Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Deep learning of the sectional appearances of 3D CT images for anatomical structure segmentation based on an FCN voting method

Purpose: We propose a single network trained by pixel‐to‐label deep learning to address the general issue of automatic multiple organ segmentation in three‐dimensional (3D) computed tomography (CT) images. Our method can be described as a voxel‐wise multiple‐class classification scheme for automatically assigning labels to each pixel/voxel in a 2D/3D CT image. Methods: We simplify the segmentation algorithms of anatomical structures (including multiple organs) in a CT image (generally in 3D) to a majority voting scheme over the semantic segmentation of multiple 2D slices drawn from different viewpoints with redundancy. The proposed method inherits the spirit of fully convolutional networks (FCNs) that consist of “convolution” and “deconvolution” layers for 2D semantic image segmentation, and expands the core structure with 3D‐2D‐3D transformations to adapt to 3D CT image segmentation. All parameters in the proposed network are trained pixel‐to‐label from a small number of CT cases with human annotations as the ground truth. The proposed network naturally fulfills the requirements of multiple organ segmentations in CT cases of different sizes that cover arbitrary scan regions without any adjustment. Results: The proposed network was trained and validated using the simultaneous segmentation of 19 anatomical structures in the human torso, including 17 major organs and two special regions (lumen and content inside of stomach). Some of these structures have never been reported in previous research on CT segmentation. A database consisting of 240 (95% for training and 5% for testing) 3D CT scans, together with their manually annotated ground‐truth segmentations, was used in our experiments. The results show that the 19 structures of interest were segmented with acceptable accuracy (88.1% and 87.9% voxels in the training and testing datasets, respectively, were labeled correctly) against the ground truth. Conclusions: We propose a single network based on pixel‐to‐label deep learning to address the challenging issue of anatomical structure segmentation in 3D CT cases. The novelty of this work is the policy of deep learning of the different 2D sectional appearances of 3D anatomical structures for CT cases and the majority voting of the 3D segmentation results from multiple crossed 2D sections to achieve availability and reliability with better efficiency, generality, and flexibility than conventional segmentation methods, which must be guided by human expertise.
Tid1 Is Required for T Cell Transition from Double-Negative 3 to Double-Positive Stages 1

Tid1, a DnaJ cochaperone protein, is the mammalian homologue of the Drosophila tumor suppressor Tid56 whose antitumor function is most likely mediated through its capacity to regulate cell differentiation in imaginal discs. We suspected that the mammalian counterpart, tid1, may also be involved in regulating cell differentiation. To investigate this, we exploited the system of T cell development to examine whether tid1 plays a role in this well-defined process. Mice with tid1 specifically deleted in T cells developed thymic atrophy, with dramatic reduction of double-positive and single-positive thymocytes in the tid1−/− thymus. Although the subpopulations of tid1−/− double-negative (DN) 1–3 thymocytes were normal, the subpopulation of DN4 thymocytes was measurably smaller because of reduced proliferation and significant cell death. Immature tid1−/− thymocytes show normal VDJ β-chain rearrangement and pre-TCR and CD3 expression in both DN3 and DN4 thymocytes, but in DN4 thymocytes, there was significantly reduced expression of the antiapoptotic bcl-2 gene. Restoring the expression level of Bcl-2 protein in tid1−/− thymus by introduction of a transgenic human bcl-2 gene resulted in reversal of the developmental defects in tid1−/− thymus. Together, these results demonstrate that tid1 is critical in early thymocyte development, especially during transition from the DN3 to double-positive stages, possibly through its regulation of bcl-2 expression, which provides survival signals.
Visual-Constructional Ability in Individuals with Severe Obesity: Rey Complex Figure Test Accuracy and the Q-Score

