Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Translating Theory Into Practice: Implementing a Program of Assessment.

PROBLEM A program of assessment addresses challenges in learner assessment using a centrally planned, coordinated approach that emphasizes assessment for learning. This report describes the steps taken to implement a program of assessment framework within a medical school. APPROACH A literature review on best practices in assessment highlighted six principles that guided implementation of the program of assessment in 2016-2017: (1) a centrally coordinated plan for assessment aligns with and supports a curricular vision; (2) multiple assessment tools used longitudinally generate multiple data points; (3) learners require ready access to information-rich feedback to promote reflection and informed self-assessment; (4) mentoring is essential to facilitate effective data use for reflection and learning planning; (5) the program of assessment fosters self-regulated learning behaviors; and (6) expert groups make summative decisions about grades and readiness for advancement. Implementation incorporated stakeholder engagement, use of multiple assessment tools, design of a coaching program, and creation of a learner performance dashboard. OUTCOMES The assessment team monitors adherence to principles defining the program of assessment and gathers and responds to regular feedback from key stakeholders, including faculty, staff, and students. NEXT STEPS Next steps include systematically collecting evidence for validity of individual assessments and the program overall. Iterative review of student performance data informs curricular improvements. The program of assessment also highlights technology needs that will be addressed with information technology experts. The outcome ultimately will entail showing evidence of validity that the program produces physicians who engage in lifelong learning and provide high-quality patient care.
Tuning of in vivo cognate B-T cell interactions by Intersectin 2 is required for effective anti-viral B cell immunity

Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome (WAS) is an immune pathology associated with mutations in WAS protein (WASp) or in WASp interacting protein (WIP). Together with the small GTPase Cdc42 and other effectors, these proteins participate in the remodelling of the actin network downstream of BCR engagement. Here we show that mice lacking the adaptor protein ITSN2, a G-nucleotide exchange factor (GEF) for Cdc42 that also interacts with WASp and WIP, exhibited increased mortality during primary infection, incomplete protection after Flu vaccination, reduced germinal centre formation and impaired antibody responses to vaccination. These defects were found, at least in part, to be intrinsic to the B cell compartment. In vivo, ITSN2 deficient B cells show a reduction in the expression of SLAM, CD84 or ICOSL that correlates with a diminished ability to form long term conjugates with T cells, to proliferate in vivo, and to differentiate into germinal centre cells. In conclusion, our study not only revealed a key role for ITSN2 as an important regulator of adaptive immune-response during vaccination and viral infection but it is also likely to contribute to a better understanding of human immune pathologies.
Guaranteed Sufficient Decrease for Stochastic Variance Reduced Gradient Optimization

In this paper, we propose a novel sufficient decrease technique for stochastic variance reduced gradient descent methods such as SVRG and SAGA. In order to make sufficient decrease for stochastic optimization, we design a new sufficient decrease criterion, which yields sufficient decrease versions of stochastic variance reduction algorithms such as SVRG-SD and SAGA-SD as a byproduct. We introduce a coefficient to scale current iterate and to satisfy the sufficient decrease property, which takes the decisions to shrink, expand or even move in the opposite direction, and then give two specific update rules of the coefficient for Lasso and ridge regression. Moreover, we analyze the convergence properties of our algorithms for strongly convex problems, which show that our algorithms attain linear convergence rates. We also provide the convergence guarantees of our algorithms for non-strongly convex problems. Our experimental results further verify that our algorithms achieve significantly better performance than their counterparts.
Roles of histone H3.5 in human spermatogenesis and spermatogenic disorders

