Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fluid-Attenuated Inversion Recovery Vascular Hyperintensities: An Important Imaging Marker for Cerebrovascular Disease

SUMMARY: Vascular hyperintensities have been noted on FLAIR sequences obtained in the setting of acute stroke and intracranial steno-occlusive disease. The presence of FVHs likely represents disordered blood flow, often from collaterals distal to arterial occlusion or stenosis. As opposed to other vessel signs seen in arterial insufficiency, FVH is unique in that it does not represent thrombus, but rather sluggish or disordered blood flow through vessels. This review will discuss the diagnostic and prognostic value of FVH and its impact on clinical decision-making.
Automation Improves Schedule Quality and Increases Scheduling Efficiency for Residents.

BACKGROUND Medical resident scheduling is difficult due to multiple rules, competing educational goals, and ever-evolving graduate medical education requirements. Despite this, schedules are typically created manually, consuming hours of work, producing schedules of varying quality, and yielding negative consequences for resident morale and learning. OBJECTIVE To determine whether computerized decision support can improve the construction of residency schedules, saving time and improving schedule quality. METHODS The Optimized Residency Scheduling Assistant was designed by a team from the University of Michigan Department of Industrial and Operations Engineering. It was implemented in the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital Pediatric Emergency Department in the 2012-2013 academic year. The 4 metrics of schedule quality that were compared between the 2010-2011 and 2012-2013 academic years were the incidence of challenging shift transitions, the incidence of shifts following continuity clinics, the total shift inequity, and the night shift inequity. RESULTS All scheduling rules were successfully incorporated. Average schedule creation time fell from 22 to 28 hours to 4 to 6 hours per month, and 3 of 4 metrics of schedule quality significantly improved. For the implementation year, the incidence of challenging shift transitions decreased from 83 to 14 (P < .01); the incidence of postclinic shifts decreased from 72 to 32 (P < .01); and the SD of night shifts dropped by 55.6% (P < .01). CONCLUSIONS This automated shift scheduling system improves the current manual scheduling process, reducing time spent and improving schedule quality. Embracing such automated tools can benefit residency programs with shift-based scheduling needs.
Caspase-1 Dependent IL-1β Secretion Is Critical for Host Defense in a Mouse Model of Chlamydia pneumoniae Lung Infection

Chlamydia pneumoniae (CP) is an important human pathogen that causes atypical pneumonia and is associated with various chronic inflammatory disorders. Caspase-1 is a key component of the ‘inflammasome’, and is required to cleave pro-IL-1β to bioactive IL-1β. Here we demonstrate for the first time a critical requirement for IL-1β in response to CP infection. Caspase-1−/− mice exhibit delayed cytokine production, defective clearance of pulmonary bacteria and higher mortality in response to CP infection. Alveolar macrophages harbored increased bacterial numbers due to reduced iNOS levels in Caspase-1−/− mice. Pharmacological blockade of the IL-1 receptor in CP infected wild-type mice phenocopies Caspase-1-deficient mice, and administration of recombinant IL-1β rescues CP infected Caspase-1−/− mice from mortality, indicating that IL-1β secretion is crucial for host immune defense against CP lung infection. In vitro investigation reveals that CP-induced IL-1β secretion by macrophages requires TLR2/MyD88 and NLRP3/ASC/Caspase-1 signaling. Entry into the cell by CP and new protein synthesis by CP are required for inflammasome activation. Neither ROS nor cathepsin was required for CP infection induced inflammasome activation. Interestingly, Caspase-1 activation during CP infection occurs with mitochondrial dysfunction indicating a possible mechanism involving the mitochondria for CP-induced inflammasome activation.
A novel zero-Voltage and zero-current-switching full-bridge PWM converter

A novel zero-voltage and zero-current-switching (ZVZCS) full-bridge pulse-width modulation converter is proposed. The ZCS condition of the lagging-leg is obtained by a simple secondary auxiliary circuit resetting the primary current during the freewheeling stage. The auxiliary circuit's capacitor is charged by the center tape of the secondary through a diode, and the capacitor's voltage is clamped through another diode to output capacitor, thus, the voltage stress on the rectifier is clamped. There are neither additional active switches nor resistances in the auxiliary circuit, which makes the proposed converter efficient.
Developmental and age‐related changes of peptidylarginine deiminase 2 in the mouse brain

