Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nonadhesive liquid embolic agent for cerebral arteriovenous malformations: preliminary histopathological studies in swine rete mirabile.

OBJECTIVE To assess acute and chronic histopathological changes observed in a swine arteriovenous malformation model after endovascular delivery of Embolyx E (Micro Therapeutics Inc., San Clemente, CA) and its organic solvent dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). To develop standard endovascular delivery techniques of Embolyx through microcatheters into swine rete mirabile (RMB). METHODS Forty RMBs in 22 swine were used to analyze acute and chronic angiographic and histological changes after superselective delivery of Embolyx E and/or its organic solvent (DMSO). Four RMBs (two for DMSO and two for Embolyx E study) were used as control specimens. Angiographic and histological evaluations were obtained 18 days, 1 month, 3 months, and 6 months after the procedure. Particular attention was paid to the presence of focal or diffuse angionecrosis, arterial revascularization, and perivascular inflammatory response. RESULTS Staged and/or continuous delivery of Embolyx E were performed through the DMSO-compatible microcatheters without untoward catheter "gluing. " All subacute/chronic specimens embolized with Embolyx E showed no evidence of angiographic recanalization. Twelve RMBs were used in acute studies, and all specimens showed no evidence of angionecrosis or aggressive inflammatory reaction. Subacute and chronic (total, n = 14) histological examinations of the RMBs showed mild inflammatory response manifested by monocellular infiltration and scattered foreign body giant cell reaction. In the 9 of 14 subacute and chronic specimens, focal disruption of elastica was observed along with embolic materials. Fourteen RMBs in eight swine were used to determine the safety range for DMSO injection. Two RMBs were used as control specimens. Rapid intra-arterial delivery (0.5 ml/5-15 s, n = 6) of DMSO caused angiographic vasospasm and histological endothelial necrosis. Slow injection (0.5 ml/30-120 s, n = 8) of DMSO showed minimum or no angiographic vasospasm, minimal adventitial inflammatory response, and no clinical complications. CONCLUSION Embolyx E, an occlusive and nonadhesive embolic agent, is capable of producing permanent occlusion of swine RMB with the development of mild intra- and perivascular inflammatory changes and no clinical complications. The slow endovascular delivery of DMSO produces no untoward angiographic, pathological, or clinical changes. A fast injection of DMSO causes endothelial necrosis and severe inflammatory response in the arterial wall. This embolic material seems to have appropriate biochemical, anatomic, and histopathological characteristics to be used in the treatment of cerebral arteriovenous malformations or vascular cranial base tumors.
Representation des concepts en biologie et en medecine. Introduction a l'analyse des connaissances et a l'identification assistee par ordinateur

Ce travail a pour objectif de definir un cadre formel permettant de representer les descriptions de concepts (taxons, maladies) en explicitant au mieux les differentes notions utilisees dans les descriptions en langage naturel. L'expose de ce formalisme forme la premiere partie de ce travail et est illustre par de nombreux exemples biologiques. Il tient compte de la variabilite interne des concepts et introduit notamment les notions de typicite, de ressemblance entre etats, de relation entre descripteurs, de fiabilite et de vraisemblance. La deuxieme partie du travail presente l'utilisation pratique du formalisme pour realiser des bases de connaissances et les analyser. Plusieurs bases de connaissances sont presentees: l'une en botanique sur les especes du genre reseda, la seconde en zoologie sur les especes de phlebotomes de guyane francaise et la troisieme en medecine sur les hepatites virales aigues. Puis quelques methodes d'analyse des connaissances sont introduites en particulier des calculs de distance entre concepts et des mesures de dispersion et de codispersion entre descripteurs. Enfin on montre, sous le terme d'identification assistee par ordinateur, comment la consultation de telles bases de connaissances permet de realiser des identifications et des diagnostics, et les avantages d'un tel systeme par rapport a l'utilisation de cles d'identification classiques
Total Macular Volume and Foveal Retinal Thickness Alterations in Healthy Pregnant Women

