Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Validation of the 2012 International Consensus Guidelines Using CT and MRI: Branch Duct and Main Duct Intraductal Papillary Mucinous Neoplasms of the Pancreas.

Reply: I read with interest the study by Seo et al, 1 which aimed to validate the 2012 Fukuoka Consensus Guidelines (FCG) and to compare the diagnostic performances of computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging for distinguishing benign from malignant intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms (IPMNs) in a large surgical series of 158 patients. The study concluded that mural nodules were the most important predictor of malignancy for IPMN, and there was no significant difference between the diagnostic performance of computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging in differentiating benign from malignant IPMN. An important point I would like to raise regarding this study is that contrary to their title and main objective, there was no attempt by the authors to ‘‘validate’’ the FCG. This study attempted to identify and evaluate only the value of preoperative predictors of malignant IPMN such as tumor size, main pancreatic duct diameter, presence of mural nodule, and lymphadenopathy. In my opinion, any validation study of the international consensus guidelines should report the accuracy, specificity, sensitivity, positive predictive value (PPV), or negative predictive value (NPV) of the guidelines. Two systematic reviews, which similarly have included only surgical-resected cases, have recently been performed to validate the original Sendai Consensus Guidelines (SG) and FCG, respectively. In the first study, which included 501 SCGþ ve and 189 SCG-ve branch-duct IPMNs, the PPV of SCGþ ve group was only 29.9% and the NPVof SCG-ve was 90%. In the more recent review validating the FCG in 1382 patients, pooled analysis demonstrated that there were 362/1000 (36.2%) malignant FCGþ ve IPMNs (high risk and worrisome features) and 342/382 (89.5%) benign FCG-ve IPMNs. The PPV of the high-risk group and the worrisome risk groups alone were 104/158 (65.8%) and 75/261(28.7%), respectively. It would be extremely useful and important if the authors could report the proportion of benign and malignant IPMN classified as high risk, worrisome features or low risk according to the FCG in their patient cohort. Further information on the PPV of FCGþ ve IPMN and NPV of FCG-ve IPMN according to the 2012 guidelines would also add to the value of this study. Finally, it is important to add that in studies including only surgically resected IPMN, the true denominator is unknown as many benign and low-risk IPMNs are managed conservatively. Hence, the accuracy of the guidelines based on surgical series have to be interpreted carefully, especially with regard to the NPV of FCG-ve tumors.
Boundedness and Convergence of Online Gradient Method With Penalty for Feedforward Neural Networks

In this brief, we consider an online gradient method with penalty for training feedforward neural networks. Specifically, the penalty is a term proportional to the norm of the weights. Its roles in the method are to control the magnitude of the weights and to improve the generalization performance of the network. By proving that the weights are automatically bounded in the network training with penalty, we simplify the conditions that are required for convergence of online gradient method in literature. A numerical example is given to support the theoretical analysis.
The Nash equilibrium: A perspective

In 1950, John Nash contributed a remarkable one-page PNAS article that defined and characterized a notion of equilibrium for n- person games. This notion, now called the “Nash equilibrium,” has been widely applied and adapted in economics and other behavioral sciences. Indeed, game theory, with the Nash equilibrium as its centerpiece, is becoming the most prominent unifying theory of social science. In this perspective, we summarize the historical context and subsequent impact of Nash's contribution.
The Handling of the Dead in a Disaster

In recent years, the topic of death and dying has become the subject of much social and behavioral science research and study. But one area which has not been as intensively studied as others is how the dead are treated by the living, especially sudden and unanticipated large numbers of the dead. In this paper we present a case study of the handling of 237 victims of a flash flood disaster. Our descriptive analysis incorporates two levels of behavior: individual modes of adjustment and the organized response of the community. An examination is also made of the factors affecting the respect accorded the “prerogatives” of the dead and the living, and the remarkably effective organized carrying out of this generally non-instrumental disaster task.
Protocol E: An Implementation of a Novel, Agent Based, Control Scheme for Real Time Strategy Games

