Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pregnancy-terminating effect of human chorionic gonadotrophin in rats.

A single intramuscular dose of HGC(50) i.u. or more per rat) was able to induce fetal resorption and eventual termination of pregnancy when injected on Day 4 or between days 7 and 11 of pregnancy. This dose was inactive when administered on Day 12 of pregnancy. A single large dose (500 i.u./rat) induced fetal resorption when administered even on Day 12 of pregnancy. In intact rats treated with HCG, daily doses of progesterone were unable to maintain normal implantation; in ovariectomized rats treated with HCG, daily preges. Terone did succeed in maintaining pregnancy in many of the animals. It is suggested that fetal resorption and the eventual pregnancy-terminating effects of HCG in rats are mediated through the alteration of normal ovarian steroidogenesis.
A survey of target materials and orientations suitable for the production of coherent bremsstrahlung in megavoltage imaging

Megavoltage imaging in image-guided radiotherapy usually suffers from the relatively small fraction of photons present in the energy range providing good soft tissue contrast, which corresponds to photon energies below 50 keV. As a consequence, comparatively high imaging doses are required to form low-noise images. Single-crystal targets can help to alleviate this problem through the emission of so-called coherent bremsstrahlung, amounting to a net increase in low-energy photons if the electron beam impinging on a target is carefully aligned with a major symmetry axis of the underlying crystal lattice. In this work, we present an overview of crystal materials and directions that appeared particularly promising during our studies of this phenomenon, based on theoretical considerations. We find that, while diamond targets perform best in absolute terms, those transition metals that exhibit a body-centred cubic lattice appear as interesting alternatives.
The yeast Candida albicans has a clonal mode of reproduction in a population of infected human immunodeficiency virus-positive patients.

To ascertain the population structure of Candida albicans, we have carried out a multilocus enzyme electrophoresis study based on the analysis of 21 gene loci. We have thus characterized 55 strains isolated one each from 55 human immunodeficiency virus-positive patients. There is considerable polymorphism among the strains. A population-genetic analysis indicates that the two fundamental consequences of sexual reproduction (i.e., segregation and recombination) are apparently absent in this population of C. albicans. The population structure of C. albicans appears to be clonal, a state of affairs that has important medical and biological consequences.
Procedures required to accomplish complete cytoreduction of ovarian cancer: is there a correlation with "biological aggressiveness" and survival?

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to determine if the necessity of using specific procedures to attain complete cytoreduction in ovarian cancer correlates with innate biologic aggressiveness and independently influences survival. METHODS Between 1990 and 2000, 213 patients with Stage IIIC epithelial ovarian cancer underwent complete cytoreduction before initiation of systemic platinum-based combination chemotherapy. Survival was stratified and analyzed (log rank and Cox regression) on the basis of whether extrapelvic bowel resection, diaphragm stripping, full-thickness diaphragm resection, modified posterior pelvic exenteration, peritoneal implant ablation and/or aspiration, and excision of grossly involved retroperitoneal lymph nodes were necessary to attain a visibly disease-free cytoreductive outcome. RESULTS The median and estimated 5-year survival for the cohort were 75.8 months and 54%, respectively. Survival was influenced (log rank) by the requirement of diaphragm stripping (required, median 42 months vs not required, median 79 months; P = 0.03) and the extent of mesenteric and serosal implants that required removal (none, median not reached, vs 1-50 implants, median not reached, vs >50 implants, median 40 months; P = 0.002). Survival was independently influenced (Cox regression) only by the extent of peritoneal metastatic implants that required removal (P = 0.01). The other investigated procedures and type of chemotherapy used did not influence survival. CONCLUSIONS The need to remove a large number of peritoneal implants correlates with biological aggressiveness and diminished survival, but not significantly enough to preclude long-term survival or justify abbreviation of the operative effort. The need to use the other investigated procedures had minimal or no observed influence on survival.
Pharmacokinetics of therapeutic doses of tropisetron in healthy volunteers.

