Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Strain Assessment in Surgically Resected Inflammatory and Neoplastic Bowel Lesions

Abstract Purpose: To investigate whether ultrasound-based strain imaging can discriminate between colorectal adenocarcinomas and stenotic Crohn’s lesions in newly resected surgical specimens. Materials and Methods: Resected surgical specimens from 27 patients electively operated for colorectal tumors or stenotic lesions from Crohn’s disease were prospectively examined with ultrasonography using a Hitachi HV 900 US scanner with real-time elastography (RTE). Three different methods were applied to assess tissue strain: A four-level categorical visual classification, a continuous visual analog scale (VAS, 0 – 100) and a strain ratio (SR) measurement between the lesion and surrounding reference tissue. The imaged sections were marked and subsequently examined by a pathologist. Results from RTE were evaluated according to diagnosis, degree of fibrosis, inflammatory parameters, tumor stage and grade. Results: 16 sections from Crohn’s lesions, 18 sections from adenocarcinomas and 4 sections from adenomas were examined. Both adenocarcinomas and Crohn’s lesions were found to be harder than the surrounding tissue, but they could not be discriminated from each other by any of the strain imaging evaluation methods. All adenocarcinomas had significantly higher strain ratios than adenomas. The categorical classification differentiated poorly between Crohn’s lesions, adenocarcinomas and adenomas. Categorical evaluation and VAS score showed fair interobserver agreement. SR measurements provided semi-quantitative strain data and added improved information about elasticity properties, despite substantial intra-observer variation. Conclusion: Sonoelastography with SR measurements and visual evaluation of strain differences could not differentiate stenotic Crohn’s lesions from adenocarcinomas in resected bowel specimens. A small number of adenomas were found to be significantly softer than adenocarcinomas using the same evaluation methods. The tumor stage or grade did not have a significant impact on the elastography results.
Morse Decompositions for General Dynamical Systems and Differential Inclusions with Applications to Control Systems

The Morse decomposition theory for single-valued dynamical systems is extended to general dynamical systems and differential inclusions. Relations between chain recurrent sets, chain recurrent components (chain control sets), and Morse decompositions for open-loop systems are discussed. The robustness of feedback laws of closed-loop systems with respect to small time delays and sample-hold controls is also addressed.
Simultaneous multifrequency single-pulse properties of AXP XTE J1810–197

We have used the 76-m Lovell, 94-m equivalent Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT) and 100-m Effelsberg radio telescopes to investigate the simultaneous single-pulse properties of the radio emitting magnetar Anomalous X-ray Pulsar (AXP) XTE J1810-197 at frequencies of 1.4, 4.8 and 8.35 GHz during 2006 May and July. We study the magnetar's pulse-energy distributions which are found to be very peculiar as they are changing on time-scales of days and cannot be fit by a single statistical model. The magnetar exhibits strong spiky single giant-pulse-like subpulses, but they do not fit the definition of the giant pulse or giant micropulse phenomena. Measurements of the longitude-resolved modulation index reveal a high degree of intensity fluctuations on day-to-day time-scales and dramatic changes across pulse phase. We find the frequency evolution of the modulation index values differs significantly from what is observed in normal radio pulsars. We find that no regular drifting subpulse phenomenon is present at any of the observed frequencies at any observing epoch. However, we find a quasi-periodicity of the subpulses present in the majority of the observing sessions. A correlation analysis indicates a relationship between components from different frequencies. We discuss the results of our analysis in light of the emission properties of normal radio pulsars and a recently proposed model which takes radio emission from magnetars into consideration.
Unimodal relationship between small-scale barnacle recruitment and the density of pre-existing barnacle adults

Recruitment is a key demographic process for population persistence. This paper focuses on barnacle (Semibalanus balanoides) recruitment. In rocky intertidal habitats from the Gulf of St. Lawrence coast of Nova Scotia (Canada), ice scour is common during the winter. At the onset of intertidal barnacle recruitment in early May (after sea ice has fully melted), mostly only adult barnacles and bare substrate are visible at high elevations in wave-exposed habitats. We conducted a multiannual study to investigate if small-scale barnacle recruitment could be predicted from the density of pre-existing adult barnacles. In a year that exhibited a wide adult density range (ca. 0–130 individuals dm−2), the relationship between adult density and recruit density (scaled to the available area for recruitment, which excluded adult barnacles) was unimodal. In years that exhibited a lower adult density range (ca. 0–40/50 individuals dm−2), the relationship between adult and recruit density was positive and resembled the lower half of the unimodal relationship. Overall, adult barnacle density was able to explain 26–40% of the observed variation in recruit density. The unimodal adult–recruit relationship is consistent with previously documented intraspecific interactions. Between low and intermediate adult densities, the positive nature of the relationship relates to the previously documented fact that settlement-seeking larvae are chemically and visually attracted to adults, which might be important for local population persistence. Between intermediate and high adult densities, where population persistence may be less compromised and the abundant adults may limit recruit growth and survival, the negative nature of the relationship suggests that adult barnacles at increasingly high densities stimulate larvae to settle elsewhere. The unimodal pattern may be especially common on shores with moderate rates of larval supply to the shore, because high rates of larval supply may swamp the coast with settlers, decoupling recruit density from local adult abundance.
Burnout in U.K. Prison Officers: The Role of Personality

