Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparison of the Oncological Efficacy Between Intraoperative Radiotherapy With Whole-Breast Irradiation for Early Breast Cancer: A Meta-Analysis

Background Intraoperative radiotherapy (IORT) and whole-breast irradiation (WBI) are both effective radiotherapeutic interventions for early breast cancer patients undergoing breast-conserving surgery; however, an issue on whether which one can entail the better prognosis is still controversial. Our study aimed to investigate the 5-year oncological efficacy of the IORT cohort and the WBI cohort, respectively, and compare the oncological efficacy between the cohorts. Materials and Methods We conducted a computerized retrieval to identify English published articles between 2000 and 2021 in the PubMed, the Web of Science, the Cochrane Library, and APA PsycInfo databases. Screening, data extraction, and quality assessment were performed in duplicate. Results A total of 38 studies were eligible, with 30,225 analyzed participants. A non-comparative binary meta-analysis was performed to calculate the weighted average 5-year local recurrence-free survival (LRFS), distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS), and overall survival (OS) in the two cohorts, respectively. The LRFS, DMFS, and OS (without restriction on the 5-year outcomes) between the two cohorts were further investigated by a comparative binary meta-analysis. The weighted average 5-year LRFS, DMFS, and OS in the IORT cohort were 96.3, 96.6, and 94.1%, respectively, and in the WBI cohort were 98.0, 94.9, and 94.9%, respectively. Our pooled results indicated that the LRFS in the IORT cohort was significantly lower than that in the WBI cohort (pooled odds ratio [OR] = 2.36; 95% confidential interval [CI], 1.66–3.36). Nevertheless, the comparisons of DMFS (pooled OR = 1.00; 95% CI, 0.76–1.31), and OS (pooled OR = 0.95; 95% CI, 0.79–1.14) between the IORT cohort with the WBI cohort were both not statistically significant. Conclusions Despite the drastically high 5-year oncological efficacy in both cohorts, the LRFS in the IORT cohort is significantly poorer than that in the WBI cohort, and DMFS and OS do not differ between cohorts.
Pre-study for facilitating the discovery of microfluidic properties in blood vessels using retinal fundus images

ABSTRACT COVID-19 disease may cause alterations of microfluidic properties of blood circulation in the retinal tissue. For the pre-study of microfluidic blood physiology and transport, retinal fundus images are applied for clinical screening of abnormal vessels forms. However, fundus images captured by operators with various levels of experience have diversity in quality. Low-quality fundus images increase uncertainty in clinical observation and lead to the risk of misdiagnosis. Due to the optical beam of fundus image acquisition and vessel structure of the retina, natural image restoration methods cannot be applied straight to address this problem. The semi-automatic blind deblurring is a useful technique to restore the underlying sharp image given some assumed or known information about the cause of degradation. In this work, we propose a new hybrid algorithm for image restoration that does not require a priori knowledge of the noise distribution. The degraded image is first de-convoluted in Fourier space by parametric Wiener filtering; then, it is smoothed by using the anisotropic diffusion. The filtering model was tested on 177 fundus images. Experiment filtering results show the efficiency of our algorithm with a superlative performance (p-value < 0.05) when compared with state of the art methods.
Innate Immunity as an Executor of the Programmed Death of Individual Organisms for the Benefit of the Entire Population

In humans, over-activation of innate immunity in response to viral or bacterial infections often causes severe illness and death. Furthermore, similar mechanisms related to innate immunity can cause pathogenesis and death in sepsis, massive trauma (including surgery and burns), ischemia/reperfusion, some toxic lesions, and viral infections including COVID-19. Based on the reviewed observations, we suggest that such severe outcomes may be manifestations of a controlled suicidal strategy protecting the entire population from the spread of pathogens and from dangerous pathologies rather than an aberrant hyperstimulation of defense responses. We argue that innate immunity may be involved in the implementation of an altruistic programmed death of an organism aimed at increasing the well-being of the whole community. We discuss possible ways to suppress this atavistic program by interfering with innate immunity and suggest that combating this program should be a major goal of future medicine.
A V-band switched-beam transmit-array antenna

A high-directivity switched-beam antenna in the V-band is presented and includes a circularly-polarized transmit-array realized in a low-cost printed technology associated with a focal source array integrated on high-resistivity silicon. The measurements show a maximum gain of 12.1 dBi, a 3-dB gain-bandwidth of 57.8–70 GHz, and an axial ratio below 5 dB. The antenna exhibits five beams pointing from −22° to +23° in one plane, its size of 25 × 25 × 10 mm3 is compatible with the integration in different multimedia communication devices.
Cortical oscillatory dysrhythmias in visual snow syndrome: a magnetoencephalography study

