Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pharmacokinetics, Tissue Localization, Toxicity, and Treatment Efficacy in the First Small Animal (Rabbit) Model of Intra-Arterial Chemotherapy for Retinoblastoma

Purpose Current intra-arterial chemotherapy (IAC) drug regimens for retinoblastoma have ocular and vascular toxicities. No small-animal model of IAC exists to test drug efficacy and toxicity in vivo for IAC drug discovery. The purpose of this study was to develop a small-animal model of IAC and to analyze the ocular tissue penetration, distribution, pharmacokinetics, and treatment efficacy. Methods Following selective ophthalmic artery (OA) catheterization, melphalan (0.4 to 1.2 mg/kg) was injected. For pharmacokinetic studies, rabbits were euthanized at 0.5, 1, 2, 4, or 6 hours following intra-OA infusion. Drug levels were determined in vitreous, retina, and blood by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry. To assess toxicity, angiograms, photography, fluorescein angiography, and histopathology were performed. For in situ tissue drug distribution, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization imaging mass spectrometry (MALDI-IMS) was performed. The tumor model was created by combined subretinal/intravitreal injection of human WERI-Rb1 retinoblastoma cells; the tumor was treated in vivo with intra-arterial melphalan or saline; and induction of tumor death was measured by cleaved caspase-3 activity. Results OA was selectively catheterized for 79 of 79 (100%) eyes in 47 of 47 (100%) rabbits, and melphalan was delivered successfully in 31 of 31 (100%) eyes, without evidence of vascular occlusion or retinal damage. For treated eyes, maximum concentration (Cmax) in the retina was 4.95 μM and area under the curve (AUC0→∞) was 5.26 μM·h. Treated eye vitreous Cmax was 2.24 μM and AUC0→∞ was 4.19 μM·h. Vitreous Cmax for the treated eye was >100-fold higher than for the untreated eye (P = 0.01), and AUC0→∞ was ∼50-fold higher (P = 0.01). Histology-directed MALDI-IMS revealed highest drug localization within the retina. Peripheral blood Cmax was 1.04 μM and AUC0→∞ was 2.07 μM·h. Combined subretinal/intravitreal injection of human retinoblastoma cells led to intra-retinal tumors and subretinal/vitreous seeds, which could be effectively killed in vivo with intra-arterial melphalan. Conclusions This first small-animal model of IAC has excellent vitreous and retinal tissue drug penetration, achieving levels sufficient to kill human retinoblastoma cells, facilitating future IAC drug discovery.
What do large networks look like?

What do large networks look like? Can we visually tell the topological difference between networks such as the Web graph and Facebook network? Due to the huge size of the network, the overall structure will not be discernible if all the nodes and edges are plotted regardless of the graph layout. We reduce the number of nodes and edges by producing a representative subgraph. The nodes are sampled with probability proportional to their degrees, so that large nodes with more connections have a higher probability of being sampled. The edges are reduced further using uniform random spanning tree. The efficacy of the method is demonstrated to preserve the community structure that is characterized by the Network Community Profile (NCP). The result is supported by six real-world large networks, and demonstrated on Twitter user network which contains 4.1 × 107 nodes.
Pediatric Erythema Multiforme in the Emergency Department: More Than “Just a Rash”

Objectives Erythema multiforme (EM) is characterized by symmetrical acrally distributed target lesions; however, other conditions can mimic the clinical features of EM. Although it is typically self-limiting, alternative diagnoses may be life-threatening and require immediate identification and treatment. This study aimed to investigate the clinical spectrum and accuracy of diagnosis of pediatric EM in the emergency department (ED). Methods A retrospective, descriptive study of all pediatric patients with an ED information system diagnosis of EM at 2 EDs in Southeast Queensland between January 2010 and July 2013. Cases were evaluated using previously established EM classification criteria. Results Seventy patients (34 males and 36 females) with a diagnosis of EM were identified. From 57 cases where a diagnosis could be established, 9 cases fulfilled the classification criteria for EM. No patients had mucosal involvement, and therefore, all 9 cases were classified as EM minor, with the majority (89%) attributed to viral infection. Of the 48 cases that did not fit the criteria, the most common condition misdiagnosed as EM was urticaria multiforme (n = 20). Conclusions In the ED setting, EM in children is frequently misdiagnosed. Greater awareness of diagnostic factors for EM may improve diagnostic accuracy. Teledermatology and incentives to include clinical pictures in the (electronic) medical record may be useful adjuncts for patients with suspected EM and other dermatological conditions.
Surgically Treated Primary Spinal Cord Neoplasms in Southeastern Nigeria

