Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Automatic Segmentation of White Matter Structures from DTI Using Tensor Invariants and Tensor Orientation

DTI analysis of brain structures has shown to be relevant in a number of neurological clinical pathologies, such as brain ischemia, multiple sclerosis or epilepsy, among others. In schizophrenia, group studies have demonstrated alterations in the diffusion of several fiber bundles within the white matter [1]. The automatic segmentation of these structures from DTI has spurred significant research effort recently, due to its importance for these studies. However, automatic segmentation from DTI is a very challenging issue, and approaches in the literature require the manual identification of a region of interest or starting seeds for the segmentation to be performed. This abstract presents a fully automatic segmentation approach for different anatomical structures in the white matter, based on: (a) the use of tensor invariants, together with the orientation of the tensor, as features to drive the segmentation, (b) a level set formulation based on the statistical modeling of the data though vector-valued Geodesic Active Regions (GAR), and (c) the use of a MRI atlas of human white matter [2], which is nonlinearly registered to the volume under study, to automatically obtain initial contours for the segmentation process. Segmentation on several DTI volumes showed good results, demonstrating that a fully automatic segmentation is possible and also presenting good properties when compared to recent DTI segmentation approaches in the literature.
Vaccination of healthy subjects and autoantibodies: from mice through dogs to humans

Vaccination against pathogenic microorganisms is one of the major achievements of modern medicine, but due to an increasing number of reports of adverse reactions the vaccination procedure has induced also considerable debate. It is well known that certain infections are involved in triggering the production of autoantibodies, which could lead to autoimmune adverse reactions in genetically predisposed subjects. Based on these findings it was assumed that vaccinations might induce similar autoimmune reactions. At present there is no clear-cut evidence that vaccinations are associated with overt autoimmune diseases but it has been demonstrated that in genetically predisposed persons vaccination can trigger the production of autoantibodies and autoimmune adverse reactions. The first studies investigating the production of autoantibodies following vacination were done in dogs and mice. Several studies investigated the production of autoantibodies following vaccination in patients with autoimmune diseases, but there are only limited data on the autoimmune responses after vaccinations in apparently healthy humans. This review summarizes current evidence on the vaccinationinduced autoantibodies in apparently healthy subjects including studies in animals and humans.
[The experimental study of suppressing silicosis fibrosis].

OBJECTIVE To compare the difference of effects on SiO(2)-induced alveolitis and early fibrosis between bone marrow-derived mesenchymal-like stem cells (BM-MSCs) and BM-MSCs transfected by pcDNA3.1-HGF and to explore the mechanism of this effects. METHODS The Primary BM-MSCs from Wistar male young rats were cultured and labeled by 4, 6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI). Fifty Wistar rats were randomly divided into 3 groups:model group (10 rats),which was administered with SiO(2) by the trache, the next day,injected PBS via the tail vein; BM-MSCs group (20 rats),which was administered with SiO(2) by the trache, the next day,injected with 1 ml suspension of BM-MSCs via the tail vein; pcDNA3.1-HGF plus BM-MSC group (20 rats),which was administered with SiO(2) by the trache, the next day,injected with 1 ml suspension of BM-MSCs transfected by pcDNA3.1-HGF via the tail vein. On the 14th and 28th days after treatment, half of the animals were sacrificed, respectively, and the lungs were harvested for frozen section to observe the cell marked by DAPI. HE staining under a fluorescent microscope, and to observe the pulmonary alveolitis and fibrosis by HE and Masson staining under a light microscope. Western blot assay was used to detect the expression of HGF in rat lungs. The expression levels of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) in pulmonary tissues were analyzed quantitatively by ELISA. The contents of HYP in pulmonary tissues were analyzed quantitatively by sample hydrolysis method. RESULTS On the 14th and 28th days after treatment, the scores of pulmonary alveolitis and early fibrosis in pcDNA3.1-HGF plus BM-MSCs group were 2.36 ± 0.17, 2.8 ± 0.14 and 0.1 ± 0.11, 1.16 ± 0.13, which were significantly lower than those (1.68 ± 0.17, 1.58 ± 0.31 and 0.54 ± 0.15, 1.36 ± 0.13) in BM-MSCs group, also which were significantly lower those (2.36 ± 0.17, 2.80 ± 0.14 and 0.64 ± 0.09, 1.84 ± 0.17) in model group (P < 0.05); On the 14th and 28th days after treatment, the TNF-α contents of pulmonary tissues in pcDNA3.1-HGF plus BM-MSCs group were 280.4 ± 23.11 and 249.78 ± 22.33 pg/mg, which were significantly lower than those (341.58 ± 35.34, 442.29 ± 36.76 pg/mg and 319.51 ± 17.84, 348.53 ± 33.95 pg/mg) in BM-MSCs and model groups (P < 0.05); On the 14th and 28th days after treatment, the HYP contents of pulmonary tissues in pcDNA3.1-HGF plus BM-MSCs group were 0.46 ± 0.04 and 0.65 ± 0.05 µg/mg, which were significantly lower than those (0.63 ± 0.04, 1.04 ± 0.07 µg/mg and 0.72 ± 0.60, 1.39 ± 0.60 µg/mg) in BM-MSCs and model groups (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION The effects of BM-MSCs transfected by pcDNA3.1-HGF on suppressing pulmonary alveolitis and early fibrosis induced by SiO2 were better than those of BM-MSCs. The mechanism may be associated with the reduced pulmonary inflammation.
The utility of the Necessity—Concerns Framework in explaining treatment non-adherence in four chronic illness groups in Italy

