Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Optimization of microencapsulation parameters: Semipermeable microcapsules as a bioartificial pancreas

An improved membrane has been developed for the microencapsulation of islets of Langerhans which protects these cells from the immune system. These requirements were accomplished through the optimization of important microencapsulation parameters and through the improved biocompatibility of a new alginate‐poly‐l‐lysine (PLL)–alginate capsule membrane. Spherical and smooth microcapsules could be formed by utilizing a purer sodium alginate and by keeping the viscosity of the sodium alginate solution above 30 cps. The strength of the capsule membrane was enhanced by increasing the alginate–PLL reaction time as well as the PLL concentration. The permeability of the membrane [4 μm thick, 93% (w/w) water] was a function of the viscosity average molecular weight (Mv) of the PLL (Mv = 4000−4 × 105) used in the encapsulation procedure. Microcapsules prepared with PLL with Mv = 1.7 × 104 were the least permeable, being impermeable to normal serum immunoglobulin, albumin, and haemoglobin. The microencapsulation procedure, by protecting transplanted tissue from the components of the immune system, has great clinical potential as a new form of treatment for diseases such as diabetes and liver disease.
Embed glass interposer to substrate for high density interconnection

Current organic substrates are limited to lines/space 10/10 μm and via size around 50 μm. However, the semiconductor with advance node needs fine line/space of 5/5 or 3/3 and even 2/2 μm in the future. Interposer provides a high density interconnection with fine line and small via that cannot be matched by current laminate substrate technology. We have proposed a new structure that embedded interposer to organic substrate (Flip chip - Embedded Interposer Carrier, FC-EIC®). This structure has virtues of know good substrate and compatible with current packaging and assembly infrastructure. We have demonstrated the feasibility of integrating silicon interposer to a laminate substrate. In this paper, we evaluated the feasibility of integration of a glass interposer into an organic substrate. The selection of glass, temporary bonding materials and built-up dielectric materials were established. The compatibility of lamination and built-up process with glass interposer was demonstrated. By using dielectric materials with small CTE and high modules together with an innovative structure, significant warpage reduction of the EIC-glass was achieved. For a 10 cm × 10 cm laminated carrier with a proper dielectric material set, the panel warpage of the EIC-glass structure can be reduced from 20 mm to less than 3 mm. The EIC-glass structure has been tested under 500 TCT cycles and no glass damage and delamination between glass and the built-up dielectric film was observed.
Intelligent agents for World Wide Web advertising decisions

We describe a new paradigm for the inclusion of advertisements on the WWW. This paradigm takes advantage of the internet's great ability for instantaneous online processing of information in real time. A methodology is described for the use of intelligent agents to help in the determination of the appropriateness of displaying a given advertisement to a visitor to a site using very specific information about potential customers. Use is made of fuzzy systems modeling for the construction of these agents. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Graphene adhesion on mica: Role of surface morphology

We investigate theoretically the adhesion and electronic properties of graphene on a muscovite mica surface using the density functional theory (DFT) with van der Waals (vdW) interactions taken into account (the vdW-DF approach). We found that irregularities in the local structure of cleaved mica surface provide different mechanisms for the mica-graphene binding. By assuming electroneutrality for both surfaces, the binding is mainly of vdW nature, barely exceeding thermal energy per carbon atom at room temperature. In contrast, if potassium atoms are non uniformly distributed on mica, the different regions of the surface give rise to n- or p-type doping of graphene. In turn, an additional interaction arises between the surfaces, significantly increasing the adhesion. For each case the electronic states of graphene remain unaltered by the adhesion. It is expected, however, that the Fermi level of graphene supported on realistic mica could be shifted relative to the Dirac point due to asymmetry in the charge doping. Obtained variations of the distance between graphene and mica for different regions of the surface are found to be consistent with recent atomic force microscopy experiments. A relative flatness of mica and the absence of interlayer covalent bonding in the mica-graphene system make this pair a promising candidate for practical use.
Prognosis and status of lymph node involvement in patients with adenocarcinoma in situ and minimally invasive adenocarcinoma-a systematic literature review and pooled-data analysis.

