Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Optimal management of collagenous colitis: a review

Collagenous colitis (CC) is an increasingly recognized cause of chronic inflammatory bowel disease characterized by watery non-bloody diarrhea. As a lesser studied inflammatory bowel disease, many aspects of the CC’s natural history are poorly understood. This review discusses strategies to optimally manage CC. The goal of therapy is to induce clinical remission, <3 stools a day or <1 watery stool a day with subsequent improved quality of life (QOL). Antidiarrheal can be used as monotherapy or with other medications to control diarrhea. Budesonide therapy has revolutionized treatment and is superior to prednisone, however, the treatment is associated with high-relapse rates and the management of refractory disease is challenging. Ongoing trials will address the safety and efficacy of low-dose maintenance therapy. For those with refractory disease, case reports and case series support the role of biologic agents. Diversion of the fecal stream normalizes colonic mucosal changes and ileostomy may be considered where anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α agents are contraindicated. Underlying celiac disease, bile salt diarrhea, and associated thyroid dysfunction should be ruled out. The author recommends smoking cessation as well as avoidance of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories as well as other associated medications.
Application of various power densities of ultrasound in the treatment of leg ulcers

AIM: The objective of our study was to determine which ultrasound power density (0.5 W/cm2 or 1 W/cm2) is more effective at reducing the area and volume of leg ulceration. METHODS: A total of 65 patients with venous ulcers were randomly divided into three groups: A, B and C. In group A, 22 patients were treated with ultrasound rated at 1 W/cm2 and with compressive therapy. In group B, 21 patients were treated with ultrasound rated at 0.5 W/cm2 and with compressive therapy. In both groups the patients were treated with a pulsed wave of a duty cycle of 1/5 (impulse time=2 ms, pause time=8 ms) and frequency of 1 MHz. The 22 patients in group C (control group) were subjected to topical pharmacological treatment. RESULTS: We found a statistically significant reduction of the ulcer area, volume and linear dimensions in all three groups of patients. The ulcer area reduction rate was highest in group B. The volume reduction rate in group B was higher than in group A only. The rate of reduction of suppurate area was highest in group B. CONCLUSION: We have demonstrated that ultrasound rated at 0.5 W/cm2 causes greater and faster changes in the healing process than ultrasound rated at 1 W/cm2.
Efficient Heuristic Methods for Multimodal Fusion and Concept Fusion in Video Concept Detection

Semantic models are widely used to bridge the semantic gap between low-level features and high-level features in video concept indexing. Multimodal fusion and concept fusion are two commonly used approaches in building semantic models. In the previous work, domain adaptation is neglected in multimodal fusion, and many probability maximization based and unsupervised concept fusion methods are counterintuitive since they do not incorporate subjective human intuition. In this paper, we present a new two-stage semantic model combining the multimodal fusion and the concept fusion incorporating human heuristics. In the multimodal fusion model, we employ a new generic unsupervised method, namely, domain adaptive linear combination (DALC), to update the linear combination (LC) weights by incorporating the differences of element distributions between training and testing domains. In the concept fusion model, a novel mechanical node equilibrium (NE) model is developed by using forces to model the concept correlations to update the score of concepts represented by nodes. It is intuitive and can incorporate multiple kinds of correlations simultaneously to construct more sophisticated semantic structure. Compared to other state-of-the-art supervised and unsupervised methods, the new model can use either unsupervised or supervised factors to significantly improve the mean inferred average precision (MAP) performance on all datasets.
Brazil in the Age of Electronic Commerce

E-commerce is growing rapidly in Brazil, led by information-intensive and transaction-intensive sectors such as finance, manufacturing, and retail/wholesale. However, Brazil's highly uneven income distribution is a major barrier for B2C diffusion. Government policies have emphasized promotional or enabling initiatives such as e-procurement, tax filings, and providing Internet access to social institutions. E-commerce legislation is just now being developed, and decisions on taxation are being negotiated in the context of international agreements. E-commerce raises issues for Brazil in terms of its relationship to the global economy. Although most online purchases involve imported goods, e-commerce also offers opportunities to participate in international value chains.
Rat locomotor spinal circuits in vitro are activated by electrical stimulation with noisy waveforms sampled from human gait

