Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dynamic mechanical and dielectrical properties of poly(vinyl alcohol) and poly(vinyl alcohol)‐based nanocomposites

In this article we report on the investigation of the dynamics of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and PVA-based composite films by means of dielectric spectroscopy and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis. Once the characterization of pure PVA was done, we studied the effect of a nanostructured magnetic filler (nanosized CoFe2O4 particles homogeneously dispersed within a sulfonated polystyrene matrix) on the dynamics of PVA. Our results suggest that the α-relaxation process, corresponding to the glass transition of PVA, is affected by the filler. The glass-transition temperature of PVA increases with filler content up to compositions of around 10 wt %, probably as a result of polymer–filler interactions that reduce the polymer chain mobility. For filler contents higher than 10 wt %, the glass-transition temperature of PVA decreases as a result of the absorption of water that causes a plasticizing effect. The β- and γ-relaxation processes of PVA are not affected by the filler as stated from both dynamic mechanical thermal analysis and dielectric spectroscopy. Nevertheless, both relaxation processes are greatly affected by the moisture content. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 39: 1968–1975, 2001
Retail space design considering revenue and adjacencies using a racetrack aisle network

In this article, a model and solution approach for the design of the block layout of a single-story department store is presented. The approach consists of placing departments in a racetrack configuration within the store subject to area and shape constraints. The objective function considers the area allocated to each department, contiguity of the departments to the aisle network, adjacency requirements among departments, and department revenues. The revenue generated by a department is defined as a function of its area and its exposure to the aisle network. The aisle network is comprised of two components: the racetrack, which serves as the main travel path for the customers, and the entry/exit aisle. The racetrack aisle itself is treated as a department with area allocation and corresponding revenue generation. A general tabu search optimization framework for the model with variable department areas and an aisle network with non-zero area is devised and tested.
Resistance Training Regulates Cardiac Function through Modulation of miRNA-214

Aims: To determine the effects of resistance training (RT) on the expression of microRNA (miRNA)-214 and its target in sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+-ATPase (SERCA2a), and on the morphological and mechanical properties of isolated left ventricular myocytes. Main methods: Male Wistar rats were divided into two groups (n = 7/group): Control (CO) or trained (TR). The exercise-training protocol consisted of: 4 × 12 bouts, 5×/week during 8 weeks, with 80% of one repetition maximum. Key findings: RT increased the left ventricular myocyte width by 15% and volume by 12%, compared with control animals (p < 0.05). The time to half relaxation and time to peak were 8.4% and 4.4% lower, respectively, in cells from TR group as compared to CO group (p < 0.05). RT decreased miRNA-214 level by 18.5% while its target SERCA2a expression were 18.5% higher (p < 0.05). Significance: Our findings showed that RT increases single left ventricular myocyte dimensions and also leads to faster cell contraction and relaxation. These mechanical adaptations may be related to the augmented expression of SERCA2a which, in turn, may be associated with the epigenetic modification of decreased miRNA-214 expression.
Patients' experiences with multiple stimulation axillary block for fast‐track ambulatory hand surgery

Background: Ambulatory axillary block by multiple nerve stimulation (MNS) is effective and time efficient, but may be rejected by patients because of block pain. This prospective study assessed patients' anxiety and acceptance of this block, identified which of the components of blocking procedure is most painful (i.v. line insertion, repeated needle passes, local anesthetic injection, or electrical stimulation) and recorded patients' anesthetic preferences for the future hand surgery.
Computational Intelligence Techniques for Tactile Sensing Systems

Tactile sensing helps robots interact with humans and objects effectively in real environments. Piezoelectric polymer sensors provide the functional building blocks of the robotic electronic skin, mainly thanks to their flexibility and suitability for detecting dynamic contact events and for recognizing the touch modality. The paper focuses on the ability of tactile sensing systems to support the challenging recognition of certain qualities/modalities of touch. The research applies novel computational intelligence techniques and a tensor-based approach for the classification of touch modalities; its main results consist in providing a procedure to enhance system generalization ability and architecture for multi-class recognition applications. An experimental campaign involving 70 participants using three different modalities in touching the upper surface of the sensor array was conducted, and confirmed the validity of the approach.
Reduction in deformed wing virus infection in larval and adult honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) by double‐stranded RNA ingestion

