Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Catatonia in patients with dementia: a case report

Catatonia occurring as part of a clinical picture of dementia has been reported with almost all types of dementia. It remains under-diagnosed in older adults and those with dementia. We review a case of a young patient admitted in our psychiatric department for catatonia and after efficient treatment with Lorazepam, assessment revealed a dementia. Catatonia is a severe neuropsychiatric syndrome with an excellent prognosis if recognized and treated without delay.
Combination of DFT as Global Face Descriptor and LBP/LDiP/LDNP as Local Face Descriptor for Face Recognition

This paper describes the combination of DFT as a global face descriptor and LBP/LDiP/LDNP as a local face descriptor that results in a final feature vector. Each of these face descriptors does not need a complex learner to classify a novel face pattern when operates separately. However, it will not work when they combine together. The main contributions of our work are in determining the final feature vector that discriminatively represents a face image and the optimal classifier (SVM) that efficiently and accurately classify a novel feature pattern. We conduct simulations on ORL face database by varying the number of face images in training and testing sets on two well-known global face descriptors (PCA and LDA), three local face descriptors (LBP, LDiP, and LDNP), and also the combination of DFT and LBP/LDiP/LDNP. Simulation results show that, the more the number of face images in the training phase, the better the recognition rate of the combination face descriptors rather than either each global or local face descriptor.
Inactivated Probiotic Bacillus coagulans GBI-30 Demonstrates Immunosupportive Properties in Healthy Adults Following Stressful Exercise

Objective: Probiotics have been associated with many health benefits and have an established safety record. The purpose of this pilot study was to determine the safety and efficacy of inactivated Bacillus coagulans GBI-30, 6086 (Staimune®) in supporting the immune system at rest, in response to an in vitro bacterial challenge, and in response to strenuous exercise. Methods: In a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled pilot study, 16 healthy adults received either Staimune® or Placebo over 28-d. Basal immune system was assessed (salivary IgA, complete blood count with differential, helper T-cell (CD3+/CD4+), cytotoxic T-cells (CD3+/CD8+), and natural killer cells (CD3-/56+ or CD3-/16+/56+) percentages/proportions. In addition, cytokine (IL-1b, IL-2, IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, IL-7, IL-8, IL-10, IL-12 (p70), IL-13, IFN gamma, GM-CSF, and TNF-a) in response to an in vitro lipopolysaccharide challenge as well examining basal serum cortisol values. Subjects performed 60-min treadmill running at 60-80% of their Karvonen predicted max heart rate. Blood and salivary samples were also collected at 10, 60, and 120-min post-exercise. Data analysis was based upon changes over time relative to baseline for within group changes as well as between-group differences (P<0.05), 95% CI. Results: Both conditions supported mucosal immunity. Ten minutes after exercise WBC was significantly greater in the Staimune group vs. Placebo, no difference between groups at 60 or 120-min. Neutrophils and Monocytes were significantly greater in the Study Product group. There were variable impacts on eosinophils and basophils. Markers of non-specific and innate immunity were significantly impacted in Staimune® as were the impacts on pro and anti-inflammatory cytokines. There was significantly enhanced recovery for cortisol in the Staimune® group in the post-exercise period. Conclusion: Inactivated Bacillus coagulans GBI-30, 6086 supports the immune system at rest and after strenuous exercise. The study product may lessen the window of immune system suppression post-exercise, and enhance stress recovery supporting immunity.
Caregiver burden among family caregivers of older patients receiving hemodialysis and its relevant factors

Introduction: One of the issues that have drawn many attentions in recent years is the matter of caregiver burden among caregivers of patients with chronic illnesses. Objectives: The present study was carried out with the aim of studying the caregiver burden among caregivers of older patients receiving hemodialysis and its relevant factors. Patients and Methods: In the present study 52 caregivers of elderly patients receiving hemodialysis for this study were recruited. Data collection was carried out using a researchermade demographic variables checklist and Novak and Guest Caregiver Burden Inventory (CBI). Results: The mean age of caregivers’ patients was 72.4 years. The mean total score of care burden was 57.9±20.1. Totally, 23.1%, 51.9% and 25% of the subjects had mild, moderate and severe level of burden respectively. Caregiver of ages, age of the elderlies and relationship status were effective factors on caregiver’s burden (P<0.05). Conclusion: In the present study, caregivers of older patients receiving hemodialysis reported to have high levels of burden. This issue should be addressed especially by the health care teams that provide care for older patients receiving hemodialysis.
Topic-aware staff learning material generation in complaint management systems

