Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cell Transplantation Improves Ventricular Function After a Myocardial Infarction: A Preclinical Study of Human Unrestricted Somatic Stem Cells in a Porcine Model

Background—Cell transplantation offers the promise in the restoration of ventricular function after an extensive myocardial infarction, but the optimal cell type remains controversial. Human unrestricted somatic stem cells (USSCs) isolated from umbilical cord blood have great potential to differentiate into myogenic cells and induce angiogenesis. The present study evaluated the effect of USSCs on myocardial regeneration and improvement of heart function after myocardial infarction in a porcine model. Method and Results—The distal left anterior descending artery of Yorkshire pigs (30 to 35 kg) was occluded by endovascular implantation of a coil. Four weeks after infarction, single-photon emission computed tomography technetium 99m sestamibi scans (MIBI) and echocardiography were performed. USSCs (100×106) or culture media were then directly injected into the infarcted region (n=8 per group). Pigs were immunosuppressed by daily administration of cyclosporin A. At 4 weeks after transplantation, MIBI and echocardiography were repeated and heart function was also assessed with a pressure-volume catheter. The infarcted myocardium and implanted cells were studied histologically. MIBI showed improved regional perfusion (P<0.05) and wall motion (P<0.05) of the infarct region in the transplant group compared with the control. Ejection fraction evaluated by both MIBI and echocardiography decreased in the control group but increased in the transplant group (P<0.01). Scar thickness of the transplant group was higher than the control. The grafted cells were detected 4 weeks after transplantation by both immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridization. Conclusion—Engrafted USSCs were detected in the infarct region 4 weeks after cell transplantation, and the implanted cells improved regional and global function of the porcine heart after a myocardial infarction. This study suggests that the USSC implantation will be efficacious for cellular cardiomyoplasty.
Impaired Secretion of Total Glucagon-like Peptide-1 in People with Impaired Fasting Glucose Combined Impaired Glucose Tolerance

Objective: We assessed the serum glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) levels for Chinese adults with pre-diabetes (PD) and newly-diagnosed diabetes mellitus (NDDM) during oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). The relationships between total GLP-1 level and islet β cell function, insulin resistance (IR) and insulin sensitivity (IS) were also investigated. Methods: A 75g glucose OGTT was given to 531 subjects. Based on the results, they were divided into groups of normal glucose tolerance (NGT), isolated impaired fasting glucose (IFG), isolated impaired glucose tolerance (IGT), IFG combined IGT (IFG+IGT) and NDDM. Total GLP-1 levels were measured at 0- and 2-hour during OGTT. Homeostasis model assessment of β cell function (HOMA-β), HOMA of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), Gutt and Matsuda indexes were calculated. The relationships between GLP-1 level and β cell function, IR and IS were analyzed. Results: The levels of total fasting GLP-1 (FGLP-1), 2h GLP-1 (2hGLP-1) and 2hGLP-1 increments (∆GLP-1) following OGTT reduced significantly in IFG+IGT and NDDM groups (P<0.005). HOMA-β , HOMA-IR, Gutt and Matsuda indexes demonstrated various patterns among NGT, isolated IFG, isolated IGT, IFG+IGT and NDDM groups (P<0.05). Spearman rank correlation analysis and multivariable linear regression model suggested that some levels of correlation between GLP-1 levels, ∆GLP-1 and β cell function, IR (P<0.05). Conclusions: The total GLP-1 levels and its response to glucose load decreased significantly in IFG+IGT group, compared to isolated IFG or IGT group. They were even similar to that of NDDM group. Moreover, there were observable correlations between impaired GLP-1 secretion and β cell function, IR and IS.
Lack of chemopreventive effects of lycopene and curcumin on experimental rat prostate carcinogenesis.

The chemopreventive efficacy of lycopene and curcumin with regard to prostate carcinogenesis was investigated using 3,2'-dimethyl-4-aminobiphenol (DMAB)- and 2-amino-1-methylimidazo[4,5-b]pyridine (PhIP)-induced rat ventral prostate cancer models. Three 60 week experiments with male F344 rats were carried out. In the first DMAB was given for the first 20 weeks and lycopene or curcumin were administered concomitantly or subsequently at dietary doses of 15 and 500 p.p.m. , respectively. In the second experiment lycopene and curcumin were given to rats pretreated with DMAB at doses of 5, 15 or 45 p.p.m. or 100 or 500 p.p.m. In the third PhIP was selected as an initiator for prostate carcinogenesis and administered for 20 weeks. Rats were then fed a diet containing lycopene at a dose of 45 p.p.m. or curcumin at a dose of 500 p.p.m. or both together. Chemopreventive effects of lycopene and curcumin on development of DMAB-induced ventral prostate carcinomas were observed only in the first experiment and no confirmation of inhibition potential was obtained in the following studies. Neither summational nor synergistic chemoprevention was evident. It is concluded from the present data that, overall, neither lycopene nor curcumin can consistently prevent rat prostate carcinogenesis.
Desflurane or sevoflurane for gynaecological day‐case anaesthesia with spontaneous respiration?

