Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
What Proportion of Incident Radiographic Vertebral Fractures in Older Men Is Clinically Diagnosed and Vice Versa: A Prospective Study

To determine the proportion of incident radiographic vertebral fractures (vfx) also diagnosed as incident clinical vfx in older men and vice‐versa, we used data from 4398 community‐dwelling men age ≥65 years enrolled in the Osteoporotic Fractures in Men (MrOS) study. Incident radiographic vfx were identified by comparing baseline and follow‐up lateral thoracic and lumbar spine study films (average 4.6 years between films) using a semiquantitative (SQ) method and defined as a change in SQ reading of ≥1 at a given vertebral level from baseline to follow‐up study radiograph. Participants were contacted triannually to ascertain incident clinical vfx; community spinal imaging studies were obtained and clinical vfx were confirmed when the study radiologist determined that the community imaging study showed a new deformity of higher grade than was present in the same vertebra on the baseline study radiograph. A total of 237 incident radiographic vfx were identified in 197 men, whereas 31 men experienced 37 confirmed incident clinical vfx. Of incident radiographic vfx, 13.5% were also clinically diagnosed as incident fractures, with clinical diagnoses made for 16.3% of the radiographic vfx with SQ grade change ≥2. Of incident clinical vfx, 86.5% were identified as incident radiographic vfx, most of them with SQ grade change ≥2. In summary, less than 15% of incident radiographic vfx were also clinically diagnosed, whereas the majority of incident clinical vfx were identified as severe radiographic vfx. These results in men supplement those previously published for women and suggest a complex relationship between clinical and radiographic vfx in older adults. Published 2016. † American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.
Dose perturbations by electromagnetic transponders in the proton environment

Surgically implanted electromagnetic transponders have been used in external beam radiotherapy for target localization and position monitoring in real time. The effect of transponders on proton therapy dose distributions has not been reported. A Monte Carlo implementation of the transponder geometry is validated against film measurements in a proton SOBP and subsequently used to generate dose distributions for transponders at different positions and orientations in the proton SOBP. The maximum dose deficit is extracted in each case. Dose shadows of up to 60% occur for transponders positioned very near the end of range of the Bragg peak. However, if transponders are positioned further than 5 mm from the end of range, and are not oriented parallel to the beam direction, then the dose deficit can be kept below 10%.
Physical activity, lung function, and shortness of breath in the daily life of individuals with asthma.

BACKGROUND The effects of physical activity on asthma have been explored extensively. Exercise can trigger later bronchoconstriction in many patients, and deconditioning due to a sedentary lifestyle may be the consequence. However, the immediate effect of physical activity in asthma and health is bronchodilation. To date, little is known about the association between physical activity and lung function in the daily life of asthma patients. METHODS We studied 20 individuals with asthma and 20 control subjects using an electronic diary of activities and spirometry (peak expiratory flow [PEF], FEV(1)). Participants rated their shortness of breath and their intensity of physical and social activity for the preceding 30 min. Assessments were made over the course of 3 weeks, tid (morning, afternoon, evening/night). RESULTS Stronger physical activity was concurrently associated with significantly higher lung function. In contrast, it also showed a positive concurrent association with shortness of breath. In prospective cross-lag analyses, lower PEF and FEV(1) earlier in the day predicted lower physical and social activity levels later in the day, but shortness of breath did not. CONCLUSION The findings show that detrimental effects observed in exercise-induced bronchoconstriction cannot be generalized to physical activity in daily lives of individuals with asthma. Nevertheless, people with asthma still feel more shortness of breath when being more physically active. They adjust their activity levels throughout the day according to their earlier lung function, but this does not fully explain the concurrent positive association of physical activity and lung function.
Stability of DC-link voltage control for paralleled DFIG-based wind turbines connected to Weak AC grids

