Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Powered Endoscopic Dacryocystorhinostomy: A Decade of Experience

Purpose: To report a decade long experience with powered endoscopic dacryocystorhinostomy (DCR). Methods: A retrospective review of all consecutive patients undergoing powered endoscopic DCR was performed at this institution over a period of 11 years from 2002 to 2013. All patients completed a minimum of 3 months follow up following stent removal. Patient records were reviewed for demographic data, clinical and surgical profiles, adjunctive procedures, complications, and success rates at the last follow up. Anatomical success was defined as patent ostium on irrigation and functional success as free flow of dye into ostium on functional endoscopic dye test and resolution of epiphora. Results: Two hundred eighty-three powered endoscopic DCRs were performed on 214 patients. The mean age at surgery was 59.5 years (range, 3–95 years). All patients presented with epiphora. A total of 91.6% patients (196/214) had a primary DCR and 8.4% (18/214) had a revision DCR. In all, 50.4% patients (108/214) underwent adjunctive endonasal procedures. The mean follow up was 17.1 months (range, 3–103 months). At the last follow up, the final anatomical success was achieved in 96.9% cases of primary DCRs and 91.3% cases of revision DCRs. Functional success was achieved in 93% cases of primary DCRs and 86.9% cases of revision DCRs. Conclusions: Powered endoscopic DCR is a safe procedure and offers excellent results both in primary and revision DCRs. The threshold to perform adjunctive endonasal procedures should be very low when indicated.
Analyzing Timed Systems Using Tree Automata

Timed systems, such as timed automata, are usually analyzed using their operational semantics on timed words. The classical region abstraction for timed automata reduces them to (untimed) finite state automata with the same time-abstract properties, such as state reachability. We propose a new technique to analyze such timed systems using finite tree automata instead of finite word automata. The main idea is to consider timed behaviors as graphs with matching edges capturing timing constraints. When a family of graphs has bounded tree-width, they can be interpreted in trees and MSO-definable properties of such graphs can be checked using tree automata. The technique is quite general and applies to many timed systems. In this paper, as an example, we develop the technique on timed pushdown systems, which have recently received considerable attention. Further, we also demonstrate how we can use it on timed automata and timed multi-stack pushdown systems (with boundedness restrictions).
Potential implications of a monosynaptic pathway from mossy cells to adult-born granule cells of the dentate gyrus

The dentate gyrus (DG) is important to many aspects of hippocampal function, but there are many aspects of the DG that are incompletely understood. One example is the role of mossy cells (MCs), a major DG cell type that is glutamatergic and innervates the primary output cells of the DG, the granule cells (GCs). MCs innervate the GCs as well as local circuit neurons that make GABAergic synapses on GCs, so the net effect of MCs on GCs – and therefore the output of the DG – is unclear. Here we first review fundamental information about MCs and the current hypotheses for their role in the normal DG and in diseases that involve the DG. Then we review previously published data which suggest that MCs are a source of input to a subset of GCs that are born in adulthood (adult-born GCs). In addition, we discuss the evidence that adult-born GCs may support the normal inhibitory ‘gate’ functions of the DG, where the GCs are a filter or gate for information from the entorhinal cortical input to area CA3. The implications are then discussed in the context of seizures and temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). In TLE, it has been suggested that the DG inhibitory gate is weak or broken and MC loss leads to insufficient activation of inhibitory neurons, causing hyperexcitability. That idea was called the “dormant basket cell hypothesis. ” Recent data suggest that loss of normal adult-born GCs may also cause disinhibition, and seizure susceptibility. Therefore, we propose a reconsideration of the dormant basket cell hypothesis with an intervening adult-born GC between the MC and basket cell and call this hypothesis the “dormant immature granule cell hypothesis. ”
Biological activity of a lipopolysaccharide extracted from Treponema hyodysenteriae

