Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Quantitative analysis of bronchial wall vascularity in the medium and small airways of patients with asthma and COPD.

BACKGROUND Submucosal hypervascularity is part of airway remodeling in patients with asthma; however, its existence in the small airways and its contribution to airflow limitation remain controversial. METHODS We investigated bronchial wall vascularity and angiogenic cells between medium airways (inner diameter, 2 to 5 mm) and small airways (inner diameter, < 2 mm) in patients with asthma (n = 9) and COPD (n = 11), and in 8 control subjects. The lung specimens obtained during surgery were immunostained to detect CD31, CD34, vascular endothelial growth factor, and basic fibroblast growth factor. RESULTS The number of vessels in both the medium and small airways in patients with asthma was significantly (p < 0.01) increased compared to those in patients with COPD and control subjects, and the percentage of vascularity was significantly (p < 0.01) increased in the medium airways in asthma patients and in the small airways in COPD patients. Patients with moderate asthma showed a greater increase in vascularity than those with mild asthma (p < 0.01), and the number of angiogenic factor-positive cells increased in asthma patients compared with control subjects. In asthmatic subjects, inverse correlations were found between FEV(1) percentage of predicted and the number of vessels (r = -0.85; p < 0.01), or the percentage of vascularity (r = -0.72; p < 0.03) in the inner area of the medium airways, but they were not found for the small airways. In COPD patients, no correlations were demonstrated. CONCLUSIONS The number of vessels in the medium and small airways in asthma patients shows a greater increase than those in COPD patients, and the vascular area in the small airways is increased in COPD patients but not in asthma patients. Enhanced vascularity in the inner area of the medium airways, but not in the small airways, might contribute to airflow limitation in asthma patients.
Fragrance administration to reduce anxiety during MR imaging

Fifty‐seven outpatients received either heliotropin (a vanillalike scent) with humidified air (n = 20) or humidified air alone (n = 37) via a nasal cannula during magnetic resonance imaging in the diagnostic workup for cancer. Delivery of heliotropin and air was determined by a computer‐controlled schedule. Fragrance administration resulted in a statistically significant reduction in average overall patientrated anxiety (on a visual analog scale) during imaging in patients who found the fragrance moderately to extremely pleasant. Administration of fragrance was associated with 63% less anxiety than administration of humidified air alone. Physiologic measures (pulse and heart rate) did not show a statistically significant effect with fragrance administration.
Visualization of myelination in GFP‐transgenic zebrafish

The insulation of axons in the vertebrate nervous system by myelin is essential for efficient axonal conduction. Myelination disruption and remyelination failure can cause human diseases, such as multiple sclerosis and hereditary myelin diseases. However, despite progress in understanding myelination regulation, many important questions remain unanswered. To investigate the mechanisms underlying myelination in vivo, we generated transgenic zebrafish expressing enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) under the control of the mbp promoter. This transgenic fish displayed faithful EGFP expression in oligodendrocytes and Schwann cells in embryonic and adult zebrafish. Interestingly, although myelination progressed continuously in the postembryonic central nervous system, some of the spinal cord regions were filled with unmyelinated axons even in the adult spinal cord, suggesting functional differences between myelinated and unmyelinated axons. Our results suggest that this transgenic zebrafish could be a valuable animal model to study oligodendrocyte differentiation and myelination in vivo. Developmental Dynamics 239:592–597, 2010. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Dynamic landscape of tandem 3′ UTRs during zebrafish development

Tandem 3′ untranslated regions (UTRs), produced by alternative polyadenylation (APA) in the terminal exon of a gene, could have critical roles in regulating gene networks. Here we profiled tandem poly(A) events on a genome-wide scale during the embryonic development of zebrafish (Danio rerio) using a recently developed SAPAS method. We showed that 43% of the expressed protein-coding genes have tandem 3′ UTRs. The average 3′ UTR length follows a V-shaped dynamic pattern during early embryogenesis, in which the 3′ UTRs are first shortened at zygotic genome activation, and then quickly lengthened during gastrulation. Over 4000 genes are found to switch tandem APA sites, and the distinct functional roles of these genes are indicated by Gene Ontology analysis. Three families of cis-elements, including miR-430 seed, U-rich element, and canonical poly(A) signal, are enriched in 3′ UTR-shortened/lengthened genes in a stage-specific manner, suggesting temporal regulation coordinated by APA and trans-acting factors. Our results highlight the regulatory role of tandem 3′ UTR control in early embryogenesis and suggest that APA may represent a new epigenetic paradigm of physiological regulations.
Effects of flapless bur decortications on movement velocity of dogs’ teeth

