Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of hemodynamics in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy by vector flow mapping: Comparison with healthy subjects

The present study investigated the role of energy loss assessed by vector flow mapping (VFM) in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). VFM analysis was performed in 42 patients with HCM and in 40 control subjects, which were matched for age, sex and left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction. The intra-LV and left atrial blood flow were obtained from the apical 3-chamber view, and the energy loss (EL) during the systolic and diastolic phases was calculated. The measurements were averaged over three cardiac cycles and indexed to body surface area. Compared with the controls, the left ventricular energy loss (LVEL)-total value was significantly decreased in patients with HCM during the diastolic phase (P1, P2 and P3; all P<0.05). A tendency for increased systolic LVEL-total values was observed in the patients with HCM compared with the controls (P>0.05). LVEL-base values were decreased in the patients with HCM during P1 and P2 (slow filling time). Compared with the controls, patients with HCM had lower LVEL-mid values during the diastolic phases (P0, P1, P2 and P3; all P<0.05). However, the LVEL-mid value of patients with HCM was higher compared with that of the controls during systolic P5 (P<0.05). LVEL-apex was decreased in patients with HCM during P0, P2 and P3. Compared with the controls, the left atrial energy loss (LAEL) of all three phases in patients with HCM were lower (each P<0.01). The diastolic LVEL values were significantly lower in patients with HCM compared with the controls; however, the systolic LVEL levels tended to be higher in HCM. The LAEL of the reservoir phase, conduit phase and atrial systolic phase were decreased in HCM compared with controls. The present study demonstrated that measurement of EL by VFM is a sensitive method of determining subclinical LV dysfunction in patients with HCM. The value of EL has been considered to be a quantitative parameter for the estimation of the efficiency of intraventricular blood flow.
Algorithms for signal separation exploiting sparse representations, with application to texture image separation

We consider the problem of signal separation, where the observation y = x1 +x2 +v is composed of the signals x1 and x2 to be separated, along with additive noise v. We further assume that x1 and x2 have sparse representations with respect to two different dictionaries D1 and D2, respectively. Exploiting sparse representations for signal separation has been introduced recently under the name Morphological Component Analysis (MCA). In this work we consider several greedy MCA algorithms. First, we show that the alternated denoising, practiced extensively in past work on signal separation, is inferior to a far simpler direct approach. Secondly, we introduce the Minimum-Mean-Squared-Error (MMSE) estimator into the separation algorithm, in the form of a randomized average of several representations, and show the benefit it provides. Turning to the task of separating a mixture of texture images, we fuse the above-mentioned direct greedy algorithm as a local operation in a global system, and demonstrate the successful separation it leads to.
QRP03-3: Bulk Scheduling for Delay Sensitive Streaming Applications

Newly popular Internet applications such as WebTV and Internet streaming requires network to support end-to-end delay bound. In this paper, we propose a novel network scheduling scheme, called the bulk scheduling scheme (BSS), built on top of existing schedulers of intermediate nodes (routers) without modifying transmission protocols on both sender and receiver. By inserting TED packets into packet flows at the ingress router periodically, the BSS schedulers of the intermediate nodes can dynamically allocate the necessary bandwidth to each flow to enforce the end-to-end delay. The introduction of TED packets incurs a lower overhead than the per-packet marking approaches, while achieves similar performance. Three flow bandwidth estimation methods are presented and a dropping policy is introduced to discard late packets. We also propose a feedback mechanism to discover and resolve the bottlenecks for the BSS. The simulation results show that BSS performs efficiently as expected.
Managing Multiple Communication Methods in High-Performance Networked Computing Systems

