Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Identification of pathological and normal parathyroid tissue by fluorescent labeling with 5-aminolevulinic acid during endocrine neck surgery.

BACKGROUND When performing parathyroid or thyroid surgery, surgeons must distinguish parathyroid tissue from the surrounding thyroid tissue, to preserve healthy parathyroid tissue while excising diseased thyroid tissue or to completely remove pathological parathyroid lesions. Here, we explored the feasibility of labeling the parathyroid glands for easy identification by administering 5-aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA) orally to patients undergoing endocrine neck surgery, because 5-ALA accumulates in the parathyroid and has a fluorescent metabolite, protoporphyrin IX. METHODS Twenty-nine patients about to undergo endocrine (parathyroid or thyroid gland) neck surgery were orally given 5-ALA, a nontoxic substance that occurs naturally in the human body and has no known major side effects. During surgery, we used blue light to excite protoporphyrin IX, the fluorescent metabolite of 5-ALA, and viewed the resulting bright red fluorescence through an optical filter. RESULTS In the majority of the patients, the parathyroid glands were defined by a clear fluorescence. In 23 patients with pathological parathyroid tissue, the fluorescence enabled us to identify and completely remove diseased parathyroid tissue. In 3 patients with thyroid disease, we were able to easily remove diseased thyroid tissue, and an accidentally removed parathyroid gland was autotransplanted during surgery. CONCLUSIONS In all but a few cases, 5-ALA clearly labeled parathyroid tissue, allowing for its clean removal or preservation according to the purpose of the surgery. This simple, benign technique is extremely useful for identifying parathyroid tissue, whether pathological or normal, during endocrine neck surgery.
Mice expressing a humanized form of VEGF-A may provide insights into the safety and efficacy of anti-VEGF antibodies

VEGF-A is important in tumor angiogenesis, and a humanized anti-VEGF-A monoclonal antibody (bevacizumab) has been approved by the FDA as a treatment for metastatic colorectal and nonsquamous, non-small-cell lung cancer in combination with chemotherapy. However, contributions of both tumor- and stromal-cell derived VEGF-A to vascularization of human tumors grown in immunodeficient mice hindered direct comparison between the pharmacological effects of anti-VEGF antibodies with different abilities to block host VEGF. Therefore, by gene replacement technology, we engineered mice to express a humanized form of VEGF-A (hum-X VEGF) that is recognized by many anti-VEGF antibodies and has biochemical and biological properties comparable with WT mouse and human VEGF-A. The hum-X VEGF mouse model was then used to compare the activity and safety of a panel of VEGF Mabs with different affinities for VEGF-A. Although in vitro studies clearly showed a correlation between binding affinity and potency at blocking endothelial cell proliferation stimulated by VEGF, in vivo experiments failed to document any consistent correlation between antibody affinity and the ability to inhibit tumor growth and angiogenesis in most animal models. However, higher-affinity antibodies were more likely to result in glomerulosclerosis during long-term treatment.
The Development of a Validated Checklist for Femoral Venous Catheterization

Femoral venous catheterization is a common, invasive procedure, which may lead to serious complications. Validated checklists are central to teaching and assessing procedural skills and may result in improved health care quality. The results of the first step of the validation of a femoral venous catheterization checklist are described. A comprehensive literature review of articles published on femoral venous catheterization did not yield a checklist validated by the Delphi method. A modified Delphi technique, involving a panel of 8 interdisciplinary, interinstitutional experts, was used to develop a femoral venous catheterization checklist. The internal consistency coefficient using Cronbach α was . 99. Developing a 29-item checklist for teaching and assessing femoral venous catheterization is the first step in the validation process. For this checklist to become further validated, it should be implemented and studied in the simulation and clinical environments.
Symptomatology and social inference: A theory of mind study of schizophrenia and psychotic affective disorder

