Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
MR Imaging: Clinical Use of the Inversion Recovery Sequence

The properties of the inversion recovery (IR) sequence are considered and its use in clinical practice is illustrated. The effect of changing repetition time, inversion time (TI), and echo time; the method of data encoding; the type of data collection; and the method of image processing are analysed. Normal appearances and clinical examples in the central nervous system and the remainder of the body are used to illustrate the many options available with this sequence. The short TI IR sequence has advantages in magnetic resonance imaging of the body, and medium TI sequences are of value in localisation in the brain and in demonstrating contrast enhancement. Long TI sequences can be used in pediatrics and for separating tumour and oedema. Suppression or partial suppression of fat and fluid signals are two useful options with IR sequences. Index Terms: Inversion recovery–Nuclear magnetic resonance, techniques–Nuclear magnetic resonance.
Voltage scheduling droop control for State-of-Charge balance of distributed energy storage in DC microgrids

Due to higher power quality, lower conversion loss, and more DC loads, there has been an increasing awareness on DC microgrid. Previous emphasis has been on equal power sharing among different units in the DC microgrid, while overlooking the coordination of the energy storage units to maintain the State-of-Charge balance. In this paper, a new droop method based on voltage scheduling for State-of-Charge balance is proposed to keep the SoC balance for the energy storage units. The proposed method has the advantage of avoiding the stability problem existed in traditional methods based on droop gain scheduling. Simulation experiment is taken in Matlab on a DC microgrid with two distributed energy storage units. The simulation results show that the proposed method has successfully achieved SoC balance during the load changes while maintaining the DC bus voltage within the allowable range.
The relationship between absence from work and job satisfaction: Greece and UK comparisons

The paper starts with a literature survey concerning absenteeism and job satisfaction. Most of the literature on absenteeism suggests that absence from work is a complex issue influenced by multiple causes, both of personal and of organizational nature. Job satisfaction has also been identified as one of the factors affecting an employee’s motivation to work attendance. There is no universal agreement concerning the relationship between absenteeism and job satisfaction. Some research has found no correlation between these two variables whereas other studies indicate a weak relationship between these two variables. It has also been suggested that absence and job satisfaction might be more strongly related under some conditions, for instance in case of blue collar workers. After a survey of the relevant literature, this study attempts to establish a causal relationship between absenteeism and job satisfaction using a new set of Greek and European data. The paper concentrates on Greek data given that absenteeism has not been the subject of systematic investigation in Greece. The empirical results suggest that there is a weak negative relationship between injury absenteeism and job satisfaction. Furthermore, comparisons are made with similar findings from UK.
The Role of Advanced MR Imaging Findings as Biomarkers of Traumatic Brain Injury

Treatment of traumatic brain injury (TBI) requires proper classification of the pathophysiology. Clinical classifiers and conventional neuroimaging are limited in TBI detection, outcome prediction, and treatment guidance. Advanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques such as susceptibility weighted imaging, diffusion tensor imaging, and magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging are sensitive to microhemorrhages, white matter injury, and abnormal metabolic activities, respectively, in brain injury. In this article, we reviewed these 3 advanced MRI methods and their applications in TBI and report some new findings from our research. These MRI techniques have already demonstrated their potential to improve TBI detection and outcome prediction. As such, they have demonstrated the capacity of serving as a set of biomarkers to reveal the heterogeneous and complex nature of brain injury in a regional and temporal manner. Further longitudinal studies using advanced MRI in a synergistic approach are expected to provide insight in understanding TBI and imaging implications for treatment.
Residual acid maltase activity in late‐onset acid maltase deficiency

