Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Intraoperative Tranexamic Acid Reduces Blood Transfusion in Children Undergoing Craniosynostosis Surgery: A Randomized Double-blind Study

Background:Surgical correction of craniosynostosis in children is associated with substantial intraoperative bleeding. Tranexamic acid (TXA) decreases intraoperative blood loss during cardiac or orthopedic surgery in children. We hypothesized that intraoperative TXA would reduce blood transfusion relative to placebo in patients pretreated with erythropoietin. Methods:Forty consecutive children, American Society of Anesthesiologists status 1 or 2, scheduled to undergo surgical correction of craniosynostosis were randomly assigned to receive either intravenous TXA or saline, 0.9%, intraoperatively. All children received preoperative erythropoietin (600 U/kg once a week for 3 weeks before surgery). Perioperative blood loss, number and volume of transfusions, percentage of children who underwent transfusion, and side effects were noted after surgery and at the end of the study. Surgeon satisfaction and cost of treatment were also recorded. Results:There was no significant difference between groups in demographic or surgical data. In the TXA group, the volume of packed erythrocytes transfused was significantly reduced by 85% (from 11 to 1.6 ml/kg) intraoperatively and by 57% (from 16.6 to 7.2 ml/kg) throughout the study period (P < 0.05). Compared with the placebo group, the percentage of children requiring blood transfusion was lower in the TXA group during surgery (9 [45%] of 20 vs. 2 [11%] of 19 children; P < 0.05) and during the whole study period (14 [70%] of 20 vs. 7 [37%] of 19; P < 0.05). Preoperative and postoperative hematologic parameters were comparable in both groups. There were no adverse events. Conclusion:In children undergoing surgical correction of craniosynostosis and pretreated with erythropoietin, intraoperative TXA reduces the transfusion requirement.
Semantically Rich 3D Documentation for the Preservation of Tangible Heritage

Traditionally, 3D acquisition technologies have been used to record heritage artefacts and to support specific tasks such as conservation or provenance verification. These exercises are usually a one-off as the technology and resources required are cost intensive. However, there is a recent impetus on the creation of 3D collections to document heritage artefacts which are semantically enriched by using annotations. A requirement of these solutions is the ability to support several representations of a heritage artefact recorded through time. This paper will propose an infrastructure to systematically enrich 3D shapes in a collection by using propagated annotations. In addition, it will describe the mechanisms for annotating, propagating and structuring the annotations using the CIDOC-CRM ontology. The results of this research have the potential to support heritage organisations in making their semantically rich 3D content available to a wider audience of professionals.
Visual modeling shows that avian host parents use multiple visual cues in rejecting parasitic eggs

One of the most striking outcomes of coevolution between species is egg mimicry by brood parasitic birds, resulting from rejection behavior by discriminating host parents. Yet, how exactly does a host detect a parasitic egg? Brood parasitism and egg rejection behavior provide a model system for exploring the relative importance of different visual cues used in a behavioral task. Although hosts are discriminating, we do not know exactly what cues they use, and to answer this it is crucial to account for the receiver's visual perception. Color, luminance (“perceived lightness”) and pattern information have never been simultaneously quantified and experimentally tested through a bird's eye. The cuckoo finch Anomalospiza imberbis and its hosts show spectacular polymorphisms in egg appearance, providing a good opportunity for investigating visual discrimination owing to the large range of patterns and colors involved. Here we combine field experiments in Africa with modeling of avian color vision and pattern discrimination to identify the specific visual cues used by hosts in making rejection decisions. We found that disparity between host and foreign eggs in both color and several aspects of pattern (dispersion, principal marking size, and variability in marking size) were important predictors of rejection, especially color. These cues correspond exactly to the principal differences between host and parasitic eggs, showing that hosts use the most reliable available cues in making rejection decisions, and select for parasitic eggs that are increasingly mimetic in a range of visual attributes.
Role of the Grb2-Associated Binder 1/SHP-2 Interaction in Cell Growth and Transformation

