Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Predictive Health: The Imminent Revolution in Health Care

Increasing social, economic, and political pressures to reform the U.S. approach to medical care makes change likely. A fundamental premise of predictive health is that it should be cheaper (at least per person life‐year) and more efficient and have a greater return on the investment of keeping people healthy as opposed to waiting for disease to intervene. The Emory Predictive Health and Society Strategic Initiative and its Center for Health Discovery and Well Being have embarked on a program to define health to the extent that modern science permits in the context of the entire human experience, to identify measurable variables that describe and predict a healthy state, and to use that knowledge to design health‐focused interventions that are affordable and effective. Initial results from a study of a randomly selected “essentially healthy” cohort, using extensive assessments and a health partner, are promising. Studies of healthy aging over the entire life spectrum promise valuable normative data for age‐specific assessments of health and the setting of realistic health goals.
Induction of hepatocellular carcinoma by in vivo gene targeting

The distinct phenotypic and prognostic subclasses of human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are difficult to reproduce in animal experiments. Here we have used in vivo gene targeting to insert an enhancer-promoter element at an imprinted chromosome 12 locus in mice, thereby converting ∼1 in 20,000 normal hepatocytes into a focus of HCC with a single genetic modification. A 300-kb chromosomal domain containing multiple mRNAs, snoRNAs, and microRNAs was activated surrounding the integration site. An identical domain was activated at the syntenic locus in a specific molecular subclass of spontaneous human HCCs with a similar histological phenotype, which was associated with partial loss of DNA methylation. These findings demonstrate the accuracy of in vivo gene targeting in modeling human cancer and suggest future applications in studying various tumors in diverse animal species. In addition, similar insertion events produced by randomly integrating vectors could be a concern for liver-directed human gene therapy.
What Influences Technological Individualization? - An Analysis of Antecedents to IT Consumerization Behavior

IT consumerization refers to the adoption of consumer IT in the workplace and is regarded as one of the major future IT trends. However, little is yet understood with respects to the antecedents of the trend on an individual level, i.e. the IT consumerization behavior of individuals. We attempt to close this research gap by means of a quantitative analysis. First, we conceptualize IT consumerization and draw clear boundaries to existing concepts in the context of individual information systems. We then set out to derive possible antecedents from literature and quantitatively test their impact on IT consumerization intention. We are able to show that expected performance improvement as well as consumerization behavior of coworkers have a high significant impact, while personal innovativeness in IT does not significantly influence the intention to use technologies other than the ones provided by the enterprise.
Efficient Learning for Time Series Models by Non-Negative Moment Matrix Factorization

In recent years, method-of-moments (MoM) based algorithms for latent variable models have been popular in the machine learning community, as a computationally cheaper alternatives to more conventional maximum likelihood based algorithms. Although there are MoM algorithms for the Hidden Markov Model (HMM), Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM), and Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), it is unclear how to extend these methods to more complex models. In this paper, we develop a MoM-based approach using Non-negative Matrix Factorization (NMF) for learning several time series models. These include the Mixture of HMMs (MHMM), Switching HMM (SHMM) and Factorial HMM (FHMM). We show experimentally that NMF is considerably faster than conventional maximumlikelihood approaches and gives comparable estimation accuracies.
Ecothau. Synthèse des résultats

Initie en 1985 et commence sur le terrain en 1986, le programme ECOTHAU se proposait de conduire une Etude integree des mecanismes de la production biologique de l'etang de Thau, en relation avec son environnement . Quatre rapports intermediaires (1985, 87, 88, 90), huit memoires de D.E. A. , neuf theses, une cinquantaine de communications scientifiques, marquent deja l'importance des resultats obtenus. Actuellement encore divers programmes et etudes prolongent ECOTHAU ou s'en inspirent. Il convenait donc de mettre en forme un rapport de synthese qui montre la coherence globale de l'action poursuivie meme si, de toute evidence, il ne s'agit pas la d'y mettre un terme definitif; c'est le but du present document.
Serum free light chain analysis

