Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The role of 3-Tesla magnetic resonance perfusion and spectroscopy in distinguishing glioblastoma from solitary brain metastasis

Objectives: This study aimed to assess the value of magnetic resonance perfusion (MR perfusion) and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MR spectroscopy) in 3.0-Tesla magnetic resonanceimaging (MRI) for differential diagnosis of glioblastoma (GBM) and solitary brain metastasis (SBM). Material and Methods: This retrospective study involved 36 patients, including 24 cases of GBM and 12 of SBM diagnosed using histopathology. All patients underwent a 3.0-Tesla MRI examination with pre-operative MR perfusion and MR spectroscopy. We assessed the differences in age, sex, cerebral blood volume (CBV), relative CBV (rCBV), and the metabolite ratios of choline/N-acetylaspartate (Cho/NAA) and Cho/creatine between the GBM and SBM groups using the Mann–Whitney U-test and Chi-square test. The cutoff value, area under the curve, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of the significantly different parameters between these two groups were determined using the receiver operating characteristic curve. Results: In MR perfusion, the CBV of the peritumoral region (pCBV) had the highest preoperative predictive value in discriminating GBM from SBM (cutoff: 1.41; sensitivity: 70.83%; and specificity: 83.33%), followed by the ratio of CBV of the solid tumor component to CBV of normal white matter (rCBVt/n) and the ratio of CBV of the pCBV to CBV of normal white matter (rCBVp/n). In MR spectroscopy, the Cho/NAA ratio of the pCBV (pCho/NAA; cutoff: 1.02; sensitivity: 87.50%; and specificity: 75%) and the Cho/NAA ratio of the solid tumor component (tCho/NAA; cutoff: 2.11; sensitivity: 87.50%; and specificity: 66.67%) were significantly different between groups. Moreover, combining these remarkably different parameters increased their diagnostic utility for distinguishing between GBM and SBM. Conclusion: pCBV, rCBVt/n, rCBVp/n, pCho/NAA, and tCho/NAA are useful indices for differentiating between GBM and SBM. Combining these indices can improve diagnostic performance in distinguishing between these two tumors.
Observations of radiations forces effects on individual air bubbles with high speed photography

Background: Previous studies dealing with contrast agent microbubbles have demonstrated that an ultrasound (US) burst can significantly influence the flow of microbubbles and therefore the Doppler frequency shifts. This study presents the effect of the radiation force on individual air bubbles with various diameters using high-speed photography. Method: A stream of uniform air bubbles with a diameter ranging from 31 /spl mu/m to 80 /spl mu/m was insonified with a single US pulse. The transmitted pulse contained 10 cycles at 130 kHz. The measured acoustic pressures ranged from 68 kPa up to 180 kPa. The maximal axial displacements of the bubbles produced by the action of the US pulse were optically recorded using a high-speed camera at a frame rate of 1 kHz. The camera was synchronized with the US burst. The experimental results were compared to a force balance theoretical model including the action of the primary radiation force and the fluid drag force. Results: Experimental findings agree with the theoretical predictions: the axial displacement varies with bubble size, reaching a maximum at the resonance size of 48/spl mu/m. For an acoustic pressure of 100 kPa the maximal displacement was 83 /spl mu/m for resonant bubbles. For bubble sizes of 37, 55, 69 and 75 /spl mu/m the observed displacements were 33, 49, 19 and 10 /spl mu/m respectively. The measured displacement increases linearly with the burst length and nonlinearly with the transmitted acoustic pressure. The calculated values from the model differ by 15% from the measured ones except for resonant bubbles where the displacement was overestimated up to three times.
Effect of prolactin on cytotoxicity and oxidative stress in ovine ovarian granulosa cells

