Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Rehabilitation of Eyelid Malpositions Secondary to Facial Palsy

Objectives: To evaluate patient satisfaction and outcomes of surgical treatment of eyelid malpositions secondary to facial palsy. Materials and Methods: Consecutive patients with facial palsy who underwent surgical treatment by the same surgeon at İzmir Katip Çelebi University Atatürk Training and Research Hospital between Jan 2007 and Dec 2012 were included in the study. Ophthalmic examination findings, surgical approaches, and their outcomes were evaluated. A successful result for upper eyelid position was defined as more than 50% reduction in lagophthalmos and induction of less than 2 mm of ptosis. A successful outcome for lower eyelid position was defined as the lower eyelid residing at or within 1 mm above or below the limbus. Linear visual analog scale 1 (VAS-1) (subjective complaints) and VAS-2 (cosmetic outcome), both ranging from 0 to 10, were used to compare preoperative findings with findings at last postoperative visit. Results: The mean age of the 14 female and 21 male patients was 54.5±19.9 years. Gold weight implantation (n=31), lateral tarsal strip (n=22), tarsorrhaphy (n=15), suborbicularis oculi fat elevation (n=16), hard palate graft (n=14), and eyebrow ptosis repair (n=6) were performed. Average follow-up time was 17.9±16.9 months (range, 2-60). Surgical success rates were 90% for upper lids and 75% for lower lids. Mean lagophthalmos decreased from 7.1±2.7 mm to 1.6±1.6 mm postoperatively (p=0.000). The use of lubricating drops and gels was reduced from average preoperative daily values of 5.3±2.5 drops and 1.3±0.6 gel applications to 4.4±1.4 and 0.6±0.6, respectively (p=0.003, p=0.001). Conclusion: An individualized surgical approach tailored according to each patient’s severity of facial palsy and associated malpositions resulted in both functional and aesthetic improvements in our patients.
Ventilation, oxidative stress, and nitric oxide in hypobaric versus normobaric hypoxia.

PURPOSE Slight differences in physiological responses and nitric oxide (NO) have been reported at rest between hypobaric hypoxia (HH) and normobaric hypoxia (NH) during short exposure.Our study reports NO and oxidative stress at rest and physiological responses during moderate exercise in HH versus NH. METHODS Ten subjects were randomly exposed for 24 h to HH (3000 m; FIO2, 20.9%; BP, 530 ± 6 mm Hg) or to NH (FIO2, 14.7%; BP, 720 ± 1 mm Hg). Before and every 8 h during the hypoxic exposures, pulse oxygen saturation (SpO2), HR, and gas exchanges were measured during a 6-min submaximal cycling exercise. At rest, the partial pressure of exhaled NO, blood nitrate and nitrite (NOx), plasma levels of oxidative stress, and pH levels were additionally measured. RESULTS During exercise, minute ventilation was lower in HH compared with NH (-13% after 8 h, P < 0.05). End-tidal CO2 pressure was lower (P < 0.01) than PRE both in HH and NH but decreased less in HH than that in NH (-25% vs. -37%, P < 0.05). At rest, exhaled NO and NOx decreased in HH (-46% and -36% after 24 h, respectively, P < 0.05) whereas stable in NH. By contrast, oxidative stress was higher in HH than that in NH after 24 h (P < 0.05). The plasma pH level was stable in HH but increased in NH (P < 0.01). When compared with prenormoxic values, SpO2, HR, oxygen consumption, breathing frequency, and end-tidal O2 pressure showed similar changes in HH and NH. CONCLUSION Lower ventilatory responses to a similar hypoxic stimulus during rest and exercise in HH versus NH were sustained for 24 h and associated with lower plasma pH level, exaggerated oxidative stress, and impaired NO bioavailability.
Infection of Neonatal Mice with Sindbis Virus Results in a Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome

ABSTRACT Laboratory strains of viruses may contain cell culture-adaptive mutations which result in significant quantitative and qualitative alterations in pathogenesis compared to natural virus isolates. This report suggests that this is the case with Sindbis virus strain AR339. A cDNA clone comprising a consensus sequence of Sindbis virus strain AR339 has been constructed (W. B. Klimstra, K. D. Ryman, and R. E. Johnston, J. Virol. 72:7357–7366, 1998). This clone (pTR339) regenerates a sequence predicted to be very close to that of the original AR339 isolate by eliminating several cell culture-adaptive mutations present in individual laboratory strains of the virus (K. L. McKnight et al., J. Virol. 70:1981–1989, 1996). It thus provides a unique reagent for study of the pathogenesis of Sindbis virus strain AR339 in mice. Neonatal mouse pathogenesis of virus (TR339) generated from the pTR339 clone was compared with that of virus from a cDNA clone of the cell culture-passaged laboratory AR339 strain, TRSB, and virus from a clone of a more highly cell culture-adapted strain, HRsp (Toto 50). The sequence of TRSB differs from the consensus at three coding positions, while Toto 50 differs at eight codons and one nucleotide in the 5′ nontranslated region. Both cell culture-adapted strains contain mutations associated with heparan sulfate (HS)-dependent attachment to cells (W. B. Klimstra, K. D. Ryman, and R. E. Johnston, J. Virol. 72:7357–7366, 1998). TR339 caused 100% mortality with an average survival time (AST) of 1.7 ± 0.25 days. While TRSB also caused 100% mortality, the AST was extended to 2.9 ± 0.52 days. The more extensively cell culture-adapted virus Toto 50 caused only 30% mortality with an AST extended to 11.0 ± 4.8 days. TRSB and TR339 induced high serum levels of alpha/beta interferon, gamma interferon, tumor necrosis factor alpha, interleukin-6, and corticosterone and induced pathology reminiscent of lipopolysaccharide-induced endotoxic shock, a type of systemic inflammatory response syndrome. However, the reduced intensity of this response in TRSB-infected mice correlated with the increased AST. Toto 50 failed to induce the shock-like cytokine cascade. In situ hybridization studies indicated that TR339 and TRSB replicated in identical tissues, but the TRSB signal was less widespread at early times postinfection. While Toto 50 also replicated in similar tissues, the extent of replication was severely restricted and mice developed lesions characteristic of encephalitis. A single mutation in TRSB at E2 position 1 (Arg) conferred HS-dependent attachment to cells and was associated with reduced cytokine induction and extended AST in vivo.
Grating-Assisted Excitation of Short-Range Surface Plasmon Polariton Mode

We propose an anti-symmetric grating structure for effective excitation of the short-range surface plasmon polariton (SR-SPP) mode of a metal stripe waveguide. The structure consists of two corrugated Bragg gratings offset by half of a period formed on the two sides of the metal stripe, respectively. The SR-SPP mode is excited in the backward direction by the long-range surface plasmon polariton mode launched into the waveguide. We investigate the effects of the metal stripe thickness, the grating corrugation depth, and the number of grating periods on the transmission and reflection characteristics of the grating with the finite-difference time-domain method in detail. Our numerical results show that a peak reflection of ~57% in the SR-SPP mode can be achieved with a 50-μm long grating on a 40-nm thick gold stripe.
Investigation on compact polarimetry in SAR interferometry using CETC38 airborne data

In this paper we investigate the classification performance of the compact polarimetric interferometric SAR (C-PolInSAR). The stressed compact modes are π/4 mode and CTLR mode, due to DCP mode equivalent to CTLR mode in theory. First, we provide a state-of-art of the C-PolInSAR modes, and present the different reconstruction algorithms aiming at recovering the full PolInSAR information from the observed C-PolInSAR dataset. Then, an assessment on the classification performance of the C-PolInSAR modes are carried out based on the Wishart ML classifier. Our emphasis is comparisons between the classification results of the C-PolInSAR modes and the corresponding reconstruction modes, versus the dual PolInSAR (D-PolInSAR) and the full PolInSAR (F-PolInSAR) systems. We test on the first PolInSAR dataset in China: CETC38 airborne data. Experimental results show that the C-PolInSAR has a promising application in the terrain classification, and it is an efficient alternative to the F-PolInSAR and the D-PolInSAR.
Hypovolaemia and healing in colonic anastomoses

