Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Maximum Likelihood Localization Using A Priori Position Information of Inaccurate Anchors

Localization in wireless sensor networks has become an attractive research field in recent years. Most studies focus on the mitigation of measurement noise by assuming the positions of anchors are perfectly known, which may become impractical due to some inevitable errors in the observations of anchors' positions. This paper addresses the problem by taking into account the a priori position information of inaccurate anchors. Considering that the maximum likelihood (ML) algorithm suffers from the intractable integrals involved, we resort to expectation maximization (EM) algorithm to solve this problem iteratively. The a posteriori probability of the anchor position is approximated by circularly symmetric Gaussian distribution, with parameters optimized by minimizing Kullback-Leibler divergence of the two distributions. Building on this approximation, we are able to derive the expectation step in closed form. Particle swarm optimization is then followed to perform the maximization step. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed EM estimator is less sensitive to the anchors' uncertainties and it significantly outperforms the traditional ML estimator which ignores the prior information of anchors.
Effect of 27-MHz Radiofrequency on Hair Follicles: Histological Evaluation of Skin Treated Ex Vivo

BACKGROUND A multitude of methods and treatments exist for cosmetic hair removal. Electroepilation is a commonly performed method of hair removal that is so-called “permanent”; however, there is a paucity of histological studies of the effects of radiofrequency (RF) on hair follicles. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to observe the destruction of human hair follicles and surrounding tissue after the treatment with 27.12-MHz RF, with more attention paid to the thermal destruction of bulge and bulb/dermal papilla. METHODS Human scalp specimens obtained during face-lift surgery were treated with 27.12-MHz RF. The probe tip was inserted into hair follicle, RF current was applied, and treated specimens were processed for histological analysis. RESULTS Significant damages were observed on treated hair follicles. Thermal damage was lance-shaped and extended over several hundred micrometers (100–400 &mgr;m). The location of destruction areas varied, likely depending on the point of insertion of the probe. The epidermis remained intact. CONCLUSION This study shows that the general mechanism of thermolysis is to generate damage to cells and tissues surrounding the insertion point of the filament. The results suggest that if the insertion point is close to the bulge region, there is a risk to destroy hair follicle epithelial stem cells.
Is experience a useful resource for business model innovation?

ABSTRACT Business model innovation has been proposed as a powerful strategic tool, able to offer competitive advantage, create markets and even reshape industries. Despite these powerful effects, little research has been conducted into studying and improving business model generation methods, and even less study has gone into analysing how to define new business models that can exert a disruptive effect on markets and industries. Our work tries to fill this gap, analysing whether experience encourages or discourages the generation of disruptive business models. An empirical analysis was carried out using an experimental methodology. The results seem to contradict the currently dominant Resource-Based View, but can be explained by the theory on inertia in organisations.
Ascertainment and diagnostic accuracy for hematopoietic lymphoproliferative malignancies in Sweden 1964–2003

Population‐based cancer registries are widely used to provide key information about cancer incidence, survival, determinants of progression and clues about pathogenesis. To substantially expand the limited data on diagnostic accuracy and completeness for lymphoproliferative (LP) tumors in such databases, we conducted a retrospective investigation of close to 1,000 cases diagnosed during 4 decades in Sweden. We identified and reviewed medical records for 494 LP tumor patients reported to the population‐based Swedish Cancer registry and 503 LP tumor patients identified from hospitals in Sweden among patients with LP tumors diagnosed during 1964–2003. The stratified samples were randomly selected from patients according to LP subtype, over 4 equal calendar periods, and among 6 selected hospitals of diverse size and from different geographic regions. We found 97.9% of reported LP tumor cases to fulfill current diagnostic criteria for having an LP tumor and observed 89.7% to have accurate LP tumor subtype. The overall completeness of non‐Hodgkin lymphoma, Hodgkin lymphoma and multiple myeloma cases in the Cancer registry was 95–99% but was lower for the more indolent tumors, chronic lymphocytic leukemia (87.9%) and Waldenström's macroglobulinemia (68.1%). We observed increased overall under‐ascertainment for patients diagnosed above age 80 (27%) and among individuals diagnosed before 1973 (12%). In conclusion the diagnostic accuracy and completeness for classically defined LP tumor entities in the Swedish Cancer registry is high. However, we found under‐ascertainment of patients with indolent LP tumors, particularly among patients diagnosed at older ages, with early‐stage disease and diagnosed in earlier years. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Reliability and Validity of 2 Single-Item Measures of Psychosocial Stress

