Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Confocal Microscopy-Based Estimation of Parameters for Computational Modeling of Electrical Conduction in the Normal and Infarcted Heart

Computational modeling is an important tool to advance our knowledge on cardiac diseases and their underlying mechanisms. Computational models of conduction in cardiac tissues require identification of parameters. Our knowledge on these parameters is limited, especially for diseased tissues. Here, we assessed and quantified parameters for computational modeling of conduction in cardiac tissues. We used a rabbit model of myocardial infarction (MI) and an imaging-based approach to derive the parameters. Left ventricular tissue samples were obtained from fixed control hearts (animals: 5) and infarcted hearts (animals: 6) within 200 μm (region 1), 250–750 μm (region 2) and 1,000–1,250 μm (region 3) of the MI border. We assessed extracellular space, fibroblasts, smooth muscle cells, nuclei and gap junctions by a multi-label staining protocol. With confocal microscopy we acquired three-dimensional (3D) image stacks with a voxel size of 200 × 200 × 200 nm. Image segmentation yielded 3D reconstructions of tissue microstructure, which were used to numerically derive extracellular conductivity tensors. Volume fractions of myocyte, extracellular, interlaminar cleft, vessel and fibroblast domains in control were (in %) 65.03 ± 3.60, 24.68 ± 3.05, 3.95 ± 4.84, 7.71 ± 2.15, and 2.48 ± 1.11, respectively. Volume fractions in regions 1 and 2 were different for myocyte, myofibroblast, vessel, and extracellular domains. Fibrosis, defined as increase in fibrotic tissue constituents, was (in %) 21.21 ± 1.73, 16.90 ± 9.86, and 3.58 ± 8.64 in MI regions 1, 2, and 3, respectively. For control tissues, image-based computation of longitudinal, transverse and normal extracellular conductivity yielded (in S/m) 0.36 ± 0.11, 0.17 ± 0.07, and 0.1 ± 0.06, respectively. Conductivities were markedly increased in regions 1 (+75, +171, and +100%), 2 (+53, +165, and +80%), and 3 (+42, +141, and +60%). Volume fractions of the extracellular space including interlaminar clefts strongly correlated with conductivities in control and MI hearts. Our study provides novel quantitative data for computational modeling of conduction in normal and MI hearts. Notably, our study introduces comprehensive statistical information on tissue composition and extracellular conductivities on a microscopic scale in the MI border zone. We suggest that the presented data fill a significant gap in modeling parameters and extend our foundation for computational modeling of cardiac conduction.
Effects of risk disclosure prominence in direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) of prescription drugs: An integrative cognitive process model

ABSTRACT The literature shows that the prominence of risk disclosure influences consumer responses to direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs. However, little is known about the psychological process whereby disclosure prominence exerts its influences on health beliefs and behavior. Based on a review of the literature on health cognition and behavior, the current study proposed and tested a model to show that risk disclosure prominence affects consumers’ drug choice intention through the mediating roles of awareness of drug adverse reactions (ARs), perceived control over ARs, and perceived risk of ARs. The findings were discussed in terms of their theoretical and managerial implications.
Review of backscatter measurement in kilovoltage radiotherapy using novel detectors and reduction from lack of underlying scattering material

Lack of underlying material can lead to dose reduction in kilovoltage radiotherapy treatments because of backscatter reduction. Conversely, the use of lead shielding can lead to large dose enhancement close to the lead interface. GAFCHROMIC film has been shown to be of use in verification of local backscatter factors compared to reference data in codes of practice, but careful handling and multiple readings are required to reduce systematic uncertainties to between 3% and 4%. Monte Carlo modeling of the specific treatment unit should be performed in cases which are found to differ from reference values before alternative values are adopted clinically, but these cases are expected to be few. GAFCHROMIC film may also be used to estimate backscatter reduction more readily than customized ionization chambers, for a range of beam qualities, applicator sizes and depth, with and without lead shielding. Differences were found between different studies, and it is not clear to what extent these are due to variation in equipment and/or technique. However, a layer of wax around lead shielding of 1 mm thickness should be sufficient to eliminate lead enhancement effects for all kilovoltage energies from 40 kV to 300 kV PACS numbers: 87.55. Qr, 87.56. jk
Radial dose distributions from protons of therapeutic energies calculated with Geant4-DNA

