Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The appropriateness of surveillance colonoscopy intervals after polypectomy.

BACKGROUND Adherence to surveillance colonoscopy guidelines is important to prevent colorectal cancer (CRC) and unnecessary workload. OBJECTIVE To evaluate how well Canadian gastroenterologists adhere to colonoscopy surveillance guidelines after adenoma removal or treatment for CRC. METHODS Patients with a history of adenomas or CRC who had surveillance performed between October 2008 and October 2010 were retrospectively included. Time intervals between index colonoscopy and surveillance were compared with the 2008 guideline recommendations of the American Gastroenterological Association and regarded as appropriate when the surveillance interval was within six months of the recommended time interval. RESULTS A total of 265 patients were included (52% men; mean age 58 years). Among patients with a normal index colonoscopy (n=110), 42% received surveillance on time, 38% too early (median difference = 1.2 years too early) and 20% too late (median difference = 1.0 year too late). Among patients with nonadvanced adenomas at index (n=96), 25% underwent surveillance on time, 61% too early (median difference = 1.85) and 14% too late (median difference = 1.1). Among patients with advanced neoplasia at index (n=59), 29% underwent surveillance on time, 34% too early (median difference = 1.86) and 37% later than recommended (median difference = 1.61). No significant difference in adenoma detection rates was observed when too early surveillance versus appropriate surveillance (34% versus 33%; P=0.92) and too late surveillance versus appropriate surveillance (21% versus 33%; P=0.11) were compared. CONCLUSION Only a minority of surveillance colonoscopies were performed according to guideline recommendations. Deviation from the guidelines did not improve the adenoma detection rate. Interventions aimed at improving adherence to surveillance guidelines are needed.
Preservation of tumour oxygen after hyperbaric oxygenation monitored by magnetic resonance imaging

Hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) has been proposed to reduce tumour hypoxia by increasing the dissolved molecular oxygen in tissue. Using a non-invasive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique, we monitored the changes in MRI signal intensity after HBO exposure because dissolved paramagnetic molecular oxygen itself shortens the T1 relation time. SCCVII tumour cells transplanted in mice were used. The molecular oxygen-enhanced MR images were acquired using an inversion recovery-preparation fast low angle shot (IR-FLASH) sequence sensitizing the paramagnetic effects of molecular oxygen using a 4.7 tesla MR system. MR signal of muscles decreased rapidly and returned to the control level within 40 min after decompression, whereas that of tumours decreased gradually and remained at a high level 60 min after HBO exposure. In contrast, the signal from the tumours in the normobaric oxygen group showed no significant change. Our data suggested that MR signal changes of tumours and muscles represent an alternation of extravascular oxygenation. The preserving tumour oxygen concentration after HBO exposure may be important regarding adjuvant therapy for cancer patients. © 2000 Cancer Research Campaign
Introduction to Magnetic Materials

Introduction to Magnetic Materials, 2nd Edition covers the basics of magnetic quantities, magnetic devices, and materials used in practice. While retaining much of the original, this revision now covers SQUID and alternating gradient magnetometers, magnetic force microscope, Kerr effect, amorphous alloys, rare-earth magnets, SI Units alongside cgs units, and other up-to-date topics. In addition, the authors have added an entirely new chapter on information materials. The text presents materials at the practical rather than theoretical level, allowing for a physical, quantitative, measurement-based understanding of magnetism among readers, be they professional engineers or graduate-level students.
Mobile Element Scheduling with Dynamic Deadlines

Wireless networks have historically considered support for mobile elements's an extra overhead. However, recent research has provided the means by which a network can take advantage of mobile elements. Particularly in the case of wireless sensor networks, mobile elements can be deliberately built into the system to improve the lifetime of the network and act as mechanical carriers of data. The mobile element, whose mobility is controlled, visits the nodes to collect their data before their buffers are full. In general, the spatio-temporal dynamics of the sensed phenomenon may require sensor nodes to collect samples at different rates, in which case, some nodes need to be visited more frequently than others. This work formulates the problem of scheduling the mobile element in the network so that there is no data loss due to buffer overflow. The problem is shown to be NP-complete and an integer-linear-programming formulation is given. Finally, some computationally practical algorithms for a single mobile and for the case of multiple mobiles are presented and their performances compared
Local or distributed activation? The view from biology

