Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
EEG artifact removal—state-of-the-art and guidelines

This paper presents an extensive review on the artifact removal algorithms used to remove the main sources of interference encountered in the electroencephalogram (EEG), specifically ocular, muscular and cardiac artifacts. We first introduce background knowledge on the characteristics of EEG activity, of the artifacts and of the EEG measurement model. Then, we present algorithms commonly employed in the literature and describe their key features. Lastly, principally on the basis of the results provided by various researchers, but also supported by our own experience, we compare the state-of-the-art methods in terms of reported performance, and provide guidelines on how to choose a suitable artifact removal algorithm for a given scenario. With this review we have concluded that, without prior knowledge of the recorded EEG signal or the contaminants, the safest approach is to correct the measured EEG using independent component analysis—to be precise, an algorithm based on second-order statistics such as second-order blind identification (SOBI). Other effective alternatives include extended information maximization (InfoMax) and an adaptive mixture of independent component analyzers (AMICA), based on higher order statistics. All of these algorithms have proved particularly effective with simulations and, more importantly, with data collected in controlled recording conditions. Moreover, whenever prior knowledge is available, then a constrained form of the chosen method should be used in order to incorporate such additional information. Finally, since which algorithm is the best performing is highly dependent on the type of the EEG signal, the artifacts and the signal to contaminant ratio, we believe that the optimal method for removing artifacts from the EEG consists in combining more than one algorithm to correct the signal using multiple processing stages, even though this is an option largely unexplored by researchers in the area.
Medial Opening Wedge Tibial Osteotomy and the Sagittal Plane

Background Altering the tibial slope in an anterior cruciate ligament–deficient knee has been shown to affect anterior-posterior tibial translation. The effects on articular contact pressure of altering tibial slope during a high tibial osteotomy are unknown. Hypotheses Performing an opening wedge osteotomy anterior to the midaxial line will increase tibial slope. Increasing tibial slope with a high tibial osteotomy in an anterior cruciate ligament–deficient knee redistributes tibiofemoral joint contact pressures onto the posterior tibial plateau. Study Design Controlled laboratory study. Methods Medial opening wedge high tibial osteotomies were performed, and a plate fixation with a known diameter inset was placed along the medial tibia in an anterior position and a posterior position on 9 cadaveric knees. Medial and lateral tibiofemoral contact pressures were measured at the resulting 2 different tibial slopes in both ligament-intact and ligament-deficient states using thin electronic sensors. Results Anterior plate application resulted in an increase in posterior tibial slope by an average of 6.6°(P <.001) compared with posterior plate placement. After medial opening wedge high tibial osteotomy, the mean peak lateral tibiofemoral contact pressure (3.4 MPa) was significantly greater (P=.002) than was the mean peak medial pressure (2.6 MPa). In ligament-intact specimens, altering the tibial slope did not significantly shift peak contact pressures. However, in ligament-deficient knees, increasing tibial slope by an average of 5.5° significantly redistributed the location of peak intra-articular pressure, shifting it posteriorly by 24% (P=.003). Conclusion Increasing tibial slope in anterior cruciate ligament–deficient knees with a high tibial osteotomy redistributes pressure into the posterior tibial plateau. Clinical Relevance In knees with chronic anterior cruciate ligament deficiency, posteromedial compartment degeneration is observed. Inadvertent redistribution of contact pressure into this area may be a cause of pain and premature clinical failure after medial opening wedge tibial osteotomy.
Analysis of the Envelope Proteins of Heat‐Shocked Vibrio parahaemolyticus Cells by Immunoblotting and Biotin‐Labeling Methods