In this paper, a topic-aware staff learning material generation approach is proposed in complaint management systems. Historical processing logs are extracted to form a complaint space. Complaint processing skills of staff members are assessed in terms of quantity, efficiency and quality on various topics. Similar staff members are clustered according to their behavioural characteristics. A resource recommendation algorithm is proposed to recommend complaint processing records from highly skilled colleagues in the cluster for the staff member to learn. Preliminary experiment results show good performance of the proposed method.
Error-correcting Codes for Low-Delay Streaming Communications

Error-Correcting Codes for Low-Delay Streaming Communications Ahmed Badr Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) University of Toronto 2014 This thesis develops a new class of error-correcting codes for low-delay streaming over packet-erasure channels. Such codes must operate sequentially on the incoming source stream, and must reconstruct each source packet within a fixed delay of T packets. We show that both the fundamental limits, as well as structural properties of such streaming codes, are different from classical codes. In our study, we consider successively finer approximations of burst erasure channels, that capture the dominant error events associated with the streaming setup. In the basic model, we consider a channel that in any sliding window of length W , introduces either an erasure burst of length B, or up to N erasures in arbitrary positions. We show that there is an inherent tradeoff between the achievable values of B and N and propose a class of codes, Maximum Distance and Span (MiDAS) Codes, that are at most one unit of delay from the upper bound in this framework. We also show that the burst-erasure correction capability is determined by the column span of the codes, whereas the isolated-erasure correction capability is determined by the column distance of the codes. We then consider a more sophisticated model that introduces both a burst and an isolated erasure in the same window and propose another class of codes that improve upon the performance of MiDAS codes. Through simulation results over the Gilbert-Elliott and Fritchman channels, we show that our proposed codes outperform classical codes for a wide range of channel parameters. We also consider a different extension of our basic model, where one source packet arrives every M channel packets. We show that a simple adaptation of the streaming codes designed for M = 1 is sub-optimal and propose a capacity achieving construction for burst erasure channels for any M ≥ 1. In the final part of the thesis, we study Multicast Streaming Codes (Mu-SCo) that simultaneously serve two users : one user, whose channel introduces a burst erasure of length B1 and tolerates a delay of T1 and a second user, whose channel introduces a burst erasure of length B2 and tolerates a delay of T2. We show that the streaming capacity intricately depends on the burst and delay parameters and provide explicit constructions that attain the capacity for a wide range of parameters. A special class of Mu-SCo Diversity Embedded Streaming Code (DE-SCo) achieves the minimum possible delay for
Progredienzangst bei Patienten mit Tumorerkrankungen, Diabetes mellitus und entzündlich-rheumatischen Erkrankungen

Fear of an increasing disease progression (fear of progression) is among the main psychological stresses in patients with cancer, diabetes mellitus (type 1 and type 2) and chronic arthritis. The questions the study seeks to answer are: (1) Which are the main fears of these patients? , (2) How and in which circumstances in life do they occur? , (3) Which are the triggers of the fear? To answer these questions, a sample of 65 patients were researched through interviews. The results indicate that the predominant fears of cancer patients are the fear of dying and the unpredictability of the progression of the disease. Patients with chronic arthritis most frequently fear being physically dependent on someone else. The most common anxiety of diabetes patients are long-term complications. For all three groups of patients job-related fears cause a high amount of distress. These results contribute to the development of a standardised fear of progression questionnaire.
Seasonal patterns in phytoplankton biomass in coastal ecosystems

