Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A case of headache and idiopathic hypertrophic cranial pachymeningitis drastically improved after CSF tapping

A 70-year-old woman presented with a 8-month history of severe chronic headache with pain attacks lasting 1-2 hours, associated with bilateral tinnitus. Headaches were characterized by gravative pain, across the forehead and over the vertex, and partially improved during a 6-month period treatment with dexamethasone. She had a history of chronic myeloid leukemia. Neurological examination was normal. Brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) depicted diffuse leptomeninges thickening with gadolinium enhancement (Figure) and T2-hyperintense lesion on the frontal regions (Figure). Angio-MRI showed superior sagittal sinus subocclusion (Figure). Routine blood tests, urine, and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analysis were all normal. Body and brainpositron emission tomography (PET) excluded a secondary localization of limphoproliferative disease. A single-spot opening measurement and 1-hour monitoring of the CSF pressure (CSFP) were both elevated, respectively, 206 and 247 mmH2O (normal value: 65-200). A lumbar tap with removal of 30 mL of CSF was performed and CSFP was measured at the site of puncture afterward, showing a normal value. Headache gradually resolved over the following days. Repeated MRI at 1 week showed reduced thickness and enhancement of the affected dura mater and disappearance of the right frontal lesion (Figure). Over a 6-month interval, the patient was still pain free and a new MRI evaluation showed resolution of parenchymal lesion, further reduction in the pachymeningeal thickening and enhancement (Figure). Hypertrophic cranial pachymeningitis (HCP) is a rare fibrosing inflammatory process that involves the dura mater. A number of pathological entities may produce HCP including granulomatous diseases, tumors, en plaque meningioma, dural carcinomatosis, and infectious agents. Often the etiology remains unclear and HCP is labeled as “idiopathic” (IHCP). The main clinical features is chronic From the Dipartimento di Scienze Mediche, Chirurgiche e Tecnologie Avanzate G.F. Ingrassia, University of Catania, Catania, Italy (E. Reggio, C. Giliberto, and M. Zappia); Department of Diagnostic Imaging, Radiology Unit, Universitary Hospital Policlinico Vittorio Emanuele, Catania, Italy (G. Sortino)
Involvement of the Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinase/Rac1 and Cdc42 Pathways in Radial Migration of Cortical Neurons*

During cortical development, newly generated neurons migrate radially toward their final positions. Although several candidate genes essential for this radial migration have been reported, the signaling pathways regulating it are largely unclear. Here we studied the role of phosphatidylinositol (PI) 3-kinase and its downstream signaling molecules in the radial migration of cortical neurons in vivo and in vitro. The expression of constitutively active and dominant-negative PI 3-kinases markedly inhibited radial migration. In the neocortical slice culture, a PI 3-kinase inhibitor suppressed the formation of GTP-bound Rac1 and Cdc42 and radial migration. Constitutively active and dominant-negative forms of Rac1 and Cdc42 but not Akt also significantly inhibited radial migration. In migrating neurons, wild-type Rac1 and Cdc42 showed different localizations; Rac1 localized to the plasma membrane and Cdc42 to the perinuclear region on the side of the leading processes. These results suggest that both the PI 3-kinase/Rac1 and Cdc42 pathways are involved in the radial migration of cortical neurons and that they have different roles.
Disembodied conduct: communication through video in a multi-media office environment

In the following paper we disettss some findings of recent research concerning the organisation of video mediated communication in collaborative work in a dispersed, multi-media office environment. Based on the detailed, naturalistic analysis of video-recordings of individuals collaborating on various tasks through audio-visual links, we describe the ways in which the technology transforms nonverbal and verbal conduct, introducing certain asymmetries into the social interaction between users. It is argued that such communicative asymmetries may facilitate, rather than hinder, certain forms of collaborative work and provide a foundation for the emergence of new forms of sociability in the work place.
Improving in Situ Cosmogenic Chronometers