Histone H3.5 (H3.5) is a newly identified histone variant highly expressed in the human testis. We have reported the crystal structure, instability of the H3.5 nucleosome and accumulation around transcription start sites, mainly in primary spermatocytes, but its role in human spermatogenesis remains poorly understood. Testicular biopsy specimens from 30 men (mean age: 35 years) with non‐obstructive azoospermia (NOA) who underwent microdissection testicular sperm extraction and 23 men with obstructive azoospermia (OA) were included. An H3.5‐specific mouse monoclonal antibody recognizing an H3.5‐specific synthetic peptide was generated, and immunohistological staining for H3.5 and proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) was performed on Bouin's solution‐fixed sections. Expression and localization of H3.5 were compared with patient background, germinal stage, and PCNA expression. In testes of patients with normal spermatogenesis, differentially expressed H3.5 was specifically localized in either spermatogonia or preleptotene/leptotene‐stage primary spermatocytes, especially during germinal stages VI–X. In NOA testes, mRNA expression of H3.5 (H3F3C) was significantly reduced compared with other H3 histone family members, and expression of H3.5 was significantly lower than that in OA. Additionally, the number of H3.5‐positive germ cells was higher in hypospermatogenesis or late maturation arrest than in early maturation arrest in NOA testes (p < 0.01). A significant positive correlation was observed between H3.5 and PCNA expression (p < 0.05) but not TUNEL‐positive cells, and expression of H3.5 was enhanced after hCG‐based salvage hormonal therapy. Different from other testis‐specific histones, which are often expressed during the histone‐to‐protamine transition during meiosis, H3.5 was expressed mainly in immature germ cells. H3.5 may play roles in DNA synthesis, but not apoptosis, and its expression is regulated by gonadotropins, indicating that such epigenetic regulations are important in normal spermatogenesis and spermatogenic disorders.
Multiresolution features for fingerpint image retrieval

This paper presents a real time system to guide the search and the retrieval in fingerprint image databases considering both retrieval accuracy and speed. For that purposes, we use multiresolution-based feature extraction an d indexing methods considering the textural information inherent to fingerprint images. The extracted feature vectors are used to compute the distance between the fingerprint query image to all the fingerprints in the database and the N most similar images are then retrieved. The focus of this work is to study the utility of multiresolution transforms o n the domain of fingerprint recognition.
"How Long is a Piece of String":: Defining Key Phases andObserved Challenges within ICS Risk Assessment

The numbers and severity of global cyber security attacks on Industrial Control Systems have increased over recent years. However, there are also significant efforts to improve defensive capabilities. While comprehensive reviews of risk assessment efforts exist, little detail is currently available on how they are being applied by security practitioners. This paper provides a summary of the approaches adopted by security practitioners, outlining key phases applied to risk assessment, application of existing predefined methodologies, and challenges faced throughout the overall process.
Facile Synthesis and Characterization of Fe-Co Nanoparticles Supported Silica Rice Husk

A series of Fe-Co nanoparticles were synthesized via sol-gel route at acidic, neutral and basic condition using rice husk as the silica source. The synthesized nanomaterials were designated as Fe-Co3, Fe-Co7 and Fe-Co9 and characterized by Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR), Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) and particle size analyzer. The great effect of pH was clearly evidenced from the shifting in the siloxane bond in the FTIR spectrum. TEM investigation confirmed the existence of discrete and almost sphere like nanoparticles. The particle size decreased with an increase in the pH, registering the smallest average particle size at pH 9. In brief, this study promises a fast, rapid and promising method for the conversion of silica rice husk into nanoscale bimetallic materials.
Adaptive prior weighting in generalized regression

The prior distribution is a key ingredient in Bayesian inference. Prior information on regression coefficients may come from different sources and may or may not be in conflict with the observed data. Various methods have been proposed to quantify a potential prior‐data conflict, such as Box's p‐value. However, there are no clear recommendations how to react to possible prior‐data conflict in generalized regression models. To address this deficiency, we propose to adaptively weight a prespecified multivariate normal prior distribution on the regression coefficients. To this end, we relate empirical Bayes estimates of prior weight to Box's p‐value and propose alternative fully Bayesian approaches. Prior weighting can be done for the joint prior distribution of the regression coefficients or—under prior independence—separately for prespecified blocks of regression coefficients. We outline how the proposed methodology can be implemented using integrated nested Laplace approximations (INLA) and illustrate the applicability with a Bayesian logistic regression model for data from a cross‐sectional study. We also provide a simulation study that shows excellent performance of our approach in the case of prior misspecification in terms of root mean squared error and coverage. Supplementary Materials give details on software implementation and code and another application to binary longitudinal data from a randomized clinical trial using a Bayesian generalized linear mixed model.
Bending properties of non-crimp stitched carbon fabric reinforced composites of different knit patterns