Sixty gynaecological day‐case patients were anaesthetised with either desflurane or sevoflurane in oxygen/nitrous oxide, following intravenous induction. Mean end‐tidal desflurane was 4.5% at 5 and 10 min post induction, whereas mean end‐tidal sevoflurane was 1.7%. There were five untoward airway events (coughing, hiccoughs) in the desflurane group and three in the sevoflurane group, including one laryngospasm. Time to eye opening and orientation following anaesthesia were significantly faster in the desflurane group (2.8 min/4.8 min) than in the sevoflurane group (7.0 min/9.8 min; p < 0.0001). Time to being ready for discharge home was also significantly earlier in the desflurane group (3 h compared with 3.5 h). Telephone interview on the first postoperative day showed that in the desflurane group 29 of 31 were fully returned to normal activity compared with only 15 out of 29 in the sevoflurane group (p < 0.01).
Random walks in the history of life

The simplest null hypothesis for evolutionary time series is that the observed data follow a random walk. We examined whether aspects of Sepkoski's compilation of marine generic diversity depart from a random walk by using statistical tests from econometrics. Throughout most of the Phanerozoic, the random-walk null hypothesis is not rejected for marine diversity, accumulated origination or accumulated extinction, suggesting that either these variables were correlated with environmental variables that follow a random walk or so many mechanisms were affecting these variables, in different ways, that the resultant trends appear random. The only deviation from this pattern involves rejection of the null hypothesis for roughly the last 75 million years for the diversity and accumulated origination time series.
A Nested Sampling Algorithm for Cosmological Model Selection

The abundance of cosmological data becoming available means that a wider range of cosmological models are testable than ever before. However, an important distinction must be made between parameter fitting and model selection. While parameter fitting simply determines how well a model fits the data, model selection statistics, such as the Bayesian evidence, are now necessary to choose between these different models, and in particular to assess the need for new parameters. We implement a new evidence algorithm known as nested sampling, which combines accuracy, generality of application, and computational feasibility, and we apply it to some cosmological data sets and models. We find that a five-parameter model with a Harrison-Zel'dovich initial spectrum is currently preferred.
Cooperative Inverse Reinforcement Learning

For an autonomous system to be helpful to humans and to pose no unwarranted risks, it needs to align its values with those of the humans in its environment in such a way that its actions contribute to the maximization of value for the humans. We propose a formal definition of the value alignment problem as cooperative inverse reinforcement learning (CIRL). A CIRL problem is a cooperative, partial-information game with two agents, human and robot; both are rewarded according to the human's reward function, but the robot does not initially know what this is. In contrast to classical IRL, where the human is assumed to act optimally in isolation, optimal CIRL solutions produce behaviors such as active teaching, active learning, and communicative actions that are more effective in achieving value alignment. We show that computing optimal joint policies in CIRL games can be reduced to solving a POMDP, prove that optimality in isolation is suboptimal in CIRL, and derive an approximate CIRL algorithm.
Carbon balance of South Asia constrained by passenger aircraft CO 2 measurements

Abstract. Quantifying the fluxes of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) between the atmosphere and terrestrial ecosystems in all their diversity, across the continents, is important and urgent for implementing effective mitigating policies. Whereas much is known for Europe and North America for instance, in comparison, South Asia, with 1.6 billion inhabitants and considerable CO 2 fluxes, remained terra incognita in this respect. We use regional measurements of atmospheric CO 2 aboard a Lufthansa passenger aircraft between Frankfurt (Germany) and Chennai (India) at cruise altitude, in addition to the existing network sites for 2008, to estimate monthly fluxes for 64-regions using Bayesian inversion and transport model simulations. The applicability of the model's transport parameterization is confirmed using SF 6 , CH 4 and N 2 O simulations for the CARIBIC datasets. The annual amplitude of carbon flux obtained by including the aircraft data is twice as large as the fluxes simulated by a terrestrial ecosystem model that was applied to prescribe the fluxes used in the inversions. It is shown that South Asia sequestered carbon at a rate of 0.37 ± 0.20 Pg C yr −1 (1 Pg C = 10 15 g of carbon in CO 2 ) for the years 2007 and 2008. The seasonality and the strength of the calculated monthly fluxes are successfully validated using independent measurements of vertical CO 2 profiles over Delhi and spatial variations at cruising altitude over Asia aboard Japan Airlines passenger aircraft.
Predicting Fluid Responsiveness in Critically Ill Patients by Using Combined End-Expiratory and End-Inspiratory Occlusions With Echocardiography

