Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Rationale and Design of a Randomized Clinical Comparison of Everolimus-Eluting (Xience V/Promus) and Sirolimus-Eluting (Cypher Select+) Coronary Stents in Unselected Patients with Coronary Heart Disease

Background: The sirolimus-eluting stent has demonstrated the least amount of late lumen loss among previously released drug-eluting stents, but its safety and efficacy has not been compared head-to-head with the everolimus-eluting stent. Method: The Scandinavian Organization for Randomized Trials with Clinical Outcome (SORT OUT) IV trial was designed as a prospective, multi-center, open-label, all-comer, two-arm, randomized, non-inferiority study comparing the everolimus-eluting stent with the sirolimus-eluting stent in the treatment of atherosclerotic coronary artery lesions. Based on a non-inferiority design, power calculations estimated a needed enrolment of 2,678 patients. The primary endpoint is a composite of cardiac death, myocardial infarction, and stent thrombosis or target vessel revascularization after 9 months. Data on clinical events and mortality for all randomized patients will be obtained from national databases at 9 months. No clinical follow-up examination is scheduled. Conclusion: The SORT OUT IV trial will directly compare clinically relevant differences in efficacy and safety in two drug-eluting stents: a first-generation sirolimus-eluting stent versus a second-generation everolimus-eluting stent. The study makes use of clinical endpoints routinely collected in computerized healthcare registries, allowing complete follow-up of a large, well-defined population without scheduled angiographic examinations.
Pap Smear Use in a Population of Older Mexican-American Women

ABSTRACT Background: Hispanic women and older women (age ≥ 50 years) in general have been identified as populations of women who often underutilize Papanicolaou (Pap) smears. Objective: To report the rates of cervical cancer screening in a group of older Mexican American women and to identify the correlates of having a Pap smear in the past three years. Data Source: The Mammography Use by Older Mexican-American Women Survey, a stratified area probability sample of 452 women ages 50–74 from three southeast Texas counties. Self-report data was collected with in-person interviews from 1997 to 1999. Results: We found that 93.1% of the women reported at least one Pap smear in their lifetime and that 64.1% reported a Pap smear in the past three years. Odds of reporting a recent Pap smear was lower for older women (OR 0.51, 95% CI 0.32–0.82) and those below the poverty line (OR 0.52, 95% CI 0.33–0.82). The odds were higher for women who had a regular doctor for female care (OR 6.49, 95% CI 2.96–14.23) or a regular clinic or hospital source for female care (OR 5.50, 95% CI 2.55–11.89). Among these older Mexican-American women, cultural factors (language of interview, acculturation, fatalism) did not have a significant effect on screening use. Conclusion: Recent Pap smear use (64.1%) falls well below the year 2010 goal of 90%. Efforts need to be made to overcome barriers to Pap smear utilization for these women, such as providing access to female medical care.
Gamma interferon mediates Propionibacterium acnes-induced hypersensitivity to lipopolysaccharide in mice

Pretreatment of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-responder C57BL/10ScSn mice with killed Propionibacterium acnes enhanced tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) production and lethality in response to a subsequent challenge with LPS. Sensitization to LPS increased with time of pretreatment and reached its maximum after 7 days. Sensitization was paralleled by gamma interferon (IFN-gamma) production that was detectable from day 3 onward. In contrast, a similar P. acnes pretreatment of LPS-nonresponder C57BL/10ScCr mice had no apparent effect on their high resistance to LPS. Challenge with LPS at any time during the 7-day period after P. acnes treatment led to no detectable TNF-alpha formation and caused no lethal effects. The absence of sensitization in C57BL/10ScCr mice was paralleled by an absence of IFN-gamma production. Administration of monoclonal IFN-gamma antibodies in C57BL/10ScSn mice up to day 3 of P. acnes treatment completely inhibited the overproduction of TNF-alpha by LPS. Anti-IFN-gamma administered later than day 3 had only a partial, although significant, inhibitory effect. Injection of appropriate amounts of anti-IFN-gamma also abolished the development of hypersensitivity to the lethal action of LPS. The effect of exogenously administered IFN-gamma on LPS sensitivity (e.g., TNF-alpha production, lethal effects) was studied in LPS-responder and nonresponder mice. Administration of murine recombinant IFN-gamma increased the sensitivity of C57BL/10ScSn mice to LPS and established LPS responsiveness in LPS-nonresponder C57BL/10ScCr and C3H/HeJ mice. The data provide evidence that IFN-gamma mediates the sensitization towards LPS induced by P. acnes.
Using maximum correlated kurtosis deconvolution method in the bearing fault detection of wind turbine generators

