Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Vertebrobasilar Artery Occlusion

The presentation of vertebrobasilar artery occlusion varies with the cause of occlusion and location of ischemia. This often results in delay in diagnosis. Areas of the brain supplied by the posterior circulation are difficult to visualize and usually require angiography or magnetic resonance imaging. Intravenous thrombolysis and local-intra arterial thrombolysis are the most common treatment approaches used. Recanalization of the occluded vessel significantly improves morbidity and mortality. Here we present a review of the literature and a case of a patient with altered mental status caused by vertebrobasilar artery occlusion.
Population genetics of the frog-killing fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis

Global amphibian decline by chytridiomycosis is a major environmental disaster that has been attributed to either recent fungal spread or environmental change that promotes disease. Here, we present a population genetic comparison of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis isolates from an intensively studied region of frog decline, the Sierra Nevada of California. In support of a novel pathogen, we find low diversity, no amphibian-host specificity, little correlation between fungal genotype and geography, local frog extirpation by a single fungal genotype, and evidence of human-assisted fungus migration. In support of endemism, at a local scale, we find some diverse, recombining populations. Therefore neither epidemic spread nor endemism alone explains this particular amphibian decline. Recombination raises the possibility of resistant sporangia and a mechanism for rapid spread as well as persistence that could greatly complicate global control of the pathogen.
Interaction Network Estimation: Predicting Problem-Solving Diversity in Interactive Environments

Intelligent tutoring systems and computer aided learning environments aimed at developing problem solving produce large amounts of transactional data which make it a challenge for both researchers and educators to understand how students work within the environment. Researchers have modeled student-tutor interactions using complex networks in order to automatically derive next step hints. However, there are no clear thresholds for the amount of student data required before the hints can be produced. We introduce a novel method of estimating the size of the unobserved interaction network from a sample by leveraging Good-Turing frequency estimation. We use this estimation to predict size, growth, and overlap of interaction networks using a small sample of student data. Our estimate is accurate in as few as 10–30 students and is a good predictor for the growth of the observed state space for the full network, as well as the subset of the network which is usable for automatic hint generation. These methods provide researchers with metrics to evaluate diﬀerent state representations, student populations, and general applicability of interaction networks on new datasets.
Impact of Hypoglycemia Associated With Antihyperglycemic Medications on Vascular Risks in Veterans With Type 2 Diabetes

OBJECTIVE Hypoglycemia is associated with failure to show cardiovascular benefit and increased mortality of intensive glycemic control in randomized clinical trials. This retrospective cohort study aimed to examine the impact of hypoglycemia on vascular events in clinical practice. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Patients with type 2 diabetes were identified by ICD-9-CM codes (250.xx except for 250.x1 and 250.x3) between 1 January 2004 and 1 September 2010 from the Veterans Integrated Service Network 16. Index date was defined as the first date of new antihyperglycemic medications (index treatment). Patients with 1-year preindex records of hypoglycemia, cardiovascular, and microvascular diseases were excluded. The hypoglycemia group was identified by ICD-9-CM codes (250.8, 251.0, 251.1, and 251.2) within the index treatment period. A propensity score–matched group was used as control subjects. Cardiovascular events, microvascular complications, and all-cause death were compared using Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox proportional hazards regression model. RESULTS Among the unmatched sample (N = 44,261), the hypoglycemia incidence rate was 3.57/100 patient-years. The matched sample (hypoglycemia group: n = 761; control group: n = 761) had a median follow-up of 3.93 years, mean age of 62.6 ± 11.0 years, and preindex HbA1c of 10.69 ± 2.61%. The 1-year change in HbA1c was similar (hypoglycemia group −0.51 vs. control group −0.32%, P = 0.7244). The hypoglycemia group had significantly higher risks of cardiovascular events (hazard ratio 2.00 [95% CI 1.63–2.44]) and microvascular complications (1.76 [1.46–2.11]) but no statistical mortality difference. Patients with at least two hypoglycemic episodes were at higher risks of vascular events than those with one episode (1.53 [1.10–1.66]). CONCLUSIONS Hypoglycemia is associated with higher risks of incident vascular events. Patients with hypoglycemia should be monitored closely for vascular events.
The APO*E3-Leiden mouse as an animal model for basal laminar deposit

