Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Contemporary management of high-grade renal trauma: Results from the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma Genitourinary Trauma study

BACKGROUND The rarity of renal trauma limits its study and the strength of evidence-based guidelines. Although management of renal injuries has shifted toward a nonoperative approach, nephrectomy remains the most common intervention for high-grade renal trauma (HGRT). We aimed to describe the contemporary management of HGRT in the United States and also evaluate clinical factors associated with nephrectomy after HGRT. METHODS From 2014 to 2017, data on HGRT (American Association for the Surgery of Trauma grades III-V) were collected from 14 participating Level-1 trauma centers. Data were gathered on demographics, injury characteristics, management, and short-term outcomes. Management was classified into three groups—expectant, conservative/minimally invasive, and open operative. Descriptive statistics were used to report management of renal trauma. Univariate and multivariate logistic mixed effect models with clustering by facility were used to look at associations between proposed risk factors and nephrectomy. RESULTS A total of 431 adult HGRT were recorded; 79% were male, and mechanism of injury was blunt in 71%. Injuries were graded as III, IV, and V in 236 (55%), 142 (33%), and 53 (12%), respectively. Laparotomy was performed in 169 (39%) patients. Overall, 300 (70%) patients were managed expectantly and 47 (11%) underwent conservative/minimally invasive management. Eighty-four (19%) underwent renal-related open operative management with 55 (67%) of them undergoing nephrectomy. Nephrectomy rates were 15% and 62% for grades IV and V, respectively. Penetrating injuries had significantly higher American Association for the Surgery of Trauma grades and higher rates of nephrectomy. In multivariable analysis, only renal injury grade and penetrating mechanism of injury were significantly associated with undergoing nephrectomy. CONCLUSION Expectant and conservative management is currently utilized in 80% of HGRT; however, the rate of nephrectomy remains high. Clinical factors, such as surrogates of hemodynamic instability and metabolic acidosis, are associated with nephrectomy for HGRT; however, higher renal injury grade and penetrating trauma remain the strongest associations. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE Prognostic/epidemiologic study, level III; Therapeutic study, level IV.
Towards Identifying Hindi/Urdu Noun Templates in Support of a Large-Scale LFG Grammar

Complex predicates (CPs) are a highly productive predicational phenomenon in Hindi and Urdu and present a challenge for deep syntactic parsing. For CPs, a combination of a noun and light verb express a single event. The combinatorial preferences of nouns with one (or more) light verb is useful for predicting an instance of a CP. In this paper, we present a semi-automatic method to obtain noun groups based on their co-occurrences with light verbs. These noun groups represent the likelihood of a particular noun-verb combination in a large corpus. Finally, in order to encode this in an LFG grammar, we propose linking nouns with templates that describe preferable combinations with light verbs.
Corrigendum to “Kripke‐style semantics for many‐valued logics”

This note contains a correct proof of the fact that the set of all first‐order formulas which are valid in all predicate Kripke frames for Hájek's many‐valued logic BL is not arithmetical. The result was claimed in [5], but the proof given there was incorrect. (© 2003 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)
Effects of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor therapy on the regulation of plasma and cardiac tissue renin-angiotensin system in heart transplant patientsGlobal RAS regulation in HTx

BACKGROUND: Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors (ACEis) are beneficial in patients with heart failure, yet their role after heart transplantation (HTx) remains ambiguous. Particularly, the effects of ACEis on plasma and cardiac metabolites of the `classical` and `alternative` reninangiotensin-system (RAS) in HTx patients are unknown. METHODS: This cross-sectional study used a novel mass spectrometry-based approach to analyze both plasma and tissue RAS regulation in heart biopsy homogenates of stable HTx patients without RAS blockade (n = 10) and with ACEi therapy (n = 15). Angiotensin (Ang) levels in plasma and Ang formation rates in biopsy homogenates were measured. RESULTS: We demonstrate that plasma Ang II formation is exclusively ACE-dependent, while cardiac Ang II formation is primarily chymase-dependent in HTx patients. ACEi therapy substantially increased plasma Ang-(1-7), the key effector of the `alternative` RAS, leaving plasmatic Ang II largely
Optimisation of MgO addition in low and high silica iron ore sinter to improve sinter reducibility at JSW Steel Limited

