Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Predictive Factors of Hospital Mortality Due to Myocardial Infarction: A Multilevel Analysis of Iran's National Data

Background: Regarding failure to establish the statistical presuppositions for analysis of the data by conventional approaches, hierarchical structure of the data as well as the effect of higher-level variables, this study was conducted to determine the factors independently associated with hospital mortality due to myocardial infarction (MI) in Iran using a multilevel analysis. Methods: This study was a national, hospital-based, and cross-sectional study. In this study, the data of 20750 new MI patients between April, 2012 and March, 2013 in Iran were used. The hospital mortality due to MI was considered as the dependent variable. The demographic data, clinical and behavioral risk factors at the individual level and environmental data were gathered. Multilevel logistic regression models with Stata software were used to analyze the data. Results: Within 1-year of study, the frequency (%) of hospital mortality within 30 days of admission was derived 2511 (12.1%) patients. The adjusted odds ratio (OR) of mortality with (95% confidence interval [CI]) was derived 2.07 (95% CI: 1.5–2.8) for right bundle branch block, 1.5 (95% CI: 1.3–1.7) for ST-segment elevation MI, 1.3 (95% CI: 1.1–1.4) for female gender, and 1.2 (95% CI: 1.1–1.3) for humidity, all of which were considered as risk factors of mortality. But, OR of mortality was 0.7 for precipitation (95% CI: 0.7–0.8) and 0.5 for angioplasty (95% CI: 0.4–0.6) were considered as protective factors of mortality. Conclusions: Individual risk factors had independent effects on the hospital mortality due to MI. Variables in the province level had no significant effect on the outcome of MI. Increasing access and quality to treatment could reduce the mortality due to MI.
Internalization of Murine Norovirus 1 by Lactuca sativa during Irrigation

ABSTRACT Romaine lettuce (Lactuca sativa) was grown hydroponically or in soil and challenged with murine norovirus 1 (MNV) under two conditions: one mimicking a severe one-time contamination event and another mimicking a lower level of contamination occurring over time. In each condition, lettuce was challenged with MNV delivered at the roots. In the first case, contamination occurred on day one with 5 × 108 reverse transcriptase quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) U/ml MNV in nutrient buffer, and irrigation water was replaced with virus-free buffer every day for another 4 days. In the second case, contamination with 5 × 105 RT-qPCR U/ml MNV (freshly prepared) occurred every day for 5 days. Virus had a tendency to adsorb to soil particles, with a small portion suspended in nutrient buffer; e.g., ∼8 log RT-qPCR U/g MNV was detected in soil during 5 days of challenge with virus inoculums of 5 × 108 RT-qPCR U/ml at day one, but <6 log was found in nutrient buffer on days 3 and 5. For hydroponically grown lettuce, ∼3.4 log RT-qPCR U of viral RNA/50 mg of plant tissue was detected in some lettuce leaf samples after 5 days at high MNV inoculums, significantly higher than the internalized virus concentration (∼2.6 log) at low inoculums (P < 0.05). For lettuce grown in soil, approximately 2 log RT-qPCR U of viral RNA/50 mg of plant tissue was detected in lettuce with both high and low inoculums, showing no significant difference. For viral infectivity, infectious MNV was found in lettuce samples challenged with high virus inoculums grown hydroponically and in soil but not in lettuce grown with low virus inoculums. Lettuce grown hydroponically was further incubated in 99% and 70% relative humidities (RH) to evaluate plant transpiration relative to virus uptake. More lettuce samples were found positive for MNV at a significantly higher transpiration rate at 70% RH, indicating that transpiration might play an important role in virus internalization into L. sativa.
Synthesis and characterisation of barium titanate nanoparticles for second harmonic generation applications

