Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Iterative maximum-likelihood sequence estimation for space-time coded systems

In previous work on decoding space-time codes, it is either assumed that perfect channel state information (CSI) is present, or a channel estimate is obtained using pilot symbols and then used as if it were perfect to extract symbol estimates. In the latter case, a loss in performance is incurred, since the resulting overall receiver is not optimal. We look at maximum-likelihood (ML) sequence estimation for space-time coded systems without assuming CSI. The log-likelihood function is presented for both-quasi-static and nonstatic fading channels, and an expectation-maximization (EM)-based algorithm is introduced for producing ML data estimates, whose complexity is much smaller than a direct evaluation of the log-likelihood function. Simulation results indicate the EM-based algorithm achieves a performance close to that of a receiver which knows the channel perfectly.
An adaptive genetic algorithm based on arctangent function

To speed up convergence rate and improve local convergence in genetic algorithm, nonlinear adaptive crossover probability and mutation probability function are designed. They are based on the arctangent function with three parameters of maximal fitness, minimal fitness and average fitness. An improved adaptive genetic algorithm is proposed based on the two designed functions. Simulation results prove that the proposed improved adaptive genetic algorithm possesses faster convergence speed than GA and AGA presented by Srinvas, stronger optimization ability and avoid the premature effectively.
Towards a lung adenocarcinoma proteome map: Studies with SP‐C/c‐raf transgenic mice

We report mapping of proteins of adenocarcinomas of the lung as a result of overexpression of the oncogenically activated N‐terminal deletion mutant c‐raf‐1 BxB through usage of the human SP‐C promotor. Proteins from non‐transgenic controls and tumors were extracted with a lysis buffer containing 5 mol/L urea, 2 mol/L thiourea, 40 mmol/L Tris, 4% CHAPS, 100 mmol/L DTT, 0.5% BioLyte 3–10, separated by 2‐DE and studied by image analysis. On average, 300–600 protein spots per gel were excised and analyzed by MALDI‐TOF and ‐TOF/TOF MS. More than 1000 of the CBB‐stained proteins were identified and traced back to 100 different gene products, including many of their isoforms. We observed significant changes in the expression of proteins involved in cellular defense or glycolysis, and this included glutathione S‐transferase, peroxiredoxin 6, and α‐enolase, among others. Proteins associated with lung tumor growth and/or metastasis, i.e., lung carbonyl reductase, differed in expression, as did tumor‐associated expression of cell adhesion and membrane‐bound proteins such as vinculin. This map provides valuable insight into expression of pulmonary proteins associated with lung adenocarcinomas, some of which may be of utility as diagnostic markers in clinical trials.
Monitoring lymphoma patients after therapy.

MR Different methods are used for different types of lymphoma. It is important to distinguish between lymphomas that are treated with curative intent, such as diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL); and indolent lymphomas that have a perpetual risk of relapse, such as follicular lymphoma (FL). In DLBCL, the risk of relapse is highest proximal to treatment and reduces over time. Most disease that fails to respond to therapy will relapse within 2 years of treatment completion. In FL, however, the risk of relapse continues to rise over time because most patients are not cured with initial therapy. All patients are followed with regular clinic visits in which the provider assesses for signs and symptoms suggestive of lymphoma recurrence, such as lymph node swelling, pain, or constitutional symptoms. In addition, it is customary to test blood counts and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) levels at each clinic visit. The challenge is to identify evidence of recurrent disease while a patient remains asymptomatic. In this regard, the focus has been on medical imaging, such as computed tomography (CT) scans and—more recently—positron emission tomography (PET) scans, performed at regular intervals after therapy. In potentially curable lymphomas such as DLBCL, this is of particular interest as a strategy to improve the cure rate. Unfortunately, medical imaging scans have not been shown to affect clinical outcomes, probably because they lack the ability to detect disease at the molecular level. Thus, enthusiasm for performing routine surveillance imaging in patients with DLBCL is waning and some centers have abandoned the practice altogether. H&O Could you describe some of the imaging methods to monitor lymphoma patients after therapy?
Systematic qualitative review of the literature on data monitoring committees for randomized controlled trials

