Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Interval Estimation of the Effective Population Size from Heterozygote‐Excess in SNP Markers

The effective population size Ne is an important parameter in population genetics and conservation biology. In recent years, there has been great interest in the use of molecular markers to estimate Ne. Although the point estimates from molecular markers in general suffer from a low reliability, the use of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers over a wide range of genome is expected to remarkably improve the reliability. In this study, expressions were derived for interval estimates of Ne from one published method, the heterozygote‐excess method, when it is applied to SNP markers. The conditional variance theory is applied to the derivation of a confidence interval for Ne under random union of gametes, monogamy and polygyny. Stochastic simulation shows that the obtained confidence interval is slightly conservative, but fairly useful for practical applications. The result is illustrated with real data on SNP markers in a pig strain.
Oxide Double‐Layer Nanocrossbar for Ultrahigh‐Density Bipolar Resistive Memory

S. H. Chang , S. B. Lee , S. M. ang , Y S. C. Chae , H. K. oo , Y Prof. W Noh . TReCFI, Department of Physics and Astronomy Seoul National University Seoul 151-747, Korea E-mail: twnoh@snu.ac. kr D. Jeon , . Y S. J. Park , Prof. G. Kim . TSchool of Electrical Engineering Korea University, Seoul 136-701, Korea Prof. B. S. Kang Department of Applied Physics Hanyang University Ansan, Gyeonggi-do 426-791, Korea Dr. M. -J. Lee Semiconductor Device Laboratory Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology Yongin, Gyeonggi-do 446-712, Korea
Bevacizumab plus irinotecan, fluorouracil, and leucovorin for metastatic colorectal cancer.

BACKGROUND Bevacizumab, a monoclonal antibody against vascular endothelial growth factor, has shown promising preclinical and clinical activity against metastatic colorectal cancer, particularly in combination with chemotherapy. METHODS Of 813 patients with previously untreated metastatic colorectal cancer, we randomly assigned 402 to receive irinotecan, bolus fluorouracil, and leucovorin (IFL) plus bevacizumab (5 mg per kilogram of body weight every two weeks) and 411 to receive IFL plus placebo. The primary end point was overall survival. Secondary end points were progression-free survival, the response rate, the duration of the response, safety, and the quality of life. RESULTS The median duration of survival was 20.3 months in the group given IFL plus bevacizumab, as compared with 15.6 months in the group given IFL plus placebo, corresponding to a hazard ratio for death of 0.66 (P<0.001). The median duration of progression-free survival was 10.6 months in the group given IFL plus bevacizumab, as compared with 6.2 months in the group given IFL plus placebo (hazard ratio for disease progression, 0.54; P<0.001); the corresponding rates of response were 44.8 percent and 34.8 percent (P=0.004). The median duration of the response was 10.4 months in the group given IFL plus bevacizumab, as compared with 7.1 months in the group given IFL plus placebo (hazard ratio for progression, 0.62; P=0.001). Grade 3 hypertension was more common during treatment with IFL plus bevacizumab than with IFL plus placebo (11.0 percent vs. 2.3 percent) but was easily managed. CONCLUSIONS The addition of bevacizumab to fluorouracil-based combination chemotherapy results in statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in survival among patients with metastatic colorectal cancer.
A simple circuit to improve the power yield of PV array during partial shading

In a typical photovoltaic (PV) power system, when part of the PV module is shaded, the bypass diode is activated to protect the module from hot-spot damages. As a result, the output power is reduced significantly because the power generated from the shaded module is totally unusable. In this paper, a simple circuit is proposed to increase the power yield of PV system under partial shading condition. The idea is to recover the power generated by the shaded module and then process it using power electronics circuit to become part of the output power. Consequently, the inclusion of the circuit enables the system to deliver more power compared to the bypass diode method. The concept is evaluated using Matlab-Simulink simulation and proven using an experimental test rig. The performance of the proposed circuit is compared with (1) PV system with bypass diode and (2) micro-inverter. The results show marked improvement in the efficiency, especially under heavy partial shading condition.
Repeated scenario simulation to improve competency in critical care: a new approach for nursing education.

