LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Mechatronics for Engineering Education: Undergraduate Curriculum*

Mechatronics is a synergistic combination of electrical and electronic engineering, computer technology and control engineering with mechanical engineering that forms a crucial part in the design, manufacture and maintenance of a wide range of engineering products and processes. Engineering education with a mechatronics curriculum provides the necessary core technologies for the future engineers with multi-disciplinary background. This paper outlines the mechatronic engineering curriculum of an undergraduate degree at the City University of Hong Kong, which aims to provide the integrated learning experience.
China's private economy : sociological views

The impression from the library search is that not much empirical study has been conducted on China’s emerging private economies. Theoretical accounts, on the other hand, are more tied to the general questions about the changing system of social stratification in which private entrepreneurs are a rising social group. We classify most interesting studies and associated views into three accounts and will suggest a few questions for further research.
Zinc Supplementation for One Year Among Children with Cystic Fibrosis Does Not Decrease Pulmonary Infection.

BACKGROUND
Children with cystic fibrosis may have a deficiency of micronutrients, including zinc, which may affect their susceptibility to infections. There is a paucity of data on zinc supplementation among children with cystic fibrosis. We hypothesized that a pharmacologic dose of zinc administered daily for 12 months would reduce the need for antibiotics by 50%.


METHODS
This double-blind randomized placebo-controlled trial was conducted among children with cystic fibrosis to assess the effect of zinc supplementation on the need for antibiotics and pulmonary function tests. The children, age 5-15 y, of either sex, received either 30-mg zinc tablets or similar looking placebo tablets daily in addition to standard care. They were followed up every month for a period of 12 months and whenever they had pulmonary exacerbations. Their serum zinc was estimated at baseline and at 12 months of enrollment. During each visit, the children underwent a pulmonary function test and sputum culture.


RESULTS
Of a total of 43 children screened, 40 were enrolled, and of them, 37 completed the study. The median (interquartile range) number of days of the administration of antibiotics over 12 months of follow-up among the children receiving zinc was 42 (14-97) d. In the placebo group, it was 38 (15-70) d (P = .79). There were no significant differences in the percent-of-predicted FEV1 or change in FEV1 values at 12 months (P = .44). The number of children in whose respiratory specimens Pseudomonas was isolated was similar for the 2 groups at different time intervals. The adverse events reported were similar in the 2 groups.


CONCLUSION
We did not find any significant difference in the need for antibiotics, pulmonary function tests, hospitalization, colonization with Pseudomonas, or the need for antibiotics for children with cystic fibrosis receiving zinc supplementation of 30 mg/d.
Size-dependent melting point depression of nanostructures: Nanocalorimetric measurements

The melting behavior of 0.1–10-nm-thick discontinuous indium films formed by evaporation on amorphous silicon nitride is investigated by an ultrasensitive thin-film scanning calorimetry technique. The films consist of ensembles of nanostructures for which the size dependence of the melting temperature and latent heat of fusion are determined. The relationship between the nanostructure radius and the corresponding melting point and latent heat is deduced solely from experimental results ~i.e., with no assumed model ! by comparing the calorimetric measurements to the particle size distributions obtained by transmission electron microscopy. It is shown that the melting point of the investigated indium nanostructures decreases as much as 110 K for particles with a radius of 2 nm. The experimental results are discussed in terms of existing melting point depression models. Excellent agreement with the homogeneous melting model is observed.
Novel Coplanar Line-Points Invariants for Robust Line Matching Across Views

[1] Luo, Z. X., Zhou, X. C., David XianFeng, G. U. (2014). From a projective invariant to some new properties of algebraic hypersurfaces.Science China Mathematics, 57(11), 2273-2284. [2] Fan, B., Wu, F., Hu, Z. (2010). Line matching leveraged by point correspondences. IEEE Conference on Computer Vision & Pattern Recognition (Vol.238, pp.390-397). [3] Fan, B., Wu, F., & Hu, Z. (2012). Robust line matching through line–point invariants. Pattern Recognition, 45(2), 794-805. [4] López, J., Santos, R., Fdez-Vidal, X. R., & Pardo, X. M. (2015). Two-view line matching algorithm based on context and appearance in low-textured images. Pattern Recognition, 48(7), 2164-2184. Dalian University of Technology Qi Jia, Xinkai Gao, Xin Fan*, Zhongxuan Luo, Haojie Li,and Ziyao Chen Novel Coplanar Line-points Invariants for Robust Line Matching Across Views
Intelligent dynamic traffic light sequence using RFID

