Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Preparation of Copper (Cu) and Copper Oxide (Cu 2 O) Nanoparticles under Supercritical Conditions

Temperature and pressure, both of which can affect the supersaturation and nucleation are responsible for solvents properties. In this study, we use water as solvent under supercritical conditions and report copper (Cu) and (Cu2O) nanoparticles of size ranging from 9nm to 60nms. This synthetic technique has the following advantages: Firstly, it is one step synthesis approach, making it easy to control the growth kinetics. Secondly, the synthesis needs no sophisticated equipments. Thirdly, the approach is non-toxic without producing hazardous waste as water is being used as solvent as well as source of oxygen. Forth, it is a surfactant free synthesis and has bright prospects.
Denaturation of Ovalbumin Abrogates Oral Induction of Airway Hyperreactivity and IgG1, IgG2 Antibody Responses in Guinea Pigs

Background: The effects of denaturation of ovalbumin (OVA) on the induction of oral sensitization in guinea pigs were examined. Methods: Guinea pig antibody and airway responses were assessed after 10 feedings of chemically or heat–denatured OVA or egg white (EW). Results: Their specific IgG, IgG1 and IgG2 antibody responses were orally sensitized by OVA or EW, but not by chemically or heat–denatured OVA or EW. When further exposed to 0.1% OVA or conalbumin aerosol, those fed OVA or EW, but not denatured OVA or EW, had increased pulmonary resistance and decreased tidal volume. On the other hand, in those fed denatured OVA, boiled EW or saline only, a second sensitization with 1% OVA aerosol generated antibody responses and airway hyperreactivity. Using a sandwich ELISA, guinea pig serum OVA was detected after feeding EW, but not chemically denatured or boiled EW. Conclusions: It is likely that guinea pig gut absorption of OVA may result in oral sensitization. Chemical or heat denaturation of proteins may minimize their intestinal uptake and thus abrogates the induction of oral sensitization in guinea pigs.
Cytogenetics of Hodgkin’s disease

Cytogenetic studies over the past 35 years have made a major contribution towards the understanding of the nature of Hodgkin’s disease by demonstrating unequivocally the consistent presence of a clonal population of cells that have the cardinal features of malignancy e.g. more or less gross aneuploidy, frequently with complex chromosomal changes and showing considerable variation from case to case, thus comparable to the findings in carcinomas and other solid cancers. The mode is frequently in the triploid-tetraploid region, as we found in 17 of 27 cases studied in this laboratory by Feulgen microspectrophotometry, compared to only 10 cases with neardiploid modes. It is disappointing that no specific change, such as a translocation that could give a clue to the chromosomal location of a gene or genes involved in the etiology of Hodgkin’s disease, has yet been found. Nevertheless it is clear that a number of nonrandom changes, including several that are also common in other malignancies including the non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas, are frequently present, e.g., deletions of 1p, 6q, and 7q. Interestingly, deletions of 4q, with loss of 4q25→q27, that have also been reported may show some specificity for Hodgkin’s disease.
Beam-Shaping Technique Based on Generalized Laws of Refraction and Reflection

In this paper, we present a new beam-shaping technique based on the use of a flat lens comprised of phase shift structures (PSSs), designed to reshape the primary beam into a desired one. The beam impinging upon the input port of the lens is regarded as a set of ray tubes, whose refraction characteristics are modified by the PSSs based on the generalized law of refraction to form the desired shaped beam. The proposed method is straightforward to implement and is general purpose in nature. The design procedure of the beam-shaping flat lens is discussed in detail, and two example designs are presented. The simulation and measured results of these case examples confirm that the BSFLs can reshape the primary beams of the feed antennas to the desired flattop or isoflux patterns, for instance. Finally, extensions of the proposed technique to other potential applications are discussed.
SATB1 Level Correlates with Ki-67 Expression and Is a Positive Prognostic Factor in Non-small Cell Lung Carcinoma.

