Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Impact on Reader Performance for Lesion-Detection/ Localization Tasks of Anatomical Priors in SPECT Reconstruction

With increasing availability of multimodality imaging systems, high-resolution anatomical images can be used to guide the reconstruction of emission tomography studies. By measuring reader performance on a lesion detection task, this study investigates the improvement in image-quality due to use of prior anatomical knowledge, for example organ or lesion boundaries, during SPECT reconstruction. Simulated 67Ga -citrate source and attenuation distributions were created from the mathematical cardiac-torso (MCAT) anthropomorphic digital phantom. The SIMIND Monte Carlo software was then used to generate SPECT projection data. The data were reconstructed using the De Pierro maximum a posteriori (MAP) algorithm and the rescaled-block-iterative (RBI) algorithm for comparison. We compared several degrees of prior knowledge about the anatomy: no knowledge about the anatomy; knowledge of organ boundaries; knowledge of organ and lesion boundaries; and knowledge of organ, lesion, and pseudo-lesion (non-emission uptake altering) boundaries. The MAP reconstructions used quadratic smoothing within anatomical regions, but not across any provided region boundaries. The reconstructed images were read by human observers searching for lesions in a localization receiver operating characteristic (LROC) study of the relative detection/localization accuracies of the reconstruction algorithms. Area under the LROC curve was computed for each algorithm as the comparison metric. We also had humans read images reconstructed using different prior strengths to determine the optimal trade-off between data consistency and the anatomical prior. Finally by mixing together images reconstructed with and without the prior, we tested to see if having an anatomical prior only some of the time changes the observer's detection/localization accuracy on lesions where no boundary prior is available. We found that anatomical priors including organ and lesion boundaries improve observer performance on the lesion detection/localization task. Use of just organ boundaries did not provide a statistically significant improvement in performance however. We also found that optimal prior strength depends on the level of anatomical knowledge, with a broad plateau in which observer performance is near optimal. We found no evidence that having anatomical priors use lesion boundaries only when available changes the observer's performance when they are not available. We conclude that use of anatomical priors with organ and lesion boundaries improves reader performance on a lesion-detection/localization task, and that pseudo-lesion boundaries do not hurt reader performance. However, we did not find evidence that a prior using only organ boundaries helps observer performance. Therefore we suggest prior strength should be tuned to the organ-only case, since a prior will likely not be available for all lesions.
Eccentric contraction injury in dystrophic canine muscle.

OBJECTIVE To test the hypothesis that eccentric contractions induce greater injury in dystrophic compared with normal canine muscle. DESIGN Blinded cohort study. SETTING Animal laboratory. ANIMALS Ten dogs with a homologue to Duchenne muscular dystrophy (Golden retriever muscular dystrophy [GRMD]) and 10 normal littermates. INTERVENTIONS Contractions induced in tibiotarsal flexors and extensors by sciatic nerve stimulation. Because more powerful extensors overrode flexors, eccentric contractions occurred in flexors. Concentric contractions were induced in contralateral flexors by peroneal nerve stimulation. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE Tibiotarsal flexion force 3 days after contractions. Muscle was examined for injury (esterase activity, Evans blue dye penetration) and regeneration (embryonic myosin isoform expression). RESULTS Mean force deficit after eccentric flexor contractions was 43.3%+/-25.7% in GRMD dogs compared with 25.0%+/-18.4% in controls (P=.04, Wilcoxon rank-sum test). Concentric contractions induced force deficits in GRMD but not normal dogs; however, the difference between the 2 groups was not significant (P=.08, Wilcoxon rank-sum test). After concentric contractions in controls, force decrements correlated with esterase activity measured by area (r=.794, P=.006) and intensity (r=.697, P=.025, Spearman rank correlation). No other significant correlation was detected between force and biopsy data. CONCLUSIONS Force data support the hypothesis that eccentric contractions induce greater injury in dystrophic compared with normal canine muscle. Phenotypic features of the dystrophic canine model used here are similar to those of humans with Duchenne's.
A new model of blast injury from a spherical explosive and its special wound in the maxillofacial region.

