Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Modification of the phased-tracking method for reduction of artifacts in estimated artery wall deformation

Noninvasive measurement of mechanical properties, such as elasticity, of the arterial wall, is useful for diagnosis of atherosclerosis. For assessment of mechanical properties, it is necessary to measure the deformation of the arterial wall. In this study, a modification of the previously proposed phased-tracking method was conducted to improve measurement of the small change in thickness (deformation) of the arterial wall due to the heartbeat. In our previous method, a set of two points along an ultrasonic beam was initially assigned, and the change in thickness of the layer between these two points during an entire cardiac cycle was estimated. In motion estimation with ultrasound, the motion of an interface or a scatterer, which generates an echo, can be obtained by estimating the change in time delay of the echo. For example, in the case of a carotid artery of a healthy subject, there are only two dominant echoes from the lumen-intima and media-adventitia interfaces. Thus, only the displacements of the lumen-intima and media-adventitia interfaces can be estimated, which means that ultrasound can estimate only the change in distance (thickness) between these two interfaces. However, even in this case, our previous method gives different estimates of the change in thickness, depending on the depths (positions in the arterial radial direction) of the two initially assigned points. In this study, modifications of the previous method in terms of the strategy for assignment of layers and the required thickness of an assigned layer were made to reduce such an artificial spatial variation in the estimated changes in thickness. Using the proposed method, errors in estimated changes in thickness were reduced from 21.2 plusmn 24.1% to 0.19 plusmn 0.04% (mean plusmn standard deviation) in simulation experiments. As in the case of the simulation experiments, the spatial variation in estimated changes in thickness also was reduced in in vivo experiments in a carotid artery of a healthy subject and in vitro experiments using two excised, diseased arteries
Altered Functional Performance in Patients with Fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia is a common chronic pain condition that exerts a considerable impact on patients' daily activities and quality of life. Objectives: The main objective of the present study was to evaluate kinematic parameters of gait, functional performance, and balance in women with fibromyalgia syndrome. Methods: The study included 26 female patients with fibromyalgia (49.2 ± 8.0 years) according to the criteria of the American College of Rheumatology, as well as 16 pain-free women (43.5 ± 8.5 years). Gait and balance parameters were extracted from video recordings of participants performing several motor tasks. Non-linear dynamic of body sway time series was also analyzed by computing the Hurst exponent. In addition, functional performance and clinical pain were obtained by using standardized motor tests (Berg's balance scale, 6-min walking test, timed up and go task, Romberg's balance test) and self-report questionnaires (Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire). Results: Walking speed was significantly diminished (p < 0.001) in FM patients as compared to pain-free controls, probably due to significant reductions in stride length (p < 0.001) and cycle frequency (p < 0.001). Analyses of balance also revealed significant differences between fibromyalgia and pain-free controls on body sway in the medial-lateral and anterior-posterior axes (all ps < 0.01). Several parameters of gait and balance were significantly associated with high levels of pain, depression, stiffness, anxiety, and fatigue in fibromyalgia. Conclusion: Our data revealed that both gait and balance were severely impaired in FM, and that subjective complaints associated with FM could contribute to functional disability in these patients. These findings suggest that optimal rehabilitation and fall prevention in fibromyalgia require a comprehensive assessment of both psychological responses to pain and physical impairments during postural control and gait.
Spectrogram-Based Deep Learning for Flute Audition Assessment and Intelligent Feedback

Performers of classical music require a blend of technical precision and artistic expression in their output, and this fusion, often referred to as “musicality,” is considered vital to performance quality. This paper introduces an innovative approach that leverages deep learning and LLMs to simultaneously evaluate and coach musicians using recorded performances on a variety of performance metrics at varying levels of subjectivity. A case study, centered around flute players performing a challenging excerpt from Ravel’s “Daphnis et Chloé,” demonstrates the proposed model’s capabilities. Feedback is generated by a large-language model based on machine-assessed quality, learned from human judgments. The model showcases promise in bridging the gap between technical precision and human expression in classical music performance assessment and provides a foundation for expanding the repertoire of assessed pieces and advancing the integration of AI in classical music education.
Gene Delivery of Sarcoplasmic Reticulum Calcium ATPase Inhibits Ventricular Remodeling in Ischemic Mitral Regurgitation

