Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparison of ropivacaine and bupivacaine toxicity in human articular chondrocytes.

BACKGROUND It has been shown that bupivacaine, the most commonly used local anesthetic for postoperative intra-articular use, is cytotoxic to bovine articular chondrocytes in vitro. Ropivacaine is as effective as bupivacaine for intra-articular analgesia and has less systemic toxicity. We compared the in vitro viability of human articular chondrocytes after exposure to bupivacaine, ropivacaine, and saline solution control. METHODS Macroscopically normal human articular cartilage was harvested from the femoral head or tibial plateau of five patients. Full-thickness cartilage explants and cultured chondrocytes isolated from these patients were treated with 0.9% normal saline solution, 0.5% ropivacaine, or 0.5% bupivacaine for thirty minutes. Twenty-four hours after treatment, chondrocyte viability was measured with use of the LIVE/DEAD Viability/Cytotoxicity Kit for cartilage explants and with use of the CellTiter-Glo Luminescent Cell Viability Assay for cultured chondrocytes. RESULTS Chondrocyte viability in cartilage explants was significantly greater after treatment with ropivacaine as compared with bupivacaine (94.4% +/- 9.0% compared with 78% +/- 12.6%; p = 0.0004). There was no difference in viability after treatment with ropivacaine as compared with saline solution (94.4% +/- 9.0% compared with 95.8% +/- 5.7%; p = 0.6). The viability of cultured chondrocytes was significantly greater after treatment with ropivacaine as compared with bupivacaine (63.9% +/- 19% as compared with 37.4% +/- 12% of the value in the saline solution group; p < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS In vitro, 0.5% ropivacaine is significantly less toxic than 0.5% bupivacaine in both intact human articular cartilage and chondrocyte culture.
Incidence of airflow limitation in subjects 65–100 years of age

The true incidence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is largely unknown, because the few longitudinal studies performed have used diagnostic criteria no longer recommended by either the European Respiratory Society or the American Thoracic Society (ATS). We studied the incidence and significance of airflow limitation in a population-based geriatric sample using both an age-dependent predicted lower limit of normal (LLN) value and a fixed-ratio spirometric criterion. Out of 2025 subjects with acceptable spirometry at baseline, 984 subjects aged 65–100 years completed a 6-year follow-up visit. Smoking habits were registered at baseline. Exclusion criteria were non-acceptable spirometry performance according to ATS criteria and inability to communicate. Airflow limitation was defined both according to forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1)/forced vital capacity ratio <0.7 and <LLN. The incidence of airflow limitation per 1000 person-years was 28.2 using a fixed ratio and 11.7 with LLN, corresponding to a 1.41-fold higher incidence rate using a fixed ratio. The incidence increased dramatically with age when using a fixed ratio, but less so when using LLN. In addition, a sex effect was observed with the LLN criterion. LLN airflow limitation was associated with increased 5-year mortality. Presence of fixed-ratio airflow limitation in individuals classified by LLN as non-obstructive was not associated with increased mortality. Female sex may be a risk factor for developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease http://ow.ly/TdgEd
Graphene as Transparent Electrode Material for Organic Electronics

Graphene, a two-dimensional atomically thick carbon atom arranged in a honeycomb lattice, was recently isolated by repeatedly peeling highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) using sticky tape. [ 1 ] Since then, outstanding physical properties predicted and measured for graphene have been explored for practical applications such as fi eld-effect transistors, [ 1–4 ] chemical sensors [ 5–7 ] and composite reinforcement. [ 8–10 ] Monolayer graphene possesses high crystallographic quality and ballistic electron transport on the micrometer scale with only 2.3% of light absorption. [ 11 , 12 ] Moreover, the combination of its high chemical and thermal stability, [ 13 , 14 ] high stretchability, [ 15–17 ]
Clinical Practice Guidelines : Management of chronic hepatitis B European Association for the Study of the Liver *

Our understanding of the natural history of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection and the potential for therapy of the resultant disease has improved. Several new and effective antiviral agents have been evaluated and licensed since the EASL International Consensus Conference on hepatitis B held in 2002 [1]. The objective of these EASL Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPGs) is to update recommendations for the optimal management of chronic hepatitis B (CHB). The CPGs do not focus on prevention and vaccination. Several difficulties remain in formulating treatments for CHB; thus areas of uncertainty exist. At the present time clinicians, patients and public health authorities must continue to make choices on the basis of evidence that is not fully matured.
Max-Margin Synchronous Grammar Induction for Machine Translation

