Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of Needle Insertion Speed on Tissue Injury, Stress, and Backflow Distribution for Convection-Enhanced Delivery in the Rat Brain

Flow back along a needle track (backflow) can be a problem during direct infusion, e.g. convection-enhanced delivery (CED), of drugs into soft tissues such as brain. In this study, the effect of needle insertion speed on local tissue injury and backflow was evaluated in vivo in the rat brain. Needles were introduced at three insertion speeds (0.2, 2, and 10 mm/s) followed by CED of Evans blue albumin (EBA) tracer. Holes left in tissue slices were used to reconstruct penetration damage. These measurements were also input into a hyperelastic model to estimate radial stress at the needle-tissue interface (pre-stress) before infusion. Fast insertion speeds were found to produce more tissue bleeding and disruption; average hole area at 10 mm/s was 1.87-fold the area at 0.2 mm/s. Hole measurements also differed at two fixation time points after needle retraction, 10 and 25 min, indicating that pre-stresses are influenced by time-dependent tissue swelling. Calculated pre-stresses were compressive (0 to 485 Pa) and varied along the length of the needle with smaller average values within white matter (116 Pa) than gray matter (301 Pa) regions. Average pre-stress at 0.2 mm/s (351.7 Pa) was calculated to be 1.46-fold the value at 10 mm/s. For CED backflow experiments (0.5, 1, and 2 µL/min), measured EBA backflow increased as much as 2.46-fold between 10 and 0.2 mm/s insertion speeds. Thus, insertion rate-dependent damage and changes in pre-stress were found to directly contribute to the extent of backflow, with slower insertion resulting in less damage and improved targeting.
Expression Pattern of Transcription Factors and Intracellular Cytokines Reveals That Clinically Cured Tuberculosis Is Accompanied by an Increase in Mycobacterium-Specific Th1, Th2, and Th17 Cells

Tuberculosis (TB) remains a major global health problem and is the second biggest cause of death by infectious disease worldwide. Here, we investigate in vitro the Th1, Th2, Th17, and Treg cytokines and transcriptional factors produced after Mycobacterium-specific antigen stimulation in patients with active pulmonary tuberculosis, clinically cured pulmonary tuberculosis, and healthy donors with a positive tuberculin skin test (TST+). Together, our data indicate that clinical cure after treatment increases the percentages of Mycobacterium-specific Th1, Th2, and Th17 cells compared with those found in active-TB and TST+ healthy donors. These results show that the host-parasite equilibrium in latent TB breaks in favor of the microorganism and that the subsequent clinical recovery posttreatment does not return the percentage levels of such cells to those observed in latent tuberculosis. Additionally, our results indicate that rather than showing an increase in the percentage of Mycobacterium-specific Tregs, active-TB patients display lower Th1 : Treg and Th17 : Treg ratios. These data, together with lower Th1 : Th2 and Th17 : Th2 ratios, may indicate a mechanism by which the breakdown of the host-parasite equilibrium leads to active-TB and changes in the repertoire of Mycobacterium-specific Th cells that are associated with clinical cure after treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis.
Sequential pattern mining of electronic healthcare reimbursement claims: Experiences and challenges in uncovering how patients are treated by physicians

We examine the use of electronic healthcare reimbursement claims (EHRC) for analyzing healthcare delivery and practice patterns across the United States (US). We show that EHRCs are correlated with disease incidence estimates published by the Centers for Disease Control. Further, by analyzing over 1 billion EHRCs, we track patterns of clinical procedures administered to patients with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), heart disease (HD) and breast cancer (BC) using sequential pattern mining algorithms. Our analyses reveal that in contrast to treating HD and BC, clinical procedures for ASD diagnoses are highly varied leading up to and after the ASD diagnoses. The discovered clinical procedure sequences also reveal significant differences in the overall costs incurred across different parts of the US, indicating a lack of consensus amongst practitioners in treating ASD patients. We show that a data-driven approach to understand clinical trajectories using EHRC can provide quantitative insights into how to better manage and treat patients. Based on our experience, we also discuss emerging challenges in using EHRC datasets for gaining insights into the state of contemporary healthcare delivery and practice in the US.
Distorted body image in complex regional pain syndrome

