Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
European Society of Cardiology quality indicators for the prevention and management of cancer therapy-related cardiovascular toxicity in cancer treatment

Abstract Aims To develop quality indicators (QIs) for the evaluation of the prevention and management of cancer therapy-related cardiovascular toxicity. Methods and results We followed the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) methodology for QI development which comprises (i) identifying the key domains of care for the prevention and management of cancer therapy-related cardiovascular toxicity in patients on cancer treatment, (ii) performing a systematic review of the literature to develop candidate QIs, and (iii) selecting of the final set of QIs using a modified Delphi process. Work was undertaken in parallel with the writing of the 2022 ESC Guidelines on Cardio-Oncology and in collaboration with the European Haematology Association, the European Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology and the International Cardio-Oncology Society. In total, 5 main and 9 secondary QIs were selected across five domains of care: (i) Structural framework, (ii) Baseline cardiovascular risk assessment, (iii) Cancer therapy related cardiovascular toxicity, (iv) Predictors of outcomes, and (v) Monitoring of cardiovascular complications during cancer therapy. Conclusion We present the ESC Cardio-Oncology QIs with their development process and provide an overview of the scientific rationale for their selection. These indicators are aimed at quantifying and improving the adherence to guideline-recommended clinical practice and improving patient outcomes.
Comparative study of multiwalled carbon nanotube/polyethylene composites produced via different techniques

A comparative study of multiwalled carbon nanotube/polyethylene (MWCNT/PE) composites produced by different methods (thermal mechanical mixing, coagulation precipitation technique and in situ ethylene polymerization with a Ziegler–Natta catalyst supported on MWCNTs) has been performed. The morphology and structure of the produced composites were investigated by optical, scanning and transmission electron microscopies. MWCNT incorporation into PE matrix results in the change of conductivity mechanism from conductivity typical of a system with local disorder and effects of weak interaction of electrons (quantum correction to conductivity) to conductivity that can be described within the theory of Coulomb blockade or quasi‐one‐dimensional variable‐range hopping conductivity with variable length of hops (Mott's law) between localized states. The electromagnetic (EM) response of composites was investigated in a broadband region (118–510 GHz). It was found that the dielectric properties of MWCNT/PE composites correlate with their electrophysical properties determined by the MWCNT distribution within the polymer matrix.
Trajectories of neurodegeneration and seed amplification biomarkers prior to disease onset in individuals at risk of prion disease

Human prion diseases are remarkable for long incubation times followed by typically rapid clinical decline. Seed amplification assays and neurodegeneration biofluid biomarkers are remarkably useful in the clinical phase, but their potential to predict clinical onset in healthy people remains unclear. This is relevant not only to the design of preventive strategies in those at-risk of prion diseases, but more broadly, because prion-like mechanisms are thought to underpin many neurodegenerative disorders. Here we report the accrual of a longitudinal biofluid resource in patients, controls and healthy people at-risk of prion diseases, to which ultrasensitive techniques such as real-time quaking-induced conversion (RT-QuIC), and single molecule array (Simoa) digital immunoassays were applied for preclinical biomarker discovery. We studied a total of 648 CSF and plasma samples, including importantly, 16 people who had samples taken when healthy but later developed IPD (converters, range from 9.9 prior to, and 7.4 years after onset). A second generation (IQ-CSF) RT-QuIC assay was used to screen symptomatic IPD samples, followed by optimisation for other IPDs, before the entire collection of at-risk samples was screened using the most sensitive assay. Glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), neurofilament light (NfL), tau and ubiquitin carboxy-terminal hydrolase L1 (UCH-L1) levels were measured in plasma and CSF. IQ-CSF RT-QuIC proved 100% sensitive and specific for sporadic CJD, iCJD and familial CJD phenotypes, and subsequently detected seeding activity in four CSF samples from three PRNP E200K carriers in the presymptomatic phase, one of whom converted shortly after but the other two remain asymptomatic after two and three years of follow up. A bespoke HuPrP P102L RT-QuIC showed partial sensitivity for P102L disease and was positive in a CSF sample from an individual at risk of P102L IPD. No compatible RT-QuIC assay iterations were discovered for classical 6-OPRI, A117V and D178N, and these at-risk samples tested negative with bank vole RT-QuIC. Plasma GFAP and NfL, and CSF NfL levels emerged as proximity markers of neurodegeneration in slowly progressive forms of IPDs, with highly statistically significant differences in mean values segregating normal control (together with IPD > 2 years to onset) from IPD < 2 years to onset and symptomatic IPD cohorts. The trajectories of biomarker change appeared to correspond to expected fast and slow clinical phenotypes of progression in IPD with plasma GFAP changes preceding NfL changes. We propose a staging system for prion diseases based on the presence of clinical, seeding and neurodegeneration features.
Estimation of free water-corrected microscopic fractional anisotropy

