Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Input Surface Medial Axis Hierarchy

The Scale Axis Transform provides a parametric simplification of the Medial Axis of a 3D shape which can be seen as a hierarchical description. However, this powerful shape analysis method has a significant computational cost, requiring several minutes for a single scale on a mesh of few thousands vertices. Moreover, the scale axis can be artificially complexified at large scales, introducing new topological structures in the simplified model. In this paper, we propose a progressive medial axis simplification method inspired from surface optimization techniques which retains the geometric intuition of the scale axis transform. We compute a hierarchy of simplified medial axes by means of successive edge-collapses of the input medial axis. These operations prevent the creation of artificial tunnels that can occur in the original scale axis transform.As a result, our progressive simplification approach allows to compute the complete hierarchy of scales in a few seconds on typical input medial axes. We show how this variation of the scale axis transform impacts the resulting medial structure. CR Categories: I.3. 5 [Computer Graphics]: Computational Geometry and Object Modeling—Hierarchy and geometric transformations;
Proportional assist ventilation may improve exercise performance in severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

PURPOSE Exercise tolerance is impaired in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), in part because of a reduction in ventilatory capacity and excessive dyspnea experienced. The authors reasoned that proportional assist ventilation (PAV), a ventilator mode in which the level of support varies proportionately with patient effort, could be used during exercise to assist ventilation. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of PAV to improve exercise endurance and related physiologic parameters in COPD. METHODS In 8 patients (age = 62.8 years mean, +/- 6.9 standard deviation) with severe COPD (forced expiratory volume in 1 second = 0.70 +/- 0.21 L) flow, volume, dyspnea, leg fatigue, arterial blood gases, and gas exchange were measured during constant workrate exercise (37 +/- 18 watts; i.e., 80% previously determined maximum oxygen consumption). Crossover exercise trials were performed in random order: while spontaneously breathing through the experimental circuit without assistance (control trial) and with PAV (using 9.8 +/- 2.1 cm H2O/L and 3.3 +/- 1.0 cm H2O/L/sec of volume assist and flow assist, respectively). RESULTS The application of PAV during exercise was well tolerated by each subject. Compared with the control measurement at equivalent time during exercise, PAV improved breathing pattern and arterial blood gases while dyspnea was reduced. Consequently, there was a significant increase in exercise duration with PAV (323 +/- 245 seconds during the control trial compared with 507 +/- 334 seconds with PAV, P = 0.02). CONCLUSIONS Proportional assist ventilation can improve performance during constant workrate exercise in severe COPD.
Behavioural predictors of subsequent hepatitis C diagnosis in a UK clinic sample of HIV positive men who have sex with men

Objective: To explore the associations between self reported high risk sexual behaviours and subsequent diagnosis with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. Methods: The Sex, Health and Anti-Retrovirals Project (SHARP) was a cross sectional study of sexual behaviour in HIV positive, men who have sex with men (MSM) attending a London outpatient clinic. From July 1999 to August 2000 participants completed a computer assisted self interview questionnaire (CASI) on recent sexual behaviour, recreational drug use, and detailed reporting of the last two sexual episodes involving different partners. Results were combined with routine clinic data and subsequent testing for HCV up to 21 April 2005. A new HCV diagnosis was defined as anti-HCV antibody seroconversion or positive HCV RNA following a previous negative. Incident rate ratios (IRR) were calculated using Poisson regression in Stata (version 9). Men contributed time at risk from interview until either their diagnosis or their last negative test result. Results: Of the 422 men who completed questionnaires, 308 (73%) had sufficient clinical and HCV testing data available for analysis. Incident HCV infection was identified in 11 men. Unprotected anal intercourse, more than 30 sex partners in the past year, higher numbers of new anal sex partners, rimming (oro-anal sex), fisting, use of sex toys, and intranasal recreational drug use were associated with HCV. In multivariate analysis only fisting remained associated with HCV (adjusted IRR 6.27, p = 0.005). Conclusions: In this study of HIV positive MSM, fisting is strongly associated with HCV infection. Where individuals report high risk sexual behaviours, clinicians should offer appropriate testing for HCV infection.
The critical ingredients of assertive community treatment

