Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cordomas gigantes del clivus. ¿Se justifican las cirugías extensas?

Debido a su localizacion y comportamiento biologico, los cordomas del clivus son tumores que aun representan un gran reto, principalmente cuando han alcanzado grandes dimensiones. En este articulo, hemos seleccionado a los pacientes con los cordomas del clivus mas grandes, a fin de analizar si realmente se pueden beneficiar con procedimientos quirurgicos extensos, con la morbilidad que ello implica. Once pacientes con cordomas gigantes del clivus fueron incluidos, todos ellos intervenidos de acuerdo a los criterios recientes de cirugia de base de craneo. Fue analizado principalmente si el grado de reseccion presentaba alguna relacion con el estado funcional postoperatorio y el tiempo de supervivencia libre de enfermedad; tambien fue evaluado si existia alguna correlacion entre los hallazgos histopatologicos y el curso clinico. En este grupo fue posible lograr una reseccion total del tumor en 8 pacientes y parcial en 3. En todos los casos se observo una evidente mejoria en el estado funcional postoperatorio, pero particularmente en los pacientes con resecciones totales. El tiempo de supervivencia libre de enfermedad fue tambien mayor en los pacientes con las resecciones mas amplias. No se encontro correlacion alguna entre la variedad histologica de los tumores (clasico o condroide) y el pronostico clinico. Palabras clave: base de craneo, calidad de vida, cirugia, clivus, cordoma. Summary Because of their location and biological behavior, clivus chordomas are tumors that still represent a great challenge, mainly when they have reached huge dimensions. In this paper we have selected the patients with the biggest clivus chordomas to analyze if they really can be helped with the current surgical procedures with the morbidity that it implies. Eleven patients with giant clivus chordomas were included. All of them were operated on following the recent criteria of Cranial Base Surgery. It was mainly analyzed, if the degree of the resection had any relation to the postoperative functional outcome and the disease-free survival time; it was also evaluated if there existed a correlation between the pathologic findings and the clinical course. It was possible to get a total resection in 8 patients and partial in 3. In all cases there was an evident improvement in their postoperative functional outcome, specially in those with complete resections. The disease-free survival time was also greater in the patients with more ample resections. There was not any correlation among the histologic variety of tumors (typical or chondroid) and the clinical prognosis.
A Study of the Effect of Projective Drawings on the Hindsight Bias

This study examined the effect of including a human figure drawing on the hindsight bias among undergraduate psychology students. Six groups were given a description of a 15 year-old boy who was experiencing school difficulties . Some of these groups also were given outcome information suggesting that the boy's difficulties were due either to social-emotional problems or to learning problems . In addition , some groups also were given a human figure drawing made by the boy. Participants then assigned likelihood probabilities to the two outcomes. Results of non-parametric analyses showed the hindsight bias for only one of the six groups. In contrast , results of parametric analyses showed a main effect for the outcome variable . Results are discussed in terms of previous research on the hindsight bias.
Towards a high performance computing scalable implementation of Cyber Physical Systems

Cyber Physical Systems (CPS) establish an interdependency between the physical world and the cyber world. When considering a real world setup, CPS will receive a considerable input from the physical world that demands a timely response. Without the computer capacity to handle the input data, a CPS will not be able to react in a very short term to changes in the environment and provide proper output. Current CPS are unable to react in near real-time to challenges when considering a realistic problem size. Our objective is to harness the performance of High Performance Computing systems to make CPS capable of handling the necessary computation demands in order to be able to interact with the physical world. We present a case study on scheduling algorithms to demonstrate the current limitations in the computing performance and point possible solutions to achieve it.
Risk factors associated with cholera outbreak in Bauchi and Gombe States in North East Nigeria

