Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Clinical outcomes after intravascular ultrasound and fractional flow reserve assessment of intermediate coronary lesions. Propensity score matching of large cohorts from two institutions with a differential approach.

AIMS: Assessment of intermediate coronary lesions can be done with fractional flow reserve (FFR) and intravascular ultrasound (IVUS). There are no randomised trials and only a small registry from one centre is available but this is subject to important bias. We sought to evaluate the clinical outcomes of an FFR strategy compared with an IVUS strategy for intermediate lesion assessment. METHODS AND RESULTS: We compared the outcome of patients assessed with FFR and IVUS in two centres with a differential approach. After propensity score matching 400 pairs of patients were included. Revascularisation was done when FFR was 3 mm, and 50%. After FFR and IVUS, 72% and 51.2% of lesions, respectively, were left untreated (p<0.001). At one and two years no significant differences in MACE-free survival were observed in overall groups (97.7% at one year and 93.1% at two years in the FFR group and 97.7% at one year and 95.6% at two years in the IVUS group; p=0.35) and among those with deferred intervention (97.9% at one year and 94.2% at two years in the FFR group and 96.5% at one year and 93.6% at two years in the IVUS group; p=0.7). CONCLUSIONS: IVUS and FFR may be safely used to defer revascularisation of intermediate lesions. IVUS induces a higher degree of revascularisation but much lower than previously reported and does not affect the clinical outcome.
Design Methodology of Bidirectional CLLC Resonant Converter for High-Frequency Isolation of DC Distribution Systems

A bidirectional full-bridge CLLC resonant converter using a new symmetric LLC-type resonant network is proposed for a low-voltage direct current power distribution system. This converter can operate under high power conversion efficiency because the symmetric LLC resonant network has zero-voltage switching capability for primary power switches and soft commutation capability for output rectifiers. In addition, the proposed topology does not require any snubber circuits to reduce the voltage stress of the switching devices because the switch voltage of the primary and secondary power stage is confined by the input and output voltage, respectively. In addition, the power conversion efficiency of any directions is exactly same as each other. Using digital control schemes, a 5-kW prototype converter designed for a high-frequency galvanic isolation of 380-V dc buses was developed with a commercial digital signal processor. Intelligent digital control algorithms are also proposed to regulate output voltage and to control bidirectional power conversions. Using the prototype converter, experimental results were obtained to verify the performance of the proposed topology and control algorithms. The converter could softly change the power flow directions and its maximum power conversion efficiency was 97.8% during the bidirectional operation.
Clinical Severity, Rather Than Body Temperature, During the Rewarming Phase of Therapeutic Hypothermia Affect Quantitative EEG in Neonates With Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy

EEG is important in monitoring neonates with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) during hypothermia therapy (HT). Although EEG is used to evaluate the severity of HIE and predict outcome, HT itself may affect EEG parameters. The goal of this study is to evaluate whether core body temperature (CBT) during the rewarming phase of HT in neonates with HIE changes quantified EEG parameters. Quantified EEG parameters were reviewed in 10 neonates with HIE treated with HT. Total power, 90% spectral edge frequency, the mean and lower border of amplitude-integrated EEG (aEEG), and approximate entropy of the aEEG were calculated from 10-minute samples centered on CBT measurements. Patients were classified by clinical HIE severity and length of stay. Two-way analysis of variance was used to test interactions among CBT and EEG data. CBT had no significant effects on the quantified EEG parameters. The aEEG-average and lower border amplitudes were significantly lower in severe HIE. The aEEG-average was significantly more orderly in patients with longer length of stay, regardless of CBT. HIE severity and length of stay but not CBT affect quantified EEG. Findings suggest quantified EEG is reliable during HT. In addition, EEG may aid in predicting short-term outcome of neonates with HIE.
Analyzing gaze behavior during turn-taking for estimating empathy skill level

