Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ethnicity and Advance Care Directives

Advance care directives for health care have been promoted as a way to improve end-of-life decision making. These documents allow a patient to state, in advance of incapacity, the types of medical treatments they would like to receive (a living will), to name a surrogate to make those decisions (a durable power of attorney for health care), or to do both. Although studies have shown that both physicians and patients generally have positive attitudes about the use of these documents, relatively few individuals have actually completed one. What underlies this discrepancy between attitudes and behavior with regard to advance care directives? One obvious explanation is lack of access. Emanuel et al. estimated that approximately 90 percent of the population desire an advance care directive, and they pointed to access as the major barrier. Yet interventions that increase accessibility have typically failed to yield more than a 20 percent completion rate. Thus, it appears that access is not the sole determinant of advance care directive completion.
Friction riveting of aluminium alloy 6056-T6 with short-glass-fiber-reinforced polyamide 6 composite

Friction Riveting (FricRiveting) is a relatively new joining technique for metalpolymer hybrid structures. This master thesis was carried out to investigate the FricRiveting process for polyamide 6 reinforced with 30 wt% short glass fiber (PA6-30GF) and aluminum alloy 6056-T6. These materials were selected because of their current joint use in automotive structures. AA6056-T6/PA6-30GF friction-riveted joints were successfully produced. Peak temperatures monitored for the process achieved between 323 °C and 399 °C leading the plastic deformation and thus anchoring of the rivet. The metallic rivet had its microstructure changed during the process, with dynamic recovery and recrystallization being observed in the anchoring zone. Microhardness in the metallic rivet decreased by 40 % of the base material hardness in the anchoring zone, due to a possible dissolution of the precipitates in the aluminum matrix and dynamic recovery and recrystallization. Polyamide 6 degradation was investigated by viscosity measurements and ATR/FT-IR, the joint with the highest level of degradation showed a reduction of 19 % on viscosity average molecular weight and an increase of 2.4 % of the carbonyl index in relation to the base material. Despite this reduction of properties, the friction-riveted joints had a good mechanical performance under tensile loading. Two joining conditions fractured through the metallic rivet outside the composite plate, achieving 92 % of the ultimate tensile strength of the metallic rivet. The influence of the process parameters on the process temperature, viscosity average molecular weight and ultimate tensile force were studied through Box-Behnken Design of experiment, response surface methodology and analysis of variance. Regression equations for these responses were estimated and validated, and an optimized condition was selected. Post joining heat treatment was performed on the optimized joining condition, resulting in an increase of the joint ultimate tensile force up to 99 % of the metallic rivet ultimate tensile force. The durability of the optimized joint was evaluated through natural weathering. An expected negative effect of weathering on the joint ultimate tensile force was observed, strength decrease of 8.4 % after 6 months and 15.5 % after 12 months of exposure.
Transitional cell metaplasia of the cervix: A newly described entity in cervicovaginal smears

Transitional cell metaplasia (TCM) of the cervix is rarely reported in the pathology literature. To our knowledge, no case reports describing TCM in cervicovaginal smears exist. We report the cytologic features of TCM and compare them with squamous‐cell carcinoma in situ (CIS), tubal metaplasia (TM), and atrophy.
Letter to ‘Uterine artery pseudoaneurysm bleeding one decade after caesarean section: A case report’: Pseudoaneurysm anywhere and anytime

Johannesson et al. described a uterine artery pseudoaneurysm (UAP) detected 10 years after cesarean section (CS), manifested by abdominal pain. Our study on 50 patients with delivery/abortion-relatedUAP demonstrated that the lag time between manifestation/detection and delivery/abortion (preceding events) was a median of 28 days, with the longest being 140 days. CS may have been associated with UAP occurrence as there were no other potential causative factors. Their context is correct. Johannesson et al. stated that the 10-year interval was the longest ever reported; however, Papadakos et al. reported a much longer interval of 20 years, in which the parent artery was the internal iliac artery, thus, it was a pelvic artery pseudoaneurysm and not UAP. 3 However, both are considered similar clinical entities.We recognize marked similarities between these two cases. Firstly, both are extended ‘extrauterine’, being different from a typical delivery-related pseudoaneurysm. Usually, they extend ‘intrauterine’, and thus are revealed as an intrauterine mass. Why some pseudoaneurysms extend ‘extrauterine’ is unclear. However, being ‘extrauterine’ may explain this long lag time. During postpartum uterine involution, the uterus shows dynamic morphological/functional changes, whichmay affect intrauterine more than extrauterine pseudoaneurysms. For example, post-partum endometrial detachment and myometrial relaxation/contraction may damage, or at least affect, an ‘intrauterine’ pseudoaneurysm-sac, thus it may be more likely to rupture. An extrauterine pseudoaneurysm is less likely to undergo these post-partum uterine dynamic changes and, thereby, may escape rupture. Some extrauterine pseudoaneurysms may spontaneously resolve but others may remain unruptured and may be detected long after. Thismay explainwhy the extrauterine pseudoaneurysm had a longer lag time. We have also previously encountered CS-related extrauterine UAP. We embolized it when no symptoms were apparent (before rupture); if it had gone unnoticed, it may have been detected long after, showing a long lag time, similar to these two cases. Secondly, both cases manifested as abdominal/pelvic pain, and this is closely associated with the first issue. Usually, a pseudoaneurysm manifests as post-partum hemorrhage (intrauterine hemorrhage) as the pseudoaneurysm progresses ‘intrauterine’. Possibly, in both cases, an ‘extrauterine’ pseudoaneurysm was ruptured and then sealed. Thus, intraperitoneal/pelvic hemorrhage may have occurred, causing peritoneal irritation and thereby abdominal/pelvic pain. A pseudoaneurysm is referred to as a ‘chameleon’ in obstetric practice, showing various clinical features in a patient-by-patient manner. Johannesson et al.’s report made us recognize this again. A pseudoaneurysm may occur extrauterine and decades after preceding events: the chameleon may reside anywhere and at anytime.
How the Impact of Integration of Marketing and R&D Differs Depending on a Firm?S Resources and its Strategic Scope

