Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Minimum 10-Year Follow-up Study of Anterior Lumbar Interbody Fusion for Degenerative Spondylolisthesis: Progressive Pattern of the Adjacent Disc Degeneration

Study Design Retrospective study. Purpose The aims of the current study are to evaluate the minimum 10-year follow-up clinical results of anterior lumbar interbody fusion (ALIF) for degenerative spondylolisthesis. Overview of Literature ALIF has been widely used as a treatment regimen in the management of lumbar spondylolisthesis. Still much controversy exists regarding the factors that affect the postoperative clinical outcomes. Methods The author performed a retrospective review of 20 patients with degenerative spondylolisthesis treated with ALIF (follow-up, 16.4 years). The clinical results were assessed by the Japanese Orthopaedic Association (JOA) score for low back pain, vertebral slip and disc height index on the radiographs. Results The mean preoperative JOA score was 7.1 ± 1.8 points (15-point-method). At 1 year, 5 years, and 10 years or more after surgery, the JOA scores were assessed as 12.4 ± 2.2 points, 12.7 ± 2.6 points, 12.0 ± 2.5 points, respectively (excluding the data of reoperated cases). The adjacent disc degeneration developed in all cases during the long-term follow-up. The progressive pattern of disc degeneration was divided into three types. Initially, disc degeneration occurred due to disc space narrowing. After that, the intervertebral discs showed segmental instability with translation at the upper level. But the lower discs showed osteophyte formation, and occasionally lead to the collapse or spontaneous union. Conclusions The clinical results of the long-term follow-up data after ALIF became worse due to the adjacent disc degeneration. The progressive pattern of disc degeneration was different according to the adjacent levels.
Adaptive, Fast Walking in a Biped Robot under Neuronal Control and Learning

Human walking is a dynamic, partly self-stabilizing process relying on the interaction of the biomechanical design with its neuronal control. The coordination of this process is a very difficult problem, and it has been suggested that it involves a hierarchy of levels, where the lower ones, e.g., interactions between muscles and the spinal cord, are largely autonomous, and where higher level control (e.g., cortical) arises only pointwise, as needed. This requires an architecture of several nested, sensori–motor loops where the walking process provides feedback signals to the walker's sensory systems, which can be used to coordinate its movements. To complicate the situation, at a maximal walking speed of more than four leg-lengths per second, the cycle period available to coordinate all these loops is rather short. In this study we present a planar biped robot, which uses the design principle of nested loops to combine the self-stabilizing properties of its biomechanical design with several levels of neuronal control. Specifically, we show how to adapt control by including online learning mechanisms based on simulated synaptic plasticity. This robot can walk with a high speed (>3.0 leg length/s), self-adapting to minor disturbances, and reacting in a robust way to abruptly induced gait changes. At the same time, it can learn walking on different terrains, requiring only few learning experiences. This study shows that the tight coupling of physical with neuronal control, guided by sensory feedback from the walking pattern itself, combined with synaptic learning may be a way forward to better understand and solve coordination problems in other complex motor tasks.
Workload-specific file system benchmarks

A fundamental problem with the current generation of file system benchmarks is that they fail to take into account the fact that a file system's performance can vary depending on the workload running on it. Many benchmarks attempt to reduce file system performance to a single number, producing a simplistic one-dimensional ordering of the systems being tested. Although this may be useful for marketing literature, the performance of file systems in the real world is more complicated. Different workloads place different demands on the file system, and can result in different behavior from the underlying system. A file system that provides superior performance for a web server may have inferior performance when running a software development workload. In this dissertation I demonstrate that the “one size fits all” approach of current file system benchmarks does not accurately predict the performance of different workloads on different file systems. I then present a new benchmarking methodology that not only predicts file system performance in the context of a specified workload, but also allows researchers and developers to isolate the areas of file system performance that present the greatest bottlenecks for particular workloads.
Perforin Is Essential for Control of Ectromelia Virus but Not Related Poxviruses in Mice

