Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparison of the efficacy of Gd-EOB-DTPA-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging and magnetic resonance elastography in the detection and staging of hepatic fibrosis

Abstract The present study compared the efficacy of gadolinium ethoxybenzyl diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid (Gd-EOB-DTPA)-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) in the estimation of hepatic fibrosis stages with histopathologic correlation. This retrospective study included 104 patients (87 men and 17 women; mean age, 60.6 ± 10.6 years) with chronic liver disease who underwent both Gd-EOB-DTPA-enhanced MRI and MRE. The relative enhancement (RE) ratio of the liver parenchyma and the contrast enhancement index (CEI) were calculated as (SIpostliver − SIpreliver)/SIpreliver and SIpost/SIpre, respectively, where SIpost and SIpre were the liver-to-muscle signal intensity ratios on the hepatobiliary phase images and noncontrast-enhanced images, respectively. The liver stiffness values were measured using MRE stiffness maps. The diagnostic performance of MRE, RE ratios, and CEI values for hepatic fibrosis staging were compared. The distribution of fibrosis stages was as follows: F0, n = 3 (2.9%); F1, n = 12 (11.5%); F2, n = 17 (16.3%); F3, n = 26 (25.0%); and F4, n = 46 (44.2%). MRE, RE ratios, and CEI values correlated significantly with hepatic fibrosis (rs = .79, −.35, −.25, respectively, P < .05). MRE showed a significantly higher diagnostic performance than did RE ratios and CEI values for each fibrosis stage, except while distinguishing the F1 fibrosis stage (CEI, P = .15). A cutoff value of RE ratio = 0.89 can be used to identify patients with significant hepatic fibrosis, with positive predictive value, sensitivity, specificity, and negative predictive value of 93.2%, 61.8%, 73.3%, and 24.4%, respectively. Gd-EOB-DTPA-enhanced MRI can potentially predict significant hepatic fibrosis. However, the diagnostic performance of MRE for hepatic fibrosis staging was superior to that of Gd-EOB-DTPA-enhanced MRI.
Finding the Right Experts and Learning to Rank Them by Relevance: Evaluation of a Semi-Automatically Generated Ranking Function

A framework for expert searching developed at the Univer- sity of Hagen supports the use of contextual factors motivated in the eld of expertise seeking. A user can query the system with skills which the person to be found should be an expert in. The result is a list of users from the searched knowledge base, ranked by relevance for the given query. In this paper, we address the semi-automatic generation of train- ing data for the learning-to-rank library that does the relevance ranking. We focus on evaluating the quality of the ranking function.
Republished review: Next generation sequencing for clinical diagnostics and personalised medicine: implications for the next generation cardiologist

The fast moving field of genomic medicine is already impacting on clinical care and cardiologists are fortunate to be in a position to benefit early from the transformative advances in genomics. However, the challenges associated with genomics in the clinic in general, and with next generation sequencing technologies in particular, are significant and cardiologists need to be prepared if they wish to surf the wave of genomic opportunity. This paper presents an overview of the implications of next generation sequencing for clinical diagnostics and personalised medicine in the cardiology clinic.
Incorporating Information Status into Generation Ranking

We investigate the influence of information status (IS) on constituent order in German, and integrate our findings into a loglinear surface realisation ranking model. We show that the distribution of pairs of IS categories is strongly asymmetric. Moreover, each category is correlated with morphosyntactic features, which can be automatically detected. We build a loglinear model that incorporates these asymmetries for ranking German string realisations from input LFG F-structures. We show that it achieves a statistically significantly higher BLEU score than the baseline system without these features.
Selective labeling of lipid droplets in aldehyde fixed cell monolayers by lipophilic fluorochromes

Abstract We evaluated a number of lipophilic dyes and fluorochromes, including oxazone and thiazone derivatives of oxazine and thiazine dyes, scintillator agents, a carotenoid and a metal-porphyrin complex for visualization of lipid droplets within aldehyde fixed cultured HeLa and BGC-1 cells. Observation under ultraviolet, blue or green exciting light revealed selective fluorescence of lipid droplets, particularly after treatment with aqueous solutions of Nile blue and brilliant cresyl blue oxazones, toluidine blue thiazone, or propylene glycol solutions of canthaxanthin, ethyl-BAO, and ZnTPyP. Mounting in water was required to maintain the fluorescence of lipids; the use of glycerol, Mowiol or Vectashield was not adequate. The effect of dye structure on staining intensity was assessed with the aid of numerical structure parameters modeling lipophilicity (HI and log P), overall size (MW) and the size of the conjugated system (conjugated bond number; CBN). The best stains for lipid droplets were relatively lipophilic (HI > 4.0, log P > 5.0), of small size overall (MW < 370), with small conjugated systems (CBN < 24), and not significantly amphiphilic. The two hydrophobic-hydrophilic parameters (the classic log P and the hydrophobic index, HI; values calculated by molecular modeling software) were highly correlated; however, HI was a more suitable hydrophobicity index for the dyes studied here.
Visuomotor feedback gains upregulate during the learning of novel dynamics

