Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Luteogenesis in Cyclic Ewes: Echotextural, Histological, and Functional Correlates1

Abstract To date, it has not been possible to detect corpus luteum (CL) by ultrasonography, immediately following ovulation, in the ewe. Early CL detection is essential to be able to relate luteal outcome to the developmental pattern of the ovulated follicle and to confirm ovulation. Image analysis of the CL may be useful in providing a noninvasive picture of CL differentiation and function. The present study was designed to use high-resolution ultrasonography to monitor and to correlate the echotextural, histological, and functional attributes of the developing ovine CL from Days 1 to 3 after ovulation. Ten ewes underwent twice-daily transrectal ultrasonography and blood sampling from the day of synchronized estrus. Ewes were ovariectomized at 12–24, 36–48, and 60–72 h after ovulation. Ovaries collected were scanned in a water bath before processing for histology. Ultrasonographic images of CL were analyzed for echotexture. Histological sections were analyzed for the percentage area of the CL occupied by blood clot or luteal tissue. Serum samples were analyzed for progesterone concentration. Numerical pixel value, heterogeneity, and percentage of the CL occupied by blood clot declined (P < 0.05) from 12–24 to 60–72 h after ovulation. Luteal area and serum progesterone concentration increased (P < 0.05) from 12–24 to 60–72 h. The results indicated that it was possible to visualize developing CL as early as 12–24 h after ovulation in the ewe. Echotexture of the CL was closely associated with its morphological and functional characteristics; image analysis holds promise for noninvasive monitoring of CL differentiation and growth.
Identification of Mutations Contributing to the Temperature-Sensitive, Cold-Adapted, and Attenuation Phenotypes of the Live-Attenuated Cold-Passage 45 (cp45) Human Parainfluenza Virus 3 Candidate Vaccine

ABSTRACT The live-attenuated human parainfluenza virus 3 (PIV3) cold-passage 45 (cp45) candidate vaccine was shown previously to be safe, immunogenic, and phenotypically stable in seronegative human infants. Previous findings indicated that each of the three amino acid substitutions in the L polymerase protein of cp45 independently confers the temperature-sensitive (ts) and attenuation (att) phenotypes but not the cold-adaptation (ca) phenotype (29). cp45 contains 12 additional potentially important point mutations in other proteins (N, C, M, F, and hemagglutinin-neuraminidase [HN]) or in cis-acting sequences (the leader region and the transcription gene start [GS] signal of the N gene), and their contribution to these phenotypes was undefined. To further characterize the genetic basis for thets, ca, and att phenotypes of this promising vaccine candidate, we constructed, using a reverse genetics system, a recombinant cp45 virus that contained all 15 cp45-specific mutations mentioned above, and found that it was essentially indistinguishable from the biologically derived cp45 on the basis of plaque size, level of temperature sensitivity, cold adaptation, level of replication in the upper and lower respiratory tract of hamsters, and ability to protect hamsters from subsequent wild-type PIV3 challenge. We then constructed recombinant viruses containing the cp45 mutations in individual proteins as well as several combinations of mutations. Analysis of these recombinant viruses revealed that multiple cp45 mutations distributed throughout the genome contribute to the ts, ca, andatt phenotypes. In addition to the mutations in the L gene, at least one other mutation in the 3′ N region (i.e., including the leader, N GS, and N coding changes) contributes to thets phenotype. A recombinant virus containing all thecp45 mutations except those in L was more tsthan cp45, illustrating the complex nature of this phenotype. The ca phenotype of cp45 also is a complex composite phenotype, reflecting contributions of at least three separate genetic elements, namely, mutations within the 3′ N region, the L protein, and the C-M-F-HN region. The att phenotype is a composite of both ts and non-ts mutations. Attenuating ts mutations are located in the L protein, and non-ts attenuating mutations are located in the C and F proteins. The presence of multiple ts and non-ts attenuating mutations in cp45 likely contributes to the high level of attenuation and phenotypic stability of this promising vaccine candidate.
How Do Interviewers Attempt to Overcome Suspects' Denials?

