Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
High Temporal Resolution Parametric MRI Monitoring of the Initial Ischemia/Reperfusion Phase in Experimental Acute Kidney Injury

Ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury, a consequence of kidney hypoperfusion or temporary interruption of blood flow is a common cause of acute kidney injury (AKI). There is an unmet need to better understand the mechanisms operative during the initial phase of ischemic AKI. Non-invasive in vivo parametric magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) may elucidate spatio-temporal pathophysiological changes in the kidney by monitoring the MR relaxation parameters T2* and T2, which are known to be sensitive to blood oxygenation. The aim of our study was to establish the technical feasibility of fast continuous T2*/T2 mapping throughout renal I/R. MRI was combined with a remotely controlled I/R model and a segmentation model based semi-automated quantitative analysis. This technique enabled the detailed assessment of in vivo changes in all kidney regions during ischemia and early reperfusion. Significant changes in T2* and T2 were observed shortly after induction of renal ischemia and during the initial reperfusion phase. Our study demonstrated for the first time that continuous and high temporal resolution parametric MRI is feasible for in-vivo monitoring and characterization of I/R induced AKI in rats. This technique may help in the identification of the timeline of key events responsible for development of renal damage in hypoperfusion-induced AKI.
Fisher Kernel for Deep Neural Activations

Compared to image representation based on low-level local descriptors, deep neural activations of Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) are richer in mid-level representation, but poorer in geometric invariance properties. In this paper, we present a straightforward framework for better image representation by combining the two approaches. To take advantages of both representations, we propose an efficient method to extract a fair amount of multi-scale dense local activations from a pre-trained CNN. We then aggregate the activations by Fisher kernel framework, which has been modified with a simple scale-wise normalization essential to make it suitable for CNN activations. Replacing the direct use of a single activation vector with our representation demonstrates significant performance improvements: +17.76 (Acc.) on MIT Indoor 67 and +7.18 (mAP) on PASCAL VOC 2007. The results suggest that our proposal can be used as a primary image representation for better performances in visual recognition tasks.
Government expenditure on education, economic growth and long waves: the case of portugal

Recent case studies on European economies have analysed the evolution of aggregate series for government expenditure on education and its relation to cyclical economic growth in the long run. These studies have depicted two different patterns in that relationship. In the case of highly developed economies, namely France, Germany and Great Britain, the evolution of public expenditure on education shows a counter‐cyclical behaviour until the Second World War and a pro‐cyclical movement thereafter. However, in the case of Spain, a different pattern seems apparent since the expansion phase occurring after the Second World War did not change the counter‐cyclical evolution of the Spanish government's efforts to improve the level of education in Spain. In this preliminary approach, the Portuguese case seems to fit the Spanish pattern, once again leaving room for defending the possible existence of an Iberian (or Mediterranean) pattern as opposed to a Northern European pattern.
Temporally Coherent Interactive Ray Tracing

Abstract Ray tracing exhibits visible temporal aliasing artifacts in interactive viewing of complex datasets. We present a technique to reduce scintillation in point sampled imagery by targeting new rays to intersection points from previous frames. Remaining artifacts are abated by blending between successive frames. The algorithm achieves a reduction in scintillation comparable to that of supersampling, but at a significantly lower cost. Sample animations are available on the website listed at the end of this paper.
Efficacy of topical phenytoin on chemotherapy-induced oral mucositis; a pilot study