The aims of this study were to investigate visual-construction and organizational strategy among individuals with severe obesity, as measured by the Rey Complex Figure Test (RCFT), and to examine the validity of the Q-score as a measure for the quality of performance on the RCFT. Ninety-six non-demented morbidly obese (MO) patients and 100 healthy controls (HC) completed the RCFT. Their performance was calculated by applying the standard scoring criteria. The quality of the copying process was evaluated per the directions of the Q-score scoring system. Results revealed that the MO did not perform significantly lower than the HC on Copy accuracy (mean difference −0.302, CI −1.374 to 0.769, p = 0.579). In contrast, the groups did statistically differ from each other, with MO performing poorer than the HC on the Q-score (mean −1.784, CI −3.237 to −0.331, p = 0.016) and the Unit points (mean −1.409, CI −2.291 to −0.528, p = 0.002), but not on the Order points score (mean −0.351, CI −0.994 to 0.293, p = 0.284). Differences on the Unit score and the Q-score were slightly reduced when adjusting for gender, age, and education. This study presents evidence supporting the presence of inefficiency in visuospatial constructional ability among MO patients. We believe we have found an indication that the Q-score captures a wider range of cognitive processes that are not described by traditional scoring methods. Rather than considering accuracy and placement of the different elements only, the Q-score focuses more on how the subject has approached the task.
γ-Tilmanocept, a New Radiopharmaceutical Tracer for Cancer Sentinel Lymph Nodes, Binds to the Mannose Receptor (CD206)

γ-Tilmanocept (99mTc-labeled-tilmanocept or [99mTc]-tilmanocept) is the first mannose-containing, receptor-directed, radiolabeled tracer for the highly sensitive imaging of sentinel lymph nodes in solid tumor staging. To elucidate the mannose-binding receptor that retains tilmanocept in this microenvironment, human macrophages were used that have high expression of the C-type lectin mannose receptor (MR; CD206). Cy3-labeled tilmanocept exhibited high specificity binding to macrophages that was nearly abolished in competitive inhibition experiments. Furthermore, Cy3-tilmanocept binding was markedly reduced on macrophages deficient in the MR by small interfering RNA treatment and was increased on MR-transfected HEK 293 cells. Finally, confocal microscopy revealed colocalization of Cy3-tilmanocept with the macrophage membrane MR and binding of labeled tilmanocept to MR+ cells (macrophages and/or dendritic cells) in human sentinel lymph node tissues. Together these data provide strong evidence that CD206 is a major binding receptor for γ-tilmanocept. Identification of CD206 as the γ-tilmanocept–binding receptor enables opportunities for designing receptor-targeted advanced imaging agents and therapeutics for cancer and other diseases.
Tools to improve documentation of smoking status. Continuous quality improvement and electronic medical records.

BACKGROUND Despite the deleterious effects of smoking on the nation's health and evidence that smoking cessation advice by family practice physicians is cost-effective, self-sustaining office systems to identify smokers in primary care clinics have been difficult to establish. We worked on a continuous quality improvement project group, aided by an electronic medical record, to design a system to document and periodically update smoking status in a consistent place in the medical record. INTERVENTION Using the continuous quality improvement plan-do-study-act cycle, a 7-member group worked with nursing staff to define roles, routines and responsibilities for medical assistants to screen for and document 1 of 4 categories of smoking status in the major problem list of the electronic medical record for at least 80% of patient appointments. Screening rate was tracked monthly by means of the electronic medical record and feedback was given to staff. RESULTS The screening rate rose from 18.4% to 80.3% within 2 weeks after the system was implemented and was maintained for 19 months. An additional benefit was an increased rate of smoking cessation counseling documented by providers, from a baseline rate of 17.1% to 48.3%. CONCLUSIONS A continuous quality improvement group process aided by an electronic medical record is useful to develop a self-sustaining office system to screen, document, and periodically update smoking status in a consistent place in the medical record. Although screening for and documenting smoking status are only the first step toward helping patients stop smoking, it is an important one.
Spatial Pyramid Convolutional Neural Network for Social Event Detection in Static Image