Vibrio parahaemolyticus, a common enteropathogen in tropical and subtropical coastal regions, exhibits significant adaptive acid tolerance response and heat‐shock response, and the envelope proteins induced by stresses are suggested to be associated with virulence. This work examined the heat‐shock proteins located in the envelope of V. parahaemolyticus by two rapid methods; namely, the immunoblotting and biotin‐labeling methods. The bacterial cells were cultured at 25 C and heat shocked at 37 or 42 C for 1 or 2 hr. The cells were first lysed, then proteins were separated by gel electrophoresis and probed with antiserum raised against heat‐shocked cells. Next, the heat‐shocked cells were examined by labeling with water soluble sulfo‐NHS‐LC‐biotin. Proteins of 33, 61, 66, 71, 78, 92 and 101 kDa were induced, while 55, 86, 102, 120 and 160 kDa proteins were markedly enhanced in the envelope of the heat‐shocked V. parahaemolyticus cells. The biotin tagged envelope proteins were purified using a monomeric avidin column, and the N‐terminal sequence was determined and compared with other high identity protein sequences. The sequence results suggest that Vph1 (55 kDa), Vph2 (46 kDa) and Vph3 (42 kDa) are de novo synthesized heat‐shock proteins located in the envelope of this pathogen, and the functions of these proteins in stress protection and virulence have yet to be determined.
How Stable is the Money Demand in Taiwan

Empirical literature on money demand is mainly based on the estimation of a long run relation by means of time-invariant cointergration approach. Taiwan has experienced the economic and financial regime change since 1979. The purpose of this paper is to test structural breaks in Taiwan long run money demand equation. We examine six of the most influential specifications proposed in the literature. The classical set of explanatory variables (e.g. income and interest rates) is extended on the base of a number underlying economic reasons related to financial, labor and international portfolio characteristics. The results suggest that international financial market variables and the classical specifications are the key determinants of structural instability observed in Taiwan broad money.
Coordination of strength exertion during the chair-rise movement in very old people.

BACKGROUND Changes in performance of standing up from a chair have been related to measures of strength or power. However, the sit-to-stand (STS) transfer requires that the individual exerts forces with appropriate magnitude and timing. These coordinative aspects have received less attention. This study aims to analyze differences in STS performance in older people based on measures that are derived from ground reaction forces (GRFs) during STS transfer. METHODS One hundred thirty-five participants (84.5% women; mean age 82.5 years) stood up from a chair as fast as possible. Time of stabilization after reaching an upright position, power, maximum vertical GRF, increase of vertical GRF, overshoot of vertical GRF over body weight, and left-right difference of GRF were measured by a force plate under each foot. To explain variance of total time to stand up, these variables were used as independent variables in a linear regression model. RESULTS Eighty-one percent of variance of total time to stand up was explained by the independent variables. The strongest predictor of total time was time of stabilization (F = 459.4). Another model of linear regression explained 37% of variance of time to reach an upright position, with increase of GRF as the strongest predictor (F = 38.3). Influence of maximum vertical GRF was weak in both models. CONCLUSIONS Variables related to coordination of strength, measured during STS transfer, were able to explain a high proportion of variance of time to rise from a chair. Stabilization after reaching an upright position seems to be a parameter worth further investigation.
Development of a gene therapy virus with a glucocorticoid-inducible MMP1 for the treatment of steroid glaucoma.

PURPOSE To design a glucocorticoid-inducible virus vector overexpressing recombinant matrix metalloproteinase 1 (MMP1) and counteract extracellular matrix deposition in the trabecular meshwork only when steroid is present. METHODS Endogenous MMP1 expression was measured in primary human trabecular meshwork cells (HTM) treated with dexamethasone (DEX), triamcinolone acetate, and prednisolone acetate by TaqMan PCR. Wild-type and mutant MMP1 cDNAs were cloned downstream of a glucocorticoid response element (GRE) and P(TAL) promoter. Adenoviruses AdhGRE.MMP1 and AdhGRE.mutMMP1 were generated by homologous recombination. HTM cells and perfused human anterior segments were infected with the viruses, with and without DEX. MMP1 mRNA and protein were analyzed by TaqMan PCR, Western blot analysis, and ELISA. Activity of secreted MMP1 was evaluated by FRET and rat tail collagen type I assays. Immunohistochemistry was performed by double-labeling with anti-human MMP1 and collagen type I antibodies. RESULTS Endogenous MMP1 expression was greatly downregulated by the steroids. DEX-treated cells and perfused organ cultures infected with AdhGRE.MMP1 secreted high levels of MMP1. Induction of MMP1 cycled on and off with the addition or removal of DEX. Secreted wild-type MMP1 degraded collagen type I after activation, whereas secreted mutMMP1 did not. Immunohistochemistry showed faint staining of collagen type I in areas of trabecular meshwork with high MMP1 transgene expression. CONCLUSIONS The authors have developed a novel glucocorticoid-inducible adenovirus vector that overproduces MMP1 only in the presence of DEX. The availability of this vector sets up the foundation for the development of gene therapy drugs for the potential treatment of ocular hypertension in steroid-responsive patients.
APPLICATION OF MINI HEAT PIPES FOR THERMAL MANAGEMENT OF OPTO-ELECTRONIC INSTRUMENTS