Water diffusion anisotropy MRI is sensitive to microstructural changes in the brain that are hallmarks of various neurological conditions. However, conventional metrics like fractional anisotropy are confounded by neuron fiber orientation dispersion, and the relatively low resolution of diffusion-weighted MRI gives rise to significant free water partial volume effects in many brain regions that are adjacent to cerebrospinal fluid. Microscopic fractional anisotropy is a recent metric that can report water diffusion anisotropy independent of neuron fiber orientation dispersion but is still susceptible to free water contamination. In this paper, we present a free water elimination (FWE) technique to estimate microscopic fractional anisotropy and other related diffusion indices by implementing a signal representation in which the MRI signal within a voxel is assumed to come from two distinct sources: a tissue compartment and a free water compartment. A two-part algorithm is proposed to rapidly fit a set of diffusion-weighted MRI volumes containing both linear- and spherical-tensor encoding acquisitions to the representation. Simulations and in vivo acquisitions with four healthy volunteers indicated that the FWE method may be a feasible technique for measuring microscopic fractional anisotropy and other indices with greater specificity to neural tissue characteristics than conventional methods.
Overall patterns of eye-specific retino-geniculo-cortical projections to layers III, IV, and VI in primary visual cortex of the greater galago (Otolemur crassicudatus), and correlation with cytochrome oxidase blobs

Abstract Studies in the greater galago have not provided a comprehensive description of the organization of eye-specific retino-geniculate-cortical projections to the recipient layers in V1. Here we demonstrate the overall patterns of ocular dominance domains in layers III, IV, and VI revealed following a monocular injection of the transneuronal tracer wheat germ agglutinin conjugated with horseradish peroxidase (WGA-HRP). We also correlate these patterns with the array of cytochrome oxidase (CO) blobs in tangential sections through the unfolded and flattened cortex. In layer IV, we observed for the first time that eye-specific domains form an interconnected pattern of bands 200–250 μm wide arranged such that they do not show orientation bias and do not meet the V1 border at right angles, as is the case in macaques. We also observed distinct WGA-HRP labeled patches in layers III and VI. The patches in layer III, likely corresponding to patches of K lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) input, align with layer IV ocular dominance columns (ODCs) of the same eye dominance and overlap partially with virtually all CO blobs in both hemispheres, implying that CO blobs receive K LGN input from both eyes. We further found that CO blobs straddle the border between layer IV ODCs, such that the distribution of CO staining is approximately equal over ipsilateral and contralateral ODCs. These results, together with studies showing that a high percentage of cells in CO blobs are monocular, suggest that CO blobs consist of ipsilateral and contralateral subregions that are in register with underlying layer IV ODCs of the same eye dominance. In macaques and humans, CO blobs are centered on ODCs in layer IV. Our finding that CO blobs in galago straddle the border of neighboring layer IV ODCs suggests that this novel feature may represent an alternative way by which visual information is processed by eye-specific modular architecture in mammalian V1.
High-capacity free-space optical link in the midinfrared thermal atmospheric windows using unipolar quantum devices

