Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Deep Learning for Reaction-Diffusion Glioma Growth Modeling: Towards a Fully Personalized Model?

Simple Summary Mathematical tumor growth models have been proposed for decades to capture the growth of gliomas, an aggressive form of brain tumor. However, the estimation of the tumor cell-density distribution at diagnosis and model parameters from partial observations provided by magnetic resonance imaging are ill-posed problems. In this work, we propose a deep learning-based approach to address these problems. 1200 synthetic tumors are first generated using the mathematical model over brain geometries of 6 volunteers. Two deep convolutional neural networks are then trained to (i) reconstruct a whole tumor cell-density distribution and (ii) evaluate the model parameters from partial observations provided in the form of threshold-like imaging contours, with state-of-the-art results. From the estimated cell-density distribution and parameter values, the spatio-temporal evolution of the tumor can ultimately be accurately captured by the mathematical model. Such an approach could be of great interest for glioma characterization and therapy planning. Abstract Reaction-diffusion models have been proposed for decades to capture the growth of gliomas, the most common primary brain tumors. However, ill-posedness of the initialization at diagnosis time and parameter estimation of such models have restrained their clinical use as a personalized predictive tool. In this work, we investigate the ability of deep convolutional neural networks (DCNNs) to address commonly encountered pitfalls in the field. Based on 1200 synthetic tumors grown over real brain geometries derived from magnetic resonance (MR) data of six healthy subjects, we demonstrate the ability of DCNNs to reconstruct a whole tumor cell-density distribution from only two imaging contours at a single time point. With an additional imaging contour extracted at a prior time point, we also demonstrate the ability of DCNNs to accurately estimate the individual diffusivity and proliferation parameters of the model. From this knowledge, the spatio-temporal evolution of the tumor cell-density distribution at later time points can ultimately be precisely captured using the model. We finally show the applicability of our approach to MR data of a real glioblastoma patient. This approach may open the perspective of a clinical application of reaction-diffusion growth models for tumor prognosis and treatment planning.
On the energy equality for the 3D incompressible viscoelastic flows

: In this paper, we study the problem of energy conservation for the solutions to the incompressible viscoelastic ﬂows. First, we consider Leray-Hopf weak solutions in the bounded Lipschitz domain Ω in R d ( d ≥ 2). We prove that under the Shinbrot type conditions u ∈ L qloc (0 , T ; L p (Ω)) for any 1 q + 1 p ≤ 12 , with p ≥ 4 , and F ∈ L rloc (0 , T ; L s (Ω)) for any 1 r + 1 s ≤ 12 , with s ≥ 4, the boundary conditions u | ∂ Ω = 0 , F · n | ∂ Ω = 0 can inhibit the boundary eﬀect and guarantee the validity of energy equality. Next, we apply this idea to deal with the case Ω = R d ( d = 2 , 3 , 4), and showed that the energy is conserved for u ∈ L qloc 0 T L ploc R d with 2 q + 2 p ≤ 1 , p ≥ 4 and F ∈ L rloc with 2 r + 2 s ≤ 1 , s ≥ 4. This result shows that the behavior of solutions in the ﬁnite regions and the behavior at inﬁnite play diﬀerent roles in the energy conservation. Finally, we consider the problem of energy conservation for distributional solutions and show energy equality for the distributional solutions belonging to the so-called Lions class L 4 L 4 .
Quantum state interrogation using a preshaped free electron wavefunction

: We present a comprehensive theory for interrogation of the quantum state of a two-level system (TLS) based on a free-electron – bound-electron resonant interaction scheme. The scheme is based on free electrons, whose quantum electron wavefunction is pre-shaped or optically modulated by lasers in an electron microscope setup and then inelastically scattered by a quantum TLS target (e.g., atom, quantum dot, crystal defect center , etc.) upon traversing in proximity to the target. Measurement of the post-interaction energy spectrum of the electrons, probes and quantifies the full Bloch sphere parameters of a pre-excited TLS and enables coherent control of the qubit states. The exceptional advantage of this scheme over laser-based ones, is atomic-scale spatial resolution of addressing individual TLS targets. Thus, this scheme opens new horizons for electron microscopy in material interrogation and quantum information technology.
Intermediate mass-ratio inspirals with dark matter minispikes

