Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Lipid-induced intestinal gas retention in irritable bowel syndrome.

BACKGROUND & AIMS We hypothesized that lipids, which induce various motor and sensory effects on the gut, modulate intestinal gas dynamics and that alteration of this regulatory mechanism may result in impaired gas transit in patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). METHODS In 45 healthy subjects and 30 patients with IBS, evacuation of gas infused into the jejunum (at 12 mL/min) was measured for 2 hours. The effect of simultaneous duodenal perfusion of lipids at 0 kcal/min (saline), 0.5 kcal/min, and 1 kcal/min was tested in groups of 15 subjects each. RESULTS In healthy subjects, duodenal lipids at 1 kcal/min but not at 0 kcal/min or 0.5 kcal/min produced significant gas retention (281 +/- 53 mL vs. 22 +/- 64 mL at 0 kcal/min and -65 +/- 72 mL at 0.5 kcal/min; P < 0.05 for both). Patients with IBS exhibited gas retention during saline perfusion (259 +/- 85 mL at 0 kcal/min; P < 0.05 vs. healthy subjects) and were hypersensitive to duodenal lipids (505 +/- 61 mL retention at 0.5 kcal/min; P < 0.05 vs. saline and vs. healthy subjects). The "gas plus lipids" challenge test discriminated patients with 100% sensitivity and 93% specificity. CONCLUSIONS Physiologic concentrations of intestinal lipids exert an inhibitory control on intestinal gas transit, and this mechanism is up-regulated in patients with IBS. Hence, impaired gas propulsion, shown by the gas challenge test, may be useful as a diagnostic test if replicated in a larger series of patients.
Social Information Processing Theory (SIPT): A Cultural Perspective for International Online Communication Environments

The Social Information Processing Theory (SIPT) proposes that given time and opportunity to interact, relationships between individuals can form in online environments. Although not an overt assumption of the SIPT, it is essential to understand how cultural factors are important components of any CMC interaction. The power of the SIPT lies within its ability to foster communication between individuals through communicative behavior that is valued by the other’s culture. Therefore, Social Information Processing has the potential to aid the development of trust between virtual team members, establishing group cohesion, and accentuating cross-communication within international work groups.
Compiling run-time parametrisable designs

This paper explores representations and compilation of run-time parametrisable FPGA designs. We develop methods to produce designs with many run-time parameters, which would otherwise require an impractical number of bitstreams to be generated at compile time. Run-time parametrisation facilitates specialisation, which can be used to remove logic to produce a smaller and faster design. Our approach involves a source description based on Structural VHDL that allows designers to specify what parameters are available at compile time and at run time. Using this approach, converting a compile-time parameter into a run-time parameter or vice versa is straightforward. The source description does not contain explicit information on how to modify the design at run time. We describe a compilation scheme that can be used to extract this information, generate a run-time representation of the design and rapidly instantiate this representation at run time. We present techniques that allow a parametrised design to be incrementally modified in order to minimise the reconfiguration overhead Our compiler implementation generates a Java program that uses the JBits AN to implement the runtime representation and functions to incrementally modify the design. DES and AES encryption designs are used to illustrate our approach.
Predictive abilities of baseline measurements of fluid overload, assessed by bioimpedance spectroscopy and serum N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide, for mortality in hemodialysis patients

