Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Blood Vessel Segmentation of Retinal Image Based on Dense-U-Net Network

The accurate segmentation of retinal blood vessels in fundus is of great practical significance to help doctors diagnose fundus diseases. Aiming to solve the problems of serious segmentation errors and low accuracy in traditional retinal segmentation, a scheme based on the combination of U-Net and Dense-Net was proposed. Firstly, the vascular feature information was enhanced by fusion limited contrast histogram equalization, median filtering, data normalization and multi-scale morphological transformation, and the artifact was corrected by adaptive gamma correction. Secondly, the randomly extracted image blocks are used as training data to increase the data and improve the generalization ability. Thirdly, stochastic gradient descent was used to optimize the Dice loss function to improve the segmentation accuracy. Finally, the Dense-U-net model was used for segmentation. The specificity, accuracy, sensitivity and AUC of this algorithm are 0.9896, 0.9698, 0.7931, 0.8946 and 0.9738, respectively. The proposed method improves the segmentation accuracy of vessels and the segmentation of small vessels.
Exposure to Parental Alcohol Use Is Associated with Adolescent Drinking Even When Accounting for Alcohol Exposure of Best Friend and Peers.

AIMS To further disentangle the role of exposure to drinking of role models (parents, peers, best friends) in the development of young adolescent alcohol use, the current study examined (a) whether parent's alcohol use exposure was associated with alcohol use outcomes among adolescents and (b) whether this association remained significant when including best friend and peer drinking exposure. METHODS A longitudinal study followed 765 adolescents from the Netherlands over 3 years. Adolescents (45.6% male, Mage = 11.78, standard deviation = 0.49 at baseline) completed questionnaires every 6 months, resulting in seven measurement waves. Adolescents reported their own alcohol use and exposure to parental, best friend and peers drinking. RESULTS Multilevel regression analyses indicated that parental alcohol use exposure was positively associated with a higher likelihood of adolescent alcohol use in the past 6 months, drinking in the last month and binge drinking in the last month. These associations remained significant when including exposure to peer and best friend's alcohol use, also when controlling for alcohol use at the previous timepoint (i.e. change in drinking). These associations were also consistent for boys and girls. CONCLUSIONS Throughout early adolescence, parental alcohol exposure matters for their offspring's alcohol use, independently of whether peers or their best friend expose them to alcohol or not. Parental alcohol exposure should be considered in prevention efforts to further decrease the number of adolescents that engage in early alcohol use and binge drinking.
Comparison of the Content of Selected Bioactive Components and Antiradical Properties in Yoghurts Enriched with Chia Seeds (Salvia hispanica L.) and Chia Seeds Soaked in Apple Juice

Due to the fact that consumers are looking for new, health-promoting products, there is a growing interest in various ingredients with a high biological activity that could enrich conventional foods. As is known, chia seeds are a rich source of various health-promoting compounds. The objective of this study was to determine the content of selected biologically active compounds and their antioxidant properties by means of DPPH●, ABTS+●, and the ability to chelate Fe (II) ions in chia seeds and yoghurts with the addition of these seeds and seeds soaked in apple juice. It was found that chia seeds are a rich source of bioactive ingredients with beneficial effects on human health—especially polyphenols. All the extracts showed antioxidant properties against the radicals used. The addition of seeds to yoghurt contributed to the presence of polyphenols, while soaking in apple juice resulted in a higher content of polyphenols in yoghurts. The enriched yoghurt extracts showed antioxidant properties against DPPH radicals and the ability to chelate Fe (II) ions. The addition of seeds soaked in apple juice significantly influenced the antioxidant activity against ABTS radicals. The addition of seeds (plain and soaked) did not cause significant changes in the pH of the yoghurts.
The contributory role of vascular health in age‐related anabolic resistance

