Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The effect of angiotensin II receptor antagonism with losartan on glucose metabolism and insulin sensitivity

Objective To investigate the metabolic effects of losartan (Cozaar®) in patients with essential hypertension. Methods Twenty patients with mild hypertension (office blood pressure>140/95 mmHg and home diastolic blood pressure>90 mmHg) were examined in a double-blind, placebo-controlled cross-over study of 4 weeks of treatment with 50-100 mg losartan. The effects on glucose metabolism were assessed by euglycaemic glucose clamp examinations [glucose disposal rate (GDR, mg/kg per min)] and oral glucose-tolerance tests (OGTT). Results Supine blood pressure was reduced from 146 + 3/90 ± 3 mmHg on placebo to 134 ±4/83 ± 3 mmHg on losartan and the difference was maintained during 120 min of insulin infusion and glucose clamping. GDR was 6.2 ± 0.5 mg/kg per min on placebo and 6.4 ± 0.5 mg/kg per min on losartan. The glucose and insulin responses (the area under the curve) during OGTT were similar with placebo and losartan (0.86 ± 0.3 versus 0.88 ± 0.4 and 341 ± 60 versus 356 ± 60, respectively; arbitary units). Serum cholesterol was 5.3 ± 0.2 mmol/l on placebo and 5.1 ± 0.2 mmol/l with losartan treatment. High-density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglycerides were, respectively, 1.1 ± 0.1 and 1.5 ± 0.2 mmol/l with placebo, and 1.1 ± 0.1 and 1.4 ± 0.1 mmol/l with losartan treatment. Conclusion In mildly hypertensive patients, selective angiotensin II receptor antagonism with losartan for 4 weeks lowers blood pressure at rest and during 120 min of glucose clamping, and has neutral effects on insulin sensitivity, glucose metabolism and serum lipids.
Effect of corneal contact lens wear on healing time and comfort post LGK for treatment of SCCEDs in boxers.

PURPOSE To determine whether dogs with spontaneous chronic corneal epithelial defects (SCCEDs) would heal faster and with an improved comfort score following linear grid keratotomy (LGK) combined with corneal contact lens (Acrivet(™) ) wear when compared to dogs having the LGK procedure alone. STUDY DESIGN Prospective study. METHODS Twenty-seven boxer dogs (27 eyes) diagnosed with a SCCEDs were enrolled in the study. A LGK was performed on all dogs under dexmedetomidine and butorphanol sedation. Fourteen eyes were randomly assigned to receive a corneal contact lens. The dogs were evaluated typically at 7, 10, and 14 days or until the ulceration was healed. Client surveys were completed by the owners to subjectively assess comfort level and contact lens retention. Statistical analyses were performed utilizing generalized linear models and survival analysis with the Wilcoxon-Gehan test to evaluate group differences. RESULTS All ulcers healed after the LGK procedure. Dogs with bandage contact lenses had a statistically significant (P = 0.035) decrease in median healing time (7 days (95% CI [7,9]) compared to those without contact lenses (10 days (95% CI [7,12])). There was no difference in subjective comfort score between treatment groups. Early contact loss occurred in 28.6% (95% CI [8.4%, 58.1%]) of dogs. All of the Acrivet(™) ruler corneal measurements agreed to within 1 mm (95% CI [87.2%, 100%]) of the Jameson caliper measurements of horizontal corneal diameter. CONCLUSIONS The use of corneal bandage contact lenses significantly decreased median healing time although there was no effect on subjective comfort score. The Acrivet(™) ruler measurements were accurate in determining corneal diameter and therefore contact lens size.
Partially Occluded Pedestrian Classification using Three Stage Cascaded Classifier

Pedestrian detection is an important area in computer vision with key applications in intelligent vehicle and surveillance systems. One of the main challenges in pedestrian detection is occlusion. In this paper, we propose a novel pedestrian detection approach capable of handling partial occlusion. Three stage cascaded classifier is used in the proposed approach. Global classifier based on HOG features and linear-SVM is first employed to classify the whole scanning window. For ambiguous patterns, a set of part-based classifiers trained on features derived from non-occluded dataset are employed on the second stage. Several fusion methods including average, maximum, linear and non-linear SVM classifiers are examined to combine the obtained part scores. The linear/non-linear fusion coefficients are estimated by learning an additional third stage SVM classifier. The training data in the third stage classifier is augmented by generating a set of artificially occluded samples which simulate real occlusion conditions commonly occurred in pedestrians. Experimental results using Daimler and INRIA data sets show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Improvement of municipal wastewater pretreatment by direct membrane filtration

