Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Osseoinduction Evaluation of Hydroxyapatite and Zinc Containing Hydroxyapatite Granules in Rabbits

This study investigated the osteoinductive potential of granules of stoichiometric hydroxyapatite (HA) and 0.5% zinc containing hydroxyapatite (ZnHA) in intramuscular (IM) site of rabbit’s abdomen. The biomaterials were both used in granular form, with 75% porosity and particle diameter between 450 and 500μm, sintered at 1100°C. Both materials performed adequately on a multiparametric in vitro cytocompatibility assay, indicating their suitability for in vivo testing. After approval by the Ethics Commission on Teaching and Research in Animals, fifteen rabbits were submitted to general anesthesia, incision and tissue dilatation, and a small site was created for HA (right incision) and ZnHA (left incision) intramuscular implantation. The animals were killed after 2, 4 and 12 weeks for biomaterials and surrounding tissues removal. Histological analysis after 2 weeks revealed the presence of granulation tissue surrounding biomaterials with multinucleated giant cells and no newly formed bone for both materials. After 4 weeks there was fibrous tissue involving the material and few inflammatory cells. Following 12 weeks it was observed the presence of connective tissue surrounding the biomaterial, cellularized enough for the two experimental groups, but it was not observed the presence of bone matrix associated with the biomaterials. We conclude that both biomaterials are cytocompatible and did not present the property of osseoinduction after 12 weeks of implantation.
Change in Pitting Susceptibility with Alloy Heterogeneity Induced by Crystallization of Amorphous Alloys

Sputter-deposited amorphous Cr-60Zr and Cr-67Zr alloys are spontaneously passive in 6 M HCI and sputter-deposited amorphous Al-Cr alloys are spontaneously passive in 0.1 M HCI. They suffer pitting by anodic polarization. The change in the pitting susceptibility by introduction of heterogeneity to the homogeneous amorphous alloys by crystallization heat treatment at 400-700°C for 30 min is studied. Heat treatment of the Cr-Zr alloys results in two stage crystallization, (i) precipitation of hcp zirconium phase and (ii) massive transformation from amorphous phase to intermetallic compound, Cr 2 Zr. Since the precipitation of the hcp zirconium phase depends on the zirconium content of alloys, the average size of the hcp zirconium phase in the Cr-60Zr alloy specimens heated to 700°C is less than 20 nm, while heating of the Cr-67Zr alloy to 600°C results in precipitation of the hcp zirconium phase larger than 20 nm in diameter. Heat treatment of Al-43Cr alloy leads to formation of a two phase mixture of Al 17 Cr 9 and bcc Cr(Al). The size of nanocrystalline two phase mixture is about 15 nm when heated at 550°C but becomes 20-30 nm by heating at 600°C The heat treatment gives rise to the ennoblement of pitting potential in spite of the formation of nanocrystalline phases. This is due to the fact that the formation of the hcp zirconium or Al 17 Cr 9 phase leads to an increase in the chromium content of the matrix phase which is able to form thin, protective chromium-rich passive films covering entire heterogenous alloy surfaces. However, when the average size of the less corrosion-resistant phases exceeds 20 nm, the protective chromium-rich passive films cannot completely cover the less corrosion-resistant phases and the pitting resistance decreases.
A Meta-Analysis of Surgical Treatment for Vestibular Schwannoma: Is Hospital Volume Related to Preservation of Facial Function?

