Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Rare Presentation of Primary Classical Hodgkin Lymphoma of a Rectosigmoid Colon in a 79-Year-Old With a History of Irritable Bowel Syndrome

We discuss the case of a 79-year-old immunocompetent male who presented with weight loss and diarrhea and ultimately was found to have a rectosigmoid mass on a colonoscopy. Even though initial biopsies obtained during colonoscopy were non-diagnostic, considering the likelihood of malignancy, lower anterior resection was performed, and pathology confirmed the diagnosis of primary Hodgkin’s lymphoma of the sigmoid colon. Hodgkin’s lymphoma typically presents as painless supra-diaphragmatic lymphadenopathy with B symptoms such as fever, unexplained weight loss, and drenching night sweats. Due to the rarity of primary Hodgkin lymphoma in the colon and its non-specific initial presentation, we believe sharing this case will bring awareness to the atypical presentation of Hodgkin lymphomas.
Decoupling Segmental and Prosodic Cues of Non-native Speech through Vector Quantization

Accent conversion (AC) seeks to transform utterances from a non-native speaker to appear native-like. Compared to voice conversion, which generally treats accent and voice quality as one, AC provides a finer-grained decomposition of speech. This paper presents an AC system that further decomposes an accent into its segmental and prosodic characteristics, and provides independent control of both channels. The system uses conventional modules (acoustic model, speaker/prosody encoders, seq2seq model) to generate accent conversions that combine (1) the segmental characteristics from a source utterance, (2) the voice characteristics from a target utterance, and (3) the prosody of a reference utterance. However, naive application of this idea prevents the system from learning and transferring prosody. We show that vector quantization and removal of repeated code-words allows the system to transfer prosody and improve voice similarity, as verified by objective and perceptual measures.
Vowel reduction by Greek-speaking children: The effect of stress and word length

This study examines vowel reduction as a function of stress and word length in 3 male and 3 female 3-, 5-and 7-year-olds, and adult controls. Participants produced triplets of two-and three-syllable words, where each Greek vowel /i, ε, ɐ, ο, u/ was studied in the first syllable in both stressed and unstressed conditions. Measurements were made for absolute and relative duration and (non-)normalized vowel space areas. The results showed that children had longer absolute and relative vowel duration and larger non-normalized vowel space areas than adults. Vowel space areas were lower and to the left in the acoustic vowel space in relation to adults. Longer duration and larger vowel space areas were found in stressed position across all ages with an adult-like spectral reduction already present at 3 years of age but an adult-like temporal reduction from 5 years of age and onwards for unstressed vowels in both two-and three-syllable words.
Epidemiology of Low Birth Weight in the Lake Areas of Cotonou (Benin Republic)

Introduction: Low birth weight is a significant public health problem world-wide, particularly in low-and-middle-income countries. This study aimed to investigate the epidemiology of low birth weight in the lake areas of Cotonou. Methods: A cross-sectional analytical study included 931 records of women who gave birth in 2022 in the Cotonou 1-4 health zone. Completed maternity records were included in this study, except for premature births and congenital malformations. Birth weight was the dependent variable. Sociodemo-graphic, obstetrical, preventive care and child-related data were collected us-ing a digitized form. These data were analyzed using SPSS software to determine the prevalence and factors associated with low birth weight using multiple logistic regression analysis. Results: The prevalence of low birth weight was 16.30%. Factors related to this prevalence were non-use of mosquito nets during pregnancy (OR = 2.72; CI: 1.275 - 5.805), twin pregnancy (OR = 9.97; CI: 3.869 - 25.696), previous abortion (OR = 1.61; CI: 1.034 - 2.515), low number of pregnancy (OR = 3.97; CI: 1.276 - 12.393), trimester of first ante-natal visit (OR = 3.47; CI: 1.821 - 6.638) and birth size less than 45 cm (OR = 5.98; CI: 2.965 - 12.083). Conclusion: The prevalence obtained from this study justifies the need to support pregnant women in this health zone. It is, therefore, essential to strengthen communication and health promotion strategies for women before, during, and after pregnancy.
Prosody-controllable Gender-ambiguous Speech Synthesis: A Tool for Investigating Implicit Bias in Speech Perception

