Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Subclinical Brain Embolization in Left-Sided Infective Endocarditis: Results From the Evaluation by MRI of the Brains of Patients With Left-Sided Intracardiac Solid Masses (EMBOLISM) Pilot Study

Background— Acute brain embolization (ABE) in left-sided infective endocarditis has significant implications for clinical decision making. The true incidence of ABE, including subclinical brain embolization, is unknown. Methods and Results— We prospectively studied 56 patients with definite left-sided infective endocarditis. Patients were examined by a study neurologist, and those without contraindication had magnetic resonance imaging of the brain. Patients without clinical evidence of acute stroke but with magnetic resonance imaging evidence of ABE were considered to have subclinical brain embolization. Clinical stroke was present in 14 of 56 patients (25%). Among 40 patients undergoing magnetic resonance imaging, the incidence rates of subclinical brain embolization and any ABE were 48% and 80%, respectively. ABE was present in 18 of 19 patients (95%) with Staphylococcus aureus infection. At 3 months, mortality was similar among patients with clinical stroke and subclinical brain embolization (62% versus 53%; P=NS) and was higher among patients with any ABE than among those without ABE (56% versus 12%; P=0.046). Valvular surgery was performed in 25 patients (45%), including 16 with ABE, at a median of 4 days. No patient suffered a postoperative neurological complication. Surgery was independently associated with a lower risk of mortality at 3 months (odds ratio, 0.1; 95% confidence interval, 0.03 to 0.6; P=0.008). Conclusions— Magnetic resonance imaging detected subclinical brain embolization in a substantial number of patients with left-sided infective endocarditis, suggesting that the incidence of ABE may be significantly higher than reports based on clinical and computed tomography findings have indicated. Brain magnetic resonance imaging may play a role in the complex decision about surgical intervention in infective endocarditis.
A novel measure for validating clustering results applied to road traffic

The clustering validation and clustering interpretation are the two last steps of clustering process. The validation step permits to evaluate the goodness of clustering results using some measures. Valid results are then generally interpreted and used in cluster analysis. The validity measures are classified into three categories: unsupervised measures, supervised measures and relative measures. Several supervised measures have been proposed to perform supervised evaluation such as entropy, purity, F-measure, Jaccard coefficient and Rand statistic. Generally, these measures evaluate results according to class labels. However, they are not always able to distinguish interpretable clusters because most of them depends on the number of labels. This paper proposes a new supervised evaluation measure - called "homogeneity degree"- that permits to merge the steps of validation and interpretation. Our measure is applied to a real traffic data set and is used to interpret some traffic situations. Comparison with other evaluation measures shows the performance of our proposal.
Diet-induced obesity mediates a proinflammatory response in pancreatic β cell via toll-like receptor 4

Toll-like receptor 4 has an important role in inflammation and immunity. Whether TLR4 signaling contributes to the link between insulin resistance and islet β cell dysfunction is an unanswered question. Here, we show that in the face of the same high-fat continuous stimulation for 24 weeks, in TLR4–/– HF mice, the weight, fraction of the liver, epididymal fat pad fraction, as well as blood glucose and insulin levels were lower than in the WT HF group. In TLR4–/– HF mice, the O2 consumption, CO2 production and activities were higher than in the WT HF group. Glucose tolerance test, insulin tolerance test and insulin release test suggest that the impaired insulin secretion was significantly improved in TLR4–/– HF mice, compared with the WT HF group. In TLR4–/– HF mice, islet β cell ultrastructure was not damaged in the face of the same high-fat continuous stimulation, compared to that in the WT HF group. By detecting glucose-stimulated insulin secretion in the primary islet, insulin secretion of TLR4–/– HF mice was better than that of the WT HF group, and in the TLR4–/– HF group, at the mRNA level, islet interleukin 6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α), and monocyte chemotactic protein 1 (MCP-1) were significantly lower than in the WT HF group. There was the islet macrophage infiltration in the WT HF group, but no significant macrophage infiltration in the TLR4–/– HF group. These data suggest that the damaged islet functions of the high fat diet-induced obesity mice may be linked to the TLR4 expression level, and the recruitment of macrophages into the islets.
Development of mine explosion ground truth smart sensors

