Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Endoscopic Retrieval of Esophageal and Gastric Foreign Bodies in Cats and Dogs: A Retrospective Study of 92 Cases

Simple Summary Esophageal and gastric foreign bodies commonly occur in small animal practices. Medical records of cats and dogs undergoing endoscopic removal of esophageal and gastric foreign bodies have been reviewed to evaluate the factors that can influence the success rate and timing of the procedure. Ninety-two animals were included in the study. Endoscopic removal of foreign bodies was successful in 88% of cases, and the mean time spent for the extraction was 59.74 min (range, 10–120 min). The success rate and timing of endoscopic foreign body removal can be influenced by several factors including the size and age of the animals, the localization of foreign bodies, the device used, and the operator’s experience. Abstract Esophageal and gastric foreign bodies (FBs) commonly occur in small animal practices, and their endoscopic removal has been previously reported. However, few studies reported the endoscopic instruments used for the retrieval attempt and the time spent for endoscopic removal. Therefore, the aim of this study is to evaluate the factors that can influence the success rate and timing of the endoscopic retrieval of FBs. The medical records of 92 animals undergoing endoscopic removal of esophageal (n = 12) and gastric (n = 84) FBs have been reviewed. Two dogs had FBs in both the esophagus and stomach. From medical records and video recordings, there were extrapolated data on signalment, clinical signs, endoscopic devices used, success of retrieval, and duration of endoscopy. Endoscopic removal of FBs was successful in 88% cases, and the mean time spent for the extraction was 59.74 min (range, 10–120 min). The success rate and timing for the removal of endoscopic foreign bodies (EFBs) are influenced by several factors in our population: medium-breed dogs, adult animals, and localization of FBs in the body of the stomach increased the probability of failure during the endoscopic retrieval attempt. Conversely, the success and timing of the retrieval of EFBs were higher in puppies and with increasing operator’s experience. Moreover, the use of combination devices such as polypectomy snare and grasping forceps negatively influenced the success of extraction of FBs. Further prospective and comparative studies in a large and multicentric population of patients can be useful to create interventional endoscopic guidelines, as in human medicine.
Online Appendix for “Local Projections vs. VARs: Lessons From Thousands of DGPs”

E Further simulation results and robustness checks 9 E.1 IV estimators . 9 E.2 More persistent DGPs . 11 E.3 Cumulated impulse responses . 14 E.4 Recursive identification . 17 E.5 Fiscal and monetary shocks . 20 E.6 Longer estimation lag length . 23 E.7 Smaller sample size . 26 E.8 Splitting by variable categories . 29 E.9 Salient observables . 31 E.10 90th percentile loss . 34
Socio-economic Differentials in Male Mortality in Ireland 1984-2008

The presence of pronounced inequalities in mortality and life expectancy across income, education and social groups has long been a “stylized fact” of demography. Research across a large number of developed and wealthy countries, including Ireland, has shown that those with fewer resources, less education or a lower occupational class have higher standardised mortality rates (SMRs) than more advantaged individuals. The last analysis of Irish adult mortality differentials across social classes, carried out by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) and based on data for 2006, found that men in the unskilled manual social class had an SMR that was 1.8 times higher than males in the professional social class. However, little is known about how socio-economic inequalities in mortality in Ireland have changed since the mid-1990s, a period characterised by an unprecedented boom and bust in economic activity. In addition, previous analyses have made no attempt to adjust the SMRs to take account of those reporting missing or “unknown” occupation/socio-economic group (SEG). Using annual mortality data from the CSO over the period 1984-2008, a period of economic recovery and boom, this paper examineswhether the general downward trend in mortality observed over this period was experienced equally by all SEGs. We find that the SMR for all groups fell between the 1980s and 2000s but that the extent of this fall was largest for Employer and Manager and Professional SEGs leading to a growing differential between these groups and all others.
Internet security: firewalls and beyond

