Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of Homogeneity of Thickness of New Asphalt Layers Using GPR

The use of GPR (Ground Penetrating Radar) as an auxiliary tool in assessing the structural condition of the road pavement is now a common practice. Such equipment is employed by both private consulting companies and main road management laboratories. The field of application of GPR is constantly growing. Radar techniques are combined with sophisticated methods of data analysis, which facilitates the process of assessment of damage to the pavement structure, such as cracks, inhomogeneity of compaction or the condition of interlayer connections. The primary role of GPR operators is to determine the thickness of layers, including new ones. This article discusses the main elements of the method of measuring the thickness of new asphalt layers. This method can support the acceptance testing phase. Particular attention is attached to the methods for the calibration of the wave travel velocity, including the role of reference drill holes, their precise positioning and determination of layer thickness. The article revolves around the dispersion of measurements and uncertainty of average and local results, as well as pointing to the key factors having an influence over accuracy, which is of importance in the consecutive phases of acceptance testing.
Carrier frequency recovery in wireless transceivers with transient impairments

Switching operation happens extensively in nowadays wireless devices between various functional modules. The transient responses during the hardware switching are non-ideal due to the non-ideal behavior of hardware components. The non-ideal transient may cause distortion on signals and degenerate system performance before the transient effect is settling down. We explore the advanced solutions to compensate the transient impairments rather than, as the conventional treatment, inserting guard intervals. In this paper, we present the transient carrier frequency offset (CFO) observed in hardware testbeds built for wireless communications research, which are configured working in time division duplexing (TDD) mode. The transient CFO arises as a result of the switching between transmission and reception radio functions. The transient CFO cannot be estimated by the conventional CFO estimators because it is time varying. We present the modeling and estimation of the transient CFO in this paper. A weighted KumaresanTufts (KT) algorithm is proposed by exploiting both low-rank approximation and subspace structure to optimize the estimation of the transient CFO. We compare the proposed algorithm with the existing methods as well as the Crámer-Rao bound (CRB). The proposed algorithm is also confirmed by the experimental results obtained from the hardware testbed.
Review of epidemiologic studies of dietary acrylamide intake and the risk of cancer

Conjectured associations between dietary acrylamide intake and cancer have been evaluated in more than 15 epidemiologic studies examining almost every major cancer site. We have critically reviewed the epidemiologic studies of estimated dietary acrylamide exposure and cancer. As substantially greater acrylamide exposure occurs through tobacco smoke than dietary exposure, we present the results separately for never smokers or adjusted statistically for smoking status, where possible. After an extensive examination of the published literature, we found no consistent or credible evidence that dietary acrylamide increases the risk of any type of cancer in humans, either overall or among nonsmokers. In particular, the collective evidence suggests that a high level of dietary acrylamide intake is not a risk factor for breast, endometrial, or ovarian cancers, which have generated particular interest because of a conjectured hormonal mechanism of acrylamide. Moreover, the absence of a positive association between smoking and ovarian and endometrial cancers suggests that any association of these cancers with the much lower, more sporadic dietary acrylamide intake is unlikely. In conclusion, epidemiologic studies of dietary acrylamide intake have failed to demonstrate an increased risk of cancer. In fact, the sporadically and slightly increased and decreased risk ratios reported in more than two dozen papers examined in this review strongly suggest the pattern one would expect to find for a true null association over the course of a series of trials. Therefore, continued epidemiologic investigation of acrylamide and cancer risk appears to be a misguided research priority.
Ion-scale spectral break of solar wind turbulence at high and low beta

The power spectrum of magnetic fluctuations in the solar wind at 1 AU displays a break between two power laws in the range of spacecraft‐frame frequencies 0.1 to 1 Hz. These frequencies correspond to spatial scales in the plasma frame near the proton gyroradius ρi and proton inertial length di. At 1 AU it is difficult to determine which of these is associated with the break, since di=ρi/β⊥i and the perpendicular ion plasma beta is typically β⊥i∼1. To address this, several exceptional intervals with β⊥i≪1 and β⊥i≫1 were investigated, during which these scales were well separated. It was found that for β⊥i≪1 the break occurs at di and for β⊥i≫1 at ρi, i.e., the larger of the two scales. Possible explanations for these results are discussed, including Alfvén wave dispersion, damping, and current sheets.
SeCReT: Secure Channel between Rich Execution Environment and Trusted Execution Environment

