Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Method of Correlating and Merging Cerebral Morphology and Function by a Special Head Holder

Zusammenfassung Ein spezielles Kopfhalterungssystem wird als Voraussetzung zur Erzeugung und korrelativen Verarbeitung topographisch identischer morphologischer und funktioneller Bilddaten vorgestellt. Es ist an die verschiedenen Modalitäten (MRI, PET, SPECT) adaptierbar und basiert auf einer kommerziellen thermoplastischen Kopfmaske. Eine erwärmte flexible Form dieses Thermoplasts wird dazu verwendet, eine individuelle Kopfmaske für alle Modalitäten zu formen. Damit wird eine Fixierung des Patienten während der Messungen gewährleistet. Diese Methode garantiert auch eine exakte Repositionierung und damit gleiche Schnittorientierung der rekonstruierten Bilder. Durch Fusion der Hirnaußenkonturen oder der korrespondierenden Tomogramme MRI vs. PET oder MRI vs. SPECT wurde die Genauigkeit getestet: Sie betrug transaxial: <2,0 mm und axial: <3,0 mm bei Patientenstudien mit MRI-Schichtdicke von 6,0 mm. Summary A method is introduced which records and correlates topographically identical morphological and functional image data by means of a special head holder system which is adaptable to different modalities (MRI, PET, SPECT). It is based on a commercially available thermoplastic headmask. A thermoplastic form is used to mold an individual headmask (time required: 7 min) for all modalities providing a fixation of the patient during acquisition. This method guarantees an exact repositioning and therefore the same slice orientation of the images. The in-plane correlation is performed by adapting standard offset parameters determined with a homogeneous head phantom. By fusion (merging) of the brain outline contours or images themselves the accuracy was tested in MRI vs. PET resp. SPECT (transaxial accuracy: <2.0 mm, axial: <3.0 mm in patients with MRI-slice thickness of 6.0 mm).
The Diagnostic Accuracy of Serum Procalcitonin for Bacteremia in Critically Ill Children

BackgroundBacterial sepsis is frequently encountered in children admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) and requires early recognition and treatment. Procalcitonin (PCT) is a serum biomarker with a high sensitivity to predict bacteremia in critically ill adults. This study sought to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of PCT for bacteremia in febrile children in the PICU. MethodsThis retrospective observational study used data from children admitted to the PICU from October 2010 to October 2012. Patients up to 21 years of age were included if they had an abnormal temperature, serum PCT, and blood culture assayed, and were not receiving empiric antibiotics at the time. ResultsThere were 202 PCT values that met inclusion criteria. The prevalence of positive blood cultures was 13.2% (27 total positive blood cultures). The area under the curve (AUC) for PCT was 0.79 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.70–0.89), the AUC for lactate was 0.76 (95% CI, 0.65–0.87), and the AUC for C-reactive protein was 0.68 (95% CI, 0.57–0.80). The optimal threshold of PCT for accuracy was determined to be 2 ng/mL (sensitivity, 69.2%; specificity, 74.4%; positive predictive value, 28.6%; negative predictive value, 94.2%). The combination of an abnormal lactate (>2.0 mmol/L) increased the specificity of PCT for diagnosing bacteremia. ConclusionsProcalcitonin has a good diagnostic accuracy to rule out bacteremia in critically ill, febrile children. The combination of PCT and an abnormal lactate value increases the specificity and may improve the ability to diagnose bacteremia.
Stimulation of later functions of the yeast meiotic protein kinase Ime2p by the IDS2 gene product

