Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
New real-time image fusion technique for characterization of tumor vascularisation and tumor perfusion of liver tumors with contrast-enhanced ultrasound, spiral CT or MRI: first results.

AIM Evaluation and characterization of the vascularisation and perfusion of liver tumors by means of image fusion of dynamic contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS), multidetector-CT (MD-CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with the ultrasound navigation technique. MATERIAL For interventional planning a real-time image fusion involving CEUS (LOGIQ E9, GE) was performed in 20 patients (12 men, 8 women, age 43-69 years, median 54) with histologically confirmed malignant liver tumors (9 x hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), 5 x metastases, 2 x hemangiomas, 1 x cholangiocellular carcinoma (CCC), 1 x lymphoma, 1 x neuroendocrine tumor, 1 x focal nodular hypoplasia (FNH)). In 17 patients the real-time CEUS was fused with contrast-enhanced MD-CT and in three patients with contrast-enhanced MRI (Gd-DTPA and liver-specific contrast medium Resovist. All of the ultrasound examinations were performed by an experienced examiner with a multi-frequency probe (2-5 MHz, LOGIQ E9, GE); dynamic image sequences up to 3 minutes in true agent detection mode of contrast harmonic imaging (CHI) were documented. An evaluation of the tumor was performed by the characterization of the dynamics of the contrast medium and microperfusion with CEUS, fused with MD-CT or MRI. RESULTS In 18/20 cases there was an accurate agreement with respect to the segmental localization of the tumor lesion. In 2/20 cases the localization was comparable with the image fusion of CEUS and reference imaging (a total of at least 65 lesions: 3 x 1 lesion, 5 x 2 lesions, 8 x 3 lesions, 2 x 5 lesions, 1 x 8 lesions, 1 x at least 10 lesions (multifocal)). With image fusion a certain characterization was attained in 17/20 cases. In 3/20 cases (lymphoma after liver transplantation, multifocal CCC, metastases of a neuroendocrine tumor) the diagnosis was at first doubtful and had to be confirmed histologically. In patients with HCC an evaluation of the tumor perfusion was feasible in all 9 cases (8/9 after local trans-arterial chemoembolization (TACE), 1/9 after radio frequency ablation (RFA)). A tendency toward the identification of more lesions with image fusion of CEUS and CT than with contrast-enhanced CT alone could be recognized (p=0.059). CONCLUSION Applying a new real-time fusion technique of MD-CT or MRI with CEUS new possibilities for the evaluation, intervention and monitoring of the therapy of liver lesions were made possible, since the method also comprised the dynamic microperfusion.
Automatic Robot Supervision within a Lunar Crater Environment

The DFKI RIC built an artificial lunar crater scenery to create an experiment environment for exploration robots. This test facility called Space Testbed is equipped with a wide range of supervision tools. The presented paper describes a concept to control these tools automatically in order to support the operators. For this purpose, a motion tracking system is used to focus the Pan-Tilt-Zoom cameras on the robot. Furthermore, a gantry crane is controlled by a tracking algorithm to keep a vertical position above the robot to allow a constant top view.
Automatic Morphology (Summary)

The purpose of our experiment was to get an estimate of the usefulness of an automatic morphological analyzer that we have been working on. The automatic morphological analyzer (called AutoMorphology) accepts a text of any length and automatically determines the stems and suffixes of the words in the language. For a full description of the algorithm, see http://humanities.uchicago. edu/faculty/goldsmith/ Linguistica2000/Paper/paper.html. There has been discussion in the IR literature of the tradeoffs between using automatic language-independent means for stemming and language-dependent (hand-written) stemming algorithms{Xu and Croft 1995, Lennon et al.1981}; our goal has been to get the best of both approaches by using an automatic but language-particular stemming algorithm.
An Xq22.3 duplication detected by comparative genomic hybridization microarray (Array‐CGH) defines a new locus (FGS5) for FG syndrome

