Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Percutaneous radio-frequency ablation of hepatic metastases from colorectal cancer: long-term results in 117 patients.

PURPOSE To describe the results of an ongoing radio-frequency (RF) ablation study in patients with hepatic metastases from colorectal carcinoma. MATERIALS AND METHODS In 117 patients, 179 metachronous colorectal carcinoma hepatic metastases (0.9-9.6 cm in diameter) were treated with RF ablation by using 17-gauge internally cooled electrodes. Computed tomographic follow-up was performed every 4-6 months. Recurrent tumors were retreated when feasible. Time to new metastases and death for each patient and time to local recurrence for individual lesions were modeled with Kaplan-Meier analysis. Modeling determined the effect of number of metastases on the time to new metastases and death and effect of tumor size on local recurrence. RESULTS Estimated median survival was 36 months (95% CI; 28, 52 months). Estimated 1, 2, and 3-year survival rates were 93%, 69%, and 46%, respectively. Survival was not significantly related to number of metastases treated. In 77 (66%) of 117 patients, new metastases were observed at follow-up. Estimated median time until new metastases was 12 months (95% CI; 10, 18 months). Percentages of patients with no new metastases after initial treatment at 1 and 2 years were 49% and 35%, respectively. Time to new metastases was not significantly related to number of metastases. Seventy (39%) of 179 lesions developed local recurrence after treatment. Of these, 54 were observed by 6 months and 67 by 1 year. No local recurrence was observed after 18 months. Frequency and time to local recurrence were related to lesion size (P < or =.001). CONCLUSION RF ablation is an effective method to treat hepatic metastases from colorectal carcinoma.
Iron Deficiency Anemia: A Public Health Problem of Global Proportions

Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) is the most common micronutrient disorder in the world, negatively affecting the health and socio-economic wellbeing of millions of men, women, and children (Baltussen et al., 2004). According to the World Health Organization (WHO), IDA constitutes a significant public health problem requiring immediate attention from governments, researchers and healthcare practitioners (McLean et al., 2008). Iron deficiency (ID) is inherently associated with poverty, and is thus particularly prevalent in the developing world where the problem is often exacerbated by limited access to appropriate healthcare and treatment (DeMaeyer & Adiels-Tegman, 1985).
Robust and adaptive algorithm for hyperspectral palmprint region of interest extraction

Recently, hyperspectral imaging has attracted more and more considerable research attention because of its discriminative information. This study proposes a robust approach to adaptively extract the hyperspectral palmprint region of interest (ROI) captured by a hyperspectral palmprint acquisition device, which is considered one of the most important stages in palmprint recognition. For different spectral wavelengths, the image has different illuminations and unbalanced shadows. In particular, mean grey values of palm images in different bands have large variations, such that binarisation of the palm image can be considered a challenging task to accurately separate the contour of the palm from the original image. To solve these problems, this study proposes an adaptive ROI segmentation algorithm, whereby a support vector machine-based method is used to detect the palm from the image and a coordinate established to ensure the accuracy of the ROI. The proposed method has been tested on a hyperspectral palm data set which covers spectrums from 530–1030 nm with 20 nm intervals. The experimental results showed that the proposed algorithm is effective and efficient at locating the ROI in hyperspectral palmprint images, where local binary pattern features were extracted from the ROIs achieving an equal error rate (EER) of 1.49% and an accuracy of 99.51% in recognition.
Mobile Robot Path Planning In A 2-Dimentional Mesh

A topologically oriented neural network is very efficient for real-time path planning for a mobile robot in changing environments. When using a recurrent neural network for this purpose and with the combination of the partial differential equation of heat transfer and the distributed potential concept of the network, the problem of obstacle avoidance of trajectory planning for a moving robot can be efficiently solved. The related dimensional network represents the state variables and the topology of the robot's working space. In this paper two approaches to problem solution are proposed. The first approach relies on the potential distribution of attraction distributed around the moving target, acting as a unique local extreme in the net, with the gradient of the state variables directing the current flow toward the source of the potential heat. The second approach considers two attractive and repulsive potential sources to decrease the time of potential distribution. Computer simulations have been carried out to interrogate the performance of the proposed approaches.
The Resource Aggregation and Integration Platform for Shared Development of the Direct Bank

