Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of PML immunofluorescence, flow cytometric immunophenotypic analysis, and reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction for PML/RARa for rapid diagnosis of acute promyelocytic leukemia

We read with great interest the article entitled ‘‘Rapid and reliable confirmation of acute promyelocytic leukemia by immunofluorescence staining with an antipromyelocytic leukemia antibody: the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center experience of 349 patients’’ by Dimov et al. We herein share our experience with PML immunofluorescence (IF), reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), and flow cytometric (FCM) immunophenotyping in the diagnosis of acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL). Between February 2008 and November 2009, 103 acute nonlymphocytic leukemia cases were analyzed, after obtaining informed consent. We performed RT-PCR for t(15;17), FCM immunophenotyping using a panel of 24 monoclonal antibodies, and PML immunofluorescence using monoclonal anti-PML antibody (PGM3 clone). RT-PCR for t(15;17) was positive in 28 of 103 cases (long form in 13 and short form in 15). Twenty-seven cases had classical APL morphology. PML immunofluorescence staining revealed a nuclear microgranular staining pattern in 27 of 28 cases. Flow cytometry, performed in 16 of 28 cases, showed typical APL phenotype (CD34 , HLA-DR , CD13þ, CD33þ) in 13. In 75 cases, RT-PCR was negative for t(15;17) and showed a speckled staining pattern. Morphologic diagnoses ranged from M0 to M7. FCM immunophenotyping, performed in 41 of 75 cases, showed an immunophenotype suggestive of non-APL in 36. Considering RT-PCR as the gold standard, PML immunofluorescence had 96.4% sensitivity and 100% specificity; FCM immunophenotyping had 81.25% sensitivity and 87.8% specificity. This is in close agreement with the sensitivity and specificity of PML immunofluorescence testing of 98.9% and 98.7%, respectively, reported by Dimov et al using a polyclonal anti-PML antibody. In our experience, time required was 2 to 4 hours for the immunostaining procedure, 12 to 24 hours for RTPCR, and 3 to 5 hours for FCM immunophenotyping. Dimov et al studied a much larger number of APL cases. However, ours is perhaps the first study conducted in a resource-constrained setup to evaluate the role of PML immunofluorescence, RT-PCR, and FCM immunophenotyping for rapid diagnosis of APL. These results have been briefly communicated previously. PML immunofluorescence was found to be a simple and rapid technique to detect t(15;17), having good concordance with the gold standard RT-PCR. It should be applied as a first-line tool to detect APL cases, especially in under-resourced countries.
Fast and accurate 3D reconstruction using a moving depth camera and inertial sensor

This paper presents a fast and accurate method for real-time 3D reconstruction by using a depth camera and inertial sensor. Generally, the localization information of the camera is obtained from the depth data by using the ICP (Iterative Closest Point) algorithm. When the depth camera moves fast, ICP will converge to a bad local minimum which results in tracking failure. To prevent this case, a camera pose transformation matrix from the inertial sensor is taken as the initial value of ICP. By the Invariant EKF method, the two poses obtained from inertial sensor and ICP are fused to obtain a more accurate pose. As the massive points are input to the ICP, the large-scale parallel processors are used to accelerate the Invariant EKF operation. Furthermore, the inertial sensor help the system to determine whether the full recasting is performed or not when the 3D model is rendering. If the raycasting is skipped, an adaptive forward projection can be performed for the visualization. Experiments show the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Fabrication of plasmonic crystals using programmable nanoreplica molding process

The development of many photonic devices, such as photonic integrated circuit, optical sensors, and photovoltaic devices, demands low-cost and reliable fabrication technologies to fabricate sub-wavelength features. Here, we report a programmable nanoreplica molding process, which is capable of producing photonic devices with a variety of submicrometer patterns. The process utilizes a stretchable plastic mold to generate the desired periodic pattern using a UVcurable polymer on plastic substrates. During the replica molding process, a uniaxial force is applied to the mold and results in changes of the periodic structure, which locates on the surface of the mold. The geometry of the replicated pattern, including the lattice constant and arrangement, is determined by the magnitude and direction of the force. As an example, we present a plasmonic crystal device with surface plasmon resonances carefully tuned by using the uniaxial force. This unique process offers an inexpensive route to generate various periodic nanostructures rapidly.
Accelerating the HyperLogLog Cardinality Estimation Algorithm

