Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Measurement of Salivary Cortisone to Assess the Adequacy of Hydrocortisone Replacement.

CONTEXT This Commentary discusses the study of Debono et al (19) and focuses on the potential use of multiple salivary cortisone measurements to evaluate the adequacy of hydrocortisone replacement therapy. Salivary cortisone, typically measured using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry, accurately reflects plasma free cortisol because of the expression of 11-β -hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase in the salivary gland. Debono et al showed that multiple, sequential salivary cortisone measurements obtained over a 12-hour period correlated with plasma free cortisol in subjects receiving intravenous or oral hydrocortisone (authentic cortisol). CONCLUSIONS Hopefully, these studies will lead to a simplified protocol with fewer samples for the measurement of salivary cortisone that can reliably assess the adequacy of hydrocortisone replacement in patients with adrenal insufficiency. This protocol has to be cost-effective and be feasible to obtain timed salivary samples accurately at home. It would be a significant advance to be able to monitor hydrocortisone replacement therapy with as few as one or two salivary cortisone measurements.
Atomic-scale investigation of grain-boundary microchemistry in the nickel-based superalloy Astroloy with a three-dimensional atom probe

Abstract A new three-dimensional (3D) atom probe was used to study grain-boundary segregation and ordering phenomena in a two-phase (γ-γ') Ni-based superalloy, namely Astroloy. The tomographic images show that the grain-boundary serration is due to γ' precipitates which develop along boundaries during cooling. These 3D reconstructions also exhibit segregations of B, C, Mo and Cr at grain boundaries. They also reveal that the degree of order in γ' particles which are located along boundaries is preserved up to the grain boundary.
The Relation Between Color Discrimination and Color Constancy: When Is Optimal Adaptation Task Dependent?

Color vision supports two distinct visual functions: discrimination and constancy. Discrimination requires that the visual response to distinct objects within a scene be different. Constancy requires that the visual response to any object be the same across scenes. Across changes in scene, adaptation can improve discrimination by optimizing the use of the available response range. Similarly, adaptation can improve constancy by stabilizing the visual response to any fixed object across changes in illumination. Can common mechanisms of adaptation achieve these two goals simultaneously? We develop a theoretical framework for answering this question and present several example calculations. In the examples studied, the answer is largely yes when the change of scene consists of a change in illumination and considerably less so when the change of scene consists of a change in the statistical ensemble of surface reflectances in the environment.
Deep Motif Dashboard: Visualizing and Understanding Genomic Sequences Using Deep Neural Networks

Deep neural network (DNN) models have recently obtained state-of-the-art prediction accuracy for the transcription factor binding (TFBS) site classification task. However, it remains unclear how these approaches identify meaningful DNA sequence signals and give insights as to why TFs bind to certain locations. In this paper, we propose a toolkit called the Deep Motif Dashboard (DeMo Dashboard) which provides a suite of visualization strategies to extract motifs, or sequence patterns from deep neural network models for TFBS classification. We demonstrate how to visualize and understand three important DNN models: convolutional, recurrent, and convolutional-recurrent networks. Our first visualization method is finding a test sequence's saliency map which uses first-order derivatives to describe the importance of each nucleotide in making the final prediction. Second, considering recurrent models make predictions in a temporal manner (from one end of a TFBS sequence to the other), we introduce temporal output scores, indicating the prediction score of a model over time for a sequential input. Lastly, a class-specific visualization strategy finds the optimal input sequence for a given TFBS positive class via stochastic gradient optimization. Our experimental results indicate that a convolutional-recurrent architecture performs the best among the three architectures. The visualization techniques indicate that CNN-RNN makes predictions by modeling both motifs as well as dependencies among them.
MR imaging and CT of surgical materials currently used in ophthalmology: in vitro and in vivo studies.

