Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bone Mineral Content Reflects Total Body Calcium in Neonatal Miniature Piglets

ABSTRACT: We measured bone mineral content (BMC) in 18 neonatal miniature piglets by single photon absorptiometry, total body calcium (TBC) by total body neutron activation analysis, growth, and serum indices of mineral status (calcium, phosphorus, alkaline phosphatase activity). Measurements were begun on day 6, when the piglets were weaned, and were continued to day 19. After weaning, the piglets were assigned randomly to receive one of three diets which differed only in their concentrations of calcium and phosphorus: 100% of the recommended level (diet A), 60% (diet B), and 20% (diet C). No differences were observed among groups during the 19-day study, either in weight gain (48 ± 2 g/day) or increment in crown-rump length (2.4 ± 0.2 cm/wk). BMC correlated significantly (p < 0.001) with TBC at 6 (r = 0.83), 13 (r = 0.77), and 19 (r = 0.93) days. BMC correlated significantly (p < 0.001) with the ash weight (r = 0.87) and calcium content (r = 0.90) of the corresponding tibial bone segment. Anthropometric parameters and serum indices of mineral status did not predict TBC as accurately as did BMC measurements. We observed a range in BMC measurements in this study that was similar to the range reported for infants in the 1st yr of life. The high correlation between BMC and TBC suggested that BMC is useful in the assessment of mineral status in infants.
Risk factors for temporomandibular disorder: Binary logistic regression analysis

Objectives: To analyze the influence of socioeconomic and demographic factors (gender, economic class, age and marital status) on the occurrence of temporomandibular disorder. Study Design: One hundred individuals from urban areas in the city of Recife (Brazil) registered at Family Health Units was examined using Axis I of the Research Diagnostic Criteria for Temporomandibular Disorders (RDC/TMD) which addresses myofascial pain and joint problems (disc displacement, arthralgia, osteoarthritis and oesteoarthrosis). The Brazilian Economic Classification Criteria (CCEB) was used for the collection of socioeconomic and demographic data. Then, it was categorized as Class A (high social class), Classes B/C (middle class) and Classes D/E (very poor social class). The results were analyzed using Pearson’s chi-square test for proportions, Fisher’s exact test, nonparametric Mann-Whitney test and Binary logistic regression analysis. Results: None of the participants belonged to Class A, 72% belonged to Classes B/C and 28% belonged to Classes D/E. The multivariate analysis revealed that participants from Classes D/E had a 4.35-fold greater chance of exhibiting myofascial pain and 11.3-fold greater chance of exhibiting joint problems. Conclusions: Poverty is a important condition to exhibit myofascial pain and joint problems. Key words:Temporomandibular joint disorders, risk factors, prevalence.
High-Reliability Health Care: Getting There from Here

Context Despite serious and widespread efforts to improve the quality of health care, many patients still suffer preventable harm every day. Hospitals find improvement difficult to sustain, and they suffer “project fatigue” because so many problems need attention. No hospitals or health systems have achieved consistent excellence throughout their institutions. High-reliability science is the study of organizations in industries like commercial aviation and nuclear power that operate under hazardous conditions while maintaining safety levels that are far better than those of health care. Adapting and applying the lessons of this science to health care offer the promise of enabling hospitals to reach levels of quality and safety that are comparable to those of the best high-reliability organizations. Methods We combined the Joint Commission's knowledge of health care organizations with knowledge from the published literature and from experts in high-reliability industries and leading safety scholars outside health care. We developed a conceptual and practical framework for assessing hospitals’ readiness for and progress toward high reliability. By iterative testing with hospital leaders, we refined the framework and, for each of its fourteen components, defined stages of maturity through which we believe hospitals must pass to reach high reliability. Findings We discovered that the ways that high-reliability organizations generate and maintain high levels of safety cannot be directly applied to today's hospitals. We defined a series of incremental changes that hospitals should undertake to progress toward high reliability. These changes involve the leadership's commitment to achieving zero patient harm, a fully functional culture of safety throughout the organization, and the widespread deployment of highly effective process improvement tools. Conclusions Hospitals can make substantial progress toward high reliability by undertaking several specific organizational change initiatives. Further research and practical experience will be necessary to determine the validity and effectiveness of this framework for high-reliability health care.
Tribological characterisation of hard coatings with and without DLC top layer in fretting tests