OBJECTIVE The goal of this study was to establish an efficient explosive model with spherical explosives for the study of blast injury and its wound characteristics in the maxillofacial region. METHODS Different spherical explosives were used to produce blast waves and to establish the wound model. Fresh sheep heads as the targets were used for the study of wound characteristics. The wounding parameters and the injuries of targets after explosion were observed. RESULTS The overpressure values of blast waves decreased exponentially along with the increase of distances to explosives and so did the tissue damage. The blast injury is quite different from other injuries and is more serious. A kind of special "split fracture" of the mandibles was found. CONCLUSIONS The new explosive wound model with spherical explosives can be used for the study of blast injury in the laboratory. The injury manner of blast wave and the local anatomy of tissues resulted in the special wound characteristics.
Assessing Performance Measurement Impact

This research examines performance measurement (PM) impact in U.S. cities. The results show that PM helps city administrations specify service goals, expectations, and strategies. PM also helps managers identify daily management problems and solutions. Some city legislators use PM, whereas many others do not. The public in most cities in the study does not show interest in PM. In addition, the majority of cities in this study do not use PM to make resource allocation decisions. This study also finds that strategic planning and benchmarking increase PM impact.
Title : Implementation of the EU Nitrates Directive in the Republic of Ireland — A view from the farm Author :

This paper employs Q methodology to investigate farmer opinions of the operation of the EU Nitrates Directive regulations after the first 4 year National Action Programme phase and explores the level of acceptance and refutation of measures from the view of farmers own knowledge and experience of land stewardship. Results indicate 4 main opinion groups. A “Constrained Productionists”group remain unconvinced about the appropriateness of certain measures from a farm management, environmental and water quality perspective. A second group “Concerned Practitioners” share some of these concerned but are generally more positive regarding other farm management and environmental benefits accruing from the regulations. A third group, “Benefit Accepters”, indicated quite an environmentalist position and are generally very positive towards regulation implementation and associated environmental and farm management benefits. The final group “Regulation Unaffected” have some concerns but are mostly unaffected by the regulations. Results suggest there is a growing acceptance among some farmers of environmental benefits accruing from the regulation but scepticism remains around the validity of certain measures, especially, in the area of temporal farm practices.
The Effects of a Worksite Chronic Disease Prevention Program

Objective: This study determined the behavioral and clinical impact of a worksite chronic disease prevention program. Methods: Working adults participated in randomized clinical trial of an intensive lifestyle intervention. Nutrition and physical activity behavior and several chronic disease risk factors were assessed at baseline, 6 weeks, and 6 months. Results: Cognitive understanding of the requirements for a healthy lifestyle increased at the end of the program. Program participants significantly improved their cognitive understanding of good nutrition and physical activity and had significantly better nutrition and physical activity behavior at both 6 weeks and 6 months. Participants had significantly lower body fat, blood pressure, and cholesterol. Conclusions: This worksite chronic disease prevention program can significantly increase health knowledge, can improve nutrition and physical activity, and can improve many employee health risks in the short term.
Comparison of glutamate antagonists in continuous multiple‐trial and single‐trial dark avoidance

NMDA receptor antagonists (MK-801, memanrine, amantadine, CGP37849), and the AMPA receptor antagonist NBQX, were tested in a continuous multiple-trial two-choice dark avoidance paradigm. During training MK-801 (0.2 mg/kg) and CGP 37849 (12 mg/kg) increased the number of trials to criterion. Amantadine (92 mg/kg) increased all parameters except the number of trials to criterion. CGP37849 (6 and 12 mg/kg) increased the number of shocks per trial. Injection of MK-801 (0.2 mg/kg), memantine (20 mg/kg), amantadine (92 mg/kg) or CGP37849 (6 or 12 mg/kg) before training decreased the latency to enter the dark compartment in the retention test 24 h later. NBQX affected neither training nor retention parameters. NMDA antagonists were also tested in a single-trial two-choice dark avoidance procedure. Pre-training but not pre-retention test injection of MK-801 (0.2 mg/kg), memantine (20 mg/kg), amantadine (92 mg/kg) or CGP37849 (12 mg/kg) decreased the latency to enter the dark compartment during retention; scopolamine had similar effects. Hence, NMDA receptor antagonists, but not the AMPA receptor antagonist NBQX, impair memory storage which is also seen in animals trained to criterion, indicating that interference with the acquisition processes is not solely responsible for the memory deficit. This deficit occurs at doses that do not appear to interfere with the recall and the performance of the previously learned response.
Assessing the Community Prevalence of Bipolar Spectrum Symptoms by the Mood Disorder Questionnaire

Background: The goal of this study was to assess the frequency and spectrum of symptoms related to bipolar disorders in a community sample by means of a self-rating questionnaire. Method: The Mood Disorder Questionnaire, a self-rating scale which evaluates DSM-IV manic/hypomanic symptoms, was administered to a community sample of 1,034 individuals recruited through advertisements. Symptom interrelationships were studied by factor analysis. Results: 275 individuals (26.6%) reported moderate or severe impairment due to the symptoms. Manic/hypomanic symptoms were present in a high proportion of individuals. Factor analysis found a two-factor structure of bipolar spectrum symptoms (an elevated mood overactivity factor, and an irritable behavior factor). Conclusion: The findings of this study highlight the need of complementing clinical investigations on the bipolar spectrum with community studies. Subclinical manic-hypomanic symptoms may be present also in allegedly unipolar patients and may have implications on the course of illness.
Ketamine as an Adjuvant in Lidocaine Intravenous Regional Anesthesia: A Randomized, Double-blind, Systemic Control Trial