Deformed wing virus (DWV) is a serious pathogen of the honey bee, Apis mellifera L. , vectored by the parasitic mite Varroa destructor. The virus is associated with wing deformity in symptomatic bees, and premature death and reduced colony performance in asymptomatic bees. In the present study we reduced DWV infection by feeding both first instar larvae and adult A. mellifera with a double‐stranded (ds) RNA construct, DWV‐dsRNA, which is specific to DWV in DWV‐inoculated bees, by mixing it with their food. We showed that feeding DWV to larvae causes wing deformity in adult bees in the absence of varroa mites and decreases survival rates of adult bees relative to bees not fed DWV. Feeding larvae with DWV‐dsRNA in advance of inoculation with virus reduced the DWV viral level and reduced wing deformity relative to larvae fed DWV or DWV with green fluorescent protein‐dsRNA (probably a result of RNA silencing), but did not affect survival to the adult stage. Feeding DWV‐dsRNA did not affect larval survival rates, which suggests that dsRNA is non‐toxic to larvae. Feeding adult workers with DWV‐dsRNA in advance of inoculation with virus increased their longevity and reduced DWV concentration relative to controls.
Incidence of metabolic syndrome and its risk factors among type 2 diabetes clinic attenders in Isfahan, Iran.

INTRODUCTION At present, little data exists about the incidence of, and the risk factors associated with, metabolic syndrome (MetS) in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). The aims of this present study were to assess the incidence and risk factors of MetS in people with T2DM using routinely collected data from a clinical information system at Isfahan Endocrine and Metabolism Research Centre, Iran. MATERIAL AND METHODS During the mean (SD) follow-up period of 11.7 (4.8) years, 3,047 patients with T2DM who were free of MetS at baseline were examined to determine the incidence and predictors of progression to MetS. The mean (SD) age of participants was 50.4 (11.0) years, with a mean (SD) duration of diabetes of 6.3 (6.2) years at initial registration. A modified National Cholesterol Education Programme- Adult Treatment Panel III definition (with body mass index [BMI] instead of waist circumference) was used for the MetS. RESULTS The prevalence of MetS was 63.2% (95% CI: 62.3, 64.1). The incidence of MetS was 28.5 (95% CI: 26.8, 30.2) (25.9 men and 30.9 women) per 1,000 patient-years based on 35,677 patient-years of follow-up. Multivariate analysis revealed that higher body mass index (BMI) and education, lower HbA1c and treatment with oral agent or insulin were associated with MetS. CONCLUSIONS These are the first estimates of the incidence and risk factors of MetS in patients with T2DM in Iran. These findings show that the natural course of MetS is dynamic. The clinical management of patients with T2DM will contribute significantly to MetS prevention.
Localization and 3D Reconstruction of Urban Scenes Using GPS

Using off-the-shelf Global Positioning System (GPS) units, we reconstruct buildings in 3D by exploiting the reduction in signal to noise ratio (SNR) that occurs when the buildings obstruct the line-of-sight between the moving units and the orbiting satellites. We measure the size and height of skyscrapers as well as automatically constructing a density map representing the location of multiple buildings in an urban landscape. If deployed on a large scale, via a cellular service provider’s GPS-enabled mobile phones or GPS-tracked delivery vehicles, the system could provide an inexpensive means of continuously creating and updating 3D maps of urban environments.
A simple and flexible volume rendering framework for graphics-hardware-based raycasting

In this work we present a flexible framework for GPU-based volume rendering. The framework is based on a single pass volume raycasting approach and is easily extensible in terms of new shader functionality. We demonstrate the flexibility of our system by means of a number of high-quality standard and nonstandard volume rendering techniques. Our implementation shows a promising performance in a number of benchmarks while producing images of higher accuracy than obtained by standard pre-integrated slice-based volume rendering.
Factors influencing increases in CD4 cell counts of HIV-positive persons receiving long-term highly active antiretroviral therapy.

