Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Interstitial Cells of Cajal and their Role in Veterinary Gastrointestinal Pathologies

This study highlights the importance of intersitial cells of Cajal (ICs) in gastrointestinal disease. Human research is already considering IC pathologies but in veterinary research IC pathologies are rarely studied. Nevertheless, recent studies of ICs show a growing interest in the pathophysiology of gastrointestinal diseases and emphasize the consideration of this cell type in the pathophysiology of veterinary gastrointestinal malfunctions.
Willingness to Accept, Willingness to Pay and the Income Effect

The disparity between willingness to pay and willingness to accept in experimental and survey settings remains a troubling anomaly. Willingness-to-accept is almost always higher than WTP, often substantially higher. Our interest lies with the neoclassical explanation of Hanemann, who demonstrates that for exogenous quantity changes, the difference between WTP and WTA depends ratio of the ordinary income elasticity of demand for the good to the Allen-Uzawa elasticity of substitution between the good and a composite commodity. When the elasticity of substitution is low, this ratio will be large. The ratio WTA/WTP will then also be large. We use a result of Sugden to formulate the WTA/WTP ratio as a function of the income effect on WTP. We find that the WTA/WTP ratios provided by our comprehensive literature search imply income elasticities and income effects that are implausibly high; much higher than income effects found in the literature; and much higher than income elasticities estimated in the set of studies from which the WTA/WTP results are drawn. Based on the evidence, it is difficult to accept the idea that the observed ratios of WTA/WTP, garnered from a remarkably large and diverse set of studies, are consistent with a standard neoclassical model. Substitution among goods seems an inadequate explanation for the divergence between WTA and WTP.
Home-based lymphedema treatment in patients with cancer-related lymphedema or noncancer-related lymphedema.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES To compare treatment protocol adherence, satisfaction, and perceived changes in emotional and functional status between patients with lymphedema with and without cancer using the home-based Flexitouch (Tactile Systems Technology, Inc.) system for lymphedema self-care. DESIGN Quasi-experimental, pre- and post-test design. SETTING Private homes in the continental United States and Alaska. SAMPLE 155 community-dwelling individuals with lymphedema: 93 with cancer-related lymphedema and 62 with noncancer-related lymphedema. METHODS A survey was completed before use of the Flexitouch system. Participants received in-home education about device use, safety precautions, and the two-phase therapy protocol. A post-therapy survey was completed during the maintenance phase of the protocol. MAIN RESEARCH VARIABLES Use of the Flexitouch system, treatment protocol adherence, participant satisfaction, and emotional and functional status. FINDINGS Participants without cancer were more adherent to the prescribed protocol. Both groups were satisfied with the system, perceived it to be effective, and reported improvement in physical and emotional status. Participants' use of professional manual lymphatic drainage (MLD) therapy, self-MLD, and bandaging declined after they initiated use of the Flexitouch system. CONCLUSIONS Patients using the Flexitouch system were satisfied with the device and perceived it to be beneficial in management of their lymphedema. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING Patients using the Flexitouch system should be assessed for adherence to the prescribed treatment protocol and use of other self-care treatments. Healthcare professionals should facilitate communication among members of the lymphedema treatment team and the patient when problems are noted.
K39 strip test--easy, reliable and cost-effective field diagnosis for visceral leishmaniasis in India.

OBJECTIVE A firm diagnosis of visceral leishmaniasis (VL) requires demonstration of the parasite in splenic or bone marrow aspirate. The aim of this prospective study was to assess the usefulness of K39 strip test as a noninvasive method of diagnosing visceral leishmaniasis under field conditions by testing serum antibody to the leishmanial antigen K39. MATERIAL AND METHODS One drop of serum/blood was applied to the sample application pad on the test strip, which was diluted with 2 drops of chase buffer solution. The development of two visible red lines indicates the presence of IgG anti-K39. In the first phase of the study (2001), a total of 200 patients (Active VL-70, ex-VL-30, healthy endemic control-20 and patients with other tropical diseases-80) were tested with the K39 strip test at the School of Tropical Medicine, Kolkata. In the second phase of the study (2002), the test was applied in a remote tribal area of West Bengal where an epidemic of VL had occurred. Thirty-two patients were identified in 207 villagers of the affected area; all of them were tested with the K39 strip test. RESULTS In the first phase, all VL and ex-VL cases gave positive results (100%). Ten percent of the healthy endemic controls were positive. The test results were negative in all other prevalent tropical diseases (100%). The estimated sensitivity of the test was 100% and the specificity was 98.18%. In the second phase of the study, all 32 patients of the epidemic were shown to be positive. All patients were treated with sodium stibogluconate injections and they recovered uneventfully. CONCLUSIONS K39 strip test is ideal for rapid reliable field diagnosis of visceral leishmaniasis. The test has high sensitivity and specificity but it remains positive long after treatment (up to 3 years).
Changes in Weight and Body Composition Among Women With Breast Cancer During and After Adjuvant Treatment: A Prospective Follow-up Study