Modern networked computing environments and applications often require? or can benefit from? the use of multiple communication substrates, transport mechanisms, and protocols, chosen according to where communication is directed, what is communicated, or when communication is performed. We propose techniques that allow multiple communication methods to be supported transparently in a single application, with either automatic or user-specified selection criteria guiding the methods used for each communication. We explain how communication link and remote service request mechanisms facilitate the specification and implementation of multimethod communication. These mechanisms have been implemented in the Nexus multithreaded runtime system, and we use this system to illustrate solutions to various problems that arise when multimethod communication is implemented. We also illustrate the application of our techniques by describing a multimethod, multithreaded implementation of the Message Passing Interface (MPI) standard, constructed by integrating Nexus with the Argonne MPICH library. Finally, we present the results of experimental studies that reveal performance characteristics of multimethod communication, the Nexus-based MPI implementation, and a large scientific application running in a heterogeneous networked environment.
Causes of fecal and urinary incontinence after total mesorectal excision for rectal cancer based on cadaveric surgery: a study from the Cooperative Clinical Investigators of the Dutch total mesorectal excision trial.

PURPOSE Total mesorectal excision (TME) for rectal cancer may result in anorectal and urogenital dysfunction. We aimed to study possible nerve disruption during TME and its consequences for functional outcome. Because the levator ani muscle plays an important role in both urinary and fecal continence, an explanation could be peroperative damage of the nerve supply to the levator ani muscle. METHODS TME was performed on cadaver pelves. Subsequently, the anatomy of the pelvic floor innervation and its relation to the pelvic autonomic innervation and the mesorectum were studied. Additionally, data from the Dutch TME trial were analyzed to relate anorectal and urinary dysfunction to possible nerve damage during TME procedure. RESULTS Cadaver TME surgery demonstrated that, especially in low tumors, the pelvic floor innervation can be damaged. Furthermore, the origin of the levator ani nerve was located in close proximity of the origin of the pelvic splanchnic nerves. Analysis of the TME trial data showed that newly developed urinary and fecal incontinence was present in 33.7% and 38.8% of patients, respectively. Both types of incontinence were significantly associated with each other (P = .027). Low anastomosis was significantly associated with urinary incontinence (P = .049). One third of the patients with newly developed urinary and fecal incontinence also reported difficulty in bladder emptying, for which excessive perioperative blood loss was a significant risk factor. CONCLUSION Perioperative damage to the pelvic floor innervation could contribute to fecal and urinary incontinence after TME, especially in case of a low anastomosis or damage to the pelvic splanchnic nerves.
A two-stage statistical procedure for feature selection and comparison in functional analysis of metagenomes

MOTIVATION With the advance of new sequencing technologies producing massive short reads data, metagenomics is rapidly growing, especially in the fields of environmental biology and medical science. The metagenomic data are not only high dimensional with large number of features and limited number of samples but also complex with a large number of zeros and skewed distribution. Efficient computational and statistical tools are needed to deal with these unique characteristics of metagenomic sequencing data. In metagenomic studies, one main objective is to assess whether and how multiple microbial communities differ under various environmental conditions. RESULTS We propose a two-stage statistical procedure for selecting informative features and identifying differentially abundant features between two or more groups of microbial communities. In the functional analysis of metagenomes, the features may refer to the pathways, subsystems, functional roles and so on. In the first stage of the proposed procedure, the informative features are selected using elastic net as reducing the dimension of metagenomic data. In the second stage, the differentially abundant features are detected using generalized linear models with a negative binomial distribution. Compared with other available methods, the proposed approach demonstrates better performance for most of the comprehensive simulation studies. The new method is also applied to two real metagenomic datasets related to human health. Our findings are consistent with those in previous reports. AVAILABILITY R code and two example datasets are available at http://cals.arizona. edu/∼anling/software.htm. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION Supplementary file is available at Bioinformatics online.
Surgical management of posterior fossa mass lesions.