The potential of coatings to protect components against wear and to reduce friction has led to a large variety of protective coatings. In order to check the success of coating modifications and to find solutions for different purposes, initial tests with laboratory tribometers are usually done to give information about the performance of a coating. Different Ti-based coatings (TiN, Ti(C,N), and TiAlN) and NiP were tested in comparison to coatings with an additional diamond-like carbon (DLC) top coating. Tests were done in laboratory air at room temperature with oscillating sliding (gross slip fretting) with a ball-on-disc arrangement against a ceramic ball (Al2O3). Special attention was paid to possible effects of moisture (relative humidity). The coefficient of friction was measured on line, and the volumetric wear at the disc was determined after the test from microscopic measurements of the wear scar and additional profiles. The friction and wear behaviour is quite different for the different coatings and depends more or less on the relative humidity. The DLC coating on top of the other coatings reduces friction and wear considerably. In normal and in moist air the coefficient of wear of the DLC top-layer coating is significantly less than 10−6 mm3/Nm and the coefficient of friction is below 0.1. In dry air, however, there is a certain tendency to high wear and high friction. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Autologous Neutralizing Humoral Immunity and Evolution of the Viral Envelope in the Course of Subtype B Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Infection

ABSTRACT Most human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1)-infected individuals develop an HIV-specific neutralizing antibody (NAb) response that selects for escape variants of the virus. Here, we studied autologous NAb responses in five typical CCR5-using progressors in relation to viral NAb escape and molecular changes in the viral envelope (Env) in the period from seroconversion until after AIDS diagnosis. In sera from three patients, high-titer neutralizing activity was observed against the earliest autologous virus variants, followed by declining humoral immune responses against subsequent viral escape variants. Autologous neutralizing activity was undetectable in sera from two patients. Patients with high-titer neutralizing activity in serum showed the strongest positive selection pressure on Env early in infection. In the initial phase of infection, gp160 length and the number of potential N-linked glycosylation sites (PNGS) increased in viruses from all patients. Over the course of infection, positive selection pressure declined as the NAb response subsided, coinciding with reversions of changes in gp160 length and the number of PNGS. A number of identical amino acid changes were observed over the course of infection in the viral quasispecies of different patients. Our results indicate that although neutralizing autologous humoral immunity may have a limited effect on the disease course, it is an important selection pressure in virus evolution early in infection, while declining HIV-specific humoral immunity in later stages may coincide with reversion of NAb-driven changes in Env.
Library-adaptively integrated data path synthesis for DSP systems

A new algorithm for the integrated data path synthesis of high-performance DSP systems has been proposed. The integrated synthesis problem, that is the combined problem of module selection, scheduling, and allocation, is systematically formulated as a clique-partition problem of mixed-vertex compatibility graph on a module library and is solved simultaneously. We introduce a global cost function based on clique partition heuristic to evaluate each decision along the synthesis process. Salient features, such as library-adaptive and integrated processing (i.e., make all resources, including operators and interconnects, tradeoffs), are processed in the algorithm and experimental results are quite encouraged. <<ETX>>
Cytoplasmic poly-GA aggregates impair nuclear import of TDP-43 in C9orf72 ALS/FTLD

Abstract A repeat expansion in the non-coding region of C9orf72 gene is the most common mutation causing frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Sense and antisense transcripts are translated into aggregating dipeptide repeat (DPR) proteins in all reading frames (poly-GA,-GP,-GR,-PA and -PR) through an unconventional mechanism. How these changes contribute to cytoplasmic mislocalization and aggregation of TDP-43 and thereby ultimately leading to neuron loss remains unclear. The repeat RNA itself and poly-GR/PR have been linked to impaired nucleocytoplasmic transport. Here, we show that compact cytoplasmic poly-GA aggregates impair nuclear import of a reporter containing the TDP-43 nuclear localization (NLS) signal. However, a reporter containing a non-classical PY-NLS was not affected. Moreover, poly-GA expression prevents TNFα induced nuclear translocation of p65 suggesting that poly-GA predominantly impairs the importin-α/β-dependent pathway. In neurons, prolonged poly-GA expression induces partial mislocalization of TDP-43 into cytoplasmic granules. Rerouting poly-GA to the nucleus prevented TDP-43 mislocalization, suggesting a cytoplasmic mechanism. In rescue experiments, expression of importin-α (KPNA3, KPNA4) or nucleoporins (NUP54, NUP62) restores the nuclear localization of the TDP reporter. Taken together, inhibition of nuclear import of TDP-43 by cytoplasmic poly-GA inclusions causally links the two main aggregating proteins in C9orf72 ALS/FTLD pathogenesis.
Moisture Transfer in Blended Long-grain Rough Rice

Moisture transfer in mixtures of low- and high-moisture content (MC) rough rice (ranging from 9.5 to 18.0% w.b.) was investigated with a single-kernel moisture tester over a period of 30 days. The intergranular air attained constant relative humidity corresponding to the mean MC of the mixture within a few minutes of mixing. About 90% of the change in the MC of low- and high-MC kernels occurred within first one or two days of mixing even though moisture exchange continued over a period of 30 days. Changes in standard deviation (SD) of MC of the mixture with time, when normalized as a SD ratio, were similar to simulated changes in MCs of low- and high-MC fractions relative to their mean MC. The developed relationships can be used to estimate the MC variation with time in low- and high-MC fractions of mixed rough rice.
Analytic Design Method Based on Homothetic Shape of Magnetic Cores for High-Frequency Transformers