The emerging use of the TCP/IP communications protocol suite for internetworking has led to a global system of interconnected hosts and networks that is commonly referred to as the Internet. During the last decade, the Internet has experienced a triumphant advance. Projections based on its current rate of growth suggest there will be over one million computer networks and well over one billion users by the end of the century. Therefore, the Internet is seen as the first incarnation of a national information infrastructure (NII) as promoted by the U.S. government. But the initial, research-oriented Internet and its communications protocol suite were designed for a more benign environment than now exists. It could, perhaps, best be described as a collegial environment, where the users and hosts were mutually trusting and interested in a free and open exchange of information. In this environment, the people on the Internet were the people who actually built the Internet. As time went on, the Internet became more useful and reliable, and these people were joined by others. With fewer goals in common and more people, the Internet steadily twisted away from its original intent. Today, the Internet environment is much less collegial and trustworthy. It contains all the dangerous situations, nasty people, and risks that one can find in society as a whole. In this new environment, the openness of the Internet has turned out to be a douand Bey Internet Security: Firewalls
Quasi U-statistics of innite order and applications to the subgroup decomposition of some diversity measures

In several applications, information is drawn from quali- tative variables. In such cases, measures of central tendency and dis- persion may be highly inappropriate. Variability for categorical data can be correctly quantied by the so-called diversity measures. These measures can be modied to quantify heterogeneity between groups (or subpopulations). Pinheiro et al. (2005) shows that Hamming distance can be employed in such way and the resulting estimator of hetero- geneity between populations will be asymptotically normal under mild regularity conditions. Pinheiro et al. (2009) proposes a class of weighted U-statistics based on degenerate kernels of degree 2, called quasi U-statistics, with the property of asymptotic normality under suitable conditions. This is generalized to kernels of degree m by Pinheiro et al. (2011). In this work we generalize this class to an innite order degenerate kernel. We then use this powerful tools and the reverse martingale nature of U-statistics to study the asymptotic behavior of a collection of trans- formed classic diversity measures. We are able to estimate them in a common framework instead of the usual individualized estimation procedures. MSC 2000: primary - 62G10; secondary - 62G20, 92D20.
Comparing Model-produced Convective Cloudiness with PE 62101 F Observations

Convective cloudiness generated by a cumulus parameterization scheme of a large-scale numerical weather prediction model was compared with analyses of clouds observed by geosynchronous satellites. The comparisons were performed over an equatorial Pacific Ocean region and the Amazon basin region for the period JanuaryFebruary 1979. Fractional coverage of predefined areas by clouds with tops in several altitude-temperature categonres was averaged in each area for the entire period of record and also for individual times of the day. The overall mean provided a basis for comparison of the general spatial distributions of observed and modelproduced cloud, while hourly departures from the overall mean allowed a comparison of the diurnal variations. Geosynchronous satellite cloud analysis serves as a useful reference for assessing the performance of a moist convective parameterization scheme. In this case. it was found that the subject convective scheme produces an accurate relative horizontal distribution of convective cloudiness, but produces too large a proportion of deep convection compared to overall convection. This was believed to be due to a lack of an entrainment mechanism in the scheme. The diurnal variation of model-produced convection was 9-12 h out of phase and somewhat smaller in magnitude than the observed variation over the ocean region. Good agreement was noted between the diurnal characteristics of observed cloud and model-produced convection over the land region.
Supplement to No support for historic candidate gene or candidate gene-by-interaction hypotheses for major depression across multiple large samples

S3 Measures 12 S3.1 Outcome measures . 12 S3.1. 1 Estimated lifetime MDD Diagnosis . 13 S3.1. 2 Conditional lifetime symptom count . 13 S3.1. 3 Current MDD severity . 14 S3.1. 4 Lifetime episode count . 14 S3.1. 5 Touchscreen probable lifetime diagnosis, ordinal classification . 14 S3.1. 6 Touchscreen probable lifetime diagnosis . 15 S3.1. 7 Severe recurrent depression . 15 S3.1. 8 PGC lifetime MDD diagnosis . 15 S3.2 Moderators . 17 S3.2. 1 Childhood trauma . 17 S3.2. 2 Adult trauma . 18 S3.2. 3 Recent trauma . 18 S3.2. 4 Stressor-induced depression . 19 S3.2. 5 Townsend deprivation index (TDI) . 19
Molecular determinants of SR-B1-dependent Plasmodium sporozoite entry into hepatocytic cells

