Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Enhancing the “Informed” in Informed Consent: A Pilot Test of a Multimedia Presentation

The use of a multimedia presentation to supplement the informed consent process for endoscopy procedures was tested at a children's hospital. Fifty consecutive children who presented for an endoscopy were randomized to one of two conditions. In group 1, informed consent for the procedure was obtained by the physician in the usual manner. In the second group, parents/guardians viewed a multimedia presentation on endoscopic procedures in addition to the typical consent process. Both groups completed measures of state anxiety, comprehension, and satisfaction. As predicted, there was a significant positive correlation between all participants' self-reported comprehension and satisfaction and a negative correlation between comprehension and anxiety. The group that viewed the multimedia presentation scored significantly higher on an objective test and was rated significantly higher in comprehension by physicians than the comparison group. There were no significant differences between the groups in self-reports of anxiety, satisfaction with medical care, and number of questions asked during consent delivery.
Incorporation of metal and color alteration of enamel in the presence of orthodontic appliances.

OBJECTIVE To test the null hypothesis that it is not possible to incorporate metal ions arising from orthodontic appliance corrosion into tooth enamel with resulting tooth color change. MATERIALS AND METHODS This in vitro study used atomic absorption spectrophotometry to evaluate the presence of nickel, chromium, and iron ions in tooth enamel in three groups: a group submitted to cyclic demineralization and remineralization processes with solutions in which orthodontic appliances were previously immersed and corroded, releasing metallic ions; a control group; and another group, submitted to cycling only, without the presence of orthodontic appliances. The influence of the incorporation of these metals on a possible alteration in color was measured with a portable digital spectrophotometer using the CIE LAB system. RESULTS At the end of the experiment, a significantly higher concentration of chromium and nickel (P < .05) was found in the group in which corrosion was present, and in this group, there was significantly greater color alteration (P ≤ .001). CONCLUSIONS There was chromium and nickel incorporation into enamel and tooth color change when corrosion of orthodontic appliances was associated with cycling process. The null hypothesis is rejected.
Molecular Recognition and Interfacial Catalysis by the Essential Phosphatidylinositol Mannosyltransferase PimA from Mycobacteria*

Mycobacterial phosphatidylinositol mannosides (PIMs) and metabolically derived cell wall lipoglycans play important roles in host-pathogen interactions, but their biosynthetic pathways are poorly understood. Here we focus on Mycobacterium smegmatis PimA, an essential enzyme responsible for the initial mannosylation of phosphatidylinositol. The structure of PimA in complex with GDP-mannose shows the two-domain organization and the catalytic machinery typical of GT-B glycosyltransferases. PimA is an amphitrophic enzyme that binds mono-disperse phosphatidylinositol, but its transferase activity is stimulated by high concentrations of non-substrate anionic surfactants, indicating that the early stages of PIM biosynthesis involve lipid-water interfacial catalysis. Based on structural, calorimetric, and mutagenesis studies, we propose a model wherein PimA attaches to the membrane through its N-terminal domain, and this association leads to enzyme activation. Our results reveal a novel mode of phosphatidylinositol recognition and provide a template for the development of potential antimycobacterial compounds.
Defining an Elasticity Metric for Cloud Computing Environments

Elasticity is a key property of cloud computing environments and one of the features which distinguishes this paradigm from other ones. An elasticity metric could be used to define and to monitor Service Level Agreements (SLAs), to compare and to benchmark different cloud providers or to improve provisioning and management decisions in real time if it could be measured with some simple procedure, to mention only some examples. Unfortunately, there are not still standard elasticity metrics capable of easily capturing its main components or aspects, these are, scalability, accuracy, time and cost. This work defines a new elasticity metric for cloud computing environments which not only captures these four essential components but also provides a simple procedure to analyse elasticity in cloud contexts. The obtained experimental results on a real cloud environment evidence that this new elasticity metric is able to quantify the degree of elasticity obtained in different cloud scenarios and to establish interesting comparisons and analysis.
A case study of usability evaluation: the Center for Active Ageing website

