Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ex vivo evaluation of ADC values within spinal cord white matter tracts.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Our purpose was to evaluate the effect of fixative on apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values and anisotropy within spinal cord white matter. As glutaraldehyde (GL) better preserves axonal ultrastructure as compared with paraformaldehyde (PF), we hypothesize that spinal cord white matter fixed with GL will have increased anisotropic water diffusion as compared with specimens fixed with PF. METHODS Eleven rats were perfusion-fixed with either 4% PF or a combination of 2.5% GL and 4% PF. Diffusion-weighted imaging of the ex vivo spinal cord was performed using a 9.4T magnet with b values up to 3100 s/mm(2). In-plane resolution was 39 mum x 39 mum, and section thickness was 500 mum. RESULTS Overall, animals fixed with a combination of GL and PF (GL-PF) showed a greater increase in longitudinal ADC (lADC) as compared to those fixed with PF only, without differences in transverse ADC (tADC). As a consequence of the increased lADC, overall anisotropic diffusion increased in those animals fixed with GL-PF, as measured with an anisotropy index (AI = tADC/lADC). Evaluation of specific tracts demonstrated that lADC for animals fixed with GL-PF were significantly elevated in the rubrospinal, vestibulospinal, and reticulospinal tracts as compared with animals fixed with PF only. CONCLUSION Using a fixative of GL-PL results in increased anisotropy (decreased AI values) in spinal cord white matter tracts, as compared with PF fixation only, largely owing to increases in the lADC values. This finding may be due to better fixation of intra-axonal cytoskeletal proteins that results when GL is combined with PF and sheds further light on underlying sources of anisotropic water diffusion in CNS white matter.
Enhancement of homomeric glycine receptor function by longchain alcohols and anaesthetics

1 The effects of n‐alcohols (ethanol to dodecanol) and anaesthetics on strychnine‐sensitive glycine receptors were studied in Xenopus oocytes expressing homomeric α1 or α2 glycine receptor subunits, with the two electrode voltage‐clamp recording technique. 2 The glycine‐induced chloride conductance of homomeric α glycine receptors was potentiated by all the alcohols tested when an EC2 concentration of glycine was used. Homomeric α1 and α2 receptors were potentiated similarly by the n‐alcohols, except that low concentrations of ethanol produced greater potentiation with α1, as previously reported. 3 Increasing the n‐alcohol carbon number has been shown to increase the potency of the alcohols up to decanol at concentrations corresponding to EC50s for producing loss of righting reflex in tadpoles. However, dodecanol was no more potent than decanol, and only modest potentiation (30–60%) was obtained with dodecanol, in contrast to marked (150–200%) potentiation with the other alcohols. Thus, a ‘cut‐off’ occurred at about dodecanol. 4 Propofol, alphaxalone, pentobarbitone, halothane and enflurane, reversibly potentiated the function of homomeric α1 glycine receptors at concentrations which represent approximately twice the EC50 for production of anaesthesia in mammals, but ketamine and etomidate were ineffective. 5 Two novel cyclobutane compounds were tested; the anaesthetic compound (1‐chloro‐1,2,2‐trifluorocyclobutane) from 0.5 to 5 mM potentiated the action of glycine in a concentration‐dependent manner; however, the non‐anaesthetic analogue (1,2‐dichloro‐hexfluorocyclobutane) had no effect on glycine receptor function at concentrations (25 to 80 μm) predicted to be anaesthetic, based on the lipid solubility of this compound. 6 These results suggest that the α subunits of strychnine‐sensitive glycine receptors contain sites of action for n‐alcohols, propofol, alphaxalone, pentobarbitone and volatile anaesthetics, but not for ketamine and etomidate. Potentiation of glycine receptor function may contribute to the anaesthetic action of n‐alcohols and volatile agents.
FcεR1-Mediated Mast Cell Reactivity Is Amplified through Prolonged Toll-Like Receptor-Ligand Treatment

