Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Filling the Memory Access Gap: A Case for On-Chip Magnetic Storage (CMU-CS-99-174)

For decades, the memory hierarchy access gap has plagued computer architects with the RAM/disk gap widening to about 6 orders of magnitude in 1999. However, an exciting new storage technology based on MicroElectroMechanical Systems (MEMS) is poised to ll a large portion of this performance gap, delivering signi cant performance improvements and enabling many new types of applications. This research explores the impact MEMS-based storage will have on computer systems. Working closely with researchers building MEMS-based storage devices, we examine the performance impact of several design points. Results from ve di erent applications show that MEMS-based storage can reduce application I/O stall times by 80{99%, with overall performance improvements ranging from 1.1 to 20 for these applications. Most of these improvements result from the fact that average access times for MEMS-based storage are 5 times faster than disks (e.g., 1{3ms). Others result from fundamental di erences in the physical behavior of MEMS-based storage. Combined, these characteristics create numerous opportunities for restructuring the storage/memory hierarchy. David Nagle and Steven Schlosser are supported by an NSF CAREER Grant. John GriAEn is supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship.
Severe knee osteoarthritis: a randomized controlled trial of acupuncture, physiotherapy (supervised exercise) and standard management for patients awaiting knee replacement.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effects of standardized western acupuncture and physiotherapy on pain and functional ability in patients with severe osteoarthritic knee pain awaiting knee arthroplasty. METHODS Three-arm, assessor-blind, randomized controlled trial. PARTICIPANTS 181 patients awaiting knee arthroplasty. INTERVENTIONS acupuncture for 6 weeks; physiotherapy for 6 weeks; standardized advice. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Oxford Knee Score questionnaire (OKS) (primary); 50 m timed walk, and duration of hospital stay following knee arthroplasty. RESULTS There was no baseline difference between groups. At 7 weeks, there was a 10% reduction in OKS in the acupuncture group which was a significant difference between the acupuncture and the control group: Mean (s.d.) acupuncture 36.8 (7.20); physiotherapy 39.2 (8.22); control 40.3 (8.48) (P = 0.0497). These effects were no longer present at 12 weeks. There was a trend (P = 0.0984) towards a shorter in-patient stay of 1 day for the physiotherapy group [mean 6.50 days (s.d. 2.0)] compared with the acupuncture group [mean 7.77 days (s.d. 3.96)]. CONCLUSIONS We have demonstrated that patients with severe knee osteoarthritis can achieve a short-term reduction in OKS when treated with acupuncture. However, we failed to demonstrate any other clinically or statically significant effects between the groups. Both interventions can be delivered effectively in an out-patient group setting at a district general hospital. Further study is needed to evaluate the combined effects of these treatments.
Moist Tracking Investigation of Organic Insulating Materials

Moist tracking characteristics were determined for different classes of organic insulators, varying the electrolytes and electrolyte concentrations, conductor material, spacings, and temperature. The nature and concentration of an electrolyte and the conductor material were found to have a major influence upon an insulator's moist tracking behavior; the effect of conductor spacing was less pronounced, whereas temperature, up to 160°C, had a minimal effect only. Tracking was invariably associated with combustion. In agreement with prediction, aromatic polymers were observed to track at relatively low voltages, whereas compositions which decomposed by eatilization required high voltages to effect tracking. The response of a given insulator to changes in electrolyte, conductor material, and spacing appeared to depend solely on the chemical nature of the major constituent or constituents; the latter includes fillers.
Hodge cohomology of some foliated boundary and foliated cusp metrics

For fibred boundary and fibred cusp metrics, Hausel, Hunsicker, and Mazzeo identified the space of L2 harmonic forms of fixed degree with the images of maps between intersection cohomology groups of an associated stratified space obtained by collapsing the fibres of the fibration at infinity onto its base. In the present paper, we obtain a generalization of this result to situations where, rather than a fibration at infinity, there is a Riemannian foliation with compact leaves admitting a resolution by a fibration. If the associated stratified space (obtained now by collapsing the leaves of the foliation) is a Witt space and if the metric considered is a foliated cusp metric, then no such resolution is required.
Correlation between the intima-media thickness of the carotid artery and aortic pulse-wave velocity in patients with type 2 diabetes. Vessel wall properties in type 2 diabetes.

