Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Recurrence of nephrotic syndrome after transplantation in a mixed population of children and adults: course of glomerular lesions and value of the Columbia classification of histological variants of focal and segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS).

UNLABELLED Introduction. Recurrence of nephrotic-range proteinuria in patients with idiopathic nephrotic syndrome (INS) and focal and segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) on native kidneys is associated with poor graft survival. Identification of risk factors for recurrence is therefore an important issue. In 2004, Columbia University introduced a histological classification of FSGS that identifies five mutually exclusive variants. In non-transplant patients, the Columbia classification appears to predict the outcome and response to treatment better than clinical characteristics alone. However, the predictive value of this classification to assess the risk of recurrence after transplantation has not been addressed. METHODS We retrospectively studied 77 patients with INS and FSGS on native kidneys who underwent renal transplantation. Of these, 42 recipients experienced recurrence of nephrotic range proteinuria. RESULTS At time of recurrence, minimal-change disease (MCD) was the main histological feature. On serial biopsies, the incidence of MCD decreased over time, while the incidence of FSGS variants increased. The variant type observed in the native kidneys was not predictive of either recurrence or type of FSGS seen on the allograft. Patients with complete and sustained remission did not developed FSGS. CONCLUSION In conclusion, the Columbia classification is of no help in predicting recurrence after renal transplantation or histological lesions in the case of recurrence of proteinuria.
Counterexample Generation in Probabilistic Model Checking

Providing evidence for the refutation of a property is an essential, if not the most important, feature of model checking. This paper considers algorithms for counterexample generation for probabilistic CTL formulae in discrete-time Markov chains. Finding the strongest evidence (i.e., the most probable path) violating a (bounded) until-formula is shown to be reducible to a single-source (hop-constrained) shortest path problem. Counterexamples of smallest size that deviate most from the required probability bound can be obtained by applying (small amendments to) k-shortest (hop-constrained) paths algorithms. These results can be extended to Markov chains with rewards, to LTL model checking, and are useful for Markov decision processes. Experimental results show that typically the size of a counterexample is excessive. To obtain much more compact representations, we present a simple algorithm to generate (minimal) regular expressions that can act as counterexamples. The feasibility of our approach is illustrated by means of two communication protocols: leader election in an anonymous ring network and the Crowds protocol.
Climate Change Effects and the Resulting Adaptation Strategies of Smallholder Farmers in Three Different Ecological Zones (Kilifi, Embu and Budalangi) in Kenya

Smallholder farmers in Kenya are faced by effects of climate change which results to loss of crop and livestock productions. Consequently, smallholder farmers suffer crop and livestock losses, causing devastation and food insecurity situation. This study provides findings on the effects, adaptation approaches carried out by smallholder farmers of Embu, Kilifi and Budalangi to climate change. The study objectives were achieved through use of survey design. Mixed approach of quantitative and qualitative data analysis was applied. Sampling included multi stage sampling. Three study sites were chosen based on different ecosystem conditions in Kenya. Linear regression was used to demonstrated crops and rainfall trends. Mean temperatures noted to increase slightly and greater variations in the mean seasonal rainfalls in all the three study areas. Declining trend of crop yields was noted for Kilifi (R = - 0.032). The research findings evidently showed that climate change is impacting on smallholder farmers and farming systems in the study area. Keywords: Smallholder farmers; climate change and adaptation strategies
Ten-year outcome after rapid discontinuation of prednisone in adult primary kidney transplantation.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Rapid discontinuation of prednisone after kidney transplantation potentially allows for minimization of steroid-related side effects. Although intermediate-term data with rapid discontinuation of prednisone have been promising, concern still exists regarding long-term outcomes. The 10-year experience is reported herein. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS Between October 1, 1999 and December 31, 2010, 1241 adult primary kidney transplants (791 living donor and 450 deceased donor) were performed using a protocol in which prednisone is discontinued after postoperative day 5. The 10-year actuarial recipient and graft survival rates and prednisone-related side effects were studied. RESULTS Ten-year actuarial patient survival was 71% for living donor transplants and 62% for deceased donor transplants; 10-year graft survival was 61% for living donor transplants and 51% for deceased donor transplants, and was comparable to 10-year Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients national data. Ten-year death-censored graft survival was 79% for living donor transplants and 80% for deceased donor transplants. Ten-year acute rejection rates were 25% for deceased donor transplants and 31% for living donor transplants; 10-year chronic rejection (interstitial fibrosis/tubular atrophy) rates were 39% for deceased donor transplants and 47% for living donor transplants. For nondiabetic recipients of living donor or deceased donor allografts, the incidence of new-onset diabetes was significantly lower than in historical controls on prednisone (P<0.001). We also found significantly reduced rates of cataracts, avascular necrosis, and cytomegalovirus infection in some subgroups. CONCLUSIONS Prednisone-related side effects can be minimized in a protocol incorporating rapid discontinuation of prednisone for maintenance immunosuppression. Ten-year patient and graft outcomes remain acceptable.
Fournier's Gangrene in 21 Years Old Female: A Case Report

