Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Vascular endothelial growth factor and the eye. Past, present and future.

Vascularization withinthe eye is a fundamental process involved not only in normal ocular development but also in a wide range of ophthalmic diseases. Such seemingly disparate clinical entities as diabetic retinopathy, central retinal vein occlusion, retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), age-related macular degeneration, sickle cell retinopathy, radiation retinopathy, and Eales disease may all eventually lead to uncontrolled vascularization. The potential role of growth factors as mediators of developmental and pathologic intraocular vascularization has been recognized for almost half a century, since the release of an angiogenic factor by the retina was first proposed by Michaelson 1 in 1948. 2 Subsequently, an extensive search for molecules with the diverse attributes required to account for the clinical observations associated with all of these conditions has been conducted. 3 Fibroblast growth factors, insulinlike growth factors, and growth hormone have been evaluated, and, although each has demonstrated interesting associations with clinical disease and potential
Gender and anger.

Anger is momentary madness Horace Like women's anger, impotent and loud Dryden What happens when we approach a lane closure while driving on the freeway, and a car cuts rapidly in front of us just before the lane closes, forcing us to brake abruptly? What happens when a romantic partner accuses us of flirting when we have done no such thing? What happens when we hear a news report telling us that 4 million children in the United States go hungry every day? Perhaps the most common response to these scenarios is anger. Anger is a commonly experienced and expressed emotion, and contrary to persistent myths and stereotypes, women and men both get angry in response to these types of situations. Indeed, conventional wisdom suggests that anger is a “male” emotion: women don't get angry, and if they do, they certainly don't show it. Yet, as this chapter will show, the bulk of the empirical evidence does not support these contentions. The literature on anger clearly demonstrates the need to modify questions about gender differences in emotion from the more global (e.g., do men and women differ? ) to the more specific (e.g., under what conditions and in the presence of whom might men and women differ? ). Differences in the experience and expression of anger have as much to do with other variables such as social context, status, and gender role as they do with gender. Although a number of excellent reviews of gender differences in emotion more generally have recently been published (e.g., Brody & Hall, 1993; Fischer, 1993; Shields, 1991), few reviews have specifically considered gender differences in anger.
Evaluation, development, and implementation of potentially better practices in neonatal intensive care nutrition.

OBJECTIVE The desire for evidence-based clinical guidelines for nutritional support of the preterm infant has been identified. Published evidence has not yielded clear guidelines about the best method of delivery, substrate use, or appropriate outcome measure to evaluate nutrition support. In addition, reports on research of nutrition support often fail to give the most rudimentary process necessary to improve quality in various unit settings. METHODS The Vermont Oxford Network "Got Milk" focus group developed eight potentially better practices for nutrition support, implementation strategies for these practices, and a comprehensive appraisal process to measure nutrition outcome in preterm infants. RESULTS After implementation of the potentially better practices, all participating institutions showed earlier initiation of nutrition support, earlier attainment of adequate energy intakes, reduced delay in reaching full enteral feeds, more consistent nutrition support practice, decreased length of stay, cost savings, and improved growth at time of discharge. CONCLUSIONS Development and implementation of evidence-based better nutrition support practices in neonates led to improved nutrient intake and growth with reduced length of stay and related costs. Consistent, comprehensive, multidisciplinary appraisal of practice is an integral component of improving nutrition outcomes in the neonatal population.
On modeling planning problems in tabled logic programming

Current research in planning focuses mainly on so called domain independent models using the Planning Domain Description Language (PDDL) as the domain modeling language. This declarative modeling approach embraces the idea of a physics-only model describing how actions change the world. However, PDDL omits information about why and when the actions should be applied to reach the goal, which significantly decreases the practical applicability of PDDL. There exist approaches such as Hierarchical Task Networks (HTN) and control rules that add this type of information to the model with the pay-off of increased efficiency but also with the downside of increased complexity and code sizes. In this paper we propose a modeling framework for planning problems based on tabled logic programming that exploits a planner module in the Picat language. This modeling framework supports structured description of world states as well as inclusion of control knowledge and heuristics in the action model. By using problems from the International Planning Competition, we experimentally demonstrate that this modeling framework achieves results comparable to planners with control rules and HTN while keeping the size of the domain model much smaller. We also show that it gives much better solving efficiency than the state-of-the-art domain-independent PDDL planners.
Homing and Adhesion Patterns Determine the Cellular Composition of the Bone Marrow Plasma Cell Niche

