Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
What is the diagnostic utility of endoscopic scoring systems in children?

BACKGROUND/AIMS The aim of this study was to evaluate the consistency of the Savary-Miller, the Hetzel-Dent and the Los Angeles endoscopic classification systems and to compare them with the esophageal histopathology in children. MATERIAL AND METHODS Children between the ages of 5-17 years who underwent esophagogastroduodenoscopy were included in the study. The endoscopic reports and the still images of the esophagus were reclassified by the same gastroenterologist according to the Savary-Miller, Hetzel- Dent and Los Angeles scoring systems. The esophageal biopsies were also reevaluated by the same pathologist and the consistency between endoscopic and histopathologic esophagitis was evaluated. RESULTS A total of 113 out of 192 pediatric patients were included in the study. Seventy-three patients (64.6%) had esophagitis according to the Hetzel-Dent classification, whereas only 20 (17.7%) patients were defined as having esophagitis according to the other two classification systems. The consistency between the Savary-Miller and Los Angeles classifications was excellent (κ: 0.92) but the agreement between the Hetzel-Dent and Savary-Miller and between the Hetzel-Dent and Los Angeles classifications were poor. A total of 82 patients (72.6%) had histopathological esophagitis, and there was a weak consistency between all 3 endoscopic scoring systems and the histopathology. CONCLUSIONS Since pediatric patients have milder esophagitis than in adults, the use of endoscopic scoring systems developed for adults seems to be inapplicable for children. The inclusion of minimal endoscopic changes in endoscopic scoring systems by using more sensitive and novel endoscopic techniques would increase the sensitivity of these scoring systems in children.
Correlation Function in Deep Redshift Space as a Cosmological Probe

Recent developments in galaxy surveys enable us to investigate the deep, high-redshift, universe. We quantitatively present the physical information extractable from the observable correlation function in deep redshift space in a framework of linear theory. The correlation function depends on the underlying power spectrum, velocity distortions, and the Alcock-Paczyński (AP) effect. The underlying power spectrum is sensitive to the constituents of matter in the universe, the velocity distortions are sensitive to the galaxy bias as well as the amount of total matter, and the Alcock-Paczyński effect is sensitive to the dark energy components. Measuring the dark energy by means of the baryonic feature in the correlation function is one of the most interesting applications. We show that the "baryon ridge" in the correlation function serves as a statistically circular object in the AP effect. In order to sufficiently constrain the dark energy components, the redshift range of the galaxy survey should be as broad as possible. The survey area on the sky should be smaller at deep redshifts than at shallow redshifts to keep the number density as dense as possible. We illustrate an optimal survey design that is useful in cosmology. Assuming future redshift surveys of z ≲ 3, which are within the reach of present-day technology, achievable error bounds on cosmological parameters are estimated by calculating the Fisher matrix. According to an illustrated design, the equation of state of dark energy can be constrained within ±5% error assuming that the bias is unknown and marginalized over. Even when all the other cosmological parameters should be simultaneously determined, the error bound for the equation of state is up to ±10%.
Analyst Information Discovery and Interpretation Roles: A Topic Modeling Approach

This study examines analyst information intermediary roles using a textual analysis of analyst reports and corporate disclosures. We employ a topic modeling methodology from computational linguistic research to compare the thematic content of a large sample of analyst reports issued promptly after earnings conference calls with the content of the calls themselves. We show that analysts discuss exclusive topics beyond those from conference calls and interpret topics from conference calls. In addition, we find that investors place a greater value on new information in analyst reports when managers face greater incentives to withhold value-relevant information. Analyst interpretation is particularly valuable when the processing costs of conference call information increase. Finally, we document that investors react to analyst report content that simply confirms managers’ conference call discussions. Overall, our study shows that analysts play the information intermediary roles by discovering information beyond corporate disclosures and by clarifying and confirming corporate disclosures.
Metabolism via Arginase or Nitric Oxide Synthase: Two Competing Arginine Pathways in Macrophages

