Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Effect of Adaptive Nonlinear Frequency Compression on Phoneme Perception.

Purpose This study implemented a fitting method, developed for use with frequency lowering hearing aids, across multiple testing sites, participants, and hearing aid conditions to evaluate speech perception with a novel type of frequency lowering. Method A total of 8 participants, including children and young adults, participated in real-world hearing aid trials. A blinded crossover design, including posttrial withdrawal testing, was used to assess aided phoneme perception. The hearing aid conditions included adaptive nonlinear frequency compression (NFC), static NFC, and conventional processing. Results Enabling either adaptive NFC or static NFC improved group-level detection and recognition results for some high-frequency phonemes, when compared with conventional processing. Mean results for the distinction component of the Phoneme Perception Test (Schmitt, Winkler, Boretzki, & Holube, 2016) were similar to those obtained with conventional processing. Conclusions Findings suggest that both types of NFC tested in this study provided a similar amount of speech perception benefit, when compared with group-level performance with conventional hearing aid technology. Individual-level results are presented with discussion around patterns of results that differ from the group average.
Oxidative stress impairs cGMP-dependent protein kinase activation and vasodilator-stimulated phosphoprotein serine-phosphorylation

ABSTRACT Reactive oxygen species induce vascular dysfunction and hypertension by directly interacting with nitric oxide (NO) which leads to NO inactivation. In addition to a decrease in NO bioavailability, there is evidence that oxidative stress can also modulate NO signaling during hypertension. Here, we investigated the effect of oxidative stress on NO signaling molecules cGMP-dependent protein kinase (PKG) and vasodilator-stimulated phosphoprotein (VASP) which are known to mediate vasodilatory actions of NO. Male Sprague Dawley (SD) rats were provided with tap water (control), 30 mM L-buthionine sulfoximine (BSO, a pro-oxidant), 1 mM tempol (T, an antioxidant) and BSO + T for 3 wks. BSO-treated rats exhibited high blood pressure and oxidative stress. Incubation of mesenteric arterial rings with NO donors caused concentration-dependent relaxation in control rats. However, the response to NO donors was significantly lower in BSO-treated rats with a marked decrease in pD2. In control rats, NO donors activated mesenteric PKG, increased VASP phosphorylation and its interaction with transient receptor potential channels 4 (TRPC4) and inhibited store-operated Ca2+ influx. NO failed to activate these signaling molecules in mesenteric arteries from BSO-treated rats. Supplementation of BSO-treated rats with tempol reduced oxidative stress and blood pressure and normalized the NO signaling. These data suggest that oxidative stress can reduce NO-mediated PKG activation and VASP-TRPC4 interaction which leads to failure of NO to reduce Ca2+ influx in smooth muscle cells. The increase in intracellular Ca2+ contributes to sustained vasoconstriction and subsequent hypertension. Antioxidant supplementation decreases oxidative stress, normalizes NO signaling and reduces blood pressure.
Detection of object in motion using improvised background subtraction algorithm

The video streams are analyzed for extracting useful information and that information is further used in other high end applications. This has become a dynamic area of research in the field of computer vision. The growing importance is a result of its application in fields like human tracking and activity recognition systems, video surveillance, traffic monitoring and controlling systems etc. The first step in such applications is differentiating the foreground object i.e. the region or object of interest from background objects that is the complementary set of pixels. Detection of objects in motion from any video stream does not require any prior stored database but only multiple consecutive frames. Background subtraction is one of the simplest and most widely used methods for detection of moving object from a video sequence. Any background subtraction algorithm demands a stable background for efficient performance which makes the use of existing approaches very difficult in complicated real time applications. In this paper an approach based on color features is proposed. The color difference histogram (CDH) is computed in a locally existing small neighborhood which deals with the problem occurring due to dynamic backgrounds (e.g. running water, waving trees). Then, fuzzy c-means clustering (FCM) is employed to obtain fuzzy color difference histogram. This helps to overcome the impact generated due to change in illumination (sudden or gradual). Background modeling is done and foreground is detected using similarity matching. The object is further tracked using frame differencing. The proposed algorithm will work robustly in complex environments such as non-stationary backgrounds, varying illumination, frames with camouflage etc.
Combined epidural-general anesthesia was associated with lower risk of postoperative complications in patients undergoing open abdominal surgery for pheochromocytoma: A retrospective cohort study