PURPOSE To assess methods of imaging postoperative changes in the eyeball by performing in vitro and in vivo studies of the main solid and fluid materials used in the treatment of cataract and retinal detachment. MATERIALS AND METHODS The samples were analyzed in vitro with computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance (MR) imaging performed at 0.5 T. In vivo studies were performed in seven patients who underwent lens implantation (n = 1), scleral buckling with hydrogel or silicone (n = 6), and retinopexy with gas or silicone oil (n = 6). The attenuation and signal intensity of the materials were compared with values for anatomic structures. RESULTS Lens implants were difficult to visualize. Each scleral buckling and retinopexy material was easily differentiated from the others and from anatomic structures at both CT and MR imaging. CONCLUSION Postoperative CT or MR imaging may be useful after retinal detachment surgery, particularly when ultrasound is not reliable after intravitreous gas-fluid interchange.
Transporter-Mediated Drug–Drug Interactions with Oral Antidiabetic Drugs

Uptake transporters (e.g., members of the SLC superfamily of solute carriers) and export proteins (e.g., members of the ABC transporter superfamily) are important determinants for the pharmacokinetics of drugs. Alterations of drug transport due to concomitantly administered drugs that interfere with drug transport may alter the kinetics of drug substrates. In vitro and in vivo studies indicate that many drugs used for the treatment of metabolic disorders and cardiovascular diseases (e.g., oral antidiabetic drugs, statins) are substrates for uptake transporters and export proteins expressed in the intestine, the liver and the kidney. Since most patients with type 2 diabetes receive more than one drug, transporter-mediated drug-drug interactions are important molecular mechanisms leading to alterations in oral antidiabetic drug pharmacokinetics with the risk of adverse drug reactions. This review focuses on uptake transporters of the SLCO/SLC21 (OATP) and SLC22 (OCT/OAT) family of solute carriers and export pumps of the ABC (ATP-binding cassette) transporter superfamily (especially P-glycoprotein) as well as the export proteins of the SLC47 (MATE) family and their role for transporter-mediated drug-drug interactions with oral antidiabetic drugs.
IT Governance Effectiveness and Its Antecedents: An Empirical Examination in Brazilian Firms

IT governance has become an important concern for business, receiving great attention from both practitioners and academics. Although some authors have stated that effective IT governance is crucial for any organization to achieve its corporate goals, little academic research is available that empirically supports the assumptions about the factors that determine the effectiveness of IT governance. In this sense, we proposed and examined a theoretical model that explains and predicts IT governance effectiveness, linking its domains and mechanisms. We empirically tested our hypotheses based on survey data gathered from 87 CIOs of large Brazilian companies. The results have implications about how IT governance domains and the adoption of different IT governance mechanisms can affect IT governance effectiveness, bringing implications from theory and practice.
Auditory cortex interneuron development requires cadherins operating hair-cell mechanoelectrical transduction

