Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Algorithm/Architecture Co-optimisation Technique for Automatic Data Reduction of Wireless Read-Out in High-Density Electrode Arrays

High-density electrode arrays used to read out neural activity will soon surpass the limits of the amount of data that can be transferred within reasonable energy budgets. This is true for wired brain implants when the required bandwidth becomes very high, and even more so for untethered brain implants that require wireless transmission of data. We propose an energy-efficient spike data extraction solution for high-density electrode arrays, capable of reducing the data to be transferred by over 85%. We combine temporal and spatial spike data analysis with low implementation complexity, where amplitude thresholds are used to detect spikes and the spatial location of the electrodes is used to extract potentially useful sub-threshold data on neighboring electrodes. We tested our method against a state-of-the-art spike detection algorithm, with prohibitively high implementation complexity, and found that the majority of spikes are extracted reliably. We obtain further improved quality results when ignoring very small spikes below 30% of the voltage thresholds, resulting in 91% accuracy. Our approach uses digital logic and is therefore scalable with an increasing number of electrodes.
Early Intervention Services for Early-Phase Psychosis - Centre for integrative psychiatry in Psychiatric Hospital "Sveti Ivan", Croatia.

BACKGROUND There is a growing body of evidence suggesting that early and effective management in the critical early years of schizophrenia can improve long-term outcomes. The objective of this study was to evaluate time to relapse of the patients with early-phase psychosis treated in the Centre for integrative psychiatry (CIP). SUBJECT AND METHODS We performed a retrospective cohort study on the sample of 373 early-phase psychosis patients admitted to Psychiatric Hospital "Sveti Ivan", Zagreb Croatia: from January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2017. The primary outcome was time to relapse. RESULTS Patients who were admitted to group psychotherapeutic program after the end of acute treatment had 70% lower hazard for relapse (HR=0.30; 95% CI 0.16-0.58). Patients who were included first in the psychotherapeutic program and then treated and controlled in the daily hospital had 74% lower hazard for relapse (HR=0.26; 95% CI 0.10-0.67). CONCLUSIONS In early-phase psychosis, integrative early intervention service has relevant beneficial effects compare to treatment as usual. These results justified the implementation of multimodal early intervention services in treatment of patients with early-phase psychosis.
Dose‐response study for the highly aggressive and metastatic primary F3II mammary carcinoma under direct current

Electrochemical treatment has been suggested as an effective alternative to local cancer therapy. Nevertheless, its effectiveness decreases when highly aggressive primary tumors are treated. The aim of this research was to understand the growth kinetics of the highly aggressive and metastatic primary F3II tumor growing in male and female BALB/c/Cenp mice under electrochemical treatment. Different amounts of electric charge (6, 9, and 18 C) were used. Two electrodes were inserted into the base, perpendicular to the tumor's long axis, keeping about 1 cm distance between them. Results have shown that the F3II tumor is highly sensitive to direct current. The overall effectiveness (complete response + partial response) of this physical agent was ≥75.0% and observed in 59.3% (16/27) of treated F3II tumors. Complete remission of treated tumors was observed in 22.2% (6/27). An unexpected result was the death of 11 direct current‐treated animals (eight females and three males). It is concluded that direct current may be addressed to significantly affect highly aggressive and metastatic primary tumor growth kinetics, including the tumor complete response. Bioelectromagnetics. 39:460–475, 2018. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Inhibition of Hepatitis E Virus Spread by the Natural Compound Silvestrol

Every year, there are about 20 Mio hepatitis E virus (HEV) infections and 60,000 deaths that are associated with HEV worldwide. At the present, there exists no specific therapy for HEV. The natural compound silvestrol has a potent antiviral effect against the (−)-strand RNA-virus Ebola virus, and also against the (+)-strand RNA viruses Corona-, Picorna-, and Zika virus. The inhibitory effect on virus spread is due to an inhibition of the DEAD-box RNA helicase eIF4A, which is required to unwind structured 5′-untranslated regions (UTRs). This leads to an impaired translation of viral RNA. The HEV (+)-strand RNA genome contains a 5′-capped, short 5′-UTR. This study aims to analyze the impact of silvestrol on the HEV life cycle. Persistently infected A549 cells were instrumental. This study identifies silvestrol as a potent inhibitor of the release of HEV infectious viral particles. This goes along with a strongly reduced HEV capsid protein translation, retention of viral RNA inside the cytoplasm, and without major cytotoxic effects. Interestingly, in parallel silvestrol affects the activity of the antiviral major vault protein (MVP) by translocation from the cytoplasm to the perinuclear membrane. These data further characterize the complex antiviral activity of silvestrol and show silvestrol’s broad spectrum of function, since HEV is a virus without complex secondary structures in its genome, but it is still affected.
Brief Report: Interleukin‐17 Blockade With Secukinumab in Peripheral Spondyloarthritis Impacts Synovial Immunopathology Without Compromising Systemic Immune Responses

