Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
BBDS: Blockchain-Based Data Sharing for Electronic Medical Records in Cloud Environments

Disseminating medical data beyond the protected cloud of institutions poses severe risks to patients’ privacy, as breaches push them to the point where they abstain from full disclosure of their condition. This situation negatively impacts the patient, scientific research, and all stakeholders. To address this challenge, we propose a blockchain-based data sharing framework that sufficiently addresses the access control challenges associated with sensitive data stored in the cloud using immutability and built-in autonomy properties of the blockchain. Our system is based on a permissioned blockchain which allows access to only invited, and hence verified users. As a result of this design, further accountability is guaranteed as all users are already known and a log of their actions is kept by the blockchain. The system permits users to request data from the shared pool after their identities and cryptographic keys are verified. The evidence from the system evaluation shows that our scheme is lightweight, scalable, and efficient.
Summarizability in OLAP and statistical data bases

The summarizability of OLAP (online analytical processing) and statistical databases is an a extremely important property, because violating this condition can lead to erroneous conclusions and decisions. In this paper, we explore the conditions for summarizability. We introduce a framework for precisely specifying the context in which statistical objects are defined. We use a three-step process to define normalized statistical objects. Using this framework, we identify three necessary conditions for summarizability. We provide specific tests for each of the conditions that can be verified either from semantic knowledge or by checking the statistical database itself. We also provide the reasoning for our belief that these three summarizability conditions are sufficient as well.
Performance-centric scheduling with task migration for a heterogeneous compute node in the data center

The use of heterogeneous computing resources, such as Graphic Processing Units or other specialized coprocessors, has become widespread in recent years because of their performance and energy efficiency advantages. Approaches for managing and scheduling tasks to heterogeneous resources are still subject to research. Although queuing systems have recently been extended to support accelerator resources, a general solution that manages heterogeneous resources at the operating system-level to exploit a global view of the system state is still missing. In this paper we present a user space scheduler that enables task scheduling and migration on heterogeneous processing resources in Linux. Using run queues for available resources we perform scheduling decisions based on the system state and on task characterization from earlier measurements. With a programming pattern that supports the integration of checkpoints into applications, we preempt tasks and migrate them between three very different compute resources. Considering static and dynamic workload scenarios, we show that this approach can gain up to 17% performance, on average 7%, by effectively avoiding idle resources. We demonstrate that a work-conserving strategy without migration is no suitable alternative.
Narrowband PLC channel modelling for smart grid applications

This paper presents analysis of the channel characteristics of a Medium Voltage (MV) Electrical Distribution Networks (EDN) based on predefined reference scenarios provided by the Power Utilities. Simulation results which show the influences of various parameters such as the cable (type, length, and installation), number of end users, number of inter-connections, and component outages or interruptions on the transfer function of the network, especially in Distribution Line Carrier (DLC) frequency range, are discussed.
MET Expression Plays Differing Roles in Non–Small-Cell Lung Cancer Patients with or without EGFR Mutation

Introduction: Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitors and Met inhibitors have enabled progress in the management of advanced non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, the clinical benefits of these agents are not uniform across the NSCLC spectrum. Thus, we evaluated the prognostic effect of mesenchymal-epithelial transition (MET) expression in Asian NSCLC patients with or without EGFR mutation. Methods: Frozen tumor tissues were collected from 92 patients with surgical resection and 10 with lymph node biopsy. Mutations in exons 18–21 in the EGFR–tyrosine kinase domain and MET expression were analyzed by using sequencing and immunohistochemistry, respectively. Results: The MET overexpression rate was 51% in NSCLC patients. MET-positive patients had poorer overall survival than MET-negative patients (29.8 versus 69.1 months, &khgr;2 = 7.420, p = 0.006) in patients with wild-type EGFR. However, no statistically significant difference was found in EGFR mutant patients (35.0 versus 35.9 months, &khgr;2 = 0.114, p = 0.735). Multivariate analysis showed that stage, MET expression, and sex were independent prognostic factors in patients with wild-type EGFR (&khgr;2 = 32.896, p < 0.001). Conclusions: These results suggest that MET expression has different prognostic significance in patients with differing EGFR mutation status. Whether MET inhibitors should be given early to NSCLC patients with EGFR wild-type needs further investigation.
Gauss' principle and the dynamics of redundant and constrained manipulators

This paper uses Gauss' principle of least constraint to derive the "natural" dynamic equations for redundant manipulators. This approach is the fastest way to the result that the operational space inertia matrix of the manipulator is the natural weighting matrix for the projection used in solving the redundancy problem. Force-controlled robots form a special case of redundant robots, such that the results can be applied straightforwardly to solve the long-standing problem of the "non-invariance" of the selection matrices in the hybrid force/position control paradigm.
Effect of thermal cycling on interfacial IMCs growth and fracture behavior of SnAgCu/Cu joints