Models based on the amorphous track structure approximation have been successful in predicting the biological effects of heavy charged particles. Development of such models remains an active area of research that includes applications to hadrontherapy. In such models, the radial distribution of the dose deposited by delta electrons and directly by the particle is the main characteristic of track structure. We calculated these distributions with Geant4-DNA Monte Carlo code for protons in the energy range from 10 to 100 MeV. These results were approximated by a simple formula that combines the well-known inverse square distance dependence with two factors that eliminate the divergence of the radial dose integral at both small and large distances. A clear physical interpretation is given to the asymptotic behaviour of the radial dose distribution resulting from these two factors. The proposed formula agrees with the Monte Carlo data within 10% for radial distances of up to 10 μm, which corresponds to a dose range covering over eight orders of magnitude. Differences between our results and those of previously published analytical models are discussed.
Sensory deficits and mental disorders of old age : causal or coincidental associations ?

The description of concurrent sensory deficits and mental disorder in old age is complicated by general problems in the estimation of the prevalence of morbidity in old age. First, although there is agreement that the onset of 'old age' is some time in the seventh decade of life (i.e. between 60 and 70 years of age), there is no upper age limit. This has the effect of creating an age group which may span 40 or more years. 'Over 65' prevalence figures will consistently underestimate the prevalence of age-related disorders in the oldest age groups. Secondly, criteria for morbidity are not held constant across age groups. In recognition of normative age changes (i.e. changes which appear to occur as a product of ageing, in the absence of pathogens), the standard for 'normal' as opposed to 'abnormal' or 'disease state' is shifted. Higher thresholds for sensation and lower levels of function are frequently described as relative to age normative standards which assume some decrement. Again, this has the effect of underestimating the prevalence of dysfunction in the oldest age groups. The prevalence of sensory deficit is particularly vulnerable to underestimate, as the incidence of disorder increases with age, and criteria for function in the normal range are lowered. As an example, a hearing loss in the range of 25-35 dB within the speech frequencies, and up to 45-50 dB at high frequencies, may be considered 'normal' for an 80 year old, although these would constitute a clinically significant hearing loss for a 40 year old. Age-related losses in sensitivity and acuity of the senses taste, smell and touch have been demonstrated by cross-sectional studies comparing thresholds and discrimination ability of young and old age groups. Although the age differences found in psychophysical studies have been consistently statistically significant (Kenshalo, 1977; Schiffman, 1979), and there have been suggestions that such losses may contribute to anhedonia in old age (Corso, 1981), there has been no serious consideration of their role in the development or exacerbation of mental illness in old age. More attention has been directed to the senses critical to social interaction, orientation and independence: vision and hearing. The prevalence of both vision and hearing impairment increases markedly with age.
Design, synthesis, molecular docking and anti-hepatocellular carcinoma evaluation of novel acyclic pyridine thioglycosides

ABSTRACT A novel series of acyclic pyridine thioglycosides has been synthesized. Evaluation of the anti proliferative activity of these compounds against HEPG-2 cell lines (liver carcinoma cell lines) shows that most of the compounds have high anti-tumor activities especially 6b, 6c, 7b and 7c. Furthermore, in the modeling study, these compounds showed that they have high binding affinity with thymidylate synthase dihydrofolate reductase (TS-DHFR).
A Parameter Identification Method for Helicopter Noise Source Identification and Physics-Based Semiempirical Modeling

