Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Hypoglossal Nerve Injury Caused by Halo‐Suspension Traction: A Case Report

Study Design. A case report of injury to the hypoglossal nerve (CN XII) resulting from the use of halogravity traction in a child with severe cervicothoracic kyphosis after an anterior and posterior spinal release. Objective. To describe one of the potential dangers of halo‐suspension (gravity) traction, which has not been reported previously in the orthopedic literature. Summary of Background Data. Cranial nerve injuries resulting from halo‐skeletal traction are a recognized complication of such treatment, especially in patients with myelomeningocele. Halo‐suspension traction using the patient's body weight as counter‐traction has been recommended to provide a less rigid force and to reduce complications. Methods. The authors report on the mechanism of injury and clinical course in a 12‐year‐old boy with myelomeningocele and a bilateral CN XII injury caused by halo‐suspension traction from onset to resolution. Results. This patient had dysphagia and difficulty swallowing 5 days after surgery. His wheelchair traction at this point was approximately 40% of his body weight. The traction was reduced, and a corticosteroid was administered. The patient's symptoms began to abate 5 days later. At 6 weeks after injury, his cranial nerve function was normal. Conclusions. Although halo‐suspension traction or halo‐wheelchair traction may be less rigid, injury to the hypoglossal nerve can be produced with traction exceeding 40% of body weight. In the patient in the current report, resolution of this injury was complete within 5 weeks, an outcome that is consistent with those of other reported cases of CN XII injury.
Cost effective, computer-aided analytical performance evaluation of chromosomal microarrays for clinical laboratories

Cost effective, computer-aided analytical performance evaluation of chromosomal microarrays for clinical laboratories. ii To my grandfather, William Conrad Goodman who encouraged all his children and grandchildren to attend an institution of higher learning, despite lacking the opportunity to attend one himself. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank Professor Thomas Casavant for his guidance and support for this project, as well as all of his guidance through much of my academic career. With regard to this project, I would like to especially thank Benjamin Darbro whose assistance has been invaluable. I would also like to thank Robinson for serving on my thesis committee. Lastly, I would also like to thank my coworkers, family, and friends for their support and encouragement. All have helped make my time at the University of Iowa very meaningful and enjoyable. iv ABSTRACT Many disorders found in humans are caused by abnormalities in DNA. Genetic testing of DNA provides a way for clinicians to identify disease-causing mutations in patients. Once patients with potentially disease-causing mutations are identified, they can be enrolled in treatment or preventative programs to improve the patients' long term quality of life. Array-based comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) provides a high-resolution, genome-wide method for detecting chromosomal abnormalities. Using computer software, chromosome abnormalities, or copy number variations (CNVs) can be identified from aCGH data. The development of a software tool to analyze the performance of CGH microarrays is of great benefit to clinical laboratories. Calibration of parameters used in aCGH software tools can maximize the performance of these arrays in a clinical setting. According to the American College of Medical Genetics, the validation of a clinical chromosomal microarray platform should be performed by testing a large number (200-300) of well-characterized cases, each with unique CNVs located throughout the genome. Because of the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendment of 1988 and the lack of an FDA approved whole genome chromosomal microarray platform the ultimate responsibility for validating the performance characteristics of this technology falls to the clinical laboratory performing the testing. To facilitate this task, we have established a computational analytical validation procedure for CGH microarrays that is comprehensive, efficient, and low cost. This validation uses a higher resolution microarray to validate a lower resolution microarray with a receiver operating characteristic (ROC)-based analysis. From the results we are able to estimate an optimal log 2 threshold range for determining the presence or absence (calling) of CNVs. Table …
Creativiteit en innovatie : Introductie op het thema

In deze introductie op het themanummer van Gedrag & Organisatie schetsen we kort de stand van zaken binnen het wetenschappelijk onderzoek naar creativiteit en innovatie. Vervolgens introduceren we de zes bijdragen van dit themanummer. We sluiten af met een korte conclusie.
ICASE A GENERAL PURPOSE SUBROUTINE FOR FAST FOURIER TRANSFORM ON A DISTRIBUTED MEMORY PARALLEL MACHINE

