Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pathomorphologic characteristics of small hepatocellular carcinoma: A special reference to small hepatocellular carcinoma with indistinct margins

Some surgically resected small hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) up to 2 cm in diameter have indistinct margins, and it is sometimes difficult to identify the margins of the cancer nodule in the resected specimen. We classified such tumors as small HCC with indistinct margins and carried out a morphological study to define their characteristics in comparison with small HCC with distinct margins as a control group. We have encountered 27 examples among 86 tumors smaller than 2.0 cm in diameter. The tumors of this type indistinctly retained the basic architecture of the background and were vaguely demarcated. Most tumors were uniformly composed of well‐differentiated cancer tissue, which is characterized by increased cell density with increased nuclear/cytoplasm ratio, increased cytoplasmic eosinophilia, and irregular thin‐trabecular pattern with occasional pseudoglandular pattern. Portal tracts were included within the cancerous tissue. There was a “replacing” growth pattern at the tumor/nontumor boundary. Four of the 27 lesions had a nodule‐in‐nodule appearance, and the inner nodules consisted of moderately differentiated HCC without portal tracts. In all of the small HCC with indistinct margins, tumor invasion into the portal vein and intrahepatic metastasis were not found. In a control group, the tumors were well‐demarcated, and 53% of them were encapsulated. They were well‐differentiated in 9, moderately differentiated in 38 and mixed well and moderately in 12. Tumor invasion into the portal vein and intrahepatic metastasis was found in 16 (27.1%) and 6 (10.2%), respectively. According to the above results, it is suggested that many HCCs arise as a tumor of the well‐differentiated type containing portal tracts in a form of small HCC with indistinct margins. (HEPATOLOGY 1995; 22:101–105.)
Limits to Social Capital: Comparing Network Assistance in Two New Orleans Neighborhoods Devastated by Hurricane Katrina

Sociological research emphasizes that personal networks offer social resources in times of need and that this capacity varies by the social position of those involved. Yet rarely are sociologists able to make direct comparisons of such inequalities. This study overcomes this methodological challenge by examining network activation among residents of two unequal neighborhoods severely devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Results indicate that local network capacities of Lower Ninth Ward residents relative to those of the more affluent Lakeview neighborhood dissipated before, during, and after the disaster to erode the life chances of individual residents and the neighborhood they once constituted.
Speaker Diarization Features: The UPM Contribution to the RT09 Evaluation

Two new features have been proposed and used in the Rich Transcription Evaluation 2009 by the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, which outperform the results of the baseline system. One of the features is the intensity channel contribution, a feature related to the location of the speaker. The second feature is the logarithm of the interpolated fundamental frequency. It is the first time that both features are applied to the clustering stage of multiple distant microphone meetings diarization. It is shown that the inclusion of both features improves the baseline results by 15.36% and 16.71% relative to the development set and the RT 09 set, respectively. If we consider speaker errors only, the relative improvement is 23% and 32.83% on the development set and the RT09 set, respectively.
Endovascular Treatment of Intracranial Aneurysms in Elderly Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background and Purpose— Use of endovascular coiling for treatment of ruptured and unruptured intracranial aneurysms (IAs) in the elderly is increasing. We performed a meta-analysis of the literature examining clinical and angiographic outcomes for treatment of IAs in the elderly. Methods— We performed a comprehensive review of the literature from 1995 to 2012, reporting series of patients ≥65 years of age with ruptured or unruptured IAs treated with endovascular approach. Event rates were pooled across studies using random effects meta-analysis. Results— A total of 21 studies reporting on 1511 patients were included. Long-term aneurysm occlusion rates were 79% (95% confidence interval [CI], 70%–85%). Perioperative stroke occurred in 4% (95% CI, 3%–6%), with similar rates between patients with ruptured (5%; 95% CI, 3%–7%) and unruptured aneurysms (4%; 95% CI, 1%–14%; P=0.68). Intraprocedural rupture occurred in 1% (95% CI, 0%–3%) and 4% (95% CI, 2–6%; P=0.04) of patients with unruptured and ruptured aneurysms, respectively. Perioperative mortality rate for patients with ruptured aneurysms was 23% (95% CI, 17%–30%) and 1% (95% CI, 0%–6%) for patients with unruptured aneurysms (P<0.01). Rates of good clinical outcome at 1 year were 93% (95% CI, 88%–96%) and 66% (95% CI, 59%–72%) in patients with unruptured and ruptured aneurysms, respectively. Conclusions— This study suggests that endovascular treatment of IAs in the elderly is associated with high long-term occlusion rates. Given the morbidity and mortality associated with endovascular treatment of IAs in the elderly, careful patient selection, especially in the case of patients with unruptured aneurysm, is recommended.
Low noise cryogenic electronics: preamplifier configurations with feedback on the bolometer