The quality of iron ore sinter mainly depends on sinter mineralogy, which in turn depends on the chemical composition of the sinter mix. The reduction properties of the mineral phases formed in the sinter influences the sinter reducibility. MgO has a varying effect on sinter reducibility at different silica contents. A recent trend in blast furnace operation shows that there is a considerable increase in usage of dolomite as a basic flux either directly or through sinter. Recently the silica levels in the sinter product of Sinter plant 1(SP1) of JSW Steel Limited have been fluctuating in the range of 5·5–9·6% due to variation in silica content of iron ore fines. At the same time, as per blast furnace requirement, the addition of dolomite has been changed from 2·4 to greater than 3·0% at SP1, and the reducibility of the sinter decreased (<60·0%). Laboratory pot grate sintering experiments have been carried out to determine the influence of MgO addition on microstructure and reducibility of low and high silica sinter. MgO additions have been varied from 1·4 to 3·2% for low silica (4·5%), and high silica (6·3%) iron ore fines. From the studies it was found that the reducibility of both sinters decreased with increase in MgO addition due to an increase in magnetite/magnesio spinel phase and silicate/slag phase. Reducibility of low silica sinter was greater with high silica sinter. High silica with high MgO sinter had lower reducibility compared to low silica with low MgO/high MgO and high silica with low MgO sinter.
Fast Recognition of BCI-Inefficient Users Using Physiological Features from EEG Signals: A Screening Study of Stroke Patients

Motor imagery (MI) based brain-computer interface (BCI) has been developed as an alternative therapy for stroke rehabilitation. However, experimental evidence demonstrates that a significant portion (10–50%) of subjects are BCI-inefficient users (accuracy less than 70%). Thus, predicting BCI performance prior to clinical BCI usage would facilitate the selection of suitable end-users and improve the efficiency of stroke rehabilitation. In the current study, we proposed two physiological variables, i.e., laterality index (LI) and cortical activation strength (CAS), to predict MI-BCI performance. Twenty-four stroke patients and 10 healthy subjects were recruited for this study. Each subject was required to perform two blocks of left- and right-hand MI tasks. Linear regression analyses were performed between the BCI accuracies and two physiological predictors. Here, the predictors were calculated from the electroencephalography (EEG) signals during paretic hand MI tasks (5 trials; approximately 1 min). LI values exhibited a statistically significant correlation with two-class BCI (left vs. right) performance (r = −0.732, p < 0.001), and CAS values exhibited a statistically significant correlation with brain-switch BCI (task vs. idle) performance (r = 0.641, p < 0.001). Furthermore, the BCI-inefficient users were successfully recognized with a sensitivity of 88.2% and a specificity of 85.7% in the two-class BCI. The brain-switch BCI achieved a sensitivity of 100.0% and a specificity of 87.5% in the discrimination of BCI-inefficient users. These results demonstrated that the proposed BCI predictors were promising to promote the BCI usage in stroke rehabilitation and contribute to a better understanding of the BCI-inefficiency phenomenon in stroke patients.
Two faces of triel bonds in boron trihalide complexes

The N⋅⋅⋅B triel bonds in complexes of boron trihalides, BX3 (X = F, Cl, Br, and I), with species acting as Lewis bases through the nitrogen center, NH3, N2, and HCN, are analyzed theoretically (MP2/aug‐cc‐pVTZ calculations). It is confirmed that stronger Lewis acid properties of the boron center are observed for the BCl3 moiety than for the BF3 one in complexes with the strong Lewis base (NH3); while the opposite order is observed for complexes with the weak Lewis base (N2). The BX3NCH complexes (for X = Cl, Br, and I) are characterized by two tautomeric forms and by two corresponding N⋅⋅⋅B distances, the shorter one possesses characteristics of the covalent bond. In a case of the BF3NCH complex one energetic minimum is observed. Ab initio calculations are supported by an analysis of molecular electrostatic potentials (EPs) and electron density distributions. The quantum theory of ‘atoms in molecules’ and the decomposition of the energy of interaction are applied. The aforementioned acidity orders as well as the existence of two tautomers for some of complexes result partly from the electrostatic interactions' balance; the EP distribution is different for the BF3 species than for the other BX3 species where X = Cl, Br, and I. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Assessing the clinical value of microRNAs in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded liposarcoma tissues: Overexpressed miR-155 is an indicator of poor prognosis

