Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Guided Upsampling Network for Real-Time Semantic Segmentation

Semantic segmentation architectures are mainly built upon an encoder-decoder structure. These models perform subsequent downsampling operations in the encoder. Since operations on high-resolution activation maps are computationally expensive, usually the decoder produces output segmentation maps by upsampling with parameters-free operators like bilinear or nearest-neighbor. We propose a Neural Network named Guided Upsampling Network which consists of a multiresolution architecture that jointly exploits high-resolution and large context information. Then we introduce a new module named Guided Upsampling Module (GUM) that enriches upsampling operators by introducing a learnable transformation for semantic maps. It can be plugged into any existing encoder-decoder architecture with little modifications and low additional computation cost. We show with quantitative and qualitative experiments how our network benefits from the use of GUM module. A comprehensive set of experiments on the publicly available Cityscapes dataset demonstrates that Guided Upsampling Network can efficiently process high-resolution images in real-time while attaining state-of-the art performances.
New Treatment Perspectives in Adolescents With Anorexia Nervosa: The Efficacy of Non-invasive Brain-Directed Treatment

Poor treatment outcomes are available for anorexia nervosa (AN) and treatment innovations are urgently needed. Recently, non-invasive neuromodulation tools have suggested to have potential for reducing an symptomatology targeting brain alterations. The objective of the study was to verify whether left anodal/right cathodal prefrontal cortex transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), may aid in altering/resetting inter-hemispheric balance in patients with AN, re-establishing control over eating behaviors. Twenty-three adolescents with an underwent a treatment as usual (AU), including nutritional, pharmacological, and psychoeducational treatment, plus 18 sessions of tDCS (TDCS+AU = n11; mean age = 13.9, SD = 1.8 years) or a family based therapy (FBT+AU = n12, mean age = 15.1, SD = 1.5 years). Psychopathological scales and the body mass index (BMI) were assessed before and after treatment. After 6 weeks of treatment, the BMI values increased only in the tDCS group, even at 1-month follow-up. Independently of the treatment, all participants improved in several psychopathological measures, included AN psychopathology and mood and anxiety symptoms. Our results demonstrated for the first time a specific effect of the left anodal/right cathodal tDCS treatment protocol on stable weight gain and a superiority compared to an active control treatment for adolescents with AN. Results were interpreted as a possible direct/indirect effect of tDCS in into some pathophysiological mechanisms of AN, involving the mesocortical dopaminergic pathways and the promotion of food intake. This pilot study opens new perspectives in the treatment of an in adolescence, supporting the targeted and beneficial effects of a brain-based treatment.
Monocular Object Orientation Estimation using Riemannian Regression and Classification Networks

We consider the task of estimating the 3D orientation of an object of known category given an image of the object and a bounding box around it. Recently, CNN-based regression and classification methods have shown significant performance improvements for this task. This paper proposes a new CNN-based approach to monocular orientation estimation that advances the state of the art in four different directions. First, we take into account the Riemannian structure of the orientation space when designing regression losses and nonlinear activation functions. Second, we propose a mixed Riemannian regression and classification framework that better handles the challenging case of nearly symmetric objects. Third, we propose a data augmentation strategy that is specifically designed to capture changes in 3D orientation. Fourth, our approach leads to state-of-the-art results on the PASCAL3D+ dataset.
High-Mobility Wideband Massive MIMO Communications: Doppler Compensation, Analysis and Scaling Laws