Whilst earlier studies of interviews with suspects have tended to focus upon the causes of false confessions, few have considered how to overcome false denials and obtain true confessions. The present study of 85 interviews with suspects of benefit fraud examined interviewer skill levels of tactics and attitudes (and the extent of their usage and presence) along with measuring any associated movement made towards confession. The study also examined whether or not the weight of evidence, found in prior studies to be a key factor in confessions, played a role when suspects made admissions to wrongdoing. It was found that confessions more likely occurred when skilful interviewer displays of certain tactics and attitudes were increasingly demonstrated, many of which are recommended by the PEACE interviewing framework, developed in England and Wales, whereas the weight of evidence alone was not an influential factor.
Mechanism of Reduced Lung Injury by High-Frequency Nasal Ventilation in a Preterm Lamb Model of Neonatal Chronic Lung Disease

The mechanism underlying the potentially beneficial effects of the “gentler” modes of ventilation on chronic lung disease (CLD) of the premature infant is not known. We have previously demonstrated that alveolar parathyroid hormone-related protein-peroxisome proliferator-activated receptorγ (PTHrP-PPARγ) signaling is critically important in alveolar formation, and this signaling pathway is disrupted in hyperoxia- and/or volutrauma-induced neonatal rat lung injury. Whether the same paradigm is also applicable to CLD, resulting from prolonged intermittent mandatory ventilation (IMV), and whether differential effects of the mode of ventilation on the PTHrP-PPARγ signaling pathway explain the potential benefits of the “gentler” modes of ventilation are not known. Using a well-established preterm lamb model of neonatal CLD, we tested the hypothesis that ventilatory support using high-frequency nasal ventilation (HFNV) promotes alveolar PTHrP-PPARγ signaling, whereas IMV inhibits it. Preterm lambs managed by HFNV or IMV for 21 d following preterm delivery at 132-d gestation were studied by Western hybridization and immunofluorescence labeling for key markers of alveolar homeostasis and injury/repair. In lambs managed by IMV, the abundance of key homeostatic alveolar epithelial-mesenchymal markers was reduced, whereas it was significantly increased in the HFNV group, providing a potential molecular mechanism by which “gentler” modes of ventilation reduce neonatal CLD.
A Bootstrap Machine Learning Approach to Identify Rare Disease Patients from Electronic Health Records

Rare diseases are very difficult to identify among large number of other possible diagnoses. Better availability of patient data and improvement in machine learning algorithms empower us to tackle this problem computationally. In this paper, we target one such rare disease - cardiac amyloidosis. We aim to automate the process of identifying potential cardiac amyloidosis patients with the help of machine learning algorithms and also learn most predictive factors. With the help of experienced cardiologists, we prepared a gold standard with 73 positive (cardiac amyloidosis) and 197 negative instances. We achieved high average cross-validation F1 score of 0.98 using an ensemble machine learning classifier. Some of the predictive variables were: Age and Diagnosis of cardiac arrest, chest pain, congestive heart failure, hypertension, prim open angle glaucoma, and shoulder arthritis. Further studies are needed to validate the accuracy of the system across an entire health system and its generalizability for other diseases.
Randomized controlled multicentre study of the prevention of complications by octreotide in patients undergoing surgery for chronic pancreatitis

