Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN EROSIVE BURNING MODEL FOR SOLID ROCKET MOTORS USING DIRECT NUMERICAL SIMULATION

DEDICATION "Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created. " Rev. 4:11 (English Standard Version) iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am greatly indebted to Dr. Menon and Dr. Jagoda for their willingness to allow me to pursue this degree from a remote location. I appreciate the countless emails Dr. Menon has answered in advising me in my work. His support and advice in the completion of this research has been most valuable. I would like to thank Dr. Seitzman for the tutorial session he gave me in preparation of the oral exams. Those two hours were as vital and beneficial as any I received in my educational career. Thanks to Dr. Lieuwen for serving on my committee. I am very grateful for Dr. Robert Hackett serving on my committee. He has given support at several key junctures in my career, for which I am much appreciative. I am also indebted to Eggenspieler Gilles for his ability to take excellent class notes and willingness to share them. mentoring, support, and opportunity they have offered to me at Stone Engineering over the last 15 years. Special thanks to Dr. Tom Tytula for agreeing to review this Thesis. I would like to thank my parents, Parris and Arlene McDonald, who provided the means and support to begin this educational journey many years ago. v Finally, my deepest thanks go to my marvelous wife and dearest friend Piper, and my three daughters, Kaleigh, Kelsey, and Sarah. Their love, support, and understanding through many frustrations during the pursuit of this degree have been invaluable.
Enhanced Characteristics of Nondispersive Infrared CO2 Gas Sensor by Deposition of Hydrophobic Thin Film

This paper presents the NDIR CO2 gas sensor that has improved the sensitivity and also the accuracy by the deposition of thin hydrophobic film (Parylene-C film with 0.5 micrometer thick) onto the reflector surfaces of White-cell structure. After deposition of hydrophobic thin film, the sensitivity of sensor has been increased with averaged 10% and the estimated errors were reduced within 13 ppm to 143 ppm from 254 K to 324 K temperature ranges and from 0 ppm to 5000 ppm CO2 concentrations.
The next‐to‐shortest path problem on directed graphs with positive edge weights

Given an edge‐weighted graph G and two distinct vertices s and t of G, the next‐to‐shortest path problem asks for a path from s to t of minimum length among all paths from s to t except the shortest ones. In this article, we consider the version where G is directed and all edge weights are positive. Some properties of the requested path are derived when G is an arbitrary digraph. In addition, if G is planar, an O ( n 3 ) ‐time algorithm is proposed, where n is the number of vertices of G. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. NETWORKS, Vol. 65(3), 205–211 2015
Voluntary medical male circumcision among adolescents: a missed opportunity for HIV behavioral interventions

Objective: Voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) is one of the first opportunities for adolescent males in African countries to interact with the healthcare system. This study explored the approaches used during adolescent VMMC counseling and whether these strategies maximize broader HIV prevention opportunities. Methods: Qualitative interviews were conducted with 92 VMMC clients ages 10–19 years in South Africa (n = 36), Tanzania (n = 36), and Zimbabwe (n = 20) and 33 VMMC providers across the three countries. Discussions explored HIV prevention counseling, testing, and disclosure of results. Audio recordings were transcribed, translated into English, and coded thematically by two individuals. Results: Male adolescents in all three countries reported that limited information was provided about HIV prevention and care, and adolescents were rarely provided condoms. Although VMMC protocols require opt-out HIV testing, adolescents recounted having blood taken without knowing the purpose, not receiving results, nor completely understanding the link between VMMC and HIV. Most males interviewed assumed they had tested negative because they were subsequently circumcised without knowing test results. Providers reported spending little time talking about HIV prevention, including condom use. They admitted that younger adolescent clients often receive little information if assumed they are not sexually active or too young to understand and instead discussed nonsexually transmitted routes of HIV. Conclusion: In the sites of the three countries studied, HIV prevention and care messages were inconsistent and sometimes totally absent from VMMC counseling sessions. VMMC appears to be a missed opportunity to engage in further HIV prevention and care with adolescents.
Minimally Invasive Crestal Sinus Lift Technique and Simultaneous Implant Placement.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effectiveness and clinical results of a new crestal sinus lift technique used to elevate the sinus floor simultaneously with bone grafts and implant placement. METHODS Eleven patients underwent this crestal sinus lift technique performed using an SCA KIT. The mean residual bone height was 6.4 mm (range: 4.1 mm to 8.6 mm). Bio-Oss collagen was used as the graft material, and 12 implants were simultaneously placed after sinus augmentation. Radiographic and clinical examinations were conducted during follow-up. RESULTS All procedures were successfully performed with no obvious Schneiderian membrane perforation. The sinus floor was augmented with a mean height of 4.8 mm (range: 2.8 to 7.4 mm). Twelve implants healed uneventfully with healing abutments. Peri-implant marginal bone was stable, with a mean follow-up of 49.4 months (range: 33 to 71 months). No complications were observed during follow-up. CONCLUSION According to the limited data collected in this study, the novel crestal sinus lift approach could effectively lift the sinus floor and reduce the incidence of postoperative complications. Additional cases with long-term follow-up are needed to confirm and improve this crestal sinus lift technique.
Effect of microstructure on the magnetic properties of transition metal implanted TiO2 films

