Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of Epidural and Peripheral Nerve Catheter Heating During Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Background Many epidural and peripheral nerve catheters contain conducting wire that could heat during magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), requiring removal for scanning. Methods We tested 2 each of 6 brands of regional analgesia catheters (from Arrow International [Reading, Pennsylvania], B. Braun Medical Inc [Bethlehem, Pennsylvania], and Smiths Medical/Portex [Keene, New Hampshire]) for exposure to clinical 1.5- and 3-T MRI. Catheters testing as nonmagnetic were placed in an epidural configuration in a standard human torso–sized phantom, and an MRI pulse sequence applied at the maximum scanner-allowed radiofrequency specific absorption rate (SAR) for 15 minutes. Temperature and SAR exposure were sampled during MRI using multiple fiberoptic temperature sensors. Results Two catheters (the Arrow StimuCath Peripheral Nerve and B. Braun Medical Perifix FX Epidural) were found to be magnetic and not tested further. At 3 T, exposure of the remaining 3 epidural and 1 peripheral nerve catheter to the scanner’s maximum RF exposure elicited anomalous heating of 4°C to 7°C in 2 Arrow Epidural (MultiPort and Flex-Tip Plus) catheters at the entry points. Temperature increases for the other catheters at 3 T, and all catheters at 1.5 T were 1.4°C or less. When normalized to the body-average US Food and Drug Administration guideline SAR of 4 W/kg, maximum projected temperature increases were 0.1°C to 2.5°C at 1.5 T and 0.7°C to 2.7°C at 3 T, except for the Arrow MultiPort Flex-Tip Plus catheter at 3 T whose increase was 14°C. Conclusions Most but not all catheters can be left in place during 1.5-T MRI scans. Heating of less than 3°C during MRI for most catheters is not expected to be injurious. While heating was lower at 1.5 T versus 3 T, performance differences between products underscore the need for safety testing before performing MRI.
Scenario-Aware Dynamic Power Reduction Using Bias Addition

Typical modern communication systems operate over a wide dynamic range of signal strengths. We consider the approach of adding a bias as offset to reduce switching activity, and study the average bit toggle for signals with different distributions, as a function of signal span and the actual bias value added. From the analysis, we provide guidelines to choose an optimal bias value, based on the system scenario, to obtain the lowest power consumption. Simulation results confirm the accuracy of the theoretical analysis. Various finite-impulse response filter architectures are evaluated, and we propose suitable enhancements to them to enable improved power savings. We apply the bias addition technique and the proposed architectural enhancements to a wireless local area network digital receiver chain, and demonstrate that over 25% power savings can be achieved under different signal conditions.
Peptidyl arginine deiminase type 2 (PAD-2) and PAD-4 but not PAD-1, PAD-3, and PAD-6 are expressed in rheumatoid arthritis synovium in close association with tissue inflammation.

OBJECTIVE Autoantibodies to citrullinated proteins (ACPAs) are specific for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and probably are involved in its pathophysiology. Citrullyl residues, posttranslationally generated by peptidyl arginine deiminase (PAD), are indispensable components of ACPA-targeted epitopes. The aim of this study was to identify which PAD isotypes are expressed in the synovial tissue (ST) of patients with RA and are involved in the citrullination of fibrin, the major synovial target of ACPAs. METHODS Expression of all PAD isotypes, including the recently described PAD type 6 (PAD-6), was explored by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and immunoblotting, first in blood-derived mononuclear leukocytes from healthy donors, then in ST samples from 16 patients with RA and 11 control patients (4 with other arthritides and 7 with osteoarthritis [OA]). In ST samples from patients with RA, PADs were localized by immunohistochemistry. RESULTS In lymphocytic and monocytic cells and, similarly, in ST samples from patients with RA, the PAD-2, PAD-4, and PAD-6 genes were found to be transcribed, but only PAD-2 and PAD-4 enzymes were detected. PAD-2 was also expressed in ST from control patients, including those with OA, while PAD-4 was preferentially expressed in ST from patients with other arthritides. In RA, the expression levels of PAD-2 and PAD-4 were correlated with the intensity of inflammation (cell infiltration, hypervascularization, and synovial lining hyperplasia), and both enzymes were demonstrable within or in the vicinity of citrullinated fibrin deposits. CONCLUSION PAD-2 and PAD-4 are the only PAD isotypes expressed in the ST of patients with RA and those with other arthritides. Inflammatory cells are a major source, but PAD-4 also comes from hyperplastic synoviocytes. Both isotypes are probably involved in the citrullination of fibrin.
Direct Speech Reconstruction From Articulatory Sensor Data by Machine Learning

