Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Meta-Analysis of Modulated Electro-Hyperthermia and Tumor Treating Fields in the Treatment of Glioblastomas

Simple Summary Glioblastoma is a highly aggressive brain tumor, which has a very poor 5-year survival rate (<5%). In the last decades, the concomitant use of two non-invasive, electromagnetic devices, modulated electro-hyperthermia (mEHT) and Tumor Treating Fields (TTF) has been introduced. Both mEHT and TTF have specific anti-tumor effects, which can help to achieve a more efficient treatment of patients and a higher rate of therapeutic response. In this meta-analysis we investigated how patient survival rates change if either device is used. The significant difference in the 1-year survival rates between the treated (>60%) and untreated groups (historical data: <40%) confirms the observation that the use of both mEHT and TTF in the treatment of glioblastomas benefits patients. In addition, it is important to emphasize that most studies have proven that the mEHT or TTF-treated patients’ quality of life is much better than that of the untreated patients. Abstract Background: Glioblastoma is one of the most difficult to treat and most aggressive brain tumors, having a poor survival rate. The use of non-invasive modulated electro-hyperthermia (mEHT) and Tumor Treating Fields (TTF) devices has been introduced in the last few decades, both of which having proven anti-tumor effects. Methods: A meta-analysis of randomized and observational studies about mEHT and TTF was conducted. Results: A total of seven and fourteen studies about mEHT and TTF were included, with a total number of 450 and 1309 cases, respectively. A 42% [95% confidence interval (95% CI): 25–59%] 1-year survival rate was found for mEHT, which was raised to 61% (95% CI: 32–89%) if only the studies conducted after 2008 were investigated. In the case of TTF, 1-year survival was 67% (95% CI: 53–81%). Subgroup analyses revealed that newly diagnosed patients might get extra benefits from the early introduction of the devices (mEHT all studies: 73% vs. 37%, p = 0.0021; mEHT studies after 2008: 73% vs. 54%, p = 0.4214; TTF studies: 83% vs. 52%, p = 0.0083), compared with recurrent glioblastoma. Conclusions: Our meta-analysis showed that both mEHT and TTF can improve glioblastoma survival, and the most benefit may be achieved in newly diagnosed cases.
Deep Learning-Based Soft Iterative-Detection of Channel-Coded Compressed Sensing-Aided Multi-Dimensional Index Modulation

The concept of Index Modulation (IM) has been actively researched as a benefit of its flexible trade-off between performance, achievable rate, energy efficiency, hardware cost and complexity. In order to fully exploit its the degrees of freedom, the concept of Multi-dimensional IM (MIM) has been developed in literature, where Compressed Sensing (CS) is often utilized to exploit the sparsity of the multi-dimensional transmitted signals. In this paper, we propose Deep Learning (DL) based detection for CS-aided MIM CS-MIM, where both Hard-Decision (HD) as well as Soft-Decision (SD) detection combined with iterative decoding are conceived. More explicitly, firstly, we propose learning aided hard and soft detection for CS-MIM. Secondly, two novel neural network aided methods are proposed for Iterative Soft Detection (ISD), where iterations are carried out between the CS-MIM detector and a channel decoder. The proposed learning-aided methods are capable of eliminating the overhead and complexity of Channel Estimation (CE), which results in an improved transmission rate. Explicitly, we develop an advanced DL architecture for blind-detection-aided MIM for the first time in the open literature, where the HD and SD CS algorithms are implemented by learning without the need for CE. Our simulation results demonstrate that the proposed learning techniques conceived for SD CS-MIM combined with iterative detection can achieve near-capacity performance at a reduced complexity compared to the conventional model-based SD relying on Channel State Information (CSI) acquisition.
From 2 dimensions to 3rd dimension: Quantitative prediction of anterior chamber depth from anterior segment photographs via deep-learning