BACKGROUND Non-small cell lung carcinomas (NSCLCs), mainly adenocarcinoma (AC) and squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC), account for about 80% of all lung cancer cases. One of the proteins involved in NSCLC progression may be special AT-rich binding protein 1 (SATB1), a potent transcriptional regulator, able to control the expression of whole sets of genes simultaneously. SATB1 has been found to be associated with aggressive phenotype and poor prognosis in numerous malignancies, including breast, colon, ovary and prostate cancer. However, its role in NSCLC is still not fully understood. The aim of this study was to investigate the expression of SATB1 protein and mRNA in NSCLC and non-malignant lung tissue (NMLT) samples, as well as to determine possible relationships of SATB1 expression with both the expression of Ki-67 and the clinicopathological data of the patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS The study was performed on 277 NSCLC (158 AC, 119 LSCC) and 20 NMLT samples. RESULTS We observed increased SATB1 immunoreactivity in NSCLC when compared to NMLT, and in LSCC when compared to AC cases. We also noted that an elevated SATB1 immunoreactivity was associated with a poor degree of AC differentiation, whereas in LSCC, an inverse relationship was observed. Our analyses revealed that the expression of SATB1 positively correlated with Ki-67 index in NSCLC and LSCC, but not in AC cases. Finally, we found that high SATB1 expression was associated with a better overall survival of patients with NSCLC. CONCLUSION SATB1 plays diverse roles in different NSCLC subtypes, and its expression may have a prognostic significance for patients with these tumours.
La dimension "travail", un élément clé pour le maintien de nos systèmes laitiers

La dimension ‘travail’, un element cle pour le maintien de nos systemes laitiers A. Turlot, E. Froidmont, C. Bauraind, P. Burny, J.M. Bouqiaux, A. Ledur, D. Stilmant , B. Wyzen et J. Wavreille Centre wallon de Recherches agronomiques (CRA-W), B-5030 Gembloux ; Filiere Lait et Produits laitiers wallonne-asbl (FLPLW), B-5030 Gembloux; 3 Direction generale operationnelle de l’Agriculture, des Ressources naturelles et de l’Environnement (DGARNE), Direction de l’Analyse economique agricole (DAEA), B-5000 Namur; 4 Federation wallonne de l’Agriculture (FWA), Centre de Gestion et de Technique agricole (CGTA), B-5030 Gembloux; 5 Association wallonne de l’Elevage-asbl (AWE), B-5590 Ciney
Privatization and Financial Performance in Developing Countries: Reality and Myth

During the 1980s, the pendulum swung back from the socialism doctrinaire that dominated the post war period,where public ownership of the productive and services sectors was emphasized. In the early 1980s, new valuesemerged questioning the role of the state in economic activities. As a result, the pressures mounted to shift tomarket economy and to rely on private initiatives to spearhead the development process. Accordingly, governments around the globe, including communist countries, announced their intentions to“rolling back the frontiers of the state”. The unsatisfactory performance of public enterprises, it was argued, is adirect consequence of their ownership structure. Therefore, the only enduring remedy that emerged was tochange ownership. In this paper we assess the efficiency arguments for and against privatization with emphasis on developingcountries. It is here argued that the poor performance of public enterprises is due to market structure and lack ofclear objectives rather than structure of ownership. Moreover, although there is evidence that privatized firmshave improved, we assert that the claimed improvement is difficult to measure, due to the major restructuringthat were carried out before privatization to prepare the candidates in order to ensure success of the policy andthe change of environment within which they operate. These methodological problems make such comparisonbefore and after at least a protracted and complicated business and the results highly debatable.
Carvedilol (Kredex) reduces infarct size in a canine model of acute myocardial infarction.