Liposarcoma (LPS) is a malignancy with extreme heterogeneity and thus optimization towards personalizing patient prognosis and treatment is essential. Here, we evaluated miR-155, miR-21, miR-143, miR-145 and miR-451 that are implicated in LPS, as novel FFPE tissue biomarkers. A total of 83 FFPE tissue specimens from primary LPS and lipomas (LPM) were analyzed. A proteinase K incubation-Trizol treatment coupled protocol was used for RNA isolation. After polyadenylation of total RNA and reverse transcription, expression analysis of 9 candidate reference and 5 target miRNAs was performed by qPCR. Genorm and NormFinder were used for finding the most suitable molecules for normalization. Survival analyses were performed in order to evaluate the prognostic potential of miRNAs. MiR-103 and miR-191 are most suitable for normalization of miRNA expression in LPS. MiR-155 and miR-21 are clearly overexpressed (P<0.001) in LPS compared with LPM specimens, whereas miR-145 (P<0.001), miR-143 (P =0.008) and miR-451 (P=0.037) are underexpressed. MiR-155 (P=0.007) and miR-21 (P=0.029) are differentially expressed between well-differentiated, dedifferentiated, myxoid/round cell and pleomorphic LPs tumor subtypes. MiR-155 represents a novel independent indicator of unfavorable prognosis in LPS (HR = 2.97, 95% CI = 1.23–7.17, P = 0.016).
Secure Information Flow by Model Checking Pushdown System

We propose an approach on model checking information flow for imperative language with procedures. We characterize our model with pushdown system, which has a stack of unbounded length that naturally models the execution of procedural programs. Because the type-based static analysis is sometimes too conservative and rejects safe program as ill-typed, we take a semantic-based approach by self-composing symbolic pushdown system and specifying noninterference with LTL formula. Then we verify this LTL-expressed property via model checker Moped. Except for overcoming the conservative characteristic of type-based approach, our motivation also includes the insufficient state of arts on precise information flow analysis under interprocedural setting. To remedy the inefficiency of model checking compared with type system, we propose both compact form and contracted form of self-composition. According to experimental results, they can greatly increase the efficiency of realistic verification. Our method provides flexibility on separating program abstraction from noninterference verification, thus could be expected to use on different programming languages.
A Randomized Double-blind Controlled Trial of Lactobacillus acidophilus Plus Bifidobacterium bifidum versus Placebo in Patients with Hypercholesterolemia.

BACKGROUND Hypercholesterolemia is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Not all patients respond well to traditional cholesterol lowering medications. Probiotics have been evaluated for their cholesterol-lowering effects in humans with variable results. This study was performed to evaluate the efficacy of two probiotics in lowering the serum cholesterol of hypercholesterolemic patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS A randomized double-blind controlled trial was conducted comparing placebo to Lactobacillus acidophilus plus Bifidobacterium bifidum in patients diagnosed with hypercholesterolemia. Placebo or probiotic capsules were taken three times daily for six weeks. Pre- and post-treatment total cholesterol (TC), HDL-cholesterol (HDL-C), LDL-cholesterol (LDL-C) and triglyceride (TG) levels and demographic parameters of the two groups were compared. From a total of 70 participants, 64 completed the assigned treatment (31 in probiotics group and 33 in the control group). The two treatment groups were matched for age, sex, weight, height, BMI, waist and hip circumferences, and blood pressure. RESULTS Baseline evaluation revealed no difference between the probiotics group and control group levels of TC, HDL-C, LDL-C and TG. TC levels in the probiotics group decreased during treatment (237.2 vs. 212.7 mg/dL, p<0.05). TC and LDL-C levels in the control group increased significantly from their baseline levels during treatment. TC (212.7 vs 252.8 mg/dL, p<0.001), HDL-C (52.0 vs 59.1 mg/dL, p=0.04) and LDL-C (153.9 vs 182.1 mg/dL, p<0.01) levels in the probiotics group were significantly lower at the end of treatment than the corresponding levels in the control group. CONCLUSION A combination of Lactobacillus acidophilus and Bifidobacterium bifidum decreased serum total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol and HDL-cholesterol levels in hypercholesterolemic patients over a six week period. There was no effect on serum triglyceride or fasting blood glucose levels.
The influence of acute stress on brain dynamics

