Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of cardiac resynchronization therapy and implantable cardioverter defibrillator on quality of life in patients with heart failure: a meta-analysis.

AIMS To compare the improvement of quality of life (QoL) in cardiac resynchronization therapy plus implantable cardioverter defibrillator (CRT-D) therapy with that in implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) therapy alone for patients with heart failure. METHODS AND RESULTS Medline, Embase, The Cochrane Library, and US Food and Drug Administration website were searched for published studies up to 31 December 2011. Studies were considered for inclusion if they were randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that compared the efficacy of CRT-D therapy with ICD therapy in patients with heart failure. The primary outcome of this study was improvement in QoL. Four RCTs with 1655 patients were included in this meta-analysis. Overall, the QoL score of patients in CRT-D group significantly improved [weighted mean difference (WMD): -6.02; 95% confidence interval (CI): -10.56 to -1.48] compared with that in the ICD only group. However, the benefit with respect to QoL in CRT-D group was not maintained when subset meta-analysis was performed in patients with New York Heart Association (NYHA) class I-II (WMD: 0.19; 95% CI: -3.89 to 4.72), whereas the patients with NYHA class III-IV in CRT-D group still experienced a significant improvement of QoL score compared with ICD group (WMD: -8.49; 95% CI: -13.39 to -3.59). CONCLUSIONS CRT-D therapy improves the QoL compared with ICD therapy alone, especially in patients with moderate to severe heart failure.
The future of thiopurine pharmacogenomics.

Since their invention [1], thiopurines (azathioprine, 6-mercaptopurine [6MP], and 6-thioguanine [6TG]) have significantly advanced the treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia, organ transplantation, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and various autoimmune diseases. These drugs are often regarded as the best model for a pharmaco genomic approach to drug dosing, which has led to a plethora of candidate genes being examined for their pharmacogenomic potential in modifying the prescription of thiopurines. These genes affect thiopurine response by acting on the metabolism, transport and receptor/effector functions of the drugs, and are likely to remain the focus of investigations in the foreseeable future.
Light-chain Deposition Disease of the Kidney: A Case Report

A 41-year-old man was admitted for evaluation of nephrotic syndrome associated with microhematuria, hypertension, and moderate renal failure. In serum and urine samples, monoclonal IgG-lambda was detected. Bone marrow examination showed normal representation of all cell lines with normal range of plasma cells. Renal biopsy demonstrated diabetes-like nodular glomerulosclerosis. Immunofluorescence failed to demonstrate the presence of kappa or lambda light chains in the kidney. Electron microcopy showed granular electron-dense deposits along the glomerular basement membranes and in the mesangial nodules. The patient was diagnosed as having light-chain deposition disease (LCDD) without evidence of plasma cell dyscrasia. This report was designed to stress the significant challenges that remain in the diagnosis of LCDD-related glomerulopathy. The salient morphological features that help in making an accurate diagnosis are discussed.
Cost Minimization Analysis of Radiofrequency Compared to Laser Thermal Ablation in Patients with Hepatocellular Carcinoma

BACKGROUND: Over the last decade of years, minimally invasive techniques have been developed for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma and liver metastases. We sought to investigate the health costs associated with the management of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma treated with radiofrequency vs laser thermal ablation and their clinical outcomes.METHODS: We performed a retrospective analysis of the ablations performed in two referral centers in southern Italy, from 2009 to 2013. Resource use was valued by year 2017 official prices, in €. Direct healthcare costs (drugs, visits, tests and hospitalizations) of different ablation techniques were compared. Total costs were analyzed from Italian NHS perspective.RESULTS: A total of 140 patients were identified. Baseline demographics and clinical outcomes of interest did not differ between the two groups. Patients treated with laser thermal ablation resulted in an expected annually cost savings of 258.9 € per patient, in one-year follow-up healthcare costs compared with radiofrequency. The largest components of annual medical expenditures were attributable to drugs, regardless of the type of ablative technique.CONCLUSIONS: The ablation using either laser thermal ablation or radiofrequency is equally effective. Laser thermal ablation would carry disposable cost savings as compared to radiofrequency. The costs associated with management of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, treated with laser thermal ablation were lower than those treated with radiofrequency ablation.
Optimizing the Downlink of MIMO Networks via Fractional Programming

