Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Significant radiation reduction in interventional fluoroscopy using a novel eye controlled movable region of interest.

PURPOSE This paper reports the first results obtained using a novel technology called eye controlled region of interest (ECR) that substantially reduces both staff and patient irradiation during an interventional fluoroscopy procedure without interfering with workflow. Its collimator includes a partially x-ray attenuating plate with a nonattenuating aperture. An eye tracker follows the operator's gaze to automatically position the aperture to the clinical region of interest (CROI) anywhere in the image in real-time. METHODS Experiments were performed in a swine model using a mobile fluoroscope with a 30 cm image intensifier and manual control of fluoroscopic factors. The factory collimator and image display monitor were replaced with different components for this study. The full 30 cm field-of-view (FOV) of the image intensifier was irradiated at normal levels, and served as a baseline, when ECR was disengaged. With ECR engaged, most of the 30 cm FOV was irradiated to less than 20% of normal levels while the CROI was normally irradiated. Animal irradiation was determined by physical KAP (kerma area product) measurements. Operator irradiation was characterized by air kerma and air kerma rate measurements near the operator. Data were collected from three pairs of interventions in each of five swine models. RESULTS When ECR was engaged, KAP was reduced to 0.22 (p < 0.001) of baseline and operator irradiation to 0.27 (p < 0.001) of baseline. Overall procedure time had a borderline increase (p = 0.07) but fluoroscopy time was unchanged (p = 0.36) (Wilcoxon signed rank). Measured staff and patient radiation reductions are consistent with this collimator's design. Subjective impressions of imaging improvements are consistent with less scatter reaching the CROI. Engaging ECR reduced irradiation without subjectively or objectively increasing operator workload. CONCLUSIONS The first in vivo evaluation of ECR demonstrated that this technology has objectively reduced KAP and operator irradiation by approximately 75% without interfering with the performance of fluoroscopically guided interventional procedures. In addition, reduced scatter production subjectively improved device visualization. These findings indicate the practicability of achieving better radiation optimization.
Database tomography for information retrieval

Database tomography is an information extraction and analysis system which operates on textual databases. Its primary use to date has been to identify pervasive technical thrusts and themes, and the interrelationships among these themes and sub-themes, which are intrinsic to large textual databases. Its two main algorithmic components are multiword phrase frequency analysis and phrase proximity analysis. This paper shows how database tomography can be used to enhance information retrieval from large textual databases through the newly developed process of simulated nucleation. The principles of simulated nucleation are presented, and the advantages for information retrieval are delineated. An application is described of developing, from Science Citation Index and Engineering Compendex, a database of journal articles focused on near-Earth space science and technology.
Exploiting Wavefront Parallelism on Large-Scale Shared-Memory Multiprocessors

Wavefront parallelism, in which parallelism is limited to hyperplanes in an iteration space, can arise when compilers apply tiling to loop nests to enhance locality. Previous approaches for scheduling wavefront parallelism focused on maximizing parallelism; balancing workloads, and reducing synchronization. In this paper, we show that on large-scale shared-memory multiprocessors, locality is a crucial factor. We make the distinction between intratile and intertile locality and show that as the number of processors grows, intertile locality becomes more important. We consider and experimentally evaluate existing strategies for scheduling wavefront parallelism. We show that dynamic self-scheduling can be efficiently used on a small number of processors, but performs poorly at large scale because it does not enhance intertile locality. By contrast, static scheduling strategies enhance intertile locality for small tiles, maintaining parallelism and resulting in better performance at large scale. Results from a Convex SPP1000 multiprocessor demonstrate the importance of taking intertile locality into account. Static scheduling outperforms dynamic self-scheduling by a factor of up to 2.3 on 30 processors.
Adaptive groupware for wireless networks

Current groupware systems do not work well over wireless networks, as a wireless connection is of variable and often poor quality. Our research suggests a number of changes that allow groupware applications to make efficient use of a wireless channel. One fundamental change is providing adaptability, which allows applications to take advantage of favourable network conditions and to react to difficult conditions as they occur. Our experiments with a multi user text editor revealed several strategies for adaptive groupware. Applying these strategies demonstrated a bandwidth reduction in one scenario of over 90%.
Problems arising when a system of automated weight monitoring is introduced into the home as part of the care for patients with chronic heart failure

Patients with a history of chronic heart failure participated in a study to evaluate a home telemedicine system which monitored their weight daily. Within three weeks of beginning the study, interviews were conducted with patients (n = 5), their partners (n = 4) and their heart failure nurses (n = 3). A thematic analysis was carried out in order to probe their experiences of the illness and their perception of how telemedicine might affect those experiences. When asked, the participants and their partners did not consider that the electronic monitoring system would be much use to them. Nurses also had a number of misconceptions about the telemedicine service. The results demonstrated that patients needed better education, both in the management of their condition and in the use of the telemedicine equipment and the service provided by the call centre, before the telemedicine system could fulfil its potential.
Job Scheduling in a Partitionable Mesh Using a Two-Dimensional Buddy System Partitioning Scheme