Introduction: Fournier's gangrene, also known as gangrene of the genital region, is an uncommon and rapidly advancing form of necrotizing fasciitis that affects the genitals. The severity and mortality of the disease are dependent upon the overall health status of the patient at the time of diagnosis and the speed at which the infection spreads. Case presentation: An unmarried 21-year-old woman presented with a persistent discharge of abscesses in the perineal area. The patient came in ambulatory and showed no indicators of heart or lung discomfort. A pelvic examination was performed, and the following observations were made: A visual examination revealed swelling in the vulvar area on both sides, along with an open wound within the swelling measuring 3×3 cm. The wound was discharging reddish, thick, and foul-smelling fluid. A glucose level of +4 was observed in the urine, and a random blood sugar test yielded a value of 324 mg/dl. The patient received wound debridement, excision, and electrocauterization of genital warts, blood sugar monitoring with insulin administration, and a 14-day course of antibiotics. The patient's condition improved, and they were discharged after receiving 14 days of intravenous antibiotic treatment. Conclusion: The treatment of Fournier gangrene requires a comprehensive approach that includes intensive systematic management, broad-spectrum antibiotic therapy, and early surgical debridement. This involves removing the necrotic tissues and surgically draining the peritoneum, scrotum, penis, and inguinal regions.
A DM642-Based Underwater Video Coding System

Underwater video systems have assumed an increasingly important role in exploration and survey of the unknown deep ocean environments. This paper presents a real-time underwater video compression system that can be mounted on autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) for underwater survey applications. The hardware system is based on the digital media processor TMS320DM642 (DM642) of Texas Instruments, and is mainly composed of the frame-grabber, the DM642 based processing unit, and several interfaces for display and communications. According to the characteristics of underwater video, a very low-bit-rate coding algorithm has been developed, which is composed of three modules, namely, the wavelet-based preprocessing technique, the efficient intra-frame coding algorithm based on modified Wavelet Difference Reduction (WDR), and the inter-frame coding algorithm based on double WDR. In addition, some code optimizing measures are described for the video coding algorithms to efficiently operate on the DM642 based hardware system. The experimental results show that while maintaining the acceptable quality of the reconstructed images, the proposed underwater video-coding algorithm can provide average compression ratios from 250:1 to 400:1, and the DM642 based system exhibits a real-time coding performance of greater than 25 frames per second, thereby meeting the requirement of transmission and storage.
Evaluation of Various Free Software Options for Catphan 504 Phantom Analysis

In computed tomography, image quality tests are important to guarantee a correct medical diagnosis and a better cost and benefit for the patient. Purpose: the purpose of this study is to analyse the images reconstructed with different thorax and bone convolution filters using popular free-use software in the field of medical physics, for the Catphan 504 phantom. Methods: a total of 14 scans were performed using the chest protocol, with convolution filters (FC) FC30, FC35, FC50, FC51, FC52, FC53, FC55, FC56, FC80, FC81, FC83, FC84, FC85, FC86, on the 16-channel Canon Aquilion Lightning CT scanner using the Catphan 504 phantom. Image quality parameters evaluated were: noise, uniformity, linearity of CT numbers, and high spatial resolution with MTF 50% and MTF 10%. The images were evaluated using software such as ImageJ, Script Python, and free software for automatic evaluation of the Catphan 504 phantom, CTQA-cp, SPICE-CT, and Pylinac. Results: the tests carried out with the Catphan 504 phantom were analysed by the software and agreed with each other (with p>0.05), except for Pylinac. The results obtained with Pylinac had a significant difference for the uniformity, slice thickness, and MTF10% tests, this being the code that was the furthest away from the results obtained by the other codes. Conclusions: the ImageJ, Spice-CT, and CTQA-cp software showed consistent results for the tests performed, while Pylinac had limitations in calculating the standard deviation for the noise test and showed significant differences in some tests when compared to the other software.
Numerical Solution of a Complete Formulation of Flow in a Perfusion Bone-Tissue Bioreactor Using Lattice Boltzmann Equation Method

