Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The effects of compensation for scatter, lead X-rays and high-energy contamination on lesion detectability and activity estimation in Ga-67 imaging

Compton scatter, lead X-rays and high-energy contamination are major factors affecting image quality in Ga-67 imaging. Scattered photons detected in one photopeak can originate from photons emitted in the same photopeak, as well as from higher energy photons which interacted in the collimator and crystal and lost energy. Furthermore, lead X-rays can be detected in the main energy photopeak (93 keV). We have previously developed two energy-based methods, based on artificial neural networks (ANN) and on a generalized spectral fitting approach (GS), to compensate for scatter, high-energy contamination and lead X-rays in Ga-67 imaging. The aim of the present study is to evaluate under realistic conditions the impact of these phenomena and their compensation on lesion detection and estimation tasks in Ga-67 imaging. ANN and GS were compared on the basis of performance of a three-channel Hotelling observer (CHO), which incorporated internal noise, in detecting the presence of a sphere of unknown size on an anatomic background, as well as on the basis of estimation of lesion activity. Spherical lesions ranging from 2 to 6 cm in diameter, located at several sites in an anthropomorphic torso phantom, were simulated using a Monte Carlo program that modeled all photon interactions in the patient as well as in the collimator and the detector for all decays between 91 and 888 keV. One hundred noise realizations were generated from cacti very low noise simulated projection. Scatter worsened both the CHO signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and the estimation accuracy. On average, the presence of scatter led to a 12% reduction in CHO SNR. Correcting for scatter further diminished CHO SNR but to a lesser extent with ANN (5% reduction compared to WIN) than with GS (12%). Both scatter corrections improved performance in activity estimation compared to WIN. ANN yielded better precision (1.8 vs 4%) but greater bias (5.1 vs 3.6%) than did GS.
A Study of Neural and Fuzzy Parameters for Explicit and Implicit Knowledge-based Systems

In this paper, a framework of a unified neural and neuro-fuzzy approach to integrate implicit and explicit knowledge in hybrid intelligent systems is presented. In the developed hybrid system, training data used for neural and neuro-fuzzy models represents implicit domain knowledge. On the other hand, the explicit domain knowledge is represented by fuzzy rules, directly mapped into equivalent connectionist structures. A formal model for a hybrid intelligent system implemented as neural, neuro-fuzzy and fuzzy modules is proposed. Furthermore, this paper explores the influences of the main identified parameters of the proposed model on the accuracy of the hybrid intelligent system in a predictive data mining application.
Temperature response of parameters of a biochemically based model of photosynthesis. I. Seasonal changes in mature maritime pine (Pinus pinaster Ait.)

Responses of plant processes to temperature may vary according to the time scale on which they are measured. In this study, both short-term and seasonal responses of photosynthesis to temperature were examined. A field study of seasonal changes in the temperature response of photosynthesis was conducted on two provenances, French and Moroccan, of mature maritime pine ( Pinus pinaster Ait.). Measurements were made every 2 months over a 1-year period and used to parameterize a mechanistic model of photosynthesis. Temperature responses of maximum Rubisco activity, V cmax , and potential electron transport rate, J max , were obtained for each measurement period, as was the response of stomatal conductance, g s , to water vapour pressure deficit (VPD). Absolute values of V cmax and J max at 25 ° C were related to needle nitrogen content, N area. N area , and thus V cmax and J max , were negatively correlated with the mean minimum temperature in the month preceding measurements. The ratio of J max : V cmax at 25 ° C varied between 1 and 1·7 but did not show any seasonal trend. Nor was there any seasonal trend in the relative temperature response of V cmax , which had an activation energy H a of approximately 57 kJ mol − 1 throughout the experiment. The activation energy of J max was also close to constant throughout the experiment, averaging 39 kJ mol − 1 . For the French provenance, the optimal temperature of J max was positively correlated with the maximum temperature of the previous day, but no such correlation was found for the Moroccan provenance. The response of g s to VPD also varied seasonally, with much stronger stomatal closure in winter months. Taken together, these results implied a translational shift downwards of the photosynthetic temperature response curve with increasing T prev , and a shift in the temperature optimum of photosynthesis of 5‐10 ° C between summer and winter. These results illustrate that the short-term temperature response of photosynthesis varies significantly on a seasonal basis.
Potentially Pathogenic Bacteria in Shower Water and Air of a Stem Cell Transplant Unit