A new physics-based parameter identification method for rotor harmonic noise sources is developed using an acoustic inverse simulation technique. This new method allows for the identification of individual rotor harmonic noise sources and allows them to be characterized in terms of their individual non-dimensional governing parameters. This new method is applied to both wind tunnel measurements and ground noise measurements of two-bladed rotors. The method is shown to match the parametric trends of main rotor Blade-Vortex Interaction (BVI) noise, allowing accurate estimates of BVI noise to be made for operating conditions based on a small number of measurements taken at different operating conditions.
Effect of Cervical Kinesthetic Motor Imagery on Postural Control of Healthy Young Adults with Fear of Falling

Motor imagery (MI) is the act of coding the mental aspect of an intended task without executing it. Fear consists of an anxiogenic response to a previous event, which provides a state of alertness to the individual in the face of a threat. These two conditions (imagery and fear) may modulate orthostatic postural control, but their combined effect is still unknown. To investigate whether cervical kinesthetic motor imagery induces modulations in postural control and in the fear of falling (FoF) sensation in healthy young adults. Participants (n = 20) were placed on the Wii Balance Board® and oriented to perform and imagine three tasks for 60 s: (1) closed eyes; (2) cervical flexion; and (3) cervical inclination. The number of performed and imagined repetitions were recorded, and participants responded to a question at the end of each task regarding the FoF. There were four relevant effects: (1) there was no difference between the number of performed and imagined repetitions (p > 0.05) indicating similarities; (2) there was a greater sensation of FoF induced by kinesthetic MI tasks (p 0.05). The FoF during kinesthetic MI tasks may influence the orthostatic postural control, favoring the reduction in postural stability.
Reproducibility and validity of dietary glycemic index , dietary glycemic load , and total carbohydrate intake in 141 Swedish men 1 – 3

Background: Although the associations of dietary glycemic index (GI) and dietary glycemic load (GL) with many chronic diseases have been examined in epidemiologic studies, information regarding the reproducibility and validity of these measures assessed with the use of food-frequency questionnaires (FFQs) is lacking. Objective: We examined the reproducibility and validity of dietary GI and dietary GL and of carbohydrate intake as assessed by using an FFQ. Design: Swedish men (n 141) aged 40–74 y completed 2 FFQs 1 y apart and two 1-wk weighed diet records 6 mo apart. Dietary GI, dietary GL, and carbohydrate intake (starches and sugars) were calculated from both FFQs and diet records. We used intraclass correlations between the 2 FFQs to measure reproducibility and Pearson correlations between the diet records and the FFQs to assess the relative validity. Results: Reproducibility of the FFQs was 0.66 (95% CI: 0.56, 0.75) for dietary GI, 0.61 (95% CI: 0.50, 0.71) for dietary GL, and 0.61 (95% CI: 0.50, 0.71) for carbohydrate. The correlations between the FFQs and diet records were 0.62 (95% CI: 0.45, 0.74) for dietary GI, 0.77 (95% CI: 0.56, 0.88) for dietary GL, and 0.76 (95% CI: 0.55, 0.88) for carbohydrate after adjustment for within-person variation in the FFQs and diet records. Conclusion: In this sample of men, an FFQ measured dietary GI, dietary GL, and carbohydrate with reproducibility and validity similar to other commonly studied nutritional factors. Am J Clin Nutr 2007;85:548–53.
DroneTrack: Cloud-Based Real-Time Object Tracking Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Over the Internet

Low-cost drones represent an emerging technology that opens the horizon for new smart Internet-of-Things (IoT) applications. Recent research efforts in cloud robotics are pushing for the integration of low-cost robots and drones with the cloud and the IoT. However, the performance of real-time cloud robotics systems remains a fundamental challenge that demands further investigation. In this paper, we present DroneTrack, a real-time object tracking system using a drone that follows a moving object over the Internet. The DroneTrack leverages the use of Dronemap planner (DP), a cloud-based system, for the control, communication, and management of drones over the Internet. The main contributions of this paper consist in: (1) the development and deployment of the DroneTrack, a real-time object tracking application through the DP cloud platform and (2) a comprehensive experimental study of the real-time performance of the tracking application. We note that the tracking does not imply computer vision techniques but it is rather based on the exchange of GPS locations through the cloud. Three scenarios are used for conducting various experiments with real and simulated drones. The experimental study demonstrates the effectiveness of the DroneTrack system, and a tracking accuracy of 3.5 meters in average is achieved with slow-speed moving targets.
Arginine Metabolism: Enzymology, Nutrition, and Clinical Significance