Introduction Fluid overload is one of the most important, yet modifiable, risk factors associated with worse outcomes in hemodialysis (HD) patients. However, its precise assessment in clinical practice is still under investigation. Material and methods This is an observational prospective study which included 285 stable patients with end-stage renal disease on standard thrice-weekly HD therapy. Overhydration was assessed by the combination of relative fluid overload (RFO), using bioimpedance spectroscopy, and N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP). The outcome of interest was all-cause mortality. Results The median values for NT-proBNP and RFO were 4595 pg/ml and 6.9%, respectively. We divided the study population into four groups according to these median levels: group 1 – low NT-proBNP and low RFO; group 2 – high NT-proBNP and low RFO; group 3 – low NT-proBNP and high RFO; group 4 – high NT-proBNP and high RFO. During the follow-up (mean: 41.1, median: 48.7 months), 89 (31.2%) patients died. In the univariable Cox survival analysis only patients in group 4, and not those from group 2 or 3, had significantly higher HRs as compared to those in group 1 (HR = 1.5, 95% CI: 0.8–2.8, HR = 1.6, 95% CI: 0.8–2.9 and HR = 2.4, 95% CI: 1.3–4.2, for group 2, 3 and 4, respectively). Furthermore, these results were maintained in the multivariable Cox analysis. Conclusions Including both bioimpedance and NT-proBNP monitoring in a more comprehensive fluid status assessment could improve the diagnosis of fluid overload with a final improvement in patients’ outcome.
Changing the criteria for old/new recognition judgments can modulate activity in the anterior hippocampus

Numerous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have reported that the medial temporal lobe (MTL) is activated to a greater extent when subjects encounter novel items as compared with familiar ones. However, it remains unclear whether the novelty signals in the MTL are modulated by the criteria for old/new recognition judgments. In this study, we used fMRI to test our hypothesis that when subjects encounter items similar to previously encountered ones, the novelty signals in the MTL will differ depending on whether the subjects focus on the perceptual features or the semantic aspects of the items. The subjects studied a series of photographs and were later asked to make a recognition judgment of (a) Same items (items identical to those seen during encoding), (b) Similar items (items similar to but not identical to those seen during encoding), and (c) New items (unstudied items) in two types of tasks: Perceptual and Semantic. The subjects judged whether the items were perceptually identical to those seen during encoding in the Perceptual task and whether the items were semantically identical to those seen during encoding in the Semantic task. The left anterior hippocampus was activated when subjects were presented with New items relative to Same items in both tasks. In addition, the hippocampal activity in response to the Similar items was increased only in the Perceptual, but not the Semantic task. Our results indicate that the novelty signals in the hippocampus can be modulated by criteria for old/new recognition judgments. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Reinitiation of Protein Translocation across the Endoplasmic Reticulum Membrane for the Topogenesis of Multispanning Membrane Proteins (*)

The reinitiation of the translocation of the growing nascent chain across the endoplasmic reticulum membrane is essential for the topogenesis of multispanning membrane proteins. We investigated the requirements for the reinitiation process using model proteins in which systematically designed sequences were inserted after two preceding topogenic sequences, namely the N-terminal signal sequence (S) and stop transfer sequence (St). The model proteins were translated in vitro in the presence of rough microsomes, and the final topology of the proteins in the microsomal membrane was examined by proteolytic digestion. The structural requirements for S and the reinitiation sequence (R) overlapped to some extent, but substantial differences were noticed. When St and R were separated by a short cytoplasmic segment (58 amino acids), the efficiency of the reinitiation was not affected by the concentration of the signal recognition particle (SRP) in the translation system, even though the sequence inserted as R was an SRP-dependent signal sequence. However, when the cytoplasmic segment was longer (100 amino acids), the reinitiation efficiency was reduced, and the SRP improved the overall efficiency as well as impaired the accessibility of the processing site after the R to the signal peptidase.
Physically plausible scene estimation for manipulation in clutter

Perceiving object poses in a cluttered scene is a challenging problem because of the partial observations available to an embodied robot, where cluttered scenes are especially problematic. In addition to occlusions, cluttered scenes have various cases of uncertainty due to physical object interactions, such as touching, stacking and partial support. In this paper, we discuss these cases of physics-based uncertainty one by one and propose methods for physically-viable scene estimation. Specifically, we use Newtonian physical simulation to validate the plausibility of hypotheses within a generative probabilistic inference framework for: particle filtering, MCMC and an MCMC variant on particle filtering. Assuming that object geometries are known, we estimate the scene as a collection of object poses, and infer a distribution over the state space of scenes as well as the maximum likelihood estimate. We compare with ICP based approaches and present our results for scene estimation in isolated cases of physical object interaction as well as multi-object scenes such that manipulation of graspable objects can be performed with a PR2 robot.
Long-Term Intake of Dietary Fiber and Decreased Risk of Cholecystectomy in Women

