Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
MRI-Based Attenuation Correction for Hybrid PET/MRI Systems: A 4-Class Tissue Segmentation Technique Using a Combined Ultrashort-Echo-Time/Dixon MRI Sequence

Accurate γ-photon attenuation correction (AC) is essential for quantitative PET/MRI as there is no simple relation between MR image intensity and attenuation coefficients. Attenuation maps (μ-maps) can be derived by segmenting MR images and assigning attenuation coefficients to the compartments. Ultrashort-echo-time (UTE) sequences have been used to separate cortical bone and air, and the Dixon technique has enabled differentiation between soft and adipose tissues. Unfortunately, sequential application of these sequences is time-consuming and complicates image registration. Methods: A UTE triple-echo (UTILE) MRI sequence is proposed, combining UTE sampling for bone detection and gradient echoes for Dixon water–fat separation in a radial 3-dimensional acquisition (repetition time, 4.1 ms; echo times, 0.09/1.09/2.09 ms; field strength, 3 T). Air masks are derived mainly from the phase information of the first echo; cortical bone is segmented using a dual-echo technique. Soft-tissue and adipose-tissue decomposition is achieved using a 3-point Dixon-like decomposition. Predefined linear attenuation coefficients are assigned to classified voxels to generate MRI-based μ-maps. The results of 6 patients are obtained by comparing μ-maps, reciprocal sensitivity maps, reconstructed PET images, and brain region PET activities based on either CT AC, two 3-class MRI AC techniques, or the proposed 4-class UTILE AC. Results: Using the UTILE MRI sequence, an acquisition time of 214 s was achieved for the head-and-neck region with 1.75-mm isotropic resolution, compared with 164 s for a single-echo UTE scan. MRI-based reciprocal sensitivity maps show a high correlation with those derived from CT scans (R2 = 0.9920). The same is true for PET activities (R2 = 0.9958). An overall voxel classification accuracy (compared with CT) of 81.1% was reached. Bone segmentation is inaccurate in complex regions such as the paranasal sinuses, but brain region activities in 48 regions across 6 patients show a high correlation after MRI-based and CT-based correction (R2 = 0.9956), with a regression line slope of 0.960. All overall correlations are higher and brain region PET activities more accurate in terms of mean and maximum deviations for the 4-class technique than for 3-class techniques. Conclusion: The UTILE MRI sequence enables the generation of MRI-based 4-class μ-maps without anatomic priors, yielding results more similar to CT-based results than can be obtained with 3-class segmentation only.
The evidence base for family therapy and systemic interventions for child‐focused problems

This review updates similar articles published in the Journal of Family Therapy in 2001 and 2009. It presents evidence from meta-analyses, systematic literature reviews and controlled trials for the effectiveness of systemic interventions for families of children and adolescents with various difficulties. In this context, systemic interventions include both family therapy and other family-based approaches such as parent training. The evidence supports the effectiveness of systemic interventions either alone or as part of multi-modal programmes for sleep, feeding and attachment problems in infancy; child abuse and neglect; conduct problems (including childhood behavioural difficulties, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, delinquency and drug misuse); emotional problems (including anxiety, depression, grief, bipolar disorder and self-harm); eating disorders (including anorexia, bulimia and obesity); somatic problems (including enuresis, encopresis, medically unexplained symptoms and poorly controlled asthma and diabetes) and first episode psychosis.
The Allocation of Capital and Time over the Business Cycle

A Beckerian model of household production is developed to study the cyclical allocation of capital and time between market and home activities. The adopted framework treats the business and household sectors symmetrically. In the market, labor interacts with business capital to produce market goods and services, and likewise at home the remaining time (leisure) is combined with household capital to produce home goods and services. The model presented is parameterized and simulated to see whether it can rationalize the observed allocation of capital and time, as well as other stylized facts, for the postwar U.S. economy.
DPYD variants as predictors of 5-fluorouracil toxicity in adjuvant colon cancer treatment (NCCTG N0147).

