Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Transplantation of Preserved Human Amniotic Membrane for Surface Reconstruction in Severely Damaged Rabbit Corneas

After n-heptanol removal of the total corneal epithelium and a limbal lamellar keratectomy, 23 rabbit eyes developed features of limbal stem cell deficiency including conjunctival epithelial ingrowth, vascularization and chronic inflammation. One month later, 10 control eyes received a total keratectomy, and 13 experimental eyes received additional transplantation of glycerin-preserved human amniotic membrane. In 3 months of follow-up, all control corneas were revascularized to the center with granuloma and retained a conjunctival epithelial phenotype. In contrast, five corneas in the experimental group became clear with either minimal or no vascularization; the rest had either mid peripheral (n = 5) or total (n = 3) vascularization and cloudier stroma. The success of corneal surface reconstruction correlated with the return of a cornea-like epithelial phenotype and the preservation of amniotic membrane, whereas the failure maintained a conjunctival epithelial phenotype and the amniotic membrane was either partially degraded or covered by host fibrovascular stroma. These results suggest that measures taken to facilitate epithelialization without allowing host fibrovascular ingrowth onto the amniotic membrane might prove this procedure clinically useful for ocular surface reconstruction.
A GENDER ANALYSIS OF WOMEN IN PUBLIC–PRIVATE–VOLUNTARY SECTOR ‘PARTNERSHIPS’

The nature of work and traditional notions of the public sector have been changing with increasing collaborative governance and delivery of public services among public, private and voluntary sector organizations. In the UK, governments at national and devolved levels of government have adopted a collaborative governance approach to service delivery through various network and partnership arrangements. This paper explores these collaborative governance arrangements from a gender perspective, specifically the perceptions of women in public-private-voluntary sector partnerships. While previous research in this area have explored aspects of collaborative governance such as power, trust, accountability, decision making, performance, exchange of information and participation; there is very little research on women within these networks. The paper therefore provides a gendered analysis, disaggregating survey data to better understand the dynamics, for women, of collaborative governance and partnerships among public, private and voluntary sector organizations.
Can we Really Measure Poverty and Identify the Poor when Poverty Encompasses Multiple Deprivations?

This paper argues that both the income/expenditure and nutritional measures of poverty suffer with their own limitations. The income poverty together with malnutrition would provide a better approximation of multi-dimensional poverty than either of them individually. For both conceptual and practical considerations, the income/expenditure is not suitable for identification of persons suffering from multiple deprivations. The multi dimensional approach incorporating both quantitative and qualitative indicators is suitable for identification of the poor.
Maximal oxygen uptake: "classical" versus "contemporary" viewpoints: a rebuttal.

Bassett and Howley contend that the 1996 J. B. Wolffe lecture is erroneous because: 1) A. V. Hill did establish the existence of the "plateau phenomenon," 2) the maximum oxygen consumption (VO2max) is limited by the development of anaerobiosis in the active muscle, and 3) endurance performance is also determined by skeletal muscle anaerobiosis because the VO2max is the best predictor of athletic ability. As a result, 4) cardiovascular and not skeletal muscle factors determine endurance performance. They further contend that Hill's "scientific hunches were correct," requiring "only relatively minor refinements" in the past 70 yr. But the evidence presented in this rebuttal shows that Hill neither sought nor believed in either the "plateau phenomenon" or the concept of the individual maximum oxygen consumption. These twin concepts were created by Taylor et al. (97) in 1955 and erroneously attributed to Hill. Rather Hill believed that there was a universal human VO2max of 4 L x min(-1). His error resulted from his incorrect belief that the real VO2 unmeasurable because it includes a large "anaerobic component," rose exponentially at running speeds greater than 13.2 km x h(-1). But Hill and his colleagues were indeed the first to realize the danger that a plateau in cardiac output (CO) and hence in VO2 would pose for the heart itself. For unlike skeletal muscle, the pumping capacity of the heart is both dependent on, but also the determinant of, its own blood supply. Thus, if the CO reaches a peak causing the "plateau phenomenon," the immediate cause of that peak will have been a plateau in myocardial oxygen delivery, causing a developing myocardial ischemia. The ischemia must worsen as exercise continues beyond the supposed VO2 "plateau. " To accommodate this dilemma, Hill and his colleagues proposed a governor "either in the heart muscle or in the nervous system" necessary to prevent myocardial ischemia developing during maximal exercise. This governor would cause maximal exercise to terminate before the development of a plateau in either coronary flow, CO, or VO2, or the onset of skeletal muscle anaerobiosis. Accordingly, a new physiological model is proposed in which skeletal muscle recruitment is regulated by a central "governor" specifically to prevent the development of a progressive myocardial ischemia that would precede the development of skeletal muscle anaerobiosis during maximum exercise. As a result cardiovascular function "limits" maximum exercise capacity, probably as a result of a limiting myocardial oxygen delivery. The model is compatible with all the published findings of cardiovascular function during exercise in hypobaric hypoxia, in which there is a greater likelihood that myocardial hypoxia will develop.
Temporal analysis of stationary Markov a-sub-Gaussian noise

