Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Digital Brain Atlas for Surgical Planning , M ode 1-D riven Seg men tat ion , and Teach i n g

We developed a three-dimensional (3D) digitized atlas of the human brain to visualize spatially complex structures. It was designed for use with magnetic resonance (MR) imaging data sets. Thus far, we have used this atlas for surgical planning, model-driven segmentation, and teaching. We used a combination of automated and supervised segmentation methods to define regions of interest based on neuroanatomical knowledge. We also used 3D surface rendering techniques to create a brain atlas that would allow us to visualize complex 3D brain structures. We further linked this information to script files in order to preserve both spatial information and neuroanatomical knowledge. We present here the application of the atlas for visualization in surgical planning for model-driven segmentation and for the teaching of neuroanatomy. This digitized human brain has the potential to provide important reference information for the planning of surgical procedures. It can also serve as a powerful teaching tool, since spatial relationships among neuroanatomical structures can be more readily envisioned when the user is able to view and rotate the structures in 3D space. Moreover, each element of the brain atlas is associated with a name tag, displayed by a user-controlled pointer. The atlas holds a major promise as a template for model-driven segmentation. Using this technique, many regions of interest can be characterized simultaneously on new brain images.
Computationally fast estimation of muscle tension for realtime Bio-feedback

In this paper, we propose a method for realtime estimation of whole-body muscle tensions. The main problem of muscle tension estimation is that there are infinite number of solutions to realize a particular joint torque due to the actuation redundancy. Numerical optimization techniques, e.g. quadratic programming, are often employed to obtain a unique solution, but they are usually computationally expensive. For example, our implementation of quadratic programming takes about 0.17 sec per frame on the musculoskeletal model with 274 elements, which is far from realtime computation. Here, we propose to reduce the computational cost by using EMG data and by reducing the number of unknowns in the optimization. First, we compute the tensions of muscles with surface EMG data based on a biological muscle data, which is a very efficient process. We also assume that their synergists have the same activity levels and compute their tensions with the same model. Tensions of the remaining muscles are then computed using quadratic programming, but the number of unknowns is significantly reduced by assuming that the muscles in the same heteronymous group have the same activity level. The proposed method realizes realtime estimation and visualization of the whole-body muscle tensions that can be applied to sports training and rehabilitation.
Development and Evaluation of a Theory-Based Physical Activity Guidebook for Breast Cancer Survivors

This study's objective was to develop and evaluate the suitability and appropriateness of a theory-based physical activity (PA) guidebook for breast cancer survivors. Guidebook content was constructed based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB) using salient exercise beliefs identified by breast cancer survivors in previous research. Expert judges completed the Maine Area Health Education Center's 18-item attribute checklist for evaluating written health information. Judges indicated that the PA guidebook achieved desirable attributes for the suitability and appropriateness of the guidebook. A subset of TPB expert judges completed items designed to determine the degree of match between the guidebook content and the respective TPB components. Mean item-content relevance ratings indicated at least a “very good match” between the PA guidebook content and the keyed TPB domains. Theoretically based PA information may be an effective strategy for increasing PA in breast cancer survivors at the population level.
Design of integrated LEO/GPS antenna

In this paper, the design of a multi-band circularly polarized stacked microstrip antenna for low earth orbit (LEO) satellite communications and precise global positioning system (GPS) is proposed. The microstrip antenna for multi-band frequency is constructed by stacking two different square patches and circular polarization is obtained by different approaches. The top patch has a pair of truncated square corners, and the bottom patch is fed with two pins placed symmetrically on the two main axes. The antenna is designed to operate at L1 (1.575 GHz±12 MHz) and LEO at two frequency ranges uplink (148-150 MHz), downlink (137-139 MHz). All the design details and numerical results will be discussed in this context.
Preliminary studies of a second generation brachiation robot controller

