Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Semi-Automatic Quantification of Subsolid Pulmonary Nodules: Comparison with Manual Measurements

Rationale Accurate measurement of subsolid pulmonary nodules (SSN) is becoming increasingly important in the management of these nodules. SSNs were previously quantified with time-consuming manual measurements. The aim of the present study is to test the feasibility of semi-automatic SSNs measurements and to compare the results to the manual measurements. Methods In 33 lung cancer screening participants with 33 SSNs, the nodules were previously quantified by two observers manually. In the present study two observers quantified these nodules by using semi-automated nodule volumetry software. Nodules were quantified for effective diameter, volume and mass. The manual and semi-automatic measurements were compared using Bland-Altman plots and paired T tests. Observer agreement was calculated as an intraclass correlation coefficient. Data are presented as mean (SD). Results Semi-automated measurements were feasible in all 33 nodules. Nodule diameter, volume and mass were 11.2 (3.3) mm, 935 (691) ml and 379 (311) milligrams for observer 1 and 11.1 (3.7) mm, 986 (797) ml and 399 (344) milligrams for observer 2, respectively. Agreement between observers and within observer 1 for the semi-automatic measurements was good with an intraclass correlation coefficient >0.89. For observer 1 and observer 2, measured diameter was 8.8% and 10.3% larger (p<0.001), measured volume was 24.3% and 26.5% larger (p<0.001) and measured mass was 10.6% and 12.0% larger (p<0.001) with the semi-automatic program compared to the manual measurements. Conclusion Semi-automated measurement of the diameter, volume and mass of SSNs is feasible with good observer agreement. Semi-automated measurement makes quantification of mass and volume feasible in daily practice.
Production of β-Glucosidase from a Newly Isolated Aspergillus Species Using Response Surface Methodology

A newly isolated fungus Aspergillus niger SOI017 was shown to be a good producer of β-glucosidase from all isolated fungal strains. Fermentation condition (pH, cellobiose concentration, yeast extract concentration, and ammonium sulfate concentration) was optimized for producing the enzyme in shake flask cultures. Response surface methodology was used to investigate the effects of 4 fermentation parameters (yeast extract concentration, cellobiose concentration, ammonium sulfate concentration, and pH) on β-glucosidase enzyme production. Production of β-glucosidase was most sensitive to the culture medium, especially the nitrogen source yeast extract. The optimized medium for producing maximum β-glucosidase specific activity consisted of 0.275% yeast extract, 1.125% cellobiose, and 2.6% ammonium sulfate at a pH value of 3.
Preparation and Electrical Characterization of Li-Doped MgZnO Thin-Film Transistors

The preparation and electrical characterization of bottom-gate Li-doped MgZnO thin film transistors were studied in this paper. These Li-doped MgZnO thin films were deposited on SiO<sub>2</sub>/Si substrates employing radio frequency magnetron sputtering at room temperature. This electrical characterization showed the mobility of 9.4 cm<sup>2</sup>/V·s, a VTH of -7 V and a large on/off current ratio of 1.4 ×10<sup>7</sup> for Li-doped MgZnO TFT.
Deciding first-order properties of locally tree-decomposable structures

We introduce the concept of a class of graphs, or more generally, relational structures, being locally tree-decomposable. There are numerous examples of locally tree-decomposable classes, among them the class of planar graphs and all classes of bounded valence or of bounded tree-width. We also consider a slightly more general concept of a class of structures having bounded local tree-width.We show that for each property φ of structures that is definable in first-order logic and for each locally tree-decomposable class C of structures, there is a linear time algorithm deciding whether a given structure A ∈ C has property φ. For classes C of bounded local tree-width, we show that for every k ≥ 1 there is an algorithm solving the same problem in time O(n1+(1/k)) (where n is the cardinality of the input structure).
Identification of Functionally Important Amino Acids of Ribosomal Protein L3 by Saturation Mutagenesis

ABSTRACT There is accumulating evidence that many ribosomal proteins are involved in shaping rRNA into their functionally correct conformations through RNA-protein interactions. Moreover, although rRNA seems to play the central role in all aspects of ribosome function, ribosomal proteins may be involved in facilitating communication between different functional regions in ribosome, as well as between the ribosome and cellular factors. In an effort to more fully understand how ribosomal proteins may influence ribosome function, we undertook large-scale mutational analysis of ribosomal protein L3, a core protein of the large subunit that has been implicated in numerous ribosome-associated functions in the past. A total of 98 different rpl3 alleles were genetically characterized with regard to their effects on killer virus maintenance, programmed −1 ribosomal frameshifting, resistance/hypersensitivity to the translational inhibitor anisomycin and, in specific cases, the ability to enhance translation of a reporter mRNA lacking the 5′ 7mGppp cap structure and 3′ poly(A) tail. Biochemical studies reveal a correlation between an increased affinity for aminoacyl-tRNA and the extent of anisomycin resistance and a decreased peptidyltransferase activity and increased frameshifting efficiency. Immunoblot analyses reveal that the superkiller phenotype is not due to a defect in the ability of ribosomes to recruit the Ski-complex, suggesting that the defect lies in a reduced ability of mutant ribosomes to distinguish between cap+/poly(A)+ and cap−/poly(A)− mRNAs. The results of these analyses are discussed with regard to how protein-rRNA interactions may affect ribosome function.
Cruising with a Battery-Powered Vehicle and Not Getting Stranded

