Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Vision Therapy for Binocular Dysfunction Post Brain Injury.

PURPOSE To prospectively evaluate the effectiveness of home-based computer vergence therapy for the treatment of binocular vision disorders in adults at least 3 months after an acquired brain injury. METHODS Eligibility criteria included presence of binocular dysfunction characterized by receded near point of convergence (≥6 cm break), insufficient positive fusional vergence at near (failing Sheard's criterion or <15△ blur or break), insufficient negative fusional vergence at near (<12△ blur or break), and/or reduced vergence facility at near (<15 cycles per minute with 12△BO/3△BI). Participants were prescribed 12 weeks of home-based computer vergence therapy. Phoria (cover test), negative fusional vergence, positive fusional vergence, near point of convergence, vergence facility, and symptoms (convergence insufficiency symptom survey [CISS]) were assessed at baseline and after 4, 8, and 12 weeks of prescribed therapy. ANOVA was used to evaluate change in each measure. Percentage successful was also determined. RESULTS Nineteen participants were enrolled (mean age 45.4 ± 12.9 years); six participants were lost to follow-up. Baseline findings were orthophoria at distance, 7.2△ exophoria at near, near point of convergence break = 17.5 cm, near point of convergence recovery = 21.8 cm, negative fusional vergence = 12.3△, positive fusional vergence blur = 8.4△, vergence facility = 3.9 cycles per minute, and CISS = 32.1. ANOVA showed a statistically significant improvement for near point of convergence break (p = 0.002) and recovery (p < 0.001), positive fusional vergence blur (p < 0.0001), break (p < 0.0001), and recovery (p < 0.0001), negative fusional vergence blur (p = 0.037), break (p = 0.003), and recovery (p = 0.006), vergence facility (p < 0.0001), and CISS (p = 0.0001). The percentage of patients who were classified as "successful" or "improved" was 69% for near point of convergence (<6 cm or decrease of ≥4 cm), 77% for positive fusional vergence (>15△ and passing Sheard's criterion or increase of ≥10△), 77% for negative fusional vergence (≥12△ or increase of ≥6△), 62% for positive fusional vergence and near point of convergence composite, and 92% for vergence facility (15 cycles per minute or increase of 3 cycles per minute). CONCLUSIONS The majority of participants who completed the study experienced meaningful improvements in signs and symptoms.
TeV Strings and Ultrahigh-Energy Cosmic Rays

The origin and nature of ultrahigh-energy cosmic ray events, above the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin (GZK) cutoff energy, constitute a long-standing, unsolved mistery. Neutrinos are proposed candidates but their standard interactions with matter are too weak. In the context of a TeV-scale string theory, motivated by possible extra space dimensions, the neutrino-nucleon scattering is examined. Resonant string contributions increase substantially the standard model neutrino-nucleon cross section. Although they seem insufficient to explain the trans-GZK cosmic ray events, their effects might be detected in next experiments.
Optimal rate allocation for wireless multicast systems employing hybrid-ARQ with Chase combining

The throughput of conventional wireless multicast systems is limited by the multicast user with the lowest channel quality, which leads to a very low throughput especially if the number of users is large. In this paper, we show that hybrid-automatic repeat request with Chase combining (HARQ-CC) is a promising technique to overcome this problem and optimize the transmission rate of wireless multicast systems with HARQ-CC. We analyze the throughput of wireless multicast systems with HARQ-CC and derive a closed-form approximation for the optimal rate. To further improve performance, we propose a dynamic rate allocation scheme which combines the advantages of conventional multicast and HARQ-aided multicast.
Platelet size has diagnostic predictive value for bone marrow metastasis in patients with solid tumors

Though not very common, solid tumor involvement of the bone marrow (BM) may have serious consequences. Recent studies have shown that mean platelet volume (MPV) is a good indicator for BM disease in the differential diagnosis of thrombocytopenia. We investigated the significance of MPV in the diagnosis of BM metastasis in patients with solid tumors. Patients with histologically‐verified solid tumors for whom BM biopsy specimens were available (n = 121) and healthy controls (n = 62) were included in this retrospective study. A total of 183 individuals were analyzed. Of the patients, 61 had a diagnosis of BM metastasis (Group A), 60 did not have BM metastasis (Group B). Group B and C (healthy controls) constituted the control group without BM metastasis (n = 122). The mean MPV was 7.0 ± 0.8 fl in patients with BM metastasis and 8.4 fl in the control group (P < 0.001). A cut‐off point of <7.4 fl was found to have significant predictive value according to receiver‐operating characteristics curve analysis. This cut‐off point had 85% positive predictive value and 90% negative predictive value in the diagnosis of BM metastasis (odds ratio: 53; 95% confidence interval: 20–135), and a sensitivity of 82.7% and specificity of 89.6%. MPV can be used as a reliable marker to guide the clinician as to the likely presence or absence of BM metastasis in patients with solid tumors.
Is Questionnaire-Based Screening Part of the Solution to Waiting Lists for Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder?