We report on our preliminary studies of a new controller for a two-link brachiating robot. Motivated by the pendulum-like motion of an ape's brachiation, we encode this task as the output of a "target dynamical system". Numerical simulations indicate that the resulting controller solves a number of brachiating problems that we term the "ladder", "swing up" and "rope" problems. Preliminary analysis provides some explanation for this success. We discuss a number of formal questions whose answers will be required to gain a full understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of this approach.
EdgeWrite with integrated corner sequence help

We describe a system that informs the users of the shape of the EdgeWrite characters within the visual feedback area of EdgeWrite. We compared two versions (static and dynamic) of this design to a printed character chart in a five-session text entry experiment with three 8-participant groups. The participants were able to use EdgeWrite with the integrated help systems. There were no statistically significant differences in text entry rate between the group using the character chart and the two groups using the integrated help. However, the group with the dynamic help was faster than the group with the static help while maintaining a low corrected error rate.
The impact of Tooth Agenesis on Oral Health-Related Quality of Life in Children

Objective The purpose of this cross-sectional survey was to evaluate the psychosocial impact of tooth agenesis in children and to investigate the potential influence of gender, socioeconomic status, severity of tooth absence, and the number of retained primary teeth on their quality of life. Materials and methods A total of 86 children (36 male, 50 female) with tooth agenesis, aged 11–14 years were recruited from the Birmingham Dental Hospital, United Kingdom. Thirty subjects with a complete dentition and having a low treatment need acted as controls. Children completed the validated Child Perceptions Questionnaire (CPQ) and their parents completed the Parental-Caregiver Perceptions Questionnaire (P-CPQ). Results The median number of missing teeth in the sample population was 6. There were significant differences in the oral symptoms, functional limitations and the social and emotional well-being reported between the agenesis and control groups. The overall CPQ scores were significantly higher in children with tooth agenesis (P<0·001). No significant correlation was detected between the number of missing teeth and the quality of life score. There was no influence found on the CPQ score from gender, socioeconomic status, the site of agenesis or the presence of retained primary teeth. There was moderate correlation between parental and child reported quality of life. Conclusions Tooth agenesis can have a significant impact on the quality of life of children, resulting in oral symptoms, functional limitation and also affecting emotional and social well-being. This does not appear to be related to the number of missing teeth. This study has implications for our understanding of the effect of tooth absence on the quality of life of children and their parents and addressing these reported impacts may help to improve patient satisfaction.
Labor Market Matching Under Imperfect Information

Recent research has shown that the standard labor matching model has difficulties in reproducing the co-movement patterns observed in US data. This is due to the fact that the standard model lacks sufficient propagation of shocks. This paper shows that refining the informational structure of the model leads to improvements along this dimension: when agents cannot separately identify persistent and transitory technology shocks on impact (so that they must solve a signal extraction problem), shocks are propagated. Under this specification the standard matching model even manages to make recoveries initially jobless, as in the data.
Circuital analysis of coaxial fed rectangular and U-slot patch antenna

In this paper a coaxial fed microstrip rectangular patch antenna resonating at 2.45 GHz having a return loss of −23.05 db is proposed. Then a U-slot is etched into the patch to make it into dual band antenna. The U slot antenna resonates in the frequency band of 2–3 GHz having a return of −11.87 dB and −8.12 dB at 2.70 GHz and 3.81 GHz respectively. Then both antennas are then converted into their parallel RLC equivalent whose insight makes the complex analysis of RF harvesting system comparatively easier. The values of RLC circuit for the coaxial fed antenna are calculated as R = 13.30 ohm, L= 14.06pH and C= 300pF. While converting the U-slot antenna into its corresponding RLC, an additional inductor and capacitor are added in series with the original L and C of the RLC circuit. So multiple resonances occur in the circuit which explains that a single coaxial fed antenna is converted into dual band by etching U slot on it.
Reference-Based Testing Technique for Automated Test Generation

