Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
(3-Carboxy-5-sulfonatobenzoato-κ2 O 1,O 1′)bis[2-(2-pyridyl)-1H-benzimidazole-κ2 N 2,N 3]zinc(II) monohydrate

In the title compound, [Zn(C8H4O7S)(C12H9N3)2]·H2O, the ZnII atom has a distorted octahedral coordination geometry, defined by four N atoms from two 2-(2-pyridyl)-1H-benzimidazole ligands and two O atoms from a deprotonated carboxylate group of the 3-carboxy-5-sulfonatobenzoate ligand. In the crystal structure, the complex molecules are linked into a three-dimensional network by intermolecular O—H⋯O and N—H⋯O hydrogen bonds, and π–π stacking interactions with centroid–centroid separations of 3.758 (2) and 3.597 (1) Å.
Colorectal cancer: diagnostic potential of CT measurements of hepatic perfusion and implications for contrast enhancement protocols.

PURPOSE To assess changes in hepatic perfusion in patients with colorectal cancer with computed tomography (CT), diagnostic potential of CT perfusion measurements, and implications for design of contrast enhancement protocols. MATERIALS AND METHODS In 27 patients with colorectal cancer, arterial and portal perfusion were calculated from temporal changes in attenuation after intravenous administration of contrast material. RESULTS Arterial perfusion greater than 0.25 mL/min/mL was seen in nine (82%) of the 11 patients with overt metastases versus six (38%) of the 16 patients with no overt metastases (P < .05). Portal perfusion of 0.25 mL/min/mL or less was found in five (46%) of the patients with overt metastases versus three (19%) of the patients with no overt metastases. Follow-up imaging showed progressive metastatic disease in three patients, all of whom had decreased portal perfusion. CONCLUSION Increased arterial perfusion appears to be an indicator of liver metastases, whereas reduced portal perfusion may indicate progressive disease. Contrast enhancement protocols that are based on experience with normal livers may not be optimal for patients with metastases.
Preventing Endotoxin-Stimulated Alveolar Macrophages from Decreasing Epithelium Na+ Channel (ENaC) mRNA Levels and Activity

The acute respiratory distress syndrome is characterized by impairment of the alveolar-capillary barrier. Our laboratory has shown that distal lung epithelial cell (DLEC) amiloride-sensitive Na+ transport is impaired by in vitro coculture with endotoxin (lipopolysaccharide)-stimulated alveolar macrophages (AM) through an l-arginine-dependent mechanism. To investigate the effect of this model on mRNA levels of the rat epithelial Na+ channel, mature fetal rat DLEC monolayers were incubated for 16 h with rat AM (1 × 107) and lipopolysaccharide (10 μg/mL), or the cell-free supernatant of lipopolysaccharide-stimulated rat AM. Such exposure resulted in a profound decrease in mRNA expression for all subunits (α, β, and γ) of the rat epithelial Na+ channel, without affecting 18S RNA levels. This effect was prevented by the antioxidant N-acetylcysteine. In separate experiments, confluent DLEC monolayers were exposed to lipopolysaccharide-stimulated AM supernatant for 16 h with or without N-acetylcysteine and DTT and studied in Ussing chambers. As previously demonstrated in our laboratory, AM supernatant resulted in a significant (p < 0.05) impairment of DLEC Na+ transport, as reflected by a decrease in the amiloride-sensitive component of short-circuit current (control, 3.96 ± 0.18 μA/cm2versus supernatant, 2.34 ± 0.56 μA/cm2;p < 0.05). This effect was significantly reversed by N-acetylcysteine (3.55 ± 0.48 μA/cm2), but not by DTT (1.87 ± 0.21 μA/cm2). N-acetylcysteine, but not DTT, increased DLEC thiol levels. These studies elucidate mechanisms by which activated AM impair alveolar epithelial barrier function in an in vitro model of acute lung injury.
Straggler Mitigation in Distributed Matrix Multiplication: Fundamental Limits and Optimal Coding

