Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sequential Changes in Echogenicity and Conspicuity of Small Hepatocellular Carcinoma on Gray Scale Sonography After Transcatheter Arterial Chemoembolization

Objective. The purpose of this study was to assess sequential changes in the echogenicity and conspicuity of small hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE). Methods. Seventy patients with nodular HCC underwent 3 serial abdominal sonographic examinations before (t0), immediately after (t1), and 2 to 4 days after (t2) TACE. The echogenicity and conspicuity of the HCC nodules were prospectively graded using a 5‐point scale. For all tumors, any changes in the echogenicity and conspicuity scores obtained at t0, t1, and t2 were evaluated. The degree of intratumoral uptake of iodized oil was categorized as compact or noncompact based on unenhanced computed tomographic images. Within each group, the sequential changes in the echogenicity and conspicuity were analyzed. Cross‐sectional comparisons of the echogenicity and conspicuity at each time point between the two groups were also made. Results. Overall, the lesion echogenicity and conspicuity at t1 increased compared with those at t0 (P < .05). Thereafter, both the echogenicity and conspicuity at t2 decreased compared with those at t1 (P < .05). There were 41 HCC nodules with compact iodized oil uptake and 29 with noncompact uptake. Significant sequential changes in the echogenicity (increase at t1 followed by decrease at t2) were noted in both groups, but only the compact group showed a significant change in conspicuity. In a cross‐sectional comparison, the compact group showed higher scores for both echogenicity and conspicuity than the noncompact group at both t1 and t2 (P < .05). Conclusions. The echogenicity and conspicuity of HCC are increased immediately after TACE. These effects are significantly diminished 2 to 4 days after TACE.
Persistent Decreases in Blood Plasmacytoid Dendritic Cell Number and Function Despite Effective Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy and Increased Blood Myeloid Dendritic Cells in HIV-Infected Individuals1

Dendritic cells (DC) have an instrumental role in the activation and function of both innate and adaptive immune responses. In humans, at least two distinct DC subsets have been characterized based on phenotypic markers: the myeloid DC (MDC) and the plasmacytoid DC (PDC). Both subsets are critical producers of cytokines (IL-12 for MDC and type I/II IFNs for PDC) and are functionally different. We show in this study that HIV+ individuals have a significant decrease in the number of the Lin−HLA-DR+CD123+ and BDCA-2+ PDC compared with uninfected donors (p = 0.0001). HIV+ individuals also have a sustained impairment in viral-induced IFN-α production (p < 0.0001). The decrease of the PDC subsets did not correlate with CD4 count or viral load and was not reversed in subjects under virally suppressive treatment, suggesting an irreversible change after infection. By contrast, the absolute number and median frequency of MDC in HIV-infected individuals were similar to those observed in uninfected controls, while a significant decrease was present in subjects with >5000 HIV-1 copies/ml. The inverse association with viral load of the MDC number, but not of IFN-α secretion or the number of PDC, suggests a role for MDC in viral control. Our data suggest that DC subsets are differentially reconstituted during the immune recovery associated with antiviral therapy. The persistent impairment of certain DC subsets may result in a sustained defect in DC-mediated innate immune functions despite an effective treatment regimen.
Mutual Information Based Stereo Correspondence in Extreme Cases

Stereo correspondence is an ill-posed problem mainly due to matching ambiguity, which is especially serious in extreme cases where the corresponding relationship is unknown and can be very complicated. Mutual information (MI), which assumes no prior relationship on the matching pair, is a good solution to this problem. This paper proposes a context-aware mutual information and Markov Random Field (MRF) based approach with gradient information introduced into both the data term and the smoothness term of the MAP-MRF framework where such advanced techniques as graph cuts can be used to find an accurate disparity map. The results show that the proposed context-aware method outperforms non-MI and traditional MI-based methods both quantitatively and qualitatively in some extreme cases.
Optimal Network Reconfiguration for Software Defined Networks Using Shuffle-Based Online MTD