Significance In early-onset genetic forms of deafness, deficits of the auditory sensory organ are sufficient to account for the hearing impairment. However, the possibility that intrinsic deficits of the auditory cortex (AC) coexist with the peripheral deficits is still unexplored. We show, in rodents and primates, that the cadherin-related proteins cdhr23 and cdhr15 are expressed by many interneuron precursors targeted specifically to the AC. A deficiency of either protein results in the failure of these interneuron precursors to enter the embryonic cortex and in abnormally small numbers of parvalbumin interneurons in the AC only. These findings should lead to an improvement of hearing rehabilitation strategies in patients and open up new genetic approaches for studying AC development and function. Many genetic forms of congenital deafness affect the sound reception antenna of cochlear sensory cells, the hair bundle. The resulting sensory deprivation jeopardizes auditory cortex (AC) maturation. Early prosthetic intervention should revive this process. Nevertheless, this view assumes that no intrinsic AC deficits coexist with the cochlear ones, a possibility as yet unexplored. We show here that many GABAergic interneurons, from their generation in the medial ganglionic eminence up to their settlement in the AC, express two cadherin-related (cdhr) proteins, cdhr23 and cdhr15, that form the hair bundle tip links gating the mechanoelectrical transduction channels. Mutant mice lacking either protein showed a major decrease in the number of parvalbumin interneurons specifically in the AC, and displayed audiogenic reflex seizures. Cdhr15- and Cdhr23-expressing interneuron precursors in Cdhr23−/− and Cdhr15−/− mouse embryos, respectively, failed to enter the embryonic cortex and were scattered throughout the subpallium, consistent with the cell polarity abnormalities we observed in vitro. In the absence of adhesion G protein-coupled receptor V1 (adgrv1), another hair bundle link protein, the entry of Cdhr23- and Cdhr15-expressing interneuron precursors into the embryonic cortex was also impaired. Our results demonstrate that a population of newborn interneurons is endowed with specific cdhr proteins necessary for these cells to reach the developing AC. We suggest that an “early adhesion code” targets populations of interneuron precursors to restricted neocortical regions belonging to the same functional area. These findings open up new perspectives for auditory rehabilitation and cortical therapies in patients.
Using CPU as a traffic co-processing unit in commodity switches

Commodity switches are becoming increasingly important as they are the basic building blocks for the enterprise and data center networks. With the availability of all-in-one switching ASICs, these switches almost universally adopt single switching ASIC design. However, such design also brings two major limitations, i.e, limited forwarding table for flow-based forwarding scheme such as Openflow and shallow buffer for bursty traffic pattern. In this paper, we propose to use CPU in the switches to handle not only control plane but also data plane traffic. We show that this design can provide large forwarding table for flow-based forwarding scheme and deep packet buffer for bursty traffic. We build such a prototype switch on ServerSwitch platform. In our evaluation, we show that our prototype can achieve over 90% traffic offloading ratio, absorb large traffic bursts without a single packet drop, and can be easily programmed to detect and defend low-rate burst attacks.
Multilayer Partially Reflective Surfaces for Broadband Fabry-Perot Cavity Antennas

A high-gain broadband Fabry-Perot-type antenna is proposed, based on multilayer periodic partially reflective surfaces (PRSs). Three layers of PRSs are employed, consisting of metallic patches printed on thin dielectric substrates and placed in front of a ground plane, forming three open cavities. The antenna performance is based on the reflection characteristics of the PRS array, which are obtained using periodic analysis. An equivalent circuit approach is presented for the design of the multilayer PRSs showing very good agreement with full-wave analysis. The geometry has been optimized using full-wave simulations (CST Microwave Studio). An antenna of around 20-dBi gain at an operating frequency of 14.5 GHz is obtained with a 3-dB bandwidth of about 15%, outperforming earlier antenna designs based on two-layer PRS. A prototype has been fabricated and tested, validating the simulation results.
THE VMC SURVEY. XI. RADIAL STELLAR POPULATION GRADIENTS IN THE GALACTIC GLOBULAR CLUSTER 47 TUCANAE

We present a deep near-infrared color–magnitude diagram of the Galactic globular cluster 47 Tucanae, obtained with the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) as part of the VISTA near-infrared Y, J, Ks survey of the Magellanic System (VMC). The cluster stars comprising both the subgiant and red giant branches exhibit apparent, continuous variations in color–magnitude space as a function of radius. Subgiant branch stars at larger radii are systematically brighter than their counterparts closer to the cluster core; similarly, red-giant-branch stars in the cluster's periphery are bluer than their more centrally located cousins. The observations can very well be described by adopting an age spread of ∼0.5 Gyr as well as radial gradients in both the cluster's helium abundance (Y) and metallicity (Z), which change gradually from (Y = 0.28, Z = 0.005) in the cluster core to (Y = 0.25, Z = 0.003) in its periphery. We conclude that the cluster's inner regions host a significant fraction of second-generation stars, which decreases with increasing radius; the stellar population in the 47 Tuc periphery is well approximated by a simple stellar population.
Dielectric properties of aerogels

