Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Photopic and scotopic fine matrix mapping of retinal areas of increased fundus autofluorescence in patients with age-related maculopathy.

PURPOSE To investigate photopic and scotopic sensitivity of retinal areas that show increased fundus autofluorescence (FAF) in patients with age-related maculopathy (ARM). METHODS FAF was imaged with a modified confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscope (cSLO). Fine matrix mapping (FMM) was performed with a modified field analyzer. Photopic and scotopic thresholds were obtained at 100 locations on a 9 degrees x 9 degrees matrix with 1 degrees spacing, centered on a macular area of increased FAF. Inclusion criteria included ARM fundus changes, areas of increased FAF, central and stable fixation, and visual acuity of 20/40 or better. RESULTS FAF images were reviewed in 436 patients with age-related maculopathy (ARM), of whom 38 met the inclusion criteria. FMM was performed in seven eyes of seven patients. Areas of increased FAF in patients with late ARM (choroidal neovascularization or geographic atrophy) showed normal or only mildly abnormal photopic, but severely reduced scotopic, sensitivity. The central area of increased FAF corresponding to a large foveal druse in a patient with ARM showed moderately reduced photopic and severely reduced scotopic sensitivity. In the other patients with ARM with drusen, areas of increased FAF showed normal or near-normal photopic sensitivity, but moderately reduced scotopic sensitivity. CONCLUSIONS In retinal areas of increased FAF in patients with ARM, scotopic sensitivity loss considerably exceeded photopic sensitivity loss. This finding is in line with histologic data that have demonstrated a preferential loss of rods in ARM, but does not explain the magnitude of sensitivity loss. The study shows that increased FAF in ARM has a functional correlate.
Experimental Design on a Budget for Sparse Linear Models and Applications

Budget constrained optimal design of experiments is a well studied problem. Although the literature is very mature, not many strategies are available when these design problems appear in the context of sparse linear models commonly encountered in high dimensional machine learning. In this work, we study this budget constrained design where the underlying regression model involves a ℓ1-regularized linear function. We propose two novel strategies: the first is motivated geometrically whereas the second is algebraic in nature. We obtain tractable algorithms for this problem which also hold for a more general class of sparse linear models. We perform a detailed set of experiments, on benchmarks and a large neuroimaging study, showing that the proposed models are effective in practice. The latter experiment suggests that these ideas may play a small role in informing enrollment strategies for similar scientific studies in the future.
Update on complications of synthetic suburethral slings

ABSTRACT Synthetic suburethral slings have become the most widely used technique for the surgical treatment of stress urinary incontinence. Despite its high success rates, significant complications have been reported including bleeding, urethral or bladder injury, urethral or bladder mesh erosion, intestinal perforation, vaginal extrusion of mesh, urinary tract infection, pain, urinary urgency and bladder outlet obstruction. Recent warnings from important regulatory agencies worldwide concerning safety issues of the use of mesh for urogynecological reconstruction have had a strong impact on patients as well as surgeons and manufacturers. In this paper, we reviewed the literature regarding surgical morbidity associated with synthetic suburethral slings.
P3h3-null and Sc65-null Mice Phenocopy the Collagen Lysine Under-hydroxylation and Cross-linking Abnormality of Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome Type VIA*