Accurate seismo-acoustic source location is one of the fundamental aspects of nuclear explosion monitoring. Critical to improved location is the compilation of ground truth data sets for which origin time and location are accurately known. Substantial effort by the National Laboratories and other seismic monitoring groups have been undertaken to acquire and develop ground truth catalogs that form the basis of location efforts (e.g. Sweeney, 1998; Bergmann et al., 2009; Waldhauser and Richards, 2004). In particular, more GT1 (Ground Truth 1 km) events are required to improve three-dimensional velocity models that are currently under development. Mine seismicity can form the basis of accurate ground truth datasets. Although the location of mining explosions can often be accurately determined using array methods (e.g. Harris, 1991) and from overhead observations (e.g. MacCarthy et al., 2008), accurate origin time estimation can be difficult. Occasionally, mine operators will share shot time, location, explosion size and even shot configuration, but this is rarely done, especially in foreign countries. Additionally, shot times provided by mine operators are often inaccurate. An inexpensive, ground truth event detector that could be mailed to a contact, placed in close proximity ( 6 months) and inexpensive enough to be discarded after useful operations have expired (although this may not be part of our business plan). Key parameters to be automatically determined are event origin time (within 0.1 sec), location (within 1 km) and size (within 0.3 magnitude units) without any human intervention. The key parameter ground truth information from explosions greater than magnitude 2.5 will be transmitted to a recording and transmitting site. Because we have identified a limited bandwidth, inexpensive two-way satellite communication (ORBCOMM), we have devised the concept of an accompanying Ground-Truth Processing Center that would enable calibration and ground-truth accuracy to improve over the duration of a deployment. « less
Genetic Algorithm Based Approach for Hierarchical SOC Test Scheduling

In today's system-on-chip (SOC) design process heterogeneous technology cores are integrated at several layers of hierarchy. Hence, multilevel test access mechanism (TAM) optimization is necessary for modular testing of hierarchical SOCs that contain earlier generation SOCs as embedded megacores. Unlike previous works that mostly assumes flat test hierarchy, the proposed technique considers the design hierarchy constraints for the cores in case of non-interactive design transfer between core vendor and core user. The proposed SOC test scheduling technique is used to minimize the test application time for the hierarchical SOCs. Experimental results are presented for three ITC'02 benchmark circuits containing megacores and results shown 55% improvement over recently proposed methods for hierarchical SOC test scheduling
Measuring Packet-Level Memory Length of 802.15.4 Wireless Channels with Relative Mutual Information

Measurement of a wireless channel's memory length is of great, fundamental interest to designers of communication systems. The principal tool used for measuring the memory length of wireless channels has been the correlation function which has been shown to work well for the measurement of channel memory at the level of individual bits and symbols. However, as we demonstrate, applied to the packet-level bit-error process of 802.15. 4 wireless channels, the correlation function fails to provide us with a clear answer even in a wide variety of channels. To overcome this limitation we propose the use of a new information theoretic measure. We introduce the use of relative mutual information and demonstrate its application for measuring the memory length of the BER process in sensor 802.15. 4 wireless channels.
Proactive computing

— Proactive computing refers to the use of systems to predict future events and react to these predictions before the events occur. It describes a departure from interactive or classical computing which reacts to changes in the context. Proactive system releases the users from having to interact with systems and it would adjust to users’ actions and movements without their control. It promises to propel society beyond interactive computing. This paper provides a brief introduction to proactive computing.
Exploring factors that affect negotiators’ problem‐solving orientation

