Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cost Utility of Prostate Cancer Chemoprevention with Dutasteride in Men with an Elevated Prostate Specific Antigen

Background: In the Reduction by Dutasteride of Prostate Cancer Events (REDUCE) trial, dutasteride reduced the relative risk of prostate cancer (CaP) diagnosis over a 4-year period by 22.8%, but questions remain regarding the cost–effectiveness of widespread utilization. We evaluated the cost utility of chemoprevention using dutasteride in men at elevated risk for CaP. Methods: A Markov decision analysis model with probabilistic sensitivity analysis was designed to determine the lifetime prostate-health-related costs, beginning at age 50, for men treated with dutasteride compared with placebo who are at elevated risk for CaP. Model assumptions were based on data in REDUCE; surveillance, epidemiology, and end-results program; literature review of costs, utilities, and transition rates among various prostate cancer health states; and local institutional cost data. Results: Under the assumptions of the base case analysis, dutasteride chemoprevention is associated with a gain of 108 quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) per 1,000 men and the quality-adjusted cost–effectiveness ratio for dutasteride compared with men not receiving chemoprevention was $140,240 per QALYs. At a cost of $626 per year, down from the current cost of $1,400, the model predicts a cost benefit from dutasteride with a willingness-to-pay threshold lower than $50 K. Assuming a 15% period prevalence renders, an incremental cost–effectiveness ratio of $576,630 per QALYs and a 30% period prevalence would yield a $98,059 per QALYs. Conclusions: Dutasteride is unlikely to be cost effective when considering the impact on survival differences among treated versus untreated groups. However, chemoprevention may be cost effective in high-risk populations when taking into consideration adjustments for the impact on quality of life. Cancer Prev Res; 4(2); 277–83. ©2010 AACR.
Spike Timing and Information Transmission at Retinogeniculate Synapses

This study examines the rules governing the transfer of spikes between the retina and the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) with the goal of determining whether the most informative retinal spikes preferentially drive LGN responses and what role spike timing plays in the process. By recording from monosynaptically connected pairs of retinal ganglion cells and LGN neurons in vivo in the cat, we show that relayed spikes are more likely than nonrelayed spikes to be evoked by stimuli that match the receptive fields of the recorded cells and that an interspike interval-based mechanism contributes to the process. Relayed spikes are also more reliable in their timing and number where they often achieve the theoretical limit of minimum variance. As a result, relayed spikes carry more visual information per spike. Based on these results, we conclude that retinogeniculate processing increases sparseness in the neural code by selectively relaying the highest fidelity spikes to the visual cortex.
Spatially-coupled MacKay-Neal codes with no bit nodes of degree two achieve the capacity of BEC

Obata et al. proved that spatially-coupled (SC) MacKay-Neal (MN) codes achieve the capacity of BEC. However, the SC-MN codes have many variable nodes of degree two and have higher error floors. In this paper, we prove that SC-MN codes with no variable nodes of degree two achieve the capacity of BEC.
A Practical Implementation of Clustered Fault Tolerant Write Acceleration in a Virtualized Environment

Host-side flash storage opens up an exciting avenue for accelerating Virtual Machine (VM) writes in virtualized datacenters. The key challenge with implementing such an acceleration layer is to do so without breaking live VM migration which is essential for providing distributed resource management and high availability. High availability also powers-on VMs on new host when the previous host crashes. We introduce FVP, a fault tolerant host-side flash write acceleration layer that seamlessly integrates with the virtualized environment while preserving dynamic resource management and high availability, the holy tenets of a virtualized environment. FVP integrates with the VMware ESX hypervisor kernel to intercept VM I/O and redirects the I/O to host-side flash devices. VMs experience flash latencies instead of SAN latencies and write intensive applications such as databases and email servers benefit from predictable write throughput. No changes are required to the VM guest operating systems so VM applications can continue to function seamlessly without any modifications. FVP pools together all the host-side flash devices in the cluster so every host can access another host's flash device preserving VM mobility. By replicating VM writes onto peer host-side flash devices, FVP is able to tolerate multiple cascading host and flash failures. Failure recovery is distributed, requiring no central co-ordination. We describe the workings of the FVP key components and demonstrate how FVP reduces VM latencies to accelerate VM writes, improves performance predictability, and increases virtualized datacenter efficiency.
Architectural Concerns in Multi-tenant SaaS Applications

Multi-tenant applications serve different customers with one application instance. This architectural style leverages sharing and economies of scale to provide cost efficient hosting. As multi-tenancy is a new concept, a common definition of the word and related concepts is not yet established and the architectural concerns are not fully understood. This paper provides an overview of important architectural concerns and there mutual influences. Beside that, it defines multi-tenancy and differentiates it from several related concepts.
Investigation of grid-connected photovoltaic generation system applied for Urban Rail Transit energy-savings

