Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Chemoembolization practice patterns and technical methods among interventional radiologists: results of an online survey.

OBJECTIVE The objective of our study was to assess patterns of chemoembolization use; identify variations in application, technique, and follow-up; and recognize areas of practice conformity and divergence. MATERIALS AND METHODS During August and September 2010, Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR) members with "chemoembolization expertise" were invited to participate in an anonymous online questionnaire. RESULTS Two hundred sixty-eight of 1157 invited SIR members (23%) answered the 34-item survey. Respondents were predominantly male (93%) fellowship-trained full-time interventional radiologists (IRs) (87%) in practice for less than 15 years (69%) at community hospitals (61%) in the United States (91%). IRs (53%) most commonly drove therapeutic decision making. Most respondents (61%) performed 1-5 chemoembolizations per month and preferred drug-eluting beads to iodized oil for unifocal (46% vs 39%, respectively) and multifocal (40% vs 30%) hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), although (90)Y radioembolization was favored when portal vein thrombosis was present (48% vs 28%). IRs showed variability in recognized procedure contraindications. Most respondents agreed on chemotherapeutic regimen but showed variable particle embolization use (17-45%) during oily chemoembolization. The 100- to 300-μm (49%) LC Beads (AngioDynamics) (65%) were the favored drug-eluting beads. Lobar chemoembolization was preferred. Treatment endpoints lacked consensus, but substasis was most desirable (56%). Up to 19% of respondents performed outpatient chemoembolization. Concurrent percutaneous ablation was infrequently used (applied in 0-25% of cases by 61-91% of respondents). Most (up to 74%) IRs preferred CT follow-up with the decision for retreatment based on CT evidence of viable disease (93%). CONCLUSION Variability in chemoembolization practice exists among IRs. Continued investigation of treatment strategies and devices is necessary to better optimize and standardize transcatheter therapies for liver tumors.
Frequency and Time Domain Channel Models for Nanonetworks in Terahertz Band

Time and frequency domain channel models are proposed for nanonetworks utilizing the terahertz band (0.1-10 THz) for wireless communication. Nanonetworks are formed by tiny nanodevices which consist of nanoscale (molecular scale) components. Channel models capturing the unique peculiarities of the THz band are needed for designing proper physical layer techniques and for accurate performance analysis. Existing channel models have included the free space path loss and the molecular absorption loss, which is significant in the THz band. This paper theoretically analyzes scattering including multiple scattering referring to a sequence of scattering events from small particles, such as aerosols. Both the frequency and the impulse responses are derived. It is shown that the small particle scattering can result into significant additional loss that needs to be taken into account with the loss depending on the density and size distribution of the particles. It is shown that multiple scattering leads to a long tail in the impulse response. As most of the physical layer proposals for nanonetworks are based on the on-off keying, the channel response to pulse waveforms is specifically considered.
Block Copolymers—Designer Soft Materials

Block copolymers are all around us, found in such products as upholstery foam, adhesive tape and asphalt additives. This class of macromolecules is produced by joining two or more chemically distinct polymer blocks, each a linear series of identical monomers, that may be thermodynamically incompatible (like oil and vinegar). Segregation of these blocks on the molecular scale (5–100 nm) can produce astonishingly complex nanostructures, such as the “knitting pattern” shown on the cover of this issue of PHYSICS TODAY. This striking pattern, discovered by Reimund Stadler and his coworkers, reflects a delicate free‐energy minimization that is common to all block copolymer materials.
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder secondary to lesion of the basal ganglia

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a childhood onset autoregulation disorder characterized by attention deficit, hyperactivity and/or impul- siveness, which results in social and academic functional impairment. ADHD has a complex aetiology: along with genetic factors, anomalies in several cere-bral districts have been reported. We describe the case of a 9 year old boy with glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency in association with memory, behavioural and attentive disabilities. The patient’s clinical history is characterized by cerebral stroke at 3 years of age during a febrile episode, resulted in slight hemiparesis. Neuroimaging revealed a cystic lesion in the anterior portion of the right lenticular nucleus. Neuropsychological and psychiatric assess- ment evidenced alterations of executive functions. Diagnosis of ADHD secondary to lesion of the basal ganglia was made. We report the patient’s clinical profile in the light of current evidence pointing towards dysfunction of the basal ganglia as a crucial aetiological factor in memory and executive function impairment.
Mechanism of efficient elimination of protein D2 in outer membrane of imipenem-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Most imipenem-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates produce an immunologically undetectable level of protein D2 (OprD2). To study the efficient elimination of the protein, we selected 23 independent imipenem-resistant mutants from a strain harboring the plasmid carrying cloned oprD and having a mutation in chromosomal oprD. All these oprD/oprD (plasmid/chromosomal) mutants expressed undetectable levels of OprD2, as shown from an assay by the immunoblotting method. Restriction maps of the DNAs from all 23 mutant plasmids could be divided into two groups. Restriction mapping and sequencing analysis of DNA from one representative plasmid from each group showed that both mutant oprD genes had a deletion. One had an 11-bp deletion in the coding region generating a frameshift mutation and a premature termination codon. Another had a large deletion encompassing the upstream site of its putative promoter region through the coding region. Northern blotting analysis showed that the gene with the 11-bp deletion was transcribed to about 1.5 kb of mRNA, but the gene with the large deletion produced undetectable RNA complementary to the oprD DNA probe. Since we analyzed only plasmid-borne oprD, we cannot exclude the possibility that the imipenem resistance caused by the chromosomal mutation is by a different mechanism(s). It is suggested, yet, that clear elimination of OprD2 from most imipenem-resistant P. aeruginosa isolates is due to efficient selection of the oprD deletion mutants.
A Literature Survey for Virtual Environments: Military Flight Simulator Visual Systems and Simulator Sickness

