Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Complete Resolution of Inflammatory Activity Following Corticosteroid Treatment of HBsAg‐Negative Chronic Active Hepatitis

To assess the frequency and significance of complete resolution of inflammatory activity following corticosteroid therapy, 115 patients with severe HBsAg‐negative chronic active hepatitis were followed regularly for 84 ± 5 months. Of 83 patients eligible to revert to normal liver tissue, 18 did so after 56 ± 8 months. Five of the 18 relapsed after treatment withdrawal. Only patients who improved spontaneously after cessation of treatment from histologic features of chronic persistent hepatitis to normal invariably sustained the improvement. Of 32 patients with cirrhosis at presentation, 17 reverted to inactive cirrhosis after 48 ± 10 months, but only 3 remained inactive after discontinuation of treatment. Mortality was similar in patients with and without reversion to normal tissue (0 vs. 14%, p ± 0.2), but the frequency of relapse was less after complete resolution (28 vs. 76%, p < 0.001). Reversion to inactive cirrhosis did not improve survival or reduce relapse frequency after remission and treatment withdrawal. Findings prior to therapy did not predict outcome. We conclude that complete resolution of inflammatory activity is possible, but that it occurs slowly, infrequently and unpredictably after therapy. In patients without cirrhosis, reversion to normal liver tissue decreases the likelihood of relapse and the requirement for retreatment. In patients with cirrhosis at presentation, elimination of inflammatory activity is rarely sustained and does not improve prognosis after remission and treatment withdrawal.
Women Are Better at Selecting Gifts than Men

There is a widespread belief that women are better at selecting gifts than men; however, this claim has not been assessed on the basis of objective criteria. The current studies do exactly that and show that women do indeed make better gift selections for others, regardless of the gender of the receiver and the type of relationship between the giver and receiver. We investigate the mediating role of different aspects of interpersonal sensitivity and reveal that differences in interpersonal interest (measured with an autism questionnaire), but not differences in interpersonal reactivity, explain gender differences in gift selection quality. The current studies thus present the first objective evidence for the claim that women are better in selecting gifts for others and also give an indication of why this is the case.
The flexDrive: an ultra-light implant for optical control and highly parallel chronic recording of neuronal ensembles in freely moving mice

Electrophysiological recordings from ensembles of neurons in behaving mice are a central tool in the study of neural circuits. Despite the widespread use of chronic electrophysiology, the precise positioning of recording electrodes required for high-quality recordings remains a challenge, especially in behaving mice. The complexity of available drive mechanisms, combined with restrictions on implant weight tolerated by mice, limits current methods to recordings from no more than 4–8 electrodes in a single target area. We developed a highly miniaturized yet simple drive design that can be used to independently position 16 electrodes with up to 64 channels in a package that weighs ~2 g. This advance over current designs is achieved by a novel spring-based drive mechanism that reduces implant weight and complexity. The device is easy to build and accommodates arbitrary spatial arrangements of electrodes. Multiple optical fibers can be integrated into the recording array and independently manipulated in depth. Thus, our novel design enables precise optogenetic control and highly parallel chronic recordings of identified single neurons throughout neural circuits in mice.
Assessment of the trends in medical use and misuse of opioid analgesics from 2004 to 2011.

BACKGROUND The epidemic of medical use and abuse of opioid analgesics is linked to the economic burden of opioid-related abuse and fatalities in the United States. Multiple studies have estimated the extent to which prescription opioid analgesics contribute to the national drug abuse problem; studies also assessing the trends in medical use and abuse of opioid analgesics have confirmed the relationship between increasing medical use of opioids and increasing fatalities.The available data is limited until 2002. STUDY DESIGN Retrospective analysis of data from 2004 to 2011 from 2 databases: Automation of Reports and Consolidated Orders System (ARCOS) for opioid use data and Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) for drug misuse data. OBJECTIVE To determine the proportion of drug abuse related to opioid analgesics and the various trends in the medical use and abuse of 8 opioid analgesics commonly used to treat pain: buprenorphine, codeine, fentanyl, hydrocodone, hydromorphone, methadone, morphine, and oxycodone. METHODS The data obtained from DAWN is a nationally representative sample of hospital emergency department admissions resulting from drug abuse. Main outcome measure was the identification of trends in the medical use and misuse of opioid analgesics from 2004 to 2011. RESULTS From 2004 to 2011, there was an increase in the medical use of all opioids except for a 20% decrease in codeine. The abuse of all opioids including codeine increased during this period. Increases in medical use ranged from 2,318% for buprenorphine to 35% for fentanyl, including 140% for hydromorphone, 117% for oxycodone, 73% for hydrocodone, 64% for morphine, and 37% for methadone. The misuse increased 384% for buprenorphine with available data from 2006 to 2011, whereas from 2004 to 2011, it increased 438% for hydromorphone, 263% for oxycodone, 146% for morphine, 107% for hydrocodone, 104% for fentanyl, 82% for methadone, and 39% for codeine. Comparison of opioid use showed an overall increase of 1,448% from 1996 to 2011, with increases of 690% from 1996 to 2004 and 100% from 2004 to 2011. In contrast, misuse increased more dramatically: 4,680% from 1996 to 2011, with increases of 1,372% from 1996 through 2004 and 245% from 2004 to 2011. The number of patients seeking rehabilitation for substance abuse also increased 187% for opioids, whereas it increased 87% for heroin, 40% for marijuana, and decreased 7% for cocaine. LIMITATIONS Limitations of this assessment include the lack of data from 2003, lack of data available on meperidine, and that the aggregate data systems used in the study did not identify specific formulations or commercial products. CONCLUSION The present trend of continued increase in the medical use of opioid analgesics appears to contribute to increases in misuse, resulting in multiple health consequences.
The Rice YABBY1 Gene Is Involved in the Feedback Regulation of Gibberellin Metabolism1[C][W]

