Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Compressive sensing for raw RF signals reconstruction in ultrasound

We address in this paper the feasibility of the recent compressive sensing (CS) technique for raw RF signals reconstruction in medical ultrasound. Successful CS reconstruction implies selecting a basis where the signal to be recovered has a sparse expansion. RF signals represent a specific challenge, because their oscillatory nature does not easily lend itself to a sparse representation. In that perspective, we propose to use the recently introduced directional wave atoms [1], which shows good properties for sparsely representing warped oscillatory patterns. Experiments were performed on simulated RF data from a cyst numerical phantom. CS reconstruction was applied to subsampled RF data, by removing 50% to 90% of the original samples. Reconstruction using wave atoms were compared to reconstruction obtained from Fourier and Daubechies wavelets. The obtained accuracies were in the range [0.4–4.0]. 10−3, [0.2–2.8]. 10−3 and [0.1–1.7]. 10−3, using wavelets, Fourier and wave atoms respectively, showing the superiority of the wave atoms representation, and the feasibility of CS for the reconstruction of US RF data.
NOTCH 1 mutation can be an early , prenatal genetic event in TALL

NOTCH1 mutations are common in Tlineage acute lymphoblastic leukemia (TALL). Twin studies and retrospective screening of neonatal blood spots provide evidence that fusion genes and other chromosomal abnormalities associated with pediatric leukemias can originate prenatally. Whether this is also the case for NOTCH1 mutations is unknown. Eleven cases of T-ALL were screened for NOTCH1 mutations and 4 (36%) had mutations in either the heterodimerization (HD) or proline glutamic acid/serine/threonine (PEST) domains. Of these 4, 3 could be amplified by mutation-specific polymerase chain reaction primers. In one of these 3, with the highest sensitivity, NOTCH1 mutation was detected in neonatal blood spots. In this patient, the blood spot was negative for SIL-TAL1 fusion, present concomitant with NOTCH1 mutation, in the diagnostic sample. We conclude that NOTCH1 can be an early or initiating event in T-ALL arising prenatally, to be complemented by a postnatal SIL-TAL1 fusion. (Blood. 2008;111: 376-378)
Bethe ansatz for quantum strings

We propose Bethe equations for the diagonalization of the Hamiltonian of quantum strings on AdS5 ×S 5 at large string tension and restricted to certain large charge states from a closed su(2) subsector. The ansatz differs from the recently proposed all-loop gauge theory asymptotic Bethe ansatz by additional factorized scattering terms for the local excitations. We also show that our ansatz quantitatively reproduces everything that is currently known about the string spectrum of these states. Firstly, by construction, we recover the integral Bethe equations describing semiclassical spinning strings. Secondly, we explain how to derive the 1/J energy corrections of M-impurity BMN states, provide explicit, general formulae for both distinct and confluent mode numbers, and compare to asymptotic gauge theory. In the special cases M = 2,3 we reproduce the results of direct quantization of Callan et al. Lastly, at large string tension and relatively small charge we recover the famous 2 4 √ n 2 � asymptotics of massive string modes at level n. Remarkably, this behavior is entirely determined by the novel scattering terms. This is qualitatively consistent with the conjecture that these terms occur due to wrapping effects in gauge theory. Our finding does not in itself cure the disagreements between gauge and string theory, but leads us to speculate about the structure of an interpolating Bethe ansatz for the AdS/CFT system at finite coupling and charge.
Komorbide Störungen des Aufmerksamkeitsdefizit-/Hyperaktivitätssyndroms im Kindesund Jugendalter