Sir Dr Cherqui and colleagues (Br J Surg 199.5; 82: 397-8) described combined liver transplantation and pancreatoduodenectomy for irresectable hilar bile duct carcinoma and reported on two patients who underwent operation in 1992 and probably 1993. The authors stated that, to their knowledge, pancreatoduodenectomy in combination with total hepatectomy and liver transplantation had not been described previously. May I draw your attention to our article’ in which we described exactly this combination of total hepatectomy in continuity with partial pancreatoduodenectomy (Whipple’s procedure) followed by orthotopic liver transplantation for the treatment of central hilar carcinoma. We then reported our preliminary results in seven patients and, at that time, six successful operations. One patient died from haemorrhage on day 1.5 after operation and another patient with distant metastases surgically verified died 6 months after liver transplantation from diffuse tumour metastasis. At present we have performed 13 so-called extended bile duct resections and achieved an actuarial 3-year survival rate of 56 per cent. To describe briefly the surgical rationale of our operation we make two points. First, as in all other tumour surgery, only those with not-too-far advanced tumour stage and without lymph node metastasis have a chance of cure by local surgical excision. Therefore, advanced metastasized tumours such as those included by Starzl et aLz in their cluster series are probably beyond cure by any surgical method. Second, it is our intention to avoid tumour cell spread by use of a ‘no-touch technique’, because tumour cell spread is likely to occur with the commonly used technique of close dissection near the centrally located carcinoma. In conventional bile duct resection even in combination with partial or total liver resection this ‘no-touch technique’ is not feasible. As nobody would sample lymph nodes near a colorectal carcinoma or take a biopsy of such a tumour, these new methods follow more closely the principles of oncological surgery. The results achieved so far do not allow any real conclusion. Some of our patients had lymph node metastasis undetected before and during operation. Other patients suffered from complications after surgery especially at the pancreatic anastomosis. We think that an evaluation for 5 years of at least 20 patients without surgical complications, and with bile duct turnours confined to the liver hilum without lymph node metastasis, is necessary to answer this question.
Psychological correlates of prenatal attachment in women who conceived after in vitro fertilization and women who conceived naturally.

BACKGROUND Investigators have pointed out that long-awaited pregnancies, such as those after in vitro fertilization (IVF), are emotionally vulnerable. In addition, higher pregnancy-related distress has been found among women pregnant after in vitro fertilization compared with women with "naturally" achieved pregnancy. The aim of this study was to compare prenatal attachment among IVF mothers and control mothers (women who conceived naturally), and to study relationships between prenatal attachment and psychosocial variables. METHODS Fifty-six IVF women from IVF clinics and 41 control women from antenatal clinics in Stockholm were assessed in gestational weeks 26 and 36. They completed self-rating scales measuring prenatal attachment, personality, marital relationship, anxiety, and depression. RESULTS Prenatal attachment increased as the pregnancy progressed in both groups. Prenatal attachment rated in gestational week 26 was significantly associated with that in gestational week 36. Multiple regression analyses showed that, in gestational week 26, prenatal attachment was explained by satisfaction with the partner relationship, whereas in gestational week 36 the factors contributing to high prenatal attachment were low scores of the personality trait detachment, low ambivalence, and younger age. Method of conception was unrelated to prenatal attachment at either assessment time point. CONCLUSIONS In vitro fertilization mothers are attached to their unborn children to the same extent as other mothers. Prenatal attachment increases during pregnancy. At the same time, however, individual scores on prenatal attachment seem to be relatively stable. Significant contributors to prenatal attachment are marital satisfaction, age, ambivalence, and detachment.
THE USE OF CHANNEL CHARACTERISTICS FOR THE CALIBRATION OF INDEX VELOCITY RATINGS FOR ACOUSTIC DOPPLER VELOCITY METERS

6 DESCRIPTION OF WATER PROBLEM ADDRESSED . 7 BACKGROUND . 8 Acoustic Doppler Velocity Meter . 8 Stage-Area Ratings . 9 Index-Velocity Ratings . 10 OBJECTIVES . 11 MATERIALS AND METHODS . 11 Materials . 11 Methods . 12 MODEL DEVELOPMENT . 13 Dimensional Analysis . 14 Equations for Index-Velocity Rating . 14 MODEL CALIBRATIONS AND ASSESSMENTS . 15 Red River of the North at Grand Forks, ND . 15 Kankakee River at Davis, IN . 22 James River at the ND-SD Stateline . 28 Kootenai River at Tribal Hatchery near Bonners Ferry, ID . 34 Channel A near Penn, ND . 41 Big Coulee near Churches Ferry, ND . 44 CONCLUSIONS . 49 REFERENCES . 51
Closed-form Wald tests for genome-wide analysis of gene-gene interactions

