Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Neurological Consequences of Diabetic Ketoacidosis at Initial Presentation of Type 1 Diabetes in a Prospective Cohort Study of Children

OBJECTIVE To investigate the impact of new-onset diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) during childhood on brain morphology and function. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Patients aged 6–18 years with and without DKA at diagnosis were studied at four time points: <48 h, 5 days, 28 days, and 6 months postdiagnosis. Patients underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and spectroscopy with cognitive assessment at each time point. Relationships between clinical characteristics at presentation and MRI and neurologic outcomes were examined using multiple linear regression, repeated-measures, and ANCOVA analyses. RESULTS Thirty-six DKA and 59 non-DKA patients were recruited between 2004 and 2009. With DKA, cerebral white matter showed the greatest alterations with increased total white matter volume and higher mean diffusivity in the frontal, temporal, and parietal white matter. Total white matter volume decreased over the first 6 months. For gray matter in DKA patients, total volume was lower at baseline and increased over 6 months. Lower levels of N-acetylaspartate were noted at baseline in the frontal gray matter and basal ganglia. Mental state scores were lower at baseline and at 5 days. Of note, although changes in total and regional brain volumes over the first 5 days resolved, they were associated with poorer delayed memory recall and poorer sustained and divided attention at 6 months. Age at time of presentation and pH level were predictors of neuroimaging and functional outcomes. CONCLUSIONS DKA at type 1 diabetes diagnosis results in morphologic and functional brain changes. These changes are associated with adverse neurocognitive outcomes in the medium term.
An Innovative Product for Space Mission Planning: An A Posteriori Evaluation

This paper describes MEXAR2, a software tool that is currently used to synthesize the operational commands for data downlink from the on-board memory of an interplanetary space mission spacecraft to the ground stations. The tool has been in daily use by the Mission Planning Team of MARS EXPRESS at the European Space Agency since early 2005. Goal of this paper is to present a quick overview of how the planning and scheduling problem has been addressed, a complete application customized and put into context in the application environment. Then it concentrates on describing more in detail how a core solver has been enriched to create a tool that easily allows users to generate diversified plans for the same problem by handling a set of control parameters, called heuristic modifiers, that insert heuristic bias on the generated solutions. A set of experiments is presented that describes how such modifiers affect the solving process.
Morphological Disease Progression of Combined Pulmonary Fibrosis and Emphysema: Comparison With Emphysema Alone and Pulmonary Fibrosis Alone

Objectives The purpose of this study was to evaluate the differences in 5-year morphological changes among the patients with combined pulmonary fibrosis and emphysema (CPFE), emphysema alone, and fibrosis alone using quantitative computed tomography evaluation. Methods This study involved 42 patients with CPFE, 45 patients with emphysema alone, and 35 patients with fibrosis alone who underwent computed tomography scans twice (initial and 5 years after the initial scan). The extent of emphysematous lesions was obtained by calculating the percentage of low attenuation area (%LAA) lower than −950 Hounsfield units. Fibrotic lesion was defined as a high attenuation area (HAA) using thresholds with pixels between 0 and −700 Hounsfield units, and the extent of fibrosis was obtained by calculating the mean percentage of HAA (%HAA). For the quantitative evaluation of the total area of emphysematous change and fibrosis, the percentage of destructed lung area (%DA) was obtained by summing %LAA and %HAA. The 5-year changes of %LAA, %HAA, and %DA were calculated. Differences were evaluated by 1-way analysis of variance, which was followed by the Tukey-Kramer test. Results The mean change of %LAA was significantly higher in CPFE (7.4% ± 3.8%) than in emphysema alone (P < 0.05). The mean change of %DA was significantly higher in CPFE (12.9% ± 5.8%) than in emphysema alone (4.9% ± 2.8%) and fibrosis alone (7.1% ± 5.7%). Conclusions Morphological disease progression in CPFE differed from that in emphysema alone or fibrosis alone. In particular, the increase in emphysematous low-attenuation lesions was significantly higher in CPFE.
Autophagy resolves early retinal inflammation in Igf1-deficient mice