Colonic anastomotic leakage is more common following emergency resections than after elective operations. Transient hypovolaemia, which is more likely to occur during emergency surgery, has been shown to impair collagen metabolism in abdominal and skin wounds but its effect on colonic anastomotic healing has not been previously examined. Acute intra‐operative loss of 10 per cent circulating blood volume in rats significantly impaired collagen concentration in both ileocolic (P<0.02) and colocolic (P<0.05) anastomoses measured on the third postoperative day. This degree of blood loss did not significantly affect early anastomotic strength. Hypovolaemia leads to tissue hypoxia, and this in turn may lead to impaired anastomotic healing. Measurement of tissue oxygen tension may predict poor healing by identifying inadequate intestinal perfusion. Colonic pTO2 measured in rabbits was significantly lower than in small bowel (37±18 mmHg versus 42±18 mmHg; P<0.001), and fell significantly in colon following 10 per cent blood loss (P<0.001): We conclude that adequate intra‐operative fluid replacement during colonic resection and anastomosis is a prerequisite for successful healing.
Does Capitalized Net Product Equal Discounted Optimal Consumption in Discrete Time ?

In 1976, Weitzman derived some provocative results on the equality of discounted consumption to discounted net product produced by the market sector of the economy using continuous time optimization techniques. The question addressed in this note is whether discrete time counterparts to his results exist. Our answer is, in general, no. However, if the one period production function is restricted to certain classes of functions, then the paper shows that a discrete time approximate version of the Weitzman result will hold and under other conditions, his result will hold exactly in discrete time. The problem of obtaining general conditions that will imply a discrete time version of the Weitzman result remains open. An example presented in section 7 shows that if there is (foreseen) technical progress or growth in “fixed” inputs, then a discrete time counterpart to the Weitzman result will not hold in general.
Production of nitric oxide by glial cells: Regulation and potential roles in the CNS

Roles proposed for nitric oxide (NO) in CNS pathophysiology are increasingly diverse and range from intercellular signaling, through necrotic killing of cells and invading pathogens, to the involvement of NO in apoptosis and tissue remodeling. In vitro evidence and observations from experimental animal models of a variety of human neuropathologies, including stroke, indicate that glial cells can produce NO. Regulation of at least one of the NO synthase genes (NOS‐2) in glia has been well described; however, apart from hints emerging out of co‐culture studies and extrapolation based upon the reactivity of NO, we are a long way from identifying functions for glial‐derived NO in the CNS. Although the assumption is that NO is very often cytotoxic, it is evident that NO production does not always equate with tissue damage, and that both the cellular source of NO and the timing of NO production are important factors in terms of its effects. With the development of strategies to transfer or manipulate expression of the NOS genes in specific cells in situ, the ability to deliver NO into the CNS via long‐lived chemical donors, and the emergence of more selective NOS inhibitors, an appreciation of the significance of glial‐derived NO will change. GLIA 29:1–13, 2000. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Development of a health-related quality-of-life questionnaire (PCOSQ) for women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).