Aims To systematically review the published literature on data monitoring committees (DMCs) for randomized controlled trials (RCT) and summarize information and opinions on best practice. This was part of the DAMOCLES project. Methods A systematic and comprehensive search of five online bibliographic databases was performed, identifying 4007 potentially relevant articles. These were assessed in two stages by the authors. The 84 most relevant articles were agreed and were supplemented with extracts from 16 books: ultimately, 100 sources were reviewed. A series of 23 questions plus subquestions were developed to structure the data extraction and interpretation process. Results Much has been written about DMCs but by a rather small community of authors. The papers included some results of surveys, but were mainly opinion pieces based on the authors' beliefs, practices and experiences. There is a lack of empirical evidence for many aspects of DMCs. There was a great range of detail in the literature relating to the prespecified questions. It was generally agreed that interim monitoring of accumulating data was necessary in some form for most trials. Questions such as membership of the DMC featured widely in the literature with opinions and practice ranging from 3–20 members, of whom between none and all should be independent. There was a consensus that formal statistical methods should be used as tools to guide decision making rather than as hard rules. Conversely, topics such as the training and experience required for DMC membership were discussed in very few papers. Conclusions There is a consensus in the published literature in a number of areas, although there are many different models for structure and functions of a DMC. While uncertainty remains about some issues, it is strongly recommended that an explicit set of guidelines (Charter) is prepared for each DMC prior to the start of the trial specifying clearly how it will operate.
Characteristics of the Interaction between Hsc70 and the Transferrin Receptor in Exosomes Released during Reticulocyte Maturation*

The transferrin receptor (TfR) of reticulocytes is released in vesicular form (exosomes) during their maturation to erythrocytes. The heat shock cognate 70-kDa protein (Hsc70) has been demonstrated to interact with the cytosolic domain of the TfR and could thus trigger the receptor toward this secretion pathway. We investigated the characteristics of the interaction between Hsc70 and the TfR in exosomes with an in vitro binding assay using TfR immobilized on Sepharose beads and purified Hsc70. The results show that Hsc70 binds to exosomal TfR with characteristics expected of a chaperone/peptide interaction. We demonstrated that heat-denatured luciferase competed for in vitro binding, dependent on the nucleotide bound to Hsc70, and that this interaction activates the ATPase activity of Hsc70. Moreover, we used immunosuppressive agents that interact with Hsc70, thus decreasing Hsc70 binding to TfR in ourin vitro binding assay and enabling us to assess the role of this interaction in vivo during reticulocyte maturation.
Metabotropic Excitatory Amino Acid Receptor Activation Stimulates Phospholipase D in Hippocampal Slices

Abstract: Metabotropic excitatory amino acid (EAA) receptors are coupled to effector systems through G proteins. Because various G protein‐coupled receptors stimulate the hydrolysis of phosphatidylcholine by phospholipase D (PLD), we examined the possibility that metabotropic EAA receptors exist that are coupled to the activation of PLD. We found that the selective metabotropic glutamate receptor (mGluR) agonists 1S,3R‐amino‐1,3‐cyclopentanedicarboxylic acid (ACPD) and 1S,3S‐ACPD, but not the inactive isomer, 1R,3S‐ACPD, induce a concentration‐dependent increase in PLD activity in hippocampal slices. Selective ionotropic glutamate receptor (iGluR) antagonists did not block 1S,3R‐ACPD‐induced PLD stimulation. Furthermore, although selective iGluR agonists did not activate this response, the nonselective mGluR‐iGluR agonists, ibotenate and quisqualate, caused significant increases in PLD activity (all in the presence of iGluR antagonists). L‐2‐Amino‐3‐phosphonopropionic acid, which blocks the mGluR that is coupled to phosphoinositide hydrolysis in various brain regions, activates PLD to the same extent as the active isomers of ACPD. These data suggest that metabotropic EAA receptors exist in hippocampus that are coupled to PLD activation and are pharmacologically distinct from phosphoinositide hydrolysis‐coupled mGluRs.
Realization of multi-valued associative memory with cellular neural network

