Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Importance of Spino-Pelvic Balance in L5–S1 Developmental Spondylolisthesis: A Review of Pertinent Radiologic Measurements

Study Design. A review article. Objectives. The purpose of this article is to review pertinent radiologic measurements for the evaluation of spino-pelvic balance in developmental spondylolisthesis, based on the experience of the Spinal Deformity Study Group. Summary of Background Data. Over the past decade, pelvic morphology has been shown to significantly influence spino-pelvic balance of the human trunk in normal and pathologic conditions. This finding has important implications for the evaluation and treatment of developmental spondylolisthesis and has fostered a renewed interest in the radiologic evaluation of spino-pelvic balance in this condition. Methods. The lateral standing radiographs of the spine and pelvis of subjects with developmental L5–S1 spondylolisthesis were analyzed with a dedicated software allowing the calculation of the following parameters: pelvic incidence, sacral slope, pelvic tilt, L5 incidence angle, lumbosacral angle, lumbar lordosis, thoracic kyphosis, and grade of spondylolisthesis. All measurements were done by the same individual and compared to those of an adult and child reference population. Results. The pelvic shape, best quantified by the pelvic incidence angle, determines the position of the sacral endplate. The spine reacts to this position by adapting through lumbar lordosis, the amount of lordosis increasing as the sacral slope increases in order to balance the trunk in the upright position. Pelvic incidence, sacral slope, pelvic tilt, and lumbar lordosis are found to be significantly greater in subjects with developmental spondylolisthesis, while thoracic kyphosis is significantlylower when compared to a reference population. Furthermore, the differences between the two populations increase in a direct linear fashion as the severity of the spondylolisthesis increases, suggesting that pelvic anatomy has a direct influence on the development of a spondylolisthesis. Studies also indicate that pelvic incidence is unaffected by surgical reduction and instrumentation. Pelvic tilt, sacral slope, and thoracic kyphosis are slightly affected, while grade, L5 incidence angle, lumbosacral angle, and shape of the lumbar spine are significantly improved after surgery. A postoperative improvement in L5 incidence angle and lumbosacral angle appears correlated with a better outcome while subjects with a poor outcome have a higher preoperative grade. Conclusions. Spino-pelvic balance in the sagittal plane can be considered as an open linear chain linking the head to the pelvis where the shape and orientation of each successive anatomic segment are closely related and influence the adjacent segment. Pelvic morphology and spino-pelvic balance are abnormal in developmental spondylolisthesis. These abnormalities should be quantified on lateral standing radiographs of the spine and pelvis and have important implications for the evaluation and treatment of this pathologic condition.
Securing BGP — A Literature Survey

The Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) is the Internet's inter-domain routing protocol. One of the major concerns related to BGP is its lack of effective security measures, and as a result the routing infrastructure of the Internet is vulnerable to various forms of attack. This paper examines the Internet's routing architecture and the design of BGP in particular, and surveys the work to date on securing BGP. To date no proposal has been seen as offering a combination of adequate security functions, suitable performance overheads and deployable support infrastructure. Some open questions on the next steps in the study of BGP security are posed.
Antiphospholipid antibodies in heart transplant recipients

Antiphospholipid antibodies (aPA) are found in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus, aPA syndrome, myocardial infarction, and stroke. The presence of aPA may predict recurrent events in certain victims of heart attack and stroke. Blood samples from 105 cardiac transplant recipients (81 men. 24 women) were tested by enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the presence of IgG, IgM, and IgA aPA to phosphatidylserine (PS), cardiolipin (CL), and phosphatidylethanolamine (PE). Patients' ages ranged from 17 to 70 years (mean 51 years). Collection times ranged from Day 1 to 9 years post transplant (mean 36 months). All patients received triple immunosuppressive therapy. We report our aPA ELISA results in multiples of the normal median (MoM) of the OD405 values calculated for 252 healthy individuals. A positive MoM is greater than the MoM that encompasses 95% of the controls; for example, above 3 MoM is considered positive for IgG anti‐CL, IgA anti‐PS, and CL. Above 4 MoM is positive for IgG anti‐PS and PE and IgM anti‐PS and CL. Thirty‐nine patients had IgG anti‐PS (range 4.1–14.8 MoM), 63 had IgG anti‐CL (3.1–9.4 MoM), 7 had IgM anti‐PS (4.1–12.1 MoM), 1 had IgM anti‐CL (14 MoM), 47 had IgA anti‐PS (3.1–13.1 MoM), and 58 had IgA anti‐CL (3.1–11.5 MoM). In our patient population, the incidence of IgG and/or IgA aPA was significantly higher (p < 0.001) than IgM. Few patients showed specificity for either PS, CL, or PE, and many were positive with more than one antibody iso‐type. Because aPA were elevated in these patients, we investigated pretransplant serum samples which were available from 79 of the 105 recipients, and found aPA in 52 of 79 (66%) patients before transplantation. Longitudinal studies were done in three patients: two had increasing IgA aPA, beginning on Days 13 and 26 post transplant, whereas the third patient showed an increased aPA on Day 8 but a decrease on Day 23. Studies are in progress to determine whether a correlation exists between the presence of aPA, immunocytochemical (biopsy) findings, and clinical outcome.
Gelam Honey Attenuates the Oxidative Stress-Induced Inflammatory Pathways in Pancreatic Hamster Cells