ABSTRACT Potential pathogens from shower water and aerosolized shower mist (i.e., shower aerosol) have been suggested as an environmental source of infection for immunocompromised patients. To quantify the microbial load in shower water and aerosol samples, we used culture, microscopic, and quantitative PCR methods to investigate four shower stalls in a stem cell transplant unit at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, MO. We also tested membrane-integrated showerheads as a possible mitigation strategy. In addition to quantification, a 16S rRNA gene sequencing survey was used to characterize the abundant bacterial populations within shower water and aerosols. The average total bacterial counts were 2.2 × 107 cells/liter in shower water and 3.4 × 104 cells/m3 in shower aerosol, and these counts were reduced to 6.3 × 104 cells/liter (99.6% efficiency) and 8.9 × 103 cells/m3 (82.4% efficiency), respectively, after membrane-integrated showerheads were installed. Potentially pathogenic organisms were found in both water and aerosol samples from the conventional showers. Most notable was the presence of Mycobacterium mucogenicum (99.5% identity) in the water and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (99.3% identity) in the aerosol samples. Membrane-integrated showerheads may protect immunocompromised patients from waterborne infections in a stem cell transplant unit because of efficient capture of vast numbers of potentially pathogenic bacteria from hospital water. However, an in-depth epidemiological study is necessary to investigate whether membrane-integrated showerheads reduce hospital-acquired infections. The microbial load in shower aerosols with conventional showerheads was elevated compared to the load in HEPA-filtered background air in the stem cell unit, but it was considerably lower than typical indoor air. Thus, in shower environments without HEPA filtration, the increase in microbial load due to shower water aerosolization would not have been distinguishable from anticipated variations in background levels.
Review of the actuators of active knee prostheses and their target design outputs for activities of daily living

Active prosthetic knees have the capability to provide net positive work, which is required in daily activities like stair and ramp negotiation or sit-to-stand transfers. Adding this capability might help to increase user mobility, safety, and independence. This article summarizes the biomechanical knee requirements for different activities of daily living and critically compares them with the actuator characteristics of state-of-the-art active prosthetic knee joints. As a result of a systematic literature research 22 active prosthetic knee joints were identified. Most systems use a stiff actuator in combination with a ball screw and are capable of supporting the majority of daily tasks for the average US citizen (82.5 kg) at self-selected movement speed. Physiological requirements exceed most system specifications if increased user mass, walking speed, or inclinations are assumed. To cope with the requirements, springs and dampers are used to assist the motor. The comparison of the prostheses characteristics with anthropometric data shows that most of the devices are in the physiological range for the system height and even when being tethered it is critical to achieve a physiological mass. Also while just one active knee is commercialized so far, physiological knee biomechanics show that there is a potential for active prosthetic knee solutions. Summarized biomechanical and anthropometric data can be used as a framework to develop prototypes. Further, the overview of state-of-the-art systems can provide possible solutions to deal with the task specific prosthetic knee requirements.
Occupational Stress in the Indian Army Oncology Nursing Workforce: A Cross-sectional Study

Objective: This cross-sectional, quantitative epidemiological study was aimed at finding out the degree of work-related stress among the staff nurses working in oncology. Methods: This study was conducted on 81 out of 100 oncology-trained nurses working in various oncology centers of Indian Army who consented to participate in it. It was carried out in five oncology centers of our organization where oncology-related facilities are available. Predesigned and pretested questionnaire covering their sociodemographic variables in part I and professional life stress scale by David Fontana in part II. The association between stress and various variables was found using Chi-square test. Results: Risk for professional stress was found more among unmarried young respondents of 20–30 years age group. No statistically significant association (P < 0.131) was found between department of posting and level of stress. Nurses reported that they had no time for rest, of whom 62.96% were suffering from moderate range of stress for a busy professional while only one admitted to have severe stress requiring remedial action. While 82.7% felt that they are able to achieve major objectives in life, 71.6% of them reported that they feel inadequately valued for their commitment at work. Conclusions: The main nurses' occupational stressors were criticism, feeling of not being appreciated for hard work, and having time for self. This type of assessment should be carried out in all hospitals so that working conditions for this important component of health care can be improved.
Low-intrusive recognition of expressive movement qualities