Objective: To investigate the relation between hospital volume and preservation ratios of facial function in surgery for vestibular schwannoma. Data Sources: A meta-analysis was conducted on current literature concerning preservation ratios of facial function after surgical resection of vestibular schwannoma. Studies reported by the House-Brackmann grading system for facial function were searched; all studies were published in English in peer-reviewed journals between 1992 and 2007. Study Selection: Articles had to report 1) patients who had surgery for vestibular schwannoma, 2) House-Brackmann grades for facial function, and 3) calendar time and number of procedures. Data Extraction: Standard methods for meta-analysis were adapted. Data Synthesis: Data were pooled by weighing studies according to their accuracy. Results were sorted for low-, moderate-, and high-volume hospitals. Linear relations were quantified by metaregression analysis (n = 5,560). Conclusion: Findings of this meta-analysis suggest that there is a linear relation between hospital volume and preservation ratio of facial function. The concentration of surgical treatment might be a consideration to optimize clinical outcome. Prospective and nationwide registration of surgical results might contribute to more definitive conclusions regarding outcome of vestibular schwannoma surgery.
A quantitative approach for evaluating the effectiveness of refactoring in software development process

Software development is a mentally complicated task. Different software development methodologies and quality assurance methods are used in order to attain high quality, reliable, and bug free software. eXtreme Programming (XP) is a software development discipline in the family of agile methodologies that contributes towards quality improvement using dozen practices. One of the important practices in XP is Refactoring. Refactoring which can be defined as “a change made to the internal structure of software to make it easier to understand and cheaper to modify without changing its observable behavior”. Although there has been a large amount of research investigations for this concept, but there has been little work done in quantitative approach. The main objective of the research is to develop a software development model using Refactoring practices. The software development model proposed in such a way that refactoring activity accompanies all the phases of software development. This work also shows the evaluation of effectiveness of the proposed software development model.
High-resolution atomic force microscopy and spectroscopy of native membrane proteins

Membranes confining cells and cellular compartments are essential for life. Membrane proteins are molecular machines that equip cell membranes with highly sophisticated functionality. Examples of such functions are signaling, ion pumping, energy conversion, molecular transport, specific ligand binding, cell adhesion and protein trafficking. However, it is not well understood how most membrane proteins work and how the living cell regulates their function. We review how atomic force microscopy (AFM) can be applied for structural and functional investigations of native membrane proteins. High-resolution time-lapse AFM imaging records membrane proteins at work, their oligomeric state and their dynamic assembly. The AFM stylus resembles a multifunctional toolbox that allows the measurement of several chemical and physical parameters at the nanoscale. In the single-molecule force spectroscopy (SMFS) mode, AFM quantifies and localizes interactions in membrane proteins that stabilize their folding and modulate their functional state. Dynamic SMFS discloses fascinating insights into the free energy landscape of membrane proteins. Single-cell force spectroscopy quantifies the interactions of live cells with their environment to single-receptor resolution. In the future, technological progress in AFM-based approaches will enable us to study the physical nature of biological interactions in more detail and decipher how cells control basic processes.
Integrin alpha v beta 3 differentially regulates adhesive and phagocytic functions of the fibronectin receptor alpha 5 beta 1

The plasma protein fibronectin is an important opsonin in wound repair and host defense. To better understand the process of fibronectin- mediated phagocytosis, we have transfected K562 cells, which endogenously express alpha 5 beta 1, with alpha v beta 3. In these transfectants, antibodies to alpha v beta 3 block phagocytosis of fibronectin-opsonized beads completely, even though half the ingestion occurs through endogenous alpha 5 beta 1 receptors. alpha 5 beta 1- mediated adhesion to fibronectin-coated surfaces is unaffected by alpha v beta 3 ligation. Neither alpha v beta 5 nor alpha M beta 2 ligation affects alpha 5 beta 1 phagocytic function in transfectants expressing these receptors. Pharmacologic data suggest that alpha v beta 3 ligation suppresses the phagocytic competence of high affinity alpha 5 beta 1 receptors through a signal transduction pathway, perhaps involving protein kinase C. In addition to its significance for phagocytosis, alpha v beta 3 regulation of alpha 5 beta 1 function may be significant for its roles in cell migration, metastasis, and angiogenesis.
Towards the Role of Test Design in Programming Assignments

Software testing can be very helpful to students if adopted in programming assignments throughout the Computer Science curriculum. Many testing practices involve students writing their own test cases. This approach implies that students are responsible for the test design task while performing the test activity. On the other hand, some testing practices follow the opposite approach of providing ready-made test cases, so students only need to execute and evaluate test results for their solution code. In this paper, we investigated the effect of test design in student programming performance. We conducted an experiment comparing two different testing approaches during programming assignments: student-written and instructor-provided test cases. We also assessed students' perceptions of this subject by means of a survey. Results suggest that when students are responsible for test design, i.e. when they write their own test cases, they perform better in programming assignments.
Validation of a model to predict perioperative mortality from lung cancer resection in the elderly.

