Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Risk of Hyponatraemia in Cancer Patients Treated with Targeted Therapies: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Clinical Trials

Background Hyponatraemia has been reported with targeted therapies in cancer patients. Aim of the study was to perform an up-to-date meta-analysis in order to determine the incidence and relative risk (RR) in cancer patients treated with these agents. Materials and Methods The scientific literature regarding hyponatraemia was extensively reviewed using MEDLINE, PubMed, Embase and Cochrane databases. Eligible studies were selected according to PRISMA statement. Summary incidence, RR, and 95% Confidence Intervals were calculated using random-effects or fixed-effects models based on the heterogeneity of selected studies. Results 4803 potentially relevant trials were identified: of them, 13 randomized phase III studies were included in this meta-analysis. 6670 patients treated with 8 targeted agents were included: 2574 patients had hepatocellular carcinoma, whilst 4096 had other malignancies. The highest incidences of all-grade hyponatraemia were observed with the combination of brivanib and cetuximab (63.4) and pazopanib (31.7), while the lowest incidence was reported by afatinib (1.7). The highest incidence of high-grade hyponatraemia was reported by cetuximab (34.8), while the lowest incidences were reported by gefitinib (1.0). Summary RR of developing all-grade and high-grade hyponatraemia with targeted agents was 1.36 and 1.52, respectively. The highest RRs of all-grade and high-grade hyponatraemia were associated with brivanib (6.5 and 5.2, respectively). Grouping by drug category, the RR of high-grade hyponatraemia with angiogenesis inhibitors was 2.69 compared to anti-Epidermal Growth Factor Receptors agents (1.12). Conclusion Treatment with biological therapy in cancer patients is associated with a significant increased risk of hyponatraemia, therefore frequent clinical monitoring should be emphasized when managing targeted agents.
SystemC FL : An Infrastructure for a TLM Formal Verification Proposal ( with an overview on a tool set for practical formal verification of SystemC descriptions )

Verification of Transaction Level Modelling descriptions has so far been addressed either in a simulation context or by implicitly proposing some form of translation of the TLM into a formal model, the translation just being presented as an unavoidable intermediate step to reach the verification goal. In this work, we propose a change of perspective, by explicitly introducing an intermediate formalism, SystemCFL, aimed on one side at enabling the verification engineer to test the TLM description with respect to a set of desired functional properties it should possess and to check that those properties are preserved during design refinement steps, and on the other side at establishing a framework, featuring a prototype translator, that would give tool developing teams a reference format in terms of which designs under verification can be represented, relieving those teams from the burden of building a TLM parsing front-end. To exemplificate the depicted scenario we present a basic infrastructure intended to support three different model checking tools utilised in direct connection with SystemCFL, to allow checking properties of different natures on automatic transformations of the original TLM description.
Faster & greedier: algorithms for sparse reconstruction of large datasets

We consider the problem of performing sparse reconstruction of large-scale data sets, such as the image sequences acquired in dynamic MRI. Here, both conventional L1 minimization through interior point methods and orthogonal matching pursuit (OMP) are not practical. Instead we present an algorithm that combines fast directional updates based around conjugate gradients with an iterative thresholding step similar to that in StOMP but based upon a weak greedy selection criterion. The algorithm can achieve OMP-like performance and the rapid convergence of StOMP but with MP-like complexity per iteration. We also discuss recovery conditions applicable to this algorithm.
A Quantitative Evaluation of the Differences between Knobs and Sliders

This paper presents a HCI inspired evaluation of simple physical interfaces used to control physical models. Specifically knobs and sliders are compared in a creative and exploratory framework, which simulates the natural environment in which an electronic musician would normally explore a new instrument. No significant difference was measured between using knobs and sliders for controlling parameters of a physical modeling electronic instrument. The reported difference between the tested instruments were mostly due to the sound synthesis models.
Online Markov decision processes with policy iteration