Sporozoite forms of the malaria parasite Plasmodium are transmitted by mosquitoes and first infect the liver for an initial round of replication before parasite proliferation in the blood. The molecular mechanisms involved during sporozoite invasion of hepatocytes remain poorly understood. Two receptors of the Hepatitis C virus (HCV), the tetraspanin CD81 and the scavenger receptor class B type 1 (SR-B1), play an important role during the entry of Plasmodium sporozoites into hepatocytic cells. In contrast to HCV entry, which requires both CD81 and SR-B1 together with additional host factors, CD81 and SR-B1 operate independently during malaria liver infection. Sporozoites from human-infecting P. falciparum and P. vivax rely respectively on CD81 or SR-B1. Rodent-infecting P. berghei can use SR-B1 to infect host cells as an alternative pathway to CD81, providing a tractable model to investigate the role of SR-B1 during Plasmodium liver infection. Here we show that mouse SR-B1 is less functional as compared to human SR-B1 during P. berghei infection. We took advantage of this functional difference to investigate the structural determinants of SR-B1 required for infection. Using a structure-guided strategy and chimeric mouse/human SR-B1 constructs, we could map the functional region of human SR-B1 within apical loops, suggesting that this region of the protein may play a crucial role for interaction of sporozoite ligands with host cells and thus the very first step of Plasmodium infection. IMPORTANCE Malaria is caused by Plasmodium parasites and remains one of the deadliest parasitic diseases worldwide. The parasite is transmitted by a blood feeding mosquito and first invades the liver for an initial, obligatory and silent round of replication. The liver infection is an attractive target for antimalarial vaccine strategies, however the molecular mechanisms of parasite invasion of hepatocytes remain to be fully elucidated. Two hepatocyte surface proteins are known to be important for parasite entry into hepatocytes, the tetraspanin CD81 and the scavenger receptor class B type 1 (SR-B1). These receptors constitute independent gateways depending on the Plasmodium species. Here, we identified the structural determinants of SR-B1, an important hepatocyte entry factor for human-infecting P. vivax. This study paves the way toward a better characterization of the molecular interactions underlying the crucial early stages of infection, a pre-requisite for the development of novel malaria vaccine strategies.
Does Trade Openness Cause Marginalization in Pakistan?

There has been much debate about how much poor people in developing countries gain from trade openness. The available evidence supports both positive and negative effect of trade on income distribution and poverty. This study aims to answer the crucial question “Does trade openness cause marginalization in Pakistan? ” using the data from 1975 to 2013.Income inequality and poverty are used as indicators for marginalization while trade to GDP ratio as indicator for trade openness. For robustness analysis, we use international trade taxes, exports to GDP ratio, and imports to GDP ratio. The empirical results of the study show that one percent increase in trade openness leads to 0.05 units increase in Gini index that is trade openness causes significant positive effect on income inequality. However trade openness does not affect poverty significantly. The study concludes that trade openness causes marginalization in the case of Pakistan but only through increasing income inequality.
Phased array using the sequential rotation principle: analysis of coupling effects

The growing demand for broadband multimedia services urges the aeronautical industry to provide bi-directional on-board communication services in near future. Today, the first aircrafts are already being equipped with the technology necessary to provide Internet access for staff and passengers. Up to now, these solutions are developed to operate in L- and Ku-band, due to the satellite systems available and the existence of affordable RF-components for these frequency ranges. Considering broadband multimedia applications, however, it is obvious that in the near future the technology will have to explore higher frequency regions like Ka-band, where the required bandwidth can be provided. Several studies show that, for airborne broadband satellite communications, the terminal antenna is one of the key components in the system design. To compensate for the aircrafts movement, the terminal antenna must be steerable, to allow satellite tracking. Due to the limitations of mechanically steerable antennas, an electronically steerable array antenna using digital beamforming seems to be the most promising solution. Still, the development of such antenna arrays in Ka-band technology faces high demands regarding performance, integration and, last but not least, component costs. In the framework of a project called SANTANA (smart antenna terminal), funded by the German government (BMBF) on behalf of the DLR, several antenna concepts have been investigated. One promising concept, which will be discussed in this paper, is a transmit-only array at 30 GHz that uses the sequential rotation principle to improve the circular polarisation.
Herpes simplex virus type 1 infection prevents detachment of nerve growth factor-differentiated PC 12 cells in culture

