Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The milky way

Mediastinal masses may present with signs and symptoms due to either compression of mediastinal structures or systemic effects of the underlying disease. The present case highlights the advantages of interventional pulmonology in the diagnosis of lymphoma as a cause of chylothorax and superior vena cava syndrome.
Train noise-A psychoacoustic investigation for indoor aural comfort in high-rise urban environment in the tropics

Despite of many research on the assessment of negative impact (i.e. annoyance) of indoor aural environment, very limited research effort have been made on the positive assessment (i.e. aural comfort) of aural environment in residential settings subjected to environmental noise sources. Noise annoyance has often been related to different energy-based acoustical indicators such as LAeq, LDEN etc. which are unable to consider the temporal and spectral patterns of the complex noise environment. The indoor aural environment has rarely been examined for different psychoacoustic quantities, the influence of which are still unknown on indoor aural comfort subjected to environmental noise sources specially in high-rise urban built-up settings. This research investigates the indoor aural comfort in high-rise naturally ventilated residential dwellings in Singapore subjected to Train Noise. A psychoacoustic experiment was carried out to examine the indoor aural comfort and relating it with different psychoacoustic indices. Loudness, Sharpness and Roughness were found significantly correlated with the assessment of 'Noisiness' and 'Noise Disturbance' in indoor environment. Train noise with a maximum Loudness of 8 Sone, mean Sharpness of 1.25 Acum and maximum Roughness of 33 centi-Asper were found attributing to a 'quiet' indoor aural environment. This paper presents statistical models developed for subjective 'noisiness' and 'disturbances' and discusses their relationships with these psychoacoustic quantities.
Auxin Controls Arabidopsis Adventitious Root Initiation by Regulating Jasmonic Acid Homeostasis[W]

Vegetative propagation of plants from shoots requires the development of adventitious roots that regenerate from stem cuttings. Multiple endogenous and environmental factors control this complex process; this study in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana shows that adventitious rooting is an adaptive developmental response involving crosstalk between auxin and jasmonate signaling pathways. Vegetative shoot-based propagation of plants, including mass propagation of elite genotypes, is dependent on the development of shoot-borne roots, which are also called adventitious roots. Multiple endogenous and environmental factors control the complex process of adventitious rooting. In the past few years, we have shown that the auxin response factors ARF6 and ARF8, targets of the microRNA miR167, are positive regulators of adventitious rooting, whereas ARF17, a target of miR160, is a negative regulator. We showed that these genes have overlapping expression profiles during adventitious rooting and that they regulate each other’s expression at the transcriptional and posttranscriptional levels by modulating the homeostasis of miR160 and miR167. We demonstrate here that this complex network of transcription factors regulates the expression of three auxin-inducible Gretchen Hagen3 (GH3) genes, GH3.3, GH3.5, and GH3.6, encoding acyl-acid-amido synthetases. We show that these three GH3 genes are required for fine-tuning adventitious root initiation in the Arabidopsis thaliana hypocotyl, and we demonstrate that they act by modulating jasmonic acid homeostasis. We propose a model in which adventitious rooting is an adaptive developmental response involving crosstalk between the auxin and jasmonate regulatory pathways.
A general framework for the regression analysis of pooled biomarker assessments

As a cost‐efficient data collection mechanism, the process of assaying pooled biospecimens is becoming increasingly common in epidemiological research; for example, pooling has been proposed for the purpose of evaluating the diagnostic efficacy of biological markers (biomarkers). To this end, several authors have proposed techniques that allow for the analysis of continuous pooled biomarker assessments. Regretfully, most of these techniques proceed under restrictive assumptions, are unable to account for the effects of measurement error, and fail to control for confounding variables. These limitations are understandably attributable to the complex structure that is inherent to measurements taken on pooled specimens. Consequently, in order to provide practitioners with the tools necessary to accurately and efficiently analyze pooled biomarker assessments, herein, a general Monte Carlo maximum likelihood‐based procedure is presented. The proposed approach allows for the regression analysis of pooled data under practically all parametric models and can be used to directly account for the effects of measurement error. Through simulation, it is shown that the proposed approach can accurately and efficiently estimate all unknown parameters and is more computational efficient than existing techniques. This new methodology is further illustrated using monocyte chemotactic protein‐1 data collected by the Collaborative Perinatal Project in an effort to assess the relationship between this chemokine and the risk of miscarriage. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
S-Nitrosoglutathione Reductase Affords Protection against Pathogens in Arabidopsis, Both Locally and Systemically1[W][OA]