We report the key findings from numerical solutions of a model of transport within an established perfusion bioreactor design. The model includes a complete formulation of transport with fully coupled convection-diffusion and scaffold cell attachment. It also includes the experimentally determined internal (Poly-L-Lactic Acid (PLLA)) scaffold boundary, together with the external vessel and flow-port boundaries. Our findings, obtained using parallel lattice Boltzmann equation method, relate to (i) whole-device, steady-state flow and species distribution and (ii) the properties of the scaffold. In particular the results identify which elements of the problem may be addressed by coarse grained methods such as the Darcy approximation and those which require a more complete description. The work demonstrates that appropriate numerical modelling will make a key contribution to the design and development of large scale bioreactors.
Online Self-Presentation and Braggadocian Behavior in Millennials

Social media is a form of technological development that gives rise to a new behavior called braggadocios behavior, which is often characterized by always uploading status/tweets to show how cool and famous someone is. In addition, social media is one of the new social platforms where someone will try to create their desired impression, which is called, online self-presentation. The millennial is the generation that is most familiar with social media. Because they like the form of interaction in it. The purpose of this research is to find out the relationship between online self-presentation and braggadocios behavior in the millennial generation. This study is using a quantitative method with correlational analysis. The research subjects are Semarang State University students spread across the Faculty of Education, Faculty of Economics, Faculty of Languages ​​and Arts, and the Faculty of Law with a total of 347 subjects. Spearman Rho is used to analyze data that were collected. The results showed that the hypothesis can be accepted, with a correlation coefficient (r) of 0.853 with a significance level of 0.000. This means that there is a positive relationship between online self-presentation and braggadocios behavior in the millennial generation. The bridging aspect between both variables is multiple identities, which consist of the identity from birth (ethnicity, religion, and gender) and artificial identity. Media users will emphasize artificial identity and make it an ideal self.
Incontinence-Associated Dermatitis : Adverse event sequelae , cost and prevention

Incontinence-associated dermatitis (IAD) is a common problem in patients with faecal and/or urinary incontinence. Urine alters the normal skin flora and increases permeability of the stratum corneum and faecal enzymes on the skin contribute to skin damage. Faecal bacteria can then penetrate the skin, increasing the risk of secondary infection. However, IAD can be prevented and healed with timely and appropriate skin cleansing and skin protection. This includes appropriate use of containment devices. HARTMANN incontinence pads have been developed to absorb the fluids that cause IAD and maintain the skin’s acidic pH. The acidic pH of the skin contributes to its barrier function and defence against infection. Therefore, maintaining an acidic pH will help protect the skin from damage.
The accuracy of portable peak flow meters.

BACKGROUND: The variability of peak expiratory flow (PEF) is now commonly used in the diagnosis and management of asthma. It is essential for PEF meters to have a linear response in order to obtain an unbiased measurement of PEF variability. As the accuracy and linearity of portable PEF meters have not been rigorously tested in recent years this aspect of their performance has been investigated. METHODS: The response of several portable PEF meters was tested with absolute standards of flow generated by a computer driven, servo controlled pump and their response was compared with that of a pneumotachograph. RESULTS: For each device tested the readings were highly repeatable to within the limits of accuracy with which the pointer position can be assessed by eye. The between instrument variation in reading for six identical devices expressed as a 95% confidence limit was, on average across the range of flows, +/- 8.5 l/min for the Mini-Wright, +/- 7.9 l/min for the Vitalograph, and +/- 6.4 l/min for the Ferraris. PEF meters based on the Wright meter all had similar error profiles with overreading of up to 80 l/min in the mid flow range from 300 to 500 l/min. This overreading was greatest for the Mini-Wright and Ferraris devices, and less so for the original Wright and Vitalograph meters. A Micro-Medical Turbine meter was accurate up to 400 l/min and then began to underread by up to 60 l/min at 720 l/min. For the low range devices the Vitalograph device was accurate to within 10 l/min up to 200 l/min, with the Mini-Wright overreading by up to 30 l/min above 150 l/min. CONCLUSION: Although the Mini-Wright, Ferraris, and Vitalograph meters gave remarkably repeatable results their error profiles for the full range meters will lead to important errors in recording PEF variability. This may lead to incorrect diagnosis and bias in implementing strategies of asthma treatment based on PEF measurement.
Ariadne: managing fine-grained provenance on data streams

