Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Malignant superior vena cava syndrome: a comparative cohort study of treatment with covered stents versus uncovered stents.

PURPOSE To evaluate outcomes of expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE)-covered stents and compare them with outcomes of uncovered stents in patients with malignant superior vena cava (SVC) syndrome. MATERIALS AND METHODS This study was approved by the institutional review board and written informed consent was obtained. Thirty-seven consecutive patients (33 men, four women; mean age, 60.3 years; range, 35-81 years) who underwent ePTFE-covered stent placement for SVC syndrome were enrolled in a prospective study between January 2009 and September 2011. Their data were compared with retrospective data of 36 consecutive patients (31 men, five women; mean age, 62.3 years; range, 41-81 years) who underwent uncovered stent placement for SVC syndrome between January 2005 and December 2008. The causes of malignant SVC syndrome were squamous cell carcinoma (n = 27), adenocarcinoma (n = 25), small cell carcinoma (n = 15), thymic carcinoma (n = 3), invasive thymoma (n = 2), and breast cancer (n = 1). Stent patency and patient survival rates were calculated by using the Kaplan-Meier method, and groups were compared with the log-rank test. RESULTS Stent placement was technically successful in all patients. Complications did not occur in either group. Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed that covered stents had higher cumulative patency (97%, 94%, 94%, and 94% at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months, respectively) than uncovered stents (97%, 79%, 67%, and 48% at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months, respectively; P = .038). Clinical success rates did not significantly differ (P = .674), nor did patient survival (P = .549). Median survival in the covered stent group was 141 days (95% confidence interval: 81, 201 days) and 100 days in the uncovered stent group (95% confidence interval: 60, 140 days). CONCLUSION Endovascular placement of ePTFE-covered stents appeared to be a safe and effective method to treat patients with malignant SVC syndrome and seemed to be superior to uncovered stents in terms of stent patency.
A large-field screen with even texture for vision research

Abstract Studies of the physiology of the central visual system and visual behavior frequently require large tangent screens, and it has been difficult to create a smooth surface with uniform illumination. We have developed a technique for holding drafting paper on a sheet of acrylic so that it can be used as a tangent screen for both front and rear projections. The process utilizes a vacuum system that holds the paper firmly and produces a uniformly smooth surface with good light diffusion; it is simple, flexible, and inexpensive and can be used for any size screens.
Relations Between Roots and Coefficients, Interpolation and Application to System Solving

We propose an algebraic framework to represent zero-dimensional algebraic systems. In this framework, we give new interpolation formulae. We use this good representation of the algebraic systems to develop a generalization of Weierstrass? s method to the multivariate systems. This method allows us to approximate simultaneously all the roots of an algebraic system. We obtain an effective iteration function with a quadratic convergence in a neighbourhood of the solutions. We use this Weierstrass iteration function in a continuation method to obtain a global method. Experiments are exposed to underline the efficiency of the approach.
Identification and functional characterization of thromboxane A2 receptors in Schwann cells

Previous reports have demonstrated the presence of functional thromboxane A2 (TP) receptors in astrocytes and oligodendrocytes. In these experiments, the presence and function of TP receptors in primary rat Schwann cells (rSC) and a neurofibrosarcoma‐derived human Schwann cell line (T265) was investigated. Immunocytochemical and immunoblot analyses using polyclonal anti‐TP receptor antibodies demonstrate that both cell types express TP receptors. Treatment with the stable thromboxane A2 mimetic U46619 (10 µm) did not stimulate intracellular calcium mobilization in rSC, whereas T265 cells demonstrated a calcium response that was inhibited by prior treatment with TP receptor antagonists. U46619 also stimulated CREB phosphorylation on Ser133 in T265 cells and, to a lesser extent, in rSC. To identify potential mechanisms of CREB phosphorylation in rSC, we monitored intracellular cAMP levels following U46619 stimulation. Elevated levels of cAMP were detected in both rSC (20‐fold) and T265 (15‐fold) cells. These results demonstrate that TP receptor activation specifically stimulates CREB phosphorylation in T265 cells, possibly by a calcium‐ and/or cAMP‐dependent mechanism. In contrast, TP receptor activation in rSC stimulates increases in cAMP and CREB phosphorylation but does not elicit changes in intracellular calcium.
Equivalent current modeling of antenna radiation

This paper presents an equivalent current formulation for an antenna radiating above a ground plane. Rao-Wilton-Glisson (RWG) basis functions are utilized for expanding the equivalent currents. The coupling between the antenna and the ground plane is modeled using Physical Optics in the source reconstruction process. The antenna is replaced by an equivalent current model in the original scattering problem to investigate the effect of the interactions of the antenna with the ground plane. It is demonstrated that the resulting equivalent currents provide accurate results even when the antenna is placed close to the ground plane.
Adaptive synchronisation of diffusionless Lorenz systems and secure communication of digital signals by parameter modulation

