Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Persistent infection of hepatitis B virus is involved in high rate of p16 methylation in hepatocellular carcinoma

High rate of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection and p16 promoter methylation were found in the majority of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). To investigate the potential linkage between high rate of p16 methylation and HBV infection, p16 methylation was detected with methylation‐specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and HBV markers were examined with real‐time PCR and immunologic method. p16 methylation was detected in 5.5% of patients with hepatitis B, 9.1% of noncancerous liver, 36.6% of cirrhotic liver tissue, and 70.5% of cancerous tissue of HCC, primarily in cirrhotic (46.7%) and cancerous tissue (90.6%) with HBV infection. In noncancerous tissue, p16 methylation could only be detected in samples with HBV infection, although no significant difference, the frequency of p16 methylation in noncancerous tissue with HBV infection was higher than those without it. The results showed that, in cancerous, cirrhotic, or noncancerous tissues, the frequency of p16 methylation in samples with HBV infection was higher than those without it, suggesting possible association between HBV infection and p16 methylation. The result of HBV‐DNA analysis showed that 96.1% (49/51) samples with p16 methylation also showed detectable HBV‐DNA; it signifies that replication and/or integration of HBV may contribute to high rate of p16 methylation in hepatocarcinogenesis. Generally, these results indicate that persistent HBV infection may be associated with high rate of p16 methylation, and involved in development of HCC through this way. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
A review of the construction of hierarchical fuzzy systems

Fuzzy rule‐based systems are nowadays one of the most successful applications of fuzzy sets and fuzzy logic. Most applications use a flat set of fuzzy rules. However, in complex applications with a large set of variables, it is not appropriate to define the system with a flat set of rules because, among other problems, the number of rules increases exponentially with the number of variables. Hierarchical fuzzy systems are one of the alternatives presented in the literature to overcome this problem. In this article we review the latest results related with this type of fuzzy system. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Preliminary Study on Bioactive Compounds of Citrus × myrtifolia Rafinesque (Chinotto) to Its Potential Application in Food Industry

The present study investigated for the first time some physical quality attributes of unripe Citrus x myrtifolia Rafinesque which is the ingredient of the popular soft drink Chinotto. Samples for analysis were processed to better reproduce the crude materials used for industrial chinotto extract, discarding part of the juice. Fruit bioactive compounds such as ascorbic acid, carotenoids, chlorophylls, flavonoids and antioxidant capacity were estimated. An important nutritional aspect arose from the data presented was the high concentration of flavonoids (780 mg/100 g FW) and vitamin C (42 mg/100 g FW). A good antioxidant capacity (5872 µM Trolox equivalents/100 g FW) was estimated by oxygen radical absorbing capacity (ORAC). This matrix could be considered as a good nutraceutical source, giving new opportunity to citrus industry.
HOG feature extractor circuit for real-time human and vehicle detection

Smart vehicle technologies such as ADAS are growing concern about. Especially, pedestrian and vehicle recognition system based on machine vision is a big issue. In this paper, we propose the hardwired HOG feature extractor circuit for real-time human and vehicle detection, and describe the hardware implementation results. Our HOG feature extractor supports weighted gradient value, 2D histogram interpolation and block normalization. We have used the simplified methods of the square root and division operation for the hardware implementation. Our HOG feature extractor circuit was verified on FPGA environment and can be processed 33 frames per seconds for 640×480 VGA images in real-time.
Adaptive marking for assured forwarding service

This letter looks at the problem of achieving specific quality of service (QoS) goals of individual flows by flexibly managing resources available to an aggregated source. We present an adaptive marker based on a TCP performance model within a Diffserv network, and show that the aggregated marker can maintain state of individual flows at the edge of the network and utilize this state effectively in adaptively marking packets of individual flows to meet their QoS goals.
Fast and accurate UWB radar imaging using hybrid of Kirchhoff migration and Stolt's F-K migration with inverse boundary scattering transform

