Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Glimepiride versus pioglitazone combination therapy in subjects with type 2 diabetes inadequately controlled on metformin monotherapy: results of a randomized clinical trial

ABSTRACT Objective: To compare the effect of add-on glimepiride or pioglitazone in subjects with type 2 diabetes inadequately controlled on metformin monotherapy. Research design and methods: Multicenter, randomized, parallel-group, open-label, forced-titration study involving 203 adults with poorly controlled type 2 diabetes (A1C 7.5–10%) on metformin monotherapy. Subjects were randomized to receive glimepiride or pioglitazone, titrated to the maximum dose for 26 weeks. Subjects were evaluated for A1C changes, fasting plasma glucose (FPG), insulin, C‐peptide, and lipid levels. Safety outcomes and diabetes-related healthcare resource utilization were also evaluated. Results: Both treatment groups achieved similar and significant mean decreases from baseline to endpoint (week 26) in A1C ( p = 0.0001) and FPG ( p < 0.05). Glimepiride therapy, however, resulted in a more rapid decline in A1C levels at weeks 6, 12, and 20 vs. pioglitazone ( p < 0.05). A mean A1C ≤ 7% was reached faster in the glimepiride group (median, 80–90 days vs. 140–150 days [p = 0.024]). Total and LDL cholesterol were significantly higher with pioglitazone treatment than with glimepiride at endpoint ( p < 0.05). Glimepiride treatment was associated with an increased risk of hypoglycemia and pioglitazone with higher rate of peripheral edema. Healthcare resource utilization was similar between groups, but total healthcare costs were significantly lower for glimepiride versus pioglitazone over the course of the study, driven largely by drug costs. The use of fasting C‐peptide concentration ≥ 0.27 nmol/L in the inclusion criteria was a potential limitation as it may have included those patients with an improved probability for glimepiride or pioglitazone response. In addition, a larger patient population would have provided a greater degree of data applicability. Conclusions: In patients with type 2 diabetes inadequately controlled on metformin monotherapy, add-on glimepiride or pioglitazone results in similar overall improvements in glycemic control. Compared with pioglitazone, glimepiride is associated with faster glycemic control, lower total and LDL cholesterol levels and reduced short-term healthcare costs.
Identification of Consonants and Vowels Presented to Left and Right Ears*

The results of earlier studies by several authors suggest that speech and nonspeech auditory patterns are processed primarily in different places in the brain and perhaps by different modes. The question arises in studies of speech perception whether all phonetic elements or all features of phonetic elements are processed in the same way. The technique of dichotic presentation was used to examine this question. The present study compared identifications of dichotically presented pairs of synthetic CV syllables and pairs of steady-state vowels. The results show a significant right-ear advantage for CV syllables but not for steady-state vowels. Evidence for analysis by feature in the perception of consonants is discussed.
Localized 7Li MR spectroscopy: In vivo brain and serum concentrations in the rat

The brain concentration of lithium (Li) in treated rats was measured using a recently developed method based on in vivo 7Li PRESS localized MRS. Comparison was made to the corresponding serum concentration at two treatment durations. The brain and serum Li concentrations were highly correlated with each other, more so than found previously for humans. The brain and serum Li concentrations also correlated with dose. Both the brain Li concentration and the serum concentration at 16.1 days of treatment correlated with the corresponding measure at 6.6 days. After correction of the brain Li concentrations for reduced 7Li MRS visibility, the mean brain/serum Li ratio for rats was close to unity, unlike most previous values found for humans. However, in some individual cases the ratio deviated substantially from the mean, suggesting that serum Li is not always a reliable indicator of brain Li. Magn Reson Med 52:1087–1092, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Synthesis and Purification of Peptide Nucleic Acids