Techniques that use nonverbal behaviors to estimate communication skill in discussions have been receiving a lot of attention in recent research. In this study, we explored the gaze behavior towards the end of an utterance during turn-keeping/changing to estimate empathy skills in multiparty discussions. First, we collected data on Davis' Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) (which measures empathy skill), utterances, and gaze behavior from participants in four-person discussions. The results of the analysis showed that the gaze behavior during turn-keeping/changing differs in accordance with people's empathy skill levels. The most noteworthy result is that the amount of a person's empathy skill is inversely proportional to the frequency of eye contact with the conversational partner during turn-keeping/changing. Specifically, if the current speaker has a high skill level, she often does not look at listener during turn-keeping and turn-changing. Moreover, when a person with a high skill level is the next speaker, she does not look at the speaker during turn-changing. In contrast, people who have a low skill level often continue to make eye contact with speakers and listeners. On the basis of these findings, we constructed and evaluated four models for estimating empathy skill levels. The evaluation results showed that the average absolute error of estimation is only 0.22 for the gaze transition pattern (GTP) model. This model uses the occurrence probability of GTPs when the person is a speaker and listener during turn-keeping and speaker, next-speaker, and listener during turn-changing. It outperformed the models that used the amount of utterances and duration of gazes. This suggests that the GTP during turn-keeping and turn-changing is effective for estimating an individual's empathy skills in multi-party discussions.
Partially-occluded face recognition using weighted module linear regression classification

Accuracy and speed of face recognition frameworks are two foremost concerns for practical applications in recent researches. Linear regression classification (LRC) is a very famous and powerful approach for face recognition; however, it cannot perform very well under occlusion situations. In this paper, the regression parameters of the module-LRC are analyzed when a query facial image is partially occluded. For removing contaminated modules, the weighted module linear regression classification (WMLRC) is proposed. In order to evaluate the effectiveness, AR face database is used to validate the proposed WMLRC as well as the well-known face recognition methods. Simulation results show that the proposed WMLRC method achieves the best performance for partially-occluded faces while keeping the advantage in speed over the SRC-based approaches.
Wide Input Voltage Range Photovoltaic Microconverter With Reconfigurable Buck–Boost Switching Stage

This paper presents a novel soft-switching galvanically isolated buck-boost dc–dc converter as a module-integrated converter for photovoltaic (PV) applications. It features three major operating modes: boost, normal, and buck mode. Their proper distribution over the input voltage range enables wide voltage regulation capabilities, i.e., close to those of nonisolated power optimizers. The proposed control algorithm requires only one buck-boost switching stage that performs voltage regulation by means of the switching stage reconfiguration with smooth transition between the modes. The design guidelines and the digital control system for PV applications are provided. The module-integrated converter was verified experimentally with a solar array simulator. The converter showed good maximum power point tracking performance and a peak efficiency of nearly 97%.
EFFECT OF ENHANCEMENT OF ENDOGENOUS CHOLINERGIC TONE WITH PYRIDOSTIGMINE ON GROWTH HORMONE (GH) RESPONSES TO GH‐RELEASING HORMONE IN PATIENTS WITH CUSHING'S SYNDROME

Growth hormone (GH) secretion in patients with Cushing's syndrome is diminished to all the stimuli tested so far but the precise mechanisms through which this occurs are unknown. In order to investigate whether increased somatostatinergic tone might be responsible for this alteration, we studied the effect of pyridostigmine (120 mg p. o. at ‐60 min), which activates cholinergic synapses and thus suppresses hypothalamic somatostatin release on GH responses to GHRH (100 μg, i. v. at 0 min), in six patients with Cushing's syndrome. We found that while pyridostigmine markedly potentiated GH responses to GHRH, in all the normal subjects tested (n=12), neither GHRH alone nor GHRH plus pyridostigmine elicited any increase in GH secretion in any of the patients with Cushing's syndrome. This suggests that chronic glucocorticoid excess induces marked alterations in the hypothalamic control of GH secretion.
Asymptotic expansions of option price under regime-switching diffusions with a fast-varying switching process

