Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Association Between Serum Phosphate Levels and Stroke Risk in Patients Undergoing Hemodialysis: The Q-Cohort Study

Background and Purpose— The contribution of serum phosphate levels to stroke risk in dialysis patients remains unclear. The present study aimed to elucidate the respective association between serum phosphate levels and the risk of brain hemorrhage or infarction in patients undergoing hemodialysis. Methods— A total of 3437 patients undergoing hemodialysis were followed up for a median of 3.9 years. The primary outcome was the occurrence of brain hemorrhage or infarction. Patients were divided into 4 groups based on their baseline serum phosphate levels (Q1–Q4). Stroke risk was estimated using a Cox proportional hazards model. Results— During the follow-up period, 75 patients experienced brain hemorrhage and 139 experienced brain infarction. The risk of brain hemorrhage was significantly higher in the highest (Q4) compared with the lowest quartile (Q1) as the reference value (multivariate-adjusted hazard ratio [95% confidence intervals]: Q1, 1.00; Q2, 1.76 [0.79–4.18]; Q3, 1.99 [0.92–4.67]; and Q4, 2.74 [1.27–6.47]; P=0.077 for trend; hazard ratio for every 1 mmol/L increase in serum phosphate level, 2.07 [1.10–3.81]; P=0.025). In contrast, the risk of brain infarction was significantly higher in Q1 (P=0.045) compared with Q3 as the reference value (Q1, 1.65 [1.01–2.73]; Q2, 1.35 [0.82–2.25]; Q3, 1.00; and Q4, 1.30 [0.77–2.20]). Conclusions— Higher serum phosphate levels were associated with an increased risk of brain hemorrhage, whereas low levels were associated with an increased risk of brain infarction in hemodialysis patients. These results suggest the importance of managing serum phosphate levels within an appropriate range in hemodialysis patients. Clinical Trial Registration— URL: http://www.umin. ac.jp/. Unique identifier: UMIN000000556.
Binding and degradation of platelet thrombospondin by cultured fibroblasts

Thrombospondin was purified from human platelets and labeled with 125I, and its metabolism was quantified in cell cultures of human embryonic lung fibroblasts. 125I-Thrombospondin bound to the cell layer. The binding reached an apparent steady state within 45 min. Trichloroacetic acid-soluble radioactivity was detected in the medium after 30 min of incubation; the rate of degradation of 125I-thrombospondin was linear for several hours thereafter. Degradation of 125I-thrombospondin was saturable. The apparent Km and Vmax for degradation at 37 degrees C were 6 X 10(-8) M and 1.4 X 10(5) molecules per cell per minute, respectively. Degradation was inhibited by chloroquine or by lowering the temperature to 4 degrees C. Experiments in which cultures were incubated with thrombospondin for 45 min and then incubated in medium containing no thrombospondin revealed two fractions of bound thrombospondin. One fraction was localized by indirect immunofluorescence to punctate structures; these structures were lost coincident with the rapid degradation of 50-80% of bound 125I- thrombospondin. The second fraction was localized to a trypsin- sensitive, fibrillar, extracellular matrix. 125I-Thrombospondin in the matrix was slowly degraded over a period of hours. Binding of 125I- thrombospondin to the extracellular matrix was not saturable and indeed was enhanced at thrombospondin concentrations greater than 3 X 10(-8) M. The ability of 125I-thrombospondin to bind to extracellular matrix was diminished tenfold by limited proteolytic cleavage with trypsin. Degradation of trypsinized 125I-thrombospondin was also diminished, although to a lesser extent than matrix binding. Heparin inhibited both degradation and matrix binding. These results suggest that thrombospondin may play a transitory role in matrix formation and/or organization and that specific receptors on the cell surface are responsible for the selective removal of thrombospondin from the extracellular fluid and matrix.
Descending control of electroreception. I. Properties of nucleus praeeminentialis neurons projecting indirectly to the electrosensory lateral line lobe

