Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Flat Optics for Surface Waves

The name flat optics (FO) has been introduced in a recent paper by Capasso's group for denoting light-wave manipulations through a general type of penetrable or impenetrable metasurfaces (MTSs). There, the attention was focused on plane waves, whereas here we treat surface waves (SWs) excited on impenetrable impedance surfaces. Space variability of the boundary conditions imposes a deformation of the SW wavefront, which addresses the local wavector along not-rectilinear paths. The ray paths are subjected to an eikonal equation analogous to the one for geometrical optics (GO) rays in graded index materials. The basic relations among ray paths, ray velocity, and transport of energy for both isotropic and anisotropic boundary conditions are presented for the first time. This leads to an elegant formulation which allows for closed form analysis of flat operational devices (lenses or beam formers), giving a new guise to old concepts. It is shown that when an appropriate transformation is found, the ray paths can be conveniently controlled without the use of ray tracing, thus simplifying the problem and leading to a flat version of transformation optics, which is framed here in the general FO theory.
Work-Family Conflict, Emotional Exhaustion, and Displaced Aggression Toward Others: The Moderating Roles of Workplace Interpersonal Conflict and Perceived Managerial Family Support

Taking a resource-based self-regulation perspective, this study examined afternoon emotional exhaustion as a mediator linking the within-person relations between morning work-family conflict and later employee displaced aggression in the work and family domains. In addition, it examined resource-related contextual factors as moderators of these relations. The theoretical model was tested using daily diary data from 125 employees. Data were collected at 4 time points during each workday for 3 consecutive weeks. Multilevel modeling analysis showed that morning family-to-work conflict was positively related to afternoon emotional exhaustion, which in turn predicted displaced aggression toward supervisors and coworkers in the afternoon and displaced aggression toward family members in the evening. In addition, morning workplace interpersonal conflict exacerbated the impact of morning work-to-family conflict on afternoon emotional exhaustion, whereas perceived managerial family support alleviated the impact of morning family-to-work conflict on afternoon emotional exhaustion. These findings indicate the importance of adopting a self-regulation perspective to understand work-family conflict at work and its consequences (i.e., displaced aggression) in both work and family domains.
Visión computerizada aplicada a la medicina

Este proyecto surge de una propuesta por parte de investigadores de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid en colaboracion con personal medico del Hospital de la Paz para utilizar la potencia actual del procesamiento de imagenes a un tipo de heridas de caracteristicas similares. En este caso, se ha diagnosticado la evolucion de heridas quirurgicas causadas en la extraccion de zonas de capas superficiales de la piel, para su injerto en areas con quemaduras. El problema consiste en la evaluacion de diferentes metodos y herramientas de vision computacional para establecer una base para futuras investigaciones y desarrollo de aplicaciones que sirvan para agilizar procesos medicos. En esta memoria se muestran los diferentes caminos que se han seguido para la resolucion de dicho problema, con los procedimientos seguidos en cada caso. Se muestran tambien los resultados obtenidos cuantitativamente y las imagenes resultantes, que serviran como fundamento para futuros estudios del tema.
Monomeric endotoxin:protein complexes are essential for TLR4-dependent cell activation

Potent TLR4-dependent cell activation by Gram-negative bacterial endotoxin depends on sequential endotoxin—protein and protein—protein interactions with LBP, CD14, MD-2 and TLR4. LBP and CD14 combine, in an albumin-dependent fashion, to extract single endotoxin molecules from purified endotoxin aggregates (Eagg) or the bacterial outer membrane and form monomeric endotoxin:CD14 complexes that are the preferred presentation of endotoxin for transfer to MD-2. Endotoxin in endotoxin:CD14 is readily transferred to MD-2, again in an albumin-dependent manner, to form monomeric endotoxin:MD-2 complex. This monomeric endotoxin:protein complex (endotoxin:MD-2) activates TLR4 at picomolar concentrations, independently of albumin, and is, therefore, the apparent ligand in endotoxin-dependent TLR4 activation. Tetra-, penta-, and hexa-acylated forms of meningococcal endotoxin (LOS) react similarly with LBP, CD14, and MD-2 to form endotoxin:MD-2 complexes. However, tetra- and penta-acylated LOS:MD-2 complexes are less potent TLR4 agonists than hexa-acylated LOS:MD-2. This is mirrored in the reduced activity of tetra-, penta- versus hexa-acylated LOS aggregates (LOS agg) + LBP toward cells containing mCD14, MD-2, and TLR4. Therefore, changes in agonist potency of under-acylated meninigococcal LOS are determined by differences in properties of monomeric endotoxin:MD-2.
Substance P and catecholaminergic expression in neurons of the hamster main olfactory bulb