At an early stage of learning novel dynamics, changes in muscle activity are mainly due to corrective feedback responses. These feedback contributions to the overall motor command are gradually reduced as feedforward control is learned. The temporary increased use of feedback could arise simply from the large errors in early learning with either unaltered gains or even slightly downregulated gains, or from an upregulation of the feedback gains when feedforward prediction is insufficient. We therefore investigated whether the sensorimotor control system alters feedback gains during adaptation to a novel force field generated by a robotic manipulandum. To probe the feedback gains throughout learning, we measured the magnitude of involuntary rapid visuomotor responses to rapid shifts in the visual location of the hand during reaching movements. We found large increases in the magnitude of the rapid visuomotor response whenever the dynamics changed: both when the force field was first presented, and when it was removed. We confirmed that these changes in feedback gain are not simply a byproduct of the change in background load, by demonstrating that this rapid visuomotor response is not load sensitive. Our results suggest that when the sensorimotor control system experiences errors, it increases the gain of the visuomotor feedback pathways to deal with the unexpected disturbances until the feedforward controller learns the appropriate dynamics. We suggest that these feedback gains are upregulated with increased uncertainty in the knowledge of the dynamics to counteract any errors or disturbances and ensure accurate and skillful movements.
THE REPERTORY GRID INTERVIEW OF A DEPRESSED PATIENT

SUMMARY The construct system of a patient of Depression is investigated with the Rank Order Repertory Grid Technique, using principal component analysis to analyse the grid matrix. The investigation helps test clinical judgments and hypotheses concerning the patient and also suggests new directions for further clinical enquiry. This case study demonstrates how the grid technique can make possible a more comprehensive understanding of the cognitive processes of the patient.
Towards Privacy-Preserving Data Sharing in Smart Environments

The increasing development of IoT is dramatically changing the way people share information and communicate with their surrounding environment, enabling a constant, invisible and sometimes unintended data exchange, between things and people. This extension of the current Internet to everyday life scenarios leads identity management has to face new challenges due to the inherent nature and requirements of this paradigm. This work gives an overview of recent privacy enhanced technologies such as attribute-based cryptography and anonymous credential systems, as well as their application on IoT scenarios. Additionally, based on such mechanisms, we offer a framework which is designed to enable a secure and privacy-aware data sharing on the Future Internet.
Wheat Landrace Genome Diversity

Understanding the genomic complexity of bread wheat is important for unraveling domestication processes, environmental adaptation, and for future of. Understanding the genomic complexity of bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is a cornerstone in the quest to unravel the processes of domestication and the following adaptation of domesticated wheat to a wide variety of environments across the globe. Additionally, it is of importance for future improvement of the crop, particularly in the light of climate change. Focusing on the adaptation after domestication, a nested association mapping (NAM) panel of 60 segregating biparental populations was developed, mainly involving landrace accessions from the core set of the Watkins hexaploid wheat collection optimized for genetic diversity. A modern spring elite variety, “Paragon,” was used as common reference parent. Genetic maps were constructed following identical rules to make them comparable. In total, 1611 linkage groups were identified, based on recombination from an estimated 126,300 crossover events over the whole NAM panel. A consensus map, named landrace consensus map (LRC), was constructed and contained 2498 genetic loci. These newly developed genetics tools were used to investigate the rules underlying genome fluidity or rigidity, e.g., by comparing marker distances and marker orders. In general, marker order was highly correlated, which provides support for strong synteny between bread wheat accessions. However, many exceptional cases of incongruent linkage groups and increased marker distances were also found. Segregation distortion was detected for many markers, sometimes as hot spots present in different populations. Furthermore, evidence for translocations in at least 36 of the maps was found. These translocations fell, in general, into many different translocation classes, but a few translocation classes were found in several accessions, the most frequent one being the well-known T5B:7B translocation. Loci involved in recombination rate, which is an interesting trait for plant breeding, were identified by QTL analyses using the crossover counts as a trait. In total, 114 significant QTL were detected, nearly half of them with increasing effect from the nonreference parents.
Effects of excess body mass on strength and fatigability of quadriceps in postmenopausal women

