Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Angiography as Diagnostic, Prognostic and Therapeutic Tool in Liver Metastases from a Colo-Rectal Primary Tumor

Angiograms from 60 patients with liver metastases from colo-rectal carcinoma were reviewed in retrospect to find prognostic parameters. All patients were treated with intraarterial cytostatic drugs. Patients with a small tumor mass in the liver survived significantly longer than those with a huge tumor burden. A longer survival was seen also in patients who developed occlusion of the hepatic arterial tree. When the tumor showed reduction in size or was stationary at the follow-up angiographic examinations after institution of therapy survival was markedly improved. When compared with the findings at laparotomy, angiography adequately demonstrated tumor growth in the right lobe of the liver but repeatedly failed to do so in the left lobe. In 14 patients computed tomography was also performed. Tumor localization by CT corresponded well with the findings at laparotomy and was thus more accurate than the results by angiography. Information about tumor volume and number of tumor nodules was approximately the same with the two methods.
Terminating Currency Options for Distressed Economies

The research question is to investigate how supplementary digital terminating currencies can provide a superior fallback position to Bitcoin in a financial crisis and/or provide a basis for rehabilitating distressed economies. Greece lost the opportunity to regain monetary sovereignty because its finance Minister believed a year would be required to introduce new notes and coins. Digital self-liquidating Euros could be distributed immediately to voters by using swipe cards used by some governments for transit facilities. Bitcoins do not provide a viable medium of exchange because of the cost of their purchase, creation and/or exchange. Self-liquidating paper based “Stamp Scrip” privately issued in Europe and the US in the Great Depression minimises the complications and cost of money creation and/or exchange. Self-liquidating money was called “Speed” money because it circulated faster. Its private issue again in Germany since 2003 demonstrate its acceptance and attraction for Governments to introduce digital Speed money.
Unsupervised segmentation of heel-strike IMU data using rapid cluster estimation of wavelet features

When undertaking gait-analysis, one of the most important factors to consider is heel-strike (HS). Signals from a waist worn Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) provides sufficient accelerometric and gyroscopic information for estimating gait parameter and identifying HS events. In this paper we propose a novel adaptive, unsupervised, and parameter-free identification method for detection of HS events during gait episodes. Our proposed method allows the device to learn and adapt to the profile of the user without the need of supervision. The algorithm is completely parameter-free and requires no prior fine tuning. Autocorrelation features (ACF) of both antero-posterior acceleration (aAP) and medio-lateral acceleration (aML) are used to determine cadence episodes. The Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) features of signal peaks during cadence are extracted and clustered using Swarm Rapid Centroid Estimation (Swarm RCE). Left HS (LHS), Right HS (RHS), and movement artifacts are clustered based on intra-cluster correlation. Initial pilot testing of the system on 8 subjects show promising results up to 84.3%±9.2% and 86.7%±6.9% average accuracy with 86.8%±9.2% and 88.9%±7.1% average precision for the segmentation of LHS and RHS respectively.
The Role of Agriculture in Industrial Development Symbiotic vs. Parasitic Relationship

In the economic development literature it has become conventional wisdom that agriculture can contribute to industrial growth in various ways in the initial stages of development. Implicit in this argument is an economy dominated primarily by free markets. To what extent agriculture can contribute to industrial growth in a centrally planned economy (CPE) has not been theoretically investigated. This paper is a comparative study of two vastly different experiences: that of Lombardy, a region in northern Italy, between 1861 and 1914, where agriculture has made substantial contribution to the region's industrial develop ment within a free market system;1 and that of the USSR, where after 1928 the agricultural surplus was a main pillar of economic growth within a CPE. While their paths of development were vastly different, both Lombardy and the USSR were "latecomers" to modern industrial
Building a Sustainable Internet of Things: Energy-Efficient Routing Using Low-Power Sensors Will Meet the Need

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a framework built as a network of trillions of devices (called things) communicating with each other to offer innovative solutions to real-time problems. These devices monitor the physical environment and disseminate collected data back to the base station. In many cases, the sensor nodes have limited resources like energy, memory, low computational speed, and communication bandwidth. In this network scenario, sensors near the data collector drain energy faster than other nodes in the network. A mobile sink is a solution in sensor networks in which the network is balanced with node energy consumption by using a mobile sink in the sensing area. However, the position of the mobile sink instigates packet overhead and energy consumption. This article discusses a novel data-routing technique to forward data toward a base station using a mobile data collector, in which two data collectors follow a predefined path to collect data by covering the entire network. The proposed technique improves the network performance, including energy consumption and sensing area lifetime.
Two-way denoise-and-forward network coding opportunistic relaying with jointing adaptive modulation relay selection criterions