Background and the Purpose of the Study Oral mucositis is one of the most common complications of malignancy chemotherapy. As yet, no absolute treatment has been demonstrated to be effective for chemotherapy-induced oral mucositis. This study evaluates the effectiveness of phenytoin mouthwash as a wound healing agent, on the basis of stimulating effects on fibroblast proliferation. Materials and Methods In this multicenter, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial; twelve patients received phenytoin mouthwash (0.5%) or placebo for about two weeks. Oral pain severity was scored on the daily basis using a VAS (visual analogue scale) of 10 centimeters. National Cancer Institute (NCI) scale was used to grade the intensity of mucositis. To determine the effect of treatment, a quality of life questionnaire, consisting of 35 queries, was filled out for all patients. Statistical analyses of data was performed using Mann-Whitney test. Results The average time for complete remission of mucositis in phenytoin-treated group was less than that of the placebo group. The quality of life improved dramatically in the phenytoin group with the healing process being more evident in the first week. Furthermore, reduction in the wound area was greater in the phenytoin group than controls at the end of the first week of treatment. Both groups eventually demonstrated reduction in pain intensity; however no statistically significant difference was observed between two groups. Conclusion Phenytoin mouthwash accelerated wound healing and resolution of mucositis and improved life quality impressively.
Two-Microphone Spatial Filtering Improves Speech Reception for Cochlear-Implant Users in Reverberant Conditions With Multiple Noise Sources

This study evaluates a spatial-filtering algorithm as a method to improve speech reception for cochlear-implant (CI) users in reverberant environments with multiple noise sources. The algorithm was designed to filter sounds using phase differences between two microphones situated 1 cm apart in a behind-the-ear hearing-aid capsule. Speech reception thresholds (SRTs) were measured using a Coordinate Response Measure for six CI users in 27 listening conditions including each combination of reverberation level (T60 = 0, 270, and 540 ms), number of noise sources (1, 4, and 11), and signal-processing algorithm (omnidirectional response, dipole-directional response, and spatial-filtering algorithm). Noise sources were time-reversed speech segments randomly drawn from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers sentence recordings. Target speech and noise sources were processed using a room simulation method allowing precise control over reverberation times and sound-source locations. The spatial-filtering algorithm was found to provide improvements in SRTs on the order of 6.5 to 11.0 dB across listening conditions compared with the omnidirectional response. This result indicates that such phase-based spatial filtering can improve speech reception for CI users even in highly reverberant conditions with multiple noise sources.
A Divide-and-conquer Strategy in Recovering Surface Shape of Book from Shading

A divide-and-conquer strategy in shape from shading is proposed for recovering book surface on fully perspective condition. It is shown that unique shape can be recovered despite of more unknowns than shade images by dividing original implicit SFS problem into explicit ones. Using invariance of shading, a transformed shading equation and a recurrence relation is derived for depth recovery. Whole process is divided into three sequential processes : preprocessing, apparent shape recovery, and ortho-image generation. Comprehensive algorithms are implemented for each process. The reliability of proposed strategy and accuracy of recovered results are shown through simulations and real experiment. Key Word Shape from shading, Divide-and-conquer strategy, Transformed shading equation, Recurrence relation
KCNE4 can co‐associate with the IKs (KCNQ1–KCNE1) channel complex

Voltage‐gated potassium (KV) channels can form heteromultimeric complexes with a variety of accessory subunits, including KCNE proteins. Heterologous expression studies have demonstrated diverse functional effects of KCNE subunits on several KV channels, including KCNQ1 (KV7.1) that, together with KCNE1, generates the slow‐delayed rectifier current (IKs) important for cardiac repolarization. In particular, KCNE4 exerts a strong inhibitory effect on KCNQ1 and other KV channels, raising the possibility that this accessory subunit is an important potassium current modulator. A polyclonal KCNE4 antibody was developed to determine the human tissue expression pattern and to investigate the biochemical associations of this protein with KCNQ1. We found that KCNE4 is widely and variably expressed in several human tissues, with greatest abundance in brain, liver and testis. In heterologous expression experiments, immunoprecipitation followed by immunoblotting was used to establish that KCNE4 directly associates with KCNQ1, and can co‐associate together with KCNE1 in the same KCNQ1 complex to form a ‘triple subunit’ complex (KCNE1–KCNQ1–KCNE4). We also used cell surface biotinylation to demonstrate that KCNE4 does not impair plasma membrane expression of either KCNQ1 or the triple subunit complex, indicating that biophysical mechanisms probably underlie the inhibitory effects of KCNE4. The observation that multiple KCNE proteins can co‐associate with and modulate KCNQ1 channels to produce biochemically diverse channel complexes has important implications for understanding KV channel regulation in human physiology.
COMPARATIVE STUDY OF TOPICAL USE OF VASODILATING SOLUTIONS