This study investigated the risk factors associated with cholera epidemic during the 2010 cholera outbreak in some States in Nigeria. Semi-structured questionnaires were administered to consented patients and/or their parents/guardians in Bauchi and Gombe States in North East Nigeria. Few (33.7%) respondents had access to safe and clean drinking water through the pipe-borne system compared to well (47.8%) and river (19.6%). Respondents’ means of sewage disposal were: pit/latrine (77.2%); bush (15.2%); and water closet (4.3%). Only 34.8% knew water, food and poor sanitation as transmission routes for cholera. There was a significant gender difference in knowledge of lack of safe and clean drinking water and poor sanitation as contributing factors to cholera infection (p<0.05). Observation showed poor sanitation and food hygiene practices in the communities visited.The results provided insights for planning educational programmes through information, education and communication/behavioral change communication efforts to boost knowledge on cholera in the communities. Key words: Knowledge, perception, environmental sanitation, health behavior, cholera outbreak, Nigeria.
Psychoanalysis and Literature, Mary's Character in Lessing's novel 'The Grass is Singing' as a Case Study"

The “Grass is Singing” is work that depicts many issues and communicates several themes. The issue of racism is mostly apparent that it deals with the subordination of the black people and their being exploited, abused and humiliated in their lands by British white people. As embodied through the character of the farmer, Dick Turner, the black servants are treated only as slaves and savages. More important in this novel is how the author deals with the psychic life of her characters. Particularly, the female character “Mary” who’s overlapping hurtful experiences and self-unconscious troubles causes her pain and sufferance in her relationship with the outer world. This paper will, therefore, approach the character of Mary from a psychoanalytic perspective and the variables that interrelate during Mary’s successive life stages to end up in her being murdered. That is, this paper is an attempt to apply psychoanalysis to literature. It will investigate how the accumulated experiences of socio-psychological past and present suffering led Mary to develop a psychological complex and act upon it. In other words, the study will analyze how the accumulated experiences of childhood, surfaced to the front and stressed upon by the occasional adulthood events, correlate to culminate in a tragic end in her life.
An Efficient Code Compression Technique For Ecg Signal Application Using Xilinx Software

: This paper introduces a strategy to compress ECG in remote and zero lossless decompression utilizing a mix of 3 unique procedures so as to expand storage room while diminishing transmission time. The principal system utilized in the proposed calculation is a versatile straight expectation; it accomplishes high affectability and positive forecast. The second procedure is content versatile Golomb Rice coding, use with a window size for encoding the leftover of expectation blunder. The third procedure is the utilization of reasonable pressing configuration to empower the ongoing interpreting process. The proposed calculation is assessed to confirm the utilization of more than 48 chronicles from MIT-BIH arrhythmia data set. It appeared to most likely accomplish a lossless piece pressure rate of 2.83 in Lead V1 and 2.77 in Lead V2. This algorithm demonstrates better execution results in contrast with past lossless ECG compression. It very well may be utilized in information transmission strategies for prevalent biomedical signs for limited transfer speed crosswise over e-wellbeing gadgets. This task is created utilizing Xilinx programming.
Active Arrangement of Small Objects in 3D Indoor Scenes

Small object arrangement is very important for creating detailed and realistic 3D indoor scenes. In this article, we present an interactive framework based on active learning to help users create customized arrangements for small objects according to their preferences. To achieve this with minimal user effort, we first learn the prior knowledge about small object arrangement from a 3D indoor scene dataset through a probability mining method, which forms the initial guidance for arranging small objects. Then, users are able to express their preferences on a few small object categories, which are automatically propagated to all the other categories via a novel active learning approach. In the propagation process, we introduce a novel metric to obtain the propagation weights, which measures the degree of interchangeability between two small object categories, and is calculated based on a spatial embedding model learned from the small object neighborhood information extracted from the 3D indoor scene dataset. Experiments show that our framework is able to help users effectively create customized small object arrangements with little effort.
Observations on the mammary tumor incidence of mice born from transferred ova.