Background: Practical limitations in epidemiologic research may necessitate use of only a few questions for assessing the complex phenomenon called “stress. ” The objective of this study was to evaluate the measurement characteristics of 2 single-item measures on the amount of stress and the ability to handle stress. Methods: We selected 218 adults age 50 to 76 years living in western Washington state from a large prospective cohort study of lifestyle factors and cancer risk to evaluate the 3-month test–retest reliability and intermethod reliability of the stress questions. To assess the latter, we compared 2 single-item measures on stress with 3 more fully validated multi-item instruments on perceived stress, daily hassles, and life events, which assessed the same underlying constructs as the single-item measures. Results: The test–retest reliabilities for the single-item stress measures were good (kappa and intraclass correlations between 0.66 and 0.74). The intermethod reliabilities comparing the 2 single-item stress measures with 3 multi-item instruments were moderate (r = 0.31–0.46) and comparable to correlations observed among the 3 multi-item instruments (r = 0.25–0.47). Conclusions: The 2 single-item stress measures are reliable at measuring stress with validity similar to longer questionnaires. Single-item measures offer a practical instrument for assessing stress in large prospective epidemiologic studies that lack space for longer instruments.
Assessment of physical fitness of female physical therapy students.

This investigation was undertaken to assess the physical fitness status of physical therapy students. Fifty female students, enrolled as juniors in a physical therapy program of a private women's college, served as subjects. The students' body fat composition, low-backlhamstring flexibility, aerobic capacity (V02 ,. j, trunk muscular endurance, static and dynamic (isotonic) muscular strength were determined. All the tests were administered using standardized procedure. On the average, the subjects were 2 1.1 f 1.7 years old, 65.3 + 0.8 inches tall, weighed 60.1 + 0.9 kg, had 26.2 f 0.8% body fat, and had a predicted VOn, of 2.28 f 0.06 L . min-'. The low-backlhamstring flexibility and trunk muscular endurance were 36.8 + 1.1 cm and 26.4 f 0.9 repetitions, respectively. The static grip strength of the right hand was significantly (p c 0.05) greater than the left hand. The dynamic strength of the arm flexors and knee flexors on the ipsilateral side were not significantly different (p > 0.05). The knee flexors were weaker (p < 0.01) than the knee extensors. Results of the investigation revealed that the students' physical fitness compares well but is not superior to the norms reported previously for female physical therapy students and female college students of the same age. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther 1987;8(11):525-532.
The Post-Anesthetic Care of Pediatric Patients With Pulmonary Hypertension

Few conditions make even the most experienced pediatric anesthesiologists take pause. Pulmonary hypertension is one such condition due to the associated high perioperative morbidity and mortality. Much is written about the intraoperative management of pediatric pulmonary hypertension. This article will instead focus on postoperative care and review the evidence in support of a risk stratification approach for the post-anesthetic disposition of these patients. The total risk for post-anesthetic adverse events includes the patient’s baseline risk factors and the incremental risks imposed by the procedure and anesthetic. A proposal with recommendations to guide practitioners and a table summarizing relevant factors are provided. Last, the readers’ attention is drawn to the heterogeneity of pulmonary hypertensive disease. Pulmonary arterial hypertension (precapillary) differs significantly from pulmonary venous hypertension (postcapillary); the anesthetic management for one may be relatively contraindicated in the other. Their dissimilarities justify the need to distinguish them for study and research endeavors.
Comparison of Best Economy and Best Power Mixture Settings in the Purdue University Training Fleet Revisited

