Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cochlear Implantation in Patients With Chronic Suppurative Otitis Media

Objective To determine the safety, efficacy, and outcomes of cochlear implantation in patients with chronic suppurative otitis media (CSOM). Study Design Retrospective case review. Setting Tertiary referral center with large cochlear implant program. Patients Nineteen patients with CSOM who underwent cochlear implantation were identified. Case history, timing of surgical procedures, complications, infections, and postimplant audiometric scores (Hearing in Noise Test [HINT], City University of New York Sentences [CUNY], and Central Institute for the Deaf Sentences [CID]) were evaluated. Main Outcome Measures Rates of postoperative infections and complications as well as postimplant auditory performance. Results Twelve patients underwent a staged procedure involving canal wall down mastoidectomy or radical revision mastoidectomy with middle ear and mastoid obliteration and closure of the external auditory canal followed by cochlear implantation approximately 5 months later. Seven patients were implanted in a single procedure. There were no infections or medical complications after implantation. On average, patients had excellent audiometric scores at 1 year postimplantation (mean sentence test, 79%; SD, 14), and these scores were comparable to our general population (mean sentence test, 71%; SD, 32). Conclusion Cochlear implant patients with CSOM have no increased risk of postoperative infections or complications. These patients have excellent outcomes with audiometric scores comparable to the general cochlear implant population. Cochlear implantation is a safe and effective treatment for patients with profound hearing loss secondary to CSOM.
On the deployment problem of embedded systems

The quality of today's embedded systems e. g. in vehicles, airplanes, or automation plants is highly influenced by their architecture. In this context, we study the so-called deployment problem. The question is where (i. e., on which execution unit) to deploy which software application or which sensor/actuator shall be connected to which device in an automation plant. First, we introduce a domain-specific constraint and optimization language fitting the needs of our partners. Second, we investigate different approaches to tackle the deployment problem even for industrial size systems. Therefore, we present different solving strategies using (i) multi-objective evolutionary algorithms, (ii) SMT-based, and (iii) ILP-based solving approaches. Furthermore, a combination of the first two is used. We investigate the proposed methods and demonstrate their feasibility using two realistic systems: a civil flight control system (FCS), and a seawater desalination plant.
Distinct Ca 2+ requirement for NO production between proteinase-activated receptor 1 and 4 (PAR 1 and PAR 4 ) in vascular endothelial cells *

Proteinase-activated receptor 1 and 4 (PAR 1 and PAR 4 ) are the major receptors mediating thrombin-induced NO production in endothelial cells. The intracellular signaling following their activation still remains to be elucidated. The present study provides the first evidence for the distinct Ca 2+ requirement for the NO production between PAR 1 and PAR 4 . The activation of PAR 1 by the activating peptide (PAR 1 -AP) elevated [Ca 2+ ] i and activated NO production in porcine aortic and human umbilical vein endothelial cells, while it had little effect on bovine aortic endothelial cells. PAR 4 activation by PAR 4 -AP consistently induced NO production without an appreciable [Ca 2+ ] i elevation in three types of endothelial cells. The PAR 1 -mediated NO production was significantly inhibited by BAPTA, while the PAR 4 -mediated NO production was resistant. NO production following the PAR 1 and PAR 4 activation was significantly inhibited by pertussis toxin, but it was resistant to a G α q/11 inhibitor, YM254890. However, YM254890 abrogated the PAR 1 -mediated Ca 2+ signal. PAR 4 -mediated NO production was substantially inhibited by the inhibitors of phosphotidylinositol-3 kinase and Akt, and also by the dominant negative mutant of Akt. The PAR 1 -meidated NO production was relatively resistant to inhibitors of phosphotidylinositol-3 kinase. An immunoblot analysis revealed a transient increase in the phosphorylation of Akt and eNOS following the PAR 4 stimulation. In conclusion, PAR 1 and PAR 4 engage distinct signal transduction mechanisms to activate NO production in vascular endothelial cells. PAR 4 preferably activates G α i/o and induced NO production in a manner mostly independent of Ca 2+ but dependent on the phosphotidylinositol-3 kinase-Akt pathway, while PAR 1 activates both the Ca 2+ -dependent and independent mechanisms.
The population shuffle in the central Illinois valley: A diachronic model of Mississippian biocultural interactions