This paper proposes a novel method to develop gender-ambiguous TTS, which can be used to investigate hidden gender bias in speech perception. Our aim is to provide a tool for researchers to conduct experiments on language use associated with specific genders. Ambiguous voices can also be beneficial for virtual assistants, to help reduce stereotypes and increase acceptance. Our approach uses a multi-speaker embedding in a neural TTS engine, combining two corpora recorded by a male and a female speaker to achieve a gender-ambiguous timbre. We also propose speaker-disentangled prosody control to ensure that the timbre is robust across a range of prosodies and enable more expressive speech. We optimised the output using an SSL-based network trained on hundreds of speakers. We conducted perceptual evaluations on the settings that were judged most ambiguous by the network, which showed that listeners perceived the speech samples as gender-ambiguous, also in prosody-controlled conditions.
The Effects of Localized Plant–Soil–Microbe Interactions on Soil Nitrogen Cycle in Maize Rhizosphere Soil under Long-Term Fertilizers

Long-term fertilization can result in changes in the nitrogen (N) cycle in maize rhizosphere soil. However, there have been few reports on the impacts of plant–soil–microbe regulatory mechanisms on the N cycle in soil. In this study, soil samples were collected from a long-term experimental site located at Jilin Agricultural University, Changchun City, Jilin Province, Northeast China. We then analyzed the changes in the functional genes related to the N cycle, soil enzyme activity, and maize root exudates under long-term fertilizer application using metagenomics and liquid chromatography analysis. We aimed to investigate the response of the N cycle to long-term fertilizers, the interaction among plant, soil, and microbes, and the effect of the plant–soil–microbe system on the N cycle. Long-term fertilization had a significant effect on soil N contents, N2O emissions, and enzyme activity related to the N cycle in maize rhizosphere soil. The functional genes of the N cycle were mainly enriched in the N degradation pathway in maize rhizosphere soil. N fertilizer application decreased the abundance of functional genes related to N fixation and degradation, denitrification, and assimilatory nitrate reduction (ANRA) and increased the abundance of functional genes participating in dissimilatory nitrate reduction (DNRA) and anaerobic ammonia oxidation/hydroxylamine oxidation. The soil environment was positively related to soil enzyme activity and negatively related to the microbial community composition and amino acids in root exudates. The contribution rate of microorganisms to the N cycle was the highest (r2 = 0.900), followed by amino acids (r2 = 0.836) and the soil environment (r2 = 0.832). Therefore, we concluded that N fertilizer is the main factor limiting the soil N cycle and that microorganisms are the main factor regulating the N cycle in the plant–soil–microorganism system.
SVDNet: Deep Power Control for Multiuser MIMO

In this work, we propose SVDNet, a novel deep learning (DL) architecture that utilizes singular value decomposition (SVD), for transmit power control in a multiuser multiple input multiple output (MU-MIMO) system. We propose a novel method of training SVDNet in a supervised manner for the power control task by using binary cross-entropy loss functions. SVDNet requires fewer computations than traditional power control algorithms such as weighted minimum mean squared error (WMMSE). Our simulation results show that the proposed SVDNet provides over a 50% increase in sum-rate performance as compared to similar supervised DL-based power control schemes while being significantly more computationally efficient than WMMSE.
Application of microcatheter shaping based on computational fluid dynamics simulation of cerebral blood flow in the intervention of posterior communicating aneurysm of the internal carotid artery

