Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Screening for glaucomatous visual field loss with frequency-doubling perimetry.

PURPOSE To conduct a preliminary evaluation of the efficacy of the frequency-doubling contrast test as a means of screening for glaucomatous visual field loss. METHODS Contrast thresholds for frequency-doubled stimuli were obtained under four test conditions: superior hemifield, inferior hemifield, and central (5 degrees radius) targets using a method of adjustment (MOA); superior hemifield, inferior hemifield, and central targets using a modified binary search (MOBS); four quadrant stimuli and the central target using MOBS; and 16 stimuli (four per quadrant) and the central target using MOBS. One eye each of 36 patients with early (12), moderate (12), and advanced (12) glaucomatous visual field loss was tested, as was one eye each of 36 age-matched normal control subjects. RESULTS For hemifield stimuli, the MOBS test procedure had better test-retest reliability, lower individual variation, and greater separation of the normal population and the population with glaucoma than did the MOA procedure. The use of progressively smaller, more localized stimuli produced successively better separation of glaucomatous and age-matched normal control eyes. Area under the Receiver Operating Characteristic curve was 0.81 for hemifield stimuli (sensitivity and specificity, 70% to 75%), 0.91 for quadrant stimuli (sensitivity and specificity, 83% to 85%), and 0.965 for the 16 stimuli (sensitivity 93%, specificity 100%). Test time was approximately 1.3 minutes for hemifields, 1.5 minutes for quadrants, and 5 minutes for the 16 targets. CONCLUSIONS Preliminary results indicate that the frequency-doubled contrast test provides a quick, efficient means of screening for glaucomatous visual field loss. Test time is relatively short, test-retest reliability is good, and sensitivity and specificity for detection of glaucomatous visual field loss is very good. The use of the MOBS staircase procedure and small, localized stimuli result in the best performance for screening purposes. An expanded normative database and the use of more rapid suprathreshold screening strategies should enhance further the efficacy of this test.
EVALUATING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF STRUCTURAL CONTROL WITHIN THECONTEXT OF PERFORMANCE-BASED

A preliminary study is presented which addresses the role of active control technology in the improvement of structural performance during earthquakes. Performance-based evaluation of control methods is an important step in relating the bene ts of these non-traditional structural solutions to the earthquake engineering community. A nonlinear model of a steel moment frame is developed and integrated with an active control system. The nonlinear model is a strong-column-weak-girder system, with lumped plasticity model described by the smooth-varying Bouc-Wen hysteretic model. The steel moment resisting frame with tendon actuator in the rst story is subjected to four di erent earthquakes and varying control e ort. The results from the control simulations are then presented. Research Assistant; Dept. of Civil Engineering, Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA 94305-4020. Associate Professor; Dept. of Civil Engineering, Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA 94305-4020.
Correlation of Vaccine-Elicited Systemic and Mucosal Nonneutralizing Antibody Activities with Reduced Acute Viremia following Intrarectal Simian Immunodeficiency Virus SIVmac251 Challenge of Rhesus Macaques

ABSTRACT Cell-mediated immunity and neutralizing antibodies contribute to control of human immunodeficiency virus/simian immunodeficiency virus (HIV/SIV) infection, but the role of nonneutralizing antibodies is not defined. Previously, we reported that sequential oral/oral or intranasal/oral (I/O) priming with replication-competent adenovirus type 5 host range mutant (Ad5hr)-SIV recombinants, followed by intramuscular envelope protein boosting, elicited systemic and mucosal cellular immunity and exhibited equivalent, significant reductions of chronic viremia after rectal SIVmac251 challenge. However, I/O priming gave significantly better control of acute viremia. Here, systemic and mucosal humoral immunity were investigated for potential correlates with the acute challenge outcome. Strong serum binding but nonneutralizing antibody responses against SIVmac251 were induced in both groups. Antibody responses appeared earlier and overall were higher in the I/O group. Reduced acute viremia was significantly correlated with higher serum binding titer, stronger antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity activity, and peak prechallenge and 2-week-postchallenge antibody-dependent cell-mediated viral inhibition (ADCVI). The I/O group consistently displayed greater anti-envelope immunoglobulin A (IgA) antibody responses in bronchoalveolar lavage and a stronger rectal anti-envelope IgA anamnestic response 2 weeks postchallenge. Pre- and postchallenge rectal secretions inhibited SIV transcytosis across epithelial cells. The inhibition was significantly higher in the I/O group, although a significant correlation with reduced acute viremia was not reached. Overall, the replicating Ad5hr-SIV priming/envelope boosting approach elicited strong systemic and mucosal antibodies with multiple functional activities. The pattern of elevated immune responses in the I/O group is consistent with its better control of acute viremia mediated, at least in part, by ADCVI activity and transcytosis inhibition.
Assessing Information Utility in Cooperation-based Robotic Systems

