Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pattern glare: the effects of contrast and color

Aim: To test a theory of visual stress by investigating the inter-relationships between (1) the threshold contrast/saturation at which individuals first report discomfort when viewing colored gratings of progressively increasing contrast and decreasing saturation; (2) the choice of a colored overlay for reading; (3) any increase in reading speed when the overlay is used. Method: Ninety-five young adults, with normal color vision, reported illusions from square-wave gratings (Pattern Glare Test), chose any colored overlays that improved clarity (Intuitive Color Overlays) and read aloud randomly ordered common words (Wilkins Rate of Reading Test). This was followed by an automated choice of tints for text using various screen colors on a tablet, and a test of discomfort from patterns of progressively increasing contrast and decreasing saturation, using software developed for this study. All participants wore their optimal refractive correction throughout the procedure. Results: Fifty-eight participants chose a colored overlay and reported that it made text easier and more comfortable to read. On average, these individuals had a greater improvement in reading speed with their overlays (p = 0.003), a lower contrast threshold at which discomfort from achromatic gratings was first reported (p = 0.015), and a tendency to report more pattern glare (p = 0.052), compared to the other participants. Participants who chose both a most and least preferred tint for text using the automated procedure reported discomfort from colored gratings at a significantly higher contrast with their most preferred color compared to their least preferred color (p = 0.003). The choice of a colored tint was moderately consistent across tests. The most and least preferred colors tended to be complementary. Conclusion: Colored tints that improved reading speed reduced pattern glare both in terms of the illusion susceptibility and in terms of discomfort contrast threshold, supporting a theory of visual stress. An automated test that incorporates colored gratings and a choice of most and least preferred color might better identify individuals whose reading speed improves with colored overlays.
Haemodynamic effects of nasal continuous positive airway pressure in severe congestive heart failure.

Nasal continuous positive airway pressure (NCPAP) during sleep may be a useful adjunct to medical therapy in patients with stable severe congestive heart failure (CHF), particularly when there is a coexisting respiratory sleep disorder. However, the direct haemodynamic effects of NCPAP in patients with severe stable CHF have not yet been adequately assessed. Right heart catheter studies were performed in seven awake males (aged 51-75 yrs) with stable CHF, before, during and after the application of 5 cmH2O NCPAP over 3 h. All patients had left ventricular ejection fractions < or = 30% and baseline pulmonary capillary wedge pressures > 12 mmHg, and six patients were in atrial fibrillation. Cardiac index fell from baseline in all patients whilst on NCPAP, with the greatest fall at 2 h (from 3.3 +/- 0.3 (mean +/- SEM) at baseline to 2.8 +/- 0.2 l.min-1.m-2) and rose back to baseline after NCPAP withdrawal. Systemic vascular resistance (SVR) increased during NCPAP application (1,268 +/- 108 to 1,560 +/- 82 dyn.s-1.cm5), with baseline SVR showing a significant negative correlation vs percentage fall in cardiac index (CI) at 2 h on multiple linear regression analysis (r2 = 0.8). These data indicate that domiciliary nocturnal NCPAP should not be prescribed as part of the therapy in severe CHF without first determining the individual patient's cardiac response to such therapy.
Inhibiting the DNA damage response as a therapeutic manoeuvre in cancer

The DNA damage response (DDR), consisting of an orchestrated network of proteins effecting repair and signalling to cell cycle arrest, to allow time to repair, is essential for cell viability and to prevent DNA damage being passed on to daughter cells. The DDR is dysregulated in cancer with some pathways up‐regulated and others down‐regulated or lost. Up‐regulated pathways can confer resistance to anti‐cancer DNA damaging agents. Therefore, inhibitors of key components of these pathways have the potential to prevent this therapeutic resistance. Conversely, defects in a particular DDR pathway may lead to dependence on a complementary pathway. Inhibition of this complementary pathway may result in tumour‐specific cell killing. Thus, inhibitors of the DDR have the potential to increase the efficacy of DNA damaging chemotherapy and radiotherapy and have single‐agent activity against tumours with a specific DDR defect. This review describes the compounds that have been designed to inhibit specific DDR targets and summarizes the pre‐clinical and clinical evaluation of these inhibitors of DNA damage signalling and repair.
Joint Maximum Likelihood Channel Estimation and Data Detection for MIMO Systems

Blind and semiblind adaptive schemes are proposed for joint maximum likelihood (ML) channel estimation and data detection for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems. The joint ML optimisation over channel and data is decomposed into an iterative two-level optimisation loop. An efficient global optimisation search algorithm called the repeated weighted boosting search is employed at the upper level to identify the unknown MIMO channel model while an enhanced ML sphere detector called the optimised hierarchy reduced search algorithm aided ML detector is used at the lower level to perform the ML detection of the transmitted data. A simulation example is included to demonstrate the effectiveness of these two schemes.
Asia-Pacific Food Markets and Trade in 2005: A Global, Economy-Wide Perspective

