Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Induction of Labor in Post-Term Nulliparous and Parous Women – Potential Advantages of Misoprostol over Dinoprostone

Abstract Introduction: We undertook a prospective cohort study to compare the effectiveness and safety of 50 µg misoprostol versus 3 mg dinoprostone in two vaginal doses 6 hours apart, followed if necessary by oxytocin for labor induction in low-risk post-term (> 40 weeks) pregnancies with unfavorable cervix (Bishop score ≤ 6). Methods: Labor induction and subsequent management were conducted using a standardized protocol. The primary outcome of the study was labor induction rate. Secondary outcomes included mode of delivery, time interval from induction to delivery, maternal complications and neonatal outcome. Results: 107 patients received misoprostol (Group A) and 99 patients received dinoprostone (Group B). Compared with group A, more women in Group B needed a second vaginal dose of prostaglandin or oxytocin infusion in order to proceed to labor (21.5 vs. 43.4 %; p = 0.01). Misoprostol alone as a single or double vaginal dose was more effective than dinoprostone alone in inducing labor without oxytocin administration (85.0 vs. 50.4 %; p = 0.04). Overall, the rate of successful induction of labor did not differ between groups (91.6 vs. 85.8 %; p = 0.75). Vaginal delivery, operative vaginal delivery and Caesarean section rates were not significantly different. Time interval from induction to delivery however, was shorter for Group A (median 11 hours vs. 14.1 hours; p < 0.001). Though emergency Caesarean section due to fetal distress was more frequent in Group A (16.8 vs. 4.0 %; p = 0.007), low Apgar scores < 7 and NICU admissions did not differ significantly. Maternal complications, mostly not serious, were higher in Group A (31.8 vs. 2.0, p < 0.001). Conclusion: Misoprostol is a more effective agent than dinoprost in post-term pregnancy for labor induction with few maternal adverse effects.
Seasonal Dynamics and Habitat Specificity of Mosquitoes in an English Wetland: Implications for UK Wetland Management and Restoration

ABSTRACT: We engaged in field studies of native mosquitoes in a Cambridgeshire Fen, investigating a) the habitat specificity and seasonal dynamics of our native fauna in an intensively managed wetland, b) the impact of water-level and ditch management, and c) their colonization of an arable reversion to flooded grassland wetland expansion project. Studies from April to October, 2010 collected 14,000 adult mosquitoes (15 species) over 292 trap-nights and ∼4,000 pre-imaginal mosquitoes (11 species). Open floodwater species (Aedes caspius and Aedes cinereus, 43.3%) and wet woodland species (Aedes cantans/annulipes and Aedes rusticus, 32.4%) dominated, highlighting the major impact of seasonal water-level management on mosquito populations in an intensively managed wetland. In permanent habitats, managing marginal ditch vegetation and ditch drying significantly affect densities of pre-imaginal anophelines and culicines, respectively. This study presents the first UK field evidence of the implications of wetland expansion through arable reversion on mosquito colonization. Understanding the heterogeneity of mosquito diversity, phenology, and abundance in intensively managed UK wetlands will be crucial to mitigating nuisance and vector species through habitat management and biocidal control.
Does maternal body mass index during pregnancy influence risk of schizophrenia in the adult offspring?

Maternal obesity in pregnancy has been linked with several adverse outcomes in offspring including schizophrenia. The rising prevalence of obesity may contribute to an increase in the number of schizophrenia cases in the near future; therefore, it warrants further exploration. We reviewed current evidence regarding maternal body mass index (BMI) in pregnancy and risk of schizophrenia in adult offspring.
Acute inflammation increases the selective uptake of HDL-cholesteryl esters into adrenals of mice overexpressing human secretory phospholipase A 2

