Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Investigating the Dissolution Performance of Amorphous Solid Dispersions Using Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Proton NMR

We have investigated the dissolution performance of amorphous solid dispersions of poorly water-soluble bicalutamide in a Kollidon VA64 polymeric matrix as a function of the drug loading (5% vs. 30% bicalutamide). A combined suite of state-of-the-art analytical techniques were employed to obtain a clear picture of the drug release, including an integrated magnetic resonance imaging UV-Vis flow cell system and 1H-NMR. Off-line 1H-NMR was used for the first time to simultaneously measure the dissolution profiles and rates of both the drug and the polymer from a solid dispersion. MRI and 1H-NMR data showed that the 5% drug loading compact erodes linearly, and that bicalutamide and Kollidon VA64 are released at approximately the same rate from the molecular dispersion. For the 30% extrudate, data indicated a slower water ingress into the compact which corresponds to a slower dissolution rate of both bicalutamide and Kollidon VA64.
Early Enteral Nutrition is Associated with Faster Post-Esophagectomy Recovery in Chinese Esophageal Cancer Patients: A Retrospective Cohort Study

ABSTRACT We retrospectively examined a large cohort of esophageal carcinoma patients who received early enteral nutrition (EEN) to clarify the validity of EEN compared with total parenteral nutrition (TPN). Included were a total of 665 consecutive patients with histologically confirmed carcinoma of the esophagus or esophagogastric junction; and all patients underwent esophagectomy. The patients were divided into two groups: TPN (n = 262) and EEN (n = 403). The TPN group consisted of patients who only received intravenous nutrition support after operation. The postoperative length of hospital stay (PLOS), anastomotic leakage, mortality after surgery, and hospital charges were reviewed and analyzed. Compared with the TPN group, the EEN group had significantly shorter mean PLOS (15.6 days vs. 22.5 days; P < 0.01). Multivariable linear regression analysis revealed EEN to be associated with shorter PLOS even after adjustment for tumor histology, tumor location, type of esophagectomy, and postoperative albumin infusion. Hospital charges were also significantly less for those in the EEN group than the TPN group. There was no significant difference between the two groups regarding the complication of anastomotic leakage and clinical outcome after surgery. These findings suggest that EEN reduces PLOS and hospital charges of Chinese esophageal cancer patients who had an esophagectomy.
Bifocal lens control of myopic progression in children

Bifocal spectacle lenses have been used as a strategy to slow myopic progression in children since the 1950s and perhaps earlier. The reported success of this strategy varies greatly, as does the design of studies reporting the outcomes of their use—from earlier retrospective analysis of records to later prospective clinical trials. Collectively, published data support the suggestion that bifocal lenses inhibit myopic development in children but only by a small amount and only in a subset of children. Possible reasons for the greatly varying outcomes include a lack of individualism of the treatment and failure to take the vergence system into account. This review summarises the results of bifocal and multifocal studies, describes how accommodation, convergence and their interaction are linked to myopic development and details how a bifocal treatment that takes this into account may be devised. Also discussed is whether alterations to peripheral retinal blur contribute to bifocal lens effects.
ONTOLOGY ASSISTED SEMI-SUPERVISED BUG REPORT CLASSIFICATION

Automated bug report clustering and classification plays a significant role in managing, assigning, and understanding the bug categories. The most challenging problem in bug report classification is the inadequate amount of labeled dataset. The proposed framework introduces an Ontology-assisted Semi-supervised Clustering Based Classification (OS-CBC) for bug reports amid a small size of the labeled dataset scenario. The proposed approach enriches the data set of the bug report using constructed Bug and Enriched Meta-feature Extraction (BEME) ontology. Semantic constraints based semi-supervised hierarchical clustering (Semantic-HAC) algorithm prioritizes the constraints for clustering the bug reports based on the BEME ontology. The cluster formation of bug reports depends on the transitive dissimilarity and ultrametric distance using ontology-based prioritized constraints. It extends the dataset (stretched) of the bug reports based on the maximum likelihood of the features in the cluster for labeling the unlabeled data. Moreover, the proposed approach categorizes the bug reports of stretched test set under the category of training set label using Multi-label Naive Bayes (MLNB) classifier. The classification technique focuses on the threshold based filtered weight of each term in the training set to improve the accuracy. The proposed OS-CBC approach significantly improves the classification accuracy of the bug reports.
Game design pattern language

A method to make game design pattern language is explained. The method is iteration cycle process that one game design pattern is supposed to game-fun-community via web-media such as twitter, and the pattern is refined through reflecting their opinions. Finally it changes more refined patterns and many examples reported by the community show the correctness of the pattern. Here not only the method but also the six examples of game design pattern language are presented.
LH release following steroid administration in ovariectomized rats.