The online Markov decision process (MDP) is a generalization of the classical Markov decision process that incorporates changing reward functions. In this paper, we propose practical online MDP algorithms with policy iteration and theoretically establish a sublinear regret bound. A notable advantage of the proposed algorithm is that it can be easily combined with function approximation, and thus large and possibly continuous state spaces can be efficiently handled. Through experiments, we demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed algorithm.
Adhesion of bio-functionalized ultrasound microbubbles to endothelial cells by targeting to vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 under shear flow

The expression of certain endothelial cell adhesion molecules is increased during endothelial dysfunction or inflammatory activation. This has led to the concept of using microbubbles for targeted molecular imaging or drug delivery. In this approach, microbubbles with a specific ligand to receptors expressed at the site of specific diseases are constructed. The present study aimed to engineer a novel type of bio-functionalized microbubbles (vascular cell adhesion molecule 1 [VCAM-1]-targeted microbubbles), and determine whether VCAM-1-targeted microbubbles exhibit specific adhesion to lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-activated endothelial cells. Our data showed that VCAM-1 expression was significantly upregulated in both LPS-activated endothelial cells in vitro and endothelium in a rat atherosclerosis model in vivo. Targeted microbubbles were designed by conjugating anti-VCAM-1 monoclonal antibodies to the shell of microbubbles using biotin–avidin bridging chemistry methods. Microbubble adhesion to endothelial cells was assessed in a flow chamber at two shear stress conditions ( 6.3 and 10.4 dynes/cm2). Our data showed that microbubble adhesion depends on both the surface anti-VCAM-1 antibody densities and the exposed shear stresses. Adhesion of VCAM-1-targeted microbubbles onto LPS-activated endothelial cells increased with the surface antibody densities, and decreased with the exposed shear stresses. These findings showed that the specific ligand-carrying microbubbles have considerable potential in targeted ultrasound molecular imaging or ultrasound-assisted drug/gene delivery applications.
The Pass-Through of RIN Prices to Wholesale and Retail Fuels under the Renewable Fuel Standard

The US Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) requires blending increasing quantities of biofuels into the surface vehicle fuel supply. The RFS requirements are met through a system of tradable permits called Renewable (fuel) Identification Numbers, or RINs. We exploit the large fluctuations in RIN prices during 2013–15 to estimate the pass-through of RIN prices to US wholesale and retail fuel prices. We control for common factors by examining spreads of physically similar fuels with different RIN obligations. Pooling six different wholesale petroleum fuel spreads, we estimate a pooled long-run or equilibrium pass-through coefficient of 1.00 with a standard error of 0.11. This pass-through occurs within two business days. The only fuel for which we find economically and statistically significant failure of pass-through is retail E85, which contains up to 83% ethanol; the pass-through of RIN prices to the retail E85–E10 spread is precisely estimated to be close to zero.
A Scalable Energy Efficient and Delay Bounded Data Gathering Framework for Large Scale Sensor Network

This work details a new class of energy efficient and delay bounded data gathering framework viz. generalized intra cluster chaining (GICC) framework for large scale wireless sensor network. The framework extracts the advantages of both purely cluster based and purely chain based data gathering schemes for wireless sensor network without compromising with their drawbacks. Detailed analysis and simulation results reveals GICC increases the performance of any purely cluster based protocols by 60-70% and also utilizing only localized information increases the network lifetime comparable with optimal results. GICC framework also tends to decrease information loss due to in-network aggregation, delays in in-network packet forwarding and is practically applicable to all kinds of wireless sensor network.
Performance Analysis of Vehicular Device-to-Device Underlay Communication

