Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Natural History of Dysplasia and Cancer in Esophagitis and Barrett Esophagus

Abstract The natural history of metaplasia and dysplasia in Barrett esophagus is not well defined. Publication bias, the selective reporting of studies that have positive or extreme results, has exaggerated the risk of esophageal adenocarcinoma in this condition. Recent data suggest that patients with Barrett esophagus develop these tumors at the rate of 0.5% per year, a cancer incidence considerably lower than was appreciated just a few years ago. Indirect evidence suggests that aggressive treatment of gastroesophageal reflux might decrease the risk of carcinogenesis, but no therapy yet has been proved to decrease the incidence of cancer in Barrett esophagus. Dysplasia in the metaplastic epithelium clearly is a worrisome finding, but the progression from dysplasia to cancer may take years and may not be inevitable.
Structural Health Monitoring of Above-Ground Storage Tank Floors by Ultrasonic Guided Wave Excitation on the Tank Wall

There is an increasing interest in using ultrasonic guided waves to assess the structural degradation of above-ground storage tank floors. This is a non-invasive and economically viable means of assessing structural degradation. Above-ground storage tank floors are ageing assets which need to be inspected periodically to avoid structural failure. At present, normal-stress type transducers are bonded to the tank annular chime to generate a force field in the thickness direction of the floor and excite fundamental symmetric and asymmetric Lamb modes. However, the majority of above-ground storage tanks in use have no annular chime due to a simplified design and/or have a degraded chime due to corrosion. This means that transducers cannot be mounted on the chime to assess structural health according to the present technology, and the market share of structural health monitoring of above-ground storage tank floors using ultrasonic guided wave is thus limited. Therefore, the present study investigates the potential of using the tank wall to bond the transducer instead of the tank annular chime. Both normal and shear type transducers were investigated numerically, and results were validated using a 4.1 m diameter above-ground storage tank. The study results show shear mode type transducers bonded to the tank wall can be used to assess the structural health of the above-ground tank floors using an ultrasonic guided wave. It is also shown that for the cases studied there is a 7.4 dB signal-to-noise ratio improvement at 45 kHz for the guided wave excitation on the tank wall using shear mode transducers.
The Most Cited Works in Essential Tremor and Dystonia

Background The study of the most cited works in a particular field gives an indication of the important advances, developments, and discoveries that have had the highest impact in that discipline. Our aim was to identify the most cited works in essential tremor (ET) and dystonia. Methods A bibliometric search was performed using the ISI Web of Science database using selected search terms for ET and dystonia for articles published from 1900 to 2015. The resulting citation counts were analyzed to identify the most cited works, and the studies were categorized. Results Using the criterion of more than 400 citations, there were four citation classics for ET and six for dystonia. The most cited studies were those on pathophysiology followed by medical treatments, clinical classification, genetic studies, surgical treatments, review articles, and epidemiology studies. A comparison of the most cited articles for ET and dystonia showed that there was a divergence, with ET and dystonia having a higher number of epidemiologic and genetic studies, respectively. Whereas the peak period for the number of publications was 2000–2004 for ET, it was 1995–1999 for dystonia. Discussion Given the large number of patients with these disorders, there appears to be an unmet need for further research advances in both areas, but particularly for ET as the most common movement disorder.
Effects of literacy on semantic verbal fluency in an immigrant population

ABSTRACT Objective: A significant impact of limited schooling and illiteracy has been found on numerous neuropsychological tests, which may partly be due to the ecological relevance of the tests in the context of illiteracy. The aims of this study were to compare the performance of illiterate and literate immigrants on two semantic criteria for the verbal fluency test, and examine the influence of acculturation on test performances. Method: Performances of 20 cognitively unimpaired illiterate and 21 literate Turkish immigrants aged ≥50 years were compared on an animal and supermarket criterion for the semantic verbal fluency test. Also, the influence of acculturation on test performances was examined. Results: Significantly poorer performance of the illiterate compared to the literate group was found for the animal criterion, whereas no differences were found for the supermarket criterion that was considered more ecologically relevant for illiterate individuals. A significant interaction effect was found between the semantic criteria and literacy group, which was mainly related to a large effect of semantic criteria within the illiterate group. Adjusting for years of residence in Denmark and acculturation score did not affect this interaction effect. Conclusions: Overall, our results are in line with previous studies comparing semantic fluency in illiterate and literate individuals. The results lend further support to the strong associations between literacy, semantic verbal fluency performance and ecological relevance of the semantic criterion and extend previous findings to immigrants with different cultural experiences related to the acculturation process.
Deep Invasive Endometriosis Lesions of the Rectosigmoid May Be Related to Alterations in Cell Kinetics

