Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Retinal Oximetry Discovers Novel Biomarkers in Retinal and Brain Diseases.

Purpose Biomarkers for several eye and brain diseases are reviewed, where retinal oximetry may help confirm diagnosis or measure severity of disease. These include diabetic retinopathy, central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO), retinitis pigmentosa, glaucoma, and Alzheimer's disease. Methods Retinal oximetry is based on spectrophotometric fundus imaging and measures oxygen saturation in retinal arterioles and venules in a noninvasive, quick, safe manner. Retinal oximetry detects changes in oxygen metabolism, including those that result from ischemia or atrophy. Results In diabetic retinopathy, venous oxygen saturation increases and arteriovenous difference decreases. Both correlate with diabetic retinopathy severity as conventionally classified on fundus photographs. In CRVO, vein occlusion causes hypoxia, which is measured directly by retinal oximetry to confirm the diagnosis and measure severity. In both diseases, the change in oxygen levels is a consequence of disturbed blood flow with resulting tissue hypoxia and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) production. In atrophic diseases, such as retinitis pigmentosa and glaucoma, retinal oxygen consumption is reduced and this is detected by retinal oximetry. Retinal oximetry correlates with visual field damage and retinal atrophy. It is an objective metabolic measure of the degree of retinal atrophy. Finally, the retina is part of the central nervous system tissue and reflects central nervous system diseases. In Alzheimer's disease, a change in retinal oxygen metabolism has been discovered. Conclusions Retinal oximetry is a novel, noninvasive technology that opens the field of metabolic imaging of the retina. Biomarkers in metabolic, ischemic, and atrophic diseases of the retina and central nervous system have been discovered.
Random Walk TripleRush: Asynchronous Graph Querying and Sampling

Most Semantic Web applications rely on querying graphs, typically by using SPARQL with a triple store. Increasingly, applications also analyze properties of the graph structure to compute statistical inferences. The current Semantic Web infrastructure, however, does not efficiently support such operations. This forces developers to extract the relevant data for external statistical post-processing. In this paper we propose to rethink query execution in a triple store as a highly parallelized asynchronous graph exploration on an active index data structure. This approach also allows to integrate SPARQL-querying with the sampling of graph properties. To evaluate this architecture we implemented Random Walk TripleRush, which is built on a distributed graph processing system. Our evaluations show that this architecture enables both competitive graph querying, as well as the ability to execute various types of random walks with restarts that sample interesting graph properties. Thanks to the asynchronous architecture, first results are sometimes returned in a fraction of the full execution time. We also evaluate the scalability and show that the architecture supports fast query-times on a dataset with more than a billion triples.
Learning to Compose with Professional Photographs on the Web

Photo composition is an important factor affecting the aesthetics in photography. However, it is a highly challenging task to model the aesthetic properties of good compositions due to the lack of globally applicable rules to the wide variety of photographic styles. Inspired by the thinking process of photo taking, we formulate the photo composition problem as a view finding process which successively examines pairs of views and determines their aesthetic preferences. We further exploit the rich professional photographs on the web to mine unlimited high-quality ranking samples and demonstrate that an aesthetics-aware deep ranking network can be trained without explicitly modeling any photographic rules. The resulting model is simple and effective in terms of its architectural design and data sampling method. It is also generic since it naturally learns any photographic rules implicitly encoded in professional photographs. The experiments show that the proposed view finding network achieves state-of-the-art performance with sliding window search strategy on two image cropping datasets.
Business Challenges and Design: Theory and Practice in the Furniture Industry in the Republic of Croatia

Abstract Background: A systematic and continuous product policy management is important for a company's competitiveness and the question is to what extent and in what way companies engaged in the furniture manufacturing sector actually apply them. Objectives: The objective of this paper is to explore to what extent the design profession is involved in the product policy and teams which define market properties of products in the furniture industry. Methods: In order to achieve the objectives of this paper, the Model for Exploring the Role of Design in Defining Market Properties and the Product Policy in the Furniture Industry has been devised. Two surveys have been conducted, measuring the level of involvement of the design profession in the product policy, as well as the involvement of designers in the work of teams which define market properties of products in the furniture industry. Results: The design profession is not systematically and continuously involved in the function of the product policy as the key component in programming a company's development and growth in the furniture industry. Conclusions: Companies engaged in furniture manufacturing should consider the possibility of involving design managers in coordination and management of product development, as well as in communication coordination on the manufacturer - designer level.
Favorable efficacy of daclatasvir plus asunaprevir in treatment of elderly Japanese patients infected with HCV genotype 1b aged 70 and older

