Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Increasing applicability of liver transplantation for patients with hepatitis B–related liver disease

Liver transplantation in patients with hepatitis B has been under discussion for 20 years because of inferior results without reinfection prophylaxis; therefore, we analyzed our overall experience with liver transplantation in hepatitis B patients with immunoprophylaxis, particularly the influence of the available antiviral treatment in different periods. From 1988 to 2000, 228 liver transplants in 206 hepatitis B patients were performed. Indications were acute liver failure (10%), hepatitis B virus (HBV) cirrhosis alone (67%) or with hepatitis D virus (HDV) (13%), or hepatitis C virus (HCV) coinfection (7%). All patients received long‐term immunoprophylaxis (anti‐HBs > 100 U/L). HBV DNA–positive patients were treated before and after surgery with famciclovir or lamivudine since 1993 and 1996, respectively. Since 1993, antivirals also were used for HBV reinfection. The 1‐, 5‐, and 10‐year patient survival rates were 91%, 81%, and 73%. In patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) (60% 5‐year survival, P < .01) or HBV reinfection (69% 5‐year survival, P < .01) survival was significantly impaired. Those with HDV or HCV coinfection had a slightly better survival than with HBV monoinfection (P > .05, not significant). Preoperative positive HBV DNA (hybridization‐assay) test results were associated with a slightly impaired patient survival (78% 5‐year survival, P > .05, not significant versus DNA‐negative). Preoperative positive hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) predicted significantly worse survival (P < .05 versus negative HBeAg). Graft loss caused by reinfection was most frequent before the availability of antiviral drugs. Two‐year patient survival increased from 85% in era I (1988‐1993) to 94% in era III (1997‐2000, P < .05). The 2‐year recurrence rates in these 2 periods were 42% and 8% (P < .05). In conclusion, excellent long‐term results can be achieved in hepatitis B patients after liver transplantation with modern strategies, and survival rates are similar to other indications. Based on our experience, hepatitis B patients, including those with active viral replication, should not be excluded from liver transplantation.
Chalcogenide and germanium hybrid optics

When choosing a material to design infrared optics, an optical designer has to decide which material properties are most important to what they are trying to achieve. Factors include; cost, optical performance, index of material, sensor format, manufacturability, mechanical mounting and others. This paper will present an optical design that is made for a 640×480, 17μm sensor and is athermalized by using the material properties of chalcogenide glass and Germanium (Ge). The optical design will be a 3-element, f1.0 optic with an EFL of 20mm at 10μm. It consists of two Ge spherical lenses and a middle chalcogenide aspheric element. By using Ge and chalcogenide, this design utilizes the high index of Ge and combines it with the lower dn/dt of chalcogenide glass to provide an athermalized design without the use of additional electro-optical compensation inside the assembly. This study will start from the optical design process and explain the mechanical and optical properties of the design, then show the manufacturing process of molding an aspheric chalcogenide element. After the three elements are manufactured, they will be assembled and tested throughout the temperature range of -40 to 85°C to compare optical performance to design expectations. Ultimately, this paper will show that a high performance, athermalized optical assembly is possible to manufacture at a lower cost with the use of combining different infrared materials that allow for spherical Ge lenses and only one aspherical chalcogenide element which can be produced in higher volumes at lower costs through glass molding technology.
Charge‐Carrier Balance and Color Purity in Polyfluorene Polymer Blends for Blue Light‐Emitting Diodes

A study of an efficient blue light‐emitting diode based on a fluorescent aryl polyfluorene (aryl‐F8) homopolymer in an inverted device architecture is presented, with ZnO and MoO3 as electron‐ and hole‐injecting electrodes, respectively. Charge‐carrier balance and color purity in these structures are achieved by incorporating poly(9,9‐dioctylfluorene‐co‐N‐(4‐butylphenyl)‐diphenylamine (TFB) into aryl‐F8. TFB is known to be a hole‐transporting material but it is found to act as a hole trap on mixing with aryl‐F8. Luminance efficiency of ≈6 cd A−1 and external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 3.1% are obtained by adding a small amount (0.5% by weight) of TFB into aryl‐F8. Study of charge injection and transport in the single‐carrier devices shows that the addition of a small fraction of hole traps is necessary for charge‐carrier balance. Optical studies using UV–vis and fluorescence spectroscopic measurements, photoluminescence quantum yield, and fluorescence decay time measurements indicate that TFB does not affect the optical properties of the aryl‐F8, which is the emitting material in these devices. Luminance efficiency of up to ≈11 cd A−1 and EQE values of 5.7% are achieved in these structures with the aid of improved out‐coupling using index‐matched hemispheres.
Floating-to-Fixed-Point Conversion for Digital Signal Processors