Carvedilol (Kredex) is a multiple action, antihypertensive agent that may also prove to be useful in the treatment of angina and congestive heart failure. Carvedilol combines in one molecule both beta-adrenoceptor blocking and vasodilating activities. Inasmuch as beta-adrenoceptor blocking agents are known to be cardioprotective and thereby reduce infarct size, it is logical to assume that carvedilol, likewise, would possess this desirable activity. Furthermore, the additional vasodilating activity of carvedilol could contribute to further reductions in infarct size by reducing myocardial work (and therefore myocardial oxygen demand) through reductions in both afterload and myocardial wall tension. As such, we have investigated the ability of carvedilol to reduce infarct size in a canine model of acute myocardial infarction. Carvedilol (1 mg/kg i.v.) or its vehicle, dimethylformamide, were administered 15 min before left circumflex coronary artery (LCX) occlusion. Following 1 h of LCX occlusion, dogs were reperfused through a critical stenosis and then allowed to recover for 24 h. Carvedilol-treated animals exhibited a 78% reduction in infarct size compared to vehicle controls, such that the percentage of the left ventricle infarcted was reduced significantly from 16.2 +/- 4.1% in control animals to 3.6 +/- 1.3% in animals treated with carvedilol (p = 0.017, n = 6). Stained tissue sections of the left ventricle were photographed, digitized and color-enhanced using an Image Analysis Computer System, and three-dimensional reconstruction of the left ventricle, including the infarcted areas, was performed. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Progression and Transmission of HIV/AIDS (PATH 2.0)

Background. HIV transmission is the result of complex dynamics in the risk behaviors, partnership choices, disease stage and position along the HIV care continuum—individual characteristics that themselves can change over time. Capturing these dynamics and simulating transmissions to understand the chief sources of transmission remain important for prevention. Methods. The Progression and Transmission of HIV/AIDS (PATH 2.0) is an agent-based model of a sample of 10,000 people living with HIV (PLWH), who represent all men who have sex with men (MSM) and heterosexuals living with HIV in the U.S.A. Persons uninfected were modeled as populations, stratified by risk and gender. The model included detailed individual-level data from several large national surveillance databases. The outcomes focused on average annual transmission rates from 2008 through 2011 by disease stage, HIV care continuum, and sexual risk group. Results. The relative risk of transmission of those in the acute phase was nine-times [5th and 95th percentile simulation interval (SI): 7, 12] that of those in the non-acute phase, although, on average, those with acute infections comprised 1% of all PLWH. The relative risk of transmission was 24- to 50-times as high for those in the non-acute phase who had not achieved viral load suppression as compared with those who had. The relative risk of transmission among MSM was 3.2-times [SI: 2.7, 4.0] that of heterosexuals. Men who have sex with men and women generated 46% of sexually acquired transmissions among heterosexuals. Conclusions. The model results support a continued focus on early diagnosis, treatment and adherence to ART, with an emphasis on prevention efforts for MSM, a subgroup of whom appear to play a role in transmission to heterosexuals.
Sparse boosting for high‐dimensional survival data with varying coefficients

Motivated by high‐throughput profiling studies in biomedical research, variable selection methods have been a focus for biostatisticians. In this paper, we consider semiparametric varying‐coefficient accelerated failure time models for right censored survival data with high‐dimensional covariates. Instead of adopting the traditional regularization approaches, we offer a novel sparse boosting (SparseL2Boosting) algorithm to conduct model‐based prediction and variable selection. One main advantage of this new method is that we do not need to perform the time‐consuming selection of tuning parameters. Extensive simulations are conducted to examine the performance of our sparse boosting feature selection techniques. We further illustrate our methods using a lung cancer data analysis.
Affinity for hydroxyapatite of salivary substances inducing aggregation of oral streptococci.

The affinity for hydroxyapatite of salivary factors inducing aggregation of some strains of Streptococcus mutans, Streptococcus sanguis and Streptococcus mitis was studied in vitro using unstimulated parotid saliva and a synthetic hydroxyapatite. Large variations were demonstrated in the affinities but the factor for strains within each serotype of S. mutans showed similar adsorption isotherms and required equal amounts of apatite for complete adsorption. This supports earlier findings of a high specificity for the aggregation-inducing substances. The factors for S. sanguis strains and the serotype d strains of S. mutans, recognized as members of the early plaque, showed the strongest affinity for apatite.
Xanthomatosis and atherosclerosis produced by diet in an adult rhesus monkey.

