Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Treatment of Melanoma Metastasis: Surgical, Chemotherapy, and Innovation

Melanoma is a form of skin cancer with an increased ability to metastasis to organs such as the brain and other visceral organs, contributing to its aggressiveness and seriousness. Melanoma’s prevalence around the globe rapidly continues to rise. Melanoma development is a complex process often depicted as a step-wise process with the potential to end in metastatic disease. Recent studies suggest that the process could be non-linear. Melanoma has many risk factors including genetics, UV exposure, or exposure to carcinogens. Current treatments for metastatic melanoma include surgery, chemotherapy, and immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs); however, each of these treatments comes with limitations, toxicities, and relatively poor outcomes. There are various guidelines set by the American Joint Committee on Cancer guiding surgical treatment options based on the site of metastasis. Surgical treatments cannot fully treat widespread metastatic melanoma but can contribute to better patient outcomes overall. Many chemotherapy options are ineffective against melanoma or come with extreme toxicities; however, alkylating agents, platinum analogs, and microtubular toxins have shown some effectiveness against metastatic melanoma. ICIs are a relatively new treatment option and offer a promising option for patients; however, ICIs are subject to tumor resistance mechanisms and are not effective for every metastatic melanoma patient. Due to the limitations of conventional treatments, there is a need for newer and more effective treatment options for metastatic melanoma. This review aims to highlight the current surgical, chemotherapy, and ICI treatments for metastatic melanoma, as well as current clinical and preclinical investigations to discover revolutionary options for patients.
Ultra-fast axial and radial scaling of synchronous permanent magnet machines

Scaling laws are used when the size of a certain machine design with known performance needs to be adjusted for a new application with known requirements, or when a machine design is geometrically scaled and one needs to determine its performance. Scaling laws derived in this study allow one to quickly and accurately recalculate parameters of a geometrically scaled permanent magnet machine. They basically consist of two separate important scaling procedures: axial scaling and radial scaling. The third and inevitable scaling procedure is rewinding, which is used to adjust the winding for a required voltage level. Exact but simple analytical equations for the various parameters (torque, power, losses, mass, resistance, inductance, efficiency etc.) of the machine are derived using three independent scaling factors, one for each scaling procedure. Special attention is given to the inclusion of end-winding influence and three-dimensional permanent magnet loss effects. Algorithms for fast determination of winding parameters for a given voltage and fast determination of scaling factors for scaling based on the torque requirement with stack length limitation are presented. All derived scaling equations are numerically validated using two state-of-the-art motor design software packages with automated extraction of parameters based on finite-element calculations.
Socio-demographic and political predictors of Theory of Mind in adulthood

Individual differences in Theory of Mind (ToM)–the ability to understand the mental states of others–are theorised to be predicted by socio-demographic and political factors. However, inconsistent findings on the relationships between various socio-demographic predictors and ToM, as well as a paucity of research on political predictors of ToM, have left a gap in the literature. Using a recently validated self-report measure of ToM in a large sample (N = 4202) we investigated the unique contributions of age, sex, socio-economic status, and political beliefs to ToM in adults. Except for age, all variables were correlated with ToM, but when accounting for the variance of other predictors in statistical analyses, political beliefs was no longer associated with ToM. Dominance analysis revealed that participant sex was the most important predictor of ToM. These findings help to address theoretical discrepancies in the existing literature and inform future methods and directions in social cognition research.
Exclusive breastfeeding: Relation to gestational age, birth weight, and early neonatal ward admission. A nationwide cohort study of children born after 35 weeks of gestation