Regional anesthesia results in shrinkage of the primary sensory cortex (S1) representation of the area and the perception that the area is larger than it is.1 Complex regional pain syndrome type 1 (CRPS1) also involves shrinkage of S1 representation2 and, anecdotally, the perception of marked swelling when none is apparent. We posited that if a reduced S1 representation of the affected limb is involved in generating a perception that the limb is larger than it really is, then this effect should be present in patients with CRPS1. Fifty patients diagnosed with CRPS13 initiated by wrist or hand fracture and 18 patients with non-CRPS1 hand or wrist pain were eligible (see table E-1 on the Neurology Web site at www.neurology.org). Exclusion criteria were pain elsewhere (five patients with CRPS1), symptoms extending beyond the affected limb (four patients), psychiatric diagnosis (two patients), and unable to understand English (one patient). A 3,000-DPI, 4.8 × 3.2-cm digital photograph was taken of the two hands and distal one-third of the forearms, placed side by side. The image of the affected limb was compressed …
Genetically enhanced TTCM assisted MMSE multi-user detection for SDMA-OFDM

Space division multiple access (SDMA) aided orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems assisted by efficient multi-user detection (MUD) techniques have recently attracted intensive research interests. The maximum likelihood detection (MLD) arrangement was found to attain the best performance, although this was achieved at the cost of computational complexity, which increases exponentially both with the number of users and with the number of bits per symbol transmitted by higher-order modulation schemes. By contrast, minimum mean-square error (MMSE) SDMA-MUD exhibits a lower complexity at the cost of performance loss. Forward error correction (FEC) schemes, such as turbo trellis coded modulation (TTCM) may be efficiently amalgamated with SDMA-OFDM systems for the sake of improving the achievable performance. Genetic algorithm (GA) based multi-user detection techniques have been shown to provide a good performance in MUD-aided code division multiple access (CDMA) systems. A GA-aided MMSE MUD is proposed for use in a TTCM-assisted SDMA-OFDM system, which is capable of achieving a similar performance to that attained by its MLD-aided counterpart at a significantly lower complexity, especially at high user loads.
Supporting Language Skills in Immigrant Pre-Schoolers: An Intervention Study

New York City has a large Spanish-speaking immigrant population coming from Latin American countries, especially from Mexico, Colombia, and Ecuador. The children of these immigrant families grow up bilingual but attain lower levels of skills in their L1 and L2 than those expected in children their age. In addition, they show comparatively low literacy achievements as early as first grade, and continue to lag behind their English-speaking peers. The purpose of the study reported here is to support and reinforce the development of the cognitive-linguistic skills central to the acquisition of reading, by enhancing the language input to which Spanish/English bilingual pre-kindergarten children are exposed. This intervention was designed to bring this population to higher levels of linguistic proficiency and skills, thus fostering children’s optimal reading readiness levels.
Low frequency PWM modulation for high efficiency Class-D audio driving

This paper is focused on the necessity of developing a low frequency modulation system to convert a PCM audio signal into a binary signal with suitable properties to drive Class-D audio amplifiers. Several modulation techniques are being used to overcome the inherent distortion of PWM techniques particularly its need for a high sampling frequency and correspondingly high output switching rates with negative impact on efficiency. A full-digital click modulation system is presented along with its implementation constraints and advantages when compared with other modulation solutions. The simulation results presented suggest that this modulation can be very competitive, especially when the efficiency of the amplification system is a key target.
A Design of Storage and Retrieval Schemes in a Multimedia Object Manager for Modeled Object and Eecient Multimedia Object Storage Strategies