Purpose. Type 2 diabetes consists of progressive hyperglycemia and insulin resistance, which could result from glucose toxicity, inflammatory cytokines, and oxidative stress. In the present study we investigated the effect of Gelam honey and quercetin on the oxidative stress-induced inflammatory pathways and the proinflammatory cytokines. Methods. HIT-T15 cells were cultured and preincubated with the extract of Gelam honey (20, 40, 60, and 80 μg/mL), as well as quercetin (20, 40, 60, and 80 μM), prior to stimulation by 20 and 50 mM glucose. Results. HIT-T15 cells cultured under hyperglycemic condition showed a significant increase in the inflammatory pathways by phosphorylating JNK, IKK-β, and IRS-1 at Ser307 (p < 0.05). There was a significant decrease in the phosphorylation of Akt at Ser473 (p < 0.05). Pretreatment with Gelam honey and quercetin reduced the expression of phosphorylated JNK, IKK-β, and IRS-1, thereby significantly reducing the expression of proinflammatory cytokines like TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-1β (p < 0.05). At the same time there was a significant increase in the phosphorylated Akt showing the protective effects against inflammation and insulin resistance (p < 0.05). In conclusion, our data suggest the potential use of the extract from Gelam honey and quercetin in modulating the inflammation induced insulin signaling pathways.
Chapter LOCAL ANESTHETICS 11

QUESTIONS OF THE DAY L ocal anesthesia can be defined as loss of sensation in a discrete region of the body caused by disruption of impulse generation or propagation. Local anesthesia can be produced by various chemical and physical means. However, in routine clinical practice, local anesthesia is produced by a narrow class of compounds, and recovery is normally spontaneous, predictable, and complete.
Beat Tracking from Conducting Gestural Data: a Multi-Subject Study

The musical conductor metaphor has been broadly used in the design of musical interfaces where users control the expressive aspects of the performance imitating the movements of conductors. Most of the times, there are predefined rules for the interaction to which users have to adapt. Other works have focused on studying the relation between conductors' gestures and the resulting performance of the orchestra. Here, we study how different subjects move when asked to conduct on top of classical music excerpts, with a focus on the influence of the beat of the performance. Twenty-five subjects were asked to conduct on top of three classical music fragments and recorded with a commercial depth-sense camera. We evaluated predicted beats using ground truth annotations from score-performance alignment by an expert musicologist and a modified F-measure that is able to account for different tendencies on beat anticipation across subjects. The results show that these tendencies can be used for possible improvements in the design of conducting musical interfaces in terms of user adaptation.
Immunohistochemical Loss of LKB1 Is a Biomarker for More Aggressive Biology in KRAS-Mutant Lung Adenocarcinoma

Purpose: LKB1 loss is common in lung cancer, but no assay exists to efficiently evaluate the presence or absence of LKB1. We validated an IHC assay for LKB1 loss and determined the impact of LKB1 loss in KRAS-mutant non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Experimental Design: We optimized and validated an IHC assay for LKB1 (clone Ley37D/G6) using a panel of lung cancer cell lines and tumors with known LKB1 mutations, including 2 patients with Peutz–Jeghers syndrome (PJS) who developed lung adenocarcinoma. We retrospectively analyzed tumors for LKB1 using IHC from 154 KRAS-mutant NSCLC patients, including 123 smokers and 31 never-smokers, and correlated the findings with patient and tumor characteristics and clinical outcome. Results: LKB1 expression was lost by IHC in 30% of KRAS-mutant NSCLC (smokers 35% vs. never-smokers 13%, P = 0.017). LKB1 loss did not correlate with a specific KRAS mutation but was more frequent in tumors with KRAS transversion mutations (P = 0.029). KRAS-mutant NSCLC patients with concurrent LKB1 loss had a higher number of metastatic sites at the time of diagnosis (median 2.5 vs. 2, P = 0.01), higher incidence of extrathoracic metastases (P = 0.01), and developed brain metastasis more frequently (48% vs. 25%, P = 0.02). There was a nonsignificant trend to worse survival in stage IV KRAS-mutant NSCLC patients with LKB1 loss. Conclusions: LKB1 IHC is a reliable and efficient assay to evaluate for loss of LKB1 in clinical samples of NSCLC. LKB1 loss is more common in smokers, and is associated with a more aggressive clinical phenotype in KRAS-mutant NSCLC patients, accordingly to preclinical models. Clin Cancer Res; 21(12); 2851–60. ©2015 AACR.
Limitations in Relating Quality Factor to Bandwidth in a Double Resonance Small Antenna

