Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Paraoxonase-1 Q192R Polymorphism and Antiplatelet Effects of Clopidogrel in Patients Undergoing Elective Coronary Stent Placement

Background— Recently published data indicate that the paraoxonase-1 (PON1) Q192R genotype—and not as previously shown activity of cytochrome P450 (CYP) 2C19—is the major determinant of metabolic bioactivation of clopidogrel and thereby variability of antiplatelet effect of clopidogrel. We sought to investigate whether the PON1 Q192R gene polymorphism affects platelet reactivity in patients undergoing elective coronary stent placement. Methods and Results— The study included 760 consecutive patients undergoing elective coronary stent placement after loading with clopidogrel 600 mg. Platelet function was assessed by adenosine diphosphate-induced (ADP 5 and 20 &mgr;mol/L) platelet aggregation and by flow-cytometric analysis of platelet surface protein expression before clopidogrel, at the time of coronary stent placement, and before discharge after coronary stent placement. PON1 Q192R genotype [NM_000446. 5:c.575A>G single nucleotide polymorphism (rs662)] was analyzed by TaqMan polymerase chain reaction. Residual platelet aggregation (ADP 5 &mgr;mol/L) at predischarge was 8.0% (3.0% to 17.0%) [median (interquartile range)] in PON1 QQ192 patients (n=384), 8.0% (3.0% to 15.0%) in PON1 QR192 (n=304), and 11.0% (3.0% to 18.0%) in PON1 RR192 (n=72; P=0.603). By multivariable linear regression, residual platelet aggregation was not associated with PON1 QQ192/QR192 (partial &eegr;2<0.001, P=0.728) but with CYP2C19*2 loss-of-function allele (partial &eegr;2=0.045, P<0.001) as well as any CYP2C19*17 gain-of-function allele (partial &eegr;2=0.012, P=0.004). All other platelet assays also showed no significant association between PON1 Q192R genotype and antiplatelet effect of clopidogrel. The 1-year incidence of death and myocardial infarction did not differ between PON1 Q192R genotypes. Conclusions— On-treatment platelet reactivity in patients undergoing coronary stent placement after loading with clopidogrel 600 mg was not associated with PON1 Q192R genotype. Clinical Trial Registration— URL: http://www.clinicaltrials. gov. Unique identifier: NCT00457236.
Effects of clopidogrel therapy on whole blood platelet aggregation, the Plateletworks® assay and coagulation parameters in cats with asymptomatic hypertrophic cardiomyopathy: a pilot study

ABSTRACT Background: Although scientific evidence is limited, clopidogrel is frequently used as prophylaxis for arterial thromboembolism in cats with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). Objectives: Evaluating effects of clopidogrel therapy in asymptomatic cats with HCM on (1) conventional whole blood aggregation (WBA), (2) alternative platelet aggregation assessed with tubes of the Plateletworks® assay and (3) standard coagulation parameters. Animals and methods: Prospective, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled pilot study. Fourteen asymptomatic HCM cats were randomly allocated to receive placebo (n = 5) or clopidogrel (18.75 mg/cat q24h, n = 9) as part of a larger study. Aggregation responses (to 20 µM adenosine diphosphate (ADP) and 10 µg/ml collagen) in WBA and the Plateletworks® assay and standard coagulation parameters were evaluated at baseline and after seven days of therapy. Results: Clopidogrel therapy significantly reduced aggregation responses to ADP and collagen in the Plateletworks® agonists tubes (ADP and collagen: P < 0.001), but did not significantly reduce aggregation responses to ADP and collagen in the WBA technique (ADP: P = 0.07, collagen: P = 0.30). Clopidogrel therapy did not show a significant effect on prothrombin time, activated partial thromboplastin time, antithrombin, D-dimers and fibrinogen concentrations. Conclusion and clinical importance: Clopidogrel therapy at a dose of 18.75 mg/cat q24h for seven days causes a significant decrease in in vitro platelet aggregation evaluated with the Plateletworks® assay, without affecting standard coagulation parameters in cats with asymptomatic HCM.
Real‐time display of artifact‐free electroencephalography during functional magnetic resonance imaging and magnetic resonance spectroscopy in an animal model of epilepsy