Contemporary real time strategy games (RTS) have given particular emphasis on micromanagement. Protocol E takes a different direction by adopting a novel agent based control scheme proposed in 2012. Protocol E is intended as a demonstration of the viability and versatility of this kind of control scheme in RTS games. The game can run on control pads as well as keyboards and mice or touchpads.
Guiding Children with Autism in Play: Applying the Integrated Play Group Model in School Settings

ly asked to address the range of challenges associated with the diagnosis of autism. Because more children are being identified with an autism spectrum disorder (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, n.d.), the teacher needs to possess effective intervention skills that can be practically applied in the school setting to address these children’s communication deficits and often aberrant social behavior, as well as their restricted, repetitive, and stereotyped patterns of behavior (American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2000).
Quantitative Real-Time PCR for Detection of Members of the Ehrlichia phagocytophila Genogroup in Host Animals and Ixodes ricinus Ticks

ABSTRACT A TaqMan PCR was established for identification and quantitation of members of the Ehrlichia phagocytophila group in experimentally infected cows and in Ixodes ricinus ticks. The TaqMan PCR identified a 106-bp section of the 16S rRNA gene by use of a specific fluorogenic probe and two primers. This technique was specific for members of the E. phagocytophila group, which include E. phagocytophila, Ehrlichia equi, and the agent of human granulocytic ehrlichiosis. The TaqMan system identified 10 copies of a cloned section of the 16S rRNA gene ofE. phagocytophila. The sensitivity and specificity of the TaqMan PCR were similar to those of conventional nested PCR. The numbers of ehrlichiae in leukocytes of the two cows experimentally infected with E. phagocytophila were measured daily by TaqMan PCR and had a course similar to that of the percentages of infected leukocytes determined daily by light microscopy. The prevalence of infected free-living ticks, which were collected from areas where bovine ehrlichiosis is endemic and from regions with sporadic occurrences of granulocytic ehrlichiosis in dogs and horses, was identical as determined by nested PCR and TaqMan PCR.
Bupropion Increases Selection of High Effort Activity in Rats Tested on a Progressive Ratio/Chow Feeding Choice Procedure: Implications for Treatment of Effort-Related Motivational Symptoms

Background: Depression and related disorders are characterized by deficits in behavioral activation, exertion of effort, and other psychomotor/motivational dysfunctions. Depressed patients show alterations in effort-related decision making and a bias towards selection of low effort activities. It has been suggested that animal tests of effort-related decision making could be useful as models of motivational dysfunctions seen in psychopathology. Methods: Because clinical studies have suggested that inhibition of catecholamine uptake may be a useful strategy for treatment of effort-related motivational symptoms, the present research assessed the ability of bupropion to increase work output in rats responding on a test of effort-related decision-making (ie, a progressive ratio/chow feeding choice task). With this task, rats can choose between working for a preferred food (high-carbohydrate pellets) by lever pressing on a progressive ratio schedule vs obtaining a less preferred laboratory chow that is freely available in the chamber. Results: Bupropion (10.0–40.0 mg/kg intraperitoneal) significantly increased all measures of progressive ratio lever pressing, but decreased chow intake. These effects were greatest in animals with low baseline levels of work output on the progressive ratio schedule. Because accumbens dopamine is implicated in effort-related processes, the effects of bupropion on markers of accumbens dopamine transmission were examined. Bupropion elevated extracellular dopamine levels in accumbens core as measured by microdialysis and increased phosphorylated dopamine and cyclic-AMP related phosphoprotein 32 kDaltons (pDARPP-32) immunoreactivity in a manner consistent with D1 and D2 receptor stimulation. Conclusion: The ability of bupropion to increase exertion of effort in instrumental behavior may have implications for the pathophysiology and treatment of effort-related motivational symptoms in humans.
High consumptions of grain, fish, dairy products and combinations of these are associated with a low prevalence of metabolic syndrome