Wind turbine generators are safety-critical equipment, which must work without unexpected stops. For this reason, the detection of its faults already in their incipient phase is very important. Most the classical approaches in fault detection cannot be applied in this case due to the high external vibrations of the generators due to the strongly fluctuating input power, special mechanical construction, etc. In the paper a vibration monitoring based bearing fault detection method is analyzed. It applies the maximum correlated kurtosis deconvolution method to extract the fault-typical frequency components from the noisy measured vibration signal. Its usefulness is exemplified with detecting an inner race bearing fault.
Forensic Analysis of the Windows 7 Registry

The recovery of digital evidence of crimes from storage media is an increasingly time consuming process as the capacity of the storage media is in a state of constant growth. It is also a difficult and complex task for the forensic investigator to analyse all of the locations in the storage media. These two factors, when combined, may result in a delay in bringing a case to court. The concept of this paper is to start the initial forensic analysis of the storage media in locations that are most likely to contain digital evidence, the Windows Registry. Consequently, the forensic analysis process and the recovery of digital evidence may take less time than would otherwise be required. In this paper, the Registry structure of Windows 7 is discussed together with several elements of information within the Registry of Windows 7 that may be valuable to a forensic investigator. These elements were categorized into five groups which are system, application, networks, attached devices and the history lists. We have discussed the values of identified elements to a forensic investigator. Also, a tool was implemented to perform the function of extracting these elements and presents them in usable form to a forensics investigator.
Market focused learning and entrepreneurial orientation: improving performance measurement in a travel agency context

Essential to successful organisations, performance measurement involves “setting goals, developing a set of performance measures, collecting, analysing, reporting, interpreting, reviewing and acting on performance data” (Smith & Bititci, 2016, p. 3). Within tourism research, studies exploring performance measurement typically focus on quantitative accounting-based performance indicators, contextualised specifically within the hotel industry (Sainaghi et al., 2017). However, the intangibility of many tourism services and the increasing importance of longer-term financial measures may render a reliance on traditional accounting based measurement systems unsuitable (Phillips & Louvieris, 2005).
The UL69 Transactivator Protein of Human Cytomegalovirus Interacts with DEXD/H-Box RNA Helicase UAP56 To Promote Cytoplasmic Accumulation of Unspliced RNA

ABSTRACT The UL69 gene product of human cytomegalovirus belongs to a family of regulatory proteins conserved among all herpesviruses that have in part been characterized as posttranscriptional transactivators participating in the nuclear export of RNA. Recent experiments suggested that pUL69 also acts as a posttranscriptional activator since it was demonstrated that nucleocytoplasmic shuttling via a CRM1-independent nuclear export signal is a prerequisite for its stimulatory effect on gene expression. Based on these findings we initiated studies to investigate the role of pUL69 in mRNA export and demonstrate that pUL69 efficiently promotes the cytoplasmic accumulation of unspliced RNA. Furthermore, we show that this pUL69 activity is linked to the cellular mRNA export machinery by direct protein interaction with the highly related DEXD/H-box RNA helicases UAP56 and URH49. Particularly, we identified a 12-amino-acid domain within the N terminus of pUL69 which is required for binding to UAP56 and URH49, and we could demonstrate that UAP56 interaction and nucleocytoplasmic shuttling are both prerequisites for pUL69-mediated mRNA export. Thus, we identified a novel cellular target which provides a herpesviral regulatory protein with access to a conserved cellular transport system in order to promote nuclear export of unspliced RNA.
The Effects of Propofol on Hypothalamic Paraventricular Nucleus Neurons in the Rat

