Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Vasomotion as an oscillatory sign of functional impairment in the human internal thoracic artery: A study based on risk factors and vessel reactivity

What is the central question of this study? Vasomotion has been viewed as a rhythmic oscillation of the vascular tone that is physiologically important for optimal tissue perfusion. Also, it has been studied primarily in the microcirculation. However, the precise underlying mechanisms and the physiological significance remain unknown. What is the main finding and its importance? Vasomotion is not specific to the microcirculation, as shown by our findings. In human arteries from patients undergoing cardiac surgery, an increased incidence was associated with endothelial dysfunction settings. Therefore, this oscillatory behaviour might be a signal of functional impairment and not of integrity.
Generation of Calves Persistently Infected with HoBi-Like Pestivirus and Comparison of Methods for Detection of These Persistent Infections

ABSTRACT The identification and elimination of persistently infected (PI) cattle are the most effective measures for controlling bovine pestiviruses, including bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) and the emerging HoBi-like viruses. Here, colostrum-deprived calves persistently infected with HoBi-like pestivirus (HoBi-like PI calves) were generated and sampled (serum, buffy coat, and ear notches) on the day of birth (DOB) and weekly for 5 consecutive weeks. The samples were subjected to diagnostic tests for BVDV—two reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR) assays, two commercial real-time RT quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR), two antigen capture enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ACE), and immunohistochemistry (IHC)—and to HoBi-like virus-specific RT-PCR and RT-qPCR assays. The rate of false negatives varied among the calves. The HoBi-like virus-specific RT-PCR detected HoBi-like virus in 83%, 75%, and 87% of the serum, buffy coat, and ear notch samples, respectively, while the HoBi-like RT-qPCR detected the virus in 83%, 96%, and 62%, respectively. In comparison, the BVDV RT-PCR test had a higher rate of false negatives in all tissue types, especially for the ear notch samples (missing detection in at least 68% of the samples). The commercial BVDV RT-qPCRs and IHC detected 100% of the ear notch samples as positive. While ACE based on the BVDV glycoprotein Erns detected infection in at least 87% of ear notches, no infections were detected using NS3-based ACE. The BVDV RT-qPCR, ACE, and IHC yielded higher levels of detection than the HoBi-like virus-specific assays, although the lack of differentiation between BVDV and HoBi-like viruses would make these tests of limited use for the control and/or surveillance of persistent HoBi-like virus infection. An improvement in HoBi-like virus tests is required before a reliable HoBi-like PI surveillance program can be designed.
Bayesian analysis of mixture models with an unknown number of components- an alternative to reversible jump methods

Richardson and Green present a method of performing a Bayesian analysis of data from a finite mixture distribution with an unknown number of components. Their method is a Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) approach, which makes use of the "reversible jump" methodology described by Green. We describe an alternative MCMC method which views the parameters of the model as a (marked) point process, extending methods suggested by Ripley to create a Markov birth-death process with an appropriate stationary distribution. Our method is easy to implement, even in the case of data in more than one dimension, and we illustrate it on both univariate and bivariate data. There appears to be considerable potential for applying these ideas to other contexts, as an alternative to more general reversible jump methods, and we conclude with a brief discussion of how this might be achieved.
Association between nursing workload and mortality of intensive care unit patients.

PURPOSE To investigate differences in mortality of intensive care unit (ICU) patients according to the ratio between total patient care demands and nurse staffing. DESIGN Observational, prospective study. Patients consecutively admitted in the medical-surgical ICU of a Greek hospital over a 1-year period were enrolled. METHODS The Therapeutic Intervention Scoring System (TISS)-28 was used for measuring patient care demands. Daily sum of TISS-28 of patients and daily number of nurses were considered for estimating median and peak patient exposure to nursing workload. According to the values of median and peak patient exposure to nursing workload, patients were divided into three groups (low, medium, and high). Logistic regression was used for evaluating the associations between mortality during ICU length of stay and median or peak patient exposure to nursing workload, after adjusting for patient clinical severity. FINDINGS 396 patients were included and 102 died. Differences in ICU mortality between high and low groups of median and peak patient exposure to nursing workload, although not statistically significant, were clinically remarkable, both when all patients were studied and when medical and surgical patients were separately studied. CONCLUSIONS Consideration of individual differences in patient acuity might add sensitivity to the detection of associations between nurse understaffing and ICU mortality. CLINICAL RELEVANCE The findings indicate that not only differences among nurse characteristics, but also differences in patient care demands, are important when investigating the effect of nurse understaffing on mortality of ICU patients. Proper nurse staffing levels should be based on the estimation of total patient acuity, rather than on the absolute number of patients.
MicroRNAs in cancer metastasis and angiogenesis

