Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of apical sealing ability of ActiV GP/glass ionomer sealer as a root filling material

Introduction: The aim of this in vitro study was to assess the sealing ability of ActiV GP/glass ionomer sealer and to compare it with sealing ability of Resilon/Real Seal and gutta-percha/AH Plus. Materials and Methods: Forty-five human mandibular premolars were randomly divided into three groups (15 canals each). Each canal was instrumented to a size 40, taper 6% using K3 NiTi rotary instruments. A smear layer was removed, and the teeth were filled using single cone technique with ActiV GP, Resilon/Real Seal, or lateral condensation with gutta-percha/AH Plus. The teeth then were immersed in 2% methylene blue solution for 24 h, longitudinally sectioned and examined under a stereomicroscope to evaluate the liner leakage of the dye in each group. The data were analyzed with descriptive statistical methods and Mann–Whitney test (P = 0.05). Results: The lowest mean of leakage was recorded in gutta-percha/AH Plus group. There was a statistically significant difference between gutta-percha/AH Plus group and the two other groups; ActiV GP group and Resilon group. Conclusion: Dye penetration examination showed that ActiV GP/GI sealer had weak sealing properties, Resilon/RealSeal system did not show superior sealing properties in comparison with gutta-percha/AH Plus sealer, and lateral condensation shows better sealing properties in comparison with single cone technique.
Investigation on the Mechanical Properties of Fiber Reinforced Recycled Concrete

The flexural strength of conventional concrete material is known to be enhanced by incorporating a moderate volume-fraction of randomly distributed fibers. However, there is limited information on describing the influence of fiber volume-fraction on the compressive and flexural strength of recycled coarse aggregate concrete (RCA-C) material. This paper reports on experimental test results of the RCA-C material replaced with 0, 30, 50 and 100% recycled aggregate and 0, 0.5, 1 and 1.5% steel fiber volume fraction. Three-point flexural tests of notched prism specimens were completed. The mechanical properties in compression were characterized using cube specimens. Significant improvement in compressive and flexural strength of RCA-C was found as fiber content increased from 0 to 1.5%. The experimental test results of RCA-C were further evaluated to investigate the influence of fiber content on flexural toughness. According to test results, the addition of steel fibers to RCA-C material appreciably increased the flexural toughness.
Translational Motion Tracking of Leg Joints for Enhanced Prediction of Walking Tasks

Objective: Walking task prediction in powered leg prostheses is an important problem in the development of biomimetic prosthesis controllers. This paper proposes a novel method to predict upcoming walking tasks by estimating the translational motion of leg joints using an integrated inertial measurement unit. Methods: We asked six subjects with unilateral transtibial amputations to traverse flat ground, ramps, and stairs using a powered prosthesis while inertial signals were collected. We then performed an offline analysis in which we simulated a real-time motion tracking algorithm on the inertial signals to estimate knee and ankle joint translations, and then used pattern recognition separately on the inertial and translational signal sets to predict the target walking tasks of individual strides. Results: Our analysis showed that using inertial signals to derive translational signals enabled a prediction error reduction of 6.8% compared to that attained using the original inertial signals. This result was similar to that seen by addition of surface electromyography sensors to integrated sensors in previous work, but was effected without adding any extra sensors. Finally, we reduced the size of the translational set to that of the inertial set and showed that the former still enabled a composite error reduction of 5.8%. Conclusion and Significance: These results indicate that translational motion tracking can be used to substantially enhance walking task prediction in leg prostheses without adding external sensing modalities. Our proposed algorithm can thus be used as a part of a task-adaptive and fully integrated prosthesis controller.
Spin Orbit Torque in Ferromagnetic Semiconductors

