Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Glaucoma screening: current trends, economic issues, technology, and challenges

Purpose of review Glaucoma is one of the leading causes of irreversible blindness worldwide. Early glaucoma detection and treatment are currently the only known methods for preventing blindness and low vision resulting from this frequently asymptomatic disease. Recent findings New technologies for detecting early glaucomatous damage are important in diagnosing optic nerve disease, not only in community screening settings but also in clinics. Imaging of the optic nerve head and macula and retinal nerve fiber layer analysis can provide quick, automated, and quantitative measurements in agreement with clinical estimates of optic disc structure and visual function. In the area of perimetry, frequency-doubling technology is a promising and feasible mass-screening method with reasonable sensitivity for detecting visual field loss. Central corneal thickness has emerged as a new risk factor for the development and progression of glaucoma, thereby complicating the role of tonometry and measurement of intraocular pressure as screening parameters for glaucoma. Along with technological advances, strides are also being made with public policy and legislative efforts to bring glaucoma onto the national and global health care agenda. These initiatives incorporate vision-screening goals into national disease prevention programs emphasizing the need for early glaucoma detection and treatment. Summary Glaucoma awareness needs to be increased through better education, and compliance with follow-up care needs to be improved to decrease the economic and social costs from glaucoma. In addition, screening models need to be developed that will be effective in developing countries where the risk of blindness from glaucoma is highest.
Efficacy of Shikonin against Esophageal Cancer Cells and its possible mechanisms in vitro and in vivo

Increasing evidences indicate that shikonin can suppress the tumor growth. However, the mechanisms remain elusive. In the present study, we investigated the effects and mechanisms of shikonin against esophageal cancer. The expression of hypoxia inducible factor 1α (HIF1α) and pyruvate kinase M2 (PKM2) in esophageal cancer tissues and cells was detected by immunohistochemistry and Western blot. CCK-8 was used to examine the esophageal cancer cell viability. Apoptosis and cell cycle were analyzed by flow cytometry. The expression of EGFR, PI3K, Akt, p-AKT, mTOR, HIF1α and PKM2 was detected by Western blot. EC109/pkm2 was established by lentivirus transducer. Ec109 tumor model was founded to observe the antitumor effect of shikonin in vivo. We found that HIF1α and PKM2 protein expression levels were higher in esophageal cancer tissues and cells than normal esophageal tissues and cells. Shikonin reduced esophageal cancer cells viability and induced cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. Shikonin decreased EGFR, PI3K, p-AKT, HIF1α and PKM2 expression. Overexpression of PKM2 could enhance resistance of esophageal cancer cells to shikonin. In vivo we found that shikonin reduced tumor burden, inducing cell arrest and apoptosis. Taken together, shikonin has a significant antitumor effect in the esophageal cancer by regulating HIF1α/PKM2 signal pathway.
HuR Regulates Alternative Splicing of the TRA2β Gene in Human Colon Cancer Cells under Oxidative Stress

ABSTRACT Hu antigen R (HuR) regulates stress responses through stabilizing and/or facilitating the translation of target mRNAs. The human TRA2β gene encodes splicing factor transformer 2β (Tra2β) and generates 5 mRNA isoforms (TRA2β1 to -5) through alternative splicing. Exposure of HCT116 colon cancer cells to sodium arsenite stimulated checkpoint kinase 2 (Chk2)- and mitogen-activated protein kinase p38 (p38MAPK)-mediated phosphorylation of HuR at positions S88 and T118. This induced an association between HuR and the 39-nucleotide (nt) proximal region of TRA2β exon 2, generating a TRA2β4 mRNA that includes exon 2, which has multiple premature stop codons. HuR knockdown or Chk2/p38MAPK double knockdown inhibited the arsenite-stimulated production of TRA2β4 and increased Tra2β protein, facilitating Tra2β-dependent inclusion of exons in target pre-mRNAs. The effects of HuR knockdown or Chk2/p38MAPK double knockdown were also confirmed using a TRA2β minigene spanning exons 1 to 4, and the effects disappeared when the 39-nt region was deleted from the minigene. In endogenous HuR knockdown cells, the overexpression of a HuR mutant that could not be phosphorylated (with changes of serine to alanine at position 88 [S88A], S100A, and T118A) blocked the associated TRA2β4 interaction and TRA2β4 generation, while the overexpression of a phosphomimetic HuR (with mutations S88D, S100D, and T118D) restored the TRA2β4-related activities. Our findings revealed the potential role of nuclear HuR in the regulation of alternative splicing programs under oxidative stress.
Lurking in online participation and e-participation

