Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ultrasonographic endometrial thickness for diagnosing endometrial pathology in women with postmenopausal bleeding: a meta‐analysis

Our aim was to determine the diagnostic accuracy of endometrial thickness measurement by pelvic ultrasonography for predicting endometrial carcinoma and disease (hyperplasia and/or carcinoma) during an investigation of postmenopausal bleeding. We performed a systematic quantitative review of the available published literature, which consisted of online searching the MEDLINE and EMBASE databases (1966–2000) coupled with scanning of bibliography of known primary and review articles. The selection of studies, assessment of study quality, and extraction of data were performed in duplicate under masked conditions. Included in the analyses were 57 studies with 9031 patients . Accuracy data were summarized using likelihood ratios for various cut‐off levels of abnormal endometrial thickness. The commonest cut‐offs were 4 mm (9 studies) and 5 mm (21 studies), measuring both endometrial layers. None of the nine studies using the ≤ 4 mm cut‐off level were of good quality. Only four studies (out of the 21) used the ≤ 5 mm cut‐off level, which employed the best‐quality criteria. Using the pooled estimates from these four studies only, a positive test result raised the probability of carcinoma from 14.0% (95% CI 13.3–14.7) to 31.3% (95% CI 26.1–36.3), while a negative test reduced it to 2.5% (95% CI 0.9–6.4). In conclusion, ultrasound measurement of endometrial thickness alone, using the best‐quality studies cannot be used to accurately rule. However, a negative result at ≤ 5 mm cut‐off level measuring both endometrial layers in the presence of endometrial pathology rules out endometrial pathology with good certainty.
Application and Comparison of Different Combustion Models of High Pressure LO X /CH 4 Jet Flames

The present work focuses on the numerical modeling of combustion in liquid-propellant rocket engines. Pressure and temperature are well above thermodynamic critical points of both the propellants and then the reactants show liquid-like characteristics of density and gas-like characteristics for diffusivity. The aim of the work is an efficient numerical description of the phenomena and RANS simulations were performed for this purpose. Hence, in the present work different kinetics, combustion models and thermodynamic approaches were used for combustion modeling first in a trans-critical environment, then in the sub-critical state. For phases treatment the pure Eulerian single phase approach was compared with the Lagrangian/Eulerian description. For modeling combustion, the Probability Density Function (PDF) equilibrium and flamelet approaches and the Eddy Dissipation approach, with two different chemical kinetic mechanisms (the Jones-Lindstedt and the Skeletal model), were used. Real Gas (Soave-Redlich-Kwong and Peng-Robinson) equations were applied. To estimate the suitability of different strategies in phenomenon description, a comparison with experimental data from the literature was performed, using the results for different operative conditions of the Mascotte test bench: trans-critical and subcritical condition for oxygen injection. The main result of this study is the individuation of the DPM approach of the most versatile methods to reproduce cryogenic combustion adapted for different operating conditions and producing good results.
Deoxyribonucleic acid of cotton.

The deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) composition of microorganisms has been studied extensively and the vast data obtained form the basis for the concept of chemical specificity of nucleic acids in general (1). In contrast, the DNA composition of higher plants lhas received relatively little attention (11, 14, 15, 16). This applies particularly to studies, e.g., those on wheat (11, 16), in which isolation and purification of the DNA have preceded determination of the constituent purine and pyrimidine bases. In this paper we report the isolation and composition of DNA from nine genotypes of the genus Gossypium, in which two species, four races, and five varieties are represented. Although we give major emphasis to cotton, we also include limited data on the DNA composition of corn, peanut, sunflower, and wheat for comparison.
A Unified View on Known Algebraic Decoding Algorithms and New Decoding Concepts

