Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss and acute low-tone sensorineural hearing loss: a comparison of the results of a nationwide epidemiological survey in Japan

Abstract Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the differences between idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL), and acute low-tone sensorineural hearing loss (ALHL) using the results of a nationwide survey database in Japan and to analyze the variables associated with their clinical features and the severity of hearing impairment, treatment, and prognosis. Methods: Participants were patients registered between April 2014 and March 2016 in a multicenter epidemiological survey database involving 30 university hospitals and medical centers across Japan. Statistical analysis was performed to clarify the factors associated with their clinical characteristics and the severity of hearing impairment, treatment, and prognosis. Results: Idiopathic SSNHL and ALHL differed significantly in terms of male-to-female ratio, age distribution, and time from onset to start of treatment. The treatment methods and hearing prognosis also differed markedly between the two diseases. A majority (92%) of idiopathic SSNHL patients were administered some type of corticosteroid, while half of the ALHL patients received corticosteroids and a diuretic agent. Conclusion: The results suggested that idiopathic SSNHL and ALHL belonged to different categories of inner ear disease.
askMEDLINE: a Report on a Year-Long Experience

askMEDLINE is a free-text, natural language search tool for MEDLINE/PubMed. Since its introduction a year ago, more than 15,000 queries have been received, mostly in the form of questions or complex phrases. Questions on therapy were the most searched. We review our yearlong experience, an updated evaluation using 'gold standard' questions selected by EBM experts and discuss added features.
Optimal resource allocation for multiple network-coded two-way relay in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing systems

This paper studies optimal resource allocation for multiple network-coded two-way relay in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing systems. All the two-way relay nodes adopt amplify-and-forward and operate with analog network coding protocol. A joint optimization problem considering power allocation, relay selection, and subcarrier pairing to maximize the sum capacity under individual power constraints at each transmitter or total network power constraint is first formulated. By applying dual method, we provide a unified optimization framework to solve this problem. With this framework, we further propose three low-complexity suboptimal algorithms. The complexity of the proposed optimal resource allocation ORA algorithm and three suboptimal algorithms are analyzed, and it is shown that the complexity of ORA is only a polynomial function of the number of subcarriers and relay nodes under both individual and total power constraints. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed ORA scheme yields substantial performance improvement over a baseline scheme, and suboptimal algorithms can achieve a trade-off between performance and complexity. The results also indicate that with the same total network transmit power, the performance of ORA under total power constraint can outperform that under individual power constraints. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Synaptic transmission in the outer retina.

The primary function of the retina is to detect light and to process visual images. Light is absorbed by photoreceptors, and its energy is transduced into electrical signals in the form of membrane hyperpolarization (165). Signals in rod and cone photoreceptors are transmitted to higher order retinal neurons through a complex and highly organized network of electrical and chemical synapses. Photoreceptors make electrical synapses with other photoreceptors nearby ( 12, 14, 22, 44, 47, 70, 134, 135), and they make chemical synapses on dendrites of second-order retinal neurons, the hori­ zontal cells (HCs) and bipolar cells (BCs) (33, 56, 57, 59, 92, 98, 99, 165). Horizontal cells make feedback chemical synapse on cones (22, 121, 122, 186) and feedforward chemical synagse on bipolar cells (56, 57, 59, 201); they also make electrical synapses with other HCs (84, 172). Bipolar cells relay visual signals from the outer retina to the inner retina, where they make electrical synapses with other bipolar cells (95, 110, 173) and make chemical (and occasional electrical) synapses with amacrine cells and ganglion cells (33, 57, 59, 173, 177). Ganglion cells send retinal signals to the brain. Information processing in the retina is, in great part, mediated by its synapses. Synaptic interactions within the retina, for example, are respon­ sible for contrast enhancement, center-surround antagonism, movement and directional sensitivity, and color perception (18, 20, 56, 62, 83, 154, 170). Retinal synapses also maximize useful signals and minimize unwanted noise (31). Moreover, many retinal synapses exhibit a high degree of plasticity that allows modification of retinal function under various adaptational
An experimental method for studying Young’s modulus of single crystal silicon at high temperature

This article reports a novel indirect experimental method to measure Young’s modulus of single crystal silicon at high temperature. Young’s modulus at high temperature is estimated by measuring the elastic deformation of single crystal silicon microstructure at room temperature and high temperature. Since it is difficult to measure the elastic deformation directly at high temperature, a novel indirect method is presented in this study. In order to prevent plastic deformation at high temperature, the Von Mises yield criterion is applied to predict the onset of plastic deformation. The resulting Young’s modulus of single crystal silicon is about 110 ± 17 GPa at 900 °C in the <100> direction from the present experiment.
Density, Destinations or Both? A Comparison of Measures of Walkability in Relation to Transportation Behaviors, Obesity and Diabetes in Toronto, Canada

