Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dependence of STIM1/Orai1-mediated Calcium Entry on Plasma Membrane Phosphoinositides*

Recent studies identified two main components of store-operated calcium entry (SOCE): the endoplasmic reticulum-localized Ca2+ sensor protein, STIM1, and the plasma membrane (PM)-localized Ca2+ channel, Orai1/CRACM1. In the present study, we investigated the phosphoinositide dependence of Orai1 channel activation in the PM and of STIM1 movements from the tubular to PM-adjacent endoplasmic reticulum regions during Ca2+ store depletion. Phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PtdIns(4,5)P2) levels were changed either with agonist stimulation or by chemically induced recruitment of a phosphoinositide 5-phosphatase domain to the PM, whereas PtdIns4P levels were decreased by inhibition or down-regulation of phosphatidylinositol 4-kinases (PI4Ks). Agonist-induced phospholipase C activation and PI4K inhibition, but not isolated PtdIns(4,5)P2 depletion, substantially reduced endogenous or STIM1/Orai1-mediated SOCE without preventing STIM1 movements toward the PM upon Ca2+ store depletion. Patch clamp analysis of cells overexpressing STIM1 and Orai1 proteins confirmed that phospholipase C activation or PI4K inhibition greatly reduced ICRAC currents. These results suggest an inositide requirement of Orai1 activation but not STIM1 movements and indicate that PtdIns4P rather than PtdIns(4,5)P2 is a likely determinant of Orai1 channel activity.
Characterization and calibration of a stereo gas camera system for obtaining spatial information of gas structures

The use of infrared cameras for gas visualization, also named gas cameras, has facilitated the search of escaped environmentally harmful gases in the petroleum and chemical industry, since such cameras allow the detection of gases in a remote way. One way to locate a gas cloud spatially is by setting up two gas cameras in a stereo arrangement and fusing their information. Since gas clouds are semi-transparent non-stationary textures in gas camera images, current methods for depth measurements from stereo visual systems may not succeed or be inaccurate. Furthermore, spatial jitter in the images originated by the internal cooling engine of a gas camera and the radiometric and temporal inaccuracies of the system can affect the performance of the reconstruction method. In order to calculate accurate spatial information with a stereo gas camera system, in this work a characterization of the geometric, radiometric and temporal inaccuracies of the system and a calibration procedure were carried out. After evaluating the obtained results by means of a case study, it has been shown that the location and spatial information of gas clouds can be achieved automatically through a calibration and spatial jitter compensation in the stereo images.
Acromegaly determination using discriminant analysis of the three-dimensional facial classification in Taiwanese.

OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to assess the size, angles and positional characteristics of facial anthropometry between "acromegalic" patients and control subjects. We also identify possible facial soft tissue measurements for generating discriminant functions toward acromegaly determination in males and females for acromegaly early self-awareness. MATERIAL AND METHODS This is a cross-sectional study. Subjects participating in this study included 70 patients diagnosed with acromegaly (35 females and 35 males) and 140 gender-matched control individuals. Three-dimensional facial images were collected via a camera system. Thirteen landmarks were selected. Eleven measurements from the three categories were selected and applied, including five frontal widths, three lateral depths and three lateral angular measurements. Descriptive analyses were conducted using means and standard deviations for each measurement. Univariate and multivariate discriminant function analyses were applied in order to calculate the accuracy of acromegaly detection. RESULTS Patients with acromegaly exhibit soft-tissue facial enlargement and hypertrophy. Frontal widths as well as lateral depth and angle of facial changes were evident. The average accuracies of all functions for female patient detection ranged from 80.0-91.40%. The average accuracies of all functions for male patient detection were from 81.0-94.30%. The greatest anomaly observed was evidenced in the lateral angles, with greater enlargement of "nasofrontal" angles for females and greater "mentolabial" angles for males. Additionally, shapes of the lateral angles showed changes. The majority of the facial measurements proved dynamic for acromegaly patients; however, it is problematic to detect the disease with progressive body anthropometric changes. CONCLUSION The discriminant functions of detection developed in this study could help patients, their families, medical practitioners and others to identify and track progressive facial change patterns before the possible patients go to the hospital, especially the lateral "angles" which can be calculated by relative point-to-point changes derived from 2D lateral imagery without the 3D anthropometric measurements. This study tries to provide a novel and easy method to detect acromegaly when the patients start to have awareness of abnormal appearance because of facial measurement changes, and it also suggests that undiagnosed patients be urged to go to the hospital as soon as possible for acromegaly early diagnosis.
Use of Array Comparative Genomic Hybridization for the Diagnosis of DiGeorge Syndrome in Saudi Arabian Population

