Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An experimental method to correct drift-induced error in zero-frequency DQE measurement

In 1963, Shaw applied Fourier analysis to the zero-frequency DQE and developed the frequency-dependent DQE or DQE(k) and made it clear that DQE(k) is applicable to every frequency level within the system bandwidth, including the zero frequency. Over time, especially after entering the modern era of digital x-ray imaging, the experimental measurement methods of DQE(k) (particularly the measurements of the NPS which is an important element in DQE(k)) have evolved, and some measurement methods may generate nonphysical NPS and DQE results at k=0. As a result, an experimental DQE(k) curve is often cut off at certain low frequency above zero. This work presents a new experimental method to deal with two challenges: severe NPS(k=0) underestimation due to polynomial-based background detrending; severe NPS(k=0) overestimation due to the presence of faint but non-negligible system drift. Based on a theoretical analysis of the impact of drift to the measured autocovariance function, the error introduced by drift can be isolated, and corresponding correction can be applied to NPS(k=0). Both numerical simulation with known ground truth and experimental studies demonstrated that the proposed method enables accurate DQE(k=0) measurement.
Amino Terminal pro B-Type Natriuretic Peptide Levels Are Elevated in the Cord Blood of Neonates With Congenital Heart Defect

This prospective study investigates whether amino terminal proB-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) levels are elevated in neonates with congenital heart defect (CHD). NT-proBNP levels in the umbilical cord blood of 60 neonates with prenatally diagnosed CHD, in the cord blood of 200 control subjects, and in the plasma of the respective mothers were analyzed using an automated enzyme immunoassay. NT-proBNP concentrations in the cord blood of the CHD group were significantly elevated compared with controls [median (range): 158 pg/mL (378–3631 pg/mL) and 626 pg/mL (153–2518 pg/mL); p value <0.001]. The NT-proBNP concentrations of the newborns and their mothers did correlate neither in the CHD nor in the control group. In 54 patients with CHD, NT-proBNP levels were measured on the median 5th day of life. They showed a significant increase (median 1665 pg/mL and 19222 pg/mL; p < 0.001). NT-proBNP levels in the cord blood of neonates with CHD are significantly elevated and show a marked increase in the first week of life. Furthermore, this study confirms previously published reference intervals of NT-proBNP in the cord blood of healthy neonates as well as the finding that there is no exchange of NT-proBNP across the placenta.
Modeling Steady-State Groundwater Flow Using Microcomputer Spreadsheets.

Widely available electronic spreadsheets operating on microcomputers provide an instructor with groundwater modeling capability. The spreadsheet set-ups and results of five groundwater models are presented and discussed. All are based on steady-state conditions in isotropic and homogeneous aquifers both confined and unconfined. Spreadsheet modeling has been used in physical geology and environmental geology courses. The printed output provides useful exercise in contouring water table and piezometric surfaces of single and multiple cones of depression.
Chloride Ion Modulates Cell Proliferation of Human Androgen-independent Prostatic Cancer Cell

In the present study, we investigated if the intracellular Cl<sup>-</sup> affects cell growth and cell cycle progression of androgen-independent prostate cancer PC3 cells. PC3 cells cultured in a medium containing 113 mM Cl<sup>-</sup> for 96 h grew up 9-fold in cell number, while PC3 cells cultured in an 8 mM-Cl<sup>-</sup>-containing culture medium showed complete arrest of cell growth even after culture for 96 h. Exposure of cells to the 8 mM-Cl<sup>-</sup> culture medium diminished phosphorylation levels of Rb and cdc2, which are respectively key accelerators of transition from G<sub>1</sub> to S phase and G<sub>2</sub> to M phase in cell cycle progression. Culturing cells in the 8 mM-Cl<sup>-</sup>-containing culture medium upregulated the protein expression level of p21 (a CDK inhibitor) inhibiting transition of G<sub>1</sub> to S phase, and diminished the incorporation of 5-ethynyl-2′-deoxyuridine (EdU; a thymidine analogue) into DNA. These results suggest that cells cultured in the low Cl<sup>-</sup> medium prolonged the duration of all phases of the cell cycle (G<sub>1</sub>, S, and G<sub>2</sub>/M), thereby abolishing overall cell cycle progression. Effects of culturing cells in the low Cl<sup>-</sup> culture medium on cell cycle progression would be mediated via a change in the intracellular Cl<sup>-</sup> concentration ([Cl<sup>-</sup>]<sub>i</sub>), since [Cl<sup>-</sup>]<sub>i</sub> was decreased under a low Cl<sup>-</sup> culture medium. To clarify this possibility, we studied effects of furosemide and bumetanide, Na<sup>+</sup>/K<sup>+</sup>/2Cl<sup>-</sup> cotransporter (NKCC) inhibitors, on proliferation of PC3 cells. Furosemide and bumetanide decreased [Cl<sup>-</sup>]<sub>i</sub> and cell growth of PC3 cells. These results suggest that a change in [Cl<sup>-</sup>]<sub>i</sub> would play a critical role in this growth mechanism.
Prognostic impact of concurrent MYC and BCL6 rearrangements and expression in de novo diffuse large B-cell lymphoma

