Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
eAdventure: Serious games, assessment and interoperability

The idea of using serious games in education has been around for a few years. However, regardless of their wide acceptance by the academic community, their actual adoption in real settings remains scarce and often in the form of isolated experiments. During this workshop we discussed the challenges that are preventing the growth of serious games and explored the principles for a second generation of serious games better prepared to overcome such challenges while still providing relevant and engaging learning experiences. The main principles explored relate to the reduction of costs (using the eAdventure platform helps in this regard), the increase of the perceived educational value and solutions to facilitate the deployment and reuse of the games.
Artefact-centric business process configuration

Currently, there are two mainstream process modelling paradigms: the traditional activity-centric approach and the recent artefact-centric approach. Several approaches have been proposed for configuration of traditional activity-centric business processes; however, to the best of our knowledge, few approaches have been developed for artefact-centric business processes. This paper fills this gap by proposing a novel configuration approach for artefact-centric business processes. The configuration of artefact-centric process modelling is achieved by the configuration of artefact lifecycle models for all the involved artefact classes. First, we apply deterministic finite automaton to formalise an artefact lifecycle model ALM. To derive configurable ALM, we propose merger operation for ALMs. Also, an artefact lifecycle graph ALG is proposed to describe ALM as a state diagram, and the structural soundness of ALG is also presented. Then, we propose configurable artefact lifecycle graph C-ALG to describe the configurable artefact lifecycle model, in which arcs and sets of business rules can be defined to be configurable points. Finally, by configuring C-ALGs for each artefact class with our individualisation algorithm, structurally sound artefact lifecycle models are derived including data models of artefacts, associated services and business rules, thus resulting a complete configured artefact-centric process model.
Fidelity outcomes in the National Implementing Evidence-Based Practices Project.

OBJECTIVE This article presents fidelity outcomes for five evidence-based practices that were implemented in routine public mental health settings in the National Implementing Evidence-Based Practices Project. METHODS Over a two-year period 53 community mental health centers across eight states implemented one of five evidence-based practices: supported employment, assertive community treatment, integrated dual disorders treatment, family psychoeducation, and illness management and recovery. An intervention model of practice dissemination guided the implementation. Each site used both human resources (consultant-trainers) and material resource (toolkits) to aid practice implementation and to facilitate organizational changes. External assessors rated fidelity to the evidence-based practice model every six months from baseline to two years. RESULTS More than half of the sites (29 of 53, or 55%) showed high-fidelity implementation at the end of two years. Significant differences in fidelity emerged by evidence-based practice. Supported employment and assertive community treatment had higher fidelity scores at baseline and across time. Illness management and recovery and integrated dual disorders treatment had lower scores on average throughout. In general, evidence-based practices showed an increase in fidelity from baseline to 12 months, with scores leveling off between 12 and 24 months. CONCLUSIONS Most mental health centers implemented these evidence-based practices with moderate to high fidelity. The critical time period for implementation was approximately 12 months, after which few gains were made, although sites sustained their attained levels of evidence-based practice fidelity for another year.
Draft Genome Sequence of Sphingobacterium sp. CZ-UAM, Isolated from a Methanotrophic Consortium

ABSTRACT Sphingobacterium sp. CZ-UAM was isolated from a methanotrophic consortium in mineral medium using methane as the only carbon source. A draft genome of 5.84 Mb with a 40.77% G+C content is reported here. This genome sequence will allow the investigation of potential methanotrophy in this isolated strain.
Influence of Peak Viral Load on the Extent of CD4+ T-Cell Depletion in Simian HIV Infection