Gibberellin (GA) biosynthesis is regulated by feedback control providing a mechanism for GA homeostasis in plants. However, regulatory elements involved in the feedback control are not known. In this report, we show that a rice (Oryza sativa) YABBY1 (YAB1) gene had a similar expression pattern as key rice GA biosynthetic genes GA3ox2 and GA20ox2. Overexpression of YAB1 in transgenic rice resulted in a semidwarf phenotype that could be fully rescued by applied GA. Quantification of the endogenous GA content revealed increases of GA20 and decreases of GA1 levels in the overexpression plants, in which the transcripts of the biosynthetic gene GA3ox2 were decreased. Cosuppression of YAB1 in transgenic plants induced expression of GA3ox2. The repression of GA3ox2 could be obtained upon treatment by dexamethasone of transgenic plants expressing a YAB1-glucocorticoid receptor fusion. Importantly, we show that YAB1 bound to a GA-responsive element within the GA3ox2 promoter. In addition, the expression of YAB1 was deregulated in GA biosynthesis and signaling mutants and could be either transiently induced by GA or repressed by a GA inhibitor. Finally, either overexpression or cosuppression of YAB1 impaired GA-mediated repression of GA3ox2. These data together suggest that YAB1 is involved in the feedback regulation of GA biosynthesis in rice.
Prototype based machine learning for clinical proteomics

Clinical proteomics opens the way towards new insights into many diseases on a level of detail not available before. One of the most promising measurement techniques supporting this approach is mass spectrometry based clinical proteomics. The analysis of the high dimensional data obtained from mass spectrometry asks for sophisticated, problem adequate preprocessing and data analysis approaches. Ideally, automatic analysis tools provide insight into their behavior and the ability to extract further information, relevant for an understanding of the clinical data or applications such as biomarker discovery. Prototype based algorithms constitute efficient, intuitive and powerful machine learning methods which are very well suited to deal with high dimensional data and which allow good insight into their behavior by means of prototypical data locations. They have already successfully been applied to various problems in bioinformatics. The goal of this thesis is to extend prototype based methods, in such a way that they become suitable machine learning tools for typical problems in clinical proteomics. To achieve better adapted classification borders, tailored to the specific data distributions which occur in clinical proteomics, the prototype based algorithms are extended by local relevance determination and other problem specific metrics. Fuzzy classification is introduced into prototype approaches to allow for the integration of insecure class label information and to provide the possibility to judge the safety of the classification as it is typically needed in clinical domains. Further margin based active learning is developed to achieve a faster training and better generalization ability ideally suited for the often complex classification problems in clinical research. All algorithms are extensively tested for several clinical data sets in the context of cancer research, including publicly available benchmark data sets as well as recent clinical data sets obtained by state-of-the-art biotechnology.
Inferring 3 D face models from 2 D databases

Parameterized Appearance Models (PAMs) such as Active Appearance Models (AAMs) or Morphable Models (MMs) are a popular tool to model the shape and appearance of faces in images. Although extensively used, PAMs have some limitations to decouple out-of-plane pose, expression and identity changes. For instance, standard AAMs use a unique basis to model pose, identity and expression changes. On the other hand, MMs make use of a 3D face model that allows to recover 3D motion parameters, and decouple pose from identity/expression changes. However, current methods to build 3D face models have several drawbacks: (1) the variability of expression instance s in existing databases is limited (2) collecting the data usu ally involves complex 3D capture setups (3) registering the training samples is a laborious and error prone task. This paper proposes a method to learn a rich 3D face model from large collections of 2D hand-labeled databases containing many subjects under different expressions and poses. We develop an incremental Structure-from-Motion (SfM) approach to build 3D generic face models from 2D instances and a prior 3D model only containing neutral expressions. Experimental results show the effectiveness an d robustness of the proposed technique to fit the learnt 3D shape model to previously unseen subjects.
Reliable Individual Change in Post Concussive Symptoms in the Year Following Mild Traumatic Brain Injury: Data From the Longitudinal, Population-based Brain Injury Incidence and Outcomes New Zealand in the Community (Bionic) Study

