Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Analysis of computed tomographic findings according to gastroesophageal flap valve grade

Background/Aims The gastroesophageal junction is an important barrier against gastroesophageal ref lux. Endoscopic grading of gastroesophageal f lap valve is simple, reproducible, and may predict reflux activity. We investigated the correlation between gastroesophageal flap valve grade and the gastroesophageal junction’s structural properties using abdominal computed tomography. Methods A total of 138 patients with early gastric cancer who underwent both pre-treatment esophagogastroduodenoscopy and water-distended stomach two-phase computed tomography were enrolled. Endoscopic gastroesophageal f lap valve grade and abdominal computed tomography findings were analyzed to assess anatomical factors including the gastroesophageal junction and related organs. Results The angle of His increased significantly with gastroesophageal flap valve grade (grade I, 65.2˚ ± 19.6˚; grade II, 66.6˚ ± 19.8˚; grade III, 76.7˚ ± 11.9˚; grade IV, 120.0˚ ± 30.3˚; p < 0.001), as did the size of the diaphragmatic hiatus (grade I, 213.0 ± 53.8 mm2 ; grade II, 232.6 ± 71.0 mm2 ; grade III, 292.3 ± 99.2 mm2 ; grade IV, 584.4 ± 268.3; p < 0.001). The length of the abdominal esophagus decreased as gastroesophageal flap valve grade increased (grade I, 34.6 ± 5.8 mm; grade II, 32.0 ± 6.5 mm; grade III, 24.6 ± 7.8 mm; grade IV, –22.6 ± 38.2 mm; p < 0.001). There was no significant relationship between gastroesophageal flap valve grade and visceral and subcutaneous fat areas (p = 0.877 and p = 0.508, respectively). Conclusions Endoscopic grading of the gastroesophageal flap valve is well correlated with anatomical changes around the gastroesophageal junction on abdominal computed tomography, and it can provide useful information about the anti-reflux barrier.
ENTREPRENEURIAL INTELLIGENCE : EXPANDING SCHWAB ’ s FOUR-TYPE INTELLIGENCE PROPOSITION TO MEANINGFULLY ADDRESS THE CHALLENGES OF THE FOURTH INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

Humanity finds itself at the dawn of a revolution considered to be the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). The introduction of new business models, the disruption of incumbents and the reshaping of production, consumption, transportation and delivery systems are all evidence of the profound changes taking place across all industries. The velocity, breadth, depth, and systems impact of the changes are unlike previously experienced in history. From the premise of the evident challenges and opportunities inherent to 4IR, Schwab (2016) propagates a 4-type intelligence proposition (contextual-, emotional-, inspired-, and physical intelligence) to be nurtured and applied so as to adapt, shape and harness the potential of disruption. Applying critical interpretive synthesis, this position paper argues the lack of a disposition type of intelligence in Schwab’s proposition and proposes its expansion to include entrepreneurial intelligence, thereby increasing the potential of realisation of real impact and value creating solutions.
Working Papers in Responsible Banking & Finance Does Corporate Culture Affect Bank Risk-Taking ? Evidence from Loan-Level Data

Using comprehensive corporate and retail loan data, we show that the corporate culture of banks explains their risktaking behaviour. Banks whose corporate culture leans towards aggressive competition are associated with riskier lending practices: higher approval rate, lower borrower quality, and fewer covenant requirements. Consequently, these banks incur larger loan losses and make greater contributions to systemic risk. The opposite behaviour is observed among banks whose culture emphasises control and safety. Our findings cannot be explained by heterogeneity in a bank’s business model, CEO compensation incentives, and CEO characteristics. We use an exogenous shock to the US banking system during the 1998 Russian default crisis to support a causal inference. WP No 18-011
Spatial Holebuming Effects on the Dynamics of Vertical Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser Diodes

