Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting Using the Radial Artery: Clinical Outcomes, Patency, and Need for Reintervention

Background— Radial artery (RA) grafts are an attractive second arterial conduit after the left internal thoracic artery (LITA) for coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery. However, long-term outcomes and the need for subsequent reintervention have not been defined. Methods and Results— We performed a retrospective cohort study of our single institution's 16-year experience with 1851 consecutive patients (average age, 58 years; 82% men, 36% diabetic) undergoing primary, isolated CABG with the LITA, RA, and saphenous vein as needed. Average grafts per patient were 3.8, with 2.4 arterial grafts per patient. Survival was determined using the Social Security Death Index. Grafts were nonpatent if they had a >50% stenosis, a string sign, or were occluded. Five patients (0.3%) died in hospital and 0.8% had a myocardial infarction, 1.1% a stroke, and 0.6% renal failure. Kaplan-Meier–estimated 1-, 5-, 10-, and 15-year survival was 99%, 96%, 89%, and 75%, respectively. Of the cohort, 278 symptomatic patients underwent cardiac catheterization at our institution an average of 5.0±3.8 years (range, 0.1–12 years) after CABG. Overall RA (n=420 grafts) patency was 82% and SV (n=364 grafts) patency, 47% (P<0.0001). LITA (n=287 grafts including 9 sequential grafts) patency was 85% and right internal thoracic artery (n=15 grafts) patency was 80% (P=0.6). RA patency was not different from LITA patency (P=0.3). Overall freedom from catheterization, percutaneous coronary intervention, and CABG was 85%, 97%, and 99%, respectively. Conclusions— RA grafting is a highly effective revascularization strategy providing excellent short and long-term outcomes with very low rates of reintervention. RA patency is similar to LITA patency and is much better than SV patency. RA grafting should be more widely utilized in patients undergoing CABG.
Silicon Photonic Integrated Mode Multiplexer and Demultiplexer

A novel passive integrated optical circuit for mode-multiplexing and demultiplexing six channels, LP01 and LP11 modes in a few-moded fiber, is designed and tested. A push-pull solution is proposed and demonstrated to excite the LP11 modes with a high extinction ratio. The circuit can outperform present bulk-optics solutions through its compactness and stability, and it has the potential advantages of high coupling efficiency and excellent mode crosstalk suppression.
Effect of oversized partial postdilatation on coatings of contemporary durable polymer-based drug-eluting stents: a scanning electron microscopy study.

BACKGROUND Oversized postdilation of drug-eluting stents (DES) is often performed to avoid stent malapposition. In stents implanted in long lesion or major bifurcations, extremely oversized partial postdilation may be required, which exposes DES coating to extreme forces. This study aims to assess shape and incidence of coating irregularities on durable polymer-based DES following extremely oversized partial postdilatation. METHODS Fifteen DES samples (3 3.5 mm stents of Cypher Select plus [Cordis Europa, Roden, the Netherlands], Taxus Liberté[Boston Scientific Corp., Natick, MA, USA], Endeavor Sprint [Medtronic Vascular, Santa Rosa, CA, USA], Endeavor Resolute [Medtronic Vascular, Santa Rosa, CA, USA], and Xience V [Abbott Vascular, Santa Clara, CA, USA]) were deployed in sterile water (37 °C) at 14 atm, followed by a proximal postdilation with noncompliant 5.0-mm balloons at 18 atm. Stents were then examined with scanning electron microscopy. RESULTS Thorough examination of a total of 660 scanning electron microscopic images demonstrated that shape and incidence of coating irregularities in the postdilated and/or transitional DES regions differed only mildly from the nonpostdilated regions. Cypher Select plus showed more peeling without bare metal aspect in the postdilated and transitional regions, and cracks were wider (P < 0.001) in the postdilated and transitional regions; in Taxus Liberté one additional irregularity (torn webbing) and more wrinkles were observed (P < 0.05 for both); in Endeavor Resolute wider cracks were found in the extremely postdilated region only (P < 0.001). Endeavor Sprint and Xience V showed no differences in shape or incidence of coating irregularities between oversized and nonoversized stent regions. CONCLUSIONS Bench side assessment of five contemporary durable polymer-based DES with scanning electron microscopy suggests that even very aggressive stent postdilatation results in no more than mild differences in coating irregularities between postdilated and nonpostdilated stent regions.
Motion Estimation for Video Bandwidth Compression Using a Heterogeneous Pyramid Image Processing Architecture

