Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Predicting glaucoma progression using multi-task learning with heterogeneous features

We consider the prediction of glaucomatous visual field loss based on patient datasets. It is critically important to predict how rapidly the disease is progressing in an individual patient. However, the number of measurements for each patient is so small that a reliable predictor cannot be constructed from the data of a single patient alone. In this paper, we propose a novel multi-task learning approach to this issue. Patient data consist of three features: patient ID, 74-dimensional visual loss values, and inspection time. We reduce the prediction problem into one of matrix completion for these features. Specifically, by assuming heterogeneity in the three features, we introduce similarity measures that reflect the unique statistical nature of the respective features to solve a specific type of matrix decomposition problem. For example, we employ Gaussian kernels as a similarity measure for visual field loss and a linear regression-type relation for the time feature. We empirically demonstrate that our proposed method works significantly better than the existing methods.
Golden eagles, feral pigs, and insular carnivores: How exotic species turn native predators into prey

Island ecosystems are particularly vulnerable to exotic species. Here we show how an introduced prey has led to the wholesale restructuring of an island food web, including the near extinction of an endemic carnivore. Introduced pigs, by providing abundant food, enabled golden eagles to colonize the California Channel Islands. Eagles preyed heavily on the island fox, whose resulting decline toward extinction released populations of the competitively inferior island skunk. The presence of exotic pigs led to major ecosystem shifts by indirectly causing predation to replace competition as the dominant force shaping these island communities.
A Robust Multi-Model Approach for Face Detection in Crowd

The estimation of the number of people in surveillance areas is essential for monitoring crowded scenes. When density of a zone increases to a certain approximated level, people's safety can be endangered. Detection of human is a prerequisite for density estimation, tracking, activity recognition and anomaly detection even in non congested areas. This paper presents a robust hybrid approach for face detection in crowd by combining the skin color segmentation and a Histogram of Oriented Gradients(HOG) with Support Vector Machine(SVM) architecture. Initially, image enhancement is performed to improve the detection rate. An edge preserving pyramidal approach is applied for multiscale representation of an image. Skin color segmentation is done with combination of YCbCr and RGB color model, and HOG features are extracted from the segmented skin region. We trained the SVM classifier by Muct and FEI databases which consist 751 and 2800 face images respectively. The accuracy of this approach is evaluated by testing it on BAO multiple face database and on various manually collected images captured in surveillance areas. Experimental results demonstrate that the supplementary skin color segmentation with HOG is more potent for increasing the detection rate than using HOG features only. The proposed approach achieves 98.02% accuracy which is higher in comparison to Viola Jones and fast face detection method.
Urban-Rural Differences in Bone Mineral Density: A Cross Sectional Analysis Based on the Hyderabad Indian Migration Study

Background Fracture risk is rising in countries undergoing rapid rural to urban migration, but whether this reflects an adverse effect of urbanization on intrinsic bone strength, as reflected by bone mineral density (BMD), is currently unknown. Methods Lumbar spine (LS) and total hip (TH) BMD, and total body fat and lean mass, were obtained from DXA scans performed in the Hyderabad arm of the Indian Migration Study (54% male, mean age 49 years). Sib-pair comparisons were performed between rural-urban migrants (RUM) and rural non-migrated (RNM) siblings (N = 185 sib-pairs). Results In analyses adjusted for height, gender, age and occupation, rural to urban migration was associated with higher lumbar and hip BMD and greater predicted hip strength; ΔLS BMD 0.030 (0.005, 0.055) g/cm2, ΔTH BMD 0.044 (0.024; 0.064) g/cm2, Δcross-sectional moment of inertia 0.162 (0.036, 0.289) cm4. These differences were largely attenuated after adjusting for body composition, insulin levels and current lifestyle factors ie. years of smoking, alcohol consumption and moderate to vigorous physical activity. Further analyses suggested that differences in lean mass, and to a lesser extent fat mass, largely explained the BMD differences which we observed. Conclusions Rural to urban migration as an adult is associated with higher BMD and greater predicted hip strength, reflecting associated alterations in body composition. It remains to be seen how differences in BMD between migration groups will translate into fracture risk in becoming years.
Cognitive function in postmenopausal women treated with raloxifene.

