Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Laparoscopic ovarian drilling versus GnRH antagonist combined with cabergoline as a prophylaxis against the re-development of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome

Abstract Objective: The aim of this work was to investigate the value of laparoscopic ovarian drilling (LOD) compared with GnRH antagonist flexible protocol combined with cabergoline (Cb), as a prophylaxis against the re-development of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS) in women with clomiphene citrate-resistant polycystic ovary disease (CCR-PCOD) who had severe OHSS before in a previous ICSI cycle. Study design: It is a prospective controlled study, where 250 CCR-PCOD women (n = 250) with a history of severe OHSS before, had been recruited for the study. LOD had been performed for 120 (n = 120) of the recruited women before ovarian induction, and considered as group A. GnRH antagonist (Cetrotide 0.25 mg) was added when a leading follicle reaches 14–16 mm combined with oral Cb in a dose 0.5 mg a day before hCG, and for 8 d for another 130 (n = 130) women, and considered as group B. Pregnancy was diagnosed with BhCG level ≥25 IU/L, ± 14 d after embryo transfer, followed with transvaginal ultrasound scanning (TVS) 2 weeks later to confirm intra-uterine pregnancy (IUP). Women were followed up weekly for 3 months for the possible development of any signs and symptoms of OHSS. Results: None of the participants in group A developed severe OHSS, and only six women (5%) developed mild to moderate OHSS. The incidence of severe OHSS was significantly higher (n = 3, 15%) in group B compared with group A (p < .001). Another (n = 17, 13.3%) women in group B developed mild to moderate OHSS. The probability of developing severe OHSS was also significantly higher in group B as well (p = .031). Pregnancy rate (PR) was significantly higher in group A more than group B (67% versus 39%, respectively), and all were single intrauterine pregnancies (IUP) and all developed after fresh embryo transfer (ET), compared with frozen embryo transfer (FET) which was performed in 42 cases in group B after postponing ET due to significantly severe OHSS developed. Conclusion: LOD could be considered a good prophylactic measure against OHSS, in addition to improving the total outcome of IVF cycles in women with CCR-PCOS.
Estimation of fundamental frequency from surface electromyographic data: EMG-to-F0

In this paper, we present our recent studies of F0 estimation from the surface electromyographic (EMG) data using a Gaussian mixture model (GMM)-based voice conversion (VC) technique, referred to as EMG-to-F0. In our approach, a support vector machine recognizes individual frames as unvoiced and voiced (U/V), and voiced F0 contours are discriminated by the trained GMM based on the manner of minimum mean-square error. EMG-to-F0 is experimentally evaluated using three data sets of different speakers. Each data set includes almost 500 utterances. Objective experiments demonstrate that we achieve a correlation coefficient of up to 0.49 between estimated and target F0 contours with more than 84% U/V decision accuracy, although the results have large variations.
Handedness and Graspability Modify Shifts of Visuospatial Attention to Near-Hand Objects

We examined how factors related to the internal representation of the hands (handedness and grasping affordances) influence the distribution of visuospatial attention near the body. Left and right handed participants completed a covert visual cueing task, discriminating between two target shapes. In Experiment 1, participants responded with either their dominant or non-dominant hand. In Experiment 2, the non-responding hand was positioned below one of two target placeholders, aligned with the shoulder. In Experiment 3 the near-monitor hand was positioned under the placeholder in the opposite region of hemispace, crossed over the body midline. For Experiments 2 & 3, in blocked trials the palmar and back-of hand surfaces were directed towards the target placeholder such that targets appeared towards either the graspable or non-graspable space of the hand respectively. In Experiment 2, both left and right handers displayed larger accuracy cueing effects for targets near versus distant from the graspable space of the right hand. Right handers also displayed larger response time cueing effects for objects near the graspable versus non-graspable region of their dominant hand but not for their non-dominant hands. These effects were not evident for left-handers. In Experiment 3, for right handers, accuracy biases for near hand targets were still evident when the hand was crossed over the body midline, and reflected hand proximity but not functional orientation biases. These findings suggest that biased visuospatial attention enhances object identity discrimination near hands and that these effects are particularly enhanced for right-handers.
Cross-Modal Similarity Learning via Pairs, Preferences, and Active Supervision