ObjectiveObesity is a major public health problem leading to, among other things, reduced functional capacity. Moreover, obesity-related declines in functional capacity may be compounded by the detrimental consequences of menopause. The aim of this study was to understand the potential effects of excess body mass on measures of functional capacity in postmenopausal women. MethodsForty-five postmenopausal women aged 50 to 60 years were divided into two groups according to body mass index (BMI): obese (BMI, ≥30 kg/m2; n = 19) and nonobese (BMI, 18.5-29.9 kg/m2; n = 26). To determine clinical characteristics, body composition, bone mineral density, and maximal exercise testing was performed, and a 3-day dietary record was estimated. To assess quadriceps function, isokinetic exercise testing at 60° per second (quadriceps strength) and at 300° per second (quadriceps fatigue) was performed. ResultsThe absolute value of the peak torque was not significantly different between the groups; however, when the data were normalized by body mass and lean mass, significantly lower values were observed for obese women compared with those in the nonobese group (128% ± 25% vs 155% ± 24% and 224% ± 38% vs 257% ± 47%, P < 0.05). The fatigue index did not show any significant difference for either group; however, when the data were normalized by the body mass and lean mass, significantly lower values were observed for obese women (69% ± 16% vs 93% ± 18% and 120% ± 25% vs. 135% ± 23%, P < 0.01). ConclusionsOur results show that despite reduced muscle force, the combination of obesity and postmenopause may be associated with greater resistance to muscle fatigue.
Development of a model for teaching manipulation of a distal radial fracture.

BACKGROUND Recent reports indicate that there is a trend toward the use of models and simulators to teach basic orthopaedic operative skills. We describe a high-fidelity model for teaching basic orthopaedic fracture manipulation. METHODS A model of a distal radial fracture was developed and validated by orthopaedic surgeons with different levels of experience, who examined and manipulated the model and then completed a structured questionnaire. RESULTS The participants mostly agreed (designated as 4 in the questionnaire) that the model performed well on the degree to which the manipulation represented real life. The participants agreed (designated as 5 in the questionnaire) that the model scored high on the appearance and feel of the fracture and its ability to be used as a teaching tool. There was no difference between perceptions of participants with regard to different levels of occupational experience or model use. CONCLUSIONS We believe that this model could be used to teach the skill of closed reduction of a distal radial fracture in the preclinical setting.
Remote monitoring of patients with implanted devices: data exchange and integration

Background Remote follow-up of implanted implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) may offer a solution to the problem of overcrowded outpatient clinics, and may also be effective in detecting clinical events early. Data obtained from remote follow up systems, as developed by all major device companies, are stored in a central database system, operated and owned by the device company. A problem now arises that the patient's clinical information is partly stored in the local electronic health record (EHR) system in the hospital, and partly in the remote monitoring database, which may potentially result in patient safety issues. Methods To address the requirement of integrating remote monitoring data in the local EHR, the Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) Implantable Device Cardiac Observation (IDCO) profile has been developed. This IHE IDCO profile has been adapted by all major device companies. Results In our hospital, we have implemented the IHE IDCO profile to import data from the remote databases from two device vendors into the departmental Cardiology Information System (EPD-Vision). Data is exchanged via a HL7/XML communication protocol, as defined in the IHE IDCO profile. Conclusions By implementing the IHE IDCO profile, we have been able to integrate the data from the remote monitoring databases in our local EHRs. It can be expected that remote monitoring systems will develop into dedicated monitoring and therapy platforms. Data retrieved from these systems should form an integral part of the electronic patient record as more and more out-patient clinic care will shift to personalized care provided at a distance, in other words at the patient's home.
The 2019 materials by design roadmap

Advances in renewable and sustainable energy technologies critically depend on our ability to design and realize materials with optimal properties. Materials discovery and design efforts ideally involve close coupling between materials prediction, synthesis and characterization. The increased use of computational tools, the generation of materials databases, and advances in experimental methods have substantially accelerated these activities. It is therefore an opportune time to consider future prospects for materials by design approaches. The purpose of this Roadmap is to present an overview of the current state of computational materials prediction, synthesis and characterization approaches, materials design needs for various technologies, and future challenges and opportunities that must be addressed. The various perspectives cover topics on computational techniques, validation, materials databases, materials informatics, high-throughput combinatorial methods, advanced characterization approaches, and materials design issues in thermoelectrics, photovoltaics, solid state lighting, catalysts, batteries, metal alloys, complex oxides and transparent conducting materials. It is our hope that this Roadmap will guide researchers and funding agencies in identifying new prospects for materials design.
Reliability of B‐mode ultrasound for the measurement of body fat and muscle thickness