Introduction. There is evidence that certain patients with schizophrenia have deficits in theory of mind (ToM) capabilities. It is, however, unclear whether these are symptom or diagnosis-specific. Methods. A ToM hinting task was given to 15 patients with a DSM-IV diagnosis of schizophrenia, 15 patients with affective disorder and 15 healthy controls. Severity of the current psychopathology was measured using the Krawiecka standardised scale of psychotic symptoms (Krawiecka, Goldberg, & Vaughan, 1977); IQ was estimated via the Ammons and Ammons Quick Test (Ammons & Ammons, 1962). Results. The group with schizophrenia performed significantly worse than the affective and control groups. Poor performance on the hinting task was found to be significantly related to the presence of positive symptoms (instead of negative ones) and specifically related to delusions and hallucinations. These findings remained when covariance for potentially confounding variables was applied. Conclusions. Individuals with high levels of delusions and hallucinations performed significantly worse on this ToM task, regardless of diagnosis, implying ToM impairment is not exclusive to schizophrenia but is evident in other forms of psychosis. Between-group analyses showed the schizophrenia group had a significicantly poorer performance on this task than the others.
The role of functional uniqueness and spatial aggregation in explaining rarity in trees

Aim: Determining the drivers of species rarity is fundamental for understanding and conserving biodiversity. Rarity of a given species within its community may arise due to exclusion by other ecologically similar species. Conversely, rare species may occupy habitats that are rare in the landscape or they may be ill-suited to all available habitats. The first mechanism would lead to common and rare species occupying similar ecological space defined by functional traits. The second mechanism would result in common and rare species occupying dissimilar ecological space and spatial aggregation of rare species, either because they are specialists in rare habitats or because rare species tend to be dispersal limited. Here, we quantified the contribution of locally rare species to community functional richness and the spatial aggregation of species across tree communities world-wide to address these hypotheses. Location: Asia and the Americas. Time period: 2002 to 2012 (period that considers the censuses for the plots used). Major taxa studied: Angiosperm and Gymnosperm trees. Methods: We compiled a dataset of functional traits from all the species present in eight tree plots around the world to evaluate the contribution of locally rare species to tree community functional richness using multi- and univariate approaches. We also quantified the spatial aggregation of individuals within species at several spatial scales as it relates to abundance. Results: Locally rare tree species in temperate and tropical forests tended to be functionally unique and are consistently spatially clustered. Furthermore, there is no evidence that this pattern is driven by pioneer species being locally rare. Main conclusions: This evidence shows that locally rare tree species disproportionately contribute to community functional richness, and we can therefore reject the hypothesis that locally rare species are suppressed by ecologically similar, but numerically dominant, species. Rather, locally rare species are likely to be specialists on spatially rare habitats or they may be ill-suited to the locally available environments.
A Secure and Anonymous Electronic Voting Scheme Based on Key Exchange Protocol

Voter anonymity and voting correctness are important issues for electronic voting mechanisms. Compared electronic voting with traditional 1elections, an electronic voter is able to cast his/her ballot through the Internet in any place and at any time if he/she can access the network. Therefore, convenience and mobility make electronic voting become more and more popular and electronic voting can be adopted in the real world with higher feasibility. Recently, Chang and Lee presented an electronic voting (e-voting) scheme based on the blind signature and the Diffie-Hellman key exchange methods for ensuring voter anonymity and performance efficiency. They claimed that numerous essential requirements of general electronic voting can be ensured in their e-voting scheme. Unfortunately, we found that Chang-Lee's e-voting scheme suffers from susceptibility to security attacks and some critical security requirements of their e-voting scheme may be compromised. To prevent security weaknesses of Chang-Lee's e-voting scheme, in this paper, an improved version on their e-voting scheme is proposed that not only keeps the merits of Chang-Lee's e-voting scheme but also enhances the security of their e-voting scheme.
ARCANE: towards autonomous navigation on rough terrains

An approach to rough terrain autonomous navigation is outlined. The study has been motivated by the fact that an autonomous robot navigating over unknown terrain acquires data continuously as it moves. The approach was based on simple and fast algorithms working on 'robocentric' maps acquired by onboard sensors. The lower layers of the architecture do not model the environment, but rely on the high frequency of the perception-planning cycle to accomplish successful navigation toward a visible goal. These layers have been designed to be robust with respect to perception errors, and the discontinuous nature of the environment's perception. They were also designed to cope with the fact that the robot discovers the environment continuously as it moves. <<ETX>>
OmniGraph: A Scalable Hardware Accelerator for Graph Processing