Sarcopenia, or the age‐related loss of skeletal muscle mass and function, is an increasingly prevalent condition that contributes to reduced quality of life, morbidity, and mortality in older adults. Older adults display blunted anabolic responses to otherwise anabolic stimuli—a phenomenon that has been termed anabolic resistance (AR)—which is likely a casual factor in sarcopenia development. AR is multifaceted, but historically much of the mechanistic focus has been on signalling impairments, and less focus has been placed on the role of the vasculature in postprandial protein kinetics. The vascular endothelium plays an indispensable role in regulating vascular tone and blood flow, and age‐related impairments in vascular health may impede nutrient‐stimulated vasodilation and subsequently the ability to deliver nutrients (e.g. amino acids) to skeletal muscle. Although the majority of data has been obtained studying younger adults, the relatively limited data on the effect of blood flow on protein kinetics in older adults suggest that vasodilatory function, especially of the microvasculature, strongly influences the muscle protein synthetic response to amino acid feedings. In this narrative review, we examine evidence of AR in older adults following amino acid and mixed meal consumption, examine the evidence linking vascular dysfunction and insulin resistance to age‐related AR, review the influence of nitric oxide and endothelin‐1 on age‐related vascular dysfunction as it relates to AR, briefly review the potential causal role of arterial stiffness in promoting skeletal muscle microvascular dysfunction and AR, and provide a brief overview and future considerations for research examining age‐related AR.
Morphology of human ear canal and its effect on sound transmission

The ear canal (EC) is essential for sound transfer and crucial for hearing. Some pathological conditions may modify its morphology, leading to EC sound pressure redistribution, and stapes footplate displacement (FPD) gain alteration. However, no consensus regarding pathological EC and its impact on sound transfer has yet been achieved. To address the effect of morphology of EC on sound pressure redistribution and FPD gain. Varied pathological EC finite element (FE) models were constructed and analyzed based on FE analysis. The results indicated that canal wall down mastoidectomy decreases the second resonance frequency of the EC. The canal wall down mastoidectomy, with conchaplasty increased the first resonance frequency, but decreased the second along with the interval sound pressure gain increased, following which the FPD gain was altered. Stenosis of the EC at the internal portion decreased the second resonance frequency with minimal effect to the first part. When the stenosis moved to the outer portion of the EC, the first resonance frequency decreased, and the second one increased, along with the interval sound pressure gain decreased and FPD gain. Finally, the simplified EC model exerted a minimal effect on sound transfer. The minimal change in EC, such as simplification, straightening, canal wall down mastoidectomy, or enlargement, moderately affects the sound transfer; however, the EC stenosis deteriorates the sound transfer remarkably.
Nonlinear distortion generated by DSF-based optical-phase conjugators in analog optical systems

In this paper, the nonlinear distortion induced by dispersion-shifted-fiber-based optical-phase conjugators (OPCs) in intensity-modulated subcarrier multiplexing optical systems is evaluated. In this study, it is shown that the nonlinear distortion mainly arises from the four-wave mixing (FWM) process during the phase conjugation, although there also exists influences from other nonlinear effects. Closed expressions for calculating the second- and third-order harmonic distortions due to FWM, self-phase modulation, cross-phase modulation and group-velocity dispersion effects in the dispersion-shifted-fiber-based OPC are also reported for the first time. The influence of several system design parameters, such as the optical modulation index, the number of channels, the input optical powers, and the effective area of the dispersion-shifted fiber on the compensation of fiber-induced nonlinear distortions employing the optical-phase conjugation technique, is considered.
Multi-Scalar Data Integration Links Glomerular Angiopoietin-Tie Signaling Pathway Activation With Progression of Diabetic Kidney Disease

Diabetes is the leading cause of chronic kidney disease. Prognostic biomarkers reflective of underlying molecular mechanisms are critically needed for effective management of diabetic kidney disease (DKD). In the Clinical Phenotyping and Resource Biobank study, an unbiased, machine learning approach identified a three-marker panel from plasma proteomics which, when added to standard clinical parameters, improved the prediction of outcome of end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) or 40% decline in baseline glomerular filtration rate (GFR) in a discovery DKD group (N=58) and was validated in an independent group (N=68) who also had kidney transcriptomic profiles available. Of the three markers, plasma angiopoietin 2 (ANGPT2) remained significantly associated with composite outcome in 210 Chinese Cohort Study of Chronic Kidney Disease participants with DKD. The glomerular transcriptional Angiopoietin/Tie (ANG-TIE) activation scores, derived from the expression of 154 literature-curated ANG-TIE signaling mediators, positively correlated with plasma ANGPT2 levels and outcome, explained by substantially higher TEK receptor expression in glomeruli and higher ANG-TIE activation scores in endothelial cells in DKD by single cell RNA sequencing. Our work suggests that activation of glomerular ANG-TIE signaling in the kidneys underlies the association of plasma ANGPT2 with disease progression, thereby providing potential targets to prevent DKD progression.
Effective Initial Treatment of Diffuse Pulmonary Lymphangiomatosis with Sirolimus and Propranolol: A Case Report

