Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Statin Use Prior to Diagnosis Predicts High Risk Features in Early Stage Endometrioid Endometrial Cancer

Objective: There is increasing evidence that statin use decreases the incidence and improves survival of gynecologic malignancies, but the role in endometrial cancer (EC) has not been defined. Our primary aim is to investigate statin use and its association with high intermediate risk (HIR) features in early stage EC. We hypothesize those women who develop early stage EC while taking statins have less aggressive features on pathology at the time of hysterectomy. Our secondary aim is to determine if concurrent use of other medications demonstrating anti-cancer effects; metformin, NSAIDs and bisphosphonates may reduce the risk of development of HIR early stage EC. StudyDesign: Four-hundred patients with stage I EC who underwent hysterectomy at a single institution from 2008-2013 were reviewed to determine presence of any HIR features. lymph vascular space invasion, Grade 2 or 3 and greater than 50% my invasion. Associations between statin use and presence of any HIR features at the time of hysterectomy were examined using multivariate logistic regression adjusting for age, BMI, parity, diabetes, and hypertension. Baseline metformin, NSAIDs, and bisphosphonate use was also included in the analysis.Results: Of the 400 patients, 75 (18.8%) had at least one high intermediate risk feature, and 124 (28.5%) were taking a statin at the time of diagnosis. Thirty one percent of our patients had BMI >30, 74% of our patients were younger than 70, 21% had a diagnosis of diabetes, 36% of hypertension. Statin use was associated with increased high risk features (OR 2.4, 95% CI 1.3-4.3) at the time of hysterectomy. There was a non-significant higher percentage of patients who recurred in the Statin users 10.5% (12/114) v 6.3% (18/286) in non-users. (p=0.15). Conclusion: Our findings suggest that statin use confers a two times greater risk of having high risk features at the time of hysterectomy for early stage endometrial cancer. Statin use may prevent early stage low risk endometrial cancer, leading to an increased number of patients with HIR features in our statin user population.
Efficient combination of parametric spaces , models and metrics for speaker diarization 1 A Maximum Entropy Approach

In this paper we present a method of combining several acoustic parametric spaces, statistical models and distance metrics in speaker diarization task. Focusing our interest on the post-segmentation part of the problem, we adopt an incremental feature selection and fusion algorithm based on the Maximum Entropy Principle and Iterative Scaling Algorithm that combines several statistical distance measures on speech–chunk pairs. By this approach, we place the merging–of–chunks clustering process into a probabilistic framework. We also propose a decomposition of the input space according to gender, recording conditions and chunk lengths. The algorithm produced highly competitive results compared to GMM-UBM state-ofthe-art methods. Keywords— Speaker Diarization; Maximum Entropy; Fusion Topic area— Singleand Multimedia Indexing
All things considered:Dynamic Field Theory captures effect of categories on children’s word learning

Recent research demonstrates that both real-time variability in perceptual input and task demands influence young children’s word learning and categorisation. The current study extends these findings by testing both children and a dynamic field theory (DFT) computational model in a category labelling task. Specifically, children and the model were introduced to multiple category members that were either moderately or highly variable. Both children and the model were better able to learn category labels when the individual category members were moderately variable. Overall, these findings have implications for both our understanding of children’s categorisation and the use of computational models to investigate cognition more generally.
USCT Image Reconstruction: Acceleration using Gauss-Newton Preconditioned Conjugate Gradient

Ultrasound transmission tomography offers quantitative characterization of the tissue or materials by their speed of sound and attenuation. Reconstruction of such images is an inverse problem which is solved iteratively based on a forward model of the Helmholtz equation by paraxial approximation and thus is time-consuming. Hence, developing optimizers that decrease this time, in particular reducing the number of forward propagations is of high relevance in order to bring this technology into clinical practice. In this paper, we solve the inverse problem of reconstruction in a two-level strategy, by an outer and an inner loop. At each iteration of the outer loop, the system is linearized and this linear subproblem is solved in the inner loop with a preconditioned conjugate gradient (CG). A standard Cholesky preconditioning method based on the system matrix is compared with a matrix-free Quasi-Newton update approach, where a preconditioned matrix-vector product is computed at the beginning of every CG iteration. We also use a multigrid scheme with multi-frequency reconstruction to get a convergent rough reconstruction at a lower frequency and then refine it on a higher-resolution grid. The Cholesky preconditioning reduces the number of CG iterations by approx. 70%~85%; but the computation time for determining the system matrix for the Cholesky preconditioner is dominating, offsetting the gains of the reduction of iterations. The matrix-free preconditioning method saves approx. 30% of the computation time on average for single-frequency and multi-frequency reconstruction. For the robust multifrequency reconstruction, we test three breast-like numerical phantoms resulting in a deviation of 0.13 m/s on average in speed of sound reconstruction and a deviation of 5.4% on average in attenuation reconstruction, from the ground truth simulation.
The production and perception of coarticulation in two types of sound changes in progress

