Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparison of reducing epicardial fat by exercise, diet or bariatric surgery weight loss strategies: a systematic review and meta‐analysis

The objectives were to determine whether epicardial fat (EAT) is subject to modification, and whether various strategies accomplish this end point and the relationship between weight loss and EAT. A systematic review of the literature following meta‐analysis guidelines was conducted using the search strategy ‘epicardial fat’ OR ‘epicardial adipose tissue’ AND ‘diet’ OR ‘exercise’ OR ‘bariatric surgery (BS)’ OR ‘change in body weight’ limited to humans. Eleven articles were identified with 12 intervention approaches of which eight studies showed a statistically significant reduction in EAT. A random‐effects meta‐analysis suggests an overall significant reduction of 1.12 standardized units (95% CI = [−1.71, −0.54], P value < 0.01). While there is a large amount of heterogeneity across study groups, a substantial amount of this variability can be accounted for by considering intervention type and change in body mass index (BMI). These variables were incorporated into a random‐effects meta‐regression model. Using this analysis, significant EAT reduction occurred with diet and BS but not with exercise. BMI reductions correlated significantly with EAT reductions for diet‐based interventions, i.e. for some but not all interventions. In conclusion, EAT, a factor that is significantly associated with coronary artery disease, can be modified. The type of intervention, in addition to the amount of weight loss achieved, is predictive of the amount of EAT reduction.
Experimental Evaluation of Interpretations for Local Cohesion Metrics

A retrofit system for a multi-spindle machine which includes a brake clutch (72), a feed clutch (70), and a high speed clutch (68) which are incorporated into the drive train gear layout of the multi-spindle machine. All three clutches are controlled by an electrical control circuit which includes a timer (80). When the multi-spindle machine shifts from high speed to low speed the control system activates the brake clutch for a short time period set in the timer, which causes the drive train gears to quickly slow down, allowing synchronous meshing with the low speed drive train of the multi-spindle machine and enabling a reduction in machine cycle time.
Effect of Fibroblast Donor Cell Age and Cell Cycle on Development of Bovine Nuclear Transfer Embryos In Vitro1

Abstract The effects of cell cycle stage and the age of the cell donor animal on in vitro development of bovine nuclear transfer embryos were investigated. Cultures of primary bovine fibroblasts were established from animals of various ages, and the in vitro life span of these cell lines was analyzed. Fibroblasts from both fetuses and calves had similar in vitro life spans of approximately 30 population doublings (PDs) compared with 20 PDs in fibroblasts obtained from adult animals. When fibroblasts from both fetuses and adult animals were cultured as a population, the percentage of cells in G1 increased linearly with time, whereas the percentage of S-phase cells decreased proportionately. Furthermore, the percentage of cells in G1 at a given time was higher in adult fibroblasts than in fetal fibroblasts. To study the individual cells from a population, a shake-off method was developed to isolate cells in G1 stage of the cell cycle and evaluate the cell cycle characteristics of both fetal and adult fibroblasts from either 25% or 100% confluent cultures. Irrespective of the age, the mean cell cycle length in isolated cells was shorter (9.6–15.5 h) than that observed for cells cultured as a population. Likewise, the length of the G1 stage in these isolated cells, as indicated by 5-bromo-deoxyuridine labeling, lasted only about 2–3 h. There were no differences in either the number of cells in blastocysts or the percentage of blastocysts between the embryos reconstructed with G1 cells from 25% or 100% confluent cultures of fetal or adult cell lines. This study suggests that there are substantial differences in cell cycle characteristics in cells derived from animals of different ages or cultured at different levels of confluence. However, these factors had no effect on in vitro development of nuclear transfer embryos.
Profiling of cMET and HER Family Receptor Expression in Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinomas and Corresponding Lymph Node Metastasis to Assess Relevant Pathways for Targeted Therapies: Looking at the Soil Before Planting the Seed