Abstract A new population genetics method is applied to discriminate between processes of extraregional gene flow and intraregional biological continuity within and among three temporally sequential prehistoric Native American cultures in the central Illinois valley. Within a population genetics framework, the impact of regional and interregional cultural changes on local population structure can be quantified and the magnitude of biocultural interaction can be inferred. The results suggest that population structure within the region was relatively unaffected by the cultural transition from Late Woodland to Mississippian or by significant interregional sociopolitical changes in neighboring regions later in the Mississippian period. Finally, a Bold Counselor Phase Oneota population was morphologically distinct from Mississippians, supporting the archaeological model that this Oneota group was an intrusive, frontier population from the upper Mississippi valley. A population genetic approach is highly recomm.
Modern Tools of Species Identification Can Save Millions of Animals Killed in Identification and Animal Taxonomy

A large number of animals are used in teaching and research all over the world. This has created serious problems for the existence of many species. Laboratory dissection or vivisection has been a common practice in Zoology since the 1920’s as a way of demonstrating the internal organization of an animal. In physiological and biochemical tests as well, the complete animal often is used to study a few parameters. Such practices in Zoology laboratories have resulted in severe loss of biodiversity because greedy animal-catchers often totally sweep large numbers of animals from their natural habitats. Generally, most animals used in the practical exercises are wild-caught species such as Pila globosa, Hirudinaria sp. , Echinus sp. , Scoliodon laticaudus, Hoplobatrachus tigerinus, H. crassus, etc. Some species are even listed under Schedule I (Scoliodon laticaudus) and Schedule IV (Hoplobatrachus tigerinus) of the Wildlife (Protection) Act of 1972 in India. Over-exploitation of these and other species in vivisection and dissection, combined with other reasons, has resulted in almost complete removal of several species from nature. The best example of such a loss is Sara hardwickii (Uromastix hardwickii), which we report from Rajasthan. This lizard used to be a common animal for the dissection tray in many institutions until it was realized in the 1980’s that it had disappeared almost completely from most parts of India. After animal dissection, the next most important aspect in Zoology in which large numbers of animals are collected by the animal suppliers is to make museum specimens for the study of classification, taxonomy, and phylogeny (biosystematics) (Anderson, 1965; Knudsen, 1966; Longair et al., 1991; Miller and Nagorsen, 1992). This process generally involves exhibiting formalin-fixed or resin-embedded animals (Henry et al., 1997). A large number of animals are collected from nature regularly to make museum specimens, irrespective of their IUCN status. A large number of Zoology museums are maintained in institutions with millions of animals in formalin-filled glass jars. In conventional biosystematics studies, for identification of a species, hundreds of individuals are killed and preserved. Although many digital alternatives have been developed for the replacement of animals in vivisection, dissections, physiological and biochemical exercises, little effort has been made to search for alternatives in biosystematics (Sharma, 2009; Sharma et al., 2011a). We have found that high resolution photographs of an animal with close-ups of some key features, combined with a biometric database, and their digitization and bioacoustics and molecular characteristics can convincingly replace animal killing in biosystematics studies (Sharma et al., 2011b). Modern Tools of Species Identification Can Save Millions of Animals Killed in Identification and Animal Taxonomy
The sensitivity of stratified flow stability to base flow modifications