In the paper, the feasibility and application modes of Photovoltaic (PV) generation system were studied in Urban Rail Transit (URT). Firstly, the paper estimates the capacity of PV cells installation, and gets the results that PV generation system applied in the URT energy-savings is feasible by studying a typical elevated line of Shanghai URT. And then, in view of the particularity of URT power system and its loads, AC grid-connected mode and DC grid-connected mode are presented, and the grid-connected topology and energy management strategy were developed respectively. The results of simulation and theoretical analysis show that the AC grid-connected mode is simple and its control strategy is mature, but it hasn't energy-savings amplification effect, DC grid-connected mode has energy-savings amplification effect, and can maximize the benefits of PV generation system through the optimization of control strategy. Finally, the key issues in the implementation of DC grid-connected mode were discussed.
Profound apoptosis-mediated regional myocyte loss and compensatory hypertrophy in pigs with hibernating myocardium.

BACKGROUND Myocyte apoptosis is seen in ischemic heart disease, but whether it can occur after reversible ischemia or independent of necrosis and replacement fibrosis is unknown. METHODS AND RESULTS Pigs were instrumented with a stenosis of the left anterior descending coronary artery to chronically reduce coronary flow reserve over a period of 3 months. At this time, there was viable dysfunctional myocardium having the physiological features of hibernating myocardium. Resting subendocardial perfusion was reduced to 0.65+/-0.08 (mean+/-SEM) mL. min(-1). g(-1) in hibernating myocardium of instrumented pigs compared with 0.98+/-0.14 mL. min(-1). g(-1) in myocardium of sham-operated pigs (P<0.05). There was a critical limitation in subendocardial flow during vasodilation to 0.78+/-0.20 mL. min(-1). g(-1) in instrumented pigs versus 3. 24+/-0.50 mL. min(-1). g(-1) in sham-operated pigs (P<0.001). Histology revealed a regional reduction in myocyte nuclear density to 995+/-100 nuclei/mm(2) in hibernating myocardium from the instrumented group versus 1534+/-65 nuclei/mm(2) in myocardium from the sham-operated group (P<0.05), regional myocyte hypertrophy (myocyte volume per nucleus, 14 183+/-2594 in the instrumented group versus 9130+/-1301 microm(3) in the sham group; P<0.05), and minimal increases in connective tissue (5.8+/-0.9% in the instrumented group versus 3.0+/-0.2% in the sham group, P<0.05). Necrosis was not identified, but apoptosis was increased from 30+/-9 myocytes per 10(6) myocyte nuclei in myocardium from the sham group to 220+/-77 myocytes per 10(6) myocyte nuclei in hibernating myocardium (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS These findings indicate that reversible ischemia in an area of chronically reduced coronary flow reserve induces regional myocyte loss via an apoptotic mechanism. This may contribute to the progression of chronic coronary disease to heart failure and explain the lack of complete functional recovery after revascularization in hibernating myocardium.
Processing and Data Collection of Program Structures in Open Source Repositories

The use of network analysis in software analysis has been widely explored recently. In [Zimmermann and Nagappan 2008] authors showed that using of network graphs metrics can provide better results in the SDP (software defect prediction) than with classical software metrics. This fact motivated our analysis of software as network graphs. One way to approach the network graphs is to analyze its basic building blocks as subgraphs and motifs. In our previous work [Petric and Galinac Grbac 2014] we analyzed three Eclipse systems and got some interesting preliminary results. We realized that with help of subgraph frequencies we may differentiate different software. This is an important finding because it may be useful in many software engineering tasks from planning software design and system modeling to planning the verification activities. In fact, variations of k–node subgraph frequencies, that in sum have probability one in the analyzed graph structure, are bounded. In order to discover these bounds in software projects we wanted to empirically investigate as much as possible software structures. We are interested what are the bounds and are they related to some other software metrics. Also we want to explore these bounds across the software domains, i.e. the software written for different purposes. Nowadays, there are plenty of open source software repositories. Source code repositories and all supporting software development repositories contain a lot of potentially useful information. However, those information are weakly explored and used for guiding and executing software projects although
Estimating parameters and hidden variables in non-linear state-space models based on ODEs for biological networks inference