ABSTRACT Insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) is a growth factor with differentiating, anti-apoptotic and metabolic functions in the periphery, and anti-inflammatory properties in the nervous system. Mice that have mutations in the Igf1 gene, rendering the gene product inactive (Igf1−/−), present with age-related visual loss accompanied by structural alterations in the first synapses of the retinal pathway. Recent advances have revealed a crucial role of autophagy in immunity and inflammation. Keeping in mind this close relationship, we aimed to decipher these processes in the context of the defects that occur during ageing in the retina of Igf1−/− mice. Tnfa and Il1b mRNAs, and phosphorylation of JNK and p38 MAPK were elevated in the retinas of 6- and 12-month old Igf1−/− mice compared to those in age-matched Igf1+/+ controls. In 6-month-old Igf1−/− retinas, increased mRNA levels of the autophagy mediators Becn1, Atg9, Atg5 and Atg4, decreased p62 (also known as SQSTM1) protein expression together with an increased LC3-II:LC3-I ratio reflected active autophagic flux. However, in retinas from 12-month-old Igf1−/− mice, Nlrp3 mRNA, processing of the IL1β pro-form and immunostaining of active caspase-1 were elevated compared to those in age-matched Igf1+/+ controls, suggesting activation of the inflammasome. This effect concurred with accumulation of autophagosomes and decreased autophagic flux in the retina. Microglia localization and status of activation in the retinas of 12-month-old Igf1+/+ and Igf1−/− mice, analyzed by immunostaining of Cd11b and Iba-1, showed a specific distribution pattern in the outer plexiform layer (OPL), inner plexiform layer (IPL) and inner nuclear layer (INL), and revealed an increased number of activated microglia cells in the retina of 12-month-old blind Igf1−/− mice. Moreover, reactive gliosis was exclusively detected in the retinas from 12-month-old blind Igf1−/− mice. In conclusion, this study provides new evidence in a mouse model of IGF-1 deficiency that autophagy is an adaptive response that might confer protection against persistent inflammation in the retina during ageing. Summary: Igf1-deficient mice show chronic inflammation in the retina, and we reveal that controlling inflammation through autophagy in young mice could prevent loss of retinal function.
Detection of missing tweets based on browsing interval and topic granularity

Twitter users who browse tweets can follow other users in whom they are interested. They can obtain interesting information from other users' tweets on their timeline. If they follow many users, then they can expect numerous tweets on their timeline. However, if users do not browse their timeline for some time, they can lose interesting and important information. Therefore, a system that automatically presents a summary of lost information can be extremely beneficial. As described herein, we propose a method of extracting lost information automatically based on a user's browsing time interval and the topic structure of a followee's tweets. First, we classify a followee's tweets that contain the user's missing information, and assign topics to the groups. Next, we generate a topic graph based on the semantic structure from Wikipedia. We decide whether the tweet groups are missed using the followee's topic graph based on the browsing time interval. Finally, we extract missing information and present it to the user.
Epistolary and Expository Interaction Patterns in a Computer Conference Transcript

Epistolary and expository discourse types have been associated with gender in earlier research on transcripts from listservs and other unmoderated sources. A procedure for transcript analysis (the Transcript Analysis Tool, or TAT), which focuses on sentence types and interaction patterns, was used to determine whether gender patterns observed earlier could be detected in contributions to an online conference generated as part of a graduate course. The expected patterns were found (women tended to be more epistolary and aligned, whereas men were more expository and opposed). An important difference was the lack of extreme forms of expository behavior (flaming, rudeness), which we attributed to the greater structure and moderation of the course environment. Questions raised by the study included the strategic value of epistolary and expository discourse styles in group collaborations and decision making, and topics for further research related to communications style and gender. Dans des recherches anterieures sur les transcriptions issues de listes de diffusion et d’autres sources non moderees, les types epistolaire et d’expose de discours ont ete associes avec le genre. Une procedure pour l’analyse des transcriptions (l’outil d’analyse de transcriptions), laquelle se concentre sur les types de phrase et les modeles d’interaction, a ete utilisee pour determiner si ce qui avait auparavant ete observe sur les genres pouvait etre detecte dans une conference en ligne faisant partie integrante d’un cours de cycle superieur. Les structures attendues se sont revelees (les femmes tendaient a etre plus epistolaires et alignees, alors que les hommes etaient plus du type d’expose et opposes). Une difference importante etait l’absence de formes extremes de comportements de forme expose (enervement, impolitesse), difference que nous avons attribuee au fait que la structure et la moderation sont plus importantes dans un environnement de cours. Les questions soulevees par l’etude incluent la valeur strategique des styles epistolaire et d’expose du discours dans les collaborations et prises de decisions de groupe et concernent les sujets pour des recherches supplementaires reliees au style des communications et au genre.
Model-Based Detection of Heart Rate Turbulence

