Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Robson’s class and caesarean scar defects

Caesarean scar defect (CSD) may lead to the occurrence of gynecologic symptoms such as abnormal uterine bleeding secondary to intermittent passage of retained menstrual blood within the CSD pelvic pain, and infertility. This prospective cohort study was conducted at the Department of Obstetrics at Maria Vittoria Hospital in Turin (Italy), from January 2013 to December 2013 to analyze the effects of two different suturing techniques (single layer and double layer closure of the hysterotomy) and Robson's class impact on the incidence of CSD. All procedures were performed using a modified Stark technique by the same single senior surgeon. The way of closure of the uterine incision was alternated every three months, in order to have two groups of partecipants: one with a single layer and the other with a double layer closure technique. Single layer was carried out as one continuous locking stitch; double layer was performed with a first closure identical to the single layer and an additional suture with a continuous unlocked stitch used to imbricate the first layer. Both ways of closure of the uterine incision were performed using monofilament synthetic absorbable polydioxanone suture. Twelve months after their caesarean section, the women had an ultrasound examination of the uterine scar performed by a single experienced operator blinded to suture technique and the Robson class. The trial recruited 85 cases. 21 patients (24.8%) belonged to Robson's class 1, 5(6%) to class 2, 1(1.3%) to class 4, 35(41%) to class 5, 13(15.4%) to class 6, 6(7%) to class 7, 4(4.5%) to class 8. During the ultrasound follow up we found 10 CSD (11,8%): 8/10 CSD (80%) were found in Robson's class 5, 1 in class 1 and 1 in class 6 (p 0.008), with no correlation with single- or double-layer suture (p 0.141). To our knowledge, no previous studies evaluated the correlation with Robson classification and CSD.
LearningRegularities and Patterns using Probabilistic Finite State Machines

We use probabilistic finite state machines to contrast the optimization of functions and the problem of learning regular structures. The work reveals that learning structures may make simple optimization problems harder to solve but hard optimization problems can become simpler when the regularities in the optimal solution is high. This result comes surprising when contrasted to previous beliefs that regularities in the optimal solutions can always be exploited faster through learning.
Development of intra-vaginal matrices from polycaprolactone for sustained release of antimicrobial agents

Microporous poly(ɛ-caprolactone) matrices were loaded with an antibacterial agent, ciprofloxacin and an antifungal agent, miconazole nitrate, respectively, for investigations of their potential as controlled vaginal delivery devices. Ciprofloxacin loadings up to 15% w/w could be obtained by increasing the drug content of the poly(ɛ-caprolactone) solution, while the actual loadings of miconazole were much lower (1–3% w/w) due to drug partition into methanol during the solvent extraction. The kinetics of ciprofloxacin release in simulated vaginal fluid at 37℃ were characterised by a small burst release phase in the first 24 h, low drug release up to 7 days (10%) and gradual release of up to 80% of the drug content by day 30. Meanwhile, the release kinetics of miconazole-loaded matrices could be effectively described by the Higuchi model with 100% drug release from the highest loaded matrices (3.2% w/w) in 13 days. Ciprofloxacin or miconazole released over 30 and 13 days, respectively, from poly(ɛ-caprolactone) matrices into simulated vaginal fluid retained high levels of antimicrobial activity in excess of 80% of the activity of the free drug. This study confirms the potential of poly(ɛ-caprolactone) matrices for delivering antimicrobial agents in the form of an intra-vaginal device.
Zoledronic Acid Preserves Bone Structure and Increases Survival but Does Not Limit Tumour Incidence in a Prostate Cancer Bone Metastasis Model

Background The bisphosphonate, zoledronic acid (ZOL), can inhibit osteoclasts leading to decreased osteoclastogenesis and osteoclast activity in bone. Here, we used a mixed osteolytic/osteoblastic murine model of bone-metastatic prostate cancer, RM1(BM), to determine how inhibiting osteolysis with ZOL affects the ability of these cells to establish metastases in bone, the integrity of the tumour-bearing bones and the survival of the tumour-bearing mice. Methods The model involves intracardiac injection for arterial dissemination of the RM1(BM) cells in C57BL/6 mice. ZOL treatment was given via subcutaneous injections on days 0, 4, 8 and 12, at 20 and 100 µg/kg doses. Bone integrity was assessed by micro-computed tomography and histology with comparison to untreated mice. The osteoclast and osteoblast activity was determined by measuring serum tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase 5b (TRAP 5b) and osteocalcin, respectively. Mice were euthanased according to predetermined criteria and survival was assessed using Kaplan Meier plots. Findings Micro-CT and histological analysis showed that treatment of mice with ZOL from the day of intracardiac injection of RM1(BM) cells inhibited tumour-induced bone lysis, maintained bone volume and reduced the calcification of tumour-induced endochondral osteoid material. ZOL treatment also led to a decreased serum osteocalcin and TRAP 5b levels. Additionally, treated mice showed increased survival compared to vehicle treated controls. However, ZOL treatment did not inhibit the cells ability to metastasise to bone as the number of bone-metastases was similar in both treated and untreated mice. Conclusions ZOL treatment provided significant benefits for maintaining the integrity of tumour-bearing bones and increased the survival of tumour bearing mice, though it did not prevent establishment of bone-metastases in this model. From the mechanistic view, these observations confirm that tumour-induced bone lysis is not a requirement for establishment of these bone tumours.
Structural organization of the 5'-end and chromosomal assignment of human placental leucine aminopeptidase/insulin-regulated membrane aminopeptidase gene.