Objectives: First, we aimed at assessing whether fluid responsiveness is predicted by the effects of an end-expiratory occlusion on the velocity-time integral of the left ventricular outflow tract. Second, we investigated whether adding the effects of an end-inspiratory occlusion and of an end-expiratory occlusion on velocity-time integral can predict fluid responsiveness with similar reliability than end-expiratory occlusion alone but with a higher threshold, which might be more compatible with the precision of echocardiography. Design: Diagnostic study. Setting: Medical ICU. Patients: Thirty mechanically ventilated patients in whom fluid administration was planned. Interventions: A 15-second end-expiratory occlusion and end-inspiratory occlusion, separated by 1 minute, followed by a 500-mL saline administration. Measurements and Main Results: Pulse contour analysis–derived cardiac index and velocity-time integral were measured during the last 5 seconds of 15-second end-inspiratory occlusion and end-expiratory occlusion and after fluid administration. End-expiratory occlusion increased velocity-time integral more in responders than in nonresponders to fluid administration (11% ± 5% vs 3% ± 1%, respectively; p < 0.0001), and end-inspiratory occlusion decreased velocity-time integral more in responders than in nonresponders (12% ± 5% vs 5% ± 2%, respectively; p = 0.0002). When adding the absolute values of changes in velocity-time integral observed during both occlusions, velocity-time integral changed by 23% ± 9% in responders and by 8% ± 3% in nonresponders. Fluid responsiveness was predicted by the end-expiratory occlusion–induced change in velocity-time integral with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.938 (0.785–0.989) and a threshold value of 5%. Fluid responsiveness was predicted by the sum of absolute values of changes in velocity-time integral during both occlusions with a similar reliability (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve = 0.973 [0.838–1.000]) but with a threshold of 13%. Both sensitivity and specificity were 93% (68–100%). Conclusions: If consecutive end-inspiratory occlusion and end-expiratory occlusion change velocity-time integral is greater than or equal to 13% in total, fluid responsiveness is accurately predicted. This threshold is more compatible with the precision of echocardiography than that obtained by end-expiratory occlusion alone.
Development of the temporal lobe in infants and children: analysis by MR-based volumetry.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Recent advances in data-processing techniques have allowed more accurate MR-based volumetric measurement than was possible in the past. The purpose of this study was to use this technique to evaluate the development of the temporal lobes in childhood. METHODS The study group consisted of 42 subjects aged 3 weeks to 14 years (mean age, 5 years), all with normal findings on a routine MR study and none with a history of epilepsy. MR images were acquired on a 1.0-T system using a T1-weighted 3D ultrafast gradient-echo sequence. The volumes of the hippocampal formations and temporal lobes were measured by using a workstation, and the percentage of hippocampal formations in the temporal lobes was calculated. Myelination in the limbic system and related structures was also evaluated. RESULTS The volume of the hippocampal formations increased sharply until the age of 2 years, and continued to increase slowly thereafter. However, the percentage of hippocampal formations in the temporal lobes showed a negative correlation with age. The hippocampal formations on the right side were larger than those on the left in 38 cases (91%), and the anterior temporal lobes on the right were larger than those on the left in 32 cases (76%). This right-left asymmetry of the hippocampal formations and anterior temporal lobes was observed from early infancy, and these differences were statistically significant. A longitudinal fasciculus of high signal intensity was seen in the white matter beneath the subiculum by about 3 months of age. CONCLUSION MR-based volumetry established developmental characteristics of the temporal lobe, such as a hippocampal growth spurt, a growth difference between the hippocampal formation and the rest of the temporal lobe, and right-left asymmetry. Knowledge of these characteristics may aid in the understanding of hippocampal and temporal lobe abnormalities in children.
Managing code clones using dynamic change tracking and resolution

Code cloning is widely recognized as a threat to the maintainability of source code. As such, many clone detection and removal strategies have been proposed. However, some clones can often not be removed easily so other strategies, based on clone management need to be developed. In this paper we describe a clone management strategy based on dynamically inferring clone relations by monitoring clipboard activity. We introduce CloneBoard, our Eclipse plug-in implementation that is able to track live changes to clones and offers several resolution strategies for inconsistently modified clones. We perform a user study with seven subjects to assess the adequacy, usability and effectiveness of CloneBoard, the results of which show that developers actually see the added value of such a tool but have strict requirements with respect to its usability.
Deep Reinforcement Learning with Double Q-Learning