In a variety of hematologic malignancies, immunoglobulin light chains (LC) are overproduced clonally and circulate without being linked by disulphide bonds to the immunoglobulin heavy chain. The recent development of a robust assay known as κ and λ “free” LC (FLC) to quantify the levels of these unbound LC in the serum, and thereby determine their ratio, has led to an explosion of studies that demonstrate its utility in a wide range of hematologic disorders. This article summarizes laboratory testing for serum FLC, with a particular focus on clinical applications for the test. Am. J. Hematol. , 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Drones in Archaeology: Integrated Data Capture, Processing, and Dissemination in the al-Ula Valley, Saudi Arabia

Over the past year, our team has been developing a complete work-flow for field cyber-archaeology incorporating UAV technology. We conduct automated aerial 3D scanning using multi-rotor copters. A joint archaeological and computer vision project was initiated to digitally capture the ruins and excavations of ancient Dedan in Saudi Arabia. The project focused on previous seasons' excavations and the ancient Lihyanite “Lion Tombs” carved into the nearby cliff faces. The site was used as a test bed to validate the potential of UAV technology for rapid cultural heritage documentation. By using a combination of non-invasive 3D scanning techniques we can digitally preserve the site as it appears shortly after each season of excavation, document its inevitable decay, and provide objective datasets for future analysis and study. The integrated approach has allowed us to successfully provide a key base dataset that can be expanded as excavations continue over future seasons.
Treatment of Uterine Fibroids by Using Magnetic Resonance-guided Focused Ultrasound Ablation: The Initial Experience in Taiwan

Uterine leiomyomas (fibroids) are the most common benign neoplasm in women of childbearing age. Magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound ablation (MRgFUS) has been used worldwide to treat symptomatic uterine fibroids over the past few years. This paper describes our experiences with three patients that were treated with MRgFUS for uterine fibroids and their follow-up status after 3 months. Three patients with uterine fibroids underwent MRgFUS on February, 2009. Before the treatment and at 3 months post-treatment, we used the Uterine Fibroid Symptoms and Quality of Life Questionnaire (UFS-QOL) to determine symptom severity scores (SSS). We also evaluate the change in fibroid volume after 3 months using T1-weighted contrast enhanced MRI images. No serious or unexpected adverse events arose during the study. All patients were followed up for 3 months. The fibroid volume reduction after 3 months was 30.8% in average, and SSS reduction after 3 months was 30.6%. Our results demonstrate that MRgFUS can safely and effectively ablate uterine fibroids to produce a significant decrease in mean fibroid volume and improvement in SSS for up to 3 months post-treatment.
Three-dimensional vortex breakdown in swirling jets and wakes: direct numerical simulation

Vortex breakdown of nominally axisymmetric, swirling incompressible flows with jet- and wake-like axial velocity distributions issuing into a semi-infinite domain is studied by means of direct numerical simulations. By selecting a two-parametric velocity profile for which the steady axisymmetric breakdown is well-studied (Grabowski & Berger 1976), issues are addressed regarding the role of three-dimensionality and unsteadiness with respect to the existence, mode selection, and internal structure of vortex breakdown, in terms of the two governing parameters and the Reynolds number. Low Reynolds numbers are found to yield flow fields lacking breakdown bubbles or helical breakdown modes even for high swirl. In contrast, highly swirling flows at large Reynolds numbers exhibit bubble, helical or double-helical breakdown modes, where the axisymmetric mode is promoted by a jet-like axial velocity profile, while a wake-like profile renders the flow helically unstable and ultimately yields non-axisymmetric breakdown modes. It is shown that a transition from super- to subcritical flow, as defined by Benjamin (1962), accurately predicts the parameter combination yielding breakdown, if applied locally to flows with supercritical inflow profiles. Thus the basic form of breakdown is axisymmetric, and a transition to helical breakdown modes is shown to be caused by a sufficiently large pocket of absolute instability in the wake of the bubble, giving rise to a self-excited global mode. Two distinct eigenfunctions corresponding to azimuthal wavenumbers $m\,{=}\,{-}1$ and $m\,{=}\,{-}2$ have been found to yield a helical or double-helical breakdown mode, respectively. Here the minus sign represents the fact that the winding sense of the spiral is opposite to that of the flow.
New Advances in Stellar Physics : From Microscopic to Macroscopic Processes

