Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Targeting thrombogenicity and inflammation in chronic HIV infection

Patients with HIV have higher thrombogenicity that correlates with markers of inflammation; both respond to clopidogrel treatment. Persons with HIV infection (PWH) have increased risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD), but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Coronary thrombosis is known to provoke myocardial infarctions, but whether PWH have elevated thrombotic propensity is unknown. We compared thrombogenicity of PWH on antiretroviral therapy versus matched controls using the Badimon chamber. Measures of inflammation, platelet reactivity, and innate immune activation were simultaneously performed. Enrolled PWH were then randomized to placebo, aspirin (81 mg), or clopidogrel (75 mg) for 24 weeks to assess treatment effects on study parameters. Thrombogenicity was significantly higher in PWH and correlated strongly with plasma levels of D-dimer, soluble TNF receptors 1 and 2, and circulating classical and nonclassical monocytes in PWH. Clopidogrel significantly reduced thrombogenicity and sCD14. Our data suggest that higher thrombogenicity, interacting with inflammatory and immune activation markers, contributes to the increased CVD risk observed in PWH. Clopidogrel exhibits an anti-inflammatory activity in addition to its antithrombotic effect in PWH.
Recreating first digit with silicone prosthesis

The hand is an integral part of our body. Any deviation in hand anatomy not only affects the day-to-day function but it even results in unesthetic appearance. Rehabilitation of these deformities is done either by microsurgery or with the help of silicone prosthesis. Nonsurgical treatment was carried out, where rehabilitation of the first digit was done with customized silicone prosthesis. Replacement of these deformities with silicone prosthesis is usually done by prosthetist. However, we being an oral and maxillofacial prosthodontist, replacement of these missing complete or partial fingers, thumb, ear, and nose is also done by prosthodontist. Rehabilitation of these deformities with silicone prosthesis can offer psychological, functional, and esthetic advantages. Recent advances in materials and skill of an individual made it possible to fabricate esthetically pleasing prosthesis. Mini implants are widely used for retaining silicone prosthesis; however, they are expensive and need surgical intervention. Vacuum-retained silicone-retained silicone prosthesis is a good and minimal invasive option for these patients. This clinical report describes a straightforward technique for fabricating silicone thumb prosthesis for a patient with amputated thumb.
An Outlier Detection Method to Improve Gathered Datasets for Network Behavior Analysis in IoT

 —Outlier detection is a subfield of data mining to determine data points that notably deviate from the rest of a dataset. Their deviation can indicate that these data points are generated by errors and should therefore be removed or repaired. There are many reasons for outliers in a network dataset such as human or instrument errors, noise or system behavior changes. On the other side, Network Behavior Analysis (NBA) is a way to monitor traffic and recognize unusual actions in a network. Analyzing data trends in NBA methods is a common way to interpret network situation. Outliers can deviate and produce erroneous trends that influence the results of the NBA methods. This paper presents an approach that based on a method for trend detection divides the data set into subsets where contextual outliers are discovered. The outliers can then be removed to have a clear dataset that better shows the network behavior when using NBA methods. Increasing the accuracy and reliability are the goals of our method. We compare the proposed method with the Hampel method on simulated IoT network data.
The Efficacy of Upfront Intracranial Radiation with TKI Compared to TKI Alone in the NSCLC Patients Harboring EGFR Mutation and Brain Metastases

