Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Procalcitonin assay in systemic inflammation, infection, and sepsis: Clinical utility and limitations

Objective:The use of procalcitonin (ProCT) as a marker of several clinical conditions, in particular, systemic inflammation, infection, and sepsis, will be clarified, and its current limitations will be delineated. In particular, the need for a more sensitive assay will be emphasized. For these purposes, the medical literature comprising clinical studies pertaining to the measurement of serum ProCT in various clinical settings was examined. Data Source and Selection:A PubMed search (1965 through November 2007) was conducted, including manual cross-referencing. Pertinent complete publications were obtained using the MeSH terms procalcitonin, C-reactive protein, sepsis, and biological markers. Textbook chapters were also read and extracted. Data Extraction and Synthesis:Available clinical and other patient data from these sources were reviewed, including any data relating to precipitating factors, clinical findings, associated illnesses, and patient outcome. Published data concerning sensitivity, specificity, and reproducibility of ProCT assays were reviewed. Conclusions:Based on available data, the measurement of serum ProCT has definite utility as a marker of severe systemic inflammation, infection, and sepsis. However, publications concerning its diagnostic and prognostic utility are contradictory. In addition, patient characteristics and clinical settings vary markedly, and the data have been difficult to interpret and often extrapolated inappropriately to clinical usage. Furthermore, attempts at meta-analyses are greatly compromised by the divergent circumstances of reported studies and by the sparsity and different timing of the ProCT assays. Although a high ProCT commonly occurs in infection, it is also elevated in some noninfectious conditions. Thus, the test is not a specific indicator of either infection or sepsis. Moreover, in any individual patient, the precipitating cause of an illness, the clinical milieu, and complicating conditions may render tenuous any reliable estimations of severity or prognosis. It also is apparent that even a febrile septic patient with documented bacteremia may not necessarily have a serum ProCT that is elevated above the limit of functional sensitivity of the assay. In this regard, the most commonly applied assay (i.e., LUMItest) is insufficiently sensitive to detect potentially important mild elevations or trends. Clinical studies with a more sensitive ProCT assay that is capable of rapid and practicable day-to-day monitoring are needed and shortly may be available. In addition, investigations showing that ProCT and its related peptides may have mediator relevance point to the need for evaluating therapeutic countermeasures and studying the pathophysiologic effect of hyperprocalcitonemia in serious infection and sepsis.
Preparation of composite electrospun nanofibers of polycaprolactone and nanohydroxyapatite for osteogenic differentiation of stem cells

Nanocomposites of poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) and nanohydroxyapatite (nHAP) were prepared by electrospinning to produce 300 nm nanofibers containing 0 , 25, and 50 wt% of nHAP. The composite nanofibers were characterized for structure, morphology, and mechanical properties. Mesenchymal stem cells grown on the nanofibers show different degree of osteogenic differentiation dependent on nHAP content with the highest nHAP content giving the best mineralization.
Bovine Membrane-Type 1 Matrix Metalloproteinase: Molecular Cloning and Expression in the Corpus Luteum1

Abstract Matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) is produced as a zymogen, which is subsequently activated by membrane-type 1 metalloproteinase (MT1-MMP). The objectives of the present study were to clone bovine MT1-MMP and to investigate its expression in the corpus luteum. Corpora lutea were harvested from nonlactating dairy cows on Days 4, 10, and 16 of the estrous cycle (Day 0 = estrus; n = 3 for each age). The bovine MT1-MMP cDNA contained an open reading frame of 1749 base pairs, which encoded a predicted protein of 582 amino acids. Northern blotting revealed no differences (P > 0.05) in MT1-MMP mRNA levels between any ages of corpora lutea. Western blotting demonstrated that two species of MT1-MMP, the latent form (∼63 kDa) and the active form (∼60 kDa), were present in corpora lutea throughout the estrous cycle. Active MT1-MMP was lower (P < 0.05) in early stages of the corpus luteum than the mid and late stages, where MMP-2 activity, as revealed by gelatin zymography, was also elevated. Furthermore, immunohistochemistry revealed that MT1-MMP was localized in endothelial, large luteal, and fibroblast cells of the corpus luteum at different stages. Taken together, the differential expression and localization of MT1-MMP in the corpus luteum suggest that it may have multiple functions throughout the course of the estrous cycle, including activation of pro-MMP-2.
High doses of vascular endothelial growth factor 165 safely, but transiently, improve myocardial perfusion in no-option ischemic disease.

