Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Virtual Clinic for Diabetes Self-Management: Pilot Study

Background Internet-based interventions to assist in diabetes management have the potential to provide patients with the information and support they need to become effective self-managers. Objective To assess the feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness of an Internet-based virtual clinic designed to facilitate self-management in patients who used insulin pumps to manage their diabetes. Methods For a period of 6 months, 17 patients joined the virtual clinic. The system allowed patients to communicate with health professionals, interact with peers and access information. HbA1c, quality of life, and self-efficacy were monitored at baseline and after 6 months. Questionnaires and qualitative interviews examined patient experiences. Results Participants found the virtual clinic easy to use and positively rated its design. Peer support was the most valued aspect and the discussion boards the most used component. All participants highly rated the virtual clinic in terms of improving communication with peers, but few agreed it had improved communication with health care professionals. No significant improvements in physiological and psychological measurements were found. Regarding HbA1c measurements, there was no significant difference found between the pre- and post-test results (P = .53). Mean ADDQoL scores at baseline were -2.1 (SD 1.1, range -3.4 to -0.5) compared to -2.0 (SD 1.2, range, -4.6 to -0.4) post-test (n = 12), (P = .62). Surprisingly, patients’ confidence in their ability to perform self-care tasks was found to be significantly reduced from baseline to follow up (P = .045). Conclusions An Internet-based system to aid the management of diabetes appears feasible and well accepted by patients. The pilot study did not identify evidence of an impact on improving quality of life or self-efficacy in patients who used insulin pump therapy.
Particle swarm optimization-based automatic parameter selection for deep neural networks and its applications in large-scale and high-dimensional data

In this paper, we propose a new automatic hyperparameter selection approach for determining the optimal network configuration (network structure and hyperparameters) for deep neural networks using particle swarm optimization (PSO) in combination with a steepest gradient descent algorithm. In the proposed approach, network configurations were coded as a set of real-number m-dimensional vectors as the individuals of the PSO algorithm in the search procedure. During the search procedure, the PSO algorithm is employed to search for optimal network configurations via the particles moving in a finite search space, and the steepest gradient descent algorithm is used to train the DNN classifier with a few training epochs (to find a local optimal solution) during the population evaluation of PSO. After the optimization scheme, the steepest gradient descent algorithm is performed with more epochs and the final solutions (pbest and gbest) of the PSO algorithm to train a final ensemble model and individual DNN classifiers, respectively. The local search ability of the steepest gradient descent algorithm and the global search capabilities of the PSO algorithm are exploited to determine an optimal solution that is close to the global optimum. We constructed several experiments on hand-written characters and biological activity prediction datasets to show that the DNN classifiers trained by the network configurations expressed by the final solutions of the PSO algorithm, employed to construct an ensemble model and individual classifier, outperform the random approach in terms of the generalization performance. Therefore, the proposed approach can be regarded an alternative tool for automatic network structure and parameter selection for deep neural networks.
Regulation, Innovation, and the Introduction of New Telecommunications Services

I examine the effects of FCC regulation on the innovation and introduction of advanced telecommunications services in the United States. An interim of lighter regulation provides an experiment to test the regulatory regime's impact. The econometric model comprises an arrival process (for service innovation) followed by a duration process (for regulatory delay). The number of services the firms created during the interim is 60-99 higher than the model predicts they would have created if the stricter regulation had still been in place. Overall, firms would have introduced 62 more services to consumers during the study period if the regulation had not been in place.
Epidemiology and Economic Importance of Sheep and Goat Pox: A Review on Past and Current Aspects