Tandem mass spectrometry was applied to tissues from targeted mutant mouse models to explore the collagen substrate specificities of individual members of the prolyl 3-hydroxylase (P3H) gene family. Previous studies revealed that P3h1 preferentially 3-hydroxylates proline at a single site in collagen type I chains, whereas P3h2 is responsible for 3-hydroxylating multiple proline sites in collagen types I, II, IV, and V. In screening for collagen substrate sites for the remaining members of the vertebrate P3H family, P3h3 and Sc65 knock-out mice revealed a common lysine under-hydroxylation effect at helical domain cross-linking sites in skin, bone, tendon, aorta, and cornea. No effect on prolyl 3-hydroxylation was evident on screening the spectrum of known 3-hydroxyproline sites from all major tissue collagen types. However, collagen type I extracted from both Sc65−/− and P3h3−/− skin revealed the same abnormal chain pattern on SDS-PAGE with an overabundance of a γ112 cross-linked trimer. The latter proved to be from native molecules that had intramolecular aldol cross-links at each end. The lysine under-hydroxylation was shown to alter the divalent aldimine cross-link chemistry of mutant skin collagen. Furthermore, the ratio of mature HP/LP cross-links in bone of both P3h3−/− and Sc65−/− mice was reversed compared with wild type, consistent with the level of lysine under-hydroxylation seen in individual chains at cross-linking sites. The effect on cross-linking lysines was quantitatively very similar to that previously observed in EDS VIA human and Plod1−/− mouse tissues, suggesting that P3H3 and/or SC65 mutations may cause as yet undefined EDS variants.
Inflammatory Response in Multiple Organs in a Mouse Model of Acute Alcohol Intoxication and Burn Injury

This study characterized the inflammatory response after burn injury and determined whether ethanol (EtOH) intoxication at the time of burn injury influences this response. To accomplish this, male mice were gavaged with EtOH (2.9 g/kg) 4 hours before 12 to 15% TBSA sham or burn injury. Mice were killed on day 1 after injury; blood, small intestine, lung, and liver were collected to measure interleukin (IL)-6, IL-10, IL-18, and Monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1) levels. In addition, neutrophil infiltration, myeloperoxidase activity, and edema formation were also measured in the small intestine, lung, and liver. There was no difference in the inflammatory markers in the small intestine, lung, and liver in mice receiving either sham or burn injury alone except IL-6 that was increased in all four tissue compartments after burn injury alone. However, when compared with EtOH or burn injury alone, EtOH combined with burn injury resulted in a significant increase in cytokines, neutrophil infiltration, myeloperoxidase activity, and edema in the small intestine, liver, and lung tissue. Furthermore, a significant increase in IL-6 and MCP-1 was observed in circulation after EtOH intoxication and burn injury compared with either EtOH intoxication or burn injury alone; no other cytokines were detected in circulation. These findings suggest that acute EtOH intoxication exacerbates the inflammatory response after burn injury.
Optimal Computed Tomographic Perfusion Scan Duration for Assessment of Acute Stroke Lesion Volumes

Background and Purpose— The minimal scan duration needed to obtain reliable lesion volumes with computed tomographic perfusion (CTP) has not been well established in the literature. Methods— We retrospectively assessed the impact of gradual truncation of the scan duration on acute ischemic lesion volume measurements. For each scan, we identified its optimal scan time, defined as the shortest scan duration that yields measurements of the ischemic lesion volumes similar to those obtained with longer scanning, and the relative height of the fitted venous output function at its optimal scan time. Results— We analyzed 70 computed tomographic perfusion scans of acute stroke patients. An optimal scan time could not be determined in 11 scans (16%). For the other 59 scans, the median optimal scan time was 32.7 seconds (90th percentile 52.6 seconds; 100th percentile 68.9 seconds), and the median relative height of the fitted venous output function at the optimal scan times was 0.39 (90th percentile 0.02; 100th percentile 0.00). On the basis of a linear model, the optimal scan time was T0 plus 1.6 times the width of the venous output function (P<0.001; R2=0.49). Conclusions— This study shows how the optimal duration of a computed tomographic perfusion scan relates to the arrival time and width of the contrast bolus. This knowledge can be used to optimize computed tomographic perfusion scan protocols and to determine whether a scan is of sufficient duration. Provided a baseline (T0) of 10 seconds, a total scan duration of 60 to 70 seconds, which includes the entire downslope of the venous output function in most patients, is recommended.
The Utility of a Video Game System in Rehabilitation of Burn and Nonburn Patients: A Survey Among Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy Practitioners

