Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Removal of Bikini Hair Using a Rapid 810-nm Diode Laser

nwanted hair has traditionally been removed by wax, tweezers, shaving, chemical depilatories, or electrolysis. These techniques are time consuming, monotonous, painful, and have limited efficacies. Electrolysis, once a popular procedure for permanent hair removal, is invasive, tedious, and only partially effective and can result in scarring or postinflammatory hyperpigmentation. Laser and light-based devices offer alternatives to traditional physical methods and have gained considerable popularity. In 2006, removal of hair by a laser device was the third most frequently performed nonsurgical cosmetic procedure in the United States. Laser and light-based modalities destroy hair follicles by selective photothermolysis (SP), in which melanin in the hair shaft and surrounding follicular epithelium is the target chromophore. When red and near-infrared wavelengths penetrate deeply into the dermis and are selectively absorbed by melanin, thermal damage is restricted to the hair follicles as a result of SP. The application of SP for laser hair removal was first described in 1996 by Grossman et al. Since then, use of the ruby, alexandrite, Nd:YAG, and diode laser devices for hair removal have been evaluated and reviewed in detail. The purpose of the study described in this article was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of a new, high-speed, very long-pulsed 810-nm diode laser for the rapid removal of hair from the bikini area.
Measuring the Impact of Code Dependencies on Software Architecture Recovery Techniques

Many techniques have been proposed to automatically recover software architectures from software implementations. A thorough comparison among the recovery techniques is needed to understand their effectiveness and applicability. This study improves on previous studies in two ways. First, we study the impact of leveraging accurate symbol dependencies on the accuracy of architecture recovery techniques. In addition, we evaluate other factors of the input dependencies such as the level of granularity and the dynamic-bindings graph construction. Second, we recovered the architecture of a large system, Chromium, that was not available previously. Obtaining the ground-truth architecture of Chromium involved two years of collaboration with its developers. As part of this work, we developed a new submodule-based technique to recover preliminary versions of ground-truth architectures. The results of our evaluation of nine architecture recovery techniques and their variants suggest that (1) using accurate symbol dependencies has a major influence on recovery quality, and (2) more accurate recovery techniques are needed. Our results show that some of the studied architecture recovery techniques scale to very large systems, whereas others do not.
Selective biosorption of thorium (IV) from aqueous solutions by ginkgo leaf

Low–cost biosorbents (ginkgo leaf, osmanthus leaf, banyan leaf, magnolia leaf, holly leaf, walnut shell, and grapefruit peel) were evaluated in the simultaneous removal of La3+, Ce3+, Pr3+, Nd3+, Sm3+, Eu3+, Gd3+, Yb3+, Lu3+, UO22+, Th4+, Y3+, Co2+, Zn2+, Ni2+, and Sr2+ from aqueous solutions. In single metal systems, all adsorbents exhibited good to excellent adsorption capacities toward lanthanides and actinides. In a simulated multicomponent mixed solution study, higher selectivity and efficiency were observed for Th4+ over other metal cations, with ginkgo leaves providing the highest adsorptivity (81.2%) among the seven biosorbents. Through optimization studies, the selectivity of Th4+ biosorption on ginkgo leaf was found to be highly pH–dependent, with optimum Th4+ removal observed at pH 4. Th4+ adsorption was found to proceed rapidly with an equilibrium time of 120 min and conform to pseudo–second–order kinetics. The Langmuir isotherm model best described Th4+ biosorption, with a maximum monolayer adsorption capacity of 103.8 mg g–1. Thermodynamic calculations indicated that Th4+ biosorption was spontaneous and endothermic. Furthermore, the physical and chemical properties of the adsorbent were determined by scanning electron microscopy, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller, X-ray powder diffraction, and Fourier transform infrared analysis. The biosorption of Th from a real sample (monazite mineral) was studied and an efficiency of 90.4% was achieved from nitric acid at pH 4 using ginkgo leaves.
Association of the CD11b rs1143679 polymorphism with systemic lupus erythematosus in the Han Chinese population