In their paradigm-shifting study, Stein and Test (1) developed and evaluated a community mental health treatment model for people with serious mental illness that became known as assertive community treatment (ACT). Their approach challenged many standard practices and beliefs in psychiatry. Based on earlier work, they had concluded (2) that hospital training programs to prepare patients for community living after discharge were ineffective, and that providing training and support within community settings after discharge was far superior. The principle of in vivo assessment, training and support became a cornerstone of the ACT model. With the locus of contact in the community, ACT used assertive outreach to engage clients who were reluctant to keep appointments at a clinic. Another critical ingredient of the ACT model was a holistic approach to services, helping with illness management, medication management, housing, finances, and anything else critical to an individual's community adjustment. ACT services included assistance in routine practical problems in living, such as shopping and using public transportation. Along with the focus on the client's immediate needs and personal goals, the shift in service delivery to community settings dramatically increased client engagement in and satisfaction with mental health services (3). Drawing on their experience on hospital treatment teams, Stein and Test formulated the ACT model as requiring a multidisciplinary team of mental health professionals, providing intensive, timely, and personalized services, facilitated through frequent team meetings to review treatment plans and services. ACT was also conceived as a direct service model, with clinicians providing most needed services themselves rather than referring to other providers. Another feature of the model with far-reaching influence was integration of services, which has demonstrated advantages over brokered approaches (i.e., referring clients to other programs for many services). ACT teams integrated mental health treatment, housing, rehabilitation, and many other services, and tailored them to the needs and goals of each client. Another core feature of the ACT model was a low client-staff ratio of approximately 10 clients per full-time ACT practitioner. This staffing pattern permitted multiple contacts each week with clients needing intensive support. In addition, teams provided continuous coverage, responding quickly to client emergencies, 24 hours per day, seven days per week. Finally, ACT teams committed to long-term and continuous care. Initially, the model promised lifelong care.
Exocrine pancreas involvement in celiac disease: a review.

UNLABELLED There are numerous studies in the literature regarding the involvement of intestinal as well as extra intestinal organs during the course of celiac disease, and there is accumulating evidence regarding the pancreatic changes caused by this pathology. METHOD The literature on the relationship between celiac disease and pancreatic involvement has been extensively reviewed. RESULTS Exocrine pancreatic involvement regards both the function and the morphology of the exocrine pancreas, and superimposed or more severe clinical changes seem to be related to the nutritional disturbances caused by celiac disease or by the disease itself. Patients with celiac disease may also develop a chronic pancreatitis more frequently than in general population both the intestinal and the extraintestinal manifestations of celiac disease. CONCLUSIONS Fecal elastase 1-determination in celiacs may be useful in detecting and curing exocrine pancreatic insufficiency especially in patients with a new diagnosis of celiac disease or in those with refractory diarrhea. Few patents on pancreatic extracts are also briefly described.
Letting People Off the Hook: When Do Good Deeds Excuse Transgressions?

Three studies examined when and why an actor’s prior good deeds make observers more willing to excuse—or license—his or her subsequent, morally dubious behavior. In a pilot study, actors’ good deeds made participants more forgiving of the actors’ subsequent transgressions. In Study 1, participants only licensed blatant transgressions that were in a different domain than actors’ good deeds; blatant transgressions in the same domain appeared hypocritical and suppressed licensing (e.g., fighting adolescent drug use excused sexual harassment, but fighting sexual harassment did not). Study 2 replicated these effects and showed that good deeds made observers license ambiguous transgressions (e.g., behavior that might or might not represent sexual harassment) regardless of whether the good deeds and the transgression were in the same or in a different domain—but only same-domain good deeds did so by changing participants’ construal of the transgressions. Discussion integrates two models of why licensing occurs.
The Urinary Diary in Evaluation of Incontinent Women: A Test‐Retest Analysis