A lipopolysaccharide (LPS) was obtained from pathogenic Treponema hyodysenteriae by hot phenol-water extraction. Various effects of the LPS on host cells were examined in vitro. Toxicity for mouse peritoneal macrophages was observed after 10 h of incubation at concentrations as low as 15 micrograms of the LPS per ml. Marked enhancement of both complement (C3) and immunoglobulin G-Fc receptor-mediated internalization was noted in macrophages obtained from mice injected 6 days previously with 75 micrograms of the material. Incorporation of [3H]thymidine into murine splenocytes was elevated approximately fourfold when splenocytes were treated with 5 to 10 micrograms of LPS per ml. Incubation of the LPS with normal porcine serum resulted in the generation of a factor(s) that stimulated the migration of porcine leukocytes. Generation of the chemotactic activity was inhibited by heating the serum at 56 degrees C for 30 min before treatment with LPS. The results suggest that T. hyodysenteriae contains an LPS that is biologically active.
Examining the effects of fear of failure, self-efficacy and gender role conflict in male and female engineering students

The field of engineering continues to have significantly fewer women engineers than men. Engineering has long been considered to be a male dominated career, with fewer women receiving bachelor's degrees in engineering and gaining employment in the engineering field. The present study was an attempt to determine influencing factors that discourage women from pursuing engineering as an educational and career choice. The current study examined gender role conflict, self-efficacy, and fear of failure as potential factors influencing women's preferences to pursue an engineering degree. Both male and female genders were participants in the research to determine gender differences for these factors. All participants were students majoring in the engineering discipline. In the current study, the Gender Role Conflict Scale (GRCS), the Performance Failure Appraisal Inventory (PFAI), and The Longitudinal Assessment of Engineering SelfEfficacy (LAESE) were analyzed. An additional instrument was designed to rate potential engineering student applicants based on their individual qualities and attributes that are important for successful engineers. Results indicated that females reported higher incidence of fear for their future in the engineering field, fear of being embarrassed or shamed in front of others, and fear of self-devaluation regarding their capabilities as an engineer. Results also indicated males reported higher levels of self-efficacy for mathematics in regard to their skill and abilities as engineers. There was no support for
CoNLL 2014 Shared Task: Grammatical Error Correction with a Syntactic N-gram Language Model from a Big Corpora

We describe our approach to grammatical error correction presented in the CoNLL Shared Task 2014. Our work is focused on error detection in sentences with a language model based on syntactic tri-grams and bi-grams extracted from dependency trees generated from 90% of the English Wikipedia. Also, we add a naive module to error correction that outputs a set of possible answers, those sentences are scored using a syntactic n-gram language model. The sentence with the best score is the final suggestion of the system. The system was ranked 11th, evidently this is a very simple approach, but since the beginning our main goal was to test the syntactic n-gram language model with a big corpus to future comparison.
Metaphore, Self-Reflection, and the Nature of Mind

This chapter speculatively addresses the nature and effects of metaphorical views that a mind can intermittently use in thinking about itself and other minds, such as the view of mind as a physical space in which ideas have physical locations. Although such views are subjective, it is argued in this chapter that they are nevertheless part of the real nature of the conscious and unconscious mind. In particular, it is conjectured that if a mind entertains a particular (metaphorical) view at a given time, then this activity could of itself cause that mind to become more similar in the short term to how it is portrayed by the view. Hence, the views are, to an extent, self-fulfilling prophecies. In these ways, metaphorical self-reflection, even when distorting and inaccurate, is speculatively an important aspect of the true nature of mind. The chapter also outlines a theoretical approach and related implemented system (ATT-Meta) that were designed for the understanding of metaphorical discourse but that have principles that could be at the core of metaphorical self-reflection in people or future artificial agents.
Counterfeit Commerce: Relations of Production, Distribution and Exchange