The study assessed the role of personality on burnout in prison officers. About 120 U.K. prison officers completed questionnaires assessing three dimensions of burnout, the “big five” personality variables, and locus of control. Neuroticism predicted emotional exhaustion and personal accomplishment, and locus of control predicted all burnout dimensions. Prison officers higher in neuroticism and with an external locus of control might be at greater risk for burnout. Future studies might examine whether stress-management interventions alleviate officer burnout, with particular attention to officers whose personality profile places them “at risk. ”
Patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma of germinal center origin with BCL2 translocations have poor outcome, irrespective of MYC status: a report from an International DLBCL rituximab-CHOP Consortium Program Study

Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma can be classified by gene expression profiling into germinal center and activated B-cell subtypes with different prognoses after rituximab-CHOP. The importance of previously recognized prognostic markers, such as Bcl-2 protein expression and BCL2 gene abnormalities, has been questioned in the new therapeutic era. We analyzed Bcl-2 protein expression, and BCL2 and MYC gene abnormalities by interphase fluorescence in situ hybridization in 327 patients with de novo disease treated with rituximab-CHOP. Isolated BCL2 and MYC rearrangements were not predictive of outcome in our patients as a whole, but only in those with the germinal center subtype of lymphoma. The prognostic relevance of isolated MYC rearrangements was weaker than that of BCL2 isolated translocations, but was probably limited by the rarity of the rearrangements. Seven of eight patients with double hit lymphoma had the germinal center subtype with poor outcome. The germinal center subtype patients with isolated BCL2 translocations had significantly worse outcome than the patients without BCL2 rearrangements (P=0.0002), and their outcome was similar to that of patients with the activated B-cell subtype (P=0.30), but not as bad as the outcome of patients with double hit lymphoma (P<0.0001). Bcl-2 protein overexpression was associated with inferior outcome in patients with germinal center subtype lymphoma, but multivariate analysis showed that this was dependent on BCL2 translocations. The gene expression profiling of patients with BCL2 rearrangements was unique, showing activation of pathways that were silent in the negative counterpart. BCL2 translocated germinal center subtype patients have worse prognosis after rituximab-CHOP, irrespective of MYC status, but the presence of combined gene breaks significantly overcomes the prognostic relevance of isolated lesions.
Evaluating the potential shielding properties of periodic metamaterial slabs

Metamaterials can prove to be good candidates for shields in EMC applications where weight reduction is a challenge. Indeed metamaterial slabs can provide the same reflective properties as conventional metallic screens but with a lower density and reduced weight. Another advantage is that they can be tailored to exhibit required frequency-selective properties. However, their performance in terms of shielding performance has yet to be evaluated. In this paper, a method to evaluate the shielding performance of a metamaterial slab consisting of arbitrary-shaped metallic inclusions in a dielectric host is proposed. The specific case of periodic metamaterials will be considered for both resonant and non-resonant inclusions in the effective-homogeneity limit.
Three new isoprenylated flavonoids from the roots of Sophora flavescens

Three new flavonoids isoprenylated as 2,2-dimethyl-dihydropyran groups, named sophoranodichromanes A–C (1–3), have been isolated from the roots of Sophora flavescens, together with the known compounds, chrysophanol (4), soyasapogenol B (5) and β-sitosterol (6). Their structures have been elucidated by spectroscopic methods.
The case for the narrow view of reading.

PURPOSE This prologue reiterates the case for the narrow view of reading as a solution to the persistently high levels of reading failure that occurs in our schools and provides a brief summary of the 5 response articles. METHOD The arguments that support the narrow view of reading are presented and the respondents are introduced. CONCLUSION Although the contributors to this clinical forum may have different views, we all are working toward a common goal: improving the literacy levels of children in our schools.
Nudging Problematic Smartphone Use to a Lower Level

Smartphone usage has evolved in people’s lives from necessity to habit and in some cases leading to compulsive use and addiction. However, only a little research has been performed on the prevention of Problematic Smartphone Usage (PSU). Behavioral economics has been applied to investigate how smartphone users respond to nudges that try to lower their smartphone usage. Findings revealed that the Total Screen On Time (SOT) decreased when nudging smartphone users with information on their usage behaviors. Intermittent glancing, as well as the median session time increased, and the reduction in SOT was no longer statistically significant in the observation period after the nudges were no longer applied, suggesting relapse in smartphone usage behavior.
Elucidating the neuropsychological profile of apathetic syndrome and disinhibition syndrome in a brain-injured population in Oman

