Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
ACL Impingement Prediction Based on MRI Scans of Individual Knees

Although tibial external rotation and abduction do not load the ACL strongly in cadaver-based biomechanical studies, such knee positions are associated with ACL injuries in clinical practice. We hypothesized the ACL could be injured in such knee positions because of its impingement against the intercondylar notch. We developed a three-dimensional geometric ACL impingement model through segmentation of MR images of individual knees. We investigated impingement by determining the deformed geometry and elongation of the ligament as it wrapped around the notch surface during impingement. When impingement did not occur, the gap width separating the ligament and the notch surface was computed. Tibial external rotation/abduction could cause the ACL to impinge against the lateral notch wall and elongate as it wraps around the surface of the notch wall. The impingement occurred between the middle portion of the ligament (at 45% ± 8% [mean ± standard deviation] of the ligament length) and the convex surface of the lateral notch wall. Considering the multiband fiber architecture of the ligament, the anteromedial band of the ACL sustained greater elongation during impingement and showed a smaller gap width from the notch surface than the intermediate band or the posterolateral band.
Point-of-Care Ultrasonography by Pediatric Emergency Medicine Physicians

Emergency physicians have used point-of-care ultrasonography since the 1990s. Pediatric emergency medicine physicians have more recently adopted this technology. Point-of-care ultrasonography is used for various scenarios, particularly the evaluation of soft tissue infections or blunt abdominal trauma and procedural guidance. To date, there are no published statements from national organizations specifically for pediatric emergency physicians describing the incorporation of point-of-care ultrasonography into their practice. This document outlines how pediatric emergency departments may establish a formal point-of-care ultrasonography program. This task includes appointing leaders with expertise in point-of-care ultrasonography, effectively training and credentialing physicians in the department, and providing ongoing quality assurance reviews.
Interferon Alpha as Adjuvant Postsurgical Treatment of Melanoma: A Meta-Analysis

Background: The literature on the benefit of α-interferon (IFN-α) as adjuvant postsurgical treatment of melanoma reports discordant results. Objective: With the published data so far, we performed a meta-analysis in order to evaluate the effect of IFN-α on the relapse rate (RR) and the overall survival (OS). Methods: Published randomised trials were identified by Medline search. Stage IV melanoma was not considered. Results: Nine published studies were included, with a total of 2,880 patients. Both the per protocol and the intention-to-treat analysis show that IFN-α significantly decreased the RR (OR = 0.74; 95% CI = 0.64–0.86). Subgroup analyses show that, for all stages, high and low doses decreased the RR (OR = 0.71, 95% CI = 0.54–0.92, and OR = 0.76, 95% CI = 0.63–0.91, respectively). No difference has been evidenced on OS. Conclusions: High and low doses of IFN-α significantly decrease the RR, but the OS does not seem to be improved.
A segment‐based sparse matrix–vector multiplication on CUDA

The challenge for Sparse Matrix–Vector multiplication (SpMV) performance is memory bandwidth, which mostly depends on input matrices and underlying computing platforms. To solve this challenge, many researchers have explored a variety of optimization techniques. One of the most promising aspects focuses on designing storage formats to represent sparse matrices. However, lots of prior storage formats cannot fully take advantage of the underlying computing platforms, resulting in unsatisfactory performance and large memory footprint. Therefore, a novel storage format, called Segmented Hybrid ELL + Compressed Sparse Row (CSR) (SHEC for short), is proposed to further improve the throughput and lessen memory footprint on Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). SHEC format employs an interleaved combination pattern, which combines certain amount of compressed rows to form a new SHEC row. Segmentation is brought in to balance load and reduce memory footprint. According to the empirical data, an automatic SHEC‐based SpMV is developed to fit for all the matrices. Experimental results show that SHEC approach outperforms the best results of NVIDIA SpMV library and exhibits a comparable performance with state‐of‐the‐art storage formats on the standard dataset. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Targeting of Hepatitis C Virus Core Protein to Mitochondria through a Novel C-Terminal Localization Motif

ABSTRACT The hepatitis C virus (HCV) core protein represents the first 191 amino acids of the viral precursor polyprotein and is cotranslationally inserted into the membrane of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Processing at position 179 by a recently identified intramembrane signal peptide peptidase leads to the generation and potential cytosolic release of a 179-amino-acid matured form of the core protein. Using confocal microscopy, we observed that a fraction of the mature core protein colocalized with mitochondrial markers in core-expressing HeLa cells and in Huh-7 cells containing the full-length HCV replicon. Subcellular fractionation confirmed this observation and showed that the core protein associates with purified mitochondrial fractions devoid of ER contaminants. The core protein also fractionated with mitochondrion-associated membranes, a site of physical contact between the ER and mitochondria. Using immunoelectron microscopy and in vitro mitochondrial import assays, we showed that the core protein is located on the mitochondrial outer membrane. A stretch of 10 amino acids within the hydrophobic C terminus of the processed core protein conferred mitochondrial localization when it was fused to green fluorescent protein. The location of the core protein in the outer mitochondrial membrane suggests that it could modulate apoptosis or lipid transfer, both of which are associated with this subcellular compartment, during HCV infection.
The fertility diet:Groundbreaking research reveals natural ways to boost ovulation & improve your chances of getting pregnant