Diffuse pulmonary lymphangiomatosis (DPL), an exceptionally rare disease, mainly occurs in children and young adults of both sexes. Even though DPL is considered to be a benign disease, its prognosis is relatively poor. Because of its rarity, little guidance on diagnosis and treatment is available, which makes working with patients with DPL challenging for clinicians. We present here a case of a young man with DPL in whom treatment with sirolimus and propranolol rapidly achieved positive radiological and clinical effects.
Title Page Title of Original Article: Endoscopic findings in patients with persistent dyspepsia in a tertiary care hospital of south Punjab Author List:

Background: One of the most common clinical problem encountered by physicians in clinical practice is dyspepsia. This symptom has great impact on quality of life of patients. There are numerous causes of dyspepsia, organic as well as functional. Endoscopy is the diagnostic test of choice in these patients. Aim: The aim of our study was to see the endoscopic findings in patients with persistent dyspepsia. Methods: Retrospective analysis of data of patients who underwent Esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) for persistent dyspepsia was collected and evaluated. Results: There were 495 patients in our study, 244 females and 251 males, with a mean age of 41 years. Almost half of the patients belonged to 21-40 years age group. The most common endoscopic finding in patients with persistent dyspepsia was gastritis (n=219, 44.2%), followed by normal endoscopy (n= 94, 19%), incompetent lower esophageal sphincter (n=67, 13.5%), gastric malignancy (n=48, 9.7%). Ulcer disease was found in just 15 patients (3%). Conclusion: Most common endoscopic finding in patients with persistent dyspepsia was gastritis followed by normal endoscopy.
Influence of phosphorus fertiliser blends on grain yield, nutrient concentration, and profitability of soyabeans in the southern Guinea Savannah of Ghana

We conducted on-farm trials in the southern Guinea savannah of Ghana in 2016 and 2017 to evaluate soyabean response to three fertiliser blends to guide farmers towards profitable adoption of appropriate phosphorus fertiliser blend for improved soyabean production. Old Yara Legume, New Yara Legume and Triple Superphosphate fertiliser blends were evaluated. In both years, the phosphorus fertiliser blends were evaluated in a Randomised Complete Block Design with 20, 30, and 40 kg P ha−1 application rates together with control. Phosphorus fertiliser application increased soyabean yields by 1 070 kg ha−1. In 2016, fertiliser blend use efficiency ranged from 2.9 kg grain per kg fertiliser blend applied with the New Yara Legume applied at 40 kg P ha−1 to 7.4 kg grain per kg fertiliser blend applied with the Triple Superphosphate applied at 40 kg P ha−1 with significant differences between treatments. In 2017, blend use efficiency ranged from 2.5 kg grain per kg fertiliser blend applied with Old Yara Legume applied at 40 kg P ha−1 to 9.2 kg grain per kg fertiliser blend applied with the Triple Superphosphate applied at 40 kg P ha−1 with significant differences between treatments. However, phosphorus use efficiency did not significantly differ between the different treatments both in the 2016 and 2017 trials. In both 2016 and 2017 trials, the highest benefit cost ratio was attained at the lowest application rate for all the three fertiliser blends suggesting the need to review the current application rate of 30 kg P fertiliser ha−1 promoted in northern Ghana. Furthermore, the provision of credit and/or subsidy for farmers by the government is required to enable uptake and utilisation of fertilisers by farmers.
Disparities in the Diagnosis, Treatment, and Survival Rate of Cervical Cancer among Women with and without Disabilities

