Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
In Vivo Differentiation of Aerobic Brain Abscesses and Necrotic Glioblastomas Multiforme Using Proton MR Spectroscopic Imaging

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Abscesses caused by aerobic bacteria (aerobic abscesses) can simulate intracranial glioblastomas multiforme (GBMs) in MR imaging appearance and single voxel (SV) proton MR spectroscopy of the central cavity. The purpose of our study was to determine whether MR spectroscopic imaging (SI) can be used to differentiate aerobic abscesses from GBMs. Our hypothesis was that metabolite levels of choline (Cho) are decreased in the ring-enhancing portion of abscesses compared with GBMs. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Fifteen patients with aerobic abscesses were studied on a 1.5T MR scanner using an SV method and an SI method. Proton MR spectra of 15 GBMs with similar conventional MR imaging appearances were used for comparison. The resonance peaks in the cavity, including lactate, cytosolic amino acids, acetate, succinate, and lipids, were analyzed by both SV MR spectroscopy and MRSI. In the contrast-enhancing rim of each lesion, peak areas of N-acetylaspartate (NAA), choline (Cho), lipid and lactate (LL), and creatine (Cr) were measured by MRSI. The peak areas of NAA-n, Cho-n, and Cr-n in the corresponding contralateral normal-appearing (-n) brain were also measured. Maximum Cho/Cr, Cho/NAA, LL/Cr-n, and Cho/Cho-n and minimum Cr/Cr-n and NAA/NAA-n ratios in abscesses and GBMs were compared using the Wilcoxon rank sum test. After receiver operating characteristic curve analysis, diagnostic accuracy was compared. RESULTS: Cytosolic amino acid peaks were found in the cavity in 7 of 15 patients with aerobic abscesses. Means and SDs of maximum Cho/Cr, Cho/NAA, LL/Cr-n, and Cho/Cho-n and minimum Cr/Cr-n and NAA/NAA-n ratios were 3.38 ± 1.09, 3.88 ± 2.13, 2.72 ± 1.45, 1.98 ± 0.53, 0.53 ± 0.16, and 0.44 ± 0.09, respectively, in the GBMs, and 1.77 ± 0.49, 1.48 ± 0.51, 2.11 ± 0.67, 0.81 ± 0.21, 0.48 ± 0.2, and 0.5 ± 0.15, respectively, in the abscesses. Significant differences were found in the maximum Cho/Cr (P = .001), Cho/NAA (P = .006), and Cho/Cho-n ratios (P < .001) between abscesses and GBMs. Diagnostic accuracy was higher by Cho/Cho-n ratio than Cho/Cr and Cho/NAA ratios (93.3% versus 86.7% and 76.7%). CONCLUSION: Metabolite ratios and maximum Cho/Cho-n, Cho/Cr, and Cho/NAA ratios of the contrast-enhancing rim were significantly different and useful in differentiating aerobic abscesses from GBMs by MRSI.
Agricultural Extension: Generic Challenges and Some Ingredients for Solutions