Consider massive matrix multiplication, a problem that underlies many data analytic applications, in a large-scale distributed system comprising a group of workers. We target the stragglers' delay performance bottleneck, which is due to the unpredictable latency in waiting for slowest nodes (or stragglers) to finish their tasks. We propose a novel coding strategy, named entangled polynomial code, designing intermediate computations at the workers in order to minimize the recovery threshold (i.e., the number of workers that we need to wait for in order to compute the final output). We prove the optimality of entangled polynomial code in several cases, and show that it provides order-wise improvement over the conventional schemes for straggler mitigation. Furthermore, we characterize the optimal recovery threshold among all linear coding strategies within a factor of 2 using bilinear complexity, by developing an improved version of the entangled polynomial code.
Bose-Einstein interferometry and its applications to precision undersea navigation

New quantum devices based on manipulations of Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) on microfabricated chips hold great promise for application to high precision inertial navigation. By employing appropriate mechanizations which separate acceleration and rotation sensitivities, atom interferometers can have dual functionality as both accelerometers and gyroscopes. BEC interferometers could offer ten orders of magnitude inertial measurement improvement with possibility of developing highly sensitive inertial measurement unit (IMU) which would provide extremely accurate free-inertial navigation with long-term accuracy. This is very suitable for applications in undersea environments where direct use of the Global Positioning System (GPS) is denied. Due to the high sensitivity of BEC and the complexity of microfabricated structures, application specific sources of decoherence, environmental noises, and errors are modeled and studied.
A chromatin perspective of adipogenesis

The transcriptional cascade governing adipogenesis has been thoroughly examined throughout the years. Transcription factors PPARγ and C/EBPα are universally recognized as the master regulators of adipocyte differentiation and together they direct the establishment of the gene expression pattern of mature adipose cells. However, this familiar landscape has been considerably broadened in recent years by the identification of novel factors that participate in the regulation of adipogenesis, either favoring or inhibiting it, through their effects on chromatin. Epigenetic signals and chromatin-modifying proteins contribute to adipogenesis and, through regulation of the phenotypic maintenance of the mature adipocytes, to the control of metabolism. In this review we intend to summarize the recently described epigenetic events that participate in adipogenesis and their connections with the main factors that constitute the classical transcriptional cascade.
Coherent $H^{\infty }$ Control for a Class of Annihilation Operator Linear Quantum Systems

This paper considers a coherent H∞ control problem for a class of linear quantum systems which can be defined by complex quantum stochastic differential equations in terms of annihilation operators only. For this class of quantum systems, a solution to the H∞ control problem can be obtained in terms of a pair of complex algebraic Riccati equations. In addition, the question of physical realizability of the resulting quantum controllers is related to a bounded real property.
Improvements to facial contour detection by hierarchical fitting and regression

There are many methods based on shape and texture models for detecting eye and mouth contour points from facial images. They reduce the false positive rate by utilizing a global model and adapting it for a given face. Changes to facial expressions are coupled with changes to the shapes of eyes and mouth, and a global facial model in itself cannot be adapted to all human facial expressions. Therefore, a hierarchical model fitting approach has been developed, whereby the global fitting captures the facial shape using the global model and the local fitting captures the each facial parts using these local models. This can detect facial contours with high accuracy for expressions to which the global model cannot be adapted.
Evaluation of a community-based health promotion program supporting public policy initiatives for a healthy diet