Heat dissipation, thermal stresses, size and cost are the key packaging design issues for electronic and optoelectronic instruments. As per defense requirement, instruments are expected to work satisfactorily in the temperature range of -30 o C to +55 o C. In this study, we have explored the thermal management of a sealed enclosure, envisaged as housing for handheld instruments, using different active and passive techniques such as natural convection, conventional heat sinks and copper-water wicked mini-heat pipes. Microelectronic equipment inside the enclosure generated heat. The aim of the study was to apply and compare various thermal management techniques suitable for maintaining a safe operating temperature inside the enclosure. Transient numerical modeling was performed on a commercial platform to compare the various techniques available for thermal management. Effects of both, natural convection inside the enclosure and radiation, were taken into account. The results from the CFD simulations were verified with the real time system level experiments. It was observed that in handheld opto-electronic instruments, heat pipes have potential applications to achieve the required performance in the available enclosure volume.
Automatic Brain Segmentation in Time-of-Flight MRA Images

Summary Objectives: Cerebral vascular malformations might, caused by ruptures, lead to strokes. The rupture risk depends to a great extent on the individual anatomy of the vasculature. The 3D Time-of-Flight (TOF) MRA technique is one of the most commonly used non-invasive imaging techniques to obtain knowledge about the individual vascular anatomy. Unfortunately TOF images exhibit drawbacks for segmentation and direct volume visualization of the vasculature. To overcome these drawbacks an initial segmentation of the brain tissue is required. Methods: After preprocessing of the data is applied the low-intensity tissues surrounding the brain are segmented using region growing. In a following step this segmentation is used to extract supporting points at the border of the brain for a graph-based contour extraction. Finally a consistency check is performed to identify local outliers which are corrected using non-linear registration. Results: A quantitative validation of the method proposed was performed on 18 clinical datasets based on manual segmentations. A mean Dice coefficient of 0.989 was achieved while in average 99.56% of all vessel voxels were included by the brain segmentation. A comparison to the results yielded by three commonly used tools for brain segmentation revealed that the method described achieves better results, using TOF images as input, which are within the inter-observer variability. Conclusion: The method suggested allows a robust and automatic segmentation of brain tissue in TOF images. It is especially helpful to improve the automatic segmentation or direct volume rendering of the cerebral vascular system.
Impact of Spatial Aggregation Level of Climate Indicators on a National-Level Selection for Representative Climate Change Scenarios

For sustainable management of water resources, adaptive decisions should be determined considering future climate change. Since decision makers have difficulty in formulating a decision when they should consider a large number of climate change scenarios, selecting a subset of Global Circulation Models (GCM) outputs for climate change impact studies is required. In this study, the Katsavounidis-Kuo-Zhang (KKZ) algorithm was used for representative climate change scenarios selection and a comprehensive analysis has been done through a national-level case study of South Korea. The KKZ algorithm was applied to select a subset of GCMs for each subbasin in South Korea. To evaluate impacts of spatial aggregation level of climate data sets on preserving inter-model variability of hydrologic variables, three different scales (national level, river region level, subbasin level) were tested. It was found that only five GCMs selected by KKZ algorithm can explain almost of whole inter-model variability driven by all the 27 GCMs under Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP) 4.5 and 8.5. Furthermore, a single set of representative GCMs selected for national level was able to explain inter-model variability on almost the whole subbasins. In case of low flow variable, however, use of finer scale of climate data sets was recommended.
An Empirical Assessment of Export Led Growth Hypothesis in the Context of Indian Economy

