Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The relationship between late gadolinium enhancement imaging and myocardial biopsy in the evaluation of chronic heart failure patients with suspected myocarditis

Aim The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between late gadolinium-enhanced (LGE) cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) and immunohistochemical markers of inflammation in patients with heart failure and a reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF). Material and methods Endomyocardial biopsy and CMR were performed in 38 consecutive patients (24 males, average age 43.2 ± 6.9 years, New York Heart Association [NYHA] class II) with HFrEF and suspected myocarditis. The immunohistochemical evaluation was done by the En-Vision system using DAKO monoclonal antibodies. The presence of > 14 infiltrating cells together with myocardial damage and ≥ 2 + up-regulation of HLA class II was considered diagnostic for myocarditis. The results of LGE were compared with the immunohistochemical markers of inflammation. All patients underwent coronary angiography. Results Twelve out of 38 (31.6%) patients met the immunohistological criteria for the diagnosis of myocarditis. Late gadolinium enhancement was present in 23 of 38 (60.5%) patients, mostly at the interventricular septum. No correlation was found between LGE and immunohistochemistry results (Kendall's tau; r = 0.21, p = 0.09). Conclusions Our study revealed no significant relationship between LGE cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging and immunohistochemical markers of inflammation in patients with HFrEF.
Unsupervised Cross-Modal Synthesis of Subject-Specific Scans

Recently, cross-modal synthesis of subject-specific scans has been receiving significant attention from the medical imaging community. Though various synthesis approaches have been introduced in the recent past, most of them are either tailored to a specific application or proposed for the supervised setting, i.e., they assume the availability of training data from the same set of subjects in both source and target modalities. But, collecting multiple scans from each subject is undesirable. Hence, to address this issue, we propose a general unsupervised cross-modal medical image synthesis approach that works without paired training data. Given a source modality image of a subject, we first generate multiple target modality candidate values for each voxel independently using cross-modal nearest neighbor search. Then, we select the best candidate values jointly for all the voxels by simultaneously maximizing a global mutual information cost function and a local spatial consistency cost function. Finally, we use coupled sparse representation for further refinement of synthesized images. Our experiments on generating T1-MRI brain scans from T2-MRI and vice versa demonstrate that the synthesis capability of the proposed unsupervised approach is comparable to various state-of-the-art supervised approaches in the literature.
Association of mean ocular perfusion pressure and diabetic retinopathy in type 2 diabetes mellitus: Sankara Nethralaya diabetic retinopathy epidemiology and molecular genetic study (SN-DREAMS, Report 28).

PURPOSE To elucidate the distribution of mean ocular perfusion pressure (MOPP) and to study the relationship between MOPP and diabetic retinopathy (DR) in a south Indian subpopulation with diabetes. METHODS This study was a population-based, cross-sectional evaluation of 1368 subjects, aged ≥40 years, with type 2 diabetes. DR was diagnosed on the basis of the modified Klein classification. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP and DBP) were recorded with a mercury sphygmomanometer. Intraocular pressure (IOP) was assessed by applanation tonometry. MOPP was derived by the formula: MOPP = 2/3;[DBP + 1/3;(SBP - DBP)] - IOP. RESULTS The mean ± SD for MOPP was 52.6 ± 9.0 mm Hg, higher in the women than in the men (P = 0.046). In comparison to subjects without DR, MOPP was higher in the men with sight-threatening DR (STDR) (P = 0.030) and higher in women with any DR (P = 0.008) and non-STDR (P = 0.006). However, on multivariate analysis after adjustment for all factors, MOPP was found not to be associated with DR (OR = 1.02, 95% CI = 0.99-1.03; P = 0.149), non-STDR (OR = 1.02, 95% CI = 0.99-1.03; P = 0.312), or STDR (OR = 1.02, 95% CI = 0.98-1.05; P = 0.358). CONCLUSIONS Univariate analysis revealed very small differences in the association of MOPP and DR in both sexes which are probably of no clinical significance. Multivariate analysis showed no association between MOPP and DR. There seems to be very little evidence of a link between MOPP and DR. It may be more informative to evaluate the association in longitudinal studies.
Shifted Successive Decode-and-Forward Relaying: Towards the Optimal Diversity-Multiplexing Tradeoff for a Four-Node Cooperative Network