Macrophages play a major role in the immune system, both as antimicrobial effector cells and as immunoregulatory cells, which induce, suppress or modulate adaptive immune responses. These key aspects of macrophage biology are fundamentally driven by the phenotype of macrophage arginine metabolism that is prevalent in an evolving or ongoing immune response. M1 macrophages express the enzyme nitric oxide synthase, which metabolizes arginine to nitric oxide (NO) and citrulline. NO can be metabolized to further downstream reactive nitrogen species, while citrulline might be reused for efficient NO synthesis via the citrulline–NO cycle. M2 macrophages are characterized by expression of the enzyme arginase, which hydrolyzes arginine to ornithine and urea. The arginase pathway limits arginine availability for NO synthesis and ornithine itself can further feed into the important downstream pathways of polyamine and proline syntheses, which are important for cellular proliferation and tissue repair. M1 versus M2 polarization leads to opposing outcomes of inflammatory reactions, but depending on the context, M1 and M2 macrophages can be both pro- and anti-inflammatory. Notably, M1/M2 macrophage polarization can be driven by microbial infection or innate danger signals without any influence of adaptive immune cells, secondarily driving the T helper (Th)1/Th2 polarization of the evolving adaptive immune response. Since both arginine metabolic pathways cross-inhibit each other on the level of the respective arginine break-down products and Th1 and Th2 lymphocytes can drive or amplify macrophage M1/M2 dichotomy via cytokine activation, this forms the basis of a self-sustaining M1/M2 polarization of the whole immune response. Understanding the arginine metabolism of M1/M2 macrophage phenotypes is therefore central to find new possibilities to manipulate immune responses in infection, autoimmune diseases, chronic inflammatory conditions, and cancer.
The spatial origin of −5/3 spectra in grid-generated turbulence

A combined wind tunnel and computational study of grid-generated turbulence along the centreline shows that the close to −5/3 power law signature of energy spectra in the frequency domain originates relatively close to the grid not only where the velocity derivative statistics become quite suddenly isotropic but also where the turbulent fluctuating velocities are very intermittent and non-Gaussian. As the inlet flow velocity increases, these power laws are increasingly well defined and increasingly close to −5/3 over an increasing range of frequencies. However, this range continuously decreases with streamwise distance from the grid even though the local Reynolds number first increases and then decreases along the same streamwise extent. The intermittency at the point of origin of the close to −5/3 power spectra consists of alternations between intense vortex tube clusters with shallow broad-band spectra and quiescent regions where the velocity fluctuations are smooth with steep energy spectra.
Assessment of Water Quality: A Case Study of River Yamuna

: According to the Hindu mythology, river Yamuna is considered as one of the most sacred rivers after the Ganges. In this study water quality of the river Yamuna was assessed at four different sampling locations during the months of May to August 2014. Physico-chemical parameters like pH, EC, turbidity, TDS, DO, BOD, COD, Cl - and SO42- were analyzed and the observed results were compared with the standard limits of BIS and WHO. The mean pH, EC, turbidity, TDS, DO, BOD, COD, Cl - and SO 42- values at the four sampling sites were observed in the range of 7.81-8.00, 1046.5-1195.3 µS/cm, 27.0-37.3 NTU, 856.5-936.0 mg/l, 4.5-5.2 mg/l, 19.3-25.8 mg/l, 58.0-85.0 mg/l, 242.5-267.0 mg/l and 97.75-114.0 mg/l respectively. The results on the water quality parameters of Yamuna river indicate that the river is not safe for domestic purposes.
Spontaneous Trigeminal Allodynia in Rats: A Model of Primary Headache

