Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Characterization of Damage Evolution on Hot Flat Rolled Mild Steel Sheets by Means of Micromagnetic Parameters and Fatigue Strength Determination

In continuous casting processes, inevitable voids (damage) are generated inside the material. The subsequent forming process of hot flat rolling offers the potential of healing these defects by closing the voids and bonding the internal surfaces. In this paper, different forming conditions from hot flat rolling process were characterized with micromagnetic measurement techniques and the influence of the damage evolution on the fatigue behavior was investigated. To characterize the reduction of voids through hot flat rolling processes, nondestructive testing techniques are required. Therefore, micromagnetic measurements such as Barkhausen noise, incremental permeability, and harmonic analysis were carried out, correlated with the number of voids, and compared with each other. The influence of damage evolution of different forming conditions on the fatigue behavior was characterized based on instrumented constant amplitude and multiple amplitude (load increase) tests. A significant increase in fatigue strength due to the hot flat rolling process, which leads to a reduction in the number of voids, was observed. In addition, the fracture surfaces of the specimens were analyzed in the scanning electron microscope.
Parental Mediation of Children's Emotional Responses to a Violent News Event

In a survey among 451 elementary school children (8 to 12 years old), the authors investigate (a) to what extent children's exposure to news coverage of a violent news event is related to their feelings of fear, worry, anger, and sadness and (b) to what extent active (i.e., helping children understand what they see on the news) and restrictive (i.e., keeping children from watching the news) parental mediation strategies moderate the impact of the news. Findings show that children's news exposure is significantly related to their emotional responses. Active mediation successfully reduces the relations between news exposure and fear, worry, and anger but only among the younger children in the sample. Restrictive mediation has no or even an opposite effect. However, findings also suggest that the effectiveness of the mediation may depend on the child's level of news exposure.
Scaling Bubble Entrainment And Dispersion In Vertical Circular Plunging Jet Flows: Freshwater Versus Seawater

At a plunging jet, air entrainment may take place downstream of the impingement perimeter. This study investigates air entrainment and bubble dispersion at vertical circular plunging jets in freshwater, salty freshwater and seawater. The results show lesser air entrainment in seawater plunging jets for identical inflow conditions. The average pseudo-chord sizes are between 4 and 6 mm for all water solutions, although more fine bubbles were detected in seawater. It is believed that surfactants and bio-chemicals harden the induction trumpet at plunge point and diminish air entrapment at impingement in seawater.
Mortalité de la grossesse extra-utérine à Libreville

Entre le 1° janvier 1984 et le 30 juin 1990, nous avions enregistre 10 deces pour 923 GEU, soit un taux de 10,8‰ 9 cas sont lies a la GEU, par l'importance de l'hemorragie (4 cas), un defaut d'hemostase (2 cas) ou un accident anesthesique (5 cas) et un cas est lie a une intoxication a but abortif. La GEU represente 9,7% de la mortalite maternelle observe a Libreville et occupe le 3° rang des causes obstetricales directes apres les hemorragie (30,1%) et les complications des avortements provoques (23%). L'analyse des soins en dessous des normes montre la responsabilite des patientes par leur negligence, des difficultes d'acces aux centres de soins, et surtout du centre de transfusion sanguine (insuffisance en reserve de sang et defauts d'equipements)
Transcriptional repression via antilooping in the Drosophila embryo

Transcriptional repressors are thought to inhibit gene expression by interfering with the binding or function of RNA Polymerase II, perhaps by promoting local chromatin condensation. Here, we present evidence for a distinctive mechanism of repression, whereby sequence-specific repressors prevent the looping of distal enhancers to the promoter. Particular efforts focus on the Snail repressor, which plays a conserved role in promoting epithelial-mesenchyme transitions in both invertebrates and vertebrates, including mesoderm invagination in Drosophila, neural crest migration in vertebrates, and tumorigenesis in mammals. Chromosome conformation capture experiments were used to examine enhancer looping at Snail target genes in wild-type and mutant embryos. These studies suggest that the Snail repressor blocks the formation of fruitful enhancer–promoter interactions when bound to a distal enhancer. This higher-order mechanism of transcriptional repression has broad implications for the control of gene activity in metazoan development.
Fractal analysis of MRI data for the characterization of patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder

Fractal geometry can be used to analyze shape and patterns in brain images. With this study we use fractals to analyze T1 data of patients affected by schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, with the aim of distinguishing between healthy and pathological brains using the complexity of brain structure, in particular of grey matter, as a marker of disease. 39 healthy volunteers, 25 subjects affected by schizophrenia and 11 patients affected by bipolar disorder underwent an MRI session. We evaluated fractal dimension of the brain cortex and its substructures, calculated with an algorithm based on the box-count algorithm. We modified this algorithm, with the aim of avoiding the segmentation processing step and using all the information stored in the image grey levels. Moreover, to increase sensitivity to local structural changes, we computed a value of fractal dimension for each slice of the brain or of the particular structure. To have reference values in comparing healthy subjects with patients, we built a template by averaging fractal dimension values of the healthy volunteers data. Standard deviation was evaluated and used to create a confidence interval. We also performed a slice by slice t-test to assess the difference at slice level between the three groups. Consistent average fractal dimension values were found across all the structures in healthy controls, while in the pathological groups we found consistent differences, indicating a change in brain and structures complexity induced by these disorders.
Actin‐bundling protein plastin 3 is a regulator of ectoplasmic specialization dynamics during spermatogenesis in the rat testis

Ectoplasmic specialization (ES) is an actinrich adherens junction in the seminiferous epithelium of adult mammalian testes. ES is restricted to the Sertoli‐spermatid (apical ES) interface, as well as the Sertoli cell‐cell (basal ES) interface at the blood‐testis barrier (BTB). ES is typified by the presence of an array of bundles of actin microfilaments near the Sertoli cell plasma membrane. These actin microfilament bundles require rapid debundling to convert them from a bundled to branched/unbundled configuration and vice versa to confer plasticity to support the transport of 1) spermatids in the adluminal compartment and 2) preleptotene spermatocytes at the BTB while maintaining cell adhesion. Plastin 3 is one of the plastin family members abundantly found in yeast, plant and animal cells that confers actin microfilaments their bundled configuration. Herein, plastin 3 was shown to be a component of the apical and basal ES in the rat testis, displaying spatiotemporal expression during the epithelial cycle. A knockdown (KD) of plastin 3 in Sertoli cells by RNA interference using an in vitro model to study BTB function showed that a transient loss of plastin 3 perturbed the Sertoli cell tight junction‐permeability barrier, mediated by changes in the localization of basal ES proteins N‐cadherin and β‐catenin. More importantly, these changes were the result of an alteration of the actin microfilaments, converting from their bundled to branched configuration when examined microscopically, and validated by biochemical assays that quantified actin‐bundling and polymerization activity. Moreover, these changes were confirmed by studies in vivo by plastin 3 KD in the testis in which mis‐localization of N‐cadherin and β‐catenin was also detected at the BTB, concomitant with defects in the transport of spermatids and phagosomes and a disruption of cell adhesion most notably in elongated spermatids due to a loss of actin‐bundling capability at the apical ES, which in turn affected localization of adhesion protein complexes at the site. In summary, plastin 3 is a regulator of actin microfilament bundles at the ES in which it dictates the configuration of the filamentous actin network by assuming either a bundled or unbundled/branched configuration via changes in its spatiotemporal expression during the epithelial cycle. —Li, N. , Mruk, D. D. , Wong, C. K. C. , Lee, W. M. , Han, D. , Cheng, C. Y. Actinbundling protein plastin 3 is a regulator of ectoplasmic specialization dynamics during spermatogenesis in the rat testis. FASEB J. 29, 3788‐3805 (2015). www.fasebj. org
Comparative Interactions of Anesthetic Alkylphenols with Lipid Membranes.

