Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Basic Features and Clinical Applicability of 'Preliminary Universal Surgical Invasiveness Score' (pUSIS): A Multi-Centre Pilot Study.

OBJECTIVE There is still a lack of a universally applicable and comprehensive scoring system for documenting the invasiveness of surgical procedures. The proposed preliminary 'Universal Surgical Invasiveness Score' (pUSIS) is intended to fill this gap. METHODS We used the recently developed pUSIS to obtain values from 8 types of surgery and 80 individual interventions. The results were analysed using descriptive statistical methods. The degree of difficulty on a scale from 0 (very easy) to 10 (extremely difficult) and time expenditures for assessing pUSIS were documented. RESULTS Individual pUSIS values ranged from 8 in a laparoscopic cholecystectomy case to 36 in a total hip replacement case. The lowest median pUSIS value of 11.5 was found for laparoscopic cholecystectomy and the highest value of 24.5 was found for open thoracic surgery. The correlation between pUSIS values and the duration of surgery resulted in a tight linear regression (R2=0.6419). The lowest mean (±SD) difficulty level to obtain pUSIS values was 1.6±0.6 for sleeve gastrectomy and the highest one was 2.9±0.6 for knee replacement. The duration to finalise the calculations was 4.1±1.1 min for video-assisted thoracoscopy (VATS) and 9.4±1.3 min for sleeve gastrectomy. CONCLUSION We concluded that pUSIS has the potential to be a useful, simply obtainable and universal assessment tool for quantification of the magnitude and invasiveness of individual surgical operations and can serve as a means to quantify surgical interventions for outcome research and evaluate surgical performance.
Different Structures for Evaluating Answers to Complex Questions: Pyramids Won’t Topple, and Neither Will Human Assessors

The idea of “nugget pyramids” has recently been introduced as a refinement to the nugget-based methodology used to evaluate answers to complex questions in the TREC QA tracks. This paper examines data from the 2006 evaluation, the first large-scale deployment of the nugget pyramids scheme. We show that this method of combining judgments of nugget importance from multiple assessors increases the stability and discriminative power of the evaluation while introducing only a small additional burden in terms of manual assessment. We also consider an alternative method for combining assessor opinions, which yields a distinction similar to micro- and macro-averaging in the context of classification tasks. While the two approaches differ in terms of underlying assumptions, their results are nevertheless highly correlated.
Deriving a Web-Scale Common Sense Fact Database

The fact that birds have feathers and ice is cold seems trivially true. Yet, most machine-readable sources of knowledge either lack such common sense facts entirely or have only limited coverage. Prior work on automated knowledge base construction has largely focused on relations between named entities and on taxonomic knowledge, while disregarding common sense properties. In this paper, we show how to gather large amounts of common sense facts from Web n-gram data, using seeds from the ConceptNet collection. Our novel contributions include scalable methods for tapping onto Web-scale data and a new scoring model to determine which patterns and facts are most reliable. The experimental results show that this approach extends ConceptNet by many orders of magnitude at comparable levels of precision.
Remote sensing monitoring of grassland in key region of Northern China

Serious degradation of grassland in north China in recent decades has caused many efforts to ensure its sustainable development. In this paper, we intend to carry out grassland monitoring using remote sensing technology to the selected key provincial districts. Net primary production (NPP) computed by NASA from MODIS satellite remote sensing data in 2002 was used to estimate actual grassland production amount in North China to balance stockbreeding and grassland productivity. Geometry correction was first done to the NPP images. Then we conducted sampling on the NPP images to match the ground sampling data for model establishment. Combining the remotely estimated results with stockbreeding statistical data, we calculate the status of balance between grassland production and animal number in country level of such key provinces as Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, and Qinghai. The following results were obtained: 1. Overload grassland accounts for 82% in Gansu, 45% in Xinjiang, 44% in Inner Mongolia, and 33% in Qinghai. 2. Relatively overloading severity in the semipasturing areas of north China was with the order of Gansu > Xinjiang > Qinghai > Inner Mongolia. 3. The overload was more severe in semi-pasturing areas than in the pasturing areas except Inner Mongolia.
Ultrasonic Wave Measurements of Elastic Moduli E, G, and μ for Product Development and Design Calculations

