Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Non-Invasive Resting Magnetocardiographic Imaging for the Rapid Detection of Ischemia in Subjects Presenting with Chest Pain

Background: Early diagnosis of ischemia is complicated by the poor sensitivity of standard tests and contraindication for stress testing in unstable angina patients. Magnetocardiography (MCG) imaging can be used for the rapid, non-invasive detection of ischemia at rest. Methods: We studied 125 patients with presumed ischemic chest pain. All were chest pain free at the time of scanning. A 6-minute resting MCG scan (CardioMag Imaging, Inc., New York, 9-channel system) was performed. Following the MCG scan, automated software data analysis was performed, and quantitative scores were automatically calculated for each subject. The presence of ischemia was determined after testing with serial troponins, stress testing, and/or coronary angiography. Results: The mean age was 59.4 ± 13.6 years. Most patients (86.4%) had non-ischemic 12-lead ECG and normal troponin (86.2%). Fifty-five patients (44.0%) were determined to be ischemic. The MCG sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value was 76.4, 74.3, 70.0 and 80.0%, respectively, for the detection of ischemia (p < 0.0001). Conclusions: MCG is a new rapid, non-invasive imaging tool able to detect repolarization abnormalities at rest consistent with ischemia in patients presenting with chest pain syndrome and normal or non-specific 12-lead ECG and normal troponin.
Detection of the impedance variation for nuclear control cable using time frequency domain reflectometry

In this paper, an impedance change localization for the nuclear control cable using the time-frequency domain reflectometry (TFDR) is proposed. The reference signal is designed by analyzing characteristics of the target cable and capacitive coupler. To be prepared for on-voltage experiment, the reference signal is injected into the target cable via capacitive coupler. The experiment using the TFDR and TDR is carried out to localize the impedance variation spot (0, 30, 50, 70, 90 Ω) in the target cable. Through the experiment, the accuracy of the proposed TFDR system is proved.
Rapid, Simple and Sensitive Detection of Q Fever by Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification of the htpAB Gene

Background Q fever is the most widespread zoonosis, and domestic animals are the most common sources of transmission. It is not only difficult to distinguish from other febrile diseases because of the lack of specific clinical manifestations in humans, but it is also difficult to identify the disease in C. burnetii-carrying animals because of the lack of identifiable features. Conventional serodiagnosis requires sera from the acute and convalescent stages of infection, which are unavailable at early diagnosis. Nested PCR and real-time PCR require equipment. In this study, we developed a Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP) assay to identify C. burnetii rapidly and sensitively. Methods A universal LAMP primer set was designed to detect the repeated sequence IS1111a of the htpAB gene of C. burnetii using PrimerExplorer V4 software. The sensitivity of the LAMP assay was evaluated using known quantities of recombined reference plasmids containing the targeted genes. The specificity of the developed LAMP assay was determined using 26 members of order Rickettsiae and 18 other common pathogens. The utility of the LAMP assay was further compared with real time PCR by the examination 24 blood samples including 6 confirmed and 18 probable Q fever cases, which diagnosed by IFA serological assessment and real time PCR. In addition, 126 animal samples from 4 provinces including 97 goats, 7 cattle, 18 horses, 3 marmots and 1 deer were compared by these two methods. Results The limits of detection of the LAMP assay for the htpAB gene were 1 copy per reaction. The specificity of the LAMP assay was 100%, and no cross-reaction was observed among the bacteria used in the study. The positive rate of unknown febrile patients was 33.3%(95%CI 30.2%–36.4%) for the LAMP assay and 8.3%(95%CI 7.4%–9.2%) for the real time PCR(P<0.05). Similarly, the total positive rate of animals was 7.9%(95%CI 7.1%–8.7%) for the LAMP assay and 0.8%(95%CI 0.7%–0.9%)for the real time PCR(P<0.01). Using the developed LAMP assay, Q fever in the Yi Li area, Xinjiang Province, was confirmed. Conclusions The LAMP assay is a potential tool to support the diagnosis of Q fever in humans and domestic animals in the field, especially in the rural areas of China, because of its rapid and sensitive detection without the aid of sophisticated equipment or a complicated protocol.
Dysfunction of the Default Mode Network in Drug-Naïve Parkinson’s Disease with Mild Cognitive Impairments: A Resting-State fMRI Study

