Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of Advanced Maternal Age on Pregnancy Outcomes and Vascular Function in the Rat

Advanced maternal age is becoming increasingly common in Western societies and is associated with increased maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality. We hypothesized that aging results in impaired vascular function in pregnancy because of increased vascular oxidative stress and resultant scavenging of nitric oxide in both uterine and systemic arteries, causing reduced uteroplacental perfusion and poor pregnancy outcomes. Using aged rats (9.5 months), we investigated the effect of a delayed first natural pregnancy on pregnancy outcomes and uterine and mesenteric artery function on gestational day 20. Delayed pregnancy in the rat reduced fertility by 46%, reduced litter size by 36%, caused fetal growth restriction, increased placental weight, and increased maternal systolic blood pressure (by 16 mm Hg). Uterine arteries from aged dams displayed reduced constriction to phenylephrine (young: 14.3±0.94 mN/mm versus aged: 11.4±0.5 mN/mm, P=0.02) and potassium chloride (124 mmol/L; young: 21.8±1.27 mN/mm versus aged: 14.2±1.7 mN/mm; P=0.01). Methacholine-induced vasodilation was similar in uterine arteries from young and aged dams. However, mesenteric arteries from aged dams had a greater nitric oxide and a reduced endothelial-derived hyperpolarization contribution to methacholine-mediated vasodilation compared with young dams. Both uterine and mesenteric arteries from aged dams had greater active myogenic responses, with area under the curve increased by 228% and 151%, in aged uterine and mesenteric arteries, respectively. These results demonstrate that vascular function is altered at an advanced maternal age and provides further insights into the risks of poor pregnancy outcomes observed in women who delay pregnancy.
Light-Weight Laser-Aided Position Verification for CASCADE

In this paper, we present a light-weight position verification technique for VANETs. Our technique supplements the received signal strength (RSSI) technique with a laser rang efinder to reduce the inaccuracy incurred in the RSSI. We used our new position verification technique to tighten the security in CASCADE (Cluster-based Accurate Syntactic Compression of Aggregated Data in VANETs) data aggregation technique. The proposed technique can detect any malicious vehicle sendin g false position information in less than 30 seconds and detects the GPS equipment malfunction in less than one minute with very few f alse positives, even under a low penetration rate. The incurred o verhead due to using the position verification technique with CASCADE has been shown to be negligible.
Formulations and hardness of multiple sorting by reversals

We consider two generalizations of signed Sorting Bg Reversals (SBR), both aimed at formalizing the problem of reconstructing the evolutionary history of a set of species. In particular, we address Multiple SBR, calling for a signed permutation at minimum reversal distance from a given set of signed permutations, and Dee SBR, calling for a tree with the minimum number of edges spanning a given set of nodes in the complete graph where each node corresponds to a signed permutation and there is an edge between each pair of signed permutations one reversal away from each other. We describe a graph-theoretic relaxation of MSBR, which is the counterpart of the so-called alternating-cycle decomposition relaxation for SBR. , illustrating a convenient mathematical formulation for this relaxation. Moreover, we use this relaxation to show that, even if the number of given permutations equals 3, MSBR is NP-hard, and hence so is nee SBR. In fact, we show that the two problems are APX-hard, i.e. they do not have a polynomial-time approximation scheme unless P=NP. Finally, we mention known Zapproximation algorithms for two general problems which generalize MSBR and Tree SBR, respectively. To our knowledge, this work is the f? rst one discussing the complexity of MBSR (and Tree SBR), as well as potential solution approaches to the problem based on the use of a tight relaxation.
Using Distributional Semantics to Trace Influence and Imitation in Romantic Orientalist Poetry

In this paper, we investigate whether textual analysis can yield evidence of shared vocabulary or formal textual characteristics in the works of 19th century poets Lord Byron and Thomas Moore in the genre of Romantic Orientalism. In particular, we identify and trace Byron’s influence on Moore’s writings to query whether Moore imitated Byron, as many reviewers of the time suggested. We use a Distributional Semantic Model (DSM) to analyze if there is a shared vocabulary of Romantic Orientalism, or if it is possible to characterize a literary genre in terms of vocabulary, rather than in terms of the particular plots, characters and themes. We discuss the results that DSM models are able to provide for an abstract overview of the influence of Lord Byron’s work on Thomas Moore.
Role of the C-344T aldosterone synthase gene variant in left ventricular mass and left ventricular structure-related phenotypes

