Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
What is the evidence that vitamin C supplements lower blood pressure?

Systematic reviews represent a rigorous method for objectively synthesizing a body of scientific evidence. Their findings are used as the basis for clinical practice and public health guidelines and consensus statements and to identify research gaps or methodologic concerns to guide future research recommendations. Systematic reviews of the evidence regarding nutrition questions are both more recent and more challenging than their counterparts in clinical medicine, raising greater substantive concerns (1). Likewise, interpretation and application of the findings have been subject to far greater controversy than their clinical counterparts due, at least in part, to the challenges of designing good original research studies. These challenges are the same ones that have stymied the application of evidence review findings both to clinical practice and to public health guidelines. In this issue of the Journal, Juraschek et al (2) systematically review the evidence that supplemental vitamin C lowers blood pressure (BP), a question of potentially immense importance given the prevalence of hypertension (3), the health care funds spent on antihypertensive medications, and the countless efforts aimed at promoting lifestyle changes to reduce BP. Yet, compliance with antihypertensive medication is often poor; a proportion of individuals fail to respond even when compliant, and lifestyle changes often fall short, resulting in yet greater outlays for cardiovascular disease treatment. The idea that a relatively benign and inexpensive vitamin supplement might play a role in controlling hypertension therefore has particular appeal. The physiologic rationale for an effect of vitamin C on BP dates back to the 1940s and is supported by epidemiologic evidence. Unfortunately, the current meta-analysis identifies only a minor BP-lowering effect, which is undoubtedly too small clinically to support a recommendation that individuals with hypertension replace or even supplement their antihypertensive medications with vitamin C. Nevertheless, this meta-analysis teaches valuable lessons about the design of original studies and systematic reviews. The remainder of this editorial outlines the more salient of these lessons according to the schema systematic reviewers use to consider the important characteristics of clinical trials for pooling: participants, interventions, comparators, outcomes, and time course.
Centrifugal innervation of the rat retina

Abstract Centrifugal fibers innervating the retina have been shown in all classes of vertebrate, except for mammals where conventional tract-tracing methods have not been able to unmistakably demonstrate their existence. In a previous study, a unilateral, intravitreal injection of 5, 7-dihydroxytryptamine was used to reveal indoleamine-accumulating centrifugal fibers which were visualized by an immunoreaction against serotonin. In the present study, I employed a modification of this method to stain retinopetal neurons in the rat. Terminals were located preferentially in the outer retina; labeled fibers could be traced back along an ipsilateral pathway to somata in the dorso-caudal portions of the chiasm or the medio-lateral preoptic area, and thence towards the suprachiasmatic nuclei. The unique beaded appearance of the fibers distinguishes them from retinal ganglion cell axons. The labeling of central cell bodies strongly suggests that they possess terminals in the retina. Thus, at least some mammalian retinas receive centrifugal innervation. This indoleamine-accumulating retinopetal pathway may be involved in retinal melatonin synthesis, coordination of circadian rhythms, and interocular phenomena.
The Red DRAGON: A Multi-Modality System for Simulation and Training in Minimally Invasive Surgery

With the development of new technologies in surgery, minimally invasive surgery (MIS) has drastically improved the way conventional medical procedures are performed. However, a new learning curve has resulted requiring an expertise in integrating visual information with the kinematics and dynamics of the surgical tools. The Red DRAGON is a multi-modal simulator for teaching and training MIS procedures allowing one to use it with several modalities including: simulator (physical objects and virtual objects) and an animal model. The Red DRAGON system is based on a serial spherical mechanism in which all the rotation axes intersect at a single point (remote center) allowing the endoscopic tools to pivot around the MIS port. The system includes two mechanisms that incorporate two interchangeable MIS tools. Sensors are incorporated into the mechanism and the tools measure the positions and orientations of the surgical tools as well as forces and torques applied on the tools by the surgeon. The design is based on a mechanism optimization to maximize the manipulability of the mechanism in the MIS workspace. As part of a preliminary experimental protocol, five expert level surgeons performed three laparoscopic tasks--a subset of the Fundamental Laparoscopic Skill (FLS) set as a baseline for skill assessment protocols. The results provide an insight into the kinematics and dynamics of the endoscopic tools, as the underlying measures for objectively assessing MIS skills.
The police officer who fired into a car full of teenagers was fired

