Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Two‐ and Three‐Dimensional Speckle Tracking Echocardiography: Clinical Applications and Future Directions

Two‐dimensional speckle tracking echocardiography (2D STE) is a novel technique of cardiac imaging for quantifying complex cardiac motion based on frame‐to‐frame tracking of ultrasonic speckles in gray scale 2D images. Two‐dimensional STE is a relatively angle independent technology that can measure global and regional strain, strain rate, displacement, and velocity in longitudinal, radial, and circumferential directions. It can also quantify rotational movements such as rotation, twist, and torsion of the myocardium. Two‐dimensional STE has been validated against hemodynamics, tissue Doppler, tagged magnetic resonance imaging, and sonomicrometry studies. Two‐dimensional STE has been found clinically useful in the assessment of cardiac systolic and diastolic function as well as providing new insights in deciphering cardiac physiology and mechanics in cardiomyopathies, and identifying early subclinical changes in various pathologies. A large number of studies have evaluated the role of 2D STE in predicting response to cardiac resynchronization therapy in patients with severe heart failure. However, the clinical utility of 2D STE in the above mentioned conditions remains controversial because of conflicting reports from different studies. Emerging areas of application include prediction of rejection in heart transplant patients, early detection of cardiotoxicity in patients receiving chemotherapy for cancer, and effect of intracoronary injection of bone marrow stem cells on left ventricular function in patients with acute myocardial infarction. The emerging technique of three‐dimensional STE may further extend its clinical usefulness.
Mindfulness, burnout, and effects on performance evaluations in internal medicine residents

Purpose Burnout has been documented at high levels in medical residents with negative effects on performance. Some dispositional qualities, like mindfulness, may protect against burnout. The purpose of the present study was to assess burnout prevalence among internal medicine residents at a single institution, examine the relationship between mindfulness and burnout, and provide preliminary findings on the relation between burnout and performance evaluations in internal medicine residents. Methods Residents (n = 38) completed validated measures of burnout at three time points separated by 2 months and a validated measure of dispositional mindfulness at baseline. Program director end-of-year performance evaluations were also obtained on 22 milestones used to evaluate internal medicine resident performance; notably, these milestones have not yet been validated for research purposes; therefore, the investigation here is exploratory. Results Overall, 71.1% (n = 27) of the residents met criteria for burnout during the study. Lower scores on the “acting with awareness” facet of dispositional mindfulness significantly predicted meeting burnout criteria χ2(5) = 11.88, p = 0.04. Lastly, meeting burnout criteria significantly predicted performance on three of the performance milestones, with positive effects on milestones from the “system-based practices” and “professionalism” domains and negative effects on a milestone from the “patient care” domain. Conclusion Burnout rates were high in this sample of internal medicine residents and rates were consistent with other reports of burnout during medical residency. Dispositional mindfulness was supported as a protective factor against burnout. Importantly, results from the exploratory investigation of the relationship between burnout and resident evaluations suggested that burnout may improve performance on some domains of resident evaluations while compromising performance on other domains. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.
Cross-reaction with Borrelia burgdorferi antigen of sera from patients with human immunodeficiency virus infection, syphilis, and leptospirosis

We have studied the cross-reaction with Borrelia burgdorferi of sera positive for leptospirosis, syphilis, or human immunodeficiency virus by using the microimmunofluorescence test (micro-IF). The percentage of sera reactive in the micro-IF before absorption varied from 7 to 37% and was reduced to 3 to 8% after absorption with a commercial Reiter treponemal antigen. The cross-reaction of sera positive for syphilis or human immunodeficiency virus was distinguished from the homologous reaction with sera from patients with Lyme disease in the immunoblot test results. However, the cross-reaction could not always be distinguished from the homologous reaction with sera from patients with leptospirosis whose sera scored positive in the micro-IF for B. burgdorferi.
An Analysis of the Reliability and Validity of Bandura's Multidimensional Scales of Perceived Self-Efficacy.

ABSTRACT The reliability of A. Bandura's Multidimensional Scales of Perceived Self-Efficacy (MSPSE) was studied using the Cronbach alpha measure of internal consistency. The divergent validity of the MSPSE was also examined using subscale correlations, and the construct validity of the measure was studied through application of principal axes factor analysis. A sample of 500 college-bound high school students completed the MSPSE. A three-factor model was selected based on previous empirical findings, application of the scree test of R. B. Cattell, and consideration of the theoretical nature of the factors. The three factors were identified and labeled as: (1) social efficacy; (2) academic efficacy; and (3) self-regulatory. Interrelationships among the factors are examined, and potential uses of the MSPSE were discussed. (Contains 5 tables and 16 references.) (Author/SLD)
EEG windowed statistical wavelet scoring for evaluation and discrimination of muscular artifacts

