Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Gait Phase Estimation Based on Noncontact Capacitive Sensing and Adaptive Oscillators

This paper presents a novel strategy aiming to acquire an accurate and walking-speed-adaptive estimation of the gait phase through noncontact capacitive sensing and adaptive oscillators (AOs). The capacitive sensing system is designed with two sensing cuffs that can measure the leg muscle shape changes during walking. The system can be dressed above the clothes and free human skin from contacting to electrodes. In order to track the capacitance signals, the gait phase estimator is designed based on the AO dynamic system due to its ability of synchronizing with quasi-periodic signals. After the implementation of the whole system, we first evaluated the offline estimation performance by experiments with 12 healthy subjects walking on a treadmill with changing speeds. The strategy achieved an accurate and consistent gait phase estimation with only one channel of capacitance signal. The average root-mean-square errors in one stride were 0.19 rad (3.0% of one gait cycle) for constant walking speeds and 0.31 rad (4.9% of one gait cycle) for speed transitions even after the subjects rewore the sensing cuffs. We then validated our strategy in a real-time gait phase estimation task with three subjects walking with changing speeds. Our study indicates that the strategy based on capacitive sensing and AOs is a promising alternative for the control of exoskeleton/orthosis.
Perceived Sources of Support of Adult Burn Survivors

The long-term effects of burn injuries can be devastating and last a lifetime. The aims of this study were to: (1) identify what factors adult burn survivors report as important during their burn recovery, (2) identify the frequency and reported benefits of peer support for burn survivors, (3) determine the difference in the level of reported hope among burn survivors who received peer support compared with survivors who did not receive peer support. A total of 117 adult burn survivors participated in this descriptive study and 87.8% reported family support as very important to their recovery, with 65% rating the burn team members as very important and 60.7% rated speaking to another burn survivor as very important to their recovery. Ninety-two percent found speaking to another burn survivor to be helpful and 96.6% would recommend that a newly injured burn patient speak with someone who has been through the recovery process of a burn injury. The t test scores for the two groups reflected the following: the group who received peer support (N = 87) and the group who did not (N = 28) showed a statistical significance for the Pathway Subscale [t = −2.197 (P = .030)] and the Total Hope Score [t = −1.971 and (P = <.050)]. The results of this survey suggest that there are perceived benefits of peer support and imply that peer support may have a positive impact on hope for burn survivors.
Tissue Factor promotes breast cancer stem cell activity in vitro

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are a subpopulation of cells that can self-renew and initiate tumours. The clotting-initiating protein Tissue Factor (TF) promotes metastasis and may be overexpressed in cancer cells with increased CSC activity. We sought to determine whether TF promotes breast CSC activity in vitro using human breast cancer cell lines. TF expression was compared in anoikis-resistant (CSC-enriched) and unselected cells. In cells sorted into of TF-expressing and TF-negative (FACS), and in cells transfected to knockdown TF (siRNA) and overexpress TF (cDNA), CSC activity was compared by (i) mammosphere forming efficiency (MFE) (ii) holoclone colony formation (Hc) and (iii) ALDH1 activity. TF expression was increased in anoikis-resistant and high ALDH1-activity T47D cells compared to unselected cells. FACS sorted TF-expressing T47Ds and TF-overexpressing MCF7s had increased CSC activity compared to TF-low cells. TF siRNA cells (MDAMB231, T47D) had reduced CSC activity compared to control cells. FVIIa increased MFE and ALDH1 in a dose-dependent manner (MDAMB231, T47D). The effects of FVIIa on MFE were abrogated by TF siRNA (T47D). Breast CSCs (in vitro) demonstrate increased activity when selected for high TF expression, when induced to overexpress TF, and when stimulated (with FVIIa). Targeting the TF pathway in vivo may abrogate CSC activity.
Comparison of Two Nicotine Dependence Measures for Use with Korean American Women : The FTND and AUTOS