The design of suburban communities encourages car dependency and discourages walking, characteristics that have been implicated in the rise of obesity. Walkability measures have been developed to capture these features of urban built environments. Our objective was to examine the individual and combined associations of residential density and the presence of walkable destinations, two of the most commonly used and potentially modifiable components of walkability measures, with transportation, overweight, obesity, and diabetes. We examined associations between a previously published walkability measure and transportation behaviors and health outcomes in Toronto, Canada, a city of 2.6 million people in 2011. Data sources included the Canada census, a transportation survey, a national health survey and a validated administrative diabetes database. We depicted interactions between residential density and the availability of walkable destinations graphically and examined them statistically using general linear modeling. Individuals living in more walkable areas were more than twice as likely to walk, bicycle or use public transit and were significantly less likely to drive or own a vehicle compared with those living in less walkable areas. Individuals in less walkable areas were up to one-third more likely to be obese or to have diabetes. Residential density and the availability of walkable destinations were each significantly associated with transportation and health outcomes. The combination of high levels of both measures was associated with the highest levels of walking or bicycling (p<0.0001) and public transit use (p<0.0026) and the lowest levels of automobile trips (p<0.0001), and diabetes prevalence (p<0.0001). We conclude that both residential density and the availability of walkable destinations are good measures of urban walkability and can be recommended for use by policy-makers, planners and public health officials. In our setting, the combination of both factors provided additional explanatory power.
Particle Rearrangement and Pore Space Coarsening During Solid‐State Sintering

Coarsening of porosity during sintering has been observed in powder compacts of metallic, ceramic, and amorphous materials. Monitoring and modelling of the growth of individual (closed) pores in the late sintering stages are well established. Porosity is interconnected up to very high densities. Coarsening of the continuous pore space takes place during the initial and intermediate sintering stages. This coarsening is caused by localized transport of atoms or molecules (diffusion or viscous flow) as well as by bulk particle movement (rearrangement). Its quantitative exploration poses problems both experimentally and theoretically. Ways to characterize the geometry of the interconnected pore space and of closed pores are discussed with emphasis on stereological parameters. Recent and classical approaches, experimental findings with 2D model arrangements (as the formation and opening up of particle contacts, pore coarsening, and particle rearrangement) and some advances of computer simulations are discussed together with open questions.
Semantic file annotation and retrieval on mobile devices

The rapid development of mobile technologies has facilitated users to generate and store files on mobile devices such as mobile phones and PDAs. However, it has become a challenging issue for users to efficiently and effectively search for files of interest in a mobile environment involving a large number of mobile nodes. This paper presents SemFARM framework which facilitates users to publish, annotate and retrieve files which are geographically distributed in a mobile network enabled by Bluetooth. The SemFARM framework is built on semantic web technologies in support of file retrieval on low-end mobile devices. A generic ontology is developed which defines a number of keywords, their possible domains and properties. Based on semantic reasoning, similarity degrees are computed to match user queries with published file descriptions. The SemFARM prototype is implemented using the Java mobile platform (J2ME). The performance of SemFARM is evaluated from a number of aspects in comparison with traditional mobile file systems and enhanced alternatives. Experimental results are encouraging showing the effectiveness of SemFARM in file retrieval. We can conclude that the use of semantic web technologies have facilitated file retrieval in mobile computing environments maximizing user satisfaction in searching for files of interest.
Fuzzy Spectral Partition Ensemble Based on Occasion

Clustering ensemble takes advantage of ensemble learning technique, combining multiple cluster members' results to get uniform and more reasonable clustering result. This paper integrates in the staged results of spectral partition ensemble algorithm orderly, applying the fuzzy C-means clustering algorithm in the following clustering stage of spectral partition ensemble, and presents four fuzzy spectral partition ensemble based on occasion. Compared with the existing graph partition ensemble algorithms, our algorithms do better in the clustering effectiveness and efficiency.
Secure machine-type communications in LTE networks

With a great variety of potential applications, machine-type communications MTC is gaining a tremendous interest from mobile network operators and research groups. MTC is standardized by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project 3GPP, which has been regarded as the promising solution facilitating machine-to-machine communications. In the latest standard, 3GPP proposes a novel architecture for MTC, in which the MTC server is located outside the operator domain. However, the connection between the 3GPP core network and MTC server in this scenario is insecure; consequently, there are distrustful relationships among MTC device, core network, and MTC server. If the security issue is not well addressed, all applications involved in MTC cannot be put into the market. To address this problem, we propose an end-to-end security scheme for MTC based on the proxy-signature technique, called E2SEC. Specifically, both the MTC device and MTC server can establish strong trustful relationships with each other by using the proxy signatures issued by the 3GPP core network. Moreover, we present some implementation considerations of E2SEC and analyze the performance during authentication by comparing the operational cost of three cases that apply three different signature algorithms, that is, ElGamal, Schnorr, and DSA. Through security analysis by using Automatic Cryptographic Protocol Verifier ProVerif, we conclude that the proposed E2SEC scheme can achieve the security goals and prevent various security threats. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Southern African guidelines on the safe use of pre-exposure prophylaxis in persons at risk of acquiring HIV-1 infection

