Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A new large Pliosaurid from the Barremian (Lower Cretaceous) of Sáchica, Boyacá, Colombia

A new fossil MP111209-1 found in the Barremian beds of Sáchica, a town near Villa de Leiva representing the more complete skeleton found in the region is described here. After a detailed study of its morphological characteristics, it is evident that the new specimen represents a new genus and species of brachauchenine pliosaurid from Central Colombia that we named Sachicasaurus vitae gen. et sp. nov. Sachicasaurus is a large brachauchenine (almost 10 m in length) characterized by the following combination of characters: skull exceeding two meters in length, transverse constriction in the rostrum, caniniform teeth present, pineal foramen in a very advanced position, palatines separated in the midline by the pterygoids, very short mandibular symphysis (bearing four teeth positions), reduced number of mandibular teeth (less than 20), slender hyoid bones, 12 cervical vertebrae, cervical centra showing ventral foramina, single rib facet in all cervical centra, at least 40 pre-caudal vertebrae, and ilium with a long posterior projection. Although it is difficult to clearly establish the phylogenetic position of Sachicasaurus viate within Brachaucheninae due to its combination of primitive and derived features, the morphological comparisons and the cladistic analysis show an evident phylogenetic proximity of Sachicasaurus to the Aptian-Albian genus Kronosaurus.
Scanning Ion Conductance Microscopy for Studying Biological Samples

Scanning ion conductance microscopy (SICM) is a scanning probe technique that utilizes the increase in access resistance that occurs if an electrolyte filled glass micro-pipette is approached towards a poorly conducting surface. Since an increase in resistance can be monitored before the physical contact between scanning probe tip and sample, this technique is particularly useful to investigate the topography of delicate samples such as living cells. SICM has shown its potential in various applications such as high resolution and long-time imaging of living cells or the determination of local changes in cellular volume. Furthermore, SICM has been combined with various techniques such as fluorescence microscopy or patch clamping to reveal localized information about proteins or protein functions. This review details the various advantages and pitfalls of SICM and provides an overview of the recent developments and applications of SICM in biological imaging. Furthermore, we show that in principle, a combination of SICM and ion selective micro-electrodes enables one to monitor the local ion activity surrounding a living cell.
Gastrointestinal complications of dual antiplatelet therapy.

Case presentation: A 59-year-old man with a history of hypertension, dyslipidemia, and smoking was hospitalized with acute coronary syndrome requiring emergency percutaneous coronary intervention with 4 drug-eluting stents. His discharge medications included dual antiplatelet therapy with aspirin 325 mg/d and clopidogrel 75 mg/d. Three weeks after discharge, he returned to the Emergency Department with bloody stools and a hematocrit of 23% (previously 36%) and required 3 U of packed red blood cells. Endoscopy showed a bleeding duodenal ulcer with adherent clot (Figure). Endoscopic image of bleeding duodenal ulcer with clot on top. This image was taken in a patient with a history similar to that of our patient. Arrow points to the base of duodenal ulcer with active bleeding. Picture contributed by Sarathchandra Reddy, MD, and Edwin Chun Ouyang, MD, PhD, Division of Gastroenterology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, Mass. We prescribe dual antiplatelet therapy with aspirin and clopidogrel to prevent and treat cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, and peripheral arterial disease. According to American Heart Association statistics, 700 000 patients had stroke, 13 million had coronary artery disease, and 8 to 12 million suffered from peripheral arterial disease in 2002. Each year, 1.2 million patients in the United States receive dual antiplatelet therapy with aspirin and clopidogrel after percutaneous coronary intervention with drug-eluting stents. The number of patients in the United States who receive dual antiplatelet therapy for various vascular conditions such as coronary artery disease, transient ischemic attack, thrombotic stroke, and peripheral vascular disease probably exceeds several million. The use of aspirin compared with placebo reduces the risk of myocardial infarction, stroke, or death from vascular causes by ≈25%. 1 In the Clopidogrel Versus Aspirin in Patients at Risk of Ischemic Events (CAPRIE) trial, administration of clopidogrel decreased the relative risk of vascular events by 8.7% compared with aspirin.2 The …
Frequency and time domain packet scheduling based on channel prediction with imperfect CQI in LTE

Channel-dependent scheduling of transmission of data packets in a wireless system is based on measurement and feedback of the channel quality. To alleviate the performance degradation due to simultaneous multiple imperfect channel quality information (CQI), a simple and efficient packet scheduling (PS) algorithm is developed in downlink LTE system for real time traffic. A frequency domain channel predictor based on Kalman filter is first developed to restore the true CQI from erroneous channel quality feedback. Then, a time domain grouping technique employing the joint of Proportional Fair (PF) and Modified Largest Weighted Delay First (M-LWDF) algorithms is used. It was proved this proposal achieves better performance in terms of system throughput and packet loss ratio by simulation results.
An Empirical Study of XP: The Case of Jordan