This thesis presents findings of hydrothermally synthesised barium titanate nanoparticles for biomarker applications. Hydrothermal barium titanate (H-BT) and barium strontium titanate (H-BST) nanoparticles were successfully synthesised and were characterised for their second harmonic generation applications. X-Ray powder diffraction (laboratory and synchrotron) highlighted that H-BT and H-BST had a mixed tetragonal and cubic phase fraction present by Rietveld peak fitting analysis. Regardless of the phase fractions present, all nanoparticles emitted SHG (including a commercial cubic BaTiO3 sample that appeared cubic by XRD). The smaller sized H-BST nanoparticles (45 nm) required an increase in incident laser power compared to the H-BT sample (~140 nm). The phase of the nanoparticles and origin of SHG was investigated by electron diffraction, electron energy loss spectroscopy and high resolution HAADF-STEM imaging. In-situ electron diffraction of barium titanate showed that the tetragonal diffraction pattern transformed to a cubic pattern when heated above the Curie point. The phase transition was also investigated by EELS measurements of the Ti-L3 edge t2g-eg peak separation at room temperature and 400 oC showing the reduction in t2g-eg peak separation when the sample transforms from a tetragonal to cubic phase. The surface of the nanoparticles also showed an atomically rough layer with incomplete unit cells, and the ‘bulk’ of the nanoparticles showed random Ti-atom distortions by HAADF-STEM Ti-atom displacement analysis. This suggests the origin of SHG is likely to be both a cause of surface roughness and local asymmetric distortions in the nanoparticle bulk. The hydrothermally prepared and PLL-coated nanoparticles were measured to assess the cell viability and DNA damage of cells after a 24-hour exposure. The nanoparticles were measured by dynamic light scattering to understand the behaviour of uncoated and PLL-coated nanoparticles suspended in different media. The uncoated nanoparticles showed little reduction in cell viability and genotoxicity, whereas the PLL coated nanoparticles showed a reduction in cell viability and a failed comet assay at concentrations ≥10 µg/mL. The nanoparticles were confirmed to be taken up into the cells by electron microscopy of critically point dried and resin embedded cell sections. Cryo-TEM of the H-BT-PLL nanoparticles suspended at 100 µg/mL in complete cell culture media showed that some nanoparticles were coated with a calcium phosphate coating and others not. This resulted in, either cells having a direct exposure to PLL and positively charged nanoparticles, or all the calcium was removed from the media that is required for cell signalling pathways which could lead to a reduction in cell viability.
Evaluating and Modeling the Internal Diffusion Behaviors of Microencapsulated Rejuvenator in Aged Bitumen by FTIR-ATR Tests

Microencapsulated rejuvenator has been attracted much attention for self-healing bitumen. The diffusion coefficient is one of the key parameters to estimate the feasibility of rejuvenator to age bitumen. The objective of this research was to evaluate diffusion behaviors of microencapsulated rejuvenator in aged bitumen by a FTIR-ATR method. Various microcapsule samples were mixed in bitumen to form thin films. The core material of microcapsules used as rejuvenator was diphenylsilane (DPS), its fairly specific absorption band at 843 cm−1 was selected as a marker band to calculate the diffusion coefficient (D). The microstructure parameters, including contents, mean size and mean shell thickness of microcapsules, were considered to understand the diffusion behaviors under different temperatures (20, 30, 40 and 50 °C) in bitumen. The results showed that a larger mean size of microcapsules did not greatly affect the D values under the same temperature. In contrast, a higher mean shell thickness decreased the D values because of the decrement of damage probability of microcapsules under the same content. With the same microcapsule sample in bitumen, the D values presented a trend of linear increase when the content of microcapsules was increased. All these results indicated that the microstructure affected the diffusion behaviors based on the concentration of released rejuvenator. A preliminary model of diffusion behaviors of microencapsulated rejuvenator in bitumen was given based on the Arrhenius equation considering the microstructure of microcapsules, the amount of released rejuvenator and the age degree of bitumen. This model may be a guide to the construction and application of self-healing bitumen using microcapsules.
Investigating the Applicability of Graphene Nanoribbon as Signal and Power Interconnects for Nanometer Designs