BACKGROUND In Japan, nursing education is being reformed to improve nurses' competency. Interest in use of simulation-based education to increase nurses' competency is increasing. OBJECTIVES To examine the effectiveness of simulation-based education in improving competency of cardiovascular critical care nurses. METHODS A training program that consisted of lectures, training in cardiovascular procedures, and scenario simulations was conducted with 24 Japanese nurses working at a university hospital. Participants were allocated to 4 groups, each of which visited 4 zones and underwent scenario simulations that included debriefings during and after the simulations. In each zone, the scenario simulation was repeated and participants assessed their own technical skills by scoring their performance on a rubric. Before and after the simulations, participants also completed a survey that used the Teamwork Activity Inventory in Nursing Scale (TAINS) to assess their nontechnical skills. RESULTS All the groups showed increased rubric scores after the second simulation compared with the rubric scores obtained after the first simulation, despite differences in the order in which the scenarios were presented. Furthermore, the survey revealed significant increases in scores on the teamwork scale for the following subscale items: "Attitudes of the superior" (P < .001), "Job satisfaction" (P = .01), and "Confidence as a team member" (P = .004). CONCLUSIONS Our new educational approach of using repeated scenario simulations and TAINS seemed not only to enhance individual nurses' technical skills in critical care nursing but also to improve their nontechnical skills somewhat.
The VACS Index Predicts Mortality in a Young, Healthy HIV Population Starting Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy

Background:The Veterans Aging Cohort Study (VACS) index is a weighted combination of age and 8 clinical variables. It has been well correlated with all-cause mortality among HIV-infected patients. The US Military HIV Natural History Study (NHS) cohort provides a different validation population profile, being younger and healthier. A significant portion of the US HIV population is similarly composed; so, evaluation of the VACS index in this population is of great interest. Methods:NHS subjects have medical history and laboratory data collected at 6-month visits. We performed an external validation of the VACS index in the NHS evaluating correlation, discrimination, and calibration for all-cause mortality after highly active antiretroviral therapy initiation (HI). We then tested whether combining longitudinal VACS index values at different time points improves prediction of mortality. Results:The VACS index at 1 year after HI was well correlated with all-cause mortality (Harrell c statistic 0.78), provided good discrimination (log-rank P < 0.05), and was marginally well calibrated using Brier score. Accounting for VACS index at HI and 6 months after HI significantly improved a standard model, including only the VACS index at 1 year after HI (net reclassification improvement = 25.2%, 95% CI: 10.9% to 48.9%). Conclusions:The VACS index was well correlated and provided good discrimination with respect to all-cause mortality among highly active antiretroviral therapy initiating subjects in the NHS. Moderate overprediction of mortality in this young, healthy population suggests minor recalibration that could improve fit among similar patients. Considering VACS index at HI and 6 months improved outcome prediction and allowed earlier risk assessment.
The central nucleus of the inferior colliculus in the cat

The central nucleus of the inferior colliculus in the cat is distinguished by its unique neuropil. In Golgi‐impregnated material, it is composed primarily of neurons with disc‐shaped dendritic fields arranged into parallel arrays, or laminae, complemented by the laminar afferent axons from the lateral lemniscus. Large, medium‐large, medium, and small varieties of disc‐shaped cells are distinguished on the basis of the size of the dendritic field and cell body size, dendritic diameter, and dendritic appendages. A second major class of neurons in the central nucleus are the stellate cells with dichotomously branched, spherical‐shaped dendritic trees. Simple, complex, and small stellate cells can be distinguished by their size and by the complexity of the dendritic and axonal branching. Laminar afferent axons are recognized by the nests of collateral side branches and the grapelike clusters of terminal boutons – thick, thin, and intermediate‐sized varieties are apparent. Other axon types include local collaterals of central nucleus neurons, some of which are distinguished by their frequent and complex collaterals.
Nutritional value and fatty acid composition of some traditional Argentinean meat sausages