Grb2-associated binder 1 (Gab1) is a docking protein that is tyrosine phosphorylated following the activation of multiple cytokine receptors and receptor tyrosine kinases. Its function then is to recruit and activate multiple signaling molecules. In our previous work, we showed that Gab1 enhances cell growth and induces the transformed phenotype in NIH3T3 cells downstream of the epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor. In this report, we analyze how it produces these effects. Because SHP-2 is the major binding partner of Gab1, we mutated its binding site in the Gab1 cDNA (Gab1/ΔSHP-2). This construct was stably overexpressed in NIH3T3 cells (3T3-Gab1/ΔSHP-2) and in the wild-type Gab1 cDNA (3T3-Gab1) or an empty expression vector (3T3-CTR). Our findings show that after EGF stimulation, Gab1/ΔSHP-2 has a higher level of tyrosine phosphorylation at early time points than Gab1. Gab1/ΔSHP-2 recruits more phosphatidylinositol 3′-kinase than Gab1 after EGF triggering, which accounts for a higher and more sustained AKT activation in 3T3-Gab1/ΔSHP-2 cells relative to 3T3-Gab1 fibroblasts. Moreover, 3T3-Gab1/ΔSHP-2 cells demonstrate a higher level of extracellular-regulated kinase 1 activation at early time points of EGF stimulation. However, there was an unexpected decrease in c-fos promoter induction in 3T3-Gab1/ΔSHP-2 cells when compared with 3T3-Gab1 cells. Additionally, the 3T3-Gab1/ΔSHP-2 cells show a reversion of the transformed phenotype, including fewer morphologic changes, an increase in stress fiber cytoskeletal organization, and a decrease in cell proliferation and anchorage independent growth. These results reveal that the Gab1/SHP-2 interaction is essential for cell growth and transformation but that this must occur through a novel pathway that is independent of extracellular-regulated kinase or AKT. On the basis of its role in growth and transformation, the Gab1/SHP-2 interaction may become an attractive target for the pharmacologic intervention of malignant cell growth.
Mutational analysis of CDC42Sc, a Saccharomyces cerevisiae gene that encodes a putative GTP-binding protein involved in the control of cell polarity

The Saccharomyces cerevisiae CDC42 gene product, a member of the ras superfamily of low-molecular-weight GTP-binding proteins, is involved in the control of cell polarity. We have analyzed the effects of three CDC42 mutations (Gly to Val-12, Gln to Leu-61, and Asp to Ala-118) in the putative GTP-binding and hydrolysis domains and one mutation (Cys to Ser-188) in the putative isoprenylation site. The first three mutations resulted in either a dominant-lethal or dose-dependent dominant-lethal phenotype when present on plasmids in haploid cdc42-1ts or wild-type strains. Both wild-type and cdc42-1ts cells carrying plasmids (pGAL) with either the CDC42Val-12 or CDC42Leu-61 alleles under the control of a GAL promoter were arrested with a novel phenotype of large cells with elongated or multiple buds. Cells carrying pGAL-CDC42Ala-118 were arrested as large, round, unbudded cells reminiscent of cdc42-1ts arrested cells. The different phenotype of the CDC42Ala-118 mutant versus the CDC42Val-12 and CDC42Leu-61 mutants was unexpected since the phenotypes of all three analogous ras mutants were similar to each other. This suggests that aspects of the biochemical properties of the Cdc42 protein differ from those of the Ras protein. The cdc42Ser-188 mutant gene was incapable of complementing the cdc42-1ts mutation and was recessive to both wild-type and cdc42-1ts. In double-mutant alleles, the cdc42Ser-188 mutation was capable of suppressing the dominant lethality associated with the three putative GTP-binding and hydrolysis mutations, suggesting that isoprenylation is necessary for the activity of the wild-type and mutant proteins.
Fine-Grained Recommendation Mechanism to Curb Astroturfing in Crowdsourcing Systems