This work aims to developing asymptotic expansions of solutions of a system of coupled differential equations with applications to option price under regime-switching diffusions. The main motivation stems from using switching diffusions to model stochastic volatility so as to obtain uniform asymptotic expansions of European-type options. By focusing on fast mean reversion, our effort is placed on finding the “effective volatility”. Under simple conditions, asymptotic expansions are developed with uniform asymptotic error bounds. The leading term in the asymptotic expansions satisfies a Black–Scholes equation in which the mean return rate and volatility are averaged out with respect to the stationary measure of the switching process. In addition, the full asymptotic series is developed, which will help us to gain insight on the behavior of the option price when the time approaches maturity. The asymptotic expansions obtained in this paper are interesting in their own right and can be used for other problems in control optimization of systems involving fast varying switching processes.
Dyslipidaemia, glucose intolerance and cardiovascular disease mortality and morbidity in Europeans and Asians

··························································································································9 TIIVISTELMÄ ····················································································································· 11
Effects of photodynamic therapy using topical applied hexylaminolevulinate and methylaminolevulinate upon the integrity of cervical epithelium

Cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) is associated with genital human papillomavirus (HPV) infection and represents the precursor of cervical cancer. Established ablative treatment methods may cause substantial complications in following pregnancies including premature delivery and the birth of low‐weight babies. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) of CIN using esters of 5‐aminolevulinic acid (5‐ALA) represents a promising alternative. However, it has not been analyzed yet if the PDT itself leads to sustained damage of the cervical tissue. This study aims at evaluating the effect of hexylaminolevulinate (HAL) and methylaminolevulinate (MAL) PDT on cervical tissue.
Liquid alkali metals at the melting point: Structural and dynamical properties.

In this paper we report the results of a comprehensive simulation study of the structural and dynamical properties of liquid Na, K, Rb, and Cs near the melting point. An important consequence of this investigation is that both the equilibrium and the time-dependent correlations can be cast in a properly scaled form, which is to a very good approximation the same for all the alkali metals. In particular, for liquid Cs the simulation findings for the dynamic structure factor are found to be in excellent agreement with the inelastic-neutron-scattering data recently reported
A 0.6 V Resistance-Locked Loop Embedded Digital Low Dropout Regulator in 40 nm CMOS With 80.5% Power Supply Rejection Improvement

The proposed resistance-locked loop (RLL) can achieve high PSRR of -16 dB digital low dropout (DLDO) regulator without consuming much power which is the drawback in prior arts. Even at light loads, the RLL can be shut down for power saving. Furthermore, the duty compensator ensures DLDO stability under different duty ratio of supply voltage. The operation voltage of proposed DLDO can be down to 0.6 V and the peak current efficiency is 99.99%. The test chip was fabricated in 40 nm CMOS process with all the transistors implemented by core device for small silicon area.
Co-Expression of HSV2 and Chlamydia trachomatis in HPV-Positive Cervical Cancer and Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia Lesions Is Associated with Aberrations in Key Intracellular Pathways

Objective: Oncogenic human papillomaviruses (HPVs) are the etiological agents of cervical cancer. Different cofactors might be needed for malignant transformation, but they still remain elusive. Methods: To delineate the role of Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) and herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV2) in HPV-positive cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) lesions and cervical carcinoma a series of 149 cervical cancer and CIN biopsies were analyzed for CT and HSV2 DNA by PCR, and HPV genotyped by InnoLipa. Monitoring of aberrations in key intracellular pathways due to CT/HSV2 and HPV co-expression were analyzed with 13 biomarkers. Results: Of the 149 samples tested, 136 were HPV DNA positive; 32/136 contained also CT DNA and 29 HSV2 DNA. Detection of CT was significantly (p = 0.0001) related to multiple-type HPV infections, while HSV2 was of borderline significance (p = 0.053). Of the 13 biomarkers tested, cytoplasmic and nuclear NF-ĸB and VEGF-C were significantly increased in CT+/HPV+ lesions; p = 0.023, p = 0.045, and p = 0.020 as well as survivin, p = 0.026. Survivin was the only marker that was overexpressed also in HSV2+/HPV+ lesions, p = 0.027. Conclusions: CT infection favors the entry and persistence of multiple HR-HPV types, which leads to viral integration, inhibition of apoptosis, overexpression of E6/E7 oncogenes and cell transformation.
A large-scale zebrafish gene knockout resource for the genome-wide study of gene function

