Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ablation of Ventricular Arrhythmias in Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Dysplasia/Cardiomyopathy: Arrhythmia-Free Survival After Endo-Epicardial Substrate Based Mapping and Ablation

Background— In patients with arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia/cardiomyopathy, freedom from ventricular arrhythmias (VAs) after endocardial ablation is limited. We compared the long-term freedom from recurrent VAs by using endocardial-alone ablation versus endo-epicardial substrate-based ablation. Methods and Results— Forty-nine patients with arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia/cardiomyopathy undergoing ablation of ventricular tachycardia (VT) were divided into 2 groups: endocardial-alone ablation (group 1, n=23) and endo-epicardial ablation (group 2, n=26). All patients had an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD). Conventional and 3D mappings were used to determine the mechanism of induced VTs and to identify area of “scar” or “abnormal” myocardium. All critical sites responsible for VTs and points with “abnormal” potential were targeted for ablation from endocardium (group 1) or from both endocardium and epicardium (group 2). The procedural end point was noninducibility of sustained, monomorphic VT with isoproterenol. The presence of frequent premature ventricular contractions at the end of ablation was recorded. Patients were followed up by ECG, Holter, and ICD interrogation. After a follow-up of at least 3 years, freedom from VAs or ICD therapy was 52.2% (12/23) in group 1 and 84.6% (22/26) in group 2 (P=0.029), with 21.7% (5/23) and 69.2% (18/26) patients off antiarrhythmic drugs (P<0.001), respectively. Compared with patients with no premature ventricular contractions after ablation, patients with frequent premature ventricular contractions after ablation were more likely to have VA recurrence/ICD therapy [3/33 (9%) versus 12/16 (75%); log-rank P<0.001]. Conclusions— An endo-epicardial–based ablation strategy achieves higher long-term freedom from recurrent VAs off antiarrhythmic therapy in patients with arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia/cardiomyopathy when compared with endocardial-alone ablation. The presence of ≥10 premature ventricular contractions per minute after ablation is associated with more VA recurrence.
Impact of antenna geometry on MIMO communication in indoor clustered channels

In this paper, we study the impact of different array configurations in indoor propagation environments. We measure the capacity/diversity gain attainable by different array geometries with seven elements and fixed interelement spacing. To make the discussion more concrete, we base our simulations on the IEEE 802.11n Technical Group (TC) clustered channel model. Our results show that averaged with respect to cluster location, uniform linear arrays often yield the highest capacity/diversity gains. However, in poor scatterer environments, and for compact arrays, the "Star" configuration provides the best system performance.
Estimating the impact of the programming language on the development time of a software project

An empirical and quantitative comparison of C, C++, and Java is carried out. The impact of each language on the development time of a fixed sample project is estimated. A new estimation method for the development time is applied which is based on probability theory. For the sample project, C++ and Java yield better estimates than C. Without training in object-oriented programming, the C++ estimates for the sample project are worse than the C estimates. The impact of the programming language on the development time cannot be described by a scale factor.
Visually Induced Motion Sickness Predicted by Postural Instability

We investigated whether postural instability can predict motion sickness and studied relations among instability, motion sickness, and vection. Nine men and 4 women (mean age = 19.85 years) were exposed, while standing, to an optical simulation of body sway. Head motion was recorded using a magnetic tracking system. Postural instabilities were observed prior to the onset of motion sickness. Vection was reported by most participants, including all who became ill. A discriminant analysis revealed that parameters of postural motion accurately predicted motion sickness. The results confirm that postural instability precedes motion sickness and suggest that measures of postural motion may serve as reliable predictors of motion sickness. Potential applications of this research include the development of on-line diagnostic tools that will allow for the prevention of motion sickness in operational and training settings.
Clinical Ophthalmology Dovepress Dovepress Neuroretinitis in Ocular Bartonellosis: a Case Series