Vasodilating effects of topically applied lignocaine, papaverine, and chlorpromazine were compared in rats, using a PO2 tissue perfusion monitor and histological analysis. The period of vasospasm was significantly shorter with the use of either 10% lignocaine, 2% papaverine, or 0.25% chlorpromazine than with the use of 2% lignocaine. Although our study found that no particular vasodilating agent was more effective than the others, we did find that although lignocaine 2% and 5% might not be able to fully relieve vasospasm, 10% lignocaine, 2% papaverine, or 0.25% chlorpromazine are recommended to relieve vasospasm clinically as they do not injure the arterial wall.
Noblesse Oblige? Moral Identity and Prosocial Behavior in the Face of Selfishness

What makes individuals conform or diverge after observing prosocial or selfish behavior by others? We study experimentally how social comparison (observing a peer’s behavior) interacts with identity motives for cooperation. Participants play two games. We increase the strength of the identity motive by inducing subjects in a treatment condition to infer their identity from behavior in the first game. Cooperators who observe a peer defect donate 28% more to their unknown partner in the second game in the treatment than in the control group. Our results are consistent with the predictions of Benabou and Tirole (2011), and show that the "suckerto- saint effect" identified by Jordan and Monin (2008) can have important behavioral consequences.
Pros and Cons of Using the Informed Basis Set to Account for Hemodynamic Response Variability with Developmental Data

Conventional analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data using the general linear model (GLM) employs a neural model convolved with a canonical hemodynamic response function (HRF) peaking 5 s after stimulation. Incorporation of a further basis function, namely the canonical HRF temporal derivative, accounts for delays in the hemodynamic response to neural activity. A population that may benefit from this flexible approach is children whose hemodynamic response is not yet mature. Here, we examined the effects of using the set based on the canonical HRF plus its temporal derivative on both first- and second-level GLM analyses, through simulations and using developmental data (an fMRI dataset on proprioceptive mapping in children and adults). Simulations of delayed fMRI first-level data emphasized the benefit of carrying forward to the second-level a derivative boost that combines derivative and nonderivative beta estimates. In the experimental data, second-level analysis using a paired t-test showed increased mean amplitude estimate (i.e., increased group contrast mean) in several brain regions related to proprioceptive processing when using the derivative boost compared to using only the nonderivative term. This was true especially in children. However, carrying forward to the second-level the individual derivative boosts had adverse consequences on random-effects analysis that implemented one-sample t-test, yielding increased between-subject variance, thus affecting group-level statistic. Boosted data also presented a lower level of smoothness that had implication for the detection of group average activation. Imposing soft constraints on the derivative boost by limiting the time-to-peak range of the modeled response within a specified range (i.e., 4–6 s) mitigated these issues. These findings support the notion that there are pros and cons to using the informed basis set with developmental data.
Pilot Trial on Determinants of Progenitor Cell Recruitment to the Infarcted Human Myocardium

Background— Clinical trials indicate a beneficial effect of intracoronary infusion of progenitor cells on myocardial function in patients with ischemic heart disease. The extent and potential determinants of proangiogenic progenitor cell homing into the damaged myocardium after intracoronary infusion and the underlying mechanisms are still unknown. Method and Results— Circulating proangiogenic progenitor cells isolated from peripheral blood and cultivated for 3 days were labeled with radioactive indium oxine (111In-oxine). Radiolabeled proangiogenic progenitor cells (7.6±3.0 MBq, mean±SD) were administered to patients with previous myocardial infarction and a revascularized infarct vessel at various stages after infarction (5 days to 17 years). Viability of the infarcted myocardium was determined by 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose–positron emission tomography and microcirculatory function by intracoronary Doppler measurements. One hour after application of progenitor cells, a mean of 6.9±4.7% (range, 1% to 19%; n=17) of total radioactivity was detected in the heart, which declined to 2±1% after 3 to 4 days. Average activity within the first 24 hours was highest among patients with acute myocardial infarction (≤14 days; 6.3±2.9%; n=8) and progressively decreased in patients treated in an intermediate phase (>14 days to 1 year; 4.5±3.2%; n=4) or a chronic stage (infarct age >1 year; 2.5±1.6%; n=5). Low viability of the infarcted myocardium and reduced coronary flow reserve were significant (P<0.05) predictors of proangiogenic progenitor cell homing. Conclusions— In patients after myocardial infarction undergoing intracoronary infusion of 111In-oxine–labeled proangiogenic progenitor cells, a substantial amount of radioactivity is detected for several days in the heart, indicating homing of progenitor cells to the myocardium. The amount of proangiogenic progenitor cells retained in the heart decreased progressively with time after the acute myocardial infarction. Proangiogenic progenitor cells preferentially home to extensive acute myocardial infarcts characterized by low viability and reduced coronary flow reserve.
The McGill/MIT direct drive motor project

