Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Postoperative analgesia with epidural opioids after cesarean section: Comparison of sufentanil, morphine and sufentanil-morphine combination

Background: Epidural analgesia with opioid provides good control of postoperative pain in cesarean section, thereby improving the mother's ability to mobilize and interact with her newborn infant. Aim: The aim of this study is to evaluate and compare the analgesic actions and side effects of epidural analgesia with sufentanil, morphine or combination of the two after cesarean section. Materials and Methods: 60 women undergoing elective cesarean section were allocated into three groups of 20 each in a randomized blinded fashion. Epidural analgesia was administered with sufentanil 50 mcg in Group S; morphine 4 mg in Group M; and, a combination of sufentanil 25 mcg and morphine 2 mg was used in Group SM. Analgesic efficacy in terms of onset of action and duration of analgesia was assessed by using the Visual Analog Scale (0 to 10 cm) for 24 hours. Number of opioid doses needed in 24 hours was noted. Side effects like respiratory depression /excessive sedation, pruritus and nausea were recorded. Results: Onset of action were at 7.6 ± 1.5 minutes in group S, 67.6 ± 1.5 minutes in group M and 12.2 ± 2.6 minutes in group SM. Duration of analgesia was longer in group M 17.5 ± 1.9 hours and SM 13.8 ± 1.6 hours than in group S 5.2 ± 1.2 hours. More doses of analgesia were required in group S compared to group M and SM. Side effects were comparable in the three groups. Conclusion: Epidural administration of a combination of sufentanil and morphine offered the advantage of faster onset of action and longer duration of analgesia as compared to the two drugs administered alone.
Alternating Minimization Algorithms for Hybrid Precoding in Millimeter Wave MIMO Systems

Millimeter wave (mmWave) communications has been regarded as a key enabling technology for 5G networks, as it offers orders of magnitude greater spectrum than current cellular bands. In contrast to conventional multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) systems, precoding in mmWave MIMO cannot be performed entirely at baseband using digital precoders, as only a limited number of signal mixers and analog-to-digital converters can be supported considering their cost and power consumption. As a cost-effective alternative, a hybrid precoding transceiver architecture, combining a digital precoder and an analog precoder, has recently received considerable attention. However, the optimal design of such hybrid precoders has not been fully understood. In this paper, treating the hybrid precoder design as a matrix factorization problem, effective alternating minimization (AltMin) algorithms will be proposed for two different hybrid precoding structures, i.e., the fully-connected and partially-connected structures. In particular, for the fully-connected structure, an AltMin algorithm based on manifold optimization is proposed to approach the performance of the fully digital precoder, which, however, has a high complexity. Thus, a low-complexity AltMin algorithm is then proposed, by enforcing an orthogonal constraint on the digital precoder. Furthermore, for the partially-connected structure, an AltMin algorithm is also developed with the help of semidefinite relaxation. For practical implementation, the proposed AltMin algorithms are further extended to the broadband setting with orthogonal frequency division multiplexing modulation. Simulation results will demonstrate significant performance gains of the proposed AltMin algorithms over existing hybrid precoding algorithms. Moreover, based on the proposed algorithms, simulation comparisons between the two hybrid precoding structures will provide valuable design insights.
A Multi-Word Term Extraction Program for Arabic Language

Terminology extraction commonly includes two steps: identification of term-like units in the texts, mostly multi-word phrases, and the ranking of the extracted term-like units according to their domain representativity. In this paper, we design a multi-word term extraction program for Arabic language. The linguistic filtering performs a morphosyntactic analysis and takes into account several types of variations. The domain representativity is measure thanks to statistical scores. We evalutate several association measures and show that the results we otained are consitent with those obtained for Romance languages.
Applying Petri Net Unfoldings for Verification of Mobile Systems