BACKGROUND Adenocarcinoma in situ (AIS) and minimally invasive adenocarcinoma (MIA) have been brought up that substitute for bronchioloalveolar carcinoma (BAC), according to the new classification of lung adenocarcinoma. There has been increasing opinions that argues for the adjustment of lymph node disposition in patients with such early stage tumors. Therefore, we sought to overview the prognosis and status of lymph node involvement in AIS/MIA patients. METHODS PubMed, Springer and Ovid databases were searched for relevant studies. Data was extracted and results summarized to demonstrate the disposition of lymph nodes in AIS/MIA. RESULTS Twenty-three studies consisting of 6,137 lung adenocarcinoma were included. AIS/MIA accounted for 821 of the total 6,137. All included patients received curative surgery. After a review of the summarized data we found that only one patient (with MIA) had N1 node metastasis, N2 disease was not found in any of the included patients. In concordance with this, studies that reported 5-year disease free survival (5-year DFS) have almost 100% rate. CONCLUSIONS Our findings indicated that patients with AIS/MIA have good survival prognosis after surgical resection, and that recurrence and lymph node metastasis in these patients is rare. Therefore, we strongly encouraged further studies to determine the role of different lymph node disposition strategies.
Donepezil in more advanced Alzheimer's disease.

OBJECTIVE Donepezil is currently approved for treatment of patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, since cholinergic activity declines as AD progresses, increasing acetylcholine levels would be expected to provide benefits in severe AD. The primary objective of this article is to review the recent data demonstrating that patients with advanced AD can benefit from treatment with the cholinesterase inhibitor donepezil. DATA SOURCES A MEDLINE (PubMed) literature search was performed using the key words "donepezil" and "advanced AD. " STUDY SELECTION The search yielded 13 articles, which were then further screened for the criterion: randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical study. DATA EXTRACTION AND SYNTHESIS Two studies were found that met these specific study criteria. In the first study, donepezil-treated patients with moderate to severe AD showed significant improvements in cognition and behavior, with preservation of activities of daily living compared with placebo-treated patients. Similar improvements in donepezil-treated patients were seen in the second study involving 27 nursing homes. In this study of older patients, donepezil treatment significantly improved cognition, function, and agitated and aggressive behaviors. Safety and tolerability findings of these two studies are further assessed. Considerations for drug therapy as well as a case study are presented to illustrate the benefits of donepezil treatment in patients with advanced AD. CONCLUSION . The decision to continue treating severe AD patients with donepezil is an opportunity for consultant pharmacists to decrease the burden of caregivers and to maximize a patient's quality of life for as long as possible.
Analysis on the Decision-Making Model of Private Sector Companies in PPP Projects

Successful public-private-partnership (PPP) implementation can not be achieved without the active participation of private sector companies. This paper examines the decision-making of private sector companies in public works delivered by the PPP model on the basis of social responsibility theory. It proposes that private sector companies should indentify objectives of entering into PPP projects, and shoulder relevant social responsibilities, while a minimum return should also be guaranteed in their favor, so as to compensate for their assumed risk and support them to take on responsibilities in the future. The paper also gives a calculation regarding the appropriate scale and reasonable degree of private sector involvement in PPP projects through the cost-benefit analysis in a specific case study, with the purpose to guide the private sector companies to create a cooperation environment resembling “symbiosis” and facilitate the smooth implementation of public works delivered by the PPP model. Keywords—Social Responsibility Theory, Cost-benefit Analysis, PPP Projects, Private Sector Companies, Decision-making Modell
Opportunities for psychiatry from genetic findings