The agriculture sector must nearly double biological yields on existing farmland to meet food needs, which will double in the next quarter century. A sustainable approach to providing agricultural extension services in developing countries-minimal external inputs, a systems orientation, pluralism, and arrangements that take advantage of the best incentives for farmers and extension service providers-will release the local knowledge, resources, common sense, and organizing ability of rural people. Is agricultural extension in developing countries up to the task of providing the information, ideas, and organization needed to meet food needs? What role should governments play in implementing or facilitating extension services? Roughly 80 percent of the world's extension is publicly funded and delivered by civil servants, providing a range of services to the farming population, commercial producers, and disadvantaged target groups. Budgetary constraints and concerns about performance create pressure to show the payoff on investment in extension and to explore alternatives to publicly providing it. Feder, Willett, and Zijp analyze the challenges facing policymakers who must decide what role governments should play in implementing or facilitating extension services. Focusing on developing country experience, they identify generic challenges that make it difficult to organize extension: The magnitude of the task. Dependence on wider policy and other agency functions. Problems in identifying the cause and effect needed to enable accountability and to get political support and funding. Liability for public service functions beyond the transfer of agricultural knowledge and information. Fiscal sustainability. Inadequate interaction with knowledge generators. Feder, Willett, and Zijp show how various extension approaches were developed in attempts to overcome the challenges of extension: Improving extension management. Decentralizing. Focusing on single commodities. Providing fee-for-service public extension services. Establishing institutional pluralism. Empowering people by using participatory approaches. Using appropriate media. Each of the approaches has weaknesses and strengths, and in their analysis the authors identify the ingredients that show promise. Rural people know when something is relevant and effective. The aspects of agricultural extension services that tend to be inherently low cost and build reciprocal, mutually trusting relationships are those most likely to produce commitment, accountability, political support, fiscal sustainability, and the kinds of effective interaction that generate knowledge. This paper - a joint product of Rural Development, Development Research Group, and the Rural Development Department - is part of a larger effort in the Bank to identify institutional and policy reforms needed to promote sustainable and equitable rural development.
Androgens and female sexuality

Odpowiedź seksualna kobiet zależy od wielu czynników hormonalnych, fizjologicznych, emocjonalnych i psychologicznych oraz od relacji w związku. Uważa się, że zmniejszone stężenie testosteronu u kobiet po menopauzie jest związane ze spadkiem pożądania, zmniejszeniem aktywności seksualnej, gorszym samopoczuciem i zmęczeniem. Plastry zawierające testosteron są terapeutyczną opcją dla kobiet po menopauzie chirurgicznej z obniżonym pożądaniem płciowym. Testosteron jest zazwyczaj dobrze tolerowany. Potrzebne są jednak długoterminowe, prospektywne badania, żeby ocenić ryzyko wystąpienia raka piersi i chorób układu krążenia.
Understanding diversity–stability relationships: towards a unified model of portfolio effects

A major ecosystem effect of biodiversity is to stabilise assemblages that perform particular functions. However, diversity–stability relationships (DSRs) are analysed using a variety of different population and community properties, most of which are adopted from theory that makes several restrictive assumptions that are unlikely to be reflected in nature. Here, we construct a simple synthesis and generalisation of previous theory for the DSR. We show that community stability is a product of two quantities: the synchrony of population fluctuations, and an average species-level population stability that is weighted by relative abundance. Weighted average population stability can be decomposed to consider effects of the mean-variance scaling of abundance, changes in mean abundance with diversity and differences in species' mean abundance in monoculture. Our framework makes explicit how unevenness in the abundances of species in real communities influences the DSR, which occurs both through effects on community synchrony, and effects on weighted average population variability. This theory provides a more robust framework for analysing the results of empirical studies of the DSR, and facilitates the integration of findings from real and model communities.
Combining ICA with SVR for prediction of finance time series

Due to the complexity of real task for learning, the learning algorithms based on ERM (empirical risk minimization) principle always have good fit for the training samples, but bad prediction for future samples. SVM(support vector machine) as a new kernel learning algorithm has embodied Vapnik's SRM (structure risk minimization) principle. It overcomes the problem for ERM posing by optimizing the object consisting of the learning error on the training samples and the capacity of hypothesis space. We'll use nonlinear support vector regression (SVR) in the prediction of finance time series. This may be illumined by the success of BP neural network and RBF neural network applied in finance time series. Before applying SVR, we use another new hot tool called ICA(independent component analysis)for feature extraction. Traditional PCA only takes into account the uncorrelated between features, however ICA considers the independence which is a more strict condition than PCA. Experiments have shown that our method based on ICA+SVR are superior to other methods, i.e. PCA+SVR, KPCA+SVR.
Pitfalls On The Road To A Positive Psychology Of Hope

