Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Meta-analysis of Optimal Management of Lower Pole Stone of 10 - 20 mm: Flexible Ureteroscopy (FURS) versus Extracorporeal Shock Wave Lithotripsy (ESWL) versus Percutaneus Nephrolithotomy (PCNL).

BACKGROUND the optimal management of lower calyceal stones is still controversial, because no single method is suitable for the removal of all lower calyceal stones. Minimally invasive procedures such as extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL), percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL) and flexible ureteroscopy (fURS) are the therapeutic methods for lower calyceal stones. The aim of this study was to identify the optimal management of 10-20 mm lower pole stones. METHODS a meta-analysis of cohort studies published before July 2016 was performed from Medline and Cochrane databases. Management of 10-20 mm lower pole stone treated by fURS, ESWL and PCNL with follow-up of residual stones in 1-3 months after procedure were include and urinary stone in other location and size were excluded. A fixed-effects model with Mantzel-Haenzel method was used to calculate the pooled Risk Ratio (RRs) and 95% Confidence Interval (CIs). We assessed the heterogeneity by calculating the I2 statistic. All analyses were performed with Review manager 5.3. RESULTS we analized 8 cohort studies. The stone free rate from 958 patients (271 PCNL, 174 fURS and 513 ESWL), 3 months after operation, was 90.8% (246/271) after PCNL; 75.3% (131/174) after fURS; and 64.7% (332/513) after ESWL. Base on stone free rate in 10-20 mm lower pole stone following management, PCNL is better than fURS (overall RR was 1.32 (95% CI 1.13 - 1.55); p<0.001 and I2=57%) and ESWL (overall risk ratio 1.42 (95% CI 1.30 - 1.55); p=<0.001 and I2 = 85%). But, if we compare between fURS and ESWL, fURS is better than ESWL base on stone free rate in 10-20 mm lower pole stone management with overall RR 1.16 (95% CI 1.04 - 1.30; p=0.01 and I2=40%). CONCLUSION percutaneus nephrolithotomy provided a higher stone free rate than fURS and ESWL. This meta-analysis may help urologist in making decision of intervention in 10-20 mm lower pole stone management.
CS 512 Final : Tweet Sentiment Analysis Using Syntactic Tweets and Ensemble Neural Nets

Microblogging like Twitter has become a very popular platform for internet users, and users often generate millions of tweets a day to express their opinions about certain things and share their life experience about the world. If sentiment analysis techniques can be applied on tweets effectively wiht only small amount of labeled training data, we can gain very valuable information for marketing purposes. For example, companies may want to monitor consumers’ opinions about their products on Twitter platform. Therefore, the ability to classify short tweets into sentiment scales with limited data is very valuable. In this paper, we propose to (1) augment small training tweets with Syntactic Examples generated by Markov Chain Model and Word Lists, (2) randomly sample subembeddings from full trained word embeddings using Ensemble Neural Nets(BiLSTM + CNN).
An immunohistochemical study of GABAA receptor gamma subunits in Alzheimer's disease hippocampus: Relationship to neurofibrillary tangle progression

Immunohistochemical characterization of the distribution of GABAA receptor subunits γ1/3 and 2 in the hippocampus relative to neurofibrillary tangle (NFT) pathology staging was performed in cognitively normal subjects (Braak stage I/II, n = 4) and two groups of Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients (Braak stage III/IV, n = 4; Braak stage V/VI, n = 8). In both Braak groups of AD patients, neuronal γ1/3 and γ2 immunoreactivity was preserved in all hippocampal subfields. However, compared to normal controls neuronal γ1/3 immunoreactivity was more intense in several end‐stage AD subjects. Despite increased NFT pathology in the Braak V/VI AD group, GABAAγ1/3 and γ2 immunoreactivity did not co‐localize with markers of NFT. These results suggest that upregulating or preserving GABAAγ1/3 and γ2 receptors may protect neurons against neurofibrillary pathology in AD.
Coevolution of caudal skeleton and tail feathers in birds