This study compares psychometric properties of the Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence (FTND) and Autonomy over Tobacco Scale (AUTOS), which are measures of nicotine dependence. This study is a secondary analysis of data obtained from a smoking cessation study conducted with 49 Korean American women. We compared the FTND and AUTOS assessed at baseline regarding their internal consistency reliability and concurrent and predictive validities. The AUTOS outperformed the FTND in reliability and concurrent validity by yielding a higher Cronbach’s alpha and having significant relationships with smoking-related variables such as age at smoking onset, perceived risks of quitting, and self-efficacy in quitting. In contrast, there was no relationship between the FTND and any of the variables. Both measures had a significant relationship with post-quit nicotine withdrawal symptoms but failed to predict abstinence at follow-ups. The AUTOS seems to be a better assessment tool for Korean American women than the FTND. Before fully adopting the AUTOS as a measure of nicotine dependence for this group, factor structure of the scale should be tested with a larger sample of Korean American women.
Preclinical efficacy of immune-checkpoint monotherapy does not recapitulate corresponding biomarkers-based clinical predictions in glioblastoma

ABSTRACT Glioblastoma (GBM) is resistant to most multimodal therapies. Clinical success of immune-checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) has spurred interest in applying ICIs targeting CTLA4, PD1 or IDO1 against GBM. This amplifies the need to ascertain GBM's intrinsic susceptibility (or resistance) toward these ICIs, through clinical biomarkers that may also “guide and prioritize” preclinical testing. Here, we interrogated the TCGA and/or REMBRANDT human patient-cohorts to predict GBM's predisposition toward ICIs. We exploited various broad clinical biomarkers, including mutational or predicted-neoantigen burden, pre-existing or basal levels of tumor-infiltrating T lymphocytes (TILs), differential expression of immune-checkpoints within the tumor and their correlation with particular TILs/Treg-associated functional signature and prognostic impact of differential immune-checkpoint expression. Based on these analyses, we found that predictive biomarkers of ICI responsiveness exhibited inconsistent patterns in GBM patients, i.e., they either predicted ICI resistance (as compared with typical ICI-responsive cancer-types like melanoma, lung cancer or bladder cancer) or susceptibility to therapeutic targeting of CTLA4 or IDO1. On the other hand, our comprehensive literature meta-analysis and preclinical testing of ICIs using an orthotopic GL261-glioma mice model, indicated significant antitumor properties of anti-PD1 antibody, whereas blockade of IDO1 or CTLA4 either failed or provided very marginal advantage. These trends raise the need to better assess the applicability of ICIs and associated biomarkers for GBM.
Dominant vs. non-dominant shoulder morphology in volleyball players and associations with shoulder pain and spike speed

ABSTRACT The aims of our study were to compare the dominant (DOM) and non-dominant (NDOM) shoulders of high-level volleyball athletes and identify possible associations of shoulder adaptations with spike speed (SS) and shoulder pathology. A total of 22 male volleyball players from two teams participating in the first division of the Cypriot championship underwent clinical shoulder tests and simple measurements around their shoulder girdle joints bilaterally. SS was measured with the use of a sports speed radar. Compared with the NDOM side, the DOM scapula was more lateralised, the DOM dorsal capsule demonstrated greater laxity, the DOM dorsal muscles stretching ability was compromised, and the DOM pectoralis muscle was more lengthened. Players with present or past DOM shoulder pain demonstrated greater laxity in their DOM dorsal capsule, tightening of their DOM inferior capsule, and lower SS compared with those without shoulder pain. Dorsal capsule measurements bilaterally were significant predictors of SS. None of the shoulder measurements was associated with team roles or infraspinatus atrophy, while scapular lateralisation was more pronounced with increasing years of experience, and scapular antetilting was greater with increasing age. Adaptations of the DOM shoulder may be linked to pathology and performance. We describe simple shoulder measurements that may have the potential to predict chronic shoulder injury and become part of injury prevention programmes. Detailed biomechanical and large prospective studies are warranted to assess the validity of our findings and reach more definitive conclusions.
Regression Calibration with Heteroscedastic Error Variance