Placental leucine aminopeptidase (P-LAP) which is identical with cystine aminopeptidase as oxytocinase was found to be a homologue of rat insulin-regulated membrane aminopeptidase (IRAP) by cDNA cloning. In this study, we confirmed 5'-end cDNA sequence of P-LAP and isolated genomic clones containing the upstream region of human P-LAP gene. The transcription initiation sites determined by primer extension located 478 and 480 bp upstream of the initiation methionine codon, 38 bp downstream of TATA box-like motif. The 5'-flanking region of human P-LAP gene contained DNA-binding motifs for several ubiquitous transcription factors such as SP1 and AP2. Chromosomal localization by fluorescence in situ hybridization showed that the gene was assigned to 5q14.2-q15 of the human chromosome. This study establishes the genetic basis for P-LAP gene research, thereby leading to better understanding of the molecular mechanism underlying the P-LAP gene.
Risk-Based Adaptive Group Testing of Semantic Web Services

Comprehensive testing is necessary to ensure the quality of complex web services that are loosely coupled, dynamic bound and integrated through standard protocols. Testing of such web services can be however very expensive due to the diversified user requirements and the large numbers of service combinations delivered by the open platform. Group testing was introduced in our previous research as a selective testing technique to reduce test cost and improve test efficiencies. It applies test cases efficiently so that the largest percent of problematic web service is detected as early as possible. The paper proposes a risk-based approach to group test selection. With this approach, test cases are categorized and scheduled with respect to the risks of their target service features. The approach is based on the assumption that for a service-based system, the tolerance to a feature’s failure is an inverse ratio to its risk. The risky features should be tested earlier and with more tests. We specially address the problem in the context of semantic Web Services and report a first attempt for an ontology-based quantitative risk assessment. The paper also discusses risk-based group testing process and strategies for ranking and ruling-out services of the test groups, at each risk level. Runtime monitoring mechanism is incorporated to detect the dynamic changes in service configuration and composition so that the risks can be continuously adjusted online.
Multi-Feature Fusion for Video Captioning

Video captioning is the task that integrates natural language processing and computer together. For typical approaches, they are based on CNN-RNN, which use the pre-trained Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) to extract image feature and the Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) to generate captions word by word. However, most of the approaches only use the global video feature and loss the spatial and motion information. To address the aforementioned problem, a novel video captioning method based on multi-feature fusion is proposed. This method extracts the spatial features, motion features and video features of each frame, and all the features are fused to generate video captions. The fused features are input into long-term and short-term memory (LSTM) which is used as the natural language generating module. Multiple natural language modules are trained by different feature combinations, and then fused in later stages. First, one model is selected to obtain multiple possible outputs of the current input, and then the probabilities of the current output are calculated by other models. Then the probabilities of these outputs are weighted and the highest probabilities are taken as outputs. In this method, feature fusion methods include pre-fusion and post-fusion. Experiments on the standard test set MSVD
Trophic level and host specialisation affect beta‐diversity in plant–herbivore–parasitoid assemblages

Herbivorous insects that feed internally on plant tissues depend on their host plants as food resource and immediate habitat. The parasitoids of these herbivores, in turn, depend both on their host herbivores and on the herbivores' host plants. Thus, we may suppose that herbivores and parasitoids must be more affected by biotic interactions (the biotic filter) than their host plants. Also, resource specialisation can mediate the importance of hosts as biotic filters, since the distribution of specialised consumers is limited to sites occupied by their few host species. Plants and insects were sampled in remnants of the Brazilian Cerrado to address three questions: (i) Does beta‐diversity increase at higher trophic levels? (ii) Is host plant specialisation positively related to the beta‐diversity? (iii) Are trophic level effects on beta‐diversity mediated by host plant specialisation? Appropriate null models were employed to explore the importance of biotic filters associated with resources in explaining the beta‐diversity of higher trophic levels. Beta‐diversity and host plant specialisation were lower for parasitoids than for herbivores, and total beta‐diversity did not differ between herbivores and plants. Null models revealed that the presence of host plants did not constrain overall beta‐diversity patterns. Beta‐diversity of herbivores and parasitoids, however, increased with host specialisation. Our findings indicate that low beta‐diversity of basal trophic levels decreases the effect of biotic filters, allowing consumers to occupy several sites. We also show that the severity of biotic filters is higher for host specialists, which might explain the higher beta‐diversity of herbivores compared to parasitoids.
Theoretical effect of changes in entrance pupil magnification on wavefront-guided laser refractive corneal surgery.

