Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Functional Changes in Coronary Microcirculation After Valve Replacement in Patients With Aortic Stenosis

Background—Increased extravascular compression and reduced diastolic perfusion time (DPT), rather than vascular remodeling, influence coronary microcirculatory dysfunction in aortic stenosis (AS). However, alterations after aortic valve replacement (AVR) remain unclear. The aim of the present study was to quantify changes in transmural perfusion and coronary vasodilator reserve (CVR), a measure of microcirculatory function, after AVR and determine the relative contribution of left ventricular mass (LVM) regression, change in aortic valve area (AVA), and DPT. Methods and Results—Twenty-two patients with AS were studied before and 1 year after AVR using echocardiography to measure AVA, cardiovascular magnetic resonance to assess LVM, and positron emission tomography to quantify resting and hyperemic myocardial blood flow (MBF) and CVR. Regression of LVM occurred in all patients (from 129±30 to 94±24 g/m2; P <0.0001), and there was a significant reduction in resting MBF and increase in CVR corrected for rate-pressure product after AVR, although these changes displayed marked heterogeneity. Regression of LVM was linearly related to change in resting total LV blood flow but not CVR. Increase in hyperemic MBF and CVR transmurally was directly related to the increase in AVA after AVR. A significant relationship existed between the change in hyperemic DPT (1.0±4.7 s/min [range, 6.8 to 9.6]) and change in transmural CVR (y=0.08x+0.18; r =0.44; P =0.04). Conclusions—Changes in coronary microcirculatory function in patients with AS after AVR are not directly dependent on regression of LVM. Reduced extravascular compression and increased DPT are proposed as the main mechanisms for improvement in MBF and CVR after AVR.
Coffee intake can promote activity of antioxidant enzymes with increasing MDA level and decreasing HDL-cholesterol in physically trained rats

This study investigated the effect of coffee intake and exercise on the antioxidative activity and plasma cholesterol profile of physically trained rats while they were exercising. Forty eight rats were under either the control diet with water (C) or control diet with coffee (CF) and at the same time they were given physical training for 4 weeks. In terms of physical training, the rats were exercised on a treadmill for 30 minutes everyday. At the end of 4 weeks, animals in each dietary group were subdivided into 3 groups: before-exercise (BE); during-exercise (DE); after-exercise (AE). Animals in the DE group were exercised on a treadmill for one hour, immediately before being sacrificed. Animals in the AE group were allowed to take a rest for one hour after exercise. TG levels were significantly high in coffee intake group than in control group. Also TG level of AE group was significantly higher than that of BE group. Exercise and coffee-exercise interaction effects were significant in total cholesterol (P = 0.0004, 0.0170). The AE of coffee intake group showed highest total cholesterol levels. HDL-cholesterol was significantly lower in coffee intake group than in control group. Coffee, exercise, and coffee-exercise interaction effects were significant in SOD (P = 0.0001, 0.0001, and 0.0001). The AE and BE of coffee intake group showed higher SOD levels than the other four groups. Catalase activities were significantly higher in coffee intake group than control group. No significant main effect was found in GSH/GSSG. Coffee, exercise, and coffee-exercise interaction effects were significant in MDA levels (P = 0.0464, 0.0016, and 0.0353). The DE and AE of coffee intake group and the DE of control group showed higher MDA levels than the BE of control group. Therefore, coffee intake can promote activities of antioxidant enzyme but it also increases MDA and decreases HDL-cholesterol in physically trained rats.
The feasibility and efficacy of gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonists for prevention of chemotherapy induced ovarian failure in patient with gynecological malignancies

Objective To assess the effects of a gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist (GnRH-a) depot (Leuprolide acetate) in women with gynecologic cancer receiving chemotherapy while taking a continuous add-back on the prevention of premature ovarian failure. Methods Fourteen premenopausal patients with gynecological malignancies who had undergone conservation of ovaries surgery received a GnRH-a depot plus add-back until chemotherapy was completed. Four weeks thereafter, a hormonal profile (follicle stimulating hormone) was measured. Results The mean follicle stimulating hormone level was 15.8 IU/L. All patients exhibited a restoration of ovarian failure during follow-up. One patient became pregnant during the follow-up period. Conclusion In the short term, GnRH-a appears to protect ovarian function and ability to achieve pregnancy following chemotherapy. The result of our study needs further elucidation in a large randomized controlled trial.
Charting the internal landscape: Affect associated with thoughts about major life domains explains life satisfaction