Peptide nucleic acids (PNAs) are DNA analogs in which the normal phosphodiester backbone is replaced by 2‐aminoethyl glycine linkages. Hybridization of PNAs with RNA or DNA follows normal rules for Watson‐Crick base pairing and occurs with high affinity. Thus, PNAs are a promising choice for applications that benefit from high‐affinity hybridization. They are assembled using techniques adapted from peptide chemistry. Protocols are given for both automated and manual synthesis of PNAs as well as their purification. The advantages of each method are discussed, as are the different monomers and reagents that are required. Additionally, protocols are given for adding peptides to PNAs (which can enhance hybridization or cell uptake of the PNA) and for adding a biotin label.
Clot friction variation with fibrin content; implications for resistance to thrombectomy

Background Despite significant advancements in the procedural efficacy of mechanical thrombectomy in patients with ischemic stroke in recent years, there still remains a portion of the population that does not achieve good recanalization. The reasons for this may be varied. We hypothesized that static friction between the clot and the vessel, or catheter wall might contribute to the difficulty in removing the clot. Objective To determine if there is a relationship between clot composition and the resistance to sliding (friction) which might contribute to resistance to clot removal. Methods As clot composition can vary significantly, we investigated five different types of clot in order to measure their respective frictional properties. To do this, a custom-made testing apparatus was created, consisting of various replaceable low-friction surfaces on which the clots could be placed. The surface was then gradually tilted until the clots began to slide; the angle at which this occurred is related to the coefficient of friction of the clots. The experiment was repeated on a bovine aortic surface in order to confirm the results. Results We found that fibrin-rich clots (<20% red blood cell content) have a significantly higher coefficient of friction than clots with a red blood cell content >20%. This result was confirmed by repeating the experiment on a bovine aortic surface as a representation of the interaction between clots and the arterial wall. Conclusions The friction properties of clots were found to be related to the content ratio of fibrin to red blood cells. Future imaging techniques that could show fibrin and red blood cell content might help us to predict the ‘stickiness’ of a clot.
Cystatin C reduction ratio depends on normalized blood liters processed and fluid removal during hemodialysis.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES A negative correlation between the weekly standard Kt/V (urea) and serum cystatin C level (CysC) in functionally anephric dialysis patients has been previously demonstrated. Our objective was to measure the per dialysis CysC reduction ratio (CCRR) and to compare it with other indices of dialytic functions. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS In a pilot cross-sectional study of 15 functionally anephric patients on conventional high-flux high-efficiency hemodialysis three times per week, CysC levels were drawn pre-, mid-, and postdialysis over 1 week. CCRR was compared with single-pool Kt/V (Sp Kt/V) using urea kinetic modeling, urea reduction ratio (URR), creatinine reduction ratio (CRR), normalized liters processed (LP/kg), and ultrafiltration volume (UF). Normally distributed data (Shapiro-Wilks test) were described as mean±SD, otherwise as median and interquartile range. RESULTS The mean pre- and post-CysC levels were 6.0±1.0 and 4.7±1.1 mg/L. The Sp Kt/V and Std Kt/V were 1.5±0.2 and 2.6. The URR, CRR, and CCRR were 70.2%±9.0%, 64.5%±8.2%, and 26.1%±11.8%, respectively. There was no correlation between the CCRR, and the Sp Kt/V, URR, and CRR, whereas CCRR correlated with LP/kg and UF. Multiple regression analysis with these two parameters provided a model that explained 81% of the variance. CONCLUSIONS Our data suggest that normalized liters processed and ultrafiltration volume explain most of the variance of CCRR. Therefore, CCRR may be an excellent method to monitor dialysis efficiency of low molecular weight proteins.
Design of an organic electronic label on a flexible substrate for temperature sensing

We demonstrate an organic smart label electronic system using p-type organic thin film transistors (OTFT) for temperature sensing applications. The electronic label consists of all organic temperature sensor, memory, logic and interface circuits and detects whether the critical temperature threshold value has been exceeded and records the data digitally in write-once-read-many (WORM) form that can be transmitted to a reader through wireless communication. A comparator is used to interface the sensor to the logic part. The logic circuit block processes and bundles the sensor information along with the necessary additional information that is required for a successful wireless transmission. We have demonstrated the operation of the reported organic smart label system using a silicon based modulator/rectifier circuit for RF communication. The organic logic circuit was built using standard cell design approach with approximately 180 p-type OTFTs. All the circuits were operated with a VDD of -20 V.
Recommendations based on personalized tendency for different aspects of influences in social media