Background Current evidences show that regional anesthesia is associated with decreased risk of complications after major surgery. However, the effects of combined regional-general anesthesia remain controversial. The purpose of our study was to analyze the impact of anesthesia (combined epidural-general anesthesia vs. general anesthesia) on the risk of postoperative complications in patients undergoing open surgery for pheochromocytoma. Methods This was a retrospective cohort study. 146 patients who underwent open surgery for pheochromocytoma (100 received combined epidural-general anesthesia and 46 received general anesthesia) in Peking University First Hospital from January 1, 2002 to December 31, 2015 were enrolled. The primary outcome was the occurrence of postoperative complications during hospital stay after surgery. Multivariate Logistic regression models were used to analyze the association between the choice of anesthetic method and the risk of postoperative complications. Results 17 (11.6%) patients developed complications during postoperative hospital stay. The incidence of postoperative complications was lower in patients with combined epidural-general anesthesia than in those with general anesthesia (6% [6/100] vs. 23.9% [11/46], P = 0.006). Multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that use of combined epidural-general anesthesia (OR 0.219, 95% CI 0.065–0.741; P = 0.015) was associated with lower risk, whereas male gender (OR 5.213, 95% CI 1.283–21.177; P = 0.021) and perioperative blood transfusion (OR 25.879; 95% CI 3.130–213.961; P = 0.003) were associated with higher risk of postoperative complications. Conclusions For patients undergoing open surgery for pheochromocytoma, use of combined epidural-general anesthesia may decrease the occurrence of postoperative complications.
Efficacy and long-term tolerability of sublingual fentanyl orally disintegrating tablet in the treatment of breakthrough cancer pain

Abstract Background and objectives: Breakthrough cancer pain (BTcP) represents an important clinical challenge in the care of patients with cancer. This trial evaluated the efficacy and long-term tolerability of a sublingual formulation of the fast-acting opioid fentanyl, for the treatment of BTcP in opioid-tolerant patients with cancer. Research design and methods: This was a randomized, placebo-controlled, multi-center, phase III trial, conducted in opioid-tolerant male and female patients (aged ≥17 years) with BTcP. The study was conducted at 36 centers across the USA. The study comprised a 2-week open-label titration phase, followed by a double-blind efficacy phase, during which patients received sublingual fentanyl citrate orally disintegrating tablet (sublingual fentanyl ODT) or placebo, in a random order. The primary efficacy endpoint was the sum of pain intensity difference (SPID) over 30 min post-administration. Secondary efficacy endpoints included pain intensity difference (PID) and pain relief (PR) throughout the 60-min post-dose assessment period. Following efficacy evaluation, patients entered a long-term safety phase of up to 12 months. Adverse events were recorded throughout the study. [Clinical trial registration: NCT00262678] Results: A total of 131 patients entered the titration phase, of whom 61 were included in the primary efficacy analysis. Sublingual fentanyl ODT provided significant improvements in SPID relative to placebo at 30 min (49.5 vs. 36.6, p = 0.0004) and 60 min post-administration (143.0 vs. 104.5, p = 0.0002). Furthermore, sublingual fentanyl ODT provided significant improvements in PID and PR compared to placebo, from 10 min post-dose (p = 0.0055 and p = 0.049 for PID and PR, respectively). Patient recruitment was stopped early, due to positive interim analysis results (significant at prespecified level, p ≤ 0.0414). Overall, sublingual fentanyl ODT was well-tolerated both systemically and sublingually, with 41 patients experiencing ≥1 study drug-related adverse event (AE). The most common AEs included nausea (12.2%), vomiting (5.3%) and somnolence (4.6%). One serious AE (mild affect lability) was considered possibly related to study medication. The observed pattern of AEs was consistent with that previously observed with fentanyl. Conclusions: Sublingual fentanyl ODT was efficacious and well-tolerated for the treatment of BTcP in opioid-tolerant patients with cancer. Sublingual fentanyl ODT provided significant improvements in pain intensity compared to placebo, from 10 min post-administration and throughout the 60-min post-dose assessment period. Sublingual fentanyl ODT was well tolerated over 12 months of treatment.
Development of image collection representations for intelligent distributed systems