Objective: Cognitive impairments are common in Parkinson’s disease (PD) and can even occur in the early stages. The default mode network (DMN) is highly relevant for cognitive processes; however, it remains largely unknown if changes in the DMN connectivity are related to the cognitive decline in drug-naïve early stage PD patients with a mild cognitive impairment (MCI). This study used resting-state functional MRI (fMRI) to explore the brain connectivity of the DMN in early stage drug-naïve PD patients with MCI. Method: We recruited 32 early stage drug-naïve PD patients and 22 matched healthy controls (HC). Among the PD patients, 14 were classified as having MCI (PD-MCI) and 18 were classified as having unimpaired cognition (PD-CU). The functional integration of the DMN was evaluated by a seed-based correlation approach. Results: The brain connectivity analysis revealed reduced functional connectivity (FC) in both PD subgroups compared with HC. The PD-MCI group showed a significant reduction in FC between the DMN and a set of regions, including the precentral gyrus, middle temporal gyrus, insula, anterior inferior parietal lobule and middle frontal gyrus. Compared to the PD-CU group, the PD-MCI group demonstrated a significantly decreased FC in the middle frontal and middle temporal gyri. Additionally, compared to HC, the PD-MCI group had a significantly decreased FC within the DMN, mainly in the FC between the hippocampal formation and inferior frontal gyrus, between the posterior cingulate cortex and posterior inferior parietal lobule, and between the anterior temporal lobe and inferior frontal gyrus. Compared to the PD-CU group, the only significantly decreased FC within the DMN in the PD-MCI group was between the anterior temporal lobe and inferior frontal gyrus. In all PD patients, the decreased FC between anterior temporal lobe and middle temporal gyrus was positively correlated with attention/working performance, and the reduced FC between the hippocampal formation and inferior frontal gyrus was also positively correlated with memory function. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that an altered DMN connectivity characterizes PD-MCI patients. These findings may be helpful for facilitating the further understanding of the potential mechanisms underlying MCI in PD. However, our results are preliminary, and further investigation is needed.
Yeast Elongator protein Elp1p does not undergo proteolytic processing in exponentially growing cells

In eukaryotic organisms, Elongator is a six‐subunit protein complex required for the formation of 5‐carbamoylmethyl (ncm5) and 5‐methylcarboxymethyl (mcm5) side chains on uridines present at the wobble position (U34) of tRNA. The open reading frame encoding the largest Elongator subunit Elp1p has two in‐frame 5′ AUG methionine codons separated by 48 nucleotides. Here, we show that the second AUG acts as the start codon of translation. Furthermore, Elp1p was previously shown to exist in two major forms of which one was generated by proteolysis of full‐length Elp1p and this proteolytic cleavage was suggested to regulate Elongator complex activity. In this study, we found that the vacuolar protease Prb1p was responsible for the cleavage of Elp1p. The cleavage occurs between residues 203 (Lys) and 204 (Ala) as shown by amine reactive Tandem Mass Tag followed by LC‐MS/MS (liquid chromatography mass spectrometry) analysis. However, using a modified protein extraction procedure, including trichloroacetic acid, only full‐length Elp1p was observed, showing that truncation of Elp1p is an artifact occurring during protein extraction. Consequently, our results indicate that N‐terminal truncation of Elp1p is not likely to regulate Elongator complex activity.
The Continental Population Structure of Europe