The aim of this study was to determine the nutritional composition (moisture, protein, carbohydrates, and total fat) of some meat products produced in the northeastern Argentina, analyzing fatty acids composition, polyunsaturated/saturated fatty acid ratio PUFA/SFA ratio (polyunsaturated/ saturated fatty acids), n-6/n-3 ratio, and CLA (conjugated linoleic acid) content. Thirty traditional meat products produced by different processes were used. The samples were classified into 4 different categories as follows: salamin (dry cured and fermented sausage), chorizos (raw sausage), chorizo ahumado (cooked and smoked sausage), and morcilla (cooked sausage). From the results obtained it can be said that the total carbohydrate contents of the salamin studied were slightly lower; fat content of raw chorizo was significantly lower, and protein content of chorizo ahumado was significantly higher than those comparison from databases from other regions of Argentina, USA, and Spain. Except for chorizo, which has a value lower than 0.4, the PUFA/SFA-stearic ratio of the other products were a little higher than those reported by other researchers. CLA (Conjugated linoleic acid) contents between 0.03% and 0.19% were detected. The results obtained indicate that salamin produced in northeastern Argentina, Chaco state, shows high protein and PUFA (Polyunsaturated fatty acids) contents, and low atherogenic and thrombogenic indexes, which makes it a more healthful product than those of similar composition produced in other countries.
High resolution radar imaging using coherent multiband processing techniques

High resolution radar imaging techniques can be used in ballistic missile defence systems to determine the type of ballistic missile during the boost phase (threat typing) and to discriminate different parts of a ballistic missile after the boost phase. The applied radar imaging technique is 2D Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar (2D-ISAR) in which the Doppler shifts of various parts of the ballistic missile are employed to obtain a high cross-range resolution while the resolution in downrange is achieved with a large radar bandwidth. For a 10 cm downrange resolution, a radar bandwidth of more than 1.5 GHz is required. However, this requirement is not compatible with EM frequency spectrum allocations for long range ballistic missile defence radars that operate in the L, S, and C frequency band. In this paper, a novel coherent multiband ISAR imaging technique is proposed that employs two or more narrowband radar systems that operate in different frequency bands. The coherent multiband imaging process uses an advanced interpolation technique to achieve a very high downrange resolution and produces little artifacts due to noise.
Automated Detection of Human Brain Tumors Using in Vivo 1H MR Spectra of Healthy Brain Tissue

Presence of a brain tumor affects the metabolite concentrations of healthy brain tissue. This study inspects the qualification of MR spectroscopy recordings of this tissue for automatic tumor patient classification with linear discriminant analysis, artificial neural networks and support vector machines. With spectroscopy datasets reduced down to the concentrations of two different metabolites, a classification performance of approximately 80% could still be achieved.
A Resonantly Pumped 1645 nm Er:YAG Nonplanar Ring Oscillator With 10.5 W Single Frequency Output

We demonstrate a single frequency Er:YAG nonplanar ring oscillator (NPRO) resonantly pumped by a fiber laser. Up to 10.5 W single frequency laser output with a slope efficiency of 60.03% was achieved by optimizing the parameters of the Er:YAG NPRO. At 10.5 W output power the <formula formulatype="inline"><tex Notation="TeX">$M^{2}$</tex></formula>-factors of the Er:YAG NPRO were 1.09 and 1.24 in the <formula formulatype="inline"><tex Notation="TeX">$x$</tex></formula>- and <formula formulatype="inline"> <tex Notation="TeX">$y$</tex></formula>- directions, respectively. The linewidth of the Er:YAG NPRO was 18.6 kHz.
Report of two overlap syndrome cases with autoimmune hepatitis and primary biliary cirrhosis

