Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Head-Mounted Displays for Clinical Virtual Reality Applications: Pitfalls in Understanding User Behavior while Using Technology

The use of virtual environments with head-mounted displays (HMDs) offers unique assets to the evaluation and therapy of clinical populations. However, research examining the effects of this technology on clinical populations is sparse. Understanding how wearers interact with the HMD is vital. Discomfort leads to altered use of the HMD that could confound performance measures; the very measures which might be used as tools for clinical decision making. The current study is a post-hoc analysis of the relationship between HMD use and HMD comfort. The analysis was conducted to examine contributing factors for a high incidence of simulator sickness observed in an HMD-based driving simulator. Pearson correlation analysis was used to evaluate objective and subjective measures of HMD performance and self-reported user comfort ratings. The results indicated weak correlations between these variables, indicating the complexity of quantifying user discomfort and HMD performance. Comparison of two case studies detailing user behavior in the virtual environment demonstrates that selected variables may not capture how individuals use the HMD. The validity and usefulness of the HMD-based virtual environments must be understood to fully reap the benefits of virtual reality (VR) in rehabilitation medicine.
Monopolar Radiofrequency Energy Effects on Joint Capsular Tissue: Potential Treatment for Joint Instability

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the thermal effect of monopolar radiofrequency energy, a potential treatment means for joint instability, on the mechanical, morphologic, and biochemical properties of joint capsular tissue in an in vivo ovine model. The energy was applied arthroscopically to the synovial surface of the femoropatellar joint capsule of 24 sheep. The sheep were sacrificed at 0, 2, 6, and 12 weeks after surgery (6 per group). Monopolar radiofrequency energy initially caused a significant decrease in tissue stiffness and an increase in tissue relaxation properties, followed by gradual improvement in the tissue's mechanical properties by 6 weeks after surgery. Microscopic examination illustrated that radiofrequency energy initially caused collagen hyalinization and cell necrosis, followed by active tissue repair. Biochemical analysis revealed that treated collagen was significantly more trypsin-susceptibile than untreated collagen at 0 and 2 weeks after surgery, indicating early collagen denaturation. This study demonstrated that this treatment initially caused a significantly deleterious effect on the mechanical properties of the joint capsule, which was associated with partial denaturation of joint capsular tissue. This was followed by gradual improvement of the mechanical, morphologic, and biochemical properties of the tissue over time.
Impact of Preexisting Adenovirus Vector Immunity on Immunogenicity and Protection Conferred with an Adenovirus-Based H5N1 Influenza Vaccine

The prevalence of preexisting immunity to adenoviruses in the majority of the human population might adversely impact the development of adaptive immune responses against adenovirus vector-based vaccines. To address this issue, we primed BALB/c mice either intranasally (i.n.) or intramuscularly (i.m.) with varying doses of wild type (WT) human adenovirus subtype 5 (HAd5). Following the development of immunity against HAd5, we immunized animals via the i.n. or i.m. route of inoculation with a HAd vector (HAd-HA-NP) expressing the hemagglutinin (HA) and nucleoprotein (NP) of A/Vietnam/1203/04 (H5N1) influenza virus. The immunogenicity and protection results suggest that low levels of vector immunity (<520 virus-neutralization titer) induced by priming mice with up to 107 plaque forming units (p.f.u.) of HAd-WT did not adversely impact the protective efficacy of the vaccine. Furthermore, high levels of vector immunity (approximately 1500 virus-neutralization titer) induced by priming mice with 108 p.f. u. of HAd-WT were overcome by either increasing the vaccine dose or using alternate routes of vaccination. A further increase in the priming dose to 109 p.f. u. allowed only partial protection. These results suggest possible strategies to overcome the variable levels of human immunity against adenoviruses, leading to better utilization of HAd vector-based vaccines.
Language Identification: A Tutorial

