Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Longterm visual prognosis of patients with ocular Adamantiades-Behçet's disease treated with interferon-alpha-2a.

OBJECTIVE Relapsing ocular involvement is one of the major manifestations in Adamantiades-Behçet's disease (ABD). Combining systemic corticosteroids with cyclosporin A is currently the treatment of choice. Interferon-alpha (IFN-alpha) has proven to be effective in mucocutaneous ABD and has been reported to improve ocular lesions. We examined the longterm effects of IFN-alpha-2a in a case series of 45 patients with ocular involvement. METHODS Since 1988, 45 patients (79 eyes of 90 eyes) with ocular involvement in ABD have been treated with IFN-alpha (3 x 6-9 Mio IU per wk). In the initial acute phase of the disease, patients additionally received short-term corticosteroids (oral prednisolone 100 mg/day), tapered to a maintenance dose of 10 mg/day within 2 weeks. IFN-alpha-2a was administered as longterm therapy with a mean duration of 30 months (range 1.1-101 mo). RESULTS IFN-alpha-2a/prednisolone treatment was effective against vasculitis, optic nerve neuropathy, and iritis. Sixty-four eyes had no recurrence under therapy. To date, recurrences have been seen in 26 eyes under IFN-alpha treatment. Flu-like symptoms were recorded in nearly all patients (n = 43). Further side effects were dose-dependent reversible thrombocytopenia (n = 1), psychosis (n = 3), depression (n = 13), thyroiditis (n = 1), and reversible diffuse alopecia (n = 7). In our series, 92% of all eyes showed stable or improved visual acuity in longterm followup. CONCLUSION Longterm remission of ocular inflammation can be achieved with the combination of IFN-alpha and low-dose corticosteroids.
Biogeographic history of an Australian freshwater shrimp, Paratya australiensis (Atyidae): the role life history transition in phylogeographic diversification

The widespread distribution of the freshwater shrimp Paratya australiensis in eastern Australia suggests that populations of this species have been connected in the past. Amphidromy is ancestral in these shrimps, although many extant populations are known to be restricted to freshwater habitats. In this study, we used a fragment of the cytochrome c oxidase I mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) gene to examine diversity within P. australiensis and to assess the relative importance of amphidromy in its evolutionary history. We hypothesized that if transitions from an amphidromous to a freshwater life history were important, then we would find a number of divergent lineages restricted to single or groups of nearby drainages. Alternatively, if amphidromy was maintained within the species historically, we expected to find lineages distributed over many drainages. We assumed that the only way for divergence to occur within amphidromous lineages was if dispersal was limited to between nearby estuaries, which, during arid periods in the earth's history, became isolated from one another. We found nine highly divergent mtDNA lineages, estimated to have diverged from one another in the late Miocene/early Pliocene, when the climate was more arid than at present. Despite this, the geographic distribution of lineages and haplotypes within lineages did not support the notion of a stepping‐stone model of dispersal between estuaries. We conclude that the extensive divergence has most likely arisen through a number of independent amphidromy–freshwater life history transitions, rather than via historical isolation of amphidromy populations. We also found evidence for extensive movement between coastal and inland drainages, supporting the notion that secondary contact between lineages may have occurred as a result of drainage rearrangements. Finally, our data indicate that P. australiensis is likely a complex of cryptic species, some of which are widely distributed, and others geographically restricted.
Optimization Design Model of a CICC Based on Energy Margin

The design of a cable-in-conduit conductor (CICC) is a very complicated engineering process. In order to simplify the design for CICCs, a simulation design method is presented in this paper with the relationship between the operating current and the critical current, and the extreme case that the Stekly parameter is equal to 1. In addition, a novel optimization model for CICC design is proposed for solving the difference or uncertainty in the subsequent cabling layout of the conductor. This mathematical constraint model, which can maximize the CICC energy (stability) margin, is built to generate a more reasonable conductor structure. For an optimum design of a CICC, although there exists a cabling variety in the fourth stage (level) between the engineering design and the optimization design, the result shows that the optimized conductor structure and the correlated performance conforms reasonably well to the present engineering design that was adopted by the Option II CICC of the International Thermal Nuclear Experimental Reactor experimental fusion reactor project.
The World Health Organization oral rehydration solution in US pediatric practice: a randomized trial to evaluate parent satisfaction.