This study was undertaken to determine whether questionnaire-based screening could be part of the solution to a long waiting list of referrals for occupational therapy assessment by identifying the requirement for clinical assessments. The performance of two questionnaires – the Developmental Coordination Disorder Questionnaire (DCDQ) completed by parents and the Checklist of the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (C-ABC) completed by teachers – was compared with a more traditional clinical assessment for the identification of DCD in children already referred to occupational therapy. It was found that the parent report was quite reliable in the identification of DCD if no other developmental problem was present. However, there was little benefit to using the teacher report to screen children. Several confounding variables, including an unequal proportion of children with DCD in the sample and the inclusion of children who were younger than the age range of the DCDQ, may have influenced how well the questionnaires performed. Although questionnaires cannot replace a full clinical assessment, the results showed that there may be some value in including the parent report in the identification of DCD.
Comparative in vitro and in vivo activities of piperacillin combined with the beta-lactamase inhibitors tazobactam, clavulanic acid, and sulbactam

Tazobactam (YTR-830H), a novel beta-lactamase inhibitor, was compared with clavulanic acid and sulbactam for enhancement of the activity of piperacillin against beta-lactamase-producing, piperacillin-resistant clinical isolates. Piperacillin MICs were determined in media containing a fixed concentration of 2 or 4 micrograms of the inhibitors per ml. The higher concentration was generally more effective. Tazobactam was superior to sulbactam in enhancing the spectrum and potency of piperacillin. Although the calvulanic acid combination was more potent, tazobactam was effective for a similar spectrum of resistant gram-negative clinical isolates containing beta-lactamase. MICs were reduced to the susceptible range for Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Proteus spp. , Salmonella spp. , and Shigella spp. Combinations with tazobactam and sulbactam, but not clavulanic acid, were effective against Morganella spp. Some antagonism of the activity of piperacillin was observed with clavulanic acid but not with tazobactam or sulbactam. The inhibitors were similarly effective with piperacillin against beta-lactamase-positive Staphylococcus spp. and the Bacteroides fragilis group. Piperacillin-tazobactam was more effective against a broader spectrum of gram-negative enteric bacteria than ticarcillin plus clavulanic acid was. Combinations with tazobactam or clavulanic acid had a broader spectrum of activity than combinations with sulbactam against bacteria that produce characterized plasmid-mediated enzymes of clinical significance. In particular, piperacillin with tazobactam or clavulanic acid, but not with sulbactam, inhibited TEM-1, TEM-2, and SHV-1 enzymes. In vitro activity was reflected in vivo. Tazobactam and clavulanic acid were superior to sulbactam in enhancing the therapeutic efficacy of piperacillin in mice infected with beta-lactamase-positive E. coli, K. pneumoniae, Proteus mirabilis, and Staphylococcus aureus. Only combinations with tazobactam and sulbactam were effective against the Morganella infection. Tazobactam has a good potential for enhancing the clinical efficacy of piperacillin.
Creating to understand – developmental biology meets engineering in Paris

In November 2016, developmental biologists, synthetic biologists and engineers gathered in Paris for a meeting called ‘Engineering the embryo’. The participants shared an interest in exploring how synthetic systems can reveal new principles of embryonic development, and how the in vitro manipulation and modeling of development using stem cells can be used to integrate ideas and expertise from physics, developmental biology and tissue engineering. As we review here, the conference pinpointed some of the challenges arising at the intersection of these fields, along with great enthusiasm for finding new approaches and collaborations. Summary: This Meeting Review summarises the recent ‘Engineering the embryo’ meeting, at which participants explored how synthetic systems can be used to understand principles of embryonic development.
A synchronization based algorithm for discovering ellipsoidal clusters in large datasets

This paper introduces a new scalable approach to clustering based on the synchronization of pulse-coupled oscillators. Each data point is represented by an integrate-and-fire oscillator and the interaction between oscillators is defined according to the relative similarity between the points. The set of oscillators self-organizes into stable phase-locked subgroups. Our approach proceeds by loading only a subset of the data and allowing it to self-organize. Groups of synchronized oscillators are then summarized and purged from memory. We show that our method is robust, scales linearly and can determine the number of clusters. The proposed approach is empirically evaluated with several synthetic data sets and is used to segment large color images.
CTL model checking for processing simple XPath queries