We report a case series of neuroretinitis in ocular bartonellosis and describe the serologic verification for Bartonella henselae. This is a retrospective interventional case series of four patients who presented in the ophthalmology clinic of Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia from June 2012 to March 2013. All four patients had a history of contact with cats and had fever prior to ocular symptoms. Each patient presented with neuroretinitis characterized by optic disc swelling with macular star. Serology analysis showed strongly positive for B. henselae in all of the patients. All patients were treated with oral azithromycin (except case 4, who was treated with oral doxycycline), and two patients (case 1 and case 3) had poor vision at initial presentation that warranted the use of oral prednisolone. All patients showed a good visual outcome except case 3. Vision-threatening ocular manifestation of cat scratch disease can be improved with systemic antibiotics and steroids.
Parallelized Stochastic Gradient Descent

With the increase in available data parallel machine learning has become an increasingly pressing problem. In this paper we present the first parallel stochastic gradient descent algorithm including a detailed analysis and experimental evidence. Unlike prior work on parallel optimization algorithms [5, 7] our variant comes with parallel acceleration guarantees and it poses no overly tight latency constraints, which might only be available in the multicore setting. Our analysis introduces a novel proof technique — contractive mappings to quantify the speed of convergence of parameter distributions to their asymptotic limits. As a side effect this answers the question of how quickly stochastic gradient descent algorithms reach the asymptotically normal regime [1, 8].
Asymmetric information in insurance: general testable implications

Several recent articles on empirical contract theory and insurance have tested for a positive correlation between coverage and ex post risk, as predicted by standard models of pure adverse selection or pure moral hazard. We show here that the positive correlationproperty can be extended to general setups: competitive insurance markets and cases where risk aversion is public. We test our results on a French dataset. Our tests confirm that the estimated correlation is positive; they also suggest the presence of market power.
Noise induced hearing loss and vestibular dysfunction in the guinea pig

Abstract This study analysed the acoustic and vestibular functional and morphological modifications in guinea pigs after acoustic trauma. Animals were exposed to noise (6 kHz, at 120 dB SPL for 60 minutes) and then auditory brainstem responses (ABR) and vestibuloocular reflex (VOR) were measured at 6 hours, 1 day, 3, 7, and 21 days after noise. Western blotting and immunostaining for 4-hydroxy-2-noneal (4-HNE) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) were performed in the cochlear and vestibular regions at 1 and 7 days after noise exposure. A significant decrease of VOR gain was observed on day 1 and the recovery was completed at day 21. ABR threshold values reached a level of 80 dB at day 1 after trauma reaching a value of about 50 dB SPL on day 21. 4-HNE expression, a marker of lipid peroxidation was strongly increased in the cochlea. In the vestibule, 4-HNE immunoreactivity was faint. However, VEGF was up-regulated both in the cochlea and vestibule. In conclusion, the expression of VEGF in both cochlear and vestibular structures suggests a reparative role with potentially therapeutic implications. Sumario Este estudio analiza las modificaciones vestibulares funcionales y morfológicas en los cobayos después de un trauma acústico. Los animales fueron expuestos a ruido (6kHz, a 120dB SPL durante 60 minutos) y se midieron las respuestas auditivas de tallo cerebral (ABR) y el reflejo vestíbulo-ocular (VOR); a las 6 horas, al siguiente día y los días 3, 7 y 21 después del ruido. Se realizaron pruebas de Western Blot e inmuno-reacciones para 4-hydroxi-2-noneal (4-HNE) y para factor de crecimiento vascular endotelial (VEGF) en las regiones coclear y vestibu-lar en los días 1 y 7 después de la exposición a ruido. Los resultados mostraron un descenso significativo de la ganancia del VOR en el día 1 y la recuperación fue completa en el día 21. Los umbrales de ABR llegaron a un nivel de 80dB en el día 1 después del trauma, alcanzando un valor de 50dB SPL en el día 21. El marcador 4-HNE, indicativo de peroxidación de los lípidos, estaba bastante aumentado en la cóclea. En la región vestibular, la reacción 4-HNE fue débil. Sin embargo, el VEGF se reguló por incremento tanto en la cóclea como en el vestíbulo. En conclusión, la expresión del VEGF en las estructuras tanto cocleares como vestibulares sugiere un papel reparador con potenciales implicaciones terapéuticas.
High- and low-fat dairy intake, recurrence, and mortality after breast cancer diagnosis.

