Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of Lung Radiofrequency Ablation With Dual-Energy Computed Tomography: Analysis of Tumor Composition and Lung Perfusion

Objective The aim of this study was to evaluate radiofrequency ablation (RFA) of lung tumors with dual-energy computed tomography while focusing on tumor composition and lung perfusion. Methods The 36 tumors in 25 patients were included. Dual-energy computed tomography was performed before RFA and at 2 days and 1, 3, and 6 months thereafter. The effective atomic number (Zeff) of the tumors before RFA was compared with the Zeff at each follow-up using the paired t test. Lung perfusion was evaluated by iodine map images. When decreased perfusion was suspected after RFA, lung perfusion scintigraphy was performed. Results The mean Zeff of the tumors significantly (P < 0.001) decreased at each follow-up, compared with that before RFA. Lung perfusion in the parenchyma peripheral to the tumors appeared to decrease at 2 days in 9 tumors, which was confirmed by scintigraphy in 7 tumors. Conclusions Dual-energy computed tomography was useful by providing additional information on tumor composition and lung perfusion.
Prevalence and Risk Factors of Infertility at a Rural Site of Northern China

Objective To investigate and analyze prevalence and risk factors of infertility at a representative rural site of Northern China. Method This is a cross-sectional study. We conducted a face-to-face questionnaire survey from July 2014 to October 2014 involving 5,131 women who were at childbearing age in Suizhong, a medium-sized, representative county located in Northern China. Finally, data from 4,232 valid questionnaires were analyzed. Definition Infertility is defined as the failure to achieve a clinical pregnancy after 12 months or more of regularly unprotected sexual intercourse. Results Infertility prevalence in Suizhong County was 13.09% (95% CI, 12.09%-14.1%), of which the primary infertility incidence was 0.99% (95% CI, 0.72%-1.34%), and the secondary infertility incidence was 12.10% (95% CI, 11.13%-13.12%). For women, the infertility incidence of underweight women (Body Mass Index, BMI<18.5 kg/m2) was 1.5-fold higher than that of women with moderate BMI (18.5–24.9 kg/m2). The infertility incidence of women with little exercise was 4 times more than that of women with regular exercise, and 2 times more than that of women with heavy exercise. The group with moderate menstrual flow had the lowest prevalence of infertility, while both scant and excessive menstruation led to increased infertility incidence. Number of pregnancies (OR = 0.63; 95% CI, 0.51–0.79) was a protective factor for infertility, while the number of abortions (OR = 2.15; 95% CI, 1.58–2.93) was a risk factor for infertility. For men, those who stayed up late at night more than 3 times per week showed a significantly higher infertility incidence. Men who engaged in occupations with high-temperature working environment also suffered from an infertility incidence of about four times more than the others. Conclusions We found significant association between women's infertility incidence with their BMI, state of exercise, amount of menstrual flow, number of pregnancies and number of abortions. As for men, both staying up late and engaging in high-temperature occupations are independent factors affecting their fertility.
N-terminal Truncation of Antiapoptotic MCL1, but Not G2/M-induced Phosphorylation, Is Associated with Stabilization and Abundant Expression in Tumor Cells*

The antiapoptotic BCL2 family member MCL1 is normally up- and down-modulated in response to environmental signals and conditions, but is constitutively expressed in cancer where it promotes cell survival and drug resistance. A post-translational modification identified here, truncation at the N terminus, was found to act along with previously described ERK- and GSK3-induced phosphorylation events to regulate the turnover of the MCL1 protein and thus its availability for antiapoptotic effects. Although both N-terminally truncated and full-length MCL1 contain sequences enriched in proline, glutamic acid, serine, and threonine and were susceptible to proteasomal degradation, the truncated form decayed less rapidly and was maintained for an extended period in the presence of ERK activation. This was associated with extended cell survival because the truncated form of MCL1 (unlike those of BCL2 and BCLX) retained antiapoptotic activity. N-terminal truncation slightly increased the electrophoretic mobility of MCL1 and differed from the phosphorylation/band shift to decreased mobility, which occurs in the G2/M phase and was not found to affect MCL1 turnover. The N-terminally truncated form of MCL1 was expressed to varying extents in normal lymphoid tissues and was the predominant form present in lymphomas from transgenic mice and human tumor lines of B-lymphoid origin. The degradation versus stabilized expression of antiapoptotic MCL1 is thus controlled by N-terminal truncation as well as by ERK- and GSK3 (but not G2/M)-induced phosphorylation. These modifications may contribute to dysregulated MCL1 expression in cancer and represent targets for promoting its degradation to enhance tumor cell death.
Melatonin promotes osteoblastic differentiation through the BMP/ERK/Wnt signaling pathways