Dynamic stability issues of power converter interfaced devices integrating into the power grid have drawn increased attention. This paper studies DC-link voltage control stability for a weak-ac-grid connected wind farm, in which doubly-fed induction generator (DFIG) based wind turbines (WTs) operate in parallel. First, a reduced analytical model is proposed of separated dynamics for different time scales. Operating points of WTs, grid strengths and DC-link voltage control system dynamics are included in the model. Eigenvalue analysis for the proposed model shows that the mode, usually called common mode which represents the interconnection behavior between the overall wind farm and the grid, determines system stability. Damping of this common mode turns weak as grid strength decreases, and even negative thus leading system instability. Eigenvalue locus shows that tuning of phase-locked loop (PLL) has noticeable effect on this mode under weak ac grid, and larger PLL gain can effectively improve system damping. Time domain simulation with corresponding detailed model verifies the analysis.
Brain‐derived neurotrophic factor controls functional differentiation and microcircuit formation of selectively isolated fast‐spiking GABAergic interneurons

GABAergic interneurons with high‐frequency firing, fast‐spiking (FS) cells, form synapses on perisomatic regions of principal cells in the neocortex and hippocampus to control the excitability of cortical networks. Brain‐derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is essential for the differentiation of multiple interneuron subtypes and the formation of their synaptic contacts. Here, we examined whether BDNF, alone or in conjunction with sustained KCl‐induced depolarization, drives functional FS cell differentiation and the formation of inhibitory microcircuits. Homogeneous FS cell cultures were established by target‐specific isolation using the voltage‐gated potassium channel 3.1b subunit as the selection marker. Isolated FS cells expressed parvalbumin, were surrounded by perineuronal nets, formed immature inhibitory connections and generated slow action potentials at 12 days in vitro. Brain‐derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) promoted FS cell differentiation by increasing the somatic diameter, dendritic branching and the frequency of action potential firing. In addition, BDNF treatment led to a significant up‐regulation of synaptophysin and vesicular GABA transporter expression, components of the synaptic machinery critical for GABA release, which was paralleled by an increase in synaptic strength. Long‐term membrane depolarization alone was detrimental to dendritic branching. However, we observed that BDNF and KCl exerted additive effects, as reflected by the significantly accelerated maturation of synaptic contacts and high discharge frequencies, and was required for the formation of reciprocal connections between FS cells. Our results show that BDNF, along with membrane depolarization, is critical for FS cells to establish inhibitory circuitries during corticogenesis.
Comment on “The Geometric Structure of the Brain Fiber Pathways”

Wedeen et al. (Reports, 30 March 2012, p. 1628) proposed a geometrical grid pattern in the brain that could help the understanding of the brain’s organization and connectivity. We show that whole-brain fiber crossing quantification does not support their theory. Our results suggest that the grid pattern is most likely an artifact attributable to the limitations of their method.
Face recognition under spoofing attacks: countermeasures and research directions

Among tangible threats facing current biometric systems are spoofing attacks. A spoofing attack occurs when a person tries to masquerade as someone else by falsifying data and thereby attempting to gain illegitimate access and advantages. Recently, an increasing attention has been given to this research problem, as can be attested by the growing number of articles and the various competitions that appear in major biometric forums. This study presents a comprehensive overview of the recent advances in face anti-spoofing state-of-the-art, discussing existing methodologies, available benchmarking databases, reported results and, more importantly, the open issues and future research directions. As a case study for illustration, a face anti-spoofing method is described, which employs a colour local binary pattern descriptor to jointly analyse colour and texture available from the luminance and chrominance channels. Two publicly available databases are used for the analysis, and the importance of inter-database evaluation to attest the generalisation capabilities of an anti-spoofing method is discussed.
High‐resolution millimeter‐wave radar systems for visualization of unstructured outdoor environments