Simultaneous recording of electroencephalogram (EEG) and functional MRI (fMRI) or MR spectroscopy (MRS) can provide further insight into our understanding of the underlying mechanisms of neurologic disorders. Current technology for simultaneous EEG and MRI recording is limited by extensive postacquisition processing of the data. Real‐time display of artifact‐free EEG recording during fMRI/MRS studies is essential in studies that involve epilepsy to ensure that they address specific EEG features such as epileptic spikes or seizures. By optimizing the EEG recording equipment to maximize the common mode rejection ratio of its amplifiers, a unique EEG system was designed and tested that allowed real‐time display of the artifact‐free EEG during fMRI/MRS in an animal model of epilepsy. Spike recordings were optimized by suppression of the background EEG activity using fast‐acting and easily controlled inhalational anesthesia. Artifact suppression efficiency of 70–100% was achieved following direct subtraction of referentially recorded filtered EEG tracings from active electrodes, which were located in close proximity to each other (over homologous occipital cortices) and a reference electrode. Two independent postacquisition processing tools, independent component analysis and direct subtraction of unfiltered digital EEG data in MATLAB, were used to verify the accuracy of real‐time EEG display. Magn Reson Med 53:456–464, 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The relationship between deliberate self-harm behavior, body dissatisfaction, and suicide in adolescents: current concepts

Deliberate self-harm (DSH) is a common though often hidden condition in children and adolescents that may result in suicide. This discussion covers several aspects of DSH including its prevalence, etiology, and management. The relationships of DSH to body dissatisfaction and suicide are specifically considered. Even though most cases of DSH do not end in overt suicide, DSH reflects that potential underlying psychological pathophysiology, and likelihood of eventual death from self-murder, cannot always be predicted or prevented. It is important to take all acts of DSH as serious, and to offer comprehensive management to prevent future acts of DSH and potential suicide.
Lower Bounds on Regret for Noisy Gaussian Process Bandit Optimization

In this paper, we consider the problem of sequentially optimizing a black-box function $f$ based on noisy samples and bandit feedback. We assume that $f$ is smooth in the sense of having a bounded norm in some reproducing kernel Hilbert space (RKHS), yielding a commonly-considered non-Bayesian form of Gaussian process bandit optimization. We provide algorithm-independent lower bounds on the simple regret, measuring the suboptimality of a single point reported after $T$ rounds, and on the cumulative regret, measuring the sum of regrets over the $T$ chosen points. For the isotropic squared-exponential kernel in $d$ dimensions, we find that an average simple regret of $\epsilon$ requires $T = \Omega\big(\frac{1}{\epsilon^2} (\log\frac{1}{\epsilon})^{d/2}\big)$, and the average cumulative regret is at least $\Omega\big( \sqrt{T(\log T)^d} \big)$, thus matching existing upper bounds up to the replacement of $d/2$ by $d+O(1)$ in both cases. For the Mat\'ern-$\nu$ kernel, we give analogous bounds of the form $\Omega\big( (\frac{1}{\epsilon})^{2+d/\nu}\big)$ and $\Omega\big( T^{\frac{\nu + d}{2\nu + d}} \big)$, and discuss the resulting gaps to the existing upper bounds.
Synergy Cycles in the Norwegian Innovation System: The Relation between Synergy and Cycle Values

The knowledge base of an economy measured in terms of Triple Helix relations can be analyzed in terms of mutual information among geographical, sectorial, and size distributions of firms as dimensions of the probabilistic entropy. The resulting synergy values of a TH system provide static snapshots. In this study, we add the time dimension and analyze the synergy dynamics using the Norwegian innovation system as an example. The synergy among the three dimensions can be mapped as a set of partial time series and spectrally analyzed. The results suggest that the synergy at the level of both the country and its 19 counties shoe non-chaotic oscillatory behavior and resonates in a set of natural frequencies. That is, synergy surges and drops are non-random and can be analyzed and predicted. There is a proportional dependence between the amplitudes of oscillations and synergy values and an inverse proportional dependence between the oscillation frequencies' relative inputs and synergy values. This analysis of the data informs us that one can expect frequency-related synergy-volatility growth in relation to the synergy value and a shift in the synergy volatility towards the long-term fluctuations with the synergy growth.
Self-Adaptive Linear Hashing for solid state drives