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between atherotic (structural) and sclerotic (functional) changes in patients with type 2 diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Aortic distensibility and carotid intimal-media thickness (IMT) were evaluated using carotid-femoral aortic pulse-wave velocity (a-PWV) and high-resolution B-mode ultrasonography in 271 patients with type 2 diabetes and 285 age-matched control subjects. RESULTS a-PWV and carotid IMT were significantly higher in the patients than in the control subjects in all age-groups (P < 0.0001, respectively). The carotid IMT and a-PWV were significantly correlated with age in both the patients with type 2 diabetes and control subjects. There was a significant positive relationship between the carotid IMT and a-PWV in both the patients (r = 0.482, P < 0.0001) and control subjects (r = 0.424, P < 0.0001). The slope of the regression line for the carotid IMT to the a-PWV was significantly steeper in the diabetic patients than in the control subjects (P < 0.05). Multiple regression analysis in all subjects showed that age, diabetic state, and cigarette smoking were independently common risk factors for the increase in carotid IMT and a-PWV. In the diabetic patients, the independent risk factors associated with the carotid IMT were age, hyperlipidemia, and duration of diabetes (R2 = 0.232, P < 0.0001), while those associated with a-PWV were age and duration of diabetes (R2 = 0.334, P < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS The results indicated that diabetic patients showed more advanced changes in atherosis than that in sclerosis as compared with age- and sex-matched control subjects. Such atherotic changes in diabetic patients may be associated with hyperlipidemia.
A node-wise analysis of the uterine muscle networks for pregnancy monitoring

The recent past years have seen a noticeable increase of interest in the correlation analysis of electrohysterographic (EHG) signals in the perspective of improving the pregnancy monitoring. Here we propose a new approach based on the functional connectivity between multichannel (4×4 matrix) EHG signals recorded from the women's abdomen. The proposed pipeline includes i) the computation of the statistical couplings between the multichannel EHG signals, ii) the characterization of the connectivity matrices, computed by using the imaginary part of the coherence, based on the graph-theory analysis and iii) the use of these measures for pregnancy monitoring. The method was evaluated on a dataset of EHGs, in order to track the correlation between EHGs collected by each electrode of the matrix (called `node-wise' analysis) and follow their evolution along weeks before labor. Results showed that the strength of each node significantly increases from pregnancy to labor. Electrodes located on the median vertical axis of the uterus seemed to be the more discriminant. We speculate that the network-based analysis can be a very promising tool to improve pregnancy monitoring.
Antitumor properties of two traditional aromatic rice genotypes (Kalijira and Chinigura)

Objective: Methanol extract of bran and unpolished grain of two traditional aromatic rice genotypes viz. Kalijira and Chinigura were assayed for their activity on the growth and initiation of crown-gall tumors on potato disks. Materials and Methods: Three Agrobacterium tumefaciens (A. tumefaciens) strain AtSl0105, AtTa0112, and AtAc0114 were used as the tumor forming agent. Collected rice was separated to bran and unpolished grain by different milling processes and made into fine powder before extracting using methanol. Antitumor assay of plant extracts was performed according to standard potato disc bioassay. Disc diffusion assay (Kirby-Bauer Method) was used to screen A. tumefaciens sensitivity test. Results: The results demonstrated a high correlation between the ability of aromatic rice to inhibit the initiation and growth of crown-gall tumors on potato disks. Maximum tumor inhibitions were observed against the strain AtSl0105 by Kalijira bran (73.91%) and Chinigura bran (69.56%). Both unpolished grains showed significant effect (Kalijira 57.43%, Chinigura 55.53%) to inhibit the tumor. Conclusion: It can be concluded that aromatic rice (Kalijira and Chinigura) might be a potential source of antitumor agent that can be used for further drug development for tumor treatment.
Essential dynamics of proteins

