Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A New Method for Cartilage Evaluation in Femoroacetabular Impingement Using Quantitative T2 Magnetic Resonance Imaging: Preliminary Validation against Arthroscopic Findings

Objective The outcome of arthroscopic treatment for femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) depends on the preoperative status of the hip cartilage. Quantitative T2 can detect early biochemical cartilage changes, but its routine implementation is challenging. Furthermore, intrinsic T2 variability between patients makes it difficult to define a threshold to identify cartilage lesions. To address this, we propose a normalized T2-index as a new method to evaluate cartilage in FAI. Design We retrospectively analyzed magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data of 18 FAI patients with arthroscopically confirmed cartilage defects. Cartilage T2 maps were reconstructed from multi-spin-echo 3-T data using the echo-modulation-curve (EMC) model-based technique. The central femoral cartilage, assumed healthy in early-stage FAI, was used as the normalization reference to define a T2-index. We investigated the ability of the T2-index to detect surgically confirmed cartilage lesions. Results The average T2-index was 1.14 ± 0.1 and 1.13 ± 0.1 for 2 separated segmentations. Using T2-index >1 as the threshold for damaged cartilage, accuracy was 88% and 100% for the 2 segmentations. We found moderate intraobserver repeatability, although separate segmentations yielded comparable accuracy. Damaged cartilage could not be identified using nonnormalized average T2 values. Conclusions This preliminary study confirms the importance of normalizing T2 values to account for interpatient variability and suggests that the T2-index is a promising biomarker for the detection of cartilage lesions in FAI. Future work is needed to confirm that combining T2-index with morphologic MRI and other quantitative biomarkers could improve cartilage assessment in FAI.
Virus‐like particles for vaccination against cancer

Abstract Active immunotherapy of cancer aims to treat the disease by inducing effective cellular and humoral immune responses. Virus‐like particle‐based vaccines have evolved dramatically over the last few decades, greatly reducing morbidity and mortality of several infectious diseases and expectedly preventing cervical cancer caused by human papilloma virus. In contrast to these broad successes of disease prevention, therapeutic cancer vaccines remain to demonstrate clinical benefit. Yet, several preclinical and clinical trials have revealed promising results and are paving the way for medical breakthroughs. This study reviews and discusses the recent preclinical development and clinical trials in this field. This article is categorized under: Biology‐Inspired Nanomaterials > Protein and Virus‐Based Structures Nanotechnology Approaches to Biology > Nanoscale Systems in Biology
Immediate Breast Reconstruction Allows for the Timely Initiation of Post-Mastectomy Radiation Therapy.

INTRODUCTION Surgical complications resulting from breast reconstruction may delay the initiation of PMRT, which can impact breast cancer outcomes. We hypothesized that immediate breast reconstruction may be associated with delays in the initiation of PMRT, but that this delay would not significantly impact overall patient survival. METHODS Using the National Cancer Database, we identified women with breast cancer who underwent mastectomy and received PMRT within 1 year of surgery. Delayed PMRT was defined as treatment initiated ≥6 months after surgery in patients who received adjuvant chemotherapy, or as ≥12 weeks after surgery in patients who received neoadjuvant or no chemotherapy. RESULTS Overall, 171,136 patients were identified. Women undergoing breast reconstruction had an increased median time to PMRT, 154 (IQR, 64-196) vs. 132 days (IQR, 52-188.5) (p<0.001), and on logistic regression were more likely to experience a delay in initiating PMRT (OR, 1.25; 95% CI, 1.188-1.314). Other factors associated with delayed PMRT included: increased Charlson-Deyo scores, neoadjuvant chemotherapy, non-private insurance, and black race. Cox Proportional Hazards models revealed no evidence of a reduced adjusted overall survival in the immediate breast reconstruction group (HR, 0.836; 95% CI 0.802-0.871, p<0.001). Restricted cubic spline analysis identified the threshold number of days at which the start of PMRT began to impact survival at 169 (95% CI, 160-190), 75 (95% CI, 42-90), and 71 (95% CI, 41-90) days in patients undergoing adjuvant, neoadjuvant, and no chemotherapy, respectively. CONCLUSION Immediate breast reconstruction is associated with a modest delay in initiating PMRT but does not impact overall survival.
Practitioner insights as a means of setting a context for conservation

