Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pupil size as an indicator of visual-motor workload and expertise in microsurgical training tasks

Pupillary responses have been for long linked to cognitive workload in numerous tasks. In this work, we investigate the role of pupil dilations in the context of microsurgical training, handling of microinstruments and the suturing act in particular. With an eye-tracker embedded on the surgical microscope oculars, eleven medical participants repeated 12 sutures of artificial skin under high magnification. A detailed analysis of pupillary dilations in suture segments revealed that pupillary responses indeed varied not only according to the main suture segments but also in relation to participants' expertise.
Molecular characterization and expression of a disintegrin and metalloproteinase with thrombospondin motifs 8 in chicken

Objective A disintegrin and metallopeptidase with thrombospondin motifs type 8 (ADAMTS8) is crucial for diverse physiological processes, such as inflammation, tissue morphogenesis, and tumorigenesis. The chicken ADAMTS8 (chADAMTS8) gene was differentially expressed in the kidney following exposure to different calcium concentrations, suggesting a pathological role of this protein in metabolic diseases. We aimed to examine the molecular characteristics of chADAMTS8 and analyze the gene-expression differences in response to toll-like receptor 3 (TLR3) stimulation. Methods The ADAMTS8 mRNA and amino acid sequences of various species (chicken, duck, cow, mouse, rat, human, chimpanzee, pig, and horse) were retrieved from the Ensembl database and subjected to bioinformatics analyses. Reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and quantitative PCR (qPCR) experiments were performed with various chicken tissues and the chicken fibroblast DF-1 cell line, which was stimulated with polyinosinic-polycytidylic acid (poly[I:C]; a TLR3 ligand). Results The chADAMTS8 gene was predicted to contain three thrombospondin type 1 (TSP1) domains, whose amino acid sequences shared homology among the different species, whereas sequences outside the TSP1 domains (especially the amino-terminal region) were very different. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that chADAMTS8 is evolutionarily clustered in the same clade with that of the duck. chADAMTS8 mRNA was broadly expressed in chicken tissues, and the expression was significantly up-regulated in the DF-1 cells in response to poly(I:C) stimulation (p<0.05). These results showed that chADAMTS8 may be a target gene for TLR3 signaling. Conclusion In this report, the genetic information of chADAMTS8 gene, its expression in chicken tissues, and chicken DF-1 cells under the stimulation of TLR3 were shown. The result suggests that chADAMTS8 expression may be induced by viral infection and correlated with TLR3-mediated signaling pathway. Further study of the function of chADAMTS8 during TLR3-dependent inflammation (which represents RNA viral infection) is needed and it will also be important to examine the molecular mechanisms during different regulation, depending on innate immune receptor activation.
Decreased Hemolysis and Improved Platelet Function in Blood Components Washed With Plasma-Lyte A Compared to 0.9% Sodium Chloride

Objectives Washing cellular blood products is accepted to ameliorate repeated severe allergic reactions but is associated with RBC hemolysis and suboptimal platelet function. We compared in vitro hemolysis and platelet function in blood components after washing with Plasma-Lyte A (PL-A) vs normal saline (NS). Methods RBC (n = 14) were washed/resuspended in NS or PL-A. Free hemoglobin and heme were determined at 0, 24, 48, and 72 hours. Platelet concentrates (PCs; n = 21) were washed with NS or PL-A and resuspended in same washing solution (n = 13) or ABO-identical plasma (n = 8). Platelet aggregation and spreading were evaluated. Results The 24-hour free hemoglobin and heme levels were higher in NS (P < .05). Improved platelet function was observed in PL-A-washed PCs (P < .001). Discussion PL-A showed less RBC hemolysis and better platelet function than NS. Whether such differences would occur in vivo is unknown.
Hermetic Broadband 3-dB Power Divider/Combiner in Substrate-Integrated Waveguide (SIW) Technology

