Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Can Remifentanil Replace Nitrous Oxide During Anesthesia for Ambulatory Orthopedic Surgery with Desflurane and Fentanyl?

BACKGROUND:The administration of nitrous oxide (N2O) may be associated with side effects and toxicities. Remifentanil shares characteristics with N2O, including MAC-reducing and antinociceptive effects and a rapid decrease in clinical effect when discontinued. We compared the outcome after ambulatory orthopedic surgery with desflurane and fentanyl supplemented with clinically equivalent doses of either N2O or remifentanil. METHODS:Seventy patients undergoing ambulatory orthopedic surgery were studied. Thirty-five received 66% N2O and 35 received remifentanil 0.085 &mgr;g · kg−1 · min−1 in addition to desflurane, titrated to a bispectral index (BIS) value of 50, and a fentanyl infusion. The principle outcome measure was time to awakening to verbal stimulation. Secondary outcome measures included neuropsychological testing, time to orientation, hemodynamic values, pain and nausea visual analog scores, discharge times, and satisfaction scores. The average end-tidal desflurane concentration and fentanyl effect-site concentration were determined. RESULTS:The median time (interquartile range) to awakening to verbal stimulation, 3.0 min (3.0–5.0 min) in the remifentanil group and 4.6 min (3.0–8.1 min) in the N2O group was not significantly different. Median time to orientation was significantly faster in the remifentanil group: 6.0 min (5.0–8.5 min) compared with 8.0 min (5.0–12.8 min) for the N2O group. There was no difference between groups in desflurane or fentanyl administration, neuropsychological testing, or any other outcome measure. CONCLUSIONS:This study demonstrates that a remifentanil infusion of 0.085 &mgr;g · kg−1 · min−1 may be substituted for 66% N2O during desflurane/fentanyl anesthesia without any clinically significant change in outcome.
Field-guided registration for feature-conforming shape composition

We present an automatic shape composition method to fuse two shape parts which may not overlap and possibly contain sharp features, a scenario often encountered when modeling man-made objects. At the core of our method is a novel field-guided approach to automatically align two input parts in a feature-conforming manner. The key to our field-guided shape registration is a natural continuation of one part into the ambient field as a means to introduce an overlap with the distant part, which then allows a surface-to-field registration. The ambient vector field we compute is feature-conforming; it characterizes a piecewise smooth field which respects and naturally extrapolates the surface features. Once the two parts are aligned, gap filling is carried out by spline interpolation between matching feature curves followed by piecewise smooth least-squares surface reconstruction. We apply our algorithm to obtain feature-conforming shape composition on a variety of models and demonstrate generality of the method with results on parts with or without overlap and with or without salient features.
The Social Teaching of Rabbinic Judaism

The systematic and orderly presentation of the Halakhah, normative law, of Rabbinic Judaism in its formative age makes its principal statements in response to a program of social reconstruction; it speaks through the details of norms of law about the community, Israel. In the first part of the project, on Corporate Israel and the Individual Israelite we ask where and how the Halakhah sorts out the relationships of the individual and the community. Volume II turns to relationships between Israelites, with particular attention to those that require resolving conflict Volume III raises the third and final question of the social order: God's role in society. For Rabbinic Judaism to be "Israel" means to live in God's kingdom, under God's rule, in a very particular way. That imperative addresses not individuals alone or mainly but, rather, corporate Israel, that is, the entire social order.
Electronic Skin: Architecture and Components

Conceptual hardware architecture of skin-like circuits is described. An elastomeric skin carries rigid islands on which active subcircuits are made. The subcircuit islands are interconnected by stretchable metallization. We concentrate on recent advances in stretchable thin-film conductors, by covering their construction, evaluation, and laboratory and theoretical analysis. Reversibly stretchable conductors with electrically-critical strains ranging from 10% to 100% have been made.
Effect of a new formulation of micronized and ultramicronized N-palmitoylethanolamine in a tibia fracture mouse model of complex regional pain syndrome