Digital signal processing applications are specified with floating-point data types but they are usually implemented in embedded systems with fixed-point arithmetic to minimise cost and power consumption. Thus, methodologies which establish automatically the fixed-point specification are required to reduce the application time-to-market. In this paper, a new methodology for the floating-to-fixed point conversion is proposed for software implementations. The aim of our approach is to determine the fixed-point specification which minimises the code execution time for a given accuracy constraint. Compared to previous methodologies, our approach takes into account the DSP architecture to optimise the fixed-point formats and the floating-to-fixed-point conversion process is coupled with the code generation process. The fixed-point data types and the position of the scaling operations are optimised to reduce the code execution time. To evaluate the fixed-point computation accuracy, an analytical approach is used to reduce the optimisation time compared to the existing methods based on simulation. The methodology stages are described and several experiment results are presented to underline the efficiency of this approach.
Web service selection based on QoS Constraints

Web service selection is an indispensable process for web service composition as to select best web service to a client's requirement. As many web services are increased in the internet for similar functionality, which service will be the best for the client requirement is an elusive task for web service operators. In this paper, we have proposed a web service selection model used to select best web service based on QoS Constraints. The QoS manager actuates as an agent for service providers and clients to perform publish and find web service operations. QoSDB caters the needs to store the details of QoS of a web service. The QoS attributes of a web service such as response time, throughput, reliability, availability and cost are optimized and ranked by our algorithm, the rank value will be stored in the QoSDB. To find a web service, the user has to specify the functional details of a web service and its QoS values which are required to identify the list of services which are matched with the given criteria. Moreover, the user has to set the threshold value for response time and throughput which are used to filter the related services from the list. For each web service request, the QoS manager asses the request and list of pertinent candidate services which are matched with the requirement will be filtered and provided to the client for setting the preferences over the QoS attributes. The highest ranked service will be provided to the client for further processing.
Mechanical and Ferroelectric Response of Highly Textured PZT Films for Low Power MEMS

Abstract : In the reporting 1.5 month period we established the basic experimental tools required to carry out experiments with thin Pt films that serve as top and bottom electrodes in PZT MEMS. The graduate student was trained on materials characterization tools and the microscale thin film testing apparatus at the PI's laboratory. Furthermore, thin Pt films were fabricated at ARL US Army Research Laboratory (ARL) in Adelphi, MD, which are an integral part of the PZT composite films that will be studied in this project.
DNA barcoding to fishes: current status and future directions

Abstract DNA barcoding appears to be a promising approach for taxonomic identification, characterization, and discovery of newer species, facilitating biodiversity studies. It helps researchers to appreciate genetic and evolutionary associations by collection of molecular, morphological, and distributional data. Fish DNA barcoding, based on the sequencing of a uniform area of Cytochrome C Oxidase type I (COI) gene, has received significant interest as an accurate tool for species identification, authentication, and phylogenetic analysis. The aim of this review article was to investigate recent global status, approaches, and future direction of DNA barcoding in fisheries sectors. We have tried to highlight its possible impacts, complications, and validation issues at species levels for biodiversity analysis. Moreover, an effort has been put forward to understand issues related to various marker genes associated with barcode process as primer sequences and have concluded barcode promotion as an indispensable tool of molecular biology for the development of taxonomic support systems.
A STUDY ON THE CREATION OF UNIVERSITY VIRTUAL DEGREES IN THE TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY OF SAN JUAN OF THE RÍO

Technology education in high school is the last stage prior to seeking employment and embarking upon a career or seeking further education. Internet proposes an innovation in educational matters, but specially in higher education. In Mexico, Distance Technological Education allows us to support the population marginated by the conventional educational services. In particular, what is proposed is to support the adults by designing special job training programmes. Distance Education Institutions arise all around the country in every level, with this modality being an excellent option to combat the educational difficulties that exist in the country. This paper tries to find the viability to create Virtual Degrees in the Technological University of San Juan of the Río (UTSJR), in the Querétaro State. Two different chances are considered to design a Virtual Degree:
Efficient Action Recognition with MoFREAK

Recent work shows that local binary feature descriptors are effective for increasing the efficiency of object recognition, while retaining comparable performance to other state of the art descriptors. An extension of these approaches to action recognition in videos would facilitate huge gains in efficiency, due to the computational advantage of computing a bag-of-words representation with the Hamming distance rather than the Euclidean distance. We present a new local spatiotemporal descriptor for action recognition that encodes both the appearance and motion in a scene with a short binary string. The first bytes of the descriptor encode the appearance and some implicit motion, through an extension of the recently proposed FREAK descriptor. The remaining bytes strengthen the motion model by building a binary string through local motion patterns. We demonstrate that by exploiting the binary makeup of this descriptor, it is possible to greatly reduce the running time of action recognition while retaining competitive performance with the state of the art.
Cross‐clade recognition of p55 by cytotoxic T lymphocytes in HIV‐1 infection