Spin Orbit Torque in Ferromagnetic Semiconductors Hang Li Electrons not only have charges but also have spin. By utilizing the electron spin, the energy consumption of electronic devices can be reduced, their size can be scaled down and the efficiency of ‘read’ and ‘write’ in memory devices can be significantly improved. Hence, the manipulation of electron spin in electronic devices becomes more and more appealing for the advancement of microelectronics. In spin-based devices, the manipulation of ferromagnetic order parameter using electrical currents is a very useful means for current-driven operation. Nowadays, most of magnetic memory devices are based on the so-called spin transfer torque, which stems from the spin angular momentum transfer between a spin-polarized current and the magnetic order parameter. Recently, a novel spin torque effect, exploiting spin-orbit coupling in non-centrosymmetric magnets, has attracted a massive amount of attention. This thesis addresses the nature of spin-orbit coupled transport and torques in non-centrosymmetric magnetic semiconductors. We start with the theoretical study of spin orbit torque in three dimensional ferromagnetic GaMnAs. Using the Kubo formula, we calculate both the currentdriven field-like torque and anti-damping-like torque. We compare the numerical results with the analytical expressions in the model case of a magnetic Rashba two4 dimensional electron gas. Parametric dependencies of the different torque components and similarities to the analytical results of the Rashba two-dimensional electron gas in the weak disorder limit are described. Subsequently we study spin-orbit torques in two dimensional hexagonal crystals such as graphene, silicene, germanene and stanene. In the presence of staggered potential and exchange field, the valley degeneracy can be lifted and we obtain a valley-dependent Berry curvature, leading to a tunable antidamping torque by controlling the valley degree of freedom. This thesis then addresses the influence of the quantum spin Hall effect on spin orbit torque in nanoribbons with a hexagonal lattice. We find a dramatic modification of the nature of the torque (field-like and damping-like component) when crossing the topological phase transition. The relative magnitude of the two torque components can be significantly modifies by changing the magnetization direction. Finally, motivated by recent experimental results, we conclude by investigating the features of spin-orbit torque in magnetic transition metal dichalcogenides. We find the torque is associated with the valley polarization. By changing the magnetization direction, the torque can be changed from a finite value to zero when the valley polarization decreases from a finite value to zero.
Convergence Properties of Nonlinear Conjugate Gradient Methods

Recently, important contributions on convergence studies of conjugate gradient methods were made by Gilbert and Nocedal [SIAM J. Optim. , 2 (1992), pp. 21--42]. They introduce a "sufficient descent condition" to establish global convergence results. Although this condition is not needed in the convergence analyses of Newton and quasi-Newton methods, Gilbert and Nocedal hint that the sufficient descent condition, which was enforced by their two-stage line search algorithm, may be crucial for ensuring the global convergence of conjugate gradient methods. This paper shows that the sufficient descent condition is actually not needed in the convergence analyses of conjugate gradient methods. Consequently, convergence results on the Fletcher--Reeves- and Polak--Ribiere-type methods are established in the absence of the sufficient descent condition. To show the differences between the convergence properties of Fletcher--Reeves- and Polak--Ribiere-type methods, two examples are constructed, showing that neither the boundedness of the level set nor the restriction $\beta_k \geq 0$ can be relaxed for the Polak--Ribiere-type methods.
Effects of inlet conditions on centrifugal diffuser performance

This report examines the influence of inlet flow conditions, including Mach number, flow angle, blockage, and axial flow non-uniformity, on the performance and operating range of a straight channel centrifugal compressor diffuser. The research was carried out in a unique facility specifically developed to provide the diffuser with a controlled inlet flow. The tests were carried out for inlet Mach number up to values greater than unity and for a range of inlet flow angles up to the onset of rotating stall. It was found that expressing the overall diffuser pressure recovery coefficient, defined using availability or mass averaged inlet total pressure, as a function of momentum averaged diffuser inlet flow angle yields a relationship which is essentially independent of diffuser inlet flow distortion, blockage, or Mach number. Further, the operating range of the diffuser was limited by the onset of rotating stall at a momentum averaged diffuser inlet flow angle (oc = 70.5 0.5), which was also independent of the inlet flow field axial distortion and Mach number. The straight channel diffuser was designed to be comparable to a previously tested discrete passage diffuser and the performance of the two was compared; the overall pressure recovery of the former was found to be roughly 10% higher than that of the latter. Both diffuser types, straight channel and discrete passage diffuser showed similar behavior regarding the insensitivity of the performance and operating range to inlet flow axial non-uniformities and Mach number. The report also presents information on recent developments in the area of centrifugal compressor diffusers together with a detailed review of the open literature.
Selective Intrauterine Growth Restriction in Monochorionic Twin Pregnancies: Markers of Endothelial Damage and Metabolomic Profile

The aim of this study was to assess the aorta–intima thickness (aIT) and serum metabolomic profile in selective intrauterine growth-restricted (sIUGR) monochorionic diamniotic (MCDA) twin fetuses presenting Doppler velocimetry alterations. Fetal abdominal aIT was measured by ultrasound at 32 weeks of gestation, enrolling 24 MCDA twin fetuses (8 sIUGR and 16 controls). sIUGR twin fetuses were classified into two groups: Group 1 consisted of sIUGR with abnormal umbilical artery (UA) Doppler waveforms and Group 2 included sIUGR with normal UA Doppler. Group 3 were control fetuses appropriate for gestational age (AGA). Fetal blood samples were obtained from the umbilical vein immediately after fetal extraction. A non-targeted metabolomic profiling investigated fetal metabolism alterations by using liquid chromatography–high-resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS). Median fetal aIT was significantly larger in Group 1 (median value = 0.9 mm; range = 0.8–1.0 mm; p < .002) and Group 2 (median value = 0.8 mm; range = 0.7–0.8 mm; p < .002) than in AGA Group 3 (median value = 0.5 mm; range = 0.4–0.6 mm; p < .002). Metabolomic analyses, performed on four sIUGR cases (Group 1) compared with four AGA co-twins, showed an upregulation of phenylalanine, sphingosine, glycerophosphocholine, and choline, and a downregulation of valine, tryptophan, isoleucine, and proline sIUGR Group 1 compared with AGA. Although for metabolomics data only a statistical tendency (and not a statistical significance) was reached due to the small sample size, we believe that our results represent a valid starting point for further in-depth metabolomic and proteomic investigations of sIUGR in MCDA fetuses.
Drug safety surveillance: Modern Trends and Industrial Action

