Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A fast method for spine localization in x-ray images

Detection of spines in medical images are important tasks in medical applications. These tasks are relatively easy for CT/MR images because the bones are easily distinguishable from other tissues. However, they are difficult for x-ray images due to bone and soft tissue overlapping. This paper illustrates a method for detecting the medial axis of spine in x-ray images. Given an initial point on the spine in the x-ray image manually or automatically, the method iteratively searches for good feature points on the spine to locate the medial axis. As a result, the effort of determining the relevant medical information, such as Cobb's angle, can be minimized. The proposed method is fast and efficient. In average it took less than 1 second for localizing the spine on a 3000×1000 gray scale x-ray image.
Is It Spam or Ham? Testing Asynchronous CMC Deception Detection Theory

This paper presents two empirical evaluations of Asynchronous CMC Deception Detection Theory (ACDDT) in the CMC genres of legitimate and spam e-mail. The ACDDT theorizes that deception detection in asynchronous text is indicated by the presence of the constructs of concealment, normality, and isolation. The ACDDT was tested on two common types of e-mail that attempt to deceive the reader/recipient, e-mail that attempted to steal the recipient’s personal identification information and e-mail that attempted to steal the recipient’s money. The e-mail was clustered using the text mining. The terms representing the clusters were analyzed using text analysis. The constructs developed from the text analysis provided measures of the hypotheses. Both tests confirmed that ACDDT provides a theoretical base for detection of deception in e-mail. The contributions of this work are support for the ACDDT and a development of a new and unique method of detecting fraudulent e-mail.
Bigram HMM with Context Distribution Clustering for Unsupervised Chinese Part-of-Speech tagging

This paper presents an unsupervised Chinese Part-of-Speech (POS) tagging model based on the ﬁrst-order HMM. Unlike the conventional HMM, the number of hidden states is not ﬁxed and will be increased to ﬁt the training data. In favor of sparse distribution, the Dirichlet priors are introduced with variational inference method. To reduce the emission variables, words are represented by their contexts and clustered based on the distributional similarities between contexts. Experiment results show the output state sequence of HMM are highly correlated to the latent annotations of gold POS tags, in context of clustering similarity measures. The other experiments on a real application, unsupervised dependency parsing, reveal that the output sequence can replace the manually annotated tags without loss of accuracies.
Influence of dietary rapeseed oil, vitamin E, and copper on the performance and the antioxidative and oxidative status of pigs.

We investigated the effects of dietary copper and vitamin E in diets containing 6% rapeseed oil on the performance and the antioxidative and oxidative status of growing pigs. The 10 dietary treatments consisted of a basal diet (9 mg of vitamin E/kg feed, 15 mg of Cu/kg feed), the basal diet + 6% rapeseed oil (Diet 1; 18 mg of vitamin E/kg feed, 15 mg of Cu/kg feed), and Diet 1 plus supplements of vitamin E (0, 100, and 200 mg of dl-alpha-tocopheryl acetate/kg feed) and copper (0, 35, and 175 mg of Cu/ kg feed) in a 3 x 3 factorial arrangement of treatments. Eight or nine pigs were given ad libitum access to each diet from 25 to 100 kg of live weight. The inclusion of rapeseed oil tended (P < .10) to improve ADG and feed utilization. Compared with the addition of 35 mg of Cu/kg, the addition of 175 mg/kg improved growth rate and increased feed intake early in the experiment, but, over the total experiment, neither 35 nor 175 mg of Cu/kg affected performance. Compared with the addition of 100 mg of vitamin E/kg or no addition, the addition of 200 mg/kg reduced ADG over the total experiment (P = .05). The antioxidative and oxidative status of the pigs was evaluated in terms of blood and liver concentrations of antioxidants (alpha-tocopherol, ascorbic acid, vitamin A, superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase), prooxidants (Cu), concentrations of lipids (triglycerides and cholesterol), fatty acid composition, thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances (TBARS), and clinical chemical (creatine kinase and glutamate-oxaloacetate-transaminase) and hematological variables that indicate the level of oxidative stress. There were no vitamin E deficiency signs or increased oxidative stress in pigs fed low dietary vitamin E levels, and no prooxidative effect of Cu was found. Increasing dietary levels of vitamin E increased the concentration of alpha-tocopherol in plasma and liver. Supplementation with Cu increased liver concentrations of Cu and alphatocopherol. The progression in liver TBARS was reduced by the addition of vitamin E and Cu. The addition of rapeseed oil changed the fatty acid composition of liver, increased alpha-tocopherol concentration in plasma and Cu concentration in liver, and reduced the rate of lipid oxidation in liver. In conclusion, even though the effects were minor, vitamin E, Cu, and rapeseed oil improved the antioxidative status of the live pigs.
Flexible Memory Management in a Single Address Space Operating System supporting Quality of Service

