Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Gliomatosis cerebri: Case series of six cases with review of literature

Background: Gliomatosis cerebri is characterized by diffuse infiltration of glial cells with preservation of neuronal architecture. It is an uncommon glial neoplasm of astrocytic origin that occurs in adults and is exceedingly rare in children. Materials and Methods: The authors retrospectively analyzed the data of 6 patients of gliomatosis cerebri operated between 2007 and 2012. Result: All patients underwent surgical decompression, followed by chemoradiotherapy. The survival ranged between 3 and 45 months. The mean survival was 18.5 years. Conclusion: Performance scores at presentation and the nonglioblastomatous histology seems to favorably affect the prognosis. Larger studies are required to comment on the role of combination of surgery, chemoradiotherapy as a treatment modality.
Inflating characteristics of Swan-Ganz catheter balloons: clinical considerations.

The dangers associated with overdistension of balloon-tipped pulmonary arterial catheters are well known. A patient was brought to the operating room for emergency coronary artery bypass graft with a femorally inserted balloon-tipped pulmonary artery catheter. We wondered if some form of extension tubing could be used to inflate the balloon intraoperatively to monitor the wedge pressure because the inflating site is out of reach. This prompted us to undertake the present in vitro study of the inflating characteristics of the balloon of the pulmonary arterial catheter and to determine if it is possible to safely use extension tubings for these procedures.
Collective chemotactic dynamics in the presence of self-generated fluid flows.

In microswimmer suspensions locomotion necessarily generates fluid motion, and it is known that such flows can lead to collective behavior from unbiased swimming. We examine the complementary problem of how chemotaxis is affected by self-generated flows. A kinetic theory coupling run-and-tumble chemotaxis to the flows of collective swimming shows separate branches of chemotactic and hydrodynamic instabilities for isotropic suspensions, the first driving aggregation, the second producing increased orientational order in suspensions of "pushers" and maximal disorder in suspensions of "pullers. " Nonlinear simulations show that hydrodynamic interactions can limit and modify chemotactically driven aggregation dynamics. In puller suspensions the dynamics form aggregates that are mutually repelling due to the nontrivial flows. In pusher suspensions chemotactic aggregation can lead to destabilizing flows that fragment the regions of aggregation.
High-affinity epidermal growth factor binding is specifically reduced by a monoclonal antibody, and appears necessary for early responses

We have tested the effects of an mAb directed against the protein core of the extracellular domain of the human EGF receptor (mAb108), on the binding of EGF, and on the early responses of cells to EGF presentation. We used NIH 3T3 cells devoid of murine EGF receptor, transfected with a cDNA encoding the full-length human EGF receptor gene, and fully responsive to EGF. The binding to saturation of mAb108 to the surface of these cells at 4 degrees C and at other temperatures specifically reduced high-affinity binding of EGF, but did not change the dissociation constant or the estimated number of binding sites for low-affinity binding of EGF. The kinetics of EGF binding to the transfected cells were measured to determine the effects of the mAb on the initial rate of EGF binding at 37 degrees C. Interestingly, high- affinity EGF receptor bound EGF with an intrinsic on-rate constant 40- fold higher (9.8 x 10(6) M-1.s-1) than did low-affinity receptor (2.5 x 10(5) M-1.s-1), whereas the off-rate constants, measured at 4 degrees C were similar. Cells treated with the mAb or with phorbol myristate acetate displayed single on-rate constants similar to that for the low- affinity receptors. At low doses of EGF ranging from 0.4 to 1.2 nM, pretreatment of cells with mAb108 inhibited by 50-100% all of the early responses tested, including stimulation of tyrosine-specific phosphorylation of the EGF receptor, turnover of phosphatidyl inositol, elevation of cytoplasmic pH, and release of Ca2+ from intracellular stores. At saturating doses of EGF (20 nM) the inhibition of these early responses by prebinding of mAb108 was overcome. On the basis of these results, we propose that the high-affinity EGF receptors are necessary for EGF receptor signal transduction.
Polycomb group-dependent imprinting of the actin regulator AtFH5 regulates morphogenesis in Arabidopsis thaliana

During embryogenesis, Polycomb group (PcG) complexes deposit silencing histone modifications and target homeotic genes, which regulate the patterning of other transcription factors. This transcriptional network further maintains cell fate. However, genome-wide identification of histone modifications has suggested that PcG complexes might regulate genes other than those encoding transcription factors. In Arabidopsis, we show that PcG activity directly targets the actin regulator formin ARABIDOPSIS FORMIN HOMOLOGUE 5 (AtFH5). PcG activity silences the paternal allele of AtFH5, restricting its expression to the maternal allele. AtFH5 thus appears to be a new, maternally expressed imprinted gene. We further demonstrate that AtFH5 is responsible for morphological defects caused by the loss of PcG activity in the seed.
Immunophenotypic Characterization of Normal Bone Marrow Stem Cells

