Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Investigation of the relationship between serum uric acid and atherosclerosis in newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes mellitus

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD) present high levels of serum uric acid (SUA), suggesting that SUA might be a necessary condition for CVD. Whether SUA is a sufficient condition for CVD in T2DM patients remains unknown. In the present study, 299 patients with newly diagnosed T2DM were investigated. Blood pressure, body mass index (BMI), serum uric acid (SUA), hemoglobin A1c (HBA1C), creatinine (CRE), blood urea nitrogen (BUN), gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT), urine albumen excretion rate (UAER) and blood lipids were measured. All participants underwent carotid ultrasonography to measure intima-media thickness (IMT) and carotid plaque. The relationship between serum uric acid level and IMT, carotid plaque was evaluated. The results revealed no significant differences in IMT or the plaque ratio among T2DM patients with different SUA levels. No significant regression was observed between IMT and SUA in women. However, multivariate regression analysis showed a significant association between IMT and SUA in men after adjusting for all cardiovascular risk factors. Taken together, SUA might be a necessary but not a sufficient condition for CVD in newly diagnosed T2DM patients.
2 Digital Potato Peeling

The potato-peeling problem (also known as convex skull) is a fundamental computational geometry problem that consist in finding the largest convex shape inside a given polygon. The fastest algorithm to date runs in O(n) time for a polygon with n vertices that may have holes. In this paper, we consider a digital version of the problem. A set K ⊂ Z is digital convex if conv(K) ∩ Z = K, where conv(K) denotes the convex hull of K. Given a set S of n lattice points, we present polynomial time algorithms for the problems of finding the largest digital convex subset K of S (digital potato-peeling problem) and the largest union of two digital convex subsets of S. The two algorithms take roughly O(n) and O(n) time, respectively. We also show that those algorithms provide an approximation to the continuous versions.
Different Approaches to Text Steganography: A Comparison

teganography is the art of hiding the fact that communication is taking place, by hiding information in other information. In this paper, we discuss different approaches of text steganography. There exists a large variety of text Steganography techniques, some are more complex than others and all of them have respective strong and weak points. Different applications have different requirements of the text steganography technique used. We describe a common application that needs both absolute invisibility and large secret data get hidden. We analyze some basic approaches of text based steganography and compare it according their performance based on the advantages and dis advantages.
ASCE Seismic Requirements for Typical Compressor Packages : Do They Apply ?

Seismic risk is a real hazard in many parts of the world including North America, South America, and Asia. In North America, California, Alaska, some areas in the eastern states, and Canada are prone to significant earthquakes. Compressor Packagers and OEMs are often asked to assess the impact of seismic events on their compressor packages destined for these areas. There are two challenges facing packagers when conducting a seismic analysis: 1. determine which areas of the package would be affected by a seismic event (piping, bottles, skid, etc.); and 2. specify the appropriate engineering/vibration analysis required for the application.
ff ects of warm temperature acclimation on constitutive stress , immunity , and metabolism in white sturgeon ( Acipenser transmontanus ) of di ff erent ploidies

Previous studies suggest fish with additional copies of their genome (polyploids) underperform in suboptimal conditions and may be more susceptible to stress and disease. The objective of this study was to determine the role ploidy plays in the physiological response of white sturgeon to chronically elevated water temperatures. White sturgeon of two ploidies (8 N and 10 N) were acclimated to ambient (18 °C) and warm (22 °C) water. Bioindices of stress (plasma cortisol, glucose and lactate, total erythrocyte count, hematocrit, hemoglobin, mean erythrocyte volume, mean erythrocyte hemoglobin, and mean erythrocyte hemoglobin concentration), immunity (respiratory burst, plasma lysozyme, and total leukocyte count), and cellular metabolic capacity (lactate dehydrogenase and citrate synthase activity) were measured before and after a 6-week acclimation period. Both ploidies appear comparable in their constitutive immune and stress parameters and respond similarly to warming. Hematological indices suggest 8 N and 10 N sturgeon are similar in oxygen carrying capacity; however, differences in enzyme activity between ploidies indicate that 10 N sturgeon may have a lower cellular aerobic capacity. Our results have implications for the screening and management of ploidy on white sturgeon farms and hatcheries, as the differences between ploidies may affect 10 N sturgeon performance at elevated water temperatures. Further research is needed to elucidate the differences in inducible stress and immune responses and metabolism of white sturgeon of different ploidies.
Histone demethylase KDM 2 B regulates lineage commitment in normal and malignant hematopoiesis

