Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of serum creatinine- and cystatin C-based equations for the estimation of glomerular filtration rate in a Chinese population

Abstract Objective. This study aimed to evaluate the applicability of a selection of glomerular filtration rate (GFR) estimating equations based on serum creatinine (SCr) and serum cystatin C in a Chinese population. Material and methods. Estimated GFR values from 10 equations were compared with reference GFR (rGFR) from the 99mTc-DTPA renal dynamic imaging method. The study enrolled 569 Chinese participants (41.5% women, 53.5 ± 16.9 years, range 19–92 years), with mean rGFR 74.80 ± 26.10 (range 9.8–146.8 ml/min/1.73 m2). Results. Bland–Altman analysis illustrated that the 95% agreement limits of all the equations surpassed the acceptable tolerance (<60 ml/min/1.73 m2), of which the MacIsaac equation was the closest one, reaching 71.7 ml/min/1.73 m2. Linear regression analysis also demonstrated a consistent result. When assessed in all participants, the accuracy of the six equations reached and exceeded the acceptable level (≥70%), of which the Shanghai and MacIsaac equations gained more accuracy than others. When compared in subgroups, the Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration (CKD-EPI), MacIsaac and Cockcroft–Gault (CG) equations were optimal for rGFR stages ≥ 90 ml/min/1.73 m2, 30–89 ml/min/1.73 m2 and < 30 ml/min/1.73 m2, respectively. Conclusion. The results demonstrated that further improvement is needed for the selected 10 equations. Not all the cystatin C equations were superior to SCr equations. They have their own applicability at various GFR levels. At present, the CKD-EPI, MacIsaac and CG equations may be applied to evaluate GFR in normal, mild to moderate and severe kidney function, respectively.
25 años del Instituto de Sexología (una conversación teórica con Amezúa)

Trato con este trabajo de acercar al lector o lectora del Anuario de Sexologia a la produc~ ción del Instituto de Sexología en estos sus 25 años de vida. Para ello me he propuesto una conversación teórica con su director: el Dr. Efigenio Amezúa. La metodología seguida para su redacción es bien sencilla: sobre la base de un texto propio (íntegramente recogido en los apartados O al 5), he ido interpelando a Efigenio Amezúa, quien ha contestado a mis cuestiones tanto por escrito, como verbalmente. Con este mate~ rial, una vez remozado y revisado por ambos, sale este artículo con la siguiente estructura: O. Introducción; 1. Bodas de plata en el In.Ci. Sex. ; 2. La Revista Española de Sexología; 3. La obra de Amezúa; 4. La Sexología Sustantiva; 5. Mi crítica a su obra; 6. Su réplica a mi crítica; Interpelaciones en torno a mi texto; 7. Conversación teórica con Amezúa; Entrevista con Amezúa; 8. Entrevista en directo.
Serum lipids, blood pressure and body weight around the age of the menopause

Background Of previous studies, some have indicated an adverse development of serum lipids, blood pressure and body weight in women around the menopause. We sought to study these associations in data collected before the widespread use of lipid lowering drugs and hormone therapy. Design Population-based cohort study. Methods We analysed data from population-based cardiovascular surveys in Norway. During 1985-1988, all women aged 40-54 years in three counties were invited, 83% participated and 24 085 nonusers of hormone therapy were studied, of whom 12 736 had attended similar surveys 5 and 10 years earlier (1974-1978 and 1977-1983). Serum lipids, blood pressure, height and weight were measured, and menopausal status was registered by interview. Analyses were made in cross-sectional data and by comparing changes in serum lipids, body weight and blood pressure between the surveys according to menopausal exposure. Results Total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides and the TC/high-density lipoprotein (HDL)-cholesterol ratio increased from premenopausal to postmenopausal status. The HDL-cholesterol concentration seemed to increase slightly in the perimenopause. In women who had entered the postmenopausal phase most recently, the increases of TC and triglycerides since 5 years earlier were more than twice the levels of premenopausal women. The results were consistent in subgroups by age. Menopausal status was not associated with adverse development of blood pressure or body weight. Conclusion The menopausal transition may be associated with an accelerated increase of TC and triglyceride concentrations and of the TC/HDL-cholesterol ratio.
Reconstruction of Head and Neck Hemangiomas with Tissue Expansion in the Pediatric Population

