Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Adaptive design clinical trials: Methodology, challenges and prospect

New drug development is a time-consuming and expensive process. Recently, there has been stagnation in the development of novel compounds. Moreover, the attrition rate in clinical research is also on the rise. Fearing more stagnation, the Food and Drug Administration released the critical path initiative in 2004 and critical path opportunity list in 2006 thus highlighting the need of advancing innovative trial designs. One of the innovations suggested was the adaptive designed clinical trials, a method promoting introduction of pre-specified modifications in the design or statistical procedures of an on-going trial depending on the data generated from the concerned trial thus making a trial more flexible. The adaptive design trials are proposed to boost clinical research by cutting on the cost and time factor. Although the concept of adaptive designed clinical trials is round-the-corner for the last 40 years, there is still lack of uniformity and understanding on this issue. This review highlights important adaptive designed methodologies besides covering the regulatory positions on this issue.
Glans resection and plastic repair

In the UK this procedure has become an accepted primary treatment for early penile squamous carcinoma, when the lesion is still confined to the glans ( ± adjacent skin) and has not yet penetrated through to the corpora cavernosa. It can also be used for secondary salvage surgery after local radio-recurrence of a glans tumour, or when the glans has been extensively destroyed or left in unstable condition by previous radiotherapy.
Bottom-Up Dependent Gating of Frontal Signals in Early Visual Cortex

The frontal eye field (FEF) is one of several cortical regions thought to modulate sensory inputs. Moreover, several hypotheses suggest that the FEF can only modulate early visual areas in the presence of a visual stimulus. To test for bottom-up gating of frontal signals, we microstimulated subregions in the FEF of two monkeys and measured the effects throughout the brain with functional magnetic resonance imaging. The activity of higher-order visual areas was strongly modulated by FEF stimulation, independent of visual stimulation. In contrast, FEF stimulation induced a topographically specific pattern of enhancement and suppression in early visual areas, but only in the presence of a visual stimulus. Modulation strength depended on stimulus contrast and on the presence of distractors. We conclude that bottom-up activation is needed to enable top-down modulation of early visual cortex and that stimulus saliency determines the strength of this modulation.
Congestion Games with Failures - CGFs

We introduce a new class of games---congestion games with failures (CGFs), which extends the class of congestion games to allow for facility failures. In a basic CGF (BCGF) agents share a common set of facilities (service providers), where each service provider (SP) may fail with some known probability. For reliability reasons, an agent may choose a subset of the SPs in order to try and perform his task. The cost of an agent for utilizing any SP is a function of the total number of agents using this SP. A main feature of this setting is that the cost for an agent for successful completion of his task is the minimum of the costs of his successful attempts. We show that although BCGFs do not admit a potential function, and thus are not isomorphic to classic congestion games, they always possess a pure-strategy Nash equilibrium. We also show that the SPs' congestion experienced in different Nash equilibria is (almost) unique. For the subclass of symmetric BCGFs we give a characterization of best and worst Nash equilibria. We extend the basic model by making task submission costly and define a model for taxed CGFs (TCGFs). We prove the existence of a pure-strategy Nash equilibrium for quasi-symmetric TCGFs, and present an efficient algorithm for constructing such Nash equilibrium in symmetric TCGFs.
Measurement of Erythrocyte Protoporphyrin Concentration by Double Extraction and Spectrofluorometry

Quantification of the level of erythrocyte protoporphyrin can be used as a screening assay for lead exposure. In this method, porphyrins and heme compounds are extracted from whole blood using ethyl acetate, and porphyrins are then separated from heme by back‐extraction with HCl solution. The extracted porphyrins are then quantified using a spectrofluorometer calibrated with protoporphyrin IX standard solutions.
The Common Modification in αA-Crystallin in the Lens, N101D, Is Associated with Increased Opacity in a Mouse Model*