In many image processing contexts there is a requirement for some form of motion estimation. A number of strategies exist, differing in the accuracy and granularity of the motion estimate and in their computational requirements. The simplest and most coarse-grained scheme is 'block' motion estimation, where the current frame is divided into blocks of pixels and for each block an estimate of its most likely motion is computed by reference to a neighbourhood in the previous frame. Such coarse motion estimates are of utility in situations where a fairly approximate but fast trajectory estimate is required. Examples are motion-compensated interframe predictive coders and various aerospace applications. The block motion estimator is simple and amenable to parallel computation, making it feasible for implementation at realtime frame rates. This paper describes the mapping of the block motion estimator on to the lower levels of the Wamick Pyramid Machine (WPM), a heterogeneous pyramid architecture for parallel image processing I understanding which is currently under development at the University of Warwick. The paper describes how the required computations are performed and presents simulated timings. The advantages of the multi-SIMD architecture of the WPM are illustrated.
Wavelength Conversion of 10-Gb/s RZ-OOK Using Filtered XPM in a Passive GaAs–AlGaAs Waveguide

Wavelength conversion of a 10-Gb/s return-to-zero on-off-keyed (RZ-OOK) signal has been achieved using transient cross-phase modulation in a passive GaAs-AlGaAs bulk-waveguide, followed by a detuned filter. The converted RZ-OOK signal showed a power penalty of <1 dB at a bit-error-rate of 10-9 relative to the baseline RZ-OOK signal.
A comparison of bone bed preparation with laser and conventional drill on the relationship between implant stability quotient (ISQ) values and implant insertion variables

PURPOSE The aim of this study was to investigate a comparison of implant bone bed preparation with Er,Cr:YSGG laser and conventional drills on the relationship between implant stability quotient (ISQ) values and implant insertion variables. MATERIALS AND METHODS Forty implants were inserted into two different types of pig rib bone. One group was prepared with conventional drills and a total of 20 implants were inserted into type I and type II bone. The other group was prepared with a Er,Cr:YSGG laser and a total of 20 implants were inserted into type I and type II bone. ISQ, maximum insertion torque, angular momentum, and insertion torque energy values were measured. RESULTS The mean values for variables were significantly higher in type I bone than in type II bone (P < .01). In type I bone, the ISQ values in the drill group were significantly higher than in the laser group (P < .05). In type II bone, the ISQ values in the laser group were significantly higher than in the drill group (P < .01). In both type I and type II bone, the maximum insertion torque, total energy, and total angular momentum values between the drill and laser groups did not differ significantly (P ≥ .05). The ISQ values were correlated with maximum insertion torque (P < .01, r = .731), total energy (P < .01, r = .696), and angular momentum (P < .01, r = .696). CONCLUSION Within the limitations of this study, the effects of bone bed preparation with Er,Cr:YSGG laser on the relationship between implant stability quotient (ISQ) values and implant insertion variables were comparable to those of drilling.
Interactive effect of deep tillage and irrigation regimes on crop growth and yield of kharif maize