The first-order CNS processing region within the electrosensory system, the electrosensory lateral line lobe, receives massive descending inputs from the nucleus praeeminentialis as well as the primary afferent projection. The n. praeeminentialis receives its input from the electrosensory lateral line lobe as well as from higher centers; hence this nucleus occupies an important position in a feedback loop within the electrosensory system. This report describes the physiological properties of a category of n. praeeminentialis neurons characterized by very high spontaneous firing frequency, but relatively poor sensitivity to electrolocation targets as compared to neurons in the electrosensory lateral line lobe. These neurons are specialized to encode long-term changes in electric organ discharge amplitude with high resolution. Intracellular recording and Lucifer yellow staining of these neurons show that they are the previously described multipolar neurons of the n. praeeminentialis, and they project bilaterally to the posterior eminentia granularis. Posterior eminentia granularis efferents project to the electrosensory lateral line lobe forming its dorsal molecular layer. Hence, these multipolar cells influence the electrosensory lateral line lobe circuitry indirectly. The information that the multipolar cells encode regarding the electric organ discharge amplitude may be needed for a gain control mechanism operative within the electrosensory lateral line lobe. Previous studies have shown that the indirect projection from the n. praeeminentialis to the electrosensory lateral line lobe must be intact for this gain control mechanism to operate.
Elastic Windows: evaluation of multi-window operations

Most windowing systems follow the independent overlapping windows approach, which emerged as an answer to the needs of the 1980s’ technology. Due to advances in computers and display technology, and increased information needs, modem users demand more functionality from window management systems. We proposed Elastic Windows with improved spatial layout and rapid multi-window operations as an alternative to current window management strategies for efficient personal role management [12]. In this approach, multi-window operations are achieved by issurng operations on window groups hierarchically organized in a space-filling tiled layout. ‘l%is paper describes the Elastic Windows interface briefly and then presents a study comparing user performance with Elastic Windows and traditional window management techniques for 2, 6, and 12 window situations. Elastic Whdows users had statistically significantly faster performance for all 6 and 12 window situations, for task environment setup, task environment switching, and task execution. For some tasks there was a ten-fold speed-up in performance These results suggest promising possibilities for multiple window operations and hierarchical nesting, which can be applied to the next generation of tiled as well as overlapped window managers.
The Nanovirus-Encoded Clink Protein Affects Plant Cell Cycle Regulation through Interaction with the Retinoblastoma-Related Protein

ABSTRACT Nanoviruses, multicomponent single-stranded DNA plant viruses, encode a unique cell cycle link protein, Clink, that interacts with retinoblastoma-related proteins (RBR). We have established transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana lines that conditionally express Clink or a Clink variant deficient in RBR binding. By controlled induction of Clink expression, we demonstrated the capacity of the Clink protein to alter RBR function in vivo. We showed that transcription of both S-phase-specific and G2/M-phase-specific genes was up-regulated depending on the RBR-binding proficiency of Clink. Concomitantly, ploidy levels increased in a substantial fraction of leaf cell nuclei. Also, leaf epidermis cells of transgenic plants producing Clink were smaller and more numerous, indicating additional cell divisions in this tissue. Furthermore, cytogenetic analyses following induction of Clink expression in mature leaves revealed the presence of metaphasic and anaphasic nuclei, clear evidence that Clink-mediated RBR inactivation is sufficient to induce quiescent cells to reenter cell cycle progression and, for at least a fraction of them, to pass through mitosis. Expression of Clink had no effect on genes transcribed by RNA polymerases I and III, suggesting that, in contrast to its mammalian homologue, A. thaliana RBR is not involved in the repression of polymerase I and polymerase III transcription. The results of these in vivo analyses firmly establish Clink as a member of the diverse class of multifunctional cell cycle modulator proteins encoded by small DNA viruses.
Accumulation of metformin by tissues of the normal and diabetic mouse.