Flash memory based solid state drives (SSDs) have emerged as a new alternative to replace magnetic disks due to their high performance and low power consumption. However, random writes on SSDs are much slower than SSD reads. Therefore, traditional index structures, which are designed based on the symmetrical I/O property of magnetic disks, cannot completely exert the high performance of SSDs. In this paper, we propose an SSD-optimized linear hashing index called Self-Adaptive Linear Hashing (SAL-Hashing) to reduce small random writes to SSDs that are caused by index operations. The contributions of our work are manifold. First, we propose to organize buckets into groups and sets to facilitate coarse-grained writes and lazy-split so as to avoid intermediate writes on the hash structure. A group consists of a fixed number of buckets and a set consists of a number of groups. Second, we attach a log region to each set, and amortize the cost of reads and writes by committing updates to the log region in batch. Third, in order to reduce search cost, each log region is equipped with Bloom filters to index update logs. We devise a cost-based online algorithm to adaptively merge the log region with the corresponding set when the set becomes search-intensive. Finally, in order to exploit the internal package-level parallelisms of SSDs, we apply coarse-grained writes for merging or split operations to achieve a high bandwidth. Our experimental results suggest that our proposal is self-adaptive according to the change of access patterns, and outperforms several competitors under various workloads on two commodity SSDs.
Interactions between speech recognition problems and user emotions

Understanding how speech recognition problems affect the interaction with the user is a topic of great interest for the spoken dialogue community. In this paper, we examine the dependencies between speech recognition problems in adjacent turns. We also examine the dependencies between speech recognition problems and student emotions within a turn and in adjacent turns. We apply Chi Square (�$ 2 ) analysis to a corpus of speech-based computer tutoring dialogues to discover these dependencies. We find that rejections are followed by more rejections than expected if there was no dependency between rejections, and that misrecognitions are followed by more misrecognitions than expected. We also find a strong dependency between recognition problems in the previous turn and user emotion in the current turn: after a system rejection there are more emotional user turns than expected. Surprisingly, in our data, we find no relationship between user emotions and recognition problems within a turn nor between previous turn user emotions and current turn recognition problems.
Emotions and dialogue in a peer-production community: the case of Wikipedia

This paper presents a large-scale analysis of emotions in conversations among Wikipedia editors. Our focus is on the emotions expressed by editors in talk pages, measured by using the Affective Norms for English Words (ANEW). We find evidence that to a large extent women tend to participate in discussions with a more positive tone, and that administrators are more positive than non-administrators. Surprisingly, female non-administrators tend to behave like administrators in many aspects. We observe that replies are on average more positive than the comments they reply to, preventing many discussions from spiralling down into conflict. We also find evidence of emotional homophily: editors having similar emotional styles are more likely to interact with each other. Our findings offer novel insights into the emotional dimension of interactions in peer-production communities, and contribute to debates on issues such as the flattening of editor growth and the gender gap.
Decentralised paediatric HIV care in Ethiopia: a comparison between outcomes of patients managed in health centres and in a hospital clinic