OBJECTIVE To develop a self-administered questionnaire for measuring health-related quality of life (HRQL) in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). METHODS We identified a pool of 182 items potentially relevant to women with PCOS through semistructured interviews with PCOS patients, a survey of health professionals who worked closely with PCOS women, and a literature review. One hundred women with PCOS completed a questionnaire in which they told us whether the 182 items were relevant to them and, if so, how important the issue was in their daily lives. We included items endorsed by at least 50% of women in the analysis plus additional items considered crucial by clinicians and an important subgroup of patients in a factor analysis. We chose items for the final questionnaire taking into account both item impact (the frequency and importance of the items) and the results of the factor analysis. RESULTS Over 50% of the women with PCOS labelled 47 items as important to them. Clinicians chose 5 additional items from the infertility domain, 4 of which were identified as important by women who were younger, less educated, married, and African-American. The Cattell's Scree plot from a factor analysis of these 51 items suggested 5 factors that made intuitive sense: emotions, body hair, weight, infertility, and menstrual problems. We chose the highest impact items from these 5 domains to construct a final questionnaire, the Polycystic Ovary Syndrome Questionnaire (PCOSQ), which includes a total of 26 items and takes 10-15 minutes to complete. CONCLUSIONS We have used established principles to construct a questionnaire that promises to be useful in measuring health-related quality of life. The questionnaire should be tested prior to, or concurrent with, its use in randomized trials of new treatment approaches.
The Automatic Generation of Load Test Suites and the Assessment of the Resulting Software

Three automatic test case generation algorithms intended to test the resource allocation mechanisms of telecommunications software systems are introduced. Although these techniques were specifically designed for testing telecommunications software, they can be used to generate test cases for any software system that is modelable by a Markov chain provided operational profile data can either be collected or estimated. These algorithms have been used successfully to perform load testing for several real industrial software systems. Experience generating test suites for five such systems is presented. Early experience with the algorithms indicate that they are highly effective at detecting subtle faults that would have been likely to be missed if load testing had been done in the more traditional way, using hand-crafted test cases. A domain-based reliability measure is applied to systems after the load testing algorithms have been used to generate test data. Data are presented for the same five industrial telecommunications systems in order to track the reliability as a function of the degree of system degradation experienced. >
An approach for secure time synchronization in wireless sensor network

Wireless sensor networks (WSN) have received a lot of attention recently due to their wide applications such as target tracking, environment monitoring, and scientific exploration in dangerous environments. Secure time synchronization is a key service for wireless sensor networks (WSN). Time synchronization protocol synchronizes local clocks of group nodes to a common clock. In group, some of the sensor nodes may be malicious, which may disrupt the normal operation of a sensor network. In this paper a novel secure pair-wise and group-wise approaches for synchronizing the nodes in non-malicious environment are proposed.
Thromboembolic risk and effect of oral anticoagulation according to atrial fibrillation patterns: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

Oral anticoagulation (OAC) is recommended in both paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (pxAF) and nonparoxysmal AF (non‐pxAF), but disagreement exists in classes of recommendation. Data on incidence/rate of stroke in pxAF are conflicting, and OAC is often underused in this population. The objectives of the meta‐analysis were to investigate different impact on outcomes of pxAF and non‐pxAF, with and without OAC. Two reviewers searched for prospective studies on risk of stroke and systemic embolism (SE) in pxAF and non‐pxAF, with and without OAC. Quality of evidence was assessed according to GRADE approach. Stroke combined with SE was the main outcome. Meta‐regression was performed to evaluate OAC effect on stroke and SE incidence rate. We identified 18 studies. For a total of 239 528 patient‐years of follow‐up. The incidence rate of stroke/SE was 1.6% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.3%‐2.0%) in pxAF and 2.3% (95% CI: 2.0%‐2.7%) in non‐pxAF. Paroxysmal AF was associated with a lower risk of overall thromboembolic (TE) events (risk ratio: 0.72, 95% CI: 0.65‐0.80, P < 0.00001) compared with non‐pxAF. In both groups, the annual rate of TE events decreased as proportion of patients treated with OAC increased. Non‐pxAF showed a reduction from 3.7% to 1.7% and pxAF from 2.5% to 1.2%. Major bleeding rates did not differ among groups. Stroke/SE risk is significantly lower, although clinically meaningful, in pxAF. OAC consistently reduces TE event rates across any AF pattern. As a whole, these data provide the evidence to warrant OAC irrespective of the AF pattern in most (virtually all) patients.
Effect of relaxin on prostaglandin E production by human amnion: changes in relation to the onset of labour