Deep tillage responses in maize on coarse textured soils are reported to be related with improvement in root growth and plant water status. In a field study on sandy loam soil at the research farm of Department of Soil Science during Kharif 2015; combinations of two tillage systems i.e. conventional tillage (CT) and deep tillage (DT) and two irrigation regimes i.e. irrigation water/pan evaporation ratios of 0.5 (I1) and 1.0 (I2) were evaluated on two maize hybrids i.e. PMH1 (long duration) and PMH2 (short duration). DT with sub soiler loosened soil in chisel furrow up to 35-45 cm depth. Comparatively higher bulk density i.e. 1.66 and 1.69 Mg m -3 was observed in 15.0-22.5 and 22.5-30.0 cm soil layers, in CT and the reduction in bulk density with DT was maximum in these layers. The penetration resistance (PR) was also lower with DT than with CT; however the magnitude of decrease varied with soil depth and position of measurement. Root length density (RLD) at 70 DAS, was higher under DT than CT in the 15-90 cm depth and increased irrigation level produced higher RLD, under DT but not under CT. Root length index (RLI) in the 90 cm soil profile, did not vary with irrigation level but DT increased RLI. Both leaf area index and plant height were generally higher under DT than CT and with I2 over I1, but the effect was significant only for DT. PMH2 was significantly shorter in plant height than PMH1 at all the growth stages. Leaf water potential (LWP) at 66 DAS was significantly higher with DT and with I2 in both the hybrids. Increase in LWP with I2 over I1 was significant under CT only. Soil temperatures in general were lowered with irrigation & DT and were slightly lower in PMH1 than PMH2. Both DT and higher irrigation caused higher chlorophyll content, but effect was significant for DT only. Fifty percent tassel stage under DT as compared to CT, was 3.3 & 1.8 days earlier in PMH1 and 4.8 & 7.2 days earlier in PMH2; in I1 & I2 treatments respectively. Both grain and biological yields (grain plus stover) were significantly higher with DT over CT and with I2 over I1 in both the hybrids. PMH1 as compared to PMH2, produced significantly higher grain (12.5 %) and biological (17.8 %) yields. Percent increase in grain yield with DT over CT, for I1 & I2 respectively, was 33.8 & 30.6 in PMH1 and 24.5 & 16.8 in PMH2. Significant interaction was observed between tillage and cultivar for biological yield only. Harvest index did not vary significantly with tillage and irrigation treatments, but hundred grain weight varied significantly with tillage and cultivar. Soil profile water use was higher in DT over CT; by 43.5 & 24.5 mm in PMH1 and 31.6 & 22.6 mm in PMH2; for I1 & I2 irrigation regimes respectively. Averaged over other two treatments; water productivity (kg ha -1 mm -1 ) was higher in DT over CT by 21.2 %; in I1 over I2 by 6.0 % and in PMH1 over PMH2 by 10.9 %.
Unwritten languages demand attention too! Word discovery with encoder-decoder models

Word discovery is the task of extracting words from un-segmented text. In this paper we examine to what extent neural networks can be applied to this task in a realistic unwritten language scenario, where only small corpora and limited annotations are available. We investigate two scenarios: one with no supervision and another with limited supervision with access to the most frequent words. Obtained results show that it is possible to retrieve at least 27% of the gold standard vocabulary by training an encoder-decoder neural machine translation system with only 5,157 sentences. This result is close to those obtained with a task-specific Bayesian nonparametric model. Moreover, our approach has the advantage of generating translation alignments, which could be used to create a bilingual lexicon. As a future perspective, this approach is also well suited to work directly from speech.
Prospects from agroecology and industrial ecology for animal production in the 21st century

Agroecology and industrial ecology can be viewed as complementary means for reducing the environmental footprint of animal farming systems: agroecology mainly by stimulating natural processes to reduce inputs, and industrial ecology by closing system loops, thereby reducing demand for raw materials, lowering pollution and saving on waste treatment. Surprisingly, animal farming systems have so far been ignored in most agroecological thinking. On the basis of a study by Altieri, who identified the key ecological processes to be optimized, we propose five principles for the design of sustainable animal production systems: (i) adopting management practices aiming to improve animal health, (ii) decreasing the inputs needed for production, (iii) decreasing pollution by optimizing the metabolic functioning of farming systems, (iv) enhancing diversity within animal production systems to strengthen their resilience and (v) preserving biological diversity in agroecosystems by adapting management practices. We then discuss how these different principles combine to generate environmental, social and economic performance in six animal production systems (ruminants, pigs, rabbits and aquaculture) covering a long gradient of intensification. The two principles concerning economy of inputs and reduction of pollution emerged in nearly all the case studies, a finding that can be explained by the economic and regulatory constraints affecting animal production. Integrated management of animal health was seldom mobilized, as alternatives to chemical drugs have only recently been investigated, and the results are not yet transferable to farming practices. A number of ecological functions and ecosystem services (recycling of nutrients, forage yield, pollination, resistance to weed invasion, etc.) are closely linked to biodiversity, and their persistence depends largely on maintaining biological diversity in agroecosystems. We conclude that the development of such ecology-based alternatives for animal production implies changes in the positions adopted by technicians and extension services, researchers and policymakers. Animal production systems should not only be considered holistically, but also in the diversity of their local and regional conditions. The ability of farmers to make their own decisions on the basis of the close monitoring of system performance is most important to ensure system sustainability.
Self-Incompatibility in the Genus Arabidopsis: Characterization of the S Locus in the Outcrossing A. lyrata and Its Autogamous Relative A. thaliana

