Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
DWI/ADC in Differentiation of Benign from Malignant Focal Liver Lesion

Material and methods: The study was of prospective-retrospective character. It was carried out at the AKH in Vienna (Austria), where 100 patients with focal liver lesions were included in the study. All patients underwent the routine MR sequences on appliances 1,5 and 3T (Siemens, Germany): T1, T2, HASTE, VIBE, and a DWI with three b values (b 50, b 300 b 600 s / mm2) and ADC map with ROI (regions of interest). The numerical value of ADC map was calculated, where n = 100 liver lesions, by two independent radiologists. Results: On the basis of matching the PH finding statistically we get DWI accuracy of 96.8% for the assessment of liver lesions. The average numerical value of ADC in benign hepatic lesions (FNH, Hemangiomas) in our study amounted to 1.88 (1.326 to 2.48) x103 mm2 /s, while the value of malignant liver lesions (HCC, CCC, CRCLM) were significantly lower and amounted to 1.15 (1.024 to 1.343) x10-3 mm2 /s (Figure 2). Differences between the mean ADC of benign and malignant lesions showed a statistically significant difference with p <0.0005. In our research, we get cut-off for the ADC value of 1,341x10-3 mm2 /s, which proved to be the optimal parameter for differentiation between benign and malignant lesions. Conclusion: Measuring ADC values with DWI as an additional MRI tool can help in oncological practice by distinguishing normal liver parenchyma from focal lesions, and in differentiating benign from malignant liver lesions, particularly in cases where administration of contrast is not possible.
Pathologic and Imaging Correlates of Cognitive Deficits in Multiple Sclerosis: Changing the Paradigm of Diagnosis and Prognosis

From 1868, when Charcot first described the clinical features and the pathologic correlates, up till the present day, multiple sclerosis (MS) has commonly been characterized by the symptoms caused by inflammatory plaques in the white matter of the brain and spinal cord. Early use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to diagnose MS focused on detecting these white matter lesions. By the 1990s, researchers recognized that many patients with MS have cognitive deficits that can cause severe disability, and also determined the associated pathology; these findings shed more light on both the pathogenesis and progression. Since 2004, several lines of evidence have shown that the extent of white matter plaques identified on MRI does not correlate well with cognitive deficits. High-resolution MRI and advances in immunohistochemical techniques have enabled detection of cortical demyelination early in the course, correlating with cognitive deficits. Late in the course, pathologic changes in normal-looking white and gray matter correlate more closely with progressive cognitive deficits than with visual, sensory, and motor symptoms. This finding implies the need to redefine the disease and its progression. In this review, we discuss the histopathologic studies of cortical plaques in MS and early indications about their role in disease definition and progression, describe the role of high-resolution MRI in staging and determining progression of cognitive symptoms, and discuss how advances in these areas are forcing us to rethink diagnosis and determination of progression.
An investigation of the t(12;21) rearrangement in children with B‐precursor acute lymphoblastic leukaemia using cytogenetic and molecular methods

The t(12;21) is the commonest recurrent translocation in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), the presence of which has been suggested to be a good prognostic feature. We have studied 22 childhood cases of B‐precursor ALL with this rearrangement, and have found no significant differences in event‐free survival between these and a control group of patients with similar phenotypes. Using a variety of cytogenetic and molecular techniques, we have confirmed a strong association with co‐expression of myeloid markers, frequent deletions of the short‐arm of the untranslocated chromosome 12 homologue and duplication of the derivative chromosome 21. Intragenic deletion of the untranslocated ETV6 gene in 3/12 informative patients points to the likelihood of this gene being a target for deletion.
Supporting refugee students in schools: what constitutes inclusive education?

