Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Magnesium therapy within 48 hours of an aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage: neuro-panacea

Abstract Whereas advances in neurosurgical treatment and intensive care management improve the results from many of the devastating complications associated with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage, cerebral vasospasm remains a major cause of neurological morbidity and mortality. Experimental studies suggested that MgSO4 inhibits excitatory amino acid release, blocks N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors and prevents calcium entry into the cell. Magnesium also increases red blood cell deformability. These changes may reduce the occurrence of cerebral vasospasm and minimize neuronal injury during episodes of cerebral vasospasm. Our group is currently hosting the intravenous magnesium sulfate to improve outcome after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (IMASH) trial, which is a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blinded, multicentered trial to evaluate the effect of magnesium sulfate infusion on the clinical outcome of patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage since 2002. The pilot result showed a trend towards decreased clinical vasospasm and better patient outcome. Magnesium sulfate infusion may prove to be an effective and inexpensive way to reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage, which is a major breakthrough in the current management.
Finite element mesh generation and remeshing from segmented medical images

We present an approach for the automatic generation of patient-specific tetrahedral finite-element (FE) meshes from multiple-label segmented medical images. The approach uses a mesh refinement method with guaranteed tetrahedral element quality and includes a post-processing step with operations to change the mesh topology. Results indicate good approximation of the meshed geometry and acceptable simulation errors for a mechanical problem with a known analytical solution. We also present a method for correcting mesh distortion associated with large-deformation mechanical problems such as those that can arise in dealing with biological soft tissues. This adaptive remeshing scheme is driven by an estimate of the local a posteriori FE error profile. Finally, we demonstrate the use of our approach to carry out a large-deformation simulation of non-infiltrating brain tumor growth starting from a segmented medical image.
Ketamine Modulates Theta and Gamma Oscillations

Ketamine, an N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor glutamatergic antagonist, has been studied as a model of schizophrenia when applied in subanesthetic doses. In EEG studies, ketamine affects sensory gating and alters the oscillatory characteristics of neuronal signals in a complex manner. We investigated the effects of ketamine on in vivo recordings from the CA3 region of mouse hippocampus referenced to the ipsilateral frontal sinus using a paired-click auditory gating paradigm. One issue of particular interest was elucidating the effect of ketamine on background network activity, poststimulus evoked and induced activity. We find that ketamine attenuates the theta frequency band in both background activity and in poststimulus evoked activity. Ketamine also disrupts a late, poststimulus theta power reduction seen in control recordings. In the gamma frequency range, ketamine enhances both background and evoked power, but decreases relative induced power. These findings support a role for NMDA receptors in mediating the balance between theta and gamma responses to sensory stimuli, with possible implications for dysfunction in schizophrenia.
An Administrative Model for Role-Based Access Control Using Hierarchical Namespace

Access Control is an important mechanism of information security. Role-Based Access Control is a famous access control approach with good flexibility. RBAC96 and ARBAC97 are classical RBAC models. The ARBAC97 model facilitates decentralized administration of RBAC. However, ARBAC97 has some shortcomings in the case of being used in an organization with autonomous subsidiaries. The member of an administrative role can operate directly in the role range of a junior administrative role, which violates the autonomy of subsidiaries. We propose a new model named N-RBAC to overcome this weakness. In NRBAC, roles are arranged according to a hierarchical namespace structure. Thus the role hierarchy is constructed in a local space instead of in a global space. The N-RBAC model does a better work in decentralized role administration in those organizations composed of autonomous subsidiaries.
The Iron Law of Oligarchy: A Tale of 14 Islands

The great puzzle of Caribbean history in the mid-19th century is that this was a time of radical institutional change ‐ with all but one of the long-established Caribbean parliaments voting themselves out of existence inside a twenty-year window ‐ despite very stable conditions in the (exogenous) terms-of-trade and in the (endogenous) local plantation economy. This paper argues that the post-slavery change of the planter elite into a more creole and colored composition did not change the incentives of the coercive Caribbean plantation economy, but that it did undermine the elite’s ability to dominate the political process within the given set of formal institutions, i.e. the locally elected parliaments. The new elite needed a new set of formal institutions to maintain the existing coercive institutional bundle. The first argument is a version of the ”iron law of oligarchy” (Michels (1911)), the second a version of the ”seesaw of de jure and de facto institutions” (Acemoglu and Robinson (2008)). Guided by a model of elite coherence and institutional choice, we explore our two arguments in a combination of very rich micro-data on islands’ parliamentary politics and sugar plantations, as well as colony-level regression analysis.
Psoriasis and streptococci: the natural selection of psoriasis revisited