Complex regional pain syndrome type 1 (CRPS-I) is a disabling and frequently chronic condition. It involves the extremities and is a frequent consequence of distal tibia and radius fractures. The inflamed appearance of the affected CRPS-I limb suggests that local production of inflammatory mediators may be implicated in the ensuing etiology. A rodent tibia fracture model, characterized by inflammation, chronic unilateral hindlimb warmth, edema, protein extravasation, allodynia and hyperalgesia resembles the clinical features of patients with acute CRPS-I. N-palmitoylethanolamine (PEA), a member of the family of naturally-occurring N-acylethanolamines, is well-known for its ability to modulate inflammatory processes and regulate pain sensitivity. However, the large particle size and lipidic nature of PEA may limit its bioavailability and solubility when given orally. Micronized formulations are frequently used to enhance the dissolution rate of drug and reduce its variability of absorption when orally administered. The aim of this study was to assess the effects of a formulation of micronized and ultramicronized PEA (PEA-MPS), given orally in a mouse model of CRPS-I. CD-1 male mice were subjected to distal tibia fracture and divided into two groups: control and treated with PEA-MPS (PEA micronized 300 mg/kg and ultramicronized 600 mg/kg). Sensibility to pain was monitored in all mice throughout the course of the experiment. Twenty-eight days after tibia fracture induction animals were sacrificed and biochemical parameters evaluated. The PEA-MPS-treated group showed an improved healing process, fracture recovery and fibrosis score. PEA-MPS administration decreased mast cell density, nerve growth factor, matrix metalloproteinase 9 and cytokine expression. This treatment also reduced (poly-ADP)ribose polymerase activation, peroxynitrite formation and apoptosis. Our results suggest that PEA-MPS may be a new therapeutic strategy in the treatment of CRPS-I.
Learned Convolutional Denoising

State of the art denoising algorithms, while well designed and effective, are generally not as intelligent as they could be. Methods such as BM3D and nonlocal mean algorithms use collaborative filtering between similar blocks in an image, but they still cannot consider the content of an image in the sense of recognition [2]. With the recent trend toward deep learning in computer vision with convolutional neural networks, and increasing development of libraries and hardware for its acceleration, the time is right to apply some elements of computer vision to denoising to create more intelligent denoisers which may be able to perform better. This project begins to develop a more intelligent denoising method than the current state of the art, in the form of a convolutional network, by applying machine learning techniques to learn various filters which are used for feature detection and reconstruction.
Estimating the information available from colored surfaces in natural scenes

The information preserved in identifying surfaces solely by their color can be quantified by measures defined by Shannon, including capacity and mutual information. The aim of this study was (1) to determine whether the capacity of an additive Gaussian channel provides an asymptotic upper bound to mutual information estimated for natural scenes under different illuminants, and (2) to explore the effect of different color representations on mutual-information estimates.
Connectivity and inference problems for temporal networks

Many network problems are based on fundamental relationships involving time. Consider, for example, the problems of modeling the flow of information through a distributed network, studying the spread of a disease through a population, or analyzing the reachability properties of an airline timetable. In such settings, a natural model is that of a graph in which each edge is annotated with a time label specifying the time at which its endpoints "communicated. " We will call such a graph a temporal network. To model the notion that information in such a network "flows" only on paths whose labels respect the ordering of time, we call a path time-respecting if the time labels on its edges are non-decreasing. The central motivation for our work is the following question: how do the basic combinatorial and algorithmic properties of graphs change when we impose this additional temporal condition? The notion of a path is intrinsic to many of the most fundamental algorithmic problems on graphs; spanning trees, connectivity, flows, and cuts are some examples. When we focus on time-respecting paths in place of arbitrary paths, many of these problems acquire a character that is different from the traditional setting, but very rich in its own right. We provide results on two types of problems for temporal networks. First, we consider connectivity problems, in which we seek disjoint time-respecting paths between pairs of nodes. The natural analogue of Menger's Theorem for node-disjoint paths fails in general for time-respecting paths; we give a non-trivial characterization of those graphs for which the theorem does hold in terms of an excluded subdivision theorem, and provide a polynomial-time algorithm for connectivity on this class of graphs. (The problem on general graphs is NP-complete.) We then define and study the class of inference problems, in which we seek to reconstruct a partially specified time labeling of a network in a manner consistent with an observed history of information flow.
Ksplice: automatic rebootless kernel updates

Ksplice allows system administrators to apply patches to their operating system kernels without rebooting. Unlike previous hot update systems, Ksplice operates at the object code layer, which allows Ksplice to transform many traditional source code patches into hot updates with little or no programmer involvement. In the common case that a patch does not change the semantics of persistent data structures, Ksplice can create a hot update without a programmer writing any new code. Security patches are one compelling application of hot updates. An evaluation involving all significant x86-32 Linux security patches from May 2005 to May 2008 finds that most security patches-56 of 64-require no new code to be performed as a Ksplice update. In other words, Ksplice can correct 88% of the Linux kernel vulnerabilities from this interval without the need for rebooting and without writing any new code. If a programmer writes a small amount of new code to assist with the remaining patches (about 17 lines per patch, on average), then Ksplice can apply all 64 of the security patches from this interval without rebooting.
Reduction of energy consumption of Video-on-Demand services using cache size optimization

Due to its high traffic demand, Video-on-Demand (VoD) is an energy consuming service. Traffic can be reduced by the deployment of caches where the most popular content is stored closer to clients. In this paper, we evaluate the energy consumption of a cache-based VoD service over an IP over WDM network. We develop a Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) model to optimize the cache size for each node in the network at different times of the day. We consider two traffic scenarios with different downlink and uplink ratios. Our results reveal that, using the optimal cache size can reduce the energy consumption by up to 42%.
[Effects of sodium butyrate on proliferation of human gastric cancer cells and expression of p16 gene].