The worldwide rise in numbers of refugees and asylum seekers suggests the need to examine the practices of those institutions charged with their resettlement in host countries. In this paper, we investigate the role of one important institution – schooling – and its contribution to the successful resettlement of refugee children. We begin with an examination of forced migration and its links with globalisation, and the barriers to inclusion confronting refugees. A discussion of the educational challenges confronting individual refugee youth and schools is followed by case studies of four schools and the approaches they had developed to meet the needs of young people from a refugee background. Using our findings and other research, we outline a model of good practice in refugee education. We conclude by discussing how educational institutions might play a more active role in facilitating transitions to citizenship for refugee youth through an inclusive approach.
The Effects of Cooperation and Competition on Ingroup‐Outgroup Bias1

A matrix game format was employed in a 2 × 2 design to study the effects of within group cooperation and competition under conditions of success and failure on subjects' subsequent treatment of own group and outgroup persons. Subjects in two-person groups either succeeded or failed at a cooperative or competitive game and then awarded points (worth money) to themselves, their partner, and two other people. A review of the relevant literature suggested that ingroup-outgroup bias would be greater after successful competition than after unsuccessful competition. The results supported this hypothesis. It was also found that subjects in the Cooperation-Failure condition displayed greater ingroup-outgroup bias than subjects in the Cooperation-Success condition. A qualification of the previous research supporting a positive relationship between group cohesiveness and ingroup-outgroup bias was suggested on the basis of the results.
Face detection based on multi-scale enhanced local texture feature sets

This paper presents a distinctive rectangle feature Multi-Scale Local Ternary Patterns (MS-LTP) for face detection. The MS-LTP is a generalization of the Local Ternary Patterns (LTP) [1] and is able to capture larger scale structures of faces. It's less sensitive to noise and more discriminative that can reduce the number of weak classifiers for the AdaBoost learning algorithm to construct a strong face/non-face classifier. The size of the MS-LTP feature set is also medium for the AdaBoost learning algorithm to select a proper set of features. Our experimental results on the CMU-MIT frontal face test set show that the MS-LTP outperforms Haar, Local Binary Patterns (LBP) under noisy conditions and the MS-LTP based face detector works more rapidly.
Housing and the Material Imagination – Earth, Fire, Air and Water

Abstract This paper focuses on the possibilities of the material imagination as a theoretical and practical lens for contemporary housing research. The emphasis is on housing/home as complex material cultural assemblages interwoven across the four key ancient elements: earth, air, fire and water. The principle behind the material imagination is that “matter” – which we are immersed in and indeed ourselves composed of – is important, indeed underpins everything, and yet is typically rendered invisible within housing theory and research. As a critical response to social scientific engagement – “a needed radical corrective” – the potential of the material imagination for housing theory and practice is considered in ways that purposively attend to the elemental dimensions of housing as dynamic, fluid environments comprised of living matter. Suggestions for taking this approach forward through empirical housing studies are outlined.
Neurosciences of Action and Noncausal Theories

Recent neuroscience and psychology of behavior have suggested that conscious decisions may have no causal role in the etiology of intentional action. Such results pose a threat to traditional philosophical analyses of action. On such views beliefs, desires and conscious willing are part of the causal structure of intentional action. But if the suggestions from neuroscience/psychology are correct, analyses of this kind are wrong. Conscious antecedents of action are epiphenomenal. This essay explores this consequence. It also notes that the traditional alternative to causal analyses of intentional action is not threatened by the putative scientific findings. This, in turn, is ironic in that defenders of the noncausal accounts of action were thought to be in opposition to the natural sciences of action whereas the analyses in the causal style were “on the side of physicalism. ” This result is also assessed in what follows.
An extendable framework for managing uncertain spatio-temporal data

