Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Potential activity of ethanolic extract of Boesenbergia rotunda (L.) rhizomes extract in accelerating wound healing in rats

This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of topical application of ethanol extract of Boesenbergia rotunda rhizomes on the rate of wound healing closure and histology of healed wound. An area of uniform wound 2.00 cm in diameter using circular stamp, was excised from the nape of the dorsal neck of all rats with the aid of round seal. The animal groups were topically treated with 0.2 ml of each vehicle (gum acacia), Intrasite gel, 100 and 200 mg/ml of ethanol extract, respectively. Macroscopically, wound dressed with rhizomes extract and Intrasite gel significantly healed earlier than those treated with vehicle. Histological analysis of healed wounds dressed with rhizomes extract showed comparatively less scar width at wound closure and healed wound contained less inflammatory cells and more collagen with angiogenesis compared to wounds dressed with vehicle. In conclusion, wounds dressed with rhizomes extract significantly enhanced the acceleration of wound healing enclosure in rats.
Learning Word Meta-Embeddings

Word embeddings – distributed representations of words – in deep learning are beneﬁcial for many tasks in NLP. However, different embedding sets vary greatly in quality and characteristics of the captured information. Instead of relying on a more advanced algorithm for embedding learning, this paper proposes an ensemble approach of combining different public embedding sets with the aim of learning metaembeddings . Experiments on word similarity and analogy tasks and on part-of-speech tagging show better performance of metaembeddings compared to individual embedding sets. One advantage of metaembeddings is the increased vocabulary coverage. We release our metaembeddings publicly at http:// cistern.cis. lmu.de/meta-emb .
Epidemiologic Study of Vibrio vulnificus Infections by Using Variable Number Tandem Repeats

A 3-year environmental and clinical Vibrio vulnificus survey using simple-sequence repeats typing shows that V. vulnificus biotype 3 constitutes ≈21% of the bacterium population in tested aquaculture ponds as opposed to ≈86% of clinical cases. Simple-sequence repeats proved to be a useful epidemiologic tool, providing information on the environmental source of the pathogen.
Immune Responses to the HLA-A*0201-Restricted Epitopes of Tyrosinase and Glycoprotein 100 Enable Control of Melanoma Outgrowth in HLA-A*0201-Transgenic Mice1

Many of the Ags recognized by human melanoma-reactive CTL are derived from proteins that are also expressed in melanocytes. The possibility of self-tolerance to these epitopes has led to questions about their utility for antitumor immunotherapy. To investigate the issue, we established a preclinical model based on transgenic mice expressing a recombinant HLA-A*0201 molecule and B16 melanoma transfected to express this molecule. HLA-A*0201-restricted epitopes from the melanocyte differentiation proteins (MDP) tyrosinase and gp100 are expressed in both tumor cells and melanocytes, and the former is associated with self-tolerance. However, adoptive transfer of tyrosinase or gp100-reactive CTL developed from tolerant mice delayed tumor outgrowth, as did immunization with MDP peptide-pulsed dendritic cells. Protection was enhanced by the use of peptide ligands containing conservative substitutions that were cross-reactive with the original Ags. These data establish that CTL populations reactive against MDP-derived self-Ags can be activated to mount effective antitumor immunity and strongly support their continued development for tumor immunotherapy in humans.
Variations in the Cusps of Mandibular Molars in Koreans

