Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Agreement and Repeatability of Noncycloplegic and Cycloplegic Wavefront-based Autorefraction in Children

SIGNIFICANCE Increasing prevalence of refractive error requires assessment of ametropia as a screening tool in children. If cycloplegia is not an option, knowledge about the increase in uncertainty for wavefront-based autorefraction is needed. The cycloplegic agent as the principal variant presents cross-reference and allows for extraction of the influence of accommodation. PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to determine the repeatability, agreement, and propensity to accommodate of cycloplegic (ARc) and noncycloplegic (ARnc) wavefront-based autorefraction (ZEISS i.Profiler plus; Carl Zeiss Vision, Aalen, Germany) in children aged 2 to 15 years. METHODS In a clinical setting, three consecutive measurements were feasible for 145 eyes (OD) under both conditions. Data are described by spherical equivalent (M), horizontal or vertical astigmatic component (J0), and oblique astigmatic component (J45). In the case of M, the most positive value of the three measurements was chosen, whereas the mean was applied for astigmatic components. RESULTS Regarding agreement, differences for ARc minus ARnc were statistically significant: for M, 0.55 (0.55 D; mean [SD]; P < .001), that is, more hyperopic in cycloplegia; for J0, −0.03 (0.11 D; P = .002); and for J45, −0.03 D (SD, 0.09 D; P < .001). Regarding repeatability, astigmatic components showed excellent repeatability: SD < 0.11 D (ARnc) and SD < 0.09 D (ARc). The repeatability of M was SD = 0.57 D with a 95% interval of 1.49 D (ARnc). Under cycloplegia, this decreased to SD = 0.17 D (ARc) with a 95% interval of 0.50 D. The mean propensity to accommodate was 0.44 D from repeated measurements; in cycloplegia, this was reduced to 0.19 D. CONCLUSIONS Wavefront-based refraction measurement results are highly repeatable and precise for astigmatic components. Noncycloplegic measurements of M show a systematic bias of 0.55 D. Cycloplegia reduces the propensity to accommodate by a factor of 2.4; for noncycloplegic repeated measurements, accommodation is controlled to a total interval of 1.49 D (95%). Without cycloplegia, results improve drastically when measurements are repeated.
Deficiency of Macf1 in osterix expressing cells decreases bone formation by Bmp2/Smad/Runx2 pathway

Microtubule actin cross‐linking factor 1 (Macf1) is a spectraplakin family member known to regulate cytoskeletal dynamics, cell migration, neuronal growth and cell signal transduction. We previously demonstrated that knockdown of Macf1 inhibited the differentiation of MC3T3‐E1 cell line. However, whether Macf1 could regulate bone formation in vivo is unclear. To study the function and mechanism of Macf1 in bone formation and osteogenic differentiation, we established osteoblast‐specific Osterix (Osx) promoter‐driven Macf1 conditional knockout mice (Macf1f/fOsx‐Cre). The Macf1f/fOsx‐Cre mice displayed delayed ossification and decreased bone mass. Morphological and mechanical studies showed deteriorated trabecular microarchitecture and impaired biomechanical strength of femur in Macf1f/fOsx‐Cre mice. In addition, the differentiation of primary osteoblasts isolated from calvaria was inhibited in Macf1f/fOsx‐Cre mice. Deficiency of Macf1 in primary osteoblasts inhibited the expression of osteogenic marker genes (Col1, Runx2 and Alp) and the number of mineralized nodules. Furthermore, deficiency of Macf1 attenuated Bmp2/Smad/Runx2 signalling in primary osteoblasts of Macf1f/fOsx‐Cre mice. Together, these results indicated that Macf1 plays a significant role in bone formation and osteoblast differentiation by regulating Bmp2/Smad/Runx2 pathway, suggesting that Macf1 might be a therapeutic target for bone disease.
Objective real-time motion analysis using wearable devices for post stroke rehabilitation