I T HAS proved difficult to establish with certainty the relationship bet.ween diet and atherosclerosis in human subjects. ‘1 * Important limitat,ions of time and ethics prevent direct feeding experiments, and the multiplicity of environmental variables present in natural situations restricts the interpretation of diet-disease observations. An alternative to this dilemma is the study of the relation of diet to atherosclerosis in subhuman, primate species. Few attempts have been made to produce atherosclerosis in rhesus monkeys. Hueper found no evident disease in young rhesus monkeys that were fed diets containing cholesterol for periods of 8 to 16 months. Rinehart and Greenberg4, 5 have described nonfatty changes in the vessels of pyridoxine-deficient rhesus monkeys which they consider equivalent to those of human arteriosclerosis. Experiments with 12 cebus and 3 rhesus monkeys in this laboratory6 have not reproduced these findings. Recently Mushett and Emersonfia have confirmed the work of Rinehart and Greenberg in rhesus monkeys and dogs. It has been shown in this laboratory with the New World cebus monkey that vascular disease resembling human atherosclerosis can be readily produced by the concurrent presence of a mild deficiency of organic sulfur compounds and a large cholesterol intake. This disease is preceded by significant increases of both serum cholesterol and beta-lipoprot,ein levels. The increases of the latter are restricted to the &O-40 classes (media density = 1.063)) and the blood serum remains clear. The procedure does not lead to gross visceral or cutaneous cholesterolosis. While cebus monkeys regularly show limbal deposits resembling the so-called arcus senilis seen in some human subjects, these deposits are not increased with age or by the atherogenic treatment described. The clinical evidence strongly supports a relationship between xanthomatosis and premature atherosclerosis in human subjects. ” Xanthomatosis appears to be one manifestation of a Mendelian trait which is more regularly characterizcd by the presence of hypercholesteremia.8 Studies done in collaboration with 1118. Edwin Wheeler have established that the serum lipid abnormality o-f xanthoma-
Investigation of e-Government Information Systems Agility

Since their appearance around ‘90s, agile software development methods have gained significant attention in the software engineering community. What about the application of these methods in the electronic government (e-government) field? This paper aims to explore the possibility of applying these methods in egovernment projects development, especially for developing agile e-government information systems.
Incorrect label detection using convolutional autoencoder in labeling task of optical motion capture data

Although optical motion capture system has an advantage of accuracy compared to other motion capture methods, processing the data takes extra time and effort. For example, labeling for markers is necessary for optical motion capture. The labeling by the standard algorithm often fails, and then manual labeling by human must correct the errors. In this paper, we consider the method to modify mistaken label of markers by using convolutional autoencoder. We describe two kinds of strategies of methods. The first one is based on reproduction by using autoencoder. The second one uses the output of intermediate layer as feature. The neural network is trained with motion capture data and tested on the incorrect labeled data.
Research Methods in Healthcare Epidemiology and Antimicrobial Stewardship—Quasi-Experimental Designs

Quasi-experimental studies evaluate the association between an intervention and an outcome using experiments in which the intervention is not randomly assigned. Quasi-experimental studies are often used to evaluate rapid responses to outbreaks or other patient safety problems requiring prompt, nonrandomized interventions. Quasi-experimental studies can be categorized into 3 major types: interrupted time-series designs, designs with control groups, and designs without control groups. This methods paper highlights key considerations for quasi-experimental studies in healthcare epidemiology and antimicrobial stewardship, including study design and analytic approaches to avoid selection bias and other common pitfalls of quasi-experimental studies. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2016;1–6
Gradient-based contrast enhancement and color correction for underwater images

Underwater images are easily degraded by various characteristics of underwater environment. In this paper, we propose an underwater image enhancement algorithm which improves the low contrast and alleviates the color distortion in gradient domain. We first estimate the gradient of original scene image by scaling the gradient of an input underwater image with a corresponding transmission map. Then we reconstruct an original scene image from the compensated gradient image using the constraint that the three color components at each boundary pixel of the original image have the same value to the median value among the three color components of the input underwater image. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm improves the contrast and alleviates the color distortion faithfully, and outperforms the state-of-the-art underwater image enhancement method.
Identification and genotype phenotype correlation of novel mutations in SIX6 gene in primary open angle glaucoma