This PhD aims to contribute to the body of knowledge on online participation, addressing in particular the online behaviors known as lurking. Lurking is probably the most common online behavior, so it is important to understand what lurking is, how it is defined, its value and impact. A literature review shows the many definitions of lurking, and that the definition chosen impacts how online research is interpreted. The results from an e-participation case study, reveal that online lurking can be understood as a valuable online behaviour, and that Takahashi and Yamasaki's definition in particular helps to view lurkers as active participants in a network or system and may be the best way to evaluate the role and impact lurkers have in e-participation.
Validation du type de la réponse dans un système de questions réponses

Les systemes de questions reponses recherchent la reponse a une question posee en langue naturelle dans un ensemble de documents. Certaines questions attendent une reponse d’un certain type, explicite dans la question. La methode presentee dans cet article verifie que la reponse renvoyee correspond bien au type cherche. Pour cela elle suit une approche par apprentissage automatique en utilisant trois types de criteres. Les premiers sont statistiques et fondes sur la frequence d’apparition de la reponse avec le type dans un ensemble de documents. Les seconds relevent de la reconnaissance des entites nommees et les derniers utilisent l’encyclopedie Wikipedia. L’evaluation globale, 80 % de resultats corrects, montre l’interet de la methode.
DISABILITY AND THE NEOLIBERAL INDIAN STATE: THE PERILS OF COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION

Purpose – This conceptual chapter explores the effects of neoliberal development practices for people with disabilities in developing countries with special reference to postcolonial India. I examine the governmental strategy that operates through and on communities, analyzing how global political economy tends to localize disability and development responses. Deconstructing the assemblage of neoliberal development practices, this chapter problematizes this development orthodoxy from a disability lens in the context of a disability self-help group (SHG) project in rural south India. Findings – In promoting government through community, SHG projects not only overlook structural, material, intersectional, and political processes of disablement but also attempt to reconfigure the cultural notions of community and personhood in the interest of market. The case of disability SHGs elucidates how emancipatory pedagogies and frameworks, when depoliticized and co-opted, can have detrimental effects for people with disabilities in the global south. Simultaneously, highlighting the counter politics and disability agency illuminates the modes of disabled people's resistance in the everyday and the institution. Practical and social implications – Advancing philosophical and practical insights on inclusion, my hope is that this exercise will inform disability scholars, policy makers, educators, and allies of disability rights movements with a critical lens to question and find alternatives to the neoliberal world order. Originality/value of the chapter – It contributes a Southern epistemological and empirical perspective to disability studies, which is currently dominated by Northern frameworks. It offers a multilayered understanding of rural disability and development in the context of neoliberalism, the knowledge of which is nonexistent.
Organic solar cells: An overview

Organic solar cell research has developed during the past 30 years, but especially in the last decade it has attracted scientific and economic interest triggered by a rapid increase in power conversion efficiencies. This was achieved by the introduction of new materials, improved materials engineering, and more sophisticated device structures. Today, solar power conversion efficiencies in excess of 3% have been accomplished with several device concepts. Though efficiencies of these thin-film organicdevices have not yet reached those of their inorganic counterparts (η ≈ 10–20%); the perspective of cheap production (employing, e.g., roll-to-roll processes) drives the development of organic photovoltaic devices further in a dynamic way. The two competitive production techniques used today are either wet solution processing or dry thermal evaporation of the organic constituents. The field of organic solar cells profited well from the development of light-emitting diodes based on similar technologies, which have entered the market recently. We review here the current status of the field of organic solar cells and discuss different production technologies as well as study the important parameters to improve their performance.
Convex Hull Area in Triaxial Mechanomyography during Functional Electrical Stimulation