Background: Different surgical procedures that reduce orthodontic treatment time have been recommended. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a new less invasive surgical technique (called flapless bur decortications) for accelerating orthodontic tooth movement. Materials and Methods: This study was designed as a split-mouth study. The left and right maxillary first premolars of five dogs were extracted. An A-NiTi closed coil spring and an absolute anchorage was used for premolar protraction in both sides. In each dog, decortications were performed for one side and the other side was used as the control group. The distance between canine and second premolar was measured and the sites of decortication were evaluated histologically. The data was analyzed by paired samples t-test and multivariate analysis of two-way repeated measures ANOVA. Results: The study teeth moved more than their controls in the first month and less than their controls in the third month (P < 0.05). The total difference between study and control movements was not significant (P < 0.05). Conclusion: (1) Corticotomy facilitated orthodontic tooth movement is achievable with flapless bur decortication technique. (2) Velocity of tooth movement decreases in later stages of treatment due to maturation of newly formed bone at decortication sites.
Challenge of Design Data Exchange between heterogeneous Database Schema

The development of complex systems becomes increasingly difficult. The diversity and number of tools necessary to develop such a system is extensive. One solution to exchange engineering data between these tools is the Standard for Product Data Exchange (STEP), ISO 10303. It offers domain specific database schema called application protocols. This paper analyses the problems of the data exchange between tools via an application protocol. and proposes a Transformation Report, which records individual transformation steps during the exchange between two different tools. The Transformation Report supports the understanding of the data exchange process and helps correcting incomplete or incorrect transformed data.
Effects of testosterone and vitamin E on the antioxidant system in rabbit testis

Summary. The aim of the study was to investigate the effects of testosterone propionate and vitamin E on the antioxidant system in the testis. Thirty‐two male New Zealand White rabbits were randomly divided into four groups. The first group was used as control. The second group was injected with testosterone propionate, the third group vitamin E and the fourth group vitamin E and testosterone propionate combination. All treatments were carried out during 6 weeks and oxidative parameters were evaluated in homogenized testicular tissue. The levels of vitamin E and the activity of glutathione peroxidase were lower (P < 0.05) in the testosterone group than in controls. However, vitamin C and malondialdehyde levels were higher (P < 0.05) in this group than in controls. The levels of reduced glutathione, β‐carotene, vitamin C and E increased, but malondialdehyde levels decreased in the vitamin E group, when compared with controls (P < 0.05). Vitamin E and β‐carotene levels were significantly higher (P < 0.05) in the combination group than in testosterone group. However, MDA levels were lower (P < 0.05) in combination group than in the testosterone group. In conclusion, administration of testosterone propionate led to a significant elevation of oxidative stress. Vitamin E is quite an effective antioxidant which protects rabbit testis against lipid peroxidation, and, testosterone‐induced lipid peroxidation could be improved by additional vitamin E treatment.
Detecting third-party user trackers with cookie files

nowadays, privacy violations caused by third party services are usually addressed with blacklist approaches. Those approaches have limitation, as they are hard to maintain and need to be frequently updated to provide relevant information. Knowing these limitations, we study ability to identify third-party web trackers having corpus of http request between web resources and associated cookies. Cookies are one of the most popular and easy to use mechanisms to link same user visiting different domains. We propose a method for automatic identification of web-tracking requests, which detects 95% of third-party trackers. The proposed method successfully works with known services and is able to detect previously unseen trackers. To evaluate the proposed technique we artificially collected and then analyzed corpus of internet traffic where we found significant amount of shared cookies across different domains.
Inférence automatique de modèles d'applications Web et protocoles pour la détection de vulnérabilités. (Automatic model inference of Web applications and protocols for vulnerability detection)

Les approches de tests basees sur les modeles (MBT) ont su montrer leur efficacite pour le test logiciel, mais elles necessitent de disposer au prealable d'un modele formel du logiciel. Dans la plupart des cas, ce modele n'est pas disponible pour des raisons de cout, de temps ou encore de droits. Dans le cadre du projet SPaCIoS qui vise a developper une plate-forme pour le test de la securite base sur les modeles, l'objectif est de fournir un outil d'inference automatique de modele pour les applications Web ainsi que des methodes de detection de vulnerabilites a partir de ce modele. Nous avons concu pour cela un algorithme d'inference adapte aux applications Web et a leurs caracteristiques. Cette methode prend en compte les donnees et leurs impacts sur le flot de controle. A l'aide d'algorithmes de fouille de donnees, le modele est complete par des gardes ainsi que des fonctions de sortie. Nous avons aussi travaille sur l'automatisation de la procedure d'inference. Dans les approches d'inference active, il est generalement necessaire de connaitre l'interface complete du systeme a inferer pour pouvoir communiquer avec l'application. Cette etape a ete rendue automatique par l'utilisation d'un collecteur qui parcourt l'application pour en extraire les informations necessaires et optimisees pour l'inference. Ce collecteur est aussi utilisable par des methodes d'inference tierces. Dans la version complete de l'algorithme, nous avons fusionne l'algorithme d'inference et celui d'extraction d'interfaces pour obtenir une methode automatique. Nous presentons ensuite l'outil libre SIMPA qui implemente ces differents algorithmes ainsi que divers resultats obtenus sur les cas d'etudes du projet SPaCIoS ainsi que des protocoles.
Parkinson's disease: Improved diagnosis using image processing

