Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
What type of clinical evidence is needed to assess medical devices?

The objective of this mini-review is to discuss the role of real-world studies as a source of clinical evidence when experimental studies, such as randomised controlled trials (RCTs), are not available. Waiting for RCT evidence when the technology is diffusing could be anti-economical, inefficient from the policy perspective and methodologically questionable. We explain how real-world studies could provide relevant evidence to decision makers. Matching techniques are discussed as a viable solution for bias reduction. We describe a case study concerning a cost-effectiveness analysis based on real-world data of a technology already in use: Mitraclip combined with medical therapy versus medical therapy alone in patients with moderate-to-severe mitral regurgitation. The CEA has encountered the scepticism of most reviewers, due not to the statistical methodology but to the fact that the study was observational and not experimental. Editors and reviewers converged in considering real-world economic evaluations premature in the absence of a RCT, even if in the meantime the technology had been implanted >30 000 times. We believe there is a need to acknowledge the importance of real-world studies, and engage the scientific community in the promotion and use of clinical evidence produced through observational studies. Real-world data are a valid complement and/or alternative to RCTs to support policy decisions on medical devices http://ow.ly/SHsZ300pfCB
Incorporation of Time-of-Flight Information Reduces Metal Artifacts in Simultaneous Positron Emission Tomography/Magnetic Resonance Imaging: A Simulation Study

ObjectivesThis study aimed to describe and evaluate the influence of time-of-flight (TOF) information on metal artifact reduction in positron emission tomography (PET) image quality in clinical simultaneous PET/magnetic resonance (MR) scanning. Materials and MethodsA total of 7 patients with various malignant tumors were included and underwent a PET/MR examination after standard PET/computed tomography. Baseline TOF and non-TOF PET images were reconstructed. Next, the TOF and non-TOF PET reconstructions were repeated after the introduction of artificial signal voids in the attenuation map to simulate metal artifacts of various sizes in a range of locations. Three different sizes of signal voids were inserted in the attenuation maps for each location of interest: over the maxilla, humeral head, chest, sternum, thoracic and lumbar spine, as well as the femoral head to replicate clinically relevant metal artifacts. The reconstructed images with the artifacts were then compared with the baseline reconstructed images. The mean percentage error in a region of interest surrounding the simulated artifact was used to compare between TOF and non-TOF images. Further comparison between TOF and non-TOF images was performed using histogram analysis. ResultsIn all cases, the mean percentage error in a region of interest surrounding the simulated artifact was reduced when TOF information was included in the reconstruction. The inclusion of TOF also changes the distribution of smaller errors away from the origin of the artifact. In some anatomical regions, an increase in the number of small errors was noted with TOF, although the differences with non-TOF were minimal. ConclusionsPositron emission tomographic imaging benefits from the integration of TOF information in simultaneous PET/MR. The inclusion of TOF information in simultaneous PET/MR imaging reduces errors related to metal artifacts at the site of the artifact.
21 Power Management in Sensing Subsystem of Wireless Multimedia Sensor Networks

A wireless sensor network consists of sensor nodes deployed over a geographical area for monitoring physical phenomena like temperature, humidity, vibrations, seismic events, and so on. Typically, a sensor node is a tiny device that includes three basic components: a sensing subsystem for data acquisition from the physical surrounding environment, a processing subsystem for local data processing and storage, and a wireless communication subsystem for data transmission. In addition, a power source supplies the energy needed by the device to perform the programmed task. This power source often consists of a battery with a limited energy budget. In addition, it is usually impossible or inconvenient to recharge the battery, because nodes are deployed in a hostile or unpractical environment. On the other hand, the sensor network should have a lifetime long enough to fulfill the application requirements. Accordingly, energy conservation in nodes and maximization of network lifetime are commonly recognized as a key challenge in the design and implementation of WSNs.
Patterned self‐assembled beads in silicon channels

