Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Position and mass determination of multiple particles using cantilever based mass sensors

Resonant microcantilevers are highly sensitive to added masses and have the potential to be used as mass-spectrometers. However, making the detection of individual added masses quantitative requires the position determination for each added mass. We derive expressions relating the position and mass of several added particles to the resonant frequencies of a cantilever, and an identification procedure valid for particles with different masses is proposed. The identification procedure is tested by calculating positions and mass of multiple microparticles with similar mass positioned on individual microcantilevers. Excellent agreement is observed between calculated and measured positions and calculated and theoretical masses.
Relationship of Blood Pressure, Antihypertensive Therapy, and Outcome in Ischemic Stroke Treated With Intravenous Thrombolysis: Retrospective Analysis From Safe Implementation of Thrombolysis in Stroke-International Stroke Thrombolysis Register (SITS-ISTR)

Background and Purpose— The optimal management of blood pressure (BP) in acute stroke remains unclear. For ischemic stroke treated with intravenous thrombolysis, current guidelines suggest pharmacological intervention if systolic BP exceeds 180 mm Hg. We determined retrospectively the association of BP and antihypertensive therapy with clinical outcomes after stroke thrombolysis. Methods— The SITS thrombolysis register prospectively recorded 11 080 treatments from 2002 to 2006. BP values were recorded at baseline, 2 hours, and 24 hours after thrombolysis. Outcomes were symptomatic (National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score deterioration ≥4) intracerebral hemorrhage Type 2, mortality, and independence at (modified Rankin Score 0 to 2) 3 months. Patients were categorized by history of hypertension and antihypertensive therapy within 7 days after thrombolysis: Group 1, hypertensive treated with antihypertensives (n=5612); Group 2, hypertensive withholding antihypertensives (n=1573); Group 3, without history of hypertension treated with antihypertensives (n=995); and Group 4, without history of hypertension not treated with antihypertensives (n=2632). For 268 (2.4%) patients, these data were missing. Average systolic BP 2 to 24 hours after thrombolysis was categorized by 10-mm Hg intervals with 100 to 140 used as a reference. Results— In multivariable analysis, high systolic BP 2 to 24 hours after thrombolysis as a continuous variable was associated with worse outcome (P<0.001) and as a categorical variable had a linear association with symptomatic hemorrhage and a U-shaped association with mortality and independence with systolic BP 141 to 150 mm Hg associated with most favorable outcomes. OR (95% CI) from multivariable analysis showed no difference in symptomatic hemorrhage (1.09 [0.83 to 1.51]; P=0.58) and independence (1.03 [0.93 to 1.10]; P=0.80) but lower mortality (0.82 [0.73 to 0.92]; P=0.0007) for Group 1 compared with Group 4. Group 2 had a higher symptomatic hemorrhage (1.86 [1.34 to 2.68]; P=0.0004) and mortality (1.62 [1.41 to 1.85]; P<0.0001) and lower independence (0.89 [0.80 to 0.99]; P=0.04) compared with Group 4. Group 3 had similar results as Group 1. Conclusions— There is a strong association of high systolic BP after thrombolysis with poor outcome. Withholding antihypertensive therapy up to 7 days in patients with a history of hypertension was associated with worse outcome, whereas initiation of antihypertensive therapy in newly recognized moderate hypertension was associated with a favorable outcome.
People detection and distinction of their walking aids in 2D laser range data based on generic distance-invariant features

People detection in 2D laser range data is a popular cue for person tracking in mobile robotics. Many approaches are designed to detect pairs of legs. These approaches perform well in many public environments. However, we are working on an assistance robot for stroke patients in a rehabilitation center, where most of the people need walking aids. These tools occlude or touch the legs of the patients. Thereby, approaches based on pure leg detection fail. The essential contribution of this paper are generic distance-invariant range scan features for people detection in 2D laser range data and the distinction of their walking aids. With these features we trained classifiers for detecting people without walking aids (or with crutches), people with walkers, and people in wheelchairs. Using this approach for people detection, we achieve an F1 score of 0.99 for people with and without walking aids, and 86% of detections are classified correctly regarding their walking aid. For comparison, using state-of-the-art features of Arras et al. on the same data results in an F1 score of 0.86 and 57% correct discrimination of walking aids. The proposed detection algorithm takes around 2.5% of the resources of a 2.8 GHz CPU core to process 270° laser range data at an update rate of 10 Hz.
Effect of mutation order on myeloproliferative neoplasms.