Absfract- Calculations are reported of the dynamic evolution of transverse modes in vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSEL’s). It is shown that the spatial distribution of the modal fields plays an important role in determining the steady-state operating characteristics of the device. It is found that spatially separated modes can coexist by sharing the available gain, whereas strong competition occurs between modes that have a strong spatial overlap. The influence of carrier diffusion and spatial holeburning during the turn-on transient of the laser is elucidated, and the implications for the steady-state modal properties of the device are indicated.
Numerical simulation of removable anchor pullout test and influence factors

In order to analyze the factors which influence the withdrawal resistance of removable anchor,a three-dimension finite element model was established based on the pullout test of removable anchor.Through calculating with various parameters of the model,the load-bearing mechanism and destruction forms of the anchorage were discussed,and the distribution of interfacial shear stress between the bonding segment and soil was obtained.The results indicate that the reason of the anchor′s destruction is that the interfacial shear stress is greater than the interfacial adhesion.Furthermore,the interfacial shear stress is related to loads,anchorage length and radius,and the bonding segment has critical length and critical radius.
Aggregation of guaranteed service flows

It is common belief that the integrated services architecture (IntServ) is not scalable to large networks as, e.g., the global Internet. This is due to the ambitious goal of providing per-flow QoS and the resulting complexity of fine-grained traffic management. One solution to this problem is the aggregation of IntServ traffic flows in the core of the network. While one might suspect that aggregation leads to allocating more resources for the aggregated flow than for the sum of the separated flows if flow isolation is to be guaranteed, we show in this paper that for IntServ's guaranteed service flows this is not necessarily the case even if flow isolation is retained. We compare different approaches to describing the aggregated traffic and analyze their impact on bandwidth consumption and ease of flow management. Applications of these theoretical insights could be to use the derived formulas for resource allocation in either a hierarchical RSVP/IntServ, IntServ over DiffServ (differentiated services), or IntServ over ATM network.
The uremic toxin indoxyl sulfate interferes with iron metabolism by regulating hepcidin in chronic kidney disease

Background Hepcidin secreted by hepatocytes is a key regulator of iron metabolism throughout the body. Hepcidin concentrations are increased in chronic kidney disease (CKD), contributing to abnormalities in iron metabolism. Levels of indoxyl sulfate (IS), a uremic toxin, are also elevated in CKD. However, the effect of IS accumulation on iron metabolism remains unclear. Methods We used HepG2 cells to determine the mechanism by which IS regulates hepcidin concentrations. We also used a mouse model of adenine-induced CKD. The CKD mice were divided into two groups: one was treated using AST-120 and the other received no treatment. We examined control mice, CKD mice, CKD mice treated using AST-120 and mice treated with IS via drinking water. Results In the in vitro experiments using HepG2 cells, IS increased hepcidin expression in a dose-dependent manner. Silencing of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) inhibited IS-induced hepcidin expression. Furthermore, IS induced oxidative stress and antioxidant drugs diminished IS-induced hepcidin expression. Adenine-induced CKD mice demonstrated an increase in hepcidin concentrations; this increase was reduced by AST-120, an oral adsorbent of the uremic toxin. CKD mice showed renal anemia, decreased plasma iron concentration, increased plasma ferritin and increased iron content in the spleen. Ferroportin was decreased in the duodenum and increased in the spleen. These changes were ameliorated by AST-120 treatment. Mice treated by direct IS administration showed hepatic hepcidin upregulation. Conclusions IS affects iron metabolism in CKD by participating in hepcidin regulation via pathways that depend on AhR and oxidative stress.
Outpatient management of cancer patients with febrile neutropenia: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND In some centers, outpatient management for cancer patients with low-risk febrile neutropenia (FN) has been implemented into routine clinical practice. Our objective was to evaluate the current level of evidence before supporting widespread adoption of outpatient management for this population. METHODS We systematically reviewed randomized controlled trials evaluating efficacy and safety of outpatient management of FN. RESULTS From 1448 reviewed articles, 14 studies were included for meta-analysis. (i) Inpatient versus outpatient setting (6 studies) was not significantly associated with treatment failure [risk ratio 0.81; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.55-1.19; P = 0.28]. Death occurred in 13 of 742 FN episodes with no difference between the two groups (risk ratio 1.11; 95% CI 0.41-3.05; P = 0.83). (ii) Outpatient oral versus outpatient parenteral antibiotics (8 studies) were similarly efficacious with no association between route of drug administration and treatment failure (risk ratio 0.93; 95% CI 0.65-1.32; P = 0.67). No death occurred in 857 FN episodes. CONCLUSION Based on the current literature, outpatient treatment of FN is a safe and efficacious alternative to inpatient management. Variation between studies in terms of time to discharge, choice of antibiotic class, and age of study population may limit the interpretation of the data.
EFFECT OF FILLING FACTOR ON THE DETERMINATION OF SHEAR RATE AND VISCOSITY FROM BATCH MIXER

