Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Normalized Cut Loss for Weakly-Supervised CNN Segmentation

Most recent semantic segmentation methods train deep convolutional neural networks with fully annotated masks requiring pixel-accuracy for good quality training. Common weakly-supervised approaches generate full masks from partial input (e.g. scribbles or seeds) using standard interactive segmentation methods as preprocessing. But, errors in such masks result in poorer training since standard loss functions (e.g. cross-entropy) do not distinguish seeds from potentially mislabeled other pixels. Inspired by the general ideas in semi-supervised learning, we address these problems via a new principled loss function evaluating network output with criteria standard in "shallow" segmentation, e.g. normalized cut. Unlike prior work, the cross entropy part of our loss evaluates only seeds where labels are known while normalized cut softly evaluates consistency of all pixels. We focus on normalized cut loss where dense Gaussian kernel is efficiently implemented in linear time by fast Bilateral filtering. Our normalized cut loss approach to segmentation brings the quality of weakly-supervised training significantly closer to fully supervised methods.
Editor’s Highlight: Negative Predictors of Carcinogenicity for Environmental Chemicals

Recent international efforts have led to proposals for modified carcinogenicity testing paradigms based on data from shorter-term studies. The main goal of the current study was to evaluate the negative predictive value (NPV) of short-term toxicity indicators on carcinogenicity study outcomes and cancer classifications for chemicals previously reviewed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Pathology data were analyzed from over 900 acceptable 2-sex guideline subchronic (3-month) and carcinogenicity studies in the U.S. EPA Toxicity Reference Database. Chemical cancer classifications were obtained from annual reports of the U.S. EPA Office of Pesticide Programs. Histopathologic risk signals and evidence of hormonal perturbation in subchronic rat studies provided 56% NPV for any tumor outcome in the rat or mouse and 75% NPV for cancer classifications not requiring quantitative risk assessment (qRA). In comparison, lack of activity in a battery of 35 in vitro cytotoxicity assays from the U.S. EPA ToxCast library provided 49% NPV for any tumor outcome and 80% NPV for cancer classifications not requiring qRA. These findings support the idea that the absence of short-term bioactivity may provide useful information for prioritizing chemicals based on potential carcinogenic risk. Additional data streams are needed to further refine these models.
Standardized Handwriting to Assess Bradykinesia, Micrographia and Tremor in Parkinson's Disease

Objective To assess whether standardized handwriting can provide quantitative measures to distinguish patients diagnosed with Parkinson's disease from age- and gender-matched healthy control participants. Design Exploratory study. Pen tip trajectories were recorded during circle, spiral and line drawing and repeated character ‘elelelel’ and sentence writing, performed by Parkinson patients and healthy control participants. Parkinson patients were tested after overnight withdrawal of anti-Parkinsonian medication. Setting University Medical Center Groningen, tertiary care, the Netherlands. Participants Patients with Parkinson's disease (n = 10; mean age 69.0 years; 6 male) and healthy controls (n = 10; mean age 68.1 years; 6 male). Interventions Not applicable. Main Outcome Measures Movement time and velocity to detect bradykinesia and the size of writing to detect micrographia. A rest recording to investigate the presence of a rest-tremor, by frequency analysis. Results Mean disease duration in the Parkinson group was 4.4 years and the patients were in modified Hoehn-Yahr stages 1–2.5. In general, Parkinson patients were slower than healthy control participants. Median time per repetition, median velocity and median acceleration of the sentence task and median velocity of the elel task differed significantly between Parkinson patients and healthy control participants (all p<0.0014). Parkinson patients also wrote smaller than healthy control participants and the width of the ‘e’ in the elel task was significantly smaller in Parkinson patients compared to healthy control participants (p<0.0014). A rest-tremor was detected in the three patients who were clinically assessed as having rest-tremor. Conclusions This study shows that standardized handwriting can provide objective measures for bradykinesia, tremor and micrographia to distinguish Parkinson patients from healthy control participants.
An Inflammation-Centric View of Neurological Disease: Beyond the Neuron