ABSTRACT The high content of particulate matter in municipal wastewater hinders the conventional anaerobic treatments at psychrophilic temperatures. The hydrolysis of the particulate chemical oxygen demand (pCOD) could be the limiting step under these conditions. Therefore, new pretreatments or improved conventional pretreatments are needed in order to separate pCOD. In this work, direct membrane filtration of municipal wastewater, using an ultrafiltration membrane, was investigated. This intensive pretreatment, which aims to separate soluble chemical oxygen demand (sCOD) and to concentrate pCOD, together with anaerobic treatments of both streams at psychrophilic and mesophilic conditions respectively, could be an alternative to the conventional activated sludge process. The obtained results show a removal yield of 24.9% of the total solids (TS) and 45% of total chemical oxygen demand (tCOD), obtaining a permeate free of suspended solids. This physical removal implies the accumulation of solids inside the membrane tank, reaching the values of 45.4 and 4.4 g/L of TS in the sedimentation and filtration sections, respectively. The membrane operated with filtration, backwashing cycles and continuous gas sparging, with a permeate flux predominantly around 10 L/(m2 h). The results show the viability of the technology to concentrate pCOD and so to improve energy recovery from municipal wastewater. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT
Impact of Escherichia coli vaccine on parent stock mortality, first week mortality of broilers and population diversity of E. coli in vaccinated flocks

In the present investigation 20,000 broiler parents were vaccinated during rearing with Nobilis Escherichia coli vaccine and were placed in two out of four identical houses, with the remaining two houses on the same farm accommodating 20,000 unvaccinated control birds. During the production period a total of 335 dead birds (including 171 vaccinated and 164 control birds) randomly selected from the four houses were subjected to post-mortem examination. Although the overall mortality between the vaccinated and control flocks did not differ, mortality due to E. coli infections made up only 8.2% in vaccinated birds compared with 24.6% in unvaccinated birds. All E. coli isolates recovered from internal organs were assigned to the same phylogenetic group (B2), but a major genetic diversity was outlined by multilocus sequence typing. Only a single isolate was demonstrated to harbour a gene encoding the P-fimbriae variant F11, a key component of the Nobilis vaccine. Significant differences in average first week mortality, calculated average weight at 38 days and food conversion rate among broiler flocks originating from vaccinated and control birds, respectively, were not found. Further investigations are needed to explain the protection observed and the impact on the genetic diversity of E. coli.
How reliable are methods to assess xylem vulnerability to cavitation? The issue of 'open vessel' artifact in oaks.

Three methods are in widespread use to build vulnerability curves (VCs) to cavitation. The bench drying (BD) method is considered as a reference because embolism and xylem pressure are measured on large branches dehydrating in the air, in conditions similar to what happens in nature. Two other methods of embolism induction have been increasingly used. While the Cavitron (CA) uses centrifugal force to induce embolism, in the air injection (AI) method embolism is induced by forcing pressurized air to enter a stem segment. Recent studies have suggested that the AI and CA methods are inappropriate in long-vesselled species because they produce a very high-threshold xylem pressure for embolism (e.g., P50) compared with what is expected from (i) their ecophysiology in the field (native embolism, water potential and stomatal response to xylem pressure) and (ii) the P50 obtained with the BD method. However, other authors have argued that the CA and AI methods may be valid because they produce VCs similar to the BD method. In order to clarify this issue, we assessed VCs with the three above-mentioned methods on the long-vesselled Quercus ilex L. We showed that the BD VC yielded threshold xylem pressure for embolism consistent with in situ measurements of native embolism, minimal water potential and stomatal conductance. We therefore concluded that the BD method provides a reliable estimate of the VC for this species. The CA method produced a very high P50 (i.e., less negative) compared with the BD method, which is consistent with an artifact related to the vessel length. The VCs obtained with the AI method were highly variable, producing P50 ranging from -2 to -8.2 MPa. This wide variability was more related to differences in base diameter among samples than to differences in the length of samples. We concluded that this method is probably subject to an artifact linked to the distribution of vessel lengths within the sample. Overall, our results indicate that the CA and the AI should be used with extreme caution on long-vesselled species. Our results also highlight that several criteria may be helpful to assess the validity of a VC.
How plausible is a subcortical account of rapid visual recognition?