ABSTRACT Lack of perforin renders the relatively resistant mouse strain C57BL/6 highly susceptible to the natural mouse pathogen ectromelia virus, a cytopathic orthopoxvirus. This is indicated by increased mortality, elevated virus titers and pathology in liver and spleen, and increased levels of liver enzymes in blood. Cowpox virus on the other hand is more virulent in the presence of perforin than in its absence. An additional lack of granzyme A which together with perforin is a constituent of cytoplasmic granules from cytotoxic T cells increases the virulence of cowpox virus.
Variations in Young's modulus and intrinsic stress of LPCVD-polysilicon due to high-temperature annealing

The effect of high-temperature annealing on Young's modulus E and the intrinsic stress sigma of thin films made of LPCVD-polysilicon was investigated. The films were annealed for 2 hours in a nitrogen atmosphere at temperatures between 600 degrees C and 1100 degrees C. Then Young's modulus and the intrinsic stress were determined by the membrane deflection method. An extended analytical theory for the membrane deflection was developed and the results correspond well with FEM analysis of Pan J.Y. et al. (1990 Technical Digest, IEEE Solid-State Sensor and Actuator Workshop, Hilton Head Island, SC, USA p 70). LPCVD-polysilicon was produced with a SiH4 flow rate of 70 sccm and a total pressure of 100 mTorr at 620 degrees C. The film thickness was 460 nm. For the as deposited films the method of membrane deflection yields a Young's modulus of 151+or-6 GPa and an intrinsic stress of -350+or-12 MPa. After annealing at temperatures higher than the deposition temperature the compressive stress started to decrease with increasing annealing temperature. It relaxed nearly completely after annealing at 1100 degrees C. Young's modulus seems to increase a little with increasing annealing temperature up to 162+or-8 GPa at 1100 degrees C. The values for E and sigma obtained with the membrane deflection method were compared with the values obtained by the method of ultrasonic surface waves. The method of ultrasonic surface waves yields systematically higher values for E. The discrepancy can be explained by the uncertainty of Poisson's ratio of polysilicon.
Scaling optoelectronic-VLSI circuits into the 21st century: a technology roadmap

Technologies now exist for implementing dense surface-normal optical interconnections for silicon CMOS VLSI using hybrid integration techniques. The critical factors in determining the performance of the resulting photonic chip are the yield on the transceiver device arrays, the sensitivity and power dissipation of the receiver and transmitter circuits, and the total optical power budget available. The use of GaAs-AlGaAs multiple-quantum-well p-i-n diodes for on-chip detection and modulation is one effective means of implementing the optoelectronic transceivers. We discuss a potential roadmap for the scaling of this hybrid optoelectronic VLSI technology as CMOS linewidths shrink and the characteristics of the hybrid optoelectronic transceiver technology improve. An important general conclusion is that, unlike electrical interconnects, such dense optical interconnections directly to an electronic circuit will likely be able to scale in capacity to match the improved performance of future CMOS technology.
Analysis of the Membrane Proteome of Ciprofloxacin-Resistant Macrophages by Stable Isotope Labeling with Amino Acids in Cell Culture (SILAC)

Overexpression of multidrug transporters is a well-established mechanism of resistance to chemotherapy, but other changes may be co-selected upon exposure to drugs that contribute to resistance. Using a model of J774 macrophages made resistant to the fluoroquinolone antibiotic ciprofloxacin and comparing it with the wild-type parent cell line, we performed a quantitative proteomic analysis using the stable isotope labeling with amino acids in cell culture technology coupled with liquid chromatography electrospray ionization Fourier transform tandem mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-FT-MS/MS) on 2 samples enriched in membrane proteins (fractions F1 and F2 collected from discontinuous sucrose gradient). Nine hundred proteins were identified with at least 3 unique peptides in these 2 pooled fractions among which 61 (F1) and 69 (F2) showed a significantly modified abundance among the 2 cell lines. The multidrug resistance associated protein Abcc4, known as the ciprofloxacin efflux transporter in these cells, was the most upregulated, together with Dnajc3, a protein encoded by a gene located downstream of Abcc4. The other modulated proteins are involved in transport functions, cell adhesion and cytoskeleton organization, immune response, signal transduction, and metabolism. This indicates that the antibiotic ciprofloxacin is able to trigger a pleiotropic adaptative response in macrophages that includes the overexpression of its efflux transporter.
Realizing and and or Functions With Single Vertical-Slit Field-Effect Transistor

