Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Multiple striatal representation in primate substantia nigra

The pattern of arborization of the striatonigral fibers in the squirrel monkey (Saimiri Sciureus) was studied with Phaseolus vulgaris‐leucoagglutinin (PHA‐L) and biocytin as anterograde tracers. Single, small injections of PHA‐L or biocytin in either the caudate nucleus or the putamen give rise to at least four distinct, nonoverlapping but interconnected fiber plexuses that are distributed throughout the rostrocaudal extent of the substantia nigra pars reticulata (SNr) according to a strikingly precise and constant sequence. These plexuses, which comprise numerous fibers that closely entwine unlabeled dendrites of SNr neurons (woolly fibers), often lie at the base of dopaminergic cell columns of the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc). Long and varicose fibers emerge dorsally from SNr plexuses and climb along the ventrally oriented denarites of dopaminergic SNc neurons, as visualized with tyrosine hydroxylase immunohistochemistry. These fibers appear to contact en passant both dendrites and cell bodies of dopaminergic neurons belonging to the ventral tier of SNc. Anterograde double‐labeling experiments involving small deposits of PHA‐L and biocytin in adjacent areas of the caudate nucleus and the putamen reveal that neighboring striatonigral cell populations form two distinct sets of terminal plexuses that remain well segregated throughout SNr. Plexuses from the two sources interdigitate in some parts of SNr, but never intermix. Furthermore, the wooly fibers in these plexuses are composed exclusively of either PHA‐L‐or biocytin‐labeled elements; none of them display both types of labeling. These results reveal that the striatonigral projection in primates is highly divergent and that the striatum has multiple representations at nigral levels. They also indicate that striatal information is conveyed to the substantia nigra in a highly ordered fashion through multiple segregated channels. © 1994 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Anti-cancer effect of aloe emodin on breast cancer cells, MCF-7

Phytochemicals of some plants are believed to have natural anti-proliferative properties to various cancer cells. Thus, they might have the potential as alternative choice for contemporary treatment as the latter are usually associated with many unpleasant side effects. The aim of this study is to investigate the possible anti-cancer effect of aloe emodin (AE; 1,8-Dihydroxy-3-hydro-xymethyl-anthraquinone) on estrogenpositive breast cancer cells, MCF-7. We were able to demonstrate the efficiency of AE, an antraquinone derivatives which are present in Aloe Vera leaves, in limiting the proliferation effect of MCF-7 cells in a dose and time dependent manner using WST-1 assay. Our preliminary result suggests that AE could be a promising natural candidate for future pharmacological study, targeting in breast cancer prevention strategies.
FDTD characterisation of on-body propagation channels adopting statistically shaped subjects

This paper presents a numerical study regarding on-body channel characteristics by adopting statistically obtained human phantoms. Ranges of these realistic models are instantiated from twenty MRI scans of real humans, with the coefficient of modes of variation related to girth and height. Path loss analysis for waist to chest has been performed at 5.8GHz to understand the impact of variability of structures on channel performance. The Parallel Finite Difference Time Domain technique has been used for the simulations.
Caffeine Ingestion and Intense Resistance Training Minimize Postexercise Hypotension in Normotensive and Prehypertensive Men

The primary aim of the study was to compare changes in blood pressure (BP) in normotensive and prehypertensive men completing resistance exercise following caffeine ingestion. Normotensive (n = 7) and hypertensive men (n = 7) ingested caffeine (6 mg.kg−1) or placebo 1 h preexercise, then completed four sets of bench press, leg press, lat pull-down, and shoulder press at 70%–80% one repetition maximum (1-RM). Heart rate (HR) and BP were measured preexercise, during exercise, and for 75 min postexercise. Caffeine increased (p < 0.05) resting, exercise, and recovery systolic BP, yet had no effect on HR (p = 0.16) or diastolic BP (p = 0.10). HR and BP were significantly higher (p < 0.05) in prehypertensive men versus normotensives. Postexercise hypotension did not occur in either treatment, suggesting that intense resistance training with or without caffeine intake may mitigate the BP-lowering effect of resistance exercise.
ATP Induces a Conformational Change in Lipid-bound Cytochrome c *