BACKGROUND:Epidemiologic studies on the relationship between dietary fiber and gallstone disease are inconclusive, and the effects of different types of dietary fiber are not clear.METHODS:We examined the association between long-term intake of dietary fiber as well as fiber from different sources and risk of cholecystectomy in a cohort of 69,778 women who were aged from 35 to 61 years in 1984 and had no history of gallstone disease. As part of the Nurses' Health Study, the women reported on questionnaires mailed to them every two years both their fiber intake and whether they had undergone cholecystectomy.RESULTS:During 16 yr of follow-up, we documented 5,771 cases of cholecystectomy. After adjusting for age and other known or suspected risk factors in a multivariate model, compared with women in the lowest quintile of total dietary fiber intake, the relative risk of choleystectomy for those in the highest quintile was 0.87 (95% CI, 0.78–0.96, p for trend = 0.005). For a 5-g increase in total fiber intake, the multivariate relative risk was 0.94 (95% CI, 0.90–0.98). Insoluble fiber, taking soluble fiber into account in the multivariate model, was significantly associated with a reduced risk. The multivariate relative risk was 0.83 (95% CI, 0.73–0.94, p for trend = 0.009) for insoluble fiber, and was 1.01 (95% CI, 0.89–1.15, p for trend = 0.9) for soluble fiber, when extreme quintiles were compared. For a 5-g increase in intake, the relative risk was 0.90 (95% CI, 0.84–0.97) for insoluble fiber, and was 1.01 (95% CI, 0.83–1.23) for soluble fiber.CONCLUSIONS:Our results suggest that increased long-term consumption of dietary fiber, particularly insoluble fiber, can reduce risk of cholecystectomy in women.
Embryonic Development and Skeletogenesis of the Pharyngeal Jaw Apparatus in the Cichlid Nile Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus)

The evolution of a specialized pharyngeal jaw apparatus (PJA) has been argued to be the key evolutionary innovation that allowed the explosive adaptive radiation of cichlid fishes in East African lakes. Subsequent studies together with recent molecular phylogenies have shown that similar innovations evolved independently several times within the teleosts, which poses the questions: (1) how similar are the developmental mechanisms responsible for these changes in divergent taxa and (2) how did such complex features arise independently in evolution? A detailed knowledge of PJA development in cichlids and other teleosts is needed to address these questions. Here, we provide a detailed account of the development of the PJA in one species of cichlid, the Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus), from the early segmentation and patterning of its embryonic precursors – pharyngeal arches 3 to 7 – to its ossification. We find that pharyngeal segmentation occurs sequentially from anterior to posterior during early segmentation stages through the mid‐pharyngula period. We show a clear combinatorial code of Hox gene expression such that each posterior arch is defined by a distinctive Hox signature. Posterior arch chondrogenesis in tilapia is essentially complete by the end of the hatching period, and most elements become ossified over the next two days. Our results reveal that both the fusion of lower jaw bones and articulation between the neurocranium and upper jaws occur during post‐embryonic development. Abstract end data should be: Anat Rec, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Pilot study of antithymocyte globulin in systemic sclerosis.