The population is ageing and the percentage of the elderly is continuously growing. A key priority to address the demographic challenges is to implement more efficient e-services. The websites for active aging provide useful information and advice to old people, informal caregivers, and medical staff. In order to be an effective help, these websites should be evaluated for usability. The objective of this paper is to present a case study in evaluating a website aiming to promote the active aging. The evaluation results revealed several important usability problems that have to be fixed in the next version. Most of the important usability problems are related to the information architecture, navigation, compatibility with the user and task, task guidance, and support.
Oligodeoxynucleotide IMT504: lack of effect on immune parameters during islet regeneration in single dose streptozotocin‐induced diabetes

We have shown that oligodeoxynucleotide IMT504 improved blood glucose and islet beta‐cell content in streptozotocin (STZ)‐induced diabetic rats, inducing early expression of progenitor markers. Here we determined the effect of IMT504 on islet infiltration and on immunomodulatory proteins indoleamine 2,3‐dioxygenase (IDO) and TNF‐α‐stimulated gene/protein 6 (TSG‐6) in islets of STZ‐diabetic rats, at the time of progenitor markers expression.
Screening of Acetic Acid Producing Microorganisms from Decomposed Fruits for Vinegar Production

Acetic acid bacteria capable of growing at 30°C - 37°C were collected from various decomposed fruits available in Bangladeshi local markets in order to assess their suitability for vinegar production. Initially, 42 microorganisms were isolated from decomposed fruits like grapes, mangoes, pineapples, oranges, safeda etc. during summer when temperature reaches up to 37°C. Then their growths were checked in YPG medium containing various ethanol concentrations at different time point at 37°C. From the preliminary screening, 15 Gram negative bacterial isolates have produced halos or yellow zone around the colonies on YPG agar plate at 37°C which indicated acetic acid production capability by those bacteria. Furthermore, acetic acid production rates were determined by titration method and about 3 - 6.9 gm/100ml acetic acid were estimated by using 4% ethanol at 37°C by shaking culture for 3 days. Several biochemical analysis revealed that our collection contained huge amount of acetic acid producing bacteria and some of them could be potential candidates for vinegar production.
Extending a generic traffic model to specific agent platform requirements

Road traffic and its influence over individuals is an important aspect of our life nowadays. Its study in order to understand its dynamics and the factors that affect it is a relevant field of research. Traffic simulations have become a fundamental tool for these studies. They provide a controlled environment to analyse traffic settings. However, they present some shortcomings. One of the main ones is the need of multidisciplinary groups of experts to work with complex models. Communication problems and misunderstandings frequently appear in them, which produce mistakes and bring increased costs. Some works have addressed these issues adopting abstract concepts that can act as bridges among different groups to model and implement simulations. Works that use intelligent agents to represent individuals, and their related simulation platforms, belong to this category. Nevertheless, these platforms are still programmer-oriented, so other experts find difficult to ground their abstract models in them. As a further step, Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) has been proposed to work with models and simulations. It offers the possibility of working with models at multiple levels of abstraction and focused on different aspects. These models can be oriented to specific experts’ backgrounds. The work presented follows this approach and introduces a generic Modelling Language (ML) through a model, that can be specialized to meet different needs in road traffic simulations. The case study illustrates how that model can be successively modified to model people’ behaviour in traffic both at the traffic expert and platform-oriented levels. This allows reducing the learning curve of experts with backgrounds non-related to software simulations.
GROWTH OF RICKETTSIA PROWAZEKI IN IRRADIATED MONOLAYER CULTURES OF CHICK EMBRYO ENTODERMAL CELLS