RATIONALE Surgical resection is the mainstay therapy for localized non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), yet elderly patients are less likely to be treated due to concerns about morbidity and mortality related to surgery. OBJECTIVES To validate and refine a clinical model to predict 30-day perioperative mortality (POM) in elderly patients undergoing curative resection for lung cancer. METHODS We identified 14,297 patients aged 65 years and older with stage I, II, or IIIA NCSLC from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End-Results Registry linked to Medicare claims. We used logistic regression analysis to identify independent risk factors for POM and to validate and refine a previously derived prediction model. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS Overall, POM was 4.6% (95% confidence interval, 4.2-4.9%). Multiple regression analysis revealed that greater age, male sex, resections of multiple lobes, advanced stage, greater tumor size, and certain comorbidities were associated with increased risk for POM. These risk factors were similar to those observed in the prior model. When patients were stratified according to their predicted risk of POM, the observed mortality increased from 1.2 to more than 10%. CONCLUSIONS Among elderly patients with lung cancer, a prediction rule can identify those patients at higher risk for fatal complications from surgery. Further studies should evaluate whether use of the model can lead to improvements in treatment decision making.
Treatment with anti-epileptic drugs.

BACKGROUND The principles of epilepsy management are accurate diagnosis coupled with education, lifestyle advice, and drug therapy. There are a large number of anti-epileptic drugs now available. OBJECTIVE This article deals with initial treatment, the role of the newer agents, and practical issues such as monitoring of therapy and the use of generic drugs. The difficult issues of when to stop therapy and management of epilepsy in pregnancy are highlighted. DISCUSSION Accurate seizure and syndrome diagnosis determines the optimal choice of medication. In most patients with new onset epilepsy, seizures can be easily controlled with lifestyle modification and medication. In general, valproate is first line treatment for generalised epilepsy and carbamazepine for partial epilepsies. New anti-epileptic drugs offer benefits in patients who are not controlled or intolerant of the older agents. Monitoring of therapy is primarily clinical; not necessarily requiring testing for serum levels or other blood tests.
Distributed MIMO coding scheme with low decoding complexity for future mobile TV broadcasting

A novel distributed space-time block code (STBC) for the next generation mobile TV broadcasting is proposed. The new code provides efficient performance within a wide range of power imbalance showing strong adaptivity to the single frequency network broadcasting deployments. The new code outperforms existing STBCs with equivalent decoding complexity and approaches those with much higher complexities.
Mechanism and elimination of aspirin-induced interference in Emit II d.a.u. assays.

The presence of salicylates in urine reduces the signal in Emit assays (Syva), potentially yielding false-negative drugs-of-abuse screening results. We demonstrate that the principal urinary metabolite of salicylate, salicyluric acid (SUA; 2-hydroxybenzoylaminoacetic acid), interferes with the measurement of NADH formed in the assay by reducing the molar absorptivity of NADH at 340 nm. Thus, for a given concentration of d.a. u. analyte the change in absorbance over the assay time interval is less in the presence of SUA. With the Emit cocaine assay on the Hitachi 704 analyzer, the rate of absorbance change (delta AR) monitored at 340 nm for a specimen containing approximately 270 micrograms/L benzoylecgonine (BE) was 57 +/- 1.9 mA/min without SUA and 29 +/- 2.7 mA/min with 5 g/L SUA (n = 20). In contrast, delta AR determined at 376 nm was 18.6 +/- 0.5 mA/min with and 17.9 +/- 0.8 mA/min without 5 g/L SUA (n = 20). Measuring the Emit assay signal at wavelengths where SUA has no absorbance (376 nm) eliminates the interference due to SUA while maintaining the precision of the assay near the cutoff concentration for BE (300 micrograms/L).
Partial witnesses from preprocessed quantified Boolean formulas

