Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Preoperative steroid in abdominal wall reconstruction: protocol for a randomised trial.

INTRODUCTION Preoperative administration of high-dose glucocorticoid leads to improved recovery and decreased length of stay after abdominal surgery. Even so, studies on administration of glucocorticoids for patients undergoing abdominal wall reconstruction (AWR) for giant ventral hernia repair are lacking, perhaps due to a fear of impaired wound healing. We hypothesised that patients undergoing AWR would benefit from preoperative glucocorticoids and aimed at examining this in a randomised controlled trial. METHODS A total of 40 patients scheduled to undergo AWR for ventral hernias with a fascial defect exceeding 10 cm will be randomised for intravenous administration of either 125 mg methylprednisolone or saline at the induction of anaesthesia. The primary endpoint is pain at rest on the first post-operative day. Patients will be followed until 30 days post-operatively, and secondary outcomes include subjective measures, wound complications and analysis of blood and wound fluids. CONCLUSIONS This is the first trial on the effect of preoperative glucocorticoid administration in patients undergoing AWR. Due to long post-operative stays and a high rate of post-operative complications, this patient group can potentially benefit much from any post-operative optimisation. Furthermore, insight into any impact of glucocorticoids on wound healing in hernia patients may provide important information. FUNDING none. TRIAL REGISTRATION This study was registered with Clinicaltrials.gov (NCT02594241) and Eudra-CT (2015-004916-39).
Regulatory developmental neurotoxicity and human risk assessment.

A number of efforts, in the last 15 years, have been directed at developing protocols to assess the potential developmental neurotoxicity (DN) of test agents. Japan and the United Kingdom have general protocols that describe the behavioral parameters that should be evaluated as part of other types of testing protocols, such as standard developmental and/or reproductive toxicity studies. In 1986, EPA published a proposed separate guideline for the testing of glycol ethers. Since then, this protocol has undergone extensive review and comment by an agency-wide workgroup, participants of a workshop sponsored by EPA and NIDA, EPA's Scientific Advisory Panel, and the public. Comments were taken into consideration and the final DN testing protocol has been published recently by EPA's Office of Pesticide Programs. This protocol provides specific guidance on issues of study design, aspects of CNS function to be evaluated and criteria for selection of testing procedures. It is designed to be a "generic" protocol could be applied to testing of pesticides and other chemicals and that could be modified on a case-by-case basis depending on the data available on a specific agent of concern. With the development of testing protocols for assessing DN, there comes a need for the development of guidance as to how the data should be interpreted and applied toward conducting a risk assessment for extrapolation to humans. Some guidance was developed at the EPA-NIDA Workshop. EPA has published specific risk assessment guidelines in the area of developmental toxicity that include a section on interpretation of data on functional deficits, including DN. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Multicenter Postmarket Analysis of the Neuroform Atlas Stent for Stent-Assisted Coil Embolization of Intracranial Aneurysms

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The Neuroform Atlas is a new microstent to assist coil embolization of intracranial aneurysms that recently gained FDA approval. We present a postmarket multicenter analysis of the Neuroform Atlas stent. MATERIALS AND METHODS: On the basis of retrospective chart review from 11 academic centers, we analyzed patients treated with the Neuroform Atlas after FDA exemption from January 2018 to June 2019. Clinical and radiologic parameters included patient demographics, aneurysm characteristics, stent parameters, complications, and outcomes at discharge and last follow-up. RESULTS: Overall, 128 aneurysms in 128 patients (median age, 62 years) were treated with 138 stents. Risk factors included smoking (59.4%), multiple aneurysms (27.3%), and family history of aneurysms (16.4%). Most patients were treated electively (93.7%), and 8 (6.3%) underwent treatment within 2 weeks of subarachnoid hemorrhage. Previous aneurysm treatment failure was present in 21% of cases. Wide-neck aneurysms (80.5%), small aneurysm size (<7 mm, 76.6%), and bifurcation aneurysm location (basilar apex, 28.9%; anterior communicating artery, 27.3%; and middle cerebral artery bifurcation, 12.5%) were common. A single stent was used in 92.2% of cases, and a single catheter for both stent placement and coiling was used in 59.4% of cases. Technical complications during stent deployment occurred in 4.7% of cases; symptomatic thromboembolic stroke, in 2.3%; and symptomatic hemorrhage, in 0.8%. Favorable Raymond grades (Raymond-Roy occlusion classification) I and II were achieved in 82.9% at discharge and 89.5% at last follow-up. mRS ≤2 was determined in 96.9% of patients at last follow-up. The immediate Raymond-Roy occlusion classification grade correlated with aneurysm location (P < .0001) and rupture status during treatment (P = .03). CONCLUSIONS: This multicenter analysis provides a real-world safety and efficacy profile for the treatment of intracranial aneurysms with the Neuroform Atlas stent.
Public Policy in a Pandemic: A Call for Leadership Action.

