Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Time reversal acoustics

An overview of time reversal techniques is presented in this paper. In the first section, we focus on the ability of using reflecting targets embedded in the body as sources of time reversal waves. Real time tracking and destruction of moving kidney stones are demonstrated in the case of lithotripsy application. We show the strong potential of iterative time reversal techniques in multiple target environments to select and focus in real time on each target of a medium. The ability of iterative time reversal to improve the detection of microcalcifications in a random scattering media (speckle noise) is also presented. We show that distortions induced by sound velocity heterogeneities are compensated by the iterative time reversal technique guaranteeing the maximum pressure to be reached at the target position. In the second section of this paper, we discuss the time reversal focusing properties observed in dissipative media like the skull. We show that the time reversal focal spot can be strongly degraded as, in such medium, we can no more rely on the time reversal invariance of the wave equation. Important sidelobes appear around the main focus. However, combining time reversal with amplitude compensation techniques allows correction of absorption effects and decreasing of these sidelobes. Application of this coupled technique to high precision brain hyperthermia through the skull is demonstrated. Beyond these straightforward applications of time reversal to spatial focusing of waves through aberrating medium, we show that time reversal techniques allow us also to revisit the concept of piezoelectric transducer designing. Contrary to conventional transducer technology avoiding unwanted reverberations in piezoelectric elements, time reversal can take benefit of strongly reverberating media to increase the transducer efficiency. We demonstrate that very high pressure fields (1000 Atm.) can be obtained with a few transducers connected to reverberating media such as solid waveguides. The dispersive property of waveguides; is compensated by time reversal allowing very long coded excitations to be recompressed in very short high amplitude pulses. It leads to a new generation of ultra-compact shock wave lithotripters that use a very small transducer number and to time reversal kaleidoscopes that can replace the 2D array.
An equational object-oriented data model and its data-parallel query language

This paper presents an equational formulation of an object-oriented data model. In this model, a database is represented as a system of equations over a set of oid's, and a database query is a transformation of a system of equations into another system of equations. During the query processing, our model maintains an equivalence relation over oid's that relates oid's corresponding to the same "real-world entity. " By this mechanism, the model achieves a declarative set-based query language and views for objects with identity. Moreover, the query primitives are designed so that queries including object traversal can be evaluated in a data-parallel fashion.
Atrophic Enlargement of CSF Volume after Subarachnoid Hemorrhage: Correlation with Neuropsychological Outcome

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Ventricular dilation and sulcal enlargement are common sequelae after aSAH. Our aim was to quantify the late ventricular dilation and volumes of the CSF spaces after aSAH and to determine if they correlate with neurologic and cognitive impairments frequently detected in these patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 3D T1-weighted images needed for volumetry were available in 76 patients 1 year after aSAH, along with 75 neuropsychological assessments. Volumes of CSF segments and ICV were quantified by SPM in 76 patients and 30 control subjects to determine CSF/ICV ratios. The mCMI was calculated to roughly evaluate the ventricular dilation. The contributing factors for enlarged ventricles and CSF volumes were reviewed from radiologic, clinical, and neuropsychological perspectives. RESULTS: The mCMI was higher in patients with aSAH (0.23 ± 0.06) compared with control subjects (0.20 ± 0.04; P = .020). In line with these planimetric measurements, the SPM-based CSF/ICV ratios were higher in patients with aSAH (35.58 ± 7.0) than in control subjects (30.36 ± 6.25; P = .001). Preoperative hydrocephalus, higher HH and Fisher grades, and focal parenchymal lesions on brain MR imaging, but not the treatment technique, were associated with ventricular enlargement. The clinical outcome and presence of neuropsychological deficits correlated significantly with CSF enlargement. CONCLUSIONS: Ventricular and sulcal enlargement, together with reduced GM volumes, after aSAH may indicate general atrophy rather than hydrocephalus. Enlarged CSF spaces correlate with cognitive deficits after aSAH. A simple measure, mCMI proved to be a feasible tool to assess the diffuse atrophic brain damage after aSAH.
Comparison of sentinel lymph node biopsy alone and completion axillary lymph node dissection for node-positive breast cancer.

