Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of Acoustic Parameters and Bulk Fluid Properties on Acoustic Droplet Vaporization Threshold of Perfluoropentane Droplets

Phase shift droplets vaporizable by acoustic stimulation are better alternatives to conventional ultrasound contrast agents in terms of higher stability and possibility of achieving smaller sizes. This study determines the threshold pressures required to induce acoustic droplet vaporization (ADV) and inertial cavitation (IC) of a suspension of droplets with a perfluoropentane (PFP) core (diameter 4003000 nm) in a novel tubeless setup using acoustic methods. We further investigate the effects of excitation frequency, pulse lengths, temperature and dissolved gas concentration on both ADV and IC thresholds. We have found that ADV threshold decreases with temperature and increases with frequency. ADV thresholds at all the frequencies studied here occurred at lower rarefactional pressures than IC thresholds indicating that phase transition precedes inertial cavitation. The ADV and the IC thresholds did not change when the experiments were performed in degassed conditions. The scattered response from droplets above the ADV threshold was also found to qualitatively match with that of independently prepared lipid-coated microbubble suspensions in magnitude as well as trends.
Kullback-leibler divergence based graph pruning in robotic feature mapping

In pose feature graph simultaneous localization and mapping, the robot poses and feature positions are treated as graph nodes and the odometry and observations are treated as edges. The size of the graph exerts an important influence on the efficiency of the graph optimization. Conventionally, the size of the graph is kept small by discarding the current frame if it is not spatially far enough from the previous one or not informative enough. However, these approaches cannot discard the already preserved frames when the robot re-visits the previously explored area. We propose a measure derived from Kullbach-Leibler divergence to decide whether a frame should be discarded, achieving an online implementation of the graph pruning algorithm for feature mapping, of which the pruned frame can be any of the preserved frames. The experimental results using real world datasets show that the proposed pruning algorithm can effectively reduce the size of the graph while maintaining the map accuracy.
What is the best imaging strategy for acute stroke?

Objectives: The cost-effectiveness of computed tomographic (CT) scanning after acute stroke was investigated to assess the contribution of brain imaging to the diagnosis and management of stroke and to estimate the costs, benefits, and risks of different imaging strategies to provide data to inform national and local policy on the use of brain imaging in stroke.
Development and Validation of a Questionnaire to Assess the Quality of Life in Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease in Mainland China

Background: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) affects the quality of patients' life in many ways. The aim of this study was to develop and validate a mainland Chinese version of IBD quality-of-life questionnaire for ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD). Methods: A draft questionnaire containing 30 items was generated from a descriptive qualitative study, literature review and consulting with IBD patients and experts. The validity, discriminant ability, reliability, and sensitivity to change were validated in 336 patients with IBD. Results: A 22-item IBD quality-of-life questionnaire (IBDQOL-22) with 4 domains was developed. The 4 domain scores of the IBDQOL-22 correlated well with the related SF-36 (36-Item Short Form Health Survey) dimensional scores in UC (r = 0.42–0.75) and CD (r = 0.41–0.66). The total scores of the IBDQOL-22 correlated well with the physical component summary scores of the SF-36 in UC (r = 0.74) and CD (r = 0.74), the mental component summary scores of the SF-36 in UC (r = 0.77) and CD (r = 0.71), the colitis activity index in UC (r = −0.61) and the CD activity index (r = −0.53). It was able to discriminate between patients with active and inactive disease. Cronbach's alpha for the 4 domains of the IBDQOL-22 ranged from 0.77 to 0.90 in UC and from 0.76 to 0.89 in CD. Test–retest reliability was excellent (intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.88–0.95 in UC and 0.72–0.90 in CD). The 3 domains of the IBDQOL-22 (emotional function, symptoms and discomfort, bowel symptoms and its influences) were able to detect changes in patients whose clinical activity index changed more than one point. Conclusions: The IBDQOL-22 is a valid, reliable, and responsive instrument for assessing disease-specific quality-of-life in patients with IBD in Mainland China.
Two-dimensional assembly of colloidal particles : fabrication and application