Objectives Comprehensive assessment of cMET and HER family receptor tyrosine kinases expression, changes of expression during metastatic progression, amplification status of the MET gene, and correlations with patient characteristics in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) was conducted. Methods We investigated 56 PDACs and corresponding lymph node metastases for HER1 to HER4 and cMET expression by immunohistochemistry, as well as cMET gene copy numbers by chromogenic in situ hybridization. Results Of all receptor tyrosine kinases evaluated, cMET expression was highest with 46.5% of tumors showing moderate or strong expression and a weak correlation with gene copy number status (P = 0.04; Spearman &rgr; = 0.28). cMET expression was increased in metastases. In contrast, expression levels of HER family receptors were generally low both in primaries and metastases. A weak yet significant correlation of HER1 and cMET expression levels was observed (P < 0.001; Spearman &rgr; = 0.44) and HER1 was often present in poorly differentiated tumors (G3, P = 0.049). Conclusions Our data suggest that cMET might constitute an interesting molecule for combining targeted and chemotherapeutic approaches in PDAC, because expression is frequent and increased during metastatic progression. In PDAC, cMET protein expression might be a more useful stratification biomarker than cMET gene amplification, which does not seem to be its primary regulator.
Parallel Processing of Ray Tracing on GPU with Dynamic Pipelining

Аbstract—This article describes the technologies of parallel processing of ray tracing using central processing unit (CPU) and graphics processing unit (GPU). The one problem of parallel processing of ray tracing is imbalance among the pixels computation which leads to performance degradation. A serious disadvantage of ray tracing is performance. Other algorithms use data coherence to share computations between pixels, while ray tracing normally starts the process anew, treating each eye ray separately. However, this separation offers other advantages, such as the ability to shoot more rays as needed to perform spatial anti-aliasing and improve image quality where needed. There are some problems with the possibility of realization of the parallel processing of ray tracing in stream processing on multicore processors with the required acceleration. 
Biología de plásmidos y dinámica génica en el complejo Pseudomonas syringae

La investigacion incluida en esta Tesis ha sido financiada con cargo a los proyectos AGL2011-30343-C02-02 y AGL2014-53242-C2-2-R del Plan Nacional de I+D+i del Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (MINECO), cofinanciado por el Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) y por la Beca para la Formacion de Personal Investigador (FPI, ref. BES-2012-054016) del Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion/Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad.
Patient-controlled methylphenidate for cancer fatigue: a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial.

PURPOSE To evaluate the effectiveness of patient-controlled methylphenidate as compared with placebo in cancer patients with fatigue, as measured by the Functional Assessment for Chronic Illness Therapy-Fatigue (FACIT-F). PATIENTS AND METHODS Patients with a fatigue score of at least 4 on a scale of 0 to 10 (0 = no fatigue, 10 = worst possible fatigue) and hemoglobin level of at least 10 g/dL were included. Patients were randomly assigned to receive 5 mg methylphenidate or placebo every 2 hours as needed (maximum of four capsules a day), for 7 days. Patients completed a daily diary including study drug record and fatigue intensity. A research nurse telephoned patients daily to assess toxicity and fatigue level. All patients were offered open-label methylphenidate for 4 weeks. FACIT-F and the Edmonton Symptom Assessment System (ESAS) were assessed at baseline, and days 8, 15, and 36. The FACIT-F fatigue subscore on day 8 was considered the primary end point. RESULTS Of 112 patients randomly assigned, 52 patients in the methylphenidate and 53 in the placebo group were assessable for analysis. Fatigue intensity improved significantly on day 8 in both the methylphenidate and placebo groups. However, there was no significant difference in fatigue improvement by FACIT-F (P = .31) or ESAS (P = .14) between groups. In open-label phase, fatigue intensity maintained low as compared with baseline. No significant toxicities were observed. CONCLUSION Both methylphenidate and placebo resulted in significant symptom improvement. Methylphenidate was not significantly superior to placebo after 1 week of treatment. Longer study duration is justified. The role of daily telephone calls from a research nurse should be explored as a palliative care intervention.
Étude in vitro de l'induction de stress oxydatif par la doxorubicine dans les cellules de sertoli immature et les spermatogonies