As a starting point for a phylogenetic study of self-incompatibility (SI) in crucifers and to elucidate the genetic basis of transitions between outcrossing and self-fertilizing mating systems in this family, we investigated the SI system of Arabidopsis lyrata. A. lyrata is an outcrossing close relative of the self-fertile A. thaliana and is thought to have diverged from A. thaliana ∼5 million years ago and from Brassica spp 15 to 20 million years ago. Analysis of two S (sterility) locus haplotypes demonstrates that the A. lyrata S locus contains tightly linked orthologs of the S locus receptor kinase (SRK) gene and the S locus cysteine-rich protein (SCR) gene, which are the determinants of SI specificity in stigma and pollen, respectively, but lacks an S locus glycoprotein gene. As described previously in Brassica, the S haplotypes of A. lyrata differ by the rearranged order of their genes and by their variable physical sizes. Comparative mapping of the A. lyrata and Brassica S loci indicates that the S locus of crucifers is a dynamic locus that has undergone several duplication events since the Arabidopsis–Brassica split and was translocated as a unit between two distant chromosomal locations during diversification of the two taxa. Furthermore, comparative analysis of the S locus region of A. lyrata and its homeolog in self-fertile A. thaliana identified orthologs of the SRK and SCR genes and demonstrated that self-compatibility in this species is associated with inactivation of SI specificity genes.
Practical and Scalable Sharing of Encrypted Data in Cloud Storage with Key Aggregation

We study a sensor network setting in which samples are encrypted individually using different keys and maintained on a cloud storage. For large systems, e.g. those that generate several millions of samples per day, fine-grained sharing of encrypted samples is challenging. Existing solutions, such as Attribute-Based Encryption (ABE) and Key Aggregation Cryptosystem (KAC), can be utilized to address the challenge, but only to a certain extent. They are often computationally expensive and thus unlikely to operate at scale. We propose an algorithmic enhancement and two heuristics to improve KAC's key reconstruction cost, while preserving its provable security. The improvement is particularly significant for range and down-sampling queries -- accelerating the reconstruction cost from quadratic to linear running time. Experimental study shows that for queries of size 32k samples, the proposed fast reconstruction techniques speed-up the original KAC by at least 90 times on range and down-sampling queries, and by eight times on general (arbitrary) queries. It also shows that at the expense of splitting the query into 16 sub-queries and correspondingly issuing that number of different aggregated keys, reconstruction time can be reduced by 19 times. As such, the proposed techniques make KAC more applicable in practical scenarios such as sensor networks or the Internet of Things.
Normal microRNA Maturation and Germ-Line Stem Cell Maintenance Requires Loquacious, a Double-Stranded RNA-Binding Domain Protein

microRNAs (miRNAs) are single-stranded, 21- to 23-nucleotide cellular RNAs that control the expression of cognate target genes. Primary miRNA (pri-miRNA) transcripts are transformed to mature miRNA by the successive actions of two RNase III endonucleases. Drosha converts pri-miRNA transcripts to precursor miRNA (pre-miRNA); Dicer, in turn, converts pre-miRNA to mature miRNA. Here, we show that normal processing of Drosophila pre-miRNAs by Dicer-1 requires the double-stranded RNA-binding domain (dsRBD) protein Loquacious (Loqs), a homolog of human TRBP, a protein first identified as binding the HIV trans-activator RNA (TAR). Efficient miRNA-directed silencing of a reporter transgene, complete repression of white by a dsRNA trigger, and silencing of the endogenous Stellate locus by Suppressor of Stellate, all require Loqs. In loqs f00791 mutant ovaries, germ-line stem cells are not appropriately maintained. Loqs associates with Dcr-1, the Drosophila RNase III enzyme that processes pre-miRNA into mature miRNA. Thus, every known Drosophila RNase-III endonuclease is paired with a dsRBD protein that facilitates its function in small RNA biogenesis.
Radix-4 Vectoring CORDIC Algorithm and Architectures