FG syndrome is an X‐linked multiple congenital anomalies (MCA) syndrome. It has been mapped to four distinct loci FGS1‐4, through linkage analysis (Xq13, Xp22.3, and Xp11.4‐p11.3) and based on the breakpoints of an X chromosome inversion (Xq11:Xq28), but so far no gene has been identified. We describe a boy with FG syndrome who has an inherited duplication at band Xq22.3 detected by comparative genomic hybridization microarray (Array‐CGH). These duplication maps outside all four loci described so far for FG syndrome, representing therefore a new locus, which we propose to be called FGS5. MID2, a gene closely related to MID1, which is known to be mutated in Opitz G/BBB syndrome, maps within the duplicated segment of our patient. Since FG and Opitz G/BBB syndromes share many manifestations we considered MID2 a candidate gene for FG syndrome. We also discuss the involvement of other potential genes within the duplicated segment and its relationship with clinical symptoms of our patient, as well as the laboratory abnormalities found in his mother, a carrier of the duplication. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The functional architecture of the acetylcholine nicotinic receptor explored by affinity labelling and site-directed mutagenesis

The scientific community will remember Peter Läuger as an exceptional man combining a generous personality and a sharp and skilful mind. He was able to attract by his views the interest of a large spectrum of biologists concerned by the mechanism of ion translocation through membranes. Yet, he was not a man with a single technique or theory. Using an authentically multidisciplinary approach, his ambition was to ‘understand transmembrane transport at the microscopic level, to capture its dynamics in the course of defined physiological processes’ (1987). According to him, ‘new concepts in the molecular physics of proteins’ had to be imagined, and ‘the traditional static picture of proteins has been replaced by the notions that proteins represent dynamic structures, subjected to conformational fluctuations covering a very wide time-range’ (1987).
Peripheral nerve regeneration by transplantation of bone marrow stromal cell-derived Schwann cells in adult rats.

OBJECT Bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) can be induced to form Schwann cells by sequentially treating the cells with beta-mercaptoethanol and retinoic acid, followed by forskolin and neurotrophic factors including heregulin. In this study the authors made artificial grafts filled with BMSC-derived Schwann cells (BMSC-DSCs) and transplanted them into the transected sciatic nerve in adult rats to evaluate the potential of BMSCs as a novel alternative method of peripheral nerve regeneration. METHODS The BMSC-DSCs were suspended in Matrigel and transferred into hollow fibers (12 mm in length), which were transplanted into the transected sciatic nerve in adult Wistar rats. Six months after cell transplantation, electrophysiological evaluation and walking track analysis were performed. Results of these studies showed significant improvement in motor nerve conduction velocity and sciatic nerve functional index in the BMSC-DSC-transplanted group compared with the control group (Matrigel graft only). Immunohistochemical study data demonstrated that transplanted BMSCs labeled with retrovirus green fluorescent protein were positive for P0 and myelin-associated glycoprotein and had reconstructed nodes of Ranvier and remyelinated regenerated nerve axons. The number of regenerated axons in the axial section of the central portion of the graft was significantly greater in the transplanted group. Although BMSCs can differentiate into several types of cells, tumor formation did not occur 6 months after engraftment. CONCLUSIONS Results in this study indicate that BMSC-DSCs have great potential to promote regeneration of peripheral nerves. The artificial graft made with BMSC-DSCs represents an alternative method for the difficult reconstruction of a long distance gap in a peripheral nerve.
Characterization of absorption loss for UWB body tissue propagation model

The paper presents the results of absorption loss for body tissue propagation model which is characterized by the specific absorption rate (SAR) investigated on heterogeneous normal and tumour affected tissues of numerical human breast models. The absorption loss is evaluated using UWB signals of 4 to 8 GHz. The analysis of the study shows that the absorption loss in the body tissue models increases with frequency and varies with the change in dielectric properties of body tissue models. Deviation of absorption loss up to 0.9 dB is observed in tumour affected model compared to normal model.
The Fc Portion of UV3, an Anti-CD54 Monoclonal Antibody, Is Critical for its Antitumor Activity in SCID Mice With Human Multiple Myeloma or Lymphoma Cell Lines