Abstract. Free-space optical communication is a very promising alternative to fiber communication systems, in terms of ease of deployment and costs. Midinfrared light has several features of utter relevance for free-space applications: low absorption when propagating in the atmosphere even under adverse conditions, robustness of the wavefront during long-distance propagation, and absence of regulations and restrictions for this range of wavelengths. A proof-of-concept of high-speed transmission taking advantage of intersubband devices has recently been demonstrated, but this effort was limited by the short-distance optical path (up to 1 m). In this work, we study the possibility of building a long-range link using unipolar quantum optoelectronics. Two different detectors are used: an uncooled quantum cascade detector and a nitrogen-cooled quantum well-infrared photodetector. We evaluate the maximum data rate of our link in a back-to-back configuration before adding a Herriott cell to increase the length of the light path up to 31 m. By using pulse shaping, pre- and post-processing, we reach a record bitrate of 30 Gbit s − 1 for both two-level (OOK) and four-level (PAM-4) modulation schemes for a 31-m propagation link and a bit error rate compatible with error-correction codes.
A pH-sensitive liposomal co-delivery of fingolimod and ammonia borane for treatment of intracerebral hemorrhage

Abstract Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) is one of the most devastating types of stroke. This study aims to develop a new drug carrier with hematoma-specific response and high property. pH-sensitive liposomes (PSL) were developed. Fingolimod with ammonia borane were encapsulated in the phospholipid vesicles to integrate two drugs for treating ICH more effectively. pH sensitive PSL-FTY720/AB was characterized for various physicochemical parameters such as shape, surface morphology, vesicle size, zeta-potential, in-vitro drug release in different pH environment, cellular toxicity, in-vivo and ex-vivo tissue accumulation. In vivo results further confirmed that drug-loading nanoparticles effectively protected against ICH-induced brain injury through synergistic effect of anti-inflammation and anti-oxidation. Collectively, the present study confirmed that PSL-FTY720/AB can be an effective, safe, and a novel alternative treatment approach in ICH.
μGlyphe: une Notation Graphique pour Décrire les Microgestes: μGlyph: a Graphical Notation to Describe Microgestures

Hand microgestures define a promising modality for rapid and eye-free interaction while holding or not holding an object. While studied in many contexts, e.g. in virtual/augmented reality, there is no consensual definition of a microgesture, or a notation to accurately describe a microgesture. The absence of a reference framework leads to ambiguities in the naming or description of microgestures. We propose μGlyph, a graphical notation to precisely describe hand microgestures at different levels of abstraction. This notation is based on a vocabulary of elementary events from the biomechanics of the hand. Each event is associated with a context of execution as well as with optional characteristics such as the finger that performs the micromovement. We investigate the descriptive power of the μGlyph notation when positioned along the existing design axes. Concomitant with this we also describe the most common microgestures in the literature.
Application mobile d’aide à la navigation aérienne : une perspective de conception participative: Mobile navigation aid for pilots: a participatory design approach

Piloting an aircraft takes place in a complex, changing and dynamic environment. It requires a rapid decision-making process as well as the mobilization of high-level cognitive capacities. For example, pilots have to select, process, and memorize a large flow of information. In this paper, we present the participatory design process we conducted to design a mobile navigation aid for pilots of light aircraft. This application allows pilots to prepare the flight, obtain information while flying and set alarms. We describe the iterative design process over two iterations of the prototype, including brainstorming sessions, co-design sessions, tests in flight simulators and a final test in an aircraft. We conclude with design recommandations which can be used for the design of future mobile navigation aid applications for aircraft.
Généralisation de la Fonction de Redirection de la Main en Réalité Virtuelle: Generalizing the Hand Redirection Function in Virtual Reality