Noisy waveforms, sampled from an episode of fictive locomotion (FL) and delivered to a dorsal root (DR), are a novel electrical stimulating protocol demonstrated as the most effective for generating the locomotor rhythm in the rat isolated spinal cord. The present study explored if stimulating protocols constructed by sampling real human locomotion could be equally efficient to activate these locomotor networks in vitro. This approach may extend the range of usable stimulation protocols and provide a wide palette of noisy waveforms for this purpose. To this end, recorded electromyogram (EMG) from leg muscles of walking adult volunteers provided a protocol named ReaListim (Real Locomotion‐induced stimulation) that applied to a single DR successfully activated FL. The smoothed kinematic profile of the same gait failed to do so like nonphasic noisy patterns derived from standing and isometric contraction. Power spectrum analysis showed distinctive low‐frequency domains in ReaListim, along with the high‐frequency background noise. The current study indicates that limb EMG signals (recorded during human locomotion) applied to DR of the rat spinal cord are more effective than EMG traces taken during standing or isometric contraction of the same muscles to activate locomotor networks. Finally, EMGs recorded during various human motor tasks demonstrated that noisy waves of the same periodicity as ReaListim, could efficiently activate the in vitro central pattern generator (CPG), regardless of the motor task from which they had been sampled. These data outline new strategies to optimize functional stimulation of spinal networks after injury.
On the road to understanding of the osteoblast adhesion: Cytoskeleton organization is rearranged by distinct signaling pathways

Pre‐osteoblast adhesion attracts increasing interest in both medicine and dentistry. However, how this physiological event alters osteoblast phenotype is poorly understood. We therefore attempted to address this question by investigating key biochemical mechanism that governs pre‐osteoblast adhesion on polystyrene surface. Importantly, we found that cofilin activity was strongly modulated by PP2A (Ser/Thr phosphatase), while cell‐cycle was arrested. Accordingly, we observed that the profile of cofilin phosphorylation (at Ser03) was similar to phospho‐PP2A (at Tyr307). Also, it is plausible to suggest during pre‐osteoblast adhesion that PP2A phosphorylation at Y307 was executed by phospho‐Src (Y416). In addition, it was observed that MAPKp38, but not MAPK‐erk, played a key role on pre‐osteoblast adhesion by phosphorylating MAPKAPK‐2 and ATF‐2 (also called CRE‐BP1). Also, the up‐modulation of RhoA reported here suggests its involvement at the beginning of osteoblast attachment, while Akt remained active during all periods. Altogether, our results clearly showed that osteoblast adhesion is under an intricate network of signaling molecules, which are responsible to guide their interaction with substrate mainly via cytoskeleton rearrangement. J. Cell. Biochem. 108: 134–144, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
On Behalf Of: Association for Psychological Science Onlinefirst Version of Record >> Deliberate Practice and Performance in Music, Games, Sports, Education, and Professions: a Meta-analysis the Current Meta-analysis Effect Sizes Meta-analytic Procedure

Why do so few people who take up an instrument such as the violin, a sport such as golf, or a game such as chess ever reach an expert level of performance? This question is a topic of a long-running debate in psychology. There are two classical views. One is that experts are " born " — that training is necessary to reach a high level of performance , but innate ability limits the ultimate level of performance a person can achieve. Galton (1869), the founder of behavioral genetics, argued for this position on the basis of his finding that eminence in science, music, art, sports, and other domains tends to run in families. The opposing view is that experts are " made " —that either talent does not exist or its effects on performance are overshadowed by the effect of training. Watson (1930), the founder of behaviorism, captured this view when he stated that " practicing more intensively than others. is probably the most reasonable explanation we have today not only for success in any line, but even for genius " (p. 212). More recently, in the spirit of Watson, Ericsson, Krampe, and Tesch-Römer (1993) proposed their influential deliberate-practice view of expert performance. This view holds that expert performance largely reflects accumulated amount of deliberate practice, which Ericsson et al. defined as engagement in structured activities created specifically to improve performance in a domain. In two studies, Ericsson et al. recruited musicians with different levels of accomplishment and asked them to estimate the amount of deliberate practice they had engaged in per week for each year of their musical careers. On average, cumulative amount of deliberate practice was much higher for the most-accomplished groups of musicians than for the less-accomplished groups. For example, at age 20, the average for the " best " violinists was more than 10,000 hr, whereas the averages were about 7,800 hr for the " good " violinists and about 4,600 hr for the least-accomplished group. Ericsson et al. (1993) concluded that " high levels of deliberate practice are necessary to attain expert level Abstract More than 20 years ago, researchers proposed that individual differences in performance in such domains as music, sports, and games largely reflect individual differences in amount of deliberate practice, which was defined as engagement in structured activities created specifically to improve performance in a domain. This view is a …
In Vitro Capacitation of Bull Spermatozoa: Role of Vitamin E