OBJECTIVE Between June 1, 1992 and August 31, 1994 we conducted an open pilot study of antithymocyte globulin (ATGAM; Upjohn, Kalamazoo, MI) in 10 patients with early systemic sclerosis (SSc) to assess whether this agent might prevent the progression of cutaneous and pulmonary involvement in this disease. METHODS Adult patients with early SSc (< 3 years) and evidence of progressive skin and pulmonary disease were enrolled. All patients were hospitalized and received a single course of intravenous ATGAM, at a dosage of 10 mg/kg over 4 hours, on 5 consecutive days. Patients were followed up at weeks 1, 2, 3, and 4, and months 2, 4, 6, and 12. Patients were considered to be improved if the Rodnan skin score decreased > or = 25%, to be worse if the skin score increased > or = 25%, and to be not improved if the skin score was within 25% of baseline. For pulmonary involvement, patients were considered to be improved if either the diffusing capacity for carbon monoxide or the forced vital capacity was increased > or = 10%, worse if decreased by > or = 10%, and stable if within 10% of baseline. RESULTS Most patients tolerated the treatment well, although 1 patient developed an allergic reaction necessitating discontinuation of treatment, 1 developed a serum sickness reaction after completion of therapy, and 1 developed a central venous access-related axillary vein thrombosis. Two patients died of SSc-related complications during the followup period. At 12 months, only 2 patients showed improvement in both skin and pulmonary function measures, whereas 5 patients were worse and 3 were stable. CONCLUSION At the dosage administered in this study, ATGAM appears ineffective in improving the skin and pulmonary features of SSc.
Assessment of Seasonal Influenza A Virus-Specific CD4 T-Cell Responses to 2009 Pandemic H1N1 Swine-Origin Influenza A Virus

ABSTRACT Very limited evidence has been reported to show human adaptive immune responses to the 2009 pandemic H1N1 swine-origin influenza A virus (S-OIV). We studied 17 S-OIV peptides homologous to immunodominant CD4 T epitopes from hemagglutinin (HA), neuraminidase (NA), nuclear protein (NP), M1 matrix protein (MP), and PB1 of a seasonal H1N1 strain. We concluded that 15 of these 17 S-OIV peptides would induce responses of seasonal influenza virus-specific T cells. Of these, seven S-OIV sequences were identical to seasonal influenza virus sequences, while eight had at least one amino acid that was not conserved. T cells recognizing epitopes derived from these S-OIV antigens could be detected ex vivo. Most of these T cells expressed memory markers, although none of the donors had been exposed to S-OIV. Functional analysis revealed that specific amino acid differences in the sequences of these S-OIV peptides would not affect or partially affect memory T-cell responses. These findings suggest that without protective antibody responses, individuals vaccinated against seasonal influenza A may still benefit from preexisting cross-reactive memory CD4 T cells reducing their susceptibility to S-OIV infection.
Modeling of the solid rotor induction motor

Conventionally the rotors of cage type induction motors are laminated. There is also the possibility of using a solid rotor made from magnetic steel. This option offers advantages associated with ease of construction and reduced material costs. There are two main versions of solid rotor construction. The simpler version is essentially a steel cylinder without a cage or end-rings. A solid steel rotor with an embedded aluminum or copper cage constitutes the other version. There has been very little published work on the first version and, to the author's knowledge, there has not been anything reported on the second version. In this paper an equivalent circuit model is developed for the solid rotor induction motor. The model allows analysis of both rotor versions. It highlights the operational advantages and disadvantages of solid rotor construction.
Interaction and evaluation of an augmented virtuality assistance system for teleoperated robots

This paper presents the main features and capabilities of a developed system based on augmented virtuality (AV), which is devoted to the assisted navigation of teleoperated robots. The goal is to provide users with a greater perception of the robot navigation environment that improves the accuracy in teleoperation tasks and reduces the workload required to drive. The developed system is a mixed-perspective exocentric display (ME3D) type. In order to assess the work carried out, a comparative study between the developed ME3D interface and a video-centric display (VC2D) has been conducted. To this end, we have implemented both interfaces on a real robot and performed an experiment with 16 subjects in a real scenario. As a result, we have obtained a high degree of acceptance in the use of the ME3D interface by participants.
Application of Direct Methods to Transient Stability Analysis of Power Systems