Analysis of extended molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of lysozyme in vacuo and in aqueous solution reveals that it is possible to separate the configurational space into two subspaces: (1) an “essential” subspace containing only a few degrees of freedom in which anharmonic motion occurs that comprises most of the positional fluctuations; and (2) the remaining space in which the motion has a narrow Gaussian distribution and which can be considered as “physically constrained. ” If overall translation and rotation are eliminated, the two spaces can be constructed by a simple linear transformation in Cartesian coordinate space, which remains valid over several hundred picoseconds. The transformation follows from the covariance matrix of the positional deviations. The essential degrees of freedom seem to describe motions which are relevant for the function of the protein, while the physically constrained subspace merely describes irrelevant local fluctuations. The near‐constraint behavior of the latter subspace allows the separation of equations of motion and promises the possibility of investigating independently the essential space and performing dynamic simulations only in this reduced space. © 1993 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Effects of Cyclosporine on Anesthetic Action

The effects of a single dose of cyclosporine on anesthetic actions of pentobarbital and fentanyl were studied in mice. Mice given pentobarbital 2 hr after receiving cyclosporine, 60 mg/kg, slept a statistically significant 2.3 times longer than did controls. In a second study, each of two dose levels of cyclosporine was given before each of four dose levels of fentanyl. The analgesic effect of fentanyl, measured with the abdominal constriction test, was dose-dependent. Cyclosporine significantly increased the analgesia produced by fentanyl and did so in a dose-dependent manner. Cyclosporine by itself did not produce analgesia. Plasma levels of fentanyl and binding of fentanyl by plasma proteins were unchanged by cyclosporine treatment. The results show that a single dose of cyclosporine can increase pentobarbital hypnosis and fentanyl analgesia in mice but do not establish the mechanism of these interactions.
Endocannabinoid System and Psychiatry: In Search of a Neurobiological Basis for Detrimental and Potential Therapeutic Effects

Public concern on mental health has noticeably increased given the high prevalence of neuropsychiatric disorders. Cognition and emotionality are the most affected functions in neuropsychiatric disorders, i.e., anxiety disorders, depression, and schizophrenia. In this review, most relevant literature on the role of the endocannabinoid (eCB) system in neuropsychiatric disorders will be presented. Evidence from clinical and animal studies is provided for the participation of CB1 and CB2 receptors (CB1R and CB2R) in the above mentioned neuropsychiatric disorders. CBRs are crucial in some of the emotional and cognitive impairments reported, although more research is required to understand the specific role of the eCB system in neuropsychiatric disorders. Cannabidiol (CBD), the main non-psychotropic component of the Cannabis sativa plant, has shown therapeutic potential in several neuropsychiatric disorders. Although further studies are needed, recent studies indicate that CBD therapeutic effects may partially depend on facilitation of eCB-mediated neurotransmission. Last but not least, this review includes recent findings on the role of the eCB system in eating disorders. A deregulation of the eCB system has been proposed to be in the bases of several neuropsychiatric disorders, including eating disorders. Cannabis consumption has been related to the appearance of psychotic symptoms and schizophrenia. In contrast, the pharmacological manipulation of this eCB system has been proposed as a potential strategy for the treatment of anxiety disorders, depression, and anorexia nervosa. In conclusion, the eCB system plays a critical role in psychiatry; however, detrimental consequences of manipulating this endogenous system cannot be underestimated over the potential and promising perspectives of its therapeutic manipulation.
Descriptive visual words and visual phrases for image applications

The Bag-of-visual Words (BoW) image representation has been applied for various problems in the fields of multimedia and computer vision. The basic idea is to represent images as visual documents composed of repeatable and distinctive visual elements, which are comparable to the words in texts. However, massive experiments show that the commonly used visual words are not as expressive as the text words, which is not desirable because it hinders their effectiveness in various applications. In this paper, Descriptive Visual Words (DVWs) and Descriptive Visual Phrases (DVPs) are proposed as the visual correspondences to text words and phrases, where visual phrases refer to the frequently co-occurring visual word pairs. Since images are the carriers of visual objects and scenes, novel descriptive visual element set can be composed by the visual words and their combinations which are effective in representing certain visual objects or scenes. Based on this idea, a general framework is proposed for generating DVWs and DVPs from classic visual words for various applications. In a large-scale image database containing 1506 object and scene categories, the visual words and visual word pairs descriptive to certain scenes or objects are identified as the DVWs and DVPs. Experiments show that the DVWs and DVPs are compact and descriptive, thus are more comparable with the text words than the classic visual words. We apply the identified DVWs and DVPs in several applications including image retrieval, image re-ranking, and object recognition. The DVW and DVP combination outperforms the classic visual words by 19.5% and 80% in image retrieval and object recognition tasks, respectively. The DVW and DVP based image re-ranking algorithm: DWPRank outperforms the state-of-the-art VisualRank by 12.4% in accuracy and about 11 times faster in efficiency.
Deep Learning for Identifying Metastatic Breast Cancer