Inflammation is a complex biological response fundamental to how the body deals with injury and infection to eliminate the initial cause of cell injury and effect repair. Unlike a normally beneficial acute inflammatory response, chronic inflammation can lead to tissue damage and ultimately its destruction, and often results from an inappropriate immune response. Inflammation in the nervous system (“neuroinflammation”), especially when prolonged, can be particularly injurious. While inflammation per se may not cause disease, it contributes importantly to disease pathogenesis across both the peripheral (neuropathic pain, fibromyalgia) and central [e.g., Alzheimer disease, Parkinson disease, multiple sclerosis, motor neuron disease, ischemia and traumatic brain injury, depression, and autism spectrum disorder] nervous systems. The existence of extensive lines of communication between the nervous system and immune system represents a fundamental principle underlying neuroinflammation. Immune cell-derived inflammatory molecules are critical for regulation of host responses to inflammation. Although these mediators can originate from various non-neuronal cells, important sources in the above neuropathologies appear to be microglia and mast cells, together with astrocytes and possibly also oligodendrocytes. Understanding neuroinflammation also requires an appreciation that non-neuronal cell—cell interactions, between both glia and mast cells and glia themselves, are an integral part of the inflammation process. Within this context the mast cell occupies a key niche in orchestrating the inflammatory process, from initiation to prolongation. This review will describe the current state of knowledge concerning the biology of neuroinflammation, emphasizing mast cell-glia and glia-glia interactions, then conclude with a consideration of how a cell's endogenous mechanisms might be leveraged to provide a therapeutic strategy to target neuroinflammation.
Children Facial Expression Production: Influence of Age, Gender, Emotion Subtype, Elicitation Condition and Culture

The production of facial expressions (FEs) is an important skill that allows children to share and adapt emotions with their relatives and peers during social interactions. These skills are impaired in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. However, the way in which typical children develop and master their production of FEs has still not been clearly assessed. This study aimed to explore factors that could influence the production of FEs in childhood such as age, gender, emotion subtype (sadness, anger, joy, and neutral), elicitation task (on request, imitation), area of recruitment (French Riviera and Parisian) and emotion multimodality. A total of one hundred fifty-seven children aged 6–11 years were enrolled in Nice and Paris, France. We asked them to produce FEs in two different tasks: imitation with an avatar model and production on request without a model. Results from a multivariate analysis revealed that: (1) children performed better with age. (2) Positive emotions were easier to produce than negative emotions. (3) Children produced better FE on request (as opposed to imitation); and (4) Riviera children performed better than Parisian children suggesting regional influences on emotion production. We conclude that facial emotion production is a complex developmental process influenced by several factors that needs to be acknowledged in future research.
Challenges and opportunities of clinical pharmacy services in Ethiopia: A qualitative study from healthcare practitioners’ perspective

Background: Currently, clinical pharmacists have in-depth therapeutic knowledge and scientific skills to act as drug therapy experts in healthcare settings. Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the opportunities and challenges of clinical pharmacy services from the health practitioners’ perspective in University of Gondar (UOG) hospital Ethiopia. Methods: A qualitative study was performed using face-to-face in-depth interviews with health practitioners who were directly involved in clinical pharmacy services (clinical pharmacists, physicians, and nurses) in UOG hospital. Results: A total of 15 health professionals from various specialties were interviewed to express their views towards clinical pharmacists’ competencies and identified challenges and opportunities regarding their clinical services. Based on interviewees report, the opportunities for clinical pharmacists includes acceptance of their clinical services among health specialties, new government policy and high patient load in hospital. However, inadequacy of service promotions, lack of continuity of clinical pharmacy services in wards, poor drug information services, lack of commitment, lack of confidence among clinical pharmacists, conflict of interest due to unclear scope of practice, and absence of cooperation with health workers were some of the challenges identified by the interviewees. Conclusion: We identified health professionals working in UOG hospital are receptive towards clinical pharmacy services, but identified some of the potential challenges that needed to be focused to strengthen and promote clinical pharmacy services. Further, the opportunities at hand also need to be utilized astutely to boost the services.
The Pathophysiological Mechanisms and the Quest for Biomarkers in Psoriasis, a Stress-Related Skin Disease

