Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The microvasculature in chronic kidney disease.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Individuals with chronic kidney disease (CKD) stages 3 to 5 have an increased risk of cardiac and other vascular disease. Here we examined the association of CKD 3 to 5 with small vessel caliber. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS This was a cross-sectional observational study of 126 patients with CKD stages 3 to 5 (estimated GFR [eGFR] <60 ml/min per 1.73 m(2)) and 126 age- and gender-matched hospital patients with CKD 1 or 2. Retinal vessel diameters were measured from digital fundus images by a trained grader using a computer-assisted method and summarized as the central retinal artery equivalent (CRAE) and central retinal vein equivalent (CRVE). RESULTS Patients with CKD 3 to 5 had a smaller mean CRAE and CRVE than hospital controls (139.4 ± 17.8 μm versus 148.5 ± 16.0 μm, P < 0.001; and 205.0 ± 30.7 μm versus 217.4 ± 25.8 μm, respectively; P = 0.001). CRAE and CRVE decreased progressively with each stage of renal failure CKD1-2 to 5 (P for trend = 0.08 and 0.04, respectively). CKD and hypertension were independent determinants of arteriolar narrowing after adjusting for age, gender, diabetes, dyslipidemia, and smoking history. Patients with CKD 5 and diabetes had a larger mean CRAE and CRVE than nondiabetics (141.4 ± 14.9 μm versus 132.9 ± 14.2 μm; 211.1 ± 34.4 μm versus 194.8 ± 23.8 μm). CONCLUSIONS The microvasculature is narrowed in patients with reduced eGFR.
Site and Rate of Occlusive Disease in Cervicocerebral Arteries: A CT Angiography Study of 2209 Patients with Acute Ischemic Stroke

The authors used CTA to assess arterial stenosis and occlusion in an ischemic stroke population arriving at a tertiary stroke center within 24 hours of symptom onset to obtain a comprehensive picture of occlusive disease pattern. Extra- and intracranial pathology, defined as stenosis of ≥50% and occlusions, were registered and classified into 21 prespecified segments. In the 50,807 arterial segments available for revision, 1851 (3.6%) abnormal segments were in the ischemic (symptomatic) territory and another 408 (0.8%) were outside it (asymptomatic). In the 1211 patients with ischemic stroke imaged within 6 hours of symptom onset, 40.7% had symptomatic large, proximal occlusions. They conclude that CTA in patients with acute ischemic stroke shows large individual variations of occlusion sites and degrees. Approximately half of patients have no visible occlusive disease, and 40% imaged within 6 hours show large, proximal segment occlusions amenable to endovascular therapy. BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: CTA can rapidly and accurately detect and localize occlusive disease in patients with ischemic stroke. We have used CTA to assess arterial stenosis and occlusion in an ischemic stroke population arriving at a tertiary stroke center within 24 hours of symptom onset in order to obtain a comprehensive picture of occlusive disease pattern, and to determine the proportion of eligible candidates for endovascular treatment. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Data from consecutive patients with acute ischemic stroke admitted to a single center between 2003 and 2012, collected in the Acute Stroke Registry and Analysis of Lausanne data base, were retrospectively analyzed. Patients with a diagnostic CTA within 24 hours of symptom onset were selected. Relevant extra- and intracranial pathology, defined as stenosis of ≥50% and occlusions, were registered and classified into 21 prespecified segments. RESULTS: Of the 2209 included patients (42.1% women; median age, 72 years), 1075 (48.7%) had pathology in and 308 (13.9%) had pathology outside the ischemic territory. In the 50,807 arterial segments available for revision, 1851 (3.6%) abnormal segments were in the ischemic (symptomatic) territory and another 408 (0.8%) were outside it (asymptomatic). In the 1211 patients with ischemic stroke imaged within 6 hours of symptom onset, 40.7% had symptomatic large, proximal occlusions potentially amenable to endovascular therapy. CONCLUSIONS: CTA in patients with acute ischemic stroke shows large individual variations of occlusion sites and degrees. Approximately half of such patients have no visible occlusive disease, and 40% imaged within 6 hours show large, proximal segment occlusions amenable to endovascular therapy. These findings show the importance of early noninvasive imaging of extra- and intracranial arteries for identifying occlusive disease, planning recanalization strategies, and designing interventional trials.
The Essence of Feeling a Sense of Community: A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Inquiry With Middle School Students and Teachers

ii Acknowledgements iii List of Tables vii Chapter One: Introduction 1 Personal Significance 2 Educational Significance 8 The Research Problem 11 The Research Question 13 The Research Paradigm 14 Summary 17 Chapter Two: The Literature 19 Some Fundamental Beliefs That May Affect How Community is Understood 19 The Human Need to Belong 21 Sense of Community 24 Difference in Community 28 Sense of Community and Schools 33 Summary 40 Chapter Three: Description of the Research Process 41 Research Methodology 41 My Relationship to the Research 42 Data Sources 43 Ethics Clearance and Consent Procedures 46 Overview of the Data Analysis and Interpretation 47 Data Analysis Process in Detail to Support Authenticity 49 Connecting Across the Data Sources 61 The Final Themes Describing the Essence of Feeling a Sense of Community 65 Authenticity 67 Summary 71 Chapter Four: The Findings 72
Development of a condition-specific quality of life measure for patients with dentofacial deformity: I. Reliability of the instrument.

