Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Molecular diagnostics of myeloproliferative neoplasms

Since the discovery of the JAK2 V617F mutation in the majority of the myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN) of polycythemia vera, essential thrombocythemia and primary myelofibrosis ten years ago, further MPN‐specific mutational events, notably in JAK2 exon 12, MPL exon 10 and CALR exon 9 have been identified. These discoveries have been rapidly incorporated into evolving molecular diagnostic algorithms. Whilst many of these mutations appear to have prognostic implications, establishing MPN diagnosis is of immediate clinical importance with selection, implementation and the continual evaluation of the appropriate laboratory methodology to achieve this diagnosis similarly vital. The advantages and limitations of these approaches in identifying and quantitating the common MPN‐associated mutations are considered herein with particular regard to their clinical utility. The evolution of molecular diagnostic applications and platforms has occurred in parallel with the discovery of MPN‐associated mutations, and it therefore appears likely that emerging technologies such as next‐generation sequencing and digital PCR will in the future play an increasing role in the molecular diagnosis of MPN.
Reducing tourism's threats to biodiversity: effects of a voluntary sustainability standard and training program on 106 Latin American hotels, lodges and guesthouses

ABSTRACT The tourism industry can negatively affect wildlife, plants and natural ecosystems through habitat destruction, pollution, over-exploitation of natural resources and visitor impacts to sensitive ecosystems. One approach to mitigate such threats is the application of voluntary sustainability standards, supported by training of tourism enterprises and verified by external audits. The Rainforest Alliance standard defines 78 criteria (requirements) for sustainable environmental, social and business practices, and has been adopted by over 600 tourism enterprises – including hotels, lodges and tour boats – in 12 countries. We examined the performance of 106 hotels in six Latin American countries against 29 of the sustainable tourism criteria most directly related to biodiversity conservation. Independent audits were used to assess hotel performance at baseline followed by a repeat assessment after training, about two years later. Mean conformance with the 29 biodiversity criteria increased significantly during this interval, from 44% to 58%. Improvements were greatest for businesses in the lowest third of performance at baseline (laggards) and smallest for hotels in the highest third (leaders). The results indicate that a voluntary sustainability standard and training program can serve both to recognize existing good actors and to drive incremental improvement in enterprises that were previously less sustainable.
Development of a System to Assist Automatic Translation of Hand-Drawn Maps into Tactile Graphics and Its Usability Evaluation

Tactile graphics are images that use raised surfaces so that a visually impaired person can feel them. Tactile maps are used by blind and partially sighted people when navigating around an environment, and they are also used prior to a visit for orientation purposes. Since the ability to read tactile graphics deeply depends on individuals, providing tactile graphics individually is needed. This implies that producing tactile graphics should be as simple as possible. Based on this background, we are developing a system for automating production of tactile maps from hand-drawn figures. In this paper, we first present a pattern recognition method for hand-drawn maps. The usability of our system is then evaluated by comparing it with the two different methods to produce tactile graphics.
Read and Write Voltage Signal Optimization for Multi-Level-Cell (MLC) NAND Flash Memory

The multi-level-cell (MLC) NAND flash channel exhibits nonstationary behavior over increasing program and erase (PE) cycles and data retention time. In this paper, an optimization scheme for adjusting the read (quantized) and write (verify) voltage levels to adapt to the nonstationary flash channel is presented. Using a model-based approach to represent the flash channel, incorporating the programming noise, random telegraph noise (RTN), data retention noise and cell-to-cell interference as major signal degradation components, the write-voltage levels are optimized by minimizing the channel error probability. Moreover, for selecting the quantization levels for the read-voltage to facilitate soft LDPC decoding, an entropy-based function is introduced by which the voltage erasure regions (error dominating regions) are controlled to produce the lowest bit/frame error probability. The proposed write and read voltage optimization schemes not only minimize the error probability throughout the operational lifetime of flash memory, but also improve the decoding convergence speed. Finally, to minimize the number of read-voltage quantization levels while ensuring LDPC decoder convergence, the extrinsic information transfer (EXIT) analysis is performed over the MLC flash channel.
Molecular Adsorbent Recirculating System (MARS) Application in Liver Failure: Clinical and Hemodepurative Results in 22 Patients