A novel technique enabling selective bead trapping in microfluidic devices without the use of physical barriers is presented in this paper. It is a fast, convenient and simple method, involving microcontact printing and self‐assembly, that can be applied to silicon, quartz or plastic substrates. In the first step, channels are etched in the substrate. The surface chemistry of the internal walls of the channels is then modified by microcontact printing. The chip is submerged in a bead slurry where beads self‐assemble based on surface chemistry and immobilize on the internal walls of the channels. Silicon channels (100 νm wide and 50 νm deep) have been covered with monolayers of streptavidin‐, amino‐ and hydroxy‐functionalized microspheres and resulted in good surface coverage of beads on the channel walls. A high‐resolution pattern of lines of self‐assembled streptavidin beads, as narrow as 5 νm, has also been generated on the bottom of a 500 νm wide and 50 νm deep channel. Flow tests were performed in sealed channels with the different immobilized beads to confirm that the immobilized beads could withstand the forces generated by water flowing in the channels. The presented results indicate that single beads can be precisely positioned within microfluidic devices based on self‐assembly which is useful as screening and analysis tools within the field of biochemistry and organic chemistry.
Does the well‐stirred model assess the intestinal first‐pass effect well?

The pre‐systemic intestinal extraction ratio (Eg) has been estimated by an equation based on the well‐stirred model, which does not have a term of membrane transport. In this report, we have identified the application limitations of the well‐stirred model equation to assess the pre‐systemic intestinal extraction ratio. The Eg of metoprolol (CYP2D6 substrate) was assessed by three methods. Intrinsic clearances for metoprolol metabolism in hepatic and gastrointestinal microsomes were from a published report. Method 1 (model‐independent method): the Eg of 0.228 was obtained according to the equation, F = Ff × (1 — Eg) × Fh, where F, Ff and Fh were the bioavailability, the fraction entering the intestinal tissue and the hepatic availability, respectively. Method 2: the Eg of 0.0071 was calculated according to the well‐stirred model equation, and was much lower than the value of 0.228. Method 3: the Eg of 0.213 was obtained by the transport‐metabolism‐flow (TMF) model equation, and was much closer to the value of 0.228 obtained by the model‐independent method than the Eg of 0.0071 calculated by the well‐stirred model equation. Therefore, we propose that the factor of membrane transport process be incorporated into the pharmacokinetic model for the assessment of the pre‐systemic intestinal extraction ratio.
Expectation-maximization algorithm for evaluation of wind direction characteristics

Directional statistical distributions can be used to model a wide range of industrial and phenomena. Finite mixtures of circular normal von Mises (MvM) distributions have been used to represent directional data from various domains including energy industry, medical science, and information retrieval. This paper presents the probabilisticmodeling of the prevailing wind directions. Expectation-maximization algorithm (EM algorithm) is employed to evaluate unknown parameters of MvM distribution. The evaluation is carried out using real-world data sets describing annual wind direction at St. John's airport in Newfoundland, Canada. Experimental results show that EM algorithm is able to find good model parameters corresponding to input data. However, because the termination criterion χ2-function converges to 335, the resulting distribution cannot pass Pearson's test of goodness of fit.
Estimation of non-stationary moving-average models

This paper describes two methods for time-dependent moving-average modelling of non-stationary signals. In both of them, the finite-order MA model is approximated by an infinite-order auto-re gressive model. In the second one, the use of the AR model is explicit : by means of the inversion of this model, the innovation is estimated and the MA model is then obtained by a least-square procedure. In the first method, the AR model is implicit : a vector signal is associated to the scalar one, and the MA algorithm contains two steps : Schur parametrization of an estimate of the covariance of the vector process, followed by a reduction of the vector model to a scalar one.
Recent trends in the abundance of plaice Pleuronectes platessa and cod Gadus morhua in shallow coastal waters of the Northeastern Atlantic continental shelf – a review