In this study, the integral pulse frequency modulation model is extended to account for the presence of ectopic beats and heart rate turbulence (HRT). Based on this model, a new statistical approach to the detection and characterization of HRT is presented. The detector structure involves a set of Karhunen-Loeve basis functions and a generalized likelihood ratio test statistic T(x) . The three most significant basis functions reflect the difference in heart rate prior to a ventricular ectopic beat (VEB) compared to after HRT, the ldquoaveragerdquo HRT, and a delayed contribution to HRT, respectively. Detector performance was studied on both simulated and ECG signals. Three different simulations were performed for the purpose of studying the influence of SNR, QRS jitter, and ECG sampling rate. The results show that the HRT test statistic T(x) performs better in all simulations than do the commonly used parameters known as turbulence onset (TO) and turbulence slope (TS). In order to attain the same performance as T(x), TS needs at least twice the amount of VEBs for averaging, and TO at least four times. The detector performance was also studied on ECGs acquired from eight patients who underwent hemodialysis treatment with the goal to discriminate between patients considered to be hypotension-resistant (HtR) and hypotension-prone (HtP). The results show that T(x) exhibits larger mean values in HtR patients than in HtP, suggesting that HRT is mostly present in HtR patients. The overlap between the two groups was larger for TO and TS than for T(x).
Synthesis and Characterization of Calcium Phosphate Compounds with Strontium and Magnesium Ionic Substitutions

Los bioceramicos ofrecen ventajas en la reparacion y regeneracion de tejidos duros utilizandose como relleno en cavidades oseas y como relleno particulado en cementos oseos de aplicaciones quirurgicas. Regeneracion y estimulacion de la osteosintesis a traves de la liberacion de iones esenciales, como el estroncio (Sr) y magnesio (Mg) es un campo relativamente nuevo. Por lo tanto, existe un gran interes en la investigacion de diversas sustituciones ionicos sobre la estructura cristalografica y las caracteristicas para su uso en la prevencion de osteoporosis y aumento de la formacion osea con disminuir la resorcion osea. En este estudio, se sintetizo muestras de fosfato de calcio con sustituciones ionicos Sr y Mg. Las muestras se caracterizaron usando difraccion de rayos X, espectroscopia infrarroja por transformada de Fourier, y la espectroscopia de masas con plasma acoplado inductivamente. Se observo hidroxiapatita, fosfato tricalcico beta, y las fases amorfas. Dependiendo de la sustitucion ionica, el tamano del cristal y cristalinidad variaron de 22 nm a 130 nm y de 84% a 99,6%, respectivamente. La relacion Ca/P vario desde 0,72 hasta 1,82. Los resultados demostraron el efecto de las inclusiones de Sr y Mg en fosfato de calcio en parametros importantes que se utilizan en varias aplicaciones de bioceramicos.
Characterization of constraints in flexible unknown environments

Robot manipulation in unstructured environments depends on understanding the geometric and physical constraints that the environment imposes on the robot. While approaches like simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) allow robots to understand geometric constraints, the understanding of environmental physical manipulation constraints is largely unaddressed when exploring unstructured flexible environments. The aim of this paper is to investigate algorithms that enable robots to autonomously perform exploratory manipulation tasks to comprehend physical constraints that guide safe manipulation. To achieve this goal we break new ground in the area of constraint exploration in unknown flexible environments. We propose using spatial stiffness, represented using screw theory, as a measure of mechanical constraints in the context of flexible environments. This paper focuses on developing a compact representation of global workspace constraints using locally measured stiffness properties. Additionally, we propose methods for identifying and classifying the various types of mechanical constraints that may exist in an elastic workspace, using only local stiffness properties. Used in tandem, these methods form a real-time compatible approach for exploring and mapping constraints of a flexible unknown environment.
Triangle-Based View Interpolation without Depth-Buffering

Abstract In this paper, we propose a triangle-based view interpolation algorithm that can correctly resolve the visibility problem without depth-buffering. The algorithm is especially useful when depth information is not available, such as in the case of real-world photographs. By subdividing the reference image into variablesized triangles, view interpolation can be done efficiently using existing graphics hardware. We derive the drawing order between each pair of neighboring triangles from the epipolar geometry. Using this drawing order, a graph can be built and topological sorting is applied on the graph to obtain the complete drawing order of all triangles in linear time.
Performance analysis of hybrid OpenMP/MPI based on multi-core cluster architecture

The mixed-mode OpenMP and MPI programming models in parallel application have significant impact on multi-core clusters in terms of performance. Hybrid programming has achieved new stage in parallel programming since the advent of new architecture of multi-core clusters. This new programming model leads ideas towards experimenting shared memory concept and message passing. The purpose of this paper is to analyze how pure MPI and hybrid code behave on two different multi-core clusters architecture using parallel application matrix multiplication. Hybrid programming code forced to face lack of performance compare to pure MPI at lower number of cores in overhead from shared memory. However, hybrid code outperforms pure MPI at higher counts of processors because of reduction in communication overhead that leads to lower process time.
A Suite of Models to Support the Quantitative Assessment of Spread in Pest Risk Analysis