Secukinumab (anti–interleukin‐17A [anti–IL‐17A]) is an effective therapy for ankylosing spondylitis and psoriatic arthritis, the prototypical forms of spondyloarthritis (SpA). We undertook this study to determine whether secukinumab modulates the immunopathology of target lesions without blunting systemic immune responses, using peripheral SpA as a model.
Reconstruction of 3D Points From Uncalibrated Underwater Video

There is a large and growing demand across many industries for underwater inspection technologies that can reduce the cost of assessing hard to reach underwater assets. The most widely used inspection method is single-camera video, and due to limited visibility the underwater environment these videos tend to be long, close-up sequences that make it difficult for the viewer to orient themselves and determine which part of the asset is being viewed at a given time. If these videos could be converted to a photorealistic 3D model of the asset, the asset could be inspected much more quickly and intuitively without the need to review hours of video. The topic of 3D reconstruction from video or image sequences is a well-studied problem in computer vision. Without a calibrated camera, it generally proceeds in two stages: first, a projective reconstruction is built from image features matched throughout the sequence. This has been accomplished in the literature using global methods such as factorization, or geometric methods that stitch together many two-view or three-view reconstructions into a complete model. Projective reconstruction is considered a solved problem in the literature, and this work implements existing methods to generate projective reconstructions. Because the projective reconstruction is not in a metric space, it is not suitable for measurement of visualization. The second stage of reconstruction is autocalibration, which leverages the assumption that the images were taken with physical CCD cameras to transform the projective reconstruction to a metric space. This has been accomplished in the literature by solving for the elements of the absolute dual quadric Ω∗, or by direct nonlinear optimization of a cost function that penalizes deviation of the camera intrinsics from possible physical values. Autocalibration is still an active research area, and there is as yet no solution that works robustly in all situations; this work implements a novel autocalibration method that produces good results for underwater video sequences. This thesis presents a 3D reconstruction software pipeline that is capable of generating point cloud data from uncalibrated underwater video. This research project was undertaken as a partnership with 2G Robotics, and the pipeline described in this thesis will become the 3D reconstruction engine for a software product that can generate photo-realistic 3D models from underwater video. The pipeline proceeds in three stages: video tracking, projective reconstruction, and autocalibration. Video tracking serves two functions: tracking recognizable feature points through many frames of the video to produce image correspondences, as well as selecting well-spaced keyframes with a wide enough baseline to be used in the reconstruction while rejecting the bulk of the video frames which are too closely spaced. Video tracking is accomplished
Alleviation of hepatic fibrosis and autophagy via inhibition of transforming growth factor‐β1/Smads pathway through shikonin

Liver fibrosis is a worldwide clinical challenge during the progression of chronic liver disease to liver cirrhosis. Shikonin is extracted from the root of Lithospermum erythrorhizon with antioxidant, anti‐inflammatory, anticancer, and wound‐healing properties. The study aims to investigate the protective effect of shikonin on liver fibrosis and its underlying mechanism.
The outage probability of mobile wireless networks over η-μ fading channel

The probability density of the received power, and the outage probability of wireless static networks in η-μ fading environment have been well analyzed in the literature whereas, a few papers account for dynamic mobility models where the also the effect of random position of nodes is considered in the statictics of the received power. Based on our knowledge, most of the existing work in dynamic mobility models in wireless network consider Rayleigh fading environments. In this paper, the performance evaluation of dynamic mobility model over more generalized (η-μ) distribution is studied. Novel expressions for the received power and the outage probability are derived. In addition, these expressions includes several other available in the literature, such as those for Rayleigh [1], and Nakagami-m [2] distributions. Finally, the effects of propagation, path loss are presented in the numerical results.
Bank Mergers - Takeovers and Customer Satisfaction: The Case of a Greek Commercial Bank

The aim of this study is to examine the correlation of the service quality dimensions to the overall customer satisfaction in the Greek banking sector, following its restructuring due to the mergers and the takeovers during the current financial crisis period (2009 - 2015), and to analyze in particular the case of Piraeus Bank, the biggest Greek commercial Bank. The research conducted so as the data to be collected, was drawn from a customer sample of the Piraeus Bank and as for the measurements used, are based on the widely accepted SERVQUAL model, as it is proposed by Parasuraman et al., (1988). where the five dimensions of service quality merged: reliability, responsiveness, empathy, assurance and tangibles. According to the results, all service quality dimensions are positively related to the customer satisfaction. The greatest impact, regarding customer satisfaction, was observed most in the dimensions of empathy and reliability. Moreover, it was discovered that a certain type of customer discontent is on the verge of being manifested among the considered bank services.
Decreased Bilateral FDG-PET Uptake and Inter-Hemispheric Connectivity in Multi-Domain Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment Patients: A Preliminary Study