Ime2p is a protein kinase that is expressed only during meiosis in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Ime2p stimulates early, middle, and late meiotic gene expression and down-regulates expression of IME1, which specifies an activator of early meiotic genes that acts independently of Ime2p. We have identified a new gene, IDS2 (for IME2-dependent signaling), which has a functional relationship to Ime2p. An ids2 null mutation delays down-regulation of IME1 and expression of middle and late meiotic genes. In an ime1 null mutant that express IME2 from the GAL1 promoter (ime1 delta PGAL1-IME2 mutant), early meiotic gene expression depends only upon Ime2p. In such strains, Ids2p is dispensable for expression of the early genes HOP1 and SPO13 but is essential for expression of the middle and late genes SPS1, SPS2, and SPS100. Ids2p is also essential for the autoregulatory pathway through which Ime2p activates its own expression via the IME2 upstream activation sequences (UAS). An PGAL1-IME2 derivative that produces a truncated Ime2p (lacking its C-terminal 174 residues) permits IME2 UAS activation in the absence of Ids2p. This observation suggests that Ids2p acts upstream of Ime2p or that Ids2p and Ime2p act in independent, convergent pathways to stimulate IME2 UAS activity. Accumulation of epitope-tagged Ids2p derivatives is greatest in growing cells and declines during meiosis. We propose that Ids2p acts indirectly to modify Ime2p activity, thus permitting Ime2p to carry out later meiotic functions.
Are Analyst Free Cash Flow Forecasts Valuable? Evidence from Target Price Changes

We examine the value of analyst Free Cash Flow (FCF) forecasts in the context of target price changes. We argue that investors can use FCF forecasts to distinguish between FCF based target price changes and less informative target price changes primarily driven by discount rate, long term growth rate and unpublished FCF forecast changes (NON FCF changes). We show empirically that FCF based target price changes have on average 27-54% stronger initial price reactions than NON FCF based target price changes. We find that this differential price reaction is not driven by analyst reputational concerns but by analysts signalling their conviction on the company’s future fundamentals. Specifically, the analyst decision to issue a FCF based target price is related to momentum, to company earnings exceeding consensus forecast and to the company recently having announced earnings results. Further, we find that a long-short portfolio strategy that trades only on FCF based target price changes earns higher average abnormal returns of 87 basis points for the three day initial event period, compared to a portfolio that trades on all target price changes.
Optimized Heart Sampling and Systematic Evaluation of Cardiac Therapies in Mouse Models of Ischemic Injury: Assessment of Cardiac Remodeling and Semi‐Automated Quantification of Myocardial Infarct Size

Cardiac therapies are commonly tested preclinically in small‐animal models of myocardial infarction. Following functional evaluation, post‐mortem histological analysis is essential to assess morphological and molecular alterations underlying the effectiveness of treatment. However, non‐methodical and inadequate sampling of the left ventricle often leads to misinterpretations and variability, making direct study comparisons unreliable. Protocols are provided for representative sampling of the ischemic mouse heart followed by morphometric analysis of the left ventricle. Extending the use of this sampling to other types of in situ analysis is also illustrated through the assessment of neovascularization and cellular engraftment in a cell‐based therapy setting. This is of interest to the general cardiovascular research community as it details methods for standardization and simplification of histo‐morphometric evaluation of emergent heart therapies. © 2015 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Acute pyelonephritis associated with bacteriuria during long-term catheterization: a prospective clinicopathological study.

Bacteriuria is virtually universal in long-term catheterized patients. This blinded autopsy study of 75 aged nursing home patients demonstrated that acute inflammation of the renal parenchyma was present in 38% of patients with a urinary catheter in place at death versus 5% of noncatheterized patients (P = .004). Of a number of clinical and demographic variables studied, only catheterization was significantly related to acute renal inflammation. Acute cystitis was uncommon, but each case was associated with inflammation of at least one kidney. The majority of kidneys showing acute inflammation (21 [68%] of 31) were not accompanied by acute pyelitis. Acute renal inflammation with or without pelvic inflammation is a common finding in nursing home patients dying with urethral catheters in place. This finding provides additional support for the development of alternatives to the indwelling urethral catheter.
The Finance - Growth Nexus in Lesotho: Causality Revelations From Alternative Proxies