Abstract We present the cases of two female patients with clinical, serological, immunological, and histological charac-teristics which mixed symptoms of autoimmune hepatitis and primary biliary cirrhosis. Orthotopic liver trans-plantation was chosen as the best therapeutic alternative for both patients given the advanced deterioration of their disease. Key words Overlap syndrome, autoimmune hepatitis, primary biliary cirrhosis, liver transplantation. IntroductIonOverlap Syndromes (OS) are conditions in which patients have demonstrated autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) and also meet the clinical and histological criteria for primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) or primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) (1-3). Overlaps among the three major autoimmune liver diseases, AIH, PBC, and PSC have been described various times since 1970. The AIH-PBC combination is more com-mon in adults, whereas the AIH-PSC overlap usually occurs in children, adolescents, and young adults (4, 5). The pre-valence of the AIH-PBC overlap varies. Between 4.8% and 19% of all patients with PBC have features of AIH, and 5% to 8.3% of all patients with AIH present characteristics of PBC (6, 7). These variations can be explained by the fact that criteria for OS have not been defined, so studies do not all share the same diagnostic criteria. In fact, debate still continues with those who believe that this is not a single autoimmune process with effects on both hepatocytes and in the bile duct, but is in fact two distinct entities (3, 8). In addition, there are those who believe that AIH- PBC OS represents one end of the spectrum of a single disease:
USE OF ATOMIC FORCE MICROSCOPY TO REVEAL SPERM ULTRASTRUCTURE IN HIV-PATIENTS ON HIGHLY ACTIVE ANTIRETROVIRAL THERAPY

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) has been employed to examine morphological and topographical changes caused by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and the effects of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) on spermatozoon of HIV infected patients. This powerful technique has allowed us to visualize morphological alterations present in the spermatozoa of patients either with or without treatment. In addition to this, even the minute details, such as viral particles, located on the membrane of the spermatozoa, and the merging of such particles on the surface of the spermatozoa were detected with precision. The most important aspect is that AFM, unlike electron microscopy, permits to image virions in their nearly natural environment. Excess of damage of spermatozoon is due to the chemicals involved in HAART rather than the damage made by virus.
Comparison of restriction enzyme analysis versus pulsed-field gradient gel electrophoresis as a typing system for Torulopsis glabrata and Candida species other than C. albicans

Candida species have recently emerged as important nosocomial pathogens. Because of the lack of a reliable system for detecting differences within the same species, little is known about the epidemiology of infection with Candida species. We describe a typing system for Torulopsis glabrata and the non-C. albicans Candida species that uses contour-clamped homogeneous electric field electrophoresis (CHEF), a version of pulsed-field gradient gel electrophoresis, and compared it with restriction enzyme analysis (REA) of genomic DNA. One hundred seventeen clinical isolates from 40 patients were evaluated. CHEF and REA were performed on each of the isolates, and the results of the two procedures were compared. The REA procedure revealed 8 different types of Candida lusitaniae, 20 of Torulopsis glabrata, 5 of Candida tropicalis, 3 of Candida parapsilosis, and 7 of Candida kefyr, whereas the CHEF method revealed 14 different types of C. lusitaniae, 16 of T. glabrata, 10 of C. tropicalis, 10 of C. parapsilosis, and 7 of C. kefyr. The CHEF technique yielded unique patterns of electrophoretic karyotypes that could be used to distinguish intraspecies variations. When compared with REA, CHEF demonstrated greater sensitivity in recognizing subtle strain-to-strain variations in most isolates and will be a useful epidemiologic tool for studying non-C. albicans Candida species and T. glabrata.
Zinc oxide varistors

An overview is given of zinc oxide varistors, which are made of semiconducting ceramics with highly nonohmic current-voltage characteristics, which originate at the grain boundaries. These varistors are widely utilized to protect electric power lines and electronic components against dangerous voltage surges. This overview covers electrical characteristics, fabrication methods, effects of additives, microstructures, the conduction mechanism, degradation, and applications. <<ETX>>
Designing a Click Fraud Detection Algorithm - Exposing Suspect Networks

As the use of the Web expands and appears almost everywhere in business’ practices, new algorithmic problems appear and need to be efficiently handled; one of them that has attracted the attention of both researchers and practitioners is click fraud. Click fraud can be defined as the practice of repetitively clicking on search ads without being actually interested in the content of the related links, with the intention of either increasing the Website’s profits or exhausting an advertiser’s budget. In this work, we propose an algorithm, which exposes suspect networks instead of single IPs, based on utilizing efficient data structures that have not been employed in previous works.
Segmentation of white blood cells from microscopic images using K-means clustering