Recent developments in the area of memory management have focused on reducing the eeects of the disk latency problem. These developments include the use of a compressed cache and the utilisation of memory on remote hosts. Further developments in the areas of Quality of Service (QoS) provision and user-level virtual memory have provided the impetus for a more spe-cialised run-time environment that is tailored for each individual application: an application-centric approach. Improvements on the disk latency problem have tended to be system-wide, i.e. all applications must participate in the scheme whether they would beneet or not. A scheme is presented here that extends the current memory hierarchy to include remote paging and the use of a compressed cache. The hierarchy also contains a Broker which is used to translate high level page-fault handling indicators into the instantiation of diierent memory management components with individual QoS guarantees. The new system also provides feedback to the application allowing it to adjust its behaviour to reeect changes in local and remote guarantees.
Mer Receptor Tyrosine Kinase Signaling Participates in Platelet Function

Objective—Recently, mice made deficient in growth arrest–specific gene 6 product (Gas6) or in which Gas6 gene expression was inhibited were shown to have platelet dysfunction and to be less susceptible to thrombosis. The aim of this study was to define and characterize the relevant Gas6 receptor or receptors involved in platelet function. Methods and Results—Using RT-PCR and Western blot analysis we found that mer was the predominantly expressed subtype in mouse and human platelets, whereas axl and rse were not detected. We generated mer-deficient mice by targeted disruption of the mer receptor gene. Platelets derived from mer-deficient mice had decreased platelet aggregation in responses to low concentrations of collagen, U46619, and PAR4 thrombin receptor agonist peptide in vitro. However, the response to ADP was not different from wild-type platelets. Knockout of the mer gene protected mice from collagen/epinephrine–induced pulmonary thromoembolism and inhibited ferric chloride–induced thrombosis in vivo. Tail bleeding times, coagulation parameters, and peripheral blood cell counts in mer-deficient mice were similar to wild-type mice. Conclusion—Our data provide the first evidence that mer, presumably through activation by its ligand Gas6, participates in regulation of platelet function in vitro and platelet-dependent thrombosis in vivo.
Enzyme‐free cell detachment mediated by resonance vibration with temperature modulation

Cell detachment is an essential process in adherent cell culture. However, trypsinization, which is the most popular detachment technique used in culture, damages cellular membranes. Reducing cellular membrane damage during detachment should improve the quality of cell culture. In this article, we propose an enzyme‐free cell detachment method based on resonance vibration with temperature modulation. We developed a culture device that can excite a resonance vibration and control temperature. We then evaluated the cell detachment ratio and the growth response, observed the morphology, and analyzed the cellular protein of the collected cells—mouse myoblast cell line (C2C12). With the temperature of 10°C and the maximum vibration amplitude of 2 μm, 77.9% of cells in number were successfully detached compared with traditional trypsinization. The 72‐h proliferation ratio of the reseeded cells was similar to that with trypsinization, whereas the proliferation ratio of proposed method was 12.6% greater than that of trypsinization after freezing and thawing. Moreover, the cells can be collected relatively intact and both intracellular and cell surface proteins in the proposed method were less damaged than in trypsinization. These results show that this method has definite advantages over trypsinization, which indicates that it could be applied to subcultures of cells that are more susceptible to trypsin damage for mass culture of sustainable clinical use. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2017;114: 2279–2288. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Tibial cartilage volume change in healthy postmenopausal women: a longitudinal study