BACKGROUND In postmenopausal women, estrogen may have a beneficial effect on cognition or reduce the risk of decline in cognitive function. Whether raloxifene, a selective estrogen-receptor modulator, might have similar actions is not known. METHODS As part of the Multiple Outcomes of Raloxifene Evaluation trial, we studied 7478 postmenopausal women with osteoporosis (mean age, 66 years), who were enrolled at 178 sites in 25 countries. The women were randomly assigned to receive raloxifene (60 mg or 120 mg) or placebo daily for three years. We compared the mean scores of the groups on six tests of cognitive function, which were administered at base line and at six months and one, two, and three years. Women were classified as having a decline in cognitive function if the change in their scores at three years was in the worst 10 percent. RESULTS The mean cognitive scores in the three groups of women were similar at base line. The scores improved slightly in all three groups during the three-year study period, with no significant differences among the groups. The risk of decline in the cognitive function, as measured by four of the six tests, did not differ significantly between the two raloxifene groups combined and the placebo group, but there was a trend toward less decline in the combined raloxifene group on the two tests of verbal memory (relative risk, 0.77) and attention, (relative risk, 0.87). Newly reported or worsening hot flashes did not negatively influence test scores or the effect of treatment on test performance. CONCLUSIONS Raloxifene treatment for three years does not affect overall cognitive scores in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis.
Vegetation Composition Related to Environmental Factors along the International Highway-West Alexandria, Egypt

The present study aimed to characterize the ecological features of the vegetation along the international coastal road from El-Ajami to Ras El-Hekma, West Alexandria, Egypt. The cluster analysis of 60 stands was performed using the Community Analysis Package program and Detrended Correspondence Analysis (DCA). Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) was used to identify the ecological relationships between the vegetation and the environment along the roadside. The total number of the recorded plant species surveyed in the present study was 84 species belonging to 74 genera and related to 25 families. Asteraceae, Poaceae, Fabaceae, and Chenopodiaceae were the largest families (53.57% of the total species, collectively). Therophytes is the most abundant life forms. Mediterranean chorotype (58.32%) was the most represented. On the basis of the presence values, cluster analysis yielded four vegetation groups. Group A was dominated by Carthamus tenuis, group B by Lactuca serriola, group C by Bromus diandrus and Original Research Article Al-Hadithy et al.; ARRB, 30(1): 1-15, 2018; Article no.ARRB. 45342 2 group D by Suaeda pruinosa. The application of CCA showed that the percentages of porosity, organic carbon, CaCO3, Cl , SO4 -, HCO3 and cations are the most effective soil variables. Generally, the coastal sector in Egypt suffers from unplanned development and salinization of the soil, so the development of the highway needs a balance between conservation and development.
Iodine deficiency in pregnant women and neonates in Thailand

Abstract Objective: To present data on the relationship between the concentration of thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) in whole blood or serum from neonates and the concentration of iodine in their mother's urine collected at birth to contribute to the contention that the recommended iodine intake during pregnancy should be increased. Design and Setting: Data were provided by current programmes of neonatal screening of congenital hypothyroidism in Bangkok and rural areas of Thailand. Subjects: A total of 5144 cord serum samples were collected in 2003 and measured for TSH concentrations. Paired samples of blood and urine were collected in 2000 from 203 infants and their mothers and from 1182 infant-mother pairs in 2002-03 in six rural provinces. Iodine was measured in the urine and TSH was measured in cord serum. Results: The urinary iodine concentration of mothers in rural Thailand is adequate, with a median of 103 μg l-1. However, in 2000, the median urinary iodine concentration of mothers in Bangkok was only 85 μg l-1. The concentration of TSH in whole blood collected on filter paper from neonates was not sensitive enough to be used as a monitoring tool for iodine nutrition in the neonates, as there was no relationship with the concentration of iodine in the urine of the children's mothers. This was in contrast to the concentration of TSH in serum collected from cord blood. Conclusions: Several conclusions were drawn from this data: 1) Neonatal TSH screening using whole blood collected from a heel prick at 3 days of age is not sensitive enough to assess the iodine nutrition of neonates; 2) Neonatal TSH screening using cord sera can be used to assess iodine nutrition in neonates; 3) The optimum median maternal urinary iodine concentration in Thailand appears to be 103 μg l-1; 4) The criteria proposed by WHO, UNICEF, and ICCIDD to assess iodine nutrition using data on neonatal TSH concentrations should be reassessed; and 5) Neonatal TSH screening can be effectively performed by collecting cord serum in district hospitals in Thailand.
Large granular lymphocytic (LGL) leukemia in rats exposed to intermittent 60 Hz magnetic fields