There is considerable disagreement among connectionist modellers over whether to represent distinct properties by distinct nodes of a network or whether properties should be represented by patterns of activity across all nodes. This paper draws on the literature of neuroscience to say that a more subtle way of describing how different brain regions contribute to a behaviour, in terms of individual learning and in terms of degrees of importance, may render the current debate moot: both sides of the ‘localist’ versus ‘distributed’ debate emphasise different aspects of biology.
Effective Training of a Neural Network Character Classifier for Word Recognition

We have combined an artificial neural network (ANN) character classifier with context-driven search over character segmentation, word segmentation, and word recognition hypotheses to provide robust recognition of hand-printed English text in new models of Apple Computer's Newton Message Pad. We present some innovations in the training and use of ANNs as character classifiers for word recognition, including normalized output error, frequency balancing, error emphasis, negative training, and stroke warping. A recurring theme of reducing a priori biases emerges and is discussed.
Urokinase Receptor Counteracts Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell Functional Changes Induced by Surface Topography

Current treatments for human coronary artery disease necessitate the development of the next generations of vascular bioimplants. Recent reports provide evidence that controlling cell orientation and morphology through topographical patterning might be beneficial for bioimplants and tissue engineering scaffolds. However, a concise understanding of cellular events underlying cell-biomaterial interaction remains missing. In this study, applying methods of laser material processing, we aimed to obtain useful markers to guide in the choice of better vascular biomaterials. Our data show that topographically treated human primary vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) have a distinct differentiation profile. In particular, cultivation of VSMC on the microgrooved biocompatible polymer E-shell induces VSMC modulation from synthetic to contractile phenotype and directs formation and maintaining of cell-cell communication and adhesion structures. We show that the urokinase receptor (uPAR) interferes with VSMC behavior on microstructured surfaces and serves as a critical regulator of VSMC functional fate. Our findings suggest that microtopography of the E-shell polymer could be important in determining VSMC phenotype and cytoskeleton organization. They further suggest uPAR as a useful target in the development of predictive models for clinical VSMC phenotyping on functional advanced biomaterials.
Occurrence and estrogenicity of phenolics in paper‐recycling process water: Pollutants originating from thermal paper in waste paper

Eight phenolics were detected in samples collected from areas where paper‐recycling process water is discharged. The detected concentration levels were up to 270 μg/L and 230 μg/g in water samples and sediment samples, respectively, obtained from both the outfall of the paper‐recycling process water and its downstream areas. In particular, totarol (compound 4), 2,4‐bis(1‐phenylethyl)phenol (compound 6), 4,4′‐butylidenebis(6‐t‐butyl‐m‐cresol) (compound 7), 2,4‐bis(1‐phenylethyl)‐6‐chlorophenol (compound 8), and 4‐hydroxy‐4′‐isopropoxydiphenyl sulfone (compound 9) were identified for the first time as environmental pollutants. The estrogenicities of the identified compounds were assessed by yeast two‐hybrid assays incorporating either the human or medaka fish (Oryzias latipes) estrogen receptor a (hERα and medERα, respectively) and an estrogen receptor competitive enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (ER‐ELISA) both with and without metabolic activation by a rat liver S9 mix. Bisphenol A (compound 3) and 2‐naphthol (compound 1) exhibited activity in the assays of both hERα and medERα without the S9 mix. The relative activity (%) to 17β‐estradiol was 0.0015% for compound 3 and 0.0009% for compound 1 in the hERα assay and 0.027% for compound 3 and 0.0093% for compound 1 in the medERα assay. These compounds were attenuated by the S9 mix. The binding affinity was evaluated using an ER‐ELISA. Compounds 3, 4, 6, and 7 exhibited affinity without the S9 mix. After exposure to the S9 mix, however, the binding affinity of compound 7 was eliminated by the S9 mix; those of compounds 3, 4, and 6 were attenuated; and that of compound 8 exhibited affinity. A comprehensive assessment of the estrogenicities of the phenolics originating from thermal paper and their implications for an aquatic environment may require an examination of the components of the phenolics, as in the present study.
Hybrid Decoding: Decoding with Partial Hypotheses Combination over Multiple SMT Systems

