Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Neurofeedback-Controlled Comparison of the Head Elevation versus Head Rotation and Head-Hand Methods in Eliciting Cervical Vestibular Evoked Myogenic Potentials

A constant tension of the sternocleidomastoid muscles is a prerequisite to a reliable recording of cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potentials (cVEMP). Therefore, the head elevation method, the head rotation method, and the head-hand method are used in clinical practice. So far, no method has been shown to achieve the best stability and validity of the cVEMP responses. We performed a prospective study to compare the cVEMP responses in a within-subject design. With 40 healthy subjects, cVEMP amplitudes, latencies, asymmetry ratios and thresholds were measured. The muscle tension was kept constant by using acoustic feedback. The individual subjective comfort and preference of a method were evaluated by a questionnaire. The cVEMP threshold and asymmetry ratios were lowest with the head rotation method. This method was also rated as the most comfortable and thus preferred one. The cVEMP latencies were not different between the methods. Our results show that the head rotation method appears to be superior to the compared head elevation and head-hand methods.
A Magnesium Transporter OsMGT 1 Plays a Critical Role in Salt Tolerance in Rice 1 [ OPEN ]

Zhi Chang Chen, Naoki Yamaji, Tomoaki Horie, Jing Che, Jian Li, Gynheung An, and Jian Feng Ma Root Biology Center, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China Institute of Plant Science and Resources, Okayama University, Chuo 2-20-1, Kurashiki, Japan Division of Applied Biology, Faculty of Textile Science and Technology, Shinshu University, 3-15-1, Tokida, Ueda, Nagano 386-8567, Japan Crop Biotech Institute, Kyung Hee University, Yongin, Gyeonggi-do 17104, Republic of Korea
Infections of the Ear

The introduction of a widening range of antibiotics in the past fifteen years has profoundly altered the treatment of acute otitis media, greatly altered the need for surgery, and diminished the incidence of intracranial spread of infection and permanent deafness. It is also agreed that the virulence of otitic infections has undergone a change, so that to-day we do not see some of the devastating infections prevalent years ago. During this time there has also been a realization of the dangers of antibiotic therapy, and, while the need for early treatment in adequate dosage and the continued necessity for surgical drainage of pus is now widely known, the delayed effects in causing deafness and cholesteatoma are not yet generally realized or accepted. It is easy to place too much reliance on drugs and to delay surgery; this is dangerous, because it ignores basic surgical principles and may lead to catastrophe. The indications for advising surgical intervention may be slight and often require more judgment and experience than was formerly the case. Acute-aural infections may be caused by a variety of organisms whose identity cannot be determined by the clinical features alone. Moreover, the bacteriology may from time to time present considerable variation, not only in the type of infecting organism but in the virulence and drug resistance of a particular organism. Thus Hodgkin (1957) found that more than half (in winter, more than two-thirds) of his cases of acute suppurative otitis media were due to Streptococcus pyogenes, but Friedmann (1954) a few years earlier found this organism to be responsible in less than a quarter of his cases. Recently there has been an increase in the proportion of cases infected with Staphylococcus aureus, and in many this organism is resistant to some or all of the antibiotics in common use. Because of the variability of the virulence and antibiotic sensitivity of the organism and the natural resistance of the patient-the latter includes the antibody response as well as local factors such as adenoidal hypertrophy, the functioning of the Eustachian tube, and the anatomical configuration and scarring from previous infections in the middle ear and mastoid process-the choice and method of administration of the antibiotic are dictated by the clinical findings and the bacteriological investigation.
Channel estimation of MIMO-OFDM system based on subspace

Blind channel identification and equalization methods of oversampled MIMO-OFDM systems based on subspace are discussed. The proposed method employs reduced-rank orthogonal iteration to estimate noise subspace with low computational complexity. When the number of transmit antenna is greater than that of receive antenna of MIMO-OFDM system, oversampled method is used to obtain enough information for identification. Simulation results illustrate that the proposed method can achieve good performance.
Chemical mass accounting of urban aerosol.