The phenomenon of learned helplessness may well be the most significant and most pervasively influential psychological discovery in the last thirty-five years. Learned helplessness is extremely important in its own right, but in addition, its impact has extended across a wide variety of different domains of psychological research. It has contributed to changing the way people think about basic learning processes. It has influenced the way people think about motivation. It has affected the way people think about child development. It has altered the way people think about education. It has affected the way people think about the relation between mind, brain, and behavior. It has influenced the way people think about personality. It has had a major impact on the way people think about attribution processes, the turf of social psychology. It has influenced the way people think about work. It has affected the way people think about aging. And of course, it has transformed the way people think about the causes and treatments of psychopathology, most especially, of depression. And now it may have its biggest influence yet. For much of its history, psychology has been concerned with identifying human weakness and correcting or ameliorating it. Now, learned helplessness, in the guise of its complement, "learned optimism," may help to shape a positive psychology—a psychology that perhaps will someday illuminate what a human life at its best can be and show us how we can help people make their lives good lives. Taken together, the contributions to the present volume provide an impressive blueprint for the beginnings of a positive psychology—a psychology of hope. As each of the specific research areas sketched in this volume continues to develop, psychology will be able to tell us more and more about how to nurture strong and resilient people. And yet, the contributions to this volume also provide hints about difficult questions that will have to be faced and addressed if a positive psychology is to evolve. I think it is important for people to be thinking about these questions while the psychology of hope is still in its infancy. Thus, in this general commentary on the prospects for a
Comparison on Various Protocols by using Qos Parameters in Wireless Sensor Networks

In recent days, the radio signals mingled with both high-quality and low-quality frequency links. The motes face failure from the radio frequency interferences in noisy environment and consume more energy for packet transmission. To overcome the higher power consumption problems, a system with the Efficient and Reliable Routing protocol (EAR) that achieves reliable, scalable performance with minimization of redundancy routes and compromise of energy. This project describes that how to identifying good radio frequency links with minimum amount of energy utilization for data-aggregation with higher rates of data transmission at variable motes in wireless sensor networks. The EAR protocol dynamically determine and maintain the routes based on four parameters namely Expected path length, Weighted combination of distance traversed, Energy levels and Link transmission success history. The best routes with shortest path and good Radio Frequency links with least energy is identified by the link score. Control overheads in EAR are low of packet delivery ratio, packet latency and minimal energy consumption while operating in a noisy wireless environment. Efficient and Reliable routing protocols achieve reliability, energy efficiency and scalability in wireless message delivery.
Business intelligence solutions in healthcare a case study: Transforming OLTP system to BI solution

Healthcare environment is growing to include not only the traditional information systems, but also a business intelligence platform. For executive leaders, consultants, and analysts, there is no longer a need to spend hours in design and develop of typical reports or charts, the entire solution can be completed through using Business Intelligence “BI” software. This paper discusses current state-of-the-art B.I components (tools) and outlines hospitals advances in their businesses by using B.I solutions through focusing on inter-relationship of business needs and the IT technologies. We also present a case study that illustrates of transforming a traditional online transactional processing (OLTP) system towards building an online analytical processing (OLAP) solution.
Robust transceiver design for geometric mean decomposition systems with limited precoder feedback

With the assumption of a slow-time-variant multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) channel, the use of channel state information at the transmitter coupled with the use of a jointly optimized linear transceiver can achieve excellent performance. The geometric mean decomposition (GMD) when combined with BLAST detection can provide the same diversity order as a more complex ML detector without sacrificing the rate of the MIMO system. The main obstacle to the practical implementation of this scheme is whether or not it performs well when the transmitter has limited feedback. In this paper we propose a decoder designed to be robust against quantization errors, as well as a quantizer that reduces the number of required feedback bits to approximate the performance of GMD when it has infinite feedback for an N times M MIMO system. Our results show that we can reduce the amount of feedback bits from 64 to 10 bits for a 2 times 2 and require only 30 bits for a 3times3 MIMO system, while achieving performance nearly identical to infinite feedback case.
APOE 4 status is associated with white matter hyperintensities volume accumulation rate independent of AD diagnosis