PURPOSE For women with breast cancer, the role of completion axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) after identification of nodal metastases by sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) has been questioned. Our objectives were to assess national nodal evaluation practice patterns and to examine differences in recurrence and survival for SLNB alone versus SLNB with completion ALND. PATIENTS AND METHODS From the National Cancer Data Base (1998 to 2005), women with clinically node-negative breast cancer who underwent SLNB and who had nodal metastases were identified. Practice patterns and outcomes were examined for patients who underwent SLNB alone versus SLNB with completion ALND (median follow-up, 63 months). RESULTS Of 97,314 patients, 20.8% underwent SLNB alone, and 79.2% underwent SLNB with completion ALND. In 2004 to 2005, patients were significantly more likely to undergo SLNB alone if they were older, had smaller tumors, or were treated at non-National Cancer Institute-designated cancer centers. In patients with macroscopic nodal metastases (n = 20,075 during 1998 to 2000), there was a nonsignificant trend toward better outcomes for completion ALND (v SLNB alone) after analysis was adjusted for differences between the two groups: axillary recurrence (hazard ratio [HR], 0.58; 95% CI, 0.32 to 1.06) and overall survival (HR, 0.89; 95% CI, 0.76 to 1.04). In patients with microscopic nodal metastases (n = 2,203 during 1998 to 2000), there were no significant differences in axillary recurrence or survival for patients who underwent SLNB alone versus completion ALND. CONCLUSION Compared with SLNB alone, completion ALND does not appear to improve outcomes for breast cancer patients with microscopic nodal metastases; however, there was a nonsignificant trend toward better outcomes with completion ALND for those with macroscopic disease.
Psychological Implications of Domestic Assistive Technology for the Elderly

The ROBOCARE Domestic Environment (RDE) is the result of a three-year project aimed at developing cognitive support technology for elderly people. Specifically, the domestic environment is equipped with sensors, intelligent software components and devices which cooperate to provide cognitive support to the assisted person. The ROBOCARE interaction capabilities have been concentrated in a robotic mediator who acts as the main communication channel between the users and the intelligent domestic environment. This paper presents an evaluation of elderly people's perception of assistive robots and smart domotic environments. Results show how the acceptability of robotic devices in home setting does not depend only on the practical benefits they can provide, but also on complex relationships between the cognitive, affective and emotional components of people's images of robot. Specially, we analyzes a number of evaluation criteria related to the robot's aspect, the way in which it communicates with the user, and the perceived usefulness of its support services. Among these criteria, the paper proposes and reports an evaluation of how perceived frailty, with reference to both health in general and fear of cognitive weakening, more specifically, can influence the evaluation of a potential aid in everyday life, namely the robotic assistant. The paper also provides a discussion which can be useful for the design of future assistive agents and socially interactive robotic.
Relation of alcohol/tobacco use with metastasis, hormonal (estrogen and progesterone) receptor status and c-erbB2 protein in mammary ductal carcinoma.

BACKGROUND An association between alcohol/tobacco use and risk of metastasis in breast cancer has been clearly shown. MATERIALS AND METHODS The present study explored, in 48 samples of tissue from mammary ductal carcinoma (taken from Mexican women with an average age of 58.2±10.9 years), the association of risk of metastasis with the status of hormonal receptors and the c-erbB2 protein (by immunohistochemistry) as well as clinical, histopathological and sociodemographic factors. RESULTS Of 48 patients, 41.6% (20/48) presented with metastasis, 43.8% were positive for the estrogen receptor (RE+), 31.3% for the progesterone receptor (RP+) and 47.7% for c-erbB2 (c-erbB2+). The following combinations were found: RE+/RP+/c-erbB2+ 8.3%, RE+/RP+ 22.9%, RE+/RP- 20.8%, RE-/RP+ 8.3%, RE-/RP-/c-erbB2- 22.9% and RE-/RP- 47.8%. There were 12 patients who used alcohol/tobacco, of which 91.6% did not present metastasis and 81.9% were RE-/RP-. Compared to the RE-/RP-/c-erbB2+, the RE+/RP+/c-erbB2+ group had a 15-fold greater risk for metastasis (95%CI, 0.9-228.8, p=0.05). The carriers of the double negative hormonal receptors had a 4.7 fold greater probability of being (or having been) smokers or drinkers (95%CI, 1.0-20.4, p = 0.03). CONCLUSIONS There was a clear protective effect of using alcohol and/or tobacco, in the cases included in the present study of mammary ductal carcinoma, associated with double negative hormonal receptors. However, this association could be due to a protective factor not measured (Neyman bias) or to a bias inherent in the rate of hospitalization (Berkson fallacy). This question should be explored in a broad prospective longitudinal study.
Multiresolution analysis of arbitrary meshes