This paper examines the use of millimeter‐wave radar systems for visualization and navigation in unstructured outdoor environments. Three types of radar systems are described. The first is a long range, 94 GHz, frequency modulated interrupted continuous wave radar which is capable of producing two‐dimensional (2D) reflectivity images to a range of more than 3 km. This is intended for use in long‐range path planning. The second is a class of medium range 77 GHz frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radar with two axis mirror scanners which is capable of producing high resolution threedimensional (3D) imagery out to 500 m at a reasonably slow frame rate. The final class also operates using the FMCW principle, but at 94 GHz, to produce high resolution 2D and 3D images out to about 50 m at a much higher update rate. These shorter range sensors may be used to determine the traversability of the local terrain. The outputs produced by the different classes of radar are examined and the paper considers their advantages when compared to other sensors such as vision and scanning laser. Using radar images, the final section compiles rules for interpreting radar reflectivity images from a path‐planning perspective. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Onsets and Frames: Dual-Objective Piano Transcription

We advance the state of the art in polyphonic piano music transcription by using a deep convolutional and recurrent neural network which is trained to jointly predict onsets and frames. Our model predicts pitch onset events and then uses those predictions to condition framewise pitch predictions. During inference, we restrict the predictions from the framewise detector by not allowing a new note to start unless the onset detector also agrees that an onset for that pitch is present in the frame. We focus on improving onsets and offsets together instead of either in isolation as we believe this correlates better with human musical perception. Our approach results in over a 100% relative improvement in note F1 score (with offsets) on the MAPS dataset. Furthermore, we extend the model to predict relative velocities of normalized audio which results in more natural-sounding transcriptions.
Retinex enhancement of infrared images

With the ability of imaging the temperature distribution of body, infrared imaging is promising in diagnostication and prognostication of diseases. However the poor quality of the raw original infrared images prevented applications and one of the essential problems is the low contrast appearance of the imagined object. In this paper, the image enhancement technique based on the Retinex theory is studied, which is a process that automatically retrieve the visual realism to images. The algorithms, including Frackle-McCann algorithm, McCann99 algorithm, single-scale Retinex algorithm, multi-scale Retinex algorithm and multi-scale Retinex algorithm with color restoration, are experienced to the enhancement of infrared images. The entropy measurements along with the visual inspection were compared and results shown the algorithms based on Retinex theory have the ability in enhancing the infrared image. Out of the algorithms compared, MSRCR demonstrated the best performance.
Effect of Initial Hydraulic Conditions on Capillary Rise in a Porous Medium: Pore‐Network Modeling

The dynamics of capillary rise in a porous medium have been mostly studied in initially dry systems. As initial saturation and initial hydraulic conditions in many natural and industrial porous media can be variable, it is important to investigate the influence of initial conditions on the dynamics of the process. In this study, using dynamic pore‐network modeling, we simulated capillary rise in a porous medium for different initial saturations (and consequently initial capillary pressures). Furthermore, the effect of hydraulic connectivity of the wetting phase in corners on the height and velocity of the wetting front was studied. Our simulation results show that there is a trade‐off between capillary forces and trapping due to snap‐off, which leads to a nonlinear dependence of wetting front velocity on initial saturation at the pore scale. This analysis may provide a possible answer to the experimental observations in the literature showing a non‐monotonic dependency between initial saturation and the macroscopic front velocity.
Apprentissage de représentation dirigée par la tâche