We have developed preamplifier configurations used to readout resistive bolometers such as those based on neutron transmuted doped Germanium thermometers (so-called NTD Ge thermometers) or NbSi thin film thermometers. We introduce the impedance regulating preamplifier configuration. This configuration is compared to previously proposed readout configurations with feedback on the bolometer. It is shown that the impedance regulating preamplifier achieves extreme electrothermal feedback without using transition edge thermometer and SQUID readout. Thus the detector and readout electronics are straightforwardly calibrated and can handle much larger event rates. Looped configurations simplify the design and improve performance of detection such as bandwidth. Finally, we analyze the impedance regulating amplifier noise contributions, with JFETs as front-end devices, relative to other configurations.
A Consistent Phylogenetic Backbone for the Fungi

The kingdom of fungi provides model organisms for biotechnology, cell biology, genetics, and life sciences in general. Only when their phylogenetic relationships are stably resolved, can individual results from fungal research be integrated into a holistic picture of biology. However, and despite recent progress, many deep relationships within the fungi remain unclear. Here, we present the first phylogenomic study of an entire eukaryotic kingdom that uses a consistency criterion to strengthen phylogenetic conclusions. We reason that branches (splits) recovered with independent data and different tree reconstruction methods are likely to reflect true evolutionary relationships. Two complementary phylogenomic data sets based on 99 fungal genomes and 109 fungal expressed sequence tag (EST) sets analyzed with four different tree reconstruction methods shed light from different angles on the fungal tree of life. Eleven additional data sets address specifically the phylogenetic position of Blastocladiomycota, Ustilaginomycotina, and Dothideomycetes, respectively. The combined evidence from the resulting trees supports the deep-level stability of the fungal groups toward a comprehensive natural system of the fungi. In addition, our analysis reveals methodologically interesting aspects. Enrichment for EST encoded data—a common practice in phylogenomic analyses—introduces a strong bias toward slowly evolving and functionally correlated genes. Consequently, the generalization of phylogenomic data sets as collections of randomly selected genes cannot be taken for granted. A thorough characterization of the data to assess possible influences on the tree reconstruction should therefore become a standard in phylogenomic analyses.
Ergodic BSDEs Driven by Markov Chains

We consider ergodic backward stochastic differential equations (BSDEs), in a setting where noise is generated by a countable state uniformly ergodic Markov chain. We show that for Lipschitz drivers such that a comparison theorem holds, these equations admit unique solutions. To obtain this result, we show by coupling and splitting techniques that uniform ergodicity estimates of Markov chains are robust to perturbations of the rate matrix and that these perturbations correspond in a natural way to ergodic BSDEs. We then consider applications of this theory to Markov decision problems with a risk-averse average reward criterion.
Biochemical study of KB-cell receptor for adenovirus.