Over the past decades, colloidal particles with different geometric shapes, interfacial properties, and chemical compositions have been synthesized. As a result, we are able to accurately control the strength, effective range, and direction of inter-particle interactions in different ways. The studies of colloidal particles and their assembly have significantly enriched our understanding about the organization of soft matter governed by thermodynamics or far-from-equilibrium. With these new building blocks and assembling tools, diverse colloidal structures have been fabricated with advanced functionalities. In this thesis, we primarily focused on the assembly of two-dimensional structures that have potential applications in biomedical and energy fields. We first developed an electric-field assisted approach to create and fix two-dimensional nonclose-packed colloidal arrays, which have applications ranging from plasmonic sensors, light trapping for photovoltaics, to transparent electrodes. A monolayer of nonclose-packed crystalline particle array was first created under a low-frequency alternating-current electric field in solution. We then applied a sequence of direct current pulses to fix the particle array onto the substrate so that it remained intact after field removal and solvent evaporation. Key process parameters such as the particle concentration, alternating-current field strength, direct current magnitude, and solvent evaporation rate that affect both array ordering and fixing process have been studied systematically. Our approach, in principle, can be conveniently adapted into the continuous convective coating process, thus making the fabrication of nonclose-packed colloidal arrays scalable. Two-dimensional structures can also be made for active motion of microscopic objects. By applying orthogonally oriented magnetic and electric fields, we presented two strategies to achieve reversible cell capture, transport, and release with both passive magnetic particles and active Janus magnetic micromotors. In the first strategy, we showed that hybrid particle-cell clusters can be assembled with yeast cells and magnetic particles, e.g., the Dynabeads, under a perpendicularly applied AC electric field due to included dipolar attraction. Interestingly, the hybrid clusters, once assembled, can propel under the same electric field due to unbalanced electrohydrodynamic flow surrounding them. To remotely steer and control the propulsion direction of the cell-particle clusters, we further applied a planar magnetic field, which oriented the magnetic module in the clusters and allowed directional transportation of the cells. By changing the electric field frequency, the hybrid clusters can disassemble and release the cells on demand. In the second strategy, we replaced the passive Dynabeads with Janus magnetic micro-motors, which can actively navigate and selectively capture yeast or bacteria cells under AC electric fields. Again, the trajectory of the micromotor and cargo assembly can be controlled by pre-programming the planar magnetic fields. Both strategies
Multilocus sequence typing of outbreak-associated Listeria monocytogenes isolates to identify epidemic clones.

OBJECTIVE Listeria monocytogenes is a foodborne pathogen found in a wide variety of environments. Subtype characterization of L. monocytogenes isolates from listeriosis outbreaks that have occurred over the last three decades has suggested that a number of outbreaks were caused by a small number of L. monocytogenes epidemic clones (ECs). In this study we compared the prevalence, ecology, and phylogenetic position of outbreak-associated isolates and non-outbreak-associated isolates to probe the evolutionary and ecological characteristics of outbreak-associated L. monocytogenes subtypes, including those representing previously described ECs. METHODS Multilocus sequence typing data for isolates from 15 listeriosis outbreaks in Europe and North America were generated and compared, using a phylogenetic framework, with 180 isolates representing a local sampling of diverse sources, including human sporadic cases. RESULTS Isolates from 15 listeriosis outbreaks represented eight sequence types (STs). STs corresponding to previously designated ECI (ST1 and ST93) and ECIa (ST29) represented isolates from eight outbreaks. ST17 (corresponding to ECII) was involved in two outbreaks in the United States (1998 and 2002). No other STs were involved in multiple outbreaks. While ST1 was the most common ST among sporadic human cases and non-human listeriosis-related isolates, ST29 was rare among non-human listeriosis-related isolates and was significantly overrepresented among isolates from human listeriosis outbreaks and sporadic cases as compared to isolates from other sources in our local sampling. CONCLUSIONS STs associated with outbreaks (and representing previously designated ECs) appear to differ in their ecology. While association of ECI with multiple human listeriosis outbreaks appears to reflect strain abundance across environments, ECIa seems to represent an L. monocytogenes EC that appears to be overrepresented among outbreaks and sporadic cases and thus may have increased transmission potential.
Semantic Network Analysis Program Committee Topic Communities in Peer to Peer Networks Invited Talk from Semantic to Social: an Integrated Approach for Content and Usage Analysis 2 Introduction

Social communities emerge by successful communication (or other forms of successful reciproke interaction). We have investigated algorithms that forge topic-specific links of different strengths within a peer-to-peer network based on the success of previous communications with regard to the specific or semantically similar topics. We have shown that through such adaptation overlapping topic communities arise that allow for successful routing of queries through peer-to-peer networks.
Callus remodelling model