Managing fine-grained provenance is a critical requirement for data stream management systems (DSMS), not only to address complex applications that require diagnostic capabilities and assurance, but also for providing advanced functionality such as revision processing or query debugging. This paper introduces a novel approach that uses operator instrumentation, i.e., modifying the behavior of operators, to generate and propagate fine-grained provenance through several operators of a query network. In addition to applying this technique to compute provenance eagerly during query execution, we also study how to decouple provenance computation from query processing to reduce run-time overhead and avoid unnecessary provenance retrieval. This includes computing a concise superset of the provenance to allow lazily replaying a query network and reconstruct its provenance as well as lazy retrieval to avoid unnecessary reconstruction of provenance. We develop stream-specific compression methods to reduce the computational and storage overhead of provenance generation and retrieval. Ariadne, our provenance-aware extension of the Borealis DSMS implements these techniques. Our experiments confirm that Ariadne manages provenance with minor overhead and clearly outperforms query rewrite, the current state-of-the-art.
Gridded Flash Flood Risk Index Coupling Statistical Approaches and TOPLATS Land Surface Model for Mountainous Areas

This study presents the development of a statistical flash flood risk index model, which is currently operating in research mode for flash flood risk forecasting in ungauged mountainous areas. The grid-based statistical flash flood risk index, with temporal and spatial resolutions of 1 h and 1 km, respectively, has been developed to simulate the flash flood risk index leading to flash flood casualties using hourly rainfall, surface flow, and soil water content in the previous 6 h. The statistical index model employs factor analysis and multi-linear regression to analyze its gridded hydrological components that are obtained from the TOPMODEL-based Land Atmosphere Transfer Scheme (TOPLATS). The performance of the developed index model has been evaluated in estimating flash flooding in ungauged mountain valleys and small streams. Numerical results show that the approach simulated 38 flash flood catastrophes in the Seoul Capital Region with 71% accuracy; therefore, this approach is potentially adequate for flash flood risk forecasting.
Using an Augmented Reality Learning Environment to Teach the Mechanism of an Electrophilic Aromatic Substitution

: Last year, IUPAC named augmented reality (AR) as one of the top ten emerging technologies in chemistry for 2022 for chemistry research and teaching chemistry. Despite an increase in the number of studies investigating the use of AR to teach chemistry, there have only been a few studies on the use of AR to teach organic chemistry, especially the mechanism of chemical reactions. We designed an augmented reality learning environment (AR-LE) to teach the mechanism of an electrophilic aromatic substitution (EAS) by illustrating the macroscopic level of the reaction with a video of the experiment, a 2D-AR animation of the mechanism using Lewis structures (symbolic level), and a 3D-AR animation of the mechanism to illustrate the particulate level. The AR-LE was used in five different grade 12 chemistry classes in Germany in 2022. Students took a knowledge test before and after the lesson and answered survey questions regarding their cognitive load, their acceptance of the technology, and their attitude toward the use of the technology to learn chemistry. The findings reveal that students significantly increased their learning gains ( Z = 5.348, p < 0.001). The calculated effect size of 0.8062 shows that the treatment had a large effect. Furthermore, their responses to the cognitive load and technology acceptance survey indicated that they did not experience high extraneous cognitive load and showed overall acceptance of the AR-LE.
Reconstitution of nuclear protein transport with semi-intact yeast cells

We have developed an in vitro nuclear protein import reaction from semi- intact yeast cells. The reaction uses cells that have been permeabilized by freeze-thaw after spheroplast formation. Electron microscopic analysis and antibody-binding experiments show that the nuclear envelope remains intact but the plasma membrane is perforated. In the presence of ATP and cytosol derived from yeast or mammalian cells, a protein containing the nuclear localization sequence (NLS) of SV40 large T-antigen is transported into the nucleus. Proteins with mutant NLSs are not imported. In the absence of cytosol, binding of NLS- containing proteins occurs at the nuclear envelope. N-ethylmaleimide treatment of the cytosol as well as antibodies to the nuclear pore protein Nsp1 inhibit import but not binding to the nuclear envelope. Yeast mutants defective in nuclear protein transport were tested in the in vitro import reaction. Semi-intact cells from temperature-sensitive nsp1 mutants failed to import but some binding to the nuclear envelope was observed. On the other hand, no binding and thus no import into nuclei was observed in semi-intact nsp49 cells which are mutated in another nuclear pore protein. Np13 mutants, which are defective for nuclear protein import in vivo, were also deficient in the binding step under the in vitro conditions. Thus, the transport defect in these mutants is at the level of the nucleus and the point at which nuclear transport is blocked can be defined.