Anterior chamber depth (ACD) is a major risk factor of angle closure disease, and has been used in angle closure screening in various populations. However, ACD is measured from ocular biometer or anterior segment optical coherence tomography (AS-OCT), which are costly and may not be readily available in primary care and community settings. Thus, this proof-of-concept study aims to predict ACD from low-cost anterior segment photographs (ASPs) using deep-learning (DL). We included 2,311 pairs of ASPs and ACD measurements for algorithm development and validation, and 380 pairs for algorithm testing. We captured ASPs with a digital camera mounted on a slit-lamp biomicroscope. Anterior chamber depth was measured with ocular biometer (IOLMaster700 or Lenstar LS9000) in data used for algorithm development and validation, and with AS-OCT (Visante) in data used for testing. The DL algorithm was modified from the ResNet-50 architecture, and assessed using mean absolute error (MAE), coefficient-of-determination (R2), Bland-Altman plot and intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC). In validation, our algorithm predicted ACD with a MAE (standard deviation) of 0.18 (0.14) mm; R2 = 0.63. The MAE of predicted ACD was 0.18 (0.14) mm in eyes with open angles and 0.19 (0.14) mm in eyes with angle closure. The ICC between actual and predicted ACD measurements was 0.81 (95% CI 0.77, 0.84). In testing, our algorithm predicted ACD with a MAE of 0.23 (0.18) mm; R2 = 0.37. Saliency maps highlighted the pupil and its margin as the main structures used in ACD prediction. This study demonstrates the possibility of predicting ACD from ASPs via DL. This algorithm mimics an ocular biometer in making its prediction, and provides a foundation to predict other quantitative measurements that are relevant to angle closure screening.
Phytochemical Composition and Bioassay on Iranian Teucrium Polium Extracts against Anopheles Stephensi (Diptera: Culicidae)

Background: Anopheles stephensi is an important malaria vector mosquito in Iran and other western Asian countries. In many human communities, plant products have been used traditionally instead of synthetic pesticides for mosquito control due to their minimal hazardous effects. Teucrium polium, known popularly as felty germander, has been introduced in Persian Medicine (PM) as an insect repellent from a long time ago. Methods: The present study was undertaken to evaluate repellent and larvicidal activity of dichloromethane (DCMETP) and ethanolic extracts (EE-TP) of T. polium against An. stephensi under laboratory conditions. The possible chemical components of the extracts were also investigated through gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC-MS) technique. Results: Based on the results, DCME-TP showed better repellent activity than EE-TP with 56.67 and 28.33 % protection, respectively. Larvicidal activity of DCME-TP with 49.41% mortality was also higher than EE-TP (20.24%). The main identified constituents of DCME-TP were long chain alkanes, phenol, aromatic ester, oxaspiro and triterpenoid. While phenolic and aliphatic acid were only the identified components in EE-TP. It is notable that lupeol was detected in DCME of T. polium for the first time. Conclusion: DCME-TP can be considered as a new herbal candidate to control An. stephensi mosquitoes. Further studies are required on this extract for the fractionation and identification of the active compounds, and the evaluation of their bioactivity in the laboratory and field.
Low-Power, Reconfigurable Brillouin RF Photonic Bandstop Filters

Stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS) has been widely used to realize narrowband as well as wideband microwave photonic bandstop filters. However, most Brillouin based wide-band bandstop filters require large powers and have high complexity. In this letter, we propose a novel approach to realize a wideband, reconfigurable and tunable Brillouin-based microwave photonic bandstop filter using RF phase engineering. We demonstrate bandstop filters with suppression of >15 dB for moderate bandwidths and maximum bandwidth reconfigurability up to 1 GHz by using two pumps with powers of 8.2 dBm and 9.3 dBm. Further, we also demonstrate switching from a bandpass to a bandstop filter with simple phase manipulations. This letter presents numerical simulations, analysis, and experimental results for the proposed filter. Compared to conventional Brillouin systems, the proposed filter is extremely power-efficient.
R&D and Employment Relation: Differences in Low and High-Skilled Employment in Developing Economies