Abstract Visual snow refers to the persistent visual experience of static in the whole visual field of both eyes. It is often reported by patients with migraine and co-occurs with conditions such as tinnitus and tremor. The underlying pathophysiology of the condition is poorly understood. Previously, we hypothesized that visual snow syndrome may be characterized by disruptions to rhythmical activity within the visual system. To test this, data from 18 patients diagnosed with visual snow syndrome, and 16 matched controls, were acquired using magnetoencephalography. Participants were presented with visual grating stimuli, known to elicit decreases in alpha-band (8–13 Hz) power and increases in gamma-band power (40–70 Hz). Data were mapped to source-space using a beamformer. Across both groups, decreased alpha power and increased gamma power localized to early visual cortex. Data from the primary visual cortex were compared between groups. No differences were found in either alpha or gamma peak frequency or the magnitude of alpha power, p > 0.05. However, compared with controls, our visual snow syndrome cohort displayed significantly increased primary visual cortex gamma power, p = 0.035. This new electromagnetic finding concurs with previous functional MRI and PET findings, suggesting that in visual snow syndrome, the visual cortex is hyperexcitable. The coupling of alpha-phase to gamma amplitude within the primary visual cortex was also quantified. Compared with controls, the visual snow syndrome group had significantly reduced alpha–gamma phase–amplitude coupling, p < 0.05, indicating a potential excitation–inhibition imbalance in visual snow syndrome, as well as a potential disruption to top-down ‘noise-cancellation’ mechanisms. Overall, these results suggest that rhythmical brain activity in the primary visual cortex is both hyperexcitable and disorganized in visual snow syndrome, consistent with this being a condition of thalamocortical dysrhythmia.
Association between cooking fuel and folate insufficiency among pregnant women in Northern China

ABSTRACT This study explored whether using a coal or biomass stove for cooking was associated with a greater risk of red blood cell (RBC) folate insufficiency among pregnant women compared to using clean energy. A researcher-designed questionnaire was used to collect information on exposure-related factors and confounding factors. RBC folate concentrations were examined by microbiological assay. Binary logistic regression analysis was used to identify factors related to RBC folate insufficiency. The use of coal or firewood for cooking was associated with an increased risk of RBC folate insufficiency (<906 nmol/L) compared to gas. In subgroup analyses, associations between the use of polluting cooking fuels and folate insufficiency were positive for both urban and rural residents and statistically significant for rural women. Efforts to promote the use of clean energy and proper ventilation, especially in rural areas, are recommended to improve the health of pregnant women and their offspring.
Local accumbens in vivo imaging during deep brain stimulation reveals a strategy-dependent amelioration of hedonic feeding

Significance Impulsive overeating is a common, disabling feature of eating disorders. Calcium imaging using fiber photometry has emerged as an in vivo methodology to measure neuronal population activity immune to electrical stimulation artifact from deep brain stimulation (DBS). Thus, when used simultaneously, calcium imaging can elucidate poorly understood DBS mechanisms. We show that nucleus accumbens D1 medial spiny calcium signaling increases in preparation of hedonic feeding of high-fat food. Further, responsive, over continuous, DBS strategies effectively disrupt this activity leading to decreased consumption. Implementation of this methodology to better understand mechanisms of these and other forms of neuromodulation for various indications may help advance the field to identify novel therapeutic targets with applications extending beyond obesity. Impulsive overeating is a common, disabling feature of eating disorders. Both continuous deep brain stimulation (DBS) and responsive DBS, which limits current delivery to pathological brain states, have emerged as potential therapies. We used in vivo fiber photometry in wild-type, Drd1-cre, and A2a-cre mice to 1) assay subtype-specific medium spiny neuron (MSN) activity of the nucleus accumbens (NAc) during hedonic feeding of high-fat food, and 2) examine DBS strategy-specific effects on NAc activity. D1, but not D2, NAc GCaMP activity increased immediately prior to high-fat food approach. Responsive DBS triggered a GCaMP surge throughout the stimulation period and durably reduced high-fat intake. However, with continuous DBS, this surge decayed, and high-fat intake reemerged. Our results argue for a stimulation strategy-dependent modulation of D1 MSNs with a more sustained decrease in consumption with responsive DBS. This study illustrates the important role in vivo imaging can play in understanding effects of such novel therapies.
Geotechnical Behavior of JSC-1 Lunar Soil Simulant

To facilitate the modeling and simulation of lunar activities and natural processes, various lunar soil simulants have been created. In particular, Johnson Space Center Number One lunar soil simulant (JSC-1) has come into wide use by a variety of investigators. In any physical experiment, the behavioral properties of this simulant will have a profound impact on the results. To better understand these soil properties, a variety of conventional and unconventional experiments were conducted on JSC-1 to determine its friction angle and appropriate low strain elastic constants. These experiments were conducted on JSC-1 at a variety of relative densities to quantify the response of the soil over the range of possible conditions. Further, the samples were prepared through vibratory densification, allowing for a better simulation of probable lunar surface packing arrangements.
Regulation of a PWM rectifier in the unbalanced network state using a generalized model

