Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Forces necessary for the disruption of the cisternal segments of cranial nerves II through XII

Manipulation of the cisternal segment of cranial nerves is often performed by the neurosurgeon. To date, attempts at quantifying the forces necessary to disrupt these nerves in situ, to our knowledge, has not been performed. The present study seeks to further elucidate the forces necessary to disrupt the cranial nerves while within the subarachnoid space. The cisternal segments of cranial nerves II through XII were exposed in six unfixed cadavers, all less than 6 hr postmortem. Forces to failure were then measured. Mean forces necessary to disrupt nerves for left sides in increasing order were found for cranial nerves IX, VII, IV, X, XII, III, VIII, XI, VI, V, and II, respectively. Mean forces for right‐sided cranial nerves in increasing order were found for cranial nerves IX, VII, IV, X, XII, VIII, V, VI, XI, III, and II, respectively. Overall, cranial nerves requiring the least amount of force prior to failure included cranial nerves IV, VII, and IX. Those requiring the highest amount of force included cranial nerves II, V, VI, and XI. There was an approximately ten‐fold difference between the least and greatest forces required to failure. Cranial nerve III was found to require significantly (P < 0.05) greater forces to failure for right versus left sides. To date, the neurosurgeon has had no experimentally derived data from humans for the in situ forces necessary to disrupt the cisternal segment of cranial nerves II through XII. We found that cranial nerve IX consistently took the least amount of force until its failure and cranial nerve II took the greatest. Other cranial nerves that took relatively small amount of force prior to failure included cranial nerves IV and VII. Although in vivo damage can occur prior to failure of a cranial nerve, our data may serve to provide a rough estimation for the maximal amount of tension that can be applied to a cranial nerve that is manipulated while within its cistern. Clin. Anat. 20:252–255, 2007. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
[Clinical utility of fluorescence in-situ hybridization profile test in detecting genetic aberrations in acute leukemia].

BACKGROUND Cytogenetic abnormalities are one of the most reliable prognostic factors in acute leukemia. Combination of conventional chromosome analysis (CCA) and FISH provides higher sensitivity in detecting these genetic abnormalities, and it is effective to apply several FISH probes as a profile test. The objective of this study was to investigate the utility of FISH profile analyses in the initial diagnosis of acute leukemia. METHODS Two hundred and forty one de novo acute leukemia patients diagnosed from January, 2002 to November, 2007 were included. For acute lymphoblastic leukemia profile test, FISH probes for BCR/ABL, TEL/AML1, MLL gene rearrangement and CDKN2A deletion were used. For acute myeloid leukemia profile test, probes for AML1/ETO, MLL and CBFbeta gene rearrangement were used. The results of CCA and FISH profile tests were collected, and the positive rates were compared. RESULTS ALL FISH profile tests revealed additional genetic aberrations not detected by chromosome analysis in 48.6% (67/138) of cases, including those with normal karyotypes or no mitotic cells (37%, 51/138). Among these 51 cases, TEL/AML1 abnormalities were detected in 44.3%, followed by the abnormal CDKN2A signal (24.6%) and hyperdiploidy (18.0%). AML FISH profile tests revealed additional genetic abnormalities in 7.8% (8/103) of cases. CONCLUSIONS FISH analysis as a profile test detected additional genetic aberrations in a significant proportion of acute leukemia, and was effective especially in detecting cryptic translocations, submicroscopic deletions and complex karyotypes. Our study supports the need to incorporate FISH profile test at initial work up in acute leukemia.
A priori entailment and conceptual analysis: Making room for type-C physicalism

One strategy for blocking Chalmers's overall case against physicalism has been to deny his claim that showing that phenomenal properties are in some sense physical requires an a priori entailment of the phenomenal truths from the physical ones. Here I avoid this well-trodden ground and argue instead that an a priori entailment of the phenomenal truths from the physical ones does not require an analysis in the Jackson/Chalmers sense. This is to sever the dualist's link between conceptual analysis and a priori entailment by showing that the lack of the former does not imply the absence of the latter. Moreover, given the role of the argument from conceptual analysis in Chalmers's overall case for dualism, undermining that argument effectively undermines that case as a whole in a way that, I'll argue, undermining the conceivability arguments as stand-alone arguments does not.
Differential findings for CD14‐positive hepatic monocytes/macrophages in primary biliary cirrhosis, chronic hepatitis C and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis

Abstract: Background and aims: Endotoxin‐responsive monocytes/macrophages (CD14‐positive) are potential sources of profibrogenic factors. The aims of this study were to determine (1) whether hepatic CD14‐positive cells are present in various forms of chronic liver disease, and (2) the relationship between CD14‐positive cells, myofibroblasts, and fibrosis in these diseases.
Improving Stochastic Policy Gradients in Continuous Control with Deep Reinforcement Learning using the Beta Distribution

Recently, reinforcement learning with deep neural networks has achieved great success in challenging continuous control problems such as 3D locomotion and robotic manipulation. However, in real-world control problems, the actions one can take are bounded by physical constraints, which introduces a bias when the standard Gaussian distribution is used as the stochastic policy. In this work, we propose to use the Beta distribution as an alternative and analyze the bias and variance of the policy gradients of both policies. We show that the Beta policy is bias-free and provides significantly faster convergence and higher scores over the Gaussian policy when both are used with trust region policy optimization (TRPO) and actor critic with experience replay (ACER), the state-of-the-art on- and off-policy stochastic methods respectively, on OpenAI Gym's and MuJoCo's continuous control environments.
The performance of the LHCf detector for hadronic showers

The Large Hadron Collider forward (LHCf) experiment has been designed to use the LHC to benchmark the hadronic interaction models used in cosmic-ray physics. It measures neutral particles emitted in the very forward region of the LHC p-p or p-N collisions. In this paper, the performances of the LHCf detectors for hadronic showers was studied with MC simulations and beam tests. The detection efficiency for neutrons varies from 70% to 80% above 500 GeV. The energy resolutions are about 40% and the position resolution is 0.1 to 1.3 mm depending on the incident energy for neutrons. The energy scale determined by the MC simulations and the validity of the MC simulations were examined using 350 GeV proton beams at the CERN-SPS.
Physics-based propagation characterisations of UWB signals for the urine detection in human bladder

In this paper, an IR-UWB radar for the detection of water accumulation in human bladder is presented. The goal is to monitor the level of urine in patients who suffer from urinary incontinence. This is achieved by detecting the reflected UWB signals from the boundaries of human tissues such as muscle and bladder. However, the detection ability of the UWB radar system is strongly impaired due to the high attenuation and frequency dispersion of the UWB signal in human tissues. Based on the dielectric properties of the various human tissues, the physics-based propagation characterisations of electromagnetic waves are investigated with respect to their reflection, attenuation and transmission. A model of human bladder with different tissue layers including frequency dependent dielectric properties is proposed. Furthermore, a system concept of UWB radar for the detection of water accumulation in human bladder is introduced. The UWB pulse attenuation and distortion in different human tissues are investigated and evaluated with respect to the system performance. The results show the potential of detection of urine in the human bladder, which may lead to development of new non-invasive sensors locating water accumulations in human body.
Provision of Continuous Maturation Signaling to Dendritic Cells by RIG-I–Stimulating Cytosolic RNA Synthesis of Sendai Virus

Dendritic cell (DC)-based immunotherapy has potential for treating infections and malignant tumors, but the functional capacity of DC must be assessed in detail, especially maturation and Ag-specific CTL priming. Recent reports suggest that DC that are provided with continuous maturation signals in vivo after transfer into patients are required to elicit the full DC functions. We demonstrate in this study that the rSendai virus vector (SeV) is a novel and ideal stimulant, providing DC with a continuous maturation signal via viral RNA synthesis in the cytosol, resulting in full maturation of monocyte-derived DC(s). Both RIG-I–dependent cytokine production and CD4 T cell responses to SeV-derived helper Ags are indispensable for overcoming regulatory T cell suppression to prime melanoma Ag recognized by T cell-1–specific CTL in the regulatory T cell abundant setting. DC stimulated via cytokine receptors, or TLRs, do not show these functional features. Therefore, SeV-infected DC have the potential for DC-directed immunotherapy.
Waging War on Pascal's Wager

