Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nonamnestic Presentations of Early-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease

Early-onset Alzheimer’s disease (EOAD) beginning before the age of 65 may differ from late-onset AD (LOAD) in clinical course and frequency of nonamnestic presentations. In a 10-year retrospective review, 125 patients with EOAD, diagnosed clinically and verified by functional neuroimaging, were compared with 56 patients with LOAD and further classified depending on predominant cognitive difficulty on presentation. Eighty (64%) of the patients with EOAD had a nonamnestic presentation, compared with only 7 (12.5%) of the patients with LOAD. Compared with LOAD, the patients with EOAD had a shorter duration with lower Mini-Mental State Examination scores. The neuroimaging reports among the patients with EOAD showed more hippocampal atrophy with an amnestic presentation, more left parietal changes with impaired language presentations, and more right parietal and occipital changes with impaired visuospatial presentations. These findings indicate that EOAD differs from LOAD in a more aggressive course and in having predominantly nonamnestic presentations that vary in neuropathological location.
Jugular Bulb Saturation and Mixed Venous Saturation During Cardiopulmonary Bypass

Systemic venous oxygen saturation is clinically used as an indicator of a satisfactory oxygen supply demand balance on cardiopuimonary bypass (CBP). Cerebral desaturation has been associated with postoperative cognitive dysfunction and has an incidence of 17% to 23% on bypass. We tested the hypothesis that systemic venous saturation did not correlate with jugular bulb venous saturation. Blood was drawn from the radial artery, jugular bulb catheter, and venous return line for determination of pH, oxygen tension and saturation, and carbon dioxide tension at four times during bypass: warm 1 (following initiation of CPB); cold 1 (stable hypothermia); cold 2 (hypothermia prior to rewarm); and warm 2 (naso‐pharyngeal temperature 36°C to 37°C). Correlations of jugular bulb and systemic venous saturation at cold 1 were r = 0.29, r2= 0.08, and p = 0.0005, and at warm 2 were r = 0.22, r2= 0.05, and p = 0.007. We conclude that systemic saturation is a poor indicator of cerebral saturation. The poor association of jugular and systemic pump venous saturations underscores our inability to evaluate adequacy of cerebral perfusion. Jugular saturation is lower than pump venous return blood, especially at times of lower oxygen delivery, thus either continuous invasive or noninvasive evaluation of cerebral oxygenation is required to evaluate the adequacy of cerebral perfusion.
Fluctuating asymmetry in the context of social stratification

Asymmetrie ist ein charakteristisches Merkmal biologischer Systeme, welches in verschiedenen Formen auftreten kann: Wahrend fluktuierende Asymmetrie als Ergebnis zufalliger Entwicklungsperturbationen haufig als Mas fur organismische Entwicklungsinstabilitat herangezogen wird, reflektiert direktionale Asymmetrie einerseits eine genetisch determinierte Tendenz groserer Merkmalsauspragung einer Seite als auch Belastungsmuster im Mas ihrer Auspragung. Beide Asymmetrien konnen daher als Funktion der soziookonomischen Situation des Individuums betrachtet werden, die die Grundlage unterschiedlicher Stress-Levels zwischen Individuen bildet, sich aber auch an der manuellen Tatigkeit festmacht. In der fruhbronzezeitlichen Population von Hainburg-Teichtal zeigt sich durch Reichhaltigkeit und Form der Grabbeigaben eine solche soziookonomische Differenzierung, die mit Asymmetrie-Messungen in Verbindung gebracht wurde: 3D-Mase der µCT-Daten umfassten maximale Langen zweiter und dritter Metacarpalknochen, sowie GMM-Analyse einer Gelenkflachenstruktur dritter Metacarpalia. Dabei konnte kein Zusammenhang zwischen „Status“ und fluktuierender Asymmetrie nachgewiesen werden, was auf homogene Stress-Levels innerhalb der Population, und damit auf eine stabile Versorgung, hindeutet. Jedoch legt eine signifikante status-, sowie geschlechtsabhangige direktionale Asymmetrie, als auch die verschiedenartige Gelenkflachenform der Statusgruppen Unterschiede der manuellen Tatigkeit dieser Gruppen nahe.
INFRAPOPULATION DYNAMICS OF PARELAPHOSTRONGYLUS TENUIS IN WHITE-TAILED DEER