Traditional synchronous grammar induction estimates parameters by maximizing likelihood, which only has a loose relation to translation quality. Alternatively, we propose a max-margin estimation approach to discriminatively inducing synchronous grammars for machine translation, which directly optimizes translation quality measured by BLEU. In the max-margin estimation of parameters, we only need to calculate Viterbi translations. This further facilitates the incorporation of various non-local features that are defined on the target side. We test the effectiveness of our max-margin estimation framework on a competitive hierarchical phrase-based system. Experiments show that our max-margin method significantly outperforms the traditional twostep pipeline for synchronous rule extraction by 1.3 BLEU points and is also better than previous max-likelihood estimation method.
MED1 Phosphorylation Promotes Its Association with Mediator: Implications for Nuclear Receptor Signaling

ABSTRACT Mediator is a conserved multisubunit complex that acts as a functional interface between regulatory transcription factors and the general RNA polymerase II initiation apparatus. MED1 is a pivotal component of the complex that binds to nuclear receptors and a broad array of other gene-specific activators. Paradoxically, MED1 is found in only a fraction of the total cellular Mediator complexes, and the mechanisms regulating its binding to the core complex remain unclear. Here, we report that phosphorylation of MED1 by mitogen-activated protein kinase-extracellular signal-regulated kinase (MAPK-ERK) promotes its association with Mediator. We show that MED1 directly binds to the MED7 subunit and that ERK phosphorylation of MED1 enhances this interaction. Interestingly, we found that both thyroid and steroid hormones stimulate MED1 phosphorylation in vivo and that MED1 phosphorylation is required for its nuclear hormone receptor coactivator activity. Finally, we show that MED1 phosphorylation by ERK enhances thyroid hormone receptor-dependent transcription in vitro. Our findings suggest that ERK phosphorylation of MED1 is a regulatory mechanism that promotes MED1 association with Mediator and, as such, may facilitate a novel feed-forward action of nuclear hormones.
Threading Electronic Mail: a Preliminary Study Corresponding Author

Tools for processing e-mail and other electronic messages should be able to recognize and manipulate threads, that is, conversations among two or more people carried out by exchange of messages. While user clients typically insert in messages structural information useful for recovering threads, inconsistencies between clients, loose standards, creative user behavior, and the subjective nature of conversation make threading systems based on structural information only partially successful. We propose that this situation is unlikely to change, and that threading of electronic messages be treated as a language processing task. Preliminary experiments show that a signi cant level of threading e ectiveness can be achieved by applying standard text matching methods from information retrieval to the textual portions of messages. 2
Social support for physical activity and perceptions of control in early Parkinson's disease

Purpose. The purpose of this article is to investigate how social support influences physical activity participation, as perceived by men and women in the early stages of Parkinson's disease (PD). It will also address how this perceived support interacts with perceptions of control to influence this participation. Method. Three women and four men with early PD completed a background questionnaire and participated in individual semi-structured interviews. The World Health Organisation's International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) model was used as a framework to develop questions related to the environmental factors examined. Phenomenology was employed in the analysis of interview transcripts. Results. Three main types of support (instrumental, emotional, informational) were provided to participants, and each of these had a positive influence on physical activity participation. In addition to this support, participants reported personally participating in exercise as a means to help control the progression of PD. Conclusions. This is believed to be the first study looking at factors influencing physical activity participation in PD. Issues related to support for exercise from physicians and organisational issues of support groups for PD are discussed. Directions for future research are provided, which should aid in the identification of strategies to increase physical activity levels in those with PD.
Process aggravated noise (PAN): new validation and test problems

How the trends in circuit design are increasing the significance of noise effects, such as crosstalk and ground bounce, is demonstrated. Further aggravated by process variations, these process aggravated noise (PAN) effects must be considered as an integral part of the design validation methodology. It is shown that the validation of a design in the presence of PAN effects requires simulation at new design corners that are not typically considered during the validation of digital CMOS circuits. Furthermore, it is shown that the choice of a new design corner depends not only on the particular PAN effect under consideration, but also on the nature of the circuit. We demonstrate the need for automating the process of selecting design corners as well as test sequences for validation and outline strategies for their automation.
Calculation of the surface tension of liquid Ga-based alloys

Abstract As known, Eyring and his collaborators have applied the structure theory to the properties of binary liquid mixtures. In this work, the Eyring model has been extended to calculate the surface tension of liquid Ga–Bi, Ga–Sn and Ga–In binary alloys. It was found that the addition of Sn, In and Bi into Ga leads to significant decrease in the surface tension of the three Ga-based alloy systems, especially for that of Ga–Bi alloys. The calculated surface tension values of these alloys exhibit negative deviation from the corresponding ideal mixing isotherms. Moreover, a comparison between the calculated results and corresponding literature data indicates a good agreement.
Adrenomedullin is a useful biomarker for the prognosis of critically ill septic children.

