Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The liquid⟷amorphous transition and the high pressure phase diagram of carbon

The phase diagram of carbon is mapped to high pressure using a computationally-tractable potential model. The use of a relatively simple (Tersoff-II) potential model allows a large range of phase space to be explored. The coexistence (melting) curve for the diamond crystal/liquid dyad is mapped directly by modelling the solid/liquid interfaces. The melting curve is found to be re-entrant and belongs to a conformal class of diamond/liquid coexistence curves. On supercooling the liquid a phase transition to a tetrahedral amorphous form (ta-C) is observed. The liquid ⟷ amorphous coexistence curve is mapped onto the pT plane and is found to also be re-entrant. The entropy changes for both melting and the amorphous ⟶ liquid transitions are obtained from the respective coexistence curves and the associated changes in molar volume. The structural change on amorphization is analysed at different points on the coexistence curve including for transitions that are both isochoric and isocoordinate (no change in nearest-neighbour coordination number). The conformal nature of the melting curve is highlighted with respect to the known behaviour of Si. The relationship of the observed liquid/amorphous coexistence curve to the Si low- and high-density amorphous (LDA/HDA) transition is discussed.
Ontology Guided Information Extraction from Unstructured Text

In this paper, we describe an approach topopulate an existing ontology with instance information present in the natural language text provided as input.An ontology is defined as an explicit conceptualizatio n of a shared domain [18]. This approach starts with a list of relevant domain ontologies created by human experts, and techniques for identifying the most appropriateontology to be extended with information from a given text. Then we demonstrate heuristics to extract information from the unstructured text and for adding it as structured information to the selected ontology . This identification of the relevant ontology is critical, as it is used in identifying relevant informationin the text. We extract information in the form of semantic triples from the text, guided by the concepts in the ontology. We then convert the extracted information about the semantic class instances into Resource Description Framework (RDF 3 ) and append it to the existing domain ontology. This enables us to perform more precise semantic queries over the semantic triple store thus created. We have achieved 95% accuracy of information extraction in our implementation.
Factor V Leiden prevalence in venous thromboembolism patients.

BACKGROUND Recent findings have demonstrated a high frequency of activated protein C resistance in patients suffering from deep venous thrombosis (DVT). This abnormality has been related to a mutation in the factor V gene (at nucleotide position 1,691, guanine to adenine [G-->A] substitution). AIM To assess the frequency of the mutation in unselected inpatients with a proved DVT. To study the clinical characteristics of such patients. METHODS All consecutive patients admitted to the hospital because of a clinical suspicion of DVT were eligible. Diagnosis of DVT with the help of venous ultrasound imaging or venography. Ventilation and perfusion lung scan was performed in all patients, and interpreted according to the Prospective Investigation of Pulmonary Embolism Diagnosis criteria; in patients with a low- or intermediate-probability lung scan, pulmonary angiography was requested. Polymerase chain reaction amplification was performed in patients with a proved DVT. A control group consisted of bone marrow volunteer donors. RESULTS From July 1994 to November 1995, 165 patients were included. Thrombosis was considered as distal in 77 and proximal in 88; an associated pulmonary embolism (PE) was found in 75 patients. Of 165 patients, 24 (14.5%) showed the factor V gene mutation (95% confidence interval, 9.4 to 19.8); the mutation was present in 3.5% of 200 bone marrow volunteer donors; odds ratio for having DVT in the presence of the mutation was 4.1. No difference in the level of DVT, or the presence of an associated PE was observed according to the presence of the mutation. Patients with the mutation have a significantly more frequent history of DVT (p=0.04) and more previous reported episodes (1.1 vs 0.6; p=0.04). CONCLUSION The factor V mutation is frequent in unselected DVT patients. No difference in the severity of the thrombosis episode was observed in these patients.
Energy efficiency analysis of a multichannel wireless access protocol