The successful transplantation of mammal ian ova has been accomplished by several investigators. Heape (4, 5) transferred ova of an Angora doe rabbit, mated with an Angora buck, 32 hours after mating. The ova were in the 4 cell stage. The recipient was a Belgian hare doe which had been mated with a Belgian buck 3 hours before the transplantation. The ova were introduced into the upper end of the uterine tube. The recipient gave birth to 6 rabbits, 4 of which were Belgians and 2 Angoras. H a m m o n d (3) was also successful in transferring rabbit's ova. Nicholas (9) transplanted ova which were removed from the uterine tubes of hooded rats into the uterus of white rats. Little, 1935, transferred ova of dba mice into C57 black mice and successfully raised 2 female and I male dba mice. In the present experiment large numbers ot ova were transferred from the high mammary tumor dba strain to the low mammary tumor C57 black strain and vice versa. The animals were divided into the following 4 groups : -
Multi-Scale Estimation of Land Use Efficiency (SDG 11.3.1) across 25 Years Using Global Open and Free Data

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11 aspires to “Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”, and the introduction of an explicit urban goal testifies to the importance of urbanisation. The understanding of the process of urbanisation and the capacity to monitor the SDGs require a wealth of open, reliable, locally yet globally comparable data, and a fully-fledged data revolution. In this framework, the European Commission–Joint Research Centre has developed a suite of (open and free) data and tools named Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL) which maps the human presence on Earth (built-up areas, population distribution and settlement typologies) between 1975 and 2015. The GHSL supplies information on the progressive expansion of built-up areas on Earth and population dynamics in human settlements, with both sources of information serving as baseline data to quantify land use efficiency (LUE), listed as a Tier II indicator for SDG 11 (11.3.1). In this paper, we present the profile of the LUE across several territorial scales between 1990 and 2015, highlighting diverse development trajectories and the land take efficiency of different human settlements. Our results show that (i) the GHSL framework allows us to estimate LUE for the entire planet at several territorial scales, opening the opportunity of lifting the LUE indicator from its Tier II classification; (ii) the current formulation of the LUE is substantially subject to path dependency; and (iii) it requires additional spatially-explicit metrics for its interpretation. We propose the Achieved Population Density in Expansion Areas and the Marginal Land Consumption per New Inhabitant metrics for this purpose. The study is planetary and multi-temporal in coverage, demonstrating the value of well-designed, open and free, fine-scale geospatial information on human settlements in supporting policy and monitoring progress made towards meeting the SDGs.
The effect of thyroid hormone deficiency on erythropoiesis in dogs

This research aimed to evaluate the effect of thyroid hormone deficiency on the erythrocytic system in dogs. Dogs with clinical symptoms of hypothyreosis such as obesity, hyperpigmentation, and lethargy were selected. The dogs demonstrating breed predisposition to hypothyreosis were incorporated in the analysis: Dachshunds, Retrievers, and mixed-breed dogs. A detailed history was taken and clinical, hormonal, biochemical and haematological blood tests were performed. Peripheral blood samples were taken from 53 dogs. Finally, the dogs with the initial T4 (thyroxine) concentration < 1.3 µg/dl and animals demonstrating clinical improvement after a 2-month therapy with levothyroxine at a dose of 10 µg/kg administeredper ostwo times a day were qualified. The animals between 10 months to 13 years of age were divided into two groups: clinically healthy (control group, n = 35) and dogs presenting clinical symptoms of hypothyreosis (experimental group, n = 18). In this research, the broadly described normocytic normochromic non-regenerative anaemia was not diagnosed in dogs with hypothyreosis. However, a positive correlation between T4 and red blood cell indices such as the average mass of haemoglobin per red blood cell, concentration of haemoglobin in a given volume of packed red blood cells as well as a negative correlation with haematocrit value was discovered in the experimental group after the 2-month therapy with levothyroxine. These results point to the influence of thyroid hormones on erythropoiesis. This observation is partially consistent with other studies, which noted the casual link between the changes in red blood cell system and the function of thyroid in dogs and humans.
Spatial Dichotomy in Incidence and Impacts of Abandoned Structures on Residents in Ilorin, Nigeria