AIMS To establish the bioavailability of tropisetron (5 mg) administered orally as capsule compared with 2 mg given intravenously. METHODS Using a randomized crossover design, 18 healthy volunteers received a single oral dose of tropisetron (5 mg) and an intravenous bolus of tropisetron (2 mg) separated by a wash-out period of 1 week. Plasma concentrations of tropisetron were determined by h.p.l.c. and the pharmacokinetic parameters were estimated. RESULTS The mean pharmacokinetic parameters for 5 mg tropisetron given orally were Cmax 3.46 ng ml(-1), t(max) 2.6 h, t(1/2) 5.7 h and AUC(0,infinity) 32.9 ng ml(-1) h. After intravenous administration initial plasma concentration was 15.1 ng ml(-1), t(1/2) 5.6 h, AUC(0,infinity) 20.7 ng ml(-1) h, V 678 l and CL 1800 ml min(-1). An inverse correlation was demonstrated between CYP2D6 activity, measured by the sparteine metabolic ratio, and the bioavailability (mean 0.60, range 0.27-0.99) of oral tropisetron. CONCLUSIONS Tropisetron exhibits a wide range of oral bioavailability at therapeutic doses, which is mainly determined by CYP2D6 activity.
An overview of pedagogy and organisation in clinical interprofessional training units in Sweden and Denmark

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to provide an overview of the organization and pedagogy in Swedish and Danish interprofessional training units (ITUs) and to synthesize empirical findings from Swedish and Danish ITUs published in peer review journals. A questionnaire concerning organization and pedagogy was sent to twenty Swedish and Danish ITUs. After a bibliographic search aimed to find empirical studies from ITUs, twenty Swedish and eight Danish studies were included in the review. The questionnaires results showed that despite different wording, the overall aims for the ITUs were to provide students with the possibility of uniprofessional learning, interprofessional learning, and strengthening of professional identity. Furthermore, it appeared that there were different organizational and pedagogical approaches. The review revealed that differences in clinical tutors’ affiliation and presence in the ITU were challenging. Also different pedagogical approaches were discussed. However, all articles showed that the goals for the ITUs in general were fulfilled. There is basis therefore to recommend the establishment of future clinical ITUs with the patient in the core and with the use of a student activating approach.
An NMDA Receptor/Nitric Oxide Cascade in Presynaptic Parallel Fiber–Purkinje Neuron Long-Term Potentiation

Plasticity of synaptic transmission between parallel fiber (PF) and Purkinje neurons (PNs) is widely accepted as a cellular model for certain forms of cerebellar learning. Whereas the signaling cascades involved in postsynaptically expressed bidirectional long-term changes at PF–PN synapses are well investigated, data on presynaptically expressed long-term potentiation (LTP) are incomplete and controversial. Here we used transgenic mice that express a fluorescent protein Ca2+ sensor in PFs to demonstrate LTP of PF presynaptic Ca2+ transients after PF stimulation with 120 pulses at 4 Hz. Potentiation of the presynaptic Ca2+ transients correlated with the expression of simultaneously recorded LTP of PF–PN synaptic transmission and was suppressed by a protein kinase A inhibitor. Moreover, this presynaptically expressed form of LTP clearly required activation of an NMDA receptor/nitric oxide pathway, in contrast with the majority of previous reports. Blockade of NMDA receptors did not affect the PF Ca2+ transients induced during 4 Hz stimulation, indicating that the NMDA receptors required for the induction of presynaptic PF LTP are not localized in PFs.
Quantification of the contribution of extracellular sodium to 23Na multiple-quantum-filtered NMR spectra of suspensions of human red blood cells.