Objectives Prematurity, being small for gestational age and early neonatal ward admission are the major neonatal conditions that may interfere with breastfeeding supportive practices in infants born at gestational age ≥35+0 weeks. We aimed to investigate the associations between gestational age, small for gestational age, early neonatal ward admission and exclusive breastfeeding at one and four months. Methods A register-based cohort-study of all Danish singletons with gestational age ≥35+0 weeks born in 2014–2015. In Denmark, health visitors routinely conduct free home visits throughout infants’ first year and thereby report breastfeeding data to The Danish National Child Health Register. These data were linked with data from other national registers. Logistic regression models estimated the odds ratio for exclusive breastfeeding at one and four months, adjusted for confounding variables. Results The study population comprised 106,670 infants. Compared to gestational age 40 weeks, the adjusted odds ratio for exclusive breastfeeding at one month showed a decreasing tendency from gestational age ≥42 (n = 2,282) (1.07; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.97–1.17) to 36 weeks (n = 2,062) (0.80; 95% CI 0.73–0.88). Small for gestational age (n = 2,342) was associated with decreased adjusted odds ratio for exclusive breastfeeding at one month (0.84; 95% CI 0.77–0.92). Neonatal ward admission was associated with increased adjusted odds ratio for exclusive breastfeeding at one month among late preterm infants (gestational age 35–36 weeks; n = 3,139) (1.31; 95% CI 1.12–1.54), as opposed to among early term (gestational age 37–38 weeks; n = 19,171) (0.84; 95% CI 0.77–0.92) and term infants (gestational age >38 weeks; n = 84,360) (0.89; 95% CI 0.83–0.94). The associations seemed to persist at four months. Conclusions Decreasing gestational age and small for gestational age were associated with decreased exclusive breastfeeding rates. Neonatal ward admission was associated with increased exclusive breastfeeding rates among late preterm infants, whereas the opposite was observed among early term and term infants.
Left bundle branch area pacing results in more physiological ventricular activation than biventricular pacing in patients with left bundle branch block heart failure

Abstract Biventricular pacing (Biv) and left bundle branch area pacing (LBBAP) are methods of cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT). Currently, little is known about how they differ in terms of ventricular activation. This study compared ventricular activation patterns in left bundle branch block (LBBB) heart failure patients using an ultra-high-frequency electrocardiography (UHF-ECG). This was a retrospective analysis including 80 CRT patients from two centres. UHF-ECG data were obtained during LBBB, LBBAP, and Biv. Left bundle branch area pacing patients were divided into non-selective left bundle branch pacing (NSLBBP) or left ventricular septal pacing (LVSP) and into groups with V6 R-wave peak times (V6RWPT) < 90 ms and ≥ 90 ms. Calculated parameters were: e-DYS (time difference between the first and last activation in V1–V8 leads) and Vdmean (average of V1–V8 local depolarization durations). In LBBB patients (n = 80) indicated for CRT, spontaneous rhythms were compared with Biv (39) and LBBAP rhythms (64). Although both Biv and LBBAP significantly reduced QRS duration (QRSd) compared with LBBB (from 172 to 148 and 152 ms, respectively, both P < 0.001), the difference between them was not significant (P = 0.2). Left bundle branch area pacing led to shorter e-DYS (24 ms) than Biv (33 ms; P = 0.008) and shorter Vdmean (53 vs. 59 ms; P = 0.003). No differences in QRSd, e-DYS, or Vdmean were found between NSLBBP, LVSP, and LBBAP with paced V6RWPTs < 90 and ≥ 90 ms. Both Biv CRT and LBBAP significantly reduce ventricular dyssynchrony in CRT patients with LBBB. Left bundle branch area pacing is associated with more physiological ventricular activation.
Response of Planetary Waves to Stationary Tropical Heating in a Global Atmosphere with Meridional and Vertical Shear

Abstract The response of planetary waves to stationary tropical heating in a stratified global atmosphere linearized with respect to a basic zonal mean flow is investigated. The basic zonal wind has meridional and vertical shear. The basic equations are solved by using the method of three-dimensional normal-mode expansion. Forced solutions to a prescribed tropospheric equatorial heating distribution with a specific wavenumber in longitude are examined. Without the basic zonal flow, the internal vertical modes whose equivalent depths are on the order of a few hundred meters are favorably excited, but the response of the external mode (“barotropic” mode) is relatively small. With the inclusion of a zonal flow, the vertical shear of the zonal wind permits the coupling of the external mode with the internal vertical modes. As a result of the coupling, a significant response occurs in the external mode due to the excitation of the “baroclinic” internal modes by tropical heating. The meridional structures of in.
Heart rate variability during slow wave sleep is linked to functional connectivity in the central autonomic network

