Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Classification of EEG signals using fractal dimension features and artificial neural networks

The classification of the brain signals is an issue which has been highly explored to be applied on different fields such as medical diagnostic or in the technological development as can be the Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI). In order to obtain more feasible BCI applications, there are different issues which must be attended. For example, we can highlight the number of samples used to train the classifier (for avoiding long calibration sessions) and the variability of the brain signals (for avoiding recalibration). In this sense, the feature extraction and the classification stage of a BCI system must be carefully designed to be robust to these issues. In this paper, we propose a methodology based on the use of the fractal dimension as feature and the artificial neural networks as classifier in order to discriminate EEG signals from to different mental tasks. To evaluate the performance of the proposal, we computed the accuracy for two different classification conditions (timeinvariant and reduced number of training samples). After that, the results were compared with those obtained by two classifiers commonly used in BCI applications: Bayesian classifier and linear discriminant. Data set I from the Brain-Computer Interface competition III was used for evaluating and comparing the proposed methodology. The obtained results suggest that the performance of the artificial neural networks are better than those obtained with the other two classifiers.
Detection of a specific moving object from head-mounted camera images

In this paper, a method is proposed for detecting and tracking a specific moving object (e.g., a bus) on the road from images of a camera attached to the head of a user, aiming at developing a system to support daily lives of visually impaired people. The proposed method traces feature points on the images, extracts a moving object region, and detects a bus by applying Haar-like feature and random trees to the region. The effectiveness of the proposed method is shown experimentally.
Ambulatory arterial stiffness index and its role in assessing arterial stiffness in dialysis patients

Objective: Ambulatory arterial stiffness index (AASI) is a parameter derived from ambulatory blood pressure (ABP) readings. It is calculated as 1 minus the linear slope of DBP on SBP. We tested its value in assessing arterial stiffness in dialysis patients. Methods: We performed a cross-sectional analysis of the baseline data from a cohort study. A total of 344 patients on maintenance hemodialysis from six tertiary hospitals were included. All patients underwent ABP monitoring and carotid–femoral pulse wave velocity (cfPWV) measurement. Clinical determinants of AASI were analyzed, and the ability of AASI for assessing arterial stiffness was compared with ambulatory pulse pressure (PP). Results: Multiple regression analysis revealed that ambulatory PP (&bgr; = 0.003), current smoker (&bgr; = −0.069), age (&bgr; = 0.003) and ambulatory SBP (&bgr; = 0.001) were independent determinants of AASI. Ambulatory PP correlates better with cfPWV than AASI (r = 0.28 for AASI and 0.59 for PP; P for difference: <0.001). When cfPWV was treated as a categorical variable, receiver operating characteristic curve analysis also showed a more potent predictive value of PP over AASI (area under the curve: 0.64 for AASI, 0.80 for PP; P for difference: <0.001). Net reclassification improvement and integrated discrimination improvement analysis demonstrated no added predictive value of AASI to PP (net reclassification improvement = −2.2%, P = 0.26; integrated discrimination improvement = 0.001, P = 0.51). Sensitivity analysis in patients with more ABP readings (≥49) yielded similar results. Conclusion: For dialysis patients, AASI has very limited value in assessing arterial stiffness, whether used alone or added to PP. Our results suggest that this index should not be used as a surrogate marker of arterial stiffness for dialysis patients in future practice and studies.
Mobile Health in Solid Organ Transplant: The Time Is Now