The development of the hematopoietic system is a dynamic process that is controlled by the interplay between transcriptional and epigenetic networks to determine cellular identity. These networks are critical for lineage specification and are frequently dysregulated in leukemias. Here, we identified histone demethylase KDM2B as a critical regulator of definitive hematopoiesis and lineage commitment of murine hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs). RNA sequencing of Kdm2b-null HSPCs and genome-wide ChIP studies in human leukemias revealed that KDM2B cooperates with polycomb and trithorax complexes to regulate differentiation, lineage choice, cytokine signaling, and cell cycle. Furthermore, we demonstrated that KDM2B exhibits a dichotomous role in hematopoietic malignancies. Specifically, we determined that KDM2B maintains lymphoid leukemias, but restrains RAS-driven myeloid transformation. Our study reveals that KDM2B is an important mediator of hematopoietic cell development and has opposing roles in tumor progression that are dependent on cellular context. Research Article Hematology
Tashlhiyt Berber Syllabification is Quantifier-Free

Imdlawn Tashlhiyt Berber (ITB) is unusual due to its tolerance of non-vocalic syllabic nuclei. Rule-based and constraint-based accounts of ITB syllabification do not directly address the question of how complex the process is. Model theory and formal logic allow for comparison of complexity across different theories of phonology by identifying the computational power (or expressivity) of linguistic formalisms in a grammar-independent way. With these tools, I develop a mathematical formalism for representing ITB syllabification using Quantifier-Free (QF) logic, one of the least powerful logics known. This result indicates that ITB syllabification is relatively simple from a computational standpoint and that grammatical formalisms could succeed with even less powerful mechanisms than are currently accepted.
Design, Implementation, and Performance Analysis of In-Home Video based Monitoring System for Patients with Dementia

Dementia is a major public health problem affecting 35 million people in USA. The caregivers of dementia patients experience many types of physical and psychological stress while dealing with disruptive behaviors of dementia patients [1–4]. This will also result in frequent hospitalizations and re-admissions. In this thesis we design, implement, and measure the performance of an advanced video based monitoring system to aide the caregivers in managing the behavioral symptoms of dementia patients. The caregivers will be able to easily capture and share the antecedents, consequences, and the function of behavior, through a video clip, and get the real-time feedback from clinical experts. Overall the system will help in reducing the hospital admission/readmission, improve the quality of life for caregivers, and in general, result in reduced cost of health care systems. The system is developed using Python scripts, open source web frameworks, FFmpeg [5] tool chain, and commercial off-the-shelf IP camera, and mini-PC. WebRTC [6] is used for video based coaching of caregivers. A framework has been developed to evaluate the storage and retrieval latency of video clips to public and private clouds, video streaming performance in LAN and WLAN environments, and WebRTC performance in different types of access networks. The InstaGENI [7], a GENI rack in KU is used as the private cloud infrastructure for the evaluation. OpenSSL [8] utilities are employed for secured transport and storage of captured video clips. We conducted trials on the Google fiber [9] ISP in Kansas city, and compared the performance with other traditional ISPs.
Evaluation of Implant Success in Patients with Dental Aplasia

