Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Spinal cord regeneration: the action of neurotrophin-3 in spinal cord injury in rats.

OBJECTIVE For many years, it was believed that medullary regeneration could not occur, although currently there are many trials using neurotrophic factors, stem cells, fetal medulla grafts, peripheral nerve grafts, and antibodies against myelin-associated proteins that demonstrate the existence of the possibility of spinal cord regeneration. The purpose of this study was to investigate the action of neurotrophin-3, a novel neurotrophic factor. METHODS The New York University impactor, a standardized device for delivery of spinal cord injuries was used on 33 rats, which were divided into 2 groups: a control group receiving distilled water intraperitoneally and a treatment group receiving neurotrophin-3 intraperitoneally. RESULTS Using the Basso, Beattie, and Bresnahan scale, the locomotor recovery curve for the neurotrophin-3 treated group was superior to that of the control group (P < 0.05); the administration of neurotrophin-3 was associated with the absence of deaths, while the control group showed a 28.5% (P = 0.026) mortality rate. Other parameters (hematuria rate and histological analysis) showed no significant differences. CONCLUSIONS Based on these results, it appears that a strong relationship exists between the use of neurotrophin-3 in rats with spinal cord injury and better functional recovery.
Managing Change History in Web Ontologies

Ontologies changes in the sense of constantly growing in scientific discourse and being revised over time by different people. It refers to the fact that groups of professionals over time (e.g. in a longer term project) develop a common understanding based on joint interpretation of a shared terminology. The terminology will get structured and refined as the Communities of Practice concerned with a field of knowledge develop a deeper understanding of issues, thus moving from a loosely clustered terminology to a semi-formal or even formal ontology.Keeping trail of these changes in semantically rich and formally sound mechanism, on one hand, has pragmatic advantages for providing the undo and redo facility and to recover to a previous state of ontology. On the other hand, it also contributes in understanding the change process and identifying the patterns of changes in the ontologies. This research aims at developing semantic structure for comprehensively storing ontology changes, and the application of the stored changes. For change history management in evolving ontologies, we have modeled an ontology for change history.
Does Access Modality Matter? Evaluation of Validity in Reusing Clinical Care Data

Self-service database portals may improve access to institutional data resources for clinical research or quality improvement, but questions remain about the validity of this approach. We tested the accuracy of data extracted from a clinical data repository using a self-service portal by comparing three approaches to measuring medication use among patients with coronary disease: (1) automated extraction using a portal, (2) extraction by an experienced data architect, and (3) manual chart abstraction. Outcomes included medications and diagnoses (e.g., myocardial infarction, heart failure). Charts were manually reviewed for 200 patients. Using matched criteria, self-service query identified 7327 of 7358 patients identified by the data analyst. For patients in both cohorts, agreement rates ranged from 0.99 for demographic data to 0.94 for laboratory data. Based on chart review, the self-service portal and the analyst had similar sensitivities and specificities for comorbid diagnoses and statin use.
A knowledge-based system for redundancy resolution and path planning, using self-motion topology of redundant manipulators

The paper presents a knowledge based approach to redundancy resolution of redundant manipulators using self motion topology knowledge. The approach can work under joint limits. End effector positions with negligible error can be attained by increasing the resolution of the configuration space maps being processed. Using the presented approach, performance of different path planning alternatives can also be evaluated for redundant manipulators.
Lung function in adult survivors of very low birth weight, with and without bronchopulmonary dysplasia

The lung function outcome of cohorts of very low birth weight (VLBW; birth weight <1501 g) survivors born in the late 1970s or early 1980s into adulthood at an age when lung growth would be expected to have ceased is not well described. The aim of this study was to report lung function data in adulthood of VLBW survivors compared with normal birth weight controls (>2499 g), and in those who had bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) compared with those without BPD.
Characterization of centromere alterations in liposarcomas

