Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Radioactive iodine treatment of Graves' disease. Results in 32 children under 16 years of age.

BETWEEN 1949 and 1961, 32 children with Graves' disease, in the age range of 7 years through 15 years, were treated at the Cleveland Clinic with radioactive iodine ( 131 I). * Their average age was 12 years. Thirty patients, 24 girls and six boys, were treated until their hyperthyroidism was resolved and have been followed to date. (Twelve patients had undergone surgery or received a course of antithyroid drugs before radioactive iodine therapy.) Only one child has not been examined since 131 I treatment. Another child (case 5), who lived far away, had a large goiter with severe hyperthyroidism, and was given two doses of 131 I. Later she underwent subtotal thyroidectomy for persistent hyperthyroidism. One girl died of a congenital heart lesion three years after 131 I therapy but was included in the group. The dosage of 131 I employed in the 30 fully treated patients ranged from a single
Layer-by-Layer Assembly of Thin Film Zener Diodes from Conducting Polymers and CdSe Nanoparticles

Ultrathin films have been prepared by self-assembling trioctylphosphine oxide, TOPO, capped n-type 20−40 A diameter CdSe nanoparticles and 1,6-hexadecanethiol, HDT, onto p-doped semiconducting polymers, chemically deposited poly(3-methylthiophene), PMeT (for Device A), and electrochemically deposited poly(pyrrole), Ppy (for Device B). The semiconducting polymers have, in turn, been electrochemically layered (for Device A) or layer-by-layer chemically assembled (for Device B) onto derivatized conducting substrates. The ultrathin films have been characterized by absorption and emission spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, scanning force microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and by electrochemical measurements. By controlling the level of doping into the p-type junction, it was possible to prepare dissymmetrical junctions and observe a rectifying behavior in the forward direction and a Zener breakdown in the reverse direction for Au/PMeT/(HDT/CdSe)3, Device A, and for Au/MEA/Ppy/(HDT/CdSe).
Preventing SSL Traffic Analysis with Realistic Cover Traffic (extended abstract)

As more sensitive information is transmitted over computer networks, there has been a steady increase in the deployment of encryption to protect data in-flight. Myriad encrypted network protocols have emerged [8, 2, 1] that enable various applications like encrypted browsing, VPNs, secure shells, and VoIP. Since the data payload of an encrypted protocol is protected by strong encryption, attackers can do traffic analysis attacks, which use the information leaked by side channels (e.g., packet size and timing) to try to recover the contents or intent of the plaintext traffic. Existing attacks can recover a wide range of information from encrypted communications, e.g., Web page visits [3, 6], typed passwords [7, 9], speech data [14, 13], and embedded protocols [15, 4]. Given this threat, a growing number of applications (e.g., low-latency anonymity systems and VPNs) and users (e.g., privacy advocates and whistle-blowers), need better protection from these attacks. Existing techniques for preventing traffic analysis center on sending data with fixed intervals and/or with fixed payload sizes. Though this type of constant rate defense is effective at reducing the information leakage that enables most traffic analysis attacks, it makes it clear that a user is employing countermeasures to evade traffic analysis. This may, in itself, result in unwanted attention and scrutiny. We call this related attack defense detection. To resist both traffic analysis and defense detection attacks, we propose using realistic cover traffic tunnels to mask the observable behavior of the real traffic to be transmitted. The user tunnels his or her real traffic via a proxy service, which embeds the traffic inside fake cover traffic. This tunneling approach incurs overhead in time and in the number of excess bytes transmitted. To trade off overhead and privacy, the user may vary his or her choice of cover traffic model. In this paper, we introduce the basic design and evaluation of a cover traffic tunneling system called TrafficMimic. We utilize methods for generating realistic cover traffic, borrowing from prior work on traffic generation from the simulation and modeling research community [10]. Using several protocol classification and anomaly detection attacks, we show that TrafficMimic is able to reproduce cover traffic reliably and securely. Lastly, we show that realistic cover traffic provides comparable performance to constant-rate techniques, and in some cases can be very efficient.
Diving in a warming world: the thermal sensitivity and plasticity of diving performance in juvenile estuarine crocodiles (Crocodylus porosus)