Introduction: The high intracranial efficacy of EGFR-TKI challenges the role of upfront intracranial radiation therapy (RT) in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with EGFR mutation and brain metastases (BM). Therefore, we conducted a retrospective analysis to demonstrate the role of upfront RT in these patients. Materials and Methods: Patients that had histologically confirmed NSCLC with EGFR mutation, brain metastases, and received TKI or upfront RT with TKI were included in this study. Intracranial progression was estimated using the Fine-Gray competing risks model. Kaplan-Meier analysis and Log-rank test were used to evaluate and compare intracranial progression-free survival (iPFS), systemic PFS (sPFS), time to second-line systematic therapy (SST) and overall survival (OS). Results: Among the 93 patients included, 53 patients received upfront RT and TKI, and 40 patients received TKI only. Upfront RT group showed lower intracranial progression risk with adjusted SHR 0.38 (95% CI, 0.19 to 0.75, P= 0.006) and longer median time to sPFS (15.6 vs 8.9 months, P= 0.009). There were 9 out of 36 (25%) and 16 out of 34 (47.1%) patients who had oligo-progression received salvage RT in the RT group and TKI group, respectively. After the salvage RT, upfront RT did not prolong the median time to SST (23.6 vs 18.9 months, P=0.862) and OS (median time, 35.4 vs 35.8 months, P=0.695) compared to TKI alone. Conclusion: Compared to upfront intracranial RT, the salvage RT to oligo-progressive disease allowed patients getting TKI to have similar time on initial TKI and OS despite worse iPFS. The best timing of intracranial RT remains to be further verified.
Up-regulated of Angiopoietin-Like Protein 4 Predicts Poor Prognosis in Cervical Cancer

Background: Angiopoietin-like protein 4 (ANGPTL4) has been demonstrated highly expressed in some cancers, but it also was downregulated in others through DNA methylation. However, the expression status of ANGPTL4 in cancer of cervix remains unclear. Thus, our present study attempts to investigate the role of ANGPTL4 in the prognosis of patients with cervical cancer. Methods: Immunohistochemistry, western blotting and qRT-PCR were performed to investigate the expressive level of ANPGTL4 in cervical cancer tissues and paired noncancer tissues. The relationship of ANGPTL4 expression and clinicopathological factors was measured by Chi-square test. Overall and disease-free survival (OS and DFS) rates were estimated and compared by using Kaplan-Meier method and log-rank test, respectively. To assess the prognostic significance of ANGPTL4 in cervical cancer patients, the Cox regression model was utilized to process univariate and multivariate analyses. Results: ANGPTL4 was upregulated in cervical cancer samples and advanced tumor stage, deep stromal invasion, lymph node metastasis, lymphovascular space invasion, as well as poor OS and DFS were shown to be tightly correlated with it. Results of Cox multivariate analysis demonstrated that ANGPTL4 expression was an independent prognostic factor for OS and DFS in cervical cancer. Conclusion: Upregulated ANGPTL4 seems to be a useful marker for poor prognosis in cervical cancer.
Anti-CotH3 antibodies protect mice from mucormycosis by prevention of invasion and augmenting opsonophagocytosis

A novel immunotherapy targeting the Mucorales unique CoH3 invasin is highly protective against murine mucormycosis. Mucorales are fungal pathogens that cause mucormycosis, a lethal angioinvasive disease. Previously, we demonstrated that Rhizopus, the most common cause of mucormycosis, invades endothelial cells by binding of its CotH proteins to the host receptor GRP78. Loss of CotH3 renders the fungus noninvasive and attenuates Rhizopus virulence in mice. Here, we demonstrate that polyclonal antibodies raised against peptides of CotH3 protected diabetic ketoacidotic (DKA) and neutropenic mice from mucormycosis compared to mice treated with control preimmune serum. Passive immunization with anti-CotH3 antibodies enhanced neutrophil inlfux and triggered Fc receptor-mediated enhanced opsonophagocytosis killing of Rhizopus delemar. Monoclonal antibodies raised against the CotH3 peptide also protected immunosuppressed mice from mucormycosis caused by R. delemar and other Mucorales and acted synergistically with antifungal drugs in protecting DKA mice from R. delemar infection. These data identify anti-CotH3 antibodies as a promising adjunctive immunotherapeutic option against a deadly disease that often poses a therapeutic challenge.
A FEASIBILITY STUDY ON USE OF GENERIC MOBILE LASER SCANNING SYSTEM FOR DETECTING ASPHALT PAVEMENT CRACKS