ABSTRACT Purpose: To evaluate whether there are alterations in total macular volume (TMV) and foveal retinal thickness (FT) values during pregnancy. Methods: This study included 60 healthy pregnant women in their first, second, and third trimester (groups 1, 2, and 3) and 20 nonpregnant women (group 4). TMV and FT values were measured by optical coherence tomography (OCT) in each group. Results: Mean TMV was 1.43 ± 0.56 mm3, 1.88 ± 0.54 mm3, 2.04 ± 0.66 mm3 and 1.35 ± 0.41 mm3 in groups 1, 2, 3, and 4, respectively. Mean FT was 199.20 ± 64.35 µ, 274.35 ± 67.45 µ, 287.95 ± 95.50 µ and 192.100 ± 58.61 µ in groups 1, 2, 3, and 4, respectively. There was statistical significance among group 1–2 (p1 = 0.014, p2 = 0.001), group 1–3 (p1 = 0.003, p2 = 0.002), group 2–4 (p1 = 0.001, p2 = 0.001), and group 3–4 (p1 = 0.001, p2 = 0.001) for both TMV and FT, respectively. Conclusion: The increase of fluid in the body, in particular in the second and last trimester, may cause an increase of TMV and FT.
Organization Structure and Financial Performance of Savings and Credit Co-Operatives in Western Region, Kenya

The organization structure is the foundation of an effective system of internal control. Most of the well-publicized failures including not only Enron and WorldCom, but also the governance failures that led to the 2008 financial crisis were, at least in part, the result of weak control environments. In the absence of a demonstrably effective control environment, no level of “design and operating” effectiveness of controls within business and IT processes can provide meaningful assurance to stakeholders of the integrity of an organization’s internal control structure. The main objective of the study was to examine to establish the influence of organizational structure on the financial performance of SACCOs in Western region. The study adopted a cross section research design using the quantitative approach. The target population was 177 senior members in nine licensed SACCOs operating in Western Region. A sample of 123 respondents was selected by use of stratified random sampling out of which a response rate of 110 was obtained. Both primary and secondary data were collected with the aid of structured questionnaires and document analysis. Validity of the research instruments was determined using expert judgment while Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was used to measure internal consistency with the alpha coefficient of above 0.976 thus considered reliable. Data was analyzed by use of descriptive and inferential statistics. Multiple regression and Pearson correlation were used for inferential statistics. Data was presented by use of tables and figures. The study found out that organization structure had a positive and significant effect of financial performance of SACCOs. The study concluded that organization structure lead to more financial growth of SACCOs. The study thus recommended that for increase in financial performance of SACCOs, more resources should be diverted in expansion of SACCOs, putting up an elaborate and functioning organization structure and increasing the level of integrity and ethical values within the SACCOs.
Progestagen component in combined hormone replacement therapy in postmenopausal women and breast cancer risk: A debated clinical issue

The relevance of the progestagen component in combined hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for breast cancer risk has been long debated. In vitro studies have shown that progestins exert both genomic transcriptional and non-genomic effects that can enhance the proliferation, invasiveness and spread of breast cancer cells. According to a novel hypothesis, progestins can still activate cancer stem cells in patients with pre-existing, clinically undetected breast cancer. However, some experimental and clinical data suggest that different progestins may have a different impact on the pathophysiology of malignant breast cells. In vitro studies on estrogen receptor (ER)+ breast cancer cells have shown that the addition of medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA) to estradiol (E2) produces a significantly higher increase of the mRNA levels and activities of estrogen-activating enzymes aromatase, 17β hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type-1 and sulfatase when compared with progesterone plus E2. In randomised trial performed on ovariectomised adult female monkeys, oral E2 plus MPA have resulted in a significantly greater proliferation of breast lobular and ductal epithelium when compared with placebo, whereas E2 plus micronised progesterone have not. In the same experimental model, oral E2 plus MPA have been found to induce the expression of genes encoding epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) ligands and downstream targets, whereas E2 alone or E2 plus micronised progesterone had no or modest effects on EGFR-related genes. In last years, some clinical studies on HRT users have shown that androgenic progestin- or MPA-based formulations are associated with an increased breast cancer incidence, whereas micronised progesterone- or dydrogesterone-based formulations are not. Further basic and clinical investigations on this topic are strongly warranted to elucidate whether the choice of the progestagen component in combined HRT could be of clinical relevance as for breast cancer risk.
A parameterisable and scalable Smith-Waterman algorithm implementation on CUDA-compatible GPUs

