Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Synthetic Observational Health Data with GANs: from slow adoption to a boom in medical research and ultimately digital twins?

After being collected for patient care, Observational Health Data (OHD) can further benefit patient well-being by sustaining the development of health informatics and medical research. Vast potential is unexploited because of the fiercely private nature of patient-related data and regulations to protect it.Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) have recently emerged as a groundbreaking way to learn generative models that produce realistic synthetic data. They have revolutionized practices in multiple domains such as self-driving cars, fraud detection, digital twin simulations in industrial sectors, and medical imaging.The digital twin concept could readily apply to modelling and quantifying disease progression. In addition, GANs posses many capabilities relevant to common problems in healthcare: lack of data, class imbalance, rare diseases, and preserving privacy. Unlocking open access to privacy-preserving OHD could be transformative for scientific research. In the midst of COVID-19, the healthcare system is facing unprecedented challenges, many of which of are data related for the reasons stated above.Considering these facts, publications concerning GAN applied to OHD seemed to be severely lacking. To uncover the reasons for this slow adoption, we broadly reviewed the published literature on the subject. Our findings show that the properties of OHD were initially challenging for the existing GAN algorithms (unlike medical imaging, for which state-of-the-art model were directly transferable) and the evaluation synthetic data lacked clear metrics.We find more publications on the subject than expected, starting slowly in 2017, and since then at an increasing rate. The difficulties of OHD remain, and we discuss issues relating to evaluation, consistency, benchmarking, data modelling, and reproducibility.
Sacubitril/Valsartan Inhibits Cardiomyocyte Hypertrophy in Angiotensin II-Induced Hypertensive Mice Independent of a Blood Pressure-Lowering Effect

Background Hypertensive left ventricular hypertrophy is associated with the risk of heart failure, coronary heart disease and cerebrovascular disease. Although sacubitril/valsartan (SAC/VAL), a first-in-class angiotensin receptor neprilysin inhibitor, reduces the risks of death and hospitalization for patients with heart failure, its mechanism of action is not fully understood. We hypothesized that SAC/VAL is superior to other conventional drugs in reducing cardiac hypertrophy. Methods Male C57BL/6J mice were implanted with an osmotic pump containing angiotensin II (Ang II). After 7 days of Ang II infusion, mice were also treated with either SAC/VAL, valsartan, enalapril or vehicle alone each day for 2 weeks. Blood pressure measurement was done weekly, and echocardiography was performed before and 3 weeks after infusion of Ang II. Histological analyses were done using extracted heart to investigate cardiac hypertrophy and fibrosis. Results Ang II markedly elevated blood pressures in all of the treatment groups, and there were no differences in the degree of blood pressure reduction among the SAC/VAL-, valsartan- and enalapril-treated groups. Echocardiography showed that SAC/VAL significantly suppressed the increase in left ventricular (LV) wall thickness and tended to decrease LV mass. In a histological analysis, SAC/VAL inhibited Ang II-induced cardiomyocyte hypertrophy, and individual cardiomyocytes in the SAC/VAL group were smaller than those in the valsartan and enalapril groups. Although previous studies using animal models of heart failure have indicated that SAC/VAL attenuates cardiac fibrosis, we found no supporting evidence in this setting. Conclusions SAC/VAL, valsartan and enalapril all attenuated cardiomyocyte hypertrophy in a mouse model of Ang II-induced cardiac hypertrophy. Of note, SAC/VAL most strongly suppressed hypertrophy in spite of similar blood pressure-lowering effects as valsartan and enalapril. The present study suggests that SAC/VAL may have a beneficial effect on the early stage of hypertensive heart disease.
Colors and Things

