Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Differential Clinical Responses to Everolimus-Eluting and Paclitaxel-Eluting Coronary Stents in Patients With and Without Diabetes Mellitus

Background— Some (but not all) prior trials have reported differential outcomes after percutaneous coronary intervention with paclitaxel-eluting stents versus stents eluting rapamycin analogs according to the presence of diabetes mellitus. These studies lacked sufficient power to examine individual safety and efficacy end points. Methods and Results— To determine whether an interaction exists between the presence of diabetes mellitus and treatment with everolimus-eluting stents compared with paclitaxel-eluting stents, we pooled the databases from the Clinical Evaluation of the Xience V Everolimus Eluting Coronary Stent System in the Treatment of Patients With De Novo Native Coronary Artery Lesions (SPIRIT) II, SPIRIT III, SPIRIT IV, and A Trial of Everolimus-Eluting Stents and Paclitaxel-Eluting Stents for Coronary Revascularization in Daily Practice (COMPARE) trials in which percutaneous coronary intervention was performed in 6780 patients, 1869 (27.6%) of whom had diabetes mellitus. Patients without diabetes mellitus treated with everolimus-eluting stents compared with paclitaxel-eluting stents had significantly reduced 2-year rates of mortality (1.9% versus 3.1%; P=0.01), myocardial infarction (2.5% versus 5.8%; P<0.0001), stent thrombosis (0.3% versus 2.4%; P<0.0001), and ischemia-driven target lesion revascularization (3.6% versus 6.9%; P<0.0001). In contrast, among patients with diabetes mellitus, there were no significant differences between the 2 stent types in any measured safety or efficacy parameter. Significant interactions were present between diabetic status and stent type for the 2-year end points of myocardial infarction (P=0.01), stent thrombosis (P=0.0006), and target lesion revascularization (P=0.02). Conclusions— We have identified a substantial interaction between diabetes mellitus and stent type on clinical outcomes after percutaneous coronary intervention. In patients without diabetes mellitus, everolimus-eluting stents compared with paclitaxel-eluting stents resulted in substantial 2-year reductions in death, myocardial infarction, stent thrombosis, and target lesion revascularization, whereas no significant differences in safety or efficacy outcomes were present in diabetic patients. Clinical Trial Registration— URL: http://www.clinicaltrials. gov. Unique identifiers: NCT00180310 (SPIRIT II), NCT00180479 (SPIRIT III), NCT00307047 (SPIRIT IV), and NCT01016041 (COMPARE).
Preventive and Therapeutic Effects of the Protease Inhibitor Camostat on Pancreatic Fibrosis and Atrophy in CCK-1 Receptor-Deficient Rats

Objectives: Recent studies have demonstrated that synthetic protease inhibitors could ameliorate the progression of pancreatic fibrosis in some animal models. Since oral administration of protease inhibitors increases the plasma cholecystokinin (CCK) levels and causes hypertrophy of the pancreas in rats, there is a possibility that the protease inhibitor inhibits fibrosis in the pancreas via endogenous CCK release. We examined the effects of camostat, a synthetic protease inhibitor, on histopathologic changes in Otsuka Long-Evans Tokushima Fatty (OLETF) rat that has genetically no expression of CCK-1 receptor and displays inflammation and degeneration of the pancreas. Methods: Three groups of OLETF rats received a camostat-rich diet (200 mg/100 g normal diet) from 12 to 28 weeks of age or from 12 or 28 weeks of age to the age of 72 weeks, while the fourth group received standard rat diet. Results: Pancreatic wet weight and pancreatic contents of protein, DNA, amylase, lipase, and trypsin in camostat-treated rats were significantly higher than those in the untreated control rats. Immunohistochemical studies of the pancreas showed that expressions of interleukin-1β, interleukin-6, tumor necrosis factor-α, and α-smooth muscle actin in camostat-treated rats were greatly suppressed compared with those in the untreated control rats. Atrophy and fibrosis in the pancreas observed in the untreated control rats were not found in camostat-fed rats. Conclusion: The results of the present study suggest that camostat greatly inhibits pancreatic inflammation and prevents and reverses fibrosis and atrophy of the pancreas in the genetically obese and CCK-1 receptor-deficient OLETF rats.
Eosinophilic dermatosis of hematologic malignancy