Background—Mitral regurgitation (MR) doubles mortality after myocardial infarction (MI). We have demonstrated that MR worsens remodeling after MI and that early correction reverses remodeling. Sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca+2-ATPase (SERCA2a) is downregulated in this process. We hypothesized that upregulating SERCA2a might inhibit remodeling in a surgical model of apical MI (no intrinsic MR) with independent MR-type flow. Methods and Results—In 12 sheep, percutaneous gene delivery was performed by using a validated protocol to perfuse both the left anterior descending and circumflex coronary arteries with occlusion of venous drainage. We administered adeno-associated virus 6 (AAV6) carrying SERCA2a under a Cytomegalovirus promoter control in 6 sheep and a reporter gene in 6 controls. After 2 weeks, a standardized apical MI was created, and a shunt was implanted between the left ventricle and left atrium, producing regurgitant fractions of ≈30%. Animals were compared at baseline and 1 and 3 months by 3D echocardiography, Millar hemodynamics, and biopsies. The SERCA2a group had a well-maintained preload-recruitable stroke work at 3 months (decrease by 8±10% vs 42±12% with reporter gene controls; P<0.001). Left ventricular dP/dt followed the same pattern (no change vs 55% decrease; P<0.001). Left ventricular end-systolic volume was lower with SERCA2a (82.6±9.6 vs 99.4±9.7 mL; P=0.03); left ventricular end-diastolic volume, reflecting volume overload, was not significantly different (127.8±6.2 vs 134.3±9.4 mL). SERCA2a sheep showed a 15% rise in antiapoptotic pAkt versus a 30% reduction with the reporter gene (P<0.001). Prohypertrophic activated STAT3 was also 41% higher with SERCA2a than in controls (P<0.001). Proapoptotic activated caspase-3 rose >5-fold during 1 month in both SERCA2a and control animals (P=NS) and decreased by 19% at 3 months, remaining elevated in both groups. Conclusions—In this controlled model, upregulating SERCA2a induced better function and lesser remodeling, with improved contractility, smaller volume, and activation of prohypertrophic/antiapoptotic pathways. Although caspase-3 remained activated in both groups, SERCA2a sheep had increased molecular antiremodeling “tone. ” We therefore conclude that upregulating SERCA2a inhibits MR-induced post-MI remodeling in this model and thus may constitute a useful approach to reduce the vicious circle of remodeling in ischemic MR.
Implementation Team Responsiveness and User Evaluation of Customer Relationship Management: A Quasi-Experimental Design Study of Social Exchange Theory

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems require extensive configuration during which users come into extensive contact with the technical implementation team. Previous research examining other Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) modules has shown that user perception of the responsiveness of such teams, as an indicator of a possible social exchange, is significantly associated with an increased favorable assessment of the new system and ultimately its adoption, the reason being that perceived responsiveness creates a constructive social exchange. However, previous research, using survey data alone, did not examine causation. The objective of this study is to examine, using a quasi-experimental design, whether different degrees of actual responsiveness in different sites during CRM implementation result in significant differences in the users'favorable assessment of the correctness and ultimately their approval of a new CRM. The data support these hypotheses, but show that the downstream effects of actual responsiveness are mediated by perceived responsiveness. Implications concerning the social exchange relationship during CRM adoption are discussed.
Model Building with Multiple Dependent Variables and Constraints

The most widely used method for finding relationships between several quantities is multiple regression. This however is restricted to a single dependent variable. We present a more general method which allows models to be constructed with multiple varaibles on both sides of an euqation and which can be computed easily using a spreadsheet program. The underlying principle (originating from canonical analysis) is that of maximizing the correlation between the two sides of the model equation.
Clinical significance of mitral leaflet flail.