IP: 54.70. 40.11 On: Mon, 22 Apr 2019 19:45:00 Journal of General Virology (2002), 83, 1591–1600. Printed in Great Britain .
Moving on From Sipuleucel-T: New Dendritic Cell Vaccine Strategies for Prostate Cancer

Tumors evade the immune system though a myriad of mechanisms. Using checkpoint inhibitors to help reprime T cells to recognize tumor has had great success in malignancies including melanoma, lung, and renal cell carcinoma. Many tumors including prostate cancer are resistant to such treatment. However, Sipuleucel-T, a dendritic cell (DC) based immunotherapy, improved overall survival (OS) in prostate cancer. Despite this initial success, further DC vaccines have failed to progress and there has been limited uptake of Sipuleucel-T in the clinic. We know in prostate cancer (PCa) that both the adaptive and the innate arms of the immune system contribute to the immunosuppressive environment. This is at least in part due to dysfunction of DC that play a crucial role in the initiation of an immune response. We also know that there is a paucity of DC in PCa, and that those there are immature, creating a tolerogenic environment. These attributes make PCa a good candidate for a DC based immunotherapy. Ultimately, the knowledge gained by much research into antigen processing and presentation needs to translate from bench to bedside. In this review we will analyze why newer vaccine strategies using monocyte derived DC (MoDC) have failed to deliver clinical benefit, particularly in PCa, and highlight the emerging antigen loading and presentation technologies such as nanoparticles, antibody-antigen conjugates and virus co-delivery systems that can be used to improve efficacy. Lastly, we will assess combination strategies that can help overcome the immunosuppressive microenvironment of PCa.
Deep learning with deep convolutional neural network using FDG-PET/CT for malignant pleural mesothelioma diagnosis

Objectives: This study analyzed an artificial intelligence (AI) deep learning method with a three-dimensional deep convolutional neural network (3D DCNN) in regard to diagnostic accuracy to differentiate malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) from benign pleural disease using FDG-PET/CT results. Results: For protocol A, the area under the ROC curve (AUC)/sensitivity/specificity/accuracy values were 0.825/77.9% (81/104)/76.4% (55/72)/77.3% (136/176), while those for protocol B were 0.854/80.8% (84/104)/77.8% (56/72)/79.5% (140/176), for protocol C were 0.881/85.6% (89/104)/75.0% (54/72)/81.3% (143/176), and for protocol D were 0.896/88.5% (92/104)/73.6% (53/72)/82.4% (145/176). Protocol D showed significantly better diagnostic performance as compared to A, B, and C in ROC analysis (p = 0.031, p = 0.0020, p = 0.041, respectively). Materials and Methods: Eight hundred seventy-five consecutive patients with histologically proven or suspected MPM, shown by history, physical examination findings, and chest CT results, who underwent FDG-PET/CT examinations between 2007 and 2017 were investigated in a retrospective manner. There were 525 patients (314 MPM, 211 benign pleural disease) in the deep learning training set, 174 (102 MPM, 72 benign pleural disease) in the validation set, and 176 (104 MPM, 72 benign pleural disease) in the test set. Using AI with PET/CT alone (protocol A), human visual reading (protocol B), a quantitative method that incorporated maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) (protocol C), and a combination of PET/CT, SUVmax, gender, and age (protocol D), obtained data were subjected to ROC curve analyses. Conclusions: Deep learning with 3D DCNN in combination with FDG-PET/CT imaging results as well as clinical features comprise a novel potential tool shows flexibility for differential diagnosis of MPM.
Acute and Delayed Effects of Time-Matched Very Short “All Out” Efforts in Concentric vs. Eccentric Cycling

