Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prevention of meningococcal disease by group C polysaccharide vaccine.

Abstract Group C meningococcal polysaccharide vaccine was administered to 13,763 Army recruit volunteers at five basic training centers. These men represented 20 per cent of 68,072 recruits under observation. Only minor local erythema occurred; no systemic reactions to the vaccine developed in these men. Thirty-eight bacteriologically proved cases of Group C meningococcal disease developed in the nonimmunized men; only one such case occurred in a vaccinated recruit. The 87 per cent reduction in Group C disease was statistically significant. Group B meningococci caused illness in four immunized and three control recruits, indicating the group specificity of the vaccine. Group C carrier acquisitions among vaccinated persons were markedly reduced.
The MABA approach: a new option to improve bronchodilator therapy

Recently, the results of an interesting systematic review have shown that the use of a combination of a long-acting β2-agonist (LABA) and a long-acting antimuscarinic agent (LAMA), the so called “dual” bronchodilator therapy, in stable moderate chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients is potentially a good pharmacological approach for the improvement of symptoms when they are not adequately controlled with tiotropium monotherapy [1]. Several studies have demonstrated a superior bronchodilation effect of combining a LABA with a LAMA compared with the individual agents alone, and that these combinations are well tolerated in patients with moderate to severe COPD [2]. Published evidence also indicates that “dual” bronchodilator therapies induce greater improvements in patient-centred outcomes such as dyspnoea, symptoms, rescue medication use and health-related quality of life than individual drugs used alone [3]. These findings are not surprising because the pharmacological rationale that supports this therapeutic possibility seems to be solid [4]. LABAs and LAMAs directly target airway smooth muscle working through different pathways [4, 5]. Moreover, several intriguing preclinical data support cross-activity of acetylcholine on the sympathetic system and adrenergic catecholamines on the parasympathetic (acetylcholine neurotransmission) system [4–6]. All this explains why the new executive summary of the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease recommends a combination of long-acting bronchodilators as a second choice in COPD patients who have significant symptoms but still a low risk of exacerbations, or have few symptoms but a high risk of exacerbations [7]. A combination of long-acting bronchodilators is a second choice also in patients who have many symptoms and a high risk of exacerbations, but it must be associated with an inhaled corticosteroid [7]. Nonetheless, there is still no unanimous agreement about …
The Facet Orientation of the Subaxial Cervical Spine and the Implications for Cervical Movements and Clinical Conditions

Study Design. Computed tomography study. Objective. To obtain detailed information on the facet orientation in the subaxial cervical spine and explore the correlation to the cervical movements and relevant clinical conditions. Summary of Background Data. Although facet orientation was well studied in the lumbar spine, the literatures on the cervical facet orientation were limited and the descriptions were nonspecific. Methods. The computed tomography scans of 100 individuals were reconstructed. For each level from C2/C3 to C6/C7, the horizontal plane, the mid-sagittal plane, the coronal plane, and the two facet planes were established. The normal vectors of the five planes were used for the calculation of the facet orientation and the facet tropism. Results. The angle of the facet plane with respect to the horizontal plane at the C6/7 level was the largest (left side: 64.34° ± 6.60°, right side: 63.37° ± 6.81°, P >0.05). The angle of the facet plane with respect to the coronal plane decreased from C2/C3 level to C6/C7 level. Regarding the angle of the facet plane with respect to the sagittal plane, for the paired facet joints, three types were found: posteromedially oriented, posterolaterally oriented, and ipsilaterally oriented. All (100%) of the facet joints at the C2/C3 level and 65% at the C3/C4 level were posteromedially oriented. In the lower levels of the cervical spine, the posteromedially oriented facet joints were less common. The facet tropism was common phenomenon in the subaxial cervical spine. Conclusion. This study provided detailed information on the facet orientation in the subaxial cervical spine. The cervical facet orientation correlated well with the spinal movements and related clinical conditions. Level of Evidence: 3
Evaluación entre compañeros de la comunicación oral efectiva