Introduction The present study aimed to investigate the application of the aneurysm embolization microcatheter plasticity method based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to simulate cerebral blood flow in the interventional treatment of posterior communicating aneurysms in the internal carotid artery and to evaluate its practicality and safety. Methods A total of 20 patients with posterior internal carotid artery communicating aneurysms who used CFD to simulate cerebral flow lines from January 2020 to December 2022 in our hospital were analyzed. Microcatheter shaping and interventional embolization were performed according to the main cerebral flow lines, and the success rate, stability, and effect of the microcatheter being in place were analyzed. Results Among the 20 patients, the microcatheters were all smoothly placed and the catheters were stable during the in vitro model test. In addition, the microcatheters were all smoothly placed during the operation, with a success rate of 100%. The catheter tips were stable and well-supported intraoperatively, and no catheter prolapse was registered. The aneurysm was completely embolized in 19 cases immediately after surgery, and a small amount of the aneurysm neck remained in one case. There were no intraoperative complications related to the embolization catheter operation. Conclusion Microcatheter shaping based on CFD simulation of cerebral blood flow, with precise catheter shaping, leads to a high success rate in catheter placing, stability, and good support, and greatly reduces the difficulty of catheter shaping. This catheter-shaping method is worthy of further study and exploration.
A study on social contact rates relevant for the spread of infectious diseases in a Brazilian slum

Inspired by the POLYMOD study, an epidemiological survey was conducted in June 2021 in one of the most densely populated and socially vulnerable sectors of Belo Horizonte (Brazil). A sample of 1000 individuals allowed us to identify, within a 24-hour period, the rates of social contacts by age groups, the size and frequency of clique in which respondents participated, as well as other associated sociodemographic factors (number of household residents, location of contact, use of public transportation, among others). Data were analyzed in two phases. In the first one, results between two SIR models that simulated an eight-day pandemic process were compared. One included parameters adjusted from observed contact rates, the other operated with parameters adjusted from projected rates for Brazil. In the second phase, by means of a log-lin regression, we modeled the main social determinants of contact rates, using clique density as a proxy variable. The data analysis showed that family size, age, and social circles are the main covariates influencing the formation of cliques. It also demonstrated that compartmentalized epidemiological models, combined with social contact rates, have a better capacity to describe the epidemiological dynamics, providing a better basis for mitigation and control measures for diseases that cause acute respiratory syndromes.
Tracking Must Go On : Dialogue State Tracking with Verified Self-Training

In task-oriented dialogues, dialogue state tracking (DST) is a critical component as it identifies specific information for the user’s purpose. However, as annotating DST data requires a significant amount of human effort, leveraging raw dialogue is crucial. To address this, we propose a new self-training (ST) framework with a verification model. Unlike previous ST meth-ods that rely on extensive hyper-parameter searching to filter out inaccurate data, our verification methodology ensures the accuracy and validity of the dataset without using a fixed threshold. Furthermore, to mitigate overfitting, we augment the dataset by generating diverse user utterances. Even when using only 10% of the labeled data, our approach achieves comparable results to a fully labeled MultiWOZ2.0 dataset. The evaluation of scalability also demonstrates enhanced robustness in predicting un-seen values.
Mobilité des sédiments fluviaux grossiers dans les systèmes fortement anthropisés : éléments pour la gestion de la basse vallée de la Durance

La Durance est une large riviere mediterraneenne a charge grossiere et a lit divagant. Le fonctionnement hydro-sedimentaire de son bassin versant a ete profondement modifie par la mise en place d’amenagements hydro-electriques et par les extractions de graviers, qui ont entraine une retraction de sa bande active et une incision marquee de son lit. Ces evolutions morphologiques correspondent a des enjeux majeurs en termes de gestion du territoire en moyenne et basse Durance, du fait de la necessite du maintien d’une capacite d’ecoulement du lit en crue, et de la mobilite laterale du lit, souvent incompatible avec l’occupation de la vallee. Cette these, basee sur la collecte de donnees de terrain, vise a developper un schema de fonctionnement du transport sedimentaire dans les rivieres a charge grossiere de grande largeur, en integrant les differentes echelles spatiales (et donc temporelles). Elle a egalement pour objectif de donner des clefs de comprehension pour la gestion des flux sedimentaires en Durance. Les mecanismes de la mobilite des particules sedimentaires et des formes fluviales sont etudies dans une demarche ascendante de reformulation scientifique de questionnements operationnels.
Ocular Surface Allostasis—When Homeostasis Is Lost: Challenging Coping Potential, Stress Tolerance, and Resilience