A technique is presented to measure the isotropic elastic constants of small specimens using instrumentation designed for the ultrasonic measurement of thickness. Specimens as small as 5 mm × 5 mm × 0.5 mm can be measured. Shape is not critical as long as the major faces are plane and parallel. Young's modulus E, the shear (stiffness) modulus G, and Poisson's ratio μ are calculated from measurements of density and ultrasonic shear and longitudinal wave velocities. Samples of automotive valve train materials and of brake drum materials were machined from components, measured, and analyzed. Specimens included gray cast iron during stages of a development process, chill cast iron, hardened cast iron, low alloy steel, tool steel, stainless steel, a nickel-based superalloy, and a powder metal alloy. The magnitudes of the measured values of the elastic constants are reasonable when compared with published values available for some materials. The measurement error for each of the constants is estimated to be less than 1%. Moduli determined by this method can be used in finite element analysis to improve design. When material properties are different near the surface, elastic constants characteristic of the surface layer can be measured. The development of new fabrication, alloying, or treatment processes can be monitored to assure the production of the desired material properties if modulus or some property correlated with modulus is desired. When the material properties are a function of the fabrication process, e.g., small castings or powder metal components, reliable elastic constants can be found. “Small” is relative to the practicality of cutting tension bars and torsion rings from parts, so “Small” may seem rather large in some cases. Metal stampings can be analyzed in a through-thickness direction. The elastic properties of nonmetallics—ceramics, glasses, and plastics—can also be measured.
Nanocrystalline Materials: Their Synthesis-Structure-Property Relationships and Applications

This second edition of Nanocrystalline Materials provides updated information on the development and experimental work on the synthesis, properties, and applications of nanocrystalline materials. Nanocrystalline materials with new functionalities show great promise for use in industrial applications - such as reinforcing fillers in novel polymer composites - and substantial progress has been made in the past decade in their synthesis and processing. This book focuses primarily on 1D semiconducting oxides and carbon nanotubes, 2D graphene sheets and 0D nanoparticles (metals and inorganic semiconductors). These materials are synthesized under different compositions, shapes and structures, exhibiting different chemical, physical and mechanical properties from their bulk counterparts. This second edition presents new topics relevant to the fast-paced development of nanoscience and nanotechnology, including the synthesis and application of nanomaterials for drug delivery, energy, printed flash memory, and luminescent materials. With contributions from leading experts, this book describes the fundamental theories and concepts that illustrate the complexity of developing novel nanocrystalline materials, and reviews current knowledge in the synthesis, microstructural characterization, physical and mechanical behavior, and application of nanomaterials. It investigates the synthesis, characterization, and properties of a large variety of nanocrystalline materials, and their applications in industry. It keeps the prominent challenges in nanomaterials fabrication at the forefront while offering the most up-to-date scientific findings. It is written by experts in nanomaterials with academic backgrounds in chemistry, physics, and materials engineering.
Reciprocal co-regulation of EGR2 and MECP2 is disrupted in Rett syndrome and autism

Mutations in MECP2, encoding methyl-CpG-binding protein 2 (MeCP2), cause the neurodevelopmental disorder Rett syndrome (RTT). Although MECP2 mutations are rare in idiopathic autism, reduced MeCP2 levels are common in autism cortex. MeCP2 is critical for postnatal neuronal maturation and a modulator of activity-dependent genes such as Bdnf (brain-derived neurotropic factor) and JUNB. The activity-dependent early growth response gene 2 (EGR2), required for both early hindbrain development and mature neuronal function, has predicted binding sites in the promoters of several neurologically relevant genes including MECP2. Conversely, MeCP2 family members MBD1, MBD2 and MBD4 bind a methylated CpG island in an enhancer region located in EGR2 intron 1. This study was designed to test the hypothesis that MECP2 and EGR2 regulate each other’s expression during neuronal maturation in postnatal brain development. Chromatin immunoprecipitation analysis showed EGR2 binding to the MECP2 promoter and MeCP2 binding to the enhancer region in EGR2 intron 1. Reduction in EGR2 and MeCP2 levels in cultured human neuroblastoma cells by RNA interference reciprocally reduced expression of both EGR2 and MECP2 and their protein products. Consistent with a role of MeCP2 in enhancing EGR2, Mecp2-deficient mouse cortex samples showed significantly reduced EGR2 by quantitative immunofluorescence. Furthermore, MeCP2 and EGR2 show coordinately increased levels during postnatal development of both mouse and human cortex. In contrast to age-matched Controls, RTT and autism postmortem cortex samples showed significant reduction in EGR2. Together, these data support a role of dysregulation of an activity-dependent EGR2/MeCP2 pathway in RTT and autism.
Three‐dimensional dose distribution for partial irradiation of rat parotid glands with 200 kV X‐rays

