Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Percutaneous ethanol (PEIT) and calcitrol (PCIT) injection therapy are ineffective in treating severe secondary hyperparathyroidism.

BACKGROUND Secondary hyperparathyroidism (2HPT) is a frequent complication of long-term dialysis treatment and, despite recent advances in medical therapy, surgical parathyroidectomy (PTX) is required in a considerable number of uraemic patients. Recently, other modalities of therapy, such as ultrasound-guided percutaneous parathyroid injection of ethanol (PEIT) or of calcitriol (PCIT), have been used to treat refractory 2HPT. Our objectives were to evaluate the efficacy of these therapeutic modalities and to analyse their effects on parathyroid cell proliferation. METHODS Nineteen haemodialysis patients with severe 2HPT were studied. Ten underwent PEIT (Group I) and nine underwent PCIT (Group II). After treatment, five patients in each group were submitted to PTX. Parathyroid cell proliferation was appraised at the beginning and at the end of the study by fine-needle aspiration biopsy, making use of immunocytochemical testing for Ki-67. The surgically removed glands were submitted to histopathological analysis and cellular proliferation was evaluated. RESULTS Both PEIT and PCIT proved inefficient in controlling 2HPT. Comparing study onset with day 60, both groups showed a significant decrease in serum-ionized calcium: 5.3+/-0.3 vs 5.1+/-0.5 mg/dl (P = 0.03) in Group I and 5.5+/-0.4 vs 5.4+/-0.3 mg/dl (P = 0.03) in Group II. Other laboratory parameters were unchanged. There was a significant, although transitory, enlargement in glandular volume in Group II at day 30 when compared with study onset (1.5+/-0.6 vs 1.7+/-0.7 cm(3), P = 0.02). When comparing the two groups, Group I showed a glandular volume smaller than that of Group II at days 30 (1+/-0.5 vs 1.7+/-0.7 cm(3), P = 0.003), 60 (0.8+/-0.4 vs 1.5+/-0.9 cm(3), P = 0.006) and 90 (0.8+/-0.5 vs 1+/-0.7 cm(3), P = 0.02). Cellular proliferation, which was equally elevated in both groups at the beginning of the study, could not be evaluated at the end due to lack of material. The majority of glands obtained through PTX presented intensive cellular proliferation and contained areas of nodular hyperplasia, even those glands with a volume of <0.5 cm(3). CONCLUSION In our experience, both PCIT and PEIT were unable to control severe 2HPT in chronic haemodialysis patients. We believe that the severity of the 2HPT in the study patients, in conjunction with the fact that we excluded from treatment parathyroid glands with a volume of <0.5 cm(3), were the most important causes of this failure.
Design of UHF RFID devices based on 3D-printing technology

3D-printing technology promises high added value in many scientific contexts, including that of new materials for electromagnetics. The joint use with Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology is very appealing for designing new RFID-based smart devices while maintaining cost-effectiveness. In this work a T-Resonator structure for the dielectric characterization of substrates, including 3D-printed ones, is firstly presented. Both permittivity and loss tangent of PLA substrates have been measured in the UHF RFID band when varying the air percentage in the printed material. On the basis on the characterized substrates, a wearable bracelet tag and a Yagi-Uda-inspired long-range tag, which exploit the peculiarities of 3D-printing, have been designed, realized, and validated.
Somatostatin analogs modulate AIP in somatotroph adenomas: the role of the ZAC1 pathway.