Researchers in the field of virtual environments (VE), or virtual reality, surround a participant with synthetic stimuli, The flight simulator community, primarily in the U.S. military, has a great deal of experience with aircraft simulations, and VE researchers should be aware of the major results in this field. In this survey of the literature, we have especially focused on military literature that may be hard for traditional academics to locate via the standard journals. One of the authors of this paper is a military helicopter pilot himself, which was quite useful in obtaining access to many of our references. We concentrate on research that produces specific, measured results that apply to VE research. We assume no background other than basic knowledge of computer graphics, and explain simulator terms and concepts as necessary. This paper ends with an annotated bibliography of some harder to find research results in the field of flight simulators: • The effects of display parameters, including field-of-view and scene complexity; • The effect of lag in system response; • The effect of refresh rate in graphics update; • The existing theories on causes of simulator sickness; and • The after-effects of simulator use Many of the results we cite are contradictory. Our global observation is that with flight simulator research, like most human-computer interaction research, there are very few correct answers. Almost always, the answer to a specific question depends on the task the user was attempting to perform with the simulator.
Image Annotation Based on Color and Texture features

This paper presents a method for the establishment of mapping between low-level visual features and high-level semantic features based on Gaussian mixture model (GMM). We combine color features and texture features based on Gabor filter, an image annotation algorithm based on GMM clustering is put forward through the research in image processing. In an image database that contains 1000 images, the experimental results show that the proposed method has better performance.
Utilization of hydrophilic gums for the control of drug substance release from tablet formulations. II. Influence of tablet hardness and density on dissolution behavior.

The influence of tablet hardness and density variation on in vitro dissolution of dye from controlled release tablets made with different types and viscosity grades of hydrophilic polymers was investigated. Tablet volumes were maintained constant and the weight varied to obtain varying degrees of hardness and density. Tablets made at varying hardness did not show markedly different release characteristics as evaluated by an in vitro method. Different release patterns were, however, observed with tablets prepared from different gums.
A design scheme of the smart appliances to minimize energy cost without reducing customer's utility

Introduction of the smart grid circumstance encourages more demand-side participation in the power system operation. Accordingly, many kinds of the demand response (DR) programs are implemented by electric utilities. Among the DR programs, real-time pricing (RTP) is considered as a good option to utilities because it can directly reflect time-varying production cost to retail price; however, an implementation of RTP requires an automated scheme in customer side especially for the residential customers who have hard time to respond to time-varying price signal manually. This study suggests a customer-side automated scheme result from modifying legacy type appliances into smart appliances. The objective of the modification is minimization of customer's energy cost. In addition, it also reduces the peak-to-average ratio (PAR) on utility perspective. Two types of the SAs are modeled which are do more type SA and store type SA. In design process, the most important philosophy is that customer is not aware of the control. Through the design methodologies presented in this study, customers get financial benefit under RTP while their utility is not reduced. Furthermore, electric utilities can benefit from lowered PAR.
Genetics of resistance to third‐generation cephalosporins in clinical isolates of Streptococcus pneumoniae

Resistance to third‐generation cephalosporins in a clinical isolate of Streptococcus pneumoniae was shown to be due to the production of altered forms of penicillin‐binding proteins (PBPs) 2X and 1A. The cloned PBP2X gene from the resistant strain was able to transform a susceptible strain to an intermediate level of resistance. The resulting transformant could be transformed to the full level of resistance of the clinical isolate using the cloned PBP1A gene from the latter strain. Chromosomal DNA from the resistant strain (and from other resistant strains) could readily transform a susceptible strain to the full level of resistance to third‐generation cephalosporins (>250‐fold for cefotaxime; >100‐fold for ceftriaxone) in a single step (transformation frequency of about 10‐5). The resistant transformants obtained with chromosomal DNA were shown by gene fingerprinting to have gained both the PBP1A and PBP2X genes from the DNA donor.
Scalable, transparent, and post-quantum secure computational integrity

