Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Normalized metal artifact reduction (NMAR) in computed tomography.

PURPOSE While modern clinical CT scanners under normal circumstances produce high quality images, severe artifacts degrade the image quality and the diagnostic value if metal prostheses or other metal objects are present in the field of measurement. Standard methods for metal artifact reduction (MAR) replace those parts of the projection data that are affected by metal (the so-called metal trace or metal shadow) by interpolation. However, while sinogram interpolation methods efficiently remove metal artifacts, new artifacts are often introduced, as interpolation cannot completely recover the information from the metal trace. The purpose of this work is to introduce a generalized normalization technique for MAR, allowing for efficient reduction of metal artifacts while adding almost no new ones. The method presented is compared to a standard MAR method, as well as MAR using simple length normalization. METHODS In the first step, metal is segmented in the image domain by thresholding. A 3D forward projection identifies the metal trace in the original projections. Before interpolation, the projections are normalized based on a 3D forward projection of a prior image. This prior image is obtained, for example, by a multithreshold segmentation of the initial image. The original rawdata are divided by the projection data of the prior image and, after interpolation, denormalized again. Simulations and measurements are performed to compare normalized metal artifact reduction (NMAR) to standard MAR with linear interpolation and MAR based on simple length normalization. RESULTS Promising results for clinical spiral cone-beam data are presented in this work. Included are patients with hip prostheses, dental fillings, and spine fixation, which were scanned at pitch values ranging from 0.9 to 3.2. Image quality is improved considerably, particularly for metal implants within bone structures or in their proximity. The improvements are evaluated by comparing profiles through images and sinograms for the different methods and by inspecting ROIs. NMAR outperforms both other methods in all cases. It reduces metal artifacts to a minimum, even close to metal regions. Even for patients with dental fillings, which cause most severe artifacts, satisfactory results are obtained with NMAR. In contrast to other methods, NMAR prevents the usual blurring of structures close to metal implants if the metal artifacts are moderate. CONCLUSIONS NMAR clearly outperforms the other methods for both moderate and severe artifacts. The proposed method reliably reduces metal artifacts from simulated as well as from clinical CT data. Computationally efficient and inexpensive compared to iterative methods, NMAR can be used as an additional step in any conventional sinogram inpainting-based MAR method.
A Novel and Effective Surface Flaw Inspection Instrument for Large-Aperture Optical Elements

Surface defects on precision optical elements must be carefully inspected since they impact the normal operation of an optical system. It is a challenge to inspect defects of large-aperture optical elements using an imaging system because of efficiency and accuracy. This paper designs a novel and effective inspection instrument with two imaging systems for large-aperture optical elements. They are the dark-field imaging system (DFIS) with a line scan camera in 10-μm resolution and the bright-field (BF) imaging system with a microscopic camera in a 0.85-μm resolution. To keep the clarity of the DFIS in large-scope quickly scanning, an adaptive scan path planning method is proposed. A set of novel algorithms is proposed to process a large number of dark-field images. Due to the limitations of the DFIS in scattering effect, the corresponding BF images are obtained according to the dark-field images. The classification of flaws and their sizes measurement based on BF images are also presented. The experiments show that the instrument can scan an optical element with the size of 810 mm × 460 mm in less than 6 min and the inspection precision can reach 3 μm.
Strength Training and Metabolic Conditioning for Female Youth and Adolescent Soccer Players