According to commonly held concepts, plasma cell (PC) longevity in bone marrow (BM) depends upon their access to survival niches. These are thought to exist in nursery cell types, which support PCs by secreting PC survival factors. To better define PC survival niches and their functioning, we adoptively transferred traceable Blimp-1-GFP PCs into recipient mice lacking a proliferation-inducing ligand (APRIL), IL-6, or macrophage migration inhibitory factor. Transferred BMPCs were preferentially associated with Ly-6Chigh monocytes (normalized colocalization index: 9.84), eosinophils (4.29), and megakaryocytes (2.12). Although APRIL was essential for BMPC survival, PC recruitment into the proximity of nursery cells was unimpaired in APRIL-deficient mice, questioning the concept that the same factors account for attraction/retention of PCs as for their local survival. Rather, the order of colocalization with BMPCs (monocytes > eosinophils > megakaryocytes) reflected these cells’ relative expression of CXCR4, VLA-4, and LFA-1, the homing and adhesion molecules that direct/retain PCs in the BM. This suggests a scenario wherein the cellular composition of the BMPC niche is defined by a common pattern of attraction/retention on CXCL12-abundant reticular docking cells. Thereby, PCs are directed to associate in a functional BM niche with hematopoietic CXCR4+VLA-4+LFA-1+ nursery cells, which provide PC survival factors.
1-Bit Matrix Completion

In this paper we develop a theory of matrix completion for the extreme case of noisy 1-bit observations. Instead of observing a subset of the real-valued entries of a matrix M, we obtain a small number of binary (1-bit) measurements generated according to a probability distribution determined by the real-valued entries of M. The central question we ask is whether or not it is possible to obtain an accurate estimate of M from this data. In general this would seem impossible, but we show that the maximum likelihood estimate under a suitable constraint returns an accurate estimate of M when ||M||_{\infty} <= \alpha, and rank(M) <= r. If the log-likelihood is a concave function (e.g., the logistic or probit observation models), then we can obtain this maximum likelihood estimate by optimizing a convex program. In addition, we also show that if instead of recovering M we simply wish to obtain an estimate of the distribution generating the 1-bit measurements, then we can eliminate the requirement that ||M||_{\infty} <= \alpha. For both cases, we provide lower bounds showing that these estimates are near-optimal. We conclude with a suite of experiments that both verify the implications of our theorems as well as illustrate some of the practical applications of 1-bit matrix completion. In particular, we compare our program to standard matrix completion methods on movie rating data in which users submit ratings from 1 to 5. In order to use our program, we quantize this data to a single bit, but we allow the standard matrix completion program to have access to the original ratings (from 1 to 5). Surprisingly, the approach based on binary data performs significantly better.
A new approach to abstract syntax involving binders

The Fraenkel-Mostowski permutation model of set theory with atoms (FM-sets) can serve as the semantic basis of meta-logics for specifying and reasoning about formal systems involving name binding, /spl alpha/-conversion, capture avoiding substitution, and so on. We show that in FM-set theory one can express statements quantifying over 'fresh' names and we use this to give a novel set-theoretic interpretation of name abstraction. Inductively defined FM-sets involving this name abstraction set former (together with cartesian product and disjoint union) can correctly encode object-level syntax module e-conversion. In this way, the standard theory of algebraic data types can be extended to encompass signatures involving binding operators. In particular, there is an associated notion of structural recursion for defining syntax-manipulating functions (such as capture avoiding substitution, set of free variables, etc.) and a notion of proof by structural induction, both of which remain pleasingly close to informal practice.
The Nonstate Provision of Health Services and Citizen Accountability in Uganda