EEG recordings are usually corrupted by spurious extra-cerebral artifacts, which should be rejected or cleaned up by the practitioner. Since manual screening of human EEGs is inherently error prone and might induce experimental bias, automatic artifact detection is an issue of importance. Automatic artifact detection is the best guarantee for objective and clean results. We present a new approach, based on the time–frequency shape of muscular artifacts, to achieve reliable and automatic scoring. The impact of muscular activity on the signal can be evaluated using this methodology by placing emphasis on the analysis of EEG activity. The method is used to discriminate evoked potentials from several types of recorded muscular artifacts—with a sensitivity of 98.8% and a specificity of 92.2%. Automatic cleaning of EEG data is then successfully realized using this method, combined with independent component analysis. The outcome of the automatic cleaning is then compared with the Slepian multitaper spectrum based technique introduced by Delorme et al (2007 Neuroimage 34 1443–9).
Periodicity in User Engagement with a Search Engine and Its Application to Online Controlled Experiments

Nowadays, billions of people use the Web in connection with their daily needs. A significant part of these needs are constituted by search tasks that are usually addressed by search engines. Thus, daily search needs result in regular user engagement with a search engine. User engagement with web services was studied in various aspects, but there appears to be little work devoted to its regularity and periodicity. In this article, we study periodicity of user engagement with a popular search engine through applying spectrum analysis to temporal sequences of different engagement metrics. First, we found periodicity patterns of user engagement and revealed classes of users whose periodicity patterns do not change over a long period of time. In addition, we give an exhaustive analysis of the stability and quality of identified clusters. Second, we used the spectrum series as key metrics to evaluate search quality. We found that the novel periodicity metrics outperform the state-of-the-art quality metrics both in terms of significance level (p-value) and sensitivity to a large set of larges-scale A/B experiments conducted on real search engine users.
Metadata Extraction Approach of PDF Documents Based on Measurement Fusion

To deal with the problems of low precision rate and weak adaptability in the existing metadata extraction methods, a novel metadata extraction approach is proposed based on measurement fusion rule in this paper. First, the features of the document header are extracted, the three statistical learning methods such as HMM, SVM and CRF are respectively employed to train the labeled data set, and corresponding metadata extraction models are constructed. Then, the results from three extraction models are fused by the sum rule so as to achieve the accurate metadata extraction of documents. Finally, we dynamically update the three extraction models to guarantee the effectiveness of the ensemble models by the time period statistics-based method. Experiments on different datasets are conducted and the comparative results of these extraction methods are presented; Experimental results show that the proposed approach not only improves the precision of metadata extraction, but also enhances the adaptability
Ultrasonic evaluation of intraperitoneal fluid.

ULTRASOUND is rapidly replacing other methods in the evaluation of intraperitoneal fluid collections. The established ability of ultrasound to readily detect fluid and differentiate it from solid makes it an ideal diagnostic examination. Since it is a noninvasive procedure, ultrasound can be used not only in the initial diagnosis but also for serial examinations once the presence of free or loculated fluid has been detected. 1,2 The sensitivity of ultrasound in the detection of fluid has been established experimentally: as little as 100 ml of ascitic fluid in cadavers and 300 ml in vivo has been detected. 3,4 This degree of resolution compares favorably to all other methods, including percussion, roentgenographic procedures, and isotope dilution examination. 4 Ultrasound can differentiate between free and loculated fluid. This is accomplished by simply moving the patient without changing the transducer position. Shifting of the fluid indicates that it is free. Differentiation of loculated
Serotype and sulphonamide sensitivity of meningococci isolated from 1966 to 1971

From 1966 to 1971, 298 cultures of meningococci from clinical material (cerebrospinal fluid or blood) were examined. Eighty-nine cultures were from the Manchester area and the remainder from other parts of England or Northern Ireland. Five per cent of strains were group A, 57% group B, and 31% group C; 6% were untypable. Eighteen strains (6%) had an MIC of 6·4 μg/ml or more of sodium sulphadiazine and 10 of these (3·5%) an MIC of 50 to 100 μg/ml. The incidence of sulphonamide resistance was higher in group A strains than in group B or group C strains.
An analysis of evolutionary gradient search

Evolution strategies and gradient strategies are two different approaches to continuous optimization. Salomon's evolutionary gradient search procedure is a hybrid strategy that obtains gradient estimates by borrowing the idea of random variations from evolutionary computation. The present paper applies successful tools and ideas from the theory of evolution strategies to the evolutionary gradient search framework. Performance and the influence of its parameters. Comparisons with the (/spl mu///spl mu/,/spl lambda/)-ES are presented, and the issue of genetic repair in evolutionary gradient search is discussed. The practically relevant problem of noisy objective function measurements is addressed, and recommendations with regard to the setting of strategy parameters are made.
A Novel, Low-Profile, Vertically-Polarized UWB Antenna for WBAN

