Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Endometrial and subendometrial vascularity is higher in pregnant patients with livebirth following ART than in those who suffer a miscarriage.

BACKGROUND Blood flow towards the peri-implantation endometrium may have effects on miscarriage and live birth following assisted reproduction treatment, in addition to its role in implantation. METHODS Three-dimensional ultrasound examination with power Doppler was performed on the day of oocyte retrieval in stimulated IVF cycles and on LH + 1 day in frozen thawed-embryo transfer (FET) cycles to measure endometrial thickness, endometrial pattern, uterine artery Doppler flow indices, endometrial volume, vascularization index (VI), flow index (FI), vascularization flow index (VFI) of endometrial and subendometrial regions. RESULTS In stimulated IVF cycles, 45 (28.0%) out of 161 pregnant patients subsequently miscarried. Patients in the live birth group had significantly higher endometrial VI and VFI and subendometrial VI, FI and VFI, when compared with those in the miscarriage group. In a multiple logistic regression analysis, only endometrial VI was significantly associated with the chance of live birth with an odds ratio of 1.384 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.025-1.869, P = 0.034]. For FET cycles, patients in the live birth group had significantly higher endometrial VFI, subendometrial VI and VFI than those in the miscarriage group. CONCLUSIONS Endometrial and subendometrial vascularity was significantly higher in pregnant patients with live birth following stimulated IVF and FET treatment than in those who suffered a miscarriage.
Product Review Summarization based on Facet Identification and Sentence Clustering

Product review nowadays has become an important source of information, not only for customers to find opinions about products easily and share their reviews with peers, but also for product manufacturers to get feedback on their products. As the number of product reviews grows, it becomes difficult for users to search and utilize these resources in an efficient way. In this work, we build a product review summarization system that can automatically process a large collection of reviews and aggregate them to generate a concise summary. More importantly, the drawback of existing product summarization systems is that they cannot provide the underlying reasons to justify users' opinions. In our method, we solve this problem by applying clustering, prior to selecting representative candidates for summarization.
A Fundamentally Confused Document: Situation Reports and the Work of Producing Humanitarian Information

Situation reports, or sitreps, are documents commonly used by UN agencies and humanitarian NGOs involved in emergency response to disseminate information to and from relief workers in the field. This paper analyzes the information labor involved in producing sitreps, and how it can be used to understand why these documents are described by insiders as “fundamentally confused. ” Drawing from document analysis and interviews with over one hundred people involved with sitreps, we examine humanitarian information labor in a decentralized, hierarchical, collaborative, political, and competitive work environment. From an empirical perspective, we contribute to CSCW by adding a case study about the situated practice of making humanitarian information, which includes our work as researcher/consultants in reconstructing the details of information gathering and sharing processes in order to improve them. We consider how the work of producing humanitarian information reproduces problematic humanitarian logics.
Multiple pathways for elevating extracellular adenosine in the rat hippocampal CA1 region characterized by adenosine sensor cells

Extracellular adenosine in the brain, which modulates various physiological and pathological processes, fluctuates in a complicated manner that reflects the circadian cycle, neuronal activity, metabolism, and disease states. The dynamics of extracellular adenosine in the brain are not fully understood, largely because of the lack of simple and reliable methods of measuring time‐dependent changes in tissue adenosine distribution. This study describes the development of a biosensor, designated an adenosine sensor cell, expressing adenosine A1 receptor, and a genetically modified G protein. This biosensor was used to characterize extracellular adenosine elevation in brain tissue by measuring intracellular calcium elevation in response to adenosine. Placement of adenosine sensor cells below hippocampal slices successfully detected adenosine releases from these slices in response to neuronal activity and astrocyte swelling by conventional calcium imaging. Pharmacological analyses indicated that high‐frequency electrical stimulation‐induced post‐synaptic adenosine release in a manner dependent on L‐type calcium channels and calcium‐induced calcium release. Adenosine release following treatments that cause astrocyte swelling is independent of calcium channels, but dependent on aquaporin 4, an astrocyte‐specific water channel subtype. The ability of ectonucleotidase inhibitors to inhibit adenosine release following astrocyte swelling, but not electrical stimulation, suggests that the former reflects astrocytic ATP release and subsequent enzymatic breakdown, whereas the latter reflects direct adenosine release from neurons. These results suggest that distinct mechanisms are responsible for extracellular adenosine elevations by neurons and astrocytes, allowing exquisite regulation of extracellular adenosine in the brain.
Immunopathogenesis of recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis

Recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis (RVVC) is a prevalent opportunistic mucosal infection, caused predominantly by Candida albicans, which affects a significant number of otherwise healthy women of childbearing age. Since there are no known exogenous predisposing factors to explain the incidence of symptomatic vaginitis in most women with idiopathic RVVC, it has been postulated that these particular women suffer from an immunological abnormality that prediposes them to RVVC. Because of the increased incidence of mucosal candidiasis in individuals with depressed cell-mediated immunity (CMI), defects in CMI are viewed as a possible explanation for RVVC. In this review, we attempt to place into perspective the accumulated information regarding the immunopathogenesis of RVVC, as well as to provide new immunological perspectives and hypotheses regarding potential immunological deficiencies that may predispose to RVVC and potentially other mucosal infections by the same organism. The results of both clinical studies and studies in an animal model of experimental vaginitis suggest that systemic CMI may not be the predominant host defense mechanism against C. albicans vaginal infections. Rather, locally acquired mucosal immunity, distinct from that in the peripheral circulation, is now under consideration as an important host defense at the vaginal mucosa, as well as the notion that changes in local CMI mechanism(s) may predispose to RVVC.
Direct measurement of propagation constant in optical waveguides by heterodyne scattering detection (HSD) method

A new measurement method for the propagation constant of optical waveguides, which can measure the phase difference of two distant points nondestructively, was proposed and demonstrated. A super-fine fiber probe for the photon STM is used to pick up the scattered light from an optical waveguide, and the collected light is detected using a heterodyne technique. The phase difference between two points is measured from the phase change of the electrical signal of heterodyne detection as the fiber probe traces the waveguide pattern. The phase difference between 100 /spl mu/m distant points in a three-dimensional ARROW was successfully measured and the error was evaluated to be 0.25% by comparison with the theoretical value.
Stability of Antibiotics Used for Antibiotic-Lock Treatment of Infections of Implantable Venous Devices (Ports)

ABSTRACT Antibiotic-lock is a treatment for catheter-related bloodstream infections in which a solution containing heparin and an antibiotic dwells in the lumen of the catheter or port. We tested the stability of vancomycin, cefazolin, ticarcillin-clavulanic acid, ceftazidime, or ciprofloxacin combined with heparin after incubation in vitro at 25 or 37°C for intervals of up to 10 days by bioassay. All the antibiotic solutions except ceftazidime retained ≥90% activity at both 25 and 37°C. Thus, studies of antibiotic-heparin lock solutions with dwell times of up to 10 days are feasible.
Convergence analysis of mixed timescale cross-layer stochastic optimization

This paper considers a cross-layer optimization problem driven by multi-timescale stochastic exogenous processes in wireless communication networks. Due to the hierarchical information structure in a wireless network, a mixed timescale stochastic iterative algorithm is proposed to track the time-varying optimal solution of the cross-layer optimization problem, where the variables are partitioned into short-term controls updated in a faster timescale, and long-term controls updated in a slower timescale. We focus on establishing a convergence analysis framework for such multi-timescale algorithms, which is difficult due to the timescale separation of the algorithm and the time-varying nature of the exogenous processes. To cope with this challenge, we model the algorithm dynamics using stochastic differential equations (SDEs) and show that the study of the algorithm convergence is equivalent to the study of the stochastic stability of a virtual stochastic dynamic system (VSDS). Leveraging the techniques of Lyapunov stability, we derive a sufficient condition for the algorithm stability and a tracking error bound in terms of the parameters of the multi-timescale exogenous processes. Numerical results match with the theoretical insights and demonstrate performance advantage for the proposed mixed timescale algorithm.
BioHMM: a heterogeneous hidden Markov model for segmenting array CGH data