ABSTRACT DESPITE THE RAPID GROWTH IN WOMEN AND GIRLS PLAYING SOCCER, EVIDENCE-BASED GUIDELINES TO INFORM CONDITIONING FOR GIRLS ARE SPARSE. MOST RESEARCH ON YOUTH SOCCER IS CONDUCTED IN MALES, WHICH MAY NOT BE TRANSFERABLE TO PRACTICE IN FEMALE TEAMS. THIS ARTICLE REFLECTS ON THE CURRENT EVIDENCE BASE AND DRAWS ON THE AUTHORS' EXPERIENCES TO PROVIDE GUIDELINES TO IMPROVE CONDITIONING PROGRAMS THROUGHOUT MATURATION IN GIRLS. THE ARTICLE FOCUSES ON THE INTEGRATION OF NEUROMUSCULAR AND METABOLIC CONDITIONING METHODS TO SAFELY IMPROVE PHYSICAL PERFORMANCE AND REDUCE INJURY RISK FACTORS. GUIDELINES ARE PRESENTED FOR PLAYERS PRE, CIRCUM, AND POST PEAK HEIGHT VELOCITY.
Understanding pain among older persons: Part 1—the development of novel pain profiles and their association with disability and quality of life

Background While a range of variables are related to the impact of pain, most population studies of older persons have simply examined the presence or intensity of pain. Objective To develop novel pain profiles based on a range of pain variables, and compare demographic and health variables across profiles. Methods Baseline data from The Irish LongituDinal study on Ageing (TILDA), a population-representative cohort study involving 8,171 community living people resident in Ireland aged 50 or over, was used. Two-step cluster analysis was performed on those who reported being often troubled by pain using all self-reported pain variables. Nine demographic and health variables were compared across pain profiles and the no-pain profile. Results Of the cohort, 65% reported not often being troubled by pain. Of those troubled by pain, four profiles emerged ranging from the profile whose pain did not have impact on daily activities (12% of cohort) to the profile with everyone taking medication to control the pain (9% of cohort). All demographic and health variables differed significantly across the profiles (all P < 0.05) with pain profiles reporting significantly greater disability and poorer quality of life than the no-pain profile (P < 0.05). Conclusions Four pain profiles, based on a range of pain variables, as well as a no-pain profile were identifiable in a large sample of older adults. Identifying those (i) with multi-site pain, (ii) who take pain medications and/or (iii) whose pain affects daily activities clearly identifies those with the highest levels of disability and poorest quality of life.
Are Individual Investors Influenced by the Optimism and Credibility of Stock Spam Recommendations

This study examines attention-driven investment decisions using a sample of firms essentially unknown to investors prior to becoming the target of a stock spam campaign. We show that the market reaction to spam varies predictably with the content of the spam message. Spam date returns and volume are significantly higher for stocks targeted by spam emails containing optimistic target price projections bundled with ostensibly credible information quoted from a previously issued company press release. There is also some evidence that disclaimers in spam messages reduce, but do not eliminate, the market response. Attention effects also contribute to spammers’ selection of stocks to target and to spam-related enforcement actions by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Crystal Structure of a Carbon Monoxide Dehydrogenase Reveals a [Ni-4Fe-5S] Cluster

The homodimeric nickel-containing CO dehydrogenase from the anaerobic bacterium Carboxydothermus hydrogenoformanscatalyzes the oxidation of CO to CO2. A crystal structure of the reduced enzyme has been solved at 1.6 angstrom resolution. This structure represents the prototype for Ni-containing CO dehydrogenases from anaerobic bacteria and archaea. It contains five metal clusters of which clusters B, B′, and a subunit-bridging, surface-exposed cluster D are cubane-type [4Fe-4S] clusters. The active-site clusters C and C′ are novel, asymmetric [Ni-4Fe-5S] clusters. Their integral Ni ion, which is the likely site of CO oxidation, is coordinated by four sulfur ligands with square planar geometry.
The adaptive matching pursuit algorithm for estimation and equalization of sparse time-varying channels

This paper addresses issues related to the estimation and equalization of channels with a large delay spread and an impulse response with significant values only over small regions. For a time-varying environment, an adaptive matching pursuit (AMP) algorithm is considered which updates the channel estimate while exploiting the channel's sparsity. From the channel estimate, the equalizer taps are then derived. We show through simulations that using AMP to track the time-varying channel gives significant improvement in equalization performance over using the LMS or RLS algorithms. We also demonstrate how ANP may be modified to more quickly adapt to a fast time-varying channel.
A comparison of four language models for large vocabulary turkish speech recognition