BACKGROUND Dietary fat in dairy is a source of estrogenic hormones and may be related to worse breast cancer survival. We evaluated associations between high- and low-fat dairy intake, recurrence, and mortality after breast cancer diagnosis. METHODS We included 1893 women from the Life After Cancer Epidemiology study diagnosed with early-stage invasive breast cancer from 1997 to 2000, who completed the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center Food Frequency Questionnaire after diagnosis. A total of 349 women had a recurrence and 372 died during a median follow-up of 11.8 years, with 189 deaths from breast cancer. We used delayed entry Cox proportional hazards regression to evaluate associations between categories of the cumulative average of dairy fat at baseline and at follow-up 5 to 6 years later and subsequent outcomes. Tests of statistical significance were two-sided. RESULTS In multivariable-adjusted analyses, overall dairy intake was unrelated to breast cancer-specific outcomes, although it was positively related to overall mortality. Low-fat dairy intake was unrelated to recurrence or survival. However, high-fat dairy intake was positively associated with outcomes. Compared with the reference (0 to <0.5 servings/day), those consuming larger amounts of high-fat dairy had higher breast cancer mortality (0.5 to <1.0 servings/day: hazard ratio [HR] = 1.20, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.82 to 1.77; and ≥1.0 servings/day: HR = 1.49, 95% CI = 1.00 to 2.24, P trend = .05), higher all-cause mortality (P trend < .001), and higher non-breast cancer mortality (P trend = .007); the relationship with breast cancer recurrence was positive but not statistically significant. The higher risk appeared consistent across different types of high-fat dairy products. CONCLUSIONS Intake of high-fat dairy, but not low-fat dairy, was related to a higher risk of mortality after breast cancer diagnosis.
DRIVERS' COGNITION AND DYNAMICS OF TRAFFIC-CONDITION INDUCED BY NETWORK MODIFICATION

Abstract In this paper, we discussed relations between drivers' cognition and the dynamics of traffic conditions. When we take into account drivers' cognition, many types of psychological impedance to behavioral change could be accounted for, including cognitive conservatism and habitual decision making. Based on psychological theories with respect to these impedance to behavioral change, we elucidated the process of changes in traffic conditions that might be induced by changes in road-network structure. As a result of the discussion, we concluded that traffic conditions are unlikely change as much as predicted by theories that assume a simple, and sometimes unique, relation between a traffic condition and a road-network structure, e.g., theories that assume user equilibrium.
Prevalence and diversity of class 1 integrons and resistance genes in antimicrobial‐resistant Escherichia coli originating from beef cattle administered subtherapeutic antimicrobials

Aims: To characterize class 1 integrons and resistance genes in tetracycline‐resistant Escherichia coli originating from beef cattle subtherapeutically administered chlortetracycline (A44), chlortetracycline and sulfamethazine (AS700), or no antimicrobials (control).
The Kato square root problem on submanifolds

We solve the Kato square root problem for divergence form operators on complete Riemannian manifolds that are embedded in Euclidean space with a bounded second fundamental form. We do this by proving local quadratic estimates for perturbations of certain first‐order differential operators that act on the trivial bundle over a complete Riemannian manifold with at most exponential volume growth and on which a local Poincaré inequality holds. This is based on the framework for Dirac‐type operators that was developed by Axelsson, Keith and McIntosh.
Single-dose fosaprepitant for the prevention of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting associated with moderately emetogenic chemotherapy: results of a randomized, double-blind phase III trial

This phase III trial demonstrated that adding a single dose of fosaprepitant to a 5-HT3 receptor antagonist and corticosteroid in a nonanthracycline and cyclophosphamide-based moderately emetogenic chemotherapy population significantly improved the prevention of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting. The use of this regimen may eliminate the need for multiday antiemetic therapy in such patients.
A Study on Relationship Between Generalization Abilities and Fuzziness of Base Classifiers in Ensemble Learning