Abstract: Although melatonin has a variety of biological actions such as antitumor, antiangiogenic, and antioxidant activities, the osteogenic mechanism of melatonin still remains unclear. Thus, in the present study, the molecular mechanism of melatonin was elucidated in the differentiation of mouse osteoblastic MC3T3‐E1 cells. Melatonin enhanced osteoblastic differentiation and mineralization compared to untreated controls in preosteoblastic MC3T3‐E1 cells. Also, melatonin increased wound healing and dose‐dependently activated osteogenesis markers such as runt‐related transcription factor 2 (Runx2), osteocalcin (OCN), bone morphogenic protein (BMP)‐2 and ‐4 in MC3T3‐E1 cells. Of note, melatonin activated Wnt 5 α/β, β‐catenin and the phosphorylation of c‐Jun N‐terminal kinase (JNK), and extracellular signal‐regulated kinase (ERK) in a time‐dependent manner while it attenuated phosphorylation of glycogen synthase kinase 3 beta (GSK‐3β) in MC3T3‐E1 cells. Consistently, confocal microscope observation revealed that BMP inhibitor Noggin blocked melatonin‐induced nuclear localization of β‐catenin. Furthermore, Western blotting showed that Noggin reversed activation of β‐catenin and Wnt5 α/β and suppression of GSK‐3β induced by melatonin in MC3T3‐E1 cells, which was similarly induced by ERK inhibitor PD98059. Overall, these findings demonstrate that melatonin promotes osteoblastic differentiation and mineralization in MC3T3‐E1 cells via the BMP/ERK/Wnt pathways.
Knowledge Elicitation

In this chapter the enterprise of knowledge elicitation, the process of explicating domain specific knowledge underlying human performance, and the cognitive issues that surround this practice are reviewed. Knowledge elicitation had its formal beginnings in the mid to late 1980's in the context of knowledge engineering for expert systems. Expert systems are computer programs that embody domain-specific knowledge and that perform (e.g., decision making, problem solving, design) at levels typical of human experts, (but not necessarily in exactly the same manner as human experts). Knowledge engineering is broadly defined here as the process of building knowledge-based systems or applications. These include expert systems, as well as intelligent tutoring systems, adaptive user-interfaces, and even knowledge-oriented selection and training devices. The process of knowledge engineering involves knowledge acquisition which includes knowledge elicitation and other activities such as knowledge explication and conceptual modeling (Regoczei & Hirst, 1992), as well as the coding of the resulting knowledge, the design of a usable interface, and the testing and evaluation of this interface (Diaper, 1989b). Thus, knowledge elicitation is a subprocess of knowledge acquisition, which is itself a subprocess of knowledge engineering. In order to fit knowledge elicitation into the larger context of applied cognitive psychology it is necessary to understand its brief evolution. Some Background The push for expert systems in the 70's and 80's was motivated by (1) the technological capability, (2) the growing specialization of the workforce and cognitive complexity of jobs (Howell & Cooke, 1989), (3) the interest in creating artificial intelligence in machines, and (4) rejection of alternative general problem solving approaches (Feigenbaum, 1989). Instead of relying on search strategies, this new form of machine intelligence was "knowledge-based" or powered by facts and rules. The realization that "knowledge is power," triggered a flurry of interest in knowledge, and particularly in its elicitation and representation (Feigenbaum, 1989). Meanwhile, Cooke-3 parallel developments in the psychology of problem solving were taking place. It was becoming clear that expert problem solving could not be attributed to strategy, as much as to domain-specific facts and rules (Glaser & Chi, 1988). With a new focus on knowledge, questions regarding knowledge elicitation became central to both applied and basic endeavors. How can knowledge be effectively elicited from an expert? Interestingly, the typical (or thought-to-be-typical) transfer of cognitive theory and principles to application did not hold here. Although the cognitive literature had addressed the issue of knowledge, the focus …
TIMP-2 mutant decreases MMP-2 activity and augments pressure overload induced LV dysfunction and heart failure