Objectives: The aim of this study was to analyze cell kinetics through expression and apoptosis of topoisomerase 2-α (TOP2A), p53, and c-erb2 in rectosigmoid endometriotic lesions and in healthy endometrial tissue and to establish correlations between such findings and clinical data in patients with rectosigmoid endometriosis. Methods: Sixty patients with rectosigmoid endometriosis and 20 control women without endometriosis were included. Immunohistochemical assays were used to measure expression of TOP2A, p53, and c-erB-2. Apoptosis was quantified by directly counting the apoptotic bodies. Findings: The number of lesions was positively correlated with expression of TOP2A in the lesion. There was also significant correlation between the lesions’ size and number and cell turnover index. Apoptosis index (AI) was the same for endometriosis lesions and eutopic endometrium. Expression of TOP2A was significantly lower in the endometriosis group compared to the controls. Conclusions: Changes in cell proliferation but not in the AI in rectosigmoid endometriosis are indicative of an imbalance in cell kinetics that may lead to the development of the disease.
How to design and analyze language acquisition studies

One of the key questions in linguistics is how language is acquired, both by children and by adults. Language acquisition is often investigated by means of behavioral research methods. The aim of the present chapter is to provide an overview of the most important methodological issues involved in designing empirical linguistic studies, and in analyzing data from such studies. Solid research methods are not only required for good, and publishable scientific studies, but also for good ethics. This is because the effort for the human participants in terms of time, inconvenience, or loss of privacy should be outweighted by the expected scientific results (Rosnow & Rosenthal, 2001, Ch.3). Hence, if a study is unlikely to allow valid conclusions, then it would in general be ethically wrong to waste subjects’ time, energy, and privacy,
Renal effects of environmental and occupational lead exposure.

Environmental and industrial lead exposures continue to pose major public health problems in children and in adults. Acute exposure to high concentrations of lead can result in proximal tubular damage with characteristic histologic features and manifested by glycosuria and aminoaciduria. Chronic occupational exposure to lead, or consumption of illicit alcohol adulterated with lead, has also been linked to a high incidence of renal dysfunction, which is characterized by glomerular and tubulointerstitial changes resulting in chronic renal failure, hypertension, hyperuricemia, and gout. A high incidence of nephropathy was reported during the early part of this century from Queensland, Australia, in persons with a history of childhood lead poisoning. No such sequela has been found in studies of three cohorts of lead-poisoned children from the United States. Studies in individuals with low-level lead exposure have shown a correlation between blood lead levels and serum creatinine or creatinine clearance. Chronic low-level exposure to lead is also associated with increased urinary excretion of low molecular weight proteins and lysosomal enzymes. The relationship between renal dysfunction detected by these sensitive tests and the future development of chronic renal disease remains uncertain. Epidemiologic studies have shown an association between blood lead levels and blood pressure, and hypertension is a cardinal feature of lead nephropathy. Evidence for increased body lead burden is a prerequisite for the diagnosis of lead nephropathy. Blood lead levels are a poor indicator of body lead burden and reflect recent exposure. The EDTA lead mobilization test has been used extensively in the past to assess body lead burden. It is now replaced by the less invasive in vivo X-ray fluorescence for determination of bone lead content. Imagesp928-aFigure 1.Figure 2.Figure 2.Figure 3.
PTF10iya: A short-lived, luminous flare from the nuclear region of a star-forming galaxy