UNLABELLED Gene therapy can induce angiogenesis in ischemic tissues. The aim of this study was to assess safety, feasibility, and results, both clinical and on myocardial perfusion, of gene therapy in refractory angina. This was a phase I/II, prospective, temporal-controlled series, clinical trial. Thirteen patients were maintained for minimum 6 months under optimized clinical management, and then received intramyocardial injections of 2000 μg plasmid vascular endothelial growth factor 165 and were followed by single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), treadmill tests, Minnesota quality of life questionnaire (QOL), and New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional plus Canadian Cardiovascular Society (CCS) angina classifications. There were no deaths, early or late. During the optimized clinical treatment, we observed worsening of rest ischemia scores on SPECT (p<0.05). After treatment, there was a transitory increase in myocardial perfusion at the third-month SPECT under stress (pre-operative [pre-op] 18.38 ± 7.51 vs. 3 months 15.31 ± 7.30; p<0.01) and at the sixth month under rest (pre-op 13.23 ± 7.98 vs. 6 months: 16.92 ± 7.27; p<0.01). One year after, there were improvements in treadmill test steps (pre-op 2.46 ± 2.07 vs.12 months 4.15 ± 2.23; p<0.01) and oxygen consumption (pre-op 7.66 ± 4.47 vs.12 months 10.89 ± 4.65; p<0.05), QOL (pre-op 48.23 ± 18.35 vs.12 months 28.31 ± 18.14; p<0.01) scores, and CCS (pre-op 3 [3-3.5] vs.12 months 2 [1-2.5]; p<0.01) and NYHA (pre-op 3 [3-3] vs. 2 [2-2] vs. 12 months 2 [1-2]; p<0.01) classes. Gene therapy demonstrated to be feasible and safe in this advanced ischemic cardiomyopathy patient sample. There were improvements in clinical evaluation parameters, and a transitory increase in myocardial perfusion detectable by SPECT scintigraphy. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION NCT00744315 http://clinicaltrials.gov/
Migrating Java Threads with Fuzzy Control on Asymmetric Multicore Systems for Better Energy Delay Product

Asymmetric multicore systems had been studied as a new hardware platform toward performance-power efficiency for the execution of application programs. Each core in the system has distinct performance and power characteristics. When exploiting asymmetric multicore systems, a major issue is to distribute threads to various cores. In this work, we build a pseudo asymmetric system by the dynamic voltage frequency scaling (DVFS) mechanism on Intel core-i7 920 for physical power measurement and implement a tool agent for regular JVM to form an asymmetric-aware JVM that supervises the execution of Java threads and migrates threads with a fuzzycontrol scheduler. For result inspection, we consider energy delay product (EDP) as a metric to reveal the compromise between performance and energy use. Our fuzzy-control scheduler results in EDP benefit for some benchmarks and lower overall energy consumption. 1 Keywords-Asymmetric multicore; JVM; power efficiency; schedule;
Global output regulation for a class of singular nonlinear systems

This paper discusses the global output regulation problem for a class of singular nonlinear systems. First, we apply input and coordinate transformation to transfer the singular nonlinear system into a reduced-order normal system, and we show that the solvability of the stabilization problem for this normal system implies the solvability of the output regulation problem for the original singular nonlinear system. Then, the sufficient conditions for the output regulation problem of the singular nonlinear system are established by solving the stabilization problem of the normal system. Finally, the proposed approach is illustrated by a numerical example.
Spatial information content and reliability of hippocampal CA1 neurons: Effects of visual input

The effects of darkness on quantitative spatial firing characteristics of 235 hippocampal CA1 “complex spike” (CS) cells were studied in young and old Fischer‐344 rats during food‐motivated performance of a randomized, forced‐choice task on an eight‐arm radial maze. The room lights were turned on or off on alternate blocks of all eight arms.
Characteristics of ceramic BGA using polymer core solder balls