A dual-layer 3-dB substrate-integrated waveguide power divider/combiner is designed, fabricated, and tested. Very good input and output matching as well as high isolation are exhibited over a measured 50% fractional bandwidth when a 10-dB reference level is considered. A completely shielded design significantly reduces insertion losses when compared to the majority of other state-of-the-art architectures. This device can be integrated with multilayer planar circuits, and it is fully compatible with the standard printed-circuit board technology.
A multilocus genetic risk score is associated with arterial stiffness in hypertensive patients: the CARE NORTH study

Introduction: Arterial stiffness is recognized as an intermediate phenotype and predictor of cardiovascular disease. Arterial stiffness is complex in origin with contributions from lifestyle and genetic factors. However, the association between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and arterial stiffness remains unclear. Objective: The aim is to assess whether a multilocus genetic risk score (GRS), composed of selected SNPs linked to cardiovascular traits and outcomes, is associated with arterial stiffness in patients with hypertension. Design and methods: This study included 730 participants derived from the CARE NORTH study. The arterial stiffness was evaluated by carotid–femoral pulse wave velocity (cfPWV). An adjusted linear regression was used to evaluate the association between cfPWV and each individual SNP using multiple genetic models. The association between a constructed GRS and cfPWV was tested in an unadjusted and adjusted model. Results: We selected 13 SNPs found to be associated with cfPWV (P < .05): 6 SNPs in additive, 4 SNPs in recessive and 3 SNPs in dominant mode of inheritance. The GRS based on these SNPs was positively associated with cfPWV both in unadjusted and adjusted models (&bgr; = 0.2 m/s, 95% CI 0.11 – 0.29, P = 7.6 × 10−6 and &bgr; = 0.22 m/s, 95% CI 0.15 – 0.28, P = 1.4 × 10−10, respectively). The GRS explained an additional 3.6% cfPWV variance above clinical covariates. Conclusion: We demonstrate that the GRS composed of 13 SNPs related to cardiovascular phenotypes is associated with an increased arterial stiffness in hypertensive patients. Our findings may help to clarify genetic basis of arterial stiffening and provide insight into mechanisms underlying this phenotype.
Nonpositive curvature and complex analysis

We discuss a few of the metrics that are used in complex analysis and potential theory, including the Poincare, Caratheodory, Kobayashi, Hilbert, and quasihyperbolic metrics. An important feature of these metrics is that they are quite often negatively curved. We discuss what this means and when it occurs, and proceed to investigate some notions of nonpositive curvature, beginning with constant negative curvature (e.g. the unit disk with the Poincare metric), and moving on to CAT(k) and Gromov hyperbolic spaces. We pay special attention to notions of the boundary at infinity.
A novel approach to single camera, glint-free 3D eye model fitting including corneal refraction

Model-based methods for glint-free gaze estimation typically infer eye pose using pupil contours extracted from eye images. Existing methods, however, either ignore or require complex hardware setups to deal with refraction effects occurring at the corneal interfaces. In this work we provide a detailed analysis of the effects of refraction in glint-free gaze estimation using a single near-eye camera, based on the method presented by [Świrski and Dodgson 2013]. We demonstrate systematic deviations in inferred eyeball positions and gaze directions with respect to synthetic ground-truth data and show that ignoring corneal refraction can result in angular errors of several degrees. Furthermore, we quantify gaze direction dependent errors in pupil radius estimates. We propose a novel approach to account for corneal refraction in 3D eye model fitting and by analyzing synthetic and real images show that our new method successfully captures refraction effects and helps to overcome the shortcomings of the state of the art approach.
Safety and Efficacy of Panitumumab Plus Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy in Patients With Primary HER2-Negative Inflammatory Breast Cancer