DiGeorge syndrome (DGS) is a genetic disorder known as a clinically variable syndrome with over 180 associated phenotypic features. It is caused by a common human deletion in the 22q11.2 chromosomal region and currently is affecting approximately 1 in 4,000 individuals. Despite the prevalence of inherited diseases mainly due to consanguineous marriages, the current diagnosis of DGS in Saudi Arabia is mainly based on conventional high-resolution chromosome banding (karyotyping) and FISH techniques. However, advanced genome-wide studies for detecting microdeletions or duplications across the whole genome are needed. The aim of this study is to implement and use aCGH technology in clinical diagnosis of the 22q11.2 deletion in Saudi Arabian DGS patients and to confirm its effectiveness compared to conventional FISH and chromosome banding techniques. Thirty suspected DGS patients were assessed for chromosome 22q11.2 deletion using high-resolution G-banding, FISH, and aCGH. The aCGH results were compared with those obtained by the other 2 cytogenetic techniques. G-banding detected the 22q11.2 deletion in only 1 patient in the cohort. Moreover, it detected additional chromosomal aberrations in 3 other patients. Using FISH, allowed for detection of the 22q11.2 deletion in 2 out of 30 patients. Interestingly, the use of aCGH technique showed deletions in the chromosome 22q11.2 region in 8 patients, indicating a 4-fold increase in diagnostic detection capacity compared to FISH. Our results show the effectiveness of aCGH to overcome the limitations of FISH and G-banding in terms of diagnostic yield and allow whole genome screening and detection of a larger number of deletions and/or duplications in Saudi Arabian DGS patients. Except for balanced translocations and inversions, our data demonstrate the suitability of aCGH in the diagnostics of submicroscopic deletion syndromes such as DGS and most chromosomal aberrations or complex abnormalities scattered throughout the human genome. Our results recommend the implementation of aCGH in clinical genomic testing in Saudi Arabia to improve the diagnostic capabilities of health services while maintaining the use of conventional cytogenetic techniques for subsequent validation or for specific and known aberrations whenever required.
Enhanced user data privacy with pay-by-data model

Personal data collection is becoming pervasive these days, these data has the risk of being abused by current application and application marketplace model, because only the price of application is explicitly indicated without clear agreement on usage of data, and the granularity of data access authentication is not enough to protect users privacy. In this short paper, we propose a new model of user data privacy. Data usage of the application is explicitly shown, and controlled by an authentication service, to protect users from the abuse of their data, especially in mobile application.
Second Arterial Versus Venous Conduits for Multivessel Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery in California

Background: Whether a second arterial conduit improves outcomes after multivessel coronary artery bypass grafting remains unclear. Consequently, arterial conduits other than the left internal thoracic artery are seldom used in the United States. Methods: Using a state-maintained clinical registry including all 126 nonfederal hospitals in California, we compared all-cause mortality and rates of stroke, myocardial infarction, repeat revascularization, and sternal wound infection between propensity score–matched cohorts who underwent primary, isolated multivessel coronary artery bypass grafting with the left internal thoracic artery, and who received a second arterial conduit (right internal thoracic artery or radial artery, n=5866) or a venous conduit (n=53 566) between 2006 and 2011. Propensity score matching using 34 preoperative characteristics yielded 5813 matched sets. A subgroup analysis compared outcomes between propensity score–matched recipients of a right internal thoracic artery (n=1576) or a radial artery (n=4290). Results: Second arterial conduit use decreased from 10.7% in 2006 to 9.1% in 2011 (P<0.0001). However, receipt of a second arterial conduit was associated with significantly lower mortality (13.1% versus 10.6% at 7 years; hazard ratio, 0.79; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.72–0.87), and lower risks of myocardial infarction (hazard ratio, 0.78; 95% CI, 0.70–0.87) and repeat revascularization (hazard ratio, 0.82; 95% CI, 0.76–0.88). In comparison with radial artery grafts, right internal thoracic artery grafts were associated with similar mortality rates (right internal thoracic artery 10.3% versus radial artery 10.7% at 7 years; hazard ratio, 1.10; 95% CI, 0.89–1.37) and individual risks of cardiovascular events, but the risk of sternal wound infection was increased (risk difference, 1.07%; 95% CI, 0.15–2.07). Conclusions: Second arterial conduit use in California is low and declining, but arterial grafts were associated with significantly lower mortality and fewer cardiovascular events. A right internal thoracic artery graft offered no benefit over that of a radial artery, but did increase risk of sternal wound infection. These findings suggest surgeons should consider lowering their threshold for using arterial grafts, and the radial artery may be the preferred second conduit.
Determinants of variable resource use for multidisciplinary team meetings in cancer care