When user terminals powered by a finite battery source are used for wireless communications, energy constraints are likely to influence the design/choice of media access protocols. We analyze the energy efficiency of a multichannel wireless access protocol using a finite energy source in a mobile radio environment. The average number of correctly transmitted packets for a given amount of allocated energy is used as the appropriate energy efficiency metric. The mobile radio channel itself is characterized by a correlated Rayleigh fading process, whose memory parameters depend on the speed of the user terminal, the data rate, and the physics of the channel. We show that the protocol which recovers erroneous data packets through retransmission is more energy efficient at low channel correlations.
Intra-Amygdala and Systemic Antagonism of NMDA Receptors Prevents the Reconsolidation of Drug-Associated Memory and Impairs Subsequently Both Novel and Previously Acquired Drug-Seeking Behaviors

The amygdala has long been considered a primary locus in mediating the effects of previously drug-associated stimuli on subsequent drug-seeking behavior, and the NMDA subtype of glutamate receptor within the amygdala is important for the consolidation of associations between environmental conditioned stimuli and the effects of addictive drugs. Here we demonstrate that amygdala NMDA receptors are also necessary for the reconsolidation of drug-associated memories. Using a behavioral task that specifically measures the conditioned reinforcing properties of a previously drug-paired stimulus, we show that infusion of the NMDA receptor antagonist d(-)-2-amino-5-phosphonopentanoic acid (d-APV) into the basolateral amygdala before a memory reactivation session disrupted the drug-associated memory and abolished subsequent instrumental responding for conditioned reinforcement. This effect was memory reactivation dependent, and the memory deficit persisted for at least 4 weeks. In contrast, infusion of d-APV immediately after the memory reactivation session had no effect on subsequent responding for conditioned reinforcement, indicating that NMDA receptors have a temporally limited role in the reconsolidation process. Furthermore, in molecular studies, we show that the reconsolidation-impairing effect of d-APV is correlated with downstream reductions in expression of the plasticity-related immediate early gene, zif268. We also demonstrate that systemic antagonism of NMDA receptors with MK-801 [(+)-5-methyl-10,11-dihydro-SH-dibenzo[a,d]cyclohepten-5,10-imine maleate] before memory reactivation subsequently reduced previously acquired instrumental drug-seeking behavior that depends on drug-associated cues acting as conditioned reinforcers. These data suggest that drugs modulating glutamatergic transmission at the NMDA receptor may be useful in the future treatment of relapse prevention in drug addiction through memory reconsolidation blockade.
Dabigatran etexilate for venous thromboembolism: a safety evaluation

Introduction: Recently, new oral anticoagulants (NOACs) have become available to treat thromboembolic disorders. The efficacy and safety of these agents have been thoroughly tested in various clinical trials. In this article, we discuss the evidence for the safety and efficacy of dabigatran in the prevention and treatment of venous thromboembolism (VTE). Areas covered: We discuss the pharmacology of dabigatran and compare it to that of warfarin and two of the other popular NOACs, rivaroxaban and apixaban. The indications for and evidence behind dabigatran in the prevention of VTE are presented, as well as the trials examining its potential use for the treatment and extended treatment of VTE. We conclude by considering the safety aspects of the drug. Expert opinion: For most patients the overall net clinical benefit would seem to be in favour of dabigatran. Both efficacy and safety have been proven in the setting of robust randomised controlled trials. ‘Real world’ registry data as well as long-term trial follow-up will add further critical information. Long-term experience might be one of the few advantages warfarin still has over dabigatran in patients who are eligible for both.
Increased serum levels of the S-100 protein are associated with hypoxic brain damage after cardiac arrest.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Patients resuscitated from cardiac arrest have a high early mortality rate. Prognostic evaluation based on clinical observations is uncertain and would benefit from the use of biochemical markers of hypoxic brain damage. The astroglial protein S-100 is an established biochemical marker of central nervous system injury. The purpose of the present study was to validate the use of serum determinations of S-100 with regard to outcome after cardiac arrest. METHODS Levels of serum S-100 were measured with a radioimmunoassay in 41 patients the first 3 days after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. The main outcome variable was fatal outcome within 14 days. RESULTS S-100 levels were increased after cardiac arrest compared with controls with the highest levels observed the first day. S-100 levels day 1 and 2 correlated to the degree of coma as well as to the time of anoxia. Seventeen patients died within 14 days after the cardiac arrest. The deceased patients had increased S-100 levels on days 1 through 3 compared with survivors. All patients (100%) with an S-100 level of > or =0.2 on day 2 after the cardiac arrest died within 14 days, and 89% of the patients with levels below this limit value survived (positive and negative predictive values). The corresponding predictive values on day 1 were 71% and 85%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS The present study shows that hypoxic brain damage after cardiac arrest can be estimated by measurement of serum S-100 concentrations. The method can be used in early prognostic evaluation of short-term outcome after cardiac arrest.
Synaptic responses and electrical properties of cells in brain slices of the mouse anteroventral cochlear nucleus