The thermal reliability of lead-free solder joints between ceramic substrates and FR4 printed circuit boards (PCBs) is a major concern when designing ceramic ball grid arrays (CBGAs), particularly for thicker or larger substrates, since their CTE is much smaller than that of PCB. In order to achieve high reliability for critical applications, polymer core solder balls (PCSBs) are a promising solution. PCSBs enable high reliability without the need for other materials such as underfill resin or modification of package design to ensure reliability. In this study, the characteristics of PCSBs were evaluated using a variety of techniques in order to assess their adaptability to CBGA applications. The solder joint condition and the presence of intermetallic compounds (DVICs) were investigated, and the board-level reliability and electrical performance were compared to those of conventional SAC305 solid solder balls. Thermal cycling tests from -40 to +125 °C were carried out using an alumina CBGA with a 25 × 25 mm2 package size and a 1.0 mm ball pitch. As a result of a larger solder bump height and a finer IMC microstructure, PCSBs exhibited a board-level reliability more than three times higher than that for SAC305 solder balls. PCSBs also exhibited stable electrical performance, with a similar initial resistance to that for SAC305 solder balls. Electromigration tests were carried out at a temperature of 150 °C and a current of 1.8 A, and lifetimes of more than 700 hours were found for both types of solder balls. The PCSB failure mode was fatigue cracking in the solder at the interface with DVICs on the ceramic side, which is similar to the case for SAC305. The use of PCSBs in large-sized HITCE CBGAs was also investigated to assess their potential for increasing the demand for larger package applications.
An Area Efficient Stacked Latch Design Tolerant to SEU in 28 nm FDSOI Technology

In this paper, we present D flip-flop, Quatro, and stacked Quarto flip-flop designs fabricated in a commercial 28-nm CMOS FDSOI technology. Stacked-transistor structures are introduced in the stacked Quatro design to protect the sensitive devices of the original structure. Striking either of the stacked devices will not upset the latch because the conduction path to the supply rail is still cut off by the other off-state device. The irradiation experimental results substantiate that the stacked Quatro design has significantly better SEU tolerance (e.g., higher heavy ion upset Linear Energy Transfer threshold and smaller cross-section data) than the reference designs. It introduces power and area penalties because the proposed design duplicates and stacks two sensitive PMOS devices. Additionally, the impact of technology scaling on Quatro in various technology nodes (130-nm, 65-nm, and 40-nm) has been studied suggesting decreasing upset threshold and decreasing cross-section data.
A neuropsychological study of 12 patients with transient ischemic attacks before and after EC/IC bypass surgery

ABSTRACT – A neuropsychological study of 12 patients with transient ischemic attacks from the carotid artery territory was carried out about 2 months following their latest attack, about a week before STA/MCA bypass operation, and again 3 months postoperatively. The results suggest that the TIA patients as a group were slightly intellectually impaired preoperatively. After the operation, a minor neuropsychological improvement had taken place although they still were not fully intellectually rehabilitated.
Stereotactic Body Radiosurgery for Pelvic Relapse of Gynecologic Malignancies

Clinical management of pelvic relapses from gynecologic malignancies remains challenging. Bulky pelvic relapses often lead to symptomatic cancer-related complications and poor clinical outcomes. Options may be limited by prior surgical, chemotherapeutic, and radiation treatment. Stereotactic body radiosurgery is a novel treatment modality which allows high radiation dose delivery in a non-coplanar fashion with sub-millimeter precision utilizing a linear accelerator mounted on a robotic arm. This study details our clinical experience with stereotactic body radiosurgery for treatment of patients with pelvic relapses of gynecologic malignancies after prior pelvic radiation.
Physico-chemical and hygienic property modifications of stainless steel surfaces induced by conditioning with food and detergent