A retrospective study of 245 patients with 299 hemangiomas treated from May 1981 to April 1994 was done. A subset of 175 of these patients (58.5%) had hemangiomas of the head and neck. Six of the 175 (3%) required reconstruction following laser therapy. Tissue expansion was chosen for each of these reconstructions. Five females and 1 male underwent tissue expansion. The age of the patients at the time of tissue expansion ranged from 2.5 to 12 years, with an average of 6 years. Tissue expander sizes were 50 cc and 100 cc. Infection was seen during the course of expansion in 1 patient. Satisfactory results were achieved after reconstruction in all cases. Tissue expansion is the treatment of choice for reconstruction of head and neck hemangioma deformities following laser or other surgical procedures as well as involution. Chang C-J, Achauer BM, VanderKam VM. Reconstruction of head and neck hemangiomas with tissue expansion in the pediatric population. Ann Plast Surg 1997;38:15-18
Sustainable Agricultural Practices and Agricultural Productivity in Ethiopia: Does Agroecology Matter?

Sustainable agricultural practices, in as far as they rely on renewable local or farm resources, present desirable options for enhancing agricultural productivity for resource-constrained farmers in developing countries. In this paper, we used two sets of plot-level data—from a low-rainfall area and from a high-rainfall area of Ethiopia—to investigate the impact of sustainable agricultural practices on crop productivity, with a particular focus on reduced tillage. Specifically, we sought to investigate whether reduced tillage results in more or less productivity gain than chemical fertilizer. The nature of the two sets of data allows us to examine whether the productivity of these technologies is conditioned by agroecology. Interestingly, our results revealed a clear superiority of reduced tillage over chemical fertilizers in enhancing crop productivity in the low-rainfall region. In the high-rainfall region, however, chemical fertilizer is overwhelmingly superior and reduced tillage potentially results in productivity losses. Thus, our results underscore the need to understand the role of agroecology in determining the profitability (in terms of productivity gains) of farm technologies. This has particular importance in formulating policies that promote technology adoption. In this particular case, our results support encouraging resource-constrained farmers in semi-arid areas to adopt sustainable agricultural practices, especially since they enable farmers to reduce production costs, provide environmental benefits, and—as our results confirm—enhance crop productivity.
Material potential and scalability challenges of germanium CMOS

This paper overviews the present status of Ge MOSFET technology, particularly focusing on n-FETs in terms of materials science of GeO2/Ge gate stacks and device physics of inversion layer mobility, and then discusses future prospects and fundamental challenges for further miniaturization from the viewpoint of Ge/high-k gate stacks and ET-GeOI MOSFETs.
HIV-Tat Induces the Nrf2/ARE Pathway through NMDA Receptor-Elicited Spermine Oxidase Activation in Human Neuroblastoma Cells

Previously, we reported that HIV-Tat elicits spermine oxidase (SMO) activity upregulation through NMDA receptor (NMDAR) stimulation in human SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells, thus increasing ROS generation, which in turn leads to GSH depletion, oxidative stress, and reduced cell viability. In several cell types, ROS can trigger an antioxidant cell response through the transcriptional induction of oxidative stress-responsive genes regulated by the nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2). Here, we demonstrate that Tat induces both antioxidant gene expression and Nrf2 activation in SH-SY5Y cells, mediated by SMO activity. Furthermore, NMDAR is involved in Tat-induced Nrf2 activation. These findings suggest that the NMDAR/SMO/Nrf2 pathway is an important target for protection against HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders.
On high precision distributed series compensator control in static reference frame

High precision DSSC control in D-FACTS is discussed in the paper. A triple-loop control method is proposed with Proportion-Resonance AC output voltage controller aimed to gain high precision compensation voltage. In order to provide a clear control object to the DC voltage controller design, a DC voltage control idea is proposed, which transformed the DC voltage control to AC output voltage reference generation. With the proposed triple-loop control, high accuracy DSSC control is obtained and verified with both simulation and experiment. Compensation polarity switching is also investigated, the system can track such command and operate stably after short settling time.
CSLA: A Language for Improving Cloud SLA Management

