Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Value of Additional Ultrasound Examination in Patients with Equivocal Computed Tomography Findings of Acute Appendicitis: Comparison with Computed Tomography Reassessment

Objectives: The objective of this study was to find the diagnostic values of additional ultrasound (US) in patients with equivocal computed tomography (CT) findings of acute appendicitis, compared to CT reassessment. Materials and Methods: Patients with equivocal CT findings of acute appendicitis (n = 115), who underwent the US, were included in the study. Two abdominal radiologists reviewed CT scans independently. They analyzed CT findings and made a diagnosis of acute appendicitis. The patients were categorized into positive and negative appendicitis based on the previous US reports. The diagnostic performance, interobserver agreement of CT findings, and appendicitis likelihood were calculated. Results: The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) of US (100%, 92.1%, 79.5%, and 100%, respectively) were higher than those of CT reassessment (reviewer 1: 51.9%, 87.5%, 56.1%, and 85.6%; reviewer 2: 66.7%, 85.2%, 58.1%, and 89.3%, respectively). In the coexistent inflammation group, the sensitivity, specificity, PPV, and NPV of US (reviewer 1: 100%, 98%, 91.5%, and 100%; reviewer 2: 100%, 98%, 87.7%, and 100%, respectively) were higher than those of CT reassessment (reviewer 1: 27.3%, 94.1%, 49.9%, and 85.8%; reviewer 2: 14.3%, 98.0%, 50.5%, and 88.9%, respectively). Conclusion: In patients with equivocal CT findings of acute appendicitis, US shows better diagnostic performance than CT reassessment, and helps differentiate with periappendicitis.
Circular Arrays and Inertial Measurement Unit for DOA/TOA/TDOA-Based Endoscopy Capsule Localization: Performance and Complexity Investigation

This paper investigates the performance of wireless capsule endoscopy (WCE) tracking within the irregular environment of digestion system by integrating directional-of-arrival (DOA), time-of-arrival (TOA) [or time-difference-of-arrival (TDOA)], and inertial measurement unit (IMU) measurements using the extended Kalman filter (EKF). Here, an emitter transmits a signal to the WCE, and the WCE replies the signal back to a set of antenna arrays. Then, the round trip TOA, and the DOA of the signals transmitted from WCE to the antenna arrays are measured. The digestion system path model is considered unknown, and the movement model between two consecutive signals is assumed linear. Simulations are conducted to investigate the EKF performance as a function of the number of antenna arrays, antenna array configuration, and TOA (and TDOA) estimation accuracy. In addition, the impact of IMU on the localization performance will be studied. Simulations confirm the proposed WCE tracking performance. In addition, the computational complexity of the EKF with respect to the number of antenna array is studied.
Evaluation of human brain aging via diffusion structural characteristics

Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is a novel imaging technique, which can evaluate the variation of white matter micro-structure in brain aging. Four network properties of characteristic path length (L<inf>p</inf>), clustering coefficient (C<inf>p</inf>), global efficiency (E<inf>global</inf>), local efficiency (E<inf>local</inf>) were measured for the whole brain (WB) and specific cortex between the young and the old one. The results showed that E<inf>global</inf> decreased and L<inf>p</inf>, C<inf>p</inf>, E<inf>local</inf> increased with the aging. We draw a conclusion that the chosen parameters of L<inf>p</inf>, C<inf>p</inf>, E<inf>global</inf>, E<inf>local</inf> could evaluate the white matter (WM) variation correlated with the brain aging. It used as gold markers for the changes of WB structure.
Comparison of chemical similarity measures using different numbers of query structures

Many different similarity measures have been described for searching chemical databases. Drawing on previous work in textual information retrieval, this paper investigates the numbers of queries that are required to make robust statements as to the relative retrieval effectiveness of different similarity measures. Experiments with the MDL Drug Data Report database suggest that much larger numbers of queries are ideally required for this purpose than has been the case in previous comparative studies in chemoinformatics.
Conditions that do not Reach the Threshold for Mental Disorder in Spanish Psychiatric Outpatients: Prevalence, Treatment and Management

