Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Diurnal Variation in Comfort in Contact Lens and Non-contact Lens Wearers

Purpose The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the diurnal variation in symptoms associated with ocular discomfort in contact lens (CL) wearers and non-CL wearers. Methods The study population comprised 604 individuals attending pre-screening visits at the OTG-i research clinic; 60% were current soft CL wearers (hydrogel and silicone hydrogel) and 40% were non-CL wearers. Symptomatology status was determined by the OSDI questionnaire (58% asymptomatic, 42% symptomatic). Participants were asked to grade their comfort, vision, and other symptoms during the day and in the evening (before lens removal for CL wearers) on 0 to 100 visual analogue scales. Results Diurnal decrease in comfort was significantly greater for CL wearers (−16.0 vs. −6.3, p < 0.001) and symptomatic participants (p = 0.015). Diurnal decrease in subjective vision was also significantly greater for CL wearers (−10.4 vs. −6.9, p = 0.005) and symptomatic participants (p = 0.001), and the interaction between these factors was also significant (p = 0.019). Dryness, grittiness, and irritation increased significantly more for CL wearers (p < 0.001, p = 0.012, and p = 0.004, respectively) and grittiness, irritation, and stinging for symptomatic participants (p = 0.016, p < 0.001, and p < 0.001, respectively). For the CL wearers, there was a significant interaction between dryness and age (p = 0.026) with the diurnal increase in dryness being greater in those under 40 (+15.6 vs. +10.0). Conclusions The diurnal decrease in comfort and subjective vision, and the diurnal increase in dryness, grittiness, and irritation, were significantly more marked for CL wearers than non-CL wearers. Diurnal changes in comfort, grittiness, stinging, irritation, and vision were influenced by the subject’s overall symptomatology as assessed by the OSDI questionnaire. For dryness symptoms, the diurnal decrease was most marked in young CL wearers. For the symptoms of stinging and vision, the diurnal changes were most pronounced in the symptomatic groups.
Mobile technologies for chronic condition management

The management of long term chronic conditions is a complex and challenging task. The pro­ cess relies on individuals engaging in regular recording of factors that affect their health. Yet currently, the mobile tools that people carry with them are not being fully utilised to assist in this process. This Thesis reports on research that has been completed to understand the role that mo­ bile technologies can have in supporting people with chronic conditions. An individual engaging in personal monitoring is concerned with the data they collect, not the process used to capture the data. The results of the research conducted contribute to an advancement of knowledge around how mobile technologies can assist in personal reflection on health information to provide greater un­ derstanding of chronic disease management This understanding of the role of reflection in chronic condition management can then be used as a platform to improve the mobile interventions in future implementations. These findings are arrived at by conducting an initial investigation into the usage of existing health monitoring devices and an evaluation of these devices is detailed. The results of this early work suggests there exists a gap between real practice and the role that mobile technologies can play in assisting with the process. A deeper understanding of the management practices of people with diabetes is then achieved through a set of interviews with individuals with diabetes. The findings then define a model of chronic disease management, named the ‘Diabetes Management Cycle. ’ Following the definition of the cycle, a mobile application was implemented and deployed during a four week evaluation with individuals with type 1 diabetes. This system was designed to support existing management practices and implemented simple methods of information capture. A second application was then developed to enable increased monitoring and subsequent re­ flection amongst individuals with cardiovascular conditions. The application was deployed in a six week in-situ evaluation and it was discovered a personalised ‘tagging’ mechanism allowed for the discovery of patterns affecting health. Based on the findings of the studies, the Thesis concludes by presenting definitions of readyto-hand in the shortand long-term contexts of mobile health management. These ready-to-hand guidelines provide a platform for future research projects to build upon.
Elevated serum haptoglobin after traumatic brain injury is synthesized mainly in liver