Nitric oxide and S-nitrosothiols (SNOs) are widespread signaling molecules that regulate immunity in animals and plants. Levels of SNOs in vivo are controlled by nitric oxide synthesis (which in plants is achieved by different routes) and by S-nitrosoglutathione turnover, which is mainly performed by the S-nitrosoglutathione reductase (GSNOR). GSNOR is encoded by a single-copy gene in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana; Martínez et al., 1996; Sakamoto et al., 2002). We report here that transgenic plants with decreased amounts of GSNOR (using antisense strategy) show enhanced basal resistance against Peronospora parasitica Noco2 (oomycete), which correlates with higher levels of intracellular SNOs and constitutive activation of the pathogenesis-related gene, PR-1. Moreover, systemic acquired resistance is impaired in plants overexpressing GSNOR and enhanced in the antisense plants, and this correlates with changes in the SNO content both in local and systemic leaves. We also show that GSNOR is localized in the phloem and, thus, could regulate systemic acquired resistance signal transport through the vascular system. Our data corroborate the data from other authors that GSNOR controls SNO in vivo levels, and shows that SNO content positively influences plant basal resistance and resistance-gene-mediated resistance as well. These data highlight GSNOR as an important and widely utilized component of resistance protein signaling networks conserved in animals and plants.
Optical coherence tomography in gastroenterology: a review and future outlook

Abstract. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is an imaging technique optically analogous to ultrasound that can generate depth-resolved images with micrometer-scale resolution. Advances in fiber optics and miniaturized actuation technologies allow OCT imaging of the human body and further expand OCT utilization in applications including but not limited to cardiology and gastroenterology. This review article provides an overview of current OCT development and its clinical utility in the gastrointestinal tract, including disease detection/differentiation and endoscopic therapy guidance, as well as a discussion of its future applications.
A Review of Multidimensional Scaling in Marketing Research

The domain of this review includes the develop ment and application of multidimensional scaling (MDS) in product planning; in decisions concerning pricing and branding; in the study of channels of dis tribution, personal selling, and the effects of advertis ing ; and in research related to the fact finding and analysis mission of marketing research. In research on product planning, specific attention is given to market structure analysis, to the development of a master con figuration of product perceptions, to the role of indi vidual differences, to representing consumer prefer ences, to issues in market segmentation, and to the use of asymmetric MDS to study market structure. Regarding fact finding and analysis, this review deals with issues in data collection such as the response rate, time, and accuracy of judgments; the validity, re liability, and stability of judgments; and the robustness of data collection techniques and MDS algorithms. A separate section on new-product models deals with the determination of relevant product markets, the identifi cation of determinant attributes, the creation of prod uct perceptual spaces, and the modeling of individual or market-segment decision making. Three trends are discussed briefly; (1) a trend toward finer grained in spection of individual and group perceptions, (2) a trend toward merging consumer level measurement and market level measurements, and (3) a trend to ward the study of the creation of new markets, rather than new products in existing markets.
First glances: the vision of infants. the Friedenwald lecture.

L wenty-five years ago, when my children were small, scientists knew almost nothing about the development of vision in human infants. William James had opined that the infant's perceptual world was a blooming, buzzing confusion. Some ophthalmologists were inclined to suggest that infants could see almost nothing. Yet parents had known for millennia that infants stare at faces and boldly patterned objects. Because consistent staring implies seeing, infants must be able to see. But what do they see, and how well? This question eventually proved irresistible to a person who was at once a parent and a vision scientist. The beginning of science is wonder.
Do post‐concussion‐like symptom responses change following exercise or sports participation in a non‐concussed cohort?

The purposes of this study were (a) to determine the reliable change in post‐concussion‐like symptoms reported following self‐selected exercise or sports activities and (b) to explore the potential influence of gender and exercise parameters on post‐concussion‐like symptoms reported by a non‐concussed cohort following exercise/training. A pre‐to‐post observational design was used. A convenience sample of students aged 18–30 years who visited a university recreation center to engage in their chosen exercise activity and a purposeful sample of men's and women's rugby union players engaged in their regular training sessions were included in the study. All participants reported their symptoms using the symptom scale of the Sport Concussion Assessment Tool 2. The reliable change index was used to determine the change in symptom scores reported from pre‐to post‐exercise/training. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to model the exercise variables to explain the impact on the reporting of symptoms. A total of 260 participants (146 males and 114 females) completed their self‐selected exercise activity or rugby union training. Approximately two‐thirds of all participants did not demonstrate a change (increase or decrease) in total symptom score (201/260, 77.9%) and/or symptom severity score (212/260, 81.9%) from pre‐to post‐exercise/training. The symptom response following exercise or sports training did not change in the majority of participants. Clinicians need to be aware of these findings to make informed decisions on return‐to‐play following a concussive brain injury.
Conformational Changes Underlying Pore Dilation in the Cytoplasmic Domain of Mammalian Inward Rectifier K+ Channels