Importance Combining conventional chemotherapy with targeted therapy has been proposed to improve the pathologic complete response (pCR) rate in patients with inflammatory breast cancer (IBC). Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) expression is an independent predictor of low overall survival in patients with IBC. Objective To evaluate the safety and efficacy of the anti-EGFR antibody panitumumab plus neoadjuvant chemotherapy in patients with primary human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-negative IBC. Design, Setting, and Participants Women with primary HER2-negative IBC were enrolled from 2010 to 2015 and received panitumumab plus neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Median follow-up time was 19.3 months. Tumor tissues collected before and after the first dose of panitumumab were subjected to immunohistochemical staining and RNA sequencing analysis to identify biomarkers predictive of pCR. Intervention Patients received 1 dose of panitumumab (2.5 mg/kg) followed by 4 cycles of panitumumab (2.5 mg/kg), nab-paclitaxel (100 mg/m2), and carboplatin weekly and then 4 cycles of fluorouracil (500 mg/m2), epirubicin (100 mg/m2), and cyclophosphamide (500 mg/m2) every 3 weeks. Main Outcomes and Measures The primary end point was pCR rate; the secondary end point was safety. The exploratory objective was to identify biomarkers predictive of pCR. Results Forty-seven patients were accrued; 7 were ineligible. The 40 enrolled women had a median age of 57 (range, 23-68) years; 29 (72%) were postmenopausal. Three patients did not complete therapy because of toxic effects (n = 2) or distant metastasis (n = 1). Nineteen patients had triple-negative and 21 had hormone receptor–positive IBC. The pCR and pCR rates were overall, 11 of 40 (28%; 95% CI, 15%-44%); triple-negative IBC, 8 of 19 (42%; 95% CI, 20%-66%); and hormone receptor–positive/HER2-negative IBC, 3 of 21 (14%; 95% CI, 3%-36%). During treatment with panitumumab, nab-paclitaxel, and carboplatin, 10 patients were hospitalized for treatment-related toxic effects, including 5 with neutropenia-related events. There were no treatment-related deaths. The most frequent nonhematologic adverse event was skin rash. Several potential predictors of pCR were identified, including pEGFR expression and COX-2 expression. Conclusions and Relevance This combination of panitumumab and chemotherapy showed the highest pCR rate ever reported in triple-negative IBC. A randomized phase 2 study is ongoing to determine the role of panitumumab in patients with triple-negative IBC and to further validate predictive biomarkers. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01036087
Data envelopment analysis (DEA) based transit route temporal performance assessment: a pilot study

The transit agencies aim to allocate limited resources properly and maximise ridership. Measuring the performance of individual transit routes within a transit system plays a critical role in finding operational problems and increasing transit ridership. The Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method has been employed to compare the performance of different units (e.g., transit operators, transit lines/ routes within a transit system). This paper first reviews the application of DEA for transit performance evaluation. Thereafter, with a case study on a bus route in Brisbane, a pilot study is conducted to discuss the application of DEA for temporal performance evaluation (service effectiveness) of a transit route considering number of services and travel time as inputs and transit work and on-time performance as outputs.
Mesenchymal Progenitor Cells from Different Sources and their Potential to Differentiate In Vitro into Muscle Cells

The field of regenerative medicine requires a reliable source of therapeutic cells in the context of muscular dystrophies. Cell therapies are among the treatment options being considered with the advances in stem cells and scaffolding domain. Umbilical cord tissue, Dental pulp and adipose tissues are abundant sources for clinical grade mesenchymal stem cells. These cells can differentiate into multiple lineages. The isolation, characterization, transdifferentiation, cell- gel formations and clinical applications of stroma derived mesenchymal progenitors are compared with each other source to evaluate the regenerative capability invitro. Dental pulp derived mesenchymal stem cells showed more propensity towards myogenic transdifferentiation although the abundance of the source and ease of higher cell yield was observed with cord and adipose tissue.
Hebbian Plasticity in CPG Controllers Facilitates Self-Synchronization for Human-Robot Handshaking