CONTEXT Somatotroph adenomas harboring aryl hydrocarbon receptor interacting protein (AIP) mutations respond less well to somatostatin analogs, suggesting that the effects of somatostatin analogs may be mediated by AIP. OBJECTIVE The objective of the investigation was to study the involvement of AIP in the mechanism of effect of somatostatin analogs. DESIGN In the human study, a 16-wk somatostatin analog pretreatment compared with no pretreatment. In the in vitro cell line study, the effect of somatostatin analog treatment or small interfering RNA (siRNA)/plasmid transfection were studied. SETTING The study was conducted at a university hospital. PATIENTS Thirty-nine sporadic and 10 familial acromegaly patients participated in the study. INTERVENTION Interventions included preoperative lanreotide treatment and pituitary surgery. OUTCOME For the human study, GH and IGF-I levels, AIP, and somatostatin receptor staining were measured. For the cell line, AIP and ZAC1 (zinc finger regulator of apoptosis and cell cycle arrest) expression, metabolic activity, and clone formation were measured. RESULTS Lanreotide pretreatment reduced GH and IGF-I levels and tumor volume (all P < 0.0001). AIP immunostaining was stronger in the lanreotide-pretreated group vs. the surgery-only group (P < 0.001). After lanreotide pretreatment, the AIP score correlated to IGF-I changes in females (R = 0.68, P < 0.05). Somatostatin receptor staining was not reduced in samples with AIP mutations. In GH3 cells, 1 nm octreotide increased AIP mRNA and protein (both P < 0.01) and ZAC1 mRNA expression (P < 0.05). Overexpression of wild-type (but not mutant) AIP increased ZAC1 mRNA expression, whereas AIP siRNA knockdown reduced ZAC1 mRNA (both P < 0.05). The siRNA-mediated knockdown of AIP led to an increased metabolic activity and clonogenic ability of GH3 cells compared with cells transfected with a nontargeting control (both P < 0.001). CONCLUSION These results suggest that AIP may play a role in the mechanism of action of somatostatin analogs via ZAC1 in sporadic somatotroph tumors and may explain their lack of effectiveness in patients with AIP mutations.
A Review on the Anti-Inflammatory Activity of Pomegranate in the Gastrointestinal Tract

Several biological activities of pomegranate have been widely described in the literature, but the anti-inflammatory effect in the gastrointestinal tract has not been reviewed till now. The aim of the present paper is to summarize the evidence for or against the efficacy of pomegranate for coping with inflammatory conditions of the gastro-intestinal tract. The paper has been organized in three parts: (1) the first one is devoted to the modifications of pomegranate active compounds in the gastro-intestinal tract; (2) the second one considering the literature regarding the anti-inflammatory effect of pomegranate at gastric level; (3) the third part considers the anti-inflammatory effect of pomegranate in the gut. In vivo studies performed on the whole fruit or juice, peel, and flowers demonstrate antiulcer effect in a variety of animal models. Ellagic acid was the main responsible for this effect, although other individual ellagitannins could contribute to the biological activity of the mixture. Different preparations of pomegranate, including extracts from peels, flowers, seeds, and juice, show a significant anti-inflammatory activity in the gut. No clinical studies have been found, thus suggesting that future clinical studies are necessary to clarify the beneficial effects of pomegranate in the gastrointestinal tract.
Polymorphism analysis in estrogen receptors alpha and beta genes and their association with infertile population in Pakistan

Studies on polymorphism of estrogen receptor (ESR) alpha and beta genes have been mostly implicated in infertility, but the results have been controversial due to lack of comprehensive data. The present study focused on association of ESR genes with both male and female infertility. In ESRα, PvuII (rs2234693) and XbaI (rs9340799) were studied while in ESRβ gene, risk of infertility was determined for silent G/A RsaI (rs1256049) polymorphism. Total 124 subjects (74 cases and 50 controls) were part of this study having primary infertility. Restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) was performed with PvuII, XbaI and RsaI to determine polymorphism. Correlation between age and follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) of cases and controls was determined and no association was found between infertility and FSH hormone. Heterozygous AG genotype of XbaI polymorphism (P= 2.505e-06) and heterozygous TC genotype (P= 0.00003) in PvuII polymorphism were strongly associated with risk of infertility. In ESRβ gene, there was lack of polymorphism for RsaI in our population as all subjects were homozygous (GG). Haplotype frequencies showed that XbaI and PvuII polymorphisms are in strong linkage disequilibrium. This study shows that in our population XbaI and PvuII polymorphisms of ESRα are associated with risk of infertility.
StackSync: bringing elasticity to dropbox-like file synchronization