An analytic formulation dedicated to the design of high-frequency power transformers is presented. This approach is based on the area product, and homothetic core shapes are considered. The temperature increase of the transformer is one of the main input data. Winding losses including the effect of eddy currents are calculated as well as core losses. An original model of magnetic losses valid over a wide frequency range of the common ferrite materials is introduced. The analytic formulation is validated by design examples concerning transformers that have been realized and tested. It is finally applied to study the evolution of power density versus operating frequency or power for different winding configurations or magnetic materials.
Compressive Behaviour of Concrete Cylinders Reinforced with Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer Bars

Current design standards ignore any contribution of glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) bars in concrete in a state of compression. This paper challenged this convention by testing 30 cylinders of 36 MPa concrete to failure in pure axial compression. The testing matrix consisted of control groups of plain and steel-reinforced concrete specimens which were used to benchmark groups of concrete specimens reinforced with commercial and modified GFRP bars. Cylinders were built in 4, 6, and 8 bar arrangements with nominal diameters of 10M or 13M and with concrete cover 25 mm, cylinder diameter 150 mm and height 300 mm. The GFRP bars were found to exhibit crushing failure long after the concrete in the cylinders had been crushed. Commercial GFRP bars significantly increase the toughness of the specimens over unreinforced concrete, outperforming both steel and modified GFRP reinforcement in this metric. However, steel reinforcement proved to increase peak load the most over unreinforced concrete, with commercial and modified GFRP reinforcement increasing peak load by less than half as much as steel.
Locally linear metric adaptation for semi-supervised clustering

Many supervised and unsupervised learning algorithms are very sensitive to the choice of an appropriate distance metric. While classification tasks can make use of class label information for metric learning, such information is generally unavailable in conventional clustering tasks. Some recent research sought to address a variant of the conventional clustering problem called semi-supervised clustering, which performs clustering in the presence of some background knowledge or supervisory information expressed as pairwise similarity or dissimilarity constraints. However, existing metric learning methods for semi-supervised clustering mostly perform global metric learning through a linear transformation. In this paper, we propose a new metric learning method which performs nonlinear transformation globally but linear transformation locally. In particular, we formulate the learning problem as an optimization problem and present two methods for solving it. Through some toy data sets, we show empirically that our locally linear metric adaptation (LLMA) method can handle some difficult cases that cannot be handled satisfactorily by previous methods. We also demonstrate the effectiveness of our method on some real data sets.
Current practices in the management of patients with ureteral calculi in the emergency room of a university hospital

OBJECTIVE: Urinary lithiasis is a common disease. The aim of the present study is to assess the knowledge regarding the diagnosis, treatment and recommendations given to patients with ureteral colic by professionals of an academic hospital. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Sixty-five physicians were interviewed about previous experience with guidelines regarding ureteral colic and how they manage patients with ureteral colic in regards to diagnosis, treatment and the information provided to the patients. RESULTS: Thirty-six percent of the interviewed physicians were surgeons, and 64% were clinicians. Forty-one percent of the physicians reported experience with ureterolithiasis guidelines. Seventy-two percent indicated that they use noncontrast CT scans for the diagnosis of lithiasis. All of the respondents prescribe hydration, primarily for the improvement of stone elimination (39.3%). The average number of drugs used was 3.5. The combination of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and opioids was reported by 54% of the physicians (i.e., 59% of surgeons and 25.6% of clinicians used this combination of drugs) (p = 0.014). Only 21.3% prescribe alpha blockers. CONCLUSION: Reported experience with guidelines had little impact on several habitual practices. For example, only 21.3% of the respondents indicated that they prescribed alpha blockers; however, alpha blockers may increase stone elimination by up to 54%. Furthermore, although a meta-analysis demonstrated that hydration had no effect on the transit time of the stone or on the pain, the majority of the physicians reported that they prescribed more than 500 ml of fluid. Dipyrone, hyoscine, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, and opioids were identified as the most frequently prescribed drug combination. The information regarding the time for the passage of urinary stones was inconsistent. The development of continuing education programs regarding ureteral colic in the emergency room is necessary.
Is pyogenic liver abscess associated with recurrent pyogenic cholangitis a distinct clinical entity? A retrospective analysis over a 10-year period in a regional hospital

