Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of high temperature exposure on mechanical and electrical properties of Ti-6 Al-4V sheet

Prolonged heat treatment of the Ti-6Al-4V alloy at temperatures above 800/sup 0/C under normal atmospheric conditions causes the appearance of oxygen rich alpha-case on the surface. This alpha-case drastically reduces both the fracture strength and the elongation to fracture of the alloy as well as its surface conductivity. It was found that a linear relationship exists between fracture strength and eddy current conductivity on the surface, which enables the use of the latter as a nondestructive means for the prediction of strength.
Effect of Foliar Application with Salicylic Acid and Methyl Jasmonate on Growth, Flowering, Yield and Fruit Quality of Tomato

This experiment was conducted to study the effect of salicylic acid and methyl jasmonate as pre- harvest treatments on the tomato vegetative growth, yield and fruit quality. The experiment was completely randomized experimental design with four replications. These factors included salicylic acid in 2 levels (0.5 and 0.75 mmolL-1) and methyl jasmonate in 3 levels (0.25, 0.5 and 0.75 mmolL-1) applied on tomato. Results indicated that salicylic acid (0. 5 mmolL-1) and methyl jasmonate (0.25 mmolL-1) either alone or in combination (0.5 mmolL-1 SA+ 0.25 mmolL-1 MJ) increased vegetative and reproductive growth, yield and chlorophyll content. The application of salicylic acid (0. 5 mmolL-1) alone significantly increased the leaves-NK content and dry weight and decreased the incidence of blossom end rot, but methyl jasmonate application alone or in combination had not significant effect on blossom end rot and leaves -NK content. The TSS, TA and vitamin C content of tomato fruit had significantly affected by the application of salicylic acid and methyl jasmonate either alone or in combination(0.5 mmolL-1 SA+ 0.25 mmolL-1 MJ). Application of salicylic acid with methyl jasmonate
Long-Term Prognosis of Diabetic Patients With Critical Limb Ischemia

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the long-term prognosis of critical limb ischemia (CLI) in diabetic patients. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS A total of 564 consecutive diabetic patients were hospitalized for CLI from January 1999 to December 2003; 554 were followed until December 2007. RESULTS The mean follow-up was 5.93 ± 1.28 years. Peripheral angioplasty (PTA) was performed in 420 (74.5%) and bypass graft (BPG) in 117 (20.6%) patients. Neither PTA nor BPG were possible in 27 (4.9%) patients. Major amputations were performed in 74 (13.4%) patients: 34 (8.2%) in PTA, 24 (21.1%) in BPG, and 16 (59.2%) in a group that received no revascularization. Restenosis occurred in 94 patients, bypass failures in 36 patients, and recurrent ulcers in 71 patients. CLI was observed in the contralateral limb of 225 (39.9%) patients; of these, 15 (6.7%) required major amputations (rate in contralateral compared with initial limb, P = 0.007). At total of 276 (49.82%) patients died. The Cox model showed significant hazard ratios (HRs) for mortality with age (1.05 for 1 year [95% CI 1.03–1.07]), unfeasible revascularization (3.06 [1.40–6.70]), dialysis (3.00 [1.63–5.53]), cardiac disease history (1.37 [1.05–1.79]), and impaired ejection fraction (1.08 for 1% point [1.05–1.09]). CONCLUSIONS Diabetic patients with CLI have high risks of amputation and death. In a dedicated diabetic foot center, the major amputation, ulcer recurrence, and major contralateral limb amputation rates were low. Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the leading cause of death, and in patients with CAD history the impaired ejection fraction is the major independent prognostic factor.
IT Multisourcing in International Insurance Companies