In this article we propose a measure of information utility that can be used to enable more effective cooperation in multi-robot systems (MRS). After giving some background in the area and making some references to the state of the art, we present an observation model for a MRS, based on which we devise a formal method to assess the information utility. The method puts on emphasis the optimization of the balance between performance gain and cost increasing due to resources usage, including communication. Then, the proposed method is used to simulate and assess information utility on a MRS performing a consume mission. We conclude with a discussion and directions for future research.
Dual-Orthogonal Polarized Antenna for UWB-IR Technology

This letter presents a design of a dual-orthogonal, linear polarized antenna for the UWB-IR technology in the frequency range from 3.1 to 10.6 GHz. The antenna is compact with dimensions of 40 times 40 mm of the radiation plane, which is orthogonal to the radiation direction. Both the antenna and the feeding network are realized in planar technology. The radiation principle and the computed design are verified by a prototype. The input impedance matching is better than -6 dB. The measured results show a mean gain in copolarization close to 4 dBi. The cross-polarizations suppression w.r. t. the copolarization is better than 20 dB. Due to its features, the antenna is suited for polarimetric ultrawideband (UWB) radar and UWB multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) applications.
Contribution of permafrost soils to the global carbon budget

Climate warming affects permafrost soil carbon pools in two opposing ways: enhanced vegetation growth leads to higher carbon inputs to the soil, whereas permafrost melting accelerates decomposition and hence carbon release. Here, we study the spatial and temporal dynamics of these two processes under scenarios of climate change and evaluate their influence on the carbon balance of the permafrost zone. We use the dynamic global vegetation model LPJmL, which simulates plant physiological and ecological processes and includes a newly developed discrete layer energy balance permafrost module and a vertical carbon distribution within the soil layer. The model is able to reproduce the interactions between vegetation and soil carbon dynamics as well as to simulate dynamic permafrost changes resulting from changes in the climate. We find that vegetation responds more rapidly to warming of the permafrost zone than soil carbon pools due to long time lags in permafrost thawing, and that the initial simulated net uptake of carbon may continue for some decades of warming. However, once the turning point is reached, if carbon release exceeds uptake, carbon is lost irreversibly from the system and cannot be compensated for by increasing vegetation carbon input. Our analysis highlights the importance of including dynamic vegetation and long-term responses into analyses of permafrost zone carbon budgets.
Asthma and smoking – healthcare needs and preferences of adults with asthma who smoke

Abstract Objective: People with asthma smoke at least as much as, if not more than, people without asthma. The aim of this study was to explore the unique healthcare needs and preferences of smokers with asthma, in terms of smoking topography and initiation, perceived interplay between asthma and smoking, motivation and readiness to quit, and proposed smoking cessation techniques. Methods: Qualitative, semi-structured, in-depth telephone interviews with adult smokers who have concurrent asthma were conducted. Participants were recruited through flyers displayed at community pharmacies, general practice surgeries, university campuses, and respiratory clinics of tertiary hospitals and through an advertisement on the “Asthma Foundation” website. Recorded interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed using NVivo®10 software (QSR International, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia). Obtained data were content-analysed for emergent themes using the ‘framework approach’. Results: Twenty-four semi-structured interviews were conducted. Most participants believed that smoking often worsens their asthma and increases the frequency and severity of their symptoms. Fear of asthma-related exacerbations and poor self-control appeared to be the major triggers for quitting smoking. Most patients reported being motivated to quit smoking; however, in many cases, determination and strong will power need to be coupled with public, social, professional, and therapeutic support to achieve and maintain success. Conclusions: Given the unique needs of people with asthma who smoke, it is imperative that evidence-based smoking cessation programs be designed and tailored to assist them in effectively quitting smoking.
Anti-Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) Neutralizing Antibody Decreases Lung Inflammation, Airway Obstruction, and Airway Hyperresponsiveness in a Murine RSV Model

ABSTRACT Numerous studies have described a strong association between respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection in infancy and the development of recurrent wheezing and airway hyperresponsiveness. We evaluated the effect of an anti-RSV neutralizing monoclonal antibody (palivizumab) on different aspects of RSV disease by using a murine model. BALB/c mice were intranasally inoculated with RSV A2. Palivizumab or an isotype-matched control antibody was administered once at 24 h before inoculation, 1 h after inoculation, or 48 h after inoculation. Regardless of the timing of administration, all mice treated with the neutralizing antibody showed significantly decreased RSV loads in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) and lung specimens compared with those of infected controls. Pulmonary histopathologic scores, airway obstruction measured by plethysmography, and airway hyperresponsiveness after methacholine challenge were significantly reduced in mice treated with the anti-RSV antibody 24 h before inoculation compared with those for untreated controls. Concentrations of interferon-gamma, interleukin-10, macrophage inflammatory protein 1α, regulated on activation normal T-cell expressed and secreted (RANTES), and eotaxin in BAL fluids were also significantly reduced in mice treated with palivizumab 24 h before inoculation. This study demonstrates that reduced RSV replication was associated with significant modulation of inflammatory and clinical markers of acute disease severity and significant improvement of the long-term pulmonary abnormalities. Studies to determine whether strategies aimed at preventing or reducing RSV replication could decrease the long-term morbidity associated with RSV infection in children should be considered.
Ridesourcing Car Detection by Transfer Learning

