Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Transumbilical Single-Incision Laparoscopic Wedge Resection for Gastric Submucosal Tumors: Technical Challenges Encountered in Initial Experience

Purpose To report the initial clinical experience with single-incision laparoscopic gastric wedge resection for submucosal tumors. Materials and Methods The medical records of 10 patients who underwent single-incision laparoscopic gastric wedge resection between July 2009 and March 2011 were reviewed retrospectively. The demographic data, clinicopathologic and surgical outcomes were assessed. Results The mean tumor size was 2.5 cm (range, 1.2~5.0 cm), and the tumors were mostly located on the anterior wall (4/10) or along the greater curvature (4/10), of the stomach. Nine of ten procedures were performed successfully, without the use of additional trocars, or conversion to laparotomy. One patient underwent conversion to multiport laparoscopic surgery, to get simultaneous cholecystectomy safely. The mean operating time was 66.5 minutes (range, 24~132 minutes), and the mean postoperative hospital stay was 5 days (range, 4~7 days). No serious perioperative complications were observed. Of the 10 submucosal tumors, the final pathologic report revealed 5 gastrointestinal stromal tumors, 4 schwannomas, and 1 heterotopic pancreas. Conclusions Single-incision laparoscopic gastric wedge resection for gastric submucosal tumors is feasible and safe, when performed by experienced laparoscopic surgeons. This technique provides favorable cosmetic results, and also short hospital stay and low morbidity, in carefully selected candidates.
Distal radial fractures heal by direct woven bone formation

Background Descriptions of fracture healing almost exclusively deal with shaft fractures and they often emphasize endochondral bone formation. In reality, most fractures occur in metaphyseal cancellous bone. Apart from a study of vertebral fractures, we have not found any histological description of cancellous bone healing in humans. Patients and methods We studied histological biopsies from the central part of 12 distal radial fractures obtained during surgery 6–28 days after the injury, using routine hematoxylin and eosin staining. Results New bone formation was seen in 6 cases. It was always in the form of fetal-like, disorganized woven bone. It seldom had contact with old trabeculae and appeared to have formed directly in the marrow. Cartilage was scarce or absent. The samples without bone formation showed only necrosis, scar, or old cancellous bone. Interpretation The histology suggests that cells in the midst of the marrow respond to the trauma by direct formation of bone, independently of trabecular surfaces.
T Cell-Regulated Neutrophilic Inflammation in Autoinflammatory Diseases1

Previous studies of acute generalized exanthematous pustulosis, a peculiar drug hypersensitivity reaction, suggested that CXCL8-producing T cells regulate sterile, polymorphonuclear neutrophil-rich skin inflammations. In this study, we test the hypothesis of whether CXCL8-producing T cells are present in autoinflammatory diseases like pustular psoriasis and Behçet’s disease. Immunohistochemistry of normal skin revealed few CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, few CXCL8+ cells, and no neutrophilic infiltration, whereas in acute exacerbations of atopic dermatitis, numerous CD4+ T cells but few CD8+ T cells, neutrophils, or CXCL8+ cells were detected. In contrast, a pronounced infiltration of neutrophils and of predominantly CD4+ T cells was observed in skin biopsies from pustular psoriasis, Behçet’s disease, and acute generalized exanthematous pustulosis, with infiltrating T cells strongly positive for CXCL8 and the chemokine receptor CCR6. Skin-derived T cell clones from pustular skin reactions were positive for CCR6 but negative for CCR8 and secreted high amounts of CXCL8 and GM-CSF, often together with IFN-γ and TNF-α after in vitro stimulation. Moreover, some skin-derived T cell clones from Behçet’s disease and from pustular psoriasis predominantly produced CXCL8 and GM-CSF, but failed to secrete IL-5 and IFN-γ. These cells might represent a particular subset as they differ from both Th1 as well as Th2 T cells and are associated with a unique, neutrophil-rich sterile inflammation. Our findings suggest that CXCL8/GM-CSF-producing T cells may orchestrate neutrophil-rich pathologies of chronic autoinflammatory diseases like pustular psoriasis and Behçet’s disease.
An Optimistic Obsolescence-Based Approach to Event Synchronization for Massively Multiplayer Online Games