The effect of time following ovariectomy on pituitary response to hypothalamic extractwas investigated in rats pre-treated with 50ug estradiol benzoate (EB) and 25 mg progesterone.The increment in circulating LH in response to administration of hypothalamic extract on thethird day after steroid treatment increased linearly up to 35 days following ovariectomy. The minimal dose of EB required to suppress plasma LH levels was examined in rats ovariectomized 12 to 20 weeks previously. There was no measurable change in plasma LH levels within 48 hrafter injection of 0.05 μ EB. Administration of0.5, 5, or 50 μg EB caused a decrease in circulating LH, the magnitude and duration of which increased with dose. Pituitary responsiveness to LRF following administration of EB (35 daysafter ovariectomy) was greater in rats treated with 50 μg EB than in those receiving 5 μg EB, a difference attributable to both lower pre-LRF plasma LH levels and higher post-LRF concentrationsof LH. In addition, injection of 50 μg EBalone.
Hardware-Software Co-Synthesis of Heterogeneous Embedded Computer Systems

Hardware-software co-synthesis of embedded computer systems involves the partitioning of a system specification into hardware and software modules to meet various system requirements. High-performance embedded computers typically incorporate heterogeneous multiple processing elements. In this paper, we present an approach to co-synthesis of high performance embedded systems targeting fault tolerant topologies. Our approach supports the following features: 1) input in the form of an acyclic periodic task graph with real-time constraints, 2) pipelining of task graphs, 3) use of a heterogeneous set of processing elements, 4) fault tolerance by a newly developed group based fault tolerance technique. We attempt to minimize the communication overhead while preserving regular topology computer systems
Lack of Association Between Carotid Intima-Media Thickness and PAF-Acetylhydrolase Mass and Activity in Patients with Primary Hyperlipidemia

Carotid intima media thickness (IMT), represents an important clinical indicator of early atherosclerosis. Human plasma platelet-activating factor acetylhydrolase (PAF-AH) is an enzyme primarily associated with low-density lipoprotein (LDL) while a small proportion of enzymatic activity is also associated with high-density lipoprotein (HDL). Plasma paraoxonase 1 (PON1) is an esterase exclusively associated with HDL. The authors investigated the possible relationship between carotid IMT and the plasma levels of PAF-AH mass and activity as well as the PON1 activity in hyperlipidemic patients. One hundred unrelated patients with primary hyperlipidemia and 67 age- and sex-matched normolipidemic apparently healthy volunteers participated in the study. The PAF-AH activity in total plasma and in HDL-rich plasma (HDL-PAF-AH activity), the plasma PAF-AH mass, and the serum PON1 activities toward paraoxon and phenyl acetate were determined. The plasma PAF-AH mass and activity were higher in hyperlipidemic patients compared to controls, whereas the HDL-PAF-AH activity, as well as the serum PON1 activities were not significantly different between the studied groups. When hyperlipidemic patients were divided into 2 subgroups according to their IMT values (IMT <0.7 mm and IMT ≥0.7 mm) patients with IMT ≥0.7 mm had significantly higher age, and serum triglyceride concentrations, whereas no difference was found in the plasma PAF-AH mass and activity as well as in the HDL-PAF-AH activity between the 2 studied subgroups. The same phenomenon was observed for serum PON1 activities. In a multivariate analysis, only the age was significantly correlated with IMT values (p<0.05). Neither the total plasma PAF-AH mass and activity nor the HDL-PAF-AH activity are associated with early carotid atherosclerosis.
Mouse microRNA profiles determined with a new and sensitive cloning method

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are noncoding RNA molecules of 21 to 24 nt that regulate the expression of target genes in a post-transcriptional manner. Although evidence indicates that miRNAs play essential roles in embryogenesis, cell differentiation and pathogenesis of human diseases, extensive miRNA profiling in cells or tissues has been hampered by the lack of sensitive cloning methods. Here we describe a highly efficient profiling method, termed miRNA amplification profiling (mRAP), as well as its application both to mouse embryos at various developmental stages and to adult mouse organs. A total of 77 436 Small-RNA species was sequenced, with 11 776 of these sequences found to match previously described miRNAs. With the use of a newly developed computational prediction algorithm, we further identified 229 independent candidates for previously unknown miRNAs. The expression of some of these candidate miRNAs was confirmed by northern blot analysis and whole-mount in situ hybridization. Our data thus indicate that the total number of miRNAs in vertebrates is larger than previously appreciated and that the expression of these molecules is tightly controlled in a tissue- and developmental stage-specific manner.
Rendezvous in cognitive radio ad-hoc networks with asymmetric channel view