In this paper, a novel cooperative diversity transmission protocol is proposed for a four-node network where a single-antenna source communicates with its intended N-antenna destination with the help of two K-antenna decodeand-forward (DF) relays. Without requiring complex coding strategies at the relays, a sufficiently strong or weak inter-relay channel, or destination-source feedback, the proposed shifted successive DF relaying (SSDFR) protocol asymptotically achieves the optimal diversity-multiplexing tradeoff performance the four-node network can provide.
The SAE Avionics Architecture Description Language (AADL) Standard: A Basis for Model-Based Architecture-Driven Embedded Systems Engineering

Abstract : Architecture Description Languages provide significant opportunity for the incorporation of formal methods and engineering models into the analysis of software and system architectures. A standard is being developed for embedded real-time safety critical systems which will support the use of various formal approaches to analyze the impact of the composition of systems from hardware and software and which will allow the generation of system glue code with the performance qualities predicted. The standard the Avionics Architecture Description Language (AADL), is based on the MetaH language developed under DARPA and US Army funding and on the model driven architectural based approach demonstrated with this technology over the last 12 years. The AADL standard will include a UML profile useful for avionics, space, automotive, robotics and other real-time concurrent processing domains including safety critical applications.
Yeast genome evolution—the origin of the species

With almost 20 genomes sequenced from unicellular ascomycetes (Saccharomycotina), and the prospect of many more in the pipeline, we review the patterns and processes of yeast genome evolution. A central core of about 4000 genes is shared by all the sequenced yeast genomes. Gains of genes by horizontal gene transfer seem to be very rare. Gene losses are more frequent, and losses of whole sets of genes in some pathways in some species can be understood in terms of species‐specific differences in biology. The wholesale loss of redundant copies of duplicated genes after whole‐genome duplication in the ancestor of one clade of yeasts is likely to have caused the emergence of many reproductively isolated lineages of yeasts at that time, but other processes are responsible for species barriers that arose more recently among close relatives of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Context-aware Experience Sampling for Depressive Patients

We propose a collaborative, context-aware, and multi-modal experience sampling method called CoESM to record experience samples of depressed patients. The CoESM utilizes location and activity sensors on a mobile device to detect a depressed patient’s physical and social activity levels. We hope that through collaboration, context-awareness, and multi-modality input, the CoESM can help a psychologist gain better understanding of patients.
Framework for PCE Based Multi-Layer Service Networks

Implementing the fast-responding multi-layer service network (MLSN) functionality will allow the IP/MPLS service network logical topology and Optical Virtual Network topology to be reconfigured dynamically according to the traffic pattern on the network. Direct links can be created or removed in the logical IP/MPLS service network topology, when either extra capacity in MLSN core is needed or existing capacity in core is no longer required. Reconfiguring the logical and virtual network topologies constitute a new manner by which Traffic Engineering (TE) can solve or avoid network congestion problems and service degradations. As both IP and optical network layers are involved, this is called Multi-layer Traffic Engineering. We proposed border model based MLSN architecture in [5]. In this paper, we define the realization of Multi-Layer TE functions using Path Computation Element (PCE) for Border model based MLSN. It defines nodal requirements for multi-layer TE. Requirements of communication protocol between PCC (Path Computation Client) and PCE is introduced. It presents Virtual Network Topology (VNT) scenarios and steps involved along with examples for PCE-based VNT reconfiguration triggered by network failure, where VNT is a set of different layer's network resource accumulation.
Beyond Flow Experience: Learners' positive and Negative Emotions Related to Computer-Based Instruction