Cloud computing is a paradigm for enabling remote, on-demand access to a set of configurable computing resources as a service. The pay-per-use model enables service providers to offer their services to customers in different Quality-of-Service (QoS) levels. Service Level Agreement (SLA) is a negotiated agreement between a service provider and a customer where QoS parameters specify the quality level of service that the service provider have to guarantee. However, due to the dynamic nature of the Cloud and its instability, some SLA violations can occurred and the service providers can be charged for penalties. In this paper, we aim at addressing the Cloud instability to better control SLA management (in particular SLA violations) and indirectly the Cloud elasticity. We propose CSLA, a new SLA language directly integrating some features dealing with QoS uncertainty and Cloud fluctuation. In our evaluation, we present a novel profit model for service provider and new algorithms (for admission control and scheduling) to meet SLA requirements (e.g. prevent SLA violations) while tackling scalability and dynamic issues.
Real time simulation: Recent progress & challenges

In order to compete in the global market, engineering organizations are under increasing pressure to design, develop, and deploy products in the market place as quickly as possible with first time quality. In order to achieve these objectives, it is necessary to streamline the design and development process, namely, “transfer of analytical design of Intelligence to Mechatronics intelligence” in an efficient and expedient manner. An increasing pressure exists on the development cycle of control systems to serve this widening application spectrum. The time-to-market of a new product often determines its commercial success. Consequently, design problems have to be discovered as early as possible in the design process in order to take remedial actions. Efficient and accurate tools and procedures are required to support short yet successful development processes. Over the last two decades, commercially available computer has become both increasingly powerful and increasingly affordable. This, in turn, has led to the emergence of highly sophisticated simulation software applications that not only enable high-fidelity simulation of dynamic systems and related controls, but also automatic code generation for implementation in industrial controllers. Simulation tools have been widely used for the design and improvement of electrical systems since the mid twentieth century. The evolution of simulation tools has progressed in step with the evolution of computing technologies. In last ten years, computing technologies have improved dramatically in performance and become widely available at a steadily decreasing cost. Consequently, simulation tools have also seen dramatic performance gains and steady cost decreases. Researchers and engineers now have access to affordable, high-performance simulation tools that were previously too cost prohibitive, except for the largest manufacturers and utilities. The purpose of this paper is to review major milestones that set the stage for the development of the today's real time simulation including sufficient detail to acquaint reader with their basic principles, strength, challenges and its applications.
Power calculations for multicenter imaging studies controlled by the false discovery rate

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is widely used in brain imaging research (neuroimaging) to explore structural and functional changes across dispersed neural networks visible only via multisubject experiments. Multicenter investigations are an effective way to increase recruitment rates. This article describes image‐based power calculations for a two‐group, cross‐sectional design specified by the mean effect size and its standard error, sample size, false discovery rate (FDR), and size of the network (i.e., proportion of image locations) that truly demonstrates an effect. Minimum sample size (for fixed effect size) and the minimum effect size (for fixed sample size) are calculated by specifying the acceptable power threshold. Within‐center variance was estimated in five participating centers by repeat MRI scanning of 12 healthy participants from whom distributions of gray matter were estimated. The effect on outcome measures when varying FDR and the proportion of true positives is presented. Their spatial patterns reflect within‐center variance, which is consistent across centers. Sample sizes 3–6 times larger are needed when detecting effects in subcortical regions compared to the neocortex. Hypothesized multicenter studies of patients with first episode psychosis and control participants were simulated with varying proportions of the cohort recruited at each center. There is little penalty to sample size for recruitment at five centers compared to the center with the lowest variance alone. At 80% power 80 participants per group are required to observe differences in gray matter in high variance regions. Hum Brain Mapp, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
A Content Based Model for Image Categorization

Recent years have seen a rapid increase in the size of digital image collections. Any advance in our ability to organize unlabelled images according to their semantic content is a very useful step in managing these collections. In this paper we present a content based model for image categorization. In this model images in the database are grouped into classes of images with similar visual patterns. The proposed model uses two visual features, color and spatial location information of segmented image regions. Also, the proposed model is designed for using in applications that need image classification based on the general structures of images such as scene classification. Experiments are conducted and results are presented on a set of 1000 images.
Single-radial-complement-fixation: a new immunodiffusion technique. 2. Assay of the antibody response to the internal antigens (MP and NP) of influenza A virus in human sera after vaccination and infection.

