Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Regression problems for magnitudes

SUMMARY Least-squares linear regression is so popular that it is sometimes applied without checking whether its basic requirements are satisfied. In particular, in studying earthquake phenomena, the conditions (a) that the uncertainty on the independent variable is at least one order of magnitude smaller than the one on the dependent variable, (b) that both data and uncertainties are normally distributed and (c) that residuals are constant are at times disregarded. This may easily lead to wrong results. As an alternative to least squares, when the ratio between errors on the independent and the dependent variable can be estimated, orthogonal regression can be applied. We test the performance of orthogonal regression in its general form against Gaussian and non-Gaussian data and error distributions and compare it with standard leastsquare regression. General orthogonal regression is found to be superior or equal to the standard least squares in all the cases investigated and its use is recommended. We also compare the performance of orthogonal regression versus standard regression when, as often happens in the literature, the ratio between errors on the independent and the dependent variables cannot be estimated and is arbitrarily set to 1. We apply these results to magnitude scale conversion, which is a common problem in seismology, with important implications in seismic hazard evaluation, and analyse it through specific tests. Our analysis concludes that the commonly used standard regression may induce systematic errors in magnitude conversion as high as 0.3‐0.4, and, even more importantly, this can introduce apparent catalogue incompleteness, as well as a heavy bias in estimates of the slope of the frequency‐magnitude distributions. All this can be avoided by using the general orthogonal regression in magnitude conversions.
Sympathetic Neural Mechanisms in Normal and Hypertensive Pregnancy in Humans

Background—Direct recordings from peripheral sympathetic nerves have shown an increased sympathetic drive in pregnancy-induced hypertension (PIH) and preeclampsia (PE). It is unknown whether sympathetic drive is altered in normal pregnancy, when arterial blood pressure can be normal or relatively low. The aim of this study was to measure and compare peripheral sympathetic discharge, its vasoconstrictor effect and its baroreceptor control, during pregnancy and postpartum in women with normal pregnancy (NP) and PIH and in normotensive nonpregnant (NN) women. Methods and Results—Twenty-one women with NP, 18 women with PIH, and 21 NN women had muscle sympathetic nerve activity assessed from multiunit discharges (MSNA) and from single units with defined vasoconstrictor properties (s-MSNA). The s-MSNA in NP (38±6.6 impulses/100 beats) was greater (P <0.05) than in NN women (19±1.8 impulses/100 beats) despite similar age and body weight but less than in PIH women (P <0.001) (146±23.5 impulses/100 beats). MSNA followed a similar trend. Cardiac baroreceptor reflex sensitivity (BRS) was impaired in NP and PIH women relative to NN. After delivery, sympathetic activity decreased to values similar to those obtained in NN, and there was an increase in BRS. In women with NP, the decrease in sympathetic output occurred despite an insignificant change in blood pressure. Conclusions—Central sympathetic output was increased in women with normal pregnancy and was even greater in the hypertensive pregnant group. The findings suggest that the moderate sympathetic hyperactivity during the latter months of normal pregnancy may help to return the arterial pressure to nonpregnant levels, although when the increase in activity is excessive, hypertension may ensue.
Electrode wear phenomenon and its compensation in micro electrical discharge milling: A review

ABSTRACT Micro electrical discharge machining (µEDM) is playing a significant role in the world of miniaturization, especially in micro electro mechanical systems, biomedical devices, micro die/molds, etc. Micro electrical discharge milling (µED-milling) is a variant of µEDM used for producing complex 3D features with a simple shaped tool. The material removal mechanism of µEDM depends on electro-thermal energy between the tool electrode and workpiece. µEDM inherently being a non-contact machining process, leads to produce miniaturized features in hard to machine materials. Besides erosion of the workpiece material, intrinsic feature of the process leads to tool wear (TW) and introduces dimensional inaccuracy in the micro features. Thus, it is essential to know the factors influencing the TW, and thereby compensate the TW to achieve dimensional stability of the machined features. The critical factors affecting the wear phenomenon of a tool and various techniques applied to compensate TW in µED-milling along with future trends of their application are presented. The key issues of µED-milling and challenges faced in implementing a TW compensation technique are highlighted. The concept of intentional wear of tool electrode and associated advantages in EDM is also demonstrated.
Master Athletes Are Extending the Limits of Human Endurance

