Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Skeleton Supervised Airway Segmentation

Fully-supervised airway segmentation has accomplished significant triumphs over the years in aiding pre-operative diagnosis and intra-operative navigation. However, full voxel-level annotation constitutes a labor-intensive and time-consuming task, often plagued by issues such as missing branches, branch annotation discontinuity, or erroneous edge delineation. label-efficient solutions for airway extraction are rarely explored yet primarily demanding in medical practice. To this end, we introduce a novel skeleton-level annotation (SkA) tailored to the airway, which simplifies the annotation workflow while enhancing annotation consistency and accuracy, preserving the complete topology. Furthermore, we propose a skeleton-supervised learning framework to achieve accurate airway segmentation. Firstly, a dual-stream buffer inference is introduced to realize initial label propagation from SkA, avoiding the collapse of direct learning from SkA. Then, we construct a geometry-aware dual-path propagation framework (GDP) to further promote complementary propagation learning, composed of hard geometry-aware propagation learning and soft geometry-aware propagation guidance. Experiments reveal that our proposed framework outperforms the competing methods with SKA, which amounts to only 1.96% airways, and achieves comparable performance with the baseline model that is fully supervised with 100% airways, demonstrating its significant potential in achieving label-efficient segmentation for other tubular structures, such as vessels.
Portable and Air Conditioner-Based Bio-Protection Devices to Prevent Airborne Infections in Acute and Long-Term Healthcare Facilities, Public Gathering Places, Public Transportation, and Similar Entities

The nature in which the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic started and spread all over the world has surprised and shocked experts and the general population alike. This has brought out a worldwide desire and serious efforts to prevent, or at least reduce, the severity of another airborne viral infection and protect individuals gathering for various reasons. Toward this main purpose, a novel method to disinfect the air, using graded, predictable, safe, and reliable dosage of ultraviolet C (UVC), with specially designed devices, is described here. Individuals exclusively breathing this disinfected air can prevent infection, thus destroying the airborne virus or any other pathogens outside the human body to prevent acute and chronic damage to the organs and provide a sense of security to congregate, use public transport, and be protected in acute and long-term healthcare facilities. The study involved designing and testing a unit with one UVC chamber and another unit with six UVC chambers both enclosed in UVC-opaque housings that could be used to destroy airborne pathogens. Wild-type severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was used as a representative pathogen. The virus was fed into these units and in both units, the virus was destroyed to undetectable levels. Such disinfected air can be made available for individuals to breathe at an individual and a community level. The two units that were studied were able to destroy the SARS-CoV-2 virus completely in UVC-opaque housings, making them safe for human use. By employing the air to bring the virus to the UVC, the problem of the virus getting protected behind structures was avoided. The individuals get to breathe totally disinfected air through a mask or a ventilator. To protect individuals who are unable or unwilling to use these units meant for individual use, the same principle can be expanded for use with air conditioners to provide community protection. It is envisaged that this method can prevent airborne infections from turning into pandemics and is a clear example of advocating prevention, rather than treatment. These units are expandable and the UVC dosage to the pathogen can be adjusted and predictable, thereby making it a standard technique to study the dosage needed to inactivate different pathogens.
CLEC11A methylation is correlated to AML subtypes and cytogenetic risk factors but not patient demographics

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is an aggressive and lethal cancer of the blood, which leads to the death of over 11,000 patients in the United States each year. Research on identifying, characterizing, and treating AML is crucial in the fight against this deadly disease. Recent studies have examined the role of CLEC11A in cancer, including AML. However, there have been conflicting reports related to tumor progression and survival. Because survival is based on a variety of factors, including classification of the tumor, genetic risk factors, and demographics, it is imperative that we determine what role CLEC11A may have in cancer survival. Therefore, utilizing data from the Genomic Data Commons, we analyzed CLEC11A methylation in 108 AML patients compared to FAB classification, cytogenetic risk factors, age, race, and gender. Our results show statistically significant correlations between methylation of CLEC11A and FAB classification as well as poor genetic risk factors. However, no difference was observed in CLEC11A methylation when compared to demographic data. Our results, matched with a known biological function of CLEC11A in early hematopoiesis, indicate that CLEC11A may be an important marker for AML diagnosis and prognosis and provide relevant data in the ongoing search for novel therapeutics to improve AML survival.
Optimizing Production of Heat Stressed Broilers

Broiler chickens are highly susceptible to heat stress during the time at which their growth rates ought to be highest. In order to overcome the deleterious effect of heat stress, consideration has to be given to ways in which the heat production of the bird and its ability to dissipate heat are brought into balance whilst still permitting the birds to eat and grow rapidly. Methods for adjusting this balance include changes in the micro environment of the birds, alterations to heat output by variations in the timing, quantity and quality of food and enabling the bird to maximize its use of fluids for evaporative cooling.
Alternative host shapes transmission and life‐history trait correlations in a multi‐host plant pathogen