Animal models are essential for studying the pathophysiology of headache disorders and as a screening tool for new therapies. Most animal models modify a normal animal in an attempt to mimic migraine symptoms. They require manipulation to activate the trigeminal nerve or dural nociceptors. At best, they are models of secondary headache. No existing model can address the fundamental question: How is a primary headache spontaneously initiated? In the process of obtaining baseline periorbital von Frey thresholds in a wild‐type Sprague‐Dawley rat, we discovered a rat with spontaneous episodic trigeminal allodynia (manifested by episodically changing periorbital pain threshold). Subsequent mating showed that the trait is inherited. Animals with spontaneous trigeminal allodynia allow us to study the pathophysiology of primary recurrent headache disorders. To validate this as a model for migraine, we tested the effects of clinically proven acute and preventive migraine treatments on spontaneous changes in rat periorbital sensitivity. Sumatriptan, ketorolac, and dihydroergotamine temporarily reversed the low periorbital pain thresholds. Thirty days of chronic valproic acid treatment prevented spontaneous changes in trigeminal allodynia. After discontinuation, the rats returned to their baseline of spontaneous episodic threshold changes. We also tested the effects of known chemical human migraine triggers. On days when the rats did not have allodynia and showed normal periorbital von Frey thresholds, glycerol trinitrate and calcitonin gene related peptide induced significant decreases in the periorbital pain threshold. This model can be used as a predictive model for drug development and for studies of putative biomarkers for headache diagnosis and treatment.
Towards understanding phishing victims' profile

Today it is known that the weakest link in the cyber security chain is the computer user. Social engineering attacks are commonly used to deceive computer users to perform actions that could leak private information. Such attacks psychologically manipulate the computer users to reveal his/her confidential information. Therefore, the computer user has been carefully studied by security researchers to understand the relationship between cyber security incidents and the victim background. In this paper, we present a breadth-first survey of recent studies that aim to understand the relationship between victims' backgrounds and phishing attacks. We summarize the characteristics of the phishing victims, following a review of their demographic and personality traits.
Iterative generation of motion-compensated side information for distributed video coding

Distributed video coding (DVC) is a coding paradigm that gives the decoder the task to exploit the source statistics to achieve efficient compression. Current approaches to DVC rely on motion-compensated interpolation to generate at the decoder an estimation of the frame being decoded. This paper presents an iterative motion-compensated interpolation technique that takes advantage of all available information about the frame being estimated, not only the previous and posterior frames as is common practice. Simulation results show that the addition of this estimation technique to an existing DVC codec produces a 0.15 dB improvement in the PSNR of the rate-distortion plots.
Efficient Scheduling for Heterogeneous Services in OFDMA Downlink

We consider optimal allocation of resources to users in a downlink OFDMA system to support heterogeneous applications consisting of both deadline-sensitive (DS) and best-effort (BE) data in a cross-layer manner. Given the user queue-states and long-term channel statistics, the proposed persistent scheduling algorithm allocates the minimum resources to 'just' meet the deadlines for DS packets (QoS guarantee). The remaining resources are optimally split between the users for their BE data to maximize sum-rate, minimize buffer holding cost or any general utility function. We formulate the resource allocation problem as a single geometric program (GP) that can be solved using standard convex optimization software tools. Simulation results are presented to compare the performance of different objectives for the BE applications in presence of DS traffic.
Longitudinal Effects of Physical Inactivity and Obesity on Gait Speed in Older Adults with Frequent Knee Pain: Data from the Osteoarthritis Initiative

Physical inactivity (PI) and obesity are risk factors for many health conditions, including knee pain (KP). The purpose of the present study was to examine the 6-year effects of PI and obesity on gait speed (GS) among older adults with frequent KP. This prospective cohort study used data from the Osteoarthritis Initiative (OAI). At baseline, we studied 1788 adults aged 45 to 79 years old. We grouped the participants into four categories according to baseline scores on the Physical Activity Scale for the Elderly (PASE) and body mass index (BMI). GS was measured using the 20-m timed walk test. Frequent KP was assessed with a self-report questionnaire, and obesity was assessed by BMI (30 kg/m2 or greater). General linear mixed models were conducted using data collected at baseline and 12, 24, 36, 48, and 72 months. After adjusting for all covariates, lower levels of physical activity and obesity were associated with a decrease in GS (β = −0.095, SE = 0.011, p < 0.0001). Our results suggest that both PI and obesity are associated with decreased GS over time in older adults with frequent KP.
Underwater hearing in the loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta): a comparison of behavioral and auditory evoked potential audiograms