The dark matter (DM) distributed around an intermediate massive black hole (IMBH) forms an overdensity region called DM minispike. We consider the binary system which consists of an IMBH with DM minispike and a small black hole inspiralling around the IMBH in eccentric orbits. The factors which aﬀect the evolution of the orbit include the gravity of the system, the dynamical friction and accretion of the small black hole caused by the DM minispike, and the radiation reaction of gravitational waves (GWs). Using the method of osculating orbit, we ﬁnd that when the semi-latus rectum p (cid:28) 10 5 R s ( R s is the Schwarzschild radius of the IMBH) the dominated factors are the dynamical friction and accretion from the DM minispike, and the radiation reaction. When p (cid:29) 10 5 R s , the gravity from the DM minispike dominates the orbital evolution. The existence of DM minispike leads to the deviation from the Keplerian orbit, such as extra orbital precession, henceforth extra phase shift in the GW waveform. By calculating the signal-to-noise ratio for GWs with and without DM minispikes and the mismatch between them, we show that the eﬀect of the DM minispike in GW waveforms can potentially be detected by future space-based GW detectors such as LISA, Taiji, and Tianqin.
Hamming Distance and the onset of quantum criticality

Simulating models for quantum correlated matter unveils the inherent limitations of deterministic classical computations. In particular, in the case of quantum Monte Carlo methods, this is manifested by the emergence of negative weight configurations in the sampling, that is, the sign problem (SP). There have been several recent calculations which exploit the SP to locate underlying critical behavior. Here, utilizing a metric that quantifies phase-space ergodicity in such sampling, the Hamming distance, we suggest a significant advance on these ideas to extract the location of quantum critical points in various fermionic models, in spite of the presence of a severe SP. Combined with other methods, exact diagonalization in our case, it elucidates both the nature of the different phases as well as their location, as we demonstrate explicitly for the honeycomb and triangular Hubbard models, in both their U(1) and SU(2) forms. Our approach charts a path to circumvent inherent limitations imposed by the SP, allowing the exploration of the phase diagram of a variety of fermionic quantum models hitherto considered to be impractical via quantum Monte Carlo simulations.
Coverage Analysis for Satellite Downlink Networks

In this paper, we develop novel models that are tractable for the coverage and rates analysis using stochastic geometry. By modeling the locations of satellites and users using Poisson point processes (PPPs) on the surfaces of concentric spheres with distinct radii, we characterize analytical expressions for the coverage probability of a typical downlink user as a function of relevant parameters. Then, we also derive a tight lower bound of the coverage probability in closed-form expression while keeping full generality. Leveraging the derived expression, we identify the optimal density of satellites in terms of the altitude. Our key finding is that the required average number of satellites scales down logarithmically with the network height to maximize the coverage performance. Simulation results verify the exactness of the derived expressions.
COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS: DIVERSE APPLICATIONS IN HYDROPOWER PROJECT's DESIGN AND ANALYSIS

Hydropower Dam designers and developers are discovering the capabilities of computational fluid dynamics for a range of applications, from hydraulic design to the analysis of dam break flooding. The design and engineering assessment of hydroelectric facilities involves developing an understanding of the very complex behaviour of moving water. To accomplish this, the engineer must develop a thorough understanding of the complexities of fluid flow phenomena - complexities that are often highly two and three dimensional in nature. In early years, physical model studies would have been the only practical medium available to gain insight into the threedimensional and time-dependent nature of fluid flow. However, physical modelling is typically only undertaken during the final stages of design, and can be costly to execute. With the advancements in computing power made since the 1980's, CFD analysis has emerged as a powerful alternative design tool, and can be used to provide insight into hydraulic design at all levels of study. Manitoba Hydro and Acres International Ltd., both of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, have undertaken an extensive 3-dimensional modelling program as a part of pre-commitment level studies for three proposed hydropower projects in Northern Manitoba. These three projects are the Gull Generating Station (680 MW) on the Nelson River, near Gillam, Manitoba, and the Notigi (100 MW) and Wuskwatim (200 MW) Generating Stations, both on the Burntwood River, near
Force sensing microinstrument for measuring tissue properties and pulse in microsurgery