Living under high stress may be unhealthy. This study explores electroencephalography (EEG) correlated with stressful circumstances by using the task-switching paradigm with feedback information. According to the behavioral and physiological evidence, acute stress created by this paradigm affected the performance of participants. Under stress, the participants responded quickly and inaccurately. The EEG results correlated with acute stress were found in the frontal midline cortex, especially on the theta and alpha bands. These specific factors are considered importance features for detecting the influence of stress by applying various machine-learning methods and neuro-fuzzy systems. This comprehensive study can provide knowledge for studying stress and designing Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) systems in the future.
Joint design of beam selection and precoding for mmWave MU-MIMO systems with lens antenna array

Wireless transmission with lens antenna arrays is becoming more and more attractive for millimeter wave (mmWave) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems with limited radio frequency (RF) chains due to their energy-focusing capability. In this paper, we consider the joint design of beam selection and precoding to maximize the sum rate of a downlink single-sided lens MU-MIMO mmWave system under transmit power constraints. We first formulate the optimization problem into a tractable form using the popular weighted minimum mean squared error (WMMSE) approach. To solve this problem, we then propose an efficient joint beam selection and precoding algorithm based on the innovative penalty dual decomposition (PDD) method. Simulation results demonstrate that our proposed algorithm can achieve near-optimal performance when compared to the fully digital precoding scheme and thus outperform the competing methods.1
Comprehensive Part-Of-Speech Tag Set and SVM based POS Tagger for Sinhala

This paper presents a new comprehensive multi-level Part-Of-Speech tag set and a Support Vector Machine based Part-Of-Speech tagger for the Sinhala language. The currently available tag set for Sinhala has two limitations: the unavailability of tags to represent some word classes and the lack of tags to capture inflection based grammatical variations of words. The new tag set, presented in this paper overcomes both of these limitations. The accuracy of available Sinhala Part-Of-Speech taggers, which are based on Hidden Markov Models, still falls far behind state of the art. Our Support Vector Machine based tagger achieved an overall accuracy of 84.68% with 59.86% accuracy for unknown words and 87.12% for known words, when the test set contains 10% of unknown words.
Kinetics of Inactivation of Waterborne Enteric Viruses by Ozone.

Ozone is an effective disinfectant against all types of waterborne pathogens. However, accurate and quantitative kinetic data regarding virus inactivation by ozone are scarce, because of the experimental challenges associated with the high reactivity of ozone toward viruses. Here, we established an experimental batch system that allows tailoring and quantifying of very low ozone exposures and simultaneously measuring virus inactivation. Second-order ozone inactivation rate constants (kO3-virus) of five enteric viruses [laboratory and two environmental strains of coxsackievirus B5 (CVF, CVEnv1, and CVEnv2), human adenovirus (HAdV), and echovirus 11 (EV)] and four bacteriophages (MS2, Qβ, T4, and Φ174) were measured in buffered solutions. The kO3-virus values of all tested viruses ranged from 4.5 × 105 to 3.3 × 106 M-1 s-1. For MS2, kO3-MS2 depended only weakly on temperature (2-22 °C; Ea = 22.2 kJ mol-1) and pH (6.5-8.5), with an increase in kO3-MS2 with increasing pH. The susceptibility of the selected viruses toward ozone decreases in the following order: Qβ > CVEnv2 > EV ≈ MS2 > Φ174 ≈ T4 > HAdV > CVF ≈ CVEnv1. On the basis of the measured kO3-Virus and typical ozone exposures applied in water and wastewater treatment, we conclude that ozone is a highly effective disinfectant for virus control.
Do I use the wrong definition?: DeFuse: definition-use invariants for detecting concurrency and sequential bugs

