Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evidence for reflex upper airway dilator muscle activation by sudden negative airway pressure in man.

1. To determine if negative upper airway pressure causes reflex pharyngeal dilator muscle activation, we used intra‐oral bipolar surface electrodes to record genioglossus electromyogram (EMG) activity in response to 500 ms duration pressure stimuli of 0, ‐2.5, ‐5, ‐15, ‐25 and ‐35 cm H2O (0‐90% rise time less than 30 ms) in ten normal, conscious, supine subjects. 2. With the subjects relaxed at end‐expiration, stimuli were applied in each of three conditions: (i) glottis open (GO), (ii) glottis closed (GC) and (iii) controls with the mouth and nose closed. 3. Six rectified and integrated EMG responses were bin averaged for each pressure in each experimental condition. Response latency was defined as the time when the EMG activity significantly increased above pre‐stimulus levels. Response magnitude was quantified as the ratio of the EMG activity for 80 ms post‐stimulus to 80 ms prestimulus; data from after the subject's voluntary reaction time (for tongue protrusion) were not analysed. 4. Negative airway pressure activated the genioglossus. The median latency of activation (34 ms) was much faster than the time for voluntary activation (184 ms) indicating a reflex response. 5. Significant activation, compared to 0 cmH2O controls and controls with mouth and nose closed, occurred with pressures of at least ‐5 cm H2O (GC) and ‐15 cm H2O (GO). At ‐25 and ‐35 cm H2O, responses with GO were significantly greater than with GC. 6. The magnitude ('strength') of the responses differed between subjects; these differences were repeatable. 7. We conclude that negative airway pressure causes reflex pharyngeal dilator muscle activation in man. Responses with GC suggest that upper airway receptors can mediate the response but larger responses with GO indicate a contribution from subglottal receptors.
Optimal Parallel Merging and Sorting Without Memory Conflicts

A parallel algorithm is described for merging two sorted vectors of total length N. The algorithm runs on a shared-memory model of parallel computation that disallows more than one processor to simultaneously read from or write into the same memory location. It uses k processors where l ¿ k ¿ N and requires O(N/k + log k × log N) time. The proposed approach for merging leads to a parallel sorting algorithm that sorts a vector of length N in O(log2 k + N/k) log N) time. Because they modify their behavior and hence their running time according to the number of available processors, the two new algorithms are said to be self-reconfiguring. In addition, both algorithms are optimal, for k ¿ N/log2 N, in view of the ¿(N) and ¿(N log N) lower bounds on merging and sorting, respectively.
Generalised Brown Clustering and Roll-Up Feature Generation

Brown clustering is an established technique, used in hundreds of computational linguistics papers each year, to group word types that have similar distributional information. It is unsupervised and can be used to create powerful word representations for machine learning. Despite its improbable success relative to more complex methods, few have investigated whether Brown clustering has really been applied optimally. In this paper, we present a subtle but profound generalisation of Brown clustering to improve the overall quality by decoupling the number of output classes from the computational active set size. Moreover, the generalisation permits a novel approach to feature selection from Brown clusters: We show that the standard approach of shearing the Brown clustering output tree at arbitrary bitlengths is lossy and that features should be chosen insead by rolling up Generalised Brown hierarchies. The generalisation and corresponding feature generation is more principled, challenging the way Brown clustering is currently understood and applied.
Urea Inducibility of egr-1 in Murine Inner Medullary Collecting Duct Cells Is Mediated by the Serum Response Element and Adjacent Ets Motifs*

The renal medullary solute urea increases transcription and protein expression of the zinc finger-containing transcription factor Egr-1 in a renal epithelial cell-specific fashion. Transient transfection of mIMCD3 cells with a luciferase reporter gene driven by 1.2 kilobases of the murine egr-1 5′-flanking sequence showed 4-fold increase in reporter gene activity with 200 mM urea treatment. The effect of impermeant solutes such as NaCl was much less pronounced, whereas the permeant solute glycerol had no effect. In addition, this same sequence, minus the egr-1 minimal promoter, conferred urea responsiveness to a heterologous (thymidine kinase) promoter. Whereas deletion of two putative AP-1 sites from the sequence had no effect upon urea inducibility, elimination of the five putative serum response elements (SREs) abolished the urea effect. Progressive deletion of the SREs caused a corresponding diminution in urea effect. Two key tandem SREs (SRE-3 and SRE-4), in conjunction with their two adjacent clusters of Ets motifs, were sufficient to confer urea responsiveness to a reporter gene. This response was markedly attenuated in the absence of either cluster of Ets motifs and was abolished if both clusters were deleted. By electrophoretic mobility shift assay, formation of the ternary complex was constitutive and was demonstrable in vitro despite the presence of 200 mosm urea or NaCl. Therefore urea-inducible egr-1 transcription in renal medullary cells is mediated through the SRE and adjacent Ets motifs; ternary complex formation is not inhibited even in the presence of physiological hyperosmolality.
Gastric Reflux: Association With Aspiration and Oral Secretion pH as Marker of Reflux A Descriptive Correlational Study