Purpose Acute liver failure (ALF) and acute on chronic liver failure (ACLF) still show a poor prognosis. MARS was used in 22 patients with ALF or ACLF to prolong patient survival for liver function recovery or as a bridge to transplantation. Design Evaluation of depurative efficiency, biocompatibility, hemodynamics, encephalopathy (HE) and clinical outcome. Procedures During 71 five-hour sessions we evaluated (0′, 60′, 120′, 180′, 240′, 300′): bilirubin, ammonia, cholic acid (CCA), chenodeoxycholic acid (CCDCA), leukocytes, platelets, hemoglobin and mean arterial pressure (MAP). Serum creatinine, electrolytes, cardiac output, cardiac index (bioimpedence) and HE (West Haven Criteria score) were evaluated at 0' and 300′. Statistical methods and outcome measures: Student's t-test for pre- vs. end-session values was used. For bilirubin and ammonia the correlation test was made between pre- and end-session values and between pre-session values and removal rates (RRS). Main Findings Survival was 90.9% at 7 days, 40.9% at 30 days. Pre- vs. end-session: bilirubin from 37.2±12.5 mg/dL to 24.9±8.9 mg/dL (p<0.01), ammonia from 88.0±60.4 μmol/L to 43.6±32.9 μmol/L (p<0.01), CCA from 42.8±21.0 μmol/L 18.2±9.8 μmol/L (p<0.01), CCDCA from 26.3±6.3 μmol/L to 15.7±7.6 μmol/L (p<0.01). The correlation test between pre-session values of bilirubin and ammonia vs. RRS was respectively 0.32 (p=0.01) and 0.30 (p=0.04). Leukocytes, platelets and hemoglobin remained stable. MAP increased from 82.0±12.0 mmHg to 87.0±13.0 mmHg (p<0.05), West Haven Criteria score decreased from 2.7±0.7 to 0.7±0.7 (p<0.001). Conclusion MARS treatment led in all patients to an improvement of clinical, hemodynamic and neurological conditions, with significant reduction in the hepatic toxins blood level. Treatment biocompatibility and tolerance were satisfactory
Comparison of candesartan, enalapril, and their combination in congestive heart failure: randomized evaluation of strategies for left ventricular dysfunction (RESOLVD) pilot study. The RESOLVD Pilot Study Investigators.

BACKGROUND We investigated the effects of candesartan (an angiotensin II antagonist) alone, enalapril alone, and their combination on exercise tolerance, ventricular function, quality of life (QOL), neurohormone levels, and tolerability in congestive heart failure (CHF). METHODS AND RESULTS Seven hundred sixty-eight patients in New York Heart Association functional class (NYHA-FC) II to IV with ejection fraction (EF) <0.40 and a 6-minute walk distance (6MWD) <500 m received either candesartan (4, 8, or 16 mg), candesartan (4 or 8 mg) plus 20 mg of enalapril, or 20 mg of enalapril for 43 weeks. There were no differences among groups with regard to 6MWD, NYHA-FC, or QOL. EF increased (P=NS) more with candesartan-plus-enalapril therapy (0.025+/-0.004) than with candesartan alone (0.015+/-0.004) or enalapril alone(0.015+/-0.005). End-diastolic (EDV) and end-systolic (ESV) volumes increased less with combination therapy (EDV 8+/-4 mL; ESV 1+/-4 mL; P<0.01) than with candesartan alone (EDV 27+/-4 mL; ESV 18+/-3 mL) or enalapril alone (EDV 23+/-7 mL; ESV 14+/-6 mL). Blood pressure decreased with combination therapy (6+/-1/4+/-1 mm Hg) compared with candesartan or enalapril alone (P<0.05). Aldosterone decreased (P<0.05) with combination therapy (23.2+/-5.3 pg/mL) at 17 but not 43 weeks compared with candesartan (0.7+/-7.8 pg/mL) or enalapril (-0.8+/-11. 3 pg/mL). Brain natriuretic peptide decreased with combination therapy (5.8+/-2.7 pmol/L; P<0.01) compared with candesartan (4. 4+/-3.8 pmol/L) and enalapril alone (4.0+/-5.0 pmol/L). CONCLUSIONS Candesartan alone was as effective, safe, and tolerable as enalapril. The combination of candesartan and enalapril was more beneficial for preventing left ventricular remodeling than either candesartan or enalapril alone.
Safety of full-dose intravenous recombinant tissue plasminogen activator followed by multimodal endovascular therapy for acute ischemic stroke