Miniaturized and "smart" instruments capable of characterizing the mechanical properties of tiny biological tissues are needed for research in biology, physiology, and biomechanics, and can find very important clinical applications for diagnostics and minimally invasive surgery (MIS). We are developing a set of robotic microinstruments designed to augment the performance of surgeons and clinicians during MIS. These microtools are intended to restore (or even enhance) the finger palpation capabilities that the surgeon exploits to characterize tissue hardness and to measure pulsating vessels in traditional surgery, but which are substantially reduced in MIS. This paper describes the main applications and the performance of a prototype miniature robotic instrument consisting of a microfabricated microgripper, instrumented with semiconductor strain-gauges as force sensors. The experimental set-up used for the in vitro tests reported in this paper consists of the microprobe mounted on a workstation and teleoperated. A haptic interface provides force feedback to the operator. We have demonstrated that the system can discriminate, both qualitatively and quantitatively, tiny skin samples based on their different elastic properties, and "feel" microvessels on the basis of pulsating fluid flowing through them.
Multi-Person Extreme Motion Prediction

Human motion prediction aims to forecast future poses given a sequence of past 3D skeletons. While this problem has recently received increasing attention, it has mostly been tackled for single humans in isolation. In this paper, we explore this problem when dealing with humans performing collaborative tasks, we seek to predict the future motion of two interacted persons given two sequences of their past skeletons. We propose a novel cross interaction attention mechanism that exploits historical information of both persons, and learns to predict cross dependencies between the two pose sequences. Since no dataset to train such interactive situations is available, we collected ExPI (Extreme Pose Interaction) dataset, a new lab-based per-son interaction dataset of professional dancers performing Lindy-hop dancing actions, which contains 115 sequences with 30K frames annotated with 3D body poses and shapes. We thoroughly evaluate our cross interaction network on ExPI and show that both in short- and long-term predictions, it consistently outperforms state-of-the-art methods for single-person motion prediction. Our code and dataset are available at: https://team.inria. fr/robotlearn/multi-person-extreme-motionprediction/
Identification of pyroptosis-related signature for cervical cancer predicting prognosis

Cervical cancer (CC) is one of the most common malignancies encountered in gynecology practice. However, there is a paucity of information about specific biomarkers that assist in the diagnosis and prognosis of CC. Pyroptosis is a form of programmed cell death whose different elements are related to the occurrence, invasion, and metastasis of tumors. However, the role of pyroptosis phenomena in the progression of CC has not yet been elucidated. This study focuses on the development of a pyroptosis-associated prognostic signature for CC using integrated bioinformatics to delineate the relationships among the signature, tumor microenvironment, and immune response of the patients. In this respect, we identified a prognostic signature that depends on eight pyroptosis-related genes (PRGs) that designate with better prognostic survival in the low-risk group (P<0.05) and where AUC values were greater than 0.7. A multi-factor Cox regression analysis indicated that such a signature could be used as an independent prognostic factor, and both the DCA and the Nomogram suggested that the proposed prognostic signature had good predictive capabilities. Interestingly, this prognostic signature can be applied to multiple tumors and thus, is versatile from a clinical point of view. In addition, there were significant differences in the tumor microenvironment and immune infiltration status between the high- and low-risk groups (P<0. 05). The core gene granzyme B (GZMB) was screened and the CC-associated regulatory axis, GZMB/ miR-378a/TRIM52-AS1, was constructed, which may promote CC progression, and further experimentation is needed to validate these results.
Hot carrier effects on analog performance of N- and P-MOSFET's with oxynitride gate dielectrics

