Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Assessment of left ventricle dynamic from cardiac magnetic resonance imaging by means a correspondence approach

In this research, an approach to assess the heart dynamics is reported. The cardiac magnetic resonance images are considered for assessing the left ventricle motion and deformation. The shape of the cavity is obtained by means a segmentation procedure based on a clustering algorithm at an initial instant. This three-dimensional structure is used to establish a region of interest around the border of the structure. An optical flow method allows determining the displacement vector of this region and then defining the shapes of the cavity during the all cardiac cycle. The points of the left ventricle are followed using the displacement vectors in the cardiac cycle, obtaining thus, a dense motion field of the cavity. This approximate deformation field is refined with a correspondence method that working in the three-dimensional space. The mapping of the points that define the left ventricle in the cardiac cycle obtained with the correspondence procedure are then used for computing a set of clinical parameters that allows assessing the motion and deformation of this principal structure of the human heart. The torsion, radial and longitudinal contraction are quantified. The obtained results are promising for evaluating the heart dynamics.
Organizational innovation in the context of family farms: lean diagnosis

Family farming has been on the agenda worldwide. Portugal is no exception. Act No. 64/2018, published in 2018, establishes the Family Farming Statute. Its preponderance in food and in the sustainability of families and territories has been reinforced by the sustainable development paradigm. However, competitiveness constraints assigned to the production system is often seen as an obstacle. Combining the theoretical frameworks of integrated agriculture and work organizations, we offer a lean sociological perspective on family farms producing lettuce. We concluded that their production system is characterized by a set of innovative practices very close to a lean approach. However, there is room for improvements in a production system that seems to maintain a family-based workforce and traditional know-how.
Stochastic Assessment of the Impact of Distributed Synchronous Generators on Voltage Sags due to System-Wide Faults

 Abstract—In this paper, the authors use a stochastic approach to investigate the impact of distributed synchronous generation (DSG) on the severity of voltage sags due to system-wide occurring faults. Based on the method of fault positions, faults of various types are applied at pre-determined locations along all lines in the system and remaining voltages on the faulted phase at a monitoring point are recorded. This is done for a base case and a case with DSG. The results show with DSG, there is a general improvement in magnitudes of remaining voltage. Comparison of the populations of voltages for the two cases, using The Wilcoxon Signed Rank Sum Test, showed that these improvement are statistically significant. Further analysis showed that DSG either reduces severity of or eliminates some voltage sags. In addition, the number of expected trips due voltage sags is reduced with DSG, for any voltage sensitivity level assumed. The study concluded that incorporation of distributed synchronous generation is beneficial to the improvement of voltage sags and this should be a further incentive for their integration, especially into weak networks.
The interplay of growth differentiation factor 15 (GDF15) expression and M2 macrophages during prostate carcinogenesis

M2 (tumor-supportive) macrophages may upregulate growth differentiation factor 15 (GDF15), which is highly expressed in prostate tumors, but the combined utility of these markers as prognostic biomarkers are unclear. We retrospectively studied 90 prostate cancer cases that underwent radical prostatectomy as their primary treatment and were followed for biochemical recurrence (BCR). These cases also had a benign prostate biopsy at least 1 year or more before their prostate cancer surgery. Using computer algorithms to analyze digitalized immunohistochemically stained slides, GDF15 expression and the presence of M2 macrophages based on the relative density of CD204- and CD68-positive macrophages were measured in prostate: (i) benign biopsy, (ii) cancer and (iii) tumor-adjacent benign (TAB) tissue. Both M2 macrophages ( P = 0.0004) and GDF15 ( P < 0.0001) showed significant inter-region expression differences. Based on a Cox proportional hazards model, GDF15 expression was not associated with BCR but, in men where GDF15 expression differences between cancer and TAB were highest, the risk of BCR was significantly reduced (hazard ratio = 0.26; 95% confidence interval = 0.09– 0.94). In addition, cases with high levels of M2 macrophages in prostate cancer had almost a 5-fold increased risk of BCR ( P = 0.01). Expression of GDF15 in prostate TAB was associated with M2 macrophage levels in both prostate cancer and TAB and appeared to moderate M2-macrophage-associated BCR risk. In summary, the relationship of GDF15 expression and CD204-positive M2 macrophage levels is different in a prostate tumor environment compared with an earlier benign biopsy and, collectively, these markers may predict aggressive disease. or censored at the last post-operative PSA test for men that did not recur. Both unadjusted (only a covariate for the marker) and adjusted models were tested—the latter adjusted for advanced tumor stage, advanced tumor grade and PSA level at cancer diagnosis. Model outliers were assessed through the examination of deviance residuals and assumptions of linearity through the examination of Martingale residuals. To determine whether the proportional hazards assumption was met, models were run where the singular and joint significance of each covariate by time interaction term was tested.
Sustainable Food Consumption in Nursing Homes: Less Food Waste with the Right Plate Color?