Objective: The purpose of this study was to compare the neuropsychological performance of two frontal dysexecutive phenotypes - disinhibited&' syndrome (DS) and &'apathetic&' syndrome (AS) following a traumatic brain injury in a non-western population, Oman. Methods: The study compared the performance of DS and AS in neuropsychological measures including those tapping into verbal reasoning ability/working memory/attention planning/goal-directed behavior and affective ranges. Results: The present analysis showed that DS and AS participants did not differ on indices measuring working memory/attention and affective ranges. However, the two cohorts differed significantly in measures of planning/goal-directed behaviour. Conclusion: This study lays the groundwork for further scrutiny in delineating the different characteristics of what has been previously labelled as frontal dysexecutive phenotype. This study indicates that DS and AS are marked with specific neuropsychological deficits.
The ‘adrenaline hypothesis’ of hypertension revisited: evidence for adrenaline release from the heart of patients with essential hypertension

Objective Whether adrenaline acts as a sympathetic nervous cotransmitter in humans and stimulates β2-adrenoceptors to augment neuronal noradrenaline release remains a subject of considerable dispute. The aim of this study was to test if adrenaline is released from regional sympathetic nerves (in the heart) in patients with essential hypertension, and to investigate whether locally released adrenaline might enhance cardiac noradrenaline release. Methods Using dual isotope dilution methodology, adrenaline and noradrenaline plasma kinetics was measured for the whole body and in the heart in 13 untreated patients with essential hypertension and 27 healthy volunteers. All research participants underwent cardiac catheterization under resting conditions. Results At rest, there was negligible adrenaline release from the sympathetic nerves of the heart in healthy subjects, 0.27 ± 1.62 ng/min. In contrast, in patients with essential hypertension, adrenaline was released from the heart at a rate of 1.46 ± 1.73 ng/min, equivalent on a molar basis to approximately 5% of the associated cardiac noradrenaline spillover value. Cardiac noradrenaline spillover was higher in hypertensive patients, 24.9 ± 17.0 ng/min compared to 15.4 ± 11.7 ng/min in healthy volunteers (P <0.05). Among patients, rates of cardiac adrenaline and noradrenaline spillover correlated directly (r = 0.59, P <0.05). Conclusions This study, in demonstrating release of adrenaline from the heart in patients with essential hypertension, and in disclosing a proportionality between rates of cardiac adrenaline and noradrenaline release, provides perhaps the most direct evidence to date in support of the ‘adrenaline hypothesis’ of essential hypertension.
Population Genetic and Admixture Analyses of Culex pipiens Complex (Diptera: Culicidae) Populations in California, United States

Microsatellite markers were used to genetically characterize 19 Culex pipiens complex populations from California. Two populations showed characteristics of earlier genetic bottlenecks. The overall FST value and a neighbor-joining tree suggested moderate amounts of genetic differentiation. Analyses using Structure indicated K = 4 genetic clusters: Cx. pipiens form pipiens L. , Cx. quinquefasciatus Say, Cx. pipiens form molestus Forskäl, and a group of genetically similar individuals of hybrid origin. A Discriminant Analysis of Principal Components indicated that the latter group is a mixture of the other three taxa, with form pipiens and form molestus contributing somewhat more ancestry than Cx. quinquefasciatus. Characterization of 56 morphologically autogenous individuals classified most as Cx. pipiens form molestus, and none as Cx. pipiens form pipiens or Cx. quinquefasciatus. Comparison of California microsatellite data with those of Cx. pipiens pallens Coquillett from Japan indicated the latter does not contribute significantly to genotypes in California.
Single image dehazing motivated by Retinex theory

Haze removal from a degraded image which is attenuated by the turbid media in the atmosphere is an important task in image and video processing. From a computer vision perspective, this task is extremely challenging because the haze is dependent on the unknown depth information, and will be under-constrained if only one single haze image is input. If the depth distribution is known, the problem can be well solved. In this paper, we propose a new method to estimate the transmission from which depth distribution can be obtained. It is based on the assumption that the airlight which depends on the distance of objects to the observers, tends to be smooth, and is similar to the Retinex theory. Motivated by this, we use a simple Gaussian filter to convolve the image to obtain the airlight just like we did in Retinex. Experimental results verify the effectiveness of this method.
Fractal travel time estimates for dispersive contaminants