This paper proposes a novel, low-profile UWB antenna for wireless body area network (WBAN) applications. The antenna has a polarization perpendicular to the body-free-space interface, which is interesting in order to minimize the coupling into the body. Its structure comprises a modified mono-cone with a top-cross-plate and is coaxially fed through the ground plane. The higher frequency band |S11| performance is due to the mono-cone while the top-cross-plate is responsible for the lower frequency band. This plate also leads to a height reduction when compared to conventional mono-cone antennas. A comprehensive parametric study is done to provide design guidelines. Both frequency- and time-domain results have been measured and presented to validate the design. Results show that the antenna operates from 3.06 to beyond 12 GHz based on |S11| ≤ -10 dB, radiates omni-directionally in the H-plane, and has a radiation efficiency over 95%. The system-fidelity factor for UWB signals is adequate for pulse transmission. Finally, the influence of the human proximity on the antenna matching was tested. Results show that its impedance is nearly unchanged as compared to free-space.
Developing Artificial Intelligence by Modelling the Brain

The best way to develop a truly intelligent system is to use the known properties of the only intelligent system that we know: humans. We have a great deal of understanding of neural function, a reasonable idea of overall brain topology, and a broad understanding of the emergent properties of this system. We are concentrating on developing simple neural models that can scale up to develop a cognitive architecture. Once this is done, we can concentrate on specialised modules akin to brain areas. Such a system can overcome the symbol-grounding and domain specificity problems that bedevil current AI systems.
Flip-Invariant Motion Representation

In action recognition, local motion descriptors contribute to effectively representing video sequences where target actions appear in localized spatio-temporal regions. For robust recognition, those fundamental descriptors are required to be invariant against horizontal (mirror) flipping in video frames which frequently occurs due to changes of camera viewpoints and action directions, deteriorating classification performance. In this paper, we propose methods to render flip invariance to the local motion descriptors by two approaches. One method leverages local motion flows to ensure the invariance on input patches where the descriptors are computed. The other derives a invariant form theoretically from the flipping transformation applied to hand-crafted descriptors. The method is also extended so as to deal with ConvNet descriptors through learning the invariant form based on data. The experimental results on human action classification show that the proposed methods favorably improve performance both of the handcrafted and the ConvNet descriptors.
Learning Object-Independent Modes of Variation with Feature Flow Fields

We present a unifying framework in which object-independent modes of variation are learned from continuous-time data such as video sequences. These modes of variation can be used as generators to produce a manifold of images of a new object from a single example of that object. We develop the framework in the context of a well-known example: analyzing the modes of spatial deformations of a scene under camera movement. Our method learns a close approximation to the standard affine deformations that are expected from the geometry of the situation, and does so in a completely unsupervised (i.e. ignorant of the geometry of the situation) fashion. We stress that it is learning a parameterization, not just the parameter values, of the data. We then demonstrate how we have used the same framework to derive a novel data-driven model of joint color change in images due to common lighting variations. The model is superior to previous models of color change in describing non-linear color changes due to lighting.
Comprehensive Identification of Phosphorylation Sites in Postsynaptic Density Preparations*S

In the mammalian central nervous system, the structure known as the postsynaptic density (PSD) is a dense complex of proteins whose function is to detect and respond to neurotransmitter released from presynaptic axon terminals. Regulation of protein phosphorylation in this molecular machinery is critical to the activity of its components, which include neurotransmitter receptors, kinases/phosphatases, scaffolding molecules, and proteins regulating cytoskeletal structure. To characterize the phosphorylation state of proteins in PSD samples, we combined strong cation exchange (SCX) chromatography with IMAC. Initially, tryptic peptides were separated by cation exchange and analyzed by reverse phase chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry, which led to the identification of phosphopeptides in most SCX fractions. Because each of these individual fractions was too complex to characterize completely in single LC-MS/MS runs, we enriched for phosphopeptides by performing IMAC on each SCX fraction, yielding at least a 3-fold increase in identified phosphopeptides relative to either approach alone (SCX or IMAC). This enabled us to identify at least one site of phosphorylation on 23% (287 of 1,264) of all proteins found to be present in the postsynaptic density preparation. In total, we identified 998 unique phosphorylated peptides, mapping to 723 unique sites of phosphorylation. At least one exact site of phosphorylation was determined on 62% (621 of 998) of all phosphopeptides, and ∼80% of identified phosphorylation sites are novel.
A fast discriminant approach to active object recognition and pose estimation