Background Mast cell-derived mediators mediate several of the pathological features of asthma. Microbial infections induce asthma exacerbations in which the contribution of mast cells remains incomprehensible. Principal Findings In this study we have investigated the characteristic expression pattern of Toll-like receptors (TLRs) 1–9 and the effect of TLR ligand treatment on IgE-receptor mediated mast cell reactivity. For the studies we employed in vitro differentiated connective tissue like mast cells (CTLMC) and mucosal like mast cells (MLMC) from mice. Both phenotypes were treated for 24 h or 96 h with ligands for TLR1/2, TLR2/6, TLR3 and TLR4, before activation with IgE and antigen. Prolonged exposure (96 h) with TLR-ligands promoted mast cell reactivity following IgE-receptor activation. TLR4 activation with LPS generated the most pronounced effect, with an enhanced degranulation and secretion of leukotrienes, cytokines and chemokines, in both CTLMC and MLMC. The effect of LPS was mediated through a Myd88-dependent pathway and the increased effect involved JNK-dependent pathway. Conclusion We find that prolonged exposure of mast cells to pathogens/TLR-ligands modulates their effector responses by priming them for increased release of several inflammatory mediators when subsequently activated by IgE-receptors. These data suggest that infections might exaggerate the severity of allergic reactions such as in asthma, by enhancing mediator release from mast cells.
Insulin‐like growth factor‐1 receptor inhibitor, AMG‐479, in cetuximab‐refractory head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

Recurrent head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) remains a difficult cancer to treat. Here, we describe a patient with HNSCC who had complete response to methotrexate (MTX) after progressing on multiple cytotoxic agents, cetuximab, and AMG‐479 (monoclonal antibody against insulin‐like growth factor‐1 receptor [IGF‐1R]).
Exploring beliefs about heart failure treatment in adherent and nonadherent patients: use of the repertory grid technique

Purpose Beliefs about medicines impact on adherence, but eliciting core beliefs about medicines in individual patients is difficult. One method that has the potential to elicit individual core beliefs is the “repertory grid technique. ” This study utilized the repertory grid technique to elicit individuals’ beliefs about their heart failure treatment and to investigate whether generated constructs were different between adherent and nonadherent patients. Methods Ninety-two patients with heart failure were interviewed using a structured questionnaire that applied the repertory grid technique. Patients were asked to compare and contrast their medicines and self-care activities for their heart failure. This lead to the generation of individual constructs (perceptions towards medicines), and from these, beliefs were elicited about their heart failure treatment, resulting in the generation of a repertory grid. Adherence was measured using the Medication Adherence Report Scale (MARS). Patients with a MARS score ≥ 23 were categorized as “adherent” and those with a score ≤ 22 as “nonadherent. ” The generated grids were analyzed descriptively and constructs from all grids themed and the frequency of these constructs compared between adherent and nonadherent patients. Results Individual grids provided insight into the different beliefs that patients held about their heart failure treatment. The themed constructs “related to water,” “affect the heart,” “related to weight,” and “benefit to the heart” occurred more frequently in adherent patients compared with nonadherent patients. Conclusion The repertory grid technique elicited beliefs of individual participants about the treatment of their heart failure. Constructs from self-reported adherent patients were more likely to reflect that their medicines and self-care activities were related to water and weight, and affect and benefit to the heart. Providing clinicians with better insight into individuals’ beliefs about their treatment may facilitate the development of tailored interventions to improve adherence.
A POS-Based Model for Long-Range Reorderings in SMT

In this paper we describe a new approach to model long-range word reorderings in statistical machine translation (SMT). Until now, most SMT approaches are only able to model local reorderings. But even the word order of related languages like German and English can be very different. In recent years approaches that reorder the source sentence in a preprocessing step to better match target sentences according to POS(Part-of-Speech)-based rules have been applied successfully. We enhance this approach to model long-range reorderings by introducing discontinuous rules. We tested this new approach on a German-English translation task and could significantly improve the translation quality, by up to 0.8 BLEU points, compared to a system which already uses continuous POS-based rules to model short-range reorderings.
Characterization, Modes of Action and Effects of Trifluralin: A Review

