Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Current and Future Magnetic Resonance Technologies for Assessing Liver Disease in Clinical and Experimental Medicine

Background: In the past decades, a number of non-invasive methods have emerged for detecting and estimating liver fibrosis; these include both serum-based panels and imaging-based technology. Some of these methods are now being incorporated in clinical practice. However, the limitations of the current techniques include lack of organ specificity, sampling errors and limited ability to reflect the efficacy of interventions. Key Messages: Novel magnetic resonance (MR)-based techniques provide an opportunity to bring about further changes in the investigations and management of patients with liver diseases. Multimodal quantitative MR techniques enable the estimation of fat, iron accumulation, degree of liver injury/inflammation and fibrosis within the whole liver without the need for administering contrast agents. Architectural changes within the liver can be evaluated concurrently with portal haemodynamic changes allowing non-invasive assessment of portal hypertension and effects of interventions. A combination ultra-high field (7T) provides greater sensitivity with a potential to distinguish inflammation from fibrosis on imaging and determine specific types of fats (saturated vs. unsaturated) present within the liver using MR spectroscopy. 13C MR spectroscopy can estimate glutathione flux and rate of beta oxidation in-vivo providing novel tools for experimental studies that evaluate the efficacy of interventions as well as underlying mechanisms. Conclusions: Translational research should focus on converting the potentials of these innovative methodologies into clinical applications for the benefit of patients.
ArcA Redox Mutants as a Source of Reduced Bioproducts

Escherichia coli and other facultative anaerobes can adapt their metabolism according to oxygen availability by means of aerobic and anaerobic respiration and fermentation. ArcAB is a two-component signal transduction system that controls, at the transcriptional level, the choice of energy generation pathway according to the intracellular redox state. High throughput studies on different redox regulator mutants, involving transcriptome analysis, RT-PCR and phenotypic arrays enabled the elucidation of a repertoire of operons coordinated by ArcA which extended beyond respiration control including, among others, those which code for survival, chromosome replication and degradation of fatty acids. Flux analysis by 13C labeling provided new clues to the understanding of the distribution of metabolites mediated by ArcAB. The genetic manipulation of this regulator proved to be useful for the generation of reduced products of commercial value.
Geological and Hydrochemical Study of the Zalim Spring, Shahrazoor, Sulaimania, Iraq

Zalim spring which is located about (50 Km) east of Sulaimania city, considered as one of the largest spring in Shahrazoor area. The spring mouth is a semicircular and coming out from a small cave locating about 22m above the base of a vertical cliff. This study aims to draw the real geological and hydrogeological setting behind appearance of this wonderful spring. Also an attempt was made to assess the quality of the water, with particular emphasis on the influence of human and tourist’s impact on the contamination and pollution of this water during toursting season. A geological map and a geological cross section were prepared showing the location of the spring, which is based on a detail survey achieved by the authors, covered both Iraq and even Iranian portion of the catchments. Chemical analysis of water samples were taken from five sites along a route that is more subjecting to human impact than others. The results show satisfactory results according to (WHO) and Iraqi standards for drinking, irrigation and industry uses. Relative increase of Nitrate ions detected and PO4 ions exceeding natural background also detected. ــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ ملاز نيع ةقطنمل ةيئايميكورديهو ةيجولويج ةسارد ، روزرهش ، ةيناميلسلا ، قارعلا
Topic-Based Visualization for “ Charles Overstreet Collection ” : Four Topic Clusters Figure 4 : Topic-Based Visualization for “ Charles Overstreet Collection ” : Eight Topic Clusters

Today, the ongoing and dramatic increase in available information has motivated information professionals to seek better ways to organize and present large data sets for improved information access and retrieval. One approach to helping users find and retrieve large-scale information is information visualization. While the literature has addressed how information visualization techniques can help present data in a way that enables users to find, retrieve, and analyze large-scale information effectively, little has been done to visualize the information based on its underlying semantic meanings. In this paper, we developed a topic-based visualization model to present and analyze the Illinois Digital Archives, in which a document can now be represented as a mixture of semantic topics and the relationships between documents can be understood more clearly. The study extends the existing collection management options for librarians, archivists, and other information professionals who manage and curate large digital collections.
Spatial mixture of Gaussians for dynamic background modelling

Modelling pixels using mixture of Gaussian distributions is a popular approach for removing background in video sequences. This approach works well for static backgrounds because the pixels are assumed to be independent of each other. However, when the background is dynamic, this is not very effective. In this paper, we propose a generalisation of the algorithm where the spatial relationship between pixels is taken into account. In essence, we model regions as mixture distributions rather than individual pixels. Using experimental verification on various video sequences, we show that our method is able to model and subtract backgrounds effectively in scenes with complex dynamic textures.
Effect of Mouse Passage on Fc Receptor Expression by Group A Streptococci

