Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Structure of kinetic Alfvén waves with small transverse scale length

This analytical study illustrates the spatial pattern of kinetic Alfven waves excited by a current-modulating disk whose dimension a, transverse to the confining magnetic field, is comparable to the ion sound gyroradius cs/Ωi, where cs is the sound speed and Ωi the ion cyclotron frequency. The radial structure of the wave azimuthal magnetic field is found to consist of four regions: a Bessel function behavior for r<a, a near null at r≅a, and a driven Airy pattern for r≫a which merges onto the 1/r asymptotic region. The pattern spreads at an angle given by tan θ=(ω/Ωi)(cs/vA)/2.6, where ω is the modulation frequency and vA is the Alfven speed. This behavior arises because there is a maximum value at finite k⊥ for the ratio of the perpendicular to parallel group velocity, which differs from the cone spreading [G. J. Morales et al., Phys. Plasmas 1, 3765 (1994)] associated with inertial Alfven waves.
A Memetic Algorithm for Designing Balanced Incomplete Blocks

The generation of balanced incomplete block designs (BIBD) is a hard constrained combinatorial problem whose applications are manifold. Although the BIBD problem can be easily formulated as a combinatorial optimization problem, its resolution still constitutes a formidable challenge for solving techniques. In this work we devise a memetic algorithm (MA) for tackling the BIBD problem. This MA features a heuristic recombination operator based on greedy procedures and a local search method embedded in the evolutionary cycle. An extensive empirical evaluation is done using 86 different instances of the problem. The results indicate that the two mentioned components of the MA contribute synergistically to the performance of the algorithm, whose results are better than those of other metaheuristics such as genetic algorithms, hill climbing, and tabu search (which was the previous incumbent for the problem).
Stochastic Power Generation Unit Commitment in Electricity Markets: A Novel Formulation and a Comparison of Solution Methods

We propose a stochastic unit commitment model for a power generation company that takes part in an electricity spot market. The relevant feature of this model is its detailed representation of the spot market during a whole week, including seven day-ahead market sessions and the corresponding adjustment market sessions. The adjustment market sessions can be seen as an hour-ahead market mechanism. This representation takes into account the influence that the company's decisions exert on the market-clearing price by means of a residual demand curve for each market session. We introduce uncertainty in the form of several possible spot market outcomes for each day, which leads to a weekly scenario tree. The model also represents in detail the operation of the company's generation units. The model leads to large-scale mixed linear-integer problems that are hard to solve with commercial optimizers. This suggests the use of alternative solution methods. We test four solution approaches with a realistic numerical example in the context of the Spanish electricity spot market. The first is a direct solution with a commercial optimizer, which illustrates the mentioned limitations. The second is a standard Lagrangean relaxation algorithm. The third and fourth methods are two original variants of Benders decomposition for multistage stochastic integer programs. The first Benders decomposition algorithm builds approximations for the recourse function relaxing the integrality constraints of the subproblems. The second variant strengthens these cuts by performing one iteration of the Lagrangean of each subproblem. We analyze the advantages of these four methods and compare the results.
Paroxetine in the treatment of obsessive‐compulsive disorder: randomized, double‐blind, placebo‐controlled study in Japanese patients

Abstract The efficacy of paroxetine in the treatment of obsessive‐compulsive disorder in Western populations is well established. The present study compares the efficacy and safety of paroxetine with placebo in the treatment of obsessive‐compulsive disorder in Japanese patients. Patients aged 16 years or older who met Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th edn; DSM‐IV) criteria for obsessive‐compulsive disorder and had a Yale–Brown Obsessive‐Compulsive Scale (Y‐BOCS) score of ≥16 were randomized to receive 12 weeks’ therapy in a double‐blind manner. Paroxetine 20–50 mg/day or placebo was administered following a 1 week, placebo run‐in phase. One hundred and ninety‐one patients were randomized to either paroxetine or placebo, 188 patients were assessed as the full analysis set (FAS) and 144 patients completed the 12 week study. After adjustment for the Y‐BOCS total score at baseline, reductions in obsessive‐compulsive total score at week 6 and at the end of therapy were significantly greater in the paroxetine group than the placebo group. Most of the adverse events that occurred during the study were of mild to moderate intensity. Paroxetine is effective and well tolerated in Japanese adult patients with obsessive‐compulsive disorder.
Docetaxel Versus Paclitaxel for Adjuvant Treatment of Ovarian Cancer: Case–Control Analysis of Toxicity