In warm shallow waters, snapping shrimp noise is the dominant source of ambient noise at medium-to-high frequencies. The noise process is impulsive and exhibits memory. The latter property causes outliers to cluster together, thus resulting in bursty impulsive noise. When tuned to snapping shrimp data, the stationary α-sub-Gaussian noise with memory order m (αSGN(m)) model tracks the former's temporal amplitude statistics very well. In comparison to contemporary impulsive noise models, αSGN(m) offers a far more realistic model for snapping shrimp noise. To develop a more deeper understanding of αSGN(m), we perform an impulsive event analysis on its realizations. This is accomplished by initially mapping impulsive data to a point process in time. The resulting time-series is then analyzed via first-order interval and counting analysis. We compare our results with those of snapping shrimp noise and highlight the pros and cons of adopting the αSGN(m) model. Moreover, our results also offer us a reliable way to tune the order m of αSGN(m).
Early vs conventional extubation after cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass.

OBJECTIVES Sedation and ventilation overnight after cardiac surgery is common practice. However, early extubation may be feasible with no increase in postoperative complications. This study examines (1) if early extubation is possible in a significant number of patients, (2) if it reduces ICU stay, and (3) if this practice increases postoperative complications. DESIGN Prospective, controlled, randomized clinical trial. PATIENTS AND METHODS We randomized 404 consecutive patients to early extubation (7 to 11 h postoperatively) (group A, 201 patients) or conventional extubation (between 8 and 12 AM the following day) (group B, 203 patients). Variables included type and severity of the disease, surgical risk, type of operation, operative incidences, postoperative complications, duration of mechanical ventilation, intubation and ICU stay, bleeding, reoperation, vasoactive drugs, and mortality. RESULTS Groups were comparable. Extubation within the preestablished time was successful in 60.2% of patients in group A and 74.4% in group B. Median ICU stay was 27 h in group A and 44 h in group B (p=0.008). Discharge from ICU within the first 24 h postoperatively was 44.3% in group A and 30.5% in group B (p=0.006). There was no significant difference in complications between groups. Successfully extubated patients in group A had more reintubation and prolonged ventilation than in group B. CONCLUSIONS (1) Sixty percent of our patients were extubated within 11 h of operation. (2) As a result, the length of stay in ICU was reduced and the percentage of patients discharged within 24 h was increased. (3) There was no increase in clinically important postoperative complications.
Has science gone bad

A heated debate has been in the forefront of scientific circles during the last few years. Rogue studies being published with falsified data, abuse and misuse of statistical analysis tools, and a general lack of trust for a scientific methods have been regular topics not only within the scientific community but in the popular press as well. In this paper I try to point to some crucial elements of the whole process that provide positive feedback to the problem, hence further intensifying it. I will also make a proposal on how the workflow of academic publishing could be changed to alleviate some of the problems.
Usefulness of T‐Wave Alternans in Sudden Death Risk Stratification and Guiding Medical Therapy