Double-hit B-cell lymphoma is a common designation for a group of tumors characterized by concurrent translocations of MYC and BCL2 , BCL6 , or other genes. The prognosis of concurrent MYC and BCL6 translocations is not well known. In this study, we assessed rearrangements and expression of MYC , BCL2 and BCL6 in 898 patients with de novo diffuse large B-cell lymphoma treated with standard chemotherapy (cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone plus rituximab). Neither BCL6 translocation alone (more frequent in activated B-cell like
Salmeterol: a potent and long‐acting inhibitor of inflammatory mediator release from human lung

1 The effects of salmeterol, a novel long‐acting β2‐adrenoceptor agonist, have been investigated on antigen‐induced mediator release from passively sensitized fragments of human lung in vitro. 2 Salmeterol was a potent inhibitor of the release of histamine (–log IC50 = 8.54), leukotriene C4 (LTC4)/LTD4 (–log IC50 = 9.07) and prostaglandin D2 (–log IC50 = 8.81). It was slightly less potent (1–3 fold) than isoprenaline, but significantly more potent (10–35 fold) than salbutamol. 3 Propranolol competitively antagonized the inhibitory effects of salmeterol on histamine release (pA2 = 8.41) and LTC4/LTD4 release, (pA2 = 8.40) indicating an action via β‐adrenoceptors. 4 The inhibitory effects of isoprenaline (20 nm) and salbutamol (200 nm) were removed after washing the lung tissue for 2 h and 4 h respectively. In contrast, the inhibitory effects of salmeterol (40 nm) were much longer‐lasting, and were still evident after 20 h. 5 Salmeterol therefore exhibits potent and persistent inhibition of anaphylactic mediator release from human lung. This anti‐inflammatory effect may be important for the therapeutic potential of salmeterol in the treatment of bronchial asthma.
Directional Optimism for Safe Linear Bandits

The safe linear bandit problem is a version of the classical stochastic linear bandit problem where the learner's actions must satisfy an uncertain constraint at all rounds. Due its applicability to many real-world settings, this problem has received considerable attention in recent years. By leveraging a novel approach that we call directional optimism, we find that it is possible to achieve improved regret guarantees for both well-separated problem instances and action sets that are finite star convex sets. Furthermore, we propose a novel algorithm for this setting that improves on existing algorithms in terms of empirical performance, while enjoying matching regret guarantees. Lastly, we introduce a generalization of the safe linear bandit setting where the constraints are convex and adapt our algorithms and analyses to this setting by leveraging a novel convex-analysis based approach.
Non-equilibrium cluster-cluster aggregation in the presence of anchoring sites