Objective: To determine whether the amount of joint cartilage in healthy postmenopausal women is stable or changes over time, and whether oestrogen replacement therapy (ERT) influences this. Design: A cohort study in healthy postmenopausal women without knee pain, initially selected on the basis of having either used ERT long term (more than five years) or never having used ERT. Methods: 81 women (42 taking ERT and 39 non-users) had baseline knee radiographs and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) on the dominant knee; 57 of these (70%) were followed with repeat MRI approximately 2.5 years later. Knee cartilage volume was measured at baseline and at follow up. Risk factors assessed at baseline, including ERT use, were tested for their association with change in knee cartilage volume over time. Results: 29 subjects who were initially taking ERT and 28 non-users at baseline completed the study. Total tibial articular cartilage decreased, on average, by (mean (SD)) 2.4 (3.2)% per year (95% confidence interval for mean, 1.5% to 3.2%). Average annual reduction in medial and lateral tibial cartilage was 2.4 (3.6)% (1.4% to 3.3%) and 2.3 (4.2)% (1.2% to 3.4%), respectively. No association between ERT and the rate of reduction in cartilage volume was shown. Conclusions: Mean tibial cartilage volume loss in healthy postmenopausal women is between 1.5% and 3.2% a year. Whether this rate of change is similar throughout adult life or in men will require further investigation.
Correlation Between Pain, Disability, and Quality of Life in Patients With Common Low Back Pain

Study Design. Correlation among previously validated questionnaires. Objectives. To determine the correlation between pain, disability, and quality of life in patients with low back pain. Summary of Background Data. The Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), and the Roland-Morris (RMQ), Oswestry (OQ), and EuroQol (EQ) Questionnaires are validated instruments to assess pain, low back pain-related disability, and quality of life. Methods. The study was done in the primary care setting, in Mallorca, with 195 patients who visited their physician for LBP. Individuals were given the VAS, RMQ, OQ, and EQ on their first visit and 14 days later. Results. Median duration of pain when entering the study was 10 days (P25,P75: 3, 40). On day 1, simple correlation was r = 0.347 between VAS and RMQ, r = −0.422 between VAS and EQ, and r = −0.442 between RMQ and EQ. On day 15, simple correlation was r = 0.570 between VAS and RMQ, r = −0.672 between VAS and EQ, and r = −0.637 between RMQ and EQ. Multiple linear regression models showed that, on day 1, the VAS score explains 12% of the RMQ score and the VAS and RMQ scores explain 27% of the EQ score. On day 15, the VAS score explains 33% of the RMQ score, and the VAS and RMQ scores explain 58% of the EQ score. On day 1, a 10% increase in VAS worsens disability by 3.3% and quality of life by 2.65%. On day 15, a 10% increase in VAS worsens disability by 4.99% and quality of life by 3.80%. Prestudy duration of pain had no influence on any model. All these correlation coefficients and models are significant at the P < 0.001 level. The OQ had lower correlation values with the other three scales, and only two of them were significant. Conclusion. Clinically relevant improvements in pain may lead to almost unnoticeable changes in disability and quality of life. Therefore, these variables should be assessed separately when evaluating the effect of any form of treatment for low back pain. The influence of pain and disability on quality of life progresses while they last, and doubles in 14 days. In acute and subacute patients, this increase is not dependent on the previous duration of pain.
Rehabilitating the cyanobacteria – niche partitioning, resource use efficiency and phytoplankton community structure during diazotrophic cyanobacterial blooms