Sheep and goat pox is highly devastating viral systemic disease of sheep and got. This disease is manifested by skin and internal lesions, fever, conjunctivitis, with oculonasal discharge and excess salivation. The objective of this paper was to review epidemiology and economic importance sheep and goat pox with special emphasis on both the past and currents aspects. The causative agent of Sheep and goat pox is sheep and goat pox virus of family poxoviaride, genus capripoxvirus. The poxviruses of Sheep pox and goat pox viruses are distinct, but hard to differentiate and Recombination can occur. Sheep and goat virus can survive in the environment for prolonged time. Today, Sheep and Goat Pox is found in most parts of Africa (mainly north of the equator), portion of India, central Asia (including south Russia and western China) and the Middle East. In Ethiopia, the disease is distributed in all regions and in endemic areas the disease are economically important due to production losses because of decreased weight gain, milk yield, damage to wool and hides, cause abortion, and increased susceptibility to other disease, while also being a direct cause of death. The diseases are more severe in young animal then adults. Infected animals can acts as the main cause of spreading SGP viruses. Since these diseases have no effective drug the treatment should be directed at preventing secondary bacterial infection. Furthermore, the animal should be vaccinated with commercially available attenuated vaccine as the main control measure in endemic regions.
Bang-Bang charge control for LLC resonant converters

This paper proposes a Bang-Bang Charge Control (BBCC) method for LLC resonant converters. It utilizes the series resonant capacitor to directly control the cycle-by-cycle input electric quantity, thus can provide very fast dynamic performance in all input and output conditions. The proposed method can be extended to other topologies that include a series capacitor.
Electrocardiogram denoising using Wavelet decomposition and EMD domain filtering

During the data acquisition and transmission of Electrocardiogram (ECG) signal in the clinical environment, the signal gets corrupted by various types of noises e.g. additive white Gaussian Noise (AWGN), electrode contact noise, electromyography (EMG) noise, etc. For accurate diagnosis, denoising of ECG signal is necessary as it affects the diagnostic features. The proposed denoising approach combined the two methods, wavelet and empirical mode decomposition (EMD) for removal of AWGN. In this method, noisy ECG signal is primarily decomposed using wavelet decomposition resulting in approximation sequence and detail sequence. The soft-thresholding method is then used to denoise the detail sequence. This gives the denoised detail sequence which, in conjunction with approximation signal gives partially denoised signal. The partially denoised signal have observed to have denoised QRS complexes but the remaining part of this signal still have noises. The EMD decomposes this signal into several IMFs. The denoised QRS complex is then detected and preserved from the first three IMFs. The noisy segments of the remaining IMFs (other than first three IMFs) is then detected with the help of instantaneous half period (IHP) and filtered using soft-thresholding technique. The proposed Wavelet & EMD approach is evaluated using the records from MIT-BIH Arrhythmia Database.
Proofs in conflict-driven theory combination

Search-based satisfiability procedures try to construct a model of the input formula by simultaneously proposing candidate models and deriving new formulae implied by the input. When the formulae are satisfiable, these procedures generate a model as a witness. Dually, it is desirable to have a proof when the formulae are unsatisfiable. Conflict-driven procedures perform nontrivial inferences only when resolving conflicts between the formulae and assignments representing the candidate model. CDSAT (Conflict-Driven SATisfiability) is a method for conflict-driven reasoning in combinations of theories. It combines solvers for individual theories as theory modules within a solver for the union of the theories. In this paper we endow CDSAT with lemma learning and proof generation. For the latter, we present two techniques. The first one produces proof objects in memory: it assumes that all theory modules produce proof objects and it accommodates multiple proof formats. The second technique adapts the LCF approach to proofs from interactive theorem proving to conflict-driven SMT-solving and theory combination, by defining a small kernel of reasoning primitives that guarantees that CDSAT proofs are correct by construction.
Improving Reinforcement Learning with Confidence-Based Demonstrations

Reinforcement learning has had many successes, but in practice it often requires significant amounts of data to learn high-performing policies. One common way to improve learning is to allow a trained (source) agent to assist a new (target) agent. The goals in this setting are to 1) improve the target agent’s performance, relative to learning unaided, and 2) allow the target agent to outperform the source agent. Our approach leverages source agent demonstrations, removing any requirements on the source agent’s learning algorithm or representation. The target agent then estimates the source agent’s policy and improves upon it. The key contribution of this work is to show that leveraging the target agent’s uncertainty in the source agent’s policy can significantly improve learning in two complex simulated domains, Keepaway and Mario.
Compact mid-IR Breath Analysis System