Les traitements de chimiotherapie peuvent affecter la fertilite masculine a long terme, meme lorsqu’administres avant la puberte. En effet, le testicule pre-pubere contient des spermatogonies et des cellules de Sertoli immatures, qui sont des cibles connues des chimiotherapies. Malheureusement, aucune solution de preservation de la fertilite n'est disponible pour les garcons pre-puberes. Des etudes suggerent que la doxorubicine, un agent de chimiotherapie utilise a large echelle en oncologie pediatrique, induit un stress oxydatif dans le testicule. Cependant, les types cellulaires cibles par ce stress restent inconnus. Le but de cette etude etait de determiner si la doxorubicine induit un stress oxydatif dans les spermatogonies et les cellules de Sertoli du testicule immature, puis d'evaluer leur protection par des antioxydants. Pour ce faire, nous avons utilise un modele in vitro de lignees de spermatogonies (GC-6Spg) et de cellules de Sertoli immatures (Ser-W3) de rat. D’abord, nous avons montre que la doxorubicine induit une cytotoxicite temps- et dose-dependante dans les deux lignees cellulaires. Cependant, lors de l’evaluation du stress oxydatif, les especes reactives de l'oxygene et le 8-oxo-desoxyguanosine nucleaire ont augmente seulement dans les Ser-W3. De plus, les niveaux de glutathion reduit intracellulaire ont diminue dans les Ser-W3. Ces resultats montrent que la doxorubicine induit un stress oxydatif dans la lignee cellulaire Ser-W3. Par contre, bien qu’une supplementation du glutathion intracellulaire offre une diminution faible mais significative de la cytotoxicite de la doxorubicine sur les Ser-W3, une depletion du glutathion n'affecte pas leur survie. Ceci laisse supposer que le systeme d’antioxydant du glutathion n'est pas essentiel pour la defense des Ser-W3 contre la doxorubicine. De plus, parmi quatre antioxydants selectionnes dans la litterature, aucun n’a ete en mesure de reduire la cytotoxicite de la doxorubicine dans les GC-6Spg et les Ser-W3. Dans l’ensemble, nos donnees suggerent que le stress oxydatif n’est probablement pas une voie majeure de toxicite de la doxorubicine dans les GC-6Spg et les Ser-W3. Ainsi, ce projet de recherche aide a mettre en evidence les mecanismes de toxicite des chimiotherapies sur le testicule pre-pubere, avec pour but a long terme d’ameliorer la qualite de vie des survivants de cancers pediatriques.
COMBATING CLIMATE CHANGE : POLITICAL ECONOMY OF GREEN PARADOXES

Climate change is generally deemed one of the most urgent and challenging problems mankind has to deal with. It has many fascinating facets and a fruitful analysis requires inputs from almost all disciplines, including physics, sociology, biology, philosophy and, last but not least, economics. The role of economics is important in several respects. Reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases is costly, but it will decrease the damage that is likely to be caused by the accumulation of these gases. Hence there is an economic trade off here. And economists have something to say about this. The benefits and costs of climate policy extend in the far future, implying that we are dealing with a dynamic problem: intraas well as intergenerational distributional issues come into play, together with spatial considerations, because benefits and costs are typically unevenly distributed over time and space. Moreover, climate change is subject to many uncertainties
Advances in quantitative phosphoproteomics.

Sample Preparation 735 Chromatographic Methods for Phosphoproteomics 735 Combined Chromatographic Approaches 736 Metal-Based Enrichment Strategies 737 Phosphotyrosine Enrichment 737 Mass Spectrometry Analysis and Data Processing 737 Quantitation 739 From Data Analysis to Signaling Pathways 740 New Biological Insights Derived from Quantitative Phosphoproteomic Applications 741 Perspectives 742 Author Information 743 Biography 743 Acknowledgment 743 References 743
Selective GABAergic innervation of thalamic nuclei from zona incerta

