Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The multidimensional nature of renal disease: rates and associations of albuminuria in an Australian Aboriginal community.

BACKGROUND An epidemic of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) is accompanying the rising rates of hypertension, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease among Aborigines in the Northern Territory of Australia. Incidence rates are now 21 times those of nonAboriginal Australians and are doubling every four years. We describe the rates and associations of renal disease in one remote community, which has a current ESRD incidence of 2700 per million, and cardiovascular mortality among the highest in Australia. METHODS Between 1992 and 1995 a community-wide screening program was conducted, in which the urinary albumin/creatinine ratio (ACR) was used as the chief renal disease marker. More than 90% of the population ages five and older participated. RESULTS Albuminuria was evident in early childhood and increased dramatically with age; 26% of adults had microalbuminuria and 24% had overt albuminuria. All renal failure developed out of a background of overt albuminuria. ACR was significantly correlated with the presence of scabies at screening, with a history of poststreptococcal glomerulonephritis, which is epidemic and endemic in the community, with increasing body wt, blood pressure, glucose, insulin and lipid levels, and with evidence of heavy drinking. ACR was also significantly and inversely correlated with birth weight. As a result of its association with deteriorating hemodynamic and metabolic profiles, increasing ACR was also correlated with increasing cardiovascular risk score. Direct observations showed, and multivariate models predicted, progressive amplification of ACR when multiple risk factors were present simultaneously. Albuminuria also clustered in families. CONCLUSION Renal disease in this population is multifactorial, with risk factors related to whole-of-life nutrition, metabolic and hemodynamic profiles, infections, health behaviors, and possibly a family predisposition. Its relationship to low birth weight, and its associations with deteriorating metabolic and hemodynamic profiles, suggest that renal disease is, in part, a component of Syndrome X, which explains the simultaneous increase in metabolic, cardiovascular and renal disease in Aboriginal people. The family clustering might have both environmental and genetic causes, and is under further investigation. Most of the identified risk factors arise out of poverty, disadvantage and accelerated lifestyle change, and the current epidemic can be explained by the confluence of many risk factors in the last few decades. The introduction of effective and sustained programs to address social, economic and educational inequities in all Aboriginal communities, and of screening and renal- and cardiovascular-protective treatment programs for those already afflicted are matters of great urgency.
Patient-Adaptive Prosthetic and Orthotic Leg Systems

Two computer-controlled devices for leg rehabilitation are presented: 1) an external knee prosthesis for trans-femoral amputees; and 2) a force-controllable ankle-foot orthosis to assist individuals suffering from drop-foot, a gait pathology resulting from muscle weakness in ankle dorsiflexors. Here muscle-like actuators and biologically-inspired control schemes are employed to enhance patient stability, speed and dynamic cosmesis. Patient-adaptive control schemes are discussed in which the joint impedance of each device is automatically modulated to match patientspecific gait requirements. By measuring the total time that the prosthetic foot remains in contact with the ground during each gait cycle, the prosthetic knee controller estimates forward speed and modulates swing phase flexion and extension damping profiles to achieve biological lower-limb dynamics. For the ankle-foot orthosis, joint stiffness is automatically adapted to permit a smooth and biological heel strike to forefoot walking transition in drop-foot patients. Using only local sensing and computation, the adaptation schemes presented here automatically modulate joint impedance throughout the stance and swing phase of walking, enabling patients to walk in a safe, comfortable and smooth manner.
Arteriogenesis Proceeds via ICAM-1/Mac-1–Mediated Mechanisms

