Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Diabetic retinopathy and diabetic macular edema: pathophysiology, screening, and novel therapies.

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) and diabetic macular edema (DME) are leading causes of blindness in the working-age population of most developed countries. The increasing number of individuals with diabetes worldwide suggests that DR and DME will continue to be major contributors to vision loss and associated functional impairment for years to come. Early detection of retinopathy in individuals with diabetes is critical in preventing visual loss, but current methods of screening fail to identify a sizable number of high-risk patients. The control of diabetes-associated metabolic abnormalities (i.e., hyperglycemia, hyperlipidemia, and hypertension) is also important in preserving visual function because these conditions have been identified as risk factors for both the development and progression of DR/DME. The currently available interventions for DR/DME, laser photocoagulation and vitrectomy, only target advanced stages of disease. Several biochemical mechanisms, including protein kinase C-beta activation, increased vascular endothelial growth factor production, oxidative stress, and accumulation of intracellular sorbitol and advanced glycosylation end products, may contribute to the vascular disruptions that characterize DR/DME. The inhibition of these pathways holds the promise of intervention for DR at earlier non-sight-threatening stages. To implement new therapies effectively, more individuals will need to be screened for DR/DME at earlier stages-a process requiring both improved technology and interdisciplinary cooperation among physicians caring for patients with diabetes.
Doubly iterative receiver for block transmissions with EM-based channel estimation

Cyclic-prefix code division multiple access (CP-CDMA), multicarrier CDMA (MC-CDMA) and single carrier cyclic-prefix (SCCP) transmission are some schemes that could support the increasing demand of future high data rate applications. The linear and nonlinear equalizers used to detect the transmitted signal are always far from the maximum-likelihood (ML) detection bound. The block iterative generalized decision feedback equalizer (BI-GDFE) is an iterative and effective interference cancelation scheme which could provide near-ML performance yet with very low complexity. In order to deploy this scheme, the channel state information (CSI) must be available at the receiver. In practice, this information has to be estimated by using pilot and data symbols. This paper investigates the problem of channel estimation using the expectation maximization (EM) algorithm. The BI-GDFE provides the soft information of the transmitted signals to the EM-based algorithm in the form a combination of hard decision and a coefficient so-called the input-decision correlation (IDC). The resultant receiver becomes a doubly iterative scheme. To evaluate the performance of the proposed estimation algorithm, the Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB) is also derived. Computer simulations show that the bit error rate (BER) performance of the proposed receiver for joint channel estimation and signal detection can reach the performance of the BI-GDFE with perfect CSI.
The Associations between Smoking, Physical Inactivity, Obesity, and Asthma Severity in the General US Population

The purpose of this study was to examine the associations between smoking, physical inactivity, obesity, and asthma severity among US adults. The magnitude of these associations was very strong. For example, those who visited an emergency room in the past year were 60% more likely than those who did not to smoke; those who used an inhaler ≥15 times in the past month (versus those who did not use an inhaler) were 90% more likely to be physically inactive; and those who had asthma symptoms all the time in the past 30 days (versus those with no symptoms) were 80% more likely to be obese.
Automatic Defense through Fault Localization and Dynamic Patch Creation

The US Department of Defense has called for contest on automatic attack and defense. The contest is a competition, called Cyber Grand Challenge (CGC), aimed at developing cyber security systems. In accordance with the competition rules, we developed an automatic cyber reasoning system (CRS) that meets the objectives specified in the CGC. Our CRS combines the techniques of fuzz testing, fault localization, and binary patch creation to construct an automatic defense system. From the sample problems in the CGC, we evaluate our system and the binary patch capability by applying them to real programs. We explore two patching methods in five challenges in CGC with partial successes in availability and security.
Dipeptidyl(amino)peptidase IV and aminopeptidase M metabolize circulating substance P in vivo.