The combined electronic, optic and magnetic properties of transition metal (TM) implanted ferromagnetic TiO2 is of interest for spintronic applications. The nature of the observed abundant ferromagnetism in such materials has been investigated for more than one and a half decades, yet still no clear explanation for its appearance can be given. In this thesis, the origin of the ferromagnetic order in TM:TiO2 systems is studied by investigating the interplay between structural order, defects and incorporation of implanted ions within the host lattice. The defect properties of the host TiO2 are altered by preparing different microstructures of TiO2 (e.g. amorphous, polycrystalline anatase and epitaxial anatase). The difference in microstructure is also found to influence the incorporation of the implanted ions with the host lattice. The crystallographic incorporation of the implanted TM atoms is found only in crystalline films. Moreover, it is observed that the suppression of the dopant related secondary phases can also be achieved by changing the microstructure. The obtained experimental results are compared with the existing theoretical frameworks, while the most relevant one describing our findings is elucidated. Based on this discussion, we propose an ideal microstructural candidate for a dilute magnetic oxide material based on our results.
ß-Hydroxybutyrate Activates the NF-κB Signaling Pathway to Promote the Expression of Pro-Inflammatory Factors in Calf Hepatocytes

Background/Aims: ß-hydroxybutyrate (BHBA) is the major component of ketone bodies in ketosis. Dairy cows with ketosis often undergo oxidative stress. BHBA is related to the inflammation involved in other diseases of dairy cattle. However, whether BHBA can induce inflammatory injury in dairy cow hepatocytes and the potential mechanism of this induction are not clear. The NF-κB pathway plays a vital role in the inflammatory response. Methods: Therefore, this study evaluated the oxidative stress, pro-inflammatory factors and NF-κB pathway in cultured calf hepatocytes treated with different concentrations of BHBA, pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate (PDTC, an NF-κB pathway inhibitor) and N-acetylcysteine (NAC, antioxidant). Results: The results showed that BHBA could significantly increase the levels of oxidation indicators (MDA, NO and iNOS), whereas the levels of antioxidation indicators (GSH-Px, CAT and SOD) were markedly decreased in hepatocytes. The IKKß activity and phospho-IκBa (p-IκBa) contents were increased in BHBA-treated hepatocytes. This increase was accompanied by the increased expression level and transcription activity of p65. The expression levels of NF-κB-regulated inflammatory cytokines, namely TNF-a, IL-6 and IL-1ß, were markedly increased after BHBA treatment, while significantly decreased after NAC treatment. However, the p-IκBa level and the expression and activity of p65 and its target genes were markedly decreased in the PDTC + BHBA group compared with the BHBA (1.8 mM) group. Moreover, immunocytofluorescence of p65 showed a similar trend. Conclusion: The present data indicate that higher concentrations of BHBA can induce cattle hepatocyte inflammatory injury through the NF-κB signaling pathway, which may be activated by oxidative stress.
Neural Ranking Models with Weak Supervision