Abstract-This paper introduces a technique to generate tests automatically for the legacy code by utilizing existing software assets. Many aspects of the legacy code needs to be tested, such as, classes, methods, interfaces, relations, dependencies, etc. The proposed technique automatically generates tests by examining software packages that use the system under test to be tested. It presents an automatic test method based on searching calls to the APIs being tested in available repositories, ranking the relevance of the mined calls, and using them to generate test cases. It makes three important contributions for the issue. First, it provides an automatic way to build a test skeleton. Second, it finds previously unknown bugs and obviously unused dead codes by achieving high test coverage. Finally, developers confidently make changes to the codes written by someone else.
Event‐based modelling, analysis and testing of user interactions: approach and case study

With the growing complexity of computer‐based systems, their graphical user interfaces have also become more complex. Accordingly, the test and analysis process becomes more tedious and costly. This paper introduces a holistic view of fault modelling that is carried out as a complementary step to system modelling, enabling a scalability of the test process, and providing considerable potential for automation. Event‐based notions and tools are used to generate and select test cases systematically. The elements of the approach are illustrated and validated by a case study. This paper does not claim to introduce a novel theoretic approach; rather, it makes use of graph‐theoretic results for a practical and simple, but nevertheless powerful, view of modelling, analysis and testing of graphical user interfaces. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
USAAR-CHRONOS: Crawling the Web for Temporal Annotations

This paper describes the USAAR-CHRONOS participation in the Diachronic Text Evaluation task of SemEval-2015 to identify the time period of historical text snippets. We adapt a web crawler to retrieve the original source of the text snippets and determine the publication year of the retrieved texts from their URLs. We report a precision score of >90% in identifying the text epoch. Additionally, by crawling and cleaning the website that hosts the source of the text snippets, we present Daikon, a corpus that can be used for future work on epoch identification from a diachronic perspective.
An Implementation of Secure Data Exchange System with Multi-hop Routing in Wireless Delay Tolerant Network Using Attribute-Based Encryption

To overcome unstable communication in wireless environment, Delay Tolerant Networks (DTNs) allows us to exchange data by storing and forwarding approach. However, since the participating nodes are not trusted, the secure data exchange system in DTNs is desired. Previously, we have proposed a secure data exchange system in DTNs using Attribute-Based Encryption (ABE), where content data and routing messages can be encrypted and authenticated by the attribute-based policies. However, the previous work showed and examined only an initial implementation over a simple wireless DTN with single hop routing. In this paper, we propose an implementation of a secure data exchange system in wireless DTNs, where multi-hop routing messages are encrypted and authenticated by the ABE, and show the experimental results.
A blockwise relaxation labeling scheme and its application to edge detection in cardiac MR image sequences

We present a segmentation scheme for magnetic resonance (MR) image sequences based on vector quantization of a block‐partitioned image followed by a relaxation labeling procedure. By first searching a coarse segmentation, the algorithm yields very fast and effective performance on images that are inherently noisy, and can effectively use the correlation in a sequence of images for robust performance and efficient implementation. The algorithm defines feature vectors by the local histogram on a block‐partioned image and approximates the local histograms by normal distributions. The relative entropy is chosen as the meaningful distance measure between the feature vectors and the templates. After initial computation of the normal distribution parameters, a blockwise classification maximization algorithm classifies blocks in the block‐partitioned image by minimizing their relative entropy distance for a coarse‐resolution segmentation; and finally, finer resolution is obtained by contextual Bayesian relaxation labeling in which label update is performed pixelwise by incorporating neighborhood information. Sequence processing is then performed to segment all images in the sequence. The scheme is applied to left ventricular boundary detection in short‐axis MR image sequences, and results are presented to show that the algorithm successfully extracts the endocardial contours and that sequence processing significantly improves edge detection performance and can avoid local minima problems. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Int J Imaging Syst Technol, 9, 340–350, 1998
Single high-dose vitamin D at birth corrects vitamin D deficiency in infants in Mexico