Known properties of cyclic codes are used to give a unified description of many classical decoding algorithms for Reed-Solomon codes up to half the minimum distance. This description allows also simplified proofs for these decoders. Further, a novel decoding algorithm is derived using these properties directly and variants of a new error/erasure decoding algorithm are given. For decoding beyond half the minimum distance, a basis of all solutions for decoding is derived. This basis allows to use side information in order to decode beyond half the minimum distance. Other methods where this basis can be used are power decoding, also known as virtual syndrome extension, where additional equations are generated by taking powers of the received symbols, and interleaved Reed-Solomon codes. The extended Euclidean algorithm, which calculates the greatest common divisor, plays an essential role in many presented methods.
An Evaluation of the Pattern between Students' Motivation, Learning Strategies and Their Epistemological Beliefs: The Mediator Role of Motivation

This study aims at analysing the relations between students' achievement motivation, learning strategies and their epistemological beliefs in learning through structural equation modelling, and at exploring the mediation role of motivation in the relations between learning strategies and epistemological beliefs. The study group was composed of 446 undergraduate students attending the Faculty of Education. The Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) in addition to the Epistemological Belief Scale was employed as the instrument of data collection in the research. The data obtained were then analysed via confirmatory factor analysis and the path analysis. In consequence, it was found that the model consisting of such variables as learning strategies, motivation and the belief that learning depends on effort yielded the acceptable fit indices, and it was also found that motivation variable mediated between the relations holding between the belief that learning depends on effort and the learning strategies.
Zinc may increase bone formation through stimulating cell proliferation, alkaline phosphatase activity and collagen synthesis in osteoblastic MC3T3-E1 cells

Zinc is an essential trace element required for bone formation, however not much has been clarified yet for its role in osteoblast. We hypothesized that zinc would increase osteogenetic function in osteoblasts. To test this, we investigated whether zinc treatment enhances bone formation by stimulating osteoblast proliferation, bone marker protein alkaline phosphatase activity and collagen synthesis in osteoblastic MC3T3-E1 cells. MC3T3-E1 cells were cultured and treated with various concentrations of zinc (0, 1, 3, 15, 25 uM) along with a normal osteogenic medium (OSM) as control for 1, 5, 10 days. As measured by MTT assay for mitochondrial metabolic activity, cell proliferation was stimulated even at low zinc treatment (1-3 µM) compared to OSM, and it was stimulated in a zinc concentration-dependent manner during 5 and 10 days, with the most pronounced effect at 15 and 25 uM Zn. Cellular (synthesized) alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity was increased in a zinc concentration-dependent manner, so did medium (secreted) ALP activity. Cellular collagen concentration was increased by zinc as time went by, therefore with the maximum zinc stimulatory effect in 10 days, and medium collagen concentration showed the same pattern even on 1 and 5 day. This zinc stimulatory effect of collagen synthesis was observed in cell matrix collagen staining. The study results imply that zinc can increase osteogenic effect by stimulating cell proliferation, ALP activity and collagen synthesis in osteoblastic cells.
Peripheral Electrical Stimulation Triggered by Self-Paced Detection of Motor Intention Enhances Motor Evoked Potentials

This paper proposes the development and experimental tests of a self-paced asynchronous brain-computer interfacing (BCI) system that detects movement related cortical potentials (MRCPs) produced during motor imagination of ankle dorsiflexion and triggers peripheral electrical stimulations timed with the occurrence of MRCPs to induce corticospinal plasticity. MRCPs were detected online from EEG signals in eight healthy subjects with a true positive rate (TPR) of 67.15±7.87% and false positive rate (FPR) of 22.05±9.07%. The excitability of the cortical projection to the target muscle (tibialis anterior) was assessed before and after the intervention through motor evoked potentials (MEP) using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). The peak of the evoked potential significantly (P=0.02) increased after the BCI intervention by 53±43% (relative to preintervention measure), although the spinal excitability (tested by stretch reflexes) did not change. These results demonstrate for the first time that it is possible to alter the corticospinal projections to the tibialis anterior muscle by using an asynchronous BCI system based on online motor imagination that triggered peripheral stimulation. This type of repetitive proprioceptive feedback training based on self-generated brain signal decoding may be a requirement for purposeful skill acquisition in intact humans and in the rehabilitation of persons with brain damage.
Making the term ‘validity’ useful

