Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Life Expectancy of Persons Receiving Combination Antiretroviral Therapy in Low-Income Countries: A Cohort Analysis From Uganda

BACKGROUND Little is known about the effect of combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) on life expectancy in sub-Saharan Africa. OBJECTIVE To estimate life expectancy of patients once they initiate cART in Uganda. DESIGN Prospective cohort study. SETTING Public sector HIV and AIDS disease-management program in Uganda. PATIENTS 22 315 eligible patients initiated cART during the study period, of whom 1943 were considered to have died. MEASUREMENTS All-cause mortality rates were calculated and abridged life tables were constructed and stratified by sex and baseline CD4 cell count status to estimate life expectancies for patients receiving cART. The average number of years remaining to be lived by patients who received cART at varying age categories was estimated. RESULTS After adjustment for loss to follow-up, crude mortality rates (deaths per 1000 person-years) ranged from 26.9 (95% CI, 25.4 to 28.5) in women to 43.9 (CI, 40.7 to 47.0) in men. For patients with a baseline CD4 cell count less than 0.050 × 10(9) cells/L, the mortality rate was 67.3 (CI, 62.1 to 72.9) deaths per 1000 person-years, whereas among persons with a baseline CD4 cell count of 0.250 × 10(9) cells/L or more, the mortality rate was 19.1 (CI, 16.0 to 22.7) deaths per 1000 person-years. Life expectancy at age 20 years for the overall cohort was 26.7 (CI, 25.0 to 28.4) additional years and at age 35 years was 27.9 (CI, 26.7 to 29.1) additional years. Life expectancy increased substantially with increasing baseline CD4 cell count. Similar trends are observed for older age groups. LIMITATIONS A small (6.4%) proportion of patients were lost to follow-up, and it was imputed that 30% of these patients had died. Few patients with a CD4 cell count greater than 0.250 × 10(9) cells/L initiated cART. CONCLUSION Ugandan patients receiving cART can expect an almost normal life expectancy, although there is considerable variability among subgroups of patients. PRIMARY FUNDING SOURCE Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
Gene Therapy and Endovascular Treatment of Intracranial Aneurysms

Background— Endovascular treatment of intracranial aneurysms is safe and effective but too often is followed by recurrences. Gene therapy may improve healing after embolization, and endovascular approaches may offer future in situ delivery systems designed to prevent aneurysm rupture. Summary of Review— Advances in coil technology have focused on coating strategies designed to modify the biological reaction to the embolic agent. Gene therapy in cardiovascular applications is limited by low efficiency and transient gene expression. Current advances include the potential use of circulating progenitor cells for ex vivo genetic manipulations followed by in vivo delivery. Direct gene transfer may also be enhanced in situ by coils carrying antibody-tethered adenovirus or through the use of cell-specific or radiation-inducible promoters. Candidate genes that may be of value in promoting healing after endovascular treatment include growth factors and metalloproteinase inhibitors. A better understanding of the biology of aneurysm is necessary to conceive strategies designed to control the development of these lesions before their rupture. Conclusions— Many technical difficulties remain to be solved, but the combination of gene therapy and endovascular techniques offers multiple therapeutic possibilities in the future control of intracranial aneurysms.
Optimization and analysis of depth-graded multilayer structures

We introduce a method for the determination of the thickness variation through the stack of multilayer structures deposited by magnetron sputter deposition. The deposited structure is determined by minimizing a merit function based on the difference between actual x-ray reflectivity data and the theoretical calculation of the reflectivity from a multilayer structure. This method uses only four parameters and is independent of the total number of layers deposited. Further, this simple method provides a good initial guess if one wishes to increase the number of independent parameters in order to investigate finer detail of the structure. We illustrate the usefulness of this method through comparison of a desired and deposited Ni/C multilayer. The thickness distribution through the stack was designed in such a way as to maximize integrated reflectivity over some angular range. Finally, we determine the dependence of layer thickness with annealing temperature for the depth graded Ni/C multilayer by use of our method.
[Analysis of 84 cases with fungemia].