Thalamocortical circuits that govern cortical rhythms and ultimately effect sensory transmission consist of three major interconnected elements: excitatory thalamocortical and corticothalamic neurons and GABAergic cells in the reticular thalamic nucleus. Based on the present results, a fourth component has to be added to this scheme. GABAergic fibres from an extrareticular diencephalic source were found to selectively innervate relay cells located mainly in higher‐order thalamic nuclei. The origin of this pathway was localized to zona incerta (ZI), known to receive collaterals from corticothalamic fibres. First‐order nuclei were innervated only in zones showing a high density of calbindin‐positive neurons. The large GABA‐immunoreactive incertal terminals established multiple contacts preferentially on the proximal dendrites of relay cells via symmetrical synapses with multiple release sites. The distribution, ultrastructural characteristics and postsynaptic target selection of extrareticular terminals were similar to type II muscarinic acetylcholine receptor‐positive boutons, which constituted up to 49% of all GABAergic terminals in the posterior nucleus. This suggests that a significant proportion of the GABAergic input into certain thalamic territories involved in higher‐order functions may have extrareticular origin. Unlike the reticular nucleus, ZI receives peripheral and layer V cortical input but no thalamic feedback; it projects to brainstem centres and has extensive intranuclear recurrent collaterals. This indicates that ZI exerts a conceptually new type of inhibitory control over the thalamus. The proximally situated, multiple active zones of ZI terminals indicate a powerful influence on the firing properties of thalamic neurons, which is conveyed to multiple cortical areas via relay cells which have widespread projections to neocortex.
Infinite paths in randomly oriented lattices

The square lattice is used to generate an oriented graph in which a rightward or upward arrow is present on each edge with probability a, and a leftward or downward arrow with probability b. Independence between different edges of the square lattice is assumed, but nothing is assumed concerning the dependence between the two possible orientations at any given edge. A property of self‐duality is exploited to show that, when a+b=1, the process is, in a sense to be made precise, either critical or supercritical, but not subcritical. This observation enables progress with the percolation problem in which each horizontal edge is oriented rightward with probability p and otherwise leftward, and each vertical edge is oriented upward with probability p and otherwise downward. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Random Struct. Alg. , 18, 257–266, 2001
Treatment for a 14-Year-Old Girl With Lyme Disease Using Therapeutic Exercise and Gait Training

Background and Purpose Lyme disease is well documented in the literature; however, specific physical therapy interventions for the pediatric population with residual effects of Lyme disease have not been addressed. The purposes of this retrospective case report are: (1) to present an example of a therapeutic intervention for a pediatric patient in the late stages of Lyme disease with related musculoskeletal dysfunction and severely impaired quality of life, (2) to report the patient's functional outcomes from treatment, and (3) to discuss implications for treatment of patients with musculoskeletal dysfunction in the late stages of Lyme disease. Case Description The patient was a 14-year old girl who had contracted Lyme disease 1 year prior to initiation of physical therapy. She was unable to participate with her peers in school, church, and sporting events due to significant impairments in strength (force-generating capacity), endurance, and gait; fatigue; pain; and total body tremor. Therapeutic exercise and gait training were used for treatment. The patient actively participated in managing her care by providing feedback during interventions and setting goals. Outcomes After 18 weeks of treatment, the patient achieved 96.7% of her predicted distance on the Six-Minute Walk Test with normal gait mechanics and returned to playing high school sports. She had a manual muscle test grade of 4/5 or greater in major extremity muscle groups. She returned to school and church participation with minimal total body tremor when fatigued and daily pain rated 0 to 3/10. Discussion Therapeutic exercise and gait training may facilitate return to function in an adolescent patient with late effects of Lyme disease. Further investigation is advised to establish treatment effects in a broader population.
Innovation through digitalization of chemical industry

La digitalizacion es un modelo de negocio emergente que incluye la extension y soporte de los canales electronicos, el contenido y las transacciones. Las empresas estan adoptando esta estrategia para transformar sus negocios, e impulsar la innovacion y equilibrar las capacidades electronicas con las practicas comerciales tradicionales. Este estudio abarca algunos temas importantes: la innovacion y sus diversos componentes, como la digitalizacion forma parte de la industria quimica, ? como la digitalizacion representa una oportunidad importante para el desarrollo de nuevos productos, elementos del programa de marketing digital, y como debe ser organizado el marketing digital en las grandes empresas quimicas. El estudio muestra que las grandes empresas quimicas estan adoptando la digitalizacion a muy alta velocidad. La atraccion de los consumidores, el impulso tecnologico y el beneficio economico ha llevado a las companias quimicas mas grandes a adaptar la digitalizacion en las partes principales del negocio.
Nonspecific binding to structured RNA and preferential unwinding of an exposed helix by the CYT-19 protein, a DEAD-box RNA chaperone