Abstract Pressure overload induces cardiac extracellular matrix (ECM) remodelling and results in heart failure. ECM remodelling by matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) is primarily regulated by their target inhibitors, tissue inhibitor of matrix metalloproteinases (TIMPs). It is known that TIMP-2 is highly expressed in myocardium and is required for cell surface activation of pro-MMP-2. We and others have reported that imbalance between angiogenic growth factors and anti-angiogenic factors results in transition from compensatory cardiac hypertrophy to heart failure. We previously reported the pro-angiogenic role of MMP-2 in cardiac compensation, however, the specific role of TIMP-2 during pressure overload is yet unclear. We hypothesize that genetic ablation of TIMP-2 exacerbates the adverse cardiac matrix remodelling due to lack of pro-angiogenic MMP-2 and increase in anti-angiogenic factors during pressure overload stress and results in severe heart failure. To verify this, ascending aortic banding (AB) was created to mimic pressure overload, in wild type C57BL6/J and TIMP-2-/- (model of MMP-2 deficiency) mice. Left ventricular (LV) function assessed by echocardiography and pressure-volume loop studies showed severe LV dysfunction in TIMP-2-/- AB mice compared to controls. Expression of MMP-2, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) was decreased and expression of MMP-9, anti-angiogenic factors endostatin and angiostatin was increased in TIMP-2-/- AB mice compared with wild type AB mice. Connexins (Cx) are the gap junction proteins that are widely present in the myocardium and play an important role in endothelial-myocyte coupling. Our results showed that expression of Cx 37 and 43 was decreased in TIMP-2-/- AB mice compared with corresponding wild type controls. These results suggest that genetic ablation of TIMP-2 decrease the expression of pro-angiogenic MMP-2, VEGF and increases anti-angiogenic factors that results in exacerbated abnormal ventricular remodelling leading to severe heart failure.
SDN Partitioning: A Centralized Control Plane for Distributed Routing Protocols

Hybrid IP networks that use both control paradigms - distributed and centralized - promise the best of two worlds: 1) programmability of software-defined networking (SDN) and 2) reliability and fault tolerance of distributed routing protocols, like open shortest path first (OSPF). Typically, a hybrid network deploys SDN to control prioritized traffic and OSPF to assure care-free operation of best effort traffic. We propose a new hybrid network architecture, called SDN partitioning (SDNp), which establishes centralized control over the distributed routing protocol by partitioning the topology into sub-domains with SDN-enabled border nodes. In our approach, OSPF's routing updates have to traverse SDN border nodes to reach neighboring sub-domains. This allows the central controller to modify how sub-domains view one another, which in turn allows to steer inter-sub-domain traffic. The degree of dynamic control against simplicity of OSPF can be traded off by adjusting the size of the sub-domains. This paper studies the technical requirements, presents a novel scheme for balanced topology partitioning, and provides the corresponding network management models for SDNp. Our performance evaluation shows that - already in its minimum configuration with two sub-domains - SDNp provides significant improvements in all respects compared to legacy routing protocols, whereas smaller sub-domains provide network control capabilities comparable to full SDN deployment.
A New Approach of Personality and Psychiatric Disorders: A Short Version of the Affective Neuroscience Personality Scales

