Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Quantitative assessment of breast density using transmission ultrasound tomography

Purpose Breast density is important in the evaluation of breast cancer risk. At present, breast density is evaluated using two‐dimensional projections from mammography with or without tomosynthesis using either (a) subjective assessment or (b) a computer‐aided approach. The purpose of this work is twofold: (a) to establish an algorithm for quantitative assessment of breast density using quantitative three‐dimensional transmission ultrasound imaging; and (b) to determine how these quantitative assessments compare with both subjective and objective mammographic assessments of breast density. Methods We described and verified a threshold‐based segmentation algorithm to give a quantitative breast density (QBD) on ultrasound tomography images of phantoms of known geometric forms. We also used the algorithm and transmission ultrasound tomography to quantitatively determine breast density by separating fibroglandular tissue from fat and skin, based on imaged, quantitative tissue characteristics, and compared the quantitative tomography segmentation results with subjective and objective mammographic assessments. Results Quantitative breast density (QBD) measured in phantoms demonstrates high quantitative accuracy with respect to geometric volumes with average difference of less than 0.1% of the total phantom volumes. There is a strong correlation between QBD and both subjective mammographic assessments of Breast Imaging ‐ Reporting and Data System (BI‐RADS) breast composition categories and Volpara density scores — the Spearman correlation coefficients for the two comparisons were calculated to be 0.90 (95% CI: 0.71–0.96) and 0.96 (95% CI: 0.92–0.98), respectively. Conclusions The calculation of breast density using ultrasound tomography and the described segmentation algorithm is quantitatively accurate in phantoms and highly correlated with both subjective and Food and Drug Administration (FDA)‐cleared objective assessments of breast density.
Impact of the physical environment on patient outcomes of genetic counseling: An exploratory study

The psychology literature shows that the physical space in which counseling sessions are conducted influences outcomes of the interaction. However, this phenomenon has not been quantitatively explored in genetic counseling (GC). Through retrospective review of naturalistic data from a psychiatric GC clinic (where data on patient outcomes are routinely tracked from pre‐ to 1 month post‐appointment using the Genetic Counseling Outcome Scale (GCOS, empowerment) and the Illness Management Self Efficacy Scale (IMSES), we tested the hypotheses that patients seen in comfortably furnished counseling (C‐type) rooms would have greater increases in (a) empowerment and (b) self‐efficacy after GC than patients seen in medically oriented (M‐type) rooms. We matched each patient with complete GCOS and/or IMSES who was seen in a C‐type room between February 2012 and December 2017 to four M‐type room controls where possible. We used t tests to compare change in outcome scale scores between groups. There were no significant differences in change in scores between patients seen in M‐type (GCOS n = 84, IMSES n = 56) and C‐type rooms (GCOS n = 22, IMSES n = 18) (p = 0.241, d = 0.26, and p = 0.602, d = 0.14, respectively). The effect sizes we demonstrate allow estimation of sample size calculations for the design of future prospective studies.
Exploiting Promising Sub-Sequences of Jobs to solve the No-Wait Flowshop Scheduling Problem

The no-wait flowshop scheduling problem is a variant of the classical permutation flowshop problem, with the additional constraint that jobs have to be processed by the successive machines without waiting time. To efficiently address this NP-hard combinatorial optimization problem we conduct an analysis of the structure of good quality solutions. This analysis shows that the No-Wait specificity gives them a common structure: they share identical sub-sequences of jobs, we call super-jobs. After a discussion on the way to identify these super-jobs, we propose IG-SJ, an algorithm that exploits super-jobs within the state-of-the-art algorithm for the classical permutation flowshop, the well-known Iterated Greedy (IG) algorithm. An iterative approach of IG-SJ is also proposed. Experiments are conducted on Taillard's instances. The experimental results show that exploiting super-jobs is successful since IG-SJ is able to find 64 new best solutions.
Cross-national comparison of two general population job exposure matrices for physical work exposures