Cancer metastasis is a malignant process by which tumor cells migrate from their primary site of origin to other organs. It is the main cause of poor prognosis in cancer patients. Angiogenesis is the process of generating new blood capillaries from pre-existing vasculature. It plays a vital role in primary tumor growth and distant metastasis. MicroRNAs are small non-coding RNAs involved in regulating normal physiological processes as well as cancer pathogenesis. They suppress gene expression by specifically binding to the 3′-untranslated region (3′-UTR) of their target genes. They can thus act as oncogenes or tumor suppressors depending on the function of their target genes. MicroRNAs have shown great promise for use in anti-metastatic cancer therapy. In this article, we review the roles of various miRNAs in cancer angiogenesis and metastasis and highlight their potential for use in future therapies against metastatic cancer.
Human papillomavirus type 16 is episomal and a high viral load may be correlated to better prognosis in tonsillar cancer

The aim of our study was to investigate the physical state and the viral load of HPV‐16 in tonsillar cancer and to correlate these findings with clinical outcome. To distinguish between integrated and episomal forms of HPV, 22 fresh‐frozen tonsillar cancer samples were analysed by a method based on restriction enzyme cleavage, ligation and PCR (rliPCR). HPV‐16 was detected in 11/22 and HPV‐33 in 1/22 of the cancers, hence 12/22 (55%) of the tumours were HPV positive. Only extrachromosomal forms of HPV‐16 were observed. Full‐length episomal HPV was detected exclusively in 7/11 of the cancers, whereas both full‐length and deleted forms of episomal HPV‐16 were found in parallel in 2 other tumours. In 1 tumour only a deleted episomal form of HPV‐16 was present. In the remaining HPV‐16 positive tumour both full‐length episomal as well as an 11 kbp PCR product were detected and if the 11 kbp product contained integrated HPV, or was off‐size linearised episomal could not be determined. In 2 cervical cancer controls, HPV‐16 was integrated and could be chromosome located. HPV‐16 was quantified by real‐time PCR and most tonsillar cancers contained between 10 to a few hundred copies of HPV per β‐actin. The 6 patients with tumour sections with ≥190 HPV‐16 copies/β‐actin remained tumour free (p = 0.026) and had a better survival rate (p = 0.039) when compared to the 5 patients with tumours sections with ≤60 HPV‐16 copies/β‐actin. In conclusion, HPV‐16 is mainly episomal in tonsillar cancer. The viral load showed a wide distribution and the clinical outcome in our study was better when the HPV load was higher. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Analysis and Evaluation of PUF-Based SoC Designs for Security Applications

This paper presents a critical analysis and statistical evaluation of two categories of physically unclonable functions (PUFs): ring oscillator PUF and a new proposed adapted latch-based PUF. The main contribution is that of measuring the properties of PUF which provide the basic information for using them in security applications. The original method involved the conceptual design of adapted latch-based PUFs and ring oscillator PUFs in combination with peripheral devices in order to create an environment for experimental analysis of PUF properties. Implementation, testing, and analysis of results followed. This approach has applications on high-level security.
Thermal pasteurization of ready-to-eat foods and vegetables: Critical factors for process design and effects on quality

ABSTRACT Increasing consumer desire for high quality ready-to-eat foods makes thermal pasteurization important to both food producers and researchers. To be in compliance with the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), food companies seek regulatory and scientific guidelines to ensure that their products are safe. Clearly understanding the regulations for chilled or frozen foods is of fundamental importance to the design of thermal pasteurization processes for vegetables that meet food safety requirements. This article provides an overview of the current regulations and guidelines for pasteurization in the U.S. and in Europe for control of bacterial pathogens. Poorly understood viral pathogens, in terms of their survival in thermal treatments, are an increasing concern for both food safety regulators and scientists. New data on heat resistance of viruses in different foods are summarized. Food quality attributes are sensitive to thermal degradation. A review of thermal kinetics of inactivation of quality-related enzymes in vegetables and the effects of thermal pasteurization on vegetable quality is presented. The review also discusses shelf-life of thermally pasteurized vegetables.
Downregulation of serum epidermal growth factor in patients with inflammatory bowel disease. Is there a link with mucosal damage?