Ridesourcing platforms like Uber and Didi are getting more and more popular around the world. However, unauthorized ridesourcing activities taking advantages of the sharing economy can greatly impair the healthy development of this emerging industry. As the first step to regulate on-demand ride services and eliminate black market, we design a method to detect ridesourcing cars from a pool of cars based on their trajectories. Since licensed ridesourcing car traces are not openly available and may be completely missing in some cities due to legal issues, we turn to transferring knowledge from public transport open data, i.e, taxis and buses, to ridesourcing detection among ordinary vehicles. We propose a two-stage transfer learning framework. In Stage 1, we take taxi and bus data as input to learn a random forest (RF) classifier using trajectory features shared by taxis/buses and ridesourcing/other cars. Then, we use the RF to label all the candidate cars. In Stage 2, leveraging the subset of high confident labels from the previous stage as input, we further learn a convolutional neural network (CNN) classifier for ridesourcing detection, and iteratively refine RF and CNN, as well as the feature set, via a co-training process. Finally, we use the resulting ensemble of RF and CNN to identify the ridesourcing cars in the candidate pool. Experiments on real car, taxi and bus traces show that our transfer learning framework, with no need of a pre-labeled ridesourcing dataset, can achieve similar accuracy as the supervised learning methods.
The role of CD200 in immunity to B cell lymphoma

CD200 is a transmembrane protein broadly expressed on a variety of cell types, which delivers immunoregulatory signals through binding to receptors (CD200Rs) expressed on monocytes/myeloid cells and T lymphocytes. Signals delivered through the CD200:CD200R axis have been shown to play an important role in the regulation of anti‐tumor immunity, and overexpression of CD200 has been reported in a number of malignancies, including CLL, as well as on cancer stem cells. We investigated the effect of CD200 blockade in vitro on a generation of CTL responses against a poorly immunogenic CD200+ lymphoma cell line and fresh cells obtained from CLL patients using anti‐CD200 mAb and CD200‐specific siRNAs. Suppression of functional expression of CD200 augmented killing of the CD200+ cells, as well as production of the inflammatory cytokines IFN‐γ and TNF‐α by effector PBMCs. Killing was mediated by CD8+ cytotoxic T cells, and CD4+ T cells play an important role in CD200‐mediated suppression of CTL responses. Our data suggest that CD200 blockade may represent a novel approach to clinical treatment of CLL.
Analysis of the field ageing of natural ester transformer dielectrics: Ten years of data

Since 2003 power transformers have been manufactured using natural esters as the insulating dielectric. Before this, these natural ester based dielectrics had been used in factory and distribution type transformers successfully since the mid-1990s. Currently, international standards which would recommend in-service limits for the properties of natural ester are still under development. One reason is that there is insufficient data on which to base these limits. For this study, data from seventeen power transformers containing a natural ester dielectric was gathered, compared, and contrasted with standard mineral oil to evaluate the changes in the fluid expected for normal operation over the first ten years of a power transformer's life. The oldest transformer was ten years old, nearly the same age as the earliest units which use this dielectric. It is hoped that this information will help the industry evaluate the fluid data for their power transformers by understanding what is considered to reflect that of normal operation.
A Predictive-Reactive Dynamic Scheduling under Projects' Resource Constraints for Construction Equipment

Major portion of projects’ cost is dedicated to construction equipment’s costs which signify the importance of employing optimal equipment’s schedules in projects. In this paper the problem of construction equipment scheduling for a company with several ongoing projects in different regions is studied. The goal is scheduling heavy construction equipment and their assignments to jobs so that the total cost for the company and disruptions in projects’ schedules is minimized while considering the priorities and critical paths of the projects. A robust predictive-reactive integer model with a hybrid dynamic approach is employed in modeling the problem. Case studies showed considerable savings in cost and minimizing disruption in schedules in real time.
The management of children with Down syndrome and profound hearing loss*

