Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Optimization of mammography with respect to anatomical noise

Beam quality optimization in mammography traditionally considers detection of a target obscured by quantum noise on a homogenous background. It can be argued that this scheme does not correspond well to the clinical imaging task because real mammographic images contain a complex superposition of anatomical structures, resulting in anatomical noise that may dominate over quantum noise. Using a newly developed spectral mammography system, we measured the correlation and magnitude of the anatomical noise in a set of mammograms. The results from these measurements were used as input to an observer-model optimization that included quantum noise as well as anatomical noise. We found that, within this framework, the detectability of tumors and microcalcifications behaved very differently with respect to beam quality and dose. The results for small microcalcifications were similar to what traditional optimization methods would yield, which is to be expected since quantum noise dominates over anatomical noise at high spatial frequencies. For larger tumors, however, low-frequency anatomical noise was the limiting factor. Because anatomical structure has similar energy dependence as tumor contrast, optimal x-ray energy was significantly higher and the useful energy region wider than traditional methods suggest. Measurements on a tissue phantom confirmed these theoretical results. Furthermore, since quantum noise constitutes only a small fraction of the noise, the dose could be reduced substantially without sacrificing tumor detectability. Exposure settings used clinically are therefore not necessarily optimal for this imaging task. The impact of these findings on the mammographic imaging task as a whole is, however, at this stage unclear.
Etelcalcetide and Paricalcitol in Chronic Kidney Disease: When the Target Is Inflammation

Introduction: secondary hyperparathyroidism (SHP) is frequent in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), particularly in those in dialysis. To treat this complication, the current options available include phosphorus restriction, phosphate binders, the inhibition of parathyroid hormone (PTH) synthesis and secretion by the supplementation of vitamin D or VDR activators, or the use of calcimimetics. Beyond the control of PTH, the effects of the treatment of SHP on other biomarkers of risk may represent an additional benefit for this population. In this study, we explore the benefits of current SHP treatment options, mainly paricalcitol and/or etelcalcetide in the inflammatory state of hemodialysis (HD) patients. Results: the study finally included 142 maintenance HD patients (5 patients were excluded) followed for 6 months (dialysis vintage 26 ± 30 months, mean age 70 years old, 73% women, 81% Spanish white, 47% diabetic). In this case, 52 patients were on regular treatment with paricalcitol for SHP and 25 patients were eligible to initiate etelcalcetide. The baseline serum levels of Ca, P, PTH, Ferritin, albumin, C-reactive protein (CRP), and other variables were measured. We found serum PTH levels showed an improvement after the treatment with etelcalcetide again paricalcitol and no treatment (p < 0.04). Of note, serum levels of CRP were significantly lower in a small group of patients (n = 11) receiving paricalcitol + etelcalcetide compared to paricalcitol or etelcalcetide alone. The proportion of patients with CRP within target ranges (≤1.0 mg/dL) increased significantly after combined treatment (p < 0.001). Conclusions: etelcalcetide proved to safely reduce the PTH levels without significant adverse events and the possibility of a synergic anti-inflammatory effect with the simultaneous use of Paricalcitol in HD patients.
Parents’ Experiences Using Digital Health Technologies in Paediatric Overweight and Obesity Support: An Integrative Review

This study aimed to explore parents’ perspectives regarding the use of digital health technologies in paediatric overweight and obesity weight support. A systematic search in ‘Academic Search Premier’, ‘British Nursing Index’, ‘Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health’, and ‘Health Research Premium Collection’ was conducted in November 2021. Inclusion criteria were English or Nordic peer-reviewed articles published after 2010, overweight and obese children aged 2–10, weight support using digital health technologies, and parental experiences examined. An integrative review was conducted using Joanna Briggs Institute quality appraisal checklists and a constant comparison analysis method. In total, 14 articles were analysed that included SMS, telephone, apps, websites, and social media as the main technology groups. A limitation of this review was the heterogenicity of the studies. The results indicate that parents, mostly mothers, had a positive experience, finding technologies helpful and easy to use, and expressed optimism toward future use. An option for interacting with others and the possibility of personalising support were enjoyed or requested. In conclusion, digital health technologies can be a suitable tool to empower the parents of children with overweight and obesity concerns, whose perspective should be considered during the design and support phases.
Three-dimensional solitary waves on falling liquid film at low Reynolds numbers

