Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Real‐time tissue elastography for evaluation of hepatic fibrosis and portal hypertension in nonalcoholic fatty liver diseases

The aim of this study was to prospectively measure liver stiffness with real‐time tissue elastography in patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver diseases (NAFLD) and to compare the result with the clinical assessment of fibrosis using histological stage. One hundred and eighty‐one prospectively enrolled patients underwent real‐time tissue elastography, with the first 106 being analyzed as the training set and the remaining 75 being evaluated as the validation set. Hepatic and splenic elastic ratios were calculated and compared with stage of histological fibrosis. Portal hypertension (PH) was assessed. Real‐time tissue elastography cut‐off values by stage in the training set were 2.47 for F1, 2.67 for F2, 3.02 for F3, and 3.36 for F4. Using these cut‐off values, the diagnostic accuracy of hepatic fibrosis in the validation set was 82.6%‐96.0% in all stages. Only portal fibrosis correlated with the hepatic elastic ratio by multivariate analysis. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of elastic ratio better correlated than serum fibrosis markers in both early and advanced fibrosis stages. Patients with PH, defined by splenic elasticity, had early fibrosis. Patients with severe PH were found only in the group with cirrhosis. Conclusion: Real‐time tissue elastography is useful in evaluating hepatic fibrosis and PH in patients with NAFLD. (HEPATOLOGY 2012)
The relative influence of calcium, strontium and magnesium on calcitonin secretion in the pig.

Young pigs were infused in vivo with solutions of calcium, magnesium and strontium. Calcitonin was measured by radioimmunoassay in blood samples taken from an indwelling jugular catheter placed in the vicinity of the thyroid venous drainage. A several-fold rise in plasma concentration of magnesium or strontium was followed by a rise in plasma CT. A comparison of equimolar infusions of calcium, magnesium, and strontium suggests that the relative sensitivity of the CT secretory mechanism to these cations is calcium > strontium >magnesium. (Endocrinology 94: 1176, 1974)
Partial replacement of chromium in austenitic stainless steels by molybdenum, copper, and vanadium

The Bureau of Mines is investigating low-chromium alloy substitutes for type 304 stainless steel (type 304 SS). The purpose of the research is to reduce the chromium content in austenitic stainless steels used for corrosion-resistant applications. Nine Fe-9Cr-12Ni alloys contain ing additions of 0 to 5 pct Mo, 0 to 2 pct V, and 0 to 2 pct Cu were selected for evaluation. All of the experimental alloys containing 5 pct Mo and an alloy con taining 2Mo-2V-2Cu possessed structure and tensile strengths similar to those of type 304 SSe Alloys containing SMo-2V and SMo-2V-2Cu had ac ceptable welding properties as measured by the Varestraint test. Alloys containing at least 2 pct Mo had cQrrosion resistance compara ble to that of type 304 SS in solutions of nitric acid, phosphoric acid, acetic acid, and citric acid. In chlorides, all the experimental alloys were susceptible to localized corrosion and stress corrosion cracking similar to that of type 304 SSe The corrosion properties were estab lished by weight-loss tests, electrochemical polarization tests, and stress-corrosion cracking tests. An Fe-9Cr-12Ni-SMo-2V alloy and an Fe-9Cr-12Ni-SMo-2V-2Cu alloy had a combination of welding properties, tensile properties, and corrosion re sistances that were most comparable to those of 304 SSe
Effect of Systane and Optive on Aqueous Tear Evaporation in Patients With Dry Eye Disease

Objective: To compare the effect on aqueous tear (AT) evaporation rate of Systane and Optive at 30 min postinstillation in patients with dry eye. Methods: In a crossover study of 20 patients with keratoconjunctivitis sicca, the evaporation rate of AT was measured. Evaporometry was used at two relative humidity (RH) ranges of 25% to 35% and 35% to 45%. The measurements were made at baseline (before the instillation of the study agent) and at 30 min after the instillation of 40 μL of either Systane or Optive per randomization assignment per visit with a 1-week interval between visits. Results: No significant effects on AT evaporation rates at both RHs were found between study agents. Conclusions: In our study, neither Systane nor Optive has a significant impact on AT evaporation at 30 min postinstillation in patients with dry eye.
[Effect of epidural analgesia on the duration of labor stages and delivery outcome].