This paper describes a technique that generates speech acoustics from articulator movements. Our motivation is to help people who can no longer speak following laryngectomy, a procedure that is carried out tens of thousands of times per year in the Western world. Our method for sensing articulator movement, permanent magnetic articulography, relies on small, unobtrusive magnets attached to the lips and tongue. Changes in magnetic field caused by magnet movements are sensed and form the input to a process that is trained to estimate speech acoustics. In the experiments reported here this “Direct Synthesis” technique is developed for normal speakers, with glued-on magnets, allowing us to train with parallel sensor and acoustic data. We describe three machine learning techniques for this task, based on Gaussian mixture models, deep neural networks, and recurrent neural networks (RNNs). We evaluate our techniques with objective acoustic distortion measures and subjective listening tests over spoken sentences read from novels (the CMU Arctic corpus). Our results show that the best performing technique is a bidirectional RNN (BiRNN), which employs both past and future contexts to predict the acoustics from the sensor data. BiRNNs are not suitable for synthesis in real time but fixed-lag RNNs give similar results and, because they only look a little way into the future, overcome this problem. Listening tests show that the speech produced by this method has a natural quality that preserves the identity of the speaker. Furthermore, we obtain up to 92% intelligibility on the challenging CMU Arctic material. To our knowledge, these are the best results obtained for a silent-speech system without a restricted vocabulary and with an unobtrusive device that delivers audio in close to real time. This work promises to lead to a technology that truly will give people whose larynx has been removed their voices back.
Optimal Scale of Urbanization with Scarce Water Resources: A Case Study in an Arid and Semi-Arid Area of China

A complex interwoven relationship exists between water resources and urbanization, which is of much interest in international water science research. To study the urban development in large cities facing water deficiency problems, it is important to identify rational thresholds of urbanization to achieve optimal utilization of limited water resources, and to promote sustainable economic and population growth and social development. A multi-objective optimization model is proposed to search for the optimal scale of urbanization of large cities with limited water resources. To solve a large-dimensional multi-objective optimization problem, the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) is improved to the OENSGA-II based on the orthogonal generation method and the E-optimality method and applied to a typical arid city, Xi’an of China, which underwent rapid urbanization in recent years. For Xi’an, a statistically significant positive correlation is found between urbanization rate (Ur) and gross domestic product (GDP), domestic water, tertiary industry water, and ecological water. However, Ur is negatively correlated with the primary industry water. If the current urbanization trend continues, the water resources available are far from sufficient to support the future city of Xi’an. In this work, it was found that, by implementing restrictive water resources management and water saving measures, the economic threshold of Xi’an could be raised to 1890.3 and 2403.3 billion yuan, while the population threshold could be raised to 11.0 and 13.9 million, and Ur to 79.9% and 85.9% in 2020 and 2030, respectively. The corresponding maximum urban area to be constructed based on the projected population will be 964.81 and 1197.6 km2 in those years. It will be prudent for Xi’an to practice strict water resource management, and to allocate its water resources among various water sectors effectively and equitably to avoid major water shortage problems in the future.
A RANKING APPROACH FOR HUMAN AGE ESTIMATION BASED ON FACE IMAGES