With the completion of the zebrafish genome sequencing project, it becomes possible to analyze the function of zebrafish genes in a systematic way. The first step in such an analysis is to inactivate each protein-coding gene by targeted or random mutation. Here we describe a streamlined pipeline using proviral insertions coupled with high-throughput sequencing and mapping technologies to widely mutagenize genes in the zebrafish genome. We also report the first 6144 mutagenized and archived F1's predicted to carry up to 3776 mutations in annotated genes. Using in vitro fertilization, we have rescued and characterized ∼0.5% of the predicted mutations, showing mutation efficacy and a variety of phenotypes relevant to both developmental processes and human genetic diseases. Mutagenized fish lines are being made freely available to the public through the Zebrafish International Resource Center. These fish lines establish an important milestone for zebrafish genetics research and should greatly facilitate systematic functional studies of the vertebrate genome.
Dissociation of immune capacity from nutritional status by triiodothyronine supplements in severe protein deficiency

Weanling mice were fed ad libitum from age 23 to 37 days either an 18 or an 0.6% protein diet. Half the animals in each dietary group received supplemental triiodothyronine (T3, 0.2 mg/kg diet). T3 increased the primary in vivo antibody response of protein‐deficient mice to sheep red blood cells, as measured by both splenic plaque‐forming cells (PFC) per 106 nucleated spleen cells and serum hemagglutinin titers. T3 also increased PFC/spleen in well‐nourished mice. The effect on protein‐deficient animals was achieved although nutritional status in these animals, as estimated by weight loss and carcass composition, was further impaired by T3 supplementation. These results support the hypothesis that immune functions can be improved independendy of nutritional status in severe (wasting) malnutrition. Insofar as T3 was effective in a model of malnutrition that does not reduce serum total or free T3 levels, the phenomenon appears to represent a pharmacological action of the hormone. —Perry, K. J.; Filteau, S. M. ; Woodward, B. Dissociation of immune capacity from nutritional status by triiodothyronine supplements in severe protein deficiency. FASEB J. 2: 2609‐2612; 1988.
Analysis of a Two-Hop Centralized Packet Radio Network - Part II: Carrier Sense Multiple Access

We continue in this paper our study of two-hop centralized packet radio networks in view of understanding the behavior of these systems. Traffic originates at terminals, is destined to a central station, and requires for its transport the relaying of packets by store-and-forward repeaters. We consider here that all devices employ the nonpersistent carrier sense multiple-access mode. System capacity and through-put-delay tradeoffs are derived and compared to those obtained for slotted ALOHA in Part I [l].
Climate Change Impacts on Flow and Suspended Sediment Yield in Headwaters of High-Latitude Regions—A Case Study in China’s Far Northeast