Psoriasis is a physically, emotionally, and socially invalidating multifactorial disorder, with a significant impact on the patients' quality of life. Stress is one of the leading triggers for psoriasis and has been associated with disease onset and subsequent flare-ups, while the flare-ups by themselves often lead to psychological discomfort. The treatment of psoriasis is individualized, depending on the patients' measurable severity of illness, as well as the impact the skin condition has on patients' quality of life, as assessed by standardized questionnaires. The clinical scales used nowadays for measuring the severity of psoriasis are characterized by low reproducibility and high variability between examiners. Hence, there is a real need to identify objectively measurable biomarkers to standardize the assessment of the severity of psoriasis. We aim to review the pathophysiological mechanisms involved in psoriasis, focusing on the most critical advances in psoriasis biomarker discovery, pointing out those biomarkers which have also been studied in other stress-related conditions, thus emphasizing the relationship between psoriasis and stress.
De novo donor‐specific antibodies in belatacept‐treated vs cyclosporine‐treated kidney‐transplant recipients: Post hoc analyses of the randomized phase III BENEFIT and BENEFIT‐EXT studies

Donor‐specific antibodies (DSAs) are associated with an increased risk of antibody‐mediated rejection and graft failure. In BENEFIT and BENEFIT‐EXT, kidney‐transplant recipients were randomized to receive belatacept more intense (MI)–based, belatacept less intense (LI)–based, or cyclosporine‐based immunosuppression for up to 7 years (84 months). The presence/absence of HLA‐specific antibodies was determined at baseline, at months 6, 12, 24, 36, 48, 60, and 84, and at the time of clinically suspected episodes of acute rejection, using solid‐phase flow‐cytometry screening. Samples from anti‐HLA‐positive patients were further tested with a single‐antigen bead assay to determine antibody specificities, presence/absence of DSAs, and mean fluorescence intensity (MFI) of any DSAs present. In BENEFIT, de novo DSAs developed in 1.4%, 3.5%, and 12.1% of belatacept MI‐treated, belatacept LI‐treated, and cyclosporine‐treated patients, respectively. The corresponding values in BENEFIT‐EXT were 3.8%, 1.1%, and 11.2%. Per Kaplan‐Meier analysis, de novo DSA incidence was significantly lower in belatacept‐treated vs cyclosporine‐treated patients over 7 years in both studies (P < .01). In patients who developed de novo DSAs, belatacept‐based immunosuppression was associated with numerically lower MFI vs cyclosporine‐based immunosuppression. Although derived post hoc, these data suggest that belatacept‐based immunosuppression suppresses de novo DSA development more effectively than cyclosporine‐based immunosuppression.
Delay Distributions on Fixed Internet Paths

Based on end-to-end delay measurements of IP probe-packets over a Þxed path obtained from RIPE NCC, we model the stochastic part of the delay and propose statistical methods to analyse the data. The Internet traffic on the Þxed path interferes with the IP probe-packets. This is modeled as an alternating on/off renewal process. On top of the delay caused by Internet traffic, the IP probe-packets experience a random processing delay due to scheduling and conversing of IP packets to various lower layer technologies in the routers on the Þxed path. The total delay is both modeled parametricly and by a non-parametric method. Although the data indicates that the end-to-end delay distribution is heavy tailed, neither a Pareto nor Weibull law provided sufficient accurate Þts. The non-parametric method essentially enabled a stable deconvolution that led to the delay due to Internet traffic. Furthermore, the non-parametric method provides good estimates of the probability that the path is not loaded and bounds on the queueing tail probabilities. Especially these qualiÞers are useful for deploying real-time services on Internet. KeywordsEnd-to-end delay, stochastic modeling.
Dynamic Path Exploration on Mobile Devices