The job scheduling problem in a partitionable mesh-connected system in which jobs require square meshes and the system is a square mesh whose size is a power of two is discussed. A heuristic algorithm of time complexity O(n(log n+log p)), in which n is the number of jobs to be scheduled and p is the size of the system is presented. The algorithm adopts the largest-job-first scheduling policy and uses a two-dimensional buddy system as the system partitioning scheme. It is shown that, in the worst case, the algorithm produces a schedule four times longer than an optimal schedule, and, on the average, schedules generated by the algorithm are twice as long as optimal schedules. >
Fuzzy basis functions, universal approximation, and orthogonal least-squares learning

Fuzzy systems are represented as series expansions of fuzzy basis functions which are algebraic superpositions of fuzzy membership functions. Using the Stone-Weierstrass theorem, it is proved that linear combinations of the fuzzy basis functions are capable of uniformly approximating any real continuous function on a compact set to arbitrary accuracy. Based on the fuzzy basis function representations, an orthogonal least-squares (OLS) learning algorithm is developed for designing fuzzy systems based on given input-output pairs; then, the OLS algorithm is used to select significant fuzzy basis functions which are used to construct the final fuzzy system. The fuzzy basis function expansion is used to approximate a controller for the nonlinear ball and beam system, and the simulation results show that the control performance is improved by incorporating some common-sense fuzzy control rules.
Exercise and Type 2 diabetes: the metabolic benefits and challenges

SUMMARY Regular exercise is known to decrease the risk of all-cause mortality, improve insulin sensitivity and decrease blood glucose in patients with Type 2 diabetes. These improvements have been associated with increased skeletal muscle glucose disposal and a decreased hepatic glucose production. In recent times exercise has been linked to improved cognitive function and a reduced risk of dementia. In addition, the changes in hepatic gene expression are very rapid and suggest a direct impact of exercise. Therefore, the benefits of exercise may be more wide ranging than previously believed. Despite the known benefits it has been a challenge to influence policy makers to incorporate exercise into the management of Type 2 diabetes. This is partly owing to a lack of randomized controlled trials to determine the optimal exercise prescription and the variability in study design. In order to affect an increase in daily physical activity there is a need to develop new screening and monitoring tools to provide i.
Performance and fault-tolerance of neural networks for optimization

The fault-tolerance characteristics of time-continuous, recurrent artificial neural networks (ANNs) that can be used to solve optimization problems are investigated. The performance of these networks is illustrated by using well-known model problems like the traveling salesman problem and the assignment problem. The ANNs are then subjected to up to 13 simultaneous stuck-at-1 or stuck-at-0 faults for network sizes of up to 900 neurons. The effect of these faults on the performance is demonstrated, and the cause for the observed fault-tolerance is discussed. An application is presented in which a network performs a critical task for a real-time distributed processing system by generating new task allocations during the reconfiguration of the system. The performance degradation of the ANN under the presence of faults is investigated by large-scale simulations and the potential benefits of delegating a critical task to a fault-tolerant network are discussed.
Characterization of Hepatic Mitochondrial Injury Induced by Fatty Acid Oxidation Inhibitors

Impairment of liver mitochondrial β-oxidation is an important mechanism of drug-induced liver injury. Four inhibitors of fatty acid oxidation were compared in short-term rat in vivo studies in which the rats were administered one or four doses. The hepatocellular vacuolation represented ultrastructural mitochondrial changes. Urine nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy revealed that both FOX988 and SDZ51-641 induced a persistent dicarboxylic aciduria, suggesting an inhibition of mitochondrial β-oxidation and incomplete fatty acid metabolism. Etomoxir caused minimal mitochondrial ultrastructural changes and induced only transient dicarboxylic aciduria. CPI975 served as a negative control, in that there were no significant perturbations to the mitochondrial ultrastructural morphology or in the urine NMR composition; however, compound exposure was confirmed by the up-regulation of liver gene expression compared to vehicle control. The liver gene expression changes that were altered by the compounds were indicative of mitochondria, general and oxidative stress, and peroxisomal enzymes involved in β-oxidation, suggestive of a compensatory response to the inhibition in the mitochondria. In addition, both FOX988 and SDZ51-641 up-regulated ribosomal genes associated with apoptosis, as well as p53 pathways linked with apoptosis. In summary, metabonomics and liver gene expression provided mechanistic information on mitochondrial dysfunction and impaired fatty acid oxidation to further define the clinical pathology and histopathology findings of hepatotoxicity.
Multilayer associative neural networks (MANN's): storage capacity versus perfect recall

