Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Observing a volume rendered fetus within a pregnant patient

Augmented reality systems with see-through headmounted displays have been used primarily for applications that are possible with today's computational capabilities. We explore possibilities for a particular application-in-place, real-time 3D ultrasound visualization-without concern for such limitations. The question is not "How well could we currently visualize the fetus in real time," but "How well could we see the fetus if we had sufficient compute power? " Our video sequence shows a 3D fetus within a pregnant woman's abdomen-the way this would look to a HMD user. Technical problems in making the sequence are discussed. This experience exposed limitations of current augmented reality systems; it may help define the capabilities of future systems needed for applications as demanding as real-time medical visualization. <<ETX>>
Fluid processes in the Tesbihdere base-metal-Au deposit: Implications for epithermal mineralization in the Biga Peninsula, NW Turkey

Tesbihdere is one of a number of spatially close epithermal Cu-Pb-Zn-Ag-Au deposits hosted by andesites and rhyolites, typical of deposits in the Biga peninsula. Microthermometry of fluid inclusions shows a wide range of temperatures, ∼360–170°C, and salinities, ∼10-0.5 wt. % NaCl, in the different deposits studied. Dilution of a moderately saline magmatic? fluid with meteoric water occurred at constant temperature indicating, the temperature of both fluids was controlled by the geological environment. Boiling was not a major factor, but did occur in very minor amounts. The large range of temperatures within individual samples can only reasonably be explained by variations from near lithostatic to hydrostatic pressure during vein and fracture opening. That this pressure decrease did not produce extensive boiling suggests that vein opening was gradual rather than aggressive, allowing the pressure and temperature decrease to follow a path close to the L-V boiling curve. P-T reconstruction places emplacement of these ore veins at between 300–500 m beneath the surface. Similarities of LA-ICPMS of fluid inclusions from Tesbihdere, Azitepe and Basmakci, supports the conclusion that they were part of the same contemporaneous mineralizing system. The fluids are dominated by Na, with the concentrations of K>Ca>Mg combined equivalent to the concentration of Na. The range of K/Na ratios is not consistent with the fluid inclusion temperatures as the calculated temperatures are significantly higher indicating the fluids were not close to equilibrium with the enclosing rocks. Elevated K concentrations are consistent with acid-sulphate waters in shallow epithermal systems. Ore metals Cu, Zn and Pb are present in significant concentrations ∼500, 300 and 200 ppm respectively and the low Fe/Mn ratios are indicative of a relatively oxidising fluid. The negative δ34S values of sulphides are consistent with boiling and oxidising redox conditions.
Mannose receptor regulates myoblast motility and muscle growth

Myoblast fusion is critical for the formation, growth, and maintenance of skeletal muscle. The initial formation of nascent myotubes requires myoblast–myoblast fusion, but further growth involves myoblast–myotube fusion. We demonstrate that the mannose receptor (MR), a type I transmembrane protein, is required for myoblast–myotube fusion. Mannose receptor (MR)–null myotubes were small in size and contained a decreased myonuclear number both in vitro and in vivo. We hypothesized that this defect may arise from a possible role of MR in cell migration. Time-lapse microscopy revealed that MR-null myoblasts migrated with decreased velocity during myotube growth and were unable to migrate in a directed manner up a chemoattractant gradient. Furthermore, collagen uptake was impaired in MR-null myoblasts, suggesting a role in extracellular matrix remodeling during cell motility. These data identify a novel function for MR during skeletal muscle growth and suggest that myoblast motility may be a key aspect of regulating myotube growth.
Issues in using students in empirical studies in software engineering education

Several empirical studies have been carried out with college students as subjects in the last few years. Researchers often use these studies to pilot experiments before they are carried out in industrial environments. Reports on these studies usually focus on the results obtained and issues such as their external validity. However, the effects and value of empirical studies with students may go beyond the contribution to scientific literature. For instance, the pedagogical challenges and value of these studies is hardly ever stressed. We identify four primary actors that are involved in these empirical studies, i.e., researchers, students, instructors, and industry. We discuss the costs and benefits of empirical studies with students for these actors, which are different because of the actors' different goals, expectations, and constraints, which must be recognized to fully exploit empirical studies with students. We also provide some advice on how to carry out empirical studies with students based on our experiences.
Shedding Light on Participation in Open Government Arenas: Determinants of Platform Activity of Web and App Users