The rationale for the use of nutritional supplements to enhance exercise capacity is based on the assumption that they will confer an ergogenic effect above and beyond that afforded by regular food ingestion alone. The proposed or advertised ergogenic effect of many supplements is based on a presumptive metabolic pathway and may not necessarily translate to quantifiable changes in a variable as broadly defined as exercise performance. L-arginine is a conditionally essential amino acid that has received considerable attention due to potential effects on growth hormone secretion and nitric oxide production. In some clinical circumstances (e.g., burn injury, sepsis) in which the demand for arginine cannot be fully met by de novo synthesis and normal dietary intake, exogenous arginine has been shown to facilitate the maintenance of lean body mass and functional capacity. However, the evidence that supplemental arginine may also confer an ergogenic effect in normal healthy individuals is less compelling. In contrast to arginine, numerous studies have reported that supplementation with the arginine metabolite creatine facilitates an increase in anaerobic work capacity and muscle mass when accompanied by resistance training programs in both normal and patient populations. Whereas improvement in the rate of phosphocreatine resynthesis is largely responsible for improvements in acute work capacity, the direct effect of creatine supplementation on skeletal muscle protein synthesis is less clear. The purpose of this review is to summarize the role of arginine and its metabolite creatine in the context of a nutrition supplement for use in conjunction with an exercise stimulus in both healthy and patient populations. J. Nutr. 134: 2888S-2894S, 2004.
Electrocatalysts for Hydrogen Evolution in Alkaline Electrolytes: Mechanisms, Challenges, and Prospective Solutions

Hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in alkaline medium is currently a point of focus for sustainable development of hydrogen as an alternative clean fuel for various energy systems, but suffers from sluggish reaction kinetics due to additional water dissociation step. So, the state‐of‐the‐art catalysts performing well in acidic media lose considerable catalytic performance in alkaline media. This review summarizes the recent developments to overcome the kinetics issues of alkaline HER, synthesis of materials with modified morphologies, and electronic structures to tune the active sites and their applications as efficient catalysts for HER. It first explains the fundamentals and electrochemistry of HER and then outlines the requirements for an efficient and stable catalyst in alkaline medium. The challenges with alkaline HER and limitation with the electrocatalysts along with prospective solutions are then highlighted. It further describes the synthesis methods of advanced nanostructures based on carbon, noble, and inexpensive metals and their heterogeneous structures. These heterogeneous structures provide some ideal systems for analyzing the role of structure and synergy on alkaline HER catalysis. At the end, it provides the concluding remarks and future perspectives that can be helpful for tuning the catalysts active‐sites with improved electrochemical efficiencies in future.
Under the Shadow of Sunshine: Characterizing Spam Campaigns Abusing Phone Numbers Across Online Social Networks

Cybercriminals abuse Online Social Networks (OSNs) to lure victims into a variety of spam. Among different spam types, a less explored area is OSN abuse that leverages the telephony channel to defraud users. Phone numbers are advertized via OSNs, and users are tricked into calling these numbers. To expand the reach of such scam / spam campaigns, phone numbers are advertised across multiple platforms like Facebook, Twitter, GooglePlus, Flickr, and YouTube. In this paper, we present the first data-driven characterization of cross-platform campaigns that use multiple OSN platforms to reach their victims and use phone numbers for monetization. We collect -23M posts containing -1.8M unique phone numbers from Twitter, Facebook, GooglePlus, Youtube, and Flickr over a period of six months. Clustering these posts helps us identify 202 campaigns operating across the globe with Indonesia, United States, India, and United Arab Emirates being the most prominent originators. We find that even though Indonesian campaigns generate highest volume (-3.2M posts), only 1.6% of the accounts propagating Indonesian campaigns have been suspended so far. By examining campaigns running across multiple OSNs, we discover that Twitter detects and suspends -93% more accounts than Facebook. Therefore, sharing intelligence about abuse-related user accounts across OSNs can aid in spam detection. According to our dataset, around -35K victims and -$8.8M could have been saved if intelligence was shared across the OSNs. By analyzing phone number based spam campaigns running on OSNs, we highlight the unexplored variety of phone-based attacks surfacing on OSNs.
Benchmarking of five commercial deformable image registration algorithms for head and neck patients