Visible T‐wave alternans (TWA), a beat‐to‐beat alternation in the morphology and amplitude of the ST segment or T wave, has been observed for over a century to occur in association with life‐threatening arrhythmias in patients with acute coronary syndrome, heart failure, and cardiac channelopathies. This compelling linkage prompted development of quantitative techniques leading to FDA‐cleared commercial methodologies for measuring nonvisible levels of TWA in the frequency and time domains. The first aim of this review is to summarize evidence from more than a hundred studies enrolling a total of >12,000 patients that support the predictivity of TWA for cardiovascular mortality and sudden cardiac death.
Finite element simulation of a scoliotic spine with periodic adjustments of an attached growing rod

Early Onset Scoliosis (EOS) is a deformity of spine which occurs during growth. Spinal growing rod instrumentation is currently a procedure of early onset scoliosis management and newer technologies to treat scoliosis without fusion hold the exciting promise of a new paradigm in spinal deformity care. A Finite Element Model (FEM) of a scoliotic spine was created and enhanced to simulate spine growth after the attachment of a growing rod. Growing rod instrumentation was included utilizing FEA to accurately simulate the required 3D forces and moments to achieve the desired correction. We measured forces on the rods and the spine during adjustment periods (for correction of the spinal deformity) and during growth periods. For this study, a two-year period was simulated with adjustments at six month intervals. The FEM allowed us to collect data during growth periods from sensors which are only accessible during the surgical procedures.
Security Policy Enforcement by Automated Program-rewriting

Traditional approaches to protecting computer systems from malicious or other misbehaved code typically involve (1) monitoring code for unacceptable behavior as it runs, or (2) detecting potentially misbehaved code and preventing it from running at all. These approaches are effective when unacceptable behavior can be detected in time to take remedial action, but in many settings and for many important security policies this is computationally expensive or provably impossible. A third approach, termed in this dissertation program-rewriting , involves automatically rewriting code prior to running it in such a way that acceptable behavior is preserved but unacceptable behavior is not. Rewritten code can be run without further analysis or monitoring because it is guaranteed to exhibit only acceptable behavior. Program-rewriting has received recent attention in the literature in the form of in-lined reference monitors, which implement approach 1 above by in-lining security checks directly into the code being monitored. Program-rewriting generalizes in-lined reference monitoring, encompassing many other strategies for automatically rewriting programs as well. This dissertation provides a formal characterization of the class of security policies enforceable by program-rewriting and shows that it is strictly greater than the classes of policies enforceable by all other known approaches combined. The dissertation also presents the design and implementation of a certified program-rewriting system for the . NET Common Language Infrastructure, showing that program-rewriters can be developed for real architectures. The extra step of certification provides a formal proof that the program-rewriter produces code that satisfies the security policy, resulting in additional guarantees that the implementation is correct, and higher levels of assurance.
Speech Recognition in Noise for Cochlear Implantees with a Two-Microphone Monaural Adaptive Noise Reduction System

Objective In this study the performance of a noise reduction strategy applied to cochlear implants is evaluated. The noise reduction strategy is based on a 2-channel adaptive filtering strategy using two microphones in a single behind-the-ear hearing aid. Design Four adult LAURA cochlear implant users (Peeters et al., 1993) took part in the experiments. The tests included identification of monosyllabic CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words and measurements of the speech reception threshold (SRT) of lists of numbers, in background noise presented at 90° relative to the 0° frontal direction of the speech. Percent correct phoneme scores for the CVC words at signal to noise ratios (SNRs) of −5, 0, and +5 dB in steady speech-weighted noise at 60 dB SPL and SRTs for numbers in speech-weighted steady and nonsteady ICRA noise were both obtained in conditions with and without the noise reduction pre-processing. Physical SNR improvements of the noise reduction system are evaluated as well, as a function of the direction of the noise source. Results Highly significant improvements in speech understanding, corresponding on average to an SNR improvement of about 10 dB, were observed with this 2-channel adaptive filtering noise reduction strategy using both types of speech-noise test materials. These perceptual evaluations agree with physical evaluations and simulations of this noise reduction strategy. Taken together, these data demonstrate that cochlear implantees may increase their speech intelligibility in noisy environments with the use of multimicrophone noise reduction systems.
Building inorganic supramolecular architectures using principles adopted from the organic solid state