This tutorial presents an overview of the progression of spoken language identification (LID) systems and current developments. The introduction provides a background on automatic language identification systems using syntactic, morphological, and in particular, acoustic, phonetic, phonotactic and prosodic level information. Different frontend features that are used in LID systems are presented. Several normalization and language modelling techniques have also been presented. We also discuss different LID system architectures that embrace a variety of front-ends and back-ends, and configurations such as hierarchical and fusion classifiers. Evaluations of the LID system are presented using NIST language recognition evaluation tasks.
Near-ideal behavior of a modified Elastic Net algorithm

In this paper it is shown that a modification of the Elastic Net algorithm (MEN) exhibits near ideal behavior in the following sense: Suppose the input to the algorithm is a vector of known sparsity index but unknown locations for the nonzero components. Then the output error of the algorithm is bounded by a universal constant times the error achieved by an oracle that knows not just the sparsity index but also the locations of the nonzero components. This result generalizes an earlier result of Candès and Plan on the near ideal behavior of the LASSO algorithm.
Analysis of Clustering Characteristics during early Stages of Cu Precipitation in bcc-Fe

Formation of coherent Cu precipitates in supersaturated ferrite (1.5 at.%Cu) at 500°C is simulated using the Monte Carlo method. Bond energies used in the atomistic simulation are calibrated on the mutual solubilities given on the Fe-rich and Cu-rich side of the Fe(bcc)-Cu(bcc) phase diagram. The spatial extension of the precipitate phase is defined on basis of a composition criterion of the nearest neighbor shells. Various definition conditions are examined in terms of resulting particle densities, mean radii and composition of the precipitates, as well as the composition profiles across the precipitate/matrix interface. The predictions of the simulations are compared with the experimental results from atom probe analysis as well as small angle neutron scattering.
Preparation and Characterization of Fibrous Hydroxyapatite/Chitosan Nanocomposites with High Hydroxyapatite Dosage

In this paper the hydroxyapatite fibers reinforced chitosan nanocomposites with high hydroxyapatite dosage (70~90 wt%) were synthesized by in-situ hybridization. The semi-permeable membrane was used to control the process of hybridization and morphology of hydroxyapatite. The compositional and morphological properties of nanocomposites were investigated by FTIR spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and transmission electron microscopy. The results showed that the hydroxyapatite were carbonated nanometer crystalline fibers with high aspect ratio (about 25) and dispersed uniformly in the nanocomposites. The high-resolution image indicated that the growth of nano-hydroxyapatite crystallites in the chitosan matrix preferred in the c-axis. The mechanical properties of these nanocomposites were enhanced dramatically and the compressive strength increases almost to 170MPa when the hydroxyapatite content is 70 wt%. The in vitro tests indicated that the composites have high bioactivity and degradation. These properties illustrated the potential application of this kind of nanocomposites for bone tissue engineering.
Improving on Deterministic Approximate Bayesian Inferences for Mixture Distributions

This paper presents the branching approach, which can improve deterministic implementation methods (such as variational Bayesian inference and expectation propagation method) for Bayesian mixture distributions. This proposed approach utilizes a set of artificial conditions defined by using the latent variables of the mixture distribution. This condition set is updated iteratively by branching based on a condition selected from the previous condition set. The target approximate Bayesian inference is obtained by merging the approximate conditional inferences under each condition in the condition set. The proposed approach is compared with several standard implementation methods by using a numerical example and a real-world example.
Multipliers for floating-point double precision and beyond on FPGAs

The implementation of high-precision floating-point applications on reconfigurable hardware requires large multipliers. Full multipliers are the core of floating-point multipliers. Truncated multipliers, trading resources for a well-controlled accuracy degradation, are useful building blocks in situations where a full multiplier is not needed. This work studies the automated generation of such multipliers using the embedded multipliers and adders present in the DSP blocks of current FPGAs. The optimization of such multipliers is expressed as a tiling problem, where a tile represents a hardware multiplier, and super-tiles represent combinations of several hardware multipliers and adders, making efficient use of the DSP internal resources. This tiling technique is shown to adapt to full or truncated multipliers. It addresses arbitrary precisions including single, double but also the quadruple precision introduced by the IEEE-754-2008 standard and currently unsupported by processor hardware. An open-source implementation is provided in the FloPoCo project.
An outbreak of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis among refugees in Austria, 2005-2006.

