Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Classification of Grammatical Collocation Errors in the Writings of Learners of Spanish

Arbitrary recurrent word combinations (collocations) are a key in language learning. However, even advanced students have difficulties when using them. Efficient collocation aiding tools would be of great help. Still, existing "collocation checkers" still struggle to offer corrections to miscollocations. They attempt to correct without making any distinction between the different types of errors, providing, as a consequence, heterogeneous lists of collocations as suggestions. Besides, they focus solely on lexical errors, leaving aside grammatical ones. The former attract more attention, but the latter cannot be ignored either if the goal is to develop a comprehensive collocation aiding tool, able to correct all kinds of miscollocations. We propose an approach to automatically classify grammatical collocation errors made by US learners of Spanish as a starting point for the design of specific correction strategies targeted for each type of error.
Transposition of a pericardial-derived vascular adipose flap for myocardial salvage after infarct.

AIMS Coronary artery occlusion is associated with the risk of ventricular remodelling, heart failure, and cardiogenic shock. Novel strategies are sought to treat these ominous complications. We examined the effect of a pericardial-derived fat flap secured over an acute infarct caused by coronary occlusion. METHODS AND RESULTS A novel intervention consisting of the pericardial isolation of a vascularized adipose flap and its transposition fully covering acute infarcted myocardium was developed in the swine model of coronary artery ligation (n= 52). Left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction and LV end-diastolic and end-systolic volumes were assessed using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Infarct size and gene expression analysis were performed on Day 6 and 1 month. Histological changes, collagen volume fraction (CVF), and vascular density were also evaluated on postmortem sections. One month after the intervention, a 18.8% increase in LV ejection fraction (P= 0.007), and significant reductions in LV end-systolic (P= 0.009) and LV end-diastolic volumes (P= 0.03) were found in treated animals compared with the control-MI group. At Day 6, histopathology confirmed a significant infarct size reduction (P= 0.018), the presence of vascular connections at the flap-myocardium interface, and less apoptosis in the infarct border zone compared with control animals (P< 0.001). Up-regulation of genes involved in cell cycle progression, cellular growth and proliferation, and angiogenesis were identified within the flap. CONCLUSIONS Our results indicate that a vascular fat flap exerts beneficial effects on LV function and limits myocardial remodelling. Future studies must confirm whether these findings provide an alternative therapeutic approach for myocardial salvage after infarction.
Ocular Drug Delivery: Present Innovations and Future Challenges

Ocular drug delivery has always been a challenge for ophthalmologists and drug-delivery scientists due to the presence of various anatomic and physiologic barriers. Inimitable static and dynamic ocular barriers not only exclude the entry of xenobiotics but also discourage the active absorption of therapeutic agents. Designing an ideal delivery scheme should include enhanced drug bioavailability and controlled release of drug at the site of action, which can overcome various ocular barriers. Conventional ophthalmic medications include the use of topical eye drops and intravitreal injections of anti–vascular endothelial growth factor agent for treatment of anterior and posterior segment disorders, respectively. Current inventions for anterior ocular segment disorders such as punctum plugs, ocular implants, drug-eluting contact lenses, and ocular iontophoresis represent state-of-the-art inventions for sustained and controlled drug release. Parallel efforts for ocular drug delivery technologies for back of the eye disorders have resulted in the approval of various intravitreal implants. Novel drug-delivery technologies, including nanoparticles, nanomicelles, dendrimers, microneedles, liposomes, and nanowafers, are increasingly studied for anterior and posterior disorders. To achieve patient compliance for back of the eye disorders, novel approaches for noninvasive delivery of potent therapeutic agents are on the rise. In this review article, we discuss past successes, present inventions, and future challenges in ocular drug-delivery technologies. This expert opinion also discusses the future challenges for ocular drug-delivery systems and the clinical translatable potential of nanotechnology from benchtop to bedside.
Low-density parity-check codes for 40-gb/s optical transmission systems

In this paper, we compare performance of three classes of forward error correction schemes for 40-Gb/s optical transmission systems. The first class is based on the concatenation of Reed-Solomon codes and this is employed in the state-of-the-art fiber-optics communication systems. The second class is the turbo product codes with Bose-Chaudhuri-Hocquenghen component codes. The application of these codes in optical communication systems was extensively studied by Sab and Lemarie, and Mizuochi The third class is the low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes that have attracted much attention over the past decade. We present enhanced decoding algorithms for Turbo product codes and LDPC codes that use probability density function of output sequences instead of calculating initial likelihood ratios assuming (inaccurate) Gaussian or chi-square approximation. The analysis in this paper shows that the LDPC codes perform better than the other codes in the waterfall region at bit error rates as low as 10-9. We also presented error floors results obtained by analyzing decoding failures of hard-decision iterative decoders
Curcumin increased the expression of c‐FLIP in HTLV‐1‐associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP) patients