The willingness of negotiating parties to cooperate, communicate, and compromise ‐ prerequisites of the problem‐solving orientation ‐ often lead to successful outcomes. Consequently, problem‐solving oriented strategies are often employed by negotiators in order to achieve mutually acceptable outcomes. The results of a survey conducted among 98 exporters indicate that negotiators’ perceptions of their counterparts’ strategies seem to have the strongest influence on the extent of problem‐solving behaviors observed among negotiators. Prenegotiation experience, inherent conciliatory predisposition, and perceptions of the organization’s flexibility were also found to influence negotiators’ problem‐solving orientation.
Guns and Sublethal Violence

This study is the first in Canada to examine gun usage and harm to others, with original interview data, and aims to identify the correlates of sublethal violence among at-risk youth in Toronto and Montreal. Toronto youth showed 50% higher levels of this violence than Montreal youth. Despite having a common profile of conduct disorder and prior delinquency, Toronto youth were more involved in drug selling and the crack trade, and Montreal youth more likely involved in gang fighting. Ready access to firearms was reported in both locales but faster in Toronto. Logistic regression analysis for predicting using a gun to threaten or try to harm others found that drug selling was only significant in Toronto, while involvement in the crack trade and gang fighting was significant in both cities. Being able to obtain a gun in <3 hours was also significantly associated with this violence outcome in both sites. Actually harming someone with a weapon showed fewer common factors, with only gang fighting being significant in both cities. The importance of examining local patterns of youth violence, and the need for more research to assess the meanings youth impart to guns, is emphasized.
Entwicklung und Validierung einer Networkingskala

Zusammenfassung. Networking umschreibt ein Syndrom von Verhaltensweisen, die Personen zu Aufbau, Pflege und Nutzung sozialer Beziehungen im beruflichen Kontext zeigen. Die Relevanz des Konstrukts beruht auf dem vermuteten positiven Einfluss, den Networking auf den beruflichen Erfolg ausubt. In diesem Beitrag wird auf der Basis der psychologischen Literatur zu Networking und der soziologischen Literatur zu sozialem Kapital eine Networkingskala entwickelt und in insgesamt drei Studien werden Struktur und Validitat der Skala gepruft. Die Ergebnisse von multidimensionaler Skalierung (Studie 1) und konfirmatorischer Faktorenanalyse (Studie 2) bestatigen die postulierte Binnendifferenzierung von Networking durch zwei Facetten, 1) internes vs. externes Networking sowie 2) Aufbau vs. Pflege vs. Nutzung von Kontakten. Durch die Kreuzung der Facetten entstehen sechs Subskalen, die sich zu einer Gesamtskala zusammenfassen lassen. Fur die Skala ergeben sich diskriminante Zusammenhange mit Masen, die Grose und Constra.
A cross-cultural exploration of parental involvement and child-rearing beliefs in Asian cultures

Parental involvement (PI) and child-rearing beliefs were examined amongst parents whose children attended state-run kindergartens across Singapore. A total of 244 parents completed an online survey consisting of a Child-Rearing Beliefs Scale, a PI Scale, and demographic details. Results indicated respondents were generally low-income earners with high rates of bilingualism. Two-thirds of parents had enrolled their kindergarten children in extra classes, with half of parents indicating that academic achievement was their highest priority. Ethnic differences were noted, with Chinese parents showing less involvement at home and school and less emphasis on the development of creative and practical skills and conforming behaviors than parents from other Asian backgrounds. This effect was independent from the effects of gender, parental education, and income. These results confirm the importance parents place on academic achievement in Singapore, but also, along with, extend prior research to suggest that inter Asian differences exist.
Code-switching and textual strategies in Nino Ricci's trilogy

Abstract The use of more than one language in a literary text is called literary multilingualism. Ricci's trilogy presents this linguistic phenomenon as the author uses more than one linguistic code in the same text: English, Italian, and dialect. This work describes how code-switching becomes an important device of mimesis, representing not just a switching in language, but also a switch in culture, style, and in voice. This study demonstrates how Ricci exploited his linguistic richness on a literary level creating novels that present the Italian world in a realistic way, but at the same time making use of linguistic varieties as literary device.
Multiple Image Watermarking Applied to Health Information Management