Purpose: To investigate dose distributions in partial‐volume irradiation experiments in small experimental animals, in particular the parotid gland of rat. Materials and methods: High‐resolution magnetic resonance imaging images were made that provided the outlines of the parotid glands, which were used to design collimators with conformal radiation ports for 100 and 50% cranial/caudal partial‐volume irradiation. A protocol for absolute dosimetry was designed and relative dose measurements were performed. From the three‐dimensional topographical data and the three‐dimensional dose distribution, dose–volume histograms were determined. Results: The standard uncertainty of absorbed entrance dose was within 3%. Radiochromic film, thermoluminescence dosemeters and ionization chamber dose measurements revealed that the relative doses measured were in good agreement. The 20–80% penumbra of the beam across the 50% field edge was only 0.4 mm at a 6 mm depth. The gradient of the percentage depth dose from the skin of the rat to a depth of 12 mm was 1.5% mm−1. The absorbed doses in the cranial 50% and the caudal 50% partial volumes were comparable. This finding was reflected in the calculated dose–volume histograms of the different regions, which were similar. The dose in the shielded area between the left and right ports was about 14% of the dose near the centres of the beams. Conclusion: The designed set‐up showed that irradiation of small volumes could be performed with high accuracy allowing the study of differences in radiation damage. Similar doses were given to the 50% cranial and 50% caudal gland volumes and, therefore, a possible difference in radiosensitivity in these volumes was not a dose effect. The approach used was also applicable for the irradiation of small volumes of other tissues.
Comparative Research on Aging Properties of HTV Silicone Rubber via Outdoor Electric Aging and Ultraviolet Accelerated Aging

In order to further study the aging properties of high temperature vulcanization (HTV) silicone rubber for composite insulator in the high-altitude region, tests of outdoor electric aging and ultraviolet accelerated aging have been carried out in the paper. The contact angles test, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) were used to study the microscopic physical properties of samples after the aging tests. SEM observed that the surface flatness of samples declined, holes and particles increased on the sample surface, a large number of fillers exposed. The results of FTIR showed that Si-C bonds in the side chain in Si-O backbones were broken by ultraviolet radiation and methyl groups were oxidized, a small amount of fire retardant (Al2O3•3H2O) were decomposed, hydrophilic groups increased, all which have happened on the HTV silicone rubber after both the aging tests under the same ultraviolet radiation. The differences between the aging properties of two kinds of tests are that the aging extent of samples after outdoor electric aging was severer than that in ultraviolet accelerated aging, and the surface hydrophobicity of it after outdoor electric aging increased compared to ultraviolet accelerated aging. The aging of HTV silicone rubber for composite insulator is mainly caused by strong ultraviolet radiation in high-altitude region.
Area efficient asynchronous SDM routers using 2-stage Clos switches

Asynchronous on-chip networks are good candidates for multi-core applications requiring low-power consumption. Asynchronous spatial division multiplexing (SDM) routers provide better throughput with lower area overhead than asynchronous virtual channel routers; however, the area overhead of SDM routers is still significant due to their high-radix central switches. A new 2-stage Clos switch is proposed to reduce the area overhead of asynchronous SDM routers. It is shown that replacing the crossbars with the 2-stage Clos switches can significantly reduce the area overhead of SDM routers when more than two virtual circuits are used. The saturation throughput is slightly reduced but the area to throughput efficiency is improved. Using Clos switches increases the energy consumption of switches but the energy of buffers is reduced.
A practical low-power memristor-based analog neural branch predictor

Recently, the discovery of memristor brought the promise of high density, low energy, and combined memory/arithmetic capability into computing. This paper demonstrates a practical neural branch predictor based on memristor. By using analog computation techniques, as well as exploiting the accuracy tolerance of branch prediction, our design is able to efficiently realize a neural prediction algorithm. Compared to the digital counterpart, our method achieves significant energy reduction while maintaining a better prediction accuracy and a higher IPC. Our approach also reduces the resource and energy required by an alternative design.
P2Y6 Receptor-Mediated Proinflammatory Signaling in Human Bronchial Epithelia

P2Y receptors are expressed in virtually all epithelia and are responsible for the control of fluid and electrolyte transport. In asthmatic inflammation, the bronchial epithelia are damaged by eosinophil-derived, highly toxic cationic proteins, such as major basic protein (MBP). Consequently, extracellular nucleotides are released into the extracellular space from airway epithelial cells, and act in an autocrine or paracrine fashion to regulate immune functions. Our data show damage to the human bronchial epithelial cell line, 16HBE14o-, by poly-L-arginine-induced UDP release into the extracellular medium. Activation of P2Y6 receptor by its natural ligand, UDP, or its specific agonist, MRS 2693, led to the production of two proinflammatory cytokines, interleukin (IL)-6 and IL-8. This may have resulted from increased IL-6 and IL-8 mRNA expression, and activation of p38 and ERK1/2 MAPK, and NF-κB pathways. Our previous study demonstrated that UDP stimulated transepithelial Cl− secretion via both Ca2+- and cAMP-dependent pathways in 16HBE14o- epithelia. This was further confirmed in this study by simultaneous imaging of Ca2+ and cAMP levels in single cells using the Fura-2 fluorescence technique and a FRET-based approach, respectively. Moreover, the P2Y6 receptor-mediated production of IL-6 and IL-8 was found to be dependent on Ca2+, but not the cAMP/PKA pathway. Together, these studies show that nucleotides released during the airway inflammatory processes will activate P2Y6 receptors, which will lead to further release of inflammatory cytokines. The secretion of cytokines and the formation of such “cytokine networks” play an important role in sustaining the airway inflammatory disease.
CD8+ T Cells Restrict Yersinia pseudotuberculosis Infection: Bypass of Anti-Phagocytosis by Targeting Antigen-Presenting Cells

