Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Tests of glycemia in diabetes.

Monitoring of glycemic status, as performed by patients and health care providers, is considered a cornerstone of diabetes care. Results of monitoring are used to assess the efficacy of therapy and to make adjustments in diet, exercise, and medications in order to achieve the best possible blood glucose control. The purpose of this review is to summarize current knowledge about the tests used most widely in monitoring the glycemic status of people with diabetes. The review addresses both patient- and physician/laboratory-based testing, and it includes tests of urine glucose and ketones and tests of blood glucose and glycated proteins (hemoglobin and serum proteins). The major emphasis is on the advantages and limitations of each test for routine clinical practice. Use of these tests for diabetes screening and diagnosis will not be addressed in this review. Since this review was first published in 1995, there have been many advances in the field, most notably standardization of glycated hemoglobin testing and new approaches to self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG), including minimally invasive continuous glucose monitoring over hours to days at a time. These and other advances are presented in detail in a recent report that was prepared by the National Academy of Clinical Biochemistry (NACB) and published as an American Diabetes Association (ADA) position statement (1). This review will attempt to complement, rather than duplicate, the material in the NACB report. If there was an ideal method of monitoring glycemic status, it might be a small noninvasive device, perhaps similar to a wristwatch that people with diabetes could wear to continuously monitor their blood glucose level. The device would warn of impending hypoglycemia. It also would store blood glucose data and perform a variety of calculations such as hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly blood glucose averages. Unfortunately, such a monitoring device is …
Control of core temperature and blood pressure stability during hemodialysis.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Cool dialysate may ameliorate intradialytic hypotension (IDH). It is not known whether it is sufficient to prevent an increase in core temperature (CT) during hemodialysis (HD) or whether a mild decline in CT would yield superior results. The aim of this study was to compare both approaches with regard to IDH. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS Fourteen HD patients with a history of IDH were studied. During three mid-week HD treatments, CT was set to decrease by 0.5 degrees C ("cooling") or to remain unchanged at the baseline level ("isothermic"). "Thermoneutral" HD (no energy is added to or removed from the patient) was used as a control. Central blood volume (CBV), BP, skin temperature, heart rate variability [low and high frequency] were recorded. RESULTS CT increased during thermoneutral and remained respectively stable and decreased during isothermic and cooling. Skin temperature decreased significantly during isothermic and cooling, but not during thermoneutral. Nadir systolic BP (SBP) levels were lower during isothermic and thermoneutral compared with cooling. CBV tended to be higher during cooling compared with isothermic and thermoneutral. Three patients complained of shivering during cooling. Change in LF/HF was not different between cooling, isothermic, and thermoneutral. CONCLUSIONS IDH may be slightly improved by cooling compared with the isothermic approach, possibly because of improved maintenance of CBV. The hemodynamic effects of mild blood cooling should be balanced against a potentially higher risk of cold discomfort.
Photometry of the Globular Cluster NGC 5466: Red Giants and Blue Stragglers

We present wide-field BVI photometry for about 11,500 stars in the low-metallicity cluster NGC 5466. We have detected the red giant branch bump for the first time, although it is at least 0.2 mag fainter than expected relative to the turnoff. The number of red giants (relative to main-sequence turnoff stars) is in excellent agreement with stellar models from the Yonsei-Yale and Teramo groups, and slightly high compared to Victoria-Regina models. This adds to evidence that an abnormally large ratio of red giant to main-sequence stars is not correlated with cluster metallicity. We discuss theoretical predictions from different research groups and find that the inclusion or exclusion of helium diffusion and strong limit Coulomb interactions may be partly responsible. We also examine indicators of dynamical history: the mass function exponent and the blue straggler frequency. NGC 5466 has a very shallow mass function, consistent with large mass loss and recently discovered tidal tails. The blue straggler sample is significantly more centrally concentrated than the HB or RGB stars. We see no evidence of an upturn in the blue straggler frequency at large distances from the center. Dynamical friction timescales indicate that the stragglers should be more concentrated if the cluster's present density structure has existed for most of its history. NGC 5466 also has an unusually low central density compared to clusters of similar luminosity. In spite of this, the specific frequency of blue stragglers puts it right on the frequency-cluster MV relation observed for other clusters.
Locate Damage in Long-Span Bridges Based on Stress Influence Lines and Information Fusion Technique