In this work, the effect of filling factor on torque data obtained with a torque rheometer was studied. Torque data were obtained for polypropylene (PP), high density polyethylene (HDPE), and polystyrene (PS), for filling degrees ranging from 60 to 90%. The processing temperature used for HDPE was 160°C and the other polymers were processed at 200°C. The torque data obtained were used to calculate the shear rate in the batch mixer and corresponding viscosity of the polymer using Bousmina's model [Journal of Rheology 43, 415 (1999)], which provides a quantitative correlation between torque data and viscosimetric properties of a polymer. Bousmina's model considers the mixer chamber and rotor blades as concentric cylinders of internal and external radii R; and R e , respectively. The model was used making different assumptions for the rheological nature of the polymers. The polymers were considered either Newtonian or power law fluids. The calculated values of viscosity versus shear rate were compared to results obtained by rotational and capillary rheometry. The experimental results showed that the torque increases exponentially with increasing filling factor. The results of the comparison indicated that in order to evaluate viscosity versus shear rate from torque rheometer data, the experimental chamber should be calibrated to obtain R iPC (internal radius for calibration polymer) using a first polymer. This value of R iPC should fulfill Ripe / R e > 0.9, otherwise the calibration should be made with another polymer. This value of R iPC can then be used together with torque data obtained with a filling degree of 90% or more for a second polymer assuming the polymer as a Newtonian fluid. If the torque data are obtained with a filling degree less than 90%, the Newtonian hypothesis is not valid any more and Bousmina's model and an emulsion model should be used sequentially to infer viscosimetric data from torque data obtained using a partially filled mixing chamber.
Hospitalization event notifications and reductions in readmissions of Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries in the Bronx, New York

Objective: Follow-up with a primary care provider after hospital discharge has been associated with a reduced likelihood of readmission. However, primary care providers are frequently unaware of their patients’ hospitalizations. Event notification may be an effective tool for reducing readmissions by notifying primary care providers when their patients have been admitted to and discharged from a hospital. Materials and Methods: We examined the effect of an event notification system on 30-day readmissions in the Bronx, New York. The Bronx has among the highest readmission rates in the country and is a particularly challenging setting to improve care due to the low socioeconomic status of the county and high rates of poor health behaviors among its residents. The study cohort included 2559 Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries associated with 14 141 hospital admissions over the period January 2010 through June 2014. Linear regression models with beneficiary-level fixed-effects were used to estimate the impact of event notifications on readmissions by comparing the likelihood of rehospitalization for a beneficiary before and after event notifications were active. Results: The unadjusted 30-day readmission rate when event notifications were not active was 29.5% compared to 26.5% when alerts were active. Regression estimates indicated that active hospitalization alert services were associated with a 2.9 percentage point reduction in the likelihood of readmission (95% confidence interval: −5.5, −0.4). Conclusions: Alerting providers through event notifications may be an effective tool for improving the quality and efficiency of care among high-risk populations.
In vivo vizualisation of mono-ADP-ribosylation by dPARP16 upon amino-acid starvation

