Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A drying model for large biomass particle pyrolysis using finite volume method

Biomass drying has always been a big issue in biomass thermal treatment. Especially in pyrolysis, combustion and gasification, water evaporation is a necessary step before other reactions can take place. This paper presents a detailed drying model using finite volume method for single poplar particle pyrolysis under nitrogen. In this model, transport equations derived from CFD code is applied to solve pressure, temperature and species behavior. Two different water contents found from literature are applied to test the model. The result shows that this model can predict water behavior during biomass drying process of pyrolysis. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 10 th International Conference on Applied Energy (ICAE2018).
Magnesium sulphate only slightly reduces the shivering threshold in humans.

BACKGROUND Hypothermia may be an effective treatment for stroke or acute myocardial infarction; however, it provokes vigorous shivering, which causes potentially dangerous haemodynamic responses and prevents further hypothermia. Magnesium is an attractive anti-shivering agent because it is used for treatment of postoperative shivering and provides protection against ischaemic injury in animal models. We tested the hypothesis that magnesium reduces the threshold (triggering core temperature) and gain of shivering without substantial sedation or muscle weakness. METHODS We studied nine healthy male volunteers (18-40 yr) on two randomly assigned treatment days: (1) control and (2) magnesium (80 mg kg(-1) followed by infusion at 2 g h(-1)). Lactated Ringer's solution (4 degrees C) was infused via a central venous catheter over a period of approximately 2 h to decrease tympanic membrane temperature by approximately 1.5 degrees C h(-1). A significant and persistent increase in oxygen consumption identified the threshold. The gain of shivering was determined by the slope of oxygen consumption vs core temperature regression. Sedation was evaluated using a verbal rating score (VRS) from 0 to 10 and bispectral index (BIS) of the EEG. Peripheral muscle strength was evaluated using dynamometry and spirometry. Data were analysed using repeated measures anova; P<0.05 was statistically significant. RESULTS Magnesium reduced the shivering threshold (36.3 [SD 0.4] degrees C vs 36.6 [0.3] degrees C, P = 0.040). It did not affect the gain of shivering (control, 437 [289] ml min(-1) degrees C(-1); magnesium, 573 [370] ml min(-1) degrees C(-1); P=0.344). The magnesium bolus did not produce significant sedation or appreciably reduce muscle strength. CONCLUSIONS Magnesium significantly reduced the shivering threshold. However, in view of the modest absolute reduction, this finding is considered to be clinically unimportant for induction of therapeutic hypothermia.
A deeper view of extremely red galaxies: the redshift distribution in the GOODS/CDFS ISAAC field

We have analysed five-epoch Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS) HST-ACS B, V, I-775 and z data sets (v. 1.0 release), in conjunction with existing VLT-ISAAC imaging in the J, H and K-s bands, to derive estimated redshifts for the sample of 198 extremely red galaxies (ERGs) with K-s 3.92 selected by Roche, Dunlop & Almaini (2003) from 50.4 arcmin(2) of the GOODS/Chandra Deep Field South. We find that, at this depth, the ERG population spans the redshift range 0.5 L population at redshifts zphot > 2. We determine lower limits of c = (6.1 +/- 1.9) x 10(-5) Mpc(-3) and rho(c) = (2.1 +/- 1.1) x 10(-5) Mpc(-3) on the comoving densities of progenitors of local massive galaxies already assembled at redshifts zphot = 2.5 and zphot = 3.5, respectively. We have investigated the existence of high-redshift Lyman-break galaxies massive enough to be included in this ERG sample. Out of an initial list of 12 potential very high redshift candidates, we have identified two ERGs which have a high probability of lying at z(phot) > 4. We discuss the advantages of multicolour to single-colour selection techniques in obtaining reliable lists of very high redshift candidate sources, and present revised lower redshift estimates for sources previously claimed as potential z > 5 dropouts in recent studies.
P‐Wave Amplitude and PR Changes in Patients With Inappropriate Sinus Tachycardia: Findings Supportive of a Central Mechanism

