Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ranibizumab Versus Mitomycin C in Primary Trabeculectomy – A Pilot Study

ABSTRACT Purpose: The current standard adjunctive agent used in primary trabeculectomy is mitomycin C (MMC), but it is associated with well known complications. The objective of this study is to test the feasibility of the anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) agent ranibizumab for adjunctive use instead of MMC (0.4 mg/ml). Materials and methods: A prospective, randomized open label study of 24 consecutive patients undergoing primary trabeculectomy at the Wills Eye Institute Glaucoma Service from March 2008 through February 2010 was conducted. Twenty-four eyes were included in the study and clinical outcomes were examined. Results: There were no significant differences in baseline demographic or clinical characteristics between the ranibizumab and MMC groups. Nine of the 12 ranibizumab patients completed the 1 year study. Three subjects required tube shunt surgery and were removed from the study. Eleven of 12 MMC patients completed the study (one underwent hip surgery and was lost to follow-up). Mean intra-ocular pressure (IOP) was significantly higher in the ranibizumab arm at 1 month (p = 0.002). Bleb extent was significantly less in the ranibizumab arm at 6 months (p = 0.006). Patients in the ranibizumab arm required more hypotensive medication at month 3 (p = 0.011). Conclusions: Although there was no IOP difference or difference in medication use between the two treatment groups at one year, more patients in the ranibizumab group required additional glaucoma surgery during the study period.
A Mutual Information–Based Experimental Design Framework to Use High-Fidelity Nuclear Reactor Codes to Calibrate Low-Fidelity Codes

Abstract Simulation-based nuclear reactor design requires highly efficient codes that quantify the requisite physics while having the efficiency required for optimization-based design and uncertainty quantification. To achieve the required accuracy and predictive capabilities, phenomenological parameters, often employed in closure relations or to quantify unmodeled or unresolved physics, must be calibrated for considered reactor conditions and designs. When available, experimental data with quantified observation errors are ideally employed for calibration. However, for many thermal-hydraulic, fuel, and Chalk River Unidentified Deposits modeling regimes, experimental data are prohibitively expensive or impossible to collect. For such cases, we demonstrate the use of a mutual information–based experimental design framework to employ validated high-fidelity codes to calibrate parameters in low-fidelity design codes. We demonstrate the use of the high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics package STAR-CCM+ to calibrate the turbulent mixing coefficient β in COBRA-TF (CTF). This includes the construction and verification of a surrogate for CTF, which permits the computationally intensive experimental design and Bayesian calibration steps. We also demonstrate Bayesian inference of parameter distributions for the Dittus-Boelter relation and propagation of these uncertainties through CTF to improve uncertainty bounds for computed maximum fuel temperatures.
HED: A Computational Model of Affective Adaptation and Emotion Dynamics

Affective adaptation is the process of weakening of the affective response of a constant or repeated affective stimulus by psychological processes. A modified exponentially weighted average computational model of affective adaptation, which predicts its time course and the resulting affective dynamics, is presented. In addition to capturing the primary features of affective adaptation, it is shown that the model is consistent with several previously reported characteristics of affective dynamics. For instance, the model shows that elicited emotion is determined by the position, displacement, velocity, and acceleration of the stimulus. It also demonstrates that affective after-reaction correlates positively with stimulus intensity and duration and that the duration-of-current-ownership, duration-of-prior-ownership, and time-elapsed-since-loss effects can be explained by it. The model exhibits the region-β paradox that refers to the observation that stronger emotions sometimes abate faster than the weaker ones. The model also predicts that the proposed mechanisms underlying the paradox may have other effects on affective dynamics as well. Besides offering an explanation for the contradicting reports on emotion intensity-duration relationship, it is also proposed that adaptation processes activate quickly but deactivate slowly. Potential applications in affective computing as well as some new lines of empirical research are discussed.
The Relationship between Legibility, Age, and Gender: Exploring Free-Form Handwriting