Background and Objectives: Ketamine delays and minimizes intraoperative tourniquet pain when added to lidocaine-based intravenous regional anesthesia (IVRA). It is unclear if adding ketamine to the IVRA injectate is more efficacious compared with systemic administration. This study compares intraoperative tourniquet pain, postoperative analgesia, and side effects of systemic versus IVRA ketamine during outpatient hand surgery. Methods: We conducted a randomized, double-blind, systemic control study of 40 patients undergoing hand surgery using lidocaine IVRA. In group IVRA, 0.1 mg/kg ketamine in 1 mL of normal saline was added to the IVRA lidocaine, and 1 mL of normal saline was administered via a peripheral IV line. In group systemic, 1 mL of normal saline was added to the IVRA syringe, and 0.1 mg/kg ketamine in 1 mL of normal saline was administered via a peripheral intravenous line. Ten minutes after proximal tourniquet inflation, the distal tourniquet was inflated, and the proximal tourniquet deflated. Tourniquet pain was measured every 10 mins. Need for intraoperative opioids was recorded. Recovery room pain scores, analgesic needs, and sedation scores were compared. Patients were contacted 24 hrs after surgery and reported their analgesic consumption, satisfaction scores, and the occurrence of any unpleasant psychologic effects. Results: Groups IVRA and systemic were comparable in demographic and surgical parameters. There were no differences between groups in intraoperative tourniquet pain scores, intraoperative fentanyl requirements, recovery room pain or sedation scores, postsurgical analgesic needs, or patient satisfaction scores. Conclusions: In comparison to systemic administration, there is no selective benefit to adding ketamine to the IVRA injectate.
Collaborative Active and Semisupervised Learning for Hyperspectral Remote Sensing Image Classification

Hyperspectral image classification is a challenging problem. Among existing approaches to addressing this problem, the active learning (AL) and semisupervised learning (SSL) techniques have attracted much attention in recent years. AL usually involves a labor-intensive human-labeling process while SSL, although avoiding human labeling by assigning pseudolabels to unlabeled data, may introduce incorrect pseudolabels and thus deteriorate classification performance. To overcome these drawbacks, a novel approach named collaborative active and semisupervised learning (CASSL) is proposed in this paper. CASSL combines AL and SSL to invoke a collaborative labeling process by both human experts and classifiers. Specifically, an AL-based pseudolabel verification procedure is performed for gradually improving the pseudolabeling accuracy to facilitate SSL. Meanwhile, only those unlabeled data with low pseudolabeling confidence in SSL will become the query candidates in AL. We evaluate the performance of CASSL on three hyperspectral data sets and compare it with that of two state-of-the-art hyperspectral image classification methods. Experimental results reveal the superiority of CASSL.
The bile acid receptor, TGR5, regulates basal and cholinergic‐induced secretory responses in rat colon

Bile acids (BA) are becoming increasingly appreciated as enteric hormones that regulate many aspects of intestinal physiology. The BA receptor, TGR5, has been recently shown to be expressed on enteric nerves and enterochromaffin cells (ECs), where its activation regulates small intestinal and colonic motility. Here, we show that TGR5 is also expressed on colonic epithelial cells and that its activation decreases basal secretory tone and inhibits cholinergic‐induced secretory responses. Our data demonstrate a new role for TGR5 in regulating colonic fluid and electrolyte transport and suggest that the receptor represents a good therapeutic target for intestinal transport disorders.
Baclofen infused in rat hippocampal formation impairs spatial learning

Recent studies show that baclofen, a selective GABAB agonist, impairs different kinds of learning. In the present study we investigated the effect of microinfused baclofen into the hippocampus of male Wistar rats, on the performance in the Morris water maze. Rats of 8–10 weeks of age were implanted with cannulae aimed bilaterally at the hippocampal formation. Baclofen (1 μl of 0.2 mM, 2.0 mM, and 20.0 mM) or sterilized saline was microinfused 1 h before each daily session (3 trials/session, 1 session/day) for 4 days. On the fifth day, the animals did not receive drug or saline injections and the retention of the location of the escape platform was tested in a 30 s free swim trial. Results from the free swim trial indicate that the doses of baclofen used during training affected the ability of the rats to swim to the target quadrant. Although no significant difference compared with the saline group was observed, the experimental rats showed a more generalized swim trajectory in the area of the target and both adjacent quadrants. Moreover, 1μl of 20.0 mM baclofen also impaired the acquisition. We suggest that baclofen has an impairing action on spatial learning, although more studies should be conducted to reach a more precise conclusion. Hippocampus 1998;8:109–113. © 1998 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Impact Of Education On Economic Growth In Mexico, 1990-2008, Impacto De La Educacion En El Crecimiento Economico En Mexico, 1990-2008

A fundamental goal of any economy is to procure and use the factors of production effectively. These factors include human capital, investment, and other factors. The Solow model attempts to identify other key factors of production necessary for economies. This model emphasizes the human capital. To goal of this research is answer questions such as: What is the relationship between human capital and economic growth? What is the relationship between human capital, investment and economic growth?
Abstraction of invariant face expressions in infancy.