The objective of this paper is to to resolve important issues in artificial neural nets-exact recall and capacity in multilayer associative memories. These problems have imposed restrictions on coding strategies. We propose the following triple-layered hybrid neural network: the first synapse is a one-shot associative memory using the modified Kohonen's adaptive learning algorithm with arbitrary input patterns; the second one is Kosko's bidirectional associative memory consisting of orthogonal input/output basis vectors such as Walsh series satisfying the strict continuity condition; and finally, the third one is a simple one-shot associative memory with arbitrary output images. A mathematical framework based on the relationship between energy local minima (capacity of the neural net) and noise-free recall is established. The robust capacity conditions of this multilayer associative neural network that lead to forming the local minima of the energy function at the exact training pairs are derived. The chosen strategy not only maximizes the total number of stored images but also completely relaxes any code-dependent conditions of the learning pairs.
Energy absorption buildup factors of human organs and tissues at energies and penetration depths relevant for radiotherapy and diagnostics

Energy absorption geometric progression (GP) fitting parameters and the corresponding buildup factors have been computed for human organs and tissues, such as adipose tissue, blood (whole), cortical bone, brain (grey/white matter), breast tissue, eye lens, lung tissue, skeletal muscle, ovary, testis, soft tissue, and soft tissue (4‐component), for the photon energy range 0.015–15 MeV and for penetration depths up to 40 mfp (mean free path). The chemical composition of human organs and tissues is seen to influence the energy absorption buildup factors. It is also found that the buildup factor of human organs and tissues changes significantly with the change of incident photon energy and effective atomic number, Zeff. These changes are due to the dominance of different photon interaction processes in different energy regions and different chemical compositions of human organs and tissues. With the proper knowledge of buildup factors of human organs and tissues, energy absorption in the human body can be carefully controlled. The present results will help in estimating safe dose levels for radiotherapy patients and also useful in diagnostics and dosimetry. The tissue‐equivalent materials for skeletal muscle, adipose tissue, cortical bone, and lung tissue are also discussed. It is observed that water and MS20 are good tissue equivalent materials for skeletal muscle in the extended energy range. PACS numbers: 32.80‐t, 87.53‐j, 78.70‐g, 78.70‐Ck
Comparative Phenotypic Assessment of Cardiac Pathology, Physiology, and Gene Expression in C3H/HeJ, C57BL/6J, and B6C3F1/J Mice

Human cardiomyopathies often lead to heart failure, a major cause of morbidity and mortality in industrialized nations. Described here is a phenotypic characterization of cardiac function and genome-wide expression from C3H/HeJ, C57BL/6J, and B6C3F1/J male mice. Histopathologic analysis identified a low-grade background cardiomyopathy (murine progressive cardiomyopathy) in eight of nine male C3H/HeJ mice (age nine to ten weeks), but not in male C57BL/6J and in only of ten male B6C3F1/J mice. The C3H/HeJ mouse had an increased heart rate and a shorter RR interval compared to the B6C3F1/J and C57BL/6J mice. Cardiac genomic studies indicated the B6C3F1/J mice exhibited an intermediate gene expression phenotype relative to the 2 parental strains. Disease-centric enrichment analysis indicated a number of cardiomyopathy-associated genes were induced in B6C3F1/J and C3H/HeJ mice, including Myh7, My14, and Lmna and also indicated differential expression of genes associated with metabolic (e.g., Pdk2) and hypoxic stress (e.g. Hif1a). A novel coexpression and integrated pathway network analysis indicated Prkaa2, Pdk2, Rhoj, and Sgcb are likely to play a central role in the pathophysiology of murine progressive cardiomyopathy in C3H/HeJ mice. Our studies indicate that genetically determined baseline differences in cardiac phenotype have the potential to influence the results of cardiotoxicity studies.
On competitive learning

We derive learning rates such that all training patterns are equally important statistically and the learning outcome is independent of the order in which training patterns are presented, if the competitive neurons win the same sets of training patterns regardless the order of presentation. We show that under these schemes, the learning rules in the two different weight normalization approaches, the length-constraint and the sum-constraint, yield practically the same results, if the competitive neurons win the same sets of training patterns with both constraints. These theoretical results are illustrated with computer simulations.
Analysis and design of primal-dual assignment networks

The assignment problem is an archetypical combinatorial optimization problem having widespread applications. This paper presents two recurrent neural networks, a continuous-time one and a discrete-time one, for solving the assignment problem. Because the proposed recurrent neural networks solve the primal and dual assignment problems simultaneously, they are called primal-dual assignment networks. The primal-dual assignment networks are guaranteed to make optimal assignment regardless of initial conditions. Unlike the primal or dual assignment network, there is no time-varying design parameter in the primal-dual assignment networks. Therefore, they are more suitable for hardware implementation. The performance and operating characteristics of the primal-dual assignment networks are demonstrated by means of illustrative examples.
Crosstalk-aware placement