To elucidate the morphological and cellular changes due to introduction of a charge during development and the possible mechanism that underlies cataract development in humans as a consequence of an additional charge, we generated a transgenic mouse model mimicking deamidation of Asn at position 101. The mouse model expresses a human αA-crystallin gene in which Asn-101 was replaced with Asp, which is referred to as αAN101D-transgene and is considered to be “deamidated” in this study. Mice expressing αAN101D-transgene are referred to here CRYAAN101D mice. All of the lines showed the expression of αAN101D-transgene. Compared with the lenses of mice expressing wild-type (WT) αA-transgene (referred to as CRYAAWT mice), the lenses of CRYAAN101D mice showed (a) altered αA-crystallin membrane protein (aquaporin-0 (AQP0), a specific lens membrane protein) interaction, (b) extracellular spaces between outer cortical fiber cells, (c) attenuated denucleation during confocal microscopic examination, (d) disrupted normal fiber cell organization and structure during scanning electron microscopic examination, (e) distorted posterior suture lines by bright field microscopy, and (f) development of a mild anterior lens opacity in the superior cortical region during the optical coherence tomography scan analysis. Relative to lenses with WT αA-crystallin, the lenses containing the deamidated αA-crystallin also showed an aggregation of αA-crystallin and a higher level of water-insoluble proteins, suggesting that the morphological and cellular changes in these lenses are due to the N101D mutation. This study provides evidence for the first time that expression of deamidated αA-crystallin caused disruption of fiber cell structural integrity, protein aggregation, insolubilization, and mild cortical lens opacity.
N-doped nanoporous Co3O4 nanosheets with oxygen vacancies as oxygen evolving electrocatalysts

Developing highly active electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) with a high surface area, high catalytic activity, low cost and high conductivity is a big challenge for various energy technologies. Herein, for the first time, we realized the simultaneous nitrogen doping and etching of Co3O4 nanosheets to produce N-doped nanoporous Co3O4 nanosheets with oxygen vacancies by N2 plasma. The increase in active sites in N-doped Co3O4 nanosheets and improved electronic conductivity with N doping and oxygen vacancies results in excellent electrocatalytic activity for the OER. Compared with pristine Co3O4 nanosheets, the N-doped Co3O4 nanosheets with oxygen vacancies have a much lower required potential of 1.54 V versus a reversible hydrogen electrode than the pristine Co3O4 nanosheets (1.79 V) to reach the current density of 10 mA cm−2. The N-doped and etched Co3O4 nanosheets have a much lower Tafel slope of 59 mV dec−1 than pristine Co3O4 nanosheets (234 mV dec−1). The enhanced electrocatalytic activity for the OER is caused by the increased surface area, N doping and the produced oxygen vacancies.
ROI and Blood Vessel Segmentation Based on Gradient Vector Algorithm in RGB Retinal Fundus Images

In this paper, a method is proposed for segmentation of ROI and blood vessels on pathological and non-pathological RGB retinal fundus images. In the proposed method, a preprocessing stage to make image enhancement is applied. Gradient vector algorithm is applied based on gradient vectors of pixels. Connected component analysis is applied to remove small objects that behave like blood vessels. The proposed method is tested with 113 anonym images and results of the study demonstrate that the proposed method produces result images with quite high accuracy in average 8.8 seconds.
Noninvasive high-intensity focused ultrasound treatment of twin-twin transfusion syndrome: A preliminary in vivo study