Several years ago, M. Asplund and coauthors (2004) proposed a revision of the Solar composition. The use of this new prescription for Solar abundances in standard stellar models generated a strong disagreement between the predictions and the observations of Solar observables. Many claimed that the Standard Solar Model (SSM) was faulty, and more specifically the opacities used in such models. As a result, activities around the stellar opacities were boosted. New experiments (J. Bailey at Sandia on Z-Pinch, The OPAC consortium at LULI200) to measure directly absorbtion coefficients have been realized or are underway. Several theoretical groups (CEA-OPAS, Los Alamos Nat. Lab., CEA-SCORCG, The Opacity Project – The Iron Project (IPOPv2)) have started new sets of calculations using different approaches and codes. While the new results seem to confirm the good quality of the opacities used in SSM, it remains important to improve and complement the data currently available. We present recent results in the case of the photoionization cross sections for Ni XIV (Ni) from IPOPv2 and possible implications on stellar modelling.
Wavelet statistical texture features-based segmentation and classification of brain computed tomography images

A computer software system is designed for segmentation and classification of benign and malignant tumour slices in brain computed tomography images. In this study, the authors present a method to select both dominant run length and co-occurrence texture features of wavelet approximation tumour region of each slice to be segmented by a support vector machine (SVM). Two-dimensional discrete wavelet decomposition is performed on the tumour image to remove the noise. The images considered for this study belong to 208 tumour slices. Seventeen features are extracted and six features are selected using Student's t-test. This study constructed the SVM and probabilistic neural network (PNN) classifiers with the selected features. The classification accuracy of both classifiers are evaluated using the k fold cross validation method. The segmentation results are also compared with the experienced radiologist ground truth. Quantitative analysis between ground truth and the segmented tumour is presented in terms of segmentation accuracy and segmentation error. The proposed system provides some newly found texture features have an important contribution in classifying tumour slices efficiently and accurately. The experimental results show that the proposed SVM classifier is able to achieve high segmentation and classification accuracy effectiveness as measured by sensitivity and specificity.
Experimental Verification of a Four-Dimensional Chua's System and its fractional Order Chaotic attractors

This paper introduces a modified Chua's system which is a smooth four-dimensional continuous-time autonomous chaotic system with a cubic nonlinearity. Some dynamical behaviors of this 4-D Chua's system are further investigated by means of Poincare mapping, parameter phase portraits, equilibrium points, bifurcations and calculated Lyapunov exponents. Moreover, using RC-opamp and analog multiplier we describe a simple electronic circuit for hardware implementation of the 4-D Chua's system which differ from previously reported Chua's circuits. Various attractors of experimental results from this chaotic oscillator are in good agreement with theoretical analysis. In particular, based on the approximation theory of fractional-order operator, a relevant analog circuit diagram of this fractional-order modified Chua's system is designed with α = 0.9. Observation results demonstrate that chaos exists indeed in this fractional-order modified Chua's system with an order as low as 3.6. This fractional-order oscillation circuit, for the first time in the literature, realizes high-dimensional Chua's chaotic system.
Image Based Visual Servoing Using Proportional Controller with Compensator

