Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Role of Principal and Secondary Diagnoses of Hospitalized Eye Trauma: A Nationwide Cohort in Taiwan, 1996-2010

Purpose To estimate the rate of hospitalized eye trauma in Taiwan and investigate the role between principal and secondary diagnoses of such trauma. Methods Nationwide fixed cohort study of 1,000,000 beneficiaries from the Taiwan Longitudinal Health Database was used and 4819 patients who were hospitalized for eye trauma during 1996-2010 were analyzed. Results During 1996-2010, the incidence rates of hospitalized eye trauma (per 100 000 person-years) were 35.0 (95% confidence interval (CI), 34.0 to 36.0) for total diagnosis, 9.8 (95% CI, 9.3 to 10.3) for a principal diagnosis, and 25.3 (95% CI, 24.4 to 26.1) for a secondary diagnosis. The sex risk ratio was 3.1 for a principal diagnosis and 2.1 for a secondary diagnosis. The main causes of eye trauma were traffic accident, work accident, assault (among males <60 years of age), and falls (among elderly men and women). The proportion admitted to an ophthalmic department among those with a principal diagnosis of eye trauma (64.8%) was significantly higher than among those with a secondary diagnosis (2.3%) (p<.0001). Patients with a principal diagnosis of eye trauma had shorter hospital stays (7.1±10.2 days) and lower fatality (0.07%) than those with a secondary diagnosis of eye trauma (10.0±31.6 days and 0.3%, respectively). Conclusion Data only from ophthalmic admissions tends to underestimate the true incidence rate of hospitalized eye trauma. Patients with a principal diagnosis of eye trauma had less severe injuries than did those with a secondary diagnosis.
Scalable Inference of Customer Similarities from Interactions Data Using Dirichlet Processes

Under the sociological theory of homophily, people who are similar to one another are more likely to interact with one another. Marketers often have access to data on interactions among customers from which, with homophily as a guiding principle, inferences could be made about the underlying similarities. However, larger networks face a quadratic explosion in the number of potential interactions that need to be modeled. This scalability problem renders probability models of social interactions computationally infeasible for all but the smallest networks. In this paper, we develop a probabilistic framework for modeling customer interactions that is both grounded in the theory of homophily and is flexible enough to account for random variation in who interacts with whom. In particular, we present a novel Bayesian nonparametric approach, using Dirichlet processes, to moderate the scalability problems that marketing researchers encounter when working with networked data. We find that this framework is a powerful way to draw insights into latent similarities of customers, and we discuss how marketers can apply these insights to segmentation and targeting activities.
A new method for optimization of allocation and scheduling in real time applications

Performance improvements achievable through parallel processing are useful in real time (RT) environments. The paper describes a method to map (i.e. allocate and schedule) a program with some RT constraints into a parallel system. We formulate the mapping problem as a minimization problem, defining a new cost function whose minimization leads to the optimal mapping of the program into the parallel system. The searching space over which the minimization must be carried out is defined; this space encloses all the feasible allocation and scheduling modalities for the program in the parallel system. The minimization is carried out through a simulated annealing algorithm, so we define an adjacency criterion on the searching space. Some examples illustrating the capabilities of the proposed method are presented.
The incidence of rheumatoid arthritis in the UK: comparisons using the 2010 ACR/EULAR classification criteria and the 1987 ACR classification criteria. Results from the Norfolk Arthritis Register