We examine the behavior of a matched electrically small antenna that exhibits two impedance resonances within its defined voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) bandwidth. The exact quality factor (Q), computed indirectly from the antenna's input reactance and far field, is compared to twice the inverse of the matched half-power VSWR bandwidth (Q BW) and to an approximate quality factor (Qz) determined from the frequency derivative of the antenna's input impedance. The well-established approximate equalities Q ap Q BW ap Q z for antennas exhibiting an isolated single impedance resonance within their operating band are shown to become highly inaccurate for an electrically small antenna exhibiting two closely spaced impedance resonances.
Nocardiosis following solid organ transplantation: a single‐centre experience

Nocardiosis is a localized or disseminated bacterial infection caused by aerobic Actinomyces that commonly affects immunocompromised hosts. The aim of this study was to retrospectively review clinical course and outcome of nocardiosis in solid organ recipients at our centre. Five cases of nocardiosis were identified in a series of more than 4000 consecutive solid organ transplants performed at Innsbruck university hospital during a 25‐year period. Of the five patients with nocardiosis, two had undergone multivisceral, one liver, one kidney and one lung transplantation. Three patients with Nocardia asteroides infection were treated successfully and recovered from their infectious disease, however, one lost his renal graft following withdrawal of immunosuppression. The lung recipient recovered from nocardiosis but died later on from Pseudomonas pneumonia. One multivisceral recipient died from Nocardia farcinica‐disseminated infection. Nocardiosis is a rare, difficult‐to‐diagnose‐and‐treat complication following solid organ transplantation. Intestinal recipients might be at increased risk to develop this infection.
An Empirical Study of the Influence of Argument Conciseness on Argument Effectiveness

We have developed a system that generates evaluative arguments that are tailored to the user, properly arranged and concise. We have also developed an evaluation framework in which the effectiveness of evaluative arguments can be measured with real users. This paper presents the results of a formal experiment we have performed in our framework to verify the influence of argument conciseness on argument effectiveness
Adaptive Congestion Control for Unpredictable Cellular Networks

Legacy congestion controls including TCP and its variants are known to perform poorly over cellular networks due to highly variable capacities over short time scales, self-inflicted packet delays, and packet losses unrelated to congestion. To cope with these challenges, we present Verus, an end-to-end congestion control protocol that uses delay measurements to react quickly to the capacity changes in cellular networks without explicitly attempting to predict the cellular channel dynamics. The key idea of Verus is to continuously learn a delay profile that captures the relationship between end-to-end packet delay and outstanding window size over short epochs and uses this relationship to increment or decrement the window size based on the observed short-term packet delay variations. While the delay-based control is primarily for congestion avoidance, Verus uses standard TCP features including multiplicative decrease upon packet loss and slow start. Through a combination of simulations, empirical evaluations using cellular network traces, and real-world evaluations against standard TCP flavors and state of the art protocols like Sprout, we show that Verus outperforms these protocols in cellular channels. In comparison to TCP Cubic, Verus achieves an order of magnitude (> 10x) reduction in delay over 3G and LTE networks while achieving comparable throughput (sometimes marginally higher). In comparison to Sprout, Verus achieves up to 30% higher throughput in rapidly changing cellular networks.
A Simple Converse of Burnashev's Reliability Function

In a remarkable paper published in 1976, Burnashev determined the reliability function of variable-length block codes over discrete memoryless channels (DMCs) with feedback. Subsequently, an alternative achievability proof was obtained by Yamamoto and Itoh via a particularly simple and instructive scheme. Their idea is to alternate between a communication and a confirmation phase until the receiver detects the codeword used by the sender to acknowledge that the message is correct. We provide a converse that parallels the Yamamoto-Itoh achievability construction. Besides being simpler than the original, the proposed converse suggests that a communication and a confirmation phase are implicit in any scheme for which the probability of error decreases with the largest possible exponent. The proposed converse also makes it intuitively clear why the terms that appear in Burnashev's exponent are necessary.
AGE‐RELATED RETENTION DEFICIT AS A FUNCTION OF LEARNING *