Most of software development methods tried to control the product development cycles according to the rapid demand for software with high quality. Agile practices such as Extreme programming (XP) produced software that applied the customer satisfactions with high quality level as agile alliance said. This paper outlines the conclusions drawn from Eskadenia, where Eskadenia is one of Jordanian Software development companies which is applied XP in their projects for developing applications software. This paper showed their experiences in using XP in order to find the best development practices to enhance software quality. Besides, the paper highlighted how XP really works in real life, not only in the theoretical studies.
A Synthetic Triterpenoid CDDO-Im Inhibits Tumorsphere Formation by Regulating Stem Cell Signaling Pathways in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer

Triple-negative breast cancer is associated with poor prognosis because of a high rate of tumor recurrence and metastasis. Previous studies demonstrated that the synthetic triterpenoid, CDDO-Imidazolide (CDDO-Im) induced cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in triple-negative breast cancer. Since a small subpopulation of cancer stem cells has been suggested to be responsible for drug resistance and metastasis of tumors, our present study determined whether the effects of CDDO-Im in triple-negative breast cancer are due to the inhibition of a cancer stem cell subpopulation. CDDO-Im treatment markedly induced cell cycle arrest at G2/M-phase and apoptosis in the triple-negative breast cancer cell lines, SUM159 and MDA-MB-231. Because SUM159 cells were more sensitive to CDDO-Im than MDA-MB-231 cells, the effects of CDDO-Im on the cancer stem cell subpopulation were further investigated in SUM159 cells. SUM159 cells formed tumorspheres in culture, and the cancer stem cell subpopulation, CD24−/EpCAM+ cells, was markedly enriched in SUM159 tumorspheres. The CD24−/EpCAM+ cells in SUM159 tumorspheres were significantly inhibited by CDDO-Im treatment. CDDO-Im also significantly decreased sphere forming efficiency and tumorsphere size in both primary and secondary sphere cultures. PCR array of stem cell signaling genes showed that expression levels of many key molecules in the stem cell signaling pathways, such as Notch, TGF-β/Smad, Hedgehog and Wnt, were significantly down-regulated by CDDO-Im in SUM159 tumorspheres. Protein levels of Notch receptors (c-Notch1, Notch1 and Notch3), TGF-β/Smad (pSmad2/3) and Hedgehog downstream effectors (GLI1) also were markedly reduced by CDDO-Im. In conclusion, the present study demonstrates that the synthetic triterpenoid, CDDO-Im, is a potent anti-cancer agent against triple-negative breast cancer cells by targeting the cancer stem cell subpopulation.
Perceptions of Cancer Fatalism and Cancer Knowledge

Abstract Cancer fatalism (the belief that death is inevitable when cancer is present) may influence cancer screening practices among older African American women. Little is known about cancer fatalism among younger women. Guided by the Patient/Provider/System Model, this descriptive study compares cancer fatalism and cancer knowledge among African American college students (n = 353) and women from primary care centers (n = 361). Their average age was 29 years. Data were collected using the Powe Fatalism Inventory and breast and cervical cancer knowledge scales. Women at health centers had higher cancer fatalism and lowercancer knowledge. Differences in life experiences may help explain these findings.
The evolution of cytometers

Microscopy is difficult when cells are on the fly; It’s lucky the cytometer’s now quicker than the eye. This hasn’t been the case throughout the gadget’s evolution, But lasers and computers have provided a solution To problems of illuminating cells, at least a myriad Per second, and collecting ample data, in that period, To pick out some to keep, and destine others for rejection. For modern labs, the instrument’s a natural selection!
Fingerprinting a Number of Prunus Persica Varieties Cultivated In Duhok Province Using Srap Markers.

In order to evaluate the genetic relationship among the germplasms of Prunus persica, sequence related amplified polymorphism (SRAP) marker was used to analyze genetic diversity of nine genotypes of peach cultivated in Duhok Governorate/ Kurdistan Region- Iraq. Twelve primer pairs generated 658 bands，379 bands were polymorphism; level of polymorphism observed in the present study with 12 primers pairs was 60.89 %. Revealed by NTSYS software the SM coefficient of genetic similarity ranged from 0.056 to 0.35. A dendrogram was constructed based on SRAP data using UPGMA cluster method. The nine genotypes of peach were classified into three groups and five sub-groups which were basically corresponded with the genetic relationships based on SRAP marker data.
Endophytes: An Environmental Friendly Bacteria for Plant Growth Promotion