Three kinds of non-crimp fabrics(NCF) of carbon fiber studied.The internal structures of each kind of fabrics is described together with bending tests to investigate the impact of knit pattern on mechanical properties of NCF composites.Biaxial fabric [45°/-45°] with chain stitch has better binding effect and smaller width of deformation induced by stitching yarns than biaxial fabric [0°/90°] with tricot stitch.Biaxial fabric [45°/-45°] reinforced composites have relatively less resin-rich areas and voids,the bending strength and modulus are higher than that of the biaxial fabric [0°/90°] reinforced composites.In contrast to biaxial warp knitted fabrics,unidirectional NCF reinforced composites have more accurate fibre orientation and less distortions or damages caused by the stitching yarns,thus higher bending strength and modulus.
Ligand binding modulates the structural dynamics and activity of urokinase-type plasminogen activator: A possible mechanism of plasminogen activation

The catalytic activity of trypsin-like serine proteases is in many cases regulated by conformational changes initiated by binding of physiological modulators to exosites located distantly from the active site. A trypsin-like serine protease of particular interest is urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA), which is involved in extracellular tissue remodeling processes. Herein, we used hydrogen/deuterium exchange mass spectrometry (HDXMS) to study regulation of activity in the catalytic domain of the murine version of uPA (muPA) by two muPA specific monoclonal antibodies. Using a truncated muPA variant (muPA16-243), containing the catalytic domain only, we show that the two monoclonal antibodies, despite binding to an overlapping epitope in the 37s and 70s loops of muPA16-243, stabilize distinct muPA16-243 conformations. Whereas the inhibitory antibody, mU1 was found to increase the conformational flexibility of muPA16-243, the stimulatory antibody, mU3, decreased muPA16-243 conformational flexibility. Furthermore, the HDXMS data unveil the existence of a pathway connecting the 70s loop to the active site region. Using alanine scanning mutagenesis, we further identify the 70s loop as an important exosite for the activation of the physiological uPA substrate plasminogen. Thus, the data presented here reveal important information about dynamics in uPA by demonstrating how various ligands can modulate uPA activity by mediating long-range conformational changes. Moreover, the results provide a possible mechanism of plasminogen activation.
Semantic Similarities between Locations based on Ontology

Toponym disambiguation or location names resolution is a critical task in unstructured text, articles or documents. Our research explores how to link ambiguous locations mentioned in documents, news and articles with latitude/longitude coordinates. We designed an evaluation system for toponym disambiguation based on annotated GEOCLEF data. We implemented a node-based approach taking population into account and a geographic distance-based approach. We have proposed new approach based on edges between the pairs of toponyms in ontology, taking also population attribute into account. Our edge-based approach gave better results than population and distance-based only approaches. The results could be used in any information system dealing with texts containing geographic locations, such as news texts.
Serum Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor, and Plasma Catecholamine Metabolites in People with Major Depression: Preliminary Cross-Sectional Study