The main hindrance to a widespread market penetration of battery-powered electric vehicles (BEVs) has been their limited energy reservoir resulting in cruising ranges of few hundred kilometers unless one allows for recharging or switching of depleted batteries during a trip. Unfortunately, recharging typically takes several hours and battery switch stations providing fully recharged batteries are still quite rare – certainly not as widespread as ordinary gas stations. For not getting stranded with an empty battery, going on a BEV trip requires some planning ahead taking into account energy characteristics of the BEV as well as available battery switch stations. In this paper we consider very basic, yet fundamental problems for E-Mobility: Can I get from A to B and back with my BEV without recharging in between? Can I get from A to B when allowed to recharge? How can I minimize the number of battery switches when going from A to B? We provide efficient and mathematically sound algorithms for these problems that allow for the energy-aware planning of trips.
Efficacy and safety of cross-linked hyaluronic acid single injection on osteoarthritis of the knee: a post-marketing Phase IV study

Purpose The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy, safety, and duration of action of viscosupplementation with Crespine® Gel over a 9-month period. Materials and methods The study was a post-marketing Phase IV study. A total of 109 participants with osteoarthritis of the knee (grades 1–4) in the tibio–femoral compartment were recruited in Jordan. Data were collected from each participant during the baseline visit. Each participant received Crespine® Gel injection, and follow-up visits took place at 3 months, 6 months, and 9 months post-injection. Main outcome measure(s) An assessment of participants by phone was conducted at 1 month, 2 months, 4 months, 5 months, 7 months, and 8 months post-injection. Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Arthritis Index questionnaires were completed during each visit. A 72-hour visit questionnaire was used to assess the safety of the injection. Statistical analysis included a two-sided 95% confidence interval for the difference between pain scores across visits, and the percent change from baseline was calculated. Main results The full analysis included 84 participants who gave their informed consent and finished the necessary baseline and follow-up visits needed to assess efficacy and safety. Peak improvement was noted at 5 months post-injection, when pain and physical performance scores had decreased to 2.60 and 9.90, respectively, and the stiffness score was 0.33. The peak improvement in stiffness was noted at 8 months post-injection, when the stiffness score had decreased to 0.32. Significant improvements were still apparent at 9 months post-injection, when the pain score was 3.36, the stiffness score was 0.42, and the physical performance score was 11.5. All side effects were local and transient, and included pain, swelling, and redness of the knee. Most side effects were treated. Conclusion Hyaluronan should be encouraged as an alternative or adjunct treatment to oral analgesics to reduce their required doses, and delay potential future surgical intervention.
Technical Debt Prioritization Using Predictive Analytics

Recently, Technical Debt (TD) has gained popularity in the Software Engineering community to describe design decisions that allow software development teams to achieve short term benefits such as expedited release of code. Technical debt accrued should be managed to avoid the disastrous consequences of these temporary workarounds. Management of technical debt involve documenting the debt item in the backlog including some type of quantification in terms of person-hours or story points for example. Subsequently, the debt items are prioritized and addressed.Developers or project managers face problems to decide which debt is higher priority or more “problematic” and which one needs to be addressed first. This decision-making process is not standardized and is currently context dependent in most organizations. This paper bridge this gap by proposing a framework which makes use of a plethora of techniques ranging from data mining to prediction and decision models that project managers can use in their decision-making process to determine which technical debt is more critical and should be addressed first.
Cross-layer system reliability assessment framework for hardware faults

System reliability estimation during early design phases facilitates informed decisions for the integration of effective protection mechanisms against different classes of hardware faults. When not all system abstraction layers (technology, circuit, microarchitecture, software) are factored in such an estimation model, the delivered reliability reports must be excessively pessimistic and thus lead to unacceptably expensive, over-designed systems. We propose a scalable, cross-layer methodology and supporting suite of tools for accurate but fast estimations of computing systems reliability. The backbone of the methodology is a component-based Bayesian model, which effectively calculates system reliability based on the masking probabilities of individual hardware and software components considering their complex interactions. Our detailed experimental evaluation for different technologies, microarchitectures, and benchmarks demonstrates that the proposed model delivers very accurate reliability estimations (FIT rates) compared to statistically significant but slow fault injection campaigns at the microarchitecture level.
Characteristics of the onset of the growing season in Poland based on the application of remotely sensed data in the context of weather conditions and land cover types