Objective: Post concussive syndromes (PCS) is common after mild-TBI, yet are not well studied on a population level. This study examined PCS symptoms, including reliable change over time in a population-based sample up to one year post-TBI. Methods: Prospective follow-up of 527 adults (≥16 years) with mild TBI (mTBI) and assessment data (Rivermead Post concussion Questionnaire; RPQ) at baseline, 1, 6, and/or 12-months post-TBI. Change in mean scores and clinically significant change across RPQ items for each person was calculated between assessment time points using a reliable change index (RCI). Results: While prevalence of all symptoms reduced over time, >30% of participants reported fatigue, slowed thinking, and forgetfulness 12-months postinjury. Using the RCI, <12% of individuals improved from baseline to 1-month, 50% from 1 to 6-months, and 4.2% from 6 to 12-months. Conclusions: Improvements in PCS post-mTBI were most obvious between 1 and 6-months, suggesting lengthy recovery trajectory. A third of patients experience residual cognitive problems 12-months following a mTBI, and while many individuals improve post-TBI, a large proportion remain stable or worsen.
Towards altruistic data quality assessment for mobile sensing

High-quality data is a necessity for successful research and development endeavors. In this article, we review relevant literature for data quality (DQ) assessment methods in different domains and discuss the possibilities, challenges and constraints of applying them to mobile sensing. We identify DQ dimensions directly applicable to sensor data: believability (comparison with the correct operating bounds), completeness (missing values), free-of-error (erroneous values), consistency (over time), timeliness (delay), accuracy (deviation from true value) and precision (granularity of readings) are core aspects of high-quality sensor data. We also emphasize that sensor data must be representative of the originating type of sensor. We propose an altruistic approach to DQ assessment for sensor data that facilitates aggregating and sharing of domain knowledge through a community-contributed library of DQ assessment methods organized by sensor type.
The Work Network Model: Understanding the interplay of actor, artifact, and action in technology-based change

Title of Dissertation: THE WORK NETWORK MODEL: UNDERSTANDING THE INTERPLAY OF ACTOR, ARTIFACT AND ACTION IN TECHNOLOGY-BASED CHANGE Yong Kwang Adrian Yeow Doctor of Philosophy in Information Systems, 2008 Directed By: Associate Professor Samer Faraj, McGill University Professor Ritu Agarwal, Department of Decisions & Information Technologies, Organization and IS scholars interested in the impact of IT on organizational change have acknowledged the indeterminate relationship between technological and organizational change. This reality stems from the complex interaction of the institutional context with human cognition and action that determine the path that technological change take in order to bring about organizational outcomes. Yet in this milieu there is little account for why specific context or conditions are salient. The goal of this research is to understand how technological change is related to organizational change by opening up the blackbox of the work context and analyze how the material aspects of the IT artifact relate to the actors and their actions. Specifically, I studied 1) How do the design and implementation of an EMR system impact the configuration of the system? 2) How do users and their practices interact with the configured system? 3) How do these interactions influence organizational outcomes so that one site is more “successful” than another? I explore these research questions using the perspective of work an organization is engaged in, specifically how IT artifacts are relationally linked to actors, actions and the organizational context. As my research questions deal with a process issue, I conducted a longitudinal field study of an EMR system implementation beginning from the implementation phase to deployment and use phases. I analyzed archival, interviews and observations data to develop a grounded theory of technology-based organizational change. Based on my findings I developed the Work Network Model of technology-based change. The model proposes that the main mechanism of change is the network within the context of an organization’s work. It also proposed that analyzing the process of multi-level political negotiations during the configuration of a new technology allows us to understand how technology-change evolve once it is introduced in an organization. Finally it shows how institutional, infrastructural and work practices play a role both during the configuration and use phase of the new technology. Apart from its theoretical contributions, this research attempts to provide a new method to consider and design work practices with new technologies via the Work Network lens. (350 words) THE WORK NETWORK MODEL: UNDERSTANDING THE INTERPLAY OF ACTOR, ARTIFACT AND ACTION IN TECHNOLOGY-BASED CHANGE
Mapping of low flip angles in magnetic resonance

