Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Per-rectal portal scintigraphy is complementary to ultrasonography and endoscopy in the assessment of portal hypertension in children with chronic cholestasis.

UNLABELLED We evaluated the clinical usefulness of 99mTc-pertechnetate per-rectal portal scintigraphy (PPS) in the assessment of portal circulation in children with chronic cholestasis. METHODS PPS percentage shunt index (%SI) (the amount of radionuclide that shunts the liver and reaches the systemic blood after injection in the rectum) was measured in 22 children (mean age, 7.2 +/- 4.9 y) and compared with established clinical, laboratory, and endoscopic and imaging parameters of portal hypertension (PH). Fourteen children had surgically treated biliary atresia, and 8 had chronic intrahepatic cholestasis. Six clinically well children served as control subjects. RESULTS The %SI was 14.3 +/- 3.1 and 34.7 +/- 18.8 in controls and in patients, respectively (P < 0.01). A cutoff of 19% correctly allocated 100% of controls and 86% of patients. Mean %SI values were significantly higher in patients with biliary atresia, a high risk of pretransplantation death, esophageal varices (EV) at endoscopy, and an abnormal value for the ratio of lesser omentum thickness to abdominal aorta diameter (LO/Ao) at ultrasonography. Correlations between %SI values and several ultrasonographic continuous variables were statistically significant only for LO/Ao ratios (r = 0.51; P = 0.005) and spleen longitudinal diameters (r = 0.53; P = 0.01). The presence of EV could correctly be predicted only when values of %SI were greater than 30% (100% specificity; 56% sensitivity). Endoscopic and PPS findings agreed for a diagnosis of PH with EV in 3 of 7 patients with normal or borderline ultrasonographic LO/Ao ratios. PPS patterns and %SI values became normal in 3 children who underwent liver transplantation. CONCLUSION In children with chronic cholestasis, PPS may be an advantageous, minimally invasive tool complementary to ultrasonography and endoscopy for better assessment and follow-up of PH before and after liver transplantation.
ETMP-BGP: Effective tunnel-based multi-path BGP routing using software-defined networking

Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) has been the de facto inter-domain routing protocol since it was introduced. Its destination-based routing nature, which is not able to choose a specific end-to-end AS-level route, might overload some popular peering (or inter-AS) links, while making some others underused. This could result in congestion and cause service disruption. To cope with the issue of destination-based routing of BGP, we resort to Software-Defined Networking (SDN) techniques to propose Effective Tunnel-based Multi-path BGP (ETMP-BGP), which is able to obtain the whole control of tunnel-based multi-path BGP routing in terms of AS-level routing. In ETMP-BGP, destinations provide the feedback of path quality to the source. This feedback is used to detect congestions on AS-level routes and adjust such routes accordingly in a per-source basis. That is, ETMP-BGP with SDN is able to get the AS-level global view of Internet and choose a better AS-level end-to-end BGP routing. Through simulations, our results show that ETMP-BGP could mitigate the AS-level congestions and outperforms existing BGP schemes.
A randomized, double-blind comparison of lorazepam and chlordiazepoxide in patients with uncomplicated alcohol withdrawal.

OBJECTIVE For important reasons, lorazepam (Ativan) and chlordiazepoxide (Librium) are both popular treatments for alcohol-withdrawal syndrome. Nevertheless, there is little literature directly comparing the two drugs. A formal comparison is desirable because of pharmacokinetic and other differences that could affect safety and efficacy considerations relevant to practice in developing countries. METHOD One hundred consecutive consenting male inpatients in a state of moderately severe, uncomplicated alcohol withdrawal at screening were randomized to receive either lorazepam (8 mg/day) or chlordiazepoxide (80 mg/day) with dosing down-titrated to zero in a fixed-dose schedule across 8 treatment days. Double-blind assessments of withdrawal-symptom severity and impairing adverse events were obtained during treatment and for 4 days afterward. RESULTS One chlordiazepoxide patient developed withdrawal delirium. Lorazepam and chlordiazepoxide showed similar efficacy in reducing symptoms of alcohol withdrawal as assessed using the revised Clinical Institute Withdrawal Assessment for Alcohol scale. During withdrawal, irritability and dizziness were more common with lorazepam, and palpitations were more common with chlordiazepoxide. No difficulties in drug discontinuation or differences in impairing adverse events were observed with either drug. CONCLUSIONS With the treatment schedule used in this study, lorazepam is as effective as the more traditional drug chlordiazepoxide in attenuating uncomplicated alcohol withdrawal. Lorazepam, therefore, could be used with confidence when liver disease or the inability to determine liver function status renders chlordiazepoxide therapy problematic. The absence of clinically significant withdrawal complications with lorazepam in this large study contrasts with findings from previously published studies and suggests that higher doses of lorazepam than those formerly used may be necessary during alcohol withdrawal.
Clonal evolution in chronic lymphocytic leukemia: Analysis of correlations with IGHV mutational status, NOTCH1 mutations and clinical significance