PARP catalysed ADP-ribosylation is a post-translational modification involved in several physiological and pathological processes, including cellular stress. In order to visualise both Poly-, and Mono-, ADP-ribosylation in vivo, we engineered specific fluorescent probes. Using them, we show that amino-acid starvation triggers an unprecedented display of mono-ADP-ribosylation that governs the formation of Sec body, a recently identified stress assembly that forms in Drosophila cells. We show that dPARP16 catalytic activity is necessary and sufficient for both amino-acid starvation induced mono-ADP-ribosylation and subsequent Sec body formation and cell survival. Importantly, dPARP16 catalyses the modification of Sec16, a key Sec body component, and we show that it is a critical event for the formation of this stress assembly. Taken together our findings establish a novel example for the role of mono-ADP-ribosylation in the formation of stress assemblies, and link this modification to a metabolic stress. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.7554/eLife.21475. 001
Identifying Missing and Extra Notes in Piano Recordings Using Score-Informed Dictionary Learning

The goal of automatic music transcription (AMT) is to obtain a high-level symbolic representation of the notes played in a given audio recording. Despite being researched for several decades, current methods are still inadequate for many applications. To boost the accuracy in a music tutoring scenario, we exploit that the score to be played is specified and we only need to detect the differences to the actual performance. In contrast to previous work that uses score information for postprocessing, we employ the score to construct a transcription method that is tailored to the given audio recording. By adapting a score-informed dictionary learning technique as used for source separation, we learn for each score pitch a spectral pattern describing the energy distribution of associated notes in the recording. In this paper, we identify several systematic weaknesses in our previous approach and introduce three extensions to improve its performance. First, we extend our dictionary of spectral templates to a dictionary of variable-length spectrotemporal patterns. Second, we integrate the score information using soft rather than hard constraints, to better take into account that differences from the score indeed occur. Third, we introduce new regularizers to guide the learning process. Our experiments show that these extensions particularly improve the accuracy for identifying extra notes, while the accuracy for correct and missing notes remains at a similar level. The influence of each extension is demonstrated with further experiments.
cARe-bot: Portable Projection-based AR Robot for Elderly

An estimated 20 percent of the world»s population experience difficulties with physical, cognitive and mental health. Senior citizens experience many inconveniences due to less memory and mobility as a function of the aging process. To solve this, the cARe-bot system was designed to dynamically provide optimal information in the actual environment at any time or place. It is also designed to increase an elder person»s ability to live in a house or in senior homes with daily support, thus establishing the convenience and comfort they knew throughout their lives. The hardware of this system is a 360-degree controllable projection system. It is made with a pan-tilt system, projector, and a depth-recognition camera. Arduino is attached in order to control two sets of servo-motors, and is connected to a PC, which controls the entire process.
Weighted score-level feature fusion based on Dempster–Shafer evidence theory for action recognition

Abstract. The majority of human action recognition methods use multifeature fusion strategy to improve the classification performance, where the contribution of different features for specific action has not been paid enough attention. We present an extendible and universal weighted score-level feature fusion method using the Dempster–Shafer (DS) evidence theory based on the pipeline of bag-of-visual-words. First, the partially distinctive samples in the training set are selected to construct the validation set. Then, local spatiotemporal features and pose features are extracted from these samples to obtain evidence information. The DS evidence theory and the proposed rule of survival of the fittest are employed to achieve evidence combination and calculate optimal weight vectors of every feature type belonging to each action class. Finally, the recognition results are deduced via the weighted summation strategy. The performance of the established recognition framework is evaluated on Penn Action dataset and a subset of the joint-annotated human metabolome database (sub-JHMDB). The experiment results demonstrate that the proposed feature fusion method can adequately exploit the complementarity among multiple features and improve upon most of the state-of-the-art algorithms on Penn Action and sub-JHMDB datasets.
Pitch Matching between Electrical Stimulation of a Cochlear Implant and Acoustic Stimuli Presented to a Contralateral Ear with Residual Hearing

