Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Quantification of Spect myocardial perfusion imaging

Radionuclide myocardial perfusion imaging has been established as a noninvasive method for diagnosis of coronary artery disease. The assessment of myocardial perfusion imaging can be done by either qualitative or quantitative analyses. Through use of both types of analyses, clinically useful reproducible interpretation of myocardial perfusion images requires considerable operator experience. The reasons for problems with interpretation are many. In particular, the reproducibility of interpretation of myocardial perfusion images depends on (1) experience of the reader, (2) quality of the images, (3) severity of abnormality, (4) degree of change on serial images, and (5) uniform criteria for interpretation. It has been widely accepted that quantification of myocardial perfusion significantly improves diagnostic accuracy in detecting coronary artery disease. Furthermore, the concept of quantification of perfusion imaging includes two significant aspects that must be taken into account. The first is methodological, and the other is more related to the clinical application of the quantification process in nuclear cardiology.
Mutation Analysis in F9 Gene of 17 Families with Haemophilia B from Iran

Summary. Seventeen haemophilia B families from Iran were investigated to determine the causative mutation. All the essential regions of the F9 gene were initially screened by conformational sensitive gel electrophoresis and exons with band shift were sequenced. Seven of the 15 mutations identified in these families were novel mutations. The mutations were authenticated in nine families as other affected members or heterozygous female carriers were available for verification.
Epiligrin is decreased in papulonodular basal cell carcinoma tumor nest basement membranes and the extracellular matrix of transformed human epithelial cells

Abstract Patients with anti‐epiligrin cicatricial pemphigoid have anti‐basement membrane autoantibodies that immunoprecipitate a set of disulfide‐linked human keratinocyte polypeptides that co‐migrate in sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis with the same complex identified by monoclonal anti‐epiligrin (P1E1) and monoclonal anti‐nicein/kalinin (GB3) antibodies. In an attempt to further compare the reactivity of patient autoantibodies, P1E1 and GB3, these reagents were tested against the tumor nest basement membranes of 7 papulonodular basal cell carcinomas. These studies found that all of these reagents showed markedly decreased or no reactivity against this substrate. Though their concordant lack of reactivity failed to distinguish these antibodies, these studies did identify a significant defect in papulonodular basal cell carcinoma tumor nest basement membranes. Similarly, integrin subunits α6, β4, α3. and α2 as well as bullous pemphigoid antigens 1 and 2 (all potential receptors for the extracellular matrix ligands epiligrin and nicein/kalinin) were also reduced in these tumor nest basement membranes. These findings signify an extensive impairment in the lamina lucida of this neoplasm's basement membrane. Related comparative studies of normal human keratinocytes and transformed human epithelial cell lines (specifically, A‐431 and HaCat cells) showed that epiligrin production is markedly decreased in the latter. Decreased expression of epiligrin and nicein/ kalinin in papulonodular basal cell carcinoma tumor nest basement membranes in vivo and transformed epithelial cells in vitro indicate that this complex is a transformation‐sensitive cell adhesion ligand.
DNA Methyltransferase Deficiency Modifies Cancer Susceptibility in Mice Lacking DNA Mismatch Repair

ABSTRACT We have introduced DNA methyltransferase 1 (Dnmt1) mutations into a mouse strain deficient for the Mlh1 protein to study the interaction between DNA mismatch repair deficiency and DNA methylation. Mice harboring hypomorphic Dnmt1 mutations showed diminished RNA expression and DNA hypomethylation but developed normally and were tumor free. When crossed to Mlh1−/− homozygosity, they were less likely to develop the intestinal cancers that normally arise in this tumor-predisposed, mismatch repair-deficient background. However, these same mice developed invasive T- and B-cell lymphomas earlier and at a much higher frequency than their Dnmt1 wild-type littermates. Thus, the reduction of Dnmt1 activity has significant but opposing outcomes in the development of two different tumor types. DNA hypomethylation and mismatch repair deficiency interact to exacerbate lymphomagenesis, while hypomethylation protects against intestinal tumors. The increased lymphomagenesis in Dnmt1 hypomorphic, Mlh1−/− mice may be due to a combination of several mechanisms, including elevated mutation rates, increased expression of proviral sequences or proto-oncogenes, and/or enhanced genomic instability. We show that CpG island hypermethylation occurs in the normal intestinal mucosa, is increased in intestinal tumors in Mlh1−/− mice, and is reduced in the normal mucosa and tumors of Dnmt1 mutant mice, consistent with a role for Dnmt1-mediated CpG island hypermethylation in intestinal tumorigenesis.
A Review on Injury Severity in Traffic System using Various Data Mining Techniques