The increased participation of master athletes (i.e., >40 years old) in endurance and ultra-endurance events (>6 h duration) over the past few decades has been accompanied by an improvement in their performances at a much faster rate than their younger counterparts. Aging does however result in a decrease in overall endurance performance. Such age-related declines in performance depend upon the modes of locomotion, event duration, and gender of the participant. For example, smaller age-related declines in cycling performance than in running and swimming have been documented. The relative stability of gender differences observed across the ages suggests that the age-related declines in physiological function did not differ between males and females. Among the main physiological determinants of endurance performance, the maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max) appears to be the parameter that is most altered by age. Exercise economy and the exercise intensity at which a high fraction of VO2max can be sustained (i.e., lactate threshold), seem to decline to a lesser extent with advancing age. The ability to maintain a high exercise-training stimulus with advancing age is emerging as the single most important means of limiting the rate of decline in endurance performance. By constantly extending the limits of (ultra)-endurance, master athletes therefore represent an important insight into the ability of humans to maintain physical performance and physiological function with advancing age.
First error analyses for finite element solutions of boundary value problems involving cylinders moving in the axial direction

A first error analysis for finite element solutions of time-harmonic boundary value problems involving cylinders moving in the axial direction is carried out. It is shown that the solutions are affected by errors which behave in a very regular way, as it happens with traditional problems and finite element simulators in the presence of motionless objects. The effects of the motion on the errors considered seems to be not able to significantly modify the usual reliability of finite element simulators.
Quantification of order in the Lennard-Jones system

We conduct a numerical investigation of structural order in the shifted-force Lennard-Jones system by calculating metrics of translational and bond-orientational order along various paths in the phase diagram covering equilibrium solid, liquid, and vapor states. A series of nonequilibrium configurations generated through isochoric quenches, isothermal compressions, and energy minimizations are also considered. Simulation results are analyzed using an ordering map representation [Torquato et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 2064 (2000); Truskett et al., Phys. Rev. E 62, 993 (2000)] that assigns both equilibrium and nonequilibrium states coordinates in an order metric plane. Our results show that bond-orientational order and translational order are not independent for simple spherically symmetric systems at equilibrium. We also demonstrate quantitatively that the Lennard-Jones and hard sphere systems sample the same configuration space at supercritical densities. Finally, we relate the structural order found in fast-quenched and minimum-energy configurations (inherent structures).
Edinburgh Research Explorer a

and for Abstract Background: Heavy menstrual bleeding (HMB) is a common problem affecting approximately 1.5 million women in England and Wales with a major impact on their physical, emotional, social and material quality of life. It is the fourth most common reason why women attend gynaecology outpatient clinics and accounts for one-fifth of all gynaecology outpatient referrals. Initial treatment in primary care is medical - either by means of oral or injected medication or the levonorgestrel-intrauterine system (Mirena®). If medical treatment fails then surgical treatment can be offered, either endometrial ablation (EA), which destroys the lining of the cavity of the uterus (endometrium), or hysterectomy, i.e. surgical removal of the uterus. While effective, conventional hysterectomy is invasive and carries a risk of complications due to injury to other pelvic structures. The procedure can be simplified and complications minimised by undertaking a ‘ supracervical ’ hysterectomy where the cervix is left in situ and only the body of the uterus removed. Recent advances in endoscopic technologies have facilitated increased use of laparoscopic supracervical hysterectomy (LASH) which can be performed as a day-case procedure and is relatively easy for the surgeon to learn. HEALTH (Hysterectomy or Endometrial AbLation Trial for Heavy menstrual bleeding) aims to address the question ‘ Is LASH superior to second generation EA for the treatment of HMB in terms of clinical and
Temporal masking for unsupervised minimum Bayes risk speaker adaptation

The minimum Bayes risk (MBR) criterion has previously been applied to the task of speaker adaptation in large vocabulary continuous speech recognition. The success of unsupervised MBR speaker adaptation, however, has been limited by the accuracy of the estimated transcription of the acoustic data. This paper addresses this issue not by improving the accuracy of the estimated transcription but via temporal masking of its erroneous regions.
Convergence Angles of Clinical Tooth Preparations for Metal Ceramic Restorations Among Dental Students and General Practitioners

Background: Numerous studies showed that the convergence angle (CA) of prepared teeth for fixed prosthodontics in the clinical practice is greater than the recommended values. Objectives: This cross-sectional study aimed to compare the total occlusal convergence (TOC) angles of metal ceramic fixed prosthodontics among dental students [final-year undergraduate (UG) and Master Prosthodontics (MS) students] and general practitioners (GP) in their private clinics with the recommended value (≤ 12 degrees). Methods: The buccolingual (BL) and mesiodistal (MD) TOC of 114, 90, and 111 stone dies referred to UG, MS, and GP, respectively, were measured. These dies included incisors, premolars, and molars. One sample Wilcoxon signed rank test, Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal-Wallis, and Fisher exact test were used for statistical analysis. Results: Mean values of TOC for UG were 27.8 degrees BL and 20.9 degrees MD, whereas they were 30.6 degrees BL and 18.2 degrees MD for MS. GP had TOC of 35.5 degrees BL and 24 degrees MD. GP had significantly higher TOC values than the other groups (0.001 > P value ≤ 0.007). In each group, TOC did not differ when calculated for partial fixed prosthodontic and single crown abutments (0.117 ≤ P value ≤ 0.797). Molars in general had the highest TOC values. Only 0.9%, 3.3%, and 0.9% of UG, MS, and GP, respectively, respected the TOC ≤ 12 degrees. Conclusions: In all the groups, tooth preparations were inconsistent with the recommended TOC values, even among specialists in fixed prosthodontics. These results support the existing literature that the recommended values were rarely achieved and may require reconsideration. Clinical Significance: Clinically, the CA values of prepared teeth for fixed prosthodontics exceed the recommended values in most cases, not only among general practitioners, but also among students in academic institutes. Thus, the effects of teeth preparations with CA greater than the recommended values on the longevity of the prosthodontics should be further investigated.
The production of large blast furnaces of China in 2017