To ensure bridge safety and functionality under in-service conditions, detecting local abnormalities of a long-span bridge at the early stage is always a desirable but challenging task. Stress influence lines (SIL) or its derivatives are recognized as very promising indices for damage detection. Compared with bridge global responses (such as displacement and acceleration), stress/strain can be more conveniently measured and is often more sensitive to local damages. This paper explores a novel damage localization approach by synthesizing SIL measurements from multiple locations, in which Dempster-Shafer data fusion technique is utilized. Compared with the measurement from a single sensor, more reliable damage-related information with the improved sensitivity and capability in damage localization can be obtained by synthesizing the measured SILs from a number of sensors. The effectiveness of the proposed method is validated through a numerical case study of the Tsing Ma Suspension Bridge. Different hypothetical scenarios, including single-damage case, double-damage, and no-damage cases, are considered in the validation. The comparison with the damage detection results using single-sensor data clearly indicates that the data fusion technique effectively enhance the consistency in the information (e.g., damage-induced structural change) and minimize non-consistent information (e.g. “noise” effect) from multiple sensors installed close to damage. The increasing number of sensors benefits the damage detection results. Excellent damage detection accuracy can be achieved, if different types of bridge components are properly selected for the monitoring. Therefore, it is promising to use the proposed approach in this study in the damage localization of real-world long-span bridges. Parametric studies are conducted to examine the effects of parameter selections and noise levels in this approach.
Prognostic relevance of integrated genetic profiling in acute myeloid leukemia.

BACKGROUND Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a heterogeneous disease with respect to presentation and clinical outcome. The prognostic value of recently identified somatic mutations has not been systematically evaluated in a phase 3 trial of treatment for AML. METHODS We performed a mutational analysis of 18 genes in 398 patients younger than 60 years of age who had AML and who were randomly assigned to receive induction therapy with high-dose or standard-dose daunorubicin. We validated our prognostic findings in an independent set of 104 patients. RESULTS We identified at least one somatic alteration in 97.3% of the patients. We found that internal tandem duplication in FLT3 (FLT3-ITD), partial tandem duplication in MLL (MLL-PTD), and mutations in ASXL1 and PHF6 were associated with reduced overall survival (P=0.001 for FLT3-ITD, P=0.009 for MLL-PTD, P=0.05 for ASXL1, and P=0.006 for PHF6); CEBPA and IDH2 mutations were associated with improved overall survival (P=0.05 for CEBPA and P=0.01 for IDH2). The favorable effect of NPM1 mutations was restricted to patients with co-occurring NPM1 and IDH1 or IDH2 mutations. We identified genetic predictors of outcome that improved risk stratification among patients with AML, independently of age, white-cell count, induction dose, and post-remission therapy, and validated the significance of these predictors in an independent cohort. High-dose daunorubicin, as compared with standard-dose daunorubicin, improved the rate of survival among patients with DNMT3A or NPM1 mutations or MLL translocations (P=0.001) but not among patients with wild-type DNMT3A, NPM1, and MLL (P=0.67). CONCLUSIONS We found that DNMT3A and NPM1 mutations and MLL translocations predicted an improved outcome with high-dose induction chemotherapy in patients with AML. These findings suggest that mutational profiling could potentially be used for risk stratification and to inform prognostic and therapeutic decisions regarding patients with AML. (Funded by the National Cancer Institute and others.).
Well-spread sequences and edge-labellings with constant Hamilton-weight

