Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparison of elective single cleavage-embryo transfer to elective single blastocyst-embryo transfer in human IVF-ET

Objective This study was carried out to compare the clinical outcome of elective single cleavage-embryo transfer (eSCET) to that of elective single blastocyst-embryo transfer (eSBET) in human IVF-ET. Methods This study was a retrospective study which analyzed for 614 women who visited the Daegu Maria Clinic from August 2008 to December 2009. All were under 37 years old and had more than 8 mm of endometrial thickness on the day of hCG administration and at least one good quality embryo on day 3. The eSCETs were performed on day 3 (n=450) and the eSBETs were conducted on day 5 (n=164). Results The numbers of retrieved oocytes, fertilized oocytes, and day 3 good quality embryos were significantly lower in the eSCET group (12.1±6.0, 8.2±4.6, and 4.2±3.1, respectively) compared to the eSBET group (16.7±7.2, 12.1±5.0, and 8.5±4.5, respectively; p<0.001). However, the clinical pregnancy, implantation, on-going pregnancy, and live birth rates of the eSCET group (46.7, 46.9, 40.0, and 36.7%, respectively) were not statistically different from those of the eSBET group (51.2, 51.8, 45.1, and 43.9%, respectively; p=0.318, 0.278, 0.254, and 0.103, respectively). Conclusion These results suggested that elective single embryo transfer should be performed regardless of the developmental stage to women less than 37 years old who had more than 8 mm of endometrial thickness on the hCG administration day and at least one good quality embryo on day 3 in order to reduce the twin pregnancy rate without reducing the whole pregnancy rate.
Phosphorus release from sewage sludge by use of acids and bases

Introductory laboratory experiments with sludge fractionation using acid and base have been carried out at the division of Water Resources Engineering, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, Sweden. The release of total phosphorus at different pH-values was analysed and the amount of chemicals needed was measured to reach a wanted pH-value. The decrease of suspended solids was analysed. The results indicate a high release of phosphorus at low pH-values with only use of acid, without heat or pressure. Digested sludge contains a lot of phosphorus, which is released with chemicals. Acid addition seems to be more useful for total phosphorus release in digested sludge than use of base. The introductory studies show that the amount of total phosphorus release is doubled for each unit drop in pH-value. There is a connection between the amount of chemicals needed to reach a wanted pH-value. The higher or lower pHvalue, the more chemicals are needed. The decrease in suspended solids did not show any significant results in short-time experiments.
Late orogenic intramontane basin development: the Granada basin, Betics (southern Spain)

The quantitative study of subsidence in the Granada basin, using decompaction and backstripping techniques, and contemporaneous relief development in the surrounding areas, especially in the Sierra Nevada, provides a good case example of the development of an intramontane basin. In the Granada basin, according to the interpretation of the seismic profiles and results of the backstripping analysis, subsidence and sedimentation rates were at a maximum in the late Tortonian and decreased progressively; meanwhile, the neighbouring areas were uplifted forming important relief. Chronostratigraphical revisions of the marine sediments show that the marine incursion that deposited sediments in the Granada basin lasted only 1.3 Ma, between 8.5 and 7.2 Ma. The gradual retreat of the sea in the Granada basin is not attributable to global eustatic fluctuations, but rather to uplift in the Sierra Nevada and its adjacent areas. From latest Tortonian to early Messinian times, the region became continental and the Granada basin acquired its present physiography and was differentiated as such. From the late Tortonian onwards, NNW–SSE compression combined with ENE–WSW extension affected the cordillera. In the Granada basin, extension controlled fault movements. There are two well‐defined fault sets: the first trends 70°N–90°E, with low angle faults (less than 30°) dipping towards the north and south, defining the subsiding areas which have approximately E–W direction; whereas the second set has a NW–SE direction, and cuts and displaces the previous ones, defining the main subsiding areas in the eastern part of the basin. The reinterpretation of seismic profiles reveals that the subsiding axes within the Granada basin persisted from the Tortonian to the present because of continued displacements of the main faults.
Electroencephalographic Data Analysis With Visibility Graph Technique for Quantitative Assessment of Brain Dysfunction

Usual techniques for electroencephalographic (EEG) data analysis lack some of the important properties essential for quantitative assessment of the progress of the dysfunction of the human brain. EEG data are essentially nonlinear and this nonlinear time series has been identified as multi-fractal in nature. We need rigorous techniques for such analysis. In this article, we present the visibility graph as the latest, rigorous technique that can assess the degree of multifractality accurately and reliably. Moreover, it has also been found that this technique can give reliable results with test data of comparatively short length. In this work, the visibility graph algorithm has been used for mapping a time series—EEG signals—to a graph to study complexity and fractality of the time series through investigation of its complexity. The power of scale-freeness of visibility graph has been used as an effective method for measuring fractality in the EEG signal. The scale-freeness of the visibility graph has also been observed after averaging the statistically independent samples of the signal. Scale-freeness of the visibility graph has been calculated for 5 sets of EEG data patterns varying from normal eye closed to epileptic. The change in the values is analyzed further, and it has been observed that it reduces uniformly from normal eye closed to epileptic.
Involvement of Ceramide in the Propagation of Japanese Encephalitis Virus