The proposed RFID traffic control avoids problems that usually arise with standard traffic control systems, especially those related to image processing and beam interruption techniques. This RFID technique deals with a multi-vehicle, multilane, multi road junction area. It provides an efficient time management scheme, in which a dynamic time schedule is worked out in real time for the passage of each traffic column. The real time operation of the system emulates the judgment of a traffic policeman on duty. The number of vehicles in each column and the routing are proprieties, upon which the calculations and the judgments are based.
The Impact of Social Comparisons on Reciprocity

This paper investigates how social comparison information about referent others (i.e. learning what similar others do and how they are treated) affects reciprocal relationships. Using a three-person gift-exchange game we study how employees’ reciprocity towards an employer is affected by exposure to pay comparison information (what co-workers earn) and effort comparison information (how co-workers perform). We find that pay comparison information does not affect reciprocity. Effort comparison information, however, influences reciprocal relationships in important ways: the ability to observe reciprocal behavior on the part of others strongly affects employees’ reciprocity towards the employer. While our data show that social information in principle may either erode or amplify reciprocal relationships, we find that, on average, social comparisons have a detrimental impact on reciprocity.
Urinary interleukin 18 for detection of acute kidney injury: a meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND
Interleukin 18 (IL-18) has been proposed as a biomarker for the early detection of acute kidney injury (AKI), but a broad range of its predictive accuracy has been reported.


STUDY DESIGN
Meta-analysis of diagnostic test studies.


SETTING & POPULATION
Various clinical settings of AKI, including after cardiac surgery, after contrast infusion, in the emergency department, or in the intensive care unit.


SELECTION CRITERIA FOR STUDIES
Prospective studies that investigated the diagnostic accuracy of IL-18 level to predict AKI.


INDEX TESTS
Increasing or increased urinary IL-18 excretion.


REFERENCE TESTS
The primary outcome was AKI development, mainly based on serum creatinine level (definition varied across studies). The other outcome was in-hospital mortality.


RESULTS
We analyzed data from 23 studies and 7 countries involving 4,512 patients. Of these studies, 18 could be included in the meta-analysis. Across all settings, the diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) for urinary IL-18 level to predict AKI was 4.22 (95% CI, 2.90-6.14), with sensitivity and specificity of 0.58 and 0.75, respectively. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) of urinary IL-18 level to predict AKI was 0.70 (95% CI, 0.66-0.74). Subgroup analysis showed the DOR/AUROC of urinary IL-18 was 5.32 (95% CI, 2.92-9.70)/0.72 (95% CI, 0.68-0.76) in cardiac surgery patients and 3.65 (95% CI, 1.88-7.10)/0.66 (95% CI, 0.62-0.70) in intensive care unit or coronary care unit patients. After stratification for age, IL-18 level had better diagnostic accuracy in children and adolescents versus adults: 8.12 (95% CI, 3.79-17.41)/0.78 (95% CI, 0.75-0.82) versus 3.31 (95% CI, 2.28-4.80)/0.66 (95% CI, 0.62-0.70). There was no significant difference in predictive performance of urinary IL-18 level among various times.


LIMITATIONS
Various clinical settings; different definition of AKI and serum creatinine level as the reference standard test for the diagnosis of AKI.


CONCLUSIONS
Urinary IL-18 is a useful biomarker of AKI with moderate predictive value across all clinical settings.
Predictors of failure in infants with viral bronchiolitis treated with high-flow, high-humidity nasal cannula therapy*.