ABSTRACT Shallow, near-shore water habitats on the continental shelf of the Northeast Atlantic have been productive fishing areas in the past. Here, we review the present knowledge about (i) recent trends in the abundance of plaice and cod in these habitats and (ii) hypotheses regarding the factors responsible for any trends. At present, only a few studies exist on the trends of abundance of plaice or cod, namely from the Bay of Biscay, the North Sea and the Skagerrak/Kattegat. They suggest a declining abundance in coastal, shallow areas and – at least for plaice – a latitudinal gradient with an erosion of the southern distribution boundary in the Bay of Biscay and deepening of stocks in the North Sea. In contrast, no trend in shallow water abundance of plaice similar to a decline in deep-water stocks during the 1970s and their slow recovery during the 2000s is apparent in the Skagerrak/Kattegat. Although shallow habitats fundamentally differ from deeper areas by the prevalence of juvenile stages, the declining trends coincide with decreasing abundance/landings and spatial stock relocations in the deeper areas. Whether this indicates a common trend pointing at connectivity between shallow and deep water remains open. Fundamental differences exist in the suggested causes of the trends in different geographical areas. High fishing pressure together with low local recruitment apparently prevents the recovery of overexploited plaice and cod stocks in the Skagerrak/Kattegat. In contrast, the responses of juveniles and adult fish to increasing seawater temperature are the main hypotheses for changes in distribution and abundance of both fish species in the North Sea/Bay of Biscay. However, temperature alone cannot explain the observed decline of fish in coastal areas, and the causes may be more complex, involving nutrient loading, primary productivity or food availability, although at present, knowledge of these factors is insufficient.
A Structural Determinant for the Control of PIP2 Sensitivity in G Protein-gated Inward Rectifier K+ Channels

Inward rectifier K+ (Kir) channels are activated by phosphatidylinositol-(4,5)-bisphosphate (PIP2), but G protein-gated Kir (KG) channels further require either G protein βγ subunits (Gβγ) or intracellular Na+ for their activation. To reveal the mechanism(s) underlying this regulation, we compared the crystal structures of the cytoplasmic domain of KG channel subunit Kir3.2 obtained in the presence and the absence of Na+. The Na+-free Kir3.2, but not the Na+-plus Kir3.2, possessed an ionic bond connecting the N terminus and the CD loop of the C terminus. Functional analyses revealed that the ionic bond between His-69 on the N terminus and Asp-228 on the CD loop, which are known to be critically involved in Gβγ- and Na+-dependent activation, lowered PIP2 sensitivity. The conservation of these residues within the KG channel family indicates that the ionic bond is a character that maintains the channels in a closed state by controlling the PIP2 sensitivity.
Recognizing Handwritten Characters

Traditional CNN-based text recognition problems have either been single-character classification like MNIST or complex, stateful full-word classifications like the LSTM approach in Graves et al. I explore a stateless approach to word recognition by using Faster R-CNN’s region proposal network in conjunction with a heuristic to produce word labels from region proposals. While the results are promising for word images that have characters with very little overlap, they fall short for cursive word images, where individual characters require surrounding context to be identified.
Antagonistic Basic Helix-Loop-Helix/bZIP Transcription Factors Form Transcriptional Modules That Integrate Light and Reactive Oxygen Species Signaling in Arabidopsis[W]