In this paper, a design and implementation method of cellular neural networks with a multi-valued saturation function is discussed. The multi-valued saturation function is defined as a linear combination of piecewise linear functions that consist of a saturation range and a linear-slope range. The length of these ranges determine the output characteristics of each neuron, and is expressed by two parameters. We investigate the relation between these output characteristics and the ability of the multi-valued associative memory with computer simulation. Finally, we propose a design guideline for deciding its parameters from these results.
HAZARDS OF WATER‐SKIING

J. S. LAWSON. The sign described is readily detected and is important. If sought, it is frequently found. In the Thyroid Clinic at the Launceston General Hospital, this sign has been demonstrated to postgraduate staff and visitors for many years. It is probably even more common than Plummer's nails. In many cases it occurs unaccompanied by the moist skin, and sometimes even the warmth, more commonly described. Like so many signs, it is not new. Pitt-Rivers and Trotter" mention the thinning of mammalian epidermis seen after thyroid treatment. They point out the curious fact that the reverse happens in other species.
Safety summary of panitumumab (pmab) in combination with chemotherapy (ctx) from four clinical trials in patients (pts) with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC).

e15005 Background: Pmab is a fully human anti-epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) monoclonal antibody approved in the US and EU (wild-type KRAS) as monotherapy for pts with mCRC. Safety data from 4 studies (Siena et al ASCO 2008; Peeters et al ASCO 2008; Cohn et al ASCO 2008; Mitchell et al WORLD GI 2008) of pmab in combination with ctx are summarized. METHODS Two studies are single-arm, phase II trials and two are randomized, phase III trials with pooled, blinded safety data that include ctx-controls. All studies were multicenter. Common pt eligibility criteria included: diagnosis of mCRC with measurable disease per modified RECIST criteria, age ≥ 18 years, and adequate hematologic, renal, hepatic, and metabolic function. All studies required pts to receive FOLFOX, FOLFIRI, or irinotecan ctx in combination with pmab. Pts received pmab 6.0 mg/kg Q2W with FOLFOX Q2W or FOLFIRI Q2W, or pmab 9.0 mg/kg Q3W with irinotecan Q3W. Results from planned interim analyses are available for 3 studies, and results from the final analysis are available for one study. RESULTS Among the 4-study safety data, 1213 pts received pmab + ctx; 703 pts received pmab + FOLFIRI, 455 pts received pmab + FOLFOX, and 55 pts received pmab + irinotecan. Approximately 1,200 pts were enrolled in each phase III study, and data are available from 1,003 pts who received pmab + ctx and 997 pts who received ctx alone. All pts in the phase III studies, regardless of treatment group, were included in the pooled, blinded interim analysis sets monitored by the data monitoring committee for each study. Safety results for the two phase II studies of pmab + ctx and two phase III studies of pmab ± ctx are summarized (Table). CONCLUSIONS Phase II data are consistent with expectations, and phase III trials are ongoing. A consistent safety profile was observed across studies. [Table: see text] [Table: see text].
The Rorschach Comprehensive System (CS) Psychometric Validity of Individual Variables