BACKGROUND Highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) results in an improvement in immunologic function. We sought to investigate the factors associated with increases in CD4 cell count among human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive antiretroviral-naive patients starting HAART. METHODS Five hundred ninety-six subjects were followed for a median of 2.5 years (interquartile range, 1.0-4.0 years). Factors associated with changes in CD4 cell counts in the first 3 months of HAART and from 3 months onwards were analyzed. RESULTS After 6, 12, and 24 months of HAART, the median increases in CD4 cell counts were 114, 181, and 248 cells/mm3, respectively; 84%, 84%, and 80% of subjects had a virus load of <400 copies/mL during the same periods. White ethnicity, higher pre-HAART virus load, and lower pre-HAART CD4 and CD8 cell counts were associated with greater increases in CD4 cell counts during the first 3 months of HAART. From 3 months onward, a greater cumulative proportion of time spent with virus load <400 copies/mL was associated with a more favorable change in CD4 cell count (an average increase of 5.2 cells/mm3/year [95% confidence interval [CI], 3.8-6.7 cells/mm3/year] for each extra 10% cumulative time spent with a virus load <400 copies/mL) (P<.0001). For every 100 cells/mm3 higher in baseline CD4 cell count, the increase was 6 cells/mm3/year less (95% CI, 2-11 cells/mm3/year) (P=.02). Sex, risk group, age, and HAART regimen were not associated with increases in CD4 cell counts. CONCLUSIONS These findings emphasize the importance of maintaining virological suppression and suggest other factors that influence long-term CD4 cell response.
Multi-Modal Hallucinations and Cognitive Function in Parkinson’s Disease

Background/Aims: Hallucinations have been linked to a constellation of cognitive deficits in Parkinson’s disease (PD), but it is not known whether multi-modal hallucinations are associated with greater neuropsychological dysfunction. Methods: 152 idiopathic PD patients were categorized based on the presence or absence of hallucinations and then were further subdivided into visual-only (VHonly; n = 35) or multi-modal (VHplus; n = 12) hallucination groups. All participants underwent detailed neuropsychological assessment. Results: Participants with hallucinations performed more poorly on select neuropsychological measures and exhibited more mood symptoms. There were no differences between VHonly and VHplus groups. Conclusions: PD patients with multi-modal hallucinations are not at greater risk for neuropsychological impairment than those with single-modal hallucinations.
The prevalence of treated and untreated mental disorders in five countries.

We analyzed survey data from Canada, Chile, Germany, The Netherlands, and the United States to study the prevalence and treatment of mental and substance abuse disorders. Total past-year prevalence estimates range between 17.0 percent (Chile) and 29.1 percent (U.S.). Many cases are mild. Although disorder severity is strongly related to treatment, one- to two-thirds of serious cases receive no treatment each year. Most treatment goes to minor and mild cases. Undertreatment of serious cases is most pronounced among young poorly educated males. Outreach is needed to reduce barriers to care among serious cases and young people at risk of serious disorders.
Role of TRPM7 Channels in Hyperglycemia-Mediated Injury of Vascular Endothelial Cells

This study investigated the change of transient receptor potential melastatin 7 (TRPM7) expression by high glucose and its role in hyperglycemia induced injury of vascular endothelial cells. Human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were incubated in the presence or absence of high concentrations of D-glucose (HG) for 72h. RT-PCR, Real-time PCR, Western blotting, Immunofluorescence staining and whole-cell patch-clamp recordings showed that TRPM7 mRNA, TRPM7 protein expression and TRPM7-like currents were increased in HUVECs following exposure to HG. In contrast to D-glucose, exposure of HUVECs to high concentrations of L-glucose had no effect. HG increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, cytotoxicity and decreased endothelial nitric oxide synthase protein expression, which could be attenuated by knockdown of TRPM7 with TRPM7 siRNA. The protective effect of silencing TRPM7 against HG induced endothelial injury was abolished by U0126, an inhibitor of the extracellular signal-regulated kinase signaling pathway. These observations suggest that TRPM7 channels play an important role in hyperglycemia-induced injury of vascular endothelial cells.
Determining Compositionality of Word Expressions Using Word Space Models