An animal model for large granular lymphocytic (LGL) leukemia in male Fischer 344 rats was utilized to determine whether magnetic field exposure can be shown to influence the progression of leukemia. We previously reported that exposure to continuous 60 Hz, 1 mT magnetic fields did not significantly alter the clinical progression of LGL leukemia in young male rats following injection of spleen cells from donor leukemic rats. Results presented here extend those studies with the following objectives: (a) to replicate the previous study of continuous 60 Hz magnetic field exposures, but using fewer LGL cells in the inoculum, and (b) to determine if intermittent 60 Hz magnetic fields can alter the clinical progression of leukemia. Rats were randomly assigned to four treatment groups (18/group) as follows: (1) 1 mT (10 G) continuous field, (2) 1 mT intermittent field (off/on at 3 min intervals), (3) ambient controls ( < 0.1 μT), and (4) positive control (5 Gy whole body irradiation from cobalt‐60 four days prior to initiation of exposure). All rats were injected intraperitoneally with 2.2 × 106 fresh, viable LGL leukemic spleen cells at the beginning of the study. The fields were activated for 20 h per day, 7 days per week, and all exposure conditions were superimposed over the natural ambient magnetic field. The rats were weighed and palpated for splenomegaly weekly. Splenomegaly developed 9–11 weeks after transplantation of the leukemia cells. Hematological evaluations were performed at 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, and 16 weeks of exposure. Peripheral blood hemoglobin concentration, red blood cells, and packed cell volume declined, and total white blood cells and LGL cells increased dramatically in all treatment groups after onset of leukemia. Although the positive control group showed different body weight curves and developed signs of leukemia earlier than other groups, differences were not detected between exposure groups and ambient controls. Furthermore, there were no overall effects of magnetic fields on splenomegaly or survival in exposed animals. In addition, no significant and/or consistent differences were detected in hematological parameters between the magnetic field exposed and the ambient control groups. Bioelectromagnetics 22:185–193, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Schizophrenia and frontotemporal dementia: Shared causation?

Abstract The relationship between specific genes and particular diseases in neuropsychiatry is unclear, and newer studies focus on shared domains of neurobiological and cognitive pathology across different disorders. This paper reviews the evidence for an association between schizophrenia and frontotemporal dementia, including symptom similarity, familial co-morbidity, and neuroanatomical changes. Genetic as well as epigenetic findings from both schizophrenia and frontotemporal dementia are also discussed. As a result, we introduce the hypothesis of a shared susceptibility for certain subgroups of schizophrenia and frontotemporal dementia. This common causation may involve the same gene(s) at different stages of life: early in schizophrenia and late in frontotemporal dementia. Additionally, we provide a rationale for future research that should emphasize both genetic and cognitive parallels between certain forms of schizophrenia and frontotemporal dementia in a synergistic, coordinated way, placing both in the context of aberrant lateralization patterns.
Increased prevalence of gallbladder polyps in acromegaly.