A key obstacle to conservation success is the tendency of conservation professionals to tackle each challenge individually rather than collectively and in context. We sought to prioritize barriers to conservation previously described in the conservation literature. We undertook an online survey of 154 practitioners from over 70 countries to ascertain the most important barriers to conservation they faced. We used statistical analyses to identify the key impediments to conservation success and to examine whether these were affected by organizational attributes. Twenty‐one barriers were identified. The importance ascribed to those was influenced by continent of operation and organization size, but not by organization age or autonomy (from larger parent organizations). We found the most important barriers to consider when undertaking conservation action were wider issues (e.g., population growth, consumerism, favoring development, and industrial‐scale activity), operating environment (e.g., lack of political will, ineffective law enforcement, weak governments, corruption, safety and security), community attributes (e.g., dynamics, conflicts, and education levels), and the way conservation is undertaken (overconfidence, lack of funding, and externally set agendas). However, we advise against applying a one‐size‐fits‐all approach. We propose that conservationists account for the complex socioecological systems they operate in if they are to achieve success.
HARVARD HIV AND AGING WORKSHOP: PERSPECTIVES AND PRIORITIES FROM CLAUDE D. PEPPER CENTERS AND CENTERS FOR AIDS RESEARCH.

People aging with HIV infection (PAWH) experience greater impairments in physical and cognitive function, in addition to higher rates of peripheral comorbid conditions (e.g. renal failure, diabetes, bone fracture, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, polypharmacy and multimorbidity). While multifactorial drivers including HIV infection itself, antiretroviral therapy (ART)-related toxicities, disparities in care and biobehavioral factors likely contribute, there remains an overarching question as what are the relevant age-related mechanisms and models that could inform interventions that promote healthspan and lifespan in PAWH? This workshop was convened to hear from experts on the biology of aging and HIV researchers studying PAWH to focus on advancing investigation at the interface of HIV and Aging. Here we summarize the discussions from the Harvard Center for AIDS Research and Boston Claude D. Pepper co-sponsored workshop on HIV and Aging, which took place in October of 2018.
Genetic affinities of an eradicated European Plasmodium falciparum strain

Malaria was present in most of Europe until the second half of the 20th century, when it was eradicated through a combination of increased surveillance and mosquito control strategies, together with cross-border and political collaboration. Despite the severe burden of malaria on human populations, it remains contentious how the disease arrived and spread in Europe. Here, we report a partial Plasmodium falciparum nuclear genome derived from a set of antique medical slides stained with the blood of malaria-infected patients from Spain’s Ebro Delta, dating to the 1940s. Our analyses of the genome of this now eradicated European P. falciparum strain confirms stronger phylogeographical affinity to present-day strains in circulation in central south Asia, rather than to those in Africa. This points to a longitudinal, rather than a latitudinal, spread of malaria into Europe. In addition, this genome displays two derived alleles in the pfmrp1 gene that have been associated with drug resistance. Whilst this could represent standing variation in the ancestral P. falciparum population, these mutations may also have arisen due to the selective pressure of quinine treatment, which was an anti-malarial drug already in use by the time the sample we sequenced was mounted on a slide.
The study of Positive and Negative Affect in children and adolescents: New advances in a Spanish version of the PANAS

The study of affective disorders among young population has become increasingly relevant in the last years. The PANAS is a widely used questionnaire devoted to assess positive and negative affect. The main purpose of the current study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the PANAS for children (PANAS). The sample consisted of 1032 children and adolescents aged between 10 and 15 years. The ESEM two factor model (Positive Affect and Negative Affect) was found as the most suitable model. The PANAS scores also showed acceptable internal consistency. The ESEM two factor model was invariant across gender and educational level. Results showed statistically significant differences in the latent mean scores with females scoring higher than males in and younger students scoring lower in PA. Positive and negative affect were related with external variables of well-being. The present psychometric study supports the PANAS as a brief and useful tool for the screening of PA and NA in children and adolescents.
Optimization Approach to Design of Digital Autopilots for Lateral Motion Control of an Aircraft

В рамках современной теории управления поставлена и решена задача так называемой l1-оптимизации цифровых Пи ПИ-автопилотов для управления боковым движением некоторого летательного аппарата при наличии неконтролируемых внешних возмущений типа порыва ветра. Предложены численные методы нахождения оптимальных значений параметров автопилотов. Полученные результаты являются прикладными. Ключевые слова: летательный аппарат, динамика бокового движения, цифровая система управления, устойчивость, l1-оптимизация, алгоритм случайного поиска.
Chapter 202 Conditional Power of Tests for the Difference Between Two Proportions

In sequential designs, one or more intermediate analyses of the emerging data are conducted to evaluate whether the experiment should be continued. This may be done to conserve resources or to allow a data monitoring board to evaluate safety and efficacy when subjects are entered in a staggered fashion over a long period of time. Conditional power (a frequentist concept) is the probability that the final result will be significant, given the data obtained up to the time of the interim look. Predictive power (a Bayesian concept) is the result of averaging the conditional power over the posterior distribution of effect size. Both of these methods fall under the heading of stochastic curtailment techniques. Further reading about the theory of these methods can be found in Jennison and Turnbull (2000), Chow and Chang (2007), Chang (2008), Proschan et.al (2006), and Dmitrienko et.al (2005).
North American April tornado occurrences linked to global sea surface temperature anomalies