The expression and stability of receptors for the Fc region of human IgG on the surface of group A streptococci was studied. Two strains were sequentially passed in mice 22 times. The Fc‐receptor expression on one group A strain, 529, was unaltered while the expression of Fc receptor on a second, 64, was enhanced and approached the level of Fc‐receptor expression of the protein A‐rich Staphylococcos aureus Cowan strain. The level of Fc‐receptor expression on this organism remained stable for over 18 months of laboratory subculture. Mouse passage did not result in the production of a soluble Fc receptor from either of the streptococcal strains. Heat extraction of the Fc‐receptor‐positive group A strain resulted in solubilization of an Fc‐receptor activity which was functionally distinct from either staphylococcal protein A or the Fc receptor isolated from a group C streptococcus.
Low-Complexity Receiver Using Undersampling for Guard-Band SSB-DDO-OFDM

A guard-band-based and single-side-band (SSB) modulation scheme is usually employed to improve receiver sensitivity and avoid power fading for the direct-detection optical orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (DDO-OFDM). In this paper, we take advantages of analog-to-digital converter (ADC) undersampling to achieve a low-complexity receiver for guard-band SSB-DDO-OFDM. By using an electrical bandpass filter, the signal-to-signal beating interference is removed from the guard-band, and the desired OFDM signal is sampled at a rate twice its signal bandwidth rather than its highest frequency component. The guard-band will be filled with the aliased components which can be used to fully recover the transmitted data, and the discrete Fourier transform size at the receiver side is reduced by more than half. As a result, the implementation complexity of the receiver can be greatly reduced with the lower ADC sampling rate and reduced digital signal processing complexity. The feasibility of the proposed low-complexity receiver is investigated by numerical simulations. When the quantization noise is not dominant, the simulations show that the proposed low-complexity guard-band SSB-DDO-OFDM has similar error vector magnitude performances with the conventional one over different bias voltages and single-mode fiber links.
High-throughput metabolomics enables biomarker discovery in prostate cancer

Prostate cancer (PCa) is the most frequently diagnosed cancer and the second leading cause of cancer death among men in the world. Therefore, it is important to discover new biomarkers for the diagnosis of PCa, preferably noninvasive ones. Metabolomics can be used to analyse the entire metabolic profile of a biological system and discover potential biomarkers. Advances in liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry technology have led to the application of metabolomics in PCa, toward identifying metabolic alterations in PCa. In this work, the art metabolomics platform by fast ultrahigh performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (FPLC/MS) coupled with multivariate statistical analyses were employed to identify sensitive and economical peripheral urine biomarker(s) associated with the entire measurable metabolome from PCa patients (n = 236) and age-matched healthy controls (n = 233), with the aim of discovering alterations in the metabolic phenotype and thus discovering potential biomarkers for the diagnosis of PCa. Metabolic differences among PCa and control subjects were identified based on orthogonal signal correction-partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA). Glycocholic acid, hippurate, 5-hydroxy-L-tryptophan, taurocholic acid, and chenodeoxycholic acid in the PCa subjects were significantly different from the control cases. Bioinformatics analysis found that these differentially-expressed metabolites had a strong correlation with the farnesoid X receptor and retinoic X receptor (FXR/RXR) activation, etc. To demonstrate the utility of urine biomarkers for the early diagnosis of PCa, three metabolites comprising glycocholic acid, hippurate and 5-hydroxy-L-tryptophan were selected as candidate biomarkers (AUC > 0.95) and validation in separate, independent patient cohorts, yielded satisfactory accuracy, sensitivity and specificity. Furthermore, these data suggest that panels of analytes may be valuable to translate metabolomic findings to clinically useful diagnostic tests. Potentially, the present study provides promising diagnosis tool for PCa.
Isolation of an activator-dependent, promoter-specific chromatin remodeling factor

Repressed PHO5 gene chromatin, isolated from yeast in the native state, was remodeled by yeast extract in a gene activator-dependent, ATP-dependent manner. The product of the reaction bore the hallmark of the process in vivo, the selective removal of promoter nucleosomes, without effect on open reading frame nucleosomes. Fractionation of the extract identified a single protein, chromodomain helicase DNA binding protein 1 (Chd1), capable of the remodeling activity. Deletion of the CHD1 gene in an isw1Δ pho80Δ strain abolished PHO5 gene expression, demonstrating the relevance of the remodeling reaction in vitro to the process in vivo.
A Calibration-Free Fractional-N ADPLL using Retiming Architecture and a 9-bit 0.3ps-INL Phase Interpolator