Human dignity demands that personal information, like medical and forensic data, be hidden from the public. But veils of secrecy designed to preserve privacy may also be abused to cover up lies and deceit by parties entrusted with Data, unjustly harming citizens and eroding trust in central institutions. Zero knowledge (ZK) proof systems are an ingenious cryptographic solution to the tension between the ideals of personal privacy and institutional integrity, enforcing the latter in a way that does not compromise the former. Public trust demands transparency from ZK systems, meaning they be set up with no reliance on any trusted party, and have no trapdoors that could be exploited by powerful parties to bear false witness. For ZK systems to be used with Big Data, it is imperative that the public verification process scale sublinearly in data size. Transparent ZK proofs that can be verified exponentially faster than data size were first described in the 1990s but early constructions were impractical, and no ZK system realized thus far in code (including that used by crypto-currencies like ZcashTM) has achieved both transparency and exponential verification speedup, simultaneously, for general computations. Here we report the first realization of a transparent ZK system (ZK-STARK) in which verification scales exponentially faster than database size, and moreover, this exponential speedup in verification is observed concretely for meaningful and sequential computations, described next. Our system uses several recent advances on interactive oracle proofs (IOP), such as a “fast” (linear time) IOP system for error correcting codes. Our proof-of-concept system allows the Police to prove to the public that the DNA profile of a Presidential Candidate does not appear in the forensic DNA profile database maintained by the Police. The proof, which is generated by the Police, relies on no external trusted party, and reveals no further information about the contents of the database, nor about the candidate’s profile; in particular, no DNA information is disclosed to any party outside the Police. The proof is shorter than the size of the DNA database, and verified faster than the time needed to examine that database naı̈vely. *Technion — Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel; supported by the Israel Science Foundation (grant # 1501/14), the US–Israel Binational Science Foundation, and the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research And Innovation Programme under grant agreement no. 693423. Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA.
Body mass index and pancreatic cancer risk: A meta‐analysis of prospective studies

A number of studies have examined the association between body mass index (BMI) and risk of pancreatic cancer, but uncertainty about the relationship remains. We performed a meta‐analysis to summarize the evidence from prospective studies investigating this association. We searched MEDLINE for studies published in any language from 1966 to November 2006. Prospective studies were included if they reported relative risks (RRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the association between BMI and pancreatic cancer incidence or mortality. Study‐specific RR estimates were combined by use of a random‐effects model. A total of 21 independent prospective studies, involving 3,495,981 individuals and 8,062 pancreatic cancer cases, met the inclusion criteria. The estimated summary RR of pancreatic cancer per 5 kg/m2 increase in BMI was 1.12 (95% CI, 1.06–1.17; p‐heterogeneity = 0.13) in men and women combined, 1.16 (95% CI, 1.05–1.28; p‐heterogeneity = 0.001) in men, and 1.10 (95% CI, 1.02–1.19; p‐heterogeneity = 0.12) in women. There was no evidence of publication bias (p = 0.58). Findings from this meta‐analysis of prospective studies support a positive association between BMI and risk of pancreatic cancer in men and women. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Resistance to CCR 5 inhibitors caused by sequence changes in the fusion peptide of HIV-1 gp 41

We have investigated the mechanism of resistance of a HIV type 1 (HIV-1) R5 primary isolate, D1/85.16, to the small molecule CCR5 inhibitor, vicriviroc (VVC). Unlike other viruses resistant to this class of compound, D1/85.16 lacks sequence changes in the V3 region of the gp120 surface glycoprotein. Inspection of env sequences from D1/85.16 compared with those derived from the parental, inhibitor-sensitive virus, CC1/85, revealed a cluster of 3 conservative changes in the fusion peptide (FP) of the gp41 transmembrane glycoprotein that tracked with the resistance phenotype. Studies with engineered Env-chimeric and point-substituted viruses confirmed that these 3 FP residues were substantially responsible for VVC resistance without altering coreceptor usage, as assessed in both peripheral blood mononuclear cells and the TZM-bl cell line. VVC resistance is manifested differently in the 2 cell types, and there are assay-dependent complexities to the dose-response curves for the engineered resistant viruses. To explain them, we created a model for resistance and generated theoretical VVC inhibition curves that closely mimic the experimental data for the resistant viruses. The basis for the model is the existence of distinct forms of CCR5, with varying affinities for small molecule CCR5 inhibitors that are presumed to be present in different proportions on different cell types, and are used selectively by resistant HIV-1 variants when ligated with an inhibitor. Together, the experimental results and theoretical model may help understand how HIV-1 uses CCR5 to enter target cells under various conditions.
ARE GENDER DIFFERENCES IN HIGH ACHIEVEMENT DISAPPEARING? A TEST IN ONE INTELLECTUAL DOMAIN