Non-equilibrium cluster-cluster aggregation of particles diffusing in or at the cell membrane has been hypothesized to lead to domains of finite size in different biological contexts such as lipid rafts, cell adhesion complexes, or postsynaptic domains in neurons. In this scenario, the desorption of particles balances a continuous flux to the membrane, imposing a cut-off on possible aggregate sizes and giving rise to a stationary size distribution. Here, we investigate the case of non-equilibrium cluster-cluster aggregation in two dimensions where diffusing particles and/or clusters remain fixed in space at specific anchoring sites, which should be particularly relevant for synapses but may also be present in other biological or physical systems. Using an effective mean-field description of the concentration field around anchored clusters, we derive an expression for their average size as a function of parameters such as the anchoring site density. We furthermore propose and solve appropriate rate equations that allow us to predict the size distributions of both diffusing and fixed clusters. We confirm our results with particle-based simulations, and discuss potential implications for biological and physical systems.
Dynamique des grandes échelles dans les jets turbulents avec ou sans effets de rotation

Cette these est une contribution a l'etude de la turbulence dans le champ proche de la sortie de jets, avec ou sans effets de rotation. Notre dispositif experimental permet de generer un jet tournant qui se developpe en formant une couche de melange axisymetrique turbulente et dont le nombre de swirl peut etre precisement fixe. L'ecoulement est caracterise par PIV stereoscopique, avec un recours a des acquisitions a haute cadence de maniere a resoudre la dynamique des grandes echelles de la turbulence. Nous avons propose une methode qui permet de determiner la vitesse de convection des structures turbulentes et d'estimer la validite de l'approximation de Taylor. Cette etude demontre qu'il est ici legitime de decrire les structures spatiales de la turbulence a partir de mesures temporelle realisees dans un plan transverse a l'ecoulement. Dans le cœur du jet non tournant, une POD confirme la predominance de modes m=0 et m=1 decrite dans de precedentes etudes. Le mode m=1 prend plus souvent la forme d'un battement que d'une helice. Dans la couche de melange, les tourbillons longitudinaux sont les structures dominantes. Une organisation sous forme de paires de signe oppose orientees radialement est mise en evidence par l'analyse des correlations doubles de vorticite. L'etude des correlations vorticite-vitesse donne la position preferentielle de ces tourbillons par rapport aux modes m=0 et m=1. Nous avons alors propose un scenario d'interaction entre les modes m=0 et m=1, les tourbillons longitudinaux et le champ moyen. Lorsque le nombre de swirl augmente, le taux de croissance et l'energie cinetique turbulente dans la couche de melange du jet varient de maniere non-monotone. Ceci est du a des conditions initiales issues du mecanisme de mise en rotation, qui ont un effet contraire a celui de l'alignement du tenseur de Reynolds avec le tenseur des deformations. L'orientation des paires de tourbillons avec le swirl permet d'interpreter dynamiquement l'evolution du tenseur de Reynolds.
Exploiting the therapeutic potential of microRNAs in human cancer

Dysregulation of microRNAs (miRNAs) has been widely shown to be associated with the development and progression of cancer. Recent studies discovered a handful of miRNAs with great potential to act as therapeutic targets in various human cancers. Inhibition or overexpression of these oncomirs may regulate the expressions of their associated genes, which in turn represses the proliferation or metastasis of different cancers. Some miRNAs can reverse the phenotype of epithelial–mesenchymal transition, while others can be utilized to sensitize cells to DNA-damaging drugs. Most of their anticancer abilities have been validated in preclinical animal models. A merit of miRNA-based therapy is that it can target plenty of genes in different signaling pathways, but this also comes with the drawback of many unknown off-target effects. In addition, successful delivery is also a major obstacle to effective miRNA-based therapeutics. Nevertheless, new findings from recent studies and the rapid advances in systemic drug delivery systems provide an optimistic perspective on the evolution of the field.
Chemical Constituents from Fraxinus hupehensis and Their Antifungal and Herbicidal Activities