In computer graphics and geometric modeling, shapes are often represented by triangular meshes. With the advent of laser scanning systems, meshes of extreme complexity are rapidly becoming commonplace. Such meshes are notoriously expensive to store, transmit, render, and are awkward to edit. Multiresolution analysis offers a simple, unified, and theoretically sound approach to dealing with these problems. Lounsbery et al. have recently developed a technique for creating multiresolution representations for a restricted class of meshes with subdivision connectivity. Unfortunately, meshes encountered in practice typically do not meet this requirement. In this paper we present a method for overcoming the subdivision connectivity restriction, meaning that completely arbitrary meshes can now be converted to multiresolution form. The method is based on the approximation of an arbitrary initial mesh M by a mesh MJ that has subdivision connectivity and is guaranteed to be within a specified tolerance. The key ingredient of our algorithm is the construction of a parametrization of M over a simple domain. We expect this parametrization to be of use in other contexts, such as texture mapping or the approximation of complex meshes by NURBS patches. CR
Early Growth Response Gene-2 (Egr-2) Regulates the Development of B and T Cells

Background Understanding of how transcription factors are involved in lymphocyte development still remains a challenge. It has been shown that Egr-2 deficiency results in impaired NKT cell development and defective positive selection of T cells. Here we investigated the development of T, B and NKT cells in Egr-2 transgenic mice and the roles in the regulation of distinct stages of B and T cell development. Methods and Findings The expression of Egr1, 2 and 3 were analysed at different stages of T and B cell development by RT-PCT and results showed that the expression was strictly regulated at different stages. Forced expression of Egr-2 in CD2+ lymphocytes resulted in a severe reduction of CD4+CD8+ (DP) cells in thymus and pro-B cells in bone marrow, which was associated with reduced expression of Notch1 in ISP thymocytes and Pax5 in pro-B cells, suggesting that retraction of Egr-2 at the ISP and pro-B cell stages is important for the activation of lineage differentiation programs. In contrast to reduction of DP and pro-B cells, Egr-2 enhanced the maturation of DP cells into single positive (SP) T and NKT cells in thymus, and immature B cells into mature B cells in bone marrow. Conclusions Our results demonstrate that Egr-2 expressed in restricted stages of lymphocyte development plays a dynamic, but similar role for the development of T, NKT and B cells.
Breastfeeding: what changed after a decade? 1

ABSTRACT Objective: to analyze the changes in prevalence, median duration and correlates of breastfeeding in a small city in São Paulo state, Brazil. Method: analysis of two cross-sectional studies, conducted at intervals of one decade, with 261 and 302 children younger than two years, respectively. We used Kaplan-Meier survival analysis for calculation of the median duration of breastfeeding, and Cox regression for correlates analysis, with significance level of 5%. Results: an increase of 33.4% in the prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding and 20.9% in breastfeeding was identified. Regarding the latter, the median duration increased from 7.2 to 12 months. In the most recent study, the median duration was lower in first-born children who used pacifiers, and it was not associated with breastfeeding incentive actions. Conclusions: advances in the prevalence and duration of breastfeeding were observed during the 10 year-period, however, pacifier use still remains associated to a shorter median duration of breastfeeding. Our findings contribute to highlighting the need for intensification of nursing actions in the promotion of breastfeeding, and discouragement regarding the use of pacifiers.
Comparison of sensitivity and specificity among 15 criteria for chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy

Introduction: There have been 15 formal sets of criteria published for the diagnosis of CIDP. No study to date has compared the sensitivity and specificity of all published criteria in the same patient population. Methods: We conducted a retrospective chart review of patients with CIDP (n = 56) and controls with diabetic polyneuropathy (n = 37) or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (n = 39) who were followed in an academic neuromuscular practice. The sensitivity and specificity of each CIDP criterion was calculated, including clinical, laboratory, and electrodiagnostic components. Results: Sensitivities ranged from 1.8% to 87.5%; the Dyck (87.5%), Neuropathy Association (75%), and European Federation of Neurological Societies (EFNS; 73.2%) criteria ranked highest. Specificities ranged from 65.6% to 100% and, among the 3 most sensitive criteria, the EFNS (90.8%) and Neuropathy Association (82.9%) criteria were most specific. Conclusions: In our patient population, the EFNS and Neuropathy Association criteria stand out due to high sensitivity and specificity. Muscle Nerve 50: 40–46, 2014
PHYSICAL FUNCTION AND HEALTH‐RELATED QUALITY OF LIFE OF OLDER ADULTS UNDERGOING HOSPITAL REHABILITATION: HOW STRONG IS THE ASSOCIATION?

The purpose of this research is to report preliminary empirical evidence regarding the association between common physical performance measures and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of hospitalized older adults recovering from illness and injury. Frequently, these patients do not return to premorbid levels of independence and physical ability. Rehabilitation for this population often focuses on improving physical functioning and mobility with the intention of maximizing their HRQoL for discharge and thereafter. For this reason, longitudinal use of physical performance measures as an indicator of improvement in physical functioning (and thus HRQoL) is common. Although this is a logical approach, there have been mixed results from previous investigations into the association between common measures of physical function and HRQoL amongst other adult patient populations.1,2 There has been no previous investigation reporting the association between HRQoL and a variety of common physical performance measures in hospitalized older adults.
Fibronectin Facilitates Mycobacterium tuberculosis Attachment to Murine Alveolar Macrophages

ABSTRACT Mycobacterium tuberculosis remains a major cause of pulmonary infection worldwide. Attachment of M. tuberculosis organisms to alveolar macrophages (AMs) represents the earliest phase of primary infection in pulmonary tuberculosis. In this study fibronectin (Fn), an adhesive protein, is shown to bind M. tuberculosis organisms and facilitates attachment of M. tuberculosis to murine AMs. A monoclonal antibody (MAb) specific to the heparin binding domain (HBD) of Fn decreases 125I-Fn binding to M. tuberculosis; whereas MAbs specific to either the cell binding domain (CBD) or the gelatin binding domain (GBD) have no effect on Fn binding to M. tuberculosis. In the presence of exogenous Fn (10 μg/ml) M. tuberculosis attachment to AMs increased significantly from control levels (means ± standard errors of the means) of 11.5% ± 1.1% to 44.2% ± 4.2% (P < 0.05). Fn-enhanced attachment was significantly decreased from 44.2% ± 4.2% to 10.8% ± 1.2% (P < 0.05) in the presence of anti-Fn polyclonal antibodies. The attachment is also inhibited in the presence of MAbs specific for the HBD and CBD, whereas MAbs specific to GBD did not affect the attachment. Further, an Fn cell binding peptide, Arg-Gly-Asp-Ser (RGDS), decreased the attachment from 44.2% ± 4.2% to 15.3% ± 1.2% (P < 0.05), whereas addition of a control peptide, Arg-Gly-Glu-Ser (RGES) did not affect the attachment (40.5% ± 1.8%). These results suggest that Fn-mediated attachment of M. tuberculosis can occur through the binding of Fn to the AM via the CBD and to M. tuberculosis organisms via the HBD.
Ultrasonic monitoring of spontaneous imbibition experiments: Precursory moisture diffusion effects ahead of water front

