Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Radiofrequency ablation of hepatocellular carcinoma: predicting success using contrast-enhanced sonography.

OBJECTIVE This pilot study compared the utility of immediate postprocedural contrast-enhanced sonography with that of delayed enhanced sonography and CT or MRI in assessing the success of radiofrequency ablation of hepatocellular carcinoma. SUBJECTS AND METHODS Twenty-two lesions (1.5-3.7 cm) were studied in 19 patients. Enhanced sonography was performed before and within 1 hr after radiofrequency ablation. At routine 2-week follow-up CT or MRI, additional enhanced sonography was performed. The findings of preablation CT or MRI and enhanced sonography were compared with those of postprocedural and follow-up enhanced sonography by three radiologists experienced in these techniques. The reviewers were unaware of the follow-up CT or MRI results (reference standard). Technical adequacy, ablation zone targeting, and identification of residual disease were assessed by each reviewer, and the results were analyzed by consensus. RESULTS One postprocedural sonographic study was considered technically inadequate. Postprocedural sonography predicted the follow-up CT or MRI results in 76% (16/21) of subjects (sensitivity, 88%; specificity, 40%; positive predictive value [PPV], 82%; negative predictive value, [NPV] 50%). Follow-up CT or MRI identified accurate targeting in 17 of 22 subjects. Follow-up sonography agreed with CT or MRI in 82% (18/22) of subjects (sensitivity, 88%; specificity, 67%; PPV, 88%; NPV, 67%). Postprocedural sonography predicted the follow-up CT or MRI results in 81% (17/21) of subjects (sensitivity, 40%; specificity, 94%; PPV, 66%; NPV, 83%). Follow-up CT or MRI detected residual disease in six subjects. Follow-up sonography agreed with CT or MRI in 91% (20/22) of subjects (sensitivity, 83%; specificity, 94%; PPV, 83%; NPV, 94%). CONCLUSION Postprocedural enhanced sonography has the potential to guide completion of radiofrequency ablation at the time of initial therapy when residual disease is detected. The procedure is less accurate in detection of residual disease than is either delayed enhanced sonography or CT or MRI.
Specific binding and clearance of [3H]dynorphin (1–13) in the perfused rat lung: an application of the multiple‐indicator dilution method

Abstract— The clearance and binding of a κ‐selective opioid peptide, dynorphin (1–13), in the perfused rat lung has been examined, using the multiple indicator dilution method. More than 50% of [3H]dynorphin (1–13) entering the pulmonary circulation was eliminated by the lung during a single passage of a tracer dose. By contrast, when a high dose (100 μM) of dynorphin (1–13) was concomitantly injected, [3H]dynorphin (1–13) behaved like [14C]sucrose, an extracellular marker. The kinetic analyses of the pulmonary venous outflow curves of [3H]dynorphin (1–13) and [14C]sucrose at low and high doses of dynorphin (1–13) indicated that the initial uptake rate constant, extraction ratio and distribution volume of [3H]dynorphin (1–13) decreased significantly in the presence of a high concentration of unlabelled dynorphin (1–13). These results suggest that [3H]dynorphin (1–13) is eliminated by a saturable process and binds to a specific binding site in the perfused lung, which may be the κ‐type binding site. The multiple indicator dilution technique, in combination with a moment analysis, was successfully applied to demonstrate the specific binding and clearance of dynorphin (1–13) in the perfused lung.
Channel statistics for MIMO handsets in data mode

The presented work is based on a large dualband, dual-base outdoor-to-indoor multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) channel measurement campaign, involving ten different realistic MIMO handsets, held in data mode by eight test users. Various different use cases (UCs) are measured. Statistics on the channel capacity, mean effective gain (MEG), branch power ratio (BPR), and correlation coefficients between Rx, Tx, and cross-link channels are presented.
A quaternion-based orientation estimation algorithm using an inertial measurement unit

This paper presents a real-time orientation estimation algorithm based on signals from a low-cost inertial measurement unit (IMU). The IMU consists of three MEMS accelerometers and three MEMS rate gyros. This approach is based on relationships between the quaternion representing the platform orientation, the measurement of gravity from the accelerometers, and the angular rate measurement from the gyros. Process and measurement models are developed, based on these relations, in order to implement them into an extended Kalman filter. The performance of each filter is evaluated in terms of the roll, pitch, and yaw angles. These are derived from the filter output since this orientation representation is more intuitive than the quaternion representation. Extensive testing of the filters with simulated and experimental data show that the filters perform very accurately in the roll and pitch angles, and even significantly corrects the yaw angle error drift.
Rising inequality in the UK and the political economy of Brexit: lessons for policy