We propose SeCReT to ameliorate this problem. SeCReT is a framework that builds a secure channel between the REE and TEE by enabling REE processes to use session keys in the REE that is regarded as unsafe region. SeCReT provides the session key to a requestor process only when the requestor’s code and control flow integrity are verified. To prevent the key from being exposed to an attacker who already compromised the REE kernel, SeCReT flushes the key from the memory every time the processor switches into kernel mode. In this paper, we present the design and implementation of SeCReT to show how it protects the key in the REE. Our prototype is implemented on Arndale board, which offers a Cortex-A15 dual-core processor with TrustZone as its security extension. We performed a security analysis by using a kernel rootkit and also ran LMBench microbenchmark to evaluate the performance overhead imposed by SeCReT.
The Use of Carbon-Fiber-Reinforced (CFR) PEEK Material in Orthopedic Implants: A Systematic Review

Carbon-fiber-reinforced polyetheretherketone (CFR-PEEK) has been successfully used in orthopedic implants. The aim of this systematic review is to investigate the properties, technical data, and safety of CFR-PEEK biomaterial and to evaluate its potential for new innovation in the design of articulating medical devices. A comprehensive search in PubMed and EMBASE was conducted to identify articles relevant to the outcomes of CFR-PEEK orthopedic implants. The search was also expanded by reviewing the reference sections of selected papers and references and benchmark reports provided by content experts. A total of 23 articles were included in this review. There is limited literature available assessing the performance of CFR-PEEK, specifically as an implant material for arthroplasty systems. Nevertheless, available studies strongly support CFR-PEEK as a promising and suitable material for orthopedic implants because of its biocompatibility, material characteristics, and mechanical durability. Future studies should continue to investigate CFR-PEEK's potential benefits.
The Subversion of the Immune System by Francisella Tularensis

Francisella tularensis is a highly virulent bacterial pathogen and the causative agent of tularemia. Perhaps the most impressive feature of this bacterium is its ability to cause lethal disease following inoculation of as few as 15 organisms. This remarkable virulence is, in part, attributed to the ability of this microorganism to evade, disrupt, and modulate host immune responses. The objective of this review is to discuss the mechanisms utilized by F. tularensis to evade and inhibit innate and adaptive immune responses. The capability of F. tularensis to interfere with developing immunity in the host was appreciated decades ago. Early studies in humans were the first to demonstrate the ability of F. tularensis to suppress innate immunity. This work noted that humans suffering from tularemia failed to respond to a secondary challenge of endotoxin isolated from unrelated bacteria. Further, anecdotal observations of individuals becoming repeatedly infected with virulent strains of F. tularensis suggests that this bacterium also interferes with the generation of adequate adaptive immunity. Recent advances utilizing the mouse model for in vivo studies and human cells for in vitro work have identified specific bacterial and host compounds that play a role in mediating ubiquitous suppression of the host immune response. Compilation of this work will undoubtedly aid in enhancing our understanding of the myriad of mechanisms utilized by virulent F. tularensis for successful infection, colonization, and pathogenesis in the mammalian host.
Augmenting Software Architectures with Physical Components

This paper presents an extension of exist- ing software architecture tools to model physical sys- tems, their interconnections, and the interactions between physical and cyber components. We intro- duce a new cyber-physical system (CPS) architectur- al style to support the construction of architectural descriptions of complete systems and to serve as the reference context for analysis and evaluation of de- sign alternatives using existing model-based tools. The implementation of the CPS architectural style in AcmeStudio includes behavioral annotations on com- ponents and connectors using either finite state processes (FSP) or linear hybrid automata (LHA) with plug-ins to perform behavior analysis. The application of the CPS architectural style is illustrated for the STARMAC quadrotor.
Some infant feeding and rearing practices in a rural community in Pondicherry.