This study aimed to investigate the cusp size and morphological characteristics of permanent mandibular molars in Koreans with reference to the hypoconulid, and to analyze the differences and correlations between both sexes as well as between first and second mandibular molars. We obtained data from dental casts of 110 adults (78 males and 32 females). Mesiodistal and buccolingual diameters of first and second mandibular molars, the area of five cusps (protoconid, metaconid, hypoconid, entoconid, and hypoconulid), as well as the total cusp area and occlusal table area were measured. Paired t-test was performed to analyze the morphological differences between first and second mandibular molars and the sex differences between both sexes using SPSS program. Crown diameters and cusp areas of mandibular first molars were larger than those of mandibular second molars in both sexes. The hypoconulid was the most variable in size and morphological pattern among the five cusps, and the first molars showed a higher incidence of hypoconulid than the second molars. Except for the entoconid area of the first molar (p=0.06) and the hypoconulid area of the second molar (p=0.24), all other mean values were larger in males than in females, demonstrating a significant sexual dimorphism. These data suggest that the teeth which develop late in ontogeny tend to be smaller in size and more variable in morphological characteristics.
Correlates of Sexual Functioning in Women Veterans: Mental Health, Gynecologic Health, Health Status, and Sexual Assault History

ABSTRACT Military women are a unique population with occupational risks that may influence their sexual health, yet relatively little is known about specific correlates associated with servicewomen's sexual functioning. One thousand and four Midwestern U.S. women veterans aged 52 years of age and younger completed a telephone interview assessing sexual assault history, mental health, gynecologic health, and health-related quality of life. Half experienced at least one completed sexual assault during their lifetime. Most (68%) reported sex was important in their lives, and three quarters (74%) indicated that they had engaged in sex with a partner during the past 6 months. Almost one quarter of sexually active participants reported painful sexual intercourse, and approximately one third (35%) acknowledged using lubricants often to make sex comfortable. Mental health disorders (posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, and substance use disorder), gynecologic injuries resulting from completed sexual assault, and poor health-related quality of life were common in this sample and were associated with compromised sexual functioning. Most sexually active women endorsing these correlates were more likely to report not being emotionally satisfied with their main partner. Problems with sexual functioning and pain during intercourse were associated with even a single completed lifetime sexual assault (cLSA). These correlates should alert health care providers to inquire regarding sensitive topics such as LSA exposure and other factors (e.g., painful sex, same-sex partners, and mental health). Sexual health problems are important to address and may also signal other important health concerns.
Regulation of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Expression by Advanced Glycation End Products*

Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) are generated during long term diabetes and are correlated with the development of diabetic complications, such as retinopathy. Diabetic retinopathy is characterized by an increased retinal neovascularization due to the action of the angiogenic factor, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). In this report, we show that injection of insulin and glycated albumin (Alb-AGE) to mice increases VEGF mRNA expression in eyes. Insulin and Alb-AGE stimulate VEGF mRNA and protein expression in retinal epithelial cells (ARPE-19). Alb-AGE-induced VEGF expression is not modulated by the use of antioxidants,N-acetyl-l-cysteine or pyrrolidinedithiocarbamate, or by an inhibitor of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K), wortmannin. However, using an inhibitor of ERK activation, U0126, we show that Alb-AGE stimulates VEGF expression through an ERK-dependent pathway. Accordingly, we found that Alb-AGE activated mitogen-activate protein kinase, ERK1/2, JNK1/2, but not p38, and that Alb-AGE did not activate PI3K and PKB. Moreover, Alb-AGE activated the transcription factor, hypoxia inducible factor-1 (HIF-1) DNA binding activity. This activation is mediated by an increase in accumulation of the HIF-1α protein through an ERK-dependent pathway. Thus, stimulation of VEGF expression by Alb-AGE, through the activation of HIF-1, could play an important role in the development of diabetic retinopathy.
Bright light augmentation in antidepressant nonresponders.

