Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Capturing the efficiency of vibrating mesh nebulizers: minimizing upper airway deposition.

BACKGROUND Vibrating mesh devices are portable nebulizer systems with reported high efficiency. Losses occur during expiration, and particle size distributions vary. We describe an aerosol chamber designed to capture and condition aerosols from a typical vibrating mesh nebulizer, the Omron U22. The goal was to improve inhaled mass (IM) and respirable fraction (RF) and shorten treatment time. METHODS With test solutions of radiolabeled saline, we characterized the Omron U22 (three examples) vibrating mesh nebulizer measuring aerosol output with different breathing patterns, with and without manual breath synchronization. Particle size distributions were measured by cascade impaction as a "standing cloud" and during ventilation with a piston respirator. IM (percentage of nebulizer charge), respirable mass (RM), particle size distribution, and breathing time were measured with and without use of the chamber. Breathing patterns were designed to simulate tidal breathing with a "COPD" (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) pattern (450 mL, rate 15, duty cycle 0.35) and "slow and deep" breathing for maximal lung deposition (1,500 mL, rate 5, duty cycle 0.70). Patterns of deposition were confirmed in a human volunteer using a gamma camera. RESULTS IM was significantly affected by breathing pattern and averaged 30.0±2.91% and 53.9±7.99% for COPD and slow and deep patterns, respectively. With the chamber, IM was less sensitive to breathing pattern (57.4±6.97%, 57.9±4.69%, respectively). Particle size distributions varied widely between devices and were markedly affected by both ventilating the device and addition of the chamber. With the chamber, RF and RM increased, and differences in particle size distributions between individual devices were minimized. Compared with breath synchronization, treatment time was reduced. Gamma camera images revealed reduced upper airway deposition consistent with predictions from in vitro cascade distributions. CONCLUSIONS Our prototype chamber allowed for capture and conditioning of nebulized aerosol by mixing with room air and removal of large particles by impaction, providing better control of IM, RF, RM, and lung deposition, without the need for breath synchronization.
Instrumented footwear inserts: A new tool for measuring forces and biomechanical state changes during dynamic movements

Lower-limb musculoskeletal injuries are a pervasive problem in the population and military, especially during basic training where load bearing bones and joints are repeatedly subjected to aggressive movements and high forces. The ability to measure these elements is critical to acquisition decisions affecting or influencing cumulative load carriage of the individual Marine/Warfighter. These data might also serve as a critical enabler for prevention of training injuries and development of more quantitative training procedures that focus on mobility and agility. It has been inherently difficult to acquire this data outside of the laboratory in a robust and repeatable way. Herein, we report the construction and testing of a measurement system packaged within a shoe insert that is capable of measuring forces, accelerations, rotations and elevation changes. The ability to take these measurements in a mobile system facilitates new environments to monitor complex biomechanical actions without compromising natural gait rhythms. This can result in new methods for monitoring changes to gait and also help with rehabilitation strategies.
Anti-Noise Light Field Depth Estimation Using Inline Occlusion Handling

The light field camera records spatial and angular information of a scene within one shot, which is a unique advantage, especially for depth estimation. Both occlusion and noise make it difficult to estimate the depth of the light field. To address this problem, we propose a depth estimation method using inline occlusion handling, which uses digital refocusing to obtain refocused images and define occlusion types in scenes. An inline occlusion framework is used to construct the correlation cost. In order to remove noise, we use a variety of filtering strategies to optimize the cost. The quantitative results show that, compared with the best performance constrained angular entropy cost (CAE), our method can reduce the mean square error (MSE) and bad point rate by 40.68% and 25.76%, respectively, in the challenging noise scenes of old Heidelberg Collaboratory for Image Processing (HCI) datasets. In new HCI datasets, the reduction is 34.98% and 31.26%, respectively. The qualitative results show that we can preserve various fine structures of the real light field. Therefore, our method has significant advantages in high-noise scenes, which can better deal with the occlusion problem of depth estimation in noisy scenes.
Prevalence and Risk Factors of Silent Brain Infarcts in the Population-Based Rotterdam Scan Study