OBJECTIVES
Viral bronchiolitis is an acute infection and inflammatory disease of the respiratory tract, with infants typically presenting with the most severe symptoms. Medical management of bronchiolitis is mostly supportive. Several preliminary studies suggest potential benefit from the use of high-flow nasal cannula systems. Although high-flow nasal cannula is a well-established modality in the newborn intensive care unit, its use in the pediatric intensive care unit for acute respiratory failure is far less established. The objective of this study was to identify any laboratory and clinical variables that may predict high-flow nasal cannula failure in management of bronchiolitis in the pediatric intensive care unit.


DESIGN
The study design was a retrospective chart review of all patients admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit from 2006 to 2010 with a diagnosis of viral bronchiolitis. Inclusion criteria included the initiation of high flow nasal cannula therapy at the time of admission and age ≤ 12 months. Exclusion criteria were intubation prior to admission, age >12 months, and the presence of a tracheostomy.


PATIENTS
A total of 113 patients with viral bronchiolitis met the inclusion criteria.


SETTING
Academic free standing Children's Hospital in the Midwest.


INTERVENTIONS
Retrospective chart review.


MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS
The data were analyzed by comparing those patients who responded to high-flow nasal cannula (n = 92) with those who were nonresponders to high-flow nasal cannula and required intubation (n = 21). No differences were noted between the groups for age, sex, or ethnicity. Mean weight and weight-for-corrected-age percentiles were significantly lower for patients who failed high-flow nasal cannula (p = .016 and .031, respectively), but weight-for-corrected-age percentile was not significant in logistic regression controlling for other variables. Respiratory rate prior to the initiation of high-flow nasal cannula also correlated strongly with respiratory deterioration (p < .001). The PCO2 was significantly higher for both before (p < .001) and after (p < .001) initiation of therapy in the nonresponder group. Pediatric Risk of Mortality III scores for the patients who failed high-flow nasal cannula were significantly higher (p < .001) than those of patients who tolerated this therapy.


CONCLUSIONS
History of prematurity and the patient's age did not increase a patient's risk of failure. Nonresponders to high-flow nasal cannula therapy were on the onset, more hypercarbic, were less tachypnic prior to the start of high-flow nasal cannula, and had no change in their respiratory rate after the initiation of high-flow nasal cannula therapy. Nonresponders had higher pediatric risk of mortality scores in the first 24 hrs.
UPFC operating characteristics impact on transmission line distance protection

This paper presents the impact of unified power flow controller (UPFC) operating characteristics on the transmission line protective relay behavior. The impact of the series compensating part of UPFC, i.e., static synchronous series compensator (SSSC) and shunt compensating part, i.e., STATic COMpensator (STATCOM) on distance relay are analyzed individually and collectively. The simulations investigate the impact of series injected voltage magnitude and phase angle on the performance of a distance relay for different fault conditions. It is shown that the magnitude and phase angle of the series voltage injected by SSSC affects the distance relay operation more than the STATCOM for a specified fault.
Relationship between plasma risperidone and 9-hydroxyrisperidone concentrations and clinical response in patients with schizophrenia