ABSTRACT Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) is a mosquito-borne RNA virus and one of the most important flaviviruses in the medical and veterinary fields. Although cholesterol has been shown to participate in both the entry and replication steps of JEV, the mechanisms of infection, including the cellular receptors of JEV, remain largely unknown. To clarify the infection mechanisms of JEV, we generated pseudotype (JEVpv) and recombinant (JEVrv) vesicular stomatitis viruses bearing the JEV envelope protein. Both JEVpv and JEVrv exhibited high infectivity for the target cells, and JEVrv was able to propagate and form foci as did authentic JEV. Anti-JEV envelope antibodies neutralized infection of the viruses. Treatment of cells with inhibitors for vacuolar ATPase and clathrin-mediated endocytosis reduced the infectivity of JEVpv, suggesting that JEVpv enters cells via pH- and clathrin-dependent endocytic pathways. Although treatment of the particles of JEVpv, JEVrv, and JEV with cholesterol drastically reduced the infectivity as previously reported, depletion of cholesterol from the particles by treatment with methyl β-cyclodextrin enhanced infectivity. Furthermore, treatment of cells with sphingomyelinase (SMase), which hydrolyzes membrane-bound sphingomyelin to ceramide, drastically enhanced infection with JEVpv and propagation of JEVrv, and these enhancements were inhibited by treatment with an SMase inhibitor or C6-ceramide. These results suggest that ceramide plays crucial roles in not only entry but also egress processes of JEV, and they should assist in the clarification of JEV propagation and the development of novel therapeutics against diseases caused by infection with flaviviruses.
Health Care Utilization and Costs Associated With Acute Pancreatitis

Objective Acute pancreatitis is a common inpatient diagnosis among gastrointestinal disorders. The aim of this study was to evaluate the incidence of inpatient admissions, costs, and mortality rates associated with acute pancreatitis in the United States. Methods We analyzed the National Inpatient Sample for all patients in which acute pancreatitis (International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision code: 577.0) was the principal discharge diagnosis during the period 1997–2012. The statistical significance of the difference in the hospital discharges, length of stay, and costs over the study period was determined by utilization of regression analysis. Results In 1997, there were 164,776 admissions with a principal discharge diagnosis of acute pancreatitis as compared with 275,170 in 2012 (P < 0.001). The mean length of stay for acute pancreatitis decreased from 6.4 days in 1997 to 4.7 days in 2012 (P < 0.001). However, during this period, the mean hospital charges increased by 118.6% from $15,433 in 1997 to $33,744 in 2012 (P < 0.001). The in-hospital mortality rate decreased significantly from 1.9% in 1997 to 0.78% in 2012 (P < 0.001). Conclusions Inpatient admissions for acute pancreatitis and associated costs have increased markedly over the last 16 years in the United States. However, the lengths of stay and mortality rates have decreased significantly.
Development and Applications of the Veterans Health Administration’s Stratification Tool for Opioid Risk Mitigation (STORM) to Improve Opioid Safety and Prevent Overdose and Suicide

Concerns about opioid-related adverse events, including overdose, prompted the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) to launch an Opioid Safety Initiative and Overdose Education and Naloxone Distribution program. To mitigate risks associated with opioid prescribing, a holistic approach that takes into consideration both risk factors (e.g., dose, substance use disorders) and risk mitigation interventions (e.g., urine drug screening, psychosocial treatment) is needed. This article describes the Stratification Tool for Opioid Risk Mitigation (STORM), a tool developed in VHA that reflects this holistic approach and facilitates patient identification and monitoring. STORM prioritizes patients for review and intervention according to their modeled risk for overdose/suicide-related events and displays risk factors and risk mitigation interventions obtained from VHA electronic medical record (EMR)-data extracts. Patients’ estimated risk is based on a predictive risk model developed using fiscal year 2010 (FY2010: 10/1/2009–9/30/2010) EMR-data extracts and mortality data among 1,135,601 VHA patients prescribed opioid analgesics to predict risk for an overdose/suicide-related event in FY2011 (2.1% experienced an event). Cross-validation was used to validate the model, with receiver operating characteristic curves for the training and test data sets performing well (>.80 area under the curve). The predictive risk model distinguished patients based on risk for overdose/suicide-related adverse events, allowing for identification of high-risk patients and enrichment of target populations of patients with greater safety concerns for proactive monitoring and application of risk mitigation interventions. Results suggest that clinical informatics can leverage EMR-extracted data to identify patients at-risk for overdose/suicide-related events and provide clinicians with actionable information to mitigate risk.
Bounded model-checking of discrete duration calculus