Summary. The effect of relaxin on prostaglandin E (PGE) production by human amnion in vitro was investigated. When amniotic discs were incubated in the presence of increasing concentrations of relaxin, two distinct effects were observed. Discs prepared from women delivered by caesarean section before the onset of labour showed a significant decrease in PGE output at relaxin concentrations of 0.5–2 μg/ml; the effect was abolished at higher relaxin concentrations. Discs obtained from women delivered after labour of spontaneous onset responded to the addition of relaxin (4–8 μg/ml) with a significant increase in PGE output, although this increase was only evident in patients in whom labour had started with intact membranes. These results suggest that relaxin, which is present in decidua and chorion laeve at term, may have a paracrine effect on the amnion, inhibiting PGE production during continuing pregnancy but favouring its production during spontaneous labour.
Comparison of Clinical Guidelines for Ulcerative Colitis: ECCO, BSG, US and Japanese Guidelines with Reference to Surveillance

Surveillance colonoscopy with random and targeted biopsies has been recommended to detect early neoplasia in ulcerative colitis. Different national and international gastroenterological societies, including the ECCO, BSG, AGA, ASGE and the Japanese research group, have published similar surveillance guidelines for early detection of dysplasia/cancer. The purpose of this study is to compare the concordance and differences in the following sections of the guidelines, including the surveillance colonoscopy and biopsy protocols, of these international and national guidelines for cancer surveillance in ulcerative colitis patients. Surveillance colonoscopy and biopsy protocol are evaluated as below: 1) Risk of CRC; 2) High risk status of cancer; 3) Candidates for surveillance; 4) Screening colonoscopy;5) Interval of surveillance colonoscopies; 6) Number of biopsies recommended; 7) Random or targeted biopsies; 8) Method of random biopsy; 9) Method of targeted biopsy; 10) Use of chromoendoscopy/magnifying colonoscopy. Chromoendoscopy and high-resolution endoscopy may have superior ability for the detection of neoplasia. Discussion should begin about further development of the existing guidelines to give more effective strategies, so that patients can hope to receive adequate surveillance in the future.
Effects of expiratory resistive load on respiratory motor output in conscious humans.

We examined, in five conscious human subjects, the steady-state effects of expiratory resistive loading (ERL; R = 8 cmH2O.l-1.s) on the time course of inspiratory and postinspiratory muscle activities (IA and PIA, respectively) and ventilatory pattern during quiet breathing. Driving pressure (DP) was calculated by means of a respiratory neuromechanical model (J. Appl. Physiol. 51: 963-989, 1981) that permitted the derivation, from tidal volume and flow, of the occlusion pressure equivalent (at functional residual capacity) of respiratory neural output throughout the breath. ERL caused a prolongation of both neural inspiratory duration (12.2 +/- 6.9% SD) and expiratory duration (25.0 +/- 10.1%) and an increase in the amplitude of DP (16.5 +/- 10.2%) without any changes in the waveshape of IA and in end-expiratory level. The relative time course of PIA was not altered by ERL. Minute ventilation was depressed (-6.75 +/- 2.88%) during ERL with little change in alveolar PCO2. The results indicate that pulmonary gas exchange may be improved during ERL through increased tidal volume as well as delayed expiratory lung emptying secondary to sustained PIA.
Power Management Decoupling Control for a Hybrid Electric Vehicle

The control of power flow in a Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) is challenging because of the hybrid structure of the driveline and conflicting performance objectives: fuel consumption minimization, state of charge (SOC) regulation, and drivability. The flexibility and dynamic reconfigurability of modern HEV driveline architectures enable the design of power management control strategies that are able to better address these issues. A decoupling control strategy based on such a driveline model is presented. The driveline has three power sources: an internal combustion engine, an integrated starter alternator, and an electric machine. The power management control strategy consists of a control based upon static minimization of the equivalent fuel cost combined with dynamic control of battery SOC and drivability. By exploiting the structure of the driveline’s dynamic model, decoupling is obtained in the sense that the battery SOC and drivability controls do not affect the power request constraint, nor do they affect each other.