This study employed the convex hull in the analysis of triaxial mechanomyography (MMG) to determine hull area variations along prolonged muscle contractions elicited by functional electrical stimulation (FES). Closed-loop FES systems may need real-time adjustments in control parameters. Such systems may need to process small sample sets. The convex hull area can be applied to small sample sets and it does not suffer with non-stationarities. The MMG sensor used a triaxial accelerometer and the acquired samples were projected onto all planes. The hull determined the smallest convex polygon surrounding all points and its area was computed. Four spinal cord injured volunteers participated in the experiment. The quadriceps femoral muscle was stimulated in order to cause a full knee extension. FES parameters: 1 kHz pulse frequency and a 20 Hz burst frequency. Adjustments in the stimuli amplitude were controlled by a technician to sustain the extension. The results showed that the convex hull area decreased over time. Since the polygons are related to MMG amplitude, decreasing areas were related to muscle fatigue. The convex hull area can be a candidate to follow muscle fatigue during FES-elicited contractions and analysis of short length epochs.
Rodent Control in London's Sewers

HAMES ALLOCATES resources for sewer baiting for a number of reasons and these are: ~L 1. To ensure that rodent infestation does not attain unacceptable levels in the environment; 2. To provide a safe working environment for staff and employees that have to work within the sewerage system; 3. To comply with the general duties imposed by ~ Section 2 of the Prevention of Damage by Pests ~ Act 1949; 4. To prevent damage to the fabric of the Authority’s sewers and associated apparatus; 5. To prevent blockages in the Authority’s sewers.
A Hidden Markov Process Approach to Information-Based Trading

This paper proposes a novel approach to information-based trading, incorporating both asymmetric information and symmetric order-flow shocks. It focuses on the dynamics of securities trading and postulates that trading activities are determined by the state of nature. A two-dimensional Markov chain is used to model the hidden information states of the market and the state set is allowed to vary across time and companies. Distinguished from the prevailing approaches to information-based trading, the Hidden Markov Model (HMM) approach updates the prior belief of information states using newly observed order flows and identifies trading motives in a data-driven manner. Each trading day is associated with dynamic measures of probability of information based trading (PIN) and probability of symmetric order-flow shock (PSOS). In addition, it allows multiple occurrences of information events rather than limit the frequency of information arrival to once a day. The HMM approach does not rely on a particular market structure and it can be applied to various markets. To evaluate the HMM approach, we conduct extensive Monte Carlo simulation experiments. It shows superior performance in dynamic daily PIN and PSOS estimates as well as cumulative estimates over any time interval in all simulation scenarios, evidenced by their negligible errors compared with true values and higher accuracy than the estimates obtained from alternative approaches. Using a sample of 30 NYSE stocks, we examine the properties of the dynamic PIN estimate as a proxy for information asymmetry and the dynamic PSOS estimate as a measure of illiquidity. We also show how they can be used to explain and predict realized volatility of returns. Dynamic PSOS is a significant contributor to the realized volatility for all the stocks in the sample and its effect is more profound than dynamic PIN, reflecting dominant effect of investors' dispersed beliefs on price fluctuations.
Specifying and proving serializability in temporal logic

Serializability of database transactions is first defined within the framework of linear temporal logic. For commutativity-based serializability, an alternative specification is given in a temporal logic whose semantic interpretation is especially tailored for reasoning about equivalence sequences of histories. The alternative specification method is given in ISTL* and is limited to the specification of concurrency control algorithms based on commutativity. A formal verification system for serializability that uses classical logic reasoning is provided. Within it, proving serializability of transactions executing a concurrency control algorithm is done along the same lines as proving properties of concurrent programs. Serializability for the multiversion-timestamp algorithm is verified. <<ETX>>
A hybrid no-reference video quality assessment based on region of interest