This paper gives a comparison of three language models proposed as alternatives to word-based language model for large vocabulary speech recognition of Turkish. Turkish is an agglutinative language and has morphological productivity. This results in a huge vocabulary size and a large number of out of vocabulary words for unseen test data. The solution is to parse the words, in order to get smaller base units, which are capable of covering the language with relatively small vocabulary size. Three different ways of decomposing words into base units are described: Morphem-based model, stem-ending-based model and syllable-based model. These models are compared with respect to vocabulary size, coverage, number of out of vocabulary words, perplexity and sensitivity to context. For all three models, a significant improvement for those measures are observed compared to the word-based language model.
Inflammatory breast cancer in Tunisia in the era of multimodality therapy.

BACKGROUND This study aimed to identify prognostic factors for outcome in Tunisian patients with nonmetastatic inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) receiving multimodality therapy. PATIENTS AND METHODS From 1994 to 2000, 100 patients with nonmetastatic IBC were reviewed. Patients underwent neo-adjuvant chemotherapy including anthracyclines (99%), then mastectomy (93%) when feasible, radiotherapy (83%) and adjuvant chemotherapy (84%). Sixty patients (60%) had hormone therapy. RESULTS Median age at diagnosis was 44 years (range 23-71). Seventy patients had premenopausal status (70%). Ten cases occurred during pregnancy (10%). Body mass index indicated overweight or obesity in 76 patients (76%). After neo-adjuvant chemotherapy, pathologic complete response (pCR) rate was 20%. Median time of follow-up for surviving patients was 44 months. Median progression-free survival (PFS) was 19 months and overall survival (OS) 30 months. Factors associated with improved survival were no pregnancy (P = 0.0095), estrogen receptor positivity (P = 0.028), tumor size <5 cm (P = 0.021), clinical complete response (cCR) (P = 0.022), pCR (P = 0.011), negative nodes (P = 0.053) and hormone therapy (P < 0.001). In multivariate analysis, cCR, negative nodes and hormone therapy were independently associated with better OS and PFS. Factors predictive to pCR were age >45 years, negative nodes and cCR. CONCLUSIONS Tunisian patients with IBC have particular epidemiologic characteristics, with earlier disease and context of overweight and obesity, but prognostic factors are similar to those reported in the literature. Hormone therapy seems to improve patient outcome.
Interference of papillomavirus E6 protein with single‐strand break repair by interaction with XRCC1

XRCC1 protein is required for the repair of DNA single‐strand breaks and genetic stability, and is essential for viability in mammals. XRCC1 functions as a scaffold protein by interacting and modulating polypeptide components of the single‐strand break repair machinery, including AP endonuclease‐1, DNA ligase IIIα, poly (ADP‐ribose) polymerase, DNA polymerase β and human polynucleotide kinase. We show here that the E6 protein of human papillomavirus type 1, 8 and 16 directly binds XRCC1. When tested in CHO derived XRCC1 ‘knock out’ EM9 cells, co‐expression of human papillomavirus 16 E6 with human XRCC1 reduced the ability of the latter protein to correct the methyl methane sulfate sensitivity of XRCC1 mutant CHO cell line EM9. These data identify a novel link between small DNA tumour viruses and DNA repair pathways, and suggest a novel explanation for the development of genomic instability in tissue cells persistently infected with papillomaviruses.
Model Associated with the Study of the Degradation Based on the Accelerated Test: A Literature Review