Abstract Massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) are no longer a chimera. Everyday, new exemple of this application are released, available for free on the Web or on sale. Yet, high lags frequently affect MMOGs, annoying customers. This frustrating phenomenon is mainly due to the best-effort service provided by the Internet that is often responsible for congestion and loss of responsiveness. To address this challenging issue, we consider a mirrored game server architecture and present a mechanism aimed at accelerating the delivery of game events generated during game sessions. Our approach rests upon the use of an optimistic synchronization mechanism that exploits the semantics of the game to diminish the delivery time of game events, whilst maintaining the full consistency of the game state. Experimental results are reported confirming the adequacy of our approach.
Distinctive Parts for Relative attributes

Visual Attributes are properties observable in images that have human-designated names ( e.g., smiling, natural) and they are valuable as a new semantic cue in various vision problems like facial verification, object recognition, generating description of unfamiliar objects and to facilitate zero shot transfer learning etc. While most of the work on attributes focuses on binary attributes (indicating the presence or absence of attribute) the notion of relative attributes as introduced by Parikh and Grauman in ICCV 2011 provides an appealing way of comparing two images based on their visual properties than the binary attributes. Relative visual properties are a semantically rich way by which humans describe and compare objects in the world. They are necessary, for instance, to refine an identifying description (the rounder pillow; the same except bluer), or to situate with respect to reference objects (brighter than a candle; dimmer than a flashlight). Furthermore, they have potential to enhance active and interactive learning, for instance, offering a better guide for a visual search (find me similar shoes, but shinier or refine the retrieved images of downtown Chicago to those taken on sunnier days). For learning relative attributes a ranking svm based formulation was proposed that uses globally represented pairs of annotated images. In this thesis, we extend this idea towards learning relative attributes using local parts that are shared across categories. First we propose a part based representation that jointly represents a pair of images. For facial attributes, part corresponds to a block around a landmark point detected using a domain specific method. This representation explicitly encodes correspondences among parts, thus better capturing minute differences in parts that make an attribute more prominent in one image than another as compared to global representation. Next we update this part based representation by additionally learning weights corresponding to each part that denote their contribution towards predicting the strength of a given attribute. We call these weights as significance coefficients of parts. For each attribute the significance coefficients are learned in a discriminative manner simultaneously with a max-margin ranking model. Thus the best parts for predicting relative attribute more smiling will be different from those from predicting more eyes open. We compare the baseline method of Parikh and Grauman with the proposed method under various settings. We have collected a new dataset of 10000 pair wise attribute level annotations using images from labeled faces in the wild ( LFW) dataset particularly focusing on large variety of samples in terms of poses, lightning conditions etc and completely ignoring the category information while collecting attribute annotation . Extensive experiments demonstrate that the new method significantly improves prediction accuracy as compared to the baseline method. Moreover the learned parts
Metalloproteinases and their inhibitors—diagnostic and therapeutic opportunities in orthopedics

Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and related enzymes (ADAMs, ADAMTS) and their inhibitors control matrix turnover and function. Recent advances in our understanding of musculoskeletal conditions such as tendinopathy, arthritis, Dupuytren's disease, degenerative disc disease, and bone and soft tissue healing suggest that MMPs have prominant roles. Importantly, MMPs are amenable to inhibition by cheap, safe, and widely available drugs such as the tetracycline antibiotics and the bisphosphonates. This indicates that these MMP inhibitors, if proven effective for any novel indication, may be quickly brought into clinical practice.
Induced Entry Effects of a $1 for $2 Offset in SSDI Benefits