With the growing population of the elderly, there is an increasing need for reliable, inexpensive, and quantifiable clinical measures. This thesis proposes mStroke, a practical, accurate, and mobile health system that remotely measures a stroke patient's proficiency in standard post-stroke therapy activities. The proposed system is delivered as an application (App) running on a hardware system consisting of two bluetooth low energy (BLE) modular sensor devices and an iPad. The system uses accelerometers, gyroscopes, and magnetometers to measure movement during three single-tasked clinical activities: the functional reach test, the NIHSS motor arm test, and the NIHSS motor leg test. The proposed system has been extensively tested using emulated and real data from physical therapy students. Key Words: Motion Analysis, Stroke, Functional Reach, NIHSS.
Targeting Cancer Resistance via Multifunctional Gold Nanoparticles

Resistance to chemotherapy is a major problem facing current cancer therapy, which is continuously aiming at the development of new compounds that are capable of tackling tumors that developed resistance toward common chemotherapeutic agents, such as doxorubicin (DOX). Alongside the development of new generations of compounds, nanotechnology-based delivery strategies can significantly improve the in vivo drug stability and target specificity for overcoming drug resistance. In this study, multifunctional gold nanoparticles (AuNP) have been used as a nanoplatform for the targeted delivery of an original anticancer agent, a Zn(II) coordination compound [Zn(DION)2]Cl2 (ZnD), toward better efficacy against DOX-resistant colorectal carcinoma cells (HCT116 DR). Selective delivery of the ZnD nanosystem to cancer cells was achieved by active targeting via cetuximab, NanoZnD, which significantly inhibited cell proliferation and triggered the death of resistant tumor cells, thus improving efficacy. In vivo studies in a colorectal DOX-resistant model corroborated the capability of NanoZnD for the selective targeting of cancer cells, leading to a reduction of tumor growth without systemic toxicity. This approach highlights the potential of gold nanoformulations for the targeting of drug-resistant cancer cells.
Preparation, Characterization, and In Vivo Pharmacokinetic Study of the Supercritical Fluid-Processed Liposomal Amphotericin B

Here, we aimed to prepare and optimize liposomal amphotericin B (AmB) while using the supercritical fluid of carbon dioxide (SCF-CO2) method and investigate the characteristics and pharmacokinetics of the SCF-CO2-processed liposomal AmB. Liposomes containing phospholipids, ascorbic acid (vit C), and cholesterol were prepared by the SCF-CO2 method at an optimized pressure and temperature; conventional liposomes were also prepared using the thin film hydration method and then compared with the SCF-CO2-processed-liposomes. The optimized formulation was evaluated by in vitro hemolysis tests on rat erythrocytes and in vivo pharmacokinetics after intravenous administration to Sprague-Dawley rats and compared with a marketed AmB micellar formulation, Fungizone®, and a liposomal formulation, AmBisome®. The results of the characterization studies demonstrated that the SCF-CO2-processed-liposomes were spherical particles with an average particle size of 137 nm (after homogenization) and drug encapsulation efficiency (EE) was about 90%. After freeze-drying, mean particle size, EE, and zeta potential were not significantly changed. The stability study of the liposomes showed that liposomal AmB that was prepared by the SCF method was stable over time. In vivo pharmacokinetics revealed that the SCF-CO2-processed-liposomes were bioequivalent to AmBisome®; the hemolytic test depicted less hematotoxicity than Fungizone®. Therefore, this method could serve as a potential alternative for preparing liposomal AmB for industrial applications.
Layout Practices for Die Size Reduction on InGaP/GaAs HBT MMICs for Handset Power Amplifier Applications

InGaP/GaAs HBT has been widely used in power amplifier (PA) design for wireless communications due to its high linearity and high efficiency. The latest mobile devices, which offer the user mobile Internet and other multimedia services on the move, draw on far more data than previous generations of mobile phones. The number of power amplifiers in the smartphone is increased to cover GSM, UMTS and LTE applications with varieties of frequency bands for global roaming. The PA module size and cost are other important aspects of products beyond performance. This work presents a 30% MMIC die size reduction from several changes in layout approaches.
The Pectoralis Major Island Flap: Short Scar Modified Muscle-Sparing Harvesting Technique Improves Aesthetic Outcome in Reconstructive Head and Neck Surgery