This article firstly introduced the characteristics of the iron and steel industry of China during 2017. Then the production, raw material and operation indexes of large blast furnace of China were introduced. In addition, the manufacturing and procurement costs, energy consumption, labour productivity and national industrial policies were specifically analysed. The conclusion that the operation indexes of large blast furnace of China has development during 2017 was obtained. The study could benefit to understand the large blast furnace operation of China.
Tumors affecting the spinal cord of cats: 85 cases (1980-2005).

OBJECTIVE To determine the prevalence of lymphosarcoma and other tumors affecting the spinal cord of cats and to relate specific types of tumors with signalment, history, and clinical findings. DESIGN Retrospective case series. ANIMALS 85 cats with tumors affecting the spinal cord. PROCEDURES Medical records of cats with histologically confirmed primary or metastatic tumors of the spinal cord or tumors causing spinal cord disease by local extension from adjacent tissues examined between 1980 and 2005 were reviewed. Data on signalment; clinical history; results of neurologic examination, diagnostic imaging, and clinical pathologic evaluation; and location of tumor within the spinal cord were obtained from medical records and analyzed by use of logistic regression models. RESULTS Lymphosarcoma was the most common tumor and affected the spinal cord in 33 (38.8%) cats, followed by osteosarcoma in 14 (16.5%) cats. Cats with lymphosarcoma were typically younger at initial examination, had a shorter duration of clinical signs, and had lesions in more regions of the CNS than did cats with other types of tumors. In 22 of 26 (84.6%) cats with lymphosarcoma, the tumor was also found in extraneural sites. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE Data for spinal cord tumors in this population of cats were analyzed by logistic regression analysis, which effectively distinguished cats with lymphosarcoma from cats with other types of tumors. Additional clinical information reported here will help to increase the index of suspicion or definitive antemortem diagnosis of spinal cord tumors of cats.
Vestibulo-Ocular Reflex and Balance Maturation in Healthy Children Aged from Six to Twelve Years

Objectives: Because both the vestibulo-ocular and vestibulospinal pathways depend on neurological maturation during childhood, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the vestibulo-ocular reflexes (VOR) and balance parameters of children aged from 6 to 12 years. Methods: 147 healthy children were included in the study. The visual vestibulo-ocular reflex (VVOR) and VOR were recorded during sinusoidal rotation (videonystagmography), with calculation of the gain. The sensory organization on postural control was studied using computerized dynamic posturography (EquiTest®), with equilibrium scores (ES) and sensory organization tests. Results: Data were analyzed according to age groups: group a from 6 to 8 years, group b from 9 to 10 years, and group c from 11 to 12 years. Whereas VVOR gain was comparable in the three groups, VOR gain was lower in groups b and c compared to group a. Global ES increased with age. Analyzing each sensory component for postural control, the only score that increases with age is the vestibular one. Somesthetic and visual scores remained comparable in the three groups. Conclusions: Our results in a large cohort of children confirm previous ones: VOR gain is higher in young children, whereas ES is lower. Moreover, it seems that the 10- to 12-year-old children use their vestibular inputs more compared to younger ones. From these results it can be suggested that both the vestibulo-ocular and vestibulospinal pathways are still maturing between 6 and 12 years.
Desmoplastic Melanoma