We investigate essential relationships between generalization capabilities and fuzziness of fuzzy classifiers (viz., the classifiers whose outputs are vectors of membership grades of a pattern to the individual classes). The study makes a claim and offers sound evidence behind the observation that higher fuzziness of a fuzzy classifier may imply better generalization aspects of the classifier, especially for classification data exhibiting complex boundaries. This observation is not intuitive with a commonly accepted position in “traditional” pattern recognition. The relationship that obeys the conditional maximum entropy principle is experimentally confirmed. Furthermore, the relationship can be explained by the fact that samples located close to classification boundaries are more difficult to be correctly classified than the samples positioned far from the boundaries. This relationship is expected to provide some guidelines as to the improvement of generalization aspects of fuzzy classifiers.
Migration, Foraging, and Residency Patterns for Northern Gulf Loggerheads: Implications of Local Threats and International Movements

Northern Gulf of Mexico (NGoM) loggerheads (Caretta caretta) make up one of the smallest subpopulations of this threatened species and have declining nest numbers. We used satellite telemetry and a switching state-space model to identify distinct foraging areas used by 59 NGoM loggerheads tagged during 2010–2013. We tagged turtles after nesting at three sites, 1 in Alabama (Gulf Shores; n = 37) and 2 in Florida (St. Joseph Peninsula; n = 20 and Eglin Air Force Base; n = 2). Peak migration time was 22 July to 9 August during which >40% of turtles were in migration mode; the mean post-nesting migration period was 23.0 d (±13.8 d SD). After displacement from nesting beaches, 44 turtles traveled to foraging sites where they remained resident throughout tracking durations. Selected foraging locations were variable distances from tagging sites, and in 5 geographic regions; no turtles selected foraging sites outside the Gulf of Mexico (GoM). Foraging sites delineated using 50% kernel density estimation were located a mean distance of 47.6 km from land and in water with mean depth of −32.5 m; other foraging sites, delineated using minimum convex polygons, were located a mean distance of 43.0 km from land and in water with a mean depth of −24.9 m. Foraging sites overlapped with known trawling activities, oil and gas extraction activities, and the footprint of surface oiling during the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill (n = 10). Our results highlight the year-round use of habitats in the GoM by loggerheads that nest in the NGoM. Our findings indicate that protection of females in this subpopulation requires both international collaborations and management of threats that spatially overlap with distinct foraging habitats.
Dirichlet Class Language Models for Speech Recognition

Latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) was successfully developed for document modeling due to its generalization to unseen documents through the latent topic modeling. LDA calculates the probability of a document based on the bag-of-words scheme without considering the order of words. Accordingly, LDA cannot be directly adopted to predict words in speech recognition systems. This work presents a new Dirichlet class language model (DCLM), which projects the sequence of history words onto a latent class space and calculates a marginal likelihood over the uncertainties of classes, which are expressed by Dirichlet priors. A Bayesian class-based language model is established and a variational Bayesian procedure is presented for estimating DCLM parameters. Furthermore, the long-distance class information is continuously updated using the large-span history words and is dynamically incorporated into class mixtures for a cache DCLM. Different language models are experimentally evaluated using the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) corpus. The amount of training data and the size of vocabulary are evaluated. We find that the cache DCLM effectively characterizes the unseen -gram events and stores the class information for long-distance language modeling. This approach outperforms the other class-based and topic-based language models in terms of perplexity and recognition accuracy. The DCLM and cache DCLM achieved relative gain of word error rate by 3% to 5% over the LDA topic-based language model with different sizes of training data .
Enhancement of developmental capacity of meiotically inhibited bovine oocytes by retinoic acid.