Background and Purpose— Silent brain infarcts are commonly seen on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) both in patients with a first stroke and in healthy elderly persons. These infarcts seem associated with an increased risk of stroke. It is unclear whether risk factors for silent infarcts differ from those for symptomatic stroke. We investigated the prevalence of, and cardiovascular risk factors for, silent brain infarcts. Methods— The Rotterdam Scan Study is a population-based cohort study among 1077 participants 60 to 90 years of age. Participants underwent cerebral MRI. We assessed cardiovascular risk factors by interview and physical examination. Associations between risk factors and presence of infarcts were analyzed by logistic regression and adjusted for age, sex, and relevant confounders. Results— For 259 participants (24%) 1 or more infarcts on MRI were seen; 217 persons had only silent and 42 had symptomatic infarcts. The prevalence odds ratio (OR) of both silent and symptomatic infarcts increased with age by 8% per year (95% CI, 1.06 to 1.10 and 1.04 to 1.13, respectively). Silent infarcts were more frequent in women (age-adjusted OR, 1.4; 95% CI, 1.0 to 1.8). Hypertension was associated with silent infarcts (age- and sex-adjusted OR, 2.4; 95% CI, 1.7 to 3.3), but diabetes mellitus and smoking were not. Conclusions— Silent brain infarcts are 5 times as prevalent as symptomatic brain infarcts in the general population. Their prevalence increases with age and seems higher in women. Hypertension is associated with silent infarcts, but other cardiovascular risk factors are not.
Uncertainty estimation of AR-marker poses for graph-SLAM optimization in 3D object model generation with RGBD data

This paper presents an approach to acquire textured 3D models of objects without the need for sophisticated hardware infrastructures. The approach is inexpensive, using a low-cost Microsoft Kinect RGB-D sensor and Augmented Reality (AR) markers printed on paper sheets. The AR-markers can be freely placed in the scene, allowing the modeling of objects of various sizes, and the sensor can be moved by the hand of an untrained person. To generate usable models with this very inexpensive and simple setup, the sequence of RGB-D scans is embedded in a graph-based optimizer for automatic post-refinement. The main novelty of this contribution is the development of an uncertainty model for an AR-marker. The AR-marker uncertainty models are used as constraints in an optimization problem to better estimate the object pose. The models are in the end further fine-tuned by a standard point-based registration algorithm. The results section presents realistic models of various objects generated using this system, e.g., parcels, sport balls, human dolls etc. Additionally, a quantitative analysis is presented using objects of known dimensions.
Risk of lymph node metastases from early gastric cancer in relation to depth of invasion: experience in a single institution.

BACKGROUND An accurate assessment of potential lymph node metastasis is important for the appropriate treatment of early gastric cancers. Therefore, this study analyzed predictive factors associated with lymph node metastasis and identified differences between mucosal and submucosal gastric cancers. MATERIALS AND METHODS A total of 518 early gastric cancer patients who underwent radical gastrectomy were reviewed in this study. Clinicopathological features were analyzed to identify predictive factors for lymph node metastasis. RESULTS The rate of lymph node metastasis in early gastric cancer was 15.3% overall, 3.3% for mucosal cancer, and 23.5% for submucosal cancer. Using univariate analysis, risk factors for lymph node metastasis were identified as tumor location, tumor size, depth of tumor invasion, histological type and lymphovascular invasion. Multivariate analysis revealed that tumor size >2 cm, submucosal invasion, undifferentiated tumors and lymphovascular invasion were independent risk factors for lymph node metastasis. When the carcinomas were confined to the mucosal layer, tumor size showed a significant correlation with lymph node metastasis. On the other hand, histological type and lymphovascular invasion were associated with lymph node metastasis in submucosal carcinomas. CONCLUSIONS Tumor size >2 cm, submucosal tumor, undifferentiated tumor and lymphovascular invasion are predictive factors for lymph node metastasis in early gastric cancer. Risk factors are quite different depending on depth of tumor invasion. Endoscopic treatment might be possible in highly selective cases.
Pronominalization in Generated Discourse and Dialogue

