Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Thai Short-form McGill Pain Questionnaire.

OBJECTIVE To validate the Thai Short-Form McGill Pain Questionnaire (Th-SFMPQ). MATERIAL AND METHOD A postal survey to find the most corresponding terms to those used in the original English short-form McGill Pain Questionnaire had been performed The Thai version was created and validated. Sixty patients who had either musculoskeletal or neuropathic pain were assessed by two interviewers with this Th-SFMPQ. RESULTS Forty four women and sixteen men participated in this study. Average age was 44.3 +/- 12.8 years and 80% of them had musculoskeletal pain. Means of sensory score was 8.98, affective score was 5.73, total score was 14.71, total count was 7.33, Present Pain Intensity (PPI) was 3.21 and Visual Analog Scale (VAS) was 53.61. Cronbach's a value was 0.7881 and inter-rater validity value of PPI was more than 0.7. The correlation coefficient was quite high (r > 0.8) for all scales. Regarding content validity, three pain descriptors (ie. stabbing, gnawing, and splitting) did not meet 33% in Melzack's criteria. CONCLUSION The Th-SFMPQ has good internal consistency and inter-rater validity. Three uncommon descriptors should be substituted by other words or discarded in later version.
The Role of Progesterone and Its Receptor on Cyclin G1 Expression in Endometrial Carcinoma Cells

Cyclin G1 protein is expressed in normal endometrial epithelial cells in a progesterone-dependent manner. It is an important mediator of the inhibiting effect of progesterone on cell proliferation. Moreover, the expression of cyclin G1 is also found to be decreased in human endometrial carcinoma cells (ECCs). To study the mechanism of decrease in the expression levels of cyclin G1, 3 ECC cell lines, Ishikawa, HEC-1-B, and KLE cells were treated with progesterone (P4). The KLE cells, in which progesterone receptor (PR) expression was absent, were transfected with PR-expressing plasmid before treatment with P4. The results showed that cyclin G1 expression increased in Ishikawa and HEC-1-B cells after treatment with P4, additionally the cell proliferation was suppressed but not in KLE cells. When the PR-expressing plasmid was transfected into KLE cells, the effect of P4 was restored. Our data suggest that the deficiency of progesterone and its receptors is an important cause of the decreased expression of cyclin G1 in endometrial carcinoma, which may account for carcinogenesis and development of endometrial carcinomas.
Antiandrogen, vaccine and combination therapy in patients with nonmetastatic hormone refractory prostate cancer.

PURPOSE There is no current standard treatment for patients with prostate cancer who have received hormonal therapy but have an increasing prostate specific antigen (PSA) without radiographic evidence of metastasis. This trial was designed to analyze toxicity, immunogenicity and time to treatment failure using vaccine, antiandrogen therapy or their sequential use. MATERIALS AND METHODS A total of 42 patients were randomized to receive vaccine vs antiandrogen therapy with nilutamide. The vaccine consisted of recombinant vaccinia viruses containing the PSA and B7.1 costimulatory genes as prime vaccinations, and avipox-PSA as boosters. After 6 months patients with an increasing PSA and no metastasis may receive a combination of both treatments. RESULTS Three patients on nilutamide were removed from study secondary to grade 3 toxicities but no grade 3 toxicities were attributed to vaccine. In the vaccine arm median time to treatment failure was 9.9 months with 13 of 21 decreases in PSA velocity vs 7.6 months with 16 of 21 decreases in PSA velocity in the nilutamide arm (p =0.28). Of the patients in the nilutamide arm 8 had vaccine added at the time of PSA progression. Median time to treatment failure with combined therapy was 5.2 months, with a median duration from study entry of 15.9 months. Of the patients in the vaccine arm 12 had nilutamide added at the time of PSA progression. Median time to treatment failure with combined therapy was 13.9 months and a median of 25.9 months from initiation of therapy. CONCLUSIONS Further studies are merited to investigate the role of combining vaccine with antiandrogen therapy or vaccine followed by vaccine plus antiandrogen therapy in this patient population.
A maternal low protein diet during pregnancy and lactation in the rat impairs male reproductive development