The problem of covariate measurement error with heteroscedastic measurement error variance is considered. Standard regression calibration assumes that the measurement error has a homoscedastic measurement error variance. An estimator is proposed to correct regression coefficients for covariate measurement error with heteroscedastic variance. Point and interval estimates are derived. Validation data containing the gold standard must be available. This estimator is a closed-form correction of the uncorrected primary regression coefficients, which may be of logistic or Cox proportional hazards model form, and is closely related to the version of regression calibration developed by Rosner et al. (1990). The primary regression model can include multiple covariates measured without error. The use of these estimators is illustrated in two data sets, one taken from occupational epidemiology (the ACE study) and one taken from nutritional epidemiology (the Nurses' Health Study). In both cases, although there was evidence of moderate heteroscedasticity, there was little difference in estimation or inference using this new procedure compared to standard regression calibration. It is shown theoretically that unless the relative risk is large or measurement error severe, standard regression calibration approximations will typically be adequate, even with moderate heteroscedasticity in the measurement error model variance. In a detailed simulation study, standard regression calibration performed either as well as or better than the new estimator. When the disease is rare and the errors normally distributed, or when measurement error is moderate, standard regression calibration remains the method of choice.
Influences on Care for Others: Attachment Security, Personal Suffering, and Similarity Between Helper and Care Recipient

Research indicates that dispositional attachment security fosters empathy, and that short-term increases in security (“security priming”) increase empathy and willingness to help others. In two experiments, we examined effects of recalling one’s own vulnerability (feeling hurt by a relationship partner) and security priming on empathy for a recipient in need. In Study 1, the recipient was a middle-aged homeless woman (low similarity to participants); in Study 2, the recipient was a college-aged woman whose boyfriend had been unfaithful (high similarity to participants). In both studies, hurt feelings influenced participants’ empathy, but the nature of the influence varied as a function of target–participant similarity. In Study 1, hurt feelings decreased empathy and increased caregiving avoidance. In Study 2, hurt feelings not only increased empathy but also aroused caregiving anxiety. Furthermore, security priming weakened defensive barriers against helping: In Study 1, it reduced caregiving avoidance, and in Study 2, it reduced caregiving anxiety.
Do outcomes after kidney transplantation differ for black patients in England versus New York State? A comparative, population-cohort analysis

Objectives Inferior outcomes for black kidney transplant recipients in the USA may not be generalisable elsewhere. In this population cohort analysis, we compared outcomes for black kidney transplant patients in England versus New York State. Design Retrospective, comparative, population cohort study utilising administrative data registries. Settings and participants English data were derived from Hospital Episode Statistics, while New York State data were derived from Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative System. All adults receiving their first kidney-alone allograft between 2003 and 2013 were eligible for inclusion. Measures The primary outcome measure was mortality post kidney transplantation (including inhospital death, 30-day mortality and 1-year mortality). Secondary outcome measures included postoperative admission length of stay, risk of rehospitalisation, development of cardiac events, stroke, cancer or fracture and finally transplant rejection/failure. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to investigate relationship between ethnicity, country and outcome. Results Black patients comprised 6.5% of the English cohort (n=1215/18 493) and 23.0% of the New York State cohort (n=2660/11 602). Compared with New York State, black kidney transplant recipients in England were more likely younger, male, living-donor kidney recipients and had dissimilar medical comorbidities. Inpatient mortality was not statistically different, but death within 30 days, 1 year or kidney transplant rejection/failure was lower among black patients in England versus black patients in New York State. In adjusted regression analysis, with black ethnicity the reference group, white patients had reduced risk for 30-day mortality (OR 0.62 (95% CI 0.44 to 0.86)) and 1-year mortality (OR 0.79 (95% CI 0.63 to 0.99)) in New York State but no difference was observed in England. Compared with England, black kidney transplant patients in New York State had increased HR for kidney transplant rejection rejection/failure by median follow-up (HR 2.15, 95% CI 1.91 to 2.43). Conclusions Outcomes after kidney transplantation for black patients may not be translatable between countries.
Cell surface protease activation during RAS transformation: Critical role of the plasminogen receptor, S100A10