A fast and accurate radar imaging algorithm is proposed that is a hybrid of the Kirchhoff migration and Stolt's frequency-wavenumber (F-K) migration. The latter is known as a fast imaging method in the F-K domain using the fast Fourier transform. Kirchhoff migration is reported to be more accurate than Stolt's F-K migration, but requires locating reflection points. For this reason, Kirchhoff migration must be processed in the time domain, which can be extremely time-consuming. This study overcomes this hurdle by combining these two algorithms by introducing the texture angle and the inverse boundary scattering transform. These two tools enable the location of a reflection point to be determined quickly for each pixel of a radar image. Using the estimated locations, radar signals are modified according to the Kirchhoff integral. Then Stolt's F-K migration is applied to the modified signals to obtain an accurate radar image. To demonstrate the performance of the proposed method, the conventional Kirchhoff migration, Stolt's F-K migration and the proposed method are applied to a measured dataset.
Unidirectional Bistability in AlGaInAs Microring and Microdisk Semiconductor Lasers

We report on room-temperature continuous-wave operation and single-mode lasing of microdisk and microring lasers with radii as small as 7 mum. The waveguide sidewall roughness was minimized by an optimized fabrication process using hydrogen silsesquioxane e-beam resist and Cl 2-CH 3-H 2 inductively coupled plasma etching. The devices show unidirectional bistability between the counterpropagating modes for radii larger than 30 mu m and a strong hybrid output polarization for radii smaller than 15 mum with a transverse-magnetic component of approximately 30%.
Cascade Two-dimensional Locality Preserving Projections for Face Recognition

In this paper, we propose a novel algorithm for face feature extraction, namely the cascade two-dimensional locality preserving projections (C2DLPP), which directly extracts the proper features from image matrices based on locality preserving criterion. Experiments on ORL and PIE face database are performed to test and evaluate the proposed algorithm. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of proposed algorithm.
Laparoscopic Radical Nephrectomy: A Journey from T1 to Very Large T2 Tumors

Objectives: To evaluate the feasibility, efficacy and safety of laparoscopic radical nephrectomy (LRN) in T1 and T2 renal tumors. Patients and Methods: From December 1999 to March 2007, a retrospective analysis of 102 patients was done. A thorough preoperative workup was done in all patients. Postoperatively the patients were followed up every 3 months for the first year, 6-monthly for the next 2 years and yearly thereafter. Results: Transperitoneal radical nephrectomy was done in 85 patients, whereas 7 patients had a retroperitoneal surgery. A combined approach of retroperitoneal renal artery clipping followed by transperitoneal nephrectomy was done in 10 patients. 72 patients had clinically T1 tumors and 30 patients were T2 tumors. Mean tumor size was 6.97 cm, mean operative time was 174 min, mean blood loss was 230 ml, mean hospital stay was 4.6 days, and mean incision length was 8 cm. 19 patients had conversion to open surgery. Mean follow-up was 22.6 (range 4–56) months. Overall recurrence-free survival was 88.1%. Conclusions: LRN is a safe and effective treatment for renal tumors with a steep learning curve. Large right-sided T2 tumors can be safely treated with the combined approach. Disease control rates with LRN are satisfactory.
Static and dynamic portfolio allocation with nonstandard utility functions

This article builds on the mean-variance criterion and the links with the expected utility maximization to define the optimal allocation of portfolios, and extends the results in two ways, first considers tailored made utility functions, which can be non continuous and able to capture possible preferences associated with some portfolio managers. Second, it presents results that relate to static (myopic) portfolio allocation decisions connected to dynamic settings where multi-period allocations are considered and conditions are defined to rebalance the portfolio as new information arrive. The conditions are established for the compatibility of static and dynamic decisions associated with different utility functions. We model agents’ decisions associated with portfolio allocation within the expected utility maximization framework. We expect to link the common paradigm of the mean-variance criterion associated with myopic portfolio allocation problems with a more practical implementation of such decision problems, where non continuous utility functions and multi-period type of decisions can play an important role.
Flow-based Statistical Aggregation Schemes for Network Anomaly Detection