This paper presents an . audit. of the multistage application and appeal process that the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) uses to determine eligibility for disability benefits from the Disability Insurance (DI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) programs. We use a subset of individuals from the Health and Retirement Study who applied for DI or SSI benefits between 1992 and 1996, to estimate classification error rates under the hypothesis that applicants' self-reported disability status and the SSA's ultimate award decision are noisy but unbiased indicators of a latent . true disability status. indicator. We find that approximately 20% of SSI/DI applicants who are ultimately awarded benefits are not disabled, and that 60% of applicants who were denied benefits are disabled. We also construct an optimal statistical screening rule that results in significantly lower classification error rates than does SSA's current award process.
Analysis of oral narratives of children who stutter and their fluent peers: Kindergarten through second grade

Measures of language sample length (in c‐units) and morphological, syntactic, and narrative abilities were obtained from oral narrative transcripts of 22 children who stutter and 22 children who do not stutter; participants attended kindergarten, first, and second grades. A two‐way MANOVA yielded significant main effects for grade, with significant differences on some measures evidenced between participants in kindergarten and second grades. No significant differences between groups or group‐grade interaction effects on the measures were obtained. Grade‐wise comparisons (through t‐tests) indicated that the performance of children who stutter did not differ significantly from their typically fluent peers on all dependent measures; however, kindergarten children who stutter obtained the most discrepant (lower) scores than their grade‐matched fluent peers on the Narrative Scoring Scheme measure, with group differences approaching statistical significance on this measure. The findings suggest that children who do and do not stutter evidence similar expressive language abilities, even as subgroups of children who stutter may lag behind their grade‐matched fluent peers in particular language domains.
Determination of the Optical Properties of Turbid Materials by Hyperspectral Diffuse Reflectance

This research was to develop a sensing technique for determining the optical properties of turbid food and agricultural products. Twenty four liquid simulation samples with absorption and reduced scattering coefficients similar to those of apples were created from absorbing dyes and fat emulsion scatterers. A hyperspectral imaging system was used to acquire scattering images of the steady-state diffuse reflectance from the simulation samples over the spectral region between 450 nm and 1,000 nm. The hyperspectral reflectance data were analyzed by using an analytical diffusion theory model for a homogeneous semi-infinite medium. A curve fitting algorithm was used to extract the absorption and reduced scattering coefficients in the wavelength range from 530 nm to 730 nm using the spatial profiles covering the source-detector separations from 1.8 mm to 9.9 mm. The average fitting error for the reduced scattering coefficient was 7.4%, whereas the error for the absorption coefficient was large. Further improvements in data analysis are needed for accurate determination of both scattering and absorption coefficients.
Up-regulation of serotonin receptor 2B mRNA and protein in the peri-infarcted area of aged rats and stroke patients

Despite the fact that a high proportion of elderly stroke patients develop mood disorders, the mechanisms underlying late-onset neuropsychiatric and neurocognitive symptoms have so far received little attention in the field of neurobiology. In rodents, aged animals display depressive symptoms following stroke, whereas young animals recover fairly well. This finding has prompted us to investigate the expression of serotonin receptors 2A and 2B, which are directly linked to depression, in the brains of aged and young rats following stroke. Although the development of the infarct was more rapid in aged rats in the first 3 days after stroke, by day 14 the cortical infarcts were similar in size in both age groups i.e. 45% of total cortical volume in young rats and 55.7% in aged rats. We also found that the expression of serotonin receptor type B mRNA was markedly increased in the perilesional area of aged rats as compared to the younger counterparts. Furthermore, histologically, HTR2B protein expression in degenerating neurons was closely associated with activated microglia both in aged rats and human subjects. Treatment with fluoxetine attenuated the expression of Htr2B mRNA, stimulated post-stroke neurogenesis in the subventricular zone and was associated with an improved anhedonic behavior and an increased activity in the forced swim test in aged animals. We hypothesize that HTR2B expression in the infarcted territory may render degenerating neurons susceptible to attack by activated microglia and thus aggravate the consequences of stroke.
Result 3 D Volume Segmenting Left Atrium Chamber and Appendage with a Model-Based Approach Segmenting Four Major Pulmonary Veins under Statistical Shape Constraints Refining Ostia Region Determining Exact Boundary between Different Parts Extracting Right Middle Pulmonary Veins Generating