In computer-based instruction learning environments, learners can be easily distracted due to the attraction of the enormous amount of interesting Internet content. If learners feel negative emotions during computer-based instruction, they may discontinue their learning. Thus, finding ways to keep learners feeling positive is an important part of computer-based instruction. Flow theory proposed by Csikszentmihalyi in 1975 argues that the challenge-skill balance is a precondition for flow experience. When the challenge of learning is higher than the learners’ ability, the learners will feel anxiety, and when it is lower than learners’ ability, the learners will feel boredom. When the challenge of learning matches the learners’ ability, a flow experience will appear. Enjoyment emotion will be in company with flow experience. However the current empirical study of 151 participants reveals that emotions related to enjoyment may appear when the learners’ skill is equal to or higher than the learning challenge. Nevertheless, boredom may appear when the learning is difficult but unimportant. When the learning content is difficult, learners may feel boredom as well as anxiety. If learners regard the learning as unimportant, they may feel boredom when the learning content is difficult. In this situation, there may be a trend for learners to discontinue their learning, since they cannot complete the learning contents and feel that the learning content is unimportant. However, if learners regard the learning as important, they will feel anxiety when the learning content is difficult. In this situation, learners may try, but fail, to complete the learning content. Anxiety and frustration may appear in this situation. Based on the results of the empirical survey, we suggest that computer-based instruction development should avoid developing learning material that is beyond the learners’ ability, especially when some learners regard the learning as unimportant.
A personalized recommendation system in E-Learning environment based on semantic analysis

The proposal of various electronic learning contents, e.g. remote education or virtual classrooms, has given a powerful impetus to the E-Learning techniques. However, there still remain several hard and complicated problems unsolved. Especially when compared with e-commerce and medicine, the problems of the recommenders in E-Learning system have not been fully figured out. In this paper, a novel personalized semantic recommendation system (PSRS) for E-Learning is designed. The proposed PSRS system employs the Video Structurized Description (VSD) technique to extract the initial keywords description of the learning contents, and then adopts the lexical parsing technique to refine the descriptive words with a standard format according to the initial keywords. Subsequently, the PSRS adopts rules auto-updating (RAU) to automatically add sequential items into ontology rules. Depending on the specific ontology knowledge with domain rules, semantic mapping and intelligent reasoning techniques are applied to generate certain semantic related recommending items for the active learners. Experimental results indicate that the proposed PSRS preforms better in accuracy than any other existing algorithms.
Copper Stress Affects Iron Homeostasis by Destabilizing Iron-Sulfur Cluster Formation in Bacillus subtilis

ABSTRACT Copper and iron are essential elements for cellular growth. Although bacteria have to overcome limitations of these metals by affine and selective uptake, excessive amounts of both metals are toxic for the cells. Here we investigated the influences of copper stress on iron homeostasis in Bacillus subtilis, and we present evidence that copper excess leads to imbalances of intracellular iron metabolism by disturbing assembly of iron-sulfur cofactors. Connections between copper and iron homeostasis were initially observed in microarray studies showing upregulation of Fur-dependent genes under conditions of copper excess. This effect was found to be relieved in a csoR mutant showing constitutive copper efflux. In contrast, stronger Fur-dependent gene induction was found in a copper efflux-deficient copA mutant. A significant induction of the PerR regulon was not observed under copper stress, indicating that oxidative stress did not play a major role under these conditions. Intracellular iron and copper quantification revealed that the total iron content was stable during different states of copper excess or efflux and hence that global iron limitation did not account for copper-dependent Fur derepression. Strikingly, the microarray data for copper stress revealed a broad effect on the expression of genes coding for iron-sulfur cluster biogenesis (suf genes) and associated pathways such as cysteine biosynthesis and genes coding for iron-sulfur cluster proteins. Since these effects suggested an interaction of copper and iron-sulfur cluster maturation, a mutant with a conditional mutation of sufU, encoding the essential iron-sulfur scaffold protein in B. subtilis, was assayed for copper sensitivity, and its growth was found to be highly susceptible to copper stress. Further, different intracellular levels of SufU were found to influence the strength of Fur-dependent gene expression. By investigating the influence of copper on cluster-loaded SufU in vitro, Cu(I) was found to destabilize the scaffolded cluster at submicromolar concentrations. Thus, by interfering with iron-sulfur cluster formation, copper stress leads to enhanced expression of cluster scaffold and target proteins as well as iron and sulfur acquisition pathways, suggesting a possible feedback strategy to reestablish cluster biogenesis.
Effect of the meglitinide analog S21403 on cationic fluxes and insulin release in perifused rat pancreatic islets exposed to a high concentration of D-glucose.