This paper attempts to investigate the effect of technology on employment based on skill groups in developing countries using data from 23 countries between 1990 and 2019. We use the macroeconomic framework to split employment in developing countries into high-skilled and low-skilled and examine how these two groups are affected by progress in technology. Pedroni’s (1999, 2004) and Kao’s (1999) cointegration methods reveal the statistically significant relationship among variables in the long run. Coefficients estimated in cointegration highlight that technology is among the factors that increase unemployment in developing countries. In addition, our baseline models document that inflation and real interest rates have a positive impact on unemployment. Finally, both high-skilled and lowskilled employment in developing countries are negatively affected by technology, and the negative impact is greater on low-skill employment.
Powder‐free plasma chemical vapor deposition of hydrogenated amorphous silicon with high rf power density using modulated rf discharge

Deposition of hydrogenated amorphous silicon films from SiH4/He gas mixtures was performed by using a square wave amplitude modulated rf discharge. The modulation was used for controlling radical densities in plasmas which led to a high rate deposition of good quality films. The fairly high deposition rate of 6 A/s was obtained for a low concentration of 5% SiH4 and a high rf peak power 200 W (0.8 W/cm3) without any appreciable amount of powder particles in the reaction chamber. The optical gap of the films was 1.8–1.95 eV. Emission intensities of HeI 388.9 nm and SiH 413.5 nm linearly increased with rf peak power and were well correlated with the deposition rate.
Radiative cooling by light down conversion of InGaN light emitting diode bonded to a Si wafer

Using the recently proposed process of radiative cooling by light down conversion, we demonstrate cooling of about 5 K for InGaN light emitting diode (39 mg thermal load) that is self-heated up to 450 K and bonded to a cooler, a 15 × 15 × 4 mm3 Si wafer pumped with an above bandgap excitation from a 1.09-μm diode laser. Cooling occurs due to the enhancement of thermal emission in an initially transparent Si wafer when the overall energy of multiple (about 20) below bandgap photons escaping the wafer exceeds the energy of the single pumped photon. The cooling efficiency amounts to 93%.
A novel feasible discretization method for linear semi-infinite programming applied to basket option pricing

In this exposition a novel feasible version of traditional discretization methods for linear semi-infinite programming problems is presented. It will be shown that each – usually infeasible – iterate can be easily supplemented with a feasible iterate based on the knowledge of a Slater point. The effectiveness of the method is demonstrated on the problem of finding model free bounds to basket option prices which has gained a significant interest in the last years. For this purpose a fresh look is taken on the upper bound problem and on some of its structure, which needs to be exploited to yield an efficient solution by the feasible discretization method. The presented approach allows the generalization of the problem setting by including exotic options (like power options, log-contracts, binary options, etc.) within the super-replicating portfolio.
6D Object Pose Estimation Using a Particle Filter With Better Initialization

Estimation of 6D object poses is a key issue in robotic grasping tasks. Recently, many high-performance learning-based methods have been introduced using robust deep learning techniques; however, applying these methods to real robot environments requires many ground truth 6D pose annotations for training. To address this problem, we propose a template matching-based particle filter approach for 6D pose estimation; the proposed method does not require ground truth 6D poses. Although particle filter approaches can stochastically avoid local optima, they require adequate initial pose hypotheses for estimating an accurate 6D object pose. Therefore, we estimated an initial translation of the target object for accurately initializing a particle filter by developing a new deep network. Once the proposed centroid prediction network (CPN) is trained with a specific dataset, no additional training is required for new objects not in the dataset. We evaluated the performance of the CPN and the proposed 6D pose estimation method on benchmark datasets, which demonstrated that the CPN can predict the centroid for any object, including those not in the training data, and that our 6D pose estimation method outperforms existing methods for partially occluded objects. Finally, we tested a grasping task based on our proposed method using a real robot platform to demonstrate an application of our method to a downstream task. This experiment shows that our method can be applied to part assembly, bin picking, and object manipulation without large training datasets with 6D pose annotations. The code and models are available at: https://github.com/oorrppp2/Particle_filter_approach_6D_pose_estimation.
Measurement of the Electric Charge of the Top Quark in $\boldsymbol{t\bar{t}}$ Events