In this paper, we present hybrid decoding --- a novel statistical machine translation (SMT) decoding paradigm using multiple SMT systems. In our work, in addition to component SMT systems, system combination method is also employed in generating partial translation hypotheses throughout the decoding process, in which smaller hypotheses generated by each component decoder and hypotheses combination are used in the following decoding steps to generate larger hypotheses. Experimental results on NIST evaluation data sets for Chinese-to-English machine translation (MT) task show that our method can not only achieve significant improvements over individual decoders, but also bring substantial gains compared with a state-of-the-art word-level system combination method.
SNAP-25 Functional Domains in SNARE Core Complex Assembly and Glutamate Release of Cerebellar Granule Cells*

Synaptosomal associated protein of 25 kDa (SNAP-25) is a member of the SNARE protein complex that has been implicated in synaptic vesicle docking and fusion. In this report, we have generated SNAP-25 mutants and assayed their functions in SNARE complex formation and glutamate release from cultured rat cerebellar granule cells. In vitro binding studies show that a deletion mutant lacking the C-terminal 181–206 amino acid sequence inhibits the formation of the SNARE core complex. Additional deletion of an N-terminal 1–31 amino acid sequence abolished this inhibitory activity. Adenovirus-mediated gene transfer is used to overexpress wild-type and mutant SNAP-25 in cerebellar granule cells. Neurons overexpressing the wild-type protein show slight reductions in glutamate release, ranging from 10 to 15% in both the developing and mature granule cells. A 30–35% inhibition is obtained with the C-terminal deletion mutant, and the inhibitory effect is abolished in the N- and C-terminal double deletion mutant. These results demonstrate that the SNARE core complex exists in a dynamic and reversible state, and the formation of the core complex is necessary for neurotransmitter release in neurons.
Field-Evolved Insect Resistance to Bt Crops: Definition, Theory, and Data

ABSTRACT Transgenic crops producing Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) toxins for insect pest control have been successful, but their efficacy is reduced when pests evolve resistance. Here we review the definition of field-evolved resistance, the relationship between resistance and field control problems, the theory underlying strategies for delaying resistance, and resistance monitoring methods. We also analyze resistance monitoring data from five continents reported in 41 studies that evaluate responses of field populations of 11 lepidopteran pests to four Bt toxins produced by Bt corn and cotton. After more than a decade since initial commercialization of Bt crops, most target pest populations remain susceptible, whereas field-evolved resistance has been documented in some populations of three noctuid moth species: Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith) to in Bt corn in Puerto Rico, Busseola fusca (Fuller) to Cry1Ab in Bt corn in South Africa, and Helicoverpa zea (Boddie) to Cry1Ac and Cry2Ab in Bt cotton in the southeastern United States. Field outcomes are consistent with predictions from theory, suggesting that factors delaying resistance include recessive inheritance of resistance, abundant refuges of non-Bt host plants, and two-toxin Bt crops deployed separately from one-toxin Bt crops. The insights gained from systematic analyses of resistance monitoring data may help to enhance the durability of transgenic insecticidal crops. We recommend continued use of the long-standing definition of resistance cited here and encourage discussions about which regulatory actions, if any, should be triggered by specific data on the magnitude, distribution, and impact of field-evolved resistance.
Serum free p-cresyl sulfate levels predict cardiovascular and all-cause mortality in elderly hemodialysis patients--a prospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND The mortality rate of elderly hemodialysis (HD) patients is high. Serum p-cresyl sulfate (PCS) and indoxyl sulfate (IS) are associated with cardiovascular (CV) disease and mortality in renal patients. The association between such biomarkers and mortality in elderly HD patients has a high clinical value but remains unclear. METHODS This prospective cohort study investigated the association of serum IS and PCS with all-cause and CV mortality in elderly HD patients. Multivariate Cox regression analysis was used to estimate the risk of all-cause and CV mortality in this prospective cohort. RESULTS Of 112 patients, 45 deaths (18 CV deaths) were identified after a mean follow-up of 33.2 months. The cumulative and CV survival of patients with lower free PCS was significantly better than high free PCS patients. In multivariate Cox regression analysis, serum free PCS was associated with all-cause and CV mortality after various adjustments, including age, gender and diabetes status (Model 1), albumin (Model 2), Ca × P product and intact parathyroid hormone (Model 3), hemoglobin and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (Model 4) and hierarchically selected covariates (age, diabetes status and albumin, Model 5). CONCLUSION Serum free PCS levels may help in predicting risk of all-cause and CV mortality in elderly HD patients beyond traditional and uremia related risk factors.
Factors influencing childhood immunisation in an urban area of Brazil.