This paper presents two studies that are concerned with the mechanisms by which historical sound change develops from synchronic coarticulatory variation with reference to the diachronic fronting of high back vowels in Standard Southern British and the development of a post-vocalic voicing contrast in the East Franconian variety under the influence of Standard German. The direction and extent of the sound changes in progress were inferred through comparisons between older and younger speakers on production and perception tasks. Both studies suggest that diachronic change has developed out of synchronic coarticulatory variation. We then differentiate this from other aspects of the sound change, including its spread to other contexts unrelated to the direction of the diachronic change and, for the East Franconian data, the development of a trading relationship between coarticulatory source and effect. Taken together, the results show that the complex of sound change is composed of many different parts that are activated in either production or perception at different stages in its development.
Estimates for generalized sparse grid hierarchical basis preconditioners

We reconsider some estimates the paper "M. Griebel, P. Oswald, On additive Schwarz preconditioners for sparse grid discretizations. Numer. Math. 66 (1994), 449-463" concerning the hierarchical basis preconditioner for sparse grid discretizations. The improvement is in three directions: We consider arbitrary space dimensions d>1, give bounds for generalized sparse grid spaces with arbitrary monotone index set, and show that the bounds are sharp up to constants depending only on d, at least for a subclass of generalized sparse grid spaces containing full grid, standard sparse grid spaces, and energy-norm optimized sparse grid spaces.
Roles of protein kinase C in cell death and breast cancer

Aberrant protein kinase C (PKC) activity and expression is implicated in different malignancies. To study the role of different PKC isoforms in breast cancer the expression of PCKα, δ and e was evaluated in breast cancer tumors. In addition the effect of siRNA-mediated knockdown of the isoforms was studied in a global gene expression analysis. We found that high PKCα levels correlate with poor prognosis, high proliferation and estrogen receptor negativity. We have also seen that PKCα suppresses the expression of stanniocalcin-1 in breast cancer cells. Previous reports have shown that PKCδ is a survival factor in several breast cancer cells. Here we show that Smac, a proapoptotic protein, associates with PKCδ in many different cancer cell lines. Furthermore, the PKCδ-Smac association was dissociated upon paclitaxel treatment. Upon PKC activation with TPA the PKCδ-Smac complex was stabilized and the paclitaxel-mediated dissociation and death was suppressed. The decreased cell death could potentially be caused by a competition between PKCδ and XIAP for Smac binding. We also show that activation of PKC sensitizes some breast cancer cell lines to a Smac mimetic called LBW242, a small molecule that mimic the effect of Smac. We found that the TPA+LBW242-mediated cell death was dependent on TPA-induced TNFα production. In addition the combination of TPA+LBW242 enables complex II formation and caspase-3 cleavage, a probable cause of the concomitant cell death observed.
Anxiety and Sensory Defensiveness - A Relationship Study

The aim of this study was to find out the relationship of Anxiety with Sensory Defensiveness. Thirty male adult were considered for this study from different District of West Bengal whose age ranged from 28 to 47 years.The Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and Adult Sensory Questionnaire (ASQ) were used for collecting data. Pearson product moment Coefficient Correlation method was used to find out the relationship of Anxiety with Sensory Defensiveness. The Study showed that positive relationships were observed between Anxiety and Sensory Defensiveness. When Sensory Defensiveness is left unaddressed, adults demonstrate a tendency toward anxiety and depression. So Sensory integration therapies are strongly recommendedto moderate sensory processing disorder.
Shackleton Fracture Zone: No barrier to early circumpolar ocean circulation

The opening of Southern Ocean gateways was critical to the formation of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current and may have led to Cenozoic global cooling and Antarctic glaciation. Drake Passage was probably the final barrier to deep circumpolar ocean currents, but the timing of opening is unclear, because the Shackleton Fracture Zone could have blocked the gateway until the early Miocene. Geophysical and geochemical evidence presented here suggests that the Shackleton Fracture Zone is an oceanic transverse ridge, formed by uplift related to compression across the fracture zone since ca. 8 Ma. Hence, there was formerly (i.e., in the Miocene) no barrier to deep circulation through Drake Passage, and a deep-water connection between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans was probably established soon after spreading began in Drake Passage during the early Oligocene.
Experimental confirmation of a predicted selection rule in inelastic neutron scattering spectroscopy : The quantum translator-rotator H 2 entrapped inside C 60