An intensity-based texture segmentation approach for the detection of regions with abnormal texture characteristics in magnetic resonance imaging is presented. Our algorithm is tested over several images taken from The Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI-database), and the results suggest that this approach is suitable for the successful identification and extraction of regions of interest whose properties can be potentially related to signature features of Parkinson disease.
Robust online orientation correction for radiographs in PACS environments

In picture archiving and communications systems (PACS), images need to be displayed in standardized ways for radiologists' interpretations. However, for most radiographs acquired via computed radiography (CR), digital radiography (DR), or digitized films, the image orientation is undetermined because of the variations in examination conditions and patients' situations. To address this problem, an automatic orientation correction method is developed. It first detects the most indicative region in a radiograph for image orientation, and then extracts a set of low-level visual features from the region. Based on these features, a well-trained classifier, using support vector machines, is employed to recognize the correct orientation of the radiograph and reorient it to the desired position. A large-scale experiment was conducted on more than 12 000 radiographs, which covered a wide variety of exam types, to validate the method. The overall success rate of orientation correction was 96.1%. A workflow study on the method also demonstrated a significant improvement in efficiency for image display. To our knowledge, this work represents the first robust system designed to handle all radiographic exam types using a unified framework instead of using dedicated strategies for different exam types
Strong synaptic transmission impact by copy number variations in schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a psychiatric disorder with onset in late adolescence and unclear etiology characterized by both positive and negative symptoms, as well as cognitive deficits. To identify copy number variations (CNVs) that increase the risk of schizophrenia, we performed a whole-genome CNV analysis on a cohort of 977 schizophrenia cases and 2,000 healthy adults of European ancestry who were genotyped with 1.7 million probes. Positive findings were evaluated in an independent cohort of 758 schizophrenia cases and 1,485 controls. The Gene Ontology synaptic transmission family of genes was notably enriched for CNVs in the cases (P = 1.5 × 10−7). Among these, CACNA1B and DOC2A, both calcium-signaling genes responsible for neuronal excitation, were deleted in 16 cases and duplicated in 10 cases, respectively. In addition, RET and RIT2, both ras-related genes important for neural crest development, were significantly affected by CNVs. RET deletion was exclusive to seven cases, and RIT2 deletions were overrepresented common variant CNVs in the schizophrenia cases. Our results suggest that novel variations involving the processes of synaptic transmission contribute to the genetic susceptibility of schizophrenia.
Identification of Myoglobin in Human Smooth Muscle*

Myoglobin (Mb) has been believed to be absent generally from mammalian smooth muscle tissue. Examination of human rectal, uterine, bladder, colon, small intestine, arterial, and venous smooth muscle by immunohistochemical techniques shows that each of these tissues is immunopositive for both smooth muscle myosin and human Mb. Mb-specific primers were used for the polymerase chain reaction to generate cDNA from smooth muscle tissues. Southern hybridization with a Mb-specific probe gave a very strong signal with the cDNA from rectum, weaker signals from small intestine and uterus, a faint signal from colon, and no signal from bladder tissue. High performance liquid chromatography analysis coupled with sequence determination has shown that contaminating heme-binding serum albumin as well as hemoglobin in extracts of smooth muscle seriously compromise any heme-based or spectrophotometric assay of Mb. Combined affinity and size exclusion chromatography, however, provide the necessary resolution. The cDNA-derived amino acid sequence of human smooth muscle Mb was found to be identical to that of Mb from striated muscle.
Etiology and Outcome of Low Birth Weight and Preterm Infants

A population of 489 low birth weight infants was studied to identify specific subgroups with high neonatal morbidity and mortality. It was found that 134 (27.4%) of these infants were born at term but were small for gestational age. The other 355 were preterm and contributed most of the mortality and morbidity of the overall population. There was no significant difference in morbidity and mortality between preterm small and appropriate for gestational age infants. The etiologic analyses show that premature rupture of the fetal membranes and maternal-fetal problems are more frequent causes of low birth weight than preterm labor and that they cause significantly more severe neonatal morbidity. It is concluded that only by developing means to improve the outcome of patients with premature rupture of the membranes and maternal-fetal problems will it be possible to decrease significantly the unacceptably high mortality and morbidity of low birth weight infants.
Mutually exclusive signaling signatures define the hepatic and pancreatic progenitor cell lineage divergence

A key question in stem cell biology is how distinct cell types arise from common multipotent progenitor cells. It is unknown how liver and pancreas cells diverge from a common endoderm progenitor population and adopt specific fates. Using RNA-seq, Spagnoli and colleagues define the gene expression programs of liver and pancreas progenitors and identify the noncanonical Wnt pathway as a potential developmental regulator of this fate decision. Furthermore, this study provides a framework for lineage-reprogramming strategies to convert adult hepatic cells into pancreatic cells.
Role of cholecystokinin in postprandial and vagally stimulated duodenal and gallbladder motility in dogs.