The sensitivity of stratified flow stability to base flow modifications Kevin K. Chen 1 and Geoffrey R. Spedding University of Southern California, Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering chen464@usc.edu Abstract We present a novel theory that determines the sensitivity of linear stability to changes in the density or velocity of a base flow. The sensitivity is based on global direct and adjoint eigenmodes of the linearized Boussinesq equation, and is inspired by constant- density sensitivity analysis. The theory can be applied broadly to incompressible flows with small density variations, but it specifically provides new insight into the stability of density-stratified flows. Examples are given for the flows around a transverse thin plate at a Reynolds number of 30, a Prandtl number of 7.19, and Froude numbers of ∞ and 1. In the unstratified flow, the sensitivity is largest in the recirculation bubble; the stratified flow, however, exhibits high sensitivity in regions immediately upstream and downstream of the bluff body. Introduction In recent years, the study of global flow stability has seen a drastic shift with the introduc- tion of sensitivity analyses. The advent of sensitivity provided computationally efficient a priori techniques to determine—both qualitatively and quantitatively—how particular factors would change the flow stability. These stability effects are furthermore innately related to passive and active flow control, which has great importance in the engineering of fluid systems. Marquet et al. (2008) developed a particular sensitivity theory that explores how changes in the base flow velocity field would affect the stability of a constant-density flow. The sensitivity was then computed for a 2-D flow around a cylinder at the critical Reynolds number of Re = 46.8, corresponding to the onset of von Karman vortex shedding. The computations revealed that the recirculation region downstream of the cylinder exhibited the greatest sensitivity. In this manuscript, we extend Marquet et al.’s sensitivity to the Boussinesq equation. The theory we develop can be applied generically to flows with small density variations. Nevertheless, a special subclass of results can be obtained specifically for flows with back- ground density stratifications. The focus on stratified flow examples is further motivated by previous studies in stratified vortex stability, including ones focusing on vortex rings (Johari and Fang, 1997), vortex pairs (Ortiz et al., 2015), pancake vortices (Billant and Chomaz, 2000), and even entire turbulent wakes (Gourlay et al., 2001). This manuscript is structured as follows. Section 2 derives the sensitivities to base flow density and velocity modifications. Section 3 then briefly summarizes the numerical meth- Present address: Institute for Defense Analyses, Center for Communications Research-La Jolla, San Diego, CA. VIII th Int. Symp. on Stratified Flows, San Diego, USA, Aug. 29 - Sept. 1, 2016
A Comparison of Reinforcement Learning Models for the Iowa Gambling Task Using Parameter Space Partitioning

The Iowa gambling task (IGT) is one of the most popular tasks used to study decisionmaking deficits in clinical populations. In order to decompose performance on the IGT in its constituent psychological processes, several cognitive models have been proposed (e.g., the Expectancy Valence (EV) and Prospect Valence Learning (PVL) models). Here we present a comparison of three models—the EV and PVL models, and a combination of these models (EV-PU)—based on the method of parameter space partitioning. This method allows us to assess the choice patterns predicted by the models across their entire parameter space. Our results show that the EV model is unable to account for a frequency-of-losses effect, whereas the PVL and EV-PU models are unable to account for a pronounced preference for the bad decks with many switches. All three models underrepresent pronounced choice patterns that are frequently seen in experiments. Overall, our results suggest that the search of an appropriate IGT model has not yet come to an end.
Intraoperative Neuromonitoring of the Recurrent Laryngeal Nerve in Robotic Thyroid Surgery

This study evaluated the technical feasibility and efficacy of intraoperative neuromonitoring (IONM) of the recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN) to aid its identification and preservation during robotic thyroidectomy (RoT). IONM of the RLN was evaluated in 30 consecutive patients undergoing RoT. All patients underwent an indirect laryngoscope examination to objectively assess vocal cord function. Their Voice Handicap Index-10 (VHI-10) was measured to subjectively assess vocal cord function preoperatively and at postoperative months 1 and 3. Of the 56 RLNs at risk in 30 patients undergoing RoT, all were visualized and identified by IONM. The IONM sensitivity for postoperative permanent RLN palsy was 100%, with a positive predictive value of 100%. The mean VHI-10 scores preoperatively and at postoperative months 1 and 3 were 0.20±0.66, 3.47±5.04, and 1.53±2.47, respectively (P<0.001). IONM of the RLN during RoT is technically feasible and effective for identifying this nerve.
Hierarchical Portfolio Search in Prismata