Among agricultural pesticides, herbicides comprise the most employed group in agriculture. The main function of these chemicals is to control weeds, weed competition reduces produc‐ tivity, without significantly impacting crop yield. Weeds tend to compete with crops by extracting essential elements from the soil, water, intercepting light and CO2, interfering in the culture development and affecting agricultural production practices including harvest [4]. Herbicides are also used for eliminating plants from both road, railways, and riversides [3].
Design-related risk factors for revision of primary cemented stems

Background and purpose Even small design variables of the femoral stem may influence the outcome of a hip arthroplasty. We investigated whether design-related factors play any role in the risk of non-aseptic revision of the 3 most frequently used primary cemented stem designs in the Swedish Hip Arthroplasty Register. Patients and methods We studied 71,184 primary cemented femoral stem implants (21,008 Exeter polished stems, 43,036 Lubinus SPII stems, and 7,140 Spectron EF Primary stems) that were inserted from 1999 through 2006. Design-specific characteristics were analyzed using separate Cox regression models that were adjusted for sex, age, diagnosis, incision, and number of operations (first vs. second). Results The crude revision rate varied between 0.8% (Lubinus SPII) and 1.4% (Spectron Primary). For the Exeter stem, the smallest femoral head diameter (22 mm) was associated with a higher risk of revision. No other design-specific parameters influenced the risk of revision of the Exeter stem. The smallest Lubinus stem size, a stem with extended neck length combined with a femoral head with increasing neck length, or the use of a cobalt-chromium head had a negative influence on the outcome. For the Spectron stem, the risk of revision was elevated for the smallest stem and for increasing offset calculated as the combined effect of high offset design and increasing neck length. Interpretation Overall revision rates were low, but for two of the stems studied design factors such as size and neck length or offset influenced the risk of non-aseptic revision.
Improving the uptake of systematic reviews: a systematic review of intervention effectiveness and relevance

Objective Little is known about the barriers, facilitators and interventions that impact on systematic review uptake. The objective of this study was to identify how uptake of systematic reviews can be improved. Selection criteria Studies were included if they addressed interventions enhancing the uptake of systematic reviews. Reports in any language were included. All decisionmakers were eligible. Studies could be randomised trials, cluster-randomised trials, controlled-clinical trials and before-and-after studies. Data sources We searched 19 databases including PubMed, EMBASE and The Cochrane Library, covering the full range of publication years from inception to December 2010. Two reviewers independently extracted data and assessed quality according to the Effective Practice and Organisation of Care criteria. Results 10 studies from 11 countries, containing 12 interventions met our criteria. Settings included a hospital, a government department and a medical school. Doctors, nurses, mid-wives, patients and programme managers were targeted. Six of the studies were geared to improving knowledge and attitudes while four targeted clinical practice. Synthesis of results Three studies of low-to-moderate risk of bias, identified interventions that showed a statistically significant improvement: educational visits, short summaries of systematic reviews and targeted messaging. Promising interventions include e-learning, computer-based learning, inactive workshops, use of knowledge brokers and an e-registry of reviews. Juxtaposing barriers and facilitators alongside the identified interventions, it was clear that the three effective approaches addressed a wide range of barriers and facilitators. Discussion A limited number of studies were found for inclusion. However, the extensive literature search is one of the strengths of this review. Conclusions Targeted messaging, educational visits and summaries are recommended to enhance systematic review uptake. Identified promising approaches need to be developed further. New strategies are required to encompass neglected barriers and facilitators. This review addressed effectiveness and also appropriateness of knowledge uptake strategies.
Separability in the Ambient Logic