To improve the performance of the two-way denoise-and-forward network coding opportunistic relaying systems (TW-DNF-OR), two novel best-relay selection criterions are presented, which are the jointing adaptive modulation max-min criterion (AM-MM) and the jointing adaptive modulation maximum harmonic mean criterion (AM-MHM). In the proposed AM-MM and AM-MHM criterions, the effect of the modulation schemes used at both sources is exploited perfectly by integrating the adaptive modulation with the max-min and maximum harmonic mean criterions. On the basis of the proposed AM-MM and AM-MHM criterions, the authors analyse the symbol error probability (SEP) of the TW-DNF-OR systems under independent and non-identically distributed Rayleigh fading channels, and obtain the analytical expressions to the approximate upper bounds of the overall average SEPs. The comparison analyses show that the average SEP of TW-DNF-OR is improved greatly when the proposed jointing adaptive modulation best relay selection criterions are used. Moreover, in certain channel realisations or signal-to-noise ratio regions, the adaptive modulation non-selection TW-DNF-OR systems outperform the conventional best relay selection systems in which the adaptive modulation is not integrated with the best relay selection criterions.
Mineralization of Sediment Organic Matter under Anoxic Conditions

Organic matter steadily accumulates in eutrophic lakes as a result of deposition of detrital tissue from algae and aquatic macrophytes and the slow rate of anaerobic decomposition. The rate of organic matter decomposition is affected by the nature of the sediment C (electron donor) and supply of electron acceptors. Batch incubation experiments were conducted to determine the rate and extent of organic matter decomposition in bottom sediments under anoxic conditions (.)
Posterior Talar Shifting in Mobile-Bearing Total Ankle Replacement

Background: End-stage ankle osteoarthritis frequently involves multiplanar malalignment in both the coronal and the sagittal planes. Sagittal malalignment often includes anterior translation of the talus relative to the tibia. Restoration of the correct tibial and talar alignment is essential for the long-term survival of total ankle replacement. Methods: This study includes 66 consecutive patients who underwent total ankle arthroplasty with the Hintegra prosthesis from May 2011 to April 2014. There were 28 females (42.4%) and 38 males (57.6%) with a mean age of about 57 years (25-82 years). Patients were clinically and radiologically assessed preoperatively and at 2, 6, and 12 months postoperatively. Results: At 12 months postoperatively, there was a statistically significant increase in American Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Society scores from 31.9 to 72.3. Range of motion significantly increased from 9.5 to 25.4 degrees. In addition, there was a statistically significant decrease in visual analog scale (VAS) pain score from 8.9 to 2.2. Furthermore, there was a significant increase in the Tibio-Talar ratio from 2 to 6 months postoperatively (34.6%-37.2%). Conclusions: This study demonstrated significant improvements in clinical and radiologic outcomes after Hintegra total ankle arthroplasty. Significant movement of the talus occurs within the first 6 months postoperatively. This may be the result of rebalancing of muscle and ligament forces after surgery. Level of Evidence: Level IV, case series.
Exploring better parameter set for singular value decomposition (SVD) hashing function used in image authentication

This paper makes use of a useful image hashing program tool by Vishal Monga to explore a better parameter set for singular value decomposition (SVD) hashing function used in image authentication. One of the functions provided in Monga's tool is a SVD based image hashing which currently uses a predefine parameter set to compute the image hashing. However, Monga's approach starts with an arbitrary threshold constant of 0.02 value and other predefined parameter setting (e.g. partition size, sub-image size, and eigenvector number) which may not be optimal or suitable for generating a secure and robust image hashing for all general images. We try to explore a different parameter sets for this SVD image hashing algorithm in order to enhance the robustness and security of this algorithm. We show our experiment result in the appendix. It shows the optimal parameter set derived by us has a better performance than Monga's predefined set. It also shows a more secure and robust image authentication when applying to the standard test images provided by the USC-SIPI image database.
A time-based approach for the synthesis of antennas for UWB communication systems

In this paper, an innovative approach for the synthesis of antennas fitting the requirements of an UWB communication system has been presented. Such an approach allows one to design UWB antennas with distortionless propagation properties as well as good impedance matching over the whole band of interest. As expected, the use of a time-domain technique permits the accurate modeling of the antennas, the communication channel, and of the mutual interactions.
A Dynamic Analysis of the U.S. Cigarette Market and Anti-Smoking Policies