Written for the lay reader, The fertility diet explicates data from the long-standing Nurses’ Health Study (and related other work) on the impact of food intake and, to a lesser degree, other lifestyle variables on infertility secondary to ovulatory dysfunction. The authors are Jorge E. Chavarro, a research fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health; Walter C. Willett, chairman of the Department of Nutrition at the same institution; and Patrick J. Skerrett, contributor to Willett’s Eat, drink, and be healthy (1). While the main focus of The fertility diet is diet, the book covers several other topics, such as the facts of life, which segues into the causes of infertility. The final chapters are devoted to exercise, a brief description of study methodology (a nice inclusion for a general audience, with a frank appraisal of the kinds of questions these types of studies can and cannot answer), and a week’s worth of recipes that fit the dietary guidelines set forth in the book. Overall, this is an entertaining read with a clear message delivered with a light touch. There is not a white coat or church pulpit in sight. The solid middle sections of the book are devoted to what mothersto-be — and everyone else — should eat and drink. A summary of general dietary considerations is followed by [. ] Book Review
Towards Identifying Personalized Twitter Trending Topics using the Twitter Client RSS Feeds

We are currently witnessing an information explosion with aid of many micro-blogging toolkits like the Twitter. Although Twitter provides a list of most popular topics people tweet about known as Trending Topics in real time, it is often hard to understand what these trending topics are about where most of these trending topics are far away from the personal preferences of the twitter user. In this article, we pay attention to the issue of personalizing the search for trending topics via enabling the twitter user to provide RSS feeds that include the personal preferences along with a twitter client that can filter personalized tweets and trending topics according to a sound algorithm for capturing the trending information. The algorithms used are the Latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) along with the Levenshtein Distance. Our experimentations show that the developed prototype for personalized trending topics (T3C) finds more interesting trending topics that match the Twitter user list of preferences than traditional techniques without RSS personalization.
List sphere decoding of polar codes

Polar codes have gained a lot of attention during the past few years, because they can provably achieve the capacity of a memoryless channel. The design of efficient polar code decoders has been an active topic of research. The simple Successive Cancellation (SC) decoding algorithm yields poor error correction performance on short polar codes: the SC- List (SCL) algorithm overcomes this problem, but its hardware implementation requires a large amount of memory. Sphere Decoding (SD) is an alternative decoding technique that has been shown to work well for short polar codes, but it is burdened by undesirable characteristics. The performance of SD strongly depends on the choice of a suitable sphere radius, whose value must be selected according to the conditions of the channel. Channel conditions also affect the algorithm's time complexity, that is consequently variable. In this paper, we introduce a List- SD algorithm for short polar codes. It has a fixed time complexity and does not make use of a radius: thus, no knowledge of the channel noise level is required. It is shown that the error correction performance of List-SD can match that of SC and SCL with as low as 72% of their memory requirements.
Nitrogenase Switch-Off and Regulation of Ammonium Assimilation in Response to Light Deprivation in Rhodospirillum rubrum Are Influenced by the Nitrogen Source Used during Growth

ABSTRACT Nitrogen fixation and ammonium assimilation in Rhodospirillum rubrum are regulated in response to changes in light availability, and we show that the response in terms of glutamine synthetase activity and PII modification is dependent on the nitrogen source used for growth, N2 or glutamate, although both lead to nitrogenase derepression.
A miniaturized ultra wideband monopole antenna with defected ground

This paper presents an UWB monopole antenna with rectangular slots on the patch and defected ground surface. The proposed antenna has a dimension of 25mm∗30mm∗1.6mm fabricated on FR4 dielectric substrate material with dielectric constant (εr) 4.4. The microstrip feed is incorporated to monopole with rectangular slots on both the ground plane and patch which produce the extra resonance frequencies. The proposed antenna provides an impedance bandwidth (VSWR < 2) of 9GHz (3.0–12GHz) covering the whole UWB range. The proposed antenna exhibits very good gain flatness over the entire UWB band.
Received signal strength models for WLAN and BLE-based indoor positioning in multi-floor buildings

