Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Percutaneous laser photocoagulation of spinal osteoid osteomas under CT guidance.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Spinal osteoid osteomas are rare; when they occur, they are usually treated by surgical or percutaneous excision. The aim of percutaneous interstitial laser photocoagulation (ILP) of osteoid osteomas under CT guidance is thermal destruction of the nidus using low-power laser energy, thus precluding bone resection and open surgery. METHODS Three cases of spinal osteoid osteomas were treated with percutaneous ILP of the nidus. Under CT guidance, the needle was positioned in the center of the nidus, at least 8 mm from neurologic structures. Using a high-power semiconductor diode laser (805 nm) with a 400-microm optical fiber, we delivered 600 to 800 joules to the nidus, depending on its size. The procedure was performed with the patient under neuroleptanalgesia and required overnight hospitalization. RESULTS Complete pain relief was obtained in all three patients within 24 hours of the procedure, and no major complications were incurred. Follow-up ranged from 20 months to 60 months. CONCLUSION Percutaneous ILP of spinal osteoid osteoma is a promising, simple, precise, and minimally invasive technique and may be an alternative to traditional surgical and percutaneous ablations.
A Contract-Ruled Economic Model for QoS Guarantee in Mobile Peer-to-Peer Streaming Services

Current commercial mobile streaming applications call for innovative technologies for stable QoS guarantee. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive treatment of QoS guarantee through a contract-ruled approach. In particular, we envision a peer-assisted mobile peer-to-peer streaming system as a QoS trading market, where all parties involved in the system, i.e., Service Provider (SP), End User (EU), and Assisting Peers (APs), are real economic entities that are organized with contractual constraints to achieve a stable and guaranteed QoS output. The QoS trading in the market is divided into two parts. One is a basic contract that establishes the business agreement between an interested EU and a SP. We propose a QoS contingent payment to mitigate the EU's concern on the uncertainty of QoS delivery and derive an optimal contract that achieves Pareto efficiency. The other is a subcontract, in which we model transactions between the SP and contracted peers as a principal multi-agents problem, that achieves a desired joint QoS output. We further design a sharing scheme with team penalty that could overcome the free-riding problem existed in the subcontract and show that the Pareto efficiency can be achieved by setting a proper team penalty. Both numerical evaluations and prototype experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed scheme.
Shape analysis of brain structures using physical and experimental modes

We present a framework for analyzing the shape of structures within the human brain. A mathematical model is developed describing the deformation of any brain structure whose shape is affected by both gross and detailed physical processes. The total shape deformation is decomposed into physical modes of variation obtained from finite element analysis, and experimental modes of variation obtained from sample data using principal component analysis. This mathematical model is used to classify diseases that affect the shape of the ventricular system of the brain. Because ventricular shape is affected not only by pathology but also by overall brain shape, disease discrimination is difficult. By modeling the brain's elastic properties, we are able to compensate for some of the nonpathological modes of ventricular shape variation. This allows us to experimentally characterize modes of variation that are indicative of disease processes. <<ETX>>
Fully automatic prosody generator for text-to-speech

Text-to-Prosody systems based on the use of prosodic databases extracted from natural speech will be a key point for further development of new Text-to-Speech systems. This paper describes a system using such speech databases to generate the rhythm and the intonation of a French written text. The system is based on a very crude chinks ’n chunks prosodic phrasing algorithm and on a prosodic analysis of a natural speech database. The rhythm of the synthetic speech is generated with a CART tree trained on a large mono-speaker speech corpus. The acoustic aspect of the intonation is derived from a set of prosodic patterns automatically derived from the same speech corpus. The system has been tested on single sentences and news paragraphs. Informal listening tests have shown that the resulting prosody is convincing most of the time.
Nucleophosmin as a Candidate Prognostic Biomarker of Ewing's Sarcoma Revealed by Proteomics