Background Recurrent pyogenic cholangitis (RPC) is recognized as an important cause of pyogenic liver abscesses (PLA). Although it is endemic to Southeast Asia, it is seen increasing in the west mainly owing to immigration. The aim of this study is to compare the clinical characteristics of PLA in patients with RPC and without RPC. Methods We performed a retrospective analysis involving patients with PLA. The demographic, clinical features, laboratory and imaging findings, management strategy, and outcome of patients with and without RPC were studied. Results From January 2000 to December 2009 inclusive, 319 patients (27 with RPC and 292 without RPC) had PLA. Patients with RPC had higher mean age (71.7 vs. 64.9 years; P=0.03) and tended to have more acute onset of presentation than it did in those without RPC. The common clinical features of the two groups were fever, chill, and right upper quadrant pain. Patients without RPC tended to have more respiratory symptoms and signs. The laboratory abnormalities of both groups shared common features such as anemia, leukocytosis, high erythrocyte sedimentation rate and C-reactive protein, hypoalbuminemia, elevated total bilirubin, and alanine aminotransferase. Left lobe was predominantly involved in patients with RPC (51.9% vs. 23.6%; P<0.01) whereas those without RPC usually had PLA at right lobe (67.5 vs. 40.7%; P<0.01). Both groups also shared common radiological features such as hypoechoic in ultrasonograpphy, rim enhancement and septal lobulation in computed tomography. However, aerobila was found more in patients with RPC than those without RPC (25.9 vs. 5.5%; P<0.01) and the latter tended to have more abscess ruptures. The biliary tract disorder was the most common cause of the disease in the two groups. The microorganisms involved had distinct patterns between these two groups. Patients with RPC tended to have fewer complications than patients without RPC as there were fewer occurrences in metastatic infections, disseminated intravascular coagulation, and acute renal and respiratory failure. PLA in patients with RPC had higher recurrence rate than those without RPC (37 vs. 2.4%; P<0.01). The odds ratio of local recurrence between RPC and non-RPC group was 23.95 (95% confidence interval, 8.11–70.72). However, both were effectively managed by the combination of antibiotic and image-guided aspiration with/without drainage, and their mortality rates are comparable with each other. Conclusion PLA associated with RPC tends to have distinct clinical syndrome in regards to different extent of clinical manifestations, radiological and microbiological features, and complications. Its recurrent rate is higher than that of non-RPC type. However, both can be effectively treated with a combination of antibiotic and image-guided aspiration with/without drainage.
A reputation-based trust management system for P2P networks

The open and anonymous nature of a P2P network makes it an ideal medium for attackers to spread malicious content. In this paper we describe a reputation-based trust management protocol for P2P networks where users rate the reliability of parties they deal with, and share this information with their peers. The protocol helps establish trust among good peers as well as identifying the malicious ones. Results of various simulation experiments show that the proposed system can be highly effective in preventing the spread of malicious content in P2P networks.
Modeling of rate-dependent damping capacity of one-dimensional superelastic shape memory alloys

Recent experimental tests showed that shape memory alloys have a strong dependence of stress–strain curve on the strain rate. This rate-dependent phenomenon is mainly due to the temperature variation of shape memory alloys caused by the latent heat release/absorption during the forward/reverse phase transformation. Since there is an increasing use of shape memory alloys for civil engineering like seismic application, the complex rate-dependent properties, such as the propagation stress and the damping capacity, should be carefully analyzed. This article studies the rate-dependent stress–strain curve, especially the damping capacity, of one-dimensional NiTi shape memory alloys by using a linear model and a nonlinear model taken the rate-independent driving force in the micromechanics-inspired constitutive model. Compared with the experimental data and previous work, both models use fewer material parameters and can easily describe the trend of damping capacity with respect to the strain rate. For their clear physical meaning and simple mathematical expression, both models are useful tools for the dynamic design and simulation of superelastic shape memory alloys in practice.
Investigating the Effect of Chemical Treatment on the Constituents and Tensile Properties of Sisal Fibre

This work was carried out to investigate the effect of chemical treatment on the constituents and tensile properties of sisal fibre (Agave Sisalana). Sisal leaves were cut and buried underground close to the stream and were wetted with water regularly in order to ensure proper fermentation for about 15 days. The fermented leaves were washed and sun dried. The dried sisal fibre obtained was treated mechanically with chemicals after which the percentages of their constituents were characterized and, their tensile properties determined with Instron universal tensile testing machine. The results show that the chemical treatments enhance the removal of lignin and hemicelluloses which are detrimental to the bonding strength of composite produced from natural fibres except that of sample treated with alkaline peroxide. The results of the tensile test revealed that sample treated sequentially with KOH, acetic acid, NaCl and HCl has the best tensile properties followed by the sample treated with alkaline peroxide.