A chemical mass accounting technique emphasizing the importance of chemical speciation is developed for analyzing atmospheric-aerosol data. The technique demonstrates that total aerosol mass can generally be characterized from measurements of SO_4, Cl, Br, NO_3, NH_4, Na, K, Ca, Fe, Mg, Al, Si, Pb, carbonaceous material, and aerosol water, the predominant species being SO_4, NO_3, NH_4, Si, carbonaceous material, and aerosol water. Since water is the major species distributed between the gas and aerosol phases, the interrelation between water and electrolytic mass is explored. It is shown that aerosol water is significantly correlated with electrolyte mass. Calculated aerosol ionic strengths lie in the region where the relative humidity/ionic strength relation is most sensitive, thereby suggesting the importance of relative- humidity monitoring during aerosol sampling.
Temperature-independent high-speed distributed voltage measurement using intensiometric FBG interrogation

In this paper, we demonstrate through simulation a low-cost, high-speed optical voltage sensing system with a multiplexing capability. The scheme utilizes transducers based on a hybrid piezoelectric/optical construction, whereby the optical power reflected from dual-peak fiber Bragg gratings is modulated in response to an excitation voltage and monitored by photodetection while remaining robust to fluctuations in optical power and temperature. A dedicated solid-state interrogation system incorporating passive wavelength division multiplexing allows for high-speed measurement over the ac/dc voltage sensor array without the use of expensive components, such as tunable filters or lasers.
Comparison of Equations With Estimate Renal Function to Predict Serum Vancomycin Concentration in Patients With Spinal Cord Injury—Does the Use of Cystatin C Improve Accuracy?

Background: Vancomycin dose selection is challenging in the spinal cord injury (SCI) population because of the difficulty in accurately estimating the renal function. Creatinine-based equations have been shown to be unreliable in this patient population. Adjusted equations designed for patients with SCI have not been well studied. Cystatin C is an alternative marker of renal function that is less affected by muscle mass and may offer improvement in estimating renal function leading to improved initial dose selection. Objective: To compare the accuracy of serum creatinine- and serum cystatin C-based equations used in a pharmacokinetic (PK) model to predict steady-state serum vancomycin concentration in an SCI population. The rationale for this study is the need for an improved predictive model to guide initial vancomycin dose design before the availability of a measured steady-state serum concentration. Methods: Patients with SCI receiving vancomycin with measured serum creatinine, cystatin C, and steady-state serum vancomycin concentration were identified. Serum creatinine- and cystatin C-based equations to estimate renal function were substituted into a population-based PK model to predict steady state-serum vancomycin concentration. Predictions using each equation in the model were compared with the measured steady-state serum vancomycin concentration. Predictive performances using each equation in the PK model were compared. Results: The final study population included 37 patients with SCI. The Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration cystatin C equation provided significantly less bias, greater precision, and superior accuracy when used in the PK model. Conclusions: In the SCI population, the use of Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration cystatin C equation may improve initial vancomycin dosing. Further study into this potential is encouraged.
Design and Implementation of an FPGA-Based CCFL Driving System With Digital Dimming Capability

The proliferation of liquid-crystal display (LCD) monitors and notebook computers places an ever-increasing demand on display technology. The LCD with cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) best satisfies display performance, size, and efficiency. To operate the CCFL, a driving circuit is needed to light the lamp with a relatively high voltage and then stabilize the arc current. For minimizing the component count and size, a high-frequency zero-voltage switching (ZVS) resonant converter is preferred. In this paper, a field-programmable-gate-array-based ZVS resonant converter for driving CCFL with digital dimming capability is presented. The proposed digital controller utilizes the pulse density modulation technique to adjust the output power. A 3-W prototyping system is built and tested; experimental results show that the proposed system can reduce the voltage spike by more than 15%, compared to the low-frequency dimming methods. The overall system power efficiency is approximately 85%. The advantages of the proposed system include high efficiency, low output voltage and current spike, wide dimming range, flexibility, and compactness.
Convolutional features with Unsupervised Feature Learning for interest point detection and patch description