Three different approaches were used in an attempt to characterize the KB-cell receptor for adenovirus: affinity chromatography, immunoadsorption and cross-linking with a cleavable bifunctional reagent. The first system used an affinity gel consisting of adenovirus-fibre projection linked to Sepharose matrix by an intermediate bis(aminopropyl)amine arm, the amino groups of the fibre ligand being preserved by prior citraconylation. The second system consisted of adenovirus complete penton capsomere attached to anti-(penton base) antibody and cross-linked to polyacrylamide particles with glutaraldehyde. In this latter affinity model, the penton-fibre projection was appropriately oriented outwards, as in the virus particle. Both affinity systems permitted isolation from a KB-cell plasma-membrane extract of fibre-binding and penton-fibre-binding protein material, which inhibited adenovirus attachment. The penton-immunoadsorbent appeared more efficient and more specific than the affinity column of fibre-bis(aminopropyl)amino-Sepharose gel in specific activity of inhibition of adenovirus attachment. The third method consisted of reversibly cross-linking KB-cell receptor proteins with adenovirus particles by means of a cleavable di-imidoester and isolation of the complexes by sucrose-density-gradient centrifugation. Polypeptide analysis on sodium dodecyl sulphate/polyacrylamide gel of labelled KB-cell surface proteins, selected by the different procedures, showed that three major protein subunits of 78000, 42000 and 34000mol.wt. were common to the three selection systems. A possible model for the structure and function of the KB-cell receptor for adenovirus is discussed.
Solving Boundary Value Problems for Ordinary Differential Equations in M atlab with bvp 4 c

Ordinary differential equations (ODEs) describe phenomena that change continuously. They arise in models throughout mathematics, science, and engineering. By itself, a system of ODEs has many solutions. Commonly a solution of interest is determined by specifying the values of all its components at a single point x = a. This is an initial value problem (IVP). However, in many applications a solution is determined in a more complicated way. A boundary value problem (BVP) specifies values or equations for solution components at more than one x. Unlike IVPs, a boundary value problem may not have a solution, or may have a finite number, or may have infinitely many. Because of this, programs for solving BVPs require users to provide a guess for the solution desired. Often there are parameters that have to be determined so that the BVP has a solution. Again there might be more than one possibility, so programs require a guess for the parameters desired. Singularities in coefficients and problems posed on infinite intervals are not unusual. Simple examples are used in §2 to illustrate some of these possibilities. This tutorial shows how to formulate, solve, and plot the solution of a BVP with the Matlab program bvp4c. It aims to make solving a typical BVP as easy as possible. BVPs are much harder to solve than IVPs and any solver might fail, even with good guesses for the solution and unknown parameters. bvp4c is an effective solver, but the underlying method and the computing environment are not appropriate for high accuracies nor for problems with extremely sharp changes in their solutions. Section 3 describes briefly the numerical method. Section 4 is a collection of examples that illustrate the solution of BVPs with bvp4c. The first three should be read in order because they introduce successively features of the solver as it is applied to typical problems. Although ∗Math. Dept., SMU, Dallas, TX 75275 (lshampin@mail.smu.edu) †The MathWorks, Inc., 3 Apple Hill Drive, Natick, MA 01760 (jkierzenka@mathworks.com) ‡11 Coolidge Road, Wayland, MA 01778 (reichelt@alum.mit.edu)
Postural balance in young adults: The role of visual, vestibular and somatosensory systems