An empirical dynamic oligopoly model of the cigarette industry is developed to study the responses of firms to various anti-smoking policies and to estimate the implications for the policy efficacy. Firms are modeled as coordinating in price and competing in advertising in a dynamic game. The dynamic model captures two crucial features of the cigarette industry: 1) dynamic demand due to addiction and 2) differences between young smokers and adult smokers in their responses to price and advertising. The structural parameters are estimated using a combination of micro and macro level data and firms' optimal price and advertising strategies are solved as a Markov Perfect Nash Equilibrium. I find that the estimated dynamic model predicts industry prices and advertising expenditures extremely well. Moreover, the simulation results show that increasing the tobacco tax reduces both the overall smoking rate and the youth smoking rate, while advertising restrictions may back fire and actually increase the youth smoking rate. Furthermore, the long run effects of anti-smoking policies on reducing smoking rates tend to be smaller than the short run effects, as firms have stronger incentives to exploit current smokers over the short run.
Conventional Dendritic Cells Are Required for the Activation of Helper-Dependent CD8 T Cell Responses to a Model Antigen After Cutaneous Vaccination with Lentiviral Vectors

Cutaneous vaccination with lentiviral vectors generates systemic CD8 T cell responses that have the potential to eradicate tumors for cancer immunotherapy. However, although s.c. immunization with <1 million lentiviral particles clearly primes cytotoxic T cells, vaccination with much higher doses has routinely been used to define the mechanisms of T cell activation by lentiviral vectors. In particular, experiments to test presentation of lentiviral Ags by dendritic cells (DC) require injection of high viral titers, which may result in aberrant transduction of different DC populations. We exploited inducible murine models of DC depletion to investigate which DC prime the lentiviral response after s.c. immunization with low doses of lentiviral particles. In this article, we demonstrate that conventional DC are required to present Ag to CD8 T cells in draining lymph nodes. Langerhans cells are not required to activate the effector response, and neither Langerhans cells nor plasmacytoid DC are sufficient to prime Ag-specific T cells. Immunization drives the generation of endogenous long-lived memory T cells that can be reactivated to kill Ag-specific targets in the absence of inflammatory challenge. Furthermore, lentiviral vaccination activates expansion of endogenous CD4 Th cells, which are required for the generation of effector CD8 T cells that produce IFN-γ and kill Ag-specific targets. Collectively, we demonstrate that after cutaneous immunization with lentiviral particles, CD4-licensed lymph node conventional DC present Ag to CD8 T cells, resulting in the generation of protective endogenous antitumor immunity that may be effective for cancer immunotherapy.
Application of bi-objective genetic programming for optimizing irrigation rules using two reservoir performance criteria

ABSTRACT A bi-objective genetic programming (BO-GP) algorithm is developed and applied to optimize the operating rules of the Aidoghmoush reservoir (East Azerbaijan in northeastern Iran). The two-objective optimization problem maximizes reservoir reliability and minimizes the vulnerability index associated with the supply of agricultural water. The developed BO-GP algorithm calculates Pareto possibility frontiers representing loci of optimal operating policies. Any operation policy is calculated by the BO-GP based on the inflow volume to reservoir, the storage volume, and the water demand volume that minimize vulnerability and maximize reliability. The application results show a successful performance of the BO-GP algorithm in solving the bi-objective water supply problem with reservoir operation. This paper’s results establish that the system vulnerability and its reliability range between 16–41% and 46–78%, respectively.
Crystal structure of recombinant trypsin‐solubilized fragment of cytochrome b5 and the structural comparison with Val61His mutant

The crystal structure of the recombinant trypsin‐solubilized fragment of the microsomal cytochrome b5 from bovine liver has been determined at 1.9 Å resolution and compared with the reported crystal structure of the lipase‐solubilized fragment of the membrane protein cytochrome b5. The two structures are similar to each other. However, some detailed structural differences are observed: the conformation of the segment Asn16–Ser20 is quite different, some helices around the heme and some segments between the helices are shifted slightly, the heme is rotated about the normal of the mean plane of heme, one of the propionates of the heme exhibits a different conformation. The average coordination distances between the iron and the two nitrogen atoms of the imidazole ligands are the same in the two structures. Most of the structural differences can be attributed to the different intermolecular interactions which result from the crystal packing. The wild‐type protein structure is also compared with its Val61His mutant, showing that the heme binding and the main chain conformations are basically identical with each other except for the local area of the mutation site. However, when Val61 is mutated to histidine, the large side chain of His61 is forced to point away from the heme pocket toward the solvent region, disturbing the micro‐environment of the heme pocket and influencing the stability and the redox potential of the protein. Proteins 2000;40:249–257. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Probabilistic Assessment of TTC in Power Systems Including Wind Power Generation

