Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Unilateral and bilateral congenital sensorineural deafness in client-owned pure-breed white cats.

BACKGROUND Congenital sensorineural deafness has been reported frequently in experimental mixed-breed white cats but there is a paucity of data on occurrence of deafness in client-owned pure-breed white cats. OBJECTIVE To describe hearing status in client-owned pure-breed white cats. ANIMALS Eighty-four pure-breed client-owned cats with white coat color of 10 registered breeds presented for routine hearing evaluation before breeding (1995-2008). METHODS Hearing was assessed by click-evoked brainstem auditory evoked response. RESULTS Overall deafness prevalence was 20.2%; 9 cats (10.7%) were bilaterally deaf and 8 cats (9.5%) were unilaterally deaf. There was no association between sex and deafness status (P= .85). Deafness status was associated with iris color (P= .04). CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE Congenital sensorineural deafness frequently occurs in pure-breed cats with white coat color. Unilateral sensorineural deafness was as common as bilateral deafness.
Prognostic significance of the microvascular count in colorectal cancer.

PURPOSE To investigate the potential correlations between a high microvascular count and the survival rate in colorectal cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS Three markers for endothelial cells--Ulex Europaeus Lectin (UEA), a polyclonal anti-von Willebrand factor (vWF) antibody, and a monoclonal anti-CD31 antibody (all from Dakopatts, Glostrup, Denmark)--were used for immunohistochemical detection of microvessels in whole-mount sections from 15 colorectal cancers. Areas with higher microvascular density were homogeneously distributed in the sections, regardless of the marker used. The anti-vWF antibody was subsequently used for quantification of microvessels in full-cross tumor biopsies collected from 212 consecutive surgical specimens. The correlations between the mean number of microvessels in areas with the highest microvascular density and tumor differentiation, tumor stage according to Dukes', and survival time were investigated. RESULTS A significantly longer survival time was shown for patients who had tumors with a mean of more than 10 anti-vWF-positive microvessels, as compared with those who had < or = five. Tumors with a microvascular count between six and 10 microvessels behaved in-between. There was no correlation between the number of microvessels and tumor differentiation or Dukes' stage. CONCLUSION The number of microvessels measurable in tumor biopsies seems to be a prognostic predictor independent of Dukes' stage in colorectal cancer. However, our results are opposite to the findings in other tumor types investigated so far; we found that a high microvascular count predicted a longer survival time, rather than a shorter one. Determination of the microvascular count can be of importance in therapy selection even before, or immediately after, surgery, ie, before Dukes' stage is known.
Recharacterization of ancient DNA miscoding lesions: insights in the era of sequencing-by-synthesis

Although ancient DNA (aDNA) miscoding lesions have been studied since the earliest days of the field, their nature remains a source of debate. A variety of conflicting hypotheses exist about which miscoding lesions constitute true aDNA damage as opposed to PCR polymerase amplification error. Furthermore, considerable disagreement and speculation exists on which specific damage events underlie observed miscoding lesions. The root of the problem is that it has previously been difficult to assemble sufficient data to test the hypotheses, and near-impossible to accurately determine the specific strand of origin of observed damage events. With the advent of emulsion-based clonal amplification (emPCR) and the sequencing-by-synthesis technology this has changed. In this paper we demonstrate how data produced on the Roche GS20 genome sequencer can determine miscoding lesion strands of origin, and subsequently be interpreted to enable characterization of the aDNA damage behind the observed phenotypes. Through comparative analyses on 390 965 bp of modern chloroplast and 131 474 bp of ancient woolly mammoth GS20 sequence data we conclusively demonstrate that in this sample at least, a permafrost preserved specimen, Type 2 (cytosine→thymine/guanine→adenine) miscoding lesions represent the overwhelming majority of damage-derived miscoding lesions. Additionally, we show that an as yet unidentified guanine→adenine analogue modification, not the conventionally argued cytosine→uracil deamination, underpins a significant proportion of Type 2 damage. How widespread these implications are for aDNA will become apparent as future studies analyse data recovered from a wider range of substrates.
The Free Caesareans Policy in Low-Income Settings: An Interrupted Time Series Analysis in Mali (2003–2012)