Pest Risk Analyses (PRAs) are conducted worldwide to decide whether and how exotic plant pests should be regulated to prevent invasion. There is an increasing demand for science-based risk mapping in PRA. Spread plays a key role in determining the potential distribution of pests, but there is no suitable spread modelling tool available for pest risk analysts. Existing models are species specific, biologically and technically complex, and data hungry. Here we present a set of four simple and generic spread models that can be parameterised with limited data. Simulations with these models generate maps of the potential expansion of an invasive species at continental scale. The models have one to three biological parameters. They differ in whether they treat spatial processes implicitly or explicitly, and in whether they consider pest density or pest presence/absence only. The four models represent four complementary perspectives on the process of invasion and, because they have different initial conditions, they can be considered as alternative scenarios. All models take into account habitat distribution and climate. We present an application of each of the four models to the western corn rootworm, Diabrotica virgifera virgifera, using historic data on its spread in Europe. Further tests as proof of concept were conducted with a broad range of taxa (insects, nematodes, plants, and plant pathogens). Pest risk analysts, the intended model users, found the model outputs to be generally credible and useful. The estimation of parameters from data requires insights into population dynamics theory, and this requires guidance. If used appropriately, these generic spread models provide a transparent and objective tool for evaluating the potential spread of pests in PRAs. Further work is needed to validate models, build familiarity in the user community and create a database of species parameters to help realize their potential in PRA practice.
Efeito da Conduta Social sobre a Performance Econômica: Evidências da Indústria Têxtil Brasileira

O trabalho apresenta uma analise das relacoes entre as condutas sociais e as performances economicas de um conjunto de empresas texteis de capital aberto, que publicaram suas demonstracoes contabeis referentes ao exercicio social findo em 31 de dezembro de 2003. A pesquisa foi elaborada a partir de evidencias coletadas nas demonstracoes contabeis das empresas divulgadas junto a Comissao de Valores Mobiliarios (CVM). A analise econometrica e apresentada para avaliar a relacao de causalidade entre a conduta social e a performance economica, representada por dois indicadores: EBITDA/Receita Liquida e Retorno sobre Investimentos (ROI). Foram identificados sinais positivos dos coeficientes estimados das regressoes entre conduta social e performance economica indicando que, dentro da amostragem estudada, as empresas que adotam condutas socialmente responsaveis apresentam melhores performances economicas.
“Live in Your World, Play in Ours”: Race, Video Games, and Consuming the Other

As the nascent field of computer games research and games studies develops, one rich area of study will be a semiotic analysis of the tropes, conventions, and ideological sub-texts of various games. This article examines the centrality of race and gender in the narrative, character development, and ideologies of platform video games, paying particular attention to the deployment of stereotypes, the connection between pleasure, fantasy and race, and their link to instruments of power. Video games represent a powerful instrument of hegemony, eliciting ideological consent through a spectrum of white supremacist projects.
Tumour thickness and relationship to locoregional failure in cancer of the buccal mucosa.

AIMS The TNM system is the main parameter in treatment planning and the prediction of survival in oral cancer. Here, we investigate the role of tumour thickness as a predictor of locoregional failure and survival in node-negative patients. METHODS We studied 176 node-negative and early stage gingivo-buccal squamous cell carcinoma patients retrospectively. Clinico-pathological factors investigated for tumour failure prediction were: T stage; tumour differentiation; tumour thickness; and treatment. Tumour thickness was measured using an ocular micrometer. RESULTS Locoregional tumour failure was found in 34% of cases (60 of 176). Tumour differentiation was found not to be statistically significant in predicting tumour failure. The covariates predicting tumour failure were T stage (P<0.05); type of surgical treatment (P<0.05); and tumour thickness (P<0.001). The mean tumour thickness found was 4 mm. Tumours 4 mm in thickness behaved similarly in all three stages and those >4 mm had a higher rate of lymph-node metastasis. No distant metastasis was found in this series. CONCLUSION Tumour thickness was found to be an accurate predictor of locoregional failure in early stage cancer of the buccal mucosa.
Author-defined storage in the next generation learning management systems

One of the current trends in e-learning is the development of student-activating learning material. In four research projects aiming at the design of high quality learning material, a large body of student-activating learning material is being developed. During the development of this learning material, the limitations of the current generation learning management systems became obvious. The forthcoming SCORM 1.3 standard will resolve some of these limitations, but we have identified six additional functional requirements. The learning management system should enable adaptivity, the retrieval of history and state, comparison of results, tracking for pedagogical research, shared reference databases, and problem scenario databases. Each requirement is illustrated with examples from learning material developed in one of the research projects. An overview is also given of temporary workarounds we have developed to deploy this learning material in the current generation of learning management systems. However, we argue that future learning management systems with an author-defined storage facility will satisfy all six requirements.