We present a probabilistic framework for learning pairwise similarities between objects belonging to different modalities, such as drugs and proteins, or text and images. Our framework is based on learning a binary code based representation for objects in each modality, and has the following key properties: (i) it can leverage both pairwise as well as easy-to-obtain relative preference based cross-modal constraints, (ii) the probabilistic framework naturally allows querying for the most useful/informative constraints, facilitating an active learning setting (existing methods for cross-modal similarity learning do not have such a mechanism), and (iii) the binary code length is learned from the data. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach on two problems that require computing pairwise similarities between cross-modal object pairs: cross-modal link prediction in bipartite graphs, and hashing based cross-modal similarity search.
Calcium/Calmodulin-Dependent Protein Kinase II Couples Wnt Signaling With Histone Deacetylase 4 and Mediates Dishevelled-Induced Cardiomyopathy

Activation of Wnt signaling results in maladaptive cardiac remodeling and cardiomyopathy. Recently, calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) was reported to be a pivotal participant in myocardial remodeling. Because CaMKII was suggested as a downstream target of noncanonical Wnt signaling, we aimed to elucidate the role of CaMKII in dishevelled-1–induced cardiomyopathy and the mechanisms underlying its function. Dishevelled-1–induced cardiomyopathy was reversed by deletion of neither CaMKII&dgr; nor CaMKII&ggr;. Therefore, dishevelled-1–transgenic mice were crossed with CaMKII&dgr;&ggr; double-knockout mice. These mice displayed a normal cardiac phenotype without cardiac hypertrophy, fibrosis, apoptosis, or left ventricular dysfunction. Further mechanistic analyses unveiled that CaMKII&dgr;&ggr; couples noncanonical Wnt signaling to histone deacetylase 4 and myosin enhancer factor 2. Therefore, our findings indicate that the axis, consisting of dishevelled-1, CaMKII, histone deacetylase 4, and myosin enhancer factor 2, is an attractive therapeutic target for prevention of cardiac remodeling and its progression to left ventricular dysfunction.
Endovascular treatment for acute ischemic stroke--still unproven.

Most ischemic strokes are caused by an embolic or thrombotic occlusion of an intracranial artery. The immediate aims of acute stroke treatment are recanalization of the occluded artery and reperfusion of the ischemic brain region. Currently, intravenous thrombolysis that is administered within 4.5 hours after the onset of a stroke is the only proven treatment.1,2 However, recanalization rates within 24 hours after the administration of intravenous tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) are low when the occlusion involves a large intracranial artery, with rates of 14% for internal carotid arteries and 55% for middle cerebral arteries.3 These low rates have prompted .
A Modeling Approach to Quantify the Effects of Stomatal Behavior and Mesophyll Conductance on Leaf Water Use Efficiency

Water use efficiency (WUE) is considered as a determinant of yield under stress and a component of crop drought resistance. Stomatal behavior regulates both transpiration rate and net assimilation and has been suggested to be crucial for improving crop WUE. In this work, a dynamic model was used to examine the impact of dynamic properties of stomata on WUE. The model includes sub-models of stomatal conductance dynamics, solute accumulation in the mesophyll, mesophyll water content, and water flow to the mesophyll. Using the instantaneous value of stomatal conductance, photosynthesis, and transpiration rate were simulated using a biochemical model and Penman-Monteith equation, respectively. The model was parameterized for a cucumber leaf and model outputs were evaluated using climatic data. Our simulations revealed that WUE was higher on a cloudy than a sunny day. Fast stomatal reaction to light decreased WUE during the period of increasing light (e.g., in the morning) by up to 10.2% and increased WUE during the period of decreasing light (afternoon) by up to 6.25%. Sensitivity of daily WUE to stomatal parameters and mesophyll conductance to CO2 was tested for sunny and cloudy days. Increasing mesophyll conductance to CO2 was more likely to increase WUE for all climatic conditions (up to 5.5% on the sunny day) than modifications of stomatal reaction speed to light and maximum stomatal conductance.
Screening for Infectious Diseases among Newly Arrived Migrants in EU/EEA Countries—Varying Practices but Consensus on the Utility of Screening