For effectively solving quantified Boolean formulas (QBFs), preprocessors have shown to be of great value. A preprocessor rewrites a formula such that helpful information is made explicit and irrelevant information is removed. For this purpose, techniques, which would be too costly when repeatedly applied during the solving process, are used. Unfortunately, most preprocessing techniques are not model preserving and therefore incompatible with certification frameworks. In consequence, the application of a preprocessor prohibits the extraction of witnesses encoding a solution or a counterexample of a formula. In this paper, we show how to obtain partial witnesses from preprocessed QBFs. Partial witnesses are assignments for the variables of the outermost quantifier block and are extensible to full witnesses, which are usually represented as functions reflecting the dependencies between variables. For many applications, however, partial witnesses are sufficient. We modified the publicly available preprocessor bloqqer for extracting partial witnesses. We empirically compare the effectiveness of the modified and the original version of bloqqer. Further, we apply the new version of bloqqer for solving hardware synthesis problems for which it turns out to be extremely beneficial.
Overview and Discussion of the Social Security Mortality Projections

An expert group (2003 Technical Panel) reviewed official projections of the long-term financial status of the U.S. Social Security system and recommended changes in both the methods and the assumptions used. This paper reviews the mortality component of these projections and discusses the Panel’s recommendations, which include an increase in assumed rates of future mortality decline and a simplification of the methodology (projecting all forms of mortality together, rather than separately by cause of death). The general methodological issues discussed here may be relevant in many situations, whenever mortality forecasts are obtained through the extrapolation of past trends.
Spatiotemporal Reflectance Fusion via Sparse Representation

This paper presents a novel model for blending remote sensing data of high spatial resolution (HSR), taken at infrequent intervals, with those available frequently but at low spatial resolution (LSR) in the context of monitoring and predicting changes in land usage and phenology. Named “SParse-representation-based SpatioTemporal reflectance Fusion Model” (SPSTFM), the model has been developed for predicting HSR surface reflectances through data blending with LSR scenes. Remarkably, this model forms a unified framework for fusing remote sensing images with temporal reflectance changes, phenology change (e.g., seasonal change of vegetation), or type change (e.g., conversion of farmland to built-up area), by establishing correspondences between structures within HSR images of given areas and their corresponding LSR images. Such corresponding relationship is achieved by means of the sparse representation, specifically by jointly training two dictionaries generated from HSR and LSR difference image patches and sparse coding at the reconstruction stage. SPSTFM was tested using both a simulated data set and an actual data set of Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus-Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer acquisitions. It was also compared with other related algorithms on two types of data: images primarily with phenology change and images primarily with land-cover type change. Experimental results demonstrate the superiority of SPSTFM in capturing surface reflectance changes on both categories of images.
Forecasting Adoption of Ultra-Low-Emission Vehicles Using the GHK Simulator and Bayes Estimates of a Multinomial Probit Model

In this paper we use Bayes estimates of a multinomial probit model with fully flexible substitution patterns to forecast consumer response to ultra-low-emission vehicles. In this empirical application of the probit Gibbs sampler, we use stated-preference data on vehicle choice from a Germany-wide survey of potential light-duty-vehicle buyers using computer-assisted personal interviewing. We show that Bayesian estimation of a multinomial probit model with a full covariance matrix is feasible for this medium-scale problem. Using the posterior distribution of the parameters of the vehicle choice model as well as the GHK simulator we derive the choice probabilities of the different alternatives. We first show that the Bayes point estimates of the market shares reproduce the observed values. Then, we define a base scenario of vehicle attributes that aims at representing an average of the current vehicle choice situation in Germany. Consumer response to qualitative changes in the base scenario is subsequently studied. In particular, we analyze the effect of increasing the network of service stations for charging electric vehicles as well as for refueling hydrogen. The result is the posterior distribution of the choice probabilities that represent adoption of the energy-effcient technologies.
Lynx: Authenticated anonymous real-time reporting of electric vehicle information