All Yersinia species target and bind to phagocytic cells, but uptake and destruction of bacteria are prevented by injection of anti-phagocytic Yop proteins into the host cell. Here we provide evidence that CD8(+) T cells, which canonically eliminate intracellular pathogens, are important for restricting Yersinia, even though bacteria are primarily found in an extracellular locale during the course of disease. In a model of infection with attenuated Y. pseudotuberculosis, mice deficient for CD8(+) T cells were more susceptible to infection than immunocompetent mice. Although exposure to attenuated Y. pseudotuberculosis generated T(H)1-type antibody responses and conferred protection against challenge with fully virulent bacteria, depletion of CD8(+) T cells during challenge severely compromised protective immunity. Strikingly, mice lacking the T cell effector molecule perforin also succumbed to Y. pseudotuberculosis infection. Given that the function of perforin is to kill antigen-presenting cells, we reasoned that cell death marks bacteria-associated host cells for internalization by neighboring phagocytes, thus allowing ingestion and clearance of the attached bacteria. Supportive of this model, cytolytic T cell killing of Y. pseudotuberculosis-associated host cells results in engulfment by neighboring phagocytes of both bacteria and target cells, bypassing anti-phagocytosis. Our findings are consistent with a novel function for cell-mediated immune responses protecting against extracellular pathogens like Yersinia: perforin and CD8(+) T cells are critical for hosts to overcome the anti-phagocytic action of Yops.
Analysis of View Selection Problem in Data Warehousing Environment

—A Data Warehouse (DW) can be seen as a set of materialized views defined over the source relations. During the initial design and evolution of a DW, the DW designer is faced, on many occasions, with the problem of selecting views to materialize in the DW. This study presents the critical survey of the methodologies to select materialized view in more efficient way. In this study, we are summarizing all these methodologies with critical analysis. Advanced solutions are particularly focusing the evolutionary optimization methods. I have analyzed and compartmentalized the available literature on the basis of relevant evaluation parameters. Important books, PhD thesis, links, etc. are also given in study. To work out this study studied more than fifty research papers. This study may be helpful to the researchers, who are working in the domain of the Data Warehouse focusing on the view selection problem.
Repetitive Bilateral Arm Training With Rhythmic Auditory Cueing Improves Motor Function in Chronic Hemiparetic Stroke

Background and Purpose Chronic upper extremity hemiparesis is a leading cause of functional disability after stroke. We investigated the hypothesis that bilateral arm training with rhythmic auditory cueing (BATRAC) will improve motor function in the hemiparetic arm of stroke patients. Methods In this single group pilot study we determined the effects of 6 weeks of BATRAC on 14 patients with chronic hemiparetic stroke (median time after stroke, 30 months) immediately after training and at 2 months after training. Four 5-minute periods per session (3 times per week) of BATRAC were performed with the use of a custom-designed arm training machine. Results The patients showed significant and potentially durable increases in the following: Fugl-Meyer Upper Extremity Motor Performance Test of impairment (P <0.0004), Wolf Motor Function Test (performance time measure, P <0.02), and University of Maryland Arm Questionnaire for Stroke measuring daily use of the hemiparetic arm (P <0.002). Isometric strength improved in elbow flexion (P <0.05) and wrist flexion (P <0.02) for the paretic arm and in elbow flexion (P <0.02) and wrist extension (P <0.02) for the nonparetic arm. Active range of motion improved for paretic-side shoulder extension (P <0.01), wrist flexion (P <0.004), and thumb opposition (P <0.002), and passive range of motion improved for paretic wrist flexion (P <0.03). Conclusions Six weeks of BATRAC improves functional motor performance of the paretic upper extremity as well as a few changes in isometric strength and range of motion. These benefits are largely sustained at 8 weeks after training cessation.
Effects of welding parameters on mechanical properties and microstructure of resistance spot welded DP600 joints

This paper experimentally investigates the effects of welding parameters including electrode force, welding current and welding time on the mechanical properties and microstructure of resistance spot welded DP600 joints. The experimental results show that there exists an optimum value for each set of welding parameters that can maximise the mechanical properties and welding nugget size. The welding nugget size is a key factor controlling the mechanical properties of resistance spot welded DP600 joints; there is a relationship among welding nugget size, tensile shear load and failure energy. A larger welding nugget size leads to a greater probability of pullout failure. In addition, welding parameters also affect the microstructure, grain size, crack initiation and microhardness of resistance spot welded DP600 joints.