To assess the relationship between carriage of APOE ε4 allele and evolution of white matter hyperintensities (WMHs) volume, we longitudinally studied 339 subjects from the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative cohort with diagnoses ranging from normal controls to probable Alzheimer’s disease (AD). A purpose-built longitudinal automatic method was used to segment WMH using constraints derived from an atlas-based model selection applied to a time-averaged image. Linear mixed models were used to evaluate the differences in rate of change across diagnosis and genetic groups. After adjustment for covariates (age, sex, and total intracranial volume), homozygous APOE ε4ε4 subjects had a significantly higher rate of WMH accumulation (22.5% per year 95% CI [14.4, 31.2] for a standardized population having typical values of covariates) compared with the heterozygous (ε4ε3) subjects (10.0% per year [6.7, 13.4]) and homozygous ε3ε3 (6.6% per year [4.1, 9.3]) subjects. Rates of accumulation increased with diagnostic severity; controls accumulated 5.8% per year 95% CI: [2.2, 9.6] for the standardized population, early mild cognitive impairment 6.6% per year [3.9, 9.4], late mild cognitive impairment 12.5% per year [8.2, 17.0] and AD subjects 14.7% per year [6.0, 24.0]. Following adjustment for APOE status, these differences became nonstatistically significant suggesting that APOE ε4 genotype is the major driver of accumulation of WMH volume rather than diagnosis of AD. 2017 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Integrating the epistemic and ontological aspects of content knowledge in science teaching and learning

ABSTRACT Promoting facility with content knowledge is one of the most important objectives of science teaching. Conventionally, the focus for this objective is placed on the substantive side of content knowledge (e.g. science concepts/laws), whereas its epistemic or ontological aspects (e.g. why do we construct concepts? ) rarely receive explicit attention. In this article, we develop a theoretical argument for the value of elevating the attention paid to the epistemic/ontological aspects of content knowledge and integrating them with its substantive side. Our argument is structured in two parts. The first unpacks the epistemic/ontological aspects of content knowledge and their role in science. For this, we focus on two specific aspects (i.e. ontological status and epistemic value of science concepts), which we elaborate in the context of two particular content domains, namely magnetism and energy. The second part of the argument highlights the potential of discourse on epistemic/ontological aspects to facilitate learning in science. We delineate how such discourse could (a) promote coherent conceptual understanding, (b) foster a productive epistemological stance towards science learning, and (c) enhance students' appreciation of ideas associated with the nature of science. The article concludes with a discussion of ensuing implications for science education.
Self-consistent atomic deformation method for application of density functional theory

We describe a computational method based on density functional theory in which the total electronic density is expressed as a sum over “atomic” densities or densities localized at atomic sites. The atomic densities are determined self-consistently from a variational treatment of the total energy, which includes terms to account for kinetic energy due to the overlapping densities from separate atomic sites. We call this method selfconsistent atomic deformation. The self-consistent procedure involves formulation and calculation of a potential for each atomic site, solving a one-electron Schrödinger’s equation for each site and using these selfconsistent potentials and densities to compute total energy and forces. The associated numerical methods employed are described in detail and illustrated for selected examples.
Activation of AMPK Inhibits Cholera Toxin Stimulated Chloride Secretion in Human and Murine Intestine

Increased intestinal chloride secretion through chloride channels, such as the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR), is one of the major molecular mechanisms underlying enterotoxigenic diarrhea. It has been demonstrated in the past that the intracellular energy sensing kinase, the AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), can inhibit CFTR opening. We hypothesized that pharmacological activation of AMPK can abrogate the increased chloride flux through CFTR occurring during cholera toxin (CTX) mediated diarrhea. Chloride efflux was measured in isolated rat colonic crypts using real-time fluorescence imaging. AICAR and metformin were used to activate AMPK in the presence of the secretagogues CTX or forskolin (FSK). In order to substantiate our findings on the whole tissue level, short-circuit current (SCC) was monitored in human and murine colonic mucosa using Ussing chambers. Furthermore, fluid accumulation was measured in excised intestinal loops. CTX and forskolin (FSK) significantly increased chloride efflux in isolated colonic crypts. The increase in chloride efflux could be offset by using the AMPK activators AICAR and metformin. In human and mouse mucosal sheets, CTX and FSK increased SCC. AICAR and metformin inhibited the secretagogue induced rise in SCC, thereby confirming the findings made in isolated crypts. Moreover, AICAR decreased CTX stimulated fluid accumulation in excised intestinal segments. The present study suggests that pharmacological activation of AMPK effectively reduces CTX mediated increases in intestinal chloride secretion, which is a key factor for intestinal water accumulation. AMPK activators may therefore represent a supplemental treatment strategy for acute diarrheal illness.
Reproducing Singletons and Fake Geminates