Background and purpose The optimal management of stroke patients who fail treatment with intravenous recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rt-PA) remains unknown. A study was undertaken to establish whether treatment with a standard intravenous t-PA dose (0.9 mg/kg) followed by multimodal endovascular therapy would have a similar safety profile to reduced dose (0.6 mg/kg) bridging therapy. Methods A retrospective analysis was performed of a prospectively collected database. All patients treated with full-dose t-PA and endovascular therapy were included. The primary safety endpoints included ECASS-III symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage (sICH) and ECASS parenchymal hematomas (PH). Secondary safety endpoints included severe systemic bleeding and 90-day mortality. Clinical efficacy endpoints included rates of recanalization (TICI 2–3), ambulation at hospital discharge and 90-day independent outcomes (mRS 0–2). Results 106 consecutive patients (mean age 69±17 years; mean baseline NIH Stroke Scale 17.8±4.8; 55% women; occlusion sites: MCA-M1 60.4%; MCA-M2 6.6%; ICA-T 19.8%; tandem cervical ICA+MCA-M1 7.5%; basilar artery 5.7%) were identified over a 10-year period. The sICH rate was 8.5% and the PH-1, PH-2 and subarachnoid hemorrhage rates were 2.8%, 8.5% and 2.8%, respectively. There were two (1.9%) severe groin hematomas. The recanalization rate was 66%. At hospital discharge, 41.4% of the patients were ambulatory. The rate of independent functional outcomes at 90 days was 24%; however, this sample is biased since nearly all deaths were captured but detailed 90-day functional outcomes were missing in 27 patients. The 90-day death rate was 32.4%. Conclusion Combined treatment with full-dose intravenous rt-PA followed by multimodal endovascular therapy seems to be associated with similar rates of sICH to that of bridging therapy with reduced rt-PA dosage.
Security techniques for zero day attacks

We propose security architecture to detect and prevent zero day attacks and techniques to deal with the polymorphic and metamorphic behaviour of the attacks. The components of our architecture are designed to deal with different types of malicious behaviour. The entity validation component is used for capturing information of the operating system and applications running in the virtual machines, secure logging and detection of attacks that are generated with spoofed source address. The intrusion detection engine component is used for detection of known attacks and suspicious behaviour of the entities by monitoring the incoming and outgoing traffic of virtual machines. The dynamic analyzer is used for detection and validation of hidden processes, detection of zero day attacks and fine granular isolation of malicious process that is generating the attack traffic. After a zero day attack is detected, interactive VM technique is used to determine if the zero day attack exhibits polymorphic or metamorphic behaviour and develop attack signatures to deal with the attacks efficiently.
Non-lysosomal Degradation of Singly Phosphorylated Oligosaccharides Initiated by the Action of a Cytosolic Endo-β-N-acetylglucosaminidase*

Phosphorylated oligosaccharides (POSs) are produced by the degradation of dolichol-linked oligosaccharides (DLOs) by an unclarified mechanism in mammalian cells. Although POSs are exclusively found in the cytosol, their intracellular fates remain unclear. Our findings indicate that POSs are catabolized via a non-lysosomal glycan degradation pathway that involves a cytosolic endo-β-N-acetylglucosaminidase (ENGase). Quantitative and structural analyses of POSs revealed that ablation of the ENGase results in the significant accumulation of POSs with a hexasaccharide structure composed of Manα1,2Manα1,3(Manα1,6)Manβ1,4GlcNAcβ1,4GlcNAc. In vitro ENGase assays revealed that the presence of an α1,2-linked mannose residue facilitates the hydrolysis of POSs by the ENGase. Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometric analyses and fluorescent labeling experiments show that such POSs contain one phosphate group at the reducing end. These results indicate that ENGase efficiently hydrolyzes POSs that are larger than Man4GlcNAc2-P, generating GlcNAc-1-P and neutral Gn1-type free oligosaccharides. These results provide insight into important aspects of the generation and degradation of POSs.
Productive Efficiency and Its Influencing Factors of Wine-making Firms in China——A Research Based on DEA-Tobit Approach