De nombreux algorithmes d'Apprentissage automatique ont ete proposes afin de resoudre les differentes tâches pouvant etre extraites des problemes de prediction issus d'un contexte reel. Pour resoudre les differentes tâches pouvant etre extraites, la plupart des algorithmes d'Apprentissage automatique se basent d'une maniere ou d'une autre sur des relations liant les instances. Les relations entre paires d'instances peuvent etre definies en calculant une distance entre les representations vectorielles des instances. En se basant sur la representation vectorielle des donnees, aucune des distances parmi celles communement utilisees n'est assuree d'etre representative de la tâche a resoudre. Dans ce document, nous etudions l'interet d'adapter la representation vectorielle des donnees a la distance utilisee pour une meilleure resolution de la tâche. Nous nous concentrons plus precisement sur l'algorithme existant resolvant une tâche de classification en se basant sur un graphe. Nous decrivons d'abord un algorithme apprenant une projection des donnees dans un espace de representation permettant une resolution, basee sur un graphe, optimale de la classification. En projetant les donnees dans un espace de representation dans lequel une distance prealablement definie est representative de la tâche, nous pouvons surpasser la representation vectorielle des donnees lors de la resolution de la tâche. Une analyse theorique de l'algorithme decrit est developpee afin de definir les conditions assurant une classification optimale. Un ensemble d'experiences nous permet finalement d'evaluer l'interet de l'approche introduite et de nuancer l'analyse theorique.
Effects of CD14 and TLR4 on LPS-mediated normal human skin fibroblast proliferation.

BACKGROUND This study was designed to elucidate the effects of CD14 and TLR4 on the proliferation of LPS-mediated normal human skin fibroblasts and to gain new insights into the mechanisms underlying LPS-induced scar formation. METHODS Cell morphology and density were observed using an inverted microscope. Proliferation curves were described by MTT. The number of proliferating cells was counted by staining the cells with trypan blue. Cells were stained with propidium iodide (PI) and the phase of cell generation cycle was determined by flow cytometry. RESULTS The growth rate detected in groups B, C, D was slower compared to group A after 48 h. All proliferation curves were approximately S shaped and the peak was seen on days 6, followed by a sharp decline on days 7. The proliferation rate of groups B, C, D was significantly slower than group A. After the staining, we found a significantly smaller number of proliferating cells in groups B, C, D as compared to group A. Flow cytometry revealed that the ratio of proliferating cells at S phase was lower in the groups B, C, D as compared to group A. CONCLUSIONS Both separate and combined use of anti-CD14 and anti-TLR4 enable a significant decline in the rate and capacity of proliferation, with the latter pretreatment resulting in the sharpest reduction. Therefore, it seems likely that anti-CD14 along with anti-TLR4 is significantly engaged in the signaling mechanisms of LPS-mediated fibroblast proliferation.
New hybrid model and switched PI observer for dry friction systems

In this paper, a polytopic approach is used to derive a new hybrid model of systems submitted to dry friction. The principal characteristics of the proposed approach are that it is easily comprehensible, has few parameters, allows the adjustment of the model complexity to the treated case, models the stick-slip phenomena, and has low simulation time. The proposed new dry friction model is applied to the modeling of a real experimental mechanical system. The model parameters are obtained using an adequate position control which is based on a controller with very low bandwidth. To estimate the states of such system, a polytopic PI observer is proposed using a H1 formulation. Its performance and robustness against model uncertainty are shown in simulation.
Recherche d'indicateurs d'inattention en conduite automobile : apports des mesures physiologiques et comportementales