We have measured the real (dielectric constant) and imaginary (loss factor) components of the complex relative permittivity at 298 K using microwave frequencies (2, 10, and 18–40 GHz) for bulk SiO_2-aerogels and for two types of organic aerogels, resorcinol-formaldehyde (RF) and melamine-formaldehyde (MF). Measured dielectric constants are found to vary linearly between values of 1.0 and 2.0 for aerogel densities from 10 to 500 kg/m^3. For the same range of densities, the measured loss tangents vary linearly between values of 2 × 10^−4 and 7 × 10^−2. The observed linearity of the dielectric properties with density in aerogels at microwave frequencies shows that their dielectric behavior is more gas-like than solid-like. The dielectric properties of aerogels are shown to be significantly affected by the adsorbed water internal to the bulk material. For example, water accounts for 70% of the dielectric constant and 70% of the loss at microwave frequencies for silica aerogels. Because of their very high porosity, even with the water content, the aerogels are among the few materials exhibiting such low dielectric properties. Our measurements show that aerogels with greater than 99% porosity have dielectric constants less than 1.03; these are the lowest values ever reported for a bulk solid material.
Tree Topology Estimation

Tree-like structures are fundamental in nature, and it is often useful to reconstruct the topology of a tree - what connects to what - from a two-dimensional image of it. However, the projected branches often cross in the image: the tree projects to a planar graph, and the inverse problem of reconstructing the topology of the tree from that of the graph is ill-posed. We regularize this problem with a generative, parametric tree-growth model. Under this model, reconstruction is possible in linear time if one knows the direction of each edge in the graph - which edge endpoint is closer to the root of the tree - but becomes NP-hard if the directions are not known. For the latter case, we present a heuristic search algorithm to estimate the most likely topology of a rooted, three-dimensional tree from a single two-dimensional image. Experimental results on retinal vessel, plant root, and synthetic tree data sets show that our methodology is both accurate and efficient.
Absence of antibodies against Bordetella pertussis in pregnant women and newborns in the state of Nuevo Leon

Abstract Aims: To assess placental transfer of antibodies to the child at birth and at 2 months of age. Materials and methods: For the quantification of anti-PT IgG antibodies, we used an indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay standardized by The National Institute of Epidemiologic Diagnosis and Reference (InDRE). Samples were considered negative from 0 to 48 IU/mL, indeterminate from 49 to 93 IU/mL and positive at ≥94 IU/mL. We performed a cross-sectional assessment of anti-PT IgG antibody levels in the mother, umbilical cord, and child. Results: There was a higher concentration of IgG anti-TP in the umbilical cord (4.3%) and in the mother (1.4%), but a total absence was observed in the child (0%). Conclusion: The vulnerability of children to Bordetella pertussis shows the need to implement effective immunization strategies, whether actively, in the child, or passively through the mother, adolescents, and adults who are in contact with the child.
Discriminant binary data representation for speaker recognition

In supervector UBM/GMM paradigm, each acoustic file is represented by the mean parameters of a GMM model. This supervector space is used as a data representation space, which has a high dimensionality. Moreover, this space is not intrinsically discriminant and a complete speech segment is represented by only one vector, withdrawing mainly the possibility to take into account temporal or sequential information. This work proposes a new approach where each acoustic frame is represented in a discriminant binary space. The proposed approach relies on a UBM to structure the acoustic space in regions. Each region is then populated with a set of Gaussian models, denoted as “specificities”, able to emphasize speaker specific information. Each acoustic frame is mapped in the discriminant binary space, turning “on” or “off” all the specificities to create a large binary vector. All the following steps, speaker reference extraction, likelihood estimation or decision take place in this binary space. Even if this work is a first step in this avenue, the experiments based on NIST SRE 2008 framework demonstrate the potential of the proposed approach. Moreover, this approach opens the opportunity to rethink all the classical processes using a discrete, binary view.
Working Notes of the AIMDM ' 99 Workshop on Prognostic Models in Medicine : Arti cial Intelligence and Decision Analytic Approaches held during The Joint European Conference on Arti cial Intelligence in Medicine and Medical Decision Making