Abstract This study examined the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in mothers and infants in Tijuana, Mexico and determined the effect of a single oral dose of 50 000 IU vitamin D3 at birth on 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D) levels during infancy. Healthy infants were randomized to receive vitamin D3 or placebo at birth. At birth 23% of infants were vitamin D deficient and 77% had vitamin D insufficiency (mean 25[OH]D level 18.9 ng/ml); 10% of mothers were vitamin D deficient and 61% were insufficient. Infants receiving vitamin D3 had higher 25(OH)D levels at two months (N = 29; 33.9 versus 24.2 ng/ml) and six months (N = 21; 36.5 versus 27.4 ng/ml). Exclusively breastfed infants had lower 25(OH)D levels at two months (14.9 versus 33.4 ng/ml). Vitamin D deficiency is common in infants and mothers in Tijuana, Mexico. A single dose of vitamin D3 at birth was safe and significantly increased 25(OH)D levels during infancy.
Compliant manipulators on graphs

This paper proposes a modeling method for generic serial-chain compliant robotic manipulators. It is based on graph theory and port-Hamiltonian systems, which allows a modular approach to the interconnection of rigid bodies with compliant actuators by means of kinematic pairs. This modularity allows a very simple and straight-forward change in a manipulator's actuator morphology. An example of a two degree of freedom planar manipulator shows that this modeling method is more suitable for modeling changes in actuator placement than traditional Euler-Lagrange models.
Scalable Term Selection for Text Categorization

In text categorization, term selection is an important step for the sake of both categorization accuracy and computational efficiency. Different dimensionalities are expected under different practical resource restrictions of time or space. Traditionally in text categorization, the same scoring or ranking criterion is adopted for all target dimensionalities, which considers both the discriminability and the coverage of a term, such as ´ 2 or IG. In this paper, the poor accuracy at a low dimensionality is imputed to the small average vector length of the documents. Scalable term selection is proposed to optimize the term set at a given dimensionality according to an expected average vector length. Discriminability and coverage are separately measured; by adjusting the ratio of their weights in a combined criterion, the expected average vector length can be reached, which means a good compromise between the specificity and the exhaustivity of the term subset. Experiments show that the accuracy is considerably improved at lower dimensionalities, and larger term subsets have the possibility to lower the average vector length for a lower computational cost. The interesting observations might inspire further investigations.
Effects of Propofol on Expression of Hippocampal Neuronal Nitric Oxide Synthase and Carboxy-Terminal PDZ Ligand of Neuronal Nitric Oxide Synthase in Stressed Rats Undergoing Electroconvulsive Shock

Objectives This study aimed at investigating the effects of propofol on the expression of hippocampal neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) and carboxy-terminal PDZ ligand of nNOS (CAPON) in stressed rats after electroconvulsive shock (ECS). Methods Sprague-Dawley rats were stressed repeatedly for 28 days to establish a stressed model. Forty stressed rats were randomly divided into 4 groups (n = 10 for each group): the stressed group (unapplied group), propofol group (applied with intraperitoneal injection of propofol 80 mg/kg for 7 days), ECS group (applied with ECS and intraperitoneal injection of normal saline 8 mL/kg), or propofol + ECS group (applied with ECS and intraperitoneal injection of propofol 80 mg/kg). Sucrose preference test, open-field test, and Morris water maze were used to assess behavioral changes. Immunohistochemistry was carried out to measure the expression of nNOS and CAPON in hippocampal CA1, CA3, and DG areas. Results Rats in the ECS and propofol + ECS groups had higher sucrose preference percentages and open-field scores when compared with the stressed group. Rats in the ECS group exhibited longer escape latency, shorter space exploration time, up-regulated expression of nNOS, down-regulated expression of CAPON, and increased ratio of nNOS/CAPON in hippocampus. Compared with the ECS group, the propofol + ECS group exhibited shorter escape latency, longer space exploration time, down-regulated expression of nNOS, up-regulated expression of CAPON in hippocampus, and lower nNOS/CAPON values. Conclusions Propofol may alleviate ECS-induced impairment of learning and memory in stressed rats by inhibiting excessive expression of nNOS and enhancing the expression of CAPON to maintain the balance between nNOS and CAPON in hippocampus.
ORIGINAL RESEARCH Characteristics of Abnormal Diffusivity in Normal- Appearing White Matter Investigated with Diffusion Tensor MR Imaging in Tuberous Sclerosis Complex