BACKGROUND Previous studies have suggested the potential importance of three DPYD variants (DPYD*2A, D949V, and I560S) with increased 5-FU toxicity. Their individual associations, however, in 5-FU-based combination therapies, remain controversial and require further systematic study in a large patient population receiving comparable treatment regimens with uniform clinical data. METHODS We genotyped 2886 stage III colon cancer patients treated adjuvantly in a randomized phase III trial with FOLFOX or FOLFIRI, alone or combined with cetuximab, and tested the individual associations between functionally deleterious DPYD variants and toxicity. Logistic regressions were used to assess univariate and multivariable associations. All statistical tests were two-sided. RESULTS In 2594 patients with complete adverse event (AE) data, the incidence of grade 3 or greater 5FU-AEs in DPYD*2A, I560S, and D949V carriers were 22/25 (88.0%), 2/4 (50.0%), and 22/27 (81.5%), respectively. Statistically significant associations were identified between grade 3 or greater 5FU-AEs and both DPYD*2A (odds ratio [OR] = 15.21, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 4.54 to 50.96, P < .001) and D949V (OR = 9.10, 95% CI = 3.43 to 24.10, P < .001) variants. Statistical significance remained after adjusting for multiple variables. The DPYD*2A variant statistically significantly associated with the specific AEs nausea/vomiting (P = .007) and neutropenia (P < .001), whereas D949V statistically significantly associated with dehydration (P = .02), diarrhea (P = .003), leukopenia (P = .002), neutropenia (P < .001), and thrombocytopenia (P < .001). Although two patients with I560S had grade≥3 5FU-AEs; a statistically significant association could not be demonstrated because of its low frequency (P = .48). CONCLUSION In the largest study to date, statistically significant associations were found between DPYD variants (DPYD*2A and D949V) and increased incidence of grade 3 or greater 5FU-AEs in patients treated with adjuvant 5-FU-based combination chemotherapy.
Distortion-rate tradeoff of a source uniformly distributed over the Composite PF(N) and the composite stiefel manifolds

To model the benefit accrued due to limited rate feedback on the information transfer of optimal ‘input covariance matrices’ from a channel-aware receiver to the transmitting users in a multiple-access channel, we study the distortion-rate tradeoff of a source uniformly distributed over multivariate generalizations of P<inf>F</inf>(n,p<sup>2</sup>) (the set of positive semi-definite matrices with a trace constraint) and V<inf>n,k</inf><sup>ℂ</sup> (the classical Stiefel surface) manifolds. Using sphere-packing and random coding arguments, the distortion-rate function is bounded within asymptotically tight limits.
Searching in an unknown environment: an optimal randomized algorithm for the cow-path problem

Searching for a goal is a central and extensively studied problem in computer science. In classical searching problems, the cost of a search function is simply the number of queries made to an oracle that knows the position of the goal. In many robotics problems, as well as in problems from other areas, we want to charge a cost proportional to the distance between queries (e.g., the time required to travel between two query points). With this cost function in mind, the abstract problem known as thew-lane cow-path problem was designed. There are known optimal deterministic algorithms for the cow-path problem; we give the first randomized algorithm in this paper. We show that our algorithm is optimal for two paths (w=2) and give evidence that it is optimal for larger values ofw. Subsequent to the preliminary version of this paper, Kaoet al.(in“Proceedings, 5th ACM? SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithm,” pp. 372? 381, 1994) have shown that our algorithm is indeed optimal for allw? 2. Our randomized algorithm gives expected performance that is almost twice as good as is possible with a deterministic algorithm. For the performance of our algorithm, we also derive the asymptotic growth with respect tow? despite similar complexity results for related problems, it appears that this growth has never been analyzed.
Overview of hardware trojan detection and prevention methods

