Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Salicylate poisoning after accidental skin application of salicylic acid in a child

Dear Editors, A previously healthy 17-year-old boy was transferred to the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) for an accidental salicylate poisoning. Prior to the transfer, he was admitted to the dermatology unit for topical scabies treatment. The application of 20% sulfur ointment was planned, but the nurse used the wrong ointment by mistake and 20% salicylic acid in petrolatum was applied to the whole body surface area apart from the face. A few hours later, he started to complain of tinnitus. The next morning, he reported severe vertigo, impaired hearing and worsening of tinnitus, and he repeatedly vomited and had diarrhea. During the day, his symptoms slowly improved, except for the tinnitus. On the same day, he was given 20% sulfur ointment, which he mentioned to the nurse to be different from the one applied the previous day. On the next day, blood and urine analysis was performed (Table 1). The boy then mentioned the difference in ointment application to his physician, which led the doctor to suspect possible salicylate misapplication. The patient's body was washed and his blood and urine samples were sent to a toxicological laboratory, where the results showed a lethal blood salicylate concentration (BSC) (Table 1). Hemodialysis (HD) was recommended by the Toxicological Information Centre to remove salicylates from the body. On admission to the PICU, the boy had tinnitus and was fully conscious. His temperature was 36.9 C, heart rate 117 beats per minute, and blood pressure 157/87 mmHg; physical examination revealed no pathology. Both blood pressure and heart rate normalized in subsequent measurements. His blood and urine samples were analyzed (Table 1). Due to the absence of serious clinical symptoms and low BSC, we decided not to perform HD. On the 6th day after the intoxication, BSC was not detectable, the tinnitus completely resolved and all laboratory findings were within normal range (Table 1 and Figure 1). Salicylate poisoning is one of the most common drug overdose scenarios. During 1983 and 1984 in Ontario, salicylates were responsible for most of the single-drug deaths. Mild intoxication presents as lethargy, nausea, vomiting, tinnitus, and dizziness; and moderate (BSC 500–700 mg/L) as tachypnea, hyperpyrexia, respiratory alkalosis, metabolic acidosis, restlessness, and diaphoresis. Severe poisoning (>750 mg/L) causes hallucinations, convulsions, coma, cerebral, and pulmonary edema and acute kidney injury. To eliminate salicylates, urine alkalization, HD, and hemoperfusion can be used. The indication of HD is not based solely on BSC, which alone may not reflect the severity of the poisoning. Other factors, such as the time since intoxication, the age of the patient, severity of clinical symptoms, and
Generating a state t-design by diagonal quantum circuits

We investigate protocols for generating a state t-design by using a fixed separable initial state and a diagonal-unitary t-design in the computational basis, which is a t-design of an ensemble of diagonal unitary matrices with random phases as their eigenvalues. We first show that a diagonal-unitary t-design generates a O 1 / 2 N ? > -approximate state t-design, where N is the number of qubits. We then discuss a way of improving the degree of approximation by exploiting non-diagonal gates after applying a diagonal-unitary t-design. We also show that it is necessary and sufficient to use O log 2 t ? > -qubit gates with random phases to generate a diagonal-unitary t-design by diagonal quantum circuits, and that each multi-qubit diagonal gate can be replaced by a sequence of multi-qubit controlled-phase-type gates with discrete-valued random phases. Finally, we analyze the number of gates for implementing a diagonal-unitary t-design by non-diagonal two- and one-qubit gates. Our results provide a concrete application of diagonal quantum circuits in quantum informational tasks.
Combining Spatial Registration With Clutter Filtering for Power-Doppler Imaging in Peripheral Perfusion Applications

