Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Lossless and near-lossless motion-compensated 4D medical image compression

Four-dimensional (4D) medical images, which are sequences of volume images over time, are represented by a great volume of information. One set of 4D medical images can easily take up hundreds of megabytes of storage volume. In this paper, we present a technique for compressing 4D medical images by combining motion compensation and lossless/near-lossless image encoding. Our technique incorporates a new fast 3D cube match algorithm that effectively exploits the redundancy between frames. The proposed scheme is validated by experiments on 4D cardiac images.
Association between Waste Management and HBV among Solid Municipal Waste Workers: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Observational Studies

Aim. To conduct a systematic review of this relationship using available published observational studies in the field of solid municipal waste treatment. Methods. The review of the scientific literature was based on Medline and Scopus databases up to December 2012, using the keywords HBV, waste, solid, treatment, workers, disposal, and refuse in different combinations. Results. 160 studies were found and checked. Finally, 5 observational studies were considered suitable, all cross-sectional. The pooled proportion of HBs-Ag considering all the studies was 11% (95% CI: 5–21%), and considering the high quality studies only, this proportion was 14% (95% CI: 6–24%). The pooled proportion of HBs-Ab positivity among waste workers considering all the studies was 14.2% (95% CI: 1.4–37.2%), and considering the high quality studies only, this proportion was 24% (95% CI: 18–30%). The pooled proportion of HBc-Ab positivity among waste workers considering all the studies was 24% (95% CI: 6–49%). The pooled estimation of the risk of HBV positivity (HBsAg) among exposed was OR = 2.39 (95% CI: 0.88–6.52). Conclusion. In conclusion, waste workers need to be vaccinated against HBV infection since they are at risk of acquiring this infection through the exposure to potentially infected waste.
The impact of cachexia on cardiorespiratory reflex control in chronic heart failure.

BACKGROUND The mechanism of persistent neurohormonal and cardiorespiratory reflex abnormalities in chronic heart failure remain unclear. Also, why chronic heart failure patients who develop cachexia demonstrate a particularly abnormal neurohormonal profile and have a high risk of death is not known. Impaired reflex control within the cardiac and respiratory systems, and abnormal heart rate variability have both been linked to a poor outcome. Muscle reflexes may contribute to persistent neurohormonal overactivity in wasted patients. Thus, we hypothesized that patients with cardiac cachexia might exhibit particularly profound abnormalities in cardiorespiratory reflexes and heart ratevariability. METHODS AND RESULTS We investigated 39 chronic heart failure patients: 13 with cardiac cachexia (non-intentional, non-oedematous, documented weight loss of >7.5% of previous normal weight over more than 6 months), and 26 non-cachectic chronic heart failure patients matched according to the severity of chronic heart failure (all men, mean age: 59 vs 60 years, NYHA functional class: 2.6 vs 2.5, peak O(2)consumption: 16.2 vs 16.8 ml. kg(-1). min(-1), left ventricular ejection fraction: 23 vs 24%, all P>0.2 for cachectic vs non-cachectic). In the assessment of the cardiorespiratory reflex control we investigated: cardiac sympathovagal balance (using spectral analysis of heart rate variability to derive low (LF, 0. 04-0.15Hz) and high frequency (HF, 0.15-0.4Hz) components), baroreflex sensitivity (using the phenylephrine method), and peripheral chemosensitivity (using the transient hypoxic method). There was a severely abnormal pattern of cardiorespiratory reflex control in patients with cachexia compared with non-cachectic patients. The former group exhibited severely impaired autonomic reflex control, characterized by an abnormal profile of heart rate variability (reduced LF component), and depressed baroreflex sensitivity (P=0.0001 and P=0.02, respectively, vs non-cachectics). Patients with cachexia also demonstrated an increased peripheral chemosensitivity (0.91 vs0.46 l. min(-1). %SaO(2)(-1), P<0.001, cachectic vs non-cachectic, respectively). In the correlation analyses the degree of impairment in the reflex control was more closely related to wasting, and to the level of neurohormonal activation (as measured by the levels of epinephrine and norepinephrine) than to conventional markers of the severity of heart failure. CONCLUSIONS Chronic heart failure patients who developed cardiac cachexia demonstrate an abnormal reflex control within the cardiovascular and respiratory systems. The nature of the link between this phenomenon and hormonal changes and the poor prognosis of cachectic chronic heart failure patients warrants further investigation.
Tachyon kinks on unstable Dp-branes

In the context of tachyon effective theory coupled to Born-Infeld electromagnetic fields, we obtain all possible singularity-free static flat configurations of codimension one on unstable Dp-branes. Computed tension and string charge density suggest that the obtained kinks are D(p−1) or D(p−1)F1-branes.
Modeling the Propagation of Infectious Disease as a Connected Network