Thermal acclimation responses may act as a safeguard in the face of climate change by allowing ectotherms to maintain functional performance in novel environments. In this study we tested the effect of thermal acclimation treatments on dive performance in juvenile estuarine crocodiles (Crocodylus porosus).
Local vs global: intelligent local face recognition

Face recognition in real world applications is a very difficult task because of image misalignments, pose and illumination variations, or occlusions. Many researchers in this field investigated both face representation and classification techniques able to deal with these drawbacks. However none of them is free from limitations. Early proposed algorithms were generally holistic, in the sense they consider the face object as a whole. Recently, challenging benchmarks demonstrated that they are not adequate to be applied in unconstrained environments, despite of their good performances in more controlled conditions. Therefore, the researchers’ attention is now turning on local features that demonstrated to be more robust to a large set of non-monotonic distortions. Nevertheless, though local operators partially overcome some drawbacks from global ones, they are still opening new questions, e.g., on which are the criteria to select the most representative features. This is the reason why, among all the others, hybrid approaches are showing a high potential in terms of recognition accuracy when applied in uncontrolled settings, as they integrate complementary information from both local and global features.
Medium-Chain Fatty Acids Improve Cognitive Function in Intensively Treated Type 1 Diabetic Patients and Support In Vitro Synaptic Transmission During Acute Hypoglycemia

OBJECTIVE We examined whether ingestion of medium-chain triglycerides could improve cognition during hypoglycemia in subjects with intensively treated type 1 diabetes and assessed potential underlying mechanisms by testing the effect of β-hydroxybutyrate and octanoate on rat hippocampal synaptic transmission during exposure to low glucose. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS A total of 11 intensively treated type 1 diabetic subjects participated in stepped hyperinsulinemic- (2 mU · kg−1 · min−1) euglycemic- (glucose ∼5.5 mmol/l) hypoglycemic (glucose ∼2.8 mmol/l) clamp studies. During two separate sessions, they randomly received either medium-chain triglycerides or placebo drinks and performed a battery of cognitive tests. In vitro rat hippocampal slice preparations were used to assess the ability of β-hydroxybutyrate and octanoate to support neuronal activity when glucose levels are reduced. RESULTS Hypoglycemia impaired cognitive performance in tests of verbal memory, digit symbol coding, digit span backwards, and map searching. Ingestion of medium-chain triglycerides reversed these effects. Medium-chain triglycerides also produced higher free fatty acids and β-hydroxybutyrate levels compared with placebo. However, the increase in catecholamines and symptoms during hypoglycemia was not altered. In hippocampal slices β-hydroxybutyrate supported synaptic transmission under low-glucose conditions, whereas octanoate could not. Nevertheless, octanoate improved the rate of recovery of synaptic function upon restoration of control glucose concentrations. CONCLUSIONS Medium-chain triglyceride ingestion improves cognition without adversely affecting adrenergic or symptomatic responses to hypoglycemia in intensively treated type 1 diabetic subjects. Medium-chain triglycerides offer the therapeutic advantage of preserving brain function under hypoglycemic conditions without causing deleterious hyperglycemia.
Feasibility Study of Source Position Verification in HDR Brachytherapy Using Scintillating Fiber

213 This work was supported by the National Nuclear R&D Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF), funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (NRF-2015M2A 2A7A02045275), (NRF-2015M2A2A7A02045273), General Researcher program (NRF-2015R1D1A1A09056828), Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (Grant No. 16172NIFDS311) and through the Korea Foundation of Nuclear Safety (KOFONS) funded by the Nuclear Safety Research Program (Grant No. 1603016). Received 22 November 2016, Revised 19 December 2016, Accepted 20 December 2016 Correspondence: Myonggeun Yoon (radioyoon@korea.ac.kr) Tel: 82-2-940-2752, Fax: 82-2-921-6434 cc This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Feasibility Study of Source Position Verification in HDR Brachytherapy Using Scintillating Fiber
Prevention of Contrast-Induced Acute Kidney Injury: Is Simple Oral Hydration Similar To Intravenous? A Systematic Review of the Evidence