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is a lymphoproliferative disorder characterized with highly variable clinical course. The most common chromosomal abnormalities in CLL, using conventional and molecular cytogenetics, are trisomy 12, del(13)(q14), del(11)(q22–23), del(17)(p13), and del(6)(q21). Whereas the prognostic marker such as IGHV mutational status remains stable during course of the diseases, chromosomal aberrations may be acquired over time. The aim of this study was to determine the incidence, and biological significance of clonal evolution (CE) using conventional and molecular cytogenetics and its relationship with prognostic markers such as CD38, ZAP70, and the mutational status of IGHV and NOTCH1. One hundred and forty‐three untreated CLL patients were included in the study. The median time interval between analyses was 32 months (range 6–156 months). Forty‐seven patients (33%) had CE as evidenced by detection of new cytogenetic abnormalities during follow‐up. CE was not correlated with high expression of ZAP70, unmutated IGHV genes or NOTCH1 mutations. Multivariate analysis revealed that CE and IGHV mutation status had a significant impact on TFS. The combination of conventional and molecular cytogenetics increased the detection of CE, this phenomenon probably being a reflection of genomic instability and conferring a more aggressive clinical course. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Program on Education Policy and Governance Working Papers Series “ Every Catholic Child in a Catholic School ” : Historical Resistance to State Schooling , Contemporary Private Competition , and Student Achievement across Countries

Nineteenth-Century Catholic doctrine strongly opposed state schooling. We show that countries with larger shares of Catholics in 1900 (but without a Catholic state religion) tend to have larger shares of privately operated schools even today. We use this historical pattern as a natural experiment to estimate the causal effect of contemporary private competition on student achievement in cross-country student-level analyses. Our results show that larger shares of privately operated schools lead to better student achievement in mathematics, science, and reading and to lower total education spending, even after controlling for current Catholic shares.
Correlation Between Renal Cortical Stiffness and Histological Determinants by Point Shear-Wave Elastography in Patients With Kidney Transplantation

Introduction: Renal allograft biopsy is the gold standard for the detection of histological lesions of chronic allograft dysfunction. The identification of a noninvasive routine test would be desirable. Elastosonography is used to assess tissue stiffness according to viscosity, and no data are available on the use of point quantification shear-wave elastography (ElastPQ) for the evaluation of renal chronic lesions. Research Question: To evaluate the feasibility of ElastPQ to assess cortical allograft stiffness and to determine the correlation of clinical, biological, and pathological factors with the diagnostic accuracy of kidney stiffness values in patients with histological lesions. Design: Forty-two patients underwent kidney transplant biopsy and 10 valid measurements of ElastPQ, blindly performed by 2 operators. The interobserver reproducibility was assessed according to intraclass correlation coefficient. The ElastPQ measurements and the clinical data were compared using the Spearman correlation analysis. Results: 97.6% reliable measurements were obtained using ElastPQ, with an excellent interobserver agreement. The kidney stiffness was significantly higher in the patients with a time since transplantation >12 months and was correlated with chronic lesions (interstitial fibrosis, tubular atrophy transplant glomerulopathy, and mesangial matrix), with the interstitial fibrosis/tubular atrophy, score and with the sum of the scores of the chronic lesions. Mesangial matrix increase is the only independent determinant of kidney stiffness. Discussion: ElastPQ is a noninvasive, reproducible, and sensitive diagnostic tool able to detect moderate/severe chronic lesions. Its routine use during follow-up can identify patients eligible for biopsy, which remains the gold standard exam for detecting chronic allograft dysfunction.
Class-A stacked SiGe HBT power amplifier at millimeter-wave