The demand for vehicular mobile data services has increased exponentially, which necessitates alternative data pipes for vehicular users other than the cellular network and dedicated short-range communication. In this paper, we study the performance of underlaid vehicular device-to-device (V-D2D) communications, where the cellular uplink resources are reused by V-D2D communications, considering the characteristics of the vehicular network. Specifically, we model the considered urban area by a grid-like street layout, with nonhomogeneous distribution of vehicle density. We then propose to employ a joint power control and mode selection scheme for the V-D2D communications. In the scheme, we use channel inversion to control the transmit power, in order to determine transmit power based on path loss rather than instantaneous channel state information (CSI), and avoid severe interference due to excessively large transmit power; the transmission mode is selected based on the biased channel quality, where D2D mode is chosen when the biased D2D link quality is not worse than the cellular uplink quality. Under the proposed scheme, two performance metrics of V-D2D underlaid cellular networks, i.e., signal-to-interference-plus-noise outage probability and link/network throughput, are theoretically analyzed. Simulation results validate our analysis and show the impacts of design parameters on the network performance.
Early Structure Formation and Reionization in a Warm Dark Matter Cosmology

We study the first structure formations in Λ-dominated universes using large cosmological N-body/smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations. We consider a standard Λ cold dark matter (CDM) model and a Λ warm dark matter (WDM) model in which the mass of the dark matter particles is taken to be mX = 10 keV. The linear power spectrum for the ΛWDM model has a characteristic cutoff at a wavenumber k = 200 Mpc-1, suppressing the formation of low-mass (<106 M☉) nonlinear objects early on. The absence of low-mass halos in the WDM model makes the formation of primordial gas clouds with molecular hydrogen very inefficient at high redshifts. The first star-forming gas clouds form at z ≈ 21 in the WDM model, considerably later than in the CDM counterpart, and the abundance of these gas clouds differs by an order of magnitude between the two models. We carry out radiative transfer calculations by embedding massive Population III stars in the gas clouds. We show that the volume fraction of ionized gas rises up close to 100% by z = 18 in the CDM case, whereas that of the WDM model remains extremely small at a level of a few percent. Thus, the WDM model with mX = 10 keV is strongly inconsistent with the high optical depth observed by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe satellite.
A cross-layer Kalman-PDA approach to soft-decision equalization for FIR MIMO channels

A cross-layer, near-optimal soft-decision equalization approach for frequency selective multiinput multioutput (MIMO) communication systems is proposed in this paper. With the help of iterative processing, two detection and estimation schemes based on second-order statistics are harmoniously put together to yield a two-part receiver structure: local multiuser detection (MUD) using soft-decision probabilistic data association (PDA) detection, and dynamic noise-interference tracking using Kalman filtering. The proposed Kalman-PDA approach performs local MUD within a subblock of the received data instead of over the whole data set, to reduce the computational load. At the same time, all the interference affecting the local subblock, including both multiple access and intersymbol interference, is properly modeled as the state vector of a linear system, and dynamically tracked by Kalman filtering. The performance of Kalman-PDA is further enhanced by applying a simple automatic repeat request (ARQ) protocol. The ARQ-aided MIMO detection algorithm can adjust to any preset retransmission rate to ensure a desired performance and data-rate trade-off.
Syntax-based Statistical Machine Translation using Tree Automata and Tree Transducers

In this paper I present a Master's thesis proposal in syntax-based Statistical Machine Translation. I propose to build discriminative SMT models using both tree-to-string and tree-to-tree approaches. Translation and language models will be represented mainly through the use of Tree Automata and Tree Transducers. These formalisms have important representational properties that makes them well-suited for syntax modeling. I also present an experiment plan to evaluate these models through the use of a parallel corpus written in English and Brazilian Portuguese.
Man-inthe-Middle in Tunnelled Authentication

Recently new protocols have been proposed in IETF for protecting remote client authentication protoocols by running them within a secure tunnel. Examples of such protocols are PIC, PEAP and EAP-TTLS. One goal of these new protocols is to enable the migration from legacy client authentication protocols to more secure protocols, e.g., from plain EAP type to, say, PEAP. In these protocols, the security of the subsequent session credentials is based only on keys derived during the unilateral authentication where the network server is authenticated to the client. Client authentication is mentioned as an option in PEAP and EAP-TTLS, but is not mandated. The PIC protocol does not even offer this option. In this paper we show that these recent approaches to protect legacy client authentication protocols open up in practical situations the possibility to run a man-in-the-middle attack for impersonating the legitimate client. For those well-designed client authentication protocols that already have a sufficient level of security, the use of tunnelling in the proposed form is a step backwards because they introduce a new vulnerability. The problem is due to the fact that the legacy client authentication protocol is not aware if it is run in protected or unprotected mode. We propose to solve the discovered problem by using a cryptographic binding between the client authentication protocol and the protection protocol.
A Survey of Reversible Watermarking Techniques, Application and Attacks