INDICATIONS Patients with mass effect on computed tomographic (CT) scan or with neurological dysfunction or deterioration referable to the lesion should undergo operative intervention. Mass effect on CT scan is defined as distortion, dislocation, or obliteration of the fourth ventricle; compression or loss of visualization of the basal cisterns, or the presence of obstructive hydrocephalus. Patients with lesions and no significant mass effect on CT scan and without signs of neurological dysfunction may be managed by close observation and serial imaging. TIMING In patients with indications for surgical intervention, evacuation should be performed as soon as possible because these patients can deteriorate rapidly, thus, worsening their prognosis. METHODS Suboccipital craniectomy is the predominant method reported for evacuation of posterior fossa mass lesions, and is therefore recommended.
Reduction of corneal edema in endotoxin-induced uveitis after application of L-NAME as nitric oxide synthase inhibitor in rats by iontophoresis.

PURPOSE To investigate the involvement of the cornea during endotoxin-induced uveitis (EIU) in the rat and the effect of Ngamma-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME) as nitric oxide synthase (NOS) inhibitor, administered by iontophoresis. METHODS EIU was induced in Lewis rats that were killed at 8 and 16 hours after lipopolysaccharide (LPS) injection. The severity of uveitis was evaluated clinically at 16 hours, and nitrite levels were evaluated in the aqueous humor at 8 hours. Corneal thickness was measured, 16 hours after LPS injection, on histologic sections using an image analyzer. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was used for fine analysis of the cornea. Transcorneoscleral iontophoresis of L-NAME (100 mM) was performed either at LPS injection or at 1 and 2 hours after LPS injection. RESULTS At 16 hours after LPS injection, mean corneal thickness was 153.7+/-5.58 microm in the group of rats injected with LPS (n=8) compared with 126.89+/-11.11 microm in the saline-injected rats (n=8) (P < 0.01). TEM showed stromal edema and signs of damage in the endothelial and epithelial layers. In the group of rats treated by three successive iontophoreses of L-NAME (n=8), corneal thickness was 125.24+/-10.36 microm compared with 146.76+/-7.52 microm in the group of rats treated with iontophoresis of saline (n=8), (P=0.015). TEM observation showed a reduction of stromal edema and a normal endothelium. Nitrite levels in the aqueous humor were significantly reduced at 8 hours by L-NAME treatment (P=0.03). No effect on corneal edema was observed after a single iontophoresis of L-NAME at LPS injection (P=0.19). Iontophoresis of saline by itself induced no change in corneal thickness nor in TEM structure analysis compared with normal rats. CONCLUSIONS Corneal edema is observed during EIU. This edema is significantly reduced by three successive iontophoreses of L-NAME, which partially inhibited the inflammation. A role of nitric oxide in the corneal endothelium functions may explain the antiedematous effect of L-NAME.
Encapsulation and capsular types in isolates of Staphylococcus aureus from different sources and relationship to phage types

The relationship of capsular types of Staphylococcus aureus to type of infection, carrier state, and phage type was studied in a collection of 477 isolates from 380 infection sites. Capsular polysaccharides were demonstrated by precipitation and agglutination with 11 monospecific antisera. When only one isolate from each infection was considered, 63% were of type 8 and 16% were of type 5. Of all the isolates tested, over 90% were encapsulated. We did not demonstrate any marked difference in the distribution of capsular types between isolates from the blood stream or purulent processes and isolates from healthy carriers or food. Most isolates from bovine mastitis milk had nontypeable capsules. The capsular type seemed stable in culture, and encapsulation had no apparent influence on susceptibility to phages. Of 27 phage-propagating strains maintained via culture transfer on artificial media over many years, 16 (59%) produced capsules. A striking association between certain phage patterns and capsular types was demonstrated.
Dermatoglyphic's in Congenital Cardiac Disease.