Study of the consumption of counterfeit products casts consumers as reflexive agents who knowingly break the law (through the consumption of illegal commodities). Because this analysis is pitched at the level of meaning rather than structural constraints, it produces a misleading view of reflexive counterfeit consumption as being motivated by resistance or the wish to escape from normative coercion. This article contrasts this with approaches that prefigure meaning in explaining counterfeit commerce by treating the trade as an unavoidable structural feature of capitalism. That is, the structural logic of capital accumulation inevitably creates a black market of counterfeit commerce. It is a parasitic form of illegal consumerism which mirrors conventional capitalist organization, reproducing familiar dynamics of status differentiation.
Establishment of novel therapy to reduce progression of myopia in rats with experimental myopia by fibroblast transplantation on sclera

Myopia is one of the most common visual disorders, and is characterized by a progressive axial elongation of the eye. Several methods have been tried to reduce the progression of axial elongation and myopia, but there are still no well‐accepted procedures. We hypothesized that transplantation of fibroblasts on the sclera would lead to the synthesis of collagen fibrils on the sclera and reinforce it, and reduce the degree of axial elongation of eyes with form deprivation myopia. To examine this, we developed a form deprivation myopia model in albino Wistar rats and examined the effects of human fibroblasts (hFbs) transplantation on the sclera in the progression of myopia and axial elongation. We found that the form deprivation by eyelid suture induced a myopic shift and axial elongation associated with a thinner sclera and smaller‐diameter collagen fibrils in Wistar rats. We also found that the transplanted hFbs synthesized type 1 collagen fibrils on the rat sclera, and these eyes with form deprivation had significantly reduced ocular elongation and myopic shift than the eyes without hFbs transplantation. Some of the synthesized collagen fibrils migrated into the sclera and had a bundle‐like appearance and a stripe‐like pattern, indicating they had mature characteristics. These findings suggest that the rat sclera was reinforced by the newly synthesized collagen fibrils and the axial elongation was reduced. These results can provide important information for the development of a therapy targeting myopia in humans. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Autophagic cell death induced by reactive oxygen species is involved in hyperthermic sensitization to ionizing radiation in human hepatocellular carcinoma cells

AIM To investigate whether autophagic cell death is involved in hyperthermic sensitization to ionizing radiation in human hepatocellular carcinoma cells, and to explore the underlying mechanism. METHODS Human hepatocellular carcinoma cells were treated with hyperthermia and ionizing radiation. MTT and clonogenic assays were performed to determine cell survival. Cell autophagy was detected using acridine orange staining and flow cytometric analysis, and the expression of autophagy-associated proteins, LC3 and p62, was determined by Western blot analysis. Intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) were quantified using the fluorescent probe DCFH-DA. RESULTS Treatment with hyperthermia and ionizing radiation significantly decreased cell viability and surviving fraction as compared with hyperthermia or ionizing radiation alone. Cell autophagy was significantly increased after ionizing radiation combined with hyperthermia treatment, as evidenced by increased formation of acidic vesicular organelles, increased expression of LC3II and decreased expression of p62. Intracellular ROS were also increased after combined treatment with hyperthermia and ionizing radiation. Pretreatment with N-acetylcysteine, an ROS scavenger, markedly inhibited the cytotoxicity and cell autophagy induced by hyperthermia and ionizing radiation. CONCLUSION Autophagic cell death is involved in hyperthermic sensitization of cancer cells to ionizing radiation, and its induction may be due to the increased intracellular ROS.
Analysis of Epidemiology and Risk Factors of Atopic Dermatitis in Korean Children and Adolescents from the 2010 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

Background Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a common chronic inflammatory skin disease, but only few studies involved samples of children and adolescents that are representative of the entire Korean population. This study aimed to estimate the prevalence and risk factors of AD among children and adolescents in Korea by using nationally representative data. Methods We used data from the fifth Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey in 2010 and retrospectively evaluated 2,116 children and adolescents. Logistic regression analysis was performed to determine the relationship between AD and other variables, including IgE levels. Results The prevalence rate of AD in children and adolescents was 15.0%. In the multivariate analysis of ages from 1 to 18 years, age (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 0.96; p < 0.01) was related to AD. From age of 12 to 18 years, smoking (aOR, 8.99; p < 0.01) and elevated total IgE serum level (aOR, 5.31; p < 0.01) were related to AD. Conclusion Age, smoking, and elevated total IgE level were related to AD in the children and adolescents. Thus, an antismoking policy and public education are necessary for reducing the prevalence of allergic diseases. In addition, measurement of total IgE level and age may be helpful in the diagnosis of AD.
Persistent Organochlorine Pollutants in Plasma, Blood Pressure, and Hypertension in a Longitudinal Study