In this work, we have investigated the applicability of graphene nanoribbon (GNR) as the interconnects for 16-nm ITRS technology node. GNR is proposed as the possible alternative to the traditional copper (Cu)-based interconnect systems in nanometer regime. In this paper, we have performed important studies on GNR for its applicability as power and signal interconnects. For the application of power interconnects, we have investigated the power supply voltage drop (IR drop) and simultaneous switching noise (SSN) in graphene-based interconnect system. We have performed crosstalk noise and overshoot/undershoot analyses for the application of signal interconnects. The results are compared with that of the traditional Cu-based interconnects. The results show that GNR is better than Cu as far as IR drop, SSN, gate oxide reliability and hot carrier reliability are concerned. Our investigation reveals that GNR can be better than the Cu interconnects from all aspects with a multilayer GNR structure. The present graphene-based interconnect technology needs to be advanced, so that the metal–graphene contact resistance is minimized and multilayer GNR structure with large number of graphene layers is supported.
Highly Compressible Macroporous Graphene Monoliths via an Improved Hydrothermal Process

An improved hydrothermal process is developed to fabricate macroporous graphene monoliths (MGMs) using a soft template of organic droplets. The MGMs are constructed from closed-cell distorted spherical pores. This unique microstructure makes MGMs that have low weight densities, good electrical conductivities, and excellent elasticity with rapid recovery rates.
Theoretical and experimental investigation of the thermal behaviour of a two-speed dual clutch transmission

Understanding the heating behaviour of automotive transmissions in an important step in prototype development, it plays a significant role in achieving appropriate tolerances at the design phase and strongly influences the system's durability in the long term. Furthermore, lubricant viscosity is strongly dependent on operating temperature, understanding this behaviour will provide insight into how transmission efficiency is affected during vehicle warm-up. In this paper, an experimental and simulation based study has been conducted to investigate the thermal behaviour of a two-speed dual clutch transmission (DCT) that has been developed for electric vehicle applications. This is achieved through the modelling of the power losses in the system that is then integrated with a compact thermal model of the transmission. Transient heating simulations for the transmission are conducted at constant speeds and compared with experimental studies, showing a strong correlation between results. Simulations are then utilised to investigate the load and speed dependencies of the transmission's thermal behaviour.
The Penn Treebank: Annotating Predicate Argument Structure

The Penn Treebank has recently implemented a new syntactic annotation scheme, designed to highlight aspects of predicate-argument structure. This paper discusses the implementation of crucial aspects of this new annotation scheme. It incorporates a more consistent treatment of a wide range of grammatical phenomena, provides a set of coindexed null elements in what can be thought of as "underlying" position for phenomena such as wh-movement, passive, and the subjects of infinitival constructions, provides some non-context free annotational mechanism to allow the structure of discontinuous constituents to be easily recovered, and allows for a clear, concise tagging system for some semantic roles.
DECREASE RANGE OF MOTION AND PROBLEM IN LEARNING OF A NEW SPORT SKILL DUE TO WEIGHT TRAINING IN WEIGHTLIFTERS

The aim of this study was to survey the relationship between decrease in range of motion and learning of a new sport s kill in people who had experience of weight training. This research was conducted using pre -test, three acquisition test, retention test and transfer test, with two experimental (n=18 weightlifters) and control
Marrow cell egress: specificity of the site of penetration into the sinus.

Blood cells exit the marrow through the wall of the marrow sinuses. Using quantitative electron microscopy of mouse marrow, we addressed two questions regarding the anatomic process of egress: Do leukocytes and reticulocytes exit at specific sites on the sinus wall or do they exit at random loci. Do leukocytes and reticulocytes in egress use a preformed pore or do they make the pore as they exit. We confirmed that exiting leukocytes and reticulocytes do not pass through intercellular junctions; rather they penetrate endothelial cells. The distance of migrating cells from endothelial cell junctions (1.4 +- 0.1 .mu.m) was significantly less (p <0.001) than the distance of endothelial cell junctions from points selected randomly along the sinus wall (4.0 +- 0.4 .mu.m). The initial stage of cell penetration is often associated with thinning and formation of pits in the endothelial cell. A close-fitting migration pore forms and allows passage of the cell to the sinus lumen. The migration pore of leukocytes reaches a maximum diameter as the middle third of the cell is in transit, whereas the migration pore of reticulocytes is maximal as the first third of the cell is in transit. In sinuses with leukocytes in transit, poresmore » unassociated with migrating cells compose only 10%, whereas pores associated with migrating cells compose 90% of the 25 pores/mm of the sinus wall. In sinuses without cells in transit, pore frequency was only 2/mm. Pores without migrating cells were smaller and were sealed by abluminal adventitial cells. They may represent residues of recent transit. These studies provide quantitative support for a preferential migration site for cells at the parajunctional zone of the endothelial cell and support the concept that pores are made at the time of egress. « less
Accelerated Stochastic Subgradient Methods under Local Error Bound Condition