Diffusionless Lorenz system of equations is a simplified one-parameter version of the Lorenz system of equations. This system is used here as transmitter and receiver for secure communication. An adaptive control procedure is presented, which causes a rapid convergence of the receiver parameter to the transmitter parameter. This convergence can be used for secure communication of digital signals by parameter modulation. Compared with the Lorenz system, the diffusionless Lorenz system leads to faster communication, smoother parameter adaptation and enhanced security. The proposed scheme is robust with respect to relatively large differences in the delay times for the transmission of three chaotic variables from the master to the slave system. The scheme can be scaled up to allow simultaneous transmission of several signals.
Pacemaker mechanisms in cardiac tissue.

The heartbeat is a sign of life, and not surprisingly it has attracted much interest and curiosity since the early stages of scientific investigation. Even Leonardo da Vinci, in his anatomical studies, realized that rhythmic, restless activity was an intrinsic property of cardiac muscle (92), "As to the heart: it moves itself, and doth never stop, except it be for eternity. " In fact, a search for the basis of spontaneous cardiac activity could only be undertaken several centuries after these primitive observations with the development of techniques that allowed the study of the electrical properties of excitable tissues and particularly of cardiac muscle (18, 71,77,23). Cardiac pacemaker activity originates in specialized myocytes located in restricted areas of the heart that are characterized by the ability to beat spontaneously even when separated from the rest of the cardiac muscle (24, 106, 103, 11, 81). Voltage-clamp investigation of pacemaker tissue opened the way to a better understanding of the ionic mechanisms promoting rhythmicity in pacemaker tissue (64, 6). In pacemaker cells of the mammalian sino-atrial (SA) node, spontaneous activity results from a typical phase of their action potential, the slow diastolic depolarization. The concept that a slow depolarization is an inherent property of spontaneously active myocar­ dium is an old one that has been actively investigated since the first recordings of cardiac electrical activity revealed the existence of a slow depolarizing phase preceding the action potential onset in beating tissue (for a review, see 105). During this phase, corresponding to diastole of the cardiac contraction cycle, the membrane slowly depolarizes following termination of an action potential, until threshold for a new action potential is reached. Thus, the
Inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate receptors are downregulated in mouse oocytes in response to sperm or adenophostin A but not to increases in intracellular Ca(2+) or egg activation.

Fertilization in mammals stimulates a series of Ca(2+) oscillations that continue for 3-4 h. Cell-cycle-dependent changes in the ability to release Ca(2+) are one mechanism that leads to the inhibition of Ca(2+) transients after fertilization. The downregulation of InsP(3)Rs at fertilization may be an additional mechanism for inhibiting Ca(2+) transients. In the present study we examine the mechanism of this InsP(3)R downregulation. We find that neither egg activation nor Ca(2+) transients are necessary or sufficient for the stimulation of InsP(3)R downregulation. First, parthenogenetic activation fails to stimulate downregulation. Second, downregulation persists when fertilization-induced Ca(2+) transients and egg activation are inhibited using BAPTA. Third, downregulation can be induced in immature oocytes that do not undergo egg activation. Other than fertilization, the only stimulus that downregulated InsP(3)Rs was microinjection of the potent InsP(3)R agonist adenophostin A. InsP(3)R downregulation was inhibited by the cysteine protease inhibitor ALLN but MG132 and lactacystin were not effective. Finally, we have injected maturing oocytes with adenophostin A and produced MII eggs depleted of InsP(3)Rs. We show that sperm-induced Ca(2+) signaling is inhibited in such InsP(3)R-depleted eggs. These data show that InsP(3)R binding is sufficient for downregulation and that Ca(2+) signaling at fertilization is mediated via the InsP(3)R.
7 T body MRI: B1 shimming with simultaneous SAR reduction

The high frequency of the radiofrequency (RF) fields used in high field magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) results in electromagnetic field variations that can cause local regions to have a large specific absorption rate (SAR) and/or a low excitation. In this study, we evaluated the use of a B1 shimming technique which can simultaneously improve the B+1 homogeneity and reduce the SAR for whole body imaging at 7 T. Optimizations for four individual anatomies showed a reduction up to 74% of the peak SAR values with respect to a quadrature excitation and a simultaneous improvement of the B+1 homogeneity varying between 39 and 75% for different optimization parameters. The average SAR was reduced with approximately 50% for all optimizations. The optimized phase and amplitude settings from an elliptical phantom model were applied to four realistic human anatomy models to evaluate whether a generic application without prior knowledge of the detailed human anatomy is possible. This resulted in an average improvement of the B+1 homogeneity of 37% and an average reduction of the maximum and average SAR of 50 and 55%, respectively. It can be concluded that this generic method can be used as a simple method to improve the prospects of 7 T body imaging.
L'apprentissage dans l'interaction

