Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Increased Levels of Copeptin, a Surrogate Marker of Arginine Vasopressin, Are Associated with an Increased Risk of Chronic Kidney Disease in a General Population

Background: Our aim was to test if plasma copeptin, a stable surrogate marker of arginine vasopressin, predicts decline of glomerular filtration rate (GFR) and risk of chronic kidney disease (CKD). Methods: We measured copeptin and renal function at the Malmö Diet and Cancer Cardiovascular Cohort baseline exam and reassessed renal function after a follow-up time of 16.6 ± 1.5 years (n = 3,186). Furthermore, we defined CKD based on an estimated GFR (eGFR) calculated by the Modification of Diet in Renal Disease (MDRD) <60 (CKD_60MDRD), <45 (CKD_45MDRD) and <30 (CKD_30MDRD) ml/min/1.73 m2. Results: After multivariate adjustment (gender, age, baseline eGFR, smoking status, systolic blood pressure, antihypertensive treatment and follow-up time), copeptin (beta-coefficient per 1 SD increment of copeptin) was independently associated with significantly greater annual decline of eGFR (ml/min/1.73 m2) according to the MDRD formula (OR 0.057, 95% CI 0.022-0.093; p = 0.001) as well as according to the CKD Epidemiology Collaboration (CKD-EPI) formula (OR 0.050, 95% CI 0.022-0.077; p < 0.001). Each SD increment of copeptin independently predicted incident CKD_60MDRD (OR 1.19, 95% CI 1.04-1.36; p = 0.010), CKD_45MDRD (OR 1.33, 95% CI 1.04-1.71; p = 0.026) and CKD_30MDRD (OR 3.69, 95% CI 1.41-9.66; p = 0.008). The relationship between copeptin and CKD defined by CKD-EPI gave similar results. Conclusion: Our data suggest that increased levels of copeptin independently predict decline in eGFR and greater risk of new-onset CKD.
A positioning QA procedure for 2D/2D (kV/MV) and 3D/3D (CT/CBCT) image matching for radiotherapy patient setup

A positioning QA procedure for Varian's 2D/2D (kV/MV) and 3D/3D (planCT/CBCT) matching was developed. The procedure was to check: (1) the coincidence of on‐board imager (OBI), portal imager (PI), and cone beam CT (CBCT)'s isocenters (digital graticules) to a linac's isocenter (to a pre‐specified accuracy); (2) that the positioning difference detected by 2D/2D (kV/MV) and 3D/3D(planCT/CBCT) matching can be reliably transferred to couch motion. A cube phantom with a 2 mm metal ball (bb) at the center was used. The bb was used to define the isocenter. Two additional bbs were placed on two phantom surfaces in order to define a spatial location of 1.5 cm anterior, 1.5 cm inferior, and 1.5 cm right from the isocenter. An axial scan of the phantom was acquired from a multislice CT simulator. The phantom was set at the linac's isocenter (lasers); either AP MV/R Lat kV images or CBCT images were taken for 2D/2D or 3D/3D matching, respectively. For 2D/2D, the accuracy of each device's isocenter was obtained by checking the distance between the central bb and the digital graticule. Then the central bb in orthogonal DRRs was manually moved to overlay to the off‐axis bbs in kV/MV images. For 3D/3D, CBCT was first matched to planCT to check the isocenter difference between the two CTs. Manual shifts were then made by moving CBCT such that the point defined by the two off‐axis bbs overlay to the central bb in planCT. (PlanCT can not be moved in the current version of OBI1.4.) The manual shifts were then applied to remotely move the couch. The room laser was used to check the accuracy of the couch movement. For Trilogy (or Ix‐21) linacs, the coincidence of imager and linac's isocenter was better than 1 mm (or 1.5 mm). The couch shift accuracy was better than 2 mm. PACS number: 87.55. Qr, 87.57. Q‐
Comparison of VMAT‐SABR treatment plans with flattening filter (FF) and flattening filter‐free (FFF) beam for localized prostate cancer