AIM To investigate the APO*E3-Leiden mouse as an animal model for age related maculopathy (ARM) related extracellular deposits. METHODS Eyes were obtained from APO*E3-Leiden transgenic mice on a high fat/cholesterol (HFC) diet (n=12) or on a normal mouse chow (n=6), for 9 months. As controls, eyes were collected from APO-E knockout mice on the same diets. From each mouse one eye was processed for microscopic evaluation and immunohistochemistry with a polyclonal antibody directed against human apo-E. Electron microscopy was also performed. RESULTS All 12 eyes of the APO*E3-Leiden mice on an HFC diet contained basal laminar deposit (BLD; class 1 to class 3), whereas two of six APO*E3-Leiden mice on normal chow showed BLD class 1. The ultrastructural aspects of this BLD were comparable with those seen in early BLD in humans, and BLD showed immunoreaction with anti-human-apo-E antibodies. No BLD was found in any of the control mice. Drusen were not detected in any of the mice. CONCLUSION These results indicate that APO*E3-Leiden mice can be used as animal model for the pathogenesis of BLD, and that a HFC diet enhances the accumulation of this deposit. Furthermore, this study supports the previously suggested involvement of dysfunctional apo-E in the accumulation of extracellular deposits in ARM.
Domain Architecture Comparison for Multidomain Homology Identification

Homology identification is the first step for many genomic studies. Current methods, based on sequence comparison, can result in a substantial number of mis-assignments due to the similarity of homologous domains in otherwise unrelated sequences. Here we propose methods to detect homologs through explicit comparison of protein domain content. We developed several schemes for scoring the homology of a pair of protein sequences based on methods used in the field of information retrieval. We evaluate the proposed methods and methods used in the literature using a benchmark of fifteen sequence families of known evolutionary history. The results of these studies demonstrate the effectiveness of comparing domain architectures using these similarity measures. We also demonstrate the importance of both weighting promiscuous domains and of compensating for the statistical effect of having a large number of domains in a protein. Using logistic regression, we demonstrate the benefit of combining similarity measures based on domain content with sequence similarity measures.
Toward a theory of positive deviance

TOWARD A THEORY OF POSITIVE DEVIANCE by Druann Maria Heckert U n iv e rs ity of New Hampshire, May, 1985 Although many studies have been conducted in regard to groups or in d iv id u a ls deemed to be negative dev ian ts , there is a r e la t i v e dearth of th e o re t ic a l or em pir ica l an a lys is of p o s i t iv e deviance. This d is s e r ta t io n attempts to t h e o r e t ic a l ly analyze the concept of p o s it iv e deviance. The l i t e r a t u r e re la te d to p o s i t iv e deviance was examined and c a tego rized . P o s it iv e deviance was defined as behavior th a t people label ( i . e . , p u b l ic ly evaluate) in a superior sense and behavior th a t usua lly re s u lts because the behavior departs from th a t which is considered normal or normative. In a d d it io n , the p rev ious ly postu lated examples of p o s it iv e deviance were u t i l i z e d to form a typology of p o s i t iv e deviance. These types of p o s it iv e deviance are the fo l lo w in g : innovative behavior, supra-conforming behavior, a l t r u i s t i c behavior, possessors of innate c h a ra c te r is t ic s , and charism atic behavior. Each type of p o s it iv e deviance was then discussed in r e la t io n to l i t e r a t u r e from l i t e r a t u r e in sociology and other d is c ip l in e s . v i i i Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Representing Generalization/Specialization in XML Schema