Thirty-two native American-English speaking children and adults reliably reproduced a non-contrastive segmental length distinction encoded in a set of monomorphemic nonce words. However, participants were unable to explicitly identify the contrast in a same/different judgment task. The results support the view that grammatically irrelevant, lexically specific temporal patterns can be learned and are represented in the lexicon.
Mutual Fund Performance and the Incentive to Generate Alpha

type="main"> To rationalize the well-known underperformance of the average actively managed mutual fund, we exploit the fact that retail funds in different market segments compete for different types of investors. Within the segment of funds marketed directly to retail investors, we show that flows chase risk-adjusted returns, and that funds respond by investing more in active management. Importantly, within this direct-sold segment, we find no evidence that actively managed funds underperform index funds. In contrast, we show that actively managed funds sold through brokers face a weaker incentive to generate alpha and significantly underperform index funds.
Study on 5.8-GHz Single-Stage Charge Pump Rectifier for Internal Wireless System of Satellite

To reduce the weight of a satellite, an internal wireless system (IWS) for satellites was proposed in a previous study. It is a system that can communicate between the satellite’s subsystems by using wireless communication modules. In this paper, we propose a complete IWS for a satellite using microwave wireless power transmission technology. The design of a 5.8-GHz high efficiency rectifier circuit-based charge pump circuit is also presented. Furthermore, we introduced a class-F load that can process the third harmonic components. The rectifying efficiencies of a normal charge pump rectifier and a charge pump rectifier with the class-F load are theoretically compared. To improve the conversion efficiency of the charge pump rectifier, the applied voltages of diodes are adjusted. Owing to inserting the class-F load and adjusted the applied voltage of diodes in this circuit, the conversion efficiency of the charge pump circuit at 30 mW increases to about 78% at 30 mW in the simulation, and to about 71% conversion efficiency in the experiment. In addition, the output voltage is higher than 5 V at an optimal load 1300 $\Omega $ .
Evaluation of Enoyl-Acyl Carrier Protein Reductase Inhibitors as Pseudomonas aeruginosa Quorum-Quenching Reagents

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen which is responsible for a wide range of infections. Production of virulence factors and biofilm formation by P. aeruginosa are partly regulated by cell-to-cell communication quorum-sensing systems. Identification of quorum-quenching reagents which block the quorum-sensing process can facilitate development of novel treatment strategies for P. aeruginosa infections. We have used molecular dynamics simulation and experimental studies to elucidate the efficiencies of two potential quorum-quenching reagents, triclosan and green tea epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), which both function as inhibitors of the enoyl-acyl carrier protein (ACP) reductase (ENR) from the bacterial type II fatty acid synthesis pathway. Our studies suggest that EGCG has a higher binding affinity towards ENR of P. aeruginosa and is an efficient quorum-quenching reagent. EGCG treatment was further shown to be able to attenuate the production of virulence factors and biofilm formation of P. aeruginosa.
1 Asynchronous transfer of video Asynchronous Transfer of Video

Video transfers across IP and ATM networks have received much research attention during the last ten years. Various video services are expected in the future, enabled by the rapid development in video coding and broadband network technology. This paper gives an introduction to the issues involved in asynchronous video transfers. Brief overviews of video coding, rate control, multiplexing, as well as delay, error and loss control are given.