BACKGROUND Although high vitamin A may be teratogenic to the embryo, retinol has been shown to support oocyte developmental potential in vivo. Similarly, addition of retinol metabolite 9-cis-retinoic acid to in-vitro cultured oocytes could promote cytoplasmic maturation and subsequent early embryonic development. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of 5 nmol/l retinoic acid during in-vitro pre-maturation and maturation of bovine oocyte-cumulus complexes. METHODS AND RESULTS Oocytes were aspirated from cows and either kept under meiotic arrest with 25 micro mol/l roscovitine and matured, or allowed to mature in permissive conditions (control). Cortical granule migration was analysed both after pre-maturation and maturation by fluorescent labelling of oocytes and subsequent laser confocal and fluorescence microscopy. Variables studied after in-vitro fertilization and culture in modified synthetic oviduct fluid were: (i) in-vitro embryonic development; (ii) ability of blastocysts to survive vitrification and warming; and (iii) differential cell counts measured by fluorescence microscopy. Although the presence of 5 nmol/l retinoic acid throughout in-vitro maturation was harmful, its presence during pre-maturation alone improved cytoplasmic granular migration, embryonic development, cryopreservation tolerance, total cell numbers and, as a consequence, embryonic quality. CONCLUSIONS Pre-maturation in the presence of retinoic acid improves cytoplasmic competence of in-vitro matured bovine oocytes. Until more is known of the molecular mechanisms it would be irresponsible to use retinoic acid in maturation of human oocytes, especially in view of the narrow time window and possible species-specific differences in susceptibility and protection of the oocyte from epigenetic influences of retinol.
Patch Finder Plus (PFplus): A web server for extracting and displaying positive electrostatic patches on protein surfaces

Positively charged electrostatic patches on protein surfaces are usually indicative of nucleic acid binding interfaces. Interestingly, many proteins which are not involved in nucleic acid binding possess large positive patches on their surface as well. In some cases, the positive patches on the protein are related to other functional properties of the protein family. PatchFinderPlus (PFplus) http://pfp.technion. ac.il is a web-based tool for extracting and displaying continuous electrostatic positive patches on protein surfaces. The input required for PFplus is either a four letter PDB code or a protein coordinate file in PDB format, provided by the user. PFplus computes the continuum electrostatics potential and extracts the largest positive patch for each protein chain in the PDB file. The server provides an output file in PDB format including a list of the patch residues. In addition, the largest positive patch is displayed on the server by a graphical viewer (Jmol), using a simple color coding.
Genre et goût pour la compétition : une approche par l'économie expérimentale

This thesis is interested in a specific explanation for the gender gap in social positions and wages: gender differences in willingness to enter competitive environments. The experimental approach used here allows to control for several factors which may influence competitive behaviors and are impossible to disentangle by observing the labor market. The first chapter deals with overconfidence and provides several incentives to reduce this cognitive bias. The second chapter studies the effect of team competition on the gender gap in willingness to compete. While women are not more attracted by team competition than they are by individual competition, men shy away from the competition when it is team-based. The main reason for men's disaffection for team competition is that they fear being matched with a less able teammate. The effect of group identity on competitive behaviors is explored in the third chapter. Women's willingness to compete is not clearly affected by group membership but men are more likely to enter the team competition without knowing the performance level of their teammate when he or she is a fellow group member rather than a random participant. Group identity therefore shifts men's behavior towards decisions more in favor of the whole group.
The Relation between Self-Reported Worry and Annoyance from Air and Road Traffic

Negative perceptions such as fear or worry are known to be an important determinant of annoyance. Annoyance caused by noise and odour has been analysed in relation to worry about safety or health due to environmental hazards, using responses to a health survey. In the survey area high environmental impacts come from air and road traffic. The survey results show a correlation between worry due to the airport or passing aircraft and noise and odour annoyance from aircraft (correlation coefficient (c.c.) close to 0.6). For the relation between worry about a busy street and annoyance from road traffic the correlation is lower (c.c. 0.4–0.5). Worries about different situations, such as living below sea level, close to an airport, busy street or chemical industry, are highly correlated (c.c. 0.5–0.9), also for situations that are not obviously related. Personal factors can also lead to more worry: being female, above 35 years of age, having a high risk for anxiety/depression and being in bad health increase the odds for being worried. The results thus suggest that worry about safety or health is correlated to both personal and environmental factors.