Human T‐cell lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV‐1)‐associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP) disease is a chronic neuroinflammatory disease, which is associated with HTLV‐1 infection. There is no effective and satisfactory treatment of HAM/TSP. It has been shown that curcumin exhibits modulatory effects on apoptosis and cytotoxicity‐related molecules in HAM/TSP patients. In the present study, we examined the effect of curcumin on the gene expression of caspase‐8, caspase‐10, and anti‐apoptotic protein c‐FLIP, in HAM/TSP patients. Furthermore, we compared the expression of these molecules between HAM/TSP and asymptomatic carriers. Real‐time PCR was performed to examine the mRNA expression of caspase‐8, caspase‐10, and c‐FLIP in studied groups. The mRNA expression of caspase‐8 and caspase‐10 was similar before and after curcumin treatment in HAM/TSP patients (P > 0.05). The mRNA expression of c‐FLIPL and c‐FLIPs was higher after curcumin treatment compared with before treatment and significant differences were observed between the two groups (P = 0.004 and P = 0.044, respectively). The mRNA expression levels of caspase‐8, caspase‐10, c‐FLIPL, and c‐FLIPs were not statistically significant between HAM/TSP patients and asymptomatic carriers (P < 0.05).
Debug Concurrent Programs with Visualization and Inference of Event Structure

Owing to the inherent non-determinism of concurrent programs, traditional debugging techniques are not sufficient, especially in the scene of postmortem debugging. Exploring defects through static analysis can avoid the high cost of failure reproduction. In this paper, we present a novel debugging method for concurrency bugs. We make use of information in bug reports and slicing techniques, construct an event structure model from Java program to reveal the program behaviors related to the suspicious variables and methods identified from bug reports. Utilize the nature of event structure, we extract a small but sufficient subset from all possible execution traces and visualize them with a graph. This method can effectively help to comprehend concurrent system and assist in locating concurrency bugs. We have implemented a tool called JESVisT (Java event structure visualization Tool) to support this method based on open-source projects Bandera and Indus.
Salient Object Detection Based on the Proto-objects and Background Prior

Image salient object detection is useful for applications like image retrieval, object recognition etc. Aiming to obtain the pixel-level saliency map, most traditional saliency models ignore the object-level information and become in- appropriate in complex scenes. A new salient object detection method is proposed in this paper by incorporating the no- tion of object and background prior directly into the saliency measurement. Firstly the collection of proto-objects is ob- tained by adapting selective search method. Secondly for each proto-object, we measure its saliency score by computing the distance of histogram feature between the proto-object and the prior background region, then the saliency scores are ranked, and the top-ranked proto-object is considered as the salient object. The publicly MSRA dataset is adapted for ex- periment evaluation, compared with several other state-of-the-art methods, the proposed method produces superior per- formance. Experimental results show that the proposed method is effective.
Automatic Text Browsing Using Vector Space

Vast amounts of text are now available in machine-readable form and can be processed electronically. The vector space model of text processing has been widely used and has consistently produced superior retrieval results for the last thirty years. Traditionally , information retrieval research has concentrated on improving on-demand retrieval of useful textual information. Often a user has no particular information need; instead, he is just interested in browsing the available information. Most hypertext systems depend on manually created browsing structures to support text browsing. Manual text linking does not scale up to the amount of electronic information accessible in today's networked computing environment. The vector space model can be used to automatically impose a exible structure on arbitrary texts. Tools can then be provided for eeective browsing of this structured text.
Synthesis of Fluorescent Carbon Dots as Selective and Sensitive Probes for Cupric Ions and Cell Imaging

A novel sensing system has been designed for the detection of cupric ions. It is based on the quenched fluorescence signal of carbon dots (CDs), which were carbonized from poly(vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP) and L-Cysteine (CYS). Cupric ions interact with the nitrogen and sulfur atoms on surface of the CDs to form an absorbed complex; this results in strong quenching of the fluorescence of the CDs via a fast metal-to-ligand binding affinity. The synthesized water-soluble CDs also exhibited a quantum yield of 7.6%, with favorable photoluminescent properties and good photostability. The fluorescence intensity of the CDs was very stable in high ionic strength (up to 1.0 M NaCl) and over a wide range of pH levels (2.0–12.0). This facile method can therefore develop a sensor that offers reliable, fast, and selective detection of cupric ions with a detection limit down to 0.15 μM and a linear range from 0.5 to 7.0 μM (R2 = 0.980). The CDs were used for cell imaging, observed that they were low toxicity to Tramp C1 cells and exhibited blue and green and red fluorescence under a fluorescence microscope. In summary, the CDs exhibited excellent fluorescence properties, and could be applied to the selective and sensitive detection of cupric ion and multicolor cell imaging.
A blind super-resolution framework considering the sensor PSF