Climate change is expected to have stronger effects on water resources in higher latitude regions. Despite intensive research on possible hydrological responses in those regions to a warmer environment, our knowledge on erosion and sediment yield induced by the climate change in high-latitude headwaters is still limited. In this study, we estimated suspended sediment yields from 2021 to 2050 in a typical headwater area of far Northeast China to elucidate potential impacts of future climate change on surface runoff and erosion in higher latitude regions. We first parameterized the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) using historical measurements to estimate runoff from the river basin. The model performed well in both the calibration (2006–2011) and the validation (2012–2014) periods, with an R2 of 0.85 and 0.88 and a Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE) of 0.7 and 0.73, respectively. We also utilized historical measurements on sediment yields from the period 2006–2014 to develop a runoff-sediment yield rating curve, and the rating curve obtained an excellent goodness of fit (R2 = 0.91, p < 0.001). We then applied the calibrated SWAT model to two climate change projections, also known as Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP4.5 and RCP8.5), for the period from 2021 to 2050 to obtain future runoff estimates. These runoff estimates were then used to predict future sediment yield by using the developed runoff-sediment yield rating curve. Our study found a significant increase of annual sediment yield (p < 0.05) for both climate change projections (RCP4.5 = 237%; RCP8.5 = 133%) in this, China’s high-latitude region. The increases of sediment yield were prevalent in summer and autumn, varying from 102–299% between the two RCPs scenarios. Precipitation was the dominated factor that determined the variation of runoff and sediment yield. A warming climate could bring more snowmelt-induced spring runoff and longer rainy days in autumn, hence leading to higher erosion. These findings demonstrate that under the changing climate, soils in this high-latitude headwater area would be eroded twice to three times that of the baseline period (1981–2010), indicating a potential risk to the downstream water quality and reservoir management.
Comparisons Between Reliability-Based Iterative Min-Sum and Majority-Logic Decoding Algorithms for LDPC Codes

A modified reliability-based iterative majority-logic decoding (MRBI-MLGD) algorithm for two classes of structured LDPC codes is presented based on a recent work by Huang et al. Compared with the original one, the modified algorithm has better performance with slightly increased complexity. Then a reliability-based iterative min-sum decoding (RBI-MSD) algorithm is presented. For the presented RBI-MSD algorithm, reliability-based integer messages are processed and exchanged between variable nodes and check nodes. The main computations include only binary logical operations and integer additions. Different from the conventional min-sum algorithm, the variable nodes pass full messages rather than extrinsic messages to check nodes. This can reduce the memory loads and the computational complexity but with a little (or negligible) performance degradation. Simulation results show that, compared with the (M)RBI-MLGD algorithms, the presented RBI-MSD algorithm achieves better error performance, faster decoding convergence rate and fewer quantization bits with moderate increased computational complexity. Furthermore, the RBI-MSD algorithm is also applicable to decoding random LDPC codes, a distinct difference from the (M)RBI-MLGD algorithms. Finally, we point out that the scaling factors employed in the MRBI-MLGD algorithm and the RBI-MSD algorithm can be optimized using discretized density evolution.
Fourier Transform White-Light Interferometry for the Measurement of Fiber-Optic Extrinsic Fabry–PÉrot Interferometric Sensors

A Fourier transform white-light interferometry for the absolute measurement of fiber-optic extrinsic Fabry-Perot interferometric sensors is presented. The continuous test shows the variation is plusmn0.3 mum when measuring a cavity length of 2300 mum. By combining with an average calculation, the variation of the measured results is only plusmn10 nm.
Development of a DSP-based Fuzzy PI Controller for an Online Optimal PWM Control Scheme for a Multilevel Inverter

Previous work has presented the incorporation of a non conventional inverter topology known as multilevel inverter with an optimal PWM based control scheme for high voltage AC power supply applications. A Fuzzy Proportional Integral Controller (FPIC) takes a role in the control scheme in providing stronger control action for a large voltage error and a smoother control action for a small voltage error in the multilevel inverter output. This in turn ensures that high quality output voltage at a fixed frequency is always maintained on the inverter output while the transient response improved regardless of the loading conditions. This paper focuses mainly on the FPIC and its implementation using a digital signal processor (DSP) as part of the hardware implementation of the control scheme. A test conducted on the DSP-based FPIC operation shows response that is in good agreement to that obtained from a simulation study conducted using MATLAB/Simulink.
A novel microstrip slot antenna with bow-tie feed used in metal ceiling communication environment

The metal ceiling is being applied for the decorative ceiling, while traditional ceiling-mounted antennas are not suitable for the application in this environment. This article presents a novel microstrip slot antenna with bow-tie feed suited for the in-building signal coverage of the wireless communications in the metal ceiling environment. Both simulated and measured results show that the proposed antenna has the impedance bandwidth of dual wide-bands 800–960MHz and 1700–2500Mhz in such environment.