Monocyte adhesion to shear stress–activated endothelium stands as an important initial step during arteriogenesis (collateral artery growth). Using multiple approaches, we tested the hypothesis that monocyte adhesion via intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) and selectin interactions is essential for adaptive arteriogenesis. Forty-eight New Zealand White rabbits received either solvent, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) alone, MCP-1 plus ICAM-mab, or MCP-1 plus an IgG2a isotype control via osmotic minipumps. After 7 days, collateral conductance was evaluated: solvent 4.01 (mL/min per 100 mm Hg), MCP-1 plus ICAM-mab 8.04 (versus solvent P =NS), and MCP-1 alone 33.11 (versus solvent P <0.05). Furthermore, the right femoral arteries of ICAM-1−/−, Mac-1−/− and mice having defective selectin interactions (FT4/7−/−) as well as their corresponding controls were ligated. One week later, perfusion ratios were determined by the use of fluorescent microspheres. FT4/7−/− mice did not show any significant difference in perfusion restoration whereas ICAM-1−/− and Mac-1−/− mice had a significant reduction in arteriogenesis as compared with matching controls (FT4/7-WT 37±9%, FT4/7−/− 32±3%, P =0.31; C57BL/6J 59±9%, ICAM-1−/− 36±8%, P <0.05; Mac-1−/− 42±3%, P <0.05). ICAM-1/Mac-1–mediated monocyte adhesion to the endothelium of collateral arteries is an essential step for arteriogenesis, whereas this process can proceed via selectin interaction independent mechanisms. Furthermore, in vivo treatment with monoclonal antibodies against ICAM-1 totally abolishes the stimulatory effect of MCP-1 on collateral artery growth, suggesting that the mechanism of the MCP-1–induced arteriogenesis proceeds via the localization of monocytes rather than the action of the MCP-1 molecule itself.
Matrilin-3 Role in Cartilage Development and Osteoarthritis

The extracellular matrix (ECM) of cartilage performs essential functions in differentiation and chondroprogenitor cell maintenance during development and regeneration. Here, we discuss the vital role of matrilin-3, an ECM protein involved in cartilage development and potential osteoarthritis pathomechanisms. As an adaptor protein, matrilin-3 binds to collagen IX to form a filamentous network around cells. Matrilin-3 is an essential component during cartilage development and ossification. In addition, it interacts directly or indirectly with transforming growth factor β (TGF-β), and bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP2) eventually regulates chondrocyte proliferation and hypertrophic differentiation. Interestingly, matrilin-3 increases interleukin receptor antagonists (IL-Ra) in chondrocytes, suggesting its role in the suppression of IL-1β-mediated inflammatory action. Matrilin-3 downregulates the expression of matrix-degrading enzymes, such as a disintegrin metalloproteinase with thrombospondin motifs 4 (ADAMTS4) and ADAMTS5, matrix metalloproteinase 13 (MMP13), and collagen X, a hypertrophy marker during development and inflammatory conditions. Matrilin-3 essentially enhances collagen II and aggrecan expression, which are required to maintain the tensile strength and elasticity of cartilage, respectively. Interestingly, despite these attributes, matrilin-3 induces osteoarthritis-associated markers in chondrocytes in a concentration-dependent manner. Existing data provide insights into the critical role of matrilin-3 in inflammation, matrix degradation, and matrix formation in cartilage development and osteoarthritis.
Unified Spray, Foam and Bubbles for Particle-Based Fluids

We present a new model for diffuse material, i. e. water-air mixtures, that can be combined with particle-based fluids. Diffuse material is uniformly represented with particles which are classified into spray, foam and air bubbles. Physically-motivated rules are employed to generate, advect and dissipate diffuse material. The approach is realized as a post-processing step which enables efficient processing and versatile handling. As interparticle forces and the influence of diffuse material onto the fluid are neglected, large numbers of diffuse particles are efficiently processed to realize highly detailed small-scale effects. The presented results show that our approach can significantly improve the visual realism of large-scale fluid simulations.
Clinic- and hospital-based sentinel influenza surveillance, Uganda 2007-2010.

