Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Stiffness of Plasma Sprayed Thermal Barrier Coatings

Thermal spray coatings (TSCs) have complex microstructures and they often operate in demanding environments. Plasma sprayed (PS) thermal barrier coating (TBC) is one such ceramic layer that is applied onto metallic components where a low macroscopic stiffness favors stability by limiting the stresses from differential thermal contraction. In this paper, the Young’s modulus of TBC top coat, measured using different techniques, such as four-point bending, indentation and impulse excitation is reported, along with a brief description of how the techniques probe different length scales. Zirconia-based TBC top coats were found to have a much lower global stiffness than that of dense zirconia. A typical value for the as-sprayed Young’s modulus was ~23 GPa, determined by beam bending. Indentation, probing a local area, gave significantly higher values. The difference between the two stiffness values is thought to explain the wide range of TBC top coat Young’s modulus values reported in the literature. On exposure to high temperature, due to the sintering process, detached top coats exhibit an increase in stiffness. This increase in stiffness caused by the sintering of fine-scale porosity has significant impact on the strain tolerance of the TBC. The paper discusses the different techniques for measuring the Young’s modulus of the TBC top coats and implications of the measured values.
A Sham-Controlled Trial of Acupuncture as An Adjunct in Migraine Prophylaxis

Background Migraine is one of the most common types of headache, with significant socioeconomic effects. Prophylactic drugs are used to prevent migraine headaches but are unpromising. Objective To assess the effects of adding acupuncture to conventional migraine prophylaxis. Methods One hundred patients with migraine (41 male, 59 female), in whom prophylactic drugs had not produced a fall of at least 50% in the number of attacks, entered the study. The patients were randomised into two groups, sham and true acupuncture. The patients in both groups continued their prophylactic treatment and received 12 sessions of either true or sham acupuncture. Each session was 30 min and was repeated three times a week. The number of headaches in the two groups was compared at baseline, and at the end of four successive months. Results There was no significant difference in the frequency of attacks between the two groups before intervention. After 1 month, the frequency of attacks each month decreased from 5.1 (0.8) to 3.4 (1.2) in the true acupuncture group, and from 5.0 (0.8) to 4.4 (1.1) in the sham acupuncture group (a significant difference, p<0.001). The frequency continued to decrease in month 2 but increased in months 3 and 4; however, it was still significantly lower than baseline, and the difference remained significant after month 4. Conclusions Acupuncture is applicable as an adjunct to prophylactic drugs in migraineurs in whom the number of attacks does not fall with prophylactic medication.
Cationic liposomes induce apoptosis through p38 MAP kinase–caspase‐8–Bid pathway in macrophage‐like RAW264.7 cells

We have demonstrated that cationic liposomes composed of stearylamine (SA‐liposomes) induce apoptosis in a variety of cells, but the mechanism responsible for the cellular death is not clear. In this paper, we investigated the signaling pathways implicated in SA‐liposome‐induced apoptosis in the macrophage‐like cell line RAW264.7. Treatment with SA‐liposomes caused the activation of mitogen‐activated proein kinases (MAPKs), especially p38 and c‐jun N‐terminal kinase, and apoptosis was only inhibited upon the addition of a specific inhibitor for p38. N‐acetylcysteine, a scavenger of reactive oxygen species (ROS), effectively inhibited the activation of p38 and cellular death, indicating that the activation induced by ROS is an initial step in the process of apoptosis triggered by SA‐liposomes. Caspase‐8 was activated by p38, and caspase‐8‐dependent cleavage of Bid was also observed. No down‐regulation of bcl‐2 expression, and no cleavage of Bax protein were observed. Taken together, our results suggest that apoptosis of RAW264.7 by SA‐liposomes was mediated by the MAPK p38 and a caspase‐8‐dependent Bid‐cleavage pathway. Moreover, we found that ROS can contribute intimately to the SA‐liposome‐induced cell death in RAW264.7.
Estimating ressure at eardrum with pressure-velocity measurement from ear canal entrance