Cutaneous involvement by an eosinophil‐rich process (eosinophilic dermatosis) may be encountered in the setting of various hematologic malignancies, including mantle cell lymphoma, acute monocytic leukemia, acute lymphoblastic leukemia, large cell lymphoma, myelofibrosis and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Of the various hematologic malignancies, eosinophilic dermatosis has been most frequently described in association with CLL. Published previously as insect bite‐like reaction and eosinophilic dermatosis of myeloproliferative disease, this rare dermatitis presents as a pruritic, papular and occasionally vesicular eruption associated with an eosinophil‐rich infiltrate histopathologically. Although clinical and histopathologic features are similar to insect bites, affected patients frequently deny a history of insect bites. We report a case of eosinophilic dermatosis of hematologic malignancy in a patient with known history of CLL.
Discovering special product features for improving the process of product selection in E-commerce environment

In the E-commerce environment, a customer faces several difficulties for selecting the product. The technology like recommendation system is being developed to improve the performance of product selection. In this paper, we have investigated the problem of 'selecting a product from group of similar products' faced by the customer. For example, when a customer wants to buy a Sony camera through E-commerce Web site, the customer has to go through the information of several Sony camera models to select the appropriate one. In this paper, we have proposed an improved approach to help the customers to select the appropriate product. We have exploited the fact that every product possesses some specialness, which is exhibited through few special features. The proposed approach identifies the special features and organizes the features of the product in an effective manner. We have conducted the experiments on three real world data-sets related to Nokia-mobile phones, Sony-cameras and HP-laptops. The results indicate that the proposed approach has a potential to improve the performance of the product selection.
Flexible fusion of electroencephalography and functional magnetic resonance imaging: Revealing neural-hemodynamic coupling through structured matrix-tensor factorization

Simultaneous recording of electroencephalographic (EEG) signals and functional magnetic resonance images (fMRI) has gained wide interest in brain research, thanks to the highly complementary spatiotemporal nature of both modalities. We propose a novel technique to extract sources of neural activity from the multimodal measurements, which relies on a structured form of coupled matrix-tensor factorization (CMTF). In a data-symmetric fashion, we characterize these underlying sources in the spatial, temporal and spectral domain, and estimate how the observations in EEG and fMRI are related through neurovascular coupling. That is, we explicitly account for the intrinsically variable nature of this coupling, allowing more accurate localization of the neural activity in time and space. We illustrate the effectiveness of this approach, which is shown to be robust to noise, by means of a simulation study. Hence, this provides a conceptually simple, yet effective alternative to other data-driven analysis methods in event-related or resting-state EEG-fMRI studies.
Authoring image decompositions with generative models

We show how to extend traditional intrinsic image decompositions to incorporate further layers above albedo and shading. It is hard to obtain data to learn a multi-layer decomposition. Instead, we can learn to decompose an image into layers that are "like this" by authoring generative models for each layer using proxy examples that capture the Platonic ideal (Mondrian images for albedo; rendered 3D primitives for shading; material swatches for shading detail). Our method then generates image layers, one from each model, that explain the image. Our approach rests on innovation in generative models for images. We introduce a Convolutional Variational Auto Encoder (conv-VAE), a novel VAE architecture that can reconstruct high fidelity images. The approach is general, and does not require that layers admit a physical interpretation.
Expression of cytochrome P450 2A13 in human non-small cell lung cancer and its clinical significance