Objective To investigate the association of the CD11b single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs1143679 with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in Han Chinese patients, and to clarify this association with SLE clinical manifestations. Methods PCR–restriction fragment length polymorphism and direct sequencing of CD11b rs1143679 were conducted in 584 patients with SLE and 628 healthy controls in this case–control study to compare genotype and allele frequency distributions. Correlations between CD11b genotypes and clinical manifestations were also determined. Results The frequency of the CD11b rs1143679 GA genotype was 1.89% in Han Chinese patients with SLE, which was much lower than that of European and American populations, but close to the frequency observed in individuals from Hong Kong and Thailand. The CD11b rs1143679 GA genotype was also shown to confer susceptibility to SLE (odds ratio = 4.00, 95% confidence interval = 1.11–14.41). CD11b rs1143679 was found to be significantly associated with nephritis, but not with age of disease onset, arthritis, hematological involvement, or neural lesions. Conclusion CD11b rs1143679 appears to be associated with risk for SLE in the Han Chinese population, and may play an important role in the development of lupus nephritis.
Industrialization and Bilingualism in India

Bilingualism is a distinct and important form of human capital in linguistically diverse countries. When communication among workers increases productivity, there can be economic incentives to learn a second language. I study how the growth of industrial employment increased bilingualism in India between 1931 and 1961. During that period, Indian factories were linguistically mixed. I exploit industrial clustering and sectoral demand growth for identification. The effect on bilingualism was strongest in import-competing districts and among local linguistic minorities. Bilingualism was mainly the result of learning, rather than than migration or assimilation, and was not a byproduct of becoming literate. My results shed new light on human capital investment in developing economies and on the long-run evolution of languages and cultures.
Pathologic Anatomy of the Pancreas in Juvenile Diabetes Mellitus

1. Quantitative study of insular tissue has revealed that the number of B cells is greatly diminished in Patients with acute juvenile diabetes from the time of clinical onset of the disease. The number of these cells is as a rule less than 10 per cent of normal. Such B cells as are still present show the cytological signs of marked activity. 2. The normal or supranormal insular activity that is usually found in juvenile diabetics in this stage of the disease cannot therefore be due to the presence of a normal insular tissue, but is produced by a small number of hyperactive B cells. 3. On the basis of histological findings (presence of islets of large size, signs of new islet formation), it may be assumed that during the preclinical phase of juvenile diabetes, an extrapancreatic factor has exerted a strong stimulant action on the insular tissue. In the long run this must lead to exhaustion of the islet-forming capacity on the pancreatic parenchyma and to a decrease in the number of the B cells. By the time the disease becomes clinically manifest only the latter stage of this process can be observed and the majority of islets consist of A cells or of atrophic tissue devoid of B cells. 4. Peri- and intra-insular inflaminatory infiltrates have been found in 68 per cent of those patients with juvenile diabetes who died soon after the clinical onset of their disease. In other words, and contrary to the generally held view, this lesion is not uncommon. It is specific for diabetes and has never been observed in the chronic cases 5. In patients with chronic juvenile diabetes, the B cells are completely absent, except in occasional cases. The islets consist of small, atrophic cells. 6. A valid assessment of the functional capacity of insular tissue can only be achieved if as much use as pos sible is made of quantitative technics and of cytological examination
In Praise of Artifice Reloaded: Caution with subjective image quality databases