Todays information technology (IT) sourcing endeavors have moved beyond outsourcing through the implementation ofmultisourcing. Multisourcing can be defined as the blending of services from multiple company-internal and companyexternalsuppliers. The increasing importance of multisourcing is acknowledged by both practitioners and researchers.However, multisourcing has not been sufficiently covered by scholarly investigation. This paper aims to fill this research gapby presenting the findings from a multiple case study of four leading insurance companies. The authors provide insights intoreal-life examples of the implementation of IT multisourcing in the insurance sector. The findings reveal particularly why,and how, insurance companies implement IT multisourcing. Through the identification of major objectives, significantchallenges, and key success factors, the authors give explicit answers to these questions. The findings of this case studycontribute to the existing literature on IT outsourcing and provide helpful advice for practitioners using an IT multisourcingapproach.
FAS Ligand Triggers Pulmonary Silicosis

We investigated the role of Fas ligand in murine silicosis. Wild-type mice instilled with silica developed severe pulmonary inflammation, with local production of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, and interstitial neutrophil and macrophage infiltration in the lungs. Strikingly, Fas ligand–deficient generalized lymphoproliferative disease mutant (gld) mice did not develop silicosis. The gld mice had markedly reduced neutrophil extravasation into bronchoalveolar space, and did not show increased TNF-α production, nor pulmonary inflammation. Bone marrow chimeras and local adoptive transfer demonstrated that wild-type, but not Fas ligand–deficient lung macrophages recruit neutrophils and initiate silicosis. Silica induced Fas ligand expression in lung macrophages in vitro and in vivo, and promoted Fas ligand–dependent macrophage apoptosis. Administration of neutralizing anti-Fas ligand antibody in vivo blocked induction of silicosis. Thus, Fas ligand plays a central role in induction of pulmonary silicosis.
Lymphogranuloma venereum: diagnostic and treatment challenges

Lymphogranuloma venereum is a sexually transmitted disease caused by L1, L2, and L3 serovars of Chlamydia trachomatis. In the last 10 years outbreaks have appeared in North America, Europe, and Australia in the form of proctitis among men who have sex with men. Three stages of disease have been described. The disease in primary stage may go undetected when only a painless papule, pustule, or ulceration appears. The diagnosis is difficult to establish on clinical grounds alone and frequently relies upon either serologic testing, culture, or more recently, nucleic acid amplification testing of direct specimens. A proper treatment regimen cures the infection and prevents further damage to tissues. Lymphogranuloma venereum causes potentially severe infections with possibly irreversible sequels if adequate treatment is not begun promptly. Early and accurate diagnosis is essential. Doxycycline is the drug of choice. Pregnant and lactating women should be treated with erythromycin or azithromycin. Patient must be followed up during the treatment, until disease signs and symptoms have resolved. Repeated testing for syphilis, hepatitis B and C, and HIV to detect early infection should be performed.
Lens proteases and cataract formation.

A cataract is defined by Webster as "an opacity of the crystalline lens of the eye, or of its capsule, obstructing passage of light. " If we eliminate foreign bodies in the lens and particulate deposition on the lens capsule, "loss of transparency is due to a disturbance of the intimate structure of the lens, the fibers of which form a colloid system. "' This colloid is for all practical purposes a two-to-one mixture of water and lens protein, and in the final analysis it is an alteration in one or both of these substances that results in the formation of a lens opacity. Furthermore, of the water about 20 per cent is "bound water"2 which alters only with changes in its attached proteins. The remaining free water may do only one of two things, increase or decrease in quantity. A change in either direction does upset the optical clarity of the lens, but this is either an abrupt, transient change as in diabetes, or a gradual, permanent one as in aging. The latter may really be considered physiologic and in either case these are not true opacities in the clinical sense. This leaves the proteins of the lens as the chief protagonist in the story of cataract formation. The story of lens proteins usually begins with the great Swedish chemist Jons Jacob Berzelius who founded analytical chemistry and perfected the modem symbols for the elements of the periodic table.3 He was also the first to suggest the name protein (from the Greek protos, first) for the organic nitrogenous substances of living tissue.4 However, on reading an English translation of the text of Berzelius' presidential address to the Royal Academy at Stockholm in 1810, one finds that Berzelius himself destroys this happy coincidence. He states: "The crystalline lens . is very remarkable, both as to its texture and its composition. Its density is least of all at the surface, but
The burden of symptoms among community-dwelling older persons with advanced chronic disease.