Primates recognize objects in natural visual scenes with great rapidity. The ventral visual cortex is usually assumed to play a major role in this ability (“high-road”). However, the “low-road” alternative frequently proposed is that the visual cortex is bypassed by a rapid subcortical route to the amygdala, especially in the case of biologically relevant and emotional stimuli. This paper highlights the lack of evidence from psychophysics and computational models to support this “low-road” alternative. Most importantly, the timing of neural responses invites a serious reconsideration of the low-road role in rapid processing of visual objects.
4D ultrafast ultrasound flow imaging: in vivo quantification of arterial volumetric flow rate in a single heartbeat

We present herein 4D ultrafast ultrasound flow imaging, a novel ultrasound-based volumetric imaging technique for the quantitative mapping of blood flow. Complete volumetric blood flow distribution imaging was achieved through 2D tilted plane-wave insonification, 2D multi-angle cross-beam beamforming, and 3D vector Doppler velocity components estimation by least-squares fitting. 4D ultrafast ultrasound flow imaging was performed in large volumetric fields of view at very high volume rate (>4000 volumes s−1) using a 1024-channel 4D ultrafast ultrasound scanner and a 2D matrix-array transducer. The precision of the technique was evaluated in vitro by using 3D velocity vector maps to estimate volumetric flow rates in a vessel phantom. Volumetric Flow rate errors of less than 5% were found when volumetric flow rates and peak velocities were respectively less than 360 ml min−1 and 100 cm s−1. The average volumetric flow rate error increased to 18.3% when volumetric flow rates and peak velocities were up to 490 ml min−1 and 1.3 m s−1, respectively. The in vivo feasibility of the technique was shown in the carotid arteries of two healthy volunteers. The 3D blood flow velocity distribution was assessed during one cardiac cycle in a full volume and it was used to quantify volumetric flow rates (375 ± 57 ml min−1 and 275 ± 43 ml min−1). Finally, the formation of 3D vortices at the carotid artery bifurcation was imaged at high volume rates.
An investigation into remote sensing techniques for describing hydraulic roughness

Riparian vegetation, an indicator of healthy river system, increases the hydraulic roughness and reduces the conveyance capacity of a channel. Vegetation provides dominant drag force influencing the velocity distribution, turbulence intensity and water depth. Thus, the study of hydraulic roughness due to vegetation is essential to determine the characteristics of flow. Traditionally, a constant Manning’s roughness value is assigned based on land cover maps and that does not adequately account for vegetation. The roughness due to vegetation are determined on the basis of its parameters like height, density, LAI and flexibility. Remote sensing data (LiDAR, aerial photos or satellite images) are preferred in determining detailed vegetation parameters to time consuming field data. The objective of this research was to evaluate the performance of remote sensing-based methods to estimate hydraulic roughness of vegetation. A Canopy Height Model (CHM) was used in this study to estimate the height of vegetation and an empirical relation (Beer Lambert law) to determine LAI from LiDAR data for Middle Rio Grande reach located at Albuquerque, New Mexico. The two two-dimensional hydrodynamic
Comment on “Xist recruits the X chromosome to the nuclear lamina to enable chromosome-wide silencing”

Chen et al. (Reports, 28 October 2016, p. 468) proposed that an interaction between Xist RNA and Lamin B receptor (LBR) is necessary and sufficient for Xist spreading during X-chromosome inactivation. We reanalyzed their data and found that reported genotypes of mutants are not supported by the sequencing data. These inconsistencies preclude assessment of the role of LBR in Xist spreading.
Role of Antioxidant Enzymes in Glucose and Lipid Metabolism in Association with Obesityand Type 2 Diabetes