Abstract Reduced heart rate variability can be an early sign of autonomic dysfunction in neurodegenerative diseases and may be related to brain dysfunction in the central autonomic network. As yet, such autonomic dysfunction has not been examined during sleep—which is an ideal physiological state to study brain–heart interaction as both the central and peripheral nervous systems behave differently compared to during wakefulness. Therefore, the primary aim of the current study was to examine whether heart rate variability during nocturnal sleep, specifically slow wave (deep) sleep, is associated with central autonomic network functional connectivity in older adults ‘at-risk’ of dementia. Older adults (n = 78; age range = 50–88 years; 64% female) attending a memory clinic for cognitive concerns underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging and an overnight polysomnography. From these, central autonomic network functional connectivity strength and heart rate variability data during sleep were derived, respectively. High-frequency heart rate variability was extracted to index parasympathetic activity during distinct periods of sleep, including slow wave sleep as well as secondary outcomes of non-rapid eye movement sleep, wake after sleep onset, and rapid eye movement sleep. General linear models were used to examine associations between central autonomic network functional connectivity and high-frequency heart rate variability. Analyses revealed that increased high-frequency heart rate variability during slow wave sleep was associated with stronger functional connectivity (F = 3.98, P = 0.022) in two core brain regions within the central autonomic network, the right anterior insular and posterior midcingulate cortex, as well as stronger functional connectivity (F = 6.21, P = 0.005) between broader central autonomic network brain regions—the right amygdala with three sub-nuclei of the thalamus. There were no significant associations between high-frequency heart rate variability and central autonomic network connectivity during wake after sleep onset or rapid eye movement sleep. These findings show that in older adults ‘at-risk’ of dementia, parasympathetic regulation during slow wave sleep is uniquely linked to differential functional connectivity within both core and broader central autonomic network brain regions. It is possible that dysfunctional brain–heart interactions manifest primarily during this specific period of sleep known for its role in memory and metabolic clearance. Further studies elucidating the pathophysiology and directionality of this relationship should be conducted to determine if heart rate variability drives neurodegeneration, or if brain degeneration within the central autonomic network promotes aberrant heart rate variability.
Longitudinal relationships between habitual physical activity and pain tolerance in the general population

Physical activity (PA) might influence the risk or progression of chronic pain through pain tolerance. Hence, we aimed to assess whether habitual leisure-time PA level and PA change affects pain tolerance longitudinally in the population. Our sample (n = 10,732; 51% women) was gathered from the sixth (Tromsø6, 2007–08) and seventh (Tromsø7, 2015–16) waves of the prospective population-based Tromsø Study, Norway. Level of leisure-time PA (sedentary, light, moderate, or vigorous) was derived from questionnaires; experimental pain tolerance was measured by the cold-pressor test (CPT). We used ordinary, and multiple-adjusted mixed, Tobit regression to assess 1) the effect of longitudinal PA change on CPT tolerance at follow-up, and 2) whether a change in pain tolerance over time varied with level of LTPA. We found that participants with high consistent PA levels over the two surveys (Tromsø6 and Tromsø7) had significantly higher tolerance than those staying sedentary (20.4 s. (95% CI: 13.7, 27.1)). Repeated measurements show that light (6.7 s. (CI 3.4, 10.0)), moderate (CI 14.1 s. (9.9, 18.3)), and vigorous (16.3 s. (CI 6.0, 26.5)) PA groups had higher pain tolerance than sedentary, with non-significant interaction showed slightly falling effects of PA over time. In conclusion, being physically active at either of two time points measured 7–8 years apart was associated with higher pain tolerance compared to being sedentary at both time-points. Pain tolerance increased with higher total activity levels, and more for those who increased their activity level during follow-up. This indicates that not only total PA amount matters but also the direction of change. PA did not significantly moderate pain tolerance change over time, though estimates suggested a slightly falling effect possibly due to ageing. These results support increased PA levels as a possible non-pharmacological pathway towards reducing or preventing chronic pain.
On entrance—exit distributions of Markov processes