This paper examines the potential relationship between free-form handwriting (i.e., unstructured ways of writing words, phrases, or sentences by hand) and two sociolinguistic variables: the writer’s (1) age and (2) gender. While the accuracy of “gender guessing” or gender identification (e.g., Grieve, 2010; Al-Suwaiyan, 2010; Johnson, 2013) has been the focus in previous studies, this exploratory study looks at the potential correlation between numerically scaled legibility of handwritten samples and the observers’ identification of the writer’s gender and age based on survey data. This type of survey relates to studies of perceptions and attitudes, linguistic markers and identifications, and interlinguistic variation. Clearly, individuals may form judgments and prejudices based on factors such as accents, racial backgrounds, and sociocultural orientations, but interpretations and judgments of writing samples (especially based on legibility) have not been sufficiently analyzed. Conveniently sampled participants were given an informal survey in which they were asked to rate several handwriting samples for legibility and the age and gender of writer. All of the handwritten samples were sentence length and devoid of context. To identify if some patterns of responses were only related to English, two of the samples were written in Korean. In line with previous studies, a majority of participants correctly identified the gender (and age) of the samples with high percentages for English. The Korean samples, while still relatively accurate, were less precise, when compared with the English samples. Results of this study followed the expected trend with less legibly scaled samples having a higher percentage of being male LEGIBILITY AND GENDER 3 gendered and higher legibly scaled samples having an increased percentage of being female gendered. Implications related to sociolinguistic perceptions, potential future research, and the importance of awareness of stereotypes will be discussed during the presentation. LEGIBILITY AND GENDER 4
SPECTROSCOPIC AND MICROSCOPIC CHARACTERISTICS OF HUMAN SKIN AUTOFLUORESCENCE EMISSION

To improve the understanding of human skin autofluorescence emission, the spectroscopic and microscopic characteristics of skin autofluorescence were studied using a combined fluorescence and reflectance spectroanalyzer and a fiber optic microspectrophotometer. The autofluorescence spectra of in vivo human skin were measured over a wide excitation wavelength range (350–470 nm). The excitation–emission matrices of in vivo skin were obtained. An excitation–emission maximum pair (380 nm, 470 nm) was identified. It was revealed that the most probable energy of skin autofluorescence emission photons increases monotonically and near linearly with increasing excitation photon energy. It was demonstrated that the diffuse reflectance, R, can be used as a first order approximation of the fluorescence distortion factor f to correct the measured in vivo autofluorescence spectra for the effect of tissue reabsorption and scattering. The microscopic in vitro autofluorescence properties of excised skin tissue sections were examined using 442 nm He–Cd laser light excitation as an example. It was demonstrated that the fluorophore distribution inside the skin tissue is not uniform and the shapes of the autofluorescence spectra of different anatomical skin layers vary. The result of this study confirms that the major skin fluorophores are located in the dermis and provides an excellent foundation for Monte Carlo modeling of in vivo autofluorescence measurements.
Bimorph hybrid fluid diaphragm device for vibration energy harvesting

A low resonant frequency piezoelectric energy harvesting using a hybrid fluid diaphragm (HFD) is presented. This paper describes the design, fabrication and characterization of such a device for harvesting energy from vibrations. The PHFD consists in an incompressible fluid confined between two thin piezoelectric membranes. The output voltage and power of the P(VDF-TrFE) HFD are studied based on experimental and simulation results. This device resonates at 164 Hz for low acceleration (10 m/s2). The simulations showed the power production of about 6 μW with a power density of 78.98 μW/cm3 of electroactive material volume.
A computational framework for simulating and analyzing human and animal movement

Computer simulations provide a framework for exploring the biomechanics of movement. The authors have developed a software system that lets users create computer graphics simulations of human and animal movement. This software provides a platform on which the biomechanics community can build a library of simulations that can be exchanged, tested and improved through multi-institutional collaboration.
Advances in Clouds Expert Group Report Public Version 1.0 Editors Research in Future Cloud Computing Advances in Clouds Report from the Cloud Computing Expert Working Group Executive Summary Major Findings since the Last Report

“The Future of CLOUD Computing” report January 2011 characterised CLOUD computing and identified opportunities for Europe based on R&D topics. Since then the ‘hype’ surrounding CLOUDs has continued and according to Gartner’s hype-cycle analysis the technology is sliding into the trough of disillusionment. However, there are more offerings, more in-house development of CLOUDs and more experience in how best to use the technology. Developments have closed some gaps identified in January 2011 but more gaps have opened. This report considers the current, fast-moving, situation and identifies research topics which – if supported – could provide Europe with the know-how to be world-leading in CLOUD Computing.
SURVEILLANCE FOR BATRACHOCHYTRIUM DENDROBATIDIS USING MIXOPHYES (ANURA: MYOBATRACHIDAE) LARVAE