Recent studies have demonstrated that Fischer-344 rats from Japanese Charles River Inc. specifically lack dipeptidyl(amino)peptidase IV (DAP IV-negative; EC 3.4.14.5), whereas Fischer-344 rats from sources within the United States (DAP IV-positive) possess normal DAP IV activity. In the present study, plasma from DAP IV-positive rats metabolized substance P (SP) (5.37 +/- 0.25 nmol/min/ml) via the actions of angiotensin-converting enzyme (EC 3.4.15.1) (1.86 +/- 0.50 nmol/min/ml) and DAP IV (2.56 +/- 0.42 nmol/min/ml). DAP IV sequentially converted SP to SP[3-11] and SP[5-11]. The SP[5-11] metabolite was then rapidly hydrolyzed by plasma aminopeptidase M (AmM; EC 3.4.11.2) (36.2 +/- 4.2 nmol/min/ml). In contrast, SP metabolism by plasma from DAP IV-negative rats was less than half that of control animals (2.14 +/- 0.06 nmol/min/ml), due to a complete lack of DAP IV hydrolysis. The absence of DAP IV was not associated with any differences in angiotensin-converting enzyme-mediated hydrolysis of SP (1.45 +/- 0.11 nmol/min/ml) or AmM-mediated hydrolysis of SP[5-11] (37.1 +/- 0.9 nmol/min/ml). Consistent with this deficiency in SP metabolism, SP was more potent in vivo in stimulating salivary secretion in DAP IV-negative rats compared to DAP IV-positive animals. Potentiation was specific in that SP[5-11], an SP fragment resistant to DAP IV, was equipotent in DAP IV-negative and positive animals. SP[5-11]-induced salivary secretion was potentiated in both strains when AmM-mediated hydrolysis was inhibited by amastatin (20 nmol/min, i.v.). These data provide direct evidence for a significant role for DAP IV and AmM in the in vivo processing of SP and active SP metabolites.
Rho-Kinase Inhibitor Improves Increased Vascular Resistance and Impaired Vasodilation of the Forearm in Patients With Heart Failure

Background—Rho-kinase is suggested to have an important role in enhanced vasoconstriction in animal models of heart failure (HF). Patients with HF are characterized by increased vasoconstriction and reduced vasodilator responses to reactive hyperemia and exercise. The aim of the present study was to examine whether Rho-kinase is involved in the peripheral circulation abnormalities of HF in humans with the Rho-kinase inhibitor fasudil. Methods and Results—Studies were performed in patients with HF (HF group, n=26) and an age-matched control group (n=26). Forearm blood flow was measured with a strain-gauge plethysmograph during intra-arterial infusion of graded doses of fasudil or sodium nitroprusside. Resting forearm vascular resistance (FVR) was significantly higher in the HF group than in the control group. The increase in forearm blood flow evoked by fasudil was significantly greater in the HF group than in the control group. The increased FVR was decreased by fasudil in the HF group toward the level of the control group. By contrast, FVR evoked by sodium nitroprusside was comparable between the 2 groups. Fasudil significantly augmented the impaired ischemic vasodilation during reactive hyperemia after arterial occlusion of the forearm in the HF group but not in the control group. Fasudil did not augment the increased FVR evoked by phenylephrine in the control group significantly. Conclusions—These results indicate that Rho-kinase is involved in increased FVR and impaired vasodilation of the forearm in patients with HF.
Exploring unsupervised word segmentation for machine translation in the South African context

We explore the application of unsupervised word segmentation algorithms to phrase-based statistical machine translation (SMT) systems, translating from English to four South African languages: Afrikaans, Northern Sotho, Tsonga and Zulu. Positive results in terms of the standard BLEU and NIST scores are obtained for systems translating into Afrikaans and Zulu.
Links in hypermedia: the requirement for context

Taking the concept of a link from hypertext and adding to it the rich collection of information formats found in multimedia systems provides an extension to hypertext that is often called hypermedia. Unfortunately, the implicit assumptions under which hypertext links work do not extend well to time-based presentations that consist of a number of simultaneously active media items. It is not obvious where links should lead and there are no standard rules that indicate what should happen to other parts of the presentation that are active. This paper addresses the problems associated with links in hypermedia. In order to provide a solution, we introduce the notion of context for the source and the destination of a link. A context makes explicit which part of a presentation is affected when a link is followed from an anchor in the presentation. Given explicit source and destination contexts for a link, an author is able to state the desired presentation characteristics for following a link, including whether the presentation currently playing should continue playing or be replaced. We first give an intuitive description of contexts for links, then present a structure-based approach. We go on to describe the implementation of contexts in our hypermedia authoring system CMIFed.
Here and there, now and then: four views of a long-distance teleworker's 'workplace'