Background: Gastric reflux leading to pulmonary aspiration is a frequent event in mechanically ventilated, gastric-fed patients, which can lead to ventilator-associated complications and pneumonia. Objectives: The objectives of this study were to determine the association between gastric reflux and aspiration using the presence of pepsin in oral or tracheal secretions as a marker of reflux or aspiration and to determine the association between the pH (range, 0-14) and the presence of pepsin in oral secretions. Methods: A descriptive correlational study was conducted in mechanically ventilated surgical or medical patients receiving gastric tube feedings. Oral secretions were suctioned hourly and tracheal secretions every 2 to 3 hours for 12-hour periods over 1 to 2 days in 15 patients. Results: There were 142 paired samples of oral tracheal secretions. A majority of samples (60%) had the same results, with 32% both pepsin-positive and 27% both pepsin-negative. The range of pH measurements was 4 to 8, with a mean of 6.3 ± 0.05. Ninety oral specimens had a pH of 4 to 6. Forty-seven of the oral specimens with pH measures between 4 and 6 (52%) were pepsin-positive. The correlation of pH percent pepsin-positive oral secretions was not significant. Conclusion: Aspiration events were more frequent than reflux events. Measurement of actual pepsin concentration to detect new reflux and aspiration events is recommended in future studies. Bedside pH measures of oral secretions are not a valid marker of gastric reflux.
Encoding, Remembering, and Using Numeric Information: Implications for Pricing

SESSION OVERVIEW Price cognition plays a pivotal role in models of consumer behavior postulated in the economics as well as the psychology literature (Monroe 2003; Winer 2006). Both streams of literature concur on the following assumption: A buyer’s subjective judgment of the magnitude of a price should be an important determinant in purchase decisions. However, the psychological processes that underlie price magnitude judgments and the strength of the association between price magnitude judgments and choice continue to be topics of debate. In this symposium, we present three new papers that offer novel perspectives on how consumers encode, process, and use price information. The first two papers draw on the numerical cognition literature and focus on how consumers encode and process price information, while the third paper examines factors that lead to a dissociation between price perceptions and choices. The first paper by Thomas, Simon, and Kadiyali examines whether the precision or roundedness of numbers influence people’s judgments of magnitude. This paper draws on the numerical cognition literature to examine how consumers encode the magnitude information from a string of digits in a multi-digit number. Specifically, drawing on previous research on the distribution of numbers and on the role of associative processes in everyday judgments, they suggest that that people nonconsciously learn to associate precise prices with smaller magnitudes, and that this association influences their price magnitude judgments and willingness to pay. They test this hypothesized precision heuristic in laboratory experiments as well as using data from real estate transactions. The second paper by Vanhuele and Laurent examines why consumers are less adept with prices that are not rounded. They suggest that short-term memory constraints induce consumers to apply mathematical rounding, truncate price endings, or resort to approximations. Their conceptualization suggests that what typically are considered as recall errors may therefore actually be the result of adaptive simplification strategies. They analyze patterns of price recall errors to show that errors follow systematic patterns that reveal these strategies. The third paper by Danziger, Gal, and Morwitz examines the influence of price magnitude perceptions on product and retailer choice in an environment where price discounts are sometimes offered and vary in their depth and frequency. Past research (Alba et al. 1999; Lalwani and Monroe, 2005) has studied the effects of depth and frequency of price discounts on price perceptions. In the present research, the authors challenge the implicit assumption of this past research, that price perceptions guide choices. They find that although respondents’ price perceptions are lower for retailers offering deep infrequent discounts, they buy more often from retailers offering frequent shallow discounts. They discuss the implications of this finding for our understanding of how consumers encode, process, and use price information. EXTENDED ABSTRACTS
Optical interconnection module integrated on a flexible optical/electrical hybrid printed circuit board