Persistent organochlorine pollutants (POPs) have shown to be involved in the atherosclerotic process and to cause endothelial cell dysfunction. To assess longitudinally whether plasma concentrations of different POPs were associated with blood pressure and risk of hypertension in middle-aged women and men. Study subjects were 850 participants in the VIP (Västerbotten Intervention Programme) with 2 blood samples and blood pressure measurements, 10 years apart, during 1990 to 2003 (baseline) and during 2000 to 2013 (follow-up). Dioxin-like and nondioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls (DL-PCBs, NDL-PCBs) and p,p′-dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (DDE) were measured. Associations were assessed using generalized estimating equations. At baseline sampling 49% and at follow-up 64% had hypertension. DL-PCBs and DDE, but not NDL-PCBs or hexachlorobenzene, were associated with hypertension. Only the association for DL-PCBs remained statistically significant after lipid-standardization and adjustment for body mass index and total serum lipids. The multivariable-adjusted odds ratio of hypertension based on repeated measurements were 1.52 (95% confidence interval, 1.08–2.13) for DL-PCBs (third versus first tertile of lipid-standardized POPs). In stratified adjusted analyses, odds ratio for those born after 1950 increased to 3.99 (95% confidence interval, 2.15–7.43), whereas no association was observed among those born earlier. Based on repeated measurements, the accumulated exposure to DL-PCBs and DDE, although less clear for the latter, may disrupt the normal blood pressure levels and increase the odds of hypertension. Moreover, individuals experiencing early-life POP exposure may be at elevated risk of vascular POP effects.
Direct Detection of Rifampin and Isoniazid Resistance in Sputum Samples from Tuberculosis Patients by High-Resolution Melt Curve Analysis

ABSTRACT Drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) is a major threat to TB control worldwide. Globally, only 40% of the 340,000 notified TB patients estimated to have multidrug-resistant-TB (MDR-TB) were detected in 2015. This study was carried out to evaluate the utility of high-resolution melt curve analysis (HRM) for the rapid and direct detection of MDR-TB in Mycobacterium tuberculosis in sputum samples. A reference plasmid library was first generated of the most frequently observed mutations in the resistance-determining regions of rpoB, katG, and an inhA promoter and used as positive controls in HRM. The assay was first validated in 25 MDR M. tuberculosis clinical isolates. The assay was evaluated on DNA isolated from 99 M. tuberculosis culture-positive sputum samples that included 84 smear-negative sputum samples, using DNA sequencing as gold standard. Mutants were discriminated from the wild type by comparing melting-curve patterns with those of control plasmids using HRM software. Rifampin (RIF) and isoniazid (INH) monoresistance were detected in 11 and 21 specimens, respectively, by HRM. Six samples were classified as MDR-TB by sequencing, one of which was missed by HRM. The HRM-RIF, INH-katG, and INH-inhA assays had 89% (95% confidence interval [CI], 52, 100%), 85% (95% CI, 62, 97%), and 100% (95% CI, 74, 100%) sensitivity, respectively, in smear-negative samples, while all assays had 100% sensitivity in smear-positive samples. All assays had 100% specificity. Concordance of 97% to 100% (κ value, 0.9 to 1) was noted between sequencing and HRM. Heteroresistance was observed in 5 of 99 samples by sequencing. In conclusion, the HRM assay was a cost-effective (Indian rupee [INR]400/US$6), rapid, and closed-tube method for the direct detection of MDR-TB in sputum, especially for direct smear-negative cases.
Platelet‐rich plasma‐based bioactive membrane as a new advanced wound care tool