School of Computing Science, University of Newcastle Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, U.K. {victor.khomenko,maciej.koutny,apostolos.niaouris} @ ncl.ac. uk Summary. Mobility is a central feature of many distributed systems of ever growing complexity. To make their formal analysis and verification feasible, process algebras — notably the π-calculus — have been introduced and extensively studied. A well-established method of verifying the correctness of general distributed systems has been model-checking which is completely automatic and relatively fast compared to other alternatives, and so particularly attractive in industrial context. Mobile systems are highly concurrent causing state space explosion when applying model-checking techniques. To cope with this problem, techniques based on partial order semantics of concurrency seem to offer the desired level of efficiency. The aim of this paper is to investigate how one of such techniques — based of unfoldings of high-level Petri nets — could be used for verification of π-calculus terms. Our starting point was an existing compositional translation from a finite fragment of the π-calculus into a class of high-level Petri nets. We developed a prototype tool based on this theoretical translation and an existing efficient unfolder and verifier. In this paper, we describe initial experimental results in support of specific design choices. Crucially, developing the prototype was not a straightforward task since the theoretical translation does not produce nets which conform to the input format required by the verifier. The paper states how this mismatch has been overcome and draws conclusions for future uses of unfoldings technique in the modelchecking of mobile systems.
De Novo Interstitial Microdeletion at 1q32.1 in a 10-Year-Old Boy with Developmental Delay and Dysmorphism

A 10-year-old boy was referred with developmental delay and dysmorphism. Genomewide aCGH microarray analysis detected a de novo 3.7 Mb deletion at 1q32.1: arr 1q32.1(199,985,888-203,690,832)x1 dn [build HG19]. This first report of a deletion in this region implies a critical role for dosage-sensitive genes within 1q32.1 in neurological development. This is consistent with previously reported duplications of this region in patients with a similar phenotype.
Identifying phenomenological differences and recovery of cognitive and non-cognitive symptomatology among delirium superimposed upon dementia patients (DsD) versus those without dementia (DaD) in an acute geriatric care setting

ABSTRACT Background: Phenomenological differences between delirium superimposed on dementia (DsD) versus delirium in the absence of dementia (DaD) remain poorly understood. We aimed to identify phenomenological differences in delirium symptoms (cognitive and non-cognitive) and compare delirium recovery trajectories between DsD and DaD. Methods: We conducted a prospective observational study on individuals admitted to the Geriatric Monitoring Unit (GMU), a five-bed unit specializing in managing older adults with delirium, between December 2010 and August 2012 (n = 234; mean age 84.1 ± 7.4). We collected data on demographics, comorbidities, severity of illness, cognitive and functional scores, and number of precipitants. Cognitive status was assessed using locally validated Chinese Mini-Mental State Examination (CMMSE) and delirium severity assessed using Delirium Rating Scale-Revised-98 (DRS-R98). Delirium disease trajectory was plotted over five days. Results: DsD patients had a longer duration of delirium with slower recovery in terms of cognition and delirium severity scores compared with DaD patients (0.33 (0.0–1.00) vs. 1.0 (0.36–2.00) increase in CMMSE per day, p < 0.001, and 1.49 ± 1.62 vs. 2.63 ± 2.28 decrease in DRS-R98 severity per day, p < 0.001). When cognitive and non-cognitive sub-scores of DRS-R98 were examined separately, we observed steeper recovery in both sub-scores in DaD patients. These findings remained significant after adjusting for significant baseline differences. Conclusions: Our findings of slower cognitive symptom recovery in DsD patients suggest cognitive reserve play a role in delirium syndrome development and recovery. This merits further studies to potentially aid in appropriate discharge planning and to identify potential pharmacological and non-pharmacological cognitive interventions for hospitalized older persons with delirium.
Mitotic Kinesin-Like Protein 2 Binds and Colocalizes with Papillomavirus E2 during Mitosis