Rendezvous in cognitive radio ad-hoc networks (CRAHNs) is a key step for a pair of unknown cognitive radio (CR) users to initiate communication. Channel hopping (CH) provides an effective method to guarantee rendezvous in CRAHNs. To design a CH scheme, assumption of symmetric channel information is widely used in the literature. This assumption may ease the CH design, but unable to capture the dynamic radio environment. To achieve the rendezvous in the shortest time, most of the existing CH sequences utilized the family of mathematical concepts such as prime number theory, Chinese remainder theory (CRT), quorum system and combinatorial block design and so on. However, rendezvous on a channel is rather influenced by the CR user preference on which it wants to achieve rendezvous. In this paper we address rendezvous problem with asymmetric channel information. This paper proposes an adaptive CH sequence based on local channel sensing information to achieve rendezvous in finite time and guarantees overlap on all available common channels. Results obtained show that variation in channel ranking has a significant influence on CH performance.
Multi-Person Tracking with Stereo Range Sensors

Motivation: Systems which can track and understand people have a wide variety of commercial applications. It is predicted that computers of the future will interact more naturally with humans than they do now. Instead of the desktop computer paradigm with humans communicating by typing, computers of the future will be able to understand human speech and movements. Our system demonstrates the capabilities of a solely vision-based system for these ends.
Global Dynamics and Optimal Life History of a Structured Population Model

The first part of this paper is devoted to a complete description of the dynamics of a continuously structured population model coupled with a dynamical resource. In the model, it is assumed that the energy each individual obtains from the resource is channeled between growth and reproduction in a proportion that depends on the individual's size. In the second part, an optimal allocation of this energy is obtained that turns out to be a convergence-stable ESS and is described by what is called a "bang-bang" strategy.
Carnot in the Information Age: Discrete Symmetric Channels

Modeling communication channels as thermal systems results in Hamiltonians which are an explicit function of the temperature. The first two authors have recently generalized the second thermodynamic law to encompass systems with temperature-dependent energy levels, dQ = T dS+ dT, where denotes averaging over the Boltzmann distribution, recomputing the mutual information and other main properties of the popular Gaussian channel. Here the mutual information for the binary symmetric channel as well as for the discrete symmetric channel consisting of 4 input/output (I/O) symbols is explicitly calculated using the generalized second law of thermodynamics. For equiprobable I/O the mutual information of the examined channels has a very simple form, -γU(γ)| �, where U denotes the internal energy of the channel. We prove that this simple form of the mutual information governs the class of discrete memoryless symmetric communication channels with equiprobable I/O symbols.
Adsorption of Extracellular Matrix Protein Fibronectin on the Surface of the Nanocomposite Particle of Graphene Oxide-Hydroxyapatite

The study of biomaterials as implants have rapidly increased over recent decades to address the issues of tissue and bone disease. The combination of graphene oxide (GO) with hydroxyapatite (HA) is expected to promote the adsorption of protein fibronectin (FN). GO was produced by Hummer’s method. Calcium hydroxide (Ca(OH)2 at 0.1, 1.0 and 2.0 M) was used as a precursor of HA for the synthesis different GO compositions (0%, 0.1% and 1.0%) through wet chemical precipitation method. The molarity of Ca(OH)2 and the composition of GO played an important role in the morphology, particle size, distribution of GO on HA surface and absorption of protein. GO and GO-HA composites were characterized using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and field-emission scanning electron microscopy. Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy was used to investigate protein adsorption. The average percentage yield of GO-HA composite production was highest (96.93%) at 2.0 M of Ca(OH)2. The optimum condition of GO–HA composite was 0.1 M Ca(OH)2 and 0.1% GO composition, which resulted in needle-like shape with 48.38 nm width and 201.0 nm length, well conjugation, as well as the higher distribution of GO onto the HA surface. The elemental composition of carbon (C) of GO-HA was 44% and that of uncoated HA was 33%, which confirmed the adsorption of FN. Moreover, carbon element mapping proved that the absorption of FN towards GO-HA was successful. GO-HA nanocomposite can be a promising highly biocompatible material for medical implants.
Spatio-temporal discrimination model predicting IR target detection

Many image discrimination models are available for static imags. However, in many applications temporal information is important, so image fidelity metrics for image sequences are needed as well. Ahumada et al presented a discrimination model for image sequences. It is unusually in that it does not decompose the images into multiple frequency and orientation channels. This helps make it computationally inexpensive. It was evaluated for predicting psychophysical experiments measuring contrast sensitivity and temporal masking. The results were promising. In this paper we investigate the performance of the above-mentioned model of a practical application - surveillance with IR imagery. Model evaluation is based on two-alternative force choice experiments, using a staircase procedure to control signal amplitude. The observer is presented with two one-second- duration IR-image sequences, one of which has an added target signal. The observer's task is to guess which sequence contained the target. While the target is stationary in the image center, the background moves in one direction, simulating a tracking station in which the observer has locked on to the target. The results show that the model qualitatively, in four out of five cases, have the desired behavior.
Health Seeking Behaviour and Utilization of Health Facilities for Schistosomiasis-Related Symptoms in Ghana