Previous approaches to pronominalization have largely been theoretical rather than applied in nature. Frequently, such methods are based on Centering Theory, which deals with the resolution of anaphoric pronouns. But it is not clear that complex theoretical mechanisms, while having satisfying explanatory power, are necessary for the actual generation of pronouns. We first illustrate examples of pronouns from various domains, describe a simple method for generating pronouns in an implemented multi-page generation system, and present an evaluation of its performance.
Why Does the Somatosensory Homunculus Have Hands Next to Face and Feet Next to Genitals? A Hypothesis

The somatotopic mapping of the body surface onto its cortical representation is a paradigm case of topographic mapping in the nervous system. It has functioned as the model case for physiological studies of plasticity in cortical maps (Kaas, 1991; Ramachandran, Stewart, & Rogers-Ramachandran, 1992a, 1992b) and computational studies of self-organization (Pearson, Finkel, & Edelman, 1987; Merzenich, 1987; Willshaw & von der Malsburg, 1976). However, the map is not perfect. There are two major discontinuities: the hands and face of the homunculus are adjacent to one another, as are the genitals and feet (Penfield & Rasmussen, 1950; Ramachandran, Stewart, & Rogers-Ramachandran, 1992b). Why is this? I have been unable to find any explanations of this curious feature of somatosensory cortical organization in the literature. Here I point out that mechanisms of self-organization, in combination with the normal position of the fetus in the womb, will incline the map toward just this organization. In self-organizing systems, adjacent neurons come to represent coincident sources of activation, and the somatotopic map results from the greater likelihood of coincident stimulation to adjacent body surfaces than nonadjacent. The role of prenatal self-organization was demonstrated in a recent experiment by Florence et al. (1996). They cut the median nerve to the hand in fetal monkeys and demonstrated that after repair, the pattern of nerve termination was grossly disordered. Nevertheless, microelectrode mapping of the primary somatosensory cortex revealed a normal, orderly topography. The surprising implication of this finding is that cortical somatotopy does not reflect the organization of peripheral inputs; that is, the cortical homunculus is not simply the result of more peripheral somatotopic organizations being conserved through orderly ascending inputs. Rather, the statistics of prenatal sensory experience is the predominant factor in the genesis of the somatosensory homunculus. One way in which prenatal sensory experience differs markedly from postnatal experience is in the frequency with which hands touch face and feet touch genitals, and this can explain the discontinuities in the homunculus. The flexed posture of the limbs in the fetal position places hands near face and feet near genitals, as shown in Figure 1. Normal fetal movement
Space-time bit-interleaved coded modulation over frequency selective fading channels with iterative decoding

A space-time serial concatenated coding approach for spectrally efficient and reliable communications over fading channels is presented. The approach is based on bit-interleaved convolutionally coded modulation with multiple transmit antennas. The decoding problem of such a scheme is addressed in frequency selective fading channels, where an iterative procedure is proposed. At the first step a multiple-soft-in multiple-soft-out maximum a posteriori equalizer is deployed. Then, a soft-in soft-out maximum a posteriori convolutional decoder follows after deinterleaving. Soft information is exchanged between the decoder and the equalizer through multiple equalization and decoding iterations. A 2 bits/s/Hz system deploying two transmit antennas is presented. Simulation results show that, with just one receive antenna, few decoding iterations yield significant BER/FER gains in both frequency selective block fading and frequency selective fast fading over the uncoded system with dual receive diversity.
The yearly rate of Relative Thalamic Atrophy (yrRTA): a simple 2D/3D method for estimating deep gray matter atrophy in Multiple Sclerosis