Abstract New radiocarbon ages for Sierra Nevada deglaciation, the first 10 Be measurements from the Laurentide terminal moraine, and calculations based on paleomagnetic field strength have the potential to substantially improve the accuracy of cosmogenic age estimates. Specifically, three new constraints apply to the interpretation of measured abundances of in situ produced cosmogenic 10Be and 26Al: (1) A suite of minimum-limiting radiocarbon dates indicates that the Sierra Nevada was deglaciated at least several thousand years earlier than assumed when Nishiizumi et al. (1989) first calibrated 10Be and 26 Al production rates based on polished bedrock surfaces in the range, with retreat beginning by 18,000 cal yr B.P. and completed by 13,000 cal yr B.P. (2) Concentrations of 10Be in moraine boulders and glacier-polished bedrock in New Jersey show little variance (10%, 1σ) and can be used to calculate a preliminary 10Be production rate (integrated over the past 21,000-22,000 cal yr B.P. at 41°, 200-300 m altitude) that is about 20% lower than currently accepted. (3) Calculations of the effect of past geomagnetic field-strength variations on production rates suggest that the use of temporally averaged production rates may generate age errors of >20%; however, cosmogenic exposure ages can be corrected for this effect, although the corrections currently are imprecise. Many previously reported late-Pleistocene 10Be and 26Al exposure ages are probably too young and are less accurate and less precise than implied by reported uncertainties. The discrepancy between accepted production rates and those calculated from Laurentide exposures, when considered together with the Sierran deglacial chronology and the model results, suggest that correlations between cosmogenic and other numerical ages, especially for brief events like the Younger Dryas and Heinrich events, will not be robust until temporal variations and the altitude/latitude scaling of production rates are fully understood and quantified at levels comparable to current analytic uncertainties (∼3%).
Discovery of Binding Motif Pairs from Protein Complex Structural Data and Protein Interaction Sequence Data

Unravelling the underlying mechanisms of protein interactions requires knowledge about the interactions' binding sites. In this paper, we use a novel concept, binding motif pairs, to describe binding sites. A binding motif pair consists of two motifs each derived from one side of the binding protein sequences. The discovery is a directed approach that uses a combination of two data sources: 3-D structures of protein complexes and sequences of interacting proteins. We first extract maximal contact segment pairs from the protein complexes' structural data. We then use these segment pairs as templates to sub-group the interacting protein sequence dataset, and conduct an iterative refinement to derive significant binding motif pairs. This combination approach is efficient in handling large datasets of protein interactions. From a dataset of 78,390 protein interactions, we have discovered 896 significant binding motif pairs. The discovered motif pairs include many novel motif pairs as well as motifs that agree well with experimentally validated patterns in the literature.
Improvement of oral health in Africa in the 21st century - The role of the who global oral health programme

Chronic diseases and injuries are overtaking communicable diseases as the leading health problems in all but a few parts of the world. This rapidly changing global disease pattern is closely linked to changing lifestyles which include diet rich in sugars. widespread use of tobacco and increased consumption of alcohol. These lifestyle factors also significantly impact oral health. and oral diseases qualify as major public health problems owing to their high prevalence and incidence in all regions of the world. Like all diseases. they affect primarily the disadvantaged and socially marginalized populations, causing severe pain and suffering, impairing functionability and impacting quality of life. Traditional treatment of oral diseases is extremely costly even in industrialized countries and is unaffordable in most low and middleincome countries. The WHO Global Strategy for prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases and the "common risk factor approach" offer new ways of managing the prevention and control of oral diseases. This report outlines major characteristics of the current oral health situation in Africa! and development trends as well as WHO strbtegies and approaches for better oral health in the 21'1 century
Nicotine Replacement Therapy After Subarachnoid Hemorrhage Is Not Associated With Increased Vasospasm

Background and Purpose— A significant number of patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage are active smokers and at risk for acute nicotine withdrawal. There is conflicting literature regarding the vascular effects of nicotine and theoretical concern that it may worsen vasospasm. The literature on the safety of nicotine replacement therapy and its effects on vasospasm is limited. Methods— A retrospective analysis was conducted of a prospectively collected database of aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage patients admitted to the neurointensive care unit from 1994 to 2008. Paired control subjects matched for age, sex, Fisher score, aneurysm size and number, hypertension, and current medication were analyzed. The primary outcome was clinical and angiographic vasospasm and the secondary outcome was Glasgow Outcome Score on discharge. Conditional logistic models were used to investigate univariate and multivariate relationships between predictors and outcome. Results— Two hundred fifty-eight active smoking patients were included of which 87 were treated with transdermal nicotine replacement therapy. Patients were well matched for age, sex, gender, Fisher score, aneurysm size and number, hypertension, and current medications, but patients who received nicotine replacement therapy had less severe Hunt-Hess scores and Glasgow coma scores. There was no difference in angiographic vasospasm, but patients who received nicotine replacement therapy were less likely to have clinical vasospasm (19.5 versus 32.8%; P=0.026) and a Glasgow Outcome Score <4 on discharge (62.6% versus 81.6%; P=0.005) on multivariate analysis. Conclusions— Nicotine replacement therapy was not associated with increased angiographic vasospasm and was associated with less clinical vasospasm and better Glasgow Outcome Score scores on discharge.
Plume structures in the hard‐turbulent regime of three‐dimensional infinite Prandtl number convection