Objectives The development of new classification criteria for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) calls for a re-estimation of RA incidence rates. The objectives of this study were to estimate the age and sex-specific incidence rates (IR) of RA in Norfolk, England using the 2010 American College of Rheumatology (ACR)/European League Against Rheumatism criteria, and to compare those with IRs estimated using the 1987 ACR criteria. Setting The Norfolk Arthritis Register (NOAR), a large primary care inception cohort of patients with inflammatory oligo- and polyarthritis (IP) aged ≥ 16. Methods All patients notified to NOAR from 1990-5 with symptom onset in 1990 were included. The former Norwich Health Authority population was the denominator. Age and sex specific IRs using 1987 and 2010 classification criteria were calculated at baseline visit, annually for the first 3 years and at 5 years. Results 260 patients were notified to NOAR with symptom onset in 1990 and without an alternative diagnosis. IRs applying the 2010 criteria at baseline were 54/100 000 for women and 25/100 000 for men. Age and sex-specific IRs using the 2010 classification criteria at baseline were similar to cumulative IRs applying the 1987 criteria up to 5 years. However, some patients only ever satisfied one set of criteria and a proportion of IA patients (20%) did not satisfy either criteria set over 5 years. Conclusions The 2010 criteria classify similar numbers of patients as having RA at baseline, as the 1987 criteria would have taken up to 5 years to identify.
Fiber Hygroscopicity and Perceptions of Dampness

A series of dampness perception trials has determined the influence of fiber type, fabric moisture content, and ambient conditions on the subjective assessment of dampness in fabrics. Twenty subjects evaluated four fabrics of different fiber types ( wool, cotton, polyester, and a wool / polyester blend) at five levels of moisture content at 25°C and three levels of relative humidity (25, 50, and 75%). The trials revealed that dampness perception and fiber hygroscopicity were interrelated. Wool, which is highly hygroscopic, was perceived to be significantly drier than weakly hygroscopic polyester at 25% relative humidity. The differences in dampness perception became smaller as the ambient humidity increased, and also as the moisture content of the fabrics increased.
Nortriptyline Protects Mitochondria and Reduces Cerebral Ischemia/Hypoxia Injury

Background and Purpose— Nortriptyline, an antidepressant, was identified as a strong inhibitor of mitochondrial permeability transition by our screening of a library of 1040 drugs. Because mitochondrial permeability transition and consequent mitochondrial dysfunction have been implicated in acute neuronal death, we proposed to investigate the possible neuroprotective effects of nortriptyline in cerebral ischemia. Methods— The effects of nortriptyline were first studied in oxygen/glucose deprivation-induced death of primary cerebrocortical neurons, a cellular model of cerebral ischemia. Mitochondrial membrane potential, mitochondrial factor release, and caspase 3 activation were evaluated after its treatment. Nortriptyline was also studied in a mouse model, which was established by occlusion of the middle cerebral artery. The infarct volume, neurological function, and biochemical events were examined in the absence or the presence of nortriptyline. Results— Nortriptyline inhibits oxygen/glucose deprivation-induced cell death, loss of mitochondrial membrane potential, downstream release of mitochondrial factors, and activation of caspase 3 in primary cerebrocortical neurons. Furthermore, it decreases infarct size and improves neurological scores after middle cerebral artery occlusion in mice. Conclusions— The ability of nortriptyline to inhibit mitochondrial factor release and caspase activation and further protect the animals correlates to its inhibitory effect on mitochondrial permeability transition in isolated mitochondria. This study indicated that nortriptyline is neuroprotective against cerebral ischemia. It also suggested mitochondrial permeability transition might be a valuable therapeutic target for acute neurodegeneration.
Solid solution synthesis of tantalum carbide‐hafnium carbide by spark plasma sintering

Solid solutions of Tantalum carbide (TaC) and Hafnium carbide (HfC) were synthesized by spark plasma sintering. Five different compositions (pure HfC, HfC-20 vol% TaC, HfC- 50 vol% TaC, HfC- 80 vol% TaC, and pure TaC) were sintered at 1850°C, 60 MPa pressure and a holding time of 10 min without any sintering aids. Near-full density was achieved for all samples, especially in the HfC-contained samples. The porosity in pure TaC samples was caused by the oxygen contamination (Ta2O5) on the starting powder surface. The addition of HfC increased the overall densification by transferring the oxygen contamination from TaC surface and forming ultrafine HfO2 and Hf-O-C grains. With the increasing HfC concentration, the overall grain size was reduced by 50% from HfC- 80 vol% TaC to HfC-20 vol% TaC sample. The solid solution formation required extra energy, which restricted the grain growth. The lattice parameters for the solid solution samples were obtained using X-ray diffraction which had an excellent match with the theoretical values computed using Vegard's Law. The mechanical properties of the solid solution samples outperformed the pure TaC and HfC carbides samples due to the increased densification and smaller grain size.
Functional properties of flour and starch from two cultivars of aerial yam (Dioscorea bulbifera) in South East Nigeria