Social event detection in a static image is a very challenging problem and it's very useful for internet of things applications including automatic photo organization, ads recommender system, or image captioning. Several publications show that variety of objects, scene, and people can be very ambiguous for the system to decide the event that occurs in the image. We proposed the spatial pyramid configuration of convolutional neural network (CNN) classifier for social event detection in a static image. By applying the spatial pyramid configuration to the CNN classifier, the detail that occurs in the image can observe more accurately by the classifier. USED dataset provided by Ahmad et al. is used to evaluate our proposed method, which consists of two different image sets, EiMM, and SED dataset. As a result, the average accuracy of our system outperforms the baseline method by 15% and 2% respectively.
Identification of the connection between tourism demand and economic growth in ASEAN-3

This paper is based on the Bayesian inference to explore two purposes. First, the specific objective is proposed to consider an empirical analysis employing the panel Bayesian vector autoregressive (PBVAR) model. Secondly, the empirical study is aimed to analyse the driven factor between tourism demands and service sectors by adapting Granger-causality Bayesian test. Technically, the simulated computation called Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) approach is employed to investigate the research's findings. Yearly time-series data of tourism growth (tourist arrivals) and economic growth (service sectors) in ASEAN-3 countries such as Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia were observed during 1996-2015. The empirical results of this study will deeply clarify the linkage between tourism demands and economy in ASEAN-3 countries and give recommendations to more assure that a suitable tourism policy is appropriately activated.
Accounting for Trade Deficits

This paper proposes a decomposition for the total trade deficit of a country by using implications of a dynamic trade model. It is shown that the total trade deficit of a country can be decomposed into changes due to its effective terms of trade, its relative trade costs, and its macroeconomic developments with respect to its export partners. The implications for bilateral trade are estimated using both imports and exports data for 188 countries, and the decomposition of total trade deficit is achieved for each country. Empirical results show evidence for heterogeneity across countries regarding the decomposition of trade deficits, suggesting alternative policy tools to rebalance trade at the country level. A cross-country investigation further suggests that relative trade costs have contributed the most to the heterogeneity of trade imbalances.
Age‐Related Changes In Dopamine D2 Receptors In Rat Heart And Coronary Vessels

1. The distribution of dopamine D2 receptors in rat heart and coronary vessels and the possible age‐related changes in D2 receptor density were studied. The pharmacological characteristics and the anatomical location of dopamine D2‐like receptor sites in rat heart and coronary vessels were investigated using combined binding techniques and light microscopy autoradiography.
Transient Requirement of the PrrA-PrrB Two-Component System for Early Intracellular Multiplication of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

ABSTRACT Adaptive regulation of gene expression in response to environmental changes is a general property of bacterial pathogens. By screening an ordered transposon mutagenesis library of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, we have identified three mutants containing a transposon in the coding sequence or in the 5′ regions of genes coding for two-component signal transduction systems (trcS, regX3, prrA). The intracellular multiplication capacity of the three mutants was investigated in mouse bone marrow-derived macrophages. Only the prrA mutant showed a defect in intracellular growth during the early phase of infection, and this defect was fully reverted when the mutant was complemented with prrA-prrB wild-type copies. The mutant phenotype was transient, as after 1 week this strain recovered full growth capacity to reach levels similar to that of the wild type at day 9. Moreover, a transient induction of prrA promoter activity was observed during the initial phase of macrophage infection, as shown by a prrA promoter-gfp fusion in M. bovis BCG infecting the mouse macrophages. The concordant transience of the prrA mutant phenotype and prrA promoter activity indicates that the PrrA-PrrB two-component system is involved in the environmental adaptation of M. tuberculosis, specifically in an early phase of the intracellular growth, and that, similar to other facultative intracellular parasites, M. tuberculosis can use genes temporarily required at different stages in the course of macrophage infection.
The Feasibility of In-Beam PET for Therapeutic Beams of$^3$He