BACKGROUND The World Health Organization's effective, inexpensive oral rehydration solution (WHO-ORS) is used worldwide, but rarely by US practitioners because, in part, of concerns about parent satisfaction. OBJECTIVE To compare caretaker satisfaction with the WHO-ORS, a packet-based solution requiring preparation, with satisfaction with a commercially prepared oral rehydration solution (C-ORS), (Pedialyte; Ross Nutritionals, Columbus, Ohio). DESIGN AND METHODS Randomized controlled trial in an urban pediatric clinic and a suburban family medicine clinic. Children aged 3 to 47 months treated as outpatients for diarrhea were randomized to receive either WHO-ORS or C-ORS. After 48 hours of use, caretakers completed a telephone interview measuring satisfaction with aspects of the solution. RESULTS Of 97 families enrolled, 91 (94%) were available for follow-up interviews. The WHO-ORS and C-ORS groups were comparable at baseline in all respects, except that slightly more caretakers in the latter group had used the C-ORS for the current illness before study enrollment (P= .06). Caretakers in the WHO-ORS group had higher overall satisfaction, satisfaction with cost, willingness to purchase in the future, and to recommend use (P<.001 for all). Differences remained significant after controlling for prior use of the C-ORS. There was no difference in satisfaction with ease of administration (P=.90), appearance (P=.20), and effectiveness (P=.80). No adverse effects attributable to either study solution occurred. CONCLUSIONS Caretakers who prepared and used the WHO-ORS were more satisfied with their solution than a comparable group who administered C-ORS. Fear of parental dissatisfaction need not be a barrier to use of the WHO-ORS in the United States.
A Novel Two-Grid Method for Semilinear Elliptic Equations

A new finite element discretization technique based on two (coarse and fine) subspaces is presented for a semilinear elliptic boundary value problem. The solution of a nonlinear system on the fine space is reduced to the solution of two small (one linear and one nonlinear) systems on the coarse space and a linear system on the fine space. It is shown, both theoretically and numerically, that the coarse space can be extremely coarse and still achieve asymptotically optimal approximation. As a result, the numerical solution of such a nonlinear equation is not significantly more expensive than the solution of one single linearized equation.
Large component diagrams visualization

Software applications applications can easily consist of hundreds or thousands of components and it is thus difficult to understand their structure. Diagram visualisation does not help much because of visual clutter caused by big amount of elements and connections, especially in the case of flat component models. This work sums up current state of the art tools and approaches in component diagrams visualization. After that we propose a set of criteria for the evaluation of tools for component architecture visualization. Furtermore we present a novel approach which should ease the orientation and navigation in complex diagrams. It is among other benefits useful in the reverse engineering process. One of the key concepts of this approach is removing a large part of connections from the diagram while preserving the information about component interconnections. We also describe a viewport technique for use in the visualization of UML component diagrams. This technique should ease the work with complex diagrams by highlighting details of the important parts of the diagram and their related surroundings without losing the global perspective. The further aim is to integrate mentioned techniques and new techniques into one application. The work was supported by the UWB grant SGS-2010-028 Advanced Computer and Information Systems. Copies of this report are available on http://www.kiv. zcu.cz/publications/ or by surface mail on request sent to the following address: University of West Bohemia Department of Computer Science and Engineering Univerzitni 8 30614 Pilsen Czech Republic Copyright c ©2012 University of West Bohemia, Czech Republic
A Dynamic Wrapper Method for Feature Discretization and Selection

In many learning problems, an adequate (sometimes discrete) representation of the data is necessary. For instance, for large number of features and small number of instances, learning algorithms may be confronted with the curse of dimensionality , and need to address it in order to be effective. Feature selection and feature discretization techniques have been used to achieve adequate representations of the data, by selecting an adequate subset of features with a convenient representation. In this paper, we propose static and dynamic methods for feature discretization. The static method is unsupervised and the dynamic method uses a wrapper approach with a quantizer and a classifier, and it can be coupled with any static (unsupervised or supervised) discretization procedure. The proposed methods attain efficient representations that are suitable for learning problems. Moreover, using well-known feature selection methods with the features discretized by our methods leads to better accuracy than with the features discretized by other methods or even with the original features.
Trichocephalus and Trichocephaliasis.