It is important to know the sound pressure signal at the eardrum in headphone reproduction and in audiological applications. Unfortunately, it is difficult to conduct direct measurement safely. Estimating pressure signals at the eardrum based on measurements done elsewhere in the ear canal is sensitive to positioning errors. This is particularly the case at the canal entrance. In addition, not knowing the acoustic properties of the ear canal makes estimation difficult. This study shows that when both sound pressure and velocity are measured at the canal entrance using a pressure-velocity probe, the pressure signal at the eardrum can be estimated with much higher accuracy than from the pressure-only measurement. The method is demonstrated and validated by using physical simulators and computational modeling.
Fabrication and machining of ceramic composites — A review on current scenario

ABSTRACT Ceramic matrix composites (CMCs) are the best-suited material for various engineering application due to their superior properties. The different processing methods involved in the fabrication and machining of these CMCs are a center for attraction to researchers and industrial society. This review article primarily focuses on the development of different processing methods and machining methods for ceramic matrix composites since the last few years. Out of these fabrication methods, powder metallurgy emerged as a most promising and cost-effective technique. In addition, electric discharge machining (EDM) has proved to be time saving, cost effective, and capable of machining complex shapes in composites. At the end, challenges in the processing and machining of ceramic matrix composites have been identified from the literature, and further benefits of microwave sintering and electric discharge machining of materials have been addressed in the paper.
Traffic optimization in anonymous networks

Anonymous communication networks, such as Tor, are facing big challenge how to deliver content to users in low latency and with no interruption. The latency issues were caused by increased amount of transferred data and low-bandwidth nodes in Tor network. Those are limiting overall circuit capacity providing to users. Conflux, the Tor plugin, is improving effort and decreasing latency time by creating multipath within Tor circuits. Conflux is doing dynamic traffic-splitting and load-balancing through multipath to improve throughput and avoid bottlenecks in Tor circuits. Our solution is focusing to analyze and modification network flows and sessions in Tor network. As an output of problem's analysis we're proposing possibilities to improve Conflux's performance by its modification and deploy to the Tor network. The paper describes solution implementation, setup and configuration Tor client and Tor exit node. We're explaining necessary modifications that need to be provided on Tor components. Our solution achieved average improvement versus Conflux more than 20% decrease of download time in various file size.
Quantitative contributions of gluconeogenesis to glucose production during fasting in type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Contributions of gluconeogenesis to glucose production were determined between 14 to 22 hours into a fast in type 2 diabetics (n = 9) and age-weight-matched controls (n = 7); ages, 60.4 +/- 2.3 versus 55.6 +/- 1.2 years and body mass indices (BMI) 28.6 +/- 2.3 versus 26.6 +/- 0.8 kg/m2. Production was measured using a primed-continuous [6,6-2H2]glucose infusion and gluconeogenesis from 2H enrichment at carbons 2 and 5 of blood glucose on 2H2O ingestion. Plasma glucose concentration declined from 9.6 +/- 0.6 at 14 hours to 7.3 +/- 0.6 at 22 hours in the diabetics (P = .001) and from 5.4 +/- 0.1 to 5.0 +/- 0.1 in the controls (P < .05). Production from the 17th to 22nd hour declined 27.1% +/- 0.6% in the diabetics versus 18.5% +/- 0.8% in the controls (P = .001); from 10.4 +/- 0.3 to 7.6 +/- 0.2 versus 10.0 +/- 0.4 to 8.2 +/- 0.4 micromol/kg/min. Percent contributions of gluconeogenesis to production measured at 1 1/2 to 2-hour intervals beginning the 15th hour were 6.8% +/- 1.0% more in the diabetics than controls. The quantity of glucose contributed by gluconeogenesis declined 19.8% +/- 3.8% (P < .001) in the diabetics and 6.9% +/- 2.3% in the controls (P = .05); 7.21 +/- 0.32 to 5.74 +/- 0.26 versus 6.20 +/- 0.28 to 5.75 +/- 0.24 micromol/kg/min. The contribution of glycogenolysis to production, estimated from the difference between production and gluconeogenesis, declined to the same extent in diabetic and control subjects, 40.7% +/- 6.6% and 37.7% +/- 4.1%; from 3.23 +/- 0.35 to 1.86 +/- 0.26 versus 3.81 +/- 0.22 to 2.42 +/- 0.28 micromol/kg/min. Thus, gluconeogenesis contributed more to glucose production in the diabetic than control subjects. Production and the contribution of gluconeogenesis declined more in the diabetic subjects during the fast. The factors regulating these changes remain uncertain.
A review of filled and pristine polycarbonate blends and their applications