Daylight Solutions is developing broadly tunable, external cavity quantum cascade lasers (EC-QCLs) for gas sensing instrumentation for numerous markets including medical breath analysis. Progress in two specific areas of development will be discussed: (i) miniaturization of a fast tunable, moderate resolution, pulsed EC-QCL and (ii) demonstration of a EC-QCL acetone sensor capable of breath acetone detection at the required low levels. Recent efforts at Daylight Solutions yielded the world's first miniature room temperature EC-QCLs comprising of a 15 mm long optical cavity, custom collimating optics, miniature grating tuning mechanism and integrated current and temperature controls. The laser can operate anywhere in the 4.5 -10.5 micron spectral region with a scanning range of over 100 wavenumbers. The spectral resolution is better than 1 wave number and the scanning rate is faster than 1 second. In addition to the relative simplicity and ruggedness of the optomechanical design, the laser also features low average power consumption, does not require precise current and temperature control, and can operate at room temperature with convective cooling. The prototype EC-QCL acetone sensor operating in 8 micron spectral range combined with Daylight Solutions' optimized IR detector together with a custom data acquisition system have shown a sensitivity of <100 PPB level of acetone, an important breath biomarker using single breath resolved absorption spectroscopy. The measurement approach, sensitivity, and selectivity in presence of other breath constituents will be discussed.
Partial characterization of water soluble polysaccharides extracted from one saharian medicinal plant: Malva aegyptiaca L.

Malva aegyptiaca L. (Malvaceae), a spontaneous plant used as a traditional medicine in Ghardaia (Septentrional Sahara Algerian). This paper reports the extraction and partial characterization of water-soluble polysaccharides from M. aegyptiaca leaves. These polysaccharides were obtained by elimination of the ethanol extract and sequential extraction in distilled water, followed by precipitation in 75% ethanol. The yield of extract is 1.46% (w/w). The crude water soluble polysaccharide extracts were further characterized and revealed the average values 17.14 ± 1.43% proteins and 78.18±2.04% carbohydrates, among them 30.68±0.42% are uronic acid and 47.49±1.62% are neutral monosaccharides. The identification of monosaccharide composition by high performance anion exchange chromatography with pulsed amperometric detection (HPAEC-PAD) methods shows 56.86% of galactose, 8.46% of rhamnose, 9.04% of arabinose, 5.05% of mannose and 20.57% of glucuronic acid.
Senescence-associated β-galactosidase reflects an increase in lysosomal mass during replicative ageing of human endothelial cells