The Ambient Logic (AL) has been proposed for expressing properties of pro- cess mobility in the calculus of Mobile Ambients (MA), and as a basis for query languages on semistructured data. We study some basic questions concerning the discriminating power of AL, focusing on the equivalence on processes induced by the logic (=L). As underlying calculi besides MA we consider a subcalculus in which an image-finiteness condition holds and that we prove to be Turing complete. Synchronous variants of these calculi are studied as well. In these calculi, we provide two operational characterisations of =L: a coinductive one (as a form of bisimilarity) and an inductive one (based on structual properties of processes). After showing =L to be stricly finer than barbed congruence, we establish axiomatisations of =L on the subcalculus of MA (both the asynchronous and the synchronous version), enabling us to relate =L to structural congruence. We also present some (un)decidability results that are related to the above separation properties for AL: the undecidability of =L on MA and its decidability on the subcalculus.
Robust Iterative Quantization for Efficient ℓp-norm Similarity Search

Iterative Quantization (ITQ) is one of the most successful hashing based nearest-neighbor search methods for large-scale information retrieval in the past a few years due to its simplicity and superior performance. However, the performance of this algorithm degrades significantly when dealing with noisy data. Additionally, it can barely facilitate a wide range of applications as the distortion measurement only limits to l2 norm. In this paper, we propose an ITQ+ algorithm, aiming to enhance both robustness and generalization of the original ITQ algorithm. Specifically, a lp,q-norm loss function is proposed to conduct the lp-norm similarity search, rather than a l2 norm search. Despite the fact that changing the loss function to lp,q-norm makes our algorithm more robust and generic, it brings us a challenge that minimizes the obtained orthogonality constrained lp,q-norm function, which is non-smooth and non-convex. To solve this problem, we propose a novel and efficient optimization scheme. Extensive experiments on benchmark datasets demonstrate that ITQ+ is overwhelmingly better than the original ITQ algorithm, especially when searching similarity in noisy data.
The Effects of Queue Structure on Attitudes

Waiting is examined here as a psychological experience, through propositions regarding the relationship between the design of a queue and the emotions and attitudes of people waiting. Propositions are tested using a paradigm that both controls features of queue structure and allows collection of real-time data from people waiting. Data collected from 134 participants confirm that people closer to a service agent are more pleased than those further away. But people waiting in a single-queue structure are shown to feel more predictability and arousal than those waiting in a multiple-queue structure. Waiting in a multiple-queue structure is, however, shown to produce a sense of lack of justice, even when no objective inequalities exist. The study suggests a useful paradigm for evaluating alternative queue structures in a laboratory setting and provides insights about psychological aspects of waiting. Both the method and the results suggest an extensive agenda for future research.
Quantifying and Imaging NY-ESO-1/LAGE-1-Derived Epitopes on Tumor Cells Using High Affinity T Cell Receptors

Presentation of intracellular tumor-associated Ags (TAAs) in the context of HLA class I molecules offers unique cancer-specific cell surface markers for the identification and targeting of tumor cells. For most peptide Ags, the levels of and variations in cell surface presentation remain unknown, yet these parameters are of crucial importance when considering specific TAAs as targets for anticancer therapy. Here we use a soluble TCR with picomolar affinity for the HLA-A2-restricted 157–165 epitope of the NY-ESO-1 and LAGE-1 TAAs to investigate presentation of this immunodominant epitope on the surface of a variety of cancer cells. By single molecule fluorescence microscopy, we directly visualize HLA-peptide presentation for the first time, demonstrating that NY-ESO-1/LAGE-1-positive tumor cells present 10–50 NY-ESO-1/LAGE-1157–165 epitopes per cell.
Caution Should be Used in the Recognition of Adult-Onset Autoinflammatory Disorders: Facts or Fiction?

Autoinflammatory disorders (AIDs) are a group of inherited diseases of innate immunity, characterized by seemingly unprovoked inflammation recurring with variable rhythmicity and involving skin, serosal membranes, synovial membranes, and gastrointestinal tube, with reactive amyloidosis as a potential severe long-term complication (Touitou and Kone-Paut, 2008). They can be categorized in hereditary monogenic disorders and multi-factorial polygenic disorders, encompassing an expanding number of conditions, as the well-known periodic fever, aphthosis, pharyngitis, and adenitis (PFAPA) syndrome (Masters et al., 2009).
Contextualizing Learning Scenarios According to Different Learning Management Systems