The problem of unsustainable food consumption among vulnerable residents of nursing homes who suffer from dementia is often multifaceted. From an individual perspective, people with dementia who do not finish their meals are likely to encounter serious health issues associated with malnutrition. Moreover, at the institutional level, nursing homes generate tons of nonrecoverable food waste each year, impairing not only their economic position but also the natural and social environment at large. The purpose of this study is to explore the possibility of reducing food waste in Norwegian nursing homes by appraising how large this reduction could be as one replaces traditional dining white porcelain with plates with diverse color combinations. A quasi-experimental method was adopted. The results of the pilot study were extrapolated to the annual amount of food wasted at the national level. The findings indicate that, on average, 26% of food was thrown away when served on white plates compared to only 9% when served on one of the colored plate options tested. Nationally, approximately 992.6 tons of food per year could potentially be saved with only a single change, ultimately ameliorating the unsustainable food consumption problem among residents of nursing homes.
WORKING PAPER SERIES TRADE , OFFSHORING , AND THE INVISIBLE HANDSHAKE

We are grateful to seminar participants at Boston University, Florida International University, the University of Maryland, Princeton University,and the University of Virginia, as well as Arnaud Costinot, some anonymous referees, the Working Group on International Trade and Organizations at the NBER and participants at the AEA meetings in 2008 and the Spring 2008 Midwest International Economics Meetings. Support from the Bankard Fund at the University of Virginia is gratefully acknowledged. The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and are not necessarily reflective of views of the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey. All errors are our own. The views expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Chemotherapy is avoided during the first trimester of pregnancy, when is the safest time to start treatment during the second or third trimester?

Background Cancer occurs in approximately 1:1000 pregnancies. When chemotherapy cannot be delayed until postpartum, beginning chemotherapy is based on presumed safety after organogenesis is completed during the first trimester. The safest gestational age to start chemotherapy after the first trimester is unknown. Patients and Methods In an observational cohort of pregnant women diagnosed and treated for cancer at multiple centers, pregnancy outcomes for the mother, and clinical outcomes for the neonate were analyzed according to the gestational age in weeks of pregnancy at first chemotherapy cycle. Outcomes including birth weight, fetal growth restriction, congenital malformations, and perinatal complications for mother and infant were analyzed according to gestational age of chemotherapy initiation. Neonatal growth, general health and developmental assessment were provided annually by each child’s pediatrician. For each outcome, cut-point of gestational age at first chemotherapy after 12 weeks was determined with odds ratios (OR). Results Data from 225 women (231 fetuses) were analyzed. Initiating chemotherapy before 15 weeks GA significantly increased risk for intrauterine growth restriction (OR=3.0), before 16.6weeks GA increased risk for congenital anomalies (OR=3.9), and before 18 weeks GA increased risk for spontaneous preterm birth (OR=2.3). Maternal and neonatal complications during pregnancy or follow up were not statistically different based on GA when chemotherapy began. Conclusions During the second trimester, the ideal time to start chemotherapy should consider maternal benefit versus neonatal risk. With a history of spontaneous preterm birth in a prior pregnancy, delaying chemotherapy until 18 weeks may decrease recurrent preterm birth, if not detrimental to the mother. The risk for fetal growth restriction increased with chemotherapy initiation before 15 weeks, and for congenital malformations before 17 weeks.
MGBG in Combined Anticancer Chemotherapy

The combined activity of MGBG (metylglyoxal-bis(guanylhydrazone)) with either cisplatin or carboplatin was investigated, towards the human breast cancer cell line MCF-7. While a doseand time-dependent cytotoxic activity was already observed for MGBG alone, a synergistic and non-reversible effect was verified upon co-administration with these Pt-based drugs. Furthermore, toxicity against non-neoplastic cells was shown to be quite low for these drug cocktails, as opposed to either Pt-agents alone. These results may hopefully allow to use lower dosages of both MGBG and the Ptdrugs, minimising the drug ́s deleterious side effects while keeping antitumour efficacy, in an anticancer strategy that couples interference with polyamine homeostasis with DNA damage.
TAILORED FEATURES FOR SEMANTIC SEGMENTATION WITH A DGCNN USING FREE TRAINING SAMPLES OF A COLORED AIRBORNE POINT CLOUD