The link between oncogenic RAS expression and the acquisition of the invasive phenotype has been attributed to alterations in cellular activities that control degradation of the extracellular matrix. Oncogenic RAS-mediated upregulation of matrix metalloproteinase 2 (MMP-2), MMP-9 and urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA) is critical for invasion through the basement membrane and extracellular matrix. The uPA converts cell surface-bound plasminogen to plasmin, a process that is regulated by the binding of plasminogen to specific receptors on the cell surface, however, the identity of the plasminogen receptors that function in this capacity is unclear. We have observed that transformation of cancer cells with oncogenic forms of RAS increases plasmin proteolytic activity by 2- to 4-fold concomitant with a 3-fold increase in cell invasion. Plasminogen receptor profiling revealed RAS-dependent increases in both S100A10 and cytokeratin 8. Oncogenic RAS expression increased S100A10 gene expression which resulted in an increase in S100A10 protein levels. Analysis with the RAS effector-loop mutants that interact specifically with Raf, Ral GDS pathways highlighted the importance of the RalGDS pathways in the regulation of S100A10 gene expression. Depletion of S100A10 from RAS-transformed cells resulted in a loss of both cellular plasmin generation and invasiveness. These results strongly suggest that increases in cell surface levels of S100A10, by oncogenic RAS, plays a critical role in RAS-stimulated plasmin generation, and subsequently, in the invasiveness of oncogenic RAS expressing cancer cells.
Comparing 3T and 1.5T MRI for Mapping Hippocampal Atrophy in the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Prior MR imaging studies, primarily at 1.5T, established hippocampal atrophy as a biomarker for Alzheimer disease. 3T MR imaging offers a higher contrast and signal-to-noise ratio, yet distortions and intensity uniformity are harder to control. We applied our automated hippocampal segmentation technique to 1.5T and 3T MR imaging data, to determine whether hippocampal atrophy detection was enhanced at 3T. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We analyzed baseline MR imaging data from 166 subjects from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative-1 (37 with Alzheimer disease, 76 with mild cognitive impairment, and 53 healthy controls) scanned at 1.5T and 3T. Using multiple linear regression, we analyzed the effect of clinical diagnosis on hippocampal radial distance, while adjusting for sex. 3D statistical maps were adjusted for multiple comparisons by using permutation-based statistics at a threshold of P < . 01. RESULTS: Bilaterally significant radial distance differences in the areas corresponding to the cornu ammonis 1, cornu ammonis 2, and subiculum were detected for Alzheimer disease versus healthy controls and mild cognitive impairment versus healthy controls at 1.5T and more profoundly at 3T. Comparison of Alzheimer disease with mild cognitive impairment did not reveal significant differences at either field strength. Subjects who converted from mild cognitive impairment to Alzheimer disease within 3 years of the baseline scan versus nonconverters showed significant differences in the area corresponding to cornu ammonis 1 of the right hippocampus at 3T but not at 1.5T. CONCLUSIONS: While hippocampal atrophy patterns in diagnostic comparisons were similar at 1.5T and 3T, 3T showed a superior signal-to-noise ratio and detected atrophy with greater effect size compared with 1.5T.
Robust eye tracking based on multiple corneal reflections for clinical applications

Abstract. A set of methods in terms of both image processing and gaze estimation for accurate eye tracking is proposed. The eye-tracker used in this study relies on the dark-pupil method with up to 12 corneal reflections and offers an unprecedented high resolution imaging of the pupil and the cornea. The potential benefits of a higher number of glints and their optimum arrangement are analyzed considering distinct light sources configurations with 12, 8, 6, 4, and 2 corneal reflections. Moreover, a normalization factor of the pupil-glint vector is proposed for each configuration. There is a tendency for increasing accuracy with the number of glints, especially vertically (0.47 deg for 12 glints configuration versus 0.65 deg for 2 glints configuration). Besides the number of corneal reflections, their arrangement seems to have a stronger effect. A configuration that minimizes the interference of the eyelids with the corneal reflections is desired. Finally, the normalization of the pupil-glint vectors improves the vertical eye tracking accuracy up to 43.2%. In addition, the normalization also limits the need for a higher number of light sources to achieve better spatial accuracy.
Unified description of H-atom–induced chemicurrents and inelastic scattering