In this paper, we present novel flow-based statistical aggregation schemes (FSAS) for network anomaly detection. An IP flow is a unidirectional series of IP packets of a given protocol, traveling between a source and destination, within a certain period of time. Based on "flow" concept, we developed a flow-based aggregation technique that dramatically reduces the amount of monitoring data and handles high amounts of statistics and packet data. FSSAS sets up flow-based statistical feature vectors and reports to a neural network classifier. The neural classifier uses back-propagation networks to classify the score metric of each flow. FSAS can detect both bandwidth type DOS and protocol type DOS. Moreover, flow here could be any set of packets sharing certain common property as "flow key". FSAS configures flow flexibly to provide security from network level to application level (IP, TCP, UDP, HTTP, FTP.), and different aggregation schemes, such as server-based, client-based flow. This novel IDS has been evaluated by using DARPA 98 data and CONEX test-bed data. Results show the success in terms of different aggregation schemes for both datasets
Association Between the XRCC 3 T 241 M Polymorphism and Head and Neck Cancer Susceptibility : a Meta-analysis of Case-control Studies

Head and neck cancers (HNC) including oral, oropharynx, hypopharynx, pharyngeal and larynx are among the most common types of cancer and represent a major health problem, there are approximately 540,000 new cases and 271,000 deaths annually worldwide for a mortality of approximately 50% (Szymańska et al., 2010). Development of HNC is a multi-factorial process associated with a variety of risk factors. The principal risk factors for this disease include tobacco and alcohol use, exposure to the human papillomavirus (HPV) contributes to the development of at least 90% of squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN) cases (Parkin et al., 2005) in a growing younger population. It has been reported that HNC is much more common in smokers than in non-smokers and most common in males over 50 years of age (Kamangar et al., 2006). In recent years, evidence has accumulated to support the hypothesis that diet may also play an important etiological role in development of the disease, and 10-15% of (SCCHN) cases in Europe are associated with a low intake of fruit and vegetables (Nicolotti et al., 2011; Chuang et al., 2012; Stott-Miller et al., 2012). Furthermore, candidate gene association studies also provide cumulative evidence that genetic factors including family history and polymorphisms in
Parents' Desire to Make Equal Inter Vivos Transfers

This study argues that parents have a desire for dividing equally between their children, and that this motive applies to transfers of gifts inter vivos. We suggest that the equal division motive competes with traditional altruism: support to the child or the children with greatest needs. When parents are drawn between these two ambitions, the degree of income compensation should be stronger in one-child families and we expect the altruism motive to dominate the equal division desire at low levels of recipients' income. We find support for both these hypotheses, when analyzing Norwegian data for inter vivos transfers behavior. The data include information about stated attitudes toward transfers among the parents, which also support the equal division motive. (JEL codes: D64, D91, H21) Copyright The Author 2010. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Ifo Institute for Economic Research, Munich. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com, Oxford University Press.
Protective role of selenium status on T3/T4 kinetics in rats under hyperlipidemia.

The effect of high fat diet (HFD) on thyroid hormones (T3/T4) and protective role of selenium (Se) were studied in rats. Se levels in serum and liver decreased significantly, whereas glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) in liver and lipid levels (cholesterol and triglycerides) in serum increased after 1, 2 and 3 months of HFD feeding in comparison to controls in all the three Se status i.e. deficient (0.02 ppm), adequate (0.2 ppm) and excess (1 ppm) groups. Levels of T3/T4 decreased significantly on HFD feeding, as compared to respective controls in all the groups. Within the deficient group, as Se deficiency progressed, T3/T4 levels decreased after 2 and 3 months in comparison to 1 month. A significant increase was observed in T3/T4 concentration on feeding 1 ppm (excess) Se supplemented diet, in comparison to adequate group. Also, in 1 ppm Se supplemented group as the Se deposition increased i.e. after 2 and 3 months, levels of T3/T4 increased significantly. So, the present study indicates that Se supplementation up to 1 ppm normalizes the T3 and T4 concentrations or regulates the hypothyroidism induced by hyperlipidemia.
Social factors, treatment, and survival in early-stage non-small cell lung cancer.