Haptoglobin (Hp), an acute‐phase response protein, is typically increased in the serum of adults after acute tissue injury. It is an antioxidant and may function as an injury‐induced neuroprotective protein. However, the source of increased Hp is not clear. To investigate its source, we compared its time course expression profile in serum from rats with or without traumatic brain injury (TBI). Elevated Hp levels revealed by proteomic analysis were confirmed by Western blot, semiquantitative PCR, and real‐time PCR. We found that Hp protein and mRNA levels were increased after TBI in both serum and liver, especially in liver. Both in vivo and in vitro data showed that Hp expression was increased in rat and human (HL7702) liver cells upon treatment with TBI serum. Addition of anti‐interleukin‐6 (IL‐6) antibody downregulated the expression of Hp in liver cells induced by serum derived from rats and in liver of rats after TBI. These findings suggest that the increased Hp in serum came from the liver in response to TBI and that IL‐6 is an important mediator of this induction. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Phylodynamic and Genetic Diversity of Canine Parvovirus Type 2c in Taiwan

Canine parvovirus type 2c (CPV-2c) emerged in 2000 and is known for causing a more severe disease than other CPV-2 variants in puppies. In 2015, the emerging CPV-2c variant was isolated in Taiwan and it subsequently became the predominant variant. To trace the evolution of Taiwanese CPV-2c, we compared complete VP2 genes of CPV-2c from Taiwan and sequences obtained from GenBank. The evolutionary rate of CPV-2c was estimated to be 4.586 × 10−4 substitutions per site per year (95% highest posterior density (HPD) was 3.284–6.076 × 10−4). The time to the most recent common ancestor (TMRCA) dated to 1990 (95% HPD: 1984–1996) and 2011 (95% HPD: 2010–2013) for the CPV-2c variant and Taiwanese isolates, respectively. The CPV-2c variant isolated from Taiwan was clustered with CPV-2c from China. This phylogenetic clade began to branch off in approximately 2010 (95% HPD was 3.823–6.497). Notably, two unique mutations of Taiwanese CPV-2c were found, Q383R and P410L. In summary, this is the first report on the genome evolution of CPV-2c in Taiwan, revealing that this CPV-2c variant shares a common evolutionary origin with strains from China. The demographic history inferred by the Bayesian skyline plot showed that the effective population of CPV-2c increased until 2006 and then slowly declined until 2011.
Structural Limits on Verb Mapping: The Role of Analogy in Children's Interpretations of Sentences

The structure of sentences in which a verb is used can provide hints about its meaning (Landau & Gleitman, 1985). One possible view of how this works appeals to innate rules linking grammatical categories with semantic ones (e.g., if subject then agent). However, this view requires considerable syntactic knowledge on the part of the child to use structural cues; The child must already be able to identify the grammatical parts of a sentence-in a particular language-in order to gain access to such rules. In this paper I propose an alternative route from structure to verb meaning and present evidence for its use. A task was devised to deny preschoolers access to linking rules like "if subject then agent," by not identifying the subject. In three experiments, children learned novel verbs in different sentence contexts. The identity of the subject and object of each sentence was hidden by using ambiguous pronouns (e.g., she and her). Thus only the number of arguments (transitive vs intransitive sentences) and their marking by preposition (to vs from) could provide cues to verb meaning. Meanings were assessed by asking children to point to the one performing the labeled action. Children's choices revealed sensitivity to both number and marking of arguments. These results suggest that very little explicit syntactic knowledge is needed to give children some structural cues to verb meaning. I suggest that a sentence structure has an abstract, relational meaning of its own, independent of the identity of its arguments, that can be applied by analogy to the child's conceptual representation of an event.
Hybrid Modulated Multiband Coherent Optical OFDM for Low-Complexity Phase Noise Compensation

In this paper, we propose and demonstrate effective laser phase noise compensation for coherent optical orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) systems that have long OFDM symbols. The phase noise compensation is achieved via hybrid modulated multiband optical OFDM, aided by the digital filter bank technique. For this, one of the multiple subbands is modulated as discrete Fourier transform spread OFDM. Our experimental results show that laser phase noise up to 1 MHz can be compensated for 114.8-Gb/s 16-QAM signals with 480-km standard single mode fiber transmission.
Nickel and chromium levels in the saliva of patients with fixed orthodontic appliances.