Aim: We performed a systematic review of the literature by means of a meta-analysis to evaluate the influence of the aldosterone synthase gene (CYP11B2) C-344T polymorphism on left ventricular mass (LVM) and related phenotypes. Design: From 485 reports, we included 14 studies about the association between the C-344T variant and left ventricular mass and left ventricular structure-related phenotypes, from which information about number of subjects in each category, outcomes data and genotyping performed with a validated molecular method could be extracted. Fixed and random effect models were used to pool data from individual studies, and the results in the abstract show the extreme genotype comparison, homozygous TT vs homozygous CC. Results: From a total of 2157 subjects, we found no significant association between LVM and the C-344T variant (D: 0.049, 95% CI: 0.091 to 0.179, p = 0.462). Similarly, no significant association was found for interventricular septal-wall thickness (D: 0.027, 95% CI: −0.090 to 0.143, p = 0.654, n: 2105). However, homozygous TT hypertensive subjects had increased LVM (D: 0.251, 95% CI: 0.020 to 0.481, p = 0.04, n: 332). Lastly, in 10 homogeneous studies posterior wall thickness (PWT) was lower in homozygous CC individuals (D: 0.142, 95% CI: 0.016 to 0.268, p = 0.028, n = 1994). Conclusion: Independently of hypertension, homozygous individuals for the –344T allele may have 2.4% higher PWT compared to homozygous subjects for the C-344 allele. Besides, homozygous hypertensive TT subjects show a 6.9% increase in LVM compared to CC homozygous subjects.
La Variabilité Cardiaque au Cours des Cycles de Sommeil chez l'Homme: un Test d'Evaluation de l'Activité du Système Nerveux Autonome

Study objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the autonomic drive to the heart in cardiac transplant patients (CTP) using heart rate (HR) and HR variability (HRV) analysis during non-rapid eye movement (NREM)-REM sleep cycles, in particular during arousal associated with the emergence from slow wave sleep (SWS). In healthy subjects, this arousal is characterized by a pronounced HR surge, and HRV is lower during SWS than during the subsequent “active” sleep stage 2 and REM sleep. Participants: The participants were 24 adults, 14 CTP (male n=11, female n=3, 62.2 ± 2.2 yr, 4-14 yr after transplantation) and 10 control subjects (male n=7, female n=3, 61.0 ± 1.8 yr). Design: The subjects underwent polygraphic sleep, cardiac and respiratory recordings during an experimental night. HR was measured during the arousal. HRV was estimated from the RR intervals in 5-min stationary segments preceding and following arousal, i.e. during SWS and active sleep stage 2 from the two first complete NREM-REM sleep cycles. Results: In controls, HR increased during arousal associated with the emergence from SWS during the two sleep cycles (p<0.05). Sleep stage dependent increases of all HRV indices were observed in the two sleep cycles. Concerning CTP, 5 of them displayed a smaller HR increase at arousal, whereas 9 other patients had no HR variation. This distinction between the two groups of CTP was confirmed by HRV analysis. The patients with HR reactivity to arousal presented significant sleep stage dependent increases in global HRV and sympathetic HRV indices, whereas the non-reactive group was characterized by an inability of HRV to change with sleep stage alternation. Sympathetic HRV indices were significantly higher in the reactive patients than in non-reactive patients, but high frequency power reflecting parasympathetic activity did not differ. However, the absolute HRV indices were greatly decreased in both groups of patients compared to controls. Conclusion: HR reactivity during arousal associated with the emergence from SWS, corroborated by HRV variations surrounding arousal, may suggest a partial improvement of the sympathetic drive to the heart in some cardiac transplant patients, with no indication of increased parasympathetic activity. Other signs of reinnervation have to be identified to validate this hypothesis.
CORDIC Designs for Fixed Angle of Rotation