A pandemic is likely to occur in the near future, and this could cause significant disruptions in the human population. Avian influenza is such an example, as it can potentially evolve to transmit from human to human, and spread very fast to become a world-wide epidemic in very a short period of time. In order to prepare for such a disaster and to develop global mitigation strategies for society, the government as well as enterprises needs to understand how widely diseases might spread, and how quickly the magnitude of the infection might grow as well. As the world has rapidly evolved to become a more global chain, the populace contact, social networking and transportation enables diseases to spread more easily than before. In this paper, we present a disease spread model that combines compartmental epidemiological model with a connected network of geographical locations and airports using the system dynamics method. We also quantify how various mitigation actions would affect the spread of disease. This model is intended to be used for firms studying the possible effects of pandemic disease on their businesses. Various scenarios of disease spreads are simulated and examined in this research
IFCC reference system for measurement of hemoglobin A1c in human blood and the national standardization schemes in the United States, Japan, and Sweden: a method-comparison study.

BACKGROUND The national programs for the harmonization of hemoglobin (Hb)A(1c) measurements in the US [National Glycohemoglobin Standardization Program (NGSP)], Japan [Japanese Diabetes Society (JDS)/Japanese Society of Clinical Chemistry (JSCC)], and Sweden are based on different designated comparison methods (DCMs). The future basis for international standardization will be the reference system developed by the IFCC Working Group on HbA(1c) Standardization. The aim of the present study was to determine the relationships between the IFCC Reference Method (RM) and the DCMs. METHODS Four method-comparison studies were performed in 2001-2003. In each study five to eight pooled blood samples were measured by 11 reference laboratories of the IFCC Network of Reference Laboratories, 9 Secondary Reference Laboratories of the NGSP, 3 reference laboratories of the JDS/JSCC program, and a Swedish reference laboratory. Regression equations were determined for the relationship between the IFCC RM and each of the DCMs. RESULTS Significant differences were observed between the HbA(1c) results of the IFCC RM and those of the DCMs. Significant differences were also demonstrated between the three DCMs. However, in all cases the relationship of the DCMs with the RM were linear. There were no statistically significant differences between the regression equations calculated for each of the four studies; therefore, the results could be combined. The relationship is described by the following regression equations: NGSP-HbA(1c) = 0.915(IFCC-HbA(1c)) + 2.15% (r(2) = 0.998); JDS/JSCC-HbA(1c) = 0.927(IFCC-HbA(1c)) + 1.73% (r(2) = 0.997); Swedish-HbA(1c) = 0.989(IFCC-HbA(1c)) + 0.88% (r(2) = 0.996). CONCLUSION There is a firm and reproducible link between the IFCC RM and DCM HbA(1c) values.
Finding Optimum Similar Regions

In this paper we present a novel rotation- and affine-invariant image regions detector, coined OSR (Optimum Similar Regions). The two steps of OSR is: first, segment an image with thresholds based on graph theory, these regions of the segmentation results are so called similar regions. Second, the subset of similar regions is confirmed according to the regulation of the similar region’s cardinality. The paper presents experimental results on a standard evaluation set, as well as on application of wide baseline image matching. Both of them show OSR’s strong performance.
Multinomial Mixture Modelling for Bilingual Text Classification

Mixture modelling of class-conditional densities is a standard pattern classification technique. In text classification, the use of class-conditional multinomial mixtures can be seen as a generalisation of the Naive Bayes text classifier relaxing its (class-conditional feature) independence assumption. In this paper, we describe and compare several extensions of the class-conditional multinomial mixture-based text classifier for bilingual texts.
Production of DNA minicircles less than 250 base pairs through a novel concentrated DNA circularization assay enabling minicircle design with NF-κB inhibition activity

Abstract Double-stranded DNA minicircles of less than 1000 bp in length have great interest in both fundamental research and therapeutic applications. Although minicircles have shown promising activity in gene therapy thanks to their good biostability and better intracellular trafficking, minicircles down to 250 bp in size have not yet been investigated from the test tube to the cell for lack of an efficient production method. Herein, we report a novel versatile plasmid-free method for the production of DNA minicircles comprising fewer than 250 bp. We designed a linear nicked DNA double-stranded oligonucleotide blunt-ended substrate for efficient minicircle production in a ligase-mediated and bending protein-assisted circularization reaction at high DNA concentration of 2 μM. This one pot multi-step reaction based-method yields hundreds of micrograms of minicircle with sequences of any base composition and position and containing or not a variety of site-specifically chemical modifications or physiological supercoiling. Biochemical and cellular studies were then conducted to design a 95 bp minicircle capable of binding in vitro two NF-κB transcription factors per minicircle and to efficiently inhibiting NF-κB-dependent transcriptional activity in human cells. Therefore, our production method could pave the way for the design of minicircles as new decoy nucleic acids.
Detection of chromothripsis‐like patterns with a custom array platform for chronic lymphocytic leukemia