2 ABSTRACT The acute phase protein secretory phospholipase A2 (sPLA 2) influences the metabolism of high density lipoproteins (HDL). The adrenals are known to utilize HDL cholesterol as a source of sterols. The aim of the present study was to test the hypothesis that sPLA 2 enhances the selective uptake of HDL into the adrenals in response to acute inflammation as a possible physiologic role for the sPLA 2 HDL interaction. Human sPLA 2 transgenic mice , in which sPLA 2 expression is upregulated by inflammatory stimuli, were used. 10 h after induction of the acute phase response (APR) by injection of bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS), plasma levels of HDL cholesterol decreased significantly in sPLA 2 transgenic mice (-18%, p<0.05), but remained unchanged in wildtype mice. The fractional catabolic rates of both 125 I-tyramine-cellobiose(TC)-HDL and 3 H-cholesteryl ether increased significantly in the sPLA 2 transgenic mice after induction of the HDL holoparticle uptake by the liver was increased (p<0.001). sPLA 2 transgenic mice had 2.4-fold higher selective uptake into the adrenals after induction of the APR than wildtype mice (156 ± 6 vs. 65 ± 5 %/µg tissue protein, p<0.001). In summary, upregulation of sPLA 2 expression during the APR specifically increases the selective uptake of HDL cholesteryl ester into the adrenals. These data suggest a novel metabolic role for sPLA 2 : modification of HDL during the APR to promote increased adrenal uptake of HDL cholesteryl ester to serve as source for steroid hormone synthesis.
Efficient filter flow for space-variant multiframe blind deconvolution

Ultimately being motivated by facilitating space-variant blind deconvolution, we present a class of linear transformations, that are expressive enough for space-variant filters, but at the same time especially designed for efficient matrix-vector-multiplications. Successful results on astronomical imaging through atmospheric turbulences and on noisy magnetic resonance images of constantly moving objects demonstrate the practical significance of our approach.
Effect of Acid and Base Catalyzed Hydrolysis on the Yield of Phenolics and Antioxidant Activity of Extracts from Germinated Brown Rice (GBR)

The influence of both acidic and basic hydrolysis on the yield, total phenolic content and antioxidative capacity of methanolic extract of germinated brown rice (GBR) was studied. Total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC), 2,2′-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging, 2,2′-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid (ABTS) radical cation scavenging, and ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) tests were used for the measurement of antioxidant ability. There was a significant difference (p < 0.05) in the TPC and DPPH radical scavenging assay results when comparing neutral with acidic and basic catalysed hydrolysis. The yield of the crude extract was slightly higher in acidic hydrolysis than in basic hydrolysis (p > 0.05). The TPC and TFC were highest in acidic hydrolysis. A significant correlation was observed between ABTS radical cation scavenging and FRAP. The antioxidant activity measured using DPPH radical scavenging assay showed high activity in acidic hydrolysis, while the ABTS radical cationscavenging activity and FRAP showed the highest values in basic hydrolysis. The samples were further evaluated using HPLC to determine the individual phenolic concentrations in different hydrolytic media contributing to the antioxidant effects. This study revealed that acidic and basic hydrolysis can improve the yield, phenolic content, and antioxidant activity of germinated brown rice.
The key kinematic determinants of undulatory underwater swimming at maximal velocity

ABSTRACT The optimisation of undulatory underwater swimming is highly important in competitive swimming performance. Nineteen kinematic variables were identified from previous research undertaken to assess undulatory underwater swimming performance. The purpose of the present study was to determine which kinematic variables were key to the production of maximal undulatory underwater swimming velocity. Kinematic data at maximal undulatory underwater swimming velocity were collected from 17 skilled swimmers. A series of separate backward-elimination analysis of covariance models was produced with cycle frequency and cycle length as dependent variables (DVs) and participant as a fixed factor, as including cycle frequency and cycle length would explain 100% of the maximal swimming velocity variance. The covariates identified in the cycle-frequency and cycle-length models were used to form the saturated model for maximal swimming velocity. The final parsimonious model identified three covariates (maximal knee joint angular velocity, maximal ankle angular velocity and knee range of movement) as determinants of the variance in maximal swimming velocity (adjusted-r2 = 0.929). However, when participant was removed as a fixed factor there was a large reduction in explained variance (adjusted r2 = 0.397) and only maximal knee joint angular velocity continued to contribute significantly, highlighting its importance to the production of maximal swimming velocity. The reduction in explained variance suggests an emphasis on inter-individual differences in undulatory underwater swimming technique and/or anthropometry. Future research should examine the efficacy of other anthropometric, kinematic and coordination variables to better understand the production of maximal swimming velocity and consider the importance of individual undulatory underwater swimming techniques when interpreting the data.
Performance Characteristics of Electron Transfer Dissociation Mass Spectrometry*S