The ‘Towards a Healthy Diet’ phase of the Shepparton Healthy Heart Project was evaluated. The principal goal of this phase was to promote public policy initiatives that promoted healthy diet, supported by changes in community opinion and interest in healthy diet. Changing individual behaviour was a secondary goal only. These public policy initiatives were directed at eating places, schools and the health services. The eating places initiative promoted healthy practices in food preparation and presentation as well as customer healthy food choice behaviours. These initiatives were accompanied by media-based health education and community events. The evaluation employed a twocommunity, quasi-experimental study design which assessed process, formative and impact (but not outcome) dimensions relevant to the program’s objectives. Community opinion as well as dietary behaviour and cognition about healthy diet were assessed using a panel mail questionnaire survey of 1137 residents in the two communities. Community awareness and response to Towards a Healthy Diet were assessed at its completion in a separate cross-sectional mail questionnaire survey of 703 residents of Shepparton. Supermarket sales figures supplemented assessment of behaviour. Fifty-one eating places were assessed using interviews of a panel of proprietors/managers as well as onsite inspections. Initiatives aimed at schools were assessed by on-site interviews, those at general practitioners by a panel mail questionnaire survey. Towards a Healthy Diet achieved its goals only in part. A higher proportion of Shepparton residents reported recent increases in the number of eating places offering healthy food and local residents eating healthy food. There was a significantly greater increase in the number of fruit dishes offered in Shepparton eating places as well as customer requests for fruit. Changes in individual behaviours only differed in the two communities for frequency of eating take-away food, where there was a significant decrease in Shepparton. Canteen policies were more frequently implemented in Shepparton schools. This study provides support for community-based approaches to healthy diet-based public policy initiatives supported by social marketing in the future. Further rigorously evaluated demonstration projects are necessary to replicate and extend these results. This is true for other alternative approaches to community-based programs so far implemented for promoting healthy diet. Evaluation of a community-based health promotion program supporting public policy initiatives for a healthy diet
Effect of growth differentiation factor‑9 C447T and G546A polymorphisms on the outcomes of in vitro fertilization.

Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the growth differentiation factor (GDF)‑9 gene are associated with premature ovarian failure, insufficient ovarian stimulation and a poor in vitro fertilization (IVF) score in women with diminished ovarian reserve. The aim of the present study was to assess the effect of C447T (rs254286) and G546A (rs10491279) SNPs on ovary stimulation response, oocyte quality, fertilization rate and outcome of clinical pregnancy in an infertile population of Polish females (n=86) treated with IVF. The present study also included a group of fertile women (n=202). The P‑trend value, calculated for the GDF‑9 C447T transition in infertile women, was statistically significant and were equal to 0.0195. A significant association of the GDF‑9 C447T SNP was observed with infertility for the C/C vs. T/T + C/T model (OR= 2.140; 95% CI=1.043‑4.393; P=0.0349). The GDF‑9 G546A SNP was significantly associated with the G/A vs. G/G model with poor ovarian stimulation (OR=9.303; 95% CI=2.568‑33.745; P=0.0008) and poor fertilization rate (OR=2.981; 95% CI=1.033‑8.607; P=0.0385). For the GDF‑9 C447T SNP, a significant association was observed between the C/C + C/T vs. T/T model and a poor ovarian stimulation response (OR=15.309; 95% CI=0.875‑267.83; P=0.0078), and a poor fertilization rate (OR=4.842; 95% CI=1.310‑17.901; P=0.0121). The present genetic evaluation revealed associations between IVF outcomes and the GDF‑9 A546G and C447T SNPs. Additionally, these results indicated that the GDF‑9 C447T SNP is a possible candidate genetic risk factor for female infertility in the Polish population.
A Sequence-specific Exopeptidase Activity Test (SSEAT) for “Functional” Biomarker Discovery*S

One form of functional proteomics entails profiling of genuine activities, as opposed to surrogates of activity or active “states,” in a complex biological matrix: for example, tracking enzyme-catalyzed changes, in real time, ranging from simple modifications to complex anabolic or catabolic reactions. Here we present a test to compare defined exoprotease activities within individual proteomes of two or more groups of biological samples. It tracks degradation of artificial substrates, under strictly controlled conditions, using semiautomated MALDI-TOF mass spectrometric analysis of the resulting patterns. Each fragment is quantitated by comparison with double labeled, non-degradable internal standards (all-d-amino acid peptides) spiked into the samples at the same time as the substrates to reflect adsorptive and processing-related losses. The full array of metabolites is then quantitated (coefficients of variation of 6.3–14.3% over five replicates) and subjected to multivariate statistical analysis. Using this approach, we tested serum samples of 48 metastatic thyroid cancer patients and 48 healthy controls, with selected peptide substrates taken from earlier standard peptidomics screens (i.e. the “discovery” phase), and obtained class predictions with 94% sensitivity and 90% specificity without prior feature selection (24 features). The test all but eliminates reproducibility problems related to sample collection, storage, and handling as well as to possible variability in endogenous peptide precursor levels because of hemostatic alterations in cancer patients.
Radiofrequency ablation: The effect of distance and baseline temperature on thermal dose required for coagulation

