Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Analysis of Drug Dissolution in Vivo

The testing of drug dissolution rates from solid dosage forms is a very important area of research within the pharmaceutical industry. The ability to produce drugs with a given dissolution rate will lead to improved performance in the treatment of patients and will be of economic benefit to the pharmaceutical industry. However, dissolution testing in laboratories, aimed at reflecting in-vivo conditions, can be both time consuming and costly. Currently, most simulations of drug dissolution take place in standardized USP (United States Pharmaceutical) apparatuses. A number of these apparatuses exist, and it is the aim of this thesis to analyse drug dissolution in both the USP Paddle Apparatus and the USP Flow Through Apparatus. The first part of this thesis examines drug dissolution from a solid dosage form (compact) in the USP Paddle Apparatus. The process is set up as a boundary layer problem for which there exists both a momentum boundary layer and a concentration boundary layer. The dominant mass transfer mechanism is that of forced convection. A semi-analytical technique is used to solve the boundary layer equations for which velocity data has been provided from computational fluid dynamic simulations. Wherever possible the results from this semi-analytical approach have been compared with that of an exact solution. The second part of the thesis concentrates on the USP Flow Through Apparatus. As the process of drug dissolution in the Flow Through Apparatus is dependent on a vertical flow, the analysis is complicated by the introduction of buoyancy effects. Chapters five to nine analyse a number of general cases for buoyancy driven flows on both flat and curved surfaces. Later, in chapter ten, these general cases are then applied to the process of drug dissolution from the surface of a compact in the USP Flow Through Apparatus. Throughout the thesis, the predicted dissolution rates from the theoretical approach are compared with those of experiment.
Role of reversible phosphorylation of acetyl‐CoA carboxylase in long‐chain fatty acid synthesis 1

Acetyl‐CoA carboxylase, the rate‐limiting enzyme in the biogenesis of long‐chain fatty acids, is regulated by phosphorylation and dephosphorylation. The major phosphorylation sites that affect carboxylase activity and the specific protein kinases responsible for phosphorylation of different sites have been identified. A form of acetyl‐CoA carboxylase that is independent of citrate for activity occurs in vivo. This active form of caboxylase becomes citrate‐dependent upon phosphorylation under conditions of reduced lipogenesis. Therefore, phosphorylation‐dephosphorylation of acetyl‐CoA carboxylase is the enzyme's primary short‐term regulatory mechanism; this control mechanism together with cellular metabolites such as CoA, citrate, and palmitoyl‐CoA serves to fine‐tune the synthesis of long‐chain fatty acids under different physiological conditions. — Kim, K. ‐H. ; López‐Casillas, F. ; Bai, D. H. ; Luo, X. ; Pape, M. E. Physiological significance of covalent phosphorylation‐dephosphorylation of acetyl‐CoA carboxylase in the regulation of long‐chain fatty acids. FASEB J. 3: 2250‐2256; 1989.
Incidence and occurrence of total (first-ever and recurrent) stroke.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE It has recently been hypothesized that the figure of approximately half a million strokes substantially underestimates the actual annual stroke burden for the United States. The majority of previously reported studies on the epidemiology of stroke used relatively small and homogeneous population-based stroke registries. This study was designed to estimate the occurrence, incidence, and characteristics of total (first-ever and recurrent) stroke by using a large administrative claims database representative of all 1995 US inpatient discharges. METHODS We used the Nationwide Inpatient Sample of the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project, release 4, which contains approximately 20% of all 1995 US inpatient discharges. Because the accuracy of International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) coding is suboptimal, we performed a literature review of ICD-9-CM 430 to 438 validation studies. The pooled results from the literature review were used to make appropriate adjustments in the analysis to correct for some of the inaccuracies of the diagnostic codes. RESULTS There were 682 000 occurrences of stroke with hospitalization (95% CI 660 000 to 704 000) and an estimated 68 000 occurrences of stroke without hospitalization. The overall incidence rate for occurrence of total stroke (first-ever and recurrent) was 259 per 100 000 population (age- and sex-adjusted to 1995 US population). Incidence rates increased exponentially with age and were consistently higher for males than for females. CONCLUSIONS We conservatively estimate that there were 750 000 first-ever or recurrent strokes in the United States during 1995. This new figure emphasizes the importance of preventive measures for a disease that has identifiable and modifiable risk factors and for the development of new and improved treatment strategies and infrastructures that can reduce the consequences of stroke.
Angiogenesis in the Bovine Corpus Luteum: An Immunocytochemical and Ultrastructural Study*