ABSTRACT MKlp2 is a kinesin-like motor protein of the central mitotic spindle required for completion of cytokinesis. Papillomavirus E2 is a sequence specific DNA binding protein that regulates viral transcription and replication and is responsible for partitioning viral episomes into daughter cells during cell division. We demonstrate that MKlp2 specifically associates with the E2 protein during mitosis. Using chromatin immunoprecipitation, we show viral genomes are in complex with MKlp2 only within this stage of cell cycle. By immunofluorescence, a subpopulation of papillomavirus E2 colocalizes with MKlp2 in the midbody/midplate during late mitosis. We conclude that during specific stages of mitosis, the papillomavirus E2 protein binds to MKlp2, and infer that association with this motor protein ensures viral genome partitioning during cytokinesis.
The Observed Offset Distribution of Gamma-Ray Bursts from Their Host Galaxies: A Robust Clue to the Nature of the Progenitors

We present a comprehensive study to measure the locations of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) relative to their host galaxies. In total, we find the offsets of 20 long-duration GRBs from their apparent host galaxy centers by utilizing ground-based images from Palomar and Keck and space-based images from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). We discuss in detail how a host galaxy is assigned to an individual GRB and the robustness of the assignment process. The median projected angular (physical) offset is 0. ″17 (1.3 kpc). The median offset normalized by the individual host half-light radii is 0.98, suggesting a strong connection of GRB locations with the UV light of their hosts. This provides strong observational evidence for the connection of GRBs to star formation. We further compare the observed offset distribution with the predicted burst locations of leading stellar-mass progenitor models. In particular, we compare the observed offset distribution with an exponential disk, a model for the location of collapsars and promptly bursting binaries (e.g., helium star–black hole binaries). The statistical comparison shows good agreement, given the simplicity of the model, with the Kolmogorov-Smirnov probability that the observed offsets derive from the model distribution of PKS = 0.45. We also compare the observed GRB offsets with the expected offset distribution of delayed merging remnant progenitors (black hole–neutron star and neutron star–neutron star binaries). We find that delayed merging remnant progenitors, insofar as the predicted offset distributions from population synthesis studies are representative, can be ruled out at the 2 × 10-3 level. This is arguably the strongest observational constraint yet against delayed merging remnants as the progenitors of long-duration GRBs. In the course of this study, we have also discovered the putative host galaxies of GRB 990510 and GRB 990308 in archival HST data.
Role of P-glycoprotein in the Intestinal Absorption of Glabridin, an Active Flavonoid from the Root of Glycyrrhiza glabra

Glabridin is a major constituent of the root of Glycyrrhiza glabra, which is commonly used in the treatment of cardiovascular and central nervous system diseases. This study aimed to investigate the role of P-glycoprotein (PgP/MDR1) in the intestinal absorption of glabridin. The systemic bioavailability of glabridin was approximately 7.5% in rats, but increased when combined with verapamil. In single-pass perfused rat ileum with mesenteric vein cannulation, the permeability coefficient of glabridin based on drug disappearance in luminal perfusates (Plumen) was approximately 7-fold higher than that based on drug appearance in the blood (Pblood). Glabridin was mainly metabolized by glucuronidation, and the metabolic capacity of intestine microsomes was 1/15 to 1/20 of that in liver microsomes. Polarized transport of glabridin was found in Caco-2 and MDCKII monolayers. Addition of verapamil in both apical (AP) and basolateral (BL) sides abolished the polarized transport of glabridin across Caco-2 cells. Incubation of verapamil significantly altered the intracellular accumulation and efflux of glabridin in Caco-2 cells. The transport of glabridin in the BL-AP direction was significantly higher in MDCKII cells overexpressing PgP/MDR1 than in the control cells. Glabridin inhibited PgP-mediated transport of digoxin with an IC50 value of 2.56 μM, but stimulated PgP/MDR1 ATPase activity with a Km of 25.1 μM. The plasma AUC0–24h of glabridin in mdr1a(–/–) mice was 3.8-fold higher than that in wild-type mice. These findings indicate that glabridin is a substrate for PgP and that both PgP/MDR1-mediated efflux and first-pass metabolism contribute to the low oral bioavailability of glabridin.
A Logical Account of Secure Declassification

Declassification is a vital ingredient for practical use of secure systems. Strong noninterference as a security policy does not account for declassification but is attractive as a baseline security policy because it provides an end-toend account of security. Several recent efforts to formulate an end-to-end policy for declassification seem inconclusive and have focused on apparently different aspects, e.g., what values are involved, where in the code declassification occurs, when declassification happens and who (which principal) releases information. We argue that key security goals addressed by the proposed notions can be expressed using assertions with predicates and auxiliary state such as event history. The development is carried out in a modest extension of a recently developed Hoare-like logic for noninterference that provides for local reasoning about the heap.
Literacy and the Oral Foundation of Education.