This study aims to automatically detect pavement cracks on urban roads by employing the 3D point clouds acquired by a mobile laser scanning (MLS) system. Our method consists of four steps: ground point filtering, high-pass convolution, matched filtering, and noise removal. First, a voxel-based upward growing method is applied to construct Digital Terrain Model (DTM) of the road surface. Then, a high-pass filter convolutes the DTM to detect local elevation changes that may embed cracking information. Next, a two-step matched filter is applied to extract crack features. Lastly, a noise removal process is conducted to refine the results. Instead of using MLS intensity, this study takes advantages of the MLS elevation information to perform automated crack detection from large-volume, mixed-density, unstructured MLS point clouds. Four types of cracks including longitudinal, transvers, random, and alligator cracks are detected. Our results demonstrated that the proposed method works well with the RIEGL VMX-450 point clouds and can detect cracks in moderate-to-severe severity (13 - 25 mm) within a 200 m by 30 m urban road segment located in Kingston, Ontario, at one time. Due to the resolution capability, small cracks with slight severity remain unclear in the MLS point cloud.
A Bankruptcy Game for Optimize Caching Resource Allocation in Small Cell Networks

In this paper, we study the distributed cooperative caching for Internet content providers in a small cell of heterogeneous network (HetNet). A general framework based on bankruptcy game model is put forth for finding the optimal caching policy. In this framework, the small cell and different content providers are modeled as bankrupt company and players, respectively. By introducing strategic decisions into the bankruptcy game, we propose a caching value assessment algorithm based on analytic hierarchy process in the framework of bankruptcy game theory to optimize the caching strategy and increase cache hit ratio. Our analysis shows that resource utilization can be improved through cooperative sharing while considering content providers’ satisfaction. When the cache value is measured by multiple factors, not just popularity, the cache hit rate for user access is also increased. Simulation results show that our approach can improve the cache hit rate while ensuring the fairness of the distribution.
Effects of stream grazers with different functional traits on the spatial heterogeneity of periphyton mats

Background Grazing activity on periphytic mats determines mat structure and spatial heterogeneity. Spatial complexity in stream periphyton is highly divergent and may depend on the functional traits of the different primary consumers species (i.e., grazers) such as mouthpart morphology, feeding behavior, and feeding activity. We evaluated the effect of grazing by three species having different functional traits on periphytic mat structure with a focus on mohthpart morphology. Methods An enclosure experiment was conducted in a stream located in the Nara Prefecture of Japan using two caddisflies with scraping mouthparts, Micrasema quadriloba and Glossosoma, and one mayfly, Epeorus, with brushing mouthparts. The spatial heterogeneity of chlorophyll a(Chl a) was evaluated, and the periphytic mat was analyzed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) after a 12-d feeding experiment. Results Our results showed the differences in the spatial heterogeneity of the periphytic mats, such as differences in Chl a levels, grazed by the different grazing species. The strongest effect on the spatial heterogeneity and periphytic abundance was observed for Micrasema quadriloba, a caddisfly species with scraping mouthparts. Epeorus mayfly, with brushing mouthparts and high-mobility behavior, produced the weakest effect on spatial heterogeneity. Glossosoma caddisflies had moderate effects on periphytic spatial heterogeneity and abundance. Our results suggest that differences in grazing effects are largely dependent on grazer mouthparts and behavior.
Interspecies Differences in the Connectivity of Ventral Striatal Components Between Humans and Macaques

Although the evolutionarily conserved functions of the ventral striatal components have been used as a priori knowledge for further study, whether these functions are conserved between species remains unclear. In particular, whether macroscopic connectivity supports this given the disproportionate volumetric differences between species in the brain regions that project to the ventral striatum, including the prefrontal and limbic areas, has not been established In this study, the human and macaque striatum was first tractographically parcellated to define the ventral striatum and its two subregions, the nucleus accumbens (Acb)-like and the neurochemically unique domains of the Acb and putamen (NUDAPs)-like divisions. Our results revealed a similar topographical distribution of the connectivity-based ventral striatal components in the two primate brains. Successively, a set of targets was extracted to construct a connectivity fingerprint to characterize these parcellation results, enabling cross-species comparisons. Our results indicated that the connectivity fingerprints of the ventral striatum-like divisions were dissimilar in the two species. We localized this difference to specific targets to analyze possible interspecies functional modifications. Our results also revealed interspecies-convergent connectivity ratio fingerprints of the target group to these two ventral striatum-like subregions. This convergence may suggest synchronous connectional changes of these ventral striatal components during primate evolution.
Synchrotron X-ray scattering studies on the structural evolution of microbial poly(3-hydroxybutyrate)