This new immunodiffusion method involves the incorporation of antigen and complement in a primary agarose gel. Heat-inactivated serum samples are filled into wells and allowed to diffuse radially overnight at 4 degrees C. A secondary gel, containing antibody-coated sheep erythrocytes, is layered on top of the first gel and the system is incubated for 45 min at 37 degrees C. Where complement is fixed, i.e. around wells with positive serum samples, zones of unlysed indicator cells appear. Otherwise, the red bloods cells are lysed. This sensitive technique is employed in a study of human sera for the measurement of the antibody response to the internal antigens (MP and NP) of influenza A virus after infection and vaccination. It was found that none of the vaccinees developed antibodies to the MP antigen, whereas 35% of the post-infection group showed a significant rise. The response to the NP antigen was less frequent and of lower order of magnitude after vaccination than after infection.
Science Denial Across the Political Divide: Liberals and Conservatives Are Similarly Motivated to Deny Attitude-Inconsistent Science

We tested whether conservatives and liberals are similarly or differentially likely to deny scientific claims that conflict with their preferred conclusions. Participants were randomly assigned to read about a study with correct results that were either consistent or inconsistent with their attitude about one of several issues (e.g., carbon emissions). Participants were asked to interpret numerical results and decide what the study concluded. After being informed of the correct interpretation, participants rated how much they agreed with, found knowledgeable, and trusted the researchers’ correct interpretation. Both liberals and conservatives engaged in motivated interpretation of study results and denied the correct interpretation of those results when that interpretation conflicted with their attitudes. Our study suggests that the same motivational processes underlie differences in the political priorities of those on the left and the right.
Identification of MHC Class II-Restricted Peptide Ligands, Including a Glutamic Acid Decarboxylase 65 Sequence, that Stimulate Diabetogenic T Cells from Transgenic BDC2.5 Nonobese Diabetic Mice1

Nonobese diabetic (NOD) mice spontaneously develop insulitis and destruction of pancreatic islet β cells similar to type 1 diabetes mellitis in humans. Insulitis also occurs in the BDC2.5 TCR transgenic line of NOD mice that express the rearranged TCR α- and β-chain genes of a diabetogenic NOD CD4 T cell clone. When activated with syngeneic islet cells in culture, BDC2.5 T cells adoptively transfer disease to NOD recipients, but the identity of the islet cell Ag responsible for pathogenicity is not known. To characterize the autoantigen(s) involved, BDC2.5 T cells were used to screen a combinatorial peptide library arranged in a positional scanning format. We identified more than 100 decapeptides that stimulate these T cells at nanomolar concentrations; they are then capable of transferring disease to NOD-scid mice. Surprisingly, some of the peptides include sequences similar (8 of 10 residues) to those found within the 528–539 fragment of glutamic acid decarboxylase 65. Although this 12-mer glutamic acid decarboxylase 65 fragment is only slightly stimulatory for BDC2.5 T cells (EC50 > 100 μM), a larger 16-mer fragment, 526–541, shows activity in the low micromolar range (EC50 = 2.3 μM). Finally, T cells from prediabetic NOD mice respond spontaneously to these peptide analogs in culture; this finding validates them as being related to a critical autoantigen involved in the etiology of spontaneous diabetes and indicates that their further characterization is important for a better understanding of underlying disease mechanisms.
Disease profile and treatment results of anal canal SCC: experience from AIIMS, New Delhi.