Due to the fact that the speeds of secondary storage devices have not improved relative to other computing technologies, a lot of eeorts have been devoted to intelligent and eecient ways of storing data of storing data to maximixe the bandwidth of a computing system. Many of those techniques have proven useful; however, with the advent of multimedia and its enormous real-time and size requirements, the problems of data allocation and retrieval have become even more crucial. In 1]]2], we describe some designs of eecient multimedia object storage strategies that strive to allocate multimedia objects with the objective of satisfying their real-time retrieval requirements. We utilize some fragmentation strategies, a cost function, and bipartite graph model to allocate multimedia data eeciently. In the development of the storage allocation strategies, some assumptions were made about the functionalities and capabilities of the controlling Multimedia Object Manager. Here, we describe the design of the storage and retrieval schemes for a multimedia object Manager (MOM) that controls our allocation techniques. We describe the multimedia object model, generation and aggregation of the Storage Elements (SEs), determination of SEs spanned by an I/O request, clusterization and parallelization of requests, storage and retrieval structures, and extension and reduction of objects.
Virtual machine or virtual operating system?

Development of a multi-access system from an existing single-user system can be achieved by the virtual machine approach. If the virtual machines generated include as primitives the logical functions used by the single-user system activated on them, these extended virtual machines are able to support the single-user system at a decreased development, maintenance and running cost.
BMAL1-dependent regulation of the mTOR signaling pathway delays aging

The circadian clock, an internal time-keeping system, has been linked with control of aging, but molecular mechanisms of regulation are not known. BMAL1 is a transcriptional factor and core component of the circadian clock; BMAL1 deficiency is associated with premature aging and reduced lifespan. Here we report that activity of mammalian Target of Rapamycin Complex 1 (mTORC1) is increased upon BMAL1 deficiency both in vivo and in cell culture. Increased mTOR signaling is associated with accelerated aging; in accordance with that, treatment with the mTORC1 inhibitor rapamycin increased lifespan of Bmal1−/− mice by 50%. Our data suggest that BMAL1 is a negative regulator of mTORC1 signaling. We propose that the circadian clock controls the activity of the mTOR pathway through BMAL1-dependent mechanisms and this regulation is important for control of aging and metabolism.
Single trial classification of the P 300 evoked potential using Reservoir Computing

Abstract In this paper we propose Reservoir Computing as a technique for classifying P300 evoked potentials, which are commonly applied in brain-computer interfaces. We first look for the most appropriate algorithm to train the output weights of the reservoir. Then we perform a parameter sweep to find the optimal reservoir parameters. We also determine the best choice for constructing a target output function. Reservoir Computing turns out to be successful for classifying P300s. Our proposed method is tested on the dataset from the MLSP 2010 Competition: Mind Reading. We achieve an area under the Receiver Operating Characteristic of 0.90 on the training set and 0.69 on the test set. Reservoir Computing turns out to be a promising technique for developing uncued brain-computer interfaces.
Towards an optimal decision strategy of visual search

Searching for objects amongst clutter is a key ability of visual systems. Speed and accuracy are often crucial: how can the visual system trade off these competing quantities for optimal performance in different tasks? How does the trade-off depend on target appearance and scene complexity? We show that the optimal tradeoff strategy may be cast as the solution to a partially observable Markov decision process (POMDP) and computed by a dynamic programming procedure. However, this procedure is computationally intensive when the visual scene becomes too cluttered. Therefore, we also conjecture an optimal strategy that scales to large number of clutters. Our conjecture applies to homogeneous visual search and for a special case of heterogenous search where the signal-to-noise ratio differs across location. Using the conjecture we show that two existing decision mechanisms for analyzing human data, namely diffusion-to-bound and maximum-of-output, are sub-optimal; the optimal strategy instead employs two scaled diffusions.
A Novel Rake Receiver Using RLS Adaptive Algorithm for DS-UWB Systems