The design of elastic file synchronization services like Dropbox is an open and complex issue yet not unveiled by the major commercial providers, as it includes challenges like fine-grained programmable elasticity and efficient change notification to millions of devices. In this paper, we propose a novel architecture for file synchronization which aims to solve the above two major challenges. At the heart of our proposal lies ObjectMQ, a lightweight framework for providing programmatic elasticity to distributed objects using messaging. The efficient use of indirect communication: i) enables programmatic elasticity based on queue message processing, ii) simplifies change notifications offering simple unicast and multicast primitives; and iii) provides transparent load balancing based on queues. Our reference implementation is StackSync, an open source elastic file synchronization Cloud service developed in the context of the FP7 project CloudSpaces. StackSync supports both predictive and reactive provisioning policies on top of ObjectMQ that adapt to real traces from the Ubuntu One service. The feasibility of our approach has been extensively validated with an open benchmark, including commercial synchronization services like Dropbox or OneDrive.
High-precision sampling for Brillouin-zone integration in metals.

Presentation d'une methode d'echantillonnage pour l'integration de la zone de Brillouin qui converge exponentiellement avec le nombre de points d'echantillonnage, sans perte de precision des techniques d'elargissement (broadening). L'expose est base sur des approximations faibles successives sur la fonction δ et la fonction d'etage (step fonction) ou coupure de Fermi (Fermi.cutt-off) qui sont construites afin de donner le resultat exact lorsque l'integrale contient des polynomes d'Hermite de degre n. Par application a la bande a liaison forte cubique simple ainsi qu'aux structures de bande des metaux simples et de transition, on montre une amelioration significative par rapport aux methodes existantes. La methode promet d'etre applicable dans les domaines de calculs d'energie totale et de la physique a N-corps
Application of the Converse Bergmann Principle to the Carabid Beetle, Dicaelus purpuratus

Lake Michigan. With the accumulation of more material, it was found that (i) the change in average size of individuals of the population appeared to be gradual and uniform from more northern to m.ore southern areas within the range of the species; (2) such a change was postulated by that portion of the Bergmann zo6geographic principle relating to poikilothermal terrestrial animals; (3) very little firsthand data had been accumulated by American biologists with reference to the Bergmann principle. It will be remembered that this principle states that homoiotherms tend to be larger in colder regions than in warmer regions within the same species population. This change in size may be explained partially by the physiological datum that heat radiation is said to be about the same per unit of skin surface under identical conditions, and partially by the Spencerian doctrine that volume increases as the cube of linear dimensions, whereas surface increases as the square of these dimensions. Consequently, the larger the homoiotherm, the less disadvantageous the lower air temperature of colder portions of its range. The smaller hom oiotherms have a smaller total surface area, but this area is relatively larger in relation to volume, so that heat loss by radiation is relatively greater than for larger animals. Conversely, poikilotherms tend to be smaller in colder, and larger in warmer, regions within the same population. In general, the Bergmann principle is rather well known, but very little specific use has been made of it in the distribution of North American insects. A more complete discussion of this principle, and of exceptions to it, may be found in Rensch (1936, 1938, 1939), Hesse, Allee, and Schmidt (i937), and Allee, Emerson, Park, Park, and Schmidt (1949). Dicaelus purpuratus lends itself very well to such a zo6geographic analysis. In the first place, it is relatively both large and conspicuous. Adults average about I inch in length. Most specimens are a deep purple on head, pronotum, and elytra; the legs, labial palpi, maxillary palpi, and first three antennal segments are slightly more reddish-purple; the tarsal claws, setae, distal surface of palpi and fourth to eleventh antennal segments are yellowish-brown. The general purple color changes in tone with direction of light beam. Specimens tend to become covered with a film that darkens the surface in pinned specimens, so that an oil solvent must be used to clean them if the true color of the cuticle is desired. This large size and coloration usually assist in the detection and collection of the species and hence assure that museums and private collections are likely to have a series available for study. Second, the species is not easily confused with its congeners. The most close-
Cortical activation changes underlying stimulation-induced behavioural gains in chronic stroke