Objectives Job exposure matrices (JEMs) are increasingly used to estimate physical workplace exposures. We conducted a cross-national comparison of exposure estimates from two general population JEMs to aid the interpretation of exposure–outcome associations across countries and to explore the feasibility of cross-national application of JEMs to provide workplace physical exposure estimates. Methods We compared physical exposure estimates from two general population JEMs created from the FrenchCohorte des consultants des Centres d’examens de santé study (27 exposure variables) and the American Occupational Information Network database (21 exposure variables). These exposure variables were related to physical demands or ergonomic risk factors for musculoskeletal disorders. We used a crosswalk to match French Profession et Catégorie Sociale job codes with American Standard Occupational Classification job codes and calculated Spearman’s correlations and Cohen’s kappa values for exposure variable pairs between these French and American JEMs. We defined a priori 50 matched French and American JEM variable pairs that measured similar exposures. Results All variable pairs measuring similar physical exposures demonstrated positive correlations. Among the 50 matched pairs, 33 showed high correlation (ρ≥0.70) and 46 showed at least moderate agreement (κ≥0.41). Exposures expected to be mutually exclusive (manual work vs office work) showed strongly negative correlations. Conclusions French and American general population physical exposure JEMs were related, sharing moderate to high association and moderate to substantial agreement between the majority of variable pairs measuring similar exposures. These findings will inform cross-national comparisons of study results and support some uses of general population JEMs outside their countries of origin.
A Novel Ecological Approach Reveals Early Executive Function Impairments in Huntington’s Disease

Introduction: Impairments in executive functions are common in neurogenetic disorders such as Huntington’s disease (HD) and are thought to significantly influence the patient’s functional status. Reliable tools with higher ecological validity that can assess and predict the impact of executive dysfunction in daily-life performance are needed. This study aimed to develop and validate a novel non-immersive virtual reality task (“EcoKitchen”) created with the purpose of capturing cognitive and functional changes shown by HD carriers without clinical manifestations of the disease (Premanifest HD), in a more realistic setting. Materials and Methods: We designed a virtual reality task with three blocks of increasing executive load. The performance of three groups (Controls, CTRL; Premanifest HD individuals, HP; Early Manifest HD patients, HD) was compared in four main components of the study protocol: the EcoKitchen; a subjective (self-report) measure – “The Adults and Older Adults Functional Assessment Inventory (IAFAI)”; the “Behavioural Assessment of Dysexecutive Syndrome battery (BADS)”; and a conventional neuropsychological test battery. We also examined statistical associations between EcoKitchen and the other executive, functional and clinical measures used. Results: The HD group showed deficits in all the assessment methods used. In contrast, the HP group was only found to be impaired in the EcoKitchen task, particularly in the most cognitively demanding blocks, where they showed a higher number of errors compared to the CTRL group. Statistically significant correlations were identified between the EcoKitchen, measures of the other assessment tools, and HD clinical features. Discussion: The EcoKitchen task, developed as an ecological executive function assessment tool, was found to be sensitive to early deficits in this domain. Critically, in premanifest HD individuals, it identifies dysfunction prior to symptom onset. Further it adds a potential tool for diagnosis and management of the patients’ real-life problems.
Traumatized index finger pollicization for thumb reconstruction—A case report

When the index finger is injured or severed with a traumatic thumb amputation, transfer of the injured index finger can restore the function of the thumb. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the result of the transfer of an injured index finger for the traumatic loss of the thumb. A patient had a traumatic amputation at the first metacarpal level with the bone defect of the second metacarpal and proximal part of index finger. She was treated with a pedicled transfer of the injured index finger to the ipsilateral thumb. Postoperative evaluations included thumb range of motion, opposition and pinch function, grasp and pinch strength, sensation, and a patient-rated appearance of the thumb and hand. In result, the blood supply of the transferred traumatic index fingers was normal, and the transferred index fingers survived without complications. The range of motion of the first metacarpophalangeal joint and interphalangeal joint was almost the same as that of a normal thumb. The opposition and pinch function of the thumb was also normal. The patient is able to complete activities of daily living with the new thumb. Nevertheless, the sensation has not yet been completely restored. In conclusion, it is feasible to treat traumatic thumb amputation with the transfer of injured index finger.
Parallel Batch-Dynamic Graph Connectivity