BACKGROUND There has been scant academic consideration paid to investigations of mitral leaflet flail in terms of clinical profile, surgical strategy, and surgical outcome. METHODS One hundred consecutive patients with mitral leaflet flail referred for surgical treatment in the past 4(2/3) years were included in this study. RESULTS The most common reasons leading to mitral leaflet flail were chord rupture (38%), myxomatous degeneration (23%), and combined chord rupture and myxomatous degeneration (12%). Mitral leaflet flail was predominantly characterized by independent P(2) flail, followed by P(2,3) flail and independent A(2) flail. Chord rupture occurred in 54 patients, and the most commonly involved segments were P(2), P(2,3), and P(3). The most common risk factors for mitral valve replacement were papillary muscle rupture, extensive myxomatous degeneration, extensive chord rupture, and severely dilated mitral valve annulus. Multivariate regression analyses demonstrated that the development of mitral leaflet flail was significantly associated with the pertinent variables tested, especially correlated with insertion of the prosthetic ring, number of artificial chord, and presence of carotid stenosis. CONCLUSIONS Mitral leaflet flail may affect patients of any age, but is more prevalent among males and younger patients. Mitral chord rupture was the leading cause for mitral leaflet flail. Myxomatous degeneration, infective endocarditis, mitral annulus calcification, and papillary muscle rupture were the next most common causes. An increased incidence of mitral leaflet flail was closely related to the chords of the posterior leaflet and the middle scallop. Due to the progressive disappointing prognosis of mitral leaflet flail, surgery should be performed at an early stage.
NAF, OAF, or Noncooperation: Which Protocol to Choose?

The two main Amplify and Forward cooperative protocols are the orthogonal (OAF) and the nonorthogonal one (NAF). In this paper, we consider a given source, relays, a destination, and a channel realization and we try to resolve the following problem: what is the best way to communicate: without cooperation or using one of the two cooperative protocols? This is equivalent to a power-sharing problem on the cooperation frame between source and relays aiming to the short-term channel capacity maximization. The obtained solution shows that cooperative protocol choice depends only on the available power at the relays. However the decision to cooperate depends on the channel conditions. We show that our power allocation scheme with relay selection improves the outage probability compared to the selective OAF and the NAF protocols and has a significant capacity gain.
Acyl Chains of Phospholipase D Transphosphatidylation Products in Arabidopsis Cells: A Study Using Multiple Reaction Monitoring Mass Spectrometry

Background Phospholipases D (PLD) are major components of signalling pathways in plant responses to some stresses and hormones. The product of PLD activity is phosphatidic acid (PA). PAs with different acyl chains do not have the same protein targets, so to understand the signalling role of PLD it is essential to analyze the composition of its PA products in the presence and absence of an elicitor. Methodology/Principal findings Potential PLD substrates and products were studied in Arabidopsis thaliana suspension cells treated with or without the hormone salicylic acid (SA). As PA can be produced by enzymes other than PLD, we analyzed phosphatidylbutanol (PBut), which is specifically produced by PLD in the presence of n-butanol. The acyl chain compositions of PBut and the major glycerophospholipids were determined by multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mass spectrometry. PBut profiles of untreated cells or cells treated with SA show an over-representation of 160/18∶2- and 16∶0/18∶3-species compared to those of phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylethanolamine either from bulk lipid extracts or from purified membrane fractions. When microsomal PLDs were used in in vitro assays, the resulting PBut profile matched exactly that of the substrate provided. Therefore there is a mismatch between the acyl chain compositions of putative substrates and the in vivo products of PLDs that is unlikely to reflect any selectivity of PLDs for the acyl chains of substrates. Conclusions MRM mass spectrometry is a reliable technique to analyze PLD products. Our results suggest that PLD action in response to SA is not due to the production of a stress-specific molecular species, but that the level of PLD products per se is important. The over-representation of 160/18∶2- and 16∶0/18∶3-species in PLD products when compared to putative substrates might be related to a regulatory role of the heterogeneous distribution of glycerophospholipids in membrane sub-domains.
TAMAN CERDAS SEBAGAI SIMBOLISASI KOTA LAYAK ANAK DI SURAKARTA (Studi Kasus di Kelurahan Kadipiro Kecamatan Banjarsari Kota Surakarta)