Studies of happiness have examined the impact of demographics, personality and emotions accompanying daily activities on life satisfaction. We suggest that how people feel while contemplating aspects of their lives, including their weight, children and future prospects, is a promising yet uncharted territory within the internal landscape of life satisfaction. In a sample of 811 American women, we assessed women’s feelings when thinking about major life domains and frequency of thoughts about each domain. Regression and dominance analyses showed that emotional valence of thoughts about major life domains was an important predictor of current and prior life satisfaction, surpassing, in descending order, demographics, participants’ feelings during recent activities, and their neuroticism and extraversion scores. Domains thought about more frequently were often associated with greater emotional valence. These results suggest that life satisfaction may be improved by modifying emotional valence and frequency of thoughts about life domains. Moreover, these thoughts appear to be an important and relatively stable component of well-being worthy of further study.
DehazeNet: An End-to-End System for Single Image Haze Removal

Single image haze removal is a challenging ill-posed problem. Existing methods use various constraints/priors to get plausible dehazing solutions. The key to achieve haze removal is to estimate a medium transmission map for an input hazy image. In this paper, we propose a trainable end-to-end system called DehazeNet, for medium transmission estimation. DehazeNet takes a hazy image as input, and outputs its medium transmission map that is subsequently used to recover a haze-free image via atmospheric scattering model. DehazeNet adopts convolutional neural network-based deep architecture, whose layers are specially designed to embody the established assumptions/priors in image dehazing. Specifically, the layers of Maxout units are used for feature extraction, which can generate almost all haze-relevant features. We also propose a novel nonlinear activation function in DehazeNet, called bilateral rectified linear unit, which is able to improve the quality of recovered haze-free image. We establish connections between the components of the proposed DehazeNet and those used in existing methods. Experiments on benchmark images show that DehazeNet achieves superior performance over existing methods, yet keeps efficient and easy to use.
Model-Free Reconstruction of Excitatory Neuronal Connectivity from Calcium Imaging Signals

A systematic assessment of global neural network connectivity through direct electrophysiological assays has remained technically infeasible, even in simpler systems like dissociated neuronal cultures. We introduce an improved algorithmic approach based on Transfer Entropy to reconstruct structural connectivity from network activity monitored through calcium imaging. We focus in this study on the inference of excitatory synaptic links. Based on information theory, our method requires no prior assumptions on the statistics of neuronal firing and neuronal connections. The performance of our algorithm is benchmarked on surrogate time series of calcium fluorescence generated by the simulated dynamics of a network with known ground-truth topology. We find that the functional network topology revealed by Transfer Entropy depends qualitatively on the time-dependent dynamic state of the network (bursting or non-bursting). Thus by conditioning with respect to the global mean activity, we improve the performance of our method. This allows us to focus the analysis to specific dynamical regimes of the network in which the inferred functional connectivity is shaped by monosynaptic excitatory connections, rather than by collective synchrony. Our method can discriminate between actual causal influences between neurons and spurious non-causal correlations due to light scattering artifacts, which inherently affect the quality of fluorescence imaging. Compared to other reconstruction strategies such as cross-correlation or Granger Causality methods, our method based on improved Transfer Entropy is remarkably more accurate. In particular, it provides a good estimation of the excitatory network clustering coefficient, allowing for discrimination between weakly and strongly clustered topologies. Finally, we demonstrate the applicability of our method to analyses of real recordings of in vitro disinhibited cortical cultures where we suggest that excitatory connections are characterized by an elevated level of clustering compared to a random graph (although not extreme) and can be markedly non-local.
Numerical computations of a theoretical model of ribbed moraine formation

We develop numerical solutions of a theoretical model which has been proposed to explain the formation of subglacial bedforms. The model has been shown to have the capability of producing bedforms in two dimensions, when they may be interpreted as ribbed moraine. However, these investigations have left unanswered the question of whether the theory is capable of producing fully three‐dimensional bedforms such as drumlins. We show that, while the three‐dimensional calculations show realistic quasi‐three‐dimensional features such as dislocations in the ribbing pattern, they do not produce genuine three‐dimensional drumlins. We suggest that this inadequacy is due to the treatment of subglacial drainage in the theory as a passive variable, and thus that the three‐dimensional forms may be associated with conditions of sufficient subglacial water flux. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Rail extraction for driver support in railways

Rail extraction is one of the basic tasks for videobased driver support in railways, being used, for example, to determine regions of interest for detecting obstacles and signs. In this paper, we introduce an approach that performs rail extraction by matching edge features to candidate rail patterns modeled as sequences of parabola segments. Patterns are precomputed for areas near the camera and generated on the fly for more distant regions. The proposed approach addresses the challenges posed by the open and complex environment, such as bad visibility, shadows, motion blur, clutter, occlusion, and confusing structures. Moreover, it does not require explicit knowledge about train speed or camera position, running fast enough for practical use without specialized hardware. The feasibility of the proposed approach was verified in experiments using videos captured under real operation conditions.
Sucrose Utilization in Budding Yeast as a Model for the Origin of Undifferentiated Multicellularity