The advancement of silicon-based transistor's fT and fMAX have ushered in a new contender in the area of millimeter-wave integrated circuit technology [1], [2]. Silicon's greatest advantage over III-V based technologies, to integrate both digital and RF functions onto a single chip, has been demonstrated successfully across the millimeter-wave spectrum [3]–[5]. However, one of silicon's greatest weaknesses, low breakdown voltages, prevents the implementation of a quality power amplifier at millimeter-wave frequencies [6]. This paper discusses a millimeter-wave power amplifier implemented using a stacked transistor architecture known as the High Voltage / High Power (HiVP) configuration [7]. Using this configuration, a silicon-based amplifier achieving an output power of 19 dBm with 11.47% PAE in 0.23 mm2 of area, has been created using a commercial 120 nm SiGe HBT BiCMOS process. Unique to this implementation, this class-A amplifier achieves a 50 Ω match at 30 GHz while offering a new amplifier architecture ready for single chip integration [8], [9].
Influence of environmental temperature and relative humidity on quantitative and qualitative semen traits of rabbits.

In rabbits, it has been shown that the comfort zone temperature is around 21oC and that their productive and reproductive performance could be impaired when temperature-humidity index (THI) is over 27.8, value that implies the beginning of heat stress. However, no information is available about the optimum range of THI and the value of THI which indicate the starting of cool stress. The present paper investigated the effect of low to moderate THI index on semen traits of rabbits. Three THI classes were defined: THI=16 (ranged from 14.0 to 17.4), THI=20 (ranged from 18.6 to 20.6) and THI=22 (ranged from 20.7 to 23.1); and the following variables were recorded: absence of gel plugs, urine, calcium carbonate deposits and agglutinated and dead spermatozoa in the ejaculate, individual motility, pH, volume and cell sperm concentration. Differences between THI-class have been found for absence in the ejaculate of gel plugs, urine, calcium carbonate and agglutinated and dead spermatozoa in the ejaculate, for ejaculate volume and for ejaculate pH. Differences were relevant and favourable to THI-22 for ejaculate volume and absence of agglutinated spermatozoa, and important and favourable to THI-16 for absence of urine, calcium carbonate and dead spermatozoa.
[The effect of submucosal diathermy to the inferior turbinates on nasal airway resistance].

OBJECTIVE The main purpose of the study is to observe the effect of submucosal diathermy to the inferior turbinates on nasal airway resistance (NAR). METHOD Using active anterior rhinomanometry, NAR were measured in seventeen patients who suffered from chronic rhinitis before and post operation. The subjective impression of their nasal patency was assessed using a 10-point scale. RESULT The NAR is(0.662 +/- 0.22) kPa.s/L before operation and (0.302 +/- 0.17) kPa.s/L three months after operation. The NAR is 0.397 +/- 0.25 ten months after operation. The differences are statistically significant (P < 0.01) between the NAR before and post operation. There are significant differences in the subjective impression of patients' nasal patency as well (P < 0.01). CONCLUSION Submucosal diathermy to the inferior turbinates is effective in decreasing NAR and improving the subjective impression of their nasal patency.
Differential investment in pre‐ vs. post‐copulatory sexual selection reinforces a cross‐continental reversal of sexual size dimorphism in Sepsis punctum (Diptera: Sepsidae)

