Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Predicting Tissue Outcome in Acute Human Cerebral Ischemia Using Combined Diffusion- and Perfusion-Weighted MR Imaging

Background and Purpose— Tissue signatures from acute MR imaging of the brain may be able to categorize physiological status and thereby assist clinical decision making. We designed and analyzed statistical algorithms to evaluate the risk of infarction for each voxel of tissue using acute human functional MRI. Methods— Diffusion-weighted MR images (DWI) and perfusion-weighted MR images (PWI) from acute stroke patients scanned within 12 hours of symptom onset were retrospectively studied and used to develop thresholding and generalized linear model (GLM) algorithms predicting tissue outcome as determined by follow-up MRI. The performances of the algorithms were evaluated for each patient by using receiver operating characteristic curves. Results— At their optimal operating points, thresholding algorithms combining DWI and PWI provided 66% sensitivity and 83% specificity, and GLM algorithms combining DWI and PWI predicted with 66% sensitivity and 84% specificity voxels that proceeded to infarct. Thresholding algorithms that combined DWI and PWI provided significant improvement to algorithms that utilized DWI alone (P =0.02) but no significant improvement over algorithms utilizing PWI alone (P =0.21). GLM algorithms that combined DWI and PWI showed significant improvement over algorithms that used only DWI (P =0.02) or PWI (P =0.04). The performances of thresholding and GLM algorithms were comparable (P >0.2). Conclusions— Algorithms that combine acute DWI and PWI can assess the risk of infarction with higher specificity and sensitivity than algorithms that use DWI or PWI individually. Methods for quantitatively assessing the risk of infarction on a voxel-by-voxel basis show promise as techniques for investigating the natural spatial evolution of ischemic damage in humans.
Ambiguous Futures : Global Warming and the Third World

The increasing global warming of the earth has been at the foreground of scientific and political debate, leading to international agreements such as The Kyoto Protocol in 1997. While there are some promising signs that the international community is taking the reality of global warming seriously, the limited objectives for diminishing the amount of greenhouse gases are insufficient. If scientific predictions are correct, global warming will have an adverse effect on biodiversity and global health. Many countries in the Third World which have been responsible for emitting the least amount of greenhouse gases will bear the brunt of climate change. This article is a philosophic response to the possible realities of global warming and its social impli-
Differential Gating of Thalamocortical Signals by Reticular Nucleus of Thalamus during Locomotion

The thalamic reticular nucleus (RE) provides inhibition to the dorsal thalamus, and forms a crucial interface between thalamocortical and corticothalamic signals. Whereas there has been significant interest in the role of the RE in organizing thalamocortical signaling, information on the activity of the RE in the awake animal is scant. Here we investigated the activity of neurons within the “motor” compartment of the RE in the awake, unrestrained cat during simple locomotion on a flat surface and complex locomotion along a horizontal ladder that required visual control of stepping. The activity of 88% of neurons in this region was modulated during locomotion. Neurons with receptive fields on the shoulder were located dorsally in the nucleus and had regular discharges; during locomotion they had relatively low activity and modest magnitudes of stride-related modulation, and their group activity was distributed over the stride. In contrast, neurons with receptive fields on the wrist/paw were located more ventrally, often discharged sleep-type bursts during locomotion, were very active and profoundly modulated, and their group activity was concentrated in the swing and end of stance. Seventy-five percent of RE neurons had different activity during the two locomotion tasks. We conclude that during locomotion the RE differentially gates thalamocortical signals transmitted during different phases of the stride, in relation to different parts of the limb, and the type of locomotion task.
Childhood Size and Life Course Weight Characteristics in Association With the Risk of Incident Type 2 Diabetes

OBJECTIVE To determine how childhood overweight, in conjunction with other life course weight characteristics, relates to the development of type 2 diabetes in adulthood. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Among 109,172 women in the Nurses' Health Study II, body fatness at ages 5, 10, and 20 years was assessed by recall using 9-level pictorial diagrams (somatotypes) representing extreme thinness (category 1) to obesity (category 9). Recalled weights at age 18 years and adulthood were used to derive BMI. Self-reported cases of type 2 diabetes were confirmed by supplementary questionnaire. RESULTS Somatotypes at ages 5 and 10 years were positively associated with diabetes risk (Ptrend < 0.0001). The adjusted relative risk (RR) of women with somatotype ≥6 (vs. 2) at age 5 years was 2.19 (95% CI 1.79–2.67) and at age 10 years was 2.57 (2.20–3.01). Increases in size by somatotype or by weight gain since age 18 were associated with increased risk. Compared with women who were never overweight at any age, women who were overweight as an adult (BMI >25 kg/m2) but not previously had an adjusted RR of 8.23 (7.41–9.15). The adjusted RR was 15.10 (13.21–17.26) for women who were also overweight at age 10 (somatotype ≥5) and 18 (BMI >25 kg/m2). Increased childhood size was not associated with risk among women who did not continue to be overweight in adulthood. CONCLUSIONS Increased body size starting from childhood is associated with a greater risk of diabetes in adulthood. However, women who become lean in adulthood do not have an increased risk.
Cooperative distributed model predictive control for linear plants subject to convex economic objectives

