Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Epidural Injections for Spinal Pain: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis Evaluating the “Control” Injections in Randomized Controlled Trials

Background:Epidural steroid injection is the most frequently performed pain procedure. This study of epidural steroid “control” injections aimed to determine whether epidural nonsteroid injections constitute a treatment or true placebo in comparison with nonepidural injections for back and neck pain treatment. Methods:This systematic review with direct and indirect meta-analyses used PubMed and EMBASE searches from inception through October 2012 without language restrictions. Study selection included randomized controlled trials with a treatment group receiving epidural injections of corticosteroids or another analgesic and study control groups receiving either an epidural injection devoid of treatment drug or a nonepidural injection. Two reviewers independently extracted data including short-term (up to 12 weeks) pain scores and pain outcomes. All reviewers evaluated studies for eligibility and quality. Results:A total of 3,641 patients from 43 studies were included in this systematic review and meta-analysis. Indirect comparisons suggested epidural nonsteroid were more likely than nonepidural injections to achieve positive outcomes (risk ratio, 2.17; 95% CI, 1.87–2.53) and provide greater pain score reduction (mean difference, −0.15; 95% CI, −0.55 to 0.25). In the very limited direct comparisons, no significant differences were noted between epidural nonsteroid and nonepidural injections for either outcome (risk ratio [95% CI], 1.05 [0.88–1.25]; mean difference [95% CI], 0.22 [−0.50 to 0.94]). Conclusion:Epidural nonsteroid injections may provide improved benefit compared with nonepidural injections on some measures, though few, low-quality studies directly compared controlled treatments, and only short-term outcomes (⩽12 weeks) were examined.
Xylem cavitation in the leaf of Prunus laurocerasus and its impact on leaf hydraulics.

This paper reports how water stress correlates with changes in hydraulic conductivity of stems, leaf midrib, and whole leaves of Prunus laurocerasus. Water stress caused cavitation-induced dysfunction in vessels of P. laurocerasus. Cavitation was detected acoustically by counts of ultrasonic acoustic emissions and by the loss of hydraulic conductivity measured by a vacuum chamber method. Stems and midribs were approximately equally vulnerable to cavitations. Although midribs suffered a 70% loss of hydraulic conductance at leaf water potentials of -1.5 MPa, there was less than a 10% loss of hydraulic conductance in whole leaves. Cutting and sealing the midrib 20 mm from the leaf base caused only a 30% loss of conduction of the whole leaf. A high-pressure flow meter was used to measure conductance of whole leaves and as the leaf was progressively cut back from tip to base. These data were fitted to a model of hydraulic conductance of leaves that explained the above results, i.e. redundancy in hydraulic pathways whereby water can flow around embolized regions in the leaf, makes whole leaves relatively insensitive to significant changes in conductance of the midrib. The onset of cavitation events in P. laurocerasus leaves correlated with the onset of stomatal closure as found recently in studies of other species in our laboratory.
Efficient approximation of neural filters for removing quantum noise from images

In this paper, efficient filters are presented that approximate neural filters (NFs) that are trained to remove quantum noise from images. A novel analysis method is proposed for making clear the characteristics of the trained NF. In the proposed analysis method, an unknown nonlinear deterministic system with plural inputs such as the trained NF can be analyzed by using its outputs when the specific input signals are input to it. The experiments on the NFs trained to remove quantum noise from medical and natural images were performed. The results have demonstrated that the approximate filters, which are realized by using the results of the analysis, are sufficient for approximation of the trained NFs and efficient at computational cost.
Vascular Abnormalities and Deregulation of VEGF in Lkb1-Deficient Mice

The LKB1 tumor suppressor gene, mutated in Peutz-Jeghers syndrome, encodes a serine/threonine kinase of unknown function. Here we show that mice with a targeted disruption ofLkb1 die at midgestation, with the embryos showing neural tube defects, mesenchymal cell death, and vascular abnormalities. Extraembryonic development was also severely affected; the mutant placentas exhibited defective labyrinth layer development and the fetal vessels failed to invade the placenta. These phenotypes were associated with tissue-specific deregulation of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression, including a marked increase in the amount of VEGF messenger RNA. Moreover, VEGF production in culturedLkb1−/− fibroblasts was elevated in both normoxic and hypoxic conditions. These findings place Lkb1in the VEGF signaling pathway and suggest that the vascular defects accompanying Lkb1 loss are mediated at least in part by VEGF.
The US twin study of age-related macular degeneration: relative roles of genetic and environmental influences.