Wind farms (WFs) are now being used for electric power generation in some parts of the world and their penetration is expected to increase significantly. With increasing penetration of WFs in electric power systems, modification of current tools for evaluating and managing the system is an important issue. Determination of total transfer capability (TTC) is one such tool and is of considerable importance in the restructured power systems. TTC is used to calculate maximum power that can be transferred between areas in a reliable manner and schedule future transactions and commercial activities. In this paper, a method is proposed for TTC evaluation in the presence of WFs. In the proposed approach, Monte Carlo method is used to simulate a system state and optimal power flow is used to calculate the TTC level for each state. Risk analysis is used as a decision-making tool to determine the appropriate TTC level. IEEE reliability test system is used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Dissemination of CTX-M-3 and CMY-2 β-Lactamases among Clinical Isolates of Escherichia coli in Southern Taiwan

ABSTRACT A total of 1,210 clinical isolates of Escherichia colicollected from a university hospital in southern Taiwan were screened for production of extended-spectrum β-lactamases (ESBLs). Expression of classical ESBLs (resistant to extended-spectrum β-lactam agents and susceptible to β-lactam inhibitors) was inferred in 18 isolates by the phenotypic confirmatory test. These included 10 isolates producing CTX-M-3, 2 strains carrying SHV-12, 1 strain harboring SHV-5, 1 strain expressing TEM-10, and 4 strains producing unidentifiable ESBLs with a pI of 8.05, 8.0, or 7.4. Eighteen isolates that showed decreased susceptibilities to ceftazidime and/or cefotaxime, negative results for the confirmatory test, and high-level resistance to cefoxitin (MICs of ≥128 μg/ml) were also investigated. Five isolates were found to produce CMY-2 AmpC enzymes, one isolate carried both CTX-M-3 and CMY-2, and the remaining three and nine isolates expressed putative AmpC β-lactamases with pIs of >9.0 and 8.9, respectively. Thus, together with the isolate producing CTX-M-3 and CMY-2, 19 (1.6%) isolates produced classical ESBLs. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis revealed that all isolates carrying CTX-M-3 and/or CMY-2 were genetically unrelated, indicating that dissemination of resistance plasmids was responsible for the spread of these two enzymes amongE. coli in this area. Among the 16 isolates expressing CTX-M-3 and/or CMY-2, 5 might have colonized outside the hospital environment. Our data indicate that CTX-M-3 and CMY-2, two β-lactamases initially identified in Europe, have been disseminated to and are prevalent in Taiwan.
Varying-Window-Length TFPF in High-Resolution Radon Domain for Seismic Random Noise Attenuation

The time–frequency peak filtering (TFPF) algorithm is an effective method for seismic random noise attenuation. The conventional TFPF filters seismic data only along the channel direction, ignoring the spatial characteristics of the reflection events, which results in the loss of directional information. In order to improve the filtering performance of TFPF, we adopt a Radon transform to implement spatiotemporal 2-D TFPF, which is doing TFPF in the Radon domain. Since this method takes the spatial correlation of the reflection events into account, it could extract the reflection events better than the conventional TFPF. As the conventional Radon transform may produce a smearing phenomenon, we apply an improved least squares high-resolution Radon transform to assist TFPF in this letter. Thus, the events can be highly focused to energy points in different positions of the Radon domain. Then we identify the signal parts and process them by TFPF with short window length (WL). The other parts are considered as noise, and we process them by TFPF with long WL. By virtue of this new method, we can preserve the valid signal better and suppress the random noise more effectively. Through experiments on the synthetic seismic records and the field seismic data, the new method possesses a superior performance in random noise attenuation and seismic event preservation compared with the conventional TFPF and Radon TFPF methods.
Market Integration and Causality in Pear in India

The current study focuses to explore the degree of market integration in William Bartlett variety of pear grown in Kashmir, commonly known as Bagughosha, through co-integration analysis on the wholesale weekly prices of its two commercial grades Bagughosha Super and Bagughosha Special, collected from two national fruit markets of India (Delhi and Mumbai), from August, 2005 to October, 2013. The results reveal that Pear markets were co integrated and competitive. A disequilibrium ranging from 16.47 to 50.33% among the selected grades of the fruit was observed. VAR and VECM models were used to study the behaviour of market prices, which revealed that Delhi market turned most dominating market for higher prices of the selected variety and grades.
Case-Based Ethics Education: The Impact of Cause Complexity and Outcome Favorability on Ethicality

Case-based learning has been used across multiple disciplines, including ethics education, as an effective instructional tool. However, the value of case-based learning in ethics education has varied widely regarding case quality. Case content may significantly impact the ability of case-based ethics education to promote knowledge acquisition and knowledge transfer to future situations requiring ethical decision-making. This study examined two critical areas of ethical case content—causes and outcomes. Complexity of described causes and outcome favorability were manipulated in two ethical cases used during an ethics education course. Results suggest that including information in case studies reflecting clear, simple key causes and negative outcomes results in better ethical sensemaking and ethical decision-making. Implications regarding case content and case-based ethics education are explored.