Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Current Trends in Facial Rejuvenation: An Assessment of ASPS Members’ Use of Fat Grafting during Face Lifting

Background: Fat grafting can be used to improve the results of face lifting. The extent to which plastic surgeons use fat grafting in their face-lift practices is unknown. The goals of this study were to understand the current use of fat grafting during facial rejuvenation surgery and identify the most common techniques used. Methods: A 28-item questionnaire was formulated for distribution to a randomized cohort of American Society of Plastic Surgeons members. Data were collected and statistically analyzed using Pearson chi-square and Fisher’s exact tests. Results: A total of 309 questionnaires were collected. The questionnaire revealed that 85.2 percent of respondents use fat grafting during face lifts. Currently, the most common techniques used include abdominal harvest, centrifuge processing, blunt cannula injection without pretunneling, and placing less than 0.1 cc per pass. The deep central malar, lower lid cheek junction, and nasolabial folds are the most commonly injected areas. Conclusions: Combining surgical repositioning of fat with fat grafting offers surgeons a greater degree of aesthetic control for correcting contour in the aging face. Although there is controversy regarding the best method to surgically reposition fat, there is a growing consensus that volume augmentation is preferred by most face-lift surgeons.
A Multimode Equivalent Network Approach for the Analysis of a "Realistic" Finite Array of Open Ended Waveguides

In this contribution we present a theoretical model for the analysis of finite arrays of open-ended waveguides mounted on finite mounting platforms or having radome coverages. This model is based on a Multimode Equivalent Network (MEN) [1] representation of the radiating waveguides complete with their tuning and exciter elements and a high frequency description of the external region.
A new loss model and system design method for Radio on Free Space Optical Link

Radio on Free Space Optical Link (RoFSO) has been developed to realize a cost effective and universal platform for heterogeneous wireless services as same as RoF. This paper proposes a new link loss model for RoFSOL based on a long-term experiment of RoFSO transmission and a total system design method for four types of wireless services.
Comparison of Cardiorespiratory and Metabolic Responses in Kettlebell High-Intensity Interval Training Versus Sprint Interval Cycling

Abstract Williams, BM and Kraemer, RR. Comparison of cardiorespiratory and metabolic responses in kettlebell high-intensity interval training versus sprint interval cycling. J Strength Cond Res 29(12): 3317–3325, 2015—The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of a novel exercise protocol we developed for kettlebell high-intensity interval training (KB-HIIT) by comparing the cardiorespiratory and metabolic responses to a standard sprint interval cycling (SIC) exercise protocol. Eight men volunteered for the study and completed 2 preliminary sessions, followed by two 12-minute sessions of KB-HIIT and SIC in a counterbalanced fashion. In the KB-HITT session, 3 circuits of 4 exercises were performed using a Tabata regimen. In the SIC session, three 30-second sprints were performed, with 4 minutes of recovery in between the first 2 sprints and 2.5 minutes of recovery after the last sprint. A within-subjects' design over multiple time points was used to compare oxygen consumption (V[Combining Dot Above]O2), respiratory exchange ratio (RER), tidal volume (TV), breathing frequency (f), minute ventilation (VE), caloric expenditure rate (kcal·min−1), and heart rate (HR) between the exercise protocols. Additionally, total caloric expenditure was compared. A significant group effect, time effect, and group × time interaction were found for V[Combining Dot Above]O2, RER, and TV, with V[Combining Dot Above]O2 being higher and TV and RER being lower in the KB-HIIT compared with the SIC. Only a significant time effect and group × time interaction were found for f, VE, kcal·min−1, and HR. Additionally, total caloric expenditure was found to be significantly higher during the KB-HIIT. The results of this study suggest that KB-HIIT may be more attractive and sustainable than SIC and can be effective in stimulating cardiorespiratory and metabolic responses that could improve health and aerobic performance.
The role of neuroticism in daily stress and coping.