A Software Defined Network (SDN) provides functionalities for modifying network configurations. To enhance security, Moving Target Defense (MTD) techniques are deployed in the networks to continuously change the attack surface. In this paper, we realize an MTD system by exploiting the SDN functionality to optimally reconfigure the network topology. We introduce a novel problem Shuffle Assignment Problem (SAP), the reconfiguration of a network topology for enhanced security, and we show how to compute the optimal solution for small-sized networks and the near-optimal solution for large-sized networks using a heuristic method. In addition, we propose a shuffle-based online MTD mechanism, which periodically reconfigures the network topology to continuously change the attack surface. This mechanism also selects an optimal countermeasure using our proposed topological distance metric in real-time when an attack is detected. We demonstrate the feasibility and the effectiveness of our proposed solutions through experimental analysis on an SDN testbed and simulations.
Subunit Stoichiometry of the Epithelial Sodium Channel*

The epithelial Na+ Channel (ENaC) mediates Na+ reabsorption in a variety of epithelial tissues. ENaC is composed of three homologous subunits, termed α, β, and γ. All three subunits participate in channel formation as the absence of any one subunit results in a significant reduction or complete abrogation of Na+ current expression inXenopus oocytes. To determine the subunit stoichiometry, a biophysical assay was employed utilizing mutant subunits that display significant differences in sensitivity to channel blockers from the wild type channel. Our results indicate that ENaC is a tetrameric channel with an α2βγ stoichiometry, similar to that reported for other cation selective channels, such as Kv, Kir, as well as voltage-gated Na+ and Ca2+ channels that have 4-fold internal symmetry.
High dose calcitriol may reduce thrombosis in cancer patients

The incidence of venous and arterial thrombosis in a placebo‐controlled randomised trial of DN‐101 (high dose calcitriol) with docetaxel versus docetaxel was compared. Of the 13 thrombotic events observed in the 250 patients enroled in this study, two occurred in DN‐101 and 11 in placebo‐treated patients (P = 0·01). This difference remained significant after adjustment for baseline history of thrombosis, atrial fibrillation and use of anti‐thrombotic agents. In vitro and vitamin D receptor (VDR) knockout mouse studies predict that nanomolar concentrations of calcitriol may act as an antithrombotic agent. We report the first clinical observation that supports this hypothesis in humans.
Chapter 1 MultiView Surface Reconstruction by Quasi-Dense Wide Baseline Matching

This chapter provides a review on correspondence growing techniques which have been used in multi-view stereo reconstruction problems. Typically these methods approach the problem of multi-view image matching by first determining a sparse set of feature correspondences between pairs of views and then iteratively expanding the matching regions. Sometimes such techniques are also referred by terms like match propagation, quasi-dense matching, or surface growing. Besides providing an overview of the research area, this chapter introduces a particular method, called quasi-dense wide baseline matching, which employs the best-first correspondence growing principle for matching pixels in views with substantially different viewpoints. In addition, the properties and performance of different methods are illustrated by examples and experiments with real images.
Fentanyl in postmortem forensic toxicology

Context. Fentanyl is a powerful opioid used for the induction of anesthesia as well as for the management of severe pain. In recent years, transdermal fentanyl “patches” have become popular for outpatient management of chronic pain. The high potency and outpatient availability of fentanyl has also made it a highly sought-after drug of abuse. Deaths in which fentanyl is detected challenge medical examiners who must decide whether a given case represents therapeutic administration or overdose. Objectives. The current review seeks to present data about fentanyl that are relevant to the interpretation of postmortem blood and tissue fentanyl concentrations as well as to highlight areas which can be helpful or misleading in the evaluation of deaths potentially related to fentanyl exposure. Methods. Standard searching of the PubMed database for studies, case series, and case reports involving fentanyl kinetics, chemistry, and postmortem behavior was performed. Search terms typically included “postmortem” and “fentanyl,” as well as “kinetics” and “analysis,” where appropriate. Additional references were located as citations from reviewed papers or as conference abstracts. Results and Conclusions. The postmortem behavior of fentanyl is influenced heavily by pH changes and the antemortem kinetic behavior of the drug, especially, by its distribution. Postmortem blood fentanyl concentrations do not correlate directly with antemortem blood concentrations. Without adequate evaluation of kinetic data, investigative information and consideration of postmortem changes, misinterpretation of postmortem fentanyl results is likely.
Backstepping funnel control for prescribed performance of robotic manipulators with unknown dead zone