BACKGROUND To assess the epidemiology and seasonality of influenza in Uganda, we established a sentinel surveillance system for influenza in 5 hospitals and 5 outpatient clinics in 4 geographically distinct regions, using standard case definitions for influenzalike illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory illness (SARI). METHODS Nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal specimens were collected from April 2007 through September 2010 from patients with ILI and SARI aged ≥ 2 months, tested for influenza A and B with real-time reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction, and subtyped for seasonal A/H1, A/H3, A/H5, and 2009 pandemic influenza A (pH1N1). RESULTS Among the 2758 patients sampled, 2656 (96%) enrolled with ILI and 101 (4%) with SARI. Specimens from 359 (13.0%) were positive for influenza; 267 (74.4%) were influenza A, and 92 (25.6%) were influenza B. The median age of both patients with ILI and patients with SARI was 4 years (range, 2 months to 67 years); patients aged 5-14 years had the highest influenza-positive percentage (19.6%), and patients aged 0-4 years had the lowest percentage (9.1%). Influenza circulated throughout the year, but the percentage of influenza-positive specimens peaked during June-November, coinciding with the second rainy season. CONCLUSIONS Continued and increased surveillance is needed to better understand the morbidity and mortality of influenza in Uganda.
Broadcast in Ad hoc Wireless Networks with Selfish Nodes: A Bayesian Incentive Compatibility Approach

We consider the incentive compatible broadcast (ICB) problem in ad hoc wireless networks with selfish nodes. We design a Bayesian incentive compatible broadcast (BIC-B) protocol to address this problem. VCG mechanism based schemes have been popularly used in the literature to design dominant strategy incentive compatible (DSIC) protocols for ad hoc wireless networks. VCG based mechanisms have two critical limitations: (i) the network is required to be bi-connected, (ii) the resulting protocol is not budget balanced. Our proposed BIC-B protocol overcomes these difficulties. We also prove the optimality of the proposed scheme.
Optimum Perfect Universal Steganography of Finite Memoryless Sources

A theoretical analysis and a practical solution to the fundamental problem of optimum perfect universal steganography of finite memoryless sources with a passive warden are provided. The theoretical analysis rests on the fact that Slepian's Variant I permutation coding implements first-order perfect universal steganography with maximum embedding rate. The practical solution underlines the duality between perfect steganography with optimum embedding rate and lossless source coding with optimum compression rate, since it is shown that permutation coding can be implemented by means of adaptive arithmetic coding. A distance constraint between host signal and information-carrying signal must be observed in universal steganography, and thus an optimum tradeoff between embedding rate and embedding distortion must be achieved. Partitioned permutation coding is shown to be the solution to this problem. A practical implementation of partitioned permutation coding is given that performs close to an unattainable upper bound on the rate-distortion function of the problem.
Classification of complex pedestrian activities from trajectories

We propose a method to classify human trajectories, modeled by a set of motion vector fields, each tailored to describe a specific motion regime. Trajectories are modeled as being composed of segments corresponding to different motion regimes, each generated by one of the underlying motion fields. Switching among the motion fields follows a probabilistic mechanism, described by a field of stochastic matrices. This yields a space-dependent motion model which can be estimated using an expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm. To address the model selection question (how many fields to use? ), we adopt a discriminative criterion based on classification accuracy on a held out set. Experiments with real data (human trajectories in a shopping mall) illustrate the ability of the proposed approach to classify complex trajectories into high level classes (client versus non-client).
La modélisation conceptuelle comme aide à la construction de villes résilientes

La resilience est un concept mobilise par de nombreuses disciplines, et qui est depuis une dizaine d'annee mobilise par les cindyniques. Il est encore difficile aujourd'hui de trouver un accord sur sa definition et sur sa mise en application au sein de la communaute scientifique. Nous ne nous attardons pas ici sur les differentes definitions existantes, mais nous nous interessons plus specifiquement aux differents modeles de mise en application de la resilience que l'on retrouve dans la litterature. Nous nous focalisons plus particulierement sur les modeles systemiques de resilience, qu'ils soient generiques, ou operationnels et applicables par les acteurs. Les travaux retenus (Panarchy [GUN 02], Cycle Adaptatif [WAL 04], Resilience Alliance [RES 10], Spatial Decision Support System [BAL 13]), ne repondent que partiellement a notre objectif, qui est d'obtenir un cadre operationnel d'aide a la construction des villes resilientes. Nous avons donc cherche a construire une nouvelle methodologie permettant de construire des territoires et des societes resilientes. Nous proposons ainsi un nouveau modele d'analyse de la resilience qui se base sur les travaux de nos predecesseurs : le modele CREAA. Celui-ci se focalise sur deux temporalites : l'avant et l'apres evenement, et est compose de quatre modules s'articulant autour de cibles majeurs determinees en amont de l'etude, et permettant d'adapter le modele en fonction de differents cas d'etudes (differents territoires et differents aleas).
Switched sliding mode control strategy for networked systems