We test, through a compilation of published data, whether specific trends in phytoplankton biomass seasonality can be generalized in northern temperate enclosed coastal ecosystems (ECE) and northern temperate open coastal ecosystems (OCE). Bimodal cycles (i.e. displaying two annual peaks) are the most frequent trends in both ecosystems, and whereas they mostly peaked at late winter and fall in OCE, they mostly peaked in spring and late summer, and also over a wider range of months, in ECE. The interaction between restricted depth or tidal stirring and light seasonality in ECE may be responsible for these differences. Moreover, bimodal cycles reached higher biomass peaks in ECE, which can result from higher water column nutrient concentrations. Unimodal cycles (one annual peak) also occurred commonly in both ecosystems, and whereas they peaked throughout winter and spring in OCE, they peaked mostly in summer in ECE. We suggest that the high nutrient concentra- tions typically found in ECE waters can alleviate nutrient limitation of phytoplankton growth and couple phytoplankton growth with light and stratification seasonality. These results reveal broad-scale patterns in phytoplankton seasonality in temperate coastal ecosystems, and help identify physical processes generating these patterns.
Development of prototype for user interface of information system

For intellectual activity in the time of information explosion, it is necessary to explore a lot of documents obtained from open sources of the Internet. The object of research is the interface and structure of the information system. This system allows to reduce the processed information flow by filtering documents. The filtration is based on the documents set clustering. This method is seldom used due to the complexity of the user interface. To solve this problem, it is proposed to use the mind map view for visualizing the clustering results. The cluster hierarchy automatically creates the initial graph of the map nodes. The binary graph of the clustering results will automatically transform to the n-ary graph tree. The n is no more than the Yngve-Miller's number and should be determined by the user. The user also controls the mapping of clusters to the mind map, using SQL-queries. The structure of the information system is determined. This system uses free software solutions as its integral parts. Neural network subsystem is required to adapt to the specific user needs. A prototype of the mind map user interface is developed. It is made in JavaScript and is represented as a web page. A list of the main use cases for implementation in the MVP (the minimum viable product) is given.
A Computational Academic Integrity Framework

El creciente alcance y la naturaleza cambiante de los programas acad´emicos constituyen un reto para la integridad de los protocolos tradicionales de pruebas y ex´amenes. El objetivo de esta tesis es introducir una alternativa a los enfoques tradicionales de integridad acad´emica, para cubrir la brecha del vac´io anonimato y para dar la posibilidad a los instructores y administradores acad´emicos a usar nuevos medios para mantener la integridad academica que promueva responsabilidad, accesibilidad y eficiencia, adem´as de preservar la privacidad y minimizar la interrupci´on al proceso de aprendizaje. Este trabajo tiene como objetivo iniciar un cambio de paradigma en las pr´acticas de integridad acad´emica. La investigaci´on en el ´area de la identidad del estudiante y la garant´ia de la autor´ia es importante porque la concesi´on de cr´editos de curso a entidades no verificadas es perjudicial para la credibilidad institucional y la seguridad p´ublica. Esta tesis se basa en la noci´on de la identidad del alumno que se compone de dos capas distintas: f´isica y de comportamiento, donde tanto los criterios de identidad como los de autor´ia deben ser confirmados para mantener un nivel razonable de integridad acad´emica. Para ello, esta tesis se organiza en tres secciones, cada una de las cuales aborda una de las perspectivas: (a) teorica, (b) empirica, y (c) pragmatica. The growing scope and changing nature of academic programs provide a challenge to the integrity of traditional testing and examination protocols. The aim of this thesis is to introduce an alternative to the traditional academic integrity approaches, bridging the anonymity gap, and empowering instructors and academic administrators with new means for maintaining academic integrity that promotes accountability, accessibility and efficiency, preserves privacy, and minimizes disruption to the learning process. This work aims to initiate a paradigm shift in academic integrity practices. Research in the area of learner identity and authorship assurance is important because the award of course credits to unverified entities is detrimental to institutional credibility and public safety. This thesis builds upon the notion of learner identity being comprised of two distinct layers, physical and behavioral, where both criteria of identity and authorship need to be confirmed to maintain a reasonable level of academic integrity. To this end, this thesis is organized in three sections, each addressing one of the perspectives: (a) theoretical, (b) empirical, and (c) pragmatic.
The novelty ‘sweet spot’ of invention