CONTEXT Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of irreversible blindness among older individuals in many parts of the world. The relative importance of genes and environment in the etiology of this major public health problem is not well understood. OBJECTIVE To investigate the impact of genetic and environmental factors. PARTICIPANTS Living twins in the National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council World War II Veteran Twin Registry born between 1917 and 1927. METHODS Twins were surveyed for the known presence of macular degeneration. Enrolled twins underwent a standardized examination and fundus photography. Age-related macular degeneration evaluation was completed for 840 elderly male twins, 210 monozygotic and 181 dizygotic complete twin pairs, both concordant and discordant for presence or absence of AMD, and 58 singletons. A bivariate twin model incorporating initial screening ascertainment and age effects was employed to partition variation in liability to AMD and signs of maculopathy into additive genetic, common environment, and unique environment components. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE Heritability of AMD grade and signs of maculopathy based on clinical examination and fundus photographs. RESULTS Of the 840 twins, 331 had no signs of maculopathy and 241 had early signs, while 162 had intermediate AMD and 106 had advanced AMD. Heritability (additive genetic) estimates were significant for overall AMD grade (0.46) and for intermediate (0.67) and advanced (0.71) AMD. Significant unique environmental proportions of variance were also observed for these AMD variables (0.37, 0.19, and 0.24, respectively). Shared or common environmental contributions were not significant (0.05-0.17). For specific macular drusen and retinal pigment epithelial characteristics, significant genetic (0.26-0.71) and unique environmental (0.28-0.64) proportions of variance were detected. CONCLUSIONS Genetic factors play a substantial role in the etiology of AMD and associated macular characteristics, explaining 46% to 71% of the variation in the overall severity of the disease. Environmental factors unique to each twin also contribute to the occurrence of this disease. This quantification of relative genetic and environmental contributions to the development of AMD should guide future research on this important cause of blindness.
Geometric Map-Assisted Localization for Mobile Robots Based on Uniform-Gaussian Distribution

Drift and scale ambiguity are two main issues which reduce localization accuracy in monocular visual odometry (MVO). It is necessary to propose a unified model to represent these measurement uncertainties. In this paper, we present a geometric map-assisted localization approach for mobile robots equipped with MVO. We model the measurement of MVO as a group of particles, which obey uniform-Gaussian distribution and cover measurement uncertainties including scale ambiguity and measurement randomness. The saliency of each particle can be obtained from the distribution to indicate raw measurement certainty of MVO. Geometric map-assisted shape matching is implemented as the measurement model to assign consistency to the particles generated from the distribution. Both saliency and consistency are considered in particle weights determination. Furthermore, based on the statistical properties of the probability distribution, a parameter estimation scheme is proposed to narrow down the scale ambiguity of MVO while resampling particles. Experiments with KITTI dataset have demonstrated that the proposed approach greatly enhances positioning accuracy, with average localization error of 6.54 m in over 15.89 km run.
Mimosine, a Toxin Present in Leguminous Trees (Leucaena spp.), Induces a Mimosine-Degrading Enzyme Activity in Some Rhizobium Strains

Thirty-seven Rhizobium isolates obtained from the nodules of leguminous trees (Leucaena spp.) were selected on the basis of their ability to catabolize mimosine, a toxin found in large quantities in the seeds, foliage, and roots of plants of the genera Leucaena and Mimosa. A new medium containing mimosine as the sole source of carbon and nitrogen was used for selection. The enzymes of the mimosine catabolic pathway were inducible and were present in the soluble fraction of the cell extract of induced cells. On the basis of a comparison of the growth rates of Rhizobium strains on general carbon and nitrogen sources versus mimosine, the toxin appears to be converted mostly to biomass and carbon dioxide. Most isolates able to grow on mimosine as a source of carbon and nitrogen are also able to utilize 3-hydroxy-4-pyridone, a toxic intermediate of mimosine degradation in other organisms.
A new space vector modulation strategy for three-switch three-phase delta inverter

The three-switch three-phase inverter (TSTPI) also referred to as delta inverter is a three-phase dc/ac converter that needs only three two-quadrant power switches. This reduced power conversion structure is widely considered in many industrial applications, especially the electrical traction thanks to its costly-effectiveness, compactness, lower complexity and lower switching losses. This paper presents a new space vector modulation method (SVPWM) of the TSTPI. The proposed method uses at any switching period the three largest active vectors to synthesize the reference output voltage vector. It compares also two distribution strategies of the gate signals. Computer simulations carried out on a numerical model of the converter feeding an RL load confirm the validity of the proposed SVPWM method. The correct operation of the converter controlled with the SVPWM method is also emphasized through experimental tests realized on a laboratory prototype of the inverter.
Robust and flexible mapping for real-time distributed applications during the early design phases