Despite being in existence for >40 years, the application of telemedicine has lagged significantly in comparison to its generated interest. Detractors include the immobile design of most historic telemedicine interventions and the relative lack of smartphones among the general populace. Recently, the exponential increase in smartphone ownership and familiarity have provided the potential for the development of mobile health (mHealth) interventions that can be mirrored realistically in clinical applications. Existing studies have demonstrated some potential clinical benefits of mHealth in the various phases of solid organ transplantation (SOT). Furthermore, studies in nontransplant chronic diseases may be used to guide future studies in SOT. Nevertheless, substantially more must be accomplished before mHealth becomes mainstream. Further evidence of clinical benefits and a critical need for cost‐effectiveness analysis must prove its utility to patients, clinicians, hospitals, insurers, and the federal government. The SOT population is an ideal one in which to demonstrate the benefits of mHealth. In this review, the current evidence and status of mHealth in SOT is discussed, and a general path forward is presented that will allow buy‐in from the health care community, insurers, and the federal government to move mHealth from research to standard care.
Distinct Trophic Specializations Affect How Phytophthora ramorum and Clade 6 Phytophthora spp. Colonize and Persist on Umbellularia californica Leaves in Streams.

Phytophthora spp. are regularly recovered from streams but their ecology in aquatic environments is not well understood. Phytophthora ramorum, invasive in California forests, persists in streams at times when sporulation in the canopy is absent, suggesting that it reproduces in the water. Streams are also inhabited by resident, clade 6 Phytophthora spp. , believed to be primarily saprotrophic. We conducted experiments to determine whether differences of trophic specialization exist between these two taxa, and investigated how this may affect their survival and competition on stream leaf litter. P. ramorum effectively colonized fresh (live) rhododendron leaves but not those killed by freezing or drying, whereas clade 6 species colonized all leaf types. However, both taxa were recovered from naturally occurring California bay leaf litter in streams. In stream experiments, P. ramorum colonized bay leaves rapidly at the onset; however, colonization was quickly succeeded by clade 6 species. Nevertheless, both taxa persisted in leaves over 16 weeks. Our results confirm that clade 6 Phytophthora spp. are competent saprotrophs and, though P. ramorum could not colonize dead tissue, early colonization of suitable litter allowed it to survive at a low level in decomposing leaves.
The relationship between caregiver burden and depressive symptoms in Ontario home care clients

ABSTRACT The onset of depressive symptoms is common in home care clients and their caregivers. Understanding the experience of the informal caregiver can assist clinicians in providing services to maximize the well-being of both the client and their caregivers. The objectives of this article are to examine risk factors for the development of depressive symptoms. A longitudinal analysis design was completed for clients with 2+ assessments. The development of depressive symptoms was defined as a Depression Rating Scale score of 3+ on re-assessment. The results—overall, 10.7% of clients experienced new depressive symptoms and clients with a caregiver who was feeling distressed, angry, or depressed were 45% more likely to develop symptoms.
Control of wearable robot arm with hybrid actuation system

We previously proposed a wearable robot arm named Assist Oriented Arm(AOA), that solved weight and safety problems of the existing wearable robot arms. The previous AOA cannot control fingertip accurately, while the user's body is moving. To use AOA in real tasks, this problem should be solved. In this paper, it is explained how to solve this problem, and how to implement it to AOA is explained.
Media Player 变身万能播放器

Windows自带的Media Player（媒体播放器,以下简称为WMP）,功能虽然强大,但是却有很多不足之处。 最令用户头疼的是,它默认不支持FLV、RMVB等常见媒体文件,所以不得不再安装一些第三方的播放器。 其实只要进行适当的配置和增强,WMP也可以拥有像万能播放器那样的功能,这可以通过自行注册解码器来实现。
The effects of normal mixtures and autocorrelation on the fraction non-conforming

ABSTRACT In this article, the effects of mixtures of two normal distributions on the fraction non-conforming are studied in the context of capability analysis. When the output from several processes is mixed, the quality characteristic variables of the resulting mix may result in a normal mixture distribution. This can happen in cases such as monitoring an output from several suppliers, several machines, or several workers. This study considered the independence case and autocorrelated processes for a mixture of two normal distributions, using an autoregressive model of order one, AR(1). It is shown that the true attained process fraction non-conforming (corresponding to specific values for some capability index) can be very different from what is expected when the data are independent normal random variables.
Association of pemphigus and systemic corticosteroid use with comorbid health disorders: A case-control study.