Resonance energy transfer studies using a pyrene-labeled phospholipid derivative 1-palmitoyl-2-[10-(pyren-1-yl)decanoyl]-sn-glycero-3-phosphoglycerol (donor) and the heme (acceptor) of cytochrome c (cytc) have indicated that ATP causes changes in the conformation of the lipid-bound protein (Rytömaa, M., Mustonen, P., and Kinnunen, P. K. J. (1992) J. Biol. Chem. 267, 22243–22248). Accordingly, after binding cytc via its so called C-site to neat phosphatidylglycerol liposomes (mole fraction of PG = 1.0) has commenced, further quenching of donor fluorescence is caused by ATP, saturating at 2 mm nucleotide. ATP-induced conformational changes in liposome-associated cyt c could be directly demonstrated by CD in the Soret band region (380–460 nm). The latter data were further supported by time-resolved spectroscopy using the fluorescent cytc analog with a Zn2+-substituted heme moiety. A high affinity ATP-binding site has been demonstrated in cytc (Craig, D. B., and Wallace, C. J. A. (1993) Protein Sci. 2, 966–976) that is compromised by replacing the invariant Arg91 to norleucine. Although no major effects on conformation and function of cyt c were concluded due to the modification, a significantly reduced effect by ATP on the lipid-bound [Nle91]cyt c was evident, implying that this modulation is mediated via the Arg91-containing binding site.
Environmental enrichment during development decreases intravenous self-administration of methylphenidate at low unit doses in rats

Despite the efficacy and widespread use of methylphenidate (MPH) as a treatment modality for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, clinical and preclinical findings indicate that it has abuse potential. Environmental enrichment reduces susceptibility to cocaine and amphetamine self-administration and decreases impulsive behavior, but its effects on MPH self-administration are unknown. The present experiments sought to determine the influence of environmental enrichment on MPH self-administration. Male rats were raised in an enriched condition (EC) or isolated condition (IC). They were trained to self-administer MPH (0.3 mg/kg/infusion) and then exposed to varying doses of MPH on either a fixed-ratio (experiment 1) or a progressive-ratio (experiment 2) schedule of reinforcement. EC rats earned significantly fewer infusions of MPH at low doses (0.03 and 0.056 mg/kg/infusion) compared with IC rats under both schedules; however, no differences were observed at high unit doses (0.1–1.0 mg/kg/infusion). During saline substitution at the end of MPH self-administration, EC rats also responded less for saline compared with IC rats, indicative of more rapid extinction. As with other stimulant drugs with different mechanisms of action, environmental enrichment during development protects against self-administration of MPH at low unit doses but not at high unit doses.
N′-(3-Thienylmethylene)pyridine-2-carbohydrazide

The title compound, C11H9N3OS, was prepared to investigate the coordination chemistry of thiophene-containing ligands as precursors to interesting metallopolymers. The molecule is nearly planar. The angle between the thiophene and pyridine rings is 8.63 (4)° and features the expected trans configuration about the imine bond. The structure is stabilized by a weak intermolecular N—H⋯O hydrogen bond. The distance between centroids of adjacent thiophene rings [3.67 (8) Å] suggests the presence of π–π interactions.
Improving Radar's Spatial Recognition: A Radar Scanning Method Based on Microwave Spatial Spectral Illumination

In this article, we present a radar scanning method based on microwave photonics. The target area is illuminated by a spectrum of microwave frequencies. An antenna array radiates on a far-field target, where the radiation spectral curve is divided so that different spatial subresolution segments are illuminated by different frequencies. Back-reflected radiation from target subsegments is detected in the single small-aperture antenna. Detection can separate the subsegments with high-spatial-resolving capability due to the frequency-spatial encoding obtained by the known frequency pattern on the target. We include experimental and simulation results for a one-dimensional (1-D) and a two-dimensional (2-D) antenna array.
Neuronal nitric oxide synthase inhibition sensitizes the tubuloglomerular feedback mechanism after volume expansion.