The paper examined the spatial variation in the incidence, causes and impacts of abandoned structures in Ilorin, Nigeria. Primary data was collected through questionnaire from 581 residents in selected localities in urban and rural areas. Direct observation and physical counting were carried out to determine the incidence of abandoned structures in the study area. Data on incidence, prevalence and categories of abandoned structures in the study area were summarized using descriptive statistics such as frequencies and percentages. Chi-square was used to test the differences between incidence and causes of abandoned structures in urban and rural areas. Z-score was used to analyze the physical counting of the abandoned buildings and compared the relative raw scores from different localities in the study area on categories of abandonment. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to determine urban-rural variations in the incidence, causes and impacts of abandoned structures in the study area. Four indices were developed: Causes of Abandoned Structures Index’ (CASI), Environmental Impact of Abandonment Index (EIAI), Psycho-Social Impact of Abandoned Structures Index (PSIASI) and Economic Impact of Abandonment Index (EcIAI). CASI, EIAI and PSIASI were employed respectively to measure causes, environmental and psycho – social impacts of abandonment in Ilorin. It is established that there is significant variation in the incidence and causes of abandoned structures between urban and rural areas of Ilorin. The most pronounced psychosocial effect of abandonment in the study area is ‘theft’ (PSIASI = 4.38). Prominent economic variables of abandonment in the study area range from ‘affecting communal development levy’ (EcIAI = 3.88) to ‘property value decline’ (EcIAI = 3.61) to property vandalization’ (EcIAI = 3.60). The study concluded that environmental impacts of abandonment in the study area varied spatially. The study therefore suggests that abandoned structure should be identified and compiled by Town Planning Authorities after which the owners could be contacted and mandated to work on the structures based on the level of negative impacts associated with such structures. Some of the government owned abandoned properties could be auctioned or donated to the respective community for better usage. Keywords: Abandonment, Development, Environmental Impacts, Residents DOI : 10.7176/JAAS/58-09 Publication date :September 30 th 2019
String of PURLs - frugal migration and maintenance of persistent identifiers

FAIR data requires unique and persistent identifiers. Persistent Uniform Resource Locators (PURLs) are one common solution, introducing a mapping layer from the permanent identifier to a target URL that can change over time. Maintaining a PURL system requires long-term commitment and resources, and this can present a challenge for open projects that rely heavily on volunteers and donated resources. When the PURL system used by the Open Biological and Biomedical Ontologies (OBO) community suffered major technical problems in 2015, OBO developers had to migrate quickly to a new system. We describe that migration, the new OBO PURL system that we built, and the key factors behind our design. The OBO PURL system is low-cost and low-maintenance, built on well-established open source software, customized to the needs of the OBO community, and shows how key FAIR principles can be supported on a tight budget.
Palomino, MA and Ribac, Q and Masala, G (2019)The nature of twitter trending topics: Analysing intrinsic factors associated with the twitter ecosys- tem. In: 17th international conference on new trends in Intelligent Software

We are inundated with data—companies such as Twitter deal with petabytes of information on a daily basis. However, some users, especially the new ones, often find it difficult to cope with the overwhelming and disorganised deluge of information. Scientists have already worked out ways to identify Twitter trending topics, as a means to index information and make sense of it. However, we know little about the impact on trending topics of various intrinsic factors associated with the Twitter ecosystem. For example, anecdotal evidence suggests that trending topics are characterised by highly polarised tweets, or that large audiences typically host the emergence of trending topics. However, no study has yet addressed these issues formally. To remedy this situation, we have launched an investigation on the nature of trending topics. Our initial observations indicate that there is a correlation between strong sentiment polarity and the emergence of trending topics—we can also confirm that the strength of the polarity drops as the trending topics fade away. Conversely, our experiments highlight that there is no correlation between the size of a Twitter audience and the rise of trending topics.
Localized optical monitoring of cytoskeletal changes in confluent endothelial cell layers upon exposure to xenobiotics