This letter experimentally demonstrates and and or functionalities with a single MOS transistor. Device architecture and fabrication follow the recent work on fabrication-based feasibility assessment of junctionless vertical-slit field-effect transistor. Slit width variation is used to realize a particular functionality-wider for or function and narrower for and function. The fabricated n-type devices with the and and or functionalities exhibit good electrical performance: low off current (<; 5 pA/μm) and high ION/IOFF ratio (>; 106). Furthermore, we briefly discuss the implication of these devices in CMOS NAND logic implementation.
Emerging Technologies for the Detection of Rabies Virus: Challenges and Hopes in the 21st Century

The diagnosis of rabies is routinely based on clinical and epidemiological information, especially when exposures are reported in rabies-endemic countries. Diagnostic tests using conventional assays that appear to be negative, even when undertaken late in the disease and despite the clinical diagnosis, have a tendency, at times, to be unreliable. These tests are rarely optimal and entirely dependent on the nature and quality of the sample supplied. In the course of the past three decades, the application of molecular biology has aided in the development of tests that result in a more rapid detection of rabies virus. These tests enable viral strain identification from clinical specimens. Currently, there are a number of molecular tests that can be used to complement conventional tests in rabies diagnosis. Indeed the challenges in the 21st century for the development of rabies diagnostics are not of a technical nature; these tests are available now. The challenges in the 21st century for diagnostic test developers are two-fold: firstly, to achieve internationally accepted validation of a test that will then lead to its acceptance by organisations globally. Secondly, the areas of the world where such tests are needed are mainly in developing regions where financial and logistical barriers prevent their implementation. Although developing countries with a poor healthcare infrastructure recognise that molecular-based diagnostic assays will be unaffordable for routine use, the cost/benefit ratio should still be measured. Adoption of rapid and affordable rabies diagnostic tests for use in developing countries highlights the importance of sharing and transferring technology through laboratory twinning between the developed and the developing countries. Importantly for developing countries, the benefit of molecular methods as tools is the capability for a differential diagnosis of human diseases that present with similar clinical symptoms. Antemortem testing for human rabies is now possible using molecular techniques. These barriers are not insurmountable and it is our expectation that if such tests are accepted and implemented where they are most needed, they will provide substantial improvements for rabies diagnosis and surveillance. The advent of molecular biology and new technological initiatives that combine advances in biology with other disciplines will support the development of techniques capable of high throughput testing with a low turnaround time for rabies diagnosis.
Association between a functional polymorphism in the serotonin transporter gene and diarrhoea predominant irritable bowel syndrome in women

Background and aims: Serotonin (5-hydroxtryptamine, 5-HT) is an important factor in gut function, playing key roles in intestinal peristalsis and secretion, and in sensory signalling in the brain-gut axis. Removal from its sites of action is mediated by a specific protein called the serotonin reuptake transporter (SERT or 5-HTT). Polymorphisms in the promoter region of the SERT gene have effects on transcriptional activity, resulting in altered 5-HT reuptake efficiency. It has been speculated that such functional polymorphisms may underlie disturbance in gut function in individuals suffering with disorders such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). The aim of this study was to assess the potential association between SERT polymorphisms and the diarrhoea predominant IBS (dIBS) phenotype. Subjects: A total of 194 North American Caucasian female dIBS patients and 448 female Caucasian controls were subjected to genotyping. Methods: Leucocyte DNA of all subjects was analysed by polymerase chain reaction based technologies for nine SERT polymorphisms, including the insertion/deletion polymorphism in the promoter (SERT-P) and the variable tandem repeat in intron 2. Statistical analysis was performed to assess association of any SERT polymorphism allele with the dIBS phenotype. Results: A strong genotypic association was observed between the SERT-P deletion/deletion genotype and the dIBS phenotype (p = 3.07×10−5; n = 194). None of the other polymorphisms analysed was significantly associated with the presence of disease. Conclusions: Significant association was observed between dIBS and the SERT-P deletion/deletion genotype, suggesting that the serotonin transporter is a potential candidate gene for dIBS in women.
Applications of Al Modified Graphene on Gas Sensors and Hydrogen Storage

