Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Accommodative Function in Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

SIGNIFICANCE Accommodative responses were significantly poorer in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) compared with age-matched typically developing control subjects, and hypoaccommodation was associated with reduced near visual acuity (NVA) and convergence. PURPOSE Autism spectrum disorder is a neurodevelopmental disorder with a reported prevalence of 1.1 to 1.5%. Accommodative dysfunction has been noted in other developmental conditions including cerebral palsy and Down syndrome. The aim of this study was to investigate how accommodative accuracy and near visual function in ASD compared with typically developing control subjects. METHODS This study investigated accommodative function in children with ASD, in conjunction with other vision measures with habitual refractive corrections. Accommodative accuracy was assessed using modified Nott dynamic retinoscopy. Individual accommodative demand and response were calculated incorporating residual refractive error (difference between cycloplegic and habitual refractive state). Near visual measures included NVA, near point of convergence, fusional reserves, and stereoacuity. Cycloplegic autorefraction confirmed refractive error. RESULTS Accommodative responses were measured from 124 participants with ASD (6 to 17 years old) and 204 age-matched control subjects. There was no significant difference in the magnitude of residual refractive error between groups (P = .10). The prevalence of a clinically significant lag of accommodation was greater in the ASD group compared with control subjects (ASD = 17.4%, control subjects = 4.9%, χ = 13.04, P < .0001). Near visual acuity was significantly reduced in the ASD group with a clinically significant lag of accommodation (P < .01). A few participants (n = 24 control subjects, n = 14 ASD) had uncorrected or undercorrected refractive errors (spherical equivalent refractive error ≥+2.00 D, >1.00 DC), and when these were removed from analysis, there was still an increased prevalence of hypoaccommodation in ASD (14.7%). CONCLUSIONS Children with ASD were significantly more likely to have accommodative deficits (and associated near visual deficits) in their presenting refractive state than typically developing children. Appraisal of refractive error, accommodation, and NVA should be considered in visual assessment of children with ASD.
Composition of Animal Manure Compost and Utilization Implications

Six compost products were obtained for the purpose of evaluating the plant nutrient, carbon, and organic matter contents. The composts included in the study were a yard waste compost (containing no animal manure), two cow manure based products, mushroom compost (containing manure and straw), and two compost products that contained 25% and 33% separated swine solids. The carbon sources used ranged from wood waste to cotton gin trash. Statistical analysis indicated that the nutrient contents of the compost products were significantly different depending on whether or not animal manure was included in the mix, the type of manure used (cow vs. swine), and the amount of manure included in the mix. The organic matter content (VS/TS) ranged from 0.289 to 0.540 indicating high levels of decomposition. The two products with the lowest organic matter contents (0.289 and 0.366) had the highest values of C:N (18.5 and 24.6), indicating that C:N was not a reliable indicator of compost stability. Nutrient balancing calculations were used to estimate the constituent application rates resulting from the use of the compost products for erosion control blankets, and to provide the pre-plant N, P2O5, and K2O requirements for tomatoes. It was concluded that the amount of compost used in a compost blanket mix should be determined based on the major plant nutrient contents, and the fertilization recommendations for roadside turf. The data and nutrient balancing calculations for tomatoes point out that application recommendations based on a prescribed volume (blanket depth) or mass per unit area (t/ha) are not useful. Instead, compost application rates need to be determined based on analysis of the plant nutrients in a compost product, soil-test results, the nutrient requirements of the crop to be grown, and the amount of material required.
Learning place cells, grid cells and invariances with excitatory and inhibitory plasticity

Neurons in the hippocampus and adjacent brain areas show a large diversity in their tuning to location and head direction, and the underlying circuit mechanisms are not yet resolved. In particular, it is unclear why certain cell types are selective to one spatial variable, but invariant to another. For example, place cells are typically invariant to head direction. We propose that all observed spatial tuning patterns – in both their selectivity and their invariance – arise from the same mechanism: Excitatory and inhibitory synaptic plasticity driven by the spatial tuning statistics of synaptic inputs. Using simulations and a mathematical analysis, we show that combined excitatory and inhibitory plasticity can lead to localized, grid-like or invariant activity. Combinations of different input statistics along different spatial dimensions reproduce all major spatial tuning patterns observed in rodents. Our proposed model is robust to changes in parameters, develops patterns on behavioral timescales and makes distinctive experimental predictions.
The relation between dietary intake and glaucoma: a systematic review