The prevalence and intensity of Parelaphostrongylus tenuis was determined by examining the head and a fecal sample from each of 379 white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) of known age that had been killed by vehicles in northeastern Minnesota (USA), November 1991 to May 1993. Small numbers of adult worms (mean ± SD, 3.2 ± 2.2; maximum, 13) were found in the cranium of 311 (82%); but over a third (118 of 311) of the infected deer were not passing larvae in their feces. Most occult infections were sterile because only one sex of the parasite was present. Adult P. tenuis were not found in the vertebral canal of deer. Prevalence of adult worms and larvae was lower in fawns (68% and 35%, respectively) than in older age classes of deer (89% and 63%, respectively). Forty-three of 45 deer between 7 and 15 yr old were infected. Mean (±SD) intensity of adult worms was lower in fawns (2.7 ± 1.8) and yearlings (3.0 ± 2.1) than in deer 7 to 15 yr (4.1 ± 2.5). Conversely, the mean (±SD) number of larvae in feces was higher in fawns (103 ±119 larvae/g) than in adults 2 to 6 yr old (36.2 ± 46 larvae/g) and 7 to 15 yr old (35.6 ± 60 larvae/g). Mean (±SD) fecundity of female worms was greatest in fawns (51.6 ± 64.8 larvae/g of feces/female worm). Deer of all ages passed more larvae in the spring. Deer from an area where year-round density was 30 deer/km2 had a mean (±SD) of 3.5 (±1.8) adult worms; deer from the study area, with a summer density 2 deer/km2, had 3.2 (±2.2) worms; however, deer at the greater density passed a greater mean number of larvae (93.8 and 57.1 larvae/g, respectively). Based on our results we propose that P. tenuis is a long-lived parasite and that most deer become infected in their first or second summer of life, and acquire few additional worms thereafter.
A Feedback-Control Approach for Resource Management in Public Clouds

Nowadays, more and more the industry and market depend on cloud-based infrastructures for delivering IT services. To this aim cloud-based infrastructures are changing continuously, increasing their complexity especially for the management of cloud resources. Control and management of resources (e.g., virtual machines, VMs) are of paramount importance to adjust resources automatically allocated to an application and for delivering quality-assured services to final users. In this paper, we propose a feedback-based control approach for the management of VMs in the AWS EC2 public cloud. First, we evaluate the proposed Gain Scheduling policy against different workloads. Second, we provide results on the robustness of the proposed Gain Scheduling policy in presence of failures. Finally, we compare our approach to state-of-the-art control approaches for cloud resources. Our results indicate that the proposed control strategy guarantees, without the need of a priori information on system dynamics or complex estimations of the operating conditions, high performance with respect to both constant and time- varying workloads as well as in spite of sudden VM failures.
The 3′ to 5′ degradation of yeast mRNAs is a general mechanism for mRNA turnover that requires the SKI2 DEVH box protein and 3′ to 5′ exonucleases of the exosome complex

One major pathway of mRNA decay in yeast occurs by deadenylation‐dependent decapping, which exposes the transcript to 5′ to 3′ exonucleolytic degradation. We show that a second general pathway of mRNA decay in yeast occurs by 3′ to 5′ degradation of the transcript. We also show that the SKI2, SKI3, SKI6/RRP41, SKI8 and RRP4 gene products are required for 3′ to 5′ decay of mRNA. The Ski6p/Rrp41p protein has homology to the Escherichia coli 3′ to 5′ exoribonuclease RNase PH, and both the Ski6p/Rrp41p and Rrp4p proteins are components of a multiprotein complex, termed the exosome, that contains at least three polypeptides with 3′ to 5′ exoribonuclease activities. These observations suggest that the exosome may be the nucleolytic activity that degrades the body of the mRNA in a 3′ to 5′ direction, and the exosome's activity on mRNAs may be modulated by Ski2p, Ski3p and Ski8p. Blocking both 3′ to 5′ and 5′ to 3′ decay leads to inviability, and conditional double mutants show extremely long mRNA half‐lives. These observations argue that efficient mRNA turnover is required for viability and that we have identified the two major pathways of mRNA decay in yeast.
A novel approach for segmentation of MRI brain images