Rotation of vectors through fixed and known angles has wide applications in robotics, digital signal processing, graphics, games, and animation. But, we do not find any optimized coordinate rotation digital computer (CORDIC) design for vector-rotation through specific angles. Therefore, in this paper, we present optimization schemes and CORDIC circuits for fixed and known rotations with different levels of accuracy. For reducing the area- and time-complexities, we have proposed a hardwired pre-shifting scheme in barrel-shifters of the proposed circuits. Two dedicated CORDIC cells are proposed for the fixed-angle rotations. In one of those cells, micro-rotations and scaling are interleaved, and in the other they are implemented in two separate stages. Pipelined schemes are suggested further for cascading dedicated single-rotation units and bi-rotation CORDIC units for high-throughput and reduced latency implementations. We have obtained the optimized set of micro-rotations for fixed and known angles. The optimized scale-factors are also derived and dedicated shift-add circuits are designed to implement the scaling. The fixed-point mean-squared-error of the proposed CORDIC circuit is analyzed statistically, and strategies for reducing the error are given. We have synthesized the proposed CORDIC cells by Synopsys Design Compiler using TSMC 90-nm library, and shown that the proposed designs offer higher throughput, less latency and less area-delay product than the reference CORDIC design for fixed and known angles of rotation. We find similar results of synthesis for different Xilinx field-programmable gate-array platforms.
Circulating CXCL16 in Diabetic Kidney Disease

Background/Aims: Chronic kidney disease and, specifically, diabetic kidney disease, is among the fastest increasing causes of death worldwide. A better understanding of the factors contributing to the high mortality may help design novel monitoring and therapeutic approaches. CXCL16 is both a cholesterol receptor and a chemokine with a potential role in vascular injury and inflammation. We aimed at identifying predictors of circulating CXCL16 levels in diabetic patients with chronic kidney disease. Methods: We have now studied plasma CXCL16 in 134 European patients with diabetic kidney disease with estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) categories G1-G4 and albuminuria categories A1-A3, in order to identify factors influencing plasma CXCL16 in this population. Results: Plasma CXCL16 levels were 4.0±0.9 ng/ml. Plasma CXCL16 increased with increasing eGFR category from G1 to G4 (that is, with decreasing eGFR values) and with increasing albuminuria category. Plasma CXCL16 was higher in patients with prior cardiovascular disease (4.33±1.03 vs 3.88±0.86 ng/ml; p=0.013). In multivariate analysis, eGFR and serum albumin had an independent and significant negative correlation with plasma CXCL16. Conclusion: In diabetic kidney disease patients, GFR and serum albumin independently predicted plasma CXCL16 levels.
A forty-year follow-up of the Dallas Bed Rest and Training study: the effect of age on the cardiovascular response to exercise in men.

BACKGROUND In 1966, five 20-year-old men underwent a comprehensive physiological evaluation of the capacity for adaptation of the cardiovascular system in response to 3 weeks of bed rest and 8 weeks of heavy endurance training; these same participants were reevaluated before and after training at the age of 50. The aim of the present study was to reexamine these same men 40 years following the original assessments. METHODS AND RESULTS In all three studies, minute ventilation and expired gases were analyzed during exercise testing with Douglas bag collection. Cardiac output (CO) was determined using the acetylene rebreathing technique. Compared with the original 30-year interval, the decline in maximal oxygen uptake (VO(2max)) (-11% vs -25%), maximal CO (+6% vs -11%), and maximal stroke volume (+10% vs -10%) were greater between 50 and 60 years of age. The annualized decline in VO(2max) (55 mL/min/y) between ages 50 and 60 was approximately fourfold higher than the decline between 20 and 50 years (12 mL/min/y). CONCLUSIONS In the original five participants of the Dallas Bed Rest and Training Study, VO(2max) declined after 40 years of living due to a balanced decrease in central and peripheral determinants of oxygen uptake. The rate of decline in VO(2max) and its components accelerated after the age of 50 years secondary to age and clinical comorbidities. The net proportional decline in VO(2max) for a period of 40 years of life was comparable with that experienced after 3 weeks of strict bed rest at the age of 20 (27% vs 26%, respectively).
A SURVEY REPORT ON SPECTRUM SENSING TECHNIQUES IN COGNITIVE RADIO