A 50-year-old man developed a rapidly growing tumor in old burn scar on the left heel which had been ulcerated for recent 5 years. A firm, immovable subcutaneous nodule was palpable in the left femoral area. Below-knee amputation of the left leg and radical groin dissection were performed. Six courses of CYVA-DIC chemotherapy were also given. Two years after the operation, a lymph node metastasis around external iliac artery developed. After the radical dissection, another chemotherapy including CBDCA, DTIC, ACNU and tamoxifen was introduced. Histological examination revealed the bulk of the primary tumor was composed of atypical, amelanotic, spindle cells with fibrous tissues. Small nests of epithelioid cells were also present. Neural invasion was observed in the deep dermis. Neuroid structures composed of atypical cells in fibrous stroma were present in the section of the inguinal subcutaneous tissue. The metastatic lesion to the lymph node adjacent to left external iliac artery showed similar changes to the primary skin tumor, with more marked fibrosis. The tumor cells were strongly positive for S-100 and NSE. In the primary tumor and metastatic lesion to the lymph node, the tumor cells were positive for alpha-1 antichymotrypsin and lysozyme as well.
Error Rate Improvement in Underwater MIMO Communications Using Sparse Partial Response Equalization

Point-to-point links using multiple transmitters and receivers or MIMO (multiple input, multiple output) configurations and associated signal processing at the receiver, can provide significant improvements in both data rate and reliability and is a promising technology for enhancing communications in the band-limited and highly-dynamic underwater acoustic (UWA) channel. Although the underwater channel impulse response extent can span tens to hundreds of symbols, it is generally sparse in nature and well suited for sparse partial response equalization (sPRE). This equalization scheme, which is not restricted to MIMO configurations, does not attempt to suppress intersymbol interference completely, rather it retains residual ISI in a controlled manner. This is accomplished by setting a sparse residual impulse response target generally similar in magnitude and time to the dominant, yet also sparse, arrivals within the actual channel impulse response. The resultant partial response equalizer is followed by a complexity-reduction detection scheme known as "belief propagation (BP)" which is an alternative to the optimal Viterbi or MAP (maximum a-posteriori probability) detector. The complexity of the optimal schemes grows exponentially with the total number of taps, regardless of structure; whereas the complexity of BP grows exponentially only with the non-zero taps. Thus the entire receiver structure, sPRE followed by BP, is suitable for the long, sparse channels since it allows more efficient exploitation of the channel structure. The proposed symbol recovery scheme was applied to data collected during a comprehensive multi-institution MIMO Experiment conducted within the Makai Experiment in 2005 off the northwest coast of Kauai, Hawaii. We have demonstrated a reduction in error rates over receiver algorithms using conventional decision feedback equalization techniques due to increased multipath diversity
Combining Appearance and Structure from Motion Features for Road Scene Understanding

In this paper we present a framework for pixel-wise object segmentation of road scenes that combines motion and appearance features. It is designed to handle street-level imagery such as that on Google Street View and Microsoft Bing Maps. We formulate the problem in a CRF framework in order to probabilistically model the label likelihoods and the a priori knowledge. An extended set of appearance-based features is used, which consists of textons, colour, location and HOG descriptors. A novel boosting approach is then applied to combine the motion and appearance-based features. We also incorporate higher order potentials in our CRF model, which produce segmentations with precise object boundaries. We evaluate our method both quantitatively and qualitatively on the challenging Cambridge-driving Labeled Video dataset. Our approach shows an overall recognition accuracy of 84% compared to the state-of-the-art accuracy of 69%.
NOD/LtSz-Rag1null Mice: An Immunodeficient and Radioresistant Model for Engraftment of Human Hematolymphoid Cells, HIV Infection, and Adoptive Transfer of NOD Mouse Diabetogenic T Cells1

Development of a small animal model for the in vivo study of human immunity and infectious disease remains an important goal, particularly for investigations of HIV vaccine development. NOD/Lt mice homozygous for the severe combined immunodeficiency (Prkdcscid) mutation readily support engraftment with high levels of human hematolymphoid cells. However, NOD/LtSz-scid mice are highly radiosensitive, have short life spans, and a small number develop functional lymphocytes with age. To overcome these limitations, we have backcrossed the null allele of the recombination-activating gene (Rag1) for 10 generations onto the NOD/LtSz strain background. Mice deficient in RAG1 activity are unable to initiate V(D)J recombination in Ig and TCR genes and lack functional T and B lymphocytes. NOD/LtSz-Rag1null mice have an increased mean life span compared with NOD/LtSz-scid mice due to a later onset of lymphoma development, are radioresistant, and lack serum Ig throughout life. NOD/LtSz-Rag1null mice were devoid of mature T or B cells. Cytotoxic assays demonstrated low NK cell activity. NOD/LtSz-Rag1null mice supported high levels of engraftment with human lymphoid cells and human hemopoietic stem cells. The engrafted human T cells were readily infected with HIV. Finally, NOD/LtSz-Rag1null recipients of adoptively transferred spleen cells from diabetic NOD/Lt+/+ mice rapidly developed diabetes. These data demonstrate the advantages of NOD/LtSz-Rag1null mice as a radiation and lymphoma-resistant model for long-term analyses of engrafted human hematolymphoid cells or diabetogenic NOD lymphoid cells.