OBJECTIVE To investigate the effects of sodium butyrate (NaB), a histone deacetylase inhibitor (HDACI), on the proliferation of human gastric cancer cells and the expression of p16, an important negative-regulatory factor of the cell cycle G1. METHODS Human gastric cancer cells of the lines SGC7901 and BGC823 were cultured in RPMI1640 medium and treated with NaB of different concentrations: 5 x10(-4), 1 x 10(-3), 3 x 10(-3), and 5 x 10(-3) mol/L for 24 h or 72 h. MTT assay, flow cytometry, and annexin V-fluorescein isothiocyanate staining were performed to analyze the cell proliferation activity, cell cycle, and apoptotic rate. RT- PCR, Western blotting, and methylation-specific PCR (MSP) were used to detect the e mRNA and protein expression and methylation state of p16 gene respectively. RESULTS Exposure to different concentrations of NaB inhibited the growth of the SGC7901 and BGC823 cells. Treated with NaB of the concentrations of 1 x 10(-3), 3 x 10(-3), and 5 x 10(-3) mol/L respectively for 72 h, the numbers of the SGC7901 and BGC823 cells at G0/G1 stage increased significantly and those at S stage decreased significantly (all P <0.01), which showed that the cell cycle was blocked at G1 phase. The apoptosis rates of the SGC7901 and BGC823 cells treated with NaB of different concentrations for 72 h all increased significantly (all P <0.01). P16 was expressed in the SGC7901 and BGC823 cells at low levels, and hypermethylation was detected in its promoter region in both cells before the treatment of NaB. After treated with NaB the mRNA and protein expressions of p16 gene were increased in both cells. CONCLUSION NaB inhibits the growth of human gastric cancer cells by blocking cell cycles, inducing apoptosis and upregulating the expression of p16 gene by increasing acetylation and reducing methylation.
Two Conditions for Equivalence of 0-Norm Solution and 1-Norm Solution in Sparse Representation

In sparse representation, two important sparse solutions, the 0-norm and 1-norm solutions, have been receiving much of attention. The 0-norm solution is the sparsest, however it is not easy to obtain. Although the 1-norm solution may not be the sparsest, it can be easily obtained by the linear programming method. In many cases, the 0-norm solution can be obtained through finding the 1-norm solution. Many discussions exist on the equivalence of the two sparse solutions. This paper analyzes two conditions for the equivalence of the two sparse solutions. The first condition is necessary and sufficient, however, difficult to verify. Although the second is necessary but is not sufficient, it is easy to verify. In this paper, we analyze the second condition within the stochastic framework and propose a variant. We then prove that the equivalence of the two sparse solutions holds with high probability under the variant of the second condition. Furthermore, in the limit case where the 0-norm solution is extremely sparse, the second condition is also a sufficient condition with probability 1.
The behaviour of the long-latency stretch reflex in patients with Parkinson's disease

The size of the long-latency stretch reflex was measured in a proximal (triceps) and distal (flexor pollicis longus) muscle in 47 patients with Parkinson's disease, and was compared with that seen in a group of 12 age-matched normal control subjects. The patients were classified clinically into four groups according to the degree of rigidity at the elbow or tremor. Stretch reflexes were evaluated while the subject was exerting a small force against a constant preload supplied by a torque motor, and the size of the reflex response was measured as fractional increase over basal levels of activity. When stretches were given at random intervals by increasing the force exerted by the motor by a factor of 2 or 3, there was a clear trend for the more severely affected patients to have larger long latency responses in the triceps muscle, although there was no change in the size of the short-latency, spinal component of the response. In contrast, there was no change in the size of the long-latency response of the flexor pollicis longus in any group of patients with Parkinson's disease. Despite any differences in reflex size, the inherent muscle stiffness of both muscles appeared to be normal in all groups of patients with Parkinson's disease, since the displacement trajectory of the limb following the force increase was the same as control values in the short (25 ms) period before reflex compensation could intervene. In 20 of the patients and in seven of the control subjects, servo-controlled, ramp positional disturbances were given to the thumb. Up to a velocity of 300°/s, the size of the long-latency stretch reflex was proportional to the log velocity of stretch. This technique revealed, in both moderately and severely rigid patients, increases in the reflex sensitivity of the flexor pollicis longus, which had not been clear using step torque stretches alone. However, whether using ramp or step displacements, long latency stretch reflex gain was not closely related to rigidity; reflex size was within the normal range in many patients with severe rigidity. Enhanced long latency stretch reflexes thus contribute to, but may not be solely responsible for, rigidity in Parkinson's disease.
Parameter Optimization of Dominant Color Histogram Descriptor in Content-based Image Retrieval Systems