The International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging (ISBI) held a grand challenge to evaluate computational systems for the automated detection of metastatic breast cancer in whole slide images of sentinel lymph node biopsies. Our team won both competitions in the grand challenge, obtaining an area under the receiver operating curve (AUC) of 0.925 for the task of whole slide image classification and a score of 0.7051 for the tumor localization task. A pathologist independently reviewed the same images, obtaining a whole slide image classification AUC of 0.966 and a tumor localization score of 0.733. Combining our deep learning system's predictions with the human pathologist's diagnoses increased the pathologist's AUC to 0.995, representing an approximately 85 percent reduction in human error rate. These results demonstrate the power of using deep learning to produce significant improvements in the accuracy of pathological diagnoses.
Panitumumab: leading to better overall survival in metastatic colorectal cancer?

Introduction: Survival of metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) patients has improved greatly over the past few years, essentially due to the appearance of new biological therapies. Among these new therapies, monoclonal antibodies targeting the EGFR are the leading contributors to the so-called personalized medicine. Biomarkers within the EGFR pathway, such as K-Ras mutation, have proved to help better select the patients benefiting from these treatments. Areas covered: Panitumumab is a fully human monoclonal antibody that targets the EGFR and is currently approved in combination with chemotherapy or in monotherapy for the treatment of mCRC patients. Following a description of the pharmacological and tolerability data, this review focuses on the clinical activity of panitumumab through the description of clinical trials and biomarker research. Expert opinion: Recent biomarker research with expanded Ras testing has led to an improvement in overall survival for all Ras wild-type patients treated with panitumumab. Furthermore, the thorough evaluation of markers within the EGFR pathway could potentially prevent detrimental effects for patients treated with panitumumab and avoid unnecessary toxicity and costs.
Bacterial Community Structure Associated With Elective Cesarean Section Versus Vaginal Delivery in Chinese Newborns

Objectives: Increasing attention is being paid to the potential for cesarean birth to influence the taxa of the bacteria that compose the infant intestinal microbiota. The present study characterized the diversity of the intestinal microbiota in newborn infants delivered vaginally (VD) or by cesarean section (CD). Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed using fecal specimens collected on days 2 and 4 of postnatal life from 25 VD infants and 16 CD infants. Profiles of the fecal microbiota were analyzed using polymerase chain reaction (PCR)–denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis in combination with 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene sequencing of the clones corresponding to the degenerating gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) bands. Results: On days 2 and 4 of postnatal life, VD and CD infants did not differ in the richness and evenness of the fecal bacterial community; however, the taxa of the fecal microbiota were significantly different between the 2 groups. In VD infants, Escherichia coli, Bacteroides sp, and Bifidobacterium longum were the dominant microbes. In CD infants, Staphylococcus sp, Clostridium sp, Enterobacter sp, and Streptococcus sp were more common. Conclusions: These results demonstrate that delivery method has a profound influence on the structure of the intestinal microbiota in Chinese newborn infants. This is in accordance with data reported in other regions.
Optimal Cutoff Titers for Indirect Immunofluorescence Assay for Diagnosis of Scrub Typhus

ABSTRACT We determined the optimal cutoff titers in admission and convalescent-phase samples for scrub typhus indirect immunofluorescence assay using Bayesian latent class models. Cutoff titers of ≥1:3,200 in an admission sample or of a ≥4-fold rise to ≥1:3,200 in a convalescent-phase sample provided the highest accuracy (sensitivity, 81.6%; specificity, 100%).
Consequences of clean indoor air exemptions in Oregon: the hookah story