Purpose: The purpose of the study is to examine what sensory system predominates to maintain balance (e.g., visual, vestibular, and somatosensory) among people in their twenties and thirties. Data sources: A subset of individuals from a larger descriptive cross‐sectional study was assessed. A sample of 194 (males = 28%, females = 72%) young adults in the second and third decades of life had anthropometric measurements (height, weight, waist circumference, hip circumference, and leg length) taken and body mass index and waist‐to‐hip ratio were calculated. Balance was assessed using the NeuroCom Balance Master machine. Results: There was a significant difference among the three sensory systems for postural balance among the young population, F (2, 576) = 111.741, p < . 001. Post hoc Bonferroni tests were maintained at the 0.05 level which showed significance for the visual system compared to vestibular and somatosensory system: visual (M = 93.7, SD = 2.07); vestibular (M = 90.4, SD = 2.74); and somatosensory (M = 90.0, SD = 3.13). Based on the results, the visual system is the predominant sensory system used by young adults to maintained optimal postural balance. Significance for Practice: There is very little known about balance of younger adults. If balance issues are identified early in adult life it is possible to prevent exacerbation of balance decline as one age. If nurse practitioners are aware of what dominant sensory systems for balance young adults use, perhaps strategies to preserve these can avoid falls as they age.
Seasonal and interannual litter dynamics of a tropical semideciduous forest of the southern Amazon Basin, Brazil

[1] This study analyzed how seasonal and interannual variations in climate alter litter dynamics, including production, decomposition, and accumulation. Monthly measurements of leaf, stem, and reproductive (flower plus fruit) litter and the forest floor litter mass were combined with a mass balance model to determine rates of litter decomposition for a semideciduous tropical forest located in the rain forest-savanna ecotone of the southern Amazon Basin for 2001–2007. Annual rates of litter production varied between 8 and 10.5 Mg ha−1 a−1, and leaf litter production accounted for the majority (∼70%) of the total litter production. Leaf litter production peaked at the end of the May–August dry season while stem litter production peaked during the wet season and reproductive litter production peaked during the dry-wet season transition. Forest floor litter mass ranged between 5 and 8 Mg ha−1 over the study period and generally declined as litter inputs declined. Litter decomposition rates were remarkably stable from year-to-year and varied between 10.8 and 12.4 Mg ha−1 a−1. On average, rates of litter decomposition were highest during the dry-wet season transition. Overall, our results suggest that rainfall variability directly altered litter production dynamics and indirectly altered forest floor litter mass and decomposition kinetics through its effect on litter production. Future changes in seasonal and/or interannual rainfall patterns, whether in response to El Nino or to anthropogenic climate change, will likely have important consequences for the litter dynamics of Amazonian semideciduous forest.
Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor Subtypes in the Rat Sympathetic Ganglion: Pharmacological Characterization, Subcellular Distribution and Effect of Pre‐ and Postganglionic Nerve Crush

Abstract Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) mediate fast synaptic transmission in autonomic ganglia, which innervate and control the activity of most visceral organs. By combining ultrastructural, immunocytochemical, and pharmacological analyses, we characterized the nAChR subtypes in the rat superior cervical ganglion (SCG) and the effect of pre- and postganglionic nerve crush on their number in the ganglion and their distribution at the intraganglionic synapses. Binding with radioactive nicotinic ligands, immunoprecipitation, and immunolocalization experiments revealed the presence of different nAChR subtypes: those containing the α3 subunit associated with β4 and/or β2 subunits that bind 3H-Epibatidine with high affinity, and those containing the α7 subunit that bind 125I-αBungarotoxin. After postganglionic nerve crush, the number of nicotinic receptors and immunopositive intraganglionic synapses for each nAChR subunit strongly decreased. Both the number of nAChRs and immunoreactivity recovered 26 days after injury, when regenerating postganglionic fibers had reinnervated the peripheral target organs, as shown by the restoration of tyrosine hydroxylase immunoreactivity in the iris. This observation and the lack of any effect of preganglionic nerve crush on the number of nicotinic receptors suggest that the peripheral targets affect the organization of intraganglionic synapses in adult SCG.
Environmental change and migration: A review of West African case studies