1. Tissue accumulation of the antihyperglycaemic agent metformin (dimethylbiguanide) was examined after oral administration to the normal and streptozotocin (STZ) diabetic mouse. 2. Metformin (50 mg/kg body weight containing 14C-metformin 25 microCi/kg body weight), which is stable and not metabolized, resulted in maximum plasma concentrations at 0.5 h which declined to < 5% of maximum by 24 h. Maximum plasma concentrations (mumol/l, mean +/- SE) in the hepatic portal vein (normal 51.7 +/- 5.4, STZ 61.5 +/- 8.0) were higher than in the inferior vena cava (normal 29.0 +/- 2.8, STZ 35.4 +/- 5.9). 3. The greatest accumulation of metformin occurred in tissues of the small intestine, where maximum concentrations were > 1000 mumol/kg wet weight at 0.5-2 h, but declined to < 2% of maximum by 24 h. 4. Stomach, colon, salivary gland, kidney and liver accumulated metformin more than two-fold, and concentrations of the drug in heart and skeletal (gastrocnemius) muscle were greater than plasma concentrations on some occasions up to 8 h. 5. In a separate study, i.v. -administered metformin was selectively accumulated by tissues of the small intestine. Thus, retention of metformin by tissues of the small intestine may represent a deep compartment for the drug.
Adaptation to Pronunciation Variations in Indonesian Spoken Query-Based Information Retrieval

Recognition errors of proper nouns and foreign words significantly decrease the performance of ASR-based speech applications such as voice dialing systems, speech summarization, spoken document retrieval, and spoken query-based information retrieval (IR). The reason is that proper nouns and words that come from other languages are usually the most important key words. The loss of such words due to misrecognition in turn leads to a loss of significant information from the speech source. This paper focuses on how to improve the performance of Indonesian ASR by alleviating the problem of pronunciation variation of proper nouns and foreign words (English words in particular). To improve the proper noun recognition accuracy, proper-noun specific acoustic models are created by supervised adaptation using maximum likelihood linear regression (MLLR). To improve English word recognition, the pronunciation of English words contained in the lexicon is fixed by using rule-based English-to-Indonesian phoneme mapping. The effectiveness of the proposed method was confirmed through spoken query based Indonesian IR. We used Inference Network-based (IN-based) IR and compared its results with those of the classical Vector Space Model (VSM) IR, both using a tf-idf weighting schema. Experimental results show that IN-based IR outperforms VSM IR.
XIRQL: An XML query language based on information retrieval concepts

XIRQL ("circle") is an XML query language that incorporates imprecision and vagueness for both structural and content-oriented query conditions. The corresponding uncertainty is handled by a consistent probabilistic model. The core features of XIRQL are (1) document ranking based on index term weighting, (2) specificity-oriented search for retrieving the most relevant parts of documents, (3) datatypes with vague predicates for dealing with specific types of content and (4) structural vagueness for vague interpretation of structural query conditions. A XIRQL database may contain several classes of documents, where all documents in a class conform to the same DTD; links between documents also are supported. XIRQL queries are translated into a path algebra, which can be processed by our HyREX retrieval engine.
Capsular contracture by silicone breast implants: possible causes, biocompatibility, and prophylactic strategies

The most common implanted material in the human body consists of silicone. Breast augmentation and breast reconstruction using silicone-based implants are procedures frequently performed by reconstructive and aesthetic surgeons. A main complication of this procedure continues to be the development of capsular contracture (CC), displaying the result of a fibrotic foreign body reaction after the implantation of silicone. For many years, experimental and clinical trials have attempted to analyze the problem of its etiology, treatment, and prophylaxis. Different theories of CC formation are known; however, the reason why different individuals develop CC in days or a month, or only after years, is unknown. Therefore, we hypothesize that CC formation, might primarily be induced by immunological mechanisms along with other reasons. This article attempts to review CC formation, with special attention paid to immunological and inflammatory reasons, as well as actual prophylactic strategies. In this context, the word “biocompatibility” has been frequently used to describe the overall biological innocuousness of silicone in the respective studies, although without clear-cut definitions of this important feature. We have therefore developed a new five-point scale with distinct key points of biocompatibility. Hence, this article might provide the basis for ongoing discussion in this field to reduce single-publication definitions as well as increase the understanding of biocompatibility.
Equivalent income and the economic evaluation of health care

We argue that the economic evaluation of health care (cost-benefit analysis) should respect individual preferences and should incorporate distributional consid- erations. Relying on individual preferences does not imply subjective welfarism. We propose a particular non- welfarist approach, based on the concept of equivalent income, and show how it helps to define distributional weights. We illustrate the feasibility of our approach with empirical results from a pilot survey.
The WHO Maternal Near Miss Approach: Consequences at Malawian District Level