This article develops and tests a model to explain web-based and mobile devices usage by citizens to interact with their local government. By employing literature from diverse fields of information systems research, the authors derive an integrated model that investigates citizen participation on a city improvement platform. The model proposes three overall influences on platform activity: technological influences (perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness), motivational influences (intrinsic motivation and prosocial motivation), and sociodemographic influences (gender, age, education), and is tested among two groups of users (i.e. web page and mobile app users). Empirical results show that platform activity of both web and mobile users is mainly driven by intrinsic and prosocial motivation. Whereas perceived usefulness is positively associated with platform behavior of web users, TAM variables have not effect on mobile users’ activity. While gender and age play a role regarding web activity, age and education influence mobile participation.
Consumption-Based Asset Pricing with Higher Cumulants

I extend the Epstein-Zin-lognormal consumption-based asset-pricing model to allow for general i.i. d. consumption growth. Information about the higher moments--equivalently, cumulants--of consumption growth is encoded in the cumulant-generating function. I apply the framework to economies with rare disasters, and argue that the importance of such disasters is a double-edged sword: parameters that govern the frequency and sizes of rare disasters are critically important for asset pricing, but extremely hard to calibrate. I show how to sidestep this issue by using observable asset prices to make inferences that are robust to the details of the underlying consumption process.
Synthesis and Characterization of Shape Memory (Meth)Acrylate Co-Polymers and their Cytocompatibility In Vitro

A series of novel transparent shape memory co-polymers, made from (meth)acrylate monomers, intended to be used as intraocular lens, was synthesized. The thermo-mechanical properties, shape memory properties and optical properties of the co-polymers could be adjusted by using monomers with various alkyl chain lengths. The cytocompatibility of the prepared co-polymers to L929 mouse connective tissue fibroblasts was demonstrated in vitro, and the co-polymers exhibited favorable cytocompatibility, supporting cell viability and proliferation. This study showed that the prepared co-polymers, which exhibited good flexibility, adjustable shape memory properties, high transparency and favorable cytocompatibility, could find great promising applications as intraocular lens.
Interference-Aware Channel Assignments with Seamless Multi-Channel Monitoring in Wireless Mesh Networks

The wireless mesh networks (WMNs) are statically deployed on heterogeneous areas and are operating in open wireless media, and thus it coexists with other networks operating on the same frequency with the same or different radio access technology (RAT). The WMNs experience two types of interferences according to the source of interference. Coexisted networks with WMN induce the interference called external interference and nodes in WMN experience interference each other, which is called internal interference. Most of existing protocols strive for dealing with internal interference. But the increased external interferences can degrade the performance of WMN significantly. To resolve this coexistence problem, we propose three channel assignment schemes for hybrid multi-channel protocol (HMCP) by capturing the states of each channel and selecting its operating channel. We also devise a seamless multi-channel monitoring method to recognize channel states without performance degradation. Intensive simulation results demonstrate that our proposed channel assignment schemes outperform existing HMCP's channel assignment scheme in terms of aggregate throughput, delay, and fairness.
FPGA-based synthetic instrumentation for board test

This paper studies a new approach for board-level test based on synthesizable embedded instruments implemented on FPGA. This very recent methodology utilizes programmable logic devices (FPGA) that are usually available on modern PCBs to a large extent. The purpose of an embedded instrument is to carry out a vast portion of test application related procedures, perform measurement and configuration of system components thus minimizing the usage of external test equipment. By replacing traditional test and measurement equipment with embedded synthetic instruments it is possible not only to achieve the significant reduction of test costs but also facilitate high-speed and at-speed testing. We detail the motivation and classify the FPGA-based instrumentation into different categories based on the implementation and application domains. Experimental results show the efficiency of this approach.
Characterizing the interaction between routing and MAC protocols in ad-hoc networks

We empirically study the effect of mobility and interaction between various input parameters on the performance of protocols designed for wireless ad-hoc networks. An important objective is to study the interaction of the routing and MAC layer protocols under different mobility parameters. We use three basic mobility models: grid mobility model, random waypoint model, and exponential correlated random model. The performance of protocols is measured in terms of various quality of service measures including (i) latency, (ii) throughput, (iii) number of packets received and (iv) long term fairness. Three different commonly studied routing protocols are used: AODV, DSR and LAR scheme 1. Similarly three well known MAC protocols are used: MACA, 802.11 and CSMA.Our main contribution is simulation based experiments coupled with emph rigorous statistical analysis to characterize the emph interaction between the above stated parameters. Such methods allow us to analyze complicated experiments with large input space in a systematic manner. From our results, we conclude the following: No single MAC or routing protocol dominated the other protocols in their class. More interestingly, no MAC/routing protocol combination was better than other combinations over all mobility models and response variables.In general, it is not meaningful to speak about a MAC or a routing protocol in isolation. Presence of interaction leads to trade-offs between the amount of control packets generated by each layer. The results raise the possibility of improving the performance of a particular MAC layer protocol by using a cleverly designed routing protocol or vice-versa.
Biomarkers in bladder cancer: A metabolomic approach using in vitro and ex vivo model systems