Traditionally, plants have been considered as single organisms but in nature, plants associate with diverse organisms. The network of interactions between different symbiotic microorganisms and the host plant likely is likely to have a huge importance for the plant growth and development. Plant growth involves the synergistic activity of many different life forms in a highly complex environment. Thus the field of growing plant is a complex of microbial activity, comprising soil microbes, atmospheric microbes, plant surface microbes, an internal plant-colonizing microbes or endophytes. As the plant constitute vast and diverse niches for endophytic organisms, these endophytes living inside plants might intimately interact with cells of the host and release plant-growthpromoting compounds. This synergistic interaction between plant and endophytes has been called as double-fitness trait which is active in the plant endophyte partnership. This interaction is beneficial for both plant and endophytes, as the plants provide protection and photo assimilates on which endophytes are heavily dependent and in return endophytes promote growth of plants by their different mechanisms. Plant-endophyte International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 7 Number 02 (2018) Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas. com
An Update on Treatment of Genotype 1 Chronic Hepatitis C Virus Infection: 2011 Practice Guideline by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases

The standard of care (SOC) therapy for patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection has been the use of both peginterferon (PegIFN) and ribavirin (RBV). These drugs are administered for either 48 weeks (HCV genotypes 1, 4, 5, and 6) or for 24 weeks (HCV genotypes 2 and 3), inducing sustained virologic response (SVR) rates of 40%-50% in those with genotype 1 and of 80% or more in those with genotypes 2 and 3 infections.5-7 Once achieved, an SVR is associated with long-term clearance of HCV infection, which is regarded as a virologic “cure,” as well as with improved morbidity and mortality.8-10 Two major advances have occurred since the last update of treatment guidelines for chronic hepatitis C (CHC) that have changed the optimal treatment regimen of genotype 1 chronic HCV infection: the development of direct-acting antiviral (DAA) agents11-17 and the identification of several single-nucleotide polymorphisms associated with spontaneous and treatment-induced clearance of HCV infection.18,19 Although PegIFN and RBV remain vital components of therapy, the emergence of DAAs has led to a substantial improvement in SVR rates and the option of abbreviated therapy in many patients with genotype 1 chronic HCV infection. A revision of the prior treatment guidelines is therefore necessary, but is based on data that are presently limited. Accordingly, there may be need to reconsider some of the recommendations as additional data become available. These guidelines review what treatment for genotype 1 chronic HCV infection is now regarded as optimal, but they do not address the issue of prioritization of patient selection for treatment or of treatment of special patient populations.
The role of restoration in conserving matters of national environmental significance in marine and coastal environments

Healthy coastal habitats like seagrass meadows, coastal saltmarsh, kelp forests, coral and shellfish reefs, and mangrove forests (‘blue infrastructure’) are essential to the economic and social well-being of coastal communities. These habitats drive coastal productivity supporting our fisheries and other industries associated with recreation in marine environments, improve water quality, sequester carbon, protect shorelines from erosion, and support thriving biodiversity, including threatened species. These habitats are under pressure from coastal development, climate change, pollution, invasive species and other anthropogenic pressures, which have led to drastic declines in many of our important marine and coastal habitats.
Sequential Local Learning for Latent Graphical Models

Learning parameters of latent graphical models (GM) is inherently much harder than that of no-latent ones since the latent variables make the corresponding log-likelihood non-concave. Nevertheless, expectation-maximization schemes are popularly used in practice, but they are typically stuck in local optima. In the recent years, the method of moments have provided a refreshing angle for resolving the non-convex issue, but it is applicable to a quite limited class of latent GMs. In this paper, we aim for enhancing its power via enlarging such a class of latent GMs. To this end, we introduce two novel concepts, coined marginalization and conditioning, which can reduce the problem of learning a larger GM to that of a smaller one. More importantly, they lead to a sequential learning framework that repeatedly increases the learning portion of given latent GM, and thus covers a significantly broader and more complicated class of loopy latent GMs which include convolutional and random regular models.
Ambulatory monitoring of blood pressure in growth hormone-deficient adults

The aim of this study was to evaluate the 24-h pattern of blood pressure in adults with growth hormone deficiency using ambulatory blood pressure monitoring. We therefore evaluated the mean systolic and diastolic blood pressures, systolic and diastolic blood pressure loads and diurnal blood pressure rhythm. We used an auscultatory-type monitor, the measurements being made at 10–15 min intervals during the day and 20–30 min intervals at night. We included patients with a growth hormone peak of less than 3 ng/ml in at least two stimulation tests: the insulin tolerance and glucagon tests. The exclusion criteria were mental illnesses, pregnancy, diabetes mellitus, blood pressure higher than 160/90 mmHg, the use of growth hormone in the previous 12 months, severe acute illnesses, chronic liver or kidney disease and a history of malignancy. The results were interpreted according to the II Brazilian Consensus for the utilization of ambulatory monitoring. The study population comprised 27 adult patients with growth hormone deficiency, 11 male and 16 female, with an age range of 21–62 years. Five had developed the condition during childhood, whereas the remainder had adult-onset growth hormone deficiency. The mean systolic (115 ± 16.7 mmHg) and diastolic blood pressure loads (75.51 ± 1.90 mmHg) were normal. There was a tendency towards a lower blood pressure in patients with childhood-onset growth hormone deficiency when compared with their adult-onset counterparts. Men had a lower systolic blood pressure than women, the same pattern being found for mean diastolic blood pressure. Multiple regression analysis showed that age was the only independent variable with the statistical power to explain the variance of blood pressure in this group of patients. The incidence of non-dippers was 37.03%. Growth hormone deficiency thus seems to be associated with a change in the 24-h blood pressure pattern, with a high incidence of non-dippers.
Hematopoietic cell transplantation-related nephropathy in Japan.