Abstract While it is generally felt that financial development enhances economic growth, the conflicting hypothesis in the causal role of finance in growth suggests that for any country that role is an empirical question. This paper takes up this task for the Lesotho economy. Causality between five alternative proxies of financial intermediation on the one hand and real GDP growth on the other is the subject of this paper. Time series properties of the variables - from unit roots to cointegration - are studied in order to establish the appropriate causality test to use between the Granger causality test and the VECM-based causality test. Four out of five proxies together with the growth variable are non-stationary. The non-stationary proxies are in turn not cointegrated with growth. Only one proxy Granger causes growth while for the rest there is no causality in either direction between them and growth. No-cointegration coupled with non-causality robustly reveals that the finance - growth nexus does not hold for the Lesotho economy.
Output-Impedance Shaping of Bidirectional DAB DC–DC Converter Using Double-Proportional-Integral Feedback for Near-Ripple-Free DC Bus Voltage Regulation in Renewable Energy Systems

This paper investigates the design and implementation of virtual-output-impedance shaping on an inverter-loaded, fuel-cell-battery-powered dc-dc converter system for achieving near-ripple-free dc bus voltage regulation. The method is based on the insertion of a second output-voltage feedback loop as can be inferred from the Mason's gain formula. Three basic modes of virtual-output-impedance shaping (proportional, derivative, integral) are discussed and the closed-loop output-impedance characteristics due to each of them are analyzed in detail and with their Thévenin equivalent circuits derived. Despite the suitability of integral feedback for minimizing converter's output impedance, it can give rise to an unwanted resonance peak near the converter's crossover frequency, thus potentially destabilizing the system. The solution to the problem using combination of basic virtual-output-impedance shaping modes and its practical implementation are discussed. When implemented on a fuel-cell-battery-powered dual-active-bridge dc-dc converter, the second-harmonic distortion of dc bus voltage is shown to have been reduced by 85.5% compared to a conventionally PI-compensated system.
Why Do Closed-End Bond Funds Exist? An Additional Explanation for the Growth in Domestic Closed-End Bond Funds

Abstract This paper provides a new explanation for why closed-end bond funds coexist along with otherwise identical open-end bond funds. Closed-end bond funds offer investors the opportunity to leverage their fixed income investment at very low borrowing rates and are attractive to investors for this reason. We find that differences in leverage are reflected in the discount on closed-end bond funds in a manner consistent with the advantage of leverage.
Ready for Success? How Readiness for Change Drives Project Success

This study examined the influence readiness for change has on the success of IT projects and resulting organisational changes. Findings from a survey of IT projects of European steel producers (n=137) indicated a significant influence of readiness for change on the perception/acceptance of new IT solutions and employee commitment to related organisational changes whereas both contributed to the perception of overall project success. The findings of this study present statistical evidence for the positive contribution of organisational change practices in an early project phase for the successful realisation of IT projects from the perspective of organisational change and from the perspective of IT acceptance.
Prediction of Protein-Protein Interactions in Saccharomyces cerevisiae Based on Protein Secondary Structure

Protein--protein interaction (PPI) is a major way for proteins to perform their biological functions. Due to the lack of the PPI experimental data, theoretical prediction seems important to understand protein functions. Up to now, there have been various computational methods as for how to predict PPI. This report, however, will present a novel approach to the prediction of PPI by analyzing protein secondary structures. In the model, a support vector machine (SVM) was trained through a positive data set and a negative data set, each of which contains 7,714 protein pairs involving 1,730 proteins. To select PPI pairs in the training negative data sets, a new parameter that describes protein interaction relative bias (PIRB) was introduced as a measure of PPI propensity. The prediction accuracy was 88.01% when the model was employed to predict PPI in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
The osmotic response of the Asian freshwater stingray (Himantura signifer) to increased salinity: a comparison with marine (Taeniura lymma) and Amazonian freshwater (Potamotrygon motoro) stingrays