Although the papers in this issue range over a wide canvas, what I found most striking was the reminder that we are still afflicted with the ‘standoff’ (Newton & Shaw, 2015) between those who argue that validity subsumes impact and those who argue that it properly should be limited to the warrant for the inference based on scores. Validity is the most important attribute of a score-based inference and arguably the most important concept in measurement. It is therefore distressing that after generations of work and countless articles and chapters, we still can’t agree on what it means. Newton and Shaw offer us the key to putting this debate to rest. They suggest that the choice of a definition of validity is less a matter of logic than ‘a matter of . the costs and benefits of adopting one perspective . ’ that seems unarguable: we shouldn’t define the term in a way that isn’t useful. So, what is gained and lost by insisting that the effects of testing should be considered an aspect of validity? I maintain that we gain very little and lose a great deal. One might argue that including impact under the definition of validity is important to underscore the importance of evaluating consequences. I certainly agree that evaluating consequences is indispensable, and I have devoted much of my career to doing so. However, we can emphasise that evaluating impact is essential without labelling it as ‘validity’ and confusing it with the quality of the inference. I chose the word ‘confusing’ deliberately because people outside of the field often find the notion that validity subsumes impact confusing, and this may actually make it harder to convince them of the importance of evaluating impact. Years ago, I watched one of the leading figures in measurement in the US testify at a hearing in the Congress about a proposed system of national tests. One of her principal points was that the system would likely have substantial negative effects, which she labelled as ‘consequential validity’. One of the most important politicians before whom she was testifying interrupted her to say that he did not understand what she meant by the term. The expert tried to explain, to no avail. They went back and forth several times, as the governor’s frustration grew visibly. Eventually, the governor said that he simply did not understand her argument and told her to move on.
Reprogramming of IL-10 Activity and Signaling by IFN-γ 1

One important mechanism of cross-regulation by opposing cytokines is inhibition of signal transduction, including inhibition of Janus kinase-STAT signaling by suppressors of cytokine signaling. We investigated whether IFN-γ, a major activator of macrophages, inhibited the activity of IL-10, an important deactivator. Preactivation of macrophages with IFN-γ inhibited two key anti-inflammatory functions of IL-10, the suppression of cytokine production and of MHC class II expression. Gene expression profiling showed that IFN-γ broadly suppressed the ability of IL-10 to induce or repress gene expression. Although IFN-γ induced expression of suppressor of cytokine signaling proteins, IL-10 signal transduction was not suppressed and IL-10 activation of Janus kinases and Stat3 was preserved. Instead, IFN-γ switched the balance of IL-10 STAT activation from Stat3 to Stat1, with concomitant activation of inflammatory gene expression. IL-10 activation of Stat1 required the simultaneous presence of IFN-γ. These results demonstrate that IFN-γ operates a switch that rapidly regulates STAT activation by IL-10 and alters macrophage responses to IL-10. Dynamic regulation of the activation of different STATs by the same cytokine provides a mechanism by which cells can integrate and balance signals delivered by opposing cytokines, and extends our understanding of cross-regulation by opposing cytokines to include reprogramming of signaling and alteration of function.
Is Engineering Hostile to Women? An Analysis of Data from the 1993 National Survey of College Graduates

ALESSIO and Andrzejewski (2000, henceforward AA neither can be productively addressed through speculation. Here I present additional findings about women's exit rates from engineering compared with men's, and women engineers' exit rates from full-time employment compared with women in other professions. I also discuss the use of top-coded data from the National Science Foundation's National Survey of Natural and Social Scientists and Engineers, 1982-1989 SSE (U.S. Department of Commerce 1990) (SSE). I start by briefly reviewing my original study. SUMMARY OF ORIGINAL FINDINGS
MiBoard: Multiplayer Interactive Board Game