PURPOSE To explore theoretically the effect on the correction of higher order aberrations of changes in the magnification between the aperture stop (iris) and entrance pupil of the eye, following myopic excimer laser ablation. METHODS Using a simple schematic eye model, paraxial calculations were made of the position and magnification of the entrance pupil of the eye as a function of the power of a myopic photorefractive keratectomy correction. RESULTS Corneal flattening following myopic corneal ablation results in a reduction in the magnification between the aperture stop (iris) and entrance pupil. This implies that an ablation designed to correct higher order errors on the basis of the preoperative wavefront aberration across the entrance pupil will result in an incomplete correction. Taking into account the fact that the total ocular aberration depends on the combined effects of all optical components of the eye, which are distributed in depth, rather than being associated simply with the anterior surface of the cornea, the exact effects depend on the methods used to measure the aberration and the distribution of the total aberration between the different components of the eye. The errors in correction increase with the magnitude of the myopic correction. CONCLUSIONS To minimize the postoperative higher order aberrations in higher amounts of myopia, it may be desirable to remeasure them after a first ablation to correct the second-order refractive errors and then to carry out a second ablation to correct the higher order aberrations.
The Influence of the Marginal Sense Organs on Metabolic Activity in Cassiopea Xamachana Bigelow.

coast in very late geological time (see Proceedings U. S. National Museum, 1, 3, 1878) add a certain plausibility to it, taken in connection with the facts above recorded of the geographical distribution of the shore mollusca. It should be noted that the Pleistocene fossils collected on the Galapagos Islands by Mr. Ochsner contain no traces of the northern fauna, though plainly of American derivation and with hardly any intrusion of Indo-Pacific forms. Also that the northern species mentioned appear in the Pleistocene and even older beds of the California coast from San Pedro to San Diego. A somewhat analogous overlapping of faunas occurs on the southeastern coast of Alaska where a considerable number of boreal mollusks, as well as one of the Arctic hair seals, extend southward in the cold waters of the inland passages of the Alexander archipelago, following the low temperature of the water induced by the drainage from glaciers and the shadows of the highlands bordering these narrow passages which, with the prevalent fogs, cut off most of the sunlight. On the outer fringe of the archipelago where the more normal sea temperatures occur, numerous representatives of the Californian fauna find their way northward at least as far north as the latitude of Sitka, and very likely to Cross Sound.
THE COMPONENTS OF KIN COMPETITION

It is well known that competition among kin alters the rate and often the direction of evolution in subdivided populations. Yet much remains unclear about the ecological and demographic causes of kin competition, or what role life cycle plays in promoting or ameliorating its effects. Using the multilevel Price equation, I derive a general equation for evolution in structured populations under an arbitrary intensity of kin competition. This equation partitions the effects of selection and demography, and recovers numerous previous models as special cases. I quantify the degree of kin competition, α, which explicitly depends on life cycle. I show how life cycle and demographic assumptions can be incorporated into kin selection models via α, revealing life cycles that are more or less permissive of altruism. As an example, I give closed‐form results for Hamilton's rule in a three‐stage life cycle. Although results are sensitive to life cycle in general, I identify three demographic conditions that give life cycle invariant results. Under the infinite island model, α is a function of the scale of density regulation and dispersal rate, effectively disentangling these two phenomena. Population viscosity per se does not impede kin selection.
How older people account for their experiences with interactive technology

We present a qualitative study, undertaken over a period of nine months, of older people facing the challenges of learning to use interactive technology, specifically personal computers (PCs) and the internet. We examine the range of causal explanations (attributions) voiced by the group in accounting for their difficulties with it. A discourse analysis of these data reveals some factors (anxiety, age-related issues, being too busy to learn and the need for a purpose for the new tools) that support the work of other researchers, while other themes (issues around alienation, identity and agency) deepen understanding of this domain. The implications of the results for how we approach understanding the difficulties faced by older people in this context are discussed.
E-Leadership and Trust Management: Exploring the Moderating Effects of Team Virtuality

Trust is considered a key factor in virtual team performance and outcomes. Recent studies suggest that e-leaders significantly contribute to trust development in their teams and that their contributions depend on the team's level of virtuality. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the behaviors and practices that enable e-leaders to build trusty relationships in their teams. Using leadership behavioral complexity theory, we focus on the roles played by e-leaders in managing their teams. To this end, we conducted a large survey with virtual team members. The results highlight the importance of the roles of rational goals and human relations in trust management. With regard to the effects of virtuality, distance is found to have a significant negative moderator effect on the contribution of leadership to trust development, while the moderator effect of ICT use is positive.
Incidence of Crohn's disease in four counties in southeastern Norway, 1990-93. A prospective population-based study. The Inflammatory Bowel South-Eastern Norway (IBSEN) Study Group of Gastroenterologists.