We use a result on integration by parts for stochastic integrals together with a technique developed by Getoor in [6], to express entrance—exit distributions for a standard process X, and a set Φ which is the support of a continuous additive functional C, in terms of the infinitesimal generators of semigroups associated with the time-changed process (X τ t ), where (τ t ) is the right-continuous inverse of C.
Invariance de la K-théorie par équivalences dérivées

The aim of these notes is to prove that any right exact functor between reasonable Waldhausen categories, that induces an equivalence at the level of homotopy categories, gives rise to a homotopy equivalence between the corresponding K -theory spectra. This generalizes a well known result of Thomason and Trobaugh. The ingredients, for this proof, are a generalization of the Waldhausen approximation theorem, and a simple combinatorial caracterization of derived equivalences. We also study simplicial localization of Waldhausen categories. We prove that a (homotopy) right exact functor induces an equivalence of homotopy categories if and only if it induces an equivalence of simplicial localizations. This allows to make the link with the K -theory of simplicial categories introduced by Toen and Vezzosi.
Prevalence of myocardial injury in patients after acute ischaemic stroke according to standard criteria

Abstract This study examined the prevalence of acute and chronic myocardial injury according to standard criteria in patients after acute ischaemic stroke (AIS) and its relation to stroke severity and short-term prognosis. Between August 2020 and August 2022, 217 consecutive patients with AIS were enrolled. Plasma levels of high-sensitive cardiac troponin I (hs-cTnI) were measured in blood samples obtained at the time of admission and 24 and 48 h later. The patients were divided into three groups according to the Fourth Universal Definition of Myocardial Infarction: no injury, chronic injury, and acute injury. Twelve-lead ECGs were obtained at the time of admission, 24 and 48 h later, and on the day of hospital discharge. A standard echocardiographic examination was performed within the first 7 days of hospitalization in patients with suspected abnormalities of left ventricular function and regional wall motion. Demographic characteristics, clinical data, functional outcomes, and all-cause mortality were compared between the three groups. The National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) at the time of admission and the modified Rankin Scale (mRS) 90 days following hospital discharge were used to assess stroke severity and outcome. Elevated hs-cTnI levels were measured in 59 patients (27.2%): 34 patients (15.7%) had acute myocardial injury and 25 patients (11.5%) had chronic myocardial injury within the acute phase after ischaemic stroke. An unfavourable outcome, evaluated based on the mRS at 90 days, was associated with both acute and chronic myocardial injury. Myocardial injury was also strongly associated with all-cause death, with the strongest association in patients with acute myocardial injury, at 30 days and at 90 days. Kaplan–Meier survival curves showed that all-cause mortality was significantly higher in patients with acute and chronic myocardial injury than in patients without myocardial injury (P < 0.001). Stroke severity, evaluated with the NIHSS, was also associated with acute and chronic myocardial injury. A comparison of the ECG findings between patients with and without myocardial injury showed a higher occurrence in the former of T-wave inversion, ST segment depression, and QTc prolongation. In echocardiographic analysis, a new abnormality in regional wall motion of the left ventricle was identified in six patients. Chronic and acute myocardial injury with hs-cTnI elevation after AIS are associated with stroke severity, unfavourable functional outcome, and short-term mortality.
Definition and Detection of Defects in NFT Smart Contracts