This paper presents a fractional-N all digital phase locked loop (ADPLL) using a retiming high linear digital phase interpolator (DPI), which is free from pre- and background-calibration. The DPI utilizes a charge-sharing effect insensitive charge-based structure to improve the linearity. Designed in a 40-nm CMOS technology, the proposed DPI achieves 9-bit resolution, 0.3ps integral nonlinearity (INL) and 0.083ps differential nonlinearity (DNL). The proposed ADPLL achieves −118 dBc/Hz in-band phase noise at 1MHz and −93.9dBc fractional spur with the 0.3ps nonlinearity of DPI.
A Virtual Microscope for Academic Medical Education: The Pate Project

Background Whole-slide imaging (WSI) has become more prominent and continues to gain in importance in student teaching. Applications with different scope have been developed. Many of these applications have either technical or design shortcomings. Objective To design a survey to determine student expectations of WSI applications for teaching histological and pathological diagnosis. To develop a new WSI application based on the findings of the survey. Methods A total of 216 students were questioned about their experiences and expectations of WSI applications, as well as favorable and undesired features. The survey included 14 multiple choice and two essay questions. Based on the survey, we developed a new WSI application called Pate utilizing open source technologies. Results The survey sample included 216 students—62.0% (134) women and 36.1% (78) men. Out of 216 students, 4 (1.9%) did not disclose their gender. The best-known preexisting WSI applications included Mainzer Histo Maps (199/216, 92.1%), Histoweb Tübingen (16/216, 7.4%), and Histonet Ulm (8/216, 3.7%). Desired features for the students were latitude in the slides (190/216, 88.0%), histological (191/216, 88.4%) and pathological (186/216, 86.1%) annotations, points of interest (181/216, 83.8%), background information (146/216, 67.6%), and auxiliary informational texts (113/216, 52.3%). By contrast, a discussion forum was far less important (9/216, 4.2%) for the students. Conclusions The survey revealed that the students appreciate a rich feature set, including WSI functionality, points of interest, auxiliary informational texts, and annotations. The development of Pate was significantly influenced by the findings of the survey. Although Pate currently has some issues with the Zoomify file format, it could be shown that Web technologies are capable of providing a high-performance WSI experience, as well as a rich feature set.
Maximal variation and missing values for componentwise support vector machines

This paper proposes primal-dual kernel machine classifiers based on worst-case analysis of a finite set of observations including missing values of the inputs. Key ingredients are the use of a componentwise support vector machine (cSVM) and an empirical measure of maximal variation of the components to bind the influence of the component which cannot be evaluated due to missing values. A regularization term based on the L/sub 1/ norm of the maximal variation is used to obtain a mechanism for structure detection in that context. An efficient implementation using the hierarchical kernel machines framework is elaborated.
Advantages of using estimated depression-free days for evaluating treatment efficacy.

OBJECTIVE Several common methods for measuring treatment response present a snapshot of depression symptoms. The construct of estimated depression-free days (DFDs) simultaneously captures treatment outcome and estimates the patient's experience of depression over time. The study compared this measure with traditional measures used in depression treatment research. METHODS This secondary data analysis was based on data from the Improving Mood-Promoting Access to Collaborative Treatment trial, a multisite depression treatment study conducted in 18 primary care clinics in five states and representing eight health care systems. The sample of older adults (N=906) had been randomly assigned to receive collaborative care for depression. Participants were aged 60 or older and met criteria for major depressive disorder, dysthymia, or both. Exclusion criteria included severe cognitive impairment, active substance abuse, active suicidal behavior, severe mental illness, and active treatment from a psychiatrist. The Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and the Hopkins Symptom Checklist (HSCL-20) were used as outcome measures at four assessment points (baseline, three months, six months, and 12 months). Outcomes were computed for relative change, standardized differences, the proportion of improvement in depression, and DFDs. RESULTS Using four assessment points improved the agreement between DFDs and the course of symptom change between pre- and posttest measures. CONCLUSIONS The DFD is a valid measure for estimating treatment outcomes that reflects the course of symptom change over time. When multiple assessments were conducted between the pre- and posttest periods, DFDs incorporated additional data yet remained easily interpreted. The DFD should be considered for reporting outcomes in depression research.
Decoupled Economic Dispatch Using the Participation Factors Load Flow