Invention arises from novel combinations of prior technologies. However, prior studies of creativity have suggested that overly novel combinations may be harmful to invention. Apart from the factors of expertise, market, etc., there may be such a thing as ‘too much’ or ‘too little’ novelty that will determine an invention’s future value, but little empirical evidence exists in the literature. Using technical patents as the proxy of inventions, our analysis of 3.9 million patents identifies a clear ‘sweet spot’ in which the mix of novel combinations of prior technologies favors an invention’s eventual success. Specifically, we found that the invention categories with the highest mean values and hit rates have moderate novelty in the center of their combination space and high novelty in the extreme of their combination space. Too much or too little central novelty suppresses the positive contribution of extreme novelty in the invention. Furthermore, the combination of scientific and broader knowledge beyond patentable technologies creates additional value for invention and enlarges the advantage of the novelty sweet spot. These findings may further enable data-driven methods both for assessing invention novelty and for profiling inventors, and may inspire a new strand of data-driven design research and practice.
Active Surveillance for Small Papillary Thyroid Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

BACKGROUND The rapid increase in the incidence of small papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) appears to be caused by the detection of small thyroid cancers. Active surveillance (AS) was therefore suggested to overcome this problem. As the results were favorable with low rates of size enlargement and lymph metastasis, the 2015 American Thyroid Association Management Guidelines endorsed AS as an alternative to immediate surgery. As the clinical value of AS is a subject of ongoing active discussions and surveys, we considered a systematic review and meta-analysis to be timely and necessary. METHODS Ovid-MEDLINE and EMBASE databases were searched up to January 5, 2019, for studies reporting patients who were followed up with AS for PTC. Data extraction and methodological quality assessment were performed independently by two radiologists. The primary outcomes were to identify the annual pooled proportions of size enlargement of 3 mm or more and the detection of lymph node metastases at 5 year follow-up period. These were calculated using an inverse-variance weighting model. An additional outcome was evaluation of the reasons for surgery during AS. RESULTS The pooled proportion of size enlargement occurring at 5 years was 5.3% (95% CI, 4.4-6.4%) , and the pooled proportion of 5 year lymph node metastasis was 1.6% (95% CI, 1.1-2.4%). In many subjects undergoing delayed operations, the reasons for operation were often other than those of size enlargement or lymph node metastasis. CONCLUSIONS AS is effective for the management of small PTC, with a low proportion of size enlargement or lymph node metastasis occurring at 5 years. However, a substantial proportion of the causes of delayed surgery were other than size enlargement or lymph node metastasis, and these situtations need to be optimally managed.
Simultaneous localization and mapping of mobile robot using a RGB-D camera

Localization algorithm based on machine vision is a hot topic in the field of intelligent mobile robot．A fast method for mobile robot 3D SLAM (simultaneous localization and mapping) was presented to address the problem of 3D modeling in complex indoor environment. After filtering, the SIFT feature is extracted and matched between every two frames of the sequence. According to the camera calibration model and the image feature extraction and matching procedure, the association between two 3D point clouds was established. On the basis of the RANSAC (random sample consensus) algorithm, the correspondence based iterative closest point arithmetic model was solved to realize the robot’s precise localization effectively. With the key frame-to-frame selection mechanism, the 3D map method and the unique normal characteristic of a spatial point were used for maintaining and updating the global map. Experimental results demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm in the indoor environment.
Erenumab (AMG 334), a monoclonal antagonist antibody against the canonical CGRP receptor, does not impair vasodilatory or contractile responses to other vasoactive agents in human isolated cranial arteries