Resume La question de l’expression formelle de la facon dont un interlocuteur beneficie dans son raisonnement des raisonnements de son partenaire d’interaction est une question recurrente en psychologie de l’apprentissage. Elle est particulierement vive dans les paradigmes postvygotskien et post-piagetien en œuvre en didactique. Et elle fait maintenant l’objet d’un regain d’interet avec la diffusion des systemes d’intelligence distribuee. Les auteurs abordent cette question dans le cadre de la logique interlocutoire, laquelle constitue une demarche d’analyse destinee a expliciter les raisonnements qui emergent au travers des dialogues. Ils illustrent leur propos grâce a l’analyse d’un dialogue que des adolescentes consacrent a la resolution d’un probleme de proportionnalite. Mots-cles :Pragmatique ; Dialogue ; Resolution de problemes ; Apprentissage ; Logique Interlocutoire ; Deduction Naturelle
Intelligent System for Detection of Micro-Calcification in Breast Cancer

Recently; medical image mining has become one of the well-recognized research area(s) of machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques have been vastly used in various computer added diagnostic systems. Specifically; breast cancer classification problem is considered as one of the most significant problems. For instance, complex, diverse and heterogamous malignant features of micro-calcification in DICOM (Digital Communication in Medicine) images of mammography are very difficult to classify because the persistence of noise in mammogram images creates lots of confusions for doctors. In order to reduce the chances of misdiagnosis and to discernment the difference between malignant and benign lesions of micro-calcification this paper proposes a system so called “Intelligent System For Detection of Micro-Calcification in Breast Cancer” by considering all above stated problems. Overall our system comprises over three main stages. In first stage, adaptive threshold algorithm is used to reduce the noise, and canny edge detection algorithm is used to detect the edges of every macro or micro classification. In second stage, deginated as feature selection is done by using auto-crop algorithm, which crops all types of calcifications and lesions by proposed algorithm so called CFEDNN (Calcification Feature Extraction Deep Neural Networks) which is designed to avoid the manual ROIs (Region of Interest). Decision model is constructed by using DNN (Deep Neural Networks) and the best classification accuracy is measured as 95.6%.
In vitro gene transfection using dendritic poly(L-lysine).

Monodispersed dendritic poly(L-lysine)s (DPKs) of several generations were synthesized, and their characteristics as a gene transfection reagent were then investigated. The agarose gel shift and ethidium bromide titration assay proved that the DPKs of the third generation and higher could form a complex with a plasmid DNA, and the degree of compaction of the DNA was increased by the increasing number of the generation. The DPKs of the fifth and sixth generation, which have 64 and 128 amine groups on the surface of the molecule, respectively, showed efficient gene transfection ability into several cultivated cell lines without significant cytotoxity. In addition, the transfection efficiency of the DPK of the sixth generation was not seriously reduced even if serum was added at 50% of the final concentration into the transfection medium. Because we can strictly synthesize various DPK derivatives, which have several types of branch units, terminal cationic groups, and so on, they are expected to be a good object of study regarding the basic information on the detailed mechanism of gene transfection into cells. We also expect to be able to easily construct DPK-based functional gene carriers, e.g., DPKs modified by ligands such as a sugar chain, which can enable advanced gene delivery in vivo.
Golgi-derived membranes that contain an acylated viral polypeptide are used for vaccinia virus envelopment

A 37,000-dalton polypeptide (p37K) present on purified extracellular vaccinia virus but absent from intracellular virus particles of classical morphology (G. Hiller et al., J. Virol. 39:903-913, 1981; L. G. Payne, J. Virol. 27:28-37, 1978) was further characterized. The polypeptide was only expressed in infected cells after onset of viral DNA replication. Phase partition experiments showed that it is relatively hydrophobic. Although p37K apparently is not a glycoprotein, in vivo radioisotope labeling detected tightly associated palmitic acid. Antibodies to p37K were used to monitor its distribution within infected cells at the light and electron microscopic levels. After synthesis p37K first accumulated in the Golgi region due to a tight membrane association. During progressing infection p37K-carrying membranes were used to form double-walled envelopes around brick-shaped vaccinia particles. Within these specialized vesicles vaccinia particles were moved through the cytoplasm toward the cell's surface, presumably along cellular routes for certain secretory products. Finally, single enveloped viruses were released into the extracellular space by an exocytotic process.
PROJECT FINANCED BY NORWEGIAN RESEARCH COUNCIL : “ ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION IN NORWAY : A MIXED-METHODS APPROACH