Theory predicts that males have a limited amount of resources to invest in reproduction, suggesting a trade‐off between traits that enhance mate acquisition and those that enhance fertilization success. Here, we investigate the relationship between pre‐ and post‐copulatory investment by comparing the mating behaviour and reproductive morphology of four European and five North American populations of the dung fly Sepsis punctum (Diptera) that display a reversal of sexual size dimorphism (SSD). We show that the geographic reversal in SSD between the continents (male biased in Europe, female biased in North America) is accompanied by differential investment in pre‐ vs. post‐copulatory traits. We find higher remating rates in European populations, where larger males acquire more matings and consequently have evolved relatively larger testes and steeper hyper‐allometry with body size. American populations, in sharp contrast, display much reduced, if any, effect of body size on those traits. Instead, North American males demonstrate an increased investment in mate acquisition prior to copulation, with more mounting attempts and a distinctive abdominal courtship display that is completely absent in Europe. When controlling for body size, relative female spermathecal size is similar on both continents, so we find no direct evidence for the co‐evolution of male and female internal reproductive morphology. By comparing allopatric populations of the same species that apparently have evolved different mating systems and consequently SSD, we thus indirectly demonstrate differential investment in pre‐ vs. post‐copulatory mechanisms increasing reproductive success.
Intelligent Sensorless Antilock Braking System for Brushless In-Wheel Electric Vehicles

Brushless motors are increasingly used in different designs of in-wheel electric vehicles (EVs). In this paper, a sensorless antilock braking system (ABS) for brushless-motor in-wheel EVs is proposed. The proposed solution omits the need for installation of separate conventional ABS sensors at each corner of the vehicle. This paper also shows, both theoretically and experimentally, that the general form of a conventional ABS sensor output voltage is identical to a brushless dc (BLDC)-motor back electromotive force. The proposed sensorless system can reduce the costs of manufacturing and maintenance of the vehicle and significantly improves the performance of the ABS by accurate wheel speed estimation and road identification using wavelet signal processing methods. The sensorless system was extensively tested using actual ABS hardware. Those experiments showed that the accuracy of the proposed sensorless wheel speed estimation for BLDC propulsion was higher than that of commercial ABS sensors. In addition, sensorless ABS for brushless propulsion was compared with that of brushed dc motor, and the results showed that the brushless sensorless ABS achieved better accuracy, robustness, and reliability compared with the sensorless ABS for brushed dc motor.
Incidental Supervision: Moving beyond Supervised Learning

Machine Learning and Inference methods have become ubiquitous in our attempt to induce more abstract representations of natural language text, visual scenes, and other messy, naturally occurring data, and support decisions that depend on it. However, learning models for these tasks is difficult partly because generating the necessary supervision signals for it is costly and does not scale. This paper describes several learning paradigms that are designed to alleviate the supervision bottleneck. It will illustrate their benefit in the context of multiple problems, all pertaining to inducing various levels of semantic representations from text. In particular, we discuss (i) esponse Driven Learning of models, a learning protocol that supports inducing meaning representations simply by observing the model's behavior in its environment, (ii) the exploitation of Incidental Supervision signals that exist in the data, independently of the task at hand, to learn models that identify and classify semantic predicates, and (iii) the use of weak supervision to combine simple models to support global decisions where joint supervision is not available.
Norethisterone treatment, a major risk-factor for veno-occlusive disease in the liver after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation.

In this single-center study, we retrospectively analyzed incidence and risk factors for hepatic veno-occlusive disease (VOD) in 249 consecutive patients who underwent allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation between January 1990 and June 1995. Twenty-four of the 249 transplanted patients developed VOD. The probabilities of developing VOD were 17% among women and 7% in men (P =.01). In women treated with norethisterone, the incidence was 27% compared with 3% in women without this treatment (P =.007). One-year survival rates were 17% and 73% in patients with (n = 24) or without VOD (n = 225), respectively. The use of heparin prophylaxis (100 IE/kg/24 hours for 1 month) did not alter the incidence or 1-year mortality of VOD. In multivariate analysis, the following risk factors were significant: norethisterone treatment (P <.001), bilirubin >26 micromol/L before bone marrow transplantation (BMT) (P =.002), one HLA-antigen mismatch (P =.003), previous abdominal irradiation (P =.02), and conditioning with busulphan (P =.02). Our conclusion is that norethisterone treatment should not be used in patients undergoing BMT and heparin prophylaxis did not affect the incidence or mortality of VOD.
Epithelial cell polarity in early Xenopus development

