Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of Pioglitazone and Levo-Carnitine on Plasma Glucose, Insulin Resistance and Serum Adiponectin in Type 2 Diabetic Mice

Background: To determine the effect of combined supplementation of pioglitazone and levo carnitine on plasma glucose, insulin resistance and serum adiponectin in T2DM mice. Methods: In this randomized controlled trial 40 healthy BALB/c mice were divided into four groups (n=10 each). Mice were fed high fat diet for two weeks followed by intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin to induce T2DM. Group I served as diabetic control. Group II was administered pioglitazone. Group III received levo carnitine and group IV was supplemented combined pioglitazone and levo carnitine. After six days of supplementation, terminal intra-cardiac blood extraction was carried out and samples were analyzed for plasma glucose, insulin resistance and serum adiponectin levels. Results: Plasma glucose levels and insulin resistance significantly decreased in the combined supplementation group compared to the diabetic control. Serum adiponectin levels showed significant increase in combined supplemented group when compared with diabetic control and levo carnitine groups. The data also revealed a positive correlation between plasma glucose and insulin resistance and a negative correlation of these two parameters with serum adiponectin levels. Conclusions: The combined supplementation of pioglitazone and levo carnitine significantly improved glycemic control, insulin resistance and serum adiponectin vis-a-vis individual supplementation in type 2 diabetic mice.
Parallel event processing for content-based publish/subscribe systems

Event processing systems are a promising technology for enterprise-scale applications. However, achieving scalability yet maintaining high performance is a challenging problem. This work introduces a parallel matching engine which leverages current chip multi-processors to increase throughput and to reduce the matching time. We present three parallelization techniques, as well as lock-based and software transactional memory-based implementations of each technique, and discuss their impact. The results show a 74% reduction of the average matching time and an improved throughput of over 1600 events/second when using eight processors.
Phase unwrapping for magnetic resonance imaging near metal prostheses

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has the potential to be the best technique for assessing complications in patients with metal orthopedic implants. However, the performance of existing fat suppression techniques is inadequate near metal, due to large variations induced in the magnetic field by the implant. The Dixon method can suppress fat in the presence of magnetic field inhomogeneities, but it requires a robust phase unwrapping algorithm. Current phase unwrapping methods are unable to resolve the large field variations produced by metal implants. This paper presents a new phase unwrapping technique which uses prior knowledge of the implant to aid the unwrapping. Initial simulation-based results are shown using a model which is offset in location and size from the simulated `true' implant. The proposed technique is able to successfully unwrap the phase extracted from simulated images with a signal-to-noise ratio of 10 dB.
Vision in our three-dimensional world

Many aspects of our perceptual experience are dominated by the fact that our two eyes point forward. Whilst the location of our eyes leaves the environment behind our head inaccessible to vision, co-ordinated use of our two eyes gives us direct access to the three-dimensional structure of the scene in front of us, through the mechanism of stereoscopic vision. Scientific understanding of the different brain regions involved in stereoscopic vision and three-dimensional spatial cognition is changing rapidly, with consequent influences on fields as diverse as clinical practice in ophthalmology and the technology of virtual reality devices. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Vision in our three-dimensional world’.
Inter-finger coordination in robot hands via mechanical implementation of principal components analysis

Postural synergies describe characteristic patterns of actuation in human hands arising from biomechanical constraints, physical tendon coupling, and neurological control schemes. Often, a small number of synergies contain much of the information required to describe an entire human hand posture, with 80% or more of the total information encoded in only two component values. Synergies have commonly been used to identify hand shapes with minimal processing power. However, they can also be used to recreate postures in robot hands, by allowing a mechanical implementation of inter-finger coordination. This can provide benefits of reduced cost, compact size, and decreased actuator count. In this paper, a novel mechanism is proposed to drive a dexterous, versatile, 17 degreeof-freedom robot hand using only two DC motors. Posture data was collected with a dataglove, and analyzed using principal components analysis to determine the postural synergies. The synergies are then mechanically hardwired into the driving mechanism, resulting in a concept dubbed eigenpostures. Two eigenpostures effectively recreate the entire posture set. Several observations and suggestions are presented on tendon-drive robotic hand design in general, and also specifically targeted towards synergyor eigenposture-based design. Avenues for further research into synergy mechanism design are proposed, including a powerful concept incorporating k-means clustering with principal components analysis to distinguish between high-precision and low-precision tasks, and greatly reduce overall error. Thesis Supervisor: H. Harry Asada Title: Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Imaging Atherosclerotic Plaque Inflammation With [18F]-Fluorodeoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomography

