Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Efficacy of the Smartphone-Based Glucose Management Application Stratified by User Satisfaction

Background We aimed to assess the efficacy of the smartphone-based health application for glucose control and patient satisfaction with the mobile network system used for glucose self-monitoring. Methods Thirty-five patients were provided with a smartphone device, and self-measured blood glucose data were automatically transferred to the medical staff through the smartphone application over the course of 12 weeks. The smartphone user group was divided into two subgroups (more satisfied group vs. less satisfied group) based on the results of questionnaire surveys regarding satisfaction, comfort, convenience, and functionality, as well as their willingness to use the smartphone application in the future. The control group was set up via a review of electronic medical records by group matching in terms of age, sex, doctor in charge, and glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c). Results Both the smartphone group and the control group showed a tendency towards a decrease in the HbA1c level after 3 months (7.7%±0.7% to 7.5%±0.7%, P=0.077). In the more satisfied group (n=27), the HbA1c level decreased from 7.7%±0.8% to 7.3%±0.6% (P=0.001), whereas in the less satisfied group (n=8), the HbA1c result increased from 7.7%±0.4% to 8.1%±0.5% (P=0.062), showing values much worse than that of the no-smartphone control group (from 7.7%±0.5% to 7.7%±0.7%, P=0.093). Conclusion In addition to medical feedback, device and network-related patient satisfaction play a crucial role in blood glucose management. Therefore, for the smartphone app-based blood glucose monitoring to be effective, it is essential to provide the patient with a well-functioning high quality tool capable of increasing patient satisfaction and willingness to use.
Waved aCGH: to smooth or not to smooth

Array-based comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) is a powerful tool to detect genomic imbalances in the human genome. The analysis of aCGH data sets has revealed the existence of a widespread technical artifact termed as ‘waves’, characterized by an undulating data profile along the chromosome. Here, we describe the development of a novel noise-reduction algorithm, waves aCGH correction algorithm (WACA), based on GC content and fragment size correction. WACA efficiently removes the wave artifact, thereby greatly improving the accuracy of aCGH data analysis. We describe the application of WACA to both real and simulated aCGH data sets, and demonstrate that our algorithm, by systematically correcting for all known sources of bias, is a significant improvement on existing aCGH noise reduction algorithms. WACA and associated files are freely available as Supplementary Data.
Bird Responses to Lowland Rainforest Conversion in Sumatran Smallholder Landscapes, Indonesia

Rapid land-use change in the tropics causes dramatic losses in biodiversity and associated functions. In Sumatra, Indonesia, lowland rainforest has mainly been transformed by smallholders into oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) and rubber (Hevea brasiliensis) monocultures, interspersed with jungle rubber (rubber agroforests) and a few forest remnants. In two regions of the Jambi province, we conducted point counts in 32 plots of four different land-use types (lowland rainforest, jungle rubber, rubber plantation and oil palm plantation) as well as in 16 nearby homegardens, representing a small-scale, traditional agricultural system. We analysed total bird abundance and bird abundance in feeding guilds, as well as species richness per point count visit, per plot, and per land-use system, to unveil the conservation importance and functional responses of birds in the different land-use types. In total, we identified 71 species from 24 families. Across the different land-use types, abundance did not significantly differ, but both species richness per visit and per plot were reduced in plantations. Feeding guild abundances between land-use types were variable, but homegardens were dominated by omnivores and granivores, and frugivorous birds were absent from monoculture rubber and oil palm. Jungle rubber played an important role in harbouring forest bird species and frugivores. Homegardens turned out to be of minor importance for conserving birds due to their low sizes, although collectively, they are used by many bird species. Changes in functional composition with land-use conversion may affect important ecosystem functions such as biological pest control, pollination, and seed dispersal. In conclusion, maintaining forest cover, including degraded forest and jungle rubber, is of utmost importance to the conservation of functional and taxonomic bird diversity.
Estrogen promotes differentiation and survival of dopaminergic neurons derived from human neural stem cells