OBJECTIVE To assess the effect of epidural analgesia on the duration of labor stages and the delivery outcome. METHODS This prospective study was conducted in 328 nulliparous term parturients presenting for delivery in December 1 to 31, 2011. The parturients were assigned into epidural analgesia group (n=162) and control group (n=166) according to their request when no contraindications were present. The stage I, stage II, and total duration of labor, volume blood loss, oxytocin use, delivery mode, and neonatal outcomes were compared between the two groups. RESULTS In epidural analgesia group, the duration of stage I and stage II labor and the total duration of labor was 497.9∓168.4 min, 54.3∓43.8 min, and 522.1∓178.9 min, respectively, significantly longer than those in the control group (404.2∓156.0 min, 31.5∓19.8 min, and 435.8∓159.2 min, respectively, P≤0.05). No significant difference was found between the two groups in the rates of oxytocin use, emergency cesarean section, instrumental delivery, meconium-stained amniotic fluid, and low Apgar scores (P≥0.05). CONCLUSION Epidural analgesia prolongs the labor duration, especially the second stage of labor, but it does not increase the incidences of emergency cesarean section or instrumental delivery or cause adverse effect on the neonatal outcome, and is therefore safe for pain relief in labor.
Tactile Substitution for Vision

Sensory Substitution ( SenSub ) is an approach that allows perceiving environmental information that is normally received via one sense (e.g., vision) via another sense (e.g., touch or audition). A typical SenSub system includes three major components: (a) a sensor that senses information typically received by the substituted modality (e.g., visual), (b) a coupling system that can process the sensor’s output and drive the actuator, and (c) an actuator that activates receptors of the substituting modality.
Scaling up experimental ocean acidification and warming research: from individuals to the ecosystem

Understanding long‐term, ecosystem‐level impacts of climate change is challenging because experimental research frequently focuses on short‐term, individual‐level impacts in isolation. We address this shortcoming first through an interdisciplinary ensemble of novel experimental techniques to investigate the impacts of 14‐month exposure to ocean acidification and warming (OAW) on the physiology, activity, predatory behaviour and susceptibility to predation of an important marine gastropod (Nucella lapillus). We simultaneously estimated the potential impacts of these global drivers on N. lapillus population dynamics and dispersal parameters. We then used these data to parameterize a dynamic bioclimatic envelope model, to investigate the consequences of OAW on the distribution of the species in the wider NE Atlantic region by 2100. The model accounts also for changes in the distribution of resources, suitable habitat and environment simulated by finely resolved biogeochemical models, under three IPCC global emissions scenarios. The experiments showed that temperature had the greatest impact on individual‐level responses, while acidification had a similarly important role in the mediation of predatory behaviour and susceptibility to predators. Changes in Nucella predatory behaviour appeared to serve as a strategy to mitigate individual‐level impacts of acidification, but the development of this response may be limited in the presence of predators. The model projected significant large‐scale changes in the distribution of Nucella by the year 2100 that were exacerbated by rising greenhouse gas emissions. These changes were spatially heterogeneous, as the degree of impact of OAW on the combination of responses considered by the model varied depending on local‐environmental conditions and resource availability. Such changes in macro‐scale distributions cannot be predicted by investigating individual‐level impacts in isolation, or by considering climate stressors separately. Scaling up the results of experimental climate change research requires approaches that account for long‐term, multiscale responses to multiple stressors, in an ecosystem context.
Functional Plasmonic Mesh Architectures

Functional Plasmonic Mesh Architectures Charles Chih-Chin Lin Master of Applied Science Graduate Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering University of Toronto 2013 The aim of this thesis is to establish a platform for implementing nanoscale plasmonic slot waveguide (PSW) devices that can interface with dielectric technology for hybrid silicon-plasmonic interconnect applications. For waveguide excitation, an orthogonal junction coupler that operates based on momentum matching is analyzed and then experimentally demonstrated to have coupling efficiency of 50 ± 2 % between 450 nm wide silicon waveguide and 50 nm wide PSW across a 200 nm bandwidth. Next, for designing scalable optical components with multiple-input multiple-output capability and high fabrication tolerance, two dimensional PSW mesh structure that utilizes simultaneous power distribution and interference within a network of intersecting PSW junctions is introduced. Finally, a closed-form model for PSW mesh structures is derived by incorporating the characteristic impedance model into the scattering matrix formalism. The model can handle arbitrary combination of junctions and has less than 5 % discrepancy when compared to Finite-Difference Time-Domain results.
Mitochondrial Preference for Short Chain Fatty Acid Oxidation During Coronary Artery Constriction