Introduction Dental aplasia is an anomaly in which the number of teeth is reduced. It is the most commonly occurring dental anomaly during tooth development. Treatment management of patients with dental aplasia is challenging. Objectives The aim of this retrospective clinical study was to analyze the survival and success rates of dental implants placed in hypodontic patients, rated with different criteria. Methods Forty-three patients were diagnosed with dental aplasia and treated with dental implants between November 2000 and February 2016. The variables assessed included the plaque level, bleeding on probing, probing depth, implant mobility, implant stability, and implant loss. To analyze the peri-implant bone level, a panoramic X-ray of each patient was taken. The results were compared with X-rays taken immediately after implantation. Results Thirty-seven patients (16 males; 21 females) participated in this study. In total, 155 implants (86 maxillary; 69 mandibular) were inserted. Two of the 155 implants failed; the in situ survival rate was 98.7%. The success rate according to the criteria of Buser et al. was 96.8%, and that according to the criteria of Albrektsson et al. was 88.4%. Conclusion The survival and success rates of dental implants in patients with congenitally absent teeth were very high and did not differ significantly from results achieved in an unaffected population. Dental implants are a reliable therapy for patients with dental aplasia.
Panoramix, a panoramic visualisation tool for metrics

Large software systems are hard to grasp. To aid the understanding of such systems, software metrics have been used for a fairly long time. A large Object Oriented system with a metric value for each element, results in an almost unmanageable amount of values for each metric used to measure the system. The Panoramix visualisation tool gives a panoramic view of the entire system, and on top of this, metrics are visualised. This panoramic view gives the user the ability to view the entire system in one glance without imposing a high level structure view of the system. Viewing metrics on top of this structure provides a way for the user to find elements of interest, and recognise patterns, which in turn should aid code handling and modifying tasks. Table of
Acute phase reaction and acute phase proteins

A review of the systemic acute phase reaction with major cytokines involved, and the hepatic metabolic changes, negative and positive acute phase proteins (APPs) with function and associated pathology is given. It appears that APPs represent appropriate analytes for assessment of animal health. Whereas they represent non-specific markers as biological effect reactants, they can be used for assessing nutritional deficits and reactive processes, especially when positive and negative acute phase variables are combined in an index. When such acute phase index is applied to separate healthy animals from animals with some disease, much better results are obtained than with single analytes and statistically acceptable results for culling individual animals may be reached. Unfortunately at present no cheap, comprehensive and easy to use system is available for assessing various acute phase proteins in serum or blood samples at the same time. Protein microarray or fluid phase microchip technology may satisfy this need; and permit simultaneous analysis of numerous analytes in the same small volume sample and enable integration of information derived from systemic reactivity and nutrition with disease specific variables. Applying such technology may help to solve health problems in various countries not only in animal husbandry but also in human populations.
C-learning : Further Generalised G-nogood Learning

This paper contains practical and theoretical contributions regarding forms of conflict-driven learning more general than g-nogood learning, specifically learning disjunctions composed of arbitrary constraints rather than just assignments and disassignments. A practical implementation of the idea, called c-learning, is given. Most importantly, an exponential separation between c-learning and g-nogood learning is proved: i.e. that is there exists an infinite family of CSPs for which gnogood learning necessarily takes exponential time, but which c-learning can solve in polynomial time. Finally, to demonstrate the practical possibilities of this result, an experiment is performed demonstrating clearning’s exponential superiority on the family of CSPs used in the proof.
Energy-aware Reconfiguration of Sensor Nodes

Energy consumption is one of the most challenging constraints for the design and implementation of sensor networks. As sensor nodes are commonly battery-driven, the way the available energy is used determines the lifetime of the system. In recent research, a variety of approaches has been investigated to predict energy consumption o -line using simulation, emulation, code analysis and energy models of hardware components. However, for a wide range of applications the run-time behavior is dictated by sensor measurements or external events, allowing only a worst case analysis before deployment. In this paper, we investigate di erent approaches to derive energy characteristics during run-time and to adapt or recon gure the applications running on individual sensor nodes. We discuss prototype implementations based on TinyOS for the BTnode architecture and their overhead regarding energy consumption and code size.
Approximate kinetic formalisms for modeling metabolic networks : does anything work ?