Pascal's Wager is simply too good to be true-or better, too good to be sound. There must be something wrong with Pascal's argument that decision-theoretic reasoning shows that one must (resolve to) believe in God, if one is rational. No surprise, then, that critics of the argument are easily found, or that they have attacked it on many fronts. For Pascal has given them no dearth of targets. Virtually all of the Wager's critics have directed their campaigns against its premises. Other authors have rallied to its defense, buttressing those premises. I will argue that they are fighting a lost cause: developing arguments byJeffrey (1983) and Duff (1986), I will contend that the Wager is simply invalid. This motivates a search for reformulations of the original argument that are valid, while upholding its spirit. I will offer four such reformulations, each of which finesses the decision matrix of the Wager, and in particular its problematic invocation of "infinite utility. " Yet these reformulations fall too, albeit for a different reason. This, in turn, might prompt advocates of the Wager to conduct another search for still further reformulations. However, I will argue that such a search is likely to be futile. When we examine what is at the root of the failure of the original Wager, and of the reformulations that I offer, we realize that their failures are symptomatic of a deep problem that any variant of the Wager must overcome. I will present a dilemma for all such variants, and conclude that their prospects for success are dim.
Cloning of a Novel Receptor Subunit, AcPL, Required for Interleukin-18 Signaling*

We have identified a novel member of the interleukin-1 (IL-1) receptor family, which we have termed AcPL. In transient transfection assays, we were unable to demonstrate a role for AcPL in IL-1-induced activation of NFκB. Interleukin-18 (interferon-γ-inducing factor) is another member of the IL-1 family of cytokines, and it has recently been shown that IL-18 has a weak affinity for IL-1R-rp1. We examined whether AcPL might function alone or in concert with IL-1R-rp1 to mediate IL-18 signaling. We found that both IL-1R-rp1 and AcPL expression were required for induction of NFκB activity and for activation of c-Jun N-terminal kinase in response to IL-18. Furthermore, a dominant negative version of AcPL specifically inhibited IL-18 signaling. In vitroimmunoprecipitation assays demonstrated that AcPL alone was unable to bind IL-18 with any appreciable affinity. We propose that although IL-1R-rp1 binds the cytokine, IL-1R-rp1 and AcPL proteins are both required for IL-18 signaling, analogous to the requirement for both IL-1R and IL-1RAcP in IL-1-mediated responses.
DETERMINATION OF THYROID MALFUNCTION IN WOMEN WITH POLYCYSTIC OVARY SYNDROME

Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) and thyroid dysfunction, the two endocrine anomalies have been linked to each other since several years, however most of the researchers have investigated the association between hypothyroidism and PCOS, an inverse relationship of PCOS leading to thyroid dysfunction is now being probed into. Thus this study aimed at looking into the possibility of development of thyroid dysfunction in women with PCOS. 25 women with PCOS from a clinic in Mumbai were subjected to a preformed questionnaire and were analyzed for their anthropometric, biochemical and dietary factors. The thyroid function and thyroid antibody tests revealed a 40% prevalence of thyroid dysfunction in the study group. Women with PCOS and thyroid dysfunction had significantly higher levels of TgAb (t=1.803, p=0.05), TSH (t=6.361, p<0.05) and LH: FSH ratio (t=1.806, p<0.05) from their PCOS counterparts however no significant differences were noted in terms of their symptoms. Thus women with PCOS could be at a risk for development of thyroid disorders and biochemical screening of all the thyroid parameters including that of thyroid autoantibodies is of utmost importance in such individuals.
Effect of Steroids on Increased Permeability of Blood Vessels of the Stria Vascularis after Auditory Ossicle Vibration by a Drill in Otologic Surgery

Objectives: The vibration caused by drills used for middle ear surgery is considered one of the causes of postoperative sensorineural deafness. Seki et al reported that when drill-induced damage was created in the auditory ossicles of guinea pigs, permeability across the capillary vessels in the stria vascularis increased significantly with the duration of drill-induced vibration. The present study was undertaken to examine changes in permeability across the stria vascularis capillaries following vibration in experimental animals pretreated with steroids, with the goal of developing a method of preventing a vibration-induced increase in permeability across these capillaries. Methods: After an intravenous dose of hydrocortisone and horseradish peroxidase, the auditory ossicles of guinea pigs were vibrated with a drill for 60 seconds. Results: Intravenous steroid administration before vibration reduced the leakage of horseradish peroxidase from the stria vascularis capillaries after vibration. Conclusions: The findings suggested that steroids suppress the increase in permeability across the stria vascularis capillaries that results from drill-induced vibration.
Fast Synthesis of Planar, Maximally Thinned Arrays