This paper is concerned with the growth of Rickettsia prowazeki in monolayer cultures of chick embryo entodermal cells by a method similar to that employed by Weiss and Pietryk (1956) for Coxiella burnetii. In an attempt to enhance the growth of the rickettsiae, the host cells were exposed to Co60 y-rays prior to inoculation. This procedure was prompted by the demonstration of the enhancing effect of X-irradiation on the growth of rickettsiae in experimental animals and in the yolk sac of chick embryos by several investigators (Zinsser and Castaneda, 1932; Liu et al., 1941; Kawamura and Shimizu, 1955; and Greiff et al., 1953, 1955, 1957a, b). It was also suggested by the results of Puck and Marcus (1956) and Cieciura et al. (1957), who showed that X-rays elicited the transformation of some mammalian cells in vitro into giant cells, which were highly susceptible to virus infection and produced high virus titers. A true enhancement of rickettsial growth was not obtained, but a number of observations on the effect of y-rays on chick embryo entodermal cells and on the growth of R. prowazeki in irradiated and unirradiated cultures were made and are here presented.2
A report on four cases of liver carcinoma treated by topical adhesive method.

Liver carcinoma has been one of themalignant tumors of common occurrenceand high mortality in China,and cases ofmiddle and late period are very difficult tobe treated.However,the present authorshave improved the condition of patientswith liver carcinoma and prolonged theirsurvival period by a topical adhesive methodas the chief therapeutic means.The method
Frequency-Shift Induced by Colored Noise in Nonlinear Oscillators

This brief employs a perturbation phase-domain model to numerically investigate the phenomenon of frequency-shift induced by colored-noise in nonlinear oscillators. It is shown that colored-noise with frequency decaying spectrum tends to induce a frequency-shift phenomenon both in almost-linear oscillators and in nonlinear topologies such as ring oscillators. It is also shown that the relevance of the phenomenon depends linearly on the noise variance.
Comments on Stiffness Measurements for Orthodontic Wires

The mechanical behavior of orthodontic wires is typically investigated under bending conditions, which are representative of clinical use (THUROW, Edgewise Orthodontics, 1966). The stiffness in bending, which indicates the amount of force or bending moment required to produce elastic deflection, represents the same basic mechanical response as the stiffness for uniaxial loading (Young's modulus). The dominant deformation for both loading modes involves normal strains and stresses parallel to the specimen axis. However, bending deflection is dependent on details of the loading system and the speci-
Protein Z Circulates in Plasma in a Complex with Protein Z-Dependent Protease Inhibitor

Summary Protein Z (PZ) is a vitamin K-dependent plasma protein that forms a Ca++-dependent complex with factor Xa at phospholipid surfaces. This interaction between PZ and factor Xa enhances by >1000-fold the inhibition of factor Xa by the serpin called protein Z-dependent protease inhibitor (ZPI). These experiments show that PZ also binds ZPI in a process that does not require Ca++ or phospholipids. In pooled normal plasma, which contains excess ZPI relative to PZ, all the PZ appears to be bound in a complex with ZPI. The binding of PZ to ZPI reduces the rate and extent of factor XIa inhibition produced by ZPI. During the course of these studies, it was noted that a PZ purification procedure, that included NaSCN (2.0 M) elution of PZ from an immunoaffinity column, produced aggregated, inactive forms of PZ.
Anisotropic vortex structure in Y1Ba2Cu3O7.

We report Bitter-pattern observations of the vortices for flux trapped in crystals of the orthorhombic high-T/sub c/ superconductor Y/sub 1/Ba/sub 2/Cu/sub 3/O/sub 7/. For Bparallelc axis, the slight distortion of the vortex lattice yields a penetration-depth anisotropy ranging from 1.11 to 1.15 for different crystals. For Bperpendicularc, the case of strong anisotropy, we observe chains of oval vortices. When they are not aligned by defects, the chains appear to undulate rather than adopt a crystalline habit. From the vortex spacing we deduce an anisotropy of 5.5 +- 1.
Arthroscopic excision of the radial head: Clinical outcome in 12 patients with post-traumatic arthritis after fracture of the radial head or rheumatoid arthritis.