In this paper, a hybrid no-reference video quality assessment based on region of interest (ROI) is proposed. Firstly, two types of ROIs, motion area and skin region are detected and integrated as the final ROI in each frame. Secondly, a blockiness measurement based on ROI in pixel domain is introduced. Then, the blurriness is measured in frequency domain, by using two-dimensional discrete cosine transform (2-D DCT). At last, the assessment result is combined with the blockiness and blurriness value. By calculating the correlation between the assessment result and the subjective score (mean opinion score, MOS) in different definition videos, the experiments show the advantages of the proposed method over some other methods.
Phase I clinical and pharmacokinetic study of high-dose mitoxantrone combined with carboplatin, cyclophosphamide, and autologous bone marrow rescue: high response rate for refractory ovarian carcinoma.

PURPOSE To develop an active high-dose chemotherapy regimen for the treatment of ovarian carcinoma. Due to the rapid development a drug resistance, conventional chemotherapy cures only 20% of patients with advanced disease. However, in vitro data demonstrate a steep dose-response curve to a variety of agents, most notably mitoxantrone. PATIENTS AND METHODS A phase I study of escalated bolus mitoxantrone (10 to 25 mg/m2 x 3) and cyclophosphamide (30 to 50 mg/kg x 3) with a 5-day infusion of carboplatin (1,500 mg/m2) and an autologous bone marrow transplant (ABMT) was performed. Mitoxantrone pharmacokinetics were performed to document levels required to kill platinum-resistant ovarian carcinoma in vitro. RESULTS We treated 25 patients; the maximum-tolerated total doses (MTD) were 75 mg/m2 for mitoxantrone, 120 mg/kg for cyclophosphamide, and 1,500 mg/m2 for carboplatin. The dose-limiting toxicity was gastrointestinal, with severe diarrhea, ileus, and resulting sepsis. Transient partial deafness was seen in four patients, and acute renal failure (ARF) occurred in one patient at the first dose level, but was eliminated in subsequent patients with aggressive hydration. There were four early deaths due to ARF (n = 1), Legionella pneumonia (n = 1), and sepsis (n = 2). Peak mitoxantrone levels at the MTD were 623 to 2,810 ng/mL, and the area under the curve (AUC) values of the concentration versus time measurements were 560 to 1,700 ng/mL/h. Of 20 assessable patients, 65% responded, with a 45% complete remission (CR) rate. All six of the assessable patients with ovarian cancer responded: CR in five (83%) and partial remission (PR) in one (17%); the CRs have lasted 7 to 30+ months. Responses were also seen in testicular and breast carcinoma. CONCLUSION This regimen was well tolerated at the MTD and appears promising for relapsed/refractory ovarian carcinoma, with mitoxantrone levels achieved that are active in vitro against platinum-resistant ovarian carcinoma cells.
Accumulation of functionally immature myeloid dendritic cells in lymph nodes of rhesus macaques with acute pathogenic simian immunodeficiency virus infection

Myeloid dendritic cells (mDC) are key mediators of innate and adaptive immunity to virus infection, but the impact of HIV infection on the mDC response, particularly early in acute infection, is ill‐defined. We studied acute pathogenic simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) infection of rhesus macaques to address this question. The mDC in blood and bone marrow were depleted within 12 days of intravenous infection with SIVmac251, associated with a marked proliferative response. In lymph nodes, mDC were apoptotic, activated and proliferating, despite normal mDC numbers, reflecting a regenerative response that compensated for mDC loss. Blood mDC had increased expression of MHC class II, CCR7 and CD40, whereas in lymph nodes these markers were significantly decreased, indicating that acute infection induced maturation of mDC in blood but resulted in accumulation of immature mDC in lymph nodes. Following SIV infection, lymph node mDC had an increased capacity to secrete tumour necrosis factor‐α upon engagement with a Toll‐like receptor 7/8 ligand that mimics exposure to viral RNA, and this was inversely correlated with MHC class II and CCR7 expression. Lymph node mDC had an increased ability to capture and cleave soluble antigen, confirming their functionally immature state. These data indicate that acute SIV infection results in increased mDC turnover, leading to accumulation in lymph nodes of immature mDC with an increased responsiveness to virus stimulation.
An Epidemiological Study of Dementia in a Rural Community in Kerala, India