BACKGROUND Standardized criteria for Crohn's disease (CD) have only recently been developed, and prospective community-based incidence studies have been performed only during the past 3 decades. Geographic variations in incidence may therefore be due to differences in study design. METHODS From 1 January 1990 to 31 December 1993 all new cases of CD in four counties in southeastern Norway were prospectively registered. RESULTS A total of 225 new cases yielded an annual incidence of 5.8/10(5), with the highest incidence in mixed rural-urban areas. A peak of 11.2/10(5) in the annual incidence was found for the age group 15 to 24 years, with no significant differences in the overall annual incidence by gender. An average duration of 6 months of disease before diagnosis was unchanged during the 4 years. About half of the patients had isolated colonic disease, and one-quarter had isolated small-bowel disease. CONCLUSIONS This study confirms the high incidence figures for Scandinavia, with a particularly high incidence in mixed rural-urban areas. Ileocolonoscopy improves the accuracy of the diagnosis and of the determination of disease extent, which may have therapeutic implications for the treatment and follow-up of patients.
Ultrastructure and cytochemistry of human peripheral blood lymphocytes. Similarities between the cells of the third population and TG lymphocytes

The ultrastructural and cytochemical features of human peripheral blood TG cells (T cells with receptors for IgG) and of the cells of the so‐called third population (non‐T, non‐B cells with high avidity receptors for IgG) have been investigated and compared. Both TG and third‐population cells (TPC) contained acid hydrolases with a paranuclear localization of α‐naphthyl acid esterase, β‐glucuronidase or acid phosphatase. At the electron microscopy level, TG and TPC were indistinguishable and displayed rough cell surface, indented nuclei, abundant cytoplasm with predominance of the smooth over the rough membranes and peroxidase‐negative granules. A large proportion of cells of the TPC could form rosettes with sheep erythrocytes after treatment with neuraminidase. The observed close similarities between TG and TPC may suggest that both cell types belong to a special subset of T cells. However, the alternative hypothesis that both TG and TPC are part of a subset unrelated to T cells, such as a new non‐T, non‐B cell population, or even of the monocytic‐macrophage lineage, is also discussed.
Disturbed B Cell Homeostasis in Newly Diagnosed Giant Cell Arteritis and Polymyalgia Rheumatica

Several lines of evidence indicate that B cells may be involved in the immunopathology of giant cell arteritis (GCA) and polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR). This study was undertaken to examine the distribution of defined B cell subsets, including effector B (Beff) cells and regulatory B (Breg) cells, in patients with GCA and patients with PMR before and after corticosteroid treatment.
Comparison of Electrode Reduction Activities of Geobacter sulfurreducens and an Enriched Consortium in an Air-Cathode Microbial Fuel Cell

ABSTRACT An electricity-generating bacterium, Geobacter sulfurreducens PCA, was inoculated into a single-chamber, air-cathode microbial fuel cell (MFC) in order to determine the maximum electron transfer rate from bacteria to the anode. To create anodic reaction-limiting conditions, where electron transfer from bacteria to the anode is the rate-limiting step, anodes with electrogenic biofilms were reduced in size and tests were conducted using anodes of six different sizes. The smallest anode (7 cm2, or 1.5 times larger than the cathode) achieved an anodic reaction-limiting condition as a result of a limited mass of bacteria on the electrode. Under these conditions, the limiting current density reached a maximum of 1,530 mA/m2, and power density reached a maximum of 461 mW/m2. Per-biomass efficiency of the electron transfer rate was constant at 32 fmol cell−1 day−1 (178 μmol g of protein−1 min−1), a rate comparable to that with solid iron as the electron acceptor but lower than rates achieved with fumarate or soluble iron. In comparison, an enriched electricity-generating consortium reached 374 μmol g of protein−1 min−1 under the same conditions, suggesting that the consortium had a much greater capacity for electrode reduction. These results demonstrate that per-biomass electrode reduction rates (calculated by current density and biomass density on the anode) can be used to help make better comparisons of electrogenic activity in MFCs.