The objective of this paper is to investigate the healing process of the callus using bone remodelling approach. A new mathematical model of bone remodelling is proposed including both underload and overload resorption, as well as equilibrium and bone growth states. The created model is used to predict the stress-stimulated change in the callus density. The permanent and intermittent loading programs are considered. The analyses indicate that obtaining a sufficiently high values of the callus density (and hence the elasticity) modulus is only possible using time-varying load parameters. The model predictions also show that intermittent loading program causes delayed callus healing. Understanding how mechanical conditions influence callus remodelling process may be relevant in the bone fracture treatment and initial bone loading during rehabilitation.The objective of this paper is to investigate the healing process of the callus using bone remodelling approach. A new mathematical model of bone remodelling is proposed including both underload and overload resorption, as well as equilibrium and bone growth states. The created model is used to predict the stress-stimulated change in the callus density. The permanent and intermittent loading programs are considered. The analyses indicate that obtaining a sufficiently high values of the callus density (and hence the elasticity) modulus is only possible using time-varying load parameters. The model predictions also show that intermittent loading program causes delayed callus healing. Understanding how mechanical conditions influence callus remodelling process may be relevant in the bone fracture treatment and initial bone loading during rehabilitation.
The X-Ray Evolution of Early-Type Galaxies in the Extended Chandra Deep Field-South

We investigate the evolution over the last 6.3 Gyr of cosmic time (i.e., since z ≈ 0.7) of the average X-ray properties of early-type galaxies within the Extended Chandra Deep Field-South (E-CDF-S). Our early-type galaxy sample includes 539 objects with red sequence colors and Sérsic indices larger than n = 2.5, which were selected jointly from the COMBO-17 (Classifying Objects by Medium-Band Observations in 17 Filters) and GEMS (Galaxy Evolution from Morphologies and SEDs) surveys. We utilize the deep Chandra observations over the E-CDF-S and X-ray stacking analyses to constrain primarily the average X-ray emission from ``normal'' early-type galaxies (i.e., those that are not dominated by luminous AGNs). We study separately optically luminous (LB ≈ 1010-1011 LB,☉) and faint (LB ≈ 109.3-1010 LB,☉) galaxy samples, which we expect to have soft (0.5-2.0 keV) X-ray emission dominated by hot (~1 keV) interstellar gas and low-mass X-ray binary (LMXB) populations, respectively. The AGN fraction of our optically luminous sample evolves with redshift in a manner consistent with the (1 + z)3 evolution observed in other investigations of X-ray-selected AGNs. We find that the X-ray-to-B-band mean luminosity ratio (LX/LB) for normal optically luminous galaxies does not evolve significantly over z ≈ 0.0-0.7. This lack of X-ray evolution implies a general balance between the heating and cooling of the hot gas. If transient AGN activity is largely responsible for maintaining this balance, then we infer that mechanical power must be dominating the feedback out to z ≈ 0.7. Furthermore, in this scenario the average mechanical AGN power must remain roughly constant over the last half of cosmic time. For our optically faint early-type galaxies, we find suggestive evidence that LX/LB increases with redshift over z ≈ 0.0-0.5.
Semantic Approach for Improving Pattern Quality in Web Usage Mining

Users’ experience in accessing websites can be personalized by processing web logs, using different Web Usage Mining (WUM) techniques. These web logs, if treated with such techniques and matched with semantic information of a website, can enrich the websites’ personal access for an individual user. Web logs could be used to identify frequent navigation patterns as well as re-structuring the website for rich navigation experience of a user. The systematic approach presented in this paper focuses on generating frequent patterns and combining with semantic information. The evaluation of generated web usage pattern quality is done with standard metrics. Experiment results confirm that more accurate results can be obtained using this approach.
Fragility of chalcogenide glass in relation to characteristic temperature T0/Tg

The present study reports the mutual relationship between the fragility index m and the characteristic temperature T0/Tg. The fragility of the chalcogenide amorphous glass of Ge10Se50Te40 is calculated by utilizing glass transition temperature (Tg) measured by DSC (Differential Scanning Calorimetry) at different heating rates (β) in the range 5 to 20 K/min. Vogel-Fulcher-Tammann (VFT) equation is fitted to the data of Tg. In addition to the VFT method, three other methods are also used to evaluate m. The fragility index m of the Ge10Se50Te40 system showed the trend of decrease with increasing heating rate but remained stable around 22 for the heating rate 10 K/min. The value of m for the glass is near the lower limit (m ≈ 16) this indicates the alloy is a strong glass forming material in accordance of Angell’s interpretation of fragility. The calculated values of characteristic temperature T0/Tg is very close to 1 which also indicates that clearly the system is most fragile.
Neuropsychological effects of deep brain stimulation in subjects with early stage Parkinson's disease in a randomized clinical trial.