Fraenzle and Hansen investigated the model-checking problem of the subset of Duration Calculus without individual variables and quantifications w.r. t. some approximation semantics by reduction to the decision problem of Presburger Arithmetic, thus obtained a model-checking algorithm with 4-fold exponential complexity [6,7]. As an alternative, inspired by their work, we consider the bounded model-checking problem of the subset in the context of the standard discrete-time semantics in this paper. Based on our previous work [20], we reduce this problem to the reachability problem of timed automata. The complexity of our approach is singly exponential in the size of formulas and quadratic in the number of states of models. We implement our approach using UPPAAL and demonstrate its efficiency by some examples.
The Use of Pulsed Dye Laser for the Prevention and Treatment of Hypertrophic Scars in Chinese Persons

BACKGROUND Pulse dye laser has been used with variable degrees of success in the treatment of hypertrophic scars, and although earlier reports suggested a significant degree of improvement, more recent studies have raised concern about its effectiveness. Furthermore, most previous studies examined its use in patients with light skin types, and the use of pulse dye laser in dark-skinned patients for the treatment of hypertrophic scars is not well established. OBJECTIVE The objective was to assess the role of pulsed dye laser therapy in the treatment and prevention of hypertrophic scars in Chinese persons. METHODS Twenty-nine patients (35 scars) who had scars for less than 6 months were recruited into the prevention group, and 27 patients (36 scars) who had scars for more than 6 months were recruited into the treatment arm of the study. Each received pulse dye laser treatment (585 nm, 1.5-msec pulse duration, 5-mm spot size, 7–8 J/cm2) for three to six treatments at 8-week intervals. Half of the scar was treated with the laser and the other half was used as a control. All patients were assessed for subjective improvement with the use of a structured questionnaire and objectively with ultrasonography for thickness and a cutometer for viscoelasticity. Scars were marked on every patient and mapped with a translucent paper at the first appointment to ensure the consistency of location. At the end of the study, 15 patients from the prevention group (15 scars) and 23 patients from the treatment group (34 scars) agreed to return for spectrophotometer assessment. RESULTS Fifty-four percent of patients in the prevention group and 66% of patients in the treatment group considered their scars to be better or much better. For both groups of patients, there was significant improvement in term of pruritics after laser treatment. For objective assessment, although scar thickness reduced significantly compared to baseline in the treatment group, such change was not significant when changes in the control side were taken into consideration. There was insignificant change in viscoelasticity. Spectrophometer assessment indicated a significant degree of lightening in the treatment group. CONCLUSION Our study indicated that although there was significant symptomatic improvement, there was an insignificant degree of objective improvement in terms of scar thickness and viscoelasticity in the prevention group compared to the control group. Our findings are in line with several previous controlled studies and contradict the results of several others. Such differences can be due to differences in assessment methodology, laser settings, skin type, and scar location. Suprapurpuric pulsed dye laser should not be considered as the standard of practice for the treatment and prevention of hypertrophic surgical scars especially in the chest in Asians patients.
Formation and mode of action of flavoproteins.

INTRODUCTION 281 NATURALLY OCCURRING FLAVINS 282 Modifications Found on the Ribityl Sidechain 282 Modifications Found on the Flavin Ring 283 Chemical and. Biological Degradation Products •. 286 TRANSPORT AND METABOLISM 287 Uptake and E�cretion 287 Association with Binding (Ca"ier) Proteins 288 Conversion to Coenzymatic Forms 290 COENZYME BINDING BY APOFLA VOPROTEINS . 292 INFLUENCE OF NUTRITIONAL STATUS ON FLAVOPROTEINS . 294 FLAVOPROTEIN REACTIONS AND MECHANISMS 296 Survey of F/avoenzymes 296 One-Electron Trans/erases 300 Dehydrogenases 301 Pyridine nuc/eotide-dependent dehydrogenases . 301 Non-pyridine nucleotide-dependent dehydrogenases 302 Complex jlavoproteins 303 Pyridine nucleotide-disulftde oxidoreductases 304 Dehydrogenase/O�ygen Reductase Enzymes 305
Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos of Microcantilever-Based TM-AFMs with Squeeze Film Damping Effects

In Atomic force microscope (AFM) examination of a vibrating microcantilever, the nonlinear tip-sample interaction would greatly influence the dynamics of the cantilever. In this paper, the nonlinear dynamics and chaos of a tip-sample dynamic system being run in the tapping mode (TM) were investigated by considering the effects of hydrodynamic loading and squeeze film damping. The microcantilever was modeled as a spring-mass-damping system and the interaction between the tip and the sample was described by the Lennard-Jones (LJ) potential. The fundamental frequency and quality factor were calculated from the transient oscillations of the microcantilever vibrating in air. Numerical simulations were carried out to study the coupled nonlinear dynamic system using the bifurcation diagram, Poincaré maps, largest Lyapunov exponent, phase portraits and time histories. Results indicated the occurrence of periodic and chaotic motions and provided a comprehensive understanding of the hydrodynamic loading of microcantilevers. It was demonstrated that the coupled dynamic system will experience complex nonlinear oscillation as the system parameters change and the effect of squeeze film damping is not negligible on the micro-scale.
Controlled comparison of L-5-methyltetrahydrofolate versus folic acid for the treatment of hyperhomocysteinemia in hemodialysis patients.