Purpose: We aimed to identify novel prognostic biomarkers for Ewing's sarcoma by investigating the global protein expression profile of Ewing's sarcoma patients. Experimental Design: We examined the proteomic profile of eight biopsy samples from Ewing's sarcoma patients using two-dimensional difference gel electrophoresis. Three patients were alive and continuously disease-free over 3 years after the initial diagnosis (good prognosis group) and five had died of the disease within 2 years of the initial diagnosis (poor prognosis group). Results: The protein expression profiles produced using two-dimensional difference gel electrophoresis consisted of 2,364 protein spots, among which we identified 66 protein spots whose intensity showed >2-fold difference between the two patient groups. Mass spectrometric protein identification showed that the 66 spots corresponded to 53 distinct gene products. Pathway analysis revealed that 31 of 53 proteins, including nucleophosmin, were significantly related to bone tissue neoplasms (P < 0.000001). The prognostic performance of nucleophosmin was evaluated immunohistochemically on an additional 34 Ewing's sarcoma cases. Univariate and multivariate analyses revealed that nucleophosmin expression significantly correlated with overall survival (P < 0.01). Conclusions: These results establish nucleophosmin as a candidate of independent prognostic marker for Ewing's sarcoma patients. Measuring nucleophosmin in biopsy samples before treatment may contribute to the effective management of Ewing's sarcoma.
β‐Catenin expression during vascular development and degeneration of avian mesonephros

β‐Catenin is a structural component of adherens junctions, a regulator of the Wnt signalling pathway and a transcriptional co‐activator with a key role in vascular patterning. The avian mesonephros is a transitory embryonic kidney that is used in the study of vascular development and degeneration. Here we examine β‐catenin expression in this model during vascular development and degeneration. Quail embryos with developing or degenerating mesonephros were studied, on day 6 (30HH) or day 11 of incubation (40HH), respectively. QH1 whole mounts of developing mesonephros revealed numerous angioblast‐like cells situated in the paramesonephric duct that seem to invade the mesonephros. Although these cells did not express β‐catenin, the surrounding periductal mesenchymal cells translocated high levels of β‐catenin into the nucleus. In contrast, degenerating mesonephros were devoid of angioblast‐like cells and β‐catenin was lower than in the developing mesonephros. β‐Catenin was significantly reduced in the glomerular capillary tuffs, indicating that it was particularly down‐regulated in the vascular system. No sex‐related differences in β‐catenin expression were observed in degenerating mesonephros. Furthermore, two special populations of glomerular and peritubular endothelial cells were observed in degenerating mesonephros: one translocating β‐catenin into the nucleus and the other in apoptosis that did not translocate it. In conclusion, our results indicate that the paramesonephric duct is a potential new vasculogenetic pathway, and suggest that β‐catenin plays a role in the fate of mesonephric endothelial cells.
Relay-Assisted Device-to-Device Communications for Video Transmission in Cellular Networks

This paper exploits the noncentral communication architecture for increasing system throughput with popular video files cached in user equipments, and transmitted through D2D links under control of base station. A cell is divided into equilateral hexagon clusters among which frequency resources are reused. In order to reduce inter-cluster interference, we propose to limit the transmit power of each user and adopt relay-assisted D2D communication when direct D2D link can not be established in a cluster. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme can achieve higher spectral efficiency without much degradation in system throughput when compared with the scenario where different frequency resources are used by different clusters.
Proportional Hazards Regression with Unknown Link Function

Proportional hazards regression model assumes that the covariates affect the hazard function through a link function and an index which is a linear function of the covariates. Traditional approaches, such as the Cox proportional hazards model, focus on estimating the unknown index by assuming a known link function between the log-hazard function and covariates. A linear link function is often employed for convenience without any validation. This paper provides an approach to estimate the link function, which can then be used to guide the choice of a proper parametric link function. This is accomplished through a two-step algorithm to estimate the link function and the effects of the covariates iteratively without involving the baseline hazard estimate. The link function is estimated by a smoothing method based on a local version of partial likelihood, and the index function is then estimated using a full version of partial likelihood. Asymptotic properties of the nonparametric link function estimate are derived, which facilitates model checking of the adequacy of the Cox Proportional hazards model. The approach is illustrated through a survival data and simulations.
Energy Requirements of Odor Transduction in the Chemosensory Cilia of Olfactory Sensory Neurons Rely on Oxidative Phosphorylation and Glycolytic Processing of Extracellular Glucose

