Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Meta-analysis of the effect of intravitreal bevacizumab versus intravitreal triamcinolone acetonide in central retinal vein occlusion.

PURPOSE To further evaluate the effect of intravitreal bevacizumab (IVB) for the treatment of central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO) by meta-analysis. METHODS Pertinent publications were identified through PubMed, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Controlled Trials Register up to January 30, 2013. Changes in central macular thickness (CMT) and best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) were extracted at 4, 12, and 24 weeks after treatment, and a meta-analysis was carried out to compare results between groups receiving IVB and intravitreal triamcinolone acetonide (IVTA). RESULTS One randomized controlled trial and 4 comparative studies were identified and included. All of the funnel plots, the Egger's method and Begg method did not show publication bias. Our meta-analysis revealed that BCVA and CMT at 4, 12, and 24 weeks after treatment did not vary significantly between the IVB groups and IVTA groups (BCVA: at 4 weeks, P=0.27; at 12 weeks, P=0.51; at 24 weeks, P=0.64; CMT at 4 weeks, P=0.88; at 12 weeks, P=0.57; at 24 weeks, P=0.64). However, the rate of intraocular pressure rise after intravitreal injection varied significantly between the IVB groups and IVTA groups (P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS Our results showed a similar improvement in BCVA and CMT among CRVO patients was obtained after intravitreal injections of both IVB, or IVTA, while the rate of IOP rise was significantly higher in the latter.
Public services reforms in Neo-Patrimonial systems: the commercialization of healthcare and education in Saudi Arabia

ABSTRACT Reforms of public services have been extensively researched in representative democracies, where they have been especially explained by ideological change, political turnover, financial crises and pressures from international organizations. Meanwhile, less attention has been paid to explaining them in countries whose institutions have been characterized as neo-patrimonial systems. This study aims to explain the commercialization of healthcare and education services that took place in Saudi Arabia since the 2000s. The analysis provides some ways to refine and expand existing theoretical accounts of public services reforms in regimes that differ from representative democracies.
Impact of metabolic syndrome definitions on prevalence estimates: a study in a Portuguese community

This study compared the prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MS) according to World Health Organization (WHO), National Cholesterol Education Program Third Adult Treatment Panel (NCEP-ATP III), International Diabetes Federation (IDF) and American Heart Association/National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (AHA/NHLBI) definitions, to evaluate how well the different classifications agreed. The study also compared their 10-year predicted risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) with the Framingham risk score (FRS). Some 886 women and 547 men aged 18–92 years were included in the study. Demographic and personal medical history data were obtained at interview. Four operational definitions of MS were used (those of the WHO, NCEP-ATP III, AHA/NHLBI and IDF). The prevalence of metabolic syndrome was found to be 26.4% (WHO criteria), 24.0% (NCEP-ATP III criteria), 41.9% (IDF criteria) and 37.2% (AHA/NHLBI criteria). According to the definition used, central obesity ranged from 41.9% to 75.1% and high blood pressure from 52.9% to 65.8%. Agreement between classifications ranged from 75.2% (κ=0.47) to 90.4% (κ=0.80) and was lower in males. The 10-year predicted risk of CHD by FRS was similar between the different definitions. IDF and AHA/NHLBI definitions resulted in a higher prevalence of MS than the NCEP-ATP III or WHO definition. Overall, however, good agreement was found between definitions, and the predicted 10-year of CHD risk was similar.
Basal Activation of p70S6K Results in Adipose-specific Insulin Resistance in Protein-tyrosine Phosphatase 1B–/– Mice*

Although protein-tyrosine phosphatase 1B (PTP-1B) is a negative regulator of insulin action, adipose tissue from PTP-1B–/– mice does not show enhanced insulin-stimulated insulin receptor phosphorylation. Investigation of glucose uptake in isolated adipocytes revealed that the adipocytes from PTP-1B–/– mice have a significantly attenuated insulin response as compared with PTP-1B+/+ adipocytes. This insulin resistance manifests in PTP-1B–/– animals older than 16 weeks of age and could be partially rescued by adenoviral expression of PTP-1B in null adipocytes. Examination of adipose signaling pathways found that the basal p70S6K activity was at least 50% higher in adipose from PTP-1B–/– mice compared with wild type animals. The increased basal activity of p70S6K in PTP-1B–/– adipose correlated with decreases in IR substrate-1 protein levels and insulin-stimulated Akt/protein kinase B activity, explaining the decrease in insulin sensitivity even as insulin receptor phosphorylation was unaffected. The insulin resistance of the of the PTP-1B–/– adipocytes could also be rescued by treatment with rapamycin, suggesting that in adipose the loss of PTP-1B results in basal activation of mTOR (mammalian target of rapamycin) complex 1 leading to a tissue-specific insulin resistance.
Low-latency Voltage-Racing Winner-Take-All (VR-WTA) circuit for acceleration of learning engine