The mechanism of hypotension induced by anesthetics is not completely understood. Because no electrophysiologic examination of the effects of propofol on the central nervous system has shown its involvement in the control of sympathetic and cardiovascular functions, we investigated the actions of propofol on rat hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus (PVN) neurons using the whole-cell mode of the patch-clamp technique in rat hypothalamic PVN slice preparations. Propofol induced Cl− currents at concentrations of 10−5 and 10−4 M, which were sensitive to picrotoxin and, to a lesser extent, to strychnine. Propofol (10−6 M) enhanced &ggr;-aminobutyric acidA (GABAA; 10−6 M)-induced current synergistically. Moreover, propofol (10−5 and 10−4 M) significantly increased the decay time of evoked-inhibitory postsynaptic currents, which suggests a postsynaptic modulation of GABAA receptors. In addition, propofol (10−5, 10−4, and 2 × 10−4 M) reversibly inhibited voltage-gated Ca2+ currents. Taken together, these results suggest that propofol enhancement of GABAA-receptor mediated currents and inhibition of voltage-gated Ca2+ currents at the central level, which is involved in the control of cardiovascular and sympathetic functions may be, at least in part, involved in general anesthetic-induced cardiovascular and sympathetic depression.
Control of dynamics and sensor based motion planning for a differential drive robot

Extends results in sensor-based motion planning with dynamics for a point robot to a more realistic case of a dimensioned robot. We consider a disc-shaped mobile robot with a differential drive system operating in a planar environment with unknown arbitrarily shaped stationary obstacles. Given the constraints on the robot kinematics, dynamics, sensing, and control means, an algorithm is developed that generates collision-free trajectories with guaranteed convergence. To make the extension to a vehicle with finite dimensions possible, a suitable methodology for the choice of actuator controls is proposed. Under the proposed strategy, whenever a turn in the motion is required, the robot attempts to accomplish it in minimum time, while simultaneously moving in space. Even with a reasonably fast motion, its safety is guaranteed by maintaining at all times an emergency stopping path. Simulated examples demonstrate the algorithm's performance.
Effect of sperm DNA fragmentation on the clinical outcomes of two assisted reproduction methods : IVF and ICSI

Objective: To investigate the effect of sperm DNA fragmentation index (DFI) on the clinical outcomes of in vitro fertilization (IVF) and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). Methods: Infertile couples were prospectively recruited in the Reproductive Center in Jiaozuo Maternal and Child Care Service Centre in Henan, China, from July 2015 to December 2016. All the recruited 228 infertile couples were divided into IVF group (135 cycles) and ICSI group (100 cycles) in accordance with what kinds of assisted reproductive technology (ART) they had chosen. Firstly, DFI of males in the two groups were detected by sperm chromatin structure analysis (SCSA). Then, the semen samples were collected on the day of oocyte retrieval of female spouses and performed the routine semen analysis and DFI testing. Finally, according to DIF level, the two group patients were divided into three groups: Group A (DFI<8%), Group B (8%≤DFI<15%), Group C (15%≤DFI<25%). The rates of fertilization, embryo cleavage, good quality embryos, embryos implantation and clinical pregnancy in VFI and ICSI cycles were analyzed and compared among three groups. Results: During the normal treatment cycle, when DFI≤15%, there was no statistical difference between IVF and ICSI in the rates of fertilization, embryo cleavage, good quality embryos, embryos implantation and clinical pregnancy (P>0.05). When 15%≤DFI<25%, the rates of fertilization and clinical pregnancy rates in ICSI were significantly higher than those in IVF (P<0.05), but there was also no significant difference between IVF and ICSI in good quality embryos rate (P>0.05). Conclusion: The rise of DFI level can not only reduce the sperm motility but also affect the clinical outcomes of IVF and ICSI. While the outcomes of IVF and ICSI are statistically similar when DFI level is less than 15%, the curative effect of ICSI is better when DFI value exceeds 15%.
IMPACT OF HUMAN CAPITAL ON BUSINESS PERFORMANCE OF HOTEL ENTERPRISES IN SERBIA

In a knowledge-based economy, the success, growth and development of hotel companies relies in a large extent on knowledge, since employees are directly involved in the process of service production and consumption. The results of numerous studies demonstrate the impact of human capital on business performances, so management must invest and improve human capital in order to create differentiated products / services and ensure a stable competitive position. The main goal of the research is to analyze the interdependence of human capital components and business performance of the hotels in Serbia. The research results confirm the influence of human capital on the non-financial performance of hotel companies. In order to test the structural relationships between variables, reliability analysis, factor analysis and structural modeling equation are employed.
Contingent Contracts in Banking: Insurance or Risk Magnification?