The authors examined the influence of neuroticism (N) on the occurrence of different types of daily events, primary and secondary appraisals of those events, use of specific coping strategies, and end-of-day negative mood. College students completed questionnaires at the end of every day for 14 consecutive days. When reporting their most stressful event of each day, high-N individuals, compared with low-N individuals, reported more interpersonal stressors and had more negative primary and secondary appraisals and reacted with more distress in response to increasingly negative primary and secondary appraisals. Compared with low-N individuals, high-N individuals used less-adaptive coping strategies (e.g., hostile reaction) and reacted with more distress in response to some types of coping strategies. The appraisal findings, in particular, help to explain the chronic negative affectivity associated with neuroticism.
Improved closure rate of Class III furcations using a layered GTR technique.

In this study, 24 furcation defects in 12 patients were treated by either (1) a polylactide resorbable membrane (Guidor) plus a polyglactin mesh (Vicryl) and demineralized freeze-dried bone allograft (DFDBA), or (2) a polylactide resorbable membrane and DFDBA. All defects were reentered after 9 months. Class III furcations closed 66% of the time when treated by the first method, while the closure rate was only 33% when treated by the second method (no polyglactin mesh). Defects with a vertical opening of < or = 4 mm closed 74% of the time, while those with vertical openings > 4 mm closed only 11% of the time.
A new type of neurons for machine learning

In machine learning, an artificial neural network is the mainstream approach. Such a network consists of many neurons. These neurons are of the same type characterized by the 2 features: (1) an inner product of an input vector and a matching weighting vector of trainable parameters and (2) a nonlinear excitation function. Here, we investigate the possibility of replacing the inner product with a quadratic function of the input vector, thereby upgrading the first‐order neuron to the second‐order neuron, empowering individual neurons and facilitating the optimization of neural networks. Also, numerical examples are provided to illustrate the feasibility and merits of the second‐order neurons. Finally, further topics are discussed.
Causal evidence for frontal involvement in memory target maintenance by posterior brain areas during distracter interference of visual working memory

Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) is recruited during visual working memory (WM) when relevant information must be maintained in the presence of distracting information. The mechanism by which DLPFC might ensure successful maintenance of the contents of WM is, however, unclear; it might enhance neural maintenance of memory targets or suppress processing of distracters. To adjudicate between these possibilities, we applied time-locked transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) during functional MRI, an approach that permits causal assessment of a stimulated brain region's influence on connected brain regions, and evaluated how this influence may change under different task conditions. Participants performed a visual WM task requiring retention of visual stimuli (faces or houses) across a delay during which visual distracters could be present or absent. When distracters were present, they were always from the opposite stimulus category, so that targets and distracters were represented in distinct posterior cortical areas. We then measured whether DLPFC-TMS, administered in the delay at the time point when distracters could appear, would modulate posterior regions representing memory targets or distracters. We found that DLPFC-TMS influenced posterior areas only when distracters were present and, critically, that this influence consisted of increased activity in regions representing the current memory targets. DLPFC-TMS did not affect regions representing current distracters. These results provide a new line of causal evidence for a top-down DLPFC-based control mechanism that promotes successful maintenance of relevant information in WM in the presence of distraction.
Electroacupuncture attenuates learning and memory impairment via activation of α7nAChR-mediated anti-inflammatory activity in focal cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injured rats