La evaluacion entre companeros es una forma de aprendizaje colaborativo en el que los estudiantes valoran el producto de aprendizaje de otros estudiantes. En nuestro caso, efectuan dos tipos de evaluacion relacionados con la comunicacion efectiva: en equipo evaluan cuantitativamente documentos con la resolucion de problemas de otros equipos, y, posteriormente, evaluan cualitativamente las presentaciones orales de los ejercicios. Se les han dado pautas sobre como llevar a cabo la evaluacion. El resultado ha sido comparado con la evaluacion hecha por los profesores. En la evaluacion cualitativa de las presentacions no se ha encontrado diferencias significativas entre la realizada por los alumnos en equipo y la de los profesores. Ademas, la argumentacion que hacen a las valoraciones son rigurosas y muestran su aprendizaje a traves del trabajo hecho por los companeros.
State estimation and application to induction machines - A comparative study

Induction machine is highly nonlinear model with states that change with operating point and temperature. In these cases, estimating these variables from other easily obtained measurements can be extremely useful. This paper deals with the problem of state estimation of induction machine on the basis of a third-order electrical model using Bayesian methods. The performances of Bayesian estimation techniques are compared when they are utilized to achieve this objective. These techniques include the extended Kalman filter (EKF), the unscented Kalman filter (UKF), the particle filter (PF), and the developed improved particle filter (IPF). The estimation results, which are validated using simulations, show that IPF provides improved estimation performance over PF, even with abrupt changes in estimated states, and both of them can provide improved accuracy over UKF and EKF. These advantages of the IPF are due to the fact that it uses a better proposal distribution that takes the latest observation into account.
Vascular and Interventional Radiology / Radiologie vasculaire et radiologie d'intervention Retrospective Review of Efficacy of Radiofrequency Ablation for Treatment of Colorectal Cancer Liver Metastases From a Canadian Perspective

Purpose: A retrospective single-center review of ultrasound-guided radiofrequency ablation (RFA) treatment of colorectal cancer liver metastases was performed. This study reviews the primary and secondary technical effectiveness, overall survival of patients, recurrence-free survival, tumour-free survival, rates of local recurrence, and postprocedural RFA complications. Technical effectiveness and rates of complication with respect to tumour location and size were evaluated. Our results were compared with similar studies from Europe and North America. Methods: A total of 63 patients (109 tumours) treated with RFA between February 2004 and December 2009 were reviewed. Average and median follow-up time was 19.4 and 16.5 months, respectively (range, 1e54 months). Data from patient charts, pathology, and Picture Archiving and Communication System was integrated into an Excel database. Statistical Analysis Software was used for statistical analysis. Results: Primary and secondary technical effectiveness of percutaneous and intraoperative RFA were 90.8% and 92.7%, respectively. Average (SE) tumour-free survival was 14.4 � 1.4 months (range, 1e43 months), and average (SE) recurrence-free survival was 33.5 � 2.3 months (range, 2e50 months). Local recurrence was seen in 31.2% of treated tumours (range, 2e50 months) (34/109). Overall survival was 89.4% at 1 year, 70.0% at 2 years, and 38.1% at 3 years, with an average (SE) overall survival of 37.0 � 2.8 months. There were 14 postprocedural complications. There was no statistically significant difference in technical effectiveness for small tumours (1e2 cm) vs intermediate ones (3e5 cm). There was no difference in technical effectiveness for peripheral vs parenchymal tumours. Conclusions: This study demonstrated good-quality outcomes for RFA treatment of colorectal cancer liver metastases from a Canadian perspective and compared favorably with published studies.
Cluster Based Gaze Estimation and Data Visualization Supporting Diverse Environments