The effect of the meglitinide analog S21403 (10 microm) upon(86)Rb and(45)Ca outflow and insulin release was investigated in perifused rat islets exposed to a high concentration of D-glucose (16.7 mm) in order to simulate the situation found in diabetic patients. Under these conditions, S21403 provoked a rapid, sustained and rapidly reversible increase in(86)Rb outflow, (45)Ca efflux and insulin release. These effects were suppressed or reversed when the experiments were conducted in the absence of extracellular Ca2+. They support the view that S21043 could be used as a novel insulinotropic tool in the treatment of non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, the cationic and secretory responses to the drug displaying a favourable time course for prompt and not unduly prolonged activation of islet B-cells.
Subquadratic Binary Field Multiplier in Double Polynomial System

We propose a new space efficient operator to multiply elements lying in a binary field GF(2^k). Our approach is based on a novel system of representation called "Double Polynomial System" which set elements as a bivariate polynomials over GF(2). Thanks to this system of representation, we are able to use a Lagrange representation of the polynomials and then get a logarithmic time multiplier with a space complexity of O(k^1.31) improving previous best known method.
Definition and initial validation of a Lupus Low Disease Activity State (LLDAS)

Aims Treating to low disease activity is routine in rheumatoid arthritis, but no comparable goal has been defined for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). We sought to define and validate a Lupus Low Disease Activity State (LLDAS). Methods A consensus definition of LLDAS was generated using Delphi and nominal group techniques. Criterion validity was determined by measuring the ability of LLDAS attainment, in a single-centre SLE cohort, to predict non-accrual of irreversible organ damage, measured using the Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics Damage Index (SDI). Results Consensus methodology led to the following definition of LLDAS: (1) SLE Disease Activity Index (SLEDAI)-2K ≤4, with no activity in major organ systems (renal, central nervous system (CNS), cardiopulmonary, vasculitis, fever) and no haemolytic anaemia or gastrointestinal activity; (2) no new lupus disease activity compared with the previous assessment; (3) a Safety of Estrogens in Lupus Erythematosus National Assessment (SELENA)-SLEDAI physician global assessment (scale 0–3) ≤1; (4) a current prednisolone (or equivalent) dose ≤7.5 mg daily; and (5) well tolerated standard maintenance doses of immunosuppressive drugs and approved biological agents. Achievement of LLDAS was determined in 191 patients followed for a mean of 3.9 years. Patients who spent greater than 50% of their observed time in LLDAS had significantly reduced organ damage accrual compared with patients who spent less than 50% of their time in LLDAS (p=0.0007) and were significantly less likely to have an increase in SDI of ≥1 (relative risk 0.47, 95% CI 0.28 to 0.79, p=0.005). Conclusions A definition of LLDAS has been generated, and preliminary validation demonstrates its attainment to be associated with improved outcomes in SLE.
4 Scheduling Algorithm and Bandwidth Allocation in WiMAX

The traditional solution to provide high-speed broadband access is to use wired access technologies, such as cable modem, DSL (Digital Subscriber Line), Ethernet, and fiber optic. However, it is too difficult and expensive for carriers to build and maintain wired networks, especially in remote areas. BWA (Broadband Wireless Access) technology is a flexible, efficient, and cost-effective solution to overcome the problems [1]. WiMAX is one of the most popular BWA technologies today, which aims to provide high speed broadband wireless access for WMANs (Wireless Metropolitan Area Network). [2]
Accelerating active contour algorithms with the Gradient Diffusion Field