Blooms of nitrogen‐fixing cyanobacteria are recurrent phenomena in marine and freshwater habitats, and their supplying role in aquatic biogeochemical cycles is generally considered vital. The objective of this study was to analyse whether an increasing proportion of nitrogen‐fixing cyanobacteria affects (i) the composition of the non‐diazotrophic component of ambient phytoplankton communities and (ii) resource use efficiency (RUE; ratio of Chl a to total nutrients) – an important ecosystem function. We hypothesize that diazotrophs increase community P use and decrease N use efficiencies, as new N is brought into the system, relaxing N, and concomitantly aggravating P limitation. We test this by analysing an extensive data set from the Baltic Sea (> 3700 quantitative phytoplankton samples), known to harbour conspicuous and recurrent blooms of Nodularia spumigena and Aphanizomenon sp. System‐level phosphorus use efficiency (RUEP) was positively related to high proportion of diazotrophic cyanobacteria, suggesting aggravation of phosphorus limitation. However, concomitant decrease of nitrogen use efficiency (RUEN) was not observed. Nodularia spumigena, a dominant diazotroph and a notorious toxin producer, had a significantly stronger relationship with RUEP, compared to the competing non‐toxic Aphanizomenon sp. , confirming niche differentiation in P acquisition strategies between the major bloom‐forming cyanobacterial species in the Baltic Sea. Nodularia occurrences were associated with stronger temperature stratification in more offshore environments, indicating higher reliance on in situ P regeneration. By using constrained and unconstrained ordination, permutational multivariate analysis of variance and local similarity analysis, we show that diazotrophic cyanobacteria explained no more than a few percentage of the ambient phytoplankton community variation. The analyses furthermore yielded rather evenly distributed negative and positive effects on individual co‐occurring phytoplankton taxa, with no obvious phylogenetic or functional trait‐based patterns. Synthesis. Our study reveals that despite the widely acknowledged noxious impacts of cyanobacterial blooms, the overall effect on phytoplankton community structure is minor. There are no predominantly positive or negative associations with ambient phytoplankton species. Species‐specific niche differences in cyanobacterial resource acquisition affect important ecosystem functions, such as biomass production per unit limiting resource.
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Selective, embedded, just-in-time specialization (SEJITS) is a technique for optimizing embedded domain-specific languages through the use of specializers, or code modules developed by expert programmers that target particular accelerators such as multicore processors and GPUs via justin-time compilation. We extend SEJITS to exploit intermachine parallelism by targeting clusters of machines via MapReduce. Our work enables the development of specializers for large, data-parallel applications whose workflows can be cast as MapReduce operations. We present an implementation that targets Hadoop and we describe specializers for two applications. The first, a pure-Python protein docking application, requires a 1-line change to realize a 280x speedup on a cluster with 450 cores. The second, an audio processing application, demonstrates our approach’s ability to leverage clusters of GPU-equipped machines by composing parallel programming patterns. Results indicate that clusters are viable targets for specialization, and that pattern composition is a useful technique for managing multilevel parallelism.
Stochastic models of exciton dynamics in a 4-μm long single air-suspended single-walled carbon nanotube

Optically excited single-walled carbon nanotube exciton dynamics are predicted using a stochastic model including linear and nonlinear decay pathways. Results are fitted to the photoluminescence behavior of a single 4-μm long airsuspended (9,8) single-walled carbon nanotube. Hard photoluminescence saturation is observed even with only a few excitons are present in the single-walled carbon nanotube. The absorption coefficient is estimated to be 0.01 - 0.04, and photoluminescence quantum efficiency is 13%. Femtosecond excitation correlation spectroscopy dynamics are consistent with linear and nonlinear (exciton-exciton annihilation) lifetimes of 80 ps and 0.8 ps respectively.
Investigation on the Porous Biomaterial for Bone Reconstruction with Addition of Bio-Mimetic Nano-Sized Inorganic Particles