The present study examines the validity of the relation between exports and economic growth India. This paper utilizes the advanced time series techniques such as the Causality, Cointegration to test the short run as well as the long run equilibrium between GDP growth and Exports. And it has also used the VAR test to measure the strength between them respectively. The causality confirms the ELG hypothesis in case of India whereas the result of the Cointegration test indicates that there exists no long run equilibrium relationship or co-movements between growth and increase in exports. The result of VAR exhibits the maximum contribution of Real Exports towards the growth of Economy. Hence, it supports the unidirectional relation between exports and economic growth India. Under the VAR framework some more variables are also undertaken to compare and see the irrelative impacts. The variables under the study are GDP, GCF, EXP, WEX, IMP, and TOT and are in billions of rupees. The data are collected from RBI Bulletin, Handbook of Statistics on Economy and IFS Database.
Silicon quantum dots: surface matters

Silicon quantum dots (SiQDs) hold great promise for many future technologies. Silicon is already at the core of photovoltaics and microelectronics, and SiQDs are capable of efficient light emission and amplification. This is crucial for the development of the next technological frontiers—silicon photonics and optoelectronics. Unlike any other quantum dots (QDs), SiQDs are made of non-toxic and abundant material, offering one of the spectrally broadest emission tunabilities accessible with semiconductor QDs and allowing for tailored radiative rates over many orders of magnitude. This extraordinary flexibility of optical properties is achieved via a combination of the spatial confinement of carriers and the strong influence of surface chemistry. The complex physics of this material, which is still being unraveled, leads to new effects, opening up new opportunities for applications. In this review we summarize the latest progress in this fascinating research field, with special attention given to surface-induced effects, such as the emergence of direct bandgap transitions, and collective effects in densely packed QDs, such as space separated quantum cutting.
Growth factors in acute myeloid leukaemia.

Clinical trials of colony-stimulating factors (CSFs) have been conducted for over 10 years. Initially, these agents, generally either granulocyte-macrophage (GM)- or granulocyte (G)-CSF, were hypothesized to reduce rates of major infection and/or death in the initial weeks after administration of chemotherapy. Although trials have consistently shown that both cytokines accelerate neutrophil recovery, only 1 out of 5-10 large randomized trials has reported that a decrease in major infection occurs as a result. While some of these trials have found that the use of cytokines lowers days in hospital, on antibiotics, or with fever, it is unclear whether the magnitude of these effects outweighs the expense currently entailed in CSF administration; indeed it appears that estimates of cost are themselves quite variable. The second major use of cytokines has been in priming acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) blasts to the cytotoxic actions of chemotherapy. Here again, the results of several randomized trials do not justify application of this strategy. It remains possible that there are subsets of AML patients who would benefit from priming. However, the identification of such patients might require years of accrual into clinical trials from which the majority of patients would not benefit. Future years may see trials of cytokines (e.g. pegylated recombinant human megakaryocytic growth and development factor +G- or GM-CSF) in patients in remission and as a means to increase the number of normal granulocytes that can be given to patients with infections. Further therapies may target cytokine receptors on AML blasts, to improve anti-leukaemia therapy.
Integrating #FLIrish101 in an LMOOC – learner engagement and pedagogical approach