Traffic Accidents (RTAs) are a major public health concern, resulting in an estimated 1.2 million deaths and 50 million injuries worldwide each year. In the developing world, RTAs are among the leading cause of death and injury. The objective of this study is to evaluate a set of variables that contribute to the degree of injury severity in traffic crashes. The issue of traffic safety has raised great concerns across the globe and it has become one of the key issues challenging the sustainable development of modern traffic and transportation. The study on road traffic accident causes can identify the key factors rapidly, efficiently and provide instructional methods to the traffic accidents prevention and road traffic accidents reduction, which could greatly reduce personal casualty and property loss caused by road traffic accidents. Using the method of traffic data analysis, can improve the road traffic safety management level effectively.
Sample preparation method for isolation of single‐cell types from mouse liver for proteomic studies

It becomes increasingly clear that separation of pure cell populations provides a uniquely sensitive and accurate approach to protein profiling in biological systems and opens up a new area for proteomic analysis. The method we described could simultaneously isolate population of hepatocytes (HCs), hepatic stellate cells (HSCs), Kupffer cells (KCs) and liver sinusoidal endothelial cells (LSECs) by a combination of collagenase‐based density gradient centrifugation and magnetic activated cell sorting with high purity and yield for the first time. More than 98% of the isolated HCs were positive for cytokeratin 18, with a viability of 91%. Approximately 97% of the isolated HSCs expressed glial fibrillary acidic protein with a viability of 95%. Nearly 98% of isolated KCs expressed F4/80 with a viability of 94%. And the purity of LSECs reached up to 91% with a viability of 94%. And yield for HCs, HSCs, LSECs and KCs were 6.3, 1.3, 2.6 and 5.0 million per mouse. This systematic isolation method enables us to study the proteome profiling of different types of liver cells with high purity and yield, which is especially useful for sample preparation of Human Liver Proteome Project.
Fast optimization method for polarization receiving based on space mapping theory

Aiming to solve the optimization problem of radar polarimetry, a fast local search method (FLSM) is proposed for bistatic case. The FLSM expedites searching speed of the optimal polarization by restricting the optimal solution in a local area. This local area is defined by the polarization states with respect to the maximum and minimum polarization receiving power (PRP). The performance of the FLSM is validated by comparing with the three-step method (TSM). Theoretical analyses indicate that the FLSM obtains the optimal PRP by searching an area which, statistically, has less than 25.26% searching area of the TSM. Numerical experiments demonstrate that the proposed method obtains the optimal polarization states more quickly and effectively than the TSM.
Thing-to-thing electricity micro payments using blockchain technology

Thing-to-thing payments are a key enabler in the Internet of Things (IoT) era, to ubiquitously allow for devices to pay each other for services without any human interaction. Traditional credit card-based systems are not able to handle this new paradigm, however blockchain technology is a promising payment candidate in this context. The prominent example of blockchain technology is Bitcoin, with its decentralized structure and ease of account creation. This paper presents a proof-of-concept implementation of a smart cable that connects to a smart socket and without any human interaction pays for electricity. In this paper, we identify several obstacles for the widespread use of bitcoins in thing-to-thing payments. A critical problem is the high transaction fees in the Bitcoin network when doing micro transactions. To reduce this impact, we present a single-fee micro-payment protocol that aggregates multiple smaller payments incrementally into one larger transaction needing only one transaction fee. The proof-of concept shows that trustless, autonomous, and ubiquitous thing-to-thing micro-payments is no longer a future technology.
Variable structure direct torque control of brushless doubly fed induction generator for wind turbine applications

In this paper a variable structure direct torque control based on sliding mode approach, linear PI and space vector modulation (SVM) is proposed for a brushless doubly fed induction generator. The DTC transient merits and robustness are preserved and the steady state behavior is improved by reducing the torque and flux pulsations. The presented method also guarantees maximum power point tracking (MPPT) with a desirable operation. The simulation results verify an accurate, quick and robust operation of the brushless doubly fed induction generator for wind turbine applications.
Vasodilatation in human skin induced by low-amplitude high-frequency vibration.

Vasomotor effects in human skin induced by vibration of low amplitude (10-25 microns) and high frequency (150-250 Hz) have been studied by using skin temperature changes as an approximative measure of variations in skin blood flow. In all tested areas of the body surface, including the face, low-amplitude high-frequency vibration regularly induces vasodilatation. The spatial distribution of the temperature changes induced from different sites of stimulation was studied by infrared thermography. The latencies of the temperature changes, determined by thermistor recordings, were found to vary with site of stimulation and stimulus parameters. The increase in temperature to a given stimulus is greater the lower the prevalent skin temperature, i.e. the increase in blood flow is larger the greater the initial vasomotor tone. The results are in accordance with the view that the vasodilatation is due to a reflex inhibition of pre-existent vasomotor tone in the skin by the afferent inflow from vibration-sensitive mechanoreceptors. High-amplitude vibration (100-200 microns), performed in a few comparative experiments, caused vasoconstriction.
Efficiency enhancement of thin-film a-Si:H solar cell with periodic anti-ring back reflector