In our daily life, it is much easier to distinguish which person is elder between two persons than how old a person is. When inferring a person’s age, we may compare his or her face with many people whose ages are known, resulting in a series of comparative results, and then we conjecture the age based on the comparisons. This process involves numerous pairwise preferences information obtained by a series of queries, where each query compares the target person’s face to those faces in a database. In this paper, we propose a ranking-based framework consisting of a set of binary queries. Each query collects a binary-classification-based comparison result. All the query results are then fused to predict the age. Experimental results show that our approach performs better than traditional multi-class-based and regression-based approaches for age estimation. Keywords-Age estimation; ranking; binary classification; face recognition.
Kv1.3 Channels Can Modulate Cell Proliferation During Phenotypic Switch by an Ion-Flux Independent Mechanism

Objective—Phenotypic modulation of vascular smooth muscle cells has been associated with a decreased expression of all voltage-dependent potassium channel (Kv)1 channel encoding genes but Kcna3 (which encodes Kv1.3 channels). In fact, upregulation of Kv1.3 currents seems to be important to modulate proliferation of mice femoral vascular smooth muscle cells in culture. This study was designed to explore if these changes in Kv1 expression pattern constituted a landmark of phenotypic modulation across vascular beds and to investigate the mechanisms involved in the proproliferative function of Kv1.3 channels. Methods and Results—Changes in Kv1.3 and Kv1.5 channel expression were reproduced in mesenteric and aortic vascular smooth muscle cells, and their correlate with protein expression was electrophysiologicaly confirmed using selective blockers. Heterologous expression of Kv1.3 and Kv1.5 channels in HEK cells has opposite effects on the proliferation rate. The proproliferative effect of Kv1.3 channels was reproduced by “poreless” mutants but disappeared when voltage-dependence of gating was suppressed. Conclusion—These findings suggest that the signaling cascade linking Kv1.3 functional expression to cell proliferation is activated by the voltage-dependent conformational change of the channels without needing ion conduction. Additionally, the conserved upregulation of Kv1.3 on phenotypic modulation in several vascular beds makes this channel a good target to control unwanted vascular remodeling.
IA-32 Execution Layer: a two-phase dynamic translator designed to support IA-32 applications on Itanium®-based systems

IA-32 Execution Layer (IA-32 EL) is a newtechnology that executes IA-32 applications onIntel® Itanium® processor family systems.Currently, support for IA-32 applications onItanium-based platforms is achieved usinghardware circuitry on the Itanium processors.This capability will be enhanced with IA-32EL-software that will ship with Itanium-basedoperating systems and will convert IA-32instructions into Itanium instructions viadynamic translation.In this paper, we describeaspects of the IA-32 Execution Layertechnology, including the general two-phasetranslation architecture and the usage of asingle translator for multiple operatingsystems.The paper provides details of someof the technical challenges such as preciseexception, emulation of FP, MMXTM, and Intel®Streaming SIMD Extension instructions, andmisalignment handling.Finally, the paperpresents some performance results.
as a prominent and early feature during ischaemia in the Langendorff-perfused rat heart ?

