Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Role of pre- and intraoperative imaging and neuronavigation in neurosurgery

Advances in neuroimaging acquisition, computing and image processing have enabled neurosurgeons to use radiological imaging to guide both preoperative planning and intraoperative guidance. In preoperative planning, imaging may be used to evaluate surgical risks, choose the best method of intervention and select the safest surgical approach. Neuronavigation may be useful in designing the surgical flap and alerting the surgeon of surrounding anatomy. Finally, intraoperative imaging may be used to define brain shift associated with the resection of intracranial lesions, assist in more complete lesion resection, and monitor for certain intraoperative complications. In the following review, we briefly examine the history of neuroradiology for neurosurgery, neuronavigation and intraoperative imaging and trace their advances to current systems in use. We will also highlight new experimental applications of neuroimaging that are currently being refined.
On creating low dimensional 3D feature descriptors with PCA

With the availability of commodity depth sensors and depth sensing capabilities on mobile devices, there is a need to develop memory efficient and computationally cheap applications. 3D feature descriptor based keypoint matching is the very first step in various computer vision and robotic applications, and is also one of the most memory and computationally demanding steps. In this work, we apply Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to reduce the dimensionality of 3D feature descriptors and show that they retain their descriptiveness, while drastically decreasing their memory and computational requirements. We apply this scalable PCA based dimensionality reduction technique on three state-of-the-art 3D feature descriptors and quantitatively evaluate their performance with varying dimensionality. Experimental results on publicly available Bologna Kinect dataset show that the proposed method reduces the dimensionality of SHOT, RoPS and FPFH feature descriptors from 352 to 50, 135 to 30 and 33 to 15, respectively, while offering more than 90% of the keypoint matching performance.
Role of Prejunctional α2‐Adrenergic Receptors in the Regulation of Myocardial Performance during Exercise in Conscious Dogs

We examined, in conscious dogs, the potential role of prejunctional a2-adrenergic receptors for the regulation of heart rate and contractility response to exercise through modulation of the neurotransmitter release. Changes in heart rate and left ventricular pressure with time during comparable exercise levels, together with changes in norepinephrine concentration in the coronary sinus, were compared before and after the intravenous administration of: prazosin (0.5 mg/kg), a preferential postjunctional α1-adrenergic receptor blocking agent; phentolamine (1 mg/ kg), a nonselective α-adrenergic blocking agent; and yohimbine (0.3 mg/kg), a preferential prejunctional “2-adrenergic receptor blocking agent”. During exercise after phentolamine or yohimbine, changes in heart rate and left ventricular dP/dt were markedly potentiated compared to the control exercise, as well as to exercise after prazosin, whereas the norepinephrine concentration in the coronary sinus was substantially elevated. After intracoronary administration of phentolamine (0.1 mg/kg) or yohimbine (0.03 mg/kg)/ heart rate and contractility response to exercise were also potentiated, compared to the control exercise. These observations indicate that, in the intact conscious animal, prejunctional α2-adrenoreceptors are stimulated during exercise, thereby modulating the norepinephrine release through a negative feedback inhibitory mechanism. Blocking these receptors by phentolamine or yohimbine results in an uncontrolled norepinephrine release dunng exercise associated with an augmented β-adrenergic receptor-mediated end organ response, i.e., a potentiation in heart rate and contractility response.
Acinar Cystadenoma of the Pancreas: A Clinicopathologic Study of 10 Cases Including Multilocular Lesions With Mural Nodules