Background Pre-procedural intravenous fluid administration is an effective prophylaxis measure for contrast-induced acute kidney injury. For logistical ease, the oral route is an alternative to the intravenous. The objective of this study was to compare the efficacy of the oral to the intravenous route in prevention of contrast-induced acute kidney injury. Study Design A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised trials with a stratified analysis and metaregression. Databases included MEDLINE (1950 to November 23 2011), EMBASE (1947 to week 47 2011), Cochrane CENTRAL (3rd quarter 2011). Two reviewers identified relevant trials and abstracted data. Settings and Population Trials including patients undergoing a contrast enhanced procedure. Selection Criteria Randomised controlled trial; adult (>18 years) population; comparison of oral versus intravenous volume expansion. Intervention Oral route of volume expansion compared to the intravenous route. Outcomes Any measure of acute kidney injury, need for renal replacement therapy, hospitalization and death. Results Six trials including 513 patients met inclusion criteria. The summary odds ratio was 1.19 (95% CI 0.46, 3.10, p = 0.73) suggesting no difference between the two routes of volume expansion. There was significant heterogeneity (Cochran’s Q = 11.65, p = 0.04; I2 = 57). In the stratified analysis, inclusion of the five studies with a prespecified oral volume expansion protocol resulted in a shift towards oral volume expansion (OR 0.75, 95% CI 0.37, 1.50, p = 0.42) and also resolved the heterogeneity (Q = 3.19, P = 0.53; I2 = 0). Limitations Small number of studies identified; lack of hard clinical outcomes. Conclusion The oral route may be as effective as the intravenous route for volume expansion for contrast-induced acute kidney injury prevention. Adequately powered trials with hard endpoints should be done given the potential advantages of oral (e.g. reduced patient burden and cost) over intravenous volume expansion.
Application of real zero concept to coherent detector for quadrature amplitude modulation

This paper proposes a new coherent detector that exploits the real zero (RZ) concept for signal recovery. The detector recovers the complex envelope consisting of in-phase (I) and quadrature (Q) components of linear quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM). The received signal before amplification is processed by RZ conversion, after which the converted signal can be amplified by a severely distorted amplifier. The RZ conversion combines the modulated received signal with a sinusoidal wave whose frequency is slightly outside the modulated frequency band, and the resultant signal is amplified to a saturated level. Next, the IQ detection applies the RZ concept to the IQ signal recovery. It utilizes a time to digital converter (TDC) for RZ timing estimation. A linear interpolation type TDC is introduced. Computer simulations demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed detector. It is shown that error vector magnitude (EVM) of the recovered complex envelope is around −30 to −40 dB for a narrowband signal.
Sensitivity Analysis of Wavelet Neural Network Model for Short-Term Traffic Volume Prediction

In order to achieve a more accurate and robust traffic volume prediction model, the sensitivity of wavelet neural network model (WNNM) is analyzed in this study. Based on real loop detector data which is provided by traffic police detachment of Maanshan, WNNM is discussed with different numbers of input neurons, different number of hidden neurons, and traffic volume for different time intervals. The test results show that the performance of WNNM depends heavily on network parameters and time interval of traffic volume. In addition, the WNNM with 4 input neurons and 6 hidden neurons is the optimal predictor with more accuracy, stability, and adaptability. At the same time, a much better prediction record will be achieved with the time interval of traffic volume are 15 minutes. In addition, the optimized WNNM is compared with the widely used back-propagation neural network (BPNN). The comparison results indicated that WNNM produce much lower values of MAE, MAPE, and VAPE than BPNN, which proves that WNNM performs better on short-term traffic volume prediction.
Robotic Exploration of Surfaces to Measure Mechanical Properties

