Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Using Decision Curve Analysis to Evaluate Common Strategies for Myopia Screening in School-Aged Children

ABSTRACT Purpose: To evaluate common strategies for screening myopia. Methods: A total of 2,248 children aged 6 to 12 years from five randomly selected primary schools were included for the screening. Enrolled study participants underwent distant uncorrected visual acuity (UCVA, Standard Logarithmic Visual Acuity E Chart) and non-cycloplegic auto-refraction (NCAR, Topcon KR-8800). Among them, 1,639 children (72.9%) accepted cycloplegic auto-refraction. Taking rejection of cycloplegia into account, receiver operating characteristic curves were drawn to compare the accuracies of the four strategies (I, Cycloplegic auto-refraction; II, NCAR; III, UCVA; IV, Combination of UCVA and NCAR). Decision curve analysis (DCA) was used to compare net benefits. Tenfold cross-validation was used for statistical analyses. Results: For myopia (spherical equivalent refraction, SE ≤ −0.5D) screening, the mean sensitivities were 73.79% (SD: 5.40%), 85.57% (6.84%), 59.71% (13.49%), and 85.06% (6.68%) for Strategy I to IV; with mean specificities of 100% (0%), 87.43% (4.27%), 89.74% (10.25%), and 88.65% (5.07%), respectively. For screening early myopia (SE ≤ −0.5D and ≥−1.0D), the mean sensitivities were 73.44% (7.69%), 82.39% (5.32%), 54.27% (14.58%), and 81.76% (9.60%) for Strategy I to IV; with mean specificities of 100% (0%), 79.13% (4.86%), 85.48% (9.86%), and 81.17% (4.16%). Based on DCA, the net benefits of Strategy IV were the highest, with the probability thresholds ranging from 12% to 50%, after adjusting the TestHarms. For early myopia, the net benefits of Strategy IV were the highest with the probability threshold ranging from 5% to 34%. Conclusion: Combination of UCVA and NCAR produced the highest net benefits for myopia screening.
Cell line-specific efficacy of thermoradiotherapy in human and canine cancer cells in vitro

Objective Aims were to investigate sensitivity of various human and canine cancer cell lines to hyperthermia and the influence of particular treatment conditions, and to analyze the DNA-damage response and mode of cell death in cell line radiosensitized by hyperthermia. Additionally, we were interested in the involvement of HSP70 in radiosensitization. Methods Radiosensitization by hyperthermia was determined in a panel of human and canine cancer cell lines using clonogenic cell survival assay, as well as levels of heat shock proteins (HSPs) using immunoblotting. The influence of the hyperthermia-radiotherapy time gap, different temperatures and the order of treatments on clonogenicity of hyperthermia-sensitive A549 cells was investigated. Additionally, DNA damage and cell death were assessed by Comet assay and an apoptosis/necrosis assay. Further we induced transient knockdown in A549 cells to test HSP70’s involvement in radiosensitization. Results Out of eight cell lines tested, only two (A549 and Abrams) showed significant decrease in clonogenic cell survival when pre-treated with hyperthermia at 42°C. Strong induction of HSP70 upon thermoradiotherapy (HT-RT) treatment was found in all cell lines. Transient knockdown of HSP70 in A549 cells did not result in decrease of clonogenic cell survival in response to HT-RT. Conclusion Tumor cell-type, temperature and order of treatment play an important role in radiosensitization by hyperthermia. However, hyperthermia has limited potency to radiosensitize canine cancer cells grown in a 2D cell culture setting presented here. DNA damage and apoptosis/necrosis did not increase upon combined treatment and cytosolic levels of HSP70 appear not to play critical role in the radiosensitization of A549 cells.
The pharmacological features of bilirubin: the question of the century