Pancreatic acinar cystadenomas (ACAs) are rare cystic lesions showing acinar differentiation with benign outcome. Although debated, ACAs are favored to be neoplastic and potentially the benign counterpart of acinar cystadenocarcinoma. We present the largest single institution series to date comprising 10 cases. The mean age was 49 years with a female predominance (M:F=1:2.3). Abdominal/flank pain was the most common presentation (n=6). Serum amylase/lipase and cyst fluid amylase were often elevated. All lesions had a benign outcome on follow-up (5 to 67 mo). The lesions were unilocular (n=3) or multilocular (n=7) with mean size of 3.8 cm (range, 2.9 to 5.0 cm) and 5.1 cm (range, 2.0 to 7.5 cm), respectively. Eight lesions were unifocal with locations as follows: head (n=2), head/neck (n=2), body (n=1), tail (n=1), predominantly extrapancreatic with a microscopic intrapancreatic component (n=1), and unspecified location (n=1). Two lesions were multifocal, involving the head/uncinate/body and pancreatic head, respectively. Two aspects of ACAs that may represent a diagnostic pitfall include the propensity for acinar epithelium to appear as nondescript flat/cuboidal epithelium (trypsin/chymotrypsin immunopositive) and epithelial heterogeneity, with focal mucinous and squamous epithelium, the latter particularly in multilocular variants. In addition, 2 cases with intracystic nodules were observed. Array comparative genomic hybridization performed on 1 of these cases showed multiple chromosomal gains involving 1p, 3p, 5q, 6p, 7q, 8, 10q, 11, 14, 20, and X. These findings provide preliminary evidence that ACAs represent a cystic neoplastic lesion.
Experiments on intertemporal choices and belief change

The dissertation applies experimental methods to study a few questions in economics. Chapter 2 studies how the intertemporal allocation of monetary rewards is influenced by the size of the total budget, with a particular interest in the channels of influence. Chapter 3 introduces a new method of measuring intertemporal preferences, and then applies the method to investigate how people choose between combinations of monetary incomes on different dates. Chapter 4 examines whether the behavior of making a choice between two options has a direct effect on subsequent belief about the attractiveness of the two options.
School-based physical activity does not compromise children's academic performance.

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was twofold: 1) to evaluate the effectiveness of a school-based physical activity intervention, Action Schools! BC (AS! BC), for maintaining academic performance in a multiethnic group of elementary children, and 2) to determine whether boys and girls' academic performance changed similarly after participation in AS! BC. METHODS This was a 16-month cluster randomized controlled trial. Ten schools were randomized to intervention (INT) or usual practice (UP). One INT school administered the wrong final test, and one UP school graded their own test, so both were excluded. Thus, eight schools (six INT, two UP) were included in the final analysis. Children (143 boys, 144 girls) in grades 4 and 5 were recruited for the study. We used the Canadian Achievement Test (CAT-3) to evaluate academic performance (TotScore). Weekly teacher activity logs determined amounts of physical activity delivered by teachers to students. Physical activity was determined with the Physical Activity Questionnaire for Children (PAQ-C). Independent t-tests compared descriptive variables between groups and between boys and girls. We used a mixed linear model to evaluate differences in TotScore at follow-up between groups and between girls and boys. RESULTS Physical activity delivered by teachers to children in INT schools was increased by 47 min x wk(-1) (139 +/- 62 vs 92 +/- 45, P < 0.001). Participants attending UP schools had significantly higher baseline TotScores than those attending INT schools. Despite this, there was no significant difference in TotScore between groups at follow-up and between boys and girls at baseline and follow-up. CONCLUSION The AS! BC model is an attractive and feasible intervention to increase physical activity for students while maintaining levels of academic performance.
Inflammatory Markers and Sleep Disturbance in Major Depression