The purpose of this study is to investigate the feasibility of using a flattening filter‐free (FFF) beam with an endorectal balloon for stereotactic ablative body radiotherapy (SABR) of clinically localized prostate cancer. We assessed plans of SABR with volumetric‐modulated arc therapy (VMAT) that used a flattening filter (FF) beam and an FFF beam and compared the verification results of dosimetric quality assurance for all pretreatment plans. A total of 20 patients with prostate cancer were enrolled in the study. SABR plans using VMAT with two full arcs were optimized in the Eclipse treatment planning system. All plans prescribed 42.7 Gy in 7 fractions of 6.1 Gy each. Four SABR plans were computed for each patient: two with FF beams and two with FFF beams of 6 and 10 MV. For all plans, the cumulative dose‐volume histograms (DVHs) for the target volumes and organs at risk (OARs) were recorded and compared. Pretreatment quality assurance (QA) was performed using the I'mRT MatriXX system and radiochromic EBT3 film to verify treatment delivery, and gamma analysis was used to quantify the agreement between calculations and measurements. In addition, total monitor units (MUs) and delivery time were investigated as technical parameters of delivery. All four plans achieved adequate dose conformity to the target volumes and had comparable dosimetric data. The DVHs of all four plans for each patient were very similar. All plans were highly conformal with CI<1.05 and CN>0.90, and the doses were homogeneous (HI = 0.08–0.15). Sparing for the bladder and rectum was slightly better with the 10 MV FF and FFF plans than with the 6 MV FF and FFF plans, but the difference was negligible. However, there was no significant difference in sparing for the other OARs. The mean agreement with the 3%/3% mm criterion was higher than 97% for verifying all plans. For the 2%/2% mm criterion, the corresponding agreement values were more than 90%, which showed that the plans were acceptable. The mean MUs and delivery time used were 1701±101 and 3.02±0.17 min for 6 MV FF, 1870±116 and 2.01±0.01 min for 6 MV FFF, 1471±86 and 2.68±0.14 min for 10 MV FF, and 1619±101 and 2.00±0.00 min for 10 MV FFF, respectively. In the current study, the dose distributions of the prostate SABR plans using 6 and 10 MV FFF beams were similar to those using 6 and 10 MV FF beams. However, this study confirmed that SABR treatment using an FFF beam had an advantage with respect to delivery time. In addition, all pretreatment plans were verified as acceptable and their results were comparable. Therefore, the results of this study suggest that the use of an FFF beam for prostate SABR is a feasible and efficient technique, if carefully applied. PACS numbers: 87.55. D, 87.55. dk
Coupling of Gain Medium and Extraordinary Optical Transmission for Effective Loss Compensation

Gain mediums attract much attention due to their excellent amplification characteristics. However, the potential applications of gain mediums are severely limited because of the requirement of a high external energy to excite the media, thereby compensating for the ohmic loss. In this paper, we developed a theoretical model by numerically solving the coupled Maxwell’s equations and semiclassical electronic rate equations using the finite-difference time-domain method. In the model, the active gain medium is represented by a four-level atomic system, and the atoms are pumped with a homogeneous pumping rate. Then, we investigated the loss compensation with the synergetic effects of gain mediums and extraordinary optical transmission (EOT) phenomena caused by the excitation of the surface plasmon polariton. With the proposal of a novel gain/metal/gain structure that is patterned to be a periodic subwavelength hole array, the self-consistent process of EOT phenomena coupled to the gain medium enables full compensation of the ohmic loss under a much lower pumping rate. This paper not only presents a novel structure but also provides deep insight into the interaction between nanostructures and gain mediums.
Mobile Filter: Exploring Migration of Filters for Error-Bounded Data Collection in Sensor Networks

