Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Accelerated photoactivated chromophore for keratitis-corneal collagen cross-linking as a first-line and sole treatment in early fungal keratitis.

PURPOSE To report the use of accelerated photoactivated chromophore for keratitis-corneal collagen cross-linking (PACK-CXL) as a first-line treatment in a patient with an atypical fungal keratitis. METHODS Case report and literature review. RESULTS A patient who presented with a painful peripheral corneal infiltrate underwent PACK-CXL with a local limited abrasion and accelerated ultraviolet-A irradiation at 365 μm and 9 mW/cm² for 10 minutes. Cultures grew Aureobasidium pullulans. The corneal epithelium closed completely within 3 days and the infiltrate was completely eradicated without administration of antibiotics. CONCLUSIONS Accelerated PACK-CXL was successfully used as a first-line and sole treatment in a case of early fungal keratitis caused by Aureobasidium pullulans. Further characterization of the antifungal effect of PACK-CXL is needed in prospective studies.
Real-time people movement estimation in large disasters from several kinds of mobile phone data

Recently, an understanding of mass movement in urban areas immediately after large disasters, such as the Great East Japan Earthquake (GEJE), has been needed. In particular, mobile phone data is available as time-varying data. However, much more detailed movement that is based on network flow instead of aggregated data is needed for appropriate rescue on a real-time basis. Hence, our research aims to estimate real-time human movement during large disasters from several kinds of mobile phone data. In this paper, we simulate the movement of people in the Tokyo metropolitan area in a large disaster situation and obtain several kinds of fragmentary movement observation data from mobile phones. Our approach is to use data assimilation techniques combining with simulation of population movement and observation data. The experimental results confirm that the improvement in accuracy depends on the observation data quality using sensitivity analysis and data processing speed to satisfy each condition for real-time estimation.
The Effect of Spreading Factor on Network Lifetime and Energy Consumption Rate of Low Energy Adaptive Clustering Hierarchy (LEACH)

Clustering is a widely discussed as an important architecture for data centric wireless sensor networks. Low energy adaptive clustering hierarchy (LEACH), proposed in past, is used as benchmark scheme by many proposals and its performance is widely studied in the literature, over last few years. The probabilistic and randomized clusterhead selection strategy results in variable number of clusterheads during different rounds of data gathering. To avoid communication interference in different clusters the signals need to be spread which results in increased data size. The variable number of clusterheads requires spreading factor to be set corresponding to the probable maximum number of clusterheads, to avoid collisions. This increases the data size and correspondingly the amount of energy required to transmit it to the base station. This directly affect the network lifetime and energy consumption of the sensor nodes, which are treated as important performance metrics for evaluation of many of the schemes proposed, in the literature, for data gathering in such networks. To study the effect of spreading factor on these performance metrics, LEACH scheme was simulated in NS-2. With the results obtained 8 is observed as an optimum value of the spreading factor for the simulated scenario, to achieve the desired performance in terms of network lifetime and energy consumption rate which demands development of a distributed clustering scheme with exactly equal number of clusterheads, during different rounds of data gathering.
Minimal tau approximation and simulations of the alpha effect

The validity of a closure called the minimal tau approximation (MTA), is tested in the context of dynamo theory, wherein triple correlations are assumed to provide relaxat ion of the turbulent electromotive force. Under MTA, the alpha effect in mean field dynamo theory becomes proportional to a relaxat ion time scale multiplied by the difference between kinetic and current helicities. It is shown that the value of the relaxat ion time is positive and, in units of the turnover time at the f orcing wavenumber, it is of the order of unity. It is quenched by the magnetic field - roughly independently of the magnetic Reynol ds number. However, this independence becomes uncertain at large magnetic Reynolds number. Kinetic and current helicities are shown to be dominated by large scale properties of the flow.
Combining linguistic and structural descriptors for mining biomedical literature

This work proposes an original combination of linguistic and structural descriptors to represent the content of biomedical papers. The objective is to show the effectiveness of descriptors taking into account the structure of documents to characterise three kinds of biomedical texts (reviews, research and clinical papers). The description of text is made at various levels, from the global level to the local one. The contexts makes it possible to characterise the three classes. The characterisation of the textual resources is carried out quantitatively by using the discriminating capacity of techniques of data mining based on emerging patterns.
ATTED-II: a database of co-expressed genes and cis elements for identifying co-regulated gene groups in Arabidopsis