T HE genus Trichocephalus is a group of nematodes commonly known as the whipworms, species of which parasitize man and many domestic animals including dogs, cats, sheep, cattle, goats, camels and swine. It is a curious fact that whipworms do not infect any of the horse tribe. Among semi-domesticated and wild animals, it has been found in foxes, monkeys and rabbits as well as in a number of other rodents. Members of the species T. trichiurus occurring in man, swine and monkeys are morphologically identical. However, whether they constitute physiologically different strains is at present unknown. These parasites are cosmopolitan in their distribution but are more common in tropical and sub-tropical climates. Whipworms vary in length from approximately 30 to 80 mm. , the species in ruminants being the largest and those of rodents the smallest. The worms are creamy-white in colour, although females may often appear dark brown due to masses of eggs contained in the uterus. As the name implies, the general body shape resembles a whip, the thick posterior portion forming the handle, and the thread-like anterior end the lash. The posterior part forms about two-fifths of the body length and contains the reproductive organs and the intestine. The filiform anterior three-fifths contain the oesophagus, a thin weakly-muscular tube surrounded for the greater part of its length by a series of large cells considered to have a glandulur function. In the female reproductive system there is a single ovary, an oviduct, a uterine pouch, and a vagina which leads to a vulva situated at the junction of the filiform and thick parts of the body. The male genitalia include a testis, sperm duct, ejaculatory duct, and a single spicule surrounded by a prominent spinose sheath. In the male the caudal extremity is coiled. At the anterior body tip of both sexes there occurs a small mouth spear. These parasites are commonly situated in the large bowel of their host, usually in the caecum. Here they live with their thread-like anterior ends interwoven in the gut mucosa. The gravid female lays eggs which are carried out in the faeces of the host. The average number of eggs passed daily by each female of T. vulpis, the whipworm of dogs and foxes, is approximately 2,000, and, as the number of males to females in the host is approximately 1:2, each 1,350 eggs passed in the faeces daily would represent one worm in the host. The egg output of the worms does not appear to vary with the age. However, worms in a heavy infection are usually less prolific than those in a light infection. The eggs are very characteristic in appearance being lemon-shaped with a prominent plug-like protuberance at either pole. They are usually brownish in colour due to bile staining of the egg shell, which consists of four layers. When first passed the eggs are undeveloped and contain a single cell
A modular AC/DC rectifier based on cascaded H-bridge rectifier

In this paper, a modular AC/DC rectifier for converting the medium voltage (MV) to the low voltage (LV) levels is presented. The proposed rectifier includes two stages: the cascaded H-bridge (CHB) converter and the isolated DC/DC converters. The CHB converter is directly connected to the MV levels and it eliminates the necessity for heavy and bulky step-down transformers, corrects the input power factor, and maintains the voltage balance across the capacitor voltages. The second stage includes the high frequency parallel-output DC/DC converters, which are connected to the primary DC buses. The second stage provides the galvanic isolation, regulates the output voltage, and attenuates the low frequency voltage ripple (2fline) generated by the first stage. The active load-current sharing technique is utilized to balance the load power among the parallel converters. The detailed analysis for modeling and control of the proposed structure is presented. The validity and performance of the proposed topology is verified by a laboratory scaled prototype.
On the correlates of rhythmic distinctions: The European/Brazilian Portuguese case

Although European and Brazilian Portuguese have long been considered to belong to different rhythmic types, no clear support for this distinction has been given. In agreement with recent proposals for other languages, this paper presents an account of Portuguese rhythm based on acoustic measures of consonantal and vocalic intervals, and explores the relation between these measures and the phonological properties specific to the European and Brazilian varieties (EP and BP). The approach followed is both successful in providing evidence for the rhythmic distinction between the two varieties and in relating it to the traditional rhythm typology. Overall, the results show that EP and BP have clearly distinct mixed rhythms: stressand syllable-timing characterise EP, whereas syllable and mora-timing characterise BP. The data further suggest that mixed rhythm is not equivalent to intermediate rhythm, thus supporting the notion of rhythmic classes against the scattering of languages along a rhythmic continuum.
Aging and Place in Long-Term Care Settings

Objective: This article presents results of a qualitative research study that examined how living in a long-term care (LTC) home influences the quality of residents’ relationships with peers, family members, and outside friends. Method: Semistructured interviews using a phenomenological approach were conducted with 23 residents of a LTC home. Thematic analysis was employed to illuminate residents’ perspectives on the nature of social relationships in this setting. Results: Four key themes were identified that highlight the role of place in social relationships. Residing in a LTC home influences the context of social interactions, impacts their quality and process, clusters individuals with health and functional declines that hinder socialization, and poses structural and cultural barriers that impede social interactions. Health and functional limitations posed the greatest challenge to socialization relative to characteristics of the facility itself. Discussion: Residents’ insights emphasize how personal characteristics influence community culture and the experience of place.
Cross correlation based clustering for feature selection in hyperspectral imagery

One of the main problems with hyperspectral image processing is to be contained large amount of data. Furthermore, pattern recognition methods are highly sensitive to problems related to high dimensional feature spaces. Therefore, feature selection in hyperspectral remote sensing data is investigated by researchers. This paper propose a clustering strategy that divides a feature set into subsets within which features are closely related to each other by means of cross correlation between all spectral bands. After that a band selection strategy based on Minimum Redundancy Maximum Relevance (mRMR) eliminates redundant bands into band clusters. The effectiveness of the proposed method is carried out on a real hyperspectral data set. The obtained results clearly affirm the superiority of the proposed method.
Analysing comparative soft biometrics from crowdsourced annotations