In this paper, we propose two {\bf accelerated stochastic subgradient} methods for stochastic non-strongly convex optimization problems by leveraging a generic local error bound condition. The novelty of the proposed methods lies at smartly leveraging the recent historical solution to tackle the variance in the stochastic subgradient. The key idea of both methods is to iteratively solve the original problem approximately in a local region around a recent historical solution with size of the local region gradually decreasing as the solution approaches the optimal set. The difference of the two methods lies at how to construct the local region. The first method uses an explicit ball constraint and the second method uses an implicit regularization approach. For both methods, we establish the improved iteration complexity in a high probability for achieving an $\epsilon$-optimal solution. Besides the improved order of iteration complexity with a high probability, the proposed algorithms also enjoy a logarithmic dependence on the distance of the initial solution to the optimal set. We also consider applications in machine learning and demonstrate that the proposed algorithms enjoy faster convergence than the traditional stochastic subgradient method. For example, when applied to the $\ell_1$ regularized polyhedral loss minimization (e.g., hinge loss, absolute loss), the proposed stochastic methods have a logarithmic iteration complexity.
Cultivation of pleurotus ostreatus on oil palm fronds mixed with rubber tree sawdust

Pleurotus ostreatus (oyster mushroom) is cultivated in Malaysia using rubber tree sawdust (RS). Due to a shortage and the increasing cost of rubber tree sawdust, an alternative substrate is needed. This study was undertaken to evaluate the feasibility of oil palm frond (OPF) as an alternative substrate for the cultivation of Pleurotus ostreatus. The OPF and RS were analysed for their elemental compositions. The mycelium growth rate, the time for first pinhead formation and first fruiting bodies, yield, and biological efficiency (BE%) were studied for 100 % OPF, 90 % OPF - 10 % RS, 70 % OPF - 30 % RS, 50 %OPF – 50 % RS, 30 % OPF – 70 %RS, 10 % OPF - 90 % RS and 0 % OPF – 100 % RS substrates supplemented with rice bran and calcium carbonate. The proximate nutritional value of Pleurotus ostreatus first flush was also analysed for 100 % RS and 100% OPF. For mycelium growth rate, time for first pinhead formation and time to first Pleurotus ostreatus crop, the 0% OPF - 100 % RS substrate recorded the shortest time followed by the 10% OPF -90 % RS substrate. The 0 % OPF – 100 % RS substrate gave the highest yield of 135 g (22.6 % BE) whereas 125 g (20.9 % BE) was obtained from the 30 % OPF – 70 % RS substrate. The first flush of Pleurotus ostreatus harvested from the 100 % OPF substrate was richer in protein but lower in fat and carbohydrate compared to the mushrooms from the 100 % RS substrate making it an excellent food for low caloric diet, but OPF alone is not suitable as an alternative substrate for the cultivation of Pleurotus ostreatus as it took a longer growth performance with a lower yield of fruiting bodies compared to RS substrate.
Dysregulation of Serum Gamma Interferon Levels in Vascular Chronic Q Fever Patients Provides Insights into Disease Pathogenesis