ABSTRACT Background: Primary spinal cord tumors are not as frequently encountered as their cranial counterparts. They could present in such an indolent manner that requires a reasonable index of suspicion for their diagnosis to be considered. Objective: The objective of this study is to analyze the incidence and pattern of primary spinal cord and appendage neoplasms in patients surgically treated in our institution over a decade of practice. Materials and Methods: A retrospective review of clinical, radiological, and histopathology profiles of patients surgically treated for primary spinal cord tumor from 2006 to 2016 was carried out. Retrieved data were analyzed using SPSS version 21. Results: Out of 472 spine procedures were performed within the study period 17 (3.6%) cases of histologically proven primary spinal cord tumors were identified. The age of patients ranged between 17 and 77 years with a mean age was 45 years. The male: female ratio was 1:1.1. Motor deficit and pain were the most common presenting symptoms seen in 35.3% and 29.4% of patients, respectively. Meningiomas are the most common histological diagnosis (70.6%), distantly followed by Schwannoma (17.6%). The most common location of the tumors was intradural extramedullary (70.6%). All patients had gross total resection of tumor with no perioperative mortality. Conclusion: Meningioma is the most common surgically treated primary spinal cord tumor in our setting. Surgery is associated with good outcome.
SkypeMorph: protocol obfuscation for Tor bridges

The Tor network is designed to provide users with low-latency anonymous communications. Tor clients build circuits with publicly listed relays to anonymously reach their destinations. However, since the relays are publicly listed, they can be easily blocked by censoring adversaries. Consequently, the Tor project envisioned the possibility of unlisted entry points to the Tor network, commonly known as bridges. We address the issue of preventing censors from detecting the bridges by observing the communications between them and nodes in their network. We propose a model in which the client obfuscates its messages to the bridge in a widely used protocol over the Internet. We investigate using Skype video calls as our target protocol and our goal is to make it difficult for the censoring adversary to distinguish between the obfuscated bridge connections and actual Skype calls using statistical comparisons. We have implemented our model as a proof-of-concept pluggable transport for Tor, which is available under an open-source licence. Using this implementation we observed the obfuscated bridge communications and compared it with those of Skype calls and presented the results.
Frictional properties of cotton-Tencel yarns spun in different spinning systems

In this study, frictional properties of Ne 30 yarns produced systematically in different spinning systems (ring, compact and vortex, αe = 3.7), with different raw materials (100% cotton, 50/50 cotton-Tencel blended and 100% Tencel) and with different twist factors (only for ring yarns αe = 3.4, 3.7, 4.0), have been investigated. The effect of yarn structural properties (raw material, spinning system and twist level) and test parameters (friction surface and input tension) on yarn frictional properties were evaluated. When the effect of raw material on test results was examined, it was observed that yarn-to-yarn friction (YY) decreases, while yarn-to-metal (YM) and yarn-to-ceramic (YC) friction increases with the increasing ratio of the Tencel in the blended yarn. The effect of spinning systems on test results indicates that friction coefficients of ring and compact were similar to each other for the same raw material, while the friction coefficient of vortex yarns was different. The friction coefficients of vortex yarns were the lowest for YY friction tests and the highest for YM and YC tests. In general, it was determined that the friction coefficient of spun yarns decreases by increasing input tensions. Mainly, it has been stated that yarn structural properties and test parameters examined in this study affect the yarn friction coefficient of spun yarns and especially, it is concluded that frictional behaviour of Tencel yarns are different from those of the yarns used in the study.
Performance analysis of idle programs