An optical interconnection module directly integrated on a flexible optical/electrical hybrid printed circuit board (O/E hybrid PCB) is presented. A newly proposed polymeric optical waveguide plays roles in the optical path and in a platform as an O/E hybrid PCB integrated with various optical/electrical components. The fabricated flexible O/E hybrid PCB had sufficient optical characteristics such as a low bending loss and propagation loss and a low total transmission loss including waveguide loss and coupling losses of the module calculated to 15 dB. The suggested optical interconnection was also successfully demonstrated with a 5-Gb/s data transmission through the module.
Validity of pipelle endometrial sampling in patients with abnormal uterine bleeding

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES We compared endometrial sampling by pipelle endometrial curette with conventional dilatation and curettage (D&C) in patients with abnormal uterine bleeding. METHODS Endometrial sampling with pipelle curette was performed on 100 patients followed by formal D&C. Samples were labeled as A and B, respectively, and sent to a histopathologist who was blinded as to the method of sampling. The histopathology reports of both samples were compared, taking D&C as the gold standard. RESULTS An adequate sample was obtained in 98% of cases by pipelle and in 100% of cases by D&C. Pipelle had a sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of 100% for diagnosing endometrial carcinoma, hyperplasia and secretory endometrium. Pipelle also had high diagnostic sensitivity, specificity and negative predictive value (100%, 98% and 100%, respectively) for hyperplasia with atypia, and low sensitivity (57%) and positive predictive value (57%), but high specificity (97%) and negative predictive value (97%) for endometritis. Similarly, for proliferative endometrium, the pipelle technique had values of 94% and 93% for sensitivity and specificity, respectively. Both samples labeled as inadequate for histology by pipelle were polyps on the D&C report. Difficult endotracheal intubation was encountered in two cases of D&C. No other complications of the procedure were observed. CONCLUSION The pipelle is a safe device for getting an adequate endometrial sample for histology, with a high sensitivity and specificity for detection of hyperplasia and malignancy.
A reappraisal of the validity of the IEM model for backscattering from rough surfaces

An integral equation method (IEM) surface scattering model was examined in terms of its applicability to laboratory measurement and numerical simulations. New expressions for both single scattering and multiple scattering were obtained by rederiving the scattering coefficient to keep all the phase terms in the spectral representation of the Green's function. After quite intricate mathematical manipulations, a fairly compact form is obtained for the scattering coefficients. In addition, the Fresnel reflection coefficients used in the model were replaced by a transition function that takes surface roughness and permittivity into account. The results of comparisons with both the numerical simulations and measurements for the backscattering case indicate that the IEM is improved, becoming more accurate and practical to use.
Avaliação do movimento reciprocante na resistência à fratura cíclica em limas de rotação contínua

O presente estudo propos avaliar a resistencia a fadiga ciclica de limas endodonticas preconizadas para uso em rotacao continua quando utilizadas em movimento reciprocante. Foram selecionadas 120 limas endodonticas, com comprimento de 25 milimetros, calibre de ponta 0,25 milimetros, divididas em grupos de acordo com a lima, a cinematica utilizada, e a angulacao do teste. As limas selecionadas para ambas cinematicas foram: ProTaper NEXT X2 (Dentsply Maillefer, Ballaigues, Switzerland); Logic 25/. 06 (Easy, Belo-Horizonte, Brazil); Hero 25/. 06 (MICRO-MEGA SA, Besancon, France); MTwo 25/. 06 (VDW, Munich, Germany). A Reciproc R25 (VDW, Munich, Germany) foi utilizada como grupo controle apenas em cinematica reciprocante. Os grupos foram submetidos ao teste de fadiga ciclica atraves de dispositivos que simulam raio de 6 mm e ângulos de curvatura de 30° e 45°. O tempo para fratura foi medido atraves de cronometro, determinando numero de ciclos ate fratura e os dados tabulados. As imagens com microscopia eletronica de varredura foram realizadas para visualizar padroes de fratura dos instrumentos. Os resultados foram entao analisados estatisticamente atraves da analise de variância (ANOVA) a um fator, seguido do teste de Newman-Keuls Multiple Comparison, com nivel de confianca de 95%. A lima Logic apresentou resultados estatisticamente melhores que os demais grupos em cinematica de rotacao continua (p<0,05). Com a cinematica reciprocante, as limas MTwo e Logic apresentaram diferenca estatistica em relacao a rotacao continua em 30° (p<0,05), nao havendo diferenca da lima Reciproc. Contudo, apenas a lima Logic apresentou diferenca estatistica em relacao a rotacao continua em 45° (p<0,05), nao obstante, sem diferenca estatistica com grupo controle. Com relacao as limas Hero e ProTaper NEXT, nao houve diferenca estatistica entre as duas cinematicas. Portanto, a cinematica reciprocante proporcionou melhores resultados de resistencia a fratura ciclica as limas MTwo e Logic, entretanto, nao houve diferenca estatistica nas limas Hero e ProTaper NEXT entre as cinematicas utilizadas. O ângulo de curvatura foi um fator determinante na resistencia dos grupos, onde com o ângulo de 45° a resistencia foi menor, em ambas cinematicas.
Genes in the HindIII J fragment of the murine cytomegalovirus genome are dispensable for growth in cultured cells: insertion mutagenesis with a lacZ/gpt cassette