A coordinated series of immunohistochemical and biochemical analyses have been conducted in the hamster to examine the dependence of substance P and tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) expression by second‐order olfactory neurons, and the level of dopamine in the main olfactory bulb (MOB), on the integrity of carnosine‐ and olfactory marker protein (OMP)‐containing primary afferent neurons. Substance P‐like immunoreactivity (SPLI) is localized in external tufted cells and centrifugal afferents of the MOB; TH immunoreactivity has a wider distribution, in external tufted, middle tufted, periglomerular, and deep short‐axon cells as well as in centrifugal afferents. To characterize the SPLI, this material was isolated by guanidine‐HCl extraction and passage over a C18 SEP‐PAK. The SPLI coelutes on HPLC with authentic substance P and, following oxidation, coelutes with substance P sulfoxide. It is sensitive to α‐chymotrypsin and is resistant to trypsin. Thus, the SPLI in the MOB behaves as authentic substance P. Intranasal irrigation with 0.17 M ZnSO4 results in peripheral deafferentation of the MOB for up to 8 months as evidenced by a persistent loss of OMP immunoreactivity and shrinkage of the olfactory nerve layer and glomeruli. By these criteria, the vomeronasal inputs to the accessory olfactory bulb are not destroyed and the spared vomeronasal receptor neurons do not innervate the vacated peripheral projection field in the MOB. The loss of peripheral inputs to the MOB is accompanied by marked and parallel reductions in the incidences of SPLI‐ and TH‐positive second‐order neurons despite an increase in the density of neuronal somata in the glomerular layer. Biochemical quantifications following peripheral deafferentation also demonstrate significant decreases of both substance P and dopamine, together with the expected decrease of carnosine. In contrast, the SPLI and the TH and serotoninlike immunoreactivities in centrifugal afferents as well as the TH immunoreactivity in deep interneurons do not appear to be reduced, and the MOB content of norepinephrine in centrifugal afferents is unaffected. These results collectively indicate that the loss of inputs from the primary olfactory receptor neurons can reduce the levels of at least two different, putatively neuroactive compounds (substance P and dopamine) in at least three classes of second‐order neurons (external tufted, middle tufted, and periglomerular cells). The control of central neuron phenotype by the peripheral olfactory neurons thus appears to be a phenomenon of broad influence. It may play a role in processing chemosensory information as well as offering a system in which to study neuronal plasticity.
Sertoli cell as a model in male reproductive toxicology: Advantages and disadvantages

Pressure towards population aging in the demographic pyramid is not only due to sociological/personal choices but also due to subfertility or infertility. There are several chemicals and mixtures that impair male fertility. While experimental animal models are crucial to identify compounds that affect male fertility, it is essential to use reliable in vitro models to determine cellular targets and intracellular pathways that mediate chemical toxicity in the male reproductive system. In this review, we focused on the somatic Sertoli cell (SC) that, within the testis, is a major target for hormonal signaling and provides physical and nutritional support to developing germ cells. The different outcomes possible in each type of study: in vivo versus in vitro (either in primary or immortalized cell cultures) are analyzed. Herein, we intend to clarify the unique features that render SCs as excellent candidates for a robust in vitro model to study the deleterious effects of chemicals on male reproductive health. The sensitivity of SCs to toxicants/pharmaceuticals is discussed and, based on the literature reviewed we propose the in vitro study of SC physiology as a model to disclose deleterious effects of substances to male fertility. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Novel alginate/aloe vera hydrogel blends as wound dressings for the treatment of several types of wounds