Background: Antineoplastic adjuvant treatment for breast cancer can cause changes in women’s weight and body composition and influence their general health and survival. Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate the extent and patterns of change in weight and body composition after current standard adjuvant antineoplastic treatment for breast cancer. Methods: Data on weight and body composition from 95 women with breast cancer Stage I to III were obtained during 18 months on a bioelectric impedance analyzer. Changes and odds ratio (OR) were calculated by a linear mixed model and logistic regression. Results: At 18 months, there was an increase in weight of 0.9 kg (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.3–1.5; P = .003) and an average positive association of 0.35 kg/cm increased waist circumference (95% CI, 0.29–0.42 kg; P < .0001). Relative weight changes ranged from −12.7% to 20.5%. Weight gains related to increased body fat were observed mainly in premenopausal women receiving chemotherapy (1.4 kg; 95% CI, 0.4–2.4; P = .007). For menopausal status, OR was 2.9 (95% CI, 1.14–7.1; P = .025), and for chemotherapy, OR was 2.6 (95% CI, 1.03–6.41; P = .043). The OR for weight loss in Stage III breast cancer was 12.5 (95% CI, 1.21–128.84; P = .034) and 4.3 (CI, 1.07–17.24; P = .40) for comorbidity. Conclusions: Results demonstrate that weight changes in a pooled sample are overestimated. However, premenopausal women receiving anthracycline-based chemotherapy show a tendency toward a body composition with increasing fat mass. Implications for Practice: A scheduled assessment of changes in weight and body composition is relevant at 18 months after treatment. To compare future studies, common measuring and cutoff points are needed.
Cigarette Smoking and Risk of Meningioma: The Effect of Gender

Background: A number of studies have reported on the association between smoking and meningioma risk, with inconsistent findings. We examined the effect of gender on the association between cigarette smoking and risk of intracranial meningioma in a large population-based, case–control study. Methods: The data include 1,433 intracranial meningioma cases aged 29 to 79 years diagnosed among residents of the states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, North Carolina, the San Francisco Bay Area and eight Texas counties between May 1, 2006 and April 28, 2011 as well as 1,349 controls that were frequency matched on age, sex, and geography. The data are analyzed separately and in a meta-analysis with six previously reported studies. Results: Female cases who reported having ever smoked were at significantly decreased risk of intracranial meningioma (OR, 0.8; 95% CI, 0.7–0.9) in contrast to male cases who were at increased risk (OR, 1.3; 95% CI, 1.0–1.7). Similar findings were noted for current and past smokers. Smoking-induced risk for females did not vary by menopausal status. For males, increased duration of use (P = 0.04) as well as increasing number of pack-years (P = 0.02) was associated with elevated risk. A meta-analysis including 2,614 cases and 1,179,686 controls resulted in an OR for ever smoking of 0.82 (95% CI, 0.68–0.98) for women and 1.39 (95% CI, 1.08–1.79) for men. Conclusion: The association of cigarette smoking and meningioma case status varies significantly by gender with women at reduced risk and men at greater risk. Impact: Whether the observed differences are associated with a hormonal etiology will require additional investigation. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 21(6); 943–50. ©2012 AACR.
Size-dependent elastic properties of nanosized structural elements

Effective stiffness properties (D) of nanosized structural elements such as plates and beams differ from those predicted by standard continuum mechanics (Dc). These differences (D-Dc)/Dc depend on the size of the structural element. A simple model is constructed to predict this size dependence of the effective properties. The important length scale in the problem is identified to be the ratio of the surface elastic modulus to the elastic modulus of the bulk. In general, the non-dimensional difference in the elastic properties from continuum predictions (D-Dc)/Dc is found to scale as αS/Eh, where α is a constant which depends on the geometry of the structural element considered, S is a surface elastic constant, E is a bulk elastic modulus and h a length defining the size of the structural element. Thus, the quantity S/E is identified as a material length scale for elasticity of nanosized structures. The model is compared with direct atomistic simulations of nanoscale structures using the embedded atom method for FCC Al and the Stillinger-Weber model of Si. Excellent agreement between the simulations and the model is found.
Adsorbed mass and resonant frequency fluctuations of a microcantilever caused by adsorption and desorption of particles of two gases