23Na double-quantum-filtered (DQF) NMR enables the detection of anisotropic motion of sodium ions due to their interaction with ordered structures in biological tissues. Using the technique, anisotropic motion was found for sodium ions in mammalian red blood cell suspensions (RBC) and the effect was shown to correlate with the integrity of membrane cytoskeleton. In the present study relative contributions to the DQF and triple-quantum-filtered (TQF) spectra of sodium bound to anisotropic and isotropic binding sites in the intra- and extracellular sodium pools (Na content being 15 and 150 mM, respectively) of human RBC were quantified for different hematocrits. DQF spectra were measured by a modified Jeener-Broekaert pulse sequence which enabled exclusive detection of anisotropically moving sodium ions. The relative contributions of the extracellular sodium to the TQF and DQF spectra decreased as the hematocrit increased, but their efficiency relative to the sodium content increased. The contribution of the extracellular sodium to the TQF signal was found to dominate the spectrum of the RBC suspension at all hematocrits studied. The contribution of the extracellular sodium to the DQF was significantly smaller than that to the TQF and was only 22% at a high hematocrit of about 90%.
Content-Based Image Retrieval System for Real Images

With the rapid progress of network technologies and multimedia data, information retrieval techniques gradually become content-based, and not text-based yet. In this paper, we propose a content-based image retrieval system to query similar images in a real image database. First, we employ segmentation and main object detection to separate the main object from an image. Then, we extract MPEG-7 features from the object and select relevant features using the SAHS algorithm. Next, two approaches “one-againstall” and “one-against-one” are proposed to build the classifiers based on SVM. To further reduce indexing complexity, K-means clustering is used to generate MPEG-7 signatures. Thus, we combine the classes predicted by the classifiers and the results based on the MPEG-7 signatures, and find out the similar images to a query image. Finally, the experimental results show that our method is feasible in image searching from the real image database and more effective than the other methods.
Identifying cell cycle regulators and combinatorial interactions among transcription factors with microarray data and ChIP-chip data

In this paper, we integrate transcriptional regulatory modelling with temporal correlation analysis between one Transcription Factor (TF) and its corresponding cell cycle-regulated targets to investigate Cell Cycle Regulators (CCRs) and combinatorial interactions among TFs across the cell cycle in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Our method is developed based on the rationale that if one TF or one TF combinatorial interaction takes more possibilities of sharing common cell cycle-regulated targets with other TFs, this TF or TF combinatorial interaction is more likely to control the cell cycle. Our results reveal abundant CCRs and TF co-operativities supported by biological experiments or other computational methods.
Kurdish men's experiences of migration-related mental health issues

Background The migration process may impose stress on the mental health of immigrants. Aim To describe the experiences of immigrant men of Kurdish ethnicity during and after migration to Sweden with regard to mental health issues. Method Using the grounded theory method, we conducted a focus group interview with four Kurdish men and in-depth individual interviews with 10 other Kurdish men. Findings A model with two major themes and interlinked categories was developed. The themes were (1) protective factors for good mental health (sense of belonging, creation and re-creation of Kurdish identity, sense of freedom, satisfaction with oneself) and (2) risk factors for poor mental health (worry about current political situation in the home country, yearning, lack of sense of freedom, dissatisfaction with Swedish society). Implications The study provides insights into the psychological and emotional experiences of immigrant men of Kurdish ethnicity during and after migration to Sweden. It is important for primary health care providers to be aware of the impact that similar migration-related and life experiences have on the health status of immigrants, and also to be aware that groups are comprised of unique individuals with differing experiences and reactions to these experiences. The findings highlight the common themes of the men's experiences and suggest ways to ameliorate mental health issues, including feeling like one is seen as an individual, is a full participant in society, and can contribute to one's own culture.
The Economic Foundation of Generalized Equilibrium Modeling

In 1978 the author and his colleagues built the LEAP model and the Generalized Equilibrium Modeling System GEMS. Often confused with the SRI-Gulf model, the GEMS/LEAP technique draws from the network modeling philosophy of the SRI-Gulf model. However, the GEMS/LEAP approach is significantly more advanced in its representation of producer and consumer behavior, its representation of market-dynamics, its solution algorithm, and its relationship to accepted economic and mathematical programming theory. This paper describes the methodological foundations of the many GEMS and LEAP models in existence. It also gives illustrative results.
A Study of Sourcing Channels for Electronic Business Transactions