SUMMARY We have developed a new method (BioHMM) for segmenting array comparative genomic hybridization data into states with the same underlying copy number. By utilizing a heterogeneous hidden Markov model, BioHMM incorporates relevant biological factors (e.g. the distance between adjacent clones) in the segmentation process.
Kinematics of Interstellar Gas in Nearby UV-selected Galaxies Measured with HST STIS Spectroscopy

We measure Doppler shifts of interstellar absorption lines in HST STIS spectra of individual star clusters in nearby UV-selected galaxies. Values for systemic velocities, which are needed to quantify outflow speeds, are taken from the literature and verified with stellar lines. We detect outflowing gas in 8 of 17 galaxies via low-ionization lines (e.g., C II, Si II, Al II), which trace cold and/or warm gas. The starbursts in our sample are intermediate in luminosity (and mass) to dwarf galaxies and luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs), and we confirm that their outflow speeds (ranging from -100 to nearly -520 km s-1, with an accuracy of ~80 km s-1) are intermediate to those previously measured in dwarf starbursts and LIRGs. We do not detect the outflow in high-ionization lines (such as C IV or Si IV); higher quality data will be needed to empirically establish how velocities vary with the ionization state of the outflow. We do verify that the low-ionization UV lines and optical Na I doublet give roughly consistent outflow velocities, solidifying an important link between studies of galactic winds at low and high redshift. To obtain a higher signal-to-noise ratio (S/N), we create a local average composite spectrum and compare it to the high-z Lyman break composite spectrum. It is surprising that the low-ionization lines show similar outflow velocities in the two samples. We attribute this to a combination of weighting toward higher luminosities in the local composite, as well as both samples being, on average, brighter than the "turnover" luminosity in the v-SFR relation.
Microstructure, Mechanical Properties and Wear Behaviourof Deep-Cryogenic-Treated HSS

In this paper we compare the wear behaviour of a vacuum-heat-treated ESR AISI M2 high-speed steel and the same steel that was vacuum heat treated in conjunction with a deep-cryogenic treatment at -196 ℃. Four different tempering temperatures for the specimens austenized at the same austenitizing temperature were carefully selected to obtain various in-advance-determined combinations of the microstructures, the fracture toughness, KIc and the Rockwell-C hardness. Each of the eight specimens was therefore characterised by these microstructures and resulting material properties.The wear study was performed using a reciprocating sliding device under well-controlled contact conditions. Relatively high loads were used to provide enough wear for a comparison of the selected samples. A much harder and dissimilar model counter-material, i.e. silicon nitride ceramic, was used in order to avoid excessive wear of the counter samples and adhesion,which could occur in contacts with similar materials (metals/steels) under such high loads and in non-lubricated conditions.The wear behaviours were then compared and discussed in terms of these microstructures and the related properties. The differences in the wear resistance obtained in our investigation were as high as an order of magnitude. However, the beneficial effects are not a direct result of the type of the treatment, but relate to a proper combination of the resulting fracture toughness and the hardness. The more uniform and moderate values, which, however, tend to be obtained with a deep-cryogenic treatment, are beneficial to the high wear resistance of the selected high-speed steel.
Identification and localization of immunoreactive forms of caldesmon in smooth and nonmuscle cells: a comparison with the distributions of tropomyosin and alpha-actinin