A sequence (a i ) of integers is well-spread if the sums a i +a j , for i<j , are all different. For a fixed positive integer r , let W r (N) denote the maximum integer n for which there exists a well-spread sequence 0≤ a 1 <…<a n ≤ N with a i ≡ a j (b mod r) for all i , j . We give a new proof that W r (N)<(N/r) 1/2 +O((N/r) 1/4 ) ; our approach improves a bound of Ruzsa [ Acta.Arith. 65 (1993), 259--283] by decreasing the implicit constant, essentially from 4 to √ 3 . We apply this result to verify a conjecture of Jones et al. from [ Discuss. Math. Graph Theory 23 (2003), 287--307]. The application concerns the growth-rate of the maximum label Λ(n) in a `most-efficient' metric, injective edge-labelling of K n with the property that every Hamilton cycle has the same length; we prove that 2n 2 -O(n 3/2 )<Λ(n)<2n 2 +O(n 61/40 ) .
Association of the Skn7 and Yap1 Transcription Factors in the Saccharomyces cerevisiae Oxidative Stress Response

ABSTRACT Saccharomyces cerevisiae Skn7p is a stress response transcription factor that undergoes aspartyl phosphorylation by the Sln1p histidine kinase. Aspartyl phosphorylation of Skn7p is required for activation of genes required in response to wall stress, but Skn7p also activates oxidative stress response genes in an aspartyl phosphorylation-independent manner. The presence of binding sites for the Yap1p and Skn7p transcription factors in oxidative stress response promoters and the oxidative stress-sensitive phenotypes of SKN7 and YAP1 mutants suggest that these two factors work together. We present here evidence for a DNA-independent interaction between the Skn7 and Yap1 proteins that involves the receiver domain of Skn7p and the cysteine-rich domains of Yap1p. The interaction with Yap1p may help partition the Skn7 protein to oxidative stress response promoters when the Yap1 protein accumulates in the nucleus.
RNAseq in the mosquito maxillary palp: a little antennal RNA goes a long way

A comparative transcriptomic study of mosquito olfactory tissues recently published in BMC Genomics (Hodges et al, 2014) reported several novel findings that have broad implications for the field of insect olfaction. In this brief commentary, we outline why the conclusions of Hodges et al. are problematic under the current models of insect olfaction and then contrast their findings with those of other RNAseq based studies of mosquito olfactory tissues. We also generated a new RNAseq data set from the maxillary palp of Anopheles gambiae in an effort to replicate the novel results of Hodges et al. but were unable to reproduce their results. Instead, our new RNAseq data support the more straightforward explanation that the novel findings of Hodges et al. were a consequence of contamination by antennal RNA. In summary, we find strong evidence to suggest that the conclusions of Hodges et al were spurious, and that at least some of their RNAseq data sets were irrevocably compromised by cross-contamination between samples.
Speaker-dependent audio-visual emotion recognition

This paper explores the recognition of expressed emotion from speech and facial gestures for the speaker-dependent case. Experiments were performed on an English audio-visual emotional database consisting of 480 utterances from 4 English male actors in 7 emotions. A total of 106 audio and 240 visual features were extracted and features were selected with Plus l-Take Away r algorithm based on Bhattacharyya distance criterion. Linear transformation methods, principal component analysis (PCA) and linear discriminant analysis (LDA), were applied to the selected features and Gaussian classifiers were used for classification. The performance was higher for LDA features compared to PCA features. The visual features performed better than the audio features and overall performance improved for the audio-visual features. In case of 7 emotion classes, an average recognition rate of 56% was achieved with the audio features, 95% with the visual features and 98% with the audio-visual features selected by Bhattacharyya distance and transformed by LDA. Grouping emotions into 4 classes, an average recognition rate of 69% was achieved with the audio features, 98% with the visual features and 98% with the audio-visual features fused at decision level. The results were comparable to the measured human recognition rate with this multimodal data set.
Results of pancreas transplantation after steroid withdrawal under tacrolimus immunosuppression.