How many colors are there? Quoted numbers range from ten million to a dozen. Are colors object properties? Opinions range all the way from of course they are to no, colors are just mental paint. These questions are ill-posed. We submit that the way to tackle such questions is to adopt a biological approach, based on the evolutionary past of hominins. Hunter-gatherers in tundra or savannah environments have various, mutually distinct uses for color. Color differences aid in segmenting the visual field, whereas color qualia aid in recognizing objects. Classical psychophysics targets the former, but mostly ignores the latter, whereas experimental phenomenology, for instance in color naming, is relevant for recognition. Ecological factors, not anatomical/physiological ones, limit the validity of qualia as distinguishing signs. Spectral databases for varieties of daylight and object reflectance factors allow one to model this. The two questions are really one. A valid question that may replace both is how many distinguishing signs does color vision offer in the hominin Umwelt? The answer turns out to be about a thousand. The reason is that colors are formally not object properties but pragmatically are useful distinguishing signs.
Correlations Between the Ankle-Brachial Index, Percentage of Mean Arterial Pressure, and Upstroke Time for Endovascular Treatment

Background The ankle-brachial index (ABI), percentage of mean arterial pressure (%MAP), and upstroke time (UT) are indicators to diagnose lower-extremity peripheral artery disease (PAD). However, the respective relationship between these parameters is unknown. In this study, we analyzed the correlations between ABI, %MAP, and UT and examined their clinical usefulness for endovascular treatment (EVT). Methods Sixty-three consecutive subjects who underwent successful EVT for aortoiliac to femoropopliteal artery diseases were analyzed. The ABI, %MAP, and UT were measured using an automated oscillometric device. Results There were significant correlations between the ABI and %MAP (r = -0.425, P < 0.001), the ABI and UT (r = -0.304, P = 0.017), and %MAP and UT (r = 0.368, P = 0.003). In terms of lesion length, there was a significant difference in %MAP after EVT (focal, 42.6%; short, 44.5%; intermediate, 47.1%; long, 49.1%; P = 0.015). There was minimal %MAP improvement in the case of a long lesion length (focal, -8.83%; short, -5.10%; intermediate, -3.00%; long, -1.50%; P = 0.006). Excessive lesion calcification also hindered %MAP improvement (grade 0, -7.16%; grade 1, -5.52%; grade 2, -4.71%; grade 3, -2.80%; grade 4, -1.00%; P = 0.049). Patients who underwent re-EVT (an average of 10.1 months after initial EVT) had minimal %MAP improvement (-2.76% vs. -5.95%, P = 0.035) at the first outpatient visit (an average of 3.3 weeks after EVT). Conclusions In conclusion, the ABI, %MAP, and UT are correlated with each other. If the length of the lesion is long and there is excessive calcification, %MAP improvement is minimal. Moreover, minimal %MAP improvement may be an indicator of future restenosis.
Reduce Mortality and Morbidity in Acute Myeloid Leukemia With Hyperleukocytosis With Early Admission in Intensive Care Unit: A Retrospective Analysis

Background Patients presenting with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) at diagnosis are at high risk of severe complications and death, particularly with high white blood cell (WBC) count. In this retrospective study, we evaluate interest of early and systematic support in the intensive care unit (ICU) for AML with hyperleukocytosis (AML-HL) at diagnosis. Methods Patients with AML-HL, defined by WBC > 50 × 109/L, primary referred in ICU (“Early ICU”) without organ failure and before initiating chemotherapy induction were compared to patients first admitted in the Hematology Department who required a secondary transfer in ICU (“Late ICU”) or not (“No ICU”). Primary end point was mortality during the first month, and secondary end points were the use of life-sustaining therapies in ICU and risk factors for ICU transfer and mortality. Results One hundred fifty-four patients were included: 77 (50%) to the group “No ICU”, 18 (12%) to “Late ICU” and 59 (38%) to “Early ICU”. Mortality at day 30 was higher in “Late ICU” than in “Early ICU” and “No ICU”, with 27.8%; 16.9% and 2.6% respectively (P < 0.001). “Late ICU” patients had an increased use of life-sustaining therapy comparing to “Early ICU” patients (56% vs. 29%, P = 0.04). Conclusions Early referral to ICU reduces morbidity and seems an effective strategy to reduce short-term mortality in AML-HL at diagnosis.
Toughening of Poly(l-Lactide) with Branched Polycaprolactone: Effect of Chain Length