Objectives:To evaluate cross-clade recognition of p55 antigen by cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) in persons infected with diverse clades of HIV-1; to facilitate the development of a CTL-inducing vaccine to prevent transmission of multiple clades of HIV-1. Design:Experiments were designed to evaluate whether persons in Uganda and the United Kingdom, infected with diverse clades of HIV-1, have CTL capable of recognizing and killing autologous target cells infected with recombinant vaccinia viruses (rVV) expressing the Gag protein from A, B, C and D clade HIV-1. The extent of cross-reactivity within such individuals, each infected with characterized virus, might reflect the type of cross-reactive immune response inducible by a monovalent vaccine. Methods:Asymptomatic HIV-positive individuals were fully tissue-typed by ARMS (amplification of refractory mutation system) polymerase chain reaction. rVV expressing the Gag protein from identified A, B, C and D viruses were prepared. CTL were cultured and tested for cytolytic activity on autologous rVV-infected or peptide-pulsed B cells. Results:Ugandan patients had inducible CTL responses recognizing A, B, C and D clade HIV-1 Gag. The majority of UK patients had inducible CTL responses that recognized two or more clades. No patient showed any HIV-2 cross-reactivity. Cross-reactive responses were characterized in three Ugandan patients. Conclusions:Most patients tested mounted cross-reactive CTL responses that recognized Gag proteins from clades of HIV-1 other than those with which they were infected.
Use of individual fraction size data from 3756 patients to directly determine the alpha/beta ratio of prostate cancer.

PURPOSE To examine the effect of fraction size and total dose of radiation on recurrence of localized prostate cancer. METHODS AND MATERIALS A total of 3756 patients treated with radiation monotherapy at three institutions were analyzed, including 185 high-dose-rate brachytherapy (HDRB) boost patients. The 5th to 95th centiles of external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) fraction sizes and doses were 1.8 to 2.86 Gy, and 57.4 to 77.4 Gy, respectively, and HDRB fractional doses were between 5.5 and 12 Gy, totaling 147 unique fractionation schedules. Failure was defined by one biochemical (nadir + 2 ng/ml) and two advanced disease endpoints. The alpha/beta ratios were estimated via a proportional hazards model stratified by risk severity and institution. RESULTS The alpha/beta ratio using biochemical recurrence was 3.7 Gy (95% confidence interval [95% CI], 1.1, infinity Gy) for EBRT-only cases and 2.6 Gy (95% CI, 0.9, 4.8 Gy) after the addition of HDRB data. This estimate was highly dependent on an HDRB homogeneity correction factor (120% HDRB dose increase; alpha/beta ratio 4.5 Gy, 95% CI 1.6, 8.7 Gy). A 5-Gy increase in total dose reduced the hazard of failure by 16% (95% CI 11, 21%, p < 0.0001), and had more impact as follow-up matured (p < 0.0003). The clinically advanced endpoints concurred with the biochemical failure results, albeit with less precision. CONCLUSIONS This study supports the concept that the alpha/beta ratio of prostate cancer is low, although considerable uncertainty remains in the estimated value. Outcome data from EBRT studies using substantially higher doses per fraction are needed to show increased precision in these estimates.
Phrase Based Language Model for Statistical Machine Translation - empirical study

Reordering is a challenge to machine translation (MT) systems. In MT, the widely used approach is to apply word based language model (LM) which considers the constituent units of a sentence as words. In speech recognition (SR), some phrase based LM have been proposed. However, those LMs are not necessarily suitable or optimal for reordering. We propose two phrase based LMs which considers the constituent units of a sentence as phrases. Experiments show that our phrase based LMs outperform the word based LM with the respect of perplexity and n-best list re-ranking.
Effect of amiloride analogs on DOCA-salt-induced hypertension in rats.