The objective of this study was to evaluate the toxicity profile of docetaxel/carboplatin versus paclitaxel/carboplatin. All patients with primary ovarian, fallopian tube, or peritoneal malignancies treated with docetaxel and platinum at the University of Iowa between January 1996 and June 1999 were identified. Controls, treated with paclitaxel and platinum, were matched for age, date of diagnosis, type of cancer, stage, and residual disease. Toxicity was evaluated prior to each cycle and was graded according to the Gynecologic Oncology Group criteria. Twenty patients were identified in each group and evaluated. In the docetaxel/carboplatin group, sixteen (80%) patients experienced hematologic toxicity. Nine (45%) had grade III or IV neutropenia and fever developed in two of these patients. Grade III or IV thrombocytopenia developed in two patients. In contrast, among the paclitaxel/carboplatin group, grade III or IV neutropenia developed in only three patients (p < 0.05) and grade III or IV thrombocytopenia developed in two patients. There were no significant differences between the two groups with regard to gastrointestinal or renal toxicity. In the paclitaxel/carboplatin group, 13 patients developed neuropathy compared to only 2 patients (10%) in the docetaxel/carboplatin group (p < 0.05). There was no difference in the clinical response between the two treatment groups. In conclusion, neutropenia was more common with the docetaxel/carboplatin regimen, whereas neuropathy was more common in the paclitaxel-based regimen. The therapeutic efficacy was equivalent between the two groups.
What do we know about defect detection methods? [software testing]

A survey of defect detection studies comparing inspection and testing techniques yields practical recommendations: use inspections for requirements and design defects, and use testing for code. Evidence-based software engineering can help software practitioners decide which methods to use and for what purpose. EBSE involves defining relevant questions, surveying and appraising avail able empirical evidence, and integrating and evaluating new practices in the target environment. This article helps define questions regarding defect detection techniques and presents a survey of empirical studies on testing and inspection techniques. We then interpret the findings in terms of practical use. The term defect always relates to one or more underlying faults in an artifact such as code. In the context of this article, defects map to single faults
Quantification of Focal Outflow Enhancement Using Differential Canalograms

Purpose: To quantify regional changes of conventional outflow caused by ab interno trabeculectomy (AIT). Methods: Gonioscopic, plasma-mediated ab interno trabeculectomy (AIT; Trabectome, Neomedix, Tustin, CA) was established in enucleated pig eyes. We developed a program to automatically quantify outflow changes (R, package eye-canalogram, github.com) using a fluorescent tracer reperfusion technique. Trabecular meshwork (TM) ablation was demonstrated with fluorescent spheres in 6 eyes before formal outflow quantification with two dye reperfusion canalograms in 6 further eyes. Eyes were perfused with a central, intracameral needle at 15 mmHg. Canalograms and histology were correlated for each eye. Results: The pig eye provided a model with high similarity to AIT in human patients. Histology indicated ablation of TM and unroofing of most Schlemm’s canal segments. Spheres highlighted additional circumferential and radial outflow beyond the immediate area of ablation. Differential canalograms showed that AIT caused an increase of outflow of 17±5 fold inferonasally (IN), 14±3 fold superonasally (SN) and also an increase in the opposite quadrants with a 2±1 fold increase superotemporally (ST) and 3±3 inferotemporally (IT). Perilimbal specific flow image analysis showed an accelerated nasal filling with an additional perilimbal flow direction into adjacent quadrants. Conclusion: A quantitative, differential canalography technique was developed that allows to quantify supraphysiological outflow enhancement by AIT.
ISL1 Protein Transduction Promotes Cardiomyocyte Differentiation from Human Embryonic Stem Cells