Background: In recent years there has been controversy around the treatment demands of people who, without meeting diagnostic criteria for a mental disorder, have certain symptoms and are referred to mental health professionals. Aims: To determine the prevalence of individuals assessed by mental health service, referred from primary care, who do not meet the diagnosis criteria of mental disorders according to ICD-10. To analyze the medical treatment given to these individuals, measured by the indication for discharge or follow-up and by the pharmacological intervention decided in the first interview, as well as the associated variables. Method: Design: descriptive study. Scope: urban area. Population: all patients referred to the Salamanca mental health service during a year, without any exclusion (n = 1,187). Variables: sociodemographics; clinical and health service utilization gathered through clinical interview, GHQ-28, SCL-90-R and an expectations scale. Results: Of the 1,004 patients who attended interview, 24.4% (CI 95%: 21.6—27.0) did not present any diagnosable mental disorder (Z codes); they constitute the body of this study. 50.8% of these were referred from primary care with a psychotropic drug treatment already prescribed. Any drug intervention (addition, suspension or modification) was performed in 37.2% of the cases by the mental health service. Regardless of the treatment indicated, 52% were discharged after the first interview. Conclusions: The prevalence of patients who failed to reach diagnostic criteria for a mental disorder in this health service is similar to other studies, in spite of the filter provided by primary care. Many individuals without a diagnosable mental disorder received treatment both in primary care and in the mental health service.
Inhibition of the multidrug and toxin extrusion (MATE) transporter by pyrimethamine increases the plasma concentration of metformin but does not increase antihyperglycaemic activity in humans

We hypothesized that the pharmacodynamic (PD) characteristics of metformin would change with inhibition of the multidrug and toxin extrusion (MATE) transporter, which mediates renal elimination of metformin. Twenty healthy male subjects received two doses (750/500 mg) of metformin, with and without 50 mg of pyrimethamine (a potent MATE inhibitor), with 1 week of washout in between each dose. The PD characteristics of metformin were assessed using oral glucose tolerance tests (OGTTs) before and after the metformin dose. Metformin concentrations in plasma and urine were determined using liquid chromatography‐electrospray ionization‐tandem mass spectrometry. When metformin was co‐administered with pyrimethamine, its area under the concentration–time curve from 0 to 12 h was 2.58‐fold greater (p < 0.05), whereas the antihyperglycaemic effects of metformin were decreased. The mean differences (90% confidence interval) in mean and maximum serum glucose concentrations and in 2‐h‐post‐OGTT serum glucose concentration were −0.6 (−1, −0.2), −0.9 (−1.6, −0.3) and −0.5 (−1.1, 0.1) mmol/l, respectively. These findings indicate that the response to metformin is not only related to the plasma exposure of metformin but is also related to other factors, such as inhibition of uptake transporters and the gastrointestinal‐based pharmacology of metformin.
Natural orbitals and Bose-Einstein condensates in traps: A diffusion Monte Carlo analysis

We investigate the properties of hard-core bosons in harmonic traps over a wide range of densities. Bose-Einstein condensation is formulated using the one-body density matrix (OBDM) which is equally valid at low and high densities. The OBDM is calculated using diffusion Monte Carlo methods and it is diagonalized to obtain the ''natural'' single-particle orbitals and their occupation, including the condensate fraction. At low boson density, na{sup 3}<10{sup -5}, where n=N/V and a is the hard-core diameter, the condensate is localized at the center of the trap. As na{sup 3} increases, the condensate moves to the edges of the trap. At high density, it is localized at the edges of the trap. At na{sup 3}{<=}10{sup -4}, the Gross-Pitaevskii theory of the condensate describes the whole system within 1%. At na{sup 3}{approx_equal}10{sup -3}, corrections are 3% to the Grass-Pitaevskii energy but 30% to the Bogoliubov prediction of the condensate depletion. At na{sup 3}(greater-or-similar sign)10{sup -2}, mean-field theory fails. At na{sup 3}(greater-or-similar sign)0.1, the bosons behave more like a liquid {sup 4}He droplet than a trapped boson gas.
Sensory characteristics and relative sweetness of tagatose and other sweeteners.