The Xenopus blastula consists of two morphologically distinct cell types. Polarized epithelial cells build up the embryonic surface and fence off an inner non‐polarized cell population. We examined the establishment of this early functional cell diversification in the embryo by single cell analysis, in vitro cell culture, and transplantation experiments. Single blastomeres from a 64‐cell embryo (1/64 cells) exhibit several features of polarized cells. The plasma membrane of 1/64 cells consists of an apical domain, which is inherited from the original egg membrane, and a basolateral domain derived from newly formed membrane during cleavage. These are inherent, cell‐autonomous properties of the blastomeres, as they form and are maintained in blastomeres raised in the absence of any cell interactions in calcium free medium. Upon in vitro culture a single 1/64 cell gives rise to an aggregate of two different cell types. Cells carrying a part of the former egg membrane domain differentiate into polarized epithelial cells, whereas cells lacking this membrane domain are not polarized. These results demonstrate that the inclusion of the egg membrane, rather than external signals related to the position of a cell in the intact embryo, is required for the apical/basolateral differentiation of the surface epithelium. This view is supported by cell transplantation studies. A single 1/64 cell was implanted into the blastocoel of a stage 8 blastula embryo. The progeny of the implanted cell proliferate within the host embryo and split into two morphologically distinct populations with different cell behaviours. Cells incorporating a part of the egg membrane form coherent patches of polarized epithelial cell sheets in the interior of the host embryo. In contrast, cells lacking egg membrane do not exhibit any characteristics of polarized cells and eventually spread into different regions of the host embryo. Our results show that the egg membrane and/or components of the submembrane cortex play a determinative role in the formation of the blastula epithelium. © 1995 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
System-in-Package Technology: Opportunities and Challenges

In 2006, the leading wireless phone industry has introduced literally hundreds of new, different wireless phones, which have been manufactured in approximately 1 billion units, generating revenue of about $128B. The semiconductor revenue has been about $33B. The ASP is declining, both in the wireless phone and semiconductor industry. In order to fix that, Moore's Law is being inverted: instead of getting twice the transistors for the same cost, the wireless phones industry seeks to obtain the same number of transistors for half the cost. This is making system-on-chip (SoC) no longer a viable solution. System-in-package (SiP) looks much more promising. Lack of EDA solutions - especially the A of automation - has so far slowed down the ramp-up of SiP. In this paper we describe the landscape and present a SiP platform solution which addresses the challenges of simplification, cost reduction, quality and reliability improvement, yet allowing exploiting the most recent advances in IC packaging.
An in vitro model for preclinical testing of endocrine therapy combinations for prostate cancer

Even though patients with prostate cancer commonly respond to endocrine treatment, in most cases the disease progresses to castration resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). Our objective was to generate a novel cell line model representing the endocrine treatment naive prostate cancer for testing treatments that target the androgen receptor (AR) and androgen metabolism.
Two methods for setting child-focused tuberculosis care targets.

OBJECTIVE To allocate resources for household contact investigations, tuberculosis (TB) programs need estimates of the numbers of child contacts requiring care. DESIGN We developed two methods to estimate annual numbers of child contacts aged 0-14 years requiring evaluation and treatment. Method 1 combines local data using simple formulas. Using publicly available data, Method 2 uses a linear regression model based on Demographic and Health Survey and World Bank data to estimate the number of children per household, then combines these results with case notifications and risk estimates of disease and infection. RESULTS Applying Method 1 to data from Malawi indicated that every year ~21 000 child contacts require evaluation and ~1900 should be diagnosed with TB. Applying Method 2 to all countries suggested that, globally, 2.41 million (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 2.36-2.46) children aged <5 years, and 5.07 million (95%UI 4.81-5.34) children aged 5-14 years live in households of adult patients with known TB. Of these, 239 014 (95%UI 118 649-478581) and 419 816 (95%UI 140600-1 268805), respectively, will have TB. An additional 848 453 (95%UI 705838-1 017551) and 2660 885 (95%UI 2080517-3 413 189), respectively, will be infected. CONCLUSION It is feasible to use available data to set programmatic evaluation and treatment targets to improve care for child contacts of patients with TB.