Abstract This review looks at the toxicity and metabolism of bilirubin in terms of its pharmacological potential. Its role has gained importance as more research has revealed the functional significance and interrelationship between the gasotransmitters nitric oxide and carbon monoxide. The biological actions of bilirubin have mostly been characterized in the high micromolar range where toxic effects occur. However, it could also prove to be an important cytoprotector for brain tissue, which is inherently less equipped for antioxidant defense. Plasma bilirubin levels negatively correlate to a number of disease states. Higher levels of bilirubin that are still within the normal range provide a protective effect to the body. The effects on various disorders could be tested using controlled pharmacological upregulation of the molecule with animal models. At nanomolar concentrations, considerable benefits have been obtained when the molecule was delivered pharmacologically under in vitro or in vivo test conditions, particularly in neurodegenerative disorders and after tissue or organ transplantation. The induction of heme oxygenase-1 (HMOX-1) via the activation of nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor or the use of bile pigments in the harvesting of diseased tissue are novel applications, and like every new therapy, should be used with caution. HMOX-1 is tissue specific, and in exceptional states, such as schizophrenia and specific types of renal disorder, the same therapy may have disastrous effects.
A Structure-Wise Service Selection Approach for Efficient Service Composition

Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) provides a flexible architecture for service composition. Service composition can be integrated by atomic Web services developed independently by their providers. With increasing number of alternative services that implement similar functionality but provide different non-functional (QoS) characteristics, service composition becomes a service selection problem. This paper proposes an efficient service selection approach to facilitate the selection of QoS-based services. The objective of this approach is to obtain a feasible solution with less time. Moreover our approach supports different aggregation structures. The results of experimental evaluation show that our approach can achieve a near-optimal solution very efficiently.
Estimation and Adaptation for Bursty LTE Random Access

With the potential to generate numerous connection requests, an explosive growth in the volume of data traffic and the number of mobile and machine-to-machine devices has drawn new attention to the radio access network. Surging random-access attempts cause not only severe preamble collisions but downlink resource shortage as well, thus degrading the performance of the random-access procedure. However, the effect of downlink resource shortage on system performance has yet to be comprehensively studied. In addition, most existing random-access contention resolution mechanisms sacrifice random-access channel (RACH) throughput for a high success probability, and thus, the price is that low-throughput mechanisms need a lot of time to deal with access attempts. In this paper, we evaluate the medium-access-control (MAC)-level performance for the four-step random-access procedure in Long-Term Evolution (LTE) systems, both with and without constrained downlink resources. Furthermore, we propose a novel RACH contention resolution scheme, i.e., the dynamic backoff (DB) scheme. DB can achieve high RACH throughput, yielding a high random-access success probability under various RACH overloaded scenarios.
Indexing Glomerular Filtration Rate to Body Surface Area: Clinical Consequences

Kidney function is mostly expressed in terms of glomerular filtration rate (GFR). A common feature is the expression as ml/min per 1.73 m2, which represents the adjustment of the individual kidney function to a standard body surface area (BSA) to allow comparison between individuals. We investigated the impact of indexing GFR to BSA in cancer patients, as this BSA indexation might affect the reported individual kidney function.
Intact CA3 in the hippocampus is only sufficient for contextual behavior based on well‐learned and unaltered visual background

Computational models suggest that the dentate gyrus and CA3 subfields of the hippocampus are responsible for discrete memory representations using pattern separation and pattern completion when a modified external stimulus is recognized as an old memory or encoded as a new memory. Experimental evidence of such computational processes in the hippocampus has been obtained mostly from spatial navigational tasks, and little is known about the proposed computational functions of the hippocampal subfields in “nonspatial” memory tasks. We tested whether rats with major damage in the dentate gyrus induced by colchicine lesions could remember patterned visual scene stimuli presented on LCD screens in the background. Rats responded using a touchscreen to indicate the identity of the visual scene. Performance of the lesion group was normal when tested with familiar visual scenes that had been learned prior to surgery. Lesioned rats exhibited severe deficits in learning novel visual scenes, but eventually reached the same level of performance as controls. However, unlike in controls, novel scene‐associated memories formed in the lesion group were unstable and easily disrupted when ambiguous versions of the novel scenes were presented intermixed with the original stimuli. Our findings confirm that the prior computational models can also be applied to the nonspatial memory domain and suggest that the dentate gyrus is not necessary for the retrieval of learned visual scene‐associated behavioral responses but plays a crucial role in forming novel visual scene‐dependent memory and recognizing altered or ambiguous visual scenes in the background. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Agreement between children and parents in rating oral health-related quality of life using the Swedish versions of the short-form Child Perceptions Questionnaire 11–14 and Parental Perceptions Questionnaire