Fluid substitution processes have been investigated in the laboratory on 14 carbonate and siliciclastic reservoir rock analogues through spontaneous imbibition experiments on vertical cylindrical specimens with simultaneous ultrasonic monitoring and imaging. The motivation of our study was to identify the seismic attributes of fluid substitution in reservoir rocks and to link them to physical processes. It is shown that (i) the P wave velocity either decreases or increases when the capillary front reaches the Fresnel clearance zone, (ii) the P wave amplitude is systematically impacted earlier than the velocity is, (iii) this precursory amplitude decrease occurs when the imbibition front is located outside of the Fresnel zone, and (iv) the relative variation of the P wave amplitude is always much larger than that of the P wave velocity. These results suggest that moisture diffuses into the pore space ahead of the water front. This postulate is further supported by a quantitative analysis of the time evolution of the observed P wave amplitudes. In a sense, P wave amplitude acts as a precursor of the arrival of the capillary front. This phenomenon is used to estimate the effective diffusivity of moisture in the tested rocks. The effective moisture diffusivity estimated from the ultrasonic data is strongly correlated with permeability: a power law with exponent 0.96 predicts permeability from ultrasonic monitoring within a factor 3 without noticeable bias. When the effective diffusivity is high, moisture diffusion affects ultrasonic P wave attributes even before the imbibition starts and impacts the P wave reflectivity as evidenced by the variations recorded in the waveform coda.
Tissue Stem Cells: Definition, Plasticity, Heterogeneity, Self-Organization and Models – A Conceptual Approach

The classical definition of adult tissue stem cells (TSC) is fundamentally based on a functional perspective. A TSC is an undifferentiated cell, capable of proliferation, self-renewal, production of a large number of differentiated functional progeny, regenerating tissue after injury and a flexibility in the use of these options. Here, we discuss the necessity for amending this definition in the light of recent insight into stem cell biology regarding stem cell heterogeneity, lineage plasticity, clonal fluctuation and cell–environment interactions. We conclude that the definition needs amendments. A decade ago the flexibility criterion has attracted little attention but recent findings have indicated its importance. Flexibility and reversibility of tissue and lineage specification (tissue plasticity) and of properties within a tissue (within-tissue plasticity) have major implications with regard to concepts of stem cell function. We advocate to give up the view of TSC as being entities with a preprogrammed development and to replace it by a concept that makes the capabilities for flexible and regulated tissue self-organization based on cell–cell and cell–environment interactions the new paradigm. This concept would permit to incorporate the context-dependent lineage plasticity, within-lineage plasticity and generation of stem cell heterogeneity as a result of a dynamically regulated process. Such concepts need a rigorous examination by formal modeling including simulation studies. We provide some general ideas on how to proceed with such theories and illustrate this with worked models for tissue stem cells of the hematopoietic system and the intestinal epithelium.
Data fusion according to the principle of polyrepresentation

We report data fusion experiments carried out on the four best-performing retrieval models from TREC 5. Three were conceptually/algorithmically very different from one another; one was algorithmically similar to one of the former. The objective of the test was to observe the performance of the 11 logical data fusion combinations compared to the performance of the four individual models and their intermediate fusions when following the principle of polyrepresentation. This principle is based on cognitive IR perspective (Ingwersen & Järvelin, 2005) and implies that each retrieval model is regarded as a representation of a unique interpretation of information retrieval (IR). It predicts that only fusions of very different, but equally good, IR models may outperform each constituent as well as their intermediate fusions. Two kinds of experiments were carried out. One tested restricted fusions, which entails that only the inner disjoint overlap documents between fused models are ranked. The second set of experiments was based on traditional data fusion methods. The experiments involved the 30 TREC 5 topics that contain more than 44 relevant documents. In all tests, the Borda and CombSUM scoring methods were used. Performance was measured by precision and recall, with document cutoff values (DCVs) at 100 and 15 documents, respectively. Results show that restricted fusions made of two, three, or four cognitively/algorithmically very different retrieval models perform significantly better than do the individual models at DCV100. At DCV15, however, the results of polyrepresentative fusion were less predictable.The traditional fusion method based on polyrepresentation principles demonstrates a clear picture of performance at both DCV levels and verifies the polyrepresentation predictions for data fusion in IR. Data fusion improves retrieval performance over their constituent IR models only if the models all are quite conceptually/algorithmically dissimilar and equally and well performing, in that order of importance.