Eighty-four patients with fungemia were analyzed. Fungi had been isolated by culture of blood samples, including blood from the catheter for intravenous hyperalimentation, between 1986-1990. Candida albicans (39.3%), Candida parapsilosis (20.2%), Candida tropicalis (11.9%), Candida glabrata (10.7%), Candida guilliermondii (4.8%) and Trichosporon beigelii (4.8%) were the most frequently isolated fungal pathogens. Four patients' blood yielded two different fungal species. Fifty-nine cases were male, and 25 cases were female. Forty-six of the 84 patients died (54.8%), but there were no differences in the overall mortality rate as a function of the fungal species or sex. All patients had underlying diseases: solid cancer, 37 cases; cardiovascular diseases, 9 cases; gastrointestinal diseases excluding gastrointestinal cancer, 8 cases; central nervous system diseases, 7 cases; premature infants and congenital abnormality, 7 cases; leukemia, 6 cases and miscellaneous, 10 cases. Twenty-four of the 46 dead cases were autopsied, and eight cases showed systemic fungal lesions. However, in one case of pulmonary cryptococcosis and one case of pulmonary penicilliosis, there was no correlation between the isolation of C. glabrata by blood culture and the pathological findings. A fungus-positive blood culture was surmised to be a result of contamination of the sample in 33 cases, and the mortality rate for those cases was 72.2% (24 cases). For 6 of the corpses, fungal lesions observed at autopsy were compatible with the types of lesions found by the fungi which had been isolated before death. Removal of the catheter reduced the mortality rate to 41.7%. Fungal endophthalmitis was diagnosed in six cases. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
The structure of the Georgian blogosphere and its implications for information diffusion

We present the first study on the Georgian blogosphere. The complete dataset on Georgian bloggers is collected and analysed using social network analysis tools. We identify the network’s core-periphery structure. The results indicate that, after excluding unimportant peripheral blogs that do not actively participate in the system, the Georgian blogosphere is compact. The core of the system cannot be partitioned into communities by any observable characteristics. Therefore, we perform a community detection exercise. We identify two large communities and analyse their behaviour, internal architecture and inter-community interactions.
A Novel Load Balancing Model Using RR Algorithm for Cloud Computing

Cloud Computing is computing where in several groups of servers are networked for providing online access to users. Several factors which influence cloud computing such as scalability, security etc are discussed by many researchers. Now a days usage of internet resources is widely increasing resulting in the increase of workload exponentially. In order to make cloud computing efficient and improve user satisfaction this incoming huge workload is to be handled with care. This paper introduces techniques for the public cloud based on cloud partitioning concept that makes cloud computing effective. Cloud Partitioning is an efficient method for a public cloud, where in a public cloud is divided into several sub partitions. This cloud partitioning method paves way to apply load balancing technique in a simplified manner across the multiple nodes. Load balancing is a technique that distributes workload across several nodes uniformly which results in improved performance and less response time through a right distribution strategy. This paper introduces skewness measurement technique along with load balancing using Round Robin (RR) technique in order to obtain enhanced performance which results in Green Computing.
Effectiveness of Prevention Interventions with Youth at High Risk of Drug Abuse

A recent report describes three types of prevention programs: universal, selected, and indicated (Institute of Medicine 1994). Universal prevention approaches are those that serve the entire population who share a general risk to the disorder without regard to specific risk status. Selected prevention approaches serve those whose precursors of problem behaviors are elevated but who have not yet manifested the problem behavior to be prevented. Indicated prevention approaches serve those who have initiated the problem behavior to be prevented but have not yet developed a serious or chronic behavior problem and do not warrant at that time a clinical diagnosis of the disorder according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III-R or DSM-IV).
Viewpoint: The Unified Medical Language System: Toward a Collaborative Approach for Solving Terminologic Problems

The approach taken by the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS), in which disparate terminology systems are integrated, has allowed construction of an electronic thesaurus (the Metathesaurus) that avoids imposing any restrictions upon the content, structure, or semantics of the source terminologies. As such, the UMLS has served as a unifying paradigm by providing appropriate links among equivalent entities that are used in different contexts or for different purposes. It accordingly provides a vehicle through which possibly orthogonal semantic models can co-exist within a single framework. This framework provides a model for the collaborative evolution of biomedical terminology and allows a synergistic relationship between the UMLS and its source terminology systems.
Clustering iOS executable using self-organizing maps

We pioneer the study on applying both SOMs and GHSOMs to cluster mobile apps based on their behaviors, showing that the SOM family works well for clustering samples with more than ten thousands of attributes. The behaviors of apps are characterized by system method calls that are embedded in their executable, but may not be perceived by users. In the data preprocessing stage, we propose a novel static binary analysis to resolve and count implicit system method calls of iOS executable. Since an app can make thousands of system method calls, it is needed a large dimension of attributes to model their behaviors faithfully. On collecting 115 apps directly downloaded from Apple app store, the analysis result shows that each app sample is represented with 18000+ kinds of methods as their attributes. Theoretically, such a sample representation with more than ten thousand attributes raises a challenge to traditional clustering mechanisms. However, our experimental result shows that apps that have similar behaviors (due to having been developed from the same company or providing similar services) can be clustered together via both SOMs and GHSOMs.
Reexamination of the Sendai virus P protein domains required for RNA synthesis: a possible supplemental role for the P protein.