Background Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) have the potential to provide an unlimited source of cardiomyocytes, which are invaluable resources for drug or toxicology screening, medical research, and cell therapy. Currently a number of obstacles exist such as the insufficient efficiency of differentiation protocols, which should be overcome before hESC-derived cardiomyocytes can be used for clinical applications. Although the differentiation efficiency can be improved by the genetic manipulation of hESCs to over-express cardiac-specific transcription factors, these differentiated cells are not safe enough to be applied in cell therapy. Protein transduction has been demonstrated as an alternative approach for increasing the efficiency of hESCs differentiation toward cardiomyocytes. Methods We present an efficient protocol for the differentiation of hESCs in suspension by direct introduction of a LIM homeodomain transcription factor, Islet1 (ISL1) recombinant protein into the cells. Results We found that the highest beating clusters were derived by continuous treatment of hESCs with 40 µg/ml recombinant ISL1 protein during days 1–8 after the initiation of differentiation. The treatment resulted in up to a 3-fold increase in the number of beating areas. In addition, the number of cells that expressed cardiac specific markers (cTnT, CONNEXIN 43, ACTININ, and GATA4) doubled. This protocol was also reproducible for another hESC line. Conclusions This study has presented a new, efficient, and reproducible procedure for cardiomyocytes differentiation. Our results will pave the way for scaled up and controlled differentiation of hESCs to be used for biomedical applications in a bioreactor culture system.
Meta analytical structural equation modeling: comments on issues with current methods and viable alternatives

Structural equation modeling (SEM) has become one of the most widely used multivariate methods in many disciplines. It is important to summarize the ﬁ ndings across studies and to obtain more general results in each discipline or cross ﬁ elds. Meta analytical SEM (MASEM) plays a key role in such a direction. The ﬁ ve MASEM articles in this issue of Research Synthesis Methods either contain original developments, provide a viable methodology for dealing with certain dif ﬁ culties of conducting MASEM, or offer valuable guidelines for effectively conducting MASEM. This article discusses methodology introduced and issues raised in these ﬁ ve MASEM articles. Pros and cons of existing methodology in the previous literature are also discussed. In addition, procedures for obtaining consistent standard errors and two rescaled statistics are provided to account for violation of normality with real data. How meta analysis can serve as a platform for comparing results in different studies is also described, to deal with a possible replication crisis in SEM. A few topics for further studies are noted as well. homogeneity ﬁ computing standard errors for the combined effect sizes in
Influence of hypercortisolemia on the acute-phase protein response to endotoxin in humans.

BACKGROUND The response to systemic infection includes the coordinated appearance of hepatic acute-phase proteins, the production of which may be influenced by a counterregulatory hormonal background. This study sought to assess the potential for hypercortisolemic conditions to influence fibrinogen kinetics and other acute-phase protein responses in humans with endotoxemia. METHODS Eleven hospitalized healthy male volunteers underwent two separate determinations of fibrinogen kinetics, one baseline and one after administration of endotoxin (2 ng/kg intravenously; lot EC-5). Seven volunteers were studied without hormonal manipulation and four in the presence of a hypercortisolemic background (hydrocortisone infusion, 3 micrograms/kg/min). Fibrinogen fractional synthetic rates were estimated from the incorporation of orally administered 15N-glycine, and fibrinogen, C-reactive protein, cortisol, tumor necrosis factor-alpha, and interleukin-6 levels were also determined. RESULTS The presence of an antecedent hypercortisolemic background resulted in an attenuated interleukin-6 response, as well as decreased fibrinogen synthesis and C-reactive protein appearance. CONCLUSIONS The current data suggest that glucocorticoid hormonal influences are of importance in the regulation of endotoxin-induced cytokine and acute-phase protein responses.
Training based synchronization and efficient demodulation for UWB systems

Relying on judicious training symbols, we can construct a redundance-included demodulation template (RDT) from the received signal. When the RDT is available, there are two approaches to select. One is to demodulate transmitted symbols directly by the RDT, which does not require timing acquisition, and thereby has considerably lower complexity. The alternative is to first acquire the timing offset via simple energy detection, which is used to amend the RDT to obtain a non-redundance-included demodulation template (NRDT), and then demodulate transmitted symbols with the aid of the NRDT. Both the two approaches can avoid the effects of inter-frame interference (IFI) and unknown multipath channels, and suppress the intersymbol interference (ISI). Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithms are sound and efficient.
Hand-rubbing with an aqueous alcoholic solution vs traditional surgical hand-scrubbing and 30-day surgical site infection rates: a randomized equivalence study.