This paper presents a new criterion for viewpoint selection in the context of active Bayesian object recognition and pose estimation. Recognition is performed by probabilistically fusing successive observations with the current belief state of the system. Based on the current belief state, the next viewpoint is chosen to maximize the expected discriminability of the current competing hypotheses. Experiments on a difficult database of aircraft models show that this approach achieves comparable recognition performance to the widely used information theoretic approaches at a much lower computational cost.
Two-layer P2P system based on location

Structured peer-to-peer network organize nodes into an overlay network. The distributed hash table is used to lookup the resource. In these systems, data is associated with keys and each node is responsible for a subset of the keys. The distance between two adjacent peers on the overlay network may be very far on IP network so that the network access speed is greatly reduced. To solve the problem, a two-layer P2P system is proposed. In the system, each node has a peer identifier and an area identifier. All nodes, who have the same area identifier, gather to an area P2P subnet. In the way, these nodes, which exist in the same subnet, are geographical neighbor nodes. When a node wants to get a resource, it executes the query in its subnet at first. The network delay of a hop is less than that of neighbor nodes in the layout network. So the performance is improved.
Attachment, caring and prosocial behavior

The thesis focuses on 5 studies examining the role of adult attachment in volunteering by defining volunteerism as a form of caregiving. By that we suggest an effect of one behavioral system, attachment, on another, caring or prosocial behaviors in individual or group settings. Studies 1 and 2 examined the links between adult romantic attachment, volunteer behavior, and volunteer motivations. Attachment avoidance was associated with less volunteering and with lowered altruistic and exploration volunteer motives, whereas attachment anxiety was associated with self-enhancing volunteer motives. Volunteering was associated with fewer interpersonal problems for those high in attachment anxiety. Study 3 ruled out the alternative interpretation that these links were due personality characteristics. In Study 4, the role of morality was explored. Levels of moral reasoning moderated the effects of attachment avoidance on volunteerism motives Study 5 examined attachment pattern differences in responses to manipulated group respect and disrespect. Attachment anxiety moderated the effect of group respect and disrespect inductions on group commitment, donations and effort expenditures. Overall, these findings are important because they suggest that attachment experiences influence one’s caregiving approach, not only in close relationships, but one’s caregiving approach to others in general, including strangers.
Prorenin and Renin-Induced Extracellular Signal–Regulated Kinase 1/2 Activation in Monocytes Is Not Blocked by Aliskiren or the Handle-Region Peptide

The recently cloned (pro)renin receptor [(P)RR] mediates renin-stimulated cellular effects by activating mitogen-activated protein kinases and promotes nonproteolytic prorenin activation. In vivo, (P)RR is said to be blocked with a peptide consisting of 10 amino acids from the prorenin prosegment called the “handle-region” peptide (HRP). We tested whether human prorenin and renin induce extracellular signal–regulated kinase (ERK) 1/2 activation and whether the direct renin inhibitor aliskiren or the HRP inhibits the receptor. We detected the (P)RR mRNA and protein in isolated human monocytes and in U937 monocytes. In U937 cells, we found that both human renin and prorenin induced a long-lasting ERK 1/2 phosphorylation despite angiotensin II type 1 and 2 receptor blockade. In contrast to angiotensin II-ERK signaling, renin and prorenin signaling did not involve the epidermal growth factor receptor. A mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase 1/2 inhibitor inhibited both renin and prorenin-induced ERK 1/2 phosphorylation. Neither aliskiren nor HRP inhibited binding of 125I-renin or 125I-prorenin to (P)RR. Aliskiren did not inhibit renin and prorenin-induced ERK 1/2 phosphorylation and kinase activity. Fluorescence-activated cell sorter analysis showed that, although fluorescein isothiocyanate–labeled HRP bound to U937 cells, HRP did not inhibit renin or prorenin-induced ERK 1/2 activation. In conclusion, prorenin and renin-induced ERK 1/2 activation are independent of angiotensin II. The signal transduction is different from that evoked by angiotensin II. Aliskiren has no (P)RR blocking effect and did not inhibit ERK 1/2 phosphorylation or kinase activity. Finally, we found no evidence that HRP affects renin or prorenin binding and signaling.
An efficient method to match large images

Image matching is one of the active areas of research in today's world. There exist many ways in which two images can be matched. When the size of the image is very large, it incurs more computational time and cost. In this paper, an efficient algorithm to match large images is proposed. This algorithm works by generating key features using SIFT algorithm. This SIFT features are then clustered using k-means clustering algorithm The output of k-means is then subjected to coupled decomposition phase. This will result in a set sub-images of the original images. Subsequently matching is done by finding the line segments in the corresponding sub-images. If all the sub-images are matching then the two images are considered to be fully matching. In the last part of the paper, the full image matching method is modified so that it can be used to detect partial match as well.