Background In order to increase access to antiretroviral therapy (ART) in HIV-infected children, paediatric HIV care has been introduced in health centres in Ethiopia, where patients are managed by health professionals with limited training. Objective To compare outcomes of paediatric HIV care in hospital and health centre clinics and to determine risk factors for death and loss to follow-up (LTFU). Design Retrospective comparison of patient characteristics and outcomes among children managed in a public hospital and all five public health centres in the uptake area. Results Among 1,960 patients (health centres 572, hospital clinic 1,388), 34% were lost to follow-up, 2% died, 14% were transferred out, and 46% remained in care. Children initiating ART in the hospital clinic had lower median CD4 cell counts (age <1 year: 575 vs. 1,183 cells/mm3, p=0.024; age 1–5 years: 370 vs. 598 cells/mm3, p<0.001; age >5 years: 186 vs. 259 cells/mm3, p<0.001), and a higher proportion were <1 year of age (22% vs. 15%, p=0.025). ART initiation rates and retention in care were similar between children managed in health centres and in the hospital clinic (36% vs. 37% and 47% vs. 46%, respectively). Among patients starting ART, mortality was associated with age <1 year [hazard ratio (HR) 12.0; 95% confidence interval (CI): 3.5, 41]. LTFU was associated with CD4 cell counts <350 cells/mm3 (HR 1.8; 95% CI: 1.2, 3.0), weight-for-age z-scores below −4 (HR 2.8; 95% CI: 1.4, 5.6), and age <5 years (1–5 years: HR 1.6; 95% CI: 1.0, 2.5; <1 year: HR 3.3; 95% CI: 1.6, 6.6). Conclusions Outcomes of HIV care were similar for Ethiopian children managed in a hospital clinic or in health centres. However, patients treated at the hospital clinic had characteristics of more advanced disease. Rates of LTFU were high in both types of health facility.
A 1-Cycle 1.25 GHz Bufferless Router for 3D Network-on-Chip

In this paper, we propose a 1-cycle high-performance 3D bufferless router with a 3-stage permutation network. The proposed router utilizes the 3-stage permutation network instead of the serialized switch allocator and 7 x 7 crossbar to achieve the frequency of 1.25 GHz in TSMC 65 nm technology. Compared with the other two 3D bufferless routers, the proposed router occupies less area and consumes less power consumption. Simulation results under both synthetic and application workloads illustrate that the proposed router achieves less average packet latency than the other two 3D bufferless routers.
Interactively Visualizing Dynamic Social Networks with DySoN

The dynamic social network visualizer “DySoN” ( Dy namic So cial N etworks) aims at understanding patterns and structural changes in dynamic social networks that evolve over time via an interactive visualization approach. As an alternative and supplementation to the numerous other approaches to visualization of social network data and as an attempt to overcome some of the drawbacks of these approaches, DySoN interactively visualizes streaming event data of social interactions by an interactive three-dimensional model of interpolated NURBS ”tubes”, representing activity and social proximity within a given set of actors during a given time period by using three dimensions of temporal information mapping: spatial density (tube distance), tube-color and tube-diameter. We use a self assembled large collaboration network of Jazz musicians with a straightforward semantics for the computation of relation strengths for the evaluation of the approach. We also discuss applications of the concept for awareness services in mobile peer to peer social networks, which exhibit a vivid measurable social micro dynamics in time and space.
Wireless data transmission in underwater hydroacoustic environment based on MIMO-OFDM system and application adaptive algorithm at the receiver side

To increase the transmission speed in wireless data transmission systems, it is necessary to change either the bandwidth or the spectral efficiency, or both simultaneously. Systems based on Multi-Input Multi-Output (MIMO) methods can significantly increase spectral efficiency through parallel transmission using several transmitters and receivers. Such systems are particularly attractive for use in underwater acoustic communications systems, which are normally bandwidth-reduced. MIMO system along with OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing) is a popular technology used in wireless networks to provide a high data transfer rate and resistance to multipath and fading of the channel. The implementation of such a system requires being aware of the channel condition at the receiver, and can be provided by means of using channel parameter estimation schemes. The adaptation task on the receiving side, apart from peak of pattern formation in the direction of the signal expected, also includes the interference-source suppression, that is, the issue of implementing spatial filtering of interference from other directions. However, since the signal and noise direction of arrival are unknown, we get a system with adaptive antenna array (AA). In the proposed research, a phase antenna array was used with controlled weighing.
Design of an RLC Compensator for a Synchronous Motor: Torque Ripple Improvement

AC-drive systems based Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor (PMSM) are widely utilized in industrial applications due to many advantages including excellent efficiency, best reliability, and low-effective cost compared with DC-drive systems. Design and implementation of an RLC compensator for a PMSM-drive system is demonstrated in this paper. The main aims of using an RLC compensator are decreasing of Total-Harmonics-Distortion (THD) of the input line current and Ripple Factor (RF) of the electromagnetic torque over a wide range variation in rotor speed and load. The entire transfer function of the proposed system is derived for stability verification under the change of rotor speeds. The proposed PMSM-drive system is implemented with and without RLC compensator for two cases; which are at a fixed load and a step-change in load. Good performance is achieved using the proposed RLC compensator; in terms of THD and RF are 0.77% and 3.13%, respectively.
Color Image Segmentation Using Hybrid Learning Techniques