BACKGROUND Cancers result from the accumulation of somatic mutations, and their properties are thought to reflect the sum of these mutations. However, little is known about the effect of the order in which mutations are acquired. METHODS We determined mutation order in patients with myeloproliferative neoplasms by genotyping hematopoietic colonies or by means of next-generation sequencing. Stem cells and progenitor cells were isolated to study the effect of mutation order on mature and immature hematopoietic cells. RESULTS The age at which a patient presented with a myeloproliferative neoplasm, acquisition of JAK2 V617F homozygosity, and the balance of immature progenitors were all influenced by mutation order. As compared with patients in whom the TET2 mutation was acquired first (hereafter referred to as "TET2-first patients"), patients in whom the Janus kinase 2 (JAK2) mutation was acquired first ("JAK2-first patients") had a greater likelihood of presenting with polycythemia vera than with essential thrombocythemia, an increased risk of thrombosis, and an increased sensitivity of JAK2-mutant progenitors to ruxolitinib in vitro. Mutation order influenced the proliferative response to JAK2 V617F and the capacity of double-mutant hematopoietic cells and progenitor cells to generate colony-forming cells. Moreover, the hematopoietic stem-and-progenitor-cell compartment was dominated by TET2 single-mutant cells in TET2-first patients but by JAK2-TET2 double-mutant cells in JAK2-first patients. Prior mutation of TET2 altered the transcriptional consequences of JAK2 V617F in a cell-intrinsic manner and prevented JAK2 V617F from up-regulating genes associated with proliferation. CONCLUSIONS The order in which JAK2 and TET2 mutations were acquired influenced clinical features, the response to targeted therapy, the biology of stem and progenitor cells, and clonal evolution in patients with myeloproliferative neoplasms. (Funded by Leukemia and Lymphoma Research and others.).
ACCEPTED AUTHOR VERSION OF THE MANUSCRIPT: Effect of two cooling frequencies on respiration rate in lactating dairy cows under hot and humid climate conditions

of two cooling frequencies on respiration rate in lactating Abstract The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of evaporative cooling at two different frequencies per day on the respiration rate (RR) of lactating dairy cows, considering cow-related factors. Twenty multiparous Israeli Holstein dairy cows housed in a naturally ventilated cowshed were divided randomly into two treatment groups. The cows of both groups were exposed to 3 or 8 cooling sessions per day (3xcool vs. 8xcool, respectively). The RR was observed hourly, with a maximum of 12 measurements per day. Body posture (standing vs. lying) was simultaneously documented. Milk yield was recorded daily. Coat color was determined from a digital photograph. The RR of standing and lying cows was lower in the 8xcool group (60.2 and 51.6 breaths per min (bpm), respectively) than in the 3xcool group (73.1 and 65.6 bpm, respectively). For each increment of five kilograms of milk produced, RR increased by one bpm, and the RR of cows in early DIM was 12.3 bpm higher than that of cows in late DIM. In conclusion, eight cooling sessions per day instead of three lead to a RR abatement in heat-stressed cows under hot conditions, and cow-related factors directly impact the RR during heat stress assessment.
Unsupervised feature selection for phoneme sound classification using particle swarm optimization

This paper proposes a new method based on Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) for feature selection in phonemes sound classification. Inspired of biologist's studies, each particle is represented by filterbank which is motivated by human hearing. Thus, we propose a technique in which PSO is used to extract audio features similar to human's ear in order to achieve better classification. We use PSO technique for optimizing particle's filterbank in order to classify sound signals accurately. Then, feature extraction is done by using particle's information. Moreover, a classification method based on nearest neighbor is used. Furthermore, by using a defined fitness function in this paper, the particle's features which are represented by a filterbank, can be evaluated and then by using the proposed algorithm, best particle's features can be found. In order to evaluate this proposed method, we create a database which consists of 500 samples for each 12 different phoneme classes. The proposed algorithm is compared with an existing typical audio feature selection based on MFCC. The experimental results shows that the proposed algorithm achieves much better classification accuracy in comparison with MFCC based feature selection method. During iterations, the best fitness value shows remarkable improvement of sound classification accuracy.
Activation of the receptor protein tyrosine kinase EphB4 in endometrial hyperplasia and endometrial carcinoma.