Residual acid maltase activity was found by a sensitive fluorometric assay in muscle biopsies from 15 patients with late-onset acid maltase deficiency (mean, 6.91 percent; range, 2.4 to 12.2) but not in biopsy 0r autopsy muscle from three patients with the infantile form. Electrophoresis kinetic characteristics, and subcellular fractionation indicated that the residual activity was lysosomal acid maltase and not a contaminating zyme of neutral maltase. There was no correlation between the amount of residual acid maltase activity and the severity of the clinical picture, glycogen accumulation. The presence of acid maltase activity in muscle, liver, and, to a greater extent, leukocytes in late-onset but not infantile kcid maltase deficiency and the failure of the two disease forms to occur in the same family suggest that they are genetically distinct.
A moving mesh unstaggered constrained transport scheme for magnetohydrodynamics

We present a constrained transport (CT) algorithm for solving the 3D ideal magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equations on a moving mesh, which maintains the divergence-free condition on the magnetic field to machine-precision. Our CT scheme uses an unstructured representation of the magnetic vector potential, making the numerical method simple and computationally efficient. The scheme is implemented in the moving mesh code Arepo. We demonstrate the performance of the approach with simulations of driven MHD turbulence, a magnetized disc galaxy, and a cosmological volume with primordial magnetic field. We compare the outcomes of these experiments to those obtained with a previously implemented Powell divergence-cleaning scheme. While CT and the Powell technique yield similar results in idealized test problems, some differences are seen in situations more representative of astrophysical flows. In the turbulence simulations, the Powell cleaning scheme artificially grows the mean magnetic field, while CT maintains this conserved quantity of ideal MHD. In the disc simulation, CT gives slower magnetic field growth rate and saturates to equipartition between the turbulent kinetic energy and magnetic energy, whereas Powell cleaning produces a dynamically dominant magnetic field. Such difference has been observed in adaptive-mesh refinement codes with CT and smoothed-particle hydrodynamics codes with divergence-cleaning. In the cosmological simulation, both approaches give similar magnetic amplification, but Powell exhibits more cell-level noise. CT methods in general are more accurate than divergence-cleaning techniques, and, when coupled to a moving mesh can exploit the advantages of automatic spatial/temporal adaptivity and reduced advection errors, allowing for improved astrophysical MHD simulations.
Acetylcholine and Learning in a Cortical Associative Memory

Implementing associative memory function in biologically realistic networks raises difficulties not dealt with in previous associative memory models. In particular, during learning of overlapping input patterns, recall of previously stored patterns can interfere with the learning of new patterns. Most associative memory models avoid this difficulty by ignoring the effect of previously modified connections during learning, thereby clamping activity to the patterns to be learned. Here I propose that the effects of acetylcholine in cortical structures may provide a neuropsychological mechanism for this clamping. Recent brain slice experiments have shown that acetylcholine selectively suppresses excitatory intrinsic fiber synaptic transmission within the olfactory cortex, while leaving excitatory afferent input unaffected. In a computational model of olfactory cortex, this selective suppression, applied during learning, prevents interference from previously stored patterns during the learning of new patterns. Analysis of the model shows that the amount of suppression necessary to prevent interference depends on cortical parameters such as inhibition and the threshold of synaptic modification, as well as input parameters such as the amount of overlap between the patterns being stored.
Tactile Display Design for Securing Flight and Reducing the Saturation of Pilot's Visual Channel

Visual channel dominates the design of the cockpit, and auditory channel is progressively being used as well. However, tactile displays are almost abstract in the cockpit designs. Whereas, many research proved that several applications exist where the tactile displays may become an important or even essential choice. This is due to the fact that the visual feedback is not suitable, not adequate, or surcharged and that the visual attention is usually limited to a simple entity. In this paper, we propose a design of a low-cost tactile feedback system to provide the pilot with better insight in the flight path and prevent limitations during flight. In the first part of the paper, we develop an effective control strategy based on inverse dynamic to solve the problems of use of the low-cost tactors. The obtained results showed reduction of 48 % in settling time. The second part describes the use of Fuzzy Logic Controllers (FLC) to compute a new form of tactile output of the translation of a pertinent flight data information and flight envelope to vibrotactile feedback signals. And in the last part, we develop a wireless (and USB) vibrotactile feedback device consisting of 16 embedded tactors controlled with an inverse dynamic strategy via an arm Cortex M3 architecture. Pilots equipped with the developed tactile display were capable of successfully flying in a simulator. They confirm that tactile feedback is an interesting way of feeding back information about the airplaneâs state, in order to give a better understanding of what the airplane is doing during controlled flight.
Automatic component matching using forced simulation