Background: Pectoralis major flap reconstruction is often associated with large unappealing scars in head-neck surgery. We recently established an alternative harvesting technique that improves aesthetic outcome. Objectives: The objective of this study was to demonstrate a modified surgical technique that harvests the pectoralis major muscle as an island flap and focuses on minimizing incision lines and applying a muscle-sparing approach. Methods: A retrospective analysis covering the period 2008–2018 was conducted. Patients who underwent pectoralis major island flap reconstruction for fistula prophylaxis after salvage laryngectomy at the Medical University of Innsbruck were included. Flap harvesting was performed subcutaneously using two small incision lines, thereby sparing the clavicular and upper sternocostal aspects of the pectoralis muscle. Results: Twenty-three patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the larynx (n = 19) or pharynx (n = 4) underwent salvage laryngectomy and consecutive reconstruction using a pectoralis major island flap and our muscle-sparing technique. Mean overall operation time was 147 ± 48.6 min. The majority (70%) of patients had an uneventful course of recovery and showed satisfying aesthetic results and low donor site morbidity as compared to traditional harvesting techniques. Six (26%) patients had major complications that required surgical revision. Three (13%) cases were complicated with fistulas. Conclusion: The pectoralis major island flap is shown to be reliable in otolaryngeal surgery. This surgical technique minimizes scarring and preserves thoracic wall architecture by taking a less invasive approach, thereby improving aesthetic outcome and reducing overall patient morbidity.
Retrofit: Creating Awareness in Embedded Systems - A Usecase for PLCs

The next step for companies towards smart manufacturing is to process the previously integrated and contextualised data to create manufacturing intelligence. This poster presents a use case for enhancing self-awareness, contextual-awareness, and peer-to-peer awareness to a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) by using low-cost IoT equipment. An experimental setup is demonstrated investigating enhanced awareness features for the PLC making use of internal and external temperature measurements.
Emotional Stop Cues Facilitate Inhibitory Control in Schizophrenia

Abstract Objective: Inhibitory control is a key deficit in patients with schizophrenia. This study aims to test whether emotions can facilitate inhibition in patients with schizophrenia when they increase attention to inhibitory process. Method: A total of 36 patients with schizophrenia and 36 healthy controls completed an emotional stop-signal task. The task involved selective responses to “Go” stimuli and stopped response when emotional or neutral stop cues occurred. Results: In all conditions, patients with schizophrenia took longer time to inhibit response compared with healthy controls, indicating an overall impairment in response inhibition. Importantly, patients with schizophrenia and controls acquired similar size of benefit from the negative stop cues, showing as reduced reaction time to negative than neutral stop cues. However, the negative stop cues impaired subsequent Go performance only in patients with schizophrenia, indicating additional cost of the negative stop cues for patients with schizophrenia. In both groups, the positive stop cues did not have any significant influence on response inhibition. Conclusions: These findings provide novel evidence for the benefit of emotional stop cues on inhibitory control in patients with schizophrenia and reveal different after-effects of emotional enhancement effect in patients and healthy populations. The findings may help develop effective interventions for improving inhibitory control in patients with schizophrenia and other clinical populations.
Parental Attitudes Toward Deep Brain Stimulation in Adolescents with Treatment-Resistant Conditions.

Objective: To examine parent's perceptions of deep brain stimulation (DBS) and whether DBS is perceived to be a viable and safe treatment for their adolescent child presenting with a severe, treatment-resistant neurological or psychiatric condition. Method: Two hundred and seventy-nine parents completed an online survey using Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk). Participants were presented with five vignette scenarios involving adolescents with severe, treatment-resistant neurological or psychiatric conditions: Rett syndrome, autism spectrum disorder, epilepsy, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and Tourette syndrome. Parents were then asked to evaluate each scenario and rate overall acceptability of using DBS to improve their child's core symptoms. Data were collected over a period of 2 weeks in the month of October 2018. Results: We found that parents reported favorable impressions of DBS regardless of the target condition, especially when greater improvement could be assured and when their child had the capacity to assist in the treatment decision-making. Parents indicated some reluctance to use DBS when possible safety concerns were present. Familiarity with DBS was directly associated with attitudes. Conclusions: The findings highlight an overall parental willingness to consider DBS as a treatment option for key symptoms of neurological and psychiatric conditions in adolescents.
Anti‐tumor effects of an antagonistic mAb against the ASCT2 amino acid transporter on KRAS‐mutated human colorectal cancer cells