As a minimally invasive surgery to treat atrial fibrillation (AF), catheter based ablation uses high radio-frequency energy to eliminate potential sources of abnormal electrical events, especially around the ostia of pulmonary veins (PV). Fusing a patient-specific left atrium (LA) model (including LA chamber, appendage, and PVs) with electro-anatomical maps or overlaying the model onto 2D real-time fluoroscopic images provides valuable visual guidance during the intervention. In this work, we present a fully automatic LA segmentation system on non-gated C-arm computed tomography (C-arm CT) data, where thin boundaries between the LA and surrounding tissues are often blurred due to the cardiac motion artifacts. To avoid segmentation leakage, the shape prior should be exploited to guide the segmentation. A single holistic shape model is often not accurate enough to represent the whole LA shape population under anatomical variations, e.g., the left common PVs vs. separate left PVs. Instead, a part based LA model is proposed, which includes the chamber, appendage, four major PVs, and right middle PVs. Each part is a much simpler anatomical structure compared to the holistic one and can be segmented using a model-based approach (except the right middle PVs). After segmenting the LA parts, the gaps and overlaps among the parts are resolved and segmentation of the ostia region is further refined. As a common anatomical variation, some patients may contain extra right middle PVs, which are segmented using a graph cuts algorithm under the constraints from the already extracted major right PVs. Our approach is computationally efficient, taking about 2.6 s to process a volume with 256×256× 245 voxels. Experiments on 687 C-arm CT datasets demonstrate its robustness and state-of-the-art segmentation accuracy.
Influence of Sawdust on the Mechanical Properties of Vinyl Plasticized Composites

The present study develops a composite material using environmental friendly materials. The influence of lignocellulosic products, as sawdust, on the mechanical properties of compound materials elaborated using a thermoplastic matrix of PVC and plasticizer, is analyzed. The results obtained for the mechanical properties: tensile strength, elastic modulus, and hardness have been analyzed focusing on the amount of plasticizer and the grain size of sawdust used. In addition, the analysis of the fracture of obtained compound materials by scanning electronic microscopy has been done to understand the behavior of the composite material. Finally, the mechanical behavior of the materials obtained based on the relation between the matrix phase of the compound material (PVC and plasticizer) and the disperse phase of sawdust is justified.
Efficient Computation of Morse-Smale Complexes for Three-dimensional Scalar Functions

The Morse-Smale complex is an efficient representation of the gradient behavior of a scalar function, and critical points paired by the complex identify topological features and their importance. We present an algorithm that constructs the Morse-Smale complex in a series of sweeps through the data, identifying various components of the complex in a consistent manner. All components of the complex, both geometric and topological, are computed, providing a complete decomposition of the domain. Efficiency is maintained by representing the geometry of the complex in terms of point sets.
Job Scheduling With Uncertain Local Generation in Smart Buildings: Two-Stage Robust Approach

In this paper, we consider a job scheduling problem with random local generation, in which some jobs must be scheduled ahead of time while the others can be scheduled in a real-time fashion. To capture the randomness of the locally distributed generation, we develop a two-stage robust optimization model by considering an uncertainty set without probability information. Given that the problem is challenging, a nested column-and-constraint generation algorithm is implemented to find an optimal solution. Some computational study, along with management insights, is presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed model in dealing with the worst case situations.
Maximal Lyapunov exponent variations of volcanic tremor recorded during explosive and effusive activity at Mt Semeru volcano, Indonesia