Introduction Several countries have instituted fee exemptions for caesareans to reduce maternal and newborn mortality. Objectives To evaluate the effect of fee exemptions for caesareans on population caesarean rates taking into account different levels of accessibility. Methods The observation period was from January 2003 to May 2012 in one Region and covered 11.7 million person-years. Exemption fees for caesareans were adopted on June 26, 2005. Data were obtained from a registration system implemented in 2003 that tracks all obstetrical emergencies and interventions including caesareans. The pre-intervention period was 30 months and the post-intervention period was 83 months. We used an interrupted time series to evaluate the trend before and after the policy adoption and the overall tendency. Findings During the study period, the caesarean rate increased from 0.25 to 1.5% for the entire population. For women living in cities with district hospitals that provided caesareans, the rate increased from 1.7% before the policy was enforced to 5.7% 83 months later. No significant change in trends was observed among women living in villages with a healthcare centre or those in villages with no healthcare facility. For the latter, the caesarean rate increased from 0.4 to 1%. Conclusions After nine years of implementation policy in Mali, the caesarean rate achieved in cities with a district hospital reached the full beneficial effect of this measure, whereas for women living elsewhere this policy did not increase the caesarean rate to a level that could contribute effectively to reduce their risk of maternal death. Only universal access to this essential intervention could reduce the inequities and increase the effectiveness of this policy.
Expression of interleukin 6 and tumor necrosis factor alpha in soft tissue over ceramic and metal implant materials before uncovering: a clinical pilot study.

PURPOSE To compare the effect of ceramic and metal implant materials on the expression pattern of inflammatory cytokines in peri-implant soft tissue. MATERIALS AND METHODS This split-mouth study included patients who received dental implants. In each patient, four different materials were used for the implant cover screws: the ceramic material titanium niobium oxynitride ([Ti,Nb]ON) with plasma-chemical oxidation treatment, (Ti,Nb)ON, a titanium-tantalum alloy, and tantalum. Biopsy specimens of peri-implant tissue were harvested at reentry, 4 months after the initial surgery. Immunohistochemical staining was performed for tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) and interleukin 6 (IL-6). RESULTS Six patients received a total of 24 dental implants with the four different types of implant cover screws. Quantitative analysis of TNF-α; and IL-6 expression showed the lowest expression of IL-6 (1.5; interquartile range, 0 to 8.5) and TNF-α (4.8; interquartile range, 3.5 to 7.5) in tissue adjacent to the (Ti,Nb)ON layer. In comparison to the metal surfaces, the expression of both cytokines was significantly lower (P = .01 and P = .03). CONCLUSIONS The lowest levels of cytokine expression were observed in tissue adjacent to the ceramic (Ti,Nb)ON coating with plasma-chemical oxidation. Based on the results of this study, this ceramic layer shows promise as a biocompatible material, and further study is warranted.
Intraoperative Neuromonitoring Detects Thrombotic Occlusion of the Left Common Iliac Arterial Bifurcation After Anterior Lumbar Interbody Fusion: Case Report

Prompt recognition of acute or delayed vascular insults during anterior spinal reconstructive surgery of the lower lumbar levels is paramount for successful intervention and prevention of sequelae. Although surgical exposure of the lower lumbar levels requires mindful dissection and cautious retraction of abdominal vessels, ischemic insult due to partial or complete occlusion of the iliac arteries may go undetected without adequate surgical monitoring. We present a case of progressive thrombotic occlusion of the left common iliac artery detected by intraoperative spinal cord monitoring using somatosenory evoked potentials (SSEPs) at the peripheral and central levels. Surgical monitoring using palpation of vessels and pulse oximetry of the great toe were initially proposed as simple and relatively inexpensive modalities for routine surgical monitoring. Subsequently, monitoring cortical SSEPs were combined with great toe pulse oximetry to advance continuous routine surgical monitoring. However, using only cortical SSEPs predisposes such protocols to an inherently higher risk of false positives. Neuromonitoring protocols should rely heavily on the replication of waveforms recorded at multiple sites along the neural pathway.
Cigarette smoking has no pro-cognitive effect in subjects with obsessive-compulsive disorder: A preliminary study.