Crisis breeds innovation and creativity. The COVID-19 pandemic shows where policy-related gaps exist. Three policy exemplars linked to COVID-related changes faced by professional development educators and leaders are presented: broadband Internet availability for training and development, information technology infrastructure, and scope of practice expansion. [J Contin Educ Nurs. 2020;51(6):250-252. ].
Corneal stem cells in review

The cornea provides the eye with protection and the refractive properties essential for visual acuity. The transparent epithelium is highly specialized with basal and stratified squamous cells that are renewed throughout life from a stem cell population. The stem cells are thought to reside at the corneal limbus and may be maintained by a variety of intrinsic and extrinsic factors such as the local environment, survival factors, and cytokines. A number of markers have been localized to the limbus in an attempt to identify stem cells; however, definite stem cell identification remains elusive. During homeostasis and following injury to the corneal epithelium, the limbal stem cells divide to produce daughter transient amplifying cells that proliferate, migrate, and differentiate to replace lost cells. However, this cannot occur if the stem cell population is depleted. Limbal stem cell deficiency then results in corneal re‐epithelialization by the neighboring conjunctiva, causing pain, poor vision, and even blindness. This review will focus on corneal epithelial stem cells in ocular surface repair and regeneration. The current knowledge of stem cell biology in the corneal epithelium, clinical consequences of stem cell deficiency, and therapeutic strategies aimed at reversing stem cell deficiency will be discussed.
A Hybrid Approach to Multiple Fluid Simulation using Volume Fractions

This paper presents a hybrid approach to multiple fluid simulation that can handle miscible and immiscible fluids, simultaneously. We combine distance functions and volume fractions to capture not only the discontinuous interface between immiscible fluids but also the smooth transition between miscible fluids. Our approach consists of four steps: velocity field computation, volume fraction advection, miscible fluid diffusion, and visualization. By providing a combining scheme between volume fractions and level set functions, we are able to take advantages of both representation schemes of fluids. From the system point of view, our work is the first approach to Eulerian grid‐based multiple fluid simulation including both miscible and immiscible fluids. From the technical point of view, our approach addresses the issues arising from variable density and viscosity together with material diffusion. We show that the effectiveness of our approach to handle multiple miscible and immiscible fluids through experiments.
Iterative cost update method of generalized Kelly mechanism for fair utility resource allocation

We consider a resource allocation problem that ensures a fair utility among selfish agents who share a divisible resource. When the available resource is limited and the required amount of the resource cannot be allocated to agents, resource management is an important issue in multiagent systems. If there are selfish agents who want to maximize their utilities, we must prevent their behavior to realize a fair resource allocation. In this paper, we propose a fair utility resource allocation mechanism based on the generalized Kelly mechanism. In the proposed mechanism, the resource allocation is determined by a resource manager (RM) based on the resource requests of all agents, and the resource allocation problem is formulated as a resource allocation game. In the resource allocation game, we show uniqueness of a fair utility resource allocation which satisfies that the corresponding resource request is a Nash equilibrium and is equal to the resource allocation. Moreover, we assume that RM cannot know the utility functions of agents, but can calculate their utilities after the resource allocation. Using these results, we introduce a cost update function which realizes the fair utility resource allocation. By using simulations, we demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed mechanism.
Internet, tiers nébuleux de la relation patient-médecin