Abstract Objective: To explore the agreement between children and parents on children’s oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) when using the Swedish short forms of CPQ11–14 and P-CPQ, and to evaluate the impact on agreement of oral health including malocclusion and background characteristics (dental fear, family situation, gender of informant). Material and methods: A total of 257 children and their accompanying parents were asked to fill in the Swedish versions of the short-form CPQ11–14 and P-CPQ separately in connection with a clinical examination. Results: The participants comprised 247 child-parent pairs: 116 (47%) boys, 131 (53%) girls, 166 (67%) mothers and 81 (33%) fathers. The agreement between the child and parental ratings of the children’s OHRQoL was low, with an ICC of 0.22 (95% CI: 0.04–0.37) for the total scale. Conclusions: There was a low agreement between children’s and parents’ answers. For best care, it is advisable to consider perceptions of both children and parents because they can complement each other in estimating the child’s OHRQoL.
Self-tuning method for PI regulators of PMSM servo system based on frequency-response characteristic

An on-line adaptive control based on parameter identification is proposed to solve the problem that motor parameters vary with the changing working environments, which results in the precision of control system to be affected. The motor resistance and inductance are identified by using recursive least squares method with forgetting factor. The parameters of PI regulator are obtained based on the requirement of the system for the frequency domain characteristics.
MCP-1 Promotes Detrimental Cardiac Physiology, Pulmonary Edema and Death in the cpk model of Polycystic Kidney Disease.

Polycystic kidney disease (PKD) typically results in renal failure by the fifth decade. The most common cause of death in these patients, however, is cardiovascular disease. Expanding cysts in PKD are accompanied by increased numbers of renal macrophages, which have been shown to promote disease progression in PKD mouse models. Here we show that monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 (MCP-1/CCL2) is responsible for the majority of monocyte chemoattractant activity produced by renal PKD cells from both mice and humans. To test whether the absence of MCP-1 lowers renal macrophage concentration and slows disease progression, we generated genetic knockout (KO) of MCP-1 in a mouse model of PKD, the congenital polycystic kidney (cpk) mice. The cpk mice are born with expanding renal cysts and declining kidney function; they die by post-natal (PN) day 21. We report that KO of MCP-1 in these mice increased survival. Surprisingly, however, there was no significant difference in renal macrophage concentration, nor was there improvement in cystic disease or kidney function. Examination of cpk mice revealed cardiac hypertrophy, and measurement of ECG parameters revealed cardiac repolarization abnormalities compared to non-cystic mice. MCP-1 KO did not affect the number of cardiac macrophages nor did it alleviate the cardiac aberrancies. However, MCP-1 KO did prevent development of pulmonary edema, which occurred in cpk mice, and promoted a decreased resting heart rate and an increased heart rate variability. These data suggest that MCP-1 altered cardiac/pulmonary function in cpk mice and promoted death outside of its role as a macrophage chemoattractant.
The devil is in the details: identifying aspects of temperature variation that underlie sex determination in species with TSD.