Abstract. Automation of 3D LiDAR point cloud processing is expected to increase the production rate of many applications including automatic map generation. Fast development on high-end hardware has boosted the expansion of deep learning research for 3D classification and segmentation. However, deep learning requires large amount of high quality training samples. The generation of training samples for accurate classification results, especially for airborne point cloud data, is still problematic. Moreover, which customized features should be used best for segmenting airborne point cloud data is still unclear. This paper proposes semi-automatic point cloud labelling and examines the potential of combining different tailor-made features for pointwise semantic segmentation of an airborne point cloud. We implement a Dynamic Graph CNN (DGCNN) approach to classify airborne point cloud data into four land cover classes: bare-land, trees, buildings and roads. The DGCNN architecture is chosen as this network relates two approaches, PointNet and graph CNNs, to exploit the geometric relationships between points. For experiments, we train an airborne point cloud and co-aligned orthophoto of the Surabaya city area of Indonesia to DGCNN using three different tailor-made feature combinations: points with RGB (Red, Green, Blue) color, points with original LiDAR features (Intensity, Return number, Number of returns) so-called IRN, and points with two spectral colors and Intensity (Red, Green, Intensity) so-called RGI. The overall accuracy of the testing area indicates that using RGB information gives the best segmentation results of 81.05% while IRN and RGI gives accuracy values of 76.13%, and 79.81%, respectively.
Ending Node Voltages Based DG Placement in Distribution Networks

one of the main tools to reduce power loss of distribution networks and compensate the voltage drop along the feeding line to the ending loads is to implement Dispersed Generation (DG). The proper allocation of DGs in the distribution networks is a complex combinatorial optimization problem. in this paper a method based on equilibration of ending nodes voltage magnitude is presented which is simple and applicable to any distribution networks. The validity of the proposed method is verified through the application in 33 nodes distribution network.
Trust in government: What’s news media got to do with it?

In modern democracies, trust in government is a key indicator of political legitimacy and stability. Drawing from theories of media effects, we investigated whether using traditional media has a negative (media malaise hypothesis) or a positive (virtuous circle hypothesis) impact on trust in the national government. We used a serial mediation model involving evaluations of politicians and evaluations of the political process as mediators of how political communications influence trust in government. To test the model empirically, we conducted an online survey among 1 115 respondents in Germany. Results suggest that the use of traditional media to access political information has a direct positive impact on trust in government mediated by people’s evaluations of politicians and of the political process. We also found a positive serial mediation effect of using traditional media on trust in government mediated first by evaluations of politicians and second by evaluations of the political process.
Gene Therapy for B-thalassemia; New Challenges

Recently, gene therapy clinical preliminaries have been effectively applied to hemoglobinopathies, for example, sickle cell disease (SCD) and β-thalassemia. Among the extraordinary disclosures that prompted the structure of genetic ways to deal with fix these disorders is the revelation of the β-globin locus control region and a few related transcription factors, which determine hemoglobin exchanging just as significant level, erythroid-specific expression of genes at the s-globin locus. Additionally, expanding proof shows that lentiviral vectors are proficient tools to embed large DNA components into nondividing hematopoietic stem cells, indicating consoling safe coordination profiles. On the other hand, genome altering could reestablish expression of fetal hemoglobin or target explicit mutations to restore expression of the wild-type β-globin gene. The latest clinical preliminaries for β-thalassemia and SCD are demonstrating promising results: patients had the option to stop transfusions or had diminished transfusion necessities. Be that as it may, toxic myeloablation and the significant expense of current ex vivo hematopoietic stem cell gene therapy stages speak to a barrier to a far reaching use of these methodologies. In this review, we sum up these gene therapy procedures and progressing clinical preliminaries. At last, we talk about potential systems to improve results, lessen myeloablative regimens and future difficulties to decrease the cost of gene therapy platform.
Knowledge and self-assessment of general practitioner nurses in the area of diabetes mellitus

V ordinacich vseobecných praktických lekařů (VPL) sestry osetřuji i osoby s diabetem mellitem (DM). Cil: Nasim cilem bylo zjistit miru znalosti a uroveň sebehodnoceni sester z ordinaci VPL souvisejicich s peci o osoby s DM a analyzovat vztahy mezi zavisle proměnnou (celkova uroveň znalosti o DM) a vybranými nezavisle proměnnými. Metodika: Průřezova studie byla realizovana na výběrovem vzorku sester v roce 2018. Ke sběru dat byl použit 64položkový dotaznik, jehož soucasti byl standardizovaný Rev. Diabetes Knowledge Test (revDKT). V ramci analýzy dat byla dale realizovana regresni analýza v exploracnim režimu. Výsledky: Studie se zucastnilo 237 sester (průměrný věk 38 ± 10,6 let) z ordinaci VPL. Celkova uroveň sebehodnoceni byla v ramci analýzy pojata jako průměr z 25 položek hodnocených na skale 1-5, cim nižsi hodnota, tim pozitivnějsi sebehodnoceni, v nasem připadě s průměrem 3,35. Celkova uroveň vseobecných znalosti DM byla v ramci analýzy pojata jako soucet bodů z celkem 33 znalostnich položek (max. 43 bodů). Respondenti ziskali průměrně 22 bodů, což je 51% uspěsnost v testu. Jednoznacně největsi vliv na celkovou miru znalosti ma ziskane vysokoskolske nebo vyssi odborne vzdělani. Zavěr: V ordinacich VPL pracuji sestry s různou profesni kvalifikaci, vzdělanim a pracovnim zařazenim. Sebehodnoceni a celkove vědomostni skore týkajici se DM komparovaných skupin (VS a ostatni) je spise nizke. Vzhledem k avizovanemu navýseni kompetenci sester v ordinaci VPL je třeba seznamit VPL s kategoriemi sester a zajistit dalsi vzdělani sester v oblasti DM.
Pathway to achieving sustainable food security in
 Sub‐Saharan
 Africa: The role of agricultural mechanization