Background—Reduced fatty acid oxidation in hypoperfused myocardium is believed to result from impaired oxidation in mitochondria. This study suggests another mechanism, that oxidative capacity exceeds regulated entry of long chain fatty acid (LCFA). The ability of myocardium to oxidize fatty acids and metabolize glucose during stenosis was examined in open chest, anesthetized pigs. Methods and Results—The left anterior descending (LAD) coronary artery was infused for 40 minutes (5 mL/min LAD) with [2–13C] butyrate (4 mmol/L), a short chain fatty acid (SCFA), plus [2–13C] glucose (10 mmol/L) in either nonischemic controls (n=4) or at the end of 5 hours of LAD flow reduction (40%, n=7). With LAD constriction, left ventricular wall thickening fell 45±8% (P <0.01). Despite glycolytic production of lactate and alanine, hypoperfused myocardium preferentially oxidized SCFA over endogenous LCFA. SCFA accounted for 63±4% (mean±SEM) of carbon units entering oxidation in both ischemic epicardium and endocardium versus only 38±4% and 40±6% in respective samples from normal myocardium (P <0.002). Unexpectedly, SCFA contributions were elevated in both endocardium and epicardium despite preserved epicardial blood flow versus a 58±9% drop in endocardial flow (P <0.05). No significant oxidation of glucose was evident, indicating that unlabeled fuels were primarily LCFA. Conclusions—Because SCFA bypass LCFA transport into mitochondria, during LAD constriction, mitochondrial capacity to oxidize fatty acid exceeds LCFA entry for oxidation. Importantly, metabolic changes were disassociated from transmural tissue perfusion. These findings suggest that signals other than oxygen availability regulate fatty acid use during hypoperfusion.
Prevalence and relationship of human papilloma virus type 16 and type 18 with oral squamous cell carcinoma and oral leukoplakia in fresh scrappings: a PCR study.

INTRODUCTION It has been always an area of diffuse clarity when you study malignancy and its pathogenesis. Recently, it has invited lot of interest among the researchers about the possibility of role of viruses in the initiation of carcinogenesis. Recent advances in the field of molecular biology and biotechnology have solved some problems with regard to pathogenesis. Human papilloma virus (HPV) and its role in the initiation of malignancy in the cervix is proven almost beyond doubt. OBJECTIVES The present study is aimed at the role of two types of HPV 16 and 18 in the initiation of oral premalignant and squamous cell carcinoma. The study also aims at using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in finding out the prevalence of these types diagnosed histologically as oral leukoplakia and oral squamous cell carcinoma and prevalence of its association with the habit of tobacco use. MATERIALS AND METHODS In the present study, 45 patients having histopathologically confirmed oral squamous cell carcinoma in the age range of 32-85 years were selected along with 20 histopathologically confirmed oral leukoplakia in the age range 22-66 years. All the samples were subjected to polymerase chain reaction. The PCR reaction was carried out in PTC 200 thermo-cycler [MJ Research Inc, Watertown, MA, USA]. RESULTS The site prevalence and co-infection rate of these two types of viruses are being analyzed using very simple non-invasive scrapings obtained from fresh scrapings and found to be really high. It was also observed that 73.3% (33/45) of the oral squamous cell carcinoma patients were positive for oral HPV type 16 while 71.1% (32/45) were positive for HPV type 18 infection and 57.7% (26/45) were found to have both HPV type 16 and HPV type 18 infections. CONCLUSIONS HPV type 16, 18, and co-infection of both types showed high prevalence in oral squamous cell carcinoma.The prevalence of HPV type 18 was found to be higher than HPV type 16 and co-infection in oral leukoplakia. It was observed that the tongue and palate lesions in the oral squamous cell carcinoma patients showed high prevalence of HPV type 16, type 18, and co-infection compared with other sites.
Grouping-Based Interference Alignment With IA-Cell Assignment in Multi-Cell MIMO MAC Under Limited Feedback

