Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Morphological Variations of the Thyroid Gland

Introduction: An extensive knowledge about the Thyroid gland is important to avoid iatrogenic injuries during neck surgeries. The identification and removal of the pyramidal lobe are also of great importance for successful postoperative radioactive iodine treatment in patients with differentiated thyroid carcinoma. The unreliability of preoperative diagnostic methods like ultrasonographic or scintigraphic images for detection of the PL makes anatomical studies important in order to ensure a safer thyroid surgery. Aim: The aim of present study is to highlight the morphological variations and various developmental anomalies of the thyroid gland to form a cornerstone for safe and effective surgery. Material &Methods: This study was structured to investigate the gross anatomical features of the thyroid in 32 cadavers from SSSMC & RI and MGMC during routine dissection of the head & neck region. Observation: The size of the lobes showed variations –In one cadaver,the right lobe showed hypertrophy.An Aberrant Right lobe was encountered in one of the cadavers.The pyramidal lobes were noticed in 13 cadavers(40.6%). The pyramidal lobes were located in the Central part of the isthmus in 23.07% (3 cases), at the Junction of the right lobe with the isthmus 23.07% (3 cases),the Junction of the left lobe with the isthmus, 15.3% (2cases),at the L lobe 30.7% (4 cases) and R lobe 7.6% (1 case). The absence of isthumus was observed in 2 specimens(6.2%). Totally,Eight of the cadavers(25%)showed the presence of a thin and fibrous Levator Glandulae Thyroidea(LGT) of which 4 were seen arising from pyramidal lobe and 3 from the right lobe.A LGT showed the presence of muscle fibers in it receiving a twig from ansa cervicalis.Interestingly,in one of the cadavers, there were 2 LGTs, 1 arising from the right lobe and another from a small pyramidal lobe. Conclusion: The prevalence of morphological variations including rare presentations like presence of 2 LGT and aberrant thyroids found during the random dissections of cadavers has been highlighted in this study . A thorough knowledge of the thyroid anatomy and its associated anatomical variations is very important for the clinicians so as to avoid undue complications while securing a difficult invasive airway The possible presence of the PL should not be ignored during preoperative diagnosis in patients with thyroid disease, where it often remains unvisualized.
A Fingerprint Identification System Using Adaptive FPGA-Based Enhanced Probabilistic Convergent Network

This paper explores the biometric identification and verification of human subjects via fingerprints utilising an adaptive FPGA-based weightless neural networks. The exploration espoused here is a hardware-based system motivated by the need for accurate and rapid response to identification of fingerprints which may be lacking in other alternative systems such as software based neural networks. The fingerprints are pre-processed and binarized, and the binarized fingerprints are partitioned into train- and test-set for the FPGA-based neural network. The neural network employed in this exploration is known as Enhanced Convergent Network (EPCN). The results obtained are compared to other alternative systems. They demonstrate the suitability of the FPGA-based EPCN for such tasks.
Cardiac surgery in cirrhotic patients: results and evaluation of risk factors.

OBJECTIVES Liver cirrhosis increases mortality and morbidity following cardiac surgery. This study evaluated the results of cardiac surgery in cirrhotic patients and the relevance of EuroSCORE, Child-Turcotte-Pugh (CTP) class and model for end-stage liver disease (MELD) score in terms of prediction of surgical mortality and survival. METHODS The study involved 34 patients with hepatic cirrhosis who underwent cardiac surgery between January 1996 and January 2010. RESULTS The in-hospital mortality was 26%. Postoperative mortality of patients with CTP class A, B or C was 18, 40 and 100%, respectively. In univariate analysis, a history of cerebrovascular disease and hypoalbuminaemia was predictive of operative mortality. Multivariate exact logistic regression revealed that hypoalbuminaemia was an independent factor. Long-term survival was 63 ± 0.08% at 1 year and 40.2 ± 0.12% at 5 years. The 1-year survival for CTP A, B and C was 76.7 ± 0.09, 60 ± 15.4 and 0%, respectively, and the 5-year survival was 60 ± 15.4, 25 ± 0.19 and 0%, respectively. The EuroSCORE was not a discriminant [area under the curve (AUC): 0.57 ± 0.15]. The performance of CTP class and MELD score was better, but neither provided optimal discrimination: AUC was 0.691 ± 0.110 for MELD and 0.658 ± 0.10 for CTP class. CONCLUSIONS Cardiac surgery can be performed safely in CTP class A patients. In CTP C patients, surgery is hazardous, and an alternative treatment must be considered. In CTP B, the MELD score could be helpful in deciding whether surgical intervention is a reasonable option.
Androgens stimulate endothelial progenitor cells through an androgen receptor‐mediated pathway