Optimizing the Downlink of MIMO Networks via Fractional Programming Ahmad Ali Khan Master of Applied Science Graduate Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering University of Toronto 2017 The optimization of the downlink of multiple input multiple output (MIMO) networks is well-known to be a challenging problem due to its inherent nonconvexity and NP-hardness. In this thesis, we present a new algorithm, based on fractional programming, that allows us to find a network-wide coordinated solution for scheduling, beamforming and power allocation across multiple time-frequency resource blocks. A proof for the monotonically nondecreasing convergence of the algorithm to a locally optimal solution is derived. Through extensive simulations, we show that the proposed algorithm can provide significant gains to the network sum utility function over both coordinated and uncoordinated techniques, while simultaneously providing savings in computational complexity and running time compared to techniques like global WMMSE. Next, we compare the performance of various frequency reuse schemes while employing the proposed algorithm for resource allocation. We show that employing a universal reuse strategy provides better performance than the fractional reuse strategies. Finally, we apply the proposed framework to resource allocation and user association problems for heterogeneous networks. We introduce a novel technique to implement short-term user association and show that it provides enhanced performance compared to long-term association strategies utilized in the literature.
Merlin: Application- and Platform-aware Resource Allocation in Consolidated Server Systems

Workload consolidation, whether via use of virtualization or with lightweight, container-based methods, is critically important for current and future datacenter and cloud computing systems. Yet such consolidation challenges the ability of current systems to meet application resource needs and isolate their resource shares, particularly for high core count or 'scaleup' servers. This paper presents the 'Merlin' approach to managing the resources of multicore platforms, which satisfies an application's resource requirements efficiently -- using low cost allocations -- and improves isolation -- measured as increased predictability of application execution. Merlin (i) creates a virtual platform (VP) as a system-level resource commitment to an application's resource shares, (ii) enforces its isolation, and (iii) operates with low runtime overhead. Further, Merlin's resource (re)-allocation and isolation methods operate by constructing online models that capture the resource 'sensitivities' of the currently running applications along all of their resource dimensions. Elevating isolation into a first-class management principle, these sensitivity- and cost-based allocation and sharing methods lead to efficient methods for shared resource use on scaleup server systems. Experimental evaluations on a large core-count machine demonstrate improved performance with reduced performance variation and increased system throughput and efficiency, for a wide range of popular datacenter workloads, compared with the methods used in prior work and with the state-of-art Xen hypervisor.
Targeting epigenetic regulatory mechanisms in cancer chemoprevention

Dysregulation of the epigenome plays a fundamental role in tumour development. Epigenetic events are a major mechanism for inactivating tumour suppressor and DNA repair genes and occur ubiquitously during the early stages of tumour development. Unlike genes inactivated by mutation, genes silenced epigenetically are intact and potentially responsive to reactivation by small molecules. This review discusses the potential for restoring epige-netic balance as a means to prevent cancer.
General Regression Neural Network utilized for color transformation between images on RGB color space

The color transformation of images is utilized to enhance some potential features of a color image for wide applications in different fields. This paper presents a General regression analysis based algorithm for global color transformation between images. In this paper, General Regression Neural Network (GRNN) is respectively conducted on the R, G, and B planes of the target and source images to find the corresponding best fitting functions of each plane. The new values of each pixel of target image are then evaluated by using the best fitting functions. These new values are then combined into the result RGB color image. The experimental results show that the presented approach has two major advantages: (A) the proposed algorithm is manual free, simple, effective and accurate in transferring color between images without any change in the image details, (B) there are no restrictions in the image dynamic color ranges in the proposed algorithm.
A high-efficiency 5G K/Ka-band stacked power amplifier in 45nm CMOS SOI process supporting 9Gb/s 64-QAM modulation with 22.4% average PAE