In this paper a method for a fast synthesis of planar, maximally thinned and steerable arrays is proposed and tested on several benchmarks available in literature. The method optimizes simultaneously the weight coefficients and sensor positions of a planar array without using global optimization schemes, properly exploiting convex optimization based algorithms. The resulting arrays are able to radiate a steerable beam pattern, satisfying a prescribed power mask and avoid to constraint the fitting of any a priori assigned reference field pattern. Although such a method takes into account the general case of sparse arrays, this letter is focused on the case of thinned arrays as a special case of sparse ones, since the initial grid to thin on has only half-wavelength distances. Such a feature allows a faster synthesis than in the general case of sparse arrays.
Characterization of magnesium-induced contractions in detergent-skinned swine carotid media.

Ca(2+)-calmodulin-dependent phosphorylation of the 20-kDa smooth muscle myosin light chain (MLC) results in high shortening velocities and rapid stress development. The stress maintained after a reduction in Ca2+ is associated with a decrease in MLC phosphorylation and velocity of shortening. This Ca(2+)-dependent stress without proportional MLC phosphorylation has been termed "latch" and has been postulated to reflect a population of dephosphorylated noncycling cross bridges or "latch bridges. " Mg2+ is necessary for contraction of smooth muscle, and in high concentrations, Mg2+ elicits contractions that are MLC phosphorylation independent. The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that high concentrations of Mg2+ directly induce latch-bridge formation. This was accomplished by comparing the characteristics of Mg(2+)-induced contractions of Triton X-100-skinned swine carotid media with the known characteristics of the Ca(2+)-dependent latch state. In the absence of Ca2+, free Mg2+ (3-20 mM) caused an increase in the velocity of shortening and a concentration-dependent increase in stress, with no detectable increase in MLC phosphorylation. Mg(2+)-induced contractions could be supported by CTP, which is a substrate for the actin-activated myosin adenosinetriphosphatase but not the MLC kinase. Stress development in response to Mg2+ was abolished at long tissue lengths, which also inhibit the expression of latch bridges. The calmodulin antagonist, trifluoperazine (TFP), inhibited the MLC phosphorylation-independent contractions elicited by Mg2+. TFP also inhibited the latch state. The results of this study support the existence of a regulatory system in vascular smooth muscle that is independent of the MLC phosphorylation system and can be directly activated by pharmacological levels of Mg2+.
Is active skeletal muscle functionally vasoconstricted during dynamic exercise in conscious dogs?

We investigated whether the increase in hindlimb blood flow and vascular conductance in conscious dogs during graded dynamic exercise is functionally restrained by the sympathetic nervous system. Dogs were chronically instrumented to monitor terminal aortic blood flow (TAQ) as an index of hindlimb skeletal muscle blood flow and mean arterial pressure (MAP). The extent of functional sympathetic tone was assessed by measuring the increase in TAQ and terminal aortic vascular conductance (TAC, calculated as TAQ/MAP) in response to intra-arterial infusion of the alpha-adrenergic antagonist prazosin (PZ; 50 micrograms/kg) into the hind-limbs at rest and during steady-state dynamic (treadmill) exercise ranging from mild (3.2 km/h, 0% grade to moderately heavy (8 km/h, 15% grade) workloads. This dose of PZ completely abolished the large hindlimb vasoconstrictor response to phenylephrine (1 microgram/kg ia). At rest, PZ increased TAQ by 0.10 +/- 0.02 l/min and TAC by 1.85 +/- 0.53 ml.min-1.mmHg-1. During exercise, as workload increased and the control levels of TAQ and TAC rose progressively delta TAQ and delta TAC with PZ infusion also increased. At the highest workload, PZ increased TAQ by 0.41 +/- 0.07 l/min and TAC by 4.81 +/- 0.38 ml.min-1.mmHg-1. The increase in TAQ and TAC with PZ were linearly related to the control level of TAQ, indicating that as workload increases progressively greater restraint of muscle vasodilation by the sympathetic nervous system occurs. We conclude that during dynamic exercise in conscious dogs the sympathetic nervous system progressively restrains the normal vasodilation in active skeletal muscle, thereby limiting skeletal muscle perfusion.
Work Stress and Early Atherosclerosis : Do Genetic Background and Pre-Employment Risk Factors Explain Conflicting Findings ?