Background Schistosomiasis causes long-term illness and significant economic burden. Morbidity control through integration within existing health care delivery systems is considered a potentially sustainable and cost-effective approach, but there is paucity of information about health-seeking behaviour. Methods A questionnaire-based study involving 2,002 subjects was conducted in three regions of Ghana to investigate health-seeking behaviour and utilization of health facilities for symptoms related to urinary (blood in urine and painful urination) and intestinal schistosomiasis (diarrhea, blood in stool, swollen abdomen and abdominal pain). Fever (for malaria) was included for comparison. Results Only 40% of patients with urinary symptoms sought care compared to >70% with intestinal symptoms and >90% with fever. Overall, about 20% of schistosomiasis-related symptoms were reported to a health facility (hospital or clinic), compared to about 30% for fever. Allopathic self-medication was commonly practiced as alternative action. Health-care seeking was relatively lower for patients with chronic symptoms, but if they took action, they were more likely to visit a health facility. In a multivariate logistic regression analysis, perceived severity was the main predictor for seeking health care or visiting a health facility. Age, socio-economic status, somebody else paying for health care, and time for hospital visit occasionally showed a significant impact, but no clear trend. The effect of geographic location was less marked, although people in the central region, and to a lesser extent the north, were usually less inclined to seek health care than people in the south. Perceived quality of health facility did not demonstrate impact. Conclusion Perceived severity of the disease is the most important determinant of seeking health care or visiting a health facility in Ghana. Schistosomiasis control by passive case-finding within the regular health care delivery looks promising, but the number not visiting a health facility is large and calls for supplementary control options.
‘Like the worst toothache you’ve had’ – How people with rheumatoid arthritis describe and manage pain

Abstract Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory disease often associated with disability. Despite new treatments, pain and activity limitations are still present. Objectives: To describe how persons with RA experience and manage pain in their daily life. Methods: Seven semi-structured focus groups (FGs) were conducted and analyzed using content analysis. Results: The analysis revealed four categories: 1) Pain expresses itself in different ways referred to pain as overwhelming, aching or as a feeling of stiffness. 2) Mitigating pain referred to the use of heat, cold, medications and activities as distractions from the pain. 3) Adapting to pain referred to strategies employed as coping mechanisms for the pain, e.g. planning and adjustment of daily activities, and use of assistive devices. 4) Pain in a social context referred to the participants’ social environment as being both supportive and uncomprehending, the latter causing patients to hide their pain. Conclusions: Pain in RA is experienced in different ways. This emphasizes the multi-professional team to address this spectrum of experiences and to find pain management directed to the individual experience that also include the person’s social environment.
Behavioral dynamics and influence in networked coloring and consensus

We report on human-subject experiments on the problems of coloring (a social differentiation task) and consensus (a social agreement task) in a networked setting. Both tasks can be viewed as coordination games, and despite their cognitive similarity, we find that within a parameterized family of social networks, network structure elicits opposing behavioral effects in the two problems, with increased long-distance connectivity making consensus easier for subjects and coloring harder. We investigate the influence that subjects have on their network neighbors and the collective outcome, and find that it varies considerably, beyond what can be explained by network position alone. We also find strong correlations between influence and other features of individual subject behavior. In contrast to much of the recent research in network science, which often emphasizes network topology out of the context of any specific problem and places primacy on network position, our findings highlight the potential importance of the details of tasks and individuals in social networks.
Site‐Directed Mutagenesis of Amino Acids in the Cytoplasmic Loop 6/7 of Na,K‐ATPase

Abstract: The loop between transmembrane helices 6 and 7 (L6/7) of P‐type ATPases has been suggested to be important for the functional linkage of ion binding and enzyme phosphorylation or to be a site of initial cation binding. To investigate the role of L6/7 in Na,K‐ATPase, alanine substitutions were made for charged and conserved residues in L6/7 of the human α1 subunit and the proteins were expressed in yeast for analysis. All mutants except the triple mutant E825A/E828A/D830A bound ouabain. Although the equilibrium dissociation constant for ouabain binding by most mutants was similar to the wild‐type value, the Kd of R837A for ouabain binding was ∼15‐fold higher than the wild‐type Kd. 18O exchange measurements indicated that the apparent affinity of this mutant for Pi was reduced about 3‐fold. The concentration dependence of KCl inhibition of ouabain binding or of NaCl inhibition of ouabain binding revealed 2–4‐fold changes in the apparent affinity for cations in the E825A, E828A, and R837A mutants. The E825A and E828A mutants lost the ability to bind ouabain after extraction with 0.1% SDS or after brief heating, indicating that these mutations affected the stability of the enzyme. The ATPase activity of the other mutants was measured after extraction of crude yeast membranes with 0.1% SDS. For all mutants except R834A, R837A, and R848A, the activity was at least 50% of wild‐type activity.