The primary aim of patient care is to provide the best medication that can produce the best treatment with minimal or no harm. This is only possible when the entire health care workers play their card well through correct prescription, dispensing, drug administration and adequate patient monitoring. However, the outcome is not always favorable because of the limited time undergone by the drug during premarketing studies as well as the bias by the pharmaceutical-industries to get approval from regulatory-agencies. As a result of this many safety data and information are lacking. Therefore, in order to preserve patient confidence and integrity of pharmaceutical products, post-marketing surveillance has become necessary. The methods commonly in used in post-marketing surveillance include spontaneous reporting, data mining and active reporting which have meaningfully contributed to patient safety. Despite the improvement made, spontaneous reporting have some disadvantages such as underreporting, poor quality of reports, and cannot be used to determine risk rate. Pharmaceutical companies as owners of the drug have noteworthy role to play in adverse drug reactions monitoring and can adopt similar techniques used by the regulatory-agencies and academic research. Unfortunately, this has led to reporting bias. This has suggested the need for more awareness and educational intervention for health care professionals at all levels. The curriculum of training medical and health related students should be incorporated with PV programme. This appraisal has described how to identify adverse drug reactions and methods used in reporting, current developments in pharmacovigilance and role of pharmaceutical-industries in drug safety studies. Key Words: Pharmacovigilance, Spontaneous-Reporting, Patient-safety, Pharmaceutical-industries.
Characterization of Die Stresses in Plastic Packages Subjected to Moisture and Thermal Exposures

Stress sensing test chips are a powerful tool for measuring in-situ stresses in electronic packages. In this study, we have applied (111) silicon test chips to perform a variety of measurements of die stresses in plastic packages. In particular, stresses were characterized in 240 pin Quad Flat Packs (QFPs) subjected to various thermal and moisture loadings. The utilized 10 × 10 mm sensor chips incorporated optimized eight-element piezoresistive rosettes that were capable of measuring the complete state of stress at the die surface (including the interfacial shear stresses). The fabricated test chips were initially used to measure die stresses in the QFPs after molding and post mold bake. Measurement results were correlated with finite element simulations of the molding process. Subsequently, the effects of thermal cycling on the measured die stress distributions for selected packages were investigated. After these initial measurements, the samples were stored at room temperature and ambient humidity for 17 years. The samples were then re-measured after this long term storage to evaluate the degree of die stress relaxation that had occurred. Several packages were then exposed to a harsh high temperature and high humidity environment (85 C, 85% RH) for various time durations, and allowed to absorb moisture. The die stresses at several locations were characterized as a function of time during the hygrothermal exposure. The weight variations in each sample were also measured during the 85/85 exposure to gauge the moisture uptake, and reversibility tests were conducted to see whether the effects of moisture uptake were permanent. Using these measurements and numerical simulations, valuable insight has been gained on moisture induced failure phenomena in plastic packages.Good agreement was found between the predicted and measured die normal stress distributions occurring after molding of the QFP. The magnitudes of the in-plane normal and shear stresses were found to have decreased by up to 30% after moderate levels of thermal cycling. After long term storage, the experimental measurements showed that the die normal stresses in the QFPs relaxed significantly (up to 40%), while the die shear stresses exhibited only small variations. In addition, the 85/85 hygrothermal exposures had strong effects, generating tensile die normal stress changes of up to 130 MPa. Upon fully redrying in reversibility tests, it was observed that the moisture-induced normal stress changes were not recovered. Good correlations were observed between the variations of sample weight (increases in moisture content) and the variations of the die normal and shear stress changes.Copyright © 2015 by ASME
Functional diversity of the lateral line system among populations of a native Australian freshwater fish