Microcantilever resonant frequency and mass fluctuation caused by adsorption and desorption of surrounding particles in a two-gas atmosphere are considered. Detailed derivations of mass fluctuation power spectral density and frequency fluctuation power spectral density are performed using analytical approach. The analogy between Shockley-Read generation-recombination processes of electrons in solids and adsorption-desorption processes of particles of a two gas atmosphere around the cantilever is shown. Simulation is given for a silicon microcantilever surrounded by nitrogen and hydrogen.
The Regional Distribution and Correlates of an Entrepreneurship-Prone Personality Profile in the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom: A Socioecological Perspective

In recent years the topic of entrepreneurship has become a major focus in the social sciences, with renewed interest in the links between personality and entrepreneurship. Taking a socioecological perspective to psychology, which emphasizes the role of social habitats and their interactions with mind and behavior, we investigated regional variation in and correlates of an entrepreneurship-prone Big Five profile. Specifically, we analyzed personality data collected from over half a million U.S. residents (N = 619,397) as well as public archival data on state-level entrepreneurial activity (i.e., business-creation and self-employment rates). Results revealed that an entrepreneurship-prone personality profile is regionally clustered. This geographical distribution corresponds to the pattern that can be observed when mapping entrepreneurial activity across the United States. Indeed, the state-level correlation (N = 51) between an entrepreneurial personality structure and entrepreneurial activity was positive in direction, substantial in magnitude, and robust even when controlling for regional economic prosperity. These correlations persisted at the level of U.S. metropolitan statistical areas (N = 15) and were replicated in independent German (N = 19,842; 14 regions) and British (N = 15,617; 12 regions) samples. In contrast to these profile-based analyses, an analysis linking the individual Big Five dimensions to regional measures of entrepreneurial activity did not yield consistent findings. Discussion focuses on the implications of these findings for interdisciplinary theory development and practical applications.
Mutual Interactions between Aquaporins and Membrane Components

In recent years, a number of studies have been focused on the structural evaluation of protein complexes in order to get mechanistic insights into how proteins communicate at the molecular level within the cell. Specific sites of protein-aquaporin interaction have been evaluated and new forms of regulation of aquaporins described, based on these associations. Heterotetramerizations of aquaporin isoforms are considered as novel regulatory mechanisms for plasma membrane (PIPs) and tonoplast (TIPs) proteins, influencing their intrinsic permeability and trafficking dynamics in the adaptive response to changing environmental conditions. However, protein–protein interaction is an extensive theme that is difficult to tackle and new methodologies are being used to study the physical interactions involved. Bimolecular fluorescence complementation and the identification of cross-linked peptides based on tandem mass spectra, that are complementary to other methodologies such as heterologous expression, co-precipitation assays or confocal fluorescence microscopy, are discussed in this review. The chemical composition and the physical characteristics of the lipid bilayer also influence many aspects of membrane aquaporins, including their functionality. The molecular driving forces stabilizing the positions of the lipids around aquaporins could define their activity, thereby altering the conformational properties. Therefore, an integrative approach to the relevance of the membrane-aquaporin interaction to different processes related to plant cell physiology is provided. Finally, it is described how the interactions between aquaporins and copolymer matrixes or biological compounds offer an opportunity for the functional incorporation of aquaporins into new biotechnological advances.
Practical Lessons from Predicting Clicks on Ads at Facebook

Online advertising allows advertisers to only bid and pay for measurable user responses, such as clicks on ads. As a consequence, click prediction systems are central to most online advertising systems. With over 750 million daily active users and over 1 million active advertisers, predicting clicks on Facebook ads is a challenging machine learning task. In this paper we introduce a model which combines decision trees with logistic regression, outperforming either of these methods on its own by over 3%, an improvement with significant impact to the overall system performance. We then explore how a number of fundamental parameters impact the final prediction performance of our system. Not surprisingly, the most important thing is to have the right features: those capturing historical information about the user or ad dominate other types of features. Once we have the right features and the right model (decisions trees plus logistic regression), other factors play small roles (though even small improvements are important at scale). Picking the optimal handling for data freshness, learning rate schema and data sampling improve the model slightly, though much less than adding a high-value feature, or picking the right model to begin with.
GABAergic inputs to the nucleus rotundus (pulvinar inferior) of the pigeon (Columba livia)

The avian nucleus rotundus, a nucleus that appears to be homologous to the inferior/caudal pulvinar of mammals, is the major target of an ascending retino‐tecto‐thalamic pathway. Further clarification of the inputs to the rotundus and their functional properties will contribute to our understanding of the fundamental role of the ascending tectal inputs to the telencephalon in all vertebrates, including mammals.
Thermal and mechanical properties of PVDF/PANI blends