BACKGROUND Pemphigus is a group of debilitating autoimmune blistering disorders associated with painful blisters of the skin and/or mucous membranes. Identification and management of the comorbiditiesof pemphigus is critically important to minimize morbidity and decrease mortality. OBJECTIVE To identify the comorbid health conditions of pemphigus vulgaris. METHODS This was a case-control study of 130 cases of pemphigus verified by a clinical and laboratory diagnosis and 390 age and sex-matched controls with complete follow-up at a large metropolitanquaternary care medical center. RESULTS Pemphigus vulgaris and its treatments were significantly associated with type 2 diabetes mellitus (adjusted odds ratio [95% confidence interval]: 5.68 [2.93-11.02]), hypertension (2.15 [1.25-3.71]), osteopenia (10.07 [3.72-27.25]), osteoporosis (4.19 [1.50-11.73]), cataracts (7.00 [1.81-27.07]), insomnia (15.00 [1.75-128.39]), and benign prostatic hyperplasia (6.84 [1.79-26.18]). A history of taking systemic corticosteroids was found in 76% of pemphigus vulgaris patients. There were significant statistical interactions between pemphigus vulgaris and a history of using systemic corticosteroids as predictors of diabetes mellitus type 2, hypertension, osteoporosis, and insomnia. CONCLUSIONS Safer and more effective systemic treatment options are needed for pemphigus to minimize iatrogenic complications of disease.
Severe motor and vocal tics controlled with Sativex®

Objectives: A single case report on cannabinoid treatment for treatment-resistant Tourette syndrome (TS). Method: Our subject received 10.8 mg Tetrahydocannabinol and 10 mg cannabidiol daily, in the form of two oro-mucosal sprays of ‘Sativex®’, twice daily. Assessment was pre-treatment and at week one, two, and four during treatment. He completed the Yale Global Tic Severity Scale as a subjective measure, and was videoed at each stage. The videos were objectively rated by two assessors, blind to the stage of treatment, using the Original Rush Videotape Rating Scale. Results: Both subjective and objective measures demonstrated marked improvement in the frequency and severity of motor and vocal tics post-treatment. There was good interrater reliability of results. Conclusions: Our results support previous research suggesting that cannabinoids are a safe and effective treatment for TS and should be considered in treatment-resistant cases. Further studies are needed to substantiate our findings.
Origin and progression of thyroid epithelial tumours: cellular and molecular mechanisms.

Tumours of the thyroid follicular cell are proving to be one of the most informative models for "dissecting' the molecular genetics of multi-stage human tumorigenesis. Early thyroid tumour development is closely correlated with mutation of five alternative genes, ras, ret, trk, gsp and the TSH receptor, associated with different tumour phenotypes, providing an excellent example of genotype/phenotype correlation. For two of these genes, ras and ret, there is also direct experimental evidence from gene transfer studies that they are sufficient to initiate tumorigenesis, one of very few situations where such proof of causality has been obtained for a human tumour. Much less is known of the molecular basis of malignant transformation in thyroid. However, the rare, further progression to undifferentiated (anaplastic) cancer provides a particularly clear-cut illustration of the role of the tumour-suppressor gene p53 in human cancer. Furthermore, in vitro data suggest the intriguing possibility that the anaplastic phenotype results from a combination of p53 mutation together with a spontaneous switch in differentiation programme, i.e. co-operation between a genetic and an epigenetic event.
Academic and non-academic predictors of student psychological distress: the role of social identity and loneliness

Abstract Background: University students experience high rates of stress and mental illness; however, few studies have comprehensively examined the impact of academic and non-academic stressors on student mental health. Similarly, there has been little focus on the role of social groups in protecting against mental distress in this young adult group. Aim: To identify the key social determinants of mental health symptoms in a student population. Methods: Using an online survey, we administered measures of social connectedness and mental health symptoms alongside academic and non-academic stressors to a large sample of UK university students. Results: Loneliness was the strongest overall predictor of mental distress, while assessment stress was the most important academic predictor. Strong identification with university friendship groups was most protective against distress relative to other social identities, and the beneficial impact of identification on symptoms was mediated by reduced loneliness. Conclusions: The study highlights the benefits of establishing strong social connections at university and the importance of minimising stress associated with assessment tasks.
An ASR system using MFCC and VQ/GMM with emphasis on environmental dependency