AIM The purpose of this study was to investigate the salivary concentration of nickel and chromium of patients undergoing orthodontic treatment. METHODS In this study 32 patients who presented to the orthodontic clinic were selected. The salivary samples were taken from the patients in four stages: before appliance placement and 20 days, 3 months, and 6 months following appliance placement. The salivary samples were collected in a plastic tube and were stored in the freezer before analysis. The samples were then transferred to the laboratory, and the amounts of metals were determined by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry with an autosampler. Each sample was analyzed three times, and the average was reported. RESULTS It was found that the average amount of nickel in the saliva 20 days after appliance placement was 0.8 μg/L more than before placement. Also, the amount of salivary nickel 20 days after the appliance placement was more than at the other stages, but the differences were not significant. The average amount of chromium in the saliva was found to be between 2.6 and 3.6 μg/L. The amount of chromium at all stages after appliance placement was more than before, but the differences between the chromium levels of saliva at all stages were not significant. CONCLUSION There was no significant difference in the average amount of salivary nickel and chromium of patients at various stages of orthodontic appliance placement.
In vitro translation of Harvey murine sarcoma virus RNA

The viral RNA of the Harvey strain of murine sarcoma virus (Ha-SV), which does not encode for any known viral structural polypeptides, has been translated in a nuclease-digested, cell-free system. The major protein product of the in vitro translation reaction has a molecular weight of 21,000 and is initiated faithfully with [35S]formylmethionine from formyl-[35S]methionyl-tRNAFMET. This polypeptide is clearly distinct from the RNA of the Moloney strain of type C helper virus used to pseudotype the Ha-SV. The intensity of the 21,000-dalton polypeptide on gels correlates well to the concentration of Ha-SV RNA in different viral RNA preparations. These experiments indicate that a polypeptide marker for Ha-SV is now available for the first time. The possibility that this protein is the product of the rat portion of the Ha-SV genome is discussed.
Multi-beam pillbox antennas in the millimeter-wave range

This work deals with the comparison between various configurations of multi-beam pillbox antennas. The antenna systems present the same pillbox architecture and consist of three parts: feeding part, quasi-optical system, and radiating part. Two different radiating structures and system excitations are considered. A leaky-wave solution and an array of slotted waveguides have been used as radiating parts. In particular, an array of slots etched on the uppermost metal layer of the pillbox structure and 23 waveguides (with 8 radiating slots each) are adopted for the leaky-wave and slotted waveguide solutions, respectively. For the feeding part beam-switching and mechanical scanning mechanisms have been selected. In the first case, seven integrated horns are placed in the focal plane of the integrated parabola to radiate seven beams in the far field, while in the second case (mechanical scanning) one single horn is moved on a straight line in the focal plane of the parabola so as to achieve the beam scanning. The quasi-optical system is the same for all configurations and is made by a pin-made integrated parabola and several coupling slots; it is used to shape and focus the energy coming from the input part to the radiating part. The antenna characteristics in terms of efficiency, bandwidth and scanning capabilities are compared. All the proposed antennas are low-cost, low profile, compact, efficient and very promising solutions for applications in the millimeter-wave range, especially for automotive radars.
Laser-Based Head-Tracked 3D Display Research

The construction and operation of two laser-based glasses-free 3D (autostereoscopic) displays that have been carried out within the European Union-funded projects MUTED and HELIUM3D is described in this paper. Both use a multi-user head tracker to direct regions viewer's referred to as exit pupils to viewer's eyes. MUTED employs a direct-view LCD whose backlight comprises novel steering optics and in HELIUM3D image information is supplied by a horizontally-scanned fast light valve whose output is controlled by a spatial light modulator (SLM). The principle of operation, construction and results obtained are described.
Intelligent search and acquisition of business knowledge from programs