PURPOSE We performed arthroscopic radial head excision in a series of patients with either post-traumatic arthritis after a radial head fracture or rheumatoid arthritis of the elbow as an expanded indication for elbow arthroscopy. The purpose of the study was to critically examine the results of arthroscopic chondroplasty of the radial head to determine the safety and effectiveness of the procedure. TYPE OF STUDY Outcome study and retrospective analysis. METHODS From 1990 to 1997, arthroscopic radial head resection was performed in 12 patients with either post-traumatic arthritis (n = 10, Mason type II or III) or with rheumatoid arthritis (n = 2). Functional outcome and radiographs were analyzed after a mean follow-up period of 39 months (range, 12 to 97 months). Elbow arthroscopy was performed using a standardized technique. The anterior three quarters of the radial head and 2 to 3 mm of the radial neck were resected with the abrader in the anterolateral portal and the arthroscope in the proximal medial portal. For resection of the posterior portion of the radial head, the abrader may be transferred to the mediolateral portal. This permits resection of the remnants of the radial head posteriorly and also at the proximal radioulnar joint. RESULTS Preoperatively, patients lacked 23 degrees (range, 5 degrees to 40 degrees ) of extension of the elbow on average. Mean flexion was 111 degrees (range, 60 degrees to 145 degrees ). Patients had unrestricted pronation (limitation of 5 degrees in 2 patients). Two patients had a lack of supination of 15 degrees and 30 degrees. Mean follow up was 39 months (range, 12 to 97 months). Postoperatively, patients lacked 9 degrees (range, 0 degrees to 20 degrees ) of extension of the elbow on average. Mean flexion was 136 degrees (range, 90 degrees to 150 degrees ). No patient had subjective or objective evidence of instability of the elbow. All patients except one reported significant improvement in pain relief and complete relief of mechanical symptoms. CONCLUSIONS This technically demanding surgical procedure should be reserved for situations of persistent, restricted range of motion and chronic pain. Arthroscopic radial head resection combined with arthroscopic synovectomy relieves elbow stiffness. The surgeon is able to deal with the intrinsic joint pathology, as well as with accompanying symptoms such as synovitis, capsular contracture, or loose bodies.
Early detection of spondyloarthropathy in patients with psoriasis by using the ultrasonography and magnetic resonance image.

OBJECTIVE To assess the validity of ultrasound (US) in the early detection of arthritis and enthesitis, with assessment of the validity of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the early detection of sacroiliitis and spondylitis in patients with psoriasis and to compare the findings of clinical examination and conventional radiography. MATERIAL AND METHODS The study included 50 patients with psoriasis and 20 healthy controls. All patients and controls underwent US and power Doppler analyses for the joints of both hands and feet and the entheseal sites. MRI of the lumbosacral spine and sacroiliac joints was performed. RESULTS Abnormal US findings of arthritis were present in 18% patients, whereas only 6% patients had X-ray abnormalities, the enthesopathy represent 74%, at a higher percentage than clinical and radiological assessment (46, 26% respectively). MRI and radiological study demonstrated evidence of inflammation in the spine in 44% and 16% patients, respectively, and evidence of sacroiliitis in 10% and 6% patients, respectively. CONCLUSION Use of newer imaging modalities allows early diagnosis and early initiation of therapy.
Anisotropic Smoothing and Image Restoration Facing Non-Gaussian Noise