Background and objective Testosterone (T) treatment has recently been shown to induce an increase in the number of endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) through a possible effect on bone marrow. Hypogonadotrophic hypogonadal (HH) men have low circulating EPCs that increase significantly after T treatment. Moreover, expression of the androgen receptor (AR) has been demonstrated by immunohistochemistry in these cells, suggesting that T might also have a direct effect on EPC function. In the present study we investigated the expression and function of the AR in human EPCs and the in vitro effect of androgens on EPC function.
The Effects of Antenatal Training Sessions on Prenatal Outcomes

Objective: To study maternal and neonatal outcomes, the nulliparous women submitted to a training program in third trimester. Materials and methods: This randomized controlled trial was carried out on 64 nulliparous pregnant women divided into two groups according to their participation including; training group; n=34 or not; n=34. The program consisted of 8 meetings (between the 28 th and the 40 th gestational week) during which educational activities were developed. The control group received the standard care. Maternal and neonatal outcomes also were recorded. Data were analyzed by SPSS 16, and P<0.05 was considered significant. Results: There was no significant difference in age and body mass index in both groups, but a significant difference was found in both the gestational age based on last menstrual period (LMP), and ultrasonography, as well as in the cervix dilatation at the time the women arrived for delivery in both groups (P<0.05). The difference was also significant in the reasons of admission in hospital (P=0.04), oxytocin induction (P=0.01), mode of delivery (P=0.01), and gestational age of infants based on physical examination in both groups. Birth outcomes were also similar in both groups and no adverse effects of the interaction were found. Conclusion: Antenatal training program in nulliparous women was associated with arriving at maternity ward in active labor, decreasing oxytocin induction, and cesarean section and increasing the gestational age of infants based on physical examination, Training program offered to pregnant women by midwives, is an important low-technology health promotion tool, and may be performed at low cost in most settings . Whether these results also apply to multiparous women or not, requires additional studies.
COMPOSABLE SIMULATION MODELS AND THEIR FORMAL VALIDATION

In component-based modeling and simulation, shared models are reused and assembled in various combinations to meet different user requirements, resulting in an appealing approach to reduce the time and cost of developing complex simulations. Towards achieving this goal, there are several challenges including the lack of methodologies and techniques to support the life-cycle of component-based development, and the validation of semantic composability among others. This thesis focuses on two main directions: a new component-based modeling and simulation approach, and a novel semantic composability validation strategy. The key to our proposed integrated component-based approach is the abstraction and specification of components as meta-components using semantically sugared attribute values from a new component-based simulation ontology. This ontology is designed to capture component behaviors and to support model composition across applications, as well as the verification and validation of the composed model. Using a componentconnector paradigm, components in a composed model interact only through welldefined connectors. This allows us to formally specify the composition using EBNF grammars. The representation of the composed models as production strings simplifies and facilitates automated syntactic verification and model discovery and selection. Another key design decision in our approach is the modeling of real-world basic entities as base components, and reusable models as model components, to achieve greater reuse within and across application domains. In semantic composability, our main design considerations and trade-offs are validation accuracy and computational cost. Two key observations are: in model validation, the interactions of component behaviors grow rapidly and lead to the problem of exponential state-space explosion; and current techniques that focus on checking that a model is semantically valid are computationally more costly than checking for model invalidity. Based on these two insights, we propose a new deny validity semantic validation strategy. Firstly, the model is validated for general model properties such as safety and liveness, which is less costly for identifying invalid models. Models that pass this test have increased credibility, and are then subjected to a more rigorous but expensive formal semantic validation. A new time-based semantic validation technique is proposed. Since semantic validity is not a fixed-point answer, we introduce a new metric to quantify semantic similarity among different models.
EBSD Analysis of Grain-Refinement Mechanisms Operating During Equal-Channel Angular Pressing of Commercial-Purity Titanium