In this work we extend the radix-4 CORDIC algorithm to the vectoring mode (the radix-4 CORDIC algorithm was proposed recently by the authors for the rotation mode). The extension to the vectoring mode is not straightforward, since the digit selection function is more complex in the vectoring case than in the rotation case; as in the rotation mode, the scale factor is not constant. Although the radix-4 CORDIC algorithm in vectoring mode has a similar recurrence as the radix-4 division algorithm, there are specific issues concerning the vectoring algorithm that demand dedicated study. We present the digit selection for nonredundant and redundant arithmetic (following two different approaches: arithmetic comparisons and table look-up), the computation and compensation of the scale factor, and the implementation of the algorithm (with both types of digit selection) in a word-serial architecture. When compared with conventional radix-2 (redundant and non-redundant) architectures, the radix-4 algorithms present a significant speed up for angle calculation. For the computation of the magnitude the speed up is very slight, due to the nonconstant scale factor in the radix-4 algorithm.
Fighting for control: children's embodied interactions when using physical and digital representations

Tabletop and tangible interfaces are often described in terms of their support for shared access to digital resources. However, it is not always the case that collaborators want to share and help one another. In this paper we detail a video-analysis of a series of prototyping sessions with children who used both cardboard objects and an interactive tabletop surface. We show how the material qualities of the digital interface and physical objects affect the kinds of bodily strategies adopted by children to stop others from accessing them. We discuss how children fight for and maintain control of physical versus digital objects in terms of embodied interaction and what this means when designing collaborative applications for shareable interfaces.
Ecological Responses of Avian Species to Land Cover Metrics at the Landscape-Level and Across Broad Spatial Extent

III RÉSUMÉ . VI TABLE OF CONTENTS . IX LIST OF TABLES . XIV LIST OF FIGURES . XVI GENERAL INTRODUCTION . 1 WHAT IS THIS THESIS ABOUT? 1 CONCEPTS, DEFINITIONS AND APPROACH TAKEN . 2 STATEMENTS OF CONTRIBUTIONS OF EACH CHAPTER . 5 REFERENCES . 11 CHAPTER 1 . 23 PUBLICATION STATUS . 23 TITLE . 23 AUTHORS . 23 ABSTRACT . 23. 23 INTRODUCTION . 24 Competing models . 27 METHODS . 30 Study Area . 30 Species richness . 31 Land cover . 31 Statistical analysis . 32 RESULTS . 33
Detection of Mixed Infection from Bacterial Whole Genome Sequence Data Allows Assessment of Its Role in Clostridium difficile Transmission

Bacterial whole genome sequencing offers the prospect of rapid and high precision investigation of infectious disease outbreaks. Close genetic relationships between microorganisms isolated from different infected cases suggest transmission is a strong possibility, whereas transmission between cases with genetically distinct bacterial isolates can be excluded. However, undetected mixed infections—infection with ≥2 unrelated strains of the same species where only one is sequenced—potentially impairs exclusion of transmission with certainty, and may therefore limit the utility of this technique. We investigated the problem by developing a computationally efficient method for detecting mixed infection without the need for resource-intensive independent sequencing of multiple bacterial colonies. Given the relatively low density of single nucleotide polymorphisms within bacterial sequence data, direct reconstruction of mixed infection haplotypes from current short-read sequence data is not consistently possible. We therefore use a two-step maximum likelihood-based approach, assuming each sample contains up to two infecting strains. We jointly estimate the proportion of the infection arising from the dominant and minor strains, and the sequence divergence between these strains. In cases where mixed infection is confirmed, the dominant and minor haplotypes are then matched to a database of previously sequenced local isolates. We demonstrate the performance of our algorithm with in silico and in vitro mixed infection experiments, and apply it to transmission of an important healthcare-associated pathogen, Clostridium difficile. Using hospital ward movement data in a previously described stochastic transmission model, 15 pairs of cases enriched for likely transmission events associated with mixed infection were selected. Our method identified four previously undetected mixed infections, and a previously undetected transmission event, but no direct transmission between the pairs of cases under investigation. These results demonstrate that mixed infections can be detected without additional sequencing effort, and this will be important in assessing the extent of cryptic transmission in our hospitals.