In this paper, a backstepping funnel control (BFC) is proposed to achieve a prescribed tracking performance for robotic manipulator systems with unknown input dead zone. According to the differential mean value theorem, the dead zone inverse compensation approach is avoided by representing the dead zone as a linear time-varying system. Without constructing the complex barrier Lyapunov function, a new constraint variable is employed and the tracking error will be forced to fall into prescribe boundaries. A simple sigmoid neural network is utilized to approximate the system uncertainties and the calculation of derivative terms generated by the recursive steps of traditional backstepping control can be avoided. With the proposed scheme, no prior knowledge is required on the bound of input dead zone, and the convergence of the position tracking error is guaranteed via the Lyapunov synthesis. Comparative simulation examples are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Gulf Arabic Linguistic Resource Building for Sentiment Analysis

This paper deals with building linguistic resources for Gulf Arabic, one of the Arabic variations, for sentiment analysis task using machine learning. To our knowledge, no previous works were done for Gulf Arabic sentiment analysis despite the fact that it is present in different online platforms. Hence, the first challenge is the absence of annotated data and sentiment lexicons. To fill this gap, we created these two main linguistic resources. Then we conducted different experiments: use Naive Bayes classifier without any lexicon; add a sentiment lexicon designed basically for MSA; use only the compiled Gulf Arabic sentiment lexicon and finally use both MSA and Gulf Arabic sentiment lexicons. The Gulf Arabic lexicon gives a good improvement of the classifier accuracy (90.54 %) over a baseline that does not use the lexicon (82.81%), while the MSA lexicon causes the accuracy to drop to (76.83%). Moreover, mixing MSA and Gulf Arabic lexicons causes the accuracy to drop to (84.94%) compared to using only Gulf Arabic lexicon. This indicates that it is useless to use MSA resources to deal with Gulf Arabic due to the considerable differences and conflicting structures between these two languages.
Antibiotic Treatment for Uncomplicated Neuropathic Forefoot Ulcers in Diabetes: a Controlled Trial

To investigate the effect of oral antibiotics in purely neuropathic ulcers (Wagner grade 1–2, no osteomyelitis), a double blind placebo‐controlled study was performed. Forty‐four patients were enroled and subjected to standard treatment with absolute pressure relief (half shoes), daily wound cleansing (topical disinfectant), sterile dressings (specialized nurse). Patients were randomized to an antibiotic (amoxicillin plus clavulanic acid), or placebo. The study was stopped when the antibiotic proved unsuitable according to swab result, or on clinical grounds (no improvement within 6 days of recruitment). Main outcome measure was the ulcer closing rate during 20 days, as assessed by standardized photographs. All ulcers except one were infected. Of the placebo group (n = 22), 2 patients had to be withdrawn within 6 days, versus 3 patients of the antibiotic‐group (n = 22). In the placebo group, 10 ulcers were healed versus 6 ulcers in the antibiotic group (NS). Mean (95% CI) reduction in ulcer radius was 0.41 (0.21–0.61) mm day−1 in the placebo group versus 0.27 (0.15–0.39) mm day−1 in the antibiotic group (NS). In conclusion, there is no benefit from antibiotic treatment with amoxicillin plus clavulanic acid as a supplement to standard therapy in uncomplicated neuropathic foot ulcers, provided pressure relief is complete, and wound care is performed strictly supervised. However, a Type‐II statistical error cannot be excluded in this small study.
Modeling and Simulation Role in designing a Teleradiology System