Ocean temperature anomalies in April influence U.S. tornado frequencies through atmospheric teleconnections and moisture transport. Annual tornado occurrences over North America display large interannual variability and a statistical linkage to sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies. However, the underlying physical mechanisms for this connection and its modulation in a rapidly varying seasonal environment still remain elusive. Using tornado data over the United States from 1954 to 2016 in combination with SST-forced atmospheric general circulation models, we show a robust dynamical linkage between global SST conditions in April, the emergence of the Pacific-North American teleconnection pattern (PNA), and the year-to-year tornado activity in the Southern Great Plains (SGP) region of the United States. Contrasting previous studies, we find that only in April SST-driven atmospheric circulation anomalies can effectively control the northward moisture-laden flow from the Gulf of Mexico, boosting low-level moisture flux convergence over the SGP. These strong large-scale connections are absent in other months because of the strong seasonality of the PNA and background moisture conditions.
Acquisition of cleft structures in L 1 and L 2

The present study aims at exploring the processing difficulty of cleft structures as a type of relative clause for EFL and Persian as first language learners.The impact of head nouns with various functions as well as that of embedding on the processing of Persian and English cleft structures has been investigated in the present study.The participants were 68 Iranian male and female students.Two sets of picture selection tests along with 27 items both in Persian and English were designed for both the Persian and English groups.The Persian items consisted of 4 different cleft types : subject cleft, object cleft with resumption ,object cleft with gap and object clitic cleft . The Engliish language included either subject cleft or object cleft type.Results showed that word order has a significant effect on Persian cleft processing of Iranian children.The results also revealed that word order has a significant effect on EFL learners’ processing of English clef sentences. Key terms: Cleft Sentence, Word Order, Head Noun, Relative Pronoun, Isomorphim
Conserved structural RNA domains in regions coding for cleavage site motifs in hemagglutinin genes of influenza viruses

Abstract The acquisition of a multibasic cleavage site (MBCS) in the hemagglutinin (HA) glycoprotein is the main determinant of the conversion of low pathogenic avian influenza viruses into highly pathogenic strains, facilitating HA cleavage and virus replication in a broader range of host cells. In nature, substitutions or insertions in HA RNA genomic segments that code for multiple basic amino acids have been observed only in the HA genes of two out of sixteen subtypes circulating in birds, H5 and H7. Given the compatibility of MBCS motifs with HA proteins of numerous subtypes, this selectivity was hypothesized to be determined by the existence of specific motifs in HA RNA, in particular structured domains. In H5 and H7 HA RNAs, predictions of such domains have yielded alternative conserved stem-loop structures with the cleavage site codons in the hairpin loops. Here, potential RNA secondary structures were analyzed in the cleavage site regions of HA segments of influenza viruses of different types and subtypes. H5- and H7-like stem-loop structures were found in all known influenza A virus subtypes and in influenza B and C viruses with homology modeling. Nucleotide covariations supported this conservation to be determined by RNA structural constraints that are stronger in the domain-closing bottom stems as compared to apical parts. The structured character of this region in (sub-)types other than H5 and H7 indicates its functional importance beyond the ability to evolve toward an MBCS responsible for a highly pathogenic phenotype.
LAND USE AND LAND COVER PREDICTION AND ITS IMPACT ON SURFACE RUNOFF

Due to the rapid growth of Mahasarakham University (MSU), land use and land cover (LULC) change takes place on the campus and in its vicinity, and various types of environmental impacts occur in the area. The Mmain objectives are to quantify the characteristics of the LULC change, to identify an optimum LULC change model for a LULC prediction, and to examine the effect of the LULC changes on the surface runoff at in Mueang Maha Sarakham and Kantharawichai districts of Maha Sarakham province. The 3 main components of the research methodology are the LULC assessment by visual interpretation, an optimum predictive LULC change model identification, and the impact of the LULC changes on surface runoff. The study revealed that the dominant LULC type during 2001-2011 was agricultural land, while the urban and built-up areas had been continuously increased by conversion of agricultural and forest lands. The overall accuracy and K hat coefficient for the LULC data in 2011 were 98.12% and 96.02%, respectively. It was found that an optimum predictive LULC change model was the CA-Markov model which provided higher accuracy than the Land Change Modeler. Also, most of the urban and built-up area sub-classes during 2001-2021 had continuously increased except for the dormitory sub-class, while the agricultural land, except the field crop, had continuously decreased. This study also demonstrated that there is strongly related the change of the urban area on has a strong effect on the surface runoff depth. Likewise, the level of urbanization is strongly associated with the mean surface runoff depth zonation. Evidence from the study suggests that the LULC changes have an effect on the surface runoff characteristics. In conclusion, it appears that geoinformatics technology and the LULC change model can be used as tools for a LULC change and environmental impact assessment.
Detection of Anomalies in User Behaviour