Background Prolactin (PRL) has been reported to be associated with oxidative stress, which is an important contributor leading to cell apoptosis. However, little is known about the mechanisms underlying the effects of PRL on cytotoxicity and oxidative stress in ovine ovarian granulosa cells (GCs). Methods Ovine ovarian GCs were treated with 0, 4, 20, 100 and 500 ng/mL of PRL. Then, the cytotoxicity, cell viability, malondialdehyde (MDA), reactive oxygen species (ROS), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC) of GCs were detected. Additionally, 500 ng/mL PRL was chosen as the high PRL concentration (HPC) due to its high cytotoxicity and oxidative stress. Proteomic and metabonomic were performed to examine the overall difference in proteins and metabolic pathways between C (control: 0 ng/mL PRL) and P groups (500 ng/mL PRL). Results The results indicated that GCs treated with 4 ng/mL PRL significantly decreased (P < 0.05) the cytotoxicity, ROS and MDA, increased (P < 0.05) the cell viability, SOD and T-AOC, and the GCs treated with 500 ng/mL PRL showed the opposite trend (P < 0.05). Supplementation with 500 ng/mL PRL significantly increased the proteins of MT-ND1, MAPK12, UBA52 and BCL2L1, which were enriched in ROS and mitophagy pathways. Pathway enrichment analysis showed that the pentose phosphate pathway was significantly enriched in the P group. Conclusion A low concentration of PRL inhibited cytotoxicity and oxidative stress. HPC induced oxidative stress in ovine ovarian GCs via the pentose phosphate pathway by modulating the associated proteins MT-ND1 in ROS pathway and UBA52, MAPK12 and BCL2L1 in mitophagy pathway, resulting in cytotoxicity.
Elastic Multi-View Subspace Clustering With Pairwise and High-Order Correlations

Multi-view clustering has become an important research topic in machine learning and computer vision communities, which aims at achieving a consensus partition of data points across different views. However, the existing multi-view clustering methods fail to simultaneously consider the pairwise and high-order correlations among different views in the process of obtaining the final results. In this article, we propose the Elastic multi-view Subspace Clustering with pairwise and high-order Correlations (ESCC) to solve this problem. ESCC simultaneously explores the pairwise and high-order correlations among different views, resulting in a more comprehensive shared representation. ESCC formulates these two kinds of correlations into a unified objective framework, which are able to be jointly optimized to refine each other. As an instantiation, we construct an example of ESCC (e-ESCC) in this work. To be specific, e-ESCC uses the multi-layer neural networks to study the pairwise correlation from multiple views with the guidance of the latent representation. It is also able to help obtain the nonlinear subspaces of the multi-view data. e-ESCC collects multi-view similarity matrices into a tensor and utilizes the low-rank tensor norm to exploit the high-order correlation among different views. The augmented Lagrangian multiplier is adopted to solve the formulated problem of e-ESCC. Experiments on eight data sets validate the superiority of our method over 15 state-of-the-art multi-view clustering methods under six metrics.
Selbst-Organisation und Evolution mit offenem Ausgang

The bit string model is a new kind of evolutionary model. In contrast to systems known from the literature it contains already two hierarchical levels. This way a structure is introduced in state space, without which it seems hard to speak about evolution or complexity. Although an open evolution was one of the . nal aims (which could not be achieved) there are a number of interesting results. The rules valid in the model are as simple as possible to avoid that complex behavior is built-in. One important result is the evidence that the use of startcodons in the decoding scheme is hard to avoid. This seems to have biological relevance since startcodons are used in natural decoding processes. Another interesting result concerns the age distribution of species. Although no really open-ended evolutionary path could be found, we already see an age distribution that can best be described by a power law. This hints at a system with a wide range of e.ective time scales. During this research random models were a valuable tool. They help to . nd out which results are due to evolutionary dynamics and which have already been built into the rules. They also allow to . nd analytic formulas for, e.g., age distributions, which oddly enough usually are not looked at in other evolutionary models. In the third appendix a new type of walk with memory is studied. This might serve as a toy model for the behavior one must adopt to avoid exhaustion of resources and attraction of parasites and predators. The walk takes place on a regular square lattice with periodic boundary conditions. Although the walk is completely deterministic, it mimics a \true" self-avoiding walk, i.e. a random walk with weak autocorrelation. This shows that the red queen e.ect can lead to aperiodic behavior. In addition to the case of single walkers in a at landscape we also study the cases of hilly landscapes and of several walkers performing simultaneous walks.
DISPERSÃO DE DIÁSPOROS E ECOLOGIA MORFOFUNCIONAL DE PLÂNTULAS DE ESPÉCIES DE UM FRAGMENTO DE FLORESTA ATLÂNTICA EM DOIS IRMÃOS, RECIFE–PE