Background: To the authors’ knowledge, there have been no studies comparing the acute responses to “all out” efforts in concentric (isoinertial) vs. eccentric (isovelocity) cycling. Methods: After two familiarization sessions, 12 physically active men underwent the experimental protocols consisting of a 2-min warm-up and 8 maximal efforts of 5 s, separated by 55 s of active recovery at 80 rpm, in concentric vs. eccentric cycling. Comparisons between protocols were conducted during, immediately after, and 24-h post-sessions. Results: Mechanical (Work: 82,824 ± 6350 vs. 60,602 ± 8904 J) and cardiometabolic responses (mean HR: 68.8 ± 6.6 vs. 51.3 ± 5.7% HRmax, lactate: 4.9 ± 2.1 vs. 1.8 ± 0.6 mmol/L) were larger in concentric cycling (p < 0.001). The perceptual responses to both protocols were similarly low. Immediately after concentric cycling, vertical jump was potentiated (p = 0.028). Muscle soreness (VAS; p = 0.016) and thigh circumference (p = 0.045) were slightly increased only 24-h after eccentric cycling. Serum concentrations of CK, BAG3, and MMP-13 did not change significantly post-exercise. Conclusions: These results suggest the appropriateness of the eccentric cycling protocol used as a time-efficient (i.e., ~60 kJ in 10 min) and safe (i.e., without exercise-induced muscle damage) alternative to be used with different populations in future longitudinal interventions.
Estimating Optimal Infinite Horizon Dynamic Treatment Regimes via pT-Learning

Recent advances in mobile health (mHealth) technology provide an effective way to monitor individuals' health statuses and deliver just-in-time personalized interventions. However, the practical use of mHealth technology raises unique challenges to existing methodologies on learning an optimal dynamic treatment regime. Many mHealth applications involve decision-making with large numbers of intervention options and under an infinite time horizon setting where the number of decision stages diverges to infinity. In addition, temporary medication shortages may cause optimal treatments to be unavailable, while it is unclear what alternatives can be used. To address these challenges, we propose a Proximal Temporal consistency Learning (pT-Learning) framework to estimate an optimal regime that is adaptively adjusted between deterministic and stochastic sparse policy models. The resulting minimax estimator avoids the double sampling issue in the existing algorithms. It can be further simplified and can easily incorporate off-policy data without mismatched distribution corrections. We study theoretical properties of the sparse policy and establish finite-sample bounds on the excess risk and performance error. The proposed method is provided in our proximalDTR package and is evaluated through extensive simulation studies and the OhioT1DM mHealth dataset.
Generating Synthetic Data for DNA Origami-based Information Storage Systems

The impending information storage crisis is coming. Typical archival storage mediums must be replaced and re-written via expensive processes every 3-5 years. Exponentially increasing global data creation demands innovation in the methods we use to store this data. DNA oligos/origami offer a novel way to store information that is more durable, higher density, and scalable. With DNA information storage pipelines in their infancy, many areas of developmental progress are underway. One such area that requires attention is the back-end decoding and processing of the stored information. As the building material of DNA provides a continued and increasing scope to be used as the next-generation information storage medium, significant challenges arise. One such challenge is the cost-barrier to producing real microscopic images of folded DNA origami structures, which can amount to many thousands of pounds/dollars even if your institution is equipped with a well-resources bioengineering laboratory. Another barrier is time; real images can take weeks or months to produce. We therefore present a method for generating synthetic datasets for origami-based DNA information storage systems using a custom GAN pipeline. We find a customised ProjGAN the best performer for generating microscopy-based synthetic images of data stored in DNA origami structures. The work presented here therefore acts a useful tool for the further development of computational and back-end decoding pipelines for DNA origami information storage, that can now be developed without the aforementioned barriers. With DNA origami storage methods already here and many advancements on the horizon we are excited to present our synthetic data generation tool.