Poly(vinylidene fluoride)/polyaniline blends of different composition were synthesized by chemical polymerization of aniline in a mixture of Poly(vinylidene fluoride) and N,N-dimethylformamide and their thermal and mechanical behavior was investigated as a function of the polyaniline doping level and the composition using thermogravimetric analysis, differential scanning calorimetry, dynamic mechanical analysis and tensile tests techniques. The results showed the blend obtained presents a good thermal stability with low weight loss up to 300 oC, assigned to water and solvents evaporation. The glass transition and melting point is not affected by the PANI content in the blend, showing that polymers are no miscible. The films produced present a good sustainability; however the presence of the conducting polymer in the blend increases the tensile strength and the Young modulus, while diminishes the elongation at break, as compared to pure PVDF.
The deterioration of gold alloys and some aspects of their conservation

Abstract The different ways in which gold alloys can deteriorate are described. The principal alloys discussed are gold-copper, gold-silver and gold-copper-silver. Examples of South American gold alloys from Colombia and Panama are used to illustrate the different types of corrosive attack. Some problems related to the conservation of gold alloy antiquities are mentioned, together with the difficulty of the preservation of technological evidence.
Morphometric and Genetic Differentiation of Two Sibling Gossamer-Wing Damselflies, Euphaea formosa and E. yayeyamana, and Adaptive Trait Divergence in Subtropical East Asian Islands

Abstract Insular species frequently demonstrate different tendencies to become smaller or larger than their continental relatives. Two sibling gossamer—wing damselflies, Euphaea formosa (Odonata: Euphaeidae) from Taiwan and E. yayeyamana from the Yaeyama Islands of Japan, have no clear structural differentiation, and can only be recognized by their geographical distribution, sizes, and subtle differences in wing shape and coloration. This study combined morphometric and genetic techniques to investigate the adaptive significance of trait divergence and species status in these two Euphaea damselflies. Phylogenetic analyses of the mitochondrial cox2 sequences demonstrated that the two damselflies are monophyletic lineages and constitute valid phylogenetic species. The landmark—based geometric morphometrics indicated that the two damselflies are different morphological species characterized by distinctive wing shapes. The larger E. formosa exhibited broader hind wings, whereas E. yayeyamana had narrower and elongated forewings. The body size and wing shape variations among populations of the two species do not follow the expected pattern of neutral evolution, suggesting that the evolutionary divergence of these two traits is likely to be subjected to natural or sexual selection. The decreased body size, elongated forewings, and narrower hind wings of E. yayeyamana may represent insular adaptation to limited resources and reduced territorial competition on smaller islands.
Variance Soft Shadow Mapping

We present variance soft shadow mapping (VSSM) for rendering plausible soft shadow in real‐time. VSSM is based on the theoretical framework of percentage‐closer soft shadows (PCSS) and exploits recent advances in variance shadow mapping (VSM). Our new formulation allows for the efficient computation of (average) blocker distances, a common bottleneck in PCSS‐based methods. Furthermore, we avoid incorrectly lit pixels commonly encountered in VSM‐based methods by appropriately subdividing the filter kernel. We demonstrate that VSSM renders high‐quality soft shadows efficiently (usually over 100 fps) for complex scene settings. Its speed is at least one order of magnitude faster than PCSS for large penumbra.
Evaluation of the Effect of Stent Strut Profile on Shear Stress Distribution

In this work, we present a 2D numerical flow study to analyze the impact of different stent strut profiles on the shear stress distribution for stented coronary arteries. In that context, five cross-sectional profiles were considered: square, circular, elliptical, and a two tear-drop shapes. Specific performance metrics based on the statistical moments were developed to assess the variation of shear stress distributions along the wall with respected to a normal reference condition (non-stented segment). The results show that stent strut profile significantly affects the shear stress distribution along the wall. It also demonstrate that more streamline profiles such as the tear-drop and elliptical profiles exhibit better performance than the standard square and circular profiles for shear stress.Copyright © 2007 by ASME
PhFit: a general phase-type fitting tool

PhFit, a new phase-type fitting tool is presented in this paper. PhFit allows for approximating distributions or set of samples not only by continuous but by discrete phase-type distributions as well. The implemented algorithms separate the fitting of the body and the tail part of the distribution which results in satisfactory fitting also for heavy-tail distributions. Moreover, PhFit allows the user to choose the distance measure according to which the fitting is performed. The tool is equipped with a graphical interface that visualizes the goodness of the provided approximation from several aspects.
A Novel Hybrid PSO-BP Algorithm for Neural Network Training

In order to search better solution in the high dimension space, the novel hybrid PSO-BP algorithm which combines the PSO mechanism with the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm or the Conjugate gradient algorithm is proposed. The main idea employs BP algorithm with numeric technology to find the local optimum, and takes the weights and biases trained as particles, and harnesses swarm motion to search the optimum. Finally, the hybrid algorithm selects some good particles from the local optimum set to predict the new samples. Simulation results show that the hybrid PSO-BP algorithm is better than the basic BP algorithm and the adaptive PSO algorithm in the stability, correct recognition rate and training time.