UV3 is a monoclonal antibody that recognizes human CD54 (intercellular adhesion molecule-1), and it was generated for the therapy of human multiple myeloma. In a severe combined immunodeficient (SCID) xenograft model of human multiple myeloma, UV3 significantly prolonged the survival of mice with either early or advanced stages of disease. However, the mechanism by which UV3 exerted its antitumor effect remained unknown. As reported previously UV3 could mediate antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity or complement-dependent cytotoxicity in vitro. F(ab)′2 fragments of UV3 had therapeutic efficacy in vivo, suggesting that effector functions were not critical. The purpose of this study was to further define the importance of the Fc portion of UV3 for its antitumor activity in vivo. To this end, we examined the effect of an “ultrapure” preparation of UV3 F(ab)′2 to treat SCID mice xenografted with either ARH-77 cells, a human multiple myeloma cell line, or Daudi cells, a human Burkitt's lymphoma cell line. In addition, we evaluated different doses of UV3 immunoglobulin G (IgG) in these mice to determine the minimum amount of IgG that would produce a therapeutic effect. Data obtained from this study suggest that (1) the Fc portion of UV3 is critical for its antitumor activity in vivo, (2) low levels of UV3 IgG in a preparation of F(ab)′2 fragments account for all of its in vivo activity in multiple myeloma and most of its activity in lymphoma, and (3) UV3 IgG significantly prolongs the survival of SCID/ARH-77 mice as well as SCID/Daudi mice.
Resiliency-aware Data Compression for In-memory Database Systems

Nowadays, database systems pursuit a main memory-centric architecture, where the entire business-related data is stored and processed in a compressed form in main memory. In this case, the performance gain is massive because database operations can benefit from its higher bandwidth and lower latency. However, current main memory-centric database systems utilize general-purpose error detection and correction solutions to address the emerging problem of increasing dynamic error rate of main memory. The costs of these generalpurpose methods dramatically increases with increasing error rates. To reduce these costs, we have to exploit context knowledge of database systems for resiliency. Therefore, we introduce our vision of resiliency-aware data compression in this paper, where we want to exploit the benefits of both fields in an integrated approach with low performance and memory overhead. In detail, we present and evaluate a first approach using AN encoding and two different compression schemes to show the potentials and challenges of our vision.
Transferred NOE and Saturation Transfer Difference NMR Studies of Novobiocin Binding to EnvZ Suggest Binding Mode Similar to DNA Gyrase

Histidine protein kinases (HPKs) are a class of receptor proteins found in bacterial two‐component signal transduction systems, which allow bacteria to respond to changes in their external environment. To date, there are few potent inhibitors of histidine kinases, despite their potential ability to weaken bacteria against antibiotic treatment. EnvZ is a histidine protein kinase with osmoregulatory function in bacteria with sequence and topological similarity to DNA Gyrase B. DNA Gyrase B has several well‐characterized potent inhibitors, including novobiocin and clorobiocin which have detailed structures in complex. With fluorescence competition experiments, we have determined that novobiocin binds to EnvZ with a novoKD 120 ± 20 μm. NMR transferred NOE (trNOE) experiments, and saturation transfer difference (STD) experiments suggest that novobiocin binds to EnvZ in a conformation and orientation similar to its binding with DNA Gyrase B. These experiments suggest some similarity in the pocket despite weaker affinity for EnvZ by novobiocin.
Entresto (Sacubitril/Valsartan): First-in-Class Angiotensin Receptor Neprilysin Inhibitor FDA Approved for Patients with Heart Failure.

Heart failure affects an estimated 5.7 million patients aged ≥20 years in the United States, according to the 2009–2012 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.1 Approximately 870,000 new cases of heart failure occur annually. Heart failure is projected to affect more than 8 million individuals aged ≥18 years in the United States by 2030, representing a 46% increase from 2012.1 The incidence of heart failure is substantially higher in the elderly population, approaching 10 of 1000 people aged ≥65 years.1
A technique for rearing germfree piglets obtained without surgery

A relatively simple procedure is described for obtaining germfree piglets which does not involve hysterectomy or hysterotomy. Newborn pigs were delivered into an isolator and their freedom from microbial contamination was ensured by applying bactericidal solutions externally and a combination of antibiotics in solution per os. 40 piglets so derived have been maintained free from detectable micro-organisms, some for up to 140 days. Equipment is described which allowed the long-term holding of these animals so that nutritional balance studies could be completed.
Towards Constructing a Fiber Bundle Atlas on Porcine Hearts with Diffusion Tensor Imaging

We work on the first step towards building a fiber bundle atlas on porcine hearts with diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) by (1) generating porcine heart fiber models from DTI data, (2) clustering the DTI fibers, and (3) matching cross-subject DTI fiber bundles. We also explore the effects of different distance thresholds on the DTI fiber bundle clustering and matching. Our results show that (1) complete-linkage leads to greater number of matches than single-linkage; (2) the smaller the minimum distance threshold is, the more matched bundles are obtained; (3) several fiber bundles are consistently matched across subjects with different sets of parameters.
Amplitude and frequency modulations of oscillation modes in hot B subdwarf and white dwarf stars from Kepler photometry