Why do citizens in Uganda choose nonstate health-care providers instead of free public health services? How does experience of the nonstate provision of health care strengthen or undermine citizen capacity to seek accountability? Based on original empirical data from Uganda, respondents rate private health-care services as being of much better quality than those found in the public sector. Study findings reveal little or no demand for accountability for better health services. This is associated not only with the rise of nonstate actors, but also with other factors, among which are the dictatorial tendencies of the current regime in power, which has prevented a potential coalition between urban elite private users and rural poor public users.
The use of simulation and design of experiments for estimating maximum capacity in an emergency room

We present the results obtained after using a simulation model for estimating the maximum possible demand increment in an emergency room of a private hospital in Chile. To achieve this objective the first step was to create a simulation model of the system under study. This model was used to create a curve for predicting the behavior of the variable patient's time in system and estimate the maximum possible demand that the system can absorb. Finally, a design of experiments was conducted in order to define the minimum number of physical and human resources required to serve this demand.
Antagonist-induced reversal of functional and structural measures of hippocampal benzodiazepine tolerance.

One week oral flurazepam (FZP) administration in rats results in anticonvulsant tolerance in vivo, tolerance measured in vitro in hippocampal CA1 pyramidal cells, and regulation of hippocampal gamma-aminobutyric acid(A)-receptor subunit protein expression. A single injection (4 or 20 mg/kg i.p) of the benzodiazepine antagonist flumazenil (FLM) was given 1 day after FZP treatment, and tolerance and subunit protein expression were evaluated 1 day later. In vivo tolerance was measured by a reduced ability of the alpha(1)-subunit-selective agonist zolpidem to suppress pentylenetetrazole-induced seizures. This tolerance was reversed by 20 but not 4 mg/kg FLM. In in vitro hippocampal slices, there was tolerance to the effect of zolpidem to prolong the decay of pyramidal cell miniature inhibitory postsynaptic currents, which was reversed by FLM (4 mg/kg) pretreatment. A reduction in miniature inhibitory postsynaptic current amplitude ( approximately 50%) was also restored by FLM injection. [(3)H]Zolpidem binding measured 0, 2, and 7 days after FZP treatment was significantly decreased in the hippocampus and cortex at 0 days but not thereafter. Changes in alpha(1)- and beta(3)-subunit protein expression were examined via quantitative immunohistochemical techniques. alpha(1)-Subunit protein levels were down-regulated in the CA1 stratum oriens and beta subunit levels were up-regulated in the stratum oriens and stratum radiatum of the CA3 region. Chronic FZP effects on alpha(1)- and beta(3)-subunit protein levels were also reversed by prior FLM injection. FLM's effect on both functional and structural correlates of benzodiazepine tolerance suggests that each of these measures plays an interdependent role in mediating benzodiazepine tolerance.
Twenty Percent of a Representative Sample of Patients Taking Bupropion Have Abnormal, Asymptomatic Electroencephalographic Findings

The risk of dose-dependent seizures is a safety issue with bupropion hydrochloride. To evaluate the presence of specific electroencephalographic (EEG) waveforms, 210 adult subjects taking stable doses of bupropion hydrochloride were recruited to undergo 2 EEGs in a prospective, single-center cohort study. The occurrence of spike waves, sharp waves, and focal slowing was recorded and assessed with a continuation ratio logit model for polytomous responses. This model showed that there was a relationship between sex and the incidence of these waveforms, such that the odds of female subjects having sharp waves was increased by a factor of 2.53 (P = 0.05) when compared with male subjects and controlled for both age and dose. Similarly, female subjects were 2.45 (P = 0.09) times more likely than males to have focal slowing on EEG. Overall, 19.8% (39/197) of this representative population was found to have abnormal, asymptomatic EEG findings. The presence of these waveforms in individuals taking a medication known to lower the seizure threshold may be a risk factor for developing seizures.
Proactive Stop and Start Technology for High Gas Mileage of the Used Car