Background—Atherosclerotic plaque rupture is usually a consequence of inflammatory cell activity within the plaque. Current imaging techniques provide anatomic data but no indication of plaque inflammation. The glucose analogue [18F]-fluorodeoxyglucose (18FDG) can be used to image inflammatory cell activity non-invasively by PET. In this study we tested whether 18FDG-PET imaging can identify inflammation within carotid artery atherosclerotic plaques. Methods and Results—Eight patients with symptomatic carotid atherosclerosis were imaged using 18FDG-PET and co-registered CT. Symptomatic carotid plaques were visible in 18FDG-PET images acquired 3 hours post-18FDG injection. The estimated net 18FDG accumulation rate (plaque/integral plasma) in symptomatic lesions was 27% higher than in contralateral asymptomatic lesions. There was no measurable 18FDG uptake into normal carotid arteries. Autoradiography of excised plaques confirmed accumulation of deoxyglucose in macrophage-rich areas of the plaque. Conclusions—This study demonstrates that atherosclerotic plaque inflammation can be imaged with 18FDG-PET, and that symptomatic, unstable plaques accumulate more 18FDG than asymptomatic lesions.
An unknown anatomical variation of omohyoid muscle

We report here a previously unknown variation of omohyoid muscle (OM). The OM consists of two bellies that are united by an intermediate tendon. The inferior belly arises from the upper border of the scapula near the scapular notch, and occasionally from the superior transverse scapular ligament. It is a flat narrow band that inclines forward and slightly upwards across the lower part of the neck. It passes deep to the sternocleidomastoid muscle and lies superficial to the internal juguler vein (IJV), where it ends as an intermediate tendon. The superior belly begins at the intermediate tendon and passes almost vertically upwards from the tendon to insert on the lower border of the body of the hyoid bone (Standring, 2005). A 55-years-old male patient was operated on for carcinoma of the tongue. During the selective neck dissection of the left side, it was noticed that the inferior belly of the OM passed deep to the sternocleidomastoid muscle as usual, but surprisingly lied posterior to the IJV before ending at the intermediate tendon (Fig. 1). Although variations of the OM have previously been described (Tubbs et al., 2004; Standring, 2005), this variant has not been previously reported. According to the 1991 classification of the Committee for Head and Neck Surgery and Oncology of the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, for neck dissections, the surgical landmark of the border between levels III–IV is defined as the OM (Robbins et al., 1991). During head and neck surgery especially in neck dissections, the OM thus has an important role. Selective neck dissections form the basis of our current surgical techniques, especially in patients with N0 and N1 necks (Mizen and Mitchell, 2005; Ferlito et al., 2006). In selective neck dissections only lymphatic tissues are removed and all other functional tissues are preserved (Lingeman, 1998). One of the most popular types of selective neck dissections is the supra-omohyoid neck dissection that addresses levels I–III in the N0 and N1 neck depending on the site of the oropharyngeal primary cancer (Medina and Byers, 1989; Woolgar, 1999). In this type of neck dissection the inferior border for resection is the OM. Any variation in this landmark increases the difficulty of the operation and the risk of surgical complication (Ferlito et al., 2006). IJV rupture is a serious complication in this operation (Calearo and Teatini, 1983). During selective neck dissections, injury of the IJV that leads to higher morbidity and mortality is usually seen in the lower part of the vein and the OM is the best landmark to identify IJV in this level. This anatomical variant should thus be remembered during neck dissections to avoid a serious and potentially fatal complication.
Master's Level Supervision Training

Counselor preparation is lacking appropriate supervision training for master’s level counselors. Post-graduation, many master’s level counselors assume supervisory positions. Authors propose master’s level supervision training. Five supervisors-in-training participated in this study. Results indicate significant increases in supervision self-efficacy for supervisors-in-training. Benefits of supervision training in master’s level counselor education training programs is illustrated.
Attention guided MPEG compression for computer animations

In this paper we present a framework that aims at delivering high-quality and low-bandwidth 3D animation at real-time rates. In this framework we combine a real-time rendering, MPEG--4 video compression and a model of visual attention. We use the attention model to control quality/bit-rate of MPEG compression across a single frame. OpenGL is used to generate animation sequences in real-time.
Blind Channel Equalization with Amplitude Banded Godard and Sato Algorithms