In this paper, we study batch parallel algorithms for the dynamic connectivity problem, a fundamental problem that has received considerable attention in the sequential setting. The best sequential algorithm for dynamic connectivity is the elegant level-set algorithm of Holm, de Lichtenberg and Thorup (HDT), which achieves O(łog2 n) amortized time per edge insertion or deletion, and O(łog n) time per query. We design a parallel batch-dynamic connectivity algorithm that is work-efficient with respect to the HDT algorithm for small batch sizes, and is asymptotically faster when the average batch size is sufficiently large. Given a sequence of batched updates, where Δ is the average batch size of all deletions, our algorithm achieves O(łog n łog(1+n / Δ)) expected amortized work per edge insertion and deletion and O(łog3 n) depth w.h. p. Our algorithm answers a batch of k connectivity queries in O(k łog(1 + n/k)) expected work and O(łog n) depth w.h. p. To the best of our knowledge, our algorithm is the first parallel batch-dynamic algorithm for connectivity.
Calculations of Bethe logarithm for hydrogen and helium using B-splines in different gauges

The efficient and simple B-splines variational method is successfully used to calculate Bethe logarithm for the hydrogen atom in the velocity and length gauges. The ground state Bethe logarithm of hydrogen with fourteen accurate figures is obtained in the velocity gauge, and in the length gauge the ground state value has eleven accurate figures. Present velocity- and length-gauge results for the ns, np, nd, and nf states up to n = 200 of hydrogen are above the 10−10 level of relative difference, which represent the successful variational attempt to calculate Bethe logarithm of hydrogen in the velocity and length gauges. In addition, the B-splines variational method is successfully extended to calculate Bethe logarithm for the helium atom combined with configuration interaction. Results of numerical calculations for n1,3S up to n = 8 states are presented in the acceleration gauge, the velocity gauge, and a hybrid of the velocity and acceleration gauges(also called pa-gauge). For the 23S state, the acceleration-gauge value of 4.364 036 7(2) a.u. and the pa-gauge value of 4.364 036 4(2) a.u. both have eight significant digits. For other triplet S states, present results in three different gauges all have five to seven accurate figures. While for the singlet S states, the best convergent values are obtained in the pa-gauge, of which the relative differences with the latest results are at the 10−6 to 10−8 orders of magnitude.
Context-Constrained Accurate Contour Extraction for Occlusion Edge Detection

Occlusion edge detection requires both accurate locations and context constraints of the contour. Existing CNN-based pipeline does not utilize adaptive methods to filter the noise introduced by low-level features. To address this dilemma, we propose a novel Context-constrained accurate Contour Extraction Network (CCENet). Spatial details are retained and contour-sensitive context is augmented through two extraction blocks, respectively. Then, an elaborately designed fusion module is available to integrate features, which plays a complementary role to restore details and remove clutter. Weight response of attention mechanism is eventually utilized to enhance occluded contours and suppress noise. The proposed CCENet significantly surpasses state-of-the-art methods on PIOD and BSDS ownership dataset of object edge detection and occlusion orientation detection.
Impact of network delays on Hyperledger Fabric

