Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Medial rectus recession is as effective as lateral rectus resection in divergence paralysis esotropia.

OBJECTIVE To propose medial rectus (MR) recession to be equally as effective as lateral rectus (LR) resection, which has heretofore been the preferred treatment for divergence paralysis esotropia (DPE). METHODS We examined a 17-year surgical experience comparing LR resection with MR recession in adults with DPE, defined as symptomatic distance esotropia (ET) at least double the asymptomatic ET of 10 or less prism diopters() at near. RESULTS Twenty-four patients with DPE underwent surgery. Six patients underwent bilateral LR resection and 2 underwent unilateral LR resection (group L), while 13 underwent bilateral MR recession and 3 underwent unilateral MR recession,with the target angle double the distance ET (group M). One of 8 patients in group L and 15 of 16 patients in group M underwent intra operative adjustable surgery under topical anesthesia. Mean (SD) preoperative central gaze ET measured 15.0 (7.7) Δ at distance and 4.1 (3.4) Δ at near in group L, but 10.4 (6.8) Δ at distance and 0.6 (1.7) Δ at near in group M (P=.15; distance, 0.003, near). Postoperatively, no patient in either group had symptomatic diplopia or convergence insufficiency in follow-up from 8.5 to 40 months. Twice the usual surgical dose of MR recession per prism diopter was required to achieve correction of the distance deviation in DPE as compared with that recommended for ET generally and also for LR resection in the same condition. CONCLUSIONS Recession of the MR provides binocular single vision in DPE without convergence insufficiency at near, and it is convenient for intraoperative adjustment under topical anesthesia.
CD40 Agonists Alter Tumor Stroma and Show Efficacy Against Pancreatic Carcinoma in Mice and Humans

CD40 immunotherapy shows efficacy in treating pancreatic cancer in mice and humans by eliciting antitumor immunity. Immunosuppressive tumor microenvironments can restrain antitumor immunity, particularly in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA). Because CD40 activation can reverse immune suppression and drive antitumor T cell responses, we tested the combination of an agonist CD40 antibody with gemcitabine chemotherapy in a small cohort of patients with surgically incurable PDA and observed tumor regressions in some patients. We reproduced this treatment effect in a genetically engineered mouse model of PDA and found unexpectedly that tumor regression required macrophages but not T cells or gemcitabine. CD40-activated macrophages rapidly infiltrated tumors, became tumoricidal, and facilitated the depletion of tumor stroma. Thus, cancer immune surveillance does not necessarily depend on therapy-induced T cells; rather, our findings demonstrate a CD40-dependent mechanism for targeting tumor stroma in the treatment of cancer.
A study on awareness of HIV/AIDS among adolescent school girls in an urban area of North Bengal, India

Background: HIV/AIDS has recognized throughout the world as the important public health problem and adolescents are at greater risk of having this infection because of varying behavior pattern. Adolescents need correct information to prepare them to make better choices in sexual behavior. The present study was conducted to find out the existing knowledge regarding the causes, modes of transmission, prevention and social impact of AIDS.Methods: Setting based cross-sectional study done in the secondary and higher secondary students of Siliguri Girls School during July-September 2018. A self-administered, well designed pretested semi structured questionnaire with anonymity of the respondent was used for data collection with the help of interview.Results: 66.2% of girls knew sexual intercourse as the primary route of transmission whereas 22.9% knew airborne as the method. 60.8% of them thought isolation could prevent HIV/AIDS and safe sex can prevent transmission 59.4%. All the correct four routes of transmission were known by only 14.2% of students.12. 55 of them knew about AIDS vaccine. Working with AIDS patient, using same toilet or sharing meals or swimming were the common myths among them to contract HIV/AIDS.Conclusions: Prevention being the only strategy available for HIV/AIDS is of utmost importance that knowledge regarding its various aspects should be dispersed among the adolescents through addition of chapter of AIDS and sex education in school curriculum.
Echocardiography-based score to predict outcome after renal transplantation

Background: Given the high cardiac mortality of renal transplant recipients, identification of high-risk patients is important to offer appropriate treatment before transplantation. Aim: To determine patients with high mortality after renal transplantation despite selection according to current criteria. Methods: Preoperative parameters were collected from 203 renal transplant recipients over a follow-up time of 3.6 (1.9) years. The primary end point was all-cause mortality. Results: 22 deaths (11%) and 12 cardiac failures (6%) were observed. Non-survivors were older (p⩽0.001), had larger left ventricular end-systolic diameter (LVSD) (p⩽0.001) and end-diastolic diameter (p = 0.002), and lower ejection fraction (p⩽0.001). Left ventricular mass index (p = 0.001), maximal wall thickness (p = 0.006) and the proportion with mitral annular calcification (p = 0.001) were significantly higher in the non-survivors. The risk factors for ischaemic heart disease and exercise test data were not significantly different between the two groups. Four independent predictors of mortality after renal transplantation were identified: age ⩾50 years (p = 0.002), LVESD ⩾3.5 cm (p = 0.002), maximal wall thickness ⩾1.4 cm (p = 0.014) and mitral annular calcification (p = 0.036). The 5-year survival estimates for 0, 1, 2 and 3 prognostic factors were 96%, 86%, 69% and 38%, respectively. No patient had four prognostic factors. In patients ⩾50 years, the 5-year survival estimates for 0, 1 and 2 additional prognostic factors were 73%, 45% and 18%, respectively. Conclusion: In addition to selection according to current guidelines, age and three conventional echocardiography parameters may further improve risk stratification before renal transplantation.
Ad hoc networks beyond unit disk graphs