Drawing upon scholarship in the classics and in anthropology, Kieran Egan traces the richness of oral forms of expression used in non-literate societies from ancient times to the present. In the absence of written records, these peoples have used a particular array of intellectual resources and strategies in order to make sense of their world and to preserve their cultural histories. All children, before they learn to read and write, also depend upon the spoken word for learning and communication; the author therefore suggests that a better understanding of orality may help us to gain a fuller sense of the cognitive tasks that children undertake during their transition from orality to literacy.
Fast Complex Valued Matrix Inversion for Multi-User STBC-MIMO Decoding

This paper studies the efficient complex matrix inversion for multi-user STBC-MIMO decoding. A novel method called Alamouti blockwise analytical matrix inversion (ABAMI) and its programmable VLSI implementation are proposed for the inversion of (in this context) large complex matrices with Alamouti sub-blocks. Our solution significantly reduces the number of operations which makes it more than 4 times faster than several other solutions in the literature. Furthermore, compared to these fixed function VLSI implementations, our solution is more flexible and consumes less silicon area because the hardware can be reused for many other operations. In addition to the routine analysis of the general computational complexity based on the number of basic operations, the computational latency is also measured in clock cycles based on the conceptual hardware for real-time matrix inversion
Glucose decreases extracellular adenosine levels in isolated mouse and rat pancreatic islets

The pancreatic islets of Langerhans are responsible for the regulated release of the endocrine hormones insulin and glucagon that participate in the control of glucose homeostasis. Abnormal regulation of these hormones can result in glucose intolerance and lead to the development of diabetes. Numerous efforts have been made to better understand the physiological regulators of insulin and glucagon secretion. One of these regulators is the purine nucleoside, adenosine. Though exogenous application of adenosine has been demonstrated to stimulate glucagon release and inhibit insulin release, the physiological significance of this pathway has been unclear. We used a novel 7 µm enzyme-coated electrode biosensor to measure adenosine levels in isolated rodent islets. In the mouse islets, basal adenosine levels in the presence of 3 mM glucose were estimated to be 5.7 ± 0.6 µM. As glucose was increased, extracellular adenosine diminished. A 10-fold increase of extracellular KCl increased adenosine levels to 16.4 ± 2.0 µM. This release required extracellular Ca2+ suggesting that it occurred via an exocytosis-dependent mechanism. We also found that while rat islets were able to convert exogenous ATP into adenosine, mouse islets were unable to do this. Our study demonstrates for the first time the basal levels of adenosine and its inverse relationship to extracellular glucose in pancreatic islets.
Quickest Paths, Straight Skeletons, and the City 
 Voronoi Diagram

Abstract The city Voronoi diagram is induced by quickest paths in the L1plane, made faster by an isothetic transportation network. We investigate the rich geometric and algorithmic properties of city Voronoi diagrams, and report on their use in processing quickest-path queries. In doing so, we revisit the fact that not every Voronoi-type diagram has interpretations in both the distance model and the wavefront model. Especially, straight skeletons are a relevant example where an interpretation in the former model is lacking. We clarify the relationship between these models, and further draw a connection to the bisector-defined abstract Voronoi diagram model, with the particular goal of computing the city Voronoi diagram efficiently.
Biochemical markers in early diagnosis and management of systemic amyloidoses