Subjective image quality databases are a major source of raw data on how the visual system works in naturalistic environments. These databases describe the sensitivity of many observers to a wide range of distortions (of different nature and with different suprathreshold intensities) seen on top of a variety of natural images. They seem like a dream for the vision scientist to check the models in realistic scenarios. However, while these natural databases are great benchmarks for models developed in some other way (e.g. by using the well-controlled artificial stimuli of traditional psychophysics), they should be carefully used when trying to fit vision models. Given the high dimensionality of the image space, it is very likely that some basic phenomenon (e.g. sensitivity to distortions in certain environments) are under-represented in the database. Therefore, a model fitted on these large-scale natural databases will not reproduce these under-represented basic phenomena that could otherwise be easily illustrated with well selected artificial stimuli. In this work we study a specific example of the above statement. A wavelet+divisive normalization layer of a sensible cascade of linear+nonlinear layers fitted to maximize the correlation with subjective opinion of observers on a large image quality database fails to reproduce basic crossmasking. Here we outline a solution for this problem using artificial stimuli. Then, we show that the resulting model is also a competitive solution for the large-scale database. In line with Rust and Movshon (2005), our report (misrepresentation of basic visual phenomena in subjectively-rated natural image databases) is an additional argument in praise of artifice.
Repression of Astrocytic Connexins in Cortical and Subcortical Brain Regions and Prefrontal Enrichment of H3K9me3 in Depression and Suicide

Abstract Background: Major depressive disorder has been associated with dysfunctional astrocytic networks. The underlying causes, extent, and consequences of such dysfunctions remain to be characterized. Astrocyte-astrocyte communication occurs principally through gap junction channels primarily formed by connexin 30 and 43 (CX30 and CX43). We previously reported decreased connexin expression in the prefrontal cortex of depressed suicides. In the present study, we investigated whether these changes are mediated by epigenetic regulation, and expanded gene expression quantifications to other cortical and subcortical regions to assess the regional distribution of connexion disruptions in depressed suicides. Methods: The expression of CX30 and CX43 was measured by real-time PCR in samples of neocortex (Brodmann areas 4 and 17), cerebellar cortex, mediodorsal thalamus, and caudate nucleus of 22 depressed suicides and 22 matched sudden-death controls. Chromatin immunoprecipitation was used to measure enrichment levels of the repressive chromatin mark H3K9me3 in the prefrontal cortex. Results: We found a consistent downregulation of connexin genes in all regions examined, except in the cerebellum where an increase in the expression of CX30 was measured and using chromatin immunoprecipitation we observed an enrichment of H3K9me3 for both Cx30 and Cx43 in the prefrontal cortex. Conclusions: Our study shows widespread astrocytic CX gene repression in depressed suicides that is mediated, at least in part, through epigenetic mechanisms. Taken together, these findings support the notion of widespread cerebral astrocytic dysfunction in major depressive disorder.
Burnout in Nurses Working With Youth With Chronic Pain: A Mixed-Methods Analysis

Objective Nursing is a rewarding but also challenging profession. Nurses are at risk for burnout and premature exit from the profession, which is detrimental to them, their patients, and the healthcare system. There are few studies examining the unique correlates of burnout in nurses working with pediatric populations. The current 2-study project used mixed-methods (qualitative and then quantitative) analysis to explore burnout in nurses working in an inpatient unit with youth with chronic pain. Method Study I participants included all of the 32 nurses who worked in an inpatient pediatric unit, which admits patients with chronic pain. Qualitative analyses of focus groups were used to extract themes. These themes were examined via a quantitative battery completed by 41 nurses from 2 inpatient pediatric units with youth with chronic pain. Results The themes were burnout, moral distress, negative beliefs about chronic pain, barriers to pain management, fear of losing compassion, coworker support as a coping method, time worked in the unit, professional self-efficacy, and negative views of the hospital environment. Quantitative results supported most of the qualitative findings, and taken together, the findings supported a model of burnout in nurses working with youth with chronic pain. Conclusions Conclusions We integrated qualitative and quantitative findings to develop a model of nurse burnout. This model provides a framework for evaluating and targeting burnout in nurses working with pediatric patients with chronic pain.
Contemporary Approaches to the Management of Post-stroke Apraxia of Speech