The combination of daclatasvir and asunaprevir is efficacious in the treatment of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, but its efficacy and predictors of efficacy in the elderly (≥70 years) remain unclear. In this study, 844 patients with chronic HCV genotype 1b infection, were treated with daclatasvir (60 mg once daily) plus asunaprevir (100 mg twice daily) for 24 weeks. Using the intention‐to‐treat analysis, the sustained virological response (SVR) rates were 87% and 88% for all 844 patients and 411 elderly (>70 years of age), respectively. In both groups, multivariate analysis identified NS5A‐Y93H mutation (<20%), pretreatment (failure of treatment except for triple therapy with simeprevir, or treatment naive), and level of viremia (<6.0 log IU/ml) as independent predictors of SVR. Direct sequencing showed a significantly higher rate of NS3‐D168 mutation at baseline in non‐responders to triple therapy with simeprevir (44%) than others (2%). Alfa‐fetoprotein (AFP) level and liver stiffness were significantly lower after end of treatment than at baseline, in both the SVR and non‐SVR groups. In conclusion, daclatasvir–asunaprevir combination achieved high SVR in HCV genotype 1b patients, including elderly patients. Viral factors negatively influenced the response to treatment. Treatment improved AFP level and liver stiffness (surrogate markers of hepatocellular carcinoma), regardless of treatment efficacy. J. Med. Virol. 89:91–98, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Screening for Y-chromosome microdeletions in a population of infertile males in the Gaza Strip

Infertility is an extraordinary public health problem in the Arab world, as it affects about 15% of couples seeking children. The male partner is responsible for infertility in approximately half of these cases. Classic microdeletions of the Y-chromosome involving the azoospermia factor (AZF) regions are known to be associated with spermatogenic impairment, and non-obstructive azoospermia must be differentiated on the basis of endocrine evaluation and testicular biopsy. Partial AZFc deletions remain controversial because there is no clear agreement regarding their role in spermatogenic failure. In the current study, 50 fertile males (controls) and 125 patients with primary idiopathic male infertility were studied in order to describe the frequency of Y-chromosome mirodeletions among male infertility patients in the Gaza Strip-Palestine area. No Y chromosome classical microdeletions could be detected in any of the 125 infertile men, suggesting that ethnic factors, genetic background, and Y chromosome haplogroups are key factors in such deletions. On the other hand, six gr/gr and one b1/b3 AZFc partial deletions were detected in the infertile population. The gr/gr deletion was also noted in relatives of four of the six patients with this deletion, and in one of the fertile controls. In conclusion, our study shows that the incidence of Y-chromosome microdeletions in our population is rare; these data suggest that other genetic, epigenetic, nutritional and/or local factors are responsible for impairments in semen parameters observed in this Gazan population. We further hypothesise that the gr/gr deletion is not associated with male infertility, at least in this sub-group.
Reasons for outpatient referrals from generalists to specialists