Currently, there is a significant increase in the use of natural materials for biomedical applications, mainly due to their biocompatibility, biodegradability and similar properties to the constituents of natural tissues. In this work, hydrogel films composed of alginate and Aloe vera gel were prepared and characterized for application in the treatment of several types of wounds (e.g. exuding, painful and dry). The films were prepared through a two-step procedure encompassing the film formation by a solvent-casting method and an additional crosslinking step to improve their properties. The physical, morphological and water absorption properties were characterized by introducing several variations in the Aloe vera content. The in vitro degradation behaviour of the films was investigated in the presence of the enzyme alginate lyase for 2 weeks. Results showed that Aloe vera improves the water absorption and the in vitro degradation rate of the films. In conclusion, this study indicates that the alginate/Aloe vera hydrogel films can be potentially explored as wound dressing for the treatment of different wound types. Copyright ? 2013, AIDIC Servizi S.r. l.
Differences between perspectives of physicians and patients on anticoagulation in patients with atrial fibrillation: observational study.

Abstract Objective: To determine and compare physicians' and patients' thresholds for how much reduction in risk of stroke is necessary and how much risk of excess bleeding is acceptable with antithrombotic treatment in people with atrial fibrillation. Design: Prospective observational study. Setting: Tertiary and peripheral referral centres in Nova Scotia, Canada. Participants: 63 physicians who were treating patients with atrial fibrillation and 61 patients at high risk for atrial fibrillation. Main outcome measures: Participants underwent a face to face interview with a probability trade-off tool. Thresholds were determined for the minimum reduction in risk of stroke necessary and the maximum increase in risk of excess bleeding acceptable for treatment with aspirin and warfarin in people with atrial fibrillation. Results: The minimum number of strokes that needed to be prevented in 100 patients over two years for warfarin to be justified was significantly lower for patients than for physicians (1.8 (SD 1.9) v 2.5 (1.6), P=0.009), whereas for aspirin there was no difference between patients and physicians (1.3 (1.3) v 1.6 (1.5), P=0.29). The maximum number of excess bleeds acceptable in 100 patients over two years for use of warfarin and aspirin was significantly higher for patients than for physicians (warfarin 17.4 (7.1) v 10.3 (6.1); aspirin 14.7 (8.5) v 6.7 (6.2); P<0.001 for both comparisons). Conclusions: Patients at high risk for atrial fibrillation placed more value on the avoidance of stroke and less value on the avoidance of bleeding than did physicians who treat patients with atrial fibrillation. The views of the individual patient should be considered when decisions are being made about antithrombotic treatment for people with atrial fibrillation. What is already known on this topic Several observational studies have shown an apparent underuse of antithrombotic drugs in patients with atrial fibrillation, despite evidence of efficacy What this study adds There is considerable variability between physicians and patients in their weighing up of the potential outcomes associated with atrial fibrillation and its treatment For anticoagulation treatment to be acceptable patients required less reduction in risk of stroke and were more tolerant of an increase in risk of bleeding than physicians Physicians varied considerably in how much risk of bleeding they thought was acceptable for a given reduction in risk of stroke associated with antithrombotic drugs
β‐Adrenergic Blockers Reduce the Risk of Fracture Partly by Increasing Bone Mineral Density: Geelong Osteoporosis Study

This population‐based study documented β‐blocker use in 59/569 cases with incident fracture and 112/775 controls. OR for fracture associated with β‐blocker use was 0.68 (95%CI, 0.49–0.96). β‐Blockers were associated with higher BMD at the total hip (2.5%) and UD forearm (3.6%) after adjusting for age, anthropometry, and thiazide use. β‐Blocker use is associated with reduced fracture risk and higher BMD.
Pulmonary scintigraphy in elastase-induced emphysema in pigs. Correlation with high-resolution computed tomography and histology.