This paper describes a multi-threaded parallel design and implementation of the Smith-Waterman (SM) algorithm on compute unified device architecture (CUDA)-compatible graphic processing units (GPUs). A novel technique has been put forward to solve the restriction on the length of the query sequence in previous GPU implementations of the Smith-Waterman algorithm. The main reasons behind this limitation in previous GPU implementations were the finite size of local memory and number of threads per block. Our solution to this problem uses a divide and conquer approach to compute the alignment matrix involved in each pairwise sequence alignment, as it divides the entire matrix computation into multiple sub-matrices and allocates the available amount of threads and memory resources to each sub-matrix iteratively. Intermediate data is stored in shared and global memory on the fly depending on the length of sequences in hand. The proposed technique resulted in up to 4.2 GCUPS (Giga Cell Updates per Second) performance when tested against the SWISS-PROT protein database, which is up to 15 times faster than a equivalent optimised CPU-only implementation running on a Pentium4 3.4GHz desktop computer. Moreover, our implementation can cope with any query or subject sequence size, unlike previously reported GPU implementations of the Smith-Waterman algorithm which makes it fully deployable in real world bioinformatics applications.
Egress of Alphaherpesviruses

In their recent papers on the assembly of alphaherpesviruses, Wild et al. ([13][1]) and Leuzinger et al. ([3][2]) propose that the egress of herpesvirus capsids from the nucleus and formation of the enveloped herpesvirus virion occur by two alternative routes. The first route is similar to that
Analysis of Nonlinear Phenomena in a Thermal Micro-Actuator With a Built-In Thermal Position Sensor

An analysis of nonlinear effects associated with a chevron thermal micro-actuator with a built in thermal position sensor under static conditions is presented in this paper. The nonlinearities present in both actuator and sensor are studied. The phenomena considered for the sensor include: thermal coupling from actuator to sensor and temperature dependence of electrical resistivity. Those considered for the actuator include: non-uniform spatial distribution of temperature in arms, temperature dependency of thermal expansion coefficient, deviation of arm shape from straight line due to physical constraints, and temperature dependence of electrical resistivity.
he advantage of simple paper abstracts

Each year, researchers publish an immense number of scientific papers. While some receive many citations, others receive none. Here we investigate whether any of this variance can be explained by the choice of words in a paper’s abstract. We find that doubling the word frequency of an average abstract increases citations by 0.70%. We also find that journals which publish papers whose abstracts are shorter and contain more frequently used words receive slightly more citations per paper. Specifically, adding a 5 letter word to an abstract decreases the number of citations by 0.02%. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that the style in which a paper’s abstract is written bears some relation to its scientific impact. © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
An Examination of the Role of Collateral in the Loan Contracting Process.

Appendix A: Summary of Existing Theory and Evidence of the Role of Collateral in a Loan C o n t r a c t . 203 Appendix B: Hypotheses Separating the Various Roles for Collateral. 206 Appendix C: Variables Employed. 208 V i t a . 211
Prevalence of Ocular Surface Complaints in Patients With Glaucoma Using Topical Intraocular Pressure-Lowering Medications