In recent years, vast amounts of data of different kinds, from pictures and videos from our cameras to software logs from sensor networks and Internet routers operating day and night, are being generated. This has led to new big data problems, which require new algorithms to handle these large volumes of data and as a result are very computationally demanding because of the volumes to process. In this paper, we parallelize one of these new algorithms, namely, the HyperLogLog algorithm, which estimates the number of different items in a large data set with minimal memory usage, as it lowers the typical memory usage of this type of calculation from to . We have implemented parallelizations based on OpenMP and OpenCL and evaluated them in a standard multicore system, an Intel Xeon Phi, and two GPUs from different vendors. The results obtained in our experiments, in which we reach a speedup of 88.6 with respect to an optimized sequential implementation, are very positive, particularly taking into account the need to run this kind of algorithm on large amounts of data.
Low-overhead scheduling algorithms for OFDMA relay networks

Enhanced data rates and connectivity are key requirements for providing ubiquitous mobile access in next-generation cellular networks. Relay-enabled cellular networks, marked by their adoption in IEEE 802.16j standard, have become a viable candidate in such an endeavor. Such relay networks not only provide multi-user and (OFDM) channel diversity gains that are available in conventional cellular systems, but also provide spatial reuse gains, arising from the simultaneous transmissions on different hops of the network on the same channel. However, the efficient exploitation of these gains, calls for intelligent scheduler design at the BS that must not only accommodate the multi-hop nature of the network, but also address the resulting significant overhead incurred in the form of feedback. In this work, we present relay-assisted scheduling algorithms that efficiently exploit the available diversity and spatial reuse gains at the cost of minimal feedback overhead. The proposed solutions improve performance over conventional approaches by over 50% along with a scalable feedback overhead that grows only with the number of relays in the network and not with the number of users.
Textual Inference with Tree-structured LSTMs 1

Textual Inference is a research trend in Natural Language Processing (NLP) that has recently received a lot of attention by the scientific community. Textual Entailment (TE) is a specific task in Textual Inference that aims at determining whether a hypothesis is entailed by a text. Usually tackled by machine learning techniques employing features which represent similarity between texts, the recent availability of more training data presupposes that Neural Networks that are able to learn latent feature from data for generalized prediction could be employed. This paper employs the Child-Sum TreeLSTM for solving the challenging problem of textual entailment. Our approach is simple and able to generalize well without excessive parameter optimization. Evaluation done on SNLI, SICK and other TE datasets shows the competitiveness of our approach.
A 1-V 25-µW low-noise CMOS programmable gain pre-amplifier for digital hearing aid

A low-voltage low-noise programmable gain pre-amplifier (PGA) is presented in this paper. The proposed PGA is based on a fully-differential source-degeneration structure with gm-boosting circuitry. The design is implemented in UMC 0.18um CMOS process and occupies an active area of 0.128 × 0.08 mm2. It dissipates only 25-μW from a single 1-V supply. The total harmonic distortion (THD) is below -50dB over the audio frequencies at 0.2-Vpp differential output. The single-stage gain ranges from 12dB to 27dB in 3dB step with a gain error of less than 0.4dB. When set at the max gain, the equivalent input noise is 25 nV/√Hz at 1kHz, the white noise is 16.4 nV/√Hz and the integrated noise in the audio range (20~20kHz) is 3μV.
Effects of Bioactive Components of Sea Cucumber on the Serum, Liver Lipid Profile and Lipid Absorption