The Sendai virus P protein plays a central role in viral genome amplification and expression, forming complexes with the viral L protein to generate the polymerase (P-L) and unassembled N (P-N(o)). This latter complex prevents N from self-assembling illegitimately, i.e., independently of the concurrent assembly of a nascent viral genome, and is thought to represent the functional form of N in nucleocapsid assembly. Based upon earlier functional studies using an in vitro transcription/ replication system in which the P, L, and N proteins were coexpressed, we identified two regions of the P protein required for RNA synthesis, namely, the C-terminal 40% of the protein, and a second, apparently redundant domain near the N-terminus (either amino acids 1-77 or 78-145). The lack of sequence conservation in this second region, apart from overall negative charge, was reminiscent of the acidic activation domains of cellular transcription factors. However, we recently mapped a chaperone domain at the N-terminal of P (aa 33-41), which is required for stable complex formation with unassembled N(o) and, thus, for assembly and genome replication. In this present study we show that coexpression of N protein with P deletion mutants lacking this region (e.g., P delta 1-324) results in the sequestration of the mutant P by the illegitimately assembled form of N. As a consequence, P protein is unavailable for RNA synthesis from bona fide templates. We also find that in the absence of coexpressed N protein, the entire N-terminal 60% of the P protein is not required for mRNA synthesis. During these studies, a supplemental role for the P protein in viral RNA synthesis, independent of stable complex formation with L, was observed. This function involves, at least in part, the binding of additional copies of P to the N:RNA template.
In vitro development of secondary follicles from cryopreserved rhesus macaque ovarian tissue after slow-rate freeze or vitrification.

BACKGROUND Ovarian tissue cryopreservation is the only option for preserving fertility in prepubertal girls and cancer patients requiring immediate treatment. Following ovarian tissue cryopreservation, fertility can be restored after tissue transplant or in vitro follicle maturation. METHODS Macaque (n= 4) ovarian cortex was cryopreserved using slow-rate freezing (slow freezing) or vitrification. Tissues were fixed for histology or phosphohistone H3 (PPH3) analysis, cultured with bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) or used for three-dimensional secondary follicle culture. Follicular diameter and steroid hormones were measured weekly. RESULTS Slow freezing induced frequent cryo-injuries while vitrification consistently maintained morphology of the stroma and secondary follicles. PPH3 was similar in fresh and vitrified, but sparse in slow-frozen tissues. BrdU uptake appeared diminished following both methods compared with that in fresh follicles. In vitro follicle survival and growth were greater in fresh than in cryopreserved follicles. Antrum formation appeared similar after vitrification compared with the fresh, but was reduced following slow freezing. Steroid production was delayed or diminished following both methods compared with fresh samples. CONCLUSIONS Secondary follicle morphology was improved after vitrification relative to slow freezing. Following vitrification, stroma was consistently more compact with intact cells typical to that of fresh tissue. BrdU uptake demonstrated follicle viability post-thaw/warming. For the first time, although not to the extent of fresh follicles, macaque follicles from cryopreserved tissue can survive, grow, form an antrum and produce steroid hormones, indicating some functional preservation. The combination of successful ovarian tissue cryopreservation with in vitro maturation of follicles will offer a major advancement to the field of fertility preservation.
Investigation of energy harvest and storage by using curve-shape piezoelectric unimorph

A curve-shape piezoelectric unimorph is used for energy harvest. Deformation of the unimorph will gain electricity via piezoelectric direct effect. In this study, a cantilever unimorph encountered with external force at various vibration frequencies to generate electricity and save into a storage circuitry is investigated. Modeling of the unimorph and storage circuitry is derived. The analytical computation and experimental result are in a good agreement. Both outcomes verify that vibration frequency nearer the resonant frequency will gain more energy and the load resistance of a RC storage circuitry matching the equivalent impedance of piezoelectric ceramics will gain maximum storage energy. Efficiency of electromechanical conversion and energy storage is examined. As compared to other previous works using piezoelectric ceramics, the curve shape unimorph performs better. In experiment, for instance, by using a load resistor of 3kΩ ideally equal to the impedance of ceramics and an arbitrarily chosen capacitor of 470µF at vibration frequency of 135.59Hz for 25 seconds, electric power of 48mW is obtained and electromechanical efficiency of about 18.49% is achieved.
Combination of type III digit recognizers using the Dempster-Shafer theory of evidence

We investigate the combination of Type-III classifiersusing the Dempster-Shafer Theory of Evidence. Variousmethods of building BPA's for each classifier usingboth "global" and "local" classifier information are explored.We propose modifications to two established BPA-computationmethods to make them better suited for combiningType-III classifiers. We also show the effectiveness ofusing compound hypotheses when a classifier cannot confidentlychoose between the top two returned classes. Experimentaltests demonstrate the superiority of some of theapproaches proposed here on the numeral recognition problemwhen combining three different character recognizerswith Type-III classification engines.
Ensemble Semi-supervised Frame-work for Brain Magnetic Resonance Imaging Tissue Segmentation