Approximated kinetic formalisms provide useful mathematical representations for modeling complex genetic and metabolic networks. Although the different formalisms that currently have a wider use for modeling biological systems have technical similarities, their practical utility differs. A formal comparison of the rational behind each formalism help understanding their similarities and differences. From a practical point of view, we discuss basic requirements of a useful mathematical description and provide a rational for selecting a particular formalism depending on the purpose of the study. Such an analysis, suggests that the power-law formalism has clear advantages if one’s purpose is that of analyzing circuit design and systemic properties. The recently proposed Saturable and Cooperative formalism can provide an additional tool that allows for a complementary analysis of the predictions based on the powerlaw formalism.
opulation structure of Blackberry yellow vein associated virus , an emerging rinivirus

Blackberry yellow vein disease (BYVD), a disorder caused by virus complexes, has become a major threat to fresh market blackberry production in the United States. Blackberry yellow vein associated virus (BYVaV) is the most prevalent virus in the BYVD complexes; detected in about 50% of samples exhibiting typical disease symptoms. Thirty-four virus isolates infecting wild and cultivated blackberries were collected vailable online 20 July 2012
erarchie: Interactive Visualization for Hierarchical Topic Models

Existing algorithms for understanding large collections of documents often produce output that is nearly as difficult and time consuming to interpret as reading each of the documents themselves. Topic modeling is a text understanding algorithm that discovers the “topics” or themes within a collection of documents. Tools based on topic modeling become increasingly complex as the number of topics required to best represent the collection increases. In this work, we present Hi ´ erarchie, an interactive visualization that adds structure to large topic models, making them approachable and useful to an end user. Additionally, we demonstrate Hi ´ erarchie’s ability to analyze a diverse document set regarding a trending news topic.
USED IN PROMOTING SPIRITUAL HEALTH FOR PATIENTS WITH LIFE THREATENING ILLNESSES IN HOSPITAL SETTINGS

Spiritual health is one of the essential components of health, where patients search for meaning and purpose in life. Patients with life threatening illnesses experience distress, both physically and spiritually. There are studies which found that nurses did not regularly integrate spiritual care into their daily routine, due to lack of time and lack of education. It is important to discover existing evidences of spiritual interventions which help the nurses promote spiritual health as regards to patients’ need in hospital settings. The aim of this study was to describe nursing interventions applied in promoting spiritual health for patients with life threatening illnesses in hospital settings. A literature review of sixteen articles was carried out. Articles were retrieved from CINAHL and MEDLINE databases to answer the study’s objective. Eleven articles were retrieved from the databases and five articles were found using an ancestry search. A process of re-reading and finding the similar categories from articles was being used to develop themes in analyzing the data. Results were categorized into three themes: person-centred communication, adapting a team approach, and modifying the physical environment. It was found that the nurses conducted a deeper level of communication which covered topics about patients’ wishes and hopes, and being there for patients as major interventions. The nurses also assessed patients’ spiritual needs prior to interventions, and were promoting patients and family belief and value in a respectful way. Family and referrals were also included in the intervention given by the palliative care team, moreover the nurses were providing privacy with regards to supporting a healing environment. In conclusion acknowledgement of dying is essential in providing appropriate care. It is essential for the nurses to be prepared adequately through education, to conduct spiritual care interventions within a person-centred care approach. The information from this study may improve the quality of delivering spiritual care in hospital settings for patients with life threatening illnesses. Further recommendation for future research is to explore deeper about various spiritual nursing interventions from various cultures.
Concurrent maintenance of skip lists