Abstract Electron backscatter diffraction was applied to examine the fundamental mechanisms governing the development of ultrafine-grain microstructures during equal-channel angular pressing of commercial-purity titanium. Texture analysis and examination of misorientation distributions revealed the enhanced activity of non-prismatic slip systems at prior grain boundaries, which promoted the preferential development of deformation-induced boundaries in these areas. By contrast, deformation in the interior of grains was dominated by prism slip which resulted in sluggish microstructural evolution. This difference in slip activity gave rise to the preferential nucleation of ultrafine grains at prior grain boundaries and thus the development of a bimodal grain structure. The grain refinement was concluded to result primarily from the incompatibility of deformation in neighboring grains.
Human Genetic Diversity and the Nonexistence of Biological Races

Abstract Sewall Wright's population structure statistic, FST, measured among samples of world populations is often 15% or less. This would indicate that 85% of genetic variation occurs within groups while only 15% can be attributed to allele frequency differences among groups. In this paper, we show that this low value reflects strong biases that result from violating hidden assumptions that define FST. These limitations on FST are demonstrated algebraically and in the context of analyzing dinucleotide repeat allele frequencies for a set of eight loci genotyped in eight human groups and in chimpanzees. In our analyses, estimates of FST. fail to identify important variation. For example, when the analysis includes only humans, FST = 0.119, but adding the chimpanzees increases it only a little, FST = 0.183. By relaxing the underlying statistical assumptions, the results for chimpanzees become consistent with common knowledge, and we see a richer pattern of human genetic diversity. Some human groups are far more diverged than would be implied by standard computations of FST, while other groups are much less diverged. We discuss the relevance of these findings to the application of biological race concepts to humans. Four different race concepts are considered: typological, population, taxonomic, and lineage. Surprisingly, a great deal of genetic variation within groups is consistent with each of these concepts. However, none of the race concepts is compatible with the patterns of variation revealed by our analyses.
Modeling and simulation practices for a computational thinking‐enabled engineering workforce

Computational thinking has been recognized as a collection of understandings and skills required for new generations of students not only proficient at using tools, but also at creating them and understanding the implication of their capabilities and limitations. This study proposes the combination of modeling and simulation practices along with disciplinary learning as a way to synergistically integrate and take advantage of computational thinking in engineering education. This paper first proposes a framework that identifies different audiences of computing and related computational thinking practices at the intersection of computer science and engineering. Then, based on a survey with 37 experts from industry and academia, this paper also suggests a series of modeling and simulation practices, methods, and tools for such audiences. Finally, this paper also reports experts’ identified challenges and opportunities for integrating modeling and simulation practices at the undergraduate level. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 25:62–78, 2017; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/cae; DOI 10.1002/cae.21779
Correlation of magnetic field intensities and solar wind speeds of events observed by ACE

[1] The relationship between the magnetic field intensity and speed of solar wind events is examined using ∼3 years of data from the ACE spacecraft. No preselection of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) or magnetic clouds is carried out. The correlation between the field intensity and maximum speed is shown to increase significantly when |B| > 18 nT for 3 hours or more. Of the 24 events satisfying this criterion, 50% are magnetic clouds, the remaining half having no ordered field structure. A weaker correlation also exists between southward magnetic field and speed. Sixteen of the events are associated with halo CMEs leaving the Sun 2 to 4 days prior to the leading edge of the events arriving at ACE. Events selected by speed thresholds show no significant correlation, suggesting different relations between field intensity and speed for fast solar wind streams and ICMEs.
Rate and amplitude of adaptation to two intensities of exercise in men aged 65-75 yr.