Crowdsourcing activities, carrying out large-scale tasks via wisdoms of crowds, are widely used in practice. However, it is hard for users to find tasks that are suitable for them. Thus, many users participate in tasks, and they are not good at or not interested in, and give answers carelessly or randomly. This phenomenon causes heavy astroturfing problem in crowdsourcing systems, which not only hurts the quality of completing tasks, but also influences user experience. Therefore, recommendation mechanisms that can optimize the match between users and tasks are in demand. However, existing studies simply adopt users’ expertise level or interest degree as the key rule for recommendation. They neglect the fact that interest and expertise function jointly, and that interest can sometimes exert reaction force on expertise. Besides, previous studies assume that users’ interest degree is steady, yet ignoring that it is time-varying rather than static in real world. In this paper, we propose IntexCrowd, fine-grained recommendation mechanism through interest-expertise collaborative awareness for crowdsourcing systems, to curb astroturfing problem. First, the IntexCrowd assigns a topic to each task. Then, topic-specific expertise level as well as interest degree of users are estimated according to historical records of tasks. At last, suitable user lists for topic-specific tasks are suggested as recommendation results. And we present a case study and a set of experiments to confirm the validity of IntexCrowd.
Ed448-Goldilocks, a new elliptic curve

Many papers have proposed elliptic curves which are faster and easier to implement than the NIST prime-order curves. Most of these curves have had fields of size around 2, and thus security estimates of around 128 bits. Recently there has been interest in a stronger curve, prompting designs such as Curve41417 and Microsoft’s pseudo-Mersenne-prime curves. Here I report on the design of another strong curve, called Ed448-Goldilocks. Implementations of this curve can perform very well for its security level on many architectures. As of this writing, this curve is favored by IRTF CFRG for inclusion in future versions of TLS along with Curve25519.
Efficacy of 17&agr;-ethynylestradiol-3-sulfate for severe hemorrhage in minipigs in the absence of fluid resuscitation

BACKGROUND Of the potentially survivable US battlefield deaths from 2001 to 2011, 80% to 91% were caused by severe hemorrhage. We subjected minipigs to acute severe blood loss, administered a single dose of 17&agr;-ethynylestradiol-3-sulfate (EE-3-SO4) without resuscitative fluids, and determined survival as well as cardiovascular, biochemical, and physiologic response parameters. METHODS Following controlled removal of 60% circulating blood volume over 1 hour, minipigs received EE-3-SO4 at 0, 1, 3, or 5-mg/mL saline per kilogram of body weight in Experiment 1 (n = 25) and 0-, 0.1-, 0.3-, or 1-mg/mL saline per kilogram in Experiment 2 (n = 23). Survival times and response parameters were recorded for the next 6 hours. RESULTS Median survival times of the minipigs receiving 1 mg/kg (257 minutes and 360 minutes) were 1.8 times and 5 times those of the control group (140 minutes and 65 minutes) in Experiments 1 and 2, respectively. For both experiments combined, the log-rank p value was 0.0002, and the number of animals alive at 6 hours was 6 (50%) of 12 in the 1-mg/kg groups versus 0 (0%) of 12 in the control groups. Early increases in glucose, lactate, potassium, and phosphate as well as decreases in bicarbonate and mean arterial pressure correlated with shorter survival times. CONCLUSION Administration of a single dose of 1-mg/kg EE-3-SO4 in 1-mL/kg of saline following severe hemorrhage increased survival in 60% acutely bled minipigs by 3.5-fold. Slightly elevated blood pressure values, more physiologic values of oxidative phosphorylation parameters, and lower elevations of possible tissue necrosis parameters correlated with longer survival time. These results support the further product development of EE-3-SO4 for the indication of severe hemorrhage when standard resuscitative fluids are not available.
Toward automatic phenotyping of developing embryos from videos

We describe a trainable system for analyzing videos of developing C. elegans embryos. The system automatically detects, segments, and locates cells and nuclei in microscopic images. The system was designed as the central component of a fully automated phenotyping system. The system contains three modules 1) a convolutional network trained to classify each pixel into five categories: cell wall, cytoplasm, nucleus membrane, nucleus, outside medium; 2) an energy-based model, which cleans up the output of the convolutional network by learning local consistency constraints that must be satisfied by label images; 3) a set of elastic models of the embryo at various stages of development that are matched to the label images.
Simultaneous EEG and fMRI of the alpha rhythm