This demonstration presents our Uncertain-Spatio-Temporal (UST)} framework that we have developed in recent years. The framework allows not only to visualize and explore spatio-temporal data consisting of (location, time, object)-triples but also provides an extensive codebase easily extensible and customizable by developers and researchers. The main research focus of this UST-framework is the explicit consideration of uncertainty, an aspect that is inherent in spatio-temporal data, due to infrequent position updates, due to physical limitations and due to power constraints. The UST-framework can be used to obtain a deeper intuition of the quality of spatio-temporal data models. Such models aim at estimating the position of a spatio-temporal object at a time where the object's position is not explicitly known, for example by using both historic (traffic-) pattern information, and by using explicit observations of objects. The UST-framework illustrates the resulting distributions by allowing a user to move forward and backward in time. Additionally the framework allows users to specify simple spatio-temporal queries, such as spatio-temporal window queries and spatio-temporal nearest neighbor (NN) queries. Based on recently published theoretic concepts, the UST-framework allows to visually explore the impact of different models and parameters on spatio-temporal data. The main result showcased by the UST-framework is a minimization of uncertainty by employing stochastic processes, leading to small expected distances between ground truth trajectories and modelled positions.
Sequence prediction in realizable and non-realizable cases

A sequence $x_1,\dots,x_n,\dots$ of discrete-valued observations is generated according to some unknown probabilistic law (measure) $\mu$. After observing each outcome, it is required to give the conditional probabilities of the next observation. The realizable case is when the measure $\mu$ belongs to an arbitrary but known class $C$ of process measures. The non-realizable case is when $\mu$ is completely arbitrary, but the prediction performance is measured with respect to a given set $C$ of process measures. We are interested in the relations between these problems and between their solutions, as well as in characterizing the cases when a solution exists, and finding these solutions. We show that if the quality of prediction is measured by total variation distance, then these problems coincide, while if it is measured by expected average KL divergence, then they are different. For some of the formalizations we also show that when a solution exists, it can be obtained as a Bayes mixture over a countable subset of $C$. As an illustration to the general results obtained, we show that a solution to the non-realizable case of the sequence prediction problem exists for the set of all finite-memory processes, but does not exist for the set of all stationary processes.
Automatic modulation classification for cognitive radios using cyclic feature detection

Cognitive radios have become a key research area in communications over the past few years. Automatic modulation classification (AMC) is an important component that improves the overall performance of the cognitive radio. Most modulated signals exhibit the property of cyclostationarity that can be exploited for the purpose of classification. In this paper, AMCs that are based on exploiting the cyclostationarity property of the modulated signals are discussed. Inherent advantages of using cyclostationarity based AMC are also addressed. When the cognitive radio is in a network, distributed sensing methods have the potential to increase the spectral sensing reliability, and decrease the probability of interference to existing radio systems. The use of cyclostationarity based methods for distributed signal detection and classification are presented. Examples are given to illustrate the concepts. The Matlab codes for some of the algorithms described in the paper are available for free download at http://filebox.vt. edu/user/bramkum.
Percutaneous lung biopsy in a patient with a cavitating lung mass: indications, technique, and complications.

2Division of Abdominal Imaging and Interventional Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA. Case History A 75-year-old man was admitted to the hospital with an acute myocardial infarction. The patient was a former heavy smoker. A chest radiograph revealed a left apical lung mass (Fig. 1). A CT scan showed a cavitary left upper lobe lung mass measuring 3.5 × 4 cm (Fig. 2A) with an additional 3 × 2 cm mass at the left hilum (Fig. 2B). A wholebody PET scan showed the left upper lobe mass and at the left hilum, increased 18F-FDG uptake that was suggestive of lung neoplasm metastatic to the left hilum (Fig. 3). Therefore, a thoracic radiologist was consulted for biopsy of the left upper lobe lung mass. Dr. Titton. It is interesting to note that a PET scan was obtained for this patient. What is the role of 18F-FDG PET in the evaluation of patients with a pulmonary nodule or lung cancer? Dr. Kalra. In the evaluation of patients with a solitary pulmonary nodule, 18F-FDG PET improves characterization of the nodule by estimating the probability of malignancy. The high positive predictive value for malignancy in nodules greater than 1 cm in diameter suggests that those with positive scan results should undergo either percutaneous biopsy or surgical resection. Histologic examination of PET-positive lesions is necessary because false-positive PET findings can be encountered with granulomatous lesions secondary to sarcoidosis, tuberculosis, or infection [1]. False-negative PET findings are seen in patients with small lesions (< 1 cm) and in selected malignancies, such as bronchioalveolar cell carcinoma or well-differentiated adenocarcinoma or carcinoid tumor. For this reason, regardless of PET findings,
The nature of scientific knowledge, knowing and learning: the perspectives of four physics students