Zusammenfassung Unter psychiatrischer Komorbidität wird das gemeinsame Auftreten mehrerer psychischer Störungen bei ein und demselben Individuum verstanden. Die häufigsten komorbiden Störungen des Aufmerksamkeitsdefizit-/Hyperaktivitätssyndroms (ADHS) sind Störungen des Sozialverhaltens, Angst- und affektive Störungen, umschriebene Entwicklungsstörungen sowie Tic-Störungen. Die komorbide Störung des Sozialverhaltens wird so häufig beim ADHS beobachtet, dass immer noch diskutiert wird, ob es sich um zwei distinkte Störungen handelt. Die Komorbidität von Tic-Störungen und ADHS zeigt gleichfalls eine hohe Prävalenz, vor allem in klinischen Stichproben. Dabei wird die Prognose des Patienten vorwiegend vom Schweregrad des ADHS bestimmt. Das vorliegende Kapitel gibt einen Überblick über das diagnostische Vorgehen, psychiatrisch-psychologische Untersuchungsverfahren sowie über die wichtigsten pharmakologischen und psychotherapeutischen Interventionsmöglichkeiten. Die Behandlung komorbider Störungen des ADHS stellt einen wesentlichen Faktor für den Behandlungserfolg dar.
The International Nucleotide Sequence Database Collaboration

The International Nucleotide Sequence Database Collaboration (INSDC; http://www.insdc.org) comprises three global partners committed to capturing, preserving and providing comprehensive public-domain nucleotide sequence information. The INSDC establishes standards, formats and protocols for data and metadata to make it easier for individuals and organisations to submit their nucleotide data reliably to public archives. This work enables the continuous, global exchange of information about living things. Here we present an update of the INSDC in 2015, including data growth and diversification, new standards and requirements by publishers for authors to submit their data to the public archives. The INSDC serves as a model for data sharing in the life sciences.
Sex Differences in Stroke Care and Outcomes: Results From the Registry of the Canadian Stroke Network

Background— Stroke is an important cause of death and disability in women as well as men. However, little is known about sex differences in stroke care and outcomes. Methods— The Registry of the Canadian Stroke Network (RCSN) captured data on patients with stroke seen at acute care hospitals across Canada. We used data from phase 1 (July 2001 to February 2002) and phase 2 (June to December 2002) of the RCSN to compare stroke presentation, management, and 6-month outcomes in women and men using multivariable regression techniques to adjust for age and other factors. Results— The study sample included 3323 patients, with 1527 women. Stroke symptoms at presentation were similar in women and men, except that women were more likely to present with headaches and were less likely to have brain stem or cerebellar symptoms. There were no sex differences in the use of neuroimaging, thrombolysis, antithrombotic therapy, or consultations. Women were less likely than men to receive care on an acute stroke unit, but this difference was no longer significant after adjustment for age and other factors. Women were more likely than men to be discharged to long-term care and had greater disability at 6 months. Mortality and quality of life at 6 months were similar in women and men. Conclusions— Among patients participating in the RCSN, there were no major sex differences in stroke presentation or management. Compared with men, women were more often institutionalized and had a slightly worse functional status at 6 months after stroke.
Introduction to the special issue on human-computer interaction and collaborative virtual environments

Recent advances in both communication systems and collaboration technologies have resulted in a convergence of communication and interactive systems supporting different forms of collaboration across a community of users. Work on technology-mediated collaboration has traditionally taken one of two broad approaches. The first is to focus on the work activity itself, and to find ways to distribute and coordinate that activity across different individuals, perhaps working at different times and in different locations. This approach is embodied in many of the groupware products currently emerging in the marketplace. The second is to focus on the environment within which work takes place, whether that environment is the physical setting or the computational workspace, and find ways to allow people to come together in that environment to achieve collaborative work. This approach has tended to exploit the nature and organization of space as a means of managing work. The application of spatial concepts has considered both augmenting existing physical spaces with electronically sensitive physical artefacts, and virtual spaces into which users project their presence. Our particular interest in this special issue is on Collaborative Virtual Environments that allow users to share an artificial space. Collaborative Virtual Environments, or CVEs, are perhaps the most radical form of spatially oriented cooperative systems. Emerging from research into realtime graphics, virtual reality, and computationally shared workspaces, CVEs are virtual environments which can be simultaneously occupied by distributed individuals, who come together to achieve some collective activity much as, in the everyday world, we gather to work in meeting rooms, in offices, in hallways, or around the coffee machine. The early days of research into CVEs were dominated by the technological resources needed to implement them, including head-mounted displays and dedicated rendering engines with high-performance graphics pipelines. However, Moore’s Law has had its inexorable effect on CVE research as much as on any other area of technological exploration, with the result that the resources needed to support collaborative virtual environments are now incorporated into standard PCs. For example, fairly standard PC graphics cards are currently delivering graphical rendering performances that were almost exclusively the preserve of high-end graphics workstations. With the technical barriers lowered, and with the ever-widening deployment of relatively high-speed network connections, CVEs have become much more accessible in support of everyday collaboration. We have seen a range of on-line internet environments emerge, and communities have developed that make use of these environments. Many of these on-line environments
Supply Chain Finance in China: Business Innovation and Theory Development