In this work we monitor changes in the cytoskeleton of endothelial cells as a result of exposure to xenobiotics in real-time. For this, we employ an optical chip for cell cultivation, which utilizes forward light scattering through living cell layers to record cellular micromotion in a label-free and non-invasive fashion. The motion of a cell is a consequence of constant cytoskeletal rearrangements, which inherently occur, and are influenced by chemical and physical changes in its environment. These cytoskeletal rearrangements lead to displacement of internal cell components, as well as to morphological changes of the entire cell, which is referred to as cellular micromotion. Any component of the cell has a substantially different refractive index than the cytoplasm, and therefore serves as a light-scattering site. Therefore, even the smallest conformational change or internal rearrangement strongly affect the path of photons traveling through the cell. Therefore, the fraction of the light entering cells that actually leaves the cells at the other end is determined by those factors and fluctuates as the cell continuously rearranges itself. By monitoring the fraction of light that leaves the cells in real-time, we can indirectly measure cellular micromotion. The goal of this work is to gain a better understanding of how cytoskeletal changes affect the recorded signals. For this purpose, two drugs that are known to affect the actin cytoskeleton were used for this purpose, namely latrunculin A and jasplakinolide. Latrunculin A promotes actin fiber depolymerization, resulting in a more ‘fluid’ cytoskeleton, whereas the addition of jasplakinolide results in stabilization of the actin cytoskeleton rearrangements. Endothelial cells were cultured on the optical chip to confluency, after which they were exposed to the xenobiotics. These experiments were also performed off-chip and the cultures were stained and imaged with confocal fluorescent microscopy as controls. The specific changes in response to the xenobiotics that were observed under the microscope could be successfully correlated to specific patterns in the recorded signal with the optical chip. After addition of latrunculin A we observed dominant presence of globular actin in the cytoplasm after 30 60 min after exposure, which was seen in the optical trace at this time as a rapid drop of the signal. After addition of jasplakinolide we observed dominant presence of filamentous actin in the cytoplasm after 45 – 60 min after exposure, which in the optical trace led to stabilization of the signal. These experiments prove that we can monitor cytoskeletal changes in real time and correlate them with events induced by chemical stimuli.
Pancreatic b-cell replacement: advances in protocols used for differentiation of pancreatic progenitors to b-like cells

Insulin-producing cells derived from in vitro differentiation of stem cells and non-stem cells by using different factors can spare the need for genetic manipulation and provide a cure for diabetes. In this context, pancreatic progenitors differentiating to b-like cells garner increasing attention as b-cell replacement source. This kind of cell therapy has the potential to cure diabetes, but is still on its way of being clinically useful. The primary restriction for in vitro production of mature and functional b-cells is developing a physiologically relevant in vitro culture system which can mimic in vivo pathways of islet development. In order to achieve this target, different approaches have been attempted for the differentiation of pancreatic stem/progenitor cells to b-like cells. Here, we will review some of the state-of-the-art protocols for the differentiation of pancreatic progenitors and differentiated pancreatic cells into b-like cells with a focus on pancreatic duct cells. (Folia Histochemica et Cytobiologica 2019, Vol. 57, No. 3, 101–115)
A Comparative Study of Models for Answer Sentence Selection

Answer Sentence Selection is one of the steps typically involved in Question Answering. Question Answering is considered a hard task for natural language processing systems, since full solutions would require both natural language understanding and inference abilities. In this paper, we explore how the state of the art in answer selection has improved recently, comparing two of the best proposed models for tackling the problem: the Crossattentive Convolutional Network and the BERT model. The experiments are carried out on two datasets, WikiQA and SelQA, both created for and used in open-domain question answering challenges. We also report on cross domain experiments with the two datasets.