Abstract. We analyze 25 episodes of volcanic tremor recorded from 22 November until 31 December 2009 at Mt Semeru volcano in order to investigate their spectral and dynamical properties. The overtone frequencies for most of the tremor events indicate a pattern of period-doubling, which is one possible route that can lead a system to chaotic behavior. Exponential divergence of the phase space orbits is a strong indicator of chaos and was quantified by estimating the maximal Lyapunov exponent (MLE) for all tremor events. MLEs were found to vary linearly with the number of frequency overtones present in the tremor signals. This implies that the tremor source at Semeru fluctuates between a quasi-periodic state with few overtone frequencies (2–3) and small MLEs (~0.013), and a chaotic one with more overtones (up to 8) and larger MLEs (up to 0.039). These results agree well with the tremor generation model suggested previously by Julian (1994), which describes wall oscillations of a crack excited by unsteady fluid flow. In this model, as fluid pressure increases, a period-doubling cascade leads to numerous new frequencies and a chaotic tremor signal. The temporal variation of MLEs exhibited significant fluctuations from 23 until 31 December when the eruptive activity shifted from explosive to effusive. Such a situation may reflect variable fluid pressure conditions inside the conduit, where at first magma is accumulated and subsequently is erupted, releasing the buildup of pressure. Our results give further evidence for the role of nonlinear deterministic processes in generating volcanic tremor and call for similar investigations to be conducted in other volcanoes.
Within-lifetime trade-offs but evolutionary freedom for hormonal and immunological traits: evidence from mice bred for high voluntary exercise

SUMMARY Chronic increases in circulating corticosterone (CORT) generally suppress immune function, but it is not known whether evolved increases necessarily have similar adverse effects. Moreover, the evolution of immune function might be constrained by the sharing of signaling molecules, such as CORT, across numerous physiological systems. Laboratory house mice (Mus domesticus Linnaeus) from four replicate lines selectively bred for high voluntary wheel running (HR lines) generally had baseline circulating CORT approximately twofold higher than in four non-selected control (C) lines. To test whether elevated baseline CORT suppresses the inflammatory response in HR mice, we injected females with lipopolysaccharide (LPS). All mice injected with LPS exhibited classic signs of an inflammatory response, including sickness behavior, loss of body mass, reduced locomotor activity (i.e. voluntary wheel running), enlarged spleens and livers, elevated hematocrit and elevated inflammatory cytokines. However, as compared with C mice, the inflammatory response was not suppressed in HR mice. Our results, and those of a previous study, suggest that selective breeding for high voluntary exercise has not altered immune function. They also suggest that the effects of evolved differences in baseline CORT levels may differ greatly from effects of environmental factors (often viewed as ‘stressors’) that alter baseline CORT during an individual’s lifetime. In particular, evolved increases in circulating levels of ‘stress hormones’ are not necessarily associated with detrimental suppression of the inflammatory response, presumably as a result of correlated evolution of other physiological systems (counter-measures). Our results have important implications for the interpretation of elevated stress hormones and of immune indicators in natural populations.
On the Discrete-Time Integral Sliding-Mode Control

A new discrete-time integral sliding-mode control (DISMC) scheme is proposed for sampled-data systems. The new control scheme is characterized by a discrete-time integral sliding manifold which inherits the desired properties of the continuous-time integral sliding manifold, such as full order sliding manifold with pole assignment, and elimination of the reaching phase. In particular, comparing with existing discrete-time sliding-mode control, the new scheme is able to achieve more precise tracking performance. It will be shown in this work that, the new control scheme achieves O(T2) steady-state error for state regulation with the widely adopted delay-based disturbance estimation. Another desirable feature is, the proposed DISMC prevents the generation of overlarge control actions due to deadbeat response, which is usually inevitable due to the existence of poles at the origin for a reduced order sliding manifold designed for sampled-data systems. Both the theoretical analysis and illustrative example demonstrate the validity of the proposed scheme