We performed a large scale study of electron transfer dissociation (ETD) performance, as compared with ion trap collision-activated dissociation (CAD), for peptides ranging from ∼1000 to 5000 Da (n ∼ 4000). These data indicate relatively little overlap in peptide identifications between the two methods (∼12%). ETD outperformed CAD for all charge states greater than 2; however, regardless of precursor charge a linear decrease in percent fragmentation, as a function of increasing precursor m/z, was observed with ETD fragmentation. We postulate that several precursor cation attributes, including peptide length, charge distribution, and total mass, could be relevant players. To examine these parameters unique ETD-identified peptides were sorted by length, and the ratio of amino acid residues per precursor charge (residues/charge) was calculated. We observed excellent correlation between the ratio of residues/charge and percent fragmentation. For peptides of a given residue/charge ratio, there is no correlation between peptide mass and percent fragmentation; instead we conclude that the ratio of residues/charge is the main factor in determining a successful ETD outcome. As charge density decreases so does the probability of non-covalent interactions that can bind a newly formed c/z-type ion pair. Recently we have described a supplemental activation approach (ETcaD) to convert these non-dissociative electron transfer product ions to useful c- and z-type ions. Automated implementation of such methods should remove this apparent precursor m/z ceiling. Finally, we evaluated the role of ion density (both anionic and cationic) and reaction duration for an ETD experiment. These data indicate that the best performance is achieved when the ion trap is filled to its space charge limit with anionic reagents. In this largest scale study of ETD to date, ETD continues to show great promise to propel the field of proteomics and, for small- to medium-sized peptides, is highly complementary to ion trap CAD.
ON RATE OPTIMALITY FOR ILL-POSED INVERSE PROBLEMS IN ECONOMETRICS

In this paper we clarify the relations between the existing sets of regularity conditions for convergence rates of nonparametric indirect regression (NPIR) and nonparametric instrumental variables (NPIV) regression models. We establish minimax risk lower bounds in mean integrated squared error loss for the NPIR and NPIV models under two basic regularity conditions: the approximation number and the link condition. We show that both a simple projection estimator for the NPIR model and a sieve minimum distance estimator for the NPIV model can achieve the minimax risk lower bounds and are rate optimal uniformly over a large class of structure functions, allowing for mildly ill-posed and severely ill-posed cases.
Practical Reasoning with Nominals in the EL Family of Description Logics

The EL family of description logics (DLs) has been designed to provide a restricted syntax for commonly used DL constructors with the goal to guarantee polynomial complexity of reasoning. Yet, polynomial complexity does not always mean that the underlying reasoning procedure is efficient in practice. In this paper we consider a simple DL ELO from the EL family that admits nominals, and argue that existing polynomial reasoning procedures for ELO can be impractical for many realistic ontologies. To solve the problem, we describe an optimization strategy in which the inference rules required for reasoning with nominals are avoided as much as possible. The optimized procedure is evaluated within the reasoner ELK and demonstrated to perform well in practice.
Bladder tumor antigen sensitivity in bladder cancer patients