In this work, a series of branched polycaprolactone (BPCL) samples with different ε-caprolactone (CL) chain lengths were synthesized and used to toughen poly (lactic acid) (PLA). The spherical structure increased the free volume, facilitating the free movement of the PLA chain segment and increasing the ductility. In addition, the hydrogen bonds between the multi-terminal hydroxyl group of BPCLx and PLA improved the interaction between them. The glass-transition temperatures (Tg) and crystallization temperatures (Tc) of the blends were significantly lower than those of PLA, and these temperatures increased with the chain length of polycaprolactone. BPCLx increased the crystallization rate of PLA through heterogeneous nucleation. A longer chain length of CL increased the mutual entanglement in the blends, reduced the hydrogen bonding between BPCLx and PLA, and increased the entanglement of BPCLx chains. When the chain length of CL was 6, the impact strength and elongation at break of the PLA/BPCL blends exhibited an increase of 151.72 and 465.8%, respectively, as compared with PLA.
Seasonal investigation of main physico-chemical parameters in terminal part of Gorganroud River during 2009-2010.

Water quality of the terminal part of Gorganroud River was investigated, during 2009-2010. Monthly values of dissolved oxygen, pH, temperature, BOD, COD, electro conductivity, mineral nitrogen, nitrate, nitrite, ammonium and ortho phosphate were measured in five stations. Despite the probability of introduction of waste waters, results show not serious problem in this part of the river, regarding to aims of the river usage.
AN ANALYTICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF THE THERMAL BOUNDARY LAYER AND EBULLITION CYCLE IN NUCLEATE BOILING

Abstract : The ebullition cycle of nucleate pool boiling from a heating strip was studied through the use of high-speed motion pictures of schlieren and shadowgraph images. The effects of bubble agitation on thermal layer and neighboring bubbles were observed. An over-all model of ebullition based upon experimental observation was proposed that included an analytical method for predicting bubble growth rate and an analysis of the factors that influence the magnitude of the waiting period (time interval between bubbles at a particular site). Thermal-layer thickness, cavity size, and area of influence of a growing bubble are considered. A film supplement is made available. (Author)
Chemical methods for the determination of soluble and insoluble non-starch polysaccharides - review.

Polysaccharides are macromolecules of monosaccharides linked by glycosidic bonds. Non-starch polysaccharides(NSP) are principally non-α-glucan polysaccharides of the plant cell wall. They are a heterogeneous group ofpolysaccharides with varying degrees of water solubility, size, and structure. The water insoluble fiber fractioninclude cellulose, galactomannans, xylans, xyloglucans, and lignin, while the water-soluble fibers are the pectins,arabinogalactans, arabinoxylans, and β-(1,3)(1,4)-D-glucans (β-glucans). Both the enzymatic-gravimetric andenzymatic-chemical methods used for the determination of soluble and insoluble non-starch polysaccharides haveundergone a number of modifications and improvements, most occurring over the last 20 years.
Etude de la cristallisation de polypropylènes en écoulement : Application à la modélisation du procédé d'extrusion de film à plat - propriétés mécaniques résultantes

Ce travail vise a ameliorer les proprietes mecaniques de films de polypropylene biorientes utilises dans les condensateurs, afin d'augmenter leur temperature de service. Pour cela, nous avons etudie l'influence des caracteristiques moleculaires du polypropylene et des parametres mecaniques et thermiques du procede sur la cristallisation, la structure et les proprietes mecaniques des films primaires, obtenus par le procede cast-film. La cinetique de cristallisation de ces polypropylenes a ete etudiee au laboratoire en condition statique et dans un ecoulement de cisaillement. Le cisaillement accelere la cinetique globale de cristallisation, par rapport a la condition statique, du fait de l'augmentation du nombre de germes et de la vitesse de croissance. La morphologie finale du polypropylene est profondement modifiee par l'ecoulement de cisaillement: la taille des entites morphologiques diminue et la proportion de phase augmente. Nous avons montre que la sensibilite du polypropylene vis a vis de l'ecoulement augmente avec la masse molaire. D'autre part, l'etude des relations mise en forme-structure-proprietes effectuee sur les films industriels a confirme l'importance des conditions mecaniques du procede sur la structure des films. Les proprietes mecaniques, module et contrainte d'ecoulement, ont ete correlees au taux de cristallinite. L'effet de l'elongation dans l'air a ete introduit dans le modele thermonecanique du procede d'extrusion, baptise therm 4. 0, afin de mieux decrire la cristallisation des films sur le rouleau thermostate ainsi que le developpement de structure dans le procede. Des mesures de cinetique de cristallisation, effectuees sur une ligne pilote, ont confirme l'importance de l'elongation sur la cristallisation des films
Bilayers with Surfactant-induced Pores and Demixing in Micelles : Studies of Segregation in Amphiphile Systems