Among the applications of Web 2.0, social networking sites continue to proliferate and the volume of content keeps growing; as a result, information overload causes difficulty for users attempting to choose useful and relevant information. To resolve this problem, most researches only utilize users’ preferences, the content of items or social influence to make recommendations. However, people’s preferences for items may be affected by social friends, personal interest and item popularity. Moreover, each factor has a different impact on each user. In this work, we propose a novel recommendation method based on different types of influences: social, interest and popularity, using personal tendencies in regard to these factors to recommend photos in a photo-sharing website, Flickr. The personal tendencies related to these three influences are regarded as personalized weights to combine influence scores for predicting the scores of items. The experimental results show that our proposed methods can improve the quality of recommendations.
TheMaximalCauses ofNatural Scenes areEdgeFilters

We study the application of a strongly non-linear generative model to image patches. As in standard approaches such as Sparse Coding or Independent Component Analysis, the model assumes a sparse prior with independent hidden variables. However, in the place where standard approaches use the sum to combine basis functions we use the maximum. To derive tractable approximations for parameter estimation we apply a novel approach based on variational Expectation Maximization. The derived learning algorithm can be applied to large-scale problems with hundreds of observed and hidden variables. Furthermore, we can infer all model parameters including observation noise and the degree of sparseness. In applications to image patches we find that Gabor-like basis functions are obtained. Gabor-like functions are thus not a feature exclusive to approaches assuming linear superposition. Quantitatively, the inferred basis functions show a large diversity of shapes with many strongly elongated and many circular symmetric functions. The distribution of basis function shapes reflects properties of simple cell receptive fields that are not reproduced by standard linear approaches. In the study of natural image statistics, the implications of using different superposition assumptions have so far not been investigated systematically because models with strong non-linearities have been found analytically and computationally challenging. The presented algorithm represents the first large-scale application of such an approach.
Symmetry and Feature Selection in Computer Vision

In the dissertation, two advanced computer vision techniques, named symmetry and feature selection, are proposed. The wide existence of symmetry in many image objects generates the motivation of using symmetry as a high level feature in region growing image segmentation and region-of-interest (ROI) detection in brain MRI sequences. The symmetry is explicitly applied in different forms as symmetry affinity matrix, high-level segmentation cue, statistical analysis and 3D asymmetry volume in classification features. The incorporation of symmetry provides a new effective feature to achieve the performance improvement. In the second field of my research, the feature selection with Sequential Floating Forward Selection (SFFS) as the search strategy, and with the Bayesian classifier as the evaluation metric, is applied in content-based image retrieval (CBIR), semi-supervised learning with relevance feedback, local kernel based distance metric, image classification, and online ensemble learning. It provides more compact and optimal feature sets to generate robust learning models. Experimental results on wide range of image datasets indicate the advantages of using symmetry and feature selection in computer vision tasks.
Item-based collaborative filtering with fuzzy vector cosine and item directional similarity

Collaborative filtering algorithm is applied successfully in the field of e-commerce recommendation and personalization. But it faces the sparsity and scalability problems which deteriorate recommendation performance greatly. A combined algorithm employing fuzzy vector cosine similarity and Pearson correlation with item directional similarity is proposed. The rating matrix is converted to a fuzzy matrix which provides a new similarity measure to relax the constraints in similarity calculation. Moreover, the similarity scale is adjusted by item directional similarity to weaken the dissimilar neighbors' noise. Finally, the experimental result of the proposed algorithm based on MovieLens data set is given. And the result shows the proposed algorithm has good prediction accuracy and is robust to the neighborhood size.
Injury-Induced Proteoglycans Inhibit the Potential for Laminin-Mediated Axon Growth on Astrocytic Scars