Immediately after ovulation a neovascular response occurs at the level of the theca interna. Pericytes and endothelial cells of post‐capillary venules locally remodel the surrounding stroma, elongate and migrate into the avascular granulosa folds of the ruptured follicle. In order to examine the composition of the extracellular matrix as well as the growth characteristics of these newly formed vessels, we used immunohistochemical and electron microscopic methods. Initial sprouts were characterized by the appearance of a fibrillary network of fibronectin along the main axis of the sprout. Type IV collagen stained weakly and extracellular deposits of laminin were amorphous and patchy around immature capillary sprouts. In advanced maturational stages of the sprouts the capillaries were surrounded by increased deposits of fibronectin, whereas laminin and type IV collagen displayed a distinct and well‐developed line around endothelial cells and pericytes. These observations indicate that the microvascular extracellular matrix undergoes a series of quantitative rather than qualitative changes during capillary development before achieving final maturation. Ultrastructural analyses showed that early capillary sprouts in the bovine corpus luteum were usually preceded by pericytes migrating at the tips of the sprouts. Endothelial cells comigrated in cohesive cylindrical projections, forming immediately a slit‐like lumen which satisfies the criteria of the intercellular canalization type. Pericytes at the tips of endothelial sprouts exhibited a slender, bipolar morphology and were regularly surrounded by fragmented basal lamina, which is well‐developed around pericytes in a more proximal position of the sprout. The regular association of pericytes with the leading front of the capillary sprouts suggests that these cell types may serve as guiding structures aiding outgrowth of endothelial cells in the bovine corpus luteum.
A deep pyramid Deformable Part Model for face detection

We present a face detection algorithm based on Deformable Part Models and deep pyramidal features. The proposed method called DP2MFD is able to detect faces of various sizes and poses in unconstrained conditions. It reduces the gap in training and testing of DPM on deep features by adding a normalization layer to the deep convolutional neural network (CNN). Extensive experiments on four publicly available unconstrained face detection datasets show that our method is able to capture the meaningful structure of faces and performs significantly better than many competitive face detection algorithms.
A Novel Low-Cost Open-Hardware Platform for Monitoring Soil Water Content and Multiple Soil-Air-Vegetation Parameters

Monitoring soil water content at high spatio-temporal resolution and coupled to other sensor data is crucial for applications oriented towards water sustainability in agriculture, such as precision irrigation or phenotyping root traits for drought tolerance. The cost of instrumentation, however, limits measurement frequency and number of sensors. The objective of this work was to design a low cost “open hardware” platform for multi-sensor measurements including water content at different depths, air and soil temperatures. The system is based on an open-source ARDUINO microcontroller-board, programmed in a simple integrated development environment (IDE). Low cost high-frequency dielectric probes were used in the platform and lab tested on three non-saline soils (ECe1: 2.5 < 0.1 mS/cm). Empirical calibration curves were subjected to cross-validation (leave-one-out method), and normalized root mean square error (NRMSE) were respectively 0.09 for the overall model, 0.09 for the sandy soil, 0.07 for the clay loam and 0.08 for the sandy loam. The overall model (pooled soil data) fitted the data very well (R2 = 0.89) showing a high stability, being able to generate very similar RMSEs during training and validation (RMSEtraining = 2.63; RMSEvalidation = 2.61). Data recorded on the card were automatically sent to a remote server allowing repeated field-data quality checks. This work provides a framework for the replication and upgrading of a customized low cost platform, consistent with the open source approach whereby sharing information on equipment design and software facilitates the adoption and continuous improvement of existing technologies.
Recommendations as Treatments: Debiasing Learning and Evaluation