We present a novel framework for visualizing routes on mobile devices. Our framework is suitable for helping users explore their environment. First, given a starting point and a maximum route length, the system retrieves nearby points of interest (POIs). Second, we automatically compute an attractive walking path through the environment trying to pass by as many highly ranked POIs as possible. Third, we automatically compute a route visualization that shows the current user position, POI locations via pins, and detail lenses for more information about the POIs. The visualization is an animation of an orthographic map view that follows the current user position. We propose an optimization based on a binary integer program (BIP) that models multiple requirements for an effective placement of detail lenses. We show that our path computation method outperforms recently proposed methods and we evaluate the overall impact of our framework in two user studies.
Loneliness, social support and cardiovascular reactivity to laboratory stress

Self-reported or explicit loneliness and social support have been inconsistently associated with cardiovascular reactivity (CVR) to stress. The present study aimed to adapt an implicit measure of loneliness, and use it alongside the measures of explicit loneliness and social support, to investigate their correlations with CVR to laboratory stress. Twenty-five female volunteers aged between 18 and 39 years completed self-reported measures of loneliness and social support, and an Implicit Association Test (IAT) of loneliness. The systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and heart rate (HR) reactivity indices were measured in response to psychosocial stress induced in the laboratory. Functional support indices of social support were significantly correlated with CVR reactivity to stress. Interestingly, implicit, but not explicit, loneliness was significantly correlated with DBP reactivity after one of the stressors. No associations were found between structural support and CVR indices. Results are discussed in terms of validity of implicit versus explicit measures and possible factors that affect physiological outcomes.
Experimental study on mechanical performance of side pressure laminated bamboo beam

Considering different shear span ratios and height to width ratios,14 side pressure laminated bamboo beam specimens have been designed and tested to study the mechanical performance. Two kinds of advanced displacement measuring instruments were used in the experiments. The test results indicate brittle failure happened suddenly for the side pressure laminated bamboo beam after the elastic stage and elasto-plastic stage during the loading process. The elastic modulus for compression and tension of the laminated bamboo were the same,and the average strain of the cross-section conformed to the plane section assumption. The compressive strength of the bamboo wasn't made full use. With the increase of shear span ratio,the ultimate shear strength of the specimens decrease quickly,and the influence of the width on the ultimate load is small.
The relationship between preoperative frailty and outcomes following transcatheter aortic valve implantation: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Aims Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) is an increasingly common intervention for patients with aortic stenosis deemed high risk for major cardiac surgery, but identifying those who will benefit can be challenging. Frailty reflects physiological reserve and may be a useful prognostic marker in this population. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of the association between frailty and outcomes after TAVI. Methods and Results Five databases were searched between January 2000 and May 2015. From 2623 articles screened, 54 were assessed for eligibility. Ten cohort studies (n = 4592) met the inclusion criteria of reporting a measure of frailty with early (≤30 days) or late (>30 days) mortality and procedural complications following TAVI as defined by the Valve Academic Research Consortium (VARC). Frailty was associated with increased early mortality in four studies (n = 1900) (HR 2.35, 95% CI 1.78–3.09, P < 0.001) and increased late mortality in seven studies (n = 3159) (HR 1.63, 95% CI 1.34–1.97, P < 0.001). Objective frailty tools identified an even higher risk group for late mortality (HR 2.63, 95% CI 1.87–3.70, P < 0.001). Frail individuals undergoing TAVI have a mortality rate of 34 deaths per 100 patient years, compared with 19 deaths per 100 patient years in non-frail patients. There was limited reporting of VARC procedural outcomes in relation to frailty, preventing meta-analysis. Conclusion Frailty assessment in an already vulnerable TAVI population identifies individuals at even greater risk of poor outcomes. Use of objective frailty tools may inform patient selection, but this requires further assessment in large prospective registries.
Forest responses to increasing aridity and warmth in the southwestern United States

