Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reporting outcomes of the Assisting Hand Assessment: what scale should be used?

The Assisting Hand Assessment (AHA) is now a well-established and frequently used evaluative tool. It measures how effectively children with unilateral hand dysfunction actually use their involved hand collaboratively with their well-functioning hand to perform bimanual tasks. Since the first publication about the AHA in 2003, several studies have reported on different psychometric properties, which have important implications for interpretation of outcomes. However, significant variation in the reporting of results in intervention studies using the AHA emphasizes a need for clarification. This paper aims to provide recommendations for how to report AHA outcomes, where improved consistency will facilitate comparison of data across studies. The AHA produces two types of ordinal level scores at the score form: raw scores and a percentage score. The AHA version 4.4 includes 22 test items each rated on a 4-point scale, giving a raw score range of 22 to 88 points, with the higher number indicating higher ability. These raw scores are also
Practical Bifurcation Criteria considering Inductive Power Pad Losses in Wireless Power Transfer Systems

In this paper, the bifurcation criteria for inductive power transfer (IPT) systems is suggested considering the inductive power pad losses. The bifurcation criteria for series-series (SS) and series-parallel (SP) topologies are derived in terms of the main parameters of the IPT system. For deriving precise criteria, power pad resistance is obtained by copper loss calculation and core loss analysis. Utilizing the suggested criteria, possibility of bifurcation occurrence can be predicted in the design process. In order to verify the proposed criteria, 50 W IPT laboratory prototype is fabricated and the feasibilities of the switching frequency and AC load resistance shift to escape from bifurcation are identified.
mRNA Openers and Closers: Modulating AU‐Rich Element‐Controlled mRNA Stability by a Molecular Switch in mRNA Secondary Structure

Approximately 3 000 genes are regulated in a time‐, tissue‐, and stimulus‐dependent manner by degradation or stabilization of their mRNAs. The process is mediated by interaction of AU‐rich elements (AREs) in the mRNA's 3′‐untranslated regions with trans‐acting factors. AU‐rich element‐controlled genes of fundamentally different functional relevance depend for their activation on one positive regulator, HuR. Here we present a methodology to exploit this central regulatory process for specific manipulation of AU‐rich element‐controlled gene expression at the mRNA level. With a combination of single‐molecule spectroscopy, computational biology, and molecular and cellular biochemistry, we show that mRNA recognition by HuR is dependent on the presentation of the sequence motif NNUUNNUUU in single‐stranded conformation. The presentation of the HuR binding site in the mRNA secondary structure appears to act analogously to a regulatory on/off switch that specifically controls HuR access to mRNAs in cis. Based on this finding we present a methodology for manipulating ARE mRNA levels by actuating this conformational switch specifically in a target mRNA. Computationally designed oligonucleotides (openers) enhance the NNUUNNUUU accessibility by rearranging the mRNA conformation. Thereby they increase in vitro and endogenous HuR–mRNA complex formation which leads to specific mRNA stabilization (as demonstrated for TNFα and IL‐2, respectively). Induced HuR binding both inside and outside the AU‐rich element promotes functional IL‐2 mRNA stabilization. This opener‐induced mRNA stabilization mimics the endogenous IL‐2 response to CD28 stimulation in human primary T‐cells. We therefore propose that controlled modulation of the AU‐rich element conformation by mRNA openers or closers allows message stabilization or destabilization in cis to be specifically triggered. The described methodology might provide a means for studying distinct pathways in a complex cellular network at the node of mRNA stability control. It allows ARE gene expression to be potentially silenced or boosted. This will be of particular value for drug‐target validation, allowing the diseased phenotype to ameliorate or deteriorate. Finally, the mRNA openers provide a rational starting point for target‐specific mRNA stability assays to screen for low‐molecular‐weight compounds acting as inhibitors or activators of an mRNA structure rearrangement.
CEREBRAL ENDOVASCULAR NEUROSURGERY