Abstract Most pathogens are generalists capable of infecting multiple host species or strains. Trade‐offs in performance among different hosts are expected to limit the evolution of generalism. Despite the commonness of generalism, the variation in infectivity, transmission, and trade‐offs in performance among host species have rarely been studied in the wild. To understand the ecological and evolutionary drivers of multi‐host pathogen infectivity and transmission potential, I studied disease severity, transmission dynamics, and infectivity variation of downy mildew pathogen Peronospora sparsa on its three host plants Rubus arcticus, R. chamaemorus, and R. saxatilis. In a survey of 20 wild and cultivated sites of the three host species, disease severity varied by host species and by host population size but not among wild and cultivated sites. To understand how alternative host presence and plant diversity affect transmission of the pathogen, I conducted a transmission experiment. In this experiment, alternative host abundance and plant diversity together modified P. sparsa transmission to trap plants. To understand how resistance to P. sparsa varies among host species and genotypes, I conducted an inoculation experiment using 10 P. sparsa strains from different locations and 20 genotypes of the three host species. Significant variation in infectivity was found among host genotypes but not among host species. When trade‐offs for infectivity were tested, high infectivity in one host species correlated with high infectivity in another host species. However, when pathogen transmission‐related life‐history correlations were tested, a positive correlation was found in R. arcticus but not in R. saxatilis. The results suggest that host resistance may shape pathogen life‐history evolution with epidemiological consequences in a multi‐host pathogen.
Characterizing major depressive disorder and substance use disorder using heatmaps and variable interactions: The utility of operant behavior and brain structure relationships

Background Rates of depression and addiction have risen drastically over the past decade, but the lack of integrative techniques remains a barrier to accurate diagnoses of these mental illnesses. Changes in reward/aversion behavior and corresponding brain structures have been identified in those with major depressive disorder (MDD) and cocaine-dependence polysubstance abuse disorder (CD). Assessment of statistical interactions between computational behavior and brain structure may quantitatively segregate MDD and CD. Methods Here, 111 participants [40 controls (CTRL), 25 MDD, 46 CD] underwent structural brain MRI and completed an operant keypress task to produce computational judgment metrics. Three analyses were performed: (1) linear regression to evaluate groupwise (CTRL v. MDD v. CD) differences in structure-behavior associations, (2) qualitative and quantitative heatmap assessment of structure-behavior association patterns, and (3) the k-nearest neighbor machine learning approach using brain structure and keypress variable inputs to discriminate groups. Results This study yielded three primary findings. First, CTRL, MDD, and CD participants had distinct structure-behavior linear relationships, with only 7.8% of associations overlapping between any two groups. Second, the three groups had statistically distinct slopes and qualitatively distinct association patterns. Third, a machine learning approach could discriminate between CTRL and CD, but not MDD participants. Conclusions These findings demonstrate that variable interactions between computational behavior and brain structure, and the patterns of these interactions, segregate MDD and CD. This work raises the hypothesis that analysis of interactions between operant tasks and structural neuroimaging might aide in the objective classification of MDD, CD and other mental health conditions.
NUCLEOSIDES, NUCLEOTIDES & NUCLEIC ACIDS

Since de-novo synthesis of pyrimidine nucleotides is coupled to the mitochondrial respiratory chain (RC) via dehydroorotic acid dehydrogenase (DHODH), respiratory chain dysfunction should impair pyrimidine synthesis. To investigate this, we used specific RC inhibitors, Antimycin A and Rotenone, to treat primary human keratinocytes and 143B cells, a human osteosarcoma cell line, in culture. This resulted in severe impairment of de novo pyrimidine nucleotide synthesis. The effects of RC inhibition were not restricted to pyrimidine synthesis, but concerned purine nucleotides, too. While the total amount of purine nucleotides was not diminished, they were significantly broken down from triphosphates to monophosphates, reflecting impaired mitochondrial ATP regeneration. The effect of Rotenone was similar to that of Antimycin A. This was surprising since Rotenone inhibits complex I of the respiratory chain, which is upstream of ubiquinone where DHODH interacts with the RC. In order to avoid unspecific effects of Rotenone, we examined the consequences of a mitochondrial DNA mutation that causes a specific complex I defect. The effect was much less pronounced than with Rotenone, suggesting that *Correspondence: N. Gattermann, Department of Hematology, Oncology and Clinical Immunology, Heinrich-Heine-University, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany.
Monitoring the status of human-wildlife conflict and its impact on community based conservation in Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh, India.

The Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve is one of the famous tiger reserve in India. The human wildlife conflict is on rise for few years. A total of 194 human casualties and 1960 livestock depredation were reported between 2001 to 2011. Out of 194 casualties, 6.7% were lethal which caused death and 93.3% were injuries. Out of these maximum 37.57% (68) were reported by Jackal (Canis aureus) followed by 27.64% (50) of Sloth bear (Melursus ursinus), 20.99% (38) by Wild boar (Sus scrofa), 8.84% (16) by Tiger (Panthera tigris), 3.31% (6) by Leopard (Panthera Pardus) and 1.65% (3) by other carnivores. Out of 194 casualties 71.13% were male and 28.87% were female. The livestock killings were reported to be 1960 out of which maximum 81.78% (1603) were by tiger followed by 17.60% (345) by leopard and rest 0.62% (12) by other carnivores. The mean livestock killing was 178. 182Â±42.82 (SE) per year. Discussions and surveys were made with affected peoples to know the views about conflict and its alleviation by using Close ended questionnaire. Total 180 individuals were surveyed. Out of these 151 (83.89 %) respondent felt that wildlife should be conserved while 29 (16.11 %) felt there is no need for conservation. Adequate compensation, habitat management practices, livestock and crop insurance scheme and bio fencing around the affected villages and conservation awareness could be the way to mitigate existing conflict.
Improving Walking Path Generation Through Biped Constraint in Indoor Navigation System for Visually Impaired Individuals

This paper introduces a walking path generation method specifically developed for the Smart Cane, which is a RNA (Robotic Navigation Assistance Device) aimed at enhancing indoor navigation for visually impaired individuals. The proposed approach combines the utilization of a LIPM (Linear Inverse Pendulum Model) and LFPC (Linear Foot Placement Controller) motion primitives to generate walking paths specifically designed for visually impaired individuals. The primary objective is to generate paths that conform to human motion constraints, thereby guaranteeing an efficient and natural navigation experience. Integrating autonomous navigation framework, the Smart Cane facilitates safe and effective guidance for visually impaired participants in the indoor environments. Furthermore, comparative experiments have been conducted to validate the effectiveness of the proposed method, providing evidence of its capability to generate walking paths that conform to human motion constraints. The experiment results indicate that the proposed walking path generation method is a promising solution to enhance the navigation experience of visually impaired individuals.
Volumetric Ultrasound Localization Microscopy of the Whole Rat Brain Microvasculature

Technologies to visualize whole organs across scales in vivo are essential for our understanding of biology in health and disease. To date, only post-mortem techniques achieve cellular resolution across entire organs. Here, we demonstrate in vivo volumetric ultrasound localization microscopy (ULM). We detail a universal methodological pipeline including dedicated 3D ULM, motion correction and realignment algorithms, as well as post-processing quantification of cerebral blood diameter and flow. We illustrate the power of this approach, by revealing the whole rat brain vasculature at a 14-fold improved resolution of $12 ~\mu \text{m}$ , and cerebral blood flows ranging from 1 to 120 mm/s. The exposed methodology and results pave the way to the investigation of in vivo vascular and hemodynamic processes across the mammalian brain in health and disease.
Attention to audiovisual speech shapes neural processing through feedback-feedforward loops between different nodes of the speech network

Selective attention-related top-down modulation plays a significant role in separating relevant speech from irrelevant background speech when vocal attributes separating concurrent speakers are small and continuously evolving. Electrophysiological studies have shown that such top-down modulation enhances neural tracking of attended speech. Yet, the specific cortical regions involved remain unclear due to the limited spatial resolution of most electrophysiological techniques. To overcome such limitations, we collected both electroencephalography (EEG) (high temporal resolution) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) (high spatial resolution), while human participants selectively attended to speakers in audiovisual scenes containing overlapping cocktail party speech. To utilise the advantages of the respective techniques, we analysed neural tracking of speech using the EEG data and performed representational dissimilarity-based EEG-fMRI fusion. We observed that attention enhanced neural tracking and modulated EEG correlates throughout the latencies studied. Further, attention-related enhancement of neural tracking fluctuated in predictable temporal profiles. We discuss how such temporal dynamics could arise from a combination of interactions between attention and prediction as well as plastic properties of the auditory cortex. EEG-fMRI fusion revealed attention-related iterative feedforward-feedback loops between hierarchically organised nodes of the ventral auditory object related processing stream. Our findings support models where attention facilitates dynamic neural changes in the auditory cortex, ultimately aiding discrimination of relevant sounds from irrelevant ones while conserving neural resources.
Modest Effects of Neurofeedback-Assisted Meditation Using a Wearable Device on Stress Reduction: A Randomized, Double-Blind, and Controlled Study

