Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Prospective Multicenter Registry on the Accuracy of Pedicle Screw Placement in the Thoracic, Lumbar, and Sacral Levels With the Use of the O-arm Imaging System and StealthStation Navigation

Study Design. An international, multicenter, prospective, postmarketing clinical registry to record the accuracy of pedicle screw placement, using the O-arm Complete Multidimensional Surgical Imaging System with StealthStation Navigation. Objective. To evaluate the accuracy of pedicle screw placement in common neurosurgical practice and assess the patient's radiation exposure. Summary of Background Data. Several imaging techniques have been used to increase accurate pedicle screw placement. The O-arm 3-dimensional (3D) imaging (Medtronic Navigation, Louisville, CO), an intraoperative computed tomographic (CT) scan, combined with an existing navigation system was reported to further increase accuracy of screw placement, especially because an intraoperative 3D scan provides information for screw adjustment before wound closure. Methods. Patients already planned for instrumented spinal surgery were operated while using the O-arm as imaging device and the StealthStation Navigation (Medtronic Navigation, Louisville, CO) as navigation tool. At the end of all pedicle screw insertions, the placement was classified according to a validated method. The accuracy of pedicle screw placement based on the intraoperative 3D scan and the surgeon's perception of correct screw placement were assessed as well as the radiation doses the patient received during the entire procedure. Results. During a 16-month period, a total of 1922 screws in 353 patients were evaluated. In 97.5%, the screws were correctly placed. Only 2.5% of the screws were considered as misplaced, and 1.8% of the screws were revised during the same procedure. When the surgeon perceived the screws to be correctly placed, the CT scan verified his assessment in 98.5% of the cases. The mean radiation dose was comparable with half the dose of a 64 multislice CT scan. Conclusion. The use of the O-arm in combination with a navigation system increases the accuracy of pedicle screw placement. The accuracy of the surgeon's perception and the need to limit the radiation dose for the patient justify an additional CT scan only after careful assessment of the potential additional value.
Theory and evaluation of human robot interactions

Human-robot interaction (HRI) for mobile robots is still in its infancy. Most user interactions with robots have been limited to tele-operation capabilities where the most common interface provided to the user has been the video feed from the robotic platform and some way of directing the path of the robot. For mobile robots with semiautonomous capabilities, the user is also provided with a means of setting way points. More importantly, most HRI capabilities have been developed by robotics experts for use by robotics experts. As robots increase in capabilities and are able to perform more tasks in an autonomous manner we need to think about the interactions that humans will have with robots and what software architecture and user interface designs can accommodate the human in-the-loop. We also need to design systems that can be used by domain experts but not robotics experts. This paper outlines a theory of human-robot interaction and proposes the interactions and information needed by both humans and robots for the different levels of interaction, including an evaluation methodology based on situational awareness.
Fluid resuscitation in trauma patients: what should we know?

Purpose of reviewFluid resuscitation in trauma patients could reduce organ failure, until blood components are available and hemorrhage is controlled. However, the ideal fluid resuscitation strategy in trauma patients remains a debated topic. Different types of trauma can require different types of fluids and different volume of infusion. Recent findingsThere are few randomized controlled trials investigating the efficacy of fluids in trauma patients. There is no evidence that any type of fluids can improve short-term and long-term outcome in these patients. The main clinical evidence emphasizes that a restrictive fluid resuscitation before surgery improves outcome in patients with penetrating trauma. Fluid management of blunt trauma patients, in particular with coexisting brain injury, remains unclear. SummaryIn order to focus on the state of the art about this topic, we review the current literature and guidelines. Recent studies have underlined that the correct fluid resuscitation strategy can depend on the type of trauma condition: penetrating, blunt, brain injury or a combination of them. Of course, further studies are needed to investigate the impact of a specific fluid strategy on different type and severity of trauma.
The Importance of Being on Time: Regulatory Networks Controlling Photoperiodic Flowering in Cereals