This paper presents an overview of ongoing research on surface exploration at the GRASP Lab. We are investigating the necessary components and modules that must be embedded into a robot for it to have the exploratory capabilities required to recover mechanical properties from a surface, given minimal a priori information. Eventually, this information will be used to enable a robot to stand and walk stably on a surface that is unknown and unconstrained. A robot in the agricultural environment will specially benefit from such capabilities since it will need to step and walk on soils with variable properties. The paper proposes a framework for the recovery of the attributes of interest, and describes the laboratory setup designed to test the framework. The design and implementation of exploratory procedures (ep's) to recover penetrability, material hardness and surface roughness by exploring the surface is also described. Comments University of Pennsylvania Department of Computer and Information Science Technical Report No. MSCIS-90-41. This technical report is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn. edu/cis_reports/552 Robotics Exploration Of Surfaces To Measure Mechanical Properties MS-CIS-90-41 GRASP LAB 221 Pramath R. Sinha Ruzena Bajcsy Department of Computer and Information Science School of Engineering and Applied Science University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA 19 104
Role of catecholaminergic inputs to the medial prefrontal cortex in local and subcortical expression of Fos after psychological stress

A wide variety of stressors elicit Fos expression in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). No direct attempts, however, have been made to determine the role of the inputs that drive this response. We examined the effects of lesions of mPFC catecholamine terminals on local expression of Fos after exposure to air puff, a stimulus that in the rat acts as an acute psychological stressor. We also examined the effects of these lesions on Fos expression in a variety of subcortical neuronal populations implicated in the control of adrenocortical activation, one classic hallmark of the stress response. Lesions of the mPFC that were restricted to dopaminergic terminals significantly reduced numbers of Fos‐immunoreactive (Fos‐IR) cells seen in the mPFC after air puff, but had no significant effect on stress‐induced Fos expression in the subcortical structures examined. Lesions of the mPFC that affected both dopaminergic and noradrenergic terminals also reduced numbers of Fos‐IR cells observed in the mPFC after air puff. Additionally, these lesions resulted in a significant reduction in stress‐induced Fos‐IR in the ventral bed nucleus of the stria terminalis. These results demonstrate a role for catecholaminergic inputs to the mPFC, in the generation of both local and subcortical responses to psychological stress. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Mixed optimization for constrained resource allocation, an application to a local bus service

The present paper follows up on Vázquez-Abad (2013), where we applied the ghost simulation model to a public transportation problem. The ghost simulation model replaces faster point processes (passenger arrivals) with a “fluid” model while retaining a discrete event simulation for the rest of the processes (bus dynamics). This is not an approximation, but an exact conditional expectation when the fast process is Poisson. It can be interpreted as a Filtered Monte Carlo method for fast simulation. In the current paper we develop the required theory to implement a mixed optimization procedure to find the optimal fleet size under a stationary probability constraint. It is a hybrid optimization because for each fleet size, the optimal headway is real-valued, while the fleet size is integer-valued. We exploit the structure of the problem to implement a stopped target tracking method combined with stochastic binary search.
Early statin use is an independent predictor of long-term graft survival

Background. Statin use in renal transplantation has been associated with a lower risk of patient death but not with an improvement of graft functional survival. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of statin use in graft survival, death-censored graft survival and patient survival using the data recorded on the Spanish Late Allograft Dysfunction Study Group. Patients and methods. Patients receiving a renal allograft in Spain in 1990, 1994, 1998 and 2002 were considered. Since the mean follow-up in the 2002 cohort was 3 years, statin use was analysed considering its introduction during the first year or during the initial 2 years after transplantation. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses with a propensity score for statin use were employed to analyse graft survival, death-censored graft survival and patient survival. Results. In the 4682 evaluated patients, the early statin use after transplantation significantly increased from 1990 to 2002 (12.7%, 27.9%, 47.7% and 53.0%, P < 0.001). Statin use during the first year was not associated with graft or patient survival. Statin use during the initial 2 years was associated with a lower risk of graft failure (relative risk [RR] = 0.741 and 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.635–0.866, P < 0.001) and patient death (RR = 0.806 and 95% CI = 0.656–0.989, P = 0.039). Death-censored graft survival was not associated with statin use during the initial 2 years. Conclusion. The early introduction of statin treatment after transplantation is associated with a significant decrease in late graft failure due to a risk reduction in patient death.
Modifications in Rat Testicular Morphology and Increases in IFN-γ Serum Levels by the Oral Administration of Subtoxic Doses of Mercuric Chloride