Blind super-resolution, which incorporates blur identification into super-resolution, has been proposed to restore the degraded image with either partially known or totally unknown blur. In the conventional framework for blind super-resolution, the sensor PSF caused by camera lens/CCD has always been ignored. Therefore, the identified blur and restored HR image are affected by the sensor PSF, especially when the support of identified blur is relatively small. In this paper, we propose a blind super-resolution framework considering the sensor PSF to solve this problem. In the proposed framework, the sensor PSF and the identified external blur are considered separately, and then Error-Parameter-Analysis algorithm is applied to implement the blind super-resolution. Experiments show that the proposed framework can enhance the accuracy of the blur identification and the quality of the restored HR image.
Role of c-MET Inhibitors in Overcoming Drug Resistance in Spheroid Models of Primary Human Pancreatic Cancer and Stellate Cells

Pancreatic stellate cells (PSCs) are a key component of tumor microenvironment in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) and contribute to drug resistance. c-MET receptor tyrosine kinase activation plays an important role in tumorigenesis in different cancers including PDAC. In this study, effects of PSC conditioned medium (PCM) on c-MET phosphorylation (by immunocytochemistry enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)) and drug response (by sulforhodamine B assay) were investigated in five primary PDAC cells. In novel 3D-spheroid co-cultures of cyan fluorescence protein (CFP)-firefly luciferase (Fluc)-expressing primary human PDAC cells and green fluorescence protein (GFP)-expressing immortalized PSCs, PDAC cell growth and chemosensitivity were examined by luciferase assay, while spheroids’ architecture was evaluated by confocal microscopy. The highest phospho-c-MET expression was detected in PDAC5 and its subclone sorted for “stage specific embryonic antigen-4” (PDAC5 (SSEA4)). PCM of cells pre-incubated with PDAC conditioned medium, containing increased hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) levels, made PDAC cells significantly more resistant to gemcitabine, but not to c-MET inhibitors. Hetero-spheroids containing both PSCs and PDAC5 (SSEA4) cells were more resistant to gemcitabine compared to PDAC5 (SSEA4) homo-spheroids. However, c-MET inhibitors (tivantinib, PHA-665752 and crizotinib) were equally effective in both spheroid models. Experiments with primary human PSCs confirmed the main findings. In conclusion, we developed spheroid models to evaluate PSC–PDAC reciprocal interaction, unraveling c-MET inhibition as an important therapeutic option against drug resistant PDAC.
Evaluation of Finger Force Control Ability in Terms of Multi-Finger Synergy

In this study, finger force control abilities are quantified by the concept of multi-finger synergy in conjunction with uncontrolled manifold (UCM) analysis. Two indices, namely, repeatability and flexibility, representing features of multi-finger synergy were proposed to overcome the limitation of previously introduced indices, such as floor effects and distortion problems. The proposed indices were applied to stroke patients and healthy adults through specifically designed experiments. The experimental results showed a clear difference between stroke patients and healthy adults. Also, interestingly, there was a difference in an outcome between two-stroke patient subgroups: stroke patients in whom the dominant hand was affected and non-dominant hand was affected groups.
Association between Healthy Dietary Patterns and Self-Reported Sleep Disturbances in Older Men: The ULSAM Study

To date, little is known about how dietary patterns may link to measures of sleep quality in older subjects, who often suffer from sleep problems. Here, we investigated, in an older male population from Sweden (n = 970; aged 71 ± 1 year), whether adherence to the Healthy Diet Indicator (HDI; based on recommendations from the World Health Organization) or the Mediterranean Diet (MD) is linked to sleep disturbances. The diet scores were calculated using a seven-day food diary, and self-reported sleep initiation or maintenance problems were assessed by questionnaires. When adjusted for potential confounders, no associations between dietary scores and sleep parameters were found. In contrast, low consumption of milk and dairy products —one of the dietary features of the MD —was associated with better subjective sleep initiation. This association was, however, not found in men with adequate reports of daily energy intake (~54% of the cohort). To summarize, our findings do not suggest that older men can mitigate perceived difficulties to fall and stay asleep by adhering to either the HDI or MD. Whether low consumption of milk and dairy products can facilitate sleep initiation must be confirmed in future studies by utilizing objective measures of sleep such as polysomnography. Finally, when investigating associations between dietary patterns and sleep, particular attention should be paid to the potential confounder of inadequate reporting of energy intake.
Session-specific effects of the Metacognitive Training for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (MCT-OCD)