In this paper we present a low-intrusive approach to the detection of expressive full-body movement qualities. We focus on two qualities: Lightness and Fragility and we detect them using the data captured by four wearable devices, two Inertial Movement Units (IMU) and two electromyographs (EMG), placed on the forearms. The work we present in the paper stems from a strict collaboration with expressive movement experts (e.g., contemporary dance choreographers) for defining a vocabulary of basic movement qualities. We recorded 13 dancers performing movements expressing the qualities under investigation. The recordings were next segmented and the perceived level of each quality for each segment was ranked by 5 experts using a 5-points Likert scale. We obtained a dataset of 150 segments of movement expressing Fragility and/or Lightness. In the second part of the paper, we define a set of features on IMU and EMG data and we extract them on the recorded corpus. We finally applied a set of supervised machine learning techniques to classify the segments. The best results for the whole dataset were obtained with a Naive Bayes classifier for Lightness (F-score 0.77), and with a Support Vector Machine classifier for Fragility (F-score 0.77). Our approach can be used in ecological contexts e.g., during artistic performances.
Alcohol and Cannabinoids Differentially Affect HIV Infection and Function of Human Monocyte-Derived Dendritic Cells (MDDC)

During human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, alcohol has been known to induce inflammation while cannabinoids have been shown to have an anti-inflammatory role. For instance cannabinoids have been shown to reduce susceptibility to HIV-1 infection and attenuate HIV replication in macrophages. Recently, we demonstrated that alcohol induces cannabinoid receptors and regulates cytokine production by monocyte-derived dendritic cells (MDDC). However, the ability of alcohol and cannabinoids to alter MDDC function during HIV infection has not been clearly elucidated yet. In order to study the potential impact of alcohol and cannabinoids on differentiated MDDC infected with HIV, monocytes were cultured for 7 days with GM-CSF and IL-4, differentiated MDDC were infected with HIV-1Ba-L and treated with EtOH (0.1 and 0.2%), THC (5 and 10 μM), or JWH-015 (5 and 10 μM) for 4–7 days. HIV infection of MDDC was confirmed by p24 and Long Terminal Repeats (LTR) estimation. MDDC endocytosis assay and cytokine array profiles were measured to investigate the effects of HIV and substances of abuse on MDDC function. Our results show the HIV + EtOH treated MDDC had the highest levels of p24 production and expression when compared with the HIV positive controls and the cannabinoid treated cells. Although both cannabinoids, THC and JWH-015 had lower levels of p24 production and expression, the HIV + JWH-015 treated MDDC had the lowest levels of p24 when compared to the HIV + THC treated cells. In addition, MDDC endocytic function and cytokine production were also differentially altered after alcohol and cannabinoid treatments. Our results show a differential effect of alcohol and cannabinoids, which may provide insights into the divergent inflammatory role of alcohol and cannabinoids to modulate MDDC function in the context of HIV infection.
INTRODUCED LESSER CELANDINE ( RANUNCULUS FICARIA, RANUNCULACEAE) AND ITS PUTATIVE SUBSPECIES IN THE UNITED STATES: A MORPHOMETRIC ANALYSIS