The current neural network models for event detection have only considered the sequential representation of sentences. Syntactic representations have not been explored in this area although they provide an effective mechanism to directly link words to their informative context for event detection in the sentences. In this work, we investigate a convolutional neural network based on dependency trees to perform event detection. We propose a novel pooling method that relies on entity mentions to aggregate the convolution vectors. The extensive experiments demonstrate the benefits of the dependencybased convolutional neural networks and the entity mentionbased pooling method for event detection. We achieve the state-of-the-art performance on widely used datasets with both perfect and predicted entity mentions.
The Nrf2-Antioxidant Response Element Signaling Pathway and Its Activation by Oxidative Stress*

A major mechanism in the cellular defense against oxidative or electrophilic stress is activation of the Nrf2-antioxidant response element signaling pathway, which controls the expression of genes whose protein products are involved in the detoxication and elimination of reactive oxidants and electrophilic agents through conjugative reactions and by enhancing cellular antioxidant capacity. At the molecular level, however, the regulatory mechanisms involved in mediating Nrf2 activation are not fully understood. It is well established that Nrf2 activity is controlled, in part, by the cytosolic protein Keap1, but the nature of this pathway and the mechanisms by which Keap1 acts to repress Nrf2 activity remain to be fully characterized and are the topics of discussion in this minireview. In addition, a possible role of the Nrf2-antioxidant response element transcriptional pathway in neuroprotection will also be discussed.
Human Endotoxemia Induces Down-Regulation of Monocyte CC Chemokine Receptor 2

ABSTRACT Upon injection of Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharide into human volunteers, the monocyte density of CC chemokine receptor 2 (CCR2) decreased. Minimal CCR2 density was observed 4 h after injection. Peak plasma concentrations of the CCR2 ligand monocyte chemotactic protein 1 and of tumor necrosis factor alpha were reached after 4 h and 2 h, respectively.
Evidence based medicine: what it is and what it isn't

It's about integrating individual clinical expertise and the best external evidence Evidence based medicine, whose philosophical origins extend back to mid-19th century Paris and earlier, remains a hot topic for clinicians, public health practitioners, purchasers, planners, and the public. There are now frequent workshops in how to practice and teach it (one sponsored by the BMJ will be held in London on 24 April); undergraduate1 and postgraduate2 training programmes are incorporating it3 (or pondering how to do so); British centres for evidence based practice have been established or planned in adult medicine, child health, surgery, pathology, pharmacotherapy, nursing, general practice, and dentistry; the Cochrane Collaboration and Britain's Centre for Review and Dissemination in York are providing systematic reviews of the effects of health care; new evidence based practice journals are being launched; and it has become a common topic in the lay media. But enthusiasm has been mixed with some negative reaction.4 5 6 Criticism has ranged from evidence based medicine being old hat to it being a dangerous innovation, perpetrated by the arrogant to serve cost cutters and suppress clinical freedom. As evidence based medicine continues to evolve and adapt, now is a useful time to refine the discussion of what it is and what it is not. Evidence based medicine is the conscientious, explicit, and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients. The …
Simultaneous Determination of Monoatomic Ions via Infrared Attenuated Total Reflection Spectroscopy in Aqueous Solution at Different Temperatures

In this study, monoatomic and thus IR-inactive ions were determined via infrared attenuated total reflection (IR-ATR) spectroscopy including Cl−, Na+, Mg2+, Ca2+, K+ and Br−, next to the IR-active ion SO 4 2 - . The determination of IR-inactive ions is enabled, as each ion influences the infrared spectrum of bulk water by organizing the water molecules within the solvation shell around the ionic species in a unique way. Furthermore, the influence of temperature was taken into account for the potential application of this analytical technique in real-world scenarios. Using chemometric data analysis, seven ions could be discriminated at temperatures ranging between 3 ℃ and 45 ℃. Finally, within a sample of seawater, Cl−, Na+, Mg2+ and SO 4 2 - could be simultaneously quantified, while the concentrations of Ca2+, K+ and Br− remained below the achievable limits of detection.
Representation of interpersonal interactions on the Rorschach and level of psychopathology.

Recent theoretical formulations emphasize the importance of the quality of interpersonal relationships in personality development and psychopathology and have resulted in the construction of methods for assessing the representation of interpersonal experiences. The Urist Mutuality of Autonomy (MOA) Scale is one of the most frequently used methods for assessing the quality of interpersonal relationships by evaluating interactions portrayed on the Rorschach between people, animals, and/or things. This study of the relationship of the MOA scale to independent assessments of interpersonal relationships and clinical symptoms in a group of seriously disturbed adolescents and young adults recently admitted to a long-term, open, residential treatment facility revealed that the average quality of interactions portrayed on the Rorschach relates significantly to the severity of clinical symptoms and the presence of thought disorder, but not to the quality of interpersonal relations. In addition, the portrayal of at least one intensively malevolent and destructive interaction on the Rorschach is correlated primarily with measures of thought disorder and impaired reality testing, whereas not giving at least one mutual and benevolent interaction response is correlated with impaired capacity for social adaptation (e.g., inappropriate interpersonal behavior and unmodulated affect). The relative failure to give at least one mutual and benevolent response is also correlated with the severity of clinical symptoms. Though the MOA scale was developed to assess object relations, it seems more consistently to assess aspects of psychopathology, such as the severity of clinical symptoms and the extent of thought disorder, and only secondarily the quality of interpersonal relationships.
THE BURIED STARBURST IN THE INTERACTING GALAXY II Zw 096 AS REVEALED BY THE SPITZER SPACE TELESCOPE