Interest point detection and patch description is of great significance in computer vision applications. In this paper, we present a convolutional approach to interest point detection and patch description, which could detect and descript invariant 2D-features form images of different view conditions of an object or scene. In contrast to other convolution approaches that is trained to represent data or solve a classification task, our network could learn to not only describe but detect 2D-featrures of an image and the unsupervised feature learning is applied to ensure the algorithm with accuracy and distinctiveness. Also, we present a comparison evaluation on benchmark datasets of affine covariant features, yielding the algorithm of competitive results compared to the traditional approaches on detection and description.
Agar Gel Alkaline Electrophoresis As A Cost Effective Screening Modality For Abnormal Hemoglobins

Alkaline agar gel electrophoresis is a basic manual laborious technique for identifying Hemoglobin variants in the screening for Hemoglobinopathies. It’s a cheaper alternative to the now preferred method of detection of Hb variants, i.e., HPLC. In this study, at a government hospital clinical biochemistry laboratory setup, we try to compare and emphasize the importance of this manual procedure. We have done this observation from the archives of lab and case sheet data for the past four and half years; that 1891 electrophoresis were done and 65% were normal, 20% shown Thalassemia trait, and 6% were Thalassemia major and 8% were shown sickle Hb pattern. Majority correlated clinically with the electrophoresis report and in doubtful cases (1.32%), HPLC confirmed the electrophoresis report. Hence wherever feasible, we recommend this manual alkaline agar gel electrophoresis where cost is a limiting factor.
[VALUES OF WAIST/HIP RATIO AMONG CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS FROM BOGOTÁ, COLOMBIA: THE FUPRECOL STUDY].

OBJECTIVE the aim was to establish reference standards for waist/hip ratio among Colombia children and adolescent aged 9 to 17.9 years who participated in "The FUPRECOL Study". METHODS cross-sectional study. A sample of 3 005 children and 2 916 adolescents healthy Colombian youth (boys n = 2 542 and girls n = 3 384) participated in the study. Height, weight, waist circumference, hip circumference and sexual maturation status were measured. Reference curves were fitted with the LMS method (L [curve Box- Cox], M [curve median] and S [curve coefficient of variation]), for boys and girls, stratified by age group, and to compare them to international references. RESULTS in all ages, the waist/hip ratio was higher in boys than in girls. Subjects whose waist/hip ratio was above the 90th percentile of the standard normal distribution were considered to have high cardiovascular risk (boys range 0.87 to 0.93 and girls range 0.85 to 0.89). Overall, our waist/hip ratio values were lower than Europe, Asia and Africa values and similar to those of some Latin American references. CONCLUSIONS values reference charts for waist/hip ratio values specific for age and sex, obtained from children and adolescents from Bogota, Colombia, are provided. They may be used regionally, both for nutritional assessment and to predict cardiovascular risks in early age.
Author ' s personal copy Post loss / profit announcement drift

We document a market failure to fully respond to loss/profit quarterly announcements. The annualized post portfolio formation return spread between two portfolios formed on extreme losses and extreme profits is approximately 21 percent. This loss/profit anomaly is incremental to previously documented accounting-related anomalies, and is robust to alternative risk adjustments, distress risk, firm size, short sales constraints, transaction costs, and sample periods. In an effort to explain this finding, we show that this mispricing is related to differences between conditional and unconditional probabilities of losses/profits, as if stock prices do not fully reflect conditional probabilities in a timely fashion. & 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Training in Dialysis Access - Charting Future Success