Despite the impressive improvements achieved by unsupervised deep neural networks in computer vision and NLP tasks, such improvements have not yet been observed in ranking for information retrieval. The reason may be the complexity of the ranking problem, as it is not obvious how to learn from queries and documents when no supervised signal is available. Hence, in this paper, we propose to train a neural ranking model using weak supervision, where labels are obtained automatically without human annotators or any external resources (e.g., click data). To this aim, we use the output of an unsupervised ranking model, such as BM25, as a weak supervision signal. We further train a set of simple yet effective ranking models based on feed-forward neural networks. We study their effectiveness under various learning scenarios (point-wise and pair-wise models) and using different input representations (i.e., from encoding query-document pairs into dense/sparse vectors to using word embedding representation). We train our networks using tens of millions of training instances and evaluate it on two standard collections: a homogeneous news collection (Robust) and a heterogeneous large-scale web collection (ClueWeb). Our experiments indicate that employing proper objective functions and letting the networks to learn the input representation based on weakly supervised data leads to impressive performance, with over 13% and 35% MAP improvements over the BM25 model on the Robust and the ClueWeb collections. Our findings also suggest that supervised neural ranking models can greatly benefit from pre-training on large amounts of weakly labeled data that can be easily obtained from unsupervised IR models.
Early Dysphagia Screening by Trained Nurses Reduces Pneumonia Rate in Stroke Patients: A Clinical Intervention Study

Background and Purpose— Dysphagia is a common stroke symptom and leads to serious complications such as aspiration and pneumonia. Early dysphagia screening can reduce these complications. In many hospitals, dysphagia screening is performed by speech–language therapists who are often not available on weekends/holidays, which results in delayed dysphagia assessment. Methods— We trained the nurses of our neurological department to perform formal dysphagia screening in every acute stroke patient by using the Gugging Swallowing Screen. The impact of a 24/7 dysphagia screening (intervention) over swallowing assessment by speech–language therapists during regular working hours only was compared in two 5-month periods with time to dysphagia screening, pneumonia rate, and length of hospitalization as outcome variables. Results— Overall, 384 patients (mean age, 72.3±13.7 years; median National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score of 3) were included in the study. Both groups (pre-intervention, n=198 versus post-intervention, n=186) were comparable regarding age, sex, and stroke severity. Time to dysphagia screening was significantly reduced in the intervention group (median, 7 hours; range, 1–69 hours) compared with the control group (median, 20 hours; range, 1–183; P=0.001). Patients in the intervention group had a lower rate of pneumonia (3.8% versus 11.6%; P=0.004) and also a reduced length of hospital stay (median, 8 days; range, 2–40 versus median, 9 days; range, 1–61 days; P=0.033). Conclusions— 24/7 dysphagia screening can be effectively performed by nurses and leads to reduced pneumonia rates. Therefore, empowering nurses to do a formal bedside screening for swallowing dysfunction in stroke patients timely after admission is warranted whenever speech–language therapists are not available.
Analysis of platelet‐derived extracellular vesicles in plateletpheresis concentrates: a multicenter study

Routine quantification of platelet‐derived extracellular vesicles (PL‐EVs) may be useful in the quality control (QC) of platelet concentrates (PCs). The aim of this multicenter study was to establish and validate a consensus protocol for the standardized PL‐EV quantification using conventional flow cytometers.
Geometric analysis of loco-regional recurrences in relation to pre-treatment hypoxia in patients with head and neck cancer