Acid β-D-galactosidase (EC 3.2.1.23) is a eukaryotic hydrolase localized in the lysosome (reviewed in Suzuki et al., 1995). It cleaves β-linked terminal galactosyl residues from a wide range of naturally occurring substrates, such as gangliosides, glycoproteins and glycosaminoglycans, as well as a number of artificial substrates. It has an acidic pH optimum (pH 4.0-4.5), which is close to the natural milieu of the lysosome. The mature form of this enzyme consists of a 64 kDa polypeptide, which is derived by post-translational processing from an 85 kDa precursor (d’Azzo et al., 1982). In the lysosome this 64 kDa species forms a functional multimeric aggregate of about 700 kDa (Hoeksema et al., 1979; Norden et al., 1974), stabilized through interactions with a glycoprotein known as the protective protein (Hoogeveen et al., 1983; Suzuki et al., 1995). Apart from lysosomal β-galactosidase, a β-galactosidase-related protein with no detectable enzymatic activity and a different subcellular localisation has been described in human fibroblasts (Morreau et al., 1989). This protein of unknown function results from alternative splicing of the lysosomal β-galactosidase mRNA precursor (Morreau et al., 1989). In addition, a neutral β-galactosidase has been described in human liver (Ho et al., 1973). This enzyme appears to be unrelated to the lysosomal acid β-galactosidase, based on its substrate specificity and immunoreactivity (Ho et al., 1973; Meisler and Rattazzi, 1974; Ben-Yosseph et al., 1977). Lysosomal β-galactosidase activity can be detected in situ in most mammalian cells by means of a cytochemical assay, normally carried out at pH 4, using the chromogenic substrate 5-bromo-4-chloro-3-indolyl β-D-galactopyranoside (X-Gal) (Dimri et al., 1995; van der Loo et al, 1998). Recently, Dimri et al. (1995) described a pH 6 β-galactosidase activity, which was found specifically in senescent human fibroblast cultures, but not in quiescent or terminally differentiated cells. Furthermore, this pH 6.0 activity enabled identification of senescent fibroblasts and keratinocytes in biopsies of aged human skin, and subsequently became known as senescenceassociated β-galactosidase (SAβ galactosidase). Various laboratories, including our own, have since used the SAβ-galactosidase assay on a variety of cells and tissues to demonstrate the onset of replicative senescence in culture (e.g. Reznikoff et al., 1996; Serrano et al., 1997; Bodnar et al., 1998; Van der Loo et al., 1998; Tsukamoto et al., 1998; Matsunaga et al., 1999) and in vivo (Sigal et al., 1999; Mishima et al., 3613 Journal of Cell Science 113, 3613-3622 (2000) Printed in Great Britain © The Company of Biologists Limited 2000 JCS4721
Inhibition of voltage-gated K+ current in rat intrapulmonary arterial myocytes by endothelin-1.

Although endothelin (ET)-1 is an important regulator of pulmonary vascular tone, little is known about the mechanisms by which ET-1 causes contraction in this tissue. Using the whole cell patch-clamp technique in rat intrapulmonary arterial smooth muscle cells, we found that ET-1 and the voltage-dependent K+(KV)-channel antagonist 4-aminopyridine, but not the Ca2+-activated K+-channel antagonist charybdotoxin (ChTX), caused membrane depolarization. In the presence of 100 nM ChTX, ET-1 (10-10to 10-7 M) caused a concentration-dependent inhibition of K+ current (56.2 ± 3.8% at 10-7 M) and increased the rate of current inactivation. These effects of ET-1 on K+ current were markedly reduced by inhibitors of protein kinase C (staurosporine and GF 109203X) and phospholipase C (U-73122) or under Ca2+-free conditions and were mimicked by activators of protein kinase C (phorbol 12-myristate 13-actetate and 1,2-dioctanoyl- sn-glycerol). These data suggest that ET-1 modulated pulmonary vascular reactivity by depolarizing pulmonary arterial smooth muscle, due in part to the inhibition of KV current that occurred via activation of the phospholipase C-protein kinase C signal transduction pathway.
Prognostic Impact of Tumor Size Eliminating the Ground Glass Opacity Component: Modified Clinical T Descriptors of the Tumor, Node, Metastasis Classification of Lung Cancer

Introduction: The presence of ground glass opacity (GGO) on high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) is well known to be pathologically closely associated with adenocarcinoma in situ. Recently, measuring the tumor diameter including areas of GGO on HRCT has been reported to possibly overestimate the T status. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the significance of the tumor size measured eliminating the area of GGO on HRCT as a prognostic factor and to propose a refined TNM classification based on modified T descriptors. Methods: Four hundred seventy-five patients with clinical T1a-T2bN0M0 non-small-cell lung cancer underwent surgical resection. All tumors were reclassified based on the diameter measured eliminating the GGO area on HRCT according to the seventh TNM classification of lung cancer. We defined this new classification as modified T descriptors categorizing into five groups: mTis, mT1a, mT1b, mT2a, and mT2b. The overall survival rates of the patients in the current and modified staging groups were evaluated. Results: The 5-year survival rates were 88% and 82% in the patients with T1a and T1b tumors and 90% and 75% in the patients with mT1a and mT1b tumors, respectively. The differences in the survival rate of the patients classified by using mT1a and the other modified T descriptors were more clearly separated statistically than those of the patients classified by using the current T1a and other T descriptors. Conclusion: The modified T descriptors of the tumor size measured eliminating the GGO component on HRCT more clearly classified the prognoses of patients with early lung cancer than did the current T classification.
Lifetime Extending Heuristic for Clustered Wireless Sensor Networks