Studies have reported that electroacupuncture (EA) may reduce learning and memory impairment following cerebral ischemic injury. However, the precise mechanism of action remains unclear. In the present study, the attenuation of focal cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury by EA in rats was investigated. EA at the Baihui (DU 20) and Shenting (DU 24) acupoints was demonstrated to significantly improve performance in the Morris water maze task, with shortened latency time and increased frequency of passing the platform. Molecular analysis revealed that EA activated the expression of α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (α7nAChR) in the hippocampus. In addition, EA led to a decreased expression of the microglia/macrophage marker Iba1 and the astrocyte marker glial fibrillary acidic protein in the hippocampus. EA treatment also led to decreased production of the inflammatory cytokines tumor necrosis factor-α and interleukin-1β. Treatment with methyllycaconitine, an α7nAChR antagonist, attenuated the improvement of learning and memory following EA treatment and the inhibitory effects of EA on glial cell activation and inflammatory cytokine production. In conclusion, the findings of the present study demonstrate that EA is able to improve learning and memory function following cerebral ischemic injury via activation of α7nAChR, which significantly decreases the neuroinflammatory response.
Does Shareholder Value Orientation or Financial Market Liberalization Slow Down Korean Real Investment?

This study empirically tests whether the growing importance of shareholder value orientation and financial market liberalization can explain the decline in Korean real investment since the Asian financial crisis. First, the results indicate no negative relationship between increased payments to financial markets and the slowdown in Korean real investment. Second, the estimation results do not support the assertion that financial investment earnings crowd out Korean real investment. Third, an increase in the level of uncertainty from financial market liberalization reduces real investment by Korean firms. These results suggest that financial market liberalization explains the slowdown in Korean firm real investment for the 1990-2010 period better than shareholder value orientation does.
Sonographic depiction of normal and abnormal endometrium with histopathologic correlation.

The sonographic appearance of the endometrium was correlated to histopathologic findings in 38 patients who underwent hysterectomy. The thickness was accurately assessed by sonography (within +/‐ 1 mm) in 33 of 38 patients. The hypoechoic halo which surrounds the endometrium was found to represent the inner third of the myometrium which is relatively vascular and compact. In postmenopausal patients who are not receiving hormonal replacement, an endometrium of greater than 5 mm should be considered abnormal. Several causes of abnormally thick endometrium were encountered in this study, including endometrial carcinoma, hyperplasia, adenomyosis, hematometria, mucometria, and pyometria. Sonography was found to be accurate in determining the depth of myometrial invasion in adenocarcinoma.
Examining the link between measures of social capital and democracy

Dominant political theory suggests that social capital is an important prerequisite for sustaining democracy and upholding the civic culture in society. This paper examines the link between facets of social capital and outcomes usually associated with democracy, namely tolerance of diversity, civic commitment and political participation, using data on the South African city of Cape Town from the exploratory 2003 Cape Area Study. A descriptive analysis of respondents’ views on tolerance, civic commitment and political participation is followed by the explanatory analysis of the relationship between facets of social capital and these variables. General interpersonal trust and associational activism are both low in Cape Town, but these variables do not explain the positive attitudes towards diversity observed. While generalised trust is a weak predictor of civic commitment, associational activism is a positive and statistically significant predictor hereof. Social capital does little to explain levels of individual political participation. Thus, despite the fact that generalised trust and associational activism are both low in Cape Town, these variables do not suffice to explain the apathetic levels of political participation observed. The findings suggest that the relationship between social capital and democracy is varied and inconsistent, with some facets of social capital playing a more important role than others in determining democratic outcomes.
Intake of unsaturated fatty acids and HDL cholesterol levels are associated with manifestations of atopy in adults

Background The increase in allergic diseases is still unexplained. It was hypothesized that the intake of unsaturated fatty acids is a contributing cause of this development. We investigated the relationship between serum cholesterol levels, intake of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) and manifestations of atopy in a population‐based setting.
Misalignment-Robust Joint Filter for Cross-Modal Image Pairs