Objective: This study was conducted to determine whether immune activation occurs in major depression, and to evaluate the associations between disordered sleep and markers of inflammation in patients with major depressive disorder. Methods: All-night polysomnography was obtained in patients with acute Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition major depressive disorder (n = 22) and age-, gender-, and body weight-matched comparison controls (n = 18). After the onset of sleep, nocturnal serum levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6), soluble intercellular adhesion molecule (sICAM), monocyte chemotactic protein (MCP-1), and IL-6 soluble receptor (IL-6sR) were sampled. Results: As compared with matched controls, depressed patients showed significant (p <.05) nocturnal elevations of circulating levels of IL-6 and sICAM. Both sleep latency and rapid eye movement (REM) density had moderate correlations with IL-6 and sICAM (r’s ≥0.30). Backward regression analyses indicated that sleep latency (&bgr; = 0.34, p <.05) and REM density (&bgr; = 0.27, p = .09) were better predictors of IL-6 than depressive status. Similarly, sleep latency (&bgr; = 0.27, p = .06) and REM density (&bgr; = 0.32, p = .02) were also better predictors of sICAM. Conclusion: These findings support the hypothesis that sleep disturbance is associated with elevated levels of the inflammatory markers IL-6 and sICAM. This relationship was not accounted for by other confounding factors such as age and body weight. These findings suggest that the elevations in inflammatory markers found in depressive subjects may be partially the result of disturbances of sleep initiation found in this population. IL-6 = interleukin-6; ICAM = intercellular adhesion molecule; MCP = monocyte chemotactic protein; IL-6sR = IL-6 soluble receptor; UCSD = University of California, San Diego; MHCRC = UCSD Mental Health Clinical Research Center; DSM-IV = Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition; HDRS = Hamilton Depression Rating Scale; REM = rapid eye movement.
A “Wii” bit of fun: The effects of adding Nintendo Wii® Bowling to a standard exercise regimen for residents of long-term care with upper extremity dysfunction

The aims of this randomized, single-blind crossover trial were to investigate the effect of adding a simulated bowling video game via the Nintendo Wii® gaming system to the standard exercise regimen of cognitively intact residents of long-term care (LTC) with upper extremity dysfunction and to identify individual characteristics that might predict improvement. Residents (n=34) were recruited through two LTC facilities in southwestern Ontario and were randomized into a standard exercise (SG) or standard exercise plus Wii bowling (Wii) arm. After 4 weeks of intervention, the groups were crossed over to the opposite arm. Outcomes included measures of pain intensity and bothersomeness, physical activity enjoyment, and a six-item measure of functional capacity designed specifically for residents of LTC. Results suggest that subjects improved on all outcomes from pre- to postintervention but that only enjoyment of activity showed a significant difference between the SG and Wii groups. Effect sizes (Cohen's d) ranged from small (0.30 for bothersomeness) to large (1.77 for functional capacity). Responders, defined as those subjects who reported any degree of improvement following the Wii intervention, were less likely to complain of stiffness or shoulder symptoms and were more likely to complain of hand symptoms than non-responders. Limitations in interpretation and recommendations for future research are presented.
Effects of Sine Wave Combinations on the Development of Precognitive Mode in Pursuit Tracking

A pursuit tracking task was carried out to investigate the effects of combinations of sine waves on the development of precognitive mode, which is defined as open-loop mode with little feedback. Subjects were asked to track the targets, which contained two or three sine waves as components, and then to reproduce the target motion after the target had been removed. Frequency characteristics of tracking revealed the superiority of the faster component over the slower components in terms of both amplitude ratio and tracking lag. Subjects’ reproduction after removing the target demonstrated that in general, subjects could learn and memorize also the slower component motion, which had yielded inferior performance during the tracking period. These results are discussed in terms of a model based on successive organization of perception.
Identification and survival outcomes of a cohort of patients with cancer of unknown primary in Ontario, Canada