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Effects of Cumulative Prenatal Substance Exposure and Environmental Risks on Children's Developmental Trajectories

Examined the effects of cumulative prenatal substance exposure and cumulative environmental risk on the developmental trajectories of 278 infants, toddlers, and preschool children. Results indicated that both cumulative risk indexes were significantly correlated. Results also indicated that both indexes were related to decrements in developmental trajectories (intercept and slope) from 3 to 57 months of age. Both prenatal exposure and environmental risk added unique variance to the prediction of developmental level and rate of growth when entered after covariates (i.e., birth weight and sex). However, across a number of models with and without covariates, environmental risk accounted for more variance in developmental trajectories than did prenatal exposure. Implications are discussed.
Temporal patterns of gene expression via nonmetric multidimensional scaling analysis

Motivation : Microarray experiments result in large scale data sets that require extensive mining and reﬁn-ing to extract useful information. We have been developing an eﬃcient novel algorithm for nonmetric multidimensional scaling (nMDS) analysis for very large data sets as a maximally unsupervised data mining device. We wish to demonstrate its usefulness in the context of bioinformatics. In our motivation is also an aim to demonstrate that intrinsically nonlinear methods are generally advantageous in data mining. Results : The Pearson correlation distance measure is used to indicate the dissimilarity of the gene activities in transcriptional response of cell cycle-synchronized human ﬁbroblasts to serum [Iyer et al . , Science 283 , 83 (1999)]. These dissimilarity data have been analyzed with our nMDS algorithm to produce an almost circular arrangement of the genes. The temporal expression patterns of the genes rotate along this circular arrangement. If an appropriate preparation procedure may be applied to the original data set, linear methods such as the principal component analysis (PCA) could achieve reasonable results, but without data preprocessing linear methods such as PCA cannot achieve a useful pic-ture. Furthermore, even with an appropriate data preprocessing, the outcomes of linear procedures are not as clearcut as those by nMDS without preprocessing. Availability: The fortran source code of the method used in this analysis (‘pure nMDS’) is available at http://www.granular. com/MDS/
On the spectrum of fractional Brownian motions

Fractional Brownian motions (FBMs) provide useful models for a number of physical phenomena whose empirical spectra obey power laws of fractional order. However, due to the nonstationary nature of these processes, the precise meaning of such spectra remains generally unclear. Two complementary approaches are proposed which are intended to clarify this point. The first one, based on a time-frequency analysis, takes into account the nonstationary nature of FBM and puts emphasis on time-averaged measurements; the second one, based on a time-scale analysis, is matched to self-similarity properties of FBM and reveals an underlying stationary structure relative to each time-scaling. >
Introduction of DNA into rat liver with a hand-held gene gun: distribution of the expressed enzyme, [32P]DNA, and Ca2+ flux.

DNA-coated Au particles were accelerated by pressurized He gas to supersonic velocities for introduction of a gene into cells. Experimental and theoretical analyses both revealed a heterogeneous distribution of the particles per shot (1 mg Au = 2.4 x 10(7) particles with 2 microg [32P] DNA = 2.5 x 10(11) moles). For introduction of genes into the liver of living rats, the best results were obtained with a newly developed hand-held gene delivery system. The beta-galactosidase gene introduced into rat liver with Au particles by He at 250 psi was expressed (1.2 microunits/microg protein) in a limited area of the liver surface (8 x 8 mm, depth 0.5 mm). When the same gene gun was used on a monolayer of cultured COS7 cells (about 5 microm thick), cells were lost in the central area of heavy bombardment. Cell death caused by influx of Ca2+ was prevented by the use of the cytosol-type culture medium.
A search for canine carriers of Vibrio.