Introduction Not much is known regarding the disparities in cancer care between women with and without disabilities. Objectives The aim of this study was to investigate the potential disparities in the diagnosis, treatment, and survival of women with cervical cancer with and without disabilities. Methods We performed a retrospective cohort study and linked the National Disability Database, Korean Central Cancer Registry, and Korean National Health Insurance claims database. Charlson comorbidity index was used for adjusting the comorbidity. The study population comprised 3 185 women with disabilities (physical/brain, communication, mental, cardiopulmonary, and other impairment) who were diagnosed with cervical cancer and 13 582 age- and sex-matched women without disability who were diagnosed with cervical cancer for comparison. Results Distant metastatic stage (7.7% vs 3.7%) and unknown stage (16.1% vs 7.0%) were more common in cervical cancer women with grade 1 disabilities, compared with women without disabilities. Women with cervical cancer with disabilities were less likely to undergo surgery (adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 0.81, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.73–0.90) or chemotherapy (aOR 0.86, 95% CI 0.77–0.97). Lower rate of surgery was more evident in patients with physical/brain impairment (aOR 0.46, 95% CI 0.37–0.58) and severe mental impairment (aOR 0.57, 95% CI 0.41–0.81). The overall mortality risk was also higher in patients with disabilities (adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) 1.36, 95% CI 1.25–1.48). Conclusion Women with cervical cancer with disabilities, especially with severe disabilities, were diagnosed at later stages, received less treatment, and had higher mortality rates, compared with patients who lacked disabilities. Social support and policies, along with education for women with disabilities, their families, and healthcare professionals, are needed to improve these disparities.
Sub-100-nm vertical MOSFET with threshold voltage adjustment

Sub-100-nm vertical MOSFET has been developed for fabrication with low cost processing. This is the first vertical MOSFET design that combines 1) a vertical L/sub DD/ structure processed with implantation and diffusion steps, 2) high-pressure oxide growing at source/drain (S/D) regions to reduce the gate overlapped capacitances, and 3) threshold voltage adjustment with a doped APCVD film. The drive current per unit channel width and S/D punch-through voltage are higher than that of previously published vertical MOSFETs. Fabrication processes are well established, and equipment of the 1 /spl mu/m CMOS generation can be used to fabricate sub-100-nm channel length MOSFETs with good electrical characteristics and high performance.
Comparison of Graph-based and Hypergraph-based Models for Wireless Network Coexistence

Dynamic Spectrum Access (DSA) is regarded as a promising solution for efficient spectrum management. Regulators have also approved licence-exemption or general authorisation access (GAA) to further improve spectrum accessibility for DSA systems in the Television (TV) and 3.5 GHz bands. However, heterogeneous DSA radio standards have been developed and the gains in spectrum efficiency could be undermined by coexistence challenges. Hence, the IEEE 802.19. 1 standard for wireless network coexistence methods was published, but it leaves algorithmic implementation of the methods to the industry. When the spectrum is not sufficient for exclusive channel allocation, the standard includes a method for co-channel sharing among coexistent neighbour networks. In previous work, channel sharing was introduced on top of the exclusive channel allocation. However, channel sharing options could be significantly limited by the outcome of the exclusive channel allocation. Alternatively, this paper proposes use of hypergraph theory to model the cosharing strategy for coexistence management of heterogeneous radio systems. Results demonstrate that the hypergraph method achieves higher average spectrum utilisation by up to 8% and requires up to 5 fewer channels to achieve, on average, 100% operational networks than the previous method.
Sub-microsecond pulse switching characteristics of a 4500-V IEGT

The short pulse (pulse width <=1 /spl mu/s) switching characteristics of a newly developed semiconductor switch device, the 4500 V IEGT, have been investigated. Test results show that switching efficiency for pulse widths of 200 ns, 500 ns and 1000 ns were 65%, 80%, and 90%, respectively. Furthermore, the short recovery time of less than 20 /spl mu/s showed that the IEGT is adequate for high repetition rate applications. It is concluded that the IEGT is one of the most promising devices for pulsed power uses.
Comparing High and Low-Dose Radio-Iodine Therapy in Thyroid Remnant Ablation Among Intermediate and Low-Risk Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma Patients—Single Centre Experience