Several studies had indicated that the whole body of sea cucumber had beneficial effects on lipid metabolism. However, little information has been known on the individual functions of its bioactive components, and this study was undertaken to compare the different effects on improving lipid metabolism. The rats were assigned to seven groups: control, whole sea cucumber, saponins, polysaccharides, collagen peptides, dregs and non-saponin residues. After 28 d of feeding, the serum total cholesterol, triglyceride, high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol, and hepatic lipid concentrations were examined. The results indicated that a dietary saponin supplement significantly suppressed adipose accumulation, and reduced serum and hepatic lipids. Saponin proved to be more effective than the other isolated components, so is considered to be the main lipid-lowering component in sea cucumber. The possible mechanism by which saponins improved lipid metabolism was also investigated. The saponins of sea cucumber suppressed and delayed TG and TC absorption which could be related to the pancreatic lipase inhibiting effect of saponins. This may be an important mechanism to explain its lipid-lowering effect on rats.
Prophéties auto-réalisatrices et volatilité des cours boursiers

Cette these porte sur la mesure et les determinants de la volatilite des cours boursiers. La premiere partie commence par evaluer, a l'aide d'une analyse econometrique en series temporelles, l'importance et la persistance des fluctuations cycliques du prix des actions. On presente ensuite les principales anomalies financieres (et notamment la volatilite excessive des prix et la previsibilite des rendements) dans un cadre unifie et synthetique. L'analyse nous conduit a relativiser la portee de l'hypothese d'efficience informationnelle des marches, et a souligner la necessite d'expliquer les variations importantes du taux d'escompte a l'origine des mouvements du prix. La seconde partie de la these propose une modelisation theorique, fondee sur les notions d'indetermination de l'equilibre et de prophetie auto-realisatrice, capable de rendre compte des faits stylises ainsi degages. A l'aide de deux modeles d'evaluation d'actifs simples, on montre qu'un grand nombre d'anomalies financieres, loin de demontrer l'irrationalite des marches, peuvent s'expliquer par la multiplicite d'equilibres susceptible d'apparaitre dans les modeles a anticipations rationnelles.
Real-Time Data Based Denial-Of-Service Attack Detection Technique Derived From Statistical Traffic Analysis Ms

Denial of Service (DoS) attacks are one type of aggressive and menacing intrusive behaviour to online servers such as Web servers or Internet Banking servers. These different types of DoS attacks severely degrade the availability of a victim, which can be a host, a server, a router, or an entire network. The attacker flood large amount of useless packets because of which victim is forced out of service from a few minutes to even several days. DoS attacks not only consume the system resources but can also choke the network bandwidth. This causes serious damages to the services running on the victim and requirement of effective DoS attacks detection is essential for the protection of online servers. The DoS attack detection work mainly focuses on the development of network-based detection mechanisms. The detection systems based on these mechanisms monitor traffic transmitting over the protected networks. The projected DoS attack detection system monitors the network traffic to extract the features which are directly associated with DoS attacks. The analysis of TCP packet is discussed in this paper. Based on these features, the statistical traffic analysis like Naive Bayes Classification and Multivariate Correlation models consisting of Geometrical Triangular Area measurements are computed for normal profiles. These models are used as reference model to detect any known as well as unknown DoS attacks in the network with enhanced True positive rate using real time Data. KeywordsDoS; TCP; Multivariate Correlation models; Triangular Area measurement; True positive rate
Morphometric assessment of the heteromodal association cortex in schizophrenia.

OBJECTIVE The heteromodal association cortex has been hypothesized to be selectively involved in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. To test this hypothesis, the authors measured prefrontal, inferior parietal, and superior temporal gyrus volumes and examined the pattern of connections among these regions. METHOD Forty-four patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder and 34 healthy comparison subjects were included in the study. A spoiled gradient recall acquisition in the steady-state three-dimensional magnetic resonance imaging sequence was used for morphometric assessment of the heteromodal association cortex. RESULTS Patients with schizophrenia had significantly smaller inferior prefrontal region volumes and significant reversal of the normal asymmetry of the inferior parietal cortex. No significant group differences were found in superior temporal gyrus volume. The groups differed significantly in the correlation between inferior prefrontal region volumes and angular gyrus volumes. CONCLUSIONS The results suggest that patients with schizophrenia may be characterized by selective abnormalities of the heteromodal regions involved in the neuroanatomy of language.
Earnings Quality and Ownership Structure: The Role of Private Equity Sponsors