What happens when banks compete with deposit and loan contracts contingent on macro‐economic shocks? The private sector insures the banking system efficiently against crises through such contracts when failing banks go bankrupt. When risks are large, banks may shift part of the risk to depositors who receive state‐contingent contracts. In contrast, when failing banks are rescued, new phenomena such as risk magnification emerge. Depositors receive noncontingent contracts, while loan contracts demand high repayment in good times and low repayment in bad times. Banks overinvest and generate large macro‐economic risks, even if the underlying productivity risk is small or zero.
Does partial quantity rationing of credit affect the technical efficiency of dairy farmers in Punjab, Pakistan?: An application of stochastic frontier analysis

Purpose This article empirically investigates the effect of partial quantity rationing of credit on the technical efficiency of dairy farmers in the Punjab province of Pakistan. Design/methodology/approach Prior to the field survey, the authors constructed a theoretical model for clear identification of partial quantity rationed dairy farmers. Data from 154 dairy farmers were collected that represented three districts of the province. The collected data were analyzed in two stages: first, the efficiency level of dairy farmers was estimated using a stochastic frontier approach; second, the authors employed an inefficiency-effects model to estimate the effect of partial quantity rationing of credit on technical efficiency. Findings The results revealed that, education level of the household head, cross breed and imported cattle, and electric chaff cutter, all had significant positive impacts on technical efficiency, followed by diversified sources of income. Conversely, the analysis of our key variables, in.
Recognition of famous faces in the medial temporal lobe

Objective: To investigate the involvement of the rhinal cortex and the hippocampus in the processing of famous faces in contrast to nonfamous faces using intracranial event-related potentials (ERPs), and to analyze repetition effects for famous and nonfamous faces. Methods: ERPs were elicited by pictures of famous and nonfamous faces and recorded from rhinal and hippocampal sites of intracranial electrodes in 10 presurgical patients with unilateral medial temporal lobe epilepsy. Famous and nonfamous faces were presented twice and mixed with distorted faces serving as targets. There was no instruction for an overt discrimination between famous and nonfamous faces. In contrast to nonfamous faces, famous faces stimulate processes related with access and retrieval of semantic memory. Results: All faces evoked anterior medial temporal lobe N400-like (AMTL-N400) potentials in the rhinal cortex and P600-like potentials in the hippocampus. The AMTL-N400 and the hippocampal P600 amplitudes were larger for famous faces than for nonfamous faces. Mean amplitudes of the first and second presentation of famous faces suggest a repetition effect for the rhinal sites; however, they are significant only in the later signal components. No repetition effect was found for nonfamous faces and for potentials from the hippocampus. Conclusion: The anterior medial temporal lobe N400 and the hippocampal P600 may be related to the access and retrieval of person-specific semantic memory.
Demonstration of immunoglobulin M class antibodies to Toxoplasma gondii antigenic component p35000 by enzyme-linked antigen immunosorbent assay

On the basis that 89% of 48 acute-phase toxoplasmosis patients showed immunoglobulin M (IgM) class antibodies to the 35,000-molecular-weight antigenic component (p35000) of Toxoplasma gondii, as demonstrated by IgM immunoblotting, the antigen was purified by sucrose gradient centrifugation and enzyme labeled for use in an enzyme-linked antigen immunosorbent assay (ELA) for the demonstration of IgM class antibodies to the p35000 component. The ELA showed a specificity of 96% with 139 serum specimens at a serum dilution of only 1:5. The test serologically detected 73 symptomatic acute-phase toxoplasmosis patients; 64 were positive in the 19S IgM indirect immunofluorescent-antibody test, and 9 were negative, although they showed IgM antibodies to p35000, as demonstrated by IgM immunoblotting. Also, the ELA turned out to be independent of IgM rheumatoid factors in six acute-phase toxoplasmosis serum specimens.
Regulation of proliferation and apoptosis by epidermal growth factor and protein kinase C in human ovarian surface epithelial cells.