Information technology advances have brought forth new challenges in healthcare information management, due to the vast amount of medical data that needs to be efficiently stored, retrieved, and distributed, and the increased security threats that explicitly have to be addressed. The paper discusses the perspectives of digital watermarking in a range of medical data management and distribution issues, and proposes a complementary and/or alternative tool that simultaneously addresses medical data protection, archiving, and retrieval, as well as source and data authentication. The scheme imperceptibly embeds in medical images multiple watermarks conveying patient's personal and examination data, keywords for information retrieval, the physician's digital signature for authentication, and a reference message for data integrity control. Experimental results indicate the efficiency and transparency of the scheme, which conforms to the strict requirements that apply to regions of diagnostic significance
Ion-beam irradiation, gene identification, and marker-assisted breeding in the development of low-cadmium rice

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) grain is a major dietary source of cadmium (Cd), which is toxic to humans, but no practical technique exists to substantially reduce Cd contamination. Carbon ion-beam irradiation produced three rice mutants with <0.05 mg Cd⋅kg−1 in the grain compared with a mean of 1.73 mg Cd⋅kg−1 in the parent, Koshihikari. We identified the gene responsible for reduced Cd uptake and developed a strategy for marker-assisted selection of low-Cd cultivars. Sequence analysis revealed that these mutants have different mutations of the same gene (OsNRAMP5), which encodes a natural resistance-associated macrophage protein. Functional analysis revealed that the defective transporter protein encoded by the mutant osnramp5 greatly decreases Cd uptake by roots, resulting in decreased Cd in the straw and grain. In addition, we developed DNA markers to facilitate marker-assisted selection of cultivars carrying osnramp5. When grown in Cd-contaminated paddy fields, the mutants have nearly undetectable Cd in their grains and exhibit no agriculturally or economically adverse traits. Because mutants produced by ion-beam radiation are not transgenic plants, they are likely to be accepted by consumers and thus represent a practical choice for rice production worldwide.
[Comparative study of the biometric measurements made by immersion and contact techniques].

PURPOSE To compare clinical biometric findings between measurements of immersion technique and contact technique. METHODS Axial length was measured by A-scan in 120 medical examinations in 60 patients with cataract using a non-contact (immersion) and a contact technique in paired-samples by ultrasound. RESULTS The mean axial length was found to be 23.19 mm (SD 1.32) with the immersion technique and 22.93 mm (SD 1.32) with the contact technique, using the same transducer probe. The difference of 0.255 mm (SD 0.3) was significant at the 0.01 level. The difference should be taken into account when evaluating the accuracy of IOL calculation. The mean standard deviation between recurrent measures in same eye was found to be 0.04 with the immersion technique and 0.19 with the contact technique. The difference of 0.15 was significant at the 0.01 level. The difference should be taken into account when evaluating the accuracy of reproductivity of technique examination. CONCLUSION These data provide benchmark information that can be used to monitor clinical practice and to perform others studies.
Effects of fructans-type prebiotics on lipid metabolism 1–4