Introduction: Obesity is a state of excess adipose tissue mass. It can be calculated by BMI or waist circumference. Waist circumference more than 88cm in female and 102cm in males make them overweight and these overweight increases 2.9 times the risk of metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes. The antioxidant enzymes SOD (Superoxide Dismutase), MDA (Malondialdehyde) levels are assayed in these overwight and risk category (gentic risk). Materials & Methods: 25 obese and overweight are included with age matched controls who came to chalmeda anadrao institute of medical sciences hospital. The Fasting blood glucose (FBS), lipid profile, SOD, MDA levels are measured. Results: The mean ± SD values of FBS of samples with history of diabetes (146.3 ± 11.68) and without history of diabetes (95 ± 4.02) compared to controls are (88.33 ± 6.78) which is significant with p<0.001. The antioxidant enzyme levels in controls and samples are SOD mean ± SD samples (50 ± 4.96) controls (100 ± 4.62), MDA samples are (619.12 ± 0.91) controls (240.4 ± 1.14). The comparison of lipid profile of samples with controls are also significant with p value <0.001. Discussion: In normal healthy condition there is always redox homeostasis occurring in cell, any imbalance to this redox homeostasis leads to oxidative stress (OS). OS leads to overproduction of ROS and impairs antioxidant defense mechanism. Increased metabolic and mechanical load on myocardium, large body mass, nutritious diet leads to formation of lipid peroxidation, freeradical and reactive oxygen species generation which inturn impairs insulin receptors functioning leads to insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes. Conclusion: From this study we conclude that regular physical activity, diet restriction, and early assessment of SOD, MDA levels we can prolong the complications of type 2 diabetes.
Enhanced lithological description of the Jurassic sequence in the Viking Graben and Oseberg Terrace using machine learning

Automatic classifications of well logs using machine learning techniques has gained improved attention within the last couple of years among others for increasing the accuracy and speed of lithofacies prediction on wireline logs. A supervised machine learning methodology written in R combines initial wireline log signatures and computer assisted interpretations (CPI’s) to automatize lithofacies predictions. The method utilizes the XGBoost algorithm, a gradient boosting library with emphasis on computational speed and model accuracy. The study area is the Jurassic sequence of the prolific quadrant 30 in the Norwegian Northern North Sea, with 26 available wells that consists of wells from structural Highs, Grabens and Terraces. Raw well log data are preprocessed in order to obtain a consistent database and the well log signatures from all 26 wells are analyzed concurrently with the use of boxplots. Seven different lithoclasses are generated based on the CPI’s which are used as training data and validation data. Three different machine learning models (initial, normalized and enhanced) are created and optimalized. The initial model is created using only the raw logs without modifications and the normalized model is created using standardized logs. The enhanced model is created with several features and modifications added to increase prediction accuracy. The models are applied to 11 wells and key differences between the models in terms of accuracy are presented. The results show that the initial model provides a decent baseline accuracy while the normalized model shows signs of underfitting. The enhanced model shows great promise in accuracy. The number of well logs available within a well has a direct influence on the accuracy of the models. For an acceptable predicting power the wells should minimum contain the gamma ray, density and neutron logs. To distinguish between water-bearing and hydrocarbon-bearing zones in sandstones the resistivity logs should be present. The choice of petrophysical filters when creating the lithoclasses has potential and will have more predicting power with improved refinement according to the aim of the study. When implemented on a larger scale caution need to be taken when introducing more geologic complexity in the input data. Machine Learning shows good promise in assessing wireline logs and the ML design in terms of training data should account for lateral variations such as depositional environment and varying burial depth to achieve optimal prediction accuracy.
A parallel algorithm for the enumeration of self-avoiding polygons on the square lattice

We have developed a parallel algorithm that allows us to enumerate the number of self-avoiding polygons on the square lattice to perimeter length 110. We have also extended the series for the first 10 area-weighted moments and the radius of gyration to 100. Analysis of the resulting series yields very accurate estimates of the connective constant ? = 2.638 158 530 31(3) (biased) and the critical exponent ? = 0.500 000 1(2) (unbiased). In addition, we obtain very accurate estimates for the leading amplitudes confirming to a high degree of accuracy various predictions for universal amplitude combinations.
On the use of discrete choice models for causal inference