The main objective is to design a proportional controller of a robot manipulator using the fuzzy cerebellar model articulation controller based on Takagi -- Sugeno (T -- S) framework with a compensator. The controller and compensator apply in visual servoing, including system identification of image and kinematic Jacobians. The proposed approach is basically as a function of the visual error and extent from the error with respect to desire visual feature. This approach leads to enormous reduction on computational expense compared to the image-based approaches of model inverse kinematics. The design of the controller architecture will make it possible to implement in general case. Proportional control variable are learned offline with the help of FCMAC-T-S model, and online compensator scheme has been proposed for adapting possible uncertainties in the unknown system and environment. Stimulation results have shown that visual servoing for tracking static target can be achieved using the proposed controller with compensator.
Novel Periodogram and Capon Spectral Analysis Based on Nonuniform Sampling

The spectrum analysis problem based on the periodogram and Capon estimates from a nonuniformly sampled signal is addressed. The nonuniform sampling process is cast as a linear projection matrix which encompasses several recent sampling strategies such as compressive sampling. A rank-1 correlation- matching approach is proposed to derive a general filter-bank framework that allows the formulation of the nonuniform periodogram and Capon estimates as particular cases. The performance of the novel periodogram and Capon estimates is analyzed in a cognitive radio scenario where the primary system is a multiband signal with sparse spectrum. Both theoretical and numerical results show that the denoising process required by correlation-matching plays an important role in spectral analysis based on nonuniform sampling.
A Generic Analytical Current Model for HeteroJunction Double-Gate Tunnel-FETs Including Two-Dimensional Effects

In the last few years the downscaling of MOSFETs has caused problems due to the increasing short-channel effects (SCEs) in the sub 22 nm technology. The conventional MOS transistor has its physical limits due to the drift-diffusion current transport mechanism resulting in a minimal subthresholdslope of 60 . To fall below this physical limit a new device technology with an alternative carrier transport mechanism is needed to allow for reduced operating voltage and lower energy consumption. The Tunnel-Field-Effect-Transistor (TFET) is a promising device because of its band-to-band tunneling carrier transport mechanism at the channel junctions [1]. Carriers entering the channel region are limited by “band pass filtering” with respect to their energy. Recently fabricated devices show a slope S of 40 [2]. In order to simulate complex circuits and predict the electrical behavior special to TFETs a physicsbased, analytical model is needed. The introduced model presents a new generic approach to investigate state of the art hetero junctions in Tunnel-FETs for performance enhancement.
Lab on a soft robot: Electrically controlled tuning fork shaped IPMC clamping actuator with ultrasonic imaging and displacement self-detecting capabilities

This paper presents a tuning fork shaped ionic polymer metal composite (IPMC) clamping actuator with ultrasonic imaging and displacement detecting functions. A soft object such as blood vessel can be treated with ultrasonic wave or acquire its interior ultrasonic images under varied stresses by electrical control of the arms of IPMC actuator. The 3-dimensional IPMC actuator is fabricated with Nafion and patterned nickel electrodes through a micro-molding process. During the shaping process, an active ultrasonic element and water replenishing mechanism are embedded in the Nafion device for ultrasonic function and long-term operation performance improvement, respectively. A novel pliant strain gage is also made to be integrated with the IPMC actuator for motion sensing. The fabricated multifunctional IPMC clamping actuator is tested. Detailed experimental results are described.
The patient’s perspective on the symptom and everyday life impact of AL amyloidosis

Abstract Introduction: This study aimed to understand the symptomatic impact of amyloid light-chain (AL) amyloidosis from the patient’s perspective. Methods: Four data sources were included: a literature review, review of online patient blogs, expert clinician interviews and patient interviews. Patients were recruited through the Amyloidosis Foundation and physician referral. Phone interviews were conducted and included open-ended concept elicitation questions. Thematic analysis was performed to identify symptoms and impacts. Descriptive statistics were used to characterize the sample. A conceptual model was developed depicting the impact of disease and treatment. Results: Two hundred seventy abstracts were identified; 10 articles were deemed relevant. No qualitative studies were identified, and only three studies included patient-reported measures. Ten patients completed interviews (mean age 61 [±8]; 7 male). Over 25 signs/symptoms were identified, including fatigue, weakness, dyspnea, neuropathy, edema, dizziness/lightheadedness, anorexia, diarrhea and constipation. Impacts included reduced physical and social functioning, and emotional impacts, including frustration, anxiety and depression. Findings from the blogs and expert interviews were consistent with patient reports. Conclusion: Symptoms can vary widely, but a core set of symptoms were common across patients. The conceptual model derived from this study can be used to ensure a patient-centered approach to drug development.
All-pMOS 50-V Charge Pumps Using Low-Voltage Capacitors