The wide spread of the Internet increases the availability of all digital data such as image, audio and video to the publics. Digital watermarking is introduced to provide the security, data authentication and copyright to the digital data. This paper provides the basics of watermarking techniques, various applications; attacks carried in watermarking and detail study of reversible watermarking technique. One of the important techniques in watermarking is a reversible watermarking [52] technique. Reversible watermarking strengthens the ownership of the digital data and also supports to recover the original data from the watermarked digital data.
Normal Platelet Integrin Function in Mice Lacking Hydrogen Peroxide-Induced Clone-5 (Hic-5)

Integrin αIIbβ3 plays a central role in the adhesion and aggregation of platelets and thus is essential for hemostasis and thrombosis. Integrin activation requires the transmission of a signal from the small cytoplasmic tails of the α or β subunit to the large extracellular domains resulting in conformational changes of the extracellular domains to enable ligand binding. Hydrogen peroxide-inducible clone-5 (Hic-5), a member of the paxillin family, serves as a focal adhesion adaptor protein associated with αIIbβ3 at its cytoplasmic tails. Previous studies suggested Hic-5 as a novel regulator of integrin αIIbβ3 activation and platelet aggregation in mice. To assess this in more detail, we generated Hic-5-null mice and analyzed activation and aggregation of their platelets in vitro and in vivo. Surprisingly, lack of Hic-5 had no detectable effect on platelet integrin activation and function in vitro and in vivo under all tested conditions. These results indicate that Hic-5 is dispensable for integrin αIIbβ3 activation and consequently for arterial thrombosis and hemostasis in mice.
Hyperintense Vessels on Acute Stroke Fluid-Attenuated Inversion Recovery Imaging: Associations With Clinical and Other MRI Findings

Background and Purpose— Hyperintense vessels (HVs) have been observed in fluid-attenuated inversion recovery imaging of patients with acute ischemic stroke and been linked to slow flow in collateral arterial circulation. Given the potential importance of HV, we used a large, multicenter data set of patients with stroke to clarify which clinical and imaging factors play a role in HV. Methods— We analyzed data of 516 patients from the previously published PRE-FLAIR study (PREdictive value of FLAIR and DWI for the identification of acute ischemic stroke patients ⩽3 and ⩽4.5 hours of symptom onset—a multicenter study) study. Patients were studied by MRI within 12 hours of symptom onset. HV were defined as hyperintensities in fluid-attenuated inversion recovery corresponding to the typical course of a blood vessel that was not considered the proximal, occluded main artery ipsilateral to the diffusion restriction. Presence of HV was rated by 2 observers and related to clinical and imaging findings. Results— Presence of HV was identified in 240 of all 516 patients (47%). Patients with HV showed larger initial ischemic lesion volumes (median, 12.3 versus 4.9mL; P<0.001) and a more severe clinical impairment (median National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale 10.5 versus 6; P<0.001). In 198 patients with MR angiography, HVs were found in 80% of patients with vessel occlusion and in 17% without vessel occlusion. In a multivariable logistic regression model, vessel occlusion was associated with HV (OR, 21.7%; 95% CI, 9.6–49.9; P<0.001). HV detected vessel occlusion with a specificity of 0.86 (95% CI, 0.80–0.90) and sensitivity of 0.76 (95% CI, 0.69–0.83). Conclusions— HVs are a common finding associated with proximal arterial occlusions and more severe strokes. HVs predict arterial occlusion with high diagnostic accuracy.
Nonlinear Evolution of the Magnetorotational Instability in Ion-Neutral Disks