(2000) Do K ATP channels open as a prominent and early feature during ischaemia in the Langendorff-perfused rat heart? Workman AJ et al. Do K ATP channels open during ischaemia in the isolated rat heart? Abbreviated title: Do K ATP channels open during ischaemia in the isolated rat heart? Workman AJ et al. Do K ATP channels open during ischaemia in the isolated rat heart? 2 Abstract The objective was to investigate whether myocardial adenosine triphosphate-sensitive K + (K ATP) channels open during the first 10min of regional ischaemia in Langendorff-perfused rat hearts. Changes in monophasic action potentials and arrhythmias were studied during myocardial ischaemia in both the presence and absence of pharmacological K ATP modulation. Ligation of the left main coronary artery for 10min did not shorten the action potential duration (APD). The APD 50 and APD 80 (15.5±1.0 and 38.1±2.3ms, respectively [mean±S.E., n=15 hearts], immediately prior to ligation) increased transiently during the first 4min of ligation (by 160 and 79% respectively, P<0.05), before returning to pre-ligation values, but without a significant below-baseline-shortening. The cardiac electrogram showed no accompanying ventricular tachyarrhythmia (VT). These results raised the possibility that the myocardial K ATP channels had not opened during the ligation. The K ATP opener Ro 31-6930 (0.5 and 5µM) shortened the APD 50 and APD 80 during coronary ligation, to significantly below both their control and pre-occlusion values (P<0.05), and caused a concentration-dependent increase in both the incidence and duration of VT during the ligation. Ro 31-6930 at 5µM also shortened APD 50 and APD 80 even before ligation (by 50 and 62% respectively, P<0.05), and abolished the normal APD-lengthening seen during ischaemia. The K ATP blocker glibenclamide (1µM) abolished both the APD-shortening and pro-arrhythmic effects of the K ATP opener, both before and during coronary ligation, yet when delivered on its own, at the same concentration which abolished the effects of K ATP activation, it had no significant effect on the APD changes seen during the coronary ligation alone. These results suggest that, in Langendorff-perfused rat hearts in the absence of drugs, K ATP channels do not open during early myocardial ischaemia.
Verifying the Value of Objective Measures - A Proposal for a Systematic Evaluation of Measures

The results of work in any section of an enterprise should preferably be described in a way that makes the results suited for benchmarking with other sections of the enterprise. The same goes for individual work results. Results are easily compared if they are measured according to some numerical standard. Numerical measures can be generalized and standardized until they can be considered as having a high degree of “reusability”. There are several types of enterprise models that include the use of reusable “soft” numerical values. With “soft” numerical values I refer to the type of values that cannot be directly measured in relation to objective facts but are artificially constructed measures that includes some kind of subjective estimation for calculating the value. Another requirement on such measures is that it should be possible to use them for comparing performance between individuals or between units of an organization or between organizations. These measures can, for instance, be used for customer appreciation of their relationships with the organization, as is often recommended in the method called “Balanced Scorecards” or they can be used when giving students numerical values as credits (points) for passing university courses. A summary of informal evaluations is presented. The evaluations concern how “soft” measures have been implemented in organizations. The results of the evaluations show that objective values based on facts can be combined with subjective estimations in a way that makes them less vulnerable to people manipulating the measures and less vulnerable to the subjectivity of superiors when estimating the quality of the results.
Design, Implementation and Testing of an Automatic Power Management System for Residential Stand-alone Microgrids with Hybrid Power Supply

The paper presents an automatic power management system (PMS) designed for the on-line operation of an experimental low voltage microgrid equipped with two power supplies, a kW-class fuel cell (FC) and a photovoltaic (PV) module emulator, along with a 100-Ah battery storage system, all connected to a 230 VAC node. The connections of the various components to the common AC bus make use of power inverters with specific functionalities: the FC inverter controls the power production taking into account the FC limitations and requirements, the inverter of the PV emulator tracks its maximum power operating point, whilst, in islanded operating conditions, the bidirectional converter of the battery controls the voltage and frequency of the AC node. The AC node feeds electric active and reactive loads able to reproduce arbitrary and programmable profiles. The automatic PMS is implemented in a real time microcontroller and it is able to provide both the microgrid monitoring and supervisory control during grid-connected and islanded conditions and the FC power scheduling throughout various operating modes. The paper describes also the experimental investigation aimed at assessing the dynamic characteristics of the stand-alone microgrid equipped with the developed PMS.
Diagnosis and new treatments in genetic neuropathies

The genetic neuropathies are a clinically and genetically heterogeneous group of diseases of which the most common types are Charcot–Marie–Tooth disease (CMT), the hereditary sensory and autonomic neuropathies and the distal hereditary motor neuropathies. More than 30 causative genes have been described, making an accurate genetic diagnosis increasingly possible. Although no specific therapies are yet available, research into their pathogenesis has revolutionised our understanding of the peripheral nervous system and allowed the development of rational approaches to therapy. The first therapeutic trials in CMT are currently underway. This review will suggest an approach to the diagnosis of these disorders and provide an update on new therapies.
Mobile Service Bundles: The Example of Navigation Services