BACKGROUND In the kidney the neuronal isoform of nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) is located in the macula densa cells. These cells are known to be the sensor in the tubuloglomerular feedback. During volume expansion (VE), the tubuloglomerular feedback response is attenuated, allowing increased water and salt excretion. This study addressed the question whether inhibition of nNOS reestablishes the tubuloglomerular feedback response caused by acute extracellular VE. METHODS In rats, VE was achieved by infusion of isotonic saline solution at 50 mL/hour x kg body weight. When urine flow was stabilized, the tubuloglomerular feedback response was evaluated by measuring changes in proximal tubular stop-flow pressure (PSF) in response to various loop of Henle perfusion rates. The loop of Henle was perfused with artificial ultrafiltrate and with addition of 1 mol/L non-specific NOS inhibitor, Nomega-nitro-l-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME). In additional rats the nNOS inhibitor, 7-nitro indazole (7-NI), was given intraperitoneally. Single nephron glomerular filtration rate (SNGFR) was also measured. GFR was determined after VE and nNOS inhibition. RESULTS Acute VE decreased DeltaP(SF) and DeltaSNGFR while increasing the turning point, indicating decreased sensitivity of tubuloglomerular feedback response. After administration of L-NAME or 7-NI, DeltaP(SF) was maximally sensitized and the turning point and DeltaSNGFR were restored. GFR decreased after VE and nNOS inhibition compared to that after VE alone. CONCLUSION These results suggest that a functioning nitric oxide system, especially through the nNOS, is important in mediating normal renal responses and that increased production of and/or sensitivity to nitric oxide during sustained VE plays an important role in the adaptive mechanism of the tubuloglomerular feedback.
Provable Matrix Sensing using Alternating Minimization

Alternating minimization has emerged as a popular heuristic for large-scale machine learning problems involving low-rank matrices. However, there have been few (if any) theoretical guarantees on its performance. In this work, we investigate the natural alternating minimization algorithm for the popular matrix sensing problem first formulated in [RFP07]; this problem asks for the recovery of an unknown low-rank matrix from a small number of linear measurements thereof. We show that under suitable RIP conditions, alternating minimization linearly converges to the true matrix. Our result can be extended to matrix completion from randomly sampled entries. Our analysis uses only elementary linear algebra and exploits the fact that, under RIP, alternating minimization can be viewed as a noisy version of orthogonal iteration (which is used to compute the top singular vectors of a matrix).
Doctors as Pawns? Law and Medical Ethics at Guantanamo Bay

This article (based on a paper presented at the Seton Hall Law School Guantanamo Teach-In/Conference in October 2006) explores the relationship between law and medical ethics through the lens of detainee abuse at Guantanamo Bay. It describes the U.S. Administration's exercises in legal exceptionalism - designed to limit or disapply international legal protections for detainees in the war on terror - and makes a case for robust ethics codes governing the participation of a variety of health professionals in interrogation scenarios. The article also critiques recent ethical position statements adopted by the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association.
Acute stroke: usefulness of early CT findings before thrombolytic therapy.

PURPOSE To determine whether the extent of subtle parenchymal hypoattenuation detected on computed tomographic (CT) scans obtained within 6 hours of ischemic stroke is a factor in predicting patients' response to thrombolytic treatment. MATERIALS AND METHODS The baseline CT scans of 620 patients, who received either recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rt-PA) or a placebo, in a double-blind, randomized multicenter trial were prospectively evaluated and assigned to one of three categories according to the extent of parenchymal hypoattenuation: none, 33% or less (small), or more than 33% (large) of the middle cerebral artery territory. The association between the extent of hypoattenuation on the baseline CT scans and the clinical outcome in the placebo-treated and the rt-PA-treated groups after 3 months was analyzed. RESULTS In 215 patients with a small hypoattenuating area, treatment increased the chance of good outcome. In 336 patients with a normal CT scan and in 52 patients with a large hypoattenuating area, rt-PA had no beneficial effect but increased the risk for fatal brain hemorrhage. CONCLUSION The response to rt-PA in patients with ischemic stroke can be predicted on the basis of initial CT findings of the extent of parenchymal hypoattenuation in the territory of the middle cerebral artery.
Judges System for Classifiers Specialization