Following injury to the adult CNS, the expression of a number of extracellular matrix molecules increases in regions of reactive gliosis. This glial matrix includes certain chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans (CS-PGs) which have been correlated with an inhibition of axon outgrowth. In order to test the influence of glial associated CS-PGs on neurite elongation directly, we sought to determine whether enzymatic modification of injury-induced CS-PGs could enhance neurite outgrowth across the surface of intact glial scars formed in vivo after implanting nitrocellulose filters into the cortex of adult rats. This gliotic tissue was subsequently explanted in vitro and used as a substrate for growing embryonic retinal neurons. Treatment of adult explants with chondroitinase ABC led to a significant increase in mean neurite length over the scar surface. Heparitinase treatment caused a much smaller, although significant, increase in neurite outgrowth. This suggested that more than one type of PG was present or that a single PG with both CS and HS side chains was upregulated. Western analysis revealed that a PG(s) with a core protein between 180 and 400 kDa was found to be relatively more abundant in areas of reactive gliosis induced to form in adult rather than neonatal animals. Simultaneous treatment of adult glial scars with chondroitinase and antibodies to the beta 1, beta 2 chain of laminin partially reversed the growth-enhancing effect of enzymatic digestion alone. These data demonstrate that the increase in neurite outgrowth along the surface of reactive astrocytes following enzymatic modification of injury-induced PGs was due, in part, to the presence of laminin. Thus, in this model of gliosis, particular PGs may act as inhibitors of neurite outgrowth by attenuating the potential for axon elongation that could occur due to the concomitant expression of growth-promoting molecules in regions of reactive gliosis.
C Subunits Binding to the Protein Kinase A RIα Dimer Induce a Large Conformational Change*

We present structural data on the RIα isoform of the cAMP-dependent protein kinase A that reveal, for the first time, a large scale conformational change within the RIα homodimer upon catalytic subunit binding. This result infers that the inhibition of catalytic subunit activity is not the result of a simple docking process but rather is a multi-step process involving local conformational changes both in the cAMP-binding domains as well as in the linker region of the regulatory subunit that impact the global structure of the regulatory homodimer. The results were obtained using small-angle neutron scattering with contrast variation and deuterium labeling. From these experiments we derived information on the shapes and dispositions of the catalytic subunits and regulatory homodimer within a holoenzyme reconstituted with a deuterated regulatory subunit. The scattering data also show that, despite extensive sequence homology between the isoforms, the overall structure of the type Iα holoenzyme is significantly more compact than the type IIα isoform. We present a model of the type Iα holoenzyme, built using available high-resolution structures of the component subunits and domains, which best fits the neutron-scattering data. In this model, the type Iα holoenzyme forms a flattened V shape with the RIα dimerization domain at the point of the V and the cAMP-binding domains of the RIα subunits with their bound catalytic subunits at the ends.
Randomized, placebo‐controlled, double‐blind trial with interferon‐α with and without amantadine sulphate in primary interferon‐α nonresponders with chronic hepatitis C

In primary interferon‐α (IFN‐α) nonresponders with chronic hepatitis C, retreatment with IFN‐α has only limited efficacy with sustained response rates below 10%. Therefore, the aims of the present study were to compare the efficacy and safety of IFN‐α alone or in combination with amantadine sulphate in nonresponders to previous IFN‐α monotherapy. Fifty‐five IFN‐α nonresponders with chronic hepatitis C (mean age: 46.6 years) received IFN‐α 6 MIU thrice weekly for 24 weeks followed by 3 MIU thrice weekly for additional 24 weeks. Amantadine sulphate (n=26) or a matched placebo (n=29) was given orally twice daily for 48 weeks. Because of a low initial response rate at week 12 (13/55 patients) and a high breakthrough rate (8/13 patients) after IFN‐α dose reduction in week 24, a virological end‐of‐treatment response with undetectable serum HCV‐RNA (< 1000 copies/mL) was achieved in only five patients (IFN‐α/amantadine sulphate, one patient; IFN‐α/placebo, four patients). After 24 weeks follow‐up a sustained virological response was observed in only two patients receiving IFN‐α and placebo. Health‐related quality‐of‐life analysis showed a substantial improvement of the Profile of Mood States (POMS) scale concerning the subscales fatigue (P < 0.05) and vigor (P < 0.05) in patients receiving combined IFN‐α/amantadine sulphate treatment compared with those treated with IFN‐α alone. IFN‐α/amantadine sulphate combination therapy was well tolerated without any serious adverse events. In conclusion, retreatment with IFN‐α and amantadine sulphate does not increase the low sustained virological response rates of IFN‐α therapy in primary IFN‐α nonresponders with chronic hepatitis C, but may lead to a sustained improvement of health‐related quality‐of‐life.
Single patient (n‐of‐1) trials with binary treatment preference