Publicly available database of co-expressed gene sets would be a valuable tool for a wide variety of experimental designs, including targeting of genes for functional identification or for regulatory investigation. Here, we report the construction of an Arabidopsis thaliana trans-factor and cis-element prediction database (ATTED-II) that provides co-regulated gene relationships based on co-expressed genes deduced from microarray data and the predicted cis elements. ATTED-II () includes the following features: (i) lists and networks of co-expressed genes calculated from 58 publicly available experimental series, which are composed of 1388 GeneChip data in A.thaliana; (ii) prediction of cis-regulatory elements in the 200 bp region upstream of the transcription start site to predict co-regulated genes amongst the co-expressed genes; and (iii) visual representation of expression patterns for individual genes. ATTED-II can thus help researchers to clarify the function and regulation of particular genes and gene networks.
Frequency-stabilizing control scheme for islanded microgrids

Distributed feedback linearization control schemes are proposed for the stability of microgrids in the islanded mode. Utilizing frequency readings of the synchronous generators in the microgrid, the distributed controllers affect the operation of fast-acting energy storage systems for an efficient transient frequency stability after the occurrence of a disturbance in the islanded-mode microgrid. Numerical results obtained from the PSCAD/EMTDC time-domain simulation show the effectiveness of the proposed distributed controller in stabilizing the microgrid after the occurrence of both symmetrical and asymmetrical faults.
Profiling of Volatile Organic Compounds in Exhaled Breath As a Strategy to Find Early Predictive Signatures of Asthma in Children

Wheezing is one of the most common respiratory symptoms in preschool children under six years old. Currently, no tests are available that predict at early stage who will develop asthma and who will be a transient wheezer. Diagnostic tests of asthma are reliable in adults but the same tests are difficult to use in children, because they are invasive and require active cooperation of the patient. A non-invasive alternative is needed for children. Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) excreted in breath could yield such non-invasive and patient-friendly diagnostic. The aim of this study was to identify VOCs in the breath of preschool children (inclusion at age 2–4 years) that indicate preclinical asthma. For that purpose we analyzed the total array of exhaled VOCs with Gas Chromatography time of flight Mass Spectrometry of 252 children between 2 and 6 years of age. Breath samples were collected at multiple time points of each child. Each breath-o-gram contained between 300 and 500 VOCs; in total 3256 different compounds were identified across all samples. Using two multivariate methods, Random Forests and dissimilarity Partial Least Squares Discriminant Analysis, we were able to select a set of 17 VOCs which discriminated preschool asthmatic children from transient wheezing children. The correct prediction rate was equal to 80% in an independent test set. These VOCs are related to oxidative stress caused by inflammation in the lungs and consequently lipid peroxidation. In conclusion, we showed that VOCs in the exhaled breath predict the subsequent development of asthma which might guide early treatment.
Automated Improvement of Domain ANnotations using context analysis of domain arrangements (AIDAN)

MOTIVATION Since protein domains are the units of evolution, databases of domain signatures such as ProDom or Pfam enable both a sensitive and selective sequence analysis. However, manually curated databases have a low coverage and automatically generated ones often miss relationships which have not yet been discovered between domains or cannot display similarities between domains which have drifted apart. METHODS We present a tool which makes use of the fact that overall domain arrangements are often conserved. AIDAN (Automated Improvement of Domain ANnotations) identifies potential annotation artifacts and domains which have drifted apart. The underlying database supplements ProDom and is interfaced by a graphical tool allowing the localization of single domain deletions or annotations which have been falsely made by the automated procedure. AVAILABILITY http://www.uni-muenster.de/Evolution/ebb/Services/AIDAN. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
The blood-brain barrier: an engineering perspective

It has been more than 100 years since Paul Ehrlich reported that various water-soluble dyes injected into the circulation did not enter the brain. Since Ehrlich's first experiments, only a small number of molecules, such as alcohol and caffeine have been found to cross the blood-brain barrier, and this selective permeability remains the major roadblock to treatment of many central nervous system diseases. At the same time, many central nervous system diseases are associated with disruption of the blood-brain barrier that can lead to changes in permeability, modulation of immune cell transport, and trafficking of pathogens into the brain. Therefore, advances in our understanding of the structure and function of the blood-brain barrier are key to developing effective treatments for a wide range of central nervous system diseases. Over the past 10 years it has become recognized that the blood-brain barrier is a complex, dynamic system that involves biomechanical and biochemical signaling between the vascular system and the brain. Here we reconstruct the structure, function, and transport properties of the blood-brain barrier from an engineering perspective. New insight into the physics of the blood-brain barrier could ultimately lead to clinical advances in the treatment of central nervous system diseases.
EMOTIONAL AND BEHAVIORAL REACTIONS TO WORK OVERLOAD: SELF-EFFICACY AS A MODERATOR