The loss of ocular surface (OS) homeostasis characterizes the onset of dry eye disease. Resilience defines the ability to withstand this threat, reflecting the ability of the ocular surface to cope with and bounce back after challenging events. The coping capacity of the OS defines the ability to successfully manage cellular stress. Cellular stress, which is central to the outcome of the pathophysiology of dry eye disease, is characterized by intensity, continuity, and receptivity, which lead to the loss of homeostasis, resulting in a phase of autocatalytic dysregulation, an event that is not well-defined. To better define this event, here, we present a model providing a potential approach when homeostasis is challenged and the coping capacities have reached their limits, resulting in the stage of heterostasis, in which the dysregulated cellular stress mechanisms take over, leading to dry eye disease. The main feature of the proposed model is the concept that, prior to the initiation of the events leading to cellular stress, there is a period of intense activation of all available coping mechanisms preventing the imminent dysregulation of ocular surface homeostasis. When the remaining coping mechanisms and resilience potential have been maximally exploited and have, finally, been exceeded, there will be a transition to manifest disease with all the well-known signs and symptoms, with a shift to allostasis, reflecting the establishment of another state of balance. The intention of this review was to show that it is possibly the phase of heterostasis preceding the establishment of allostasis that offers a better chance for therapeutic intervention and optimized recovery. Once allostasis has been established, as a new steady-state of balance at a higher level of constant cell stress and inflammation, treatment may be far more difficult, and the potential for reversal is drastically decreased. Homeostasis, once lost, can possibly not be fully recovered. The processes established during heterostasis and allostasis require different approaches and treatments for their control, indicating that the current treatment options for homeostasis need to be adapted to a more-demanding situation. The loss of homeostasis necessarily implies the establishment of a new balance; here, we refer to such a state as allostasis.
Output Feedback Exponential Stabilization of One-Dimensional Wave Equation With Velocity Recirculation

This paper is concerned with the output feedback exponential stabilization for a one-dimensional wave equation with in-domain feedback/recirculation of a boundary velocity with a spatially constant coefficient, which is first studied in [IEEE Trans. Autom. Control, vol. 62, no. 9, pp. 4760–4767, Sep. 2017]. When there are no boundary internal uncertainty and external disturbance, it is shown that by using one displacement measurement only, the output feedback makes the closed-loop system exponentially stable, which essentially improves the result of [IEEE Trans. Autom. Control, vol. 62, no. 9, pp. 4760–4767, Sep. 2017]. When there are boundary internal uncertainty and external disturbance, using two displacement measurements only, we present an observer-based output feedback law that contains an infinite-dimensional disturbance estimator used to reject the boundary internal uncertainty and external disturbance. The resulting closed-loop system is shown to be exponentially stable and the state of all subsystem involved are uniformly stable. The Backstepping method for infinite dimensional system and active disturbance rejection control method play important roles in the design.
Sediment Transport Processes in the Swash Zone of Sandy Beaches

BUTT, T. , RUSSELL, P., MILES, J. AND TURNER, I. , 2007. Sediment Transport Processes in the Swash Zone of Sandy Beaches. Journal of Coastal Research, SI 50 (Proceedings of the 9th International Coastal Symposium), 636 – 640. Gold Coast, Australia, ISSN 0749.0208 In recent years, there has been a general resurgence of interest in the swash zone. However, it still remains one of the least well understood parts of the coastal zone. The sediment transport and resulting morphological changes in the swash zone are notoriously difficult to predict. Energetics-type formulations are less useful for predicting sediment transport in the swash zone than further seaward, particularly as conditions become more reflective. One reason for this is the existence of processes in the swash zone such as bore turbulence, inexfiltration and sediment advection. This paper presents an overview of the findings from a recent 3-year UK swash-zone field study with particular focus on these processes and the way their influence varies according to the prevalent hydrodynamic and morphological conditions. There is now evidence that (a) the influence of bore turbulence decreases with increasing dissipativeness, (b) in-exfiltration biases the transport onshore or offshore above and below a particular grain size respectively and (c) sediment advection may bias the transport onshore in reflective conditions and offshore in high-energy dissipative conditions. ADDITIONAL INDEX WORDS: Advection, Backwash, Bore turbulence, Energetics, In-exfiltration, Uprush.
Paleomagnetism and Investigation of 40 Ma Lavas, Liverpool Range, New South Whales, Australia