Numerical simulations of three-dimensional infinite Prandtl number thermal convection with Rayleigh number (Ra) up to 108 are reported. Convection with Ra higher than 107 is characterized by the appearance of disconnected thermal plumes. The smaller plumes are detached by the currents produced by the larger plumes. The low wavenumber portion of a thermal power spectrum near the boundary layer becomes flat at high Ra, while the spectrum measured in the interior shows a positive slope for low wavenumbers. Differences are found in the thermal spectra between 2D and 3D models.
Ripple Down Rules for question answering

Recent years have witnessed a new trend of building ontology-based question answering systems. These systems use semantic web information to produce more precise answers to users' queries. However, these systems are mostly designed for English. In this paper, we introduce an ontology-based question answering system named KbQAS which, to the best of our knowledge, is the first one made for Vietnamese. KbQAS employs our question analysis approach that systematically constructs a knowledge base of grammar rules to convert each input question into an intermediate representation element. KbQAS then takes the intermediate representation element with respect to a target ontology and applies concept-matching techniques to return an answer. On a wide range of Vietnamese questions, experimental results show that the performance of KbQAS is promising with accuracies of 84.1% and 82.4% for analyzing input questions and retrieving output answers, respectively. Furthermore, our question analysis approach can easily be applied to new domains and new languages, thus saving time and human effort.
Reduced tibial torsion in congenital clubfoot: CT measurements in 24 patients

We determined leg torsion with CT scans through the femoral condyles and the ankle joints in 24 children (17 boys) with congenital clubfoot. In 16 cases, there was a bilateral clubfoot, in 5 cases it was left-sided and in 3 cases, it was on the right side. These children were compared to 17 healthy boys and 7 girls. The ages of all children ranged between 3 and 12 years. The average external torsion of the leg in the patients with clubfoot was 20 (15) versus 31 (7) degrees in the healthy children (p = 0.002). This study shows that there are great variations in leg torsion in children with congenital clubfoot and, on average, the external torsion is significantly lower than in healthy subjects.
HES and HERP families: Multiple effectors of the notch signaling pathway

Notch signaling dictates cell fate and critically influences cell proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis in metazoans. Multiple factors at each step—ligands, receptors, signal transducers and effectors—play critical roles in executing the pleiotropic effects of Notch signaling. Ligand‐binding results in proteolytic cleavage of Notch receptors to release the signal‐transducing Notch intracellular domain (NICD). NICD migrates into the nucleus and associates with the nuclear proteins of the RBP‐Jκ family (also known as CSL or CBF1/Su(H)/Lag‐1). RBP‐Jκ, when complexed with NICD, acts as a transcriptional activator, and the RBP‐Jκ‐NICD complex activates expression of primary target genes of Notch signaling such as the HES and enhancer of split [E(spl)] families. HES/E(spl) is a basic helix‐loop‐helix (bHLH) type of transcriptional repressor, and suppresses expression of downstream target genes such as tissue‐specific transcriptional activators. Thus, HES/E(spl) directly affects cell fate decisions as a primary Notch effector. HES/E(spl) had been the only known effector of Notch signaling until a recent discovery of a related but distinct bHLH protein family, termed HERP (HES‐related repressor protein, also called Hey/Hesr/HRT/CHF/gridlock). In this review, we summarize the recent data supporting the idea of HERP being a new Notch effector, and provide an overview of the similarities and differences between HES and HERP in their biochemical properties as well as their tissue distribution. One key observation derived from identification of HERP is that HES and HERP form a heterodimer and cooperate for transcriptional repression. The identification of the HERP family as a Notch effector that cooperates with HES/E(spl) family has opened a new avenue to our understanding of the Notch signaling pathway. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Fast Cell Group Selection Scheme for Improving Downlink Cell Edge Performance

This paper proposes an effective solution for improving downlink cell edge performance-fast cell group selection (FCGS) scheme. The definition and features of FCGS are illustrated and intra-node B FCGS and inter-node B FCGS schemes are explained respectively. The advantages of FCGS vs. hard handover, soft handover and fast cell selection are analyzed. Finally, the capacity analyses and simulation results of downlink cell edge user performance of sectoring and non-sectoring cellular system using above solutions are given
Broadcast channels

We introduce the problem of a single source attempting to communicate information simultaneously to several receivers. The intent is to model the situation of a broadcaster with multiple receivers or a lecturer with many listeners. Thus several different channels with a common input alphabet are specified. We shall determine the families of simultaneously achievable transmission rates for many extreme classes of channels. Upper and lower bounds on the capacity region will be found, and it will be shown that the family of theoretically achievable rates dominates the family of rates achievable by previously known time-sharing and maximin procedures. This improvement is gained by superimposing high-rate information on low-rate information. All of these results lead to a new approach to the compound channels problem.
Delay-Doppler search for matching pursuit algorithms in time-variant channels