BACKGROUND Little is known about the frequency and range of symptoms experienced by community-dwelling older persons with advanced chronic disease who are not enrolled in hospice. The objectives of our study were to determine (1) the prevalence of a range of symptoms among older persons with advanced chronic disease and (2) whether the prevalence of symptoms is similar across diagnoses. METHODS This was a cross-sectional study of the symptoms reported by 226 community-dwelling persons 60 years or older with advanced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), cancer, or congestive heart failure (CHF). Symptoms were assessed using the Edmonton Symptom Assessment System. RESULTS Virtually all participants (86%) experienced at least 1 symptom that rated moderate or severe, and most (69%) experienced 2 or more symptoms. The symptoms reported by the greatest proportion of participants were limited activity (61%), fatigue (47%), and physical discomfort (38%). Participants with COPD had a higher unadjusted mean +/- SD number of moderate or severe symptoms (3.3 +/- 2.1) than did participants with cancer (2.6 +/- 1.8; P = .03) or CHF (2.0 +/- 1.7; P<.001). After we adjusted for sociodemographic factors, compared with participants with CHF, participants with cancer experienced 38% (95% confidence interval, 9%-75%) more moderate or severe symptoms and participants with COPD experienced 71% (95% confidence interval, 37%-114%) more moderate or severe symptoms. CONCLUSIONS Most community-dwelling older persons with advanced COPD, cancer, or CHF experienced multiple moderate or severe symptoms. The clinical care of community-dwelling older persons with advanced chronic illnesses would be enhanced by the identification and alleviation of the range of symptoms they experience.
Microbial Processes in the Vadose Zone

Surface soils and their microbiology have been studied for decades. However, subsurface soil, more broadly referred to as the vadose zone, is of increasing interest to microbiologists. The vadose zone, extending from the terrestrial surface to the groundwater table, is rich in microbes of many types. This review summarizes what is known about the abundance and diversity of microbes in the vadose zone and the environmental factors that influence vadose zone microbes and microbial processes. We discuss the roles of vadose zone microbes in nutrient cycling as well as their importance in pollutant remediation. We address a number of fundamental questions in vadose zone microbial ecology, including: What do we need to learn about vadose zone microbes to improve our ability to predict the fates of pollutants? How different are microbial communities and microbial activities in the terrestrial subsurface compared with surface soil? Numerous questions and arguments justify “deepening” soil microbiology's spatial context to include the whole unsaturated subsurface.
For Personal Use. Only Reproduce with Permission from the Lancet Publishing Group. Exclusions before Randomisation Exclusions after Randomisation Sample Size Slippages in Randomised Trials: Exclusions and the Lost and Wayward