Metabolomics has recently proved to be useful in the area of biomarker discovery for cancers in which early diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers are urgently needed, as is the case of bladder cancer (BC). This article presents a comprehensive review of the literature on the metabolomic studies on BC, highlighting metabolic pathways perturbed in this disease and the altered metabolites as potential biomarkers for BC detection. Current disease model systems used in the study of BC metabolome include in vitro‐cultured cancer cells, ex vivo neoplastic bladder tissues and biological fluids, mainly urine but also blood serum/plasma, from BC patients. The major advantages and drawbacks of each model system are discussed. Based on available data, it seems that BC metabolic signature is mainly characterized by alterations in metabolites related to energy metabolic pathways, particularly glycolysis, amino acid and fatty acid metabolism, known to be crucial for cell proliferation, as well as glutathione metabolism, known to be determinant in maintaining cellular redox balance. In addition, purine and pyrimidine metabolism as well as carnitine species were found to be altered in BC. Finally, it is emphasized that, despite the progress made in respect to novel biomarkers for BC diagnosis, there are still some challenges and limitations that should be addressed in future metabolomic studies to ensure their translatability to clinical practice.
Geomagnetic and atmospheric effects upon the cosmogenic 10Be observed in polar ice

Analytical tools are developed that allow the 10 Be measured in ice cores to be inverted to yield quantitative information about the long term time dependence of the cosmic ray flux outside the Earth's magnetic field. It is concluded that the historic changes in both the magnitude, and direction of the geomagnetic dipole, and the inter-latitudinal mixing in the atmosphere, produce effects that can be large compared to the standard deviation of 22 year average 10 Be data, and appropriate procedures are developed to compensate for them. The 10 Be response function is shown to have peaked near 1.8 GeV/nucleon since 1950, while during the Maunder minimum it approximated 0.8 GeV/nucleon. This shows that the 10 Be data are approximately a factor of two more sensitive to cosmic ray modulation than are high latitude sea level neutron monitors. The Z > 2 cosmic radiation contributes 30% to 49% of the observed 10 Be, introducing a substantial rigidity dependence into the temporal variations. A mathematical model is developed that computes the 10 Be flux arriving at points in the polar cap, taking into account polar wander, changes in the geomagnetic moment, and various degrees of atmospheric mixing. It is shown that polar wander introduces variations into the observed flux that may be approximately three times the standard deviation of 22 year average 10 Be data, and that there may be significant differences between the northern and southern hemispheres. The mathematical model, together with the temporal changes in the nitrate concentration observed in ice cores, indicate that the secular changes in 10 Be due to climate driven changes in atmospheric circulation were <4% during the little ice ages. Two methods are outlined that allow independent determinations of the characteristics of the region of the atmosphere that contributes to the 10 Be observed in the polar caps. For the Antarctic, this has approximated the region south of 40°S for the past millennium. Frequently, 10 Be measurements are made using 4-8 year ice samples, and it is shown that the unresolved 11 year variations of the cosmic radiation are the dominant source of statistical variation in these data, and a procedure developed to largely eliminate them. Failure to eliminate these unresolved 11 year variation greatly diminishes the value of the 10 Be data in the study of the long term changes in the galactic cosmic radiation.
Critical Role of the Complement System in Group B Streptococcus-Induced Tumor Necrosis Factor Alpha Release

ABSTRACT Group B Streptococcus (GBS) is a major cause of newborn sepsis and meningitis and induces systemic release of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), believed to play a role in morbidity and mortality. While previous studies have shown that GBS can induce TNF-α release from monocytes and macrophages, little is known about the potential modulating effect of plasma or serum on GBS-induced TNF-α release, and there are conflicting reports as to the host receptors involved. In a human whole-blood assay system, GBS type III COH-1 potently induced substantial monocyte TNF-α release in adult peripheral blood and, due to a higher concentration of monocytes, 10-fold-greater TNF-α release in newborn cord blood. Remarkably, GBS-induced TNF-α release from human monocytes was enhanced ∼1,000-fold by heat-labile serum components. Experiments employing C2-, C3-, or C7-depleted serum demonstrated that C3 activation via the alternative pathway is crucial for potent GBS-induced TNF-α release. Accordingly, whole blood from C3-deficient mice demonstrated significantly reduced GBS-induced TNF-α release. Preincubation with human serum enhanced the TNF-α-inducing activity of GBS in a C3- and factor B-dependent manner, implying deposition of complement components via the alternative pathway. GBS-induced TNF-α release was inhibited by monoclonal antibodies directed against each of the components of CR3 and CR4: the common integrin β subunit CD18 and the α subunits CD11b (of CR3) and CD11c (of CR4). Blood derived from CR3 (CD11b/CD18)-deficient mice demonstrated a markedly diminished TNF-α response to GBS. We conclude that the ability of plasma and serum to greatly amplify GBS-induced TNF-α release reflects the activity of the alternative complement pathway that deposits fragments on GBS and thereby enhances CR3- and CR4-mediated monocyte activation.
Investigating User Identification in Remote Patient Monitoring Devices