Supernumerary ring and large marker chromosomes are a characteristic of atypical lipomas and well‐differentiated liposarcomas (ALP‐WDLPS) and are composed of amplified 12q14–15 sequences in association with variable segments from other chromosomes. Although stably transmitted, these chromosomes contain centromeric alterations, showing no detectable alpha‐satellite sequences. We performed C‐banding, fluorescence in situ hybridization, and immunostaining with anti‐centromere antibodies in 8 cases of liposarcomas with supernumerary rings and large markers, including 5 ALP‐WDLPS and 3 dedifferentiated‐LPS and high‐grade LPS. Our results with alpha‐satellite probes and anti‐CENPB antibodies confirm the lack of detectable alpha‐satellite sequences in the five ALP‐WDLPS supernumerary chromosomes, whereas centromeric activity was proved by the detection of kinetochores by using anti‐CENPC antibodies. In contrast, the high grade and dedifferentiated liposarcomas showed a different pattern. In 2 cases, amplified chromosome 12 sequences, including amplification of alpha‐satellite 12 sequences in 1 case, were present on chromosomes with typical centromeres. In another case, the rings were similar to WDLPS‐ALP rings, but a large marker contained a chromosome 5 centromere and amplified alpha‐satellite sequences from chromosome 8. ALP‐WDLPS is the first example of a tumor class for which the presence of stable analphoid chromosomes is a constant and specific abnormality. Formation of newly derived centromeres, so‐called neocentromeres, could be an original and effective way to maintain a selective advantage in neoplastic cells by conferring stability to the supernumerary chromosomes of ALP‐WDLPS. The activation of normally non‐centromeric sequences might be obtained by an epigenetic mechanism due to the peculiar chromatin conformation of these highly complex chromosomes. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Atomistic simulation of stacking fault formation in bcc iron

We present large scale atomistic simulations of crack growth in iron under quasistatic loading in mode I. We show that long cracks display a brittle character of extension, while the growth of smaller cracks is accompanied by emission of partial dislocations from the crack tip and subsequent transformation of the stacking faults behind the dislocations to multilayer twins. The competing shear processes at a crack tip are characterized in terms of the relative sliding of up to four adjacent atomic planes emanating from the crack tip region. The results are in agreement with a global energy balance derived from perfect samples, and with experimental observations that twinning and fracture are cooperating processes under sufficiently large quasistatic loading at low temperatures.
SENIOR THESIS: WIRELESS ELECTRICITY AND IMPEDANCE MATCHING

Figure 1. Nikola Tesla’s transmitter tower, death ray, or Wardenclyffe tower. [17] In this thesis we perform impedance matching in a circuit with an inductively coupled load. We give an overview of the literature in the field of wireless power transfer and coupled mode theory in the context of electromagnetic systems. We construct an analytical model of the circuit and provide steps to minimize the phase difference between the voltage and current in our circuit and maximize the power sent to the coupled load. Finally we suggest ways to extend the experiment to improve the efficiency of the transfer and replicate the experiments performed by M. Soljacic’s Research Group at MIT in 2005. 1 2 JONATHAN RAIMAN, PROF. GREGORY OGIN Introduction How do you efficiently wireless transfer power between two circuits? How do you minimize the power needed to power inductively coupled loads while maximizing the power delivered to the load? Optimization problems such as this one occur frequently when designing transformers, wireless power transfer systems, or radios, and play a significant role to understand the recent advancements made in wireless power transfer schemes, in particular those by M. Soljacic’s MIT Research Group in 2005 when they transferred with 40% efficiency over 2 m using solenoid air coils or those by Intel’s research labs in 2008 when they switched to 30 cm tall pancake coils and achieved over 75% efficiency. In this thesis we replicate same axis wireless power transfer across two inductively coupled circuits at 1 kHz and provide suggestions to extend this experiment to more closely replicate the experiments carried out at MIT and Intel. This thesis is organized as follows. First we will introduce the theory behind impedance matching, by analyzing the frequency component of the different parts of our circuit. We then give a brief introduction to coupled mode theory in the context of electromagnetic systems by considering resonating coils. Then we give an overview of the common emitter amplifier that is used to strengthen the signal we want to transfer. We then perform adjustments on our circuit to compensate for some of its design flaws until it performs as intended. We compare our predicted circuit behavior with the experiment. Our experiment’s behavior agrees with our theoretical model. Finally we suggest several ways to extend this experiment to explore higher frequency behavior and approach more closely the experiments done at MIT and Intel.
Use of a Falling-Weight Tester for Assessing Ceramic Impact Strength