The popular Q-learning algorithm is known to overestimate action values under certain conditions. It was not previously known whether, in practice, such overestimations are common, whether they harm performance, and whether they can generally be prevented. In this paper, we answer all these questions affirmatively. In particular, we first show that the recent DQN algorithm, which combines Q-learning with a deep neural network, suffers from substantial overestimations in some games in the Atari 2600 domain. We then show that the idea behind the Double Q-learning algorithm, which was introduced in a tabular setting, can be generalized to work with large-scale function approximation. We propose a specific adaptation to the DQN algorithm and show that the resulting algorithm not only reduces the observed overestimations, as hypothesized, but that this also leads to much better performance on several games.
Regional, temporal, and seasonal variations in births and deaths: The effects of famines

Abstract A knowledge of the seasonal variation in births and deaths during normal years is important for analyses of the effects of wars, famines, epidemics or similar privations on these two variables. In studies of seasonally, multiple trigonometric regression models are more flexible than the simple sine curve. The seasonal variation in mortality in Iceland, 1856–1990, shows a strong secular decrease, and a connection between this and the epidemiological transition is considered. As a consequence of the severe famine in Finland in 1867–68, the mortality for the whole year 1868 was almost four times as high as during normal years, and the seasonality of the mortality was even more accentuated. The birth rate in Finland during 1868 was about 70 percent of that during normal years and showed an aberrant seasonality, with a strong trough from October 1868 to February 1869 (fewer conceptions between January and May 1868, when the food shortage was severe).
A subjective evaluation using crowdsourcing of Adaptive Media Playout utilizing audio-visual content features

Inter-Destination Multimedia Synchronization (IDMS) pushes social interactions to a new level. IDMS allows the users to experience multimedia together with friends, colleagues, or the family while having a real-time communication at the same time. The actual challenge of synchronizing the playout of each participant to a reference playout time is a tough task in terms of Quality of Experience (QoE). A possible solution for carrying out the synchronization is Adaptive Media Playout (AMP) where the playout speed of the multimedia is increased or decreased. In this paper we evaluate the impact of the playout variations on the QoE by adopting a crowdsourcing approach. In particular, we investigate the impact of randomly selecting content sections for adapting the playout rate compared to our approach that exploits audio-visual features of the content in order to minimize the impact on the QoE.
Explicit consistency constraints for STFT spectrograms and their application to phase reconstruction

As many acoustic signal processing methods, for example for source separation or noise canceling, operate in the magnitude spectrogram domain, the problem of reconstructing a perceptually good sounding signal from a modified magnitude spectrogram, and more generally to understand what makes a spectrogram consistent, is very important. In this article, we derive the constraints which a set of complex numbers must verify to be a consistent STFT spectrogram, i.e. to be the STFT spectrogram of a real signal, and describe how they lead to an objective function measuring the consistency of a set of complex numbers as a spectrogram. We then present a flexible phase reconstruction algorithm based on a local approximation of the consistency constraints, explain its relation with phase-coherence conditions devised as necessary for a good perceptual sound quality, and derive a real-time time scale modification algorithm based on sliding-block analysis. Finally, we show how inconsistency can be used to develop a spectrogram-based audio encryption scheme.
Re-thinking the Forum

We have re-designed the forum of the on-line environment LIFE to offer a stronger support to collaborative practices and to favor a thicker social interaction. Among the innovative features that have been developed, in this paper, we focus on the possibility to add comments to portions of sentences or single words. We will show and discuss also a preliminary evaluation of its use, which allowed us also to highlight different interaction styles of learners and tutors
Affective and Restorative Valences for Three Environmental Categories

The present study evaluated images of environments in three categories with different affective and restorative valences through two computerized assessments. A non-verbal computerized response scale and the Mexican Scale of Environmental Restoration Perception were employed. 104 students assessed the affective qualities of 117 images (47 natural, 37 urban with nature, and 33 built-up without nature) according to pleasure and activation dimensions. Then 96 students assessed 54 images with high and low valence for their restorative quality. Natural images were found to generate positive affective reactions of liking and activation and high restorative quality. Affective responses to urban with nature environments tended to be positive with moderate restorative quality. Built-up without nature environments were perceived as less pleasant and had low restorative quality. However, among built-up without nature environments, some settings with striking architectural qualities evoked positive affective valences.
Radiosity in Flatland

The radiosity method for the simulation of interre ection of light between di use surfaces is such a common image synthesis technique that its derivation is worthy of study. We here examine the radiosity method in a two dimensional, atland world. It is shown that the radiosity method is a simple nite element method for the solution of the integral equation governing global illumination. These twodimensional studies help explain the radiosity method in general and suggest a number of improvements to existing algorithms. In particular, radiosity solutions can be improved using a priori discontinuity meshing, placing mesh boundaries on discontinuities such as shadow edges. When discontinuity meshing is used along with piecewise-linear approximations instead of the current piecewise-constant approximations, the accuracy of radiosity simulations can be greatly increased.