A novel method for segmentation of brain tissues in MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) images is proposed in this paper. First, we reduce noise using a versatile wavelet-based filter. Subsequently, watershed algorithm is applied to brain tissues as an initial segmenting method. Normally, the result of classical watershed algorithm on grey-scale textured images such as tissue images is over-segmentation. The following procedure is a merging process for the over-segmentation regions using fuzzy clustering algorithm (fuzzy C-means). But there are still some regions which are not divided completely, particularly in the transitional regions of gray matter and white matter, or cerebrospinal fluid and gray matter. This motivated the construction of a re-segmentation processing approach to partition these regions. We exploited a method base on minimum covariance determinant (MCD) estimator to detect the regions needed segmentation again, and then partition them by a supervised k-nearest neighbor (kNN) classifier. This integrated approach yields a robust and precise segmentation. The efficacy of the proposed algorithm is validated using extensive experiments
Endoscopic submucosal resection of rectal carcinoid tumors with a ligation device.

BACKGROUND Local endoscopic mucosal resection of rectal carcinoid tumors is often associated with margin involvement that requires further intervention. The efficacy of resection of these tumors with endoscopic submucosal resection with a ligation device (ESMR-L) was evaluated. METHODS Fourteen rectal carcinoid tumors were treated by ESMR-L between 1999 and 2002. ESMR-L was performed with a conventional colonoscope with an attached band-ligator device. For comparison, 14 rectal carcinoid tumors, treated by either endoscopic mucosal resection or polypectomy between 1990 and 1997, were evaluated as historical controls. All tumors were estimated to be 1 cm or less in diameter. OBSERVATIONS There were no differences between the 2 groups in terms of age, gender, or tumor size. For 6 (43%) patients in the control group, there was tumor involvement at the margin of the resection specimen, whereas all tumors removed by ESMR-L had histopathologically proven negative margins (p < 0.05). The mean vertical resection margin also was significantly deeper in the ESMR-L group (p < 0.05). There was no complication of any procedure. CONCLUSIONS ESMR-L is technically simple, minimally invasive, and safe for treatment of small rectal carcinoid tumors contained within the submucosa. ESMR-L provides a deeper resection margin compared with that obtained with conventional endoscopic mucosal resection or polypectomy.
Invited. Brain edema development after MRI‐guided focused ultrasound treatment

The aim of this study was to investigate a potential technique for image‐guided minimally invasive neurosurgical interventions. Focused ultrasound (FUS) delivers thermal energy without an invasive probe, penetrating the dura mater, entering through the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) space, or harming intervening brain tissue. We applied continuous on‐line monitoring by MRI to demonstrate the effect of the thermal intervention on the brain tissue. For this, seven rabbits had a part of their skull removed to create access for the FUS beam into the brain through an acoustic window of 11 mm in diameter. Dura was left intact and skin was sutured. One week later, the rabbits were sonicated for 3 seconds with 21 W acoustic power, and the FUS focus was visualized with a temperature‐sensitive T1‐weighted MRI pulse sequence. The tissue reaction was documented over 7 days with T2‐weighted images of the brain. The initial area of the central low signal intensity in the axial plane was . 4 ± . 3 mm2, and for the bright hyperintensity surrounding the lesion, it was 2.3 ± . 6 mm2 (n = 7). In the coronal plane, the corresponding values were . 4 ± . 1 mm2 and 3.4 ± . 9 mm2 (n = 5). The developing brain edema culminated 48 hours later and thereafter diminished during the next 5 days. Histology revealed a central necrosis in the white matter surrounded by edematous tissue with inflammatory cells. In summary, the image‐guided thermal ablation technique described here produced a relatively small lesion in the white matter at the targeted location. This was accomplished without opening the dura or the need for a stereotactical device. MRI allowed on‐line monitoring of the lesion setting and the deposition of thermal energy and demonstrated the tissue damage after the thermal injury.
Investigation on crosspolar performance of a coaxial fed dual mode matched rectangular feed horn with step discontinuity