The objective of this study was to investigate perceptions of occupational therapists and physiotherapists on the use of Nintendo Wii™ (Nintendo of America Inc., Redmond, WA) in rehabilitation. Occupational therapists and physiotherapists in a rehabilitation hospital trialed four Wii games that addressed physical movement, balance, coordination, and cognitive performance. Then, they completed an opinion survey on the utility of Wii in rehabilitation. The results were compared between burn care therapists (BTs) and nonburn care therapists, using &khgr;2 with a P < . 05 considered significant. The participation rate was 79% (63/80), and they agreed that Wii was easy to set up (71%), operate (68%), and safe to use (76%). Participants agreed that Wii would be beneficial in outpatient (76%) and inpatient (65%) settings and that it could improve treatment compliance (73%). Participants recommended 15 to 30-minute Wii intervention (59%) daily (81%) and twice per week (43%). Participants believed that neurologic (71%), trauma (68%), burn (59%), and musculoskeletal (49%) patients would benefit from Wii intervention but not cardiac (43%) or organ transplant patients (18%). Participants believed that outcomes using Wii could be measured reliably (49%), and skills learned while playing could be transferable to daily function (60%). The significant differences between BTs and nonburn care therapists' perceptions are that BT-treated younger patients (21–40 years vs >60 years, P < .05) and BT favored the therapeutic benefit of Wii in rehabilitation (93% vs 58%, P = .02), specifically in burn rehabilitation (85% vs 39%, P = .001). Occupational therapists and physiotherapists favored the use of Wii in rehabilitation as an adjunct to traditional therapy because it is therapeutic, engaging, and may increase patient participation in rehabilitation.
Anatomical Mapping and Density of Merkel Cells in Skin and Mucosae of the Dog

Merkel cells (MCs) are specialized cutaneous receptor cells involved with tactile sense. Although the distribution of MCs has been extensively studied in humans and rodents, their precise distribution and density throughout skin in the dog has not previously been determined. Knowledge of their distribution could facilitate understanding of their functions. By using of immunohistochemistry, density, and anatomical mapping of the MCs population in the dog skin was determined. Assessment of the MCs innervation was also achieved. Different patterns were noted in epidermis, hair follicles, or mucosa, including variable‐sized clusters, linear or horse‐shaped arrangements, and scattered and individualized cells. MCs revealed great variations in density and distribution over the body surface, with the highest numbers in oral mucosa and facial skin. There was no correlation of MCs density with age, sex, type of breed, coat type or pigmentation. Between 41 and 65% of MCs in hairy and glabrous skin and 8–18% of MCs in oral mucosa were in intimate contact with intraepithelial axon terminals. These findings indicate that canine MCs are numerous in sensory receptive areas and may be associated with the tactile sense in the dog. The present article enhances the knowledge of the skin structure in this species. Anat Rec, 299:1157–1164, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Novel Pathways in the Pathobiology of Human Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms

Objectives: Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA), a dilatation of the infrarenal aorta, typically affects males >65 years. The pathobiological mechanisms of human AAA are poorly understood. The goal of this study was to identify novel pathways involved in the development of AAAs. Methods: A custom-designed ‘AAA-chip’ was used to assay 43 of the differentially expressed genes identified in a previously published microarray study between AAA (n = 15) and control (n = 15) infrarenal abdominal aorta. Protein analyses were performed on selected genes. Results: Altogether 38 of the 43 genes on the ‘AAA-chip’ showed significantly different expression. Novel validated genes in AAA pathobiology included ADCY7, ARL4C, BLNK, FOSB, GATM, LYZ, MFGE8, PRUNE2, PTPRC, SMTN, TMODI and TPM2. These genes represent a wide range of biological functions, such as calcium signaling, development and differentiation, as well as cell adhesion not previously implicated in AAA pathobiology. Protein analyses for GATM, CD4, CXCR4, BLNK, PLEK, LYZ, FOSB, DUSP6, ITGA5 and PTPRC confirmed the mRNA findings. Conclusion: The results provide new directions for future research into AAA pathogenesis to study the role of novel genes confirmed here. New treatments and diagnostic tools for AAA could potentially be identified by studying these novel pathways.
Differential associations of threat and deprivation with emotion regulation and cognitive control in adolescence