Large-scale graphs processing attracts more and more attentions, and it has been widely applied in many application domains. FPGA is a promising platform to implement graph processing algorithms with high power-efficiency and parallelism. In this paper, we propose OmniGraph, a scalable hardware accelerator for graph processing. OmniGraph can process graphs with different sizes adaptively and is adaptable to various graph algorithms. OmniGraph improves the preprocessing methodology based on Interval-Shard and consists of three computation engines, vertices on-chip && edges on-chip engine, vertices on-chip && edges off-chip engine, and vertices off-chip && edges off-chip engine. Experimental results on the state-of-the-art Xilinx Virtex-7 board demonstrate that case studies in OmniGraph achieve 1.03x-8.13x average speedup comparing to GraphChi on Intel core2 processors.
Evaluation of Reduced Component Count Converters for Low Harmonic Distortion AC Drive Systems

In this work, the suitability of two reduced component count single-phase to three-phase converters for low harmonic distortion AC drive systems is evaluated. A DQ synchronous reference frame controller is developed for achieving low input harmonic distortion and is compared to other current controller schemes, particularly on-off and current-mode PWM controllers. The harmonic distortion of input and motor line currents, as well as the drive performance, are verified for the various controllers. An experimental prototype has been built, based on IGBTs and digital signal processor, for driving a simulation squirrel-cage induction machine. PSCAD/EMTDC and experimental results are presented
An efficient method for in memory construction of suffix arrays

The suffix array is a string-indexing structure and a memory efficient alternative to the suffix tree. It has many advantages for text processing. We propose an efficient algorithm for sorting suffixes. We call this algorithm the two-stage suffix sort. One of our ideas is to exploit the specific relationships between adjacent suffixes. Our algorithm makes it possible to use the suffix array for much larger texts and suggests new areas of application. Our experiments on several text data sets (including 514-MB Japanese newspapers) demonstrate that our algorithm is 4.5 to 6.9 times faster than Quicksort, and 2.5 to 3.6 times faster than K. Sadakane's (1998) algorithm, which is considered to be the fastest algorithm in previous work.
The effect of diabetes on expression of β1-, β2-, and β3-Adrenoreceptors in rat hearts

Diabetic hearts exhibit decreased responsiveness to stimulation by β-adrenoreceptor (β-AR) agonists. This decrease in activity may be due to changes in expression and/or signaling of β-AR. Recently we showed that right atrial strips from 14-week streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rat hearts exhibit decreased responsiveness to β1-AR agonist stimulation, but not to β2-AR agonist. In the present study, we investigated the effects of long-term diabetes on the expression of cardiac β1-, β2-, and β3-ARs and looked at whether these changes could be restored with insulin treatment. Using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), PAGE, and Western blot analysis, we found that β1-AR mRNA and protein levels decreased by 34.9 ± 5.8 and 44.4 ± 5.8%, respectively, in 14 week-STZ-treated diabetic rat hearts when compared with age-matched controls. On the other hand, mRNA levels encoding β2- and β3-ARs increased by 72.5 ± 16.6 and 97.3 ± 26.1%, respectively. Although the latter translated into a proportional increase in β3-AR protein levels (100.0 ± 17.0%), β2-AR protein levels decreased to 82.6 ± 1.1% of control. Insulin treatment for 2 weeks, after 12 weeks of untreated diabetes, partially restored β1-AR mRNA and protein levels to 60.1 ± 8.4 and 83.2 ± 5.0%, respectively, of control. Although insulin treatment minimally attenuated the rise in mRNA levels encoding β2- and β3-ARs, the steady-state levels of these proteins returned to near control values. These data suggest that the decreased responsiveness of diabetic hearts to stimulation of β-AR agonists may be due to a decrease in β1-AR and an increase β3-AR expression.
Acute responses of non-human primates to airway delivery of an adenovirus vector containing the human cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator cDNA.