To investigate the effect of estrogen on neuronal differentiation, especially on dopaminergic (DA) neurons, human neural stem cells (NSCs) were differentiated in the presence of 17β‐estradiol. NSCs gave rise to tyrosine hydroxylase (TH)‐positive neurons in vitro, the proportion of which was increased by 17β‐estradiol. Increase in TH‐positive neurons was abrogated by an estrogen receptor (ER) antagonist, ICI182780, suggesting ERs play a role in differentiation of DA neurons. The observation that ERs were expressed in both proliferating NSCs and postmitotic DA neurons suggested that increase in TH‐positive neurons was due to induction and support of DA neurons. 17β‐Estradiol also increased the number of DA neurons derived from human NSCs in vivo when the cells were grafted into mouse brains. These results support a possible role for estrogen in the transplantation of NSCs for Parkinson's disease. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Recent developments in the application of hidden Markov models to speaker-independent isolated word recognition

In this paper we extend previous work on isolated word recognition based on hidden Markov models by replacing the discrete symbol representation of the speech signal by a continuous Gaussian mixture density. In this manner the inherent quantization error introduced by the discrete representation is essentially eliminated. The resulting recognizer was tested on a vocabulary of the 10 digits across a wide range of talkers and test conditions, and shown to have an error rate at least comparable to that of the best template recognizers and significantly lower than that of the discrete symbol hidden Markov model system. Several issues involved in the training of the continuous density models and in the implementation of the recognizer are discussed.
Comments on ‘A critical look at prospective surveillance using a scan statistic’ by T. Correa, M. Costa, and R. Assunção

†We appreciate the opportunity that this research article and the journal editors have provided us to clarify some important issues. There is consensus that one should adjust for repeated analyses when conducting prospective disease surveillance. Correa et al. [1] are concerned about p-values adjusted for prior analyses in a prospective scan surveillance setting, an advanced option in the SaTScan software (Information Management Services Inc., Boston, MA, USA) [2]. The key claim, stated in the last paragraph, is that For both types of adjustments, . for each n [ = analysis], the probability of type I error is much smaller than the significance level, since the p-values [are] in the interval 0.9,1.0. This lack of control of the type I error probability and of the average run length lead us to strongly oppose the use of the scan statistic in the prospective context with the SaTScan TM signal rules. The complaint refers to p-values adjusted for either all prior analyses or the prior 100 analyses (situations c and d in the research article), but not to the default or usual signal rules in SaTScan software (situation b). The claim of Correa et al. is based on a misunderstanding.
PARCEL: Proxy Assisted BRowsing in Cellular networks for Energy and Latency reduction

Today's web page download process is ill suited to cellular networks resulting in high page load times and radio energy usage. While there have been notable prior attempts at tackling the challenge with assistance from proxies (cloud), achieving a responsive and energy efficient browsing experience remains an elusive goal. In this paper, we make a fresh attempt at addressing the challenge by proposing PARCEL. PARCEL splits functionality between the mobile device and the proxy based on their strengths, and in a manner distinct from both traditional browsers and existing cloud-heavy approaches. We conduct extensive evaluations over an operational LTE network using a prototype implementation of PARCEL. Our results show that PARCEL reduces page load times by 49.6%, and radio energy consumption by 65% compared to traditional mobile web browsers. Further, our results show PARCEL continues to perform well under client interactions, owing to its judicious functionality split.
Quantitative Bi-Lipschitz embeddings of bounded curvature manifolds and orbifolds

We construct bi-Lipschitz embeddings into Euclidean space for manifolds and orbifolds of bounded diameter and curvature. The distortion and dimension of such embeddings is bounded by diameter, curvature and dimension alone. Our results also apply for bounded subsets of complete Riemannian manifolds, and complete flat and elliptic orbifolds. Our approach is based on analysing the structure of a bounded curvature manifold at various scales by specializing methods from collapsing theory to a certain class of model spaces.
Natural Variability of Greenland Climate, Vegetation, and Ice Volume During the Past Million Years