Fourteen populations of anuran larvae (tadpoles), including three populations of the endangered Fleay's Barred Frog (Mixophyes fleayi) and 11 populations of the common Great Barred Frog (Mixophyes fasciolatus), in creek sites in the southeast region of Queensland were selected. Site selection was based on a history (within the district) of adult frog population declines and/or disappearances or records of infection of adult frogs or larvae by Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. Larvae were collected once from each creek site between October 2002 and October 2004, and were between Gosner developmental stages 25 and 40. Total body length ranged from 18 mm to 100 mm. Mouthparts were examined under a dissecting microscope for grossly visible abnormalities, and then examined for histologic evidence of B. dendrobatidis. The most consistent mouthpart abnormalities found were multifocal depigmentation of the jaw sheaths and loss or shortening of the tooth rows. At the individual larva level, presence of mouthpart abnormalities was strongly associated with histologic diagnosis of B. dendrobatidis (93%). At least one larva with abnormal mouthparts was detected at 12 of the 14 sites and histologic evidence of B. dendrobatidis was detected at 13 of the 14 sites. These findings suggest that larvae of Mixophyes species are suitable for surveillance for B. dendrobatidis. We conclude that surveillance of B. dendrobatidis where individual larva prevalences of mouthpart abnormalities and histologic evidence of B. dendrobatidis are as high as those observed in this study (66% and 78%, respectively), relatively small numbers of larvae are required to detect these infections. Medium to large larvae (body length >30 mm) were much more likely to be affected than small larvae (body length ≤ 30 mm), suggesting that larger individuals should be targeted for surveillance.
NetVisia: Heat Map & Matrix Visualization of Dynamic Social Network Statistics & Content

Visualizations of static networks in the form of node-link diagrams have evolved rapidly, though researchers are still grappling with how best to show evolution of nodes over time in these diagrams. This paper introduces NetVisia, a social network visualization system designed to support users in exploring temporal evolution in networks by using heat maps to display node attribute changes over time. NetVisia's novel contributions to network visualizations are to (1) cluster nodes in the heat map by similar metric values instead of by topological similarity, and (2) align nodes in the heat map by events. We compare NetVisia to existing systems and describe a formative user evaluation of a NetVisia prototype with four participants that emphasized the need for tool tips and coordinated views. Despite the presence of some usability issues, in 30-40 minutes the user evaluation participants discovered new insights about the data set which had not been discovered using other systems. We discuss implemented improvements to NetVisia, and analyze a co-occurrence network of 228 business intelligence concepts and entities. This analysis confirms the utility of a clustered heat map to discover outlier nodes and time periods.
AN ELECTRON MICROSCOPE STUDY OF MATURE AND DIFFERENTIATING PANETH CELLS IN THE RAT, ESPECIALLY OF THEIR ENDOPLASMIC RETICULUM AND LYSOSOMES

In an electron microsope study, the morphology of mature Paneth cells from the small intestine of adult rats is compared with that of differentiating Paneth cells from young rats 2 to 4 weeks old. All mature cells exhibit a marked polarity similar to that of other exocrine gland cells and contain a well developed endoplasmic reticulum, an elaborate Golgi complex, and numerous large secretory granules; they also possess an abundance of lysosomes. The most conspicuous occurrence in the process of differentiation is the development of the endoplasmic reticulum. The most immature Paneth cells possess an endoplasmic reticulum of the vesicular type, which, during maturation, is replaced by the characteristic lamellated ergastoplasm of the mature cell. At a certain stage of differentiation the cavities of the developing cisternae show numerous communications with the perinuclear space, suggesting an outgrowth of the ergastoplasm from the nuclear envelope. Furthermore, the cavities and the perinuclear space at this particular stage contain a material which shows a remarkable intrinsic periodicity. An identical periodicity was exhibited by material contained in Golgi cisternae and secretory granules. Lysosomes are also present in the differentiating cells.
Sorghum Genome Sequencing by Methylation Filtration

Sorghum bicolor is a close relative of maize and is a staple crop in Africa and much of the developing world because of its superior tolerance of arid growth conditions. We have generated sequence from the hypomethylated portion of the sorghum genome by applying methylation filtration (MF) technology. The evidence suggests that 96% of the genes have been sequence tagged, with an average coverage of 65% across their length. Remarkably, this level of gene discovery was accomplished after generating a raw coverage of less than 300 megabases of the 735-megabase genome. MF preferentially captures exons and introns, promoters, microRNAs, and simple sequence repeats, and minimizes interspersed repeats, thus providing a robust view of the functional parts of the genome. The sorghum MF sequence set is beneficial to research on sorghum and is also a powerful resource for comparative genomics among the grasses and across the entire plant kingdom. Thousands of hypothetical gene predictions in rice and Arabidopsis are supported by the sorghum dataset, and genomic similarities highlight evolutionarily conserved regions that will lead to a better understanding of rice and Arabidopsis.
A Stability Criterion for Systems with NeutrallyStable Modes

Stability analysis is considered for feedback interconnections of dead-zone nonlinearities with linear systems that has a neutrally stable mode. Such systems do not have a unique equilibrium point and the standard techniques from passivity and Lyapunov theory cannot be applied. A stability criterion that generalizes the Popov criterion for this class of systems is derived in this report and several examples will prove its applicability.
Matching Recall and Storage in Sequence Learning with Spiking Neural Networks