UNLABELLED The present study investigated the sensory characteristics and relative sweetness of tagatose, an emerging natural low-calorie sweetener with various functional properties, compared to other sweeteners (sucrose, sucralose, erythritol, rebaudioside A), over a wide range of sweetness commonly found in foods and beverages (3% to 20% sucrose [w/v]). A total of 34 subjects evaluated aqueous solutions of the 5 sweeteners for the perceived intensities of sweetness, bitterness, astringency, chemical-like sensations, and sweet aftertaste, using the general version of the Labeled Magnitude Scale. The relationship between the physical concentrations of the sweeteners and their perceived sweetness (that is, psychophysical functions) was derived to quantify the relative sweetness and potency of the sweeteners. The results suggest that tagatose elicits a sweet taste without undesirable qualities (bitterness, astringency, chemical-like sensations). Out of the 5 sweeteners tested, rebaudioside A was the only sweetener with notable bitterness and chemical-like sensations, which became progressively intense with increasing concentration (P < 0.001). In terms of perceived sweetness intensity, the bulk sweeteners (tagatose, erythritol, sucrose) had similar sweetness growth rates (slopes > 1), whereas the high-potency sweeteners (sucralose, rebaudioside A) yielded much flatter sweetness functions (slopes < 1). Because the sweetness of tagatose and sucrose grew at near-identical rates (slope = 1.41 and 1.40, respectively), tagatose produced about the same relative sweetness to sucrose across the concentrations tested. However, the relative sweetness of other sweeteners to sucrose was highly concentration dependent. Consequently, sweetness potencies of other sweeteners varied across the concentrations tested, ranging from 0.50 to 0.78 for erythritol, 220 to 1900 for sucralose, and 300 to 440 for rebaudioside A, while tagatose was estimated to be approximately 0.90 times as potent as sucrose irrespective of concentration. PRACTICAL APPLICATION The present study investigated the sensory characteristics and relative sweetness of tagatose, an emerging natural low-calorie sweetener, compared to other sweeteners. Study results suggest that tagatose elicits a sweet taste without undesirable qualities over a wide range of concentrations. Tagatose produced about the same relative sweetness to sucrose across the concentrations tested, while the relative sweetness of other sweeteners was highly concentration dependent. The present data provide a general guideline when considering the use of tagatose and other sweeteners in foods and beverages.
Interpretation of handwritten addresses in US mailstream

Determining the delivery location for mail pieces based on handwritten addresses is a problem that trained humans can normally solve. As a problem in machine reading and interpretation, it presents many challenges. A method for determining the delivery point codes (DPCs) for handwritten addresses by computer is described. Solution to the task requires locating and recognizing address components (e.g., ZIP Code, street number, P.O. box number) and using multiple information sources to assign the DPC to an address. The methodology uses diverse pattern recognition techniques, image processing algorithms (thresholding, underline removal, separation of lines, location and recognition of address components), and access to United States Postal Service (USPS) databases to determine the DPC. <<ETX>>
A public domain dataset for ADL recognition using wrist-placed accelerometers

The automatic monitoring of specific Activities of Daily Living (ADL) can be a useful tool for Human-Robot Interaction in smart environments and Assistive Robotics applications. The qualitative definition that is given for most ADL and the lack of well-defined benchmarks, however, are obstacles toward the identification of the most effective monitoring approaches for different tasks. The contribution of the article is two-fold: (i) we propose a taxonomy of ADL allowing for their categorization with respect to the most suitable monitoring approach; (ii) we present a freely available dataset of acceleration data, coming from a wrist-worn wearable device, targeting the recognition of 14 different human activities.
A Social Network Water Army Detection Model based on Artificial Immunity

The wanton dissemination of water army information in social network seriously affects the authenticity of information received by users. With the continuous renewal of the covert means of the water army, the traditional screening means of the water army are no longer efficient. Combined with the idea of computer artificial immunity, this paper deeply analyzes the deep-level characteristics of the water army, finds out the stable and efficient danger and safety signal, calculates its optimal weight matrix through evolution, fuses DCA algorithm to calculate the antigen maturity, and then identifies the water army. The simulation results show that the recognition model based on the immune risk theory has a certain improvement in accuracy and recall rate, while the time cost is greatly reduced, which verifies its effectiveness and high efficiency.
Platelet Lysate: The Better Choice for Jaw Periosteal Cell Mineralization