The cytoplasmic domain of inward rectifier K+ (Kir) channels associates with cytoplasmic ligands and undergoes conformational change to control the gate present in its transmembrane domain. Ligand-operated activation appears to cause dilation of the pore at the cytoplasmic domain. However, it is still unclear how the cytoplasmic domain supports pore dilation and how alterations to this domain affect channel activity. In the present study, we focused on 2 spatially adjacent residues, i.e., Glu236 and Met313, of the G protein-gated Kir channel subunit Kir3.2. In the closed state, these pore-facing residues are present on adjacent βD and βH strands, respectively. We mutated both residues, expressed them with the m2-muscarinic receptor in Xenopus oocytes, and measured the acetylcholine-dependent K+ currents. The dose-response curves of the Glu236 mutants tended to be shifted to the right. In comparison, the slopes of the concentration-dependent curves were reduced and the single-channel properties were altered in the Met313 mutants. The introduction of arginine at position 236 conferred constitutive activity and caused a leftward shift in the conductance-voltage relationship. The crystal structure of the cytoplasmic domain of the mutant showed that the arginine contacts the main chains of the βH and βI strands of the adjacent subunit. Because the βH strand forms a β sheet with the βI and βD strands, the immobilization of the pore-forming β sheet appears to confer unique properties to the mutant. These results suggest that the G protein association triggers pore dilation at the cytoplasmic domain in functional channels, and the pore-constituting structural elements contribute differently to these conformational changes.
NS Segment of a 1918 Influenza A Virus-Descendent Enhances Replication of H1N1pdm09 and Virus-Induced Cellular Immune Response in Mammalian and Avian Systems

The 2009 pandemic influenza A virus (IAV) H1N1 strain (H1N1pdm09) has widely spread and is circulating in humans and swine together with other human and avian IAVs. This fact raises the concern that reassortment between H1N1pdm09 and co-circulating viruses might lead to an increase of H1N1pdm09 pathogenicity in different susceptible host species. Herein, we explored the potential of different NS segments to enhance the replication dynamics, pathogenicity and host range of H1N1pdm09 strain A/Giessen/06/09 (Gi-wt). The NS segments were derived from (i) human H1N1- and H3N2 IAVs, (ii) highly pathogenic- (H5- or H7-subtypes) or (iii) low pathogenic avian influenza viruses (H7- or H9-subtypes). A significant increase of growth kinetics in A549 (human lung epithelia) and NPTr (porcine tracheal epithelia) cells was only noticed in vitro for the reassortant Gi-NS-PR8 carrying the NS segment of the 1918-descendent A/Puerto Rico/8/34 (PR8-wt, H1N1), whereas all other reassortants showed either reduced or comparable replication efficiencies. Analysis using ex vivo tracheal organ cultures of turkeys (TOC-Tu), a species susceptible to IAV H1N1 infection, demonstrated increased replication of Gi-NS-PR8 compared to Gi-wt. Also, Gi-NS-PR8 induced a markedly higher expression of immunoregulatory and pro-inflammatory cytokines, chemokines and interferon-stimulated genes in A549 cells, THP-1-derived macrophages (dHTP) and TOC-Tu. In vivo, Gi-NS-PR8 induced an earlier onset of mortality than Gi-wt in mice, whereas, 6-week-old chickens were found to be resistant to both viruses. These data suggest that the specific characteristics of the PR8 NS segments can impact on replication, virus induced cellular immune responses and pathogenicity of the H1N1pdm09 in different avian and mammalian host species.
Enhancement of Glossiness Perception by Retinal-Image Motion: Additional Effect of Head-Yoked Motion Parallax

It has been argued that when an observer moves, a contingent retinal-image motion of a stimulus would strengthen the perceived glossiness. This would be attributed to the veridical perception of three-dimensional structure by motion parallax. However, it has not been investigated whether the effect of motion parallax is more than that of retinal-image motion of the stimulus. Using a magnitude estimation method, we examine in this paper whether cross-modal coordination of the stimulus change and the observer's motion (i.e., motion parallax) is essential or the retinal-image motion alone is sufficient for enhancing the perceived glossiness. Our data show that a retinal-image motion simulating motion parallax without head motion strengthened the perceived glossiness but that its effect was weaker than that of motion parallax with head motion. These results suggest the existence of an additional effect of the cross-modal coordination between vision and proprioception on glossiness perception. That is, motion parallax enhances the perception of glossiness, in addition to retinal-image motions of specular surfaces.
A Comparative Evaluation of Spatial Targeting Behaviour Patterns for Finger and Stylus Tapping on Mobile Touchscreen Devices