This paper presents the concept of the participation factors load flow and applies it to the economic dispatch problem. The participation factors load flow consists of a load flow model where the quantities specified or controlled at the NG generation buses are the NG participation factors instead of NG-1 real generations. This formulation permits us to more realistically model the closed loop mode of generation dispatch used by control centers today. In contrast most modern economic dispatch algorithms based on the conventional load flow produce an open loop dispatch which cannot be directly implemented in the closed loop participation factors dispatch mode without additional computations. The numeric and analytic properties of this new load flow formulation are very similar to those of the conventional load flow with one significant difference, a slack bus need not be defined, a property which has various advantages. The new model permits the development of a decoupled economic dispatch scheme which directly computes the participation factors and separates the dispatching of real power quantities quite naturally from reactive power, voltage variables and transformer parameters.
Openness Personality among Autistic Children Teachers in Malaysia. A Case Study in One Private Centre

Purpose: This study is conducted to identify the openness personality among teachers in private autistic children centre. This research used a qualitative methodology measuring two dimensions of openness personality (1. special interests to enhance engagement and 2. the use of visual organizers and strategy tools for increasing representation). Design/Methodology/approach: The openness personality defines based on Big Five Personality Model by Jung and discussed further with current research’s scholars in early 2010s. The thematic analysis was used to identify the openness personality dimensions. Findings: The result shown the openness personality among teachers with experienced less than three years working in this autistic children field were higher than those experienced less. Research limitation/implications: Researcher had proposed the management of the autism centre, to allocate more provisions as to enhance the motivation of working and reduce the level of Neuroticism among teachers in this private autistic centre. Recommended further studies be conducted on a larger population groups in particular of teachers.
The convention of a doctoral thesis in applied linguistics from a European and North American perspective

This article provide guidance on how to write a good PhD thesis in Applied Linguistics according to the conventions and requirements commonly adopted by European and North American universities. The purpose of the article is to provide a reference for both PhD candidates and examiners in Vietnam in an attempt to narrow the gap between Vietnam-based PhD programmes and those offered by European and North American universities.
Epidural spinal cord compression from metastatic tumor: Diagnosis and treatment

The clinical findings in 130 consecutive cases of spinal cord compression by metastatic extradural tumors were analyzed. These 130 patients were combined with a previous survey of 105 patients to compare the effectiveness of radiation therapy (RT) alone with that of surgical decompression followed by RT. Ambulation after treatment was considered a successful outcome. The most common primary tumors producing spinal cord compression were (in order) breast, lung, prostate, and kidney. In 68% of these tumors the thoracic region was involved. Pain was the primary symptom in 96% of the patients, while motor or sensory deficits (or both) were found in 82% of them. Therapy consisted of surgery and RT in 65 patients and RT alone in 170 patients. There were no differences in outcome between those treated by surgery combined with RT and those managed by RT alone. Patients with radiosensitive tumors and those ambulatory at the onset of treatment benefited whether treated by surgery or by RT. Seventy‐five percent of living patients who improved from treatment remained ambulatory at 6 months, and approximately 50% of living patients were ambulatory at 1 year. We conclude that RT without decompressive laminectomy is as effective as decompressive laminectomy in treating epidural spinal cord compression from systemic cancer.
Sensitive Immunofluorescent Staining of Cells via Generation of Fluorescent Nanoscale Polymer Films in Response to Biorecognition

Immunofluorescent staining is central to nearly all cell-based research, yet only a few fluorescent signal amplification approaches for cell staining exist, each with distinct limitations. Here, the authors present a novel, fluorescent polymerization-based amplification (FPBA) method that is shown to enable similar signal intensities as the highly sensitive, enzyme-based tyramide signal amplification (TSA) approach. Being non-enzymatic, FPBA is not expected to suffer from nonspecific staining of endogenous enzymes, as occurs with enzyme-based approaches. FPBA employs probes labeled with photopolymerization initiators, which lead to the controlled formation of fluorescent polymer films only at targeted biorecognition sites. Nuclear pore complex proteins (NPCs; in membranes), vimentin (in filaments), and von Willebrand factor (in granules) were all successfully immunostained by FPBA. Also, FPBA was demonstrated to be capable of multicolor immunostaining of multiple antigens. To assess relative sensitivity, decreasing concentrations of anti-NPC antibody were used, indicating that both FPBA and TSA stained NPC down to a 1:100,000 dilution. Nonspecific, cytoplasmic signal resulting from NPC staining was found to be reduced up to 5.5-fold in FPBA as compared to TSA, demonstrating better signal localization with FPBA. FPBA’s unique approach affords a combination of preferred attributes, including high sensitivity and specificity not otherwise available with current techniques.