Direct Banks is critical to provide online users a novel investment path without the intermediation of traditional banks and financial institutions. However, a massive resources are underutilized due to dearth of sharing concepts. The objective of this study was to propose a Direct Bank resource integration platform (DBRIP) by addressing the problem of non-circulating user resources and data resources, and enhance the resource utilization rate among the Direct Banks, including three main layers: first, data layer, multiple data resources is aggregated in this layer; second, function layer, it’s the core of DBRIP architecture that provides a lot of necessary functions for Direct Banks and customers; finally, service layer that provides a series of service functions and ensures customers and Direct Banks have a good user experience. We believe this study provides valuable insights for the development of Direct Banks in era of sharing economy.
Thrombotic Microangiopathy in Acute Pancreatitis

Hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) and thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) are rare thrombotic microangiopathies (1). HUS is characterized by nonimmune hemolytic anemia, thrombocytopenia, and acute renal failure due to occlusion of arterioles and capillaries in the kidneys by microthrombi consisting of platelet aggregates and fragmented red cells. The condition is most common in infants and small children. TTP represents the systemic form of the disease, in which neurologic abnormalities and fever are dominant features, and it is seen more commonly in adults. HUS and TTP were thought of as two distinct entities with markedly different prognoses but are now considered to be part of a disease continuum. For instance, many patients with TTP lack one or more criteria, whereas some patients with HUS have neurologic abnormalities and fever (1). Thrombotic microangiopathy has been reported in association with acute pancreatitis, albeit rarely. The syndrome usually develops within the first 4 days after the onset of pancreatitis and is typified by fever, hemolytic anemia, thrombocytopenia, variable neurologic dysfunction, and acute renal failure. Vascular endothelial cell injury appears important (2), and gram-negative bacterial endotoxins may play a role in its pathogenesis (3). We describe two patients with acute pancreatitis complicated by thrombotic microangiopathy. In these patients, we measured serum endotoxin, antiendotoxin core antibodies, and changes in intestinal permeability to macromolecules to further assess the role of the gut in the pathogenesis of this disorder.
Using rough set to induce dependencies between attributes where there are a large amount of missing values: a SARS data application

Because of the amount of missing values in our SARS data set is very large, to fill in them wholly with the existing methods is impossible or the results of being filled in are not reliable. Only taking two attributes into account can avoid using the large amount of missing values, which is the feature of rough set that other machine learning method cannot hold. In this paper, we induced some rules based on rough set from the SARS data set that have not been detected by medical experts in clinic practice.
Understanding the Transition to Seizure by Modeling the Epileptiform Activity of General Anesthetic Agents

A central difficulty in modeling epileptogenesis using biologically plausible computational and mathematical models is not the production of activity characteristic of a seizure, but rather producing it in response to specific and quantifiable physiologic change or pathologic abnormality. This is particularly problematic when it is considered that the pathophysiological genesis of most epilepsies is largely unknown. However, several volatile general anesthetic agents, whose principle targets of action are quantifiably well characterized, are also known to be proconvulsant. The authors describe recent approaches to theoretically describing the electroencephalographic effects of volatile general anesthetic agents that may be able to provide important insights into the physiologic mechanisms that underpin seizure initiation.
Fuzzy sentiment classification in social network Facebook' statuses mining

Nowadays, posts expressing opinions in social networks are beneficial for businesses, sway public sentiments and emotions having higher social and political impact. In fact, opinions mining or sentiment classification is an important issue in social networks. Therefore, machine learning methods and natural language processing are very effective for opinion mining which are widely used in social media network. The main purpose of the paper is to demonstrate the feasibility of machine learning and sentiment analysis for studying Tunisian users' statuses. We aim to extract terms related to sentiment and behavior, especially during the “Tunisian Election”. While existing sentiment analysis methods focus only on the extraction of positive and negative opinions, in our work we aim to extract fuzzy opinions. That is why we propose to follow Fuzzy Support Vector Machine during our classification process. This later is compared with the basic Support Vector Machine referring to assessement measures such us accuracy, precision, recall, and F-measure.
Molecular pathogenesis of severe cardiomyopathy in the TO-2 hamster.