Transcranial direct current stimulation, a form of non-invasive brain stimulation, is showing increasing promise as an adjunct therapy in rehabilitation following stroke. However, although significant behavioural improvements have been reported in proof-of-principle studies, the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. The rationale for transcranial direct current stimulation as therapy for stroke is that therapeutic stimulation paradigms increase activity in ipsilesional motor cortical areas, but this has not previously been directly tested for conventional electrode placements. This study was performed to test directly whether increases in ipsilesional cortical activation with transcranial direct current stimulation are associated with behavioural improvements in chronic stroke patients. Patients at least 6 months post-first stroke participated in a behavioural experiment (n = 13) or a functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment (n = 11), each investigating the effects of three stimulation conditions in separate sessions: anodal stimulation to the ipsilesional hemisphere; cathodal stimulation to the contralesional hemisphere; and sham stimulation. Anodal (facilitatory) stimulation to the ipsilesional hemisphere led to significant improvements (5–10%) in response times with the affected hand in both experiments. This improvement was associated with an increase in movement-related cortical activity in the stimulated primary motor cortex and functionally interconnected regions. Cathodal (inhibitory) stimulation to the contralesional hemisphere led to a functional improvement only when compared with sham stimulation. We show for the first time that the significant behavioural improvements produced by anodal stimulation to the ipsilesional hemisphere are associated with a functionally relevant increase in activity within the ipsilesional primary motor cortex in patients with a wide range of disabilities following stroke.
Coupling Between Heterotrophic Nanoflagellates and Bacteria in Fresh Waters: Does Latitude Make a Difference?

Recent studies reported comparatively lower heterotrophic bacteria (HB) abundances in tropical regions, indicating that factors involved in bacterial losses could be more relevant in the tropics. Heterotrophic nanoflagellates (HNF) are considered the main predators of HB in aquatic ecosystems, and one should expect higher abundances in the tropics because of differences in the food web configuration (absence of large daphnids). However, there are no comprehensive studies comparing HB and HNF abundances in a latitudinal gradient. We hypothesized that HB abundance would be lower in the tropics because HNF abundance would be higher, resulting in a tighter HNF–HB coupling. To test this hypothesis, we compiled a large dataset of HB and HNF abundances from tropical and temperate freshwater environments. We found that both HB and HNF abundances were lower in the tropical region, and that HNF-HB coupling does not differ between temperate and tropical regions. The lower HNF abundance and lack of coupling may be explained by a strong top-down control on HNF and/or their herbivory preference. Besides, no relationship was found between bacterial specific growth rate and either chlorophyll-a and HB abundance, indicating that bacterial losses may have an important role in tropical freshwaters. Thus, we found that HNF is likely not the main controllers of HB abundance, and that grazing by ciliates and cladocerans, together with the physiological effects of higher temperatures, may explain the high bacterial loss rates in the tropics.
Parallel processing of serial movements in prefrontal cortex

A key idea in Lashley's formulation of the problem of serial order in behavior is the postulated neural representation of all serial elements before the action begins. We studied this question by recording the activity of individual neurons simultaneously in small ensembles in prefrontal cortex while monkeys copied geometrical shapes shown on a screen. Monkeys drew the shapes as sequences of movement segments, and these segments were associated with distinct patterns of neuronal ensemble activity. Here we show that these patterns were present during the time preceding the actual drawing. The rank of the strength of representation of a segment in the neuronal population during this time, as assessed by discriminant analysis, predicted the serial position of the segment in the motor sequence. An analysis of errors in copying and their neural correlates supplied additional evidence for this code and provided a neural basis for Lashley's hypothesis that errors in motor sequences would be most likely to occur when executing elements that had prior representations of nearly equal strength.
Influence of Annealing Conditions on the Optical and Structural Properties of Spin-coated as 2 S 3 Chalcogenide Glass Thin Films References and Links