Objective: To analyse the relation between various food groups and the frequency of insulin resistance syndrome (IRS). Design: A sample of 912 men aged 45–64 years was randomly selected. Questionnaires on risk factors and a three consecutive day food diary were completed. Height, weight, waist circumference, and blood pressure were measured. A fasting blood sample was analysed for lipid and glucose measurements. The NCEP-ATP-III definition was used to assess IRS. Data were analysed according to quintiles of food groups and medians of dairy products, fish, or cereal grains. Results: The prevalence of IRS was 23.5%. It reached 29.0%, 28.1% and 28.1% when the intake was below the median for fish, dairy products, and grain, respectively. When consumptions of all three types of food were higher than the median, the prevalence reached 13.1%, and when they were lower, the prevalence was 37.9% (p<0.001). In logistic regression adjusted for confounders (centre, age, physical activities, education level, smoking, dieting, alcohol intake, treatments for hypertension and dyslipidaemia, energy intake, and diet quality index) the odds ratios for IRS (above median value v below) were 0.51 (95% confidence interval, 0.36 to 0.71) for fish, 0.67 (0.47 to 0.94) for dairy products, and 0.69 (0.47 to 1.01) for grain. When intakes of all three kinds of food were high, the OR was 0.22 (0.10 to 0.44). Conclusions: A high consumption of dairy products, fish, or cereal grains is associated with a lower probability of IRS. The probability decreases when intakes of all three types of food were high.
An accurate hierarchical electromagnetic-circuit technique for statistical analysis of RF circuits

Modeling process variations in circuits is becoming necessary as the technology continues to shrink in size. When this is coupled with increasing frequencies of operation of circuits in communication systems (>10 GHz), the use of full-wave field solvers is necessary to model the on-chip passive components such as spiral inductors and transformers. Thus it becomes necessary to couple full-wave field solvers and SPICE-like simulators for accurate statistical analysis of RF circuits. The present paper reviews the issues associated with using circuit models for electromagnetically modeled passive elements in conjunction with SPICE for statistical analysis. It then proposes a method which circumvents the outlined limitations.
Interactively Learning Nonverbal Behavior for Inference and Production : A Machine Learning Approach

By designing socially intelligent robots that can more effectively communicate and interact with us, we can increase their capacity to function as collaborative partners. Our research goal is to develop robots capable of engaging in nonverbal communication, which has been argued to be at the core of social intelligence. We take a human-centric approach that closely aligns with how people are theorized to model nonverbal communication. We propose a unified computational approach to interactively learn the meaning of nonverbal behaviors for inference and production. More specifically, we use a partially observable Markov decision process model to infer an interactant’s mental state based on their observed nonverbal behaviors as well as produce appropriate nonverbal behaviors for a robot to communicate its internal state. By interactively learning the connection between nonverbal behaviors and the mental states producing them, an agent can more readily generalize to new people and situations.
Likelihood methods for MPSK modulation classification

New algorithms based on the likelihood functional (LF) and approximations thereof are proposed for the problem of classifying MPSK modulations in additive white Gaussian noise. Previously introduced classifiers for this problem are theoretically interpreted as simplified versions of the ones in here. The performance of a single-term approximation to the optimal LF classifier is evaluated analytically and is shown to be very close to that of the optimal. Furthermore, recursive algorithms for the implementation of this new quasi-log-likelihood-ratio (qLLR) classifier are derived which imply no significant increase in classifier complexity. The present method of generating classification algorithms can be generalized to arbitrary two-dimensional signal constellations. >
Advances in Brief Angiogenic Activity of Human Soluble Intercellular Adhesion Molecule-1

Serum levels of soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (sICAM-1) are elevated in a number of pathological conditions associated with angiogenesis, including tumor growth. Because the increased levels of sICAM-1 suggested that it may be angiogenic, we tested the ability of sICAM-1 to promote angiogenesis. Human recombinant sICAM-1 stimulates chemokinetic endothelial cell migration, endothelial cell tube formation on Matrigel, and sprouting of aortic rings. sICAM-1 also mediates angiogenesis in the chick chorioallantoic membrane assay. Additionally, we found a Mr 49,000 molecule that binds to sICAM-1 that may be the surface ligand on endothelial cells. The evidence that sICAM-1 has angiogenic activity suggests a possible role linking inflammation and neovascularization. Furthermore, sICAM-1 may enhance tumor growth by promoting angiogenesis and escape from immunosurveillance.
Evidence‐based Practice: How Nurse Leaders can Facilitate Innovation