We use the budding yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, to investigate one model for the initial emergence of multicellularity: the formation of multicellular aggregates as a result of incomplete cell separation. We combine simulations with experiments to show how the use of secreted public goods favors the formation of multicellular aggregates. Yeast cells can cooperate by secreting invertase, an enzyme that digests sucrose into monosaccharides, and many wild isolates are multicellular because cell walls remain attached to each other after the cells divide. We manipulate invertase secretion and cell attachment, and show that multicellular clumps have two advantages over single cells: they grow under conditions where single cells cannot and they compete better against cheaters, cells that do not make invertase. We propose that the prior use of public goods led to selection for the incomplete cell separation that first produced multicellularity.
Identifying groups at high risk for carriage of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

BACKGROUND No simple, cost-effective methods exist to identify patients at high risk for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and vancomycin-resistant enterococci colonization outside intensive care settings. Without such methods, colonized patients are entering hospitals undetected and transmitting these bacteria to other patients. We aimed to develop a highly sensitive, simple-to-administer prediction rule to identify subpopulations of patients at high risk for colonization on hospital admission. METHODS We conducted a prospective cohort study of adult patients admitted to the general medical and surgical wards of a tertiary-care facility. Data were collected using electronic medical records and an investigator-administered questionnaire. Cultures of anterior nares and the perirectal area were also collected within 48 hours of admission. RESULTS Among 699 patients who enrolled in this study, 697 underwent nasal cultures; 555, perirectal cultures; and 553, both. Patient self-report of a hospital admission in the previous year was the most sensitive variable in identifying patients colonized with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus or with either organism (sensitivity, 76% and 90%, respectively). A prediction rule requiring patients to self-report having received antibiotics and a hospital admission in the previous year would have identified 100% of patients colonized with vancomycin-resistant enterococci. In the high-risk groups defined by the prediction rule, the prevalence of colonization by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, vancomycin-resistant enterococci, or either organism were 8.1%, 10.2%, and 15.0%, respectively. CONCLUSION Patients with a self-reported previous admission within 1 year may represent a high-risk group for colonization by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus or vancomycin-resistant enterococci at hospital admission and should be considered for targeted active surveillance culturing.
Simple-to-evaluate error probabilities for impulse radio UWB multiple access systems with pulse-based polarity randomization

Simple-to-evaluate and accurate bit error probabilities are presented for impulse radio ultra-wideband multiple access systems that use time hopping sequences with pulse-based polarity randomization and binary phase shift keying modulation. Simplified improved Gaussian approximation is used. It is shown that despite having the same processing gain, which is the multiplication of the number of frames per bit and chips per frame, different combinations of the parameters result in different performances. The theoretical results are validated by Monte Carlo simulations.
A combination of testability and decodability by tensor products

Ben‐Sasson and Sudan (RSA 2006) showed that taking the repeated tensor product of linear codes with very large distance results in codes that are locally testable. Due to the large distance requirement the associated tensor products could be applied only over sufficiently large fields. Then Meir (SICOMP 2009) used this result to present a combinatorial construction of locally testable codes with largest known rate. As a consequence, this construction was obtained over sufficiently large fields.
The thermogenesis of digestion in rattlesnakes

SUMMARY Some snakes have a feeding regime characterized by the infrequent ingestion of relatively large meals, causing impressive increments in post-prandial metabolism. Metabolism remains elevated for many days, while digestion proceeds, resulting in considerable investment of time and energy. Snakes actively adjust thermoregulatory behavior to raise their body temperature during digestion, exhibiting a post-prandial thermophilic response that accelerates digestion at the expense of higher metabolic rates. In the present study, we investigated the possibility that endogenously derived heat, originating as a byproduct of the post-prandial increase in metabolism, could itself contribute to the elevated body temperature during digestion in the South American rattlesnake Crotalus durissus. We assessed heat production, at a constant environmental temperature, by taking infrared (IR) images of snakes during fasting and after being fed meals varying from 10% to 50% of their own body masses. Our results show clearly that digesting rattlesnakes have significantly increased body temperatures, even when precluded from adjusting their thermoregulatory behavior. The feeding-derived thermogenesis caused the surface body temperature of rattlesnakes to increase by 0.9–1.2°C, a temperature change that will significantly affect digestive performance. The alterations in body temperature following feeding correlated closely with the temporal profile of changes in post-prandial metabolism. Moreover, the magnitude of the thermogenesis was greater for snakes fed large meals, as was the corresponding metabolic response. Since IR imaging only assesses surface temperatures, the magnitude of the thermogenesis and the changes in deep core temperature could be even more pronounced than is reported here.
Tag refinement by regularized LDA