In this paper, we first demonstrate that an instructional design process of Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) systems based on a Model Driven Approach (MDA) addresses the limits of Learning Technology Standards (LTS), such as SCORM and IMS-LD. Although these standards ensure the interoperability of TEL systems across different Learning Management Systems (LMS), they are generic and lack expressiveness. In addition, the use of LTS limits designers to using a compliant LMS. MDA addresses these limits by allowing pedagogic modeling based on specific modeling languages and by ensuring interoperability across Learning Management Systems based on model transformations. In the context of an MDA-based design process, we propose a novel approach, named ACoMoD, to help designers to bridge the gap between pedagogic modeling and LMS specifications, based on graphic and interactive model transformations. Our approach, implemented with a tool called Gen-COM, enables designers to choose more effective LMS tools, based on a contextual recommendation of best practice for LMS tool use. Gen-COM and its evaluation with designers are described in this paper. The main results show, first, the usefulness of tailoring pedagogy with LMS tools based on the proposed solution. Second, the results show different levels of usefulness of the proposed assistance according to different situations that will be detailed. Some improvements are suggested and are in progress concerning the extension of Gen-COM to offer assistance to designers based on their profiles.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Electromyography to Measure Lumbar Back Muscle Activity

Study Design. Mixed model analysis of muscle functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and electromyography (EMG) changes in lumbar muscles during trunk extension exercise at varying intensities. Objective. To gain insight within the relationship between muscle functional MRI and activity of the lumbar back muscles, which is related to exercise intensity. Summary of Background Data. It is known that muscle activity during exercise induces a force-sensitive T2 increase; however, it is not known how sensitive this T2 change is. In addition, the association between MRI and EMG measurement was investigated. Methods. Multifidus and erector spinae muscle activity was investigated during a trunk extension exercise at 5 increasing loads (from 40% to 80% of 1 repetition maximum), with both MRI and EMG. Data were analyzed using mixed model analysis. Results. Our results indicate a linear relationship between MRI and exercise intensity; for both muscles an increase of 10% exercise intensity corresponds with an increase of the T2 value with 1.18 (0.89, 1.47) ms. Also for EMG there is a linear relationship with exercise intensity; an increase of 10% exercise intensity corresponds with an increase of 6.98 (5.33, 8.62) &mgr;V. Furthermore, a linear association between MRI and EMG is acceptable. For the multifidus, an increase of 1 &mgr;V (EMG) corresponds with an increase of 0.168 (0.117, 0.219) ms (MRI). For the erector spinae, an increase of 1 &mgr;V corresponds with an increase of 0.078 (0.042, 0.114) ms. Conclusion. Both muscle functional MRI and EMG have specific (dis-) advantages and therefore have to be seen as complementary techniques. Nevertheless, our results support the validity of each method and indicate that MRI and EMG can be used independently to quantify lumbar muscle activity.
Outliers to the Isotropic Energy - Peak Energy Relation in GRBs

The peak energy - isotropic energy (EpEi) relation is among the most intriguing recent discoveries concerning GRBs. It can have numerous implications on our understanding of the emission mechanism of the bursts and on the application of GRBs for cosmological studies. However, this relation was veriﬁed only for a small sample of bursts with measured redshifts. We propose here a test whether a burst with an unknown redshift can potentially satisfy the EpEi relation. Applying this test to a large sample of BATSE bursts we ﬁnd that a signiﬁcant fraction of those bursts cannot satisfy this relation. Our test is sensitive only to dim and hard bursts and therefore this relation might still hold as an inequality (i.e. there are no intrinsically bright and soft bursts). We conclude that the observed relation seen in the sample of bursts with a known redshift might be inﬂuenced by observational biases and from the inability to locate and well localize hard and weak bursts that have only a small number of photons. In particular we point out that the threshold for detection, localization and redshift measurement is essentially higher than the threshold for detection alone. We predict that Swift will detect some hard and weak bursts that would be outliers to the EpEi relation. However, we cannot quantify this prediction. We stress the importance of understanding the detection-localization-redshift threshold for the coming Swift detections.