In this paper we report the impact of hot-carrier stress on analog performance of n- and p-MOSFET's with conventional oxide, NH/sub 3/-nitrided oxide (RTN) and reoxidized nitrided oxide (RTN/RTO) as gate dielectrics. Changes due to hot-carrier stress in crucial analog parameters viz., drain output resistance, voltage gain, and input offset voltage of a source coupled differential MOSFET pair are investigated. Results show that RTN/RTO gate dielectrics suppress degradation of analog parameters in n-MOSFET's but increase it slightly in p-MOSFET's, as compared to conventional oxide MOSFET's. >
Diversification of plasmids in a genus of pathogenic and nitrogen-fixing bacteria

Members of the agrobacteria–rhizobia complex (ARC) have multiple and diverse plasmids. The extent to which these plasmids are shared and the consequences of their interactions are not well understood. We extracted over 4000 plasmid sequences from 1251 genome sequences and constructed a network to reveal interactions that have shaped the evolutionary histories of oncogenic virulence plasmids. One newly discovered type of oncogenic plasmid is a mosaic with three incomplete, but complementary and partially redundant virulence loci. Some types of oncogenic plasmids recombined with accessory plasmids or acquired large regions not known to be associated with pathogenicity. We also identified two classes of partial virulence plasmids. One class is potentially capable of transforming plants, but not inciting disease symptoms. Another class is inferred to be incomplete and non-functional but can be found as coresidents of the same strain and together are predicted to confer pathogenicity. The modularity and capacity for some plasmids to be transmitted broadly allow them to diversify, convergently evolve adaptive plasmids and shape the evolution of genomes across much of the ARC. This article is part of the theme issue ‘The secret lives of microbial mobile genetic elements’.
New perspectives on mobile genetic elements: a paradigm shift for managing the antibiotic resistance crisis

Mobile genetic elements (MGEs) are primary facilitators in the global spread of antibiotic resistance. Here, we present novel ecological and evolutionary perspectives to understand and manage these elements: as selfish entities that exhibit biological individuality, as pollutants that replicate and as invasive species that thrive under human impact. Importantly, each viewpoint suggests new means to control their activity and spread. When seen as biological individuals, MGEs can be regarded as therapeutic targets in their own right. We highlight promising conjugation-inhibiting compounds that could be administered alongside antibiotic treatment. Viewed as pollutants, sewage treatment methods could be modified to efficiently remove antimicrobials and the resistance genes that they select. Finally, by recognizing the invasive characteristics of MGEs, we might apply strategies developed for the management of invasive species. These include environmental restoration to reduce antimicrobial selection, early detection to help inform appropriate antibiotic usage, and biocontrol strategies that target MGEs, constituting precision antimicrobials. These actions, which embody the One Health approach, target different characteristics of MGEs that are pertinent at the cellular, community, landscape and global levels. The strategies could act on multiple fronts and, together, might provide a more fruitful means to combat the global resistance crisis. This article is part of the theme issue ‘The secret lives of microbial mobile genetic elements’.
Company-Sponsored Online Co-Creation and Financial Incentives: The Impact of Intrinsic Motivation on Participation Intention

ABSTRACT Participation in sponsored online co-creation is said to be driven primarily by an individual’s intrinsic motivation, which in turn may be crowded-out, or undermined by financial incentives. The effect of financial incentives, specifically in a company-sponsored online co-creation brainstorming (COCB) context, however, remains unexplored. In this study, we use LEGO Ideas, a prominent COCB, as an exemplar and employ a between-subjects randomized experimental design to examine the effect of different types of financial incentives on intrinsic motivation’s impact on participation intention in a COCB context, either directly or indirectly through personal innovativeness in the domain of information technology. Our findings suggest that focused financial incentives, representing situations where financial rewards are administered exclusively on the basis of excellent performance, offer the best outcome for predicting participation intention. These findings contribute to our knowledge of the use of financial incentives in sponsored online co-creation generally, and specifically in COCBs.
UAS-NAS Integrated Human in the Loop: Test Environment Report