The feeding and common childrearing practices in a rural area in Pondicherry, India are reported. The study was conducted in the village of T. Palayam which is located 14 miles away from the town of Pondicherry. A house to house survey was conducted by doctors and field staff. The village of T. Palayam had a total population of 1823 and consisted of 2 main communities--Reddiars and Harijans. The population of Reddiars was in a better socioeconomic position than Harijans. Also, most parents in Reddiars were literate in contrast to Harijans where the majority was illiterate. In both sections the deliveries were at home, most of them being attended by untrained persons. In the majority of the cases, 92.8% of the Harijans and 93.7% of the Reddiars, the 1st feed consisted of water and sugar. In the Harijan community, breastfeeding was continued up to 2-3 years and in a few instances up to 4 years. There was no supplementation with cow's milk. Among the Reddiars, 47% of the babies were receiving artificial milk in the 1st 6 months of life. In 90% of the cases, cow's milk diluted with an equal proportion of water was used. Solids were started only after the age of 2 years by the Harijans. The infants were then offered rice, bread, or other foods depending on what was eaten by the rest of the family. In the Reddiar community, in 73% of the cases, solids were started at the end of the 1st year. The habit of giving oil baths to infants was universally practiced in both of the communities. The earlier cessation of breastfeeding in the Reddiar community had obvious deleterious effects. It is a source of infection, and it can lead to malnutrition because of the low nutritive value of the substitute, namely diluted milk. Another detrimental food fad was the practice of restriction of the diet during illnesses.
The effect of schedules of reinforcement on the composition of spontaneous and evoked black-capped chickadee calls

SUMMARY Songbirds often modify elements of their songs or calls in particular social situations (e.g. song matching, flock convergence, etc.) but whether adult individuals also make vocal modifications in response to abiotic environmental factors (e.g. food availability) is relatively unknown. In the present study we test whether two different schedules of food reinforcement, fixed ratio continuous reinforcement and variable ratio partial reinforcement, cause adult black-capped chickadees to change the structure of their chick-a-dee calls. We also examine how these calls differ in two contexts: being alone versus when experiencing an alarming event. Wild-caught black-capped chickadees were housed in isolation to prevent social interaction and recorded weekly for seven weeks. Baseline recordings on week one show that calls given alone differed from those given during an alarming event in both note type composition and frequency (i.e. pitch). Calls also changed over time between birds on the two different schedules of reinforcement. In addition, birds on different reinforcement schedules responded differently during the two recording conditions. Our results suggest that call characteristics can be modified rapidly and may reflect abiotic environmental conditions. If call structure varies consistently with particular abiotic environmental conditions, much can be gained from bioacoustic analyses of calls from wild birds. However, vocal patterns must be consistent across dialects, and we must disentangle vocal changes due to the abiotic environment from those due to social interaction. Further research is needed from natural populations and across multiple regions.
Plasmid mediated quinolone resistance determinants qnr, aac(6')-Ib-cr, and qep in ESBL-producing Escherichia coli clinical isolates from Egypt.