OBJECTIVE: To determine the relative importance of medical and nonmedical factors influencing generalists’ decisions to refer, and of the factors that might avert unnecessary referrals.DESIGN: Prospective survey of all referrals from generalists to subspecialists over a 5-month period.SETTING: University hospital outpatient clinics.PARTICIPANTS: Fifty-seven staff physicians in general internal medicine, family medicine, dermatology, orthopedics, gastroenterology, and rheumatology.MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: For each referral, the generalist rated a number of medical and nonmedical reasons for referral, as well as factors that may have helped avert the referral; the specialist seeing the patient then rated the appropriateness, timeliness, and complexity of the referral. Both physicians rated the potential avoidability of the referral by telephone consultation. Generalists were influenced by a combination of both medical and nonmedical reasons for 76% of the referrals, by only medical reasons in 20%, and by only nonmedical reasons in 3%. In 33% of all referrals, generalists felt that training in simple procedures or communication with a generalist or specialist colleague would have allowed them to avoid referral. Specialists felt that the vast majority of referrals were timely (as opposed to premature or delayed) and of average complexity. Although specialists rated most referrals as appropriate, 30% were rated as possibly appropriate or inappropriate. Generalists and specialists failed to agree on the avoidability of 34% of referrals.CONCLUSIONS: Generalists made most referrals for a combination of medical and nonmedical reasons, and many referrals were considered avoidable. Increasing procedural training for generalists and enhancing informal channels of communication between generalists and subspecialists might result in more appropriate referrals at lower cost.
Indication of the Side of Delayed Endolymphatic Hydrops by Vestibular Evoked Myogenic Potential and Caloric Test

Objective: Delayed endolymphatic hydrops (DEH) can be clinically classified into ipsi- and contralateral types. This study aims to investigate the relationship between the results of vestibular evoked myogenic potential (VEMP) and caloric testing and the clinical type of DEH. Methods: The data of 33 patients with DEH who underwent both VEMPs and caloric testing were retrospectively examined. The type of DEH was judged from its clinical and audiological course. Theasymmetry ratios of the VEMPs and canal paresis on the caloric test were measured. Results: The results of VEMP and the caloric testing were consistent with the type of DEH in 61 and 76% of DEH patients, respectively. Combined use of VEMP and caloric testing correctly identified the type of DEH in 82% of patients. Conclusions: The combined use of VEMP and caloric testing can indicate the type of DEH at a reasonably high rate, but inconclusively.
RESPONSE OF TOMATO PLANTS TO SOME AGRICULTURAL AND CHEMICAL TREATMENTS ON FRUIT YIELD AND ITS QUALITY RELATION TO TUTA ABSOLUTA (MEYRICK) AND BEMISIATABACI (Genn.) INFESTATION

An experiment was carried out to study the effect of some agricultural and chemical treatments on two serious insects i.e. leaf miner, Tuta asoluta (Meyrick), and the cotton whitefly Bemisia tabaci (Genn.) that infest tomato plants, as well as the influence on the growth, fruit yield and its quality were evaluated. The trail was carried out in a sandy soil at Amoun Agricultural Association, Eltal El Kabier, Ismailia Governorate, Egypt during two autumn seasons of 2013 and 2014. The experiment included 7 treatments as follows: covering tomato plants with agryl, white and green net as a row covering tunnels, dusting with Sulfur (repellent the insect) as the safety material for human and environmental comparing chemical pesticides i.e. Actara using it as foliar spraying or soil drench and untreated control. The results showed that the all treatments induced significant positive impact for all infest status which reduced the incidence of the two serious insects’ i.e. T. asoluta and B. tabaci on tomato plants than the control treatment during the first and second seasons. Data also showed that the all treatments were infested by tomato leaf miner (eggs and larvae stage) with low numbers of eggs under the tested conditions during the two seasons except of covering with Agryl, white net and green net which were free from any tomato leaf miner. In addition, soil treatment (soil drench) application was the most potent treatment in protecting tomato plants from the whitefly immature stages, but the lowest percentage of plants exhibiting virus symptoms (TYLCV) recorded by covering with white net treatment compared with untreated (control) during the two tested seasons. Concerning the effect of using some agricultural and the chemical treatments on horticultural characters of tomato plant, the obtained results indicated positive effect on the all studied parameter of tomato i.e. vegetative growth characters, physical and chemical fruit characters, flowering characteristics and yield components during the two seasons. The data showed that the rows covering with white net was the best potent treatment safety treatment for human healthy followed by foliar spraying with Actara 25% WG (Thiamethoxam) 20g. /100 of water as chemical treatment on yield, which recorded (41.7 and 43.2), (30.32 and 32.13) tons per feddan during the first and second seasons respectively compared with other treatments. Moreover the covering with white net also recoded the first ranking in economic study which recoded the best value (34200 and 35700) Egyptian pound on total income without addition the cost of agriculture practices during the first and second seasons respectively. For that it can recommend by covering tomato plants with white net followed by covering with agryl especially at heavy infection seasons with the serious insects as T. asoluta and B. tabaci for producing high tomato yield with best quality, in addition safety human health and environment without using pesticide.
Association of MiR-126 with Soluble Mesothelin-Related Peptides, a Marker for Malignant Mesothelioma