Rapid industrialization in East Asia, particularly China, is raising questions about who will feed the region in the next century and how Asia will pay for its food imports. The paper addresses this question by first reviewing existing food sector projections and then taking an economy-wide perspective using projections to 2005, based on the global CGE model known as GTAP. After showing the impact of implementing the Uruguay Round, the paper explores the effects of slower global agricultural productivity growth and of slower economic growth in China. Several policy shocks are also examined. They include the entry of China (and hence Taiwan) into the World Trade Organization (WTO), and the failure to fully abolish the bilateral quotas on textiles and clothing trade as promised under the Uruguay Round. A slow-down in farm productivity growth could be very costly to the world economy, as could slower economic growth in China. Failure to honour Uruguay Round obligations to open textile and clothing markets in OECD countries is shown to reduce East Asia's industrialization and thereby slow its net imports of food. On the other hand, the trade reform that is likely to accompany China's WTO membership would greatly benefit the economies of China and the world. It would boost exports of manufactures and strengthen food import demand, not only by China, but also its densely populated neighbours with whom its intra- and inter-industry trade in manufactures would intensify.
Revisiting the Timing of Action of the PAG Adaptor Using Quantitative Proteomics Analysis of Primary T Cells

The protein tyrosine kinase LCK plays a key role in TCR signaling, and its activity is dynamically controlled by the tyrosine kinase C-terminal Src kinase (CSK) and the tyrosine phosphatase CD45. CSK is brought in contiguity to LCK via binding to a transmembrane adaptor known as phosphoprotein associated with glycosphingolipid-enriched microdomains (PAG). The lack of a blatant phenotype in PAG-deficient mice has impeded our understanding of the mechanisms through which PAG exerts its negative-regulatory role in TCR signaling. We used quantitative mass spectrometry and both thymocytes and CD4+ T cells from mice in which a tag for affinity purification was knocked in the gene coding for PAG to determine the composition and dynamics of the multiprotein complexes that are found around PAG over 5 min of activation. Most of the high-confidence interactions that we observed were previously unknown. Using phosphoproteomic analysis, PAG showed low levels of tyrosine phosphorylation in resting primary mouse CD4+ T cells; the levels of tyrosine phosphorylation increased and reached a maximum 2 min after stimulation. Analysis of the dynamics of association of the protein tyrosine phosphatase PTPN22 and lipid phosphatase SHIP-1 with PAG following T cell activation suggests that both cooperate with CSK to terminate T cell activation. Our findings provide a model of the role for PAG in mouse primary CD4+ T cells that is consistent with recent phosphoproteomic studies of the Jurkat T cell line but difficult to reconcile with former biochemical studies indicating that PAG is constitutively phosphorylated in resting T cells and rapidly dephosphorylated once the TCR is engaged.
QoS-Aware Scheduling of Workflows in Cloud Computing Environments

Cloud Computing has emerged as a service model that enables on-demand network access to a large number of available virtualized resources and applications with a minimal management effort and a minor price. The spread of Cloud Computing technologies allowed dealing with complex applications such as Scientific Workflows, which consists of a set of intensive computational and data manipulation operations. Cloud Computing helps such Workflows to dynamically provision compute and storage resources necessary for the execution of its tasks thanks to the elasticity asset of these resources. However, the dynamic nature of the Cloud incurs new challenges, as some allocated resources may be overloaded or out of access during the execution of the Workflow. Moreover, for data intensive tasks, the allocation strategy should consider the data placement constraints since data transmission time can increase notably in this case which implicates the increase of the overall completion time and cost of the Workflow. Likewise, for intensive computational tasks, the allocation strategy should consider the type of the allocated virtual machines, more specifically its CPU, memory and network capacities. Yet, a critical challenge is how to efficiently schedule the Workflow tasks on Cloud resources to optimize its overall quality of service. In this paper, we propose a QoS-aware algorithm for Scientific Workflows scheduling that aims to improve the overall quality of service (QoS) by considering the metrics of execution time, data transmission time, cost, resources availability and data placement constraints. We extended the Parallel Cat Swarm Optimization (PCSO) algorithm to implement our proposed approach. We tested our algorithm within two sample Workflows of different scales and we compared the results to those given by the standard PSO, the CSO and the PCSO algorithms. The results show that our proposed algorithm improves the overall quality of service of the tested Workflows.
The Association between Within-Visit Blood Pressure Variability and Carotid Artery Atherosclerosis in General Population