We present the discovery and characterization of PTF10iya, a short-lived (Δt≈ 10 d, with an optical decay rate of ∼0.3 mag d^(−1)), luminous (M_(g') ≈ -21) transient source found by the Palomar Transient Factory. The ultraviolet/optical spectral energy distribution is reasonably well fitted by a blackbody with T≈ (1–2) × 10^4 K and peak bolometric luminosity LBB≈ (1–5) × 10^(44) erg s^(−1) (depending on the details of the extinction correction). A comparable amount of energy is radiated in the X-ray band that appears to result from a distinct physical process. The location of PTF10iya is consistent with the nucleus of a star-forming galaxy (z= 0.224 05 ± 0.000 06) to within 350 mas (99.7 per cent confidence radius), or a projected distance of less than 1.2 kpc. At first glance, these properties appear reminiscent of the characteristic ‘big blue bump’ seen in the near-ultraviolet spectra of many active galactic nuclei (AGNs). However, emission-line diagnostics of the host galaxy, along with a historical light curve extending back to 2007, show no evidence for AGN-like activity. We therefore consider whether the tidal disruption of a star by an otherwise quiescent supermassive black hole may account for our observations. Though with limited temporal information, PTF10iya appears broadly consistent with the predictions for the early ‘super-Eddington’ phase of a solar-type star being disrupted by a ∼10^7 M_⊙ black hole. Regardless of the precise physical origin of the accreting material, the large luminosity and short duration suggest that otherwise quiescent galaxies can transition extremely rapidly to radiate near the Eddington limit; many such outbursts may have been missed by previous surveys lacking sufficient cadence.
Visualization and self-organization of multidimensional data through equalized orthogonal mapping

A new approach to dimension-reduction mapping of multidimensional pattern data is presented. The motivation for this work is to provide a computationally efficient method for visualizing large bodies of complex multidimensional data as a relatively "topologically correct" lower dimensional approximation. Examples of the use of this approach in obtaining meaningful two-dimensional (2-D) maps and comparisons with those obtained by the self-organizing map (SOM) and the neural-net implementation of Sammon's approach are also presented and discussed. In this method, the mapping equalizes and orthogonalizes the lower dimensional outputs by reducing the covariance matrix of the outputs to the form of a constant times the identity matrix. This new method is computationally efficient and "topologically correct" in interesting and useful ways.
Germ Cell Movements and Sex Differentiation of the Gonads in the Drosophila Embryo.

cleus opposite the chromosomes are very interesting, but of questionable significance. If, as Cleveland asserts (op. cit., also, Science, 81, 598 (1935)), all of these fibres are merely astral rays, then it is not surprising that they are visible in the living organism. Moreover, the homology of such a bizarre achromatic apparatus with that of multicellular organisms is by no means clear. 6 See figures 4 and 7 in: Blaf, K. , Zeits. indukt. Abstamm. Vererb. , Supplementbd. , 1, 402 (1928). 7Das, R. S. , Zeits. Zellf. , Abt. A, 30, 36 (1939). 8 Cooper, K. W. , Chromosoma, 1, 51 (1939). The figures of this paper will be found helpful in following the present account. 9 The "refringent materials" in fixed preparations stain selectively, and thus may be shown not to be chromosomoids. They are not considered in my earlier account, for they showed only under certain fixation procedures. It was the attempt to ascertain whether these materials exist in the living egg that led to the discovery of the visibility of the spindle fibres.
Effects Of a One‐Month Treatment With PTH(1–34) on Bone Formation on Cancellous, Endocortical, and Periosteal Surfaces of the Human Ilium

Using bone histomorphometry, we found that a 1‐month treatment with PTH(1–34) [hPTH(1–34)] stimulated new bone formation on cancellous, endocortical, and periosteal bone surfaces. Enhanced bone formation was associated with an increase in osteoblast apoptosis.
Mining tree queries in a graph