With its incidence continuing to increase, bladder cancer is now the fifth most common cancer in the world. Approximately half of these patients will have muscle-invasive disease at diagnosis and have distant metastasis within 2 years and 60% die within 5 years despite treatment. Therefore, rapid and sensitive urine based markers are still under investigation. In this study, we aim to find the BTA stat results for 259 Turkish patients (200 patients with and 59 without bladder cancer) whose voided urine samples were samples were available before cystoscopy or other surgical intervention. Histopathological results compared with BTA results. The mean age of 200 patients included in the study was 67 years and range was 25 to 81. 164 of 200 patient was follow up patients and the rest of them was first diagnosed group. In our study groups BTA stat test’s sensitivity and specificity was 75% and 80% respectively. However it is not enough specific and more variability of obtained data is not reliable. Besides of these, healthy donors’ urine tests were 40% positive. This means BTA stat have specificity problems. Therefore BTA stat test is not a sufficient diagnostic test.
Reactivation of creatine kinase by dithiothreitol prior to use in an in vitro translation extract.

BACKGROUND In vitro protein synthesis on exogenous messenger ribonucleic acids can be performed in various systems including cytoplasmic extract from eukaryotic cells, rabbit reticulocyte lysate and wheat germ extract. For optimal translation, an energy regeneration system based on creatine phosphate and creatine kinase is commonly employed for the regeneration of the endogenous adenosine triphosphate pools. Creatine kinase purchased from various commercial suppliers can be partially oxidised. Oxidised creatine kinase is not biologically active and might not allow the efficient initiation of translation of exogenous mRNAs in eukaryotic cell extracts in vitro. RESULTS We successfully used dithiothreitol to reduce and therefore reactivate commercially available creatine kinase. When employed in cytoplasmic extracts obtained from eukaryotic cells grown in monolayers, the reactivated creatine kinase restored translation of the exogenous mRNAs. CONCLUSION Lyophilised creatine kinase obtained from commercial suppliers can be purchased as an oxidised monomer. The reactivation of creatine kinase using a reducing agent such as dithiothreitol restores the biological activity of this enzyme. This procedure might therefore be extended to various other in vitro conditions and biological systems in which the maintenance of an efficient ATP-regenerating system is critical.
CONTINUOUS THORACIC EPIDURAL ANESTHESIA IMPROVES GUT MUCOSAL MICROCIRCULATION IN RATS WITH SEPSIS

Microcirculatory dysfunction contributes significantly to tissue hypoxia and multiple organ failure in sepsis. Ischemia of the gut and intestinal hypoxia are especially relevant for the evolution of sepsis because the mucosal barrier function may be impaired, leading to translocation of bacteria and toxins. Because sympathetic blockade enhances intestinal perfusion under physiologic conditions, we hypothesized that thoracic epidural anesthesia (TEA) may attenuate microcirculatory perturbations during sepsis. The present study was designed as a prospective and controlled laboratory experiment to assess the effects of continuous TEA on the mucosal microcirculation in a cecal ligation and perforation model of sepsis in rats. Anesthetized Sprague-Dawley rats underwent laparotomy and cecal ligation and perforation to induce sepsis. Subsequently, either bupivacaine 0.125% (n = 10) or isotonic sodium chloride solution (n = 9) was continuously infused via the thoracic epidural catheter for 24 h. In addition, a sham laparotomy was carried out in eight animals. Intravital videomicroscopy was then performed on six to ten villi of ileum mucosa. The capillary density was measured as areas encircled by perfused capillaries, that is, intercapillary areas. The TEA accomplished recruitment of microcirculatory units in the intestinal mucosa by decreasing total intercapillary areas (1,317 ± 403 vs. 1,001 ± 236 μm2) and continuously perfused intercapillary areas (1,937 ± 512 vs. 1,311 ± 678 μm2, each P < 0.05). Notably, TEA did not impair systemic hemodynamic variables beyond the changes caused by sepsis itself. Therefore, sympathetic blockade may represent a therapeutic option to treat impaired microcirculation in the gut mucosa resulting from sepsis. Additional studies are warranted to assess the microcirculatory effects of sympathetic blockade on other splanchnic organs in systemic inflammation.
Attention and Performance Detecting Consciousness : A Unique Role for Neuroimaging