Despite the successful discovery of hundreds of variants for complex human traits using genomewide association studies, the degree to which genes jointly affect disease risk is largely unknown. One obstacle toward this goal is that the computational effort required for testing gene-gene interactions is enormous. As a result, numerous computationally efficient tests were recently proposed, such as PLINK [1], Boost [2], and a joint test [3]. However, the validity of these methods often relies on unrealistic assumptions such as additive main effects, main effects at only one SNP, and no linkage disequilibrium. Here we propose to use closed-form Wald tests. The Wald tests are asymptotically equivalent to the corresponding likelihood ratio tests, largely considered to be the gold standard tests but generally too computationally demanding for genome-wide interaction analysis. Simulation studies show that the Wald tests have very similar performance with their computationally intensive counterparts. Applying the proposed tests to a genome-wide study of multiple sclerosis, we identify interactions within the major histocompatibility complex region. In this application, we found that (1) focusing on pairs where both single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are marginally significant leads to more significant interactions when compared to focusing on pairs where at least one SNP is marginally significant; and (2) parsimonious parameterization of interaction effects might decrease, rather than increase, statistical power.
Degeneration and recovery of the neuromuscular junction after application of extracorporeal shock wave therapy

It is known that free nerve endings are degenerated after application of shock waves. We therefore hypothesized that the application of shock waves to muscle induces dysfunction of neuromuscular transmission at neuromuscular junctions. We investigated changes in neuromuscular transmission in response to shock wave application. Sprague–Dawley rats were used in this study. Two thousand shock waves at an energy flux density of 0.18 mJ/mm2 were applied to their right calf muscles. Neuromuscular junctions of gastrocnemius muscles were evaluated using rhodamine–α‐bungarotoxin on the day of treatment (n = 5). Amplitude and latency of compound muscle action potentials were measured on the day of treatment and 1, 2, 4, 6, and 8 weeks after treatment (n = 10, each group). Degenerated acetylcholine receptors existed in all treated muscles. Although the action potential amplitude on the treated side was significantly less than on the control side from the day of treatment (25.1 ± 7.8 vs. 34.5 ± 9.1, p = 0.012) to 6 weeks (27.9 ± 7.2 vs. 34.5 ± 7.2, p = 0.037), there was no significant difference at 8 weeks. There was no significant difference in transmission latency between the groups. The application of shock waves to muscle induced a transient dysfunction of nerve conduction at neuromuscular junctions. © 2012 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 30:1660–1665, 2012
Improving the Performance of Nested Lattice Codes Using Concatenation

A fundamental problem in coding theory is the design of an efficient coding scheme that achieves the capacity of the additive white Gaussian (AWGN) channel. The main objective of this short note is to point out that by concatenating a capacity-achieving nested lattice code with a suitable high-rate linear code over an appropriate finite field, we can achieve the capacity of the AWGN channel with polynomial encoding and decoding complexity. Specifically, we show that using inner Construction-A lattice codes and outer Reed-Solomon codes, we can obtain capacity-achieving codes whose encoding and decoding complexities grow as $O(N^2)$, while the probability of error decays exponentially in $N$, where $N$ denotes the blocklength. Replacing the outer Reed-Solomon code by an expander code helps us further reduce the decoding complexity to $O(N\log^2N)$. This also gives us a recipe for converting a high-complexity nested lattice code for a Gaussian channel to a low-complexity concatenated code without any loss in the asymptotic rate. As examples, we describe polynomial-time coding schemes for the wiretap channel, and the compute-and-forward scheme for computing integer linear combinations of messages.
Researching Electronic Portfolios and Learner Engagement: The REFLECT Initiative

Theoretical background for researching student learning, engagement, and collaboration through the development of electronic portfolios is described in this article. After providing an overview of the limited research on portfolios in education, the author discusses the accepted definitions, multiple purposes, and conflicting theoretical paradigms of electronic portfolios. Principles of student motivation and engagement are covered, and the philosophical issues related to portfolio assessment and reflection are outlined—paying particular attention to the difference between assessment for learning and assessment of learning. Finally, the article describes how the REFLECT Initiative will begin to fill the current void in empirical data on electronic portfolio implementation at the secondary level.
Defining Emergent Software Using Continuous Self-Assembly, Perception, and Learning