A falling-weight device was developed for testing ceramic impact strength. Tests carried out on a large sample of commercial tiles showed that the incremental height test, wherein drop height is raised gradually, is the most reliable. In order to assess the accuracy of the test, an additional experiment was performed on laboratory-made briquettes fired at 550, 650, 750, 850, and 950 °C. In contrast to the results of Bronitsky and Hamer's (1986) pendulum test (but in conformity with general principles of ceramic engineering), the present study found a strong correlation between firing temperature and impact strength. It is concluded that the falling-weight device provides a simple, accurate, and reliable test for ceramic impact strength.
A contribution to the pharmacology of 5-nitro-2-furaldehyde semicarbazone.

1. A pharmacodynamic and toxicologic investigation of 5-nitro-2-furaldehyde semicarbazone has been made in several species of animals. 2. In quantities, indicated by bacteriological studies as therapeutic, the compound appears to be tolerated without symptoms. Toxic doses produce hyperexcitability of the central nervous system in the rat. 3. In vitro , 5-nitro-2-furaldehyde semicarbazone diminished the activity of tissue dehydrogenases. 4. Preliminary ingestion trials in man have been recorded.
Modeling Personality Influences on YouTube Usage

Understanding the personality-contextual attributes of target users can help developers design tools that increase the effectiveness of social media sites or identify appropriate lead users to seed products already in development. This paper illustrates that users' personality traits serve as a distinguishable set of characteristics that can be meaningfully related to YouTube usage. A model outlining the structural relations among: personality and motives (predictors), involvement (mediator), and video preferences and user activities on YouTube (dependent constructs) was proposed and successfully tested. The analysis was able to capitalize on the full statistical advantage of structural equation modeling in testing the unattenuated effects of the constructs through the use of fully latent variables. In particular, through the use of the new exploratory structural equation modeling technique, a full set of Big Five personality factors was modeled as latent variables – which was not methodologically viable until recently. Modeling a fuller set of predictors allows researchers to control for the influence of non-salient predictors and to ascertain the unique and common variances among predictors. Each of the Big Five personality factors was found to have a significant influence on at least one aspect of user participation. Extraversion and openness to experience had the most number of significant effects, showing not only proximal effects on motives but direct effects on video preferences and user activities as well. Although the effects of the other personality factors — neuroticism, conscientiousness, and agreeableness — were limited to motives, they were moderately stronger than extraversion and openness to experience.
Data Locality and Load Balancing in

Large-scalesharedmemorymultiprocessorstypically supportamultilevel memoryhierarchyconsistingof per-processorcaches,a local portion of sharedmemory, and remotesharedmemory. On such machines,the performanceof parallelprogramsis often limited by the high latency of remotememory references.In this paperwe explore how knowledgeof the underlyingmemoryhierarchycan be usedto schedulecomputationanddistributedatastructures,and therebyimprovedatalocality. Our study is donein the contextof , aconcurrentobject-orientedlanguagedevelopedatStanford. We developabstractionsfor the programmerto supplyoptional information about the data referencepatternsof the program. This information is usedby the runtime systemto distributetasksand objectsso that the tasksexecuteclose(in thememoryhierarchy)to the objectsthey reference. We demonstratethe effectivenessof thesetechniquesby applying themto severalapplicationschosenfrom the SPLASHparallel benchmarksuite. Our experiencesuggeststhat improving datalocality canbesimplethrougha combinationof programmerabstractions andsmartruntimescheduling.
Evaluation of a Community Health Service Center-Based Intervention Program for Managing Chronic Heart Failure.