INTRODUCTION Several studies have suggested an increased prevalence of benign and malignant tumors in acromegaly, particularly colonic neoplasms. The gallbladder's epithelial similarity to the colon raises the possibility that gallbladder polyps (GBP) may occur more frequently in acromegaly. PATIENTS AND METHODS Thirty-one patients with newly diagnosed acromegaly (14 females, 17 males; mean age 54.7 yr, range 27-76 yr) were referred to our center between 2004 and 2008. All had pituitary adenomas and were treated with somatostatin analogs prior to transsphenoidal surgery. Biliary ultrasonography was performed at the time of referral. In a retrospective case-cohort study, we compared the prevalence of GBP in these scans with those of 13,234 consecutive patients (age range 20-80 yr) presenting at the hospital for abdominal/biliary ultrasound during the same time interval. Associations between GH and IGF-I levels and GBP in acromegaly were also examined. RESULTS There was a higher prevalence of GBP in patients with acromegaly compared with controls (29.03 vs 4.62%, P = 0.000008); relative risk was 6.29 (95% confidence interval 3.61-10.96). Eight of nine patients with acromegaly and GBP were older than 50 yr of age. GH levels were higher in those with GBP (median 30.8 μg/liter, interquartile range 10.9-39.1) than those without (8.2 μg/liter, interquartile range 6.0-16.0), but IGF-I levels were comparable. CONCLUSIONS This is the first study to demonstrate an increased prevalence of GBP in patients with newly diagnosed acromegaly. Further studies are required to determine whether these patients are at increased risk of developing gallbladder carcinoma and to define the role, if any, of biliary ultrasound surveillance.
Comparative Performance Evaluation of Hot Spot Contention Between MIN-Based and Ring-Based Shared-Memory Architectures

Hot spot contention on a network-based shared-memory architecture occurs when a large number of processors try to access a globally shared variable across the network. While multistage interconnection network (MIN) and hierarchical ring (HR) structures are two important bases on which to build large scale shared-memory multiprocessors, the different interconnection networks and cache/memory systems of the two architectures respond very differently to network bottleneck situations. In this paper, we present a comparative performance evaluation of hot spot effects on the MIN-based and HR-based shared-memory architectures. Both nonblocking MIN-based and HR-based architectures are classified, and analytical models are described for understanding network differences and for evaluating hot spot performance on both architectures. The analytical comparisons indicate that HR-based architectures have the potential to handle various contentions caused by hot spots more efficiently than MIN-based architectures. Intensive performance measurements on hot spots have been conducted on the BBN TC2000 (MIN-based) and the KSR1 (HR-based) machines. Performance experiments were also conducted on the practical experience of hot spots with respect to synchronization lock algorithms. The experimental results are consistent with the analytical models, and present practical observations and an evaluation of hot spots on the two types of architectures. >
Bendable and Stretchable Microfluidic Liquid Metal-Based Filter

A mechanically foldable and stretchable filter with stable filtering performance is presented in this letter. The filter is manufactured with liquid metal injected into microfluidic channels, which are realized in material of polydimethylsiloxane using soft lithography. The elastic dielectric material and liquid metal enable the deformation capability and mechanical stability of the filter along any direction. Frequency response, insertion loss, and return loss of the bended and stretched filters are investigated and compared with their original state through simulations and experiments. The fabricated filter demonstrates an insertion loss of 1.3 dB at the center frequency of 2.1 GHz and a return loss better than 10 dB over 1.6–2.6 GHz, and the overall filter size is 33 mm $\times25.3$ mm. Experiments verify that stretching up to 20% and bending with radii of 8.5 and 11.5 mm are possible with maintained electrical specifications.
Characterization of new regulatory elements within the Drosophila bithorax complex

The homeotic Abdominal-B (Abd-B) gene expression depends on a modular cis-regulatory region divided into discrete functional domains (iab) that control the expression of the gene in a particular segment of the fly. These domains contain regulatory elements implicated in both initiation and maintenance of homeotic gene expression and elements that separate the different domains. In this paper we have performed an extensive analysis of the iab-6 regulatory region, which regulates Abd-B expression at abdominal segment A6 (PS11), and we have characterized two new polycomb response elements (PREs) within this domain. We report that PREs at Abd-B cis-regulatory domains present a particular chromatin structure which is nuclease accessible all along Drosophila development and both in active and repressed states. We also show that one of these regions contains a dCTCF and CP190 dependent activity in transgenic enhancer-blocking assays, suggesting that it corresponds to the Fab-6 boundary element of the Drosophila bithorax complex.
Nutrient and mineral retention and vitamin D absorption in low-birth-weight infants: effect of medium-chain triglycerides.