The functional properties and nutrient compositions of flour and starch from two cultivars of aerial yam (Dioscorea bulbifera) from south eastern Nigeria were investigated. Flour and starch were produced from two cultivars (purple and white) of aerial yam. The results of the proximate analysis showed that, the starch extract from the purple and white cultivars had relatively low values for fat ( 0.52% and 0.49%), protein (0.81% and 0.13%), and ash (0.44% and 0.48%) as compared to the aerial yam flour. Crude fiber was not detected in the starch extracts. The starch extracts from the purple and white cultivars had highest carbohydrate content values of 91.92% and 92.92% respectively. The flour samples recorded lower bulk densities of 0.61g/cm 3 and 0.57g/cm 3 signifying it can be used for infant food formula production. The bulk densities for the starch samples were in the range 0.81 g/cm 3 - 0.83g/cm 3 . The swelling capacity of the starch samples from aerial yam cultivars purple and white were higher than the flour samples with values 8.20 % - 8.24%. The presence of fat and protein negatively affects the swelling power of starch. All the samples were found to be of high quality nutrient composition and functional properties which makes them excellent for varieties of product development.
Effect of Particle Shape on Thermal Conductivity of Copper Reinforced Polymer Composites

Thermal conductivity of copper powder filled polyamide composites are investigated experimentally in the range of filler content 0-30% by volume for particle shape of short fibers and 0-60% by volume for particle shapes of plates and spheres. The thermal conductivity of polymer composites is measured by the Hot-Disk method. It is seen that the experimental values for all the copper particle shapes are close to each other at low particle content, φ<10, as the particles are dispersed in the polyamide matrix and they are not interacting with each other. For particle content greater than 10% by volume, a rapid increase occurs in the thermal conductivity for the copper fibers filled polymer composite. As a result of this study, thermal conductivity of copper filled polyamide composites depends on the thermal conductivity of the filler particles, filler particle shape and size, and the volume fraction and spatial arrangement of the filler particles in the polymer matrix.
Non-uniformity correction using cosine functions basis and total variation constraint

In this paper we introduce a new non-uniformity correction technique for receiver dependent intensity fluctuations in NMR images. Our method was designed for lower limb images, particularly those acquired in the context of muscular dystrophy studies . The new approach was motivated by the fact that in pathological cases we cannot make assumption about the characteristics of the various tissues in the image, which is a prerequisite and a main limitation for the numerous techniques proposed in the literature. In this work we considered a parametric model for the non-uniformity field based on combination of cosine functions. The estimation of the parameters was done by minimizing a cost function that reduces the variance in the subcutaneous fat as well as the total variation of the non-uniformity function. Experimental results were promising and showed the efficiency of the proposed approach.
Feature selection on Gait Energy Image for human identification

In this paper we address the problem of selecting the most relevant features for human identification by gait. Although gait as a behavioral biometric is concerned with how people walk rather than how people look, most existing gait recognition approaches employ both shape and dynamics information for recognition. This is because shape, as a static appearance feature also contains useful information for identification. However, the inclusion of shape information in the gait features can also introduce variations that will hinder the recognition performance. To address this problem, we develop both supervised and unsupervised feature selection methods to extract the most relevant and informative features from Gait Energy Image (GEI) for human identification. Extensive experiments are carried out which indicate that our feature selection methods significantly improve the performance of gait recognition.
Inhibition of DNA Polymerase from Herpes Simplex Virus-Infected Wi-38 Cells by Phosphonoacetic Acid

Infection of Wi-38 cells with herpes simplex virus induced an elevated DNA polymerase activity which had many biochemical properties different from normal cell DNA polymerase. Phosphonoacetic acid specifically inhibited the virus-induced DNA polymerase as compared to the normal WI-38 cell DNA polymerase. The compound did not appear to inhibit enzyme activity by interacting with the DNA primer.
Effectiveness of various irrigation activation protocols and the self-adjusting file system on smear layer and debris removal.