MOTIVATION Statistical inference of biological networks such as gene regulatory networks, signaling pathways and metabolic networks can contribute to build a picture of complex interactions that take place in the cell. However, biological systems considered as dynamical, non-linear and generally partially observed processes may be difficult to estimate even if the structure of interactions is given. RESULTS Using the same approach as Sitz et al. proposed in another context, we derive non-linear state-space models from ODEs describing biological networks. In this framework, we apply Unscented Kalman Filtering (UKF) to the estimation of both parameters and hidden variables of non-linear state-space models. We instantiate the method on a transcriptional regulatory model based on Hill kinetics and a signaling pathway model based on mass action kinetics. We successfully use synthetic data and experimental data to test our approach. CONCLUSION This approach covers a large set of biological networks models and gives rise to simple and fast estimation algorithms. Moreover, the Bayesian tool used here directly provides uncertainty estimates on parameters and hidden states. Let us also emphasize that it can be coupled with structure inference methods used in Graphical Probabilistic Models. AVAILABILITY Matlab code available on demand.
Anesthesia by n‐Alkanes Not Consistent with the Meyer‐Overton Hypothesis: Determinations of the Solubilities of Alkanes in Saline and Various Lipids

Because deviations from the Meyer-Overton rule may provide insights into the attributes of the anesthetic site of action, we characterized the solubility of the n-alkanes in various hydrophobic solvents (n-tetradecane, olive oil, n-octanol, and lecithin) as well as saline using variations on standard techniques. Increasing alkane chain length correlated with a decrease in solubility in saline and an increase in solubility in the hydrophobic solvents. The product of solubility in the hydrophobic solvents X the partial pressure (in atmospheres) required to produce anesthesia (i.e., the Meyer-Overton rule) did not produce a constant for any one of these solvents. The means and standard deviations for the products were: tetradecane, 65 ± 103; olive oil, 33 ± 63; n-octanol, 64 ± 129; and lecithin, 16 ± 26. Thus, our data suggest that the n-alkanes (especially those longer than n-heptane) do not follow the Meyer-Overton rule.
Drought: past problems and future scenarios

This is a most interesting and useful book for readers of this Journal, as it is very relevant to the Digital Earth topic of monitoring changes at global, regional and local levels. The book has eight chapters, which describe and discuss the occurrence of global drought events, their characteristics, causes and impacts, going from the Holocene (the last 12,000 years), through the twentieth century to the present day. It also gives expected trends to the end of the twenty-first century. The chapters describe the physical processes of drought development and the science behind drought reconstruction, observation and modelling. The book also places drought into the broader issue of Global Change. In addition to these eight scientific chapters, there is an interesting Preface, which argues that of all natural disasters, drought is probably the most problematic, causing immense social, economic and ecological damage. The book is illustrated by some 70 useful figures, plus diagrams and also has 25 colour plates. Chapter 1 is the Introduction. It is an easy to read chapter, which gives the setting of ‘Drought Today’, shows the relation between drought and Global Change, and explains the authors’ motivation for having written this book. This chapter also provides an overview of the whole book. Chapter 2 provides a basic overview of the impacts of drought in the past few decades, based on reports and databases from around the world. This book focuses mainly on the physical aspects of drought. Of course, droughts have enormous impact on populations living in the affected drought areas, but if readers want to learn about the social aspects, they should read other books on drought. This book just touches on the subject of the socio-economics of drought, and provides some references for further reading. Chapter 3 discusses the science of drought, starting with a good overview of the hydrological cycle, and its variations in space and time. These last two aspects come back again later in the book, and are the ones where Digital Earth researchers can make the biggest contribution to the study and understanding of drought, as Earth Observation techniques are the best ways to monitor the location, spread, effects and impacts of droughts, regionally and globally, through time. These tools for the scientific gathering and analysis of drought-related data have greatly advanced in recent years. Chapter 4 describes some of the methods for monitoring and predicting drought. Many techniques are described, from in-situ measurement devices, models of climate and hydrology, various remote sensing techniques, and the use of paleoclimate data (e.g. tree-ring chronologies, cave International Journal of Digital Earth, Vol. 5, No. 5, September 2012, 456 459
The ACT Hand: design of the skeletal structure

Robotic hands built for manipulation are often anthropomorphic but not anatomically accurate. We are constructing an anatomically-correct testbed (ACT) of the human hand to understand its mechanisms, function, and control. We have previously demonstrated that an accurate model of the extensor mechanism in the ACT Hand is crucial in realizing human-like finger movements. Here, we present the design of the bones and joints that form the skeletal structure for the ACT Hand. The bones are machined from human bone data, and are accurate in surface shape, mass, and center-of-gravity, while the joints have been designed to match both degrees-of-freedom and passive stiffness. Our evaluation of the assembled index finger confirms the anatomic properties, and reveals the function of some of the peculiar shapes of the finger bones, the necessity of matching the joint passive stiffness properties, and the connections of the extensor mechanism.
Sulfonylurea inadequacy: efficacy of addition of insulin over 6 years in patients with type 2 diabetes in the U.K. Prospective Diabetes Study (UKPDS 57).