Abstract Apraxia of speech (AOS) is a motor speech disorder that disrupts the planning and programming of speech motor movements. In the acute stage of stroke recovery, AOS following unilateral (typically) left hemisphere stroke can occur alongside dysarthria, an impairment in speech execution and control, and/or aphasia, a higher-level impairment in language function. At this time, perceptual evaluation (the systematic, although subjective, description of speech and voice characteristics) is perhaps the only “gold standard” for differential diagnosis when it comes to motor speech disorders. This poses a challenge for speech-language pathologists charged with the evaluation of poststroke communication abilities, as distinguishing production impairments associated with AOS from those that can occur in aphasia and/or dysarthria can be difficult, especially when more than one deficit is present. Given the need for more objective, reliable methods to identify and diagnose AOS, several studies have turned to acoustic evaluation and neuroimaging to supplement clinical assessment. This article focuses on these recent advances. Studies investigating acoustic evaluation of AOS will be reviewed, as well as those that have considered the extent that neuroimaging can guide clinical decision making. Developments in the treatment of AOS will also be discussed. Although more research is needed regarding the use of these methods in everyday clinical practice, the studies reviewed here show promise as emerging tools for the management of AOS.
Model-Based Detection of Tubular Structures in 3D Images

Detection of tubular structures in 3D images is an important issue for vascular medical imaging. We present in this paper a new approach for centerline detection and reconstruction of 3D tubular structures. Several models of vessels are introduced for estimating the sensitivity of the image second-order derivatives according to elliptical cross section, to curvature of the axis, or to partial volume effects. Our approach uses a multiscale analysis for extracting vessels of different sizes according to the scale. For a given model of vessel, we derive an analytic expression of the relationship between the radius of the structure and the scale at which it is detected. The algorithm gives both centerline extraction and radius estimation of the vessels allowing their reconstruction. The method has been tested on synthetic images, an image of a phantom, and real images, with encouraging results.
Reduced Cortical Thickness in the Temporal Pole, Insula, and Pars Triangularis in Patients with Panic Disorder

Purpose Recent neuroimaging findings have revealed that paralimbic and prefrontal regions are involved in panic disorder (PD). However, no imaging studies have compared differences in cortical thickness between patients with PD and healthy control (HC) subjects. Materials and Methods Forty-seven right-handed patients with PD who met the diagnostic criteria in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-4th edition-text revision, and 30 HC subjects were enrolled. We used the FreeSurfer software package for estimating the cortical thickness of regions of interest, including the temporal pole, insula, and pars triangularis (mid-ventrolateral prefrontal cortex). Results Cortical thickness of the temporal pole (p=0.033, right), insula (p=0.017, left), and pars triangularis (p=0.008, left; p=0.025, right) in patients with PD was significantly lower, compared with HC subjects (Benjamini-Hochberg false discovery rate correction). Exploratory analysis revealed a significant negative correlation between the cortical thickness of the right temporal pole and Beck Depression Inventory scores (r=-0.333, p=0.027) in patients with PD and positive correlations between the cortical thickness of the left pars triangularis and Panic Disorder Severity Scale (r=0.429, p=0.004), Anxiety Sensitivity Index-Revised (r=0.380, p=0.011), and Beck Anxiety Inventory (r=0.421, p=0.004) scores using Pearson's correlation. Conclusion Ours study is the first to demonstrate cortical thickness reduction in the temporal pole, insula, and pars triangularis in patients with PD, compared with the HC subjects. These findings suggest that reduced cortical thickness could play an important role in the pathophysiology of PD.
Face authentication with Gabor information on deformable graphs

Elastic graph matching has been proposed as a practical implementation of dynamic link matching, which is a neural network with dynamically evolving links between a reference model and an input image. Each node of the graph contains features that characterize the neighborhood of its location in the image. The elastic graph matching usually consists of two consecutive steps, namely a matching with a rigid grid, followed by a deformation of the grid, which is actually the elastic part. The deformation step is introduced in order to allow for some deformation, rotation, and scaling of the object to be matched. This method is applied here to the authentication of human faces where candidates claim an identity that is to be checked. The matching error as originally suggested is not powerful enough to provide satisfying results in this case. We introduce an automatic weighting of the nodes according to their significance. We also explore the significance of the elastic deformation for an application of face-based person authentication. We compare performance results obtained with and without the second matching step. Results show that the deformation step slightly increases the performance, but has lower influence than the weighting of the nodes. The best results are obtained with the combination of both aspects. The results provided by the proposed method compare favorably with two methods that require a prior geometric face normalization, namely the synergetic and eigenface approaches.
Inspecting anisotropy in wrinkle recovery angle of woven fabric