This study was designed to determine the role of cholecystokinin (CCK) in postprandial motility pattern of the duodenum and gallbladder (GB) in conscious dogs provided with chronic duodenal electrodes for recording of myoelectric activity and GB fistulas for measurement of intraluminal pressure and volume of GB and to calculate the GB motility index (MI) and GB emptying rate. During naturally occurring activity front (phase III MMC) in the duodenum there was significant increase in the MI of GB accompanied by about 20-30% reduction in the GB volume. These changes in duodenal and GB motility pattern could be duplicated by i.v. motilin. Feeding abolished the appearance of spontaneous activity front in the duodenum and greatly increased motility of GB while reducing its volume. Administration of CCK receptor antagonists in fed dogs failed to affect the motility changes induced by meal in the duodenum but abolished these of the GB. Vagal cholinergic stimulation with insulin, 2DG or urecholine caused similar effects to that induced by food i.e. increased duodenal spike activity, abolished phase III of the MMC, decreased GB volume and increased GB motility. Pretreatment with CCK antagonists did not affect significantly duodenal spike activity or GB motility but significantly increased the GB volume. Atropine 125 micrograms/kg) blocked almost completely spontaneous activity front in the duodenum and accompanying alterations in the motility and volume of GB. We conclude that CCK contributes to the MMC related alterations in the GB motor activity and is essential in cholinergic stimulation induced of the GB emptying but not in vagally induced duodenal and GB motility.
Social role valorization: a proposed new term for the principle of normalization.

The highest goal of the principle of normalization has recently been clarified to be the establishment, enhancement, or defense of the social role(s) of a person or group, via the enhancement of people's social images and personal competencies. In consequence, it is proposed that normalization be henceforth called "social role valorization. "
Recognition of human actions by using depth information

Usage of 3. dimension information obtained from depth sensors in human action recognition become important recently. Depth information can increase recognition accuracy in some applications. In this study, 10 different human actions are tried to recognize on a human model derived from Microsoft Kinect RGBD sensor. Angles between joints and displacement of joints on 3 koordinat axes are used as features. Actions are classified with the random forest and support vector machine approaches and 96% classification accuracy is obtained with the random forest approach.
Teacher perceptions of desired qualities, competencies and strategies for clinical skills teachers

Introduction: Clinical skills centres (or Skillslabs) prepare students for patient-encounters. Evidence on teaching skills in these centres is lacking. What teaching skills do teachers view as effective in supporting the acquisition of physical examination skills in undergraduate medical training? Method: Structured interviews of 10 teachers (1/3 of staff of Maastricht University, Skillslab) were conducted. Selection was based on even representation of age, years teaching experience, gender and previous experience at Maastricht University. A topic grid was used to ensure comparability. Interviews (average 70 min, range 33–95 min) were recorded and transcripts were analyzed independently by two researchers. Results: Teaching skills identified include the ability to adapt content of the training, level of depth and teaching method according to the needs of any particular group. Thorough comprehension of students’ context (level of knowledge, prior experience and insight in the curriculum) is considered helpful. Explicitly inviting students to ask questions and providing relevant literature is seen to stimulate learning. Providing constructive feedback is essential, as is linking physical examination skills training to clinical situations. The ideal attitude includes appropriate dress and behaviour, as well as the use of humour. Affinity for teaching is regarded as the most important reason to work as a teacher. Conclusion: Desired characteristics for undergraduate skills teachers resemble findings in other teaching roles. Affinity for teaching and flexibility in teaching methods are novel findings.
G-band bowtie dipole antenna

In this paper we propose a 3D micromachined 210GHz elevated bowtie dipole antenna fed by coplanar waveguide. The antenna is designed for MMICs applications at G-band (140GHz to 220GHz). The antenna topology effectively creates a low dielectric substrate and undesired substrate effects can be eliminated, since the antenna substrate is essentially air (the lowest possible dielectric constant) and can be used on most substrates to monolithically integrate. The proposed antenna is composed of coplanar waveguide (CPW) feed line, air-bridges, a feeding post, supporting posts, and a radiator. The elevated antenna is fed with a gold feeding post connected to a CPW line on top of SI-GaAs substrate. The antenna fabrication is based on a standard III–V MMIC airbridge technology. The measured bandwidth is about 8.6GHz (For return loss≪10dB) from 204GHz to 212.6GHz.