We report an inelastic neutron scattering (INS) study of H2 molecule encapsulated inside the fullerene C60 which confirms the recently predicted selection rule, the first to be established for the INS spectroscopy of aperiodic, discrete molecular compounds. Several transitions from the ground state of para-H2 to certain excited translation-rotation states, forbidden according to the selection rule, are systematically absent from the INS spectra, thus validating the selection rule with a high degree of confidence. Its confirmation sets a precedent, as it runs counter to the widely held view that the INS spectroscopy of molecular compounds is not subject to any selection rules.
The influence of pitting on comparative X-ray µCT studies

In some studies involving μCT, commonly (bio-)medical or biological, statistically significant results can only be obtained by scanning large series of similar objects. Although reproducibility is optimized by using identical system settings, some factors influencing the imaging chain are to some extend beyond our control, such as detector lag and anode target pitting. In the latter, due to overheating the microfocus electron beam spot produces a pit in the X-ray producing target which influences the beam intensity, the beam spectrum and enhances the heeling effect in the case of directional tubes. In this study the effect of this pitting is investigated both on the image quality and on the quantitative results of the analysis of mice bone used for research of arthritis and osteoporosis.
New developments in diesel engine crankcase emission reduction equirements, design and performance

The role of the filtration system for engine crankcase ventilation has recently increased because of new worldwide engine emission regulations. Turbocharger lifetime, engine emission, and oil consumption greatly depend on the filtration system design and performance of an open crankcase ventilation (OCV) or closed crankcase engine ventilation (CCV) system. Providing optimized solutions for these requirements dictates the development trends of separators and filters used for removal of oil and fuel mist, and solid particles generated by the engine. This paper discusses environmental issues associated with engine crankcase emission, contaminant classification, the needs for protecting the turbocharger against contaminants, and filtration system design and performance. The design section provides analysis of theoretical models applied to coalescing filtration and oil/fuel mist separation techniques. Since there are no existing standards for these systems’ performance evaluation, this paper discusses current activities at SAE and ISO on standard development. Finally, performance characteristics of a new, high efficiency depth-type filter-coalescer are described.
Policy Networks for Reasoning in Long-Term Autonomy

Policy networks are graphical models that integrate decisionmaking models. They allow for multiple Markov decision processes (MDPs) that describe distinct focused aspects of a domain to work in harmony to solve a large-scale problem. This paper presents the formalization of policy networks and their use in modeling reasoning tasks necessary for scalable long-term autonomy. We prove that policy networks generalize a wide array of previous models, such as options and constrained MDPs, which can be equivalently viewed as the integration of multiple models. To illustrate the approach, we apply policy networks to the challenging real world domain of robotic home health care. We demonstrate the benefits of policy networks on a real robot and show how they facilitate scalable integration of multiple decision-making models.
Dark matter astrometry: accuracy of subhalo positions for the measurement of self-interaction cross-sections

Direct evidence for the existence of dark matter and measurements of its interaction cross-section have been provided by the physical offset between dark matter and intracluster gas in merging systems like the Bullet Cluster. Although a smaller signal, this effect is more abundant in minor mergers where infalling substructure dark matter and gas are segregated. In such low-mass systems the gravitational lensing signal comes primarily from weak lensing. A fundamental step in determining such an offset in substructure is the ability to accurately measure the positions of dark matter subpeaks. Using simulated Hubble Space Telescope observations, we make a first assessment of the precision and accuracy with which we can measure infalling groups using weak gravitational lensing. We demonstrate that using an existing and well-used mass reconstruction algorithm can measure the positions of 1.5 × 1013 M⊙ substructures that have parent haloes 10 times more massive with a bias of less than 0.3 arcsec. In this regime, our analysis suggests the precision is sufficient to detect (at 3σ statistical significance) the expected mean offset between dark matter and baryonic gas in infalling groups from a sample of ∼50 massive clusters.
Chain length effect on penetration behavior of mPEG-PCL micelles using multicellular tumor spheroids

Four amphiphilic diblock copolymers with methoxy poly (ethylene glycol) (mPEG) and different chain lengths of polycaprolactone (PCL), encapsulated anticancer drug doxorubicin (DOX) on the hydropholic cores were fabricated. The 1H nuclear magnetic resonance(1H NMR), Gel Permeation Chromatography (GPC) were characterized to confirm the successful synthesis of the copolymeric micelles. In vitro cytotoxicity verify the micelles was non-toxic to cells and DOX loaded micelles shows efficient anticancer activity. The penetration behavior was might assist the diffusion of DOX, which was confirmed by confocal microscopy images. Results indicate that mPEG-PCL micelles were found to substantially provides an efficient antitumor carrier and reduce drawback of free DOX.
Robust Causality Analysis of Non-Stationary Multivariate Physiological Time Series