In designing complex systems, Engineers, Developers and Systems Architects always have to make quantitative assumptions in order to satisfy anticipated loads and expectations of the final product. Many questions are asked before any complex system design that relate to systems performance, infrastructure and components configuration, behavior prediction and bottlenecks fixes. All these questions can be answered using modeling and simulation tools that allow engineers to predict systems behaviors in different settings and optimize systems in production by identifying bottlenecks and flaws in the infrastructure or workflow.
A comparative investigation of the impact of e-marketing competitive strategies on e-loyalty with focusing on Porter's model

Nowadays, in the goods and services market, retaining existing customers is more profitable than attracting new customers. Since latter costs more than the former, having loyal customers is now a major goal for many organizations. Also, with the development of e-businesses, creating this loyalty as e-loyalty is highly important. The aim of this paper is to investigate the influence of each of the Porter's strategy dimensions, including cost leadership, differentiation and focus, on loyalty in the context of e-business. In this regard, a questionnaire was prepared; subsequent to approving the validity of the questionnaire, it was randomly distributed among a random sample of 100 people who were potential and actual users of particular sites in the City of Isfahan. The findings indicate that, although focus strategy is more effective on creating e-loyalty, no significant difference was observed between the two other strategies in having more influence on e-loyalty.
Targeting plasmid‐encoded proteins to the antigen presentation pathways

Summary: The antigen presentation pathways constitute a fulcrum on which adaptive immunity is balanced, and their manipulation should allow us to induce designer immune responses. The ease and rapidity with which DNA vaccines can be constructed and altered make them ideal candidates with which to test the various targeting strategies that have been conceived to date. These approaches and the mechanisms that may (or may not) underlie their success are reviewed in this article.
Experimental verification of a tactile sensor based on ionic polymer-metal composites

The purpose of this study is to develop a soft tactile sensor which can realize simultaneous measurements of surface shape and texture. We examine the possibility of the tactile sensor based on an ionic polymer-metal composite (IPMC). When tracing a measured object with the IPMC film, the surface shape is estimated from the displacement of the film, and the surface texture is estimated from the vibration of the film. The method for the estimation of displacement was already developed. In this paper, as a preliminary test, the estimation of the roughness of the surface texture was conducted by rubbing waterproof abrasive papers with the IPMC film. The output signals were processed offline, and the pattern classifications based on the frequency analysis were investigated. The differences of the ratio on frequency component of signals were detected against several kinds of the abrasive papers.
Interaction of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 Tat with a unique site of TFIID inhibits negative cofactor Dr1 and stabilizes the TFIID-TFIIA complex

We have previously reported the direct physical interaction between the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) type I Tat protein and the basal transcription factor TBP/TFIID. Affinity chromatography demonstrated that wild-type Tat, but not a transactivation mutant of Tat, was capable of depleting TBP/TFIID from cell extracts. These experiments represented the first demonstration of a basal transcription factor that binds, in an activation-dependent manner, to Tat. We now report that the Tat-TBP interaction can be detected in HIV type 1-infected cells. The domain of TBP interacting with Tat has been mapped from amino acids 163 to 196 by using deletion and site-specific mutants of TBP. This domain of TBP, which includes the HI and S2 domains, is distinct from the H2 binding site for other activator proteins, such as E1A. The interaction of Tat with TFIID regulates the binding of accessory proteins to TFIID. Tat stabilizes the interaction of TFIID with TFIIA in a gel shift assay. In addition, Tat competes for Dr1 interaction with TBP. Our results suggest that the basal transcription factor TBP/TFIID represents an important regulatory molecule in HIV transcription.
Recommendations for the diagnosis, the prevention and the treatment of obesity.