Objectives To determine whether within-visit blood pressure (BP) variability based on three measurements over minutes is associated with increased carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) and plaque in a general population. Methods A cross-sectional survey was performed in 2007, and a total of 1222 Beijing community residents aged 50–79 years belonging to part of the Chinese Multi-Provincial Cohort Study (CMCS) were recruited in this study. BP was measured three times at 5-minute intervals during a single visit, and the maximum absolute difference (MAD) between any two readings of three measurements was used to indicate within-visit BP variability. Carotid IMT and plaque scanned by B-mode ultrasound were identified as the surrogate end points in the intermediate stage of atherosclerosis. Results After adjustment for established cardiovascular risk factors, the odds ratio (OR) (95% confidence interval (CI)) for increased carotid IMT and internal carotid plaque associated with the highest within-visit diastolic BP (DBP) variability (MAD > mean + standard deviation (SD)) compared with participants in the lowest within-visit DBP variability (MAD ≤ mean −SD) was 4.92 (1.48–16.42) and 6.07 (1.31–28.10), respectively, in the normotensives (P = 0.01; P = 0.02). The OR (95% CI) for internal carotid plaque associated with the highest within-visit systolic BP (SBP) variability (MAD >mean +SD) compared with participants in the lowest within-visit SBP variability (MAD ≤ mean −SD) was 3.54 (1.26–10.00) in the hypertensives on antihypertensive therapy (P = 0.02). Conclusions Within-visit DBP variability was associated with increased carotid IMT and internal carotid plaque in the normotensive population, and within-visit SBP variability was associated with internal carotid plaque in hypertensive patients undergoing antihypertensive therapy.
Sensory and Chemical Properties of Baltic Sprat (Sprattus sprattus balticus) and Baltic Herring (Clupea harengus membras) in Different Catching Seasons

Baltic sprat (Sprattus sprattus balticus) and Baltic herring (Clupea harengus membras L) are two of the most caught fish species among the Estonian seacoast fishermen, and therefore it is important to understand catching season effects on sprat and herring sensory and nutritional quality. The aim of this study was to measure and compare sensory and chemical variability of Baltic sprat and Baltic herring during different catching seasons. Batches of Baltic sprat and Baltic herring were caught from different locations in Estonian coastal waters from February 2008 until April 2009. Water content, protein content, lipid and ash content were measured. Descriptive sensory evaluation of steamed fish was conducted and results analyzed using Partial Least Squares Regression. The results suggested differentiation possibilities between fish from different seasons. The variations lie in fat and water contents, hardness, characteristic flavor and sweetness of the fish flesh.
I don't know the label: Active learning with blind knowledge

Active learning traditionally assumes that the oracle is capable of providing labeling information for each query instance. In reality, the oracle might have no information for some queries and cannot provide accurate label but only answers “I don't know the label”. We focus on this problem and provide a unified objective function to ensure that each query instance submitted to the oracle is the one mostly needed for labeling and the oracle should also have sufficient knowledge to label. Experimental results on real-world and benchmark data sets demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed design for supporting active learning using oracles with blind knowledge.
Economic evaluation of methadone maintenance treatment in HIV/AIDS control among injecting drug users in Dehong, China

Abstract The purpose of this study was to analyze the cost and cost-effectiveness of methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) program in Dehong prefecture, Yunnan province, China. The cost-effectiveness analysis used process data retrospectively collected from the MMT clinics in Dehong Prefecture, Yunnan Province, from July 2005 to December 2007, a 30-month period available at the time of the study. Alternative estimates of the number of HIV infections prevented were calculated using incidence rate from cohort studies and retrospective studies. Program costs were collected retrospectively following standard methods using an ingredients methodology. The cost for each participant treated in MMT clinics was about $9.1–16.7 per month and the intervention averted 8.4–87.2 HIV infections with a cost-effectiveness of US$ 2509.3–4609.3 per HIV infection averted. This research demonstrates that MMT is a cost-effective intervention for reducing HIV transmission among injecting drug users, but the coverage of MMT intervention should be matched with the designed volume of MMT clinics to make the best use of resources.
Fate of singularities and horizons in higher derivative gravity

We study static spherically symmetric solutions of high derivative gravity theories, with 4, 6, 8 and even 10 derivatives. Except for isolated points in the space of theories with more than 4 derivatives, only solutions that are nonsingular near the origin are found. But these solutions cannot smooth out the Schwarzschild singularity without the appearance of a second horizon. This conundrum, and the possibility of singularities at finite r, leads us to study numerical solutions of theories truncated at four derivatives. Rather than two horizons we are led to the suggestion that the original horizon is replaced by a rapid nonsingular transition from weak to strong gravity. We also consider this possibility for the de Sitter horizon.
Memantine Enhances Recovery From Stroke