BACKGROUND Members of the Eph family of tyrosine kinases have been implicated in embryonic pattern formation and vascular development; however, little is known about their role in the adult organism. We have observed estrogen-dependent EphB4 expression in the normal breast suggesting its implication in the hormone-controlled homeostasis of this organ. Since the endometrium is a similarly hormone dependent organ and endometrial carcinoma is thought to result from estrogenic stimulation, we have investigated EphB4 expression in normal human endometrium and during its carcinogenesis. PATIENTS AND METHODS EphB4 expression was analyzed immunohistochemically in 26 normal endometrium specimens, 15 hyperplasias and 102 endometrioid adenocarcinomas and correlated with clinical and prognostic tumor characteristics. RESULTS In normal endometrial tissue no EphB4 protein was detected. Strikingly, we observed a drastic increase (P <0.0001) in the number of EphB4 protein-expressing glandular epithelial cells in the majority of hyperplasias and carcinomas. Moreover, we found a statistically highly significant positive correlation between EphB4 expression and post-menopausal stage of the patient (P = 0.007). CONCLUSIONS These findings indicate that in the endometrium, EphB4 is an early indicator of malignant development and, thus, EphB4 may represent a potent tool for diagnosis and therapeutic intervention.
Uniqueness in an inverse problem for a one-dimensional fractional diffusion equation

We consider a one-dimensional fractional diffusion equation: , where and denotes the Caputo derivative in time of order α. We attach the homogeneous Neumann boundary condition at and the initial value given by the Dirac delta function. We prove that α and , are uniquely determined by data . The uniqueness result is a theoretical background in experimentally determining the order α of many anomalous diffusion phenomena which are important, for example, in environmental engineering. The proof is based on the eigenfunction expansion of the weak solution to the initial value/boundary value problem and the Gel'fand–Levitan theory.
Experience with 122 consecutive liver transplant procedures at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center

BACKGROUND Saudi Arabia is a leading country in the Middle East in the field of deceased-donor liver transplantation (DDLT) and living-donor liver transplantation (LDLT). We present out experience with DDLT and LDLT at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center (KFSHRC) for the period from April 2001 to January 2007. PATIENTS AND METHODS We performed 122 LT procedures (77 DDLTs and 45 LDLTs) in 118 patients (4 retransplants) during this period of time. RESULTS The number of adult and pediatric procedures was 107 and 11, respectively. The overall male/female ratio was 66/52 and the median age of patients was 43 years (range, 2–63 years). In the DDLT group, the median operating time was 8 hours (range, 4–19), the median blood transfusion was 6 units (range, 0–40), and the median hospital stay was 13 days (range, 6–183). In the DDLT group, after a mean follow-up period of 760 days (range, 2–2085), the overall patient and graft survival rate was 86%. In the LDLT group, the median operating time was 11 hours (range, 7–17), the median blood transfusion was 4 units (range, 0–65), and the median hospital stay was 15 days (range, 7–127). In the LDLT group, and after a mean follow-up period of 685 days (range, 26–1540), the overall patient and graft survival rates were 90% and 80%, respectively with no significant difference in patient and graft survivals between groups. Biliary complications were significantly higher in LDLT compared to DDLT (P<0.05). Vascular complications were also significantly higher in LDLT compared DDLT (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS Both DDLT and LDLT are being successfully performed at KFSHRC with early experience indicating a higher rate of biliary and vascular complications in the LDLT group.
The hygiene hypothesis and multiple sclerosis