Summary: Simian HIV (SHIV) infection of macaques with CXCR4 tropic viruses results in early and profound CD4+ T-cell depletion in the first few weeks of infection. Analyzing data from a large study of vaccination and SHIV-89.6P challenge, we observe a strong correlation between peak viral load and the extent of CD4+ T-cell depletion in acute infection, consistent with a simple kinetic model of viral infection of CD4+ T cells. We have modeled the dynamics of the interaction of virus and CD4+ T cells over time to investigate the rate of CD4+ T-cell infection and death. This analysis indicates that up to 80% of CD4+ T cells are infected at peak viremia and that the proportion of CD4+ T cells destroyed is correlated with the peak viral load. The simple relation between viral load and CD4+ T-cell depletion allows prediction of the level of viral control required to prevent CD4+ T-cell depletion in acute SHIV infection. Whether such a simple relation also holds for HIV or simian immunodeficiency virus infections remains to be determined, particularly in the gut and other anatomic sites in which most early T-cell depletion occurs.
The Clinical Importance Of Anti-Endothelial Cell Antibodies In Chronic Kidney Dysfunction And Organ Transplantation

The endothelium is the thin layer of cells that lines the interior surface of blood vessels and is the first site of contact between immune cells and tissues. Therefore, alterations at the level of the endothelium are crucial to understand the nature of vascular diseases and organ damage. The presence of anti-endothelial cell antibodies (AECAs) has been associated with such conditions. However, their immunomodulatory and clinical relevance is unclear. This work focused on two clinical groups, patients with chronic kidney disease and heartand vein-transplanted patients. In chronic kidney disease patients, some biological mechanisms by which AECAs may affect the kidney microvascular permeability were explored. In transplanted patients, special emphasis on the clinical contribution of these antibodies to monitor graft outcome preand posttransplantation was analyzed. Detection of AECAs using different tissue endothelial cells as targets and experimental in vitro assays were utilized to evaluate immune interactions of AECAs. In patients with end-stage renal disease, AECAs were specifically reactive with kidney endothelial cells. In vitro, these antibodies decreased the expression of intercellular junction assembly proteins altering endothelial permeability. In hearttransplanted patients, the presence of autologous AECAs post-transplantation was associated with the presence of donor-specific AECAs and early rejection episodes. In the context of a first case report of a bioengineered transplanted vein, AECAs appeared after nearly a year post-transplantation. In summary, AECAs in patients with chronic kidney diseases may be novel biomarkers of kidney endothelial dysfunction, and may be used as indicators of renal diseases. Additionally, AECAs have important implications in organ transplantation regarding the development of techniques for improved donor organ selection and monitoring of recipients. Results may also be extended to new approaches in tissue engineering.
Pharmacokinetics, in vitro and in vivo correlation, and efficacy of exenatide microspheres in diabetic rats

Abstract Modeling and simulation are aimed at achieving information about the behaviors of the drugs without the actual measurements and determination. The purpose of this study was to characterize the in vivo behavior of exenatide microspheres using model-based methods. Exenatide is a glucagon-like peptide-1 agonist medication, belonging to the group of incretin mimetics, approved for the treatment of diabetes mellitus type 2. An oil-in-water solvent evaporation method was used to prepare the exenatide microspheres and their physicochemical features were investigated. After subcutaneous injection of exenatide microspheres to streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats, the exenatide concentrations increased and kept increasing and the blood glucose decreased in all diabetic rats. The in vivo release behavior of exenatide from microspheres was described by a transit compartment model. Based on the transit compartment model, the simulation method was proposed for the description of in vivo release. The in vitro and in vivo correlation (IVIVC) was established by the model-based simulation (R2 = 0.903) and deconvolution (R2 = 0.922) methods successfully. Using a transit compartment model to characterize the in vivo exenatide release from microspheres is an acceptable approach, and the IVIVC can be estimated reliably with the model-based simulation method.
Ethological assessment of the DSM‐III subtyping of unipolar depression