With the increase in the number of people having a chronic disease, there is an increase in households having more than a single person suffering from the same chronic illness. One problem of monitoring such patients in their own home is that current devices have a limitation in the number of people who can use a single device. This study investigates the use of Near Field Communication (NFC) for identification in a multi-user environment. Methods: A mixed-method qualitative and quantitative approach was adopted, including focus groups, observations and a field trial. Data were collected in three phases. In Phase 1, five focus groups were conducted with patients to determine their beliefs, concerns and issues with using identification in remote patient monitoring devices. In Phase 2, participants were given a blood pressure monitor modified to include an NFC reader to enable identification. The modified device was given to patients living as a couple in the same household and both suffering from hypertension. Both patients used the device for a period of two weeks to observe their acceptance of the technology and determine their experience of usage. A total of 40 (20 couples) patients participated in the trial. Non-adherence to the full monitoring regimen was low and was mainly due to usability issues or commitments taking them away from the home and thus unable to take readings. After the trial period participants were invited to discuss their experiences with the technology in a focus group discussion (Phase 3), a total of five focus groups were conducted. Focus group discussions with the patients revealed that most participants liked using the system and were not apprehensive towards Healthcare Information Technology (HIT). The participants also had suggestions for improvements that could be made to the modified blood pressure monitor (such as, rechargeable in place batteries, integrate the components, easier to use cuff, and increased sensitivity of the NFC reader) that might improve the overall experience of the proposed technology and its acceptance. Conclusion: The study proposes a new framework, the Senior Patient Technology Acceptance Model (SPTAM) that offers an understanding of the needs of the elderly towards technology use and the factors that influence its acceptance. SPTAM emphasises that involving the patient in the early stages of development can lead to a more user-centred technology and help in identifying any underlying issues at an early stage, thus avoiding adding features which patients do not need. The findings from this empirical research can be used as recommendations to improve current RPM devices, save the NHS costs, inform standardization groups.
Suicide after nonfatal self-harm.

BACKGROUND Nonfatal self-harm is the strongest predictor of suicide, with some of the risk factors for subsequent suicide after nonfatal self-harm being similar to those for suicide in general. However, we do not have sufficient information regarding the medical care provided to nonfatal self-harm episodes preceding suicide. AIMS Our study sought to explore hospital care and predictive characteristics of the risk of suicide after nonfatal self-harm. METHOD Individuals with history of nonfatal self-harm who died by suicide were compared with those who had a nonfatal self-harm episode but did not later die by suicide. Cases were identified by cross-linking data collected through a self-harm monitoring project, 2000-2007, and comprehensive local data on suicides for the same period. RESULTS Dying by suicide after nonfatal self-harm was more common for male subjects than for female subjects (OR = 3.3, 95% CI = 1.7-6.6). Self-injury as the method of nonfatal self-harm was associated with higher risk of subsequent suicide than was self-poisoning (OR = 2.0, 95% CI = 1.04-3.9). More urgent care at the emergency department (OR = 2.7, 95% CI = 1.1-6.3) and admission to hospital (OR = 2.0, 95% CI = 1.0-4.0) at the index episode were related to a heightened risk of suicide. CONCLUSION The findings of our study could help services to form assessment and aftercare policies.
Ubiquitous Positioning: A Taxonomy for Location Determination on Mobile Navigation System

The location determination in obstructed area can be very challenging especially if Global Positioning System are blocked. Users will find it difficult to navigate directly on-site in such condition, especially indoor car park lot or obstructed environment. Sometimes, it needs to combine with other sensors and positioning methods in order to determine the location with more intelligent, reliable and ubiquity. By using ubiquitous positioning in mobile navigation system, it is a promising ubiquitous location technique in a mobile phone since as it is a familiar personal electronic device for many people. However, there is an increasing need for better development of proposed ubiquitous positioning systems. System developers are also lacking of good frameworks for understanding different options during building ubiquitous positioning systems. This paper proposes taxonomy to address both of these problems. The proposed taxonomy has been constructed from a literature study of papers and articles on positioning estimation that can be used to determine location everywhere on mobile navigation system. For researchers the taxonomy can also be used as an aid for scoping out future research in the area of ubiquitous positioning.