Birds are capable of a wide range of aerial locomotor behaviors in part because of the derived structure and function of the avian tail. The tail apparatus consists of a several mobile (free) caudal vertebrae, a terminal skeletal element (the pygostyle), and an articulated fan of tail feathers that may be spread or folded, as well as muscular and fibroadipose structures that facilitate tail movements. Morphological variation in both the tail fan and the caudal skeleton that supports it are well documented. The structure of the tail feathers and the pygostyle each evolve in response to functional demands of differing locomotor behaviors. Here, I test whether the integument and skeleton coevolve in this important locomotor module. I quantified feather and skeletal morphology in a diverse sample of waterbirds and shorebirds using a combination of linear and geometric morphometrics. Covariation between tail fan shape and skeletal morphology was then tested using phylogenetic comparative methods. Pygostyle shape is found to be a good predictor of tail fan shape (e.g., forked, graduated), supporting the hypothesis that the tail fan and the tail skeleton have coevolved. This statistical relationship is used to reconstruct feather morphology in an exemplar fossil waterbird, Limnofregata azygosternon. Based on pygostyle morphology, this taxon is likely to have exhibited a forked tail fan similar to that of its extant sister clade Fregata, despite differing in inferred ecology and other aspects of skeletal anatomy. These methods may be useful in reconstructing rectricial morphology in other extinct birds and thus assist in characterizing the evolution of flight control surfaces in birds. J. Morphol. 275:1431–1440, 2014. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
A novel high-speed IP-timing covert channel: Design and evaluation

Covert channel is a classical threat to cyber security because it aims to transfer data between entities that are not allowed to exchange information. To enhance the security of cyber systems, many covert channels have been identified and investigated, in which IP-timing covert channel is one of the important risks because IP is the dominating communication protocol for computer networks. However, despite the potential risks, existing IP-timing covert channels seem to be less significant because most of them carry information by arbitrary inter-packet delays, which leads to low transmission rates and can be easily detected. In this paper, we identify a novel IP-timing covert channel that can significantly increase the transmission rate. Specifically, we propose a new framework for IP-timing covert channel, where the main idea is to use the routes to carry information. Based on the framework, we present the detailed designs for IP-timing covert channels based on TCP and UDP, in which we develop new technique to reduce the channel error rate. To evaluate the performance of the proposed covert channels, we also implement them in realistic systems and conduct extensive experiments. The experimental results show that the proposed IP-timing covert channel achieves 15 times higher rate than existing channels with less than 0.54% error rate. This study shows that the risk of IP-timing channel can be more serious than expected, which requires more sophisticated countermeasures.
Prospective evaluation of vitamin E for hot flashes in breast cancer survivors.

PURPOSE Hot flashes represent a substantial clinical problem for some breast cancer survivors. Although estrogen or progesterone preparations can alleviate these symptoms in many patients, concern remains regarding the use of hormonal preparations in such women. Thus, there is a perceived need for nonhormonal treatments for hot flashes for breast cancer survivors. Based on anecdotal evidence that vitamin E was helpful, we designed a trial to investigate this matter. METHODS We developed and conducted a placebo-controlled, randomized, crossover trial where, after a 1 week baseline period, patients received 4 weeks of vitamin E 800 IU daily, then 4 weeks of an identical-appearing placebo, or vice versa. Diaries were used to measure potential toxicities and hot flashes during the baseline week and the two subsequent 4-week treatment periods. RESULTS The 120 patients evaluated for toxicity failed to show any. The 105 patients who finished the first treatment period showed a similar reduction in hot flash frequencies (25% v 22%; P = .90) for the two study arms. A crossover analysis, however, showed that vitamin E was associated with a minimal decrease in hot flashes (one less hot flash per day than was seen with a placebo) (P < or = .05). At the study end, patients did not prefer vitamin E over the placebo (32% v 29%, respectively). CONCLUSION Although this trial was able to show a statistically significant hot flash reduction with vitamin E compared to a placebo, the clinical magnitude of this reduction was marginal.
A Prospective Baseline Versus On‐Treatment Study Assessing Patient Perceptions of Using a Smaller Needle When Injecting Intramuscular Interferon Beta‐1a (Avonex)