Best economy (lean of peak or LOP) operation of aircraft engines rather than best power (rich of peak or ROP) has been suggested as a means to reduce fuel consumption in light aircraft with modest speed reduction leading to reduced operating cost (increased miles per gallon), and to reduce cylinder head temperatures (CHTs) leading to improved engine longevity and reduced maintenance cost. A recent study by Chrisman (2011) using a limited number of data sets from aircraft in the Purdue University fleet of Cirrus SR20 training aircraft demonstrated statistically significant reduced fuel consumption and reduced CHT but no statistically definite speed reduction. This study confirms the earlier results for fuel consumption and CHTs using expanded data sets. It suggests that the failure to derive a statistically significant reduction in speed is a consequence of inherent experimental limitations rather than the lack of any reduction.
Identification and characterization of genes controlled by the sporulation-regulatory gene spo0H in Bacillus subtilis

We describe a general strategy for the identification of genes that are controlled by a specific regulatory factor in vivo and the use of this strategy to identify genes in Bacillus subtilis that are controlled by spo0H, a regulatory gene required for the initiation of sporulation. The general strategy makes use of a cloned regulatory gene fused to an inducible promoter to control expression of the regulatory gene and random gene fusions to a reporter gene to monitor expression in the presence and absence of the regulatory gene product. spo0H encodes a sigma factor of RNA polymerase, sigma H, and is required for the extensive reprograming of gene expression during the transition from growth to stationary phase and during the initiation of sporulation. We identified 18 genes that are controlled by sigma H (csh genes) in vivo by monitoring expression of random gene fusions to lacZ, made by insertion mutagenesis with the transposon Tn917lac, in the presence and absence of sigma H. These genes had lower levels of expression in the absence of sigma H than in the presence of sigma H. Patterns of expression of the csh genes during growth and sporulation in wild-type and spo0H mutant cells indicated that other regulatory factors are probably involved in controlling expression of some of these genes. Three of the csh::Tn917lac insertion mutations caused noticeable phenotypes. One caused a defect in vegetative growth, but only in combination with a spo0H mutation. Two others caused a partial defect in sporulation. One of these also caused a defect in the development of genetic competence. Detailed characterization of some of the csh genes and their regulatory regions should help define the role of spo0H in the regulation of gene expression during the transition from growth to stationary phase and during the initiation of sporulation.
Effect of Growth in Biofilms on Chlorine Susceptibility of Mycobacterium avium and Mycobacterium intracellulare

ABSTRACT Mycobacterium avium and Mycobacterium intracellulare were grown in suspension and in biofilms, and their susceptibilities to chlorine were measured. M. avium and M. intracellulare readily adhered within 2 h, and numbers increased 10-fold in 30 days at room temperature in biofilms on both polystyrene flasks and glass beads. The chlorine resistance of M. avium and M. intracellulare cells grown and exposed to chlorine in biofilms was significantly higher than that of cells grown in suspension. Survival curves showed no evidence of a resistant, persisting population after 6 h of exposure to 1 μg chlorine/ml. The chlorine susceptibility of cells grown in biofilms and exposed in suspension (cells detached from bead surfaces) was also significantly higher than that of cells grown and exposed in suspension (planktonic cells), although it was lower than that of cells grown and exposed in biofilms. The higher resistance of the detached biofilm-grown cells was reversed upon their growth in suspension. There was a strong correlation between the chlorine susceptibility of cells of both M. avium and M. intracellulare and cell surface hydrophobicity measured by contact angle for both biofilm- and suspension-grown cells.
Exopolysaccharide-Deficient Mutants of Rhizobium fredii HH303 Which Are Symbiotically Effective

Nineteen Tn5-induced mutants of Rhizobium fredii HH303 defective in acidic exopolysaccharide synthesis were isolated by screening for lack of Calcofluor fluorescence. They were grouped by complementation analysis by using Rhizobium meliloti cosmids carrying exo genes. All of the 19 mutants were symbiotically effective or partially effective, indicating that the major bacterial acidic exopolysaccharide of this strain of R. fredii may not be required for symbiotic development in the soybean.
Querying and extracting heterogeneous graphs from structured data and unstrutured content