OBJECTIVES This study assessed the importance of socioeconomic status, race, and likelihood of receiving surgery in explaining mortality among patients with stage-I non-small cell lung cancer. METHODS Analyses focused on Black and White individuals 75 years of age and younger (n = 5189) diagnosed between 1980 and 1982 with stage-I non-small cell lung cancer in Detroit, San Francisco, and Seattle. The main outcome measure was months of survival after diagnosis. RESULTS Patients in the highest income decile were 45% more likely to receive surgical treatment and 102% more likely to attain 5-year survival than those in the lowest decile. Whites were 20% more likely to undergo surgery than Blacks and 31% more likely to survive 5 years. Multivariate procedures controlling for age and sex confirmed these observations. CONCLUSIONS Socioeconomic status and race appear to independently influence likelihood of survival. Failure to receive surgery explains much excess mortality.
Estimating Onsets of Binary Events in Panel Data

Onsets of binary events are often of interest to political scientists, whether they be regime changes, the occurrence of civil war, or the signing of bilateral agreements, to name a few. Often researchers transform the binary event outcome of interest, by setting ongoing years to zero, to create a variable which measures the onset of the event. While this may seem an intuitive way to go about estimating models where onset is the outcome of interest, it results in two problems that can affect substantive inferences. First, it creates two qualitatively different meanings for a unit time period to have a zero, which estimators are unable to “know. ” Second, it ignores the possibility that variables may have differing effects upon binary event onsets and durations. This article explores how much this transformation can harm our substantive inferences by analytically demonstrating the resulting bias and the use of Monte Carlo experiments, as well as offering recommendations to avoid these problems. I also conduct a sensitivity analysis on the determinants of civil war onset to examine how substantive inferences are affected by this issue. In doing so, I find that there is considerable difference in the size of estimated coefficients and whether a variable is considered a robust determinant of civil war.
Spatial Motion Patterns: Action Models from Semi-Dense Trajectories

A new action model is proposed, by revisiting local binary patterns (LBP) for dynamic texture models, applied on trajectory beams calculated on the video. The use of semi-dense trajectory field allows to dramatically reduce the computation support to essential motion information, while maintaining a large amount of data to ensure robustness of statistical bag of features action models. A new binary pattern, called Spatial Motion Pattern (SMP) is proposed, which captures self-similarity of velocity around each tracked point (particle), along its trajectory. This operator highlights the geometric shape of rigid parts of moving objects in a video sequence. SMPs are combined with basic velocity information to form the local action primitives. Then, a global representation of a space × time video block is provided by using hierarchical blockwise histograms, which allows to efficiently represent the action as a whole, while preserving a certain level of spatiotemporal relation between the action primitives. Inheriting from the efficiency and the invariance properties of both the semi-dense tracker Video extruder and the LBP-based representations, the method is designed for the fast computation of action descriptors in unconstrained videos. For improving both robustness and computation time in the case of high definition video, we also present an enhanced version of the semi-dense tracker based on the so-called super particles, which reduces the number of trajectories while improving their length, reliability and spatial distribution.
A new generationless parallel evolutionary algorithm for combinatorial optimization