Epidermal growth factor (EGF) is produced in the ovary and influences proliferation of the malignant ovarian surface epithelium (OSE); yet its role in malignancy or in regulating the normal surface epithelium is unclear. In human OSE cells derived from primary cultures of normal tissue transfected with SV40 large T antigen (IOSE cells), EGF promoted survival but not proliferation. This survival effect was reversed by acute treatment with the phorbol ester, 12-0-tetradecanoyl-13-phorbol acetate (TPA) which alone markedly inhibited IOSE proliferation. We tested whether the activities of the mitogen-activated protein kinases (ERK1/2 and JNK1) varied in response to EGF, TPA, or combinations of these agonists and if the same treatments altered patterns of immediate early gene expression. Alone, EGF activated ERK1/2, increased and sustained levels of c-jun mRNA, but had almost no effect on JNK1 activation. Conversely, PKC activation resulted in a rapid, but transient induction of c-fos RNA and of both kinases, JNK1 and ERK2. When combined, EGF and TPA further enhanced the phosphorylation of both enzymes despite inhibiting survival. Though JNKs and ERKs are thought to transduce opposing cellular responses, in IOSE cells, robust costimulation of the JNK and ERK pathways may redirect the survival message.
Familial Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis Type 5 Due To Novel STXBP2 Gene Mutation: A Case Report

Familial Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (FHL) is a fatal autosomal recessive hyperinflammatory syndrome characterized by fever, hepatosplenomegaly, cytopenia, hyperferritenemia and widespread hemophagocytosis in the reticuloendothelial tissues. Diagnosis of FHL can be confirmed by the presence of typical clinical and laboratory features along with presence of a specific genetic mutation. Mutation in STXBP2 encoding syntaxin binding protein 2 (Munc 18 -2) is the newest described mutation that gives rise to FHL5. Here we present a case of FHL 5 with typical clinical and laboratory features of FHL and came out to be positive for homozygous missense variation in exon 3 of the STXBP2 gene (chr19:7703978; G>T).
Simulation Framework for HTTP-Based Adaptive Streaming Applications

The popularity of Internet-based video services has significantly increased over the past years. The de facto standard technology for Internet-based Video on Demand is HTTP-Based Adaptive Streaming (HAS), which is also increasingly used for live services. A core component of a HAS client is the adaptation algorithm, which dynamically adjusts the video representation to the network conditions. Meanwhile, there exists a large body of work on adaptation algorithms. Unfortunately, many experimental studies lack a thorough performance evaluation. Often, the reason is the use of an unrealistic network environment, or incomparability of results with other studies, or a too narrow subset of evaluated parameter configurations. We argue that a simulative approach can help resolving these issues by requiring less efforts to set up a realistic network environment, by assisting to reproduce an experiment, and by allowing to parallelize simulations, and potentially run them faster than in real time. The contribution of the present work is a design and implementation of a simulation model for a HAS-based application, including both the client and a server side. It has a clean modularized structure allowing for an easy integration of different adaptation algorithms. The client behavior is defined by a Finite-State Machine that can easily be extended to include additional functionality. Moreover, the model provides extensive logging functionality for monitoring the Quality of Experience (QoE). We integrate three state-of-the-art algorithms into the model: FESTIVE, PANDA, and TOBASCO2. We demonstrate the usefulness of the model by running a set of experiments using a simulated indoor Wi-Fi environment.
Translational velocity consensus using distance-only measurements

This paper proposes a strategy to achieve translational velocity consensus in a multi-agent formation using distance-only measurements. Since with agents executing arbitrary motions, distance-only measurement cannot provide enough information for velocity consensus, we postulate that agents engage in a combination of circular motion and linear motion. When energy saving is the first priority, the linear motion component should dominate. On the other hand, when measurement accuracy is the first priority, the circular motion must be more prominent.