PURPOSE The results of steroid withdrawal in pancreas transplant recipients under tacrolimus immunosuppression were analyzed. METHODS From July 4, 1994 until April 30, 1998, 147 pancreas transplantations were performed in 141 patients, including 126 simultaneous pancreas-kidney transplantations, 13 pancreas after kidney transplantation, and 8 pancreas transplantations alone. Baseline immunosuppression consisted of tacrolimus and steroids without antilymphocyte induction. Twenty-three patients were excluded from analysis because of early graft loss in 17 cases, retransplantation in 5 cases, and simultaneous pancreas-kidney transplantation after heart transplantation in 1 patient. RESULTS With a mean follow-up of 2.8+/-1.1 years (range 1.0 to 4.8 years), complete steroid withdrawal was achieved in 58 (47%) patients with a mean time to steroid withdrawal of 15.2+/-8 months (range 4 to 40 months after transplantation). Of the entire cohort of 141 patients, overall 1-, 2-, and 4-year patient survival rates were 98%, 95.5%, and 86%, respectively. Overall 1-, 2-, and 4-year graft survival rates were 83%, 80%, and 71% (pancreas) and 95%, 91%, and 84% (kidney), respectively. Of the 124 patients analyzed for steroid withdrawal, 1-, 2-, and 4-year patient survival rates were 98%, 97%, and 92%, respectively. Overall 1-, 2-, and 4-year graft survival rates were 98%, 91.5%, 83% (pancreas) and 97%, 95%, and 91% (kidney). Patient, pancreas, and kidney survival rates at 1 year were 100%, 100%, and 98% (off steroids) versus 97%, 91%, and 96% (on steroids, all NS) and at 4 years were 100%, 94%, and 95% (off steroids) versus 78%, 68%, and 85% (on steroids, P = 0.01, 0.002, and NS, respectively). The cumulative risk of rejection at the time of follow-up was 76% for patients on steroids versus 74% for patients off steroids (P = NS). Seven patients originally tapered off steroids were treated for subsequent rejection episodes, which were all steroid sensitive, and two of these seven patients are currently off steroids. Thirteen patients received antilymphocyte therapy for steroid-resistant rejection, five of whom are now off steroids. Tacrolimus trough levels were 9.3+/-2.4 ng/ml (off steroids) and 9.7+/-4.3 (on steroids, P = NS). Mean fasting glucose levels were 98+/-34 mg/dl (off steroids) and 110+/-41 mg/dl (on steroids, P = NS). Mean glycosylated hemoglobin levels were 5.2+/-0.9% (off steroids) and 6.2+/-2.1% (on steroids, P = 0.02), and mean serum creatinine levels were 1.4+/-0.8 mg/dl (off steroids) and 1.7+/-1.0 mg/dl (on steroids, P = 0.02). CONCLUSION These data show for the first time that steroid withdrawal can be safely accomplished in pancreas transplant recipients maintained on tacrolimus-based immunosuppression. Steroid withdrawal is associated with excellent patient and graft survival with no increase in the cumulative risk of rejection.
Initial experience using awake surgery for glioma: oncological, functional, and employment outcomes in a consecutive series of 25 cases.