For the last eight years I've worked as a long-distance teleworker from my home in Minneapolis, first for Apple Computer in California, and then for IBM in New York. In this essay I offer reflections on the nature of my workplace(s), in the hope that they may provide grist for those concerned with providing technological and organizational support for remote workers.Obviously this is a highly personal and particular account. Nevertheless, I believe that such reflections on personal experience have an important role to play in informing the ways in which the meaning of 'the workplace' is changing under the impact of new technologies. As such, this essay fits into a tradition of examinations of ways in which particular workplaces are shaped by technologies, ranging from a wide variety of studies carried out in the ethnographic tradition (e.g. [8, 9]) to more personal, reflective accounts (e.g. [1, 3]). In this essay, I work from the macro level to the micro level. I begin with the organization for which I work, and take up the complexities which emerge when I try to answer the question "Where do you work? " While one might think that at least saying where one works is a relatively simple matter, I suggest that this isn't so. Next I focus on group workplaces. In particular, I look at the meeting room, and describe an unusual experience attending a meeting via speaker phone. On the basis of this example, I suggest that while places are obviously important, something that is also important --- and much more difficult to support --- is the way in which collective interaction changes over time within a workplace. Third, I focus in on my personal workplace in my home office. I note that much of my daily activity can be viewed as movement through a trajectory of places, each which provides a different configuration of resources for collective interaction. I conclude with a discussion of my personal experiences with Loops, an online environment under development by my work group, that blends elements of group and personal workplaces.
[Percutaneous ablation therapy of atrial fibrillation: good expectations].

Rev Esp Cardiol 2003;56(4):331-2 331 Today the majority of tachyarrhythmias can be treated with percutaneous ablation.1 To summarize, the ablation procedure consists of transmitting energy (generally radiofrequency) to the distal electrode of a catheter introduced into the heart via a vein or artery. This electrode, once placed at the site chosen by means of electroanatomic references, selectively destroys the substrate of each tachycardia, whether they are abnormal electrical connections, ectopic foci, or isthmus of myocardial tissue. In this manner, percutaneous ablation has become the treatment of choice for curing the majority of patients with Wolf-Parkinson-White syndrome, re-entrant tachycardias via nodal re-entry, atrial tachycardias, atrial flutter, and some ventricular tachycardias. Nevertheless, in 2 types of arrhythmia it seems to be difficult to establish ablation via catheter as a therapeutic option: these arrhythmias are ventricular fibrillation and atrial fibrillation. With respect to ventricular fibrillation, this has very recently been treated with ablation in a reduced number of patients but, on a day-to-day basis, the most efficacious and safe treatment for the majority of individuals with the risk of suffering this arrhythmia continues to be the implantable defibrillator.2 With respect to atrial fibrillation, treatment has been and continues to be basically pharmacological, but ablation may be used in the near future, at least in certain patients. This is due to the fact that recent investigations have shown that atrial fibrillation may have a focal origin, and that if this focus remains active for a long enough period of time it can change the electrical properties of the atrial myocardium in such a way that the atrial fibrillation may continue to exist despite the disappearance of the focus.3-5 This phenomenon is called atrial ED I TO R I A L S
Performance and Comfort on Near-Eye Computer Displays