The alpha rhythm in the EEG is 8–12 Hz activity present when a subject is awake with eyes closed. In this study, we used simultaneous EEG and fMRI to make maps of regions whose MRI signal changed reliably with modulation in posterior alpha activity. We scanned 11 subjects as they rested with eyes closed. We found that increased alpha power was correlated with decreased MRI signal in multiple regions of occipital, superior temporal, inferior frontal, and cingulate cortex, and with increased signal in the thalamus and insula. These results are consistent with animal experiments and point to the alpha rhythm as an index of cortical inactivity that may be generated in part by the thalamus. These results also may have important implications for interpretation of resting baseline in fMRI studies.
Fast State Discovery for HMM Model Selection and Learning

Choosing the number of hidden states and their topology (model selection) and estimating model parameters (learning) are important problems for Hidden Markov Models. This paper presents a new state-splitting algorithm that addresses both these problems. The algorithm models more information about the dynamic context of a state during a split, enabling it to discover underlying states more effectively. Compared to previous top-down methods, the algorithm also touches a smaller fraction of the data per split, leading to faster model search and selection. Because of its efficiency and ability to avoid local minima, the state-splitting approach is a good way to learn HMMs even if the desired number of states is known beforehand. We compare our approach to previous work on synthetic data as well as several real-world data sets from the literature, revealing significant improvements in efficiency and test-set likelihoods. We also compare to previous algorithms on a sign-language recognition task, with positive results.
Data profiling revisited

Data profiling comprises a broad range of methods to efficiently analyze a given data set. In a typical scenario, which mirrors the capabilities of commercial data profiling tools, tables of a relational database are scanned to derive metadata, such as data types and value patterns, completeness and uniqueness of columns, keys and foreign keys, and occasionally functional dependencies and association rules. Individual research projects have proposed several additional profiling tasks, such as the discovery of inclusion dependencies or conditional functional dependencies. Data profiling deserves a fresh look for two reasons: First, the area itself is neither established nor defined in any principled way, despite significant research activity on individual parts in the past. Second, more and more data beyond the traditional relational databases are being created and beg to be profiled. The article proposes new research directions and challenges, including interactive and incremental profiling and profiling heterogeneous and non-relational data.
Rheumatic Disease and Complementary-Alternative Treatments: A Qualitative Study of Patient's Experiences

Background:Complementary-alternative medicine (CAM) has been widely used by rheumatic patients for many years, but doctors are often unaware of the actual use. Objectives:This study aimed at patients' experience and perceptions of CAM as a way for long-term coping with illness. Methods:Fifteen in-depth interviews were conducted with patients sampled by contact with voluntary patient-driven rheumatic disease societies, outside of any treatment settings. Strategically, the sampling included a variety of rheumatic diseases and CAM-treatments, but strived otherwise to be typical of CAM-users. Interviews were taped and fully transcribed; coding and analysis of themes were assisted by computer software. Results:Rheumatic disease patients expressed use of CAM as methods of regulation of discomforts, the feeling of the body, and self-empowerment, not for unrealistic healing of their rheumatic disease. They experienced a variety of effects, most often expressed in terms of mind-body interrelated experiences, such as “lightness of the body” rather than relief in specific symptoms. They expressed the feeling of “have been helped” when leaving a CAM-session and appreciated to have more than 1 way to understand their disease and symptoms. They were usually not naive, but were critical consumers. The patients typically believed in the alternative viewpoints of “natural is best” and in “energy meridians,” but they were otherwise not believers in any alternative, “new age”-type worldview. Conclusion:These findings suggest that clinical practice may be enriched by listening to or asking rheumatic disease patients' CAM-experiences in a nonpatronizing way.
Calspermin gene transcription is regulated by two cyclic AMP response elements contained in an alternative promoter in the calmodulin kinase IV gene