SETTING In 2005-2006, the Austrian reference laboratory for tuberculosis (TB) identified multidrug-resistant (MDR) isolates from four cases of TB showing genotypes indistinguishable from each other. OBJECTIVE To clarify the chain of transmission of this MDR-TB strain. DESIGN An epidemiological case series investigation by reviewing TB notification reports and hospital discharge letters. RESULTS The 38-year-old primary case of the MDR-TB cluster had initially been identified as a case of non-MDR pulmonary TB in June 2004, 7 months after being detained for illegal immigration. In March 2005, he was lost to follow-up for 4 months. In June 2005, he presented with pulmonary and laryngeal TB due to MDR-TB. After discharge, the case was again lost to follow-up until April 2006, when he was readmitted with recurrent MDR-TB. A three-case cluster of pulmonary MDR-TB sharing the same strain as the primary case was detected in April 2006: the index case's 5-month-old daughter and a 25-year-old friend with a 6-month-old son. CONCLUSION As MDR-TB has originated in the human immunodeficiency virus seronegative community in Austria, there is a clear need to implement national guidelines for the management of drug-resistant TB in Austria.
Cyclooxygenase-2 overexpression in the skin of transgenic mice results in suppression of tumor development.

Significant evidence has accumulated suggesting that the inducible form of cyclooxygenase (COX-2), a central enzyme in the prostaglandin biosynthetic pathway, plays an important role in tumor development. To better understand the role of COX-2 in tumorigenesis, we generated transgenic mice that overexpress COX-2 under control of the human keratin 14 promoter, which allows for expression in the epidermis and some other epithelia. Transgenic mice, referred to as K14.COX2 mice, were readily distinguished from their nontransgenic littermates by the appearance of significant alopecia. Administration of a specific COX-2 inhibitor restored hair growth, indicating that the alopecia was attributable to elevated COX-2 enzymatic activity. Unexpectedly, COX-2 overexpression was found to protect, rather than sensitize, K14.COX2 mice to skin tumor development induced by an initiation/promotion protocol. K14.COX2 transgenics developed tumors at a much lower frequency than did their littermate controls (3.3% versus 93%, respectively, on a FVB background and approximately 25% versus 100%, respectively, on an ICR background) and presented with significantly reduced tumor burdens (average, 0.03 versus 12.7 tumors/mouse, respectively, on a FVB background and 0.5 versus 7.1 tumors/mouse, respectively, on an ICR background). Mice fed a COX-2 inhibitor in utero and as weanlings up to the time of promotion also showed a significant resistance to tumor development. These results clearly raise questions regarding the role of COX-2 and elevated prostaglandin levels in skin tumor development.
A normalized gradient descent algorithm for nonlinear adaptive filters using a gradient adaptive step size

A fully adaptive normalized nonlinear gradient descent (FANNGD) algorithm for online adaptation of nonlinear neural filters is proposed. An adaptive stepsize that minimizes the instantaneous output error of the filter is derived using a linearization performed by a Taylor series expansion of the output error. For rigor, the remainder of the truncated Taylor series expansion within the expression for the adaptive learning rate is made adaptive and is updated using gradient descent. The FANNGD algorithm is shown to converge faster than previously introduced algorithms of this kind.
Cancer chemoprevention: successes and failures.