Purpose: To determine the effects of applied current, distance from an RF electrode and baseline tissue temperature upon thermal dosimetry requirements to induce coagulation in ex vivo bovine liver and in vivo porcine muscle models. Materials and methods: RF ablation was performed in ex vivo liver at varying baseline temperatures–19–21°C (n = 114), 8–10°C (n = 27), and 27–28°C (n = 27)–using a 3-cm tip electrode and systematically varied current 400–1,300 mA, to achieve defined diameters of coagulation (20, 30 and 40 ± 2 mm), and in in vivo muscle (n = 18) to achieve 35 mm ± 2 mm of coagulation. Thermal dose required for coagulation was calculated as the area under the curve and cumulative equivalent minutes at 43°C. Results: Thermal dose correlated with current in a negative exponential fashion for all three diameters of coagulation in ex vivo experiments (p < 0.001). The temperatures at the end of RF heating at the ablation margin were not reproducible, but varied 38°C–74.7°C, for 30 mm coagulation in ex vivo liver, and 59.8°C–68.4°C in the in vivo experiment. CEM43 correlated with current as a family of positive exponential functions (r2 = 0.76). However, a very wide range of CEM43 values (on the order of 1015) was noted. Although baseline temperatures in the ex vivo experiment did not change required thermal dose, the relationships between end temperature at the ablation margin and RF current were statistically different (p < 0.001) as analysed at the 400 mA intercept. Conclusions: In both models, thermal dosimetry required to achieve coagulation was not constant, but current and distance dependent. Hence, other formulas for thermal dose equivalence may be needed to predict conditions for thermal ablation.
Dynamic Current Testing for CMOS Domino Circuits

In this paper, we propose a method for testing domino CMOS circuits using the transient power supply current. The method is based on monitoring the peak value of the transient current. We also present a test vector generation algorithm for testing large domino circuits. We evaluate the effectiveness of this testing method through simulations of various domino circuits of different sizes. Furthermore, we develop and implement a clustering technique to improve the fault coverage of the test method when used with large circuits. The algorithm divides the circuit into different clusters where each cluster is fed by a different power supply branch.
Carcinoma in situ of the urinary bladder - from pathology to narrow band imaging.

OBJECTIVES A retrospective clinical analysis was performed over a time period of 10 months while aiming to establish the impact of narrow band imaging (NBI) cystoscopy and transurethral resection of bladder tumors (TURBT) in cases of carcinoma in situ (CIS). MATERIALS AND METHODS CIS tumor cells are characterized by a high cytological grade, a certain degree of cyto-nuclear pleomorphism, large, irregular, hyperchromatic nuclei, high nuclear/cytoplasmatic ratio and mitotic figures. One hundred thirty-nine patients were consecutively diagnosed with non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) based on standard white light cystoscopy (WLC) and NBI vision. Urinary cytology was performed in cases of flat lesions suspected by either type of cystoscopy before the TURBT staging. Conventional endoscopic resection was performed for all white light (WL) visible lesions and NBI-guided TURBT exclusively for the observed tumors. RESULTS At subsequent pathological analysis, 13 CIS patients were confirmed. NBI cystoscopy emphasized a superior diagnostic accuracy as compared to WLC concerning the cases' (92.3% versus 69.2%) as well as lesions' (93.75% versus 71.9%) detection rates. NBI-TURBT provided a higher proportion of additional tumors' cases (53.8% versus 15.4%) when compared to classical resection but was marked by an increased frequency of false-positive results (18.9% versus 11.5%). Urinary cytology displayed an 84.6% sensitivity rate. CONCLUSIONS NBI cystoscopy and resection substantially ameliorated the CIS-related diagnostic accuracy within a parallel to the standard endoscopic approach at the cost of a reduced specificity. NBI-TURBT was able to find more CIS patients as well as lesions, thus improving the sensitivity of standard resection and urinary cytology.
Gene expression profiling in polycythemia vera using cDNA microarray technology.