BACKGROUND This study was designed to examine the potential benefit of the addition of bright lights to antidepressant treatment in depressed subjects. METHOD Ten patients who presented during the winter months with major depression and who had failed an adequate trial of antidepressants or who had relapsed following a successful course of antidepressants underwent a 2-week course of bright light therapy. RESULTS Augmentation with bright lights resulted in substantial improvement in 7 of the 10 patients. CONCLUSION Bright light augmentation may provide a useful treatment alternative for patients with treatment-resistant depression.
OWLing Clinical Data Repositories With the Ontology Web Language

Background The health sciences are based upon information. Clinical information is usually stored and managed by physicians with precarious tools, such as spreadsheets. The biomedical domain is more complex than other domains that have adopted information and communication technologies as pervasive business tools. Moreover, medicine continuously changes its corpus of knowledge because of new discoveries and the rearrangements in the relationships among concepts. This scenario makes it especially difficult to offer good tools to answer the professional needs of researchers and constitutes a barrier that needs innovation to discover useful solutions. Objective The objective was to design and implement a framework for the development of clinical data repositories, capable of facing the continuous change in the biomedicine domain and minimizing the technical knowledge required from final users. Methods We combined knowledge management tools and methodologies with relational technology. We present an ontology-based approach that is flexible and efficient for dealing with complexity and change, integrated with a solid relational storage and a Web graphical user interface. Results Onto Clinical Research Forms (OntoCRF) is a framework for the definition, modeling, and instantiation of data repositories. It does not need any database design or programming. All required information to define a new project is explicitly stated in ontologies. Moreover, the user interface is built automatically on the fly as Web pages, whereas data are stored in a generic repository. This allows for immediate deployment and population of the database as well as instant online availability of any modification. Conclusions OntoCRF is a complete framework to build data repositories with a solid relational storage. Driven by ontologies, OntoCRF is more flexible and efficient to deal with complexity and change than traditional systems and does not require very skilled technical people facilitating the engineering of clinical software systems.
Hormone therapy and physical function change among older women in the Women's Health Initiative: a randomized controlled trial

Objective: Although estrogen may be linked to biological pathways that maintain higher physical function, the evidence is derived mostly from observational epidemiology and therefore has numerous limitations. We examined whether hormone therapy affected physical function in women 65 to 79 years of age at enrollment. Methods: This study involves an analysis of the Women's Health Initiative randomized controlled trials of hormone therapy in which 922 nondisabled women who had previous hysterectomies were randomized to receive estrogen therapy or a placebo and 1,458 nondisabled women with intact uteri were randomized to receive estrogen + progestin therapy or a placebo. Changes in physical function were analyzed for treatment effect, and subgroup differences were evaluated. All women completed performance-based measures of physical function (grip strength, chair stands, and timed walk) at baseline. These measures were repeated after 1, 3, and 6 years. Results: Overall, participants' grip strength declined by 12.0%, chair stands declined by 3.5%, and walk pace slowed by 11.4% in the 6 years of follow-up (all P values <0.0001). Hormone therapy, as compared with placebo, was not associated with an increased or decreased risk of decline in physical function in either the intention-to-treat analyses or in analyses restricted to participants who were compliant in taking study pills. Conclusions: Hormone therapy provided no overall protection against functional decline in nondisabled postmenopausal women 65 years or older in 6 years of follow-up. This study did not address the influence of hormone therapy for women of younger ages.
Estimating heart rate using wrist-type Photoplethysmography and acceleration sensor while running

This study provides Heart Rate (HR) Estimation using wrist-type Photoplethysmogpraphy (PPG) sensor while the subject is running. We propose the algorithm to estimate heart rate for the wrist-type PPG sensor. Since body motion artifacts easily affect the arm portion, our method in this study also uses accelerometer built in the wrist-type sensor to improve the accuracy of heart rate estimation. Our method has two components. One is rejecting artifacts with the power spectrum's difference between PPG and acceleration obtained by frequency analysis. The other is the reliability of heart rate estimation, defined by the acceleration. Experimental results while our test subjects were running came closer to the holter Electrocardiogram (ECG) in high accuracy (r = 0.98, SD = 8.7 bpm). We, therefore, report the heart rate estimation method which has a higher degree of usability compared to existing methods using ECG.
Web Query Expansion and Refinement using Query - Level Clustering