Introduction WHO proposes a set of organ-failure based criteria for maternal near miss. Our objective was to evaluate what implementation of these criteria would mean for the analysis of a cohort of 386 women in Thyolo District, Malawi, who sustained severe acute maternal morbidity according to disease-based criteria. Methods and Findings A WHO Maternal Near Miss (MNM) Tool, created to compare disease-, intervention- and organ-failure based criteria for maternal near miss, was completed for each woman, based on a review of all available medical records. Using disease-based criteria developed for the local setting, 341 (88%) of the 386 women fulfilled the WHO disease-based criteria provided by the WHO MNM Tool, 179 (46%) fulfilled the intervention-based criteria, and only 85 (22%) the suggested organ-failure based criteria. Conclusions In this low-resource setting, application of these organ-failure based criteria that require relatively sophisticated laboratory and clinical monitoring underestimates the occurrence of maternal near miss. Therefore, these criteria and the suggested WHO approach may not be suited to compare maternal near miss across all settings.
Glycosaminoglycans in nerve injury: I. Low doses glycosaminoglycans promote neurite formation

This study has shown that glycosaminoglycans added to the culture medium may affect neurite formation in SH‐SY5Y neuroblastoma cells. The most effective glycosaminoglycans are heparin and COS 8, a preparation with low anticoagulant activity. Promotion of neuritogenesis was remarkable at concentrations as low as 10‐8 and 10‐10. When added at 10‐4 M both agents are inhibitory. Chondroitin‐4 sulfate, dermatan sulfate, and heparan sulfate were also effective, the doses required were, however, as high as 10‐4 M for promoting and 10‐4 M for inhibiting neuritogenesis. Thereby low doses of glycosaminoglycans promote, while higher doses inhibit neurite formation. The effects were observed when neuritogenesis was promoted in neuroblastoma cultures either by deprivation of serum or by addition of retinoic acid, in the former case neuritogenesis occurred within 48 hr; in the latter, in 14 days. PC12 pheochromocytoma cells neuritogenesis was triggered by adding NGF to the culture medium. We have also observed that glycosaminoglycan supplementation to the culture medium lowered the quantity of NGF required to form neurites by PC12 cells. Glycosaminoglycans at the dose of 10‐8 M allow the formation of PC12 neurites even in presence of 1 ng/ml NGF, a dose that normally is ineffective. © 1996 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Modified method of AgNOR staining for tissue and interpretation in histopathology

This study was conducted in the department of Pathology King Edward Medical University, from June to December 2002 to introduce the new method of AgNOR staining and its interpretation to increase its reliability. A total of 60 brain specimens were stained with modified AgNOR technique. The diagnosis of malignancy was made on H & E staining. AgNOR counts, variation in size and dispersion of AgNOR dots in cells were graded and compared in malignant and non‐malignant lesions. Modified method of AgNOR staining and interpretation was an easy, reliable and reproducible alternative to traditional AgNOR techniques for evaluating proliferation activity of cells in malignant and benign brain lesions. mAgNOR counts of different grades of astrocytoma (2.97 ± 0.96, 3.97 ± 0.43, 6.01 ± 2.74 and 8.01 ± 3.56) were significantly (P < 0.01) greater when compared with counts of normal brain (0.40 ± 0.01), and reactive gliosis (0.60 ± 0.01). AgNOR size and dispersion were of higher grade in a significantly greater proportion of malignancy when compared with benign conditions (P < 0.05). The AgNOR dots were brighter and more clear with modified staining when compared with previous studies. We conclude that modified AgNOR staining technique is simple, quick and reliable to evaluate cell proliferation by detecting AgNORs size and dispersion. In future, AgNOR size and dispersion should be considered rather than the count only. We recommend the use of morphometry for AgNOR size in future. We also recommend the use of modified AgNOR staining for obtaining sound and confidant results in routine paraffin sections.
Molecular and Physical Characterization of the Complex Pericentromeric Heterochromatin of the Vole Species Microtus thomasi