Based on DEA-Tobit approach,the paper analyzes the productive efficiency and its influencing factors of the 22 listed wine-making firms in China from 2004 to 2007.Furthermore,based on the nonparametric DEA-Malmquist Productivity Index,the paper also evaluates the efficiency change of the wine-making firms.The findings demonstrate that during the period the technical efficiency of the wine-making firms is on the low level,but it also shows a rising trend in general,except that in 2007 the efficiency to a great extent declines.Second,both the average total factor productivity(TFP) and the TFP in every year during the period show a rising trend to some different extent,and both of them are greatly due to the technical progress of the wine-making industry.Finally,the total asset turnover ratio,the proportion of technical personnel and the per capital are significantly and positively correlated to the productive efficiency of the wine-making firms,but the firm scale is not significantly positive correlated to the productive efficiency of the wine-making firms.
THE ANALYSIS OF INDUSTRIAL ENERGY EFFICIENCY BASED ON BOOTSTRAP-DEA

The traditional DEA mothod has some shortcomings such as small sample's estimation exists biase and statistics test can't be conducted,while Bootstrap-DEA method can create many simulated samples by numerical simulation and fix the bias of energy efficiency estimated by DEA method,and then calculate the energy efficiency's confidence interval.In this paper,we first employ the Bootstrap-DEA method and analyze the energy efficiency of China's 36 industries from 1995 to 2008.The research results show that the industries energy efficiency changes with "U" shape,and the gap among the industries efficiency decreases continuously.
Reliability Study on the Japanese Version of the Clinician’s Interview-Based Impression of Change

Background/Aims: The Japanese version of the Clinician’s Interview-Based Impression of Change plus Caregiver Input (CIBIC-plus J) consists of 3 subscales: Disability Assessment of Dementia Scale (DAD), Behavioral Pathology in Alzheimer’s Disease Rating Scale (Behave-AD), and Mental Function Impairment Scale (MENFIS), as well as the Clinician’s Global Impression of Change (CGIC). While the interrater reliability of CGIC has already been reported, that of the 3 subscales has not. The aim of the present report was to examine the reliabilities of the subscale items and investigate their relationships with CGIC. Methods: Eleven raters who were clinical physicians watched videotapes of 20 patients with Alzheimer’s disease, completed the CIBIC-plus J assessment form, and assigned a CGIC score to the patients. Reliability was assessed using the kappa coefficient. Results: The kappa coefficient of the subscale items was in most instances higher than that of CGIC (0.453) and substantial reliability was observed. The Spearman rank correlation that was calculated between CGIC and the total score change of items was very high for MENFIS (0.990) and DAD (0.910), and moderate for Behave-AD items (0.576). The incidence of comments by the raters was highest for MENFIS (89%), followed by DAD (70%). The incidence was low for Behave-AD items (48%). Conclusion:Based on the results, it is concluded that DAD, Behave-AD, and MENFIS are necessary constituents of CIBIC-plus J, and indispensable for the reliability of CGIC.
Effect of inhibition of matrix metalloproteinases on cartilage loss in vitro and in a guinea pig model of osteoarthritis.

OBJECTIVE To study the effects of a matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) inhibitor (S-34219) on osteoarthritis (OA) cartilage cultures and in the meniscectomized guinea pig model of OA. METHODS The inhibitory activity of S-34219 on MMPs and aggrecanase was studied by fluorimetry and immunoassay, respectively. The effects of S-34219 on proteoglycan and collagen degradation were studied in cultures of rabbit and human cartilage. Medial meniscectomy was performed on 29 Hartley male guinea pigs, and these animals were randomly allocated to 1 of 3 groups: a control meniscectomized group (MNXc) receiving the vehicle, or a meniscectomized group receiving either 10 mg/kg or 20 mg/kg S-34219, administered twice per day by oral gavage for 12 weeks from day 1 after surgery. An additional group comprised sham-operated animals. Tibial cartilage from the operated left knee was processed for histologic assessment of OA lesions. RESULTS The 50% inhibitory concentration (IC(50)) of S-34219 on MMPs 1, 2, 3, 8, 9, and 13 was 55, 0.1, 0.5, 0.1, 0.03, and 0.2 nM, respectively; the IC(50) on aggrecanase 1 was 190 nM. In cultured rabbit cartilage, 100 nM S-34219 strongly inhibited MMP-dependent degradation of collagen and proteoglycans. A concentration 100 times higher was needed to inhibit aggrecanase-dependent degradation. In cultures of human OA cartilage, 100 nM S-34219 inhibited spontaneous type II collagen degradation by 66% and proteoglycan degradation by only 22%. For in vivo studies, treated groups were compared with the MNXc group and the results, expressed as the percentage variation versus MNXc, were as follows: in the 10 and 20 mg/kg groups, a significant decrease (P < 0.05) in global histologic score (-12% and -14%, respectively) was observed, and this was associated with a significant increase (P < 0.05) in cartilage thickness (+19% and +18%, respectively). Neither dose level changed the proteoglycan content. CONCLUSION In both treated animal groups, S-34219 significantly prevented the loss of cartilage thickness, probably by inhibiting collagen breakdown that normally leads to the erosion of fibrillated superficial areas. The absence of a protective effect on glycosaminoglycan loss, both in vitro and in vivo, suggests that aggrecanases may have an important role in cartilage loss. This study reinforces the relevance of these models for testing chondroprotective drugs, and the potential role of dual inhibitors of collagenase and aggrecanase as disease-modifying drugs in the management of OA.
Ad-hoc Retrieval on FIRE Data Set with TF-IDF and Probabilistic Models