In this Letter we present novel results of the experimental study of three-dimensional waves evolving from a localized disturbance on a vertically falling film at low Reynolds numbers 1.25<Re<4.7. This range of Re is close to the values that are typical for residual layers in developed wavy film flow with moderate Reynolds numbers. A spatiotemporal evolution of three-dimensional solitary waves is investigated. Existence of the stationary horseshoe-shaped waves has been demonstrated. The measured wave characteristics are compared with the theoretical solutions.
Investigating the alkaline treatment of fiber coconut (Cocos nucifera L) for cellulosic ethanol generation

The coconut husk of Cocos nucifera L. species has a high potential for use in industry and agriculture, and many studies on the use of this biomass are being developed for the production of biofuels. Sodium hydroxide solution (NaOH) is one of the oldest and economically viable treatments for reducing the lignin content and improving energy efficiency in biomass. Thus, the objective of this research was to analyze the solubility of the fibers biomass in the mesocarp of Cocos nucifera with different concentrations of sodium hydroxide (NaOH). The fibers were separated from the bark, which had their extractives removed, and were subjected to the solubility procedure in 1, 2, 3, and 4% NaOH. The Klason lignin and holocellulose were determined. Changes in functional groups of Klason lignin were observed by infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). There was a decrease in Klason lignin content due to alkaline treatment. Infrared spectra indicated structural changes between the treatments analyzed, especially when the following bands: 3 433 cm-1 (stretching of OH), 1 271-1 220 cm-1 (vibration of the guaiacyl ring with the contribution of the C=O stretch), and 1 116-1 165 cm-1 (stretching of CO of acid and/or ester). Coconut fibers treated with 4% NaOH maintained the integrity of holocellulose and presented high lignin degradation.
Low-magnetic-field dependence and anisotropy of the critical current density in coated conductors

Many applications of ReBCO-coated conductors operate at low magnetic fields in the superconductor (below 200 mT). In order to predict the critical current and AC loss in these applications, it is necessary to know the anisotropy and field dependence of the critical current density at low magnetic fields. In this paper, we obtain a formula for the critical current density in a coated conductor as a function of the local magnetic field and its orientation. Afterwards, we apply this formula to predict the critical current of a pancake coil that we constructed. We extract the critical current density of the tape from measurements of the in-field critical current at several orientations. Numerical simulations correct the effect of the self-field in the measurements and successfully predict the critical current in the pancake coil. We found that a simple elliptical model is not enough to describe the anisotropy of the critical current density. In conclusion, the analytical fit that we present is useful to predict the critical current of actual coils. Therefore, it may also be useful for other structures made of coated conductor, like power-transmission cables, Roebel cables and resistive fault current limiters.
Effects of vegetation restoration on soil organic carbon in the Loess Plateau: A meta‐analysis

Vegetation restoration is one of the most effective ways to increase soil organic carbon (SOC). After the implementation of vegetation restoration policies such as the Grain‐for‐Green Program, which has increased regional vegetation coverage. However, the impact of land use, vegetation types, restoration time, and topographic and meteorological factors on SOC remains unclear. Therefore, this study examined the effect of vegetation restoration on SOC in the Loess Plateau through a meta‐analysis of 520 sample data collected from 60 research papers. The results showed that vegetation restoration in the Loess Plateau significantly increased SOC by 29.40%. Restoration time was the most important factor affecting the SOC after revegetation. Land use type was an important factor that influenced SOC; the most significant impact on SOC was found when the previous land use type was abandoned land and the current land use type was woodland. Different vegetation types resulted in different SOC as follows: Fagaceae > Salicaceae > Pinaceae > Leguminosae. Broad‐leaved forests had significantly higher SOC than that of coniferous forests. Non‐nitrogen‐fixing plants increased SOC significantly compared to nitrogen‐fixing plants. SOC decreased in 0–5 years after vegetation restoration, and then increased with the increase of restoration years. Especially, the soil carbon sequestration effect of vegetation has been significantly improved after 10 years of restoration.
Inference and Missing Data: Asymptotic Results