Various dermatoglyphic parameters like finger print pattern, atd angle, absolute ridge count & ab, bc ,cd, and ad ridge counts were observed in 150 cases of congenital cardiac disease, comprising of 72 cases of Ventricular Septal Defects (VSD), 60 cases of Atrial Septal Defects (ASD), 9 cases of Coarctation of Aorta (COA) & 9 cases of Tetralogy of Fallot's (TOF). Same dermatoglyphic parameters were also studied in 300 controls and statistical comparison of cases and controls was done. In our study it was observed that the congenital cardiac disease cases exhibited preponderance of whorls (55.8%) with decrease in loop pattern (36.2%) as compared to those of controls and the difference was highly significant (P<0.001). The difference in the mean total finger ridge count (TFRC) of the controls and of the cases of Congenital Cardiac Diseases (CCD) was found to be highly significant (P<0.001), while the mean atd angle in the cases of Congenital Cardiac Disease (CCD) was widen up and was statistically significant too. The mean ab, the mean bc ridge, the mean cd ridge and the mean ad ridge counts were also higher in the various type of CCD as compared to that controls and on statistical comparison, the difference was found to be highly significant.
Merging Results from Different Media: Lic2m Experiments at ImageCLEF 2005

In the ImageCLEF 2005 campaign, the LIC2M participated in the ad hoc task, the medical task and the annotation task. For both ad hoc and medical task, we perform experiments on merging the results of two independent search systems: a crosslanguage information retrieval system exploiting the text part of the query and a content-based image retrieval system exploiting the example images given with the query. The results show that a well-tuned merging may improve performance, but the tuning is made dicult because the performance of each system highly depends on the corpus and queries. Annotation task has been performed using a KNN classier with the image indexes of our CBIR system.
InterPregGen: genetic studies of pre-eclampsia in three continents

Pre-eclampsia is a major cause of maternal and fetal mortality in pregnancy. The identification of genetic variants which predispose to pre-eclampsia demands large DNA collections from affected mothers and babies and controls, with reliable supporting phenotypic data. The InterPregGen study has assembled a consortium of researchers from Europe, Central Asia and South America with the aim of elucidating the genetic architecture of pre-eclampsia. The MoBa collection is playing a vital role in this collaborative venture, which has the potential to provide new insights into the causes of pre-eclampsia, and provide a rational basis for novel approaches to prevention and treatment.
Rheumatic heart disease: the tip of the iceberg.

Rheumatic heart disease (RHD) remains one of the largest preventable burdens of disease in the world. It is perceived as a disease of childhood as it is acquired by streptococcal throat infection of the tonsillo-pharynx, leading to an inflammatory reaction that involves many organs, including the heart. However, cases in children of 5-14 years are likely to represent only 15-20% of all cases within all age groups of vulnerable populations.1 (SELECT FULL TEXT TO CONTINUE)
Personality Based Gamification – Educational Gamification for Extroverts and Introverts

Gamification in education is being used as a way to increase the student's engagement and learning. While carrying a big promise, little is known about the influence of game elements and mechanics on different personalities, specifically extrovert and introverts, knowledge that is essential to ensure implementations that will not disengage part of the students. In a study performed in an academic course, students (n=102) were faced with several feedback related game mechanics. Immediate feedback mechanics such as points, rewards, badges and comparative feedback mechanics such leaderboards, and progress were used to examines the relations between these elements and the way they increase the perceived playfulness of a semester long project. A Partial Least Squares (PLS) analysis of the results based on personality trait of extroversion was performed to examine how extroverts and introverts perceive a specific implementation. Our results show there are significant differences in how these two types of personalities achieve the playfulness of the system and specifically the lack of playfulness of leaderboards. These results are significant for educators who plan to include game elements in their courses.
A Plant-Specific Polarity Module Establishes Cell Fate Asymmetry in the Arabidopsis Stomatal Lineage

Generating cell polarity in anticipation of asymmetric cell division is required in many developmental contexts across a diverse range of species. Physical and genetic diversity among major multicellular taxa, however, demand different molecular solutions to this problem. The Arabidopsis stomatal lineage displays asymmetric, stem cell-like and oriented cell divisions, which require the activity of the polarly localized protein, BASL. Here we identify the plant-specific BREVIS RADIX (BRX) family as localization and activity partners of BASL. We show that members of the BRX family are polarly localized to peripheral domains in stomatal lineage cells and that their collective activity is required for asymmetric cell divisions. We further demonstrate a mechanism for these behaviors by uncovering mutual, yet unequal dependencies of BASL and the BRX family for each other’s localization and segregation at the periphery of stomatal lineage cells.
Study on method to simulate light propagation on tissue with characteristics of radial-beam LED based on Monte-carlo method