Hardware Trojans (HTs) are identified as an emerging threat for the integrity of Integrated Circuits (ICs) and their applications. Attackers attempt to maliciously manipulate the functionality of ICs by inserting HTs, potentially causing disastrous effects (Denial of Service, sensitive information leakage, etc.). Over the last 10 years, various methods have been proposed in literature to circumvent HTs. This article introduces the general context of HTs and summarizes the recent advances in HT detection from a French funded research project named HOMERE. Some of these results will be detailed in the related special session.
Stacked Approximated Regression Machine: A Simple Deep Learning Approach

With the agreement of my coauthors, I Zhangyang Wang would like to withdraw the manuscript "Stacked Approximated Regression Machine: A Simple Deep Learning Approach". Some experimental procedures were not included in the manuscript, which makes a part of important claims not meaningful. In the relevant research, I was solely responsible for carrying out the experiments; the other coauthors joined in the discussions leading to the main algorithm. Please see the updated text for more details.
High membrane potential promotes alkenal-induced mitochondrial uncoupling and influences adenine nucleotide translocase conformation

Mitochondria generate reactive oxygen species, whose downstream lipid peroxidation products, such as 4-hydroxynonenal, induce uncoupling of oxidative phosphorylation by increasing proton leak through mitochondrial inner membrane proteins such as the uncoupling proteins and adenine nucleotide translocase. Using mitochondria from rat liver, which lack uncoupling proteins, in the present study we show that energization (specifically, high membrane potential) is required for 4-hydroxynonenal to activate proton conductance mediated by adenine nucleotide translocase. Prolonging the time at high membrane potential promotes greater uncoupling. 4-Hydroxynonenal-induced uncoupling via adenine nucleotide translocase is prevented but not readily reversed by addition of carboxyatractylate, suggesting a permanent change (such as adduct formation) that renders the translocase leaky to protons. In contrast with the irreversibility of proton conductance, carboxyatractylate added after 4-hydroxynonenal still inhibits nucleotide translocation, implying that the proton conductance and nucleotide translocation pathways are different. We propose a model to relate adenine nucleotide translocase conformation to proton conductance in the presence or absence of 4-hydroxynonenal and/or carboxyatractylate.
Beneficial effect of polymyxin B-immobilized fiber column (PMX) hemoperfusion treatment on acute exacerbation of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

OBJECTIVE This study was aimed to investigate the effect of polymyxin B-immobilized fiber column (PMX) hemoperfusion treatment on the acute exacerbation of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). PATIENTS AND METHODS Six patients with a clinical diagnosis of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) who developed acute exacerbation were included in this study. Although five of six patients were treated with high-dose corticosteroid therapy, mechanical ventilation was necessary for all six patients due to severe respiratory failure. Blood endotoxin levels were undetectable in all patients. PMX treatment was performed on these six patients. RESULTS In four of six patients, alveolar-arterial difference of oxygen (AaDO(2)), serum KL-6 and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) were improved after PMX treatment. These four patients were successfully weaned from mechanical ventilation and survived more than 30 days after the initial PMX treatment. CONCLUSION These data suggest a potential beneficial effect of PMX treatment on acute exacerbation of IPF.
Da obediência ao consentimento: reflexões sobre o experimento de Milgram à luz das instituições modernas

O objetivo do presente ensaio e fornecer uma leitura sobre os resultados do classico experimento de Stanley Milgram em torno da obediencia a autoridade a partir de algumas categorias extraidas dos estudos teoricos do sociologo Anthony Giddens e da filosofa Hannah Arendt. O texto esta estruturado em torno de dois aspectos centrais. O primeiro afirma o contexto das tendencias culturais e as caracteristicas das instituicoes modernas como fatores decisivos para a compreensao dos resultados experimentais. Enfatiza, para tanto, a modalidade de confianca que os sistemas sociais, como os sistemas peritos, instauram na vida hodierna, capaz de produzir uma peculiar subordinacao ao conhecimento cientifico e tecnico, concomitante a uma plena desinformacao sobre seus principios de funcionamento. O segundo aspecto do artigo visa realcar a importância da responsabilidade moral dos sujeitos experimentais, propondo, com base nas reflexoes de Hannah Arendt, o deslocamento do eixo central da analise do experimento da categoria obediencia para a categoria consentimento.
Porcine Respiratory and Reproductive Syndrome Virus Vaccinology: A Review for Commercial Vaccines

Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS) since its appearance in Europe in the early 1990’s has resulted in tremendous economic losses. Under field conditions vaccination is one of the most efficient strategies for the prevention and control of PRRS. The aim of this study is to perform the PRRSV vaccinology regarding current status of commercial vaccines in Europe. There are two types of PRRSV commercial available vaccines in Europe: Killed Virus (KV) or inactivated vaccines and Modified-Live Virus (MLV) or attenuated vaccines. EU KV commercial vaccines provide limited efficacy due to the weak stimulation of the immune system and no effective induction of neutralizing antibodies. However, KV vaccines can induce a strong Cell Mediated Immune (CMI) response. One the other hand, commercial EU MLV vaccines provide effective strain-specific protection, only partial protection against genetically heterologous PRRSV and elicit relatively late humoral and CMI responses which lead to delayed protection. In Europe, the KV vaccination prove to reduce the negative effects of PRRSV in breeding herds, improving their reproductive performance, e.g., increase of farrowing rate and number of live or weaned pigs, reduction of premature farrowing rate, abortion rate and number of mummified and stillborn piglets. The use of commercial MLV vaccines in PRRSV-infected breeding herds leads to improvement of: (a) reproductive performance e.g., reduction of the abortion and return to oestrus rate and increase of the farrowing rate and number of weaners, ( b) the viraemic status, morbidity and mortality rate of piglets and (c) the growth performance of vaccinated pigs. In conclusion, nowadays the use of MLV or KV vaccines in Europe is the most economical tool to control the economic losses of PRRSV infection. However, the development of more efficacious PRRSV vaccines is the significant future goal for PRRSV vaccinology.
Dynamic diversification of continuous data

Result diversification has recently attracted considerable attention as a means of increasing user satisfaction in recommender systems, as well as in web and database search. In this paper, we focus on the problem of selecting the k-most diverse items from a result set. Whereas previous research has mainly considered the static version of the problem, in this paper, we exploit the dynamic case in which the result set changes over time, as for example, in the case of notification services. We define the Continuous k-Diversity Problem along with appropriate constraints that enforce continuity requirements on the diversified results. Our proposed approach is based on cover trees and supports dynamic item insertion and deletion. The diversification problem is in general NP-complete; we provide theoretical bounds that characterize the quality of our solution based on cover trees with respect to the optimal solution. Finally, we report experimental results concerning the efficiency and effectiveness of our approach on a variety of real and synthetic datasets.
The O-Antigen Gene Cluster of Escherichia coli O55:H7 and Identification of a New UDP-GlcNAc C4 Epimerase Gene

ABSTRACT Escherichia coli O55 is an important antigen which is often associated with enteropathogenic E. coli clones. We sequenced the genes responsible for its synthesis and identified genes for O-antigen polymerase, O-antigen flippase, four enzymes involved in GDP-colitose synthesis, and three glycosyltransferases, all by comparison with known genes. Upstream of the normal O-antigen region there is a gne gene, which encodes a UDP-GlcNAc epimerase for converting UDP-GlcNAc to UDP-GalNAc and is essential for O55 antigen synthesis. The O55 gne product has only 20 and 26% identity to the gne genes of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and E. coli O113, respectively. We also found evidence for the O55 gene cluster's having evolved from another gene cluster by gain and loss of genes. Only three of the GDP-colitose pathway genes are in the usual location, the other two being separated, although nearby. It is thought that the E. coli O157:H7 clone evolved from the O55:H7 clone in part by transfer of the O157 gene cluster into an O55 lineage. Comparison of genes flanking the O-antigen gene clusters of the O55:H7 and O157:H7 clones revealed one recombination site within the galF gene and located the other between the hisG and amn genes. Genes outside the recombination sites are 99.6 to 100% identical in the two clones, while most genes thought to have transferred with the O157 gene cluster are 95 to 98% identical.
MERPL: A more memory-efficient storing mode in RPL