The response of the Greenland ice sheet to global warming is a source of concern notably because of its potential contribution to changes in the sea level. We demonstrated the natural vulnerability of the ice sheet by using pollen records from marine sediment off southwest Greenland that indicate important changes of the vegetation in Greenland over the past million years. The vegetation that developed over southern Greenland during the last interglacial period is consistent with model experiments, suggesting a reduced volume of the Greenland ice sheet. Abundant spruce pollen indicates that boreal coniferous forest developed some 400,000 years ago during the “warm” interval of marine isotope stage 11, providing a time frame for the development and decline of boreal ecosystems over a nearly ice-free Greenland.
Dynamics of capping protein and actin assembly in vitro: uncapping barbed ends by polyphosphoinositides

Bursts of actin polymerization in vivo involve the transient appearance of free barbed ends. To determine how rapidly barbed ends might appear and how long they might remain free in vivo, we studied the kinetics of capping protein, the major barbed end capper, binding to barbed ends in vitro. First, the off-rate constant for capping protein leaving a barbed end is slow, predicting a half-life for a capped barbed end of approximately 30 min. This half-life implies that cells cannot wait for capping protein to spontaneously dissociate from capped barbed ends in order to create free barbed ends. However, we find that phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PIP2) and phosphatidylinositol 4- mono-phosphate (PIP) cause rapid and efficient dissociation of capping protein from capped filaments. PIP2 is a strong candidate for a second messenger regulating actin polymerization; therefore, the ability of PIP2 to remove capping protein from barbed ends is a potential mechanism for stimulating actin polymerization in vivo. Second, the on- rate constant for capping protein binding to free barbed ends predicts that actin filaments could grow to the length of filaments observed in vivo during one lifetime. Third, capping protein beta-subunit isoforms did not differ in their actin binding properties, even in tests with different actin isoforms. A major hypothesis for why capping protein beta-subunit isoforms exist is thereby excluded. Fourth, the proposed capping protein regulators, Hsc70 and S100, had no effect on capping protein binding to actin in vitro.
Why Can’t Rodents Vomit? A Comparative Behavioral, Anatomical, and Physiological Study

The vomiting (emetic) reflex is documented in numerous mammalian species, including primates and carnivores, yet laboratory rats and mice appear to lack this response. It is unclear whether these rodents do not vomit because of anatomical constraints (e.g., a relatively long abdominal esophagus) or lack of key neural circuits. Moreover, it is unknown whether laboratory rodents are representative of Rodentia with regards to this reflex. Here we conducted behavioral testing of members of all three major groups of Rodentia; mouse-related (rat, mouse, vole, beaver), Ctenohystrica (guinea pig, nutria), and squirrel-related (mountain beaver) species. Prototypical emetic agents, apomorphine (sc), veratrine (sc), and copper sulfate (ig), failed to produce either retching or vomiting in these species (although other behavioral effects, e.g., locomotion, were noted). These rodents also had anatomical constraints, which could limit the efficiency of vomiting should it be attempted, including reduced muscularity of the diaphragm and stomach geometry that is not well structured for moving contents towards the esophagus compared to species that can vomit (cat, ferret, and musk shrew). Lastly, an in situ brainstem preparation was used to make sensitive measures of mouth, esophagus, and shoulder muscular movements, and phrenic nerve activity–key features of emetic episodes. Laboratory mice and rats failed to display any of the common coordinated actions of these indices after typical emetic stimulation (resiniferatoxin and vagal afferent stimulation) compared to musk shrews. Overall the results suggest that the inability to vomit is a general property of Rodentia and that an absent brainstem neurological component is the most likely cause. The implications of these findings for the utility of rodents as models in the area of emesis research are discussed.
Reliability of immunohistochemical demonstration of oestrogen receptors in routine practice: interlaboratory variance in the sensitivity of detection and evaluation of scoring systems