Sensors in wireless sensor network (WSN) usually spatially spread across geographical locations. They may be placed randomly or in an initially organized manner to cooperatively monitor certain physical or environmental phenomena. They have limited transmission powers due to their small sizes and battery constraints. Some sensors may not be able to send data directly to the sink for processing and analysis. This has led to, for example, the design of tree-based structure for delivering data over multiple hops to reach the sink. In this paper, a novel lifetime extending heuristic (MLC-X) is proposed for tree-based multi-level clustered wireless sensor network. Duties of nodes at bottlenecks in tree are modified for sustaining longer network lifetime. And the simulation results indicate that the heuristic can successfully extend life spans of sensor networks.
A Parallel Euclidean Distance Transformation Algorithm

We present a parallel algorithm for the Euclidean distance transformation (EDT). It is a “divide-and-conquer” algorithm based on a fast sequential algorithm for the signed EDT (SEDT). The combining step that follows the local partial calculation of the SEDT can be done efficiently after reformulating the SEDT problem as the partial calculation of a Voronoi diagram. This leads to an algorithm with two local calculation steps with a computational complexity proportional to the number of pixels of the subregions and a global calculation step with complexity proportional to the image perimeter. This article contains a description of the algorithm, a complexity analysis, a discussion on load imbalance, and timings obtained on an iPSC/2.
Hypoxic stress induces cardiac myocyte-derived interleukin-6.

BACKGROUND Hypoxic and ischemic stresses cause a series of well-documented changes in myocardial cells and tissues, including loss of contractility, changes in lipid and fatty acid metabolism, and irreversible membrane damage leading to eventual cellular death. Activated neutrophils are considered to be involved in this myocardial cellular injury. By stimulation of the neutrophils with chemotactic factors, canine neutrophils can be induced to adhere to isolated cardiac myocytes only if the myocytes have been previously exposed to cytokines such as tumor necrosis factor-alpha, interleukin (IL)-1, and IL-6. METHODS AND RESULTS To examine the possible involvement of IL-6 in ischemia-reperfusion injury, we used cultured rat neonatal cardiac myocytes to study the effects of hypoxic stress on the production of IL-6 by cardiac myocytes. Unstimulated cardiac myocytes (3 x 10(5) cells per dish) produced 320 pg IL-6 over 4 hours in vitro (ie, biological activity equal to 320 pg recombinant IL-6, as detected by bioassay using the MH-60.BSF2 cell line). The incubation of cardiac myocytes under hypoxic conditions for 4 hours induced significantly increased production of IL-6 compared with normoxic conditions (2.82 +/- 0.49 versus 1.64 +/- 0.18 U/mL, P < .05). Furthermore, reoxygenation for 2 hours after 2 hours of hypoxic stress significantly augmented the production of IL-6 by cardiac myocytes (4.34 +/- 0.52 U/mL, P < .05). These responses to hypoxia and reoxygenation were not observed in fibroblasts isolated from the same tissue. Although unstimulated cardiac myocytes lacked IL-6 mRNA expression detectable by Northern blot analysis, hypoxic stress induced the expression of IL-6 mRNA in the cardiac myocytes. Several pathophysiologically relevant factors also augmented IL-6 release from cultured cardiac myocytes, including IL-1 beta, ionomycin, and epinephrine. CONCLUSIONS Cardiac myocytes respond to hypoxic stress to augment the production of IL-6, and the IL-6 derived from cardiac myocytes may play an important role in the progression of myocardial dysfunction observed in cardiac ischemia-reperfusion injury.