Most organisms experience thermal variability in their environment; however, our understanding of how organisms cope with this variation is under-developed. For example, in organisms with temperature-dependent sex determination (TSD), an inability to predict sex ratios under fluctuating incubation temperatures in the field hinders predictions of how species with TSD will fare in a changing climate. To better understand how sex determination is affected by thermal variation, we incubated Trachemys scripta eggs using a "heat wave" design, where embryos experienced a male-producing temperature of 25 ± 3 °C for the majority of development and varying durations at a female-producing temperature of 29.5 ± 3 °C during the window of development when sex is determined. We compared the sex ratios from these incubation conditions to a previous data set that utilized a similar heat wave design, but instead incubated eggs at a male-producing temperature of 27 ± 3 °C but utilized the same female-producing temperature of 29.5 ± 3 °C. We compared the sex ratio reaction norms produced from these two incubation conditions and found that, despite differences in average temperatures, both conditions produced 50:50 sex ratios after ∼8 days of exposure to female-producing conditions. This emphasizes that sex can be determined in just a few days at female-producing conditions and that sex determination is relatively unaffected by temperatures outside of this short window. Further, these data demonstrate the reduced accuracy of the Constant Temperature Equivalent model (the leading method of predicting sex ratios) under thermally variable temperatures. Conceptualizing sex determination as the number of days spent incubating at female-producing conditions rather than an aggregate statistic is supported by the mechanistic underpinnings of TSD, helps to improve sex ratio estimation methods, and has important consequences for predicting how species with TSD will fare in a changing climate.
Searching bioremediation patents through Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC)

Abstract Patent classification systems have traditionally evolved independently at each patent jurisdiction to classify patents handled by their examiners to be able to search previous patents while dealing with new patent applications. As patent databases maintained by them went online for free access to public as also for global search of prior art by examiners, the need arose for a common platform and uniform structure of patent databases. The diversity of different classification, however, posed problems of integrating and searching relevant patents across patent jurisdictions. To address this problem of comparability of data from different sources and searching patents, WIPO in the recent past developed what is known as International Patent Classification (IPC) system which most countries readily adopted to code their patents with IPC codes along with their own codes. The Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) is the latest patent classification system based on IPC/European Classification (ECLA) system, developed by the European Patent Office (EPO) and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) which is likely to become a global standard. This paper discusses this new classification system with reference to patents on bioremediation.
A New Metric for Multimedia Retrieval in Structured Documents

Most documents available in Textual Database or in Internet are strongly structured. This is the case for example for scientific papers or written documents using markup languages (HTML, XML). This information provided by the structure can be exploited by systems of information retrieval to define the granularity of elements to return in response to a request made by a user or to improve the relevance of these results. In this article, We are interested in recovering multimedia elements. Like this, we propose a new metric for multimedia retrieval in XML documents which is based on computing a geometric distance between XML nodes while taking into account kinship ties and proximities between them. This measure will introduce a new source of evidence for multimedia retrieval in structural documents which aims at finding relevant multimedia element that focus on the user information need. Experiments have been undertaken to show the effectiveness of our method.
Changes in Splenic Volume After the Treadmill Exercise at Specific Workloads in Elite Long-Distance Runners and Recreational Runners

Introduction: Spleen acts as blood reservoir both in animals and human beings. Spleen contracts during the exercise and so augment the systemic circulation and helps body to maintain longer on high intensity exercise. Reviewing all available literature, the human spleen shows a decrease in volume, in range from 8% to 56%, depending on the work intensity. Aim: To evaluate the percentage of the decrease in splenic volume after the treadmill exercise at specific workloads: aerobic threshold intensity, anaerobic threshold intensity, submaximal intensity and maximal intensity. Methods: This prospective study with repeated measurements included 16 healthy subjects, divided in two groups. First group consisted of 8 elite long-distance runners and second group of 8 recreational runners. First testing consisted of treadmill ergospirometry test. This data was crucial for the second testing where subjects were exercising on treadmill at specific workloads. Four specific workloads were determined: treadmill exercise at aerobic threshold intensity (1st workload), anaerobic threshold intensity (2nd workload), submaximal intensity (3rd workload) and maximal intensity (4th workload). Workloads were controlled by the speed of treadmill, for each subject individually regarding the ergospirometry test. Ultrasound measurement of spleen was done before and after each workload. Results: Elite long-distance runners showed greater spleen contraction than recreational runners after four workloads. Spleen contraction was the biggest after the 3rd workload in elite long-distance runners. Smallest contraction was in group of recreational runners after the 1st workload. Statistically significant difference was not found between the groups, regarding the splenic volume after exercise at four specific workloads (p>0.05). Conclusion: Elite long-distance runners had greater decrease in splenic volume than recreational runners, after exercise at four specific workloads, without significant difference. Greatest decrease happened in elite long-distance runners, after exercise at submaximal intensity - 49% decrease in splenic volume.
Angiopoietin 1 prevents retinal detachment in an aggressive model of proliferative retinopathy, but has no effect on established neovascularization