Nutrient restriction during pregnancy and lactation impairs growth and development. Recent studies demonstrate long‐term programming of function of specific organ systems resulting from suboptimal environments during fetal life and development up to weaning. We determined effects of maternal protein restriction (50% control protein intake) during fetal development and/or lactation in rats on the reproductive system of male progeny. Rats were fed either a control 20% casein diet (C) or a restricted diet (R) of 10% casein during pregnancy. After delivery mothers received either C or R diet until weaning to provide four groups: CC, RR, CR and RC. We report findings in male offspring only. Maternal protein restriction increased maternal serum corticosterone, oestradiol and testosterone (T) concentrations at 19 days gestation. Pup birth weight was unchanged but ano‐genital distance was increased by maternal protein restriction (P < 0.05). Testicular descent was delayed 4.4 days in RR, 2.1 days in CR and 2.2 days in RC and was not related to body weight. Body weight and testis weight were reduced in RR and CR groups at all ages with the exception of CR testis weight at 270 days postnatal age (PN). At 70 days PN luteinizing hormone and T concentrations were reduced in RR, CR and RC. mRNA for P450 side chain cleavage (P450scc) was reduced in RR and CR at 21 days PN but was unchanged at 70 days PN. Fertility rate was reduced at 270 days PN in RC and sperm count in RR and RC. We conclude that maternal protein delays sexual maturation in male rats and that some effects only emerge in later life.
Interferon‐γ‐based mixed lymphocyte culture as a selection tool for allogeneic bone marrow donors other than identical siblings

Selection procedures in bone marrow transplantation (BMT) would benefit from the development of easy‐to‐perform cellular assays with high discriminative power. We tested a cytokine‐based mixed lymphocyte culture (MLC) and compared its outcome to the routinely used MLC, helper T‐lymphocyte precursor (HTLp)‐f and cytotoxic T‐lymphocyte precursor (CTLp)‐f assays. Interferon (IFN)γ was selected as a marker cytokine for (deleterious) T‐helper 1 like responses and 36 (potential) BMT donor–recipient pairs were analysed. The IFNγ‐MLC appeared sensitive to HLA class II (subtype) differences, but not to isolated class I differences, or to mismatches other than HLA (identical siblings). The test enabled a distinction between combinations with positive MLC (proliferation) and HTLp‐f, exemplified by the fact that although high IFNγ levels were observed in the class II mismatched group, certain DRB3, DQB1‐subtype and DRB1‐subtype mismatches did not give rise to IFNγ production. This might be of relevance for the detection of so‐called permissible mismatches. With regard to prediction of acute graft‐versus‐host disease (aGVHD) in unrelated BMT, the data indicated that high levels of IFNγ coincided with severe aGVHD, whereas low levels were largely associated with grades 0–I. However, in the case of isolated class I mismatches the test had no predictive value. The cell‐saving IFNγ‐MLC provides an alternative for the assays currently in use, but should be employed along with an assay that is sensitive to class I differences to correct for false negatives. Consequently, a combination of IFNγ‐MLC and CTLp‐f assays seems most promising for donor selection, other than identical siblings.
Advances in anabolic interventions for malnourished dialysis patients.

Malnutrition is a frequent state during maintenance dialysis. Among a variety of reasons, chronic catabolic events as well as resistance to anabolic compounds do induce an imbalance in protein metabolism and favor a chronic loss in protein mass. Anabolic effects have been obtained in pilot studies with recombinant growth hormone and insulin-like growth factor-1 in adult dialysis patients. More recently, the come back of androgen therapy provided reports of a positive impact on body composition and physical activity during maintenance dialysis. Strong improvement in nutritional status has also been obtained by more frequent dialysis sessions, either during long nocturnal or short daily schedules. Thus, promising new therapies are emerging to fight the important incidence of malnutrition in dialysis patients.
Gravitational Collapse to Toroidal and Higher Genus asymptotically AdS Black Holes

We match collapsing inhomogeneous as well as spatially homogeneous but anisotropic spacetimes to vacuum static exteriors with a negative cosmological constant and planar or hyperbolic symmetry. The collapsing interiors include the inhomogeneous solutions of Szekeres and of Barnes, which in turn include the Lemaitre-Tolman and the McVittie solutions. The collapse can result in toroidal or higher genus asymptotically AdS black holes.
High accuracy decoding of user intentions using EEG to control a lower-body exoskeleton