Neural networks are widely used in various fields due to their superior learning ability. Concurrent with the increase in their popularity, the rise of Big Data has resulted in increased computational requirements and processing power. To meet the requirements of real-time learning and classification, the process of finding the maximum value proves to be the performance bottleneck, and therefore needs to be accelerated. To the best of our knowledge, most studies reported in the literature cannot satisfy the requirements of low latency, high resolution, and low power consumption simultaneously. In this paper, we propose a Voltage-Racing Winner-Take-All (VR-WTA) circuit for acceleration of real-time learning engine. The linear delay elements transform multiple bits into different current racing speeds, and the fastest winner is detected by a sense-amplifying detector. The resolutions are scalable and reconfigurable for the needs of different applications. Simulation results show that the proposed VR-WTA achieves more than three times latency reduction, and saves 81% of the unnecessary power consumption compared with related works. Moreover, these results are also evaluated under 100 rounds of Monte Carlo simulations with different corner conditions and process/voltage/temperature (PVT) variations to guarantee that our approach works properly.
Efficient transient analysis of long lossy shielded cables

This paper presents a new technique for the transient analysis of long lossy cables. The proposed model represents an improvement of the standard ladder network approximation of transmission lines for two reasons: First, the propagation delay time is preliminarily extracted so that the lossy phenomena are modeled as minimum delay lossy cable, and second, a model order reduction (MOR) is applied to the lossy line via the analytical calculation of poles and residues of the half-T ladder network approximating the delayless lossy cable. The combination of such two techniques allows us to achieve a significant reduction of the computational efforts in simulating long lossy cable while preserving the modeling accuracy. Numerical tests are performed that demonstrate the robustness and accuracy of the proposed method
Patterns of post-acute health care utilization after a severe traumatic brain injury: Results from the PariS-TBI cohort

Abstract Objective: To assess brain injury services utilization and their determinants using Andersen’s model. Methods: Prospective follow-up of the PariS-TBI inception cohort. Out of 504 adults with severe traumatic brain injury (TBI), 245 survived and 147 received a 4-year outcome assessment (mean age 33 years, 80% men). Provision rates of medical, rehabilitation, social and re-entry services and their relations to patients’ characteristics were assessed. Results: Following acute care discharge, 78% of patients received physiotherapy, 61% speech/cognitive therapy, 50% occupational therapy, 41% psychological assistance, 63% specialized medical follow-up, 21% community re-entry assistance. Health-related need factors, in terms of TBI severity, were the main predictors of services. Provision of each therapy was significantly associated with corresponding speech, motor and psychological impairments. However, care provision did not depend on cognitive impairments and cognitive therapy was related to pre-disposing and geographical factors. Community re-entry assistance was provided to younger and more independent patients. Conclusions: These quantitative findings illustrate strengths and weaknesses of late brain injury care provision in urban France and highlight the need to improve treatment of cognitive impairments. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01437683.
Effects of extended paternity leave on union stability and fertility

Long paternity leaves have the potential for lasting effects on parental unions, potentially reducing specialization and increasing union stability and fertility. We put these hypotheses to a causal test, using an extension of the Norwegian parental leave father's quota from 6 to 10 weeks as a source of exogenous variation in fathers' leave uptake. We implement a Regression Discontinuity design, using full population data from Norwegian administrative registers of parents of children in a four-month window around the reform (N = 9 757). The reform significantly increased the amount of leave taken by fathers by about three weeks and reduced the amount of leave taken by mothers. Neither union stability, fertility nor his or her subsequent earnings were affected by the reform.
Dynamic cluster generation for a fuzzy classifier with ellipsoidal regions

In this paper, we discuss a fuzzy classifier with ellipsoidal regions that dynamically generates clusters. First, for the data belonging to a class we define a fuzzy rule with an ellipsoidal region. Namely, using the training data for each class, we calculate the center and the covariance matrix of the ellipsoidal region for the class. Then we tune the fuzzy rules, i.e., the slopes of the membership functions, successively until there is no improvement in the recognition rate of the training data. Then if the number of the data belonging to a class that are misclassified into another class exceeds a prescribed number, we define a new cluster to which those data belong and the associated fuzzy rule. Then we tune the newly defined fuzzy rules in the similar way as stated above, fixing the already obtained fuzzy rules. We iterate generation of clusters and tuning of the newly generated fuzzy rules until the number of the data belonging to a class that are misclassified into another class does not exceed the prescribed number. We evaluate our method using thyroid data, Japanese Hiragana data of vehicle license plates, and blood cell data. By dynamic cluster generation, the generalization ability of the classifier is improved and the recognition rate of the fuzzy classifier for the test data is the best among the neural network classifiers and other fuzzy classifiers if there are no discrete input variables.
Journalism and Social Media: Redistribution of Power?