The morphological features and growth kinetics of interfacial IMCs have shown significant effect on the mechanical properties, and hence, on the reliability of lead free solder joints. The growth behavior of the interfacial IMCs of SnAgCu/Cu solder joint, in reflow and thermal cycling, was investigated with the focus on the influence of reflow dwell time and the cyclic parameters on the growth kinetics. The three-dimensional IMCs feature was explored by etch the solder matrix out of the SnAgCu/Cu interface. The phases of IMCs were identified by energy dispersive X-ray (EDX). The thickness of the IMCs was measured by element mapping and phase constitution analysis. The thermal cycling of SnAgCu/Cu soldered joints was performed within the temperature region of −25°C to 125°C and −40°C to 125°C respectively. The corresponding IMCs growth rates were formulated according to the data from various thermal cycles. The growth kinetic of the IMCs was analyzed in the framework of diffusion principles. The shear strength of the joint was evaluated and the fracture mechanism was analyzed in accordingly. It was found that Cu6Sn5 was formed and followed by rapid coarsening at the solder and Cu interface during reflowing. During thermal cycling, however, IMCs grain coarsening and breaking were noted. The thickness of IMCs was found increases with the thermal cycles; however, the growth rate is less than that of thermal aging. The dwell time in high temperature portion of a thermal cycle was found has significant influence on the growth rate of the IMCs. The growth of the IMCs, both for reflowing and thermal cycling, was found follows diffusion model. The shear strength of the joints was found decreases both with the increase of the thermal cycles as well as with the decrease of the cooling dwell temperature in the thermal cycles.
The Electrically Silent Kv6.4 Subunit Confers Hyperpolarized Gating Charge Movement in Kv2.1/Kv6.4 Heterotetrameric Channels

The voltage-gated K+ (Kv) channel subunit Kv6.4 does not form functional homotetrameric channels but co-assembles with Kv2.1 to form functional Kv2.1/Kv6.4 heterotetrameric channels. Compared to Kv2.1 homotetramers, Kv6.4 exerts a ∼40 mV hyperpolarizing shift in the voltage-dependence of Kv2.1/Kv6.4 channel inactivation, without a significant effect on activation gating. However, the underlying mechanism of this Kv6.4-induced modulation of Kv2.1 channel inactivation, and whether the Kv6.4 subunit participates in the voltage-dependent gating of heterotetrameric channels is not well understood. Here we report distinct gating charge movement of Kv2.1/Kv6.4 heterotetrameric channels, compared to Kv2.1 homotetramers, as revealed by gating current recordings from mammalian cells expressing these channels. The gating charge movement of Kv2.1/Kv6.4 heterotetrameric channels displayed an extra component around the physiological K+ equilibrium potential, characterized by a second sigmoidal relationship of the voltage-dependence of gating charge movement. This distinct gating charge displacement reflects movement of the Kv6.4 voltage-sensing domain and has a voltage-dependency that matches the hyperpolarizing shift in Kv2.1/Kv6.4 channel inactivation. These results provide a mechanistic basis for the modulation of Kv2.1 channel inactivation gating kinetics by silent Kv6.4 subunits.
Sex-related changes in cardiac function following myocardial infarction in mice.

Recent awareness of cardiovascular diseases as a number one killer of the middle-aged women has prompted interest in sex differences leading to heart failure (HF). Therefore, we evaluated cardiac function in female and male mice following myocardial infarction (MI) using the Millar pressure-volume (P-V) conductance system in vivo, at time points corresponding to early (2 wk), late compensatory hypertrophy (4 wk), and decompensation (10 wk) to HF. A significant deterioration of the load dependent and independent hemodynamic measurements occurred in both female and male mice during the early phase of hypertrophy. Later, compensatory hypertrophy was marked by a normalization of volumes to control levels in females compared with males. The most notable differences between sexes occurred in the measurements of cardiac contractility during the decompensation to HF. In females, there was a significant improvement in contractility compared with males, which was apparent in the load-independent measurements of preload recruitable stroke work (10 wk post-MI, female=48.7+/-8.0 vs. male=25.2+/-1.8 mmHg, P<0.05) and maximum dP/dt vs. maximum end-diastolic volume (10 wk post-MI, female=359+/-58 vs. male=149+/-28 mmHg.s(-1). microl(-1), P<0.05). Despite these differences, there were no differences in the heart weight to body weight ratio and infarct size between the sexes. These data demonstrate that compensatory hypertrophy is associated with an improvement in contractility and a delayed decompensation to HF in females. However, compensatory hypertrophy in males appears to be undermined by a steady decline in contractility associated with decompensation to HF.
One model, two languages: training bilingual parsers with harmonized treebanks