Recombinant human adenovirus (Ad) vectors are leading candidates for human gene therapy for cystic fibrosis (CF) based on demonstration of efficient transfer of exogenous genes to rodent respiratory epithelium in vivo and human respiratory cells in vitro. The safety of Ad-mediated gene transfer to the respiratory epithelium and acute (up to 21 days) clinical responses to airway delivery of a replication-deficient recombinant, E1-, E3- Ad type 5-based vector containing the human cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator cDNA (AdCFTR) were evaluated in rhesus monkeys. Airway delivery of an Ad vector with the lacZ marker gene demonstrated beta-galactosidase expression in epithelial cells. Animals administered intratracheal AdCFTR demonstrated human CFTR cDNA expression in airway epithelial cells. Animals administered AdCFTR intranasal, and 24 hr later, intrabronchial [2 x 10(7) to 5 x 10(10) plaque-forming units (pfu), n = 12], in a fashion similar to a proposed human protocol, or only intrabronchial (10(11) pfu, n = 3), had no significant changes in clinical parameters compared to vehicle controls (n = 6). Microscopic analysis of the lung by necropsy or bronchoalveolar lavage demonstrated a dose-dependent increase in inflammatory cells, primarily lymphocytes, in the area where AdCFTR was delivered, which persisted for at least 2 months in some animals. Serum anti-Ad type 5 neutralizing antibody titers did not rise and shed Ad was not detected. The presence of AdCFTR DNA, analyzed by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), was not detected in organs outside the lung. These data demonstrate that AdCFTR is well tolerated in non-human primates, although there is dose-dependent inflammation in the lung not clinically apparent. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
The NHE3 Juxtamembrane Cytoplasmic Domain Directly Binds Ezrin: Dual Role In NHE3 Trafficking and Movement In the Brush Border

Epithelial brush border (BB) Na/H antiporter3 (NHE3) associates with the actin cytoskeleton by binding to PDZ domain containing proteins NHERF1‐3. We now show that NHE3 directly binds ezrin (ERM) at a site in its C‐terminus between aa 475–589 separate from the PDZ interacting domain. This is an area predicted to be a‐helical, with a positive aa cluster on one side (K516, R520, and R527). Point mutations of these positively charged aa reduced (NHE3 double mutant (R520F, R527F)) or totally abolished (NHE3 triple mutant (K516Q, R520F, K 527F)) ERM binding. Functional consequences of these NHE3 point mutants included (a) A marked decrease in surface amount and greater decrease in NHE3 activity. (b) Decreased surface expression due to decreased rates of exocytosis and plasma membrane delivery of newly synthesized NHE3, with normal total expression levels and endocytosis rates. (c) A longer plasma membrane half‐life of mutant NHE3 with normal total half‐life. (d) Decreased BB mobile fraction of NHE3 double mutant. These results show that NHE3 binds ERM directly as well as indirectly and direct binding is necessary for trafficking and BB mobility.
A Tool for the Semantic Analysis and Recommendation of videos in e-learning

Video lessons are increasingly adopted in education, especially in universities and lifelong learning projects. Their popularity is due to the people's familiarity with video and to other intrinsic characteristics of this medium, such as the message rapidity and its reproducibility. Accordingly, Massive Open Online Courses are gaining a prominent role in both formal and informal education and many universities provide video courses for their students through suited platforms or even freely accessible to everyone. To improve the effectiveness of video lessons and to make them part of a wider learning environment, we decided to investigate the possibility of making a system that, starting from a video, can suggest further “readings”. Such a system is thought for independent lifelong learners, for regular students, for teachers and instructional designers as well. Keywords-Cognitive computing; video lessons; MOOCs; technology enhanced learning; lifelong learning.
The Role of Categorical Perception and Acoustic Details in the Processing of Mandarin Tonal Alternations in Contexts: An Eye-Tracking Study