Aims—To investigate interlaboratory variance in the immunohistochemical (IHC) detection of oestrogen receptors so as to determine the rate of false negatives, which could adversely influence the decision to give adjuvant tamoxifen treatment. Methods—To ensure that similar results are obtained by different institutions, 200 laboratories from 26 countries have joined the UK national external quality assessment scheme for immunocytochemistry (NEQAS-ICC). Histological sections from breast cancers having low, medium, and high levels of oestrogen receptor expression were sent to each of the laboratories for immunohistochemical staining. The results obtained were evaluated for the sensitivity of detection, first by estimating threshold values of 1% and 10% of stained tumour cells, and second by the Quick score method, by a panel of four assessors judging individual sections independently on a single blind basis. The results were also evaluated using participants' own threshold values. Results—Over 80% of laboratories were able to demonstrate oestrogen receptor positivity on the medium and high expressing tumours, but only 37% of laboratories scored adequately on the low expressing tumour. Approximately one third of laboratories failed to register any positive staining in this tumour, while one third showed only minimal positivity. Conclusions—There is considerable interlaboratory variability, especially in relation to the detection of breast cancers with low oestrogen receptor positivity, with a false negative rate of between 30% and 60%. This variability appears to be caused by minor differences in methodology that may be rectified by fine adjustment of overall technique.
Height-Tapered Double Cantilever Beam Specimen for Study of Rate Effects on Fracture Toughness of Composites

A height-tapered double cantilever beam specimen was introduced for the study of loading rate effects on Mode I delamination fracture toughness of graphite/epoxy composite. The material investigated was AS4/3501-6 graphite/epoxy. The height contour of the specimen was designed to provide a slightly decreasing compliance with increasing crack length in order to produce a stable and smooth crack propagation at high rates of loading. Furthermore, the specimen geometry selected allowed the attainment of much higher crack propagation velocities than was possible with uniform or width-tapered double cantilever beam specimens. The specimens were machined from 24-ply and 48-ply unidirectional plates. A 5.08-cm-long (2-in.) initial crack was machined at the narrow end of the specimen. The specimens were loaded in an Instron electrohydraulic machine at constant crosshead (opening deflection) rates ranging from 7.5 X 10 - 3 mm/s (1.8 X 10 - 2 in./min) to 460 mm/s (1.07 X 10 3 in./min) corresponding to crack extension rates of up to 26 m/s (61 500 in./min). This represents a 500-fold increase in crack velocity over that studied in previous work. Crack extension was monitored by means of a conductive-paint circuit applied along the path of the propagating crack. Continuous records were obtained of the load, deflection, and crack extension for determination of the strain energy release rate. The latter was calculated by the beam analysis method extended to include the effects of transverse shear and kinetic energy. It was found that the strain energy release rate increases with crack velocity up to a value of approximately 1 m/s (2360 in./min); thereafter, it decreases with increasing crack velocity. The maximum value of the strain energy release rate was approximately 46% higher than the quasi-static value.
Normal Reference Values and z Scores of the Pulmonary Artery Acceleration Time in Children and Its Importance for the Assessment of Pulmonary Hypertension

Background— Pulsed-wave Doppler determination of the pulmonary artery acceleration time (PAAT) as a surrogate for pulmonary artery pressure was found to be of clinical value for assessment of pulmonary hypertension (PH) with studies to date exclusively performed in adults. This study aims to provide representative, normal reference values for PAAT in children of all ages. Moreover, we validated abnormal PAAT values in 54 children with PH. Methods and Results— We conducted a prospective echocardiographic study in 756 healthy children (aged 1 day to 18 years) and in 54 children with PH. Possible associations of age, body length, body weight, body surface area, and heart rate on PAAT were investigated. The PAAT correlated positively with age (r=0.848), body length (r=0.871), body surface area (r=0.856), and body weight (r=0.825) and negatively with heart rate (r=−0.906). PAAT increased with age (neonates: median: 81 ms, range: 53–104; 18th year of life: median: 151 ms, range: 107–187). Receiver operating characteristic analysis for detecting PH patients using age-specific z scores showed an excellent performance of PAAT (P<0.001; area under the curve, 0.98; 95% confidence interval, 0.97–0.99) with a best cutoff score according to Youden index of –1.565 (sensitivity: 92%, specificity: 96%). PAAT values of PH patients negatively correlated (&rgr;=−0.497) with pulmonary vascular resistance. Conclusions— The PAAT normal reference values and z scores we provide here will be useful to identify children with a shortened PAAT. Abnormal PAAT values with scores <−2 were predictive of PH.
The Mandibular Nerve: The Anatomy of Nerve Injury and Entrapment