Background. Very small high-resolution displays (SVGA, 800 × 600 pixels) worn near the eye and imaged to create a virtual image have potential as alternatives to traditional computer displays. Methods. Twenty-two subjects performed text-based tasks on five displays: monocular virtual, binocular head-mounted virtual, hard copy, flat panel, and a small format portable display. Outcome measures included performance speed, symptoms, visual acuity, and heterophoria. In a second experiment, subjects performed a proscribed routine of head and body movements designed to elicit motion-related symptoms. Results. Performance speed on monocular virtual was generally comparable with performances on flat panel and hard copy. Overall, performance speeds on the binocular virtual display were about 5% slower than normalized performances, 6.75% slower compared with the traditional flat panel and hard copy displays. Symptoms of eyestrain and blurry vision were significantly higher on monocular virtual than on other displays. No significant changes in visual acuity or heterophoria occurred with any of the displays. Motion-related symptoms with the head mounted near-eye display were not significantly different than with other displays tested. Conclusions. Performance and comfort on the near-eye displays in this study was more similar to traditional displays than in many previous studies with head mounted displays. This is likely due to lack of task movement, partial instead of full immersion, better display resolution, and concordance of the accommodative and vergence stimuli.
Mucosally Delivered Dendritic Cells Activate T Cells Independently of IL-12 and Endogenous APCs1

In vitro manipulated dendritic cells (DC) have increasingly been used as a promising vaccine formulation against cancer and infectious disease. However, improved understanding of the immune mechanisms is needed for the development of safe and efficacious mucosal DC immunization. We have developed a murine model of respiratory mucosal immunization by using a genetically manipulated DC vaccine. Within 24 h of intranasal delivery, the majority of vaccine DCs migrated to the lung mucosa and draining lymph nodes and elicited a significant level of T cells capable of IFN-γ secretion and CTL in the airway lumen as well as substantial T cell responses in the spleen. And such T cell responses were associated with enhanced protection against respiratory mucosal intracellular bacterial challenge. In comparison, parenteral i.m. DC immunization did not elicit marked airway luminal T cell responses and immune protection regardless of strong systemic T cell activation. Although repeated mucosal DC delivery boosted Ag-specific T cells in the airway lumen, added benefits to CD8 T cell activation and immune protection were not observed. By using MHC-deficient vaccine DCs, we further demonstrated that mucosal DC immunization-mediated CD8 and CD4 T cell activation does not require endogenous DCs. By using IL-12-deficient vaccine DCs, we also observed that IL-12−/− DCs failed to migrate to the lymph nodes but remained capable of T cell activation. Our observations indicate that mucosal delivery of vaccine DCs represents an effective approach to enhance mucosal T cell immunity, which may operate independent of vaccine IL-12 and endogenous DCs.
Event‐Related Brain Potentials (ERPs) Elicited by Novel Stimuli during Sentence Processing a

Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) have proven to be particularly sensitive indices of the brain’s response to unexpected, surprising, or deviant stimuli (for reviews see Donchin et al., 1978; Picton et al., 1979). One of the more prominent of these ERPs following “surprising” stimuli has been a late positive wave called the P3, P300 or late positive complex (LPC). Among other hypotheses, it has been proposed that the P300 may reflect the resolution of prior uncertainty (Sutton et al . , 1965; Ruchkin and Sutton, 1978) and the task-relevant surprise value of the stimulus (Donchin et al., 1978). However, in some situations stimuli having no assigned task relevance, when presented infrequently and unexpectedly, have also been found to elicit enlarged late positive waves in the 200-500 ms range (Ritter et al., 1968; Roth, 1973; Courchesne et al., 1975; Squires et al., 1975; Roth et al., 1976; Snyder and Hillyard, 1976; Courchesne et al., 1978; Squires et al., 1977). These ERPs vary in waveform, amplitude, and scalp distribution, and it is not clear how many varieties of late positive waves may exist. Nonetheless, the general consensus has been that an unexpected event is typically followed by a P300 complex (often in association with an earlier N2 or N200 and a subsequent slow wave). In contrast, recent experiments on ERPs to words in sentences have indicated that not all unexpected events are associated with a P300 complex (Kutas and Hillyard, 1980a,b). Thus, while a late parietal positivity followed an unexpected change in the size of the printed word at the end of a sentence, a large centro-parietal negative wave (N4m) followed semantically deviant words a t the ends of these sentences. The present study was designed to find out whether physically deviant visual stimuli that were even more aberrant in the context of these sentences would be associated with a P30o-like wave or with an N400-like wave. To this end we presented a new group of subjects with the same set of 160 sentences used in previous studies (Kutas and Hillyard. 1980a,b), but now 25% of them were completed at random with slides of complex, unrecognizable abstract drawings (Courchesne et al., 1975). The ERPs to these novel slides were compared with ERPs to the final words of the other sentences, all of which were semantically appropriate and of the expected size.
Significance of Nondiagnostic Fine‐Needle Aspiration of the Thyroid