Resume Quelle place occupe aujourd’hui Internet dans l’echange entre le medecin et son patient ? Si son formidable reservoir de connaissances est omnipresent dans le cabinet, de maniere indirecte, a travers les multiples consultations d’informations sur la sante, tant par les praticiens que par les malades, il n’apparait pourtant pas comme un moyen d’echange leur permettant de mieux communiquer. Et pourtant, il se revele souvent comme un accompagnant complementaire de la relation au medecin. Aussi pourrait-il devenir le support d’une transformation douce des relations entre patients et medecins.
Un modelo para detectar la similitud semántica entre textos de diferentes longitudes

Resumen En el presente trabajo se desarrolla un modelo para resolver el problema de similitud semantica entre textos de diferente longitud. Se propone extraer caracteŕisticas lexicas, caracteŕisticas basadas en conocimiento y caracteŕisticas basadas en corpus, con el objetivo de desarrollar un modelo de aprendizaje supervisado. El modelo fue desarrollado utilizando regresion loǵistica de la herramienta Weka. Los resultados obtenidos sobre los datos ofrecidos en el marco del Semeval 2014, han sido buenos para dos tipos de corpora.
Cloning and Characterization of SmeDEF, a Novel Multidrug Efflux Pump from Stenotrophomonas maltophilia

ABSTRACT Stenotrophomonas maltophilia is a nosocomial bacterial pathogen intrinsically resistant to several antibiotics. The mechanisms involved in this intrinsic multiresistance phenotype are poorly understood. A library of chromosomal DNA from a spontaneous multidrug-resistant S. maltophilia D457R mutant (A. Alonso and J. L. Martinez, Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. 41:1140–1142, 1997) was screened for complementation of erythromycin susceptibility on an antibiotic-hypersusceptible Escherichia coli ΔacrABstrain. Cloning and further analysis revealed that a 6-kbp region constituting a transcriptional unit was capable of complementing the antibiotic-susceptible phenotype of an E. coli ΔacrABstrain. We identified three open reading frames, smeD,smeE and smeF, which code for members of the membrane fusion protein, resistance nodulation division, and outer membrane factor families, respectively. Drug susceptibility assays indicated that the SmeDEF system cloned in E. coli mediates resistance to a wide range of antibiotics. Ethidium bromide and norfloxacin accumulation experiments in the presence and in the absence of carbonyl cyanide m-chlorophenylhydrazone showed that this system constitutes a drug efflux pump dependent on the membrane proton motive force. The presence of high levels of smeDEFmRNA in the multiresistant D457R mutant was consistent with the high levels of SmeF (formerly Omp54) observed in the same strain. In contrast, transcription levels of smeDEF in the D457 strain were tiny, which correlates with the low levels of SmeF observed for this strain. Also, for both the D457 and D457R strains, we observed growth phase-dependent regulation in which the highest level of transcription corresponded to early exponential phase, with transcription decreasing throughout the growth curve to undetectable levels at 24 h.
Soluble CD40 ligand in acute coronary syndromes.

BACKGROUND CD40 ligand is expressed on platelets and released from them on activation. We investigated the predictive value of soluble CD40 ligand as a marker for clinical outcome and the therapeutic effect of glycoprotein IIb/IIIa receptor inhibition in patients with acute coronary syndromes. METHODS Serum levels of soluble CD40 ligand were measured in 1088 patients with acute coronary syndromes who had previously been enrolled in a randomized trial comparing abciximab with placebo before coronary angioplasty and in 626 patients with acute chest pain. RESULTS The levels of soluble CD40 ligand were elevated (above 5.0 microg per liter) in 221 patients with acute coronary syndromes (40.6 percent). Among patients receiving placebo, elevated soluble CD40 ligand levels indicated a significantly increased risk of death or nonfatal myocardial infarction during six months of follow-up (adjusted hazard ratio as compared with patients with low levels of the ligand [< or =5.0 microg per liter], 2.71; 95 percent confidence interval, 1.51 to 5.35; P=0.001). The prognostic value of this marker was validated in the patients with chest pain, among whom elevated soluble CD40 ligand levels identified those with acute coronary syndromes who were at high risk for death or nonfatal myocardial infarction (adjusted hazard ratio as compared with those with low levels of the ligand, 6.65; 95 percent confidence interval, 3.18 to 13.89; P<0.001). The increased risk in patients with elevated soluble CD40 ligand levels was significantly reduced by treatment with abciximab (adjusted hazard ratio as compared with those receiving placebo, 0.37; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.20 to 0.68; P=0.001), whereas there was no significant treatment effect of abciximab in patients with low levels of soluble CD40 ligand. CONCLUSIONS In patients with unstable coronary artery disease, elevation of soluble CD40 ligand levels indicated an increased risk of cardiovascular events. Elevation of soluble CD40 ligand identifies a subgroup of patients at high risk who are likely to benefit from antiplatelet treatment with abciximab.
Hypoxia Potentiates Nitric Oxide-mediated Apoptosis in Endothelial Cells via Peroxynitrite-induced Activation of Mitochondria-dependent and -independent Pathways*