This paper investigates the similarities and differences of the signal strength fluctuations and positioning accuracy in indoor scenarios for three types of wireless area networks: two Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) at 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz frequency, respectively, and one Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN), namely the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). Two path-loss models based on weighted centroids and non-negative least squares estimation are presented: one including a floor loss factor, and the other one ignoring the floor losses, and the three signal types are compared in terms of the path-loss parameters, channel fluctuations and positioning accuracy, namely the distance errors and floor detection probabilities. The comparison is done based on real-field measurement data collected from a university building in Tampere, Finland. It is shown that all these three signal types have similar shadowing variances and close path-loss parameter values, and that a path-loss model considering floor losses gives the best floor detection probability, but not necessarily the smallest distance error.
The Axial Tensile Stress–Strain Characterization of Ag-Sheathed Bi2212 Round Wire

The stress distribution generated by the differences in the thermal expansion and the electromagnetic load is the driving factor for the transport properties of Bi2212 superconducting round wire (RW). The effort on studying the impact of strain on the transport properties is increasing, in terms of the axial and transverse stiffness of the RW. Consequently, the experimental stress-strain data are required at the RW level for accurate modeling, analysis and eventually for optimizing cable design and manufacture. In this paper, the axial tensile measurements on Bi2212 RWs and component materials (Ag and Ag/Mg alloy) have been performed at room temperature, 77 K and 4.2 K, respectively. Comparing with LTS strand (e.g., Nb3Sn and NbTi) , the stiffness of Bi2212 RW is less, which has become the primary problem in its application. A simple model was used to simulate the stress-strain characteristic, and compared to experimental results.
Investigation Into the Vertical Monopole-Like Radiation Mechanism of a Horizontal Dipole on a Periodic Patch-Loaded Grounded Slab

It was recently demonstrated that a horizontal dipole radiates with a vertical monopole-like radiation pattern when placed near a two-dimensional periodic patch-loaded grounded slab (PLGS). Such a structure has been proposed as a low-profile surface-wave antenna. In this letter, we examine the radiation mechanism of such an antenna. It is indicated in this letter that the vertical monopole-like pattern is generated by the vertical common-mode current flowing on the outside of the coaxial cable feeding the short dipole, and not from the dipole itself. In this manner, the unbalanced horizontal dipole closely resembles a classic T antenna. Furthermore, we examine the propagation characteristics of the surface wave on the PLGS and discuss its contribution to the overall radiation of this antenna. We find that, in the lower frequency range, the PLGS appears insignificant to the antenna radiation. The investigation is carried out by the use of a full wave method-of-moments simulation.
RNA Polymerase Trafficking in Bacillus subtilis Cells

ABSTRACT To obtain insight into the in vivo dynamics of RNA polymerase (RNAP) on the Bacillus subtilis genome, we analyzed the distribution of the σA and β′ subunits of RNAP and the NusA elongation factor on the genome in exponentially growing cells using chromatin affinity precipitation coupled with gene chip mapping (ChAP-chip). In contrast to Escherichia coli RNAP, which often accumulates at the promoter-proximal region, B. subtilis RΝΑP is evenly distributed from the promoter to the coding sequences. This finding suggests that, in general, B. subtilis RNAP recruited to the promoter promptly translocates away from the promoter to form the elongation complex and proceeds without intragenic transcription attenuation. We detected RNAP accumulation in the promoter-proximal regions of some genes, most of which can be identified as transcription attenuation systems in the leader region. Our findings suggest that the differences in RNAP behavior between E. coli and B. subtilis during initiation and elongation steps might result in distinct strategies for postinitiation control of transcription. The E. coli mechanism involves trapping at the promoter and promoter-proximal pausing of RNAP in addition to transcription attenuation, whereas transcription attenuation in leader sequences is mainly employed in B. subtilis.
Identification of a Gene within a Pathogenicity Island of Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli H10407 Required for Maximal Secretion of the Heat-Labile Enterotoxin

ABSTRACT Studies of the pathogenesis of enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) have largely centered on extrachromosomal determinants of virulence, in particular the plasmid-encoded heat-labile (LT) and heat-stable enterotoxins and the colonization factor antigens. ETEC causes illnesses that range from mild diarrhea to severe cholera-like disease. These differences in disease severity are not readily accounted for by our current understanding of ETEC pathogenesis. Here we demonstrate that Tia, a putative adhesin of ETECH10407 , is encoded on a large chromosomal element of approximately 46 kb that shares multiple features with previously described E. coli pathogenicity islands. Further analysis of the region downstream from tia revealed the presence of several candidate open reading frames (ORFs) in the same transcriptional orientation as tia. The putative proteins encoded by these ORFs bear multiple motifs associated with bacterial secretion apparatuses. An in-frame deletion in one candidate gene identified here as leoA (labile enterotoxin output) resulted in marked diminution of secretion of the LT enterotoxin and lack of fluid accumulation in a rabbit ileal loop model of infection. Although previous studies have suggested that E. coli lacks the capacity to secrete LT, our studies show that maximal release of LT from the periplasm of H10407 is dependent on one or more elements encoded on a pathogenicity island.
GUILeak: Tracing Privacy Policy Claims on User Input Data for Android Applications