BACKGROUND Cardiomyopathy (CM) is a life-threatening disease with progressive degeneration of cardiac muscle. From a representative animal model of CM, the BIO14.6 hamster, arose the TO-2 strain manifesting a severe, dilated form of CM. Previous studies demonstrated that both strains have an identical genomic deletion disrupting the delta-sarcoglycan gene to cause CM. OBJECTIVE To elucidate an additional pathogenesis for cardiac dilation in the TO-2 hamster. METHODS Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was used to assess the expression levels of genes for cardiac hypertrophy, such as beta-myosin heavy chain and preproendothelin-1. The involvement of apoptosis in CM was tested using terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP-biotin end-labelling (TUNEL) and DNA ladder assays. The progression of cardiac degeneration was visualized using specific histological staining techniques. Echocardiography was performed to estimate the wall thickness and the movement of a living hamster heart. RESULTS RT-PCR showed the expression of the genes involved in cardiac hypertrophy to be higher in TO-2 hamsters than in BIO14.6 hamsters, contary to what the thin myocardium may suggest. DNA ladder and TUNEL assays showed no significant difference in apoptosis in the hearts of either strain. In contrast, the infiltrate of inflammatory cells was prominent in the myocardium of TO-2 hamsters. In addition to dilation of the cardiac chamber, echocardiography also revealed disharmonized contraction in TO-2 hearts without apparent arrhythmias. CONCLUSIONS Impairment of compensatory cardiac hypertrophy or involvement of apoptosis is less likely to be an additional pathogenesis in the TO-2 hamster. The present data suggest that augmented necrosis is the principal cause of severe CM in the TO-2 hamster. Further analysis of the molecular pathogenesis of TO-2 would help to disclose the final common pathways for the manifestation of CM.
Vectorizing outlines of generic shapes by cubic spline using simulated annealing

A global optimization technique is proposed for the outline capture of generic shapes. This is inspired by a global optimization algorithm based on simulated annealing (SA) by Kirkpatrick et al. [S. Kirkpatrick, C.D. Gelatt Jr., and M.P. Vecchi, Optimization by simulated annealing, Science 220(4598) (1983), pp. 671–680]. The proposed work, in this paper, is concerned with an efficient technique of vectorizing outlines of generic shapes. It is mainly achieved by curve fitting with a generalized cubic spline. The overall technique has various phases including extracting outlines of images, detecting corner points from the detected outline, curve fitting and addition of extra knot points if needed. The last two phases make a significant contribution by making the technique automated. It uses the idea of SA to optimize the shape parameters in the description of the generalized cubic spline introduced. The idea of SA has been used to optimize the shape parameters in the description of the generalized cubic spline introduced. The spline method ultimately produces optimal results for the approximate vectorization of the digital contour obtained from the generic shapes. The process is fully automatic and requires no human intervention. Implementation details are sufficiently discussed. Some numerical and pictorial results are also demonstrated to support the proposed technique.
MagiEntertain : MOBILE ENTERTAINMENT INTERACTION BASED ON MAGNETIC FIELD

For an enjoyable and fun mobile entertainment software, the user interface need to be usable, convenient, and reliable; and the input controllers needs to be natural, intuitive and provide fast feedback on user's actions. In mobile context, most of entertainment applications currently use number pad, keypad, touch screen as input interaction modalities and devices are generally used in outdoors with different noise conditions and interruptions. In addition to that, most of the games require complex interactions and high degree of collaboration between input controllers; thus, users often have difficulties on concentrating long play sessions while trying to perform multiple commands simultaneously using the touch screen. For that reason, there exist couple of mobile phone peripherals for external input to enrich the user interaction; however, they diminish the portability of these devices. In this work, we present a new technique for interaction with mobile entertainment software based on using magnetic field sensor integrated in mobile devices where a properly shaped permanent magnet is used for interaction. Our method provides a powerful interaction technique for mobile entertainment and it can be used both as a simple motion controller, as well as an intelligent gesture recognizer; therefore, enable players to input larger number of commands simultaneously, and enhance the playability and the entertainment. The proposed method is consistent with most of usability and playability heuristics defined for mobile games and other mobile entertainment applications.
Experience with a broth culture technique for diagnosis of bacterial keratitis.