This study concerns the modeling and control of a pulse-width-modulated (PWM) rectifier in the case of network variations. The aim is to limit and stabilize variations of DC output voltage and line currents in such circumstances. Network variations can result in costly damage to power converters and their loads but a power converter such as the PWM rectifier, using cascade digital control, offers many capabilities to stabilize the system with optimized control. A generalized model of the PWM rectifier is first presented using the Clarke notation in order to separate the positive and negative sequences. The model is also extended to the harmonics. The cases of harmonic disturbance and an unbalanced network are then analyzed and an optimized regulation is presented for the latter case, validating the generalized model. Experimental results are proposed. The line current compensation loop method coupled with identification of network parameters offers a good solution to stabilize the PWM rectifier in an unbalanced network.
Dynamic cooperative co-evolutionary automated mobile sensor deployment via localized fitness evaluation

A wireless sensor network is a self-organized network consisting of a large number of small sensor nodes distributed over an area of interests. Such networks are capable of observing and sensing the environment, and sending the collected data to a data sink for further processing. Sensors must be deployed before they can provide useful data. Therefore the deployment of static or mobile sensors is an important basis for sensor networking. -- Automated mobile sensor deployment of a wireless sensor network has a significant impact on the network performance, such as network sensing coverage, communication or mobile costs, and connectivity. Due to the small size of sensors, they are equipped with small batteries and have low-power computing and communication resources. The lifetime of a sensor is determined by its battery life and it cannot operate for an infinite amount of time. Therefore, a good deployment yields a high utilization of power resources. -- In this thesis, we propose an innovative cooperative co-evolutionary computation framework, Localized Distributed Coevolution (LODICO), to optimize the automated sensor deployment with arbitrary initial positions. LODICO is a fully distributed and localized algorithm. It can be executed on all sensors of the network in parallel. Meanwhile the information exchange has to be done locally as each sensor can only communicate with those within a distance. Further, we extend LODICO to LODICO/D to provide dynamic interaction to neighboring computing agents during the evolutionary process. It models the potential local interactions between computing agents, and uses the imaginary neighboring movements to improve its local fitness and to help escaping from local optima. -- This thesis is a powerful extension work to the traditional Cooperative Revolutionary Algorithm. One feature of it is the utilization of local fitness to achieve a global optimum, which makes co-evolutionary algorithms applicable to localized distributed environments, such as network computing. Another salient feature is that the proposed algorithms can adjust and adapt the frequent dynamic change of network structures due to the position changes or failures of computing agents. LODICO/D incorporates LODICO with mode D to help to escape local optima. Mode D creates the third feature of imaginary collaboration with the neighboring computing agents during the evolutionary process to improve its local fitness. Our experiments show that LODICO and LODICO/D are effective in obtaining good solutions under such dynamic, distributed, and localized condition constraints.
The Effect of Learning Orientation and Business Model Innovation on Entrepreneurial Performance: Focused on South Korean Start-Up Companies

The purpose of this study is to empirically confirm the importance of learning orientation in the operation of start-up companies. In the literature, it is well known that this learning orientation plays a big role in improving the performance of start-ups by cultivating organizational members’ capabilities in detail, encouraging active learning, and creating new knowledge. To this end, a business model innovation framework for start-ups was established by empirically validating the theoretical research model. For the analysis, 139 questionnaires from start-ups with less than 7 years of business history in the incubation center were used. For the novelty of this work, it investigates the causal relationship between the learning orientation of start-ups, business model innovation, and start-up performance (technology acquisition and market expansion). Our research has contributed to the literature on entrepreneurship, innovation and strategy as follows. First, it contributed to the literature on entrepreneurship by redefining the performance of start-up companies as technology acquisition and market expansion through a review of previous studies and providing insight into the importance of learning orientation for start-ups through empirical studies. Second, it contributed to the innovation literature by confirming the importance of business model innovation for start-ups to achieve start-up performance through empirical research. Third, it contributed to the strategic literature by presenting and empirically confirming business model innovation through learning-orientation improvement as a way to achieve the performance of start-up companies.
Wireless link scheduling via parallel genetic algorithm