Lung cancer is one of the most important causes of cancer-related mortality worldwide. Human cytochrome P450 2A13 enzyme (CYP2A13) is predominantly expressed in the respiratory tract and could catalyze various carcinogens. In this study, we quantified CYP2A13 expression in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) tissues and examined the relation between CYP2A13 and clinicopathologic factors. Thirty-five paired lung cancer and normal tissues were studied for the expression of the CYP2A13 gene by using real-time PCR and Western blotting assays. We also investigated the relationship between CYP2A13 expression and clinicopathologic factors such as age, gender, histology and lymph node status in tumor tissues. SPSS (17.0) statistical software was applied for data analysis. The real-time PCR results showed that there was no significant difference in the CYP2A13 mRNA transcript levels between tumor and paired normal tissues in the 35 samples and in 12 paired squamous cell carcinomas. In adenocarcinoma, the expression of CYP2A13 mRNA in tumor tissues was 12.5% of that in adjacent tissues (P < 0.05) and it was not associated with age, gender, histology and lymph node status of the patients. The amounts of CYP2A13 proteins detected by Western blotting assays correlated well with those of the corresponding mRNAs. In conclusion, the expression of CYP2A13 was downregulated in lung adenocarcinoma. CYP2A13 may be involved in the development and progression of lung adenocarcinoma.
Patterns of functional vision loss in glaucoma determined with archetypal analysis

Glaucoma is an optic neuropathy accompanied by vision loss which can be mapped by visual field (VF) testing revealing characteristic patterns related to the retinal nerve fibre layer anatomy. While detailed knowledge about these patterns is important to understand the anatomic and genetic aspects of glaucoma, current classification schemes are typically predominantly derived qualitatively. Here, we classify glaucomatous vision loss quantitatively by statistically learning prototypical patterns on the convex hull of the data space. In contrast to component-based approaches, this method emphasizes distinct aspects of the data and provides patterns that are easier to interpret for clinicians. Based on 13 231 reliable Humphrey VFs from a large clinical glaucoma practice, we identify an optimal solution with 17 glaucomatous vision loss prototypes which fit well with previously described qualitative patterns from a large clinical study. We illustrate relations of our patterns to retinal structure by a previously developed mathematical model. In contrast to the qualitative clinical approaches, our results can serve as a framework to quantify the various subtypes of glaucomatous visual field loss.
Circular/Linear Polarization Reconfigurable Antenna on Simplified RF-MEMS Packaging Platform in K-Band

A linear-polarization (LP)/circular-polarization (CP) switchable reconfigurable antenna using a radio frequency micro-electro-mechanical-system (RF-MEMS) switch is proposed and a novel package platform is introduced. Since the package substrate of the novel package platform is used as a radiation aperture substrate of the antenna structure, the fabrication process can be simplified, and degradation of radiation performance can be prevented. As the radiation aperture exists on the top side of the package substrate, an aperture-coupling feed structure is employed. To implement the LP-CP-switchable antenna based on the package platform, a stub, acting as the other feed, is added to a slot ring and is connected to the RF-MEMS switch with an on/off state. The proposed antenna is simulated using the Finite-Element Method, after which it is fabricated and measured. The measured 10 dB impedance bandwidths (BWs) are 22.90% (LP state) and 28.43% (CP state). The measured 3 dB axial ratio BW is 13.07% in the CP state. The measured gains at 21 GHz are 2.63 dBi (LP state) and 3.90 dBi (CP state).
Ascites in poultry.