An important research area in biomedical signal processing is that of quantifying the relationship between simultaneously observed time series and to reveal interactions between the signals. Since biomedical signals are potentially non-stationary and the measurements may contain outliers and artifacts, we introduce a robust time-varying generalized partial directed coherence (rTV-gPDC) function. The proposed method, which is based on a robust estimator of the time-varying autoregressive (TVAR) parameters, is capable of revealing directed interactions between signals. By definition, the rTV-gPDC only displays the linear relationships between the signals. We therefore suggest to approximate the residuals of the TVAR process, which potentially carry information about the nonlinear connectivity structure by a piece-wise linear time-varying moving-average (TVMA) model. The performance of the proposed method is assessed via extensive simulations. To illustrate the method’s applicability to real-world problems, it is applied to a neurophysiological study that involves intracranial pressure (ICP), arterial blood pressure (ABP), and brain tissue oxygenation level (PtiO2) measurements. The rTV-gPDC reveals causal patterns that are in accordance with expected cardiosudoral meachanisms and potentially provides new insights regarding traumatic brain injuries (TBI).
An Improved Multiparty Protocol for Comparison of Secret-shared Values Tord

Given any linear secret sharing scheme with a multiplication protocol, we show that a set of players holding shares of two values a,b∈Zp for some primep (written [a] and[b]), it is possible to compute a sharing [result] such that[result] = ([a] < [b]). The protocol maintains the same security against active/adaptive adversaries as the underlying secret sharing scheme.
Assessment of dengue mosquito breeding sources at Pulicat, Tamil Nadu, India

Dengue Fever (DF) is a viral disease transmitted by female adult mosquitoes, Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus. Until a vaccine becomes available for public health use, primary prevention of transmission is crucial to decrease the burden of dengue, and the control of Aedes species is the only available stratagem. A cross sectional study was conducted at Pulicat village, Tamil Nadu, India. A survey was conducted in a total of sixty nine houses in order to assess mosquito breeding sources for the presence of dengue vector species. Presence of mosquito breeding was confirmed in 56% of the surveyed houses. Both the vector species for dengue transmission were present, with Aedes aegypti as the majority species. This study focused on the prevalence of these vectors in the villages of Pulicat and Vairavan Kuppam as an indicator for the risk of a DF outbreak. However, further studies should consider analyzing other variables that can affect breeding (salinity, disturbance, population density of juveniles), as well as the geographical distribution of houses where breeding is present.
Heart disease prediction using classification and feature selection techniques

The value of measurement age, blood pressure, weight, smoking habits, exercise, and blood serum cholesterol in predicting death and coronary cardiopathy was studied over an amount of ten years. Sixteen teams comprising 12 763 men aged 40-59 years (at the outset) from 7 countries (Yugoslavia, Finland, Italy, Kingdom of The Netherlands, Greece, USA, and Japan) were studied. the very best risk factors were found to be age, pulse blood pressure, and blood serum cholesterol concentration (related to saturated fatty acids within the diet). Variations in incidence rates couldn't be shown to be associated with characteristics of the cohorts in relative weight, smoking habits or physical activity. To design a perceptive model for heart illnesses acknowledgment using data mining strategies that are fit for enhancing the constancy of heart infections conclusion. Thereafter, we divide this data into Training and Testing Data Sets and employ Naive Bayes technique to obtain relatively higher prediction accuracy. The primary goal of this research would be given a highly accurate prediction of Heart Disease. As we have done a combination of Genetic and Naive Bayes Technique, the Investigation would be developed a Hybrid model of both these techniques and called it Hybrid Genetic Naive Bayes Model for predicting high accuracy in results.
The Functional Organization of Vertebrate Retinal Circuits for Vision

Visual processing begins in the retina—a thin, multilayered neuronal tissue lining the back of the vertebrate eye. The retina does not merely read out the constant stream of photons impinging on its dense array of photoreceptor cells. Instead it performs a first, extensive analysis of the visual scene, while constantly adapting its sensitivity range to the input statistics, such as the brightness or contrast distribution. The functional organization of the retina abides to several key organizational principles. These include overlapping and repeating instances of both divergence and convergence, constant and dynamic range-adjustments, and (perhaps most importantly) decomposition of image information into parallel channels. This is often referred to as “parallel processing. ” To support this, the retina features a large diversity of neurons organized in functionally overlapping microcircuits that typically uniformly sample the retinal surface in a regular mosaic. Ultimately, each circuit drives spike trains in the retina’s output neurons, the retinal ganglion cells. Their axons form the optic nerve to convey multiple, distinctive, and often already heavily processed views of the world to higher visual centers in the brain.