The aim of this work was to study the influence of vitamin E (2mM) on capacitation and acrosome reaction of crossbred cattle bull spermatozoa. Fresh semen suspended in TALP medium (pH 7.4) was divided into four equal fractions. All fractions; control (containing TALP + spermatozoa) and the experimental [treated / untreated with ferrous ascorbate (FeAA – 150 μM FeSO4 : 750 μM ascorbic acid); supplemented / un-supplemented with 2mM vitamin E] were incubated for 6 h at 37°C. These fractions were assessed for % hyperactivity, morphology, lipid peroxidation (LPO), % acrosome reaction and changes in protein contents during sperm capacitation. FeAA treatment non-significantly (P≥0.05) decreased % sperm hyperactivity, % acrosome reaction and protein contents, but, increased LPO level. However, supplementation of vitamin E to the FeAA treated / untreated fractions non-significantly (P ≥0.05) altered % hyperactivity, rate of acrosome reaction, protein content, but, significantly (P≤0.05) decreased LPO level of bull spermatozoa during capacitation. It is concluded that vitamin E protects the sperm against LPO, and, alters its functions, though not effectively.
Role of NADPH Oxidase in the Vascular Hypertrophic and Oxidative Stress Response to Angiotensin II in Mice

Abstract— Oxygen-derived free radicals are involved in the vascular response to angiotensin II (Ang II), but the role of NADPH oxidase, its subunit proteins, and their vascular localization remain controversial. Our purpose was to address the role of NADPH oxidase in the blood pressure (BP), aortic hypertrophic, and oxidant responses to Ang II by taking advantage of knockout (KO) mice that are genetically deficient in gp91phox, an NADPH oxidase subunit protein. The baseline BP was significantly lower in KO mice than in wild-type (WT) (92±2 [KO] versus 101±1 [WT] mm Hg, P <0.01), but infusion of Ang II for 6 days caused similar increases in BP in the 2 strains (33±4 [KO] versus 38±2 [WT] mm Hg, P >0.4). Ang II increased aortic superoxide anion production 2-fold in the aorta of WT mice but did not do so in KO mice. Aortic medial area increased in WT (0.12±0.02 to 0.17±0.02 mm2, P <0.05), but did not do so in KO mice (0.10±0.01 to 0.11±0.01 mm2, P >0.05). Histochemistry and polymerase chain reaction demonstrated gp91phox localized in endothelium and adventitia of WT mice. Levels of reactive oxidant species as indicated by 3-nitrotyrosine immunoreactivity increased in these regions in WT but not in KO mouse aorta in response to Ang II. These results indicate an essential role in vivo of gp91phox and NADPH oxidase-derived superoxide anion in the regulation of basal BP and a pressure-independent vascular hypertrophic and oxidant stress response to Ang II.
Multi-Scale Dense Convolutional Networks for Efficient Prediction

We introduce a new convolutional neural network architecture with the ability to adapt dynamically to computational resource limits at test time. Our network architecture uses progressively growing multi-scale convolutions and dense connectivity, which allows for the training of multiple classifiers at intermediate layers of the network. We evaluate our approach in two settings: (1) anytime classification, where the network's prediction for a test example is progressively updated, facilitating the output of a prediction at any time; and (2) budgeted batch classification, where a fixed amount of computation is available to classify a set of examples that can be spent unevenly across"easier"and"harder"inputs. Experiments on three image-classification datasets demonstrate that our proposed framework substantially improves the state-of-the-art in both settings.
Knowledge use in ICT investment decision making of SMEs