The present work introduces a set of solutions to extract graphs from enterprise data and facilitate the process of information search on these graphs. First of all we have defined a new graph model called the SPIDER-Graph, which models complex objects and permits to define heterogeneous graphs. Furthermore, we have developed a set of algorithms to extract the content of a database from an enterprise and to represent it in this new model. This latter representation allows us to discover relations that exist in the data but are hidden due to their poor compatibility with the classical relational model. Moreover, in order to unify the representation of all the data of the enterprise, we have developed a second approach which extracts from unstructured data an enterprise's ontology containing the most important concepts and relations that can be found in a given enterprise. Having extracted the graphs from the relational databases and documents using the enterprise ontology, we propose an approach which allows the users to extract an interaction graph between a set of chosen enterprise objects. This approach is based on a set of relations patterns extracted from the graph and the enterprise ontology concepts and relations. Finally, information retrieval is facilitated using a new visual graph query language called GraphVQL, which allows users to query graphs by drawing a pattern visually for the query. This language covers different query types from the simple selection and aggregation queries to social network analysis queries.
Problem-solving therapy versus supportive therapy in geriatric major depression with executive dysfunction.

OBJECTIVE The authors compared the efficacy of problem-solving therapy (PST) and supportive therapy (ST) in a group of elderly subjects with impairment in executive functions. This group was targeted because it has been shown to be at the risk for poor response to pharmacotherapy. METHODS A total of 25 elderly subjects with major depression and abnormal scores in initiation/perseveration and response inhibition tasks were randomly assigned to receive weekly sessions of PST or ST for 12 weeks. The subjects were systematically evaluated by raters blind to the study hypotheses. RESULTS PST was more effective than ST in leading to remission of depression, fewer post-treatment depressive symptoms, and less disability. A substantial part of the change in depression and disability was explained by the subjects' improvement of skills in generating alternatives and in decision-making. CONCLUSION This preliminary study suggests that PST is effective in reducing depressive symptoms and disability in elderly patients with major depression and executive dysfunction. If these findings are confirmed, PST may become an important therapeutic alternative for a patient population who may otherwise remain symptomatic and disabled.
Clinical Factors in the Prognosis of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome Type I After Stroke: A Prospective Study

Daviet JC, Preux PM, Salle JY, Lebreton F, Munoz M, Dudognon P, Pelissier J, Perrigot M: Clinical factors in the prognosis of complex regional pain syndrome type I after stroke: A prospective study. Am J Phys Med Rehabil 2002;81:34–39. ObjectiveTo evaluate clinical prognostic factors of complex regional pain syndrome type I (CRPS I) in patients with stroke in an attempt to improve the Perrigot score, which does not include shoulder subluxation, unilateral neglect, or depression. DesignThis was a prospective study. The initial clinical data (first month) included motor index, Ashworth scale, de Bats score for shoulder subluxation, Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale, and sensory disorders evaluation. The prognosis of CRPS I was evaluated from the Perrigot score. A score of CRPS I severity was measured on entry and 3 mo later. ResultsOf the 71 patients with hemiplegia who were included, 34.8% had a CRPS I. The five main clinical factors in the prognosis of CRPS I were motor deficit, spasticity, sensory deficits, and initial coma. The prognostic score of Perrigot was strongly correlated with the CRPS I severity and was predictive of subsequent progression. ConclusionShoulder subluxation, unilateral neglect, and depression did not seem to be determinant predictive factors of CRPS I severity.
Intégration de bases de données hétérogènes par articulation à priori d'ontologies: application aux catalogues de composants industriels