Polycythemia vera (PV) is a myeloproliferative disorder characterized by an increased proliferation of all three myeloid lineages. The molecular pathogenesis of PV is unknown. Using cDNA microarrays comprising 6000 human genes, we studied the gene expression profile of granulocytes obtained from 11 PV patients compared with granulocytes obtained from healthy individuals. We found that 147 genes were up-regulated by >/==" BORDER="0">2.5 fold in the majority of PV patients. Eleven of these 147 genes were up-regulated in all PV patients studied and may represent a molecular signature for this disorder. An increase in the expression of several protease inhibitors with affinity for proteases that promote apoptosis in neutrophils (e.g., cystatin F, secretory leukocyte protease inhibitor), as well as the up-regulation of a number of antiapoptotic and survival factors was found (e.g., adrenomedullin, p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase). We speculate that the deregulation of these factors may inhibit normal apoptosis and promote cell survival in the granulocytes of patients with PV. These PV-specific expression changes are likely to be biologically important in the pathophysiology of this disorder.
Six-Port interferometer for direction-of-arrival detection system

Phase measurement DOA detection is commonly used nowadays. However, the traditional approach are based on conventional mixer architecture or expensive direct conversion devices which has high complexity and costly while comprising robustness. Therefore a new interferometer DOA detection system based on six-port network has been lately investigated and is showing several advantages in respect to traditional solutions. The phase measurement using a six-port interferometer for Direction-of-Arrival (DOA) Detection for Ultrawideband (UWB) application is presented. The presented six-port interferometer is formed by Wilkinson power divider (WPD) and planar 3dB/90° hybrid couplers. The WPD and hybrid couplers are fabricated and the S-parameter performances are measured using Network Analyzer. The measured results of WPD and hybrid coupler are then modelled as six-port interferometer in the Keysight Advanced Design System (ADS) simulation software. The six-port interferometer is modelled by combining measured scattering parameters of the all ports of six-port network. The constructed scattering matrix is transform into touchstone file format. The DOA system comprises of Low Noise Amplifiers (LNAs), six-port interferometer, power detectors and Operating amplifiers (Op-Amps). Its performance is assessed via schematic simulation ADS. The simulated results show the presented six-port interferometer is able to discriminate the detected wave phase of the signal.
Resistência à tração de emendas dentadas de madeira de Manilkara huberi para o emprego em madeira laminada colada

A utilizacao de elementos estruturais de madeira laminada (ou lamelada) colada (MLC) requer um estudo experimental das combinacoes entre a especie de madeira e o adesivo utilizado. Este trabalho objetivou o estudo da combinacao especie-adesivo na resistencia a tracao e na falha da linha de cola de corpos de prova de madeira de macaranduba (Manilkara huberi) confeccionados com e sem emendas dentadas finger joint. As colagens foram realizadas com lâminas sem tratamento preservativo, com aproximadamente 12% de umidade e com o emprego do adesivo mono-componente do tipo poliuretano Purbond HB 712. A gramatura de adesivo utilizada nas emendas dentadas foi linha simples de cola com aproximadamente 200 g m-2 e pressao de contato igual a 10 MPa. Apos sete dias de cura do adesivo foram realizados testes de tracao nos corpos de prova com e sem emendas dentadas, possibilitando julgar, tambem por meio da analise de variância, a eficiencia das emendas testadas. Os resultados da experimentacao revelaram a ineficiencia da interface entre o adesivo e a madeira de analisada, pois a ruptura ocorreu na linha de cola, categorizando modo de ruptura do tipo 1, que corresponde a pior situacao de falha.