Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparison on efficacy of radical prostatectomy versus external beam radiotherapy for the treatment of localized prostate cancer

Since there was no consensus on treatment options of localized prostate cancer, a meta-analysis was performed to compare the efficacy of radical prostatectomy (RP) versus external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) concluding three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3DCRT) and intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT). The search of eligible studies was performed on PubMed and Embase databases. The overall survival (OS), cancer-specific survival (CSS) and biochemical disease-free survival (BDFS) were compared by hazard ratio (HR) and odd ratios (OR). Twelve studies with 17137 patients were included. The pooled HR and 95% CI for OS, CSS and BDFS were 1.60 (1.44–1.79), 1.73 (1.34–2.24) and 0.65 (0.51–0.82), respectively. However, according to risk stratification, the HRs of CSS for low- to intermediate-risk patients were not significant. The 5-year and 10-year CSS reported significant OR and 95% CI of 1.96 (1.42–2.72) and 2.44 (1.33–4.48), except for 2-year CSS (P = 0.42). In conclusion, RP was generally associated with decreased risk of overall and cancer-specific mortality as well as better 5-year and 10-year OS and CSS. The EBRT was suggested to be a promising alternative option for low- to intermediate-risk patients. Large-scale prospective studies with risk stratification and adequate follow-up length were needed for further comprehensive comparison.
Effect of transducer mismatch on the performance of spherical microphone arrays

ABSTRACT Spherical microphone arrays(SMAs) were widely used in sound field recording, beamforming,etc. for its advantage of high geometrical symmetry. Many factors could affect the performance of SMAs, including transducer errors. In this paper, effect of transducer mismatch in amplitude and phase on the performance of SMAs was studied through simulation calculation. A SMAs with 64 nearly uniformly distributed transducers was used in the simulation. Beam patterns with and without transducer mismatch errors were calculated, and then the differences between those patterns were compared using beam pattern correlation coefficients as the metric. The simulation and anlyasis results show that under the condition that the spherical harmonics expansion order is not larger than ka(the product of wave number and array radius), the correlation coefficient is not less than 0.97 when the max random transducer amplitude error is less than 3dB or the maximum random transducer phase error is less than 10 degree. This result indicates that the performance of SMAs has a good tolerance to transducer mismatch errors when spherical harmonics truncation order is not larger than ka. While ka less than truncation order, great errors occur due to low-frequency boost nature of SMAs signal processing.
Parameterization of Emotion Expression through Robot’s Body Language

To enhance the human-robot interaction social robots have been developed with focuses on facial expression and verbal language. However, little to none has been done on emotional expression through robot’s body language. This work uses a parameterization method with human’s emotion theory and experiments to find robot parameters for expressing emotions through body language. Mapping is done on 2- and 3-dimensional emotion space, and obtained coefficients can be used to determine the influence level of motion parameters to emotion domains.
Ensemble Methods for Personality Recognition

An important bottleneck in the development of accurate and robust personality recognition systems based on supervised machine learning, is the limited availability of training data, and the high cost involved in collecting it. In this paper, we report on a proof of concept of using ensemble learning as a way to alleviate the data acquisition problem. The approach allows the use of information from datasets from different genres, personality classification systems and even different languages in the construction of a classifier, thereby improving its performance. In the exploratory research described here, we indeed observe the expected positive effects.
Authoring of learning styles in adaptive hypermedia: problems and solutions

Learning styles, as well as the best ways of responding with corresponding instructional strategies, have been intensively studied in the classical educational (classroom) setting. There is much less research of application of learning styles in the new educational space, created by the Web. Moreover, authoring applications are scarce, and they do not provide explicit choices and creation of instructional strategies for specific learning styles. The main objective of the research described in this paper is to provide the authors with a tool which will allow them to incorporate different learning styles in their adaptive educational hypermedia applications. In this way, we are creating a semantically significant interface between classical learning styles and instructional strategies and the modern field of adaptive educational hypermedia.
The Effect of Antihypertensive Drugs on Arterial Stiffness and Central Hemodynamics: Not All Fingers are Made the Same

Arterial stiffness and central hemodynamics attract increasing scientific interest within the hypertensive com- munity during the last decade. Accumulating evidence indicates that aortic stiffness is a strong and independent predictor of cardiovascular events and all-cause mortality in hypertensive patients, and its predictive value extends beyond tradi- tional risk factors. The role of central hemodynamics and augmentation index (a marker of reflected waves), remains less established and requires further investigation. Several lines of evidence indicate that antihypertensive therapy results in significant reductions of pulse wave velocity and central hemodynamics. However, beta-blockers seem to be the only ex- ception with significant within-class differences. Conventional beta-blockers, although equally effective in reducing pulse wave velocity, seem to be less beneficial on central hemodynamics and augmentation index than the other antihyperten- sive drug categories, whereas the newer vasodilating beta-blockers seem to share the benefits of the other antihypertensive drugs. In conclusion, aortic stiffness seems ready for 'prime-time' in the management of essential hypertension, while fur- ther research is needed for central hemodynamics and augmentation index.
Tyrosine Decaging Leads to Substantial Membrane Trafficking during Modulation of an Inward Rectifier Potassium Channel