The possibility of converting crystal engineering principles that originate in the organic solid state into productive strategies for the effective supramolecular assembly of coordination complexes has been established through a range of complementary techniques. Calculated molecular electrostatic potentials, in conjunction with a systematic structural study, demonstrate that the existence and structural importance of the key hydrogen-bond interactions are not disrupted by the presence of metal cations and charge-balancing anions.
Targeted Enhancement of Glutamate-to-γ-Aminobutyrate Conversion in Arabidopsis Seeds Affects Carbon-Nitrogen Balance and Storage Reserves in a Development-Dependent Manner1[W][OA]

In seeds, glutamate decarboxylase (GAD) operates at the metabolic nexus between carbon and nitrogen metabolism by catalyzing the unidirectional decarboxylation of glutamate to form γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA). To elucidate the regulatory role of GAD in seed development, we generated Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) transgenic plants expressing a truncated GAD from Petunia hybrida missing the carboxyl-terminal regulatory Ca2+-calmodulin-binding domain under the transcriptional regulation of the seed maturation-specific phaseolin promoter. Dry seeds of the transgenic plants accumulated considerable amounts of GABA, and during desiccation the content of several amino acids increased, although not glutamate or proline. Dry transgenic seeds had higher protein content than wild-type seeds but lower amounts of the intermediates of glycolysis, glycerol and malate. The total fatty acid content of the transgenic seeds was 50% lower than in the wild type, while acyl-coenzyme A accumulated in the transgenic seeds. Labeling experiments revealed altered levels of respiration in the transgenic seeds, and fractionation studies indicated reduced incorporation of label in the sugar and lipid fractions extracted from transgenic seeds. Comparative transcript profiling of the dry seeds supported the metabolic data. Cellular processes up-regulated at the transcript level included the tricarboxylic acid cycle, fatty acid elongation, the shikimate pathway, tryptophan metabolism, nitrogen-carbon remobilization, and programmed cell death. Genes involved in the regulation of germination were similarly up-regulated. Taken together, these results indicate that the GAD-mediated conversion of glutamate to GABA during seed development plays an important role in balancing carbon and nitrogen metabolism and in storage reserve accumulation.
In vivo interactions of RNA polymerase II with genes of Drosophila melanogaster

We describe a method for examining the in vivo distribution of a protein on specific eucaryotic DNA sequences. In this method, proteins are cross-linked to DNA in intact cells, and the protein-DNA adducts are isolated by immunoprecipitation with antiserum against the protein. Characterization of the DNA cross-linked to the precipitated protein identifies the sequences with which the protein is associated in vivo. Here, we applied these methods to detect RNA polymerase II-DNA interactions in heat-shocked and untreated Drosophila melanogaster Schneider line 2 cells. The level of RNA polymerase II associated with several heat shock genes increased dramatically in response to heat shock, whereas the level associated with the copia genes decreased, indicating that both induction of heat shock gene expression and repression of the copia gene expression by heat shock occur at the transcriptional level. Low levels of RNA polymerase II were present on DNA outside of the transcription units, and for at least two genes, hsp83 and hsp26, RNA polymerase II initiated binding near the transcription start site. Moreover, for hsp70, the density of RNA polymerase II on sequences downstream of the polyadenylate addition site was much lower than that observed on the gene internal sequences. Examination of the amount of specific restriction fragments cross-linked to RNA polymerase II provides a means of detecting RNA polymerase II on individual members of multigene families. This analysis shows that RNA polymerase II is associated with only one of the two cytoplasmic actin genes.
Analysis of excitatory synaptic action in pyramidal cells using whole‐cell recording from rat hippocampal slices.