Increasing the integration of marketing and R&D is widely recognized as an approach to improve the new product performance (NPP) of companies. However, empirical evidence for the positive effect of integration on NPP, especially at the corporate level, is mixed. This study provides a comprehensive theoretical underpinning of the conditions that influence the benefits that can be obtained from more integration. A model of the effect of integration on NPP, in conjunction with a company? s resources and strategic scope, is developed and tested with data from a worldwide sample of companies in the pharmaceutical industry (n = 148). Our results show that the effect of integration is indeed dependent on the situation. In particular it depends on the company? s underlying resources (i.e., specialized knowledge and assets): integration multiplies the positive effect of resources on NPP. The strength of the multiplication effect is in turn dependent on strategic scope. It is strong if the strategic scope is narrow, i.e., for companies with selective products in a few market segments. Our results imply that, when trying to improve NPP, management should not invariably think of increasing integration. Instead, they should evaluate the company? s resource (dis)advantages, its strategic scope, and the level of integration. If the company scores low on resources, increasing integration should not be a high priority. Additionally, integration is most important for companies with a narrow strategic scope where the interdependency between marketing and R&D is relatively strong.
Adrenaline: Pinpointing and reining in tail queries with quick voltage boosting

Reducing the long tail of the query latency distribution in modern warehouse scale computers is critical for improving performance and quality of service of workloads such as Web Search and Memcached. Traditional turbo boost increases a processor's voltage and frequency during a coarse-grain sliding window, boosting all queries that are processed during that window. However, the inability of such a technique to pinpoint tail queries for boosting limits its tail reduction benefit. In this work, we propose Adrenaline, an approach to leverage finer granularity, 10's of nanoseconds, voltage boosting to effectively rein in the tail latency with query-level precision. Two key insights underlie this work. First, emerging finer granularity voltage/frequency boosting is an enabling mechanism for intelligent allocation of the power budget to precisely boost only the queries that contribute to the tail latency; and second, per-query characteristics can be used to design indicators for proactively pinpointing these queries, triggering boosting accordingly. Based on these insights, Adrenaline effectively pinpoints and boosts queries that are likely to increase the tail distribution and can reap more benefit from the voltage/frequency boost. By evaluating under various workload configurations, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our methodology. We achieve up to a 2.50x tail latency improvement for Memcached and up to a 3.03x for Web Search over coarse-grained DVFS given a fixed boosting power budget. When optimizing for energy reduction, Adrenaline achieves up to a 1.81x improvement for Memcached and up to a 1.99x for Web Search over coarse-grained DVFS.
40 nm Bit-Interleaving 12T Subthreshold SRAM With Data-Aware Write-Assist

This paper presents a new bit-interleaving 12T subthreshold SRAM cell with Data-Aware Power-Cutoff (DAPC) Write-assist to improve the Write-ability to mitigate increased device variations at low supply voltage under deep sub-100 nm processes. The disturb-free feature facilitates the bit-interleaving architecture that can reduce multiple-bit errors in a single word and enhance soft error immunity by employing error checking and correction (ECC) techniques. The proposed 12T SRAM cell is demonstrated by a 4 kb SRAM macro implemented in 40 nm general purpose (40GP) CMOS technology. The test chip operates from typical VDD to 350 mV ( ~ 100 mV lower than the threshold voltage) with VDDMIN limited by Read operation. Data can be written successfully for VDD down to 300 mV. The measured maximum operation frequency is 11.5 MHz with total power consumption of 22 μW at 350 mV, 25 °C.
A multi-body factorization method for motion analysis