We explore the interactions of CYT-19, a DExD/H-box protein that functions in folding of group I RNAs, with a well characterized misfolded species of the Tetrahymena ribozyme. Consistent with its function, CYT-19 accelerates refolding of the misfolded RNA to its native state. Unexpectedly, CYT-19 performs another reaction much more efficiently; it unwinds the 6-bp P1 duplex formed between the ribozyme and its oligonucleotide substrate. Furthermore, CYT-19 performs this reaction 50-fold more efficiently than it unwinds the same duplex free in solution, suggesting that it forms additional interactions with the ribozyme, most likely using a distinct RNA binding site from the one responsible for unwinding. This site can apparently bind double-stranded RNA, as attachment of a simple duplex adjacent to P1 recapitulates much of the activation provided by the ribozyme. Unwinding the native P1 duplex does not accelerate refolding of the misfolded ribozyme, implying that CYT-19 can disrupt multiple contacts on the RNA, consistent with its function in folding of multiple RNAs. Further experiments showed that the P1 duplex unwinding activity is virtually the same whether the ribozyme is misfolded or native but is abrogated by formation of tertiary contacts between the P1 duplex and the body of the ribozyme. Together these results suggest a mechanism for CYT-19 and other general DExD/H-box RNA chaperones in which the proteins bind to structured RNAs and efficiently unwind loosely associated duplexes, which biases the proteins to disrupt nonnative base pairs and gives the liberated strands an opportunity to refold.
Organisationsentwicklung im Spannungsfeld von ‚Organisation’ und ‚Profession’ : Qualitative Untersuchung der Handlungslogiken interner Organisationsentwickler und der Chancen ihrer Institutionalisierung

Organisationsentwicklung (OE) ist in modernen Grosorganisationen eine Selbstverstandlichkeit geworden: Immer mehr Organisationen nehmen die Dienstleistungen von spezialisierten Beratern in Anspruch oder stellen eigenes Personal dafur bereit. Dennoch ist die Diskussion innerhalb der OE-Szene uber die zukunftige Bedeutung ihres Betatigungsfeldes ist durch eine eigentumliche Blasse und Selbstzweifel gepragt, von ‚Verwasserung’, ‚Marginalisierung’ und ‚gescheiterter Professionalisierung’ ist die Rede. Die Studie fragt nach den beruflichen Handlungslogiken und Selbstbildern derjenigen, die als Experten fur OE-Dienstleistungen in den Organisationen auftreten. Differenzierungstheoretische, professionstheoretische und institutionentheoretische Perspektiven werden herangezogen, um Organisationsentwicklung als Funktion, als Beruf und als Ideensystem zu beschreiben und die Moglichkeiten der Etablierung des OE-Ansatzes auszuloten. Dabei zeigt sich, dass das Vorhandensein von OE-Abteilungen keineswegs automatisch zur Implementierung OE-spezifischer Verfahrens- und Sichtweisen fuhrt, sondern dieses an bestimmte institutionelle und personelle Voraussetzungen geknupft ist.
Effect of hygrothermal aging on interfacial reliability of flip chip on board (FCOB) assembly

The moisture migrating into underfill decreases the adhesion strength, swells to deform the assembly, and weakens underfill mechanical and thermal properties. In this study, interfacial reliability of FCOB exposed at 85 degC/85%RH was studied using Moire interferometry and mu-DiSC system developed. A thermal aging study was simultaneously performed to understand the time effect on long duration of hygrothermal aging. The results showed that the thermal aging relieved the stresses induced by hygrothermal swelling mismatch between dissimilar materials involved, which indicated the time effect is not negligible in the moisture conditioning. Subsequently, a mu-DiSC technique was applied to measure critical interfacial fracture toughness of Si/UF interface. It is shown that moisture could reduce the interfacial strength significantly due to the breaking of hydrogen bonding. Finally, the morphologies of fracture were studied under the SEM