SUMMARY The white-edge freshwater whip ray Himantura signifer can survive in freshwater (0.7‰) indefinitely or in brackish water (20‰) for at least two weeks in the laboratory. In freshwater, the blood plasma was maintained hyperosmotic to that of the external medium. There was approximately 44 mmol l-1 of urea in the plasma, with the rest of the osmolality made up mainly by Na+ and Cl-. In freshwater, it was not completely ureotelic, excreting up to 45% of its nitrogenous waste as urea. Unlike the South American freshwater stingray Potamotrygon motoro, H. signifer has a functional ornithine-urea cycle (OUC) in the liver, with hepatic carbamoylphosphate synthetase III (CPS III) and glutamine synthetase (GS) activities lower than those of the marine blue-spotted fan tail ray Taeniura lymma. More importantly, the stomach of H. signifer also possesses a functional OUC, the capacity (based on CPS III activity) of which was approximately 70% that in the liver. When H. signifer was exposed to a progressive increase in salinity through an 8-day period, there was a continuous decrease in the rate of ammonia excretion. In 20‰ water, urea levels in the muscle, brain and plasma increased significantly. In the plasma, osmolality increased to 571 mosmol kg-1, in which urea contributed 83 mmol l-1. Approximately 59% of the excess urea accumulated in the tissues of the specimens exposed to 20‰ water was equivalent to the deficit in ammonia excretion through the 8-day period, indicating that an increase in the rate of urea synthesis de novo at higher salinities would have occurred. Indeed, there was an induction in the activity of CPS III in both the liver and stomach, and activities of GS, ornithine transcarbamoylase and arginase in the liver. Furthermore, there was a significant decrease in the rate of urea excretion during passage through 5‰, 10‰ and 15‰ water. Although the local T. lymma in full-strength sea water (30‰) had a much greater plasma urea concentration (380 mmol l-1), its urea excretion rate (4.7 μmol day-1 g-1) was comparable with that of H. signifier in 20‰ water. Therefore, H. signifer appears to have reduced its capacity to retain urea in order to survive in the freshwater environment and, consequently, it could not survive well in full-strength seawater.
Clinical and radiologic features and their relationships with neurofunctional scores in patients with acute cerebellar infarct

Background: Cerebellar infarct is a rare condition with very nonspecific clinical features. The aim of this study was to assess the full spectrum of the clinical characteristics, neuroimaging findings and neurofunctional analyses of cerebellar infarction, and the relationship between them. Materials and Methods: Data were collected from 59 patients admitted to our department during an 8-year period. We retrospectively analyzed the relationship between demographic characteristics, clinical symptomatology, etiological factors, functional condition, vascular distribution, frequency of subcortical white matter lesions (WMLs), and concomitant lesion outside the cerebellum in patients with acute cerebellar infarct (ACI) at time of admission. Results: The mean age in our series was 65.2 years, with most being male (57.6%). The posterior inferior cerebellar (PICA) artery was the most commonly affected territory at 62.7%. There was concomitant lesion outside the cerebellum in 45.7%. The main etiology in PICA was cardioembolism. While mean National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale on admission was 2.08 ± 1.67 in study group, modified Rankin Scale (mRS) on admission was detected to be mRS1 (n: 44, 74.5%) and mRS2 (n: 12, 20.3%) most frequently. Fourteen (35%) patients were detected to be in Fazekas stage 0; 11 (27.5%) patients in Fazekas stage 1; 6 (15%) patients in Fazekas stage 2; and 9 (22.5%) patients in Fazekas stage 3. Conclusion: Cerebellar infarct is very heterogeneous. The other cerebral area infarcts which accompany ACI negatively affect neurologic functional scores. Although it is difficult to detect the relationship between WMLs and neurologic functional severity, timely detection of risk factors and their modulation may be associated with prevention and treatability of WMLs, and this may be one of the important points for prevention of stroke-related disability.
Dehydroascorbic acid prevents oxidative cell death through a glutathione pathway in primary astrocytes