This paper is meant as an introduction to the workshop on Prognostic Models in Medicine: Arti cial Intelligence and Decision Analytic Approaches held during aimdm'99. Prognosis { the prediction of the course and outcome of disease processes, either or not changed due to interventions { is an important aspect of medical tasks like diagnosis and treatment management. Techniques for building prognostic models vary from traditional probabilistic approaches, originating from the eld of statistics, as used in decision analysis, to more qualitative and model-based approaches originating from the eld of arti cial intelligence. The workshop brings these two elds of research together in the hope that a fruitful exchange in ideas will take place.
Analysis of land use changes based on Markov's shift matrix model in Loess Hilly-gully region

According to statistical and survey data, land use survey data and TM imagines from 2000 to 2008, dynamic changes of quantitative and regional difference of land use in ShangHuang experiment area during the last 8 years are analyzed. Based upon the model of Markov's shift matrix, the land use changes are discussed. The results indicated that the general trend of cultivated land during the past 8 years was decreasing and regional differences of cultivated land was very notable. The dynamic change of cultivated land shows sloping farmland change to forest land and grassland, some good quality of cultivated land change to high economic beneficial garden plot.
Chapter 1 Synchronizability and Connectivity of Discrete Complex Systems

The synchronization of discrete complex systems is critical in applications such as communication and transportation networks, neuron respiratory systems, and other systems in which either congestion can occur at individual nodes, or system wide synchrony is of importance to proper functionality. The first non-trivial eigenvalue of a network’s Laplacian matrix, called the algebraic connectivity, provides a quantifiable measure of synchronizability in a network. We study the general relationship between network topology, clustering coefficient distributions, and synchronizability, as well as the effects of degree preserving rewiring on network synchronizability. In addition, we compare the synchronizability of different network topologies, including Poisson random graphs, geometric networks, preferential attachment networks, and scale-rich networks. We also explore uses of the algebraic connectivity in the design and management of complex networks where synchronization is desired (respiration networks), or detrimental to network performance (router networks).
MicroRNA-155 Exerts Cell-Specific Antiangiogenic but Proarteriogenic Effects During Adaptive Neovascularization

Background— Adaptive neovascularization after arterial occlusion is an important compensatory mechanism in cardiovascular disease and includes both the remodeling of pre-existing vessels to collateral arteries (arteriogenesis) and angiogenic capillary growth. We now aimed to identify regulatory microRNAs involved in the modulation of neovascularization after femoral artery occlusion in mice. Methods and Results— Using microRNA-transcriptome analysis, we identified miR-155 as a downregulated microRNA during hindlimb ischemia. Correspondingly, inhibition of miR-155 in endothelial cells had a stimulatory effect on proliferation and angiogenic tube formation via derepression of its direct target gene angiotensin II type 1 receptor. Surprisingly, miR-155–deficient mice showed an unexpected phenotype in vivo, with a strong reduction of blood flow recovery after femoral artery ligation (arteriogenesis) dependent on the attenuation of leukocyte-endothelial interaction and a reduction of proarteriogenic cytokine expression. Consistently, miR-155–deficient macrophages exhibit a specific alteration of the proarteriogenic cytokine expression profile, which is partly mediated by the direct miR-155 target gene SOCS-1. Conclusions— Our data demonstrate that miR-155 exerts an antiangiogenic but proarteriogenic function in the regulation of neovascularization via the suppression of divergent cell-specific target genes and that its expression in both endothelial and bone marrow–derived cells is essential for arteriogenesis in response to hindlimb ischemia in mice.