The Southern African HIV Clinicians Society published its first set of oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) guidelines in June 2012 for men who have sex with men (MSM) who are at risk of HIV infection. With the flurry of data that has been generated in PrEP clinical research since the first guideline, it became evident that there was a need to revise and expand the PrEP guidelines with new evidence of safety and efficacy of PrEP in several populations, including MSM, transgender persons, heterosexual men and women, HIV-serodiscordant couples and people who inject drugs. This need is particularly relevant following the World Health Organization (WHO) Consolidated Treatment Guidelines released in September 2015. These guidelines advise that PrEP is a highly effective, safe, biomedical option for HIV prevention that can be incorporated with other combination prevention strategies in Southern Africa, given the high prevalence of HIV in the region. PrEP should be tailored to populations at highest risk of HIV acquisition, whilst further data from studies in the region accrue to guide optimal deployment to realise the greatest impact regionally. PrEP may be used intermittently during periods of perceived HIV acquisition risk, rather than continually and lifelong, as is the case with antiretroviral treatment. Recognition and accurate measurement of potential risk in individuals and populations also warrants discussion, but are not extensively covered in these guidelines.
An analytical model for the heat generation in friction stir welding

The objective of this work is to establish an analytical model for heat generation by friction stir welding (FSW), based on different assumptions of the contact condition between the rotating tool surface and the weld piece. The material flow and heat generation are characterized by the contact conditions at the interface, and are described as sliding, sticking or partial sliding/sticking. Different mechanisms of heat generation are behind each contact condition, making this study important for further understanding of the real FSW process. The analytical expression for the heat generation is a modification of previous analytical models known from the literature and accounts for both conical surfaces and different contact conditions. Experimental results on plunge force and torque are used to determine the contact condition. The sliding condition yields a proportional relationship between the plunge force and heat generation. This is not demonstrated in the experiment, which suggests that the sticking contact condition is present at the tool/matrix interface.
Superior Retinal Gene Transfer and Biodistribution Profile of Subretinal Versus Intravitreal Delivery of AAV8 in Nonhuman Primates.

Purpose To investigate shedding and biodistribution characteristics of recombinant adeno-associated virus serotype 8 (rAAV8) after single-dose subretinal or intravitreal injection in nonhuman primates (NHP, Macaca fascicularis) as a surrogate for environmental hazard and patient safety. Methods In a study for regulatory submission, 22 NHP were divided into four cohorts receiving either single subretinal injections of vehicle or clinical grade rAAV8 (1 × 1011 or 1 × 1012 vector genomes [vg]) versus single intravitreal application of 1 × 1012 vg. Viral shedding and biodistribution were monitored in biofluids for up to 91 days, followed by necropsy and tissue harvesting of all major organs, the visual pathway, and lymphatic tissue. Quantification of vector genomes was done by quantitative (q)PCR. Results Shedding occurred in a dose-dependent manner in all biofluids and persisted for a maximum of 7 days. Intravitreal delivery led to increased and persistent (up to 13 weeks) distribution of vector genomes in blood and draining lymphatic tissue, increased off-target deposition, and inefficient gene transfer to the retina. No vector targeting of the germ line was observed in any cohort. Conclusions These data illustrate that subretinal application of rAAV8 leads to a more favorable biodistribution profile compared to intravitreal injections. Extraocular biodistribution is limited after subretinal delivery, while intravitreal injection leads to both greater and more persistent systemic exposure, evident in blood and lymphatic tissues. With the knowledge on the dynamics of shedding in a setting mimicking clinical application, guidelines can be developed to refine clinical trial protocols to reduce the risk for trial subjects and their environment.
GAI Networks for Utility Elicitation

This paper deals with preference representation and elicitation in the context of multiattribute utility theory under risk. Assuming the decision maker behaves according to the EU model, we investigate the elicitation of generalized additively decomposable utility functions on a product set (GAI-decomposable utilities). We propose a general elicitation procedure based on a new graphical model called a GAI-network. The latter is used to represent and manage independences between attributes, as junction graphs model independences between random variables in Bayesian networks. It is used to design an elicitation questionnaire based on simple lotteries involving completely specified outcomes. Our elicitation procedure is convenient for any GAI-decomposable utility function, thus enhancing the possibilities offered by UCP-networks.
Effect of different Environmental Conditions on Construction Quality of Spraying Polyurea Waterproof Layer