The eXtensible Markup Language (XML) was designed to describe the content of a document and its hierarchical structure, and the XML Path language (XPath) is a language for selecting elements from XML documents. There is a close connection between the query processing problem for XPath and the model checking problem for temporal logics. Both boil down to checking which nodes of a graph satisfy a property. We investigate the potential of a technique based on computation tree logic (CTL) model checking for evaluating queries expressed in (a subset of) XPath. To this aim, we isolate a simple fragment of XPath that is naturally embeddable into CTL. We report on experiments based on the model checker NuSMV, and compare our results with alternative academic XPath processors. We comment on the advantages and drawbacks of the application of our model checking-based approach to XPath processing.
Intracellular Fibroblast Growth Factor 14: Emerging Risk Factor for Brain Disorders

The finely tuned regulation of neuronal firing relies on the integrity of ion channel macromolecular complexes. Minimal disturbances of these tightly regulated networks can lead to persistent maladaptive plasticity of brain circuitry. The intracellular fibroblast growth factor 14 (FGF14) belongs to the nexus of proteins interacting with voltage-gated Na+ (Nav) channels at the axonal initial segment. Through isoform-specific interactions with the intracellular C-terminal tail of neuronal Nav channels (Nav1.1, Nav1.2, Nav1.6), FGF14 controls channel gating, axonal targeting and phosphorylation in neurons effecting excitability. FGF14 has been also involved in synaptic transmission, plasticity and neurogenesis in the cortico-mesolimbic circuit with cognitive and affective behavioral outcomes. In translational studies, interest in FGF14 continues to rise with a growing list of associative links to diseases of the cognitive and affective domains such as neurodegeneration, depression, anxiety, addictive behaviors and recently schizophrenia, suggesting its role as a converging node in the etiology of complex brain disorders. Yet, a full understanding of FGF14 function in neurons is far from being complete and likely to involve other functions unrelated to the direct regulation of Nav channels. The goal of this Mini Review article is to provide a summary of studies on the emerging role of FGF14 in complex brain disorders.
Role-Based Access Control : A Simplified Specification

This paper describes a simplified and corrected specification of role-based access control (RBAC) based on the specification in the ANSI standard for RBAC. The simplifications and corrections were made while following a systematic method for deriving efficient implementations from straightforward implementations of clear specifications. The method allows specifications to be written clearly without efficiency concerns. We give a complete specification of core RBAC, illustrating the principles we used in developing it; we give a complete specification of hierarchical RBAC, with an additional option for managing the relationship on roles; we describe a specification of constrained RBAC, making extension relationships among RBAC components clear. We then describe principles for developing clear and simpler specifications more extensively, explain the simplifications and corrections we made in comparison with the standard, and summarize our method and results for generating efficient implementations.
Discontinuity Meshing and Hierarchical MultiWavelet Radiosity

In this paper we propose an extension to the work of Lischinski et al [1] on combining hierarchical radiosity method and discontinuity meshing. The extension proposed here supports higher order radiosity function at the es timation s tep itself. We have carried out this extension using M ultiWavelet basis function s. Unlike th e multi-wavelet radiosity work of Gortler et al [2] which uses reg ular quad-tree subdivision , we carry out the subdivision along the discontinuity boundary. In other words , inst ead of deriving the fin er basis functions by uniform parametric dilations of a mother basis function , we derive the finer basis by mapping the mother basis to arbitrary subdomains created during the subdivision along th e discontinuity boundary. To carry out push and pull operations, which are crucial to the hierarchical algorithm, we compute the necessary filter functions. Our method combines th e advantages of wavelet radiosity and discontinuity meshing . The preliminary result shows signifi cant computational improvement.
Nuclear Factor-κB-Mediated Transforming Growth Factor-β-Induced Expression of Vimentin Is an Independent Predictor of Biochemical Recurrence after Radical Prostatectomy

Purpose: Transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β)-mediated epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) has been shown to occur in some cancers; however, the pathway remains controversial and varies with different cancers. In addition, the mechanisms by which TGF-β and the EMT contribute to prostate cancer recurrence are largely unknown. In this study, we elucidated TGF-β-mediated EMT as a predictor of disease recurrence after therapy for prostate cancer, which has not been reported before. Experimental Design: We analyzed TGF-β-induced EMT using nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) as an intermediate mediator in prostate cancer cell lines. A total of 287 radical prostatectomy specimens were evaluated using immunohistochemistry in a high-throughput tissue microarray analysis. Levels of TGF-β signaling components and EMT-related factors were analyzed using specific antibodies. Results were expressed as the percentage of cancer cells that stained positive for a given antibody and were correlated with disease recurrence rates at a mean of 7 years following radical prostatectomy. Results: In prostate cancer cell lines, TGF-β-induced EMT was mediated by NF-κB signaling. Blockade of NF-κB or TGF-β signaling resulted in abrogation of vimentin expression and inhibition of the invasive capability of these cells. There was high risk of biochemical recurrence associated with tumors that displayed high levels of expression of TGF-β1, vimentin, and NF-κB and low level of cytokeratin 18. This was particularly true for vimentin, which is independent of patients' Gleason score. Conclusions: The detection of NF-κB-mediated TGF-β-induced EMT in primary tumors predicts disease recurrence in prostate cancer patients following radical prostatectomy. The changes in TGF-β signaling and EMT-related factors provide novel molecular markers that may predict prostate cancer outcomes following treatment.
Anatomical variation of the origin of the left vertebral artery from the arch of aorta - a case report