Research on ascites occurring in meat-type chickens reared at moderate and low altitude has shown that the pathogenesis is similar to that of the high altitude disease. Pulmonary hypertension (PH) caused by increased blood flow or increased resistance to flow in the lung results in right ventricular hypertrophy (RVH), valvular insufficiency, increased venous pressure and ascites. The structure of the avian heart, with its thin-walled right ventricle and muscular right atrioventricular valve, allows PH to induce heart failure quickly. The sudden increase in pulmonary hypertension syndrome (PHS) in meat-type chickens in the 1980s was associated with a rapid increase in growth rate and feed conversion. This was a result of a combination of genetic selection for fast-growing, heavy broilers with low feed conversion and a more dense, high caloric, pelleted food that supplied all the nutrients required for rapid growth and encouraged a high nutrient intake. PHS in meat-type chickens is usually primary pulmonary hypertension, that is, PH that occurs without evidence of prior heart or lung disease that could account for the increase in blood flow or resistance to flow that results in the increased pressure in the pulmonary arteries. The lungs of birds are firm and fixed in the thoracic cavity and they do not expand to draw air into the lung. The blood and air capillaries form a rigid network that allows only minimal expansion of the blood capillaries when more blood flow is required. Air is moved through the lung by abdominal movement which draws air in and out of the air sacs. The anatomy and physiology of the avian respiratory system are important in the susceptibility of meat-type chickens to PHS. The small stature of the modern meat-type chicken, the large, heavy breast mass, the pressure from abdominal contents on air sacs, and the small lung volume compared to body weight, may all be involved in the increased incidence of PHS. There is limited space for blood flow in the avian lung. Factors that increase blood flow or increase resistance to flow are additive. Increased blood viscosity caused by the polycythaemia of hypoxia, or increased erythrocyte rigidity of high Na (+), are more likely to produce PH in fast-growing than in slow-growing birds. Increased flow due to cold exposure is also additive. Ascites caused by PH is a production-related disease at low altitude. It can be prevented easily by restricting growth rate. It is possible that some meat-type chickens of the phenotype we have created have reached the limit of blood flow through their lungs and that future improvements in growth rate will only be possible if the lung and abdominal cavity capacities are enlarged.
The candidature of Nigerian pidgin as a national language: some initial hurdles

This paper examines arguments for and against the candidature of Nigerian Pidgin as an official language. Potent buttressing arguments include its widespread use at the grassroots level; its apparent cultural neutrality; and the ease in acquiring it. Arguments against its candidature include its stigmatization; its lack of a cultural base; queries over its bona fide indigenous status; its being a threat to the mastery and use of "standard" English, especially in the educational domanin, and its low language development status. The fact that attitudes towards Nigerian Pidgin are completely negative is pinpointed as the most powerful argument against its candidacy as national language. The paper concludes with the observation that on purely linguistic grounds, there is no reason why Nigerian Pidgin cannot function as a national language. However, on social grounds, it may, at the moment, not be able to effectively fulfil this role. A language that has no esteem within its major constituency is most unlikely to be awarded such esteem simply because it has been pronounced a national language. It is therefore suggested that serious corpus and status planning efforts are prerequisites for the acceptance of Nigerian Pidgin as a national language and the changing of attitudes towards it; these tasks, it is pointed out, are gargantuan and bedevilling hurdles
Interleaver design methods for turbo codes

It is generally assumed that when a turbo decoder is operating at low bit error rates, error sequences have small Hamming weights. From this, and properties of turbo encoders, a mathematical structure is developed for interleaver design, permitting the identification of quantitatively optimal interleavers. Simulations show the math captures some but not all the essential characteristics of a successful interleaver. Modifying a random interleaver according to the mathematical ideas gives excellent simulation results.
It's not what you play, it's how you play it: Timbre affects perception of emotion in music

Salient sensory experiences often have a strong emotional tone, but the neuropsychological relations between perceptual characteristics of sensory objects and the affective information they convey remain poorly defined. Here we addressed the relationship between sound identity and emotional information using music. In two experiments, we investigated whether perception of emotions is influenced by altering the musical instrument on which the music is played, independently of other musical features. In the first experiment, 40 novel melodies each representing one of four emotions (happiness, sadness, fear, or anger) were each recorded on four different instruments (an electronic synthesizer, a piano, a violin, and a trumpet), controlling for melody, tempo, and loudness between instruments. Healthy participants (23 young adults aged 18–30 years, 24 older adults aged 58–75 years) were asked to select which emotion they thought each musical stimulus represented in a four-alternative forced-choice task. Using a generalized linear mixed model we found a significant interaction between instrument and emotion judgement with a similar pattern in young and older adults (p < .0001 for each age group). The effect was not attributable to musical expertise. In the second experiment using the same melodies and experimental design, the interaction between timbre and perceived emotion was replicated (p < .05) in another group of young adults for novel synthetic timbres designed to incorporate timbral cues to particular emotions. Our findings show that timbre (instrument identity) independently affects the perception of emotions in music after controlling for other acoustic, cognitive, and performance factors.
Torque estimator for a permanent magnet brushless DC motor drive