This paper describes a new approach to providing efficient concurrent access to a dynamic search structure. Previous approaches have attempted to solve this problem using search trees (either balanced or unbalanced). We describe methods for performing concurrent access and updates using skip lists. Skip lists are a probabilistic alternative to balanced trees that provide much of the simplicity of unbalanced trees, together with good worst-case expected performance. In this paper, we briefly review skip lists, describe simple methods for concurrent maintenance of sorted linked lists, formally prove the correctness of those methods, and show how they can be extended to provide simple and efficient algorithms for concurrent maintenance of skip lists. CR
Introduction to Big Data Analytics

Data is being generated at a tremendous rate in modern applications that are as diverse as social network analysis, genomics, health care, energy management, and computer vision. It is now widely accepted that very large-scale data sets will be collected and will need to be analyzed in the context of these applications. Indeed, the recent moniker of Big Data emphasizes that massive volumes of data are ubiquitous. This short course will cover analysis tasks that can be performed on data sets, such as regression, classification, clustering and dimensionality reduction, and discuss ways of scaling these methods so that very large data sets can be analyzed. The course will also discuss systems aspects that arise in such large-scale analysis, for example, multi-core versus multi-machine, Hadoop/MapReduce versus MPI and synchronous versus asynchronous computations. The vibrant application areas of social networks analysis, text analysis, recommender systems and genomics will be used to illustrate uses of big data analytics.
– Phase 2 National clear-cut mapping in Sweden with ALOS PALSAR

A new clear-cut detection algorithm was developed and yearly maps of clear-cuts covering the entire Sweden for the period 2008-2010 were produced, based on an extensive dataset of ALOS PALSAR Fine Beam Dual (FBD) HV-polarized backscatter images. The new algorithm is able to detect clear-cuts with high accuracy and map the areal extent of the detected clear-cuts well. At 20 m pixel size (path data), 79.4% of the pixels in 31 clear-cuts were correctly detected. The majority of misclassified pixels were located along the clear-cut edges. The detection accuracy improved to 90%, when applying a one-pixel edgeeroded version of the reference dataset. At 50 m pixel size (strip data), the corresponding figures were 72.5% and 85.9% without and with one edge-eroded pixel, respectively. PALSAR strip data are judged to be sufficient for detection of clear-cuts and provide a rough delineation of the clear-cut extensions. A resolution of 10-20 m (e.g., PALSAR path data) is, however, recommended if higher precision is required. Nation-wide clear-cut mapping using strip data and the new detection algorithm proved to be very robust and computationally fast. For the period spanning the growing season of 2008-2009, a total of 168,279 ha were detected as clear-cuts. For the same period, the Swedish National Forest Inventory reported 168,645 ha. For 2009-2010, 156,910 ha were detected with PALSAR as clear-cuts. A comparison at county level with information from the Swedish Forest Agency and the Swedish National Forest Inventory shows an overall good agreement, but also local discrepancies likely due to time differences in the datasets. The results highlight the usefulness of ALOS PALSAR strip data in an operational scenario for clear-cut mapping at a national level.
Sensitivity enhancement of a nanocomposite-based fiber optics sensor with platinum nanoparticles

In this paper, sensitivity enhancement of a nanocomposite-based optical fiber sensor with platinum nanoparticles is investigated. This optical fiber sensor is based on the surface plasmon resonance in the nanocomposite layer coating the core of optical fiber. A comparison is carried out for sensitivity between an optical fiber sensor based surface plasmon resonance with platinum layer and the one with nanocomposite layer. The nanocomposite layer consists of platinum nanoparticles with varying volume fraction which is arrayed in a host dielectric material of InN or TiO2. We show that the sensitivity of the sensor with a nanocomposite layer containing platinum nanoparticles is bigger than the sensitivity of the sensor with a platinum layer for all the values of refractive index of sample media. Also, the effect of the thickness of the nanocomposite layer and the volume fraction of platinum nanoparticles on the spectrum of the transmitted power has been investigated.