The objective of research was to find out (1) the perception of Kelurahan Kadipiro’s people on the existence of Taman Cerdas, (2) the function of Taman Cerdas in the attempt of fulfilling the child’s needs, (3) the function of Taman Cerdas to solve the problem of child in Kelurahan Kadipiro. This study uses a descriptive qualitative method with a case study strategy. The sampling techniques employed were purposive sampling and snowball sampling. Meanwhile, techniques of collecting data employed were in-depth interview, direct observation, and document collection. The data validation test was carried out using source/data and method triangulations. Technique of analyzing data used was an interactive analysis encompassing data collection, data display, and conclusion. The results of research obtained were as follows : 1) majority of Kadipiro’s people did not care about the existence of Taman Cerdas because the did not known the actual function of Taman Cerdas. 2) Taman Cerdas did not function optimally to meet the children’s needs because of less coordination in its management mechanism. Because the lack of children’s activities that take place in Taman Cerdas, resulted Kadipiro’s people participate to utilize the venue for public event so the function of Taman Cerdas was shifted. 3) The problem of children in Kadipiro mostly caused by poverty, among others: school children, domestic violence, child labor, and lack of facilities to support education for children, in addition there is also the problem of the lack of land for children to play. However, the presence of the Taman Cerdas was not able to provide a solution to the problems of the child. The conclusion of research obtained from this study in line with hyperrealism concept formulated by Jean Baudrillard that the existence of Taman Cerdas used only as the symbol/sign communicating to the public that Surakarta had become the Proper City for Children. However this sign was not a reflection of reality meaning, because in fact the Taman Cerdas could not function optimally in meeting the children’s needs. Thus the Smart Park only functioned as a symbol of Surakarta as Proper City for Children. Keywords: Taman Cerdas , Proper City for Children, hyperreality, symbolization
SUNOD: Synthetic Underwater Non-Natural Object Detection Dataset

Deep-learning-based non-natural object detection in complex underwater environments is widely needed in many application scenarios. However, obtaining image data of underwater non-natural objects is difficult, so there is basically no relevant dataset. Besides, the underwater environments and lighting conditions are complex, which will lead to image quality degradation and increase the difficulty of detecting. For this purpose, we build a Synthetic Underwater Non-natural Object Detection (SUNOD) dataset. We first utilize a free software, Unreal Engine 5 (UE5), to create a realistic three-dimensional virtual underwater environment containing 12 kinds of non-natural objects. Then we take pictures of these non-natural objects and manually label 2,840 images. To make SUNOD more challenging and be able to create object detection models with more generalization capabilities and better robustness, we expand it to contain 72,943 images by 26 kinds of data augmentation methods. In addition, we report the performance of 5 YOLOv8 object detection models with different volumes on SUNOD. SUNOD can be used both to fine-tune pretrained models to accomplish the underwater non-natural object detection task and to be a benchmark to evaluate new models for this task. This study provides the first synthetic dataset for underwater non-natural object detection, which contributes to the research on the intelligence of submarines, exploration robots, and other underwater devices.
Application of Prebending Effect to Triplet Cables Using Bronze-Route ${\rm Nb}_{3}{\rm Sn}$  Strands