The development of wireless communications created broad opportunities in mobile communications. However, poor channel estimation and lack of proper Doppler shift compensation techniques limit the mobility considerably. Therefore, a high quality and low-complexity channel estimation is one of the most important conditions for high mobility. In this paper we propose a low-complexity delay-Doppler search (DDS) for matching pursuit algorithms. The proposed search algorithm can be applied to MP algorithms which estimates the delay and the Doppler features of the channel in two dimensions efficiently. Two dimensional approach lowers the complexity significantly. At the end we show results for the DVB-T2 systems.
Fuzzy colour distance applied to region growing in image processing

In this work, a new approach to region growing problem is presented. The region growing procedure is modified in order to apply a fuzzy knowledge based system to evaluate the distance between a pixel and the region. This fuzzy colour distance is based on a set of rules that evaluate the three distance components (R, G, B) jointly. The results presented show a improvement with the traditional crisp distance.
Constructive robust MPC scheme for constrained nonlinear systems with disturbances

This paper presents a new robust model predictive control (MPC) scheme for continuous-time nonlinear systems subject to unknown but bounded disturbances and constraints on the state and input. The performance index is a function on disturbance-free state and input profiles, and the predictions are parameterized by one analytic controller with a small number of adjustable parameters. Using the methods of input-to-state stable control Lyapunov functions (ISS-CLFs), a variation of Freeman's formula is constructed, with a single tunable parameter reflecting ‘decay rate’ of the ISS-CLF. It is shown that the formula has the properties of ISS with respect to all admissible disturbances in an explicitly estimated region of attraction. With the results, we prove that the constrained closed-loop MPC system is ISS for all admissible disturbances. The applicability of the proposed MPC scheme is illustrated to control an open-loop unstable system.
Precise source location of AE doublets by spectral matrix analysis of triaxial hodogram

We have developed a precise relative source location technique using acoustic emission doublets (AE doublets) in the triaxial hodogram method to evaluate the direction and distance of subsurface extension cracks. An AE doublet is a pair of acoustic emissions with similar waveforms and adjacent locations on the same crack but which occur at different times. The relative source location is estimated by an analysis in the frequency domain. The relative distance between two AE sources is determined from the difference of P-S arrival time delays by cross-spectrum analysis. The relative direction is derived using a spectral matrix from the difference in P-wave polarization directions. We also propose a method to optimize the estimated relative location by using a group of AE doublets. The accuracy of the estimated source location was confirmed by performing field experiments. The relative locations of artificial wave sources about 150 m from a triaxial detector can be estimated with distance errors of less than 1 m, and direction errors of less than 3.8 degrees in both azimuth and inclination. Results of the application of this analysis on AE doublets in a geothermal field demonstrate its ability to evaluate deeper subsurface fractures.
Osteoblast Programmed Cell Death (Apoptosis): Modulation by Growth Factors and Cytokines

Once osteoblasts have completed their bone‐forming function, they are either entrapped in bone matrix and become osteocytes or remain on the surface as lining cells. Nonetheless, 50–70% of the osteoblasts initially present at the remodeling site cannot be accounted for after enumeration of lining cells and osteocytes. We hypothesized that the missing osteoblasts die by apoptosis and that growth factors and cytokines produced in the bone microenvironment influence this process. We report that murine osteoblastic MC3T3‐E1 cells underwent apoptosis following removal of serum, or addition of tumor necrosis factor (TNF), as indicated by terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase–mediated dUTP‐nick end labeling and DNA fragmentation studies. Transforming growth factor‐β and interleukin‐6 (IL‐6)–type cytokines had antiapoptotic effects because they were able to counteract the effect of serum starvation or TNF. In addition, anti‐Fas antibody stimulated apoptosis of human osteoblastic MG‐63 cells and IL‐6–type cytokines prevented these changes. The induction of apoptosis in MG‐63 cells was associated with an increase in the ratio of the proapoptotic protein bax to the antiapoptotic protein bcl‐2, and oncostatin M prevented this change. Examination of undecalcified sections of murine cancellous bone revealed the presence of apoptotic cells, identified as osteoblasts by their proximity to osteoid seams and their juxtaposition to cuboidal osteoblasts. Assuming an osteoblast life span of 300 h and a prevalence of apoptosis of 0.6%, we calculated that the fraction that undergo this process in vivo can indeed account for the missing osteoblasts. These findings establish that osteoblasts undergo apoptosis and strongly suggest that the process can be modulated by growth factors and cytokines produced in the bone microenvironment.