The effect of repeated conditioning procedures (25 runs), consisting of soiling (milk and meat products) and cleaning steps, on the hygienic status, physico-chemical properties and surface chemical composition of stainless steel (SS) surfaces, was investigated. Five SSs differing in grade and finish were used. Both soiling and surface cleaning/conditioning procedures resulted in a similar increase in the surface contamination with carbon, while the changes in the basic component of the surface free energy depended on the conditioning procedure. The passive film was also affected, the Fe/Cr ratio in particular. The hygienic status was also changed, especially with milk as shown by monitoring the number of residual adhering Bacillus cereus spores after contaminating the surface with spores followed by cleaning. The results show that in food environments, the presence and the nature of conditioning molecules play a major role in the hygienic status of SS surfaces.
Analysis of work style in operation & maintenance of information systems

This paper focuses on the work style in operation & maintenance (O&M) of information systems and discusses potential problems hard for involved parties themselves to find out. First, this study used ethnography to extract problems and critical factors common to O&M projects. Secondly, the author analyzed the work styles by comparing critical factors of contrasting projects. Then, the results of the analyses were shared with both projects. The sharing resulted in raising awareness that behaviors and values taken for granted by the involved parties could be where the problem itself or room for creative thinking lied. It was confirmed that practicing the analysis method used in this study could be effective for cross-organizational learning between O&M projects.
High Rate of Negative Results of Tuberculin and QuantiFERON Tests Among Individuals With a History of Positive Skin Test Results

Objectives. To evaluate individuals at high risk for tuberculosis exposure who had a history of a positive tuberculin skin test (TST) result in order to determine the prevalence of unsuspected negative TST results. To confirm these findings with the QuantiFERON-TB test (QFT), an in vitro whole-blood assay that measures tuberculin-induced secretion of interferon-γ. Methods. This survey was conducted from November 2001 through December 2003 at 3 sites where TST screening is regularly done. Detailed histories and reviews of medical records were performed. TSTs were placed and read by 2 experienced healthcare workers, and blood was drawn for QFT. Any subject with a negative result of an initial TST during the study (induration diameter, <10 mm) underwent a second TST and a second QFT. The TST-negative group comprised individuals for whom both TSTs had an induration diameter of <10 mm. The confirmed-negative group comprised individuals for whom both TSTs yielded no detectable induration and results of both QFTs were negative. Results. A total of 67 immunocompetent subjects with positive results of a previous TST were enrolled in the study. Of 56 subjects who completed the TST protocol, 25 (44.6%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 31.6%-57.6%) were TST negative (P<.001). Of 31 subjects who completed the TST protocol and the QFT protocol, 8 (25.8%; 95% CI, 10.4%-41.2%) were confirmed negative (P<.005). Conclusions. A significant proportion of subjects with positive results of a previous TST were TST negative in this study, and a subset of these were confirmed negative. These individuals' TST status may have reverted or may never have been positive. It will be important in future studies to determine whether such individuals lack immunity to tuberculosis and whether they should be considered for reentry into tuberculosis screening programs.
Real-Time 3D Video Acquisition and Auto-Stereoscopic Display End-to-End Algorithm Based on Tiled Multi-projectors

In order to display the real-time 3D video with more stereoscopic vision, this paper presents a novel end-to-end auto-stereoscopic tiled-projection display algorithm including dual-view video streaming acquisition, compression, transmission, and visualization. On the server side, it gets 3D video captured by dual-camera or read from dual-view 3D video files. Then, the dual-view images are transcoded into MPEG-2 /H.264 data by the Intel Quick Sync Video engine, and distributed to all rendering clients through the real-time transport protocol. On the client side, a self-calibrated method based on a slope voting policy is designed to eliminate the dual-viewpoint perspective distortion. After performing the geometric calibration and luminance correction, the dual-view images are interleaved on the optical display screen with a two-dimensional projection resolution of 3584 × 1536 pixels. Experimental results have validated that the projection system can bring viewers much better glasses-free stereoscopic vision at above 21 × 2 frames per second.
Design, modeling and control of a system for dynamic measuring of leg length discrepancy