Brain magnetic resonance images (MRIs) tissue segmentation is one of the most important parts of the clinical diagnostic tools. Pixel classification methods have been frequently used in the image segmentation with two supervised and unsupervised approaches up to now. Supervised segmentation methods lead to high accuracy, but they need a large amount of labeled data, which is hard, expensive, and slow to obtain. Moreover, they cannot use unlabeled data to train classifiers. On the other hand, unsupervised segmentation methods have no prior knowledge and lead to low level of performance. However, semi-supervised learning which uses a few labeled data together with a large amount of unlabeled data causes higher accuracy with less trouble. In this paper, we propose an ensemble semi-supervised frame-work for segmenting of brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) tissues that it has been used results of several semi-supervised classifiers simultaneously. Selecting appropriate classifiers has a significant role in the performance of this frame-work. Hence, in this paper, we present two semi-supervised algorithms expectation filtering maximization and MCo_Training that are improved versions of semi-supervised methods expectation maximization and Co_Training and increase segmentation accuracy. Afterward, we use these improved classifiers together with graph-based semi-supervised classifier as components of the ensemble frame-work. Experimental results show that performance of segmentation in this approach is higher than both supervised methods and the individual semi-supervised classifiers.
Effects of contralateral speech competition on auditory event-related potentials recorded from elderly listeners: brain map study.

Topographic brain mapping was used to investigate the ability of young and elderly female listeners to attend to tones at one ear in the presence of speech competition at the opposite ear. An oddball stimulus presentation paradigm was used to record the N1, P2, and P300 components of the late auditory evoked potential from 19 scalp locations. With speech competition, elderly listeners exhibited significantly larger reductions in N1 amplitude than did young listeners. This suggests that N1 may provide an electrophysiologic index of age-related breakdowns in processing sounds in the presence of background competition. An unexpected difference was also found between young and elderly listeners in P300 scalp topography. While the young listeners' P300 response was centered at midline for both left and right ear stimulation, the elderly participants had P300 maxima centered in the parietal area of the hemisphere located contralateral to the test ear. This suggests that some of the functional properties (e.g., timing, strength, orientation) of the P300 neural generators may change with age or, alternatively, that different generators may be operative in elderly listeners.
Pairwise structural role mining for user categorization in information cascades

It is well known that many social networks follow the homophily principle, dictating that individuals tend to connect with similar peers. Past studies focused on non-topological properties, such as the age, gender, beliefs or educations. In this paper we focus precisely on the topology itself, exploring the possible existence of pairwise role dependency, that is, purely structural homophily. We show that while pairwise dependency is necessary for some structural roles, it may be misleading for others. We also present SR-Diffuse, a novel method for identifying the structural roles of nodes within a network. It is an iterative algorithm following an optimization model able to learn simultaneously from topological features and structural homophily, combining both aspects. For assessing our method, we applied it in a classification problem in information cascades, comparing its performance against several baseline methods. The experimental results with Flickr and Digg data show that SR-Diffuse can improve the quality of the discovered roles and can better represent the profile of the individuals, leading to a better prediction of social classes within information cascades.
An efficient VLSI implementation of H.264/AVC entropy decoder

This paper proposes an efficient H.264/AVC entropy decoder. It requires no ROM/RAM fabrication process that decreases fabrication cost and increas es operation speed. It was achieved by optimizing lookup tables and internal buffers, which significantly im proves area, speed, and power. The proposed entropy decoder does not exploit embedded processor for bitstream manipulation, which also improves area, speed, and power. Its gat e counts and maximum operation frequency are 77515 gates and 175MHz in 0.18um fabrication process, respectively. The proposed entropy decoder needs 2303 cycles in average for one macroblock decoding. It can run at 28MHz to meet the real-time processing requirement for CIF format video decoding on mobile applications.
Active control for single camera SLAM

In this paper we consider a single hand-held camera performing SLAM at video rate with generic 6DOF motion. The aim is to optimise both the localisation of the sensor and building of the feature map by computing the most appropriate control actions or movements. The actions belong to a discrete set (e.g. go forward, go left, go up, turn right, etc), and are chosen so as to maximise the mutual information gain between posterior states and measurements. Maximising the mutual information helps the camera avoid making ill-conditioned measurements appropriate to bearing-only SLAM. Moreover, orientation changes are determined by maximising the trace of the Fisher information matrix. In this way, we allow the camera to continue looking at those landmarks with large uncertainty, but from better-posed directions. Various position and gaze control strategies are first tested in a simulated environment, and then validated in a video-rate implementation. Given that our system is capable of producing motion commands for a real-time 6DOF visual SLAM, it could be used with any type of mobile platform, without the need of other sensors