One issue which is central in developing a general purpose FFT subroutine on a distributed memory parallel machine is the data distribution. It is possible that different users would like to use the FFT routine with different data distributions. Thus there is a need to design FFT schemes on distributed memory parallel machines which can support a variety of data distributions. In this paper we present an FFT implementation on a distributed memory parallel machine which works for a number of data distributions commonly encountered in scientific applications. We have also addressed the problem of rearranging the data after computing the FFT. We have evaluated the performance of our implementation on a distributed memory parallel machine Intel iPSC/860.
FINDCHIRP: an algorithm for detection of gravitational waves from inspiraling compact binaries

Matched-filter searches for gravitational waves from coalescing compact binaries by the LIGO Scientific Collaboration use the FINDCHIRP algorithm: an implementation of the optimal filter with innovations to account for unknown signal parameters and to improve performance on detector data that has nonstationary and non-Gaussian artifacts. We provide details on the FINDCHIRP algorithm as used in the search for subsolar mass binaries, binary neutron stars, neutron starblack hole binaries, and binary black holes.
Role of lymphocytes in liver cancer

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) typically occurs in patients with chronic inflammatory liver diseases, such as viral hepatitis or (non-)alcoholic steatohepatitis. Inflammation appears indeed as a crucial factor in hepatocarcinogenesis. Nevertheless, sophisticated animal models and studies of human samples revealed that the HCC also elicits antitumor immune responses. Patrolling and infiltrating lymphocytes (e.g., NKT and T cells, respectively) can exert decisive functions in the transition from chronic hepatic inflammation to cancer as well as in antitumor immune responses. An improved understanding of the cellular and molecular mechanisms whereby inflammation promotes or restricts hepatocarcinogenesis will open new avenues for therapeutic approaches to liver cancer.
A New Automated Test Equipment for Measuring Electrical Contact Resistance of Real Size Rivets

It is well known that electrical contact resistance influencing factors include not only the contact material physical characteristics, contact type (sphere-flat, flat-flat), the contact surface status (clean, contaminated), but also contact current and mechanical load during measuring. Electrical contact material industry has considerable trouble with batch consistency check of rivet contacts. An automated test equipment and a test method have been described that make it possible to measure the electrical contact resistance of many real size rivet-type contacts with shank diameters 1~4mm at small contact loads with high efficiency. A stainless steel hemisphere with gold coating is designed as standard indenter; meanwhile the alternative choice would be the sphere-flat, flat-flat and sphere-sphere rivet contact pairs. Firstly, the voltage vs. current characteristics of AgCdO rivets is tested under different constant contact force. Secondly, the relationship between contact load and contact resistance during loading and unloading is investigated explicitly with different current. Furthermore, the effect of surface roughness and cleanness on the contact resistance is analyzed by comparison with normal and polished rivets, and those of long term exposure to the air. This equipment can be used for finding out the contact resistance consistency of batch contacts effectively for statistics analysis. But it also helps for the research work on the affecting factors of electrical contact resistance of stationary contacts.
Visual control of posture and visual perception of shape