&NA; This study assessed patient perceptions of using a smaller needle (1‐inch, 25‐gauge) to administer weekly intramuscular (IM) interferon beta‐1a (IFN ‐1a [Avonex]) injections. Patients received 1 IM IFN ‐1a injection at baseline using the standard needle (1.25‐inch, 23‐gauge), followed by 4 weekly injections using the smaller needle. The primary end points were change in self‐reported visual analog scale scores for preinjection anxiety and postinjection pain, assessed at baseline and once weekly during the 4 weeks of therapy with the smaller needle. Secondary evaluations included assessment of patient perception of ease of use and fear of self‐injection with 2 questionnaires, and changes in the number of injection‐site reactions. Patients had a mean decrease of 25 ± 31 mm (baseline mean, 46 mm; 4‐week mean, 21 mm; p = .0002) in anxiety score and a mean decrease of 22 ± 29 mm (baseline mean, 41 mm; 4‐week mean, 19 mm; p = .0003) in pain score. Overall, patients thought the smaller needle was easier to use than the standard needle. Qualitative measurements suggested patients who self‐injected IM IFN ‐1a experienced less fear when using the smaller needle. Preinjection preparation parameters decreased throughout the course of the treatment period. No patients experienced injection‐site reactions with the smaller needle. Patients preferred using a smaller needle to administer their weekly IM IFN ‐1a injection.
Improving the local search capability of Effective Butterfly Optimizer using Covariance Matrix Adapted Retreat Phase

Effective Butterfly Optimizer(EBO) is a self-adaptive Butterfly Optimizer which incorporates a crossover operator in Perching and Patrolling to increase the diversity of the population. This paper proposes a new retreat phase called Covariance Matrix Adapted Retreat Phase (CMAR), which uses covariance matrix to generate a new solution and thus improves the local search capability of EBO. This version of EBO is called EBOwithCMAR. We evaluated the performance of EBOwithCMAR on CEC-2017 benchmark problems and compared with the results of winners of a special session of CEC-2016 for bound-constrained problems. The experimental results show that EBOwithCMAR is competitive with the compared algorithms.
Variability of crossreactivity of IgE antibodies to group I and V allergens in eight grass pollen species

Crossreactivity to Dactylis glomerata, Festuca rubra, Phleum pratense, Anthoxanthum odoratum, Secale cereale, Zen mays, and Phragmites communis of IgE antibodies against Lol p I or Lol p V was investigated by means of RAST‐inhibition. Within a group of sera the degree of crossreactivity was demonstrated to be highly variable. Individual sera were not always equally crossreactive to all pollen species. A high degree of crossreactivity for Group I allergens did not necessarily implicate the same for Group V. Group I and Group V representatives were found to be present in all eight species. It was demonstrated that within this group of grass species significant quantitative and qualitative differences exist, with respect to Group I and Group V allergens. Species with a low phylogenetic affinity to Lolium perenne, like Zea mays and Phragmites communis showed a very low degree of reactivity, even when measured with the most crossreactive sera. A higher taxonomic relationship however, did not always implicate a closer antigenic resemblance. Antigenically both allergens from Zea mays are more similar to Lol p I and Lol p V, than the analogues in Secale cereale.
Suppression of cyclic GMP‐specific phosphodiesterase 5 promotes apoptosis and inhibits growth in HT29 cells

Phosphodiesterase 5 (PDE5) is a major isoform of cGMP phosphodiesterase in a variety of human tumor cell lines and plays a key role in regulating intracellular cGMP concentrations ([cGMP]i). Here, we demonstrate that suppression of PDE5 gene expression by antisense pZeoSV2/ASP5 plasmid transfection results in a sustained increase in [cGMP]i, growth inhibition, and apoptosis in human colon tumor HT29 cells. With stable transfection, antisense transcripts exhibited a specific suppression in PDE5 activity, mRNA levels, and a 93 kDa hPDE5A1 protein. In cloned antisense cells, prolongation of the cell growth doubling times correlate positively with suppressed PDE5 activity and increased [cGMP]i. The growth inhibition in PDE5 antisense clones is due to an increased apoptotic rate and delayed cell‐cycle progression. These results corroborate previous findings with the PDE5 inhibitor exisulind and its derivatives showing that sustained [cGMP]i induces apoptosis and growth inhibition in tumor cells. Furthermore, an inducible mitotic inhibitor p21WAF1/CIP1 has been found to account for the delay of cell‐cycle progression in PDE5 antisense clones at G2/M phase. A proteolytic cleavage of p21WAF1/CIP1 in the antisense clones is also increased at the later stage of serum stimulation. The protein kinase G (PKG) inhibitor, KT5823, can prevent the cleavage of p21WAF1/CIP. These data substantiate a pivotal role for PDE5 as a modulator of apoptosis and cell‐cycle progression for human carcinoma via a mechanism involving the activation of [cGMP]i/PKG signaling pathways. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
A two-view ultrasound CAD system for spina bifida detection using Zernike features