It is well-known that human social interactions generate synchrony phenomena which are often unconscious. If the interaction between individuals is based on rhythmic movements, synchronized and coordinated movements will emerge from the social synchrony. This paper proposes a plausible model of plastic neural controllers that allows the emergence of synchronized movements in physical and rhythmical interactions. The controller is designed with central pattern generators (CPG) based on rhythmic Rowat-Selverston neurons endowed with neuronal and synaptic Hebbian plasticity. To demonstrate the interest of the proposed model, the case of handshaking is considered because it is a very common, both physically and socially, but also, a very complex act in the point of view of robotics, neuroscience and psychology. Plastic CPGs controllers are implemented in the joints of a simulated robotic arm that has to learn the frequency and amplitude of an external force applied to its effector, thus reproducing the act of handshaking with a human. Results show that the neural and synaptic Hebbian plasticity are working together leading to a natural and autonomous synchronization between the arm and the external force even if the frequency is changing during the movement. Moreover, a power consumption analysis shows that, by offering emergence of synchronized and coordinated movements, the plasticity mechanisms lead to a significant decrease in the energy spend by the robot actuators thus generating a more adaptive and natural human/robot handshake.
An ab initio Molecular Dynamics Study of Electron Hydration Dynamics in Water Hexamer Cluster at a Finite Temperature

Electron hydration dynamics in water hexamer cluster is studied through ab initio molecular dynamics simulations at a finite temperature within density functional theory . Second-order perturbative MP2 calculations with appropriate basis set containing extra dif fuse functions are also performed on simulated structures to obtain more accurate results of the ener ge ics. It is found that the structure of the neutral cluster significantly changes upon insertion of the excess electron. Both, surface bound and partially interior states are found for the excess electron in the present simulations. After the electron capture, the relative ener gy of the system first decreases very fast because of the structural relaxation and then changes slowly towards the long-time value due to slower evolution of the systems through dif ferent configurations. The changes of the average population of water molecules in dif ferent hydrogen bonding environments during electron hydration process are also investigated.
Hierarchical and Parallel Pipelined Heterogeneous SoC for Embedded Vision Processing

Object recognition is widely used in vision computing for various applications. Traditional CPU and application specific integrated circuit for vision computing cannot provide high performance and enough flexibility, which limit the use of vision systems. In this paper, a hierarchical and parallel pipelined heterogeneous chip for object recognition is proposed to achieve high flexibility, high performance, and area efficiency. In addition, a reformulation of 3D position estimation is proposed. The method uses single precision to achieve the short computing time and accuracy requirement. The hardware resource is small. Application-specific components, such as connected component information extractor and information extraction accelerator, are designed for high performance. Reconfiguration processors and application-specific instruction set processor are introduced to improve flexibility. These components are connected to hierarchical parallel buses. The chip is fabricated in 180-nm CMOS technology and occupies 72.25 mm2 with 1.09M bits on-chip memory. It delivers 204 GOPS + 665M FLOPS operations. The results show that this hierarchical and parallel pipelined heterogeneous chip is suitable for embedded vision systems.
HotSpot Thermal Floorplan Solver Using Conjugate Gradient to Speed Up

We proposed to use the conjugate gradient method to effectively solve the thermal resistance model in HotSpot thermal floorplan tool. The iterative conjugate gradient solver is suitable for traditional sparse matrix linear systems. We also defined the relative sparse matrix in the iterative thermal floorplan of Simulated Annealing framework algorithm, and the iterative method of relative sparse matrix could be applied to other iterative framework algorithms. The experimental results show that the running time of our incremental iterative conjugate gradient solver is speeded up approximately 11x compared with the LU decomposition method for case ami49, and the experiment ratio curve shows that our iterative conjugate gradient solver accelerated more with increasing number of modules.
JRC: A Job Post and Resume Classification System for Online Recruitment

Due to the increasing growth in online recruitment, traditional hiring methods are becoming inefficient. This is due to the fact that job portals receive enormous numbers of unstructured resumes - in diverse styles and formats - from applicants with different fields of expertise and specialization. Therefore, the extraction of structured information from applicant resumes is needed not only to support the automatic screening of candidates, but also to efficiently route them to their corresponding occupational categories. This assists in minimizing the effort required by employers to manage and organize resumes, as well as to screen out irrelevant candidates. In this paper, we present JRC - a Job Post and Resume Classification system that exploits an integrated knowledge base for carrying out the classification task. Unlike conventional systems that attempt to search globally in the entire space of resumes and job posts, JRC matches resumes that only fall under their relevant occupational categories. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed system, we have conducted several experiments using a real-world recruitment dataset. Additionally, we have evaluated the efficiency and effectiveness of proposed system against state-of-the-art online recruitment systems.
Interfacially driven transport in narrow channels