Abstract Background: Multidisciplinary team meetings (MDTMs) have developed into standard of care to provide expert opinion and to grant evidence-based recommendations on diagnostics and treatment of cancer. Though MDTMs are associated with a range of benefits, a growing number of cases, complex case discussion and an increasing number of participants raise questions on cost versus benefit. We aimed to determine cost of MDTMs and to define determinants hereof based on observations in Swedish cancer care. Methods: Data were collected through observations of 50 MDTMs and from questionnaire data from 206 health professionals that participated in these meetings. Results: The MDTMs lasted mean 0.88 h and managed mean 12.6 cases with mean 4.2 min per case. Participants were mean 8.2 physicians and 2.9 nurses/other health professionals. Besides the number of cases discussed, meeting duration was also influenced by cancer diagnosis, hospital type and use of video facilities. When preparatory work, participation and post-MDTM work were considered, physicians spent mean 4.1 h per meeting. The cost per case discussion was mean 212 (range 91–595) EUR and the cost per MDTM was mean 2675 (range 1439–4070) EUR. Conclusions: We identify considerable variability in resource use for MDTMs in cancer care and demonstrate that 84% of the total cost is derived from physician time. The variability demonstrated underscores the need for regular and structured evaluations to ensure cost effective MDTM services.
Device-to-Device Communications in Multi-Cell LTE-Advanced Networks with Cloud Radio Access Network Architecture

Device-to-device communications underlaying LTE-Advanced wireless networks reuse cellular spectrum to establish direct links between users without traversing the base stations or the cellular network. In this paradigm, there is a need to allocate the resources with a view to maximizing the utility (e.g., the total throughput) and mitigating the interference caused by sharing the same spectrum between cellular users and D2D pairs. This article, which is tutorial in nature, proposes a scheme for maximizing the total number of active D2D pairs and reused channels while minimizing the aggregate transmit power of cellular users and D2D pairs and maintaining their required QoS to the extent possible. This reduces the load on base stations, lessens power consumption, and improves spectrum efficiency beyond the conventional cellular frequency reuse schemes. Unlike many existing works that assume a single cell, we consider a multi-cell scenario in which the transmitter and the receiver of each D2D pair can be in the same cell or in different cells, and each user can simultaneously transmit over multiple reused channels. The allocation is done via a centralized baseband processing in the cloud radio access network architecture. Simulations show that via our proposed scheme, more users (both cellular users and D2D pairs) can simultaneously communicate, and the total system throughput is also significantly increased.
On the Links between Probabilistic Graphical Models and Submodular Optimisation. (Liens entre modèles graphiques probabilistes et optimisation sous-modulaire)

L’entropie d’une distribution sur un ensemble de variables aleatoires discretes est toujours bornee par l’entropie de la distribution factorisee correspondante. Cette propriete est due a la sous-modularite de l’entropie. Par ailleurs, les fonctions sous-modulaires sont une generalisation des fonctions de rang des matroides ; ainsi, les fonctions lineaires sur les polytopes associes peuvent etre minimisees exactement par un algorithme glouton. Dans ce manuscrit, nous exploitons ces liens entre les structures des modeles graphiques et les fonctions sous-modulaires. Nous utilisons des algorithmes gloutons pour optimiser des fonctions lineaires sur des polytopes lies aux matroides graphiques et hypergraphiques pour apprendre la structure de modeles graphiques, tandis que nous utilisons des algorithmes d’inference sur les graphes pour optimiser des fonctions sous-modulaires. La premiere contribution de cette these consiste a approcher par maximum de vraisemblance une distribution de probabilite par une distribution factorisable et de complexite algorithmique controlee. Comme cette complexite est exponentielle dans la largeur arborescente du graphe, notre but est d’apprendre un graphe decomposable avec une largeur arborescente bornee, ce qui est connu pour etre NP-difficile. Nous posons ce probleme comme un probleme d’optimisation combinatoire et nous proposons une relaxation convexe basee sur les matroides graphiques et hypergraphiques. Ceci donne lieu a une solution approchee avec une bonne performance pratique. Pour la seconde contribution principale, nous utilisons le fait que l’entropie d’une distribution est toujours bornee par l’entropie de sa distribution factorisee associee, comme consequence principale de la sous-modularite, permettant une generalisation a toutes les fonctions sous-modulaires de bornes basees sur les concepts de modeles graphiques. Un algorithme est developpe pour maximiser les fonctions sous-modulaires, un autre probleme NP-difficile, en maximisant ces bornes en utilisant des algorithmes d’inference vibrationnels sur les graphes. En troisieme contribution, nous proposons et analysons des algorithmes visant a minimiser des fonctions sous-modulaires pouvant s’ecrire comme somme de fonctions plus simples. Nos algorithmes n’utilisent que des oracles de ces fonctions simple bases sur minimisation sous-modulaires et de variation totale de telle fonctions.
Constrained Adaptive Robust Trajectory Tracking for WIP Vehicles Using Model Predictive Control and Extended State Observer