STUDY OBJECTIVE--The aim was to examine the factors associated with incomplete vaccination in an urban area in Sao Paulo, Brazil; and to explore whether differences in vaccine coverage in the catchment area of health centres remain after the demographic constitution of the population in these areas is controlled for. DESIGN--The children were selected as controls for a case-control study. 455 children were selected at random (but age matched) from the health centre registries. Data was collected from the health centre records and from home interviews. SETTING--All children were registered in FAISA, a municipal health service comprising a large network of health centres and hospitals. FAISA's services are free at the point of delivery, and over 85% of the city's children are registered. PARTICIPANTS--Participants were selected to represent, except in their age distribution, all children registered in the municipal health service. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS--Information was collected on subjects' vaccine history, year of birth, sex, birth order and birth weight, and health centre of registration; their mothers' age, education, and marital status; and the family's income per capita and history of migration. Analysis was undertaken to identify risk factors for vaccination and whether the differential coverage in health centres' catchment areas remained after demographic characteristics of the population were controlled for. The high coverage for DPT and polio vaccines suggests that low overall coverage was not simply a result of mothers failing to bring children for vaccination. The variable that best predicted vaccine coverage was year of birth. Children born to immigrant mothers or into large families had lower vaccine uptake. The characteristics of children and their mothers did not account for the variation in vaccination coverage in catchment areas of different health centres. CONCLUSIONS--It is likely that in this area vaccination completeness was associated mainly with the health centre's ability to deliver vaccination to the target population.
Arabidopsis DREB2A-Interacting Proteins Function as RING E3 Ligases and Negatively Regulate Plant Drought Stress–Responsive Gene Expression[W]

The DEHYDRATION-RESPONSIVE ELEMENT BINDING PROTEIN2A (DREB2A) transcription factor controls water deficit–inducible gene expression and requires posttranslational modification for its activation. The activation mechanism is not well understood; however, the stability of this protein in the nucleus was recently found to be important for its activation. Here, we report the isolation of Arabidopsis thaliana DREB2A-INTERACTING PROTEIN1 (DRIP1) and DRIP2, C3HC4 RING domain–containing proteins that interact with the DREB2A protein in the nucleus. An in vitro ubiquitination assay showed that they function as E3 ubiquitin ligases and are capable of mediating DREB2A ubiquitination. Overexpression of DRIP1 in Arabidopsis delayed the expression of DREB2A-regulated drought-responsive genes. Drought-inducible gene expression was slightly enhanced in the single T-DNA mutants of drip1-1 and drip2-1. By contrast, significantly enhanced gene expression was revealed in the drip1 drip2 double mutant under dehydration stress. Collectively, these data imply that DRIP1 and DRIP2 function negatively in the response of plants to drought stress. Moreover, overexpression of full-length DREB2A protein was more stable in drip1-1 than in the wild-type background. These results suggest that DRIP1 and DRIP2 act as novel negative regulators in drought-responsive gene expression by targeting DREB2A to 26S proteasome proteolysis.
Functional plasmonic nanoantennae as optical filters