Numerous social networks, such as Flickr, Picasa, Instagram, and even news agencies, encourage their users to upload content in the form of annotated images. These image collections have become extremely large, containing hundreds of millions of images from millions of users. One consequence is that retrieval of a full set of thematic images, such as ancient ruins in Italy or mountain climbing in Peru, requires multiple collection searches. This is very time‐consuming for the user, particularly because these collections have not been developed for distributed system search and typically have no externally available collection description. In this paper, we present a system that can automatically generate an image collection description suitable for distributed search. Our approach enhances the image tag sets collected by the host system for development of a collection description that provides an extended vocabulary to match search query terms. The benefit of using collection descriptions in the image retrieval process is the ability to first select collections that are relevant to the query before retrieval of relevant images from those collections. This two‐step process improves query processing efficiency, because irrelevant collections need not be searched. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Performance evaluation of spectrum database access with interference alignment in cognitive radio enabled vehicles

Cognitive radio intelligently adapts particular transmission or reception parameter by sensing the environment. It has got an extraordinary consideration to enhance spectrum usage. Spectrum efficiency is increased by enabling secondary users to access spectrum resource, when it is not being occupied by primary users. Cognitive radio vehicular networks are formed for the efficient use of the licensed spectrum for high-bandwidth vehicular informing, driver-help capacities, and traveler amusement administrations. In CR vehicular systems, spectrum information is refreshed by the CR empowered vehicles to maintain the spectrum information is relevant to the current position of the vehicle. The vehicle should finish the information exchanges with roadside base stations (BSs) in short collaboration times to discover the PUs activity since the vehicles have high mobility. By using interference alignment, the message transmission time between BSs and CR vehicles is reduced. The messages are transmitted in fewer time slots. Power consumption is a major problem in communications. In this paper the power consumption is reduced by using an energy-efficient distributed opportunistic interference alignment (OIA) scheme. By using this method the throughput gets increased when compared to the conventional interference alignment (OIA) method.
Functional variant of the P2X7 receptor gene is associated with human papillomavirus-16 positive cervical squamous cell carcinoma

Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection and the fate of HPV infected cervical epithelial cells are strictly associated with cervical cancer development. P2X7 receptor has been implicated in both the regulation of immune responses and apoptosis of cervical cancer cells. The study aims to investigate if polymorphisms in the P2RX7 gene are associated with the risk of cervical cancer in Taiwanese women. P2RX7 253 T/C, 835 G/A, and 1513 A/C loss-of-function polymorphisms were genotyped in a hospital-based study of 507 women with cervical squamous cell carcinoma (CSCC) and 1619 age-matched healthy control women. The presence and genotypes of HPV in CSCC was determined. The frequency of 253 C/C genotype was found to increase significantly in patients with HPV-16 positive CSCC compared with controls (odds ratio = 10.2, 95% confidence interval 1.39–87.8, Pc = 0.03). No significant associations were found for other 2 polymorphisms. Analysis of haplotypes also revealed no significant differences among women with CSCC, those with HPV-16 positive CSCC and controls. In conclusion, inheritance of the C/C genotype at position 253 in the P2RX7 gene may contribute to the risk of HPV-16 associated CSCC in Taiwanese women.
Yield surface of a fibre network: A first way to explore the process of rupture of biological tissues