Component-based synthesis of embedded systems will lead to the reuse of a vast library of hardware and software components and also facilitate rapid prototyping. However it is still low key, a primary reason being the lack of a systematic attempt at the development of automatic component matching algorithms. The main task of such an algorithm is to map a design function to a device from a library of system-level components. In this paper we propose a novel notion of simulation called forced simulation to formalize the correspondence between a function and a device. What distinguishes forced simulation from other techniques is the idea of forcing via an external interface, which can be automatically synthesized, and is useful for adapting the system level component to the given design functionality. We propose a new component matching algorithm based enforced simulation and illustrate it via the example of mapping a lathe controller port to Intel 82C55 in mode 2.
Multiobjective genetic algorithm for routability-driven circuit clustering on FPGAs

This paper presents a novel routability-driven circuit clustering (packing) technique, DBPack, to improve function packing on FPGAs. We address a number of challenges when optimising packing of generic FPGA architectures, which are input bandwidth constraints (the number of unique cluster input signals is greater than the number of unique signals available from routing channel), density of packing to satisfy area constraints and minimisation of exposed nets outside the cluster in order to facilitate routability. In order to achieve optimal trade-off solutions when mapping for groups of Basic Logic Elements (BLEs) into clusters with regard to multiple objectives, we have developed a population based circuit clustering algorithm based on non-dominated sorting multi-objective genetic algorithm (NSGA-II). Our proposed method is tested using a number of the “Golden 20” MCNC benchmark circuits that are regularly used in FPGA-related literature. The results show that the techniques proposed in the paper considerably improve both packing density of clusters and their routability when compared to the state-of-art routability-driven packing algorithms, including VPack, T-VPack and RPack.
Therapeutic Exercise and Orthopedic Manual Therapy for Impingement Syndrome: A Systematic Review

ObjectiveTo review randomized controlled trials evaluating the effectiveness of therapeutic exercise and orthopedic manual therapy for the treatment of impingement syndrome. Data SourceReports up to October 2002 were located from MEDLINE, the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, the Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro), the TRIP database, and the Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) using “shoulder” and “clinical trial”/“randomized controlled trial” as search terms. Study SelectionStudies were included if (1) they were a randomized controlled trial; (2) they were related to impingement syndrome, rotator cuff tendinitis, or bursitis; (3) one of the treatments included therapeutic exercise or manual therapy. Data ExtractionTwo independent observers reviewed the methodological quality of the studies using an assessment tool developed by the Cochrane Musculoskeletal Injuries Group. Differences were resolved by consensus. Data SynthesisSeven trials met our inclusion criteria. After consensus, the mean methodological score for all studies was 13.9 ± 2.4 (of 24). Four studies of 7, including the 3 trials with the best methodological score (67%), suggested some benefit of therapeutic exercise or manual therapy compared with other treatments such as acromioplasty, placebo, or no intervention. ConclusionsThere is limited evidence to support the efficacy of therapeutic exercise and manual therapy to treat impingement syndrome. More methodologically sound studies are needed to further evaluate these interventions.
Measurement of salivary cortisol concentration in the assessment of adrenal function in critically ill subjects: a surrogate marker of the circulating free cortisol.