Polycarbonate is an important thermoplastic polymer. Due to its high performance, polycarbonate has a range of engineering applications in construction, automotive, aircraft, data storage, electrical, and telecommunication hardware. However, polycarbonate’s use is limited in advanced applications due to limitations, such as strong hydrophobicity, relatively limited chemical functionality, high melt viscosity, notch sensitivity of mechanical properties, and relative softness. Blending with other thermoplastic polymers improves its physical characteristics. The present review outlines up-to-date developments concerning the design and application of polycarbonate blends. A particular emphasis has been given to establish polycarbonate blends such as: • polycarbonate/polyethylene • polycarbonate/poly(methyl methacrylate) • polycarbonate/poly(vinylchloride) • polycarbonate/ polystyrene • polycarbonate/polyurethane • polycarbonate/polyester • polycarbonate/poly(ɛ-caprolactone). To improve the polycarbonate blend properties, fillers including organic and inorganic reinforcement materials (carbon nanotube, montmorillonite nanoclay, and metal nanoparticle) have also been employed. Polycarbonate blend applications in biomedical, flame retardant, and membrane materials have also been reviewed. To fully exploit the future potential for polycarbonate-based engineering materials, the structure–property relationship and compatibilization mechanisms need to be further explored.
Composite Structural Element Characterisation Using Fibre Optic Strain Sensors

Fibre optic sensor systems have been developed for characterisation and monitoring of structural elements. The particular application area reported here is on testing of pultruded composite beams. Demodulation schemes for in-fibre Bragg grating strain sensors using either Acousto-Optic tuneable filters or passive techniques are described. It is found that the fibre optic sensor measurements correspond well with those of standard electrical gauges, and demonstrate their potential as on-line structural diagnostic devices.
Diffusion-weighted MRI Before and After Robotic Radiosurgery (Cyberknife®) in Primary and Secondary Liver Malignancies

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the role of diffusion-weighted MR imaging (DW-MRI) in the assessment of treatment response of primary or secondary liver malignancies after stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) using robotic radiosurgery. All patients who underwent SRS therapy for hepatic malignancies who had pre- and post-interventional MR examinations including DW-MRI at our hospital between 02/2010 and 02/2012 were included. A retrospective analysis of the institutional imaging database identified 13 patients (4 men, 9 women, mean age: 66 years) with a total of 14 primary or secondary liver malignancies. Criteria of tumor response to treatment were a decrease in size and/or loss of contrast enhancement as assessed with respect to RECIST criteria. Mean apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values for normal liver parenchyma and hepatic masses in each MR examination were calculated and compared using two-tailed, paired t-test with a significance level of 0.05. Mean ADC values of liver malignancies were 1.10 ± 0.30 x 10-3 mm2/s, 1.48 ± 0.35 x 10-3 mm2/s and 1.56 ± 0.40 x 10-3 mm2/s on pre-interventional, the first post-interventional, and the second post-interventional DW-MRI. There was a significant increase of ADC values between the pre-interventional examination and the first and second post-interventional follow-up exams (p < 0.01 and p = 0.01, respectively). However, there was no statistical difference between the ADC values of the first and second post-interventional MRI. ADC values of normal liver parenchyma did not show significant changes in ADC values during pre- and post-interventional MRI. ADC measurements may allow the evaluation of response to treatment of hepatic malignancies by SRS. ADC values of liver malignancies increase significantly after SRS treatment.
Cross-Version Singing Voice Detection in Classical Opera Recordings

In the field of Music Information Retrieval (MIR), the automated detection of the singing voice within a given music recording constitutes a challenging and important research problem. In this study, our goal is to find those segments within a classical opera recording, where one or several singers are active. As our main contributions, we first propose a novel audio feature that extends a state-of-theart feature set that has previously been applied to singing voice detection in popular music recordings. Second, we describe a simple bootstrapping procedure that helps to improve the results in the case that the test data is not reflected well by the training data. Third, we show that a crossversion approach can help to stabilize the results even further.
A Physiological Time Series Dynamics-Based Approach to Patient Monitoring and Outcome Prediction