In this paper, we study an algorithmic model for wireless ad hoc and sensor networks that aims to be sufficiently close to reality as to represent practical realworld networks while at the same time being concise enough to promote strong theoretical results. The quasi unit disk graph model contains all edges shorter than a parameter d between 0 and 1 and no edges longer than 1. We show that—in comparison to the cost known for unit disk graphs—the complexity results of geographic routing in this model contain the additional factor 1/d2. We prove that in quasi unit disk graphs flooding is an asymptotically message-optimal routing technique, we provide a geographic routing algorithm being most efficient in dense networks, and we show that classic geographic routing is possible with the same asymptotic performance guarantees as for unit disk graphs if $$d\ge 1/\sqrt{2}$$.
The effect of metformin and standard therapy versus standard therapy alone in nondiabetic patients with insulin resistance and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH): a pilot trial

Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is increasing in prevalence and is related to underlying insulin resistance. The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy of metformin on the characteristic histopathologic lesions of NASH. This was a 12-month prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled trial comparing diet and exercise alone to diet, exercise and metformin in nondiabetic patients with insulin resistance and NASH. Patients were randomized to either group A or B. Group A received placebo, dietary counseling, recommendations for weight loss and exercise four times per week. Group B received long-acting metformin 500 mg daily (titrated to 1000 mg daily) plus dietary counseling, recommendations for weight loss and exercise four times per week. Histopathology was assessed at 12 months and biopsies were scored by two pathologists who were blinded to all data. Twenty-three subjects were screened and 19 were randomized to either group A (n = 10) or group B (n = 9). Seven of the 10 subjects in group A completed the study including repeat liver biopsy while all patients in group B completed the study. Body mass index improved in both groups decreasing by 1.7 kg/m2 in group A and 0.9 kg/m 2 in group B (not significant, control versus treatment). Homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance scores improved in both groups decreasing by 1.14 in group A and 1.58 in group B (not significant, control versus treatment). No significant difference in histopathology was seen between groups on follow-up liver biopsy. Metformin appeared to have little effect in improvement in liver function tests or liver histology in nondiabetic patients with insulin resistance and NASH. Decrease in BMI through diet and exercise significantly improved HOMA-IR scores, serum aminotransferases and liver histology.
The Use of C- and L-Band Repeat-Pass Interferometric SAR Coherence for Soil Moisture Change Detection in Vegetated Areas

Soil moisture estimation studies using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) routinely utilise only the amplitude part of the received echo. In this study, repeat-pass C- and L-band interferometric SAR coherence from 2007 - 2009 was evaluated for the detection of surface soil moisture changes in the presence of vegetation using two different approaches. In the first analysis, the association between low coherence and large in situ soil moisture changes was investigated using 24 interferometric pairs and the decorrelation effects due to vegetation and weather were also assessed. Results reveal that, in very few cases soil moisture differences between acquisitions contributed to the signal decorrelation. For the majority of cases, particularly in C-band, the change in vegetation tended to be the predominant source of decorrelation, suppressing the influence of any soil moisture changes. The second analysis applied thresholds to both coherence and intensity data to determine if a coalesced coherence (�) and intensity change (�� 0 ) approach could improve detection of changes in measured soil moisture content. The aim was to test the usefulness of a � > 0.3 and �� 0 > 1.5 dB thresholding approach to separate the effects of a vegetation change and a soil moisture change on the SAR signal. Results suggest that the approach improves the reliability of the soil moisture change detection although clearly limits the use of available image pairs. These analyses demonstrate the increased information the coherence adds to SAR studies over agricultural areas.
Attracting investor attention through advertising

This paper provides evidence that managers adjust firm advertising, in part, to attract investor attention and influence short-term stock returns. First, I show that increased advertising spending is associated with a contemporaneous rise in retail buying and abnormal stock returns, and is followed by lower future returns. Second, I document a significant increase in advertising spending prior to insider sales and a significant decrease in the subsequent year. Additional analyses suggest that the inverted V-shaped pattern in advertising spending around insider sales is most consistent with managers' opportunistically adjusting firm advertising to exploit the temporary return effect to their own benefit.
Insulin Resistance in Relation to Lipids and Inflammation in Type-2 Diabetic Patients and Non-Diabetic People