In Rubin (1976) the missing at random (MAR) and missing completely at random (MCAR) conditions are discussed. It is concluded that the MAR condition allows one to ignore the missing data mechanism when doing likelihood or Bayesian inference but also that the stronger MCAR condition is in some sense the weakest generally sufficient condition allowing (conditional) frequentist inference while ignoring the missing data mechanism. In this paper it is shown that (a slightly strengthened version of) the MAR condition is sufficient to yield ordinary large sample results for estimators and test statistics and thus may be used for (asymptotic) frequentist inference.
Cell-Population Dynamics in Diffuse Gliomas during Gliomagenesis and Its Impact on Patient Survival

Simple Summary There is only a relatively small set of tools for the diagnosis and therapy of diffuse gliomas. To solve this problem, intratumoral heterogeneity has become the most important research topic. In this study, through the prism of cell-population heterogeneity in diffuse gliomas, using flow cytometry, multimeric FISH, immunofluorescence, PCR, and cell cultures, we comparatively examined the dynamics of cell populations’ quantitative and qualitative transformations in diffuse gliomas. For the first time, we identified mesenchymal-like cellular transformation in astrocytomas and oligodendrogliomas as possibly the key mechanism of malignancy. In the case of glioblastoma, it was shown for the first time that mesenchymal transformation is of a deeper nature, passing through the stem-cell link. The transformation severity influenced the prognosis of overall and relapse-free patient survival. Abstract Diffuse gliomas continue to be an important problem in neuro-oncology. To solve it, studies have considered the issues of molecular pathogenesis from the intratumoral heterogeneity point. Here, we carried out a comparative dynamic analysis of the different cell populations’ content in diffuse gliomas of different molecular profiles and grades, considering the cell populations’ functional properties and the relationship with patient survival, using flow cytometry, immunofluorescence, multiparametric fluorescent in situ hybridization, polymerase chain reaction, and cultural methods. It was shown that an increase in the IDH-mutant astrocytomas and oligodendrogliomas malignancy is accompanied by an increase in stem cells’ proportion and mesenchymal cell populations’ appearance arising from oligodendrocyte-progenitor-like cells with cell plasticity and cells’ hypoxia response programs’ activation. In glioblastomas, malignancy increase is accompanied by an increase in both stem and definitive cells with mesenchymal differentiation, while proneuronal glioma stem cells are the most likely the source of mesenchymal glioma stem cells, which, in hypoxic conditions, further give rise to mesenchymal-like cells. Clinical confirmation was a mesenchymal-like cell and mesenchymal glioma stem cell number, and the hypoxic and plastic molecular programs’ activation degree had a significant effect on relapse-free and overall survival. In general, we built a multi-vector model of diffuse gliomas’ pathogenetic tracing up to the practical plane.
Method for detecting all-zero DCT coefficients ahead of discrete cosine transformation and quantisation

The authors present a new algorithm for detecting all-zero DCT coefficient blocks before discrete cosine transformation and quantisation in very low bit rate video coding. The proposed algorithm uses the sum of absolute difference (SAD) of each motion compensation block as the criteria. Because the SAD can be obtained after motion estimation, no additional computation is required. Results show that the proposed algorithm can be used to reduce the amount of computation significantly without sacrificing video coding quality.
Generation of small‐scale field‐aligned irregularities in ionospheric heating experiments