A software Radio which exploits unused spectrum spaces without causing much interference to licensed spectrum users and thus optimising the use of available radio frequency is, by its virtue of its intelligence, called Cognitive Radio. By judging the current trends in wireless technologies it can be predicted that Cognitive Radio will be a critical part of many future radio systems and networks. Cognitive Radio uses any of the three techniques – Spectrum Sensing, Spectrum Database and Cognitive Pilot Channel to acquire information about spectrum usage. Spectrum Sensing is the inherent ability of Cognitive Radio to autonomously perform required calculations and detect unused spectrum which can be used for a multitude of purposes. Due to its advantages many studies have been focussed to improve and implement Spectrum Sensing effectively in Cognitive Radio and this lead to development of many spectrum sensing schemes. This paper provides an insight into various Spectrum Sensing technologies and also analyses the advantages and drawbacks of each.
AVC and Transcoding for Multimedia Adaptation

The newly ratified video compression standard H.264/AVC provides tools and solutions for coding improvements of at least 2 dB, in terms of PSNR, and at least 40% in bit rate saving, as compared with the previous standards. The development of video transcoding, which is one of the critical components for multimedia adaptation and Universal Multimedia Access, can gain benefits by using the tools and solutions from the standard. In this paper, the new features of H.264/AVC are first briefly reviewed. The issues involved in video transcoding are addressed together with a general framework for video transcoding. Here we utilize an architecture of pixel domain video transcoding derived directly from H.264/AVC.
The Prevalence of Body Dysmorphic Disorder in the United States Adult Population

ABSTRACT Objective: In clinical samples, body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) is associated with substantial suffering and reduced quality of life. Limited surveys report widely varying prevalence estimates. To better establish the prevalence of BDD, we conducted a United States nationwide prevalence survey. Method: We conducted a random sample national household telephone survey in the spring and summer of 2004 and interviewed 2,513 adults, of whom 2,048 qualified for the BDD-module administration. The computer-assisted, structured interviews, conducted by trained lay interviewers, addressed Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition criteria for BDD, along with information regarding several impulse-control disorders and the respondents' financial and demographic data. Results: The rate of response was 56.3%, which compared favorably with rates in federal national health surveys. The cooperation rate was 97.6%. Respondents included a higher percentage of women and people >55 years of age than in the US adult population, and a lower percentage of Hispanics. The estimated point prevalence of DSM-IV BDD among respondents was 2.4% (49/2,048) (by gender: 2.5% for women, 2.2% for men), exceeding the prevalence of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder type I and about that of generalized anxiety disorder. BDD prevalence decreased after 44 years of age, and a larger proportion of BDD respondents were never married. Of those meeting DSM-IV criteria for BDD, 90% (45/49) met the DSM-IV distress criterion, and 51% (25/49) met the interference-with-functioning criterion. Conclusion: A study using clinically valid interviews is needed to evaluate these results. Such studies could inform treatment by documenting rates of seeking treatment from various sources, suicide attempt rates, and the prevalence of comorbid conditions.
Vestibular function in the temporal and parietal cortex: distinct velocity and inertial processing pathways

A number of behavioral and neuroimaging studies have reported converging data in favor of a cortical network for vestibular function, distributed between the temporo-parietal cortex and the prefrontal cortex in the primate. In this review, we focus on the role of the cerebral cortex in visuo-vestibular integration including the motion sensitive temporo-occipital areas i.e., the middle superior temporal area (MST) and the parietal cortex. Indeed, these two neighboring cortical regions, though they both receive combined vestibular and visual information, have distinct implications in vestibular function. In sum, this review of the literature leads to the idea of two separate cortical vestibular sub-systems forming (1) a velocity pathway including MST and direct descending pathways on vestibular nuclei. As it receives well-defined visual and vestibular velocity signals, this pathway is likely involved in heading perception and rapid top-down regulation of eye/head coordination and (2) an inertial processing pathway involving the parietal cortex in connection with the subcortical vestibular nuclei complex responsible for velocity storage integration. This vestibular cortical pathway would be implicated in high-order multimodal integration and cognitive functions, including world space and self-referential processing.
Optimal Viterbi Algorithm Based 3-D Total Variation Sequence Decoding (3-D TVSD) for Robust Video Reconstruction in Multimedia Wireless Sensor Networks