This study examined the main and interactive effects of work overload and self-efficacy on emotional exhaustion and job performance of extension personnel in Southwest Nigeria (N = 156). Results of moderated multiple regression analyses indicate positive relation between work overload and emotional exhaustion and not with job performance; and efficacy beliefs is positively associated with job performance. The interaction term between efficacy beliefs and work overload is unrelated to emotional exhaustion and job performance as hypothesized. The implications of findings are discussed.
Heat Resistance and Population Stability of Lyophilized Bacillus subtilis Spores

Bacillus subtilis 5230 spores were lyophilized in 0.067 M phosphate buffer and stored at 2 to 8°C for 9 to 27 months. The lyophilized spores were reconstituted with buffer or 0.9% saline, and the heat resistance was determined in a thermoresistometer. Lyophilization had no effect on the heat resistance of the spores but did result in a slight decrease in population (≤0.3-logarithm reduction). The lyophilized spores maintained heat resistance and population levels over the test periods. The D-values ranged from 0.44 to 0.54 min at 121.1°C, and the z-values ranged from 6.1 to 6.6°C. Lyophilization was concluded to be an acceptable alternative for storage of bacterial spores that are to be used as biological indicators in sterilization processes.
Sound Practices: On-line Audio Exhibits and the Cultural Heritage Archive

This paper examines the functionality of twenty-five on-line Web exhibits in their use of audio media, against a backdrop of the changing character of archives in the age of virtual access to primary materials. Each Web exhibit is scored against a matrix measuring specific aspects of audio performance. The scores are compiled, ranked, and analyzed. Based on these scores, the state of audio technology, and insights provided by digital archival preservation, a set of standards is proposed as a starting point for archives to use in increasing audio exhibit performance.
Real-Time Elastography of the Prostate

Palpation of organs is one of the oldest clinical examination techniques, for instance, if you think of the palpation of the breast or the digital rectal examination of the prostate, where hard palpable regions are suspicious for cancer. This is the basic principle of real-time elastography, an ultrasound technique, which is able to visualise tissue elasticity. Since prostate cancer features an increased stiffness due to the higher cell and vessel density than the normal surrounding tissue, real-time elastography has been used for several years for prostate cancer detection. This review introduces the different techniques of ultrasound elastography and furthermore summarises its limitations and potentials.
An Experimental Investigation of Efforts to Improve Sales Students' Moral Reasoning

This article reports the findings of a study that attempts to determine if sales students' moral reasoning skills (Level of Cognitive Moral Development) can be improved through training. A pretest-treatment-posttest design is used. Furthermore, an examination of gender differences in moral reasoning is conducted. The results indicate that students' moral reasoning can be improved with classroom exercises. Evidence also suggests that females reason at higher levels of moral development than do males, though there appears to be no differential effect of ethics training on the moral reasoning skills between males and females. Implications are provided for both higher education and sales organizations.
Out-of-Set i-Vector Selection for Open-set Language Identification

Current language identiﬁcation (LID) systems are based on an i-vector classiﬁer followed by a multi-class recognition back-end. Identiﬁcation accuracy degrades considerably when LID systems face open-set data. In this study, we propose an approach to the problem of out of set (OOS) data detection in the context of open-set language identiﬁcation. In our approach, each unlabeled i-vector in the development set is given a per-class outlier score computed with the help of non-parametric Kolmogorov-Smirnov (KS) test. Detected OOS data from unlabeled development set is then used to train an additional model to represent OOS languages in the back-end. The proposed approach achieves a relative decrease of 16% in equal error rate (EER) over classical OOS detection methods, in discriminating in-set and OOS languages. Using support vector machine (SVM) as language back-end classiﬁer, integrating the proposed method to the LID back-end yields 15% relative decrease in identiﬁcation cost in comparison to using all the development set as OOS candidates.
Discussion of ‘Modern Statistics for Spatial Point Processes’

Abstract. The paper ‘Modern statistics for spatial point processes’ by Jesper Møller and Rasmus P. Waagepetersen is based on a special invited lecture given by the authors at the 21st Nordic Conference on Mathematical Statistics, held at Rebild, Denmark, in June 2006. At the conference, Antti Penttinen and Eva B. Vedel Jensen were invited to discuss the paper. We here present the comments from the two invited discussants and from a number of other scholars, as well as the authors’ responses to these comments. Below Figure 1, Figure 2, etc., refer to figures in the paper under discussion, while Figure A , Figure B , etc., refer to figures in the current discussion. All numbered sections and formulas refer to the paper.
The theory of least squares when the parameters are stochastic and its application to the analysis of growth curves.