In biomedical, Monte-carlo simulation is commonly used for simulation of light diffusion in tissue. But, most of previous studies did not consider a radial beam LED as light source. Therefore, we considered characteristics of a radial beam LED and applied them on MC simulation as light source. In this paper, we consider 3 characteristics of radial beam LED. The first is an initial launch area of photons. The second is an incident angle of a photon at an initial photon launching area. The third is the refraction effect according to contact area between LED and a turbid medium. For the verification of the MC simulation, we compared simulation and experimental results. The average of the correlation coefficient between simulation and experimental results is 0.9954. Through this study, we show an effective method to simulate light diffusion on tissue with characteristics for radial beam LED based on MC simulation.
Assessing the Effects of Orientation and Device on 3D Positioning

We present two studies to assess which physical factors of various input devices influence 3D object movement tasks. In particular, we evaluate the factors that seem to make the mouse a good input device for constrained 3D movement tasks. The first study examines the effect of a supporting surface across orientation of input device movement and display orientation. Surprisingly, no significant results were found for the effect of physical support for constrained movement techniques. Also, no significant difference was found between matching the orientation of the display to that of the input device movement. A second study found that the mouse outperformed all tracker conditions for speed, but the presence or absence of support had no significant effect when tracker movement is constrained to 2D.
Permeability of the Cell Envelope and Osmotic Behavior in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Bakers' yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) was equilibrated with distilled water and then packed into standardized pellets by centrifugation. The fractional space (S value) that was accessible to passive permeation was probed with a variety of mono- and divalent salts, mono- and disaccharides, polyols, substrates and products of β-fructofuranosidase (EC 3.2.1.26) and acid phosphatase (EC 3.1.3.2), and a cross-linked polymer of sucrose (Ficoll 400). A simple but very reproducible method was developed to measure pellet volume. At the limit of zero osmolality for bathing medium, the interstitial space was 0.223 ml/ml of pellet, and the aqueous volume of cell envelopes was 0.117 ml/ml of pellet. Thus the cell envelope for this yeast, under these conditions, was approximately 15% of the total cell volume. At a finite osmolality, the space in a yeast pellet that was accessible to salt was accounted for by the sum of initial interstitial space, the volume of the cell envelopes, and the volume of water abstracted from the cells by osmosis. Plots of S value versus osmolality were linear for uncharged probes and curvilinear for all salts. When Ficoll and potassium thiocyanate were presented to the yeast in admixture, the S values for the salt increased continuously over the range of osmolality studied. However, the S values for Ficoll 400 (which did not penetrate the cell wall) were lower by an amount equilivalent to the cell envelopes; they increased in parallel with the S curve for salt up to 1.15 osmol/kg and then plateaued. The results support the concept of incipient plasmolysis at 1.15 osmol/kg, and the separation of protoplasm from the cell wall is indicated with more concentrated solutions. Such cells were still viable if slowly diluted in distilled water, but they were injured by the shock of rapid dilution. However, shocking the cells did not release β-fructofuranosidase into the medium. The complete accessibility of salts toward killed cells was demonstrated with yeast that had been pretreated with heat, organic solvents, or glutaraldehyde.
On the error performance of multilevel block-coded modulation

Multidimensional multilevel block-coded modulation employing quadrature amplitude modulated constellations are considered. An approximation to their error performance is described and compared to simulation results, which show it to be a very good estimate at moderate to high signal-to-noise ratio. The effect of parallel transitions is considered and the tradeoff between distance and the error coefficient is explored.