Serious games have recently emerged as an avenue for curriculum delivery. Serious games incorporate motivation and entertainment while providing pointed curriculum for the user. This paper presents a serious game, called MiBoard, currently being developed from the iSTART Intelligent Tutoring System. MiBoard incorporates a multiplayer interaction that iSTART was previously unable to provide. This multiplayer interaction produces a wide variation across game trials, while also increasing the repeat playability for users. This paper presents a demonstration of the MiBoard system and the expectations for its application.
QTLMiner: QTL database curation by mining tables in literature

MOTIVATION Figures and tables in biomedical literature record vast amounts of important experiment results. In scientific papers, for example, quantitative trait locus (QTL) information is usually presented in tables. However, most of the popular text-mining methods focus on extracting knowledge from unstructured free text. As far as we know, there are no published works on mining tables in biomedical literature. In this article, we propose a method to extract QTL information from tables and plain text found in literature. Heterogeneous and complex tables were converted into a structured database, combined with information extracted from plain text. Our method could greatly reduce labor burdens involved with database curation. RESULTS We applied our method on a soybean QTL database curation, from which 2278 records were extracted from 228 papers with a precision rate of 96.9% and a recall rate of 83.3%, F value for the method is 89.6%.
Transforming Growth Factor-βs Are Essential for the Development of Midbrain Dopaminergic Neurons In Vitro and In Vivo

Development of midbrain dopaminergic neurons is known to depend on inductive signals derived from the ventral midline, including Sonic hedgehog (Shh) as one of the identified molecules. Here we show that in addition to Shh, transforming growth factor (TGF)-β is required for both induction and survival of ventrally located midbrain dopaminergic neurons. Like Shh, TGF-β is expressed in early embryonic structures such as notochord and floor plate, as well as in the area where mibrain dopaminergic neurons are developing. Treatment of cells dissociated from the rat embryonic day (E) 12 mibrain floor with TGF-β significantly increases the number of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH)-positive dopaminergic neurons within 24 hr. Neutralization of TGF-β in vitro completely abolishes the induction of dopaminergic neurons. In the absence of TGF-β, Shh cannot induce TH-positive neurons, and vice versa, neutralizing endogenous Shh abolishes the capacity of TGF-β to induce dopaminergic neurons in vitro. Furthermore, neutralization of TGF-β in vivo during chick E2–7 but not E4–7 resulted in a significant reduction in TH-positive neurons in the ventral midbrain floor but not in the locus coeruleus or diencephalon, which suggests that the TGF-β is required for the induction of mesencephalic dopaminergic neurons with a critical time period at E2/E3. Furthermore, neutralization of TGF-β between E6 and 10, a time period during maturation of mesencephalic dopaminergic neurons when no further inductive cues are required, also resulted in a significant loss of dopaminergic neurons, suggesting that TGF-β is required for the promotion of survival of ventral midbrain dopaminergic neurons as well. Together, our results identify TGF-β as an essential mediator for the induction and maintenance of midbrain dopaminergic neurons.
Fibula Osteoseptocutaneous Flap for Reconstruction of Composite Mandibular Defects