Cardiovascular variables such as heart rate (HR) and blood pressure (BP) are regulated by an underlying control system, and therefore, the time series of these vital signs exhibit rich dynamical patterns of interaction in response to external perturbations (e.g., drug administration), as well as pathological states (e.g., onset of sepsis and hypotension). A question of interest is whether “similar” dynamical patterns can be identified across a heterogeneous patient cohort, and be used for prognosis of patients' health and progress. In this paper, we used a switching vector autoregressive framework to systematically learn and identify a collection of vital sign time series dynamics, which are possibly recurrent within the same patient and may be shared across the entire cohort. We show that these dynamical behaviors can be used to characterize the physiological “state” of a patient. We validate our technique using simulated time series of the cardiovascular system, and human recordings of HR and BP time series from an orthostatic stress study with known postural states. Using the HR and BP dynamics of an intensive care unit (ICU) cohort of over 450 patients from the MIMIC II database, we demonstrate that the discovered cardiovascular dynamics are significantly associated with hospital mortality (dynamic modes 3 and 9, p = 0.001, p = 0.006 from logistic regression after adjusting for the APACHE scores). Combining the dynamics of BP time series and SAPS-I or APACHE-III provided a more accurate assessment of patient survival/mortality in the hospital than using SAPS-I and APACHE-III alone (p = 0.005 and p = 0.045). Our results suggest that the discovered dynamics of vital sign time series may contain additional prognostic value beyond that of the baseline acuity measures, and can potentially be used as an independent predictor of outcomes in the ICU.
Prediction of Thromboembolic Events in Heart Failure Patients in Sinus Rhythm: The Hong Kong Heart Failure Registry

Aim Heart failure (HF) increases the risk of thromboembolic events (TE). Study in a Caucasian population has shown that the CHA2DS2-VASc score predicts TE among HF patients without atrial fibrillation. We sought to assess the usefulness of the CHA2DS2-VASc score in predicting TE in an Asian population and refine the scoring system to improve its predictability of TE among HF patients in sinus rhythm. Methods A total of 1,202 consecutive patients who were admitted to our institution for new-onset HF from 2005 to 2012 and without atrial fibrillation or anticoagulation were retrospectively reviewed. Results The mean age was 77.6 ± 12.2 years and 51.7% were female. After 36.2 ± 30.1 months, 113 (9.4%) developed TE. The annual incidence was 0.54%, 1.54%, 2.98% and 5.04% per year in those who had a CHA2DS2-VASc score of 1, 2–3, 4–5 and ≥6, respectively. In multivariate analysis, age ≥75 years [Hazard ratio (HR) 2.59, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.23–5.46, p = 0.012), chronic ischemic heart disease (HR 1.54, 95% CI 1.02–2.31, p = 0.040) and chronic kidney disease (HR 1.66, 95% CI 1.09–2.53, p = 0.018) independently predicted TE. Incorporation of chronic ischemic heart disease and chronic kidney disease into the CHA2DS2-VASc score significantly increased the area under the Receiver Operating Curve from 0.57 (95% CI 0.54–0.59) to 0.61 (95% CI 0.55–0.66; p = 0.022). Conclusion The CHA2DS2-VASc score is useful for stratification of the risk of TE among HF patients in sinus rhythm. Incorporation of chronic ischemic heart disease and chronic kidney disease into the score modestly improves its predictive value.
Mixed-Mode Simulation and Analysis of Digital Single Event Transients in Fast CMOSICs

Single event transient (SET) pulses produced from heavy ion irradiation in digital integrated circuits (ICs) are modeled and analyzed using a mixed-mode approach, that is, three-dimensional (3-D) semiconductor device simulation coupled with a circuit solver. In this paper, we analyze the factors affecting the generation and propagation of digital SET pulses in fast CMOS ICs. Our mixed-mode simulations of various ion strike locations allowed to obtain agreement with measured data and explain the earlier published wide distribution of SET pulse widths created by heavy ion radiation in digital CMOS ICs at a given linear energy transfer (LET) value, which was observed experimentally, but not fully understood. We also indicate that the transient charge-collection current pulse (width and shape) on the struck device node is not directly related to the SET voltage pulse that will propagate through a logic circuit, and therefore current pulses alone should not be treated as a measure of DSET.
The Effect of Author Set Size in Authorship Attribution for Lithuanian