This paper presents a new parallel evolutionary approach where the concept of generation has been removed and replaced by the cycle one. Indeed, the classical genetic algorithms (GAs) deals with operations on the whole population through all generations. These operations are performed during the evolution towards the best individual or solution of the considered combinatorial problem. In our approach, each individual participates to the evolutionary process uniquely during some iterations. There is no generation where all individuals are created at the same time and disappear at the same time at the end of the evolutionary process genation. In our approach, each individual owns one lifespan represented by a number of cycles which are affected to it randomly at its birth and at the end of which it disappears from the population. Consequently, only certain individuals of the population are evaluated within each iteration of the algorithm and not all the population. This causes the substantial reduction of the total running time of the algorithm since the evaluations of all individuals of each generation necessitates more than 80% of the total running time of a classical GA. This approach has been developed with the goal to present a new and efficient parallel scheme of the classical GA with better performances in terms of running time. In this paper, we will present a new asynchronous parallel Master/Slave scheme of the GA and will show the power of our approach with the classification extraction rules problem.
MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING‐GUIDED, HIGH‐INTENSITY FOCUSED ULTRASOUND FOR BRAIN TUMOR THERAPY

OBJECTIVEMagnetic resonance imaging-guided high-intensity focused ultrasound (MRIgFUS) is a novel technique that may have the potential for precise image-guided thermocoagulation of intracranial lesions. The system delivers small volumetric sonications from an ultrasound phased array transmitter that focuses energy selectively to destroy the target with verification by magnetic resonance imaging-generated thermal maps. A Phase I clinical study was initiated to treat patients with recurrent glioma with MRIgFUS. METHODSTo date, three patients with histologically verified recurrent glioblastoma multiforme have been treated with MRIgFUS. All patients underwent craniectomy 7 to 10 days before therapy to create a bony window for the ultrasound treatment. Sonications were applied to induce thermocoagulation of the enhancing tumor mass. Long-term radiological follow-up and post-treatment tissue specimens were available for all patients. RESULTSMRIgFUS treatment resulted in immediate changes in contrast-enhanced T1-, T2-, and diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging scans in the treated regions with subsequent histological evidence of thermocoagulation. In one patient, heating of brain tissue in the sonication path resulted in a secondary focus outside the target causing neurological deficit. New software modifications were developed to address this problem. CONCLUSIONIn this first clinical report, MRIgFUS was demonstrated to be a potentially effective means of destroying tumor tissue by thermocoagulation, although with an associated morbidity and the inherent invasive nature of the procedure requiring creation of a bone window. A modified technology to allow MRIgFUS treatment through a closed cranium is being developed.
CMOS-compatible plasmonic waveguide platform and ring resonator for nanoscale electronic-photonic integrated circuits

We present a novel plasmonic waveguide platform Cu/SiO2/Si/SiO2/Cu to build high-performance CMOS-compatible plasmonic devices. The platform is based on metal-silica-silicon hybrid plasmonic waveguides. The optical performance of the waveguide platform is investigated and analyzed extensively with various geometries both theoretically and experimentally. The propagation loss can be achieved as low as 0.4 dB/μm with a small cross section SiO2/Si/SiO2 of 100×340 nm2. As an example, a plasmonic ring resonator with the ring radius of 0.91 μm is designed with the platform. Excellent optical performance is measured including a free spectral range of 130 nm, extinction ratio of 24 dB, and insertion loss of 2.5 dB. We believe this work will be useful for the integration of nanoscale electronic-photonic integrated circuits.
Open/Closed List and Party Choice: Experimental Evidence from the UK

Which parties benefit from open-list (as opposed to closed-list) proportional representation elections? This article shows that a move from closed-list to open-list competition is likely to be more favorable to parties with more internal disagreement on salient issues; this is because voters who might have voted for a unified party under closed lists may be drawn to specific candidates within internally divided parties under open lists. The study provides experimental evidence of this phenomenon in a hypothetical European Parliament election in the UK, in which using an open-list ballot would shift support from UKIP (the Eurosceptic party) to Eurosceptic candidates of the Conservative Party. The findings suggest that open-list ballots could restrict support for parties that primarily mobilize on a single issue.