A direct drive electromagnetic motor and associated controller have been designed and constructed to improve upon the torque-to-mass ratio and torque accuracy of previous designs. The goals are a torque/mass of 10 N m/kg and a torque ripple of less than 1% at full-scale torque. The motor design is a 3-phase synchronous motor, with an axial airgap and identically wound armatures. Both armatures are water cooled to increase the allowable current density. A table-based microprocessor controller shapes the current profiles in the phases to correct for torque ripple. <<ETX>>
Ras-dependent and -independent pathways target the mitogen-activated protein kinase network in macrophages

Mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) are activated upon a variety of extracellular stimuli in different cells. In macrophages, colony-stimulating factor 1 (CSF-1) stimulates proliferation, while bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) inhibits cell growth and causes differentiation and activation. Both CSF-1 and LPS rapidly activate the MAPK network and induce the phosphorylation of two distinct ternary complex factors (TCFs), TCF/Elk and TCF/SAP. CSF-1, but not LPS, stimulated the formation of p21ras. GTP complexes. Expression of a dominant negative ras mutant reduced, but did not abolish, CSF-1-mediated stimulation of MEK and MAPK. In contrast, activation of the MEK kinase Raf-1 was Ras independent. Treatment with the phosphatidylcholine-specific phospholipase C inhibitor D609 suppressed LPS-mediated, but not CSF-1-mediated, activation of Raf-1, MEK, and MAPK. Similarly, down-regulation or inhibition of protein kinase C blocked MEK and MAPK induction by LPS but not that by CSF-1. Phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate pretreatment led to the sustained activation of the Raf-1 kinase but not that of MEK and MAPK. Thus, activated Raf-1 alone does not support MEK/MAPK activation in macrophages. Phosphorylation of TCF/Elk but not that of TCF/SAP was blocked by all treatments that interfered with MAPK activation, implying that TCF/SAP was targeted by a MAPK-independent pathway. Therefore, CSF-1 and LPS target the MAPK network by two alternative pathways, both of which induce Raf-1 activation. The mitogenic pathway depends on Ras activity, while the differentiation signal relies on protein kinase C and phosphatidylcholine-specific phospholipase C activation.
Le Questionnaire d'Evitement Cognitif (QEC) : Développement et validation auprès d'adultes et d'adolescents