The structure from motion problem has been extensively studied in the field of computer vision. Yet, the bulk of the existing work assumes that the scene contains only a single moving object. The more realistic case where an unknown number of objects move in the scene has received little attention, especially for its theoretical treatment. We present a new method for separating and recovering the motion and shape of multiple independently moving objects in a sequence of images. The method does not require prior knowledge of the number of objects, nor is dependent on any grouping of features into an object at the image level. For this purpose, we introduce a mathematical construct of object shapes, called the shape interaction matrix, which is invariant to both the object motions and the selection of coordinate systems. This invariant structure is computable solely from the observed trajectories of image features without grouping them into individual objects. Once the structure is computed, it allows for segmenting features into objects by the process of transforming it into a canonical form, as well as recovering the shape and motion of each object. <<ETX>>
This Work Is Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License Nucleoid Occlusion Protein Noc Recruits Dna to the Bacterial Cell Membrane

To proliferate efficiently, cells must coordinate division with chromosome segregation. In Bacillus subtilis, the nucleoid occlusion protein Noc binds to specific DNA sequences (NBSs) scattered around the chromosome and helps to protect genomic integrity by coupling the initiation of division to the progression of chromosome replication and segregation. However, how it inhibits division has remained unclear. Here, we demonstrate that Noc associates with the cell membrane via an N-terminal amphipathic helix, which is necessary for function. Importantly, the membrane-binding affinity of this helix is weak and requires the assembly of nucleoprotein complexes, thus establishing a mechanism for DNA-dependent activation of Noc. Furthermore, division inhibition by Noc requires recruitment of NBS DNA to the cell membrane and is dependent on its ability to bind DNA and membrane simultaneously. Indeed, Noc production in a heterologous system is sufficient for recruitment of chromosomal DNA to the membrane. Our results suggest a simple model in which the formation of large membrane-associated nucleoprotein complexes physically occludes assembly of the division machinery.
Maturation of the Hepatitis A Virus Capsid Protein VP1 Is Not Dependent on Processing by the 3CproProteinase

ABSTRACT Most details of the processing of the hepatitis A virus (HAV) polyprotein are known. Unique among members of the familyPicornaviridae, the primary cleavage of the HAV polyprotein is mediated by 3Cpro, the only proteinase known to be encoded by the virus, at the 2A/2B junction. All other cleavages of the polyprotein have been considered to be due to 3Cpro, although the precise location and mechanism responsible for the VP1/2A cleavage have been controversial. Here we present data that argue strongly against the involvement of the HAV 3Cproproteinase in the maturation of VP1 from its VP1-2A precursor. Using a heterologous expression system based on recombinant vaccinia viruses directing the expression of full-length or truncated capsid protein precursors, we show that the C terminus of the mature VP1 capsid protein is located near residue 764 of the polyprotein. However, a proteolytically active HAV 3Cpro that was capable of directing both VP0/VP3 and VP3/VP1 cleavages in vaccinia virus-infected cells failed to process the VP1-2A precursor. Using site-directed mutagenesis of an infectious molecular clone of HAV, we modified potential VP1/2A cleavage sites that fit known 3Cprorecognition criteria and found that a substitution that ablates the presumed 3Cpro dipeptide recognition sequence at Glu764-Ser765 abolished neither infectivity nor normal VP1 maturation. Altered electrophoretic mobility of VP1 from a viable mutant virus with an Arg764 substitution indicated that this residue is present in VP1 and that the VP1/2A cleavage occurs downstream of this residue. These data indicate that maturation of the HAV VP1 capsid protein is not dependent on 3Cpro processing and may thus be uniquely dependent on a cellular proteinase.
Building the Valency Lexicon of Arabic Verbs

This paper describes the building of a valency lexicon of Arabic verbs using a morphologically and syntactically annotated corpus, the Prague Arabic Dependency Treebank (PADT), as its primary source. We present the theoretical account on valency developed within the Functional Generative Description (FGD) theory. We apply the framework to Modern Standard Arabic and discuss various valency-related phenomena with respect to examples from the corpus. We then outline the methodology and the linguistic and technical resources used in the building of the lexicon. The key concept in our scenario is that of PDT-VALLEX of Czech. Our lexicon will be developed by linking the conceivable entries with their instances in the treebank. Conversely, the treebanks annotations will be linked to the lexicon. While a comparable scheme has been developed for Czech, our own contribution is to design and implement this model thoroughly for Arabic and the PADT data. The Arabic valency lexicon is intended for applications in computational parsing or language generation, and for use by human researchers. The proposed valency lexicon will be exploited in particular during further tectogrammatical annotations of PADT and might serve for enriching the expected second edition of the corpus-based Arabic-Czech Dictionary.
CMFS: Compressed metadata file system for hybrid storage