Background We demonstrated in experimental studies that hypercholesterolaemia enhances the proliferation of haematopoietic stem cells and the subsequent differentiation to neutrophils, whereas HDL-cholesterol inhibits these processes. To translate our experimental findings to clinical practice, we investigated in Chinese type-2 diabetic patients and in Flemish non-diabetic people the independent and joint associations of insulin resistance with markers of dyslipidaemia and inflammation, while looking for consistency between ethnicities and across the spectrum of insulin resistance. Methods We studied 798 Chinese patients with type-2 diabetes (53.6% women; mean age, 60.6 years) admitted to a tertiary referral centre and 1060 white Flemish (50.5%; 51.1 years) randomly recruited in Northern Belgium. Fasting insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) was derived from C-peptide in Chinese and from insulin in Flemish using the Homeostasis Model of Assessment algorithm. In multivariable-adjusted analyses, HOMA-IR was regressed on triglycerides, HDL-cholesterol and neutrophil count. Results In Chinese patients, the percentage changes in HOMA-IR associated with triglycerides, HDL-cholesterol and neutrophils (per 1-SD increment) amounted to 8.1 (95% confidence interval, 3.0 to 13.4; p = 0.0015), -8.7 (-13.0 to -4.2; p = 0.0002) and 5.6 (1.0 to 10.4; p = 0.017). In non-diabetic Flemish, the corresponding estimates were 11.7 (8.3 to 15.1; p<0.0001), -1.7 (-4.6 to 1.4; p = 0.28) and 3.3% (0.5 to 6.3; p = 0.022), respectively. None of the interaction terms between the three explanatory variables reached significance in Chinese or Flemish (p≥0.10). Conclusions Insulin resistance increases with the serum level of triglycerides and the blood neutrophil count, but decreases with serum HDL-cholesterol concentration. These associations were consistent in Chinese type-2 diabetic patients and non-diabetic Flemish people and were independent from one another. The clinical implications are that future studies should focus on intervening with serum triglyceride and HDL-cholesterol levels or controlling inflammation as a way to prevent or treat insulin resistance.
Supervised Morphological Segmentation in a Low-Resource Learning Setting using Conditional Random Fields

We discuss data-driven morphological segmentation, in which word forms are segmented into morphs, the surface forms of morphemes. Our focus is on a lowresource learning setting, in which only a small amount of annotated word forms are available for model training, while unannotated word forms are available in abundance. The current state-of-art methods 1) exploit both the annotated and unannotated data in a semi-supervised manner, and 2) learn morph lexicons and subsequently uncover segmentations by generating the most likely morph sequences. In contrast, we discuss 1) employing only the annotated data in a supervised manner, while entirely ignoring the unannotated data, and 2) directly learning to predict morph boundaries given their local sub-string contexts instead of learning the morph lexicons. Specifically, we employ conditional random fields, a popular discriminative log-linear model for segmentation. We present experiments on two data sets comprising five diverse languages. We show that the fully supervised boundary prediction approach outperforms the state-of-art semi-supervised morph lexicon approaches on all languages when using the same annotated data sets.
Effect of endotoxin on iron absorption.

Abstract : Endotoxin caused marked abnormalities in iron absorption and metabolism within hours after the administration of a parenteral dose. The changes observed during the 1st day following injection were unique; there was decreased absorption of iron with a normal intestinal iron content, an accelerated rate of clearance of iron from plasma, and a decreased serum iron concentration. That a generalized cytotoxic effect upon the gut was not the cause of these changes was suggested by the normal intestinal histology and lifespan of mucosal cells, normal absorption of glucose and unchanged excessive absorption of iron by iron-depleted, endotoxin-treated animals. Two days after the administration of endotoxin most abnormalities became normal except that the intestinal iron content increased, and a significant decrease in iron absorption persisted. It was only during this later period that iron-depleted rats had decreased absorption of iron from the gut. It was postulated that the acute absorptive defect was caused by a decreased capability to transfer iron from the mucosal cell into the body, whereas the late defect was associated with impaired entry of intraluminal iron into the intestinal absorptive cells.
Minimization of tree pattern queries with constraints