AIM To measure midregional pro-adrenomedullin (MR-pro-ADM) in critically ill septic patients to determine its prognostic usefulness as compared with other used biomarkers in pediatric intensive care units, C-reactive protein (CRP) and procalcitonin (PCT). MATERIALS & METHODS Prospective observational study conducted on 95 patients. RESULTS Mean levels of MR-pro-ADM were significantly higher when patients needed mechanical ventilation (3.2 ± 4.3 vs 1.6 ± 2.4) and inotropes (4.4 ± 5.2 vs 1.3 ± 1.2). Receiver operating characteristic curves of mortality were higher for MR-pro-ADM (cut-off value of 2.2). This marker showed higher positive predictive prognostic value than PCT and CRP (31 vs 21.6% and 15.8%, respectively). CONCLUSION MR-pro-ADM levels are good indicators of disease severity and show better reliability than PCT and CRP for predicting in-hospital mortality.
Reconfigurable Frequency Response Masking Filters for Software Radio Channelization

Low complexity and reconfigurability are two key requirements of channel filters in a software defined radio receiver. A new reconfigurable architecture based on frequency response masking (FRM) technique for the implementation of channel filters is proposed in this paper. Our architecture offers reconfigurability at filter and architecture levels, in addition to the inherent low complexity offered by the FRM technique. The proposed reconfigurable filter has been synthesized on 0.18- CMOS technology and implemented and tested on Virtex-II 2v3000ff1152-4 field-programmable gate array. Synthesis results show that the proposed channel filter offers average area and power reductions of 53.6% and 57.6%, respectively ,with average improvement in speed of 47.6% compared to other reconfigurable filters in literature.
Surgery, Surgeon, and Measurement of Value and Quality of Surgeons’ Work

Surgery has undergone a significant change and development entering the 21st century. The changes and development have been technology driven, both in therapy and diagnosis. There have been significant changes in the health-care systems as well universally. The changes have created a significant challenge both for the profession and the surgeon. The surgeon should be prepared for further developments and innovations and adapt himself or herself to survive practicing surgery and conserving the humanistic approach of medicine and professionalism including respect to professional values. The profession needs to prepare itself for the future to train good surgeons accordingly for better community health.
The Decrease in Number and Change in Phenotype of Mucosal‐Associated Invariant T cells in the Elderly and Differences in Men and Women of Reproductive Age

Mucosal‐associated invariant T (MAIT) cells are innate‐like T cells comprising up to 10% of the peripheral blood T cells in humans. During ontogeny, MAIT cells can first be detected in the cord blood in low amounts, but rise steadily after birth. In this population‐based study, we show that their counts continue to increase, reaching maximal levels (4.5% of CD3+ cells, 65 cells/μl) in the third and fourth decenniums. At this age, the amounts of MAIT cells exhibit the highest interindividual variability. The values then dramatically decline; subjects 80 years old and older have on average 10 times less MAIT cells, both absolutely and as a percentage among CD3+ T cells, than subjects in fertile age. The senescence of MAIT cells is associated with decreased CD8/double negative (DN) ratio. Finally, we observed significantly higher amounts of MAIT cells in women of reproductive age than in men of the same age. Our data suggest that further studies aimed at elucidating a role of MAIT cells in human pathologies must recruit age‐ and gender‐matched controls.
Injury Risk Estimation Expertise