Mobile service providers can use service bundling to offer attractive services to customers. Customers may find bundles convenient compared to single services and there may be a price discount involved. This paper examines what kind of service bundle may be attractive to users in the car navigation system market. We hypothesize that customers are more likely to acquire enhanced services than supplementary services and that bundle price has a positive effect on the intent to purchase. We used a conjoint analysis to assess which combination of services and price level is the most attractive to users. It turned out that enhanced services, i.e. services that reinforce the functionality of the core navigation service, are more relevant than supplementary services. However, the relative importance of price discounts is almost similar to the importance of bundle composition, implying that a customer may appreciate a careful composition of a bundle above a simple price discount.
A new urban river network extraction method and spatial scale analysis

In view of the confusing problem of urban river network water and building shadows in hyperspectral images, we analyzed typical shadow and water spectrum in AISA hyperspectral image. On the basis of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), the 588 nm height factor was introduced to constitute an anti-shadow water extraction method (ASWEM). Compared with NDVI extraction results, this method can effectively suppress shadows, especially those cast in buildings, improve water extraction accuracy and reduce water body commission error. The commission error is reduced from 45% to 10.4%, and Kappa coefficient is increased from 0.664 to 0.863. The change of spatial scale has a significant impact on the water extraction results. The lower the image resolution, the more serious the water leakage is, and some small rivers will not be able to extract. However, due to the influence of the mixed pixels, the spectral characteristics of the shadows are weakened to some extent, and the commission error is reduced. As the resolution decreases further, the number and mixing of mixed pixels increases, and the commission error increases.
Which organisational model meets best practice criterion for critical infrastructure providers: An examination of the Australian perspective based on case studies.

While it is recognised that there must be segregation between corporate and process control networks in order to achieve a higher level of security, there is evidence that this is not occurring. Computer and network vulnerability assessments were carried out on three Australian critical infrastructure providers to determine their level of security. The security measures implemented by each organisation have been mapped against best practice recommendations for achieving segregation between process control and corporate networks. One of the organisations used a model which provided a dedicated information security team for provision of security for the process control networks. One of the other organisations relied heavily on outsourcing for their IT security, and a third used in house corporate IT for their process control security. It was found that the organisation using a dedicated IT security team that worked within the process control group achieved the highest level of security when mapped to best practice. This paper concludes that best practice recommendations for critical infrastructure providers should also include guidelines for the organisational structure, and further, that dedicated IT security personnel be placed within the process control group.
How We Teach Understanding protein synthesis : a role-play approach in large undergraduate human anatomy and physiology classes

Sturges D, Maurer TW, Cole O. Understanding protein synthesis: a role-play approach in large undergraduate human anatomy and physiology classes. Adv Physiol Educ 33: 103–110, 2009; doi:10.1152/advan.00004. 2009. —This study investigated the effectiveness of role play in a large undergraduate science class. The targeted population consisted of 298 students enrolled in 2 sections of an undergraduate Human Anatomy and Physiology course taught by the same instructor. The section engaged in the role-play activity served as the study group, whereas the section presented with a traditional lecture served as the control group. A pretest/posttest assessment and a survey were administered to both sections and used in data analysis. In addition, overall test scores and item analysis were examined. The analysis revealed that participants in both groups improved significantly from pretest to posttest, but there were no significant differences between the groups in posttest scores. Neither group showed a significant change from posttest to the exam. However, there was a moderate positive effect on engagement and satisfaction survey questions from being in the study group (based on 255 total surveys returned by both groups). The role-play activity was at least as effective as the lecture in terms of student performance on the above-mentioned assessments. In addition, it proved successful in engaging students in the learning process and increasing their satisfaction.