We have previously postulated that surviving invasive streptococcal infections may have been a factor in psoriasis becoming a common skin disease in some parts of the world. Many of the candidate genes linked to psoriasis are associated with the acquired or innate immune system, which are also important in host defence to invasive streptococcal infections. High rates of positive streptococcal throat swabs among patients with chronic plaque psoriasis suggest that they are efficient at internalizing/carrying β‐haemolytic streptococci. Internalization of streptococci in the throat is dependent upon the transforming growth factor (TGF)‐β/fibronectin/α5β1 integrin pathway. The immune cell Th17 and its related cytokine network are important in mucosal defence, being very effective against extracellular microbes but having little effect on intracellular organisms. The TGF‐β/fibronectin/α5β1 integrin pathway and the Th17 cell network also appear to be operative in psoriasis, animal models of both TGF‐β and α5β1 cutaneous overexpression being associated with characteristic psoriasis lesions. We postulate that some of the genotypic/phenotypic changes in different immunological pathways in psoriasis, including the acquired T‐cell response, the innate immune response, the TGF‐β/fibronectin/α5β1 integrin pathway and the Th17 cell system, confer protection against mortality during epidemics of invasive streptococcal infections, heightened efficiency in internalizing and allowing carriage of streptococci as well as predisposition to the development of psoriasis.
Wetting and Spreading

Wetting phenomena are ubiquitous in nature and technology. A solid substrate exposed to the environment is almost invariably covered by a layer of fluid material. In this review, the surface forces that lead to wetting are considered, and the equilibrium surface coverage of a substrate in contact with a drop of liquid. Depending on the nature of the surface forces involved, different scenarios for wetting phase transitions are possible; recent progress allows us to relate the critical exponents directly to the nature of the surface forces which lead to the different wetting scenarios. Thermal fluctuation effects, which can be greatly enhanced for wetting of geometrically or chemically structured substrates, and are much stronger in colloidal suspensions, modify the adsorption singularities. Macroscopic descriptions and microscopic theories have been developed to understand and predict wetting behavior relevant to microfluidics and nanofluidics applications. Then the dynamics of wetting is examined. A drop, placed on a substrate which it wets, spreads out to form a film. Conversely, a nonwetted substrate previously covered by a film dewets upon an appropriate change of system parameters. The hydrodynamics of both wetting and dewetting is influenced by the presence of the three-phase contact line separating "wet" regions from those that are either dry or covered by a microscopic film only. Recent theoretical, experimental, and numerical progress in the description of moving contact line dynamics are reviewed, and its relation to the thermodynamics of wetting is explored. In addition, recent progress on rough surfaces is surveyed. The anchoring of contact lines and contact angle hysteresis are explored resulting from surface inhomogeneities. Further, new ways to mold wetting characteristics according to technological constraints are discussed, for example, the use of patterned surfaces, surfactants, or complex fluids.
The Basics of Bacteriuria: Strategies of Microbes for Persistence in Urine

Bacteriuria, the presence of bacteria in urine, is associated with asymptomatic, as well as symptomatic, urinary tract infection (UTI). Bacteriuria underpins some of the dynamics of microbial colonization of the urinary tract, and probably impacts the progression and persistence of infection in some individuals. Recent molecular discoveries in vitro have elucidated how some key bacterial traits can enable organisms to survive and grow in human urine as a means of microbial fitness adaptation for UTI. Several microbial characteristics that confer bacteruric potential have been identified including de novo synthesis of guanine, relative resistance to D-serine, and catabolism of malic acid. Microbial characteristics such as these are increasingly being defined through the use of synthetic human urine (SHU) in vitro as a model to mimic the in vivo environment that bacteria encounter in the bladder. There is considerable variation in the SHU model systems that have been used to study bacteriuria to date, and this influences the utility of these models. In this review, we discuss recent advances in our understanding of bacteruric potential with a focus on the specific mechanisms underlying traits that promote the growth of bacteria in urine. We also review the application of SHU in research studies modeling UTI and discuss the chemical makeup, and benefits and limitations that are encountered in utilizing SHU to study bacterial growth in urine in vitro.
Fabrication and Optimal Design of Biodegradable Polymeric Stents for Aneurysms Treatments