Background Calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) is a neuronal transmitter present in intracranial sensory nerves, where it is involved in migraine pathophysiology as well as other biological functions. Recently, the fully human monoclonal antibody erenumab (AMG 334), which targets the canonical calcitonin gene-related peptide receptor, showed significant prophylactic efficacy and favourable safety in phase II and III clinical trials for episodic and chronic migraine and is now approved for migraine prevention in several countries. Objective Given that calcitonin gene-related peptide can mediate vasodilation, we investigated the effect of erenumab on vasoactive responses in the presence or absence of various vasodilatory and vasocontractile mediators in a model using isolated human cerebral and meningeal arteries. Methods Ring segments of human isolated cerebral and meningeal arteries were mounted in a sensitive myograph. On arterial segments pre-contracted with 30 mM potassium chloride, vasoactive responses to calcitonin gene-related peptide were studied in the presence of different concentrations of erenumab. At the maximal tested inhibitory concentration of erenumab (100 nM), functional arterial relaxation in response to nicardipine or substance P, and the contractile responses to sumatriptan and dihydroergotamine were examined. Results 30 mM potassium chloride produced a stable contraction of the vessel segments and calcitonin gene-related peptide induced a concentration-dependent relaxation. We observed that (i) erenumab had no direct contractile or relaxant effects per se (by itself), (ii) pre-treatment with erenumab antagonized the calcitonin gene-related peptide-induced relaxation in a competitive manner, (iii) the relaxant responses to nicardipine or substance P were unaffected in the presence of erenumab and (iv) the contraction induced by sumatriptan or dihydroergotamine was not modified by erenumab. Conclusion Our findings demonstrate that erenumab, while not associated with vasoactive properties per se, specifically inhibits calcitonin gene-related peptide-induced relaxation of cranial arteries without impacting vasodilatory responses or contractile responses of endogenous or pharmacological vasoactive compounds.
Metabolite Profiling by Hyphenated Liquid Chromatographic Mass Spectrometric Technique (HPLC‐DAD‐ESI‐Q‐TOF‐MS/MS) and Neurobiological Potential of Haplophyllum sahinii and H. vulcanicum Extracts

In the current study, the ethanol extracts of flower, stem, and root parts of two endemic Turkish species, e. g. , Haplophyllum sahinii O. Tugay & D. Ulukuş and H. vulcanicum Boiss. & Heldr. , were screened against acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) associated with Alzheimer's disease as well as tyrosinase (TYR) linked to Parkinson's disease using ELISA microplate assay at 200 μg/mL. Among the extracts, the highest inhibition was caused by the stem extract of H. sahinii against BChE (IC50=64.93±1.38 μg/mL). Consistently, all of the extracts were found to exert a selective inhibition towards BChE to some extent. It was only the root extract of H. vulcanicum that could inhibit AChE at low level (IC50=203.18±5.33 μg/mL). None of the extracts displayed an inhibition over 50 % against TYR. Metabolite profiling of the extracts was achieved by a highly hyphenated liquid chromatographic mass spectrometric technique (HPLC‐DAD‐ESI‐Q‐TOF‐MS/MS), which revealed the presence of furoquinoline (β‐fagarine, γ‐fagarine) and amide (tubasenicine, tubacetine) alkaloids; furano‐ (rutamarin), pyrano‐ (xanthyletine), and geranyloxy coumarins; phenylpropanoid (secoisolariciresinol), arylnaphthalene (mono‐O‐acetyldiphyllin apioside), and dibenzylbutyrolactone (kusunokinin, haplomyrfolin) lignans. Several important differences were observed between the extracts analyzed. β‐Fagarine was the major alkaloid in H. vulcanicum, whereas γ‐fagarine was present only in the roots of both Haplophyllum species; moreover, secoisolariciresinol and secoisolariciresinol dimethyl ether were the main lignans in the stems and flowers. This is the first study identifying ChE and TYR inhibitory effect and metabolic profiles of H. vulcanicum and H. sahinii.
Psychosis of Alzheimer's disease: Neuropsychological and neuroimaging longitudinal study

Psychosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) may represent a distinct disease phenotype; however, neuropsychological profile and neural basis linked to this phenotype have not yet been clarified. In this study, we aimed at detecting whether impairment in specific cognitive domains predicts the onset of psychosis in AD patients and what grey matter alterations, their location, and the rate of atrophy are associated with psychosis of AD.