This paper proposes a method to explore the navigation of audience by estimating gaze points and labeling them to the objects of video or web content. The cluster based gaze estimation and statistics based labeling method are proposed to support the multiple user environments as well as improve the accuracy and usability. In addition, the number of feature clusters is accorded as the amount of areas of target screen. Additionally, statistics based labeling method is proposed to mapping the gaze points to target object by computing the probability. Moreover, this method can provide a good manner to estimate the attentive objects. The visualization of attentive blocks and the amount of probabilities are presented to illustrate the navigation of audience as attentive object. Therefore, this visualization method can exhibit the navigation behavior of audience more real, besides overcomes the problem of difficult labeling objects. The experimental results demonstrate the proposed method provide more robustness for long range as well as diversity environments.
Identification of Bacteria Using Phylogenetic Relationships, Revealed by MS/MS Sequencing of Tryptic Peptides Derived from Cellular Proteins

Abstract : CONCLUSIONS: The results demonstrate that mass spectrometry-based proteomics approach allows for: (1) High confidence level classification and identification of bacteria based on genome traceable, proteomic similarities and differences between an analyzed micro-organism and reference bacteria; (2) Identification of pure cultures as well as mixtures of micro-organisms.
Instrumenting a logic programming language to gather provenance from an information extraction application

Information extraction (IE) programs for the web consume and produce a lot of data. In order to better understand the program output, the developer and user often desire to know the details of how the output was created. Provenance can be used to learn about the creation of the output. We collect fine-grained provenance by leveraging ongoing work in the IE community to write IE programs in a logic programming language. The logic programming language exposes the semantics of the program, allowing us to gather fine-grained provenance during program execution. We discuss a case study using a web-based community information management system, then present results regarding the performance of queries over the provenance data gathered by our logic program interpreter. Our findings show that it is possible to gather useful fine-grained provenance during the execution of a logic based web information extraction program. Additionally, queries over this provenance information can be performed in a reasonable amount of time.
Trillin Reduces Liver Chronic Inflammation and Fibrosis in Carbon Tetrachloride (CCl4) Induced Liver Injury in Mice

ABSTRACT Trillin is an active ingredient isolated from Dioscorea nipponica Makino. This study investigated the anti-inflammatory and anti-fibrosis effects of trillin on CCl4-induced hepatotoxicity in C57BL/6 mice. Chronic inflammation and fibrosis were induced by intraperitoneal administration of CCl4 0.5 μL/g of body weight twice a week for 6 weeks. Trillin (50 mg/kg, 100 mg/kg) was administered by gavage for 12 days before finishing the CCl4 induction. Aspartate amino-transferase (AST) and glutamic-pyruvic transaminase (ALT) in serum were determined by AST and ALT kits. Superoxidase dismutase (SOD) activity and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels in serum were assayed by SOD and MDA kits. Meanwhile, the levels of inflammatory mediators including tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and interleukin-1β (IL-1β) in serum were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method. Pathological changes were observed by hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining. The proteins of the NF-κB pathway and the TGF-β/Smad pathway were measured by western blot. The trillin-treated group exhibited reduced AST, ALT, MDA, IL-6, TNF-α, and IL-1β, and increased SOD. Histological analyses of the trillin-treated group exhibited reduced inflammatory process and prevented liver fibrosis. Western blot analyses of the trillin-treated group showed reduced NF-κB pathway and TGF-β/Smad pathway. Significance: Based on the results of the present study, trillin can be used as a potential anti-inflammatory drug for chronic hepatic inflammation.
Consecutive Field Trials Using Two Different Intraosseous Devices