Abstract We present the results of research concerning the temporal and spatial variability of the dates of the onset of the growing season (OGS) in Poland using satellite data. The data from the years 2001–2010 were obtained from the MODIS Global Land Cover Dynamics Product (MCD12Q2). The study examined the relationship between the OGS dates and types of land cover, meteorological elements (air temperature and snow depth), and atmospheric circulation conditions. In the study period, the average OGS dates for the entire country showed the strongest correlation with minimum air temperature from January to March (R2=0.95). The photosynthetic activity of vegetation in early spring was also considerably influenced by the strength of zonal flow and the type of land cover. The latest OGS dates in Poland were observed in areas with a higher share of wetlands and inland waters, and the earliest ones in urban areas and agricultural land.
Modeling and Analyzing the Slipping of the Ball Screw

This paper aims to set up the ball systematic slipping model and analyze the slipping characteristics caused by different factors for a ball screw operating at high speeds. To investigate the ball screw slipping mechanism, transformed coordinate system should be established firstly. Then it is used to set up mathematical modeling for the ball slipping caused by the three main reasons and the speed of slipping can be calculated. Later, the influence of the contact angle, helix angle and screw diameter for ball screw slipping will be analyzed according to the ball slipping model and slipping speeds equation and the slipping analysis will be obtained. Finally, curve of slipping analysis and that of mechanical efficiency of the ball screw analysis by Lin are compared, which will indirectly verify the correctness of the slipping model. The slipping model and the curve of slipping analysis established in this paper will provide theory basis for reducing slipping and improving the mechanical efficiency of a ball screw operating at high speeds.
Monitoring eye movements during fMRI tasks with echo planar images

Verifying task compliance during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiments is an essential component of experimental design. To date, studies of oculomotor tasks such as smooth pursuit eye movements have either measured task performance outside the magnet and assumed similar performance during functional neuroimaging, or have used MR‐compatible eye movement recording devices, which can be costly and technically difficult to use. We describe a simple method to visualize and quantify eye movements during an imaging experiment using the gradient echo images. We demonstrate that local eye movements will influence whole‐head motion correction procedures, resulting in inaccurate movement parameters and potentially lowering the sensitivity to detect activations. Hum. Brain Mapping 17:238–244, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Treatment of Liquid Phase of Digestate from Agricultural Biogas Plant in a System with Aerobic Granules and Ultrafiltration

Management of digestate from manure co-digestion with a very high chemical oxygen demand (COD) to nitrogen ratio and high nitrogen loads are a major bottleneck in the development of agricultural biogas plants. The liquid phase of digestate mixed with municipal wastewater was treated in aerobic granular sludge batch reactors at cycle lengths (t) of 6 h (GSBR6h), 8 h (GSBR8h), and 12 h (GSBR12h), corresponding to nitrogen loads of 1.6, 1.2, and 0.8 g/(L·d). Thauera sp. , Lacibacter sp. , Thermanaerothrix sp. , and Planctomyces sp. predominated in granules favoring effective granule formation and nitrogen removal. Increasing cycle lengths (t) significantly decreased proteins in soluble fraction of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) in granules and increased polysaccharides in tightly bound EPS that resulted in higher granule diameters and higher COD removal. In GSBR6h, heterotrophic nitrification/denitrification was very efficient, but ammonium was fully oxidized in the last hour of the cycle. So in further studies, the effluent from GSBR8h was subjected to ultrafiltration (UF) at transmembrane pressures (TMPs) of 0.3, 0.4, and 0.5 MPa. A GSBR8h-UF system (TMP of 0.4 MPa) ensured full removal of total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN), suspended solids, and substantial reduction of COD and color with good permeate flux. The NOx-rich (about 250 mg/L), clear permeate can be reused in line with assumptions of modern circular economy.
TelosW: Enabling ultra-low power wake-on sensor network

Sensor networks are typically sensor or radio event driven. Exploiting this property we propose a novel wakeon sensor network design. In this context we have designed a new sensor platform called TelosW. The wake-on sensing capability of TelosW lets designated sensors wake up the microcontroller(MCU) only on occurrence of some event with preconfigurable threshold. TelosW also includes the CC1101 [3] Wake-On Radio (WOR) hardware that performs low power listening without intervention of MCU. These all lead to a completely event driven wake-on sensor network that reduces energy consumption considerably. TelosW is also equipped with an on-board energy meter that can precisely measure in-situ energy consumption. Using the energy meter it is possible to get the insight of energy states of nodes in a network at any time. This makes it possible to practically analyze energy-efficient protocols. The experiments show that the energy consumption has been significantly reduced comparing to same application without wake-on design.
Learning a visual task by genetic programming