The recent advances in flow cytometry technology and the emergence of new high-speed flow cytometers have given a valuable contribute to diminish this problem in two different (but complementary) aspects: 1) by reducing dramatically the acquisition time period, making it more reasonable to study minor cell populations; and 2) by increasing the number of parameters that can be analyzed per cell at the same time, which is critical to improve the immunophenotypic characterization of those not-well characterized cell populations that lack a specific known marker.
Model Approximation for Discrete-Time State-Delay Systems in the T–S Fuzzy Framework

This paper is concerned with the problem of H∞ model approximation for discrete-time Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy time-delay systems. For a given stable T- S fuzzy system, our attention is focused on the construction of a reduced-order model, which not only approximates the original system well in an H∞ performance but is also translated into a linear lower dimensional system. By applying the delay partitioning approach, a delay-dependent sufficient condition is proposed for the asymptotic stability with an H∞ error performance for the error system. Then, the H∞ model approximation problem is solved by using the projection approach, which casts the model approximation into a sequential minimization problem subject to linear matrix inequality (LMI) constraints by employing the cone complementary linearization algorithm. Moreover, by further extending the results, H∞ model approximation with special structures is obtained, i.e., delay-free model and zero-order model. Finally, two numerical examples are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods.
Local Stabilization of Switched Affine Systems

This technical note considers the local stabilization problem for the class of switched affine systems. The main idea is to use an alternative representation of the switched affine system as a nonlinear system with input constraints. Switching laws can be derived by emulating locally classical controllers. It is shown that by restricting to local stabilization, the classical constraint on the existence of constant stable convex combinations may be easily avoided. The approach may be interpreted as a generalization where convex combinations defined as functions of the system state are being used. Constructive methods for deriving switching laws are proposed.
Analysis of CAPEX and OPEX benefits of wireless access virtualization

Virtualization of wireless access networks dictates a new direction in the research of cost effective and energy efficient network modelling that the telecommunications industry is seeking. Different research initiatives are dealing with virtualization of wireless resources (e.g. nodes, wireless access cards, wireless spectrum) and new ideas are being put forth to leverage cloud computing in the wireless telecom domain. In this paper, we analyze the CAPEX and OPEX of our proposed virtualized wireless access network framework and show its benefits with regards to traditional network architectures. We also examine the trade-offs associated in achieving such benefits.
Human attributes from 3 D pose tracking q

1077-3142/$ see front matter 2012 Elsevier Inc. A doi:10.1016/j.cviu. 2012.01. 003 q This paper has been recommended for acceptance ⇑ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: mlivne@cs.toronto. edu (M. Livne (L. Sigal), troje@queensu.ca (N.F. Troje), fleet@cs.toron It is well known that biological motion conveys a wealth of socially meaningful information. From even a brief exposure, biological motion cues enable the recognition of familiar people, and the inference of attributes such as gender, age, mental state, actions and intentions. In this paper we show that from the output of a video-based 3D human tracking algorithm we can infer physical attributes (e.g., gender and weight) and aspects of mental state (e.g., happiness or sadness). In particular, with 3D articulated tracking we avoid the need for view-based models, specific camera viewpoints, and constrained domains. The task is useful for man–machine communication, and it provides a natural benchmark for evaluating the performance of 3D pose tracking methods (vs. conventional Euclidean joint error metrics). We show results on a large corpus of motion capture data and on the output of a simple 3D pose tracker applied to videos of people walking. 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Subjective measures of work-related fatigue in automobile factory employees.

BACKGROUND Work-related fatigue is common among automobile factory employees. OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to assess fatigue of employees at a Chinese automobile factory. METHODS 238 employees (119 engineers and 119 workers) participated in this study. The following questionnaires were completed: demographic survey questionnaire, working condition questionnaire (WCQ), functional assessment of chronic illness therapy-fatigue (FACIT-F), subscales of multidimensional fatigue inventory (MFI), and Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI). RESULTS Both engineers and workers experienced fatigue. The workers (35.6 years old, SD = 6.7) generally felt more fatigue than engineers (42.6 years old, SD = 6.4). The engineers claimed to be more satisfied with the working conditions than workers. The WCQ showed good properties for assessing work-related factors, which were significantly correlated with fatigue (r = 0.568 for engineers and r = 0.639 for workers). For engineers, general fatigue was observed regularly and frequently, and for workers, physical fatigue usually had a long duration. CONCLUSIONS The fatigue was significantly correlated with work-related factors, especially working environment and monotony. For workers, the duration of the work day also affected their fatigue. Some improvements to the working condition in this automobile factory should be considered.
Title Connected Lending : Thailand before the Financial Crisis