Structure in populations refers to inhomogeneity of various population proper­ ties. These inhomogeneities may range over demographic, morphological , genetic, cultural , and social variables. Population structure is of inherent interest from a descriptive point of view, but its principal importance is that it leads to inferences about the processes that have engendered the structure and permits us to support or reject various hypotheses about the populations concerned. Most population structure is studied with respect to spatial di­ mensions, temporal structure being more difficult to observe. The types of structure observed and inferences drawn depend on the scale at which observations are taken. Small-scale studies of single villages or relatively small regions, which predominate in the literature, address questions of inbreeding, mating patterns, local selection, genetic drift, and similar prob­ lems of great interest to population geneticists. Large-scale studies have been relatively rarely carried out, partly because data adequate for such studies are hard to accumulate, and partly because the types of questions answered at this scale differ from those fashionable in recent decades in population genetics (7) . These questions concern large-scale genetic differences, ethnic origins and admixtures, and the effect of unique events in history. Such studies have been made on various continents and parts thereof (e.g . 13a, 26, 44, 49, 50).
Mining mutation chains in biological sequences

The increasing infectious disease outbreaks has led to a need for new research to better understand the disease's origins, epidemiological features and pathogenicity caused by fast-mutating, fast-spreading viruses. Traditional sequence analysis methods do not take into account the spatio-temporal dynamics of rapidly evolving and spreading viral species. They are also focused on identifying single-point mutations. In this paper, we propose a novel approach that incorporates space-time relationships for studying changes in protein sequences from fast mutating viruses. We aim to detect both single-point mutations as well as k-mutations in the viral sequences. We define the problem of mutation chain pattern mining and design algorithms to discover valid mutation chains. Compact data structures to facilitate the mining process as well as pruning strategies to increase the scalability of the algorithms are devised. Experiments on both synthetic datasets and real world influenza A virus dataset show that our algorithms are scalable and effective in discovering mutations that occur geographically over time.
Pseudoenhancement of Simple Renal Cysts: A Comparison of Single and Multidetector Helical CT

Purpose The purpose of this work was to compare the extent of pseudoenhancement (artifactual increase in measured attenuation of a simple cyst after contrast medium administration) in a phantom model on single detector and multidetector helical CT scanners. Method The phantom consisted of four water-filled spheres varying in size from 8 to 28 mm, suspended in an aqueous contrast medium bath. Iodine concentration in the bath was varied: 0, 6, 12, and 24 mg/ml corresponding to attenuation values of 0, +108, +180, and +300 HU. The phantom was scanned on single detector and multidetector helical CT scanners during the same session. Collimation (1, 3, and 5 mm) and pitch (1 and 1.5:1, single detector; 3:1 and 6:1, multidetector) were varied at each concentration. All scans were performed at 140 kVp and 170 mA. The region of interest was measured at the center of each sphere. The effects were analyzed using a linear regression model. Results The degree of pseudoenhancement was more pronounced with increasing iodine concentration, decreasing cyst size, and wider collimation (all p = 0.0001). Pseudoenhancement was also more marked on the multidetector than the single detector scanner (p = 0.0001). At physiological levels of renal enhancement, the average pseudoenhancement was +18 HU for the single detector versus +23 HU for the multidetector scanner. Variation in pitch had no effect. Conclusion Pseudoenhancement is greater on a multidetector than a single detector helical CT scanner and may exceed 20 HU at physiological levels of renal enhancement.
Is education causal? Yes.

: imported for journal id 300 on Dec 03, 2001, no letter sent Sent to referee - Referee Sent: 08-Feb-01 Expected: 08-Mar-01 Arrived: 13-Mar-01 MsID: IJE/2000/000555 - Major Revision - Last reminder: Acknowledgement - Correspond Sent: 28-Jun-01 Expected: Arrived: MsID: IJE/2001/000371 - - Last reminder: Sent to author - Correspond Sent: 02-Aug-01 Expected: 02-Nov-01 Arrived: 25-Sep-01 MsID: IJE/2001/000371 - - Last reminder: decision - Correspond Sent: 18-Oct-01 Expected: Arrived: MsID: IJE/2001/000371 - - Last reminder: Sent to referee - Referee Sent: 12-Jul-01 Expected: 12-Aug-01 Arrived: 01-Aug-01 MsID: IJE/2001/000378 - Revise Paper - 3 Last reminder: Acknowledgement - Correspond Sent: 16-Nov-01 Expected: Arrived: MsID: IJE/2001/000605 - - Last reminder: (Richards, M)
LYMPHOID NEOPLASIA IKZF 1 status as a prognostic feature in BCR-ABL 1 – positive childhood ALL