Despite a strong correlation to outcome, the measurement of gray matter (GM) atrophy is not being used in daily clinical practice as a prognostic factor and monitor the effect of treatments in Multiple Sclerosis (MS). This is mainly because the volumetric methods available to date are sophisticated and difficult to implement for routine use in most hospitals. In addition, the meanings of raw results from volumetric studies on regions of interest are not always easy to understand. Thus, there is a huge need of a methodology suitable to be applied in daily clinical practice in order to estimate GM atrophy in a convenient and comprehensive way. Given the thalamus is the brain structure found to be more consistently implied in MS both in terms of extent of atrophy and in terms of prognostic value, we propose a solution based in this structure. In particular, we propose to compare the extent of thalamus atrophy with the extent of unspecific, global brain atrophy, represented by ventricular enlargement. We name this ratio the “yearly rate of Relative Thalamic Atrophy” (yrRTA). In this report we aim to describe the concept of yrRTA and the guidelines for computing it under 2D and 3D approaches and explain the rationale behind this method. We have also conducted a very short crossectional retrospective study to proof the concept of yrRTA. However, we do not seek to describe here the validity of this parameter since these researches are being conducted currently and results will be addressed in future publications.
Effects of Premature Ventricular Complex Burden on Left Ventricular Global Longitudinal Strain in Patients without Structural Heart Disease

Background: Evaluation of left ventricular (LV) function in patients with idiopathic premature ventricular contraction (PVC) with preserved LV ejection fraction (LVEF), especially in the subclinical stage, may be of great importance in terms of directing early treatment. Methods: A total of 122 patients, retrospectively recruited, were divided into three groups according to PVC burden: Group 1; 5% ≤ PVC < 10%, Group 2; 10% ≤ PVC < 15%, and Group 3; 15% ≤ PVC. Transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) was performed to evaluate LV parameters. Results: LV-GLS (Global longitudinal strain) was found to be significantly lower in groups 2 and 3 with high PVC burden (18.9% ± 1.4, 17.5% ± 2.1, 16.3% ± 1.3; p < 0.001, respectively). Correlation analysis revealed a positive and significant correlation between PVC burden and deterioration in LV-GLS (r: 0.536; p < 0.001). In addition, PVC burden was found to be an independent predictor of LV-GLS deterioration in multiple linear regression analysis (β: 0.525, p < 0.001). The ROC curve analysis demonstrated that a PVC burden cut-off value of 8.4% was associated with a LV-GLS deterioration greater than −18, with a specificity of 75.4% and a sensitivity of 75.4% (AUC: 0.81 [0.73–0.88] 95% CI; p < 0.001). Conclusions: PVC burden was an independent predictor of deterioration in LV-GLS. The presence of LV-GLS deterioration due to PVC burden emphasizes the necessity for closer patient monitoring, observation of the response to pharmacological treatment, and evaluation of early invasive treatment strategies in selected patient groups.
Chronic Lability of the Arterial Blood Pressure Produced by Electrolytic Lesions of the Nucleus Tractus Solitarii in the Rat

The purpose of this study was to assess the chronic effects of lesions of the nucleus tractus solitarii on the cardiovascular activity of rats. Arterial pressure and heart rate were recorded in conscious, unrestrained rats 7–216 days following placement of electrolytic lesions in the nucleus tractus solitarii. To assess the impact of environmental stimuli on the mean level and lability of the mean arterial pressure, cardiovascular activity was recorded under conditions of controlled and uncontrolled environmental stimulation. Nucleus tractus solitarii lesions abolished the reflex bradycardia to a phenylephrine-induced elevation in arterial pressure. A marked increase in the lability of the mean arterial pressure was produced with nucleus tractus solitarii lesions. The standard deviation of the mean arterial pressure, an index of lability, was 380% greater in rats with lesions than in control rats. The average mean arterial pressure, heart rate and heart rate variability were not significantly different between the lesion and control groups, regardless of the environmental conditions under which the measurements were made. Nucleus tractus solitarii lesions also greatly exaggerated the arterial pressure response to naturally occurring behaviors, such as eating and drinking. Vagal and /S-adrenergjc blockade with methyl atropine and propranolol did not alter the average level or lability of the mean arterial pressure, although heart rate responses were similar in both groups. α-Receptor blockade with prazosin significantly lowered the mean arterial pressure in both lesion and control rats, but the decrease in mean arterial pressure was significantly greater in rats with nucleus tractus solitarii lesions (42 ± 6 mm Hg, 38.5%) than in control rats (27 ± 4 mm Hg, 23.2%). Prazosin also reduced the lability of the mean arterial pressure to control levels in rats with lesions. Thus, the chronic effects of nucleus tractus solitarii lesions in rats are to abolish the cardiomotor component of the baroreflexes and to produce extreme lability of the arterial pressure without altering the average level of the mean arterial pressure. Exaggerated blood pressure responses are seen in association with various behaviors. These effects are mediated primarily by changes in sympathetic discharge to the vasculature and are independent of the ambient level of environmental stimuli.
Experiments in Clustering Documents for Automatic Acquisition of Lexical Semantic Networks for Polish