1. The pharmacological and biophysical properties of excitatory synapses in the CA1 region of the hippocampus were studied using patch electrodes and whole‐cell recording from thin slices. 2. Excitatory postsynaptic currents (EPSCs) had a fast component whose amplitude was voltage insensitive and a slow component whose amplitude was voltage dependent with a region of negative slope resistance in the range of ‐70 to ‐30 mV. 3. The voltage‐dependent component was abolished by the N‐methyl‐D‐aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist DL‐2‐amino‐5‐phosphonovalerate (APV; 50 microM), which had no effect on the fast component. Conversely, the fast voltage‐insensitive component was abolished by the non‐NMDA receptor antagonist 6‐cyano‐7‐nitroquinoxaline‐2,3‐dione (CNQX; 10 microM) which had no effect on the slow component. 4. In Ringer solution with no added Mg2+ the current‐voltage relation of the NMDA component was linear over a much larger voltage range than in the presence of 1.3 mM‐Mg2+. 5. The NMDA component of the EPSC could be switched off with a hyperpolarizing voltage step at the soma. The kinetics of this switch‐off was used to estimate the speed of clamp control of the subsynaptic membrane as well as the electrotonic distance from the soma. The kinetic analysis of the EPSC was restricted to synapses which were judged to be under adequate voltage control. 6. For those synapses that were close to the soma the time constant for decay for the non‐NMDA component, which was voltage insensitive, ranged from 4‐8 ms. 7. The rise time for the NMDA component was 8‐20 ms and the time constant for decay ranged from 60‐150 ms. 8. During increased transmitter release with post‐tetanic potentiation or application or phorbol esters, both components of the EPSC increased to a similar extent. 9. These experiments provide a detailed description of the dual receptor mechanism operating at hippocampal excitatory synapses. In addition, the experiments provide an electrophysiological method for estimating the electrotonic distance of synaptic inputs.
Immune responses during helminth-malaria co-infection: a pilot study in Ghanaian school children

SUMMARY Malaria and helminth infections have a shared geographical distribution and therefore co-infections are frequent in tropical areas of the world. Human populations of helminth and malaria co-infection have shown contradictory results for the course of malarial infection and disease, possibly depending on the type of helminth studied, the intensity of helminth infection and the age of the study population. Although immunological studies might clarify the underlying mechanisms of protection or increased susceptibility, there are very few studies that have looked at immunological parameters in helminth and malaria co-infection. After discussing the available immunological data on co-infection, we describe a pilot study performed in Ghanaian school children where we compare anti-malarial responses in children living in an urban area, where the prevalence of helminth and Plasmodium falciparum infections was low, with that of children living in a rural area with high prevalence of helminth and Plasmodium falciparum infections.
Is There a Duty?: Limiting College and University Liability for Student Suicide

This Note argues that nonclinician administrators employed by institutions of higher education do not have a special relationship with their students such that they have a duty to act with reasonable care to prevent a foreseeable student suicide. Courts that have in recent years ruled to the contrary have done so by incorrectly basing their duty -of -care analysis on fore see ability of harm alone. With an eye toward a proper duty-of-care analysis, this Note analyzes multiple factors to reach its conclusion, including the ideal relationship between colleges and their students and the burden on and capability of colleges to protect their students from a particular harm. Moreover, public policy concerns weigh heavily against imposing a duty on nonclinician university administrators. This Note further argues that the tort doctrine of negligent performance of affirmative duties undertaken provides a better framework within which to assess the liability of institutions of higher education for student suicides by holding those institutions responsible for egregious missteps regarding student mental health problems. Liability pursuant to negligent performance of affirmitive duties undertaken requires that colleges and universities implement and operate their programs with due care, but leaves sufficient latitude for individual colleges and universities to explore suicide prevention techniques that are effective and feasible in light of their student body, resources, and overall educational philosophy.