Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A new era of treatment for patients with haemophilia A?

Summary Treatment and prevention of bleeding episodes in patients with severe haemophilia A require frequent intravenous injection of factor VIII. Inhibitory antibodies against factor VIII occur in approximately 30 % of these patients during the first exposure days and immune tolerance induction to eradicate the inhibitor is challenging. Prevention of bleeds in patients with haemophilia A and inhibitors is less effective and there is ongoing research for alternative treatment options. A promising approach in 2016 is the development of emicizumab (ACE910), a bispecific IgG antibody to factor IXa and factor X, that mimics the cofactor function of factor VIII. Due to the different structure of this antibody it cannot be neutralized by factor VIII inhibitors and has the possibility to achieve haemostasis in patients with severe haemophilia A with and without inhibitors. First studies in healthy volunteers and in patients showed a shortened activated partial thromboplastin time and increased peak height of thrombin generation in a dose-dependent manner. The halflife of the drug was 4 to 5 weeks. There were no clinical signs of thrombosis and no laboratory abnormalities indicating hypercoagulability. In a first study with 18 patients with severe haemophilia A with and without inhibitors a remarkable reduction in the annualised bleeding rate occurred. Safety of the drug has to be proven in ongoing research. Mimicking the cofactor activity of factor VIII by a bispecific antibody for the treatment of severe haemophilia A is so far safe and seems to be effective and is one highlight in haemostasis 2016.
Influence of selection and replacement strategies on linkage learning in BOA

The Bayesian optimization algorithm (BOA) uses Bayesian networks to learn linkages between the decision variables of an optimization problem. This paper studies the influence of different selection and replacement methods on the accuracy of linkage learning in BOA. Results on concatenated m-k deceptive trap functions show that the model accuracy depends on a large extent on the choice of selection method and to a lesser extent on the replacement strategy used. Specifically, it is shown that linkage learning in BOA is more accurate with truncation selection than with tournament selection. The choice of replacement strategy is important when tournament selection is used, but it is not relevant when using truncation selection. On the other hand, if performance is our main concern, tournament selection and restricted tournament replacement should be preferred. These results aim to provide practitioners with useful information about the best way to tune BOA with respect to structural model accuracy and overall performance.
The Effect of Pattern Scan Laser Photocoagulation on Peripapillary Retinal Nerve Fiber Layer Thickness and Optic Nerve Morphology in Diabetic Retinopathy

Purpose To evaluate the effect of pattern scan laser (PASCAL) photocoagulation on peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness, central macular thickness (CMT), and optic nerve morphology in patients with diabetic retinopathy. Methods Subjects included 35 eyes for the PASCAL group and 49 eyes for a control group. Peripapillary RNFL thickness, cup-disc area ratio and CMT were measured before PASCAL photocoagulation and at 2 and 6 months after PASCAL photocoagulation in the PASCAL or control groups. Results The average RNFL thickness had increased by 0.84 µm two months after and decreased by 0.4 µm six months after PASCAL photocoagulation compared to baseline, but these changes were not significant (p = 0.83, 0.39). The cup-disc area ratio was unchanged after PASCAL photocoagulation. CMT increased by 18.11 µm (p = 0.048) at two months compared to baseline thickness, and partially recovered to 11.82 µm (p = 0.11) at six months in the PASCAL group. Conclusions PASCAL photocoagulation may not cause significant change in the peripapillary RNFL thickness, CMT, and optic nerve morphology in patients with diabetic retinopathy.
A clustering strategy for touching characters in Korean and English printed text segmentation

This paper proposes segmentation method in mixed Korean and English printed text which contains touching characters using clustering strategy. At the first step, a vertical projection of image text is determined, and clustering process performed on it. Then the cluster with the smallest mean value used as candidate segmentation point. This process will produce candidate bounding boxes. Furthermore, they should be verified whether according to Korean or English characteristics otherwise they will be splitted or merged each others. The merged process could be done based on Korean vowel characteristics since Korean alphabet consist several symbols, while splitted process could be done by local vertical projection clustering. The proposed method gives 99.36% correct segmentation rate in un-touching characters and 99.25% in touching characters. This result shows that the proposed method using clustering strategy is very effective for touching problem in mixed Korean and English printed text. Besides, it also improves the speed of segmentation process, because the method does not need a character recognizer to verify bounding boxes.
A Logical Characterization of Small 2NFAs

Let 2N be the class of families of problems solvable by families of two-way nondeterministic finite automata of polynomial size. We characterize 2N in terms of families of formulas of transitive-closure logic. These formulas apply the transitive-closure operator on a quantifier-free disjunctive normal form of first-order logic with successor and constants, where (i) apart from two special variables, all others are equated to constants in every clause, and (ii) no clause simultaneously relates these two special variables and refers to fixed input cells. We prove that automata with polynomially many states are as powerful as formulas with polynomially many clauses and polynomially large constants. This can be seen as a refinement of Immerman’s theorem that nondeterministic logarithmic space matches positive transitive-closure logic (NL = FO+pos TC).
The Schedule as Independent Variable ( SAIV ) Process for Acquisition Software-Intensive Systems