Background The opportunities for psychiatry deriving from available or likely genetic advances are reviewed. Method Clinical implications are considered in the context of both the misconceptions and benefits associated with relevant genetic findings. Results Misconceptions include that: heritability estimates have a ‘true’ fixed value; a high heritability means that environmental interventions will be ineffective; a high heritability within groups means that differences between groups will also be due to genes; genetic effects are determinative; ‘genetic’ means single abnormal genes; genes associated with disease must be bad and justify eugenic measures; gene therapy will be widely applicable; and genetic screening of the general population will be useful. The benefits include demonstrations that: both genes and environment have an ubiquitous influence; some prevailing diagnostic assumptions are mistaken; genes influence development; the effects of nature and nurture are not separate; and environmental effects tend to be person-specific. The potential value of molecular genetics lies in elucidation of causal processes as they apply to both brain systems and nature—nurture interplay; improving diagnosis and genetic counselling; and the development of improved pharmacological interventions. Conclusion Advances in genetics will make a major impact on clinical psychiatry, and should bring practical benefits for both prevention and treatment.
Obesity prevalence in Norwegian adults assessed by body mass index, waist circumference and fat mass percentage

The prevalence of obesity presents serious public health challenges worldwide and is most commonly estimated by the categorization of body mass index (BMI). The purpose of this study was (i) to describe the sensitivity of BMI, waist circumference (WC) and fat mass percentage in the classification of overweight and obesity and (ii) to describe the prevalence of overweight and obesity using different measurement methods in a national sample of Norwegians. A total of 904 Norwegians (20–85 years) were randomly enrolled. Body weight, height, WC and skinfold thickness were measured; BMI and fat mass percentage (FPskf) were calculated. The sensitivity and specificity varied from 77.0% to 86.9% and from 60.6% to 82.3%, respectively. Area under the curve was 0.837 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.801–0.872) for the ability of BMI to predict obesity by FPskf and 0.811 (95% CI: 0.770–0.852) for WC. A total of 12.7% (male: 12.1%, female: 13.4%) were obese based on BMI classifications, 29.1% (male: 36.5%, female: 20.0%) of the sample were obese based on FPskf and 24.3% of men and 37.8% of women were abdominally obese by WC. The agreement between selected measuring methods was fair to good, although the variation in obesity prevalence rates between the different assessments methods varied markedly.
Oxidative DNA damage in peripheral leukocytes and its association with expression and polymorphisms of hOGG1: a study of adolescents in a high risk region for hepatocellular carcinoma in China.

AIM To study the oxidative DNA damage to adolescents of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) families in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China. METHODS Peripheral leukocytes' DNA 7, 8-dihydro-8-oxoguanine (8-oxoG) and repair enzyme hOGG1 were quantified by flow-cytometry. hOGG1-Cys326Ser single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) was distinguished by polymerase chain reaction-single strand conformational polymorphism (PCR-SSCP) assay. RESULTS There was a positive correlation between 8-oxoG and repair enzyme hOGG1 expression (P<0.001). HCC children (n=21) in Fusui county had a higher level of hOGG1 (P<0.01) and a lower level of 8-oxoG (P<0.05) than the controls (n=63) in Nanning city. Children in Nanning exposed to passive-smoking had a higher hOGG1 expression (P<0.05) than the non-exposers. 8-oxoG and hOGG1 were negatively correlated with body mass index, while hOGG1 was positively correlated with age. There was a peak of 8-oxoG level nearby the 12 year point. Individuals with the hOGG1 326Ser allele had a significantly marginal higher concentration of leukocyte 8-oxoG level than hOGG1 326Cys allele. CONCLUSION This is the first report using flow-cytometry to simultaneously quantify both the DNA oxidative damage and its repairing enzyme hOGG1. The results provide new insights towards a better understanding of the mechanisms of oxidative stress in a population highly susceptible to hepatocarcinogenesis.
A pharmacokinetic analysis of enterohepatic circulation of ursodeoxycholic acid, a drug with a high hepatic extraction but a small clearance.