Caldesmon is an F-actin cross-linking protein of chicken gizzard smooth muscle whose F-actin binding activity can be regulated in vitro by Ca2+- calmodulin (Sobue, K., Y. Muramoto, M. Fujita, and S. Kakiuchi, 1981, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 78:5652-5655). It is a rod-shaped, heat- stable, F-actin bundling protein and is the most abundant F-actin cross- linking protein of chicken gizzard smooth muscle presently known (Bretscher, A., 1984, J. Biol. Chem., 259:12873-12880). We report the use of polyclonal antibodies to caldesmon to investigate its distribution and localization in other cells. Using immune blotting procedures, we have detected immunoreactive, heat-stable forms of caldesmon in cultured cells having either approximately the same apparent polypeptide molecular weight as gizzard caldesmon (120,000- 140,000) or a substantially lower molecular weight (71,000-77,000). Through use of affinity-purified antibodies in indirect immunofluorescence microscopy, we have localized the immunoreactive forms to the terminal web of the brush border of intestinal epithelial cells and to the stress fibers and ruffling membranes of cultured cells. At the light microscope level caldesmon is distributed in a periodic fashion along stress fibers that is coincident with the distribution of tropomyosin and complementary to the distribution of alpha-actinin.
Genetic and environmental predictors, endogenous hormones and growth factors, and risk of estrogen receptor‐positive breast cancer in Japanese women

The incidence of breast cancer in Japanese women has doubled in all age groups over the past two decades. We have recently shown that this marked increase is mostly due to an increase in the estrogen receptor (ER)‐positive subtype. It is necessary to establish risk factors capable of predicting the risk of ER‐positive breast cancer that will enable the efficient selection of candidates for preventive therapy. We analyzed genetic factors, including 14 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), environmental risk factors (body mass index, age at menarche, pregnancy, age at first birth, breastfeeding, family history of breast cancer, age at menopause, use of hormone replacement therapy, alcohol intake, and smoking), serum hormones and growth factors (estradiol, testosterone, prolactin, insulin‐like growth factor 1 [IGF1] and IGF binding protein 3 [IGFBP3]), and mammographic density in 913 women with breast cancer and 278 disease‐free controls. To identify important risk factors, risk prediction models for ER‐positive breast cancer in both pre‐ and postmenopausal women were created by logistic regression analysis. In premenopausal women, one SNP (CYP19A1‐rs10046), age, pregnancy, breastfeeding, alcohol intake, serum levels of prolactin, testosterone, and IGFBP3 were considered to be risk predictors. In postmenopausal women, one SNP (TP53‐rs1042522), age, body mass index, age at menopause, serum levels of testosterone, and IGF1 were identified as risk predictors. Risk factors may differ between women of different menopausal status, and inclusion of common genetic variants and serum hormone measurements as well as environmental factors might improve risk assessment models. Further validation studies will clarify appropriate risk groups for preventive therapy. (Cancer Sci 2011; 102: 2065–2072)
Stretch–Activation of Angiotensin II Type 1a Receptors Contributes to the Myogenic Response of Mouse Mesenteric and Renal Arteries

Rationale: Vascular wall stretch is the major stimulus for the myogenic response of small arteries to pressure. The molecular mechanisms are elusive, but recent findings suggest that G protein–coupled receptors can elicit a stretch response. Objective: To determine whether angiotensin II type 1 receptors (AT1R) in vascular smooth muscle cells exert mechanosensitivity and identify the downstream ion channel mediators of myogenic vasoconstriction. Methods and Results: We used mice deficient in AT1R signaling molecules and putative ion channel targets, namely AT1R, angiotensinogen, transient receptor potential channel 6 (TRPC6) channels, or several subtypes of the voltage-gated K+ (Kv7) gene family (KCNQ3, 4, or 5). We identified a mechanosensing mechanism in isolated mesenteric arteries and in the renal circulation that relies on coupling of the AT1R subtype a to a Gq/11 protein as a critical event to accomplish the myogenic response. Arterial mechanoactivation occurs after pharmacological block of AT1R and in the absence of angiotensinogen or TRPC6 channels. Activation of AT1R subtype a by osmotically induced membrane stretch suppresses an XE991-sensitive Kv channel current in patch-clamped vascular smooth muscle cells, and similar concentrations of XE991 enhance mesenteric and renal myogenic tone. Although XE991-sensitive KCNQ3, 4, and 5 channels are expressed in vascular smooth muscle cells, XE991-sensitive K+ current and myogenic contractions persist in arteries deficient in these channels. Conclusions: Our results provide definitive evidence that myogenic responses of mouse mesenteric and renal arteries rely on ligand-independent, mechanoactivation of AT1R subtype a. The AT1R subtype a signal relies on an ion channel distinct from TRPC6 or KCNQ3, 4, or 5 to enact vascular smooth muscle cell activation and elevated vascular resistance.
Gain of Function Mutations in CgPDR1 of Candida glabrata Not Only Mediate Antifungal Resistance but Also Enhance Virulence