BACKGROUND The prevalence of cigarette smoking in patients with different psychiatric disorders is higher than that in the general population, which is partly explained by the pro-cognitive effect of smoking on cognitive functions. In subjects with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), the prevalence of smokers is lower than that in other psychiatric disorders. We hypothesized that cigarette smoking does not provide benefits and even worsen cognitive performance in OCD. SUBJECTS AND METHODS We compared different executive function subdomains in 20 smoking and 20 non-smoking inpatients with OCD. At the beginning of hospitalization, we assessed visuo-spatial working memory, planning and set-shifting abilities (Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery), smoking habits (standardized personal interviews), and the severity of obsessive-compulsive symptoms (Dimensional Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale). RESULTS The performance of smokers and non-smokers did not differ significantly in any cognitive subdomain. The smoking duration was significantly associated with poorer visuo-spatial working memory performance (P=0.001). CONCLUSIONS Our results showed that cigarette smoking did not provide cognitive enhancement across various executive function subdomains in subjects with OCD. The lack of beneficial cognitive effects of smoking may make these subjects less prone to smoking and may partially explain the lower rate of smokers in OCD compared with other psychiatric conditions.
Composite interpolation approach to super-resolution for image database browsing over the web

Super-resolution is a key task when browsing huge image databases over the Web; in fact, it allows for significant improvements of the service interactivity by increasing the image spatial resolution so that only thumbnail version of the images can be sent over the network. In the proposed work, the low-resolution image is first analyzed to identify several features that are significant for visual rendering and scene understanding. Such a classification is based on local frequency composition: uniform regions, edges and textures. The identified regions are then treated differently depending on the relative visual significance. Each region is further analyzed and a different interpolation approach is adopted, ranging from plain linear interpolation for homogeneous areas to edge area analysis and selective anisotropic interpolation. The combination of image region classification and adaptive-anisotropic interpolation is the main novelty of the proposed approach, which proved to outperform alternative techniques.
Querying the Guarded Fragment

Evaluating a boolean conjunctive query q over a guarded first-order theory T is equivalent to checking whether (T \& not q) is unsatisfiable. This problem is relevant to the areas of database theory and description logic. Since q may not be guarded, well known results about the decidability, complexity, and finite-model property of the guarded fragment do not obviously carry over to conjunctive query answering over guarded theories, and had been left open in general. By investigating finite guarded bisimilar covers of hypergraphs and relational structures, and by substantially generalising Rosati's finite chase, we prove for guarded theories T and (unions of) conjunctive queries q that (i) T implies q iff T implies q over finite models, that is, iff q is true in each finite model of T and (ii) determining whether T implies q is {2EXPTIME}-complete. We further show the following results: (iii) the existence of polynomial-size conformal covers of arbitrary hypergraphs; (iv) a new proof of the finite model property of the clique-guarded fragment; (v) the small model property of the guarded fragment with optimal bounds; (vi) a polynomial-time solution to the canonisation problem modulo guarded bisimulation, which yields (vii) a capturing result for guarded-bisimulation-invariant PTIME.
Parametric temporal alignment for the detection of facial action temporal segments

In this paper we propose the very first weakly supervised approach for detecting facial action unit temporal segments. This is achieved by means of behaviour similarity matching, where no training of dedicated classifiers is needed and the input facial behaviour episode is compared to a template. The inferred temporal segment boundaries of the test sequence are those transferred from the template sequence. To this end, a parametric temporal alignment algorithm is proposed to align a single exemplar sequence to the test sequence. The proposed strategy can accommodate flexible time warp functions, does not need to exhaustively align all frames in both sequences, and the optimal warp parameters can be found by an efficient Gauss-Newton gradient descent search. We show that our approach produces the best results to date for the problem at hand, and provides a promising opportunity to studying facial actions from a new perspective.
Fertility-Sparing Surgery in Early-Stage Cervical Cancer Patients: Oncologic and Reproductive Outcomes