We present a measurement of the electric charge of top quarks using $t\bar{t}$ events produced in $p\bar{p}$ collisions at the Tevatron. The analysis is based on fully reconstructed $t\bar{t}$ pairs in lepton+jets final states. Using data corresponding to 5.3 $\rm fb^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity, we exclude the hypothesis that the top quark has a charge of $Q=-4/3\,e$ at a significance greater than 5 standard deviations. We also place an upper limit of 0.46 on the fraction of such quarks that can be present in an admixture with the standard model top quarks ($Q=+2/3\,e$) at a 95\% confidence level.
Investigation of the Wind-Direction Effect on Buoyancy-Driven Fire Smoke Dispersion in an Urban Street Canyon

When a fire occurs in a street canyon, smoke recirculation is the most harmful factor to human beings inside the canyon, while the wind condition is an essential factor determining if the smoke is recirculated. This paper focuses on the wind direction’s effect on buoyancy-driven fire smoke dispersion in a street canyon, which is innovative research since the effect of wind direction has not been reported before. In this study, an ideal street canyon model with a height–width ratio of 1 was established, and both the wind velocity and wind direction were changed to search for the critical point at which smoke recirculation occurs. The results show that with an increase in the wind direction angle (the angle of wind towards the direction of the street width), the smoke recirculation could be distinguished into three regimes, i.e., the “fully re-circulation stage”, the “semi re-circulation stage”, and the “non-recirculation stage”. The critical recirculation velocity was increased with the increase in the wind direction angle, and new models regarding the critical wind velocity and the Froude number were proposed for different wind direction conditions.
Enhancement of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy in FeB free layers using a thin MgO cap layer

We prepared magnetic tunnel junction films with PtMn/CoFe/Ru/CoFeB/MgO tunnel barrier/FeB free layer/MgO cap layer/Ta multilayers using sputtering and measured magnetic and magnetoresistive properties of the films at room temperature. The magnetization curves of the FeB plane film measured under perpendicular-to-plane magnetic fields showed much smaller saturation fields (Hs) than those expected from the demagnetizing field. Hs decreased from 4 to 0.4 kOe with increasing MgO cap layer thickness. The small Hs is due to the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) induced at both MgO barrier–FeB and FeB–MgO cap interfaces. After microfabrication, the small free layer cells having a 1.6 nm thick MgO cap layer showed a magnetization easy axis in the perpendicular-to-plane direction. By inducing PMA from both upper and lower interfaces, we can stabilize the magnetization of the relatively thick (2 nm) FeB free layer in the perpendicular-to-plane direction.
Effective data augmentation for brain tumor segmentation

This research is to propose a training strategy for 2D U‐Net is proposed that uses selective data augmentation technique to overcome the class imbalance issue. This also helps in generating synthetic data for training which improves the generalization capabilities of the segmentation network. The training data are prepared with random sampling to further reduce the class imbalance. The post‐processing stage is used to decrease the outliers in the final output. The performance of the proposed solution is tested on the online leaderboard. The results achieved on the validation set of Brain Tumor Segmentation 2019 dataset were 0.79, 0.89, and 0.8 for enhancing tumor (ET), whole tumor (WT), and core tumor (CT) respectively. The part of the training set is also evaluated locally, and the results show the effectiveness of using selective data augmentation and random sampling. The multi‐view fusion improved the robustness and overall dice scores.
On the behavior of high-order compact approximations in the one-dimensional sine–Gordon equation