Mercury induces structural and functional damage in several organs, however the effects of subtoxic doses of the metal on the male reproductive system are not well defined. In order to analyze testicular and epididymal morphological alterations and changes in IL-4 or IFN-γ serum levels, adult male Sprague-Dawley rats received 0.01, 0.05 or 0.1 μg/ml of mercuric chloride (HgCl2) in deionized water for 1 to 7 months by oral route. Controls received deionized water alone. Twenty rats, separated in four groups of five animals each, were used per time of exposure. Progressive degenerative lesions consisting of lack of germ cell cohesion and desquamation, arrest at spermatocyte stage and hypospermatogenesis were observed in seminiferous epithelium by light and electron microscopy. Leydig cells showed cytoplasmic vacuolation and nuclear signs of cell death. Loss of peritubular cell aggregation was evidenced in the epididymis. Mercury accumulation was detected in both organs by mass spectroscopy. Rats showed enhanced IFN-γ serum levels as compared to controls but only reached significance after 7 months of mercury administration. Subtoxic doses of inorganic mercury could lead to reproductive and immunological alterations. The results demonstrate that sublethal concentrations of mercuric chloride are enough to induce morphological and ultrastructural modifications in male reproductive organs. These contribute to functional alterations of spermatogenesis with arrest at spermatocyte stage, hypospermatogenesis and possibly impaired steroidogenesis which together could affect male fertility.
Increased Sheep Lung Vascular Permeability Caused by Escherichia coli Endotoxin

We infused Escherichia coli endotoxin, 0.07-1.33 μ/kg, intravenously into chronically instrumented unanesthetized sheep and measured pulmonary arterial and left atrial pressures, lung lymph flow, lymph and blood plasma protein concentrations, and arterial blood gases. Endotoxin caused a biphasic reaction: an early phase of pulmonary hypertension and a long late phase of steady state increased pulmonary vascular permeability during which pulmonary arterial and left atrial pressures were not increased significantly and lung lymph flow was 5 times the baseline value. Lymph: plasma total protein concentration ratio during the late phase (0.76 ± 0.04) was significantly (P < 0.05) higher than during baseline (0.66 ± 0.03). The lymph response was reproducible. Lung lymph clearance of endogenous proteins with molecular radii (r) 35.5 to 96 A was increased during the steady state late phase of the reaction, but, as during baseline, clearance decreased as r increased. The endotoxin reaction was similar to the reaction to infusing whole Pseudomonas bacteria, except that endotoxin had less effect on pressures during the steady state response and caused a relatively larger increase in lymph clearance of large proteins. We conclude that E. coli endotoxin in sheep causes a long period of increased lung vascular permeability and may have a greater effect on large solute pathways across microvessels than do Pseudomonaa bacteria. Circ Res 45: 292-397, 1979
Size and mass loading effect on quality factor of single-crystal silicon cantilever in atmosphere

For the single silicon cantilevers with low kinetic Reynolds numbers from 0.06 to 0.17, a modification of the existing approximate model for air damping analysis is presented. The mass added at the end is found to improve the quality factor of a cantilever in atmosphere. Silica gel is added at the end of the cantilever, as the loading mass. For a mass-loaded cantilever of 465x10x0.8 μm3, the quality factor is improved from 7.25 to 19.07, according to the loading mass of 21.79 ng. However, the frequency of the cantilever declines from 5.54 kHz to 1.68 kHz, resulting in a worse force detection resolution at the end.