Department of Pediatric Oncology, Erasmus University Medical Center-Sophia Children’s Hospital, Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Department of Pediatrics, University Medical Center Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel, Germany; Department of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, Charles University and University Hospital Motol, 2nd Faculty of Medicine, Childhood Leukemia Investigation Prague, Prague, Czech Republic; Clinica Pediatrica, Centro Ricerca Tettamanti, University of Milano-Bicocca, Mona, Italy; European Study for Philadelphia–Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Trial Data Center, Department of Health Sciences, University of Milano-Bicocca, Monza, Italy; Department of Women’s and Children’s Health, University of Padova, Padova, Italy; Leukemia Research Cytogenetics Group, Northern Institute for Cancer Research, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom; Department of Genetics, Assitance Publique Hôpitaux de Paris, Hôspital Robert Debré, University Paris Diderot, Paris, France; Children’s Cancer Group, Manchester Academic Health Science Center, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom; and Dutch Childhood Oncology Group, The Hague, The Netherlands
Use of transcriptome data to unravel the fine structure of genes involved in sepsis.

The sequence of the human genome is providing researchers with the scaffold upon which genes are built. The definition of the boundaries of the genes themselves and of their complex architecture requires a mapping of the transcriptome to the genome. A methodology was developed for generating a detailed transcriptome map and for reconstituting transcripts by using the genome as a template. As a demonstration of the potential of this method, the structure of the human Toll-like receptor (TLR) genes was reevaluated. For all TLR genes for which a genomic sequence was available (i.e., all except TLR10), novel features of the gene structure were discovered. These features include multiple alternative polyadenylation sites, additional exons or splice variants, and overlaps with other genes. These findings have implications for the analysis of TLR gene expression and for the diversity of the proteins encoded by these genes.
Evaluation in Natural Language Generation: Lessons from Referring Expression Generation

As one of the most well-defined subtasks in Natural Language Generation (NLG), the generation of referring expressions looks like a strong candidate for piloting shared evaluation tasks. Different to other areas of Natural Language Processing, it is still unclear what benefit the introduction of such tasks might have for the field of NLG. Based on an earlier evaluation of a number of well-established algorithms for the generation of referring expressions, this paper explores several problems that arise in designing evaluation for this task, and identifies general considerations that need to be met in evaluating Natural Language Generation subtasks.
A randomized controlled trial of a smoking reduction plus nicotine replacement therapy intervention for smokers not willing to quit smoking.

AIMS To examine the effectiveness of smoking reduction counselling plus free nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) for smokers not willing to quit. DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS A total of 1154 Chinese adult smokers not willing to quit but who were interested in reducing smoking were allocated randomly to three arms. Intervention group A1 (n=479) received face-to-face counselling on smoking reduction and adherence to NRT at baseline, 1 week and 4 weeks with 4 weeks of free NRT. Group A2 (n=449) received the same intervention, but without the adherence intervention. Control group B (n=226) received simple cessation advice at baseline. MEASUREMENTS Self-reported 7-day point prevalence of tobacco abstinence and reduction of cigarette consumption (≥50%) at 6 months and continuous use of NRT for 4 weeks at 3 months. FINDINGS Using intention-to-treat analysis, compared to control group B, the intervention groups (A1+A2) had achieved higher 6-month tobacco abstinence (17.0% versus 10.2%, P=0.01) and reduction rates (50.9% versus 25.7%, P<0.001). There was no significant difference in the 4-week NRT adherence rate at 3 months, but group A1 achieved a higher abstinence rate than group A2 at 6 months (20.9% versus 12.9%; P=0.001). CONCLUSIONS In smokers with no immediate plans to quit, smoking reduction programmes with behavioural support and nicotine replacement therapy are more effective than brief advice to quit. Current guidelines recommend advice to quit on medical grounds as the best clinical intervention in this group of smokers, but smoking reduction programmes offer an alternative and effective option.
Spatiotemporal properties of magnetic fields induced by auditory speech sound imagery and perception