Visuo-haptic illusions, such as Hand Redirection, offer rich haptic feedback in Virtual Reality while using a limited number of physical objects. In this paper, we extend the design space for these illusions by generalizing the redirection function. A user study compares 6 redirection functions. Our results suggest that the redirection function has no influence on the illusion breakup. They also suggest that the designer can freely manipulate the redirection function for example to avoid collisions.
Cross-Domain WiFi Sensing with Channel State Information: A Survey

The past years have witnessed the rapid conceptualization and development of wireless sensing based on Channel State Information (CSI) with commodity WiFi devices. Recent studies have demonstrated the vast potential of WiFi sensing in detection, recognition, and estimation applications. However, the widespread deployment of WiFi sensing systems still faces a significant challenge: how to ensure the sensing performance when exposing a pre-trained sensing system to new domains, such as new environments, different configurations, and unseen users, without data collection and system retraining. This survey provides a comprehensive review of recent research efforts on cross-domain WiFi Sensing. We first introduce the mathematical model of CSI and explore the impact of different domains on CSI. Then we present a general workflow of cross-domain WiFi sensing systems, which consists of signal processing and cross-domain sensing. Five cross-domain sensing algorithms, including domain-invariant feature extraction, virtual sample generation, transfer learning, few-shot learning and big data solution, are summarized to show how they achieve high sensing accuracy when encountering new domains. The advantages and limitations of each algorithm are also summarized and the performance comparison is made based on different applications. Finally, we discuss the remaining challenges to further promote the practical usability of cross-domain WiFi sensing systems.
Leveraging Democracy to Optimize Distributed Random Beacons

Random beacons, protocols that produce a reliable source of randomness, are crucial in a variety of applications. However, solving the random beacon problem has recently been shown to be at least as hard as solving consensus. In this work, we propose Kleroterion, a random beacon protocol that builds on top of recent works in order to ensure a trustless setup that is not costly, and that tolerates up to less than a third of Byzantine processes under partial synchrony. Kleroterion executes n instances of Pinakion, our novel Publicly-Verifiable Secret Sharing (PVSS) protocol, in order to share one input per process. Then, Kleroterion runs a consensus protocol that selects and aggregates a third of these shared inputs. Compared to previous works that are also quadratic in the communication complexity, Kleroterion allows for inputs to be shared without having to be routed through a specific node, a so-called leader. We refer thus to Kleroterion as a democratic protocol. We show that democratizing protocols improves both communication and computation performance, in that shared bits and computation are scattered across all channels and processes, thus removing the bottleneck at the leader. This is shown in that Kleroterion has linear computation complexity and a number of bits sent per channel of the network independent of the number of processes, except for the reconstruction phase and for one message per leader during agreement. Contrary to leader-less protocols, Kleroterion has a leader of the embedded consensus protocol that proposes a bitmask referencing one bit per shared input. This bitmask can thus reference more information shared by processes, enabling batching with other information. An example of this is a blockchain application in which the output of the random beacon can be used for a secure committee sortition protocol, and the bitmask references both a set of proposed blocks of transactions and of shared inputs.
A load spectra design method for multi-stress accelerated testing

Accelerated testing (AT) is an effective testing method for evaluating the reliability of highly reliable products. In many applications, such products are often subject to multiple stresses in actual working environments. Then, how to design the load spectra for multi-stress AT becomes a critical issue. In this paper, a new load spectra design method is proposed to overcome this challenge. Considering the properties of multiple stresses, a novel multi-stress loading matrix (MSLM) is modified to fully describe the load spectra in actual working environments and to generate the corresponding load spectra for AT. For illustration purposes, an inverse Gaussian (IG) process incorporating life-stress relationships is adopted to model product degradation under multiple stresses. A case study on a type of hydraulic piston pump is provided to demonstrate the use of the proposed method in guiding the load spectra design for multi-stress AT.
The Role of Radiology in the Evaluation and Treatment of Neurologically-Impaired Patients with Dysphagia