Background There are complicated interactions between catecholaminergic neurons and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in the brain. However, no reports have addressed the relationship among 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenylglycol (MHPG), homovanillic acid (HVA), and BDNF in the blood. Objective This paper sought to investigate correlations between serum BDNF and plasma levels of MHPG and HVA in people with major depression (MD). Materials and methods A total of 148 patients (male/female 65/83, age 49.5 ± 12.1 years old) who satisfied criteria for MD based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV were enrolled in the present study. Plasma levels of MHPG and HVA were analyzed using high-performance liquid chromatography, and serum BDNF was measured using ELISA. Results No interactions were observed between plasma HVA levels (mean ± SD = 4.5 ± 1.5 ng/mL) and age, sex, HAMD scores, or serum BDNF levels (mean ± SD = 9.8 ± 2.9 ng/mL). No correlations were not also observed between plasma MHPG levels (mean ± SD = 5.9 ± 2.1 ng/mL) and age, sex, the HAMD17 scores (mean ± SD = 22.2 ± 2.9 ng/mL), or serum BDNF levels. Serum BDNF levels were negatively associated with HAMD17 scores. Conclusion The results suggest that there are no significant correlations between catecholamine metabolites and BDNF in the blood for MDD patients.
Netrin-1 Promotes Synaptic Formation and Axonal Regeneration via JNK1/c-Jun Pathway after the Middle Cerebral Artery Occlusion

As a secreted axon guidance molecule, Netrin-1 has been documented to be a neuroprotective factor, which can reduce infarct volume, promote angiogenesis and anti-apoptosis after stroke in rodents. However, its role in axonal regeneration and synaptic formation after cerebral ischemic injury, and the related underlying mechanisms remain blurred. In this study, we used Adeno-associated vectors carrying Netrin-1 gene (AAV-NT-1) to up-regulate the expression level of Netrin-1 in rats’ brain after middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO). We found that the up-regulated level of Netrin-1 and its receptor DCC promoted axonal regeneration and synaptic formation; the overexpression of Netrin-1 activated the JNK1 signaling pathway; these effects were partially reduced when JNK1 signaling pathway was inhibited by SP600125 (JNK specific inhibitor). Taken together, these findings suggest that Netrin-1 can facilitate the synaptic formation and axonal regeneration via the JNK1 signaling pathway after cerebral ischemia, thus promoting the recovery of neural functions.
Adding Pertuzumab to Trastuzumab and Taxanes in HER2 positive breast cancer

ABSTRACT Introduction: The monoclonal antibody trastuzumab has improved the median disease free and overall survival of patients with early stage breast cancer that overexpresses the human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2). Despite this advance, some patients experience cancer relapse and novel approaches are always needed. One such advance is the monoclonal antibody pertuzumab, which prevents dimerisation between members of the HER family of transmembrane glycoprotein receptors. Areas covered: In this review, the authors analyse recent research which has focused on the development of new HER2 targeting agents for HER2-positive breast cancer, particularly pertuzumab, and its addition to trastuzumab and taxanes. Expert opinion: Pertuzumab has significantly improved disease control in patients with advanced HER2 positive breast cancer when added to chemotherapy and trastuzumab. Although pertuzumab has also increased response rates in the preoperative setting, this has not yet translated into increased overall survival. The authors believe that future research should focus on improvements in novel biomarkers to select patients for new treatments.
Student assessment using poster presentations.

For children’s nurses to acquire knowledge and skills which are useful in many settings their learning should be both reflective and critical (Cree 2000). Different ways of learning and assessment, and the appropriateness of using visual messages rather than written ones, can help children’s nurses to communicate with children and their families. There is also pressure to use systems of assessment which will become useful to students when they are employed (Knight 2002)
Experimental Investigation of Interfacial Tension Measurement and Oil Recovery by Carbonated Water Injection: A Case Study Using Core Samples from an Iranian Carbonate Oil Reservoir

Low volumetric sweep efficiency, early breakthrough of injected fluid, and high risk of gas leakage from the reservoir are the major technical challenges associated with direct gas and water injection into oil reservoirs. Injection of carbonated water (CW) into oil reservoirs is a carbon dioxide-augmented water injection technique, which results in improved oil recovery and possible CO2 storage in the reservoir. In this paper, the potential of carbonated water injection (CWI) into an Iranian carbonate reservoir for the purpose of improving oil recovery was investigated. In addition, the interfacial tension (IFT) of crude oil and two different carbonated brines (carbonated formation brine and carbonated seawater) as well as CO2 solubility in these two carbonated brines was determined. Experimental results showed that CO2 solubility in both brines increases with pressure and decreases with temperature. However, CO2 solubility was more promising in seawater compared to formation brine because of the lower sa.
Beating-heart Thoracoscopic Left Atrial Appendage Exclusion in a Patient with Left atrial Thrombus.