Peptidylarginine deiminases (PADs) are a group of posttranslational modification enzymes that citrullinate (deiminate) protein arginine residues in a Ca2+‐dependent manner. Enzymatic citrullination abolishes positive charges of native protein molecules, inevitably causing significant alterations in their structure and functions. Among the five isoforms of PADs, PAD2 and PAD4 are proved occupants of the central nervous system (CNS), and especially PAD2 is a main PAD enzyme expressed in the CNS. We previously reported that abnormal protein citrullination by PAD2 has been closely associated with the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease and prion disease. Protein citrullination in these patients is thought to play a role during the initiation and/or progression of disease. However, the contribution of changes in PAD2 levels, and consequent citrullination, during developmental and aging processes remained unclear. Therefore, we used quantitative real‐time RT‐PCR, Western blot analysis, and immunohistochemical methods to measure PAD2 expression and localization in the brain during those processes. PAD2 mRNA expression was detected in the brains of mice as early as embryonic day 15, and its expression in cerebral cortex, hippocampus, and cerebellum increased significantly as the animals aged from 3 to 30 months old. No citrullinated proteins were detected during that period. Moreover, we found here, for the first time, that PAD2 localized specifically in the neuronal cells of the cerebral cortex and Purkinje cells of the cerebellum. These findings indicate that, despite PAD2's normally inactive status, it becomes active and citrullinates cellular proteins, but only when the intracellular Ca2+ balance is upset during neurodegenerative changes. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Performance Measures for Phone-level Pronunciation Teaching in Call

This work presents a general development framework for automatic pronunciation assessment within computer-assisted language learning (CALL) together with several reenements of a previously described pronunciation scoring method. This method utilises a likelihood-based`Goodness of Pronunciation' (GOP) measure which in this work has been extended to include individual thresholds for each phone based on both averaged native con-dence scores and on rejection statistics provided by human judges. These statistics where provided through a speciically recorded and annotated database of non-native speech. Since pronunciation assessment is highly subjective, a set of four performance measures has been designed, each of them measuring diierent aspects of how well computer-derived phone-level scores agree with human scores. These performance measures are used to cross-validate the reference annotations and to assess the basic GOP algorithm and its reenements. The experimental results suggest that a likelihood-based pronunciation scoring metric can achieve usable performance, especially after applying the various enhancements.
Adversarial Ladder Networks

The use of unsupervised data in addition to supervised data in training discriminative neural networks has improved the performance of this clas- sification scheme. However, the best results were achieved with a training process that is divided in two parts: first an unsupervised pre-training step is done for initializing the weights of the network and after these weights are refined with the use of supervised data. On the other hand adversarial noise has improved the results of clas- sical supervised learning. Recently, a new neural network topology called Ladder Network, where the key idea is based in some properties of hierar- chichal latent variable models, has been proposed as a technique to train a neural network using supervised and unsupervised data at the same time with what is called semi-supervised learning. This technique has reached state of the art classification. In this work we add adversarial noise to the ladder network and get state of the art classification, with several important conclusions on how adversarial noise can help in addition with new possible lines of investi- gation. We also propose an alternative to add adversarial noise to unsu- pervised data.
Transgenerational genetic effects of the paternal Y chromosome on daughters' phenotypes.

AIMS Recent evidence suggests that transgenerational genetic effects contribute to phenotypic variation in complex traits. To test for the general occurrence of these effects and to estimate their strength, we took advantage of chromosome substitution strains (CSSs) of mice where the Y chromosome of the host strain has been replaced with the Y chromosome of the donor strain. Daughters of these CSS-Y males and host strain females are genetically identical and should be phenotypically indistinguishable in the absence of transgenerational genetic effects of the fathers' Y chromosome on daughters' phenotypes. MATERIALS & METHODS Assay results for a broad panel of physiological traits and behaviors were compared for genetically identical daughters of CSS-Y males and host strain females from the B6-Chr(A/J) and B6-Chr(PWD) panels of CSSs. In addition, behavioral traits including specific tests for anxiety-related behaviors were tested in daughters of B6-Chr(129) and 129-Chr(B6) CSS-Y males. RESULTS Across a panel of 41 multigenic traits assayed in the B6-Chr(A/J) panel of CSSs females and 21 multigenic traits in the B6-Chr(PWD) panel females, the frequency and strength for transgenerational genetic effects were remarkably similar to those for conventional inheritance of substituted chromosomes. In addition, we found strong evidence that the Y chromosome from the 129 inbred strain significantly reduced anxiety levels among daughters of B6-Chr(129) CSS-Y males. CONCLUSION We found that transgenerational genetic effects rival conventional genetic effects in frequency and strength, we suggest that some phenotypic variation found in conventional studies of complex traits are attributable in part to the action of genetic variants in previous generations, and we propose that transgenerational genetic effects contribute to 'missing heritability'.
Evaluation of motor unit placement algorithms for EMG simulation