The “Recommendations for the diagnosis, the prevention and the treatment of obesity” were worked on behalf of: − The “Association Française d’Études et de Recherches sur l’Obésité (AFERO)” − The “Association de Langue Française pour l’Étude du Diabète et des Maladies Métaboliques (ALFEDIAM)” − The “Société de Nutrition et de Diététique de Langue Française (SNDLF)” Coordination Arnaud Basdevant, Martine Laville, Olivier Ziegler Organizing Commitee Marie Aline-Charles, Chantal Simon, Maïté Tauber, Pierre Barbe, Charles Couet, Patrice Gross, Michel Krempf, Paul Valensi, Bernard Vialettes Working Group France Bellisle, Jean-Michel Borys, Gérard Chabrier, Philippe Cornet, Jean-Michel Daninos, Françoise Fraïoli, Marie-Laure Frelut, Jacques Fricker, Claude Le Pen, Jean-Michel Oppert, MarieFrançoise Rolland-Cachera, Monique Romon, Patrick Serog, Michel Vidailhet.
Real Vth instability of pMOSFETs under practical operation conditions

Lifetime of pMOSFETs is limited by negative bias temperature instability (NBTI). For the first time, we show that the NBTI-induced threshold voltage shift, DeltaVth, measured in early works by using either the 'on-the-fly' or the conventional transfer characteristics extrapolation techniques is not the real DeltaVth under practical operation. A new method is proposed for estimating the real DeltaVth.
Real and Imagined Cost Effects Upon Human Fixed-Interval Responding

Actual occurrences of cost (point loss per response) were compared with verbal instructions to imagine occurrences of cost in terms of their relative suppression of inter-reinforcement responding under an FI 10 sec. schedule of point reinforcements. Both real and imagined cost attenuated responding. Real cost, however, produced more marked and consistent suppressive effects than imagined cost.
Human T Cells Engineered To Express a Programmed Death 1/28 Costimulatory Retargeting Molecule Display Enhanced Antitumor Activity

Adoptive transfer of T cells genetically modified to express cancer-specific receptors can mediate impressive tumor regression in terminally ill patients. However, T cell function and persistence over time could be hampered by the activation of inhibitory costimulatory pathways, such as programmed death 1 (PD1)/programmed death ligand 1, leading to T cell exhaustion and providing tumor cells with an escape mechanism from immunosurveillance. In addition, the lack of positive costimulation at the tumor site can further dampen T cell response. Thus, as T cell genetic engineering has become clinically relevant, we aimed at enhancing T cell antitumor activity by genetically diverting T cell–negative costimulatory signals into positive ones using chimeric costimulatory retargeting molecules and which are composed of the PD1 extracellular domain fused to the signaling domains of positive costimulatory molecules such as CD28 and 4-1BB. After characterizing the optimal PD1 chimera, we designed and optimized a tripartite retroviral vector that enables the simultaneous expression of this chimeric molecule in conjunction with a cancer-specific TCR. Human T cells, transduced to express a PD1/28 chimeric molecule, exhibited enhanced cytokine secretion and upregulation of activation markers upon coculture with tumor cells. These engineered cells also proliferated better compared with control cells. Finally, we tested the function of these cells in two xenograft models of human melanoma tumors and show that PD1/28-engineered human T cells demonstrated superior antitumor function. Overall, we propose that engineering T cells with a costimulatory retargeting molecule can enhance their function, which bears important implications for the improvement of T cell immunotherapy.
A compact phased array for satcom applications

This paper outlines the development of an electronically steerable receive-only antenna array realized within a project funded by the European Space Agency: the NATALIA project. The antenna has been designed for the reception of mobile satellite services in Ku-band and targets the European high-end automotive market. The design of the prototype is based on an innovative polarization agile phased array concept, the antenna is highly compact in size, has a cost-effective buildup, and shows excellent RF-performance.