Power-Doppler ultrasonic (PD-US) imaging is sensitive to echoes from blood cell motion in the microvasculature but generally nonspecific because of difficulties with filtering nonblood-echo sources. We are studying the potential for using PD-US imaging for routine assessments of peripheral blood perfusion without contrast media. The strategy developed is based on an experimentally verified computational model of tissue perfusion that simulates typical in vivo conditions. The model considers directed and diffuse blood perfusion states in a field of moving clutter and noise. A spatial registration method is applied to minimize tissue motion prior to clutter and noise filtering. The results show that in-plane clutter motion is effectively minimized. While out-of-plane motion remains a strong source of clutter-filter leakage, those registration errors are readily minimized by straightforward modification of scanning techniques and spatial averaging.
Hypersound damping in vitreous silica measured by picosecond acoustics

The attenuation of longitudinal acoustic phonons up to frequencies nearing $250\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{GHz}$ is measured in vitreous silica with a picosecond optical technique. By taking advantage of interferences on the probe beam, difficulties encountered in early pioneering experiments are alleviated. Sound damping at $250\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{GHz}$ and room temperature is consistent with relaxation dominated by anharmonic interactions with the thermal bath, extending optical Brillouin scattering data. Our result is at variance with claims of a recent deep-UV experiment which reported a rapid damping increase beyond $100\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{GHz}$. A comprehensive picture of the frequency dependence of sound attenuation in $v\text{\ensuremath{-}}\mathrm{Si}{\mathrm{O}}_{2}$ can be proposed.
A multi-dimensional measure of pro-environmental behavior for use across populations with varying levels of environmental involvement in the United States

Researchers continue to explore ways to understand and promote pro-environmental behavior (PEB) amongst various populations. Despite this shared goal, much debate exists on the operationalization and the dimensionality of PEB and how it is measured. This piecemeal approach to measurement has limited the ability to draw conclusions across studies. We address limitations associated with previous measures of PEB by developing a multi-dimensional scale that is validated across both a general population of individuals residing in the United States as well as a group of individuals associated with a pro-environmental organization. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses and reliability estimation were conducted for the developed measure across these two populations. Measurement invariance testing was also utilized to assess the psychometric stability of the scale across the two groups. Results indicated an 11 item scale was best fitting with two sub-scales: private and public behaviors. Implications for research and practice are discussed.
Investigation of the therapeutic potential of recombinant bispecific bivalent anti-PD-L1/VEGF nanobody in inhibition of angiogenesis

Abstract Objective Immunotherapy using monoclonal antibodies targeting programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1) on cancer cells as a biomarker of escape from response to immune checkpoint has demonstrated efficacy in treating many solid tumors. In addition, some of the signals, such as vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), bind to receptors on the surface of normal endothelial cells and encourage angiogenesis, or the formation and survival of new blood vessels. Methods Due to the special features of nanobodies with high specificity and affinity as a powerful new tool in cancer therapy, here, a recombinant bispecific bivalent anti-PD-L1/VEGF nanobody was constructed and its functionality in inhibition of angiogenesis in vitro was investigated. Results Results demonstrated that bivalent anti-PD-L1/VEGF nanobody efficiently inhibited HUVEC and A431 cells proliferation and tube formation. In addition, bivalent anti-PD-L1/VEGF nanobody efficiently inhibited angiogenesis in an ex ovo Chick Chorioallantoic Membrane assay. Discussion The results indicate for the potential of bivalent anti-PD-L1/VEGF nanobody as a novel promising tool for cancer therapy.
Curriculum learning for human compositional generalization

Significance In novel situations, people need to repurpose past knowledge to guide behavior (generalization). How they do this remains a mystery in cognitive science. Moreover, building machines that can achieve this is a key goal in machine learning research. Here, we designed a paradigm that allowed us to study the circumstances under which people learn and generalize. We find that people generalize to new situations in ways that are not possible for standard neural networks. However, if networks are modified in a simple way, they can display the same sorts of generalization as people and the same costs and benefits from different training curricula. Our results are relevant to understanding how both biological and artificial agents can deal with novelty.
Stabilizing perturbative Yang-Mills thermodynamics with Gribov quantization