Background: Amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) is a heterogeneous condition. Based on clinical symptoms, aMCI could be categorized into single-domain aMCI (SD-aMCI, only memory deficit) and multi-domain aMCI (MD-aMCI, one or more cognitive domain deficit). As core intrinsic functional architecture, inter-hemispheric connectivity maintains many cognitive abilities. However, few studies investigated whether SD-aMCI and MD-aMCI have different inter-hemispheric connectivity pattern. Methods: We evaluated inter-hemispheric connection pattern using fluorine-18 positron emission tomography – fluorodeoxyglucose (18F PET-FDG), resting-state functional MRI and structural T1 in 49 controls, 32 SD-aMCI, and 32 MD-aMCI patients. Specifically, we analyzed the 18F PET-FDG (intensity normalized by cerebellar vermis) in a voxel-wise manner. Then, we estimated inter-hemispheric functional and structural connectivity by calculating the voxel-mirrored homotopic connectivity (VMHC) and corpus callosum (CC) subregions volume. Further, we correlated inter-hemispheric indices with the behavioral score and pathological biomarkers. Results: We found that MD-aMCI exhibited more several inter-hemispheric connectivity damages than SD-aMCI. Specifically, MD-aMCI displayed hypometabolism in the bilateral middle temporal gyrus (MTG), inferior parietal lobe, and left precuneus (PCu) (p < 0.001, corrected). Correspondingly, MD-aMCI showed decreased VMHC in MTG, PCu, calcarine gyrus, and postcentral gyrus, as well as smaller mid-posterior CC than the SD-aMCI and controls (p < 0.05, corrected). Contrary to MD-aMCI, there were no neuroimaging indices with significant differences between SD-aMCI and controls, except reduced hypometabolism in bilateral MTG. Within aMCI patients, hypometabolism and reduced inter-hemispheric connectivity correlated with worse executive ability. Moreover, hypometabolism indices correlated to increased amyloid deposition. Conclusion: In conclusion, patients with MD-aMCI exhibited the more severe deficit in inter-hemispheric communication than SD-aMCI. This long-range connectivity deficit may contribute to cognitive profiles and potentially serve as a biomarker to estimate disease progression of aMCI patients.
Dynamically Hierarchy Revolution: DirNet for Compressing Recurrent Neural Network on Mobile Devices

Recurrent neural networks (RNNs) achieve cutting-edge performance on a variety of problems. However, due to their high computational and memory demands, deploying RNNs on resource constrained mobile devices is a challenging task. To guarantee minimum accuracy loss with higher compression rate and driven by the mobile resource requirement, we introduce a novel model compression approach DirNet based on an optimized fast dictionary learning algorithm, which 1) dynamically mines the dictionary atoms of the projection dictionary matrix within layer to adjust the compression rate 2) adaptively changes the sparsity of sparse codes cross the hierarchical layers. Experimental results on language model and an ASR model trained with a 1000h speech dataset demonstrate that our method significantly outperforms prior approaches. Evaluated on off-the-shelf mobile devices, we are able to reduce the size of original model by eight times with real-time model inference and negligible accuracy loss.
Observations and comments on the reliability of muscle reconstruction in fossil vertebrates

In Canis and Ursus the largest proportion of attachments of muscles of the shoulder and brachium on the scapula and humerus is direct; fewer attachments are aponeurotic or tendinous. In both genera most attachments can be associated with superficial osteological features (scars or delimitable surfaces); attachments that lack such features are direct. Most aponeurotic attachments are associated with rugose scarring whereas tendinous attachments are often associated with smooth surfaces. Although most attachments can be associated with osteological features the areal extent of attachment is often not inferrable from the bone. The inference of muscle size or functional significance from osteological features is problematic. The amount of myological information that can be deciphered from the osteology in Canis and Ursus is greater than that reported for particular members of other vertebrate groups which suggests that there may be differences in the degree to which muscles can be reconstructed from superficial osteology alone. Nonetheless, even in mammals such as the Carnivora, detailed muscular reconstructions in extinct taxa cannot be achieved without reference to the musculature of extant relatives. Such reconstructions rely on assumptions, that often have not been adequately tested, regarding the similarity of musculature in closely related taxa. This testing and well corroborated hypotheses of phylogenetic relationship are essential for the evaluation of the accuracy of reconstructions of the musculature in fossil vertebrates.
From Barriers to Assets: Rethinking factors impacting advance care planning for African Americans