Background: Epidermal growth factor (EGF) is a multipotent peptide which contributes to epithelial development, inhibition of gastric acid secretion, acceleration of wound healing, and promotion of angiogenesis. The aim of this study is to evaluate serum EGF concentrations in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients, with regard to disease and patients’ characteristics. Methods: EGF determination was performed by a commercially available enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Fifty-two patients with ulcerative colitis (UC), 59 with Crohn's disease (CD), and 55 healthy controls (HC) were included in the study. Results: Mean ( ± SEM) serum EGF levels were 217.2 ( ± 30.40) pg/mL in UC patients, 324.6 ( ± 37.29) pg/mL in CD patients, and 453.1 ( ± 39.44) pg/mL in HC. Serum EGF levels were significantly lower in UC and CD patients compared to HC (P < 0.0001 and P = 0.0199, respectively). Lower serum EGF levels were observed in UC compared to CD patients (P = 0.0277). Extent of the disease was found to affect serum EGF levels in UC, demonstrating significant reduction in patients with left-sided colitis and pancolitis in comparison with those with proctitis (P = 0.0190 and P = 0.0024, respectively). EGF concentration was not influenced by other characteristics of patients and disease. Conclusions: Significantly, lower levels of serum EGF are observed in IBD patients compared to HC, while disease extent plays a key role in regulation of serum EGF in UC. Downregulation of serum EGF may be correlated with different patterns of bowel inflammation, epithelial development, and wound healing in IBD.
[Selection and Classification of Elastic Net Feature with Fused Electroencephalogram Features].

Signal classification is a key of brain-computer interface(BCI). In this paper,we present a new method for classifying the electroencephalogram(EEG)signals of which the features are heterogeneous.This method is called wrapped elastic net feature selection and classification.Firstly,we used the joint application of time-domain statistic,power spectral density(PSD),common spatial pattern(CSP)and autoregressive(AR)model to extract high-dimensional fused features of the preprocessed EEG signals.Then we used the wrapped method for feature selection.We fitted the logistic regression model penalized with elastic net on the training data,and obtained the parameter estimation by coordinate descent method.Then we selected best feature subset by using 10-fold cross-validation.Finally,we classified the test sample using the trained model.Data used in the experiment were the EEG data from international BCI CompetitionⅣ. The results showed that the method proposed was suitable for fused feature selection with high-dimension.For identifying EEG signals,it is more effective and faster,and can single out a more relevant subset to obtain a relatively simple model.The average test accuracy reached 81.78%.
Vanadate uptake in Neurospora crassa occurs via phosphate transport system II

Vanadate, a potent inhibitor of plasma membrane ATPases, is taken up by Neurospora crassa only when cells are growing in alkaline medium and starving for phosphate. The appearance of a vanadate uptake system (Km = 8.2 microM; Vmax = 0.15 mmol/min per liter of cell water) occurs under the same conditions required for derepression of a high-affinity phosphate transport system. Phosphate is a competitive inhibitor of vanadate uptake, and vanadate is a competitive inhibitor of phosphate uptake. Furthermore, mutant strains which are either partially constitutive or non-derepressible for the high-affinity phosphate transport system are also partially constitutive or non-derepressible for vanadate uptake. These data indicate that vanadate enters the cell via phosphate transport system II.
Evaluation of quality of life in people with aphasia using a Dutch version of the SAQOL-39

Purpose. To examine the quality of life (QoL) of people with aphasia and to study the influence of variables such as age, time post onset and (degree of) social support on the QoL of aphasic persons. Method. We compared the scores of an aphasic population (N = 43) with those of a healthy control group (N = 43) and of a group of patients with brain lesions without neurogenic communication disorders (N = 43) on a Dutch version of the Stroke and Aphasia Quality of Life-scale (SAQoL-39) and on a social support questionnaire. In half of the aphasic group, the SAQoL-39 was re-administered 8 months after the first testing. Results. People with aphasia obtained significantly lower scores for QoL measures compared with both other groups. Especially, communicative and psychosocial factors seem to influence these results. Older people with aphasia scored lower than younger persons and women tend to evaluate their QoL somewhat more negatively than men. Persons who had aphasia for more than 6 months tended to have higher QoL-scores compared with those who had become aphasic more recently. After 8 months, the retested group scored significantly higher on communication and on psychosocial functioning than on first testing. Conclusions. Gathering information on QoL after suffering from stroke and from aphasia can lead to a better understanding of the problems involved. The clinical use of instruments such as the SAQoL-39 can probably contribute to a more patient oriented rehabilitation, whereby the focus not only lie in improving linguistic skills but also on reducing the impairments and the handicaps that accompany aphasia and thus on increasing QoL.
Ultrastructural and permeability features of microvessels in the periventricular area of senescence‐accelerated mice (SAM)