Search engines have become a fundamental tool of everyday live, billions of users are using them to get the information they desire in a comfortable way. Unfortunately, some visitors exhibit various kinds of malicious behavior. For instance, they try to deplete competitions advertising budget through excessive clicking on sponsored results. Such anomalous behavior often leads to a worsened user experience of ”normal users”. In addition, due to the vast amounts of visitors, such behavior is hard to detect manually, which further means that we can’t use standard supervised methods to train a user classifier. This thesis introduces three unsupervised models for atypical user detection, all of them evaluate distinct user session characteristics, for instance, click, query and behavioral patterns. The preliminary results show, that with some further improvements the current findings could be deployed for real world use.
Feasibility and Safety of Clipless and Sutureless Laparoscopic Adrenalectomy: A 7-Year Single Center Experience.

PURPOSE Laparoscopic adrenalectomy (LAD) is considered the gold standard surgical method for resecting adrenal tumors. To date, only few small studies have investigated the safety of clipless laparoscopic adrenalectomy in which the adrenal vessels were controlled by the LigaSure system or bipolar coagulation. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the safety and feasibility of sutureless and clipless laparoscopic adrenalectomy operations performed in our center. MATERIALS AND METHODS All patients with functional adrenal tumors, nonfunctional adrenal tumors larger than 5 cm and secondary adrenal metastases from the kidneys, lungs or breasts who had underwent an LAD procedure between 2012 to 2019 were included in our study. In all of the cases, complete coagulation of adrenal veins was achieved through bipolar cautery and no vascular staplers, clips or other energy sources were used for controlling the adrenal vessels whatsoever. Outcomes of interest included operation time, length of hospital stay, changes of serum hemoglobin level, and occurrence of major complications. RESULTS Of a total 251 patients, unilateral right and left-side adrenalectomy was performed in 168 and 67 cases, respectively, and 16 cases had underwent bilateral adrenal resection. The mean age (SD) of patients was 40.7 (13.6) years old at the time of operation and the mean size (SD) of the adrenal lesions was 5.2 (3.1) cm as measured by the greatest diameter. Histological examination showed that the most common pathology of the resected adrenal glands was adrenal adenoma (n=82) followed by pheochromocytoma (n=78). None of the laparoscopic operations required a conversion to open surgery. Also, major bleeding or other serious complications did not occur in any of the cases either intraoperatively or postoperatively.
GPU Accelerated Semantic Search Using Latent Semantic Analysis

During the last decade, the concept of general purpose computing on graphics processors has seen increased adoption. One candidate for leveraging a GPU for improved computational performance is the semantic text analysis. With increasing amounts of data and stringent response time requirements, improving the underlying implementation of semantic analysis becomes critical. We consider Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA), a numerical technique used to extract information from large collections of text documents. We present a parallel LSA implementation on the GPU, using CUDA and the cuSolver library for common matrix factorization and triangular solve routines for dense matrices. The performance is compared to that of a traditional CPU-based LSA implementation employing an optimized Basic Linear Algebra Subprograms library. The experimental results indicate that the GPU leads to significantly larger throughput compared to the CPU-only implementation: a speed-up of up to 21 is achieved. Keywords— semantic search, information retrieval, Latent Semantic Analysis, GPU, CUDA
Doped silica fi bre thermoluminescence measurements of radiation dose in the use of 223

Using tailor-made sub-mm dimension doped-silica fibres, thermoluminescent dosimetric studies have been performed for α-emitting sources of RaCl2 (the basis of the Bayer Healthcare product Xofigo®). The use of RaCl2 in the palliative treatment of bone metastases resulting from late-stage castration-resistant prostate cancer focuses on its favourable uptake in metabolically active bone metastases. Such treatment benefits from the high linear energy transfer (LET) and associated short path length (< 100 μm) of the α-particles emitted by Ra and its decay progeny. In seeking to provide for in vitro dosimetry of the α-particles originating from the Ra decay series, investigation has been made of the TL yield of various forms of Ge-doped SiO2 fibres, including photonic crystal fibre (PCF) collapsed, PCF uncollapsed, flat and single-mode fibres. Irradiations of the fibres were performed at the UK National Physical Laboratory (NPL). Notable features are the considerable sensitivity of the dosimeters and an effective atomic number Zeff approaching that of bone, the glass fibres offering the added advantage of being able to be placed directly into liquid. The outcome of present research is expected to inform development of doped fibre dosimeters of versatile utility, including for applications as