XML is an effective universal data-interchange format, and XML Schema has become the preeminent mechanism for describing valid XML document structures. Generalization/specialization and its constraints are fundamental concepts in system modeling and design, but are difficult to express and enforce with XML Schema. This mismatch leads to unnecessary complexity and uncertainty in XML-based models. In this paper we describe how to translate various aspects of generalization/specialization from a conceptual model into XML Schema. We also explore what needs to be added to XML Schema to handle the other aspects of this fundamental modeling construct. If XML Schema were to include our proposed constructs, it would be fully capable of faithfully representing generalization/specialization, thus reducing the complexity of the XML models that rely on generalization/specialization.
The effect and interaction of enhanced nitrogen deposition and reduced light on the growth of woodland ground flora

Woodland ground flora species Geranium robertianum, Prunella vulgaris and Deschampsia caespitosa were grown in greenhouse conditions under various light regimes (100%, 20% and 5% of ambient summer light) and were misted weekly with solutions of ammonium nitrate to simulate increased atmospheric wet and dry deposition of nitrogen (N) due to pollution at 0, 15 and 30 kg ha −1 year −1 concentrations. In the last 5 weeks of the study, the photosynthetic rate of G. robertianum was measured weekly. At the end of the 10-week-treatment period, the plants were harvested and growth was recorded using various measurable growth parameters. Growth of the plants and photosynthetic rate of G. robertianum were found to be primarily dependent on light availability, where reduced light levels showed a decrease in overall plant growth, indicating the importance of light in woodlands. N was not found to have an effect on the growth of the plants and thus questions arise over the calculations of critical loads of N deposition for woodland habitats. Five interactions were noted where increased N led to a significant reduction in growth at 20% light, yet a significant increase in growth at 100% light. These interactions were mainly noted for P. vulgaris, which could be explained by relatively large differences between its Ellenberg values for light and N, reflecting a preference for high light conditions and fairly infertile soils. G. robertianum was least affected by a reduction in light, reflecting its preference for semi-shaded conditions.
Quality Evaluation of Human Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells for Cartilage Repair

Quality evaluation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) based on efficacy would be helpful for their clinical application. In this study, we aimed to find the factors of human bone marrow MSCs relating to cartilage repair. The expression profiles of humoral factors, messenger RNAs (mRNAs), and microRNAs (miRNAs) were analyzed in human bone marrow MSCs from five different donors. We investigated the correlations of these expression profiles with the capacity of the MSCs for proliferation, chondrogenic differentiation, and cartilage repair in vivo. The mRNA expression of MYBL1 was positively correlated with proliferation and cartilage differentiation. By contrast, the mRNA expression of RCAN2 and the protein expression of TIMP-1 and VEGF were negatively correlated with proliferation and cartilage differentiation. However, MSCs from all five donors had the capacity to promote cartilage repair in vivo regardless of their capacity for proliferation and cartilage differentiation. The mRNA expression of HLA-DRB1 was positively correlated with cartilage repair in vivo. Meanwhile, the mRNA expression of TMEM155 and expression of miR-486-3p, miR-148b, miR-93, and miR-320B were negatively correlated with cartilage repair. The expression analysis of these factors might help to predict the ability of bone marrow MSCs to promote cartilage repair.
Dynamic Generation and Refinement of Concept Hierarchies for Knowledge Discovery in Databases

Concept hierarchies organize data and concepts in hierarchical forms or in certain partial order, which helps expressing knowledge and data relationships in databases in concise, high level terms, and thus, plays an important role in knowledge discovery processes. Concept hierarchies could be provided by knowledge engineers, domain experts or users, or embedded in some data relations. However, it is sometimes desirable to automatically generate some concept hierarchies or adjust some given hierarchies for particular learning tasks. In this paper, the issues of dynamic generation and refinement of concept hierarchies are studied. The study leads to some algorithms for automatic generation of concept hierarchies for numerical attributes based on data distributions and for dynamic refinement of a given or generated concept hierarchy based on a learning request, the relevant set of data and database statistics. These algorithms have been implemented in the DBLearn knowledge discovery system and tested against large relational databases. The experimental results show that the algorithms are efficient and effective for knowledge discovery in large databases.
Social Serious Games Framework