Males traditionally predominate at upper achievement levels. One general view holds that this is due only to various social factors such as the ‘glass ceiling’ and lack of female role models. Another view holds that it occurs partly because of innate ability differences, with more males being at upper ability levels. In the last few decades, women have become more achievement focused and competitive and have gained many more opportunities to achieve. The present study examined one intellectual domain, international chess, to quantify its gender differences in achievement and to see if these have been diminishing with the societal changes. Chess is a good test domain because it is a meritocracy, it has objective performance measures, and longitudinal data of a whole population are available. Performance ratings overall and in the top 10, 50 and 100 players of each sex show large gender differences and little convergence over the past three decades, although a few females have become high achievers. The distribution of performance ratings on the January 2004 list shows a higher male mean and evidence for more male variation, just as with traits such as height. Career patterns of players first on the list between 1985 and 1989 show that top males and females entered the list at about the same age but females tend to play fewer games and have shorter careers. In this domain at least, the male predominance is large and has remained roughly constant despite societal changes.
Um sistema de controle da produção para a manufatura celular. Parte II: um sistema de emissão de ordens e programação de operações

Este artigo e o da Parte I (Sistema de Apoio a Decisao para a Elaboracao do Programa Mestre de Producao) fazem parte de um trabalho que visa integrar todas as atividades de programacao da producao dentro do contexto de um Sistema de Controle da Producao, concebido para operar na manufatura celular semi-repetitiva. Na Parte I explicamos o que entendemos por manufatura celular semi-repetitiva. O sistema proposto foi concebido e implementado no computador em 3 modulos (nivel de produto final, de componentes e de operacoes). O primeiro foi tratado no artigo da Parte I, enquanto que os outros dois modulos sao tratados neste artigo (Parte II). Em cada um deles existem contribuicoes relevantes para a literatura especializada.
Morphology of spermatozoa bound to the zona pellucida of human oocytes that failed to fertilize in vitro.

The morphology of spermatozoa bound to the zona pellucida (ZP) of 264 oocytes that had failed to fertilize in 58 in vitro fertilization procedures was studied by light microscopy. The percentage of spermatozoa with normal morphology bound to the ZP (mean 77, range 8-100) was significantly higher than in the insemination medium (mean 42, range 2-80). The abnormal spermatozoa bound to the ZP had small oval (47%), pyriform (46%), amorphous (5%) and tapering (2%) heads. Other abnormalities of morphology were not observed in ZP-bound spermatozoa. The mean rates of binding to the ZP of spermatozoa with normal morphology (44, 95% confidence limits 42-46, number bound/ZP/10(5)/ml inseminated) were much higher than for abnormal spermatozoa with small oval 6.5 (5.5-7.6), pyriform 5.9 (4.8-7.3), amorphous 1.0 (0.5-2.0) and tapering 2.5 (1.2-5.3) heads. The morphologically abnormal forms not found on the ZP were infrequent in the insemination medium (tail defects, large oval, round, pin and duplicate heads and cytoplasmic droplets) but upper 95% confidence limits for standardized binding ratios of less than 60% indicated that these were unlikely to bind to the zona with rates approaching those of normal spermatozoa (standardized binding ratio 180%). A large number of uniformly normal spermatozoa bound to the ZP when the percentage normal morphology in the insemination medium was greater than 40%. The proportions of abnormal spermatozoa in the insemination medium. Spermatozoon head dimensions were measured with a micrometer in samples from 14 patients. While there were no consistent changes in all samples, the means for head width and area were significantly larger and the ratio of the length to width was smaller for spermatozoa on the ZP than for those in the insemination medium. The head length and ratio of length to width of spermatozoa in samples with good morphology were significantly less than in samples with poor morphology. The percentage of spermatozoa with normal morphology, motility and the ratio of head length to width in the insemination medium were positively correlated with the percentage of spermatozoa with normal morphology bound to the ZP. Logistic regression analysis showed that the diagnosis of tubal infertility and the rate of binding of spermatozoa with normal morphology to the ZP were positively related to fertilization rates in vitro while the rate of binding of spermatozoa with pyriform heads was negatively related. In conclusion. human ZP are highly selective for spermatozoa with normal morphology. The frequency of binding of abnormal spermatozoa to the ZP was mainly dependent on semen quality. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)