Objective: While substituted phenols have a variety of pharmacological activity, the mechanism underlying their anesthetic effects remains uncertain especially about the critical target. We characterized the lipid membrane-interacting properties of different phenols by comparing with general anesthetic propofol and local anesthetics. Based on the results, we also studied the pharmacological effects possibly associated with their membrane interactivities. Methods: 1,6-Diphenyl-1,3,5-hexatriene-labeled lipid bilayer membranes were prepared with 1,2-dipalmitoyl-phosphatidylcholine as model membranes and with different phospholipids and cholesterol to mimic neuronal membranes. These membrane preparations were treated with phenols and anesthetics at 1 - 200 μM, followed by measuring the fluorescence polarization to determine the membrane interactivities to change membrane fluidity. Antioxidant effects were fluorometrically determined using diphenyl-1-pyrenylphosphine-incorporated liposomes which were treated with 10 - 100 μM phenols, and then peroxidized with 10 μM peroxynitrite. Results: Several phenols interacted with the model membranes and the neuronal mimetic membranes to increase their fluidity at 1 - 10 μM as well as lidocaine and bupivacaine did at 50 - 200 μM. Their comparative potencies were propofol > thymol > isothymol > guaiacol > phenol > eugenol, and bupivacaine > lidocaine, consistent with the rank order of neuro-activity. These phenols inhibited membrane lipid peroxidation at 10 and 100 μM with the potencies correlating to their membrane interactivities. Conclusion: The structure-specific membrane interaction is at least in part responsible for the pharmacology of anesthetic alkylphenols. Membrane-interacting antioxidant alkylphenols may be protective against the peroxynitrite-relating ischemia/reperfusion injury.
TREATMENT OF LENTIGO MALIGNA WITH AZELAIC ACID

Case 1: A 74-yeat-old farmer presented with hypertension. On examination (Fig. 1A), we observed a dark brown spot of 10 years evolution, 4.5 x 3.5 cm in diameter. It was located on the right cheek near the buccal corner. A biopsy of the more clinically involved area showed the existence of atypical melanocytes, heavily pigmented at the level of the basal area. The melanocytes were single or formed little nests. There was no evidence of dermal invasion (Fig. 2A).
Late rectal bleeding after 3D-CRT for prostate cancer: development of a neural-network-based predictive model

The aim of this study was to develop a model exploiting artificial neural networks (ANNs) to correlate dosimetric and clinical variables with late rectal bleeding in prostate cancer patients undergoing radical radiotherapy and to compare the ANN results with those of a standard logistic regression (LR) analysis. 718 men included in the AIROPROS 0102 trial were analyzed. This multicenter protocol was characterized by the prospective evaluation of rectal toxicity, with a minimum follow-up of 36 months. Radiotherapy doses were between 70 and 80 Gy. Information was recorded for comorbidity, previous abdominal surgery, use of drugs and hormonal therapy. For each patient, a rectal dose–volume histogram (DVH) of the whole treatment was recorded and the equivalent uniform dose (EUD) evaluated as an effective descriptor of the whole DVH. Late rectal bleeding of grade ≥ 2 was considered to define positive events in this study (52 of 718 patients). The overall population was split into training and verification sets, both of which were involved in model instruction, and a test set, used to evaluate the predictive power of the model with independent data. Fourfold cross-validation was also used to provide realistic results for the full dataset. The LR was performed on the same data. Five variables were selected to predict late rectal bleeding: EUD, abdominal surgery, presence of hemorrhoids, use of anticoagulants and androgen deprivation. Following a receiver operating characteristic analysis of the independent test set, the areas under the curves (AUCs) were 0.704 and 0.655 for ANN and LR, respectively. When evaluated with cross-validation, the AUC was 0.714 for ANN and 0.636 for LR, which differed at a significance level of p = 0.03. When a practical discrimination threshold was selected, ANN could classify data with sensitivity and specificity both equal to 68.0%, whereas these values were 61.5% for LR. These data provide reasonable evidence that results obtained with ANNs are superior to those achieved with LR when predicting late radiotherapy-related rectal bleeding. The future introduction of patient-related personal characteristics, such as gene expression profiles, might improve the predictive power of statistical classifiers. More refined morphological aspects of the dose distribution, such as dose surface mapping, might also enhance the overall performance of ANN-based predictive models.
Prednisolone: a beneficial and safe adjunct to antituberculosis treatment? A randomized controlled trial.

