Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Noninvasive biomarkers in normal pressure hydrocephalus: evidence for the role of neuroimaging.

OBJECT Normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH) represents a treatable form of dementia. Recent estimates of the incidence of this condition are in the region of 5% of patients with dementia. The symptoms of NPH can vary among individuals and may be confused with those of patients with multi-infarct dementia, dementia of the Alzheimer type, or even Parkinson disease. Traditionally the diagnosis of NPH could only be confirmed postoperatively by a favorable outcome to surgical diversion of CSF. The object of this literature review was to examine the role of structural and functional imaging in providing biomarkers of favorable surgical outcome. METHODS A Medline search was undertaken for the years 1980-2006, using the following terms: normal pressure hydrocephalus, adult hydrocephalus, chronic hydrocephalus, imaging, neuroimaging, imaging studies, outcomes, surgical outcomes, prognosis, prognostic value, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and accuracy. RESULTS The query revealed 16 studies that correlated imaging with surgical outcomes offering accuracy results. Three studies fulfilled the statistical criteria of a biomarker. A dementia Alzheimer-type pattern on SPECT in patients with idiopathic NPH, the presence of CSF flow void on MR imaging, and the N-acetylaspartate/choline ratio in patients with the secondary form are able to predict surgical outcomes with high accuracy. CONCLUSIONS There is at present Level A evidence for using MR spectroscopy in patients with secondary NPH, and Level B evidence for using SPECT and phase-contrast MR imaging to select patients with idiopathic NPH for shunt placement. The studies, however, need to be repeated by other groups. The current work should act as a platform to design further studies with larger sample sizes.
Preservation solutions for static cold storage of abdominal allografts: which is best?

Purpose of reviewTo update the reader on the recent literature in liver, kidney, pancreas, and intestine static cold preservation, and to identify which solutions are most advantageous for each organ. Recent findingsThe comparison of randomized trials of histidine–tryptophan–ketoglutarate (HTK), Celsior, and University of Wisconsin solutions has shown equivalent risk of delayed graft function after kidney transplantation. Similar outcomes have been observed after pancreas preservation with University of Wisconsin, HTK, and Celsior solution. In live-donor liver transplantation, University of Wisconsin and HTK solution have shown equivalent results, whereas in the recent trials of deceased-donor liver transplantation, University of Wisconsin, HTK, and Celsior solutions have shown equivalence. Contrary to the most clinical trials, national registry data in kidney, pancreas, and liver transplantation demonstrate more detrimental effects and earlier graft loss after preservation with HTK versus University of Wisconsin solution. Early outcomes after intestinal transplantation with University of Wisconsin or HTK solution have shown no significant difference and animal studies indicate intraluminal preservation may be beneficial. SummaryThe University of Wisconsin solution is the standard criterion static cold preservation for the procurement of liver, kidney, pancreas, and intestine. University of Wisconsin, HTK, and Celsior solutions all provide similar allograft outcomes in most clinical trials, but subtle differences have become more apparent in the recent studies and registry reports.
Submillihertz magnetic spectroscopy performed with a nanoscale quantum sensor

Enhancing quantum sensing The quantum properties of the nitrogen vacancy (NV) defect in diamond can be used as an atomic compass needle that is sensitive to tiny variations in magnetic field. Schmitt et al. and Boss et al. successfully enhanced this sensitivity by several orders of magnitude (see the Perspective by Jordan). They applied a sequence of pulses to the NV center, the timing of which was set by and compared with a highly stable oscillator. This allowed them to measure the frequency of an oscillating magnetic field (megahertz bandwidth) with submillihertz resolution. Such enhanced precision measurement could be applied, for example, to improve nuclear magnetic resonance-based imaging protocols of single molecules. Science, this issue p. 832, p. 837; see also p. 802 A protocol is developed for the enhanced quantum sensing of magnetic fields. Precise timekeeping is critical to metrology, forming the basis by which standards of time, length, and fundamental constants are determined. Stable clocks are particularly valuable in spectroscopy because they define the ultimate frequency precision that can be reached. In quantum metrology, the qubit coherence time defines the clock stability, from which the spectral linewidth and frequency precision are determined. We demonstrate a quantum sensing protocol in which the spectral precision goes beyond the sensor coherence time and is limited by the stability of a classical clock. Using this technique, we observed a precision in frequency estimation scaling in time T as T–3/2 for classical oscillating fields. The narrow linewidth magnetometer based on single spins in diamond is used to sense nanoscale magnetic fields with an intrinsic frequency resolution of 607 microhertz, which is eight orders of magnitude narrower than the qubit coherence time.
Toward a systematic approach to opioid rotation