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Although patients with tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) manifest various structural abnormalities, we hypothesized that white matter (WM) structures that appear normal on conventional MR imaging may be accompanied by microstructural changes, such as gliosis and myelinization defects. Our objective was to determine in vivo whether there was evidence for WM microstructural changes by using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). MATERIALS AND METHODS: We used DTI to evaluate diffusivity and anisotropy in normal-appearing WM (NAWM) of 6 children with TSC and 12 age-matched control subjects. The anterior and posterior limbs of the internal capsule, the external capsule, and the genu and splenium of the corpus callosum were assessed. We hypothesized that previously reported DTI abnormalities of NAWM in patients with TSC may not be equal in all diffusion directions as measured by the major, middle, and minor eigenvalues. RESULTS: When combining NAWM regions in patients with TSC, we observed a significant increase in mean diffusivity (P .003) and a decrease in anisotropy (P .03) compared with those of controls. However, the increase in diffusivity was more pronounced in directions orthogonal to the axons measured by the minor and middle eigenvalues (P .005) than by the major eigenvalue (P .02). CONCLUSION: Our findings revealed a decrease in anisotropy and an increase in longitudinal and radial diffusivities in NAWM beyond the location of TSC lesions seen on conventional MR imaging. The axonal microstructural changes suggested by our study may be related to changes in myelin packing due to giant cells accompanied by gliosis and myelination defects known to occur in TSC WM.
A thioredoxin-like/β-propeller protein maintains the efficiency of light harvesting in Arabidopsis

Significance Plants need to regulate light harvesting to match incoming light energy to photosynthetic capacity. Excess excitation can generate reactive oxygen species and damage the photosynthetic machinery. To dissipate excess absorbed light energy, plants have evolved several quenching pathways, each of which acts on a different timescale. Here we identify a chloroplast protein involved in a previously uncharacterized, slowly reversible form of energy dissipation in the photosynthetic antenna. This mutant will be critical in characterizing this quenching pathway and will further our understanding of how plants are able to balance light harvesting and photoprotection to maximize photosynthetic efficiency. The light-harvesting complexes of plants have evolved the ability to switch between efficient light harvesting and quenching forms to optimize photosynthesis in response to the environment. Several distinct mechanisms, collectively termed “nonphotochemical quenching” (NPQ), provide flexibility in this response. Here we report the isolation and characterization of a mutant, suppressor of quenching 1 (soq1), that has high NPQ even in the absence of photosystem II subunit S (PsbS), a protein that is necessary for the rapidly reversible component of NPQ. The formation of NPQ in soq1 was light intensity-dependent, and it exhibited slow relaxation kinetics and other characteristics that distinguish it from known NPQ components. Treatment with chemical inhibitors or an uncoupler, as well as crosses to mutants known to affect other NPQ components, showed that the NPQ in soq1 does not require a transthylakoid pH gradient, zeaxanthin formation, or the phosphorylation of light-harvesting complexes, and it appears to be unrelated to the photosystem II damage-and-repair cycle. Measurements of pigments and chlorophyll fluorescence lifetimes indicated that the additional NPQ in soq1 is the result of a decrease in chlorophyll excited-state lifetime and not pigment bleaching. The SOQ1 gene was isolated by map-based cloning, and it encodes a previously uncharacterized thylakoid membrane protein with thioredoxin-like and β-propeller domains located in the lumen and a haloacid-dehalogenase domain exposed to the chloroplast stroma. We propose that the role of SOQ1 is to prevent formation of a slowly reversible form of antenna quenching, thereby maintaining the efficiency of light harvesting.