Trabalhos sobre dispersão de frutos e sementes e aspectos morfofuncionais de plântulas podem fornecer informações essenciais no esclarecimento de questões ligadas à sucessão ecológica, além de contribuir nos trabalhos de inventário, conservação e regeneração de ecossistemas naturais, uma vez que contribuem para a compreensão das funções das estruturas morfológicas nos processos de desenvolvimento e estabelecimento das plantas. Diante do exposto, a presente investigação objetivou levantar as síndromes de dispersão e a morfofuncionalidade de plântulas de espécies de fanerógamos de um fragmento de Floresta Atlântica em Dois Irmãos, Recife–PE. O levantamento das espécies e coleta de material fértil foi feito pelo método do caminhamento, entre o período de janeiro de 2008 e agosto de 2011. As espécies foram demarcadas com fitas e acompanhadas quanto à produção de frutos e sementes para determinação da síndrome de dispersão e posterior germinação, visando à obtenção das plântulas. Também foram feitas observações de campo para identificação das sementes germinadas e plântulas encontradas na serrapilheira. A caracterização da síndrome de dispersão e morfofuncionalidade de plântulas foram feitas através de observações em campo e literatura. Foram levantadas 85 espécies, distribuídas em 20 famílias e 60 gêneros. Quanto ao hábito, 63,85% das espécies são árvores, 16,86% são arbustos, 14,45% são trepadeiras e 7,22% são ervas. A síndrome de dispersão mais frequente foi a zoocoria (66,66%), seguida da autocoria (18,84%) e anemocoria (13,05%). O padrão de morfofuncionalidade de plântulas predominante foi o fanerocotiledonar-epígeo com cotilédones do tipo foliáceo, semelhante ao padrão descrito na literatura para as florestas tropicais úmidas não inundáveis.
Comparation Test on High-Quality Flax Resources for Oil and Fiber Production in Kazakhstan

ABSTRACT Oil flax stems are often burnt because of the low fiber content; this issue is especially serious in Kazakhstan. To solve this problem, this study aimed to determine which flax resources could exhibit a significant increase in stem yield without a decrease in seed yield. In a previous study in 2019, we tested seven types of flax stems at the research site of the S. Seifullin KATU campus. Here, a further investigation of the same resources, which was conducted in 2020, is described. According to the results, the UF03, UF05, and UF06 showed higher dynamics of plant height in the budding and blooming stages compared to a local Kazakhstani variety; this result greatly differed compared with the data from 2019. UF03 yielded the best oil quality, especially in terms of the linolenic acid and linoleic acid contents. UF02 had good performance in terms of yield and the largest fat content of all resources. More foreign flax resources should be introduced to improve the development of the flax industry in Kazakhstan.
Comparison of Postoperative Nausea and Vomiting Incidence between Remimazolam and Sevoflurane in Tympanoplasty with Mastoidectomy: A Single-Center, Double-Blind, Randomized Controlled Trial