Background. Cancer of unknown primary origin (CUP) is defined by the presence of pathologically identified metastatic disease without clinical or radiological evidence of a primary tumour. Our objective was to identify incident cases of CUP in Ontario, Canada, and determine the influence of histology and sites of metastases on overall survival (OS). Material and methods. We used the Ontario Cancer Registry (OCR) and the Same-Day Surgery and Discharge Abstract Database (SDS/DAD) to identify patients diagnosed with CUP in Ontario between 1 January 2000, and 31 December 2005. Patient diagnostic information, including histology and survival data, was obtained from the OCR. We cross-validated CUP diagnosis and obtained additional information about metastasis through data linkage with the SDS/DAD database. OS was assessed using Cox regression models adjusting for histology and sites of metastases. Results. We identified 3564 patients diagnosed with CUP. Patients without histologically confirmed disease (n = 1821) had a one-year OS of 10.9%, whereas patients with confirmed histology (n = 1743) had a one-year OS of 15.6%. The most common metastatic sites were in the respiratory or digestive systems (n = 1603), and the most common histology was adenocarcinoma (n = 939). Three-year survival rates were 3.5%, 5.3%, 41.6% and 3.6% among adenocarcinoma, unspecified carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma and undifferentiated histology, respectively. Three-year survival rates were 40%, 2.4%, 8.0% and 4.6% among patients with metastases localised to lymph nodes, the respiratory or digestive systems, other specified sites, and unspecified sites, respectively. Conclusion. CUP patients in Ontario have a poor prognosis. Some subgroups may have better survival rates, such as patients with metastases localised to lymph nodes and patients with squamous cell histology.
Expression of proline-rich Akt-substrate PRAS40 in cell survival pathway and carcinogenesis

AbstractAim:To study the expression of proline-rich Akt-substrate PRAS40 in the cell survival pathway and tumor progression.Methods:The effects of three key kinase inhibitors on PRAS40 activity in the cell survival pathway, serum withdrawal, H2O2 and overexpression of Akt were tested. The expression of PRAS40, Akt, Raf and 14-3-3 in normal cells and cancer cell lines was determined by Western blot.Results:The PI3K inhibitors worthmannin and Ly294002, but not rapamycin, completely inhibited the phosphorylation of Akt and PRAS40. The phosphorylation level of Akt decreased after serum withdrawal and treatment with the MEK inhibitor Uo126, but increased after treatment with H2O2 at low concentration, whereas none of these treatments changed PRAS40 activity. 14-3-3 is a PRAS40 binding protein, nd the expression of 14-3-3, like that of PRAS40, was higher in HeLa cells than in HEK293 cells; PRAS40 had a stronger phosphorylation activity in A549 and HeLa cancer cells than in HEK293 normal cells. In the breast cancer model (MCF10A/MCF7) and lung cancer model (BEAS/H1198/H1170) we also found the same result: PRAS40 was constitutively active in H1198/H1170 and MCF7 premalignant and malignant cancer cells, but weakly expressed in MCF10A and BEAS normal cell. We also discussed PRAS40 activity in other NSCLC cell lines.Conclusion:The PI3K-Akt survival pathway is the main pathway that PRAS40 is involved in; PRAS40 is a substrate for Akt, but can also be activated by an Akt-independent mechanisms. PRAS40 activation is an early event during breast and lung carcinogenesis.
Outcome Uncertainty, the Superstar Effect, Talent and Live Attendance in Professional Boxing

The relationship between outcome uncertainty, the superstar effect, talent and live attendance at professional boxing matches is analyzed for forty-three contests. The implied probability the underdog will win (taken from bookmaker odds) is used to model outcome uncertainty, while the time-adjusted average number of Twitter Followers of the combatants in a given boxing match is employed as a proxy for the superstar effect. Utilizing a log-log multivariate regression model (with live attendance as the dependent variable and explanatory variables of outcome uncertainty, the superstar effect, average knockout percentage and a dichotomous variable to capture if one or both combatants is an Olympic Medalist), we find only the superstar effect to have a statistically-significant impact on live attendance for professional boxing matches. These findings support recent evidence from English Premier League Football, the Italian Football League (Serie A and B), U.S. Major League Soccer and the U.S. National Basketball Association that star power is a critical determinant of live attendance and television viewership in professional sports. While owners, managers and marketers go to great lengths to promote competitive balance as a means of generating and maintaining fan interest, the aforementioned findings indicate that greater emphasis should be focused on highlighting the quality of the athletes themselves and, more broadly, their celebrity status.
Regulation of polar cap formation in the life cycle of Escherichia coli.