3 Introduction 4 Basics of Rock Magnetism 5 Reversals and the Liverpool Range of New South Wales (NSW), Australia 8 Collecting Samples 12 Lab Experiment and Procedure 14 Data and Analysis 19 Results and Conclusion 48 References 50 Figure 1: Computer simulated (reversed) magnetic field lines of the earth where blue is out and yellow in. [1]
IRS-Enhanced LED Number Modulation with Adaptive LED Selection for MIMO-OWC

In this paper, we propose and investigate an intelligent reflecting surface (IRS)-enhanced LED number modulation (LNM) scheme with adaptive LED selection for multiple-input multiple-output optical wireless communication (MIMO-OWC) systems. By performing LNM with location-aware adaptive LED selection, additional information bits can be transmitted through varying the number of activated LEDs and improved diversity gain can also be harvested. Moreover, an IRS is further applied to substantially enhance the overall performance of the MIMO-OWC system using LNM with adaptive LED selection. Simulation results verify the feasibility and superiority of the proposed LNM scheme with adaptive LED selection and IRS enhancement for MIMO-OWC systems.
Duality Between the Power Minimization and Max-Min SINR Balancing Symbol-Level Precoding

This paper reveals the latent relation inherent in two typical problems in constructive interference (CI)-based symbol-level precoding (SLP). One is the power minimization (PM) problem subject to instantaneous signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) constraints, and the other is the weighted max-min SINR balancing (SB) problem with the symbol-level transmit power budget. In particular, we establish an explicit duality between the PM-SLP and SB-SLP problems, where we prove that one of the two problems can be uniquely mapped to the other. The proposed duality not only provides insights into the intrinsic structure of the problems and solutions but also facilitates obtaining the solution to the SB-SLP given the solution to the PM-SLP without the need for one-dimension search, and vice versa. We further propose a closed-form power scaling algorithm to solve the SB-SLP via PM-SLP, by which the separability of the PM-SLP can be leveraged to solve the two problems simultaneously. Numerical results demonstrate our derivations on the duality as well as the efficiency of the proposed power scaling algorithm.
Genetic and Epigenetic Mechanisms of Psoriasis

Psoriasis is a disease involving the innate and adaptative components of the immune system, and it is triggered by environmental factors in genetically susceptible individuals. However, its physiopathology is not fully understood yet. Recent technological advances, especially in genome and epigenome-wide studies, have provided a better understanding of the genetic and epigenetic mechanisms to determine the physiopathology of psoriasis and facilitate the development of new drugs. This review intends to summarize the current evidence on genetic and epigenetic mechanisms of psoriasis.
The Influence of Product Quality, Perceived Price, and Brand Image on Purchasing Decisions of Nescafe Instant Coffee Powder in Surabaya

This study aims to determine the effect of product quality, price perception and brand image on purchasing decisions of Nescafe instant coffee powder in Surabaya . This research method is quantitative. The population in this study is consumers who have bought and consumed Nescafe instant coffee powder products in Surabaya . The sampling technique uses non -probability sampling and uses techniques purposive sampling as a technique for determining the sample used because not all members of the sample have criteria that are in accordance with the objectives of the study . According to Hair et al., (2014: 77) the number of sample sizes that are appropriate for Partial Least Square (PLS) can be measured by the number of indicators multiplied by 5 or the sample size between 100-200 respondents. In this case the number of samples in this study is 16 (indicators) x 6 = 96 and rounded up to 100 respondents. Data collection was carried out through a Google form questionnaire to respondents with an ordinal scale via a Likert scale from a score range of 1 to 5. The data was processed using the Partial Least Square (PLS) data analysis technique. The results showed, product quality, price perception and brand image has a positive effect on purchasing decisions of Nescafe instant coffee powder in Surabaya. In conclusion, product quality, perceived price and brand image have a significant influence on purchasing decisions.