Ranunculus ficaria is native to Europe, but was introduced to the United States by at least the 19th century as a garden ornamental. Following introduction, the species escaped from cultivation. Because, in contrast to European floristic treatments, previous North American floristic treatments had not emphasized subspecific recognition, our objectives for this study were to determine if and how many morphologically recognizable entities within R. ficaria occur in the United States, evaluate to what extent such entities correspond to the subspecific concepts followed in Europe, and analyze the distributions, habitats, and rates of spread of each entity. To meet our objectives, we conducted a morphometric analysis based on study of 319 specimens from forty-seven herbaria. The combined results indicate the presence of five entities reasonably referable to the subspecies accepted in Europe. If one accepts subspecies as incompletely diverged lineages, one would expect a limited amount of overlap of operational taxonomie units (OTUs) as seen in our Principal Coordinates Analysis and Principal Components Analysis results, as well as incompletely sorted OTUs as seen in our cluster and classification tree analyses. Based on our current understanding, all five subspecies occur in the United States. They are best adapted to moist sites, exhibit overlapping distributions, and appear to be spreading at similar rates.
Negative energy balance in male and female rangers: effects of 7 d of sustained exercise and food deprivation.

BACKGROUND A challenging 7-d ranger field exercise (FEX) by cadets in the Norwegian Military Academy provided a venue in which to study the effects of negative energy balance. OBJECTIVE We quantified total energy expenditure (TEE), food intake, and changes in body composition in male and female cadets. DESIGN TEE (measured by doubly labeled water), food intake, activity patterns (measured by accelerometry), and body composition (measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry) were measured in 16 cadets (10 men and 6 women aged 21-27 y). RESULTS The physically active (approximately 23 h/d) and semistarved (0.2-2.2 MJ/d) cadets lost weight (x +/- SD: men, -7.7 +/- 1.1 kg; women, -5.9 +/- 1.1 kg; P < 0.05). Absolute TEE differed by sex (men, 26.6 +/- 2.0 MJ/d; women, 21.9 +/- 2.0 MJ/d; P < 0.05) but body weight-specific TEE did not (men, 343 +/- 26 kJ . kg(-1) . d(-1); women, 354 +/- 18 kJ . kg(-1) . d(-1); NS). Fat-free mass (FFM) loss differed significantly by sex (men, -4.0 +/- 1.2 kg; women, -2.5 +/- 1.1 kg; P < 0.05), but percentage FFM loss did not (men, -6.3 +/- 1.9%; women, -5.6 +/- 2.4%). In contrast, absolute FM loss did not differ significantly by sex (men, -3.45 +/- 0.72 kg; women, -3.42 +/- 0.22 kg), but fat oxidation (men, 5.2 +/- 1.0 mg . min(-1) . kg FFM(-1); women, 7.3 +/- 0.5 mg . min(-1) . kg FFM(-1)) and the relative contribution of FM to TEE (men, 74 +/- 14%; women, 89 +/- 6%) were significantly greater in women than in men (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION Female cadets maintained a significantly more fat-predominant fuel metabolism than did male cadets in response to sustained exercise and semistarvation.
Barriers to Women’s Participation: Experiences of Volunteers and Community Healthcare Authorities

ABSTRACT Along with health development in general terms, women’s involvement in health programs can be effective in raising their self-confidence and their health promotion. This study was carried out to unveil the barriers to and challenges of the health volunteers and to present the solutions to its promotion using active women participants’ experiences and the authorities of the program. The study was carried out using qualitative method along with content analysis in city of Tabriz East-Azerbaijan province, Iran. Data collection was conducted utilizing semistructured individual interviews and focus group discussions with the participation of 29 health volunteers and responsible authorities. The participants were selected using purposive sampling with maximum variation. Data analysis implemented conventional content analysis using MAXODA. Barriers to and challenges of health volunteers were generally categorized into four main themes including volunteers and trainers’ inadequate capabilities, inadequate acceptance of the volunteers, restrictive social norms, and organizational problems. It seems that interaction among health system, people, and health volunteers should be improved. Holding training programs about the activities of health volunteers at the society level leads into the better utilization of society sources in health programs.
Acceleration of tropical cyclogenesis by self-aggregation feedbacks