Soft biometrics enable human description and identification from low-quality surveillance footage. This study premises the design, collection and analysis of a novel crowdsourced dataset of comparative soft biometric body annotations, obtained from a richly diverse set of human annotators. The authors annotate 100 subject images to provide a coherent, in-depth appraisal of the collected annotations and inferred relative labels. The dataset includes gender as a comparative trait and the authors find that comparative labels characteristically contain additional discriminative information over traditional categorical annotations. Using the authors' pragmatic dataset, semantic recognition is performed by inferring relative biometric signatures using a RankSVM algorithm. This demonstrates a practical scenario, reproducing responses from a video surveillance operator searching for an individual. The approach can reliably return the correct match in the top 7% of results with ten comparisons, or top 13% of results using just five sets of subject comparisons.
Year : 2010 Sound recognition with spiking silicon cochlea and Hidden Markov Models

In this paper we explore the capabilities of a sound recognition system that combines both a novel bio-inspired custom silicon cochlea chip and a classical Hidden Markov Model (HMM). The cochlea chip front-end produces a form of representation that is analogous to the spike outputs of the biological cochlea. The system is trained with either of 2 target sounds (a clap or a bass drum) in the presence of different levels of white noise or colored noise. We provide experimental results that show 1) the system is able to detect a clap or a bass drum sound even if the amplitude of the target sound was not part of the training set and 2) the performance of the system in detecting a target sound in the presence of white noise or colored noise is around 90% for signal-to-noise ratios down to at least 0.8. Posted at the Zurich Open Repository and Archive, University of Zurich ZORA URL: https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-47180 Originally published at: Jaeckel, D; Moeckel, R; Liu, S C (2010). Sound recognition with spiking silicon cochlea and Hidden Markov Models. In: Ph.D. Research in Microelectronics and Electronics (PRIME), 2010 Conference, Berlin, 18 July 2010 21 July 2010. Sound Recognition with Spiking Silicon Cochlea and Hidden Markov Models
A monolithic 5.9-GHz CMOS I/Q direct-down converter utilizing a quadrature coupler and transformer-coupled subharmonic mixers

We report the first monolithic 5.9-GHz CMOS I/Q direct-down converter by using a quadrature coupler and transformer-coupled subharmonic mixers (SHMs). Consuming 3.5mW, each SHM achieves a voltage gain of 10.8dB, 7.9-dBm IIP3, and 54-dBm IIP2. The input-referred dc-offset due to local oscillator self-mixing is -80.9dBm.
DIAGNÓSTICO E TRATAMENTO DE MUCOCELE LABIAL: RELATO DE CASO

Os ductos salivares, especialmente aqueles das glândulas salivares menores sao ocasionalmente traumatizados, comumente por mordidas no labio e feridos abaixo da superficie da mucosa. A subsequente producao de saliva pode entao extravasar abaixo da superficie da mucosa para os tecidos moles, formando mucoceles. Mucocele e uma lesao benigna da cavidade bucal relativamente comum, resultando em um aumento volumetrico devido ao acumulo de mucina no interior do tecido conjuntivo, assintomatica na grande maioria dos casos, porem pode acarretar em desconforto durante a alimentacao e a fala. As tecnicas classicas propostas para o tratamento do mucocele sao a remocao cirurgica atraves da enucleacao ou marsupializacao e em casos mais severos, onde nao houve a remissao da lesao, sugere-se a remocao da glândula salivar envolvida. Esse artigo objetiva relatar um caso de mucocele na Clinica de Estomatologia da Universidade Federal da Paraiba.
Regulaciones de género

A primera vista, el termino “regulacion” parece sugerir la institucionalizacion del proceso mediante el cual se regula a las personas. De hecho, referirse a la regulacion en plural es reconocer esas leyes, reglas y politicas concretas que constituyen los instrumentos legales mediante los que se regula a las personas. Pero creo que seria un error entender todas las maneras en las que se regula el genero en terminos de esas instancias empiricas legales, porque las normas que gobiernan esas regulaciones van mas alla de las mismas instancias en las que toman forma. Por otra parte, seria igualmente problematico hablar de la regulacion del genero en abstracto, como si las instancias empiricas solo ejemplificaran una operacion de poder que tiene lugar independientemente de esas instancias.
Speed sensorless mixed sensitivity LPV H_inf control of the induction motor

The paper shows the design of a robust control structure for the speed sensorless vector control of the IM, based on the mixed sensitivity linear parameter variant (LPV) H_inf theory. The controller makes possible the direct control of the flux and speed of the motor with torque adaptation in noisy environment. The whole control system is tested by intensive simulations and according to the results shows good dynamic and robust performance. Implementation issues based on a DSP TMS320F243 development platform are also presented.