The EU Referendum in the UK on 23 June laid bare long existing divisions in the country. Throughout the campaign, the leave side diverted their discontent to a scapegoat of immigration and fuelled xenophobia. While there is consensus that the result is linked to inequality, the impact of migration on inequality is contested. Our recent research shows that inequality in the UK increased not because of migration, i.e. the mobility of labour, but because of the increased fallback options of capital related to increased capital mobility in the form of FDI and financialisation; declining fallback options of labour related to the decline in collective bargaining power, deregulation of the labour market, zero hours contracts and false self-employed contracts, austerity, housing crisis and rising household debt, which itself is linked to financialisation and inequality. The irony is that in fact, migration does not have a negative impact on the share of wages in total income and real wages even in the service sectors predominantly hiring low-skilled labour, which also employ a large share of migrants. The quick conclusions related to the impact of immigration on inequality, without adequately decomposing the impact of all other factors, misses the point that correlation is not causation. The real solution to inequality requires regulating finance and the corporate governance of corporations, taming capital mobility, increasing public investment in social infrastructure and housing, regulating the labour market and improving the legislation to increase the voice of trade unions and collective bargaining coverage. In an alternative economy where the balance of power shifts in favour of labour and unions have a strong voice, if migrants come to work, it is possible to set the terms and conditions under which they work by the local workforce. Conversely, in the current situation where the bargaining power of workers has been dramatically eroded with respect to capital, high capital mobility and low wages elsewhere in Eastern Europe and the world will mean the firms will relocate or offshore parts of their production abroad, even if migration can be limited after Brexit.
Defining the Concept of Innovation and Firm Innovativeness: A Critical Analysis from Resorce-Based View Perspective

The primary objective of this paper is to contribute to the existing literatures by comprehensively reviewing the definitions, concept, as well as the importance of innovative and innovativeness in the business world. This review covers various definitions of innovation and innovativeness, multi dimensions of innovation and how this innovation acts to generate a good firm performance and competitive advantage, relying strongly on the famous Resource-Based View theory. Since the term ‘innovation’ itself is quite difficult to interpret, observe or evaluate, as argued by many scholars, this review attempts to provide discussion and enhance understanding on these concepts especially in the firm’s context. This review could shed some dynamic ideas for future researchers to further identify, conceptualize and understand the underlying theories and perspectives which strongly influence the previous, current and future concept of innovation.
SmartSensing: Sensing Through Walls with Your Smartphone!

Seeing through walls and knowing clearly what exist inside just like a superman are not only fantastic wishes for humans, but also of much practical significance. For example, you would like to know whether there are pipes, or rebars inside a wall before drilling into it. Moreover, knowing how pipes are configured in a wall before attempting to fix defects would definitely prevent unnecessary damages. Existing methods that intend to address this issue are either costly due to the use of high-end technology, or too restrictive for reasons of some strong assumptions. However, in this paper, we present a novel system, SmartSensing, which is based on off-the-shelf sensors embedded in smartphones. SmartSensing makes full use of in-built sensors, namely, the accelerometer, the gyroscope, and the magnetometer to achieve this goal inexpensively and conveniently. Specifically, by combining these sensors, we are able to clearly distinguish certain objects inside a wall. In addition, the layout of a pipeline system can be mapped out automatically in an economical and laborsaving way. We implement this system on two different kinds of smartphone platforms, namely iPhone4 and Xiaomi Mi2S. We conduct experiments in a proof-of-concept testbed of size 1.8m×1.0m. Experimental results show that SmartSensing can achieve no less than an average accuracy of 96%, 89% and 77% in distinguishing objects under three different depths, respectively. Also, as for layout mapping, it can achieve less than 32cm and 28cm length error with 90% probability on average for whole horizontal and vertical pipeline segments, with a 6.8m and 4.0m total length, respectively.
Hyperspectral data multi-sharpening based on linear-quadratic nonnegative matrix factorization

In this paper, we propose a new multi-sharpening approach for improving the spatial resolution of hyperspectral data. This approach, based on the linear-quadratic spectral unmixing concept, uses a linear-quadratic nonnegative matrix factorization multiplicative algorithm. Our method first consists in unmixing the low spatial resolution hyperspectral data and high spatial resolution multispectral data. The obtained high resolution spectral and spatial parts of information are then recombined, according to the linear-quadratic mixing model, in order to obtain unobservable multi-sharpened high spatial resolution hyperspectral data. Experiments, based on realistic synthetic and real data, are carried out to evaluate the performance of the proposed approach and of linear nonnegative matrix factorization-based approaches from the literature. We show that our proposed approach significantly outperforms the used literature methods.
Inhibition of adenosine-mediated coronary vasodilation exacerbates myocardial ischemia during exercise.