An ethological method was employed to validate the DSM‐III subtyping of unipolar, nondelusional depression. The nonverbal behavior of 44 depressed outpatients was video‐recorded during psychiatric interview. The DSM‐III subtyping was not significantly associated with sex or level of education. Patients with major depression (with or without melancholia) were significantly older than those with dysthymic disorder. The Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD) scores of the 3 diagnostic groups indicated a progressive increase in symptom severity across DSM‐III subtypes (dysthymic disorder < major depression without melancholia < major depression with melancholia). Ethological assessment failed to find any evidence for the validity of the DSM‐III subtyping of unipolar depression. Of the 8 behavioral categories analyzed in this study, none showed statistically significant differences between the 3 diagnostic groups. Our interpretation of these results is that, whereas the DSM‐III subtyping primarily reflects illness severity, the ethological profile measures a dimension of depression largely independent from severity, as indicated by the lack of correlation between the HRSD score and the categories of nonverbal behavior.
Sub Oriented Histograms of Local Binary Patterns for Smoke Detection and Texture Classification

Local Binary Pattern (LBP) and its variants have powerful discriminative capabilities but most of them just consider each LBP code independently. In this paper, we propose sub oriented histograms of LBP for smoke detection and image classification. We first extract LBP codes from an image, compute the gradient of LBP codes, and then calculate sub oriented histograms to capture spatial relations of LBP codes. Since an LBP code is just a label without any numerical meaning, we use Hamming distance to estimate the gradient of LBP codes instead of Euclidean distance. We propose to use two coordinates systems to compute two orientations, which are quantized into discrete bins. For each pair of the two discrete orientations, we generate a sub LBP code map from the original LBP code map, and compute sub oriented histograms for all sub LBP code maps. Finally, all the sub oriented histograms are concatenated together to form a robust feature vector, which is input into SVM for training and classifying. Experiments how that our approach not only has better performance than existing methods in smoke detection, but also has good performance in texture classification.
Development of Assamese Text-to-speech synthesis system

This paper presents the design and development of Assamese Text to speech (TTS) synthesis system. In particular, work focused on designing language specific rules, developing quality database, data segmentation, and to handle bilingual sound units. In Assamese language, till now no study is done to construct the grapheme to phoneme conversion rules. In this work, grapheme to phoneme conversion rules are proposed for Assamese language. The database is recorded by checking the speaking rate, variation in amplitude level, dc wandering, and clipping during data collection. A significant improvement in the synthesized voice is observed by ensuring uniform speaking rate, controlling variation in the signal amplitude level, and avoiding dc wandering and clipping during data collection. A semi-automatic segmentation approach is developed for data segmentation. Initially, segmentation is done by automatic process and later manual correction of segmentation boundaries is done to improve quality and intelligibility. It also reduce time required for the segmentation process. The developed TTS can work in bilingual mode. It can switch between Assamese and English language smoothly and maintains the sentence level intonation even for mixed texts.
Fluctuation analysis of mitochondrial NADH fluorescence signals in confocal and two‐photon microscopy images of living cardiac myocytes

A fluctuation analysis was performed on the reduced nicotine adenine dinucleotide (NADH) fluorescence signal from resting rabbit myocytes using confocal and two‐photon microscopy. The purpose of this study was to establish whether any co‐ordinated biochemical processes, such as binding, metabolism and inner mitochondrial membrane potential, were contributing to NADH signal fluctuations above background instrument noise. After a basic characterization of the instrument noise, time series of cellular NADH fluorescence images were collected and compared with an internal standard composed of NADH in the bathing medium. The coefficient of variation as a function of mean signal amplitude of cellular NADH fluorescence and bathing media NADH was identical even as a function of temperature. These data suggest that the fluctuations in cellular NADH fluorescence in resting myocytes are dominated by sampling noise of these instruments and not significantly modified by biological processes. Further analysis revealed no significant spatial correlations within the cell, and Fourier analysis revealed no coherent frequency information. These data suggest that the impact of biochemical processes, which might affect cellular NADH fluorescence emission, are either too small in magnitude, occurring in the wrong temporal scale or too highly spatially localized for detection using these standard optical microscopy approaches.
Clinical Implications of CURE and PCI-CURE in Patients with the Acute Coronary Syndrome without Persistent ST-elevation