OBJECTIVES The objective of this study is to evaluate the mild physiologic changes of elastase-induced pulmonary emphysema in the pig by radionuclide scintigraphy and to correlate these findings with high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) and histologic examination. METHODS Eight 7- to 12-week-old Yorkshire pigs were studied. Perfusion and ventilation studies were performed in six pigs at 1- or 2-week intervals after elastase instillation. HRCT was simultaneously performed for correlation with radionuclide scintigraphy. For the perfusion scans, technetium 99m (99mTc) macroaggregated albumin (MAA) was used, and both planar and single-photon emission CT (SPECT) images were obtained. Ventilation studies were performed with xenon-133 gas with dynamic sequential imaging. RESULTS Histopathologic findings demonstrated dilatation and destruction of the alveoli and were similar to those previously reported by the authors. The SPECT perfusion images showed significantly impaired perfusion of the involved segment of the lung, corresponding to the region where elastase was instilled. The planar xenon-133 ventilation scintigraphy did not show abnormal air trapping. The mild emphysema induced with elastase manifested as decreased and impaired perfusion with no detectable ventilation abnormalities. The sensitivity of SPECT perfusion studies for the detection of the mild changes of elastase-induced pulmonary emphysema were higher than that of HRCT. CONCLUSIONS The perfusion studies reflect functional or physiologic changes in contrast to structural changes seen on HRCT. This pig model was valuable to study the scintigraphic manifestation of elastase-induced pulmonary emphysema.
Methods for Extracting Meta-Information from bibliographic databases

Due to intensive growth of the electronically available publications in the last few decades, bibliographic databases have become widespread. They cover a large variety of knowledge fields and provide a fast access to the wide variety of data. At the same time they contain a wealth of hidden knowledge that requires steps of extra processing in order to infer it. In this work we focus on extraction of such implicit (or meta) knowledge from the research bibliographic databases by looking at them from sociolinguistic, text mining and bibliometric perspectives. We choose the Digital Library and Bibliographic Database — DBLP as a testbed for our experiments. In the framework of the sociolinguistic analysis we build a statistical system for the language identification of personal names. We show also that extension of a purely statistical model with the co-authors network boosts the system’s performance. There are several premises motivating our work. For example, it has been shown that the geographical proximity influences research. Moreover, research is constantly evaluated on the national and international basis. To make these and similar investigations less laborious in terms of human effort, ability to automatically assign personal names to the appropriate language seems to be useful. In the text mining scenario, we perform a number of experiments that focus on topic identification and ranking. While our topic detection approach remains generic and can be used for any kind of textual data, the topic ranking metrics are built upon the information provided by the bibliographic databases. With respect to the topic ranking, our study aims at finding the ways of different topic ordering depending on the question that has
Components of energy expenditure in patients with severe sepsis and major trauma: a basis for clinical care.

OBJECTIVE To obtain accurate values for the components of energy expenditure in critically ill patients with sepsis or trauma during the first 2 wks after admission to the intensive care unit. DESIGN Prospective study. SETTING Critical care unit and university department of surgery in a single tertiary care center. PATIENTS Twelve severely septic (median Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II Score, 23; range, 15 to 34) and 12 major trauma patients (median Injury Severity Score, 33.5; range, 26 to 50). INTERVENTIONS Total body fat, total body protein, and total body glycogen were measured as soon as hemodynamic stability had been reached and repeated 5 and 10 days later. Resting energy expenditure (REE) was measured daily by indirect calorimetry. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS Changes in total body fat, total body protein, and total body glycogen in critically ill patients provide data for the accurate construction of an energy balance. Energy intake minus energy balance gives a direct measurement of total energy expenditure (TEE) and, when combined with measurements of REE, activity energy expenditure can be obtained. TEE, REE, and activity energy expenditure were calculated for two sequential 5-day study periods. REE progressively increased during the first week after the onset of severe sepsis or major trauma, peaking during the second week at 37 +/- 6% (SEM) and 60 +/- 13% greater than predicted, respectively. For both the sepsis and trauma patients, TEE was significantly higher during the second week than during the first week (3257 +/- 370 vs. 1927 +/- 370 kcal/day, p < .05, in sepsis; 4123 +/- 518 vs. 2380 +/- 422 kcal/day, p < .05, in trauma). During the first week after admission to the hospital, TEE in sepsis and trauma patients, respectively, averaged 25 +/- 5 and 31 +/- 6 kcal/kg of body weight/day, and during the second week, 47 +/- 6 and 59 +/- 7 kcal/kg/day (p < .03, for comparison of first and second weeks). For the first week, the ratio of TEE to REE was 1.0 +/- 0.2 and 1.1 +/- 0.2 but during the second week rose to 1.7 +/- 0.2 and 1.8 +/- 0.2 in patients with sepsis (p < .05, for comparison of weeks) and trauma (p = .09), respectively. CONCLUSIONS Total energy expenditure is maximal during the second week after admission to the critical care unit, reaching 50 to 60 kcal/kg/day.
Early and persistent reduction in umbilical vein blood flow in the growth-restricted fetus: a longitudinal study.