We are interested in mapping hard real-time applications on distributed heterogeneous architectures. An application is modeled as a set of tasks, and we consider a fixed-priority preemptive scheduling policy. We target the early design phases, when decisions have a high impact on the subsequent implementation choices. However, due to a lack of information, the early design phases are characterized by uncertainties, e.g., in the worst-case execution times (wcets), or in the functionality requirements. We model uncertainties in the wcets using the “percentile method”. The uncertainties in the functionality requirements are captured using “future scenarios”, which are task sets that model functionality likely to be added in the future. In this context, we derive a mapping of tasks in the application, such that the resulted implementation is both robust and flexible. Robust means that the application has a high chance of being schedulable, considering the wcet uncertainties, whereas a flexible mapping has a high chance to successfully accommodate the future scenarios. We propose a Genetic Algorithm-based approach to solve this optimization problem. Extensive experiments show the importance of taking into account the uncertainties during the early design phases.
The rate of phosphocreatine hydrolysis and resynthesis in exercising muscle in humans using 31P-MRS.

Time-resolved 31-phosphorus nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (31P-MRS) of the biceps femoris muscles was performed during exercise and recovery in six healthy sedentary male subjects (maximal oxygen uptake; 46.6 +/- 1.7 (SEM) ml.kg-1.min-1), 5 male sprinters (56.2 +/- 2.5), and 5 male long-distance runners (73.6 +/- 2.2). Each performed 4 min of knee flexion exercises at absolute values of 1.63 W and 4.90 W, followed by 5 min of recovery in a prone position in a 2.1 T superconducting magnet with a 67 cm bore. 31P-MRS spectra were recorded every 12.8 s during the rest-exercise-recovery sequence. Computer-aided contour analysis and pixel imaging of phosphocreatine peaks (PCr) and inorganic phosphate (Pi) were performed. The work loads in the present study were selected as mild exercise (1.63 W) and heavy exercise (4.90 W), corresponding to 18-23% and 54-70% of maximal exercise intensity. Long-distance runners showed a significantly smaller decrement in PCr and less acidification at a given exercise intensity compared to those shown by sedentary subjects. The transient responses of PCr and Pi during recovery were characterized by first-order kinetics. After exercise, the recovery rates of PCr and Pi were significantly faster in long-distance runners than in sedentary subjects (P < 0.05). Since it is postulated that PCr resynthesis is controlled by aerobic metabolism and mitochondrial creatine kinase, it is suggested that the faster PCr and Pi recovery rates and decreased acidification seen in long-distance runners during and after exercise might be attributed to their greater capacity for aerobic metabolism.
An Approach to Debugging Grid or Web Services

In this paper, we first introduce some issues that are encountered in building a service debugger and briefly describe our approach to addressing them. Next, we outline some debugging modes and components of a simple composite debugger. Then, we mainly describe its message-based front-end and back-end, which are a co-existing, self-identifying, and non- intrusive. Finally, we preset some experimental results of our latest prototype.
Detection of Herpes Simplex Virus Type-1 in Patients with Fibrotic Lung Diseases

The current study intends to investigate i) the incidence of herpes viruses including Herpes Simplex Virus type-1 (HSV-1), Cytomegalovirus (CMV) and Human Herpes Virus -6, -7, -8 (HHV6, HHV7, HHV8) in two biological samples, bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) and lung tissue biopsy, in different forms of pulmonary fibrosis, and ii) the induction of molecular pathways involved in fibrosis by herpesvirus infection in primary cell cultures. PCR was employed for the detection of CMV, HHV6-8 and HSV-1 DNA in lung specimens (4 controls and 11 IPF specimens) and BALF pellet [6 controls and 20 fibrotic Idiopathic Intestitial Pneumonias (f-IIPs) samples: 13 idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and 7 nonspecific idiopathic interstitial pneumonia (NSIP)] samples. Among all herpesviruses tested, HSV-1 was detected in 1/11 (9%) specimens from IPF lung tissue and in 2/20 (10%) samples of f-IIPs BALF whereas the control group was negative. Primary cell cultures from BALF of patients with IPF and healthy controls were infected in vitro with wild-type HSV-1 virus and Real Time PCR was employed for the detection of gene transcription of specific axes implicated in lung fibrosis. Primary cell cultures were permissive to HSV-1, resulting in an upregulation of the fibrotic growth factors TGFβ1 and FGF, the angiogenetic markers SDF1a, SDF1b, VEGF, FGF and the regulators of tissue wound healing MMP9 and CCR7. Downregulation was noted for the CXCR4 and MMP2 genes, while a different response has been detected in healthy donors regarding the expression of the aforementioned markers. These results implicate for the first time the HSV-1 with Fibrotic Idiopathic Interstitial Pneumonias since the virus presented similar incidence in two different biological samples.
Multipath congestion control in content-centric networks