Brain transfer of intravenously injected horseradish peroxidase (HRP) and the ultrastructural features of the vessels were examined in periventricular areas in senescence‐accelerated mice (SAMP8), which show age‐related deficits in learning and memory, and senescence‐accelerated resistant mice (SAMR1), which do not show age‐related deficits. In all mice examined with light microscopy, staining reaction for HRP was seen in the periventricular area adjacent to the medial side of the lateral ventricle. Electron microscopic examination in the periventricular area of young and old mice of both strains showed that the staining reaction for HRP appeared in the vesicular profiles of the endothelial cytoplasm, the cytoplasm of the perivascular cells, the basal lamina, and the adjoining extracellular spaces of the white matter, suggesting an incomplete blood–brain barrier (BBB) in the periventricular white matter. In addition, irregularly thickened endothelial cell cytoplasm, membranous inclusions within the basal lamina, and electron‐dense endothelial cell cytoplasm were occasionally seen in aged SAMP8 mice. These findings were not observed in 3‐month‐old SAMP8 mice and 3‐ and 13‐month‐old SAMR1 mice. Perivascular collagen deposits were also frequently seen in aged SAMP8 mice. These findings indicate that the endothelial cells and pericytes in the periventricular white matter in aged SAMP8 mice have an ultrastructure with damaged BBB function. Intravascular substances can easily penetrate the periventricular white matter and the BBB of the vessels in the area can be deteriorated with aging in SAMP8 mice. Microsc. Res. Tech. 53:232–238, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Technical Progress in the Japanese Construction Industry

Abstract Observers of the Japanese construction industry are generally divided into two camps. The positive camp views the industry as progressive and worthy to emulate, not only by developing countries but also developed countries. The negative camp views the industry as not progressive and saddled with institutional rigidities and interest group politics. This paper provides evidence that the Japanese construction industry is not substantially different from that of other countries in terms of factor substitution rigidities and technical progress (Tan 1996; World Bank 1984; Cassimatis 1969). The study is based on a long-term time series regression from 1961 to 1998.
Percolation Models of Information Dissemination in Social Networks

We consider the issues of developing innovative theoretical approaches to describe the states and dynamics of public mood and opinions in social networks, and further on envision practical application of the models obtained with the help of sociological research to forecast people's behaviour and management of various communities in society. The paper amply demonstrates the workability of percolation models for such purposes. For example, they can define the threshold values for negative attitudes in society and help to study how society clusters into particular social groups united by people's opinions and attitudes. The obtained percolation models manifest that the 0.09 to 0.15 share of people having a negative standpoint is critical for arising social upheavals conditions. When society reaches a certain share of people having some attitudes there may appear a situation when opposite attitudes (either negative or positive) can be fully mutually supressed or vice versa can strengthen thus reaching the percolation threshold.
Performance Evaluation and Improving Mechanisms of Diatomite-Modified Asphalt Mixture

Diatomite is an inorganic natural resource in large reserve. This study consists of two phases to evaluate the effects of diatomite on asphalt mixtures. In the first phase, we characterized the diatomite in terms of mineralogical properties, chemical compositions, particle size distribution, mesoporous distribution, morphology, and IR spectra. In the second phase, road performances, referring to the permanent deformation, crack, fatigue, and moisture resistance, of asphalt mixtures with diatomite were investigated. The characterization of diatomite exhibits that it is a porous material with high SiO2 content and large specific surface area. It contributes to asphalt absorption and therefore leads to bonding enhancement between asphalt and aggregate. However, physical absorption instead of chemical reaction occurs according to the results of FTIR. The resistance of asphalt mixtures with diatomite to permanent deformation and moisture are superior to those of the control mixtures. But, the addition of diatomite does not help to improve the crack and fatigue resistance of asphalt mixture.
Randomized phase II trial of carboplatin versus paclitaxel and carboplatin in platinum-sensitive recurrent advanced ovarian carcinoma: a GEICO (Grupo Espanol de Investigacion en Cancer de Ovario) study.

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to determine whether the response rate for the paclitaxel-carboplatin combination is superior to carboplatin alone in the treatment of patients with platinum-sensitive recurrent ovarian carcinoma. PATIENTS AND METHODS Patients with recurrent ovarian carcinoma, 6 months after treatment with a platinum-based regimen and with no more than two previous chemotherapy lines, were randomized to receive carboplatin area under the curve (AUC) 5 (arm A) or paclitaxel 175 mg/m(2) + carboplatin AUC 5 (arm B). The primary end point was objective response, following a 'pick up the winner' design. Secondary end points included time to progression (TTP), overall survival, tolerability and quality of life (QoL). RESULTS Eighty-one patients were randomized and included in the intention-to-treat analysis. The response rate in arm B was 75.6% [26.8% complete response (CR) + 48.8% partial response (PR)] [95% confidence interval (CI) 59.7% to 87.6%] and 50% in arm A (20% CR + 30% PR) (95% CI 33.8% to 66.2%). No significant differences were observed in grade 3-4 hematological toxicity. Conversely, mucositis, myalgia/arthralgia and peripheral neurophaty were more frequent in arm B. Median TTP was 49.1 weeks in arm B (95% CI 36.9-61.3) and 33.7 weeks in arm A (95% CI 25.8-41.5). No significant differences were found in the QoL analysis. CONCLUSIONS Paclitaxel-carboplatin combination is a tolerable regimen with a higher response rate than carboplatin monotherapy in platinum-sensitive recurrent ovarian carcinoma.