INTRODUCTION Anal Canal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) accounts for nearly 2% of all cancers of the alimentary tract. Over the past few years, the management of anal canal cancer has changed from primary surgery to primary chemo-radiotherapy (CRT). METHODS A total of 83 patients' (pts) records (62 males, 21 females) were retrospectively reviewed. Length of disease was <5 cm in 44 pts and confined to primary in 46 pts. Ten pts have anti-cancer therapy outside. We delivered radiotherapy (RT) alone to 16 pts, chemotherapy (CT) alone to 4 pts, CRT in 51 pts and pre-operative (pre-op) RT in 2 pts. RT dose was up to 30 Gray (Gy) =16; 30-50 Gy=12 and >50 Gy=41 pts. RESULTS RT compliance was optimal in 64/69, grade (Gr) ≤ 2 toxicity in 56/69 and Gr ≥ 2 in 13/69 pts. Thirteen pts (18.84%) were hospitalized during RT. No response (NR) was found in 4/83, <50% in 18/83, >50-<100% in 39/83 and complete response (CR) in 22/83 pts. Recurrence at primary site was seen in 7 and loco-regional in 2 pts. Salvage therapy was done in all 9 pts (surgery=8 and CT=1). Status at last follow up, alive without disease = 22/83 and with disease = 61/83 pts. CONCLUSION This retrospective analysis revealed that the advanced disease was in 47%, the optimal anti-cancer therapy could be delivered to 63.9%. Despite heterogeneity of patient population and management, the overall disease-free survival (DFS) with sphincter-preservation was achieved in 26.5% pts.
Dynamic TDD transmissions in homogeneous small cell networks

In this paper, we investigate the performance of dynamic time division duplexing (TDD) transmissions with various kinds of interference management strategies, i.e., cell clustering (CC), power control and interference cancellation (IC), as well as their combinations in homogeneous small cell networks. We present extensive results on network performance in terms of downlink (DL)/uplink (UL) wide-band (WB) signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR), 95-, 50- and 5-percentile user equipment (UE) packet throughputs (UPTs). We also study the impact of high-order modulation schemes on dynamic TDD. Our work shows that, when the traffic load is low to medium, an advanced dynamic TDD scheme with UL power boosting (ULPB), IC and full flexibility of TDD configuration is shown to immensely outperform the static TDD scheme by approximately 30~60% and 210~300% in terms of the DL and the UL UPTs, respectively.
Providing QoS guarantee of timeliness in wireless sensor networks with a new routing methodology

Wide spread use of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) in critical applications shows the importance of Quality of service (QoS) in these networks. Timeliness is one of the QoS parameters which has great importance in real time applications such as earthquake detection. Several geographic routing protocols have been proposed for WSNs which provide QoS support in timeliness domain. Most of these protocols use one-hop neighborhood information to make routing decisions. Timeliness can be improved by using multi-hop neighborhood information which increases control overhead and decreases network lifetime. In other words, the choice of two-hop neighborhood information is a tradeoff between timeliness and control overhead. In this paper, we propose a QoS-aware routing protocol, called Maximum Speed Routing Protocol (MSRP) for WSNs to provide QoS-guarantee in timeliness domain. MSRP is based on two-hop neighborhood information with low control overhead and it can improve timeliness by sending packets with maximum speed across the network. Also, MSRP considers the distance between a neighbor and destination to determine next forwarding node and uses a different method to estimate delay between two neighbors. Simulation results show that MSRP improves performance in terms of end-to-end delay, delivery ratio and hop counts.
Design and Characterization of Wireless Power Links for Brain–Machine Interface Applications

In this paper, the design of an inductive power link (IPL) for wireless power transfer (WPT) in brain-machine interface (BMI) applications is thoroughly studied. The constraints and requirements of BMI applications are analyzed. By theoretical derivations, the relationships between the IPL performances and its electrical parameters are determined. The design guidelines for the IPL physical parameters are then obtained through experimental characterizations. Experimental results show that with proper IPL design, the efficiency can be improved from the previously reported values of 29.9% and 4.3% to 33.1% and 9.2% for BMI WPT distances of 5 and 12.5 mm, respectively.