Motor unit layout algorithms have a significant effect on motor unit fibre densities recorded. Motor unit fibre densities are affected by both the method used to place the motor unit territories, and the mechanism by which muscle fibres are assigned to motor units. The first of these should emulate the process by which separate motor neurons create overlapping territories that cover the muscle cross section, while the second should have some relation to the processes involved with axonal arborization and development of the spatial dispersion of the neuro-muscular junctions. The success of an algorithm in creating physiologically realistic motor unit layouts may be evaluated, in part, by examining the distribution of the muscle fibres assigned to the motor units. This paper examines the motor unit fibre densities found in muscles created by two recent algorithms, and explores the degree to which the concepts used by these algorithms may be shared.
Harnessing user contributions and dynamic profiling to better satisfy individual information search needs

In the situation of information overload we are experiencing today, conventional web search systems taking a one-size-fits-all approach are often not capable of effectively satisfy individual information needs. To improve the quality of web information retrieval, we propose a collaborative personalised search approach that makes an attempt to 'understand' and better satisfy the information needs for each and every searching user. We present a web information retrieval framework called Better Search and Sharing (BESS) that captures user-system interactions, profiles them and induces personal interests that changes over time with an interest-change-driven profiling mechanism that is also extensively used for the co-evaluation of documents found valuable inside a specific search context by users with similar interests.
What Is Second Screening? Exploring Motivations of Second Screen Use and Its Effect on Online Political Participation

This study focuses on second screening for news, a hybrid media process that combines watching news on television and a second, web-connected screen (i.e., smart-phone, laptop). Based on U.S.-national, 2-wave panel data, the paper (a) examines people's motivations to engage in second screen use, and then (b) advances the relationship between second screening and online political behaviors. Discussing and pursuing further information are both central motivations for second screen use. Furthermore, results suggest second screening for news is a significant predictor of online political participation and a key link between TV news and political engagement as this relationship is fully mediated. The study advances theoretically and empirically ways in which an informed public opinion may partake of a more engaged democracy
3D reconstruction from CT-scan volume dataset application to kidney modeling

Organ segmentation and reconstruction are useful for many clinical purpose, like diagnostic aid or therapy planification. The segmentation literature is large. However, it is rare to find a method which performs both organ segmentation and reconstruction. Moreover, the major part of the literature focuses on the liver or lungs. We present a new method for kidney reconstruction from 3D CT scan. First, we perform a segmentation stage to extract the kidney volume from the greyscale image stack. Then, we refine this segmentation by analyzing the histogram of the kidney regions previously segmented. The refinement step eliminates the areas that was incorrectly considered as kidney region. A point cloud is extracted and is then reconstructed using the Poisson surface reconstruction. Thus, we obtain a 3D kidney model on which we apply a post-treatment in order to regularize it. Despite the reconstruction step, our method is fast and can be used real-time medical environment.
Design and management of collaborative intrusion detection networks

Traditional intrusion detection systems (IDSs) work in isolation and are not effective to detect unknown threats. An intrusion detection network (IDN) is a collaborative IDS network intended to overcome this weakness by allowing IDS peers to share detection knowledge and experience, and hence improve the overall accuracy of intrusion assessment. However, malicious insiders and free riders may compromise the efficiency of IDNs. In this work, we design a collaborative IDN system and particularly focus on four research problems, namely, trust management, collaborative intrusion decision, resource management, and collaborators selection. We evaluate our design in terms of several desired properties such as efficiency, robustness, scalability and incentive-compatibility.
Acculturation and Acculturation Stress: A Social-Epidemiological Approach to Mexican Migrant Farmworkers’ Health 1

Utilizing a cluster sampling design to maximize representativeness, we look at the health effects of acculturation and acculturation stressors among 1,001 adult migrant farmworkers in Fresno, California. Using self-ratings of mental and physical health as well as the CES-D depression scale, we find that the amount of time one spends in the United States, the level of English-language usage, as well as the intensity of acculturation stresses that one reports, are all related to declines in health. In addition, acculturation stress has more deleterious effects on self-rated health (both physical and mental) among the more highly acculturated.
A Detector for a Chronic Implantable Atrial Tachyarrhythmia Monitor

Continuous long-term monitoring of atrial fibrillation (AF) and tachycardia (AT) is an unmet clinical need, which could be met with a chronically-implanted monitor. Improved therapeutic decisions based on accurate monitoring of parameters, such as daily AF/AT burden (hours/ day) may lead to improvements in clinical outcomes such as reduction in hospitalizations, symptoms, and strokes. This paper describes an AF/AT detector that detects AF as well as AT with an irregular ventricular response, and a supplementary AT detector for AT with more regular ventricular response. Seven databases with significant durations of AF, AT, and sinus rhythm were used to evaluate the performance of the detectors. All patient records with AF (N = 124) were detected by the AF/AT detector to have AF/AT burden with a mean, median, and 75 percentile of absolute error in burden detection of 8.8, 0, and 4 min, respectively. In patients having AF burden (ges 10 min), the AF/AT detector was found to have burden accuracy within 20% of true burden in 96% of patients. The specificity was 94%, defined as follows: in patient records without AF/AT (N = 174), the percentage with AF/AT burden les10 min in the 24-h recordings. The AF/AT detector underestimates AT burden, thus degrading performance, in patients with significant amounts of AT with more regular ventricular response. The supplementary AT detector reduces the underestimation of AT while overestimating burden in patients without a significant amount of AT. The detectors described here could be implemented in an implantable monitor for accurate long-term AF/AT monitoring.
Secure multicast key protocol for electronic mail systems with providing perfect forward secrecy