Screening is one possible tool for monitoring infectious diseases among migrants. However, there is limited information on screening programmes targeted for newly arrived migrants in EU/EEA countries. Our aim was to investigate the implementation, practices and usefulness of these programmes. We conducted a survey among country experts from EU/EEA countries and Switzerland, asking whether their countries had implemented screening programmes. We also estimated the association between the implementation of these programmes and the rate of asylum-seekers in the population. Of the countries, 16 (59%) had implemented screening programmes and 15 (56%) had national guidelines. The rate of asylum-seekers was associated with implementation of screening programmes (p = 0.014). Screening was performed most often for tuberculosis; most commonly on holding level, and was targeted to specific migrant groups in over half of the countries performing screening. Twenty-five of all the country experts (96%) considered screening among migrants useful, and 24 (92%) would welcome EU level guidelines for screening. The implementation of screening programmes varied, and the practices were different among countries. Our survey suggests, that establishing EU level guidelines for screening would be useful, although they would have to take into account differences between individual countries.
The Fission Yeast Ran Gtpase Is Required for Microtubule Integrity

The microtubule cytoskeleton plays a pivotal role in cytoplasmic organization, cell division, and the correct transmission of genetic information. In a screen designed to identify fission yeast genes required for chromosome segregation, we identified a strain that carries a point mutation in the SpRan GTPase. Ran is an evolutionarily conserved eukaryotic GTPase that directly participates in nucleocytoplasmic transport and whose loss affects many biological processes. Recently a transport-independent effect of Ran on spindle formation in vitro was demonstrated, but the in vivo relevance of these findings was unclear. Here, we report the characterization of a Schizosaccharomyces pombe Ran GTPase partial loss of function mutant in which nucleocytoplasmic protein transport is normal, but the microtubule cytoskeleton is defective, resulting in chromosome missegregation and abnormal cell shape. These abnormalities are exacerbated by microtubule destabilizing drugs, by loss of the spindle checkpoint protein Mph1p, and by mutations in the spindle pole body component Cut11p, indicating that SpRan influences microtubule integrity. As the SpRan mutant phenotype can be partially suppressed by the presence of extra Mal3p, we suggest that SpRan plays a role in microtubule stability.
Differing Connectivity of Exner’s Area for Numbers and Letters

There is a growing body of evidence indicating a crucial role of Exner’s area in (hand-) writing symbolic codes such as letters and words. However, a recent study reported a patient with a lesion affecting Broca’s and Exner’s area, who suffered from severe peripheral agraphia for letters but not for Arabic digits. The authors suggested a speculative account postulating differential connectivity of Exner’s area for numbers and letters in order to explain this dissociation. In the present study, we evaluated this account, employing atlas-based tractography for the patient’s anatomy, deterministic fiber-tracking as well as an automated toolkit to investigate the connectivity of Exner’s area in healthy adults. In particular, fiber pathways connecting Exner’s area with areas associated with language processing (e.g., the arcuate fascicle, ventral pathways encompassing the external/extreme capsule system) reached the inferior part of Exner’s area, while fronto-parietal fibers (e.g., the superior longitudinal fascicle) connected the upper part of Exner’s area with the intraparietal sulcus typically involved in number processing. Our results substantiated the differential connectivity account for Exner’s area by identifying the neural connections between fiber tracts and cortex areas of interest. Our data strongly suggest that white matter connectivity should be taken into account when investigating the neural underpinnings of impaired and intact human cognition.
Delayed administration of Vipera xanthina palaestinae antivenin.