Tree pattern queries (TPQs) provide a natural and easy formalism to query tree-structured XML data, and the efficient processing of such queries has attracted a lot of attention. Since the size of a TPQ is a key determinant of its evaluation cost, recent research has focused on the problem of query minimization using integrity constraints to eliminate redundant query nodes; specifically, TPQ minimization has been studied for the class of forward and subtype constraints (FT-constraints). In this paper, we explore the TPQ minimization problem further for a richer class of FBST-constraints that includes not only FT-constraints but also backward and sibling constraints. By exploiting the properties of minimal queries under FBST-constraints, we propose efficient algorithms to both compute a single minimal query as well as enumerate all minimal queries. In addition, we also develop more efficient minimization algorithms for the previously studied class of FT-constraints. Our experimental study demonstrates the effectiveness and efficiency of query minimization using FBST-constraints.
Results of decitabine (5‐aza‐2′deoxycytidine) therapy in 130 patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia

General and site‐specific DNA methylation is associated with tumor progression and resistance in several cancers, including chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML). Decitabine is a hypomethylating agent that has shown encouraging preliminary anti‐CML activity. This study evaluated the activity and toxicity of decitabine in different phases of CML.
The influence of socioeconomic status, ethnicity and lifestyle on body mass index in a longitudinal study.

BACKGROUND Few studies have attempted to disentangle the complex relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and ethnicity and its influence on body mass index (BMI) and on change in BMI over a decade. The present study highlights the influence of ethnicity (country of birth) and SES on BMI, adjusting for certain lifestyle factors. METHODS The longitudinal self-reported data, based on a simple random sample, were obtained from 1972 women and 1871 men, aged 25-74, interviewed in 1980/81 and re-interviewed in 1988/89 using the same questionnaire. The influence of the independent variables on BMI was analysed by the Generalized Estimation Equation (GEE) method. The change in BMI for different states of the independent variables was analysed in a linear model with the difference in BMI between 1988/89 and 1980/81 as dependent variable, by sex. RESULTS There was a graded relationship between male SES, defined as educational status, and BMI when adjusted for background variables, while for females, only a low educational level was associated with a higher BMI. Southern European men and Finnish women showed a higher increase in BMI than the reference group (Swedes and West Europeans) when adjusted for age, smoking, exercise, education, marital status, and health status. Not taking exercise was related to a higher BMI compared with those who were taking exercise. The BMI levels and smoking habits were little changed between 1980/81 and 1988/89, while exercise habits showed a more variable pattern. When the focus was on change in BMI, former smokers had a larger increase in BMI than never smokers. Further, men who ceased taking exercise had a larger increase in BMI than those who were taking regular exercise on both occasions. CONCLUSION When adjusted for smoking and the other background variables, SES and ethnicity are two separate independent factors influencing BMI in men and women. When the focus was on change in BMI, former smokers had a larger increase in BMI than never smokers. Further, men who ceased taking exercise had a larger increase in BMI than those who took regular exercise on both occasions.
Illness centrality and well-being among male and female early adolescents with diabetes.

OBJECTIVE We examined the implications of illness centrality for psychological and physical health among male and female early adolescents with type 1 diabetes. METHODS We interviewed 132 adolescents before or after a routine clinic appointment. We measured the extent to which they defined themselves in terms of their illness, their views of the illness, psychological well-being, self-care behavior, and metabolic control. RESULTS Females scored higher on illness centrality than males. Illness centrality was related to poor psychological well-being when the illness was perceived in negative terms, but only for females. For males, illness centrality was unrelated to psychological well-being. Illness centrality was related to poor metabolic control. CONCLUSIONS The extent to which adolescent females define themselves in terms of their illness is most problematic when the illness is perceived in highly negative terms. Future research should examine how illness centrality and views of illness change over the course of adolescence.
Neural Basis of Identity Information Extraction from Noisy Face Images

Previous research has made significant progress in identifying the neural basis of the remarkably efficient and seemingly effortless face perception in humans. However, the neural processes that enable the extraction of facial information under challenging conditions when face images are noisy and deteriorated remains poorly understood. Here we investigated the neural processes underlying the extraction of identity information from noisy face images using fMRI. For each participant, we measured (1) face-identity discrimination performance outside the scanner, (2) visual cortical fMRI responses for intact and phase-randomized face stimuli, and (3) intrinsic functional connectivity using resting-state fMRI. Our whole-brain analysis showed that the presence of noise led to reduced and increased fMRI responses in the mid-fusiform gyrus and the lateral occipital cortex, respectively. Furthermore, the noise-induced modulation of the fMRI responses in the right face-selective fusiform face area (FFA) was closely associated with individual differences in the identity discrimination performance of noisy faces: smaller decrease of the fMRI responses was accompanied by better identity discrimination. The results also revealed that the strength of the intrinsic functional connectivity within the visual cortical network composed of bilateral FFA and bilateral object-selective lateral occipital cortex (LOC) predicted the participants' ability to discriminate the identity of noisy face images. These results imply that perception of facial identity in the case of noisy face images is subserved by neural computations within the right FFA as well as a re-entrant processing loop involving bilateral FFA and LOC.