According to the models conceptualizing work stress, increased risk of health problems arise when high job demands co-occur with low job control (the demand-control model) or the efforts invested by the employee are disproportionately high compared to the rewards received (effort-reward imbalance model). This study examined the association between work stress and early atherosclerosis with particular attention to the role of pre-employment risk factors and genetic background in this association. The subjects were young healthy adults aged 24-39 who were participating in the 21-year follow-up of the ongoing prospective “Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns” study in 2001-2002. Work stress was evaluated with questionnaires on demand-control model and on effort-reward model. Atherosclerosis was assessed with ultrasound of carotid artery intima-media thickness (IMT). In addition, risk for enhanced atherosclerotic process was assessed by measuring with heart rate variability and heart rate. Pre-employment risk factors, measured at age 12 to 18, included such as body mass index, blood lipids, family history of coronary heart disease, and parental socioeconomic position. Variants of the neuregulin-1 were determined using
Leucosporidium yeasts: obligate psychrophiles which alter membrane-lipid and cytochrome composition with temperature.

The temperature limits of growth of three psychorphilic yeasts, Leucosporidium frigidum, L. gelidum and L. nivalis, were examined. All species grew well as subzero temperatures (-I degrees C). The maximum temperature of growth was significantly higher with glucose as substrate (18 to 20 degrees C) than with ethanol (17 to 18 degrees C). There was a positive correlation between the growth temperature and the degree of fatty-acid unsaturation of the cell lipids; the lower the temperature, the greater the degree of fatty-acid unsaturation. At subzero temperatures (-I degrees C) with ethanol as substrate, 90% of the total fatty acid was unsaturated with linolenic (35 to 50%) and linoleic (25 to 30%) acids predominating. At temperatures close to the maximum for growth, linolenic acid accounted for less than 20% of the total fatty acid and oleic (20 to 40%) and linoleic (30 to 50%) acids were the major components. Difference spectra of intact cells showed marked changes in the rations and amounts of individual cytochromes as a function of growth temperature. In L.frigidum with glucose as substrate, the ratios of cytochromes a +a3:b:c at 8 and 19 degrees C were I:I-I:2-9 and I:2-3:16-7 respectively. Similar changes in cytochrome ratios were noted for L.gelidum, but changes were much less marked for L. nivalis. The temperature effects were interpreted as supporting the view that membrane structure and composition are fundamental to temperature adaptation in psychrophilic yeasts.
EHRA / EAPCI expert consensus statement on catheter-based left atrial appendage occlusion

Cardiology, Bern University Hospital, 3010 Bern, Switzerland; Department of Cardiology, Maastricht University Medical Center, 6281 Maastricht, The Netherlands; Isar Medical Centre, 80331 Munich, Germany; Cardiovascular Center Frankfurt, 60389 Frankfurt, Germany; Cardiac Arrhythmia Research Center, Centro Cardiologico Monzino, IRCCS, 20138 Milan, Italy; and Davidai Arrhythmia Center, Sheba Medical Center, 52621 Tel Hashomer, Israel
Change-point detection for infinite horizon dynamic treatment regimes

A dynamic treatment regime is a set of decision rules for how to treat a patient at multiple time points. At each time point, a treatment decision is made depending on the patient’s medical history up to that point. We consider the infinite-horizon setting in which the number of decision points is very large. Specifically, we consider long trajectories of patients’ measurements recorded over time. At each time point, the decision whether to intervene or not is conditional on whether or not there was a change in the patient’s trajectory. We present change-point detection tools and show how to use them in defining dynamic treatment regimes. The performance of these regimes is assessed using an extensive simulation study. We demonstrate the utility of the proposed change-point detection approach using two case studies: detection of sepsis in preterm infants in the intensive care unit and detection of a change in glucose levels of a diabetic patient.