Ithaka S+R Faculty Survey at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: A Summary

A summary of key findings from the local implementation of Ithaka S+R Faculty Survey.unpublishe

Factors Related to Intra-Tendinous Morphology of Achilles Tendon in Runners

The purpose of this study was to determine and explore factors (age, sex, anthropometry, running and injury/pain history, tendon gross morphology, neovascularization, ankle range of motion, and ankle plantarflexor muscle endurance) related to intra-tendinous morphological alterations of the Achilles tendon in runners. An intra-tendinous morphological change was defined as collagen fiber disorganization detected by a low peak spatial frequency radius (PSFR) obtained from spatial frequency analysis (SFA) techniques in sonography. Ninety-one runners (53 males and 38 females; 37.9 ± 11.6 years) with 8.8 ± 7.3 years of running experience participated. Height, weight, and waist and hip circumferences were recorded. Participants completed a survey about running and injury/pain history and the Victorian Institute of Sport Assessment-Achilles (VISA-A) survey. Heel raise endurance and knee-to-wall composite dorsiflexion were assessed. Brightness-mode (B-mode) sonographic images were captured longitudinally and transversely on the Achilles tendon bilaterally. Sonographic images were analyzed for gross morphology (i.e., cross-sectional area [CSA]), neovascularization, and intra-tendinous morphology (i.e., PSFR) for each participant. The factors associated with altered intra-tendinous morphology of the Achilles tendon were analyzed using a generalized linear mixed model. Multivariate analyses revealed that male sex was significantly associated with a decreased PSFR. Additionally, male sex and the presence of current Achilles tendon pain were found to be significantly related to decreased PSFR using a univariate analysis. Our findings suggested that male sex and presence of current Achilles tendon pain were related to intra-tendinous morphological alterations in the Achilles tendon of runners

5-Hy­droxy­indan-1-one

In the title compound (5HIN), C9H8O2, is perfectly planar as all atoms, except the H atoms of both CH2 groups, lie on a crystallographic mirror plane. In the crystal, mol­ecules are linked by strong inter­molecular O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds, forming an infinite chain along [100], generating a C(8) motif

Speech Dereverberation Based on Integrated Deep and Ensemble Learning Algorithm

Reverberation, which is generally caused by sound reflections from walls, ceilings, and floors, can result in severe performance degradation of acoustic applications. Due to a complicated combination of attenuation and time-delay effects, the reverberation property is difficult to characterize, and it remains a challenging task to effectively retrieve the anechoic speech signals from reverberation ones. In the present study, we proposed a novel integrated deep and ensemble learning algorithm (IDEA) for speech dereverberation. The IDEA consists of offline and online phases. In the offline phase, we train multiple dereverberation models, each aiming to precisely dereverb speech signals in a particular acoustic environment; then a unified fusion function is estimated that aims to integrate the information of multiple dereverberation models. In the online phase, an input utterance is first processed by each of the dereverberation models. The outputs of all models are integrated accordingly to generate the final anechoic signal. We evaluated the IDEA on designed acoustic environments, including both matched and mismatched conditions of the training and testing data. Experimental results confirm that the proposed IDEA outperforms single deep-neural-network-based dereverberation model with the same model architecture and training data

Therapeutic and Radiosensitizing Effects of Armillaridin on Human Esophageal Cancer Cells

Background. Armillaridin (AM) is isolated from Armillaria mellea. We examined the anticancer activity and radiosensitizing effect on human esophageal cancer cells. Methods. Human squamous cell carcinoma (CE81T/VGH and TE-2) and adenocarcinoma (BE-3 and SKGT-4) cell lines were cultured. The MTT assay was used for cell viability. The cell cycle was analyzed using propidium iodide staining. Mitochondrial transmembrane potential was measured by DiOC6(3) staining. The colony formation assay was performed for estimation of the radiation surviving fraction. Human CE81T/VGH xenografts were established for evaluation of therapeutic activity in vivo. Results. AM inhibited the viability of four human esophageal cancer cell lines with an estimated concentration of 50% inhibition (IC50) which was 3.4–6.9 μM. AM induced a hypoploid cell population and morphological alterations typical of apoptosis in cells. This apoptosis induction was accompanied by a reduction of mitochondrial transmembrane potential. AM accumulated cell cycle at G2/M phase and enhanced the radiosensitivity in CE81T/VGH cells. In vivo, AM inhibited the growth of CE81T/VGH xenografts without significant impact on body weight and white blood cell counts. Conclusion. Armillaridin could inhibit growth and enhance radiosensitivity of human esophageal cancer cells. There might be potential to integrate AM with radiotherapy for esophageal cancer treatment