Supply chain finance (SCF) is concerned with the capital flows within a supply chain, an area often neglected in past decades, while SCF does have an impact on a firm’s capability to adopt sustainable supply chain management (SCM) practices. The aim of this study is to explore new insight from a growing body of research which is investigating SCF issues in China, an evolving transition economy. A content analysis on a review of 151 Chinese-written SCF papers from 2004–2014, based on a sample of 45 leading Chinese journals (Chinese Social Science Citation Index, CSSCI) was conducted from three perspectives: topical coverage, theoretical application and methodological inquiry. The study reveals that the research stream of SCF in China has emerged and evolved to a considerable extent. However, the SCF phenomenon in China is not exactly the same as “SCF” as it is perceived in the mature economy, which is articulated in mainstream SCM English literature. The Chinese business context in which SCF has been implemented has played a dominant role in initiating, affecting and even shaping SCF. This study represents the first endeavor in the field of SCM. It diffuses the Chinese-written SCF research in mainstream SCM English literature.
Contribution of senses of foot for identification of shape, elasticity and tilt angle of ground

Despite the importance of the foot sense its roles in the motor / recognition skills have not been sufficiently clear yet. This study aim to assess the function of the foot senses for the environmental recognition. Three different senses of foot were investigated in this paper, which are planter pressure on the foot sole, vibration on it and ankle motion of ankle joints. Each of them or some of them were blinded by using special orthotic devices. Three testing groups with 4 different shapes, 4 different elasticities, and 4 different tilt angles were selected as testing samples, and human subjects without any health problems were asked to identify what kind of sample they stepped on. The numbers of collect answers were statistically analyzed and the contributions of the foot senses for the identifications were discussed. The result showed that the distribution of the plantar pressure is a possible resource to identify the shape, elasticity and tilt angle of the ground.
Work-Related Abilities in Schizophrenia and HIV Infection

Schizophrenia and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection both are associated with high rates of neurocognitive impairment. These impairments predict unemployment in both disorders, independent of other disease-related factors that may affect employment. In this study, we investigated work-related abilities and previous employment patterns in 27 unemployed patients with schizophrenia, 27 demographically matched unemployed HIV-infected participants, and 27 nonmatched employed HIV seropositive (HIV+) participants. All subjects were administered a computerized and hands-on assessment of vocational abilities and a comprehensive work history interview. Compared with the employed HIV+ group, the two unemployed groups had lower estimates of maximal lifetime job functioning. In terms of current vocational abilities, the employed HIV+ subjects generally performed best, followed by the unemployed HIV+ subjects and the patients with schizophrenia. Although the unemployed schizophrenia subjects had the most decline in vocational abilities (from estimated lifetime maximum level), the patterns of decline were similar in the two unemployed groups and were suggestive of parallel impairments in frontal-subcortical functioning.
Establishment of an Adult Mouse Model for Direct Evaluation of the Efficacy of Vaccines against Vibrio cholerae