An application of the prebending effect to a cabling process using Nb<sub>3</sub>Sn strands was demonstrated. The prebending effect is the enhancement effect of superconducting properties due to the repeated prebending treatment for practical bronze-route Nb<sub>3</sub>Sn wires. CuNb/Nb<sub>3</sub>Sn and Cu/Nb3Sn strands were applied prebending treatment using 10 fixed pulleys with 0.8% prebending strain. Four kinds of triplets, i.e., prebent CuNb/Nb<sub>3</sub>Sn, no-prebent CuNb/Nb<sub>3</sub>Sn, prebent Cu/Nb<sub>3</sub>Sn and no-prebent Cu/Nb<sub>3</sub>Sn triplets were fabricated. Critical currents were measured for the four kinds of triplets in magnetic fields up to 11 T at 4.2 K. The obvious critical current enhancement due to the prebending effect was maintained for the prebent CuNb/Nb<sub>3</sub>Sn triplet. The results imply that the prebending treatment for high-strength Nb<sub>3</sub>Sn strands is applicable to the cable conductor fabrication.
CCNFRR: Fast one-hop Re-Route in CCN

Nowadays, content data packets make up the dominant traffic in networks. To reflect content-centric at the network level, various content-centric architectures have been addressed for future Internet infrastructure. Content Centric Networking (CCN) is one of the prominent future internet architecture. The designs for these future architectures are considering how the network infrastructure deals with content data itself instead of focusing on the location of the content. However, they have not considered link or node failure. Because packets are delivered only through the fixed path in CCN, the packets are all lost when the path has a failure node. Thus, CCN should consider handling the failure problem. To alleviate this problem, we propose Fast one-hop Re-Route in CCN (CCNFRR). CCNFRR opens an immediate one-hop redundant path when a connection failure occurs. We implemented a CCN overlay networking topology for simulation with 20 Planetlab nodes. The results show that CCNFRR can find a redundant path right after failure detection. In addition, CCNFRR can largely reduce overhead such as flooding to find a new path.
Use of a Directional Spray System Design to Control Respirable Dust and Face Gas Concentrations Around a Continuous Mining Machine

A laboratory study assessed the impacts of water spray pressure, face ventilation quantity, and line brattice setback distance on respirable dust and SF6 tracer gas concentrations around a continuous mining machine using a sprayfan or directional spray system. Dust levels were measured at locations representing the mining machine operator and the standard and off-standard shuttle car operators, and in the return airway. The results showed that changes in all three independent variables significantly affected log-transformed dust levels at the three operator sampling locations. Changes in setback distance impacted return airway dust levels. Laboratory testing also identified numerous variable interactions affecting dust levels. Tracer gas levels were measured on the left and right sides of the cutting drum and in the return. Untransformed gas levels around the cutting drum were significantly affected by changes in water pressure, face ventilation quantity, and setback distance. Only a few interactions were identified that significantly affected these concentrations. Gas levels in the return airway were grouped by face ventilation quantity. Return gas levels measured at the low curtain quantity were generally unaffected by changes in water pressure or curtain setback distance. At the high curtain quantity, return airway gas levels were affected by curtain setback distance. A field study was conducted to assess the impact of these parameters in an actual mining operation. These data showed that respirable dust levels may have been impacted by a change in water pressure and, to a lesser extent, by an increase in curtain setback distance. A series of tracer gas pulse tests were also conducted during this study. The results showed that effectiveness of the face ventilation was impacted by changes in curtain flow quantity and setback distance. Laboratory testing supported similar conclusions.
Ships as salient objects in Synthetic Aperture Radar imagery

The widespread access to Synthetic Aperture Radar data has created a need for more precise ship extraction, specifically in low-to-medium resolution imagery. While Synthetic Aperture Radar pixel resolution is improving for a large swaths, information about ships from within the Synthetic Aperture Radar intensity imagery is still sparse. Ships that are a few pixels across provide little information for classification and even less when improperly extracted. This paper presents a novel perspective on ships in Synthetic Aperture Radar imagery by viewing them as visually salient objects. The paper introduces common methods of ship object extraction and demonstrates how salient object mapping can improve the accuracy of extracted ships in Synthetic Aperture Radar imagery, providing better representation of ship objects. The Frequency-tuned and Spectral Residual Saliency Maps methods were tested against a unique dataset with ground truth information and were shown to have the best performance amongst all the conventional methods tested using six performance metrics.