Plasmonic nanoantennae are important candidates for metamaterials in the visible range. However, the fabrication of dense nanoantennae with various designs and small dimensions is still very challenging for nanoscale features with high aspect ratios. Demonstrated is a series of geometries of plasmonic nanocrystals with different designs and ultrasmall gaps using a one-step focused ion beam milling process. Optical characterisation of plasmonic nanoantennae has also been carried out to investigate the underlying physics. Theoretical calculations were also performed to verify the experimental results. The high fabrication quality nanostructures demonstrated may enable new applications in nanophotonics, giving rise to new opportunities for nanodevices.
Modeling of Diffusion Transport through Oral Biofilms with the Inverse Problem Method

AimThe purpose of this study was to develop a mathematical model to quantitatively describe the passive transport of macromolecules within dental biofilms.MethodologyFluorescently labeled dextrans with different molecular mass (3 kD, 10 kD, 40 kD, 70 kD, 2 000 kD) were used as a series of diffusion probes. Streptococcus mutans, Streptococcus sanguinis, Actinomyces naeslundii and Fusobacterium nucleatum were used as inocula for biofilm formation. The diffusion processes of different probes through the in vitro biofilm were recorded with a confocal laser microscope.ResultsMathematical function of biofilm penetration was constructed on the basis of the inverse problem method. Based on this function, not only the relationship between average concentration of steady‐state and molecule weights can be analyzed, but also that between penetrative time and molecule weights.ConclusionThis can be used to predict the effective concentration and the penetrative time of anti‐biofilm medicines that can diffuse through oral biofilm. Furthermore, an improved model for large molecule is proposed by considering the exchange time at the upper boundary of the dental biofilm.
A regularized free‐form estimator for dark energy

We construct a simple, regularized estimator for the dark energy equation of state by using the recently introduced linear response approximation. We show that even a simple regularization substantially improves the performance of the free-form fitting approach. The use of the linear response approximation allows an analytical construction of the maximum likelihood estimator, in a convenient and easy to use matrix form. We show that, in principle, such regularized free-form fitting can give us an unbiased estimate of the functional form of the equation of state of dark energy. We show the efficacy of this approach on simulated SuperNova Acceleration Probe class data, but it is easy to generalize this method to include other cosmological tests. We provide a possible explanation for the sweet spots seen in other reconstruction methods.
Multipitch Detection Based on Weighted Summary Correlogram

In this paper, we introduce a multipitch detection algorithm which is based on weighted summary correlogram. The weight is described as a conditional probability which models the relationship between fundamental frequency (FO) of periodic sound and response frequency of its dominated channels. Modified by this weight, SACF obtains more robustness to noise and to sub-harmonic error. The proposed algorithm can be used to track single or multiple pitches under noisy environment. Its performance is evaluated on 100 mixed sounds which comprise 10 voiced speeches and 10 different kinds of noises. The results show that our model has better performance than existing algorithms.
RDF pattern matching using sortable views

In the last few years, RDF is becoming the dominating data model used in semantic web for knowledge representation and inference. In this paper, we revisit the problem of pattern matching query in RDF model, which is usually expensive in efficiency due to the huge cost on join operations. To alleviate the efficiency pain, view materialization techniques are usually deployed to accelerate the query processing. However, given an arbitrary view, it remains difficult to identify how to reuse the view for a particular query, because of the NP-hardness behind the algorithm matching patterns and views. To fully exploit the benefit of the materialized views, we propose a new paradigm to enhance the effectiveness of the materialized view. Instead of choosing materialized views in arbitrary form, our paradigm aims to select the views only if they are sortable. The property of sortability raises huge gains on the pattern-view matching, bringing down the cost to linear complexity in terms of the pattern size. On the other side, the costs on identifying sortable views and searching over the views using inverted index are affordable. Moreover, sortable views generally improve the overall performance of pattern matching, by means of a cost model used to optimize the query rewriting on the most appropriate views. Finally, we demonstrate extensive experimental results to verify the superiority of our proposal on both efficiency and effectiveness.