This study shows that PIF1/PIF3 and HY5/HYH physically interact and coordinately regulate the expression of ROS-responsive genes. It reveals that the PIF1/PIF3-HY5/HYH transcriptional modules mediate crosstalk between light and ROS signaling pathways and suggests a mechanism by which plants optimize their growth in response to excess light. The critical developmental switch from heterotrophic to autotrophic growth of plants involves light signaling transduction and the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). ROS function as signaling molecules that regulate multiple developmental processes, including cell death. However, the relationship between light and ROS signaling remains unclear. Here, we identify transcriptional modules composed of the basic helix-loop-helix and bZIP transcription factors PHYTOCHROME-INTERACTING FACTOR1 (PIF1), PIF3, ELONGATED HYPOCOTYL5 (HY5), and HY5 HOMOLOGY (HYH) that bridge light and ROS signaling to regulate cell death and photooxidative response. We show that pif mutants release more singlet oxygen and exhibit more extensive cell death than the wild type during Arabidopsis thaliana deetiolation. Genome-wide expression profiling indicates that PIF1 represses numerous ROS and stress-related genes. Molecular and biochemical analyses reveal that PIF1/PIF3 and HY5/HYH physically interact and coordinately regulate the expression of five ROS-responsive genes by directly binding to their promoters. Furthermore, PIF1/PIF3 and HY5/HYH function antagonistically during the seedling greening process. In addition, phytochromes, cryptochromes, and CONSTITUTIVE PHOTOMORPHOGENIC1 act upstream to regulate ROS signaling. Together, this study reveals that the PIF1/PIF3-HY5/HYH transcriptional modules mediate crosstalk between light and ROS signaling and sheds light on a new mechanism by which plants adapt to the light environments.
Cyclophilin A is overexpressed in human pancreatic cancer cells and stimulates cell proliferation through CD147

Although overexpression of cyclophilin A (CypA) is associated with several types of cancer, its role in pancreatic cancer has not been studied. In this study the expression of CypA and its receptor CD147 on pancreatic cancer was determined as well as the effect of exogenous CypA on pancreatic cancer cell proliferation.
Real-time visual play-break detection in sport events using a context descriptor

The detection of play and break segments in team sports is an essential step towards the automation of live game capture and broadcast. This paper presents a two-stage hierarchical method for play-break detection in non-edited video feeds of sport events. Unlike most existing methods, this algorithm performs action and event recognition on content, and thus does not rely on production cues of broadcast feeds. Moreover, the method does not require player tracking, can be used in real-time, and can be easily adapted to different sports. In the first stage, bag-of-words event detectors are trained to recognize key events such as line changes, face-offs and preliminary play-breaks. In the second stage, the output of the detectors along with a novel feature based on spatio-temporal interest points are used to create a context descriptor for the final decision. Experiments demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed method on real hockey game footage, achieving 90% accuracy.
The use of lyophilized plasma in a severe multi‐injury pig model

Shock and severe tissue injury lead to an endogenous coagulopathy mediated by activation of Protein C and hyperfibrinolysis known as acute traumatic coagulopathy. Together, hemodilution, acidosis, inflammation, and hypothermia result in a global trauma‐induced coagulopathy. Coagulopathy in trauma is associated with mortality. Early and effective hemostatic resuscitation is critical in restoring perfusion, correcting coagulopathy, and saving lives in exsanguinating trauma. Lyophilized plasma (LP) provides a logistically superior alternative to fresh frozen plasma (FFP).
New challenges in gold catalysis: bimetallic systems

Since the discovery of the peculiar catalytic activity of gold catalysts, it became clear that gold could play a fundamental role also as a modifier. Indeed, more active catalysts such as those based on Pd or Pt showed specific and sometimes unexpected properties when modified with gold. This paper reviews advances in the field of Au-based bimetallic catalysts with particular attention to their preparation, characterization and catalytic activity. AuPd catalysts, the most widely studied, have been chosen as an example to show how the different obtained morphologies (alloy, core–shell, decorated particles) can contribute to the catalytic activity.
Myocardial perfusion scintigraphy.

Recent progress in diagnostic cardiology has centered around noninvasive methods 1,2 ; among these, echocardiography and myocardial scintigraphy have developed most rapidly. 3-6 Probably most prominent among the diverse scintigraphic methods is relative myocardial perfusion imaging. 1 The method employs an intracellular cation, most commonly thallium (TL) 201, administered in the form of thallous chloride. The TL 201 is rapidly extracted from the blood following a peripheral intravenous injection 7 and is avidly taken up by the viable myocardium in proportion to relative coronary perfusion. " Owing to the rapid extraction of these radionuclides and the transient stability of their localization, injection made during bicycle or treadmill exercise and imaging performed within a brief period following injection permit evaluation of myocardial perfusion present at the time of injection. 9-13 Image abnormalities present on the stress study can be compared with a subsequent image performed at rest or at redistribution, three to four
Rapid Detection of Isoniazid Resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis Isolates by Use of Real-Time-PCR-Based Melting Curve Analysis