Les interactions non lineaires entre modes de pulsation, induisant des modulations d'amplitude et de frequence, sont difficiles a mettre en evidence avec les telescopes au sol en raison des temps caracteristiques en jeu, de l'ordre de la semaine, du mois, ou meme de l'annee. L'avenement des telescopes spatiaux comme KEPLER (opere par la NASA) a considerablement change la donne en apportant de nouvelles donnees pour ce domaine de recherche. Dans cette these, nous analysons les donnees photometriques obtenues avec KEPLER pour 24 etoiles compactes pulsantes, incluant 18 etoiles sous-naines de type B (sdB) et 6 naines blanches. Nous etablissons que les modulations d'amplitude et de frequence des modes d'oscillation sont un phenomene courant dans ces etoiles. Nous etudions en particulier deux etoiles : KIC 0862602, une naine blanche pulsante de type DB, et KIC 10139564, une etoile sdB variable a courtes periodes. KIC 0862602 et KIC 10139564 ont ete observees sans interruption par KEPLER en cadence rapide pendant deux annees pour la premiere et plus de trois ans pour la seconde. En analysant en detail ces donnees photometriques de tres haute precision, nous mettons en evidence differents types de comportements affectant les composantes de triplets induits par la rotation stellaire. Les frequences et amplitudes de ces modes montrent des variations soi periodiques soi irregulieres, ou demeurent constantes. Ces comportements peuvent etre connectes a ceux predits par les equations d'amplitude dans le cas de couplages non lineaires resonants entre modes, en particulier pour les temps caracteristiques des modulations. De plus, nous montrons que les modes en resonance constituant les triplets peuvent egalement interagir avec des modes exterieurs par le biais d'autres formes de resonances telle que la resonance a trois modes v 0 ~ v 1 + v 2 , une situation qui n'est pas prise en compte dans le cadre theorique existant. Ces etudes apportent pour la premiere fois une preuve claire de l'existence de mecanismes de couplages non lineaires entre modes d'oscillations dans les pulsateurs compacts. Cette decouverte resonne comme un avertissement pour les projets visant a mesurer les taux de changement des periodes dus a l'evolution dans les etoiles compactes en general. Les modulations de frequence d'origine non lineaire peuvent potentiellement empecher toute mesure fiable de ces taux, a moins de corriger ces effets auparavant. Les modulations observees caracterisees dans cette these apportent un regard nouveau sur "l'asterosismologie non lineaire" et appellent a revisiter les methodes d'analyse des courbes de lumiere pour en extraire les modes d'amplitude et de frequence variables. Dans un futur proche, nous anticipons davantage d'attention portee a ces phenomenes non ineaires dans differents types d'etoiles pulsantes observees depuis l'espace, ainsi qu'un regain d'interet pour la theorie non lineaire des oscillations stellaires en general.
Treatment-Seeking Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan: Comparison With Veterans of Previous Wars

Differences in the characteristics and mental health needs of veterans of the Iraq/Afghanistan war when compared with those of veterans who served in the Persian Gulf war and in the Vietnam war may have important implications for Veterans Affairs (VA) program and treatment planning. Subjects were drawn from administrative data bases of veterans who sought treatment from specialized VA programs for treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Current Iraq/Afghanistan veterans were compared with 4 samples of outpatient and inpatient Persian Gulf and Vietnam veterans whose admission to treatment was either contemporaneous or noncontemporaneous with their admission. A series of analyses of covariance was used hierachically to control for program site and age. In analyses of contemporaneous veterans uncontrolled for age, Iraq/Afghanistan veterans differed most notably from Vietnam veterans by being younger, more likely to be female, less likely to be either married or separated/divorced, more often working, less likely to have ever been incarcerated, and less likely to report exposure to atrocities in the military. Regarding clinical status, Iraq/Afghanistan veterans were less often diagnosed with substance abuse disorders, manifested more violent behavior, and had lower rates of VA disability compensation because of PTSD. Differences are more muted in comparisons with Persian Gulf veterans, particularly in those involving noncontemporaneous samples, or those that controlled for age differences. Among recent war veterans with PTSD, social functioning has largely been left intact. There is a window of opportunity, therefore, for developing and focusing on treatment interventions that emphasize the preservation of these social assets.
Desenvolvimento de coalhada fermentada simbiótica sabor maracujá (Passiflora edulis)