Previously, we demonstrated a high quality of minerals formed by serum-free cultured jaw periosteal cells (JPCs) by Raman spectroscopy but the mineralization extent was not satisfactory. In the present study, we analyzed the proliferation and mineralization potential of human platelet lysate- (hPL-) cultured JPCs in comparison to that of FCS-cultured JPCs. By cell impedance measurements, we detected significantly higher population doubling times of PL-cultured JPCs in comparison to FCS-cultured JPCs. However, this result was not based on lower proliferation activities but on diminished cell sizes which JPCs develop under PL cultivation. The measurements of the metabolic activities clearly showed significantly higher cell proliferation rates under PL culturing. Equivalent levels of the mesenchymal cell markers CD29, CD45, CD73, CD90, and CD105 were detected, but there were significantly increased MSCA-1 levels under PL cultivation. While JPCs only occasionally mineralize under FCS culture conditions, the mineralization potential was significantly stronger under PL cultivation. Moreover, in 4 of 5 analyzed patient cells, the addition of dexamethasone was proved no longer necessary for strong mineralization of PL-cultured JPCs. We conclude that in vitro cultivation of JPCs with platelet lysate is a suitable alternative to FCS culture conditions and a powerful tool for the development of high-quality TE constructs using jaw periosteal cells.
Towards a methodology for measuring plausibility Explorative analysis of its use for an analysis of CFR reports

University, Nijmegen for graduation in Information Science. The research, that took place at the University of Reading (UK), was centered around the problem of text analysis in accounting. On the basis of the completeness of interpretation suggested by a semiotic model of human processing developed at Radboud University, a methodology is introduced for testing the plausibility and convincingness (cf. rhetoric) of CFR reports.
Reconfiguring knowledge management - combining intellectual capital, intangible assets and knowledge creation

Intellectual capital, intangible assets and knowledge creation are all concepts that are strongly linked to the phenomenon of knowledge management. Yet they have only been parallel to each other. This controversy between different approaches has also resulted in vague definitions of knowledge management. This paper will critically discuss the definitions of these concepts. The analysis shows that different concepts actually focus on different angles of the topic. Based on this, a model will be built that ties all of them into a unitary entity. At the same time, this model gives a reconfigured definition of the concept of knowledge management.
Decay of correlations and inference in graphical models

We study the decay of correlations property in graphical models and its implications on efficient algorithms for inference in these models. We consider three specific problems: 1) The List Coloring problem on graphs, 2) The MAX-CUT problem on graphs with random edge deletions, and 3) Low Rank Matrix Completion from an incomplete subset of its entries. For each problem, we analyze the conditions under which either spatial or temporal decay of correlations exists and provide approximate inference algorithms in the presence of these conditions. In the course of our study of 2), we also investigate the problem of existence of a giant component in random multipartite graphs with a given degree sequence. The list coloring problem on a graph g is a generalization of the classical graph coloring problem where each vertex is provided with a list of colors. We prove the Strong Spatial Mixing (SSM) property for this model, for arbitrary bounded degree triangle-free graphs. Our results hold for any a > a* whenever the size of the list of each vertex v is at least aA(v) + P where A(v) is the degree of vertex v and # is a constant that only depends on a. The result is obtained by proving the decay of correlations of marginal probabilities associated with the vertices of the graph measured using a suitably chosen error function. The SSM property allows us to efficiently compute approximate marginal probabilities and approximate log partition function in this model. Finding a cut of maximum size in a graph is a well-known canonical NP-hard problem in algorithmic complexity theory. We consider a version of random weighted MAX-CUT on graphs with bounded degree d, which we refer to as the thinned MAX-CUT problem, where the weights assigned to the edges are i.i. d. Bernoulli random variables with mean p. We show that thinned MAX-CUT undergoes a 3 computational hardness phase transition at p = pc = d 11: the thinned MAX-CUT problem is efficiently solvable when p < pc and is NP-hard when p > pc. We show that the computational hardness is closely related to the presence of large connected components in the underlying graph. We consider the problem of reconstructing a low rank matrix M from a subset of its entries Mo. We describe three algorithms, Information Propagation (IP), a sequential decoding algorithm, and two iterative decentralized algorithms named the Vertex Least Squares (VLS), which is same as Alternating Minimization and Edge Least Squares (ELS), which is a message-passing variation of VLS. We provide sufficient conditions on the structure of the revelation graph for IP to succeed and show that when M has rank r = 0(1), this property is satisfied by Erdos-Renyi graphs with edge probability Q ((,g-) 'r). For VLS, we provide sufficient conditions in the special case of positive rank one matrices. For ELS, we provide simulation results which shows that it performs better than VLS both in terms of convergence speed and sample complexity. Thesis Supervisor: David Gamarnik Title: Professor
Comparative performance of wind turbine driven PMSG with PI-controllers tuned using heuristic optimization algorithms