Flowering is the result of the coordination between genetic information and environmental cues. Gene regulatory networks have evolved in plants in order to measure diurnal and seasonal variation of day length (or photoperiod), thus aligning the reproductive phase with the most favorable season of the year. The capacity of plants to discriminate distinct photoperiods classifies them into long and short day species, depending on the conditions that induce flowering. Plants of tropical origin and adapted to short day lengths include rice, maize, and sorghum, whereas wheat and barley were originally domesticated in the Fertile Crescent and are considered long day species. In these and other crops, day length measurement mechanisms have been artificially modified during domestication and breeding to adapt plants to novel areas, to the extent that a wide diversity of responses exists within any given species. Notwithstanding the ample natural and artificial variation of day length responses, some of the basic molecular elements governing photoperiodic flowering are widely conserved. However, as our understanding of the underlying mechanisms improves, it becomes evident that specific regulators exist in many lineages that are not shared by others, while apparently conserved components can be recruited to novel functions during evolution.
Non-TNF-Targeted Biologic vs a Second Anti-TNF Drug to Treat Rheumatoid Arthritis in Patients With Insufficient Response to a First Anti-TNF Drug: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance One-third of patients with rheumatoid arthritis show inadequate response to tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) inhibitors; little guidance on choosing the next treatment exists. Objective To compare the efficacy of a non-TNF-targeted biologic (non-TNF) vs a second anti-TNF drug for patients with insufficient response to a TNF inhibitor. Design, Setting, and Participants A total of 300 patients (conducted between 2009-2012) with rheumatoid arthritis, with persistent disease activity (disease activity score in 28 joints-erythrocyte sedimentation rate [DAS28-ESR] ≥ 3.2 [range, 0-9.3]) and an insufficient response to anti-TNF therapy were included in a 52-week multicenter, pragmatic, open-label randomized clinical trial. The final follow-up date was in August 2013. Interventions Patients were randomly assigned (1:1) to receive a non-TNF-targeted biologic agent or an anti-TNF that differed from their previous treatment. The choice of the biologic prescribed within each randomized group was left to the treating clinician. Main Outcomes and Measures The primary outcome was the proportion of patients with good or moderate response according to the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) scale at week 24. Secondary outcomes included the EULAR response at weeks 12 and 52; at weeks 12, 24, and 52; DAS28ESR, low disease activity (DAS28 ≤3.2), remission (DAS28 ≤2.6); serious adverse events; and serious infections. Results Of the 300 randomized patients (243 [83.2%] women; mean [SD] age, 57.1 [12.2] years; baseline DAS28-ESR, 5.1 [1.1]), 269 (89.7%) completed the study. At week 24, 101 of 146 patients (69%) in the non-TNF group and 76 (52%) in the second anti-TNF group achieved a good or moderate EULAR response (OR, 2.06; 95% CI, 1.27-3.37; P = .004, with imputation of missing data; absolute difference, 17.2%; 95% CI, 6.2% to 28.2%). The DAS28-ESR was lower in the non-TNF group than in the second anti-TNF group (mean difference adjusted for baseline differences, -0.43; 95% CI, -0.72 to -0.14; P = .004). At weeks 24 and 52, more patients in the non-TNF group vs the second anti-TNF group showed low disease activity (45% vs 28% at week 24; OR, 2.09; 95% CI, 1.27 to 3.43; P = .004 and 41% vs 23% at week 52; OR, 2.26; 95% CI, 1.33 to 3.86; P = .003). Conclusions and Relevance Among patients with rheumatoid arthritis previously treated with anti-TNF drugs but with inadequate primary response, a non-TNF biologic agent was more effective in achieving a good or moderate disease activity response at 24 weeks than was the second anti-TNF medication. Trial Registration clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT01000441.
Witold Marciszewski On going beyond the first-order logic in testing the validity of its formulas

1. Let us fancy for a moment that the first-order logic (FOL) is decidable. And let the famous Gödelian sentence (G) about its own unprovability, after its encoding in the language of arithmetic, be put as the consequent in the conditional whose antecedent is obtained as the conjunction of Peano axioms (P); thus we have: P ⇒ G — a sentence recorded in the language of first-order logic. According to the above supposition regarding decidability, it can be decided whether the formula P ⇒ G is valid or not. Is it valid, then G is provable in arithmetic, contrary to Gödel’s (1931) result. Is it not valid, then with the same method one can check whether validity attaches to the formula P ⇒ ¬G. If so, then ¬G is provable on the basis of P, again contrary to Gödel’s assertion that neither G nor its negation is provable in Peano arithmetic. Thus, when denying undecidability of first-order logic, one rejects incompletability of formalized arithmetic of natural numbers. Such a rebellion has been staged by Leon Gumański in his paper titled "The Decidability of the First-Order Functional Calculus". (in this issue). There would be no reason to bother about that claim for anyone convinced by the arguments of Gödel. Church, Turing and Post. However, there is a kinship between Gumański’s claim and the current strong AI, called computationalism, that may be worth considering. This kinship is not to mean that computationalism challenges those limitative results like Gumański does; this only means a trend to extending the field of decidability. The computationalists do not pretend to use the first-order logic algorithms in every artificial reasoning. What they do pretend is that for any reasoning there must be possible to device a suitable algorithm, which in some cases has to be stronger than the means of FOL. Such a project might have as its motto the following statement by Turing (1950, Section "The Mathematical Objection"); it alludes to the Gödelian sentence when used as evidence of human superiority over machines.
Targeting FASN in Breast Cancer and the Discovery of Promising Inhibitors from Natural Products Derived from Traditional Chinese Medicine