At the experimental carbon ion treatment facility at the Gesellschaft fur Schwerionenforschung (GSI) Darmstadt the clinical benefit of the in-beam PET method has been proven. It led to a significant improvement of the quality of patient treatment. Several heavy ion treatment facilities, which will provide in the near future a large variety of ions, are in planning or even under construction. The deduction of clinically relevant parameters from in-beam PET data requires a precise knowledge of the spatial distribution of beam induced positron emitters in the irradiated volume. Therefore, the beta+ -activity induced by 3He has been studied for the first time at the Gesellschaft fur Schwerionenforschung with three mono-energetic 3He beams of 130.03 AMeV to 207.92 AMeV and mean intensities varying from 2.0middot108 to 3.5middot10 8 ions/s. The beams were stopped in homogeneous thick targets consisting of PMMA, graphite and water, which were placed in the center of the field of view of the PET-scanner at the experimental carbon ion therapy at GSI. Results on the production rate and the spatial distribution of 3He ion induced positron activity is presented and compared with data from 12C-irradiation. The accuracy and resolution for determining the range of the 3He primary beams is deduced. Furthermore, energy dependent thick target cross sections for different reaction channels leading to positron emitters are estimated from the experimental data
A mouse model of systemic lupus erythematosus responds better to soluble TACI than to soluble BAFFR, correlating with depletion of plasma cells

The TNF family cytokines B‐cell activating factor (BAFF) and a proliferation‐inducing ligand (APRIL) support plasma cell survival. It is known that inhibitors of BAFF only (BAFFR‐Fc) or BAFF and APRIL (TACI‐Fc) administered early enough in an NZB/NZW F1 mouse model of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) ameliorate clinical outcomes, pointing to a pathogenic role of BAFF. In the present study, TACI‐Fc administrated at a later stage of disease, after onset of autoimmunity, decreased the number of bone marrow plasma cells and slowed down further formation of autoantibodies. TACI‐Fc prevented renal damage during a 12‐week treatment period regardless of autoantibody levels, while BAFFR‐Fc did not despite a similar BAFF‐blocking activity in vivo. TACI‐Fc also decreased established plasma cells in a T‐dependent hapten/carrier immunization system better than single inhibitors of BAFF or APRIL, and sometimes better than combined single inhibitors with at least equivalent BAFF and APRIL inhibitory activities. These results indicate that TACI‐Fc can prevent symptoms of renal damage in a mouse model of SLE when BAFFR‐Fc cannot, and point to a plasticity of plasma cells for survival factors. Targeting plasma cells with TACI‐Fc might be beneficial to prevent autoantibody‐mediated damages in SLE.
An Investigation of Global Reporting Initiative Performance Indicators in Corporate Sustainability Reports: Greek, Italian and Spanish Evidence

This study has two main purposes. First, it explores the performance indicators disclosed in the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)-based Sustainability Reports (SRs) produced by the companies of three different countries: Italy, Spain and Greece. Second, it verifies how some corporate variables, country of origin variables and “attributes” of the SRs can explain the disclosure of GRI indicators. To verify the quantity and type of the indicators disclosed, we performed a content analysis of the SRs. We use a regression trees technique to describe how the companies’ variables explain a different use of the indicators. The findings show that Spanish companies, on average, disclose the greatest number of indicators. The social indicators related to Labour are those more frequently reported in the SRs of the three countries. The least reported are social indicators related to Human Rights. The results show the central role that assurance, ROA and sector may have in classifying the disclosure level of indicators. The study contributes both theoretical and empirical literature on sustainability indicators. It also sheds further light on the determinants of the disclosure of indicators.
Talk or Text to Tell? How Young Adults in Canada and South Africa Prefer to Receive STI Results, Counseling, and Treatment Updates in a Wireless World

Young adults often lack access to confidential, long-lasting, and nonjudgmental interactions with sexual health professionals at brick-and-mortar clinics. To ensure that patients return for their STI test results, post-result counseling, and STI-related information, computer-mediated health intervention programming allows them to receive sexual health information through onsite computers, the Internet, and mobile phone calls and text messages. To determine whether young adults (age: M = 21 years) prefer to communicate with health professionals about the status of their sexual health through computer-mediated communication devices, 303 second-year university students (183 from an urban North American university and 120 from a periurban university in South Africa) completed a paper-based survey indicating how they prefer to communicate with doctors and nurses: talking face to face, mobile phone call, text message, Internet chat programs, Facebook, Twitter, or e-mail. Nearly all students, and female students in South Africa in particular, prefer to receive their STI test results, post-results counseling, and STI-related information by talking face to face with doctors and nurses rather than communicating through computers or mobile phones. Results are clarified in relation to gender, availability of various technologies, and prevalence of HIV in Canada and in South Africa.
Analysis of the first complete DNA sequence of an invertebrate iridovirus: coding strategy of the genome of Chilo iridescent virus.