Patients requiring chronic opioid therapy may not respond to or tolerate the first opioid prescribed to them, necessitating rotation to another opioid. They may also require dose increases for a number of reasons, including worsening disease and increased pain. Dose escalation to restore analgesia using the primary opioid may lead to increased adverse events. In these patients, rotation to a different opioid at a lower-than-equivalent dose may be sufficient to maintain adequate tolerability and analgesia. In published trials and case series, opioid rotation is performed either using a predetermined substitute opioid with fixed conversion methods, or in a manner that appears to be no more systematic than trial and error. In clinical practice, opioid rotation must be performed with consideration of individual patient characteristics, comorbidities (eg, concurrent psychiatric, pulmonary, renal, or hepatic illness), and concurrent medications, using flexible dosing protocols that take into account incomplete opioid cross-tolerance. References cited in this review were identified via a search of PubMed covering all English language publications up to May 21, 2013 pertaining to opioid rotation, excluding narrative reviews, letters, and expert opinion. The search yielded a total of 129 articles, 92 of which were judged to provide relevant information and subsequently included in this review. Through a review of this literature and from the authors’ empiric experience, this review provides practical information on performing opioid rotation in clinical practice.
A Spreading Concern: Inhalational Health Effects of Mold

With homeowners and volunteers—not remediation specialists—performing much of the cleanup and rebuilding along the Gulf Coast following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, there’s been a greater need for reliable information about avoiding adverse effects of mold exposure. Now a group of several community partners including the Community Outreach and Education Core of the NIEHS Center for Environmental Health in Northern Manhattan (located at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health), the Little Sisters of the Assumption Family Health Service (LSA/FHS) in East Harlem, and the National Center for Healthy Housing has produced a DVD that offers simple, clear instructions on flood-related mold remediation for homeowners, volunteers, and small-scale contractors. Mold Clean-Up Guidance for New Orleans Area Residents Affected by Hurricane Katrina is a 22-minute instructional video that walks viewers through examples of the hazards that can be encountered when cleaning and repairing homes damaged by mold. Narrated by Ray Lopez, the environmental program manager of LSA/FHS, the DVD is divided into eight separate sections that cover a range of topics including recommended personal protective equipment, proper mold cleanup materials and methods, directions for safe handling of personal possessions, steps for safe rebuilding, and general health and safety advisories. Bill Sothern of Microecologies, an indoor environmental investigation firm, helped formulate the cleanup methods described in the video. Footage for the DVD was collected over several visits to New Orleans in 2005 and 2006 by Lopez and Ginger Chew, an assistant professor of environmental health sciences at the Mailman School of Public Health. The new video builds on guidance offered in a previous LSA/FHS-produced video titled Learning About Mold. However, notes Chew, “Learning About Mold focuses mainly on mold hazards encountered in high-rise urban city buildings, and this latest DVD directly addresses the mold risks that develop from floodwater exposure such as that which occurred in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast. ” Lopez explains, “Floodwaters bring their own set of mold problems, especially when combined with [wallboard, with its mold-friendly paper coating], so we felt it was important to go down to New Orleans and produce a video that would be of particular use to the residents there. ” More than 3,700 copies of Mold Clean-Up Guidance have been distributed to various relief organizations, and the video is available for viewing or free download at http://www.centerforhealthyhousing. org/html/katrina_video. htm. Learning About Mold is out of print but can be viewed online at http://www.littlesistersfamily. org/mold.htm.
Endoplasmic reticulum stress responses differ in meninges and associated vasculature, striatum, and parietal cortex after a neurotoxic amphetamine exposure