CEREBRAL ENDOVASCULAR NEUROSURGERY has evolved rapidly in the past decade through advances in tools and techniques and as a result of the thrust toward evidence-based medicine. More patients with diseases traditionally treated via microsurgical approaches can now be treated with techniques that focus on endoluminal reconstruction. With the introduction of intracranial clot retrievers and appropriately sized stents, stroke care is being slowly revolutionized for those patients with salvageable brain tissue at the time of admission to the hospital. In this article, the recent history, current state, and possible future of cerebral endovascular neurosurgery are reviewed for the following diseases: stroke, intracranial atherosclerotic disease, brachiocephalic occlusive disease, cerebral aneurysms, central nervous system vascular malformations, and brain tumors. New concepts and applications for endovascular treatment of epilepsy and multiple sclerosis are mentioned. The potential for nanotechnology in this field and the future endovascular suite are envisioned.
An Assay Method for the Prediction of Tumor Promoting Potential of Environmental Carcinogens Using 293 Cells

It has become important to develop a simple in vitro method for the detection of environmental carcinogen especially which could induce severe tumors. In order to detect suspected carcinogens and provide experimental evidence, we adopted 293 cell transformation systems to clarify the tumor promotive activity of Microcystin LR (MC-LR) and Benzo(a)pyrene (B(a)P) which were main carcinogens exist in drinking water and air respectively. We designed a method for detecting MC-LR and B(a)P by the use in vitro cell transformation system. In this method, 293 cells were cultured in flasks for 21 days during which test chemicals were added in the medium for 7 days, then the transformed 293 cells were tested by several methods including soft agar colony assay, serum requirement assay and tumorigenic activity to define the carcinogenetic activity. We found that when MC-LR was examined by the method, a reasonable correlation was observed with the reported tumor-promoting ability in animal experiments. We propose that the 293 cell transformation method was practical and useful for the detection of environmental carcinogens.
The occurrence of fractures after adjuvant treatment of breast cancer: a DBCG register study

Abstract Background: Adjuvant treatment in breast cancer patients especially with aromatase inhibitors (AIs) has adverse effects on bone metabolism resulting in an increased occurrence of fractures. In order to demonstrate this occurrence, long-term follow-up studies are necessary. From several national registries in Denmark, it is possible to link data from different sources and analyze this issue. Methods: A study cohort of 68,842 breast cancer patients prospectively diagnosed and registered in the Danish Breast Cancer Cooperative Group’s database during the period 1995–2012 formed the basis of the analysis. These data were matched with data on all types of fractures from the Danish National Patient Register and vital data from the Danish Civil Registration System. Results: After data cleaning 66,502 patients were available for analysis and 16,360 of these had incurred 20,341 fractures with 13,182 patients having just one fracture. These fractures were distributed over 214 specific fracture sites. An extended multivariable Cox regression model revealed significant association between the occurrence of fractures and age, menopause, Charlson comorbidity index (CCI) and endocrine therapy such that late menopause and tamoxifen treatment were associated with a lower occurrence and AI treatment, age and CCI were associated with a higher occurrence of fractures. Conclusion: Before advising adjuvant therapy with AIs fragile patients with chronic diseases should receive special attention in order to reduce the incidence of fractures in this vulnerable group of patients.
PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF KNOWLEDGE BASED COLLABORATIVE FILTERING MODEL

Collaborative filtering Recommender systems apply data mining techniques to produce personalized recommender system during the online interaction of active users. These systems use variety of techniques for achieving high success on business, banking, finance and other domains. The fast increase in users and products in recent years produces some of the key issues and challenges for recommender systems. These include scalability, sparsity and producing high quality of recommendations. Hence there is a necessity to produce new recommender systems to provide high accurate and fast recommenders systems to handle large mass of data. The issues and challenges are improved by introducing knowledge based proximity model using clustering technique. The performance of the model is experimentally evaluated with different statistical and decision making metrics using real-world datasets.
System integration of smart packages using printed electronics