Rationale: Evaluation of relationships between serum antipsychotic drug concentrations and clinical response may provide valuable information for rational dosage adjustments. For risperidone, this relationship has been little investigated to date. Objective: To assess the relationship between plasma concentrations of risperidone and its active 9-hydroxy-metabolite (9-OH-risperidone) and clinical response in schizophrenic patients who experienced an acute exacerbation of the disorder. Methods: Forty-two patients (30 males, 12 females, age 24–60 years) were given risperidone at dosages ranging from 4 to 9 mg/day for 6 weeks. The design of the study was open and risperidone dosage could be adjusted individually according to clinical response. Steady-state plasma concentrations of risperidone and its 9-hydroxy-metabolite were measured after 4 and 6 weeks using a specific HPLC assay. Psychopathological state was assessed at baseline and at weeks 2, 4, and 6 by means of the positive and negative syndrome scale (PANSS), and patients were considered responders if they showed a greater than 20% reduction in total PANSS score at final evaluation compared with baseline. Results: Mean plasma concentrations of risperidone, 9-OH-risperidone, and active moiety (sum of risperidone and 9-OH-risperidone concentrations) did not differ between responders (n=28) and non-responders (n=14). No correlation between plasma levels and percent decrease in total PANSS score was found for risperidone (rs=–0.187, NS), 9-OH-risperidone (rs=0.246, NS), and active moiety (rs=0.249, NS). Active moiety concentrations in plasma were higher (P<0.001) in patients developing clinically significant parkinsonian symptoms (n=7) than in those with minimal (n=7) or no drug-induced parkinsonism (n=28). Conclusions: In chronic schizophrenic patients experiencing an acute exacerbation of the disorder, plasma levels of risperidone and its active metabolite correlate with the occurrence of parkinsonian side effects, whereas no significant correlation appears to exist with the degree of clinical improvement.
Interferential current therapy in patients with knee osteoarthritis: comparison of the effectiveness of different amplitude-modulated frequencies.

OBJECTIVE
This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of different amplitude-modulated frequencies of interferential current (IFC) and sham IFC on knee osteoarthritis.


DESIGN
A randomized and single-blind study was performed on 60 patients diagnosed with knee osteoarthritis. The patients were allocated to three active IFC groups (40, 100, and 180 Hz), and one sham IFC group. Treatments were performed 5 times a week for 3 wks consecutively. Each patient was assessed at the end of the treatments and at the first month using the following measurements: visual analog scale (pain at rest, pain on movement and disability), physician and patient judgments regarding treatment effectiveness, 15-m walking time (in minutes), range of motion (ROM), the Western Ontario and McMaster University Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC), and paracetamol intake (g/wk).


RESULTS
Although there were significant improvements in all variables, except WOMAC stiffness and range of motion, measured in all groups at the end of the treatment and during the follow-up, this improvement was greater in active IFC groups than in the sham group. The improvement in WOMAC stiffness was observed only in active IFC treatment groups (P < 0.05). No significant difference between different amplitude-modulated frequencies of IFC treatments was observed.


CONCLUSIONS
This study demonstrated the superiority of the IFC with some advantages on pain and disability outcomes when compared with sham IFC for the management of knee osteoarthritis. However, the effectiveness of different amplitude-modulated frequencies of IFC was not superior when compared with each other.
Partial encryption of compressed images and videos

The increased popularity of multimedia applications places a great demand on eecient data storage and transmission techniques. Network communication, especially over a wireless network , can easily be intercepted and must be protected from eavesdroppers. Unfortunately, en-cryption and decryption are slow and it is often diicult, if not impossible, to carry out real-time secure image and video communication and processing. Methods have been proposed to combine compression and encryption together to reduce the overall processing time 3, 4, 12, 18, 20], but they are either insecure or too computationally intensive. We propose a novel solution, called partial encryption, in which a secure encryption algorithm is used to encrypt only part of the compressed data. Partial encryption is applied to several image and video compression algorithms in this paper. Only 13%{27% of the output from quadtree compression algorithms 13, 17, 29, 30, 31, 32] is encrypted for typical images, and less than 2% is encrypted for 512 512 images compressed by the SPIHT algorithm 26]. The results are similar for video compression, resulting in a signiicant reduction in encryption and decryption time. The proposed partial encryption schemes are fast, secure, and do not reduce the compression performance of the underlying compression algorithm.
Selectin on activated platelets enhances neutrophil endothelial adherence in myocardial reperfusion injury.

OBJECTIVES
The glycoprotein P-selectin is an adhesion molecule that is rapidly expressed on the surface of platelets and endothelium during the inflammatory process. P-selectin on endothelium has been reported to play an important role in reperfusion injury. However, little is known regarding P-selectin on platelets in contributing to the pathophysiology of myocardial reperfusion injury. In this study, we hypothesized that P-selectin on platelets may enhance neutrophil endothelial adherence and this may play a role in neutrophil-mediated reperfusion injury.