Storage CLASS Memory (SCM) is a next generation of solid-state, nonvolatile memory. It combines the benefits of a DRAM, such as high performance and robustness, with the low cost of conventional hard-disk. The biggest difference between SCM and NAND FLASH is that SCM can be accessed in byte-granularity and access speed is much faster. PRAM (Phase Change RAM), FRAM(Ferro-electric RAM), MRAM (Magnetic RAM), RRAM (Resistive RAM), and Solid Electrolyte Freitas et al are all SCM. The advent of SCM may possibly to make big improvement in storage landscape. In this work, we develop a file system — CMFS (compress metadata file system), which is used on SCM and NAND flash hierarchical storage environment. We make two contributions in this work. First, we store in-memory data in the SCM to overcome the drawback of the current log-structured file system that the mount time dramatically increases as the scale of NAND flash increases. Compared to YAFFS, we show that this file system requires only minimal time for mounting. Second, considering the physical characteristics of SCM, its scale is an order of magnitude smaller and the cost is much higher than the current storage device, we just store some part of the in-memory data to reduce the requirement size of the SCM. The capacity of SCM which is required by CMFS is much smaller than the current file system for hybrid storage. Compare with the MiNVFS [8], the capacity requirement by CMFS is reduced to 14%.
Peroxisome proliferator–activated receptor (PPAR)α expression in T cells mediates gender differences in development of T cell–mediated autoimmunity

Peroxisome proliferator–activated receptor (PPAR)α is a nuclear receptor that mediates gender differences in lipid metabolism. PPARα also functions to control inflammatory responses by repressing the activity of nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) and c-jun in immune cells. Because PPARα is situated at the crossroads of gender and immune regulation, we hypothesized that this gene may mediate sex differences in the development of T cell–mediated autoimmune disease. We show that PPARα is more abundant in male as compared with female CD4+ cells and that its expression is sensitive to androgen levels. Genetic ablation of this gene selectively removed the brake on NF-κB and c-jun activity in male T lymphocytes, resulting in higher production of interferon γ and tumor necrosis factor (but not interleukin 17), and lower production of T helper (Th)2 cytokines. Upon induction of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, male but not female PPARα−/− mice developed more severe clinical signs that were restricted to the acute phase of disease. These results suggest that males are less prone to develop Th1-mediated autoimmunity because they have higher T cell expression of PPARα.
Implication of Urinary Complement Factor H in the Progression of Immunoglobulin A Nephropathy

Background After activation, the complement system is involved in the pathogenesis of Immunoglobulin A nephropathy (IgAN). Complement factor H (CFH) is a crucial inhibitory factor of the alternative pathway of the complement system. The study investigated the effects of urinary CFH levels on IgAN progression. Methods A total of 351patients with IgAN participated in this study. They were followed up for an average of 51.8±26.6 months. Renal outcome was defined as a composite endpoint, that included instances of end-stage renal disease (ESRD),≥ 50% decline in estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) or doubling of plasma creatinine levels. Urinary CFH levels were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and calculated as the ratio of urinary CFH over creatinine (uCFH/uCr). Results In the whole cohort, uCFH/uCr values were associated with disease progression either as continuous [log(uCFH/uCr)] or categorical traits (dichotomous and quartile variables) after adjusting for eGFR, proteinuria, mean arterial blood pressure, histological grading and immunosuppressive therapy in the Cox proportional hazard model. Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that higher uCFH/uCr values at baseline predicted worse renal outcome during follow-up (log-rank, P<0.001). Receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis showed that log(uCFH/uCr) had predictive value for renal outcome (area under curve [AUC]=0.745), and the AUC increased to 0.805 after being incorporated into baseline eGFR and proteinuria. In subgroup analysis with eGFR≥60 mL/min/1.73m2, log(uCFH/uCr) had better predictive value (AUC= 0.724, P=0.002) for renal outcome compared to eGFR (AUC = 0.582, P=0.259) and proteinuria (AUC = 0.615, P=0.114). Conclusions Urinary CFH levels are associated with renal function decline and increased urinary CFH levels are a risk factor for progression of IgA nephropathy.
Linear generator systems for wave energy conversion

The objective of this paper is to review linear generator systems for wave energy conversion and the research issues related to this. The paper starts with a short review of wave energy conversion, indicating that the different wave energy conversion systems that have been presented in literature have very different generator systems. Next, a few state-of-the-art linear generator systems are discussed, such as the linear generator of the Archimedes Wave Swing (AWS) and the linear generator developed in Uppsala. Subsequently, some remaining problems and possible solutions that need further research are listed. The paper concludes with some sensible directions for further research, such as investigating an increase of the speed of the linear motion of the wave energy converter, investigating other generator types with higher force densities and possibly better efficiencies (for example, transverse flux permanent magnet machines) and investigating generator constructions that result in cheaper generators.