This paper is an evaluation of the applicability of the direct methods to transient stability analysis of power systems. Recent advances in these techniques have significantly enhanced the accuracy and reliability of these methods. The Power System Engineering Committee has recently sponsored two panel sessions to discuss the state of the art in terms of its practical applications. This paper presents this evaluation by the panel members as a collection of mini-papers. These mini-papers have been edited to form a coherent collection without altering the thrust of each viewpoint.
Unilateral Zygomatic Hypoplasia Correction by L-Shaped Zygomatic Osteotomy With Natural Coral

Purpose:Zygomatic osteotomy is a common method of zygomatic hypoplasia correction. Natural coral is considered to be a good bone substitute. Few studies on unilateral zygomatic hypoplasia correction by zygomatic osteotomy with natural coral have been reported. This study was performed to evaluate the clinical morphological results and surgical outcomes of unilateral zygomatic hypoplasia correction by L-shaped zygomatic osteotomy with natural coral. Methods:From 1996 to 2012, a total of 42 patients with hypoplastic zygomas treated by L-shaped zygomatic osteotomy with natural coral were included in this study. Based on facial analysis results and x-ray and CT measurements, the degradation of natural coral, new bone formation, and clinical outcomes were observed and recorded. Results:All surgical procedures achieved satisfactory results without complications. During the stabilization period of about 12 to 15 months, all natural coral blocks were completely degraded and replaced by new bone. Good mechanical strength and continuity of the new bone and good zygomatic asymmetry were achieved in each patient. No recurrence was observed during the follow-up period. Conclusion:L-shaped zygomatic osteotomy with natural coral is an effective method of unilateral zygomatic hypoplasia correction.
The role of intramolecular self‐destruction of reactive metabolic intermediates in determining toxicity

When reactive centers are formed in chemical conversions, intermolecular reactions tend to dominate over intramolecular alternatives whenever both alternatives are possible. Hence, when reactive metabolites are formed from xenobiotics, intramolecular quenching by moieties adjacent to a toxicophore may play an important role in reducing toxicity related to reactive intermediates. The phenomenon is likely to be particularly noticeable for toxicophores that are readily associated with a type of toxicity that is rarely caused by other structural motives. In two demonstrative investigations, it is concluded that nitrobenzenes for which the expected nitrosyl metabolite is likely to react with adjacent groups are less toxic than what is rationally expected, and that among aryl amine drugs allowing for the immediate quenching of the corresponding N‐aryl hydroxylamine metabolite, the typical erythrocyte toxicity often seen with aryl amines is absent. The deliberate introduction of effective quenching groups nearby a toxicophoric moiety may present a potential strategy for reducing toxicity in the design of drugs and other man‐made xenobiotics. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Indentation Damage and Mechanical Properties of Human Enamel and Dentin

Understanding the mechanical properties of human teeth is important to clinical tooth preparation and to the development of "tooth-like" restorative materials. Previous studies have focused on the macroscopic fracture behavior of enamel and dentin. In the present study, we performed indentation studies to understand the microfracture and deformation and the microcrackmicrostructure interactions of teeth. It was hypothesized that crack propagation would be influenced by enamel rods and the dentino-enamel junction (DEJ), and the mechanical properties would be influenced by enamel rod orientation and tooth-to-tooth variation. Twenty-eight human third molars were used for the measurement of hardness, fracture toughness, elastic modulus, and energy absorbed during indentation. We examined the effect of enamel rod orientation by propagating cracks in the occlusal surface, and in the axial section in directions parallel and perpendicular to the occlusal surface. The results showed that the cracks in the enamel axial section were significantly longer in the direction perpendicular to the occlusal surface than parallel. The cracks propagating toward the DEJ were always arrested and unable to penetrate dentin. The fracture toughness of enamel was not single-valued but varied by a factor of three as a function of enamel rod orientation. The elastic modulus of enamel showed a significant difference between the occlusal surface and the axial section. It is concluded that the cracks strongly interact with the DEJ and the enamel rods, and that the mechanical properties of teeth are functions of microstructural orientations; hence, single values of properties (e.g., a single toughness value or a single modulus value) should not be used without information on microstructural orientation.