Brain-Machine Interface (BMI) systems allow users to control external mechanical systems using their thoughts. Commonly used in literature are invasive techniques to acquire brain signals and decode user's attempted motions to drive these systems (e.g. a robotic manipulator). In this work we use a lower-body exoskeleton and measure the users brain activity using non-invasive electroencephalography (EEG). The main focus of this study is to decode a paraplegic subject's motion intentions and provide him with the ability of walking with a lower-body exoskeleton accordingly. We present our novel method of decoding with high offline evaluation accuracies (around 98%), our closed loop implementation structure with considerably short on-site training time (around 38 sec), and preliminary results from the real-time closed loop implementation (NeuroRex) with a paraplegic test subject.
Sufficient statistics and reproducing densities in simultaneous sequential detection and estimation

The doubly-compound hypothesis detection problem with finite-dimensional parameter vectors is treated in a general context. It is shown that estimation and detection occur simultaneously, with the detector using the a posteriori densities generated by two separate estimators, one for each hypothesis. No assumptions are made on the estimation criterion and very loose assumptions on the detection cfiterion. If sufficient statistics and hence natural conjugate densities exist for the unknown parameters, the procedure is quite tractable. In this case, the optimal detector partitions in such a way that the primary processing can be done without knowledge of the a priori parameter distributions.
Acute vasodilator effects of Rho-kinase inhibitors in neonatal rats with pulmonary hypertension unresponsive to nitric oxide.

Pulmonary hypertension (PHT) in neonates is often refractory to the current best therapy, inhaled nitric oxide (NO). The utility of a new class of pulmonary vasodilators, Rho-kinase (ROCK) inhibitors, has not been examined in neonatal animals. Our objective was to examine the activity and expression of RhoA/ROCK in normal and injured pulmonary arteries and to determine the short-term pulmonary hemodynamic (assessed by pulse wave Doppler) effects of ROCK inhibitors (15 mg/kg ip Y-27632 or 30 mg/kg ip fasudil) in two neonatal rat models of chronic PHT with pulmonary vascular remodeling (chronic hypoxia, 0.13 Fi(O(2)), or 1 mg.kg(-1). day(-1) ip chronic bleomycin for 14 days from birth). Activity of the RhoA/ROCK pathway and ROCK expression were increased in hypoxia- and bleomycin-induced PHT. In both models, severe PHT [characterized by raised pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR) and impaired right ventricular (RV) performance] did not respond acutely to inhaled NO (20 ppm for 15 min) or to a single bolus of a NO donor, 3-morpholinosydnonimine hydrochloride (SIN-1; 2 mug/kg ip). In contrast, a single intraperitoneal bolus of either ROCK inhibitor (Y-27632 or fasudil) completely normalized PVR but had no acute effect on RV performance. ROCK-mediated vasoconstriction appears to play a key role in chronic PHT in our two neonatal rat models. Inhibitors of ROCK have potential as a testable therapy in neonates with PHT that is refractory to NO.
The Social Construction of Attachment, Attachment Disorders and Attachment Parenting in International Adoption Discourse and Parent Education

This article examines how ideas about forming emotional attachments with internationally adopted children are communicated to parents via adoption agencies, parenting courses, magazines, books and websites. In adoptive parent education, attachment is often presented as an elusive goal that requires concerted effort to achieve, without which the child may suffer from an attachment disorder with lifelong psychological and behavioural consequences. The result is the promotion of intensive parenting practices derived from, but also exceeding, those advocated by the ‘attachment parenting’ philosophy, practices that are often demanding, inflexible and proscriptive, yet only tenuously connected to their supposed evidence base in psychology.
Simulation of driven elastic spheres in a Newtonian fluid