Background Improved detection methods for diagnosis of malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) are essential for early and reliable detection as well as treatment. Since recent data point to abnormal levels of microRNAs (miRNAs) in tumors, we hypothesized that a profile of deregulated miRNAs may be a marker of MPM and that the levels of specific miRNAs may be used for monitoring its progress. Methods and Results miRNAs isolated from fresh-frozen biopsies of MPM patients were tested for the expression of 88 types of miRNA involved in cancerogenesis. Most of the tested miRNAs were downregulated in the malignant tissues compared with the normal tissues. Of eight significantly downregulated, three miRNAs were assayed in cancerous tissue and adjacent non-cancerous tissue sample pairs collected from 27 formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded MPM tissues by quantitative RT-PCR. Among the miRNAs tested, only miR-126 significantly remained downregulated in the malignant tissues. Furthermore, the performance of the selected miR-126 as biomarker was evaluated in serum samples of asbestos-exposed subjects and MPM patients and compared with controls. MiR-126 was not affected by asbestos exposure, whereas it was found strongly associated with VEGF serum levels. Levels of miR-126 in serum, and its levels in patients' serum in association with a specific marker of MPM, SMRPs, correlate with subjects at high risk to develop MPM. Conclusions and Significance We propose miR-126, in association with SMRPs, as a marker for early detection of MPM. The identification of tumor biomarkers used alone or, in particular, in combination could greatly facilitate the surveillance procedure for cohorts of subjects exposed to asbestos.
Accuracy and Reproducibility of Voxel Based Superimposition of Cone Beam Computed Tomography Models on the Anterior Cranial Base and the Zygomatic Arches

Superimposition of serial Cone Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT) scans has become a valuable tool for three dimensional (3D) assessment of treatment effects and stability. Voxel based image registration is a newly developed semi-automated technique for superimposition and comparison of two CBCT scans. The accuracy and reproducibility of CBCT superimposition on the anterior cranial base or the zygomatic arches using voxel based image registration was tested in this study. 16 pairs of 3D CBCT models were constructed from pre and post treatment CBCT scans of 16 adult dysgnathic patients. Each pair was registered on the anterior cranial base three times and on the left zygomatic arch twice. Following each superimposition, the mean absolute distances between the 2 models were calculated at 4 regions: anterior cranial base, forehead, left and right zygomatic arches. The mean distances between the models ranged from 0.2 to 0.37 mm (SD 0.08–0.16) for the anterior cranial base registration and from 0.2 to 0.45 mm (SD 0.09–0.27) for the zygomatic arch registration. The mean differences between the two registration zones ranged between 0.12 to 0.19 mm at the 4 regions. Voxel based image registration on both zones could be considered as an accurate and a reproducible method for CBCT superimposition. The left zygomatic arch could be used as a stable structure for the superimposition of smaller field of view CBCT scans where the anterior cranial base is not visible.
A FUZZY DECISION MAKING APPROACH IN EVALUATING FERRY SERVICE QUALITY

The service quality evaluation is undeniably important especially in highly competitive service related industry. However, service quality evaluation is not always straightforward as criteria in evaluation and customer perceptions toward services are intangible measures. This paper presents a fuzzy multi-criteria decision making approach for evaluating the service quality of ferry that transport customers between the mainland of Peninsular Malaysia and a tourist spot island. Service quality is a composite of various criteria, among them many criteria are intangible and difficult to measure. Fuzzy numbers and linguistic level based on fuzzy sets theory as a method to overcome vaguely judgment in evaluation. The crisp survey results were collected via a ten-service criteria questionnaire from eighty seven customers and computed using Best non-Fuzzy Performance and Degree of Similarity. Based on the concept of the defuzzification, the ranking of service performance is obtained. Degree of Similarity provides the level of satisfaction and its degrees for each criterion. The criterion of ‘service efficiency of ferry personnel’ was the first in the ranking. All the criteria received ‘good’ and ‘very good’ for the level of satisfaction. These evaluation results facilitate the ferry operator to upgrade its ferry services and eventually meet its customers’ needs.
Compact topological minors in graphs