High-intensity focused ultrasound can ablate blood flow in the sheep placenta and may be translatable to human twin-twin transfusion syndrome. Splitting the babies Twin-twin transfusion syndrome is a complication of some twin pregnancies, where abnormal connections between the twins’ placental blood vessels result in unequal sharing of blood flow, with potentially lethal consequences. Although it is possible to separate the twins’ vasculature using fetoscopic laser occlusion of the connecting blood vessels, it is an invasive treatment with a high risk of complications. Shaw et al. used a sheep model of pregnancy to demonstrate the feasibility and relative safety of using high-intensity focused ultrasound to ablate blood flow through individual placental vessels. The authors used only healthy pregnant sheep, and the procedure still required surgical intervention to reach the uterus, but this approach may eventually offer a safer treatment alternative for human patients. We investigated the efficacy, maternofetal responses, and safety of using high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) for noninvasive occlusion of placental vasculature compared to sham treatment in anesthetized pregnant sheep. This technique for noninvasive occlusion of placental vasculature may be translatable to the treatment of conditions arising from abnormal placental vasculature, such as twin-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS). Eleven pregnant sheep were instrumented with maternal and fetal arterial catheters and time-transit flow probes to monitor cardiovascular, acid-base, and metabolic status, and then exposed to HIFU (n = 5) or sham (n = 6) ablation of placental vasculature through the exposed uterine surface. Placental vascular flow was occluded in 28 of 30 targets, and histological examination confirmed occlusion in 24 of 30 targets. In both HIFU and sham exposures, uterine contact reduced maternal uterine artery flow, but delivery of oxygen and glucose to the fetal brain remained normal. HIFU can consistently occlude in vivo placental vessels and ablate blood flow in a pregnant sheep model. Cardiovascular and metabolic fetal responses suggest that the technique is safe in the short term and potentially translatable to human pregnancy.
Statistics Notes: Diagnostic tests 3: receiver operating characteristic plots

We have previously considered diagnosis based on tests that give a yes or no answer.1, 2 Many diagnostic tests, however, are quantitative, notably in clinical chemistry. The same statistical approach can be used only if we can select a cut off point to distinguish “normal” from “abnormal,” which is not a trivial problem. Firstly, we can investigate to what extent the test results differ among people who do or do not have the diagnosis of interest. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) plot is one way to do this. These plots were developed in the 1950s for evaluating radar signal detection. Only recently have they become commonly used in medicine. We assume that high values are more likely …
Chemokine (C‐X‐C motif) receptor 3–positive B cells link interleukin‐17 inflammation to protumorigenic macrophage polarization in human hepatocellular carcinoma

B cells consistently represent abundant cellular components in tumors; however, direct evidence supporting a role for B cells in the immunopathogenesis of human cancers is lacking, as is specific knowledge of their trafficking mechanisms. Here, we demonstrate that chemokine (C‐X‐C motif) receptor 3–positive (CXCR3+) B cells constitute approximately 45% of B‐cell infiltrate in human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and that their levels are positively correlated with early recurrence of HCC. These cells selectively accumulate at the invading edge of HCC and undergo further somatic hypermutation and immunoglobulin G–secreting plasma cell differentiation. Proinflammatory interleukin‐17+ cells are important for the induction of epithelial cell–derived CXCR3 ligands CXCL9, CXCL10, and CXCL11, which subsequently promote the sequential recruitment and further maturation of CXCR3+ B cells. More importantly, we provide evidence that CXCR3+ B cells, but not their CXCR3– counterparts, may operate in immunoglobulin G–dependent pathways to induce M2b macrophage polarization in human HCC. Depletion of B cells significantly suppresses M2b polarization and the protumorigenic activity of tumor‐associated macrophages and restores the production of antitumorigenic interleukin‐12 by those cells in vivo. Conclusion: Selective recruitment of CXCR3+ B cells bridges proinflammatory interleukin‐17 response and protumorigenic macrophage polarization in the tumor milieu, and blocking CXCR3+ B‐cell migration or function may help defeat HCC. (Hepatology 2015;62:1779–1790)
Robust Spelling and Digit Recognition in the Car: Switching Models and Their Like

Performance of speech recognition systems strongly degrades in the presence of background noise, like the driving noise in the interior of a car. We aim to improve noise robustness focusing on all major levels of speech recognition: feature extraction, feature enhancement, and speech modeling. Different auditory modeling concepts, speech enhancement techniques, training strategies, and model architectures are implemented in an incar digit and spelling recognition task, which considers noises produced by various car types and driving conditions. Matched conditions training and auditory modeling techniques like Perceptual Linear Prediction (PLP) are applied in order to improve recognition rates. We prove that joint speech and noise modeling with a global Switching Linear Dynamic Model (SLDM) capturing the dynamics of speech, and a Linear Dynamic Model (LDM) for noise, outperforms speech enhancement techniques like Histogram Equalization (HEQ).
Improve Computer Visualization of Architecture Based on the Bayesian Network