Nitric oxide (NO·) at low concentrations is cytoprotective for endothelial cells; however, elevated concentrations of NO· (≥1 μmol/liter), as may be achieved during inflammatory states, can induce apoptosis and cell death. Hypoxia is associated with tissue inflammation and ischemia and, therefore, may modulate the effects of NO· on endothelial function. To examine the influence of hypoxia on NO·-mediated apoptosis, we exposed bovine aortic endothelial cells (BAEC) to (Z)-1-[N-(2-aminoethyl)-N-(2-ammonioethyl) amino]diazen-1-ium-1,2-diolate (diethylenetriamine NONOate, DETA-NO) (1 mmol/liter) under normoxic or hypoxic conditions (pO2 = 35 mm of Hg) and measured the indices of apoptotic cell death. BAEC treated with DETA-NO under normoxic conditions demonstrated increased levels of histone-associated DNA fragments, which was confirmed by terminal dUTP nick-end labeling assay, and hypoxic conditions augmented this response. To determine whether mitochondrial dysfunction was one mechanism by which NO· initiated apoptosis under hypoxic conditions, we evaluated mitochondrial membrane potential in (Ψm). Exposure to DETA-NO resulted in a decrease in Ψm and concomitant release of cytochrome c and caspase-9 activation, which were enhanced by hypoxia. By utilizing Rho0 BAEC (Rho0-EC), which lack functional mitochondria, we demonstrated that dissipation of Ψm was associated with increased reactive oxygen species generation and peroxynitrite formation. Moreover, in Rho0-EC we identified activation of caspase-8 as part of the mitochondrial-independent pathway of apoptosis. To establish that peroxynitrite mediated mitochondrial damage and apoptosis, we treated BAEC and Rho0-EC with the peroxynitrite scavenger uric acid and found that the indices of apoptosis were decreased significantly. These findings confirm that high flux of NO· under hypoxic conditions promotes cell death via mitochondrial damage and mitochondrial-independent mechanisms by peroxynitrite.
Nasal challenge with serotonin in asymptomatic hay fever patients

To study the nasal response to serotonin, 14 asymptomatic hay fever patients received intranasal serotonin in increasing doses. Itching and the number of sneezes were noted, and the amount of secretion was measured and assayed for substance P. Nasal airway resistance was recorded by active posterior rhinomanometry. Serotonin induced a dose‐dependent increase in nasal itching, number of sneezes and secretion. Substance P was found in 41 of 42 secretions. The median concentration was 10.3 pmol/1 (range 0‐28.9), and increased parallel to increasing doses of serotonin (P < 0.001).
Sentiment classification for Chinese product reviews using an unsupervised Internet-based method

Sentiment classification aims at mining opinions of customers for a certain product by automatically classifying the reviews into positive or negative opinions. With the fast developing of World Wide Web applications, sentiment classification would have huge opportunity to help automatic analysis of customerspsila opinions from the web information. Opinion mining will benefit both consumers and sellers. Up to now, it is still a complicated task with great challenge. Though some pioneer researches explored the approaches for English review classification, few works have been done on sentiment classification for Chinese reviews. In this paper, we focus on a specific domain-cell phone review and propose an Internet-based approach for Chinese product review mining. The experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed approach in sentiment classification for Chinese product reviews.
Fibroblast Growth Factor-2 Promotes Keratan Sulfate Proteoglycan Expression by Keratocytes in Vitro *