Intracellular recordings were made from cells in brain slices of the anteroventral cochlear nucleus. Responses to electrical stimulation of the stump of the auditory nerve were: (1) all-or-none, following the stimulus with no delay, and insensitive to the removal of extracellular Ca2+, probably representing the firing of directly stimulated auditory nerve fibers, or (2) graded, excitatory postsynaptic potentials, with synaptic delays of about 0.7 msec, which were often followed by graded, inhibitory synaptic potentials with synaptic delays of 1.2 msec or longer. The excitatory and inhibitory synaptic potentials were abolished by the removal of extracellular Ca2+. The result that delays of inhibitory synaptic responses were at least 2 times as long as those of excitatory ones indicates that probably an additional synapse was interposed. Responses to intracellularly injected current pulses show that cells in the anteroventral cochlear nucleus have one of two types of electrical characteristics. Type I properties are characterized by linear current-voltage relationships in the subthreshold voltage range and large, regularly firing action potentials in the suprathreshold range. Type II properties are characterized by nonlinear current- voltage relationships; suprathreshold depolarization elicits only one or two small action potentials. Type II characteristics are particularly well suited for maintaining the information contained in the timing and patterns of firing of the auditory nerve fibers.
On the working set selection in gradient projection-based decomposition techniques for support vector machines

This work deals with special decomposition techniques for the large quadratic program arising in training support vector machines. These approaches split the problem into a sequence of quadratic programming (QP) subproblems which can be solved by efficient gradient projection methods recently proposed. Owing to the ability of decomposing the problem into much larger subproblems than standard decomposition packages, these techniques show promising performance and are well suited for parallelization. Here, we discuss a crucial aspect for their effectiveness: the selection of the working set; that is, the index set of the variables to be optimized at each step through the QP subproblem. We analyze the most popular working set selections and develop a new selection strategy that improves the convergence rate of the decomposition schemes based on large sized working sets. The effectiveness of the proposed strategy within the gradient projection-based decomposition techniques is shown by numerical experiments on large benchmark problems, both in serial and in parallel environments.
Can Knowledge Regarding the Presence of Countermeasures Against Fault Attacks Simplify Power Attacks on Cryptographic Devices?

Side-channel attacks are nowadays a serious concern when implementing cryptographic algorithms. Powerful ways for gaining information about the secret key as well as various counter-measures against such attacks have been recently developed. Although it is well known that such attacks can exploit information leaked from different sources, most prior works have only addressed the problem of protecting a cryptographic device against a single type of attack. Consequently, there is very little knowledge on how a scheme for protecting a device against one type of side-channel attack may affect its vulnerability to other types of side-channel attacks. In this paper we focus on devices that include protection against fault injection attacks (using different error detection schemes) and explore whether the presence of such fault detection circuits affects the resistance against attacks based on power analysis. Using the AES S-Box as an example, we performed attacks on the unprotected implementation as well as modified implementations with parity check circuits or residue check circuits (mod3 and mod7). In particular, we focus on the question whether the knowledge of the presence of error detection circuitry in the cryptographic device can help an attacker who attempts to mount a power attack on the device. Our results show that the presence of error detection circuitry helps the attacker even if he is unaware of this circuitry, and that the benefit to the attacker increases with the number of check bits used for the purpose of error detection.
Reply to J. Vrugt's comment on "How effective and efficient are multiobjective evolutionary algorithms at hydrologic model calibration?"