ABSTRACT We describe here a new animal model that offers the prospect of using conventional adult mice for direct evaluation of the protective potential of new cholera vaccines. Pretreatment of adult mice with oral streptomycin allowed intestinal colonization by streptomycin-resistant Vibrio cholerae strains of either the O1 or the O139 serogroup. Bacteria were recovered in greatest numbers from the cecum and large intestine, but recoveries from all regions of the gut correlated significantly with bacterial excretion in fresh fecal pellets, which thus provides a convenient indicator of the extent and duration of gut colonization. Mice immunized mucosally or systemically with viable or inactivated V. cholerae were shown to be comparatively refractory to colonization after challenge with the immunizing strain. Several variables were examined to optimize the model, the most significant being the size of the challenge inoculum; surprisingly, a smaller challenge dose resulted in more consistent and sustained colonization. Studies with mutant strains unable to produce cholera toxin or toxin-coregulated pili revealed that neither factor contributed significantly to colonization potential. Protection against V. cholerae challenge was shown to be serogroup restricted, and significant inverse correlations were detected between serum and intestinal anti-lipopolysaccharide antibody responses and the levels of excretion of challenge organisms.
Hawaii and Its Potential to Be a Gaming Nation: An Overview of Hawaiian Sovereignty

Abstract Hawaii is one of only a few states without any form of legalized gambling. The purpose of this research paper is to measure the perceptions and attitudes of Native Hawaiians on the legislation of casino gaming in Hawaii, especially on Hawaiian Sovereign land. Knowing the history of Hawaii should be of some help in making an informed decision about calling for Hawaiian Sovereignty as a solution to the problems many Native Hawaiians face. This paper also provides useful information in making the decision of whether to legalize gaming in Hawaii.
CluGene: A Bioinformatics Framework for the Identification of Co-Localized, Co-Expressed and Co-Regulated Genes Aimed at the Investigation of Transcriptional Regulatory Networks from High-Throughput Expression Data

The full understanding of the mechanisms underlying transcriptional regulatory networks requires unravelling of complex causal relationships. Genome high-throughput technologies produce a huge amount of information pertaining gene expression and regulation; however, the complexity of the available data is often overwhelming and tools are needed to extract and organize the relevant information. This work starts from the assumption that the observation of co-occurrent events (in particular co-localization, co-expression and co-regulation) may provide a powerful starting point to begin unravelling transcriptional regulatory networks. Co-expressed genes often imply shared functional pathways; co-expressed and functionally related genes are often co-localized, too; moreover, co-expressed and co-localized genes are also potential targets for co-regulation; finally, co-regulation seems more frequent for genes mapped to proximal chromosome regions. Despite the recognized importance of analysing co-occurrent events, no bioinformatics solution allowing the simultaneous analysis of co-expression, co-localization and co-regulation is currently available. Our work resulted in developing and valuating CluGene, a software providing tools to analyze multiple types of co-occurrences within a single interactive environment allowing the interactive investigation of combined co-expression, co-localization and co-regulation of genes. The use of CluGene will enhance the power of testing hypothesis and experimental approaches aimed at unravelling transcriptional regulatory networks. The software is freely available at http://bioinfolab.unipg. it/.
Understanding the Influence of Proximal Networks on High School Athletes’ Intentions to Use Androgenic Anabolic Steroids

Understanding what influences adolescent athletes is important for managers designing anti-doping initiatives. It is commonly assumed that elite athletes who dope influence adolescent athletes to similarly dope. Using the theory of normative social behavior, the effect of norms on adolescent athletes’ intentions to use steroids was examined. The social distance between respondents and the source of normative information was systematically varied to include four separate levels (friends, teammates, college athletes, professional athletes). Data were collected from 404 male adolescent athletes. Participants indicated their intentions to use steroids and their perceptions of descriptive and injunctive norms of referent others. Descriptive and injunctive norms were predictive of intentions to use steroids with the magnitude of explained variance greater with more proximal referents. Adolescent athletes’ intentions to use steroids are influenced by social norms. Moreover, the social distance of referents is consequential. Interventions strategies should incorporate teammates and friends, rather than professional athletes.
Iron-Loaded Magnetic Nanocapsules for pH-Triggered Drug Release and MRI Imaging