Objective: To translate the Beliefs about Medicines Questionnaire (BMQ) into Italian and explore the utility of the Necessity—Concerns Framework in explaining treatment non-adherence in four chronic illness groups in Italy. Methods: 449 patients with chronic illness (depression, asthma, diabetes and cardiac disease) were approached at outpatient clinics in Turin and asked to complete Italian translations of the BMQ and the Medication Adherence Report Scale. Results: 427 patients consented to participate in the study. The BMQ demonstrated good internal consistency, with Cronbach's alphas of 0.78 (Necessity subscale) and 0.72 (Concerns subscale). Participants were divided into four attitudinal groups based on their responses to the BMQ: 59% Accepting (high Necessity, low Concerns), 29% ambivalent (high Necessity, high Concerns), 8% Indifferent (low Necessity, low Concerns) and 4% Skeptical (low Necessity, high Concerns). Those in the Accepting group reported the highest adherence to medication and those in the Skeptical group the lowest (p50.01). Discussion: The BMQ has been successfully translated and validated in Italian. This study provides support for the Necessity—Concerns Framework in explaining medication non-adherence in chronic illness. Interventions that address low perceived need for treatment and concerns about potential adverse effects of treatment are likely to facilitate optimal use of medicines.
Resilient Strategies to SDN: An Approach Focused on Actively Replicated Controllers

Software Defined Networking (SDN) are based on the separation of control and data planes. The SDN controller, although logically centralized, should be effectively distributed for high availability. Since the specification of OpenFlow 1.2, there are new features that allow the switches to communicate with multiple controllers that can play different roles -- master, slave, and equal. However, these roles alone are not sufficient to guarantee a resilient control plane and the actual implementation remains an open challenge for SDN designers. In this paper, we explore the OpenFlow roles for the design of resilient SDN architectures relying on multi-controllers. As a proof of concept, a strategy of active replication was implemented in the Ryu controller, using the OpenReplica service to ensure consistent state among the distributed controllers. The prototype was tested with commodity RouterBoards/MikroTik switches and evaluated for latency in failure recovery and switch migration for different workloads. We observe a set of trade-offs in real experiments with varyin workloads at both the data and control plane.
Self-organizing Maps versus Growing Neural Gas in Detecting Anomalies in Data Centres