SETTING A referral centre for thoracic diseases in Izmir, Turkey, 1992-1995. OBJECTIVE To appraise the adjunctive role of prednisolone (PN) in pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) with toxic reactions. DESIGN After excluding other febrile causes, and 2 weeks of four/five-drug antituberculosis therapy insufficient to resolve toxic reactions, 178 human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) negative patients with advanced PTB causing persistent high-grade fever (> or =38 degrees C), weight loss (> or =2 kg/week) and/or low serum albumin levels (<3 g/dL) were randomly allocated to receive either a 12-month course of antituberculosis treatment using four first-line drugs and PN (20 mg b.i.d. IV/IM initially, decreasing over 40 days) (91 patients-PN group), or 12 months of antituberculosis treatment only (87 patients-CO group). Twice-weekly sputum bacillary count, temperature recorded every 6 hours, weekly weight, serial albumin level and liver function measurements and chest roentgenograms were used to assess the effects of PN on PTB. RESULTS Temperature decreased from 39.1+/-0.9 degrees C to 37.9+/-0.7 degrees C (P = 0.0030) within the first 72 (+/-9) hours in those patients on PN treatment, whereas a gradual decline occurred over 22 (+/-3) days in the CO group. In the PN group, patients' weight increased from 49.7+/-4.8 kg to 56.9+/-8.3 kg, compared to 47.1 +/- 6.4 kg to 51.31+/-5.9 kg in the CO group (P = 0.0022). Increases in serum albumin levels in the PN and CO groups were from 2.26+/-0.8 g/dL to 3.32+/-0.6 g/dL and from 2.31+/-0.5 g/dL to 2.90+/-0.7 g/dL, respectively (P = 0.0035). The radiographic regression and drop in bacillary count were more rapid, and the hospital stay shorter (53.4+/-3.1 days vs 71.3+/-5.6 days) in the PN group, although there were no differences in the acid-fast bacilli conversion rates. There were no detrimental side effects and relapses attributable to PN during the 1-3 year follow-up, even in 18 cases with drug resistance. CONCLUSION Prednosolone is a beneficial and safe adjunct to 12-month antituberculosis treatment in advanced PTB causing toxic reactions, provided that close clinical, radiographic and bacillary monitoring is exercised.
Characterization of Escherichia coli DNA Lesions Generated within J774 Macrophages

ABSTRACT Macrophages are armed with multiple oxygen-dependent and -independent bactericidal properties. However, the respiratory burst, generating reactive oxygen species, is believed to be a major cause of bacterial killing. We exploited the susceptibility of Escherichia coli in macrophages to characterize the effects of the respiratory burst on intracellular bacteria. We show that E. coli strains recovered from J774 macrophages exhibit high rates of mutations. We report that the DNA damage generated inside macrophages includes DNA strand breaks and the modification 8-oxo-2′-deoxyguanosine, which are typical oxidative lesions. Interestingly, we found that under these conditions, early in the infection the majority of E. coli cells are viable but gene expression is inhibited. Our findings demonstrate that macrophages can cause severe DNA damage to intracellular bacteria. Our results also suggest that protection against the macrophage-induced DNA damage is an important component of the bacterial defense mechanism within macrophages.
Lung cancer mutation testing: a clinical retesting study of agreement between a real-time PCR and a mass spectrometry test

To investigate the clinical validity and utility of tests for detecting Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) gene mutations in non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer patients, tumour DNA extracts from 532 patients previously tested by the cobas EGFR Mutation Test (RT-PCR test) were retested by the Sequenom/Agena Biosciences MassArray OncoFocus mass spectrometry test (MS test). Valid results from both tests were available from 470 patients (88%) for agreement analysis. Survival data were obtained for 513 patients (96%) and 77 patients (14%) were treated with EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). Agreement analysis revealed moderately high positive (79.8%), negative (96.9%) and overall percentage agreement (93.2%) for the detection of EGFR mutations. However, EGFR mutations were detected by one test and not by the other test in 32 patients (7%). Retesting of discordant samples revealed false-positive and false-negative results generated by both tests. Despite this, treatment and survival outcomes correlated with the results of the RT-PCR and MS tests. In conclusion, this study provides evidence of the clinical validity and utility of the RT-PCR and MS tests for detection of EGFR mutations that predict prognosis and benefit from EGFR-TKI treatment. However, their false-positive and false-negative test results may have important clinical consequences.
Benign prostatic hyperplasia: value of MR imaging for determining histologic type.