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss how managers use knowledge when making ICT investment decisions. ICT investments are complex processes and also have strategic implications for organizations. The focus of the study is to reveal how the organizational process of knowledge creation affects the individual‐level of decision making and how knowledge conversions between tacit and explicit knowledge occur in this process.Design/methodology/approach – The data consists of information collected by six semi‐structured interviews from six small‐ or medium‐sized companies. Knowledge use in ICT investment decision making is analyzed qualitatively and found categories of the different decision maker types are presented.Findings – In ICT investments, there are three contributing factors: problem, product, and provider. The results show significant differences in how the tacit and explicit dimensions of knowledge act by forming a cognitive model of decision‐makers' use of knowledge.Research limitations/i.
Contact Lens-Related Infectious Keratitis with White Plaque Formation Caused by Corynebacterium propinquum

ABSTRACT We report the first case of Corynebacterium propinquum keratitis in the compromised cornea of a diabetic patient wearing therapeutic contact lenses. The strain was identified to the species level based on sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene and RNA polymerase β-subunit-encoding gene (rpoB). Ophthalmologists should be aware of nondiphtherial corynebacterial infection of compromised corneas.
Has Financial Development Made the World Riskier?

Developments in the financial sector have led to an expansion in its ability to spread risks. The increase in the risk bearing capacity of economies, as well as in actual risk taking, has led to a range of financial transactions that hitherto were not possible, and has created much greater access to finance for firms and households. On net, this has made the world much better off. Concurrently, however, we have also seen the emergence of a whole range of intermediaries, whose size and appetite for risk may expand over the cycle. Not only can these intermediaries accentuate real fluctuations, they can also leave themselves exposed to certain small probability risks that their own collective behavior makes more likely. As a result, under some conditions, economies may be more exposed to financial-sector-induced turmoil than in the past. The paper discusses the implications for monetary policy and prudential supervision. In particular, it suggests market-friendly policies that would reduce the incentive of intermediary managers to take excessive risk. 1 The author is the Economic Counselor and Director of Research of the International Monetary Fund. This paper reflects the author’s views and not necessarily those of the International Monetary Fund, its management, or its Board. I thank Laura Kodres for extremely useful conversations and suggestions, Sergei Antoshin for valuable research assistance, and Douglas Diamond, Jonathan Fiechter, Laura Kodres, Donald Kohn, Hyun Shin, Jeremy Stein, and Hung Tran for valuable comments on a previous draft.
Does Higher Education Level the Playing Field? Socio-Economic Differences in Graduate Earnings

Education—and in particular higher education—is often regarded as a route to social mobility. For this to be the case, however, the link between family background and adult outcomes must be broken (or at least reduced) once we take account of an individual’s education history. This paper provides new evidence on differences in graduates’ earnings by socio-economic background, exploiting rich individual-level data to account for more of the ways in which graduates from different socio-economic backgrounds differ from each other than has been possible in previous research on this topic. We continue to find significant differences between the earnings of graduates from lower and higher socio-economic backgrounds, even after accounting for a rich array of characteristics, skills and experiences from before individuals went to university, as well as their labour market experiences subsequently. These results suggest that it is not enough simply to encourage more young people to go to university, or even to ensure that they graduate with “good” degrees; policymakers interested in increasing social mobility also need to focus on what happens to them once they leave university to ensure that higher education is truly able to “level the playing field” between those from different socio-economic backgrounds.
Knowledge Elicitation Methods for Affect Modelling in Education