This thematic issue sets out to explore the power relationships between journalism and social media. The articles here examine these relationships as intersections between journalistic actors and their audiences, and between news media, their content, and the functions of social media platforms. As the articles in this issue show, the emergence of social media and their adoption by news media and other social actors have brought about a series of changes which have had an impact on how news is produced, how information is shared, how audiences consume news, and how publics are formed. In this introduction, we highlight the work in this issue in order to reflect on the emergence of social media as one which has been accompanied by shifts in power in journalism and its ancillary fields, shifts which have in turn surfaced new questions for scholars to confront.
Epidemiology and Immunogenetic Background of Islet Cell Antibody–Positive Nondiabetic Schoolchildren: Ulm-Frankfurt Population Study

Islet cell antibodies (ICAs) were determined in a large cohort of white nondiabetic schoolchildren (n = 4287) from a homogenous population in southern Germany. The prevalence of ICA levels ≥5 Juvenile Diabetes Foundation (JDF) U was 1.05% (95% confidence interval 0.8–1.4%). Analysis of HLA-DRβ and -DQβ alleles revealed that the specificities found to be increased in insulin-dependent (type I) diabetic subjects with the same ethnic background were also associated with ICA positivity in the nondiabetic schoolchildren. HLA-DR3 (P < 0.01) and -DR4 (P < 0.01) phenotypes and absence of Asp residue (P < 0.01) at codon 57 of the HLA-DQ β-chain were significantly increased in ICA+ compared with control subjects. High levels of ICAs, which were categorized as either ≥17 or ≥30 JDF U, were found to be associated with amino acids other than Asp at position 57 of the HLA-DQ β-chain. No association of ICA level was found for HLA-DR phenotypes.
An Approach of the Laboratory to the Field: Assessment of the Influence of Cattle Management on the Seroprevalence of Fascioliasis by Using Polyclonal- and Recombinant-Based ELISAs

Abstract A cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the seroprevalence of fascioliasis by immunoenzymatic probes in an endemic area (northwestern Spain). Blood samples were collected from 1,034 cattle (crossbred, Rubia Gallega, and Friesian breeds), and the diagnosis of fascioliasis was carried out by determining both the occurrence of antigenemia and the presence of specific IgG antibodies against a Fasciola hepatica recombinant protein (FhrAPS). The IgG seroprevalence was 65% (95% CI, 62–68) by the FhrAPS-ELISA, and 32% (29–35) exhibited antigenemia; the lowest percentages occurred in the Friesians, and the highest percentages were found in the crossbreds. These results confirm an elevated seroprevalence of fascioliasis that is unexpected considering that most of the cattle livestock (Friesian and Rubia Gallega) receive fasciolicide treatment. The lack of adequate measures on the environment and erratic chemotherapy seem to be responsible for the fact that control of fascioliasis has not improved in the last 10 yr in the area of study.
Motivation in engineering education a framework supported by evaluation instruments and enhancement resources

Motivation is a critical factor in the academic performance, especially in the EHEA context, where the active learning must be promoted. In the case of engineering education, it is particularly necessary to care the student motivation by several reasons. The difficulty of engineering degrees can hinder the motivation of students and it can affect the high levels of absenteeism and dropping out. Thus, it is important to work up frameworks to evaluate and enhance, in addition to technical competences, other competences such as motivation. This paper presents the definition of a motivational framework composed by several instruments, resources, mechanisms and technologies. It allows teachers and academic institutions to evaluate and enhance the motivation of their students. But the most innovative characteristic of the framework lies in the student side; it also allows students to self-evaluate and enhance their motivation by performing questionnaires, recommendations and complementary training activities. In order to validate the proposed solutions, a case study has been successfully performed with 152 students of the Technical University of Madrid. The empirical experience has enabled to confirm the usefulness of the provided framework and to explore motivational aspects related with the engineering education.
Using finite moment rate of innovation for LIDAR waveform complexity estimation