Purpose: To determine the prevalence of ocular surface disease (OSD) in patients with glaucoma using topical intraocular pressure (IOP)-lowering therapy. Methods: This prospective observational study enrolled patients with primary open-angle glaucoma or ocular hypertension who were on a topical IOP-lowering medication regimen. Enrolled patients completed the ocular surface disease index (OSDI) and OSDI scores (0-100, with 0 representing no symptoms) were calculated for each patient. Medical history, demographics, and concomitant medication information were also collected. Results: Overall, 630 patients from 10 sites participated. Of these, 305 patients (48.4%) had an OSDI score indicating either mild (n = 134, 21.3%), moderate (n = 84, 13.3%), or severe (n = 87, 13.8%) OSD symptoms. OSDI scores were significantly different between patients with and without a prior diagnosis of dry eye syndrome (25.2 ± 15.4 vs 15.4 ± 15.8, respectively; P = 0.0036) and between patients who did and did not use artificial tears at the time of study participation (23.0 ± 15.6 vs 15.3 ± 15.8, respectively; P = 0.0046). Mean OSDI scores varied significantly with the number of topical IOP-lowering medications used, with higher (more severe) OSDI scores in patients using multiple IOP-lowering medications. Specifically, patients on a single medication had a mean OSDI score of 12.9 ± 13.1, which was significantly lower than those of patients on 2 (16.7 ± 17.0; P = 0.007) or 3 medications (19.4 ± 18.1; P = 0.0001). Conclusions: OSD is prevalent among medically treated patients with glaucoma. The severity of OSD symptoms is positively correlated to the number of IOP-lowering medications used.
In vitro antileishmanial activity of inhibitors of steroid biosynthesis and combinations of antileishmanial agents.

present in the hemolymph of replete females only at 10-8 M. Thus, hemolymph components at this concentration or below may be affected by specific antibodies directed against them. The main advantage of using ELISA for detection of host antibodies in the hemolymph of ticks was the small volume of hemolymph required (about 0.2 Al/tick). Thus, all adult ticks and most nymphs can be tested individually with this assay. This assay may be used to evaluate the potential for controlling other hematophagous arthropods with IgG against their hemolymph components.
Efficient topology discovery algorithm for software-defined networks

Software-defined networking (SDN) already has an established presence in the networking industry as an emerging paradigm for designing network architectures, decoupling the control from the forwarding plane and offering a centralised way of network management. Cloud and enterprise infrastructure engineers have already adopted such techniques for building up their environments, deliberating the cost and flexibility advantages gained from this technology. However, smaller companies may choose a progressive replacement of their equipment due to operational and budget constraints. Hence, mixing equipment could lead up to hybrid SDN environments making network management even more complex. In this study, an event-based generic topology discovery algorithm, capable of providing an efficient packet discovery mechanism using existing protocols in SDN networks, is proposed. For testing and evaluation purposes, address resolution protocol and link layer discovery protocol are being used to extract the information needed and reconstruct the topology to the controller. Implementation is accomplished using Internet Engineering Task Force's ForCES framework.
Sound spectral analysis of snoring sound and site of obstruction in obstructive sleep apnea syndrome

Abstract Conclusion: This study demonstrates that there is a significant difference in sound spectrum between first snoring sound after upper level and lower level obstructive apneas, and it is possible to use sound spectrum analysis as a supplementary method to determine the obstructive site of a patient with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS). Objectives: To investigate the difference in sound spectrum between the first snoring sounds after upper level (above the free margin of soft palate) obstructive apneas and lower level (below the free margin of soft palate) obstructive apneas in patients with OSAS. Methods: Thirty male patients with OSAS were included in this study. Overnight snoring sound was recorded and continuous upper airway pressure measurement was performed simultaneously on each subject. The first snores after upper level and lower level obstructive apneas were identified and analyzed acoustically. Results: The mean of peak frequencies, central frequencies, and proportions of energy from 800 Hz to 2000 Hz and above 2000 Hz of the first snoring sounds after lower level obstructive apneas were higher and the proportion of energy below 800 Hz was lower than those after upper level obstructive apneas. The differences of all the parameters were of significance. The power spectrum of the two types of snoring sounds also exhibited different characters.
Effective use of Language by Managers in Diverse Workforce