Abstract Objective: Most studies focus on overall treatment effects by assessing symptom severity before and after treatment, but few investigate session-specific effects of an intervention. The aim of the present study was to elucidate session-specific effects of a group therapy for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) that targets cognitive biases known as the Metacognitive Training for OCD (MCT-OCD). Method: In an uncontrolled pilot trial, 44 inpatients with OCD participated in the MCT-OCD once a week over four weeks. Before and after each session, patients answered questionnaires on thought monitoring, control of thoughts, obsessions, compulsions, and mood. Results: Primary analyses using linear mixed-effect models showed that the module on control of thoughts (within-session effect) significantly reduced patients’ control of thoughts. Exploratory analyses displayed an improvement in thought monitoring, control of thoughts, obsessions, and compulsions over the treatment period. Control of thoughts decreaed after the module on biased attention/biased cognitive networks and compulsions reduced one week after the module on overestimation of threat/responsibility (between-session effect). More compulsions were reported one week after the module on thought-action fusion/control of thoughts. Conclusions: Certain MCT-OCD modules seemed to improve specific cognitive biases that might in turn act as mechanisms of change. The results are being used to revise the MCT-OCD.
Population Dynamics of Vibrio fischeri during Infection of Euprymna scolopes

ABSTRACT The luminous bacterium Vibrio fischeri colonizes a specialized light-emitting organ within its squid host, Euprymna scolopes. Newly hatched juvenile squid must acquire their symbiont from ambient seawater, where the bacteria are present at low concentrations. To understand the population dynamics of V. fischeri during colonization more fully, we used mini-Tn7 transposons to mark bacteria with antibiotic resistance so that the growth of their progeny could be monitored. When grown in culture, there was no detectable metabolic burden on V. fischeri cells carrying the transposon, which inserts in single copy in a specific intergenic region of the V. fischeri genome. Strains marked with mini-Tn7 also appeared to be equivalent to the wild type in their ability to infect and multiply within the host during coinoculation experiments. Studies of the early stages of colonization suggested that only a few bacteria became associated with symbiotic tissue when animals were exposed for a discrete period (3 h) to an inoculum of V. fischeri cells equivalent to natural population levels; nevertheless, all these hosts became infected. When three differentially marked strains of V. fischeri were coincubated with juvenile squid, the number of strains recovered from an individual symbiotic organ was directly dependent on the size of the inoculum. Further, these results indicated that, when exposed to low numbers of V. fischeri, the host may become colonized by only one or a few bacterial cells, suggesting that symbiotic infection is highly efficient.
Racial Disparities in Mortality Associated with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus — Fulton and DeKalb Counties, Georgia, 2002–2016

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic, systemic autoimmune disease with often nonspecific symptoms that can lead to a delay in diagnosis. The disease disproportionately affects women and minorities. Blacks with SLE also have more severe disease and develop it at an earlier age (1). Despite an increase in the 5-year survival rate from 50% in 1955 to approximately 90% in the 2000s, attributed largely to advances in management of SLE (2), premature mortality among SLE patients persists, often as a result of disease severity, infections, and cardiovascular disease. Because existing SLE mortality estimates based on death certificate data are known to underestimate SLE deaths (3), SLE mortality was analyzed using 2002-2004 data from the population-based Georgia Lupus Registry (1). Incident and prevalent SLE cases matched to the National Death Index through 2016 identified 97 and 401 deaths, respectively. Standardized mortality ratios adjusted for age group, sex, and race were two to three times higher among persons with SLE relative to expected deaths in the general population. Blacks had significantly higher cumulative mortality than did whites, and blacks with both incident and prevalent cases were significantly younger at death (mean age 51.8 and 52.3 years, respectively) than were whites (mean age 64.4 and 65.0 years, respectively). Whites had lower mortality after diagnosis than did blacks; among incident cases, mortality among whites did not occur until 5 years after SLE diagnosis, whereas blacks had significantly and persistently higher mortality from the time of diagnosis. There were no significant differences by sex. Current CDC-supported efforts encourage early detection, diagnosis, and treatment, and enhanced self-management skills to mitigate racial disparities and improve outcomes overall among persons with SLE.