A common question of patients to their physician is what they can do themselves against glaucoma, except taking their daily medication. However, for ophthalmologists, it is often hard to give their patients an advice on their dietary intake. To help ophthalmologists in answering this question, an overview of the current scientific literature on the association of nutrients with glaucoma is presented.
An Improved Saliency Detection Approach for Flying Apsaras in the Dunhuang Grotto Murals, China

Saliency can be described as the ability of an item to be detected from its background in any particular scene, and it aims to estimate the probable location of the salient objects. Due to the salient map that computed by local contrast features can extract and highlight the edge parts including painting lines of Flying Apsaras, in this paper, we proposed an improved approach based on a frequency-tuned method for visual saliency detection of Flying Apsaras in the Dunhuang Grotto Murals, China. This improved saliency detection approach comprises three important steps: (1) image color and gray channel decomposition; (2) gray feature value computation and color channel convolution; (3) visual saliency definition based on normalization of previous visual saliency and spatial attention function. Unlike existing approaches that rely on many complex image features, this proposed approach only used local contrast and spatial attention information to simulate human's visual attention stimuli. This improved approach resulted in a much more efficient salient map in the aspect of computing performance. Furthermore, experimental results on the dataset of Flying Apsaras in the Dunhuang Grotto Murals showed that the proposed visual saliency detection approach is very effective when compared with five other state-of-the-art approaches.
Autonomic Nervous System Function After a Skin-to-Skin Contact Intervention in Infants With Congenital Heart Disease

Background: Infants with complex congenital heart disease (CCHD) demonstrate impaired autonomic nervous system (ANS) regulation, which may contribute to commonly observed impairments in feeding, growth, and development. Close mother-infant physical contact improves ANS function in other high-risk infant populations. Objective: Our purposes were to examine feasibility of a 2-week daily skin-to-skin contact (SSC) intervention and to describe change in ANS function in response to the intervention. Methods: Feasibility was assessed by recruitment and retention rates, safety, and acceptability. Autonomic nervous system function was measured with linear and nonlinear measures of heart rate variability (HRV) during a feeding before the 14-day SSC intervention and 3 times during a 4-week follow-up. Results: Recruitment rate was 72%; retention rate was 55.5%. Mothers were universally positive about SSC. Ten mothers and infants completed a daily mean of 77.05 minutes of SSC during the 14-day intervention with no adverse events. Baseline high-frequency HRV, reactivity to challenge, and recovery after challenge improved during the 6-week study. Nonlinear measures demonstrated abnormally high sympathetic activity, especially after feeding, in most infants. Conclusions: Skin-to-skin contact is feasible in infants with CCHD. Linear measures of HRV suggested improvements in ANS function with this intervention. This article is one of the first to describe nonlinear HRV measures in infants with CCHD. Additional research is needed to identify variations in linear and nonlinear effects based on specific cardiac conditions and with varying intervention doses and timing. This low-cost, low-risk intervention has the potential to improve outcomes in infants with CCHD.
Effectiveness of Platelet-Rich Plasma for Androgenetic Alopecia: A Review of the Literature

Androgenetic alopecia (AGA) is a hair loss disorder affecting 80% of men and 50% of women throughout their lifetime. Therapies for AGA are limited and there is no cure. There is a high demand for hair restoration. Platelet-rich plasma (PRP), a treatment modality shown to promote wound healing, has also been explored as a treatment for AGA. This literature review was conducted to assess the effectiveness of PRP treatment for AGA. Twelve studies conducted from 2011 to 2017 were evaluated and summarized by study characteristics, mode of preparation, and treatment protocols. A total of 295 subjects were given PRP or control treatment in these studies, and evaluated for terminal hair density, hair quality, anagen/telogen hair ratio, keratinocyte proliferation, blood vessel density, etc. Some studies also provided subject self-assessment reports. Most of the studies reviewed showed effectiveness of PRP in increasing terminal hair density/diameter. Additional investigations are needed to determine the optimal treatment regimen for high efficacy of PRP in AGA.
The prevalence of hyperkalemia in the United States