This study investigated the use of a one-week urinary diary in the evaluation of incontinent women. The sample consisted of 50 community-dwelling women, ages 55 years and older, ambulatory, and mentally intact, who were volunteers in a clinical trial on behavioral management for urinary incontinence. All subjects kept a urinary diary for two consecutive weeks. An analysis of the immediate (one-week) test-retest variability and correlations on weekly diurnal micturition frequency, nocturnal micturition frequency, and urinary incontinent episodes were performed in subjects with sphincteric incompetence alone (N = 34) and in those with detrusor instability with or without concomitant sphincteric incompetence (N = 16). In addition, information obtained on history was compared with that obtained from the diary. Diurnal micturition frequency, nocturnal micturition frequency, and number of incontinent episodes were highly reproducible and did not differ by urodynamic diagnosis. Test-retest correlations were highest with diurnal micturition frequency and incontinent episodes. Lower correlations were observed with nocturnal micturition frequency, with a significant difference observed between diagnostic groups. Although modest, significant relationships between data collected by history and diary were observed in the overall sample, but there were significant differences between diagnostic groups. The results indicate that a one-week diary is a reliable method for assessing the frequency of voluntary micturitions and involuntary episodes of urine loss.
Control of a photovoltaic system by fuzzy logic, comparative studies with conventional controls: results, improvements and perspectives

This study presents the principle of the MPPT command. The command techniques most used in MPPT control are reviewed and analysed such as: observation and perturbation (O&P) and conductance incrementing (CI). The aim of this study is the association of the fuzzy logic command with the MPPT command, then analysing and comparing its behaviour with other techniques (O&P and CI) used in the control of photovoltaic systems.
Diversification Benefits of Commodities: A Stochastic Dominance Efficiency Approach

We revisit the question whether commodities should be included in investors' portfolios. We employ for the first time a stochastic dominance efficiency (SDE) approach to construct optimal portfolios with and without commodities and we evaluate their comparative performance. SDE circumvents the necessity to posit a specific utility function to describe investor's preferences and it does not impose distributional assumptions on asset returns. We find that commodities provide diversification benefits both in- and out- of-sample. This evidence is stronger when commodity indices which mimic dynamic commodity trading strategies are used. We explain our results by documenting that commodity markets are segmented from the equity and bond markets.
Acne keloidalis is a form of primary scarring alopecia.

OBJECTIVE To better define the pathogenesis of acne keloidalis (AK). DESIGN Prospective, blinded study of histologic material collected from 10 patients with clinically typical AK. SETTING Outpatient dermatology clinic of a military tertiary care medical center. PATIENTS Ten male volunteers 18 years or older with early AK lesions (1- to 4-mm firm papules on the lower occipital/nuchal region). DATA SOURCE Biopsy specimens from small, early lesions and from clinically uninvolved skin, studied histologically with transverse sectioning. INTERVENTION Three separate 4-mm punch biopsy specimens of the scalp (lesional, perilesional, and "normal" scalp) were obtained from each volunteer. The specimens were processed using transverse sectioning. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES The primary variables for data analysis were the presence or absence of the following histologic features: premature loss of the inner root sheath; eccentric placement of shaft, with thinning of the outer root sheath; lamellar fibroplasia surrounding the follicle; loss of sebaceous glands; evidence of follicular destruction or scarring; inflammation; and intrafollicular or perifollicular microorganisms. The number and type of hairs were also recorded. RESULTS The most common findings in the 19 histologically abnormal specimens were perifollicular, chronic (lymphocytic and plasmacytic) inflammation, most intense at the level of the isthmus and lower infundibulum; lamellar fibroplasia, most marked at the level of the isthmus; complete disappearance of sebaceous glands, associated with inflamed or destroyed follicles; thinning of the follicular epithelium, most marked at the level of the isthmus; and total epithelial destruction (superficial and deep), with residual "naked" hair fragments. Even some "normal" specimens contained true follicular scars, demonstrating that normal-appearing scalp skin had previously been affected by the disease. CONCLUSIONS Acne keloidalis is a primary form of scarring alopecia, and many of the histologic findings closely resemble those found in certain other forms of cicatricial alopecia. Extensive subclinical disease may be present in patients with AK and can account for some of the permanent hair loss. Overgrowth of microorganisms does not appear to play an important role in the pathogenesis of the disease. There is no etiologic relationship between AK and pseudofolliculitis barbae. Therapies found to be useful in other forms of inflammatory scarring alopecia are useful in the treatment of early AK.
Canakinumab in patients with cryopyrin-associated periodic syndrome: an update for clinicians