With the proliferation of electric vehicles (EVs), EV battery charging will be a significant load on the power grid, and thus it will have to be optimized. Many proposed optimizations rely on predicted EV information, such as future trip start time and battery State-of-Charge (SoC), for load management, charging scheduling, V2G profit optimization, etc. Prediction in turn would benefit from real-time information about the EVs, while they are on the road, i.e., before arriving at the charging facility. A real-time reporting framework is thus necessary so that EVs can report status information to the utility in a timely fashion. In this paper we present Lynx, an authenticated anonymous real-time reporting protocol. Lynx allows an EV to send anonymous reports using pseudonyms that are unlinkable to its true identity. At the same time, the utility can verify that the reports come from some authentic EV without knowing the exact identity of the EV that sends the report. To encourage EV participation, Lynx allows the utility to issue anonymous receipts to EVs, which can be used later by the EVs to anonymously claim credits. Lynx minimizes computation overhead during real-time reporting, and our implementation on Raspberry Pi 2 shows that report generation and verification can be done within 10 ms.
Application of the Statistical Theory of Extreme Values To the Analysis of Maximum Pit Depth Data for Aluminum

Abstract Pit depth distribution curves were constructed for 2S aluminum immersed in tap water for time period of two weeks, one, two, four and six months, and one year, respectively. The distribution curves were found to consist of two superimposed curves. A “J” shaped curve resulted from pits which initiated and stifled within two weeks of immersion, whereas the other, a “bell” shaped curve, resulted from pits that initiated and continued to propagate. The “bell” shaped curve retained its shape and moved in the direction of increasing pit depth. After about two months the majority of these latter pits ceased propagating, the mode of the bell shaped curve became stationary, and only a small number of the deeper pits continued to propagate, the tail of the distribution curve lengthening with time. The maximum pit depths obtained on each of replicate samples were analyzed by the statistical theory of extreme values using the appropriate probability paper and were found to fit the extreme value distribution:.
Studies of partially transforming polyomavirus mutants establish a role for phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase in activation of pp70 S6 kinase

Infection of mouse fibroblasts by wild-type polyomavirus results in increased phosphorylation of ribosomal protein S6 (D.A. Talmage, J. Blenis, and T.L. Benjamin, Mol. Cell. Biol. 8:2309-2315, 1988). Here we identify pp70 S6 kinase (pp70S6K) as a target for signal transduction events leading from polyomavirus middle tumor antigen (mT). Two partially transforming virus mutants altered in different mT signalling pathways have been studied to elucidate the pathway leading to S6 phosphorylation. An upstream role for mT-phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) complexes in pp70S6K activation is implicated by the failure of 315YF, a mutant unable to promote PI3K binding, to elicit a response. This conclusion is supported by studies using wortmannin, a known inhibitor of PI3K. In contrast, stable interaction of mT with Shc, a protein thought to be involved upstream of Ras, is dispensable for pp70S6K activation. 250YS, a mutant mT which retains a binding site for PI3K but lacks one for Shc, stimulates pp70S6K to wild-type levels. Mutants 315YF and 250YS induce partial transformation of rats fibroblasts with distinct phenotypes, as judged from morphological and growth criteria. Neither mutant induces growth in soft agar, indicating that an increase in S6 phosphorylation, while necessary for cell cycle progression in normal mitogenesis, is not sufficient for anchorage-independent cell growth. In the polyomavirus systems, the latter requires integration of signals from mT involving both Shc and PI3K.