LIDAR sensing collects data to obtain detailed topographical information about a region. A major challenge here is the large amount of data that needs to be collected for accurate surface reconstruction which in turn imposes significant storage, processing and transmission requirements. Current efforts to solve this problem have been focusing on applying compression algorithms to the range measurements. This process, however, requires the collection of large amounts of data, most of which is ultimately discarded. Instead, our approach is to apply a compressive sensing paradigm to sparsely sample the scene using the estimated pulse complexity to characterize the scene complexity, thus determining the number of samples needed for accurate reconstruction. As a first step towards this goal, we characterize here the individual laser return pulses for scenes of varying complexity, assuming that the pulses are composed by a finite number of innovations. Each scene is thus sampled at a rate that is much lower than the traditional Nyquist/Shannon limit. Our results show that accurate classifications of waveform and scene complexity with the simple nearest neighbor classifier are obtained using the proposed algorithm.
Character Displacement: Ecological And Reproductive Responses To A Common Evolutionary Problem

Character displacement is the process by which traits evolve in response to selection to lessen resource competition or reproductive interactions between species. Although character displacement has long been viewed as an important mechanism for enabling closely related species to coexist, the causes and consequences of character displacement have not been fully explored. Moreover, character displacement in traits associated with resource use (ecological character displacement) has been largely studied independently of that in traits associated with reproduction (reproductive character displacement). In this review, we underscore the commonalities of these two forms of character displacement and discuss how they interact. We focus on the causes of character displacement and explore how character displacement can have downstream effects ranging from speciation to extinction. In short, understanding how organisms respond to competitive and reproductive interactions with heterospecifics offers key insights into the evolutionary causes and consequences of species coexistence and diversification.
Patients with colorectal lung oligometastases (L-OMD) treated by dose adapted SABR at diagnosis of oligometastatic disease have better outcomes than patients previously treated for their metastatic disease.

Aim To evaluate the clinical outcomes of patients with OMD from a CRC primary, who underwent SABR either as first treatment at diagnosis of metachronous oligometastatic disease to lung or at progression in lung after prior treatments for metastatic disease. Methods This is a retrospective review of 60 patients with 85 lung oligometastases treated by SABR at two institutions, between May 2009 and September 2014. Local control (LC), overall survival (OS), progression - free survival (PFS), and toxicity were evaluated. Results Median follow-up was 22.9±15.5 months (range: 2.6-68.6). For the entire cohort, LC was observed for 76.6% of the target lesions; the 2- year OS and PFS were 77% and 28 % respectively. After a median of 7.9 months from SABR, 39 patients presented a first progression. In univariate analysis, patients with multiple recurrences prior to SABR (p=0.001) and those who received chemotherapy for metastatic progression (p=0.014) had poorer PFS from time of SABR. Median PFS for patients with no prior treatment for L-OMD vs. prior chemotherapy +/- local treatment vs. local treatment only was: not reached vs. 8.83 (± 2) vs. 32.5 (±2.75) months. The main pattern of first progression was out of field progression: in-field progression alone occurred in 7 patients (12%) and with synchronous regional/distant progression in 10 patients (17%. In all patients, chemotherapy was withheld until progression post-SABR. Treatment was well tolerated; only one patient experienced grade 3 bronchial toxicity, three months after completion of SABR. Conclusions SABR achieves high rates of local control with limited toxicities in patients with lung oligometastatic disease from a colorectal primary. This retrospective data indicates that patients with newly diagnosed lung oligometastatic disease may be safely treated with SABR as first treatment, with chemotherapy held in reserve. In heavily pretreated patients, SABR may allow patients a treatment break from systemic therapy, which may be beneficial both psychologically and physically. Future randomized SABR studies should evaluate sequencing of chemotherapy, the role of immunotherapies, and the quality of life of patients undergoing SABR.
Redox alters yellow dragonflies into red

Body color change associated with sexual maturation—so-called nuptial coloration—is commonly found in diverse vertebrates and invertebrates, and plays important roles for their reproductive success. In some dragonflies, whereas females and young males are yellowish in color, aged males turn vivid red upon sexual maturation. The male-specific coloration plays pivotal roles in, for example, mating and territoriality, but molecular basis of the sex-related transition in body coloration of the dragonflies has been poorly understood. Here we demonstrate that yellow/red color changes in the dragonflies are regulated by redox states of epidermal ommochrome pigments. Ratios of reduced-form pigments to oxidized-form pigments were significantly higher in red mature males than yellow females and immature males. The ommochrome pigments extracted from the dragonflies changed color according to redox conditions in vitro: from red to yellow in the presence of oxidant and from yellow to red in the presence of reductant. By injecting the reductant solution into live insects, the yellow-to-red color change was experimentally reproduced in vivo in immature males and mature females. Discontinuous yellow/red mosaicism was observed in body coloration of gynandromorphic dragonflies, suggesting a cell-autonomous regulation over the redox states of the ommochrome pigments. Our finding extends the mechanical repertoire of pigment-based body color change in animals, and highlights an impressively simple molecular mechanism that regulates an ecologically important color trait.