BACKGROUND Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is an effective treatment for patients with advanced Parkinson's disease (PD) and motor symptom complications. Recently, attention has been focused on whether offering DBS earlier in the course of PD is beneficial. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of DBS on neuropsychological functioning in subjects with early stage PD. METHODS Thirty subjects with early PD (Hoehn & Yahr Stage II off medication) were randomized to optimal drug therapy (ODT) (n = 15) or bilateral subthalamic nucleus (STN) DBS+ODT (n = 15) after completing an expanded informed consent process specially designed for the study and administered by a medical ethicist and the study team. Comprehensive neuropsychological testing was completed in the treatment-withdrawn state at baseline and at 12 month and 24 month follow-ups. RESULTS Two serious adverse events occurred in the DBS+ODT group. One subject experienced a stroke and another developed infected hardware that contributed to specific declines in cognitive functioning. However, compared to the ODT group, the remaining subjects in the DBS+ODT group exhibited modest reductions on a few measures of attention, executive function, and word fluency at 12 months. These differences were largely diminished at 24 months, especially when those with the adverse events were excluded. CONCLUSIONS The results of this trial provide novel data regarding the effects of DBS on cognitive function in early PD. We believe that the findings and insights from this trial can help guide the safety analysis and risk-benefit evaluations in future discussions of DBS in early stage PD.
A master-slave approach for object detection and matching with fixed and mobile cameras

Typical object detection algorithms on mobile cameras suffer from the lack of a-priori knowledge on the object to be detected. The variability in the shape, pose, color distribution, and behavior affect the robustness of the detection process. In general, such variability is addressed by using a large training data. However, only objects present in the training data can be detected. This paper introduces a vision-based system to address such problem. A master-slave approach is presented where a mobile camera (the slave) can match any object detected by a fixed camera (the master). Features extracted by the master camera are used to detect the object of interest in the slave camera without the use of any training data. A single observation is enough regardless of the changes in illumination, viewpoint, color distribution and image quality. A coarse to fine description of the object is presented built upon image statistics robust to partial occlusions. Qualitative and quantitative results are presented in an indoor and an outdoor urban scene.
Heteromeric Interactions among Ethylene Receptors Mediate Signaling in Arabidopsis*

The gaseous hormone ethylene is perceived in Arabidopsis by a five member receptor family that consists of the subfamily 1 receptors ETR1 and ERS1 and the subfamily 2 receptors ETR2, ERS2, and EIN4. Previous work has demonstrated that the basic functional unit for the ethylene receptor, ETR1, is a disulfide-linked homodimer. We demonstrate here that ethylene receptors isolated from Arabidopsis also interact with each other through noncovalent interactions. Evidence that ETR1 associates with other ethylene receptors was obtained by co-purification of ETR1 with tagged versions of ERS1, ETR2, ERS2, and EIN4 from Arabidopsis membrane extracts. ETR1 preferentially associated with the subfamily 2 receptors compared with the subfamily 1 receptor ERS1, but ethylene treatment affected the interactions and relative composition of the receptor complexes. When transgenically expressed in yeast, ETR1 and ERS2 can form disulfide-linked heterodimers. In plant extracts, however, the association of ETR1 and ERS2 can be largely disrupted by treatment with SDS, supporting a higher order noncovalent interaction between the receptors. Yeast two-hybrid analysis demonstrated that the receptor GAF domains are capable of mediating heteromeric receptor interactions. Kinetic analysis of ethylene-insensitive mutants of ETR1 is consistent with their dominance being due in part to an ability to associate with other ethylene receptors. These data suggest that the ethylene receptors exist in plants as clusters in a manner potentially analogous to that found with the histidine kinase-linked chemoreceptors of bacteria and that interactions among receptors contribute to ethylene signal output.
Comment: Limiting Toxic Information

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), like all dementias, is among the cruelest of disorders. This is true not only for the person who has the disorder, but also for those who love the patient. Dorothy Day, who helped found the Catholic Worker Movement, depicts this cruelty when she describes Peter Maurin, who was once her mentor, after his mind declined. “For the last five years of his life he was . suffering, silent, dragging himself around, watched by us all for fear he would get lost, as he once did for three days; he was shouted at loudly by visitors as though he were deaf, talked to with condescension as one talks to a child for whom language must be simplified even to the point of absurdity. That was one of the hardest things we had to bear, we who loved him and had worked with him for so long to see others treat him as though he were simple-minded. ” 1
Three Generalizations to a Generic Integrated Test Generation Method for Finite State Machines

In a previous paper, we proposed a generic test generation method for deterministic implementations of deterministic finite state machines. The method supports a wide class of testing strategies, multi-criteria optimization and integrated handling of all the usual optimization concerns. The present paper generalizes the method to an even wider class of strategies, to non-deterministic machines and to machines handling data.