KRAS mutations are detected in numerous human cancers, but there are few effective drugs for KRAS‐mutated cancers. Transporters for amino acids and glucose are highly expressed on cancer cells, possibly to maintain rapid cell growth and metabolism. Alanine‐serine‐cysteine transporter 2 (ASCT2) is a primary transporter for glutamine in cancer cells. In this study, we developed a novel monoclonal antibody (mAb) recognizing the extracellular domain of human ASCT2, and investigated whether ASCT2 can be a therapeutic target for KRAS‐mutated cancers. Rats were immunized with RH7777 rat hepatoma cells expressing human ASCT2 fused to green fluorescent protein (GFP). Splenocytes from the immunized rats were fused with P3X63Ag8.653 mouse myeloma cells, and selected and cloned hybridoma cells secreting Ab3‐8 mAb were established. This mAb reacted with RH7777 transfectants expressing ASCT2‐GFP proteins in a GFP intensity‐dependent manner. Ab3‐8 reacted with various human cancer cells, but not with non‐cancer breast epithelial cells or ASCT2‐knocked out HEK293 and SW1116 cells. In SW1116 and HCT116 human colon cancer cells with KRAS mutations, treatment with Ab3‐8 reduced intracellular glutamine transport, phosphorylation of AKT and ERK, and inhibited in vivo tumor growth of these cells in athymic mice. Inhibition of in vivo tumor growth by Ab3‐8 was not observed in HT29 colon and HeLa uterus cancer cells with wild‐type KRAS. These results suggest that ASCT2 is an excellent therapeutic target for KRAS‐mutated cancers.
Hybrid Beamforming Based on Dictionary Learning for Millimeter Wave MIMO System

Hybrid beamforming in transmitter and receiver can improve the spectral efficiency of millimeterwave (mmWave) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communication system significantly, and can reduce the complexity of communication system. However, when the number of transmitted data streams is large, the existing designing schemes of hybrid beamforming, such as sparse approximation by orthogonal matching pursuit(OMP) algorithm, suffer from performance degradation. In this paper, we propose dictionary learning (DL) algorithm to perform the design of hybrid beamforming for mmWave MIMO system. Simulation result shows that the spectral efficiency of hybrid beamforming based on DL approaches that of optimal beamforming without constraint, which is far superior to the spectral efficiency of hybrid beamforming based on OMP. Moreover, the convergence property of the proposed algorithm is also verified.
Mitochondrial DNA Sequence Variability of Spirometra Species in Asian Countries

Mitochondrial DNA sequence variability of Spirometra erinaceieuropaei in GenBank was observed by reinvestigation of mitochondrial cox1 and cytb sequences. The DNA sequences were analyzed in this study, comprising complete DNA sequences of cox1 (n=239) and cytb (n=213) genes. The 10 complete mitochondrial DNA sequences of Spirometra species were compared with those of Korea, China and Japan. The sequences were analyzed for nucleotide composition, conserved sites, variable sites, singleton sites and parsimony-informative sites. Phylogenetic analyses was done using neighbor joining, maximum parsimony, Bayesian inference and maximum-likelihood on cox1 and cytb sequences of Spirometra species. These polymorphic sites identified 148 (cox1) and 83 (cytb) haplotypes within 239 and 213 isolates from 3 Asian countries. Phylogenetic tree topologies were presented high-level confidence values for the 2 major branches of 2 Spirometra species containing S. erinaceieuropaei and S. decipiens, and S. decipiens sub-clades including all sequences registered as S. erinaceieuropaei in cox1 and cytb genes. These results indicated that mitochondrial haplotypes of S. erinaceieuropaei and S. decipiens were found in the 3 Asian countries.
Estimation of Back Strength and Its Association with Selected Anthropometric Variables in School Going Children of Amritsar, Punjab