The optical and electrical properties of a new type photonic-plasmonic nanostructure on the back contact of solar cells were investigated numerically through the three-dimensional (3D) finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method and the poisson and drift-diffusion (DDCC) solver. The focusing effect and the Fabry-Perot resonances are identified as the main mechanisms for the enhancement of the optical generation rate as well as the short circuit current density. In addition, the surface topography of the nanopattern has a strong effect on the device physics such as the potential and recombination profiles, and therefore influencing the electrode collecting efficiency of the photocurrents.
A Unified Framework for Risk-sensitive Markov Decision Processes with Finite State and Action Spaces

We introduce a unified framework to incorporate risk in Markov decision processes (MDPs), via prospect maps, which generalize the idea of coherent/convex risk measures in mathematical finance. Most of the existing risk-sensitive approaches in various literature concerning with decision-making problems are contained in the framework as special instances. Within the framework, we solve the optimal control problems according to two criteria, the newly invented temporal discounted criterion, which generalizes the conventional discount scheme, and the average criterion, by value iteration algorithms under different assumptions. Two online algorithms are proposed to solve the optimal controls problem when the exact MDP is unknown and has to be estimated during optimization.
Early Combination of Material Characteristics and Toxicology Is Useful in the Design of Low Toxicity Carbon Nanofiber

This paper describes an approach for the early combination of material characterization and toxicology testing in order to design carbon nanofiber (CNF) with low toxicity. The aim was to investigate how the adjustment of production parameters and purification procedures can result in a CNF product with low toxicity. Different CNF batches from a pilot plant were characterized with respect to physical properties (chemical composition, specific surface area, morphology, surface chemistry) as well as toxicity by in vitro and in vivo tests. A description of a test battery for both material characterization and toxicity is given. The results illustrate how the adjustment of production parameters and purification, thermal treatment in particular, influence the material characterization as well as the outcome of the toxic tests. The combination of the tests early during product development is a useful and efficient approach when aiming at designing CNF with low toxicity. Early quality and safety characterization, preferably in an iterative process, is expected to be efficient and promising for this purpose. The toxicity tests applied are preliminary tests of low cost and rapid execution. For further studies, effects such as lung inflammation, fibrosis and respiratory cancer are recommended for the more in-depth studies of the mature CNF product.
Allocation de créneaux de décollage sans conflit

Comme le recommande le programme SESAR, les systemes ATC actuels doivent etre ameliores afin d'absorber la croissance du trafic. Les contraintes de capacite des secteurs de controle constituent un obstacle a un systeme ATC efficace. Les precedentes etudes ont consiste a optimiser le procede actuel d'allocation de creneaux de decollage pour satiafaire ces contraintes. Nous proposons de resoudre directement les conflits dans l'espace superieur par une modification des heures de decollage. Nous comparons une methode en PPC et un algorithme evolutionnaire pour la resolution de ce probleme.
Thinning of multilayer graphene to monolayer graphene in a plasma environment

We present a facile approach to transform multilayer graphene to single-layer graphene in a gradual thinning process. Our technique is based upon gradual etching of multilayer graphene in a hydrogen and nitrogen plasma environment. High resolution transmission microscopy, selected area electron diffraction and Raman spectroscopy confirm the transformation of multilayer graphene to monolayer graphene at a substrate temperature of ∼ 400 °C. The shift in the position of the G-band peak shows a perfect linear dependence with substrate temperature, which indicates a controlled gradual etching process. Selected area electron diffraction also confirmed the removal of functional groups from the graphene surface due to the plasma treatment. We also show that plasma treatment can be used to engineer graphene nanomesh structures.
WATER DISTRIBUTION IN THE FOETUS AND NEWBORN INFANT

Friis‐Hansen, B. (Department of Neonatology, University Hospital, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark). Water distribution in the foetus and newborn infant. Acta Paediatr Scand, Suppl. 305: 7–11, 1983. —A short survey is given over changes in water metabolism from early foetal life to infancy. The close connection between water metabolism and body composition is described as well as the changes taking place after birth. The impact of intrauterine malnutrition, delivery and postnatal nutrition is discussed.
Imaging for diagnosis of foreign body aspiration in children?