Data communication across the Internet has significantly changed under the pressure of massive content delivery. Content-Centric Networking (CCN) rethinks Internet communication paradigm around named data retrieval, in contrast with the host-to-host transport model of TCP/IP. Content retrieval is natively pull-based driven by user requests, point-to-multipoint and intrinsically coupled with the availability of network storage. By leveraging the key features of CCN transport, in this paper we propose for the first time a congestion control mechanism realizing efficient multipath communication over content-centric networks. Our proposal is based on a Remote Adaptive Active Queue Management (RAAQM) at the receiver that performs a per-route control of bottleneck queues along the paths. We analyze the stability of the proposed solution and assess its performance by means of CCN packet-level simulations under random and optimal route selection.
On the number of local minima to the point feature based SLAM problem

Map joining is an efficient strategy for solving feature based SLAM problems. This paper demonstrates that joining of two 2D local maps, formulated as a nonlinear least squares problem has at most two local minima, when the associated uncertainties can be described using spherical covariance matrices. Necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of two minima is derived and it is shown that more than one minimum exists only when the quality of the local maps used for map joining is extremely poor. The analysis explains to some extent why a number of optimization based SLAM algorithms proposed in the recent literature that rely on local search strategies are successful in converging to the globally optimal solution from poor initial conditions, particularly when covariance matrices are spherical. It also demonstrates that the map joining problem has special properties that may be exploited to reliably obtain globally optimal solutions to the SLAM problem.
Direct observation of microtubule dynamics at kinetochores in Xenopus extract spindles

Microtubule plus ends dynamically attach to kinetochores on mitotic chromosomes. We directly imaged this dynamic interface using high resolution fluorescent speckle microscopy and direct labeling of kinetochores in Xenopus extract spindles. During metaphase, kinetochores were stationary and under tension while plus end polymerization and poleward microtubule flux (flux) occurred at velocities varying from 1.5–2.5 μm/min. Because kinetochore microtubules polymerize at metaphase kinetochores, the primary source of kinetochore tension must be the spindle forces that produce flux and not a kinetochore-based mechanism. We infer that the kinetochore resists translocation of kinetochore microtubules through their attachment sites, and that the polymerization state of the kinetochore acts a “slip-clutch” mechanism that prevents detachment at high tension. At anaphase onset, kinetochores switched to depolymerization of microtubule plus ends, resulting in chromosome-to-pole rates transiently greater than flux. Kinetochores switched from persistent depolymerization to persistent polymerization and back again during anaphase, bistability exhibited by kinetochores in vertebrate tissue cells. These results provide the most complete description of spindle microtubule poleward flux to date, with important implications for the microtubule–kinetochore interface and for how flux regulates kinetochore function.
On the continuous coverage problem for a swarm of UAVs

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can be used to provide wireless network and remote surveillance coverage for disaster-affected areas. During such a situation, the UAVs need to return periodically to a charging station for recharging, due to their limited battery capacity. We study the problem of minimizing the number of UAVs required for a continuous coverage of a given area, given the recharging requirement. We prove that this problem is NP-complete. Due to its intractability, we study partitioning the coverage graph into cycles that start at the charging station. We first characterize the minimum number of UAVs to cover such a cycle based on the charging time, the traveling time, and the number of subareas to be covered by the cycle. Based on this analysis, we then develop an efficient algorithm, the cycles with limited energy algorithm. The straightforward method to continuously cover a given area is to split it into N subareas and cover it by N cycles using N additional UAVs. Our simulation results examine the importance of critical system parameters: the energy capacity of the UAVs, the number of subareas in the covered area, and the UAV charging and traveling times. We demonstrate that the cycles with limited energy algorithm requires 69%–94% fewer additional UAVs relative to the straightforward method, as the energy capacity of the UAVs is increased, and 67%–71% fewer additional UAVs, as the number of subareas is increased.
Circadian rhythms in digestive enzymes in the small intestine of rats. I. Patterns of the rhythms in various regions of the small intestine.

The activities of the digestive enzymes, maltase [EC 3.2. 1.20], sucrase [EC 3.2. 1.26], trehalase [EC 3.2. 1.28], Leucine aminopeptidase [EC 3.4. 11.1], and alkaline phosphatase [EC 3.1. 3.1] were measured in various regions of the small intestine of rats. The activities of all these enzymes were much higher in the jejunum than in the ileum, and in the distal regions of the ileum no sucrase, trehalase or alkaline phosphatase activity was detected. In the jejunum, the activities of all the enzymes tested exhibited clear circadian variations with the highest activity at 0000-0400 h and the lowest at 1200 h when the rats were fed ad libitum. In the ileum, maltase and sucrase also exhibited circadian variations, but the amplitude of the rhythm was smaller than that in the jejenum. Trehalase and alkaline phosphatase did not show any circadian variation in the ileum. Leucine aminopeptidase showed a circadian variation in the ileum with the same amplitude as in the jejunum. The phase of the circadian variations shifted about half a day when the rats were fed in the daytime, but the amplitude of the rhythm did not change.