In wireless sensor networks, filters, which suppress data update reports within predefined error bounds, effectively reduce the traffic volume for continuous data collection. All prior filter designs, however, are stationary in the sense that each filter is attached to a specific sensor node and remains stationary over its lifetime. In this paper, we propose mobile filter, a novel design that explores migration of filters to maximize overall traffic reduction. A mobile filter moves upstream along the data collection path, with its residual size being updated according to the collected data. Intuitively, this migration extracts and relays unused filters, leading to more proactive suppressing of update reports. While extra communications are needed to move filters, we show through probabilistic analysis that the overhead is outrun by the gain from suppressing more data updates.
Outdoor Markerless Motion Capture with Sparse Handheld Video Cameras

We present a method for outdoor markerless motion capture with sparse handheld video cameras. In the simplest setting, it only involves two mobile phone cameras following the character. This setup can maximize the flexibilities of data capture and broaden the applications of motion capture. To solve the character pose under such challenge settings, we exploit the generative motion capture methods and propose a novel model-view consistency that considers both foreground and background in the tracking stage. The background is modeled as a deformable 2D grid, which allows us to compute the background-view consistency for sparse moving cameras. The 3D character pose is tracked with a global-local optimization through minimizing our consistency cost. A novel <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX"> $L_1$</tex-math><alternatives><inline-graphic xlink:href="wang-ieq1-2693151.gif"/></alternatives></inline-formula> motion regularizer is also proposed in the optimization to constrain the solution pose space. The whole process of the proposed method is simple as frame by frame video segmentation is not required. Our method outperforms several alternative methods on various examples demonstrated in the paper.
Stakeholder Concern-Driven Requirements Analytics

The requirements engineering (RE) process and resultant requirements usually inform and interact with downstream (e.g., design and testing) and side-stream (e.g., project management, quality management) processes in various ways. Each of these processes involves numerous internal stakeholders (e.g., managers, developers, architects, etc.) who, in turn, have different concerns with regard to the impact of requirements on their respective processes. In other words, the various stakeholders need different types of requirements information and measurements in order for them to manage, control, and track their respective process activities (e.g., design traceability information for architects, requirements progress for project managers, etc.). The burden of providing this information usually falls within the realm of the requirements management process. However, due to the lack of identified metrics and analytical methods, the process of providing the various stakeholders with the information that addresses their various concerns becomes cumbersome. This is further complicated by large project sizes, numerous stakeholders, time pressure, large numbers of requirements, other software artifacts, and others. This proposal aims to address this problem by proposing to provide stakeholders with concern-driven requirements analytics that will address their various concerns. We intend to achieve this through identifying metrics and analytical methods that can be readily used in the requirements management process. We further propose to provide the stakeholder with a dashboard that allows them to choose from the various requirements analytics options along with visualization techniques that would best visualize the data and address their concerns.
Fatigue Enhancement of Welded Details in Steel Bridges Using CFRP Overlay Elements

AbstractCarbon-fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP)-overlay elements were developed with the purpose of enhancing the fatigue performance of welded connections in steel bridge girders. Fatigue tests of seven specimens, including four CFRP-strengthened specimens and three control specimens, were performed to quantify the effect of the CFRP overlays on the fatigue crack initiation lives of the welded connections. Results showed that bonding of CFRP overlays significantly reduced the stress demand on welded connections tested at high stress ranges, leading to a large increase in fatigue crack initiation life. The level of effectiveness of the CFRP-overlay elements in extending the fatigue crack initiation lives of the tested connections was found to be affected primarily by bond strength under cyclic loading; bond strength was found to be dependent on the composition and thickness of the resin layer used to bond the CFRP to the steel. With the AASHTO fatigue design curves as a frame of reference, it was found tha.
Analyzing Citation-Distance Networks for Evaluating Publication Impact

Studying citation patterns of scholarly articles has been of interest to many researchers from various disciplines. While the relationship of citations and scientific impact has been widely studied in the literature, in this paper we develop the idea of analyzing the semantic distance of scholarly articles in a citation network (citation-distance network) to uncover patterns that reflect scientific impact. More specifically, we compare two types of publications in terms of their citation-distance patterns, seminal publications and literature reviews, and focus on their referencing patterns as well as on publications which cite them. We show that seminal publications are associated with a larger semantic distance, measured using the content of the articles, between their references and the citing publications, while literature reviews tend to cite publications from a wider range of topics. Our motivation is to understand and utilize this information to create new research evaluation metrics which would better reflect scientific impact.
Re: Estimating and reducing dose received by cardiac devices for patients undergoing radiotherapy