Methodology for causal inference based on propensity scores has been developed and popularized in the last two decades. However, the majority of the methodology has concentrated on binary treatments. Only recently have these methods been extended to settings with multi‐valued treatments. We propose a number of discrete choice models for estimating the propensity scores. The models differ in terms of flexibility with respect to potential correlation between treatments, and, in turn, the accuracy of the estimated propensity scores. We present the effects of discrete choice models used on performance of the causal estimators through a Monte Carlo study. We also illustrate the use of discrete choice models to estimate the effect of antipsychotic drug use on the risk of diabetes in a cohort of adults with schizophrenia. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Mean, Variability, and Trend of Southern Ocean Wind Stress: Role of Wind Fluctuations

AbstractThe Southern Ocean (SO) surface westerly wind stress plays a fundamental role in driving the Antarctic Circumpolar Current and the global meridional overturning circulation. Here, the authors investigate the contributions of atmospheric wind fluctuations to the mean, variability, and trend of SO wind stress over the last four decades using NCEP reanalysis and ERA-Interim products. Including wind variability at synoptic frequencies (2–8 days) and higher in the stress calculation is found to increase the strength of the mean SO wind stress by almost 40% in both reanalysis products. The southern annular mode index is found to be a good indicator for the strength of the mean wind and mean wind stress, but not as good an indicator for wind fluctuations, at least for the chosen study period. Large discrepancies between reanalysis products emerge regarding the contributions of wind fluctuations to the strengthening trend of SO wind stress. Between one-third and one-half of the stress trend in NCEP can be.
An Exponential Continuous-Time GARCH Process

In this paper we introduce an exponential continuous-time GARCH(p, q) process. It is defined in such a way that it is a continuous-time extension of the discrete-time EGARCH(p, q) process. We investigate stationarity, mixing, and moment properties of the new model. An instantaneous leverage effect can be shown for the exponential continuous-time GARCH(p, p) model.
Stimulating rooting of guava cuttings by chemical and physical treatments

This study was conducted during two successive seasons 2014 and 2015 at the nursery of Pomology department, Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University, Egypt. It is aimed to investigate the influence of wounding, sucrose (1%) and antioxidant (mixture of 5% citric acid + 5% ascorbic acid) either alone or in combination with 0, 3000 and 5000 ppm IBA on rooting of guava softwood cuttings. Results showed that IBA at 3000 ppm was more efficient compared with the IBA at 5000 in promoting rooting, root length, weight and number. Wounding and antioxidant improved rooting and root parameters. The application of IBA at 3000 either alone or accompanied with antioxidant significantly increased rooting percent, root length, and number. Results indicated that IBA increased root weight through increasing root number rather than root length of guava cuttings.
Co-browsing dynamic web pages

Collaborative browsing, or co-browsing, is the co-navigation of the web with other people at-a-distance, supported by software that takes care of synchronizing the browsers. Current state-of-the-art solutions are able to do co-browsing of "static web pages", and do not support the synchronization of JavaScript interactions. However, currently many web pages use JavaScript and Ajax techniques to create highly dynamic and interactive web applications. In this paper, we describe two approaches for co-browsing that both support the synchronization of the JavaScript and Ajax interactions of dynamic web pages. One approach is based on synchronizing the output of the JavaScript engine by sending over the changes made on the DOM tree. The other approach is based on synchronizing the input of the JavaScript engine by synchronizing UI events and incoming data. Since the latter solution offers a better user experience and is more scalable, it is elaborated in more detail. An important aspect of both approaches is that they operate at the DOM level. Therefore, the client-side can be implemented in JavaScript and no browser extensions are required. To the best of the authors' knowledge this is the first DOM-level co-browsing solution that also enables co-browsing of the dynamic interaction parts of web pages. The presented co-browsing solution has been implemented in a research demonstrator which allows users to do co-browsing of web-applications on browser-based networked televisions.