Background and Objectives: Postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) is a common adverse effect of general anesthesia, especially in middle ear surgery. Remimazolam is a newer benzodiazepine recently approved for use in general anesthesia. This study aimed to compare the incidence rate of PONV after tympanoplasty with mastoidectomy between using remimazolam and sevoflurane. Materials and Methods: This study included 80 patients undergoing elective tympanoplasty with mastoidectomy. The patients were randomly assigned to either the remimazolam or sevoflurane group. The primary outcome was the incidence rate of PONV 12 h after surgery. The secondary outcomes were the incidence rate of PONV 12–24 and 24–48 h after surgery, severity of PONV, incidence rate of vomiting, administration of rescue antiemetics, hemodynamic stability, and recovery profiles. Results: The incidence rate of PONV 0–12 h after tympanoplasty with mastoidectomy was significantly lower in the remimazolam group compared with that in the sevoflurane group (28.9 vs. 57.9%; p = 0.011). However, the incidence rate of delayed PONV did not differ between the two groups. PONV severity in the early periods after the surgery was significantly lower in the remimazolam group than in the sevoflurane group. The incidence rate of adverse hemodynamic events was lower in the remimazolam group than in the sevoflurane group, but there was no difference in the overall trends of hemodynamic data between the two groups. There was no difference in recovery profiles between the two groups. Conclusions: Remimazolam can significantly reduce the incidence rate of early PONV after tympanoplasty with mastoidectomy under general anesthesia.
School language policies: a case for research-informed, cohesive policies

Language plays a crucial role in education; yet, on a daily basis teachers and school leaders must navigate a complex web of competing and often conflicting priorities in relation to various dimensions of language education. This includes supporting students’ first language and literacy development, sustaining the teaching of foreign languages in the curriculum and considering the role of other community or home languages spoken by students. However, while issues of language are undoubtedly relevant to all teachers, school-level language policies, which aim to provide explicit guidance underpinned by a clear set of principles, are too often conspicuous by their absence. For example, teachers are often left to their own devices to decide whether and how to allow space for other languages in the classroom; questions arise such as whether to use the first language in the foreign language classroom, or whether to ‘allow’ migrant students to use their home language as a resource for learning. This paper, therefore, aims to provide an overview of some of the key theoretical perspectives on multilingualism in the classroom and to consider some practical implications for schools when developing research-informed language policies. It will draw briefly on some preliminary findings from a project which analysed school policies relating to language across a representative sample of 998 secondary schools in England. A case will be made for teachers and researchers to collaborate to develop research-informed, cohesive school-level language policies which incorporate all dimensions of languages in schools.
1 Global Inference for Entity and Relation Identification via a Linear Programming Formulation

Natural language decisions often involve assigning values to sets of variables, representing low level decisions and context dependent disambiguation. In most cases there are complex relationships among these variables representing dependencies that range from simple statistical correlations to those that are constrained by deeper structural, relational and semantic properties of the text. In this work we study a specific instantiation of this problem in the context of identifying named entities and relations between them in free form text. Given a collection of discrete random variables representing outcomes of learned local predictors for entities and relations, we seek an optimal global assignment to the variables that respects multiple constraints, including constraints on the type of arguments a relation can take, and the mutual activity of different relations. We develop a linear programming formulation to address this global inference problem and evaluate it in the context of simultaneously learning named entities and relations. We show that global inference improves stand-alone learning; in addition, our approach allows us to efficiently incorporate expressive domain and task specific constraints at decision time, resulting, beyond significant improvements in the accuracy, in “coherent” quality of the inference.
Performance Bounds for a Cascade based Multifractal Traffic Model with Generalized Multiplier Distributions DOI: 10.14209/jcis.2006.14

In this paper we propose a multifractal traffic model that is based on a multiplicative cascade with generalized multiplier distributions (CGMD). The multipliers are determined through their probability densities estimated from real network traffic flows by using Kernel and Acceptance/Rejection methods. Statistical analysis and queueing behavior studies were carried out for the model validation in comparison to other multiplicative cascade based models. In order to build an efficient estimation method of performance bounds for network traffic flows that takes account of multifractal characteristics, we derive the effective bandwidth for the CGMD model as well as its Hurst parameter. The proposed performance bounds are computed by relating the CGMD based effective bandwidth to statistical network calculus concepts. Our performance bound estimation approach is evaluated through simulations with Internet and Ethernet traffic traces, verifying its efficiency in describing the byte loss probability and mean buffer occupation.
An extended, quartic quantum theory