Interference alignment (IA) is a promising technique to efficiently mitigate interference and to enhance the capacity of a wireless communication network. This paper proposes a grouping-based interference alignment (GIA) with optimized IA-Cell assignment for the multiple cells interfering multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) multiple access channel (MAC) network under limited feedback. This work consists of three main parts: 1) an improved version (including some new improvements) of the GIA with respect to the degrees of freedom (DoF) and optimal linear transceiver design is provided, which allows for low-complexity and distributed implementation; 2) based on the GIA, the concept of IA-Cell assignment is introduced. Three IA-Cell assignment algorithms are proposed with different backhaul overhead and their DoF and rate performance is investigated; 3)the performance of the proposed GIA algorithms is studied under limited feedback of IA precoders. To enable efficient feedback, a dynamic feedback bit allocation (DBA) problem is formulated and solved in closed-form. The practical implementation, the backhaul overhead requirements, and the complexity of the proposed algorithms are analyzed. Numerical results show that our proposed algorithms greatly outperform the traditional GIA under both unlimited and limited feedback.
Adaptive Kalman Filtering and Smoothing for Tracking Vocal Tract Resonances Using a Continuous-Valued Hidden Dynamic Model

A novel Kalman filtering/smoothing algorithm is presented for efficient and accurate estimation of vocal tract resonances or formants, which are natural frequencies and bandwidths of the resonator from larynx to lips, in fluent speech. The algorithm uses a hidden dynamic model, with a state-space formulation, where the resonance frequency and bandwidth values are treated as continuous-valued hidden state variables. The observation equation of the model is constructed by an analytical predictive function from the resonance frequencies and bandwidths to LPC cepstra as the observation vectors. This nonlinear function is adaptively linearized, and a residual or bias term, which is adaptively trained, is added to the nonlinear function to represent the iteratively reduced piecewise linear approximation error. Details of the piecewise linearization design process are described. An iterative tracking algorithm is presented, which embeds both the adaptive residual training and piecewise linearization design in the Kalman filtering/smoothing framework. Experiments on estimating resonances in Switchboard speech data show accurate estimation results. In particular, the effectiveness of the adaptive residual training is demonstrated. Our approach provides a solution to the traditional "hidden formant problem," and produces meaningful results even during consonantal closures when the supra-laryngeal source may cause no spectral prominences in speech acoustics
ZEOLITE MIXTURES AS ADSORPTIVE FILL MATERIAL WITH SUSTAINABLE BEARING CAPACITY

A number of industrial zones in South Korea were reported to be contaminated by heavy metals by the leachate from industrial activities. Such contamination could cause serious damage to the subsurface environment including soil and groundwater, which is often the source of our drinking water. The treatment of zeolite mixing at the bottom of such industrial zones might prevent, or at least reduce, the damage of contamination by adsorption of the heavy metals from the leakage. However, such mixtures should maintain the proper bearing capacity as a foundation fill material from the geotechnical point of view at the same time. To investigate the effect of mixtures of zeolite with local soils for the adsorption of heavy metals (Zn) and sustainability of bearing capacity, adsorption isotherm tests and direct shear test with compaction tests were performed. Results showed that mixing the zeolite with local soils might effectively reduce the spreading of the heavy metal contamination when maintaining its proper geotechnical properties as a fill material of industrial zones.
Neonatal end-of-life decision making: Physicians' attitudes and relationship with self-reported practices in 10 European countries.