METHODS
Endothelial cells, cardiomyocytes, platelets and neutrophils were isolated from adult rats. Endothelial cells and cardiomyocytes were cultivated in a co-culture system. After exposure to hypoxia and reoxygenation, neutrophil adherence and migration were examined.


RESULTS
After exposure to 6 h of hypoxia, endothelial cells co-incubated with platelets showed significantly greater neutrophil adherence (63.1 +/- 4.0%) and migration (78.2 +/- 6.7%) than endothelial cells alone (adhesion: 44.2 +/- 2.8%, migration: 57.9 +/- 4.9%). These increases were significantly inhibited (adhesion: 42.1 +/- 3.5%, migration: 65.5 +/- 3.8%) by an anti-P-selectin monoclonal antibody. Moreover, the superoxide-anion production was significantly elevated when activated platelets were added to neutrophils. This enhanced production was also inhibited by anti-P-selectin antibody.


CONCLUSION
The presence of activated platelets enhanced neutrophil adhesion and migration process after hypoxia reoxygenation. This process may occur following platelet-neutrophil interactions via P-selectin and subsequent neutrophil activation.
Quantifier elimination, valuation property and preparation theorem in quasianalytic geometry via transformation to normal crossings

This paper investigates the geometry of the expansion RQ of the real field R by restricted quasianalytic functions. The main purpose is to establish quantifier elimination, description of definable functions by terms, the valuation property and preparation theorem (in the sense of Parusinski–Lion–Rolin). To this end, we study non-standard models R of the universal diagram T of RQ in the language L augmented by the names of rational powers. Our approach makes no appeal to the Weierstrass preparation theorem, upon which the majority of fundamental results in analytic geometry rely, but which is unavailable in the general quasianalytic geometry. The basic tools applied here are transformation to normal crossings and decomposition into special cubes. The latter method, developed in our article [32], combines modifications by blowing up with a suitable partitioning. Via an analysis of L-terms and infinitesimals, we prove the valuation property for functions given by L-terms, and next the exchange property for substructures of a given model R. Our proofs are based on the concepts of analytically independent as well as active and non-active infinitesimals, introduced in this article. Further, quantifier elimination for T is established through model-theoretic compactness. The universal theory T is thus complete and o-minimal, andRQ is its prime model. Under the circumstances, every definable function is given piecewise by L-terms, and therefore the previous results concerning L-terms generalize immediately to definable functions. In this fashion, we obtain the valuation property and preparation theorem for quasi-subanalytic functions. Finally, a quasi-subanalytic version of Puiseux’s theorem with parameter is demonstrated. AMS Classification: Primary 32S45, 14P15, 32B20; Secondary 03C10, 26E10, 03C64.
Autophagy protects ovarian cancer-associated fibroblasts against oxidative stress

RNA-Seq and gene set enrichment anylysis revealed that ovarian cancer associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are mitotically active compared with normal fibroblasts (NFs). Cellular senescence is observed in CAFs treated with H2O2 as shown by elevated SA-β-gal activity and p21 (WAF1/Cip1) protein levels. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and p21 (WAF1/Cip1) elevation may account for H2O2-induced CAFs cell cycle arrest in S phase. Blockage of autophagy can increase ROS production in CAFs, leading to cell cycle arrest in S phase, cell proliferation inhibition and enhanced sensitivity to H2O2-induced cell death. ROS scavenger NAC can reduce ROS production and thus restore cell viability. Lactate dehydrogenase A (LDHA), monocarboxylic acid transporter 4 (MCT4) and superoxide dismutase 2 (SOD2) were up-regulated in CAFs compared with NFs. There was relatively high lactate content in CAFs than in NFs. Blockage of autophagy decreased LDHA, MCT4 and SOD2 protein levels in CAFs that might enhance ROS production. Blockage of autophagy can sensitize CAFs to chemotherapeutic drug cisplatin, implicating that autophagy might possess clinical utility as an attractive target for ovarian cancer treatment in the future.