INTRODUCTION Vipera xanthina palaestinae is the most widely distributed venomous snake in Israel, accounting for most envenomations. A specific equine antivenin is efficacious against both systemic and local manifestations if given within hours. This study sought to determine if delayed vipera xanthina palaestinae antivenin can be effective. METHODS Patients who had been bitten by vipera xanthina palaestinae during 1991-1995 were evaluated. Those who continued to deteriorate beyond 24 h post envenomation, in spite of treatment or because of delayed diagnosis, were given vipera xanthina palaestinae antivenin. RESULTS Ten patients were included in the study. Vipera xanthina palaestinae was identified in seven and diagnosis was considered probable in three patients. On admission, eight patients had local signs and seven patients had mild to severe systemic manifestations. The local signs were remarkable and progressive in all patients. In five, systemic signs and laboratory abnormalities were delayed as well. The time range for delayed antivenin administration was 1-6 days after envenomation. Following antivenin administration, progression of local signs ceased in all patients and swelling regressed within 24 h. In nine patients this occurred within 6 h. CONCLUSION Vipera xanthina palaestinae antivenin administration should be considered in patients with envenomations complicated by marked and progressive local signs, delayed systemic signs and laboratory abnormalities more than 24 h after envenomation.
High-speed string searching against large dictionaries on the Cell/B.E. Processor

Our digital universe is growing, creating exploding amounts of data which need to be searched, filtered and protected. String searching is at the core of the tools we use to curb this explosion, such as search engines, network intrusion detection systems, spam filters, and anti-virus programs. But as communication speed grows, our capability to perform string searching in real-time seems to fall behind. Multi-core architectures promise enough computational power to cope with the incoming challenge, but it is still unclear which algorithms and programming models to use to unleash this power. We have parallelized a popular string searching algorithm, Aho-Corasick, on the IBM Cell/B.E. processor, with the goal of performing exact string matching against large dictionaries. In this article we propose a novel approach to fully exploit the DMA-based communication mechanisms of the Cell/B.E. to provide an unprecedented level of aggregate performance with irregular access patterns. We have discovered that memory congestion plays a crucial role in determining the performance of this algorithm. We discuss three aspects of congestion: memory pressure, layout issues and hot spots, and we present a collection of algorithmic solutions to alleviate these problems and achieve quasi-optimal performance. The implementation of our algorithm provides a worst- case throughput of 2.5 Gbps, and a typical throughput between 3.3 and 4.4 Gbps, measured on realistic scenarios with a two-processor Cell/B.E. system.
The Choice of Surgical Specialization by Medical Students and Their Syncopal History

Background The aim of the study was to assess whether medical students’ fainting outside the university or while witnessing surgical procedures and/or autopsies influenced their choice of a specialization. Materials and Methods The study group consisted of 605 medical students (from fourth to sixth year of study) from five medical universities in Poland (325 women, 212 men and 8 responders of an unspecified gender). The median age of subjects studied was 23 years, and the interquartile range was 23–24 years. The students at each university were chosen randomly by the author who worked there and had contact with them. An anonymous questionnaire was developed to gather information regarding demographics, the specialization which each student wanted to choose, the syncope occurrence in the medical history, the syncope and presyncope occurrence during surgery and autopsy as well as the syncopal events’ characteristics. Results The group of 15% of women and 30% of men declared to have pursued the surgical specialization (P<0.001), 29% of women and 56% of men declared the intention to pursue an invasive specialization (P<0.001). As many as 36.0% of women studied and 13.1% of men studied reported syncopal spells outside university (P<0.001). Only 41 students (6.8%) reported that syncope or presyncope in any studied circumstances had an impact on their specialization choice. The multivariate analysis showed that the choice of surgical specialization is related to the male gender and the absence of syncopal spells outside the university. Conclusions Syncopal and presyncopal spells may affect the professional choices of the medical students. The male gender and a lack of syncope occurrence outside operating room are related to the choice of surgical specialization.
VIRGO: computational prediction of gene functions