Purpose Medical education and training in dialysis access skills remains complex and inadequate as learners come from diverse backgrounds and from various specialties so that appropriate training is limited. As a result, a system of progressive education including live lectures, and hands on training has emerged, but there is controversy as to what constitutes the best educational model. Methods Presently there is no recognized or structured training in vascular access during residency or fellowships. Here we present a model of dialysis access training for beginner to advanced surgeons. Results A structured hands-on and didactic surgery training certification course consisting of a one week curriculum with 49 hours of ACCME credit hours has been in effect for one year. The learning impact and the performance outcome are high but with limited attendance capacity. Pre- and post- training test results attest to training effectiveness. To increase access, an off-site training curriculum has been initiated, entailing 1-2 days (8-15 credit hours) consisting of didactic lectures and surgical training. This teaching module has moderate learning impact for 50-100 attendees. Finally, a tiered, web-based training curriculum (10 ACCME credit hours) can accommodate an unlimited number of learners, but has a lower skills learning impact. Conclusions The future dialysis access training must also accommodate learners with diverse individual backgrounds, and different levels of professional (skill) development. To be effective and accessible, a variety of educational system, for example on site or web based is needed. Collaborative initiatives for global dialysis access training are currently underway.
Automatic rule learning exploiting morphological features for named entity recognition in Turkish

Named entity recognition (NER) is one of the basic tasks in automatic extraction of information from natural language texts. In this paper, we describe an automatic rule learning method that exploits different features of the input text to identify the named entities located in the natural language texts. Moreover, we explore the use of morphological features for extracting named entities from Turkish texts. We believe that the developed system can also be used for other agglutinative languages. The paper also provides a comprehensive overview of the field by reviewing the NER research literature. We conducted our experiments on the TurkIE dataset, a corpus of articles collected from different Turkish newspapers. Our method achieved an average F-score of 91.08% on the dataset. The results of the comparative experiments demonstrate that the developed technique is successfully applicable to the task of automatic NER and exploiting morphological features can significantly improve the NER from Turkish, an agglutinative language.
A Nonconvex Free Lunch for Low-Rank plus Sparse Matrix Recovery

We study the problem of low-rank plus sparse matrix recovery. We propose a generic and efficient nonconvex optimization algorithm based on projected gradient descent and double thresholding operator, with much lower computational complexity. Compared with existing convex-relaxation based methods, the proposed algorithm recovers the low-rank plus sparse matrices for free, without incurring any additional statistical cost. It not only enables exact recovery of the unknown low-rank and sparse matrices in the noiseless setting, and achieves minimax optimal statistical error rate in the noisy case, but also matches the best-known robustness guarantee (i.e., tolerance for sparse corruption). At the core of our theory is a novel structural Lipschitz gradient condition for low-rank plus sparse matrices, which is essential for proving the linear convergence rate of our algorithm, and we believe is of independent interest to prove fast rates for general superposition-structured models. We demonstrate the superiority of our generic algorithm, both theoretically and experimentally, through three concrete applications: robust matrix sensing, robust PCA and one-bit matrix decomposition.
Reducing medication regimen complexity for older patients prior to discharge from hospital: feasibility and barriers

What is known and Objective: Older hospital inpatients are often prescribed complex multi‐drug regimens; increased regimen complexity is associated with poorer medication adherence and treatment outcomes. There has been little research into methods for reducing regimen complexity. The objective of this study was to explore the feasibility of incorporating medication regimen simplification into routine clinical pharmacist care for older hospital inpatients and identify barriers to regimen simplification at a major teaching hospital.
Learning from Multiple Social Networks

Abstract With the proliferation of social network services, more and more social users, such as individuals and organizations, are simultaneously involved in multiple social networks for various purposes. In fact, multiple social networks characterize the same social users from different perspectives, and their contexts are usually consistent or complementary rather than independent. Hence, as compared to using information from a single social network, appropriate aggregation of multiple social networks offers us a better way to comprehensively understand the given social users. Learning across multiple social networks brings opportunities to new services and applications as well as new insights on user online behaviors, yet it raises tough challenges: (1) How can we map different social network accounts to the same social users? (2) How can we complete the item-wise and block-wise missing data? (3) How can we leverage the relatedness among sources to strengthen the learning performance? And (4) How can w.
Endotherapy for Pancreatic Fistulae: Inside Out or Outside In?