Reliability is one of the key performance factors in data centres. The out-of-scale energy costs of these facilities lead data centre operators to increase the ambient temperature of the data room to decrease cooling costs. However, increasing ambient temperature reduces the safety margins and can result in a higher number of anomalous events. Anomalies in the data centre need to be detected as soon as possible to optimize cooling efficiency and mitigate the harmful effects over servers. This article proposes the usage of clustering-based outlier detection techniques coupled with a trust and reputation system engine to detect anomalies in data centres. We show how self-organizing maps or growing neural gas can be applied to detect cooling and workload anomalies, respectively, in a real data centre scenario with very good detection and isolation rates, in a way that is robust to the malfunction of the sensors that gather server and environmental information.
Selling to Cournot oligopolists: pricing under uncertainty & generalized mean residual life

We study a classic Cournot market, which we extend to a two-stage game with endogenous cost formation: the retailers’ marginal cost represents purchases from a price-setting, revenue-maximizing supplier. Any demand uncertainty falls to the supplier, who acts first and sets the wholesale price under incomplete information concerning the retailers’ willingness to pay. We introduce the generalized mean residual life (GMRL) function of the supplier’s belief distribution F and show that his revenue function is unimodal, if the GMRL function is decreasing – (DGMRL) property – and F has finite second moment. In this case, we characterize the supplier’s optimal price as a fixed point of his MRL function and provide a bound on the market-inefficiency due to demand uncertainty, which is tight over the class of DMRL distributions. We then turn to the class of DGMRL random variables and study their moments, limiting behavior, and closure properties. Under the additional assumption that F has a density, we establish its relation to the widely used class of increasing generalized failure rate (IGFR) random variables. If a random variable is IGFR, then it is DGMRL. We provide a sufficient condition for the converse to be true and show that the limiting behavior of the GMRL and GFR functions is closely linked under a reciprocal relationship.
Designing prototype for accessing Veracity using social sensors - big data perspective

Social sensing is firmly taking its stand as the most efficient and surplus journalistic tool. It involves the gathering and verification of news data from Social media. Social media provides a wide range of real-time postings of events from around the globe. Social sensing works out certain executions to process the collected UGC and eradicate fake and falsehoods. Thus assorted data content is implemented with TDT (Topic - Detection and Tracking) to find topic oriented material and the selected content is checked for falsehood with Veracity Analyzers. In the end the processed UGC is eligible to be published as valid news data by journalist.
Psoriasiform mucositis on the gingival and palatal mucosae treated with retinoic‐acid mouthwash

mucosae treated with retinoic-acid mouthwash A 35-year-old African-American female sought our clinic for evaluation of a burning sensation on the palate and gingival bleeding of one-year duration. Oral examination showed diffuse erythema on the upper gingival mucosa, resembling a desquamative gingivitis (Fig. 1a), and erythematous patches on the hard and soft palatal mucosa (Fig. 1b,c). No other lesion was reported either on the skin or on other mucosal surfaces. The patient was neither a smoker nor an alcohol abuser; otherwise she was in good health. Her family history presented nothing noteworthy. The diagnostic procedure began with microscopic examination of biopsies taken from the palatal and gingival mucosae, which were consistent with psoriasiform lesion (Fig. 2a–d). Periodic acid-Schiff staining of the histopathological slide sections was negative for Candida infection. A serological test for syphilis was non-reagent, and a complete blood cell count was within normal limits.
Hysterectomy trends in Finland in 1987‐1995 ‐ a register based analysis

BACKGROUND The study objective was to identify trends in the use of hysterectomy by nationwide register based analysis in Finland. METHODS All women (n=89,069) undergoing hysterectomy in 1987-1995 according to the Finnish Hospital Discharge Register were the numerator. The annual denominator data were obtained from the population database of Statistics Finland. RESULTS From 1987 to 1992 the hysterectomy rate increased by 22%, from 340 to 414 per 100,000 females, almost half of this being attributable to the changing age structure. From 1993 on, ambiguity in coding laparoscopically assisted vaginal hysterectomies prohibited detailed analyses. However, the overall trend continued at least among women 50 years and over until 1995. The age-adjusted 12% increase from 1987 to 1992 coincided with a rapid increase in operation rates in postmenopausal groups (60% or more among women aged 55 59 and 70-79 years). Among women aged 55-64 years, operations for fibroids and uterine bleeding more than doubled, suggesting an influence of increased use of estrogen replacement therapy. Among all women, operations due to bleeding disorders and genital prolapse showed the largest increase (41% and 42% respectively). Bilateral oophorectomy became more common in all age groups over 46 years. CONCLUSIONS There was a modest increase in the overall hysterectomy rate. However, the operation became far more common in postmenopausal women, possibly due to the growing use of estrogen replacement therapy. Register data can be used for describing changes in clinical practice, but other methods are needed to confirm the causal relationships underlying the changes.
Clearance of replicating hepatitis C virus replicon RNAs in cell culture by small interfering RNAs