Most manufacturers of solar modules guarantee the minimum performance of their modules for 20 to 25 years, and 30-year warranties have been introduced. The warranty typically guarantees that the modules will perform to at least 90% capacity in the first 10 years and to at least 80% in the following 10 - 15 years. Early degradation resulting from design flaws, materials or processing issues is often apparent from startup to the first few years in service. Importantly, many module failures and performance losses are the result of gradual accumulated damage resulting from long-term outdoor exposure in harsh environments, referred. Many of these processes occur on relatively long time scales and the various degradation processes may be chemical, electrical, thermal or mechanical in nature. These are either initiated or accelerated by the combined stresses of the service environment, in particular solar radiation, temperature and moisture, and other stresses such as salt air, wind and snow. Accelerated Life Testing (ALT) test methodology is normally predicated on first being able to reproduce a specific degradation or failure mode without altering it (correlation); and, second, to produce that result in less than real-time acceleration. Degradation and failure may result when an applied stress exceeds material or product strength. This may be a one-time catastrophic event, the result of cyclic fatigue, or a gradual decline in requisite properties due to ageing mechanisms. Engineers in the manufacturing industries have used accelerated test (AT) experiments for many decades. The purpose of AT experiments is to acquire reliability information quickly. Test units of a material, component, subsystem or entire systems are subjected to higher-than-usual levels of one or more accelerating variables such as temperature or stress. Then the AT results are used to predict life of the units at use conditions. The extrapolation is typically justified (correctly or incorrectly) on the basis of physically motivated models or a combination of empirical model fitting with a sufficient amount of previous experience in testing similar units. The need to extrapolate in both time and the accelerating variables generally necessitates the use of fully parametric models. Statisticians have made important contributions in the development of appropriate stochastic models for AT data [typically a distribution for the response and regression relationships between the parameters of this distribution and the accelerating variable(s)], statistical methods for AT planning (choice of accelerating variable levels and allocation of available test units to those levels) and methods of estimation of suitable reliability metrics. This paper provides a review of many of the AT models that have been used successfully in this area.
Teaching of geometric surfaces for architectural students at the Faculty of Engineering and Design, of Hosei University in Tokyo, Japan

The free-form objects are in expansion in the architecture of the 21st century, especially in high developed countries as Japan. Design and performing of free-form objects prefers knowledge of parametric modeling in softwares such as Rhinoceros. Before designing free-form objects, it is necessary to obtain knowledge of geometric surfaces and their use in architectural practice. This was also noticed by the Faculty of Engineering а nd Design, Hosei University in Tokyo, Japan. Subject Geometric Surfaces was introduced to give students a high-quality knowledge in this field, that they can apply for more creative designing of their architectural objects, which will be shown in this paper.
Reference Library

Under dull "flora" glass, With newsprint reverence, they sit At long refectory tables, Workless on a rainy day, Heads bent in hushed soliloquies Inside a skin of silence That shudders only with Rain-muted wheels outside When, suddenly, dark-bearded, quick, A man walks down the centre aisle Playing at priesthood, mumbling Parables and sermons, to and fro He marches, pointing fingers At uneasy looks that turn Immediately to their own homily : The murder of the morning.
Salt sensitivity in wheat : a case for specific ion toxicity.

Two selected lines of bread wheat, Triticum aestivum L. , differing in their relative salt resistance, were grown in isosmotic solutions of different ionic compositions to investigate sensitivity to specific ions. Growth rates and ion accumulation were determined. The salt composition of the various solutions had little effect on the growth of the salt-resistant line, but significantly affected that of the salt-sensitive line. Specifically, solutions containing high Na(+) concentrations were more toxic than those containing high Cl(-) concentrations or high concentrations of nutrient ions. There were few differences in ion accumulation between lines in a given treatment, although the sensitive line tended to accumulate more Na(+) than the tolerant line in the salt treatments with high Na(+) concentrations. The overall results provide evidence that there is a definite specific ion effect which is related to salt sensitivity in wheat. It is suggested that superior compartmentation of toxic ions, principally Na(+), may be a mechanism of salt resistance in this case.
Incorporation of Mouse APOBEC3 into Murine Leukemia Virus Virions Decreases the Activity and Fidelity of Reverse Transcriptase