The focus of this thesis has been on the effects of segregation in mixtures of amphiphilic molecules. Two different systems were investigated: fluorocarbon-hydrocarbon surfactant mixtures and lipid-surfactant mixtures.In fluorocarbon-hydrocarbon surfactant mixtures the repulsive interactions between the chains can lead to a demixing into different types of coexisting micelles, fluorocarbon rich and hydrocarbon rich. From NMR self-diffusion measurements such a demixing was found to occur in the mixture of the partially fluorinated surfactant HFDePC and C16TAC. We furthermore suggested a demixing also within the micelles to explain 19F-NMR line width data and results from neutron scattering.In lipid-surfactant mixtures, a segregation of the molecules may instead be caused by a difference in the preferred curvature of the lipid and the surfactant residing within the same aggregate. Using a surfactant selective electrode, binding isoterms of four different cationic surfactants (C12TAC, C14TAC, C16TAC and HFDePC) to preformed lipid (GMO) vesicles were determined. Perforated vesicles were observed by cryo-TEM in the mixture with C16TAC. To explain the results from the binding isoterms, the formation of pores in the bilayer was regarded as a cooperative process, similar to micelle formation. The surfactant accumulates at the edges of the pores, and increasing the surfactant concentration results in an increased number of pores with a constant surfactant/lipid ratio at the edges.The lipid-surfactant mixtures were also studied at the solid/solution interface using AFM. An adsorbed mesh structure, a counterpart to the bulk perforated lamellar phase, was observed for the first time.
A Numerical Investigation of Metabolic Reductive Dechlorination in DNAPL Source Zones

Abstract : Among the most intractable environmental remediation problems are those involving the release of dense non-aqueous phase liquids (DNAPLs), such as chlorinated solvents, to the subsurface. Research efforts have focused on the use of numerical models to investigate reductions in contaminant concentrations due to partial mass removal and improvements in the performance of complementary source zone remediation technologies. Previous numerical investigations, however, have been limited to two-dimensional systems. Furthermore, a lack of models capable of simulating the most promising complementary technology, metabolic reductive dechlorination, has limited its application. This work developed and applied compositional multiphase numerical simulators to examine the influence of dimensionality (two-dimensions versus three-dimensions) on DNAPL source zone simulations and to investigate the benefits of stimulating metabolic reductive dechlorination at a chlorinated ethene-DNAPL contaminated site. Results from the dimensionality investigation showed that the simulation of DNAPL migration, entrapment, and dissolution in two dimensions provided reasonable approximations to the behavior simulated in three dimensions. Commonly employed saturation distribution and mass recovery metrics were approximately equivalent. Flux- averaged concentrations simulated in two dimensions, however, tended to be three to four times higher than those simulated in three dimensions. This difference was attributed to dilution at the down gradient boundary. An alternative metric, mass flux reduction, however, yielded better agreement.
The design of image processing software based on UAV remote sensing platform