In this paper, a networked switched control strategy based on Sliding Mode Control is presented. The idea pursued in this work is to reduce to a minimum the packet rate over the network, in order to limit the problems induced by the transmission of the state measurement between the sensor and the controller, while providing performance comparable with that of a non networked Sliding Mode Control scheme. The proposed scheme includes a model based controller which contains the nominal model of the plant, and relies on a suitably defined triggering condition. The latter considers the amplitude of a sliding variable determined relying on nominal model, and enables the actual state transmission only when the sliding variable is within a predefined boundary layer. When the plant state is not transmitted, the model state is used to determine the control action. In this way, it is possible to guarantee the same robustness with respect to matched uncertainties as in conventional sliding mode control schemes, as well as the exponential stability of the origin of the controlled system state space, even if the actual system state is not always used to close the feedback. Moreover, in steady-state, when the boundary layer is reached, in order to avoid a continuous transmission of the actual state measurement, a mechanism based on a moving average of the current sliding variable is adopted, which allows to suitably deactivate the state transmission even within the boundary layer, yet maintaining some robustness. Simulation results demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed strategy.
Experiment of Geometrically Invariant and Unneeded Synchronism Watermarking Using Winding Number

This paper presents a new scheme and algorithm for robust watermarking against general geometric distortions, such as rotation, scale, and translation. Some previous methods need synchronism to robust for geometric distortion between embedded and detected locations. However, synchronism requires extensive calculations cost and does not resist radical distortions. We propose a watermarking scheme using a winding number, which is a topological invariant that is not changed by geometric distortions. Winding number is extracted figure like a circle, therefore this does not require synchronism in our scheme. This paper shows one of the algorithms to implement our scheme, and evaluates this implementation.
Characterization of Human Gingival Fibroblasts on Zirconia Surfaces Containing Niobium Oxide

It was indicated that tetragonal zirconia polycrystal (TZP) containing yttria (Y2O3) and niobium oxide (Nb2O5) ((Y,Nb)-TZP) could be an adequate dental material to be used at esthetically important sites. The (Y,Nb)-TZP was also proved to possess its osteogenic potential comparable with those conventional dental implant material, titanium (Ti). The objective of the current study was to characterize cellular response of human gingival fibroblasts (HGFs) to smooth and rough surfaces of the (Y,Nb)-TZP disc, which were obtained by polishing and sandblasting, respectively. Various microscopic, biochemical, and molecular techniques were used to investigate the disc surfaces and cellular responses for the experimental (Y,Nb)-TZP and the comparing Ti groups. Sandblasted rough (Y,Nb)-TZP (Zir-R) discs had the highest surface roughness. HGFs cultured on polished (Y,Nb)-TZP (Zir) showed a rounded cell morphology and light spreading at 6 h after seeding and its proliferation rate significantly increased during seven days of culture compared to other surfaces. The mRNA expressions of type I collagen, integrin α2 and β1 were significantly stimulated for the Zir group at 24 h after seeding. The current findings, combined with the previous results, indicate that (Y,Nb)-TZP provides appropriate surface condition for osseointegration at the fixture level and for peri-implant mucosal sealing at the abutment level producing a suitable candidate for dental implantation with an expected favorable clinical outcome.
Cellular basis of biventricular hypertrophy and arrhythmogenesis in dogs with chronic complete atrioventricular block and acquired torsade de pointes.