In the team of professional persons taking care of the neurologically impaired patient with swallowing difficulty, the radiologist is an interpreter of movements of anatomical structures and bolus transportation. He is also a consultant to the other team members and should select among the different imaging modalities, i.e., videofluorography, cineradiography, computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, ultrasound and nuclear medicine studies in the setting of the specific patient or disease entity. He must choose the correct imaging technique which most expediently and accurately will answer the clinical questions. He should also contribute his knowledge from other fields of radiology. i.e., neuroradiology, and tie together information from different studies other than barium swallows. He is also responsible for technical aspects such as exposure technique and the identification and reduction of image artifacts. However, in the team, he must be aware of the limitations of radiology for assessment of the course and treatment of the disease problem. This presentation, however, will only be concerned with radiologic evaluation during barium swallow. Swallowing can be divided into four stages: oral, pharyngeal, pharyngo-esophageal segment (PES) and esophageal. This subdivision is primarily based on anatomy though the oral stage covers ingestion as well as some events in the pharynx and, above all, the initiation of pharyngeal swallow. The PES stage basically pertains to the inferior pharynx and the upper cervical esophagus. However, it should be understood that although dysfunc-
Excitable dynamics in a molecularly-explicit model of cell motility: Mixed-mode oscillations and beyond

Mesenchymal cell motility is mainly regulated by two members of the Rho-family of GTPases, called Rac and Rho. The mutual inhibition exerted by these two proteins on each other’s activation and the promotion of Rac activation by an adaptor protein called paxillin have been implicated in driving cellular polarization comprised of front (high active Rac) and back (high active Rho) during cell migration. Mathematical modeling of this regulatory network has previously shown that bistability is responsible for generating a spatiotemporal pattern underscoring cellular polarity called wave-pinning when diffusion is included. We previously developed a 6D reaction-diffusion model of this network to decipher the role of Rac, Rho and paxillin (along with other auxiliary proteins) in generating wave-pinning. In this study, we simplify this model through a series of steps into an excitable 3D ODE model comprised of one fast variable (the scaled concentration of active Rac), one slow variable (the maximum paxillin phosphorylation rate – turned into a variable) and a very slow variable (a recovery rate – also turned into a variable). We then explore, through slow-fast analysis, how excitability is manifested by showing that the model can exhibit relaxation oscillations (ROs) as well as mixed-mode oscillations (MMOs) whose underlying dynamics are consistent with a delayed Hopf bifurcation. By reintroducing diffusion and the scaled concentration of inactive Rac into the model, we obtain a 4D PDE model that generates several unique spatiotemporal patterns that are relevant to cell motility. These patterns are then characterized and their impact on cell motility are explored by employing the cellular potts model (CPM). Our results reveal that wave pinning produces purely very directed motion in CPM, while MMOs allow for meandering and non-motile behaviours to occur. This highlights the role of MMOs as a potential mechanism for mesenchymal cell motility.
G-protein coupled receptor 19 (GPR19) knockout mice display sex-dependent metabolic dysfunction

G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) mediate signal transduction from the cellular surface to intracellular metabolic pathways. While the function of many GPCRs has been delineated previously, a significant number require further characterization to elucidate their cellular function. G-protein coupled receptor 19 (GPR19) is a poorly characterized class A GPCR which has been implicated in the regulation of circadian rhythm, tumor metastasis, and mitochondrial homeostasis. In this report, we use a novel knockout (KO) mouse model to examine the role of GPR19 in whole-body metabolic regulation. We show that loss of GPR19 promotes increased energy expenditure and decreased activity in both male and female mice. However, only male GPR19 KO mice display glucose intolerance in response to a high fat diet. Loss of GPR19 expression in male mice, but not female mice, resulted in diet-induced hepatomegaly, which was associated with decreased expression of key fatty acid oxidation genes in male GPR19 KO livers. Overall, our data suggest that loss of GPR19 impacts whole-body energy metabolism in diet-induced obese mice in a sex-dependent manner.