ABSTRACT A large community outbreak of Q fever occurred in the Netherlands in the period 2007 to 2010. Some of the infected patients developed chronic Q fever, which typically includes pathogen dissemination to predisposed cardiovascular sites, with potentially fatal consequences. To identify the immune mechanisms responsible for ineffective clearance of Coxiella burnetii in patients who developed chronic Q fever, we compared serum concentrations of 47 inflammation-associated markers among patients with acute Q fever, vascular chronic Q fever, and past resolved Q fever. Serum levels of gamma interferon were strongly increased in acute but not in vascular chronic Q fever patients, compared to past resolved Q fever patients. Interleukin-18 levels showed a comparable increase in acute as well as vascular chronic Q fever patients. Additionally, vascular chronic Q fever patients had lower serum levels of gamma interferon-inducible protein 10 (IP-10) and transforming growth factor β (TGF-β) than did acute Q fever patients. Serum responses for these and other markers indicate that type I immune responses to C. burnetii are affected in chronic Q fever patients. This may be attributed to an affected immune system in cardiovascular patients, which enables local C. burnetii replication at affected cardiovascular sites.
Evaluation of PE_PGRS33 as a potential surface target for humoral responses against Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) PE_PGRS33 is a surface-exposed protein that was shown to interact with Toll-like receptor 2 on host macrophages to induce inflammatory signals and promote entry in macrophages. In this study, we investigated PE_PGRS33 as a potential target of a humoral response aimed at hampering key processes in tuberculosis pathogenesis. PE_PGRS33 protein was successfully expressed and purified under native condition in Escherichia coli. The purified protein retained its native functional and biological properties, showing the ability to elicit proinflammatory signals in murine and human macrophages. Interestingly, a polyclonal antiserum raised against native PE_PGRS33 showed no cross-reactions with other mycobacterial proteins. The anti-PE_PGRS33 serum was also able to inhibit Mtb entry into macrophages, but it did not reduce entry of the MtbΔpe_pgrs33 strain. Addition of native recombinant PE_PGRS33 to the MtbΔpe_pgrs33 strain during infection restored the Mtb wild-type entry phenotype in macrophage. Moreover, the anti-PE_PGRS33 serum was able to neutralize the proinflammatory activity of PE_PGRS33 in vitro. Furthermore, mice immunized with native recombinant PE_PGRS33, but not with a DNA vaccine expressing PE_PGRS33, were able to restrict M. smegmatis in vivo. These results highlight the potential use of PE_PGRS33 as a target of a neutralizing humoral response against tuberculosis.
Lost in Email: Pulling Users Down a Path of Interaction

In this paper we describe a study exploring why users spend more time in email than originally intended, which we call getting lost in email. To study this phenomenon, we implemented an IMAP logger that also dispatched diary entries to collect data for twenty participants over a two week period. Most participants reported getting lost in email during both short and long sessions. Our analysis suggests two primary factors in getting lost: the number of emails awaiting a reply and whether or not the session caused an interruption. We conclude that much of the problem around getting lost in email is in managing the tension between promptly responding to messages while limiting engagement with email.
Deformability limits of Plasmodium falciparum-infected red blood cells

Splenic filtration of infected red blood cells (RBCs) may contribute to innate immunity and variable outcomes of malaria infections. We show that filterability of individual RBCs is well predicted by the minimum cylindrical diameter (MCD) which is calculated from a RBC's surface area and volume. The MCD describes the smallest diameter tube or smallest pore that a cell may fit through without increasing its surface area. A microfluidic device was developed to measure the MCD from thousands of individual infected RBCs (IRBCs) and uninfected RBCs (URBCs). Average MCD changes during the blood‐stage cycle of Plasmodium falciparum were tracked for the cytoadherent strain ITG and the knobless strain Dd2. The MCD values for IRBCs and URBCs raise several new intriguing insights into how the spleen may remove IRBCs: some early‐stage ring‐IRBCs, and not just late‐stage schizont‐IRBCs, may be highly susceptible to filtration. In addition, knobby parasites may limit surface area expansions and thus confer high MCDs on IRBCs. Finally, URBCs, in culture with IRBCs, show higher surface area loss which makes them more susceptible to filtration than naive URBCs. These findings raise important basic questions about the variable pathology of malaria infections and metabolic process that affect volume and surface area of IRBCs.