This paper presents a system for dynamic measuring of leg length discrepancy (LLD). The system consists of two 3-RPS parallel manipulators with three degrees of freedom. Parallel manipulators have force sensors that determine the patient's center of gravity (COG) displacement. By changing the height of the moving platform of the parallel manipulator, COG returns in its expected position. The difference between the heights of moving platforms equals the amount of LLD. Inverse kinematics of the 3-RPS parallel manipulator was performed. A virtual simulation system was made and tested in MATLAB/Simulink. The paper presents simulation results of the system operation.
An aseismic slip transient on the North Anatolian Fault

Constellations of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellites with short repeat time acquisitions allow exploration of active faults behavior with unprecedented temporal resolution. Along the North Anatolian Fault (NAF) in Turkey, an 80 km long section has been creeping at least since the 1944, Mw 7.3 earthquake near Ismetpasa, with a current Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR)‐derived average creep rate of 8 ± 3 mm/yr (i.e., a third of the NAF long‐term slip rate). We use a dense set of SAR images acquired by the COSMO‐SkyMed constellation to quantify the spatial distribution and temporal evolution of creep over 1 year. We identify a major burst of aseismic slip spanning 31 days with a maximum slip of 2 cm, between the surface and 4 km depth. This result shows that fault creep along this section of the NAF does not occur at a steady rate as previously thought, highlighting a need to revise our understanding of the underlying fault mechanics.
The Distribution of Active Force Generators Controls Mitotic Spindle Position

During unequal cell divisions a mitotic spindle is eccentrically positioned before cell cleavage. To determine the basis of the net force imbalance that causes spindle displacement in one-cell Caenorhabditis elegans embryos, we fragmented centrosomes with an ultraviolet laser. Analysis of the mean and variance of fragment speeds suggests that the force imbalance is due to a larger number of force generators pulling on astral microtubules of the posterior aster relative to the anterior aster. Moreover, activation of heterotrimeric guanine nucleotide– binding protein (Gprotein) α subunits is required to generate these astral forces.
The effect of lung resection on pulmonary function and exercise capacity in lung cancer patients.

OBJECTIVE Prospectively to evaluate the effects of lung resection on lung function (as measured via spirometry) and exercise capacity (as measured via shuttle-walk test) in lung cancer patients. METHODS We conducted pulmonary function tests and the shuttle-walk test with 110 consecutive patients, before and 1 month, 3 months, and 6 months after lobectomy (n = 73) or pneumonectomy (n = 37). All the patients underwent a standard posterolateral thoracotomy. Eighty-eight patients completed all 3 postoperative assessments. RESULTS At 6 months after resection, the lobectomy patients had lost 15% of their preoperative forced expiratory volume in the first second (FEV1) (p < 0.001) and 16% of their exercise capacity (p < 0.001), and the pneumonectomy patients had lost 35% of their preoperative FEV(1) (p < 0.001) and 23% of their exercise capacity (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS Lobectomy patients suffered significant reduction of functional reserve, with almost equal deterioration between lung function and exercise capacity. Pneumonectomy patients had a more substantial loss of functional reserve, and a disproportionate loss of pulmonary function relative to exercise capacity. Therefore, pulmonary function test values considered in isolation may exaggerate the loss of functional exercise capacity in pneumonectomy patients, which is important because many lung cancer patients who require resection for cure are prepared to accept the risks of immediate surgical complications and mortality, but are unwilling to risk long-term poor exercise capacity.
Assessing the Effect of Organizational Commitment on Service Quality; a Study of Customer-Contact Employee

A study of this kind that focused on the effect of organizational commitment on service quality is an inter-disciplinary study that is meant to provide a deeper understanding of human resource-service quality relationship. The data required for this study was gathered through the instrument of questionnaire to achieve the objectives of the study. Three hypotheses were formulated and tested using multiple regressions. Each of the hypotheses tested the effect of affective commitment, continuance commitment and normative commitment on service quality of customer-contact employees respectively. This study was conducted using customer-contact employees of a popular fast food organization in Lagos State, Nigeria. It was only the normative commitment that was found to have a significant effect on service quality. The implication is that the extent to which an employee is obliged to make personal sacrifice to the organization is very crucial.