Abstract The purpose of this study was of two-fold: first, to estimate the back strength of Indian school going children and, second, to search the correlation of it with selected anthropometric characteristics studied. To serve this purpose, a total of fifteen anthropometric characteristics, viz. height, weight, BMI, four skinfolds measurements, viz. biceps, triceps, subscapular, suprailiac, knee height, length of femur, humerus and femur biepicondylar diameters, chest and hip circumferences, percent body fat and back strength were measured on purposely selected 360 Indian school going children (180 boys and 180 girls) aged 13-18 years collected from two schools of Amritsar, Punjab, India. The results indicate that in all the age groups, boys have higher mean values for back strength than their girl counterparts, showing highly significant (p<.000) gender differences for this trait. In Indian school-going children, significant positive correlations (p≤.05-.01) were found between back strength and all the anthropometric variables studied, except triceps, subscapular and suprailiac skinfolds (both in boys and girls), percent body fat (only in boys), humerus and femur biepicondylar diameters, hip circumference, knee height and length of femur (only in girls). In conclusion it may be stated that a trend of gradual increment for back strength was found in Indian school going boys age ranging from 13-18 years, showing the peak back strength the age group 18 years, but no such trend of gradual increment was found in case of girl students for this trait.
Fog Computing Enabling Industrial Internet of Things: State-of-the-Art and Research Challenges

Industry is going through a transformation phase, enabling automation and data exchange in manufacturing technologies and processes, and this transformation is called Industry 4.0. Industrial Internet-of-Things (IIoT) applications require real-time processing, near-by storage, ultra-low latency, reliability and high data rate, all of which can be satisfied by fog computing architecture. With smart devices expected to grow exponentially, the need for an optimized fog computing architecture and protocols is crucial. Therein, efficient, intelligent and decentralized solutions are required to ensure real-time connectivity, reliability and green communication. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive review of methods and techniques in fog computing. Our focus is on fog infrastructure and protocols in the context of IIoT applications. This article has two main research areas: In the first half, we discuss the history of industrial revolution, application areas of IIoT followed by key enabling technologies that act as building blocks for industrial transformation. In the second half, we focus on fog computing, providing solutions to critical challenges and as an enabler for IIoT application domains. Finally, open research challenges are discussed to enlighten fog computing aspects in different fields and technologies.
Heartbeat Sound Signal Classification Using Deep Learning

Presently, most deaths are caused by heart disease. To overcome this situation, heartbeat sound analysis is a convenient way to diagnose heart disease. Heartbeat sound classification is still a challenging problem in heart sound segmentation and feature extraction. Dataset-B applied in this study that contains three categories Normal, Murmur and Extra-systole heartbeat sound. In the purposed framework, we remove the noise from the heartbeat sound signal by applying the band filter, After that we fixed the size of the sampling rate of each sound signal. Then we applied down-sampling techniques to get more discriminant features and reduce the dimension of the frame rate. However, it does not affect the results and also decreases the computational power and time. Then we applied a purposed model Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) that is based on Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM), Dropout, Dense and Softmax layer. As a result, the purposed method is more competitive compared to other methods.
A Bayesian approach for acoustic emission source location in plate-like structure

This paper presents an investigation of the applicability of Bayesian system identification theory for localizing acoustic emission (AE) source in plate-like structure, while considering uncertainties from modeling and measurement. AE waves released by damage are obtained by a piezoelectric sensor network. After the time-of-arrival (TOA) of the AE waves in each sensor channel is measured by continuous wavelet transform (CWT), a Bayesian procedure is developed to identify the AE source location and wave velocity simultaneously. By combining the prior information and the measured TOA data, Bayes’ Theorem is used to update the probability distributions of the parameters about the AE source location and wave velocity. In particular, Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method is employed for sampling the posterior distributions of the unknown parameters. Experimental study for a stiffened aluminum panel is conducted to validate the proposed Bayesian AE source localization approach.