The purpose of the present study is to evaluate smear layer generation and residual debris after using self-adjusting file (SAF) or rotary instrumentation and to compare the debris and smear layer removal efficacy of the SAF cleaning/shaping irrigation system against final agitation techniques. One hundred and eight maxillary lateral incisor teeth were randomly divided into nine experimental groups (n = 12), and root canals were prepared using ProTaper Universal rotary files, with the exception of the SAF instrumentation group. During instrumentation, root canals were irrigated with a total of 16 mL of 5% NaOCl. For final irrigation, rotary-instrumented groups were irrigated with 10 mL of 17% EDTA and 10 mL of 5% NaOCl using different irrigation agitation regimens (syringe irrigation with needles, NaviTip FX, manual dynamic irrigation, CanalBrush, EndoActivator, EndoVac, passive ultrasonic irrigation (PUI), and SAF irrigation). In the SAF instrumentation group, root canals were instrumented for 4 min at a rate of 4 mL/min with 5% NaOCl and received a final flush with same as syringe irrigation with needles. The surface of the root dentin was observed using a scanning electron microscope. The SAF instrumentation group generated less smear layer and yielded cleaner canals compared to rotary instrumentation. The EndoActivator, EndoVac, PUI, and SAF irrigation groups increased the efficacy of irrigating solutions on the smear layer and debris removal. The SAF instrumentation yielded cleaner canal walls when compared to rotary instrumentation. None of the techniques completely removed the smear layer from the root canal walls.
Rapid selection against arbovirus-induced apoptosis during infection of a mosquito vector

Significance Understanding the factors that cause mosquitoes to resist arbovirus infection could lead to new strategies to control disease transmission. One antiviral response that may play a role in mosquito immunity is apoptosis, a type of cell suicide that is often induced by virus infection. However, apoptosis is rarely seen in arbovirus-infected mosquitoes. To understand why, we infected mosquitoes with an arbovirus that expresses a proapoptotic gene called reaper and found that the Reaper-expressing virus had replication defects in mosquitoes. We also observed strong selective pressure against retention of reaper in the virus genome. These results indicate that apoptosis is a strong antiviral response in mosquitoes and may explain why it is usually not observed in coevolved arbovirus–vector relationships. Millions of people are infected each year by arboviruses (arthropod-borne viruses) such as chikungunya, dengue, and West Nile viruses, yet for reasons that are largely unknown, only a relatively small number of mosquito species are able to transmit arboviruses. Understanding the complex factors that determine vector competence could facilitate strategies for controlling arbovirus infections. Apoptosis is a potential antiviral defense response that has been shown to be important in other virus–host systems. However, apoptosis is rarely seen in arbovirus-infected mosquito cells, raising questions about its importance as an antiviral defense in mosquitoes. We tested the effect of stimulating apoptosis during arbovirus infection by infecting Aedes aegypti mosquitoes with a Sindbis virus (SINV) clone called MRE/Rpr, in which the MRE-16 strain of SINV was engineered to express the proapoptotic gene reaper from Drosophila. MRE/Rpr exhibited an impaired infection phenotype that included delayed midgut infection, delayed virus replication, and reduced virus accumulation in saliva. Nucleotide sequencing of the reaper insert in virus populations isolated from individual mosquitoes revealed evidence of rapid and strong selection against maintenance of Reaper expression in MRE/Rpr-infected mosquitoes. The impaired phenotype of MRE/Rpr, coupled with the observed negative selection against Reaper expression, indicates that apoptosis is a powerful defense against arbovirus infection in mosquitoes and suggests that arboviruses have evolved mechanisms to avoid stimulating apoptosis in mosquitoes that serve as vectors.
Validation of Non-Rigid Registration Between Functional and Anatomical Magnetic Resonance Brain Images