The phytochemical investigation of Fraxinus hupehensis led to the isolation and characterization of ten compounds which were identified as fraxin (1), fraxetin (2), esculetin (3), cichoriin (4), euphorbetin (5), kaempferol-3-O-β-rutinoside (6), oleuropein (7), linoleic acid (8), methyl linoleate (9), and β-sitosterol (10). Structures of the isolated constituents were characterized by 1H NMR, 13C NMR and HRMS. All the compounds, except compounds 3 and 4, were isolated for the first time from this plant. Further, this was the first report for the occurrence of compound 5 in the Fraxinus species. Antifungal activity evaluation showed that compound 2 exhibited significant inhibitory effects against Bipolaris maydis, Sclerotium rolfsii, and Alternaria solani with EC50 values of 0.31 ± 0.01 mmol/L, 10.50 ± 0.02 mmol/L, and 0.40 ± 0.02 mmol/L respectively, compared to the positive control, Carbendazim, with its EC50 values of 0.74 ± 0.01 mmol/L, 1.78 ± 0.01 mmol/L and 1.41 ± 0.00 mmol/L. Herbicidal activity tests showed that compounds 8–10 had strong inhibitory effects against the roots of Echinochloa crus-galli with EC50 values of 1.16 ± 0.23 mmol/L, 1.28 ± 0.58 mmol/L and 1.33 ± 0.35 mmol/L respectively, more potently active than that of the positive control, Cyanazine, with its EC50 values of 1.56 ± 0.44 mmol/L. However, none of the compounds proved to be active against the tested bacteria (Erwinia carotovora, Pseudomonas syringae, and Ralstonia solanacearum).
Ventrolateral periaqueductal gray neurons prioritize threat 2 probability over fear output 3

28 Faced with potential harm, individuals must estimate the probability of threat and initiate 29 an appropriate fear response. In the prevailing view, threat probability estimates are 30 relayed to the ventrolateral periaqueductal gray (vlPAG), to organize fear output. A 31 straightforward prediction is that vlPAG single-unit activity reflects fear output, invariant 32 of threat probability. We recorded vlPAG single-unit activity in male, Long Evans rats 33 undergoing fear discrimination. Three 10-s auditory cues predicted unique foot shock 34 probabilities: danger (p = 1.00), uncertainty (p = 0.375) and safety (p = 0.00). Fear 35 output was measured by suppression of reward seeking over the entire cue and in one36 second cue intervals. Cued fear non-linearly scaled to threat probability and cue37 responsive vlPAG single-units scaled their firing on one of two timescales: at onset or 38 ramping toward shock delivery. VlPAG onset activity reflected threat probability, 39 invariant of fear output, while ramping activity reflected both signals with threat 40 probability prioritized. 41
Massively Parallel Continuous Local Search for Hybrid SAT Solving on GPUs

Although state-of-the-art (SOTA) SAT solvers based on conflict-driven clause learning (CDCL) have achieved remarkable engineering success, their sequential nature limits the parallelism that may be extracted for acceleration on platforms such as the graphics processing unit (GPU). In this work, we propose FastFourierSAT, a highly parallel hybrid SAT solver based on gradient-driven continuous local search (CLS). This is realized by a novel parallel algorithm inspired by the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT)-based convolution for computing the elementary symmetric polynomials (ESPs), which is the major computational task in previous CLS methods. The complexity of our algorithm matches the best previous result. Furthermore, the substantial parallelism inherent in our algorithm can leverage the GPU for acceleration, demonstrating significant improvement over the previous CLS approaches. We also propose to incorporate the restart heuristics in CLS to improve search efficiency. We compare our approach with the SOTA parallel SAT solvers on several benchmarks. Our results show that FastFourierSAT computes the gradient 100+ times faster than previous prototypes implemented on CPU. Moreover, FastFourierSAT solves most instances and demonstrates promising performance on larger-size instances.
WrappingNet: Mesh Autoencoder via Deep Sphere Deformation

There have been recent efforts to learn more meaningful representations via fixed length codewords from mesh data, since a mesh serves as a complete model of underlying 3D shape compared to a point cloud. However, the mesh connectivity presents new difficulties when constructing a deep learning pipeline for meshes. Previous mesh unsupervised learning approaches typically assume category-specific templates, e.g., human face/body templates. It restricts the learned latent codes to only be meaningful for objects in a specific category, so the learned latent spaces are unable to be used across different types of objects. In this work, we present WrappingNet, the first mesh autoencoder enabling general mesh unsupervised learning over heterogeneous objects. It introduces a novel base graph in the bottleneck dedicated to representing mesh connectivity, which is shown to facilitate learning a shared latent space representing object shape. The superiority of WrappingNet mesh learning is further demonstrated via improved reconstruction quality and competitive classification compared to point cloud learning, as well as latent interpolation between meshes of different categories.
Constructive Incremental Learning for Fault Diagnosis of Rolling Bearings with Ensemble Domain Adaptation