I investigated the relationship between a moving visual environment and the induced postural sway experimentally by varying the mean distance to a sinusoidally moving wall. I analysed the temporal relationship (1) in terms of the fluctuations of relative phase between visual and sway motion and (2) in terms of the relaxation time of relative phase as determined from the rate of recovery of the stable relative phase pattern following abrupt changes in the visual motion. The two measures are found to converge to a well-defined temporal stability of the action-perception cycle. This stability decreases as the distance of the visual scene from the observer increases. This and the increase of mean relative phase with visual distance are consistent with predictions of a model proposed by Schöner. However, the amplitude of visual sway decreases little as visual distance increases in contradiction to the Schöner-model and suggests that sway is actively generated. The visual expansion rate is found to decrease strongly with visual distance. This leads to the conclusion that postural control in a moving visual environment cannot be understood simply in terms of minimisation of retinal slip, and that dynamic coupling of vision into the postural control system must be taken into account. This chapter is an expanded version of the paper "Temporal stability of the action-perception cycle for postural control in a moving visual environment" by Tjeerd Dijkstra, Gregor Schöner and Stan Gielen, to appear in Experimental Brain Research. Part of this work has been presented at the International Conference on Event Perception and Action, Amsterdam 1991 and at the
Machine learning techniques for neurotechnology with applications for healthy users and patients

ADVANCES in Neurotechnology are based on the recording and analysis of brain activity. BrainComputer Interfaces (BCIs) constitute a very active research area within Neurotechnology. BCIs make it possible for brain activity to be directly translated into control commands and thus enable a communication channel that is independent of muscle control. One major goal of this research is to help people who cannot communicate independently, due to neural diseases such as stroke or Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). BCIs may help these patients with advanced paralysis regain their communication abilities by using their minds to interact with their surroundings. This thesis contributes to the developments of BCIs in three ways. Firstly, novel auditory BCI paradigms – named PASS2D and CharStreamer – are described and evaluated in online studies with healthy users. Both paradigms are based on Event Related Potentials (ERPs) and provide an intuitive and fast communication with BCI for users with impaired vision. While prior auditory BCI paradigms are rather complicated to use, the CharStreamer can be operated with instructions as simple as “please attend to the letter that you want to spell”. Additionally, two offline studies investigate the impact of stimulus properties on the ERPs, and the performance and usability of a BCI system. However, the above mentioned studies also indicate that the state-of-the-art analysis pipeline for ERP-based BCI paradigms might be suboptimal, as ERPs exhibit additional label information which is not exploited in a Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA). Therefore, the second main contribution of this thesis deals with methodological improvements which yield more accurate data analysis than state-of-the-art methods. It is shown that neuroimaging data – in particular EEG data arising from BCI paradigms – exhibit intrinsic subclass structure, which can be exploited in a meaningful way. A novel Machine Learning method – called Relevance Subclass LDA (RSLDA) – is developed and tested on multiple EEG and fMRI data sets. It is shown that RSLDA yields increased classification accuracy, as well as a better interpretation of the underlying structure in the data. Both aspects are highly favorable, suggesting that RSLDA is suitable for various classification problems within neuroimaging and beyond. Thirdly, a BCI study is conducted with severely motor-impaired individuals. It is shown that the application of modern Machine Learning methods allows to set up a highly flexible BCI system for patients with severe paralysis. This enables to achieve significant BCI control within a very small number of sessions. Moreover, this study shows that communication via BCI can be faster and more robust than communication with other assisted technology which is based on muscle activity. This shows for the first time that the neuronal signals of an attempted motor execution can be detected prior to the muscular movement of a patient.
DISC Course : Stability and Control of Time-Delay Systems

General information The course addresses eigenvalue based methods for the stabilization and control of time-delay systems. It is based on the book [2]. Some additional information (slides, software,.) will be made available at http://www.cs. kuleuven.be/~wimm/disc/ Time domain methods are not explicitly dealt with, although connections will be made at various places. An introduction to time domain methods can be found in [1, 3].
A pharmacodynamic study of the epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor ZD1839 in metastatic colorectal cancer patients.