B‐mode ultrasound was used to measure fat and muscle thicknesses on 30 subjects (17 men, 13 women, age = 20–37 yr) at 14 sites (triceps, biceps, forearm, chest [males only], subscapular, axilla, abdomen, suprailium, lumbar, quadriceps, suprapatellar, hamstrings, medial calf, and posterior calf) on two different days. Quadruplicate photographic images (trials) were printed from a single measurement at each site on each day. Two investigators each measured two of the images from each site. Each thickness was measured to the nearest 0.05 mm with a vernier caliper. Generalizability theory was used to determine the relative contribution of subjects, investigators, days, and trials to the total measurement variability. Subjects accounted for 84–96% of the variance in the muscle measurements and for 79–97% of the variance in the fat measurements. A subjects‐by‐day interaction accounted for 2–13% of the variance in muscle measurements and 2–12% of the variance in fat measurements. The contribution by investigators and trials to the variance was less than 1%. Generalizability coefficients (G) exceeding 0.92 were obtained for all sites for muscle measurements, while G for fat measurements exceeded 0.90 for all but the axilla site (G = 0.88). These results indicate that B‐mode ultrasound is a highly reliable method for the measurement of both fat and muscle thicknesses in young males and females. © 1992 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Detecting Communities Using Social Ties

Many internet-based applications such as social networking websites, online viral marketing, and recommendation network based applications, use social network analysis to improve performance in terms of user-specific information dissemination. The notion of community in a social network is a key concept in such analyses and there has been significant work recently in identifying communities within a social network. In this paper, we formally define the notion of strength of a link, which was informally introduced by Granovetter, and present a divisive hierarchical clustering method to divide the nodes of a social network into disjoint communities. We also introduce the notion of clustering coefficient as a measure of the quality of a community or cluster. Our experimental results using some well-known benchmark social networks show that our method determines communities with better clustering coefficient than the well known Girvan-Newman method.
Neuropsychiatric aspects of Huntington's disease

OBJECTIVE Neuropsychiatric symptoms are common in Huntington's disease and have been considered its presenting manifestation. Research characterising these symptoms in Huntington's disease is variable, however, encumbered by limitations within and across studies. Gaining a better understanding of neuropsychiatric symptoms is essential, as these symptoms have implications for disease management, prognosis, and quality of life for patients and caregivers. METHOD Fifty two patients with Huntington's disease were administered standardised measures of cognition, psychiatric symptoms, and motor abnormalities. Patient caregivers were administered the neuropsychiatric inventory. RESULTS Ninety eight per cent of the patients exhibited neuropsychiatric symptoms, the most prevalent being dysphoria, agitation, irritability, apathy, and anxiety. Symptoms ranged from mild to severe and were unrelated to dementia and chorea. CONCLUSIONS Neuropsychiatric symptoms are prevalent in Huntington's disease and are relatively independent of cognitive and motor aspects of the disease. Hypothesised links between neuropsychiatric symptoms of Huntington's disease and frontal-striatal circuitry were explored. Findings indicate that dimensional measures of neuropsychiatric symptoms are essential to capture the full range of pathology in Huntington's disease and are vital to include in a comprehensive assessment of the disease.
An intelligent interface for sorting electronic mail

Classification of email is an important everyday task for a large and growing number of users. This paper describes the i-ems (Intelligent-Electronic Mail Sorter) mail interface, which offers a view of the inbox based on predicted classifications of messages. The interface is designed to ensure user control over the prediction processes by supporting scrutiny of the system's certainty and details of the mechanisms used.
Second Order Homogenization of Subwavelength Stratified Media Including Finite Size Effect

We present a homogenization method to find the effective behavior of a periodically stratified slab which accounts for the finite size of the slab. The effective behavior is that of a homogeneous anisotropic slab associated with discontinuity conditions, or jump conditions, for the displacement and for the normal stress at the boundaries of the slab. The coefficients entering in the effective homogenized wave equation are related to the geometry and to the composition of the layers only, as in the classical homogenization. Those entering in the jump conditions are related to boundary layer effects, and thus they depend also on the properties of the media surrounding the slab. The validity of our homogenization method is inspected in the case of layers associated with Neumann boundary conditions.
Inherited Abnormalities in the protein C Activation Pathway

The protein C (PC) anticoagulant pathway plays a crucial role in the regulation of fibrin formation via proteolytic degradation of the procoagulant cofactors factor Va and VIIIa by activated PC (APC). PC circulates in plasma as a zymogen, which is activated, on the surface of endothelial cells by the thrombin-thrombomodulin complex. Another endothelial cell-specific protein, the endothelial cell PC/APC receptor (EPCR), binds PC on the endothelial cell surface and further enhances the rate of PC activation. Normal APC generation depends on the precise assemblage, on the surface of endothelial cells, of at least four proteins: thrombin, thrombomodulin (TM), PC and EPCR. Therefore, any change in the efficiency of this assemblage may cause reduced APC generation and an increase in the risk of thrombosis. In the last years, several reports have suggested the association between mutations in TM and EPCR genes and venous and arterial thrombosis. Surprisingly, no studies have been reported linking mutations with levels of circulating APC, the final product of the interaction between thrombin, TM, PC and EPCR. Here, we describe the previously reported mutations in the TM and EPCR genes, and present the design and evaluation of a new strategy to investigate TM, EPCR, PC and prothrombin gene mutations in arterial and venous thrombosis.