Abstract Introduction: A previous pattern-of-failure study has suggested that up to 50% of the loco-regional failures (LRF) in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) occur outside the initial hypoxic volume determined by [18F]-fluoromisonidazole-PET ([18F]-FMISO-PET). The aim of the present analysis was to correlate spatial patterns of failure with respect to the pretherapeutic dynamic [18F]-FMISO-PET/CT in HNSCC after radiochemotherapy (RCT). Material and methods: Within a running phase 2 trial using [18F]-FMISO-PET imaging prior to RCT in HNSCC patients (n = 54), we have observed so far 11 LRF with a minimum follow-up of 12 months. For nine patients, LRF imaging (CT or [18F]-FDG-PET/CT) for pattern-of-failure analysis was available. Analysis included the static 4-h hypoxic subvolume (VH) as well as a M-parameter volume (VM), which is derived from modeling of dynamic PET. Deformable image registration of the CT scan with the recurrent tumor to the pre-treatment [18F]-FMISO-PET/CT and the planning CT was done to quantify the hypoxic subvolumes compared to the recurrent tumor volume. Moreover, a point-of-origin analysis was performed. Results: A total of five local, two regional and two loco-regional recurrences were detected. After deformable image registration of the CT scan with the recurrent tumor to the pre-treatment [18F]-FMISO-PET/CT and the planning CT, a significant overlap of the recurrence volume with [18F]-FMISO-positive subvolumes in the initial gross tumor volume (GTV) was observed. Median overlap of 40.2%, range 9.4–100.0%, for VH and 49.0%, range 4.4–96.4%, for VM was calculated. The point-of-origin analysis showed median distances of 0.0 mm, range 0.0–11.3 mm to VH and 8.6 mm, range 0.0–15.5 mm to VM, respectively. Conclusions: Our data suggest that loco-regional recurrences after RCT originate from the initial GTV (primary tumor and/or lymph node metastases) containing hypoxic subvolumes, which supports the concept of hypoxia imaging-based dose escalation.
Game-Theoretic Design of Optimal Two-Sided Rating Protocols for Service Exchange Dilemma in Crowdsourcing

Despite the increasing popularity and successful examples of crowdsourcing, it is stripped of aureole when collective efforts are derailed or severely hindered by elaborate sabotage. A service exchange dilemma arises when there is non-cooperation among self-interested users, and zero social welfare is obtained at myopic equilibrium. Traditional rating protocols are not effective to overcome the inefficiency of the socially undesirable equilibrium due to specific features of crowdsourcing: a large number of anonymous users having asymmetric service requirements, different service capabilities, and dynamically joining/leaving a crowdsourcing platform with imperfect monitoring. In this paper, we develop the first game-theoretic design of the two-sided rating protocol to stimulate cooperation among self-interested users, which consists of a recommended strategy and a rating update rule. The recommended strategy recommends a desirable behavior from three predefined plans according to intrinsic parameters, while the rating update rule involves the update of ratings of both users, and uses differential punishments that punish users with different ratings differently. By quantifying necessary and sufficient conditions for a sustainable social norm, we formulate the problem of designing an optimal two-sided rating protocol that maximizes the social welfare among all sustainable protocols, provide design guidelines for optimal two-sided rating protocols and a low-complexity algorithm to select optimal design parameters in an alternate manner. Finally, evaluation results show the validity and effectiveness of our protocol designed for service exchange dilemma in crowdsourcing.
Influence of the powder/liquid ratio and storage time of conventional glass ionomer cements in diametral tensile strength

Introduction: The Glass Ionomer Cements (GICs) are the most versatile dental material with extensive clinical indication. However, the mechanical strength of conventional GICs (C-GICs) is still unsatisfactory under areas of masticatory forces. Objective: To evaluate the influence of C-GIC proportioning system (powderliquid and encapsulated) and storage period (1h, 24h and 7 days) on Diametral Tensile Strength (DTS). Material and methods: The two variables were tested in relation to C-GIC (Riva Self Cure, SDI, Australia). The following proportioning systems were tested: powder-liquid by weight (g:g) and powder-liquid by volume (flat scoop: drop) and encapsulated system (pre-dosed capsules). Five C-GIC specimens were prepared, according to ISO specification #9917 for each variable to be studied. The specimens were stored in plastic containers containing distilled water and kept at 37oC and 100% humidity until the mechanical testing in a universal testing machine (Instron Corp., USA) at a speed 0.5 mm/min. The data were submitted to two-way ANOVA and Tukey test for multiple comparisons (α = 0.05). Results: The proportioning system (P < 0.0001) and storage time (P < 0.0001) were significant predictors of DTS, however with no interaction between these factors. Conclusion: The DTS of C-GICs was influenced by storage time (1 hour < 24 hours < 7 days) and by the proportioning system only for the initial period of its setting reaction.
Dynamic Musculoskeletal Functional Morphology: Integrating diceCT and XROMM