The transcript for the high-affinity Ca2+/calmodulin-binding protein calspermin is generated from the gene encoding Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase IV only in postmeiotic germ cells during spermatogenesis. We demonstrate that this testis-specific calspermin transcript can be produced in heterologous cells by utilization of a promoter located in an intron of the calmodulin (CaM) kinase IV gene. Critical motifs within this promoter are two cyclic AMP response element (CRE)-like sequences located about -70 and -50 bp upstream of the transcriptional initiation site. Both CRE motifs are footprinted by the authentic testis-specific transcriptional activator CREM tau or by CREM tau present in adult testis nuclear extract. Whereas a 2.1-kb DNA fragment containing the calspermin promoter is inactive when transfected into NIH 3T3 cells, activity can be restored by cotransfection of CREM tau and protein kinase A or CaM kinase IV but not CaM kinase II alpha. Restoration of activity is greatly reduced by mutation of the two CRE motifs. Since CRE-like motifs have been identified in many genes uniquely expressed in postmeiotic germ cells, which contain abundant CREM tau protein, we suggest that CREM tau may function as one transcription factor responsible for the expression of postmeiotic germ cell-specific genes.
Use of a multifaceted approach to analyze HIV incidence in a cohort study of women in the United States: HIV Prevention Trials Network 064 Study.

BACKGROUND Reliable methods for estimating the incidence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection are needed to monitor the epidemic, identify at-risk populations, and evaluate HIV prevention strategies. We used a multifaceted approach to estimate HIV incidence in the HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) 064 study. METHODS The HPTN 064 study enrolled 2067 HIV-seronegative women and 32 HIV-seropositive women with no prior HIV infection diagnosis. Women were followed for up to 12 months. HIV incidence estimates were based on (1) detection of acute HIV infection, (2) documentation of HIV seroconversion, and (3) detection of recent HIV infection, using a multiassay algorithm (MAA). RESULTS Two women had acute HIV infection at enrollment, 4 seroconverted, and 2 were identified as recently infected at enrollment using the MAA. The annual HIV incidence estimate based on acute infection at enrollment (2.52% [95% confidence interval {CI}, .17%-9.33%], using a 14-day window period) was higher than the estimate based on seroconversion (0.24% [95% CI, .07%-.62%]; P = .027). Incidence estimates obtained using the MAA at enrollment and at the end of study were 0.25% (95% CI, .03%-.93%) and 0.13% (95% CI, .006%-.76%), respectively. CONCLUSIONS We detected a high frequency of acute infection at enrollment. Cross-sectional HIV incidence estimates obtained using the MAA were similar to the longitudinal estimate based on HIV seroconversion. CLINICAL TRIALS REGISTRATION NCT00995176.
Modelo dos cinco grandes fatores da personalidade: análise de pesquisas

Given the importance of the Big Five model for personality assessment, this study aimed to survey research done in Brazil about this model in the databases Scielo and PEPSIC and the four editions of the Brazilian Congress of Psychological Assessment. The researches show a steady increase in the number of publications on the subject, with a concentration of researches developed in the south and southeast, mainly represented by researchers from UFRGS and USF. Most studies show dual authorship, having been developed with samples of youngsters and adults, making use mainly of EFN, EFEx and EFS as instruments
The Role of Clathrin in Post-Golgi Trafficking in Toxoplasma gondii

Apicomplexan parasites are single eukaryotic cells with a highly polarised secretory system that contains unique secretory organelles (micronemes and rhoptries) that are required for host cell invasion. In contrast, the role of the endosomal system is poorly understood in these parasites. With many typical endocytic factors missing, we speculated that endocytosis depends exclusively on a clathrin-mediated mechanism. Intriguingly, in Toxoplasma gondii we were only able to observe the endogenous clathrin heavy chain 1 (CHC1) at the Golgi, but not at the parasite surface. For the functional characterisation of Toxoplasma gondii CHC1 we generated parasite mutants conditionally expressing the dominant negative clathrin Hub fragment and demonstrate that CHC1 is essential for vesicle formation at the trans-Golgi network. Consequently, the functional ablation of CHC1 results in Golgi aberrations, a block in the biogenesis of the unique secretory microneme and rhoptry organelles, and of the pellicle. However, we found no morphological evidence for clathrin mediating endocytosis in these parasites and speculate that they remodelled their vesicular trafficking system to adapt to an intracellular lifestyle.