A new repeated DNA from Microtus thomasi, Mth-Alu2.2, was cloned and characterized and is presented here for the first time. Digestion of genomic DNA from M. thomasi with AluI restriction enzyme revealed a 2.2-kb repetitive DNA sequence with a high AT content (69%). This sequence consists of a tandemly repeated nonanucleotide of the consensus sequence CACAATGTA, which constitutes approximately 93-95% of the total unit length. The location of the Mth-Alu2.2 sequence in the karyotype was determined by FISH, demonstrating strong hybridization signals in the pericentromeric regions of all chromosomes and in the heterochromatin blocks of several X chromosome variants. In addition, the distribution of the 4 pericentromeric repeat sequences Msat-160, Mth-Alu900, Mth-Alu2.2, and interstitial telomeric repeats was analyzed by in situ hybridization in M. thomasi, in order to shed light on the complex composition of the chromosomal pericentromeric regions in this species. The order and organization of these sequences in the pericentromeric regions are conserved, with slight variations in both the degree of overlapping and the amount of each repeated DNA in the chromosomes. Specifically, Mth-Alu2.2 is localized in the terminal regions of the chromosomes, with Msat-160 occupying the immediately inner region, partially intermixed with Mth-Alu2.2. The sequence Mth-Alu900 is found in internal positions below Msat-160, and the interstitial telomeric repeats are located close to the long-arm euchromatin of the chromosomes.
Effect of Fiber/Yarn Variables on Mechanical Properties of Spliced Yarn

Pneumatic splicing was examined for various yarns spun from different fibers on different spinning systems. The retention properties of the spliced yarns compared to normal yarn are discussed; the results indicate that wet splicing gives better property retention than dry splicing. Retention of yarn properties in decreasing order was for yarns spun from polyester, polyester-rich blends, viscose, cotton, and wool, respectively. Coarse yarn, particularly that spun on a ring spinning system, contributes the most to better spliced yarn properties.
Augmented Reality Tool for the Situational Awareness Improvement of UAV Operators

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are being extensively used nowadays. Therefore, pilots of traditional aerial platforms should adapt their skills to operate them from a Ground Control Station (GCS). Common GCSs provide information in separate screens: one presents the video stream while the other displays information about the mission plan and information coming from other sensors. To avoid the burden of fusing information displayed in the two screens, an Augmented Reality (AR) tool is proposed in this paper. The AR system has two functionalities for Medium-Altitude Long-Endurance (MALE) UAVs: route orientation and target identification. Route orientation allows the operator to identify the upcoming waypoints and the path that the UAV is going to follow. Target identification allows a fast target localization, even in the presence of occlusions. The AR tool is implemented following the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) standards so that it can be used in different GCSs. The experiments show how the AR tool improves significantly the situational awareness of the UAV operators.
Performance evaluation of wireless communications through capsule endoscope

This paper presents a performance evaluation of wireless communications applicable into a capsule endoscope. A numerical model to describe the received signal strength (RSS) radiated from a capsule-sized signal generator is derived through measurements in which a liquid phantom that has equivalent electrical constants is used. By introducing this model and taking into account the characteristics of its direction pattern of the capsule and propagation distance between the implanted capsule and on-body antenna, a cumulative distribution function (CDF) of the received SNR is evaluated. Then, simulation results related to the error ratio in the wireless channel are obtained. These results show that the frequencies of 611 MHz or lesser would be useful for the capsule endoscope applications from the view point of error rate performance. Further, we show that the use of antenna diversity brings additional gain to this application.
Parsimonious Kinematic Control of Highly Redundant Robots

When a robot is highly redundant in comparison to the task to be executed, current control techniques are not “economic” in the sense that they demand, most of the time unnecessarily, all the joints to move. Such behavior can be undesirable for some applications. In this direction, this work proposes a new control paradigm based on linear programming that intrinsically provides a parsimonious control strategy, i.e, one in which few joints move. In addition to a formal stability proof, this letter presents simulation and experimental results on the HOAP-3 humanoid robot. Finally, a comparison is made with a least-square method based on the pseudoinverse of the task Jacobian, showing that the proposed method indeed uses fewer joints than the classic one.