This research focuses on determining semantic compositionality of word expressions using word space models (WSMs). We discuss previous works employing WSMs and present differences in the proposed approaches which include types of WSMs, corpora, preprocessing techniques, methods for determining compositionality, and evaluation testbeds. We also present results of our own approach for determining the semantic compositionality based on comparing distributional vectors of expressions and their components. The vectors were obtained by Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) applied to the ukWaC corpus. Our results outperform those of all the participants in the Distributional Semantics and Compositionality (DISCO) 2011 shared task.
The Evolution of X-Ray Emission in Young Stars

The evolution of magnetic activity in late-type stars is part of the intertwined rotation-age-activity relation, which provides an empirical foundation to the theory of magnetic dynamos. We study the age-activity relation in the pre-main-sequence (PMS) regime, for the first time using mass-stratified subsamples. The effort is based on the Chandra Orion Ultradeep Project (COUP), which provides very sensitive and homogenous X-ray data on a uniquely large sample of 481 optically well-characterized low-extinction low-mass members of the Orion Nebula Cluster, for which individual stellar masses and ages could be determined. More than 98% of the stars in this sample are detected as X-ray sources. Within the PMS phase for stellar ages in the range ~0.1-10 Myr, we establish a mild decay in activity with stellar age τ roughly as LX ∝ τ-1/3. On longer timescales, when the Orion stars are compared to main-sequence stars, the X-ray luminosity decay law for stars in the 0.5 M☉ < M < 1.2 M☉ mass range is more rapid with LX ∝ τ-0.75 over the wide range of ages 5 yr < log τ < 9.5 yr. When the fractional X-ray luminosity LX/Lbol and the X-ray surface flux are considered as activity indicators, the decay law index is similarly slow for the first 1-100 Myr but accelerates for older stars. The magnetic activity history for M stars with masses 0.1 M☉ < M < 0.4 M☉ is distinctly different. Only a mild decrease in X-ray luminosity, and even a mild increase in LX/Lbol and FX, is seen over the 1-100 Myr range, though the X-ray emission does decay over long timescales on the main sequence. Together with COUP results on the absence of a rotation-activity relation in Orion stars, we find that the activity-age decay is strong across the entire history of solar-type stars but is not attributable to rotational deceleration during the early epochs. A combination of tachocline and distributed convective dynamos may be operative in young solar-type stars. The results for the lowest mass stars are most easily understood by the dominance of convective dynamos during both the PMS and main-sequence phases.
Postoperative effect of radiofrequency treatments on the rabbit dermal collagen fibrillary matrix

This study quantitatively examined the short and mid‐long term effects of radiofrequency (RF) treatment on the normal dermal collagen fibrils of live rabbits. Effects were evaluated by histology and scanning probe microscopy analysis of dermal tissues treated using three RF energy levels (10, 20, and 30 W) and either a single‐ or multiple‐pass procedure. Progressive changes in the morphology of rabbit dermal collagen fibrils were investigated over a 30‐day post‐treatment period. All RF‐treated groups, except for the low‐energy group (10 W), displayed more prominent inflammatory responses compared to the control. This inflammatory response was more prominent a day after treatment. Dermal tissues 30‐days after RF treatment exhibited prominent myofibroblast activity associated with collagen contractile activity during wound healing in addition to chronic inflammation. A decrease in the morphology of dermal collagen fibrils after RF treatment continued until seven days postoperatively. The collagen fibril diameter increased to near baseline at 30 days postoperatively. Low‐energy and multi‐pass treatments resulted in greater collagen fibril contraction and recovery at the nanostructural level at 30 days postoperatively than did a single high‐energy treatment. Microsc. Res. Tech. 76:219–224, 2013. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Online Cleaning of Wireless Sensor Data Resulting in Improved Context Extraction