BACKGROUND The hyperhomocysteinemia regularly found in hemodialysis patients is largely refractory to combined oral B-vitamin supplementation featuring supraphysiological doses of folic acid. We evaluated whether a high-dose L-5-methyltetrahydrofolate-based regimen provided improved total homocysteine (tHcy)-lowering efficacy in chronic hemodialysis patients. METHODS AND RESULTS We block-randomized 50 chronic, stable hemodialysis patients on the basis of their screening predialysis tHcy levels, sex, and dialysis center into 2 groups of 25 subjects treated for 12 weeks with oral folic acid at 15 mg/d (FA group) or an equimolar amount (17 mg/d) of oral L-5-methyltetrahydrofolate (MTHF group). All 50 subjects also received 50 mg/d of oral vitamin B(6) and 1.0 mg/d of oral vitamin B(12). The mean percent reductions (+/-95% CIs) in predialysis tHcy were not significantly different: MTHF, 17.0% (12.0% to 22.0%); FA, 14.8% (9.6% to 20.1%); P=0.444 by matched ANCOVA adjusted for pretreatment tHcy. Final on-treatment values (mean with 95% CI) were MTHF, 20.0 micromol/L (18.8 to 21.2 micromol/L); FA, 19.5 micromol/L (18.3 to 20.7 micromol/L). Moreover, neither treatment resulted in "normalization" of tHcy levels (ie, final on-treatment values <12 micromol/L) among a significantly different or clinically meaningful number of patients: MTHF, 2 of 25 (8%); FA, 0 of 25 (0%); Fisher's exact test of between-groups difference, P=0.490. CONCLUSIONS Relative to high-dose folic acid, high-dose oral L-5-methyltetrahydrofolate-based supplementation does not afford improved tHcy-lowering efficacy in hemodialysis patients. The preponderance of hemodialysis patients (ie, >90%) exhibit mild hyperhomocysteinemia refractory to treatment with either regimen. This treatment refractoriness is not related to defects in folate absorption or circulating plasma and tissue distribution.
Emergence of Fatal Avian Influenza in New England Harbor Seals

ABSTRACT From September to December 2011, 162 New England harbor seals died in an outbreak of pneumonia. Sequence analysis of postmortem samples revealed the presence of an avian H3N8 influenza A virus, similar to a virus circulating in North American waterfowl since at least 2002 but with mutations that indicate recent adaption to mammalian hosts. These include a D701N mutation in the viral PB2 protein, previously reported in highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza viruses infecting people. Lectin staining and agglutination assays indicated the presence of the avian-preferred SAα-2,3 and mammalian SAα-2,6 receptors in seal respiratory tract, and the ability of the virus to agglutinate erythrocytes bearing either the SAα-2,3 or the SAα-2,6 receptor. The emergence of this A/harbor seal/Massachusetts/1/2011 virus may herald the appearance of an H3N8 influenza clade with potential for persistence and cross-species transmission. IMPORTANCE The emergence of new strains of influenza virus is always of great public concern, especially when the infection of a new mammalian host has the potential to result in a widespread outbreak of disease. Here we report the emergence of an avian influenza virus (H3N8) in New England harbor seals which caused an outbreak of pneumonia and contributed to a U.S. federally recognized unusual mortality event (UME). This outbreak is particularly significant, not only because of the disease it caused in seals but also because the virus has naturally acquired mutations that are known to increase transmissibility and virulence in mammals. Monitoring the spillover and adaptation of avian viruses in mammalian species is critically important if we are to understand the factors that lead to both epizootic and zoonotic emergence. The emergence of new strains of influenza virus is always of great public concern, especially when the infection of a new mammalian host has the potential to result in a widespread outbreak of disease. Here we report the emergence of an avian influenza virus (H3N8) in New England harbor seals which caused an outbreak of pneumonia and contributed to a U.S. federally recognized unusual mortality event (UME). This outbreak is particularly significant, not only because of the disease it caused in seals but also because the virus has naturally acquired mutations that are known to increase transmissibility and virulence in mammals. Monitoring the spillover and adaptation of avian viruses in mammalian species is critically important if we are to understand the factors that lead to both epizootic and zoonotic emergence.