In this paper, the anisotropic wrinkle recovery properties of plain and twill fabrics are explored by studying the variations of the wrinkle recovery angle with sample orientation angle. Orientation angle is the angle measured counterclockwise from the weft direction to the sample’s long axis, that is, the crease direction. This study focused on inspecting anisotropy in wrinkle recovery to find more effective test angles for different woven fabrics. A dynamic wrinkle recovery tester was used to measure the recovery angles of specimens automatically which were cut in various directions. The trend of plain fabrics shows that its recovery angle generally increases at first and then decreases with the increase in the orientation angle. The trend of twill fabrics differs in folding ways. The experimental results revealed that the wrinkle recovery angles of the woven fabrics had the lowest values near the orientation angles of 0° and 90°, i.e. the warp and weft directions, and therefore these two traditionally used directions in the standard test method did not best reflect the wrinkle recovery yielded from both warps and wefts. The diagonal direction (45°) was proven to be the optimal orientation angle for a balanced plain fabric, while the two orthogonal directions, i.e. the twill direction and its perpendicular direction, were found to be more relevant for a twill fabric. Optimal orientation angles used to test the wrinkle recovery angle of a woven fabric should be associated with its structure.
Cost-effectiveness of Diabetes Self-management Programs in Community Primary Care Settings

Purpose The purpose of this study is to estimate the cost-effectiveness of diabetes self-management programs in real-world community primary care settings. Estimates incorporated lifetime reductions in disease progression, costs of adverse events, and increases in quality of life. Methods Clinical results and costs were based on programs of the Diabetes Initiative of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, implemented in primary care and community settings in disadvantaged areas with notable health disparities. Program results were used as inputs to a Markov simulation model to estimate the long-term effects of self-management interventions. A health systems perspective was adopted. Results The simulation model estimates that the intervention does reduce discounted lifetime treatment and complication costs by $3385, but this is more than offset by the $15 031 cost of implementing the intervention and maintaining its effects in subsequent years. The intervention is estimated to reduce long-term complications, leading to an increase in remaining life-years and quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs). The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio is $39 563/QALY, well below a common benchmark of $50 000/QALY. Sensitivity analyses tested the robustness of the model’s estimates under various alternative assumptions. The model generally predicts acceptable cost-effectiveness ratios. Conclusions Self-management programs for type 2 diabetes are cost-effective from a health systems perspective when the cost savings due to reductions in long-term complications are recognized. These findings may justify increased reimbursement for effective self-management programs in diverse settings.
Epstein-Barr Virus in Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma of Guatemalan and Brazilian Patients

Background. Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is highly associated with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), particularly the undifferentiated nonkeratinizing subtype. Prevalence of EBV in NPC in countries such as Guatemala and Brazil has not been studied. Methods. We analyzed 19 cases of NPC, 11 from Guatemala and 8 from Brazil, for the presence of EBV by in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry. Additionally, 19 hyperplastic adenoids from children were analyzed for EBV by in situ hybridization, 12 from Guatemala and 7 from Brazil. Results. All the NPC cases from Guatemala and 5 from Brazil were of the undifferentiated nonkeratinizing type. EBV-negative cases comprised 2 keratinizing NPC and 1 differentiated nonkeratinizing NPC. All undifferentiated nonkeratinizing NPC from both samples showed intense positivity for EBER, while LMP-1 only focally and scarcely expressed. EBER was positive in 75% and 43% of the adenoids from Guatemala and Brazil, respectively. Conclusions. All undifferentiated nonkeratinizing NPC irrespective of origin from Guatemala or Brazil were highly associated with EBV.