In this paper, we apply angle-domain Doppler compensation for high-mobility wideband massive multi-input multi-output (MIMO) uplink communications. The time-varying multipath channel is considered between high-speed terminal and static base station (BS), where multiple Doppler frequency offsets (DFOs) are associated with distinct angle of departures (AoDs). With the aid of large-scale uniform linear array (ULA) at the transmitter, we design a beamforming network to generate multiple parallel beamforming branches, each transmitting signal pointing to one particular angle. Then, the transmitted signal in each branch will experience only one dominant DFO when passing over the time-varying channel, which can be easily compensated before transmission starts. We theoretically analyze the Doppler spread of the equivalent uplink channel after angle-domain Doppler compensation, which takes into account both the mainlobe and sidelobes of the transmit beam in each branch. It is seen that the channel time-variation can be effectively suppressed if the number of transmit antennas is sufficiently large. Interestingly, the asymptotic scaling law of channel variation is obtained, which shows that the Doppler spread is proportional to the maximum DFO and decreases approximately as <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$1/\sqrt {M}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$M$ </tex-math></inline-formula> is the number of transmit antennas) when <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$M$ </tex-math></inline-formula> is sufficiently large. The numerical results are provided to corroborate the proposed scheme.
Treatment of Naoxueshu Promotes Improvement of Hematoma Absorption and Neurological Function in Acute Intracerebral Hemorrhage Patients

Aims: To evaluate the clinical efficacy of Naoxueshu oral liquid in the treatment of intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) patients. Methods: In our study, December 2008 to August 2010, 88 patients with intracerebral hemorrhage were enrolled and 87 patients with complete information of whom 44 patients received Naoxueshu oral liquid plus regular treatment (Naoxueshu group), 43 patients received regular treatment (control group) only. Naoxueshu oral liquid 10 ml was taken in the Naoxueshu group, with 3 times a day for 21 consecutive days. The regular treatment included (1) dehydration treatment by 20% mannitol; (2) therapy to deal with complications including; (3) supportive therapy. The general clinical information, neurological assessment information, laboratory information, and the hematoma volume information were collected and analyzed pre-and post-treatment. Results: We did not find differences in the information between two groups before treatment (p > 0.05). 21-day after treatment, the white blood cell (WBC) count, hematoma volume, the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score, modified Rankin Scale (mRS), Barthel index (BI), and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) syndrome score in the Naoxueshu group and control group were significantly decreased than before (pnaoxueshu < 0.01, pcontrol < 0.05), and the changes of the WBC count, hematoma volume, NIHSS score, mRS score, and TCM syndrome score in Naoxueshu group were greater than that of control group (P < 0.001). Conclusion: Naoxueshu oral liquid plus regular treatment could decrease the inflammatory response and hematoma, and improve outcomes of ICH patients than regular treatment only. This suggests that Maixueshu oral liquid is a potential treatment for ICH patients.
Metabolomic‐based noninvasive serum test to diagnose nonalcoholic steatohepatitis: Results from discovery and validation cohorts

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common type of chronic liver disease worldwide and includes a broad spectrum of histologic phenotypes, ranging from simple hepatic steatosis or nonalcoholic fatty liver (NAFL) to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). While liver biopsy is the reference gold standard for NAFLD diagnosis and staging, it has limitations due to its sampling variability, invasive nature, and high cost. Thus, there is a need for noninvasive biomarkers that are robust, reliable, and cost effective. In this study, we measured 540 lipids and amino acids in serum samples from biopsy‐proven subjects with normal liver (NL), NAFL, and NASH. Using logistic regression analysis, we identified two panels of triglycerides that could first discriminate between NAFLD and NL and second between NASH and NAFL. These noninvasive tests were compared to blinded histology as a reference standard. We performed these tests in an original cohort of 467 patients with NAFLD (90 NL, 246 NAFL, and 131 NASH) that was subsequently validated in a separate cohort of 192 patients (7 NL, 109 NAFL, 76 NASH). The diagnostic performances of the validated tests showed an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, sensitivity, and specificity of 0.88 ± 0.05, 0.94, and 0.57, respectively, for the discrimination between NAFLD and NL and 0.79 ± 0.04, 0.70, and 0.81, respectively, for the discrimination between NASH and NAFL. When the analysis was performed excluding patients with glucose levels >136 mg/dL, the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for the discrimination between NASH and NAFL increased to 0.81 ± 0.04 with sensitivity and specificity of 0.73 and 0.80, respectively. Conclusion: The assessed noninvasive lipidomic serum tests distinguish between NAFLD and NL and between NASH and NAFL with high accuracy. (Hepatology Communications 2018;2:807‐820)
Acute saccharin infusion has no effect on renal glucose handling in normal rats in vivo