Epidemiological studies indicate that the industrially developed world is characterized by a high and increasing burden of allergic and autoimmune diseases. For example, Holgate considers allergy a pandemic and points out that currently almost half of the populations of developed countries suffer from atopy, asthma, or another allergic condition. In the case of autoimmunity, Jacobson and colleagues estimate that 3 to 5% of the US population suffers from a serious immune-mediated disease such as insulin-dependent diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease, connective tissue disease, or multiple sclerosis (MS). In addition, Bach summarizes evidence suggesting that in the last 50 years the incidence of allergic and autoimmune diseases has increased dramatically, and the most persuasive supporting data for this trend come from conditions such as insulin-dependent diabetes, where acute treatment is life-saving and diagnosis is straightforward. In developing countries, by contrast, allergy and autoimmunity are uncommon. Clearly, this dichotomous epidemiological pattern requires a scientific explanation. One account put forth to explain the observed global distribution and temporal changes in the incidence of allergy and autoimmunity is the hygiene hypothesis. Yazdanbakhsh and colleagues summarize the hygiene hypotheses as follows:
Perceived improvements and challenges following sequential bilateral cochlear implantation in children and adults

Objective: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with sequentially implanted bilateral cochlear-implant (biCI) recipients to examine functional aspects of communication that are affected by listening with one versus two CIs. Design: Participants were 15 adult biCI recipients and parents of 30 children (categorized into three groups by age) with biCIs. All CI users had sequential placement of biCIs with at least six months’ experience with the first CI before activation of the second device, and at least three months’ experience with both CIs prior to the interview. The parent/paediatric and adult interviews were all conducted by the same examiner. Electronic transcripts of the interview responses were coded for perceived changes or lack thereof in 23 behaviours following biCI. Extent of reported benefit was quantified for each subject within and across these behaviours and at the group level as a function of age. Results: Most adults and parents of children reported multiple functional changes following biCI use, and changes often translated to enhanced social communication. Nearly all participants were consistent users of biCIs, and were satisfied with their perceived gains in communicating in everyday settings. Most reported ongoing challenges listening in noisy settings. Although many reports on children paralleled those of adults, developmental differences were apparent. Thirteen percent of adults and twenty percent of parents of children in each of the respective groups reported low levels of change. Conclusions: Results suggest that many biCI users experience meaningful functional benefits that may be underestimated by traditional outcome measures. We suggest the need to expand measurement approaches to better quantify the nature of these benefits.
Genetic Variation of Genes Involved in Dihydrotestosterone Metabolism and the Risk of Prostate Cancer

Purpose: Dihydrotestosterone (DHT) is an important factor in prostate cancer (PCA) genesis and disease progression. Given PCA's strong genetic component, we evaluated the possibility that variation in genes involved in DHT metabolism influence PCA risk. Experimental Design: We investigated copy number variants (CNV) and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP). We explored associations between CNV of uridine diphospho-glucuronosyltransferase (UGT) genes from the 2B subclass, given their prostate specificity and/or involvement in steroid metabolism and PCA risk. We also investigated associations between SNPs in genes (HSD3B1, SRD5A1/2, and AKR1C2) involved in the conversion of testosterone to DHT, and in DHT metabolism and PCA risk. The population consisted of 426 men (205 controls and 221 cases) who underwent prostate-specific antigen screening as part of a PCA early detection program in Tyrol, Austria. Results: No association between CNV in UGT2B17 and UGT2B28 and PCA risk was identified. Men carrying the AA genotype at SNP rs6428830 (HSD3B1) had an odds ratio (OR) of 2.0 [95% confidence intervals (95% CI), 1.1-4.1] compared with men with GG, and men with AG or GG versus AA in rs1691053 (SRD5A1) had an OR of 1.8 (95% CI, 1.04-3.13). Individuals carrying both risk alleles had an OR of 3.1 (95% CI, 1.4-6.7) when compared with men carrying neither (P = 0.005). Controls with the AA genotype on rs7594951 (SRD5A2) tended toward higher serum DHT levels (P = 0.03). Conclusions: This is the first study to implicate the 5α-reductase isoform 1 (SRD5A1) and PCA risk, supporting the rationale of blocking enzymatic activity of both isoforms of 5α-reductase for PCA chemoprevention. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 19(1); 229–39
Discriminative Transformation Learning for Fuzzy Sparse Subspace Clustering