Soft conjunctive biological tissues are mainly constituted of fibres. These elastinand collagen fibres can support large strains. For this reason, the commonlyused mechanical behaviors are hyperelastic with anisotropy induced by fibresdistribution. If we want to extend these models to dissipative transformations(damage, plasticity, rupture . . . ) we first have to solve the problem of the definitionof the elastic domain (yield surface). We propose to study the response of an unconnected fibre network submitted toan affine transformation which is a very simple model but often used in literature(see Cox or Sacks for instance). Yield surfaces are then computed using planestresses assumption and considering the fibres as an incompressible material. Theresponses differ a lot from the mechanical behavior of fibres, which could be fragile,damageable or plastic. These results lead to a non obvious macroscopic descriptionof the yield surface.
Label consistent matrix factorization based hashing for cross-modal retrieval

Matrix factorization-based hashing has been very effective in addressing the cross-modal retrieval task. In this work, we propose a novel supervised hashing approach utilizing the concepts of matrix factorization which can seamlessly incorporate the label information. In the proposed approach, the latent factors for each individual modality are generated and then converted to the more discriminative label space using modality specific linear transformations. In the first stage of the approach, the hash codes are learnt using an alternating minimization algorithm and in the next stage, modality specific hash functions are learned to convert the original features of the cross-modal data into the hash code domain. In addition, we also propose an extension of the approach for handling very large amounts of data during the training stage. Extensive experiments performed on the single label Wiki, and the multi-labeled MirFlickr and NUS-WIDE datasets show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
TSC1/2 mutations define a molecular subset of HCC with aggressive behaviour and treatment implication

Objective We investigated the mutational landscape of mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signalling cascade in hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs) with chronic HBV background, aiming to evaluate and delineate mutation-dependent mechanism of mTOR hyperactivation in hepatocarcinogenesis. Design We performed next-generation sequencing on human HCC samples and cell line panel. Systematic mutational screening of mTOR pathway-related genes was undertaken and mutant genes were evaluated based on their recurrence. Protein expressions of tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC)1, TSC2 and pRPS6 were assessed by immunohistochemistry in human HCC samples. Rapamycin sensitivity was estimated by colony-formation assay in HCC cell lines and the treatment was further tested using our patient-derived tumour xenograft (PDTX) models. Results We identified and confirmed multiple mTOR components as recurrently mutated in HBV-associated HCCs. Of significance, we detected frequent (16.2%, n=18/111) mutations of TSC1 and TSC2 genes in the HCC samples. The spectrum of TSC1/2 mutations likely disrupts the endogenous gene functions in suppressing the downstream mTOR activity through different mechanisms and leads to more aggressive tumour behaviour. Mutational disruption of TSC1 and TSC2 was also observed in HCC cell lines and our PDTX models. TSC-mutant cells exhibited reduced colony-forming ability on rapamycin treatment. With the use of biologically relevant TSC2-mutant PDTXs, we demonstrated the therapeutic benefits of the hypersensitivity towards rapamycin treatment. Conclusions Taken together, our findings suggest the significance of previously undocumented mutation-dependent mTOR hyperactivation and frequent TSC1/2 mutations in HBV-associated HCCs. They define a molecular subset of HCC having genetic aberrations in mTOR signalling, with potential significance of effective specific drug therapy.
Ultracompact Polarization-Insensitive Power Splitter Using Subwavelength Gratings

An ultracompact polarization-insensitive power splitter using silicon-based subwavelength grating (SWG) is proposed and analyzed, where one input tapered waveguide and two adjacent inverse-tapered waveguides are embedded in the center of the SWG-wire structure. With the optimized device dimensions, the input light can be coupled from the input tapered waveguide into the adjacent inverse-tapered waveguides with the help of the SWG, and then output from the two symmetric bending channels with a polarization-insensitive transmission. Results show that a compact device of 2.5 <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> in total length is achieved with an insertion loss of 0.04 dB (0.05 dB), a reflection loss of −30.24 dB (−38.23 dB) for TE (TM) mode at 1.55 <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, and the operation bandwidth of low loss can cover the O, E, S, C, L, and part of U bands. In addition, fabrication tolerances and mode-field evolution are also presented.
Serum Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) Concentration, PSA Mass, and Obesity: A Mathematical Analysis