Background The Affective Neuroscience Personality Scales (ANPS) is an instrument designed to assess endophenotypes related to activity in the core emotional systems that have emerged from affective neuroscience research. It operationalizes six emotional endophenotypes with empirical evidence derived from ethology, neural analyses and pharmacology: PLAYFULNESS/joy, SEEKING/interest, CARING/nurturance, ANGER/rage, FEAR/anxiety, and SADNESS/separation distress. We aimed to provide a short version of this questionnaire (ANPS-S). Methodology/Principal Findings We used a sample of 830 young French adults which was randomly split into two subsamples. The first subsample was used to select the items for the short scales. The second subsample and an additional sample of 431 Canadian adults served to evaluate the psychometric properties of the short instrument. The ANPS-S was similar to the long version regarding intercorrelations between the scales and gender differences. The ANPS-S had satisfactory psychometric properties, including factorial structure, unidimensionality of all scales, and internal consistency. The scores from the short version were highly correlated with the scores from the long version. Conclusions/Significance The short ANPS proves to be a promising instrument to assess endophenotypes for psychiatrically relevant science.
Slit Diaphragm Junctional Complex and Regulation of the Cytoskeleton

In recent years, identification of proteins found at the slit diaphragm has greatly improved our understanding of the molecular mechanisms responsible for forming and maintaining the glomerular filtration barrier. This review examines the function of proteins identified at the podocyte intercellular junction in coordinating podocyte intercellular junction dynamics or cytoskeletal dynamics.
Altering the dewetting characteristics of ultrathin gold and silver films using a sacrificial antimony layer

Solid state dewetting of ultrathin films is the most straightforward means of fabricating substrate-supported noble metal nanostructures. This assembly process is, however, quite inflexible, yielding either densely packed smaller structures or widely spaced larger structures. Here, we demonstrate the utility of introducing a sacrificial antimony layer between the substrate and noble metal overlayer. We observe an agglomeration process which is radically altered by the concurrent sublimation of antimony. In stark contrast with conventional dewetting, where the thickness of the deposited metal film determines the characteristic length scales of the assembly process, it is the thickness of the sacrificial antimony layer which dictates both the nanoparticle size and interparticle spacing. The result is a far more flexible self-assembly process where the nanoparticle size and areal density can be varied widely. Demonstrations show nanoparticle areal densities which are varied over four orders of magnitude assembled from the identical gold layer thickness, where the accompanying changes to nanostructure size see a systematic shift in the wavelength of the localized surface plasmon resonance. As a pliable self-assembly process, it offers the opportunity to tailor the properties of an ensemble of nanostructures to meet the needs of specific applications.
Need Assessment of Students' Guidance and Counseling

Present study was planned to investigate the counseling needs of secondary school students. The study was delimited to Girls secondary schools only. The need assessment questionnaire (NAQ) was constructed which included five areas, i.e. educational, vocational, social, emotional and behavioral problems of students. NAQ was administrated to sixty girls of Grade 9th and 10th class, taken on convenience basis from five schools of Lahore city. Results indicate that matriculation level girls had more problems of carrier choice (i.e.45%) than of emotional nature. (i.e. 40%). So there is a need for vocational and emotional counseling programs for them. Although there were many limitation of the study (including small sample size and crude method of sampling) even then findings are seemed acceptable according to the age and grade level of students.
Does Cost Information Availability Reduce Physician Test Usage?: A Randomized Clinical Trial With Unexpected Findings

Four similar teams of physicians associated with similar inpatient units and randomly assigned patients were used to study the effect of providing physicians with cost information about their use of lab tests and x-rays. Two teams received information about lab test costs, and two teams received x-ray test costs. Test usage fell during the experimental conditions and continued to fall after the experimental period ended in teams in which there was an interested leader.
Rolling bodies with regular surface: controllability theory and applications

Pairs of bodies with regular rigid surfaces rolling onto each other in space form a nonholonomic system of a rather general type, posing several interesting control problems of which not much is known. The nonholonomy of such systems can be exploited in practical devices, which is very useful in robotic applications. In order to achieve all potential benefits, a deeper understanding of these types of systems and more practical algorithms for planning and controlling their motions are necessary. In this paper, we study the controllability aspect of this problem, giving a complete description of the reachable manifold for general pairs of bodies, and a constructive controllability algorithm for planning rolling motions for dexterous robot hands.
Electrophysiological Heterogeneity of Fast-Spiking Interneurons: Chandelier versus Basket Cells