The objectives raised in this paper are to pave the new dimension to Internet searching and bring the semantic core strategies to the forefront to add values to the search process. In precise, “the search must be what user wish, not what user types”. To know the process of search intricacy, we observed the vocabulary contradiction and mismatch problem existence during retrieval can estimate the irrelevant document matching. Generally, a term or vocabulary mismatch can happens to the search iteration only if the terms not present in the fetched documents. Many techniques have been proposed such as library science, pseudo relevance feedback and later semantic indexing etc, where all the algorithms tend to find the objectives sustained but did not deal with alternate process. Hence we have proposed a technique which gives the sheer implications of all the pitfalls and device a new mechanism to support the mismatch problem. By bringing the semantics aspects of the sentences and word order of the sentence to the core part, we have emulated the proper solution to get rid of sentence or term mismatch problem.
Development of moulded pulp materials for the packaging of electronic equipment

A new shredded pulp–plastic microsphere composite with modified starch binder which is applicable to the packaging of electronic equipment has been developed. This composite with a 3 wt% microsphere content has almost the same compressive stress at 50% compressive strain as that of (poly)styrene foam, which has a specific gravity of 0.025. A moulded sample of the above composites can be released from a mould after 1.5 minutes of steam heating, the same cycle time as that of styrene foam. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Minimizing Bandwidth Requirements for On-Demand Data Delivery

Two recent techniques for multicast or broadcast delivery of streaming media can provide immediate service to each client request, yet achieve considerable client stream sharing which leads to significant server and network bandwidth savings. The paper considers: 1) how well these recently proposed techniques perform relative to each other and 2) whether there are new practical delivery techniques that can achieve better bandwidth savings than the previous techniques over a wide range of client request rates. The principal results are as follows: First, the recent partitioned dynamic skyscraper technique is adapted to provide immediate service to each client request more simply and directly than the original dynamic skyscraper method. Second, at moderate to high client request rates, the dynamic skyscraper method has required server bandwidth that is significantly lower than the recent optimized stream tapping/patching/controlled multicast technique. Third, the minimum required server bandwidth for any delivery technique that provides immediate real-time delivery to clients increases logarithmically (with constant factor equal to one) as a function of the client request arrival rate. Furthermore, it is (theoretically) possible to achieve very close to the minimum required server bandwidth if client receive bandwidth is equal to two times the data streaming rate and client storage capacity is sufficient for buffering data from shared streams. Finally, we propose a new practical delivery technique, called hierarchical multicast stream merging (HMSM), which has a required server bandwidth that is lower than the partitioned dynamic skyscraper and is reasonably close to the minimum achievable required server bandwidth over a wide range of client request rates.
Differences and Similarities in the Clinicopathological Features of Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumors in China and the United States

AbstractThe presentation, pathology, and prognosis of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (PNETs) in Asian patients have not been studied in large cohorts. We hypothesized that the clinicopathological features of PNETs of Chinese patients might be different from those of US patients. The objectives of this study were to address whether PNETs in Chinese patients exhibit unique clinicopathological features and natural history, and can be graded and staged using the WHO/ENETS criteria.This is a retrospective review of medical records of patients with PNETs in multiple academic medical centers in China (7) and the United States (2). Tumor grading and staging were based on WHO/ENETS criteria. The clinicopathological features of PNETs of Chinese and US patients were compared. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to find associations between survival and patient demographics, tumor grade and stage, and other clinicopathological characteristics.A total of 977 (527 Chinese and 450 US) patients with PNETs were studied. In general, Chinese patients were younger than US patients (median age 46 vs 56 years). In Chinese patients, insulinomas were the most common (52.2%), followed by nonfunctional tumors (39.7%), whereas the order was reversed in US patients. Tumor grade distribution was similar in the 2 countries (G1: 57.5% vs 55.0%; G2: 38.5% vs 41.3%; and G3: 4.0% vs 3.7%). However, age, primary tumor size, primary tumor location, grade, and stage of subtypes of PNETs were significantly different between the 2 countries. The Chinese nonfunctional tumors were significantly larger than US ones (median size 4 vs 3 cm) and more frequently located in the head/neck region (54.9% vs 34.8%). The Chinese and US insulinomas were similar in size (median 1.5 cm) but the Chinese insulinomas relatively more frequently located in the head/neck region (48.3% vs 26.1%). Higher grade, advanced stage, metastasis, and larger primary tumor size were significantly associated with unfavorable survival in both countries.Several clinicopathological differences are found between Chinese and US PNETs but the PNETs of both countries follow a similar natural history. The WHO tumor grading and ENETS staging criteria are applicable to both Chinese and US patients.
Spinal Cord Stimulation (SCS) and Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI): Modulation of Cortical Connectivity With Therapeutic SCS