PURPOSE Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) appears to play an important role in the pathogenesis of colorectal cancer. We have performed a Phase I/II study of the EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor ZD1839 in metastatic colorectal cancer patients in which serial biopsies were taken pre- and posttreatment to assess biological activity. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN Paired biopsies were obtained from colorectal cancer patients before and after treatment. Proliferation and apoptosis were assessed using Ki67 immunohistochemistry and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated nick end labeling assays, respectively. Immunohistochemistry for EGFR, activated EGFR, phosphorylated Akt, phosphorylated ERK, p27(Kip1), and beta-catenin was also performed. RESULTS Posttreatment samples showed a statistically significant reduction in the cancer cell proliferation index (mean proliferation index pretreatment 31%; posttreatment 21%; P = 0.047). The mean cancer cell apoptosis index also increased from 6 to 12% in posttreatment samples, although this difference did not achieve statistical significance. All pretreatment samples showed strong staining for EGFR. Loss of immunohistochemical staining for activated EGFR, phosphorylated Akt, and phosphorylated ERK in cancer cells was observed in some patients after treatment. p27(Kip1) was absent in the cancer cells of most pretreatment biopsies; two patients showed a marked increase in staining for nuclear p27(Kip1) after treatment with ZD1839. These two patients also showed large increases in apoptotic index. CONCLUSIONS ZD1839 inhibits EGFR signaling and proliferation in the cancer cells of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer. ZD1839 may also induce cancer cell apoptosis in a subset of colorectal cancer patients via up-regulation of p27(Kip1).
Assessment of the impact of organic school meals to improve the school food environment and children’s awareness of healthy eating habits

in English 12 Dansk resume 15 I Definition of terms 18 II List of tables 20 III List of figures 21 IV List of abbreviations 22 1 Overview of the PhD thesis 23 1.1 Context of the doctoral work 23 1.2 Structure of the thesis 24 2 Introduction 25 2.1 Healthy school meals 25 2.2 Organic food 27 2.3 Organic school food procurement 28 2.4 Aims, outline of the study and research questions 30 3 Theoretical and conceptual framework 32 3.1 Brief summary 32 3.2 Why use the Theory of Planned Behaviour? 32 3.3 What is the Theory of Planned Behaviour? 34 3.4 Advantages and disadvantages of the Theory of Planned Behaviour 35 3.5 The Theory of Planned Behaviour for the PhD work 35 3.5. 1 Attitude towards the behaviour 35 3.5. 2 Subjective norm 36 3.5. 3 Perceived behavioural control 36 3.5. 4 Intention and behaviour 36 3.6 Constructing questionnaires based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour 36 3.6. 1 Adapted theory of planned behaviour 36 3.6. 2 Attitudinal measures 37 3.6. 3 Behavioural measures 40
True 3q Chromosomal Amplification in Squamous Cell Lung Carcinoma by FISH and aCGH Molecular Analysis: Impact on Targeted Drugs

Squamous lung carcinoma lacks specific “ad hoc” therapies. Amplification of chromosome 3q is the most common genomic aberration and this region harbours genes having role as novel targets for therapeutics. There is no standard definition on how to score and report 3q amplification. False versus true 3q chromosomal amplification in squamous cell lung carcinoma may have tremendous impact on trials involving drugs which target DNA zones mapping on 3q. Forty squamous lung carcinomas were analyzed by FISH to assess chromosome 3q amplification. aCGH was performed as gold-standard to avoid false positive amplifications. Three clustered patterns of fluorescent signals were observed. Eight cases out of 40 (20%) showed ≥8 3q signals. Twenty out of 40 (50%) showed from 3 to 7 signals. The remaining showed two fluorescent signals (30%). When corrected by whole chromosome 3 signals, only cases with ≥8 signals maintained a LSI 3q/CEP3 ratio >2. Only the cases showing 3q amplification by aCGH (+3q25.3−3q27.3) showed ≥8 fluorescent signals at FISH evidencing a 3q/3 ratio >2. The remaining cases showed flat genomic portrait at aCGH on chromosome 3. We concluded that: 1) absolute copy number of 3q chromosomal region may harbour false positive interpretation of 3q amplification in squamous cell carcinoma; 2) a case results truly “amplified for chromosome 3q” when showing ≥8 fluorescent 3q signals; 3) trials involving drugs targeting loci on chromosome 3q in squamous lung carcinoma therapy have to consider false versus true 3q chromosomal amplification.
Reassessing the Evolutionary Importance of Inflammasomes