Le Vagabondage de la Pensee (VP) est un etat d’inattention particulier que chacun experience au quotidien et qui consiste,pour un individu en un changement de l’orientation de son attention vers des pensees personnelles. Dans le cas de la conduiteautomobile, le VP a de nombreux effets negatifs generant un risque accru d’etre implique et responsable d’un accident.L’objectif de cette these etait d’abord de mieux decrire l’impact du VP sur les variables physiologiques et comportementales duconducteur afin de dresser une liste des indicateurs sensibles a cet etat. Le VP en agissant comme une tâche additionnelle a laconduite, consommerait une partie des ressources cognitives du conducteur. Il convenait donc de rechercher, par une approcheexperimentale, un indicateur de l’effort cognitif en conduite automobile. Comme la multiplicite des pensees et de leurscaracteristiques pourraient creer differents niveaux de risque pour le conducteur, il apparaissait pertinent d’etudier l’impact de ces differentes formes d’inattention sur la conduite.Les resultats des differents travaux menes montrent que la variation du rythme cardiaque est sensible a l’effort cognitif enconduite simulee. Une solution possible pour ameliorer cet indicateur en vue d’atteindre une detection temps reel de l’effortcognitif, a ete proposee a un concours international : le Valeo Innovation Challenge de 2016. Un second indicateur a eteidentifie : le regard du conducteur lorsque celui-ci est en VP est plus fixe que lors d’episodes d’attention vers la conduite. Enfin,l’analyse des mesures electroencephalographiques a revele que le VP diminue l’attention allouee aux differentes etapes (sensorielle et cognitive) du traitement de l’information visuelle en conduite simulee. Ainsi, l’effet de differents types de pensee sur le comportement oculaire, le traitement de l’information visuelle et sur l’indicateur d’effort mis en evidence a renseigne le degre d’interference de differents types de pensee sur l’activite de conduite.Les resultats de cette these montrent qu’il semble prometteur d’aller encore plus loin dans la recherche d’indicateurs sensiblesau vagabondage et possiblement aux autres etats internes du conducteur pour pallier leurs effets negatifs sur l’activite deconduite. La mise en commun par une technique de fusion de donnees, des indicateurs sensibles au VP pourrait permettre, dans le futur, de creer des algorithmes a meme de superviser le conducteur. L’automatisation progressive des vehicules couplee a une surveillance intelligente des conducteurs pourrait permettre de limiter le risque d’accident et les couts humains, societaux et economiques qui leur sont imputables.
Coordination of chromosome replication initiation in Escherichia coli: effects of different dnaA alleles

The synchrony of initiation of chromosomal replication in single cells was determined in ten different dnaA(Ts) mutants. After inhibiting the initiation of replication but allowing initiated rounds of replication to terminate, we measured the number of fully replicated chromosomes per individual cell by flow cytometry. Synchronous initiation at the several independent origins (oriC) in single rapidly growing cells would give 2'' (n = 0,1,2,3,.) chromosomes per cell, whereas asynchronous initiation was indicated by the presence of a different number of chromosomes. Mutations mapping in the central part of the dnaA gene (dnaA5, dnaA46, dnaA601, dnaA602, and dnaA604) lead to a high degree of asynchrony (class I mutants), whereas mutations mapping in either of the distal parts of the gene (dnaA508, dnaA167, dnaA203, and dnaA204) yielded a low degree of asynchrony at the permissive temperature (class 2 mutants). The dnaA205 mutant exhibited an intermediate degree of asynchrony. Mutants dnaA203 and dnaA204 (promoter distal) differed from the other class 2 mutants (dnaA167, dnaA508; promoter proximal) in that asynchrony increased no more than twofold between 25 and 37 degrees C compared with the more-than-fourfold increase in the latter. The high degree of asynchrony in class 1 mutants was independent of temperature and was not due to insufficient functional DnaA protein, because overproduction of DnaA46 protein did not decrease the asynchrony. The data demonstrate that the DnaA protein has functions in addition to acting positively in the initiation process and negatively as its own repressor, namely in coordinating initiations at all oriC sites within a single cell.
Lactate Detection in Tumor Cell Cultures Using Organic Transistor Circuits

A biosensing platform based on an organic transistor circuit for metabolite detection in highly complex biological media is introduced. The sensor circuit provides inherent background subtraction allowing for highly specific, sensitive lactate detection in tumor cell cultures. The proposed sensing platform paves the way toward rapid, label-free, and cost-effective clinically relevant in vitro diagnostic tools.
Hybrid latch flip-flop with improved power efficiency

An improved design of a hybrid latch flip-flop is presented. The proposed design overcomes the problem of the glitch at the output and reduces the power consumption and delay of the circuit resulting in a total power-delay-product improvement of about 20%. It also exhibits better soft-clock edge properties compared to the original circuit. This is accomplished by careful design of keeper elements and introducing the feedback path to suppress unnecessary transitions in the circuit. The new design introduces an insignificant area increase.