Research on the relationship between affect and cognition in Artificial Intelligence in Education AIEd brings an important dimension to our understanding of how learning occurs and how it can be facilitated. Emotions are crucial to learning, but their nature, the conditions under which they occur, and their exact impact on learning for different learners in diverse contexts still needs to be mapped out. The study of affect during learning can be challenging, because emotions are subjective, fleeting phenomena that are often difficult for learners to report accurately and for observers to perceive reliably. Context forms an integral part of learners' affect and the study thereof. This review provides a synthesis of the current knowledge elicitation methods that are used to aid the study of learners' affect and to inform the design of intelligent technologies for learning. Advantages and disadvantages of the specific methods are discussed along with their respective potential for enhancing research in this area, and issues related to the interpretation of data that emerges as the result of their use. References to related research are also provided together with illustrative examples of where the individual methods have been used in the past. Therefore, this review is intended as a resource for methodological decision making for those who want to study emotions and their antecedents in AIEd contexts, i.e. where the aim is to inform the design and implementation of an intelligent learning environment or to evaluate its use and educational efficacy.
High-Level Silicon Surface Passivation by Anodically Grown Silicon Dioxide and Silicon Nitride Stacks

We investigate the surface passivation attained by a stack consisting of anodically grown silicon dioxide and silicon nitride. A very low surface saturation current density J<sub>os</sub> of 3 fA/cm<sub>2</sub> is attained after the silicon wafers are submersed in nitric acid under a constant bias for >30 min, followed by a silicon nitride deposition and subsequent annealing in forming gas (FG) at 400 °C. We examine J<sub>os</sub> as a function of the anodic SiO<sub>2</sub> thickness (d<sub>ox</sub>) and show that for d<sub>ox</sub> between 7 and 36 nm, J<sub>os</sub> decreases monotonically from 32 to 3 fA/cm<sup>2</sup>, respectively. From capacitance-voltage (CV) and conductance measurements, we show that this reduction in J<sub>os</sub> with an increase in oxide thickness primarily results from a reduction in both the interface defect density (D<sub>it</sub>) and the hole capture cross section (σ<sub>p</sub>). For the lowest J<sub>os</sub> of 3 fA/cm<sup>2</sup>,alow D<sub>it</sub> of ~ 2.0 × 10<sup>10</sup> cm<sup>-2</sup>·eV<sup>-1</sup> and a low σ<sub>p</sub> of ~ 1 × 10<sup>-16</sup> cm<sup>-2</sup> are determined. When the anodic SiO<sub>2</sub> films are capped by a silicon nitride film, negligible surface passivation degradation occurs, in comparison with uncapped anodic SiO<sub>2</sub> films. Finally, we demonstrate that thermally induced bulk silicon defects can be eliminated by replacing high temperature (1000 °C) oxidations with a room-temperature anodic oxidation technique.
Effect of oral digoxin, topical ouabain and salbutamol on transepithelial nasal potential difference in patients with cystic fibrosis.

1. Airway epithelium in cystic fibrosis is characterized by a defect in chloride secretion across the apical membrane and an increase in sodium absorption. The increased rate of sodium absorption can be inhibited in vitro by ouabain, a Na(+)-K(+)-ATPase inhibitor, and in cystic fibrosis patients the number and activity of nasal epithelial Na(+)-K(+)-ATPase pumps is increased. 2. We have performed a series of studies to determine whether drugs which modify airway epithelial Na(+)-K(+)-ATPase activity in vitro can modify nasal potential in cystic fibrosis patients in vivo. As transepithelial nasal potential difference measurements were used to study the effect of drug modulation of airway epithelial ion transport in vivo, the repeatability of the technique was first evaluated. In order to assess the effectiveness of the technique used for measuring nasal potential difference, a pilot study was carried out using topical amiloride, a drug which has previously been shown to inhibit airway epithelium sodium transport in vivo. We then studied the effects of ouabain and digoxin, two inhibitors of Na(+)-K(+)-ATPase, on nasal potential difference. 3. In study 1, nasal potential difference measurements were repeated on non-consecutive days in 20 patients with cystic fibrosis and 20 healthy individuals. Healthy subjects had a mean (SEM) potential difference value of -19.5 (0.9) mV with a 95% range for a single estimate of 75-133%. In patients with cystic fibrosis, the mean (SEM) potential difference was -40.4, (2.1) mV, with a 95% range for a single estimate of 74-136%. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)