To determine whether infants can abstract invariant face expressions across different persons (i.e., can form face expression categories), groups of 18-, 24-, and 30-week-old infants (18 boys and 18 girls per group) were habituated by the infant control procedure to photographs of 4 different female faces all wearing an identical expression (happy or surprise). In an immediately following test phase, categorization was inferred from greater generalization of habituation (less recovery of fixation) to 2 new female faces in the familiarized expression than to the same new faces in the altered (novel) expression. To rule out the possibility that generalization at test might be due to failure to discriminate the new persons, control groups of 18 boys and 18 girls at each age saw the same test faces following repeated presentations of only 1 of the 4 habituation faces. The results indicated that not until 30 weeks could infants differentiate happy and surprise expressions on a categorical basis. At 24 weeks they could distinguish a surprise expression following habituation to happy faces, but could not do the reverse. At 18 weeks they could do neither. Overall, the performance of girls was superior to that of boys. The findings are consistent with recent evidence suggesting that the ability to extract invariant configural information relative to the human face does not emerge until about 7 months of age.
The MYB36 transcription factor orchestrates Casparian strip formation

Significance Casparian strips play a critical role in sealing endodermal cells in the root to block uncontrolled extracellular uptake of nutrients and water. Building Casparian strips requires the construction of extracellular lignin structures that encircle cells within the cell wall and that are anchored to the plasma membranes of adjacent cells to form tight seals between them. The transcription factor we have discovered, and the set of genes it regulates, now provides us with the detailed “parts list” necessary to build Casparian strips. This finding has clear implications for better understanding the nature of tight cellular junctions in biology and also has practical implications of agricultural, offering the potential for improved water and nutrient use efficiencies and enhanced resistance to abiotic stresses. The endodermis in roots acts as a selectivity filter for nutrient and water transport essential for growth and development. This selectivity is enabled by the formation of lignin-based Casparian strips. Casparian strip formation is initiated by the localization of the Casparian strip domain proteins (CASPs) in the plasma membrane, at the site where the Casparian strip will form. Localized CASPs recruit Peroxidase 64 (PER64), a Respiratory Burst Oxidase Homolog F, and Enhanced Suberin 1 (ESB1), a dirigent-like protein, to assemble the lignin polymerization machinery. However, the factors that control both expression of the genes encoding this biosynthetic machinery and its localization to the Casparian strip formation site remain unknown. Here, we identify the transcription factor, MYB36, essential for Casparian strip formation. MYB36 directly and positively regulates the expression of the Casparian strip genes CASP1, PER64, and ESB1. Casparian strips are absent in plants lacking a functional MYB36 and are replaced by ectopic lignin-like material in the corners of endodermal cells. The barrier function of Casparian strips in these plants is also disrupted. Significantly, ectopic expression of MYB36 in the cortex is sufficient to reprogram these cells to start expressing CASP1–GFP, correctly localize the CASP1–GFP protein to form a Casparian strip domain, and deposit a Casparian strip-like structure in the cell wall at this location. These results demonstrate that MYB36 is controlling expression of the machinery required to locally polymerize lignin in a fine band in the cell wall for the formation of the Casparian strip.
Childhood survival in Haiti: protective effect of measles vaccination.

To evaluate the impact of measles vaccination on survival of children residing in a periurban slum in Haiti, a total-population survey was conducted 2.5 years after completion of a one-time study of the serologic response to measles vaccine administered in the same population. Pregnancy histories from the 16,400 women in the population revealed that 1499 children had been born during a 7-month interval that would have made them eligible for participation in the measles vaccine program. Of these children, 1381 (92.1%) survived to 9 months of age, the median age that measles vaccine had been administered. Seventy-three infants had died between 9 and 39 months of age. Mortality of infants who were seronegative before receiving measles vaccine was significantly lower (P = .0013) than that of unvaccinated infants (3/235 vs 70/1056, respectively). Other factors positively associated with survival between 9 and 39 months of age included socioeconomic status (P = .0002), maternal literacy (P = .0020), maternal knowledge and use of oral rehydration solution (P = .0002), and an interval of greater than 24 months to the birth of the next younger sibling (P = .0012). Multivariate stepwise logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate the independent association of measles vaccination by adjusting for other factors that also correlated with survival and that might have been associated with maternal seeking of vaccinations. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)