ABSTRACT Background: Recently SIX1 and SIX6 genes have been associated with primary open angle glaucoma (POAG). This study was planned to do mutation screening in SIX1 and SIX6 genes in North Indian POAG patients and correlate with clinical phenotypes. Materials and Methods: SIX1 and SIX6 genes were amplified by PCR and sequenced in 115 POAG cases and 105 controls. Four pathogenecity prediction tools (MutationTaster, PolyPhen-2 HumDiv, PolyPhen-2 HumVar and SIFT) were used to predict the pathogenicity of the missense mutations. Protein modeling studies were done to predict the effect of the missense mutations on the protein structure and function. Results: Two novel mutations p.R116G and p.R116E were observed in the SIX6 gene of patients with POAG. The mutations p.R116G and p.R116E were predicted to be pathogenic and replacement of R116 by G or E might lead to loss of interaction between DNA and R116 of wild type SIX6 protein. The patients with the mutation p.R116E had significantly more visual field damage (MD) and early age of onset of the disease. No sequence variations were observed in the SIX1 gene. Conclusion: These results expand the mutation spectrum of SIX6 gene and suggest that SIX6 gene plays an important role in POAG pathogenesis.
Laparoscopic Approach to Hepatic Hydatid Disease

Background: The aim of this paper is to present our brief experience on laparoscopic hydatid cyst surgery; we estimated the reproducibility of used techniques in conventional surgery with this relatively recent and attractive method. Methods: Fifteen cysts in 12 selected hydatid disease patients were treated laparoscopically. Cystotomy, partial cystectomy and drainage were performed in 9 patients. Omentoplasty was added to the procedure in the remaining 3 cases. Results: The mean postoperative hospital stay was 4.9 days. There was no mortality, and 1 patient developed bile leakage. Mean follow-up is 18 months. No recurrence was observed during this period. Conclusion: We suggest that laparoscopic treatment of hydatid disease is feasible in selected patients respecting the principles of open surgery and seems beneficial concerning postoperative comfort, hospital stay and return to daily activities.
A Novel Computer-Aided Design/Computer-Assisted Manufacture Method for One-Piece Removable Partial Denture and Evaluation of Fit.

PURPOSE To investigate a computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) process for producing one-piece removable partial dentures (RPDs) and to evaluate their fits in vitro. MATERIALS AND METHODS A total of 15 one-piece RPDs were designed using dental CAD and reverse engineering software and then fabricated with polyetheretherketone (PEEK) using CAM. The gaps between RPDs and casts were measured and compared with traditional cast framework RPDs. RESULTS Gaps were lower for one-piece PEEK RPDs compared to traditional RPDs. CONCLUSION One-piece RPDs can be manufactured by CAD/CAM, and their fits were better than those of traditional RPDs.
Association of polymorphisms near the FOXC2 gene with the risk of varicose veins in ethnic Russians

Objective To investigate the association of polymorphisms located near the FOXC2 gene with the risk of varicose veins in ethnic Russians. Methods Allele, genotype, and haplotype frequencies were determined in the sample of 474 patients with primary varicose veins and in the control group of 478 individuals without a history of chronic venous disease. Results Polymorphisms rs7189489, rs4633732, and rs1035550 showed the association with the increased risk of varicose veins, but none of the observed associations remained significant after correction for multiple testing. Haplotype analysis revealed the association of haplotype rs7189489 C–rs4633732 T–rs34221221 C–rs1035550 C–rs34152738 T–rs12711457 G with the increased risk of varicose veins (OR = 2.67, P = 0.01). Conclusions Our results provide evidence that the studied polymorphisms do not play a major role in susceptibility to varicose veins development in the Russian population.