We would like to thank Jasper Vrugt for his comment on our recent paper Tang et al. (2006) in which we compare the Strength Pareto Evolutionary Algorithm 2 (SPEA2), the Multi-objective Shuffled Complex Evolution Metropolis algorithm (MOSCEM-UA), and the Epsilon Dominance Nondominated Sorted Genetic Algorithm II ( ε-NSGAII) using a statistical metrics-based approach. To frame our response, we will provide a brief synopsis of the issues of concern discussed in the comment on our paper. Issue 1: Vrugt contends that the exclusion of the recommendation of Vrugt et al. (2003) that a single objective methodology should be used to first find the endpoints of the Pareto set to precondition search for MOSCEM-UA and that our use of initial uniform random sampling for the three algorithms did not accurately portray the performance of MOSCEM-UA. Issue 2: Vrugt contends that our approach in attaining the reference Pareto front in Fig. 5 using the 15 000 000 model simulations from all of the runs from all of the algorithms (i.e., 3 algorithms * 50 random seed trials/algorithm * 100 000 model simulations/random seed trail) is inefficient relative to his assertion that MOSCEM-UA would reliably identify the true reference front in approximately 22,000 model evaluations if we had first used a single objective algorithm to pre-condition MOSCEM-UA’s search. We will address each of these issues individually and then provide some brief concluding remarks.
Effects of Institutional Caseload of Subarachnoid Hemorrhage on Mortality: A Secondary Analysis of Administrative Data

Background and Purpose— Procedures requiring specific skill sets often have been shown to depend on institutional volume, that is, centers receiving a higher volume observe better outcomes in those patients. This relationship recently has been shown to exist for subarachnoid hemorrhage(SAH) patients in a large study in the United States. We aim to examine this relationship for SAH patients in England, restricting analysis to specialist neurosurgical units. Methods— Aggregate counts of patients with SAH in 25 specialist neuroscience centers in England, from 2005 to 2011, were obtained from the Hospital Episode Statistics database maintained by the National Health Service Information Center. These data were linked with national mortality statistics to obtain counts of deaths. Poisson regression was used to investigate the relationship between institutional caseload of SAH and 6-month mortality from any cause. Six-month mortality rates and mortality ratios were computed. Results— Annual institutional caseload of admissions with SAH was inversely related to 6-month mortality (P=0.009; r2=0.26). Each 100-patient increase in annual patient volume was associated with a 24% reduction in mortality (adjusted mortality ratio, 0.76; confidence interval, 0.67–0.87). This relationship was consistent across the entire range of annual institutional caseloads examined (29–367 cases for the lowest and highest volumes seen in a single center in 1 year). Conclusions— Our results provide support for management of SAH at high-volume centers and suggest that health care policy in this setting should pursue regionalization while ensuring an adequate geographic spread of access to care.
Response of rice to soil and foliar application of K2SO4 fertilizer

A field experiment was conducted at village Jatri K ohna, district Sheikhupura during the growing seaso n of 2003 to compare foliar application of K2SO4 at various concentrations (0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 4.0 and 6.0 %) with soil application of K 2SO4 at the rate of 50 kg K2O ha -1 on yield of rice crop. The experiment was arranged in a Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications. Number of fertile tillers, straw and paddy yields of fine grain rice (Basmati-385) were recorded. Foliar application of K2SO4 at different concentrations significantly influenc ed the yield components. Among all the foliar application treatments, foliar application with 6.0 % K2SO4 significantly out yielded than rest of the treatme nts that was statistically at par with soil application of K 2SO4 @ 50 kg K2O ha . Maximum paddy yield (3837 kg ha ) was obtained with this treatment. Paddy yield in different treatments followed the order: 50 kg ha -1 K2O soil application = 6.0% > 4.0% > 2.0% > 1.0% > 0.5% K2SO4 > control. Plant samples analyzed for K concentrat ion showed significant increase in K uptake by rice paddy and straw with foliar application of differen t K2SO4 concentrations. Interestingly, foliar application at 6.0 % K2SO4 (24.12 kg ha K uptake) showed statistically equal performance a s th t of K2SO4 soil application at the rate of 50 kg K 2O ha (24.70 kg ha-1 K uptake). However, in case of K up take by straw, foliar application of K 2SO4 at 2.0, 4.0 and 6.0 % concentration showed similar results but were stati stically comparable to soil application of K 2O @ 50 kg ha . Our results suggested that foliar application of K 2SO4 at 6.0 % concentration was safe and appropriate an d could produce yield of rice equal to the yield obtained with soil application o f K2O at the rate of 50 kg ha .
Systematic Review of Measurement and Adjustment for Colonization Pressure in Studies of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus, Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococci, and Clostridium difficile Acquisition