To the Editor: I read with great interest the manuscript of Bourgouin et al.,(1) describing methods to estimate and/or measure out-of-field doses to a cardiac implantable electronic device (CIED) for patients that undergo radiotherapy. This is a topic that deserves great attention in today’s radiotherapy practice since a great number of cancer patients who will receive radiation have a pacemaker or implantable cardioverter-defibrillator. For this reason, publications like the one under discussion,(1) might be used as guidance to practicing professionals. The purpose of that manuscript was the evaluation of the dosimetric effect that a sheet of lead shield over a CIED has, based on out-of-field dose measurements at the location of the CIED, as a way to reduce the dose to the CIED. There are several discrepancies and inaccuracies in the manuscript that I would like to point out. Equation (1) in the manuscript is inaccurate and is missing the radial distance dependence, r. Parameter a of Eq. (1) mostly depends on the irradiated area size, but not proportionally and, on the primary photon energy, then, parameter b is practically constant with photon energy representing the attenuation of scattered photons in water. (2) I believe Eq. (1) in the article should read
Practice of Epidemiology Evaluation and Comparison of Food Records , Recalls , and Frequencies for Energy and Protein Assessment by Using Recovery Biomarkers

The food frequency questionnaire approach to dietary assessment is ubiquitous in nutritional epidemiology research. Food records and recalls provide approaches that may also be adaptable for use in large epidemiologic cohorts, if warranted by better measurement properties. The authors collected (2007–2009) a 4-day food record, three 24-hour dietary recalls, and a food frequency questionnaire from 450 postmenopausal women in the Women’s Health Initiative prospective cohort study (enrollment, 1994–1998), along with biomarkers of energy and protein consumption. Through comparison with biomarkers, the food record is shown to provide a stronger estimate of energy and protein than does the food frequency questionnaire, with 24-hour recalls mostly intermediate. Differences were smaller and nonsignificant for protein density. Food frequencies, records, and recalls were, respectively, able to ‘‘explain’’ 3.8%, 7.8%, and 2.8% of biomarker variation for energy; 8.4%, 22.6%, and 16.2% of biomarker variation for protein; and 6.5%, 11.0%, and 7.0% of biomarker variation for protein density. However, calibration equations that include body mass index, age, and ethnicity substantially improve these numbers to 41.7%, 44.7%, and 42.1% for energy; 20.3%, 32.7%, and 28.4% for protein; and 8.7%, 14.4%, and 10.4% for protein density. Calibration equations using any of the assessment procedures may yield suitable consumption estimates for epidemiologic study purposes.
Wireless Power Transfer Using Oscillating Magnets

The advancement of portable and implantable electronic devices has driven active research into wireless power transfer (WPT) methods. Current commercial WPT techniques using coil coupling have limitations, such as range, frequency, safety, line of sight, orientation, and concurrency. This paper presents a system utilizing oscillating magnets to extract power from a low-level ac magnetic field. This system enables the simultaneous powering of multiple low-power devices in an environment that meets human safety requirements. Compared with conventional WPT techniques, such as RF or acoustic power transfer, the proposed system transfers stable power to electronic nodes placed anywhere within the magnetic field under low driving frequency. Theoretical power calculations and experimental demonstrations are presented to prove the concepts and quantify performance. A custom three-dimensional printed millimeter-size oscillator loaded with two 8 <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">${\text{mm}^{3}}$</tex-math></inline-formula> cubic permanent magnets is employed as the energy receiver to experimentally validate the proposed system. Measurements show that the raw ac electrical power and rectified dc power received by the oscillator achieve 269 and 135 <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">${\mu {\text{W}}}$</tex-math></inline-formula>, respectively, under 400 <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">${\mu{\text{T}}}$</tex-math></inline-formula> excitation magnetic field amplitude at 355 <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">${\text{Hz}}$</tex-math></inline-formula>.
Mindfulness meditation regulates anterior insula activity during empathy for social pain