There are two popular forms of business-to-business (B2B) marketplaces: public marketplaces and private channels. We study why firms choose either or both of these sourcing channels. Using a framework of decision making under uncertainty, we explain firms' choice of B2B channels as a hedging strategy and as a method of obtaining greater managerial flexibility for the future. We show that greater uncertainty can lead to higher investment with firms more likely to invest in both public and private channels. We find that the level of information technology (IT) capability and spending is an important factor in firms' decision making. When a firm chooses its level of IT investment simultaneously with the decision about which sourcing channels to use, the firm choosing both channels selects the highest level of IT capability and the firm implementing only one channel selects lower levels of IT capability.
A Robust and Discriminative Feature Representation based on Compact Coding

As human vision system works, the visual features extracted from colours, textures, shapes, etc. are complement and should be synthesized to make a decision. Existing applications mainly base on one kind of features such as the wildly used texture feature. We put forward that complement features should be combined together to improve feature discriminabilty. And we propose a feature combining framework, which benefits from the recent fruitful research on compact coding of visual features. The compact codes are learned to be robust to complex image content variations. We combine colour histogram and texture under the framework, and experiments show that our method provides an effective way to the representation of features and has a wide application.
Fast Greedy Search ( FGES ) Algorithm for Continuous Variables

FGESc is an algorithm that takes as input a dataset of continuous variables, greedily searches over selected causal Bayesian network (CBN) structures (models), and outputs the most probable model it finds. The model FGESc returns serves as a data-supported hypothesis about causal relationships that exist among the variables in the dataset. The model is intended to help scientists form hypotheses and guide the design of controlled experiments to investigate these hypotheses.
Transparent, Thermal Balancing of Virtual Machines in Multicore Systems

A method and apparatus for reducing the effects of binocular rivalry in a partially overlapped binocular image are disclosed. A false contour line is generated either electronically or mechanically along the border between the binocular and monocular images. This contour line reduces binocular rivalry in both convergent and divergent partially overlapped binocular displays.
Identification of a potentially radiosensitive subgroup among patients with breast cancer.

BACKGROUND The description of genes and genetic syndromes, such as ataxia-telangiectasia, that predispose some women to breast cancer will provide greater insight into the genetic basis of cancer susceptibility. PURPOSE Our goal was to establish cell lines from patients with breast and bladder cancers, to screen for enhanced levels of radiation-induced arrest in the G2 phase of the cell cycle such as is observed in ataxia-telangiectasia heterozygotes, and to correlate G2 arrest with other prognostic indicators of these cancers and in vivo radiosensitivity. METHODS Epstein-Barr virus-transformed lymphoblastoid cells were established from 108 female patients with breast cancer and 24 age-matched female control subjects, and from 45 patients with bladder cancer and 18 age-matched control subjects. Cells were exposed to 3 Gy of gamma radiation, and the percentages of cells in G1 and G2 phases were determined at 18 and 24 hours after irradiation by fluorescence-activated cell sorter analysis. Postirradiation delay in G2 phase was determined by calculating the percentage of cells in G2 and by using the ratio G2/G1. RESULTS When we determined the percentage of cells in G2 phase at 18 hours after irradiation in 108 lymphoblastoid cells from breast cancer patients, we observed an increase of between 3% and 38% in the number of cells in G2 phase in comparison with cells that were not irradiated. Comparison with previous G2-phase arrest data for ataxia-telangiectasia heterozygotes using a cutoff point at 29% delay demonstrated that 20% and 8% of the breast cancer cell lines of the case patients and control subjects, respectively, fell into that category (P < .001). At the same time after irradiation, it was not possible to distinguish between bladder cancer cell lines (7%) and those of the corresponding control group (6%). Assessment of radiation effects by G2/G1 ratio showed that 18% of the breast cancer patients and 8% of the control subjects were in the high range. When G2 arrest was correlated with other prognostic factors, we found that case patients with a greater G2 block were more likely to have had a family history of breast cancer (P < .006) and more aggressive tumors when assessed by number of involved lymph nodes (P < .002) and tumor size (P < .05). Furthermore, an adverse response to radiotherapy was observed in a group of patients with high G2 arrest. IMPLICATIONS While the postirradiation increase in G2-phase arrest in cells from breast cancer patients observed in this study may indicate genetic heterozygosity for ataxia-telangiectasia, it might also reflect other genetic abnormalities important to breast cancer.
Modes of spread of cancer of skin.