How therapeutic endoscopy has changed! As participants and observers of the evolution of endotherapy, one has to marvel at the progress we have made in this field. We have withstood mild outrage of our description of precut sphincterotomy, to questions regarding the efficacy of balloon dilators for the bile and pancreatic duct sphincters, to outspoken objections at national meetings of our presentations describing the use of pancreatic stents for the treatment of various forms of pancreatitis, to the expectation of greater progress and advancement in the field. We routinely drain pseudocysts, stent disrupted pancreatic ducts, but, now, we commend the innovators from Erasme Hospital in Brussels for their newly described technique of completing an endoscopic rendezvous procedure performed through an external pancreatic fistula (EPF). In this new technique, an endoscopist, who is observing the progress of a percutaneous puncture through an EPF, positions an endoscope in the stomach or small bowel lumen while assisting another endoscopist (not a radiologist) who is advancing catheters and guide wires through the fistulous tract (a virtual cyst demonstrated by EUS) so that the assistant can guide the operator's puncture through the gut wall into the bowel lumen in order to deploy an internal stent to allow the normal flow or egress of pancreatic juices into the gut facilitating the closure of the fistula. Although the procedure is time-consuming and probably not cost-effective for the free enterprise reimbursement system in the United States, the results of this procedure, in a small number of patients over a long time period, were as effective as surgery. Our hats are off to those who continue to explore the outer limits of endotherapy, and we look forward to more exciting, unquestioned developments in the field. This is progress.
Marketing campaign targeting using bridge extraction

In this paper we introduce a methodology for improving targeting of marketing campaigns using bridge prediction in influential communities. The campaign strategy involves the identification of nodes with high brand loyalty and top-ranking nodes in terms on frequency of bridges that will be involved in the evolution of the graph. Our approach is based on an efficient classification model combining topological characteristics of a crawled social graph with sentiment and linguistic traits of user-nodes and influence in social media. To validate our approach we present a set of experimental results using a well-defined dataset from Twitter. Our methodology is useful to recommendation systems as well as to marketers who are interested to use social influence and run effective marketing campaigns.
Subtyping Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer

Morphology still remains the cornerstone in lung cancer classification and cytology and small biopsy samples should be interpreted by morphology, whenever feasible, according to shared and widely agreed-upon diagnostic schemes. However, as novel therapy strategies are being offered on the basis of the diverse tumor characteristics, pathologists are now challenged by the need to offer clinicians more detailed typing of non–small cell lung cancer, not otherwise specified (NSCLC-NOS), especially when dealing with limited diagnostic material or poorly differentiated tumors. Close integration of morphology, immunohistochemistry, and clinical data is highly warranted according to a multidisciplinary approach to limit the category of NSCLC-NOS as much as possible or exclude unsuspected metastases, so rendering more definite and clinically useful diagnoses. Among the many proposed immunohistochemical markers, which as a whole are more practical and diagnostically useful than cumbersome and expensive molecular assays, a 2-hit model including thyroid transcription factor-1 (TTF-1) and p40 (the latter more specific for squamous differentiation than p63) seems to be the most effective to basically highlight adenocarcinoma (positivity for TTF-1 regardless of p63) and squamous (always strongly and diffusely positive for p40 or p63 and negative for TTF-1) differentiation. This minimalist 2-hit diagnostic approach paves the way to novel perspectives in clinical trials on lung cancer, and it is also in keeping with the need of strategically preserving diagnostic material for molecular assays that are essential for personalizing therapies.