PURPOSE To test the hypothesis that in males aged 65-75 yr when the total amount of work completed is similar in endurance training three times per week for 12 wk at either 50% or 70% peak oxygen uptake (VO2(peak)), there will be no significant difference in time course and amplitude of selected responses. METHODS Subjects were randomly assigned to three groups: 70% VO2(peak), N = 19; 50% VO2(peak), N = 16; or control group, N = 19. Subjects underwent a maximal cycle exercise test and blood volume (Evans Blue) determination at 0, 4, 8, and 12 wk. A submaximal exercise test (50 W) was conducted at weeks 0 and 12 where cardiac output was determined. The exercise groups maintained the same exercise relative intensity throughout the 12 wk and completed a similar total amount of work. RESULTS There were significant and similar increases in peak VO2, power and heart rate (HR) for both exercise groups. Linear models best described the time course for peak power and HR in both exercise groups. In the 70% VO2(peak) group, a quadratic model for VO2 and a linear model for VE were the best fit. There were no significant changes in blood or plasma volume for any groups over the 12 wk. Significant increases in stroke volume and significant decreases in HR at 50 W were found in both exercise groups after training. CONCLUSION Moderate-intensity cycle exercise (50% VO2(peak)) to achieve 180-200 kJ per session, three times a week for 12 wk is a safe and effective stimulus for healthy asymptomatic men aged 65-75 yr to improve functional capacity in a primarily linear manner.
Daxx Silencing Sensitizes Cells to Multiple Apoptotic Pathways

ABSTRACT Daxx is a nuclear protein involved in apoptosis and transcriptional repression, and it interacts with the death receptor Fas, promyelocytic leukemia protein (PML), and several transcriptional repressors. The function of Daxx in apoptosis is controversial because opposite results were obtained in transient overexpression and genetic knockout studies. Furthermore, the roles of PML and transcriptional repression in Daxx-regulated apoptosis are currently unknown. In this study, we investigated the role of Daxx in Fas- and stress-induced apoptosis by small interfering RNA-mediated Daxx silencing in mammalian cells. Daxx silencing had no apparent cytotoxic effects on mammalian cells within 72 h. Intriguingly, Daxx silencing strongly sensitized cells to Fas- and stress-induced apoptosis, which was accompanied by caspase activation, cytochrome c release, and Jun N-terminal kinase activation. Consistently, endogenous Daxx was degraded rapidly upon induction of apoptosis by stress or anti-Fas antibody. Finally, PML silencing had no effect on Daxx silencing-mediated apoptotic events, while caspase gene expression was upregulated in the absence of Daxx. These data strongly suggest that Daxx may inhibit Fas and stress-mediated apoptosis by suppressing proapoptotic gene expression outside of PML domains.
Validated biomarker signatures that predict pathologic response to preoperative chemoradiation therapy (CTRT) with high specificity and desirable sensitivity levels in patients with esophageal cancer (EC).

4027 Background: Currently biomarker(s) cannot predict response to CTRT in EC patients thus treatment choices remain empiric. We assessed NF-kB, Gli-1, and sonic hedgehog (immuno-histochemistry) in pre-treatment EC tissue, because the involved pathways mediate radiation and chemotherapy resistance. METHODS Discovery set (DS) included 60 EC patients. A multiple logistic regression model was fit by combining labeling index of each biomarker per patient to compute a linear Z score. The AUCs of the ROC curves were generated to assess sensitivity and specificity. Two methods of cross validation were implemented. Signatures were established for pathologic complete response (pathCR) and extreme resistance to CTRT (exCTRT-R). An independent validation set (VS) included 167 unique EC patients to test the signatures. RESULTS The AUCs for pathCR in DS = 0.953 (95% CI, 0.906-1.00), in VS=0.972 (0.950-0.993) and for exCTRT-R in DS = 0.881 (0.776-0.986), in VS = 0.957 (0.928-0.987). When specificity is 95% for pathCR or exCTRT-R, sensitivity is ≥45% in each cohort. The probability of pathCR or exCTRT-R for patients belonging to each quartile of the Z scores is tabulated as shown in the table. CONCLUSIONS Our data suggest that the validated three-biomarker signatures for pathCR and exCTRT-R are highly predictive and may establish a path to personalized medicine for EC patients. Avoidance of unnecessary therapies including surgery to preserve the esophagus may be possible. On behalf of the Gastroesophageal Cancer Research Group at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX. Supported by NCI (RO1CA138671, RO1CA150229, RO1CA111922, R21CA129906, and R21CA127672), UTMDACC (MRP and IPCT grants) and generous donors. [Table: see text].
Seasonal differences in plant responses to flooding and anoxia