Background: Available methods for screening anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury risk are effective but limited in application as they generally rely on expensive and time-consuming biomechanical movement analysis. A potentially efficient alternative to biomechanical screening is skilled movement analysis via visual inspection (ie, having experts estimate injury risk factors based on observations of athletes’ movements). Purpose: To develop a brief, valid psychometric assessment of ACL injury risk factor estimation skill: the ACL Injury Risk Estimation Quiz (ACL-IQ). Study Design: Cohort study (diagnosis); Level of evidence, 3. Methods: A total of 660 individuals participated in various stages of the study, including athletes, physicians, physical therapists, athletic trainers, exercise science researchers/students, and members of the general public in the United States. The ACL-IQ was fully computerized and made available online (www.ACL-IQ.org). Item sampling/reduction, reliability analysis, cross-validation, and convergent/discriminant validity analyses were conducted to refine the efficiency and validity of the assessment. Results: Psychometric optimization techniques identified a short (mean time, 2 min 24 s), robust, 5-item assessment with high reliability (test-retest: r = 0.90) and high test sensitivity (average difference of exercise science professionals vs general population: Cohen d = 2). Exercise science professionals and individuals from the general population scored 74% and 53% correct, respectively. Convergent and discriminant validity was demonstrated. Scores on the ACL-IQ were best predicted by ACL knowledge and specific judgment strategies (ie, cue use) and were largely unrelated to domain-general spatial/decision-making ability, personality, or other demographic variables. Overall, 23% of the total sample (40% of exercise science professionals; 6% of general population) performed better than or equal to the ACL nomogram. Conclusion: This study presents the results of a systematic approach to assess individual differences in ACL injury risk factor estimation skill; the assessment approach is efficient (ie, it can be completed in <3 min) and psychometrically robust. The results provide evidence that some individuals have the ability to visually estimate ACL injury risk factors more accurately than other instrument-based ACL risk estimation methods (ie, ACL nomogram). The ACL-IQ provides the foundation for assessing the efficacy of observational ACL injury risk factor assessment (ie, does simple skilled visual inspection reduce ACL injuries? ). The ACL-IQ can also be used to increase our understanding of the perceptual-cognitive mechanisms underlying injury risk assessment expertise, which can be leveraged to accelerate learning and improve performance.
Superselective continuous arterial infusion chemotherapy through the superficial temporal artery for oral cavity tumors.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE High-dose intraarterial chemotherapy with repeated one-shot infusion may be useful for treating head and neck tumors. We evaluated the efficacy of superselective continuous arterial infusion chemotherapy administered via a coaxial catheter system and compared the results with those of subselective catheterization for treatment of oral cavity tumors. METHODS Forty-nine consecutive patients with tumors of the oral cavity (clinical stage I, 12 cases; stage II, 19 cases; stage III, six cases; stage IV, 12 cases) were treated by arterial infusion chemotherapy. After a guiding catheter was advanced into the superficial temporal artery, superselective catheterization was performed using a coaxial system microcatheter. Superselective catheterization was accomplished in 34 cases, and was unsuccessful in 15, owing to difficulties in performing catheterization or to multiple feeding arteries. In the latter cases, the tip of the catheter was placed near the origin of the feeding arteries (subselective catheterization). RESULTS Thirty (88%) of 34 patients had a complete response to superselective arterial infusion chemotherapy and two (6%) had a partial response. Twelve (80%) of 15 patients had a complete response to subselective arterial infusion chemotherapy and three (20%) had a partial response. Local recurrence was more frequent after subselective treatment (13%) than after superselective (6%) treatment. CONCLUSION Superselective continuous arterial infusion chemotherapy may be suitable for local control of oral cavity tumors, with a low rate of recurrence.
Dynamically Integrating OSM Data into a Borderland Database

Spatial data are fundamental for borderland analyses of geography, natural resources, demography, politics, economy, and culture. As the spatial data used in borderland research usually cover the borderland regions of several neighboring countries, it is difficult for anyone research institution of government to collect them. Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) is a highly successful method for acquiring timely and detailed global spatial data at a very low cost. Therefore, VGI is a reasonable source of borderland spatial data. OpenStreetMap (OSM) is known as the most successful VGI resource. However, OSM's data model is far different from the traditional geographic information model. Thus, the OSM data must be converted in the scientist’s customized data model. Because the real world changes rapidly, the converted data must be updated incrementally. Therefore, this paper presents a method used to dynamically integrate OSM data into the borderland database. In this method, a basic transformation rule base is formed by comparing the OSM Map Feature description document and the destination model definitions. Using the basic rules, the main features can be automatically converted to the destination model. A human-computer interaction model transformation and a rule/automatic-remember mechanism are developed to interactively transfer the unusual features that cannot be transferred by the basic rules to the target model and to remember the reusable rules automatically. To keep the borderland database current, the global OsmChange daily diff file is used to extract the change-only information for the research region. To extract the changed objects in the region under study, the relationship between the changed object and the research region is analyzed considering the evolution of the involved objects. In addition, five rules are determined to select the objects and integrate the changed objects with multi-versions over time. The objects’ change-type evolution is analyzed, and seven rules are used to determine the change-type of the changed objects. Based on these rules and algorithms, we programmed an automatic (or semi-automatic) integrating and updating prototype system for the borderland database. The developed system was intensively tested using OSM data for Vietnam and Pakistan as the experimental data.