Significance Although the prediction of tropical cyclone tracks has improved in recent years, understanding the mechanisms responsible for the genesis and intensification of tropical cyclones remains a major scientific challenge. In this work we show that self-aggregation, a phenomenon discovered recently in idealized simulations of the tropical atmosphere, plays a leading-order role in the genesis of tropical cyclones in cloud-resolving simulations. This suggests that self-aggregation, and the framework developed for its study, could help shed more light into the physical processes leading to cyclogenesis and cyclone intensification. This work adds to the growing literature on the importance of this phenomenon for the tropical atmosphere. Idealized simulations of tropical moist convection have revealed that clouds can spontaneously clump together in a process called self-aggregation. This results in a state where a moist cloudy region with intense deep convection is surrounded by extremely dry subsiding air devoid of deep convection. Because of the idealized settings of the simulations where it was discovered, the relevance of self-aggregation to the real world is still debated. Here, we show that self-aggregation feedbacks play a leading-order role in the spontaneous genesis of tropical cyclones in cloud-resolving simulations. Those feedbacks accelerate the cyclogenesis process by a factor of 2, and the feedbacks contributing to the cyclone formation show qualitative and quantitative agreement with the self-aggregation process. Once the cyclone is formed, wind-induced surface heat exchange (WISHE) effects dominate, although we find that self-aggregation feedbacks have a small but nonnegligible contribution to the maintenance of the mature cyclone. Our results suggest that self-aggregation, and the framework developed for its study, can help shed more light into the physical processes leading to cyclogenesis and cyclone intensification. In particular, our results point out the importance of the longwave radiative cooling outside the cyclone.
(n-3) Fatty acids and infectious disease resistance.

The current view of the manner in which (n-3) polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) affect the immune system is centered on their ability to alter cytokine production and secondarily to diminish eicosanoid biosynthesis. The purpose of this article is to review the evidence that (n-3) PUFA affect host infectious disease resistance. Although there have been a few human clinical trials involving (n-3) PUFA and human infectious disease, the data are equivocal and the study designs confounded by the simultaneous inclusion of other immunonutrients (i.e., arginine and nucleotides) with the (n-3) PUFA. Thus, this review focuses on animal feeding trials that include an in vivo challenge of the host with a live infectious agent. Host survival and pathogen clearance are the most common end points measured in these studies. The data suggest that (n-3) PUFA can both improve and impair host resistance to a number of pathogens. However, the data are still quite limited in breadth and depth. For those pathogens for which data exist, the number of published studies in general does not exceed two or three. Emphasis is placed on defining important microbiological and immunological differences in various host-pathogen interactions that might help explain the incongruity in the findings published to date. The authors believe that direct examination of (n-3) PUFA on human infectious disease resistance is warranted.
Tumor-infiltrating FoxP3+ Tregs predict favorable outcome in colorectal cancer patients: A meta-analysis

FoxP3+ regulatory T cells (FoxP3+ Tregs) are considered to be a key mediator in immune escape and tumor progression. However, the role of FoxP3+ Tregs in human colorectal cancer (CRC) remains controversial. Herein, we conducted a meta-analysis including 17 published studies with 3811 patients identified from PubMed and EBSCO to assess the prognostic impact of tumor-infiltrating FoxP3+ Tregs in human CRC. We found FoxP3+ Tregs infiltrating into both intraepithelium and stroma within tumor were significantly positively correlated with 1, 3, 5 and 10-year overall survival (OS), but not with 1, 3, 5-year disease-free survival (DFS) of patients. Interestingly, in stratified analyses by compartments within tumor FoxP3+ Tregs infiltrating into, FoxP3+ Tregs invading stromal compartment significantly improved 3 and 5-year OS, yet OS wasn’t improved when FoxP3+ Tregs infiltrated into intraepithelium only. Furthermore, FoxP3+ Tregs invading both intraepithelium and stroma significantly inversely correlated with TNM stage of CRC. In conclusion, High density of FoxP3+ Tregs within tumor especially at stromal compartment leads to a favorable outcome in CRC, implicating FoxP3+ Tregs are one of valuable indexes for prognostic prediction in human CRC.