Disposition profiles of ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) were studied by using a radioimmunoassay measuring serum UDCA after the single i.v. and oral 50 mg dose in five healthy subjects and in five patients with chronic liver disease. The healthy subjects also received single oral doses of 25, 100 and 300 mg of UDCA in a random order. The fasting pre-treatment UDCA concentrations were frequently higher in patients compared with the overall range of values in healthy subjects. The post-treatment concentrations were much higher in patients than in healthy subjects receiving the same i.v. and oral doses. A dose-dependent increase in AUC and Cmax after the oral UDCA doses was observed in normal subjects. The mean UDCA clearance in normal subjects was estimated to be much smaller than that expected and was apparently incompatible with the reported value for the hepatic extraction ratio of UDCA. This discrepancy was explained by an enterohepatic circulation which exists even in the fasting condition. The relationship between the hepatic extraction ratio and a substantial magnitude of enterohepatic circulation was formulated by using two newly defined concepts, hepatic extraction clearance and single path recirculating fraction.
Direct gradient-based reinforcement learning

Many control, scheduling, planning and game-playing tasks can be formulated as reinforcement learning problems, in which an agent chooses actions to take in some environment, aiming to maximize a reward function. We present an algorithm for computing approximations to the gradient of the average reward from a single sample path of a controlled partially observable Markov decision process. We show that the accuracy of these approximations depends on the relationship between a time constant used by the algorithm and the mixing time of the Markov chain, and that the error can be made arbitrarily small by setting the time constant suitably large. We prove that the algorithm converges with probability 1.
Sparse component analysis of overcomplete mixtures by improved basis pursuit method

We formulate conditions under which we can solve precisely the blind source problem (BSS) in the under-determined case (less sensors than sources), up to permutation and scaling of sources. Under these conditions, which include information about sparseness of the sources (and hence we call the problem sparse component analysis (SCA, we can: 1) identify the mixing matrix uniquely (up to scaling and permutation); and 2) recover uniquely the original sources. We present a new algorithm for estimation of the mixing matrix, as well as an algorithm for SCA (estimation of sparse sources), which improves the standard basis pursuit method of S. Chen, D. Donoho, and M. Sounders (see inbid., no 1, p33-61, 1998) - when the mixing matrix is known or correctly estimated. Our methods are examples.
Low cut-off values increase diagnostic performance of protein S assays

Summary Conflicting data have been reported on the accuracy of protein S (PS) assays for detection of hereditary PS deficiency. In this study we assessed the diagnostic performance of two total PS antigen assays, four free PS assays and three PS activity assays in a group of 28 heterozygous carriers of mutations in PROS1 and 165 control subjects. Several control groups were formed, one of healthy volunteers and – because PS levels are influenced by oral contraception and pregnancy, and assays measuring PS activity may be influenced by the presence of the factor V Leiden mutation -, we also investigated the influences of these factors. All nine PS assays detected significantly reduced PS levels in subjects with a PROS1 mutation. Eight out of nine PS assays showed a 100% sensitivity and 100% specificity to detect heterozygous carriers of mutations in PROS1 with values far below the lower limit of the reference values obtained from healthy volunteers. Low specificities were found in subjects with a factor V Leiden mutation and in pregnant women. At lower cutoff levels, equal to the highest PS value found in heterozygous carriers of mutations in PROS1, the specificity considerably increased in these subjects. When using low cut-off levels equal to the highest PS value found in heterozygous carriers of mutations in PROS1, ensuring 100% sensitivity, the specificity in all study groups increases considerably, by which misclassification can be maximally avoided.
Hierarchical Knowledge Influences Stimulus-Response Compatibility Effects

The influence of spatial stimulus grouping on stimulus-response compatibility effects was investigated in three experiments. Stimuli were grouped as part of a superordinate unit BY (1) perceptually organizing them (Experiment 1), (2) organizing them on the basis of semantic links (Experiment 2), or (3) arbitrary links (Experiment 3). In some instances the arrangement of the stimuli resulted in a conflict between two types of spatial relationship: one between stimulus and response and the other between superordinate unit and response. The experiments indicated that it was the latter relationship that mainly determined performance in the experiments. Reaction time analyses showed that responses were fastest if they spatially corresponded to the relative location of the superordinate unit of which the stimulus was part. The results are discussed with reference to hierarchical accounts of coding stimulus information.
Design and optimization of novel in situ gel of mercaptopurine for sustained drug delivery