Blockchain has become one of the most attractive technologies for applications, with a large range of deployments such as production, economy, or banking. Under the hood, Blockchain technology is a type of distributed database that supports untrusted parties. In this paper we focus Hyperledger Fabric, the first blockchain in the market tailored for a private environment, allowing businesses to create a permissioned network. Hyperledger Fabric implements a PBFT consensus in order to maintain a non forking blockchain at the application level. We deployed this framework over an area network between France and Germany in order to evaluate its performance when potentially large network delays are observed. Overall we found that when network delay increases significantly (i.e. up to 3.5 seconds at network layer between two clouds), we observed that the blocks added to our blockchain had up to 134 seconds offset after 100th block from one cloud to another. Thus by delaying block propagation, we demonstrated that Hyperledger Fabric does not provide sufficient consistency guaranties to be deployed in critical environments. Our work, is the fist to evidence the negative impact of network delays on a PBFT-based blockchain.
Assessment of Regional Perfusion and Organ Function: Less and Non-invasive Techniques

Sufficient organ perfusion essentially depends on preserved macro- and micro-circulation. The last two decades brought substantial progress in the development of less and non-invasive monitoring of macro-hemodynamics. However, several recent studies suggest a frequent incoherence of macro- and micro-circulation. Therefore, this review reports on interactions of macro- and micro-circulation as well as on specific regional and micro-circulation. Regarding global micro-circulation the last two decades brought advances in a more systematic approach of clinical examination including capillary refill time, a graded assessment of mottling of the skin and accurate measurement of body surface temperatures. As a kind of link between macro- and microcirculation, a number of biochemical markers can easily be obtained. Among those are central-venous oxygen saturation (ScvO2), plasma lactate and the difference between central-venous and arterial CO2 (cv-a-pCO2-gap). These inexpensive markers have become part of clinical routine and guideline recommendations. While their potential to replace parameters of macro-circulation such as cardiac output (CO) is limited, they facilitate the interpretation of the adequacy of CO and other macro-circulatory markers. Furthermore, they give additional hints on micro-circulatory impairment. In addition, a number of more sophisticated technical approaches to quantify and visualize micro-circulation including video-microscopy, laser flowmetry, near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), and partial oxygen pressure measurement have been introduced within the last 20 years. These technologies have been extensively used for scientific purposes. Moreover, they have been successfully used for educational purposes and to visualize micro-circulatory disturbances during sepsis and other causes of shock. Despite several studies demonstrating the association of these techniques and parameters with outcome, their practical application still is limited. However, future improvements in automated and “online” diagnosis will help to make these technologies more applicable in clinical routine. This approach is promising with regard to several studies which demonstrated the potential to guide therapy in different types of shock. Finally several organs have specific patterns of circulation related to their special anatomy (liver) or their auto-regulatory capacities (brain, kidney). Therefore, this review also discusses specific issues of monitoring liver, brain, and kidney circulation and function.
Comparison of automated and manual protocols for magnetic resonance imaging assessment of liver iron concentration

Objective To compare automated and manual magnetic resonance imaging protocols for estimating liver iron concentrations at 1.5 T. Materials and Methods Magnetic resonance imaging examination of the liver was performed in 53 patients with clinically suspected hepatic iron overload and in 21 control subjects. Liver iron concentrations were then estimated by two examiners who were blinded to the groups. The examiners employed automated T2* and T1 mapping, as well as manual T2* and signal-intensity-ratio method. We analyzed accuracy by using ROC curves. Interobserver and intraobserver agreement were analyzed by calculating two-way intraclass correlation coefficients. Results The area under the ROC curve (to discriminate between patients and controls) was 0.912 for automated T2* mapping, 0.934 for the signal-intensity-ratio method, 0.908 for manual T2*, and 0.80 for T1 mapping, the last method differing significantly from the other three. The level of interobserver and intraobserver agreement was good (intraclass correlation coefficient, 0.938-0.998; p < 0.05). Correlations involving T1 mapping, although still significant, were lower. Conclusion At 1.5 T, T2* mapping is a rapid tool that shows promise for the diagnosis of liver iron overload, whereas T1 mapping shows less accuracy. The performance of T1 mapping is poorer than is that of T2* methods.
Variability of Trends in Precipitation across the Amazon River Basin Determined from the CHIRPS Precipitation Product and from Station Records