With today's rapidly shrinking process geometries, designers must address crosstalk, electromigration, IR drop, and other effects earlier in the design cycle to achieve signal integrity. We present a new placement algorithm that minimizes crosstalk and increases design speed 8% on average, in comparison with a traditional timing-driven, congestion-aware placement flow.
Using a periodic square wave test signal to detect crosstalk faults

Built-in self test (BIST) scheme simplifies the detection of crosstalk faults in deep-submicron VLSI circuits in the boundary scan environment. The scheme tests for crosstalk faults with a periodic square wave test signal under applied random patterns generated by a linear feedback shift register (LFSR), which is transconfigured from the embedded circuit's boundary scan cells. The scheme simplifies test generation and test application while obviating the fault occurrence timing issue. Experimental results show that coverage for the induced-glitch type of crosstalk fault for large benchmark circuits can easily exceed 90%.
Evaluation of selected lipid parameters and blood pressure in ethnically-homogenous population of middle-aged persons, depending on gender, age and body mass

The study is a retrospective analysis of data obtained from a cardiovascular disease prevention program financed by the National Health Fund (Poland). The aim of the study was to evaluate the population to demonstrate the prevalence of favourable and unfavourable lipid parameters and blood pressure values depending on age and BMI. A total of 2,616 subjects were included in the study (811 men and 1805 women aged between 35 and 55 years of age) who perceived themselves as completely healthy individuals and in whom no cardiovascular disease or diabetes mellitus had been diagnosed. We evaluated blood pressure values, body weight, height, BMI, fasting glucose, total cholesterol, triglycerides, HDL and LDL in the serum of venous blood. The above-mentioned parameters were compared in women and men depending on BMI and age. It was demonstrated that the epidemiological situation of women in the analysed age group, regardless of the studied parameter and method of its evaluation, is much more favourable than that of men. We have demonstrated that evaluation of the analysed lipid parameters and blood pressure should be performed with consideration to gender and age. Otherwise conclusions may be obtained which are not satisfied by 75-95% of the population in a given age group. Obesity was highlighted as a factor triggering further lipid disturbances and blood pressure increase.
Treatment strategies for nonmotor manifestations of Parkinson's disease

To date, Parkinson's disease tends to have been perceived mainly as a disorder affecting the extrapyramidal motor system and leading to tremor, bradykinesia, rigidity, and – in later stages – postural instability. However, it is now apparent that patients frequently experience additional clinical symptoms, such as pain, autonomic and sensory dysfunction, neuropsychiatric disorders and sleep disorders. These symptoms often impair patients' quality of life to a greater extent than the motor symptoms. Treatment of these nonmotor features is mandatory and directly improves quality of life. Unfortunately, hardly any double-blind, randomized, controlled studies are available, with the consequence that most recommendations are not based on the highest level of evidence.
Validity of two questions on alcohol use in a health survey questionnaire

The aim of this study was to investigate whether consumers of high and low levels of alcohol could be identified by two questions about alcohol use in a postal questionnaire survey. A sample of 2,300 persons aged 18 - 64 years from Stockholm county were sent a masked postal questionnaire comprising 30 questions about their health and functioning. Two questions concerned their alcohol consumption. One year later the subjects underwent a psychiatric health examination, which included an assessment of their alcohol use. The two questions about alcohol consumption identified high alcohol consumers with a relatively high sensitivity and specificity, of 64% and 87%, respectively, and thus are useful for identifying high alcohol consumers in health surveys using questionnaires.
Regulatory Forum Opinion Piece*

Electronic images of histopathological changes are commonly and increasingly used in toxicologic pathology for morphological evaluation, illustration, peer review, or reporting. Toxicity studies in which cell proliferation is an end point are also pivotal in determining the carcinogenic potential of new molecules. In this article, we describe the approach of the European Cell Proliferation and Apoptosis working group (CEPA) for performing cell proliferation studies and morphometry using electronic images. The Society of Toxicologic Pathology (STP) has published a position statement on handling of pathology image data in compliance with 21 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Parts 58 and 11. CEPA supports the STP position and shares the issues involved in the use of electronic images in pathology. However, considering the experience and current know-how of members, particularly in conducting cell proliferation studies, CEPA would like to recommend in this article that electronic images acquired using state-of-the-art slide imaging techniques, including whole slide scanning, need not be considered as raw data, and therefore are not subject to 21 CFR Parts 58 and 11 regulations for archiving. In this article, we detail the reasons why we come to this proposal and we describe the measures that are taken to ensure Good Laboratory Practice–compliant execution of cell proliferation studies that include acquisition and validation of imaging and image analysis systems, development and validation of methods for their intended use, formulation, and use of standard operating procedures.