This study explores how firms' ownership structures affect their earnings quality and long-term performance. Focusing on a unique sample of private firms for which there is financial data available in the years before and after their initial public offering (IPO), I differentiate between those that have private equity sponsorship (PE-backed firms) and those that do not (non-PE-backed firms). The findings indicate that PE-backed firms generally have higher earnings quality than those that do not have PE sponsorship, engage less in earnings management and report more conservatively both before and after the IPO. Further, PE-backed firms that are majority-owned by PE sponsors exhibit superior long-term stock price performance after they go public. These results stem from the professional ownership, tighter monitoring, and reputational considerations exhibited by PE sponsors.
Quality of life in Huntington's disease: a comparative study investigating the impact for those with pre-manifest and early manifest disease, and their partners.

BACKGROUND Given the multifaceted nature of this inherited neurodegenerative condition, typically affecting adults in mid-life, it is perhaps not surprising that studies indicate poorer Health Related Quality of Life (HrQoL) in those with the gene-expansion and, by association, in their families. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to extend the current literature by exploring specific life domains, including at an earlier disease stage than usually reported in the HRQoL literature, and in a subgroup of gene-negative partners. METHODS 355 participants from the TRACK-HD cohort (120 Controls, 118 Pre-HD and 117 early-HD) completed standardised self-report measures of HrQoL (SF36 and QoLI), underwent clinical assessments of capacity and motor function (UHDRS), semi structured interviews assessing neuropsychiatric symptoms (PBA-s), completed paper and computerized cognitive tasks and assessment of behaviours associated with damage to frontal brain circuits (FrSBe). RESULTS Each gene-expanded group scored statistically significantly lower than gene-negative sibling controls on the SF36 General Health subscale; neuropsychiatric symptoms and executive dysfunction were associated with reduced HrQoL. Those with Stage II disease reported statistically significantly lower HrQoL than gene-negative controls across physical, emotional and social life domains. Those partnered with manifest participants reported lower HrQoL in the social domain compared to those partnered with at-risk participants furthest from disease onset; and perseverative symptoms in manifest partners were found to be related to lower HrQoL in their gene-negative partners. HrQoL in gene-negative partners of pre-manifest individuals was associated with pre-manifest individuals' neuropsychiatric and cognitive function. CONCLUSIONS Understanding the nature and timing of disruption to the HrQoL in people who are pre-manifest and diagnosed with HD, and their gene-negative partners, can inform the development of appropriate strategies and interventions.
Evaluation of the COPING parent online universal programme: study protocol for a pilot randomised controlled trial

Trial sponsor Bangor University, Brigantia Building, College Road, Bangor, LL57 2AS, UK Introduction The COPING parent online universal programme is a web-based parenting intervention for parents of children aged 3-8 years with an interest in positive parenting. The programme focuses on strengthening parent-child relationships and encouraging positive child behaviour. This trial will evaluate whether the intervention is effective in increasing the use of positive parenting strategies outlined in the programme using parent report and blind observation measures. Methods and analysis This is a pilot randomised controlled trial with intervention and wait-list control conditions. The intervention is a 10-week online parenting programme to promote positive parent-child relations by teaching core social learning theory principles that encourage positive child behaviour, primarily through the use of praise and rewards. Health visitors and school nurses will circulate a recruitment poster to parents of children aged 3–8 years on their current caseloads. Recruitment posters will also be distributed via local primary schools and nurseries. Parents recruited to the trial will be randomised on a 2:1 ratio to intervention or wait-list control conditions (stratified according to child gender and age). The primary outcome measure is positive parenting as measured by a behavioural observation of parent-child interactions using the Dyadic Parent-Child Interaction Coding System. Secondary outcomes include parent report of child behaviour, and self-reported parental sense of competence, parenting behaviour and parental mental health. Data will be collected at baseline and 3 months later (postintervention) for all participants and 6 months postbaseline for the intervention group only. Analysis of covariance will be the main statistical method used. Ethics and dissemination The trial has received ethical approval from the NHS Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board Ethics Committee (REC) and the School of Psychology, Bangor University REC (15/WA/0463). Publication of all outcomes will be in peer-reviewed journals and conference presentations. Trial registration number Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN89370147 (5 May 2016).
Sparse superresolution phase retrieval from phase-coded noisy intensity patterns