The allocation of credit by banks and financial institutions on ‘soft’ terms to friends and relatives rather than on the basis of ‘hard’ market criteria in the years leading up to the East Asian crisis of 1997-98 has been widely noted. Using a detailed dataset on Thai firms prior to the crisis period we examine whether business connections were in fact a good predictor of preferential access to long term bank credit. We find that firms with connections to banks and politicians had greater access to long-term debt than firms without such ties. Connected firms need much less collateral to obtain long term loans than those without connections. Such firms obtain more long term loans, and appear to use less short term loans. We do not find support for the existence of connections between banks and firms serving to reduce asymmetric information problems. Our results thus lend support to the hypothesis that the presence of connections was the most important factor determining access to long term bank debt prior to the financial crisis and are consistent with recent research implicating weak corporate governance in the extent and severity of the crisis. JEL Classification: G30, G32
Revisiting inter-flow fairness

Many new transport protocols are being defined, including, for example, variants of the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), to better match the requirements of new applications. A key issue in the evaluation of protocol flows, in terms of their performance, is how fair they are to other flows. Specifically, it is important to understand how a mix of existing and/or new protocols will interact with each other when using the same network resources. Such observations help to inform protocol design, and allow an assessment of potential impacts on users. We present a simple, yet effective, methodology for examining a specific case of inter-flow fairness based solely on measurements of flow performance. As well as using an existing fairness metric, we propose a new metric which provides a richer information summary for the evaluation of fairness.
The Restenosis Story: Is Intracoronary Radiation Therapy the Solution?

Restenosis remains a major limitation of percutaneous transluminal coronary intervention. Stenting made an important contribution in restenosis reduction, but in-stent restenosis is becoming a growing problem. Although radiation therapy was traditionally used to kill relatively fast-growing tumor cells, it has also been used to clinically treat benign but problematic hyperplastic conditions. In addition, in vitro studies have shown that radiation inhibits serum-stimulated growth of arterial smooth muscle cells and fibroblasts, and decreases collagen synthesis by fibroblasts. The effects of radiation on neointimal inhibition after vascular injury were investigated in animal models using various catheter- and stent-based endovascular approaches (brachytherapy) as well as externally delivered x-irradiation. These studies have consistently shown that ionizing radiation delivered by the endoluminal approach results in remarkable suppression of neointima formation. However, animal studies also demonstrate altered vessel wall healing with increased thrombogenicity. The catheter-based approach with gamma- or beta-emitters showed feasibility and appears promising in early human clinical trials, whereas the strategy of using radiation stents is more problematic in the clinical arena. A number of randomized multicenter trials have been initiated and the results are eagerly awaited. More work needs to be done to define the optimal dosage, and to study the short- and long-term vascular biologic effects of brachytherapy. Additionally, if this form of therapy proves efficacious in the large, randomized, clinical trials, its cost-effectiveness will then need to be established. This review touches on some of the basic concepts involved in using the strategy of endovascular irradiation therapy for restenosis prevention after percutaneous coronary intervention and reviews the evidence of clinical efficacy and safety.
Coastal Iberia Summertime Low‐Level Flow Assessed From Scatterometers

In summer, the prevailing northerly flow off west Iberia occasionally intensifies and weakens with significant consequences for weather conditions and marine ecology. High‐resolution Advanced SCATterometer (ASCAT) wind products on a 6.25 km grid (ASCAT‐6.25) were used to characterize wind maxima downwind to the major Iberian capes. Wind intensifications downwind Cape Finisterre are large and detached from the coast. They are considered as the response to a large feature in the coastal morphology. Intensifications downwind Cape Roca and Cape São Vicente are smaller and closer to the coast. These are triggered by interaction of supercritical or transcritical flow with topography. ASCAT‐6.25 evening and morning passes show two distinct regimes during intensification events: a southern regime with wind maximum moving toward the coast during the day and a northern regime in which this diurnal shift is not so clear. Another aspect that distinguishes these regimes is the later occurrence of the wind maximum in the southern portion of the coast. Also, wind relaxation events can be identified in ASCAT data. These are followed by a poleward flow of warm water that interrupts the upwelling conditions over west Iberia south of 41°N. Synoptic conditions favorable for the occurrence of intensifications and relaxations were obtained from NWP models. This study was supplemented by RapidScat observations during the summers of 2015 and 2016 at different phases of the diurnal cycle. RapidScat and ASCAT wind fields in combination with NWP data confirm that wind intensifications are multiday events, clearly distinct from the sea breeze circulation.
The Impact of a Target on Newsvendor Decisions