In this paper we designed and implemented a new ensemble of classifiers based on a sequence of classifiers which were specialized in regions of the training dataset where errors of its trained homologous are concentrated. In order to separate this regions, and to determine the aptitude of each classifier to properly respond to a new case, it was used another set of classifiers built hierarchically. We explored a selection based variant to combine the base classifiers. We validated this model with different base classifiers using 37 training datasets. It was carried out a statistical comparison of these models with the well known Bagging and Boosting, obtaining significantly superior results with the hierarchical ensemble using Multilayer Perceptron as base classifier. Therefore, we demonstrated the efficacy of the proposed ensemble, as well as its applicability to general problems. Keywords—classifiers, delegation, ensemble
Deformable registration of the planning image (kVCT) and the daily images (MVCT) for adaptive radiation therapy

The incorporation of daily images into the radiotherapy process leads to adaptive radiation therapy (ART), in which the treatment is evaluated periodically and the plan is adaptively modified for the remaining course of radiotherapy. Deformable registration between the planning image and the daily images is a key component of ART. In this paper, we report our researches on deformable registration between the planning kVCT and the daily MVCT image sets. The method is based on a fast intensity-based free-form deformable registration technique. Considering the noise and contrast resolution differences between the kVCT and the MVCT, an ‘edge-preserving smoothing’ is applied to the MVCT image prior to the deformable registration process. We retrospectively studied daily MVCT images from commercial TomoTherapy machines from different clinical centers. The data set includes five head–neck cases, one pelvis case, two lung cases and one prostate case. Each case has one kVCT image and 20–40 MVCT images. We registered the MVCT images with their corresponding kVCT image. The similarity measures and visual inspections of contour matches by physicians validated this technique. The applications of deformable registration in ART, including ‘deformable dose accumulation’, ‘automatic re-contouring’ and ‘tumour growth/regression evaluation’ throughout the course of radiotherapy are also studied. For more information on this article, see medicalphysicsweb.org
Survival advantage of radiofrequency ablation for hepatocellular carcinoma: comparison with ethanol injection.

BACKGROUND/AIMS The aims of this study were to compare long-term prognosis of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) treated with radiofrequency ablation (RFA) and percutaneous ethanol injection (PEI). METHODOLOGY Two hundred and thirteen patients with HCC were initially treated with PEI or RFA at Saga University Hospital between 1990 and 2004. The present study included 190 patients: 98 treated with PEI from 1990 to 1999, and 92 with RFA from 2000 to 2004. The association of treatment method with survival prognosis was evaluated by multivariate analysis. RESULTS There were no significant differences in gender, etiology, and tumor stage between the two groups. Five-year survival rate in the PEI group was 40% and 51% in the RFA group. According to tumor stage, there were no differences in 5-year survival rate between the two groups for tumor stage I and III. For stage II patients, RFA had better survival than PEI (48% vs. 28%, p = 0.03). Multivariate analysis indicated that RFA was more effective for long-term survival than PEI in patients with tumor stage II (p = 0.04). CONCLUSIONS Compared to PEI, RFA improved survival in patients with stage II HCC, indicating a therapeutic advantage of RFA.
PROCAL: A Set of 40 Peptide Standards for Retention Time Indexing, Column Performance Monitoring, and Collision Energy Calibration

Beyond specific applications, such as the relative or absolute quantification of peptides in targeted proteomic experiments, synthetic spike‐in peptides are not yet systematically used as internal standards in bottom‐up proteomics. A number of retention time standards have been reported that enable chromatographic aligning of multiple LC–MS/MS experiments. However, only few peptides are typically included in such sets limiting the analytical parameters that can be monitored. Here, we describe PROCAL (ProteomeTools Calibration Standard), a set of 40 synthetic peptides that span the entire hydrophobicity range of tryptic digests, enabling not only accurate determination of retention time indices but also monitoring of chromatographic separation performance over time. The fragmentation characteristics of the peptides can also be used to calibrate and compare collision energies between mass spectrometers. The sequences of all selected peptides do not occur in any natural protein, thus eliminating the need for stable isotope labeling. We anticipate that this set of peptides will be useful for multiple purposes in individual laboratories but also aiding the transfer of data acquisition and analysis methods between laboratories, notably the use of spectral libraries.
ADDITIVE AND MULTIPLICATIVE NOISE REMOVAL BASED ON ADAPTIVE WAVELET TRANSFORMATION USING CYCLE SPINNING