PURPOSE To characterize the prevalence of plasmid-mediated quinolone resistance determinants qnr, aac(6')-Ib-cr and qep in extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL) -producing E. coli and to determine the association of these determinants with CTX-M group in Cairo, Egypt. MATERIALS AND METHODS MICs of 15 antimicrobial agents against 70 E. coli clinical isolates were determined using agar dilution technique according to CLSI. Screening for the qnrA, qnrB, qnrS, aac(6')-Ib, qep and CTX-M genes was carried out by PCR amplification and DNA sequencing. Curing was used to confirm whether qnr, aac(6')-Ib, qep or ESBL-encoding genes were located on plasmids. RESULTS Out of 70 E. coli clinical isolates, 61 were resistant to at least one antibiotic, 16 (22.8%) were multidrug resistant and 30 (42%) were ESBL producers. Out of 30 ESBL producers E. coli isolates, 8 (26.6%) were positive for qnr genes, and the qnrA1-, qnrB1-and qnrS1-type genes were detected alone or in combination in 5 (16.6%), 7 (23.3%) and 5 (16.6%) isolates, respectively. Seven (23.3%) isolates were positive for aac(6')-Ib-cr and only two (6.6%) isolates were positive for qepA4. Loss of all plasmids upon curing suggested that qnr, aac(6')-Ib-cr , qep A4 and ESBL-encoding genes were always plasmid mediated. Out of 8 Qnr positive isolates 5 were associated with both CTX-M-1 and CTX-M-9 while 2 from 6 aac(6')-Ib-cr positive isolates were associated with both CTX-M-1 and CTX-M-9. CONCLUSIONS This study highlights the prevalence of quinolone resistance determinants qnr, aac(6')-Ib-cr , qep A4 associated with CTX-M positive E. coli isolates from Egypt. This is the first report of the plasmid mediated fluoroquinolone efflux pump, Qep A from Egypt.
Bleeding Hearts, Profiteers, or Both: Specialist Physician Fees in an Unregulated Market

This study shows that, in an unregulated fee-setting environment, specialist physicians practise price discrimination on the basis of their patients' income status. Our results are consistent with profit maximisation behaviour by specialists. These findings are based on a large population survey that is linked to administrative medical claims records. We find that, for an initial consultation, specialist physicians charge their high-income patients AU$26 more than their low-income patients. While this gap equates to a 19% lower fees for the poorest patients (bottom 25% of the household income distribution), it is unlikely to remove the substantial financial barriers they face in accessing specialist care. There are large variations across specialties, with neurologists exhibiting the largest fee gap between the high-income and low-income patients. Several possible channels for deducing the patient's income are examined. We find that patient characteristics such as age, health concession card status and private health insurance status are all used by specialists as proxies for income status. These characteristics are particularly important to further practise price discrimination among the low-income patients but are less relevant for the high-income patients. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Zero-voltage switching in switched current circuits

Traditionally the accuracy of switched-current circuits has been much lower than that of switched-capacitor circuits. To address this problem, an accurate high-speed switched-current sample-and-hold technique based on zero-voltage switching is presented. The technique significantly reduces the signal dependent charge injection, leading to improved sampling accuracy. To demonstrate the proposed technique, a sample-and-hold has been implemented using a 1.2 /spl mu/m CMOS process. The circuit is expected to achieve 14 bit linearity at sampling rates exceeding 50 M Samples/sec. While dissipating only 3.5 mW from a nominal 3.3 V supply. <<ETX>>
Liver fat accumulation as a barometer of insulin responsiveness again points to adipose tissue as the culprit

LOGY 2016;64:1265-1272. 2) Miozzo SA, Tovo CV, John JA, de Mattos AA. Proton pump inhibitor use and spontaneous bacterial peritonitis in cirrhosis: an undesirable association? J Hepatol 2015;63:529-530. 3) Terg R, Casciato P, Garbe C, Cartier M, Stieben T, Mendizabal M, et al. Proton pump inhibitor therapy does not increase the incidence of spontaneous bacterial peritonitis in cirrhosis: a multicenter prospective study. J Hepatol 2015;62:1056-1060.
Properties of Individual Dopant Atoms in Single‐Layer MoS2: Atomic Structure, Migration, and Enhanced Reactivity

Single-layered MoS2 doped with Re (n-type) and Au (p-type) are investigated by in situ scanning transmission electron microscopy. Re atoms substituting Mo sites enhance the local chemical affinity, evidenced by agglomeration of other dopant/impurity atoms. Au atoms exist as adatoms and show larger mobility under the electron beam. These behaviors are consistent with density functional theory calculations.
Nanocrystalline cellulose from agricultural waste: an overview