BACKGROUND Although the role of primary care for the management of patients with chronic heart failure (CHF) has been highly recommended, structural involvement of primary care in heart failure (HF) management programs is extremely limited. AIMS To examine the feasibility and applicability of two most recommended forms of care delivery mode, home visit and telephone support, for CHF management in the setting of community health service center (CHSC). STUDY DESIGN Prospective study. METHODS This study was conducted in two CHSCs in Beijing, China. Care delivery was led by trained general practitioners or community nurses via home visits in one CHSC and telephone support in the other. Data regarding the change in mortality and hospitalization rate during 12 months and self-care level at 6 months were prospectively collected and compared across the intervention groups. RESULTS A total of 329 patients were included, with 142 in the home visit group and 187 in the telephone support group. Patients in both groups had frequent visits to CHSC (8.1±5.9 in the home visit and 7.7±4.1 in the telephone support group, p=0.45) during the follow-up period. Compared to the telephone support group, patients in the home visit group showed a reduction in all-cause mortality (14.1% versus 20.3%, p=0.14), one or more hospitalizations due to any cause (33.8% versus 44.2%, p=0.12) and one or more hospitalizations due to cardiac cause (17.6% versus 24.6%, p=0.13) in the home visit group. The absolute differences were 6.2% (95% CI: 1.9%, 14.3%), 8.4% (95% CI: 2.1%, 18.9%) and 7.3% (95% CI: 1.5%, 16.1%), respectively, although the results were not statistically significant. After 6 months of intervention, patients in both groups achieved marked improvement in self-care with reference to their own baseline values. CONCLUSION Although no statistical difference was observed between the two care delivery approaches regarding the clinical outcomes of interest, given the high participation rates, the acceptable rate of adverse events, frequent CHSC visits and patients' preferences in the current study, it was concluded that CHSC might be the optimal setting for delivering care to CHF patients in China.
UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Measurement of the cross section for inclusive isolated-photon production in pp collisions at √s̅=13 TeV using the ATLAS detector

Inclusive isolated-photon production in pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV is studied with the ATLAS detector at the LHC using a data set with an integrated luminosity of 3 . 2 fb − 1 . The cross section is measured as a function of the photon transverse energy above 125 GeV in different regions of photon pseudorapidity. Next-to-leading-order perturbative QCD and Monte Carlo event-generator predictions are compared to the cross-section measurements and provide an adequate description of the data.
A pilot study of cisplatin, irinotecan, leucovorin and 5-fluorouracil (PILF) combination chemotherapy for advanced gastric cancer.

PURPOSE Irinotecan, in combination with leucovorin/5-fluorouracil (FU) or with cisplatin, is known to be active for treating advanced gastric cancer (AGC). This pilot study evaluated a novel three-drug combination of irinotecan, leucovorin/FU and cisplatin as a first-line treatment of AGC. The primary endpoint was to assess the feasibility in anticipation of conducting a larger phase II study. MATERIALS AND METHODS Chemotherapy-naive AGC patients received irinotecan 150 mg/m(2) on day 1, and leucovorin 200 mg/m(2) and a 22-h infusion of FU 1000 mg/m(2) on days 1 and 2. Cisplatin 30 mg/m(2) was administered on day 2. Treatment was repeated every 2 weeks until disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. RESULTS Of the 17 eligible patients, two patients had an ECOG performance status of 2 and their median age was 48 years (range: 31 to 69). A total of 117 chemotherapy cycles were delivered (median: 6, range: 1 to 12). The causes of treatment discontinuation were disease progression in 9 patients (53%), refusal (35%) and toxicity (12%). Although grade 3 or 4 neutropenia (41% of patients) was the major toxicity that required dose adjustments, only one episode of febrile neutropenia occurred. Grade 3 or 4 nausea and vomiting, diarrhea and fatigue were observed in 35%, 35% and 29% of patients, respectively. None of the patients died of toxicity during treatment. Of the 16 patients who were evaluable for response, 7 (44%) experienced a partial response. CONCLUSION This novel multi-drug combination was tolerated well in patients with AGC. Based on the encouraging efficacy and tolerability, a randomized phase II study is ongoing in this disease setting.
Acute and chronic nicotine effects on behaviour and brain activation during intertemporal decision making