Recently, the birth of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) has attracted great attention. NFTs are capable of representing users’ ownership on the blockchain and have experienced tremendous market sales due to their popularity. Unfortunately, the high value of NFTs also makes them a target for attackers. The defects in NFT smart contracts could be exploited by attackers to harm the security and reliability of the NFT ecosystem. Despite the significance of this issue, there is a lack of systematic work that focuses on analyzing NFT smart contracts, which may raise worries about the security of users’ NFTs. To address this gap, in this paper, we introduce 5 defects in NFT smart contracts. Each defect is defined and illustrated with a code example highlighting its features and consequences, paired with possible solutions to fix it. Furthermore, we propose a tool named NFTGuard to detect our defined defects based on a symbolic execution framework. Specifically, NFTGuard extracts the information of the state variables from the contract abstract syntax tree (AST), which is critical for identifying variable-loading and storing operations during symbolic execution. Furthermore, NFTGuard recovers source-code-level features from the bytecode to effectively locate defects and report them based on predefined detection patterns. We run NFTGuard on 16,527 real-world smart contracts and perform an evaluation based on the manually labeled results. We find that 1,331 contracts contain at least one of the 5 defects, and the overall precision achieved by our tool is 92.6%.
UDPM: Upsampling Diffusion Probabilistic Models

In recent years, Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models (DDPM) have caught significant attention. By composing a Markovian process that starts in the data domain and then gradually adds noise until reaching pure white noise, they achieve superior performance in learning data distributions. Yet, these models require a large number of diffusion steps to produce aesthetically pleasing samples, which is inefficient. In addition, unlike common generative adversarial networks, the latent space of diffusion models is not interpretable. In this work, we propose to generalize the denoising diffusion process into an Upsampling Diffusion Probabilistic Model (UDPM), in which we reduce the latent variable dimension in addition to the traditional noise level addition. As a result, we are able to sample images of size $256\times 256$ with only 7 diffusion steps, which is less than two orders of magnitude compared to standard DDPMs. We formally develop the Markovian diffusion processes of the UDPM, and demonstrate its generation capabilities on the popular FFHQ, LSUN horses, ImageNet, and AFHQv2 datasets. Another favorable property of UDPM is that it is very easy to interpolate its latent space, which is not the case with standard diffusion models. Our code is available online \url{https://github.com/shadyabh/UDPM}
Efficient Bound of Lipschitz Constant for Convolutional Layers by Gram Iteration

Since the control of the Lipschitz constant has a great impact on the training stability, generalization, and robustness of neural networks, the estimation of this value is nowadays a real scientific challenge. In this paper we introduce a precise, fast, and differentiable upper bound for the spectral norm of convolutional layers using circulant matrix theory and a new alternative to the Power iteration. Called the Gram iteration, our approach exhibits a superlinear convergence. First, we show through a comprehensive set of experiments that our approach outperforms other state-of-the-art methods in terms of precision, computational cost, and scalability. Then, it proves highly effective for the Lipschitz regularization of convolutional neural networks, with competitive results against concurrent approaches. Code is available at https://github.com/blaisedelattre/lip4conv.
Highly Smoothness Zero-Order Methods for Solving Optimization Problems under PL Condition

In this paper, we study the black box optimization problem under the Polyak--Lojasiewicz (PL) condition, assuming that the objective function is not just smooth, but has higher smoothness. By using"kernel-based"approximation instead of the exact gradient in Stochastic Gradient Descent method, we improve the best known results of convergence in the class of gradient-free algorithms solving problem under PL condition. We generalize our results to the case where a zero-order oracle returns a function value at a point with some adversarial noise. We verify our theoretical results on the example of solving a system of nonlinear equations.
Recent advances in the long-time analysis of killed degenerate processes and their particle approximation

We review some recent results of quantitative long-time convergence for the law of a killed Markov process conditioned to survival toward a quasi-stationary distribution, and on the analogous question for the particle systems used in practice to sample these distributions. With respect to the existing literature, one of the novelties of these works is the degeneracy of the underlying process with respect to classical elliptic diffusion, namely it can be a non-elliptic hypoelliptic diffusion, a piecewise deterministic Markov process or an Euler numerical scheme.