Amphetamine (AMPH) is used to treat attention deficit and hyperactivity disorders, but it can produce neurotoxicity and adverse vascular effects at high doses. The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress response (ERSR) entails the unfolded protein response, which helps to avoid or minimize ER dysfunction. ERSR is often associated with toxicities resulting from the accumulation of unfolded or misfolded proteins and has been associated with methamphetamine toxicity in the striatum. The present study evaluates the effect of AMPH on several ERSR elements in meninges and associated vasculature (MAV), parietal cortex, and striatum. Adult, male Sprague–Dawley rats were exposed to saline, environmentally induced hyperthermia (EIH) or four consecutive doses of AMPH that produce hyperthermia. Expression changes (mRNA and protein levels) of key ERSR‐related genes in MAV, striatum, and parietal cortex at 3 h or 1 day postdosing were monitored. AMPH increased the expression of some ERSR‐related genes in all tissues. Atf4 (activating transcription factor 4, an indicator of Perk pathway activation), Hspa5/Grp78 (Glucose regulated protein 78, master regulator of ERSR), Pdia4 (protein disulfide isomerase, protein‐folding enzyme), and Nfkb1 (nuclear factor of kappa b, ERSR sensor) mRNA increased significantly in MAV and parietal cortex 3 h after AMPH. In striatum, Atf4 and Hspa5/Grp78 mRNA significantly increased 3 h after AMPH, but Pdia4 and Nfkb11 did not. Thus, AMPH caused a robust activation of the Perk pathway in all tissues, but significant Ire1 pathway activation occurred only after AMPH treatment in the parietal cortex and striatum. Ddit3/Chop, a downstream effector of the ERSR pathway related to the neurotoxicity, was only increased in striatum and parietal cortex. Conversely, Pdia4, an enzyme protective in the ERSR, was only increased in MAV. The overall ERSR manifestation varied significantly between MAV, striatum, and parietal cortex after a neurotoxic exposure to AMPH. Synapse 2010. Published 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Preparation, Optimization and Characterization of CuInS2 quantum dots by a D-optimal Design

Recently, safety concerns over the handling of nanomaterials have become an important issue. The aim of the present study was to optimize the key parameters in the hydrothermal synthesis of CuInS2 quantum dots (QDs) as a non-toxic alternative to the cadmium-based QDs, that historically had dominated the literature. Response surface methodology (RSM) in combination with D-optimal design was applied to optimize the synthesis and evaluate the PL intensity as the response which described by a reduced quadratic equation. The relationship between the PL intensity and independent variables (ligand/precursor, reaction time, reaction temperature, pH, and precursors ratio) was investigated using reduced quadratic polynomial equations. The produced QDs in the optimum condition were analyzed by UV-Vis, FE-SEM, and FTIR. The results showed that the nanoparticles have a high PL intensity and a red shift in both emission and absorbtion spectra which is a splendid point for their applications specially in bioimaging. The interaction between variables was not significant and the temperature was the most effective variable of PL intensity. A good agreement between predicted model and experimental data confirmed the correlated model.
EASAL (Efficient Atlasing, Analysis and Search of Molecular Assembly Landscapes)

To elucidate the structure of assembly configuration spaces, the EASAL software combines classical concepts, such as stratifications of semialgebraic sets, with recent algorithms for efficiently realizing geometric constraint systems, and theoretical advances concerning convex parametrization: in contrast to folding configuration spaces, most regions of assembly and packing configurations admit a convex parametrization. This allows for a novel, efficient and intuitive representation of configuration spaces so that the corresponding atlas can be efficiently generated and sampled. This paper describes the approach, theory, structure and algorithms underlying EASAL and outlines its use for generating atlases of dimeric assemblies of the AAV2 coat protein, and alpha helix packing in transmembrane proteins.
Autism spectrum disorders and autistic like traits: similar etiology in the extreme end and the normal variation.