Evidence-based nursing practice (EBNP) is the wave of the future. Increasingly, EBNP is being identified as a key to quality and excellence in nursing services. Incorporating evidence into practice is necessary to deliver scientifically sound patient care. In addition, understanding the importance of evidence is crucial for meeting the excellence requirements of Magnet designation. Despite the growing popularity of EBNP and its documented significant benefits, the literature demonstrates that only 15% of the nursing workforce consistently practices within an EBNP framework. If EBNP adoption is to increase in the profession, it will require the active efforts of nurse leaders to pursue an aggressive innovation diffusion strategy. The purpose of this article is to discuss the nurse leader's role in facilitating EBNP in nursing using a theoretical framework grounded in innovation diffusion theory. The article develops 4 areas of focus. First, the components of innovation diffusion theory are discussed. Second, a pertinent empirical review of the EBNP adoption literature is presented. Third, strategies for applying innovation diffusion theory to facilitate EBNP adoption are proposed. Lastly, the article ends with a leadership call to action.
Schnyder woods for higher genus triangulated surfaces, with applications to encoding

Schnyder woods are a well-known combinatorial structure for plane triangulations, which yields a decomposition into 3 spanning trees. We extend here definitions and algorithms for Schnyder woods to closed orientable surfaces of arbitrary genus. In particular, we describe a method to traverse a triangulation of genus $g$ and compute a so-called $g$-Schnyder wood on the way. As an application, we give a procedure to encode a triangulation of genus $g$ and $n$ vertices in $4n+O(g \log(n))$ bits. This matches the worst-case encoding rate of Edgebreaker in positive genus. All the algorithms presented here have execution time $O((n+g)g)$, hence are linear when the genus is fixed.
Quercetin Protects against Obesity-Induced Skeletal Muscle Inflammation and Atrophy

Skeletal muscle inflammation and atrophy are closely associated with metabolic impairment such as insulin resistance. Quercetin, a natural polyphenol flavonoid, is known to elicit anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities. In this study, we investigated its effect on obesity-induced skeletal muscle inflammation and atrophy in mice. Male C57BL/6 mice were fed a regular diet, a high-fat diet (HFD), and an HFD supplemented with quercetin for nine weeks. Quercetin reduced levels of inflammatory cytokines and macrophage accumulation in the skeletal muscle of the HFD-fed obese mice. It also reduced transcript and protein levels of the specific atrophic factors, Atrogin-1 and MuRF1, in the skeletal muscle of the HFD-fed obese mice, and protected against the reduction of muscle mass and muscle fiber size. In vitro, quercetin markedly diminished transcript levels of inflammatory receptors and activation of their signaling molecules (ERK, p38 MAPK, and NF-κB) in cocultured myotubes/macrophages, and this was accompanied by reduced expression of the atrophic factors. Together, these findings suggest that quercetin reduces obesity-induced skeletal muscle atrophy by inhibiting inflammatory receptors and their signaling pathway. Quercetin may be useful for preventing obesity-induced muscle inflammation and sarcopenia.
Gröbner geometry of Schubert polynomials

Given a permutation w ? Sn, we consider a determinantal ideal Iw whose generators are certain minors in the generic n ? ~ n matrix (filled with independent variables). Using ? emultidegrees? f as simple algebraic substitutes for torus-equivariant cohomology classes on vector spaces, our main theorems describe, for each ideal Iw.
Mining online diaries for blogger identification