Objective. Establishing traditional intravenous (IV) access in adult trauma andmedical patients can be difficult. We evaluated provider performance for obtaining intraosseous access with two FDA-approved intraosseous devices (F.A.S.T. 1TM andEZ-IO®) in two sequential field trials. Methods. One hundred twenty-four providers consented to participate in the first field trial evaluating the use of the F.A. S.T. 1TM system. Three hundred eighty-nine providers consented to participate in the second field trial, evaluating the use of the EZ-IO. Following each insertion attempt, a telephone data collection process with a member of the research team was completed. Insertion success rate andmeasures of provider comfort andsatisfaction with each device were collected andanalyzed. Results. One hundred seventy-eight insertions (89 F.A.S.T. 1TM; 89 EZ-IO®) were completed between February 2000 andDecember 2005. Sixty-four of the 89 insertions of the F.A. S.T. 1TM were successful, and78 of the 89 insertions of the EZ-IO® were successful (72% vs. 87%; χ2 = 6.8; p = 0.009). Providers using the F.A. S.T. 1TM attempted more IV insertions prior to using the IO device than the providers using the EZ-IO (2.6 vs. 2.0, p = 0.005). There were no differences in provider comfort or provider assessed device performance between the two devices (p = 0.52; p = 0.13, respectively). Conclusion. In our comparison of two field trials of prehospital provider use of the F.A. S.T. 1TM andEZ-IO® systems, more successful insertions with the EZ-IO® were achieved than with the F.A. S.T. 1TM device. Limitations of our comparison include nonrandomization, the sequential field trial design, the potential for a learning effect, andself-reporting of data points by providers. A prospective, randomized evaluation of these devices is warranted to draw definitive conclusions about provider insertion success rate with these devices.
Characterization of SMV Resistance Genes in Tousan 140 and Hourei Soybean.

'Tousan 140' and 'Hourei', two soybean [Glycine max (L) Merr. ] accessions from Japan, each possess a single gene at different loci for resistance to Japanese Soybean mosaic virus (SMV) strain SMV C. However, more genetic information is needed to utilize these lines in a breeding program. The objectives of this study were to determine (i) the reaction of Tousan 140 and Hourei to SMV-G1 through G7 strains, (ii) the inheritance of SMV resistance in Tousan 140 and Hourei to strains SMV-G1 and G7, and (iii) the allelomorphic relationship of resistance genes in these accessions with previously known resistance genes. Tousan 140 and Hourei were crossed with SMV susceptible cultivar Lee 68 to study the inheritance of resistance. They were also crossed with lines possessing Rsv1, Rsv3, and putative Rsv4, and to each other, to elucidate the allelomorphic relationships among the genes in Tousan 140, Hourei, and previously reported genes. Inheritance and allelism studies indicated that Tousan 140 possesses two SMV resistance genes. These two genes were separated in two F(2:3) lines. One of the genes, an allele of Rsv1, expresses resistance to SMV-G1 through G3 and susceptibility to SMV-G5 through G7 while the other one, an allele of Rsv3, expresses resistance to SMV-G5 through G7 and susceptibility to SMV-G1 through G3. Their presence in Tousan 140 makes it resistant to strains SMV-G1 through G7. Hourei also is resistant to SMV-G1 through G7 and possesses two SMV resistance genes, which are also alleles of Rsv1 and Rsv3. One, probably the Rsv1 allele, expresses resistance to SMV-G1 and G7 and the other, probably the Rsv3 allele, expresses resistance to SMV-G7, but is susceptible to G1.
Age-related changes in the Leydig cell population, seminiferous tubules, and sperm production in stallions.

Age-related changes in the Leydig cell population of horses between 2 and 20 years old were characterized by a twofold increase in Leydig cell number per gram parenchyma, a threefold increase in Leydig cell number per testis, a threefold increase in Leydig cell volume per gram parenchyma, and a fivefold increase in Leydig cell volume per testis. Due to the increased volume of Leydig cells per gram of testicular parenchyma and the increased size and accumulation of lipofuscin granules in individual cells, the gross appearance of the parenchyma became darker with age. The Leydig cell population increased with age by replacing the noncellular components of the interstitium and did not alter the proportion of the testis occupied by blood vessels, lymph vessels, or seminiferous tubules. Both the diameter and length of seminiferous tubules increased with age. Daily sperm production per testis increased between postpuberty and adulthood yet did not increase significantly beyond adulthood. However, the number of Leydig cells per testis continued to increase in the aging horse. Other significant changes included increases in testicular weight, volume of Leydig cells per testis, seminiferous tubular length per testis, and daily sperm production per testis in April-May compared with February-March.
Sociodemographic determinants of attrition in hospital based therapeutic exercise programme for type 2 diabetes patients.