Saudi Arabia has witnessed a high percentage of immigration in the past few decades as the influx of workers from different parts of the world has significantly increased during this time. This movement has caused an interaction between people having diverse languages, customs, and cultural backgrounds. Diversity has in turn led to a number of benefits, including enhanced employee creativity and competence. Due to the nature of the Saudi Arabian workplace; which is dominated by a foreign workforce, communication at workplace holds prime importance. A questionnaire was administered to 127 branch managers. This study aimed at demonstrating the effects of communication; particularly language used by the managers at the workplace, on organizational effectiveness and how it is used to leverage the existing diversity and set a vibrant workplace environment.
The Knowledge Management of Export Companies From Sinaloa, Mexico＂ A Comparative Analysis Between Companies Register Patents and Not

This article analyzes knowledge management in companies with patent and those without patent starting from the perspective of the knowledge production cycle of Nonaka’s model. The objective is to identify the knowledge management practices of the companies with patent, and compare them with those without patent for the purpose of finding possible significant differences. The source of information is a survey given to 70 export enterprises in Sinaloa, Mexico. Using the comparative method, data is treated statistically through a multivariate analysis to identify the significant differences between the two groups: with patent and without patent, which are calculated through non-parametric tests such as the U Mann’s Whitney and the chi-squared. It should be noted that this research was done to answer the following questions: How do the exporting companies from Sinaloa, the ones with patent and without patent, manage knowledge? Also, how is the cycle of knowledge production in such companies? The results of the comparative analysis state that there are significant differences in the knowledge management practices in the companies that and those that do not patent, the first ones unlike the second show more interest in giving “education and training” to its members as part of knowledge creation, but the next link in the value chain is wasted in the storing part; it means the organizational knowledge is created through a complex process that does not follow a specific route. Also, it is observed that the absence of projects that contribute to the integration of actions oriented to the management in the organizations and the use of methods and tools allow its use. So it is required that both groups of companies commit decisively to make the creation of knowledge which is the main objective of their management.
An investigation of the substrate specificity of the xyloglucanase Cel74A from Hypocrea jecorina

The substrate specificity of the xyloglucanase Cel74A from Hypocrea jecorina (Trichoderma reesei) was examined using several polysaccharides and oligosaccharides. Our results revealed that xyloglucan chains are hydrolyzed at substituted Glc residues, in contrast to the action of all known xyloglucan endoglucanases (EC 3.2.1.151). The building block of xyloglucan, XXXG (where X is a substituted Glc residue, and G is an unsubstituted Glc residue), was rapidly degraded to XX and XG (kcat = 7.2 s−1 and Km = 120 µm at 37 °C and pH 5), which has only been observed before with the oligoxyloglucan‐reducing‐end‐specific cellobiohydrolase from Geotrichum (EC 3.2.1.150). However, the cellobiohydrolase can only release XG from XXXGXXXG, whereas Cel74A hydrolyzed this substrate at both chain ends, resulting in XGXX. Differences in the length of a specific loop at subsite + 2 are discussed as being the basis for the divergent specificity of these xyloglucanases.
The concept of ventricular reserve in heart failure and pulmonary hypertension: an old metric that brings us one step closer in our quest for prediction

Purpose of review Ventricular reserve is emerging a strong predictor of outcome in heart failure and cardiovascular disease. Ventricular reserve is the term used to describe the extent of increase or change in ventricular function that occurs during exercise or pharmacological stress (typically with dobutamine). Recent findings The interest in ventricular reserve lies in its ability to assess viability in coronary artery disease, to predict clinical outcome and response to therapy in patients with heart failure and to screen patients for early cardiovascular disease. Summary In this paper, we will review the emerging role of ventricular reserve in heart failure and pulmonary hypertension. We will also explore the mechanisms involved in the pathophysiology of impaired ventricular reserve and discuss future directions of research in the field.