ABSTRACT The MeltPro TB/INH assay, recently approved by the Chinese Food and Drug Administration, is a closed-tube, dual-color, melting curve analysis-based, real-time PCR test specially designed to detect 30 isoniazid (INH) resistance mutations in katG position 315 (katG 315), the inhA promoter (positions −17 to −8), inhA position 94, and the ahpC promoter (positions −44 to −30 and −15 to 3) of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Here we evaluated both the analytical performance and clinical performance of this assay. Analytical studies with corresponding panels demonstrated that the accuracy for detection of different mutation types (10 wild-type samples and 12 mutant type samples), the limit of detection (2 × 103 to 2 × 104 bacilli/ml), reproducibility (standard deviation [SD], <0.4°C), and the lowest heteroresistance level (40%) all met the parameters preset by the kit. The assay could be run on five types of real-time PCR machines, with the shortest running time (105 min) obtained with the LightCycler 480 II. Clinical studies enrolled 1,096 clinical isolates collected from three geographically different tuberculosis centers, including 437 INH-resistant isolates and 659 INH-susceptible isolates characterized by traditional drug susceptibility testing on Löwenstein-Jensen solid medium. The clinical sensitivity and specificity of the MeltPro TB/INH assay were 90.8% and 96.4%, respectively. DNA sequencing analysis showed that, except for the 5 mutants outside the detection range of the MeltPro assay, a concordance rate between the two methods of 99.1% (457/461) was obtained. Among the 26 mutation types detected, katG S315T (AGC→ACC), inhA −15C→T, katG S315N (AGC→AAC), and ahpC promoter −10C→T accounted for more than 90%. Overall, the MeltPro TB/INH assay represents a reliable and rapid tool for the detection of INH resistance in clinical isolates.
Implementation and evaluation of wearable sensor devices for recording and detecting conversational interaction

We have developed a wearable device that records the activities of human-human and human-artifact interactions. The device records personal and social everyday-life experiences in multiple modalities such as voice and visible scene, using microphone and camera to imitate human perceptibility. These sensors are used to record the perceived experiences continuously as well as to detect and index interactions from nonverbal behaviors. We employ an infrared LED ID tag system to detect the interactions in terms of the ID and its relative positions of the objects in the visual field of the camera. In this paper, we propose the "Interaction Scope" which is defined as the range of relative human/object positions that have a high probability of occurring in conversational interactions. We confirm that the interaction scope exists and can represent the interactions naturally through the analysis of experimental conversational sessions. We also demonstrate that our tag system can be effectively used as a sensor that detects and measures the proposed interaction scope.
What is Evidence-based Education?

This paper argues that education should become more evidence-based. The distinction is made between using existing research and establishing high-quality educational research. The need for high-quality systematic reviews and appraisals of educational research is clear. Evidence-based education is not a panacea, but is a set of principles and practices for enhancing educational policy and practice.
Fiscal Consolidation in a Low Inflation Environment: Pay Cuts Versus Lost Jobs

We construct a model of a monetary union to study fiscal consolidation in the Periphery of the euro area, through cuts in public sector wages or hiring when the nominal interest rate is constrained at its lower bound. Consolidation induces a positive wealth effect that increases demand, as well as a reallocation of workers towards the private sector, which together boost private activity. However, in a low inflation environment, demand is suppressed and the private sector is not able to absorb the additional workers. Comparing the two instruments, cuts in public hiring increase unemployment persistently in this environment, while wage cuts reduce it. Regions with higher mobility of labour between the two sectors are able to consolidate more effectively. Price flexibility is also key at the zero lower bound: for a higher degree of price rigidity in the Periphery, consolidation becomes harder to achieve. Consolidations can be self-defeating when the public good is productive, or a complement to private consumption.