In this paper we propose a cooperative distributed economic model predictive control strategy for linear systems which consist of finite number of subsystems. The suggested control strategy is generating control feedback which converges to the centralized optimal solution and drives the subsystems to the Pareto optimum provided infinite iterations are allowed at each sampling time. Moreover, the control for each subsystem is computed in itself without coordination layer except for a synchronization requirement between subsystems. We first introduce distributed linear systems with 2 subsystems and economic model predictive control, then show the convergence and stability properties of a suboptimal model predictive control strategy for the system.
Effectiveness of energy-restricted diets with different protein:carbohydrate ratios: the relationship to insulin sensitivity

Abstract Objective Insulin sensitivity could determine the effectiveness of weight-loss diets with different protein:carbohydrate ratios. Our aim was to evaluate whether or not energy-restricted diets with different protein:carbohydrate ratios in obese individuals with (IR) or without (IS) insulin resistance could lead to differences in weight loss or insulin sensitivity. Design Prospective, randomized, clinical intervention study. Thirty-six obese patients, allocated to the IR or IS group after a 75 g oral glucose tolerance test and calculation of the homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA) index, were assigned to follow an energy-restricted diet with either 40 % carbohydrate/30 % protein/30 % fat (diet A) or 55 % carbohydrate/15 % protein/30 % fat (diet B) and followed up to 16 weeks. Results Twenty-one IR and fifteen IS patients were randomized to diet A or B. After 16 weeks, there was no difference in weight loss between diets A and B in each group. Glucose and insulin levels and HOMA were significantly reduced at 16 weeks, but no differences related to the type of diet were detected either in the IR or the IS group. Conclusions Varying the macronutrient composition of a hypoenergetic diet, regarding the percentage protein:carbohydrate ratio, did not produce different weight loss or result in an improvement in insulin sensitivity in people with or without insulin resistance.
Clinical and Experimental Gastroenterology Dovepress Assessment of Quality in Screening Colonoscopy for Colorectal Cancer

Introduction: The effectiveness of screening colonoscopy in decreasing the incidence of colorectal cancer (CRC) is largely dependent on the detection of polyps and the quality of the procedure. Several key quality measures have been proposed to improve the effectiveness of screening colonoscopies. Aim: To evaluate quality indicators of screening colonoscopy in a tertiary hospital. Methods: All CRC screening colonoscopies performed between 2005 and 2009 in a single tertiary center were reviewed for internationally accepted quality measures. Results: Of the 1545 individuals who underwent first-time screening colonoscopy 38% were male and 62% were female. The mean age of the patients was 60.4 years and the mean difference in ages was ± 10.3 years. Cecal intubation rate was 91% (1336), however ileocecal valve photo documentation was performed in only 81% (1248) colonoscopies. The quality of bowel preparation was classified as: good 76% (1171), reasonable 11% (174), and poor 13% (200). Polyp detection rate (PDR) was 33% (503). The prevalence of polyps $1 cm in size was 5% (82). PDR was significantly higher in men than in women (44% [260] vs 25% [243], P = 0.0001). Other factors significantly influencing PDR were quality of bowel preparation (odds ratio [OR]: 1.28, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.9–1.6) and age over 50 (OR: 1.9, 95% CI: 1.3–2.9). Left colonic polyps were associated with a risk ratio of 2.3 (95% CI: 1.8–2.9) of lesions in the other colonic segments compared to no polyps in the left colon. None of the colonoscopists reported withdrawal time. Conclusion: Cecal intubation rate and quality of bowel preparation were suboptimal. The polyp detection rate compares favorably to accepted standards and its main determinants are male sex, age . 50 years, quality of bowel preparation, and the presence of left colonic polyps.
Generation of repeated references to discourse entities