In this paper, a family of high-order compact finite difference methods in combination with Krylov subspace methods is used for solution of the nonlinear sine–Gordon equation. We developed numerical methods by replacing the time and space derivatives by compact finite-difference approximations. The system of resulting nonlinear finite-difference equations is solved by Krylov subspace methods. The behavior of the compact finite-difference method is analyzed for error estimate and computational cost. Numerical results are presented to verify the behavior of high-order compact approximations for stability and convergence. The accuracy and efficiency of the proposed scheme are also considered.
Stick-Slip Interface Motion as a Singular Limit of the Viscosity-Capillarity Model

This work is a follow-up on a study by Vainchtein and Rosakis of interface dynamics and hysteresis in materials undergoing solid-solid phase transitions. The author investigates the dynamics of a bar with a nonconvex double-well elastic energy density. The model includes both viscosity and strain-gradient capillarity terms. Viscous stress provides eiergy dissipation. The capillarity term models interfacial energy. The bar is subject to time-dependent displacement boundary conditions. Numerical simulations predict hysteretic behavior in the overall load-elongation diagram. The hysteresis is primarily due to metastability and persists even at very slow loading when viscous dissipation is small. At a given loading, a large capillarity coefficient a results in a smooth interface motion and small hysteresis loop. As a becomes smaller, the loop grows and acquires serrations, while the interface motion alternates between slow and fast regimes. The results suggest that the stick-slip interface motion and serrated hysteresis loop predicted by Vainchtein and Rosakis in the absence of interfacial energy are a singular limit of the viscosity-capillarity model as the capillarity coefficient tends to zero. The irregular interface motion and serrated load-elongation curves qualitatively agree with some experimental observations in shape-memory alloys.
Subsurface imaging with broadband electromagnetic induction

Diffraction tomography (DT) is a quantitative technique for high-resolution subsurface imaging. In general, DT algorithms are used for subsurface imaging with propagating waves. In this study an imaging algorithm is developed and tested for use with broadband electromagnetic induction for a so-called `multimonostatic' measurement geometry; a primary and secondary coil are coincident and move in unison over a uniformly spaced grid, on or above the ground surface. The algorithm is formulated in three dimensions and tested on simulated data for inhomogeneities that are both two and three dimensional. The algorithm is also applied, in two dimensions, to data acquired over a pair of parallel tunnels. One important finding is that good images can be reconstructed when the frequency band is limited to the case where all skin depths are greater than the depth of inhomogeneities.
The Peculiar Galaxy IC 4553. II. VLA Observations of the Neutral Hydrogen

The nuclear H I absorption of IC 4553 (Arp 220) was scanned with the 30 km VLA-A array and a search was made for extended H I emission with the 3 km VLA-C array. The observations were made at 6.26 MHz on different dates in 1982-1984. No extended H I emission was detected at levels above 1 mJy per beam scales from 1-20 arcsec with the A array and from 30 arcsec-4 arcmin with the C configuration. The nuclear H I disk coincided with a previously mapped OH emitting disk, but had a center velocity 77 km/sec higher. The H I disk is about 1.5 kpc across, is contained within the OH disk, is noncircular in shape, and has a mass of about 400 million solar masses. Reasons for the lack of an extended H I feature are discussed. 32 references.
Nanosecond laser-induced ablation and laser-induced shockwave structuring of polymer foils down to sub-μm patterns

Micro- and nanostructures exhibit a growing commercial interest where a fast, cost-effective, and large-area production is attainable. Laser methods have a great potential for the easy fabrication of surface structures into flexible polymer foils like polyimide (PI). In this study two different concepts for the structuring of polymer foils using a KrF excimer laser were tested and compared: the laser-induced ablation and the laser-induced shock wave structuring. The direct front side laser irradiation of these polymers allows the fabrication of different surface structures. For example: The low laser fluence treatment of PI results in nano-sized cone structures where the cone density can be controlled by the laser parameters. This allows inter alia the laser fabrication of microscopic QR code and high-resolution grey-tone images. Furthermore, the laser treatment of the front side of the polymer foil allows the rear side structuring due to a laserinduced shock wave. The resultant surface structures were analysed by optical and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) as well as white light interferometry (WLI).