The Amazon River Basin is the largest rainforest in the world. Long-term changes in precipitation trends in the basin can affect the continental water balance and the world’s climate. The precipitation trends in the basin are not spatially uniform; estimating these trends only at locations where station data are available has an inherent bias. In the present research, the spatially distributed annual precipitation trends were studied in the Amazon River Basin from the year 1981 to 2017 using the Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Station data (CHIRPS) product. The precipitation trends were also cross-validated at locations where station data were available. The research also identifies clusters within the basin where trends showed a larger increase (nine clusters) or decrease in precipitation (10 clusters). The overall precipitation trend in the Amazon River Basin over 37 years showed a 2.8 mm/year increase, with a maximum of 45.1 mm/year and minimum of −37.9 mm/year. The highest positive cluster was in Cuzco in the Ucayali River basin, and the lowest negative was in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, in the upstream Madeira River basin. The total volume of the incoming precipitation was 340,885.1 km3, with a withdrawal of −244,337.1 km3. Cross-validation was performed using 98 in situ stations with more than 20 years of recorded data, obtaining an R2 of 0.981, a slope of 1.027, and a root mean square error (RMSE) of 363.6 mm/year. The homogeneous, standardized, and continuous long-term time series provided by CHIRPS is a valuable product for basins with a low-density network of stations such as the Amazon Basin.
A 4-GS/s 39.9-dB SNDR 11.7-mW Hybrid Voltage-Time Two-Step ADC With Feedforward Ring Oscillator-Based TDCs

A power and area efficient two-step hybrid voltage–time ADC achieves a 4-GS/s conversion speed and 39.9-dB SNDR in 28-nm CMOS. Two pipelined time-based converters (TBCs) with a thermometer capacitive DAC (CDAC) in the ADC lead to a high-speed and low-power operation. The pipelined architecture splits the full ADC resolution, thus relaxing the TBC complexity. The TBC consists of a voltage-domain comparator, a current-source-based voltage-to-time converter (VTC), and a ring oscillator (RO)-based time-to-digital converter (TDC) with feedforward and 2<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\times $ </tex-math></inline-formula> interpolation that achieves high conversion speed and good linearity simultaneously. The prototype ADC is fabricated in a standard 28-nm CMOS process with an active area of only 0.017mm<sup>2</sup>. The measured SNDR and SFDR are 39.9 and 47.8 dB with a Nyquist input at 4 GS/s. The FoM<sub>W</sub> and FoM<sub>S</sub> are 39.3 fJ/conv-step and 152.2 dB, respectively.
Exploring the potential relationship between the occurrence of landslides and debris flows: A new approach

Abstract. The aim of the present study is to explore the potential relationship between landslides and debris flows by establishing susceptibility zoning maps separately with the use of random forest. Longzi township, Longzi County, located in Southeastern Tibet, where historical landslide and debris flow are commonly occurred, was selected as the study area. The work has been carried out with the following steps: (1) A complete landslide and debris flow inventory map was prepared; (2) Slope units and 11 controlling factors were prepared for the susceptibility modelling of landslide while watershed units and 12 factors for debris flow; (3) Establishing susceptibility zoning maps for landslide and debris flow, respectively, with the use of random forest; (4) The performance of two models are verified using ROC curve, the values of AUC and contingency tables; (5) Putting the high or very-high-class watershed units in the debris flow susceptibility zone map as the base map to observe its coverage by slope units of different classes; (6) The landslide zoning map was put at the bottom floor and analyzed the distribution of high or very-high-class slope units in watershed units; (7) transforming the slope units into points and distributed them on the watershed units. Two models based on random forest have demonstrated great predictive capabilities, of which accuracy was close to 90% and the AUC value was close to 1. The loose sources carried out by the debris flows are not necessarily brought by the landslides although most landslides can be converted into debris flows. The area prone to debris flow does not promote the occurrence of landslides. A susceptibility zoning map composed of two or more natural disasters is comprehensive and significant in this regard.