The last decade has shown enormous interest in additive and printed electronics manufacturing technologies, especially in intelligent packaging. Scientists and engineers all over the world are developing printed organic circuits. Despite their effort, the performance and yield of all-printed devices cannot replace silicon-based devices in smart package applications. Therefore, we have developed a hybrid interconnection platform to seamlessly integrate printed electronics with silicon-based electronics, close the gap between the two technologies, and to anticipate adaption of printed electronic technologies. We studied the suitability of a printed interconnection platform by fabricating a printed sensor-box that contains printed nano-Ag-interconnections on low-temperature plastic, a printable humidity sensor based on functionalized MWCNTs, a printed battery, conventional SMDs, and a silicon-based MCU.
Armet is an effector protein mediating aphid‐plant interactions

Aphid saliva is predicted to contain proteins that modulate plant defenses and facilitate feeding. Armet is a well‐characterized bifunctional protein in mammalian systems. Here we report a new role of Armet, namely as an effector protein in the pea aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum. Pea aphid Armet's physical and chemical properties and its intracellular role are comparable to those reported for mammalian Armets. Uniquely, we detected Armet in aphid watery saliva and in the phloem sap of fava beans fed on by aphids. Armet's transcript level is several times higher in the salivary gland when aphids feed on bean plants than when they feed on an artificial diet. Knockdown of the Armet transcript by RNA interference disturbs aphid feeding behavior on fava beans measured by the electrical penetration graph technique and leads to a shortened life span. Inoculation of pea aphid Armet protein into tobacco leaves induced a transcriptional response that included pathogen‐responsive genes. The data suggest that Armet is an effector protein mediating aphid‐plant interactions. —Wang, W. , Dai, H. , Zhang, Y. , Chandrasekar, R. , Luo, L. , Hiromasa, Y. , Sheng, C. , Peng, G. , Chen, S. , Tomich, J. M. , Reese, J., Edwards, O. , Kang, L. , Reeck, G. , Cui, F. Armet is an effector protein mediating aphid‐plant interactions. FASEB J. 29, 2032‐2045 (2015). www.fasebj. org
Human action categorization using discriminative local spatio-temporal feature weighting

New methods based on local spatio-temporal features have exhibited significant performance in action recognition. In these methods, feature selection plays an important role to achieve a superior performance. Actions are represented by local spatio-temporal features extracted from action videos. Action representations are then classified by applying a classifier such as k-nearest neighbor or SVM. In this paper, we have proposed two feature weighting methods to better discriminate similar actions. We have proposed a definition of feature discrimination power to be used in the feature selection process. Our proposed weighting schemes have greatly improved the final categorization accuracy on the well-known KTH and Weizmann datasets.
An antigenic peptide inducing cross-reacting antibodies inhibiting the interaction of Streptococcus mutans PAc with human salivary components

A 190-kDa surface protein antigen (PAc) of Streptococcus mutans, in particular the A region of this molecule, may be implicated in the induction of dental caries via an interaction with salivary components. For this reason, it was probably used successfully as an antigenic component for experimental vaccination to prevent dental caries in animals. While developing a synthetic peptide vaccine for dental caries, as reported herein, we have identified a unique peptide, TYEAALKQYEADL, as a candidate vaccinal immunogen. The amino acid sequence of this peptide completely corresponds to the sequence of a B-cell epitope in the A region of PAc and additionally contains its own T-cell epitope for B10.D2 mice within the molecule. This peptide strongly induces the production of only cross-reacting antibodies against PAc. In addition, as demonstrated by surface plasmon resonance analysis using the BIAcore system, these cross-reacting antibodies inhibit approximately 50% of the binding of fluid-phase salivary components to immobilized recombinant PAc.
Fatty Acid methyl ester profiles for characterization of glomalean fungi and their endomycorrhizae