In this paper, we introduce the Proactive Stop and Start (PSS) technology for high gas mileage of a used car. The proposed PSS is an Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) convergence technology for fuel saving and emission reduction. In order to save fuel, PSS system stops and restarts the engine of a vehicle for red and green light signals, respectively. For the measurement accuracy of fuel saving, we consider the fuel consumption of restarting. In experiments with driving a car in a town, the PSS system shows the 13 ~ 21% effectiveness of the gasoline mileage.
Flight-Level Thermodynamic Instrument Wetting Errors in Hurricanes. Part II: Implications

The implications of flight-level instrument wetting error removal upon the mean thermodynamic structure across the eyewall, buoyancy of rainband vertical motions, and vertical energy fluxes near the top of the inflow layer are studied. Thermodynamic quantities across the mean eyewall are found to increase at all levels. As a result, maximum radial gradients of each quantity are shifted from the center of the eyewall cloud toward the outer edge. The increase in equivalent potential temperature lifts eyewall values to comparable magnitudes observed in the eye. The mean virtual potential temperature deviation of rainband updrafts increases from slightly negative to slightly positive. This increase and shift in sign are more pronounced in stronger updrafts. The mean deviation in rainband downdrafts decreases slightly toward neutral conditions. Vertical sensible heat fluxes near the top of the inflow layer are found to shift from downward to upward. Upward latent heat fluxes increase. Implications of these results upon hurricane structure and evolution are discussed.
Mental Health Impacts of Forced Land Evictions on Women in Cambodia

This research examines the mental health impacts of land evictions on 40 women in Cambodia based on interviews conducted in four Cambodian provinces. The results suggest that women subjected to forced land evictions display multiple symptoms of anxiety, post‐traumatic stress disorder and depression. Women who are forcibly evicted from their homes by the Cambodian government experience sadness, compulsive worry, difficulty in sleeping, difficulty in concentrating, emotional outbursts and a preoccupation with the safety of the family. Suggestions for assistance to this population are explored. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Prism adaptation and spatial neglect: the need for dose-finding studies

Spatial neglect is a devastating disorder in 50–70% of right-brain stroke survivors, who have problems attending to, or making movements towards, left-sided stimuli, and experience a high risk of chronic dependence. Prism adaptation is a promising treatment for neglect that involves brief, daily visuo-motor training sessions while wearing optical prisms. Its benefits extend to functional behaviors such as dressing, with effects lasting 6 months or longer. Because one to two sessions of prism adaptation induce adaptive changes in both spatial-motor behavior (Fortis et al., 2011) and brain function (Saj et al., 2013), it is possible stroke patients may benefit from treatment periods shorter than the standard, intensive protocol of ten sessions over two weeks—a protocol that is impractical for either US inpatient or outpatient rehabilitation. Demonstrating the effectiveness of a lower dose will maximize the availability of neglect treatment. We present preliminary data suggesting that four to six sessions of prism treatment may induce a large treatment effect, maintained three to four weeks post-treatment. We call for a systematic, randomized clinical trial to establish the minimal effective dose suitable for stroke intervention.
Electrical Stimulation of the Cerebral Cortex Exerts Antiapoptotic, Angiogenic, and Anti-Inflammatory Effects in Ischemic Stroke Rats Through Phosphoinositide 3-Kinase/Akt Signaling Pathway