PURPOSE To determine if a broth culture technique is a practical means for bacteriological investigation of keratitis. MATERIAL AND METHODS Twenty-seven eyes of 27 patients with a clinical diagnosis of bacterial keratitis were included in a prospective and non-comparative study at a Danish referral hospital. A corneal scrape was inoculated directly into broth medium which was transferred to the diagnostic laboratory for incubation and subculture. RESULTS Culture was negative in 4 patients, and 19 of the remaining 23 patients had a pure growth of either Pseudomonas aeruginosa (n = 8), Staphylococcus aureus (n = 2), Streptococcus pneumoniae (n = 2), Haemophilus influenzae biotype III (n = 1), Moraxella species (n = 1), Corynebacterium species (n = 1), or coagulase-negative staphylococci (n = 4). In 4 patients there was a mixed gram-positive growth. There was no association between microbiological findings and previous topical antibiotic therapy. Contamination and lack of quantitative assessment of growth proved not to be a problem. CONCLUSIONS By broth culture technique we identified a definite pathogen (P. aeruginosa, S. aureus or S. pneumoniae) in 44% of patients (95% binomial confidence limits: 25-65%). The technique may replace the standard technique of direct plate culture under circumstances where it is difficult to keep a supply of fresh media or transport inoculated plates.
The Validity of Left Ventricular Mass as a Surrogate End Point for All-Cause and Cardiovascular Mortality Outcomes in People With CKD: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND Left ventricular mass (LVM) is a widely used surrogate end point in randomized trials involving people with chronic kidney disease (CKD) because treatment-induced LVM reductions are assumed to lower cardiovascular risk. The aim of this study was to assess the validity of LVM as a surrogate end point for all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in CKD. STUDY DESIGN Systematic review and meta-analysis. SETTING & POPULATION Participants with any stages of CKD. SELECTION CRITERIA FOR STUDIES Randomized controlled trials with 3 or more months' follow-up that reported LVM data. INTERVENTION Any pharmacologic or nonpharmacologic intervention. OUTCOMES The surrogate outcome of interest was LVM change from baseline to last measurement, and clinical outcomes of interest were all-cause and cardiovascular mortality. Standardized mean differences (SMDs) of LVM change and relative risk for mortality were estimated using pairwise random-effects meta-analysis. Correlations between surrogate and clinical outcomes were summarized across all interventions combined using bivariate random-effects Bayesian models, and 95% credible intervals were computed. RESULTS 73 trials (6,732 participants) covering 25 intervention classes were included in the meta-analysis. Overall, risk of bias was uncertain or high. Only 3 interventions reduced LVM: erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (9 trials; SMD, -0.13; 95% CI, -0.23 to -0.03), renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system inhibitors (13 trials; SMD, -0.28; 95% CI, -0.45 to -0.12), and isosorbide mononitrate (2 trials; SMD, -0.43; 95% CI, -0.72 to -0.14). All interventions had uncertain effects on all-cause and cardiovascular mortality. There were weak and imprecise associations between the effects of interventions on LVM change and all-cause (32 trials; 5,044 participants; correlation coefficient, 0.28; 95% credible interval, -0.13 to 0.59) and cardiovascular mortality (13 trials; 2,327 participants; correlation coefficient, 0.30; 95% credible interval, -0.54 to 0.76). LIMITATIONS Limited long-term data, suboptimal quality of included studies. CONCLUSIONS There was no clear and consistent association between intervention-induced LVM change and mortality. Evidence for LVM as a valid surrogate end point in CKD is currently lacking.
Pathologic findings in clinical stage A2 prostate cancer. Relation of tumor volume, grade, and location to pathologic stage