We present an algorithm for mining tree-shaped patterns in a large graph. Novel about our class of patterns is that they can contain constants, and can contain existential nodes which are not counted when determining the number of occurrences of the pattern in the graph. Our algorithm has a number of provable optimality properties, which are based on the theory of conjunctive database queries. We propose a database-oriented implementation in SQL, and report upon some initial experimental results obtained with our implementation on graph data about food webs, about protein interactions, and about citation analysis.
An initiative to implement lean manufacturing using value stream mapping in a small company

In recent years, Value Stream Mapping (VSM) has emerged as the preferred way to support and implement the lean approach. VSM is a helpful tool to identify the waste and improvement areas. VSM enables a company to see the entire process in both its current and desired future state, and develop the road map that prioritises the projects or tasks to bridge the gap between the current state and the future (lean) state. VSM is a visual illustration of the entire value stream (from customer order entry through purchasing, manufacturing and shipping of the finished product in a facility). This paper describes the implementation of VSM in a small manufacturing firm as a lean manufacturing improvement initiative. This involved mapping the activities of the firm, identifying opportunities for improvement and then undertaking with the firm an improvement programme. Current state map is prepared to describe the existing position and various problem areas. TAKT time calculations are carried out to set the pace of production. Future state map is prepared to show the proposed improvement action plans. The achievements of value stream implementation are reduction in lead time, cycle time and inventory level. It was found that even a small company can make significant improvements by adopting VSM.
Association between low serum free thyroxine concentrations and coronary artery calcification in healthy euthyroid subjects.

BACKGROUND Considerable evidence suggests that hypothyroidism could promote atherosclerotic vascular changes. We planned this study to investigate whether serum free thyroxine (FT4) or thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) levels are associated with coronary artery calcification measured in healthy euthyroid subjects. METHODS A cross-sectional analysis was performed among subjects who visited our hospital for a health checkup. Among 1849 subjects, 669 (mean age 55.3±8.8 years; 392 men) with FT4 and TSH in the normal ranges were included after excluding those with diabetes, a history of current smoking and cardiovascular disease (CVD), or the use of drugs for hypertension, antithyroid drugs, or thyroid hormone preparations. Coronary artery calcium scores (CACS) were measured by multi-detector computed tomography. RESULTS Subjects with a CACS >100 had lower FT4 levels than those with a lower CACS (p=0.017), whereas no difference was observed in the TSH levels among CACS categories. FT4 levels had an odds ratio of 0.06 for high CACS (95% confidence interval=0.01-0.74; p=0.028) after the adjustment for CVD risk factors. In multivariate regression analysis, CACS was negatively correlated with FT4 levels (β=-0.823, p=0.032), and the inverse association between FT4 and CACS remained significant only in men (p=0.011). CONCLUSION FT4 levels were inversely associated with coronary artery calcification in euthyroid healthy subjects, especially in men independent of conventional CVD risk factors. Further studies are needed to validate whether subjects with decreased FT4 levels within the normal reference range are at a high CVD risk and have poor cardiovascular outcomes.
Growth and instability of the liquid rim in the crown splash regime

Abstract We study the formation, growth and disintegration of jets following the impact of a drop on a thin film of the same liquid for $\def \xmlpi #1{}\def \mathsfbi #1{\boldsymbol {\mathsf {#1}}}\let \le =\leqslant \let \leq =\leqslant \let \ge =\geqslant \let \geq =\geqslant \def \Pr {\mathit {Pr}}\def \Fr {\mathit {Fr}}\def \Rey {\mathit {Re}}\mathit{We}<1000$ and $\mathit{Re}<2000$ using a combination of numerical simulations and linear stability theory (Agbaglah, Josserand & Zaleski, Phys. Fluids, vol. 25, 2013, 022103). Our simulations faithfully capture this phenomena and are in good agreement with experimental profiles obtained from high-speed X-ray imaging. We obtain scaling relations from our simulations and use these as inputs to our stability analysis. The resulting predictions for the most unstable wavelength are in excellent agreement with experimental data. Our calculations show that the dominant destabilizing mechanism is a competition between capillarity and inertia but that deceleration of the rim provides an additional boost to growth. We also predict over the entire parameter range of our study the number and timescale for formation of secondary droplets formed during a splash, based on the assumption that the most unstable mode sets the droplet number.
Comparison of optical and SAR data for forest cover mapping: REDD+ may be helped by SAR data

For Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) purposes, the standard method consists in using optical data to assess change in forest cover. However, SAR data are sensitive to forest above-ground biomass; thus an adequate SAR system, with long wavelength, could provide mapping of biomass and its change over time to be used for estimating carbon emissions. In this paper, the focus is on the comparison of forest cover maps derived from optical data and from SAR data in the Centre Province of Cameroon (about 84 000 km2), which contains humid tropical forests and woody savannas. The forest-non forest maps from optical and SAR data have comparable validation results. However, SAR-based methods are easy to implement, do not require extensive reference samples for calibration, and answer to the key question for carbon cycles studies which is how much biomass or carbon has been disturbed.
Debris transport over a sloped surface in tsunami-like flow conditions

ABSTRACT Debris loading has been identified during several forensic engineering field surveys in the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean and 2011 Tohoku Japan tsunamis as a critical design load. However, little research has addressed the assessment of debris loading hazards. The study presented herein examines the entrainment and transport of debris over a 1:10 sloped bed as well as over a flat, horizontal bed in tsunami-like conditions. The study was performed at a 1:50 scale and the debris was modelled as scaled-down shipping containers. The friction between the debris and the bed was varied by modifying the material installed on the slope as well as by covering the surface of the debris surface with materials with different degrees of friction. The debris-bed friction influenced the characteristics of the initial entrainment of the debris, which varied from sliding to rolling, depending on the magnitude of the static friction. This study also determined that the friction did not have a significant effect on the lateral spreading of the debris. However, a significant difference was observed in the case of the longitudinal displacement of debris (in the flow direction).
Assessment of respiratory muscle strength in children according to the classification of body mass index

OBJECTIVE: To assess and compare the respiratory muscle strength among eutrophic, overweight and obese school children, as well as to identify anthropometric and respiratory variables related to the results. METHODS: Cross-sectional survey with healthy schoolchildren aged 7-9 years old, divided into three groups: Normal weight, Overweight and Obese. The International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) questionnaire was applied. The body mass index (BMI) was evaluated, as well as the forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) with a portable digital device. The maximal inspiratory and expiratory pressures (MIP and MEP) were measured by a digital manometer. Comparisons between the groups were made by Kruskal-Wallis test. Spearman's correlation coefficient was used to analyze the correlations among the variables. RESULTS: MIP of eutrophic school children was higher than MIP found in overweight (p=0.043) and obese (p=0.013) children. MIP was correlated with BMI percentile and weight classification (r=-0.214 and r=-0.256) and MEP was correlated with height (r=0.328). Both pressures showed strong correlation with each other in all analyses (r≥0.773), and less correlation with FEV1 (MIP - r=0.362 and MEP - r=0.494). FEV1 correlated with MEP in all groups (r: 0.429 - 0.569) and with MIP in Obese Group (r=0.565). Age was correlated with FEV1 (r=0.578), MIP (r=0.281) and MEP (r=0.328). CONCLUSIONS: Overweight and obese children showed lower MIP values, compared to eutrophic ones. The findings point to the influence of anthropometric variables on respiratory muscle strength in children.
Incremental Effort Prediction Models in Agile Development using Radial Basis Functions

One of the impediments to the wide dissemination of software estimation and measurement practices is the significant overhead imposed by these practices on the project and development team. Despite significant investment in research, the lightweight estimation of development effort is still an unsolved problem in software engineering. This study proposes a new, lightweight effort estimation model aimed at iterative development environments, as Agile Processes. The model is based on Radial Basis Functions. It is experimented in two semi-industrial projects carried out using a customized version of Extreme Programming (XP). The results are promising and evidence that the proposed model can be developed incrementally and from scratch for new projects without resorting itself to historic data.