781 Proper randomisation 1,2 means little if investigators cannot include all randomly assigned participants in their primary analysis. Hence, a crucial aspect of assessing a randomised controlled trial pertains to exclusions, withdrawals, losses, and protocol deviations. How should investigators handle participants who refuse entry, ignore follow-up, leave town, or take aspartame when they were instructed to take aspirin? Unfortunately, many inappropriate approaches to dealing with these types of problem actually seem logical and falsely appealing. Therein lies their insidious nature, because such inappropriate approaches can result in serious biases. Here, we address the effect of exclusions made before and after randomisation. Investigators can exclude participants before randomisation. The eventual randomised treatment comparison will remain unbiased (good internal validity), irrespective of whether researchers have well-founded or whimsical reasons for exclusion of particular individuals. However, exclusions at this stage can hurt extrapolation, the generalisability, of the results (external validity). For most investigations, we therefore recommend that eligibility criteria be kept to a minimum, in the spirit of the large and simple trial. 3,4 However, some valid reasons exist for exclusion of certain participants. Individuals could, for example, have a condition for which an intervention is contraindicated, or they could be judged likely to be lost to follow-up. The trial question should guide the approach. 5 Sometimes, however, investigators impose so many eligibility criteria that their trial infers to a population of little apparent interest to anyone, and, in addition, recruitment becomes difficult. If investigators exclude too many participants, or the wrong participants, their results might not represent the people of interest, even though the randomised controlled trial might have been meticulously done—ie, the results could be true but potentially irrelevant. What to look for in exclusions before randomisation The eligibility criteria should indicate the population to which the investigators wish to infer. When judging the results of a trial, readers should make sure that the eligibility criteria are clear and specific. Most importantly, the criteria should have been applied before random-isation. Readers should also assess whether any of the criteria make the study sample atypical, unrepresentative, or irrelevant to the people of interest. In practice, however, results from a trial will infrequently be totally irrelevant: " most differences between our patients and those in trials tend to be quantitative (they have different ages or social classes or different degrees of risk of the outcome event or of responsiveness to therapy) rather than …
Could some coral reefs become sponge reefs as our climate changes?

Coral reefs across the world have been seriously degraded and have a bleak future in response to predicted global warming and ocean acidification (OA). However, this is not the first time that biocalcifying organisms, including corals, have faced the threat of extinction. The end‐Triassic mass extinction (200 million years ago) was the most severe biotic crisis experienced by modern marine invertebrates, which selected against biocalcifiers; this was followed by the proliferation of another invertebrate group, sponges. The duration of this sponge‐dominated period far surpasses that of alternative stable‐ecosystem or phase‐shift states reported on modern day coral reefs and, as such, a shift to sponge‐dominated reefs warrants serious consideration as one future trajectory of coral reefs. We hypothesise that some coral reefs of today may become sponge reefs in the future, as sponges and corals respond differently to changing ocean chemistry and environmental conditions. To support this hypothesis, we discuss: (i) the presence of sponge reefs in the geological record; (ii) reported shifts from coral‐ to sponge‐dominated systems; and (iii) direct and indirect responses of the sponge holobiont and its constituent parts (host and symbionts) to changes in temperature and pH. Based on this evidence, we propose that sponges may be one group to benefit from projected climate change and ocean acidification scenarios, and that increased sponge abundance represents a possible future trajectory for some coral reefs, which would have important implications for overall reef functioning.
Maternal Occupational Exposure to Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons: Effects on Gastroschisis among Offspring in the National Birth Defects Prevention Study

Background: Exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) occurs in many occupational settings. There is evidence in animal models that maternal exposure to PAHs during pregnancy is associated with gastroschisis in offspring; however, to our knowledge, no human studies examining this association have been conducted. Objective: Our goal was to conduct a case–control study assessing the association between estimated maternal occupational exposure to PAHs and gastroschisis in offspring. Methods: Data from gastroschisis cases and control infants were obtained from the population-based National Birth Defects Prevention Study for the period 1997–2002. Exposure to PAHs was assigned by industrial hygienist consensus, based on self-reported maternal occupational histories from 1 month before conception through the third month of pregnancy. Logistic regression was used to determine the association between estimated occupational PAH exposure and gastroschisis among children whose mothers were employed for at least 1 month during the month before conception through the third month of pregnancy. Results: The prevalence of estimated occupational PAH exposure was 9.0% in case mothers (27 of 299) and 3.6% in control mothers (107 of 2,993). Logistic regression analyses indicated a significant association between occupational PAHs and gastroschisis among mothers ≥ 20 years of age [odds ratio (OR) = 2.53; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.27, 5.04] after adjusting for maternal body mass index, education, gestational diabetes, and smoking. This association was not seen in mothers < 20 years (OR = 1.14; 95% CI: 0.55, 2.33), which is notable because although young maternal age is the strongest known risk factor for gastroschisis, most cases are born to mothers ≥ 20 years. Conclusion: Our findings indicate an association between occupational exposure to PAHs among mothers who are ≥ 20 years and gastroschisis. These results contribute to a body of evidence that PAHs may be teratogenic.
Measurement based modeling of power amplifiers for reliable design of modern communication systems