Previous studies demonstrated higher discount rates for delayed rewards in smokers than non‐smokers. We performed this study to determine whether those differences in intertemporal choice are due to pharmacological effects of nicotine and to track related brain regions. Thirty‐three non‐smokers and 27 nicotine‐dependent smokers underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while performing an intertemporal choice task consisting of 40 sets of monetary reward options that varied by delay to delivery. Smokers were investigated in a state of nicotine satiation. Non‐smokers were investigated twice, receiving nicotine (2 mg) and placebo gums in a double‐blinded, randomized cross‐over design. Smokers displayed steeper temporal discounting than non‐smokers. Those behavioural differences were reflected in the brain response during the decision between two alternative money/time pairs: smokers showed less activation in parietal and occipital areas (e.g. precuneus) than non‐smokers under placebo. A single dose of nicotine in non‐smokers led to a similar effect on brain activation but did not impact behaviour. Processing of the reward magnitude of money/time pairs differed between smokers and non‐smokers: smokers showed decreased reactivity of the ventral striatum. Moreover, there was an acute nicotine effect in non‐smokers on processing of the reward magnitude: nicotine increased the correlation of blood oxygen level‐dependent response and mean amount in the left hippocampus, amygdala and anterior insula. We conclude that cross‐sectional differences between smokers and non‐smokers are only, in part, due to the acute pharmacological effects of nicotine. Longitudinal studies are needed to investigate pre‐drug group characteristics as well as consequences of smoking on discounting behaviour and its neural correlates.
High‐Throughput Live Cell Imaging of Apoptosis

Apoptosis is important for embryonic development, tissue homeostasis, and removal of cells with (potentially transforming) DNA lesions or other types of injuries. Functional genomics screens performed to unravel apoptotic signaling cascades in the context of toxicant‐induced cell injury commonly use apoptosis as an end‐point. Here, a method to detect the accumulation of apoptotic cells in real time that is well suited for high‐throughput screens is described. The method uses automated microscopy in a 96‐well format setting to visualize binding of fluorescent annexin V to the outer membrane leaflet of apoptotic cells. The automated image acquisition is followed by quantitative analysis using bioinformatics software. A protocol for each of the steps in this kinetic method is described, which includes the caspase‐dependent apoptotic response to toxic compounds in multiple cell types and demonstrates that RNAi‐based gene silencing of candidate apoptotic regulators affects the apoptosis kinetics as expected. This protocol will be useful for functional genomics as well as chemical (drug) screens. Curr. Protoc. Cell Biol. 47:18.10. 1‐18.10. 13. © 2010 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
“This Is Not a Well Place”: Neighborhood and Stress in Pigtown

In this study we explored experiences of stress in the lives of 10 mothers and grandmothers living in a low-income, predominantly White, urban neighborhood. Based on interviews, diaries, and photographs, we learned that these women encounter a confluence of stressors related to their everyday lives, their neighborhood, and community culture and institutions. The words and images these women gave us offer insight into how we might improve public health programs and policy, shape epidemiologic variables of interest, and better understand mechanisms related to neighborhoods, stress, and health. We developed a conceptual model representing stressors and sources of stress as overlapping ecological domains. Understanding that low-income, urban women are exposed to multiple, nonindependent types and sources of stress has implications for both research methods and practice. It is our intent that this research will stimulate broad, international dialogue on how living in a poor community may impact the health of women and their children and lead to a new public health that engages whole communities and targets multiple domains.