This paper presents a 3-FET stacked K/Ka-band class-AB power amplifier (PA) implemented in the GLOBALFOUNDRIES 45nm SOI process that is particularly optimized for future high-performance energy-efficient 5G mm-Wave transceiver front-ends. With a 2.9V power supply, the PA achieves 13.1dB power gain and a saturated output power (Psat) of 16.2dBm with a maximum power-added efficiency (PAE) of 41.5% at 24GHz continuous-wave (CW). The output 1dB compression point (P1dB) is 14.2dBm with 37.4% PAE. The Psat 1dB frequency range is 18GHz–29GHz. With a 9Gb/s 64-QAM modulated signal, 22.4% average PAE and −25.1dB EVM are achieved with 9.9dBm average output power. With a 960Mb/s 64-QAM signal, 22.5% average PAE, −29.6dB EVM, and −30.5dBc ACLR are achieved with 9.5dBm average output power. No digital pre-distortion is employed in both modulation tests. The total PA area is only 550μm × 750μm.
Microbial Translocation Is Associated with Increased Monocyte Activation and Dementia in AIDS Patients

Elevated plasma lipopolysaccharide (LPS), an indicator of microbial translocation from the gut, is a likely cause of systemic immune activation in chronic HIV infection. LPS induces monocyte activation and trafficking into brain, which are key mechanisms in the pathogenesis of HIV-associated dementia (HAD). To determine whether high LPS levels are associated with increased monocyte activation and HAD, we obtained peripheral blood samples from AIDS patients and examined plasma LPS by Limulus amebocyte lysate (LAL) assay, peripheral blood monocytes by FACS, and soluble markers of monocyte activation by ELISA. Purified monocytes were isolated by FACS sorting, and HIV DNA and RNA levels were quantified by real time PCR. Circulating monocytes expressed high levels of the activation markers CD69 and HLA-DR, and harbored low levels of HIV compared to CD4+ T-cells. High plasma LPS levels were associated with increased plasma sCD14 and LPS-binding protein (LBP) levels, and low endotoxin core antibody levels. LPS levels were higher in HAD patients compared to control groups, and were associated with HAD independently of plasma viral load and CD4 counts. LPS levels were higher in AIDS patients using intravenous heroin and/or ethanol, or with Hepatitis C virus (HCV) co-infection, compared to control groups. These results suggest a role for elevated LPS levels in driving monocyte activation in AIDS, thereby contributing to the pathogenesis of HAD, and provide evidence that cofactors linked to substance abuse and HCV co-infection influence these processes.
The impact of the qual-run requirements of APC on the scheduling performance in semiconductor manufacturing

This research is motivated by the qual-run requirements of Advance Process Control(APC) opposite setups of scheduling in semiconductor manufacturing. The objective is to analyze the impact of the qual-run requirements of APC on the scheduling performance (e.g. the Total Weighted Tardiness (TWT) and makespan)with a number of experiments. Taking parallel machines for example, we propose an Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) algorithm to reach a satisfactory solution in a reasonable computation time under both scenarios of with or without consideration on the qual-run requirements of APC to do the evaluation. It is shown by the simulation results that the qual-run requirements of APC have important impact on the scheduling performance. The total average improvements on TWT and makespan are 15.38% and 10.21%, respectively, of the ACO solution with consideration on the qual-run requirements of APC comparing to the ACO solution without consideration on the qual-run requirements of APC. In addition, the more scheduled lots and more recipes on one machine, the stronger the impact of the qual-run requirements of APC is.
Lyapunov Function and Sliding Mode Control Approach for the Solar-PV Grid Interface System