Ascorbic acid (AA) is a well‐known antioxidant. It also has pro‐oxidant effects, however, in the presence of free transition metals. Because of the pro‐oxidant effects of AA, dehydroascorbic acid (DHA), an oxidized form of AA, has been used as a substitute for AA. DHA has been shown recently to have a protective effect in an experimental stroke model. This study was carried out to determine if DHA has different effects from AA on hydrogen peroxide (H2O2)‐induced oxidative cell death in primary astrocytes. DHA was found to prevent cell death and reverse mitochondrial dysfunction after exposure to H2O2. DHA significantly increased the glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and glutathione reductase (GR) activities 1 hr after H2O2 exposure. Moreover, DHA not only reversed the decrease in the glutathione (GSH) levels, but also significantly enhanced it by stimulating the pentose phosphate pathway (PPP) 15 hr after H2O2 exposure. DHA also reduced production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) after H2O2 exposure. In contrast, AA accelerated H2O2‐induced cell death. To determine if the pro‐oxidant effect of AA is related to iron, the effect of AA on cell death was examined using an iron chelator, desferrioxamine. Even though co‐pretreatment with AA and desferrioxamine could abrogate the aggravating effects of AA on H2O2‐induced cell death at early stages, it could not prevent H2O2‐induced cell death over a 24‐hr period. These results suggest that DHA has distinct effects from AA and prevent H2O2‐induced cell death by increasing the GSH levels mediated by the GPx and GR activities and PPP. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Compact Ultra-Wideband Microstrip/Coplanar Waveguide Bandpass Filter

A novel ultra wideband (UWB) bandpass filter is presented, using a compact coupled microstrip/coplanar waveguide (CPW) structure. The filter comprises of a single CPW quarter-wavelength resonator which is coupled to two microstrip open-circuited stubs on the other side of a common substrate. The two microstrip open-circuited stubs, which are about a quarter-wavelength long at the center frequency, can function as two resonators with associated coupling arrangement to the CPW. This forms a very compact three-pole filter. The proposed filter also exhibits a quasi-elliptic function response, with one finite-frequency transmission zero closer to each side of the passband. Thus, a high selectivity is achieved using a small number of resonators, which leads to low insertion loss and group delay across the passband. The performance is predicated using EM simulations and verified experimentally. The experimental filter shows a fractional bandwidth of 90% at a center frequency of 6.4GHz, with two observable transmission zeros (attenuation poles) at 1.95 and 10.36GHz, respectively. Furthermore, it has a very small size only amounting to 0.25 by 0.08 guided wavelength at the center frequency
Naturally Occurring Mutants of Human Steroid 21-Hydroxylase (P450c21) Pinpoint Residues Important for Enzyme Activity and Stability*

Three mutants (deletion of E196, G291S, and R483P) of steroid 21-hydroxylase (P450c21) from patients with inherited congenital adrenal hyperplasia had reduced activity toward progesterone and 17-hydroxyprogesterone after transient expression in cultured mammalian cells. In addition, both the E196 deletion and the R483P mutant had shorter half-lives than the wild-type enzyme, whereas the half-life of the G291S mutant was comparable with that of the normal protein. These results directly link the clinical situation with the three mutations and suggest that G291 is important for the catalytic activity of P450c21.
Static Competitive Balance of Three Chosen Central European Football Leagues

The study deals with measuring and evaluating the static competitive balance in the Czech, Austrian and Hungarian leagues. Static balance measures how much the teams’ position in the league tables differs in the tables of each year. It is calculated with the use of standard deviations in the percentage of wins. With the help of graphic representation, the results of this study show the static competitive balance evolution of the chosen leagues in the latest 43 seasons and they help to find the trends. In the long term, the highest static balance is in the Czechoslovak-Czech league. However, the Austrian and Hungarian leagues are more balanced in the latest years. All three studied leagues experience visible decreases of their relative levels of competitive balance.