This paper reports the first authorship attribution results based on the effect of the author set size using automatic computational methods for the Lithuanian language. The aim is to determine how fast authorship attribution results are deteriorating while the number of candidate authors is gradually increasing: i.e. starting from 3, going up to 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100. Using supervised machine learning techniques we also investigated the influence of different features (lexical, character, morphological, etc.) and language types (normative parliamentary speeches and non-normative forum posts). The experiments revealed that the effectiveness of the method and feature types depends more on the language type rather than on the number of candidate authors. The content features based on word lemmas are the most useful type for the normative texts, due to the fact that Lithuanian is a highly inflective, morphologically and vocabulary rich language. The character features are the most accurate type for forum posts, where texts are too complicated to be effectively processed with external morphological tools.
Orbits and Pulsations of the Classical ζ Aurigae Binaries

We have derived new orbits for ζ Aur, 32 Cyg, and 31 Cyg with observations from the Tennessee State University (TSU) Automatic Spectroscopic Telescope, and used them to identify nonorbital velocities of the cool supergiant components of these systems. We measure periods in those deviations, identify unexpected long-period changes in the radial velocities, and place upper limits on the rotation of these stars. These radial-velocity variations are not obviously consistent with radial pulsation theory, given what we know about the masses and sizes of the components. Our concurrent photometry detected the nonradial pulsations driven by tides (ellipsoidal variation) in both ζ Aur and 32 Cyg, at a level and phasing roughly consistent with simple theory to first order, although they seem to require moderately large gravity darkening. However, the K component of 32 Cyg must be considerably bigger than expected, or have larger gravity darkening than ζ Aur, to fit its amplitude. However, again there is precious little evidence for the normal radial pulsation of cool stars in our photometry. Hα shows some evidence for chromospheric heating by the B component in both ζ Aur and 32 Cyg, and the three stars show among them a meager ~2-3 outbursts in their winds of the sort seen occasionally in cool supergiants. We point out two fundamental questions in the interpretation of these stars: (1) whether it is appropriate to model the surface brightness as gravity darkening and (2) whether much of the nonorbital velocity structure may actually represent changes in the convective flows in the stars’ atmospheres.
An Experimental Study on Heat Transfer Enhancement for Porous Heat Exchange in Rectangular Duct

Forced convection heat transfer of air in porous rectangular duct was investigated experimentally . The pad consist of (zig-zag ) metallic wire mesh insert with two different porosities ( ) namely ( 0.97 ) and ( 0.99) . The experiments were carried out for Reynolds number (7682,12497 and 17323 ) and constant heat flux (192,297 and 422 W/m 2 ) . The results indicated that Nusselt number was increased with increasing Reynolds number and heat flux but decreased with increasing pad porosity . The Nusselt number in the porous duct was increased up to (144% ) for ( =0.97) and (72% ) for ( =0.99) when compared to clear duct at the same tested condition . For optimization between heat transfer enhancement and pad weight added into clear duct , it is found that [ (Nu porous - Nuclear ) / weight of pad ] equal to (84.34 ) and ( 40.49 ) for ( =0.99 and =0.97) respectively and this is good improvement in heat transfer through porous rectangular duct and reducing size and weight of original duct .
The Kuwait University Anxiety Scale: A Cross-Cultural Evaluation in Kuwait and United States

Kuwaiti (n = 460) and American (n = 273) college students responded to the Kuwait University Anxiety Scale in Arabic and English languages, respectively. Coefficients alpha were . 93 and . 95, while the item-remainder correlations ranged from . 37 to . 75 and from . 33 to . 81 for the Kuwaiti and American samples, respectively. Three factors were identified for the Kuwaiti sample: (1) Cognitive/Affective, (2) Somatic, and (3) Behavioral/Subjective Anxiety and two factors for the American sample: (1) Cognitive/Affective/Behavioral and (2) Somatic Anxiety. The Kuwaiti sample had significantly higher mean scores on 13 of the 20 items and on the total scale score than the American sample. Sex differences were significant in both countries. By and large, the Kuwait University Anxiety Scale seems viable in the American and Kuwaiti contexts.