Active contours were proposed by Kass et al. as a way to represent the contours of an image. Although the method is simple, one of its shortcomings is its inability to converge into concave structures. The gradient vector flow (GVF) algorithm was put forth by Xu and Prince to succesfully address the concave structure problem. Although there has been much research into GVF, little has been done to reduce its computation time, which makes it unsuitable for applications requiring real-time processing of images. In this paper, we propose a method for computing an approximation of the GVF, called the gradient diffusion field (GDF), which exhibits the same useful properties of the GVF but converges faster and requires less resources for implementation. Our proposed method is also more amenable for real-time hardware and we outline a method for implementing an active contour algorithm in FPGA hardware using the GDF.
Two New Topologically Ordered Glass Phases of Smectics Confined in Anisotropic Random Media

Smectics in strained aerogel exhibit two new glassy phases. The strain both ensures the stability of these phases and determines their nature. One type of strain induces an `` $\mathrm{XY}$ Bragg glass,'' while the other creates a novel, triaxially anisotropic `` $m\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}1$ Bragg glass. '' The latter exhibits anomalous elasticity, characterized by exponents that we calculate to high precision. We predict the phase diagram, and numerous other experimentally observable scaling laws, for the system.
CpG Oligonucleotides Can Prophylactically Immunize Against Th2-Mediated Schistosome Egg-Induced Pathology by an IL-12-Independent Mechanism1

Using a Schistosoma mansoni egg-induced granuloma model, we examined the ability of CpG oligodeoxynucleotides (ODN) to suppress Th2-type cytokine expression and to prophylactically immunize against Th2-dependent pulmonary pathology. The mechanism was examined by studying Th2 response regulation in cytokine-deficient mice. Surprisingly, our findings revealed several functions of CpG DNA that were completely IL-12 independent. Most striking was the marked suppression in Th2 cytokine expression and granulomatous inflammation observed in egg/CpG-sensitized IL-12-deficient mice. Immune deviation was not dependent on NK or B cells. However, a role for IL-10, B7.1, and CD40 expression in Th2 response inhibition was suggested. Indeed, CpG ODN up-regulated all three elements in both wild-type and IL-12-deficient mice. The role of IL-10 was demonstrated in mice exhibiting combined deficiencies in IL-12 and IL-10. Here, a marked increase in egg-specific IL-4/IL-5-producing cells confirmed a role for both cytokines in Th2 response inhibition. Nevertheless, the frequency of Th2-producing cells was again reduced by CpG ODN. However, in marked contrast to IL-12-deficient animals, a significant increase in IFN-γ-producing cells likely explains the reduced Th2 response in IL-10/IL-12-deficient mice. Thus, a novel IL-12-independent type 1-inducing pathway was revealed in the combined absence of IL-12 and IL-10. Together, these data demonstrate 1) that the Th1-promoting activity of CpG DNA is controlled by IL-12 and IL-10, and 2) that Th2 response inhibition by CpG ODN involves IL-12-independent changes in IL-10 and costimulatory molecule expression. These findings illustrate the utility of CpG DNA as adjuvants for vaccines designed to prevent Th2-dependent immunopathology.
Online Reinforcement Learning in Stochastic Games

We study online reinforcement learning in average-reward stochastic games (SGs). An SG models a two-player zero-sum game in a Markov environment, where state transitions and one-step payoffs are determined simultaneously by a learner and an adversary. We propose the UCSG algorithm that achieves a sublinear regret compared to the game value when competing with an arbitrary opponent. This result improves previous ones under the same setting. The regret bound has a dependency on the diameter, which is an intrinsic value related to the mixing property of SGs. If we let the opponent play an optimistic best response to the learner, UCSG finds an $\varepsilon$-maximin stationary policy with a sample complexity of $\tilde{\mathcal{O}}\left(\text{poly}(1/\varepsilon)\right)$, where $\varepsilon$ is the gap to the best policy.