The Stone Age, the Bronze Age, the Iron Age. Every global epoch in the history of the mankind is characterized by materials used in it. In 2004 a new era in material science was opened: the era of graphene or, more generally, of two-dimensional materials. Graphene is the strongest and the most stretchable known material, it has the record thermal conductivity and the very high mobility of charge carriers. It demonstrates many interesting fundamental physical effects and promises a lot of applications, among which are conductive ink, terahertz transistors, ultrafast photodetectors and bendable touch screens. In 2010 Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics "for groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene". The two volumes Physics and Applications of Graphene - Experiments and Physics and Applications of Graphene - Theory contain a collection of research articles reporting on different aspects of experimental and theoretical studies of this new material.
Marked heterogeneity of HER2/NEU gene amplification in endometrial serous carcinoma

Significant heterogeneity of HER2 protein expression has been recently observed in HER2 positive endometrial serous carcinomas. Tumor cells with HER2 overexpression and/or gene amplification in a heterogeneous tumor may represent a biologically more aggressive subclone that is clinically relevant to prognosis and potential targeted therapy. To correlate with HER2 protein heterogeneity, we investigated the heterogeneity of HER2/NEU gene amplification in endometrial serous carcinoma. A total of 17 endometrial serous carcinomas with heterogeneous HER2 protein expression were selected for the study, including nine cases with a 3+ and eight cases with a 2+ immunohistochemical score. Initial reflex HER2 FISH was available for seven of the eight 2+ cases, five of which showed HER2/NEU gene amplification. All 17 cases underwent repeat FISH targeting larger tumor tissue areas. Ten cases (72%) displayed striking heterogeneity of HER2/NEU gene copy number in the form of cluster amplification. Diffuse HER2 amplification was observed in four cases, no amplification was seen in three tumors. In cases with cluster amplification, HER2 protein overexpression by immunohistochemistry closely correlated at the cellular level with HER2/NEU gene amplification. In conclusion, the significant percentage of cases with heterogeneous HER2/NEU gene amplification indicates that the existing HER2 testing guidelines designed for breast cancer may not be applicable to endometrial serous carcinoma. Clinical testing on multiple different tumor samples or large tumor tissue sections is recommended for both immunohistochemistry and FISH assessment of HER2 status. Direct comparison with the HER2 immunostaining pattern may be helpful in detecting HER2 amplified areas in a heterogeneous tumor. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Optical tweezers and manipulation of PMMA beads in various conditions