Image segmentation is the process of finding out all non-overlapping distinct regions from the given image based on certain criteria such as intensity, color, texture or shape. This paper proposes a two level hybrid non classical model for image segmentation based on pixel color and texture features of the image. The first level uses Fuzzy C-Means (FCM) unsupervised method to form a clustering among all the pixels based on color and texture properties. And the second level uses supervised methods [Classification Tree and Adaboost] for color learning and pixel classification, with the prior knowledge of the image obtained from the FCM. Experiment was conducted for the three different supervised classification methods including Support Vector Machine (SVM) and their performances are analysed. From the results, it is inferred that Adaboost classifier increases accuracy and reduces misclassification error when compared to Classification Tree and SVM methods.
Multi-objective optimization of distribution network reconfiguration with capacitor and distributed generator placement

Network reconfiguration, shunt capacitors, and distributed generators are less expensive options to distribution system expansion. The study of simultaneous use of network reconfiguration, optimal capacitor placement, and optimal distributed generator siting has been limited to the investigation of only two objectives, without regard to the conflicts among the system objectives. This study optimizes three system objectives - power loss minimization, voltage stability improvement, and line loading reduction - by simultaneously performing network reconfiguration with capacitor and distributed generator placement. A new and fast method of multi-objective optimal planning, which can also be applied to real-time system operations, is implemented in this study. Elitist non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) and fuzzy decision making analysis is used to obtain the best system configuration with simultaneous installation of capacitors and distributed generators. Test cases reveal that, despite conflicts in the objectives, systems perform best when the implemented plan utilizes all three options. Network reconfiguration following the outage of a capacitor or distributed generator is proven to reverse the decline in, or achieve better, system performance.
Tabtalk: reusability in data-oriented grapheme-to-phoneme conversion

In the traditional (knowledge-based) approach to the design of grapheme-to-phoneme modules in text-to-speech systems, it is claimed that various explicitly coded, language-speciic, linguistic knowledge sources are necessary for a good performance. Due to knowledge acquisition bottlenecks, this implies long development cycles. As an alternative, we propose to use inductive methods from machine learning in a simple combined Trie Search and Similarity-Based Reasoning approach and show that, for Dutch, its performance is better than that of the knowledge-based approach and backpropagation learning. Furthermore, we show that our approach is reusable for any language for which a training corpus exists.
The non-pneumatic anti-shock garment, a first aid device in obstetrical emergencies

This master ́s thesis is a literature review about the use of the non-pneumatic anti-shock garment in obstetrical hemorrhages. The aim of the study has been to find results on how does the NASG effect obstetrical bleeding, recovery, and maternal mortality. The findings will serve Finnish Red Cross in humanitarian work in catastrophe areas. Method: The study was conducted by descriptive literature review and depicted a qualitative answer to the research question. The selected articles (n = 16) were analysed with inductive content analysis. Results: The review produced four main categories: 1) Physiological impacts, 2) Treatments, 3) Professional qualification and 4) Community effects. The analysis showed that with help of the non-pneumatic anti-shock garment (NASG) blood loss decreased 42-55%, vital signs and restoration of circulatory stabilized rapidly, mortality was reduced 34-66%, morbidity decreased 44-66% and there were 32-73% lower EAOs. The need of invasive treatments, like hysterectomies, decreased 45-56%. The NASG is not a definitive treatment and IV fluids, uterotonics, and blood products are needed. There were no severe side effects during NASG use and contraindicators are related to heart failure. Studies observed that the use of the NASG was easy to learn, to apply, and to observe the patient using it. It is known to be low-cost but before initialization it needs support and effort from local health policy makers. Conclusion: The NASG has several positive results in obstetrical hemorrhages. It can be recommended for use in catastrophe areas and developing countries where delays in reaching definitive treatments are common and the resources of treatments are limited.