Abstract Background: Cochlear implants (CIs) successfully restore hearing in postlingually deaf adults, but in doing so impose a frequency-position function in the cochlea that may differ from the physiological one. Purpose: The CI-imposed frequency-position function is determined by the frequency allocation table programmed into the listener's speech processor and by the location of the electrode array along the cochlea. To what extent can postlingually deaf CI users successfully adapt to the difference between physiological and CI-imposed frequency-position functions? Research Design: We attempt to answer the question by combining behavioral measures of electroacoustic pitch matching (PM) and measures of electrode location within the cochlea. Study Sample: The participants in this study were 16 adult CI users with residual hearing who could match the pitch of acoustic pure tones presented to their unimplanted ears to the pitch resulting from stimulation of different CI electrodes. Data Collection and Analysis: We obtained data for four to eight apical electrodes from 16 participants with CIs (most of whom were long-term users), and estimated electrode insertion angle for 12 of these participants. PM functions in this group were compared with the two frequency-position functions discussed above. Results: Taken together, the findings were consistent with the possibility that adaptation to the frequency-position function imposed by CIs does happen, but it is not always complete. Conclusions: Some electrodes continue to be perceived as higher pitched than the acoustic frequencies with which they are associated despite years of listening experience after cochlear implantation.
Real-Time Forearm Detection and Tracking for HCI

Natural human-computer interaction, as an active research topic in the area of computer vision, has widespread applications. In this paper, we propose a new method using forearm gesture as the input of the Tetris game via an ordinary camera. We first use histograms of oriented gradients and the skin color to detect the player's forearm. Then, the movement of the detected forearm is tracked using particle filter to obtain the directional information. Finally, the directional information is mapped into the input of the Tetris game. Compared to the other human-computer interaction (HCI) systems which use expensive equipments such as stereo cameras, our system only needs an ordinary camera. Experimental results show our method can efficiently detect and track the human forearm, and implement the real-time control for the Tetris game.
Heads-up limit hold’em poker is solved

I'll see your program and raise you mine One of the fundamental differences between playing chess and two-handed poker is that the chessboard and the pieces on it are visible throughout the entire game, but an opponent's cards in poker are private. This informational deficit increases the complexity and the uncertainty in calculating the best course of action—to raise, to fold, or to call. Bowling et al. now report that they have developed a computer program that can do just that for the heads-up variant of poker known as Limit Texas Hold 'em (see the Perspective by Sandholm). Science, this issue p. 145; see also p. 122 A computer goes to Las Vegas. [Also see Perspective by Sandholm] Poker is a family of games that exhibit imperfect information, where players do not have full knowledge of past events. Whereas many perfect-information games have been solved (e.g., Connect Four and checkers), no nontrivial imperfect-information game played competitively by humans has previously been solved. Here, we announce that heads-up limit Texas hold’em is now essentially weakly solved. Furthermore, this computation formally proves the common wisdom that the dealer in the game holds a substantial advantage. This result was enabled by a new algorithm, CFR+, which is capable of solving extensive-form games orders of magnitude larger than previously possible.
Effects of Resistance Exercise Training on Doxorubicin-Induced Cardiotoxicity

Abstract: Although highly effective, doxorubicin (DOX) use is limited by a dose-dependent cardiotoxicity. The purpose of this study was to determine whether resistance training (RT) would protect against DOX-induced cardiac dysfunction and determine whether any observed functional preservation is a result of reduced lipid peroxidation or a preservation of the cardiac myosin heavy chain (MHC) isoform distribution. Rats were resistance-trained or remained sedentary for 12 weeks, then treated with 12.5 mg/kg DOX or 0.9% saline. Five days after DOX exposure, cardiac function, lipid peroxidation, and MHC isoform expression were quantified. RT preserved cardiac function and attenuated the &agr;-to &bgr;-MHC shift that occurs with DOX treatment. No significant differences in lipid peroxidation were observed between sedentary and RT animals treated with DOX. These data suggest that resistance-type exercise can provide protection against DOX-induced cardiac dysfunction, which may be a result of a preservation of the cardiac MHC isoform distribution.