Laser optical trapping and micromanipulation of microparticles or cells and subcellular structures have gained remarkable interest in biomedical research and applications. Several laser sources are employed for the combination of a laser scalpel with an optical tweezers device, under microscopic control. However, although the principles and the mechanisms of pulsed laser ablation have been well described for macroscopic interventions, the microbeam operation, under microscopic guidance, necessitates further experiments and investigations. We present experimental results of controlled micro-ablation of PMMA beads of 3-8 μm diameters, trapped by laser tweezers in various media e.g. solutes of different index of refraction. An optical tweezers system, based on a continuous wave He-Ne laser emitting at 632.8 nm, was tested on beads and, despite the low power of the He-Ne laser, the optical trap was stable. Another optical system, based on a cw Nd:YAG laser emitting at 1.06 μm, was tested on microspheres too. Successful beads ablation was carried out by irradiation with multiple, or even a single nitrogen laser pulse of 7 ns pulse duration at a wavelength of 337 nm. The ablative perforation of the microspheres was estimated by controlling the laser fluence. Moreover, shape deformations of PMMA microspheres were observed. The experimentally obtained results are theoretically explained via the spatial intensity distribution based on Mie light scattering theory. Furthermore, the appearance of laser ablation holes in the back side of microspheres is explained by the ablation triggered shock waves propagation. The role of the stretching forces action is also discussed. Additionally, we report experimental results on measuring the optical trap force of PMMA beads. A powerful optical tweezers system based on a continuous wave Nd:YAG laser was used in order to estimate the trapping efficiency for several beads diameter.
Deep Metric Learning for Practical Person Re-Identification

Various hand-crafted features and metric learning methods prevail in the field of person re-identification. Compared to these methods, this paper proposes a more general way that can learn a similarity metric from image pixels directly. By using a "siamese" deep neural network, the proposed method can jointly learn the color feature, texture feature and metric in a unified framework. The network has a symmetry structure with two sub-networks which are connected by Cosine function. To deal with the big variations of person images, binomial deviance is used to evaluate the cost between similarities and labels, which is proved to be robust to outliers. Compared to existing researches, a more practical setting is studied in the experiments that is training and test on different datasets (cross dataset person re-identification). Both in "intra dataset" and "cross dataset" settings, the superiorities of the proposed method are illustrated on VIPeR and PRID.
Detection of hepatitis C virus (HCV) among health care providers in an Egyptian university hospital: different diagnostic modalities

Background Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection has received much attention and is placed at the core of the infection control agenda. It is considered as a major public health problem in Egypt, where the highest prevalence of HCV exists. The great risk of exposure to infection of health care providers (HCPs) has highlighted the urgent need for implementing an infection control program. Objective The purpose of this study was to detect the prevalence of HCV infection among HCPs in Zagazig University Hospitals and to assess the performance of different diagnostic modalities. Methodology Blood, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and saliva tests were performed in enrolled HCPs. Results This study compared HCV diagnosis Hepanostika HCV Ultra ELISA as a screening test and PCR as gold standard test, which resulted in 40.6% positive results by ELISA compared to 34.8% by PCR (p<0.0001), while OraQuick HCV rapid antibody compared to PCR shows that 37.7% of the participants were positive by OraQuick HCV rapid antibody test. Application of standard precautions while dealing with blood has negative significant correlation with HCV infection (rs=−0.265, p=0.03). Conclusion HCPs at Zagazig University Hospitals are at high risk for HCV infection. Lack of compliance and awareness of prevention and control of the infection are associated cofactors. Serum HCV-Ab detection by Hepanostika HCV Ultra ELISA and OraQuick HCV rapid antibody test are sensitive and specific serologic assays for diagnosis with correspondent results to that obtained by quantitative real-time PCR.
The effect of personality on social foraging: shy barnacle geese scrounge more

Animals foraging in groups can either search for food themselves (producing) or search for the food discoveries of other individuals (scrounging). Tactic use in producer–scrounger games is partly flexible but individuals tend to show consistency in tactic use under different conditions suggesting that personality might play a role in tactic use in producer–scrounger games. Here we studied the use of producing and scrounging tactics by bold and shy barnacle geese (Branta leucopsis), where boldness is a personality trait known to be repeatable over time in this species. We defined individuals as bold, shy or intermediate based on two novel object tests. We scored the frequency of finding food patches (the outcome of investing in producing) and joining patches (the outcome of investing in scrounging) by bold and shy individuals and their feeding time. Shy individuals had a higher frequency of joining than bold individuals, demonstrating for the first time that personality is associated with tactic use in a producer–scrounger game. Bold individuals tended to spend more time feeding than shy individuals. Our results highlight the importance of including individual behavioural variation in models of producer–scrounger games.