An efficient methodology for the tuning of proportional-integral controllers' gains for the generator-side converter of a wind turbine driven permanent magnet synchronous generator using a self-adaptive global best harmony search algorithm is proposed. Performance of the generator with the optimized controller parameters obtained using the proposed algorithm is compared with the parameters obtained using the Ziegler-Nichols technique, bees colony, and simulated annealing algorithms. Studies demonstrate that the performance of the system with the optimized controller parameters permits an improvement of the converter capability.
Adapting to sensing and actuation variations in multi-robot coverage

This article considers the problem of multi-robot coverage control, where a group of robots has to spread out over an environment to provide coverage. We propose a new approach for a group of robots carrying out this collaborative task that will adapt online to performance variations among the robots. Two types of performance variations are considered: variations in sensing performance (e.g. differences in sensor types, calibration, or noise), and variations in actuation (e.g. differences in terrain, vehicle types, or lossy motors). The robots have no prior knowledge of the relative strengths of their performance compared to the others in the team. We present an algorithm that learns the relative performance variations among the robots online, in a distributed fashion, and automatically compensates by assigning the weak robots a smaller portion of the environment and the strong robots a larger portion. Using a Lyapunov-type proof, we show that the robots converge to a locally optimal coverage configuration. The algorithm is also demonstrated in both MATLAB simulations and experiments with Pololu m3pi ground robots.
A dual-polarized patch antenna with pattern reconfigurable characteristics

This paper presents a dual linearly-polarized patch antenna with pattern reconfigurable characteristics. The antenna can achieve ±45° dual-polarization with three modes. By changing the states of switches, the maximum radiation direction points to +25°, -2° and -26° in the elevation angle (x-z plane), with 3dB beamwidth covering the range from -48° to +44°. The three modes have a common band of 2.11-2.57GHz, with relative bandwidth of 18.77%. Simulation results show that good impedance matching, stable gain and high front-to-back ratio are achieved simultaneously. The antenna can be used in wireless communications systems.
Accelerated Hierarchical Density Based Clustering

We present an accelerated algorithm for hierarchical density based clustering. Our new algorithm improves upon HDBSCAN*, which itself provided a significant qualitative improvement over the popular DBSCAN algorithm. The accelerated HDBSCAN* algorithm provides comparable performance to DBSCAN, while supporting variable density clusters, and eliminating the need for the difficult to tune distance scale parameter epsilon. This makes accelerated HDBSCAN* the default choice for density based clustering.
Suppression of flicker noise upconversion in a 65nm CMOS VCO in the 3.0-to-3.6GHz band

Flicker noise up-conversion into close-in 1/f3 phase noise is still one of the major issues in the design of CMOS oscillators. Suppression techniques have been recently presented suggesting (i) adoption of a resonant network [1], (ii) reduction of transistor size [2] or (iii) insertion of source degeneration [3]. However, resonant solutions do not guarantee suppression over a wide frequency range, while the other options affect the oscillator start-up margin and degrade the “white” 1/f2 phase noise. This work presents an alternative technique that does not rely on resonant elements and does not affect both start-up margin and 1/f2 phase noise. Demonstration of the technique is described in a 65nm CMOS VCO design.