Abstract Systemic amyloid diseases are characterized by widespread protein deposition as amyloid fibrils. Precise diagnostic framing is the prerequisite for a correct management of patients. This complex process is achieved through a series of steps, which include detection of the tissue amyloid deposits, identification of the amyloid type, demonstration of the amyloidogenic precursor, and evaluation of organ dysfunction/damage. Laboratory medicine plays a central role in the diagnosis and management of systemic amyloidoses, through the quantification of the amyloidogenic precursor and evaluation of end-organ damage using biomarkers.
Efficient Graph Similarity Joins with Edit Distance Constraints

Graphs are widely used to model complicated data semantics in many applications in bioinformatics, chemistry, social networks, pattern recognition, etc. A recent trend is to tolerate noise arising from various sources, such as erroneous data entry, and find similarity matches. In this paper, we study the graph similarity join problem that returns pairs of graphs such that their edit distances are no larger than a threshold. Inspired by the q-gram idea for string similarity problem, our solution extracts paths from graphs as features for indexing. We establish a lower bound of common features to generate candidates. An efficient algorithm is proposed to exploit both matching and mismatching features to improve the filtering and verification on candidates. We demonstrate the proposed algorithm significantly outperforms existing approaches with extensive experiments on publicly available datasets.
The first year on haemodialysis: a critical transition

The first year following the start of haemodialysis (HD) is associated with increased mortality, especially during the first 90–120 days after the start of dialysis. Whereas the start of dialysis has important effects on the internal environment of the patient, there are relatively few studies assessing changes in phenotype and underlying mechanisms during the transition period following pre-dialysis to dialysis care, although more insight into these parameters is of importance in unravelling the causes of this increased early mortality. In this review, changes in cardiovascular, nutritional and inflammatory parameters during the first year of HD, as well as changes in physical and functional performance are discussed. Treatment-related factors that might contribute to these changes include vascular access and pre-dialysis care, dialysate prescription and the insufficient correction of the internal environment by current dialysis techniques. Patient-related factors include the ongoing loss of residual renal function and the progression of comorbid disease. Identifying phenotypic changes and targeting risk patterns might improve outcome during the transition period. Given the scarcity of data on this subject, more research is needed.
Fatty acid ethyl esters production using a non-commercial lipase in pressurized propane medium

The objective of this work is to investigate the production of fatty acid ethyl esters from soybean oil in compressed propane using a non-commercial lipase from Yarrowia lipolytica and two commercial ones as catalysts, Amano PS and Amano AY30. The experiments were performed in the temperature range of 35-65 °C. at 50 bar, enzyme concentration of 5 wt%, oil to ethanol molar ratio of 1:6 and 1:9, and solvent to substrates mass ratio of 2:1 and 4:1. The results indicated that low reaction conversions were generally obtained with the use of commercial and non-commercial lipases in pressurized propane medium. On the other hand, the aspects of low solvent to substrates mass ratio and mild temperature and pressure operating conditions used to produce ethyl esters justify further investigations to improve reaction yields.
Supercooling point plasticity during cold storage in the freeze‐tolerant sugarbeet root maggot Tetanops myopaeformis

Abstract The sugarbeet root maggot Tetanops myopaeformis (Röder) overwinters as a freeze‐tolerant third‐instar larva. Although most larvae are considered to overwinter for only 1 year, some may exhibit prolonged diapause in the field. In the laboratory, they can live for over 5 years using a combination of diapause and post‐diapause quiescence. In the present study, the cold survival strategies of these larvae during storage is investigated by measuring their supercooling points in combination with survival data. Supercooling points (SCPs) change significantly during storage, highlighted by a marked increase in the range of SCPs recorded, although the ability to tolerate freezing is not affected. Additionally, a freezing event ‘re‐focuses’ the SCPs of aged larvae to levels similar to those seen at diapause initiation. This change in SCPs is dependant not only on the initial freezing event, but also on the parameters of the incubation period between freezing events. Finally, the temperatures of larval overwintering microhabitats are monitored during the 2007–2008 boreal winter. The results indicate that, although overwintering larva are physiologically freeze‐tolerant, they may essentially be freeze avoidant during overwintering via microhabitat selection.