ABSTRACT APOBEC3 proteins are restriction factors that induce G→A hypermutation in retroviruses during replication as a result of cytidine deamination of minus-strand DNA transcripts. However, the mechanism of APOBEC inhibition of murine leukemia viruses (MuLVs) does not appear to be G→A hypermutation and is unclear. In this report, the incorporation of mA3 in virions resulted in a loss in virion reverse transcriptase (RT) activity and RT fidelity that correlated with the loss of virion-specific infectivity.
Entrepreneurial intention : an empirical study among Open University Malaysia (OUM) students

It has always been the interest of our government to promote entrepreneurship and new venture in business as a mean to enhance economic growth for the nation and creating jobs to help to solve the problem of unemployment. The research conducted particularly among the students of Open University Malaysia (OUM) has attempted to understand the factors that stimulate or impede their entrepreneurial intention. The study has also focused on examining how many OUM students possess the entrepreneurial intention towards self-employment, how the relationship of demographic factors affecting their entrepreneurial intention, and lastly but not least how is the curriculum offered in OUM has helped to promote students' interest in entrepreneurship. It appears that the students find entrepreneurship both personally and generally desirable which suggests that entrepreneurial career in future might become more typical and popular among university graduates. However, training and skill development programs are necessary to increase the personal capabilities and generate interest and intention among students to have positive attitudes towards entrepreneurship. This survey has also confirmed the previous studies by others that the male persons at their prime age of 31-45 years old continue to be the most active group in terms of entrepreneurship and the role of entrepreneurial role models in the family has a positive effect on the entrepreneurial perception and intentions. It also appears that the entrepreneurial intention among female students is fairly low. This paper suggests that there should be continuous effort to promote female entrepreneurship and continuous effort from university to work closely with a variety of business support agencies or other government agencies to raise students' awareness of various avenues of support and programs available to assist them in their business start-ups. (Author's abstract)
Consensus of spatially distributed filters using mobile sensor networks with limited connectivity

The estimation of spatially distributed processes by group of spatially distributed filters utilizing mobile sensors is considered in this work. It is assumed that the sensor network has limited connectivity and a guidance scheme for the mobile sensors is proposed that takes into account the vehicle dynamics. The motion of the mobile sensors is explicitly expressed in terms of the performance of the distributed filters. An added modification into the filter design allows for consensus by penalizing the disagreement of the state estimates in a dynamic manner. Stability bounds are obtained and extensive simulations studies of a representative spatially distributed process are included to provide insights on the effects of moving sensors used in consensus filters.
A novel scheme for the next generation of terrestrial broadcasting on high speed railway

This paper proposes a novel scheme for the next generation of terrestrial broadcasting (NGTB) on high speed railway (HSR). A hybrid broadcasting and wireless communication network for HSR can improve the average throughput for passengers on high speed trains (HST); whats more, the broadcasting network is more efficient than communication network if the common hot information is delivered. A novel terrestrial broadcasting scheme is proposed, which supports broadband transmission and has higher spectrum efficiency. The peak to average power ratio/cubic metric (PAPR/CM) performance for power de-rating reduction of the proposed scheme and the conventional scheme are compared. Simulations show it also has better power efficiency than traditional terrestrial broadcasting scheme with acceptable BER performance.
First person sketch-based terrain editing

We present a new method for first person sketch-based editing of terrain models. As in usual artistic pictures, the input sketch depicts complex silhouettes with cusps and T-junctions, which typically correspond to non-planar curves in 3D. After analysing depth constraints in the sketch based on perceptual cues, our method best matches the sketched silhouettes with silhouettes or ridges of the input terrain. A specific deformation algorithm is then applied to the terrain, enabling it to exactly match the sketch from the given perspective view, while insuring that none of the user-defined silhouettes is hidden by another part of the terrain. As our results show, this method enables users to easily personalize an existing terrain, while preserving its plausibility and style.