Keratocytes of the corneal stroma produce a specialized extracellular matrix responsible for corneal transparency. Corneal keratan sulfate proteoglycans (KSPG) are unique products of keratocytes that are down-regulated in corneal wounds and in vitro. This study used cultures of primary bovine keratocytes to define factors affecting KSPG expression in vitro. KSPG metabolically labeled with [35S]sulfate decreased during the initial 2–4 days of culture in quiescent cultures with low serum concentrations (0.1%). Addition of fetal bovine serum, fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF-2), transforming growth factor β, or platelet derived growth factor all stimulated cell division, but only FGF-2 stimulated KSPG secretion. Combined with serum, FGF-2 also prevented serum-induced KSPG down-regulation. KSPG secretion was lost during serial subculture with or without FGF-2. Expression of KSPG core proteins (lumican, mimecan, and keratocan) was stimulated by FGF-2, and steady state mRNA pools for these proteins, particularly keratocan, were significantly increased by FGF-2 treatment. KSPG expression therefore is supported by exogenous FGF-2 and eliminated by subculture of the cells in presence of serum. FGF-2 stimulates KSPG core protein expression primarily through an increase in mRNA pools.
Energy efficient joint subchannel selection and resource allocation for heterogeneous CRNs

Cognitive radio networks (CRNs) are expected to improve spectrum utilization significantly by allowing secondary users (SUs) to opportunistically access the licensed spectrum of primary users (PUs). In a CRN scenario consisting of multiple heterogeneously integrated CRNs, the SUs with multiple interfaces may have to conduct spectrum handoff to target subchannels. Jointly considering the interruption delay and the transmission performance of the handoff SUs on target subchannels, the subchannel selection and resource allocation optimization problem which maximizes the energy efficiency of all the interrupted SUs under the quality of service (QoS) constraints is formulated and solved through applying iterative algorithm and Lagrange dual method. Numerical results demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed scheme.
Enabling interactive scientific data visualization and analysis with see-through hmds and a large tiled display

Validation and exploration of the data generated by large-scale scientific simulations rely on sophisticated visualization and analysis tasks. With the advancement of supercomputing, the growing scale and complexity of the data make some of these tasks challenging, which demands new hardware and software solutions. We believe it is possible to address some of the challenges by utilizing the increasingly affordable see-through head mounted display (H-MD) devices together with a low-cost tiled HDTV display. With the tiled display to provide a high-resolution overview of the data, the user can freely choose a small area to explore and analyze using a see-through HMD in stereoscopic 3D with gesture input. During such local exploration and detail data analysis, the user can apply a newly derived visualization parameter setting to the large tiled display for a new overview. In this way, computational costs become more manageable because realtime rendering and response are only required to cover a small screen space and a subset of the data. In our current study, we focus on supporting immersive isosurface and streamline visualization and analysis of 3D flow field data. In this workshop paper, we present our preliminary design and results, and we also discuss our further development and evaluation plan.
Structured Deposition in Early Neolithic Northern Italy

The paper reviews the interpretations of pits found in early Neolithic settlement sites in the Po valley of northern Italy, with particular attention paid to the concentration of late 6th–early 5th millennium Cal BC sites around Vho (Piadena, Cremona). It argues that these are unlikely to have been pit-dwellings, despite a long tradition of interpreting them in this way. It suggests that the assemblages and associations found in the fills of some of the pits indicate the practice of structured deposition, and explores the consequences of this finding for our interpretation of sites dating from this period.
Investigating a Thermal Breakdown Model and Experiments on a Silicon-Based Low-Noise Amplifier Under High-Power Microwave Pulses

This study investigated a thermal breakdown model for semiconductor devices under the injection of high-power microwave (HPM) pulses. A general equation was derived to calculate the power to failure, which depended on the pulse width and its duty cycle. The equation was able to calculate the threshold power given the parameters of a certain semiconductor device. To validate the model, silicon-based low-noise amplifiers were measured to obtain their threshold power under different pulse widths and duty cycles in the HPM measurement system. The calculated and measured power-to-failure results were compared with some correlations. This analysis is useful for further discussion on semiconductor protection under the HPM pulses.