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is a common disease with highly variable clinical course. Several recurrent chromosomal alterations are associated with prognosis and may guide risk‐adapted therapy. We have developed a targeted genome‐wide array to provide a robust tool for ascertaining abnormalities in CLL and to overcome limitations of the 4‐marker fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). DNA from 180 CLL patients were hybridized to the qChip®Hemo array with a high density of probes covering commonly altered loci in CLL (11q22‐q23, 13q14, and 17p13), nine focal regions (2p15‐p16.1, 2p24.3, 2q13, 2q36.3‐q37.1, 3p21.31, 8q24.21, 9p21.3, 10q24.32, and 18q21.32‐q21.33) and two larger regions (6q14.1‐q22.31 and 7q31.33‐q33). Overall, 86% of the cases presented copy number alterations (CNA) by array. There was a high concordance of array findings with FISH (84% sensitivity, 100% specificity); all discrepancies corresponded to subclonal alterations detected only by FISH. A chromothripsis‐like pattern was detected in eight cases. Three showed concomitant shattered 5p with gain of TERT along with isochromosome 17q. Presence of 11q loss was associated with shorter time to first treatment (P = 0.003), whereas 17p loss, increased genomic complexity, and chromothripsis were associated with shorter overall survival (P < 0.001, P = 0.001, and P = 0.02, respectively). In conclusion, we have validated a targeted array for the diagnosis of CLL that accurately detects, in a single experiment, all relevant CNAs, genomic complexity, chromothripsis, copy number neutral loss of heterozygosity, and CNAs not covered by the FISH panel. This test may be used as a practical tool to stratify CLL patients for routine diagnostics or clinical trials. © 2015 The Authors. Genes, Chromosomes & Cancer Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Robust robotic grasping using IR Net-Structure Proximity Sensor to handle objects with unknown position and attitude

In this paper, we focus on unknown parameters such as the position and attitude of the object, and describe a short-range, high-speed and noncontact sensing method for obtaining the position and attitude of the object using IR Net-Structure Proximity Sensor (“IR-NSPS”) which complements the dead region of sensory information between visual and tactile sensing. To be more precise, we propose two effective control methods which are pre-shaping and object positioning using IR-NSPS for robust grasping by adjusting the gripper configuration in response to attitude error of up to ±45 deg and the position error of up to ±80 mm of the unknown object. The methods therefore can significantly increase the speed and effectiveness of grasping objects without requiring a specific approach that depends on a vision sensor. Furthermore, to demonstrate the advantages of pre-shaping and object positioning, object grasping experiments were performed using these two operations to grasp objects placed randomly on a tabletop.
Optimizing file systems for fast storage devices

Emerging high-performance storage devices have attractive features such as low latency and high throughput. This leads to a rapid increase in the demand for fast storage devices in cloud platforms, social network services, etc. However, there are few block-based file systems that are capable of utilizing superior characteristics of fast storage devices. In this paper, we find that the I/O strategy of modern operating systems prevents file systems from exploiting fast storage devices. To address this problem, we propose several optimization techniques for block-based file systems. Then, we apply our techniques to two well-known file systems and evaluate them with multiple benchmarks. The experimental results show that our optimized file systems achieve 32% on average and up to 54% better performance than existing file systems.
Axon Loss in the Spinal Cord Determines Permanent Neurological Disability in an Animal Model of Multiple Sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system (CNS). Most patients undergo an initial relapsing-remitting (RR-MS) course that transforms into a relentless neurodegenerative disorder, termed secondary progressive (SP)-MS. Reversible inflammation and demyelination account readily for the pattern of RR-MS but provide an unsatisfactory explanation for irrevocable decline in SP-MS. Axon loss is thought to be responsible for progressive, non-remitting neurological disability during SP-MS. There is considerable potential for neuroprotective therapies in MS, but their application awaits animal models in which axonal loss correlates with permanent neurological disability. In this report, we describe quantitative immunohistochemical methods that correlate inflammation and axonal loss with neurological disability in chronic-relapsing experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). At first attack, CNS inflammation, but not axon loss, correlated with the degree of neurological disability. In contrast, fixed neurological impairment in chronic EAE correlated with axon loss that, in turn, correlated with the number of symptomatic attacks. As proposed for MS, these observations imply a causal relationship between inflammation, axon loss, and irreversible neurological disability. This chronic-relapsing EAE model provides an excellent platform for 2 critical objectives: investigating mechanisms of axon loss and evaluating efficacy of neuroprotective therapies.
Estimating the carrying capacity of French Frigate Shoals for the endangered Hawaiian monk seal using Ecopath with Ecosim