Architectural self-organisation, in which different configurations of software modules are dynamically assembled based on the current context, has been shown to be an effective way for software to self-optimise over time. Current approaches to this rely heavily on human-led definitions: models, policies, and processes to control how self-organisation works. We present the case for a paradigm shift to fully emergent computer software that places the burden of understanding entirely into the hands of software itself. These systems are autonomously assembled at runtime from discovered constituent parts and their internal health and external deployment environment continually monitored. An online, unsupervised learning system then uses runtime adaptation to continuously explore alternative system assemblies and locate optimal solutions. Based on our experience over the past 3 years, we define the problem space of emergent software and present a working case study of an emergent web server as a concrete example of the paradigm. Our results demonstrate two main aspects of the problem space for this case study: that different assemblies of behaviour are optimal in different deployment environment conditions and that these assemblies can be autonomously learned from generalised perception data while the system is online.
Snapshot-based loading-time acceleration for web applications

Web applications (apps) are programmed using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Web apps allow a faster app development based on existing web technology and a better portability since they are runnable on any device where a web browser is installed. Unfortunately, web apps are involved with a performance issue due to JavaScript, because its dynamic typing, function object, and prototype are difficult to execute efficiently, so even just-in-time compilers do not help much. In this paper, we propose a new approach to accelerate a web app, especially its loading time. Generally, running an app is composed of app loading to initialize the app, followed by event-driven computation. If the same job needs to be done to load an app, especially the execution of the same JavaScript code, it will be better to save the JavaScript execution state in advance and to start the app from the saved state. In fact, app loading is often involved with the initialization of the web framework such as j Query [1], Enyo [2], or Ext JS [3] where many JavaScript objects are created. Also, app-specific objects are created during app loading. If we save the initialized state of these objects in the form of a snapshot and start app loading by restoring the objects from the snapshot, we would accelerate app loading. We actually implemented the idea for the above three web frameworks, which lead to a 77% reduction of their initialization time. This can reduce the whole app loading time for an Enyo app by at least 20%, which could be noticed tangibly.
Scanning Electron Microscopy and Fluorescent In Situ Hybridization of Experimental Brachyspira (Serpulina) pilosicoli Infection in Growing Pigs

Two groups of six 8-week-old pigs were challenged with 1×109 cfu Brachyspira (Serpulina) pilosicoli or Serpulina intermedia daily for 3 consecutive days to study the pathology of porcine colonic spirochetosis by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) with oligonucleotide probes targeting ribosomal RNA specific for B. pilosicoli and the genus Brachyspira/Serpulina. Six pigs served as noninoculated controls. The animals were euthanatized successively between postinoculation days 14 and 24. B. pilosicoli was reisolated in feces from all of the inoculated pigs; however, only two pigs developed transient watery diarrhea. S. intermedia was reisolated from four of the inoculated pigs, but clinical signs were not observed. Gross examination of the B. pilosicoli–infected pigs revealed dilated large intestines with a hyperemic mucosa, whereas the large intestines of the S. intermedia–inoculated pigs and the control pigs appeared normal. SEM examination of B. pilosicoli–infected pigs revealed degenerated epithelial cells and spirochetal colonization of the colonic mucosa in four pigs. By FISH, B. pilosicoli cells were found colonizing and invading the surface epithelium and the crypts in all the pigs. Spirochetal crypt colonization markedly exceeded the occurrence of spirochetes on the mucosal surface. SEM examination of S. intermedia–inoculated pigs revealed no abnormalities, and Serpulina cells were detected only sporadically in the otherwise normal-appearing mucosa of four pigs by FISH. The results provide further evidence that B. pilosicoli is associated with colitis in pigs, although the gross lesions are mild. The spirochete is capable of colonizing the large intestine, inducing mucosal damage, invasion of the crypt and surface epithelium, and focal infiltration of the lamina propria. In addition, the study shows the applicability of FISH for specific identification of B. pilosicoli in formalin-fixed tissue.