Dramatic advances in sequencing technology and sophisticated experimental assays that interrogate the cell, combined with the public availability of the resulting data, herald the era of systems biology. However, the biological functions of more than 40% of the genes in sequenced genomes are unknown, posing a fundamental barrier to progress in systems biology. The large scale and diversity of available data requires the development of techniques that can automatically utilize these datasets to make quantified and robust predictions of gene function that can be experimentally verified. We present a service called the VIRtual Gene Ontology (VIRGO) that (i) constructs a functional linkage network (FLN) from gene expression and molecular interaction data, (ii) labels genes in the FLN with their functional annotations in the Gene Ontology and (iii) systematically propagates these labels across the FLN in order to precisely predict the functions of unlabelled genes. VIRGO assigns confidence estimates to predicted functions so that a biologist can prioritize predictions for further experimental study. For each prediction, VIRGO also provides an informative ‘propagation diagram’ that traces the flow of information in the FLN that led to the prediction. VIRGO is available at .
Skeletal muscle lipase content and activity in obesity and type 2 diabetes.

CONTEXT The obese insulin-resistant state is characterized by elevated lipid storage in skeletal muscle tissue. OBJECTIVE We tested whether differences in muscle triacylglycerol (TAG) and diacylglycerol (DAG) lipase content and activity are associated with incomplete in vivo lipolysis and lipid accumulation. DESIGN AND PATIENTS Two case-control studies were conducted on skeletal muscle biopsies from lean (n=13) and obese (n=10) men (study 1) and from 11 nonobese type 2 diabetic (T2D), obese T2D, and healthy normoglycemic men (study 2). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Skeletal muscle lipase protein content and activity and muscle lipid content (TAG and DAG) were determined. RESULTS Skeletal muscle hormone-sensitive lipase protein content was lower (0.39±0.07 vs. 1.00±0.19 arbitrary units; P=0.004) and adipose triglyceride lipase protein content was higher in obese men compared with lean controls (2.17±0.40 vs. 0.42±0.23 arbitrary units; P=0.008). This apparent difference in lipase content was accompanied by a 60% lower ratio of DAG to TAG hydrolase activity in the obese men (11.4±2.3 vs. 26.5±7.3 nmol/h·mg; P=0.045), implying incomplete lipolysis. Lower hormone-sensitive lipase and higher adipose triglyceride lipase content was confined to obesity per se, because it was observed solely in obese T2D men but not in healthy normoglycemic controls and nonobese T2D men. Muscle total DAG content was not higher in obese men but was even lower (6.2±0.7 vs. 9.4±0.9 μmol/mg dry weight; P=0.017). TAG content did not differ between groups (84.7±18.9 vs. 70.4±12.4 μmol/mg dry weight; P=0.543). CONCLUSIONS Our data do not support an important role of total muscle DAG content in the development of insulin resistance in obese men.
Nonreplicated DNA and DNA Fragments in T4 r− Bacteriophage Particles: Phenotypic Mixing of a Phage Protein

“Conservative phage” containing a genome derived from an infecting phage particle which has not undergone replication in the cell but nevertheless has become encapsulated and released in a normal phage particle, are found after infection of Escherichia coli with rII− or rI− mutants under conditions which result in rapid lysis. If such conservative phage are derived from a mixed infection with v+ and v1 phage, they display phenotypic mixing of the v gene product (an endonuclease carried in the phage particle). Populations of rI and rII mutant phage grown under conditions of rapid lysis include particles containing short DNA fragments. It is suggested that a “maturation defect”, common to rI and rII mutants, but absent in rIII mutants, may account for the encapsulation of nonreplicated DNA as well as that of the DNA fragments.