In this paper, two high-voltage charge pumps (CPs) are introduced. In order to minimize the area of the pumping capacitors, which dominates the overall area of the CP, high-density capacitors have been utilized. Nonetheless, these high-density capacitors suffer from low breakdown voltage, which is not compatible with the targeted high-voltage application. To circumvent the breakdown limitation, a special clocking scheme is used to limit the maximum voltage across any pumping capacitor. The two CP circuits were fabricated in a 0.6- μm CMOS technology with poly0-poly1 capacitors. The output voltage of the two CPs reached 42.8 and 51 V, whereas the voltage across any capacitor did not exceed the value of the input voltage. Compared with other designs reported in the literature, the proposed CP provides the highest output voltage, which makes it more suitable for tuning MEMS devices.
Perception of English High Vowels : Duration as a Cue by Korean Speakers of English ∗

This study examines the acoustic characteristics of English high tense and lax vowels (/i, I, u, ʊ/) and the perceptual difference of those vowels between English speakers and Korean speakers of English. In Experiment I, the first three formant values and duration of the four vowels in /hVd/ carrier were measured. The result shows that the high tense vowels have larger F2–F1 values and longer durations than high lax vowels. In Experiment II, each word’s vowel duration was manipulated into the range from 170ms to 290ms in 30ms increments. Two English speakers and six Korean speakers of English were asked to listen to a pair of tense and lax vowel words (e.g., heed_230ms–hid_170ms for the front vowel test and hood_290ms –who’d_200ms for the back vowel test), and to discriminate the pair by choosing one of the options either heed-hid or hidheed for front vowels and either who’d-hood or hood-who’d for back vowels. The results demonstrate that English speakers discriminated tense vowels from lax vowels 100% correctly regardless of the different durations, compared to 62% accuracy rate in Korean speakers of English. Most errors were found when the duration of lax vowels was lengthened and the duration of tense vowels was shortened. Therefore, the results of this study demonstrate that Korean speakers mainly rely on vowel duration as a cue to discriminate the tense and lax vowels. The pedagogical implications of this phenomenon will be discussed.
PHDs overactivation during chronic hypoxia “desensitizes” HIFα and protects cells from necrosis

Cell adaptation to changes in oxygen (O2) availability is controlled by two subfamilies of O2-dependent enzymes: the hypoxia inducible factor (HIF)–prolyl and asparaginyl hydroxylases [prolyl hydroxylases domain (PHDs) and factor inhibiting HIF (FIH)]. These oxygen sensors regulate the activity of the HIF, a transcriptional complex central in O2 homeostasis. In well oxygenated cells, PHDs hydroxylate the HIFα subunits, thereby targeting them for proteasomal degradation. In contrast, acute hypoxia inhibits PHDs, leading to HIFα stabilisation. However, here we show that chronic hypoxia induces HIF1/2α“desensitization” in cellulo and in mice. At the basis of this general adaptative mechanism, we demonstrate that chronic hypoxia not only increases the pool of PHDs but also overactivates the three PHD isoforms. This overactivation appears to be mediated by an increase in intracellular O2 availability consequent to the inhibition of mitochondrial respiration. By using in cellulo and in vivo siRNA, we found that the PHDs are the key enzymes triggering HIFα desensitization, a feedback mechanism required to protect cells against necrotic cell death and thus to adapt them across a chronic hypoxia. Hence, PHDs serve as dual enzymes, for which inactivation and later overactivation is necessary for cell survival in acute or chronic hypoxia, respectively.