The Android mobile platform supports billions of devices across more than 190 countries around the world. This popularity coupled with user data collection by Android apps has made privacy protection a well-known challenge in the Android ecosystem. In practice, app producers provide privacy policies disclosing what information is collected and processed by the app. However, it is difficult to trace such claims to the corresponding app code to verify whether the implementation is consistent with the policy. Existing approaches for privacy policy alignment focus on information directly accessed through the Android platform (e.g., location and device ID), but are unable to handle user input, a major source of private information. In this paper, we propose a novel approach that automatically detects privacy leaks of user-entered data for a given Android app and determines whether such leakage may violate the app's privacy policy claims. For evaluation, we applied our approach to 120 popular apps from three privacy-relevant app categories: finance, health, and dating. The results show that our approach was able to detect 21 strong violations and 18 weak violations from the studied apps.
Nonresponsiveness and Susceptibility of Opioid Side Effects Related to Cancer Patients’ Clinical Characteristics: A Post‐Hoc Analysis

The response to opioids is not always positive in cancer patients. A considerable proportion of patients do not respond (nonresponders [NRs]) or experience severe toxicity. The aim of this analysis was to assess the role of demographic characteristics, pain features, comorbidities, and ongoing therapy on the lack of efficacy and on the occurrence of severe adverse drug reactions (ADRs).
Descent-based coefficient estimator for analog predistortion of a dual-band RF transmitter

Analog predistortion (APD) has a wide bandwidth suitable for cancelling intermodulation distortion (IMD) in a dual-band transmitter. APD uses analog processing to create basis waveforms from a RF signal. The basis waveforms are weighted by coefficients that are controlled digitally. Narrow bandwidth measurements of the output spectrum are used to measure IMD power. Two descent-based estimators are proposed that adapt the APD coefficients to minimize the residual IMD power within the transmitted waveform.
Artificial muscles based on conducting polymers

Abstract Natural muscles have mechanical properties that conventional actuators do not possess. These natural machines show large strain, moderate stress, high efficiency and stability, fast response time, high power/weight ratio, long lifetime, etc. In the last years a great interest has arisen to develop materials that mimic natural mechanisms. Conducting polymers have an array of potential applications as artificial muscles since they are capable to produce a moderate displacement when submitted to an electrochemical reaction. This property has been used to fabricate actuator devices that imitate and even improve the performance of natural muscles. For example, conducting polymers show stresses 15 times higher than those generated by mammalian muscles, a high power/weight ratio and a high degree of compliance. However, there are also several responses that need improvement in the actuators based on conducting polymers. Strains are still c. 50% lower than in natural muscles. Most of this kind of actuators only work in liquid media. It is necessary to increase the response time and obtain more durable actuators with longer lifetime and higher stability. In spite of these disadvantages, the first actuators based on conducting polymers are being commercialized. This paper presents a brief summary of some of the actuators based on these polymers, focusing on their design, performance and actuation mechanism.
Prognostic significance of basic laboratory methods in non- small-cell-lung cancer.

BACKGROUND In our study, the LDH, albumin, hemoglobin, neutrophile, thrombocyte, lymphocyte counts and prognostic significance of neutrophile-lymphocyte and thrombocyte-lymphocyte ratios in NSCLC derived from these counts obtained during regular examinations of patients were examined. MATERIALS AND METHODS Histopathologically diagnosed non-small-cell-lung cancer patients between 2008 and 2010 were included in the study. Before the treatment, full blood count including routine lymphocyte count, blood biochemistry examinations including liver (AST, ALT, total protein, Albumin), LDH and kidney (BUN, Cre) function tests were performed. RESULTS A total of 156 patients, 76 of whom (48.7%) were female and 80 of whom (51.3%) were male were included. Mean hemoglobin level was determined as 12. Overall survival was found to be significantly dependent on whether patients were anemic or not (p: 0.005). Mean LDH level was determined as 233.4. There was nosurvival difference between patients with and without high LDH (p: 0.532). In patients where NLR showed systemic inflammatory response, overall survival was 10.8 months whereas this duration was 19.6 months in patients where the systemic inflammatory response was negative (p: 0.012). In patients where TLR showed systemic inflammatory response, overall survival was 13.6 months whereas this duration was 21.9 months in patients where the systemic inflammatory response was negative (p: 0.04). CONCLUSIONS Molecular methods have been changing rapidly in today's world and they manage the treatment besides defining the prognosis of patients. However, easily accessible and cheap laboratory parameters should be considered in the prognosis of patients besides these new methods.