In this paper, we present an investigation of authorship identification on personal blogs or diaries, which are different from other types of text such as essays, emails, or articles based on the text properties. The investigation utilizes couple of intuitive feature sets and studies various parameters that affect the identification performance. Many studies manipulated the problem of authorship identification in manually collected corpora, but only few utilized real data from existing blogs. The complexity of the language model in personal blogs is motivating to identify the correspondent author. The main contribution of this work is at least three folds. Firstly, we utilize the LIWC and MRC feature sets together, which have been developed with Psychology background, for the first time for authorship identification on personal blogs. Secondly, we analyze the effect of various parameters, and feature sets, on the identification performance. This includes the number of authors in the data corpus, the post size or the word count, and the number of posts for each author. Finally, we study applying authorship identification over a limited set of users that have a common personality attributes. This analysis is motivated by the lack of standard or solid recommendations in literature for such task, especially in the domain of personal blogs. The results and evaluation show that the utilized features are compact while their performance is highly comparable with other larger feature sets. The analysis also confirmed the most effective parameters, their ranges in the data corpus, and the usefulness of the common users classifier in improving the performance, for the author identification task.
Prototypical and non-prototypical marking in the advanced learner’s aspectuo-temporal system

This paper investigates the effect of verb semantics on the variable use of aspectuo-temporal morphology by the advanced learner of French. Using the Aspect Hypothesis as a heuristic to test the extent to which the advanced learner overrides the effect of verb semantics in aspectual contexts where the verb assumes a non-prototypical value, the study examines the interaction between lexical aspect and grammatical aspect in order to identify which factor exerts a stronger influence on the learner’s aspectuo-temporal choice. Results suggest that lexical aspect continues to constrain the advanced learner’s aspectuo-temporal system, such that non-prototypical marking poses greater difficulty than prototypical marking.
Artistic QR Code Embellishment

A QR code is a two‐dimensional barcode that encodes information. A standard QR code contains only regular black and white squares, and thus is unattractive. This paper proposes a novel framework for embellishing a standard QR code, to make it both attractive and recognizable by any human while maintaining its scanability. The proposed method is inspired by artistic methods. A QR code is typically embellished by stylizing the squares and embedding images into it. In the proposed framework, the regular squares are reshaped using a binary examplar, to make their local appearances resemble the example shape. Additionally, an error‐aware warping technique for deforming the embedded image is proposed; it minimizes the error in the QR code that is generated by the embedding of the image to optimize the readability of the code. The proposed algorithm yields lower data error than previous global transformation techniques because the warping can locally deform the embedded image to conform to the squares that surround it. The proposed framework was examined by using it to embellish an extensive set of QR codes and to test the readability with various commercial QR code readers.
Modest Waning of Influenza Vaccine Efficacy and Antibody Titers During the 2007-2008 Influenza Season.

BACKGROUND Antibody titers decrease with time following influenza vaccination, raising concerns that vaccine efficacy might wane. However, the relationship between time since vaccination and protection is unclear. METHODS Time-varying vaccine efficacy (VE[t]) was examined in healthy adult participants (age range, 18-49 years) in a placebo-controlled trial of inactivated influenza vaccine (IIV) and live-attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV) performed during the 2007-2008 influenza season. Symptomatic respiratory illnesses were laboratory-confirmed as influenza. VE(t) was estimated by fitting a smooth function based on residuals from Cox proportional hazards models. Subjects had blood samples collected immediately prior to vaccination, 30 days after vaccination, and at the end of the influenza season for testing by hemagglutination inhibition and neuraminidase inhibition assays. RESULTS Overall efficacy was 70% (95% confidence interval [CI], 50%-82%) for IIV and 38% (95% CI, 5%-59%) for LAIV. Statistically significant waning was detected for IIV (P = .03) but not LAIV (P = .37); however, IIV remained significantly efficacious until data became sparse at the end of the season. Similarly, antibody titers against influenza virus hemagglutinin and neuraminidase significantly decreased over the season among IIV recipients. CONCLUSIONS Both vaccines were efficacious but LAIV less so. IIV efficacy decreased slowly over time, but the vaccine remained significantly efficacious for the majority of the season.