Sensors enable fine grain monitoring of activities of individual and social interest. Typically these sensors sense & send data continuously directly or through other sensor nodes to a base station. Wireless Sensor Data are inherently noisy and have frequent random spikes due to dynamic nature of the medium. Hence, the decision at the receiving node based on such data is likely to be erroneous. Erroneous data and decisions may affect its transformation to meaningful form like 'context'. It is therefore desirable to clean the data for improved context extraction. Bayesian Belief Networks are used here to quantitatively encode the dependencies among various sensors. These dependencies are then used to estimate missing data and also to detect and recover from errors. Cleaned data is then used for deriving Contextual Information and it results in improved context feature calculation. In this paper five algorithms for Bayesian Belief Network Construction have been evaluated and their performance of classification studied. Conjunctive rules are defined to map the sensors to already defined context. A secondary data obtained from weather sensor boards installed at Intel research lab at Berkeley have been used to demonstrate the approach.
Functional isogenic modeling of BRCA1 alleles reveals distinct carrier phenotypes

Clinical genetic testing of BRCA1 and BRCA2 is commonly performed to identify specific individuals at risk for breast and ovarian cancers who may benefit from prophylactic therapeutic interventions. Unfortunately, it is evident that deleterious BRCA1 alleles demonstrate variable penetrance and that many BRCA1 variants of unknown significance (VUS) exist. In order to further refine hereditary risks that may be associated with specific BRCA1 alleles, we performed gene targeting to establish an isogenic panel of immortalized human breast epithelial cells harboring eight clinically relevant BRCA1 alleles. Interestingly, BRCA1 mutations and VUS had distinct, quantifiable phenotypes relative to isogenic parental BRCA1 wild type cells and controls. Heterozygous cells with known deleterious BRCA1 mutations (185delAG, C61G and R71G) demonstrated consistent phenotypes in radiation sensitivity and genomic instability assays, but showed variability in other assays. Heterozygous BRCA1 VUS cells also demonstrated assay variability, with some VUS demonstrating phenotypes more consistent with deleterious alleles. Taken together, our data suggest that BRCA1 deleterious mutations and VUS can differ in their range of tested phenotypes, suggesting they might impart varying degrees of risk. These results demonstrate that functional isogenic modeling of BRCA1 alleles could aid in classifying BRCA1 mutations and VUS, and determining BRCA allele cancer risk.
DiSCO: Distributed Optimization for Self-Concordant Empirical Loss

We propose a new distributed algorithm for empirical risk minimization in machine learning. The algorithm is based on an inexact damped Newton method, where the inexact Newton steps are computed by a distributed preconditioned conjugate gradient method. We analyze its iteration complexity and communication efficiency for minimizing self-concordant empirical loss functions, and discuss the results for distributed ridge regression, logistic regression and binary classification with a smoothed hinge loss. In a standard setting for supervised learning, where the n data points are i.i. d. sampled and when the regularization parameter scales as 1/√n show that the proposed algorithm is communication efficient: the required round of communication does not increase with the sample size n, and only grows slowly with the number of machines.
Interleukin-17 production and T helper 17 cells in peripheral blood mononuclear cells in response to ocular lysate in patients with birdshot chorioretinopathy

Purpose To determine the cytokine response to ocular lysates of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from patients with birdshot chorioretinopathy (BSCR). Methods In the PBMCs of 19 patients with BSCR, T cell cytokine production in response to human retina and choroid lysates was analyzed with flow cytometry and compared to the responses against skin lysates. Five patients had active disease and had not yet been treated (naïve to systemic therapy); 14 patients had either immunomodulatory therapy (IMT) or inactive disease (referred as inactive/IMT). The PBMCs of 11 HLA-A29-positive healthy individuals were used as controls. Results The levels of interleukin-17 (IL-17) in supernatant of cultures stimulated with retina lysate were higher in patients with active BSCR compared to the HLA-A29 positive controls. The levels of other T cell cytokines (IL-10 and interferon-γ [IFN-γ]) in PBMC cultures did not change significantly after stimulation with ocular lysate. The frequency of CD4+ IL-17+ (T helper 17 [Th17]) T cells but not of CD4+ IFN-γ (Th1) T cells was elevated in the PBMCs of patients with active BSCR stimulated by retina lysates compared to skin lysates. Conclusions Our data demonstrate that PBMCs exhibit an IL-17-mediated immune response to retina lysate in patients with active disease naïve to systemic therapy. This is accompanied by the enrichment of IL-17-producing CD4+ T cells. These findings support the current concept of chronic Th17-cell mediated inflammation and provide evidence that links the Th17 signatures to ocular-specific immune responses in BSCR.