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) plays a central role in vasoproliferative diseases in the retina, however, other gene products modulate its effects. The angiopoietins are particularly important in this regard. Angiopoietin 2 (Ang2) collaborates with VEGF to stimulate neovascularization (NV) in some situations, but in other situations causes regression of NV. Ang2 also causes a transient increase in vascular density during retinal vascular development. In this study, we sought to determine if Ang1 has similar activities. The effects of Ang1 were tested in double transgenic mice with inducible expression of Ang1. Increased expression of Ang1 in the retina during retinal vascular development did not cause a detectable alteration in vascular density. Also, unlike Ang2, increased expression of Ang1 had no effect on established retinal or choroidal NV. However, when Ang1 expression was initiated simultaneously with that of VEGF, it strongly suppressed VEGF‐induced NV and prevented retinal detachment. These data indicate that the timing of Ang1 expression is a critical determinate of its effects on VEGF‐induced NV in the retina; it effectively blocks the initiation and progression of NV, but cannot reverse established NV or reduce leakage from NV. These data suggest that increased expression of Ang1 may be a good strategy for prophylaxis of retinal NV, but is unlikely to be effective as monotherapy of established NV. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Human annulus cells regulate PAPP-A and IGFBP-4 expression, and thereby insulin-like growth factor bioavailability, in response to proinflammatory cytokine exposure in vitro

Abstract Pregnancy-associated plasma protein-A (PAPP-A) is a metalloproteinase which cleaves IGF binding protein (BP)-4 in the extracellular matrix, making IGF available to nearby cells. We have shown that PAPP-A is present in the human intervertebral disc, and is significantly upregulated in more degenerated discs where increased proinflammatory cytokine levels are present. We hypothesized that increased proinflammatory cytokines present in the degenerating disc might be related to PAPP-A expression. Experiments exposed human annulus cells to IL-1-β or TNF-α to test this hypothesis. Treated cells showed significantly increased PAPP-A in conditioned media versus controls (p < 0.001). PAPP-A production following exposure to IL-1β was significantly greater in cells derived from more degenerated versus healthier discs (p = 0.05). PAPP-A gene expression (microarray analysis) was significantly upregulated in IL-1β- or TNF-α-exposed cells (p = 0.01–0.004). Quantitative RT-PCR confirmed significant upregulation of IGFBP-4 in IL-1β- or TNF-α-exposed cells. Data have potential relevance to future cell-based biologic therapies for disc degeneration.
Snapshot on Negative Electrode Materials for Potassium-Ion Batteries

Potassium-based batteries have recently emerged as a promising alternative to lithium-ion batteries. The very low potential of the K+/K redox couple together with the high mobility of K+ in electrolytes resulting from its weak Lewis acidity should provide high energy density systems operating with fast kinetics. However, potassium metal cannot be implemented in commercial batteries due to its high reactivity. As safety is one of the major concerns when developing new types of batteries, it is therefore crucial to look for materials alternative to potassium metal that electrochemically insert K+ at low potential. Here, the different types of negative electrode materials highlighted in many recent reports will be presented in detail. As a cornerstone of viable potassium-ion batteries, the choice of the electrolyte will be addressed as it directly impacts the cycling performance. Lastly, guidelines to a rational design of sustainable and efficient negative electrode materials will be proposed as open perspectives.