Transurethral resections (TUR) and totally embedded radical prostatectomies from 39 clinical Stage A2 prostate cancers were morphometrically analyzed and compared with 56 prior similarly studied clinical Stage B cancers. All the clinical A2 radical prostatectomies contained residual tumor with 26% having capsular penetration. Clinical Stage A2 tumors were much more heterogeneous than clinical Stage B tumors with respect to tumor location, grade, and amount. In particular, many clinical A2 cases were predominantly central or central and anterior in location (59%) and low‐grade compared with clinical Stage B cases where most lesions were posterior, peripheral, and intermediate grade. Percent of tumor in TUR best predicted final pathologic stage versus TUR grade or volume. Despite statistically significant correlations between tumor percent and/or grade on TUR and final stage, predictability of final stage for individual patients from TUR data was poor. The complex interrelation of tumor location, grade, and amount resulted in wide and overlapping ranges for these parameters for organ‐confined and nonconfined cases.
Dynamic Stability Enhancement and Power Flow Control of a Hybrid Wind and Marine-Current Farm Using SMES

This paper presents a control scheme based on a superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) unit to achieve both power flow control and damping enhancement of a novel hybrid wind and marine-current farm (MCF) connected to a large power grid. The performance of the studied wind farm (WF) is simulated by an equivalent 80-MW induction generator (IG) while an equivalent 60-MW IG is employed to simulate the characteristics of the MCF. A damping controller for the SMES unit is designed by using modal control theory to contribute effective damping characteristics to the studied combined WF and MCF under different operating conditions. A frequency-domain approach based on a linearized system model using eigen techniques and a time-domain scheme based on a nonlinear system model subject to disturbance conditions are both employed to validate the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme. It can be concluded from the simulated results that the proposed SMES unit combined with the designed damping controller is very effective to stabilize the studied combined WF and MCF under various wind speeds. The inherent fluctuations of the injected active power and reactive power of the WF and MCF to the power grid can also be effectively controlled by the proposed control scheme.
Stimulation of Cl secretion by neurokinin A and neurokinin B in canine tracheal epithelium.

We studied the effects of neurokinin A (NKA) and neurokinin B (NKB), the mammalian-derived tachykinins, on the electrical and ion transport properties of canine tracheal epithelium. Both tachykinins dose-dependently increased short-circuit current (Isc) when added to the mucosal (NKA: delta Isc(max) = 24.2 +/- 2.4 microA/cm2, KD = 9 nM; NKB: delta Isc(max) = 1.42 +/- 2.2 microA/cm2, KD = 32 nM) or submucosal (NKA: delta Isc(max) = 10.5 +/- 1.2 microA/cm2, KD = 45 nM; NKB: delta Isc(max) = 2.2 +/- 1.4 microA/cm2, KD = 80 nM) bath. Isc responses to mucosal addition of tachykinins consisted of transient and subsequent steady-state components, whereas submucosal addition elicited only steady-state responses. Inhibition of Cl transport with bumetanide or substitution of Cl reduced the maximal changes in Isc. In paired tissues, NKA increased net 36Cl flux toward the mucosa from 1.83 +/- 0.49 to 2.71 +/- 0.46 mu eq.cm-2.h-1 (p less than 0.05), without affecting net 22Na flux toward the submucosa. The increases in Isc induced by tachykinins were not modified by prior tissue incubation with phentolamine, propranolol, atropine, tetrodotoxin, or indomethacin, but were effectively inhibited by (D-Pro2, D-Trp7,9)substance P. The cyclic AMP (cAMP) levels in the surface epithelium were increased by the addition of NKA and NKB. These findings suggest that NKA and NKB selectively stimulate the secretion of Cl across canine tracheal epithelium, probably by acting directly on the tachykinin receptors, and that these effects are associated with the increased production of intracellular cAMP.