Background This community-based epidemiologic study of dementia in a rural population in India investigated the prevalence of various dementing disorders in the community, psychosocial correlates of the morbidity, and assessment of the risk factors associated with dementia. Method A door to door survey was conducted to identify elderly people aged 60 and above. A total of 2067 elderly persons were then screened with a vernacular adaptation of the MMSE. All those who scored 23 and below had a detailed neuropsychological evaluation by CAMDEX–Section B, and the care-givers of the people with confirmed cognitive impairment were interviewed using CAMDEX–Section H to confirm the history of deterioration or impairment in social or personal functioning. In the third phase the subjects with confirmed cognitive impairment were evaluated at home as to whether they satisfied the DSM–III–R criteria for dementia. Subcategorisation of dementia was done based on ICD–10 diagnostic criteria. Five per cent of those whose screening was negative were randomly selected and evaluated during each stage. Results Sixty-six cases of dementia were identified from 2067 persons aged 60 and above, a prevalence rate of 31.9 per thousand After correction this rate was 33.9 per thousand. Fifty-eight per cent of the dementia cases were diagnosed as vascular dementia and 41% satisfied the criteria for ICD–10 dementia in Alzheimer's disease. There were more women in the Alzheimer's disease group; smoking and hypertension were associated with vascular dementia while a family history of dementia was more likely in the Alzheimer's group. Conclusion Dementia is an important cause of morbidity in the geriatric population in this community, where families take responsibility for the care of relatives with dementia.
Histamine‐Dependent Allergy Blood Test

Allergen‐mediated histamine release from human leukocytes represents an important model for in vitro studies of allergic reactions. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the measurement of histamine released in allergic patients by radioenzymatic assay following mixing of their blood with common allergens represents a reliable index for diagnosis of atopic allergy. Three categories of allergens were used: 1) house dust and mite; 2) cat and dog dander; 3) trees, gasses and ragweed mixture. The presence of allergy was established by clinical history and intradermal skin testing in the study group of 150 patients. A significant allergen‐mediated histamine release ranging from 4 to 65% of the total blood histamine content was observed in 96 % of the patients with skin test sensitivity of ≥ 3+. There was a significant correlation between skin testing and histamine release in terms of the allergens causing the response. Thus, the measurement of histamine by radioenzymatic technique following its release in blood in response to allergen challenge represents a clinically useful in vitro test for the diagnosis of atopic disease.
Patients' expectations and experiences of fixed orthodontic appliance therapy. Impact on quality of life.

OBJECTIVE To compare patients' expectations of the impact of wearing fixed orthodontic appliances on life quality with realities experienced over a 6-month period. MATERIALS AND METHODS Two-hundred and seventeen consecutive orthodontic patients (mean age 13.1 +/- 1.5 years) self-completed a 37-item Child Perception Questionnaire (CPQ) in relation to how they expected wearing fixed orthodontic appliances would affect their QoL during orthodontic treatment. The CPQ assessed the attributes of oral symptoms, functional limitations (FL), emotional well-being (EWB), and social well-being (SWB). Expectations were compared with the patients' pretreatment values and reported experiences at 1 week, 1 month, 3 months, and 6 months after insertion of the fixed appliances. RESULTS The response rate was 91% (197/217). Patients expected that wearing fixed appliances would considerably compromise their overall oral health-related QoL (OHQoL) compared with pretreatment (P < .001). At 1 week they reported that EWB (P < .001) and SWB (P < .05) were less compromised than expected. At 1, 3, and 6 months, FL (P < .001), EWB (P < .001), SWB (P < .001), and overall OHQoL (P < .001) were less compromised than expected. CONCLUSIONS This study indicated the impact on QoL after insertion of fixed orthodontic appliances was considerately less than what child patients expected.