Arbuscule-forming fungi in the order Glomales form obligate endomycorrhizal associations with plants that make them difficult to quantify, and taxonomy of the group is only beginning to be objectively understood. Fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) profiles were analyzed to assess the diversity and quantity of fatty acids in 53 isolates of 24 glomalean species. Spores and endomycorrhizal roots of sudan grass (Sorghum sudanense) and the citrus rootstock Carrizo citrange (Poncirus trifoliata x Citrus sinensis) were examined. Spores yielded reproducible FAME profiles from replicate spore collections extracted from soil pot cultures despite being grown in association with a host plant and with contaminating microorganisms present. Unweighted pair group analysis revealed relatively tight clusters of groups at the intraspecific, specific, and generic levels; however, lipid profiles at the family level were convergent. Thus, FAME profile comparisons provided a robust measure of similarity below the family level. FAME profiles in sudan grass roots containing vesicles and/or spores of Glomus intraradices were more similar to spore profiles than to profiles from nonmycorrhizal roots. The FAME profiles for Gigaspora species, which do not form vesicles or spores in roots, were less distinct from nonmycorrhizal roots. G. intraradices and G. rosea produced fatty acids in roots that were distinguishable from each other as well as from the host root. Production in citrus roots of the fatty acid 16:1(inf(omega)5) cis by two Glomus species was correlated with the development of mycorrhizal colonization as measured by clearing and staining procedures and by estimates of total incidence and vesicle intensity. FAME analysis of roots not only provided a measure of colonization development but also served as an index of carbon allocated to intraradical fungal growth and lipid storage.
APPrOVE :

Learning algorithm evaluation is usually focused on classification performance. However, the characteristics and requirements of real-world applications vary greatly. Thus, for a particular application, some evaluation criteria are more important than others. In fact, multiple criteria need to be considered to capture application-specific trade-offs. Many multicriteria methods can be used for the actual evaluation but the problems of selecting appropriate criteria and metrics as well as capturing the trade-offs still persist. This paper presents a framework for application-oriented validation and evaluation (APPrOVE). The framework includes four sequential steps that together address the aforementioned problems and its use in practice is demonstrated through a case study.
Anti-Expression Aftereffects Reveal Prototype-Referenced Coding of Facial Expressions

Adaptation is a powerful experimental technique that has recently provided insights into how people encode representations of facial identity. Here, we used this approach to explore the visual representation of facial expressions of emotion. Participants were adapted to anti-expressions of six facial expressions. The participants were then shown an average face and asked to classify the face’s expression using one of six basic emotion descriptors. Participants chose the emotion matching the anti-expression they were adapted to significantly more often than they chose any other emotion (e.g., if they were adapted to antifear, they classified the emotion on the average face as fear). The strength of this aftereffect of adaptation decreased as the strength of the anti-expression adapter decreased. These findings provide evidence that visual representations of facial expressions of emotion are coded with reference to a prototype within a multidimensional framework.
Magnesium and the Premenstrual Syndrome

Plasma and erythrocyte magnesium were measured in 105 patients with premenstrual syndrome (PMS) using a simple atomic absorption spectroscopy method. The erythrocyte magnesium concentration for the patients with PMS was significantly lower than that of a normal population. The plasma magnesium did not show this difference. The significance of this apparent cellular deficiency of magnesium is discussed.
Efficacy of levodopa and carbidopa on visual function in patients with non‐arteritic anterior ischaemic optic neuropathy

The benefit of levodopa and carbidopa therapy in improving visual function in patients with non‐arteritic anterior ischaemic neuropathy (NAION) was evaluated. Twenty‐four subjects with NAION were randomly selected to receive either levodopa–carbidopa or a placebo. Visual functions of neither the study nor the placebo groups showed improvement. Side effects of levodopa such as dizziness, orthostatic hypotension, vomiting and cardiac arrhythmia were seen. Levodopa and carbidopa had no therapeutic effect on visual recovery in our patients with NAION.
Malperfusion of the Thoracoabdominal Vasculature in Aortic Dissection