With the advent of fifth generation (5G) systems and the Internet‐of‐Things (IoT), the number of interconnected wireless devices is increasing significantly. Protocols that allow these deceives to interconnect peer‐to‐peer through wireless links are becoming of interest. The major challenge is the inevitable interference among the simultaneously activated wireless links. Given a set of wireless links, this article addresses the non‐deterministic polynomial‐time (NP) hard problem of selecting the maximum subset of links that can be simultaneously activated at their respective signal‐to‐interference‐plus‐noise‐ratio (SINR) targets. The contribution of this article is two‐fold. First, we introduce a new genetic algorithm (GA) constraint‐handling mechanism, and prove analytically that finding optimal link schedules is guaranteed. Second, we develop a novel parallelized GA to solve the problem. Through serial algorithm analysis, we utilize data decomposition as well as exploratory decomposition in order to achieve significant running time speedup, which scales well with problem size. Our numerical results for openMP parallelization illustrate 6.5 × and 5.4 × reduction in computation time as compared to the serial versions of the GA and hybrid genetic algorithm (HGA), respectively. Moreover, the parallelization of the GA and HGA result in a speedup of 10.4 × and 5.4 × , respectively, using master‐slave multithreading.
Avaliação de genótipos de morangueiro quanto à qualidade e potencial de armazenamento

The objective of this study was to evaluate the quality of strawberry cultivars and clones, and their potential for storage under refrigeration. The experimental design was a randomized block design with four replicates of approximately 150 g each. The treatments consisted in the evaluation of three cultivars and four clones, namely: LBH 15.1 Araza, SGH 140.3 Guenoa, LBF 236.3 Yvapita, LBG 121.4, LBK 16.1, LBK 35.1 and LBK 28.1. Evaluations were made at harvest and after ten days of storage at -0.5oC, plus two days at 20oC. The parameters evaluated were firmness, acidity, soluble solids, TSS/ TTA ratio, ascorbic acid, presence of rotting and weight loss. In terms of quality, cv. Guenoa presented low acidity and high TSS e ascorbic acid, high TSS/TTA ratio and also showed better conservation, presenting low incidence of decay during storage. The cultivar LBF 236.3 Yvapita and the clone LBK 28.1 showed the lowest vitamin C content and TSS/TTA ratio, which compromises its quality. The quick reduction of firmness and increased susceptibility to decay presented by LBF236.3 Yvapita and LBK 28.1 show a low potential for conservation under refrigeration. Cultivars and clones that had higher quality at harvest, also showed better post-harvest conservation.
On the performance of low DC power consumption cryogenic amplifiers

The performance of broadband, low-noise, low DC consumption cryogenic amplifiers was studied in detail with emphasis on minimizing the power consumption and optimizing the amplifier performance at cryogenic temperature. A comprehensive approach used in the modelling and amplifier design can help one to minimize the power consumption and optimize the performance of the amplifier. An 8.5 K average noise temperature and 24 dB gain were experimentally obtained in the frequency range 4-8 GHz with total power consumption of 4 mW for a 2-stage design with commercial GaAs transistors.
Effect of array orientation on performance of MIMO wireless channels

The orientations of the receive and transmit antennas are often omitted in research into the performance of wireless channels. The letter investigates the effect on performance of multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) wireless channels with an analytical method. Three results are obtained: 1) the effect cannot be neglected if either the transmit or the receive angular spread is small; 2) to attain higher capacity, each array should be rotated to make its normal point in the mean direction of arrival or departure (DOA or DOD); 3) the effect on the MIMO wireless channel capacity is dominated by the orientation of the array with the smaller angular spread.
Factors That Affect Transaction Costs in Construction Projects

AbstractThe actual cost of a construction project is comprised of not only production costs, but also transaction costs. Transaction costs include but are not limited to the costs of preparing the bidding package, estimating, drawing up a contract, administering the contract, and dealing with any deviations from contract conditions. Transaction costs constitute an important part of the construction owner’s budget. However, understanding transaction costs is difficult because of the inconsistency and ambiguity in defining transaction costs in the literature. The objective of this paper is to identify methods to minimize the transaction costs borne by the construction owner. A structural equation model is tested on data collected by means of a survey administered to construction owners. The findings indicate that the transaction costs borne by the owner can be minimized if the owner minimizes the uncertainties inherent in the transaction environment by (1) ensuring the engineering design is as complete as p.
A look out for academic impacts of Social networking sites (SNSs): A student based perspective

This study implies the exploration of relationship between SNSs usage and educational performance of the student users. A sample of one thousand students was selected from different universities of Pakistan. In first step of Multistage Sampling Technique, simple random sampling technique was used to select 6 universities i.e. 2 from private sector and 4 from public sector. To form clusters, these universities were further divided and each cluster consisted of four faculties i.e. faculty of social sciences, faculty of engineering, faculty of business/ management sciences and faculty of natural sciences. Simple random sampling was done at last stage of multistage sampling. Personally administrated questionnaires were used as data collection tool and 73% students responded back. Conclusion drawn is that student manage their time efficiently and fulfill their study requirements effectively, hence use of SNSs does not have an adverse impact on their academic performance. Key words: Social networking sites, students, academic performance, Pakistan.