The spherical nano-sized bioactive particles in the system of CaO-P2O5-SiO2 were bio-mimetically synthesized using micro-emulsion method. The microstructures and properties of the bio- mimetic nano-materials were characterized using XRD, FTIR, SEM/EDAX and TEM techniques. It was indicated that the nano-particles possessed glassy structural characteristics. The porous composite for bone tissue reconstruction was prepared by compounding poly (hydroxybutyrate-2-co-2-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV) and the nano-particles of bio-mimetic bioactive glasses (BMBG). Bone-like hydroxyl- carbonate-apatite (HCA) could formed on the surface of porous composite by immersing the composite in simulated body fluid (SBF) at 37°C for 8 hours. With increase of immersion time, the morphology of HCA changed from spherical into flake-like crystals. The study on cells attachment of the porous PHBV/BMBG composite proved that the material possessed satisfactory bioactivity, bio-mineralization function and cells biocompatibility.
Friction-Stir Nitriding of Titanium Alloy Surface Layer

Surface nitriding of Ti–6Al–V alloy was realized via a friction-stir nitriding (FSN) method, on the basis of the already proposed friction-stir processing (FSP) technique. The friction-stir behaviors of the tool provided a severe plastic deformation, surface activations and heating histories of Ti-alloy under the introduced nitrogen atmosphere, which benefited the rapid and dramatic Ti–N reaction. The microstructure characteristics, micro-hardness and wear performance evaluations of the nitriding layer fabricated by FSN on Ti–6Al–V alloy were elucidated in the paper.
Rendezvous with multiple, intermittent leaders

In this paper we study bipartite, first order-networks where the nodes take on leader or follower roles. In particular, we let the leaders' positions be static and assume that they are only intermittently visible to the followers. This is an assumption that is inspired by the way female silkworm moths only intermittently release pheromones to be detected by the males. The main result in this paper states that if the followers execute the linear agreement protocol, they will converge to the convex hull spanned by the leaders (may they be visible or not).
Flexible resource allocation during plant defense responses

Plants are organisms composed of modules connected by xylem and phloem transport streams. Attack by both insects and pathogens elicits sometimes rapid defense responses in the attacked module. We have also known for some time that proteins are often reallocated away from pathogen-infected tissues, while the same infection sites may draw carbohydrates to them. This has been interpreted as a tug of war in which the plant withdraws critical resources to block microbial growth while the microbes attempt to acquire more resources. Sink-source regulated transport among modules of critical resources, particularly carbon and nitrogen, is also altered in response to attack. Insects and jasmonate can increase local sink strength, drawing carbohydrates that support defense production. Shortly after attack, carbohydrates may also be drawn to the root. The rate and direction of movement of photosynthate or signals in phloem in response to attack is subject to constraints that include branching, degree of connection among tissues, distance between sources and sinks, proximity, strength, and number of competing sinks, and phloem loading/unloading regulators. Movement of materials (e.g., amino acids, signals) to or from attack sites in xylem is less well understood but is partly driven by transpiration. The root is an influential sink and may regulate sink-source interactions and transport above and below ground as well as between the plant and the rhizosphere and nearby, connected plants. Research on resource translocation in response to pathogens or herbivores has focused on biochemical mechanisms; whole-plant research is needed to determine which, if any, of these plant behaviors actually influence plant fitness.
“I mean, I’m not a doctor”: Sensemaking of Interfaces Designed for Patient-Administered Test Results

Technological advances allow people to track their own health in a variety of ways, potentially dramatically changing the patient-clinician relationship. However, research regarding patient sensemaking of traditional medical tests highlights the challenges in distilling complex medical data into a format that is comprehensible for a general audience. While there are currently medical and policy debates regarding direct patient access to medical results, the imminent future of personal medical testing signals the need to explore direct patient access to medical data from an HCI perspective. To that end, we conducted two studies, an online survey and an in-lab prototype with debrief interviews, to explore whether and how people make sense of blood test results. Overall, participants often correctly made sense of the test result. However, many also expressed uncertainty and confusion about the result and their ability to correctly interpret the data. These findings illustrate both promises and perils of direct access to medical data, and they suggest an alternative approach to personal medical testing. Author