The crystallization behavior of microbially synthesized poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) was studied in detail using time-resolved small-angle X-ray scattering. This polyester was found to undergo primary crystallization as well as secondary crystallization. In the primary crystallization, the thicknesses of the lamellar crystals were sensitive to the crystallization temperature, but no thickening was observed throughout the entire crystallization at a given temperature. The thickness of the lamellar crystals in the polyester was always larger than that of the amorphous layers. Secondary crystallization favorably occurred during the later stage of isothermal crystallization in competition with the continuous primary crystallization, forming secondary crystals in amorphous regions, in particular in the amorphous layers between the primarily formed lamellar crystal stacks. Compared to the primarily formed lamellar crystals, the secondary crystals had short-range-ordered structures of smaller size, a broader size distribution, and a lower electron density.
Identification and Characterization of New RNASEH1 Mutations Associated With PEO Syndrome and Multiple Mitochondrial DNA Deletions

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) depletion and deletion syndrome encompasses a group of disorders caused by mutations in genes involved in mtDNA replication and maintenance. The clinical phenotype ranges from fatal infantile hepatocerebral forms to mild adult onset progressive external ophthalmoplegia (PEO). We report the case of a patient with PEO and multiple mtDNA deletions, with two new homozygous mutations in RNASEH1. The first mutation (c.487T>C) is located in the same catalytic domain as the four previously reported mutations, and the second (c.258_260del) is located in the connection domain, where no mutations have been reported. In silico study of the mutations predicted only the first mutation as pathogenic, but functional studies showed that both mutations cause loss of ribonuclease H1 activity. mtDNA replication dysfunction was demonstrated in patient fibroblasts, which were unable to recover normal mtDNA copy number after ethidium bromide-induced mtDNA depletion. Our results demonstrate the pathogenicity of two new RNASEH1 variants found in a patient with PEO syndrome, multiple deletions, and mild mitochondrial myopathy.
Diets of wild horses, cattle, and mule deer in the Piceance basin, Colorado.

daily gains appear to have been limited by the ability of the steers to consume enough forage. Had the available forage been of higher quality, increased rates of gain would undoubtedly have occurred since the forage was available. It appears that intake capacity of this size steer limits live weight gains on a deep hardland range site. For increased live weight gain, additional protein and energy would need to be provided as a supplement to the forage. When supplementation is economically infeasible, these data indicate that only about . 45 kg/head daily gain can be expected from yearling steers grazing similar Texas High Plains range. Literature Cited
CONIFER SEED SURVIVAL IN A WESTERN OREGON CLEARCUT

A study of the survival of naturally disseminated tree seed was made in a clearcut area on the H. J. Andrews Experimental Forest in the Cascade Range of western Oregon during 1955-60. From start of seed fall until the end of germination in late spring the following year, 12% of the Douglas-fir (Psendotsuga menziesii) seed survived. Ground-feeding birds and small mammals caused 63% of the seed loss and other agents 25%. Thirty-one per cent of the seed of western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla) lived from the start of seed fall until the end of germination. Of the amount lost, birds and mammals took 16% and all other factors 53%. A large proportion (65%) of western redcedar (Thuja plicata) seed survived during the same period. The entire loss was attributed to causes such as nonviable filled seeds, disease, invertebrates, and others. Ground-feeding birds and small mammals showed a definite preference for Douglas-fir seeds. Only about 25% as many hemlock seeds were taken, and redcedar was not consumed in appreciable amounts. Most of the seed depreciations by birds and mammals occurred from start of seed fall to start of germination; other factors took heaviest toll during the germination period.
Structural Analysis of Ascending Auctions: an Application to Wholesale Used-car Auctions