This paper is concerned with a model predictive control (MPC) technique together with an adaptive robust scheme for the trajectory tracking of a wheeled inverted pendulum vehicle in the absence of platform velocity information, in addition to taking dynamic uncertainty and external disturbance into consideration. Specifically, to deal with velocity information loss and dynamic uncertainty, an extended state observer is introduced to evaluate the velocity vectors and model dynamics, where the uniformly ultimately bounded property of observer system can be guaranteed by using the Lyapunov stability theorem. With these observations, MPC is employed for the underactuated longitudinal subsystem to achieve longitudinal velocity tracking, as well as holding the pendulum-like vehicle body stability, and in particular taking the state and input saturation into account; at the same time, an adaptive robust controller is constructed for the rotational subsystem to realize the rotational velocity tracking, in which the adaptive laws can enhance the vehicle adaptability in diverse environment. In addition, a saturated trajectory generator with closed-loop characteristic is introduced so as to properly handle the velocity limitation and nonholonomic constraint simultaneously. The simulation results validate that the control system is robust against the external disturbance and model uncertainty, thereby demonstrating the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed control strategy.
Process variables in organizational stress management intervention evaluation research: a systematic review.

OBJECTIVES This systematic review aimed to explore which process variables are used in stress management intervention (SMI) evaluation research. METHODS A systematic review was conducted using seven electronic databases. Studies were included if they reported on an SMI aimed at primary or secondary stress prevention, were directed at paid employees, and reported process data. Two independent researchers checked all records and selected the articles for inclusion. Nielsen and Randall's model for process evaluation was used to cluster the process variables. The three main clusters were context, intervention, and mental models. RESULTS In the 44 articles included, 47 process variables were found, clustered into three main categories: context (two variables), intervention (31 variables), and mental models (14 variables). Half of the articles contained no reference to process evaluation literature. The collection of process evaluation data mostly took place after the intervention and at the level of the employee. CONCLUSIONS The findings suggest that there is great heterogeneity in methods and process variables used in process evaluations of SMI. This, together with the lack of use of a standardized framework for evaluation, hinders the advancement of process evaluation theory development.
Impact of Urban Nature on Executive Functioning in Early and Middle Childhood

According to attention restoration theory, directed attention can become fatigued and then be restored by spending time in a restorative environment. This study examined the restorative effects of nature on children’s executive functioning. Seven- to 8-year-olds (school aged, n = 34) and 4- to 5-year-olds (preschool, n = 33) participated in two sessions in which they completed an activity to fatigue attention, then walked along urban streets (urban walk) in one session and in a park-like area (nature walk) in another session, and finally completed assessments of working memory, inhibitory control, and attention. Children responded faster on the attention task after a nature walk than an urban walk. School-aged children performed significantly better on the attention task than preschoolers following the nature walk, but not urban walk. Walk type did not affect inhibitory control or verbal working memory. However, preschoolers’ spatial working memory remained more stable following the nature walk than the urban walk.
In vitro investigations of propulsion during laser lithotripsy using video tracking

Ureteroscopic laser lithotripsy is an important and widely used method for destroying ureter stones. It represents an alternative to ultrasonic and pneumatic lithotripsy techniques. Although these techniques have been thoroughly investigated, the influence of some physical parameters that may be relevant to further improve the treatment results is not fully understood. One crucial topic is the propulsive stone movement induced by the applied laser pulses. To simplify and speed up the optimization of laser parameters in this regard, a video tracking method was developed in connection with a vertical column setup that allows recording and subsequently analyzing the propulsive stone movement in dependence of different laser parameters in a particularly convenient and fast manner.
A Replication of Two Free Text Keystroke Dynamics Experiments under Harsher Conditions

Replication of experiments lies at the very core of the scientific process. In spite of this, the relevance and relative count of replication studies has fallen sharply in the recent past in several disciplines and a similar trend is apparent in computing science and software engineering. Keystroke dynamics studies have not been exempted from this rule, where replication studies are still no more than a handful and have often lead to astonishingly varying error rates in comparison with the original study, both for static passwords and free texts. The effect of the typing environment and the user emotional state is obviously a concern for free text analysis, as much as his physiological states like stress and tiredness. Thus, the real world performance of a certain method in a specific setting could vary drastically compared with the laboratory setting even though the latter might not be consciously biased. In this paper we examine and compare the performance of two techniques for keystroke dynamics analysis in a free text dataset under evaluation conditions which are harsher than the originally used: the free text extension to the R and A distances method of Bergadano, Gunetti and Picardi and the authors' method based on finite context modeling. Some of their key properties proved to be extrapolatable outside the realm of ideal conditions; the impostor pass rate of A and R distances showed little change, combined distances proved consistently better than pure ones and their best combination remained the same. Others did not, like the relative efficacy of n-graphs, the performance of A distances and -expectedly- the false alarm and correct classification rate for both methods.