Background and Purpose— Stroke treatment is constrained by limited treatment windows and the clinical inefficacy of agents that showed preclinical promise. Yet animal and clinical data suggest considerable poststroke plasticity, which could allow treatment with recovery-modulating agents. Memantine is a well-tolerated N-methyl-D-aspartate glutamate receptor antagonist in common use for Alzheimer disease. Methods— Memantine, 30 mg/kg per day, or vehicle, was delivered chronically in drinking water beginning >2 hours after photothrombotic stroke. Results— Although there was no difference in infarct size, behavior, or optical intrinsic signal maps in the first 7 days after stroke, mice treated chronically with memantine showed significant improvements in motor control, measured by cylinder test and grid-walking performance, compared with vehicle-treated animals. Optical intrinsic signal revealed an increased area of forepaw sensory maps at 28 days after stroke. There was decreased reactive astrogliosis and increased vascular density around the infarcted cortex. Peri-infarct Western blots revealed increased brain-derived neurotrophic factor and phosphorylated-tropomyosin–related kinase-B receptor expression. Conclusions— Our results suggest that memantine improves stroke outcomes in an apparently non-neuroprotective manner involving increased brain-derived neurotrophic factor signaling, reduced reactive astrogliosis, and improved vascularization, associated with improved recovery of sensory and motor cortical function. The clinical availability and tolerability of memantine make it an attractive candidate for clinical translation.
A miRNA-tRNA mix-up: tRNA origin of proposed miRNA

The rapid release of new data from DNA genome sequencing projects has led to a variety of misannotations in public databases. Our results suggest that next generation sequencing approaches are particularly prone to such misannotations. Two related miRNA candidates did recently enter the miRBase database, miR-1274b and miR-1274a, but they share identical 18-nucleotide stretches with tRNALys3 and tRNALys5, respectively. The possibility that the small RNA fragments that led to the description of these two miRNAs originated from the two tRNAs was examined. The ratio of the miR-1274b:miR-1274a fragments does closely resemble the known tRNA lys3:lys5 ratio in the cell. Furthermore, the proposed miRNA hairpins have a very low prediction score and the proposed miRNA genes are in fact endogenous retroviral elements. We searched for other miRNA-mimics in the human genome and found more examples of tRNA-miRNA mimicry. We propose that the corresponding miRNAs should be validated in more detail, as the small RNA fragments that led to their description are likely derived from tRNA processing.
Comparison of Personality Trait, Negative Experienced Emotions and Coping Styles Between Healthy Women and Those Suffering From Cancer

Introduction: Considering the importance of cancer as one of the main causes of mortality in the world and the role of various factors, including psychological ones in its onset. In this study we compared some of these factors such as personality traits, negative experienced emotions and coping styles in healthy women and those with cancer. Methods: In this study, 83 women with cancer(referred to Imam Khomeini hospital of Tehran in a one-month period) and 85 healthy subjects(selected by using available sampling method and matched with the first group). Then Personality inventory of Eysenck and inventory type D(DS14) and Folkman and Lazarus coping styles on were studied in both groups. Data analysis was performed by T Hoteling test and multivariate analysis of variance(MANOVA). Results: Two groups of women(cancer- healthy) were significantly different for personality trait of extraversion, negative emotion experiences and emotional-oriented coping and problem-oriented coping. Conclusion: Women with cancer compared to healthy women experienced more negative emotions and had lower score in extraversion and used more emotion-oriented coping styles and less problem-oriented styles
Robust GSC-based speech enhancement for human machine interface

This paper is concerned with generalized sidelobe canceller (GSC)-based speech enhancement. The speech enhancement is performed in the condition that the arrival direction of the target speech source is given by the sound source localization module. To compensate for the channel-mismatch of the input signals caused by the path differences, fixed and adaptive channel compensators are adopted before noise reduction. Then, the GSC-based speech enhancement is performed for the channel-mismatch compensated input signals. To improve the noise reduction performance, the probabilistic adaptation mode controller is introduced to the GSC. Our experimental results in home-robot environments show that the proposed noise reduction significantly improves the speech recognition performance in real noisy environments.
Treatment of Chronic Schizophrenia with Tri-Iodothyronine *

The administration of tri-iodothyronine (T3), 200 mcgs. per day, produced minimal behavioural alteration in a group of 30 chronic schizophrenic patients with known thyroid abnormalities. The combination of 100 mcgs. of T3 and 400 mgs. of chlorpromazine for three months had no beneficial effect on these patients. The above results are discussed in relation to other studies. The presence of purple pigmentation in one of the patients on combined T3 and chlorpromazine is also commented upon.