Background and Purpose— Neuroprotective effects of electric stimulation have been recently shown in ischemic stroke, but the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. Methods— Adult Wistar rats weighing 200 to 250 g received occlusion of the right middle cerebral artery for 90 minutes. At 1 hour after reperfusion, electrodes were implanted to rats on the right frontal epidural space. Electric stimulation, at preset current (0 to 200 &mgr;A) and frequency (0 to 50 Hz), was performed for 1 week. Stroke animals were subjected to behavioral tests at 3 days and 1 week postmiddle cerebral artery and then immediately euthanized for protein and immunohistochemical assays. After demonstration of behavioral and histological benefits, subsequent experiments pursued the mechanistic hypothesis that electric stimulation exerted antiapoptotic effects through the phosphoinositide 3-kinase-dependent pathway; thus, cortical stimulation was performed in the presence or absence of specific inhibitors of phosphoinositide 3-kinase (LY294002) in stroke rats. Results— Cortical stimulation abrogated the ischemia-associated increase in apoptotic cells in the injured cortex by activating antiapoptotic cascades, which was reversed by the phosphoinositide 3-kinase inhibitor LY294002 as reflected behaviorally and immunohistochemically. Furthermore, brain levels of neurotrophic factors (glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor, brain-derived neurotrophic factor, vascular endothelial growth factor) were upregulated, which coincided with enhanced angiogenesis and suppressed proliferation of inflammatory cells in the ischemic cortex. Conclusions— These results suggest that electric stimulation prevents apoptosis through the phosphoinositide 3-kinase pathway. Consequently, the ischemic brain might have been rendered as a nurturing microenvironment characterized by robust angiogenesis and diminished microglial/astrocytic proliferation, resulting in the reduction of infarct volumes and behavioral recovery. Electric stimulation is a novel and potent therapeutic tool for cerebral ischemia.
Fixed‐point and stratified analysis of the fine structure and composition of five gallstones with Fourier transform infrared (FT‐IR) specular reflection spectroscopy

By investigating the identities, amounts, and distributions of the major components of human gallstones, the formation mechanism of calculi may be elucidated. Using FT‐IR specular reflection spectroscopy, the compositions of five common types of gallstones, including cholesterol calculus, bile pigment calculus, cholesterol‐bilirubin calculus, mixed calculus, and black stones, were positionally, qualitatively, and quantitatively analyzed. Several organic and inorganic substances were found in human gallstones, including cholesterol, calcium bilirubinate, calcium carbonate, calcium phosphate, and calcium stearate. Among them, cholesterol and calcium bilirubinate were the main components. The amounts of these substances varied in different types of gallstone. The distributions of cholesterol and calcium salts (with the exception of calcium bilirubinate) were also closely associated with location. In the various calculi, the amounts of cholesterol and calcium bilirubinate in the cores, the layered structures outside the cores, and the outer shells were higher than those of other substances. The identities of the major components of calculi were similar in different types of gallstones, but their amounts and distributions were significantly different. The analytical method used in this study, which was able to accurately determine the location, quality, and quantity of the major components of gallstones, would be an effective tool to study the formation mechanism of calculi. Microsc. Res. Tech., 2011. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
High-Performance Knowledge Base Support for Monitoring, Analysis, and Interpretation Tasks

Abstract : The Monitoring, Analysis, and Interpretation Tool Arsenal (MAITA) is a knowledge-based tool that helps reduce time and effort of constructing a monitoring system at the start and of modifying an operational system of monitors to address special and temporary concerns. The architecture provides a rich library of monitoring systems enabling easy composition, modification, testing and abstraction of these library elements.
Interaction of external alkali metal ions with the Na-K pump of human erythrocytes: a comparison of their effects on activation of the pump and on the rate of ouabain binding

The effects of external alkali metal ions on the rate of ouabain binding and on the rate of the Na-K pump were examined in human red blood cells. In Na-containing solutions, K, Cs, and Li decreased the rate of ouabain binding. For K and Cs, the kinetics of this effect were similar to those for their activation of the pump. In Na-free (choline- substituted) solutions the rate of ouabain binding was decreased by K whereas it was promoted by Cs and Li. External Na increased the rate of ouabain binding whether or not external K was present, and the kinetics of this effect were not the same as those for inhibition of the pump by Na. These findings are interpreted to mean that not only do the cations affect ouabain binding at the external loading sites on the pump from which ions are translocated inward, but that there are additional sites on the external aspect of the pump at which cations can promote ouabain binding, and that these sites can be occupied by Li, Na, and Cs. It is postulated that these latter sites are those from which Na is discharged after outward translocation by the pump.