Social Serious Games verbinden die Vorteile des Wissensaustausches über Social Media Plattformen mit dem interaktiven, immersiven Lernerlebnis eines Serious Games. Dadurch werden neue Formen des vernetzten Lernens direkt in und mit den Computerspielen möglich. Dieser Beitrag stellt nach einem Vorschlag zur Definition von Social Serious Games das Konzept für ein Framework vor, welches Spieleentwickler mit drei Hauptkomponenten bei der Verbindung von Social Media und Serious Games unterstützt: Die Einbindung von User-generated Content für den Wissensaustausch, die Nutzung von Social Media Plattform-Anbindungen zur Personalisierung und Individualisierung des Spiels und zusätzlich die Bildung von Ad-Hoc Communities of Practice zur Lerngruppenbildung.
Exposure to chronic mild stress prevents kappa opioid-mediated reinstatement of cocaine and nicotine place preference

Stress increases the risk of drug abuse, causes relapse to drug seeking, and potentiates the rewarding properties of both nicotine and cocaine. Understanding the mechanisms by which stress regulates the rewarding properties of drugs of abuse provides valuable insight into potential treatments for drug abuse. Prior reports have demonstrated that stress causes dynorphin release, activating kappa opioid receptors (KOR) in monoamine circuits resulting in both potentiation and reinstatement of cocaine and nicotine conditioned place preference. Here we report that kappa opioid-dependent reinstatement of cocaine and nicotine place preference is reduced when the mice are exposed to a randomized chronic mild stress (CMS) regime prior to training in a conditioned place preference-reinstatement paradigm. The CMS schedule involves seven different stressors (removal of nesting for 24 h, 5 min forced swim stress at 15°C, 8 h food and water deprivation, damp bedding overnight, white noise, cage tilt, and disrupted home cage lighting) rotated over a 3-week period. This response is KOR-selective, as CMS does not protect against cocaine or nicotine drug-primed reinstatement. This protection from reinstatement is also observed following sub-chronic social defeat stress, where each mouse is placed in an aggressor mouse home cage for a period of 20 min over 5 days. In contrast, a single acute stressor resulted in a potentiation of KOR-induced reinstatement, as previously reported. Prior studies have shown that stress alters sensitivity to opioids and prior stress can influence the pharmacodynamics of the opioid receptor system. Together, these findings suggest that exposure to different forms of stress may cause a dysregulation of kappa opioid circuitry and that changes resulting from mild stress can have protective and adaptive effects against drug relapse.
Multivoltage Aware Resistive Open Fault Model

Resistive open faults (ROFs) represent common interconnect manufacturing defects in VLSI designs causing delay failures and reliability-related concerns. The widespread utilization of multiple supply voltages in contemporary VLSI designs and emerging test methods poses a critical concern as to whether conventional models for resistive opens will still be effective. Conventional models do not explicitly model the VDD effect on fault behavior and detectability. We have empirically observed that a sensitized ROF could exhibit multiple behaviors across its resistance continuum. We also observe that the detectable resistance range versus VDD varies with test speed. We consequently propose a voltage-aware model that divides the full range of open resistances into continuous behavioral intervals and three detectability ranges. The presented model is expected to substantially enhance multivoltage test generation and fault distinction.
LIPOSOMAL GELS AS CARRIERS FOR SAFER TOPICAL DELIVERY OF TAZAROTENE

The aim is to design a liposomal delivery system for topical administration of tazarotene capable of providing controlled and localized release of the encapsulated drug in order to minimize adverse effects associated with its topical use. Tazarotene loaded liposomes were prepared and characterized for entrapment efficiency, particle size and stability. Tazarotene liposomal gels were formulated and evaluated comparatively with commercial gel with respect to primary skin irritation and skin permeation . The effect of vesicular incorporation of tazarotene on its accumulation into hairless rat skin from liposomal suspension and gels were studied. The results of the study showed that the maximum entrapment efficiency recorded (93.49%±0.25) was achieved by formula having 1:1 lipoid S 100 to cholesterol molar ratio. The mean particle size of liposomal formulae ranged from (5.68µm-0.72µm). The stability profile of the selected system assessed for 90 days at refrigerated temperature showed no sign of sedimentation or color change with (86.27% ±0.44) of drug retained. All liposomal suspension and gels revealed higher drug retention compared to commercial gel, lesser skin irritancy and greater skin tolerance was also observed.
Constipation and Megacolon in Rats Related to Treatment with Oxodipine, a Calcium Antagonist