Abstract Research on childhood adversity has traditionally focused on single types of adversity, which is limited because of high co-occurrence, or on the total number of adverse experiences, which assumes that diverse experiences influence development similarly. Identifying dimensions of environmental experience that are common to multiple types of adversity may be a more effective strategy. We examined the unique associations of two such dimensions (threat and cognitive deprivation) with automatic emotion regulation and cognitive control using a multivariate approach that simultaneously examined both dimensions of adversity. Data were drawn from a community sample of adolescents (N = 287) with variability in exposure to violence, an indicator of threat, and poverty, which is associated with cognitive deprivation. Adolescents completed tasks measuring automatic emotion regulation and cognitive control in neutral and emotional contexts. Violence was associated with automatic emotion regulation deficits, but not cognitive control; poverty was associated with poor cognitive control, but not automatic emotion regulation. Both violence and poverty predicted poor inhibition in an emotional context. Utilizing an approach focused on either single types of adversity or cumulative risk obscured specificity in the associations of violence and poverty with emotional and cognitive outcomes. These findings suggest that different dimensions of childhood adversity have distinct influences on development and highlight the utility of a differentiated multivariate approach.
A LabVIEW-based implementation of real-time underwater acoustic OFDM system

The orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) technology receives increasing attention in underwater acoustic (UA) communications. This paper presents a real-time OFDM-based UA communication system, implemented using the National Instruments CompactDAQ device and the LabVIEW software. The system design including both the transmitter and receiver is discussed. The performance of this real-time system is verified through a UA communication experiment conducted recently in a tank. Compared with conventional digital signal processor (DSP)-based design, the proposed implementation simplifies the prototype design and reduces the software development time.
A Brooks Type Theorem for the Maximum Local Edge Connectivity

For a graph $G$, let $\cn(G)$ and $\la(G)$ denote the chromatic number of $G$ and the maximum local edge connectivity of $G$, respectively. A result of Dirac \cite{Dirac53} implies that every graph $G$ satisfies $\cn(G)\leq \la(G)+1$. In this paper we characterize the graphs $G$ for which $\cn(G)=\la(G)+1$. The case $\la(G)=3$ was already solved by Alboulker {\em et al.\,} \cite{AlboukerV2016}. We show that a graph $G$ with $\la(G)=k\geq 4$ satisfies $\cn(G)=k+1$ if and only if $G$ contains a block which can be obtained from copies of $K_{k+1}$ by repeated applications of the Haj\'os join.
Distracter-aware correlation filter tracking

We propose a distracter-aware Correlation Filters (CF) tracking algorithm, which exploits the information of dis-tracters to enhance the robustness of the tracker. Although most existing correlation filters based trackers achieve accurate tracking results, they may be less effective when similar distracters appear in the background. To this end, the proposed algorithm not only take the information of the target into consideration but also pay attention to the information of the distracters in the background. We first detect the distracters based on the response of CF model and then design a label map based on the information of the detected distracters. Unlike most existing CF based trackers which direct use a Gaussian shape label map, the proposed algorithm design a distracter-aware label map which makes the trained CF model effective to handle distracters. The proposed algorithm has several compelling advantages: it detects distracters, captures the discriminative information, which is crucial for robust tracking, enhances the robustness. We evaluate our proposed algorithm on the public OTB datasets, which including 50 sequences, and compare it with several state-of-the-art trackers. The comparable results show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.
Perturbed Bone Marrow Monocyte Development Following Burn Injury and Sepsis Promote Hyporesponsive Monocytes