This paper deals with control of a solar-photovoltaic (PV) power-generating system interfaced with the grid. A sliding mode control approach is used for achieving maximum power tracking control of a solar-PV array. The Lyapunov function-based control approach is designed and modeled for the dc-ac inverter to serve the functions of an active power injection to the grid, balanced grid currents at unity power factor and load currents harmonics compensation. The proposed approaches eliminate the need of adjustment of system parameters under changing loads and generation scenario. The effectiveness of the proposed control strategies is established using its stability analyses. The performance of the solar-PV power-generating system with the proposed control algorithms is demonstrated using simulation and experimental studies under various operating conditions.
Multilevel codes and iterative multistage decoding: rate design rules and practical considerations

It is well-known that multilevel coding (MLC) and multistage decoding (MSD) suffice to approach capacity if the rates at different levels are chosen appropriately. In most of the practical cases, however, the rate design rule for MSD does not leave any room for coding at higher levels of the MLC scheme, which is very important in fading environments. The rate design rule for multilevel coding using iterative multistage decoding is investigated, and it is shown that using iterative MSD with updated a priori probabilities of the constellation points, a broader subregion of the capacity region of the MLC scheme can be achieved.
Concertina: Squeezing in Cache Content to Operate at Near-Threshold Voltage

Scaling supply voltage to values near the threshold voltage allows a dramatic decrease in the power consumption of processors; however, the lower the voltage, the higher the sensitivity to process variation, and, hence, the lower the reliability. Large SRAM structures, like the last-level cache (LLC), are extremely vulnerable to process variation because they are aggressively sized to satisfy high density requirements. In this paper, we propose Concertina, an LLC designed to enable reliable operation at low voltages with conventional SRAM cells. Based on the observation that for many applications the LLC contains large amounts of null data, Concertina compresses cache blocks in order that they can be allocated to cache entries with faulty cells, enabling use of 100 percent of the LLC capacity. To distribute blocks among cache entries, Concertina implements a compression- and fault-aware insertion/replacement policy that reduces the LLC miss rate. Concertina reaches the performance of an ideal system implementing an LLC that does not suffer from parameter variation with a modest storage overhead. Specifically, performance degrades by less than 2 percent, even when using small SRAM cells, which implies over 90 percent of cache entries having defective cells, and this represents a notable improvement on previously proposed techniques.
Immigrant self-employment: the family as social capital and the value of human capital.

We examine how self-employment among Asian and Hispanic immigrants is affected by family composition and human capital/class resources. Because of collective interests and strong personal ties the family facilitates the pooling of labor power and financial resources. Enterprising immigrants draw on these resources when establishing and operating small businesses. Our findings also show the importance of human capital/class resources in accounting for immigrant self-employment. Although foreign-earned human capital is usually not highly valued in the host labor market immigrants successfully use this human capital to achieve business ownership. Interethnic variation in personal human capital and family composition accounts for a substantial portion of the observed interethnic variation in self-employment.The data are drawn from the 1980 five percent PUMS for greater New York City and Los Angeles. (EXCERPT)
Current Star Formation in the Perseus Molecular Cloud: Constraints from Unbiased Submillimeter and Mid-Infrared Surveys

We present a census of the population of deeply embedded young stellar objects (YSOs) in the Perseus molecular cloud complex based on a combination of Spitzer Space Telescope mid-infrared data from the Cores to Disks (c2d) legacy team and JCMT SCUBA submillimeter maps from the COMPLETE team. The mid-infrared sources detected at 24 μm and having [3.6] - [4.5] > 1 are located close to the center of the SCUBA cores, typically within 15'' of their peaks. The narrowness of the spatial distribution of mid-infrared sources around the peaks of the SCUBA cores suggests that no significant dispersal of the newly formed YSOs has occurred. This argues against the suggestion that motions of protostars regulate the timescales over which significant (Bondi-Hoyle) accretion can occur. The YSOs are found to have red [3.6] - [4.5] and [8.0] - [24] colors, but not comparable red [5.8] - [8.0] colors. The most deeply embedded YSOs are found in regions with high extinction, AV ≥ 5, similar to the extinction threshold observed for the SCUBA cores. All the SCUBA cores with high concentrations have embedded YSOs, but not all cores with low concentrations are starless. From the above considerations, a relatively unbiased sample of 49 deeply embedded YSOs is constructed. Embedded YSOs are found in 40 of the 72 SCUBA cores, with only three cores harboring multiple embedded YSOs within 15''. The equal number of SCUBA cores with and without embedded YSOs suggests that the timescale for the evolution through the dense prestellar stages, where the cores are recognized in the submillimeter maps and have central densities of 5 × 104-1 × 105 cm-3, is similar to the timescale for the embedded protostellar stages. The current star formation efficiency of cores is estimated to be approximately 10%-15%. In contrast, the star formation efficiency averaged over the cloud lifetime and compared to the total cloud mass is only a few percent, reflecting also the efficiency in assembling cloud material into the dense cores actually forming stars.
Leading-Subcycles Capacitor Error-Averaging Scheme for Cyclic ADCs