Executive functions (EFs) make possible mentally playing with ideas; taking the time to think before acting; meeting novel, unanticipated challenges; resisting temptations; and staying focused. Core EFs are inhibition [response inhibition (self-control—resisting temptations and resisting acting impulsively) and interference control (selective attention and cognitive inhibition)], working memory, and cognitive flexibility (including creatively thinking “outside the box,” seeing anything from different perspectives, and quickly and flexibly adapting to changed circumstances). The developmental progression and representative measures of each are discussed. Controversies are addressed (e.g., the relation between EFs and fluid intelligence, self-regulation, executive attention, and effortful control, and the relation between working memory and inhibition and attention). The importance of social, emotional, and physical health for cognitive health is discussed because stress, lack of sleep, loneliness, or lack of exercise each impair EFs. That EFs are trainable and can be improved with practice is addressed, including diverse methods tried thus far. 135 A nn u. R ev . P sy ch ol . 2 01 3. 64 :1 35 -1 68 . D ow nl oa de d fr om w w w . a nn ua lr ev ie w s. or g by P ro f. A de le D ia m on d on 0 1/ 07 /1 3. F or p er so na l u se o nl y. PS64CH06-Diamond ARI 12 November 2012 8:45
Feasible Interpolation for QBF Resolution Calculi

In sharp contrast to classical proof complexity we are currently short of lower bound techniques for QBF proof systems. We establish the feasible interpolation technique for all resolution-based QBF systems, whether modelling CDCL or expansion-based solving. This both provides the first general lower bound method for QBF calculi as well as largely extends the scope of classical feasible interpolation. We apply our technique to obtain new exponential lower bounds to all resolution-based QBF systems for a new class of QBF formulas based on the clique problem. Finally, we show how feasible interpolation relates to the recently established lower bound method based on strategy extraction [7].
Coupled Compound Poisson Factorization

We present a general framework, the coupled compound Poisson factorization (CCPF), to capture the missing-data mechanism in extremely sparse data sets by coupling a hierarchical Poisson factorization with an arbitrary data-generating model. We derive a stochastic variational inference algorithm for the resulting model and, as examples of our framework, implement three different data-generating models---a mixture model, linear regression, and factor analysis---to robustly model non-random missing data in the context of clustering, prediction, and matrix factorization. In all three cases, we test our framework against models that ignore the missing-data mechanism on large scale studies with non-random missing data, and we show that explicitly modeling the missing-data mechanism substantially improves the quality of the results, as measured using data log likelihood on a held-out test set.
Treatment of Unstable Pelvic Ring Injuries With an Internal Anterior Fixator and Posterior Fixation: Initial Clinical Series

Objectives: To present a novel internal fixation device for stabilizing unstable pelvic fractures using supra-acetabular spinal pedicle screws and a subcutaneous connecting rod (INFIX). Setting: Level I trauma center. Design: Case series. Patients: Twenty-four patients with rotational or vertically unstable pelvic fractures that reported to a level I trauma center. Methods/intervention: Surgical treatment of unstable pelvic fractures included reduction, appropriate posterior fixation where indicated, and an anterior subcutaneous internal fixator. Main Outcome Measurement: Healing time, quality and loss of reduction, ease of nursing, incidence of complications, including nonunion, infection, and patient mobility and comfort. Results: In the present clinical series, all fractures healed without significant loss of reduction. There were no infections, delayed unions or nonunions. Nursing care was observed to be easier especially in the intensive care unit setting. Complications included unilateral anterior thigh paresthesias in 2 patients, and 1 patient each required repositioning of the pedicle screw and readjustment of screw rod junction. Patients tolerated the procedure well and were fairly mobile after the procedure. Conclusions: The reported technique allows for a definitive and stable anterior fixation of vertically and rotationally unstable pelvic fractures when combined with the appropriate posterior fixation if indicated. The potential complications are acceptable with this technique and good outcomes were achieved. A second operative procedure is required for removal of the device. It is our view that its best indication is in obese individuals, in whom other options have shortcomings.