Foreign body aspiration into the airways is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in pediatric patients, especially in children below 3 years of age. In the absence of clear history, the correct diagnosis is often missed. The clinical features may mimic asthma or pneumonia, resulting in delayed diagnosis. Cough or wheezing of sudden onset, reduced air entry on auscultation, and chronic or recurrent pulmonary infection are the subtle pointers which prompt an observant clinician to suspect foreign body aspiration. A foreign body lodged in the tracheo-bronchial tree warrants prompt removal to prevent serious respiratory complications as pneumonia, atelectasis, bronchiectasis and lung abscess [1].
Integrated multiple sequence alignment

The thesis presents enhancements for automated and manual multiple sequence alignment: existing alignment algorithms are made more easily accessible and new algorithms are designed for difficult cases. Firstly, we introduce the QAlign framework, a graphical user interface for multiple sequence alignment. It comprises several state-of-the-art algorithms and supports their parameters by convenient dialogs. An alignment viewer with guided editing functionality can also highlight or print regions of the alignment. Also phylogenetic features are provided, e.g., distance-based tree reconstruction methods, corrections for multiple substitutions and a tree viewer. The modular concept and the platform-independent implementation guarantee an easy extensibility. Further, we develop a constrained version of the divide-and-conquer alignment such that it can be restricted by anchors found earlier with local alignments. It can be shown that this method shares attributes of both, local and global aligners, in the quality of results as well as in the computation time. We further modify the local alignment step to work on bipartite (or even multipartite) sets for sequences where repeats overshadow valuable sequence information. In the end a technique is established that can accurately align sequences containing eventually repeated motifs. Finally, another algorithm is presented that allows to compare tandem repeat sequences by aligning them with respect to their possible repeat histories. We describe an evolutionary model including tandem duplications and excisions, and give an exact algorithm to compare two sequences under this model.
Religiosity as a protective or prognostic factor of depression in later life; results from a community survey in The Netherlands

This study examines the impact of religiosity on the incidence and course of depressive syndromes in a community‐based sample of elderly people in The Netherlands (n= 177). The course of depression was assessed in five waves of measurements, covering a period of 1 year. Religiosity was defined as salience of religion compared to the salience of other aspects of life. Religious salience was not associated with incidence of depression, but showed a relatively strong association with improvement of depression among the respondents who were depressed at the first measurement. This association was most prominent among subjects with poor physical health.
Optimization and comparison of simultaneous and separate acquisition protocols for dual isotope myocardial perfusion SPECT

Dual-isotope simultaneous-acquisition (DISA) rest-stress myocardial perfusion SPECT (MPS) protocols offer a number of advantages over separate acquisition. However, crosstalk contamination due to scatter in the patient and interactions in the collimator degrade image quality. Compensation can reduce the effects of crosstalk, but does not entirely eliminate image degradations. Optimizing acquisition parameters could further reduce the impact of crosstalk. In this paper we investigate the optimization of the rest Tl-201 energy window width and relative injected activities using the ideal observer (IO), a realistic digital phantom population and Monte Carlo (MC) simulated Tc-99m and Tl-201 projections as a means to improve image quality. We compared performance on a perfusion defect detection task for Tl-201 acquisition energy window widths varying from 4 to 40 keV centered at 72 keV for a camera with a 9% energy resolution. We also investigated 7 different relative injected activities, defined as the ratio of Tc-99m and Tl-201 activities, while keeping the total effective dose constant at 13.5 mSv. For each energy window and relative injected activity, we computed the IO test statistics using a Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method for an ensemble of 1,620 triplets of fixed and reversible defect-present, and defect-absent noisy images modeling realistic background variations. The volume under the 3-class receiver operating characteristic (ROC) surface (VUS) was estimated and served as the figure of merit. For simultaneous acquisition, the IO suggested that relative Tc-to-Tl injected activity ratios of 2.6–5 and acquisition energy window widths of 16–22% were optimal. For separate acquisition, we observed a broad range of optimal relative injected activities from 2.6 to 12.1 and acquisition energy window of widths 16–22%. A negative correlation between Tl-201 injected activity and the width of the Tl-201 energy window was observed in these ranges. The results also suggested that DISA methods could potentially provide image quality as good as that obtained with separate acquisition protocols. We compared observer performance for the optimized protocols and the current clinical protocol using separate acquisition. The current clinical protocols provided better performance at a cost of injecting the patient with approximately double the injected activity of Tc-99m and Tl-201, resulting in substantially increased radiation dose.
Scaling theory for cylindrical, fully-depleted, surrounding-gate MOSFET's

We present a scaling theory for fully-depleted, cylindrical MOSFET's. This theory was derived from the cylindrical form of Poisson's equation by assuming a parabolic potential in the radial direction. Numerical device simulation data for subthreshold slope and DIBL were compared to the model to validate the formula. By employing the scaling theory a comparison with double-gate (DG) MOSFET's was carried out illustrating an improvement of up to 40% in the minimum effective channel length for the cylindrical device.