This paper develops a novel iterative framework for subspace clustering (SC) in a learned discriminative feature domain. This framework consists of two modules of fuzzy sparse SC and discriminative transformation learning. In the first module, fuzzy latent labels containing discriminative information and latent representations capturing the subspace structure will be simultaneously evaluated in a feature domain. Then the linear transforming operator with respect to the feature domain will be successively updated in the second module with the advantages of more discrimination, subspace structure preservation, and robustness to outliers. These two modules will be alternatively carried out and both theoretical analysis and empirical evaluations will demonstrate its effectiveness and superiorities. In particular, experimental results on three benchmark databases for SC clearly illustrate that the proposed framework can achieve significant improvements than other state-of-the-art approaches in terms of clustering accuracy.
Superficial Siderosis of the Central Nervous System

Superficial siderosis of the central nervous system (CNS) is a rare disorder, which is the consequence of chronic subarachnoid haemorrhage. Brain MR scan (Fig. 1) shows a characteristic marginal low T2-weighted signal of haemosiderin around the surface of the CNS, and has made antemortem diagnosis of this condition possible. Clinically, the cardinal features are progressive sensorineural deafness and cerebellar ataxia. Other features include myelopathy, polyradiculopathy, anosmia and dementia. The only effective way of treating the disorder is to identify the source of bleeding and remove it (Fearnley et al. 1995). PATHOPHYSIOLOGY Superficial siderosis of the CNS is a direct result of chronic subarachnoid haemorrhage with free iron in the CSF causing a chain of events leading to neuronal death, gliosis and haemosiderin deposition. It is the chronicity of the bleeding that is crucial to the development of superficial siderosis and the syndrome does not occur after a single bleed. It
CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT AND FIRM PERFORMANCE: REVISITING THE CASE OF THE CAMCCUL MICROFINANCE INSTITUTIONS

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) has become a comprehensive strategy of acquiring, retaining, and partnering with selective customers to create superior value for the company and the customer. It is a mutually beneficial relationship built upon a foundation of trust and loyalty through marketing, customer service, and relationship programs. This study re-examines the link between CRM and the performance of Microfinance Institutions in the Republic of Cameroon. The fierce competition of MFIs in today’s business environment has forced them to seek long-term profitable relationship with customers and retain them. We used a multiple regression model to regress some measure of performance on variables representing CRM practices namely, customer satisfaction, and computerized management of customer relationship, customer retention, and financial bonding.The main finding of this study is thatcontrarily to a previous study the computerized management of customer relationship so far does not have positive impact on performance. Customer retention programs appear to be the main driver for firm performance
Pac-Bayesian Bounds for Sparse Regression Estimation with Exponential Weights

We consider the sparse regression model where the number of parametersp is larger than the sample size n. The difficulty when consideringhigh-dimensional problems is to propose estimators achieving a good compromisebetween statistical and computational performances. The BIC estimatorfor instance performs well from the statistical point of view [11] but can onlybe computed for values of p of at most a few tens. The Lasso estimator issolution of a convex minimization problem, hence computable for large valueof p. However stringent conditions on the design are required to establish fastrates of convergence for this estimator. Dalalyan and Tsybakov [19] proposea method achieving a good compromise between the statistical and computationalaspects of the problem. Their estimator can be computed for reasonablylarge p and satisfies nice statistical properties under weak assumptions on thedesign. However, [19] proposes sparsity oracle inequalities in expectation forthe empirical excess risk only. In this paper, we propose an aggregation proceduresimilar to that of [19] but with improved statistical performances. Ourmain theoretical result is a sparsity oracle inequality in probability for the trueexcess risk for a version of exponential weight estimator. We also propose aMCMC method to compute our estimator for reasonably large values of p.