Although several powerful joint filters for cross-modal image pairs have been proposed, the existing joint filters generate severe artifacts when there are misalignments between a target and a guidance images. Our goal is to generate an artifact-free output image even from the misaligned target and guidance images. We propose a novel misalignment-robust joint filter based on weight-volume-based image composition and joint-filter cost volume. Our proposed method first generates a set of translated guidances. Next, the joint-filter cost volume and a set of filtered images are computed from the target image and the set of the translated guidances. Then, a weight volume is obtained from the joint-filter cost volume while considering a spatial smoothness and a label-sparseness. The final output image is composed by fusing the set of the filtered images with the weight volume for the filtered images. The key is to generate the final output image directly from the set of the filtered images by weighted averaging using the weight volume that is obtained from the joint-filter cost volume. The proposed framework is widely applicable and can involve any kind of joint filter. Experimental results show that the proposed method is effective for various applications including image denosing, image up-sampling, haze removal and depth map interpolation.
External Validity in IS Survey Research

This study focuses on the issues of external validity, coverage error and nonresponse error in IS survey research. Data from the empirical papers in 5 years of issues from three “A rated” IS journals are presented and analyzed. Recommendations are made based on the analyses, basic scientific principles and the authors’ experience and judgment.
Supplemental Figures and Figure Legends Online Figure I Online

1Institute of Basic Medical Sciences; 2Institute of Molecular Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan; 3Department of Surgery, National Cheng Kung University and Hospital, Tainan, Taiwan; 4National Institute of Cancer Research, National Health Research Institutes, Tainan, Taiwan; 5Department of Radiation Oncology, National Cheng Kung University Hospital, Tainan, Taiwan; 6Division of Stem Cell Therapy, Institute of Medical Science, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan, and; 7The Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.
Cloning and disruption of the gene encoding an extracellular metalloprotease of Aspergillus fumigatus

Aspergillus fumigatus secretes a serine alkaline protease (ALP) and a metalloprotease (MEP) when the fungus is cultivated in the presence of collagen as sole nitrogen and carbon source. The gene encoding ALP was isolated and characterized previously. We report here the cloning and the sequencing of the gene encoding MEP. Genomic and cDNA clones were isolated from A. fumigatus libraries using synthetic oligonucleotides as probes. Stretches of the deduced amino acid sequence were found to be in agreement with the N‐terminal amino acid sequence of MEP and with internal peptide sequences. The amino acid sequence of the enzyme contains a putative active‐site sequence HEYTH homologous to the active site of other bacterial and eukaryotic zinc metalloproteases. Sequence analysis reveals that MEP has a pre‐proregion consisting of 245 amino acid residues preceding the 388 amino acid residues of the mature region (molecular mass of 42 kDa). An alp mep mutant, deficient in proteolytic activity at neutral pH in vitro, was constructed and tested for pathogenicity in a murine model. No difference in pathogenicity was observed between the wild‐type strain and the alp mep double mutant, suggesting that ALP and MEP are not essential for the invasion of the lung tissues by A. fumigatus.
Direct current stimulation over MT+/V5 modulates motion aftereffect in humans

While there is strong evidence for the central role of the human MT+/V5 in motion processing, its involvement in motion adaptation is still the subject of debate. We used transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to test whether MT+/V5 is part of the neural network involved in the long-term adaptation-induced motion after-effect in humans. It was found that both cathodal and anodal stimulation over MT+/V5 resulted in a significant reduction of the perceived motion after-effect duration, but had no effect on performance in a luminance-change-detection task used to determine attentional load during adaptation. Our control experiment excluded the possibility that the observed MT+/V5 stimulation effects were due to a diffused modulation of the early cortical areas, i.e. by the stimulation applied over MT+/V5. These results provide evidence that external modulation of neural excitability in human MT+/V5 affects the strength of perceived motion after-effect and support the involvement of MT+/V5 in motion adaptation processes.
Responses of human masseter motor units to stretch.