A randomized prospective study of the effect of medium-chain triglycerides (MCT) upon the absorption and retention of major minerals and nutrients, as well as upon 25-hydroxy vitamin D levels, was performed in low-birth-weight infants. Ten infants received a high-calcium and vitamin D-containing formula, which contained 50% of its fat as MCT, while ten other infants received a similar formula in which all the fat was in long-chain triglycerides. There was a five-day delay in reaching full oral feeding volumes, and therefore there was a delay in the onset of the balance study in the MCT group, primarily due to gastrointestinal symptoms. There was a significant improvement in the percent of fat absorption (P less than .05) with MCT, but no difference in the percent of absorption or retention of calcium, phosphorus, sodium, or nitrogen. 25-Hydroxy vitamin D levels decreased in both groups after full oral feeding volumes had been established, but all values were within normal ranges. At the high intake levels of calcium and vitamin D given to the infants, MCT did not increase major mineral or nutrient absorption.
Toward Labor Flexibility with Chinese Characteristics? The Case of the Chinese Construction Machinery Industry

This paper takes an institutional perspective to study the roles of institutional change and continuity in shaping Chinese enterprises’ labor flexibility strategies. Based on intensive field research in seven construction machinery enterprises, I find that employment practices in these workplaces are converging toward extremely numerical flexibility including the use of temporary labor, short-term labor contracts, termination of labor relationships, internal retrenchment and flexible working time. I argue that both institutional change and continuity have played important roles in shaping these labor flexibility practices. On the one hand, the changing household registration system, the changing social protection system, the establishment of the labor contract system, the weakening workers’ representation in the workplace, and the ambiguous labor regulations and weak enforcement have directly provided pre-conditions for the spread of extreme numerical flexibility practices in the Chinese workplace. On the other hand, the continuity of other institutions including the macroeconomic control of the state, the underdeveloped business credit system, the cultural preference of extremely short lead time, and the vocational education and training system has indirectly imposed imperatives of extreme numerical flexibility on these enterprises by increasing uncertainties and fluctuations of product markets and worsening the labor market condition of excess low skilled and scarce high skilled labor.
Effects of the implementation of an 84-hour workweek on neurobehavioral test performance and cortisol responsiveness during testing.

OBJECTIVES This study examined whether long workhours in combination with an extended workweek (12 hours/7 days), as requested by the workers, impaired attention and cognitive performance and whether the degree of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) activation was related to the response to the performance tasks. METHODS A group of 41 male construction workers between 21 and 60 (mean 39) years of age who worked 84 hours a week, with alternate weeks off, was compared with a group of 23 male construction workers between 24 and 65 (mean 43) years of age who had a traditional 40-hour work schedule. Neurobehavioral test performance, self-ratings of fatigue and sleepiness, and salivary cortisol levels were evaluated in a counterbalanced repeated-measures design. RESULTS The 84-hour group did not show any signs of reduced test performance or elevated fatigue and sleepiness. The 84-hour group had faster reaction times on day 7 than on days 1 and 5. Although the expected activation of the HPA axis was only found in the total study sample when workdays 1 and 5 were collapsed, the HPA activation can be considered normal. CONCLUSIONS The results suggest that an 84-hour work regimen in response to requests from workers does not induce more performance deficits than an ordinary 40-hour workweek. An extended work schedule of 84 hours cannot in the short-term be considered to affect basic mental capabilities negatively.