Introduction: Although, the association between Down syndrome (DS) and conductive hearing loss is well recognized, the fact that a small proportion of these children may have a severe to profound sensorineural hearing loss that could benefit from cochlear implantation (CI) is less well understood. The management of significant co-morbidities in children with DS can delay initial diagnosis of hearing impairment and assessment of suitability for CI can likewise be challenging, due to difficulties conditioning to behavioural hearing tests. Methods: We performed a retrospective case note review of three children with DS referred to the Manchester Cochlear Implant Programme. Results: Three illustrative cases are described including CI in a 4 years old. Using conventional outcome measurement instruments, the outcome could be considered to be suboptimal with a Categories of Auditory Performance score of 4 at 6 months post-op and at last follow up. In part, this is likely to reflect the delay in implantation, but the role of cognitive impairment must be considered. The cases described emphasize the importance of comprehensive radiological and audiological assessment in children with DS being considered for CI. Conclusion: The influence of cognitive impairment upon outcome of CI must be taken into account, but should not be considered a contra-indication to implantation in children with DS. Benefit that might be considered limited when quantified using existing general outcome measurement instruments, may have a significant impact upon psychosocial development and quality of life in children with significant cognitive impairment, or other additional needs.
The Role of Episiotomy in Prevention and Management of Shoulder Dystocia: A Systematic Review

Importance Shoulder dystocia is an obstetric emergency with potential catastrophic outcomes. Objective To perform a systematic literature review examining the effectiveness of episiotomy in the prevention and management of shoulder dystocia during vaginal birth. Evidence Acquisition Search was conducted by a research librarian in MEDLINE, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, and SCOPUS databases using the terms “episiotomy” and “shoulder dystocia,” with no language or time restrictions. Two investigators independently selected original researches examining the effects of episiotomy on shoulder dystocia and its neonatal and maternal outcomes. Relevant articles were accessed in full text, including manual search of the references. We contacted authors of studies with insufficient or unclear data. Because of clinical and methodological diversity of the studies, meta-analysis was not performed. Results Fourteen articles met the inclusion criteria, encompassing a total of 9769 shoulder dystocia cases. Only 1 study effectively evaluated the role of episiotomy in shoulder dystocia prevention, yielding a nonsignificant result. Three articles assessed neonatal consequences of shoulder dystocia, one of them linking episiotomy to higher risk of neonatal injury. Two of the 3 studies evaluating maternal outcomes showed that episiotomy is related to increased risk of advanced perineal tears. Overall quality of evidence was rated as very low. Conclusions and Relevance Our systematic review found no evidence supporting the use of episiotomy in the prevention and management of shoulder dystocia. This observation carries major clinical and legal implications for the obstetricians. Higher-quality studies are needed to evaluate this important issue. Target Audience Obstetricians and gynecologists, family physicians Learning Objectives After completion of this educational activity, the reader will be better able to analyze the paucity of existing literature examining the role of episiotomy in the prevention and management of shoulder dystocia, discuss the crucial issues in exploring the subject including uniform definition of shoulder dystocia and the report of episiotomy timing, and assess the knowledge needed to determine whether to perform episiotomy in deliveries with increased risk of shoulder dystocia, such as in cases of macrosomic fetus.
Microfluidic Channels Modified With Collodial Palladium As An Efficient Catalyst For High Throughput Suzuki Coupling Reactions

It is highly desirable to develop a phosphine-free recyclable heterogenous catalytic system without the use of expensive and air-sensitive basic phosphines for palladium-catalysed coupling reactions. Nano-palladium catalysts for example, in various stabilised forms have been extensively explored as potential alternatives to achieve a higher catalytic activity. In line with the great interest directed towards the development of microfabricated chemical systems for a variety of chemical and biological applications, we demonstrate here a microreactor based on microfluidic channels on glass chips for the continous flow organic synthesis using immobilised nano-palladium. The palladium colliods were immobilised on the inner-walls of the microchannels via an intermediate organosilane monolayer. The covalent attachment of colloidal palladium provides minimum leaching of the catalyst. The Suzuki coupling of an aryl halide and an organoboron has been used a model system to investigate the performance characteristic.
Investigational drugs in phase II clinical trials for primary biliary cholangitis

ABSTRACT Introduction: Primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) is a chronic cholestatic liver disease that may lead to biliary fibrosis, and eventually cirrhosis. The primary treatment for PBC is ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA), which has favorably altered its natural history. However, up to 40% of patients have an inadequate response to UDCA, and are therefore at high risk of liver-related complications. Obeticholic acid has recently been approved for use in patients with PBC with inadequate response or who are intolerant to UDCA, but improvement in long-term outcomes has not yet been demonstrated. Alternative therapeutic options for PBC are needed. Areas covered: Recent advances in research including epidemiological, genetic and pre-clinical studies in animal models of PBC have yielded numerous agents currently at different stages of development for treatment of patients with PBC; in this review, we cover novel therapies that were recently or are recently being investigated in phase II clinical trials. Expert opinion: Despite the evolving landscape in PBC, the main challenges facing development of novel therapies remain the rarity of the disease and the limitations to design and conduct of controlled clinical trials in PBC, which are needed to determine the long-term effects of novel therapies on the clinical outcomes of PBC.