Alternative fractional models of contaminant transport lead to a new travel time formula for arbitrary concentration levels. For an evolving contaminant plume in a highly heterogeneous aquifer, the new formula predicts much earlier arrival at low concentrations. Travel times of contaminant fronts and plumes are often obtained from Darcy's law calculations using estimates of average pore velocities. These estimates only provide information about the travel time of the average concentration (or peak, for contaminant pulses). Recently, it has been shown that finding the travel times of arbitrary concentration levels is a straightforward process, and equations were developed for other portions of the breakthrough curve for a nonreactive contaminant. In this paper, we generalize those equations to include alternative fractional models of contaminant transport.
DELINQUENCY, PULSE RATES AND EARLY EMOTIONAL DEPRIVATION

There has been a considerable amount of investigation of the relationship between autonomic functioning and unsocialised behaviour, or sociopathic behaviour, or psychopathology (Cleckley, 1955; Lykken, 1957; Tong and Murphy, i960; Schachter and Latane, 1964; Lippert and Senter, 1966; Valins, 1967a, 1967b; Laycock, 1968; Lader, 1969; Hare, 1970; Blackburn, 1973 ; Davies and Maliphant, 1971a, 1971b, 1974; Schachter, 1971 ; Schalling et al., 1973). These studies have provided evidence of differences in auto nomic functioning between controls and individuals demonstrating these sorts of behaviour. Some of the investigations have been specifically con cerned with criminal or delinquent behaviour (Lippert and Senter, 1966; Laycock, 1968; Blackburn, 1973; Schalling et al., 1973), and these have all found significant differences in autonomic functioning between offenders of various kinds and non-offenders. They have been mainly concerned with institutionalised populations. Leaving aside the physiological explanations of such differences the problem remains of what psychological or sociological interpretation might account for these sorts of findings. The studies of autonomic functioning already referred to all seem in some measure to agree with Tong and Murphy (i960) who observed that " faulty fear responsiveness to stress is at the basis of continual psychopathic in stability ". Other studies of psychopaths which have been concerned with antecedent family history have noted that early emotional deprivation is a very common feature of later psychopathic behaviour (McGord and Mc Cord, 1964). Early emotional deprivation is also known to be a common feature of those who later show sociopathic and delinquent behaviour (Bowlby, 1951 ; Bowlby et al., 1956; Pringle and Bossio, 1,960; Andry, i960; Douglas, 1970), and it is known from the work referred to above that crim inal behaviour in males may be associated with abnormal autonomic func tioning. Without going so far as to agree with Davies and Maliphant (1971a) " that refractory behaviour sufficiently resembles psychopathy to regard it as part of the same continuum " it is appropriate to investigate further their tentative hypothesis (1974), which links these two areas of investigation, that " stress in early childhood may contribute to such atypical autonomic activity. " Certainly from the published work it would be reasonable to speculate that children who in early life lived in surroundings of stress and
Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 mutants that escape neutralization by human monoclonal antibody IgG1b12. off

IgG1b12, a human monoclonal antibody (MAb) to an epitope overlapping the CD4-binding site on gp120, has broad and potent neutralizing activity against most primary human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) isolates. To assess whether and how escape mutants resistant to IgG1b12 can be generated, we cultured primary HIV-1 strain JRCSF in its presence. An escape mutant emerged which was approximately 100-fold more resistant to neutralization by IgG1b12. Both virion-associated and solubilized gp120 from this variant had a reduced affinity for IgG1b12, and sequencing of its env gene showed that amino acid substitutions had occurred at three positions within gp120. Two (D164N and D182N) were located in V2, and one (P365L) was in C3. By site-directed mutagenesis, we demonstrated that the D182N and P365L mutations, but not D164N, contribute to the IgG1b12-resistant phenotype. However, the former two substitutions, individually or in combination, hinder the replication of the neutralization-resistant virus. Introduction of the D164N substitution into the P365L variant results in a nonviable virus (D164N/P365L). In contrast, addition of D164N to the D182N or D182N/P365L mutant partially restored replicative function to near wild-type levels. Furthermore, we found that all of the IgG1b12-resistant mutant viruses remained sensitive to other human MAbs, such as 2G12 and 2F5, and to the CD4-IgG molecule, except that the P365L-containing mutant was slightly resistant to CD4-IgG. These results suggest that escape from IgG1b12 neutralization is due to a local rather than a global modification of the gp120 structure. Our findings have implications for the therapeutic and prophylactic applications of antibodies for HIV-1 infection.
Modeling long temporal contexts in convolutional neural network-based phone recognition

The deep neural network component of current hybrid speech recognizers is trained on a context of consecutive feature vectors. Here, we investigate whether the time span of this input can be extended by splitting it up and modeling it in smaller chunks. One method for this is to train a hierarchy of two networks, while the less well-known split temporal context (STC) method models the left and right contexts of a frame separately. Here, we evaluate these techniques within a convolutional neural network framework, and find that the two approaches can be nicely combined. With the combined model we can expand the time-span of our network to 69 frames, and we achieve a 7.5% relative error rate reduction compared to modeling this large context as one block. We report a phone error rate of 17.1% on the TIMIT core test set, which is one of the best scores published.