In recent decades, intense droughts, insect outbreaks, and wildfires have led to decreasing tree growth and increasing mortality in many temperate forests. We compared annual tree-ring width data from 1,097 populations in the coterminous United States to climate data and evaluated site-specific tree responses to climate variations throughout the 20th century. For each population, we developed a climate-driven growth equation by using climate records to predict annual ring widths. Forests within the southwestern United States appear particularly sensitive to drought and warmth. We input 21st century climate projections to the equations to predict growth responses. Our results suggest that if temperature and aridity rise as they are projected to, southwestern trees will experience substantially reduced growth during this century. As tree growth declines, mortality rates may increase at many sites. Increases in wildfires and bark-beetle outbreaks in the most recent decade are likely related to extreme drought and high temperatures during this period. Using satellite imagery and aerial survey data, we conservatively calculate that ≈2.7% of southwestern forest and woodland area experienced substantial mortality due to wildfires from 1984 to 2006, and ≈7.6% experienced mortality associated with bark beetles from 1997 to 2008. We estimate that up to ≈18% of southwestern forest area (excluding woodlands) experienced mortality due to bark beetles or wildfire during this period. Expected climatic changes will alter future forest productivity, disturbance regimes, and species ranges throughout the Southwest. Emerging knowledge of these impending transitions informs efforts to adaptively manage southwestern forests.
High fidelity electrical model with thermal dependence for characterization and simulation of high power lithium battery cells

The growing need for accurate simulation of advanced lithium cells for powertrain electrification demands fast and accurate modeling schemes. Additionally, battery models must account for thermal effects because of the paramount importance of temperature in kinetic and transport phenomena of electrochemical systems. This paper presents an effective method for developing a multi-temperature lithium cell simulation model with thermal dependence. An equivalent circuit model with one voltage source, one series resistor, and a single RC block was able to account for the discharge dynamics observed in the experiment. A parameter estimation numerical scheme using pulse current discharge tests on high power lithium (LiNi-CoMnO2 cathode and graphite-based anode) cells under different operating conditions revealed dependences of the equivalent circuit elements on state of charge, average current, and temperature. The process is useful for creating a high fidelity model capable of predicting electrical current/voltage performance and estimating run-time state of charge. The model was validated for a lithium cell with an independent drive cycle showing voltage accuracy within 2%. The model was also used to simulate thermal buildup for a constant current discharge scenario.
Day-and-Night Closed-Loop Control Using the Unified Safety System in Adolescents With Type 1 Diabetes at Camp

Adolescence marks a challenging time in diabetes care (1). Automated insulin delivery has the potential to overcome some of the barriers, such as missed meal boluses and nocturnal hypoglycemia. The University of Virginia Unified Safety System (USS) is one of the most tested control-to-range approaches and operates on an Android-based system that uses a Dexcom G4 PLATINUM Share glucose sensor and Roche Accu-Chek pump (2). The objective of this study was to test the efficacy of USS in day-and-night closed-loop control (CLC) in adolescents with type 1 diabetes at camp, where large meals and physical activity challenge glucose control. In this study, eligible subjects with type 1 diabetes on pump therapy were randomized to either CLC ( n = 17) or sensor-augmented pump (SAP) ( n = 16) for 5 days. There was no A1C restriction. Clinical characteristics of the 33 subjects include mean ± SD (min–max) age of 17.9 ± 5.5 years (10.1–35.0), weight 68 ± 17 kg (37.3–104.3), A1C …
CNN template robustness with different output nonlinearities

The robustness of the templates used in the normal unity gain operation is discussed. Some methods to improve a possibly poor template are given. Moreover, the positive range type of the cell output non-linearity and the robustness of the templates in that particular case are examined. Also methods for improving the robustness of the positive range templates are reported. Examples of increasing the robustness of different common templates are given.