For multiple access high data rate UWB systems, the inter-symbol-interference (ISI) and multiple access interference(MAI) will influence the performance of the systems. In this paper, a Rake receiver structure is presented with adjusting the tap weights adaptively using recursive least squares(RLS) algorithm, in which the optimal parameters of RLS algorithm can be determined by part of the channel state information(CSI). Simulation results show that the proposed receiver based on RLS algorithm performs close to the infinite Rake receiver bound limit, and the system with it can achieve good performance under proper parameters of the RLS.
Hedge Funds with Style

The popular perception is that hedge funds follow a reasonably well-defined market-neutral investment style. Investigation of the monthly return history of hedge funds over 1989–2000, however, finds there are in fact distinct styles of management that account for about 20% of the cross-sectional variability in performance. This result is consistent across the years in the sample and robust as to the way investment style is determined. Appropriate style analysis and style management are crucial to success for investors looking to invest in hedge funds.
Big Data Visual Analytics System for Disease Pattern Analysis

As the world trend is elapsing toward the big data world, researchers have gradually become interested in data analysis and data visualization. We propose a visual analytics system for analyzing the big data for disease pattern analysis. The system is designed for not only experts but also novice users. We have focused on designing the system to support a short learning curve and scalability. The system is implemented on the web and we utilize Spring Framework for distributed processing with consideration to scalability. Furthermore, we have collected epidemic disease data from a public data repository that the government opens to the public and we analyze the data to reveal the causality of disease outbreak through our system.
Collisions for two branches of FORK-256

Disclosed is a process for recovering phenols from phenol-containing streams having at least a sufficient amount of water. The stream is contacted with a metal composition comprised of one or more oxides and/or hydroxides of metals capable of forming a metal phenate with the phenols of the stream. The resulting metal phenates are separated from the stream and are treated with steam at a temperature from about 250 DEG C. to about 450 DEG C. , thereby producing phenols, and hydroxides of the metals of the phenate.
Political distinction: searching for a structural similarity between class and politics in Flanders (Belgium)

The aim of this paper is to investigate the logic behind lay people’s ideological position taking and how this is determined by class position. I therefore examine to what extent there exists a similarity between the configuration of the political field and the structure of the space of social classes. The paper includes a brief description of the two most salient political alignments today, namely the old economic alignment and the new cultural alignment, and an explanation of how this two-dimensional political structure pertains to the rise of the new middle class. Directly related to this, I also present a discussion on the importance of the ethical habitus to understand the mechanism behind class determined political position taking. Subsequently, based on survey data and using multiple correspondence analysis, I empirically reproduce this political structure for Flanders (Belgium). Finally, relying on the visualized regression technique, I demonstrate that there exists a clear structural similarity between the political field and the space of social classes, which is a strong indication that the class-engendered ethical habitus is, in fact, the underlying factor that gives structure to the variations in political attitudes.
Simulation d'ordonnancement temps réel avec prise en compte de l'impact des caches

Afin de prendre en charge au mieux les supports d'execution multiprocesseurs pour les systemes temps reel, de nombreuses politiques d'ordonnancement ont ete proposees. Cependant, l'augmentation de la complexite de ces architectures rend plus difficile l'evaluation et la comparaison de ces algorithmes. Notre objectif est de faciliter ce travail en fournissant un outil de simulation qui integre certains aspects pouvant avoir un impact important sur les systemes reels, a savoir, les caches, la duree de prise de decision d'ordonnancement et les changements de contexte.
Large scale analysis of HTTP Adaptive Streaming in mobile networks