UNLABELLED The assessment of quality of life is becoming increasingly important in clinical research. Its importance in dentistry has been realised only relatively recently. Health-related quality of life is concerned with the aspects of quality of life that relate specifically to an individual's health. This may be measured using two groups of instruments: (i) generic measures, which provide a summary of health-related quality of life and sometimes generate a single index measure of health or (ii) condition-specific measures, which focus on a particular condition, disease, population or problem and are potentially more responsive to small, but clinically important, changes in health. OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to develop a condition-specific quality of life measure for those patients with severe dentofacial deformity who were requesting orthognathic treatment and to assess the reliability of this instrument. METHOD Instrument content was derived through a literature review and interviews with clinicians and patients. The resulting instrument was tested for internal consistency and test-retest reliability. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION The instrument was found to divide into four clinically meaningful domains. Internal consistency and test-retest reliability were good. Patient acceptance of the questionnaire was also encouraging.
DNA Damage Checkpoints Are Involved in Postreplication Repair

Saccharomyces cerevisiae MMS2 encodes a ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme variant, belongs to the error-free branch of the RAD6 postreplication repair (PRR) pathway, and is parallel to the REV3-mediated mutagenesis branch. A mutation in genes of either the MMS2 or the REV3 branch does not result in extreme sensitivity to DNA-damaging agents; however, deletion of both subpathways of PRR results in a synergistic phenotype. Nevertheless, the double mutant is not as sensitive to DNA-damaging agents as a rad6 or rad18 mutant defective in the entire PRR pathway, suggesting the presence of an additional subpathway within PRR. A synthetic lethal screen was employed in the presence of a sublethal dose of a DNA-damaging agent to identify novel genes involved in PRR, which resulted in the isolation of RAD9 as a candidate PRR gene. Epistatic analysis showed that rad9 is synergistic to both mms2 and rev3 with respect to killing by methyl methanesulfonate (MMS), and the triple mutant is nearly as sensitive as the rad18 single mutant. In addition, rad9 rad18 is no more sensitive to MMS than the rad18 single mutant, suggesting that rad9 plays a role within the PRR pathway. Moreover, deletion of RAD9 reduces damage-induced mutagenesis and the mms2 spontaneous and induced mutagenesis is partially dependent on the RAD9 gene. We further demonstrated that the observed synergistic interactions apply to any two members between different branches of PRR and G1/S and G2/M checkpoint genes. These results suggest that a damage checkpoint is essential for tolerance mediated by both the error-free and error-prone branches of PRR.
Comparison of DSM-IV versus proposed DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for eating disorders: reduction of eating disorder not otherwise specified and validity.

OBJECTIVE Revised Eating Disorder (ED) diagnostic criteria have been proposed for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM)-5 to reduce the preponderance of eating disorder not otherwise specified (EDNOS) and increase the validity of diagnostic groups. This article compares DSM-IV and proposed DSM-5 diagnostic criteria on number of EDNOS cases and validity. METHOD Participants (N = 397; 91% female) completed structured clinical interviews in a two-stage epidemiological study of EDs. Interviewers did not follow standard skip rules, making it possible to evaluate alternative ED diagnostic criteria. RESULTS Using DSM-IV versus DSM-5 criteria, 34 (14%) versus 48 (20%) had anorexia nervosa, 43 (18%) versus 44 (18%) had bulimia nervosa, and 163 (68%) had EDNOS versus 20 (8%) had binge eating disorder (BED), and 128 (53%) had EDNOS, respectively, reflecting a significant decrease in EDNOS. Validation analyses supported significant differences among groups with some improvement associated with delineation of BED. DISCUSSION Proposed revisions to EDs in the DSM-5 significantly reduced reliance on EDNOS without loss of information.
Google's Insights for Search: A Note Evaluating the Use of Search Engine Data in Social Research

Objective. This research note presents and assesses the potential for Google's Insights for Search tool for use in social science research. Methods. Measures of social phenomena across time and across ecological units produced from search engine data are compared with existing data sources. Results. The comparisons show that the search engine data correspond quite closely with existing measures of issue salience and religious adherence. Conclusions. Given its relative lack of cost both in terms of money and labor, its flexibility, and its correspondence to other data, social scientists should consider the Insights for Search tool for research purposes.
Facial Soft Tissue Depths in Craniofacial Identification (Part I): An Analytical Review of the Published Adult Data *