Several nondigestible but fermentable dietary carbohydrates are able to regulate lipemia and triglyceridemia in both humans and animals. The mechanism of their serum lipid–lowering effect remains to be elucidated. Oligofructose, which is a mixture of nondigestible and fermentable fructans, can decrease triacylglycerol in VLDL when given to rats. The triacylglycerol-lowering action of oligofructose is due to a reduction of de novo fatty acid synthesis in the liver through inhibition of all lipogenic enzymes, namely acetyl-CoA carboxylase (EC 6.4.1.2), fatty acid synthase, malic enzyme (EC 1.1.1.40), ATP citrate lyase (EC 4.1.3.8), and glucose-6-phosphate dehy-drogenase (EC 1.1.1.49). Our results suggest that oligofructose decreases lipogenic enzyme gene expression. Postprandial insulin and glucose concentrations are low in the serum of oligofruc-tose-fed animals and this could explain, at least partially, the metabolic effect of oligofructose. Moreover, some events occurring in the gastrointestinal tract after oligofructose feeding could be involved in the antilipogenic effect of this fructan: the production of propionate through fermentation, a modulation of the intestinal production of incretins (namely glucose-dependent insulinotropic peptide and glucagon-like peptide-1), or the modification of the availability of digestible carbohydrates. Recent studies showed that the hypotriglyceridemic effect of fructans also occurs in humans. This is almost exclusively due to a decrease in the concentration of plasma VLDL (19). This effect is likely to result from a decrease in the hepatic synthesis of triacylglycerol rather than from a high catabolism of triacylglycerol-rich lipoproteins (21). Hepatocytes isolated from oligofructose-fed rats have a slightly lower capacity to esterify [ 14 C]palmitate into triacylglycerol but a 40% lower capacity to synthesize triacylglycerol from [ 14 C]acetate than in control rats (19, 21). These data support the hypothesis that decreased de novo lipogenesis in the liver, through a cooresponding reduction of the activity of all lipogenic enzymes, is a key event in the reduction of VLDL-triglyceride secretion in fructan-fed rats. In fact, the activities of acetyl-CoA carboxylase, FAS, malic enzyme, ATP citrate lyase, and glucose-6-phosphate 1-dehydrogenase are decreased by (cid:2) 50%. This coordinated decrease of all enzymes, in combination with the low activity of enzymes (eg, FAS, which are only regulated through modifications of protein and mRNA content) supports the hypothesis that oligofructose administration could modify lipogenic enzyme gene expression.
Modeling and Performance Analysis of the Response Capacity for Alert Information in an Intrusion Detection System

Summary In this paper, we propose an intrusion detection system(IDS) architecture which can detect and respond against the generation of abnormal traffic such as malicious code and Internet worms. We model the system, design and implement a simulator using OPNET Modeller, for the performance analysis on the response capacity of alert information in the proposed system. At first, we model the arrival process of alert information resulted from abnormal traffic. In order to model the situation in which alert information is intensively produced, we apply the IBP(Interrupted Bernoulli Process) which may represent well the burstiness of traffic. Then we perform the simulation in order to gain some quantitative understanding of the system for our performance parameters. Based on the results of the performance analysis, we analyze factors which may hinder in accelerating the speed of security node, and would like to present some methods to enhance performance.
Barriers to Swiss guideline-recommended cholesterol management in general practice.

BACKGROUND Standard guidelines for the management of dyslipidaemia are often not followed in general practice. The reasons for guideline non-adherence are not known. METHODS Charts of 1000 consecutive unselected patients of 20 general practitioners in northwestern Switzerland were reviewed. An independent committee of experienced study physicians checked the data and assessed the reasons for not measuring plasma cholesterol and for not treating dyslipidaemia as recommended by guidelines. RESULTS Complete data of 866 patients were studied. 29% of all patients qualified for secondary prevention. 6% had no additional cardiovascular risk factors (apart from cholesterol values), 24% had one and 41% had 2 or more additional cardio- vascular risk factors. Guidelines were followed in 44% of all cases and were not followed in 56%. In 37.5% of all cases we found diagnostic guideline non-adherence, and in 10% only treatment guideline non-adherence. 8.5% of all patients had both diagnostic and treatment non-adherence. The main reasons for diagnostic non-adherence were relevant comorbidity (45%) and GPs' belief that the risk did not require screening (42%). The main reasons for treatment non-adherence were GPs' belief that the risk did not require treatment (42%) and relevant comorbidity (38%). CONCLUSION More than half of all patients aged 35-80 years are not screened or treated according to current guidelines. The reasons are to an equal extent patient-related (relevant comorbidity) and physician-related (acceptance and knowledge of guidelines). These reasons should be considered when programmes to improve the quality of GPs' adherence to guidelines are implemented.