In the prefrontal cortex, parvalbumin-positive inhibitory neurons play a prominent role in the neural circuitry that subserves working memory, and alterations in these neurons contribute to the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. Two morphologically distinct classes of parvalbumin neurons that target the perisomatic region of pyramidal neurons, chandelier cells (ChCs) and basket cells (BCs), are generally thought to have the same “fast-spiking” phenotype, which is characterized by a short action potential and high frequency firing without adaptation. However, findings from studies in different species suggest that certain electrophysiological membrane properties might differ between these two cell classes. In this study, we assessed the physiological heterogeneity of fast-spiking interneurons as a function of two factors: species (macaque monkey vs. rat) and morphology (chandelier vs. basket). We showed previously that electrophysiological membrane properties of BCs differ between these two species. Here, for the first time, we report differences in ChCs membrane properties between monkey and rat. We also found that a number of membrane properties differentiate ChCs from BCs. Some of these differences were species-independent (e.g., fast and medium afterhyperpolarization, firing frequency, and depolarizing sag), whereas the differences in the first spike latency between ChCs and BCs were species-specific. Our findings indicate that different combinations of electrophysiological membrane properties distinguish ChCs from BCs in rodents and primates. Such electrophysiological differences between ChCs and BCs likely contribute to their distinctive roles in cortical circuitry in each species.
Title Sustained elevation of systemic oxidative stress andinflammation in exacerbation and remission of asthma

Oxidative stress has been implicated in the pathogenesis of asthma. We aimed at investigating the biomarkers of oxidative stress, inflammation, and tissue damage in patients with asthma in acute exacerbation and remission. We recruited 18 asthmatics admitted to hospital with acute exacerbation and 18 healthy nonsmoking controls matched for age. We evaluated plasma levels of 8-isoprostane, C-reactive protein (CRP) and total matrix metalloproteinase-(MMP-) 9 by ELISA, and MMP-9 activity by zymographic analysis. Plasma levels of 8-isoprostane and CRP were significantly elevated in acute exacerbation and decreased in remission but remained significantly higher compared to healthy controls. The activities of pro-MMP-9 were also significantly higher in acute exacerbation and decreased in remission but remained significantly higher compared to healthy controls in parallel to plasma levels of total MMP-9. These data suggest that overproduction of MMP-9 along with highly elevated levels of oxidative stress and inflammation is implicated in asthma exacerbation and that measurements of these biomarkers can be a valid index in its management.
The Role of Bicultural Self-Efficacy and Cognitive-Affective Factors on Psychological Well-Being

Broustovetskaia, Alexandra. Ph.D., Purdue University, August, 2015. The Role of Bicultural Self-Efficacy and Cognitive-Affective Factors on Psychological Well-Being. Major Professor: Ayse Ciftci Due to increasing number of immigrant and international students, examining factors that contribute to this population’s well-being is of outmost importance. The purpose of this study is to examine the role of bicultural self-efficacy in the relationship between cognitive-affective factors of emotional intelligence (EI) and ambiguity tolerance (AT) and psychological well-being. Immigrant and international students (N = 176) completed measures of Bicultural Self-Efficacy Scale (BSES; David, Okazaki, & Saw, 2009), TraitMeta Mood Scale (TMMS; Salovey, Mayer, Goldman, Turvey, & Palfai, 1995), Multiple Stimulus Types Ambiguity Tolerance Scale-II (MSTAT-II; McLain, 2009), and Psychological Well-Being Scale (PWBS; Ryff, 1989). The following hypotheses were tested: (a) EI, AT, and bicultural self-efficacy will uniquely and positively contribute to psychological well-being; (b) the association between EI, AT, and psychological wellbeing will be moderated by bicultural self-efficacy. The results revealed that bicultural self-efficacy and cognitive-affective factors were uniquely and positively associated with psychological well-being. Furthermore, bicultural self-efficacy did not moderate the relationship between cognitive-affective factors and psychological well-being.