A large number of studies have demonstrated that elderly subjects (Ss) tend to learn less efficiently than younger Ss, a t least in laboratory situations. However, a number of studies which have been interpreted as demonstrating an age-related deficit in memory retention have not been controlled for possible age-related differences in level of learning. Thus, much of what is referred to as a deficit in retention with increased age may be based, a t least in part, on a deficit in learning. A study by Gilbert (1) is quoted frequently as a demonstration of a significant loss in memory retention with increased age. However, this conclusion is warranted only if acquisition indices are ignored. Elderly (60-69 years) and young (20-29 years) 8 s were given immediate and delayed recall tests on a paired associate list and the reproduction of a paragraph. The elderly Ss had a 58.7 per cent deficit relative to the young Ss for the immediate recall of the paired associate list and a 54.6 per cent deficit for the delayed recall. The deficits for the immediate and delayed recall for the reproduction of the paragraph were 41.8 per cent and 39.7 per cent respectively. Thus, if the scores for the immediate recall test are taken as acquisition measures, i t may be concluded that the elderly Ss learned less, but relative to what they did learn, their recall was very slightly superior to that of the young 8s. Wimer and Wigdor (2) reported no difference in retention over a fifteen-minute interval for elderly (mean age, 72.6) and young (mean age, 21.4) Ss who had learned 4 pairs of words, according to the same criterion. Hulicka and Weiss (3) had elderly (mean age, 68) and young (mean age, 38) Ss learn 9 pairs composed of geometrical designs and mend names, according to the same criterion of one errorless trial. The 2 age groups did not differ for recall scores a t twenty minutes and one week. However, Wimer (4) reported an age-associated deficit in retention over a 24-hour interval for elderly (mean age, 71.9) and young (mean age, 20.3) Ss who had learned 7 pairs of nonsense products, according to the same criterion. These studies suggest that when different age groups learn material on the basis of the same criterion, there is no age-related deficit in retention over a short interval (up to twenty minutes), a measurable deficit by twenty-four hours, but no deficit over a one-week period. Such a trend does not seem reasonable, since if elderly Ss recall material as well as young Ss after a oneweek interval, there should be no difference between the groups a t twentyfour hours. Resolution of the apparent discrepancy requires that retention be
Special Issue: Portals for life sciences—Providing intuitive access to bioinformatic tools

The topic ‘Portals for life sciences’ includes various research fields, on the one hand many different topics out of life sciences, e.g. mass spectrometry, on the other hand portal technologies and different aspects of computer science, such as usability of user interfaces and security of systems. The main aspect about portals is to simplify the user's interaction with computational resources that are concerted to a supported application domain. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Improving the generalization of disease stage classification with deep CNN for Glioma histopathological images

In the field of histopathology, computer-assisted diagnosis systems are important in obtaining patient-specific diagnosis for various diseases and help define precision medicine. Therefore, many studies on automatic analysis methods for digital pathology images have been reported. One of the severe brain tumors is the Glioma can provide unique insights into identifying and grading disease stages. However, the number of tissue samples to be examined is enormous, and is a burden to pathologists because of the tedious manual evaluation required for efficient decision-making and diagnosis. Therefore, there is a strong demand for quick and automatic analysis to do that. In this study, we consider feature extraction and disease stage classification for Glioma images using automatic image analysis methods with deep learning techniques. By devising a custom made deep convolutional neural network (CNN) for disease stage classification we apply it on image data available on the cancer genome atlas for brain glioma in histopathology.
Convergence Rate of K-Step Maximum Likelihood Estimate in Semiparametric Models

We suggest an iterative approach to computing K-step maximum likelihood estimates (MLE) of the parametric components in semiparametric models based on their profile likelihoods. The higher order convergence rate of K-step MLE mainly depends on the precision of its initial estimate and the convergence rate of the nuisance functional parameter in the semiparametric model. Moreover, we can show that the K-step MLE is as asymptotically efficient as the regular MLE after a finite number of iterative steps. Our theory is verified for several specific semiparametric models. Simulation studies are also presented to support these theoretical results.
Nitrate accumulation in plants, factors affecting the process, and human health implications. A review

Leafy vegetables occupy a very important place in the human diet, but unfortunately constitute a group of foods which contributes maximally to nitrate consumption by living beings. Under excessive application of nitrogen fertilizer, these vegetables can accumulate high levels of nitrate and, upon being consumed by living beings, pose serious health hazards. Therefore, efforts are warranted to minimize the accumulation of nitrate in leafy vegetables and its ingestion by human beings. This review focuses on (i) the contribution of vegetables towards dietary nitrate intake by humans, (ii) the nutritional, environmental and physiological factors affecting nitrate accumulation in plants, (iii) the harmful and beneficial effects of nitrate on human health, and (iv) the strategies that may be followed to minimize the nitrate content in plants and its subsequent consumption by human beings. The risk to human health due to nitrate consumption may be minimized by harvesting vegetables at noon, removal of organs rich in nitrate content and cooking of vegetables in water with a low nitrate content. The European Commission Regulation No. 1822/2005 needs to be followed in order to ensure safe levels of nitrate in plants for human consumption.