Mercaptopurine is a purine antagonist, belonging to the class of antimetabolites. Its oral absorption is erratic and variable throughout GIT, with bioavailability of 5-37% and belongs to Biopharmaceutical Classification System (BCS) class IV. The focus of the present study was to improve solubility of mercaptopurine and to release the drug uniformly throughout the GIT by formulating into a novel in situ gel tablet. By in vitro swelling studies, xanthan gum was selected as the best gelling polymer and the tablets were prepared by direct compression. Sodium chloride was used as a release modifier to improve the release of drug from the tablet. A 32 full factorial design was applied to optimize the percentage of xanthan gum and sodium chloride to get desired swelling index and release profile. Tablets were evaluated for weight variation, hardness, friability, disintegration time, drug content, in vitro swelling studies and in vitro dissolution studies. The best optimized formulation showed good swelling index and extended the release up to 12 h, where as conventional tablet released the drug within 45 min. The results indicate that mercaptopurine loaded in situ gel tablet could be effective in sustaining drug release for a prolonged period of time throughout the GIT, which can possibly improve the oral bioavailability.
ORGANISATION AND IMPROVEMENT OF TEACHING PRACTICE IN INFORMA TICS

This paper asks the question of how to organise teaching practices in Informatics and how to obtain the optimum resuits with restricted resources in order to provide our students with the appropriate level of computer literacy that is crucial for success in today 's business world. Particular attention is paid to the problems of organising teaching practices with restricted resources and the organisation of a continuous improvement in teaching in such an environment. The organisation of a first year course in Informatics at the Faculty of Economics, Zagreb, has been presented. It has been demonstrated that a continuous improvement approach can be successfully applied in a university environment, and that it could be useful when organising teaching practices in Informatics.
Resolving the Initial Contour Problem of GVF Snake in the Sequential Images

GVF algorithm has been studied actively and it will be able to apply to quite many applications. This paper presents GVF algorithm for the segmentation of a sequence of images. Traditional GVF algorithm can extract contour of object in an image. However, in the video sequence images or CT images traditional GVF algorithm had some problems. We can treat these problems under motion tracking using motion estimation using mean square error (MSE). Initial point problem is very important in GVF algorithm. We applied extracted initial point of first image to the second image. In other word, previous initial contour can be used to the next initial contour.
[Immune reconstitution in advanced ovarian cancer patients undergoing first line chemotherapy].

AIM We investigated the numbers and proportions of lymphocyte subsets in advanced ovarian cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, so as to identify whether there is immune reconstitution after chemotherapy, and seek rational chemo-immunotherapy strategies in ovarian cancer treatment. METHODS Blood samples from each ovarian cancer patient were obtained before (S(0)) and at day 5-7 (S(1)), day 12-14 (S(2)) and day 25-28 (S(3)) after chemotherapy in 13 patients. Flow cytometry technique was employed to analyse the numbers, proportions of CD3(+), CD4(+), CD8(+), CD4(+) CD25(+) Treg and memory-like phenotype lymphocyte subsets. RESULTS Lymphopenia was observed at S1 after chemotherapy, but lymphocytes were found gradually recovered after S1. The numbers of CD3(+), CD4(+), CD8(+) T cells and CD4(+) CD25(+) Treg cells reduced to the lowest on S(1). The proportions of CD8(+) T cells and CD4(+) CD25(+) Treg cells reduced to the lowest on S(1) and S(2) respectively. The proportions of CD45RO(+) memory T cells increased significantly on S(2) while the proportion of CD8(+) CD45RA(+) T cells decreased remarkably on S(2). CONCLUSION Paclitaxel and carboplatin induce lymphopenia at day 5-7 after chemotherapy, then comes the temporary immune reconstitution. It probably turns out that the "window period" during immune reconstitution offers a best opportunity for cancer immunotherapy.