Background The mechanism of inappropriate sinus tachycardia (IST) remains incompletely understood. Methods and Results We prospectively compared 3 patient groups: 11 patients with IST (IST Group), 9 control patients administered isoproterenol (Isuprel Group), and 15 patients with cristae terminalis atrial tachycardia (AT Group). P‐wave amplitude in lead II and PR interval were measured at a lower and higher heart rate (HR1 and HR2, respectively). P‐wave amplitude increased significantly with the increase in HR in the IST Group (0.16±0.07 mV at HR1=97±12 beats per minute versus 0.21±0.08 mV at HR2=135±21 beats per minute, P=0.001). The average increase in P‐wave amplitude in the IST Group was similar to the Isuprel Group (P=0.26). PR interval significantly shortened with the increases in HR in the IST Group (146±15 ms at HR1 versus 128±16 ms at HR2, P<0.001). A similar decrease in the PR interval was noted in the Isuprel Group (P=0.6). In contrast, patients in the atrial tachycardia Group experienced PR lengthening during atrial tachycardia when compared with baseline normal sinus rhythm (153±25 ms at HR1=78±17 beats per minute versus 179±29 ms at HR2=140±28 beats per minute, P<0.01). Conclusions We have shown that HR increases in patients with IST were associated with an increase in P‐wave amplitude in lead II and PR shortening similar to what is seen in healthy controls following isoproterenol infusion. The increase in P‐wave amplitude and absence of PR lengthening in IST support an extrinsic mechanism consistent with a state of sympatho‐excitation with cephalic shift in sinus node activation and enhanced atrioventricular nodal conduction.
Source-specific analysis of the noise in an intensive care unit

High noise levels in hospitals are often linked to various negative effects on patient outcome and work performance of clinical staff. Despite growing research attention on the adverse acoustic conditions in healthcare environments, few studies offer on-site surveys collected for a relatively long period with a clear description of the measurement protocol, and furthermore, the sources of noise in hospitals are not well documented in the literature. In the current study, the soundscape of an ICU (intensive care unit) room was analysed based on a ~3-day calibrated audio recording, from which acoustic parameters were obtained off-line. In addition, a selected 24-hour recording was annotated, which enabled a source-specific analysis, excluding the patient-generated/-involved contributions. The results showed that the acoustic energy of the noise in this ICU room was attributed to speech and other activities by staff (57%), alarms (30%) and the operational noise of medical devices (13%). In addition, the analysis of the number of loudness peaks showed similar but more uneven proportions: staff (94%), alarm (5%) and device noise (1%). The current study suggests that, to a considerable extent, the noise in ICUs may be attributed to potentially modifiable factors, e.g., staff’s speech and activities.
Hemorheologic Alterations in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Presented with an Acute Myocardial Infarction

Background Hemorheologic indices are known to be related to vascular complications in variable clinical settings. However, little is known about the associations between hemorheologic parameters and acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the changes of hemorheologic environment inside of blood using hemorheologic parameters, especially the elongation index (EI) and critical shear stress (CSS) in diabetics with versus without AMI. Methods A total of 195 patients with T2DM were enrolled. Patients were divided into the study group with AMI (AMI+, n=77) and control group (AMI−, n=118) who had no history of coronary artery disease. Hemorheologic parameters such as EI and CSS were measured and compared between the two groups. Results The EI was lower (30.44%±1.77% in AMI+ and 31.47%±1.48% in AMI−, P<0.001) but the level of CSS was higher (316.13±108.20 mPa in AMI+ and 286.80±85.34 mPa in AMI−, P=0.040) in the AMI+. The CSS was significantly related to the erythrocyte sedimentation rate (R2=0.497, P<0.001) and use of dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors (R2=0.574, P=0.048). Conclusion Diabetics with AMI resulted in adverse hemorheologic changes with lower EI and higher CSS compared to diabetic subjects without AMI. Evaluation of the hemorheologic parameters may provide valuable supplementary information for managing patients with AMI and T2DM.
Infective endocarditis of a transcatheter pulmonary valve in comparison with surgical implants