present journal may have impact on our clinical practice. A common guideline for ICD implantation is that patients with coronary artery disease, and EF of 0.30 or less with unsustained ventricular tachycardia on a Holter recording should receive an automatic de brillator is supported by the study of Vittrup et al. (2). The study also suggests that the cut-off point of 0.30 may be too low when the Holter variables registered are positive. The study by Vittrup et al. questions the suggestion by the MADITT investigator that all patients with EF below 0.30 and an earlier infarction should receive an internal de brillator. The study by Vittrup et al. is however in full agreement with the MUSTT study, and the good prognosis in a de ned patient group with normal heart rate variability and normal Holter recordings is well documented over a period of 10 years. This study contains probably too few patients with very low EF so caution is important until more studies are published. Normal Holter together with an EF of 40% or higher also indicates good prognosis after myocardial infarction. The QT dispersion and QT dynamics do not seem to have any marked impact on our clinical practice except for that QT dispersion may give some information about the improvement of EF after myocardial infarction. These observations are however of great scienti c interest and may lead to further studies.
Confocal microscopy assessment of lymphoid tissues with follicular hyperplasia from patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus type 1.

OBJECTIVE To characterize human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection of lymphoid tissues during follicular hyperplasia. METHODS We examined 10 tonsil/adenoid, 3 parotid lymphoepithelial cyst, and 7 lymph node specimens that had been surgically removed from 13 patients infected with HIV-1. Characteristics of productive HIV-1 infection were assessed using immunocytochemistry for HIV-1 p24. Cellular colocalization was determined with the aid of a confocal microscope using double immunofluorescent staining for HIV-1 p24 and cell-specific markers. RESULTS All specimens showed follicular hyperplasia. Using confocal microscopy with three-dimensional reconstruction, HIV-1 p24 was seen to be "intimately" colocalized with CD21 within the germinal centers. While lymphoid follicles were generally hyperplastic, only a subset of these follicles contained HIV-1 p24. Occasional HIV-1-expressing mononuclear cells identified outside follicles stained for CD68 or CD3. CONCLUSIONS The differential involvement of hyperplastic follicles by HIV-1 within individual lymphoid tissues and the intimate colocalization of HIV-1 p24 and CD21 suggest that infected follicular dendritic cells may be an important reservoir of HIV-1 during follicular hyperplasia.
Using motor imagery based brain-computer interface for post-stroke rehabilitation

There is now sufficient evidence that using a rehabilitation protocol involving motor imagery (MI) practice (or mental practice (MP)) in conjunction with physical practice (PP) of goal-directed rehabilitation tasks leads to enhanced functional recovery of paralyzed limbs among stroke sufferers. It is however difficult to ensure patient engagement during MP in the absence of any on-line measure of the MP. Fortunately in an EEG-based brain-computer interface (BCI), an on-line measure of MI activity is used to devise neurofeedback for the BCI user to help him/her focus better on the task. This paper reports a pilot study in which an EEG-based BCI system is used to provide neurofeedback to stroke participants during the MP part of the rehabilitation protocol. This helps patients to undertake the MP with stronger focus. The participants included five chronic stroke sufferers. The trial was undertaken for 12 sessions over a period of 6 weeks. A set of rehabilitation outcome measures including action research arm test (ARAT) and motricity index was made use of in assessing functional recovery. Moderate improvements approaching a minimal clinically important difference (MCID) were observed for the ARAT. Small positive improvements were also observed in other outcome measures. Participants appeared highly enthusiastic about participating in the study and regularly attended all the sessions. Although without a randomized control trial, it is difficult to ascertain whether the enhanced rehabilitation gain is primarily because of BCI neurofeedack, the positive gains in outcome measures demonstrate the potential and feasibility of using BCI for post-stroke rehabilitation.
Untangling wicked problems