BACKGROUND Cancer has traditionally been considered a single disease, but it is now known to be far more complex, with an unfolding etiology. In less than 2 centuries, hundreds--if not thousands--of drugs for the treatment of cancer and for palliative care have been developed and tested, with 143 having achieved approval by the US Food and Drug Administration (MediLexicon International; "Cancer Drugs & Oncology Drugs," http://www.medilexicon.com/drugs-list/cancer.php). Just 13 agents have been approved, however, for treating precancerous lesions or for reducing risk. CONTENT Nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs, vitamins, food constituents and spice components, antidiabetic drugs, ω-3 fatty acids, and fiber are just a few of the many classes of compounds that have been tested for their cancer-preventive potential. We highlight some of the agents that have been scrutinized by way of randomized clinical trials in humans for their cancer prevention potential. We summarize the major definitive cancer chemoprevention studies that (a) were successful in demonstrating efficacy and ultimately received regulatory approval; (b) were not successful in demonstrating efficacy or had unacceptable toxicities, but from which the field has learned important lessons; and (c) showed compelling efficacy against surrogate end points but failed to achieve regulatory approval because of a lack of consensus regarding the relevance of those end points to clinical benefit. SUMMARY Chemopreventive studies have provided new insights into early disease pathogenesis, stimulated new risk assessments and models, fostered important research in end point biomarkers, and led to 13 approved agents. The development of safe and effective chemopreventive agents holds tremendous potential for reducing the burden of cancer.
WHEN DO HIGH-LEVEL MANAGERS BELIEVE THEY CAN INFLUENCE THE STOCK PRICE? ANTECEDENTS OF STOCK PRICE EXPECTANCY COGNITIONS

Stock based rewards are often used to motivate high-level managers to take actions to increase the stock price of the fi rm. However, numerous constraints may weaken the perceived link between individual effort and stock price appreciation for many recipients. This study introduces a new construct, stock price expectancy, which we defi ne as individuals’ perceptions of infl uence over their fi rm’s stock price. We examined its antecedents in a sample of 349 high-level U.S. managers and found that employment at corporate headquarters, fi rm size, hierarchical level, and contact with investment analysts predicted stock price expectancy perceptions. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Teaching robots the use of human tools from demonstration with non-dexterous end-effectors

Commercial, affordable and general-purpose robots like the PR-2, Baxter and UBR-1 robots can take over a wide range of tasks or assist human workers in a mixed human-robot environment. However, end-effectors on these robots are usually restricted to low-cost, non-dexterous grippers which constrains the application scenarios. We aim at increasing their range by teaching such robots the use of human tools by demonstration. We present a novel and compact model for the use of human tools and propose a dual-gripper strategy in replacement of the much less widely deployed dexterous hand for tool manipulation. Especially, we propose a hierarchical architecture to embed tool use in a learning from demonstration framework, learning temporal order for dual-arm coordination at higher level and Dynamic Movement Primitives at lower level for a multi-step execution. The approach is demonstrated and evaluated on a Baxter research robot for three human tools.
The Mesodermal Expression of rolling stone (rost) Is Essential for Myoblast Fusion in Drosophila and Encodes a Potential Transmembrane Protein

In homozygous rolling stone embryos, the fusion of myoblasts to syncytial myotubes is diminished. Nevertheless, the visceral mesoderm, the heart mesoderm, and few somatic muscles are properly formed. Thus, we postulate a central role of rolling stone for the fusion process within the somatic mesoderm. We have cloned the rolling stone gene, and the deduced protein sequence is in accordance with a transmembrane protein, which agrees with the enrichment of Rost in the membrane fraction of Drosophila embryos. No homologous genes have been described so far. rolling stone is expressed in the embryonic nervous system and cells of the somatic mesoderm, most notable in muscle founder cells. To elucidate the function of rolling stone for myoblast fusion, we applied a knock-out strategy. The expression of an antisense rolling stone transcript specifically within the mesoderm of wild-type embryos results in fusion defects of myoblasts, proving that the rolling stone expression in the mesoderm is responsible for the rolling stone phenotype. We suggest that rolling stone is a member of a group of genes that are necessary for the fusion process during myogenesis.
Glucose Production by Deconvolution in Intravenous and Oral Glucose Tolerance Tests: Role of Output Variable