Chronic skin ulcers, consequence of diabetes and other pathological conditions, heavily compromise the patient life quality and represent a high and constantly growing cost for National Health Services. Autologous platelet‐rich plasma (PRP), has been proposed to treat these lesions. The absence of guidelines for the PRP production and the need of a fresh preparation for each treatment lead us to develop a protocol for the production of an allogenic PRP‐based bioactive membrane (BAM), standardized for platelet concentration and growth factor release. This work compares BAMs obtained starting from two different platelet concentrations. There was no direct correlation between the amount of growth factors released by BAM in vitro and the initial platelet count. However, different release kinetics were noticed for different growth factors, suggesting that they were differently retained by the two BAMs. The angiogenic potential of both BAMs was determined by Luminex Angiogenesis Assay. The biological activity of the factors released by the two BAMs was confirmed by cell proliferation and migration. A diabetic mouse chronic ulcer model was used to define the best PRP therapeutic dose in vivo. Both BAMs induced wound healing by increasing the thickness of the regenerated epidermis and the vessel number. However, a too high platelet concentration resulted in a slowdown of the membrane resorption that interfered with the skin healing. Overall, the results indicate that the BAMs could represent a natural and effective wound healing tool for the treatment of skin ulcers. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Sensory feedback from the urethra evokes state‐dependent lower urinary tract reflexes in rat

The lower urinary tract is regulated by reflexes responsible for maintaining continence and producing efficient voiding. It is unclear how sensory information from the bladder and urethra engages differential, state‐dependent reflexes to either maintain continence or promote voiding. Using a new in vivo experimental approach, we quantified how sensory information from the bladder and urethra are integrated to switch reflex responses to urethral sensory feedback from maintaining continence to producing voiding. The results demonstrate how sensory information regulates state‐dependent reflexes in the lower urinary tract and contribute to our understanding of the pathophysiology of urinary retention and incontinence where sensory feedback may engage these reflexes inappropriately.
Role of Intestinal Microflora on Necrotizing Enterocolitis in Preterm Infants

Abstract Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) remains a devastating intestinal disease in preterm very low-birth-weight (VLBW: <1,500 g) infants. Though the pathogenesis of NEC in preterm VLBW infants is not fully explored, numerous clinical evidence and laboratory data have supported that the bacterial colonization is a critical factor for NEC development. Recent evidence has suggested that NEC is associated with both unusual intestinal microbial species and an overall reduction in the diversity of microbiota. Nonetheless, preterm infants have very unique microflora colonization in the intestinal tract because many preterm infants are born via cesarean section and are mandated to develop intestinal microflora colorization within the complex neonatal intensive care unit. Furthermore, preterm infants show delayed colonization by “healthy commensal” organisms, especially bifidobacteria and lactobacilli. All these data suggest that low colonization of Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus in preterm VLBW infants may serve as a predisposing factor in microbial infection and NEC. Based on these findings, researchers have tried to use probiotics to prevent NEC in prematurity; there are 27 randomized controlled trials and 7 recent meta-analyses which enrolled a total of 6,655 preterm infants. All the evidence confirmed that oral probiotics effectively prevent NEC and death in preterm infants. Premature rat model and updated meta-analysis further showed that combined probiotics strains resulted in a marked reduction of the incidence of NEC. Future study should focus on the head-to-head control trial on different probiotics regimen and possible use of the microbiome of breast-fed preterm infants for total fecal transplantation to eradicate NEC.
Does hypothermia impair cerebrovascular autoregulation in neonates during cardiopulmonary bypass?

Autoregulation monitoring has been proposed as a means to identify optimal arterial blood pressure goals during cardiopulmonary bypass, but it has been observed that cerebral blood flow is pressure passive during hypothermic bypass. When neonates cooled during cardiopulmonary bypass are managed with vasodilators and controlled hypotension, it is not clear whether hypothermia or hypotension were the cause of impaired autoregulation.