nursing staff taught the women how to perform clean intermittent selfcatheterisation after which they were encouraged to do it themselves. The main reason that women did not manage to do this was because they recovered so fast. Fourth, regarding the different number of women that were lost to follow up at 1 week after intervention, the questions about intervention-related bother and satisfaction, were answered by the woman while still in the hospital whereas the principal investigator assessed the presence of urinary tract infection-related symptoms after discharge. Therefore, these data were taken at different times and by different people, which explains why the loss to follow up is different. We also thank Dixon et al. for their interest. They comment that our study failed to address the impact that clean intermittent catheterisation (CIC) has on the organisation and workload of nursing staff. One of the challenges of evidence-based medicine is to implement the results of trials in daily clinical practice. We have to explain to our nursing staff not only how to teach CIC to women who need it, but also to convince nursing staff that the reduced morbidity and costs associated with CIC are valuable both for the women and for the care service. As stated by Dixon et al. from their unpublished results, nursing staff are willing to change management if they can be convinced that it improves outcome. Regarding patient satisfaction, we concluded that both procedures were well accepted. This is in line with the findings of Dixon et al. in their study. Our interpretation is that women realise that they have a problem that needs to be managed. However, we also agree that the women’s preferences need to be further explored and have done this by a patient preference study that evaluates in detail how women rate intervention-related bother. We agree with Dixon et al. that vigilant bladder care is essential when introducing CIC. We also observed a reserved attitude of nursing staff to this intervention at the time of introduction. Now we have trial-based evidence to advocate CIC, we are confident that further implementation of CIC in our clinic will be supported by our nursing staff. j
Analysis of event-related alpha oscillations in auditory P300 by Wavelet Transform (WT) method

Using the Wavelet Transform (WT), a time frequency representation, we studied responses to auditory stimulation in the ‘alpha’ range (8Hz–13Hz) in the low and high education groups. Auditory evoked responses of total 16 healthy subjects (8 in each group, low and high education groups) were studied with 2 different auditory stimuli (standard and target stimuli). Upon the stimulus types, event-related responses in the 8Hz–13Hz (‘alpha’) range were distributed mainly in the central (Fz, Cz and Pz) locations. The Low education group had significantly high alpha power at Fz and Cz locations comparing the High education group in the case of standard stimuli, where as remarkable increased alpha power was found in the same group in the case of target stimuli at Pz area. We concluded that the distributed origin of event-related alpha oscillations has the relationship with educational experience.
Vigor, Anxiety, and Depressive Symptoms as Predictors of Changes in Fibrinogen and C-reactive Protein

We expected vigor to predict lower levels and depressive symptoms and anxiety to predict higher levels of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (CRP) and fibrinogen across time. Participants (N = 538 men and 203 women) were apparently healthy employees examined about three years apart (T1 and T2). We analysed our data separately for men and women, controlling for T1 level of the criterion. For the women, T1 vigor predicted lower T2 fibrinogen (controlling for T1 fibrinogen) and was curvilinearly associated with T2 CRP (controlling for T1 CRP). For the men, T1 vigor was curvilinearly associated with T2 fibrinogen and--for younger men only--T1 vigor predicted lower levels of T2 CRP, controlling for the TI values of each criterion. T1 depressive symptoms and anxiety did not predict the T1 to T2 changes in fibrinogen and CRP. No support for possible reverse causation was found. We suggest that high levels of vigor may be implicated in reductions over time of CRP and fibrinogen concentrations among both men and women.
SubMM-wave multipliers by film-diode technology

A series of THz-MIC-s were successfully fabricated by a so-called Film-Diode process. Sub-millimeter-wave multipliers based on these MIC-s were tested with excellent results. Peak measured output power of these multipliers was 14mW@332GHz, 12mW@440GHz, and 5mW@600GHz. These results represent European state-of-the-art performance at these frequencies.