Abstract: With the ever increasing production of average soft tissue depth studies, data are becoming increasingly complex, less standardized, and more unwieldy. So far, no overarching review has been attempted to determine: the validity of continued data collection; the usefulness of the existing data subcategorizations; or if a synthesis is possible to produce a manageable soft tissue depth library. While a principal components analysis would provide the best foundation for such an assessment, this type of investigation is not currently possible because of a lack of easily accessible raw data (first, many studies are narrow; second, raw data are infrequently published and/or stored and are not always shared by some authors). This paper provides an alternate means of investigation using an hierarchical approach to review and compare the effects of single variables on published mean values for adults whilst acknowledging measurement errors and within‐group variation. The results revealed: (i) no clear secular trends at frequently investigated landmarks; (ii) wide variation in soft tissue depth measures between different measurement techniques irrespective of whether living persons or cadavers were considered; (iii) no clear clustering of non‐Caucasoid data far from the Caucasoid means; and (iv) minor differences between males and females. Consequently, the data were pooled across studies using weighted means and standard deviations to cancel out random and opposing study‐specific errors, and to produce a single soft tissue depth table with increased sample sizes (e.g., 6786 individuals at pogonion).
Pathological differentiation of suspected cases of pentastomiasis in China

We report nine cases of suspected pentastomiasis from China, and propose that diagnosis of this rare parasitic disease should be made aetio‐pathologically, subaetio‐pathologically, and presumptively. In none of our cases' lesions we could find either a whole or part of an embedded nymph; hence, no aetio‐pathologic diagnosis of pentastomid infection was established. In three cases, subaetio‐pathologic diagnoses of pentastomiasis were made upon the discovery of a peculiar set of relics from lesions, namely two pairs of circumoral hooks of pentastomid from lesions. In one of these three cases, an extra scissors‐like image indicating a longitudinal section of a hook of the embedded pentastomid nymph, probably Linguatula serrata, was found. In the other six cases, none of the relics of the aetiological agents were found, and our diagnoses were made presumptively by a series of relatively specific pathologic features, i.e. pearly lesions over the peritoneal surface of the abdominal cavity under the serosa of the intestinal wall or under the capsules of liver and spleen. They tend to be uniquely protuberant, sometimes linked by a short thin stalk to the surface. The hyalinization and calcification of these centrally caseated granulomatous nodules tend to be concentric and targetoid in appearance. Tuberculosis, the most easily confused condition, was easily ruled out pathohistologically. We believe that there is a need for presumptive pathologic diagnosis of human pentastomid infection not only in China, but worldwide.
Digital Divide: Civic Engagement, Information Poverty, and the Internet Worldwide

Digital Divide: Civic Engagement, Information Poverty, and the Internet Worldwide. Pippa Norris. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. 303 pp. $60 hbk. , $20 pbk. Forecasts that the Internet heralds a world of more democracy and less poverty seem as inflated as dot.com stocks. This rosy view has electronic voting, political chat rooms, and email access re-engaging apathetic publics in politics. Digital technologies redress economic disparities, and the benefits of the Internet percolate down to transform poor societies. Equally exaggerated is the gloom of naysayers. The Internet Age has done little to narrow the gap between rich and poor countries, the information haves and havenots, cyber-skeptics contend. Indeed, digital technologies could create new inequalities and reinforce the dominance of power elites. In her new book, Digital Divide, Pippa Norris, associate director of the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University, steps into this fusillade of cyber-hyperbole, lowers the decibel with a well-written and thoughtful examination of Internet use and access in 179 countries and dissects the claims and counter-claims. Her research and findings place her on middle ground, somewhere between current reality and optimism. The Internet era seems to be changing "politics as usual" in a number of countries, expanding and loosening information about governments and politics, allowing the entrance of new political players, and fostering international movements on the environment, women's rights, and other issues across borders. The disappointment is that digital technologies are activating the already politically active and passing up the disengaged and uninterested. A major challenge to digital democracy is the gulf between the United States, Scandinavia, and other early Internet adopters and the rest of the world. That gap is now so wide that at the turn of the century, more than three-quarters of the online community lived in the developed world. Internet use tracks the path of economic and technological development. But that situation could begin to change, Norris says. The Internet is in its technological adolescence. Costs of access are falling. And governments can make a difference if policymakers take the initiative. We have the historical patterns of other communication technologies to study. Norris examines theories of technological diffusion and points out that the American response to the Internet is more akin to the rapid spread of televisions and VCRs than the slower adoption of telephones and radios. American dominance could recede as Internet access grows worldwide. Contrary to what officials of the Bush Administration contend, Norris finds that the digital divide between rich and poor within the United States remains substantial. Europe mirrors that trend. In the long run, the Internet could become more accessible to the excluded: lower income families, minorities, and women. …
The trpC gene of Phanerochaete chrysosporium is unique in containing an intron but nevertheless maintains the order of functional domains seen in other fungi