OBJECTIVE We have previously shown, in a cross-sectional study, that the reduction in umbilical vein blood flow in intrauterine growth-restricted fetuses is due to reduced umbilical vein velocity. The purpose of this longitudinal study in intrauterine growth-restricted fetuses was to determine whether the umbilical vein velocity reduction, which, in turn, reduces blood flow, persists throughout gestation or represents a late event that precedes indicated delivery. STUDY DESIGN Twenty-one intrauterine growth-restricted fetuses with an abnormal umbilical artery velocimetry underwent serial sonographic and Doppler examinations from 23 to 36 weeks of gestation. Umbilical vein diameter and velocity were measured, and umbilical vein absolute (milliliters per minute) and weight-specific blood flow (milliliters per minute per kilogram) were calculated. Umbilical vein diameter, velocity, and blood flow were expressed per abdominal circumference. Intrauterine growth-restricted findings were compared to local reference data. RESULTS Intrauterine growth-restricted fetuses showed persistent reductions in umbilical vein blood flow per abdominal circumference and weight-specific blood flow (milliliters per minute per kilogram) from the time of diagnosis of intrauterine growth-restriction. Umbilical vein velocity was reduced in the intrauterine growth-restricted fetuses, although umbilical vein diameter did not change. CONCLUSION Reduction of umbilical vein blood flow is an early finding in intrauterine growth-restricted fetuses, and it can persist for several weeks until delivery. This reduction in blood flow is due to reduced umbilical vein velocity.
Overexpression of the polycythemia rubra vera-1 gene in essential thrombocythemia.

PURPOSE To examine the utility of polycythemia rubra vera-1 (PRV-1)-specific reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) to discriminate essential thrombocythemia (ET) and polycythemia vera (PV) from secondary thrombocytosis (ST) or secondary erythrocytosis (SE). PATIENTS AND METHODS We analyzed the expression of PRV-1 in granulocytes isolated from 37 patients with ET, 37 patients with PV, 25 patients with ST, 10 patients with SE, 25 patients with secondary leukocytosis (SL), five patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), five patients with chronic idiopathic myelofibrosis (IM), five patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), and 20 normal individuals by PRV-1-specific RT-PCR. In female patients, PRV-1 expression was correlated with clonality analysis as assessed by the human androgen receptor polymorphism assay. RESULTS PRV-1 was not expressed in granulocytes isolated from normal individuals or from patients with ST, SE, CML, IM, MDS, and inflammatory/infectious SL. On the contrary, all ET patients, 35 of 37 PV patients, and five patients with acute postsurgery and posttraumatic SL overexpressed PRV-1. All the cases with monoclonal hematopoiesis (17 of 21 with ET and 12 of 12 with PV) expressed PRV-1, yet PRV-1 overexpression extended also over the cases of ET showing polyclonal hematopoiesis (four of 20). CONCLUSION The overexpression of PRV-1 seems to be a useful tool for discriminating ET and PV from ST and SE, thus offering an innovative diagnostic approach on the basis of the detection of positive diagnostic criteria instead of exclusion criteria.