In this work, we address a very specific CAD (Computer Aided Detection/Diagnosis) problem and try to detect one of the relatively common birth defects - spina bifida, in the prenatal period. To do this, fetal ultrasound images are used as the input imaging modality, which is the most convenient so far. Our approach is to decide using two particular types of views of the fetal neural tube. Transcerebellar head (i.e. brain) and transverse (axial) spine images are processed to extract features which are then used to classify healthy (normal), suspicious (probably defective) and non-decidable cases. Decisions raised by two independent classifiers may be individually treated, or if desired and data related to both modalities are available, those decisions can be combined to keep matters more secure. Even more security can be attained by using more than two modalities and base the final decision on all those potential classifiers. Our current system relies on feature extraction from images for cases (for particular patients). The first step is image preprocessing and segmentation to get rid of useless image pixels and represent the input in a more compact domain, which is hopefully more representative for good classification performance. Next, a particular type of feature extraction, which uses Zernike moments computed on either B/W or gray-scale image segments, is performed. The aim here is to obtain values for indicative markers that signal the presence of spina bifida. Markers differ depending on the image modality being used. Either shape or texture information captured by moments may propose useful features. Finally, SVM is used to train classifiers to be used as decision makers. Our experimental results show that a promising CAD system can be actualized for the specific purpose. On the other hand, the performance of such a system would highly depend on the qualities of image preprocessing, segmentation, feature extraction and comprehensiveness of image data.
Genómica evolutiva de la regulación transcripcional en las principales familias multigénicas del sistema quimiosensorial de Drosophila

El sistema quimiosensorial (SQ) participa en la deteccion de nutrientes, depredadores y pareja, siendo -por tanto- fundamental en la supervivencia de los organismos y de las especies. En insectos, las primeras etapas de la quimiopercepcion estan mediadas por familias multigenicas que codifican: (i) proteinas extracelulares, como las Odorant-Binding Proteins (OBPs) y las Chemosensory Proteins (CSPs); (ii) proteinas quimiorreceptoras, como los Odorant (ORs), Gustatory (GRs) e Ionotropic Receptors (IRs). Dado que la eficacia biologica de los individuos depende de su correcta expresion, estas familias multigenicas constituyen un excelente modelo para estudiar procesos adaptativos a nivel molecular. La creciente disponibilidad de datos moleculares nos ha conferido la oportunidad de comprender el papel de la seleccion natural en la evolucion transcripcional de los genes del SQ. No obstante, la naturaleza masiva e innovadora de estos datos ha hecho indispensable el desarrollo e implementacion de nuevos metodos de genetica de poblaciones y evolucion molecular en las potentes herramientas bioinformaticas DnaSPv5, BadiRate y popDrowser. Utilizando estas y otras herramientas, hemos determinado que los genes que codifican OBPs no estan distribuidos aleatoriamente en el genoma de Drosophila, sino agrupados formando clusteres de genes. La conservacion de estos clusteres esta relacionada con la amplitud y el ruido transcripcional de sus integrantes, asi como tambien con su estado de la cromatina (’transcription elongation’ y con la union de la proteina JIL-1). Entre otras funciones, la JIL-1 libera la ARN polimerasa pausada en la region promotora, lo que produce una rafaga de elongacion de la transcripcion genica que incrementa el ruido transcripcional. Debido a que las fluctuaciones de OBPs pueden alterar el comportamiento de los individuos, este ruido transcripcional puede generar una plasticidad fenotipica beneficiosa, especialmente en ambientes externos cambiantes. La arquitectura de la region promotora puede jugar un papel fundamental en pausar la actividad de la ARN polimerasa. En este sentido, hemos inferido que las regiones upstream de los aIRs y las CSPs estan sometidas a una importante constriccion funcional, mientras que las de los ORs y los GRs han experimentado un mayor impacto de la seleccion darwiniana. Aunque aun faltan mas evidencias al respecto, la evolucion de las regiones upstream de las OBPs podria estar vinculada con el impacto diferencial de la cromatina en su regulacion transcripcional. De cualquier modo, no cabe duda que la seleccion natural (negativa y positiva) ha contribuido significativamente a la evolucion transcripcional de las principales familias multigenicas del SQ, mediante los mecanismos que implican elementos cis-reguladores y estados de la cromatina.
Dynamic Patterns of Spontaneous Ongoing Activity in the Visual Cortex of Anesthetized and Awake Monkeys are Different