As a sort of low-altitude remote sensing technology, UAV remote sensing possesses the advantages that satellite remoting sensing and traditional aerial remote sensing do not have. It can be effectively used as an indispensable supplementary means for obtaining remote sensing images. The paper develops a set of image processing systems basing on the characteristics of UAV remote sensing platform, which can provide digital images with high quality as well as high resolution. In this paper, firstly, a series of preprocessing such as noise reduction and enhancement will be performed on the obtained data. Then, the feature points in the images will be extracted, the potential image matching pairs will be set up and the mosaicking process will be completed. Finally, the UAV remote sensing images will be segmented and the road extraction of UAV remote sensing can be realized. Experiments show that with known camera calibration parameters, the accuracy of image mosaic is high. Also, roads are extracted from the sequence of images taken by the UAV continuously, with an accuracy of more than 90%.
All-optical analog to electromagnetically induced transparency with coupled nanobeam cavities and Mach–Zehnder interferometer

We design and experimentally demonstrate an all-optical analog to electromagnetically induced transparency with a Mach–Zehnder interferometer nanostructure with waveguides that are side-coupled to photonic crystal nanobeam cavities. When the phase difference between the two interferometer beams is designed to be odd multiples of π and the resonance peaks of the two cavities intersect, the transparency resonance occurs. The measured transparency linewidth is 0.6 nm, which is much narrower than the destructive interference linewidth carried out by the interferometer. When the phase difference between the two beams increases slightly, the destructive interference wavelength decreases accordingly and causes the transparency line shape to change into a Fano-like line shape. By replacing the single cavity with coupled cavities, multiple transparency phenomena can also be observed and further enhance the quality factor of the cavity.
Detection of space target in and out of field of view for continuous image frame

When using continuous frame space target images to perform space target detection, motion parameter estimation, and motion trajectory extraction, one problem that needs to be solved is the problem of entering and leaving the field of view of satellites and stars and other space targets. Detection is the basis of high-precision motion parameter estimation between frames. Use the STK EOIR module to generate space target sequence images. Based on the singular value decomposition theory, calculate the parameters such as the amount of rotation, translation, and scaling factors of the inter-frame image. The analysis of the inter-field parameters of the field of view identifies the points contained in and out of the field of view and detects them. The experimental results show that the algorithm is simple and fast, and can effectively detect space targets in and out of the field of view.
Aerosol thermooptical characteristics in different types of aerosol weather

The data obtained in 2000–2017 by the method of active spectral nephelometry using artificial heating of an aerosol collected from the atmosphere up to 250°C are analyzed. The variability of thermo-optical parameters that determine the fraction of the volume concentration of particles evaporating in the corresponding temperature range depending on the type of “aerosol weather” is analyzed. Four data arrays characterized by different aerosol state were selected for each season: “background”, “haze”, “smog”, and “smoke haze”. The arrays differ in the level of concentrations of aerosol and soot. The peculiarities of the aerosol thermo-optical parameters in each type of turbidity are considered.
Effect of excess surface charges on optical measurement of sub-micron particles with different properties

The exploration of the optical properties of charged particles is essential for the optical detection of ultrafine particles. In this paper, the complex refractive index model and scattering model of spherical particles are re-established to make them suitable for both electrically neutral particles and charged particles. Taking pure-water droplets and salt-water droplets as examples, the effects of surface charge on the complex refractive index of non-dissipative particles and dissipative particles are discussed. On this basis, the effects of excess surface charge on the optical parameters of droplets, inorganic oxide particles and organic compound particles are discussed with three typical dissipative particles. Furthermore, it is confirmed that the effect of charge on particles with different properties is consistent.
Research on image preprocessing techniques needed for long-distance camera scanning Fourier ptychographic imaging

With the development of the fourier ptychography in microscopy imaging, more and more researchers consider applying fourier ptychography in long-distance imaging. However being different from microscopic imaging, long distance fourier ptychographic imaging will face more challenges, one of which is the source image quality. In this manuscript, the influence of the source image quality on camera scanning FP imaging will be investigated and simulated. In the first part, the calibration aims to solve the influence of unenenly illumination. After that, a poisson-gaussian mixed noise model based denoising is uesd and could effectively suppresses the noise through parameter estimation. Finally, Phase correalation regisitrtion has to be used to correct the mismatch between adjacent images caused by camera scanning mode. The simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the preprocessing methods and could make FP more robust.The signal to noise ratio could reach to 40.5dB while obtained 5×improvement in resolution.