Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Variability of Ventricular Repolarization Dispersion Quantified by Time-Warping the Morphology of the T-Waves

<italic>Objective:</italic> We propose two electrocardiogram (ECG)-derived markers of T-wave morphological variability in the temporal, <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$d_w$</tex-math></inline-formula>, and amplitude, <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$d_a$</tex-math></inline-formula>, domains. Two additional markers, <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$d_w^{\mathrm{NL}}$</tex-math></inline-formula> and <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$d_a^{\mathrm{NL}}$</tex-math></inline-formula>, restricted to measure the nonlinear information present within <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$d_w$</tex-math></inline-formula> and <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$d_a$</tex-math></inline-formula> are also proposed. <italic>Methods: </italic> We evaluated the accuracy of the proposed markers in capturing T-wave time and amplitude variations in 3 situations: 1) In a simulated set up with presence of additive Laplacian noise, 2) when modifying the spatio-temporal distribution of electrical repolarization with an electro-physiological cardiac model, and 3) in ECG records from healthy subjects undergoing a tilt table test. <italic>Results:</italic> The metrics <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$d_w$</tex-math></inline-formula>, <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$d_a$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$d_w^{\mathrm{NL}}$</tex-math></inline-formula> , and <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$d_a^{\mathrm{NL}}$</tex-math></inline-formula> followed T-wave time- and amplitude-induced variations under different levels of noise, were strongly associated with changes in the spatio-temporal dispersion of repolarization, and showed to provide additional information to differences in the heart rate, <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$QT$</tex-math></inline-formula> and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$T_{\mathrm{pe}}$</tex-math></inline-formula> intervals, and in the T-wave width and amplitude. <italic>Conclusion:</italic> The proposed ECG-derived markers robustly quantify T-wave morphological variability, being strongly associated with changes in the dispersion of repolarization. <italic>Significance:</italic> The proposed ECG-derived markers can help to quantify the variability in the dispersion of ventricular repolarization, showing a great potential to be used as arrhythmic risk predictors in clinical situations.
Intravascular occlusion for the correction of extrahepatic portosystemic shunts in dogs.

BACKGROUND Congential extrahepatic portosystemic shunts (EHPSS) are common in dogs. An effective minimally invasive technique for correction of EHPSS could result in reduced morbidity, reduced costs, and reduced hospitalization times. HYPOTHESIS Use of an intravascular occlusion device can effectively and safely result in acute complete occlusion of EHPSS in dogs. ANIMALS Seven dogs with naturally occurring EHPSS that presented to the Purdue University Veterinary Teaching Hospital. METHODS Prospective, clinical trial. The 7 dogs were consecutively enrolled over a 2-year period. Results of serum biochemistry, total serum bile acids, fasting plasma ammonia, abdominal radiography, and ultrasonography suggested the diagnosis of portosystemic shunts in all dogs. Definitive diagnosis of EHPSS was achieved with cranial mesenteric arterial portography and acute occlusion was attempted by the deployment of the Amplatzer vascular plug (AVP). RESULTS EHPSS were identified in all dogs consisting of 5 portocaval and 2 portoazygous variants; 1/7 dogs (14%) were intolerant to temporary complete occlusion of the EHPSS. Of the remaining 6 dogs, 5 (83%) had complete occlusion of the EHPSS by the AVP. There were no complications and resolution of abnormal clinical signs and laboratory values was achieved in 4/5 (80%) dogs with complete occlusion. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE Intravascular correction of EHPSS by the AVP is a viable option to surgical correction while larger studies will be required to determine the clinical applicability of this procedure in the broader portosystemic shunt population.
Small‐scale in vivo imaging of soft tissues by radioscopy using single X‐ray photon counting

A method has been developed for routine laboratory visualisation of small‐scale soft tissue by means of transmission X‐ray radioscopy and tomography. Using termites as models, imaging quality with a spatial resolution of about 3 μm was achieved and 3D tomographic reconstruction was demonstrated. A termite worker individual was visualized before and after its metamorphosis towards the soldier caste. The developed methodology represents a non‐invasive and real‐time way of acquiring 3D anatomic data with a high contrast so that it is a promising candidate to become a tool for routine investigations in life sciences.
Multi-feature sea–land segmentation based on pixel-wise learning for optical remote-sensing imagery

ABSTRACT Robust sea–land segmentation in optical remote-sensing images is challenging because of the complex sea–land environment and scene diversity. Here, we propose a novel multi-feature sea–land segmentation method via pixel-wise learning for optical remote-sensing images. Multiple features such as greyscale, local statistical information, edge, texture, and structure are first extracted from each pixel in training images and then used to learn a multi-feature sea–land classifier, which transforms the segmentation issue into pixel-wise binary classification problem. In our approach, a new multi-feature sea–land segmentation algorithm is put forward based on the approximation of Newton method. Experiments on Google-Earth, Venezuelan Remote Sensing Satellite-1 (VRSS-1) and Gaofen-1 images demonstrate that the proposed approach yields more robust and accurate sea–land segmentation results.
Logic Synthesis for Asynchronous Circuits Based on STG Unfoldings and Incremental SAT