The least-mean-squares (LMS) algorithm which updates the filter coefficients by a stochastic gradient descent approach is the most popular adaptive filtering one. In this paper we propose a novel amplitude banded (AB) technique with LMS on Godard (ABGodard) and Sato (ABSato) algorithms for the equalization of communication channels. The non-linear properties of the AB technique with LMS algorithm are inherited into the ABGodard and ABSato algorithms, resulting in an improvement of equalization performance. These properties are validated from a signal separation aspect based on decision boundary. Mean square error (MSE) and bit error rate (BER) are investigated on several communication channel models. Observations on simulations show that the ABGodard and ABSato algorithms provide better performance than the standard Godard and Sato algorithms, respectively, and that the ABSato algorithm is superior to the ABGodard algorithm. As the division number used for the AB technique is increased, the MSE and BER performances of the ABSato algorithm are improved. A parallel structure of the Sato and ABSato algorithms provides a further improvement of the MSE and BER performances.
Efficient Frequent Sequence Mining on Taxi Trip Records Using Road Network Shortcuts

Huge amounts of geo-referenced spatial location data and moving object t ra ory data are being generated at ever increasing rates. Patterns discovered fr om these data are valuable in understanding human mobility and facilitating traffic mitigation. In this study, we propose a new approach to mining frequent patterns from large-scale GPS traj ectory data after mapping GPS traces to road network segments. Different from applying assoc iation rule-based frequent sequence mining algorithms directly, which generally have high c omputation overhead and are not scalable, our approach utilizes hierarchies of road networks. Af ter contracting nodes and creating shortcuts by contraction hierarchies algorithms, the or iginal road segment sequences are transformed into sequences of shortcuts with much smaller data volum es. By using computed shortest paths as simulated GPS trajectories, our experiments on 17,558 selected taxi trip records in NYC in January 2009 have shown that runtimes of frequent sequence mini ng on shortcut sequences are orders of magnitude faster than on original road s egment sequences. In addition, frequent subsequences in shortcuts are more informative and interpreta ble based on the betweenness centralities of the shortcuts than visualizing betwee nness centralities of individual road segments.
Basic principles of thermal dosimetry and thermal thresholds for tissue damage from hyperthermia

This paper is one of several in this Special Issue of the International Journal of Hyperthermia that discusses the current state of knowledge about the human health risks of hyperthermia. This special issue emanated from a workshop sponsored by the World Health Organization in the Spring of 2002 on this topic. It is anticipated that these papers will help to establish guidelines for human exposure to conditions leading to hyperthermia. This comprehensive review of the literature makes it clear that much more work needs to be done to clarify what the thresholds for thermal damage are in humans. This review summarizes the basic principles that govern the relationships between thermal exposure (temperature and time of exposure) and thermal damage, with an emphasis on normal tissue effects. Methods for converting one time-temperature combination to a time at a standardized temperature are provided as well as a detailed discussion about the underlying assumptions that go into these calculations. There are few in vivo papers examining the type and extent of damage that occurs in the lower temperature range for hyperthermic exposures (e.g. 39-42°C). Therefore, it is clear that estimation of thermal dose to effect at these thermal exposures is less precise in that temperature range. In addition, there are virtually no data that directly relate to the thermal sensitivity of human tissues. Thus, establishment of guidelines for human exposure based on the data provided must be done with significant caution. There is detailed review and presentation of thermal thresholds for tissue damage (based on what is detectable in vivo ). The data are normalized using thermal dosimetric concepts. Tables are included in an Appendix Database which compile published data for thresholds of thermal damage in a variety of tissues and species. This database is available by request (contact MWD or PJH), but not included in this manuscript for brevity. All of the studies reported are for single acute thermal exposures. Except for brain function and physiology (as detailed in this issue by Sharma et al ) one notes the critical lack of publications examining effects of chronic thermal exposures as might be encountered in occupational hazards. This review also does not include information on the embryo, which is covered in detail elsewhere in this volume (see article by Edwards et al. ) as well as in a recent review on this subject, which focuses on thermal dose.
Strain energy and lateral friction force distributions of carbon nanotubes manipulated into shapes by atomic force microscopy

The interplay between local mechanical strain energy and lateral frictional forces determines the shape of carbon nanotubes on substrates. In turn, because of its nanometer-size diameter, the shape of a carbon nanotube strongly influences its local electronic, chemical, and mechanical properties. Few, if any, methods exist for resolving the strain energy and static frictional forces along the length of a deformed nanotube supported on a substrate. We present a method using nonlinear elastic rod theory in which we compute the flexural strain energy and static frictional forces along the length of single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) manipulated into various shapes on a clean SiO2 substrate. Using only high resolution atomic force microscopy images of curved single walled nanotubes, we estimate flexural strain energy distributions on the order of attojoules per nanometer and the static frictional forces between a SWCNT and SiO2 surface to be a minimum of 230 pN nm−1.
The Demand for Health Care Services in Rural Tanzania