The trigeminal nerve (TN) is a mixed cranial nerve that consists primarily of sensory neurons. It exists the brain on the lateral surface of the pons, entering the trigeminal ganglion (TGG) after a few millimeters, followed by an extensive series of divisions. Of the three major branches that emerge from the TGG, the mandibular nerve (MN) comprises the 3rd and largest of the three divisions. The MN also has an additional motor component, which may run in a separate facial compartment. Thus, unlike the other two TN divisions, which convey afferent fibers, the MN also contains motor or efferent fibers to innervate the muscles that are attached to mandible (muscles of mastication, the mylohyoid, the anterior belly of the digastric muscle, the tensor veli palatini, and tensor tympani muscle). Most of these fibers travel directly to their target tissues. Sensory axons innervate skin on the lateral side of the head, tongue, and mucosal wall of the oral cavity. Some sensory axons enter the mandible to innervate the teeth and emerge from the mental foramen to innervate the skin of the lower jaw.
Hypothalamic Response to the Chemo-Signal Androstadienone in Gender Dysphoric Children and Adolescents

The odorous steroid androstadienone, a putative male chemo-signal, was previously reported to evoke sex differences in hypothalamic activation in adult heterosexual men and women. In order to investigate whether puberty modulated this sex difference in response to androstadienone, we measured the hypothalamic responsiveness to this chemo-signal in 39 pre-pubertal and 41 adolescent boys and girls by means of functional magnetic resonance imaging. We then investigated whether 36 pre-pubertal children and 38 adolescents diagnosed with gender dysphoria (GD; DSM-5) exhibited sex-atypical (in accordance with their experienced gender), rather than sex-typical (in accordance with their natal sex) hypothalamic activations during olfactory stimulation with androstadienone. We found that the sex difference in responsiveness to androstadienone was already present in pre-pubertal control children and thus likely developed during early perinatal development instead of during sexual maturation. Adolescent girls and boys with GD both responded remarkably like their experienced gender, thus sex-atypical. In contrast, pre-pubertal girls with GD showed neither a typically male nor female hypothalamic activation pattern and pre-pubertal boys with GD had hypothalamic activations in response to androstadienone that were similar to control boys, thus sex-typical. We present here a unique data set of boys and girls diagnosed with GD at two different developmental stages, showing that these children possess certain sex-atypical functional brain characteristics and may have undergone atypical sexual differentiation of the brain.
Tree-ring based February–April relative humidity reconstruction since A.D. 1695 in the Gaoligong Mountains, southeastern Tibetan Plateau

ABSTRACT High-resolution proxy data are limited in the southeastern Tibetan Plateau, which inhibits our understanding of long-term climate variability in historical periods. In this study, we developed one tree-ring-width chronology of Tsuga dumosa (D. Don Eichler) in the Gaoligong Mountains, southeastern Tibetan Plateau. Tree-ring-width chronology showed negative correlations with monthly temperatures in most months, especially for current year, whereas correlations with precipitation and relative humidity were mostly positive. Significant positive correlations were found between tree rings and relative humidity in February, April and June of current year and May of previous year. February–April relative humidity was reconstructed for the past 321 years (A.D. 1695–2016) in the Gaoligong Mountains, which explained 26% of the actual variance during the calibration period 1962–2004. In this reconstruction, dry periods occurred in 1808–1820, 1831–1842, 1914–1921, 1958–1964 and 1980–1988. Wet periods were found in 1700–1727, 1821–1830, 1843–1859, 1944–1957 and 1965–1979. The dry and wet episodes of our relative humidity reconstruction match well other studies in the nearby regions, which demonstrate that the new record is reliable and captures large-scale climate signals.