The views on knowing and learning which students bring to school are likely to interact with other ideas in the ecology of the classroom. Yet little is known about these interactions. The present study was conducted to describe in detail students’ epistemological commitments and their concurrent views of knowing and learning physics. The study was interpretive, using multiple data sources to achieve a triangulation of data. Four students from a private high school for boys serve as paradigm cases representative of the diversity of views. The epistemologies of these students ranged from objectivist to radical constructivist. In spite of these differences, there were aspects of a constructivist learning environment which all four students liked, though for different reasons. It was concluded that the experiences in a constructivist learning environment are not enough to help students understand the tentative nature of scientific knowledge as long as their understanding is measured against the norms of canon.
Pandemic Vaccine Preparedness—Have We Left Something Behind?

There are significant antigenic differences within subtypes that change over time as these viruses evolve, and this requires a semi-annual review and frequent update of vaccine strain candidates for human seasonal influenza vaccines. The degree of relatedness between the strains contained in the seasonal vaccine and the drifted strains that are isolated the following year is assessed through cross haemagglutination inhibition (HI) tests. If the results of these tests suggest that cross HI levels are low, the vaccine is updated to include the most recent strains. We reasoned that if a semi-annual review of the antigenic characteristics of human H1 and H3 viruses is necessary
Socio-economic factors affect the outcome of soft tissue sarcoma: an analysis of SEER data.

BACKGROUND This study analyzed whether socio-economic factors affect the cause specific survival of soft tissue sarcoma (STS). METHODS Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) soft tissue sarcoma (STS) data were used to identify potential socio-economic disparities in outcome. Time to cause specific death was computed with Kaplan-Meier analysis. Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests and Cox proportional hazard analysis were used for univariate and multivariate tests, respectively. The areas under the receiver operating curve were computed for predictors for comparison. RESULTS There were 42,016 patients diagnosed STS from 1973 to 2009. The mean follow up time (S.D.) was 66.6 (81.3) months. Stage, site, grade were significant predictors by univariate tests. Race and rural-urban residence were also important predictors of outcome. These five factors were all statistically significant with Cox analysis. Rural and African-American patients had a 3-4% disadvantage in cause specific survival. CONCLUSIONS Socio-economic factors influence cause specific survival of soft tissue sarcoma. Ensuring access to cancer care may eliminate the outcome disparities.
Development of Human Somatosensory Cortical Functions – What have We Learned from Magnetoencephalography: A Review

The mysteries of early development of cortical processing in humans have started to unravel with the help of new non-invasive brain research tools like multichannel magnetoencephalography (MEG). In this review, we evaluate, within a wider neuroscientific and clinical context, the value of MEG in studying normal and disturbed functional development of the human somatosensory system. The combination of excellent temporal resolution and good localization accuracy provided by MEG has, in the case of somatosensory studies, enabled the differentiation of activation patterns from the newborn’s primary (SI) and secondary somatosensory (SII) areas. Furthermore, MEG has shown that the functioning of both SI and SII in newborns has particular immature features in comparison with adults. In extremely preterm infants, the neonatal MEG response from SII also seems to potentially predict developmental outcome: those lacking SII responses at term show worse motor performance at age 2 years than those with normal SII responses at term. In older children with unilateral early brain lesions, bilateral alterations in somatosensory cortical activation detected in MEG imply that the impact of a localized insult may have an unexpectedly wide effect on cortical somatosensory networks. The achievements over the last decade show that MEG provides a unique approach for studying the development of the somatosensory system and its disturbances in childhood. MEG well complements other neuroimaging methods in studies of cortical processes in the developing brain.
Estimating and Mapping the Population at Risk of Sleeping Sickness