BACKGROUND Abandoning research programmes by participants may impose disadvantages on the participant, the research and the researcher. This study investigated the contributions of sociodemographic characteristics to the attrition of Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) patients who enrolled into a 12-week therapeutic exercise programme. METHODS In the 12-week, thrice weekly hospital-based therapeutic exercise programme, the contributions of age, gender, duration of diagnosis, marital status, cohabitation, urbanization, educational and employment status to two sources of attrition (inability to locate and decline to commence or complete) were studied. RESULTS Participants were aged 48 +/- 9.62 years. Out of the 152 participants who agreed to participate, only 93 (61.18%) actually commenced the exercise programme, while 69 (74.19%) of those who commenced the programme completed it. Risk of attrition due to inability to locate participants was higher in females (OR = 3.25, 95% CI = 2.96-3.91), single or divorced and living in the rural area (OR = 1.37, 95% CI = 1.12-1.52). Risk of decline to commence or complete was higher with increasing age, living alone, longer duration of diagnosis and being in paid employment while this was less likely in individuals who were married and more educated. CONCLUSION We recorded 25.81% attrition for those who actually commenced the programme. Sociodemographic characteristics contributed to attrition in the 12-week, thrice weekly hospital-based exercise programme and we suggest closer monitoring (based on these sociodemographic characteristics) of T2D patients scheduled for therapeutic exercises in order to minimize attrition, maximise attendance and ensure higher retention.
EP217609, a neutralisable dual-action FIIa/FXa anticoagulant, with antithrombotic effects in arterial thrombosis

Summary EP217609 is a new synthetic parenteral dual-action anticoagulant combining a direct thrombin inhibitor (α-NAPAP analog), an indirect factor Xa inhibitor (fondaparinux analog) and a biotin moiety allowing its neutralisation. EP217609 exhibited similar in vitro anticoagulant properties as its parent compounds. On the basis of dose-response curves, we identified low and moderate doses of EP217609 resulting in similar ex vivo prolongation of the APTT as α-NAPAP analog and comparable ex vivo anti-FXa activity as fondaparinux. The effects of EP217609 were compared to those of its parent compounds used alone or in combination in two models of experimental thrombosis induced by FeCl3 injury of the carotid artery or mechanical injury of atherosclerotic plaques in ApoE-deficient mice. When administered at low doses increasing the APTT by only 1.1 fold, EP217609 significantly reduced the thrombus area in both models as compared to α-NAPAP analog or fondaparinux alone, but not to the combination of these drugs. In contrast, at higher doses increasing the APTT 1.5 times, EP217609 was not superior to either parent compound. Low doses of EP217609 did not prolong the tail bleeding time or increase the volume of blood loss, although a tendency towards an increased blood loss was observed in five out of 12 mice. Finally, the effects of EP217609 could be neutralised in vivo by injection of avidin. The pharmacological profile of EP217609, its performance in arterial thrombosis models and its possible neutralisation make it an interesting molecule and a potential candidate as an antithrombotic drug.
Connective tissue growth factor: Structure–function relationships of a mosaic, multifunctional protein

Connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) is a member of the CCN family of six small secreted, cysteine-rich growth factors. The unique modular structure encompasses distinct functional domains which enable CTGF to interact with growth factors, surface receptors and matrix components. Widely expressed, CTGF has critical roles in embryonic development and the maintenance of normal cell and connective tissue function. It is also important for tissue repair following injury, and has been implicated in common diseases including atherosclerosis, pulmonary and renal fibrotic disorders and cancer. Factors that regulate CTGF transcription in response to exogenous stimuli, as well as downstream signalling pathways, have been described. However, only recently have studies begun to unravel how the functional domains within the CTGF modules orchestrate signals and control key biological processes. This article highlights how the structural and functional domains of CTGF and CTGF cleavage fragments integrate multiple extracellular events into cell signals.
Low bending loss nodeless hollow-core anti-resonant fiber

We report a high performance nodeless hollow-core anti-resonant fiber with a broadband guidance from 1050 nm to >1900 nm, a transmission attenuation of 200 dB/km, and a low bending loss of 0.25 dB/m for a 5 cm radius at wavelength of 1550 nm.