An analysis of data from the Spitzer Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X-ray Observatory, and AKARI Infrared Astronomy Satellite is presented for the z = 0.036 merging galaxy system II Zw 096 (CGCG 448-020). Because II Zw 096 has an infrared luminosity of log(LIR/L☉) = 11.94, it is classified as a Luminous Infrared Galaxy (LIRG), and was observed as part of the Great Observatories All-sky LIRG Survey (GOALS). The Spitzer data suggest that 80% of the total infrared luminosity comes from an extremely compact, red source not associated with the nuclei of the merging galaxies. The Spitzer mid-infrared spectra indicate no high-ionization lines from a buried active galactic nucleus in this source. The strong detection of the 3.3 μm and 6.2 μm polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon emission features in the AKARI and Spitzer spectra also implies that the energy source of II Zw 096 is a starburst. Based on Spitzer infrared imaging and AKARI near-infrared spectroscopy, the star formation rate is estimated to be 120 M☉ yr-1 and >45 M☉ yr-1, respectively. Finally, the high-resolution B-, I-, and H-band images show many star clusters in the interacting system. The colors of these clusters suggest at least two populations—one with an age of 1–5 Myr and one with an age of 20–500 Myr, reddened by 0–2 mag of visual extinction. The masses of these clusters span a range between 106 and 108 M☉. This starburst source is reminiscent of the extranuclear starburst seen in NGC 4038/9 (the Antennae Galaxies) and Arp 299 but approximately an order of magnitude more luminous than the Antennae. The source is remarkable in that the off-nuclear infrared luminosity dominates the entire system.
Seroprevalence of HIV Antibodies in Ogbomoso, Oyo State,Nigeria.

The incidence of new infections of HIV has declined globally due to increased prevention and control measures. In Oyo State Nigeria, there have been increased surveillance activities to complement control measures in recent years. This is the findings of the latest HIV sentinel epidemiological surveillance revealing the seroprevalence of HIV in Ogbomoso, Nigeria. About 515 subjects were tested for HIV antibodies in 2012. Screening tests were carried out using DetermineTM HIV 1 & 2 (Abbott) and Chembio HIV 1& 2 Stat-PakTM rapid test kits following manufacturer’s instructions. A seroprevalence rate of 0% was determined with a significantly higher participation in females 61.75% than males 38.25%. The participation rate of different age group from the highest to the lowest is as follows 20-24 years old was found to have the 40.97%, age group of 25-29 years have 25.05%, age group of 15-19 have 19.61%, age group >30 have 8.74%and lastly, the age group 2-14 years old had the lowest participation rate of 5.63%. The results from this show a zero seroprevalence rate in Ogbomoso, Nigeria. According to the results from this study it was observed that prevention and control measures have been stepped up, particularly at both the local level with more attention toward sexually active age group.
EBG Structures for Reduction of Mutual Coupling in Patch Antennas Arrays

An important issue in antenna array design is reduction of mutual coupling. In square microstrip antennas this reduction can be achieved by using electromagnetic band-gap (EBG) structures. They can help in the reduction of mutual coupling by using their capability of suppressing surface waves propagation in a given frequency range. In this paper, we analyze the isolation properties of different EBG structures are compare them in antennas arrays by simulations. A new configuration of a planar compact electromagnetic bandgap structure is investigated. Compared to the conventional EBG (mushroom structure), a size reduction of 67.2% is achieved. Simulation results show that a significant value of mutual coupling reduction, more than 6 dB, can be obtained by using the proposed structure.
Feature‐oriented engineering of PBX software for adaptability and reuseability