Image restoration and enhancement methods that respect important features such as edges play a fundamental role in digital image processing. In the last decades a large variety of methods have been proposed. Nevertheless, the correct restoration and preservation of, e.g., sharp corners, crossings or texture in images is still a challenge, in particular in the presence of severe distortions. Moreover, in the context of image denoising many methods are designed for the removal of additive Gaussian noise and their adaptation for other types of noise occurring in practice requires usually additional efforts. The aim of this thesis is to contribute to these topics and to develop and analyze new methods for restoring images corrupted by different types of noise: First, we present variational models and diffusion methods which are particularly well suited for the restoration of sharp corners and X junctions in images corrupted by strong additive Gaussian noise. For their deduction we present and analyze different tensor based methods for locally estimating orientations in images and show how to successfully incorporate the obtained information in the denoising process. The advantageous properties of the obtained methods are shown theoretically as well as by numerical experiments. Moreover, the potential of the proposed methods is demonstrated for applications beyond image denoising. Afterwards, we focus on variational methods for the restoration of images corrupted by Poisson and multiplicative Gamma noise. Here, different methods from the literature are compared and the surprising equivalence between a standard model for the removal of Poisson noise and a recently introduced approach for multiplicative Gamma noise is proven. Since this Poisson model has not been considered for multiplicative Gamma noise before, we investigate its properties further for more general regularizers including also nonlocal ones. Moreover, an efficient algorithm for solving the involved minimization problems is proposed, which can also handle an additional linear transformation of the data. The good performance of this algorithm is demonstrated experimentally and different examples with images corrupted by Poisson and multiplicative Gamma noise are presented. In the final part of this thesis new nonlocal filters for images corrupted by multiplicative noise are presented. These filters are deduced in a weighted maximum likelihood estimation framework and for the definition of the involved weights a new similarity measure for the comparison of data corrupted by multiplicative noise is applied. The advantageous properties of the new measure are demonstrated theoretically and by numerical examples. Besides, denoising results for images corrupted by multiplicative Gamma and Rayleigh noise show the very good performance of the new filters.
Information Fusion Log Files Environment Maps Log File FilterVerbalization Parameter Determination Narration Generation Log Files Generator Parameters Memory System Users

The progress in humanoid robotics research has led to robots that are able to perform complex tasks with a certain level of autonomy by integrating perception, action, planning, and learning capabilities. However, robot capabilities are still limited in regard to how they externalize their internal state and world state, i.e. their sensorimotor experience, and how they explain which tasks they performed and how they performed these tasks. In other words, their capability in conveying information to the user in a way similar to what humans do is limited. To this end, we present a verbalization system that generates natural language explanations of the robot’s past navigation and manipulation experience. We propose a threelayered model to represent robot experience which doubles as a retrievable episodic memory. Through the memory system, the robot can select a matching experience given a user query. In order to generate flexible narrations, we use verbalization parameters to capture user preferences. We show that our verbalization algorithm is capable of producing appropriate results based on these verbalization parameters. The proposed verbalization system is able to generate explanations for navigation as well as grasping and manipulation tasks. The resulting system is evaluated in a pick-and-place kitchen scenario.
Chondroitin/Dermatan Sulphate Promotes the Survival of Neurons from Rat Embryonic Neocortex

Recently we have shown that biglycan, a small chondroitin sulphate proteoglycan of the extracellular matrix, supports the survival of cultured neurons from the developing neocortex of embryonic day 15 rats. Here we investigate the structure‐function relationship of this neurotrophic proteoglycan and show that chondroitin/dermatan sulphate chains are the active moieties supporting survival. Heparin, a highly sulphated glucosaminoglycan, is less active than the galactosaminoglycans (chondroitin‐4‐sulphate, chondroitin‐6‐sulphate and dermatan sulphate), whereas hyaluronic acid, an unsulphated glucosaminoglycan, does not support neuron survival. Galactosaminoglycans must be in direct contact with neurons to cause survival. Experiments with elevated potassium concentrations and antagonists of voltage‐gated calcium channels exclude the involvement of membrane depolarization. However, genistein and an erbstatin analogue, which are inhibitors of tyrosine kinases with low specificity, abolished neuron survival in the presence of chondroitin/dermatan sulphate, whereas a selective inhibitor of neurotrophin receptor kinases (K252a) had no suppressive effect. Thus, yet unidentified tyrosine kinases are involved in the chondroitin/dermatan sulphate‐dependent survival of neocortical neurons. In the embryonic stages of rat neocortical development chondroitin sulphate is mainly located in layers I, V and VI and the subplate. Chondroitin sulphate expression is maintained after birth, extends up to cortical layer IV on postnatal day 7, and is down‐regulated until postnatal day 21 concomitant with the period of naturally occurring cell death. The latter observation is consistent with a putative role of chondroitin sulphate in the control of neuron survival during cortical histogenesis.