This paper presents an approach for performance analysis of modern enterprise-class server applications. In our experience, performance bottlenecks in these applications differ qualitatively from bottlenecks in smaller, stand-alone systems. Small applications and benchmarks often suffer from CPU-intensive hot spots. In contrast, enterprise-class multi-tier applications often suffer from problems that manifest not as hot spots, but as idle time, indicating a lack of forward motion. Many factors can contribute to undesirable idle time, including locking problems, excessive system-level activities like garbage collection, various resource constraints, and problems driving load. We present the design and methodology for WAIT, a tool to diagnosis the root cause of idle time in server applications. Given lightweight samples of Java activity on a single tier, the tool can often pinpoint the primary bottleneck on a multi-tier system. The methodology centers on an informative abstraction of the states of idleness observed in a running program. This abstraction allows the tool to distinguish, for example, between hold-ups on a database machine, insufficient load, lock contention in application code, and a conventional bottleneck due to a hot method. To compute the abstraction, we present a simple expert system based on an extensible set of declarative rules. WAIT can be deployed on the fly, without modifying or even restarting the application. Many groups in IBM have applied the tool to diagnosis performance problems in commercial systems, and we present a number of examples as case studies.
Analytical Modeling and Analysis of a Constrained Layer Damped Plate to Examine the Impact of the Transverse Compressional Damping Component

This work presents a new analytical model for constrained layer damping (CLD). CLD is an effective vibration suppression approach. Unfortunately, most of the existing research involving analytical models for constrained layer damped structures considered the simple beam structure and are therefore not applicable for many real systems. As a result, it is important to be able to model the CLD of structures like plates and improve both the accuracy and versatility of the predictions. Most existing research assumes that shear deformation of the damping layer is the dominant source of damping, despite the fact that some research has noted that this assumption is often not valid. To address these needs, this work provides development of an analytical model for a three-layer CLD plate structure. Unlike previous models, this analytical model treats the three-layer plate as not only having shear deformation, but also as having longitudinal extension and transverse compression deformation in the damping layer. Because of these new considerations, all types of damping in the intermediate layer have been taken into account. This newly developed analytical mode is validated by comparing it with experimental data from published literature. Then, a parametric study between this newly developed compression plate analytical model and another newly developed plate analytical model that neglects compression damping is conducted in order to explore the impact of some design parameters on the structure's modal characteristics. For cases when the face layers have different thicknesses, it is shown that it may be necessary to include the transverse compressional damping component to provide an accurate prediction of the natural frequencies and loss factors.
Using growth factor conditioning to modify the properties of human cell derived extracellular matrix

We have recently reported on a bench‐top approach for isolating extracellular matrix (ECM) from pure populations of cells grown in culture using sacrificial, open‐celled foams to concentrate and capture the ECM. To increase both the accumulation and the strength of the ECM harvested, cell‐seeded polyurethane (PU) foams were cultured in media supplemented with either transforming growth factor β‐1 (TGFβ1) or hepatocyte growth factor (HGF). At the end of a 3‐week culture period, ECM yield was significantly increased for samples conditioned in supplemented media. Control foams yielded 48 ± 12 mg of material for every gram of PU foam seeded. Yield values increased to 102 ± 21 and 243 ± 25 mg for HGF and TGFβ1‐treated samples, respectively. HGF supplementation increased the modulus by 59%, while TGFβ1 treatment increased the elastic modulus by 204%. TGFβ1‐stimulated material was organized into a network that was markedly denser than control material, with HGF‐stimulated network density intermediate to TGFβ1 and controls. Our study showed that TGFβ1‐treated samples were collagen enriched while HGF samples had an increased gylcosaminoglycan concentration. The results demonstrate that growth factor supplementation, particularly with TGFβ1, can significantly alter the biomechanical properties of cell‐derived ECM that may be used for therapeutic applications. © 2012 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog. , 2012
Cervical cancer screening in immigrant women in Italy: a survey on participation, cytology and histology results