Molecular targeted therapy has been developed for cancer chemoprevention and treatment. Cancer cells process a fundamental change in its bioenergetic metabolism from normal cells on an altered lipid metabolism, also known as the de novo fatty acid synthesis, for sustaining their high proliferation rates. Fatty acid synthesis is now associated with clinically aggressive tumor behavior and tumor cell growth and has become a novel target pathway for chemotherapy development. Although the underlying mechanisms of the altered de novo fatty acid synthesis still remains unclear, recent progress has shown that by targeting Fatty acid synthase (FASN), a key enzyme that catalyzes the synthesis of endogenous long chain fatty acid could be a critical target for drug discovery. However, relatively few FASN inhibitors have been discovered. With the long history of clinical practices and numerous histological case study reports, traditional Chinese medicine enjoys an important role in seeking bioactive anticancer natural compounds. Herein, we will give an overall picture of the current progress of molecular targeted therapy in cancer fatty acid synthesis, describe the advances in the research on natural products-derived FASN inhibitors and their potential for enhancing our understanding of fatty acids in tumor biology, and may provide new therapeutic moieties for breast cancer patient care.
Ultrasound targeted microbubble destruction for drug and gene delivery

Background: Gas-filled microbubbles have been used as ultrasound contrast agents for some decades. More recently, such microbubbles have evolved as experimental tools for organ- and tissue-specific drug and gene delivery. When sonified with ultrasound near their resonance frequency, microbubbles oscillate. With higher ultrasound energies, oscillation amplitudes increase, leading to microbubble destruction. This phenomenon can be used to deliver a substance into a target organ, if microbubbles are co-administered loaded with drugs or gene therapy vectors before i.v. injection. Objective: This review focuses on different experimental applications of microbubbles as tools for drug and gene delivery. Different organ systems and different classes of bioactive substances that have been used in previous studies will be discussed. Methods: All the available literature was reviewed to highlight the potential of this non-invasive, organ-specific delivery system. Conclusion: Ultrasound targeted microbubble destruction has been used in various organ systems and in tumours to successfully deliver drugs, proteins, gene therapy vectors and gene silencing constructs. Many proof of principle studies have demonstrated its potential as a non-invasive delivery tool. However, too few large animal studies and studies with therapeutic aims have been performed to see a clinical application of this technique in the near future. Nevertheless, there is great hope that preclinical large animal studies will confirm the successful results already obtained in small animals.
Finding faces in cluttered scenes using random labeled graph matching

An algorithm for locating quasi-frontal views of human faces in cluttered scenes is presented. The algorithm works by coupling a set of local feature detectors with a statistical model of the mutual distances between facial features it is invariant with respect to translation, rotation (in the plane), and scale and can handle partial occlusions of the face. On a challenging database with complicated and varied backgrounds, the algorithm achieved a correct localization rate of 95% in images where the face appeared quasi-frontally. <<ETX>>
Mapping Topography Changes and Elevation Accuracies Using a Mobile Laser Scanner

Laser measurements have been used in a fluvial context since 1984, but the change detection possibilities of mobile laser scanning (MLS) for riverine topography have been lacking. This paper demonstrates the capability of MLS in erosion change mapping on a test site located in a 58 km-long tributary of the River Tenojoki (Tana) in the sub-arctic. We used point bars and river banks as example cases, which were measured with the mobile laser scanner ROAMER mounted on a boat and on a cart. Static terrestrial laser scanner data were used as reference and we exploited a difference elevation model technique for describing erosion and deposition areas. The measurements were based on data acquisitions during the late summer in 2008 and 2009. The coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.93 and a standard deviation of error 3.4 cm were obtained as metrics for change mapping based on MLS. The root mean square error (RMSE) of MLS‑based digital elevation models (DEM) for non-vegetated point bars ranged between 2.3 and 7.6 cm after correction of the systematic error. For densely vegetated bank areas, the ground point determination was more difficult resulting in an RMSE between 15.7 and 28.4 cm.
An efficient W-band InP DHBT digital power amplifier

This paper presents for the first time a high-efficiency W-band power amplifier (PA), the design of which follows the digital PA (DPA) design concept. The PA is realized as MMIC in a 0.8 μm InP DHBT transferred-substrate (TS) process. It utilizes a double-emitter-finger DHBT unit cell with an emitter area of 2 × 0.8 × 6 μm2. In contrast to the usual W-band PAs the single-stage DPA MMIC does not apply any special reactive matching for the transistor, which leads to a very compact chip size of 0.27 mm2. It includes a band-pass filter (BPF) at the output with 0.6 dB insertion loss and 24 dB input return loss at the signal frequency of 95 GHz. Applying an overdriven sinusoidal input signal the DPA achieves a maximum output power of 14.4 dBm and a power-added efficiency (PAE) of 31%. Collector efficiencies of more than 80% demonstrate the great potential of the digital PA concept for future high-speed communications.
Neutrophil function in the healing wound: adding insult to injury?