Computer visualization has marvelous effects when it is applied in various fields, especially in architectural design. As an emerging force in the innovation industry, architects and design agencies have already demonstrated the value of architectural visual products in actual application projects. Based on the digital image technology, virtual presentation of future scenes simulates architecture design, architectural renderings and multimedia videos. Therefore it can help design agencies transform the theoretical design concept into a lively and realistic visual which can provide the audience with a clearer understanding of the engineering and construction projects. However, it is challenging for designers to produce satisfactory renderings due to the frequent fault data during rendering. In this paper, we use the 3Ds MAX as the operating platform and we present an algorithm based on the Bayesian network to construct a vector representation of the fault data. On this basis, a case study of 3D Max’ application has also been presented.
APPROXIMATING A DSM‐5 DIAGNOSIS OF PTSD USING DSM‐IV CRITERIA

Diagnostic criteria for DSM‐5 posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are in many ways similar to DSM‐IV criteria, raising the possibility that it might be possible to closely approximate DSM‐5 diagnoses using DSM‐IV symptoms. If so, the resulting transformation rules could be used to pool research data based on the two criteria sets.
A Probabilistic Delay Model for Bidirectional VANETs in City Environments

Routing in VANETs (Vehicular Ad hoc NETworks) is a challenging task due to large network sizes, rapidly changing topology and frequent network disconnections. State-of-the-art routing protocols tried to address these specific problems especially in city environments (vehicles constrained by road geometry, signal transmissions blocked by obstacles, degree of congestion in roads etc). It was noticed that in city scenarios codirectional roads consist of a collection of disconnected clusters because of traffic control strategies (e.g., RSU (Road Side Units), stop signs and traffic lights). In this paper, we propose an intervehicle ad-hoc routing metric called EFD (Expected Forwarding Delay) based on the vehicular traffic statistics (e.g., densities and velocities) collected on-the-fly. We derive an analytical expression for the expected size of a cluster in co-directional traffic. In case of disconnection between two co-directional clusters the opposite directional clusters are used as a bridge to propagate a message in the actual forwarding direction to reduce the delay due to carry and forward. Through theoretical analysis and extensive simulation, it is shown that our link delay model provides the accurate link delay estimation in bidirectional city environments.
Diagnostic usefulness and challenges in the diagnosis of mesothelioma by endoscopic ultrasound guided fine needle aspiration

Malignant mesothelioma is a rare neoplasm. It has been noted in the literature that fine needle aspiration (FNA) is a useful tool for the diagnosis of mesothelioma. However, the differential diagnosis may require use of a battery of immunohistochemical stains. Clinico‐radiologic correlation is also crucial. Real time endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) combined with FNA has been shown to be a very sensitive technique to obtain samples from different organ sites, including mediastinal lesions. The use of EUS‐FNA for the diagnosis of mesothelioma, reinforces the role of a cytopathologist as a cohesive team player along with a radiologist and a clinician during on‐site assessment for the proper triage of additional specimens for ancillary studies leading to a better patient management. Diagn. Cytopathol. 2008;36:503–507. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
OmniVoke: A Framework for Automating the Invocation of Web APIs

Web APIs, characterized by their relative simplicity and their natural suitability for the Web, have become increasingly dominant in the world of services on the Web. Despite their popularity, Web APIs are so heterogeneous in terms of the underlying principles adopted and the means used for publishing them that discovering, understanding and notably invoking Web APIs is nowadays more an art than a science. In this paper, we present our work towards supporting the automated invocation of Web APIs. In particular, we describe a framework that provides a unique entry point for the invocation of most Web APIs that can be found on the Web, by exploiting non-intrusive semantic annotations of HTML pages describing Web APIs in order to capture both their semantics as well as information necessary to carry out their invocation.
Evolutionary Eigenspace Learning using CCIPCA and IPCA for Face Recognition