The cryopyrin-associated periodic syndrome (CAPS) is a very rare disease. It is estimated that there are 1–2 cases for every 1 million people in the US and 1 in every 360,000 in France. However, many patients are diagnosed very late or not at all, meaning the real prevalence is likely to be higher. CAPS encompasses the three entities of familial cold auto-inflammatory syndrome (FCAS), Muckle–Wells syndrome (MWS), and neonatal-onset multisystem inflammatory disease (NOMID)/chronic infantile neurologic, cutaneous and articular (CINCA) syndrome. They have in common a causative mutation in the NLRP3 gene. The altered gene product cryopyrin leads to activation of the inflammasome which in turn is responsible for excessive production of interleukin (IL)-1β. IL-1β causes the inflammatory manifestations in CAPS. These appear as systemic inflammation including fever, headache or fatigue, rash, eye disease, progressive sensorineural hearing loss, musculoskeletal manifestations and central nervous system (CNS) symptoms (NOMID/CINCA only). With the advent of IL-1 Inhibitors, safe and effective therapeutic options became available for this devastating disease. To prevent severe and possible life-threatening disease sequelae, early and correct diagnosis and immediate initiation of therapy are mandatory in most patients. Canakinumab is a fully human monoclonal IgG1 anti-IL-1β antibody. It provides selective and prolonged IL-1β blockade and has demonstrated a rapid (within hours), complete and sustained response in most CAPS patients without any consistent pattern of side effects. Long-term follow-up trials have demonstrated sustained efficacy, safety and tolerability. Canakinumab is approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for FCAS and MWS and by European Medicines Agency for treatment of all three phenotypes of CAPS.
A Mouse Model for Studying Dengue Virus Pathogenesis and Immune Response

A small animal model for studying dengue disease is of critical importance to furthering many areas of dengue research, including host immunity, disease pathogenesis, and drug and vaccine development. Recent characterization of the AG129 mouse model has demonstrated it to be one of the only models at this time that permits infection by all four serotypes of dengue virus (DENV), supports replication in relevant cell and tissue types comparable to human infection, and allows antibody‐mediated protection and enhancement of DENV infection. Thus, this model enables testing hypotheses arising from epidemiological observations and in vitro experiments in an in vivo system with a functional adaptive immune response. This review provides a brief overview of the development of a mouse model of DENV infection, describes the work completed to date characterizing the AG129 model, and examines several of the unanswered questions remaining in the field.
Immunocytochemical detection of tumor necrosis factor‐α in infiltrating tumor cells in the cerebrospinal fluid from five patients with leptomeningeal carcinomatosis

We studied the immunoreactivity for tumor necrosis factor‐α (TNF‐α) in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) cell smears from five patients with leptomeningeal carcinomatosis (LC). Immunostained TNF‐α‐positive tumor cells had brownish deposits in the cytoplasm, but no deposits were observed in the nucleus. The intensity of the TNF‐α staining was greater in these tumor cells than in macrophages from patients with inflammatory diseases. Approximately 27–72% of the tumor cells were found to be TNF‐α immunoreactive in all five samples from the patient with LC. These results suggest that the large amount of TNF‐α produced by infiltrating tumor cells may play an important role in the development of the tumor.
Fatty Acids and Antioxidants in Reindeer and Red Deer Emphasis on Animal Nutrition and Consequent Meat Quality