Significance Catalytic reactions at surfaces are exceptionally complex, as they require a multitude of elementary steps. It is therefore very difficult to predict which chemical compounds are catalytically effective. In inelastic scattering experiments in ultrahigh vacuum, the first step of most surface reactions, which is the adsorption, can be studied on model systems in great detail. Based on such experiments new theoretical models can be developed that accurately describe the delicate interplay between electronic and nuclear motion in prototypical chemical reactions, a capability that is needed to make accurate predictions of reaction rates in heterogeneous catalysis, to design useful energy-conversion devices based on chemicurrents, and to understand photocatalysis. The Born–Oppenheimer approximation (BOA) provides the foundation for virtually all computational studies of chemical binding and reactivity, and it is the justification for the widely used “balls and springs” picture of molecules. The BOA assumes that nuclei effectively stand still on the timescale of electronic motion, due to their large masses relative to electrons. This implies electrons never change their energy quantum state. When molecules react, atoms must move, meaning that electrons may become excited in violation of the BOA. Such electronic excitation is clearly seen for: (i) Schottky diodes where H adsorption at Ag surfaces produces electrical “chemicurrent;” (ii) Au-based metal–insulator–metal (MIM) devices, where chemicurrents arise from H–H surface recombination; and (iii) Inelastic energy transfer, where H collisions with Au surfaces show H-atom translation excites the metal’s electrons. As part of this work, we report isotopically selective hydrogen/deuterium (H/D) translational inelasticity measurements in collisions with Ag and Au. Together, these experiments provide an opportunity to test new theories that simultaneously describe both nuclear and electronic motion, a standing challenge to the field. Here, we show results of a recently developed first-principles theory that quantitatively explains both inelastic scattering experiments that probe nuclear motion and chemicurrent experiments that probe electronic excitation. The theory explains the magnitude of chemicurrents on Ag Schottky diodes and resolves an apparent paradox––chemicurrents exhibit a much larger isotope effect than does H/D inelastic scattering. It also explains why, unlike Ag-based Schottky diodes, Au-based MIM devices are insensitive to H adsorption.
Estimation of the Degree of Diversity for Some Iraqi Wheat Varieties through ISSR, SRAP and RAPD Markers

DNA-based molecular markers such as Inter Simple Sequence Repeat (ISSR), Sequence-Related Amplified polymorphism (SRAP) and Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) were used in this study to examine the genetic differences among sixteen Iraqi wheat varieties. Seventy three primers out of 177 were reproducible and showed clear amplified bands. The degree of genetic diversity, Polymorphism information content (PIC) and resolving power (RP) were estimated. All the studied molecular markers were informative and showed good ability to classify and distinguish 16 wheat varieties. Total number of polymorphic bands is 134, 221 and 55 for ISSR, SRAP and RAPD respectively. PIC and RP values were 0.259, 0.264 and 0.262 and 9.06, 7.87 and 2.78 Original Research Article
Exponential decay sine wave learning rate for fast deep neural network training

Most state-of-the-art results on image classification tasks were obtained by residual neural networks, which use stochastic gradient descent (SGD) with momentum for training. In most cases, the learning rate drops by a constant factor every pre-defined number of epochs. However, it is difficult and time-consuming to estimate how many epochs to drop the learning rate. To tackle this problem, cyclical learning rate is gaining popularity in gradient-based optimization to improve the convergence speed in accelerated gradient schemes. But cyclical learning rate scheme scans a broad range of learning rate, some of which are not suitable for deep neural network training. In this paper, we propose a simple yet effective exponential decay sine wave like learning rate technique for SGD to improve its convergence speed. In the training process, the learning rate would vary in sine wave way. While the maximum value of sine wave would decay exponentially along with training epochs. An ensemble of wide residual nets with our proposed learning scheme achieves 3.01% and 16.03% errors on CIFAR-10 and CIFAR-100 respectively. Furthermore, our proposed method uses far less number of epochs than most recent learning rate strategies, accelerating neural network training tremendously.