With the availability of a rich data set, we will develop a new method of conducting structural analysis of ascending auctions under the simplest valuation paradigm, the symmetric IPV model. The data set allows us to adopt a nonparametric approach and make strong interpretation of observed bids, including losing bids, while making a few assumptions about bidding behavior of the model. IdentiÂ…cation and estimation are based on the recent work by Song (2003) that we extend by using one more order statistics and developing better procedure to control auction heterogeneity. We then implement nonparametric tests by Athey and Haile (2002)
Stress Analysis of PTFE Sleeves in Industrial Valves

The polymer PTFE has become an important and widely used sealing material in the valve industry in recent years. It provides good strength and low friction, but it is sensitive to stress relaxation, i.e. loss of stiffness with time. This in turns may cause problems with leaking seals. The objective of this master’s dissertation is to perform a stress analysis of the PTFE sleeve used in an industrial plug valve. The analysis is performed in cooperation with Fluoroseal Valves Inc, a Canadian company situated in Montreal. The master’s dissertation comprises study of the properties of PTFE and measurements on the sleeve. A finite element model of the valve is developed in ABAQUS, and special attention is drawn to the stress relaxation of PTFE, in order to predict leakage. It is found that an inhomogeneous stress field occurs in the sleeve upon loading, and that the stress relaxation causes the sleeve to loose a great deal of its load bearing capacity. High plastic strains are observed at the actual leakage sites and the finite element analysis is confirmed by the measurements.
Group integration in captive grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus)

Die soziale Struktur von Graupapageien (Psittacus erithacus) ist durch ein Fission-Fusion-System charakterisiert, das durch die Schwarmformation und dem lebenslang bestehenden monogamen Paar gekennzeichnet ist. Das Gruppenleben im Schwarm birgt oft Rivalitat um Ressourcen und damit Konfliktsituationen. Anderungen in der Gruppenzusammensetzung mussen gehandhabt sowie entsprechende Konfliktlosungen gefunden werden. Diese Studie soll sowohl Einblick in das Gruppenleben und –verhalten von Graupapageien gegeben, als auch in vorhandene Mechanismen zur Konfliktlosung. Im Zuge dessen wurden zwei unbekannte Individuen in eine vorhandene Gruppe integriert und Verhaltensweisen beobachtet. Zum Vergleich wurde eine Kontrollgruppe ohne integrierte Individuen beobachtet und mit der Integrationsgruppe verglichen. Anhand der Ergebnisse zeigt sich, dass die Individuen sehr daran interessiert sind, direkte Konflikte zu vermeiden und potentielle Auseinandersetzungen passiv zu handhaben, indem sie deutlich ihren sozialen Zusammenhalt und Territoriumsbesitz anzeigen. Auserdem nutzen sie ihre Partnerschaften, die sie gegebenenfalls verstarken und rekrutieren, und beziehen wenn notig, soziale Unterstutzung von Anderen. Diese Konfliktvermeidung lasst sich auf ihren Gesundheitszustand zuruckfuhren (da eine Gruppe flugunfahige Vogeln beinhaltete), welcher sie scheinbar notigt, im Gegensatz zu flugfahigen Vogeln oder Wildtieren, alternative Losungen zu finden. Die Ergebnisse verdeutlichen die Notwendigkeit von Partnervogeln und Einzelterritorien in Gefangenschaft. Die Gruppendynamik von Graupapageien liefert wichtige Erkenntnisse uber ihre sozialen Fahigkeiten sowie uber ihr Potential zur flexiblen Losung von Konflikten.
Extended Sign Test by Ranks for Ordered Repeated Measure

This paper developed an alternative statistical method for the analysis of time or space ordered data.The proposed method used the ranks of successive differences between the observations adjust for the order, direction and magnitudes of the successive differences. Chi-squared test statistic based on the ranks of the successively ordered data is developed to test for the possible existence of any statistical differences between the scores by subjects in the time or space ordered population. Some sample data were used to illustrate the proposed method. The result of the analysis shows that the present method is as powerful as some of the existing non-parametric methods that can be used for the same purpose at least for the present data but preferably for use if the available data set is ordered in time or space.