An aneurysm is a balloon-like bulge in the wall of blood vessels, occurring in major arteries of the heart and brain. Biodegradable polymeric stent-assisted coiling is expected to be the ideal treatment of wide-neck complex aneurysms. This paper presents the development of methods to fabricate and optimally design biodegradable polymeric stents for aneurysms treatment. Firstly, a dispensing-based rapid prototyping (DBRP) system was developed to fabricate coil and zigzag structures of biodegradable polymeric stents. Then, compression testing was carried out to characterize the radial deformation of the stents fabricated with the coil or zigzag structure. The results illustrated the stent with a zigzag structure has a stronger radial stiffness than the one with a coil structure. On this basis, the stent with a zigzag structure was chosen for the development of a finite element model for simulating the real compression tests. The result showed the finite element model of biodegradable polymeric stents is acceptable within a range of radial deformation around 20%. Furthermore, the optimization of the zigzag structure was performed with ANSYS DesignXplorer, and the results indicated that the total deformation could be decreased by 35.7% by optimizing the structure parameters, which would represent a significant advance of the radial stiffness of biodegradable polymeric stents.
Simulation-based Assessment in Anesthesiology: Requirements for Practical Implementation

Simulations have taken a central role in the education and assessment of medical students, residents, and practicing physicians. The introduction of simulation-based assessments in anesthesiology, especially those used to establish various competencies, has demanded fairly rigorous studies concerning the psychometric properties of the scores. Most important, major efforts have been directed at identifying, and addressing, potential threats to the validity of simulation-based assessment scores. As a result, organizations that wish to incorporate simulation-based assessments into their evaluation practices can access information regarding effective test development practices, the selection of appropriate metrics, the minimization of measurement errors, and test score validation processes. The purpose of this article is to provide a broad overview of the use of simulation for measuring physician skills and competencies. For simulations used in anesthesiology, studies that describe advances in scenario development, the development of scoring rubrics, and the validation of assessment results are synthesized. Based on the summary of relevant research, psychometric requirements for practical implementation of simulation-based assessments in anesthesiology are forwarded. As technology expands, and simulation-based education and evaluation takes on a larger role in patient safety initiatives, the groundbreaking work conducted to date can serve as a model for those individuals and organizations that are responsible for developing, scoring, or validating simulation-based education and assessment programs in anesthesiology.
Decay of Sexual Trait Genes in an Asexual Parasitoid Wasp

Trait loss is a widespread phenomenon with pervasive consequences for a species’ evolutionary potential. The genetic changes underlying trait loss have only been clarified in a small number of cases. None of these studies can identify whether the loss of the trait under study was a result of neutral mutation accumulation or negative selection. This distinction is relatively clear-cut in the loss of sexual traits in asexual organisms. Male-specific sexual traits are not expressed and can only decay through neutral mutations, whereas female-specific traits are expressed and subject to negative selection. We present the genome of an asexual parasitoid wasp and compare it to that of a sexual lineage of the same species. We identify a short-list of 16 genes for which the asexual lineage carries deleterious SNP or indel variants, whereas the sexual lineage does not. Using tissue-specific expression data from other insects, we show that fifteen of these are expressed in male-specific reproductive tissues. Only one deleterious variant was found that is expressed in the female-specific spermathecae, a trait that is heavily degraded and thought to be under negative selection in L. clavipes. Although the phenotypic decay of male-specific sexual traits in asexuals is generally slow compared with the decay of female-specific sexual traits, we show that male-specific traits do indeed accumulate deleterious mutations as expected by theory. Our results provide an excellent starting point for detailed study of the genomics of neutral and selected trait decay.
Socioeconomic and environmental determinants of dengue transmission in an urban setting: An ecological study in Nouméa, New Caledonia

Background Dengue is a mosquito-borne virus that causes extensive morbidity and economic loss in many tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Often present in cities, dengue virus is rapidly spreading due to urbanization, climate change and increased human movements. Dengue cases are often heterogeneously distributed throughout cities, suggesting that small-scale determinants influence dengue urban transmission. A better understanding of these determinants is crucial to efficiently target prevention measures such as vector control and education. The aim of this study was to determine which socioeconomic and environmental determinants were associated with dengue incidence in an urban setting in the Pacific. Methodology An ecological study was performed using data summarized by neighborhood (i.e. the neighborhood is the unit of analysis) from two dengue epidemics (2008–2009 and 2012–2013) in the city of Nouméa, the capital of New Caledonia. Spatial patterns and hotspots of dengue transmission were assessed using global and local Moran’s I statistics. Multivariable negative binomial regression models were used to investigate the association between dengue incidence and various socioeconomic and environmental factors throughout the city. Principal findings The 2008–2009 epidemic was spatially structured, with clusters of high and low incidence neighborhoods. In 2012–2013, dengue incidence rates were more homogeneous throughout the city. In all models tested, higher dengue incidence rates were consistently associated with lower socioeconomic status (higher unemployment, lower revenue or higher percentage of population born in the Pacific, which are interrelated). A higher percentage of apartments was associated with lower dengue incidence rates during both epidemics in all models but one. A link between vegetation coverage and dengue incidence rates was also detected, but the link varied depending on the model used. Conclusions This study demonstrates a robust spatial association between dengue incidence rates and socioeconomic status across the different neighborhoods of the city of Nouméa. Our findings provide useful information to guide policy and help target dengue prevention efforts where they are needed most.
Membranes for energy conversion