Tyrosine side chains participate in several distinct signaling pathways, including phosphorylation and membrane trafficking. A nonsense suppression procedure was used to incorporate a caged tyrosine residue in place of the natural tyrosine at position 242 of the inward rectifier channel Kir2.1 expressed in Xenopus oocytes. When tyrosine kinases were active, flash decaging led both to decreased K+ currents and also to substantial (15–26%) decreases in capacitance, implying net membrane endocytosis. A dominant negative dynamin mutant completely blocked the decaging-induced endocytosis and partially blocked the decaging-induced K+ channel inhibition. Thus, decaging of a single tyrosine residue in a single species of membrane protein leads to massive clathrin-mediated endocytosis; in fact, membrane area equivalent to many clathrin-coated vesicles is withdrawn from the oocyte surface for each Kir2.1 channel inhibited. Oocyte membrane proteins were also labeled with the thiol-reactive fluorophore tetramethylrhodamine-5-maleimide, and manipulations that decreased capacitance also decreased surface membrane fluorescence, confirming the net endocytosis. In single-channel studies, tyrosine kinase activation decreased the membrane density of active Kir2.1 channels per patch but did not change channel conductance or open probability, in agreement with the hypothesis that tyrosine phosphorylation results in endocytosis of Kir2.1 channels. Despite the Kir2.1 inhibition and endocytosis stimulated by tyrosine kinase activation, neither Western blotting nor 32P labeling produced evidence for direct tyrosine phosphorylation of Kir2.1. Therefore, it is likely that tyrosine phosphorylation affects Kir2.1 function indirectly, via interactions between clathrin adaptor proteins and a tyrosine-based sorting motif on Kir2.1 that is revealed by decaging the tyrosine side chain. These interactions inhibit a fraction of the Kir2.1 channels, possibly via direct occlusion of the conduction pathway, and also lead to endocytosis, which further decreases Kir2.1 currents. These data establish that side chain decaging can provide valuable time-resolved data about intracellular signaling systems.
Enhanced sound field reproduction within prioritized control region

Higher-order ambisonics has been identified as a robust technique for synthesizing a desired sound field. However, the synthesis algorithm requires a large number of secondary sources to derive the optimal results for large reproduction regions and over high operating frequencies. This paper proposes an enhanced method for synthesizing the sound field using a relatively small number of secondary sources which allows improved synthesizing accuracy for certain subregions of the interested zone. This method introduces the spherical harmonic translation into the mode matching algorithm to acquire a uniform modal-domain representation of the sound fields within different sub-regions. Then by changing the weighing of each region, the least mean squares solution can be easily controlled to cater for certain prioritized reproduction requirements. Simulations show that this technique can effectively improve the matching accuracy of a given sub-region, while only slightly increasing the global reproduction error. This method is shown to be especially effective in the situations where the number of secondary sources is limited.
Collagen/gold nanoparticle nanocomposites: A potential skin wound healing biomaterial

In this study, nanocomposite collagen scaffolds incorporating gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) were prepared for wound healing applications. Initially, dose (<20 ppm) and size (>20 nm) of AuNPs that were not cytotoxic on HaCat keratinocytes and 3T3 fibroblasts were determined. Both collagen sponges and AuNP-incorporated nanocomposites (CS-Au) were cross-linked with glutaraldehyde (CS-X and CS-AuX). Incorporation of AuNPs into cross-linked scaffolds enhanced their stability against enzymatic degradation and increased the tensile strength. Hydrolytic degradation of CS-Au group was also less than CS after seven days. Upon confirming in vitro biocompatibility of the scaffolds with cytotoxicity assays, cell attachment and proliferation tests and the in vivo efficacy for healing of full-thickness skin wounds were investigated by applying CS-X, CS-AuX or a commercial product (Matriderm®) onto defect sites and covering with Ioban® drapes. Defects were covered only with drapes for untreated control group. The wound areas were examined with histopathological and biomechanical tests after 14 days of operation. CS-AuX group was superior to untreated control and Matriderm®; it suppressed the inflammation while significantly promoting granulation tissue formation. Inflammatory reaction against CS-AuX was milder than CS-X. Neovascularization was also higher in CS-AuX than other groups, though the result was not significant. Wound closure in CS-X (76%), CS-AuX (69%), and Matriderm® (65%) were better than untreated control (45%). CS-AuX group had the highest tensile strength (significantly higher than Matriderm®) and modulus (significantly higher than Matriderm® and CS-X), indicating a faster course of dermal healing. Further studies are also needed to investigate whether higher loading of AuNPs affects these results positively in a statistically meaningful manner. Overall, their contribution to the enhancement of degradation profiles and mechanical properties, their excellent in vitro biocompatibility, and tendency to accelerate wound healing are encouraging the use of AuNPs in collagen sponges as potent skin substitutes in the future.
High Genetic Differentiation between the M and S Molecular Forms of Anopheles gambiae in Africa