Chilo iridescent virus (CIV), the type species of the genus Iridovirus, a member of the Iridoviridae family, is highly pathogenic for a variety of insect larvae. The virions contain a single linear ds DNA molecule that is circularly permuted and terminally redundant. The coding capacity and strategy of the CIV genome was elucidated by the analysis of the complete DNA nucleotide sequence of the viral genome (212,482 bp) using cycle sequencing by primer walking technology. Both DNA strands were sequenced independently and the average redundancy for each nucleotide was found to be 1.85. The base composition of the viral genomic DNA sequence was found to be 71.37% A+T and 28.63% G+C. The CIV genome contains 468 open reading frames (ORFs). The size of the individual viral gene products ranges between 40 and 2432 amino acids. The analysis of the coding capacity of the CIV genome revealed that 50% (234 ORFs) of all identified ORFs were nonoverlapping. The comparison of the deduced amino acid sequences to entries in protein data banks led to the identification of several genes with significant homologies, such as the two major subunits of the DNA-dependent RNA polymerase, DNA polymerase, protein kinase, thymidine and thymidylate kinase, thymidylate synthase, ribonucleoside-diphosphate reductase, major capsid protein, and others. The highest homologies were detected between putative viral gene products of CIV and lymphocystis disease virus of fish (LCDV). Although many CIV putative gene products showed significant homologies to the corresponding viral proteins of LCDV, no colinearity was detected when the coding strategies of the CIV and LCDV-1 were compared to each other. An intriguing result was the detection of a viral peptide of 53 amino acid residues (ORF 160L) showing high homology (identity/similarity: 60.0%/30.0%) to sillucin, an antibiotic peptide encoded by Rhizomucor pusillus. Iridovirus homologs of cellular genes possess particular implications for the molecular evolution of large DNA viruses.
Passivity-Based Stability Analysis and Damping Injection for Multiparalleled VSCs with LCL Filters

This paper addresses the harmonic stability resulting from the current-control interactions of the multiparalleled, LCL-filtered voltage-source converters. First, an alternative impedance model is proposed for the single-loop current control. The control output admittance of the converter is decomposed into a passive filter output admittance in series with an active admittance, which is dependent on the current controller and the time delay. The frequency-domain passivity theory is then applied to the active admittance for system stability analysis. It reveals that the stability region of the single-loop grid current control is not only dependent on the time delay, but affected also by the resonance frequency of the converter-side filter inductor and filter capacitor. Further on, the damping injection based on the discrete derivative controller is proposed to enhance the passivity of individual converters and thereby stabilizing the paralleled converters. Finally, simulation studies and laboratory tests validate the effectiveness of theoretical analysis and controller design.
Reconciliation narrative: scope and limits of the Pax Europeana

Abstract This article focuses on one of the dominant interpretations of European integration, namely the reconciliation narrative that defines European integration as a peacebuilding process. The study is divided into three main parts. The first clarifies the various conceptions of reconciliation as a political process. The second examines the reconciliation narrative as a discourse. The analysis of the references made by EU representatives shows that this narrative can be either backward-looking (an ex post rationalisation of ‘what Europe was’) or future-oriented (a description of ‘what Europe should be’). The third part emphasises the reconciliation narrative as a guideline for action in regions as diverse as the Balkans, East Asia, the African Great Lakes and the Middle East. The aim of this article is to determine whether the EU experience, captured by the reconciliation narrative, can – and should – be replicated. Its main conclusion concerns the need for a polyphonic attitude within the EU, and the need for a modest attitude towards third parties, in terms of both timing and objectives.