The need for image restoration is encountered in many practical applications. For instance, distortion due to Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) or in some cases the multiplicative (speckle) one can be caused by poor quality image acquisition. Wavelet denoising attempts to remove these types of noise present in the signal while preserving the signal characteristics, regardless of its frequency content. A newly developed method based on the wavelet transform (semi-soft thresholding) appears promising, though there is little practical guidance on its use. The results that are obtained by the experiments are compared with traditional additive noise methods such as Sureshrink, Block Method 3 Dimensions (BM3D) and Speckle noise reduction methods as Lee filter, linear scaling filter (Lsmv). Furthermore, Cycle Spinning technique is implemented in order to enhance the quality of the denoised estimates. It has been found that the proposed method achieves better enhancement and restoration of the image while preserving high frequency features of the noiseless image. Moreover, the proposed algorithm matches the quality of the best redundant approaches, while maintaining a high computational efficiency and a low CPU/memory consumption.
Improving performance of Text Categorization: Using Multi Feature Coselection Clustering Technique and Lsquare Machine Learning

Text categorization is continuing to be one of the most researched NLP problems due to the ever-increasing amounts of electronic documents and digital libraries. In this paper, we present a novel text categorization method that combines the Multitype Features Coselection for Clustering and a learning logic technique, called Lsquare, for constructing text classifiers. The high dimensionality of text in a document has not been fruitful for the task of categorization, for which reason, feature clustering has been proven to be an ideal alternative to feature selection for reducing the dimensionality. We, therefore, use Multitype Features Coselection for Clustering (MFCC) to generate an efficient representation of documents and apply Lsquare for training text classifiers. The method was extensively tested and evaluated. The proposed method achieves higher or comparable classification accuracy and F1 results compared with SVM. MFCC improves clustering performance.
Cellular and molecular mechanisms of liver tolerance

Summary: The liver exhibits a distinctive form of immune privilege, termed liver tolerance, in which orthotopic liver transplantation results in systemic donor‐specific T‐cell tolerance, while antigens introduced either into hepatocytes or via the portal vein also cause tolerance. Here we argue that the fundamental mechanism driving liver tolerance is likely to be the continuous exposure of diverse liver cell types to endotoxin, derived from the intestinal bacteria. This exposure promotes the expression of a set of cytokines, antigen‐presenting molecules, and costimulatory signals that impose T‐cell inactivation, partly via effects on liver antigen‐presenting cells. The evidence favors clonal deletion mechanisms and is consistent with a role for regulatory T cells but does not support either anergy or immune deviation as important factors in liver tolerance.
Utterance verification using garbage words for a hospital appointment system with speech interface

On a system that captures spoken dialog, users often use out-of-domain utterances to the system. The speech recognition component in the dialog system cannot correctly recognize such utterances, which causes fatal errors. This paper proposes a method to verify whether utterances are in-domain or out-of-domain. The proposed method trains systems with two language models: one that can accept both in-domain and out-of-domain utterances and the other that can accept only in-domain utterances. These models are installed into two speech recognition systems. A comparison of the recognizers' outputs provides a good verification of utterances. We installed our method in a hospital appointment system and evaluated it. The experimental results showed that the proposed method worked well.
A new formulation of the extended Jacobian method and its use in mapping algorithmic singularities for kinematically redundant manipulators

The extended Jacobian method resolves the redundancy of a kinematically redundant manipulator such that a secondary criterion is kept at an optimal value. This paper describes a new formulation of this algorithm that is well suited numerically for systems with multiple degrees of redundancy and for more general choices of the secondary criterion. This formulation is used here for tracing algorithmic singularities, which mark a boundary of operation for any algorithm using the same secondary criterion to resolve the redundancy. Examples of tracing algorithmic singularities are presented for both planar and spatial systems. >