This paper examines the pattern of health care demand in rural Tanzania. We distinguish between hospital and clinic‐based care, in both the public and private sector using a two‐level nested multinomial logit model. Own price elasticities of demand for all health care options are high, although less so for public clinics and dispensaries than other choices. However, there is a high degree of substitution between public and private care. Consequently, price increases or user fees will result in small percentage of people opting for self‐treatment. Another important contribution of this paper is that the quality of medical care has large effects on health demand. This applies to the quality and availability of doctors/nurses, drugs and the clinic environment.
Capacity Bounds for Additive Symmetric $\alpha $ -Stable Noise Channels

Impulsive noise features in many modern communication systems—ranging from wireless to molecular—and is often modeled by the <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\alpha $ </tex-math></inline-formula>-stable distribution. At present, the capacity of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\alpha $ </tex-math></inline-formula>-stable noise channels is not well understood, with the exception of Cauchy noise (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\alpha = 1$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) with a logarithmic constraint and Gaussian noise (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\alpha = 2$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) with a power constraint. In this paper, we consider additive symmetric <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\alpha $ </tex-math></inline-formula>-stable noise channels with <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\alpha \in (1,2]$ </tex-math></inline-formula>. We derive bounds for the capacity with an absolute moment constraint. We then compare our bounds with a numerical approximation via the Blahut–Arimoto algorithm, which provides insight into the effect of noise parameters on the bounds. In particular, we find that our lower bound is in good agreement with the numerical approximation for <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\alpha $ </tex-math></inline-formula> near 2.
Prevalence of obstructive sleep apnoea in men with type 2 diabetes

Background: A study was undertaken to establish the prevalence of obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) in men with type 2 diabetes. Methods: Men with type 2 diabetes from local hospital and selected primary care practitioner databases received questionnaires about snoring, apnoeas, and daytime sleepiness based on the Berlin questionnaire. Selected respondents had overnight oximetry to establish whether they had OSA. Comparisons of oximetry were made with those from a previous general population study. HbA1c results were collected. Results: 1682 men were sent questionnaires, 56% of whom replied. 57% scored as “high” and 39% as “low” risk for OSA; 4% were already known to have OSA. Oximetry was performed in 240 respondents from both risk groups: 31% of the “high” and 13% of the “low” risk group had significant OSA (more than 10 >4% Sao2 dips/hour or Sao2 tracing consistent with OSA). These results were verified by detailed sleep studies. Extrapolation of the oximetry data to the questionnaire respondent population suggests that 23% had OSA. Comparison of the oximetry results with men from a previous general population study (using only more than 10 >4% Sao2 dips/hour to define OSA) showed the prevalence of OSA is significantly higher in this diabetes population (17% v 6%, p<0.001). Multiple linear regression revealed BMI and diabetes as significant independent predictors of OSA. Following correction for BMI (which explained 13% of the variance in OSA), diabetes explained a further 8% of the variance (p<0.001). There was a low correlation between OSA severity and HbA1c in the subgroup recruited from the hospital database (r = 0.2, p = 0.006) which remained significant after allowing for obesity (p = 0.03). Conclusions: OSA is highly prevalent in men with type 2 diabetes; most are undiagnosed. Diabetes itself may be a significant independent contributor to the risk of OSA.
Walsh-Hadamard Transform and Cryptographic Applications in Bias Computing

Walsh-Hadamard transform is used in a wide variety of scien-tiﬁc and engineering applications, including bent functions and cryptan-alytic optimization techniques in cryptography. In linear cryptanalysis, it is a key question to ﬁnd a good linear approximation, which holds with probability (1 + d ) / 2 and the bias d is large in absolute value. Lu and Desmedt (2011) take a step toward answering this key question in a more generalized setting and initiate the work on the generalized bias problem with linearly-dependent inputs. In this paper, we give fully extended results. Deep insights on assumptions behind the problem are given. We take an information-theoretic approach to show that our bias problem assumes the setting of the maximum input entropy subject to the input constraint. By means of Walsh transform, the bias can be expressed in a simple form. It incorporates Piling-up lemma as a special case. Secondly, as application, we answer a long-standing open problem in correlation attacks on combiners with memory. We give a closed-form exact solution for the correlation involving the multiple polynomial of any weight for the ﬁrst time . We also give Walsh analysis for numerical approximation. An interesting bias phenomenon is uncovered, i.e., for even and odd weight of the polynomial, the correlation behaves diﬀer-ently. Thirdly, we introduce the notion of weakly biased distribution, and study bias approximation for a more general case by Walsh analysis. We show that for weakly biased distribution, Piling-up lemma is still valid. Our work shows that Walsh analysis is useful and eﬀective to a broad class of cryptanalysis problems.