We carry out three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamical simulations of the magnetorotational (Balbus-Hawley) instability in weakly ionized plasmas. We adopt a formulation in which the ions and neutrals are treated as separate fluids coupled only through a collisional drag term. Ionization and recombination processes are not considered. The linear stability of the ion-neutral system has been previously considered by Blaes & Balbus. Here we extend their results to the nonlinear regime by computing the evolution of the Keplerian angular momentum distribution in the local shearing box approximation. We find significant turbulence and angular momentum transport when the collisional frequency is on the order of 100 times the orbital frequency Ω. At higher collision rates, the two-fluid system studied here behaves much like the fully ionized systems studied previously. At lower collision rates, the evolution of the instability is determined primarily by the properties of the ions, with the neutrals acting as a sink for the turbulence. Since in this regime saturation occurs when the magnetic field is superthermal with respect to the ion pressure, we find that the amplitude of the magnetic energy and the corresponding angular momentum transport rate is proportional to the ion density. Our calculations show that the ions and neutrals are essentially decoupled when the collision frequency is less than 0. 01Ω; in this case, the ion fluid behaves as in the single-fluid simulations and the neutrals remain quiescent. We find that purely toroidal initial magnetic field configurations are unstable to the magnetorotational instability across the range of coupling frequencies.
Galvanic Vestibular Stimulation for Camptocormia in Parkinson's Disease: A Case Report

Background: We explored the use of galvanic vestibular stimulation (GVS) as a tool of intervention for camptocormia in a patient with Parkinson’s disease. Methods: A 73-year–old man with a 13-year history of Parkinson’s disease presented with camptocormia. Binaural monopolar GVS was applied at 1.5 mA with the patient in the supine position for 20min. His trunk flexion angle during the standing position with eyes open and with eyes closed for 60 sec each was assessed before the GVS, after the GVS, and 1.5months after the GVS. Results: The patient’s trunk flexion angle while standing after the GVS was reduced, especially with eyes closed (by 25.2°; 55.8%) compared to that before the GVS. The patient reported that standing and sitting in his daily life were improved after the GVS, and the improvement continued up to approximately 1month after the GVS. His average trunk flexion angle while standing at the follow-up test conducted 1.5 months after the GVS was increased compared to that after the GVS, but was still smaller than that before the GVS. Conclusion: The results of this case report demonstrated significant improvement of the trunk forward flexion angle in a patient with Parkinson’s disease with camptocormia. Limitations and future research suggestions were identified.
Visualising an Egyptian Artefact in 3D: Comparing RTI with Laser Scanning

3D digital representations of an ancient Egyptian artefact were compared for their rendering of surface detail. Normals were generated by three methods: (1) point clouds from the Arius 3D colour scanner; (2) reflectance transform imaging (RTI); (3) photometric stereo. The latter two were constructed from sets of 64 digital images taken under directional lighting in a hemispherical dome. Analysis of the 3D surface normals of corresponding sections of each object indicated that the photometric stereo method produced the best resolution of spatial detail.
Innovative LIDAR 3D Dynamic Measurement System to Estimate Fruit-Tree Leaf Area

In this work, a LIDAR-based 3D Dynamic Measurement System is presented and evaluated for the geometric characterization of tree crops. Using this measurement system, trees were scanned from two opposing sides to obtain two three-dimensional point clouds. After registration of the point clouds, a simple and easily obtainable parameter is the number of impacts received by the scanned vegetation. The work in this study is based on the hypothesis of the existence of a linear relationship between the number of impacts of the LIDAR sensor laser beam on the vegetation and the tree leaf area. Tests performed under laboratory conditions using an ornamental tree and, subsequently, in a pear tree orchard demonstrate the correct operation of the measurement system presented in this paper. The results from both the laboratory and field tests confirm the initial hypothesis and the 3D Dynamic Measurement System is validated in field operation. This opens the door to new lines of research centred on the geometric characterization of tree crops in the field of agriculture and, more specifically, in precision fruit growing.