HTTP Adaptive bitrate video Streaming (HAS) is now widely adopted by Content Delivery Network Providers (CDNPs) and Telecom Operators (Telcos) to improve user Quality of Experience (QoE). In HAS, several versions of videos are made available in the network so that the quality of the video can be chosen to better fit the bandwidth capacity of users. These delivery requirements raise new challenges with respect to content caching strategies, since several versions of the content may compete to be cached. In this paper we present analysis of a real HAS dataset collected in France and provided by a mobile telecom operator involving more than 485,000 users requesting adaptive video contents through more than 8 million video sessions over a 6 week measurement period. Firstly, we propose a fine-grained definition of content popularity by exploiting the segmented nature of video streams. We also provide analysis about the behavior of clients when requesting such HAS streams. We propose novel caching policies tailored for chunk-based streaming. Then we study the relationship between the requested video bitrates and radio constraints. Finally, we study the users' patterns when selecting different bitrates of the same video content. Our findings provide useful insights that can be leveraged by the main actors of video content distribution to improve their content caching strategy for adaptive streaming contents as well as to model users' behavior in this context.
A combination of direct cell count and fluorescein diacetate hydrolysis to evaluate the viability of algae cell

Knowing the algae cell viability would be helpful in answering ecological or physiological questions. In this study, the direct cell count was combined with fluorescein diacetate hydrolysis to evaluate the of viability algae cell. The direct cell count was performed under light-field by a microscope equipped with CCD camera, and then an image processing program was used to calculate the cell count. Fluorescein diacetate is hydrolyzed into fluorescein by nonspecific intracellular esterases, and the fluorescence of fluorescein was simultaneously measured by spectrofluorometer. A linear regression analysis was used to determine the fluorescence intensity slope against time. Finally, we have chosen to use the ratio of fluorescence intensity slope and direct cell count result to make an evaluation of algae cell viability. The result shows that the combination of direct cell count with fluorescein diacetate hydrolysis can provide a sensitive and rapid method to detect algae cell viability.
Central and Peripheral Effects of Urotensin II and Urotensin II-Related Peptides on Cardiac Baroreflex Sensitivity in Trout

The baroreflex response is an essential component of the cardiovascular regulation that buffers abrupt changes in blood pressure to maintain homeostasis. Urotensin II (UII) and its receptor UT are present in the brain and in peripheral cardiovascular tissues of fish and mammals. Intracerebroventricular (ICV) injection of UII in these vertebrates provokes hypertension and tachycardia, suggesting that the cardio-inhibitory baroreflex response is impaired. Since nothing is known about the effect of UII on the cardiac baroreflex sensitivity (BRS), we decided to clarify the changes in spontaneous BRS using a cross spectral analysis technique of systolic blood pressure (SBP) and R–R interval variabilities after ICV and intra-arterial (IA) injections of trout UII in the unanesthetized trout. We contrasted the effects of UII with those observed for the UII-related peptides (URP), URP1 and URP2. Compared with vehicle-injected trout, ICV injection of UII (5–500 pmol) produced a gradual increase in SBP, a decrease in the R–R interval (reflecting a tachycardia) associated with a dose-dependent reduction of the BRS. The threshold dose for a significant effect on these parameters was 50 pmol (BRS; −55%; 1450 ± 165 ms/kPa vs. 3240 ± 300 ms/kPa; P < 0.05). Only the 500-pmol dose of URP2 caused a significant increase in SBP without changing significantly the R–R interval but reduced the BRS. IA injection of UII (5–500 pmol) caused a dose-dependent elevation of SBP. Contrasting with the ICV effects of UII, the R–R interval increased (reflecting a bradycardia) up to the 50-pmol dose while the BRS remained unchanged (50 pmol; 2530 ± 270 ms/kPa vs. 2600 ± 180 ms/kPa; P < 0.05). Nonetheless, the highest dose of UII reduced the BRS as did the highest dose of URP1. In conclusion, the contrasting effect of low picomolar doses of UII after central and peripheral injection on the BRS suggests that only the central urotensinergic system is involved in the attenuation of the BRS. The limited and quite divergent effects of URP1 and URP2 on the BRS, indicate that the action of UII is specific for this peptide. Further studies are required to elucidate the site(s) and mechanisms of action of UII on the baroreflex pathways. Whether such effects of central UII on the BRS exist in mammals including humans warrants further investigations.