Incorporating a high level of adaptability and reusability into software is one challenge that all software engineers face. PBX (Private Branch Exchange) is one such system that requires a high level of adaptability and reusability because of rapidly expanding service features, ever changing communication technology, continuously evolving standards and diverse communication laws and standards in different countries. The software engineering community has made various efforts to address the problem of enhancing software adaptability and reusability. As a result, many programming concepts, such as information hiding, encapsulation, object orientation, abstract data type and modularization, have been developed. Although adequate application of these principles requires the domain or program family perspective, most methods, so far, have been oriented toward developing a single application. FORM (Feature‐Oriented Reuse Method), the domain‐based software reuse method applied in this paper, concentrates on analyzing and modeling commonalities and differences in applications of a given domain and using the analysis results to develop domain‐oriented architectures and software components. The model that captures commonalities and differences is called the ‘feature model’ and it is used for both the engineering of reusable domain artifacts and the development of actual application software with reusable artifacts. We found that FORM facilitates analysis of variability, as well as commonality, of software before the start of engineering and implementation. With this understanding, adaptability and reusability can be built into software. Also, feature modeling has been found to be an effective method for identifying objects. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Amorphous TiO2 nanotube arrays for low-temperature oxygen sensors

Titania nanotube arrays (TNTA) were synthesized on a titanium substrate using anodic oxidation in an electrolyte containing ammonium fluoride and evaluated for low-temperature oxygen sensing. Their sensing properties were tested at different temperatures (50, 100, 150, 200, 250 and 300 °C) when exposed to various oxygen concentrations. The as-prepared TNTA are amorphous and exhibit much higher carrier concentration than that of annealed TNTA. Such amorphous TNTA show much higher sensitivity than that of annealed TNTA, SrTiO3 and Ga2O3 sensors. This sample demonstrates the lowest detectable oxygen concentration of 200 ppm, excellent recovery and good linear correlation at 100 °C. These results indicate that TNTA are indeed very attractive oxygen-sensing materials.
In vitro bone marrow toxicity of nucleoside analogs against human immunodeficiency virus

3'-Azido-2',3'-dideoxythymidine is known to cause severe anemia and neutropenia. Although these are rare for 2',3'-dideoxycytidine, it frequently impairs thrombocytogenesis. These differential myelossuppressive features correlated well with the in vitro toxicities of the drugs for a megakaryoblastic cell line and for colony formation of erythroid and granulocytic cells.
Proofs-of-delay and randomness beacons in Ethereum

Blockchains generated using a proofof-work consensus protocol, such as Bitcoin or Ethereum, are promising sources of public randomness. However, the randomness is subject to manipulation by the miners generating the blockchain. A general defense is to apply a delay function, preventing malicious miners from computing the random output until it is too late to manipulate it. Ideally, this delay function can provide a short proofof-delay that is efficient enough to be verified within a smart contract, enabling the randomness source to be directly by smart contracts. In this paper we describe the challenges of solving this problem given the extremely limited computational capacity available in Ethereum, the most popular generalpurpose smart contract framework to date. We introduce a novel multi-round protocol for verifying delay functions using a refereed delegation model. We provide a prototype Ethereum implementation to analyze performance and find that it is feasible in terms of gas costs, costing roughly 180000 gas (US$ 0.11) to post a beacon and 720000 gas (US$ 0.98) to resolve a dispute . We also discuss the incentive challenges raised by providing a secure randomness beacon as a public good.
A lazy approach to pruning classification rules

Associative classification is a promising technique for the generation of highly precise classifiers. Previous works propose several clever techniques to prune the huge set of generated rules, with the twofold aim of selecting a small set of high quality rules, and reducing the chance of overfitting. In this paper, we argue that pruning should be reduced to a minimum and that the availability of a large rule base may improve the precision of the classifier without affecting its performance. In L/sup 3/ (Live and Let Live), a new algorithm for associative classification, a lazy pruning technique iteratively discards all rules that only yield wrong case classifications. Classification is performed in two steps. Initially, rules which have already correctly classified at least one training case, sorted by confidence, are considered If the case is still unclassified, the remaining rules (unused during the training phase) are considered, again sorted by confidence. Extensive experiments on 26 databases from the UCI machine learning database repository show that L/sup 3/ improves the classification precision with respect to previous approaches.
Sliding mode attitude control for a quadrotor micro unmanned aircraft vehicle using disturbance observer

In this paper, a sliding mode attitude controller with a two-cascaded loop structure is designed for the attitude control of a quadrotor micro unmanned aircraft vehicle. Considering that the quadrotor systems usually suffer external disturbances in the practical flight, a nonlinear disturbance observer is introduced to improve the robustness of the attitude controller. Extensive simulations show that the developed sliding mode attitude controller compensated by the nonlinear disturbance observer is insensitive to the external disturbances, which demonstrates the effectiveness of the designed attitude controller.