In an earlier paper (Rao, 1959), the author discussed the method of least squares when the observations are dependent and the dispersion matrix is unknown but an independent estimate is available. The unknown dispersion matrix was, however, considered as an arbitrary positive definite matrix. In the present paper we shall consider a class of problems where the dispersion matrix has a known structure and discuss the appropriate statistical methods. More specifically the structure of the dispersion matrix results from considering the parameters in the well-known Gauss-Markoff linear model as random variables. Let Y be a vector random variable with the structure
Can the assumption of a non‐random search improve our prediction of butterfly fluxes between resource patches?

Abstract. 1. Understanding dispersal patterns that enable small, spatially isolated populations to survive in fragmented landscapes has become an important issue in conservation biology and landscape management. However, for most of the species of interest it is not known whether dispersing individuals navigate or follow systematic search strategies, as opposed to moving randomly.
The Scale-Curvature Connection and its Application to Texture Segmentation

In this work we establish a theoretical relation between the notions of scale and a discrete Finsler-Haantjes curvature. Based on this connection we demonstrate the applicability of the interpretation of scale in terms of curvature, to signal processing in the context of analysis and segmentation of textures in images. The outcome of this procedure is a novel scheme for texture segmentation that is based on scaled metric curvature. The presented method proves itself to be efficient even when the multiscale analysis is done up to scales of 19 and more. Our main conclusions are that the discrete curvature calculated on sampled images can give us an indication on the local scale within the image, and therefore can be used for many additional tasks in image analysis.
Insulin and Oxidative Stress Modulate Proliferation of Rat Ovarian Theca-Interstitial Cells Through Diverse Signal Transduction Pathways1

Abstract Insulin and moderate oxidative stress stimulate proliferation of ovarian theca-interstitial cells. The effects of these agents on selected signal transduction pathways were examined. PD98059 (inhibitor of MAP2K1, also known as MEK-1, upstream of extracellular signal-regulated protein kinases MAPK3/1, also known as ERK1/2), wortmannin (inhibitor of PIK3C2A, also known as PI3K), and rapamycin (inhibitor of FRAP1, also known as mTOR, upstream of RPS6KB1) each significantly decreased insulin and oxidative stress-induced proliferation of theca-interstitial cells. The greatest inhibition was observed in the presence of rapamycin; this effect occurred without a significant change in cell viability. Phosphorylation of AKT was stimulated by insulin only, while phosphorylation of MAPK3/1 and RPS6KB1 was increased by insulin and oxidative stress. Insulin-induced and oxidative stress-induced phosphorylation of RPS6KB1 was partly inhibited by wortmannin and partly by PD98059; the greatest inhibition was observed in the presence of a combination of wortmannin plus PD98059. Effects of insulin and oxidative stress on phosphorylation of RPS6KB1 were confirmed by kinase activity assays. These findings indicate that actions of insulin and oxidative stress converge on MAPK3/1 and RPS6KB1. Furthermore, we speculate that activation of RPS6KB1 may be in part induced via the MAPK3/1 pathway.
Design of a pulse generator for wideband applications

The final application is an E-field reference generator with a discrete spectrum extended above 3 GHz. This work presents a series of circuit solutions for the generation of pulses with rise time in the range of 50-250 ps and significant amplitude (above 0.5 V). The pulse generator is designed for a 50 ohm load, which will be replaced by the antenna set (short dipole or horn antenna) for E-field generation; it is driven by a high slew rate square wave local oscillator or possibly by an external generator.
The structure of social engagement among nursing home residents.

This research tests the reliability and construct validity of social engagement, a new quality of life measure embedded in the federally mandated Resident Assessment Instrument (RAI) for the nursing home population. The sample consisted of 1,848 residents from 268 homes in 10 states with data collected by trained research nurses. Three resident groups were formed based on residents' cognitive and ADL functioning. Social engagement was significantly related to average time spent in activities across all three groups. We hypothesized a four-factor model with social engagement distinct from mood problems, conflicted relationships, and behavior problems. LISREL confirmatory factor analysis found the data to be consistent with this hypothesis (Fit Index > .98). Intercorrelations between factors showed that for high-functioning residents, engagement was negatively related to conflict but was positively related to conflict among the most impaired. The validity of the social engagement measure and its stability across types of residents suggest its potential utility as a marker of nursing home quality.