Most data for evaluating and training recommender systems is subject to selection biases, either through self-selection by the users or through the actions of the recommendation system itself. In this paper, we provide a principled approach to handle selection biases by adapting models and estimation techniques from causal inference. The approach leads to unbiased performance estimators despite biased data, and to a matrix factorization method that provides substantially improved prediction performance on real-world data. We theoretically and empirically characterize the robustness of the approach, and find that it is highly practical and scalable.
Electroencephalographic source imaging: a prospective study of 152 operated epileptic patients

Electroencephalography is mandatory to determine the epilepsy syndrome. However, for the precise localization of the irritative zone in patients with focal epilepsy, costly and sometimes cumbersome imaging techniques are used. Recent small studies using electric source imaging suggest that electroencephalography itself could be used to localize the focus. However, a large prospective validation study is missing. This study presents a cohort of 152 operated patients where electric source imaging was applied as part of the pre-surgical work-up allowing a comparison with the results from other methods. Patients (n = 152) with >1 year postoperative follow-up were studied prospectively. The sensitivity and specificity of each imaging method was defined by comparing the localization of the source maximum with the resected zone and surgical outcome. Electric source imaging had a sensitivity of 84% and a specificity of 88% if the electroencephalogram was recorded with a large number of electrodes (128–256 channels) and the individual magnetic resonance image was used as head model. These values compared favourably with those of structural magnetic resonance imaging (76% sensitivity, 53% specificity), positron emission tomography (69% sensitivity, 44% specificity) and ictal/interictal single-photon emission-computed tomography (58% sensitivity, 47% specificity). The sensitivity and specificity of electric source imaging decreased to 57% and 59%, respectively, with low number of electrodes (<32 channels) and a template head model. This study demonstrated the validity and clinical utility of electric source imaging in a large prospective study. Given the low cost and high flexibility of electroencephalographic systems even with high channel counts, we conclude that electric source imaging is a highly valuable tool in pre-surgical epilepsy evaluation.
An Evaluation of Distribution and Quantity of Parks in Istanbul

Some researchers have pointed out that the availability of accessible and attractive green areas is an integral part of the urban quality of life ( Herzele and Wiedmann, 2003). Others maintain that the provision of green areas improves the urban environment, contributes to public health, increases the quality of life and provides amenities to residents in the form of recreational benefits (Wu and Plantinga, 2003). For instance, green areas can sequester carbon dioxide emissions and produce oxygen (Jo, 2002); purify air and water, regulate micro climate, reduce noise (Bolund and Hunhammer, 1999); (Hanamaen et al., 2003); protect soil and water (Pauleit and Duhmer, 2000); absorb rainwater and pollutants (Connine et al., 2004) and mitigate urban heat island effect (Rudie and Dewers, 1984; Stanners and Bourdeau 1995; Simpson and McPherson 1996; Bonan, 2000).
A DOUBLE-BLIND, PLACEBO-CONTROLLED EVALUATION OF THE ANXIOLYTIC EFFICACY FF AN ETHANOLIC EXTRACT OF WITHANIA SOMNIFERA

A double-blind, placebo-controlled study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy an ethanolic extract of Aswagandha (Withania somnifera), in patients with ICD-10 anxiety disorders. The sample comprised 39 subjects, of whom 20 received the drug and 19 received placebo. The two groups were sociodemographically and clinically similar at baseline. At 2 and 6 weeks follow-up, data from approximately 85% of patients in each group were available for analysis. Statistical trends favouring the drug were observed at both time points. At 6 weeks, significantly more patients met a priori response criteria in the drug group (88.2%) as compared with the placebo group (50%). The drug was well-tolerated and did not occasion more adverse effects than did placebo. It is concluded that this ethanolic extract of Withania somnifera has useful anxiolytic potential and merits further investigation.
Possible role of leptin in hypoandrogenicity in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis

Background: Hypoandrogenicity is common in obesity and in chronic inflammatory diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Adrenal androgens such as androstenedione (ASD) and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) sulphate are low, which partly depends on the influence of TNF in chronic inflammatory diseases. Leptin is stimulated by TNF and is associated with hypoandrogenicity in non-inflammatory conditions. Objective: To study the interrelation between serum levels of leptin and adrenal steroids in SLE and RA. Methods: In a retrospective study, serum levels of leptin, ASD, DHEA, and 17-hydroxyprogesterone (17OHP) were measured by ELISA, and serum levels of cortisol by radioimmunoassay in 30 patients with RA, 32 with SLE, and 54 healthy control subjects (HS). Results: In SLE and RA but not HS, serum levels of ASD correlated negatively with serum levels of leptin (p<0.01) independently of prior prednisolone treatment in patients with SLE (p = 0.013) and tended to be independent of prednisolone in patients with RA (p = 0.067). In a partial correlation analysis, this interrelation remained significant after controlling for daily prednisolone dose in both patient groups. In both patient groups, serum leptin levels correlated negatively with the molar ratio of serum ASD/serum cortisol and serum ASD/serum 17OHP, and positively with the molar ratio of serum DHEA/serum ASD. Conclusions: The negative correlation of serum leptin and ASD or, particularly, ASD/17OHP, together with its known anti-androgenic effects indicate that leptin is also involved in hypoandrogenicity in patients with SLE and RA. Leptin may be an important link between chronic inflammation and the hypoandrogenic state.
HYBRIDIZATION AND CRYPTIC SPECIES IN DICAMPTODON (CAUDATA: DICAMPTODONTIDAE)

The salamander genus Dicamptodon consists of at least four genetically divergent groups of populations with 10–19 fixed allelic differences (out of 31 loci scored) between populations in alternative groups. One of these groups corresponds to D. copei; the other three until now usually have been considered to belong to the single morphologically homogeneous species D. ensatus. Two instances of geographic contact between genetic units occur in the genus, one between D. copei and “D. ensatus” in northern Oregon and the other between two highly divergent types of “D. ensatus” in coastal northern Calfornia. In the former case no hybridization occurs, while in the latter a narrow hybrid zone has been observed. There appears to be selection against hybrids within this hybrid zone, and introgression beyond the zone is apparently nonexistent. The population groups therefore appear to be genetically independent units, and Dicamptodon is best considered to consist of four species: D. copei, D. ensatus, D. tenebrosus, and D. aterrimus.
Multi-Agent Path Finding with Delay Probabilities

Several recently developed Multi-Agent Path Finding (MAPF) solvers scale to large MAPF instances by searching for MAPF plans on 2 levels: The high-level search resolves collisions between agents, and the low-level search plans paths for single agents under the constraints imposed by the high-level search. We make the following contributions to solve the MAPF problem with imperfect plan execution with small average makespans: First, we formalize the MAPF Problem with Delay Probabilities (MAPF-DP), define valid MAPF-DP plans and propose the use of robust plan-execution policies for valid MAPF-DP plans to control how each agent proceeds along its path. Second, we discuss 2 classes of decentralized robust plan-execution policies (called Fully Synchronized Policies and Minimal Communication Policies) that prevent collisions during plan execution for valid MAPF-DP plans. Third, we present a 2-level MAPF-DP solver (called Approximate Minimization in Expectation) that generates valid MAPF-DP plans.
Learning and Life Cycle Patterns of Occupational Transitions