This paper presents a set of validation procedures for nonrigid registration of functional EPI to anatomical MRI brain images. Although various registration techniques have been developed and validated for high-resolution anatomical MRI images, due to a lack of quantitative and qualitative validation procedures, the use of nonrigid registration between functional EPI and anatomical MRI images has not yet been deployed in neuroimaging studies. In this paper, the performance of a robust formulation of a nonrigid registration technique is evaluated in a quantitative manner based on simulated data and is further evaluated in a quantitative and qualitative manner based on in vivo data as compared to the commonly used rigid and affine registration techniques in the neuroimaging software packages. The nonrigid registration technique is formulated as a second-order constrained optimization problem using a free-form deformation model and mutual information similarity measure. Bound constraints, resolution level and cross-validation issues have been discussed to show the degree of accuracy and effectiveness of the nonrigid registration technique. The analyses performed reveal that the nonrigid approach provides a more accurate registration, in particular when the functional regions of interest lie in regions distorted by susceptibility artifacts.
Characterization of Sodium Carbonate (Na2CO3) Treated Rice Husk Activated Carbon and Adsorption of Lead from Car Battery Wastewater

The use of rice husk as adsorbent would not only reduce its disposal problems, but would also produce value-added products, such as activated carbon derived from rice husk. This study aimed to determine the optimum carbonization temperature for activated carbon production from rice husk and its adsorption performance on Pb in car battery wastewater. In this study, activated carbon was produced by carbonizing rice husk 400–600 °C for 90–150 minutes followed by chemical activation using 5% Na2CO3 and sieving to 100 meshes. Lead adsorption was measured using atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS). Results suggested that highest carbon yield of 47.75% was obtained for carbonization at 500 °C for 150 minutes. At that condition, produced activated carbon contained 3.35% moisture, 30.86% ash, 18.04% volatile matter. The adsorption capacity was found to be 0.6007 mg lead/g adsorbent with % adsorpsi 58.08%
Assembly of the Coronavirus Envelope: Homotypic Interactions between the M Proteins

ABSTRACT The viral membrane proteins M and E are the minimal requirements for the budding of coronavirus particles. Since the E protein occurs in particles only in trace amounts, the lateral interactions between the M proteins apparently generate the major driving force for envelope formation. By using coimmunoprecipitation and envelope incorporation assays, we provide extensive evidence for the existence of such M-M interactions. In addition, we determined which domains of the M protein are involved in this homotypic association, using a mutagenetic approach. Mutant M proteins which were not able to assemble into viruslike particles (VLPs) by themselves (C. A. M. de Haan, L. Kuo, P. S. Masters, H. Vennema, and P. J. M. Rottier, J. Virol. 72:6838–6850, 1998) were tested for the ability to associate with other M proteins and to be rescued into VLPs formed by assembly-competent M proteins. We found that M proteins lacking parts of the transmembrane cluster, of the amphipathic domain, or of the hydrophilic carboxy-terminal tail, or M proteins that had their luminal domain replaced by heterologous ectodomains, were still able to associate with assembly-competent M proteins, resulting in their coincorporation into VLPs. Only a mutant M protein in which all three transmembrane domains had been replaced lost this ability. The results indicate that M protein molecules interact with each other through multiple contact sites, particularly at the transmembrane level. Finally, we tested the stringency with which membrane proteins are selected for incorporation into the coronavirus envelope by probing the coassembly of some foreign proteins. The observed efficient exclusion from budding of the vesicular stomatitis virus G protein and the equine arteritis virus M protein indicates that envelope assembly is indeed a highly selective sorting process. The low but detectable incorporation of CD8 molecules, however, demonstrated that this process is not perfect.
ST Quartz Acoustic Wave Sensors with Sectional Guiding Layers

We report the effect of removing a section of guiding layer from the propagation paths of ST-quartz Love wave sensors; this offers the ease of fabrication of a polymer guiding layer whilst retaining the native surface of the quartz which may then be used for the attachment of a sensitizing layer. Data is presented for rigid and viscous loading, which indicates a small reduction in mass sensitivity compared to a Love wave device. Biosensing capabilities of these discontinuous ‘sectional’ guiding layer devices are demonstrated using protein adsorption from solution.