PURPOSE To assess the value of magnetic resonance (MR) imaging for determining the histologic type of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). MATERIALS AND METHODS Unenhanced T1- and T2-weighted images and gadolinium-enhanced T1-weighted images were obtained in the transverse plane at 1.5 T in 33 patients with BPH. Hyperphasia was classified as stromal or nonstromal. Nonstromal hyperplasia was diagnosed if (a) the nodules in the inner gland had heterogeneous high signal intensity on T2-weighted images and peripheral enhancement on gadolinium-enhanced images, (b) a surgical capsule was present, or (c) the inner gland volume to total volume ratio was greater than 0.75. RESULTS A correct diagnosis was made with MR imaging in 23 of 24 patients with nonstromal hyperplasia and eight of nine with stromal hyperplasia (94% accuracy). In nonstromal hyperplasia, nodular lesions were seen in 20 patients and a surgical capsule was seen in 19. Eighteen patients had a transition zone ratio greater than 0.75. CONCLUSION MR imaging appears to be useful for choosing the type of pharmacotherapy performed because accurate histologic assessment is possible.
Stability and positive observer design for positive 2D discrete-time system with multiple delays

ABSTRACT This paper addresses the problems of stability and positive observation for positive two-dimensional (2D) discrete-time systems in Roesser model with multiple delays. A novel proof is provided for the necessary and sufficient conditions of asymptotic stability for the positive 2D systems. Based on the obtained results, necessary and sufficient conditions are proposed for the existence of a 2D positive observer. All the proposed conditions are in terms of linear matrix inequalities.
No accumulation of glucose in human skeletal muscle during euglycemic hyperinsulinemia.

It has been recently suggested that high glucose infusion rates during euglycemic hyperinsulinemia result in accumulation of free glucose in human skeletal muscle (J. Clin. Invest. 76: 357, 1985). To examine this possibility, we performed a euglycemic, hyperinsulinemic clamp together with biopsies from the quadriceps femoris muscle on seven healthy men. Insulin was infused at successive rates of 40 and 400 mU. m-2.min-1, resulting in mean plasma insulin concentrations of 69 +/- 3 and 1,285 +/- 115 (SE) microU/ml, respectively. Glucose infusion rates averaged 7.79 +/- 0.86 and 12.01 +/- 0.77 mg.kg body wt-1.min-1. The total glucose content in muscle averaged 1.72 +/- 0.26, 1.37 +/- 0.21, and 1.65 +/- 0.35 mmol/kg dry wt at rest, and after the low- and high-dose insulin infusions, respectively (P greater than 0.05). Assuming that the plasma glucose concentration reflects the glucose concentration in the extracellular space and that there are 0.3 liters of extracellular water per kilogram dry weight, the intracellular glucose contents are calculated to be 0.15 +/- 0.25, -0.35 +/- 0.21, and -0.06 +/- 0.34 mmol/kg dry wt at rest, and after the low- and high-dose infusions, respectively. None of these values is significantly different from zero. Thus euglycemic hyperinsulinemia does not result in appreciable accumulation of glucose in the muscle of insulin-sensitive men.
2D matrix array optimization by simulated annealing for 3D hepatic imaging

In this paper we present a preliminary study of a 2D sparse array design technique. The probe is intended to be suitable for needle tacking during hepatic biopsy and therapy applications. It can also be used in other micro-tools or internal organs operations. The probe is composed of 1024 elements (64×16). Due to this huge number of elements, the sparse array technique is used to reasonably reduce this number and to make possible its connection to the recent scanners. The simulated annealing algorithm permits to optimize elements coefficients and their positions to have a better beam pattern. The features of the probe must satisfy the geometrical constraints imposed by the targeted applications as well as some users defined imaging characteristics. Several simulations are made to know the acoustical characteristics of the array and its convenience to needle detection operations. Combining sparse array and optimization algorithm we reduce the initial element number to 267 with good imaging features: the sidelobes level is maintained to - 40 dB, the lateral main lobe width at -6 dB is 1.1 mm and the elevation main lobe width is 4.4 mm.