According to the World Health Organization (2020), many parts of the world have demonstrated potentials for acute hunger and famine. Many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) actively feature in this category due to geopolitical crises and other humanitarian challenges. Despite efforts by SSA governments, agricultural productivity continues to be inadequate in meeting nutritional needs across Africa. Thus, in the presence of economic expansion, vast land and labour resources, this study investigates the role of mechanization as an important factor for increased agricultural productivity in SSA. Data on 25 SSA countries over 17 years is used. Empirical results from System Generalized Method of Moments show that among other variables, mechanization is a significant factor influencing agricultural productivity. Consequently, in light of the bid for higher agricultural productivity, government investment in mechanization becomes a priority. Also, apart from the fact that many African countries are at the point where more land must be brought under development to satisfy expanded market needs, larger investments in mechanization appear imperative.
Recent Trends in Employees’ Earnings Inequality in Portugal: A Quantitative Analysis between 1986 and 2017

Summary: This paper examines employees’ earnings inequality in Portugal for 1986-2017 using data from the Personnel Records database. Our objective is twofold: (a) characterize earnings inequality by comparing representative distributions, before and after the great crisis; and (b) investigate the role played by the business cycle on the behaviour of earnings inequality by estimating Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ADL) models. To identify trends and variations along the trend in earnings inequality we use cardinal measures and the coefficient of variation. We inspect the characteristics of earnings distributions in terms of mo-ments (mean and median) and polarization (using relative distributions analysis). The main findings are: (1) earnings inequality shows a positive trend (except during the great crisis); (2) polarization is present in every year, with lower po-larisation prevailing over upper polarization, both evolving at different paces (very fast 1989-2002; slower pace 2002-2008; negative growth 2008-2017); (3) the business cycle relationship with earnings inequality is negative. JEL: D33, I39, J20, O12.
Optimal resource allocation for stochastic systems performance optimisation of control tasks undergoing stochastic execution times

The problem addressed in this paper is the optimal allocation of a CPU to a number of software control tasks. Each task is used to implement a feedback controller for a linear and time invariant system and is activated with a fixed period. On every periodic activation, the task executes a job, which collects the output of the system, and produces the control values after executing for a random computation time. If a job's duration exceeds a deadline, then the job is cancelled and the control values are not updated. The systems to be controlled are affected by process noise. Therefore the performance of each control loop can be evaluated through the steady-state covariance of the system's state, which depends on the probability with which the task implementing the controller drops its jobs. We show that by making a proper choice for the scheduling algorithm, this probability can be straightforwardly computed as a function of the scheduling parameters. This observation enables the construction of a very efficient procedure for finding the scheduling parameters that attain the optimal tradeoff between the performance of the different control loops.
Transcriptome profiling reveals differentially expressed genes associated with wizened flower bud formation in Chinese pear (Pyrus bretschneideri Rehd.)

ABSTRACT Flower buds are very important for pear yield; non-germinated flower buds become wizened and drop from the branch, reducing pear production. However, little research has focused on the study of wizened flower bud (WB) formation in spring. In order to elucidate the mechanism of WB formation in pear, physiological indices relating to plant hormones and antioxidases were measured. We found that activities of peroxidase (POD) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) were higher and lower, respectively, in WBs than in normal flower buds (NBs). The contents of indole acetic acid (IAA), gibberellin (GA), and cytokinin (CTK) were lower in WBs, while the level of addition of abscisic acid (ABA) was higher in WBs than in NBs. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were surveyed between WBs and NBs. In total, 23 DEGs relating to POD and SOD were detected from GO (Gene Ontology) enrichment, and 29 DEGs associated with plant hormone biosynthesis were found from the KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes) pathway. Notably, the expression patterns of these 52 genes were consistent with variations of antioxidase activities or hormone contents. Because POD and SOD are stress-response enzymes, the differences in POD and SOD activities between NBs and WBs indicated that WB formation in pear could result from ambient environmental stresses that influence expression levels of hormone biosynthesis genes.