&NA; Ongoing internal cortical activity plays a major role in perception and behavior both in animals and humans. Previously we have shown that spontaneous patterns resembling orientation‐maps appear over large cortical areas in the primary visual‐cortex of anesthetized cats. However, it remains unknown 1) whether spontaneous‐activity in the primate also displays similar patterns and 2) whether a significant difference exists between cortical ongoing‐activity in the anesthetized and awake primate. We explored these questions by combining voltage‐sensitive‐dye imaging with multiunit and local‐field‐potential recordings. Spontaneously emerging orientation and ocular‐dominance maps, spanning up to 6 × 6 mm2, were readily observed in anesthetized but not in awake monkeys. Nevertheless, spontaneous correlated‐activity involving orientation‐domains was observed in awake monkeys. Under both anesthetized and awake conditions, spontaneous correlated‐activity coincided with traveling waves. We found that spontaneous activity resembling orientation‐maps in awake animals spans smaller cortical areas in each instance, but over time it appears across all of V1. Furthermore, in the awake monkey, our results suggest that the synaptic strength had been completely reorganized including connections between dissimilar elements of the functional architecture. These findings lend support to the notion that ongoing‐activity has many more fast switching representations playing an important role in cortical function and behavior.
Intramyocardial Gene Silencing by Interfering RNA

RNAi is a widely used methodology for gene silencing. The action mechanism of siRNA molecules has been well studied in recent years, and the technique has been optimized in terms of safety and effectiveness. Cardiovascular diseases have a high incidence in the current population, and despite of the extensive research, safe and efficient therapeutics have not yet been found, which is reflected by 17.1 million people who die each year for this cause. In this context, siRNAs are being considered a therapeutic tool to regulate the expression of genes involved in the generation of these pathologies. The efficacy of siRNAs entry to cardiomyocytes, the safety of the delivery process and the degree of silencing achieved are main aspects before consider it as a cardiovascular disease therapy. Presently, we will give a brief outline of the current understanding of the RNAi mechanism and the delivery system to the heart. We describe the use of lentivirus for a functional silencing of cardiac proteins in the study of a pathophysiological process, the slow force response to cardiac stretch.
A hepatocyte-specific basolateral membrane protein is targeted to the same domain when expressed in Madin-Darby canine kidney cells.

Different mechanisms for polarized sorting of apical and basolateral plasma membrane proteins appear to be operative in different cell types. In hepatocytes, all proteins are first transported to the basolateral surface, where sorting (probably signal-mediated) of apical proteins then takes place. In contrast, in Madin-Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cells, proteins are directly transported from the trans-Golgi network to their appropriate plasma membrane domain. In order to study the differences in the sorting requirements of the two cell types, we have expressed a hepatocyte-specific basolateral membrane protein, the asialoglycoprotein receptor H1, in MDCK cells. H1 was found to be specifically transported to the basolateral domain also in this heterologous system, suggesting that either the same basolateral targeting signal is operative in both cell types or, more likely, that basolateral transport occurs "by default," i.e. without the requirement for a sorting signal.