Objective. Colonization pressure is an important infection control metric. The aim of this study was to describe the definition and measurement of and adjustment for colonization pressure in nosocomial-acquisition risk factor studies of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE), and Clostridium difficile. Methods. We performed a computerized search of studies of nosocomial MRSA, VRE, and C. difficile acquisition published before July 1, 2009, through MEDLINE. Studies were included if a study outcome was MRSA, VRE, or C. difficile acquisition; the authors identified risk factors associated with MRSA, VRE, or C. difficile acquisition; and the study measured colonization pressure. Results. The initial MEDLINE search yielded 505 articles. Sixty-six of these were identified as studies of nosocomial MRSA, VRE, or C. difficile acquisition; of these, 18 (27%) measured colonization pressure and were included in the final review. The definition of colonization pressure varied considerably between studies: the proportion of MRSA- or VRE-positive patients (5 studies), the proportion of MRSA- or VRE-positive patient-days (6 studies), or the total or mean number of MRSA-, VRE-, or C. difficile-positive patients or patient-days (7 studies) in the unit over periods of varying length. In 10 of 13 studies, colonization pressure was independently associated with MRSA, VRE, or C. difficile acquisition. Conclusion. There is a need for a simple and consistent method to quantify colonization pressure in both research and routine clinical care to accurately assess the effect of colonization pressure on cross-transmission of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Decision Memo for Percutaneous Transluminal Angioplasty of the Carotid Artery Concurrent with Stenting (CAG‐00085R3)

Background Larger artery atherosclerotic disease is a well-established cause of primary and secondary stroke and may be responsible for up to 30% of ischemic stroke, with approximately 15–20% related to carotid disease.1-4 Carotid endarterectomy (CEA) among symptomatic patient with ≥70% stenosis reduced the likelihood of ipsilateral stroke compared with best medical therapy in the North American Symptomatic Carotid Endarterectomy Trial.3 However, the benefit of CEA among symptomatic patients may be lost if the 30 days morbidity and mortality exceeds 6%. 1,2 CEA in “high surgical risk” patients may have limited benefit due to higher rates (>6%) of perioperative morbidity and mortality following the procedure. Carotid angioplasty and stent placement (CAS) with distal embolic protection has emerged as another revascularization option4,5 after several prospective CAS trials demonstrated feasibility, safety, and effectiveness (in stroke prevention) of CAS in “high surgical risk” patients.
A high-sensitive digital photosensor using MOS interface-trap charge pumping

A high-sensitive CMOS photosensor based on a pulse frequency modulation (PFM) scheme is presented. We propose and demonstrate the high-sensitive PFM photosensor, whose output frequency is proportionate to the incident light intensity, that utilizes MOS interface-trap charge pumping (ITCP) as a frequency-controlled ultra-low current. The proposed pixel sensor consists of only 4 transistors: a transistor as an ultra-low current source; a sense amplifier transistor; a selection transistor; and, a reset transistor. The prototype device is fabricated using 0.6-µm standard CMOS technology. High sensitivity 4.0 × 105Hz/(W·m-2), which is larger than two orders of magnitude compared to previous works, was obtained.