Spin-coating of chalcogenide glass is a low-cost, scalable method to create optical grade thin films, which are ideal for visible and infrared applications. In this paper, we study the influence of annealing on optical parameters of As 2 S 3 films by examining UV-visible and infrared spectroscopy and correlating the results to changes in the physical properties associated with solvent removal. Evaporation of excess solvent results in a more highly coordinated, denser glass network with higher index and lower absorption. Depending on the annealing temperature and time, index values ranging from n = 2.1 to the bulk value (n = 2.4) can be obtained, enabling a pathway to materials optimization. nonlinear AsS -Se glasses for all-optical switching, " Opt. Wavelength trimming technology for multiple-wavelength distributed-feedback laser arrays by photo-induced refractive index change, " Electron. Mode tuning of quantum cascade lasers through optical processing of chalcogenide glass claddings, " Appl. Photosensitive post tuning of chalcogenide photonic crystal waveguides, " Opt. Pulsed-laser deposition of GaLa -S chalcogenide glass thin-film optical wave-guides, " Appl. Chalcogenide thin films deposited by radio-frequency sputtering, " J. Integrated chalcogenide waveguides with quantum cascade lasers for on-chip mid-infrared photonic circuits, " submitted (2010). Application of spin-coated As2S3 thin films in a high resolution trilayer resist system, " Appl. Influence of the deposition technique on the structural and optical properties of amorphous AsS films, " Appl. Growth and optical characterization of spin-coated As2S3 multilayer thin films, " Calculation of the thickness and optical constants of amorphous arsenic sulfide films from their transmission spectra, " J. Low-loss waveguides in ultrafast laser-deposited As2S3 chalcogenide films, " J.
Effects of Hypoxia on Thrombocytopoiesis and Thrombopoietin Production of Mice 1

Summary Mice were placed in hypoxia chambers for various lengths of time prior to and after injection of platelet specific antiserum to determine the cause of thrombocytopenia in hypoxic mice. The results indicate that hypoxia decreased platelet production by action on a precursor cell or a primitive population of megakaryocytes without altering the ability of mice to produce thrombo-poietin. Hypoxia may cause thrombocytopenia by stem-cell competition between the erythrocytic and megakaryocytic cell lines.
Adaptive Importance Sampling: The past, the present, and the future

A fundamental problem in signal processing is the estimation of unknown parameters or functions from noisy observations. Important examples include localization of objects in wireless sensor networks [1] and the Internet of Things [2]; multiple source reconstruction from electroencephalograms [3]; estimation of power spectral density for speech enhancement [4]; or inference in genomic signal processing [5]. Within the Bayesian signal processing framework, these problems are addressed by constructing posterior probability distributions of the unknowns. The posteriors combine optimally all of the information about the unknowns in the observations with the information that is present in their prior probability distributions. Given the posterior, one often wants to make inference about the unknowns, e.g., if we are estimating parameters, finding the values that maximize their posterior or the values that minimize some cost function given the uncertainty of the parameters. Unfortunately, obtaining closed-form solutions to these types of problems is infeasible in most practical applications, and therefore, developing approximate inference techniques is of utmost interest.
Lower bounds on Ricci curvature and the almost rigidity of warped products

The basic rigidity theorems for manifolds of nonnegative or positive Ricci curvature are the "volume cone implies metric cone" theorem, the maximal diameter theorem, [Cg], and the splitting theorem, [CG]. Each asserts that if a certain geometric quantity (volume or diameter) is as large as possible relative to the pertinent lower bound on Ricci curvature, then the metric on the manifold in question is a warped product metric of a particular type. In this paper we provide quantitative generalizations of the above mentioned results. Among the applications are the splitting theorem for GromovHausdorff limit spaces X, where Mn -* X, Ricmn ? -i see [FY]. Other applications include the assertion that for complete manifolds, M', with Ricmf > 0 and Euclidean volume growth, all tangent cones at infinity are metric cones; compare [BKN], [CT], [P1]. Via resealing arguments, there are also strong consequences for the local structure of manifolds whose Ricci curvature satisfies a fixed lower bound and for their Gromov-Hausdorff limits. Some of these are announced in [CCol]; for a more detailed discussion see [CCo2], [CCo3], [CCo4]. Our work further develops and significantly extends techniques which were introduced in [Col], [Co2] and significantly extended in [Co3], in order to prove certain "stability" conjectures of Anderson-Cheeger, Gromov and Perelman. The results of [Col]-[Co3] were announced in [Co4]. We briefly review some of those results. Let dGH denote the Gromov-Hausdorff distance between metric spaces; see [GLP]. Let S' denote the unit sphere and recall that S' is the unique complete