Artificial sweeteners are extensively used by the food industry to replace sugar in food and beverages and are widely considered to be a healthy alternative. However, recent data suggest that artificial sweeteners may impact intestinal glucose absorption and that they might lead to glucose intolerance. Moreover, chronic consumption of artificial sweeteners has also been linked to detrimental changes in renal function. Using an in vivo approach, our study aimed to determine if short‐term infusion of the artificial sweetener saccharin can alter renal function and renal glucose absorption. We show that saccharin infusion does not induce any major change in GFR or urine flow rate at either the whole kidney or single nephron level, suggesting that any reported change in renal function with artificial sweeteners must depend on chronic consumption. As expected for a nondiabetic animal, glucose excretion was low; however, saccharin infusion caused a small, but significant, decrease in fractional glucose excretion. In contrast to the whole kidney data, our micropuncture results did not show any significant difference in fractional glucose reabsorption in either the proximal or distal tubules, indicating that saccharin does not influence renal glucose handling in vivo under euglycemic conditions. In keeping with this finding, protein levels of the renal glucose transporters SGLT1 and SGLT2 were also unchanged. In addition, saccharin infusion in rats undergoing a glucose tolerance test failed to induce a robust change in renal glucose excretion or renal glucose transporter expression. In conclusion, our results demonstrate that saccharin does not induce acute physiologically relevant changes in renal function or renal glucose handling.
Altered Structural Covariance Among the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex and Amygdala in Treatment-Naïve Patients With Major Depressive Disorder

Background: Impairments in cognitive and emotional processing are a characteristic of major depressive disorder (MDD), and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and amygdala are involved in these processes. However, the structural covariance between these two areas in patients with MDD has not been examined. Whether anatomical patterns are further damaged or compensated in untreated multiple-episode MDD compared to those in first-episode MDD is unclear. Methods: Structural magnetic resonance imaging was performed in 35 treatment-naïve, currently depressed patients with MDD and 35 age-, sex-, and education-matched controls. The cortical thickness and subcortical volume were calculated using FreeSurfer software. Patients were divided into two subgroups based on the previous number of episodes. Results: Regional abnormalities in patients with MDD were primarily observed in the frontal-limbic circuits. The negative structural association between the left DLPFC and left amygdala and the positive structural association between the bilateral DLPFC observed in controls were absent in patients with MDD. The medial orbitofrontal cortex and posterior cingulate cortex were thicker in patients with multiple-episode MDD than in patients with first-episode MDD and were positively correlated with disorder duration. No structural alterations were correlated with symptom severity. Conclusions: These findings may provide structural evidence for deficits in functional networks in MDD and supports an underlying structural mechanism of dysfunction involving top-down or bottom-up processes. Morphological abnormalities in the medial orbitofrontal cortex and posterior cingulate cortex may be critical for the pathophysiological progression of multiple-episode MDD.
Precise theranostic nanomedicines for inhibiting vulnerable atherosclerotic plaque progression through regulation of vascular smooth muscle cell phenotype switching