The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control has stimulated the passage of comprehensive clean indoor air laws throughout the world.1 Although WHO guidelines stress the importance of universal protection from secondhand smoke in such laws,2 many states in the USA exempt certain locations such as tobacco retail establishments and tobacco bars/cigar lounges.3 ,4 Tobacco waterpipe (ie, hookah) establishments are often exempt from these laws, are growing in popularity and may change social norms regarding hookah use.3 ,4 Indeed, hookah use among young people in the USA appears to be increasing,5 as it is elsewhere,6 and the limited research available suggests it may be associated with negative health effects (eg, nicotine dependence, cancer). 5 In this letter, we describe the exemptions in Oregon's Indoor Clean Air Act (ICAA), subsequent proliferation of hookah lounges and associated monetary costs, as well as patterns in youth hookah use. To our knowledge, this is the first such published study in the …
Invasive fungal infections in neonatal intensive care units of Southern Italy: a multicentre regional active surveillance (AURORA project).

INTRODUCTION During the past years invasive fungal infections (IFIs) have become an increasingly important problem in infants hospitalized in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Candida species is the third most-common agent of late-onset infections in critically ill neonates, with an estimated incidence of 2.6-10% in very low birth weight and 5.5-20% in extremely low birth weight infants. The aim of this observational study is to evaluate the epidemiology of IFIs among infants admitted to NICUs of one Italian region by a multicenter surveillance (Aurora Project). METHODS The IFIs surveillance was carried out prospectively in Apulia (Southern Italy) between February 2007 and August 2008. This report focuses on the results from 6 enrolled NICUs. RESULTS Twenty-one neonates developed IFIs: the overall incidence was 1.3% and crude mortality was 23.8%. Infants weighing < or = 1500 g (4.3%) showed a significantly higher incidence than those > or = 2500 g (0.2%). C. parapsilosis (61.9%) was the most frequent isolated species. The main potential risk factors were having a central venous catheter placed, length of stay in NICU > 7 days and total parenteral nutrition for > 5 days. The (1,3)-beta-D glucan (BDG), mannan antigens and anti-Candida antibodies' evaluation was performed in 7 neonates. All neonates were positive to the BDG; the mannan antigen result was positive in 5 newborns, the anti-mannan antibodies were always negative. All isolates were amphotericin B and fluconazole-susceptible. DISCUSSION This first prospective study on neonatal fungal infection in one Italian region gives evidence of a preponderance of non-albicans Candida spp and indicates potential utility of BDG as an adjunct diagnostic test.
Characterization of equine infectious anemia virus dUTPase: growth properties of a dUTPase-deficient mutant

The putative dUTPase domain was deleted from the polymerase (pol) gene of equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV) to produce a recombinant delta DUpol Escherichia coli expression cassette and a delta DU proviral clone. Expression of the recombinant delta DUpol polyprotein yielded a properly processed and enzymatically active reverse transcriptase, as determined by immunoblot analysis and DNA polymerase activity gels. Transfection of delta DU provirus into feline (FEA) cells resulted in production of virus that replicated to wild-type levels in both FEA cells and fetal equine kidney cells. In contrast, the delta DU virus replicated poorly (less than 1% of wild-type levels) in primary equine macrophage cultures, as measured by reverse transcriptase assays. Preparations of delta DU virus contained negligible dUTPase activity, which confirms that virion-associated dUTPase is encoded in the pol gene region between the RNase H domain and integrase, as has been demonstrated previously for feline immunodeficiency virus (J. H. Elder, D. L. Lerner, C. S. Hasselkus-Light, D. J. Fontenot, E. Hunter, P. A. Luciw, R. C. Montelaro, and T. R. Phillips, J. Virol. 66:1791-1794, 1992). Our results suggest that virus-encoded dUTPase is dispensable for virus replication in dividing cells in vitro but may be required for efficient replication of EIAV in nondividing equine macrophages, the natural host cells for this virus.