Generation of Referring Expressions is a thriving subfield of Natural Language Generation which has traditionally focused on the task of selecting a set of attributes that unambiguously identify a given referent. In this paper, we address the complementary problem of generating repeated, potentially different referential expressions that refer to the same entity in the context of a piece of discourse longer than a sentence. We describe a corpus of short encyclopaedic texts we have compiled and annotated for reference to the main subject of the text, and report results for our experiments in which we set human subjects and automatic methods the task of selecting a referential expression from a wide range of choices in a full-text context. We find that our human subjects agree on choice of expression to a considerable degree, with three identical expressions selected in 50% of cases. We tested automatic selection strategies based on most frequent choice heuristics, involving different combinations of information about syntactic MSR type and domain type. We find that more information generally produces better results, achieving a best overall test set accuracy of 53.9% when both syntactic MSR type and domain type are known.
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Technical Note: a Trace Gas Climatology Derived from the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment Fourier Transform Spectrometer (ace-fts) Data Set

The Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment-Fourier Transform Spectrometer (ACE-FTS) aboard the Canadian satellite SCISAT (launched in August 2003) was designed to investigate the composition of the upper troposphere, stratosphere , and mesosphere. ACE-FTS utilizes solar occultation to measure temperature and pressure as well as vertical profiles of over thirty chemical species including O 3 Global coverage for each species is obtained approximately over a three month period and measurements are made with a vertical resolution of typically 3–4 km. A quality-controlled climatology has been created for each of these 14 baseline species, where individual profiles are averaged over the period of February 2004 to February 2009. Measurements used are from the ACE-FTS version 2.2 data set including updates for O 3 and N 2 O 5. The climatological fields are provided on a monthly and three-monthly basis (DJF, MAM, JJA, SON) at 5 degree latitude and equivalent latitude spacing and on 28 pressure surfaces (26 of which are defined by the Stratospheric Processes And their Role in Climate (SPARC) Chemistry-Climate Model Validation Activity). The ACE-FTS climatological data set is available through the ACE website.
Removal of bisphenol derivatives through quinone oxidation by polyphenol oxidase and subsequent quinone adsorption on chitosan in the heterogeneous system

In this study, the combined use of a biopolymer chitosan and an oxidoreductase polyphenol oxidase (PPO) was systematically investigated for the removal of bisphenol derivatives from aqueous medium. The process parameters, such as the pH value, temperature, and PPO concentration, were estimated to conduct the enzymatic quinone oxidation of bisphenol derivatives by as little enzyme as possible. Bisphenol derivatives effectively underwent PPO-catalysed quinone oxidation without H2O2 unlike other oxidoreductases, such as peroxidase and tyrosinase, and the optimum conditions were determined to be pH 7.0 and 40°C for bisphenol B, bisphenol E, bisphenol O, and bisphenol Z; pH 7.0 and 30°C for bisphenol C and bisphenol F; and pH 8.0 and 40°C for bisphenol T. They were completely removed through adsorption of enzymatically generated quinone derivatives on chitosan beads or chitosan powders. Quinone adsorption on chitosan beads or chitosan powders in the heterogeneous system was found to be a more effective procedure than generation of aggregates in the homogeneous system with chitosan solution. The removal time was shortened by increasing the amount of chitosan beads or decreasing the size of the chitosan powders.
Cyclooxygenase‐independent actions of cyclooxygenase inhibitors

Several studies have demonstrated unequivocally that certain nonsteroidal anti‐inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as sodium salicylate, sulindac, ibuprofen, and flurbiprofen cause anti‐inflammatory and antiproliferative effects independent of cyclooxy‐genase activity and prostaglandin synthesis inhibition. These effects are mediated through inhibition of certain transcription factors such as NF‐κB and AP‐1. The respective NSAIDs might interfere directly with the transcription factors, but their effects are probably mediated predominantly through alterations of the activity of cellular kinases such as IKKß, Erk, p38 MAPK, or Cdks. These effects apparently are not shared by all NSAIDs, since indomethacin failed to inhibit NF‐κB and AP‐1 activation as well as Erk and Cdk activity. In contrast, indomethacin was able to activate PPARγ, which was not affected by sodium salicylate or aspirin. The differences in cyclooxygenase‐independent mechanisms may have consequences for the specific use of these drugs in individual patients because additional effects may either enhance the efficacy or reduce the toxicity of the respective compounds. —Tegeder, I. , Pfeilschifter, J., Geisslinger, G. Cyclooxygenase‐independent actions of cyclooxygenase inhibitors FASEB J. 15, 2057–2072 (2001)
Coronary Embolization and Myocardial Microinfarction: MR Imaging and Histopathologic Characterization