In this paper we propose an optimal scheme for robust reconstruction of the video stream transmitted in a multimedia wireless sensor network (MWSN). The proposed scheme is based on the principle of joint source-channel maximum likelihood (ML) and makes use of the bounded variation (BV) property of video signals in the space and time dimensions. The derived optimal joint source-channel decoder is a combination of the maximum likelihood cost function and an anisotropic total variation norm based regularization factor, which is well suited for the reconstruction of the video frames from the received symbol stream in a MWSN. Further we develop a novel trellis based Viterbi decoder with appropriate state and branch metrics which efficiently minimizes the TV cost function to yield the ML decoded video sequence. Simulation results are presented to illustrate the quality of video stream reconstruction in a MWSN and compare the performance of the proposed scheme with that of suboptimal conventional video decoding techniques.
Decompose image into meaningful regions based on contour detector and watershed algorithm

In spite of a large volume of segmentation algorithms, it is difﬁcult to coherently segment a series of images from the same scene. Semantic segmentation might be a solution, but it is sophisticated with heavy computing cost. Many contour detectors could locate objects accurately, but the contours are broken, and Watershed algorithm could ﬁnd the subtle ridges that could connect the broken contours, but often fails for over-segmentation. We try to combine these two methods to decompose images into meaningful regions, and propose an index S-measure to measure the segmentation consistency between images. Two steps are involved: detect edges by contour detector, and fuse the broken edges by Watershed algorithm. To fuse the broken edges, two ways are proposed, dilating edges with same template and with adaptive width templates. Experiments illustrate that the decomposing is fast, effectively, meaningful, robustly, and coherently, and the segmentation is consistent between images even with some transformations.
High-Level GPU Multi-purpose Profiler

The graphics processing units (GPUs) have become an integral part of today's computing systems. They have risen and evolved over the last years, becoming a platform for parallel computation with a large number of scalar processors and abundant memory bandwidth. They deliver high standard computation performance, but also require a lot of power supplies and cooling systems. Its rapid increase in both programmability and capability has allowed a powerful research community to arise - they have managed to successfully map out a broad range of computationally demanding, complex problems to the GPU. This paper presents a high-level GPU multi-purpose profiler using several general methods which can analyze not only the given source code, but also the run-time binary application. These models obtain the GPU running time, memory space used and the general flow of the application and, more importantly, it provides a platform on which further new metrics can be implemented.
Early detection of COPD in primary care: screening by invitation of smokers aged 40 to 55 years.

BACKGROUND The incidence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is increasing in developed countries, as is the mortality rate. The main cause of COPD is smoking, and COPD is usually diagnosed at a late stage. AIM To evaluate a method to detect COPD at an early stage in smokers in a young age group (40-55 years). DESIGN OF STUDY Prospective descriptive study. SETTING The city of Motala (45,000 inhabitants) and its surrounding rural areas (43,000 inhabitants) in south-east Sweden. Nineteen thousand, seven hundred and fifty subjects were between 40 and 55 years of age. According to Swedish statistics, approximately 27% of this population are smokers. METHOD Smokers aged between 40 and 55 years were invited to have free spirometry testing in primary healthcare centres. Placards were placed in pharmacies and health centres and advertising was carried out locally twice a year. RESULTS A total of 512 smokers responded. The prevalence of COPD was 27% (n = 141). The COPD was classified as mild obstruction in 85% (n = 120), moderate in 13% (n = 18) and severe in 2% (n = 3) according to the European Respiratory Society classification. Knowledge of the disease COPD was acknowledged by 39% of the responders to the questionnaire. Logistic regression analysis showed that age, male sex, number of pack years, dyspnoea and symptoms of chronic bronchitis significantly increased the odds of having COPD. The adjusted odds ratio was significant for having > 30 pack years. CONCLUSIONS This method of inviting relatively young smokers selected a population of smokers with a high incidence of COPD, and may be one way of identifying smokers with COPD in the early stages.