Simulations help us test various restrictions/assumptions placed on physical systems that would otherwise be difficult to efficiently explore experimentally. For example, the Scallop Theorem, first stated in 1977, places limitations on the propulsion mechanisms available to microscopic objects in fluids. In particular, the theorem states that when the viscous forces in a fluid dominate the inertial forces associated with a physical body, such a physical body cannot generate propulsion by means of reciprocal motion. The focus of this thesis is to firstly, explore an adaptive multiple-timestep (MTS) scheme for faster molecular dynamics simulations (MD), and secondly to use hybrid MD-LBM (Lattice-Boltzman Method) to test the Scallop Theorem’s restrictions using an elastic spherical swimmer. The work begins with developing and demonstrating an adaptive MTS technique that reduces the run time of single timestep (STS) velocity-Verlet integration scheme. Later we discuss our simulation, which uses the MD-LBM to simulate a elastic spherical swimmer in a water-like fluid and prove that the swimmer indeed overcomes the Scallop Theorem. We investigate the relation between the swimmer’s physical behaviour (speed, frequency) and its properties (radius, bulk modulus etc).
Selective Predation and Rapid Evolution Can Jointly Dampen Effects of Virulent Parasites on Daphnia Populations

Parasites are ubiquitous and often highly virulent, yet clear examples of parasite‐driven changes in host density in natural populations are surprisingly scarce. Here, we illustrate an example of this phenomenon and offer a theoretically reasonable resolution. We document the effects of two parasites, the bacterium Spirobacillus cienkowskii and the yeast Metschnikowia bicuspidata, on a common freshwater invertebrate, Daphnia dentifera. We show that while both parasites were quite virulent to individual hosts, only bacterial epidemics were associated with significant changes in host population dynamics and density. Our theoretical results may help explain why yeast epidemics did not significantly affect population dynamics. Using a model parameterized with data we collected, we argue that two prominent features of this system, rapid evolution of host resistance to the parasite and selective predation on infected hosts, both decrease peak infection prevalence and can minimize decline in host density during epidemics. Taken together, our results show that understanding the outcomes of host‐parasite interactions in this Daphnia‐microparasite system may require consideration of ecological context and evolutionary processes and their interaction.
Intratumoral injection of rhenium-188 microspheres into an animal model of hepatoma.

UNLABELLED Intratumoral injection of 90Y microspheres is a potential alternative in the treatment of primary liver tumor. However, complicated preparation and lack of a gamma ray for imaging are the disadvantages of 90Y. In this study, we used 188Re, a generator-produced radioisotope with 155-keV gamma ray emission, to label microspheres. After intratumoral injection of 188Re microspheres into rats with hepatoma, biodistributions and survival times were analyzed. METHODS Twelve male rats with hepatoma were killed at 1, 24 and 48 hr (4 rats at each time point) after intratumoral injection of approximately 7.4 MBq 188Re microspheres. Samples of various organs were obtained and used to calculate the tissue concentrations. In addition, 30 male rats bearing hepatoma were divided into two groups (15 rats in each group) to evaluate survival time. Group 1 received intratumoral injection of 37 MBq 188Re microspheres, whereas Group 2 served as the control group and received an intratumoral injection of 0.1 ml normal saline only. Survival time was calculated from the day of injection to 2 mo after treatment. RESULTS Radioactivity in the tumor was very high throughout. Biological half-time was 170.8 hr. Radioactivity in the lung was 1.78% injected dose (i.d.)/g at 1 hr but declined rapidly over time. The concentration in the urine was approximately 6.14% i.d. /ml after the first hour and rapidly declined thereafter. The concentrations of radioactivity in other organs, such as normal liver, muscle, spleen, bone, testis and whole blood, were quite low throughout the study. Twelve of 15 (80%) of rats survived over 60 days after intratumoral injection of 188Re microspheres, whereas only 4 of 15 (26.7%) survived more than 60 days after injection of normal saline only. The difference between the groups was significant (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION Rhenium-188 offers cost-effectiveness, on-site availability, short half-life, energetic beta particle, emission of gamma photons for imaging, easy preparation, easy clinical administration and apparent lack of radiation leakage from the treated tumor. Direct intratumoral injection of 188Re microspheres is extremely attractive as a clinical therapeutic alternative in hepatoma patients.
Fast and accurate transaction-level model of a wormhole network-on-chip with priority preemptive virtual channel arbitration

Simulation is a bottleneck in the design flow of on-chip multiprocessors. This paper addresses that problem by reducing the simulation time of complex on-chip interconnects through transaction-level modelling (TLM). A particular on-chip interconnect architecture was chosen, namely a wormhole network-on-chip with priority preemptive virtual channel arbitration, because its mechanisms can be modelled at transaction level in such a way that accurate figures for communication latency can be obtained with less simulation time than a cycle-accurate model. The proposed model produced latency figures with more than 90% accuracy and simulated more than 1000 times faster than a cycle-accurate model.
Perovskite Solar Cells: Influence of Hole Transporting Materials on Power Conversion Efficiency.