The behaviour of asynchronous circuits is often described by Signal Transition Graphs (STGs), which are Petri nets whose transitions are interpreted as rising and falling edges of signals. One of the crucial problems in the synthesis of such circuits is deriving equations for logic gates implementing each output signal of the circuit. This is usually done using reachability graphs.In this paper, we avoid constructing the reachability graph of an STG, which can lead to state space explosion, and instead use only the information about causality and structural conflicts between the events involved in a finite and complete prefix of its unfolding. We propose an efficient algorithm for logic synthesis based on the Incremental Boolean Satisfiability (SAT) approach. Experimental results show that this technique leads not only to huge memory savings when compared with the methods based on reachability graphs, but also to significant speedups in many cases, without affecting the quality of the solution.
Fast solving technique for mechanical dynamic characteristic in electromagnetic motional system by electro-mechanical state equation including extracted circuit parameter

This paper presents a method of the fast solving technique for electro-mechanical motional systems. Various numerical analysis methods such as finite element method (FEM), boundary element method (BEM) and others employ time-stepping method to analyze the dynamic characteristics of electromechanical systems. Since the system matrix must be solved at each incremental time, this time-stepping method proves to be time-consuming. To solve these problems, this paper presents a fast solving technique by using the extracted circuit parameters and electro-mechanical coupled state equations. To show validity and usefulness of proposed method, two electromagnetic motional systems were tested, and the time-stepping method using FEM was compared with the proposed method.
Extended Chen: a new class of chaotic fractional-order systems

A new class of chaotic fractional-order systems is introduced and its necessary conditions for chaotic behaviour of this class have been provided. These chaotic systems are constructed based on the extension of fractional-order chaotic Chen system by addition of a general function term, satisfying some necessary conditions. This property makes the chaotic behaviour of the extended system, to large extent, independent of the selected function and so a vast range of chaotic systems can be synthesized. The main application of the proposed chaotic systems may be in secure communication systems. To make the subject clearer and in order for validation of the proposed model, five examples are provided and their results are simulated. The results confirm the theoretic analyses very well.
Intramuscular EMG Decomposition Basing on Motor Unit Action Potentials Detection and Superposition Resolution

A novel electromyography (EMG) signal decomposition framework is presented for the thorough and precise analysis of intramuscular EMG signals. This framework first detects all of the active motor unit action potentials (MUAPs) and assigns single MUAP segments to their corresponding motor units. MUAP waveforms that are found to be superimposed are then resolved into their constituent single MUAPs using a peel-off approach and similarly assigned. The method is composed of six stages of analytical procedures: preprocessing, segmentation, alignment and feature extraction, clustering and refinement, supervised classification, and superimposed waveform resolution. The performance of the proposed decomposition framework was evaluated using both synthetic EMG signals and real recordings obtained from healthy and stroke participants. The overall detection rate of MUAPs was 100% for both synthetic and real signals. The average accuracy for synthetic EMG signals was 87.23%. Average assignment accuracies of 88.63 and 94.45% were achieved for the real EMG signals obtained from healthy and stroke participants, respectively. Results demonstrated the ability of the developed framework to decompose intramuscular EMG signals with improved accuracy and efficiency, which we believe will greatly benefit the clinical utility of EMG for the diagnosis and rehabilitation of motor impairments in stroke patients.
Iron-Dependent Hydrogenases of Entamoeba histolytica and Giardia lamblia: Activity of the Recombinant Entamoebic Enzyme and Evidence for Lateral Gene Transfer

Entamoeba histolytica and Spironucleus barkhanus have genes that encode short iron-dependent hydrogenases (Fe-hydrogenases), even though these protists lack hydrogenosomes. To understand better the biochemistry of the protist Fe-hydrogenases, we prepared a recombinant E. histolytica short Fe-hydrogenase and measured its activity in vitro. A Giardia lamblia gene encoding a short Fe-hydrogenase was identified from shotgun genomic sequences, and RT-PCR showed that cultured entamoebas and giardias transcribe short Fe-hydrogenase mRNAs. A second E. histolytica gene, which encoded a long Fe-hydrogenase, was identified from shotgun genomic sequences. Phylogenetic analyses suggested that the short Fe-hydrogenase genes of entamoeba and diplomonads share a common ancestor, while the long Fe-hydrogenase gene of entamoeba appears to have been laterally transferred from a bacterium. These results are discussed in the context of competing ideas for the origins of genes encoding fermentation enzymes of these protists.
A potential CO2 reduction of vehicle to home system from life cycle perspective