Objectives To provide a mathematical background for understanding the phenomenon of analyte hemodilution using a kinetic analysis. Methods The first assumption for this analysis is that change in concentration of any analyte, such as prostate-specific antigen (PSA), is due to the flux of the analyte from an organ into the blood minus its flux from the blood. What results is a relatively simple differential equation that emphasizes the importance of plasma volume, organ mass, and two rate constants. Results The analyses demonstrate how serum PSA can be affected by plasma volume as well as body mass and how hemodilution due to obesity can be at least partly corrected for by expressing PSA in units of total mass or total mass density. Conclusions At a time when obesity is prevalent, expressing analytes in units of total mass may make them relate more closely to disease status and prognosis.
Starting Performance Improvement of Line-Start Permanent-Magnet Synchronous Motor Using Composite Solid Rotor

This paper presents a composite solid rotor designed to improve starting performance of the line-start permanent-magnet synchronous motor (LSPMSM). The rotor is mainly constituted by the solid steel which can inherently generate high starting torque. Moreover, the axial slots milled on the rotor surface deepen the flux penetration into core and a brass made cage attached to the rotor enlarges the eddy current density. With above promotions, the induction torque increases, and hence drives the motor to startup and synchronize under heavy load conditions. The enhanced starting capability by applying the proposed rotor for an LSPMSM is validated by the 2-D time-stepping finite-element method (FEM). To guarantee a well match with the 3-D construction where end effects occur, an equivalent circuit is built in the 2-D method to represent the uneven ring fractions. Simultaneously, considering the non-axial currents in core ends, conductivity of the solid-rotor segments in 2-D field is corrected by a multistep optimum-seeking technique. Calculation precision of the 2-D FEM covering end effects is certificated by the corresponding 3-D FEM with good results agreement.
Identification of breast cancer cell subtypes sensitive to ATG4B inhibition

Autophagy, a lysosome-mediated degradation and recycling process, functions in advanced malignancies to promote cancer cell survival and contribute to cancer progression and drug resistance. While various autophagy inhibition strategies are under investigation for cancer treatment, corresponding patient selection criteria for these autophagy inhibitors need to be developed. Due to its central roles in the autophagy process, the cysteine protease ATG4B is one of the autophagy proteins being pursued as a potential therapeutic target. In this study, we investigated the expression of ATG4B in breast cancer, a heterogeneous disease comprised of several molecular subtypes. We examined a panel of breast cancer cell lines, xenograft tumors, and breast cancer patient specimens for the protein expression of ATG4B, and found a positive association between HER2 and ATG4B protein expression. We showed that HER2-positive cells, but not HER2-negative breast cancer cells, require ATG4B to survive under stress. In HER2-positive cells, cytoprotective autophagy was dependent on ATG4B under both starvation and HER2 inhibition conditions. Combined knockdown of ATG4B and HER2 by siRNA resulted in a significant decrease in cell viability, and the combination of ATG4B knockdown with trastuzumab resulted in a greater reduction in cell viability compared to trastuzumab treatment alone, in both trastuzumab-sensitive and -resistant HER2 overexpressing breast cancer cells. Together these results demonstrate a novel association of ATG4B positive expression with HER2 positive breast cancers and indicate that this subtype is suitable for emerging ATG4B inhibition strategies.
Prevalence of diabetes mellitus and its risk factors in urban communities of north Sudan: Population‐based study

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a major health problem in Africa and worldwide. The prevalence of diabetes is expected to increase at alarming rate in Africa. Its estimated that around 20 million Africans are now living with diabetes, comprising a challenge for health systems at present and in the future. The aim of the present study was to determine the prevalence of undiagnosed and diagnosed DM and impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) in adult urban communities of the River Nile State (RNS), north Sudan.