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Prediction based filtering and smoothing to exploit temporal dependencies in NMF

Nonnegative matrix factorization is an appealing technique for many audio applications. However, in it's basic form it does not use temporal structure, which is an important source of information in speech processing. In this paper, we propose NMF-based filtering and smoothing algorithms that are related to Kalman filtering and smoothing. While our prediction step is similar to that of Kalman filtering, we develop a multiplicative update step which is more convenient for nonnegative data analysis and in line with existing NMF literature. The proposed smoothing approach introduces an unavoidable processing delay, but the filtering algorithm does not and can be readily used for on-line applications. Our experiments using the proposed algorithms show a significant improvement over the baseline NMF approaches. In the case of speech denoising with factory noise at 0 dB input SNR, the smoothing algorithm outperforms NMF with 3.2 dB in SDR and around 0.5 MOS in PESQ, likewise source separation experiments result in improved performance due to taking advantage of the temporal regularities in speech.
A Call for Conceptual Models of Technology in I-O Psychology: An Example From Technology-Based Talent Assessment

The rate of technological change is quickly outpacing today's methods for understanding how new advancements are applied within industrial-organizational (I-O) psychology. To further complicate matters, specific attempts to explain observed differences or measurement equivalence across devices are often atheoretical or fail to explain why a technology should (or should not) affect the measured construct. As a typical example, understanding how technology influences construct measurement in personnel testing and assessment is critical for explaining or predicting other practical issues such as accessibility, security, and scoring. Therefore, theory development is needed to guide research hypotheses, manage expectations, and address these issues at this intersection of technology and I-O psychology. This article is an extension of a Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) 2016 panel session, which (re)introduces conceptual frameworks that can help explain how and why measurement equivalence or nonequivalence is observed in the context of selection and assessment. We outline three potential conceptual frameworks as candidates for further research, evaluation, and application, and argue for a similar conceptual approach for explaining how technology may influence other psychological phenomena.
Improving deep classification by centroid-based candidate selection strategy

According to the Large Scale Hierarchical Classification Workshop of the ECIR 2010 [6], we know that the performance of classification for the large scale hierarchy, such as Open Directory Project (ODP), is still lower. Obviously, we need to improve the performance of hierarchical classification urgently. While a deep classification method [1] was proposed to make the problem tractable, the candidate selection method might be a bottleneck in the deep classification. In this paper, we used a centroid-based classification algorithm as the candidate selection strategy to enhance the deep classification. We conducted experiments with all the Chinese categories on the Open Directory Project. The experimental results show that the proposed method improved the performance of classification through selecting candidate
In Vitro Generation of Monocyte-Derived Macrophages under Serum-Free Conditions Improves Their Tumor Promoting Functions

The tumor promoting role of M2 macrophages has been described in in vivo models and the presence of macrophages in certain tumor types has been linked to a poor clinical outcome. In light of burgeoning activities to clinically develop new therapies targeting tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs), reliable in vitro models faithfully mimicking the tumor promoting functions of TAMs are required. Generation and activation of human monocyte-derived macrophages (MDM) in vitro, described as M1 or M2 macrophages attributed with tumoricidal or tumor-promoting functions, respectively, has been widely reported using mainly serum containing culture methods. In this study, we compared the properties of macrophages originating from monocytes cultured either in media containing serum together with M-CSF for M2 and GM-CSF for M1 macrophages or in serum-free media supplemented with M-CSF or GM-CSF and cytokines such as IL-4, IL-10 to induce activated M2 or LPS together with IFN-γ to generate activated M1 phenotype. We observed differences in cell morphology as well as increased surface receptor expression levels in serum-containing culture whereas similar or higher cytokine production levels were detected under serum-free culture conditions. More importantly, MDM differentiated under serum-free conditions displayed enhanced tumoricidal activity for M1 and tumor promoting property for M2 macrophages in contrast to MDM differentiated in the presence of serum. Moreover, evaluation of MDM phagocytic activity in serum free condition resulted in greater phagocytic properties of M2 compared to M1. Our data therefore confirm the tumor promoting properties of M2 macrophages in vitro and encourage the targeting of TAMs for cancer therapy.
Adaptive Agent-Based Wide-Area Current Differential Protection System

This paper proposes a multiagent-based adaptive wide-area current differential protection system. A power grid is divided into primary and backup protection zones dynamically online with the help of a developed expert system, and the relay agents of these zones cooperate to perform a differential relaying function. Predictive self-healing strategies have been proposed to prevent misoperation of the relay agent, and the communication system has been simulated. The performance of the proposed adaptive wide-area current differential protection system based on computer simulation is presented in this paper.