1. Sulfonated Polyarylether-type Polymers as Proton Exchange Membranes: Synthesis and Performance 2. Non-fluorinated membranes for fuel cell 3. Membranes for high temperature PEFC (PBI based) 4. Membrane for medium temperature PEFC based on Nafion(r) filled with layered metal phosphate and phosphonates 5. Composite membranes for high temperature direct methanol fuel cells 6. Materials for SOFC 7. Membranes in power generation with CO2 capture 8. Battery separator 9. Palladium membranes for hydrogen separation
Heightened Nicotinic Regulation of Auditory Cortex during Adolescence

Adolescent smoking is associated with auditory-cognitive deficits and structural alterations to auditory thalamocortical systems, suggesting that higher auditory function is vulnerable to nicotine exposure during adolescence. Although nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) regulate thalamocortical processing in adults, it is not known whether they regulate processing at earlier ages since their expression pattern changes throughout postnatal development. Here we investigate nicotinic regulation of tone-evoked current source density (CSD) profiles in mouse primary auditory cortex from just after hearing onset until adulthood. At the youngest ages, systemic nicotine did not affect CSD profiles. However, beginning in early adolescence nicotine enhanced characteristic frequency (CF)-evoked responses in layers 2–4 by enhancing thalamocortical, early intracortical, and late intracortical response components. Nicotinic responsiveness developed rapidly and peaked over the course of adolescence, then declined thereafter. Generally, responsiveness in females developed more quickly, peaked earlier, and declined more abruptly and fully than in males. In contrast to the enhancement of CF-evoked responses, nicotine suppressed shorter-latency intracortical responses to spectrally distant (non-CF) stimuli while enhancing longer-latency responses. Intracortical infusion of nAChR antagonists showed that enhancement of CF-evoked intracortical processing involves α4β2*, but not α7, nAChRs, whereas both receptor subtypes regulate non-CF-evoked late intracortical responses. Notably, antagonist effects in females implied regulation by endogenous acetylcholine. Thus, nicotinic regulation of cortical processing varies with age and sex, with peak effects during adolescence that may contribute to the vulnerability of adolescents to smoking.
Experiment and Meso-Damage Finite Element Analysis of Uniaxial Tension of Galvanized Steel Sheets

Uniaxial tension tests for galvanized steel sheets are performed. Fractured surfaces of the specimens are observed by means of the scanning electron microscope (SEM). It is confirmed that the specimens experience ductile fracture. Based on the Gurson meso-damage theory, Hill’48-GTN anisotropic damage model is presented, and used to analyze the uniaxial tension test. The true stress-strain curves are fitted by three kinds of main flow stress models. After comparing the fitting precisions, the Voce model is selected as the flow stress model for the simulation analysis. The simulation results show that the Hill’48-GTN model can be used to accurately predict the whole process of damage occurrence, evolution and fracture in tension, and void volume fraction can be taken as a forming limit parameter of sheet metal forming.
Learning metadata from the evidence in an on-line citation matching scheme

Citation matching, or the automatic grouping of bibliographic references that refer to the same document, is a data management problem faced by automatic digital libraries for scientific literature such as CiteSeer and Google Scholar. Although several solutions have been offered for citation matching in large bibliographic databases, these solutions typically require expensive batch clustering operations that must be run offline. Large digital libraries containing citation information can reduce maintenance costs and provide new services through efficient online processing of citation data, resolving document citation relationships as new records become available. Additionally, information found in citations can be used to supplement document metadata, requiring the generation of a canonical citation record from merging variant citation subfields into a unified "best guess" from which to draw information. Citation information must be merged with other information sources in order to provide a complete document record. This paper outlines a system and algorithms for online citation matching and canonical metadata generation. A Bayesian framework is employed to build the ideal citation record for a document that carries the added advantages of fusing information from disparate sources and increasing system resilience to erroneous data
A C++ pooled, shared memory allocator for simulator development

A pooled, shared C++ allocator developed for use with the standard template library (STL) is described. The allocator is developed to serve as the core of a road traffic simulator. The C++ allocator facilitates communication and control between multiple processes using data organized in STL container classes. The open source system has been compiled and tested on the Linux operating system and is freely available from its Web site, http://allocator.sourceforge. net.