Inumeros lacticinios funcionais sao disponiveis comercialmente e a variedade desses produtos continua em expansao. Muitas pesquisas em termos de probioticos e prebioticos encontram-se voltadas para produtos fermentados, pois alem destes produtos possuirem grande aceitacao pelo publico em geral apresentam excelente valor nutritivo e sao veiculos em potencial para o consumo dessas substâncias. Segundo a Legislacao Brasileira, entende-se por Coalhada o produto oriundo da fermentacao do leite, por bacterias especificas, individuais ou mistas, mesofilas, produtoras de acido latico. Diante do exposto esta pesquisa teve como objetivo desenvolver diferentes formulacoes de coalhada, adicionadas de culturas probioticas e frutooligossacarideos, sabor maracuja, bem como selecionar as que apresentarem melhor indice de aceitabilidade, avaliando sua estabilidade durante o armazenamento a partir de analises fisico-quimicas e microbiologicas. A partir de um planejamento experimental foram desenvolvidos 5 ensaios: coalhada com leite desnatado com 8g de FOS, coalhada com leite integral com 8g de FOS, coalhada com leite desnatado com 16g de FOS, coalhada com leite integral com 16g de FOS e coalhada com leite semi-desnatado com 12g de FOS. As formulacoes elaboradas foram bem aceitas pelos provadores para todos os atributos avaliados no teste sensorial, teste de aceitacao e intencao de compra. Duas formulacoes (com 8 e 16g de FOS/ 1000 mL de leite integral, ensaios 2 e 4, respectivamente) foram selecionadas por apresentarem melhor indice de aceitabilidade e submetidas a avaliacao da estabilidade a partir de analises fisico-quimicas e microbiologicas nos periodos 1, 7, 14, 21 e 28 dias de estocagem. A partir dos resultados obtidos constatou-se que os valores encontrados nas duas formulacoes quanto a composicao centesimal estao dentro dos padroes estabelecidos para este tipo de produto. Durante o tempo de estocagem, as formulacoes apresentaram variacoes de pH e acidez, contudo nao levou a alteracoes indesejaveis no produto final. Tambem apresentaram resultados satisfatorios para contagens de Lactobacillus Acidophilus, Streptococus Thermophilus, Bifidobacterium Bifidum, sendo superiores ao minimo preconizado pela legislacao vigente, alem de qualidade higienico-sanitaria satisfatoria, pela ausencia de contaminacao por microrganismos como: Coliformes totais, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Estafilococos coagulase positiva, contagem padrao de bacterias aerobias e bolores e leveduras. Portanto, conclui-se que a utilizacao de microrganismos probioticos e frutooligossacarideos na formulacao de coalhadas proporcionou a elaboracao de um produto com qualidade sensorial, nutricional e tecnologica.
A Dynamic VPN management architecture for Personal Networks 1

This paper proposes a Dynamic Personal VPN management architecture to allow Personal Network (PN) users to initiate establishment of tunnels for PN networking and management of VPN services and parameters on demand. In this architecture, a service-oriented policy-based VPN establishment and a network-based VPN model are adopted. The VPN management plane interacts with naming and service discovery frameworks to handle service location, mobility and achieve configuration flexibility. A number of frameworks have been selected for their flexibility and extensibility to conduct the analysis and design an overall architecture for VPN based PN networking. This paper combines an Intentional Naming System (INS) used to resolve names and assist mobility and the Netconf protocol acting as a management protocol. An AAA infrastructure provides access control and accounting. Results of an implementation and a performance evaluation of the proposed architecture are reported.
Revealed Cores: Characterizations and Structure

Characterizations of the classes of all choice functions that select the cores or the externally stable cores induced by an underlying revealed dominance digraph are provided. Relying on such characterizations, the basic order-theoretic structure of the corresponding sets of revealed cores is also analyzed. In particular, it is shown that the poset of all revealed cores ordered by set inclusion is a median meet semilattice: therefore, any profile of revealed cores may be aggregated by means of the simple majority rule.