Multimode horns are used as matched feed for offset reflector antennas for reducing cross-polarization in the main beam. This paper investigates the crosspolar performance of a coaxial fed dual mode matched rectangular feed horn with step discontinuity. The design of dual mode rectangular horn as matched feed for an offset parabolic reflector antenna is presented. In this design, dominant TE10 mode is combined with TE11 mode at the horn aperture. A parametric study was carried out using HFSS to evaluate the horn performance when the waveguide is excited directly as well as with coaxial feed line excitation. Appropriate methods have been used for broadening operation bandwidth of the coax fed horn with a small decrease in the crosspolar performance.
Improved colorimetric assay for detecting influenza B virus neutralizing antibody responses to vaccination and infection

An automated neutralization test for influenza B virus is described in which antibody titers are determined according to the release of neutral red from infected or uninfected cells of the Madin-Darby canine kidney line. Endpoints are determined in a standard enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay reader. The test requires no expensive immunologic reagents and was used to evaluate responses to both vaccination and natural infection against influenza B virus. Overall responses to vaccination were comparable with those obtained by hemagglutination inhibition, using Tween-ether-split influenza B/Ann Arbor/1/86 virus as the antigen (the HI-TE test). The sensitivities of neutralization responses compared with those obtained by the HI-TE test for two vaccines were 88 and 89%; the specificities were lower at 61 and 60%, respectively. Responses to vaccination, measured by hemagglutination inhibition, were significantly higher with split virus compared with whole virus. However, seroconversion by both the HI-TE and neutralization tests was observed in 5 of 10 individuals from whom virus was detected by either culture of nasal or throat washings or the presence of antigen from immunofluorescence in cells from nasal washings.
AN EXAMINATION OF MILK QUALITY EFFECTS ON MILK YIELD AND DAIRY PRODUCTION ECONOMICS IN THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES

OF THESIS AN EXAMINATION OF MILK QUALITY EFFECTS ON MILK YIELD AND DAIRY PRODUCTION ECONOMICS IN THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES Mastitis is one of the most costly diseases to dairy producers around the world with milk yield loss being the biggest contributor to economic losses. The objective of first study of this thesis was to determine the impacts of high somatic cell counts on milk yield loss. To accomplish this, over one million cow data records were collected from Southeastern US dairy herds. The objective of the second study was to determine optimum treatment cost of clinical mastitis by combining two economic modeling approaches used in animal health economics. The last objective of this thesis was to determine how much Southeastern US dairy producers are spending to control milk quality on farm and determine if they understand how milk quality affects them economically. This was accomplished through a collaborative project within the Southeast Quality Milk Initiative.
Effect of landiolol hydrochloride after off-pump coronary artery bypass

Objectives: many studies have shown that oral beta blockers reduce the incidence of atrial fibrillation after coronary artery bypass. The goal of this study was to determine whether landiolol, an intravenous beta blocker, reduces the incidence of atrial fibrillation after off-pump coronary artery bypass. Methods: 39 consecutive patients were given landiolol after coronary artery bypass, and 20 who were not given landiolol served as a control group. Landiolol was intravenously administered at 1 µgċkg−1ċmin−1 in the intensive care unit. Results: the mean dose of landiolol was 2.3 ± 1.2 1 µgċkg−1ċmin−1. The incidence of atrial fibrillation during intensive care unit stay was significantly lower in the landiolol group compared to the control group: 2.6% (1/39) vs. 20% (4/20). Heart rate after landiolol administration was significantly lower than that before administration, whereas landiolol had no effect on blood pressure. C-reactive protein and creatine kinase levels 7 days after surgery were significantly lower in the landiolol group. Conclusion: continuous administration of landiolol at a low dose after off-pump coronary artery bypass reduced the incidence of atrial fibrillation.
Focal Nodular Hyperplasia of the Liver: Diffusion-Weighted Magnetic Resonance Imaging Characteristics Using High b Values