When colloids flow in a narrow channel, the transport efficiency is controlled by the non-equilibrium interplay between colloid-wall interactions and hydrodynamics. In this paper, a general, unifying description of colloidal dispersion flow in a confined system is proposed. A momentum and mass balance founded framework implementing the colloid-interface interactions is introduced. The framework allows us to depict how interfacial forces drive the particles and the liquid flows. The interfacially driven flow (osmotic or Marangoni flows for repulsive or attractive colloid-wall interactions respectively) can be directly simulated in 2D domains. The ability of the model to describe the physics of transport in a narrow channel is discussed in detail. The hydrodynamic nature of osmosis and the associated counter-pressure are mechanically related to the colloid-interface interactions. The simulation shows an unexpected transition from axial plug to pillar accumulation for colloidal accumulation at a channel bottleneck. This transition has important consequences in transport efficiencies. Existing limiting cases, such as diffusio-osmosis, are recovered from the simulations, showing that the framework is physically well-founded. The model generalizes the existing approaches and proves the hydrodynamic character of osmosis, which cannot be fully described by purely thermodynamic considerations.
Ocular reactions in response to impressions of emotion-evoking pictures

Oculomotor indicies in response to emotional stimuli were analysed chronologically in order to investigate the relationships between eye behaviour and emotional activity in human visual perception. Seven participants classified visual stimuli into two emotional groups using subjective ratings of images, such as "Pleasant" and "Unpleasant". Changes in both eye movements and pupil diameters between the two groups of images were compared. Both the mean saccade lengths and the cross power spectra of eye movements for "Unpleasant" ratings were significantly higher than for other ratings of eye movements in regards to certain the duration of certain pictures shown. Also, both mean pupil diameters and their power spectrum densities were significantly higher when the durations of pictures presented were lengthened. When comparing the response latencies, pupil reactions followed the appearance of changes in the direction of eye movements. The results suggest that at specific latencies, "Unpleasant" images activate both eye movements and pupil dilations.
Prognostic value of intra‐tumoral CD8+/FoxP3+ lymphocyte ratio in patients with resected colorectal cancer liver metastasis

Patients with isolated colorectal‐cancer‐liver‐metastases (CRCLM) frequently undergo metastatectomy. Tumor‐infiltrating‐lymphocytes (TILs) have prognostic potential in the setting of primary colorectal cancer, however, their role in CRCLM is less studied. We aimed to study the spatial distribution and prognostic role of tumor‐infiltrating CD8+ cytotoxic T‐cells and FoxP3+ regulatory T‐cells at the metastatic site of CRCLM patients.
Of cattle and feasts: Multi-isotope investigation of animal husbandry and communal feasting at Neolithic Makriyalos, northern Greece

The aim of this study is to investigate livestock husbandry and its relationship to the mobilization of domestic animals for slaughter at large communal feasting events, in Late Neolithic Makriyalos, northern Greece. A multi-isotope approach is built that integrates analysis of: δ13C and δ15N values of human and animal bone collagen for understanding long-term dietary behavior, Incremental δ13C and δ18O values of domestic animal tooth enamel carbonate for assessing seasonal patterns in grazing habits and mobility, and 87Sr/86Sr ratios of cattle tooth enamel for examining the possibility that some of the animals consumed at the site were born outside the local environment. The findings indicate that cattle had isotopically more variable diets than sheep, which may reflect grazing over a wider catchment area in the local landscape. Cattle products did not make a significant contribution to the long-term dietary protein intake of the humans, which may indicate that they were primarily consumed during episodic feasting events. There is no indication that pasturing of livestock was pre-determined by their eventual context of slaughter (i.e. large-scale feasting vs. more routine consumption events). Two non-local cattle identified among those deposited in a feasting context may have been brought to the site as contributions to these feasts. The evidence presented provides a more detailed insight into local land use and into the role of livestock and feasting in forging social relationships within the regional human population.