Abstract. We consider a computational superresolution inverse diffraction problem for phase retrieval from phase-coded intensity observations. The optical setup includes a thin lens and a spatial light modulator for phase coding. The designed algorithm is targeted on an optimal solution for Poissonian noisy observations. One of the essential instruments of this design is a complex-domain sparsity applied for complex-valued object (phase and amplitude) to be reconstructed. Simulation experiments demonstrate that good quality imaging can be achieved for high-level of the superresolution with a factor of 32, which means that the pixel of the reconstructed object is 32 times smaller than the sensor’s pixel. This superresolution corresponds to the object pixel as small as a quarter of the wavelength.
On the battle between Rician noise and phase-interferences in DWI

Introduction: It has been shown that complex averaging benefits diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) by reducing the influence of the noise bias in the ADC and DTI (1). Magnitude averaging in DWI is traditionally used to combine multi-directional and multiNEX diffusion data – to avoid the complication of random phase offsets, due to motion that occurs during the DW gradients. However, magnitude averaging introduces a non-zero bias of the signal expectation value (a.k.a. Rician noise (2-4)) and underestimates the calculated ADC (1,5). This bias grows with lower SNR in each diffusion weighted image – and this is a particular concern for high-resolution, thin-slice DWI/DTI. Even in the clinical practice – where the non-quantitative mean DWI (a.k.a. isotropic DWI) is of most importance – the hazy looking image can confound image interpretation and diagnostic confidence. The advent of phase correction techniques – such as the triangular windowing approach initially proposed for PROPELLER DWI data [6] – has been shown to be a fast and effective phase correction approach for navigated DW EPI data. Here, each complex DW k-space is reconstructed twice into two temporary images, one of them after the application of a triangular window function of radius r in k-space. The non-windowed image is then subtracted with the phase information content in the corresponding windowed image (Fig. 1). The radius of the triangular window will determine how much phase is removed. While a large r will help to remove image artifacts due to pulsatile brain motion that occurs during the DW gradients, it will also ‘approach magnitude averaging’ or in other words – result in pronounced Rician noise in the mean DWI data after averaging the multiple NEX, repetitions, and diffusion directions together. In this abstract, we report on the best choice of triangular windowing radius for use in clinical practice. Over 1,200 patients have been scanned at our hospital with our GRAPPA-accelerated EPI sequence [7] and online reconstruction developed inhouse. With this data, we have determined the most suitable triangular window radius that minimizes the amount of Rician noise in the final iso-DWI data, without introducing phase cancellations.
Estimating biomass consumed from fire using MODIS FRE

Biomass burning is an important global phenomenon impacting atmospheric composition. Application of satellite based measures of fire radiative energy (FRE) has been shown to be effective for estimating biomass consumed, which can then be used to estimate gas and aerosol emissions. However, application of FRE has been limited in both temporal and spatial scale. In this paper we offer a methodology to estimate FRE globally for 2001–2007 at monthly time steps using MODIS. Accuracy assessment shows that our FRE estimates are precise (R2 = 0.85), but may be underestimated. Global estimates of FRE show that Africa and South America dominate biomass burning, accounting for nearly 70% of the annual FRE generated. Applying FRE‐based combustion factors to Africa yields an annual average biomass burned of 716–881 Tg of dry matter (DM). Comparison with the GFEDv2 biomass burned estimates shows large annual differences suggesting significant uncertainty remains in emission estimates.