Background Anopheles gambiae, a major vector of malaria, is widely distributed throughout sub-Saharan Africa. In an attempt to eliminate infective mosquitoes, researchers are trying to develop transgenic strains that are refractory to the Plasmodium parasite. Before any release of transgenic mosquitoes can be envisaged, we need an accurate picture of the differentiation between the two molecular forms of An. gambiae, termed M and S, which are of uncertain taxonomic status. Methodology/Principal Findings Insertion patterns of three transposable elements (TEs) were determined in populations from Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Madagascar, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, and Tanzania, using Transposon Display, a TE-anchored strategy based on Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism. The results reveal a clear differentiation between the M and S forms, whatever their geographical origin, suggesting an incipient speciation process. Conclusions/Significance Any attempt to control the transmission of malaria by An. gambiae using either conventional or novel technologies must take the M/S genetic differentiation into account. In addition, we localized three TE insertion sites that were present either in every individual or at a high frequency in the M molecular form. These sites were found to be located outside the chromosomal regions that are suspected of involvement in the speciation event between the two forms. This suggests that these chromosomal regions are either larger than previously thought, or there are additional differentiated genomic regions interspersed with undifferentiated regions.
Relationship Between Nurse Managers' Leadership Styles and Staff Nurses' Job Satisfaction in a Greek NHS Hospital

Leadership style of nurse managers plays a significant role in staff nurses' job satisfaction. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between leadership style of nurse managers and nurses' job satisfaction in a Greek NHS Hospital. Two questionnaires were distributed to and completed by the nursing staff working in the Hospital: a) the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ Form) for distinguished nurse managers' leadership style of and b) the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) to measure the dependent variable of the nurses’ job satisfaction Data were collected from December 2013 to March 2014. Data were entered and analyzed using SPSS version19.0. Significance level was set up to p≤0.05. The mean scores of the subscales of transformational leadership style were slightly higher than the mean scores of the subscales of the transactional leadership style, which leads us to conclude that nurses prefer the transformational leadership style. The overall rating of satisfaction and the satisfaction scores due to intrinsic factors indicated moderate satisfaction, while the satisfaction rates due to extrinsic factors indicated low satisfaction. Further studies in the greek healthcare sector are recommended to determine the perceptions of head and staff nurses on various leadership styles and its effects.
A slope one algorithm based on item activeness and uncertain neighbors

The Slope One algorithm is one of the most widely used algorithms in personalized recommendation systems. It is efficient and easy to maintain, but it doesn't take the item similarity into consideration when it works. For instance, if the item similarity is low, there will be a deviation in the recommendation. So the ratings should be denoised before prediction. This paper analyses the item similarity and the item activeness in the nearest-neighborhood. Based on Slope One algorithm, a new collaborative filtering model which combines the item activeness in uncertain neighbors is presented. Firstly, the neighbors of each item are dynamically selected according to the item similarity and activeness in uncertain k-nearest neighbors matrix. Secondly, the average rating deviation between items is only generated from the selected neighboring items. Lastly, the target ratings are predicted by linear regression model. Experiments on the MovieLens dataset show that the proposed algorithm improves recommendation quality and gets better prediction accuracy than some other collaborative filtering algorithms.
Interleaved 3D-CNNs for joint segmentation of small-volume structures in head and neck CT images.