The constipatory effects of oxodipine, a dihyrdopyridine-type calcium antagonist, have been described in a 3-mo, 12-mo, and 30-mo feeding toxicity study in rats. This paper reports the occurrence of megacolon in rats as a result of the constipatory effects of chronic administration of oxodipine. The first mortality due to oxodipine was seen after about 1 yr of treatment at a dose of 225 mg/kg/day. The toxic effects noted were dose-, time-, and sex-related. Female rats appeared more sensitive to the constipatory effects of the drug. The dose at which the effect occurred in both male and female rats was from about 75 to 675 times the recommended therapeutic dose for humans. To the best knowledge of the authors, this is the first report of a calcium channel blocker causing constipation in rats.
Common filaggrin gene mutations and risk of cervical cancer

Abstract Background. As carriers of filaggrin gene (FLG) mutations may have a compromised cervical mucosal barrier against human papillomavirus infection, our primary objective was to study their risk of cervical cancer. Methods. We genotyped 586 cervical cancer patients for the two most common FLG mutations, R501X and 2282del4, using blood from the Copenhagen Hospital Biobank, Denmark. Controls (n = 8050) were genotyped in previous population-based studies. Information on cervical cancer, mortality and emigration were obtained from national registers. Odds ratios (OR) were estimated by logistic regression with adjustment for age at blood sampling, and weighted by the genotype-specific inverse probability of death between diagnosis and sampling. Hazard ratios (HR) were estimated by Cox regression with time since diagnosis as underlying time, and with adjustment for age at diagnosis and stratification by cancer stage. Results. The primary results showed that FLG mutations were not associated with the risk of cervical cancer (6.3% of cases and 7.7% of controls were carriers; OR adjusted 0.81, 95% CI 0.57–1.14; OR adjusted+ weighted 0.96, 95% CI 0.58–1.57). Among cases, FLG mutations increased mortality due to cervical cancer (HR 4.55, 95% CI 1.70–12.2), however, the association was reduced after stratification by cancer stage (HR 2.53, 95% CI 0.84–7.59). Conclusion. Carriage of FLG mutations was not associated with the risk of cervical cancer.
Foundations of Social Evolution

This is a treatment of one of the central problems in evolutionary biology, the evolution of social co-operation and conflict. Steven Frank tackles the problem with a combination of approaches: game theory, classical models of natural selection, quantitative genetics, and kin selection. He unites these with economic thought: a theory of model formation and comparative statics, the development of simple methods for analyzing complex problems, and notions of information and rationality. The text begins by developing the three measures of value used in biology - marginal value, reproductive value, and kin selection. It then combines these measures into a coherent framework, providing a unified analysis of social evolution in its full ecological and demographic context. Frank also extends the theory of kin selection by showing that relatedness has two distinct meanings. The first is a measure of information about social partners, with close affinity to theories of correlated equilibrium and Bayesian rationality in economic game theory. The second is a measure of the fidelity by which characters are transmitted to future generations - an extended notion of heritability. Throughout, Fran
A simplified methodology for parameters measurement of an Axial Flux Permanent Magnet motor without neutral point

Recent developments in the area of electric vehicles resulted in a growing interest for Axial Flux Permanent Magnet (AFPM) Motors, mainly because of their high power density. For the design of the motor drive it is extremely important to have the motor parameters. However many times the manufacturers do not provide them. This paper presents a methodology to overcome this problem, proposes a methodology to obtain the parameters of this AFPM motors, for the implementation of the d-q model of the motor. In permanent magnet synchronous motors the inductance changes with the rotor position, so the d-q model is used to simplify the analysis, modeling and control implementation. This paper presents the d-q model of an AFPM motor with two external stators and one internal rotor.