CONTEXT Surgical site infections prolong hospital stays, are among the leading nosocomial causes of morbidity, and a source of excess medical costs. Clinical studies comparing the risk of nosocomial infection after different hand antisepsis protocols are scarce. OBJECTIVE To compare the effectiveness of hand-cleansing protocols in preventing surgical site infections during routine surgical practice. DESIGN Randomized equivalence trial. SETTING Six surgical services from teaching and nonteaching hospitals in France. PATIENTS A total of 4387 consecutive patients who underwent clean and clean-contaminated surgery between January 1, 2000, and May 1, 2001. INTERVENTIONS Surgical services used 2 hand-cleansing methods alternately every other month: a hand-rubbing protocol with 75% aqueous alcoholic solution containing propanol-1, propanol-2, and mecetronium etilsulfate; and a hand-scrubbing protocol with antiseptic preparation containing 4% povidone iodine or 4% chlorhexidine gluconate. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Thirty-day surgical site infection rates were the primary end point; operating department teams' tolerance of and compliance with hand antisepsis were secondary end points. RESULTS The 2 protocols were comparable in regard to surgical site infection risk factors. Surgical site infection rates were 55 of 2252 (2.44%) in the hand-rubbing protocol and 53 of 2135 (2.48%) in the hand-scrubbing protocol, for a difference of 0.04% (95% confidence interval, -0.88% to 0.96%). Based on subsets of personnel, compliance with the recommended duration of hand antisepsis was better in the hand-rubbing protocol of the study compared with the hand-scrubbing protocol (44% vs 28%, respectively; P =.008), as was tolerance, with less skin dryness and less skin irritation after aqueous solution use. CONCLUSIONS Hand-rubbing with aqueous alcoholic solution, preceded by a 1-minute nonantiseptic hand wash before each surgeon's first procedure of the day and before any other procedure if the hands were soiled, was as effective as traditional hand-scrubbing with antiseptic soap in preventing surgical site infections. The hand-rubbing protocol was better tolerated by the surgical teams and improved compliance with hygiene guidelines. Hand-rubbing with liquid aqueous alcoholic solution can thus be safely used as an alternative to traditional surgical hand-scrubbing.
Coiling of elastic rods on rigid substrates

Significance The deployment of a rodlike structure onto a moving substrate is commonly found in a variety engineering applications, from the fabrication of nanotube serpentines to the laying of submarine cables and pipelines. Predictively understanding the resulting coiling patterns is challenging given the nonlinear geometry of deposition. In this paper, we combine precision model experiments with computer simulations of a rescaled analogue system and explore the mechanics of coiling. In particular, the natural curvature of the rod is found to dramatically affect the coiling process. We have introduced a computational framework that is widely used in computer animation into engineering, as a predictive tool for the mechanics of filamentary structures. We investigate the deployment of a thin elastic rod onto a rigid substrate and study the resulting coiling patterns. In our approach, we combine precision model experiments, scaling analyses, and computer simulations toward developing predictive understanding of the coiling process. Both cases of deposition onto static and moving substrates are considered. We construct phase diagrams for the possible coiling patterns and characterize them as a function of the geometric and material properties of the rod, as well as the height and relative speeds of deployment. The modes selected and their characteristic length scales are found to arise from a complex interplay between gravitational, bending, and twisting energies of the rod, coupled to the geometric nonlinearities intrinsic to the large deformations. We give particular emphasis to the first sinusoidal mode of instability, which we find to be consistent with a Hopf bifurcation, and analyze the meandering wavelength and amplitude. Throughout, we systematically vary natural curvature of the rod as a control parameter, which has a qualitative and quantitative effect on the pattern formation, above a critical value that we determine. The universality conferred by the prominent role of geometry in the deformation modes of the rod suggests using the gained understanding as design guidelines, in the original applications that motivated the study.
AOP for Dynamic Configuration and Management of Web Services