The organization and function of the genes encoded within the HindIII J region of the murine cytomegalovirus genome were analyzed by transcript mapping and cDNA isolation, nucleotide sequence analysis and identification of open reading frames (ORFs), and construction of recombinant viruses carrying insertions disrupting five of the seven ORFs. This region was found to encode five beta transcripts and one gamma transcript in addition to two beta transcripts previously mapped to the sgg1 locus. Seven open reading frames were identified, and one was recognized as a homolog of a human cytomegalovirus US22 gene family. The five largest ORFs contained within the HindIII J fragment (sgg1, HJ4, HJ5, HJ6, and HJ7) were each disrupted by the insertion of a lacZ/gpt genetic marker cassette. The growth kinetics of all recombinant viruses were investigated and found to be the same as wild-type parental virus, indicating that these five ORFs were dispensable for growth in cell culture.
Inhibición combinada del receptor del factor de crecimiento epidérmico y de la ciclooxigenasa-2 en cáncer colorrectal: mecanismos celulares y moleculares e implicaciones terapéuticas

El cancer colorrectal (CCR) es el tercer cancer mas comun y es una de las principales causas de muerte por cancer. La carcinogenesis colorrectal es un proceso multifactorial influenciado por factores ambientales, geneticos y epigeneticos, dando lugar a la transformacion de la mucosa colonica en un cancer invasivo. A pesar de los beneficios aportados de la terapias contra los receptores de los factores de crecimiento epidermico/vascular (anti-EGFR/VEGFR) en el CCR metastasico, muchos pacientes responden inicialmente al tratamiento, pero luego muestran una evidente progresion de la enfermedad. Por tanto, se necesitan nuevas estrategias terapeuticas para aumentar la eficacia de la terapia oncologica. El objetivo de esta tesis doctoral fue determinar si la inhibicion simultanea de EGFR/VEGFR y COX-2 ejerce un eficaz efecto anti-tumoral en celulas de CCR y analizar los mecanismos celulares y moleculares implicados. Los resultados obtenidos indican que el inhibidor de COX-2, celecoxib, aumento la eficacia antitumoral y antiangiogenica de AEE788, que es un inhibidor dual de EGFR/VEGFR,. De hecho, esta combinacion indujo la inhibicion de la proliferacion celular y apoptosis, la detencion del ciclo celular en la fase G1, la inhibicion de la produccion de VEGF y la reduccion de la migracion celular. En particular, esta combinacion inhibio la acumulacion nuclear de β-catenina en las celulas tumorales, debido a una regulacion negativa de los niveles proteicos del factor de transcripcion FOXM1 y por tanto, una inhibicion de la interaccion entre ambas proteinas. Ademas, el tratamiento combinado redujo la expresion de los marcadores de pluripotencialidad, Oct 3/4, Nanog, Sox-2 y Snail, en las celulas cancerosas y ello contribuyo a la disminucion de la subpoblacion de celulas madre tumorales (CSCs), como indicaron los ensayos de formacion de colonosferas. Por otro lado, el tratamiento combinado del anticuerpo monoclonal anti-EGFR cetuximab con celecoxib, potencio la eficacia antitumoral de ambos farmacos en celulas de CCR y al mismo tiempo redujo la subpoblacion de CSCs en colon debido a la alteracion del eje EGFR-RASFOXM1- β-catenina. Ademas, la expresion nuclear de FOXM1 en los tumores de colon se asocio significativamente con una mejor respuesta a terapia con cetuximab. En definitiva, los mecanismos que participan en la inhibicion simultanea de EGFR/VEGF y COX-2 en CCR, podrian ayudar en el bloqueo de la progresion de CCR metastasico y mejorar la eficacia de las terapias existentes en esta enfermedad. Asimismo, FOXM1 puede constituir un posible marcador predictivo de respuesta a terapia con cetuximab en esta enfermedad, y subraya la importancia del eje de senalizacion EGFR-RAS-FOXM1-β-catenina en la tumorogenesis colorrectal.
Anoxygenic Photosynthesis —A Photochemical Reaction That Does Not Contribute to Oxygen Reproduction—