De nombreux troubles psychiatriques se caracterisent par la presence d'intrusions cognitives recurrentes et persistantes (ex. : inquietudes, obsessions, etc.). Devant l'inconfort ressenti lorsque de telles pensees se manifestent, les personnes qui en souffrent adoptent des strategies pour les eviter ou les chasser de leur esprit. Ces comportements d'evitement seraient a l'origine de plusieurs psychopathologies. Jusqu'a present, aucun instrument n'a permis d'evaluer de maniere satisfaisante les strategies utilisees par une personne pour ecarter ces pensees derangeantes. Le present article rend compte du developpement et des proprietes psychometriques d'un nouveau questionnaire francophone evaluant ces strategies, soit le Questionnaire d'Evitement Cognitif (QEC). La premiere etude decrit les etapes de developpement du questionnaire. Elle verifie sa structure factorielle, sa coherence interne, la qualite de ses items, sa validite convergente et sa validite de critere aupres de participants adultes issus d'une population non clinique. La deuxieme etude effectue le meme processus aupres d'adolescents issus egalement d'une population non clinique. Enfin, la troisieme etude mesure la stabilite temporelle du QEC aupres d'un echantillon adulte d'une population non clinique. Les resultats obtenus indiquent que cinq strategies d'evitement cognitif sont evaluees : l'evitement des stimuli declenchant des pensees desagreables, la distraction, la suppression de pensees, la substitution de pensees et la transformation d'images en pensees. En outre, le QEC et ses cinq sous-echelles montrent une excellente coherence interne, une validite satisfaisante et une tres bonne stabilite temporelle. Ce nouveau questionnaire fournit donc aux cliniciens comme aux chercheurs un instrument utile pour evaluer convenablement l'evitement cognitif chez les adultes et les adolescents.
Ritel: an open-domain, human-computer dialog system

The project RITEL aims at integrating a spoken language dialog system and an open-domain question answering system to allow a human to ask general questions (“Who is currently presiding the Senate? ”) and refine the search interactively. As this point in time the RITEL platform is being used to collect a human-computer dialog corpus. The user can receive factual answers to some questions ( Q: who is the president of France, R: Jacques Chirac is the president for France since may 1995). This paper briefly presents the current system, the collected corpus, the problems encountered by such a system and our first answers to these problems. When the system is more advance, it will allow measuring the net worth of integrating a dialog system into a QA system. Does allowing such a dialog really enables to reach faster and more precisely the “right” answer to a question?
Cursive Handwriting with Kindergartners

This action research studied the impact of Handwriting Without Tears® (HWT) cursive instruction on handwriting skills for kindergarten students. The study occurred in an early childhood (ages 3-6) classroom at a private Montessori school. Eight students received multisensory HWT cursive instruction twenty minutes per day for six weeks. Sources of data included participant print and cursive writing samples analyzed with a rubric, HWT print assessments, scored attitude scales of participants’ feelings about handwriting, a tally sheet of writing works chosen, and a teacher journal. Following the intervention, participants’ scored higher on the HWT assessment, especially in the section regarding correct orientation. Cursive and print writing sample scores also improved. Participants’ feelings about looking at their handwriting increased. Since HWT cursive instruction improved students’ print and cursive, I will use HWT print and cursive curriculum in my classroom, give kindergartners regular HWT print assessments, and remediate as necessary.
Analysis of Calibrated On-Chip Temperature Sensor With Process Compensation for HV Chips

This brief presents a wide-range temperature sensor with process compensation and nonlinear calibration for HV chip thermal monitoring. Due to a high supply voltage and a large current, HV chips are prone to overheating; thus, they require on-chip temperature sensors to monitor thermal variation. The voltage difference between the drain and source voltages of a metal-oxide-semiconductor, i.e., VDS, of HV devices is enlarged by high supply voltages, causing a severe channel length modulation effect to jeopardize the linearity of the saturation current. The proposed calibrated temperature sensors in this brief provide a nonlinear calibration function to resolve this problem. Moreover, our design reveals a process compensation capability by the proposed process variation canceler. The maximal deviation in the range of (-40°C, +150)°C is measured to be -2.05°C-+2.06°C.
Intra-Vehicular Path Loss Comparison of UWB Channel for 3-11 GHz and 55-65 GHz

This paper provides a comparison of a real-world intra-vehicular radio channel measurements of the ultra-wide frequency bands, namely the 3-11 GHz and the 55-65 GHz. The measurement campaign was performed utilizing a vector network analyzer (VNA) and a frequency domain method ensuring a high dynamic range of 70 dB and a frequency resolution of 10 MHz. An inverse Fourier transform is exploited for a transition of the measured data into the time domain and to obtain a channel impulse response (CIR). A delay spread and a path loss are derived and compared. Measured data is freely available online: http://www.radio. feec.vutbr. cz/GACR-13-38735S/.