CONTEXT Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) have been suggested to represent the extreme end of a normal distribution of autistic like traits (ALTs). However, the evidence of this notion is inconclusive. OBJECTIVE To study whether there are similar genetic and/or environmental etiologies behind ASDs and ALTs. DESIGN A nationwide twin study. PARTICIPANTS Consenting parents of all Swedish twins aged 9 and 12 years, born between July 1, 1992, and December 31, 2001 (n = 19 208), were interviewed by telephone to screen for child psychiatric conditions, including ASDs. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Two validated cutoffs for ASDs, 2 cutoffs encompassing the normal variation, and 1 continuous measure of ALTs were used with DeFries-Fulker extreme-end analyses and standard twin study methods. RESULTS We discerned a strong correlation between the 4 cutoffs and the full variation of ALTs. The correlation was primarily affected by genes. We also found that the heritability for the 4 cutoffs was similar. CONCLUSION We demonstrate an etiological similarity between ASDs and ALTs in the normal variation and, with results from previous studies, our data suggest that ASDs and ALTs are etiologically linked.
Object Interconnections Comparing Alternative Programming Techniques for Multi-threaded CORBA Servers : Thread Pool ( Column 6 )

Inherent complexity of multi-threaded programming arises from challenges such as avoiding deadlock and livelock, eliminating race conditions for shared objects, and minimizing the overhead of context switch, synchronization, and data movement. An inherently complex aspect of programming multi-threaded distributed applications (particularly servers) involves selecting the appropriate concurrency model, which is the focus of this column.
A New Approach for Contrast Enhancement Using Sigmoid Function

The contrast of any image is a very important characteristic by which the image can be judged as good or poor. In this paper, we introduce a simple approach for the process of image contrast enhancement using the sigmoid function in spatial domain. To achieve this simple contrast enhancement, a novel mask based on using the input value together with the sigmoid function formula in an equation that will be used as contrast enhancer. This new contrast enhancer is passing over the target image, operates on its pixels, one by one. The new contrast enhancer is a scaled version of the input that is performed by applying a sigmoid function to the signal itself. The intensity value of each pixel in the output image is computing according to a specific formula. The parameters of the sigmoid function were determined by using three different methods. The effect of gain’s value on the contrast enhancement process was studied. The new enhancing approach has been successfully, applied in several gray scale images. We proved that it works efficiently in different dark and bright images adjusting their contrasts. Moreover, the new enhancing approach was effective in dealing with colored images resulting in high-quality outputs. Our proposed algorithm is a simple approach that can be used successfully, in various applications suffering from different image’s contrast problems.
Using User Models in Music Information Retrieval Systems.

To make multimedia data easily retrieved, we use metadata to describe the information, so that search engines or other information filter tools can effectively and efficiently locate and retrieve the multimedia content. Since many features of multimedia content are perceptual and user-dependent, user modeling is also necessary for multimedia information retrieval systems, e.g., music information retrieval systems. Furthermore, to make the user models sharable, we need standardized language to describe them. In this paper, an XMLlike language is proposed to describe the user model for music information retrieval purposes. We also propose some paradigms to acquire, deploy and share the user information to improve current music information systems. A prototype system, MusicCat, is analyzed and implemented as a case.
Education and mortality in type 2 diabetes.