In this paper, a new segmentation scheme for the white blood cells from microscopic images is proposed. The method is based on the K-means clustering technique. The RGB test images are converted to the L*a*b color space, and then the two color components (a and b) are used as features to the K-means clustering algorithm. The proposed method is tested and evaluated using blood cell images from publicly available dataset. Experiments demonstrate that the proposed method performs well and able to segment white blood cells from microscopic images.
Pancreatic fat accumulation and its relationship with liver fat content and other fat depots in obese individuals

We assessed the associations between pancreatic fat accumulation and other fat compartments, including liver fat and visceral adipose tissue as well as insulin resistance and other metabolic abnormalities in obese individuals. We studied 42 Caucasian adults with obesity [20 men and 22 women; mean body mass index (BMI) 35.2±4 kg/m2], who had no history of liver diseases or excessive alcohol consumption, in which subcutaneous, visceral, liver, and pancreatic fat contents were quantified by an in-opposed-phase magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique. Compared with patients in the lower tertile (<5.6%, no.=15), those in the upper tertile of liver fat content had more visceral adipose tissue, greater insulin resistance and had higher values of BMI, blood pressure, triglycerides and lower HDL-cholesterol and adiponectin. Notably, pancreatic fat accumulation also significantly increased across tertiles of liver fat content. In univariate analysis, the strongest correlates of pancreatic fat were visceral and liver fat contents (r=0.80 and r=0.54, p<0.001–0.0001, respectively). Pancreatic fat accumulation was also moderately associated with insulin resistance and other metabolic syndrome features. However, when adjusted for age, gender and visceral adipose tissue, the associations of pancreatic fat accumulation with liver fat and other metabolic abnormalities were no longer significant. There are significant associations between pancreatic fat accumulation and liver fat content as well as insulin resistance and other metabolic abnormalities in obese, but otherwise healthy, individuals. However, these associations are largely mediated by the amount of visceral adipose tissue.
Recognition of human periodic motion-a frequency domain approach

We present a frequency domain analysis technique for modelling and recognizing human periodic movements from moving light displays (MLDs). We model periodic motions by motion templates, that consist of a set of feature power vectors extracted from unidentified vertical component trajectories of feature points. Motion recognition is carried out in the frequency domain, by comparing an observed motion template with pre-stored templates. This method contrasts with common spatio-temporal approaches. The proposed method is demonstrated by some examples of human periodic motion recognition in MLDs.
Effect of Rosiglitazone on the Differential Expression of Diabetes-associated Proteins in Pancreatic Islets of C57Bl/6 lep/lep Mice*

The insulin sensitizer drug, rosiglitazone, has been shown to have a protective effect on pancreatic islet cell structure and function in animal models of type 2 diabetes. The identification of new molecular targets associated both with islet cell dysfunction and protection is a crucial research goal. In the present study, a proteomics approach has been used to identify such targets. Obese C57Bl/6J lep/lep mice and lean littermates were given the insulin sensitizer drug BRL49653, rosiglitazone. It normalized the impaired glucose tolerance in lep/lep mice but had no significant effect on glucose tolerance in the lean mice. Pancreatic islet polypeptides were arrayed by a two-dimensional gel electrophoresis system that separated more than 2500 individual spots. Three overexpressed and six underexpressed proteins were significant (p < 0.05) between lep/lep and lean mice, and four were modulated significantly (p < 0.05) by the rosiglitazone treatment of the obese mice. The identity of these differentially expressed proteins was made using mass spectrometric analysis and provided evidence that differential expression of actin-binding proteins may be an important aspect of defective islet function. Rosiglitazone increased carboxypeptidase B expression in both lep/lep and normal mice suggesting that this might be an independent effect of rosiglitazone that contributes to improved insulin processing.