The recent advances in perovskite solar cells (PSCs) created a tsunami effect in the photovoltaic community. PSCs are newfangled high-performance photovoltaic devices with low cost that are solution processable for large-scale energy production. The power conversion efficiency (PCE) of such devices experienced an unprecedented increase from 3.8 % to a certified value exceeding 20 %, demonstrating exceptional properties of perovskites as solar cell materials. A key advancement in perovskite solar cells, compared with dye-sensitized solar cells, occurred with the replacement of liquid electrolytes with solid-state hole-transporting materials (HTMs) such as 2,2',7,7'-tetrakis-(N,N-di-4-methoxyphenylamino)-9,9'-spirobifluorene (Spiro-OMeTAD), which contributed to enhanced PCE values and improved the cell stability. Following improvements in the perovskite crystallinity to produce a smooth, uniform morphology, the selective and efficient extraction of positive and negative charges in the device dictated the PCE of PSCs. In this Review, we focus mainly on the HTMs responsible for hole transport and extraction in PSCs, which is one of the essential components for efficient devices. Here, we describe the current state-of-the-art in molecular engineering of hole-transporting materials that are used in PSCs and highlight the requisites for market-viability of this technology. Finally, we include an outlook on molecular engineering of new functional HTMs for high efficiency PSCs.
Beyond policy positions

Do parties adapt their programmatic strategies in times of heightened economic globalization? Are these changes captured by right-left positional changes or do parties go beyond policy shifts and enact more comprehensive programmatic overhauls? Furthermore, are such changes linked to traditional party family classifications and, if so, do different party types re-program their manifestos differently? Finally, what role does radical right competition play in the changing programmatic strategies of mainstream centre-right and centre-left parties? This paper addresses these questions by developing a theoretical framework that accounts for economic globalization, cleavage change, and programmatic supply. Using Giebler et al.’s (2015) measure of programmatic clarity, the analysis reveals clear differences in party responses to economic globalization. Additionally, the results show that parties go beyond right-left positional changes and adapt their programmatic supply on a more general level. For social democratic parties, however, such adaptation hinges on whether a radical right competitor is present.
TrAP: An Interactive System to Generate Valid Raga Phrases from Sound-Tracings

We propose a new musical interface, TrAP (TRace-A-Phrase) for generating phrases of Hindustani Classical Music (HCM). In this system the user traces melodic phrases on a tablet interface to create phrases in a raga. We begin by analyzing tracings drawn by 28 participants, and train a classifier to categorize them into one of four melodic categories from the theory of Hindustani Music. Then we create a model based on note transitions from the raga grammar for the notes used in the singable octaves in HCM. Upon being given a new tracing, the system segments the tracing and computes a final phrase that best approximates the tracing.
Joint Relay Selection and Power Allocation for Energy-Constrained Multi-Hop Cognitive Networks

Cognitive relay is considered as a remarkable technology that increases the network coverage and raises the system spectral utilization by exploiting those detected spectrum holes. We mainly investigate a multi-hop scenario that is more complex than a dual-hop network because of the high correlation between hops. In this article, we consider an energy-constrained network which includes a source node, a destination node and a group of network clusters each consisting of several cognitive relay nodes. To accomplish data transmission from source to destination, the best path including nodes with optimal power is selected to maximize the network capacity using proposed efficient algorithms, taking into account the sensing results of relay nodes, the channel gains and the connectivity of links. In addition, these algorithms can also be adopted in the situation of selecting two relay paths by making only a few slight modifications, which means that the scheme provides good expansibility. Simulation results illustrate the strategies of relay selection and power allocation constrained by different energy consumptions and compare the performance between one-path and two-paths selection.