Persisting coronary vasoconstrictor tone that is responsive to exogenous adenosine administration has been demonstrated during myocardial ischemia. Therefore, the role and extent of endogenous adenosine-mediated coronary vasodilation in opposing coronary vasoconstriction within regions of ischemic myocardium was investigated in 10 chronically instrumented exercising dogs. Studies were performed on dogs with left circumflex coronary artery stenosis during treadmill exercise (6.5 km/h, 6% grade), while myocardial blood flow was measured with radioactive microspheres. Blood flow was measured before and again after inhibition of the effects of endogenously produced adenosine through combined inactivation of adenosine and adenosine receptor antagonism by the administration of intracoronary adenosine deaminase (ADA) (5 micrograms.kg-1 x min-1 x 10 min) plus 8-phenyltheophylline (8-PT) (5 mg/kg i.v.), respectively. Coronary perfusion pressure was held equal during both conditions at approximately 41 mmHg with a hydraulic occluder. During exercise in the presence of a coronary stenosis, blood flow was reduced in all layers of myocardium in regions supplied by the stenosed left circumflex coronary artery compared with blood flow in regions of myocardium supplied by the nonstenotic left anterior descending coronary artery. After ADA plus 8-PT, myocardial blood flow (in ml.min-1 x g-1) was further reduced in all layers of myocardium in regions supplied by the stenotic left circumflex coronary artery compared with baseline (subendocardial layer 0.44 +/- 0.09 vs. 0.67 +/- 0.13 ml.min-1 x g-1, mean transmural flow 0.92 +/- 0.13 vs. 1.25 +/- 0.2 ml.min-1 x g-1, both P < 0.05). Blood flow in regions of myocardium supplied by the nonstenotic left anterior descending coronary artery were unchanged following ADA plus 8-PT. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Modeling age at menopause using serum concentration of anti-mullerian hormone.

CONTEXT Anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH) has already been used for prediction of age at menopause with promising results. OBJECTIVE We aimed to improve our previous prediction of age at menopause in a population-based cohort by including all eligible subjects and additional follow-up time. DESIGN AND SETTING All reproductive-aged women who met our eligibility criteria were selected from the Tehran Lipid and Glucose Study. The serum concentration of AMH was measured at the time of recruitment, and participant's date of menopause was recorded over a 10-year follow-up. SUBJECTS A total of 1015 women, aged 20 to 50 years, with regular and predictable menstrual cycles at the initiation of the study were recruited. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE The actual ages at menopause were compared with the predicted ones obtained from accelerated failure time model. RESULTS We observed 277 occurrences of menopause. Median menopausal age was 50 years (range 30.1-58.2 years). The median (SD) of differences between the actual menopausal age and those predicted by our model was 0.5 (2.5) years. Model adequacy (measured by C-statistics) for correct prediction of age at menopause was 92%. The estimated ages at menopause and their 95% confidence intervals for a range of values of AMH and age were calculated and summarized in a table. CONCLUSIONS Using a model built on age and AMH, we can predict age at menopause many years earlier. This could provide opportunities for interventions in those who are at risk of early or late menopause.
Data mining photovoltaic cell manufacturing data

So called “data mining” techniques comprise a broad family of statistical investigative and analysis techniques from informal exploratory and graphical methods through to sophisticated multivariate analysis. Data mining of photovoltaic (PV) cell manufacturing data can be used with an understanding of cell performance to isolate the variance in production associated with wafer material quality or other time based changes. This can lead to new insights for SPC and for understanding process variance.
Cross-linking of glycated collagen in the pathogenesis of arterial and myocardial stiffening of aging and diabetes

The normal aging process is often accompanied by arterial wall stiffening and by a decrease in myocardial compliance. These processes contribute to isolated systolic hypertension and diastolic heart failure, which lead to substantial morbidity and mortality among older individuals. Patients with diabetes manifest arterial stiffening and diastolic dysfunction at a younger age. This leads to the concept that the mechanism that underlies changes in vascular mechanical properties during aging is accelerated in diabetes. The Maillard reaction or advanced glycation of proteins occurs slowly in vivo with normal aging and at an accelerated rate in diabetes. Advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) that form during the Maillard reaction are implicated in the complications of aging and diabetes. The formation of AGEs on vascular wall and myocardial collagen causes cross-linking of collagen molecules to each other. This leads to the loss of collagen elasticity, and subsequently a reduction in arterial and myocardial compliance. Aminoguanidine, an inhibitor of AGE formation, is effective in slowing or preventing arterial stiffening and myocardial diastolic dysfunction in aging and diabetic animals. In aged and diabetic animals, agents that can chemically break pre-existing cross-linking of collagen molecules are capable of reverting indices of vascular and myocardial compliance to levels seen in younger or non-diabetic animals. These studies suggest that collagen cross-linking is a major mechanism that governs aging and diabetes-associated loss of vascular and cardiac compliance. The development of AGEs cross-link breakers may have important role for future therapy of isolated systolic hypertension and diastolic heart failure in these conditions.
Neurobiology of Sensory Overresponsivity in Youth With Autism Spectrum Disorders.