Ischemic damage to vital organs supplied by the thoracoabdominal aorta greatly increases the overall risk of aortic dissection. Of 320 patients operated upon for aortic dissection since 1985, 33 (10.3%) underwent operations directed at the relief of malperfusion (15/158 acute type A; 9/18 acute type B; 4/78 chronic type A; 5/66 chronic type B). Organs affected were the kidneys in 32; the bowel in 20; and the spinal cord in 1, while critical lower extremity ischemia was present in 11 patients. In total, 64 vascular areas were affected. Fenestration of the dissecting membrane with or without infrarenal grafting was the procedure performed most frequently in 25, followed by replacement of the descending or thoracoabdominal aorta in 6, and bypass grafting or dlrect revascularization of individual side branches in 6. Six other operations targeted at the affected organs were done. Twenty‐four patients underwent one‐stage operation for malperfusion; in 11, early reoperation after primary aortic repair was necessary, while 2 patients were operated electively. Ten of 33 patients died in hospital, 7 of malperfusion‐induced complications. Of three late deaths, one was related to sequelae of malperfusion. We conclude that Immediate diagnosis and prompt relief of malperfusion offer the best prospects for patient survival. Membrane fenestration appears to be the method of choice for treating malperfusion in most patients, and must be directed to the level of aortic and/or side branch obstruction. (J Card Surg 1994;9:748–757)
Pharmacokinetics of Very High‐Dose Oral Melphalan in Cancer Patients

The pharmacokinetics and systemic availability of melphalan after high-dose oral administration with and without 1,3− bis(2-Chloroethyl)-l-nitrosourea (BCNU) or etoposide were examined in three patients undergoing autologous bone marrow transplantation. Patient 1 (advanced melanoma) received melphalan at 80 mg/m2/day p.o. on days −6, —5, and −4, followed by BCNU at 300 mg/m2/day i.v. on days −3, —2, and —1 prior to bone marrow transplantation. Patient 2 (advanced colon carcinoma) received melphalan at 75 mg/ m2/day p.o. on days −3, —2, and — 1. Patient 3 (advanced refractory lymphoma) received etoposide at 800 mg/m2/day i.v. on days —7, —5, and —3, followed by melphalan at 157 mg/m2/day p.o. on days −2 and −1. Melphalan was administered as a bolus oral dose, using 2-mg tablets. Blood samples were collected at 0, 5, 10, 15, 30, and 45 min and 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12, and 24 h after each dose of melphalan. Peak plasma melphalan concentrations in the three patients ranged from 0.354 (patient 2) to 1.768 μg/ml (patient 1). Plasma melphalan concentration × time products (C × Ts) showed extreme variability in one patient (patient 2), ranging from 0.76 to 4.48 μg · h/ml. To determine the relative systemic availability of orally administered melphalan, i.v. C × Ts proportional to the p.o. doses were extrapolated from previously reported i.v. bolus pharmacokinetic data. The p.o. :i.v. plasma C × T ratios for high-dose melphalan ranged between 0.09 (patient 3) and 0.58 (patient 2). Although these C × T data suggest a dose-response for orally administered melphalan, the systemic availability of these high p.o. melphalan doses was extremely variable, both within and between study patients. Thus, we cannot recommend the use of high-dose p.o. melphalan regimens in patients undergoing autologous bone marrow transplantation.
Behavior model of a CMOS process compatible photo-diode

A behavior model of a photo-diode is presented. The model describes the relationship between photocurrent and incident optical power, and it also illustrates the impact of the reverse bias to the variation of the junction capacitance. With this model the photo-diode and a CMOS receiver circuit were simulated and designed simultaneously under a universal circuit simulation environment.