The IPv6 Routing Protocol for Low-power and Lossy Networks (RPL) allows a node to operate in storing or non-storing mode. However, as the network size increases, non-storing RPL will introduce lots of communication overhead, while storing RPL will consume lots of memory. In this paper, we improve the storing mode in RPL by reducing the memory consumption. Our performance studies show that our scheme effectively reduces communication overhead compared with the pure non-storing mode. In addition, it makes sure that the number of routing table entry stored in a node does not exceed a pre-specified factor N. When a node stores N routing table entries, it still has enough memory to run the node program and store the collected sensor data. Even when the size of network is large, nodes near the root can still provide adequate space to store the routing table entries using our scheme, but in pure storing mode they may not.
Automatic frontal view face image synthesis

This paper introduces a novel method to automatically synthesizing frontal view face images from more than one ill-posed face images. Rather than relying on a uniform warping function to the whole image, our deformation strategy is specific to each pixel. And rather than relying on inaccurate pose estimation, the contribution of each input image is determined automatically to minimize the non-rigid deformation contained in frontal view synthesizing. It can be learned intuitively from our experimental results that this synthesizing strategy is effective, and under the FERET evaluation methodology, it is proved that this strategy is helpful to improve the performance of face recognition algorithms.
D-Sphalerons and the Topology of String Configuration Space

We show that unstable D-branes play the role of ``D-sphalerons'' in string theory. Their existence implies that the configuration space of Type II string theory has a complicated homotopy structure, similar to that of an infinite Grassmannian. In particular, the configuration space of Type IIA (IIB) string theory on $\R^{10}$ has non-trivial homotopy groups $\pi_k$ for all $k$ even (odd).
Promising the Future: Virginity Pledges and First Intercourse1

Since 1993, in response to a movement sponsored by the Southern Baptist Church, over 2.5 million adolescents have taken public “virginity” pledges, in which they promise to abstain from sex until marriage. This paper explores the effect of those pledges on the transition to first intercourse. Adolescents who pledge are much less likely to have intercourse than adolescents who do not pledge. The delay effect is substantial. On the other hand, the pledge does not work for adolescents at all ages. Second, pledging delays intercourse only in contexts where there are some, but not too many, pledgers. The pledge works because it is embedded in an identity movement. Consequently, the pledge identity is meaningful only in contexts where it is at least partially nonnormative. Consequences of pledging are explored for those who break their promise. Promise breakers are less likely than others to use contraception at first intercourse.
Teaching to Change the World

Chapter 1: Schooling: Wrestling with History and TraditionChapter 2: Traditional Learning Theories: Transmission, Training, and IQChapter 3: Contemporary Learning Theories: Problem Solving, Understanding, and ParticipationChapter 4: Curriculum: Philosophy, History, and Politics: What Should Students Learn? Chapter 5: Curriculum Content: The Subject MattersChapter 6: Instruction and Assessment: Classrooms as Learning CommunitiesChapter 7: Classroom Management: Caring and Democratic CommunitiesChapter 8: Grouping and Categorical Programs: Can Schools Teach All Students Well? Chapter 9: The School Culture: Where Good Teaching Makes SenseChapter 10: Connections with Families and CommunitiesChapter 11: Teaching to Change the World: A Profession and a Hopeful Struggle
A colour statistical approach to phantom pruning in multi-view detection

To increase the robustness of detection in intelligent video surveillance systems, homography has been widely used to fuse foreground regions projected from multiple camera views to a reference view. However, the intersections of non-corresponding foreground regions can cause phantoms. This paper proposes a colour statistical approach to cope with this problem. This method is based on the Mahalanobis distance between the colour patches which correspond to the same foreground region in the reference view. This method can overcome the problems in the pixelwise colour correlation approach.