Tagging is nowadays the most prevalent and practical way to make images searchable. However, in reality many tags are irrelevant to image content. To refine the tags, previous solutions usually mine tag relevance relying on the tag similarity estimated right from the corpus to be refined. The calculation of tag similarity is affected by the noisy tags in the corpus, which is not conducive to estimate accurate tag relevance. In this paper, we propose to do tag refinement from the angle of topic modeling. In the proposed scheme, tag similarity and tag relevance are jointly estimated in an iterative manner, so that they can benefit from each other. Specifically, a novel graphical model, regularized Latent Dirichlet Allocation (rLDA), is presented. It facilitates the topic modeling by exploiting both the statistics of tags and visual affinities of images in the corpus. The experiments on tag ranking and image retrieval demonstrate the advantages of the proposed method.
Design of a Novel In-Pipe Reliable Leak Detector

Leakage is the major factor for unaccounted losses in every pipe network around the world (oil, gas, or water). In most cases, the deleterious effects associated with the occurrence of leaks may present serious economical and health problems. Therefore, leaks must be quickly detected, located, and repaired. Unfortunately, most state-of-the-art leak detection systems have limited applicability, are neither reliable nor robust, while others depend on the user experience. In this paper, we present a new in-pipe leak detection system. It performs autonomous leak detection in pipes and, thus, eliminates the need for the user experience. This paper focuses on the detection module and its main characteristics. Detection in based on the presence of a pressure gradient in the neighborhood of the leak. Moreover, the proposed detector can sense leaks at any angle around the circumference of the pipe with only two sensors. We validate the concepts by building a prototype and evaluate the system's performance under real conditions in an experimental laboratory setup.
Voltage-Frequency Island Partitioning for GALS-based Networks-on-Chip

Due to high levels of integration and complexity, the design of multi-core SoCs has become increasingly challenging. In particular, energy consumption and distributing a single global clock signal throughout a chip have become major design bottlenecks. To deal with these issues, a globally asynchronous, locally synchronous (GALS) design is considered for achieving low power consumption and modular design. Such a design style fits nicely with the concept of voltage-frequency islands (VFIs) which has been recently introduced for achieving fine-grain system-level power management. This paper proposes a design methodology for partitioning an NoC architecture into multiple VFIs and assigning supply and threshold voltage levels to each VFI Simulation results show about 40% savings for a real video application and demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach in reducing the overall system energy consumption. The results and functional correctness are validated using an FPGA prototype for an NoC with multiple VFIs.
Applied SOA: Service-Oriented Architecture and Design Strategies

Endorsed by all major vendors (Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, and SAP), SOA has quickly become the industry standard for building next-generation software; this practical guide shows readers how to achieve the many benefits of SOA Begins with a look at the architectural principles needed to create successful applications and then goes on to examine the process for designing services and SOA implementations Each stage of the design process has an accompanying chapter that walks readers through the details and provides helpful tips, techniques, and examples The author team of SOA practitioners also provides two unique, comprehensive, end-to-end case studies illustrating the architectural and design techniques presented in the book
Thermal Plasticity in Life-History Traits in the Polymorphic Blue-Tailed Damselfly, Ischnura elegans: No Differences between Female Morphs

Abstract Female polymorphism is observed in various animal species, but is particularly common in damselflies. The maintenance of this polymorphism has traditionally been explained from frequency and density dependent sexual conflict, however, the role of abiotic factors has recently attracted more interest. Here, the role of ambient temperature in shaping life-history was investigated for the three female morphs of Ischnura elegans (Vander Linden) (Zygoptera: Coenagrionidae). Eggs were obtained from the three mature female morphs for two populations in the Netherlands. Using a split-brood design, eggs of both populations were divided between a cold and a warm treatment group in the laboratory, and egg survival and hatching time were measured. Significant thermal plasticity was found in both hatching time and egg survival between both temperature treatments. However, individuals born to mothers belonging to different colour morphs did not differ in their response to temperature treatment. Independent of colour morph, clear differences in both life-history traits between the populations were found, suggesting local adaptation. Specifically, individuals from one population hatched faster but had lower egg survival in both thermal regimes. The selection force establishing fast hatching could be (facultative) bivoltinism in one of the populations compared to univoltinism in the other. This would be in line with the more southern (and more coastal) location of the presumed bivoltine population and the inverse relation between voltinism and latitude known from earlier studies. However, other natural selection forces, e.g. deterioration of the aquatic habitat, may also drive fast hatching.