Benchmarking is a process in which standardized tests are used to assess system performance. The data produced in the process are important for comparative purposes, particularly when considering the implementation and quality assurance of DIR algorithms. In this work, five commercial DIR algorithms (MIM, Velocity, RayStation, Pinnacle, and Eclipse) were benchmarked using a set of 10 virtual phantoms. The phantoms were previously developed based on CT data collected from real head and neck patients. Each phantom includes a start of treatment CT dataset, an end of treatment CT dataset, and the ground‐truth deformation vector field (DVF) which links them together. These virtual phantoms were imported into the commercial systems and registered through a deformable process. The resulting DVFs were compared to the ground‐truth DVF to determine the target registration error (TRE) at every voxel within the image set. Real treatment plans were also recalculated on each end of treatment CT dataset and the dose transferred according to both the ground‐truth and test DVFs. Dosimetric changes were assessed, and TRE was correlated with changes in the DVH of individual structures. In the first part of the study, results show mean TRE on the order of 0.5 mm to 3 mm for all phantoms and ROIs. In certain instances, however, misregistrations were encountered which produced mean and max errors up to 6.8 mm and 22 mm, respectively. In the second part of the study, dosimetric error was found to be strongly correlated with TRE in the brainstem, but weakly correlated with TRE in the spinal cord. Several interesting cases were assessed which highlight the interplay between the direction and magnitude of TRE and the dose distribution, including the slope of dosimetric gradients and the distance to critical structures. This information can be used to help clinicians better implement and test their algorithms, and also understand the strengths and weaknesses of a dose adaptive approach. PACS number(s): 87.57. nj, 87.55. dk, 87.55. Qr
A Review on The Lime and Fly ash Application in Soil Stabilization

Nowadays, inefficient properties of soils are a critical issue in engineering projects. In some cases, improve the characteristic of unsuitable soils is a fundamental step for making construction. This review paper presents the results of research on soil stabilization with lime and fly ash. Soil stabilization performed the use of technique to adding a binder to the soil in order to improve the engineering performance of soil. Researches were illustrated that adding the additives leads to progress in workability and mechanical behaviour of soil after stabilization. Lime and fly ash as local natural and industrial resources were applied for chemical stabilization. These additives could improve the mechanical properties of soil such as strength, swelling, plasticity index and compressibility. The obtained results were indicated that, for progressing in soil properties the combination of lime and fly ash might be more effective than use of only lime or fly ash.
Kalman Filtering Over Gilbert–Elliott Channels: Stability Conditions and Critical Curve

This paper investigates the stability of Kalman filtering over Gilbert–Elliott channels where random packet drops follow a time-homogeneous two-state Markov chain whose state transition is determined by a pair of failure and recovery rates. First of all, we establish a relaxed condition guaranteeing peak-covariance stability described by an inequality in terms of the spectral radius of the system matrix and transition probabilities of the Markov chain. We further show that the condition can be interpreted using a linear matrix inequality feasibility problem. Next, we prove that the peak-covariance stability implies mean-square stability, if the system matrix has no defective eigenvalues on the unit circle. This connection between the two stability notions holds for any random packet drop process. We prove that there exists a critical curve in the failure-recovery rate plane, below which the Kalman filter is mean-square stable and no longer mean-square stable above. Finally, a lower bound for this critical failure rate is obtained making use of the relationship we establish between the two stability criteria, based on an approximate relaxation of the system matrix.