In this article, we show how you can use the MBASE process framework to generate a family of acquisition process models for delivering user-satisfactory systems under schedule, cost, and quality constraints. We present the six major steps of the Schedule/Cost/Schedule-Cost-Quality as Independent Variable (SAIV/CAIV/SCQAIV) process using SAIV and a representative Department of Defense (DoD) Command, Control, and Communications Interoperability application as context. We then summarize our experience in using SAIV on 26 University of Southern California electronic services projects, followed by discussions of SAIV/CAIV/SCQAIV application in the commercial and defense sectors, of model application within the DoD acquisition framework, and of the resulting conclusions.
Spironolactone has antiarrhythmic activity in ischaemic cardiac patients without cardiac failure

Objectives To examine whether endogenous aldosterone can cause either arrhythmias (and some of their underlying mechanisms) or endothelial dysfunction in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) but without heart failure. Background Aldosterone blockade has been shown to reduce the incidence of sudden death in patients with heart failure. This could be caused by a reduction in arrhythmias or in coronary events. Whether either effect also occurs in other cardiac patients without heart failure is currently unknown. Method We performed a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind crossover study on 98 patients with CAD but without heart failure on standard therapy, comparing 12.5–50 mg/day spironolactone (3 months) with placebo. Endothelial function was assessed by bilateral forearm venous occlusion plethysmography. Ventricular extrasystoles, procollagen III N-terminal peptide (PIIINP) and QT interval length were used to represent arrhythmias and their determinants. Results Spironolactone produced a highly significant 75% reduction in ventricular extrasystoles (median 192, range 48–744) on placebo compared with spironolactone (median 48, range 19.2–288, P < 0.003). Spironolactone also decreased the QT interval from a mean of 440 ± 28 to a mean of 425 ± 25 (P < 0.001) and a collagen marker (PIIINP) from a mean of 3.6 ± 0.9 to a mean of 3.0 ± 0.8 (P < 0.001), but did not significantly change endothelial dysfunction or heart rate variability. Conclusion These results suggest that despite conventional therapy, endogenous aldosterone can be an arrhythmogenic influence in patients with CAD, but without heart failure. The possible mechanisms are that aldosterone promotes myocardial fibrosis and lengthens the QTc interval as well as decreasing potassium in CAD patients without heart failure.
Feature binding and relaxation labeling with the competitive layer model

We discuss the relation of the Competitive Layer Model (CLM) to Relaxation Labeling (RL) with regard to feature binding and labeling problems. The CLM uses cooperative and competitive interactions to partition a set of input features into groups by energy minimization. As we show, the stable attractors of the CLM provide consistent and unambiguous labelings in the sense of RL and we give an efficient stochastic simulation procedure for their identification. In addition to binding the CLM exhibits contextual activity modulation to rep- resent stimulus salience. We incorporate deterministic annealing for avoidance of local minima and show how figure-ground segmentation and g rouping can be combined for the CLM application of contour grouping on a real image. Proceedings European Symposium on Artificial Neural Networ ks, Bruges 1999, pages 295-300
Regional response leading to tumorigenesis after sulindac in small and large intestine of mice with Apc mutations.

Sulindac and other NSAIDs have been widely studied as potential chemopreventive agents for colon cancer. Short-term studies have shown adenomatous polyps to regress in patients with familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP). In this study the effect of sulindac on cancer as an endpoint was evaluated in ApcMin mice, a preclinical model of FAP with an Apc mutation in codon 850 that leads to gastrointestinal adenomas and carcinomas. Three groups of mice were studied all of which were fed AIN-76A diet: one group was fed AIN-76A diet alone, a second group received sulindac 200 p.p.m. premixed in the diet and a third group received sulindac 180 p.p.m. added in drinking water. ApcMin mice were killed 9 weeks after feeding was initiated. Mice receiving sulindac developed fewer tumors in the intestine overall; the major decrease in tumor development after sulindac was seen in the small intestine regardless of route of administration. In the large intestine, however, sulindac significantly increased the incidence, multiplicity and volume of tumors in the colon of ApcMin mice, a regional response to sulindac differing from previous reports. Quantitative measurements of apoptosis, Bax and Bcl-xL protein expression in the ApcMin mice revealed the ratio of Bax/Bcl-xL expression and apoptosis increased in the small intestine but decreased in the cecum, consistent with the regional tumorigenesis observed after sulindac. These findings thus suggest involvement of Bax and apoptosis in tumors developing after sulindac treatment in this mouse model.
All-Optical T-Flip-Flop Using a Single SOA-MZI-Based Latching Element