The aim of this work is to explore document clustering techniques for the needs of semi–automatic construction of a lexical semantic network for Polish. Although the majority of research in this area is based on measures of distributional similarity calculated from co-occurrences of words in large collections of documents, we wanted to approach a difficult problem of meaning ambiguity resolution from a different direction. During the research we have faced and addressed several problems of keyword extraction from document groups and document segmentation.
Impact of Pharmacy Technician-Centered Medication Reconciliation on Optimization of Antiretroviral Therapy and Opportunistic Infection Prophylaxis in Hospitalized Patients With HIV/AIDS

Purpose: This study aimed to examine the role of a pharmacy technician-centered medication reconciliation (PTMR) program in optimization of medication therapy in hospitalized patients with HIV/AIDS. Methods: A chart review was conducted for all inpatients that had a medication reconciliation performed by the PTMR program. Adult patients with HIV and antiretroviral therapy (ART) and/or the opportunistic infection (OI) prophylaxis listed on the medication reconciliation form were included. The primary objective is to describe the (1) number and types of medication errors and (2) the percentage of patients who received appropriate ART. The secondary objective is a comparison of the number of medication errors between standard mediation reconciliation and a pharmacy-led program. Results: In the PTMR period, 55 admissions were evaluated. In all, 50% of the patients received appropriate ART. In 27of the 55 admissions, there were 49 combined ART and OI-related errors. The most common ART-related errors were drug–drug interactions. The incidence of ART-related medication errors that included drug–drug interactions and renal dosing adjustments were similar between the pre-PTMR and PTMR groups (P = .0868). Of the 49 errors in the PTMR group, 18 were intervened by a medication reconciliation pharmacist. Conclusion: A PTMR program has a positive impact on optimizing ART and OI prophylaxis in patients with HIV/AIDS.
Reliability analysis of copper bump interconnection in double-sided power module

A high current load may cause the Joule heating, subsequently raising the chip temperature in a conventional power module. Temperature excursion in power chip may generate thermal stress, induce failure and reduce its reliability. Double-sided power module is a crucial structure to provide another heat dissipation path and efficiently reduce chip temperature. This study estimate the thermal and reliability analysis of double-sided power module by using copper bump as an interconnection under different cooling condition. The connection layout can be designed more flexible by using bump interconnection in double-sided power module. The concept of dummy ball also utilized to reduce the mechanical strain or stress of copper bump and improve its reliability in a power module.
Towards the Reduction of Vulnerabilities and Risks of Climate Change in the Community-Based Tourism, Namibia

Climate change is one of the contemporary issues in the world that has proven to have direct impact on the development of different nations. Community-based tourism has been identified as a potential contributor to household security. In this chap- ter, the analyses were derived from regional consultations in the two regions with community members, traditional leaders, and key stakeholders. In Namibia and particularly Kunene and Zambezi regions, community-based tourism has expanded, providing employment to the residents of these communities. Similarly, there has been an increase in joint venture agreements between local communities and external investors in areas such as constructions of lodges, tented camps and tour guiding. The community-based tourism sectors in Zambezi region and Kunene region are prone to climatic hazards, in particular, frequent floods and prolonged drought. This chapter recommends inclusive climate change adaptive strategies that promote climate proof infrastructure for tourism establishment. An effective community-based tourism inter- vention for the Zambezi region is necessitated by a well-informed and consultative planning and execution to reduce the effects of flood. For Kunene region, community- based tourism interventions should be aimed at addressing the risks resulting from drought. It should, therefore, prioritise sustainable water security and environmental management practices.