A search for a canine reservoir of Vibrio cholerae was made in Calcutta, India. Over 500 dogs were examined bacteriologically; of these approximately one-third were also studied serologically. No evidence for a V. cholerae reservoir was found, although 14% of dogs harbored non-cholera vibrios in their intestines. Identical serotypes of these organisms were isolated from dogs, crows, and humans in the same geographical area. These results indicate that nonhuman reservoirs exist for non-cholera vibrios, in contrast to V. cholerae, and that these reservoirs may serve as sources of infections in humans.
Early and extensive erosiveness in peripheral joints predicts atlantoaxial subluxations in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

OBJECTIVE To study the prevalence of cervical spine subluxations and predictive factors for atlantoaxial subluxations (including anterior atlantoaxial subluxation and atlantoaxial impaction, i.e., vertical subluxation) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who were treated early and continuously with disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs for 8-13 years. METHODS Radiographs of the cervical spine were obtained in 103 of 110 patients (the 110 surviving patients of the original 135-patient cohort) at their 8-13-year followup visits. The prevalence of cervical spine subluxations was determined. Demographic variables and the first 5-year serial data concerning disease course were analyzed in a logistic regression model to find predictive factors for atlantoaxial subluxations. RESULTS Atlantoaxial subluxations were found in 14 patients (14%), and 5 patients (5%) had subaxial subluxations. Older age at baseline, greater disease activity during the first 5 years, and early erosiveness in peripheral joints predicted the development of atlantoaxial subluxations. Patients who had >or=10% of the maximum possible radiographic damage (by Larsen score) in peripheral joints at 5 years were 15.9 times more likely to develop atlantoaxial subluxations at 8-13 years than patients whose peripheral joint damage remained <10% of the maximum. CONCLUSION Compared with historical control RA cohorts, a lower prevalence of cervical spine destruction was found in the present group of patients. Rapid erosiveness in peripheral joints was the best predictor for atlantoaxial subluxations. Extensive erosiveness in peripheral joints should alert rheumatologists to the possible development of atlantoaxial subluxations in patients with RA.
CHAPTER 8 – Assessing Individual Learner Performance in MOOCs

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) have emerged as a prominent mode of online education, but the quality of assessments in MOOCs remains inconsistent. There has been a consistent gap between the state of the art in assessment and the state of the practice in both MOOCs and other forms of educational technology. Improving the quality of assessment has the potential to improve their usefulness for certification, formative feedback, and learning. In this chapter, we discuss this gap and efforts to improve assessment in MOOCs. There are several potential directions for improving assessments in MOOCs, including improving the psychometric properties of simple assessment types, such as multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blank questions; creating richer assessment experience through more student interaction and more engaging experiences (e.g., games, and simulations), through leveraging help resources to see how students perform with some degree of support; and using more powerful technology such as automated essay scoring to better assess students. We discuss both existing efforts and ways that research in other communities can be incorporated into MOOC platforms.
Vessel segmentation in 2-D optical coherence tomography images

This paper described a novel region segmentation method to avoid difficulties of the threshold process used in traditional segmentation methods in 2-D optical coherence tomography (OCT) images. The speckle effect and diffusion problems make traditional image processing methods such as Canny edge and Otsu methods fail on finding layers and region edges in OCT images. The overcomplete-wavelet-frame-based fractal signature method based on high-pass information and a fuzzy-c-mean algorithm is considered to avoid the threshold processing, but the high-pass information is distorted because of noises and diffusions. To improve the high-pass information distortion problem, the proposed method uses the mean value and an enhanced-fuzzy-c-mean algorithm to cluster pixels in 2-D OCT images and find the edge between different clustered regions. The vessel OCT images are tested in the experiment, and the experimental results show that the proposed method performs with more accurate segmentation results than the overcomplete-wavelet-frame-based fractal signature method.