The authors demonstrate a novel all-optical T-flip-flop (TFF) layout utilizing a single optical latching element that comprises an integrated semiconductor optical amplifier and Mach-Zehnder inteferometer and a feedback loop. Experimental proof-of-concept verification is presented at 8 Mb/s using off-the-shelf bulk components and a fiber-based feedback implementation. The proposed TFF architecture requires the minimum number of active components and just a single toggling signal as input. Its simple circuit design is amenable with photonic integration and holds the credentials for operation at multi-Gb/s speeds.
Semantic spaces revisited: investigating the performance of auto-annotation and semantic retrieval using semantic spaces

Semantic spaces encode similarity relationships between objects as a function of position in a mathematical space. This paper discusses three different formulations for building semantic spaces which allow the automatic-annotation and semantic retrieval of images. The models discussed in this paper require that the image content be described in the form of a series of visual-terms, rather than as a continuous feature-vector. The paper also discusses how these term-based models compare to the latest state-of-the-art continuous feature models for auto-annotation and retrieval.
Dual Coding with STDP in a Spiking Recurrent Neural Network Model of the Hippocampus

The firing rate of single neurons in the mammalian hippocampus has been demonstrated to encode for a range of spatial and non-spatial stimuli. It has also been demonstrated that phase of firing, with respect to the theta oscillation that dominates the hippocampal EEG during stereotype learning behaviour, correlates with an animal's spatial location. These findings have led to the hypothesis that the hippocampus operates using a dual (rate and temporal) coding system. To investigate the phenomenon of dual coding in the hippocampus, we examine a spiking recurrent network model with theta coded neural dynamics and an STDP rule that mediates rate-coded Hebbian learning when pre- and post-synaptic firing is stochastic. We demonstrate that this plasticity rule can generate both symmetric and asymmetric connections between neurons that fire at concurrent or successive theta phase, respectively, and subsequently produce both pattern completion and sequence prediction from partial cues. This unifies previously disparate auto- and hetero-associative network models of hippocampal function and provides them with a firmer basis in modern neurobiology. Furthermore, the encoding and reactivation of activity in mutually exciting Hebbian cell assemblies demonstrated here is believed to represent a fundamental mechanism of cognitive processing in the brain.
Peasants, Populism and Postmodernism: The Return of the Agrarian Myth

European journal of Development Research "hard-hitting.the richness of the work, in terms of historical depth, geographical span, and disiciplinary and thematic variety cannot fail to impress. " The European Journal of Development Research "hard-hitting.the richness of the work, in terms of historical depth, geographical span, and disciplinary and thematic variety cannot fail to impress" James Overton,Memorial University of Newfoundland "This is probably the most important book on politics and development which I have read in the last ten years" The Journal of Development Studies
Voronoi cell shaping for feature selection with discrete HMMs

In this paper, we introduce a novel vector quantization (VQ) scheme for distributing the quantization error equally among the quantized dimensions. Afterwards, the proposed VQ scheme is used to perform feature selection in on-line handwritten whiteboard note recognition based on discrete Hidden-Markov-Models (HMMs). In an experimental section we show that the novel VQ scheme derives feature sets which contain less than 50% features, enabling recognition with better performance at less computational costs. Finally, the derived feature set is compared to the quantized features selected within a continuous HMM-based system: the features selected after quantization with the proposed VQ scheme are proved to perform significantly better than those in the continuous system.
An expert system for coherent assessment of probabilities in multigraph models

In this paper, we present a method that allows a coherent assessment of probabilistic Bayesian networks over sets of nodes or variables that share a common subset. We motivate and illustrate the models with a diseases-symptoms knowledge base defined by multiple Bayesian networks. Since the parameter values for the joint probability distribution of diseases and symptoms must satisfy some compatibility conditions, the probability assessment becomes complicated and can be monitored by an expert system, in order to maintain coherence in the knowledge base. The bases of this expert system are presented. Once the human expert selects one parameter in the model to be assessed, the expert system calculates and provides the human expert with a range of feasible values of the parameter. Any value of the parameter within this range is coherent with the probability axioms. Then, the human expert can specify either a single value or an interval for that parameter in the feasible range. Accordingly, the expert system then updates the feasible ranges for all other parameters. The process can be repeated until all the parameters have been specified. At the end, the expert system gives a final set of values or intervals for all parameters. We apply the proposed system to the dependent-symptoms and the independent-symptoms probabilistic models. We give two numerical examples to illustrate the method.
Plagiarism detection scheme based on Semantic Role Labeling