ABSTRACT Since the publication of the Rorschach Inkblot Method (Rorschach, 1921/1942), theorists, researchers, and practitioners have been debating the nature of the task, its conceptual foundation, and most important its psychometric properties. The validity of the Rorschach Comprehensive System (CS; Exner, 1974, 2003; Exner & Weiner, 1995) has been supported by several meta-analyses that used different types of nontest external criterion for validating individual variables. In a recent meta-analysis, Mihura, Meyer, Dumitrascu, and Bombel (2013) found coefficients ranging from modest to excellent for most of the selected CS variables, with 13 of them reported as showing “little to no support. ” This article focuses on these variables. Although endorsing Mihura et al.'s mainly validating findings, we also suggest that the evidence presented for the little or no validity of these 13 variables is not quite compelling enough to warrant changing their definition or coding, or removing them from the system. We point to some issues concerning the description and interpretation of these variables and the appropriateness of the external criteria used for exploring their validity, and suggest considering these issues in further CS research. Implications of Mihura et al.'s meta-analysis for clinical and forensic practice are discussed.
S 100 A 1 Gene Therapy Preserves in Vivo Cardiac Function after Myocardial Infarction

1120 Myocardial infarction (MI) represents an enormous clinical challenge as loss of myocardium due to ischemic injury is associated with compromised left ventricular (LV) function often leading to acute cardiac decompensation or chronic heart failure. S100A1 was recently identified as a positive inotropic regulator of myocardial contractility in vitro and in vivo. Here, we explore the strategy of myocardial S100A1 gene therapy either at the time of, or 2 h after, MI to preserve global heart function. Rats underwent cryothermia-induced MI and in vivo intracoronary delivery of adenoviral transgenes (4 10 pfu). Animals received saline (MI), the S100A1 adenovirus (MI/AdS100A1), a control adenovirus (MI/AdGFP), or a sham operation. S100A1 gene delivery preserved global in vivo LV function 1 week after MI. Preservation of LV function was due mainly to S100A1-mediated gain of contractility of the remaining, viable myocardium since contractile parameters and Ca transients of isolated MI/AdS100A1 myocytes were significantly enhanced compared to myocytes isolated from both MI/AdGFP and sham groups. Moreover, S100A1 gene therapy preserved the cardiac Badrenergic inotropic reserve, which was associated with the attenuation of GRK2 up-regulation. Also, S100A1 overexpression reduced cardiac hypertrophy 1 week post-MI. Overall, our data indicate that S100A1 gene therapy provides a potential novel treatment strategy to maintain contractile performance of the post-MI heart.
Using Action Research to Facilitate Organisational Change in Mental Health Service Delivery

Objective: To report how well a particular mental health service was responding to National and State mental health policies by emphasising community-based clinical care for patients. Method: The method involved analysis and action in response to information obtained from a consecutive sample of 100 people admitted to a psychiatric hospital ward from a geographical catchment area. Results: It was found that community mental health staff were working without adequate support and were not able to effectively implement early intervention and relapse prevention strategies. Concern about these findings led to organisational change using action research methodology and some of these changes are discussed. Conclusions: Such methodology was a useful tool to identlfy and achieve organisational change in psychiatric services.
A Multi-Site Virtual Cluster System for Wide Area Networks

A virtual cluster is a promising technology for reducing management costs and improving capacity utilization in datacenters and computer centers. However, recent cluster virtualization systems do not have the maximum scalability and flexibility required, due to limited hardware resources at one site. Therefore, we are now developing an advanced cluster management system for multi-site virtual clusters; which provides a virtual cluster composed of distributed computer resources over wide area networks. This system has great advantages over other cluster management systems designed only for single-site resources; users can create a cluster of virtual machines from local and remote physical clusters in a scalable manner, and dynamically change the number of cluster nodes on demand, seamlessly. In our system, a multi-site cluster achieves a monolithic system view of cluster nodes to enable existing applications to be deployed quickly and managed flexibly, just as in physical clusters. In this paper, we propose an advanced cluster virtualization mechanism composed of two key techniques. An L2 network extension of virtual machine networks allows transparent deployment over networks for distributed virtual cluster nodes, and a transparent package caching mechanism greatly optimizes data transfers in virtual cluster deployment over network latencies. Experimental results show multisite virtual clusters have sufficient feasibility in WAN environments and promise great scalability for a large-scale number of virtual nodes.
Ontology-driven Generation of 3D Animations for Training and Maintenance