Let ε be a real number such that and t a positive integer. Let n be a sufficiently large positive integer as a function of t and ε. We show that every n‐vertex graph with at least n1+ε edges contains a subdivision of Kt in which each edge of Kt is subdivided less than 10/ε times. This refines the main result in [A. Kostochka and Pyber, Combinatorica 8 (1988), 83–86] and resolves an open question raised there. We also pose some questions. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 67:139‐152, 2011
Menopausal Status Modifies Breast Cancer Risk Associated with the Myeloperoxidase (MPO) G463A Polymorphism in Caucasian Women: A Meta-Analysis

Background Breast cancer susceptibility may be modulated partly through polymorphisms in oxidative enzymes, one of which is myeloperoxidase (MPO). Association of the low transcription activity variant allele A in the G463A polymorphism has been investigated for its association with breast cancer risk, considering the modifying effects of menopausal status and antioxidant intake levels of cases and controls. Methodology/Principal Findings To obtain a more precise estimate of association using the odds ratio (OR), we performed a meta-analysis of 2,975 cases and 3,427 controls from three published articles of Caucasian populations living in the United States. Heterogeneity among studies was tested and sensitivity analysis was applied. The lower transcriptional activity AA genotype of MPO in the pre-menopausal population showed significantly reduced risk (OR 0.56–0.57, p = 0.03) in contrast to their post-menopausal counterparts which showed non-significant increased risk (OR 1.14; p = 0.34–0.36). High intake of antioxidants (OR 0.67–0.86, p = 0.04–0.05) and carotenoids (OR 0.68–0.86, p = 0.03–0.05) conferred significant protection in the women. Stratified by menopausal status, this effect was observed in pre-menopausal women especially those whose antioxidant intake was high (OR 0.42–0.69, p = 0.04). In post-menopausal women, effect of low intake elicited susceptibility (OR 1.19–1.67, p = 0.07–0.17) to breast cancer. Conclusions/Significance Based on a homogeneous Caucasian population, the MPO G463A polymorphism places post-menopausal women at risk for breast cancer, where this effect is modified by diet.
Investigating Engagement with In-Video Quiz Questions in a Programming Course

In-video quizzes are common in many distance learning platforms, including those from Coursera and EdX. However, the effectiveness of in-video quizzes has not previously been assessed. In this paper, we describe the construction and instrumentation of an Interactive Video Lecture Platform to measure student engagement with in-video quizzes. We also investigate the use of in-video quizzes as an approach to mitigate the lack of feedback available to students and lecturers in videos and traditional lectures. Finally, we evaluate the effectiveness of augmenting video with the ability to answer and receive feedback to quiz questions embedded directly within the video. We observed that student engagement with in-video questions was consistently high (71-86 percent) across two cohorts (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$N_1$</tex-math><alternatives><inline-graphic xlink:type="simple" xlink:href="cummins-ieq1-2444374.gif"/> </alternatives></inline-formula> = 81, <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$N_2$</tex-math><alternatives> <inline-graphic xlink:type="simple" xlink:href="cummins-ieq2-2444374.gif"/></alternatives></inline-formula> = 84) with a rate of one question per 8.7 minutes of video. We identified three broad levels of engagement with the quiz questions and four motivations, including challenge seeking and completionism, which explain some of the observed behaviour. The results from this investigation demonstrate that in-video quizzes were successful in creating an engaging and interactive mode of content delivery. We recommend that in-video quizzes be used to increase the interactivity of video content as well as supporting formative assessment within a flipped classroom environment.