Abstract Objective: The retrospective study aimed to estimate prevalence of hyperkalemia using a large US commercial claims database. Methods: Adults with serum potassium lab data (2010 to 2014) and ≥1 calendar year of data were included from a large US commercial claims database. Hyperkalemia was defined as ≥2 serum potassium measurements >5.0 mEq/L or one hyperkalemia diagnosis code (ICD-9-CM, 276.7) or one sodium polystyrene sulfonate fill. Hyperkalemia prevalence was estimated for the overall population and subgroups with hyperkalemia-related comorbidities by calendar year. Hyperkalemia prevalence was also standardized to the US population to estimate the number of US adults with hyperkalemia. Results: The analysis included 2,270,635 patients (2010–2014). The annual prevalence of hyperkalemia in the overall population was 1.57% in 2014, with higher rates observed in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), heart failure, diabetes and hypertension. Among patients with CKD and/or heart failure, the 2014 annual prevalence was 6.35%. Among patients with hyperkalemia, 48.43% had CKD and/or heart failure in 2014. The prevalence of hyperkalemia was higher in patients with more severe CKD, as well as older patients and men. Extrapolating those results to the US population supports that 1.55% or 3.7 million US adults had hyperkalemia in 2014. Conclusions: An estimated 3.7 million US adults had hyperkalemia in 2014, and this prevalence rate has increased since 2010. In patients with CKD and/or heart failure, the annual prevalence of hyperkalemia was 6.35% in 2014, and about half of all patients with hyperkalemia have either CKD and/or heart failure.
Deterministic Non-Autoregressive Neural Sequence Modeling by Iterative Refinement

We propose a conditional non-autoregressive neural sequence model based on iterative refinement. The proposed model is designed based on the principles of latent variable models and denoising autoencoders, and is generally applicable to any sequence generation task. We extensively evaluate the proposed model on machine translation (En-De and En-Ro) and image caption generation, and observe that it significantly speeds up decoding while maintaining the generation quality comparable to the autoregressive counterpart.
Argumentation-based Distributed Induction

Argumentation can be used by a group of agents to discuss about the validity of hypotheses. In this paper we propose an argumentationbased framework for distributed induction, where two agents learn separately from individual training sets, and then engage in an argumentation process in order to converge to a common hypothesis about the data. The result is a distributed induction strategy in which the agents minimize the set of examples that they have to share in order to converge to a common hypothesis. The proposed strategy works for any induction algorithm which expresses the hypothesis as a disjunction of rules. We show that the strategy converges to a hypothesis indistinguishable in training set accuracy from that learned by a centralized strategy.
Genomic Organization of Repetitive DNAs and Differentiation of an XX/XY Sex Chromosome System in the Amazonian Puffer Fish, Colomesus asellus (Tetraodontiformes)

The genus Colomesus is the sole representative of the family Tetraodontidae in the Amazon region. Here, Colomesus asellus was analyzed using conventional and molecular cytogenetic protocols. Its diploid chromosome number is 2n = 46 with 12 meta-, 10 submeta-, 16 subtelo-, and 8 acrocentric chromosomes and a fundamental number of FN = 84. An XX/XY sex chromosome system was identified. Mapping of 18S rDNA correlated with the nucleolus organizer regions (Ag-NORs) in the short arms of the 2 X chromosomes in females and in the Y chromosome in males. C-banding revealed heterochromatin in the centromeric regions of all chromosomes, except for pair 3. Prominent sex chromosome-specific heterochromatin amplification was observed, covering the short arms of the Y chromosome almost entirely. FISH with telomeric and tropomyosin (tpm1) sequences, respectively, revealed terminal signals in all chromosomes. The analysis of extended DNA fibers confirmed the colocalization and the interspersed pattern of the telomeric and tpm1 sequences. Thus, this study highlights the remarkable evolutionary dynamism presented by the Amazonian puffer fish regarding the differentiation of a heteromorphic XY sex chromosome system and a particular sex-specific amplification of rDNA sites. This is the first record of such an association in the Tetraodontidae family.
Complications of Intravitreous Injections in Patients with Diabetes