SUMMARY The purpose of this study was to compare underwater behavioral and auditory evoked potential (AEP) audiograms in a single captive adult loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta). The behavioral audiogram was collected using a go/no-go response procedure and a modified staircase method of threshold determination. AEP thresholds were measured using subdermal electrodes placed beneath the frontoparietal scale, dorsal to the midbrain. Both methods showed the loggerhead sea turtle to have low frequency hearing with best sensitivity between 100 and 400 Hz. AEP testing yielded thresholds from 100 to 1131 Hz with best sensitivity at 200 and 400 Hz (110 dB re. 1 μPa). Behavioral testing using 2 s tonal stimuli yielded underwater thresholds from 50 to 800 Hz with best sensitivity at 100 Hz (98 dB re. 1 μPa). Behavioral thresholds averaged 8 dB lower than AEP thresholds from 100 to 400 Hz and 5 dB higher at 800 Hz. The results suggest that AEP testing can be a good alternative to measuring a behavioral audiogram with wild or untrained marine turtles and when time is a crucial factor.
Intratumoral Heterogeneity of Immunohistochemical Marker Expression in Breast Carcinoma: A Tissue Microarray-based Study

Core needle biopsies of breast carcinomas provide diagnostic, prognostic, and predictive information before neoadjuvant therapy. Possible intratumoral heterogeneity of biomarker expression questions the validity of core needle biopsy interpretation in small biopsy specimens. Using tissue microarray (TMA) technology, we studied intratumoral heterogeneity of 7 immunomarkers. Five TMAs were constructed from 44 breast carcinomas and 5 normal breast tissues, each represented by 1-mm cores in triplicate from each of 3 foci. TMAs were immunostained for monoclonal estrogen receptor (ER), monoclonal progesterone receptor (PR), polyclonal human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), monoclonal E-cadherin (E-cad), monoclonal epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), monoclonal p53, and monoclonal MIB-1. Expression was quantified visually by light microscopy and by image cytometry as intensity, percentage of cells positive, and score. Using intraclass correlation coefficient, heterogeneity in the expression of the immunomarkers within subjects was compared with the overall variance. Intratumoral heterogeneity was seen with 5 immunomarkers: ER, PR, HER2, p53, and MIB-1. E-cad and EGFR failed to show intratumoral heterogeneity. Intratumoral heterogeneity in ER, PR, HER2, p53, and MIB-1 indicates their problematic interpretation in small biopsy specimens as indicative of the status of the entire tumor. A negative result does not exclude the expression of these markers in the remainder of the tumor. E-cad (positive in ductal carcinomas) and EGFR lacked heterogeneity.
Integrating Trust and Competency Management to Improve Learning

Nowadays, the importance of knowledge management is well understood by managers in the organizations and, at the same time, the great significance of trust, in enabling effective knowledge sharing, is emerging. Presence or lack of trust can have serious implications for organizations with respect to the quality and of their business processes. Several scientific works have confirmed the direct correlation between social-cognitive capital, in terms of competencies and experiences, and a feeling of trust in both learning and working collaborative environments. On the other hand, Competency-Based Management allows organizations to link human resources processes to competencies in order to shape its workforce capabilities and to achieve better results. Typically, employees' competencies (and proficiency levels) are stored and used by specific enterprise software, whereas the trust is not considered or left to managers' feeling. This work proposes an approach to the improvement of collaborative learning activities by refining and allowing (at workers' level) competency-finding processes through the social calculus of trust-in-competencies degree.
DNA Transformation of Leishmania infantum Axenic Amastigotes and Their Use in Drug Screening