We evaluate the thermodynamic quantities of Yang-Mills theory using the Gribov quantization, which deals with nonperturbative resummation. The magnetic scale is automatically incorporated into the framework and we find it efficient to stabilize the perturbative expansion of the free energy. In the temperature range T = T-c similar to 2T(c) the major uncertainty in our results comes from the nonperturbative running coupling that is adopted from the lattice simulation, while the convergence above 2T(c) is impressively robust. We also present the corresponding interaction measure (i.e., trace anomaly) up to close to T-c.
Comprehensive analysis of different tumor cell-line produced soluble mediators on the differentiation and functional properties of monocyte-derived dendritic cells

Developing dendritic cells (DCs) from monocytes is a sensitively regulated process. One possible way for cancers to avoid immune recognition and antitumor response is the modulation of DC differentiation. Although several studies are available on the examination of tumor-associated macrophages, a comprehensive analysis focusing on the effects of tumor-formed DCs is not known to date. We provide a comparative analysis of the tumor-edited-monocyte derived DCs differentiated in the presence of adenocarcinomas (MDA, HT29, HeLa)- and primary (WM278, WM983A) or metastatic (WM1617, WM983B) melanomas. The immunomodulatory effect of tumors is mediated at least partly by secreted mediators. We investigated the impact of tumor cell-derived conditioned media on the differentiation of DCs from CD14+ monocytes, sequentially determining the phenotype, cytokine production, phagocytic, and the T cell polarizing capacity of moDCs. We completed our observations by analyzing our data with bioinformatic tools to provide objective correlations between phenotypical and functional properties of different tumor-educated moDCs. The correlation analysis revealed significant differences in the characteristics of adenocarcinomas- or melanomas-edited moDCs. We highlight the functional differences in the properties of moDCs differentiated in the presence of various cancer cell lines. We offer new information and options for the in vitro differentiation protocols of various tumor-conditioned moDCs. Our results confirm that various immunomodulatory properties of different tumor cell lines result in multiple manipulations of DC differentiation.
Motion adaptation improves acuity (but perceived size doesn't matter)

Recognition acuity—the minimum size of a high-contrast object that allows us to recognize it—is limited by optical and neural elements of the eye and by processing within the visual cortex. The perceived size of objects can be changed by motion-adaptation. Viewing receding or looming motion makes subsequently viewed stimuli appear to grow or shrink, respectively. It has been reported that resulting changes in perceived size impact recognition acuity. We set out to determine if such acuity changes are reliable and what drives this phenomenon. We measured the effect of adaptation to receding and looming motion on acuity for crowded tumbling-T stimuli (). We quantified the role of crowding, individuals’ susceptibility to motion-adaptation, and potentially confounding effects of pupil size and eye movements. Adaptation to receding motion made targets appear larger and improved acuity (–0.037 logMAR). Although adaptation to looming motion made targets appear smaller, it induced not the expected decrease in acuity but a modest acuity improvement (–0.018 logMAR). Further, each observer's magnitude of acuity change was not correlated with their individual perceived-size change following adaptation. Finally, we found no evidence that adaptation-induced acuity gains were related to crowding, fixation stability, or pupil size. Adaptation to motion modestly enhances visual acuity, but unintuitively, this is dissociated from perceived size. Ruling out fixation and pupillary behavior, we suggest that motion adaptation may improve acuity via incidental effects on sensitivity—akin to those arising from blur adaptation—which shift sensitivity to higher spatial frequency-tuned channels.
Xenograft model of heterotopic transplantation of human ovarian cortical tissue and its clinical relevance