Estimation of motor torque requires information of motor parameters and becomes crucial to the cases where phase inductance varies with the rotor position. Present paper proposes a simple instantaneous torque estimator for a permanent-magnet brushless dc (PM BLDC) motor drive. Proposed estimator requires information of phase currents from the current sensors and duty ratio applied to the individual phase legs of the VSI. Information of phase inductance is not required. Negligence of phase resistance reduces this estimator to a simplified one with considerable error. Applicability of this estimator even for the sinusoidal phase current supply makes it a general strategy for the estimation of instantaneous motor torque for a PM BLDC motor drive. For the validation of the estimator, torque from the Simulink model of PMSM motor with trapezoidal back-emf is considered as a reference.
Spammer Detection on Weibo Social Network

Social network has become a very popular way for internet users to communicate and interact online. Users spend a great deal of time on famous social networks (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Sina Weibo, etc.), reading news, discussing events and posting their messages. Unfortunately, this popularity also attracts a significant amount of spammers who continuously expose malicious behaviors (e.g. Post messages containing commercial topics or URLs, following a larger amount of users, etc.), leading to great inconvenience on normal users' social activities. In this paper, a supervised machine learning based spammer filtering method is proposed. We first collected a dataset from Sina Weibo that includes 30,116 users and more than 16 million messages, then, construct a labeled dataset of users and manually classify users into spammers and non-spammers, after that, abstract a set of novel features from message content and users' social behavior, and apply into SVM based spammer classifier. Our experiments show that true positive rate of spammers and non-spammers could reach 99.1% and 99.9%.
Review of trophoblastic disease at Taipei Veterans General Hospital.

BACKGROUND Trophoblastic diseases are well known and encountered frequently within most oriental populations except the Japanese. In recent decades, fewer cases have been reported in Taiwan. The purpose of this study was to review and discuss all patients diagnosed with trophoblastic disease at one particular Taiwanese medical center. METHODS Sixty-four patients with malignant gestational trophoblastic disease (GTD) were treated at the Taipei Veterans General Hospital from 1977 to 1995. All cases, except those of placental-site trophoblastic disease, were included in this study. RESULTS Of the 64 cases of GTD identified, 36 were nonmetastatic and 28 were metastatic. The common metastatic sites were the lungs, followed by the brain and/or liver. Six patients died of the disease. The majority of these patients (5/6) suffered from liver and/or brain metastases. CONCLUSIONS GTD was found to be a highly chemosensitive and curable disease. However, a significant proportion of patients die of the disease. More effective therapeutic protocols may be required in such patients to improve the survival rate.
Teacher and student perceptions of the development of learner autonomy; a case study in the biological sciences

Biology teachers in a UK university expressed a majority view that student learning autonomy increases with progression through university. A minority suggested that pre-existing diversity in learning autonomy was more important and that individuals not cohorts differ in their learning autonomy. They suggested that personal experience prior to university and age were important and that mature students are more autonomous than 18–20 year olds. Our application of an autonomous learning scale (ALS) to four year-groups of biology students confirmed that the learning autonomy of students increases through their time at university but not that mature students are necessarily more autonomous than their younger peers. It was evident however that year of study explained relatively little (< 10%) of total variation in ALS scores in this student population, which suggests that personal and environmental/societal factors profoundly influence the degree of learning autonomy and should be a focus of future research.