METHODS Baseline and cosyntropin-stimulated serum (total and free) and salivary cortisol concentrations were measured, in the early afternoon, in 51 critically ill patients and healthy subjects. Patients were stratified according to their serum albumin at the time of testing: those whose serum albumin levels were 2.5 gm/dl or less vs. others whose levels were greater than 2.5 gm/dl. RESULTS Baseline and cosyntropin-stimulated serum free cortisol levels were similar in the two groups of critically ill patients and were severalfold higher (P < 0.001) than those of healthy subjects. Similarly, baseline and cosyntropin-stimulated salivary cortisol concentrations were equally elevated in the two critically ill patient groups and were severalfold higher (P < 0.001) than those of healthy subjects. Salivary cortisol concentrations correlated well with the measured serum free cortisol levels. CONCLUSIONS Salivary cortisol measurements are simple to obtain, easy to measure in most laboratories, and provide an indirect yet reliable and practical assessment of the serum free cortisol concentrations during critical illnesses. The concentrations of the two measures of unbound cortisol determined in two different body fluids correlated very well, regardless of the serum protein concentrations. Measurements of salivary cortisol can serve as a surrogate marker for the free cortisol in the circulation.
In-Silico Validation and Comparative Analysis of Candidate Gene Encoding Proline Rich Protein in Lens culinaris

In present study a proline rich protein has been identified in lentil EST database using (soyabean) glycine max proline rich protein sequence as query sequence known to be down regulated in response to salinity and drought stress. Sequence similarity search has shown 90% similarity with chickpea EST sequence Accesion no. GR 398344 and 85% similarity with Lens culinaris EST sequence Accession no. GT 622346. Primer pairs were designed for this sequence and validated on selective Lens culinaris cultivars. tblastx result has also shown similarity with the glycine max (Soybean) proline rich protein showing repetitive pattern of amino acids. Repetitive pattern observed was similar to the characteristic pattern present in proline rich protein. Identification of this gene will further help to study the role of proline rich protein in response to various biotic and abiotic stress.
Quantum-assisted and Quantum-based Solutions in Wireless Systems

In wireless systems there is always a trade-off between reducing the transmit power and mitigating the resultant signal-degradation imposed by the transmit-power reduction with the aid of sophisticated receiver algorithms, when considering the total energy consumption. Quantum-assisted wireless communications exploits the extra computing power offered by quantum mechanics based architectures. This paper summarizes some recent results in quantum computing and the corresponding application areas in wireless communications.
Measurement of surface currents from a shipborne HFSWR

The spreading first-order sea echo spectrum in shipborne high-frequency surface wave radar (HFSWR) severely impacts the measurement of surface currents. Space-time processing techniques like space-time multiple signal classification (ST-MUSIC) algorithm, usually studied for two-dimensional high resolution radar imaging, are the effective methods for solving the problem. The rank of the sea echo covariance matrix is an important indicator of the severity of the sea echo scenario. With this knowledge, the sea echo can be accurately extracted from the complicated radar returns by using the ST-MUSIC algorithm. Furthermore, the least-squares method is introduced to estimate the uniform surface current vectors from a single shipborne HFSWR by fitting the adjacent radial current vectors. The simulation results have verified the validity of these algorithms.
Enhanced Raman scattering by self-assembled silica spherical microparticles

A technique was developed to achieve enhanced Raman scattering of the silicon photon modes using closely packed micro- and submicron silica spherical particles. Investigation on the particle-size dependence of Raman enhancement revealed that the strongest enhancement occurs when the particle diameter is equal to the spot size of the incident laser beam. Calculations using the OPTIWAVE™ software based on the finite difference time domain algorithm under the perfectly matched layer boundary conditions were carried out. The results showed that photonic nanojets are formed in the vicinity outside the particles along the propagation direction of incident light. It was found that the nanojets are confined to a length of 100nm with a waist of 120nm. The presence of the strongly localized electromagnetic fields within the nanojets accounts for the enhanced Raman scattering. This technique has potential applications both in modern and traditional areas of surface science such as surface oxidation, adhesion, corros.
A, B, H antigen detectability in normal and neoplastic urothelium. Influence of methodologic factors