A life cycle inventory analysis is conducted in this study to evaluate the environmental merit of a vehicle to home (V2H) system towards the conventional counterpart equivalent in terms of environmental impact category global warming expressed as CO2 emissions. The V2H system comprises a residential house, a photovoltaic solar system, a battery electric vehicle and a charging system, whereas the conventional system includes a residential house, a gasoline vehicle and a petrol station. The system boundary of each components consists of its production, use and end-of-life stages, where data available. CO2 emissions are calculated by applying the data of each components and life cycle stages collected from statistics and literature surveys to the Japanese life cycle inventory database. The emissions differ by the assumptions made; therefore a sensitivity analysis is also carried out to understand the potential variation of the CO2 emissions. The result indicates that about 35-42% CO2 reduction can be expected for a V2H system in comparison with the conventional system. Since the main contributors to CO2 emissions of both systems are dwelling, residential house construction, vehicle cycle and fuel cycle stages, these stages should be included in the system boundary of V2H system and it is important to select and design the appropriate components of these stages to assure the environmental merits of V2H system in terms of life cycle CO2 reduction.
Gross Anatomy and Acupuncture: A Comparative Approach to Reappraise the Meridian System

Abstract Acupuncture originated in ancient China but is used around the world to treat a variety of diseases. Research has not provided conclusive evidence proving the existence of meridians, or the lines along which acupuncture needles are inserted. Currently, some members of the scientific community recognize the existence of acupuncture points but not of the meridians. Thus, when acupuncture is accepted, it is regarded as a suitable treatment for some symptoms and diseases, but its effectiveness is ascribed directly or indirectly to the nervous system. Gross anatomy is the discipline upon which scientific biomedicine is based, and the author uses juxtaposition to compare the shapes of the 12 main meridians with the anatomical shapes of their related organs; this comparison has revealed similarities that are worthy of consideration. This article discusses similarities between the shape of the Large Intestine and Kidney acupuncture meridians and the anatomy and embryology of the colon and urogenital trac.
A Near-Optimal Detection Scheme Based on Joint Steepest Descent and Jacobi Method for Uplink Massive MIMO Systems

A new approach based on joint steepest descent algorithm and Jacobi iteration is proposed to iteratively realize linear detections for uplink massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems. Steepest descent algorithm is employed to obtain an efficient searching direction for the following Jacobi iteration to speed up convergence. Moreover, promising initial estimation and hybrid iteration are utilized to further accelerate the convergence rate and reduce the complexity. Simulation results show that the proposed method outperforms Neumann Series, Richardson method, and conjugate gradient based methods, while achieving the near-optimal performance of linear detectors with a small number of iterations. Meanwhile, the FPGA implementation results demonstrate that our proposed method can achieve high throughput owing to its high parallelism.
The international workshop on meibomian gland dysfunction: report of the subcommittee on the epidemiology of, and associated risk factors for, MGD.

Scientists have been interested in studying the secretions of the meibomian glands for many years, 1– 8 and diseases associated with the meibomian glands (e.g., cancers, posterior blepharitis) have been noted in the medical literature since at least the early part of the 20th Century. 9 –13 However, the term “meibomian gland dysfunction” (MGD) was only introduced by Korb and Henriquez in 1980. 14 The terminology “meibomian gland disease” was later introduced by Bron et al. 15 as an umbrella term to indicate any disease affecting the meibomian glands (see Definition and Classification). Although the etiology of MGD may differ from that of aqueous-deficient dry eye disease (which is due to insufficient lacrimal gland production), the two conditions share many clinical features, including symptoms of ocular surface irritation and visual fluctuation, altered tear film stability, and potential ocular surface compromise. When MGD is of sufficient degree, it may give rise to the second major subtype of dry eye disease, evaporative dry eye. 16 These subtypes are not mutually exclusive, as has been acknowledged. 16
Surface developmental dyslexia is as prevalent as phonological dyslexia when appropriate control groups are employed

Previous investigations of the incidence of developmental surface and phonological dyslexia using reading-age-matched control groups have identified many more phonological dyslexics (poor nonword reading relative to irregular-word reading) than surface dyslexics (poor irregular-word reading relative to nonword reading). However, because the measures that have been used to estimate reading age include irregular-word reading ability, they appear inappropriate for assessing the incidence of surface dyslexia. The current study used a novel method for generating control groups whose reading ability was matched to that of the dyslexic sample. The incidence of surface dyslexia was assessed by comparing dyslexic performance with that of a control group who were matched with the dyslexics on a test of nonword reading. The incidence of phonological dyslexia was assessed with reference to a control group who were matched with the dyslexics at irregular-word reading. These control groups led to the identification of an approximately equal number of children with surface and phonological dyslexia. It appeared that selecting control participants who were matched with dyslexics for reading age led to the recruitment of individuals with relatively high nonword reading scores relative to their irregular-word reading scores compared with other types of control group. The theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.
Deadlock-free scheduling for timed Petri net models combined with MPC and backtracking