BACKGROUND Awake glioma surgery aims to maximize resection to optimize prognosis while minimizing the risk of postoperative deficits. OBJECTIVE To evaluate oncological, functional, and employment outcomes in the first cohort of patients having this type of surgery at our institution and to determine the effects of any learning curve. METHODS All cases of awake adult (>18 years of age) glioma surgery were recorded between the introduction of this technique in 2011 until the end of 2013. Extent of tumor resection was quantified on magnetic resonance imaging and compared with the objective prediction from a resection probability map. Cognitive status was assessed preoperatively and at 3 months postoperatively. Patients were questioned about their job and capability of working before and after surgery. RESULTS Twenty-five patients were included in the analysis. No new motor or language deficits were noted at 6 weeks after surgery. Postoperative magnetic resonance imaging showed complete resection in 11 of 13 patients with glioblastoma and >98% resection in the other 2 patients. For patients with World Health Organization grade II glioma, 3 had total, 4 had subtotal, and 3 had partial resections. Comparison between cognitive levels before and after surgery showed no change in 4 patients, improvement in some tests in 2 patients, and deterioration in some tests in 3 patients. Of 20 patients working at the time of diagnosis, 16 returned to work. CONCLUSION These oncological and functional results of awake glioma surgery during the learning curve are comparable to results from established centers. The use and utility of resection probability maps are well demonstrated. The return to work level is high.
Rescaling of Spatio-Temporal Sensing in Eukaryotic Chemotaxis

Eukaryotic cells respond to a chemoattractant gradient by forming intracellular gradients of signaling molecules that reflect the extracellular chemical gradient—an ability called directional sensing. Quantitative experiments have revealed two characteristic input-output relations of the system: First, in a static chemoattractant gradient, the shapes of the intracellular gradients of the signaling molecules are determined by the relative steepness, rather than the absolute concentration, of the chemoattractant gradient along the cell body. Second, upon a spatially homogeneous temporal increase in the input stimulus, the intracellular signaling molecules are transiently activated such that the response magnitudes are dependent on fold changes of the stimulus, not on absolute levels. However, the underlying mechanism that endows the system with these response properties remains elusive. Here, by adopting a widely used modeling framework of directional sensing, local excitation and global inhibition (LEGI), we propose a hypothesis that the two rescaling behaviors stem from a single design principle, namely, invariance of the governing equations to a scale transformation of the input level. Analyses of the LEGI-based model reveal that the invariance can be divided into two parts, each of which is responsible for the respective response properties. Our hypothesis leads to an experimentally testable prediction that a system with the invariance detects relative steepness even in dynamic gradient stimuli as well as in static gradients. Furthermore, we show that the relation between the response properties and the scale invariance is general in that it can be implemented by models with different network topologies.
Maximum entropy models for natural language ambiguity resolution

This thesis demonstrates that several important kinds of natural language ambiguities can be resolved to state-of-the-art accuracies using a single statistical modeling technique based on the principle of maximum entropy. We discuss the problems of sentence boundary detection, part-of-speech tagging, prepositional phrase attachment, natural language parsing, and text categorization under the maximum entropy framework. In practice, we have found that maximum entropy models offer the following advantages: State-of-the-art accuracy. The probability models for all of the tasks discussed perform at or near state-of-the-art accuracies, or outperform competing learning algorithms when trained and tested under similar conditions. Methods which outperform those presented here require much more supervision in the form of additional human involvement or additional supporting resources. Knowledge-poor features. The facts used to model the data, or features, are linguistically very simple, or "knowledge-poor", but yet succeed in approximating complex linguistic relationships. Reusable software technology. The mathematics of the maximum entropy framework are essentially independent of any particular task, and a single software implementation can be used for all of the probability models in this thesis. The experiments in this thesis suggest that experimenters can obtain state-of-the-art accuracies on a wide range of natural language tasks, with little task-specific effort, by using maximum entropy probability models.
Recent Progress in Theoretical Prediction, Preparation, and Characterization of Layered Ternary Transition-Metal Carbides

Layered ternary carbides contain alternative stacking of structural slabs in the unit cells. Many mechanical and structural features are inherited with respect to their binary carbide counterparts, and some novel properties also appear because of new chemical bonds and atomic coordination at the boundaries of different slabs. In this review, we highlight important recent achievements that focus on theoretical prediction, microstructure characterization preparation, and macroscopic properties of newly developed layered ternary transition-metal carbides. These results provide insights into understanding the relationship between the structure (including crystal structure, chemical bonding, and microstructure) and the properties of these layered ternary carbides and further highlight their technological applications as high-temperature and ultrahigh-temperature structural materials.