To clarify the incidence and characteristics of hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT)-related nephropathy (HCT-N) in Japan, we sent questionnaire letters to 188 hematologic divisions of 91 hospitals and analyzed the responses. Of 2,136 Japanese hematopoietic cell transplant recipients, 51 patients (2.4%) had HCT-N. The early-onset (</=30 days after HCT), middle-onset (31 to 120 days after HCT), and late-onset (>180 days after HCT) groups included 20, 16, and 15 patients, respectively. The early-onset group mainly consisted of patients with acute renal failure (ARF) and hemolytic uremic syndrome and/or thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura. ARF was the dominant type in the middle-onset group. The main phenotype of the late-onset group was nephrotic syndrome, which correlated with chronic graft-versus-host disease (P=0.008). The total amounts of irradiation for patients with chronic renal failure and urinary abnormality were significantly greater than those for patients with ARF (P=0.004). The survival rate of the early-onset and middle-onset groups was 47.2%, whereas 87% of patients in the late-onset group survived (P=0.002). HCT-N is expected to become a serious and important problem in Japan because of the increasing number of HCTs from unrelated donors.
The application of genomic and molecular data in the treatment of chronic cancer pain

Many cancer patients will develop complex pain syndromes requiring aggressive, innovative, and comprehensive multimodal pain management strategies. Recently, data from both animal studies and clinical trials have allowed clinical research to focus on creating applicable clinical treatment strategies. This article is a review of genomic and molecular data, which has contributed to creating novel modalities for use in clinical pain management of patients with cancer‐induced pain. J. Surg. Oncol. 2012; 105:494–501. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
eShiver: Force feedback on fingertips through oscillatory motion of an electroadhesive surface

We introduce a new haptic force feedback device - the eShiver - for creating lateral shear force on the bare fingertip. The eShiver uses in-plane oscillatory motion of a variable-friction electroadhesive surface operating at 55Hz. A set of experiments performed with an artificial finger is used to elucidate the performance characteristics of this device. A maximum net lateral force of ±300mN is achieved, and net force is shown to be a function of velocity, applied voltage, and the phase between them. We propose a simple lumped parameter model for the system consisting of a lateral impedance and a voltage controlled "friction switch. " We also discuss the limitations and areas of possible improvement for this method of force generation.
Automatic Mechanism Design Of Optimal English Auctions With Discrete Bid Levels Tracking Number : 328

In this paper we consider the optimal design of English auctions with discrete bid levels. Such auctions are widely use d in online Internet settings and our aim is to automate their configuration in order that they generate the maximum revenue for the auctioneer. Specifically, we address two complimentary problems: (i) that of determining the optimal re serve price and bid increment in these auctions and (ii) that of estimating the values of the parameters necessary to perform this optimal auction design by observing the bidding in previous auctions. To this end, we use a general expression relating the revenue of the auction to the discrete bid level s implemented in order to determine (using a numerical solution) the optimal bid levels in the general case. We then use this result to show that the characteristics of these optimal bid levels are highly dependent on the number of bidders and their valuation distribution. Specifically, we com pare two commonly used distributions (uniform and exponential) and show how the optimal reserve price and bid increment changes as the number of bidders increases. When this optimal auction is implemented, improvements result i n both the revenue and the duration of the auction, compared to the more common case of fixed bid increments. Finally, given the dependence of this optimal auction design on the number of bidders and their valuation distribution, we show that we can use Bayesian inference to estimate these values through observations of the closing prices of previous auctions.
Social Gaze Behavior for Face to Face Human-Robot Interaction

This short paper discusses the importance of human-like gaze behaviors for humanoid robots with physical eyes. It gives a brief overview of the functions gaze fullfills in human-human interactions from a social evolutionary perspective. In the second part we describe how human-like gaze has been implemented in robot in the research field of social robotics in the last years. The last part of the paper briefly introduces an architecture for a conversational gaze controller (CGC). The parameters of this gaze controller are based on the analysis of a large corpus of gaze tracking data collected during humanhuman conversations. We describe our experiemental approach for obtaining this data and discuss the implications of endowing robots with humanlike behaviors and enabling them to engage in face to face social interactions.