This paper discusses the prototype system IRENE which employs concept acquisition techniques in order to retrieve business knowledge from COBOL programs. In contrast with the mainstream of reverse-engineering techniques, IRENE relies on the availability of semantic (rather than syntactic knowledge), expressed as dependencies and derivations amongst the business entities represented in the program, derived by a process known as domain engineering.
The effect of Interaction Anxiousness Scale and Brief Social Phobia Scale for screening social anxiety disorder in college students: a study on discriminative validity

Abstract Background: Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is one of the most prevalent mental health problems, but there is little research concerning the effective screening instruments in practice. Methods: This study was designed to examine the discriminative validity of Interaction Anxiousness Scale (IAS) and Brief Social Phobia Scale (BSPS) for the screening of SAD through the compared and combined analysis. Firstly, 421 Chinese undergraduates were screened by the IAS and BSPS. Secondly, in the follow-up stage, 248 students were interviewed by the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was used, and the related psychometric characters were checked. Results: The results indicated that the ROC in these two scales demonstrated discrimination is in satisfactory level (range: 0.7–0.8). However, the highest agreement (92.17%) was identified when a cut-off point of 50 measured by the IAS and a cut-off point of 34 by the BSPS were combined, also with higher PPV, SENS, SPEC and OA than that reached when BSPS was used individually, as well as PPV, SPEC and OA in IAS. Conclusion: The findings indicate that the combination of these two scales is valid as the general screening instrument for SAD in maximizing the discriminative validity.
Resin comparison and fast automated stepwise conventional synthesis of human SDF‐1α

Human SDF‐1α contains 68 amino acids and is a member of the chemokine family of peptides. This long peptide was synthesized stepwise using classical conditions in 101 h. The reaction times were then reduced to deprotection times of 2 × 2 min and coupling times of 2 × 2.5 min, resulting in a total synthesis time of 22 h. The effect of different resins, resin substitutions and deprotection reagents on the crude peptide purities was compared. A small portion of crude peptide was purified using an RP‐HPLC column and the mass of the final product was confirmed with MALDI‐TOF mass spectrometry. Copyright © 2008 European Peptide Society and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
An oviposition pheromone associated with the egg rafts of Culex tarsalis.

The response of gravid mosquitoes, Culex tarsalis Coquillett, at 3 densities to egg rafts of their own species demonstrated an egg-associated pheromone which attracts females to oviposit. Olfactometer tests with this material showed significantly greater mosquito attraction to the oviposition pheromone than to distilled water. Gravid Culex pipiens pipiens L. , and Aedes aegypti (L.), did not respond to the C. tarsalis pheromone, which fact indicates that it may be species specific. Preliminary analysis of this chemical indicates other solubility, a lipid nature, and low vapor pressure.
HLA-B*35-Restricted CD8+-T-Cell Epitope in Mycobacterium tuberculosis Rv2903c

ABSTRACT Few human CD8+ T-cell epitopes in mycobacterial antigens have been described to date. Here we have identified a novel HLA-B*35-restricted CD8+ T-cell epitope in Mycobacterium tuberculosis Rv2903c based on a reverse immunogenetics approach. Peptide-specific CD8 T cells were able to kill M. tuberculosis-infected macrophages and produce gamma interferon and tumor necrosis factor alpha.
Sleepwalking, REM Sleep Behaviour Disorder and Overlap Parasomnia in Patients with Parkinson's Disease

Background/Aims: In a questionnaire survey, we identified 36 (9%) of 417 Parkinson's disease (PD) patients with sleepwalking (SW); 72% of them also had a history of REM sleep behaviour disorder (RBD). We aimed to assess the clinical and polysomnographic characteristics of SW in PD and to compare them to patients with PD with and without a history of RBD. Methods: We performed video-polysomnography and detailed clinical examination in 30 PD patients from the above-mentioned survey: 10 patients with a history of SW, 10 patients with a history of RBD, and 10 patients with no history of either SW or RBD. Results: PD patients with SW had higher depression, anxiety and Hoehn & Yahr scores and lower activities of daily living scores than patients without a history of RBD but did not differ from patients with RBD. Patients with SW and RBD also had more often dyskinesia and hallucinations. By polysomnography, RBD was observed in 8 patients with SW and in all patients with a history of RBD. A total of 5 patients without a history of either SW or RBD had REM sleep without atonia without behavioural peculiarities. Conclusion: SW in PD is associated with depression, higher disease severity and functional disability. The simultaneous occurrence of SW and RBD (overlap parasomnia) in most patients suggests a common underlying disturbance of motor control during sleep in PD, with variable manifestations in different sleep stages.
Co‐existence of cutaneous T‐cell lymphoma and B hairy cell leukemia