This study investigated the perception of Mandarin tonal alternations in disyllabic words. In Mandarin, a low-dipping Tone3 is converted to a high-rising Tone2 when followed by another Tone3, known as third tone sandhi. Although previous studies showed statistically significant differences in F0 between a high-rising Sandhi-Tone3 (T3) and a Tone2, native Mandarin listeners failed to correctly categorize these two tones in perception tasks. The current study utilized the visual-world paradigm in eye-tracking to further examine whether acoustic details in lexical tone aid lexical access in Mandarin. Results showed that Mandarin listeners tend to process Tone2 as Tone2 whereas they tend to first process Sandhi-T3 as both Tone3 and Tone2, then later detect the acoustic differences between the two tones revealed by the sandhi context, and finally activate the target word during lexical access. The eye-tracking results suggest that subtle acoustic details of F0 may facilitate lexical access in automatic fashion in a tone language.
Implications of Ambient Glucose Variation on the Target-to-Background Ratio of Hepatic Tumors By 18FDG-PET Imaging

Objectives: To investigate the effects of ambient glucose on quantitative analysis of hepatic tumors on 2-deoxy-2-(18F)-fluoro-D-glucose (18FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) and to establish a method for glucose correction. Patients and Methods: Eighty-six patients with hepatic lesions identified on 18FDG PET/computed tomography (CT) were analyzed. The serum glucose level (Glc) was recorded prior to imaging, and the maximum standardized uptake value (SUV) in the hepatic tumors and the average SUV in normal liver were determined. The inverse relationship of SUV to glucose can be defined as d (SUV)/d (Glc) = g*SUV/(Glc), where g is the glucose sensitivity. Simulations using glucose level from 70 to 250 mg/dl were performed to evaluate the effects of Glc on the maximum SUV of malignant hepatic lesions and normal liver. Results: By logarithmic transformation and linear regression, g for metastasis was significantly higher than that for normal liver (−0.636 ± 0.144 vs. −0.0536 ± 0.0583; P = 0.00092). Simulation studies showed that the SUV in malignant lesions will decrease rapidly when Glc level is >120 mg/dl, while background liver remains relatively constant up to 250 mg/dl. Conclusion: The tumor FDG uptake is much more sensitive to ambient glucose level variation than the background liver. Therefore, correction by the glucose sensitivity factor will result in more accurate SUV measurements and make semi-quantitative analysis of 18FDG PET scans more reliable.
Impact of shifts in strategic orthodoxy on international enterprise performance

This deductive-hypothetico research addressed a literature void on the research problem: Impact of Shifts in Strategic Othodoxy on International Enterprise Performance. This study hypothesised: H11: Strategic orientation correlates with superior international performance; H12: Global strategy contributes to superior performance internationally; and, H13: Skills in strategy execution lead to superiior performance internationally. Three hundred and nine variables in three hypotheses were tested with data collected from a 'small,' but highly relevant sample. Ninety-two variables were positively correlated while 217 were negative. Due to the large number of variables for each hypothesis, no hypothesis was fully supported or rejected. Eleven models for superior international performance have been scientifically developed from data analyses. Models are designed to aid robust international franchising stategy development by strategists at varying continuum of international expertise. Significant serendipitous findings include: nullification of conventional wisdom that the larger the sample size, the higher the reliability the research findings; lateral instead of dedicated strategies can be more effective, in this instance, marketing strategy had no positive correlation with dependent marketing variables but correlated positively with financial variables; and, cost of Australian international franchising operations was determined. A cross sectional research in 2007 will degrade with passage of time. Environmental dynamics will affect its relevance. This study concerns Australian international franchisors, hence generalizability outside this dimension may not be appropriate. Contribution of this research to knowledge is significant: outcomes filled a literature void in relation to the research problem; findings of positively correlated variables help franchising strategists develop strategies that achieve superior performance, whereas negatively correlated variables help avoid costly mistakes; and, the research refuted previous postulations that fundamentals of western management were flawed. Culminating from this research, a window of opportunities has been created for further research in various areas such as varying types or research; methodologies; sectoral and geographical variations; and changes in research scope and width.