The neurophysiological basis of pain relief due to spinal cord stimulation (SCS) and the related cortical processing of sensory information are not completely understood. The aim of this study was to use resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs‐fMRI) to detect changes in cortical networks and cortical processing related to the stimulator‐induced pain relief.
Yang-Baxter maps and symmetries of integrable equations on quad-graphs

A connection between the Yang-Baxter relation for maps and the multidimensional consistency property of integrable equations on quad-graphs is investigated. The approach is based on the symmetry analysis of the corresponding equations. It is shown that the Yang-Baxter variables can be chosen as invariants of the multiparameter symmetry groups of the equations. We use the classification results by Adler, Bobenko, and Suris to demonstrate this method. Some new examples of Yang-Baxter maps are derived in this way from multifield integrable equations.
Psychovisual Assessment of Tone-Mapping Operators for Global Appearance and Colour Reproduction

To identify people’s preference, psychovisual tests are carried out in virtual environment. Images of scenes used for psychovisual tests are natively High Dynamic Range (HDR) images. However, in order to allow a Low Dynamic Range (LDR) display device to project HDR pictures, their dynamic range must be compressed with a tone-mapping operator (TMO). Thus, before tests are carried out, selection of the most suitable TMO, perceptually speaking, is required to present images faithfully, depending on the aim of the application. In this paper, three different experimental protocols are proposed for assessing the applications of a display device used for psychovisual tests and selecting the most suitable TMO from six candidates. An additional goal is to give a first idea of the applications that can be addressed by this device. Two subjective experiments were conducted and are presented in the paper. The first one is divided in two steps. The results of three different protocols (two protocols in the first test and the third in the second test) for the identification of the preferred TMO for five different scenes are compared and LDR image defects noticed by observers are highlighted in the paper.
Direct and proxy recall of childhood socio-economic position and health.

BACKGROUND The utility of proxy reporting within the life course framework has not been adequately assessed; therefore we sought to assess the magnitude and type of agreement that exists between index and proxy reports for bodyweight, health, and socio-economic position (SEP) in childhood. METHODS Participants were enrolled as part of an ongoing study of preterm birth in African American women in Metro Detroit. Post-partum women and their mothers (n = 333 pairs) provided retrospective reports about the woman's childhood bodyweight, health, and SEP. Agreement was assessed using kappa, weighted kappa (κ), and intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC). Log-linear models were used to describe the pattern of agreement for ordinal data. RESULTS Birthweight and weight at age 18 was reported with a high level of agreement (ICC = 0.86 and 0.71, respectively). Kappa indicated moderate agreement for early and late childhood/adolescent weight. Log-linear models suggested that there was diagonal agreement plus linear by linear association for early childhood weight and linear by linear association in late childhood/adolescence. Reports of childhood medical problems and hospitalisations had only moderate agreement. Agreement for SEP in both early (κ = 0.14) and late childhood/adolescence (κ = 0.20) was poor. Log-linear models suggest a linear by linear association, indicating a positive association between the responses. CONCLUSIONS Results suggest that proxy reports may be utilised in conjunction with an index report to provide an estimate of the accuracy of report or to more fully capture experiences over the life course. This may be particularly useful when multiple developmental periods are examined.