Course specific hashtags are a feature of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) delivered through many of the major MOOC platforms. Their pedagogic objective is usually considered as a means to facilitate social learning and collaboration between learners. Research into the use of hashtags by learners illustrates limited engagement and integration within their learning experience (Veletsianos, 2017) and that MOOC providers use course hashtags mainly as a means of promotion and marketing. This paper presents the findings of an analysis of the use of the #FLIrish101 by a cohort of learners undertaking a Language MOOC (LMOOC) designed for ab initio learners of Irish. The LMOOC is delivered through the FutureLearn platform. The paper outlines the main findings from an analysis of the Twitter dataset to interpret the LMOOC’s learner use of the hashtag. The paper critiques the implicit research design, pedagogical principles and engagement strategies employed by the LMOOCs academic designers to integrate the hashtag as a purposeful means to support collaborative language learning outside the confines of the MOOC platform
Wage Comparisons--A Selectivity Bias

This disclosure relates to a hydrant coupling device including a pressure control valve which, due to its portability, may be connected to any one of a plurality of hydrants to regulate the flow of liquid therefrom, and additionally including a pit valve which is interlocked with the pressure control valve body to prevent the spilling of liquid if the control valve is accidentally forced loose from the pit valve.
Assessment of patient capability to self-adjust oral anticoagulant dose: a multicenter study on home use of portable prothrombin time monitor (COAGUCHECK).

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Self-testing and self-monitoring with portable prothrombin time (PT) monitors has been shown to be feasible and safe. However the ability of patients on chronic oral anticoagulant therapy (OAT) to self-adjust their dose without specific training has never been properly evaluated. The aims of this study were to evaluate: 1) the ability of patients on chronic OAT to self-adjust their dose without specific training; 2) the integration of a portable PT monitor (Coagucheck, Roche Diagnostics, Germany) for home use into routine patient care in anticoagulation clinics. DESIGN AND METHODS A nested case-control study was conducted in four centers of the Italian Federation of Anticoagulation Clinics (FCSA). Patients (n=78) on stable OAT for at least 6 months (cases: 47 men, 31 women, age range: 18-75 years) were enrolled on a volunteer basis after passing an Abbreviated Mental Test and providing informed consent. After three instruction sessions on the use of Coaguchek, subjects performed the PT test at home, communicated the INR results to the Center and suggested the dose adjustment and date for next control as they thought appropriate. However, they were requested to follow the prescription made by the Center. Controls (78 subjects) matched by age (+/- 5 years), sex and therapeutic range with the cases, were selected from among those who attended the anticoagulation clinics and managed by usual care. RESULTS When compared with the dose prescribed by the Clinic, the dose suggested by warfarin and acenocoumarol users was equal to or within +/- 6% of the mean weekly dose in 80% and 82% of suggestions, respectively. Time spent in the therapeutic range during the study was the same (80%) for cases and controls. INTERPRETATION AND CONCLUSIONS Selected patients on chronic anticoagulant therapy can acquire a satisfactory ability for self-adjustment of OAT dose without specific training.
Wave equation-based semivectorial compact 2-D-FDTD method for optical waveguide modal analysis

A wave equation-based semivectorial compact 2-D finite-difference time-domain (2-D-FDTD) method is developed and validated for optical waveguide modal analysis. This approach is a combination of the Maxwell's equation-based compact 2-D-FDTD and the wave equation-based semivectorial FDTD methods. Perfectly matched layer (PML) absorbing boundary condition (ABC) is also extended to this approach. Excellent accuracy is achieved for the entire spectrum even in the region near the cutoff. Through extensive study on the excitation conditions, it indicates that this method, when used as an explicit optical mode solver, is extremely robust.
On Complete Carbon Emission of China’s Industries Based on Input-Output Analysis

Abstract This article establishes a useful analytical framework for complete carbon emission of the industries in China and then makes comparison on carbon emission among these industries based on the latest data derived from China’s Input-Output Table and Energy Statistics in 2007. It is found that some industries are “invisible high-carbon” sectors by the definitions of directly-embodied coefficient and perfectly-embodied coefficient and that others have made contributions to carbon leakage by measure of importing and exporting carbon emission volume. Finally, this article provides suggestions to industrial strategies, trade policies and the comprehensive economic management policy in order to effectively achieve energy conservation and emission reduction.