In the fresh‐frozen state, the expected antigen was always detectable in normal mucosas but only in 69% of TCCs regardless of patient's secretor status and blood group (BG). Few normal mucosae (12%) but a large number of TCCs (46%) converted to negative after paraffin processing. Similar reduction in A, B, H reactivity was also noted when the tissues were treated with concentrations of alcohol comparable to those used in the paraffin procedure. Tumor antigens were more sensitive to alcohol. This suggested that in neoplastic cells ABH determinants are not only fewer but also disproportionately represented on polar (alcohol‐soluble) molecules. Alcohol more profoundly affected tissues from nonsecretors probably because the proportion of alcohol‐soluble A, B, H substances differs in secretors and nonsecretors.
Complexity of lifetime occupation and cognitive performance in old age.

BACKGROUND Occupation is recognized as a modifiable factor related to cognitive reserve in older adults. AIMS To examine the association between levels of complexity in lifelong occupations and cognitive performance in later life. METHODS A cross-sectional study of older adult users (aged 65 or more) of a private health care plan, resident in the north zone of Rio de Janeiro City, Brazil, and participating in the Rio de Janeiro section of the Study of Fragility in Brazilian Older Adults (FIBRA-RJ). Cognitive performance scores were obtained using the Mini-Mental State Examination. The level of complexity of their work was assessed in three domains: work with data, persons and things. Associations between the complexity of work in each domain and cognitive performance were evaluated using multivariate linear regression, adjusted for socio-demographic variables and duration of occupation. RESULTS A total of 624 older adults (94% of the study group) performed lifelong work activities. Among those working with data, the high complexity group had cognitive performance scores 1.08 points higher (P < 0.05) than low complexity. In work with things, scores in the intermediate complexity group were 0.53 points higher (P < 0.05) than low complexity. There was no statistically significant difference in the cognitive performance between levels of complexity of work with people. CONCLUSIONS Complexity in work with data and things was associated with better cognitive performance in later life, independent of age, schooling, income and duration of occupation.
Learners' and teachers' perspectives on language online 1

This article examines the student and instructor satisfaction with the Language Online courses at Carnegie Mellon University from 2000–2002. These courses were designed with a hybrid format, including reduced face-to-face contact and online delivery of course materials. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected from students and instructors using surveys, interviews, and focus groups. Quantitative data from students indicates a trend of increasing satisfaction with the online courses compared with offline (traditional) courses. Qualitative data were analyzed using QSR NVivo software. Student themes centered on reactions to the reduced schedule of classes and the technology used in course delivery. For instructors, recurring themes included the need for training, control of course materials, and connections with students. The results provide valuable insight for a course format increasingly utilized in university-level language learning.
Mechanism of HIV‐1‐TAT induction of interleukin‐1β from human monocytes: Involvement of the phospholipase C/protein kinase C signaling cascade

Human immunodeficiency virus TAT plays an important role in the disregulation of cytokine production associated with the neurological disorders that follow HIV infection. IL‐1β is one of the important inflammatory cytokines secreted by immune‐activated monocytes/macrophages. Previous reports have shown that extracellular TAT stimulates IL‐1β expression in monocytes/macrophages. However, little is known about the mechanisms and possible TAT‐responsive elements within the IL‐1β promoter. The present study shows that TAT increases the production of IL‐1β in human monocytes; PLC‐PKC pathway‐dependent phosphorylation of p44/42 and JNK MAP kinases participates partially in IL‐1β induction by TAT; specific C/EBP and NF‐κB transcription factor binding elements within the IL‐1β promoter are involved in TAT regulation of IL‐1β production. This study identifies a signaling mechanism for HIV‐1‐induced IL‐1β production in human monocytes that may be involved in the neuropathogenesis of HIV‐associated dementia. J. Med. Virol. 82: 735–746, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.