The role of Iodine-131 therapy is well established as an adjuvant therapy and for thyroid remnant ablation in differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC); however controversy still exists regarding its appropriate dose. Purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of low-dose and high-dose Iodine-131 ablation therapies in low- and intermediate-risk PTC patients. Eighty-four patients were divided equally into Group I: Ablated with high dose of Iodine-131 and Group II: Ablated with low dose of Iodine-131. Iodine-131 WBS, serum TG levels and USG neck of all patients were performed at first presentation, 6 months, 1 year, and 2 years follow up. Results are as follows: Group I: 64%, 72%, and 76% intermediate-risk patients were disease free at the follow up intervals of 6 months, 1 year, and 2 years, respectively. Similarly 70%, 82%, and 82% low-risk patients were disease free at above mentioned intervals. Group II: 56%, 60%, and 64% were disease free among intermediate-risk patients while percentage of disease free low-risk patients was 70%, 76%, and 76% at follow up intervals. Low dose of radioactive Iodine-131 was found as effective as high dose in thyroid remnant ablation of PTC patients.
Multiple voices, multiple choices: Older adults??? evaluation of speech output to support independent living

Interactive Domestic Alarm Systems (IDAS) are currently being designed to support older adults with independent living. Uptake and continued use of an IDAS will likely depend on successful interactions between the older adult and the system. Thus, suitable modes of system output must be identified to facilitate IDAS-User interactions. This paper considers the use of speech as a mode of IDAS output and reports design recommendations arising from an experimental investigation into older adults’ subjective evaluations of speech. Methodological reflections consider the suitability of employing an experimental methodology with an ageing user group.
E-Textile RF Energy Harvesting and Storage using Organic-Electrolyte Carbon-Based Supercapacitors

Wearable radio frequency (RF) energy harvesting is highly dependent on the distance from the source and human-caused RF shadowing. Therefore, energy storage devices integrated with rectennas are of paramount importance to overcome this intermittency. In this paper, the use of carbon-based e-textile supercapacitors for storing the RF-DC converted power for powering body area networks nodes is investigated. A voltage doubler sub-1 GHz flexible rectifier, whose peak power conversion efficiency (PCE) approaches 80% is coupled to a two-cell 15.5 mF textile-based supercapacitor operating up to 4 V DC. Owing to the rectifier's low optimum load resistance and high DC Voltage output, the average charging PCE of the rectifier-supercapacitor module reaches 31% for a 9.5 dBm input. Time-varying s-parameter measurements are performed to compare the time-averaged matching as opposed to instantaneous measurements using a resistive load, where the textile supercapacitor exhibits a similar response to a commercial supercapacitor. Finally, the RF-charged textile supercapacitor is demonstrated, for the first time, powering a microcontroller and Bluetooth transmitter with an average power consumption of $350\ \mu \mathrm{W}$ for up to 102 s, following 40 s of charging at 9.5 dBm, demonstrating its suitability for RF-powered body area networks applications.
A flexible metro WDM ring using wavelength-independent subscriber equipment to share bandwidth

Transparent optical networking has been proposed as a means for increasing capacity, improving performance, and decreasing costs, while simplifying network operations. For example, one facet of DARPA's next generation internet (NGI) initiative is focused on the development of transparent networks capable of handling IP traffic riding directly over WDM. We propose and demonstrate a transparent WDM metro ring architecture in which optics enables simultaneous provisioning of dedicated wavelengths for high-end users, while low-end users share wavelengths on "virtual rings". In both cases the customer's "end station" consists of low cost wavelength-independent components.
Real Time Monitoring for Model Based Design of Power Converters

Controllers for power converters have moved to the digital domain and the operating frequency has greatly increased making the process of debugging, tuning and experimenting with complex features more difficult. More powerful testbenches based on easily accessible System On Chip (SOC) devices can be used. This paper presents and compares two approaches to the problem. The first is a dedicated approach in which all the components of the system have been developed separately, the second one is based on the use of an integrated commercial enviroment such as Matlab & Simulink with ad hoc adaptation for real time monitoring and controller data acquisition.