RNA interference is a cellular process of gene silencing in which small duplexes of RNA specifically target a homologous sequence for cleavage by cellular ribonucleases. The introduction of ≈22-nt small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) into mammalian cells can specifically silence cellular mRNAs without induction of the nonspecific IFN responses that are activated by longer RNA duplexes. We investigate in this article whether siRNAs can also silence the expression of the cytoplasmically replicating hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNAs by using a replicon system that supports robust HCV replication, but not the production of infectious virions. We report the efficient silencing of both cellular lamin A/C and HCV RNAs in Huh-7 hepatoma cell lines supporting HCV replication. Silencing of HCV RNAs was dose dependent and specific, inasmuch as two HCV variants that differ by 3 nt within the target sequence were only silenced by the exact homologous sequence for each. siRNAs designed to target HCV RNA triggered an exponential decrease in HCV RNA, resulting in an 80-fold decrease in HCV RNA after 4 days. The introduction of siRNAs into cells with established HCV replication cured >98% of these cells of detectable HCV antigen and replication-competent HCV RNAs. These data support the principle of siRNA-based HCV antiviral therapy.
Intracellular labeling of neurons in the medial accessory olive of the cat: II Ultrastructure of dendritic spines and their gabaergic innervation

In order to describe the morphology of dendritic spines of identified neurons in the cat inferior olive together with their gamma‐aminobutyric acid (GABA) synaptic input, a technique was used combining intracellular labeling of horseradish peroxidase with postembedding gold‐immunocytochemistry. With this technique physiologically identified olivary cells were reconstructed with the light microscope, and the horseradish peroxidase reaction product and immunogold labeling were subsequently examined in serial sections at the ultrastructural level. In addition, a degenerating neuron was observed, resulting in a triple labeling in single ultrathin sections.
On power amplifier efficiencies of linearly modulated signals with nonlinear distortion

A power amplifier (PA) is one of the most power consuming analog devices in wireless communications. Precise estimation of the power consumption at the transmitter requires the knowledge of its efficiencies that depend on the signal envelope level to be transmitted. In general, the PA efficiency can be increased by reducing its back-off, but this in turn causes nonlinear distortion. This paper develops a simple analytical approach suitable for examining the trade-off between the PA efficiencies and resulting signal-to-distortion ratio. It can be calculated only from an envelope distribution of a given modulation signal. As an application of the proposed approach, the efficiency improvement of some peak-to-average power ratio reduction schemes proposed for orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) systems is also investigated.
Autoradiographic Analysis of [3H]Imipramine Binding in the Human Brain Postmortem: Effects of Age and Alcohol

Abstract: In vitro quantitative autoradiography of high‐affinity [3H]imipramine binding sites was performed on 16 human brains postmortem. The densities of binding sites were highest in the hypothalamus. Next, in descending order, were the basal and lateral nuclei of the amygdala; substantia innominata; insular cortex; the central nucleus of the amygdala; the anterior nucleus of the thalamus; the head of the caudate nucleus; portions of the frontal, parietal, and temporal cortex; claustrum; the granular layer of the dentate gyrus; substantia nigra; the pyramidal layer of CA fields; globus pallidus; red nucleus; and white matter. Imipramine binding was found to increase with age in a region‐specific manner. The presence of alcohol had a similar effect, which was most pronounced in the hippocampus. Sex and time from death to autopsy did not affect imipramine binding, in our sample.
The Metabolic Syndrome: Pathophysiology, Clinical Relevance, and Use of Niacin