Coronary heart disease is a prevalent and fatal killer caused by vulnerable atherosclerotic plaques (VASPs). However, the precise detection and treatment of VASPs remains a difficult challenge. Here, we present the development of noninvasive human serum albumin (HSA)-based theranostic nanomedicines (NMs) for the specific diagnosis and effective therapy of VASPs. Methods: The ICG/SRT@HSA-pept NMs were formulated to contain payloads of the near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent dye indocyanine green (ICG) and the sirtuin 1 (Sirt1) activator SRT1720, and modified with a peptide moiety targeting osteopontin (OPN). The in vivo atherosclerotic mouse model was established with the high-fat diet (HFD). The in vitro vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) phenotypic switching was induced using the ox-LDL stimulation. Results: Due to the overexpression of OPN in activated VSMCs and VASPs, the targeted NMs specifically accumulated within the VASPs region after intravenous injection into the atherosclerotic mice, achieving the precise detection of VASPs. In addition, in the presence of SRT1720, the NMs could activate intracellular Sirt1 and activate an antiatherogenesis effect by inhibiting the phenotypic switching of VSMCs, which is an essential contributor to the vulnerability and progression of atherosclerotic plaques. After therapeutic administration of the ICG/SRT@HSA-pept NMs for two weeks, the physiological sizes and plaque compositions of VASPs were markedly improved. Furthermore, ICG/SRT@HSA-pept NMs-treated mice presented a more favorable plaque phenotype than that was observed in free SRT1720-treated mice, suggesting the enhanced delivery of pharmaceutical agents to the atherosclerotic lesions and improved therapeutic efficacy of NMs compared with free SRT1720. Conclusions: The theranostic ICG/SRT@HSA-pept NMs showed great potential for the precise identification and targeted treatment of atherosclerotic diseases.
Intrathecal B Cells in MS Have Significantly Greater Lymphangiogenic Potential Compared to B Cells Derived From Non-MS Subjects

Although B cell depletion is an effective therapy of multiple sclerosis (MS), the pathogenic functions of B cells in MS remain incompletely understood. We asked whether cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) B cells in MS secrete different cytokines than control-subject B cells and whether cytokine secretion affects MS phenotype. We blindly studied CSF B cells after their immortalization by Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) in prospectively-collected MS patients and control subjects with other inflammatory-(OIND) or non-inflammatory neurological diseases (NIND) and healthy volunteers (HV). The pilot cohort (n = 80) was analyzed using intracellular cytokine staining (n = 101 B cell lines [BCL] derived from 35 out of 80 subjects). We validated differences in cytokine production in newly-generated CSF BCL (n = 207 BCL derived from subsequent 112 prospectively-recruited subjects representing validation cohort), using ELISA enhanced by objective, flow-cytometry-based B cell counting. After unblinding the pilot cohort, the immortalization efficiency was almost 5 times higher in MS patients compared to controls (p < 0.001). MS subjects' BCLs produced significantly more vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) compared to control BCLs. Progressive MS patients BCLs produced significantly more tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α and lymphotoxin (LT)-α than BCL from relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS) patients. In the validation cohort, we observed lower secretion of IL-1β in RRMS patients, compared to all other diagnostic categories. The validation cohort validated enhanced VEGF-C production by BCL from RRMS patients and higher TNF-α and LT-α secretion by BCL from progressive MS. No significant differences among diagnostic categories were observed in secretion of IL-6 or GM-CSF. However, B cell secretion of IL-1β, TNF-α, and GM-CSF correlated significantly with the rate of accumulation of disability measured by MS disease severity scale (MS-DSS). Finally, all three cytokines with increased secretion in different stages of MS (i.e., VEGF-C, TNF-α, and LT-α) enhance lymphangiogenesis, suggesting that intrathecal B cells directly facilitate the formation of tertiary lymphoid follicles, thus compartmentalizing inflammation to the central nervous system.
ClariNet: Parallel Wave Generation in End-to-End Text-to-Speech

In this work, we propose a new solution for parallel wave generation by WaveNet. In contrast to parallel WaveNet (van den Oord et al., 2018), we distill a Gaussian inverse autoregressive flow from the autoregressive WaveNet by minimizing a regularized KL divergence between their highly-peaked output distributions. Our method computes the KL divergence in closed-form, which simplifies the training algorithm and provides very efficient distillation. In addition, we introduce the first text-to-wave neural architecture for speech synthesis, which is fully convolutional and enables fast end-to-end training from scratch. It significantly outperforms the previous pipeline that connects a text-to-spectrogram model to a separately trained WaveNet (Ping et al., 2018). We also successfully distill a parallel waveform synthesizer conditioned on the hidden representation in this end-to-end model.
Nomograms and risk scores for predicting the risk of oral cancer in different sexes: a large-scale case-control study