PURPOSE Accurate 3D image segmentation is a crucial step in radiation therapy planning of head and neck tumors. These segmentation results are currently obtained by manual outlining of tissues, which is a tedious and time-consuming procedure. Automatic segmentation provides an alternative solution, which, however, is often difficult for small tissues (i.e., chiasm and optic nerves in head and neck CT images) because of their small volumes and highly diverse appearance/shape information. In this work, we propose to interleave multiple 3D Convolutional Neural Networks (3D-CNNs) to attain automatic segmentation of small tissues in head and neck CT images. METHOD A 3D-CNN was designed to segment each structure of interest. To make full use of the image appearance information, multiscale patches are extracted to describe the center voxel under consideration and then input to the CNN architecture. Next, as neighboring tissues are often highly related in the physiological and anatomical perspectives, we interleave the CNNs designated for the individual tissues. In this way, the tentative segmentation result of a specific tissue can contribute to refine the segmentations of other neighboring tissues. Finally, as more CNNs are interleaved and cascaded, a complex network of CNNs can be derived, such that all tissues can be jointly segmented and iteratively refined. RESULT Our method was validated on a set of 48 CT images, obtained from the Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention (MICCAI) Challenge 2015. The Dice coefficient (DC) and the 95% Hausdorff Distance (95HD) are computed to measure the accuracy of the segmentation results. The proposed method achieves higher segmentation accuracy (with the average DC: 0.58 ± 0.17 for optic chiasm, and 0.71 ± 0.08 for optic nerve; 95HD: 2.81 ± 1.56 mm for optic chiasm, and 2.23 ± 0.90 mm for optic nerve) than the MICCAI challenge winner (with the average DC: 0.38 for optic chiasm, and 0.68 for optic nerve; 95HD: 3.48 for optic chiasm, and 2.48 for optic nerve). CONCLUSION An accurate and automatic segmentation method has been proposed for small tissues in head and neck CT images, which is important for the planning of radiotherapy.
Sexual Dimorphism in the Estimation of Upper-Limb Blood Flow Restriction in the Seated Position

Abstract Borges, A, Teodósio, C, Matos, P, Mil-Homens, P, Pezarat-Correia, P, Fahs, C, and Mendonca, GV. Sexual dimorphism in the estimation of upper-limb blood flow restriction in the seated position. J Strength Cond Res 32(7): 2096–2102, 2018—Arterial occlusion pressure (AOP) is typically used to normalize blood flow restriction (BFR) during low-intensity BFR exercise. Despite strong evidence for sexual dimorphism in muscle blood flow, sex-related differences in AOP estimation remain a controversial topic. We aimed at determining whether the relationship of upper-limb AOP with arm circumference and systolic blood pressure (BP) differs between men and women resting in the seated position. Sixty-two healthy young participants (31 men: 21.7 ± 2.3; 31 women: 22.0 ± 2.0 years) were included in this study. Arm circumference, resting BP, and AOP were taken in the seated position. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to determine whether the relationship of AOP with arm circumference and resting BP differed between sexes. Prediction accuracy was assessed with the mean absolute percent error and Bland-Altman plots. Men had higher systolic BP and larger arm circumference than women (p < 0.05). Nevertheless, AOP was similar between sexes. Arm circumference, systolic BP, and sex were all significant predictors of AOP (p < 0.05), explaining 42% of its variance. The absolute percent error was similar in both sexes (men: −0.55 ± 7.12; women: −0.39 ± 6.31%, p > 0.05). Bland-Altman plots showed that the mean difference between actual and estimated AOP was nearly zero in both groups, with no systematic overestimation or underestimation. In conclusion, arm circumference, systolic BP, and sex are all significant predictors of upper-limb–seated AOP. Their measurement allows for the indirect estimation of BFR pressure within the context of exercise training.
Validity and everyday clinical applicability of lumbar muscle fatigue assessment methods in patients with chronic non-specific low back pain: a systematic review

Abstract Purpose: This systematic literature review aimed at examining the validity and applicability in everyday clinical rehabilitation practise of methods for the assessment of back muscle fatiguability in patients with chronic non-specific low back pain (CNSLBP). Methods: Extensive research was performed in MEDLINE, Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), Embase, Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro) and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) databases from their inception to September 2014. Potentially relevant articles were also manually looked for in the reference lists of the identified publications. Studies examining lumbar muscle fatigue in people with CNSLBP were selected. Two reviewers independently selected the articles, carried out the study quality assessment and extracted the results. A modified Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) scale was used to evaluate the scientific rigour of the selected works. Results: Twenty-four studies fulfilled the selection criteria and were included in the systematic review. We found conflicting data regarding the validity of methods used to examine back muscle fatigue. The Biering-Sorensen test, performed in conjunction with surface electromyography spectral analysis, turned out to be the most widely used and comparatively, the most optimal modality currently available to assess objective back muscle fatigue in daily clinical practise, even though critical limitations are discussed. Conclusions: Future research should address the identification of an advanced method for lower back fatigue assessment in patients with CNSLBP which, eventually, might provide physical therapists with an objective and reliable test usable in everyday clinical practise. Implications for Rehabilitation Despite its limitations, the Biering-Sorensen test is currently the most used, convenient and easily available fatiguing test for lumbar muscles. To increase validity and reliability of the Biering-Sorensen test, concomitant activation of synergistic muscles should be taken into account. Pooled mean frequency and half-width of the spectrum are currently the most valid electromyographic parameters to assess fatigue in chronic non-specific low back pain. Body mass index, grading of pain and level of disability of the study population should be reported to enhance research quality.