ABSTRACT Protocols for DNA electroporation in Leishmaniapromastigote cells are well established. More recently, in vitro culture of axenic Leishmania amastigotes became possible. We have established conditions for DNA transformation of axenically grown Leishmania infantum amastigotes. Parameters for DNA electroporation of Leishmania axenic amastigotes were systematically studied using luciferase-mediated transient transfection. Cell lines expressing stable luciferase activity were then selected, and their ability to be used in an in vitro drug screening procedure was determined. A model was established, using axenic amastigotes expressing luciferase activity, for rapidly determining the activity of drugs directly against both axenic and intracellular amastigotes. For intracellular amastigotes, the 50% effective concentrations of pentamidine, sodium stibogluconate (Pentostam), meglumine (Glucantime), and potassium antimonyl tartrate determined with the luciferase assay were 0.2 μM (0.12 μg/ml), 55 μg/ml, 95 μg/ml, and 0.12 μg/ml, respectively; these values are in agreement with values determined by more labor-intensive staining methods. We also showed the usefulness of luciferase-expressing parasites for analyzing drug resistance. The availability of luciferase-expressing amastigotes for use in high-throughput screening should facilitate the search for new antileishmanial drugs.
Type-based MCMC for Sampling Tree Fragments from Forests

This paper applies type-based Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithms to the problem of learning Synchronous Context-Free Grammar (SCFG) rules from a forest that represents all possible rules consistent with a fixed word alignment. While type-based MCMC has been shown to be effective in a number of NLP applications, our setting, where the tree structure of the sentence is itself a hidden variable, presents a number of challenges to type-based inference. We describe methods for defining variable types and efficiently indexing variables in order to overcome these challenges. These methods lead to improvements in both log likelihood and BLEU score in our experiments.
Bilingual Learning of Multi-sense Embeddings with Discrete Autoencoders

We present an approach to learning multi-sense word embeddings relying both on monolingual and bilingual information. Our model consists of an encoder, which uses monolingual and bilingual context (i.e. a parallel sentence) to choose a sense for a given word, and a decoder which predicts context words based on the chosen sense. The two components are estimated jointly. We observe that the word representations induced from bilingual data outperform the monolingual counterparts across a range of evaluation tasks, even though crosslingual information is not available at test time.
Offline social networks: stepping away from the internet

Online Social Networks (OSN) have been revolutionary in the way people interact over the Internet today. Typically in online social networks the information is ephemeral while the relationships between users are sustainable. Yet, this might not always reflect the real links between users. For instance, it might just reflect the fact that although you enjoyed talking again to your old primary school buddy, it did not take long to realize that you might not want to be permanently connected to him. Similarly, information posted a long time ago is almost impossible to dig out, several scenarios can be thought of where a permanent access to information can be desirable. Also, privacy is a recurrent issue in OSNs. Finally, the wired and global nature of online social networks does not ease the leveraging of physical locality.
A rotary PIN entry scheme resilient to shoulder-surfing

The combination of tokens or cards and personal identification numbers (PINs) are widely used for authentication in many applications including automatic teller machines (ATMs) and point of sales (POSs). Recent security incidents have shown that criminals can get these authentication tokens or cards either by pickpocketing or through fake magnetic card readers. Furthermore, PINs may also be captured through shoulder-surfing or by the use of concealed miniature cameras. Upon obtaining both authentication factors, criminals can easily break into users' accounts which presents a high security risk. In this paper, we propose a new spinwheel-like PIN entry scheme which is resilient against shoulder-surfing attacks even if the shoulder-surfer can record the entire PIN entry procedure for one time with a video device. This scheme has two variants, both of which achieve a good balance between security and usability.
An Empirical Analysis of the Determinants of Project Finance: Cash Flow Volatility and Correlation

This paper investigates the effect of correlation and volatilities of firm and project cash flows on the choice of project finance. I use a pure-play approach to measure unobservable project cash flows for a sample of 440 US and non-US firms that invested in 577 projects from 1990 to 2008 and find evidence that the probability of project finance is increasing in cash flow volatility difference between firm and project cash flows. The likelihood of the project finance is greater when volatilities are different and the correlation between firm and project cash flows is high. I also find that firms are likely to choose corporate finance for low correlation and low and similar volatilities between firm and project cash flows. This empirical work is consistent with the theoretical predictions in Leland (2007) that provides a potential explanation for the existence of project finance based on financial synergies. JEL classification: G31; G32; G34; L22