Polar cap formation has been studied in synchronized Escherichia coli cells. It is dependent on a signal given after completion of a round of DNA replication. A 20 min time interval between the release of this signal and physical cell separation is probably the time required for the completion of polar caps. During this time murein is synthesized at an increased rate and cells are especially sensitive to penicillin.
Different Choices: A Public School Community’s Responses to School Choice Reforms

In the United States, state and federal reforms increasingly encourage the expansion of school choice policies. Debates about school choice contrast various concepts of freedom and equality with concerns about equity, justice, achievement, democratic accountability, profiting management organizations, and racial and class segregation. Arizona’s “market”-based school choice programs include over 600 charter schools, and the state’s open enrollment practices, public and private school tax credit allowances, and Empowerment Scholarships, (closely related to vouchers), flourish. This qualitative analysis explores one district-run public school and its surrounding community, and I discuss socio-political and cultural tensions related to school choice reforms that exist within the larger community. This community experienced school changes, including demographic shifts, lowered test scores, failed overrides, and the opening of high-profile charter school organizations near the school.
Continuous CD27 triggering in vivo strongly reduces NK cell numbers

NK cells are important mediators of the early defense. In mice, immature and mature NK (mNK) cells constitutively express the TNF receptor family member CD27; however, mNK cells eventually lose CD27 expression and become resting NK cells. Interaction of CD27 with its ligand, CD70, enhances proliferation and effector functions of NK cells. We used mice that constitutively express CD70 on B cells (CD70‐Tg) to study the in vivo effects of continuous triggering of CD27 on NK cells. Continuous CD70‐CD27 interaction resulted in strongly down‐modulated CD27 expression on NK cells and gradually reduced absolute NK cell numbers. This reduction was most prominent in the mNK cell subpopulation and was at least partially due to increased apoptosis. Residual NK cells showed lower expression of activating Ly49 receptors and normal (liver) or decreased (spleen) IFN‐γ production. Nevertheless, NK cells from CD70‐Tg mice displayed higher YAC‐1 killing capacities. CD70‐Tg NK cells exhibited up‐regulated expression of NKG2D, which is in accordance with the increased YAC‐1 lysis, as this is mainly NKG2D‐dependent. Taken together, this study is the first to demonstrate that continuous CD70 triggering of CD27 on NK cells in vivo results in a severe reduction of NK cells. On a single cell basis, however, residual NK cells display enhanced cytotoxicity.
An EEG analog front-end design with wireless communication module for a portable EEG monitoring system

In this paper, a wireless electroencephalography (EEG) acquisition analog front-end (AFE) circuit design is presented. The wireless EEG acquisition system includes an analog front-end readout chipset (AFERC) with extendable channel, a low-power MSP430 microcontroller from Texas Instruments and a commercial Bluetooth 2.0 module (BTM). The front-end readout chipset not only applies the ability of noise attenuation but also modulates the EEG signal into appropriate amplitude. It has individual 10-bit successive approximation register analog-to-digital converter (SAR-ADC) for each EEG channel, and it transmits the EEG signals which have been serially converted to digital format to MSP430. MSP430 is responsible for rearranging the converted digital bits and controlling the BTM with built-in Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter (UART) interface. The AFERC maximumly reaches to 64 channels, and single channel consumes 80.268 uW. Total power consumption of AFERC is 2.6 mW at with 32 channels, and its Common-Mode-Reject-Ratio (CMRR) is 75 dB.
Inverse Class-E Amplifier With Transmission-Line Harmonic Suppression

This paper reports on the design methodology and experimental characterization of the inverse class-E power amplifier. A demonstration amplifier with excellent second and third harmonic-suppression levels has been designed, constructed, and measured. The circuit fabricated using a 1.2-mm gate-width GaAs MESFET is shown to be able to deliver 22-dBm output power at 2.3 GHz. The amplifier achieve a peak power-added efficiency of 64% and drain efficiency of 69%, and exhibits 11.6 dB power gain when operated from a 3-V supply voltage. Comparisons of simulated and measured results are given with good agreement between them being obtained. Experimental results are presented for the amplifier's response to Gaussian minimum shift keying modulation, where a peak error vector modulation value of 0.6% is measured.