Nowadays, many documents are available on the internet and are easy to access. Due to this wide availability, users can easily create a new document by copying and pasting. Plagiarism occurs when the content is copied without permission or citation. This paper introduces a plagiarism detection technique based on the Semantic Role Labeling (SRL). The technique analyses and compares text based on the semantic allocation for each term inside the sentence. SRL is superior in generating arguments for each sentence semantically. In addition, experimental results on PAN-PC-09 data sets showed that our method outperforms the modern methods for plagiarism detection in terms of Recall, Precision and F-measure.
The in Vitro Antimicrobial Efficacy of Propolis against Four Oral Pathogens: A Review

This study screened the available evidence for the in vitro antimicrobial efficacy of propolis, a natural herbal resin bee product, against a selection of three bacterial species of relevance to oral diseases. For this purpose, papers dealing with laboratory studies assessing minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), minimum bactericidal concentrations (MBC) or the agar diffusion method to analyze the antimicrobial properties of propolis on three oral pathogens (S. mutans, P. gingivalis, F. nucleatum) and a yeast (C. albicans) are reviewed. Overall, a positive antimicrobial effect could be shown. However, when compared to the commonly used control substances (e.g., specific antibiotics, antiseptics and antifungals), propolis appeared less effective, depending on the bacterial strain, and required higher concentrations than the control substances, in order to show a measurable effect. Nevertheless, propolis as a natural herbal resin bee product can be considered as a natural antiseptic agent within the range of other herbal products, like sanguinarine. Therefore, it may be a valuable compound of non-synthetic, natural origin for patients seeking complementary agents and alternatives for “hard” chemicals.
The Role of Stress, Glucocorticoids & β-Adrenergic Signaling in Aversive, Hippocampus-Dependent Memory Retrieval

Studies in wild-type rats and mice, and mutant mice lacking norepinephrine (NE) demonstrate that NE, β1adrenergic, cAMP/PKA and Epac signaling are required for intermediate-term hippocampus-dependent memory retrieval. Although it has been proposed that glucocorticoids (GCs) facilitate β-adrenergic signaling to impair retrieval, neither a specific requirement for NE nor a definitive mechanism as to how this interaction occurs has been established. This thesis provides compelling evidence that 1) GCs do not require (but can synergize with) the adrenergic system to impair hippocampus-dependent memory retrieval; 2) GCs and xamoterol interact with the β2 receptor to impair retrieval; 3) β2 receptors signal through Gi/o in the hippocampus to impair retrieval, acting to negate the facilitation of hippocampus-dependent memory retrieval mediated by β1-Gs signaling; 4) GCs impair retrieval through possibly direct interaction with the β2 receptor; 5) β2 signaling is required for retrieval and may be required for short-term maintenance of fear memory; 6) β3 signaling influences retrieval; 7) interactions between β receptors are important and net effects of β receptor stimulation (or antagonism) on hippocampal cAMP signaling likely determine the degree of retrieval impairment expressed, as individual β receptors can have similar or opposing effects on cAMP levels; and 8) adrenergic and glucocorticoid influences on retrieval are limited by the age of the memory. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Pharmacology First Advisor Steven A. Thomas
Targeted-Tracking With Pointing Devices

Targeting and tracking in graphical user interfaces have been widely studied, but attempts to model targeted-tracking are few. Targeted-tracking is essentially a two component task of tracking followed by targeting, where either or both components may dominate depending on the levels of difficulty in each component. The applicability of an empirical model based on computer mouse use is unknown with respect to other devices. In order to confirm the model validity for other input devices, experiments were carried out using a mouse, a pen mouse, a touch screen, and a graphics tablet. Fourteen participants were tested on 48 experimental conditions that included four difficulty levels and 12 conditions with varying track width (P), track length (D), and target width (W). Movement time, error rate, index of performance, and throughput were compared. Repeated-measures ANOVA indicated that factors in the targeted-tracking model were significant (ρ <; 0.05) and movement time data were a good fit (R2 > 0.8) to the model, confirming the generality of the model. A principal component analysis showed that a mouse is relatively superior in terms of both movement time and error rate. Thus, the targeted-tracking model is an effective way to compare and evaluate input devices.
Complete mitochondrial genome sequence and structure of control region of the Amoya chusanensis (Perciformes, Gobioidei)

Amoya chusanensis is a small benthonic fish, which inhabits the near shore area of freshwater and brackish, especially the hole of the intertidal zone, and is an endemic species of China which is mainly distributed in the East China Sea. In this study, firstly the complete mitochondrial genome of A. chusanensis was determined. The genome is 16,486 bp in length and consists of 13 protein-coding genes, 22 tRNA genes, 2 ribosomal RNA genes, and 2 main noncoding regions (the control region and the origin of the light strand replication). The complete mitochondrial genome base composition is 26.4% for T, 28.7% for C, 29.0% for A, and 15.9% for G, with a slight A+T bias of 55.4%. Within the control region, the termination-associated sequence, central, and conserved sequence block domains were found.