Spraying polyurea waterproof material is a two-component elastic coating.Under the different concrete base layer temperature,moisture content and atmospheric moisture,dew point temperature and other environmental conditions in winter in Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway engineering,through on-site spraying technology experiment and indoor test.the following conclusions are summarized: The roughness of beam surface concrete shot blasting process is higher than that of the grinding process,bond strength of waterproof layer is higher in the same environment.When beam surface base layer temperature is below 5℃,bond strength is greatly affected,The bond strength is relatively stable while the temperature is above 12℃. when the cambient temperature is above 15℃,the performance of polyurea waterproofing material is in good condition.Spray polyurea waterproofing material bonding strength is relatively low,when the temperature of concrete base layer is lower than the dew point temperature.Analysis is given to the probable quality problem and effective measures such as averting construction in foggy weather,raising temperature by blowing hot wind and setting up sheds are taken to ensure construction quality.
Sclera feature extraction using DWT co-efficients

Sclera blood veins are the most unique feature of the human's eye, which can be used in a recognition system for various security purposes. The sclera vessel pattern can be extracted for the recognition purpose as this part of the eye has visible veins which are randomly distributed. One of the advantages in sclera recognition is that it can be captured with normal camera using visible wavelength rather than near infrared. In this paper, we are proposing an efficient method for sclera segmentation and vessel enhancement. We propose an algorithm to implement feature extraction technique using the 2D-DWT and the extracted coefficients are used to represent the image. In the feature extraction we are extracting important features of the sclera blood veins by calculating its mean average and standard deviation. The proposed system is evaluated using In-House database. The experimental results show a significant increase in terms of accuracy and error rates.
A new haplotype block detection method for dense genome sequencing data based on interval graph modeling of clusters of highly correlated SNPs

Motivation Linkage disequilibrium (LD) block construction is required for research in population genetics and genetic epidemiology, including specification of sets of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) for analysis of multi‐SNP based association and identification of haplotype blocks in high density sequencing data. Existing methods based on a narrow sense definition do not allow intermediate regions of low LD between strongly associated SNP pairs and tend to split high density SNP data into small blocks having high between‐block correlation. Results We present Big‐LD, a block partition method based on interval graph modeling of LD bins which are clusters of strong pairwise LD SNPs, not necessarily physically consecutive. Big‐LD uses an agglomerative approach that starts by identifying small communities of SNPs, i.e. the SNPs in each LD bin region, and proceeds by merging these communities. We determine the number of blocks using a method to find maximum‐weight independent set. Big‐LD produces larger LD blocks compared to existing methods such as MATILDE, Haploview, MIG ++, or S‐MIG ++ and the LD blocks better agree with recombination hotspot locations determined by sperm‐typing experiments. The observed average runtime of Big‐LD for 13 288 240 non‐monomorphic SNPs from 1000 Genomes Project autosome data (286 East Asians) is about 5.83 h, which is a significant improvement over the existing methods. Availability and implementation Source code and documentation are available for download at http://github.com/sunnyeesl/BigLD.
Periodic Sequences Modulated Filter Banks

This letter studies nearly perfect reconstruction periodic sequences modulated filter banks, which includes many useful examples, e.g., the discrete Fourier transform (DFT), generalized DFT, and cosine-modulated ones. A general framework is developed to meet arbitrary, but feasible design constraints, e.g., length of filters, system delay, decimation ratio, phase linearity, etc., and it also reveals new design freedoms, i.e., phase shifts in the modulation sequences. An efficient Newton algorithm is proposed, and a MATLAB/Octave package with diverse design examples is provided. Numerical results show that better designs can be obtained by searching for the solutions in a larger space than the one from traditional frameworks.
Interpreting Microbial Biosynthesis in the Genomic Age: Biological and Practical Considerations

Genome mining has become an increasingly powerful, scalable, and economically accessible tool for the study of natural product biosynthesis and drug discovery. However, there remain important biological and practical problems that can complicate or obscure biosynthetic analysis in genomic and metagenomic sequencing projects. Here, we focus on limitations of available technology as well as computational and experimental strategies to overcome them. We review the unique challenges and approaches in the study of symbiotic and uncultured systems, as well as those associated with biosynthetic gene cluster (BGC) assembly and product prediction. Finally, to explore sequencing parameters that affect the recovery and contiguity of large and repetitive BGCs assembled de novo, we simulate Illumina and PacBio sequencing of the Salinispora tropica genome focusing on assembly of the salinilactam (slm) BGC.