This work describes a hand-eye system that can learn from its experience. The task is to visually guide the hand to reach a target while avoiding obstacles. The motion planning problem is solved by genetic programming. The system learns the forward kinematics by building a lookup table and uses it in the simulation run to generate robot programs that perform the task. The genetically created programs are validated by the actual runs on the robot.
On the inter-syllable coarticulation effect of pitch modeling for Mandarin speech

In this paper, a new statistics-based pitch model for Mandarin speech is proposed. The model considers three major affecting factors on the syllable pitch contour, including lexical tone, prosodic state and inter-syllable coarticulation effect. The study emphasizes on the modeling of inter-syllable coarticulation effect. Interactive affections of neighboring tones and different inter-syllable coarticulation states are considered. Experimental results show that the model performed well even for connected pitch contours of several syllables. Automatic labeling of linguistically meaningful coarticulation states is an extra benefit. So it is a promising F0 model.
Recent developments in frameworks to consider human relevance of hypothesized modes of action for tumours in animals

This paper summarizes recent developments in the continuing evolution of Human Relevance Frameworks to systematically consider the weight of evidence of hypothesized modes of action in animals and their potential human relevance for both cancer and non‐cancer effects. These frameworks have been developed in initiatives of the International Life Sciences Institute Risk Sciences Institute and the International Programme on Chemical Safety engaging large numbers of scientists internationally. They are analytical tools designed to organize information in hazard characterization as a basis to clarify the extent of the weight of evidence for mode of action in animals and human relevance and subsequent implications for dose‐response. They are also extremely helpful in identifying critical data gaps. These frameworks which are illustrated by an increasing number of case studies, have been widely adopted into international and national guidance and assessments and continue to evolve, as experience increases in their application. Environ. Mol. Mutagen. , 2008. Published 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Implementation-friendly QRM-MLD using trellis-structure based on Viterbi algorithm

The maximum likelihood detection with QR decomposition and M-algorithm (QRM-MLD) has been presented as a suboptimum multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) detection scheme which can provide almost the same performance as the optimum maximum likelihood (ML) MIMO detection scheme but with the reduced complexity. However, due to the lack of parallelism and the regularity in the decoding structure, the conventional QRM-MLD which uses the tree-structure still has very high complexity for the very large scale integration (VLSI) implementation. In this paper, we modify the tree-structure of conventional QRM-MLD into trellis-structure in order to obtain high operational parallelism and regularity and then apply the Viterbi algorithm to the QRM-MLD to ease the burden of the VLSI implementation. We show from our selected numerical examples that, by using the QRM-MLD with our proposed trellis-structure, we can reduce the complexity significantly compared to the tree-structure based QRM-MLD while the performance degradation of our proposed scheme is negligible.
Full-scale Experiments To Investigate The Use Of A Water Curtain Over Openings To Prevent Fire Spread To Adjacent Properties

This thesis presents the results of several full-scale experiments to study heat radiation attenuation and shielding using sprinklers to create a water curtain between a compartment fire and a target wall. This work builds on the idea that water absorbs and scatters heat radiation and applies it as a shielding mechanism, which can be used to protect personnel and property exposed to an opening during a compartment fire. The purpose of the study is to determine how effective the water curtain created using sprinkler heads will be at attenuating the heat flux from flames exiting a compartment fire, shielding the target wall and preventing fire spread. The results show how the water spray reduces heat flux to the target wall and it allows decreasing the distance of a building from the property line.
Efficient Similarity Search by Summarization in Large Video Database

With the explosion of video data, video processing technologies have advanced quickly and been applied into many fields, such as advertisements, medical etc. To fast search these video data, an important issue is to effectively organize videos by data compacting and indexing. However, practically, many useful distances for video comparison are suitable to human perception, but non-metric. Therefore, traditional high dimensional data structures can not be utilized to index videos directly when non-metric measures are applied. In this paper, we propose a compact video representation based on global summarization, by which each video in database is mapped into a digital string(a series of cluster id). Consequently, the inter-frame similarity measure is transformed into inter-cluster comparison. Then, we propose an efficient index strategy based on sequence decomposition and reconstruction, by which the spatial index methods can be utilized with non-metric measures for video similarity search. We employ an optimal B+-tree with an inverted list attached, for quickly identifying similar clusters and locating potentially similar videos respectively. Finally, a clustering based query summarization technique is proposed, which can greatly reduce the IO and CPU cost in the query processing by batch mapping.