Given the prevalence of rolling bearing fault diagnosis as a practical issue across various working conditions, the limited availability of samples compounds the challenge. Additionally, the complexity of the external environment and the structure of rolling bearings often manifests faults characterized by randomness and fuzziness, hindering the effective extraction of fault characteristics and restricting the accuracy of fault diagnosis. To overcome these problems, this paper presents a novel approach termed constructive Incremental learning-based ensemble domain adaptation (CIL-EDA) approach. Specifically, it is implemented on stochastic configuration networks (SCN) to constructively improve its adaptive performance in multi-domains. Concretely, a cloud feature extraction method is employed in conjunction with wavelet packet decomposition (WPD) to capture the uncertainty of fault information from multiple resolution aspects. Subsequently, constructive Incremental learning-based domain adaptation (CIL-DA) is firstly developed to enhance the cross-domain learning capability of each hidden node through domain matching and construct a robust fault classifier by leveraging limited labeled data from both target and source domains. Finally, fault diagnosis results are obtained by a majority voting of CIL-EDA which integrates CIL-DA and parallel ensemble learning. Experimental results demonstrate that our CIL-DA outperforms several domain adaptation methods and CIL-EDA consistently outperforms state-of-art fault diagnosis methods in few-shot scenarios.
Bulimia nervosa treatment: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials.

OBJECTIVE The RTI International-University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Evidence-based Practice Center systematically reviewed evidence on efficacy of treatment for bulimia nervosa (BN), harms associated with treatments, factors associated with treatment efficacy, and differential outcome by sociodemographic characteristics. METHOD We searched six major databases published from 1980 to September 2005 in all languages against a priori inclusion/exclusion criteria; we focused on eating, psychiatric or psychological, and biomarker outcomes. RESULTS Forty-seven studies of medication only, behavioral interventions only, and medication plus behavioral interventions for adults or adolescents met our inclusion criteria. Fluoxetine (60 mg/day) decreases the core symptoms of binge eating and purging and associated psychological features in the short term. Cognitive behavioral therapy reduces core behavioral and psychological features in the short and long term. CONCLUSION Evidence for medication or behavioral treatment for BN is strong, for self-help is weak; for harms related to medication is strong but either weak or nonexistent for other interventions; and evidence for differential outcome by sociodemographic factors is nonexistent. Attention to sample size, standardization of outcome measures, attrition, and reporting of abstinence from target behaviors are required. Longer follow-up intervals, innovative treatments, and attention to sociodemographic factors would enhance the literature.
Exploring the Limits of Historical Information for Temporal Knowledge Graph Extrapolation

Temporal knowledge graphs, representing the dynamic relationships and interactions between entities over time, have been identified as a promising approach for event forecasting. However, a limitation of most temporal knowledge graph reasoning methods is their heavy reliance on the recurrence or periodicity of events, which brings challenges to inferring future events related to entities that lack historical interaction. In fact, the current state of affairs is often the result of a combination of historical information and underlying factors that are not directly observable. To this end, we investigate the limits of historical information for temporal knowledge graph extrapolation and propose a new event forecasting model called Contrastive Event Network (CENET) based on a novel training framework of historical contrastive learning. CENET learns both the historical and non-historical dependency to distinguish the most potential entities that best match the given query. Simultaneously, by launching contrastive learning, it trains representations of queries to probe whether the current moment is more dependent on historical or non-historical events. These representations further help train a binary classifier, whose output is a boolean mask, indicating the related entities in the search space. During the inference process, CENET employs a mask-based strategy to generate the final results. We evaluate our proposed model on five benchmark graphs. The results demonstrate that CENET significantly outperforms all existing methods in most metrics, achieving at least 8.3% relative improvement of Hits@1 over previous state-of-the-art baselines on event-based datasets.