Cellulose is a very widely available biomass found in nature. Cellulose can be isolated from regular filaments; its dynamic and structural association enables various types of nanostructured celluloses called nanocrystalline cellulose or microstructure cellulose. More recently, literature survey reveals that cellulose nanoparticles have been separated and utilised for a few applications in various fields. Thus, there is a growing interest among the scientific research community to understand nanocrystalline cellulose and tap it for its usage in diverse scientific fields. The vast majority of the examinations in the course of the most recent couple of years have demonstrated that nanocrystalline cellulose can be utilised as filler materials to improve the mechanical and barrier properties of biocomposites. Their importance of nanocrystalline to enhance the mechanical properties is being investigated; with extensive research being focussed to discover inventive answers for effective and manageable frame works. This paper plans to give an unmistakable outline of nanocrystalline cellulose of 44 references by depicting their readiness, portrayal, behaviour, importance and applications.
Performance and design of SIC receiver for downlink NOMA with open-loop SU-MIMO

This paper investigates the performance and design of successive interference cancellation (SIC) receiver for downlink non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) combined with 2-by-2 open-loop single-user (SU)-MIMO. Compared to NOMA with 1-by-2 SIMO (Single Input Multiple Output), for NOMA with 2-by-2 SU-MIMO we have to deal with both inter-user and interstream interference at the receiver of each user. Therefore, we introduce different weight generation schemes for both before SIC and after SIC according to the transmission rank combination between the user equipment (UEs), while taking into account inter-user interference. In addition, we compare the performance of different SIC receivers; specifically, codeword level SIC (CWIC), symbol level SIC (SLIC), and ideal SIC. Assuming LTE (Long Term Evolution) Transmission Mode 3 (TM3), link-level simulations are conducted under different allocated transmit powers, rank combinations, and modulation and coding schemes (MCS). The link-level simulation results showed that the CWIC receiver achieves higher performance compared to SLIC and achieves almost the same performance compared to ideal SIC when the power ratio of cell-center UE is below 0.35, and the MCS of cell-center UE and cell-edge UE are 16QAM (R = 0.49) and QPSK (R = 0.49), respectively.
Transformation of Dynamic Aspects of Uml Models Into Lotos Behaviour Expressions

Although the developers of the UML have tried to provide a sufficient semantics and a notation, the formalism of the language still needs more improvements. Official UML documents describe most of the language constructs in a precise natural language. Some formality is necessary to help users and CASE designers to understand the language. It must be precise and approachable; a lack of either dimension damages its usefulness.
Measurement of oxidative damage to DNA in nanomaterial exposed cells and animals

Increased levels of oxidatively damaged DNA have been documented in studies of metal, metal oxide, carbon‐based and ceramic engineered nanomaterials (ENMs). In particular, 8‐oxo‐7,8‐dihydroguanine‐2'‐deoxyguanosine (8‐oxodG) is widely assessed as a DNA nucleobase oxidation product, measured by chromatographic assays, antibody‐based methods or the comet assay with DNA repair enzymes. However, spurious oxidation of DNA has been a problem in certain studies applying chromatographic assays, yielding high baseline levels of 8‐oxodG. Antibody‐based assays detect high 8‐oxodG baseline levels, related to cross‐reactivity with other molecules in cells. This review provides an overview of efforts to reliably detect oxidatively damaged DNA and a critical assessment of the published studies on DNA damage levels. Animal studies with high baseline levels of oxidatively damaged DNA are more likely to show positive associations between exposure to ENMs and oxidized DNA in tissue than studies showing acceptable baseline levels (odds ratio = 12.1, 95% confidence interval: 1.2–124). Nevertheless, reliable studies indicate that intratracheal instillation of nanosized carbon black is associated with increased levels of oxidatively damaged DNA in lung tissue. Oral exposure to nanosized carbon black, TiO2, carbon nanotubes and ZnO is associated with elevated levels of oxidatively damaged DNA in tissues. These observations are supported by cell culture studies showing concentration‐dependent associations between ENM exposure and oxidatively damaged DNA measured by the comet assay. Cell culture studies show relatively high variation in the ability of ENMs to oxidatively damage DNA; hence, it is currently impossible to group ENMs according to their DNA damaging potential. Environ. Mol. Mutagen. 56:97–110, 2015. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.