Brain computer interface (BCI) technologies, which enable direct communication between the brain and external devices, have been developed. BCI technology can be utilized in neural prosthetics to restore impaired movement, including speech production. However, most of the BCI systems that have been developed are the “P300-speller” type, which can only detect objects that users direct his/her attention at. To develop more versatile BCI systems that can detect a user's intention or thoughts, the brain responses associated with verbal imagery need to be clarified. In this study, the brain magnetic fields associated with auditory verbal imagery and speech hearing were recorded using magnetoencephalography (MEG) carried out on 8 healthy adults. Although the magnetic fields lagged slightly and were long-lasting, significant deflections were observed even for verbal imagery, in the temporal regions, as well as for actual speech hearing. Also, sources for the deflections were localized in the association auditory cortices. Cross-correlations were calculated between envelopes of the imagined/presented speech sound and the evoked brain responses in the temporal areas. Measurable correlations were obtained for the presented speech sound; however, no significant correlations were observed for the imagined speech sound. These results indicate that auditory verbal imagery undoubtedly activates the auditory cortex, at least, and generates some observable neural responses.
Classification Space for Augmented Surgery, an Augmented Reality Case Study

One of the recent design goals in Human Computer Interaction has been to extend the sensory- motor capabilities of computer systems to combine the real and the virtual in order to assist the user in his environment. Such systems are called Augmented Reality (AR). Although AR systems are becoming more prevalent we still do not have a clear understanding of this interaction paradigm. In this paper we propose OPAS as a generic framework for classifying existing AR systems. Computer Assisted Medical Interventions (CAMI), for which the added value of AR has been demonstrated by experience, are discussed in light of OPAS. We illustrate OPAS using our system, CASPER (Computer ASsisted PERicardial puncture), a CAMI system which assists in surgical procedures (pericardial punctures).
Multi-view Spatial and Temporal Interpolation for Dynamic Event Visualization

The problem of visualizing dynamic real-world events on a digital computer has been a challenging one so far. We present a framework and algorithm to model and visualize these events by creating virtual images from synthetic cameras located at arbitrary viewpoints, at arbitrary time instants. We discuss Geometry, Radiance, and Motion Map (GRAMM) as an image based representation of shape, texture, and instantaneous motion of a scene. A GRAMM allows us to create virtual images, by interpolating between sets of images taken at finitely sampled positions in location and in time. This interpolation requires algorithms for estimation of 3-D scene motion, image based interpolation, and imposition of multi-camera geometric constraints. Applications include visualization of complex surgical procedures, entertainment, or training, where the physical locations and/or image capture rates of cameras are constrained, but there is a need to accurately reconstruct the appearance from any position, at any time instant.
Agent Technologies for Post-Disaster Urban Planning

Urban planning is a complex decision making process which must compensate for the various interests of multiple stake-holders with respect to physical, social, and economic constraints. Despite growing interest in using A.I. in urban design and planning this community remains a ﬁeld dominated by human experts. Recent catastrophic disasters such as hurricane Katrina, however, have underscored the need for increased automation and more eﬃcient urban design processes. One particularly urgent decision making in post-disaster urban planning is that of ﬁnding good locations for temporary housing. As an illustrative example of the potential of agent technologies in post-disaster planning contexts we propose an agent-based decision support system that can identify good candidate locations for a speciﬁc purpose. We showcase an application of our decision support system in pre-disaster mode that identiﬁes a set of ideal locations for potential revitalization. We then discuss how this system can be extended to solve a problem of ﬁnding good locations for temporary housing in post-disaster mode. Our prelimi-nary experimental results show promising potential of using agent technologies towards solving real life problems in the urban planning domain.