Background: Although previous studies have explored the associations of modifiable lifestyle factors with oral cancer risk, few studies integrated these factors and established predictive tools for oral cancer risk in different sexes. Methods: Using a case-control study design, a total of 978 oral cancer cases and 2646 healthy controls were recruited in this study. Nomograms were constructed according to significant factors in multivariable logistic regression. Risk scores were calculated based on the nomograms and quantified the risk of oral cancer using restricted cubic spline. Results: Multivariate analyses demonstrated that smoking, alcohol drinking, tea, intake of fish, seafood, vegetables, fruits, teeth loss, regular dental visits and repetitive dental ulcer were independent factors for male oral cancer. Passive smoking, age at first intercourse, cooking oil fumes exposure, tea, intake of beans, vegetables, fruits, teeth loss, regular dental visits and repetitive dental ulcer were associated with female oral cancer. Then, two nomograms were developed for predicting the probability of oral cancer in men and women with the C-index of 0.768 (95% CI: 0.723-0.813) and 0.700 (95% CI: 0.635-0.765), respectively. Restricted cubic splines graphically revealed the risk of oral cancer in individuals with different risk scores. Moreover, the risk escalated continuously with the increasing number of the risk scores among both sexes. Conclusions: Combining nomograms with risk scores developed in this study could precisely predict oral cancer occurrence and provide an accurate risk assessment.
GFAPα IgG-associated encephalitis upon daclizumab treatment of MS

Objective To describe a case of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP)α immunoglobulin G (IgG)-associated encephalitis in a patient referred to us with MS on daclizumab treatment and to summarize characteristics of 5 additional recent German MS cases of serious encephalitis along with a previously published American case of CNS vasculitis associated with daclizumab. Methods Evaluation of cause, clinical symptoms, and treatment response. Results The 6 patients included 4 women and 2 men. The median age at onset was 38 years (range 32–51 years). Clinical presentation was marked by progressing neuropsychologic and/or neurologic deficits. Additional drug rash with eosinophilia was seen in 3 patients, whereas 2 patients showed a highly active demyelinating process. Examination of CSF samples detected pleocytosis, elevated total protein levels, and GFAPα IgG antibodies, which were not found in serum. In our case, we discovered autoimmune GFAP astrocytopathy associated with encephalitis as secondary autoimmunity, which was steroid responsive. Clinical outcome of other cases was marked by partial recovery in 4 patients and persistent foster care in 1 patient. Conclusions Our case of GFAPα IgG-associated encephalitis along with 12 other cases of serious inflammatory brain disorders following daclizumab treatment so far indicates that interfering with NK cells and Tregs by anti-CD25 antibody therapy can result in severe secondary CNS autoimmunity in man.
A Systematic Review of Factors That Influence Youths Career Choices—the Role of Culture

Good career planning leads to life fulfillment; however cultural heritage can conflict with youths' personal interests. This systematic review examined existing literature on factors that influence youths' career choices in both collectivist and individualistic cultural settings from around the globe with the aim of identifying knowledge gaps and providing direction for future research. A systematic review strategy using the Joana Briggs Institute's format was conducted. The ERIC, PsychInfo, Scopus and Informit Platform databases were searched for articles published between January 1997 and May 2018. A total of 30 articles were included in the review, findings revealed that youth from collectivist cultures were mainly influenced by family expectations, whereby higher career congruence with parents increased career confidence and self-efficacy. Personal interest was highlighted as the major factor that influenced career choice in individualistic settings, and the youth were more independent in their career decision making. Bicultural youth who were more acculturated to their host countries were more intrinsically motivated in their career decision making. Further research is imperative to guide the understanding of parental influence and diversity, particularly for bicultural youths' career prospects and their ability to use the resources available in their new environments to attain meaningful future career goals.