ABSTRACT Fishes use their mechanoreceptive lateral line system to sense nearby objects by detecting slight fluctuations in hydrodynamic motion within their immediate environment. Species of fish from different habitats often display specialisations of the lateral line system, in particular the distribution and abundance of neuromasts, but the lateral line can also exhibit considerable diversity within a species. Here, we provide the first investigation of the lateral line system of the Australian western rainbowfish (Melanotaenia australis), a species that occupies a diversity of freshwater habitats across semi-arid northwest Australia. We collected 155 individuals from eight populations and surveyed each habitat for environmental factors that may contribute to lateral line specialisation, including water flow, predation risk, habitat structure and prey availability. Scanning electron microscopy and fluorescent dye labelling were used to describe the lateral line system in M. australis, and to examine whether the abundance and arrangement of superficial neuromasts (SNs) varied within and among populations. We found that the SNs of M. australis were present in distinct body regions rather than lines. The abundance of SNs within each body region was highly variable, and also differed among populations and individuals. Variation in SN abundance among populations was best explained by habitat structure and the availability of invertebrate prey. Our finding that specific environmental factors explain among-population variation in a key sensory system suggests that the ability to acquire sensory information is specialised for the particular behavioural needs of the animal. Summary: Animals are uniquely adapted to sense their environment. Populations of western rainbowfish exhibit habitat-specific specializations of the lateral line system that are likely linked with the animals’ behavioural needs.
Genomic architecture of adaptive color pattern divergence and convergence in Heliconius butterflies

Identifying the genetic changes driving adaptive variation in natural populations is key to understanding the origins of biodiversity. The mosaic of mimetic wing patterns in Heliconius butterflies makes an excellent system for exploring adaptive variation using next-generation sequencing. In this study, we use a combination of techniques to annotate the genomic interval modulating red color pattern variation, identify a narrow region responsible for adaptive divergence and convergence in Heliconius wing color patterns, and explore the evolutionary history of these adaptive alleles. We use whole genome resequencing from four hybrid zones between divergent color pattern races of Heliconius erato and two hybrid zones of the co-mimic Heliconius melpomene to examine genetic variation across 2.2 Mb of a partial reference sequence. In the intergenic region near optix, the gene previously shown to be responsible for the complex red pattern variation in Heliconius, population genetic analyses identify a shared 65-kb region of divergence that includes several sites perfectly associated with phenotype within each species. This region likely contains multiple cis-regulatory elements that control discrete expression domains of optix. The parallel signatures of genetic differentiation in H. erato and H. melpomene support a shared genetic architecture between the two distantly related co-mimics; however, phylogenetic analysis suggests mimetic patterns in each species evolved independently. Using a combination of next-generation sequencing analyses, we have refined our understanding of the genetic architecture of wing pattern variation in Heliconius and gained important insights into the evolution of novel adaptive phenotypes in natural populations.
Emotional Attachment Framework for People-Oriented Software

In organizational and commercial settings, people often have clear roles and workflows against which functional and non-functional requirements can be extracted. However, in more social settings, such as platforms for enhancing social interaction, successful applications are driven more by user emotional engagement than functionality, the drivers of user engagement are difficult to identify. A key challenge is to understand people's emotional goals so that they can be incorporated into the design. This paper proposes a novel framework called the Emotional Attachment Framework that is based on existing models and theories of emotional attachment. Its aim is to facilitate the process of capturing emotional goals in software engineering. To demonstrate the framework in use, emotional goals are elicited for a software application that aims to provide help for homeless people. The outcomes are evaluated by domain experts and compared with an alternative approach. The results indicate that the Emotional Attachment Framework has the potential to help system analysts uncover additional emotional goals as well as provide valuable insights into these emotional goals.
Observer based output feedback control of linear systems with multiple input and output delays

This paper is concerned with observer based output feedback control of linear systems with both multiple inputs and multiple outputs delays. Our recently developed truncated predictor feedback (TPF) approach for state feedback stabilization of time-delay systems is generalized to the design of observer based output feedback controllers. By assuming that the open-loop time-delay systems are not exponentially unstable, infinite dimensional observer based output feedback controllers are constructed by using the TPF approach. Moreover, we show that the separation principle holds for the proposed observer based output feedback controllers.
Volatility Prediction using Financial Disclosures Sentiments with Word Embedding-based IR Models

Volatility prediction—an essential concept in financial markets—has recently been addressed using sentiment analysis methods. We investigate the sentiment of annual disclosures of companies in stock markets to forecast volatility. We specifically explore the use of recent Information Retrieval (IR) term weighting models that are effectively extended by related terms using word embeddings. In parallel to textual information, factual market data have been widely used as the mainstream approach to forecast market risk. We therefore study different fusion methods to combine text and market data resources. Our word embedding-based approach significantly outperforms state-of-the-art methods. In addition, we investigate the characteristics of the reports of the companies in different financial sectors.