The mechanism of monocyte deactivation in critically injured burn patients remains unresolved. Two functionally distinct F4/80+Gr-1+ and F4/80+Gr-1− monocyte subsets have been characterized based on their homing to inflammatory or noninflammatory tissues, respectively. We hypothesized that the posttraumatic milieu in the bone marrow (BM) blunts the production of “inflammatory” monocytes. C57Blk/J male mice were divided into sham (S), burn (B), and burn sepsis (BS) groups. B and BS received a 15% dorsal scald burn and BS was inoculated with 15K colony forming units Pseudomonas aeruginosa at the burn site. Animals were killed and blood and femoral BM were collected 48, 72, and 96 hours after injury. ER-MP20+ monocyte progenitors were isolated from BM and differentiated into macrophage (MØ) or dendritic cells (DCs) and characterized by the cell surface expression of F4/80 and CD11c, respectively. In both cell types, TLR-4 agonist induced cytokine levels were determined. Results showed a 2-fold increase in the F4/80+Gr-1+ subset at 48 hours in BS that started to decline at 72 hours and remained low at 96 hours. ER-MP20+ progenitors isolated at 48 hours exhibited robust MØ differentiation potential but a significant decline in the percentage of the F4/80+Gr-1+ subset (P < .05 vs S) with a concomitant decrease in tumor necrosis factor α production. DC development from ER-MP20+ progenitors and LPS-stimulated tumor necrosis factor α production were impaired. Therefore, BM progenitor derived MØ will replace the transient hyper-responsive circulating monocytes later during the course of the septic insult. Hypo-reactivity of the developing monocytes and DC in the BM and their subsequent egress to the periphery provide a plausible explanation for the immunosuppression that ensues a critical burn injury and sepsis.
Full-GRU Natural Language Video Description for Service Robotics Applications

Enabling effective human–robot interaction is crucial for any service robotics application. In this context, a fundamental aspect is the development of a user-friendly human–robot interface, such as a natural language interface. In this letter, we investigate the robot side of the interface, in particular the ability to generate natural language descriptions for the scene it observes. We achieve this capability via a deep recurrent neural network architecture completely based on the gated recurrent unit paradigm. The robot is able to generate complete sentences describing the scene, dealing with the hierarchical nature of the temporal information contained in image sequences. The proposed approach has fewer parameters than previous state-of-the-art architectures, thus it is faster to train and smaller in memory occupancy. These benefits do not affect the prediction performance. In fact, we show that our method outperforms or is comparable to previous approaches in terms of quantitative metrics and qualitative evaluation when tested on benchmark publicly available datasets and on a new dataset we introduce in this letter.
Mesenchymal stem cells ameliorate experimental arthritis via expression of interleukin-1 receptor antagonist

Human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been observed to inhibit arthritis in experimental animal models such as collagen-induced arthritis. However, the exact anti-inflammatory mechanisms remain poorly understood. Interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1Ra) is an anti-inflammatory cytokine produced by immune and stromal cells. We postulated that MSCs could produce IL-1Ra and attenuate experimental arthritis. In this study, 5x106 MSCs were injected into the peritoneal cavity of IL-1Ra knockout (IL-1RaKO) mice. MSCs reduced the severity of the arthritis by histology and decreased pro-inflammatory cytokine levels in IL-1RaKO mice. The ratio of splenic T helper 17 (Th17) cells to regulatory T cells (Treg) was significantly decreased in MSC-injected IL-1RaKO mice. Purified splenic CD4+ T cells from mice in each of the treatment groups were cultured under Th17 polarizing conditions and analyzed by flow cytometry. Less expansion of the Th17 population was observed in the MSC-treated group. Interestingly, MSCs expressed inducible IL-1Ra against inflammatory environmental stimuli. Human recombinant IL-1Ra could suppress Th17 cells differentiation under Th17 polarizing conditions. These results indicate that IL-1Ra expressed by MSCs can inhibit Th17 polarization and decrease the immune response in IL-1RaKO mice. Therefore, MSC-derived IL-1Ra may inhibit inflammation in IL-1RaKO mice via effects on Th17 differentiation.
Mechanical Properties and Impermeability of Hybrid Fiber Reinforced Concrete

Experiment on mechanical properties and impermeability of steel fiber and modified po-(lypropylene) fiber hybrid reinforced concrete were carried out.The test results show that hybrid fibers increase concrete's compressive strength,splitting tensile strength and flexural strength,but it have little effect on concrete's impermeability.And air-entraining agent increases impermeability of hybrid fiber reinforced concrete.The reason why hybrid mode of fiber has effect on mechanical properties and impermeability of hybrid fiber reinforced concrete are also analyzed.