3D computer-based animations are nowadays used for training purposes in a wide range of industrial applications like assembly, maintenance and operations. Authoring them is usually a time consuming task, demanded to professional 3D designers, who need at first a good understanding of the involved entities and actions in order to create customized animations. The proposed methodology deals with the use of an ontology in order to filter and understand generic natural language training requests. Once identified the proper actors and actions, they are associated to the corresponding models and movements to be performed in the virtual environment and translated in a 3D graphics format template. The result is a customized animation, which can be created by a non-expert designer and then visualized by the worker on site. The role of the ontology is to reduce the overall complexity of the animation authoring process by assuring the necessary comprehension of the training requests as well as reusability and extensibility of the structure of both modeled objects and of animations' components in different fields of knowledge.
Maximization of Mutual Information for Multiview Gait-based Gender Classification Using Gabor Feature

Soft biometric classification has attracted more and more attention with its increasing potential applications. We address the issue of gender classification based on multi-view gait sequences, which are defined by two basic problems. One is one-to-one case while the other is manyto-one case. For the first problem, there exists only one view in the gallery set. We employ Gabor filter and Maximization of Mutual Information (MMI) method to extract low dimensional features, and apply the Bayes rules based on Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) to gender classification. For many-to-one problem, a hierarchical framework based on view-related population HMM and Bayes rule is proposed to deal with the multi-view gait sequences. Experimental results demonstrate the advantages of our solutions to existing methods.
An In-Body Impulse Radio Transceiver With Implant Antenna Miniaturization at 30 MHz

For real-time image/video transmission in implant body area networks, we have developed an in-body transceiver at around 30 MHz. The transceiver employs impulse radio (IR) technology with multi-pulse position modulation (MPPM) scheme. The transmit antenna was realized in a dimension of 1 × 2 cm by forming the radiation elements on a flexible magnetic sheet. Experimental results in a biological-equivalent liquid phantom have demonstrated a bit error rate smaller than 10-3 in a depth of 26 cm with a data rate at least 1.25 Mbps.
Dual Direction Overdriving Method for Accelerating 2D/3D Switching Time of Liquid Crystal Lens on Auto-Stereoscopic Display

In this paper, we investigate the dual direction overdriving method to accelerate both the 3D-on and 3D-off time of the lenticular liquid crystal (LC) lens. The experimental results indicated that the response time (τ3D-on and τ3D-off) was successfully improved for a factor of 4 as a thick (60 μm cell gap) LC lens. The LC lens was also implemented on an auto-stereoscopic display to yield fast 2D/3D switching ability.
Geometric phase and the generalized invariant formulation.

An alternative concept of the basic invariants is introduced. The Lewis-Riesenfeld invariant theory is extended to obtain a generalized invariant formulation. The formulation is then used to establish four facts: (i) Any invariant for a quantum system can be constructed in terms of the basic invariants. (ii) It is possible to introduce a solution-generating technique by making use of the basic invariants. (iii) The path integral in the generalized invariant formulation reduces to an ordinary integral. (iv) The study of noncyclic evolution of a quantum system reduces explicitly to the study of the cyclic evolution. Finally, phase factors and general solution for the driven generalized time-dependent harmonic oscillator are studied as an illustrative example.
The eye of the use - The influence of movement on users’ visual attention

To explore and experiment with the communicative potentials of movement in interface design, six principles for applying movement on web sites were developed. The movement principles were grouped under the following functions: catching the eye, getting attention and avoiding distraction. Letting the principles act as design guidelines a prototype was developed embedding dynamic visualizations of movement. The assumption was that the movements will help direct users’ visual focus and perception – without causing irritation and distraction. A pilot test of the prototype was conducted, at the same time exploring two techniques: eye-recording technique and mind tape interviews. Taking the results of our investigations as indications, we argue that use of movement - though further experiment and investigation are necessary - holds so much promising potential as a communicative tool