In brief Xenografts of human ovarian cortical tissue provide a tractable model of heterotopic autotransplantation that is used for fertility preservation in patients undergoing ablative chemo/radiotherapy. This study describes the behavior of hundreds of xenografts to establish a framework for the clinical function of ovarian cortex following autotransplantation over short- and long-term intervals. Abstract More than 200 live births have been achieved using autotransplantation of cryopreserved ovarian cortical fragments, yet challenges remain to be addressed. Ischemia of grafted tissue undermines viability and longevity, typically requiring transplantation of multiple cortical pieces; and the dynamics of recruitment within a graft and the influence of parameters like size and patient age at the time of cryopreservation are not well-defined. Here, we describe results from a series of experiments in which we xenografted frozen/thawed human ovarian tissue (n = 440) from 28 girls and women (age range 32 weeks gestational age to 46 years, median 24.3 ± 4.6). Xenografts were recovered across a broad range of intervals (1–52 weeks post-transplantation) and examined histologically to quantify follicle density and distribution. The number of antral follicles in xenografted cortical fragments correlated positively with the total follicle number and was significantly reduced with increased patient age. Within xenografts, follicles were distributed in focal clusters, similar to the native ovary, but the presence of a leading antral follicle coincided with increased proliferation of surrounding follicles. These results underscore the importance of transplanting ovarian tissue with a high density of follicles and elucidate a potential paracrine influence of leading antral follicles on neighboring follicles of earlier stages. This temporal framework for interpreting the kinetics of follicle growth/mobilization may be useful in setting expectations and guiding the parameters of clinical autotransplantation.
Pseudomonas aeruginosa utilizes the host-derived polyamine spermidine to facilitate antimicrobial tolerance

Pseudomonas aeruginosa undergoes diversification during infection of the cystic fibrosis (CF) lung. Understanding these changes requires model systems that capture the complexity of the CF lung environment. We previously identified loss-of-function mutations in the 2-component regulatory system sensor kinase gene pmrB in P. aeruginosa from CF lung infections and from experimental infection of mice. Here, we demonstrate that, while such mutations lowered in vitro minimum inhibitory concentrations for multiple antimicrobial classes, this was not reflected in increased antibiotic susceptibility in vivo. Loss of PmrB impaired aminoarabinose modification of LPS, increasing the negative charge of the outer membrane and promoting uptake of cationic antimicrobials. However, in vivo, this could be offset by increased membrane binding of other positively charged molecules present in lungs. The polyamine spermidine readily coated the surface of PmrB-deficient P. aeruginosa, reducing susceptibility to antibiotics that rely on charge differences to bind the outer membrane and increasing biofilm formation. Spermidine was elevated in lungs during P. aeruginosa infection in mice and during episodes of antimicrobial treatment in people with CF. These findings highlight the need to study antimicrobial resistance under clinically relevant environmental conditions. Microbial mutations carrying fitness costs in vitro may be advantageous during infection, where host resources can be utilized.
Delayed prediction of idiom constituent meaning points to weak holistic multi-word representation in children

ABSTRACT While generative accounts of language processing assume that children break down language into smaller components on which they apply computational operations, usage-based accounts assume that children acquire frequently co-occurring words as large chunks, which they decompose only later in development. We investigated the evidence for the multi-word representation of idioms like to let the cat out of the bag in 9- to 10-year-olds using eye-tracking and Event-Related Potentials. Both measures indicated that children rapidly predict idiom-final words (bag). However, although they are generally capable of rapidly predicting semantic associates for highly predictive endings of novel sentences (as demonstrated in a control experiment), within idioms they activate semantic associates (basket) only in a late processing stage. We conclude that children rapidly activate multi-word units for idioms and decompose these units only after a short delay during online processing. This effect might relate to unitary acquisition of idioms as assumed by usage-based accounts.
COVIC: Collecting Visualizations of COVID-19 to Outline a Space of Possibilities

Abstract We describe the COVID-19 Online Visualization Collection (COVIC), its goals, how it came to be, and why we propose such a collection as a new path for design research. The COVIC database contains a collective visualization response to the COVID-19 pandemic gathered from approximately 3,000 articles, each containing one or more visualizations (about 12,000 in total). We have sought to create a resource for design research—a boundary object—that will be useful to any of the disciplines brought together through their response to the pandemic event.
Validating hybrid fire testing with full-physical twin experiments