This paper proposes algorithms that incrementally compute control sequences driving the marking of timed Petri nets from an initial value to a reference one, avoiding forbidden and dangerous states with a duration that approaches the minimal value. The proposed algorithms are applicable to a large class of discrete event systems in particular in the domain of flexible manufacturing, communication and computer science or transportation and traffic. To overcome the most burdensome part of the computations, only the sequences encoded in a small area of the reachability graph are worked out. The main contributions are to propose an estimation of the minimal duration of the remaining sequences to the reference based on the computation of the firing count vectors and a progressive search of the forbidden and dangerous states according to a backtracking phase. The approach is suitable for deadlock-free scheduling problems.
On Visual Technology, Media Archives, and Anthropological Curiosity: An Interview with Alan Macfarlane, Life Fellow of King's College, University of Cambridge

Beginning in 1983, Alan Macfarlane, Professor Emeritus and Life Fellow of King’s College, University of Cambridge, began what would become one of the most comprehensive visually ethnographic inquiries into modern thought. An interview series emerged entitled “Interviews with Leading Thinkers,” in which Alan Macfarlane sat down with scholars of anthropology to better understand the discipline. The project quickly grew to consider all areas of academic inquiry outside of the social sciences, from the humanities to biological and physical sciences. Over 200 interviews later—conducted with distinguished anthropologists, several Nobel laureates, and junior scholars alike—Alan has retired to his office in King’s College, Cambridge, but remains as intellectually productive as ever. I visited Alan in King’s for the first time in 2012 on the recommendation of my mentor and his former mentee, Mark Turin, who remained emphatic that Alan be interviewed in a fashion most similar to his series, “Interviews with Leading Thinkers. ” Reflecting on both the history and future of visual anthropology, history, and the role of technology within anthropological inquiry, I sat down with Alan in his office replete with mementos—including several cameras—from his previous interviewees in February of 2014, during which he and I discussed his upbringing and childhood; his early years as a university and D.Phil. student; his fieldwork; his collaborations and inspirations in Nepal, India, and China; and, most relevant here, his unyielding interest in film and video technology, which he sees as an ethnographic method, a pedagogical tool, and, most recently, as an area in which to experiment with representational strategies in anthropology.
Stability of model-based event-triggered control systems: a separation property

ABSTRACT To save resource of communication, this paper investigates the model-based event-triggered control systems. Two main problems are considered in this paper. One is, for given plant and model, to design event conditions to guarantee the stability of the systems. The other is to consider the effect of the model matrices on the stability. The results show that the closed-loop systems can be asymptotically stabilised with any model matrices in compact sets if the parameters in the event conditions are within the designed ranges. Then, a separation property of model-based event-triggered control is proposed. Namely, the design of the controller gain and the event condition can be separated from the selection of the model matrices. Based on this property, an adaption mechanism is introduced to the model-based event-triggered control systems, which can further improve the sampling performance. Finally, a numerical example is given to show the efficiency and feasibility of the developed results.
Targeted suppression of μ‐calpain and caspase 9 expression and its effect on caspase 3 and caspase 7 in satellite cells of Korean Hanwoo cattle

The calpains play an important role in cell death and cell signalling. Caspases catalyse wholesale destruction of cellular proteins which is a major cause of cellular death. The current study looks at the function of μ‐calpain and caspase 9, using RNAi (RNA interference)‐mediated silencing, and to observe the mRNA expression level of caspase genes during satellite cell growth. The satellite cells were treated with siRNA (small interfering RNA) of μ‐calpain and caspase 9 separately. There was reduction of 16 and 24% in CAPN1 (calpain1)‐siRNA2 and CAPN1‐siRNA3 transfected cells respectively, whereas it was 60 and 56% in CAPN1‐siRNA1 and CAPN1‐siRNA4 transfected cells respectively. CAPN1‐siRNA4 and CAPN1‐siRNA1 treated cells showed more reduction in caspase 3 and 7 gene expression. CARD9 (caspase recruitment domain 9)‐siRNA1 and CARD9‐siRNA2‐treated cells showed reduction of 40 and 49% respectively. CARD9‐siRNA1 and CARD9‐siRNA2 showed an increase in caspase 3 gene expression, whereas CARD9‐siRNA2 showed reduction in caspase 7 gene expression. These results suggest a strong cross‐talk between μ‐calpain and the caspase enzyme systems. Suppression of target genes, such as μ‐calpain and caspase 9, might have genuine potential in the treatment of skeletal muscle atrophy.