Mindfulness has been shown to reduce stress, promote health, and well‐being, as well as to increase compassionate behavior toward others. It reduces distress to one's own painful experiences, going along with altered neural responses, by enhancing self‐regulatory processes and decreasing emotional reactivity. In order to investigate if mindfulness similarly reduces distress and neural activations associated with empathy for others' socially painful experiences, which might in the following more strongly motivate prosocial behavior, the present study compared trait, and state effects of long‐term mindfulness meditation (LTM) practice. To do so we acquired behavioral data and neural activity measures using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during an empathy for social pain task while manipulating the meditation state between two groups of LTM practitioners that were matched with a control group. The results show increased activations of the anterior insula (AI) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) as well as the medial prefrontal cortex and temporal pole when sharing others' social suffering, both in LTM practitioners and controls. However, in LTM practitioners, who practiced mindfulness meditation just prior to observing others' social pain, left AI activation was lower and the strength of AI activation following the mindfulness meditation was negatively associated with trait compassion in LTM practitioners. The findings suggest that current mindfulness meditation could provide an adaptive mechanism in coping with distress due to the empathic sharing of others' suffering, thereby possibly enabling compassionate behavior. Hum Brain Mapp 38:4034–4046, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Interactions Between Epilepsy and Plasticity

Undoubtedly, one of the most interesting topics in the field of neuroscience is the ability of the central nervous system to respond to different stimuli (normal or pathological) by modifying its structure and function, either transiently or permanently, by generating neural cells and new connections in a process known as neuroplasticity. According to the large amount of evidence reported in the literature, many stimuli, such as environmental pressures, changes in the internal dynamic steady state of the organism and even injuries or illnesses (e.g., epilepsy) may induce neuroplasticity. Epilepsy and neuroplasticity seem to be closely related, as the two processes could positively affect one another. Thus, in this review, we analysed some neuroplastic changes triggered in the hippocampus in response to seizure-induced neuronal damage and how these changes could lead to the establishment of temporal lobe epilepsy, the most common type of focal human epilepsy.
Compliance and Adherence are Dysfunctional Concepts in Diabetes Care

Recognizing that adherence and compliance are dysfunctional concepts is not a passing fad or the latest trend in behavioral approaches to diabetes care and education. Shifting from the acute-care/compliance-focused paradigm to an empowerment/collaborative approach requires a new vision of diabetes education and a new definition and enactment of the roles of educators and patients. Our practice is always an expression of our vision; therefore, if our vision is transformed, our practice will most likely change to reflect our vision. Eliminating the concepts of adherence and compliance makes it possible for our patients to discover and actualize their personal responsibility for their diabetes self-management. Also, it helps us to practice diabetes education as win-win collaboration among equals.
Class Subset Selection for Transfer Learning using Submodularity

In recent years, it is common practice to extract fully-connected layer (fc) features that were learned while performing image classification on a source dataset, such as ImageNet, and apply them generally to a wide range of other tasks. The general usefulness of some large training datasets for transfer learning is not yet well understood, and raises a number of questions. For example, in the context of transfer learning, what is the role of a specific class in the source dataset, and how is the transferability of fc features affected when they are trained using various subsets of the set of all classes in the source dataset? In this paper, we address the question of how to select an optimal subset of the set of classes, subject to a budget constraint, that will more likely generate good features for other tasks. To accomplish this, we use a submodular set function to model the accuracy achievable on a new task when the features have been learned on a given subset of classes of the source dataset. An optimal subset is identified as the set that maximizes this submodular function. The maximization can be accomplished using an efficient greedy algorithm that comes with guarantees on the optimality of the solution. We empirically validate our submodular model by successfully identifying subsets of classes that produce good features for new tasks.