Electronic mail (e-mail) systems are widely used in the Internet. A user usually needs to send an e-mail to a group of users. In this paper, a secure multicast key protocol for e-mail systems with providing perfect forward secrecy is proposed to ensure confidentiality and authentication of this kind of e-mail system. The protocol employs the Chinese Remainder Theorem, RSA public key cryptosystems, and one-way hash functions. The protocol can save redundant key materials used for the e-mails. Via the security analysis, the protocol can satisfy the security requirements. In addition, we analyze the computation complexity of the protocol. The result showed that the protocol can save the computation cost for each e-mail sender. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The Marriage Habitus of Remarried Israeli War and Terror Widows and the Reproduction of Male Symbolic Capital

Abstract This article demonstrates social mechanisms that contribute to the expropriation of remarried war widows' symbolic capital in Israeli society. Its main arguments are based on an interpretation of the marriage habitus of remarried Israeli war widows. Twenty-eight people (15 war widows, 12 husbands, and one matchmaker who “specializes’ in helping widows remarry) were interviewed. Using Bourdieusian analytical theory, I analyze the marriage habitus of the remarried war widows. These women manage to convert their symbolic capital into social capital and remarry high-status never-married men. This marriage habitus constitutes a major mechanism that deflects their symbolic capital and facilitates its transmission to their second husbands. Once a widow has remarried, she loses a large part of the symbolic capital because of the accepted notion that remarriage contributes significantly to her family's rehabilitation. This article provides some insights into the gender norms that contribute to the expropriation of the widow's symbolic capital and preserving gender inequalities through the reproduction of male symbolic capital in the Zionist state.
Service Specification and Validation for the Intelligent Network

We propose an object-oriented specification language, FUS++, for expressing the functional behaviors and the desired properties of each telecommunications service at the analysis phase. Our approach is based on Fusion, an object-oriented method that consists of analysis, design, and implementation phases for software development. Accompanying FUS++ is a tool we developed for translating FUS++ specifications to Promela statements; validation of service specifications and detection of feature interactions are thus possible by applying Spin tools to these Promela statements. To ensure a correct implementation of services with respect to their specifications, we exercise a novel concept of adding a service modeler and observer (SMO) to the target system where the execution of these services takes place. Combined with a test scenario generator, SMO is quite effective in identifying implementation errors on the fly. This paper presents the FUS++ language, the specification of telecommunications services based on FUS++, the concept of SMO, and the realization of SMO in a CS-1 (Capability Set No 1) intelligent network. Index terms : telecommunication software engineering, validation, software lifecycle, property verification, intelligent network.
Bone Morphogenetic Protein 4 Mediates Estrogen-Regulated Sensory Axon Plasticity in the Adult Female Reproductive Tract

Peripheral axons are structurally plastic even in the adult, and altered axon density is implicated in many disorders and pain syndromes. However, mechanisms responsible for peripheral axon remodeling are poorly understood. Physiological plasticity is characteristic of the female reproductive tract: vaginal sensory innervation density is low under high estrogen conditions, such as term pregnancy, whereas density is high in low-estrogen conditions, such as menopause. We exploited this system in rats to identify factors responsible for adult peripheral neuroplasticity. Calcitonin gene-related peptide-immunoreactive sensory innervation is distributed primarily within the vaginal submucosa. Submucosal smooth muscle cells express bone morphogenetic protein 4 (BMP4). With low estrogen, BMP4 expression was elevated, indicating negative regulation by this hormone. Vaginal smooth muscle cells induced robust neurite outgrowth by cocultured dorsal root ganglion neurons, which was prevented by neutralizing BMP4 with noggin or anti-BMP4. Estrogen also prevented axon outgrowth, and this was reversed by exogenous BMP4. Nuclear accumulation of phosphorylated Smad1, a primary transcription factor for BMP4 signaling, was high in vagina-projecting sensory neurons after ovariectomy and reduced by estrogen. BMP4 regulation of innervation was confirmed in vivo using lentiviral transduction to overexpress BMP4 in an estrogen-independent manner. Submucosal regions with high virally induced BMP4 expression had high innervation density despite elevated estrogen. These findings show that BMP4, an important factor in early nervous system development and regeneration after injury, is a critical mediator of adult physiological plasticity as well. Altered BMP4 expression may therefore contribute to sensory hyperinnervation, a hallmark of several pain disorders, including vulvodynia.