We introduce an approach to train lexicalized parsers using bilingual corpora obtained by merging harmonized treebanks of different languages, producing parsers that can analyze sentences in either of the learned languages, or even sentences that mix both. We test the approach on the Universal Dependency Treebanks, training with MaltParser and MaltOptimizer. The results show that these bilingual parsers are more than competitive, as most combinations not only preserve accuracy, but some even achieve significant improvements over the corresponding monolingual parsers. Preliminary experiments also show the approach to be promising on texts with code-switching and when more languages are added.
Graphene Modified Cotton Textiles

The graphene oxides are abundant in hydroxyl and carboxyl groups that are close to the reactive dyes. These structural features gave a possibility to modify textiles to enhance the conductivity by using the dyeing and finishing method. Herein, graphene modified cotton textiles are fabricated by soaking cotton cloth in graphene oxide colloid. After reduction, the modified textiles exhibit an improved conductivity. The present work contributed a facile strategy for graphene modified textiles.
Chondrogenic Ability of Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Alginate and Collagen Sponge

In the present study, we have demonstrated that alginate and collagen sponge can act as scaffolds in order to support 3-dimensional structure for the differentiated bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) during chondrogenesis in vitro and in vivo. The chondrogenic induced BMSCs were well distributed and differentiation in scaffolds system before implantation, then they produced sufficient ECM in the implants to form chondroid aggregates in vivo. In our opinion, well-differentiated BMSCs is a crucial feature of cartilage repair and only can be achieved in scaffold matrix. Furthermore, when dealing with cartilage defects, alginate seem to be superior to collagen sponge, and the combinational strategy of pre-induced BMSCs combined with alginate 3D-culture might be useful in improving conventional autologous cells transplantation or free-cells scaffolds.
Automatic computation of the cardiothoracic ratio with application to mass screening.

An algorithm for the automatic computation of the cardiothoracic ratio is presented. In experiments using 100 sheets of 14-by 14-in postero-anterior chest radiographs, a tolerable error of ±4 percent was satisfied in 86 percent of all trials. The processing time is about 1 s. The goal of this study is to provide radiologists with practical Instruments for the automated mass screening of heart disease. A minicomputer and a conventional vidicon camera are used in the experimental system.
Stroke in the Very Elderly: Hospital Care, Case Fatality and Disposition

Background: The worldwide growing number of older people represents a new phenomenon. Considering that the prevalence of stroke increases with age and higher life expectancy, the prevalence of stroke will likely rise in the next decade. However, limited information is available about the burden of stroke in individuals over 90. Methods: This is a subgroup analysis from a multicenter cohort study including individuals admitted with an ischemic stroke to a broad range of hospitals across Canada. Patients were identified from the Canadian Hospital Morbidity database (HMDB), which is a national database that contains patient-level sociodemographic, diagnostic and administrative information. Multivariable analysis was performed using logistic regression. Outcomes measures include risk-adjusted stroke fatality, ICU admissions, medical complications, length of hospital stay and discharge disposition. Results: Among 26,676 patients with ischemic stroke admitted to 606 hospitals, 2,015 (7.6%) were aged 90 years or older. Risk-adjusted fatality at discharge was 6.3% (age <69), 12.5% (age 70–79), 22.0% (age 80–89) and 36.1% (age ≥90) (p < 0.001). Patients aged 90 and over were more likely admitted on weekends (28.1 vs. 24.6; p < 0.001), and less likely to be admitted to the ICU (4.3 vs. 13.0%, p < 0.001) and discharged to their pre-stroke residence (39.9% for those over 90 vs. 57.3% for patients younger than 90, p < 0.001). In the multivariable analysis, nonagenarians and older were 5–8 times more likely to die after adjusting for covariates. Conclusion: In our study, stroke patients over 90 had higher risk-adjusted mortality, longer hospitalization, and were less likely to be discharged to their original place of residence. In view of these findings, strategies need to be implemented to facilitate equal access to specialized stroke care for the elderly.
Perineal Carriage of Staph. aureus

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Inversion by P4: polarization-picture post-processing