1. RELEVANCE TO THE CALL FOR PROPOSALS The project will “increase knowledge of alcohol consumption, drinking patterns and alcohol problems” (Norwegian Research Council’s Work Plan on Alcohol and Drug Research, p. 8). We will conduct studies on four aspects of alcohol use: (i) longitudinal predictors and consequences of drinking patterns; (ii) secular trends in alcohol use; (iii) drinking cultures; and (iv) the relationship between licensed premises and prevalence of violence. We will employ a variety of theoretical approaches and use different types of data.
Functional Outcome Assessment of Adults with Dementia

The demands from health care funding sources for treatment outcome data that will document the benefits of treatment relative to its cost have resulted in the widespread adoption of the World Health Organization International Classification of Impairments, Disabilities, and Handicaps as a useful model for gathering and providing such data. This article examines the literature on functional assessment and the outcomes of interventions for patients with dementia, then discusses current assessment instruments and procedures, the outcome data now available, and the research needs and challenges facing speech-language pathology in documenting the impairments, disabilities, and handicaps of patients with dementia.
Comparative modeling in CASP6 using consensus approach to template selection, sequence‐structure alignment, and structure assessment

Along with over 150 other groups we have tested our template‐based protein structure prediction approach by submitting models for 30 target proteins to the sixth round of the Critical Assessment of Protein Structure Prediction Methods (CASP6, http://predictioncenter.org). Most of our modeled proteins fall into the comparative or homology modeling (CM) category, and some are fold recognition (FR) targets. The key feature of our structure prediction strategy in CASP6 was an attempt to optimally select structural templates and to make accurate sequence–structure alignments. Template selection was based mainly on consensus results of multiple sequence searches. Likewise, the consensus of multiple alignment variants (or lack of it) was used to initially delineate reliable and unreliable alignment regions. Structure evaluation approaches were then used to identify the correct sequence–structure mapping. Our results suggest that in many cases use of multiple templates is advantageous. Selecting correct alignments even within the context of a three‐dimensional structure remains a challenge. Together with more effective energy evaluation methods the simultaneous relaxation/refinement of a “frozen” backbone inherited from the template is likely needed to see a clear progress in tackling this problem. Our analysis also suggests that human input has little to contribute to automatic methods in modeling high homology targets. On the other hand, human expertise can be very valuable in modeling distantly related proteins and critical in cases of unexpected evolutionary changes in protein structure. Proteins 2005;Suppl 7:99–105. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Lessons From Financial Crisis: Has Accounting in Central and Eastern Europe Become More Conservative?

Recent change to a fair-value-based accounting system portends shift from traditional conservative accounting and is often considered to be one of the factors that partially contributed to the ongoing financial crisis. The main aim of this paper is to examine the level of conservatism prior and during financial crisis. Empirical analysis is conducted on the sample of listed companies from Central and Eastern Europe using panel data analysis techniques. Obtained results suggest that level of conservatism is even lower during the financial crisis than before the crisis. These findings could be of interest to accounting standard setters and regulators in the process of financial reporting quality improvement.
Altered expression of the ZBRK1 gene in human breast carcinomas

The ZBRK1 protein is a member of the KRAB‐ZFP family. It functions as a transcriptional repressor by binding to its recognition sequence within target genes and producing a nucleoprotein complex containing its co‐repressor BRCA1 and also probably the co‐repressor KAP‐1. Alterations that affect the ZBRK1 gene have not been reported in human tumours. For this reason, possible alterations in the ZBRK1 gene have been studied by analysing mRNA expression using real‐time polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and gene sequence using single strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) analysis and DNA sequencing, in 61 patients with primary breast carcinomas. BRCA1 mRNA expression and allelic loss were also studied in 25 of the same patients. ZBRK1 was underexpressed in 28 (45.9%) and overexpressed in 18 (29.5%) of the 61 cases. No significant association was observed between ZBRK1 mRNA expression and clinicopathological parameters. Loss of heterozygosity of the BRCA1 gene was found in 3 of 23 (13%) informative cases and BRCA1 mRNA expression was altered in 11 of 25 (44%) cases. No significant correlation was found between altered BRCA1 expression and the different types of ZBRK1 mRNA expression. Nine polymorphisms were found in the ZBRK1 sequence, with no significant differences between patients and control subjects. Altered ZBRK1 expression correlated significantly with two of these polymorphisms. A point mutation in one polymorphism and allelic loss in one patient were also observed, findings that indicate that these inactivation mechanisms do not frequently affect this gene. Altered expression of the ZBRK1 gene is therefore frequent in primary breast carcinoma. The functional significance of the polymorphisms in this gene is unclear. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.