West Africa has been a prominent region for research on the linkages between environmental change and migration. To a large extent, this has been motivated by the great Sahel droughts of the 1970s and 1980s. Most studies start from the assumption that environmental factors, such as rising temperature, increasing rainfall variability, land degradation and periodical droughts, affect people’s livelihoods, particularly in rural areas. This chapter provides a review of case studies on the linkages between migration and environmental change in the region, with a focus on drylands. It illustrates that the concepts, methods and results applied differ considerably between the case studies and make it difficult to draw conclusions on the environment-migration nexus. This review shows that even from environmentally fragile areas, people have many different reasons to migrate, which often go beyond risk prevention and adaptation to environmental stress. Many studies find that environmental factors are often not the main driver of migration in the region; instead, individual characteristics, structural conditions, social determinants, better prospects or individual aspirations strongly influence migration decisions and patterns. Nevertheless, temporary migration is a well-established activity to diversify income and the financial support of the migrants is crucial for most households in rural areas. Permanent out-migration of entire households seems to be rare in the region.
Tssk6 is required for Izumo relocalization and gamete fusion in the mouse

One of the most important processes in fertilization is the fusion of egg and sperm; however, the molecular mechanisms involved in this process are not well understood. So far, using genetic approaches, only two proteins have been demonstrated to be necessary for this process: Izumo in sperm and CD9 in the egg. Here we demonstrate that sperm produced by Tssk6 (Sstk)-null mice present defects that prevent the successful fertilization of eggs in vitro and the fusion to zona-pellucida-free eggs. Tssk6 is a member of the testis-specific serine kinase family of proteins and is expressed postmeiotically in male germ cells. In order for fusion to occur, during the process known as acrosome reaction Izumo needs to relocate from the anterior head to other regions, including the postacrosomal compartment. Tssk6-null sperm fails to relocate Izumo during the acrosome reaction. Agents that interfere with actin dynamics blocked the acrosome-reaction-associated translocation of Izumo that is required for fusion in wild-type sperm. Additionally, actin polymerization was compromised in Tssk6-null sperm. Taken together, our results indicate that Tssk6 is involved in sperm-egg fusion through the regulation of actin polymerization and changes in Izumo localization.
Determining the impacts of residential lakeshore development and various physical factors on largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) growth rates

Development of residential lakeshore properties can have several effects on aquatic ecosystems including the thinning of littoral coarse woody habitat. Previous studies have shown that reduction of littoral coarse woody habitat negatively affects largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) growth rates. In order to validate these results and attempt to find the mechanism through which bass growth rates are reduced, we surveyed 16 lakes in Vilas, County Wisconsin on a gradient of conductivity and development. Regressions of size-specific growth rates with lake area (p < .01) and maximum depth (p < .05) were negatively correlated and significant. A negative correlation was observed between mean largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) growth rate and development, between lake categories of low development low conductivity and high development high conductivity, although this trend was not statistically significant. Our research confirms that extensive residential lakeshore development may reduce the growth rates of bass as demonstrated by Schindler (2000). -S+e.vc. CA-. ,. f'e.IA-\. e. /z. \o. )~ Mentor Name/Department Sk:~-f~~ Mentor Sign e
A Target-Free Automatic Self-Calibration Approach for Multibeam Laser Scanners

In this paper, a target-free automatic self-calibration approach for multibeam laser scanners is proposed. The proposed approach uses the isomorphism constraint among the laser scanner data to optimize the calibration parameters, uses the ambiguity judgment algorithm to solve the mismatch problem, and finally achieves the purpose of automatic calibration. The experimental results show that the accuracy of our algorithm is higher than that of the target-based calibration approach. The calibration process is automatic and fast.
Analyzing sound tracings: a multimodal approach to music information retrieval

This paper investigates differences in the gestures people relate to pitched and non-pitched sounds respectively. An experiment has been carried out where participants were asked to move a rod in the air, pretending that moving it would create the sound they heard. By applying and interpreting the results from Canonical Correlation Analysis we are able to determine both simple and more complex correspondences between features of motion and features of sound in our data set. Particularly, the presence of a distinct pitch seems to influence how people relate gesture to sound. This identification of salient relationships between sounds and gestures contributes as a multi-modal approach to music information retrieval.