Polarization may be sensed by imaging modules. This is done in various engineering systems as well as in biological systems, specifically by insects and some marine species. However, polarization per pixel is usually not the direct variable of interest. Rather, polarization-related data serve as a cue for recovering task-specific scene information. How should polarization-picture post-processing (P4) be done for the best scene understanding? Answering this question is not only helpful for advanced engineering (computer vision), but also to prompt hypotheses as to the processing occurring within biological systems. In various important cases, the answer is found by a principled expression of scene recovery as an inverse problem. Such an expression relies directly on a physics-based model of effects in the scene. The model includes analysis that depends on the different polarization components, thus facilitating the use of these components during the inversion, in a proper, even if non-trivial, manner. We describe several examples for this approach. These include automatic removal of path radiance in haze or underwater, overcoming partial semireflections and visual reverberations; three-dimensional recovery and distance-adaptive denoising. The resulting inversion algorithms rely on signal-processing methods, such as independent component analysis, deconvolution and optimization.
Deploying and evaluating a location-aware system

Location-aware systems are typically deployed on a small scale and evaluated technically, in terms of absolute errors. In this paper, the authors present their experience of deploying an indoor location system (the Bat system) over a larger area and running it for a period exceeding two years.A number of technical considerations are highlighted: a need to consider aesthetics throughout deployment, the disadvantages of specialising sensors for location only, the need for autonomous maintenance of the computational world model, the dangers in coinciding physical and symbolic boundaries, the need to design for space usage rather than space and the need to incorporate feed-back mechanisms and power management. An evaluation of long term user experiences is presented, derived from a survey, logged usage data, and empirical observations. Statistically, it is found that 35% wear their Bat daily, 35% characterise their Bat as useful, privacy concerns are rare for almost 90% of users, and users cite the introduction of more applications and the adoption of the system by other users as their chief incentives to be tracked.Thia paper aims to highlight the need to evaluate large-scale deployments of such systems both technically and through user studies.
Reaching Envy-Free States in Distributed Negotiation Settings

Mechanisms for dividing a set of goods amongst a number of autonomous agents need to balance efficiency and fairness requirements. A common interpretation of fairness is envy-freeness, while efficiency is usually understood as yielding maximal overall utility. We show how to set up a distributed negotiation framework that will allow a group of agents to reach an allocation of goods that is both efficient and envy-free.
Metallic ions as therapeutic agents in tissue engineering scaffolds: an overview of their biological applications and strategies for new developments

This article provides an overview on the application of metallic ions in the fields of regenerative medicine and tissue engineering, focusing on their therapeutic applications and the need to design strategies for controlling the release of loaded ions from biomaterial scaffolds. A detailed summary of relevant metallic ions with potential use in tissue engineering approaches is presented. Remaining challenges in the field and directions for future research efforts with focus on the key variables needed to be taken into account when considering the controlled release of metallic ions in tissue engineering therapeutics are also highlighted.
A 1 Adenosine Receptor Upregulation Accompanies Decreasing Myocardial Adenosine Levels in Mice With Left Ventricular Dysfunction failure, transgenic mice with left ventricular systolic Molecular Cardiology

Background —It is well known that adenosine levels are increased during ischemia and protect the heart during ischemia/reperfusion. However, less is known about the role of adenosine–adenosine receptor (AR) pathways in hearts with left ventricular dilation and dysfunction. Therefore, we assessed adenosine levels and selective AR expression in transgenic mice with left ventricular systolic dysfunction secondary to overexpression of tumor necrosis factor- (cid:1) (TNF 1.6). Methods and Results —Cardiac adenosine levels were reduced by 70% at 3 and 6 weeks of age in TNF 1.6 mice. This change was accompanied by a 4-fold increase in the levels of A 1 -AR and a 50% reduction in the levels of A 2A -AR. That the increase in A 1 -AR density was of physiological significance was shown by the fact that chronotropic responsiveness to the A 1 -AR selective agonist 2-chloro- N 6 -cyclopentanyladenosine was enhanced in the TNF 1.6 mice. Similar changes in adenosine levels were found in 2 other models of heart failure, mice overexpressing calsequestrin and mice after chronic pressure overload, suggesting that the changes in adenosine-AR signaling were secondary to myocardial dysfunction rather than to TNF overexpression. Conclusions —Cardiac dysfunction secondary to the overexpression of TNF is associated with marked alterations in myocardial levels of adenosine and ARs. Modulation of the myocardial adenosine system and its signaling pathways may be a novel therapeutic target in patients with heart failure. ( Circulation . 2007;115:2307-2315.) to common dogma, adenosine levels are substantially decreased in 3 different models of murine heart failure and that these changes are associated with physiologically relevant alterations in the levels of the adenosine receptor subtypes. Although these findings provide important information about the biology of adenosine-mediated receptor signaling in the heart, they also have important therapeutic implications. For example, based on the premise that adenosine levels are increased in the failing heart, ongoing clinical trials are evaluating the role of receptor-specific adenosine agonists and antagonists in the treatment of patients with heart failure. The results of the present study suggest that we need to learn more about the biological effects of adenosine to safely and effectively develop these agents.