The tradeoff between force and velocity in skeletal muscle is a fundamental constraint on vertebrate musculoskeletal design (form:function relationships). Understanding how and why different lineages address this biomechanical problem is an important goal of vertebrate musculoskeletal functional morphology. Our ability to answer questions about the different solutions to this tradeoff has been significantly improved by recent advances in techniques for quantifying musculoskeletal morphology and movement. Herein, we have three objectives: (1) review the morphological and physiological parameters that affect muscle function and how these parameters interact; (2) discuss the necessity of integrating morphological and physiological lines of evidence to understand muscle function and the new, high resolution imaging technologies that do so; and (3) present a method that integrates high spatiotemporal resolution motion capture (XROMM, including its corollary fluoromicrometry), high resolution soft tissue imaging (diceCT), and electromyography to study musculoskeletal dynamics in vivo. The method is demonstrated using a case study of in vivo primate hyolingual biomechanics during chewing and swallowing. A sensitivity analysis demonstrates that small deviations in reconstructed hyoid muscle attachment site location introduce an average error of 13.2% to in vivo muscle kinematics. The observed hyoid and muscle kinematics suggest that hyoid elevation is produced by multiple muscles and that fascicle rotation and tendon strain decouple fascicle strain from hyoid movement and whole muscle length. Lastly, we highlight current limitations of these techniques, some of which will likely soon be overcome through methodological improvements, and some of which are inherent. Anat Rec, 301:378–406, 2018. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Real life experience with frontline azacitidine in a large series of older adults with acute myeloid leukemia stratified by MRC/LRF score: results from the expanded international E-ALMA series (E-ALMA+)

Abstract Azacitidine (AZA) prolonged overall survival (OS) in the AZA-AML-001 trial. However, few subjects were randomized to AZA or intensive chemotherapy (IC). The Medical Research Council (MRC) and the Leukemia Research Foundation (LRF) developed a score for older AML patients receiving IC or non-intensive regimens, whereas the E-ALMA study validated a score for survival and response in elderly patients receiving AZA in daily practice. Both identified three groups with different risk estimates. This analysis evaluates the efficacy of frontline AZA in older AML patients (N = 710) unfit for IC from different national registries (E-ALMA + series) stratified by the MRC/LRF risk score. Median OS of patients categorized as good, standard and poor-risk groups by the MRC/LRF score was 13.4 (95% CI, 10.8–16), 12.4 (95% CI, 9.9–14.8), and 8.1 months (95% CI, 7–9.1), respectively (p = .0001). In conclusion, this is the largest retrospective cohort of older AML patients treated with AZA.
Recommendations for the use of tolvaptan in autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease: a position statement on behalf of the ERA-EDTA Working Groups on Inherited Kidney Disorders and European Renal Best Practice

Recently, the European Medicines Agency approved the use of the vasopressin V2 receptor antagonist tolvaptan to slow the progression of cyst development and renal insufficiency of autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) in adult patients with chronic kidney disease stages 1–3 at initiation of treatment with evidence of rapidly progressing disease. In this paper, on behalf of the ERA-EDTA Working Groups of Inherited Kidney Disorders and European Renal Best Practice, we aim to provide guidance for making the decision as to which ADPKD patients to treat with tolvaptan. The present position statement includes a series of recommendations resulting in a hierarchical decision algorithm that encompasses a sequence of risk-factor assessments in a descending order of reliability. By examining the best-validated markers first, we aim to identify ADPKD patients who have documented rapid disease progression or are likely to have rapid disease progression. We believe that this procedure offers the best opportunity to select patients who are most likely to benefit from tolvaptan, thus improving the benefit-to-risk ratio and cost-effectiveness of this treatment. It is important to emphasize that the decision to initiate treatment requires the consideration of many factors besides eligibility, such as contraindications, potential adverse events, as well as patient motivation and lifestyle factors, and requires shared decision-making with the patient.