Errors in the flip angle have to be corrected in many magnetic resonance imaging applications, especially for T1 quantification. However, the existing methods of B1 mapping fail to measure lower values of the flip angle despite the fact that these are extensively used in dynamic acquisition and 3D imaging. In this study, the nonlinearity of the radiofrequency (RF) transmit chain, especially for very low flip angles, is investigated and a simple method is proposed to accurately determine both the gain of the RF transmitter and the B1 field map for low flip angles. The method makes use of the spoiled gradient echo sequence with long repetition time (TR), such as applied in the double-angle method. It uses an image acquired with a flip angle of 90° as a reference image that is robust to B1 inhomogeneity. The ratio of the image at flip angle alpha to the image at a flip angle of 90° enables us to calculate the actual value of alpha. This study was carried out at 1.5 and 4.7 T, showing that the linearity of the RF supply system is highly dependent on the hardware. The method proposed here allows us to measure the flip angle from 1° to 60° with a maximal uncertainty of 10% and to correct T1 maps based on the variable flip angle method.
Partial-Duplicate Image Retrieval via Saliency-Guided Visual Matching

This article proposes a novel partial-duplicate image-retrieval scheme based on saliency-guided visual matching, where the localization of duplicates is done simultaneously. The image is abstracted by visually salient and rich regions (VSRRs), which are of visual saliency and contain rich visual content. Furthermore, to refine the retrieval, a relative saliency ordering constraint is constructed that captures the robust relative saliency layout of the VSRRs. The authors propose an efficient algorithm to embed this constraint into the index system so as to speed up retrieval. Comparison experiments with state-of-the-art methods on five databases show the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Icsoc/servicewave 2009 Phd Symposium Organization Phd Symposium Chairs Verification of Services Specified in Bpel

This project investigates, implements and evaluates tool support for analysis of SOA-Based service contracts using Model Checking. The specification language for the contract is Business Process Execution Language (BPEL). It captures the behavior of services and allows developers to compose services without dependence on any particular implementation technology. A behavior specification is extracted from a BPEL program for formal analysis. One of the key conditions is that it reflects the intended semantics for BPEL, and in order to make it comprehensible, it is specified in a functional language. The resulting tool suite is hosted on an Eclipse platform. 1 Research Question and Its Significance Service Oriented Architectures (SOAs) are applicable when multiple applications running on varied technologies and platforms need to communicate with each other. In this way, enterprises can mix and match services to perform business transactions with less programming effort. However, a service operates under a contract/agreement which will set expectations, and a particular ontological standpoint that influences its semantics [14]. Services are first class citizens and are autonomous as well as distributed in nature. They can be composed to form higher level services or applications to solve business goals. Of course, this raises a lot of issues such as managing composed services, monitoring their interaction, analyzing the behavior of interacting services, verifying the functionality of individual services as well as composed services. One of the most widely used languages for specifying services is BPEL [2]. It offers a programming model for specifying the orchestration of web services through several activities. Activities are categorized into two; basic and structured. Basic activities (for instance invoke, receive, etc.) define the interaction capabilities of BPEL processes whereas the structured activities are made up of constructs such as flow (for synchronization), compensate, and pick among other activities all of which can be inside a scope. The interaction of all the features makes the behaviour of BPEL programs hard to understand. Consider a scenario in which a scope named A contains two scopes named B and C, which both have compensation handlers. Assume that ⋆ Partially supported by the Nordunet3 project COSoDIS “Contract-Oriented Software Development for Internet Services“. E-mail: ojc@cs.aau. dk ICSOC&ServiceWave 2009 Conference PhD Symposium
Long-Term Outcome of Therapeutic Neovascularization Using Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells for Limb Ischemia

Background—Injection of bone marrow mononuclear cells has been reported to promote neovascularization of ischemic tissues effectively. We found that peripheral blood mononuclear cells were as efficient as bone marrow mononuclear cells for the treatment of limb ischemia in animals and showed that this treatment was feasible and safe in no-option patients with limb ischemia. However, the long-term outcome of such therapy has not been investigated. Methods and Results—We retrospectively analyzed the data for 42 patients who were treated between July 2002 and December 2005 by using the log-rank test, the Kaplan-Meier method, and the Cox proportional hazard model. Improvement of ischemic symptoms was observed in 60% to 70% of the patients. The annual rate of major amputation was decreased markedly by treatment. Improvement of ischemic symptoms was less marked in arteriosclerosis obliterans (ASO) patients on dialysis compared with nonhemodialysis ASO or thromboangiitis obliterans patients. Indeed, the survival rate of these patients was lower than that of nonhemodialysis ASO or thromboangiitis obliterans patients. Major adverse events such as death, major amputation, and cardiovascular events occurred mostly in ASO patients, and most of them were on dialysis. There was no significant difference in the cardiovascular event-free rate between responders and nonresponders. The survival rate of younger responders was better than that of nonresponders. Conclusions—Although this study was not placebo-controlled and these initial results were from a retrospective analysis, injection of peripheral blood mononuclear cells might be safe and potentially effective for the treatment of limb ischemia, but caution is needed when managing ASO patients on dialysis.