Software bugs, such as concurrency, memory and semantic bugs, can significantly affect system reliability. Although much effort has been made to address this problem, there are still many bugs that cannot be detected, especially concurrency bugs due to the complexity of concurrent programs. Effective approaches for detecting these common bugs are therefore highly desired. This paper presents an invariant-based bug detection tool, DefUse, which can detect not only concurrency bugs (including the previously under-studied order violation bugs), but also memory and semantic bugs. Based on the observation that many bugs appear as violations to programmers' data flow intentions, we introduce three different types of definition-use invariants that commonly exist in both sequential and concurrent programs. We also design an algorithm to automatically extract such invariants from programs, which are then used to detect bugs. Moreover, DefUse uses various techniques to prune false positives and rank error reports. We evaluated DefUse using sixteen real-world applications with twenty real-world concurrency and sequential bugs. Our results show that DefUse can effectively detect 19 of these bugs, including 2 new bugs that were never reported before, with only a few false positives. Our training sensitivity results show that, with the benefit of the pruning and ranking algorithms, DefUse is accurate even with insufficient training.
Final Frontier: An Educational Game on Solar System Concepts Acquisition for Primary Schools

Science teachers and researchers believe that students' disengagement from STEM area can be overcome by using interactive and fun-based computer educational games in order to support knowledge acquisition through direct experience. This paper presents a research study on the effectiveness of a new interactive educational 3D video game called Final Frontier. The game supports delivery of scientific knowledge on the Solar system to primary school students. A comprehensive case study that involved 30 children was conducted to evaluate the game. The results confirmed that the game supports high learning achievements through an enjoyable and fun learning environment entirely appreciated by children. The vast majority of the students (93%) have expressed their interest in learning other subjects through such an interactive computer game.
Experimental Evaluation for Core Loss Reduction of a Consequent-Pole Bearingless Disk Motor Using Soft Magnetic Composites

This paper focuses on core loss reduction of a consequent-pole bearingless disk motor using a C-shaped stator core made of soft magnetic composites (SMC). The core loss of the previously built test machine was significantly high, because the C-core has a three-dimensional flux path; therefore, conventional laminated steel cannot be used. In this paper, the solid iron core is replaced by the SMC, and its effectiveness is experimentally demonstrated. The core loss with solid iron, when the bearingless motor is driven at 3000 r/min under no load condition, is 3.8 W, but that with the SMC core is reduced to only 0.6 W. The maximum efficiency with solid iron is 27%, but that with the SMC core is improved to 61%. It is experimentally verified that the SMC core is effective to reduce the core loss and improve the efficiency of the bearingless disk motor with C-shaped stator cores.
Transcription Factor-Mediated Control of Anthocyanin Biosynthesis in Vegetative Tissues1[OPEN]

A systems biology study reveals that anthocyanin biosynthesis in tomato vegetative tissue is accompanied by changes in the epidermis and architecture of the root. Plants accumulate secondary metabolites to adapt to environmental conditions. These compounds, here exemplified by the purple-colored anthocyanins, are accumulated upon high temperatures, UV-light, drought, and nutrient deficiencies, and may contribute to tolerance to these stresses. Producing compounds is often part of a more broad response of the plant to changes in the environment. Here we investigate how a transcription-factor-mediated program for controlling anthocyanin biosynthesis also has effects on formation of specialized cell structures and changes in the plant root architecture. A systems biology approach was developed in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) for coordinated induction of biosynthesis of anthocyanins, in a tissue- and development-independent manner. A transcription factor couple from Antirrhinum that is known to control anthocyanin biosynthesis was introduced in tomato under control of a dexamethasone-inducible promoter. By application of dexamethasone, anthocyanin formation was induced within 24 h in vegetative tissues and in undifferentiated cells. Profiles of metabolites and gene expression were analyzed in several tomato tissues. Changes in concentration of anthocyanins and other phenolic compounds were observed in all tested tissues, accompanied by induction of the biosynthetic pathways leading from Glc to anthocyanins. A number of pathways that are not known to be involved in anthocyanin biosynthesis were observed to be regulated. Anthocyanin-producing plants displayed profound physiological and architectural changes, depending on the tissue, including root branching, root epithelial cell morphology, seed germination, and leaf conductance. The inducible anthocyanin-production system reveals a range of phenomena that accompanies anthocyanin biosynthesis in tomato, including adaptions of the plants architecture and physiology.