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the efficacy of the addition of insulin when maximal sulfonylurea therapy is inadequate in individuals with type 2 diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Glycemic control, hypoglycemia, and body weight were monitored over 6 years in 826 patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes in 8 of 23 U.K. Prospective Diabetes Study (UKPDS) centers that used a modified protocol. Patients were randomly allocated to a conventional glucose control policy, primarily with diet (n = 242) or an intensive policy with insulin alone (n = 245), as in the main study. However, for patients randomized to an intensive policy with sulfonylurea (n = 339), insulin was added automatically if the fasting plasma glucose remained >108 mg/dl (6.0 mmol/l) despite maximal sulfonylurea doses. RESULTS Over 6 years, approximately 53% of patients allocated to treatment with sulfonylurea required additional insulin therapy. Median HbA(1c) in the sulfonylurea +/- insulin group was significantly lower (6.6%, interquartile range [IQR] 6.0-7.6) than in the group taking insulin alone (7.1%, IQR 6.2-8.0; P = 0.0066), and significantly more patients in the sulfonylurea +/- insulin group had an HbA(1c) <7% (47 vs. 35%, respectively; P = 0.011). Weight gain was similar in the intensive therapy groups, but major hypoglycemia occurred less frequently over all in the sulfonylurea (+/- insulin) group compared with the insulin alone group (1.6 vs. 3.2% per annum, respectively; P = 0.017). CONCLUSIONS Early addition of insulin when maximal sulfonylurea therapy is inadequate can significantly improve glycemic control without promoting increased hypoglycemia or weight gain.
Latent Model Ensemble with Auto-localization

Deep Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) have exhibited superior performance in many visual recognition tasks including image classification, object detection, and scene label- ing, due to their large learning capacity and resistance to overfit. For the image classification task, most of the current deep CNN- based approaches take the whole size-normalized image as input and have achieved quite promising results. Compared with the previously dominating approaches based on feature extraction, pooling, and classification, the deep CNN-based approaches mainly rely on the learning capability of deep CNN to achieve superior results: the burden of minimizing intra-class variation while maximizing inter-class difference is entirely dependent on the implicit feature learning component of deep CNN; we rely upon the implicitly learned filters and pooling component to select the discriminative regions, which correspond to the activated neurons. However, if the irrelevant regions constitute a large portion of the image of interest, the classification performance of the deep CNN, which takes the whole image as input, can be heavily affected. To solve this issue, we propose a novel latent CNN framework, which treats the most discriminate region as a latent variable. We can jointly learn the global CNN with the latent CNN to avoid the aforementioned big irrelevant region issue, and our experimental results show the evident advantage of the proposed latent CNN over traditional deep CNN: latent CNN outperforms the state-of-the-art performance of deep CNN on standard benchmark datasets including the CIFAR-10, CIFAR- 100, MNIST and PASCAL VOC 2007 Classification dataset.
VirtualHuman: dialogic and affective interaction with virtual characters

Natural multimodal interaction with realistic virtual characters provides rich opportunities for entertainment and education. In this paper we present the current VIRTUALHUMAN demonstrator system. It provides a knowledge-based framework to create interactive applications in a multi-user, multi-agent setting. The behavior of the virtual humans and objects in the 3D environment is controlled by interacting affective conversational dialogue engines. An elaborate model of affective behavior adds natural emotional reactions and presence of the virtual humans. Actions are defined in a XML-based markup language that supports the incremental specification of synchronized multimodal output. The system was successfully demonstrated during CeBIT 2006.
Analysis and classification of optimisation benchmark functions and benchmark suites

New and existing optimisation algorithms are often compared by evaluating their performance on a benchmark suite. This set of functions aims to evaluate the algorithm across a range of problems and serves as a baseline measurement of how the algorithm may perform on real-world problems. It is important that the functions serve as a good representative of commonly occurring problems. In order to select functions that will make up the benchmark suite, the characteristics and relationships among the functions must be known. This paper characterises the landscapes of two commonly used benchmark suites, and uses these landscape characteristics to obtain a high level view of the current state of benchmark functions. This is done by using a self-organising feature map to cluster and analyse functions based on landscape characteristics. It is found that while there are numerous functions that cover a wide range of characteristics, there are characteristics that are under represented, or not even covered at all. Furthermore, it is discovered that common benchmark suites are composed of functions which are highly similar according to the measured characteristics.