The use of a fully parametric Bayesian method for analysing single patient trials based on the notion of treatment ‘preference’ is described. This Bayesian hierarchical modelling approach allows for full parameter uncertainty, use of prior information and the modelling of individual and patient sub‐group structures. It provides updated probabilistic results for individual patients, and groups of patients with the same medical condition, as they are sequentially enrolled into individualized trials using the same medication alternatives. Two clinically interpretable criteria for determining a patient's response are detailed and illustrated using data from a previously published paper under two different prior information scenarios. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A new dynamic manipulability ellipsoid for redundant manipulators

Manipulability ellipsoids are effective tools to perform task space analysis of robotic manipulators in terms of velocities, accelerations and forces at the end effector. In this paper a new definition of a dynamic manipulability ellipsoid for redundant manipulators is proposed which leads to more correct results in evaluating manipulator capabilities in terms of task-space accelerations. The case of manipulators in singular configurations is also analyzed. Two case studies are presented to illustrate the correctness of the proposed approach.
Morphological overlap between corticobasal degeneration and Pick's disease: A clinicopathological report

An 81‐year‐old woman died after a 3‐year history of a progressive nondementing akinetic‐rigid syndrome. Initially, there was a moderate response to levodopa treatment. Subsequently she developed postural tremor, loss of upward gaze, and frequent falls suggestive of Steele‐Richardson‐Olszewski syndrome (SROS). Macroscopical examination showed depigmentation of substantia nigra and locus ceruleus. Histology revealed occasional swollen achromatic neurons predominantly in frontal cortex, small cortical neurofibrillary tangles, brain stem basophil (corticobasal) inclusions, and Pick bodies. The coexistence of these histopathological markers raises questions concerning their specificity and the basis of a morphological distinction between corticobasal degeneration and Pick's disease.
Heat shock protein 20 ( HSP 20 ) is a novel substrate for protein kinase D 1 ( PKD 1 )

Heat shock protein 20 (HSP20) has cardioprotective qualities, which are triggered by PKA phosphorylation. PKD1 is also a binding partner for HSP20, and this prompted us to investigate whether the chaperone was a substrate for PKD1. We delineate the PKD1 binding sites on HSP20 and show for the first time HSP20 is a substrate for PKD1. Phosphorylation of HSP20 by PKD1 is diminished by pharmacological or siRNA reduction of PKD1 activity and is enhanced following PKD1 activation. Our results suggest that both PKA and PKD1 can both phosphorylate HSP20 on serine 16 but that PKA is the most dominant. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A Survey of Knowledge of the Three Rs Concept among Lecturers and Postgraduate Students in Brazil

The use of animals in science is a widespread practice, despite growing concern about its moral justification and scientific relevance. In this scenario, the Three Rs concept might be considered to be a motivation for the establishment of a new scientific approach to the use of experimental animals and to research itself. The main objective of this survey-based study was to identify the level of knowledge about this concept among lecturers (i.e. tenure-track professors) and postgraduate students in the physiological and pharmaceutical sciences in Brazilian universities. A questionnaire was completed by 185 lecturers from 16 universities, and 140 postgraduate students from five of these universities. The results indicate that the concept of the Three Rs is widespread among lecturers and students in the areas of physiology and pharmacology, throughout Brazilian universities, but that its interpretation generally attributes more importance to refinement than to reduction and replacement.