Abstract More than 40 years after Rittel and Webber published the first articles on the theory of wicked problems this theory has been applied to a wide range of fields involved in real-world problem solving. Interest in the theory seems greater than ever. This has led to an interest in rethinking the theory. A number of authors do this by imposing interpretations on the theory that are incompatible with each other and with the statements of the theory's authors. We agree that it is time to critically reexamine the theory and rethink what implications it has for design. However, rather than imposing an incompatible interpretation, our approach is see what new conclusions can be drawn from a systematic and critical examination of what Rittel and Webber actually said. This reexamination of their specific claims and arguments is what we call untangling wicked problems. From this untangling, we derive new conclusions about how designers should tackle wicked problems and how design rationale can aid them in doing so.
TimeSlider: an interface to specify time point

This paper introduces TimeSlider, a user interface technique that allows the user to specify time points. TimeSlider is a kind of slider whose time scale is nonlinear and which moves as a user operation. The nonlinearly enables it to display a long time range in a small space, and the movement as a user operation helps the user to specify time points quickly. An example application, in which TimeSlider enabled the user to restore past WWW pages, demonstrated the effectiveness of our technique.
Impact of metabolic syndrome on the long-term survival of patients with acute myocardial infarction: potential association with C-reactive protein.

BACKGROUND Population-based cohort studies demonstrate that metabolic syndrome (MeS) is associated with increased risk for cardiovascular diseases and related mortalities. The present study was designed to investigate the prognostic impact of MeS in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI). METHODS AND RESULTS The study group was 461 AMI patients without a history of previous myocardial infarction. On the basis of the National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III criteria, MeS was defined having at least 3 of the following 5 conditions: dysglycemia (impaired fasting glucose, current use of insulin or oral hypoglycemic drugs), hypertriglyceridemia, low high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol level, hypertension and obesity. The prevalence of MeS was 37% (n=172). C-reactive protein (CRP) levels increased with the increase in the number of conditions of MeS. During follow-up at a median of 17.6 months, the incidence of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) was significantly different between patients with and without MeS. Furthermore, after adjustment of predictive factors (age, sex, Killip class, multivessel coronary artery disease, low ejection fraction and high CRP level), MeS was an independent risk factor for MACE. CONCLUSIONS In patients with AMI, MeS is associated with systemic inflammation and is an important predictor for MACE, which suggests the need for early identification and medical intervention for secondary prevention of MeS.
Timing and energy resolution of new near-UV SiPMs coupled to LaBr3:Ce for TOF-PET

The high light output and fast decay time of LaBr<sub>3</sub>:Ce scintillation detectors leads to excellent timing performance. To realize the potential of timing resolution with LaBr<sub>3</sub>:Ce we have investigated the performance with SiPMs which enable 1-to-1 coupling to individual crystals, and which have been optimized for the near-UV scintillation light emission of LaBr<sub>3</sub>:Ce. Coincidence timing resolution of 100 ps was measured for a 4×4×5 mm<sup>3</sup> LaBr<sub>3</sub>:30%Ce crystal coupled to a 4×4 mm<sup>2</sup> NUV-SiPM with very little dependence on temperature in the range of -20° to 20°C. Optimal performance was achieved at an over-voltage of 4.5 V, at which high gain and PDE are achieved. Though saturation was evident at 511 keV, an energy resolution of 8% FWHM was measured after correcting for nonlinearity. We also measured 110 ps for a 4×4×5mm<sup>3</sup> LaBr<sub>3</sub>:5%Ce crystal and 245 ps for a 4×4×30 mm<sup>3</sup> LaBr<sub>3</sub>:5%Ce crystal. The poorer measurement for the 30-mm long crystal is due mainly to variations in the timing offset as a function of DOI. The excellent temperature stability, fast risetime, high gain and low noise of the NUV-SiPM make it a practical and highly appealing photodetector for the readout of a LaBr<sub>3</sub>:Ce TOF PET detector.