IMPORTANCE More than half of youth with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) have sensory overresponsivity (SOR), an extreme negative reaction to sensory stimuli. However, little is known about the neurobiological basis of SOR, and there are few effective treatments. Understanding whether SOR is due to an initial heightened sensory response or to deficits in regulating emotional reactions to stimuli has important implications for intervention. OBJECTIVE To determine differences in brain responses, habituation, and connectivity during exposure to mildly aversive sensory stimuli in youth with ASDs and SOR compared with youth with ASDs without SOR and compared with typically developing control subjects. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to examine brain responses and habituation to mildly aversive auditory and tactile stimuli in 19 high-functioning youths with ASDs and 19 age- and IQ-matched, typically developing youths (age range, 9-17 years). Brain activity was related to parents' ratings of children's SOR symptoms. Functional connectivity between the amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex was compared between ASDs subgroups with and without SOR and typically developing controls without SOR. The study dates were March 2012 through February 2014. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES Relative increases in blood oxygen level-dependent signal response across the whole brain and within the amygdala during exposure to sensory stimuli compared with fixation, as well as correlation between blood oxygen level-dependent signal change in the amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex. RESULTS The mean age in both groups was 14 years and the majority in both groups (16 of 19 each) were male. Compared with neurotypical control participants, participants with ASDs displayed stronger activation in primary sensory cortices and the amygdala (P < .05, corrected). This activity was positively correlated with SOR symptoms after controlling for anxiety. The ASDs with SOR subgroup had decreased neural habituation to stimuli in sensory cortices and the amygdala compared with groups without SOR. Youth with ASDs without SOR showed a pattern of amygdala downregulation, with negative connectivity between the amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex (thresholded at z > 1.70, P < .05). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE Results demonstrate that youth with ASDs and SOR show sensorilimbic hyperresponsivity to mildly aversive tactile and auditory stimuli, particularly to multiple modalities presented simultaneously, and show that this hyperresponsivity is due to failure to habituate. In addition, findings suggest that a subset of youth with ASDs can regulate their responses through prefrontal downregulation of amygdala activity. Implications for intervention include minimizing exposure to multiple sensory modalities and building coping strategies for regulating emotional response to stimuli.
Spectrum of fungal keratitis in North India.

PURPOSE To report the epidemiologic features and laboratory results of 191 consecutive cases of fungal keratitis presenting to a tertiary level superspecialty teaching hospital of North India. METHODS A prospective hospital-based study was carried out on 485 consecutive patients presenting with corneal ulcers to the outpatient department of Guru Nanak Eye Center, Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi, from January 1999 to June 2001. The sociodemographic data, predisposing risk factors, clinical details, prior treatment modalities, laboratory results, and visual outcomes were analyzed. RESULTS Diagnosis of mycotic keratitis was established in 191 (39%) out of the total study group of 485 cases. Direct microscopic examination of KOH mounts and Gram-stained smears revealed presence of fungal elements in the corneal scrapings in 119 (62.3%) and 114 (60%) of the subsequently fungal culture-positive cases, respectively. Men (68%) were more commonly affected by fungal keratitis than women (32%). Young adults 31-40 years of age were the most common age group to be involved (36%). Predisposing risk factors were noted in 79%, with corneal trauma 42%, contact lens wear 25%, and topical corticosteroids in 21% patients. The spectrum of fungi isolated were Aspergillus species in 78 (41%) followed by Curvularia species in 55 (29%). CONCLUSIONS In contrast to other studies from our subcontinent, we found Aspergillus niger to be the most common fungal isolate, followed by Curvularia species in culture-proven cases of fungal keratitis. Direct microscopic examination of KOH mounts emerged as a rapid, reliable, and inexpensive diagnostic modality, with a sensitivity of 62%, which would facilitate the institution of early antifungal therapy before the culture results became available, thus proving to be sight saving.
Why Citizens Participate in Local Governance: A Case of Two Philippine LGUs

ABSTRACT The well-established importance of citizen participation in local and community governance raises a number of problems, foremost of which has been the reduced level of citizens’ involvement and engagement in developing countries. Our study aims at exploring the factors that impact citizen participation in two local government units (LGUs) in the Philippines. We propose the models of LGU participation and regular attendance in meetings based on the regression results of our study and present policy implications and insights essential in designing strategies for a higher level of LGU constituents’ attendance in meetings and participation in local governance matters.
Functional genomics databases on the web

Experiments involving high‐throughput methods for measuring transcripts, proteins and metabolites constitute the area of functional genomics. These experiments are highly context dependent and require much more detail about the experimental design, sample and protocols used than in genomics. Functional genomics databases are needed that follow established and emerging standards. Functional genomic databases are not yet very common; however, there are a few focused on microbial genomes and a couple integrative systems are available for setting up functional genomics databases.