A primary cutaneous form of peripheral T‐cell lymphoma (PTCL) and a low grade B‐cell non‐Hodgkin's lymphoma that was classified as a variant of hairy cell leukemia (HCL) were simultaneously diagnosed in a 79‐year‐old woman by both phenotypic and genotypic analyses. The coexistence of a T‐ and B‐cell lymphoma in the same patient is rare, and, to our knowledge, this particular association has not been previously described. The patient was referred to our Department for evaluation of multiple cutaneous itchy, reddish plaques; laboratory analyses disclosed a lymphocytosis, that presented 6 years earlier. A bone marrow aspirate showed a 50% B‐cell interstitial infiltrate, while a skin biopsy surprisingly revealed a PTCL. Clonality of both neoplastic processes was assessed by Southern blot analysis. The indolent clinical course of the cutaneous disease, and the low and stable number of circulating neoplastic T cells supported the diagnosis of a mycosis fungoides (MF)‐like PTCL. Possible oncogenic events and/or putative underlying viral infections which could have played a role in the occurrence of B‐ and T‐cell non‐Hodgkin's lymphomas in the same patient are discussed. Am. J. Hematol. 64:197–202, 2000. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
ISeeU: camera-based user interface for a handheld computer

"Tilt scrolling" and "peephole display" are popular user interface ideas for small computers, and inertial sensors were often the choice for the realization of such ideas. Inertial sensors, however, have two fundamental limitations; the frame of reference is not the user but the earth, and drifting errors are difficult to overcome. A possibly better solution, free from such limitations, is machine vision. Machine vision was a luxury for small computers but is becoming a practical solution because a camera is now a common component of small computers and the required vision algorithm is already running in optical mice. The vision algorithm of our prototype, which we called ISeeU, tracks simple features in the user's face and calculates lateral displacements and changes in distance, which in turn are used to control scrolling and zooming. An informal test with scrolling tasks indicates that its performance is comparable with a user interface using arrow keys.
CS 231 A Project Final Report Character Identification in TV Series from Partially Labeled Data

We present a framework for finding and identifying character faces in TV series. This method requires only a video and a set of subtitles containing the names of the speaking characters and the time at which they are speaking. It relies on a processing pipeline incorporating face detection, face tracking, mouth and speaker detection, featurization of face tracks and finally discriminative learning. We show an almost-complete implementation of this pipeline, where only speaker labeling has been done manually. By itself, our learning algorithm achieves an average accuracy of 74.8% on a publicly available dataset of featurized face tracks from 6 episodes of a TV series where speakers have already been labeled. Using our own face tracker and manually labeled speakers, the learning algorithm achieves 85.23% accuracy on the first episode.
Automatic Web Page Segmentation and Noise Removal for Structured Extraction using Tag Path Sequences

Web page segmentation and data cleaning are essential steps in structured web data extraction. Identifying a web page main content region, removing what is not important (menus, ads, etc.), can greatly improve the performance of the extraction process. We propose, for this task, a novel and fully automatic algorithm that uses a tag path sequence (TPS) representation of the web page. The TPS consists of a sequence of symbols (string), each one representing a different tag path. The proposed technique searches for positions in the TPS where it is possible to split it in two regions where each region's alphabet do not intersect, which means that they have completely different sets of tag paths and, thus, are different regions. The results show that the algorithm is very effective in identifying the main content block of several major websites, and improves the precision of the extraction step by removing irrelevant results.