ABSTRACT Intravitreous injections are presently the second most frequently performed ophthalmic procedure and the most common vitreoretinal procedure. In diabetic patients, intravitreous injections are frequently performed for the treatment of center-involved diabetic macular edema, proliferative diabetic retinopathy, or other co-existing retinal vascular disease. Diabetic patients may be at higher risk of adverse events compared to non-diabetic individuals, given frequent systemic comorbidities, such as cardiovascular and renal disease and increased susceptibility to infection. This review highlights the potential complications and safety considerations in intravitreous injections in patients with diabetes.
Safety of Intravenous Iron in Dialysis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES The safety of intravenous iron dosing in dialysis is uncertain. Higher-dose intravenous iron may be associated with a higher risk of infections, cardiovascular events, hospitalizations, and mortality. This systematic review aimed to determine the safety of higher-dose versus lower-dose intravenous iron, oral iron, or no iron supplementation in adult patients treated with dialysis. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS We searched Medline, EMBASE, Cochrane library, and CINAHL from inception to January 6, 2017 for randomized, controlled trials and observational studies comparing higher-dose intravenous iron with lower-dose intravenous iron, oral iron, or no iron in patients treated with dialysis that had all-cause mortality, infection, cardiovascular events, or hospitalizations as outcomes. RESULTS Of the 2231 eligible studies, seven randomized, controlled trials and 15 observational studies met inclusion criteria. The randomized, controlled trials showed no association between higher-dose intravenous iron (>400 mg/mo for most studies) and mortality (six studies; n=970; pooled relative risk, 0.93; 95% confidence interval, 0.47 to 1.84; follow-up ranging from 35 days to 26 months) or infection (four studies; n=743; relative risk, 1.02; 95% confidence interval, 0.74 to 1.41). The observational studies showed no association between higher-dose intravenous iron (>200 mg/mo for most studies) and mortality (eight studies; n=241,408; hazard ratio, 1.09; 95% confidence interval, 0.98 to 1.21; follow-up ranging from 3 to 24 months), infection (eight studies; n=135,532; pooled hazard ratio, 1.13; 95% confidence interval, 0.99 to 1.28), cardiovascular events (seven studies; n=135,675; hazard ratio, 1.18; 95% confidence interval, 0.90 to 1.56), or hospitalizations (five studies; n=134,324; hazard ratio, 1.08; 95% confidence interval, 0.97 to 1.19). CONCLUSIONS Higher-dose intravenous iron does not seem to be associated with higher risk of mortality, infection, cardiovascular events, or hospitalizations in adult patients on dialysis. Strength of this finding is limited by small numbers of participants and events in the randomized, controlled trials and statistical heterogeneity in observational studies.
Roll‐to‐Roll fabrication of large area functional organic materials

With the prospect of extremely fast manufacture of very low cost devices, organic electronics prepared by thin film processing techniques that are compatible with roll-to-roll (R2R) methods are presently receiving an increasing interest. Several technologies using organic thin films are at the point, where transfer from the laboratory to a more production-oriented environment is within reach. In this review, we aim at giving an overview of some of the R2R-compatible techniques that can be used in such a transfer, as well the current status of R2R application within some of the existing research fields such as organic photovoltaics, organic thin film transistors, light-emitting diodes, polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells, and electrochromic devices. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys, 2012
Validating Requirements Reviews by Introducing Fault-Type Level Granularity: A Machine Learning Approach

Inspections are a proven approach for improving software requirements quality. Owing to the fact that inspectors report both faults and non-faults (i.e., false-positives) in their inspection reports, a major chunk of work falls on the person who is responsible for consolidating the reports received from multiple inspectors. We aim at automation of fault-consolidation step by using supervised machine learning algorithms that can effectively isolate faults from non-faults. Three different inspection studies were conducted in controlled environments to obtain real inspection data from inspectors belonging to both industry and from academic backgrounds. Next, we devised a methodology to separate faults from non-faults by first using ten individual classifiers from five different classification families to categorize different fault-types (e.g., omission, incorrectness, and inconsistencies). Based on the individual performance of classifiers for each fault-type, we created targeted ensembles that are suitable for identification of each fault-type. Our analysis showed that our selected ensemble classifiers were able to separate faults from non-faults with very high accuracy (as high as 85-89% for some fault-types), with a notable result being that in some cases, individual classifiers performed better than ensembles. In general, our approach can significantly reduce effort required to isolate faults from false-positives during the fault consolidation step of requirements inspections. Our approach also discusses the percentage possibility of correctly classifying each fault-type.
Ag-Doped Sol-Gel Derived Novel Composite Materials for Dental Applications

The aim of this work was to improve a newly developed family of glass-ceramic composite materials by incorporating silver ions in the ceramic structure, thus developing new Ag-doped materials with the ability of showing antibacterial activity for dental applications. Two different sol-gel methodologies were applied for the fabrication of colorless, homogenous and chemically durable materials which can slowly release silver ion for relatively long periods. Both methods led to the successful development of Ag-doped glass-ceramics with silver ions incorporated in the structure that can slowly release in buffer solution, during a period of 45 days. The potential, application of these materials involve the development of bioactive surfaces on dental substrates which can seal the marginal gap creating a bacterial free environment finally supporting the success of dental restorations.