Cervical cancer screening programmes in Italy actively invite all 25–64-year-old resident women for the Pap test every 3 years irrespective of their citizenship. Immigrant women come from countries where screening is absent or poorly implemented and the prevalence of human papillomavirus is often high. These women therefore have significant risk factors for cervical cancer. The Italian Group for Cervical Cancer Screening promoted a survey of all the screening programmes on the participation and the positivity and detection rates in Italian and foreign women in 2009–2011. Aggregated data for participation, cytology results, compliance with colposcopy and histology results were collected, distinguishing between women born in Italy and abroad. All comparisons were age adjusted. Forty-eight programmes out of 120 participated in the immigrant survey, with 3 147 428 invited and 1 427 412 screened Italian women and 516 291 invited and 205 948 screened foreign women. Foreign women had a slightly lower participation rate compared with Italians (39.9 vs. 45.4%), whereas compliance with colposcopy was similar (90%). Foreigners showed a higher risk of pathological findings than Italians: cytology positivity [relative risk (RR)=1.25, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.24–1.27] and detection rate for cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 2 (CIN2) (RR=1.39, 95% CI 1.31–1.47), CIN3 (RR=2.07, 95% CI 1.96–2.18) and cancer (RR=2.68, 95% CI 2.24–3.22). The ratio between cancer and CIN was higher in immigrants (0.06 vs. 0.04, P<0.01). Foreign women had a higher risk of cervical precancer and cancer. Because of their high risk and because opportunistic screening does not cover this often disadvantaged group, achieving high participation in screening programmes for foreigners is critical to further reducing the cervical cancer burden in Italy.
Walrasian Dynamics in Multi-unit Markets

In a multi-unit market, a seller brings multiple units of a good and tries to sell them to a set of buyers that have monetary endowments. While a Walrasian equilibrium does not always exist in this model, natural relaxations of the concept that retain its desirable fairness properties do exist. We study the dynamics of (Walrasian) envy-free pricing mechanisms in this environment, showing that for any such pricing mechanism, the best response dynamic starting from truth-telling converges to a pure Nash equilibrium with small loss in revenue and welfare. Moreover, we generalize these bounds to capture all the (reasonable) Nash equilibria for a large class of (monotone) pricing mechanisms. We also identify a natural mechanism, which selects the minimum Walrasian envy-free price, in which for n=2 buyers the best response dynamic converges from any starting profile. We conjecture convergence of the mechanism for any number of buyers and provide simulation results to support our conjecture.
Coupled Eighth-Mode Substrate Integrated Waveguide Antenna: Small and Wideband With High-Body Antenna Isolation

A novel antenna design for wideband operation is presented, consisting of a system of two coupled miniaturized eighth-mode resonant radiating cavities with a low-complexity feeding network. The design methodology relies on the virtual magnetic boundaries along the symmetry planes of a rectangular waveguide resonator, for size reduction, and the frequency bifurcation of two tightly coupled resonators, for bandwidth enhancement. After discussing its operating principle, a prototype targeting wearable applications is designed, manufactured, and validated. Multiband operation is achieved with simultaneous coverage of the 2.4-GHz ISM band and the LTE-7 up- and downlink-bands. Measurements in free-space and on-body scenarios validate the antenna’s performance. A bandwidth of 414 MHz (16.2%) is measured, as well as a maximal gain of 4.7 dBi. The directive patch-like radiation pattern and the ground plane topology lead to high body-antenna isolation and good on-body performance. Impedance bandwidth and radiation pattern remain stable when the antenna is worn by a person and bent around a cylinder to mimic deformation.
Effects and Mechanisms of Action of Ionophorous Antibiotics Valinomycin and Salinomycin-Na on Babesia gibsoni In Vitro