Objective The aim of this study was to evaluate the safety, feasibility, and effectiveness of conservative management of early-stage cervical cancer (eCC) in young women willing to preserve their childbearing potential. Methods Data of 22 consecutive young women (aged <40 years) undergoing conservative management of eCC were prospectively collected. Conservative management consists of cervical conization plus laparoscopic pelvic lymphadenectomy. Results Median age was 32.5 years (range, 27–40 years). Twenty-one women (95%) were nulliparous. Histology included adenocarcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and adenosquamous carcinoma in 11 (50%), 10 (45%), and 1 (5%) patients, respectively. Six (27%) and 16 patients (73%) were affected by stage IA2 and IB1, respectively. The mean number of pelvic lymph node removed was 26 (SD, 8.6). After primary treatment, 3 patients required radical surgery due to the presence of metastatic nodes detected at the time of diagnostic lymphadenectomy. In addition, 1 patient (5%), after the successful execution of conservative treatment, asked for hysterectomy. After a mean follow-up of 48.8 (SD, 32.8) months, no recurrence was diagnosed among patients undergoing ultraconservative treatment, whereas 2 out of 3 patients with positive pelvic nodes who had radical hysterectomy developed recurrent disease. Considering the whole cohort, 5-year disease-free and overall survival rates were 85.9% and 93.7%, respectively. Looking at reproductive outcomes, 15 of 18 patients (4 patients had hysterectomy) attempted to conceive, and 8 (53%) women had spontaneous pregnancies Conclusions Conservative management for eCC seems to be associated with long-term oncologic effectiveness, preserving reproductive function. Further large prospective studies are warranted to improve patients’ care.
Comparison of Antiepileptic Drugs on Cognitive Function in Newly Diagnosed Epileptic Children: A Psychometric and Neurophysiological Study

Summary: Using a randomized parallel group study design, we compared the cognitive effects of carbamazepine (CBZ), phenobarbital (PB), and valproate (VPA) in children with epilepsy. Seventy‐three children with newly diagnosed epilepsy were tested with the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children‐Revised (WISC‐R), Bender‐Gestalt test, and auditory event‐related potentials (P300) before and 6 and 12 months after antiepileptic drug (AED) treatment. There were no significant differences in WISC‐R IQs and Bender‐Gestalt scores for children in any group at any of the three sessions. P300 latencies were increased in the children receiving PB but not in children receiving CBZ and VPA. P300 amplitudes were significantly reduced in treated children in all three groups, but amplitudes were not significantly different among the three groups. These findings suggest that PB may affect cognitive function of epileptic children and that the P300 may be a sensitive additional procedure that can be used to assess the cognitive effect of AEDs.
A Simple Dose Regimen of Artesunate and Amodiaquine Based on Age or Body Weight Range for Uncomplicated Falciparum Malaria in Children: Comparison of Therapeutic Efficacy With Standard Dose Regimen of Artesunate and Amodiaquine and Artemether–Lumefantrine