Inflammasomes monitor the cytosol for microbial contamination or perturbation and, thus, are predicted to provide potent defense against infection. However, the compendium of data from murine infection models suggests that inflammasomes merely delay the course of disease, allowing the host time to mount an adaptive response. Interpretations of such results are confounded by inflammasome-evasion strategies of vertebrate-adapted pathogens. Conversely, environmental opportunistic pathogens have not evolved in the context of inflammasomes and, therefore, are less likely to evade them. Indeed, opportunistic pathogens do not normally cause disease in wild-type animals. Accordantly, the extreme virulence of two opportunistic bacterial pathogens, Burkholderia thailandensis and Chromobacterium violaceum, is fully counteracted by inflammasomes in murine models. This leads us to propose a new hypothesis: perhaps animals maintain inflammasomes over evolutionary time not to defend against vertebrate-adapted pathogens but instead to counteract infection by a plethora of undiscovered opportunistic pathogens residing in the environment.
Effects of early intervention on EEG power and coherence in previously institutionalized children in Romania

Abstract Two groups of Romanian children were compared on spectral power and coherence in the electroencephalogram (EEG) in early childhood. One group consisted of previously institutionalized children who had been randomly assigned to a foster care intervention at a mean age of 23 months. The second group had been randomized to remain in institutional care. Because of a policy of noninterference, a number of these children also experienced placement into alternative family care environments. There were minimal group differences between the foster care and institutionalized groups in EEG power and coherence across all measured frequency bands at 42 months of age. However, age at foster care placement within the foster care group was correlated with certain measures of EEG power and coherence. Earlier age at foster care placement was associated with increased alpha power and decreased short-distance EEG coherence. Further analyses separating age at placement from duration of intervention suggest that this effect may be more robust for EEG coherence than EEG band power. Supplementary analyses examined whether the EEG measures mediated changes in intellectual abilities within the foster care children, but no clear evidence of mediation was observed.
Electrical Conduction Through Small Contact Spots

Earlier literature has reported that the voltage-temperature (V-T) relation for electrical contacts, and classical electrical contact theory in general, are invalid where the a-spots are on the order of nanometers. This paper reviews earlier literature dealing with the breakdown of the V-T relation and presents quantitative arguments to propose that this breakdown stems from the ballistic motion of electrons through nanometer-sized constrictions. Earlier literature also suggested that the breakdown of classical theory stems in part from thermal losses from a-spots to contaminant layers in an electrical interface. Through the use of a simple a-spot model, this paper shows that this cooling mechanism is not sufficiently important to affect the validity of the classical V-T relation and classical electrical contact theory in general
Power-Optimal Ordering of Signals in Parallel Wire Bundles

A computationally efficient technique for reducing interconnect active power is presented. Power reduction is accomplished by simultaneous wire spacing and net ordering, such that crosscapacitances are optimally shared. The existence of a unique power-optimal wire order within a bundle is proven, and a closed form of this order is derived. The optimal order of wires depends only on the activity factors of the underlying signals; hence it can be performed prior to spacing optimization, without affecting the optimality of the combined solution. The proposed algorithm has been applied to various interconnect layouts, including wire bundles from high-end microprocessor circuits in 65nm technology. Interconnect power reduction up to 37% has been observed in such bundles.
X-Linked Hydrocephalus

ABSTRACT: Two French-Canadian families with seven cases of hydrocephalus in two generations are presented. The pattern of inheritance is consistent with an X-linked recessive transmission. The clinical and pathologic characteristics of this entity are reviewed. The anomaly of adducted thumbs was present in one patient and its cause is considered. The hypothesis of primary hydrocephalus and secondary compression of the aqueduct as the mechanism for aqueductal stenosis is discussed.