Models of 2D targeting error patterns have been applied as a valuable computational tool for analysing finger touch behaviour on mobile devices, improving touch accuracy and inferring context. However, their use in stylus input is yet unexplored. This paper presents the first empirical study and analyses of such models for tapping with a stylus. In a user study (N = 28), we collected targeting data on a smartphone, both for stationary use (sitting) and walking. We compare targeting patterns between index finger input and three stylus variations -- two stylus widths and nib types as well as the addition of a hover cursor. Our analyses reveal that stylus targeting patterns are user-specific, and that offset models improve stylus tapping accuracy, but less so than for finger touch. Input method has a stronger influence on targeting patterns than mobility, and stylus width is more influential than the hover cursor. Stylus models improve finger accuracy as well, but not vice versa. The extent of the stylus accuracy advantage compared to the finger depends on screen location and mobility. We also discuss patterns related to mobility and gliding of the stylus on the screen. We conclude with implications for target sizes and offset model applications.
F 3 F 4 F 5 B 11 B 10 B 9 B 8 BN B 7 F 1 F 2 B 5 B 4 B 3 B 2 B 6

In this study, a method for estimating 3-D vector velocities at very high frame rate using continuous data acquisition is presented. An emission sequence was designed to acquire real-time continuous data in one plane. The transverse oscillation (TO) method was used to estimate 3-D vector flow in a carotid flow phantom and in vivo in the common carotid artery of a healthy 27-year old female. Based on the out-of-plane velocity component during four periodic cycles, estimated flow rates in an experimental setup was 2.96 ml/s ± 0.35 ml/s compared to the expected 3.06 ml/s ± 0.09 ml/s. In the in vivo measurements, three heart cycles acquired at 2.1 kHz showed peak out-of-plane velocities of 83 cm/s, 87 cm/s and 90 cm/s in agreement with the 92 cm/s found with spectral Doppler. Mean flow rate was estimated to 257 ml/min. The results demonstrate that accurate real-time 3D vector velocities can be obtained using the TO method, which can be used to improve operator-independece when examining blood flow in vivo, thereby increasing accuracy and consistency.
Just Missing the Mark: Discharging High-risk Atrial Fibrillation / Flutter without Thromboprophylaxis

Atrial fibrillation and flutter (AF) is a pervasive disease affecting 6.1 million people in the United States.1 Each year it is responsible for more than 750,000 hospitalizations and 130,000 deaths.2,3 In contrast to overall declining death rates for cardiovascular disease,4 AF as the “primary or contributing cause of death has been rising for more than two decades. ”3 The annual economic burden of AF is six billion dollars; medical costs per AF patient are about $8,707 higher than for non-AF individuals.3 Thrombotic embolism of the cerebral circulation, or stroke, is the principal risk of AF and ranges from less than 2% to greater than 10% annually.5-8 AF is the cause of 100,000-125,000 embolic strokes each year, of which 20% are fatal.9 Anticoagulation to prevent these embolic events is standard of care unless contraindicated.9 However, it is not without risk, as even minor trauma can cause substantial and potentially life-threatening bleeding. Given that AF is the most common arrhythmia among the elderly,1,2,3 balancing these competing risks is challenging. Anticoagulation for AF is most commonly accomplished with a vitamin K antagonist, warfarin. However, its use requires patient education, medication compliance, dietary consistency, and close monitoring. CHA2DS2-VASc, ATRIA, HAS-BLED, ORBIT, and HEMORR2HAGES are just some of the decision-support tools available to objectively weigh the risk of stroke and life-threatening bleeding from therpy.10-15 Newer, novel oral anticoagulant agents (NOAC) provide a benefit/risk profile that may surpass warfarin, especially when considering initiation in the emergency department (ED). 16-18 In this issue of WestJEM, Smith and colleagues present a prospective observational evaluation of anticoagulation prescribing practices in non-valvular AF. Patients presenting to one of seven Northern California EDs with AF at high risk for stroke were eligible unless admitted, not part of Kaiser Permanente of Northern California (KPNC), or already prescribed anticoagulation. During the 14-month study there were no departmental policies governing the initiation of anticoagulation in AF patients. University of Alabama School of Medicine, Department of Emergency Medicine, Birmingham, Alabama
Near Their Thresholds for Detection, Shapes Are Discriminated by the Angular Separation of Their Corners

Observers make sense of scenes by parsing images on the retina into meaningful objects. This ability is retained for line drawings, demonstrating that critical information is concentrated at object boundaries. Information theoretic studies argue for further concentration at points of maximum curvature, or corners, on such boundaries [1]–[3] suggesting that the relative positions of such corners might be important in defining shape. In this study we use patterns subtly deformed from circular, by a sinusoidal modulation of radius, in order to measure threshold sensitivity to shape change. By examining the ability of observers to discriminate between patterns of different frequency and/or number of cycles of modulation in a 2x2 forced choice task we were able to show, psychophysically, that difference in a single cue, the periodicity of the corners (specifically the polar angle between two points of maximum curvature) was sufficient to allow discrimination of two patterns near their thresholds for detection. We conclude that patterns could be considered as labelled for this measure. These results suggest that a small number of such labels might be sufficient to identify an object.