Data reveal that individuals experience a high number of occupational switches. Over 40% of high school graduates transition between white and blue collar occupations more than once between the ages of 18 and 28. This paper develops a life cycle model of occupational choices based on workers learning about their type and sorting themselves to the best job match. Documenting life cycle patterns of occupational choices using data from the NLSY79 supports key predictions from the model. Initial characteristics are predictive of future patterns of occupational switching, including the timing and number of switches. In addition, the average time to the first occupational switch is longer than the time to the second switch for individuals with multiple occupational transitions.
Scatter: a novel family of miniature inverted‐repeat transposable elements in the fungus Botrytis cinerea

Miniature inverted‐repeat transposable elements (MITEs) are short non‐autonomous DNA transposons that play an important role in genome structure and function. Here, we described a novel family of MITEs, named Scatter, identified from the genomes of three strains of the fungus Botrytis cinerea (T4, B05.10, and TBC‐A). Intact Scatter elements are typically an average of 247 bp, and contain 41 bp terminal inverted repeats (TIRs) and 2‐bp “TA” target site duplications (TSDs). Based a search against the transposable elements database and GenBank, Scatter is a novel and potentially species‐specific family of MITEs. Moderate heterogeneity in sequence and size of individual Scatter copies suggests that Scatter elements were not recently proliferated. Most integrated sites were conserved across all three strains tested and elements inserted at equivalent sites shared high identity at the nucleotide level. This conservation, in combination with the presence of a similar copy number (22–24), in B. cinerea strains tested suggests that Scatter may be a relic of an ancient transposition developed prior to the strain divergence of B. cinerea. Two unique insertion instances were observed, indicating that some copies of Scatter may have remained active following strain divergence of B. cinerea. Because only a few subtle insertion differences among B. cinerea strains were observed, Scatter may play only a minor role in the genetic diversity in B. cinerea species. Most Scatter elements appear to be inserted in potential regulatory regions of adjacent coding regions, highlighting their role in transcriptional regulation. The origin of Scatter remains to be addressed. Scatter is the first well‐characterized family of MITEs in B. cinerea.
SAW based rotation force of a cylindrical solid

It was shown experimentally in [1] that a macroscopic cylindrical solid can be rotated due to the excitation of two counter-propagating surface acoustic waves (SAWs) with different amplitudes on its surface. The arising distributed rotation force has been estimated phenomenologically in the partial case of a piezoelectric tube with a ring unidirectional electrode transducer (RUDT) using the torsion pendulum equation of motion. It was found that the rotation force is proportional to the square of the applied voltage. The cylindrical rotating structure can be considered as a new kind of stator free motor that needs to be investigated and optimized for potential future applications. The objective of the present work is the attempt to give the first estimation of the rotation force on the basis of physical principles and equations of motion in periodic structures. This approach makes it possible to relate the rotation force with material parameters and geometry of the structure.
The VWFA: it's not just for words anymore

Reading is an important but phylogenetically new skill. While neuroimaging studies have identified brain regions used in reading, it is unclear to what extent these regions become specialized for use predominantly in reading vs. other tasks. Over the past several years, our group has published three studies addressing this question, particularly focusing on whether the putative visual word form area (VWFA) is used predominantly in reading, or whether it is used more generally in a number of tasks. Our three studies utilize a range of neuroimaging techniques, including task based fMRI experiments, a seed based resting state functional connectivity (RSFC) experiment, and a network based RSFC experiment. Overall, our studies indicate that the VWFA is not used specifically or even predominantly for reading. Rather the VWFA is a general use region that has processing properties making it particularly useful for reading, though it continues to be used in any task that requires its general processing properties. Our network based RSFC analysis extends this finding to other regions typically thought to be used predominantly for reading. Here, we review these findings and describe how the three studies complement each other. Then, we argue that conceptualizing the VWFA as a brain region with specific processing characteristics rather than a brain region devoted to a specific stimulus class, allows us to better explain the activity seen in this region during a variety of tasks. Having this type of conceptualization not only provides a better understanding of the VWFA but also provides a framework for understanding other brain regions, as it affords an explanation of function that is in keeping with the long history of studying the brain in terms of the type of information processing performed (Posner, 1978).