CONTEXT The ethical issues surrounding end-of-life decision making for infants with adverse prognoses are controversial. Little empirical evidence is available on the attitudes and values that underlie such decisions in different countries and cultures. OBJECTIVE To explore the variability of neonatal physicians' attitudes among 10 European countries and the relationship between such attitudes and self-reported practice of end-of-life decisions. DESIGN AND SETTING Survey conducted during 1996-1997 in 10 European countries (France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Estonia, Hungary, and Lithuania). PARTICIPANTS A total of 1391 physicians (response rate, 89%) regularly employed in 142 neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Scores on an attitude scale, which measured views regarding absolute value of life (score of 0) vs value of quality of life (score of 10); self-report of having ever set limits to intensive neonatal interventions in cases of poor neurological prognosis. RESULTS Physicians more likely to agree with statements consistent with preserving life at any cost were from Hungary (mean attitude scores, 5.2 [95% confidence interval ¿CI¿, 4.9-5.5]), Estonia (4.9 [95% CI, 4.3-5.5]), Lithuania (5.5 [95% CI, 4.8-6.1]), and Italy (5.7 [95% CI, 5.3-6.0]), while physicians more likely to agree with the idea that quality of life must be taken into account were from the United Kingdom (attitude scores, 7.4 [95% CI, 7.1-7.7]), the Netherlands (7. 3 [95% CI, 7.1-7.5]), and Sweden (6.8 [95% CI, 6.4-7.3]). Other factors associated with having a pro-quality-of-life view were being female, having had no children, being Protestant or having no religious background, considering religion as not important, and working in an NICU with a high number of very low-birth-weight newborns. Physicians with scores reflecting a more quality-of-life view were more likely to report that in their practice, they had set limits to intensive interventions in cases of poor neurological prognosis, with an adjusted odds ratio of 1.5 (95% CI, 1.3-1.7) per unit change in attitude score. CONCLUSIONS In our study, physicians' likelihood of reporting setting limits to intensive neonatal interventions in cases of poor neurological prognosis is related to their attitudes. After adjusting for potential confounders, country remained the most important predictor of physicians' attitudes and practices. JAMA. 2000;284:2451-2459.
L-Theanine Elicits an Umami Taste with Inosine 5′-Monophosphate

We investigated the taste synergy between L-theanine and the flavour enhancer, inosine 5′-monophosphate (IMP), by using a human sensory evaluation. When L-theanine was added to IMP, only the umami taste was enhanced. We then investigated this synergistic effect of L-theanine in mice by gustatory nerve recording. We confirmed the synergism between L-theanine and IMP for the umami taste.
Automatic Reverse Engineering of Data Structures from Binary Execution

With only the binary executable of a program, it is useful to discover the program's data structures and infer their syntactic and semantic definitions. Such knowledge is highly valuable in a variety of security and forensic applications. Although there exist efforts in program data structure inference, the existing solutions are not suitable for our targeted application scenarios. In this paper, we propose a reverse engineering technique to automatically reveal program data structures from binaries. Our technique, called REWARDS, is based on dynamic analysis. More specifically, each memory location accessed by the program is tagged with a timestamped type attribute. Following the program's runtime data flow, this attribute is propagated to other memory locations and registers that share the same type. During the propagation, a variable's type gets resolved if it is involved in a type-revealing execution point or type sink. More importantly, besides the forward type propagation, REWARDS involves a backward type resolution procedure where the types of some previously accessed variables get recursively resolved starting from a type sink. This procedure is constrained by the timestamps of relevant memory locations to disambiguate variables re-using the same memory location. In addition, REWARDS is able to reconstruct in-memory data structure layout based on the type information derived. We demonstrate that REWARDS provides unique benefits to two applications: memory image forensics and binary fuzzing for vulnerability discovery.
Distinct roles for two RAD51-related genes in Trypanosoma brucei antigenic variation

In Trypanosoma brucei, DNA recombination is crucial in antigenic variation, a strategy for evading the mammalian host immune system found in a wide variety of pathogens. T.brucei has the capacity to encode >1000 antigenically distinct variant surface glycoproteins (VSGs). By ensuring that only one VSG is expressed on the cell surface at one time, and by periodically switching the VSG gene that is expressed, T.brucei can evade immune killing for prolonged periods. Much of VSG switching appears to rely on a widely conserved DNA repair pathway called homologous recombination, driven by RAD51. Here, we demonstrate that T.brucei encodes a further five RAD51-related proteins, more than has been identified in other single-celled eukaryotes to date. We have investigated the roles of two of the RAD51-related proteins in T.brucei, and show that they contribute to DNA repair, homologous recombination and RAD51 function in the cell. Surprisingly, however, only one of the two proteins contributes to VSG switching, suggesting that the family of diverged RAD51 proteins present in T.brucei have assumed specialized functions in homologous recombination, analogous to related proteins in metazoan eukaryotes.