Strategies for surviving an environmental stress in winter can differ from those that provide protection from the same stress when it occurs in summer. During the growing season, escape mechanisms from stresses tend to pre- vail, as periods of adversity are generally brief. In winter, adverse environmental conditions have a high probability of persisting for lengthy periods and consequenctly, survival depends on tolerance. Spring is a period of uncertainty as to whether the risk of flooding has passed, and seeds differ markedly in their ability to resume germination if interrupted by re-imposition of winter conditions. When growing plants are flooded in summer, brief periods of accelerated anaero- bic metabolism can alleviate energy shortages while improved aeration tissues develop, which then remove the dangers of prolonged anaerobiosis. By contrast, overwintering species, if they are highly tolerant of prolonged anoxia, may down-regulate metabolism when flooded and thus reduce the risk of exhausting carbohydrate supplies. Ventilation of underground organs in winter is still possible but is dependent on specialized mechanisms that can provide a through flow of air from emergent stems to buried or submerged organs. The tree form also presents metabolic and morpholog- ical problems for surviving wet conditions at critical seasons. Resume : Les strategies de survie au stress environnemental de l'hiver peuvent differer de celles qui protegent les plantes contre le meme stress, lorsqu'il survient en ete. Au cours de la saison de croissance, les mecanismes d'echappement aux stress prevalent generalement, les periodes d'adversite etant surtout de courte duree. En hiver, il est fortement probable que les conditions environnementales persistent pendant de longues durees, et consequemment la survie depend de la tolerance. Le printemps est une periode d'incertitude, a savoir si le risque d'inondation est passe, et les graines different beaucoup dans leur capacite a continuer leur germination, si elle est interrompue par le retour de conditions hivernales. Lorsque des plantes en croissance sont inondees en ete, de breves periodes de metabolisme anaerobie accelere peuvent obvier au manque d'energie, en attendant que des tissus d'amelioration des conditions d'aeration se developpent et suppriment les dangers d'anaerobiose prolongee. Au contraire, les especes en hivernage, si elle sont capables de supporter de longues periodes d'anoxie, peuvent ralentir leur metabolisme lorsqu'inondees et ainsi reduire le risque d'epuiser leurs reserves en glucides. La ventilation des organes souterrains en hiver demeure possible, mais depend de mecanismes specialises qui peuvent fournir un flux continue d'air a partir des tiges emergentes vers les organes enterres ou submerges. La forme de l'arbre peut egalement presenter des problemes metaboliques et morpholo- giques pour survivre aux conditions humides, en saisons critiques. Mots cles : anoxie, inondation estivale, stress hivernal, plantes, cultures. (Traduit par la Redaction) Crawford 1246
"Woher hat er die Idee?" : selbstbestimmte Teilhabe von Menschen mit Lernschwierigkeiten durch Mediennutzung ; Abschlussbericht der Begleitforschung im PIKSL-Labor

Im PIKSL-Projekt geht es um das Potenzial neuer Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologien (zum Beispiel Desktop-Computer, Smartphones und Tablet-PC) fur die selbstbestimmte Teilhabe von Menschen mit Lernschwierigkeiten. Das vorliegende Buch ist der Abschlussbericht der dreijahrigen Modellphase des PIKSL-Labors. PIKSL steht fur ’Personenzentrierte Interaktion und Kommunikation fur mehr Selbstbestimmung im Leben’. Begleitet wurde die Modellphase vom Zentrum fur Planung und Evaluation Sozialer Dienste der Universitat Siegen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, wie eine sozialpadagogisch begleitete Mediennutzung einen bedeutenden Beitrag zur Personlichkeitsentwicklung der Menschen und zu gesellschaftlicher Teilhabe leisten kann.