Information Retrieval is finding documents of unstructured nature which should satisfy user’s information needs. There exist various models for weighting terms of corpus documents and query terms. This work is carried out to analyze and evaluate the retrieval effectiveness of various IR models while using the new data set of FIRE 2011. The experiments were performed with tf-idf and its variants along with probabilistic models. For all experiments and evaluation the open search engine, Terrier 3.5 was used. Our result shows that tf-idf model gives the highest precision values with the news corpus dataset. General Terms Information Retrieval, IR Models, Weighting Schemes
Feedback influence on performance of ring oscillator for IR-UWB pulse generator in 0.18µm CMOS technology

A CMOS three-stage ring oscillator is examined in UMC 0. 18μm technology. The influence of resistor and PMOS transistor, as inverter feedbacks, on the ring oscillator frequency and the peak-to-peak amplitude is investigated. Simulation results showed that by varying the feedback transistor control voltage from 0 to Vdd, the ring oscillating frequency can be controlled in the range of 1.46 GHz for the three PMOS transistor feedbacks topology, 0.86 GHz in the two feedbacks architecture, and 0.36 GHz (the best case) in the one feedback ring oscillator design. In the case of ring oscillator design with three resistive feedbacks, the working frequency is decreased from 5.6 GHz to 3.92 GHz, for the resistance changes from 0.5 kΩ to 4 kΩ. Moreover, the maximum frequency obtained in the latter case is significantly higher than 3.77 GHz achieved without any feedback.
Executive Functions in the Evaluation of Accident Risk of Older Drivers

The main objective of these studies was to analyse the difference in driving attitude and aptitude, between two groups of elderly male drivers (65 years or more), one being accident-free and the second having three accidents or more in the last 5 years. The first study compared the driving habits of 90 older accident-free drivers with 90 drivers having a history of accidents. The second study, on a subgroup of 60 of the original 180 subjects (30 accident-free and 30 having accidents), compared cognitive function, with particular emphasis on executive functions as measured by neuropsychological tests, and attitude and self-reported driving behaviour. The results show that elderly drivers having a history of accidents, compared to the control group: (1) have poorer performance on the four cognitive measurements of executive functions; (2) report to have more prudent behaviour on the road (e.g., reducing their speed); and (3) have the intention to adopt less risky driving behaviour. This study suggests that a subgroup of the older driver population has cognitive problems and driving disabilities that cannot be compensated by apparently more careful behaviour on the road. The results confirm the importance of proper assessment of cognitive processes and underscore the potential of measuring executive functions for the evaluation of driving competence of elderly persons.
Performance of proportional fair frequency and time domain scheduling in LTE uplink

Channel-aware scheduling is one of the advanced features introduced in the uplink of Long Term Evolution (LTE) in order to improve the system spectral efficiency. In the uplink of LTE channel-aware scheduling is possible thanks to the transmission of sounding reference signals. In this paper the performance of frequency and time domain scheduling in LTE uplink is investigated. In particular, we focus on the performance impact of various scheduling metrics which try to achieve proportional fairness in throughput or resource allocation. Our analysis shows that a combination of a throughput-based metric in the time domain and an SINR-based metric in the frequency domain is able to provide the highest performance. For example, in a noise-limited propagation environment with high inter-site distance the sector throughput gain compared to performing throughput-based proportional fair scheduling in both time and frequency domain is above 20%.