Background Human African trypanosomiasis (HAT), also known as sleeping sickness, persists as a public health problem in several sub-Saharan countries. Evidence-based, spatially explicit estimates of population at risk are needed to inform planning and implementation of field interventions, monitor disease trends, raise awareness and support advocacy. Comprehensive, geo-referenced epidemiological records from HAT-affected countries were combined with human population layers to map five categories of risk, ranging from “very high” to “very low,” and to estimate the corresponding at-risk population. Results Approximately 70 million people distributed over a surface of 1.55 million km2 are estimated to be at different levels of risk of contracting HAT. Trypanosoma brucei gambiense accounts for 82.2% of the population at risk, the remaining 17.8% being at risk of infection from T. b. rhodesiense. Twenty-one million people live in areas classified as moderate to very high risk, where more than 1 HAT case per 10,000 inhabitants per annum is reported. Discussion Updated estimates of the population at risk of sleeping sickness were made, based on quantitative information on the reported cases and the geographic distribution of human population. Due to substantial methodological differences, it is not possible to make direct comparisons with previous figures for at-risk population. By contrast, it will be possible to explore trends in the future. The presented maps of different HAT risk levels will help to develop site-specific strategies for control and surveillance, and to monitor progress achieved by ongoing efforts aimed at the elimination of sleeping sickness.
Importance of dynamic dyssynchrony in the occurrence of hypertensive heart failure with normal ejection fraction.

AIMS The impact of haemodynamic stress on left ventricular (LV) dyssynchrony in heart failure with normal ejection fraction (HFNEF) remains unknown. We sought to evaluate the relationship and predictive value of dynamic changes of LV dyssynchrony on hypertensive HFNEF. METHODS AND RESULTS A total of 131 subjects including 47 hypertensive HFNEF patients, 34 hypertensive patients with left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) without HFNEF, and 50 normal controls were studied by dobutamine stress echocardiography with tissue Doppler imaging. Systolic and diastolic dyssynchrony were assessed using the LV six-basal-six-mid-segment model and cut-off values were derived from normal controls. The mean basal segments longitudinal systolic (mean Sm) and early diastolic (mean Em) velocities were measured. In normal controls, systolic and diastolic dyssynchrony did not develop during stress. The prevalence of resting systolic (36.2% vs. 38.2%, P = 0.85) and diastolic (34.0% vs. 29.4%, P = 0.66) dyssynchrony was similar in HFNEF and LVH groups. During stress, the prevalence of systolic and diastolic dyssynchrony increased dramatically to 85.1% and 87.2%, respectively, in HFNEF group, but only 52.9% and 58.8% in LVH group (P < 0.005). In HFNEF group, stress-induced increase in mean Sm was significantly blunted (2.8 ± 2.0 vs. 4.2 ± 2.4 cm/s, P = 0.004), and the increase was abolished for mean Em (-0.3 ± 2.5 vs. 2.4 ± 3.4 cm/s, P < 0.001). On multivariate analysis, stress-induced changes in mean Em (OR = 0.69, P = 0.004) and mean Sm (OR = 0.56, P = 0.004), and diastolic (OR = 4.6, P = 0.005) and systolic dyssynchrony during stress (OR = 4.3, P = 0.038) were independent determinants for occurrence of HFNEF. CONCLUSION Dynamic dyssynchrony during stress and impaired myocardial longitudinal function reserve are characteristics of HFNEF.
On the design parameters of runtime reconfigurable systems

This paper explores the design space for runtime reconfigurable systems. A broad range of systems is surveyed and a set of parameters applicable for characterizing runtime reconfigurable systems is proposed. Compared to other surveys the focus is set on the system architecture, not on the underlying hardware structure. This allows a discussion that primarily considers the actual motivation for utilising runtime reconfiguration in system designs instead of discussing the limitations of actual hardware platforms.