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been proven to reliably assess regional perfusion and left ventricular (LV) function of microembolized myocardium. The visibility of microinfarct on delayed enhancement MRI (DE-MRI) is limited and dependent on technical and biological issues. Furthermore, MRI underestimates total microinfarct size compared with microscopy. MRI studies revealed that the presence of microemboli in pre-existing acute infarct delays infarct healing and magnifies LV remodeling. Discrimination of acute from chronic microinfarct is based on presence of inflammatory cells, edema and scar tissue, respectively. These noninvasive findings highlight the importance of prognostic utility of MRI and warrant larger clinical studies or registries to evaluate the significance of presence of focal microinfarct. Serial microscopic studies revealed that intravascular microemboli migrate into the extravascular space and this migration process is a function of time. This phenomenon may limit the use of microemboli therapy in occluding hemorrhagic blood vessels or treating tumors. Despite current standard of care, existing methods and therapies do not prevent coronary embolization nor reverse their deleterious effects.
EMMA: A New Platform to Evaluate Hardware-based Mobile Malware Analyses

Hardware-based malware detectors (HMDs) are a key emerging technology to build trustworthy computing platforms, especially mobile platforms. Quantifying the efficacy of HMDs against malicious adversaries is thus an important problem. The challenge lies in that real-world malware typically adapts to defenses, evades being run in experimental settings, and hides behind benign applications. Thus, realizing the potential of HMDs as a line of defense - that has a small and battery-efficient code base - requires a rigorous foundation for evaluating HMDs. To this end, we introduce EMMA - a platform to evaluate the efficacy of HMDs for mobile platforms. EMMA deconstructs malware into atomic, orthogonal actions and introduces a systematic way of pitting different HMDs against a diverse subset of malware hidden inside benign applications. EMMA drives both malware and benign programs with real user-inputs to yield an HMD's effective operating range - i.e., the malware actions a particular HMD is capable of detecting. We show that small atomic actions, such as stealing a Contact or SMS, have surprisingly large hardware footprints, and use this insight to design HMD algorithms that are less intrusive than prior work and yet perform 24.7% better. Finally, EMMA brings up a surprising new result - obfuscation techniques used by malware to evade static analyses makes them more detectable using HMDs.
A Novel Triple-Coil Electromagnetic Sensor for Thickness Measurement Immune to Lift-Off Variations

Lift-off variation causes errors in eddy-current measurement of metallic plate thickness. In this paper, we designed a triple-coil sensor operating as two coil pairs and in a multifrequency mode. It is found that the difference in their peak frequencies (the frequency when the imaginary part of the inductance reaches peak) is linearly proportional to the plate thickness but virtually immune to lift-off variations. Mathematical derivation, simulation, and experimental results verified the validity of the methodology.
Factors affecting postharvest preservation of safou (Dacryodes edulis (G. Don) H.J. Lam) fruits

The effect of five factors including fruit size, ripeness stage, picking mode, packaging mode, and storage temperature on safou softening was investigated. Temperature, packaging mode, and fruit size were the only factors that significantly affected safou softening during storage. Low temperature (18 °C) associated with storage without packaging or with perforated packaging improved safou postharvest shelf life. Under these conditions, fruits maintained their harvest firmness, so-called initial firmness, during the storage period, up to day 8 in the present study. In contrast, higher temperature (36°C) led to a rapid and drastic fruit softening in closed packaging or to important fruit dehydration when storage was carried out without packaging or in perforated packaging. Concerning the factor fruit size, the softening process was faster for large fruits than for small fruits. Ripeness stage significantly affected fruit texture at harvest but there was no relationship between firmness at harvest and after storage. Picking mode did not have any significant individual or interaction effect on safou softening.
Exemplar-based Action Recognition in Video

In this work, we present a method for action localization and recognition using an exemplar-based approach. It starts from local dense yet scale-invariant spatio-temporal features. The most discriminative visual words are selected and used to cast bounding box hypotheses, which are then verified and further grouped into the final detections. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to extend the exemplar-based approach using local features into the spatio-temporal domain. This allows us to avoid the problems that typically plague sliding window-based approaches - in particular the exhaustive search over spatial coordinates, time, and spatial as well as temporal scales. We report state-ofthe-art results on challenging datasets, extracted from real movies, for both classification and localization.
Effect of blend proportion on moisture management characteristics of bamboo/cotton knitted fabrics

This study reports an investigation of the effect of the blend-ratio of bamboo and cotton fibres on the moisture management properties of single jersey knitted fabrics composed of them. The moisture management properties of the fabrics were measured in SDL-ATLAS moisture management tester. The liquid transport properties of textiles, such as wetting time, maximum moisture absorption rate, maximum wetted radii, spreading speeds, cumulative one-way transport capacity and overall moisture management capacity (OMMC), have been considered and correlated to the blend ratio of bamboo/cotton yarn single jersey knitted fabrics. It was observed that as the bamboo content increased, the wetting time decreased, maximum wetted radius decreased, rate of absorption increased, spreading speed decreased and OMMC decreased.