Automatic speaker recognition (ASR), also known as voice biometric recognition, remains very popular research area over six decades. Among all the acoustic features that are used in ASR, Mel-frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCCs) and Gammatone Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (GFCCs) are the most popular ones. However to make ASR environment independent, Relative Spectral Amplitude (RSATA) filtering techniques before feature extraction and feature, model, and score (in classification step) domain normalization techniques are applied. The techniques for modeling/classification that are used in present days are Vector Quantization (VQ), Support Vector Machine (SVM), Gaussian Mixture Models (GMMs), Hidden Markov Model (HMM), Artificial Neural Network (ANN), Deep Neural Network (DNN). In this paper we cite our experimental results upon three databases, namely, Hyke-2011, ELSDSR and IITG-MV SR Phase-I, based on MFCCs and VQ/GMM where Maximum Log-Likelihood (MLL) scoring technique is used for the recognition of speakers. The experimental results in the environmental mismatch condition for the IITG-MV SR Phase I & II databases are provided with explanation of accuracy degradation.
Epileptic focus localization based on bivariate empirical mode decomposition and entropy

Epilepsy is a neurological disorder which causes abnormal discharges in the brain. Epileptic focus localization is a important factor for successful epilepsy surgery. The intracranial electroencephalogram (iEEG) is the most used signal for detecting epileptic focus. The iEEG signals are obtained from a publicly available database that consists of 7,500 signal pairs. To this dataset, empirical mode decomposition (EMD) has been successfully applied to detect the epileptic focus. However, the EMD method is not suitable for iEEG signal pairs. In this paper, a method for the classification of focal and non-focal iEEG signals using bivariate EMD (BEMD) is presented. The bivariate iEEG signals are decomposed the into signal components of the same frequency band. Various entropy measures calculated from the IMFs of the iEEG signals. Then, some or all of the entropies are chosen as features, which are discriminated into focal or non-focal iEEG by using the support vector machine (SVM). Experimental results show that the proposed method is able to differentiate the focal from non-focal iEEG signals with an average classification accuracy of 86.89%.
Strain and water effects on the electronic structure and chemical activity of in-plane graphene/silicene heterostructure

By using first-principles calculations, the electronic structure of planar and strained in-plane graphene/silicene heterostructure is studied. The heterostructure is found to be metallic in a strain range from −7% (compression) to +7% (tension). The effect of compressive/tensile strain on the chemical activity of the in-plane graphene/silicene heterostructure is examined by studying its interaction with the H2O molecule. It shows that compressive/tensile strain is able to increase the binding energy of H2O compared with the adsorption on a planar surface, and the charge transfer between the water molecule and the graphene/silicene sheet can be modulated by strain. Moreover, the presence of the boron-nitride (BN)-substrate significantly influences the chemical activity of the graphene/silicene heterostructure upon its interaction with the H2O molecule and may cause an increase/decrease of the charge transfer between the H2O molecule and the heterostructure. These findings provide insights into the modulation of electronic properties of the in-plane free-standing/substrate-supported graphene/silicene heterostructure, and render possible ways to control its electronic structure, carrier density and redox characteristics, which may be useful for its potential applications in nanoelectronics and gas sensors.
Differential Responses of Thyrotropin-Releasing Hormone (TRH) Neurons to Cold Exposure or Suckling Indicate Functional Heterogeneity of the TRH System in the Paraventricular Nucleus of the Rat Hypothalamus

Thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) is released from the median eminence upon neural stimulation such as cold or suckling exposure. Concomitant with the cold- or suckling-induced release of TRH is a rapid and transient increase in the expression of proTRH mRNA in the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) of the hypothalamus. We employed two strategies to determine whether TRH neurons responding to cold exposure are different from those responding to suckling. First, we attempted to identify a marker of cellular activation in TRH neurons of the PVN. Cold induced c-fos expression in about 25% of TRH neurons of the PVN, but no induction was observed by suckling. Moreover, we explored the expression of a variety of immediate early genes including NGFI-A, fra-1 and c-jun, or CREB phosphorylation but found none to be induced by suckling. The number of cells expressing high levels of proTRH mRNA was counted and compared to total expressing cells. An increased number of cells expressing high levels of proTRH mRNA was observed when both stimuli were applied to the same animal, suggesting that different cells respond separately to each stimulus. We therefore analyzed the distribution of responsive TRH neurons as defined by the cellular level of proTRH mRNA. The proTRH mRNA signal was analyzed within three rostrocaudal zones of the PVN and within six mediolateral columns. Results showed that in response to cold, all areas of the PVN of the lactating rat present increased proTRH mRNA levels, including the anterior zone where few hypophysiotropic TRHergic cells are believed to reside. The distribution of the proTRH mRNA expressing cells in response to cold was quite comparable in female and in male rats. In contrast, the response after suckling was confined to the middle and caudal zones. Our results provide evidence of a functional specialization of TRH cells in the PVN.
Overlapped fruit recognition for citrus harvesting robot in natural scenes

The overlapping of fruit is one of the main factors making automatic harvesting task a great challenge. A method based on convex hull was developed to achieve the localization and reconstruction of overlapped citrus fruits in natural scenes in order to guide the citrus harvesting robot more accurately. The central picking points and reconstruction radiuses were obtained due to the spherical shape of the citrus fruit. Firstly, the citrus fruit targets were detected based on the threshold segmentation method and basic morphological operations in HSV color space. Then, the overlapped citrus target was processed by subtracting it from its convex hull. Combining the minimum external affine transformation rectangle with distance transform method, the central points of each citrus fruits were determined. Finally, the reconstruction radiuses were determined by searching the gray scale gradient extremum along the connecting line of the central point of citrus fruits. The experimental results verify the effectiveness of the method, and it provides a basis for the path planning of fruit harvesting robot and the design of end-effector.
Mechanogenetics for the remote and noninvasive control of cancer immunotherapy

Significance There is a lack of a general method to noninvasively and remotely manipulate cells with high spatiotemporal precisions. We developed an ultrasound-based mechanogenetics system to achieve this goal. Cells were engineered with the mechanosensor Piezo1 and genetic transducing modules to perceive the mechanical perturbation generated by the ultrasound wave and transduce it into genetic activities. Mechanosensitive and ultrasound-controllable T cells were further engineered to target and eradicate tumor cells with inducible chimeric antigen receptors. This mechanogenetics approach can be extended to remotely control, in principle, any gene activity in live cells for the reprogramming of cellular functions. This method should also provide a general approach to remotely control molecular functions for biological studies and clinical applications, particularly cell-based cancer immunotherapy. While cell-based immunotherapy, especially chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-expressing T cells, is becoming a paradigm-shifting therapeutic approach for cancer treatment, there is a lack of general methods to remotely and noninvasively regulate genetics in live mammalian cells and animals for cancer immunotherapy within confined local tissue space. To address this limitation, we have identified a mechanically sensitive Piezo1 ion channel (mechanosensor) that is activatable by ultrasound stimulation and integrated it with engineered genetic circuits (genetic transducer) in live HEK293T cells to convert the ultrasound-activated Piezo1 into transcriptional activities. We have further engineered the Jurkat T-cell line and primary T cells (peripheral blood mononuclear cells) to remotely sense the ultrasound wave and transduce it into transcriptional activation for the CAR expression to recognize and eradicate target tumor cells. This approach is modular and can be extended for remote-controlled activation of different cell types with high spatiotemporal precision for therapeutic applications.