CgPdr1p is a Candida glabrata Zn(2)-Cys(6) transcription factor involved in the regulation of the ABC-transporter genes CgCDR1, CgCDR2, and CgSNQ2, which are mediators of azole resistance. Single-point mutations in CgPDR1 are known to increase the expression of at least CgCDR1 and CgCDR2 and thus to contribute to azole resistance of clinical isolates. In this study, we investigated the incidence of CgPDR1 mutations in a large collection of clinical isolates and tested their relevance, not only to azole resistance in vitro and in vivo, but also to virulence. The comparison of CgPDR1 alleles from azole-susceptible and azole-resistant matched isolates enabled the identification of 57 amino acid substitutions, each positioned in distinct CgPDR1 alleles. These substitutions, which could be grouped into three different “hot spots,” were gain of function (GOF) mutations since they conferred hyperactivity to CgPdr1p revealed by constitutive high expression of ABC-transporter genes. Interestingly, the major transporters involved in azole resistance (CgCDR1, CgCDR2, and CgSNQ2) were not always coordinately expressed in presence of specific CgPDR1 GOF mutations, thus suggesting that these are rather trans-acting elements (GOF in CgPDR1) than cis-acting elements (promoters) that lead to azole resistance by upregulating specific combinations of ABC-transporter genes. Moreover, C. glabrata isolates complemented with CgPDR1 hyperactive alleles were not only more virulent in mice than those with wild type alleles, but they also gained fitness in the same animal model. The presence of CgPDR1 hyperactive alleles also contributed to fluconazole treatment failure in the mouse model. In conclusion, this study shows for the first time that CgPDR1 mutations are not only responsible for in vitro/in vivo azole resistance but that they can also confer a selective advantage under host conditions.
PBSE: a robust path-based speculative execution for degraded-network tail tolerance in data-parallel frameworks

We reveal loopholes of Speculative Execution (SE) implementations under a unique fault model: node-level network throughput degradation. This problem appears in many data-parallel frameworks such as Hadoop MapReduce and Spark. To address this, we present PBSE, a robust, path-based speculative execution that employs three key ingredients: path progress, path diversity, and path-straggler detection and speculation. We show how PBSE is superior to other approaches such as cloning and aggressive speculation under the aforementioned fault model. PBSE is a general solution, applicable to many data-parallel frameworks such as Hadoop/HDFS+QFS, Spark and Flume.
Effect of Bump Shape on Current Density and Temperature Distributions in Solder Bump Joints under Electromigration

Three dimensional thermo-electrical finite element analysis was employed to simulate the current density and temperature distributions for solder bump joints with different bump shapes. Mean-time-to-failure (MTTF) of electromigration was discussed. It was found that as the bump volume increased from hourglass bump to barrel bump, the maximum current density increased but the maximum temperature decreased. Hourglass bump with waist radius of 240 μm has the longest MTTF.
Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology Open Access Cumulus Cells Steroidogenesis Is Influenced by the Degree of Oocyte Maturation

Background: The possibility to predict the ability of a germ cell to properly sustain embryo development in vitro or in vivo as early as possible is undoubtedly the main problem of reproductive technologies. To date, only the achievement of nuclear maturation and cumulus expansion is feasible, as all the studies on cytoplasmic maturation are too invasive and have been complicated by the death of the cells analyzed. The authors studied the possibility to test the cytoplasmic quality of pig oocytes by evaluating their ability to produce steroidogenesis enabling factor(s). To this aim, oocytes matured under different culture conditions that allowed to obtain gradable level of cytoplasmic maturation, were used to produce conditioned media (OCM). The secretion of the factor(s) in conditioned media was then recorded by evaluating the ability of the spent media to direct granulosa cells (GC) steroidogenesis.