The characterization and the modeling of nonlinear memory effects are, nowadays, an integral part of the design process of modern communication systems. Notably, the nonlinear long term memory effects occurring in solid state devices impact considerably system performances. Recently, a new method to characterize and integrate low frequency memory effects in nonlinear behavioral models of SSPAs has been presented. This paper presents a detailed mathematical study and a measurement based extraction principle of the proposed behavioral model. Calibrated time-domain envelope measurements are used for the model extraction and verification procedures. The extraction technique is illustrated by the modeling of a L-Band HFET amplifier.
Quantitative Computerized Assessment of the Degree of Acetabular Bone Deficiency: Total radial Acetabular Bone Loss (TrABL)

A novel quantitative, computerized, and, therefore, highly objective method is presented to assess the degree of total radical acetabular bone loss. The method, which is abbreviated to “TrABL”, makes use of advanced 3D CT-based image processing and effective 3D anatomical reconstruction methodology. The output data consist of a ratio and a graph, which can both be used for direct comparison between specimens. A first dataset of twelve highly deficient hemipelves, mainly Paprosky types IIIB, is used as illustration. Although generalization of the findings will require further investigation on a larger population, it can be assumed that the presented method has the potential to facilitate the preoperative use of existing classifications and related decision schemes for treatment selection in complex revision cases.
Staphylococcus aureus Retinal Muller Glia to TLR2 Mediates the Innate Response of

Muller cells, the principal glia of the retina, play several key roles in normal and various retinal diseases. To date, their direct involvement in retinal innate defense against bacterial pathogens has not been investigated. In this article, we show that Muller cells express TLR2, a key sensor implicated in recognizing Gram-positive bacteria. We found that intravitreal injection of TLR2 agonist Pam3Cys and Staphylococcus aureus activated Muller glia in C57BL/6 mouse retina. Similarly, Pam3Cys or S. aureus elicited the expression of TLR2 and activated the NF- k B and p38 MAPK signaling cascade. Concomitant with the activation of signaling pathways, transcriptional expression and secretion of various proinﬂammatory cytokines (IL-6, TNF- a , and IL-1 b ), chemokines (IL-8), and antimicrobial peptide (LL-37) were also induced in Muller glia. Importantly, the culture media derived from TLR2-activated Muller glia exhibited robust bactericidal activity against S. aureus . Furthermore, use of neutralizing Ab, small interfering RNA, and pharmacological inhibitors revealed that Muller glial innate response to S. aureus is mediated via the TLR2–NF- k B axis. Collectively, this study for the ﬁrst time, to our knowledge, establishes that the retinal Muller glia senses pathogens via TLR2 and contributes directly to retinal innate defense via production of inﬂammatory mediators and antimicrobial peptides. The Journal of Immunology , 2011, 186: 7089–7097.
Novel Fouling-Reducing Coatings for Ultrafiltration, Nanofiltration, and Reverse Osmosis Membranes

Polymeric membranes could potentially be the most flexible and viable long-term strategy for treatment of produced water from oil and gas production. However, widespread use of membranes, including reverse osmosis (RO) membranes, for produced water purification is hindered due to fouling caused by the impurities present in the water. Fouling of RO membranes is likely caused by surface properties including roughness, hydrophilicity, and charge, so surface modification is the most widely considered approach to improve the fouling properties of current RO membranes. This project focuses on two main approaches to surface modification: coating and grafting. Hydrophilic coating and grafting materials based on poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) are applied to commercial RO membranes manufactured by Dow FilmTec and GE. Crossflow filtration experiments are used to determine the fouling resistance of modified membranes, and compare their performance to that of unmodified commercial RO membranes. Grafting and coating are shown to be two alternative methods of producing modified membranes with improved fouling resistance.