Abstract Objective We aimed to explore multiple perspectives regarding barriers to and facilitators of advance care planning (ACP) among African Americans to identify similarities or differences that might have clinical implications. Method Qualitative study with health disparities experts (n = 5), community members (n = 9), and seriously ill African American patients and caregivers (n = 11). Using template analysis, interviews were coded to identify intrapersonal, interpersonal, and systems-level themes in accordance with a social ecological framework. Result Participants identified seven primary factors that influence ACP for African Americans: religion and spirituality; trust and mistrust; family relationships and experiences; patient-clinician relationships; prognostic communication, care preferences, and preparation and control. These influences echo those described in the existing literature; however, our data highlight consistent differences by group in the degree to which these factors positively or negatively affect ACP. Expert participants reinforced common themes from the literature, for example, that African Americans were not interested in prognostic information because of mistrust and religion. Seriously ill patients were more likely to express trust in their clinicians and to desire prognostic communication; they and community members expressed a desire to prepare for and control the end of life. Religious belief did not appear to negate these desires. Significance of results The literature on ACP in African Americans may not accurately reflect the experience of seriously ill African Americans. What are commonly understood as barriers to ACP may in fact not be. We propose reframing stereotypical barriers to ACP, such as religion and spirituality, or family, as cultural assets that should be engaged to enhance ACP. Although further research can inform best practices for engaging African American patients in ACP, findings suggest that respectful, rapport-building communication may facilitate ACP. Clinicians are encouraged to engage in early ACP using respectful and rapport building communication practices, including open-ended questions.
Towards Better Understanding of Black-box Auto-Tuning: A Comparative Analysis for Storage Systems

Modern computer systems come with a large number of configurable parameters that control their behavior. Tuning system parameters can provide significant gains in performance but is challenging because of the immense number of configurations and complex, nonlinear system behavior. In recent years, several studies attempted to automate the tuning of system configurations; but they all applied only one or few optimization methods. In this paper, for the first time, we apply and then perform comparative analysis of multiple black-box optimization techniques on storage systems, which are often the slowest components of computing systems. Our experiments were conducted on a parameter space consisting of nearly 25,000 unique configurations and over 450,000 data points. We compared these methods for their ability to find near-optimal configurations, convergence time, and instantaneous system throughput during auto-tuning. We found that optimal configurations differed by hardware, software, and workloads-- and that no one technique was superior to all others. Based on the results and domain expertise, we begin to explain the efficacy of these important automated black-box optimization methods from a systems perspective.
Eye movements in code review

In order to ensure sufficient quality, software engineers conduct code reviews to read over one another's code looking for errors that should be fixed before committing to their source code repositories. Many kinds of errors are spotted, from simple spelling mistakes and syntax errors, to architectural flaws that may span several files. However, we know little about how software developers read code when looking for defects. What kinds of code trigger engineers to check more deeply into suspected defects? How long do they take to verify whether a defect is really there? We conducted a study of 35 software engineers performing 40 code reviews while capturing their gaze with an eye tracker. We classified each code defect the developers found and captured the patterns of eye gazes used to deliberate about each one. We report how long it took to confirm defect suspicions for each type of defect and the fraction of time spent skimming the code vs. carefully reading it. This work provides a starting point for automating code reviews that could help engineers spend more time focusing on the difficult task of defect confirmation rather than the tedious task of defect discovery.
Bone Marrow Mononuclear Cells Transfer for Patients after ST-Elevated Myocardial Infarction: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Control Trials

Purpose Results on the clinical utility of cell therapy for ST-elevated myocardial infarction (STEMI) are controversial. This study sought to analyze the efficacy of treatment with intracoronary bone marrow mononuclear cells (BMMC) on left ventricular (LV) function and remodeling and LV diastolic and systolic function in patients with STEMI. Materials and Methods Literature search of PubMed and EMBASE databases between 2004 and 2017 was performed for randomized controlled trials in STEMI patients who underwent successful percutaneous coronary intervention and received intracoronary BMMC therapy. The defined end points were left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), left ventricular end-diastolic volume (LVEDV), and left ventricular end-systolic volume (LVESV). Also, sensitivity analysis and several subgroup analyses based on follow-up duration, timing of injection, doses of cells, and imaging modalities were conducted to strengthen the statistic power of the study. Results A total of 22 trials with 1360 patients were available for the current meta-analysis. The pooled statistics showed a significant improvement in LVEF {2.58 [95% confidence interval (CI), 1.32, 3.84]; p<0.001}, LVEDV [−3.73, (95% CI, −6.94, −0.52), p=0.02], and LVESV [−4.67, (95% CI, −7.07, −2.28), p<0.001] in the BMMC group, compared with the control group. However, in sensitivity analysis, a significant reduction in LVEDV disappeared, while the outcomes of LVEF and LVESV remained unchanged. The same results were presented in the subgroup analysis adjusting for imaging modalities and timing of cells injection. Conclusion BMMC transplantation in patients with STEMI was found to lead to improvement in LVEF, LVEDV, and LVESV parameters, indicating that cell therapy has a potential beneficial effect on LV remodeling and function.