Traditional principal components analysis (PCA) techniques for face recognition are based on batch-mode training using a pre-available image set. Real world applications require that the training set be dynamic of evolving nature where within the framework of continuous learning, new training images are continuously added to the original set; this would trigger a costly continuous re-computation of the eigen space representation via repeating an entire batch-based training that includes the old and new images. Incremental PCA methods allow adding new images and updating the PCA representation. In this paper, two incremental PCA approaches, CCIPCA and IPCA, are examined and compared. Besides, different learning and testing strategies are proposed and applied to the two algorithms. The results suggest that batch PCA is inferior to both incremental approaches, and that all CCIPCAs are practically equivalent.
NB-IoT for D2D-Enhanced Content Uploading with Social Trustworthiness in 5G Systems

Future fifth-generation (5G) cellular systems are set to give a strong boost to the large-scale deployment of Internet of things (IoT). In the view of a future converged 5G-IoT infrastructure, cellular IoT solutions such as narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) and device-to-device (D2D) communications are key technologies for supporting IoT scenarios and applications. However, some open issues still need careful investigation. An example is the risk of threats to privacy and security when IoT mobile services rely on D2D communications. To guarantee efficient and secure connections to IoT services involving exchange of sensitive data, reputation-based mechanisms to identify and avoid malicious devices are fast gaining ground. In order to tackle the presence of malicious nodes in the network, this paper introduces reliability and reputation notions to model the level of trust among devices engaged in an opportunistic hop-by-hop D2D-based content uploading scheme. To this end, social awareness of devices is considered as a means to enhance the identification of trustworthy nodes. A performance evaluation study shows that the negative effects due to malicious nodes can be drastically reduced by adopting the proposed solution. The performance metrics that proved to benefit from the proposed solution are data loss, energy consumption, and content uploading time.
Study on cutting temperature and surface roughness during the milling process of aluminium alloys

In this paper some experimental determinations on the temperature and surface roughness during the milling process of aluminium alloys (5083, 6082 and 7075) was conducted, using different cutting parameters (depth of cut, feed and rotational speed). The results are presented as graphical dependencies of temperature and surface roughness as function of cutting parameters also as a screen capture of the values obtained using an adequate technique for temperature of the milling process of aluminium alloys.
Investigation of Atmospheric Effects on Retrieval of Sun-Induced Fluorescence Using Hyperspectral Imagery

Significant research progress has recently been made in estimating fluorescence in the oxygen absorption bands, however, quantitative retrieval of fluorescence data is still affected by factors such as atmospheric effects. In this paper, top-of-atmosphere (TOA) radiance is generated by the MODTRAN 4 and SCOPE models. Based on simulated data, sensitivity analysis is conducted to assess the sensitivities of four indicators—depth_absorption_band, depth_nofs-depth_withfs, radiance and Fs/radiance—to atmospheric parameters (sun zenith angle (SZA), sensor height, elevation, visibility (VIS) and water content) in the oxygen absorption bands. The results indicate that the SZA and sensor height are the most sensitive parameters and that variations in these two parameters result in large variations calculated as the variation value/the base value in the oxygen absorption depth in the O2-A and O2-B bands (111.4% and 77.1% in the O2-A band; and 27.5% and 32.6% in the O2-B band, respectively). A comparison of fluorescence retrieval using three methods (Damm method, Braun method and DOAS) and SCOPE Fs indicates that the Damm method yields good results and that atmospheric correction can improve the accuracy of fluorescence retrieval. Damm method is the improved 3FLD method but considering atmospheric effects. Finally, hyperspectral airborne images combined with other parameters (SZA, VIS and water content) are exploited to estimate fluorescence using the Damm method and 3FLD method. The retrieval fluorescence is compared with the field measured fluorescence, yielding good results (R2 = 0.91 for Damm vs. SCOPE SIF; R2 = 0.65 for 3FLD vs. SCOPE SIF). Five types of vegetation, including ailanthus, elm, mountain peach, willow and Chinese ash, exhibit consistent associations between the retrieved fluorescence and field measured fluorescence.