A mechanism for generating the small-scale field-aligned irregularities observed in ionospheric heating experiments is proposed. The Langmuir waves that result from the scattering of the electromagnetic pump wave of ordinary polarization by the irregularities, interact with the irregularities by secondary scattering processes. The differential dissipation of the resulting Langmuir waves causes the growth of the irregularities and of the Langmuir waves resulting from the secondary scattering. The instability is explosive in nature and initial irregularities whose fractional density perturbations exceed about 10−4, are needed for its occurrence. It is shown for a periodically varying field-aligned density perturbation that although successive scattering of the Langmuir waves eventually becomes very intense and approaches an equipartition of the energy among the waves, it does not saturate the instability. It seems that the proposed mechanism is able to generate small-scale field-aligned irregularities that can reach the amplitudes observed in ionospheric heating experiments.
A Comparison of Different Methods for Representing Categorical Data

We first compare correspondence analysis, which uses chi-square distance, and an alternative approach using Hellinger distance, for representing categorical data in a contingency table. We propose a coefficient which globally measures the similarity between these two approaches. This coefficient can be decomposed into several components, one component for each principal dimension, indicating the contribution of the dimensions to the difference between the two representations. We also make comparisons with the logratio approach based on compositional data. These three methods of representation can produce quite similar results. Two illustrative examples are given.
Moringa oleifera smoke induced positive changes in biochemical, metabolic, and antioxidant profile of rice seedling under cadmium stress

Abstract Cadmium as a heavy metal contaminates the agricultural soil and effect plant growth due to rapid increases in industrialization and anthropogenic activities. Smoke water of Moringa oleifera was used in the current study to alleviate the effect of cadmium on the physiological, biochemical, metabolic, and antioxidant profile of Basmati 385 and Shaheen Basmati seedling. Cadmium stress of 100, 200, and 400 µM were given to 28 days-old seedlings along with smoke water (1:1,000) for one week in hydroponic culture. As a result, Cd+2 toxicity negatively affects the seedling length, fresh and dry weight, photosynthetic pigment, and electrolytes leakage, while the application of smoke water alleviated those effects. Furthermore, Cd+2 content, cell injury, metabolic parameters (proline, total soluble sugar), and antioxidants (peroxidase, catalase) were increased with increasing Cd+2 concentration while smoke water-treated seedlings showed reduction at high concentration. From present study, it can be concluded that smoke water had some regulatory compound which could reduce the Cd+2 stress level in rice seedlings and improve plant growth. Novelty statement Moringa (Moringa oleifera) is a famous medicinal plant. Its fruits, roots, leaves, and flowers are used as vegetables in different part of the world. Moringa leaves are rich source of vitamin A, C riboflavin, beta carotenoid, iron, and phenolic acid and also reported for antioxidant properties. The unique aspect of current study is use to M. oliferia leaves for the preparation of smoke water, because of its nutritional and antioxidant properties and further its effects was observed on rice seedling under cadmium stress, which has not been evaluated or reported earlier.
Andness-directed weighted averaging operators: Possibilities for environmental project evaluation

Some of the conventional methods of aggregating the performance of infrastructure projects with respect to multiple factors/impacts are considered. It is suggested that alternative forms of aggregation might be more useful; in particular, the ordered weighted averaging (OWA) operator introduced by Ronald Yager. Factor importance weights and fuzzy satisfaction of factors by projects may be aggregated prior to aggregation via an OWA operator. In this case OWA operator weights may be based on the "attitudinal character" of the decision-maker expressed in terms of the degree of "orness" and "andness" of the aggregation. One approach is maximum entropy aggregation where weights are derived to be as "even" (or as minimally dispersed) as possible subject to satisfying a given "orness" or "andness" constraint. Recently aggregation processes based on "andness" have been proposed by Henrik Larsen which have several desirable properties and may also be considered as alternative forms of aggregation. A simple example based on a hypothetical but realistic example by Horsak and Damico is given which involves the location of a hazardous waste disposal facility (PCB-contaminated transformer fluids) at one of three sites based on ten factors.
Correlation between Transabdominal Sonographic Prostate Volume and Anthropometric Parameters