Intracerebroventricular infusions of an amiloride analog, benzamil, reduce blood pressure in several rat models of hypertension. This effect has been attributed to an inhibition of amiloride-sensitive Na+ channels in the brain. This study examines whether intracerebroventricular benzamil would prevent the onset of deoxycorticosterone acetate (DOCA)-salt-induced hypertension in rats and whether this effect correlates with an inhibition of ion transport through the known amiloride-sensitive cation channels at the blood-brain barrier. We also examine whether the effects of benzamil on blood pressure are mediated by a Na+ channel by comparing the effects of different amiloride analogs. Benzamil (0.15 and 0.5 μg/h icv) did significantly attenuate the increase in blood pressure induced by DOCA treatment. This antihypertensive effect, however, was not associated with an alteration in a blood-brain barrier ion transport as assessed by measurements of blood-to-brain22Na transport and cerebral spinal fluid Na+ and K+ concentrations. Indeed, intracerebroventricular infusion of dimethyl amiloride, an amiloride analog with low affinity for Na+channels, also attenuated the increase in blood pressure induced by DOCA-salt treatment. Comparisons of the effects of benzamil, dimethyl amiloride, and 3,4-dichlorobenzamil, another amiloride analog, suggest that these antihypertensive effects are mediated by an inhibition of Na+/Ca2+exchange in the brain.
Respiratory Outcome of Mid-face Advancement With Distraction: A Comparison Between Le Fort III and Frontofacial Monobloc

Upper airway stenosis in patients with faciocraniosynostosis is very common and often severe. Mid-face advancement, either with a Le Fort III or concomitantly to a monobloc frontofacial advancement, may prevent a tracheotomy or result in its ablation. The amelioration of respiratory function appears to be much better if the mid-face advancement is combined with distraction osteogenesis, although large studies with long-term follow-up are rare. In this study we reviewed the respiratory outcome between Le Fort III with distraction and monobloc advancement with distraction in 55 faciocraniosynostotic patients. Early respiratory results of both procedures were very good and stable at long-term follow-up. The choice between a Le Fort III and a monobloc procedure is made based on presenting morphology, previous surgery, and age. Both can be expected to give a long-lasting improvement of upper airway obstruction.
Parkinsonism is a Late, Not Rare, Feature of CADASIL: A Study on Italian Patients Carrying the R1006C Mutation

Background and Purpose— To describe parkinsonism as a clinical manifestation of cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy. Methods— We report 5 patients carrying the R1006C mutation in the exon 19 of NOTCH3 gene. All cases presented late onset, slowly progressive parkinsonism, not responsive to l-dopa. We performed brain MRI and 123I-FP-CIT SPECT in all and in 3 additional patients carrying the same mutation but without parkinsonism. Four patients with parkinsonism underwent myocardial 123I-meta-iodobenzylguanidine scintigraphy. Results— In all patients, brain MRI showed widespread ischemic lesions in the periventricular white matter, the internal and external capsules, the basal ganglia, and thalami. 123I-FP-CIT SPECT showed symmetrical or asymmetrical reduction of tracer uptake in the putamen, with inconstant caudate involvement. Myocardial 123I-meta-iodobenzylguanidine scintigraphy resulted normal. Nigrostriatal denervation was also demonstrated in 2 patients without parkinsonism. Conclusions— In cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy, parkinsonism may be a not rare, late onset manifestation. The clinical picture, the lack of response to dopaminergic treatment, and MRI findings suggest a vascular parkinsonism, which may be preceded by a protracted presymptomatic phase.
Biophysiologically Plausible Implementations of the Maximum Operation

Visual processing in the cortex can be characterized by a predominantly hierarchical architecture, in which specialized brain regions along the processing pathways extract visual features of increasing complexity, accompanied by greater invariance in stimulus properties such as size and position. Various studies have postulated that a nonlinear pooling function such as the maximum (MAX) operation could be fundamental in achieving such selectivity and invariance. In this article, we are concerned with neurally plausible mechanisms that may be involved in realizing the MAX operation. Different canonical models are proposed, each based on neural mechanisms that have been previously discussed in the context of cortical processing. Through simulations and mathematical analysis, we compare the performance and robustness of these mechanisms. We derive experimentally verifiable predictions for each model and discuss the relevant physiological considerations.
Health Service Utilization and Expenditure of the Elderly in China

Using data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Survey, we employed counterfactual propensity score matching to examine the association between income and health service utilization and expenditure of the elderly in China. The results demonstrated that income did not differentiate whether the poor elderly in China visited a doctor when suffering an illness, but their expenditure on medical treatment was significantly associated with income. Subgroup analysis further indicated that the medical demands of female, older, and rural elderly were more likely to be reduced by their income compared with their counterparts.
Massive-Element Antenna for Small Cell Solutions in 5

Executive Summary Various innovations are expected to drive the evolution of cellular systems towards the 5th generation (5G). In this paper, we propose a new concept, virtualization of cells. This concept is based on Centralized/ Cloud-Radio Access Network (C-RAN) and advanced techniques in spatial domain. The proposed architecture helps to fully exploit the radio resources and efficiently utilize network processing resources. We discuss the benefits of a massiveelement antenna implementation to virtualized small cells. The experimental results from a proof of concept (PoC) demonstrated that our enhanced beamforming achieved high system throughput. NEC will continue to address the challenges of 5G cellular networks leveraging the proposed architecture.