A new dose regimen of artesunate and amodiaquine (NDRAA) based on age or body weight range was compared with standard dose regimen of artesunate and amodiaquine (SDRAA) calculated according to body weight and with fixed-dose artesunate–amodiaquine (FDAA) and artemether–lumefantrine (AL) in 304 children afflicted by malaria aged 15 years or younger. In initial comparison (n = 208), children on NDRAA received 1–3 times amodiaquine per kilogram of body weight and 1–1.5 times of artesunate per kilogram of body weight compared with those receiving SDRAA. Parasite but not fever clearance was significantly faster in children who received NDRAA (19.4 ± 8.4 hours vs. 24.6 ± 15.5 hours, P = 0.003). Polymerase chain reaction–uncorrected cure rates on days 28–42 were also significantly higher in children who received NDRAA (P < 0.02 in all cases). Therapeutic responses in children younger than 5 years (n = 96) treated with NDRAA, FDAA, and AL were similar. Changes in hematocrit values and reported adverse events after commencing therapy were similar in those who received NDRAA and SDRAA. All drug regimens were well tolerated. NDRAA based on age or body weight range is simple, is therapeutically superior to SDRAA calculated according to body weight, and is as efficacious as AL in children younger than 5 years.
Constant Visual and Haptic Time Delays in Simulated Bilateral Teleoperation: Quantifying the Human Operator Performance

Visual feedback and force feedback (haptics) are the two streams of information in a robotic bilateral teleoperation where the operator manipulates a robot in a remote location. Delivering the visual and the haptic information depends in part on the characteristics of the communication network and results in a nonsynchronized delay. The goal is to study the effect of constant nonsynchronized and synchronized time delay of visual and haptic information on the human teleoperation performance. The experimental setup included a virtual reality environment, which allows the operator to manipulate the virtual objects in a simulated remote environment through a haptic device that renders the force feedback. The visual and the haptic information were delayed independently in the range of 0–500 ms, creating 121 different scenarios of synchronized and nonsynchronized delays. Selecting specific parameters of the remote virtual environment guaranteed stable teleportation, given the time delays under study. The experimental tasks included tracing predefined geometrical shapes and a pick-and-place task, which simulates both structured and unstructured interactions under the influence of guiding forces. Eight subjects (n = 8) participated in the experiment performing three repetitions of three different teleoperation tasks with 121 combinations of visual and haptic time delays. The measured parameters that were used to assess the human performance were the task completion time and the position errors expressed as a function of the visual and the haptic time delay. Then, regression and ANOVA analyses were performed. The results indicated that the human performance is a function of the sum of the two delays. As the sum of the two delays increases, the human performance degrades and is expressed with an increase in completion time and position errors. The performance degradation is more pronounced in the pick-and-place task compared to the tracing task. In scenarios where the visual and the haptics information were out of synchronization, the human performance was better than intentionally delaying one source of information in an attempt to synchronize and unify the two delays. The results of this study may be applied to any teleoperation tasks over a network with inherent time delays and more specifically to telesurgery in which performance degradation due to time delay has a profound effect on the quality of the healthcare delivered, patient safety, and ultimately the outcomes of the surgical procedure itself.
Strip quadratic method for determining the Poisson's ratio of woven fabrics

The aim of this research was to investigate the influences of different test methods on the transverse and longitudinal deformations of specimens and the introduction of the strip quadratic method for the determination of the Poisson's ratio. The research was conducted in two parts. In the first part strip biaxial and strip quadratic methods were investigated. Based on the test results the longitudinal and transverse deformations under tensile loading were analyzed, which resulted in a proposal for modifying the test method for determining the Poisson's ratio. In the second part the Poisson's ratios for five different fabrics were determined using a strip quadratic method. The analyses of the results showed that this test method influenced the values of longitudinal and transverse deformations for the test specimen and its constituents. The proposed tensile method, which is based on a square-shaped specimen, assures determination of the actual values for transverse deformation during the loading.
Preparation and Properties of Concrete Containing Iron Tailings/Manufactured Sand as Fine Aggregate

High performance concrete was prepared by using iron tailings mixed with manufactured sand. Effects of the content of iron tailings on the performance of concrete were studied. The results show that the slump of concrete containing iron tailings is equal to concrete with river sand when the content of iron tailings is 60%. With the increase of the content of iron tailings, compressive strength of concrete shows a trend of decrease at same age; meanwhile drying shrinkage decreases and is less than the concrete prepared river sand. After 200 times of freeze-thaw cycle, mass loss of concrete with mixed sand is less than 5% and compressive strength loss is less than 25% which are close to concrete with river sand.