The mechanisms that power the physiological events occurring in cilia, flagella, and microvilli are of fundamental importance for the functions of these important and ubicuous organelles. The olfactory epithelium is mostly populated by ciliated olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs) and surrounding sustentacular cells (SCs) with apical microvilli. The only OSN dendrite extends to the surface forming a knob projecting several chemosensory cilia of ∼50 × 0.2 μm, devoid of inner membranes embedded in a mucus layer. Upon odorant binding, odor receptors couple to G-protein activating adenylyl cyclase, producing cAMP. cAMP opens cyclic nucleotide-gated channels allowing a Ca2+ influx that opens Ca2+-activated Cl− channels, generating the receptor potential. Many enzymes are activated in chemotransduction to hydrolyze ATP. The knob contains approximately two mitochondria; assuming that the cilia ATP is 1 mm and diffuses along it at ∼10 μm in 500 ms, ATP from the knob mitochondria may not fulfill the demands of transduction over the full length of the cilium, which suggests an additional ATP source. We measured millimolar glucose in rat mucus; we detected glucose transporter GLUT3 in rat and toad (Caudiverbera caudiverbera) OSN cilia, SC microvilli, and glycolytic enzymes in rat cilia. We also found that the cilia and knob can incorporate and accumulate 2-deoxyglucose (glucose analog), but not when blocking GLUT. Glucose removal and the inhibition of glycolysis or oxidative phospholylation impaired the odor response. This evidence strongly suggests that glycolysis in the cilia and knob oxidative phosphorylation together fuel chemotransduction. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT How processes occurring in cilia and flagella are powered is a matter of general interest. Substantial progress has been made in unraveling the sensory transduction mechanisms, commonly occurring in such structures; however, the energy sources powering them have been scarcely explored. Accessibility to the specialized sensory organelles and their small dimensions have been limiting factors. Olfactory sensory neurons chemosensory cilia are elongated, mucus embedded, fully exposed structures particularly amenable for a multidisciplinary study of this problem, as done here. We demonstrate the occurrence and functionality of glucose uptake and glycolysis in the cilia. We support that odor transduction relies on ATP generated by oxidative phosphorylation in the dendrite and glycolytically in the cilia using glucose internalized from the mucus.
PyCorrFit—generic data evaluation for fluorescence correlation spectroscopy

Summary: We present a graphical user interface (PyCorrFit) for the fitting of theoretical model functions to experimental data obtained by fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS). The program supports many data file formats and features a set of tools specialized in FCS data evaluation. Availability and implementation: The Python source code is freely available for download from the PyCorrFit web page at http://pycorrfit.craban. de. We offer binaries for Ubuntu Linux, Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows. Contact: paul.mueller@biotec.tu-dresden.de and weidemann@biochem.mpg. de
Sudan I is a potential carcinogen for humans: evidence for its metabolic activation and detoxication by human recombinant cytochrome P450 1A1 and liver microsomes.