Plants, algae, and cyanobacteria perform photosynthesis with the resultant production of oxygen, which supports all organisms that consume it through their respiration. This type of photosynthesis is an indispensable part of the global oxygen flux. However, another type of photochemical reaction, photosynthesis without oxygen production, exists, and has been designated anoxygenic photosynthesis. A number of ecologists regard anoxygenic photosynthesis as a negligible photochemical reaction because it contributes nothing to the reproduction of oxygen. This type of photosynthesis does not appear to have any beneficial function.
Biochemical characterization of temperature-sensitive rabies virus mutants

Biochemical characterization of 70 temperature-sensitive (ts) mutants of rabies virus has been done by following the appearance of viral proteins and RNA molecules in infected cells at both permissive and nonpermissive temperature. The presence or absence of the nucleocapsid protein (N) was demonstrated by treating infected cells with anti-N fluorescent antibodies. At 33 degrees C, all the mutants induced a fluorescence comparable to the wild type. At 39.6 degrees C, the mutants can be classified into three groups. Three mutants induced a fluorescence comparable to the wild type (F+ mutants); 54 mutants induced a faint fluorescence which was proportional to the multiplicity of infection and increased with time (F+- mutants). No fluorescence could be detected for the 13 remaining mutants (F- mutants). The synthesis of all viral proteins was shown to be normal for F+ mutants, indicating that transcription and replication of the virus were normal and that the ts lesion was located in a protein which is not directly required for those functions. The synthesis of all viral proteins was similarly decreased for F+- mutants and undetectable for the F- mutants. This suggests that the ts lesion affects the transcription and/or replication of the virus. By annealing techniques it was demonstrated that the F+- mutants were able to perform some amount of secondary transcription at nonpermissive temperature. No secondary transcription occurred with F- mutants. When detectable (i.e., at higher multiplicity of infection), primary transcription of F- mutants was normal.
Cutting-edge Medical Treatment for Advanced Non-small Cell Lung

The advent of molecular targeted drugs and effective second-line treatment for inoperable, advanced, Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) has rapidly improved treatment outcomes. Conventional first-line chemotherapy regimens included all NSCLC, with the same treatment methods for squamous cell and non-squamous cell carcinomas. In addition, second-line or later treatment was not very effective in improving prognosis. However, there has been a recent paradigm shift in treatment options for NSCLC. In other words, 1) age and Performance Status (PS), 2) presence or absence of co-existing disease, 3) first-line vs. second-line or later treatment, 4) gene profiling for Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) gene mutations, and 5) squamous cell carcinomas vs. non-squamous cell carcinomas have become important factors in selecting treatment regimens. Recent advances in research have shown that the presence or absence of the Echinoderm Microtubule-associated protein-Like 4 (EML4) and Anaplastic Lymphoma Kinase (ALK) fusion gene is important genetic information when considering the use of ALK inhibitors. Previously, the same regimens were selected for NSCLC regardless of tissue type, but clinical trial results of new drugs like pemetrexed and bevacizumab have now shown that the optimal treatment method differs for squamous cell vs. nonsquamous cell carcinomas. This paper presents an overview, based on the most up-todate knowledge, on selecting treatment in lung cancer, particularly advanced NSCLC.