Magnetic nanocapsules were synthesized for controlled drug release, magnetically assisted delivery, and MRI imaging. These magnetic nanocapsules, consisting of a stable iron nanocore and a mesoporous silica shell, were synthesized by controlled encapsulation of ellipsoidal hematite in silica, partial etching of the hematite core in acid, and reduction of the core by hydrogen. The iron core provided a high saturation magnetization and was stable against oxidation for at least 6 months in air and 1 month in aqueous solution. The hollow space between the iron core and mesoporous silica shell was used to load anticancer drug and a T1-weighted MRI contrast agent (Gd-DTPA). These multifunctional monodispersed magnetic “nanoeyes” were coated by multiple polyelectrolyte layers of biocompatible poly-l-lysine and sodium alginate to control the drug release as a function of pH. We studied pH-controlled release, magnetic hysteresis curves, and T1/T2 MRI contrast of the magnetic nanoeyes. They also served as MRI contrast agents with relaxivities of 8.6 mM–1 s–1 (r1) and 285 mM–1 s–1 (r2).
A Prototyping Co-design Platform with A Simplified Architecture for Video Codec Implementation

This paper presents an integrated hardware-accelerated co-design platform with novel and simplified system architecture for MPEG-4/H.264 video codec implementation. The generic prototyping hardware modules are utilized for data communications, signal exchange and video IP integration based on the concept of virtual socket between a host and reconfigurable FPGA co-processor. The hardware implementation for MPEG-4/H.264 video codec can be therefore facilitated and verified on this co-design platform system
Behavioral / Systems / Cognitive Functional Trade-Offs in White Matter Axonal Scaling

Samuel S. -H. Wang,1,2 Jennifer R. Shultz,1,2 Mark J. Burish,1,2 Kimberly H. Harrison,1,2 Patrick R. Hof,3 Lex C. Towns,4 Matthew W. Wagers,1,2 and Krysta D. Wyatt1,2 1Department of Molecular Biology, 2Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, 3Department of Neuroscience, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, New York 10029, and 4Department of Anatomy, Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine, A. T. Still University of Health Sciences, Kirksville, Missouri 63501
NOx-VOC-O3 Sensitivity in Urban Environments of Sri Lanka

Physical phenomenon of the relation among the ground level O3, NOx and VOC governed by complex nonlinear photochemistry in urban environments is explained in detail using the ambient pollutant concentration data of eleven cities in Sri Lanka. The time-series analysis was conducted using the 24-hour average ambient concentrations of PM10, NO2, CO, O3 and SO2 air pollutants obtained from fixed air pollution monitoring station located in Colombo since 2008. Further analysis was carried out from the mobile air pollution monitoring station for eleven cities. The hourly averaged ambient real time air quality data i.e. VOC, NO2, NO, O3 pollutants and the corresponding meteorological parameters were analyzed and presented in weekly results for the base year 2013, 2014 and 2015. It was identified that there exist two regimes of NOx-VOC-O3 sensitivity among these cities. Colombo, Kurunegala, Jaffna, Matara, Badulla, Pollonnaruwa, and Gampaha are the NOx-sensitive regime. While Rathnapura, Anuradhapura, Kandy and Nuwaraelliya are the VOC-sensitive regime. In the NOx-sensitive regime (with relatively low NOx and high VOC), O3 increases with the increasing NOx and slightly changes in response to the increasing VOC levels. In the NOx-saturated or VOC-sensitive regime, O3 decreases with increasing NOx level and increases with increasing VOC levels. In the immediate vicinity of very large emissions of NO, O3 concentrations are depressed through the process of NOx titration. Mathematical relationships were developed to calculate the steady state ozone concentration (O3ss) that gives the values for both NOx-sensitive regime and the VOC-sensitive regime. Establishment of these relationships are essential for Sri Lanka to develop the appropriate interventions for controlling O3 pollution in each city.
Instability of Strategic Alliances: A Process-Oriented Perspective

Theories of instability of strategic alliances have tended to focus on alliance outcomes and ignore the development process. This paper explores the key factors which may cause the instability of strategic alliances. From a process-oriented perspective, we suggest that partner selection, alliance structure, and scope of activities may have a significant relationship to instability of alliances.