The desire and ability to fly Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) in the National Airspace System (NAS) is of increasing urgency. The application of unmanned aircraft to perform national security, defense, scientific, and emergency management are driving the critical need for less restrictive access by UAS to the NAS. UAS represent a new capability that will provide a variety of services in the government (public) and commercial (civil) aviation sectors. The growth of this potential industry has not yet been realized due to the lack of a common understanding of what is required to safely operate UAS in the NAS. NASA's UAS Integration in the NAS Project is conducting research in the areas of Separation Assurance/Sense and Avoid Interoperability (SSI), Human Systems Integration (HSI), and Communication to support reducing the barriers of UAS access to the NAS. This research was broken into two research themes namely, UAS Integration and Test Infrastructure. UAS Integration focuses on airspace integration procedures and performance standards to enable UAS integration in the air transportation system, covering Sense and Avoid (SAA) performance standards, command and control performance standards, and human systems integration. The focus of the Test Infrastructure theme was to enable development and validation of airspace integration procedures and performance standards, including the execution of integrated test and evaluation. In support of the integrated test and evaluation efforts, the Project developed an adaptable, scalable, and schedulable relevant test environment incorporating live, virtual, and constructive elements capable of validating concepts and technologies for unmanned aircraft systems to safely operate in the NAS. To accomplish this task, the Project planned to conduct three integrated events: a Human-in-the-Loop simulation and two Flight Test series that integrated key concepts, technologies and/or procedures in a relevant air traffic environment. Each of the integrated events were built on the technical achievements, fidelity and complexity of previous simulations and tests, resulting in research findings that support the development of regulations governing the access of UAS into the NAS. The purpose of this document is to describe how well the system under test was representative
Recent developments of the pragmatic markers kind of and sort of in spoken British English

This study reports on recent changes in the use of the hedges kind of and sort of in spoken British English over the past twenty years. A quantitative analysis of these features within subsets of the original BNC 1994 (BNC Consortium 2007) and BNC 2014 (Love et al. 2017) suggests a systematic encroaching of kind of into contexts that are traditionally occupied by sort of. This is highlighted in apparent-time patterns in which younger speakers are leading in use as well as real-time patterns that show a significant increase in use between 1994 and 2014. The hedges sort of and kind of are often treated as semantically equivalent, yet show distributional differences across different varieties of English. This article reports on an ongoing shift in the use of kind of as well as a relatively stable use of sort of. Its main focus is a detailed sociolinguistic analysis of both variants, which, in addition to social factors involved, teases apart some of the linguistic aspects of this shift. In line with the theme of this special issue, the article draws attention to the usefulness of comparable, or comparably made, corpora that allow for focused studies of linguistic change across speakers, generations, registers and communities.
Smart sensor tights: Movement tracking of the lower limbs in football

Abstract This article presents a novel smart sensor garment with integrated miniaturized inertial measurements units (IMUs) that can be used to monitor lower body kinematics during daily training activities, without the need of extensive technical assistance throughout the measurements. The smart sensor tights enclose five ultra-light sensor modules that measure linear accelerations, angular velocities, and the earth magnetic field in three directions. The modules are located at the pelvis, thighs, and shanks. The garment enables continuous measurement in the field at high sample rates (250 Hz) and the sensors have a large measurement range (32 g, 4,000°/s). They are read out by a central processing unit through an SPI bus, and connected to a centralized battery in the waistband. A fully functioning prototype was built to perform validation studies in a lab setting and in a field setting. In the lab validation study, the IMU data (converted to limb orientation data) were compared with the kinematic data of an optoelectronic measurement system and good validity (CMCs >0.8) was shown. In the field tests, participants experienced the tights as comfortable to wear and they did not feel restricted in their movements. These results show the potential of using the smart sensor tights on a regular base to derive lower limb kinematics in the field.