Goal achieving is a commonly observed phenomenon in practice, and it plays an important role in decision making. In this paper, we investigate the impact of a target on newsvendor decisions. We take into account the risk and model the effect of a target by maximizing the satisficing measure of a newsvendor’s profit with respect to that target. We study two satisficing measures: (i) conditional value at risk (CVaR) satisficing measure that evaluates the highest confidence level of CVaR achieving the target; (ii) entropic satisficing measure that assesses the smallest risk tolerance level under which the certainty equivalent for exponential utility function achieves the target. For both satisficing measures, we find that the optimal ordering quantity increases with the target level. We determine an optimal order quantity for a target-based newsvendor and characterize its properties with respect to, for example, product’s profit margin.
In Vitro Recapitulation of Functional Microvessels for the Study of Endothelial Shear Response, Nitric Oxide and [Ca2+]i

Microfluidic technologies enable in vitro studies to closely simulate in vivo microvessel environment with complexity. Such method overcomes certain constrains of the statically cultured endothelial monolayers and enables the cells grow under physiological range of shear flow with geometry similar to microvessels in vivo. However, there are still existing knowledge gaps and lack of convincing evidence to demonstrate and quantify key biological features of the microfluidic microvessels. In this paper, using advanced micromanufacturing and microfluidic technologies, we presented an engineered microvessel model that mimicked the dimensions and network structures of in vivo microvessels with a long-term and continuous perfusion capability, as well as high-resolution and real-time imaging capability. Through direct comparisons with studies conducted in intact microvessels, our results demonstrated that the cultured microvessels formed under perfused conditions recapitulated certain key features of the microvessels in vivo. In particular, primary human umbilical vein endothelial cells were successfully cultured the entire inner surfaces of the microchannel network with well-developed junctions indicated by VE-cadherin staining. The morphological and proliferative responses of endothelial cells to shear stresses were quantified under different flow conditions which was simulated with three-dimensional shear dependent numerical flow model. Furthermore, we successfully measured agonist-induced changes in intracellular Ca2+ concentration and nitric oxide production at individual endothelial cell levels using fluorescence imaging. The results were comparable to those derived from individually perfused intact venules. With in vivo validation of its functionalities, our microfluidic model demonstrates a great potential for biological applications and bridges the gaps between in vitro and in vivo microvascular research.
Criterion validity of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale.

&NA; The criterion validity of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS) was assessed by administering the scale to 46 patients referred to a behavioral medicine outpatient clinic. Clinical ratings derived from observed interviews served as the criterion. TAS scores were significantly higher for the group of patients identified by two out of three raters as “alexithymic” than for the group identified as “nonalexithymic. ” On the basis of these findings, preliminary TAS cutoff scores were suggested. The results from this study and from previous investigations assessing the reliability and construct validity of the TAS indicate that it is currently the psychometrically best‐validated measure of alexithymia. Further refinement and cross‐validation with other clinical samples are recommended.
Long‐range GABAergic projection in a circuit essential for vocal learning

The anterior forebrain pathway (AFP) in the passerine song system is essential for song learning but not for song production. Several lines of evidence suggest that area X, a major nucleus in the AFP, forms part of the avian striatum. A key feature of striatal projection neurons is that they use the inhibitory neurotransmitter γ‐aminobutyric acid (GABA). Some area X neurons express GABA‐like immunoreactivity, but the neurotransmitter phenotype of the projection neurons is largely unknown.
Surgical Management of Giant Pituitary Adenomas

ABSTRACT: During the past 25 years, 77 giant pituitary adenomas have been treated surgically, including suprasellar extensions of type C in 66 cases and of type D in 11 cases. Non-secreting adenomas were present in 53 and secreting adenomas in 24 cases. All patients except 3 presented with significant visual field defects; including bitemporal hemianopia, superior quadranopia or unilateral temporal hemianopia, contralateral blindness in 73% of the cases, and one case with sudden bilateral blindness due to acute pituitary apoplexy. A single transsphenoidal procedure was carried out in 74% of the patients while 11 patients (7%) required re-operations for recurrent or residual tumor. Only 3 patients required a subsequent transcranial procedure. Complications included 1 CSF-leak, 1 empty-sella syndrome and 4 fatal post-operative hematomas. We prefer the transsphenoidal route even in very large or giant pituitary adenomas, since it allows rapid and adequate decompression of the optic nerves and chiasm, avoids major pituitary insufficiency in 60% of the cases and is associated with low morbidity-mortality rates.