1-Phenylazo-2-hydroxynaphthol (Sudan I, C.I. Solvent Yellow 14) is a liver and urinary bladder carcinogen in mammals. We compared the ability of hepatic microsomal samples from different species including human to metabolize Sudan I. Comparison between experimental animals and human cytochromes P450 (CYP) is essential for the extrapolation of animal carcinogenicity data to assess human health risk. Human microsomes generated the pattern of Sudan I metabolites reproducing that formed by hepatic microsomes of rats. Using hepatic microsomes of rats pretreated with specific CYP inducers, microsomes from Baculovirus-transfected insect cells expressing recombinant human CYP enzymes, purified CYP enzymes, and selective CYP inhibitors, we found that rat CYP1A1 and recombinant human CYP1A1 are the most efficient enzymes metabolizing Sudan I. Microsomes from livers (the target of Sudan I carcinogenicity) of different human donors were used to estimate whether authentic human CYPs oxidize Sudan I. Using Western blot analysis and NH(2)-terminal sequencing, we were able to detect and quantify CYP1A1 in human hepatic microsomes. The sequence of nine amino acids of the protein band cross-reacting with antirat CYP1A1 in human microsomes, LFPISMSAT, matched the sequence of human CYP1A1 perfectly (residues 2-10). CYP1A1 expression levels varied significantly among the different human microsomes (0.04-2.4 pmol/mg protein), and constituted <0.6% of the total hepatic CYP complement. All of the human hepatic microsomal samples oxidized Sudan I to C-hydroxymetabolites. Moreover, using the nuclease P1-enhanced version of the (32)P-postlabeling assay, we found that human microsomes were competent in activating Sudan I to form adducts with DNA. The role of specific CYP enzymes in the human hepatic microsomal metabolism was investigated by correlating the CYP-catalytic activities (or CYP contents) in each microsomal sample with the levels of individual metabolites and/or Sudan I-DNA adducts formed by the same microsomes, and by examining the effects of agents that can inhibit specific CYP in Sudan I metabolism. On the basis of these studies, we attribute most of Sudan I metabolism in human microsomes to CYP1A1, but participation of CYP3A4 cannot be ruled out. These results, the first report on the metabolism of Sudan I by human CYP enzymes, strongly suggest a carcinogenic potency of this rodent carcinogen for humans.
Advances in low bitrate time-frequency coding

In this paper a novel technique is presented to efficiently mix traditional ACELP time domain coding with a frequency domain coding model to improve the quality of generic audio signals coded at low bitrates without additional delay. The paper discusses how to integrate parts of a traditional Algebraic Code Excited Linear Prediction (ACELP) speech codec to create a time-domain contribution which coexists with a frequency based coding model. A mechanism to determine the value of the time-domain contribution is proposed and a method is described how the frequency-domain contribution might be added without increasing the overall delay of the codec. The proposed method forms part of the recently standardised 3GPP EVS codec.
Constructing Addiction from Experience and Context: Peele and Brodsky's Love and Addiction Revisited

Peele and Brodsky (1975) first proposed the experiential-constructivist model of addiction utilizing the construct of compulsive interpersonal attachment (then not viewed as an addiction) as a vehicle to argue that substance addiction is rooted in experiential and contextual forces. One of these contextual forces is the prevalence of the disease mindset itself. With increasing legitimacy accorded to disordered love attachments as addiction “diseases,” we can now explore this hypothesis in relation to sexual addiction using as illustration religious “chaste sex addicts” and Homosexuals Anonymous. Treatment recommendations are then considered in the light of effective interventions outside of the disease model.
A Discrete-Continuous Combined Modeling Approach for Supply Chain Simulation

Supply chain management (SCM)is a strategic paradigm to coordinate cash, material, and information flows from raw material to customer. Supply chain simulation (SCS)is a strong and popular tool for designing, evaluating, and optimizing the structure of supply chains, and it requires an important task to estimate the effect of the planning to coordinate such flows in SCM. Stochastic natures existing in the supply chain can be analyzed efficiently using simulation. One uses discrete-event simulation to model a supply chain in general. However, the nature of the supply chain system is neither completely discrete nor continuous; both aspects must be considered together in developing an SCS model. In this paper, a framework of discrete-continuous combined modeling for supply chain simulation is proposed. Equations for the continuous aspects of a supply chain in this framework are included, and a simple example of the SCS model using this equation is presented.
Prostaglandin‐induced neurodegeneration is associated with increased levels of oxidative markers and reduced by a mixture of antioxidants

Prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), one product of inflammatory reactions, and PGA1, which is formed during PGE2 extraction, induce degeneration in adenosine 3′,5′‐cyclic monophosphate (cAMP)‐induced differentiated neuroblastoma (NB) cells in culture. The mechanisms of action of PGE2 on neurodegeneration are not well understood. To investigate this, we have utilized PGA1, which mimics the effect of PGE2 and is very stable in solution. We have assayed selected markers of oxidative stress such as heme oxygenase‐1 (HO‐1), catalase, glutathione peroxidase (GPx1), mitochondrial superoxide dismutase (Mn‐SOD‐2) and cytosolic superoxide dismutase (Cu/Zn‐SOD‐1). The results showed that the treatment of differentiated NB cells with PGA1 for a period of 48 hr increased the expression of HO‐1 and catalase, decreased the expression of GPx1 and Mn‐SOD‐2, and did not change the expression of Cu/Zn‐SOD‐1 as measured by gene array and confirmed by real‐time PCR. The protein levels of HO‐1 and GPx1 increased; however, the protein level of Mn‐SOD‐2 decreased and the levels of catalase and Cu/Zn‐SOD‐1 did not change as determined by Western blot. The increases in the levels of HO‐1 and GPx1 reflected an adaptive response to increased oxidative stress, whereas decrease in the level of Mn‐SOD‐2 may make cells more sensitive to oxidative damage. These data suggest that one of the mechanisms of action of PGA1 on neurodegeneration may involve increased oxidative stress. This was supported further by the fact that a mixture of antioxidants (α‐tocopherol, vitamin C, selenomethionine, and reduced glutathione), but not the individual antioxidants, reduced the level of PGA1‐induced degeneration in differentiated NB cells. The addition of a single antioxidant at two or four times the concentration used in the mixture was toxic. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Testing the Interactive Effect of Parent and Child ADHD on Parenting in Mothers and Fathers: A Further Test of the Similarity-Fit Hypothesis.

Mother and child ADHD symptoms both have a negative effect on parenting. Little is known about how these characteristics interact. In a recent paper, we reported two studies that suggested that maternal ADHD ameliorated the negative effects of child ADHD on negative parenting supporting a similarity-fit hypothesis. The aim of the current paper is to extend this analysis to a sample of mothers and fathers. The study examined the association between child and adult ADHD symptoms on child-specific parenting practices in 278 mothers and 85 fathers from a population-based sample of school-age children. As in the previous study, high levels of ADHD symptoms in mothers ameliorated the negative effects of child ADHD on parenting - supporting the similarity-fit hypothesis. Fathers demonstrated the opposite effect with high levels of ADHD exacerbating the effects of child ADHD - supporting a similarity-misfit hypothesis. The study confirms the important role played by parental ADHD symptoms in parenting while highlighting differences between mothers and fathers in this regard.
Polarization-resolved cubic nonlinearity and optical power limiting of highly porous silica nanoaerogels

A highly porous silica nanoaerogel has a strong optical power limiting behavior with a negative nonlinear property. The third-order nonlinear susceptibility of silica nanoaerogels was estimated to be ~9.6 x 10<sup>-19</sup> m<sup>2</sup> / V<sup>2</sup> (~6.9 x 10<sup>-11</sup> esu) from DFWM measurements.
EnaCloud: An Energy-Saving Application Live Placement Approach for Cloud Computing Environments

With the increasing prevalence of large scale cloud computing environments, how to place requested applications into available computing servers regarding to energy consumption has become an essential research problem, but existing application placement approaches are still not effective for live applications with dynamic characters. In this paper, we proposed a novel approach named EnaCloud, which enables application live placement dynamically with consideration of energy efficiency in a cloud platform. In EnaCloud, we use a Virtual Machine to encapsulate the application, which supports applications scheduling and live migration to minimize the number of running machines, so as to save energy. Specially, the application placement is abstracted as a bin packing problem, and an energy-aware heuristic algorithm is proposed to get an appropriate solution. In addition, an over-provision approach is presented to deal with the varying resource demands of applications. Our approach has been successfully implemented as useful components and fundamental services in the iVIC platform. Finally, we evaluate our approach by comprehensive experiments based on virtual machine monitor Xen and the results show that it is feasible.