The Phanerochaete chryososporium trpC gene has been isolated by complementation of an Escherichia coli trpC mutant. The full extent of the fungal gene, determined by sequence analysis, was found to be 2414bp. This includes a single intron of 50bp, the presence of which was confirmed by RNA‐primed polymerase chain reaction analysis. This feature makes the P. chrysosporium gene unique when compared to equivalent genes from other filamentous fungi. The P. chrysosporium trpC gene encodes a single protein containing three enzyme activities involved in tryptophan biosynthesis arranged in the order: NH2–GAT–IGPS–PRAI–COOH. This order is conserved in all filamentous fungi so far examined and, indeed, is the gene order within the E. coli trp operon.
Allelic Selection of Amplicons in Glioblastoma Revealed by Combining Somatic and Germline Analysis

Cancer is a disease driven by a combination of inherited risk alleles coupled with the acquisition of somatic mutations, including amplification and deletion of genomic DNA. Potential relationships between the inherited and somatic aspects of the disease have only rarely been examined on a genome-wide level. Applying a novel integrative analysis of SNP and copy number measurements, we queried the tumor and normal-tissue genomes of 178 glioblastoma patients from the Cancer Genome Atlas project for preferentially amplified alleles, under the hypothesis that oncogenic germline variants will be selectively amplified in the tumor environment. Selected alleles are revealed by allelic imbalance in amplification across samples. This general approach is based on genetic principles and provides a method for identifying important tumor-related alleles. We find that SNP alleles that are most significantly overrepresented in amplicons tend to occur in genes involved with regulation of kinase and transferase activity, and many of these genes are known contributors to gliomagenesis. The analysis also implicates variants in synapse genes. By incorporating gene expression data, we demonstrate synergy between preferential allelic amplification and expression in DOCK4 and EGFR. Our results support the notion that combining germline and tumor genetic data can identify regions relevant to cancer biology.
The coupling-of-modes approach to the analysis of STW devices. II

For pt. I see ibid., vol. 44, no. 3, p. 652-7 (1997). The method for analyzing surface transverse wave (STW) devices by using a coupling-of-modes (COM) formalism has been completed, covering the STW electromechanical coupling coefficient (ECC). An ECC analytical formula has been derived by fitting numerical results from STW effective permittivity analysis. The ECC exhibits frequency and mass-loading variation. Using this new result, a satisfactory agreement with available experimental frequency characteristics of STW two-port quartz resonators has been achieved, without the necessity of additional experimental information. In its present form, the method is self-consistent and applicable to arbitrary STW layouts.
Deep LSTM Networks for Online Chinese Handwriting Recognition

Currently two heavy burdens are borne in online Chinese handwriting recognition: a large-scale training data needs to be annotated with the boundaries of each character and effective features should be handcrafted by domain experts. To relieve such issues, the paper presents a novel end-to-end recognition method based on recurrent neural networks. A mixture architecture of deep bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) layers and feed forward subsampling layers is used to encode the long contextual history trajectories. The Connectionist Temporal Classification (CTC) objective function makes it possible to train the model without providing alignment information between input trajectories and output strings. During decoding, a modified CTC beam search algorithm is devised to integrate the linguistic constraints wisely. Our method is evaluated both on test set and competition set of CASIA-OLHWDB 2. x. Comparing with state-of-the-art methods, over 30% relative error reductions are observed on test set in terms of both correct rate and accurate rate. Even to the more challenging competition set, better results can be achieved by our method if the out-of-vocabulary problem can be ignored.
Secrecy Capacity and Outage Performance of Correlated Fading Wire-Tap Channel

The fading channel model is seen as an important approach that can efficiently capture the basic time-varying properties of wireless channels, while physical layer security is a promising approach to providing a strong form of security. This paper focuses on the fundamental performance study of applying physical layer security to achieve secure and reliable information transmission over the fading wire-tap channel. For the practical scenario where the main channel is correlated with the eavesdropper channel but only the real time channel state information (CSI) of the main channel is known at the transmitter, we conduct a comprehensive study on the fundamental performance limits of this system by theoretically modeling its secrecy capacity, transmission outage probability and secrecy outage probability. With the help of these theoretical models, we then explore the inherent performance tradeoffs under fading wire-tap channel and also the potential impact of channel correlation on such tradeoffs. key words: secrecy capacity, rayleigh fading, channel correlation, outage probability, channel state information.