Storing and recalling spiking sequences is a general problem the brain needs to solve. It is, however, unclear what type of biologically plausible learning rule is suited to learn a wide class of spatiotemporal activity patterns in a robust way. Here we consider a recurrent network of stochastic spiking neurons composed of both visible and hidden neurons. We derive a generic learning rule that is matched to the neural dynamics by minimizing an upper bound on the Kullback–Leibler divergence from the target distribution to the model distribution. The derived learning rule is consistent with spike-timing dependent plasticity in that a presynaptic spike preceding a postsynaptic spike elicits potentiation while otherwise depression emerges. Furthermore, the learning rule for synapses that target visible neurons can be matched to the recently proposed voltage-triplet rule. The learning rule for synapses that target hidden neurons is modulated by a global factor, which shares properties with astrocytes and gives rise to testable predictions.
Impression management – How much does this serious confounder influence in interviews/examinations?

Any form of social interactions in health-care settings, particularly those involving objective assessment of multiple candidates in a short span of time, is seldom free from heuristics. Apart from interviews for recruitment and promotion purposes, assessment methods in the era of competency-based education rely upon direct observation of learners and ultimately result in inter-examiner variability in the judgment of learner’s performance. [1] In this context, the concept of impression management gains importance, whereby assessee makes a deliberate attempt to keep their best foot forward by demonstrating verbal or nonverbal cues in an attempt to control the impressions formed by others about the assessee. [2] From our practical experience, we could perceive that self-promoted utterances are beneficial in creating images of competence because the interviewer/ examiner does not have prior experience or knowledge of the candidate other than what is presented during the interview. [2]
The Dilemma of Teacher Training

In 1957 the Soviet Union put up the first earth satellite, Sputnik I. For education in the United States this was a traumatic event. Until that time many (but not all) people, including the popular press, commonly denounced Soviet science as ineffective. The fact that it achieved this major technological development, visible in many parts of the country, before we did led to much trauma about the quality of science education in the United States.
Learning Text-Line Segmentation Using Codebooks and Graph Partitioning

In this paper, we present a codebook based method for handwritten text-line segmentation which uses image-patches in the training data to learn a graph-based similarity for clustering. We first construct a codebook of image-patches using K-medoids, and obtain exemplars which encode local evidence. We then obtain the corresponding codewords for all patches extracted from a given image and construct a similarity graph using the learned evidence and partitioned to obtain text-lines. Our learning based approach performs well on a field dataset containing degraded and un-constrained handwritten Arabic document images. Results on ICDAR 2009 segmentation contest dataset show that the method is competitive with previous approaches.
Immunobiology of dendritic cells in the rat

Summary: Dendritic cells (DC) are crucial orchestrators of the adaptive immune response. They are highly effective antigen samplers and have a unique ability amongst antigen presenting cells to activate naïve T lymphocytes and subsequently direct the quality of the immune response. Understanding how DC initiate and regulate immune responses requires in‐depth knowledge of DC function at cellular and molecular levels. Research on the biology of DC has predominantly used in vitro‐generated and ex vivo‐isolated DC from mice and humans. It is, however, often difficult to relate such DC to those that actually exist in vivo. The model we have developed in the rat permits analysis of DC in a near‐physiological setting, and provides a description of DC biology that other systems must take into account. In this review we focus on our own research on DC in the gastro‐intestinal tract, covering a variety of concepts in DC biology, and relate our findings to the work of others, to provide an overall picture of what is known regarding the nature of this complex cell type in the rat.
Concepts in Immunology and Diagnosis of Hydatid Disease

SUMMARY Echinococcosis is a cosmopolitan zoonosis caused by adult or larval stages of cestodes belonging to the genus Echinococcus (family Taeniidae). The two major species of medical and public health importance are Echinococcus granulosus and E. multilocularis, which cause cystic echinococcosis (CE) and alveolar echinococcosis (AE), respectively. Both CE and AE are both serious diseases, the latter especially so, with a high fatality rate and poor prognosis if managed inappropriately. This review discusses new concepts and approaches in the immunology and diagnosis of CE, but comparative reference has also been made to AE infection and to earlier pivotal studies of both diseases. The review considers immunity to infection in the intermediate and definitive hosts, innate resistance, evasion of the immune system, and vaccination of intermediate and definitive hosts, and it particularly emphasizes procedures for diagnosis of CE and AE, including the value of immunodiagnostic approaches. There is also discussion of the new advances in recombinant and related DNA technologies, especially application of PCR, that are providing powerful tools in the fields of vaccinology and molecular diagnosis of echinococcosis.