Adults with diabetes tend to have higher age-adjusted mortality rates (1,2). Evidence from Britain (3) suggests that mortality in diabetic adults is inversely related to socioeconomic status. The importance of self-care and blood glucose control in adults with diabetes suggests that education may be an important factor in long-term health outcomes, a hypothesis that is also consistent with evidence in the health economics literature that education increases the efficiency of investment in health (4,5). The specific hypothesis tested here …
Methylene Blue: Revisited

Methylene blue, an inhibitor of nitric oxide synthase and guanylate cyclase has many uses in medicine. It has been found to improve the hypotension associated with various clinical states. It also improves hypoxia and hyper dynamic circulation in cirrhosis of liver and severe hepatopulmonary syndrome. It also results in transient and reproducible improvement in blood pressure and cardiac function in septic shock.
Discrimination of person names based on contexts co-occurrence

As the universal phenomenon that two people share a same name, picking out the relevant pages of a specific person from a mass of result documents which are related to multiple namesakes becomes a very troublesome and annoying thing. This paper proposes a contexts-co-occurrence-based method to deal with the name discrimination problem. Firstly, in order to consider both the global and local properties of a document, we extract important terms from the result collection through the method of combining the weight model and the windows model together. Secondly, base on those terms, the co-occurrence scores between any two terms are computed and then a contexts co-occurrence matrix is obtained. After that, according to the context matrix, we combine related context terms together to form several decision vectors. Finally, the similarities between any document vectors and decision vectors are computed through the VSM(vector space model) model. For a person name search task, the result documents can be divided into several groups automatically by the proposed method. The experiment result proves that our method can discriminate different persons who share the same name accurately and effectively.
Parthenolide, an NF-κB inhibitor, suppresses tumor growth and enhances response to chemotherapy in gastric cancer.

AIM This study evaluated the sesquiterpene lactone parthenolide, an inhibitor of transcription factor nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-κB), in the treatment of gastric cancer in vitro and in vivo. MATERIALS AND METHODS In vitro, the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay was performed to evaluate the effect of parthenolide on growth inhibition and chemosensitization to antitumor drugs of three gastric cancer cell lines (MKN-28, MKN-45 and MKN-74). Microarray analysis was performed to identify genes which were up- or down-regulated on the treatment of parthenolide. The isobologram analysis was introduced to evaluate the synergic effect of parthenolide on antitumor drugs. In vivo, the effect of parthenolide was investigated in a mouse peritoneal dissemination model with and without chemotherapy. RESULTS Parthenolide significantly inhibited cell growth in three gastric cancer cell lines. The phosphorylation of NF-κB was down-regulated by the treatment of parthenolide. The synergic effect of parthenolide was confirmed in combination with paclitaxel and cisplatin. In the peritoneal dissemination model, parthenolide significantly suppressed the disseminated nodules as a single agent and also enhanced chemosensitivity to paclitaxel. Furthermore, the combined therapy of parthenolide and paclitaxel significantly contributed to prolonging the survival duration. CONCLUSION The NF-κB inhibitor, parthenolide, may enhance chemosensitivity to paclitaxel in the treatment of patients with gastric cancer.
Leader-Based Collective Bargaining: Cooperation Mechanism and Incentive Analysis

We study leader-based collective bargaining LCB, under which a leading buyer leader and a following buyer follower form an alliance to jointly purchase a common component from a supplier. Although the leader and the follower cooperate in their component purchase, they compete in selling their end products. We first analyze the most common and simple form of LCB, equal price LCB, under which the follower pays to the leader the same wholesale price that the leader obtains from his negotiation with the supplier. We compare each buyer's profit under the equal price LCB with the benchmark where each buyer purchases separately from the supplier. We find that although the alliance might obtain a lower wholesale price and although the leader is always better off under equal price LCB, the follower can be worse off if the competition intensity of the leader's and follower's products is within an intermediate region. We identify a competition effect resulting from equal price LCB that can place the follower at a disadvantage in the competition. This finding implies that the equal price LCB might not be sustainable in practice. In view of this limitation, we investigate an alternative form of LCB, fixed price LCB, under which the follower pays a fixed price to the leader regardless of the wholesale price the leader obtains from the supplier. We show that fixed price LCB benefits not only the leader but also the follower, compared with separate purchases, which implies that fixed price LCB always achieves a win-win outcome for the buyers. Our analysis further shows that even the supplier might benefit from this form of LCB.