1. The reflex responses to stretch were studied in single motor units and the surface electromyogram in human masseter. 2. Controlled stretches of the isometrically contracting jaw‐closing muscles evoked short‐latency (10‐15 ms) and long‐latency (35‐70 ms) excitatory reflex responses in the masseter surface electromyogram. 3. The majority (65%) of tonically active masseter motor units were excited in both short‐ and long‐latency phases of the reflex. The timing of the stimulus determined whether the unit discharged in the short‐ or long‐latency phase. If a non‐tonically active motor unit was recruited by the stimulus, it invariably discharged in the long‐latency phase. 4. Although short‐latency responses were strongly time‐locked to the stimulus, there was very little shortening of interspike intervals (ISIs) in this phase of the reflex. The shortening of ISIs was more prominent and prolonged during the long‐latency phase, which explains why this phase produces most of the reflex force changes following the stretch. 5. Within pairs of concurrently active motor units there was a tenfold range in the size of the short‐latency response to the same stretch. 6. A substantial proportion (35%) of the twenty‐two masseter motor units tested had no statistically significant short‐latency reflex response. 7. In contrast to other human muscles, there was no functional connection between a population of Ia afferents and some masseter motoneurons. There are two possible explanations for this result. The short‐latency, presumably monosynaptic, Ia afferent inputs may not be uniformly distributed to human masseter motoneurons. Alternatively, these inputs may be subject to tonic presynaptic inhibition that is not uniformly distributed throughout the masseter motoneuron pool.
Minimizing the Risk of Disease Transmission in Emergency Settings: Novel In Situ Physico-Chemical Disinfection of Pathogen-Laden Hospital Wastewaters

The operation of a health care facility, such as a cholera or Ebola treatment center in an emergency setting, results in the production of pathogen-laden wastewaters that may potentially lead to onward transmission of the disease. The research presented here evaluated the design and operation of a novel treatment system, successfully used by Médecins Sans Frontières in Haiti to disinfect CTC wastewaters in situ, eliminating the need for road haulage and disposal of the waste to a poorly-managed hazardous waste facility, thereby providing an effective barrier to disease transmission through a novel but simple sanitary intervention. The physico-chemical protocols eventually successfully treated over 600 m3 of wastewater, achieving coagulation/flocculation and disinfection by exposure to high pH (Protocol A) and low pH (Protocol B) environments, using thermotolerant coliforms as a disinfection efficacy index. In Protocol A, the addition of hydrated lime resulted in wastewater disinfection and coagulation/flocculation of suspended solids. In Protocol B, disinfection was achieved by the addition of hydrochloric acid, followed by pH neutralization and coagulation/flocculation of suspended solids using aluminum sulfate. Removal rates achieved were: COD >99%; suspended solids >90%; turbidity >90% and thermotolerant coliforms >99.9%. The proposed approach is the first known successful attempt to disinfect wastewater in a disease outbreak setting without resorting to the alternative, untested, approach of ‘super chlorination’ which, it has been suggested, may not consistently achieve adequate disinfection. A basic analysis of costs demonstrated a significant saving in reagent costs compared with the less reliable approach of super-chlorination. The proposed approach to in situ sanitation in cholera treatment centers and other disease outbreak settings represents a timely response to a UN call for onsite disinfection of wastewaters generated in such emergencies, and the ‘Coalition for Cholera Prevention and Control’ recently highlighted the research as meriting serious consideration and further study. Further applications of the method to other emergency settings are being actively explored by the authors through discussion with the World Health Organization with regards to the ongoing Ebola outbreak in West Africa, and with the UK-based NGO Oxfam with regards to excreta-borne disease management in the Philippines and Myanmar, as a component of post-disaster incremental improvements to local sanitation chains.
Optimal impulse control with variance premium principle

In this paper, we study the optimal impulse control problem with reinsurance strategy. We assume that two reinsurers participate in a reinsurance treaty for some loss, and the insurer and two reinsurers adopt the variance premium principle with different parameter respectively. Further, we assume that the dividends are paid to shareholder of an insurance company, and every dividend payout incurs some fixed transaction costs and proportional taxes, i.e., impulse dividends. In diffusion model, we study the maximum of the expected discounted dividend payout until the time of ruin by dynamic programming approach, and closed-form solutions for the value function and optimal dividend-reinsurance strategy are obtained.