Background To evaluate the therapeutic effectiveness and safety of a neurofeedback wearable device for stress reduction. Methods A randomized, double-blind, controlled study was designed. Participants had psychological stress with depression or sleep disturbances. They practiced either neurofeedback-assisted meditation (n = 20; female, 15 [75.0%]; age, 49.40 ± 11.76 years) or neurofeedback non-assisted meditation (n = 18; female, 11 [61.1%]; age, 48.67 ± 12.90 years) for 12 minutes twice a day for two weeks. Outcome variables were self-reported questionnaires, including the Korean version of the Perceived Stress Scale, Beck Depression Inventory-II, Insomnia Severity Index, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, and State Trait Anxiety Index, quantitative electroencephalography (qEEG), and blood tests. Satisfaction with device use was measured at the final visit. Results The experimental group had a significant change in PSS score after two weeks of intervention compared with the control group (6.45 ± 0.95 vs. 3.00 ± 5.54, P = 0.037). State anxiety tended to have a greater effect in the experimental group than in the control group (P = 0.078). Depressive mood and sleep also improved in each group, with no significant difference between the two groups. There were no significant differences in stress-related physiological parameters, such as stress hormones or qEEG, between the two groups. Subjective device satisfaction was significantly higher in the experimental group than in the control group (P = 0.008). Conclusion Neurofeedback-assisted meditation using a wearable device can help improve subjective stress reduction compared with non-assisted meditation. These results support neurofeedback as an effective adjunct to meditation for relieving stress. Trial Registration Clinical Research Information Service Identifier: KCT0007413
Prediction and uncertainty analysis of a parsimonious floodplain surface water‐groundwater interaction model

Floodplains provide a variety of hydrological and ecological functions and are therefore of great importance. The flooding frequency, as well as the height and duration of inundations are particularly relevant for ecosystem states and are dependent on the exchange between surface water and groundwater. In this study, we developed a fully distributed model approach to simulate distributed groundwater levels in a floodplain in Hesse, Germany (14.8 km2). To overcome the problem of large computation times, we simplified the surface water equation. Thus, the water surface of flooding is at the same level everywhere and the dynamic effect of the flooding is ignored. In this way, it was possible to run the model 5000 times and investigate its parameter uncertainty using Latin hypercube sampling. Behavioral model runs were selected based on a threshold criterion of a mean root‐mean‐square error that was smaller than 0.26 m. All the simulated groundwater wells show an individual RMSE between 0.17 and 0.41 m for the calibration period. Regarding the parameterization, the model shows rather large variance in parameters that are capable of generating good simulations: a range of saturated conductivity of 2793 m/d, porosity of 0.4 m3/m3, residual wetness of soil of 0.2 m3/m3/soil and range of soil thickness of 2.9 m.
Grounding heritage in locality an urban design intervention for Gemmayzeh's neighborhood ecological landscapes - by Ibrahim Hassan Mneimne

Thesis (M.U.D.)--American University of Beirut, Dept. of Architecture and Design, 2010. ;"Advisor : Dr. Howayda Al-Harithy, Professor and Chairperson, Department of Architecture and Design--Member of Committee : Dr. Dr. Jala Makhzoumi, Associate Professor,
A Comparative Assessment of the Impact of Climate Change and Energy Policies on Alpine Hydropower

Scientific literature has mostly focused on the analysis of climate change impacts on hydropower operations, underrating the consequences of energy policies, for example, increase in Variable Renewable Sources (VRSs) and CO2 emission permit price, on hydropower productivity and profitability. We contribute a modeling framework to assess the impacts of different climate change and energy policies on the operations of hydropower reservoir systems in the Alps. Our approach is characterized by the following: (i) the use of a physically explicit hydrological model to assess future water availability; (ii) the consideration of electricity price scenarios obtained from an electricity market model accounting for the future projected European energy strategies; and (iii) the use of optimization techniques to design hydropower system operations in response to the projected changes. Through the application to the Mattmark system, a snow‐ and ice‐dominated hydropower system in Switzerland, we demonstrate how the framework is effective in exploring the sensitivity of Alpine hydropower to changes in water availability and electricity price, in quantifying the uncertainties associated to these projections and in identifying the value of reoperation strategies. Results show that energy policies may have more significant impacts on hydropower operations than climate change and, as such, are worth considering in impact assessments studies. The reduction of water availability due to climate change is expected to induce a loss in electricity production down to −27% by 2050. Changes in electricity price, instead, may have up to 6 times stronger impact than climate change, leading to an increase in hydropower revenue up to about +181%.
Survey on Powdery Mildew of Cucumber in Aurangabad and Jalna Districts

Vegetables form an essential component of human diet for maintenance of good health. They supply carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins, and mineral elements which are the most essential requirements of our body. Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) is belongs to family cucurbitaceous is one of the most popular and favorite vegetable crops in different parts of the world. The family has two subfamilies and includes 118 genera and 825 species (Judd et al., 2008). Most species are climbing perennial herbs. The family is important for edible fruits (Heywood et al., 2007; Judd et al., 2008). It is used either as International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 7 Number 10 (2018) Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas. com