Objective To qualitatively and quantitatively assess the presentation of hepatic focal nodular hyperplasia (FNH) at diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DWMRI) using multiple high b values. Materials and Methods Twenty-five patients with 27 FNHs had liver DWMRI at 1.5 T using free-breathing acquisition and 3 b values (0, 600, 1000 s/mm2). Focal nodular hyperplasias were evaluated qualitatively using visual analysis of diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance (DWMR) images and quantitatively using conventional apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and normalized ADC measurements. Results All FNHs (100%) were visible on b0 DWMR images; 26 of the 27 FNHs (96%), on b600 DWMR images; and 21 of the 27 FNHs (78%), on b1000 DWMR images. A total of 18 of the 27 FNHs (67%) exhibited a hyperintense central scar on the b0 DWMR images that remained visible on the b600 and b1000 DWMR images in 6 of the 27 FNHs (22%). Conventional ADC value of FNHs (1.318 × 10−3 mm2/±0.208) was significantly lower than that of adjacent hepatic parenchyma (1.414 × 10−3 mm2/s ± 1.95) (P = 0.0003), although a substantial overlap was found. The use of normalized ADC using the liver as reference organ resulted in a more restricted distribution of ADC values (variation coefficient, 5.3%). Conclusions Focal nodular hyperplasias show a wide range of morphological features at DWMRI using high b values. Further studies are needed to fully investigate as to what extent normalized ADC may result in better lesion characterization.
Association between cutaneous melanoma, Breslow thickness and vitamin D receptor BsmI polymorphism

Summary Background Literature data report an association between some vitamin D receptor (VDR) polymorphisms and different kinds of tumours, including malignant melanoma (MM). Only three VDR polymorphisms (FokI, TaqI and A‐1012G) have been investigated in association with the presence of cutaneous MM or the development of metastases.
Visual P300-based BCI to steer a wheelchair: A Bayesian approach

This paper presents a new P300 paradigm for brain computer interface. Visual stimuli consisting of 8 arrows randomly intensified are used for direction target selection for wheelchair steering. The classification is based on a Bayesian approach that uses prior statistical knowledge of target and non-target components. Recorded brain activity from several channels is combined with a Bayesian sensor fusion and then events are grouped to improve event detection. The system has an adaptive performance that adapts to user and P300 pattern quality. The classification algorithms were obtained offline from training and then validated offline and online. The system achieved a transfer rate of 7 commands/min with 95% false positive classification accuracy.
Range of the Linear Modulation in Matrix Converters

This paper is focused on the improvement of the control range of matrix converters operating with nonunity input power factor. The analysis leads to the determination in closed form of a modulation strategy that allows increasing the maximum output voltage compared to the traditional strategies under the same operating conditions. The improvement of the control range is made possible by the information provided by the measurement of load currents, which is usually available in electric drives. The feasibility of the new strategy is verified by computer simulations and experimental tests.
Enabling RF/Microwave Devices and Antennas using Negative-Refractive-Index Transmission-Line (NRI-TL) Metamaterials

Negative-Refractive-Index Transmission-Line (NRI-TL) Metamaterials comprise transmission lines loaded periodically with series capacitors and shunt inductors, such that the phase flow and power flow are contra-directional on the lines. These NRI-TL media exhibit properties that can be utilized for miniaturizing microwave devices and antennas. A compact antenna, power divider and branch-line coupler are presented to demonstrate the miniaturization techniques enabled by NRI-TLs. Moreover, a compact NRI-TL coupled-line coupler exhibiting complex modes and arbitrary coupling levels along with high directivity is summarized. Finally, a generalized NRI-TL is described that exhibits two left-handed and two right-handed bands, which can be exploited for realizing dual-band & quad-band RF/Microwave components. Moreover, this generalized NRI-TL can be designed to exhibit two distinct frequencies where the corresponding propagation constant vanishes.
Does market risk predict credit risk? An analysis of firm risk sensitivity, evidence from South Korea*

Abstract We empirically test the relation between stock volatility (market risk) and credit ratings (credit risk) using KRX listed firms. We find a negative relation between stock volatility and credit ratings. The results suggest that as stock price volatility increases, a firm is more likely to experience a credit rating decrease. After dividing our sample into investment and non-investment grade groups, we find the relation between volatility and a credit rating decrease diminishes in the investment grade sample compared to the non-investment grade sample. Overall, we find investment grade firms are more likely to absorb shocks associated with speculative investment/divestment compared to price sensitive non-investment grade firms.