DURING the past sixteen years more than three thousand cancers have been removed by means of the microscopically controlled excisions which characterize the method which we have termed "chemosurgery. " 1 A striking observation repeatedly made during the course of these excisions was that many external cancers exhibited irregular outgrowths which had not been detected by clinical visualization and palpation. In some cases these "silent" extensions were due to a peculiar affinity of the cancer for some specific tissue structure which it would follow selectively for unexpectedly great distances. Some structures for which certain cancers showed particular affinity were the following: (1) dermis, (2) fascial planes, (3) periosteum, (4) perichondrium, (5) embryologic fusion planes, (6) nerve sheaths, (7) lymphatic vessels, and (8) blood vessels. In other cases no specific affinities were observed, but nevertheless irregular outgrowths were present, apparently as a result of the countless local variations in
Structure Sensor for mobile markerless augmented reality

3D Visualization of anatomical data is an integral part of diagnostics and treatment in many medical disciplines, such as radiology, surgery and forensic medicine. To enable intuitive interaction with the data, we recently proposed a new concept for on-patient visualization of medical data which involves rendering of subsurface structures on a mobile display that can be moved along the human body. The data fusion is achieved with a range imaging device attached to the display. The range data is used to register static 3D medical imaging data with the patient body based on a surface matching algorithm. However, our previous prototype was based on the Microsoft Kinect camera and thus required a cable connection to acquire color and depth data. The contribution of this paper is two-fold. Firstly, we replace the Kinect with the Structure Sensor - a novel cable-free range imaging device - to improve handling and user experience and show that the resulting accuracy (target registration error: 4.8±1.5 mm) is comparable to that achieved with the Kinect. Secondly, a new approach to visualizing complex 3D anatomy based on this device, as well as 3D printed models of anatomical surfaces, is presented. We demonstrate that our concept can be applied to in vivo data and to a 3D printed skull of a forensic case. Our new device is the next step towards clinical integration and shows that the concept cannot only be applied during autopsy but also for presentation of forensic data to laypeople in court or medical education.
Molecular Detection of Verotoxigenic Escherichia coli (VTEC) from Animal Feces for Screening VTEC-shedders

Seventy-six animals including cattle, sheep, horses, 6 species of zoo animals were employed for collection of fresh feces in order to detect verotoxigenic Esherichia coli (VTEC) by safe, quick and sensitive PCR-based molecular methods. Bacterial cell disruption with bead-beating followed by bacterial DNA purification with hydroxyapatide chromatography and gel filtration allowed DNA preparation from animal feces with high recovery and purity. A mountain goat was firstly shown by PCR and seqiencing to shed verotoxin 2 gene (vt2) that was used to generate vt2 probe and second primer set for nested PCR to attempt more sensitive detection. Most sensitive nested PCR revealed that 45% of tested cattle and 47% of tested zoo animals were VTEC-positive, while least sensitive normal PCR detected VTEC from none of these animals except a mountain goat. Moderately sensitive detection by PCR in combination with hybridization suggested that the VTEC density varied between the VTEC-positive cattle.
A Comparison of Stream Processing Frameworks

This study compares the performance of Big Data Stream Processing frameworks including Apache Spark, Flink, and Storm. Also, it measures the resource usage and performance scalability of the frameworks against a varying number of cluster sizes. It has been observed that, Flink outperforms both Spark and Storm under equal constraints. However, Spark can be optimized to provide the higher throughput than Flink with the cost of higher latency.