This paper proposes a leading-subcycles capacitor error-averaging (LCEA) scheme to reduce the capacitor mismatch error of cyclic analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) while only slightly lowering the conversion rate. The scheme does not need complicated structures or extra calibration circuits. Hence, the proposed LCEA scheme can be used for cyclic ADCs to achieve high accuracy while maintaining their low-power and small-area features. In addition, the figure of merit (FOM) versus the number of averaging operations in a complete conversion cycle is analyzed such that power-accuracy-speed tradeoffs can be optimized. A proof of concept 12-bit cyclic ADC is implemented to compare the performance of the proposed LCEA scheme with that of a conventional cyclic ADC. The chip is fabricated in a 3.3-V, 0.35-μm CMOS process. Measurements demonstrate that the cyclic ADC with only two averaging operations has a 6 dB and 10 dB higher signal-to-noise-and-distortion ratio (SNDR) and spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR), respectively, than the conventional cyclic ADC, and with only a slightly reduced conversion rate of 12/13 times than that of the conventional cyclic ADC. In addition, the measured FOM is greatly reduced to 0.55 times of that obtained using the conventional scheme which indicates the advantage of the LCEA technique.
Computerized assessment of common mental disorders in primary care: effect on clinical outcome.

OBJECTIVE A randomized controlled trial was conducted to examine the clinical effectiveness of providing general practitioners (GPs) with the results of a self-administered computerized assessment of common mental disorders. METHOD Attenders at a general practice in a deprived inner city area of South London were identified using case finding questionnaires. Six hundred and eighty-one subjects were randomly allocated to three groups which differed in the information provided to the GP: 1) no additional information was given to the GP; 2) the results of the 12 item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) were given to the GP (the GHQ is a paper and pencil questionnaire that assesses common mental disorders); 3) the results of a self-administered computerized assessment (PROQSY) of common mental disorders were provided for the GP. RESULTS Clinical outcome was assessed using the 12-item GHQ. Consultations with the GP, prescriptions and referrals within and outside the practice were also recorded. The group in whom the GP received the results of the computerized assessment showed a modest clinical improvement, relative to the other two groups after 6 weeks. There was no difference in clinical outcome between the groups at 6 months. There appeared to be no increase in consultations or prescriptions in the computerized assessment group. CONCLUSIONS Self-administered computerized assessments for psychiatric disorder have potential as a means of improving the clinical outcome of patients in primary care. It is likely that the effectiveness of the approach would be greatly increased by linking the results of computerized assessments to clinical practice guidelines, tailored to the individual patient by means of computerized technology.
Pretty-big-step-semantics-based Certified Abstract Interpretation

We present a technique for deriving semantic program analyses from a natural semantics specification of the programming language. The technique is based on a particular kind of semantics called pretty-big-step semantics. We present a pretty-big-step semantics of a language with simple objects called O'While and specify a series of instrumentations of the semantics that explicitates the flows of values in a program. This leads to a semantics-based dependency analysis, at the core, e.g., of tainting analysis in software security. The formalization has been realized with the Coq proof assistant.