Les principales limitations des systemes d’integration de donnees existants sont soit leur absence d’automatisation en l’absence d’une ontologie partagee, soit l’absence d’autonomie des sources dans le cas ou une ontologie partagee est utilisee, et, dans tous les cas l’absence de prise en compte des besoins d’evolution asynchrone tant des differentes sources de donnees que des ontologies. Dans cette these, nous proposons d’abord une approche d'integration permettant d'assurer une integration entierement automatique de sources de donnees, tout en laissant a chacune des sources une autonomie significative tant au niveau de sa structure qu'au niveau de son evolution. Cette approche suppose que chaque source contienne a la fois sa propre ontologie et les relations semantiques qui l'articulent a priori avec une ou des ontologie(s) partagee(s). Nous proposons ensuite un modele qui permet une gestion automatique de l’evolution asynchrone de notre systeme d'integration a base ontologique. L'hypothese fondamentale autour de ce modele, appelee principe de continuite ontologique, stipule qu'une evolution d'une ontologie ne peut infirmer un axiome anterieurement vrai. Nous proposons enfin dans la derniere partie de cette these, une methode d’integration par reification des correspondance entre ontologies. Cette approche permet de traiter de facon neutre, independante de tout langage ou environnement des correspondances arbitrairement complexes entre ontologies. L'ensemble de ces propositions a ete valide sur des exemples issus du commerce electronique professionnel (B2B) et de l'integration des catalogues de composants industriels (projet PLIB).
De fils en images l'apport des modèles pour mesurer et reconstruire le mouvement des écoulements turbulents. (Using models to measure and reconstruct turbulent fluid flows)

Ce memoire presente une synthese de mes travaux de recherche effectues depuis mon recrutements a Irstea. Il retrace quinze annees de travaux visant a saisir la dynamique turbulente dans les fluides en combinant metrologies, simulations et methodes de traitement du signal avancees. Un premier chapitre presente les actions de recherche et les developpements methodologiques visant a discriminer a partir de champs PIV et DNS les structures energetiquement dominantes dans une serie d’ecoulements turbulents non-canoniques que l’on trouve dans les applications aerauliques. Le second chapitre presente le developpement d’une technique d’anemothermometrie permettant la mesure simultanee de la vitesse et de la temperature. Le troisieme chapitre detaille l’exploitation du paradigme du flot optique pour la mesure du mouvement fluide en lieu et place des techniques de correlation classiquement utilisees en PIV. Les differentes classes de problemes a resoudre pour determiner le champ vectoriel de la vitesse d’un ecoulement turbulent a partir de l’analyse d’une sequence d’images d’un scalaire sont explicitees. Enfin le quatrieme chapitre, ex- pose le potentiel offert par l’assimilation de donnees pour developper les futures techniques de mesures et de simulations. Deux premieres applications sont presentees pour aller progressivement vers la reconstruction 3D realiste des ecoulements turbulents.
Determination of lead in blood using electrothermal atomisation atomic absorption spectrometry with a L'vov platform and matrix modifier.

Accuracy in the determination of blood lead is of primary importance in such diverse activities as screening for childhood lead poisoning, occupational exposure monitoring and population surveys. To meet the stringent requirements of the third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III), a large normative population study to be held from 1988–1994, we needed a method for the determination of lead in blood that was simple, accurate, rugged and of defined accuracy for both calibration and control materials. The recent availability of the National Bureau of Standards Standard Reference Materials 2121–2 and 955, a lead standard solution (10 000 mg l–1) and a certified lead in blood reference material has made it possible to evaluate a method against definitive values and NBS reference materials.In the proposed method, sample preparation consists of a simple dilution (1 + 9) with a matrix modifier which contains 0.5%V/V Triton X-100, 0.2%V/V 16 M nitric acid and 0.2%m/V dibasic ammonium phosphate. This matrix modifier stabilises lead so that the majority of the blood matrix may be removed during the char step. Maximum accuracy in dilution is achieved with the use of autopipettes which have been shown to deliver viscous materials such as blood and serum with high accuracy. The method described in this study has a detection limit of about 0.07 µmol l–1(3 SD) and a precision and accuracy of ±2–5% at the 0.24–2.4 µmol l–1 concentration level. Linearity has been demonstrated up to about 4 µmol l–1. Comparability has been established with the previous blood lead analytical method used in other surveys via the analysis of 435 specimens by both the previous (modified Delves cup) and proposed methods. The equation of the resulting line is [ETA-AAS]= 1.0007[Delves]– 0.051, r= 0.924.