The fibula osteoseptocutaneous flap is a versatile method for reconstruction of composite-tissue defects of the mandible. The vascularized fibula can be osteotomized to permit contouring of any mandibular defect. The skin flap is reliable and can be used to resurface intraoral, extraoral, or both intraoral and extraoral defects. Twenty-seven fibula osteoseptocutaneous flaps were used for composite mandibular reconstructions in 25 patients. All the defects were reconstructed primarily following resection of oral cancers (23), excision of radiation-induced osteonecrotic lesions (2), excision of a chronic osteomyelitic lesion (1), or postinfective mandibular hypoplasia (1). The mandibular defects were between 6 and 14 cm in length. The number of fibular osteotomy sites ranged from one to three. All patients had associated soft-tissue losses. Six of the reconstructions had only oral lining defects, and 1 had only an external facial defect, while 18 had both lining and skin defects. Five patients used the skin portion of the fibula osteoseptocutaneous flaps for both oral lining and external facial reconstruction, while 13 patients required a second simultaneous free skin or musculocutaneous flap because of the size of the defects. Four of these flaps used the distal runoff of the peroneal pedicles as the recipient vessels. There was one total flap failure (96.3 percent success). There were no instances of isolated partial or complete skin necrosis. All osteotomy sites healed primarily. The contour of the mandibles was good to excellent. (Plast. Reconstr. Surg. 93: 294, 1994.)
Bayesian Weighting of Statistical Potentials in NMR Structure Calculation

The use of statistical potentials in NMR structure calculation improves the accuracy of the final structure but also raises issues of double counting and possible bias. Because statistical potentials are averaged over a large set of structures, they may not reflect the preferences of a particular structure or data set. We propose a Bayesian method to incorporate a knowledge-based backbone dihedral angle potential into an NMR structure calculation. To avoid bias exerted through the backbone potential, we adjust its weight by inferring it from the experimental data. We demonstrate that an optimally weighted potential leads to an improvement in the accuracy and quality of the final structure, especially with sparse and noisy data. Our findings suggest that no universally optimal weight exists, and that the weight should be determined based on the experimental data. Other knowledge-based potentials can be incorporated using the same approach.
«O retorno é o movimento do TAO»: Uma abordagem dialéctica da eficácia organizacional

Frequentemente, as discussoes sobre a eficacia organizacional transmitem a ideia de que algumas organizacoes sao mais eficazes do que outras. Neste trabalho, o ponto de partida e distinto: algumas organizacoes estao mais eficazes que outras. A eficacia e vista, por conseguinte, como um processo e nao como um resultado estavel. Para explorar esta perspectiva dinâmica, recorremos a filosofia chinesa do taoismo. Algumas nocoes simples sao usadas para discutir como eficacia e ineficacia, mais do que estados independentes, podem afinal ser duas faces de um mesmo projecto. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.17575/rpsicol.v21i1. 359
International Petroleum Exploration and Exploitation Agreements: Legal, Economic and Policy Aspects. By Keith W. Blinn, Claude Duval, Honoré Le Leuch and André Pertuzio. London: Euromoney Publications, 1986. Pp. 431. $145; £98.

contract is underlined by the author who makes frequent and appropriate citations to American case law. Most joint ventures are, de facto, governed by national law, and joint ventures created among enterprises of different nationality, in the case of international bidding, are one of the few examples of a real international joint venture. The main features of the joint venture contract are the sharing of profits and losses, risks, property, the means of production and resources and a common management for the performance of the contract. The author points out that, in some cases, the joint venture can also become an assignee of part of the work while one of the enterprises of the joint venture becomes an assignor and that the minority venturer has no real power in the management and has to follow majority decisions. In conclusion, distortions of the legal characteristics brought about by practice lead to a combination of the three types of contracts examined in the book. The author urges that the legal consequences of subcontracts, consortiums and contractual joint ventures be assessed and reformulated in accordance with the evolution of international practice, and that theoretical discussions about the existence of a lex mercatoria be put aside. There are several Italian publications on international cooperation and lex mercatoria in general, which, however, cover more areas in a more general way. This book's distinction is that the author has studied in depth and from a theoretical point of view international subcontracts, consortiums and contractual joint ventures (although the section dealing with the third category is the least interesting part of the book because of the difficulty of saying something new in a field where so many foreign and Italian works have already been published). Moreover, he has underlined the legal consequences of each of these types of contracts and the results of their performance in international practice. In this work, Draetta demonstrates his expertise (as a teacher and a practitioner) in international contracts. He identifies theoretical problems in day-to-day practice, and for this reason his comments are also useful for practitioners involved in international cooperation contracts.