Endogenous glucose production (EGP) after a glucose stimulus can be estimated by deconvolution of the endogenous component of glucose concentration, which is computed from noisy measurements. This study analyzes how measurement errors propagate to endogenous glucose and affect EGP reconstruction during intravenous (IVGTT) and oral (MEAL) glucose tolerance tests. Monte Carlo simulations show that the effect of errors on endogenous glucose and thus on EGP is more critical during IVGTT than during MEAL. A two regularization-parameter deconvolution technique for IVGTT is proposed, which successfully handles this added difficulty
EDGE DETECTION IN MULTISPECTRAL IMAGES BASED ON STRUCTURAL ELEMENTS

One of the first steps of feature extraction is edge detection. There are various methods for edge detection such as sobel operator, log method and canny operator. These methods have disadvantages such as create noise and discontinues edge and image smoothing. With the notice of the daily growth multi spectral images processing and describe of these images have become very important. Because of the existence of many details of these images, necessity to robust algorithms caused to present a method to extract feature of an object. In this article An improve method for edge detection has been purposed. In this method edge is detected by morphology’s operator and their combination and with the use of various structure elements of images in satellite and remote sensing.
Experimental Diabetes Induces Structural, Inflammatory and Vascular Changes of Achilles Tendons

This study aims to demonstrate how the state of chronic hyperglycemia from experimental Diabetes Mellitus can influence the homeostatic imbalance of tendons and, consequently, lead to the characteristics of tendinopathy. Twenty animals were randomly divided into two experimental groups: control group, consisting of healthy rats and diabetic group constituted by rats induced to Diabetes Mellitus I. After twenty-four days of the induction of Diabetes type I, the Achilles tendon were removed for morphological evaluation, cellularity, number and cross-sectional area of blood vessel, immunohistochemistry for Collagen type I, VEGF and NF-κB nuclear localization sequence (NLS) and nitrate and nitrite level. The Achilles tendon thickness (µm/100g) of diabetic animals was significantly increased and, similarly, an increase was observed in the density of fibrocytes and mast cells in the tendons of the diabetic group. The average number of blood vessels per field, in peritendinous tissue, was statistically higher in the diabetic group 3.39 (2.98) vessels/field when compared to the control group 0.89 (1.68) vessels/field p = 0.001 and in the intratendinous region, it was observed that blood vessels were extremely rare in the control group 0.035 (0.18) vessels/field and were often present in the tendons of the diabetic group 0.89 (0.99) vessels/field. The immunohistochemistry analysis identified higher density of type 1 collagen and increased expression of VEGF as well as increased immunostaining for NFκB p50 NLS in the nucleus in Achilles tendon of the diabetic group when compared to the control group. Higher levels of nitrite/nitrate were observed in the experimental group induced to diabetes. We conclude that experimental DM induces notable structural, inflammatory and vascular changes in the Achilles tendon which are compatible with the process of chronic tendinopathy.
Expression of p16 and hTERT protein is associated with the presence of high‐risk human papillomavirus in Bowenoid papulosis

Background: High‐risk human papillomavirus (hrHPV) type E6 and E7 oncoproteins contribute to oncogenesis in multiple ways by modulating the activities of host components in cell‐cycle regulation including the expression of p16 protein (p16) and human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT). The expression of p16 and hTERT protein in Bowenoid papulosis (BP) has not been studied.
Small-angle X-Ray scattering from polyurethane elastomers

Abstract Small-angle X-ray scattering is shown to be an effective technique, complementary to mechanical and thermal methods, for the study of structural ordering in polyurethane elastomers. Wide variations in intensity were found for different sample compositions and are interpreted in terms of the degree of hard segment aggregation. The results support previous conclusions regarding the organization in these samples based on analysis by scanning thermal methods. The polyether polyurethanes studied showed a higher degree of organization than the equivalent polyesters, and longer urethane segments enhance the extent of domain structure. Studies of the temperature dependence of scattering strengthen the previous assignment of a transition at about 150°C to the disordering of domain structure.