Abstract Valinomycin and salinomycin-Na, 2 ionophorous antibiotics, exhibited in vitro antibabesial activities against Babesia gibsoni that infected normal canine erythrocytes containing low potassium (LK) and high sodium concentrations, i.e., LK erythrocytes, which completely lack Na,K-ATPase activity. The level of parasitemia of B. gibsoni was significantly decreased when the parasites were incubated in culture medium containing either 10−1 ng/ml valinomycin or 102 ng/ml salinomycin-Na for 24 hr. Four-hour incubation in the culture medium containing 5 µg/ml salinomycin-Na led to the destruction of most parasites. In contrast, when the parasites infected canine erythrocytes containing high potassium (HK) and low sodium concentrations, i.e., HK erythrocytes, the in vitro antibabesial activities of both ionophorous antibiotics seemed to be weakened, apparently due to the protection by the host cells. Therefore, differential influences of ionophorous antibiotics on LK and HK erythrocytes were observed. In LK erythrocytes, the intracellular concentrations of potassium, sodium, and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) were not modified, and hemolysis was not observed after incubation in the medium containing each ionophorous antibiotic. These results suggested that these ionophorous antibiotics did not affect cells without Na,K-ATPase, and directly affected B. gibsoni. In HK erythrocytes, the ionophorous antibiotics increased the intracellular sodium concentration, and decreased the intracellular potassium and ATP concentrations, causing obvious hemolysis. Additionally, the decrease of the intracellular ATP concentration and the hemolysis in HK erythrocytes caused by valinomycin disappeared when the activity of Na,K-ATPase was inhibited by ouabain. These results indicate that modification of the intracellular cation concentrations by the ionophorous antibiotics led to the activation of Na,K-ATPase and increased consumption of intracellular ATP, and that the depletion of intracellular ATP resulted in hemolysis in HK erythrocytes. Moreover, the antibabesial activity of valinomycin disappeared when B. gibsoni in LK erythrocytes were incubated in culture media containing high potassium concentrations. This showed that the intracellular cation concentration in the parasites was not modified in those media and would remain the same.
Analysis of discharge parameters for applications in plasma devices

Electron energy distribution is a fundamental parameter for proper understanding of electrical discharge processes. The discharge mechanism that should be considered depends upon the application, from the traditional low pressure discharge tubes to the more recent applications in medical sciences. The energy range of interest for this paper is 0.01–1000eV. The number density of electrons cover a range of 1020-1028 m−3. The general procedure adopted is to use the Boltzmann equation which takes in to account the energy gain and energy losses as the electron drifts under the influence of the electric field. Losses occur due to both elastic and inelastic collisions and a steady state is obtained when the two are equal. Elastic collisions are accounted for through momentum transfer cross section as a function of electron energy. Inelastic collisions are accounted for through the appropriate collision cross sections, also as a function of electron energy. Individual inelastic processes are ionization, excitation for each transition level of energy, rotational and vibrational excitation in molecular gases. The earliest attempt to take into account the inelastic collisions is due to Druyvesteyn whose method gave very good agreement for rare gases. With the advent of fast computers numerical methods were developed to take in to account individual elastic processes for several electronic and vibrational excitation levels. These methods are reviewed in the paper and a need for simplified method for engineering applications is pointed out. A simplified method is proposed and new results in krypton are discussed with good agreement with experimentally measured swarm properties.
CO line ratios in molecular clouds: the impact of environment

Line emission is strongly dependent on the local environmental conditions in which the emitting tracers reside. In this work, we focus on modelling the CO emission from simulated giant molecular clouds (GMCs), and study the variations in the resulting line ratios arising from the emission from the J = 1–0, J = 2–1, and J = 3–2 transitions. We perform a set of smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations with time-dependent chemistry, in which environmental conditions – including total cloud mass, density, size, velocity dispersion, metallicity, interstellar radiation field (ISRF), and the cosmic ray ionization rate (CRIR) – were systematically varied. The simulations were then post-processed using radiative transfer to produce synthetic emission maps in the three transitions quoted above. We find that the cloud-averaged values of the line ratios can vary by up to ±0.3 dex, triggered by changes in the environmental conditions. Changes in the ISRF and/or in the CRIR have the largest impact on line ratios since they directly affect the abundance, temperature, and distribution of CO-rich gas within the clouds. We show that the standard methods used to convert CO emission to H2 column density can underestimate the total H2 molecular gas in GMCs by factors of 2 or 3, depending on the environmental conditions in the clouds.