Summary Cells of the innate immune system, including neutrophils and macrophages, are a highly visible component of normal wound healing in adult mammals. The role of inflammatory cells in the healing wound has been widely investigated, and evidence for both positive and negative influences exists. Several recent investigations support the emerging paradigm that robust inflammation is detrimental to wound closure. This developing information suggests that the functional role of inflammatory cells in wound healing must be reevaluated.
Fast normalized cut algorithm based on self-organizing map

Recently, researchers are paying more and more attention on the study of the normalized cut algorithm which has a lot of useful applications in different kinds of areas, such as medical image, image process, data mining, pattern recognition, and so on. Although the normalized cut algorithm is very effective to handle different kinds of challenging datasets, its computational cost is very high, especially when the sizes of the datasets are large. In order to solve this limitation, we propose a fast normalized cut algorithm based on self-organizing map (FNCUT(SOM)) to perform clustering on large datasets. FNCUT(SOM) pays more attention to the representative feature vectors which are the weight vectors of the neurons in SOM, instead of considering all the feature vectors. Specifically, FNCUT(SOM) adopts the self-organizing map to perform fast clustering on the dataset at first. Then, the weight vectors of the neurons in SOM serve as a new dataset, and is used to construct a representative matrix. In the following, the normalized cut algorithm is adopted to partition the representative matrix and obtains the structure of the dataset. Finally, two assignment criteria are designed to distribute the feature vectors in the original dataset into the corresponding clusters. The experimental results show that FNCUT(SOM) is effective and efficient when applied to perform clustering on the real datasets in UCI machine learning repository.
Ets1-Related Protein Is a Key Regulator of Vasculogenesis in Zebrafish

During embryonic development, multiple signaling pathways control specification, migration, and differentiation of the vascular endothelial cell precursors, angioblasts. No single gene responsible for the commitment of mesenchymal cells to the angioblast cell fate has been identified as yet. Here we report characterization and functional studies of Etsrp, a novel zebrafish ETS domain protein. etsrp embryonic expression is only restricted to vascular endothelial cells and their earliest precursors. Morpholino knockdown of Etsrp protein function resulted in the complete absence of circulation in zebrafish embryos. Angioblasts in etsrp–morpholino-injected embryos (morphants) failed to undergo migration and differentiation and did not coalesce into functional blood vessels. Expression of all vascular endothelial molecular markers tested was severely reduced in etsrp morphants, whereas hematopoietic markers were not affected. Overexpression of etsrp RNA caused multiple cell types to express vascular endothelial markers. etsrp RNA restored expression of vascular markers in cloche mutants, defective in hematopoietic and endothelial cell formation, arguing that etsrp functions downstream of cloche in angioblast formation. etsrp gene function was also required for endothelial marker induction by the vascular endothelial growth factor (vegf) and stem cell leukemia (scl/tal1). These results demonstrate that Etsrp is necessary and sufficient for the initiation of vasculogenesis.
Identification of Novel sRNAs in Mycobacterial Species

Bacterial small RNAs (sRNAs) are short transcripts that typically do not encode proteins and often act as regulators of gene expression through a variety of mechanisms. Regulatory sRNAs have been identified in many species, including Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of tuberculosis. Here, we use a computational algorithm to predict sRNA candidates in the mycobacterial species M. smegmatis and M. bovis BCG and confirmed the expression of many sRNAs using Northern blotting. Thus, we have identified 17 and 23 novel sRNAs in M. smegmatis and M. bovis BCG, respectively. We have also applied a high-throughput technique (Deep-RACE) to map the 5′ and 3′ ends of many of these sRNAs and identified potential regulators of sRNAs by analysis of existing ChIP-seq datasets. The sRNAs identified in this work likely contribute to the unique biology of mycobacteria.
The Informational World City London

Purpose – The Department of Information Science of the Heinrich-Heine-University in Dusseldorf is currently conducting a research project on Informational World Cities – the prototypical cities of the knowledge society, which have been growing in the twenty-first century. In total, 31 potential Informational World Cities were identified and a set of criteria was developed to evaluate the degree of informativeness of a city through coherent criteria. The purpose of this paper is to investigate London. Design/methodology/approach – The investigation was based on the Grounded Theory, ethnographic field research, interviews, bibliometrics, patentometrics, official statistics and the analysis of web content. During the stay in London, eight semi-standardised interviews according to SERVQUAL were conducted. Findings – The characteristics of an Informational World City are well-marked in most cases, especially London’s knowledge infrastructure. Furthermore London places value on smart innovations and tries to ad.