—Last years the importance and abundance of image retrieval systems had a big growth. During the searching process the color feature of the images is one of the most significant characteristics. Since the color-based comparison and retrieval has a variety of widely used techniques. This paper introduces a new color based image descriptor which is a mixture of other widely used features. This descriptor takes into account the dominant colors in HSV color space, the color histogram and the spatial distribution of pixels. With the proposed feature experiments were carried out in two image databases, and that was found the precision of retrieval has significantly improved. The paper presents the best choice for the mentioned parameters.
Intrusion Detection System Based On The Integrity of TCP Packet

— A common way to elude the signature-based Network Intrusion Detection System is based upon changing a recognizable attack to an unrecognizable one via the IDS. For example, in order to evade sign accommodation with intrusion detection system markers, a hacker spilt the payload packet into many small pieces or hides them within messages. In this paper we try to model the main fragmentation attack and create a new module in the intrusion detection architecture system which recognizes the main fragmentation attacks through verification of integrity checking of TCP packet in order to prevent elusion of the system and also to announce the necessary alert to the system administrator.
An Energy-Aware Protocol for Data Gathering Applications in Wireless Sensor Networks

Data gathering is a major function of many applications in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). The most important issue in designing a data gathering algorithm is how to save energy of sensor nodes while meeting the requirement of applications/users such as sensing area coverage. In this paper, we propose a novel hierarchical clustering protocol for long-lived sensor network. EAP achieves a good performance in terms of lifetime by minimizing energy consumption for in-network communications and balancing the energy load among all nodes. EAP introduces a new clustering parameter for cluster head election, which can better handle the heterogeneous energy capacities. Furthermore, it also introduces a simple but efficient approach, namely intra-cluster coverage to cope with the area coverage problem. We evaluate the performance of the proposed protocol using a simple temperature sensing application. Simulation results show that our protocol significantly outperforms LEACH and HEED in terms of network lifetime and the amount of data gathered.
Serum iron levels and Parkinson ’ s disease risk : evidence from a meta-analysis

Background: Whether the serum iron level in Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients was higher than those in health controls was not consistent in the reported studies. Thus, we conducted a meta-analysis to summarize the evidence from observational studies between them. Methods: Pertinent studies were identified by a search in PubMed and Web of Knowledge up to July 2015. Standardized mean difference (SMD) was performed to combine the results. Random-effect model was used. Publication bias was estimated using Egger’s regression asymmetry test. Results: In our study, ten articles involving 591 PD cases and 917 health controls were included in the analysis. Our pooled results suggested that PD patients had a significantly higher serum iron levels compared with those in health controls [summary SMD = 0.28, 95% CI = 0.16, 0.39, P<0.001]. The associations were also significant both in Europe [SMD = 0.60, 95% CI = 0.37, 0.83] and in Asia population [SMD = 0.48, 95% CI = 0.32, 0.65]. No publication bias was found. Conclusions: The current study suggested that serum iron level in PD patients was significantly higher than those in health controls, both in Europe and Asia populations.
An Outbreak of Rift Valley Fever in Northeastern Kenya, 1997-98

In December 1997, 170 hemorrhagic fever-associated deaths were reported in Carissa District, Kenya. Laboratory testing identified evidence of acute Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV). Of the 171 persons enrolled in a cross-sectional study, 31(18%) were anti-RVFV immunoglobulin (Ig) M positive. An age-adjusted IgM antibody prevalence of 14% was estimated for the district. We estimate approximately 27,500 infections occurred in Garissa District, making this the largest recorded outbreak of RVFV in East Africa. In multivariate analysis, contact with sheep body fluids and sheltering livestock in one’s home were significantly associated with infection. Direct contact with animals, particularly contact with sheep body fluids, was the most important modifiable risk factor for RVFV infection. Public education during epizootics may reduce human illness and deaths associated with future outbreaks.
Mothers of Invention?

Gender and motherhood dynamics feature prominently in research that examines professional workplace inequities. The rise of patenting as an available form of academic productivity presents a fruitful site to revisit these in the science profession and to compare academic and industrial science contexts. I predict patenting involvement across disciplines, sectors, and time. Contrary to findings regarding publishing, academic mothers suffer a motherhood penalty not experienced by childless women or mothers in industry. Controls for past involvement remove the disparity, and a sex gap in industry. Work/family balance, sector-level incentives, and status expectations may explain these results, providing implications for future research on gender, motherhood, and work.