OBJECTIVE To review the pathophysiology and clinical relevance for using niacin to treat the metabolic syndrome. DATA SOURCES Primary articles were identified through a MEDLINE search (1966–January 2003), and recommendations for treatment were obtained from the National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel (NCEP-ATP) III guidelines. STUDY SELECTION AND DATA EXTRACTION Published studies showing the effects of the metabolic syndrome, atherogenic dyslipidemia, and niacin were evaluated and reviewed. DATA SYNTHESIS The metabolic syndrome is a highly prevalent condition that affects 24% of American adults and significantly increases the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD). Most patients with metabolic syndrome have atherogenic dyslipidemia characterized by elevated triglycerides, low high-density-lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), and small, dense low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) particles. The NCEP-ATP III identifies patients with the metabolic syndrome as candidates for intensified therapy. Lifestyle modifications and drug therapy are recommended. Niacin represents a good option for treating the triad of lipid abnormalities seen in the metabolic syndrome because it raises HDL-C, lowers triglycerides, and increases LDL-C particle size. CONCLUSIONS Treatment of the metabolic syndrome is recommended by NCEP-ATP III to further reduce CHD risk after the LDL-C target has been met. Prospective clinical studies are needed to define the impact of niacin and other lipid-modifying agents on CHD morbidity and mortality in patients with the metabolic syndrome.
Multi-polarized millimeter-wave imaging for concealed weapon detection

Millimeter-wave (MMW) imaging techniques have been used for the detection of concealed weapons and contraband carried on personnel at airports and other secure locations. In this paper, the multi-polarized MMW imaging technique is researched, which can provide more target information. A test system is built with vector network analyzer (VNA) to verify the feasibility of this imaging technique for concealed weapon detection. The wavenumber domain algorithm is used to reconstruct the MMW images. Experiment results are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the multi-polarized MMW imaging.
How Small-Sided and Conditioned Games Enhance Acquisition of Movement and Decision-Making Skills

This article summarizes research from an ecological dynamics program of work on team sports exemplifying how small-sided and conditioned games (SSCG) can enhance skill acquisition and decision-making processes during training. The data highlighted show how constraints of different SSCG can facilitate emergence of continuous interpersonal coordination tendencies during practice to benefit team game players.
Coordinación y subordinación en gramática española

Llama la atencion, en una perspectiva historica de la gramatica, el hecho de que solo tardiamente se haya atendido a la sintaxis y mucho despues al analisis de la oracion, compuesta. Ello supone que los conceptos de coordinacion y subordinacion, asi como los de conjuncion coordinante ysubordinante pertenezcan a una epoca relativamente reciente. Refiriendome en particular a la gramatica espanola, juzgo conveniente destacar, como fecha importante para el asuntoque me ocupa, el ano 1920, pues es entonces cuando la edicion correspondiente de la Gramatica de la Real Academia Espanola ofrece una presentacion de la sintaxis con modificaciones muy importantes, en relacion con las anteriores ediciones.
Variation in climate sensitivity and feedback parameters during the historical period

We investigate the climate feedback parameter α (W m−2 K−1) during the historical period (since 1871) in experiments using the HadGEM2 and HadCM3 atmosphere general circulation models (AGCMs) with constant preindustrial atmospheric composition and time‐dependent observational sea surface temperature (SST) and sea ice boundary conditions. In both AGCMs, for the historical period as a whole, the effective climate sensitivity is ∼2 K (α≃1.7 W m−2 K−1), and α shows substantial decadal variation caused by the patterns of SST change. Both models agree with the AGCMs of the latest Coupled Model Intercomparison Project in showing a considerably smaller effective climate sensitivity of ∼1.5 K (α = 2.3 ± 0.7 W m−2 K−1), given the time‐dependent changes in sea surface conditions observed during 1979–2008, than the corresponding coupled atmosphere‐ocean general circulation models (AOGCMs) give under constant quadrupled CO2 concentration. These findings help to relieve the apparent contradiction between the larger values of effective climate sensitivity diagnosed from AOGCMs and the smaller values inferred from historical climate change.