Background Fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) has been shown to be rapid and cost effective in the evaluation of thyroid nodules. The significance of nondiagnostic (unsatisfactory) FNAB is uncertain, however. Methods We reviewed 345 consecutive thyroid FNABs and identified 59 patients with initially unsatisfactory specimens. These patients had follow-up to determine whether their thyroid nodules proved to be malignant Results Three patients (5.1%) were found to have organ-confined papillary carcinoma of the thyroid, the largest tumor mass measuring 1.2 cm. Six patients (10.2%) had benign adenomas. Conclusions In most cases of initially nondiagnostic FNAB of a thyroid nodule, neoplasia is not found subsequently. A minority of cases may still harbor malignancy. None of our patients in whom repeated FNA was either nondiagnostic or suggestive of benign disease were ultimately found to have a malignancy.
Campanian ooassemblages Within the Western Interior Basin: Eggshell from the Upper Cretaceous Kaiparowits Formation of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, UT

Two partial eggs and 29 eggshell fragments from the Kaiparowits Formation of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument represent the first laevisoolithid eggshell from North America, extending the geographic range of this oofamily. The eggs are small (~17.7 mm diameter) and ornamented, with a two-layer microstructure and branching pores. The small size and two-layered microstructure of laevisoolithid eggshell is consistent with a small-bodied theropod (including avians). The macroevolutionary transition of avians from non-avian theropod dinosaurs is characterized by a diverse assemblage of taxa displaying a mosaic of transitional morphological and behavioral features. The study of dinosaur eggs has further revealed a similar mosaic pattern in reproductive behavior and eggshell features, a characteristic exemplified by the partial eggs described in this study. The suite of features preserved in this ootaxon is unique among theropod eggs and this ootaxon is also among the smallest Mesozoic eggs described, increasing the diversity of eggs that characterize the non-avian to avian theropod transition.
External memory page remapping for embedded multimedia systems

As memory speeds and bus capacitances continue to rise, external memory bus power will make up an increasing portion of the total system power budget for system-on-a-chip embedded systems. Both hardware and software approaches can be explored to balance the power/performance tradeoff associated with the external memory. In this paper we present a hardware-based, programmable external memory page remapping mechanism which can significantly improve performance and decrease the power budget due to external memory bus accesses. Our approach was developed by studying common data access patterns present in embedded multimedia applications. In the paper, we evaluate a mechanism that can perform page remapping of external memory. We also develop an efficient algorithm to map application data and instruction memory into external memory pages. We employ graph-coloring techniques to guide the page mapping procedure. The objective is to avoid page misses by remapping conflicting pages to different memory banks (i.e., by assigning them different colors). Our algorithm can significantly reduce the memory page miss rate by 70-80% on average. For a 4-bank SDRAM memory system, we reduced external memory access time by 12.6%. The proposed algorithm can reduce power consumption in majority of the benchmarks, averaged by 13.2% of power reduction. Combining the effects of both power and delay, our algorithm can benefit significantly to the total energy cost.
Potter, Wielandt, and Drazin on the matrix equation $AB=\omega BA$, with some new answers to old questions

In this partly historical and partly research oriented note, we display a page of an unpublished mathematical diary of Helmut Wielandt's for 1951. There he gives a new proof of a theorem due to H. S. A. Potter on the matrix equation $AB = \omega BA$, which is related to the $q$-binomial theorem, and asks some further questions, which we answer. We also describe results by M. P. Drazin and others on this equation.