BACKGROUND In the dog with chronic complete atrioventricular block (AVB), torsade de pointes arrhythmias (TdP) can be induced reproducibly by class III antiarrhythmic agents. In vivo studies reveal important electrophysiological alterations of the heart at 5 weeks of AVB, resulting in increased proarrhythmia. Autopsy studies indicate the presence of biventricular hypertrophy. In this study, the cellular basis of proarrhythmia and hypertrophy in chronic AVB was investigated. METHODS AND RESULTS From chronic-AVB dogs with increased heart weights and TdP, left midmyocardial and right ventricular myocytes were isolated by enzymatic dispersion. These myocytes were significantly larger than sinus rhythm (SR) controls. In chronic AVB, the action potential spike-and-dome configuration was preserved. However, the action potential duration (APD) at 95% and 50% of repolarization of the left midmyocardium was significantly larger in chronic AVB than in SR, with little change in the right ventricle, causing enhanced interventricular dispersion of repolarization at slow pacing rates. Treatment with the class III agent almokalant increased the APD to a much larger extent in chronic-AVB than in SR myocytes and resulted in a higher incidence of early afterdepolarizations (EADs). EADs had their takeoff potential between -35 and 0 mV. There was no evidence that spontaneous sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ release underlies these EADs. CONCLUSIONS In the dog, chronic AVB leads to hypertrophy of both right and left ventricular myocytes. The repolarization abnormalities predisposing for class III-dependent TdP in vivo are the results of cellular electrophysiological remodeling.
Evaluation of the Perception of Stimulus Contrast in Light Tones of Additive Synthesis

Optical illusions are characterized by visually perceived objects or pictures that are different from the reality and the actual situation. The brain processes information that eye records, but the final image does not match the real situation. Some optical illusions are caused by imperfections of our senses such as heaviness of the eye, and some by work of our brain. Colours are one of the main and basic information received through the vision. Mutually colours have a major impact and therefore affect our experience of them. The paper deals with the investigation of tracking perceptual experience of the light tones of additive synthesis depending on the impact the background colour.
Towards Parallel Automatic Differentiation

In scientific computing, we often need to compute derivatives in various numerical methods. Automatic differentiation [1] is a method to automatically generate a program that computes derivatives, from the code that evaluates the function value. With that, people can focus on the core of their scientific problems, and avoid manually writing the code for derivative evaluations which is a tedious and time-consuming job. The way automatic differentiation computes derivatives is essentially through chain rule, and therefore it does not lose any accuracy. As a result, it does not have the drawbacks in numerical differentiation [2] which is normally implemented using finite difference scheme where the stepsize needs to be carefully chosen to avoid round-off error as well as truncation error. It is also not as complicated as symbolic differentiation [3] where the analytical symbolic expression of the function derivative is derived. There are two modes of automatic differentiation – the forward mode and the reverse mode – they use different chain rules to propagate derivative information. There are two main implementations of automatic differentiations: operator overloading and source transformation. The details about these are sketched in Section 2. In this project, we aim to parallelize the reverse mode automatic differentiation, and we focus on the implementation using operator overloading. We present two parallelization strategies: one is to parallelize the loops in the original code, and the other is to parallelize the directed acyclic graph (DAG) traversal of the computational graph in the reverse mode. To parallelize the loops, we present a method that is implemented using operator overloading to build up a vectorized computational graph that recognizes the loops/vector operations in the original code. The nodes in this graph can represent vector variables as opposed to scalar variables in the conventional automatic differentiation algorithm. This gives us a way to parallelize the vector operations in modern computer architectures. To parallelize the DAG traversal in the reverse mode, we adapt the level-synchronous method in (breadth-first search) BFS [4]. The major difference between our algorithm and the normal BFS level-synchronous method is that in the reverse mode of automatic differentiation, when accessing a node, one has to read/write the predecessors of that node, and therefore, the definition of the “independent” frontier needs to be changed. We perform an independence check before distributing nodes to processors/threads.