Web service technologies accelerate application development by allowing the selection and integration of third-party web services, achieving high modularity, flexibility and configurability. However, current approaches only allow this integration by hard wiring the references to concrete web services into the client applications. Moreover they do not provide any management support, which is fundamental for achieving robustness. We observe the need for the application to be independent of specific services and present the WSML, a management layer placed in between the application and the world of web services. In this paper we identify the requirements for this layer to realise the dynamic selection and integration of services, client-side management of services, and support for rules that govern the selection, integration and composition. We show how dynamic AOP is ideally suited to implement the core functionality of the WSML using the JAsCo dynamic aspect-oriented language to conduct the experiments.
Monte Carlo simulations of high-speed InSb-InAlSb FETs

Self consistent Monte Carlo simulations which include impact ionization are used to study the high-speed potential of InSb field-effect transistors. It is found that the impact ionization has a strong influence on the performance of InSb for high speed. The ionization leads to a high electron drift velocity and substrate bias can be used to extract the holes which are generated in the channel. Residual hole density within the channel, however, limits the maximum speed. The substrate bias and buffer doping are critical for extracting holes from the channel without inducing excess ionization. Simulations yield a peak cutoff frequency of 820 GHz with a 0.03125-/spl mu/m gate, a source to drain voltage of 0.58, and a sheet doping density of 1.7/spl times/10/sup 12/ cm/sup -2/.
Alternative Splicing within and between Drosophila Species, Sexes, Tissues, and Developmental Stages

Alternative pre-mRNA splicing (“AS”) greatly expands proteome diversity, but little is known about the evolutionary landscape of AS in Drosophila and how it differs between embryonic and adult stages or males and females. Here we study the transcriptomes from several tissues and developmental stages in males and females from four species across the Drosophila genus. We find that 20–37% of multi-exon genes are alternatively spliced. While males generally express a larger number of genes, AS is more prevalent in females, suggesting that the sexes adopt different expression strategies for their specialized function. While the number of total genes expressed increases during early embryonic development, the proportion of expressed genes that are alternatively spliced is highest in the very early embryo, before the onset of zygotic transcription. This indicates that females deposit a diversity of isoforms into the egg, consistent with abundant AS found in ovary. Cluster analysis by gene expression (“GE”) levels shows mostly stage-specific clustering in embryonic samples, and tissue-specific clustering in adult tissues. Clustering embryonic stages and adult tissues based on AS profiles results in stronger species-specific clustering, suggesting that diversification of splicing contributes to lineage-specific evolution in Drosophila. Most sex-biased AS found in flies is due to AS in gonads, with little sex-specific splicing in somatic tissues.
NON GENETIC FACTORS AFFECTING AGE AT FIRST CALVING IN MEHSANA BUFFALOES

Data of 7825 Mehsana Buffaloes spread over a period of 25 years (1989-2013) were collected and analysed to examine the effect of non-genetic factors on age at first calving trait. The data were classified and coded according to different seasons; least calving season (January to June) and most calving season (July to December). The period was classified according to the year of birth as, 1994-1997 (I), 1998-2001 (II), 2002-2005 (III), 2006-2009 (IV) and 2006-2009 (V). The totals of 74 villages were grouped into following three clusters named cluster I, II and III. The data were subjected to Least-Squares Technique (Harvey, 1987) for the effects of seasons, period and clusters on AFC. Duncan’s Multiple Range Test (DMRT) was used to test the significance of differences between treatments’ means. The Overall least square means of age at first calving (AFC) was 1377.21 ± 4.50 days. Effects of season of birth, period of birth as well as clusters were highly significantly effects on age at first calving (AFC). Therefore, it is required the adjusted data first for estimates of genetic parameters in Mehsana buffaloes.