We propose an extended quantum theory, in which the number of degrees of freedom K behaves as the fourth power of the number N of distinguishable states. As the simplex of classical N--point probability distributions can be embedded inside a higher dimensional convex body of mixed quantum states, one can further increase the dimensionality constructing the set of extended quantum states. The embedding proposed corresponds to an assumption that the physical system described in N dimensional Hilbert space is coupled with an auxiliary subsystem of the same dimensionality. The extended theory works for simple quantum systems and is shown to be a non-trivial generalisation of the standard quantum theory for which K=N^2. Imposing certain restrictions on initial conditions and dynamics allowed in the quartic theory one obtains quadratic theory as a special case. By imposing even stronger constraints one arrives at the classical theory, for which K=N.
A Systematic Review of the Relationship between Chest CT Severity Score and Laboratory Findings and Clinical Parameters in COVID-19 Pneumonia

The COVID-19 virus has infected millions of people and became a global pandemic in 2020. The efficacy of laboratory and clinical parameters in the diagnosis and monitoring of COVID-19 has been established. The CT scan has been identified as a crucial tool in the prognostication of COVID-19 pneumonia. Moreover, it has been proposed that the CT severity score can be utilized for the diagnosis and prognostication of COVID-19 disease severity and exhibits a correlation with laboratory findings such as inflammatory markers, blood glucose levels, and clinical parameters such as endotracheal intubation, oxygen saturation, mortality, and hospital admissions. Nevertheless, the correlation between the CT severity score and clinical or laboratory parameters has not been firmly established. The objective of this study is to provide a comprehensive review of the aforementioned association. This review used a systematic approach to collate and assess the existing literature that investigates the correlation between CT severity score and laboratory and clinical parameters. The search was conducted using Embase Ovid, MEDLINE Ovid, and PubMed databases, covering the period from inception to 20 May 2023. This review identified 20 studies involving more than 8000 participants of varying designs. The findings showed that the CT severity score is positively associated with laboratory and clinical parameters in COVID-19 patients. The findings indicate that the CT severity score exhibits a satisfactory level of prognostic accuracy in predicting mortality among patients with COVID-19.
How are CAM Practices known, Perceived, and Used by People: Narrative Review of the Literacy, Attitude and Use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine Among Adults

Background: Patients throughout the world frequently use complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), especially to treat chronic or untreatable diseases. Since the standards for many chronic illnesses have shifted dramatically, researches have shown that many healthcare providers include integrative and holistic approach in their treatment programs. Therefore, this study evaluates people's literacy, attitudes, and usage of CAM modalities in the current setting. Methods: The thorough narrative review presented is carried out utilizing six computerized databases: Taylor & Francis Online, Research Gate, Frontiers, ScienceDirect, BioMed Central, and PubMed. The key word used for the search was Complementary and alternate medicine (CAM). The results were collected and subjected to content analysis. Results: The current data show that people who are employed, younger, and female likely to be more knowledgeable, have better attitudes, and use CAM frequently. Friends and family are the most frequent sources of knowledge about CAM. Conclusion: Further study is needed in this area due to the lack of studies that address CAM literacy and attitudes.
The Injustice of Gentrification

Discussion of gentrification is ubiquitous in cities around the world. And while criticism of it is common, there is still considerable contestation over whether gentrification is unjust. Political theorists have recently turned their attention to the normative evaluation of gentrification, especially the displacement of long-term residents from neighbourhoods experiencing redevelopment and reinvestment. Two important limitations in this recent work are, first, a narrow focus on the link between gentrification and displacement, and second, the injustice of gentrification has been evaluated in light of abstract ideals of justice divorced from the lived experience of its harms. Although the emerging literature usefully identifies some of the harms of gentrification, it fails to recognise the full extent of the injustice of gentrification. To address these limitations, I argue the normative evaluation of gentrification should start with a conceptualisation of the problem grounded in the experience of its negative effects. Further, employing a more comprehensive conceptualisation of gentrification’s negative effects reveals it to be a distinctive and encompassing urban injustice better understood by examining how gentrification is defined by harmful inequalities of political power, leading to exploitation, dispossession, displacement, marginalisation, and violence.