We present a case report whereby a variation in the origin of the left vertebral artery was seen, arising directly from the arch of aorta proximal to the origin of left subclavian artery. The diameter of this artery was less than that of its counterpart on the right which showed no variation in its origin. Accurate knowledge of the normal and variant arterial anatomy of the vertebral artery is important for vascular radiology and will provide an anatomical basis to assist surgeons in performing safe vascular surgery involving the arch of aorta and its branches. The relative literature, its potential embryologic development will be discussed in detail. © Int J Anat Var (IJAV). 2014; 7: 96–99.
Effect of angiotensin II and bradykinin inhibition in rat reduced‐size liver transplantation

This study examined whether angiotensin II (Ang II) blockers [Ang II type I receptor antagonist, Ang II type II receptor antagonist, and angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor] could reduce hepatic injury and improve regeneration in reduced‐size orthotopic liver transplantation (ROLT) and whether the beneficial effects of ischemic preconditioning (PC) in ROLT could be explained by changes in Ang II. We show that small liver grafts generated Ang II after ROLT and that this was associated with increased angiotensinogen and ACE messenger RNA expression. Furthermore, inhibition of Ang II did not contribute to PC‐induced protection in ROLT. All Ang II blockers reduced hepatic injury, but none of them promoted liver regeneration. Bradykinin (BK) receptor antagonist improved liver regeneration but did not reduce hepatic injury in ROLT. Finally, the combination of Ang II blockers and BK receptor antagonists in ROLT reduced hepatic injury and improved liver regeneration. In conclusion, treatments with either Ang II blockers or BK receptor antagonists cannot, on their own, improve the outcome of ROLT. Although Ang II blockers can reduce hepatic ischemia‐reperfusion injury and BK receptor antagonists can promote liver regeneration, neither confers both benefits at the same time. Consequently, it may be of clinical interest to apply both treatments simultaneously. Liver Transpl 15:313–320, 2009. © 2009 AASLD.
Cognitive functioning in schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder and affective psychoses: meta-analytic study

Background Cognitive functioning in affective psychosis and schizoaffective disorder is much less studied compared with schizophrenia. Aims To quantitatively undertake a meta-analysis of the available data that directly compares cognitive functioning across schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder and affective psychosis. Method Following a thorough literature review, 31 studies that compared the performances of people with schizophrenia (1979 participants) with that of those with affective psychosis or schizoaffective disorder (1314 participants) were included. To determine the effect of demographic and clinical confounders, meta-regression and subgroup analyses were conducted. Results In 6 of 12 cognitive domains, people with schizophrenia performed worse than people with schizoaffective disorder or affective psychosis. However, the between-group differences were small and the distribution of effect sizes showed substantial heterogeneity. The between-group differences were driven by a higher percentage of males, more severe negative symptoms and younger age at onset of illness in the schizophrenia samples. Conclusions Neuropsychological data do not provide evidence for categorical differences between schizophrenia and other groups. However, a subgroup of individuals with schizophrenia who have more severe negative symptoms may be cognitively more impaired than those with affective psychosis/schizoaffective disorder.
Equilibrium of Heterogeneous Congestion Control: Optimality and Stability

When heterogeneous congestion control protocols that react to different pricing signals share the same network, the current theory based on utility maximization fails to predict the network behavior. The pricing signals can be different types of signals such as packet loss, queueing delay, etc, or different values of the same type of signal such as different ECN marking values based on the same actual link congestion level. Unlike in a homogeneous network, the bandwidth allocation now depends on router parameters and flow arrival patterns. It can be non-unique, suboptimal and unstable. In Tang et al. (“Equilibrium of heterogeneous congestion control: Existence and uniqueness,” IEEE/ACM Trans. Netw., vol. 15, no. 4, pp. 824-837, Aug. 2007), existence and uniqueness of equilibrium of heterogeneous protocols are investigated. This paper extends the study with two objectives: analyzing the optimality and stability of such networks and designing control schemes to improve those properties. First, we demonstrate the intricate behavior of a heterogeneous network through simulations and present a framework to help understand its equilibrium properties. Second, we propose a simple source-based algorithm to decouple bandwidth allocation from router parameters and flow arrival patterns by only updating a linear parameter in the sources' algorithms on a slow timescale. It steers a network to the unique optimal equilibrium. The scheme can be deployed incrementally as the existing protocol needs no change and only new protocols need to adopt the slow timescale adaptation.