Real fire incidents show that structural systems have specific fire-induced redundancies that make them perform better than classical structural fire analysis predicts. Properly validated hybrid fire testing has the potential to tap into such redundancies for designs. In this study, we conceived and implemented a comprehensive and novel physics-based validation strategy for hybrid fire testing. We developed a laboratory-scale thermo-mechanical proof-of-concept problem that is representative for structural systems exposed to compartment fires. We solved the proof-of-concept problem using our novel thermo-mechanical hybrid solution procedure (Schulthess et al. 2020 Comput. Struct. 238, 106301 (doi:10.1016/j.compstruc.2020.106301)) and compared the resulting hybrid model response against the results from a full-physical laboratory set-up of the same proof-of-concept problem, which we call a full-physical twin experiment. Full-physical twin experiments constitute the top layer of a suite of benchmark tests any specific hybrid fire testing procedure must pass to qualify not only as theoretically accurate and correctly functioning but also (and more importantly) as physically sound and able to yield realistic simulation results. This paper delivers such a first-of-its-kind physics-based validation, and in doing so, the first comprehensively validated method for hybrid fire testing—a method that now allows fire test facilities to conduct meaningful full-scale hybrid fire tests of entire structural systems.
Determination of the intrinsic scatter in the M-sigma and M-L relations

We report on recently derived improved versions of the relations between supermassive black hole mass (M_BH) and host-galaxy bulge velocity dispersion (sigma) and luminosity (L) (the M-sigma and M-L relations), based on ~50 M_BH measurements and ~20 upper limits. Particular attention is paid to recovery of the intrinsic scatter (epsilon_0) in both relations. The scatter was found to be significantly larger than estimated in most previous studies. The large scatter requires revision of the local black hole mass function, and it implies that there may be substantial selection bias in studies of the evolution of the M-sigma and M-L relations. When only considering ellipticals, the scatter appears to decrease. These results appear to be insensitive to a wide range of assumptions about the measurement errors and the distribution of intrinsic scatter. We also report on the effects on the fits of culling the sample according to the resolution of the black hole's sphere of influence.
Optimal design of planar shapes with active materials

Active materials have emerged as valuable candidates for shape morphing applications, where a body reconfiguration is achieved upon triggering its active response. Given a desired shape change, a natural question is to compare different morphing mechanisms to select the most effective one with respect to an optimality criterion. We introduce an optimal control problem to determine the active strains suitable to attain a target equilibrium shape while minimizing the complexity of the activation. Specifically, we discuss the planar morphing of active, hyperelastic bodies in the absence of external forces and exploit the notion of target metric to encompass a broad set of active materials in a unifying approach. For the case of affine shape changes, we derive explicit conditions on the body reference configuration for the optimality of homogeneous target metrics. More complex shape changes are analysed via numerical simulations to explore the impact on optimal solutions of different objective functionals inspired by features of existing materials. We show how stresses arising from incompatibilities contribute to reduce the complexity of the controls. We believe that our approach may be exploited for the optimal design of active systems and may contribute to gather insight into the morphing strategies of biological systems.
Aptamer-functionalized chitosan-coated gold nanoparticle complex as a suitable targeted drug carrier for improved breast cancer treatment

Abstract In the following research, we specifically assessed the feasibility of a novel AS-1411-chitosan (CS)-gold nanoparticle (AuNPs) delivery system to carry methotrexate (MTX) into the cancer cells. The designed system had a spherical shape with average size of 62 ± 2.4 nm, the zeta potential of −32.1 ± 1.4 mV, and released MTX in a controlled pH- and time-dependent manner. CS-AuNPs could successfully penetrate the breast cancer cells and release the therapeutic drug, and ultimately, be accumulated by the nucleolin-AS1411 targeting mechanism within the in vivo environment. The anticancer activity of MTX was attributed to the induction of mitochondria membrane potential loss and nuclear fragmentation, which leads to apoptotic death. Moreover, the cellular internalization confirmed the high potential in the elimination of cancer cells without notable cytotoxicity on non-target cells. Therefore, it was concluded that the AS1411-CS-AuNPs with considerable in vitro and in vivo results could be utilized as a favorable system for breast cancer treatment.