Background: Prostate diseases commonly present with lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) resulting from prostatic enlargement. Prostate volume (PV) can be evaluated using transabdominal ultrasonography. Focus is currently on relative factors of prostatic enlargement which includes obesity and central adiposity. The aim of this study is to correlate transabdominal sonographic PV and anthropometric parameters in patients with LUTS in Port Harcourt. Methods: This was a prospective cross-sectional study carried out at the Radiology Department, Rivers State University Teaching Hospital, Port Harcourt, between September 2020 and January 2021. One hundred and twenty (120) males from 40 years and above who presented with LUTS were recruited. Transabdominal PV estimation was done and body mass index (BMI) as well as WC was assessed. Data were analyzed using a Statistical Package for Social Sciences; appropriate statistical tests were applied and P < 0.05 was considered significant. Results: The mean PV was 69.8 ± 63.5 cm3, 79.2% of the subjects had enlarged prostate with volume ≥30 cm3. PV was found to increase with age. The correlation between PV and anthropometric measures of obesity (BMI and WC) was statistically not significant. Conclusion: The work established that there is no correlation between PV and anthropometric measures of obesity – BMI and WC in negro population as opposed to nonblack population where there is correlation. Obesity may not be a considerable risk factor of prostatic enlargement in the studied population. Thus, anthropometrics may not be useful in predicting prostate size.
Canonical conformal variables based method for stability of Stokes waves

We study the stability of Stokes waves in an ideal fluid of infinite depth. The perturbations that are either coperiodic with a Stokes wave (superharmonics) or integer multiples of its period (subharmonics) are considered. The eigenvalue problem is formulated using the conformal canonical Hamiltonian variables and admits numerical solution in a matrix‐free manner. We find that the operator matrix of the eigenvalue problem can be factored into a product of two operators: a self‐adjoint operator and an operator inverted analytically. Moreover, the self‐adjoint operator matrix is efficiently inverted by a Krylov‐space‐based method and enjoys spectral accuracy. Application of the operator matrix associated with the eigenvalue problem requires only O(NlogN)$O(N\log N)$ flops, where N is the number of Fourier modes needed to resolve a Stokes wave. Additionally, due to the matrix‐free approach, O(N2)$O(N^2)$ storage for the matrix of coefficients is no longer required. The new method is based on the shift‐invert technique, and its application is illustrated in the classic examples of the Benjamin–Feir and the superharmonic instabilities. Simulations confirm numerical results of preceding works and recent theoretical work for the Benjamin–Feir instability (for small amplitude waves), and new results for large amplitude waves are shown.
Industrial relationships

The paper discusses customers’ purchasing behavior in the industrial pumps market. Considering the increase in the global competition among suppliers, they must design and employ customer-oriented strategies to compete successfully in the market. The empirical analysis is based on the survey data from a sample of 133 industrial pump buyers. The importance of each of the supply factors that are important for a successful sales process is analyzed. The results show that the brand of industrial pumps has a statistically greater influence on smaller customers than on larger customers. The study contributes to the existing literature on purchase decision-making and industrial branding. A broader potential application of the results is discussed, and possible research directions in this area are presented at the end, given the limitations of this study.
Emerging Roles of Extracellular Vesicles in Alzheimer’s Disease: Focus on Synaptic Dysfunction and Vesicle–Neuron Interaction

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is considered by many to be a synaptic failure. Synaptic function is in fact deeply affected in the very early disease phases and recognized as the main cause of AD-related cognitive impairment. While the reciprocal involvement of amyloid beta (Aβ) and tau peptides in these processes is under intense investigation, the crucial role of extracellular vesicles (EVs) released by different brain cells as vehicles for these molecules and as mediators of early synaptic alterations is gaining more and more ground in the field. In this review, we will summarize the current literature on the contribution of EVs derived from distinct brain cells to neuronal alterations and build a working model for EV-mediated propagation of synaptic dysfunction in early AD. A deeper understanding of EV–neuron interaction will provide useful targets for the development of novel therapeutic approaches aimed at hampering AD progression.