Stroke remains a major complication of atrial fibrillation and third leading cause of death in Western Countries. [1] While Coumadin and novel oral anticoagulants have been efficient in reducing the stoke risk in patients with atrial fibrillation; there is a subset of patients who are not candidates for anticoagulation. [2] The management of these patients is clinical challenge.We describe a patient with history of permanent atrial fibrillation with contra-indication to anticoagulation presenting with and left atrial thrombus. She was treated with novel generation of epicardial left atrial appendage exclusion device.
Performance Oriented Adaptive Architectures with Guaranteed Bounds

While adaptive control has been used in numerous applications to achieve given system stabilization or command following criteria, the ability to obtain a predictable transient performance is a challenging problem when there is no a priori knowledge about system uncertainties (e.g., their upper bounds and/or domains). In order to address this problem, a new method is presented in [1, 2] utilizing artificial basis functions in the update law of an adaptive control design. This approach is predicated on a gradient minimization procedure and achieves a predictable transient performance without inducing oscillations in the system response as the constant gain due to the nature of this minimization approach is judiciously increased. However, selection of this gain is problem dependent and may need to be adjusted for each different design. To address this problem, we present a new approach which has an ability to auto-tune an adaptive control design with artificial basis functions employed when the controlled system is about to violate a given design constraint on error dynamics (i.e., only when it is necessary). In particular, our approach is based on a controller architecture that allows the assignment of a priori known (user-defined) transient performance bounds. These bounds are constructed through a restricted potential function approach [3] that yields to an error dependent gain to adjust system performance for time instants when it is required to meet given design criteria. In addition to the theoretical results based on Lyapunov stability arguments highlighting transient performance of an uncertain system that stays within a priori given performance bounds, an illustrative example is provided to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed framework.
Serum paraoxonase activity in patients with ischaemic and nonischaemic dilated cardiomyopathy

Abstract Background: This study examined whether the serum PON1 activity is different in patients with ischaemic dilated cardiomyopathy (IDCM) and nonischaemic dilated cardiomyopathy (NDCM) and the relation between the serum PON1 activity and serum pro-BNP levels. Methods and results: In this study, we enrolled 60 patients with left ventricular systolic failure (New York Heart Association [NYHA] class III–IV) and a left ventricular ejection fraction (EF) < 40% as determined by echocardiography and 30 healthy subjects. The patients with systolic heart failure were divided into two groups: patients with IDCM and patients with NDCM. Blood samples were obtained to measure the serum PON1 activity and the serum pro-BNP levels. The median serum PON1 activities were lower among the patients with IDCM or with NDCM compared with the control subjects (p < .001, p = .043, respectively). Compared with the control subjects, the patients with IDCM or with NDCM had higher serum pro-BNP levels (p < .001, p < .001, respectively). The serum PON1 activity was negatively correlated with the serum pro-BNP levels in patients with IDCM (r = −0.548, p < .001). The area under the ROC curve of the serum PON1 activity was 0.798. Using a serum PON1 activity of 201.3 U/L as a cut-off value, the sensitivity was 86.84% and specificity was 66.67% for the diagnosis of IDCM. Conclusions: In this study, the serum PON1 activity was significantly reduced in the patients with IDCM or with NDCM compared with the control subjects. The serum PON1 activity of the patients with IDCM was negatively correlated with the serum pro-BNP levels.