Sampels, S. 2005. Fatty Acids and Antioxidants of Reindeer and Red Deer-Emphasis on Animal Nutrition and Consequent Meat Quality. Doctoral dissertation. ISSN 1652-6880, ISBN 91-576-7030-7 The aim of this thesis was to investigate importance of dietary fatty acids (FA) and animal age and sex on FA metabolism. In addition relation between FA and antioxidants on the consequent nutritional and technological quality of reindeer and red deer meat were addressed. A diet rich in polyunsaturated FA (PUFA) especially long chained n-3 FA (≥C20) has beneficial effects on human health, e.g. in prevention of arteriosclerosis. Game meat is a potential food source that is both lean and rich in n-3 PUFA, however different animal production systems can affect its natural FA composition. In the present studies on reindeer and red deer, that were either grazing or fed with pellets, meat from grazing animals had higher amounts of n-3 PUFA and lower n-6/n-3 ratio. Our results from feeding studies indicate that reindeer are unable to sufficiently elongate and desaturate towards 22:5n-3 and 22:6n-3, and indicate that dietary intake of C 22 PUFA is necessary for reindeer. The differences in FA composition between grazing reindeer of different sex and age were ascribed mainly to fatness. FA composition of the meat influences not only its nutritional quality but also other quality aspects such as shelf life and processing stability. The higher degree of unsaturation of FA is, the more prone to oxidation they are. Therefore the antioxidant status in the animals is important for the protection of the meat against oxidation. The studies on processed and stored meat showed that changes in FA composition and antioxidant content influenced its processing stability and shelf life. α-Tocopherol status had a greater impact on lipid oxidation and colour stability than did changes in FA composition. In contrast to lipid oxidation, decreasing colour stability and increasing amounts of free FA were found to be the first indicators of quality deterioration. The knowledge from the present thesis adds valuable information on lipid metabolism of ruminants, demonstrated in reindeer.
An Empirical Study of the Relationship of IT Intensity and Organizational Absorptive Capacity on CRM Performance

In recent years, e-business has emerged as a mainstream business practice for engaging in global markets. To gain a competitive advantage in these highly competitive markets, many business organizations have turned to customer relationship management (CRM), an integrated system that draws upon the strengths of IT, to allow them to gain greater insights into their customersâ€™ needs. This study examines the relationship of information technology (IT) intensity and organizational absorptive capacity to CRM practices and performance. Data collected through a survey of Taiwanese financial service companies generally suggest that CRM practices mediate the effects of IT intensity and organizational absorptive capacity on CRM performance. Thus, it behooves organizations that seek to compete in global markets to invest in developing both their IT infrastructure and organizational absorptive capacity, and apply these resources toward building their marketing intelligence and innovating products and services that meet their customersâ€™ needs and expectations.
Micromachined high frequency ferroelectric sonar transducers

Millimeter-sized ferroelectric monomorph sonar transducers have been built using sol-gel PZT on micromachined silicon wafers. First generation transducer arrays with diaphragms varying in size from 0.2 to 2 mm were tested. Second generation 8/spl times/8 arrays have also been built and tested in water in the frequency range of 0.3 to 2 MHz. Improvements to the sol-gel process have yielded high-quality, crack-free PZT films up to 12 /spl mu/m in thickness, which leads directly to higher sensitivity and figure of merit for acoustic transducers. The longitudinal piezoelectric coefficient d/sub 33/ is 140 to 240 pC/N, measured through a double beam laser interferometer. Remanent polarization of 28 /spl mu/C/cm/sup 2/, a coercive field of 30 kV/cm, and dielectric constant of 1400 were measured on 4-/spl mu/m thick films. Test results are presented, including frequency response, beam patterns, and sensitivity. High-resolution acoustic images have been generated using these transducers and a four-element underwater acoustic lens. Potential applications for these transducers include high-frequency imaging sonars, medical ultrasound, ultrasonic communication links, and flaw detection (NDT).