Background Melody valved stents (Medtronic Inc, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA) have become a very competitive therapeutic option for pulmonary valve replacement in patients with congenital heart disease. After adequate prestenting of the right ventricular outflow tract (RVOT) Melody valved stents have a good medium term functional result but are exposed to infective endocarditis (IE). Patients and methods Retrospective study of tertiary centre Congenital Heart Disease database; to compare incidence of IE in three different types of valved conduits in RVOT: Melody valved stent, cryopreserved homograft (European Homograft Bank) and Contegra graft (Medtronic Inc). Results Between 1989 and 2013, 738 conduits were implanted in 677 patients. 107 Melody valved stents were implanted in 107 patients; IE occurred in 8 (7.5%) patients during a follow-up of 2.0 years (IQR 2.4 years, range 0.3–7.8 years). 577 Homografts were implanted in 517 patients; IE occurred in 14 patients (2.4%) during a median follow-up of 6.5 years (IQR 9.2 years; range 0.1–23.7 years). Finally, 54 Contegra grafts were implanted in 53 patients; 11 patients (20.4%) had IE during a follow-up of 8.8 years (IQR 7.7 years; range 0.2–3.5 years). Survival free of IE by Kaplan–Meier for homografts was 98.7% at 5 years and 97.3% at 10 years; for Contegra 87.8% at 5 years and 77.3% at 10 years and for Melody 84.9% at 5 years (log-rank test; p<0.001). Conclusions The Contegra conduit and Melody valved stents have a significantly higher incidence of IE than homografts. IE is a significant threat for long-term conduit function.
The role of delamanid in the treatment of drug-resistant tuberculosis

Tuberculosis (TB) remains a significant cause of death worldwide, and emergence of drug-resistant TB requires lengthy treatments with toxic drugs that are less effective than their first-line equivalents. New treatments are urgently needed. Delamanid, previously OPC-67863, is a novel drug of the dihydro-nitroimidazole class with potent anti-TB activity and great promise to be effective in the treatment of drug-resistant TB. This review examines the preclinical and clinical development of delamanid, reviews current guidance on its use and evaluates the opportunities and challenges for its future role in TB management.
Deep Photo Enhancer: Unpaired Learning for Image Enhancement from Photographs with GANs

This paper proposes an unpaired learning method for image enhancement. Given a set of photographs with the desired characteristics, the proposed method learns a photo enhancer which transforms an input image into an enhanced image with those characteristics. The method is based on the framework of two-way generative adversarial networks (GANs) with several improvements. First, we augment the U-Net with global features and show that it is more effective. The global U-Net acts as the generator in our GAN model. Second, we improve Wasserstein GAN (WGAN) with an adaptive weighting scheme. With this scheme, training converges faster and better, and is less sensitive to parameters than WGAN-GP. Finally, we propose to use individual batch normalization layers for generators in two-way GANs. It helps generators better adapt to their own input distributions. All together, they significantly improve the stability of GAN training for our application. Both quantitative and visual results show that the proposed method is effective for enhancing images.
The Competitive Implications of Relevant-Set/Response Analysis

Consumers choose from a relevant set of brands. Advertising encourages consumers to consider a brand as relevant. Price and other variables influence consumer choice among relevant brands. The authors examine how the explicit consideration of competitive response affects managerial recommendations and explore the interaction between price and advertising decisions. They consider cases in which managers do and in which they do not anticipate competitive actions.
A TMA De-Arraying Method for High Throughput Biomarker Discovery in Tissue Research

Background Tissue MicroArrays (TMAs) represent a potential high-throughput platform for the analysis and discovery of tissue biomarkers. As TMA slides are produced manually and subject to processing and sectioning artefacts, the layout of TMA cores on the final slide and subsequent digital scan (TMA digital slide) is often disturbed making it difficult to associate cores with their original position in the planned TMA map. Additionally, the individual cores can be greatly altered and contain numerous irregularities such as missing cores, grid rotation and stretching. These factors demand the development of a robust method for de-arraying TMAs which identifies each TMA core, and assigns them to their appropriate coordinates on the constructed TMA slide. Methodology This study presents a robust TMA de-arraying method consisting of three functional phases: TMA core segmentation, gridding and mapping. The segmentation of TMA cores uses a set of morphological operations to identify each TMA core. Gridding then utilises a Delaunay Triangulation based method to find the row and column indices of each TMA core. Finally, mapping correlates each TMA core from a high resolution TMA whole slide image with its name within a TMAMap. Conclusion This study describes a genuine robust TMA de-arraying algorithm for the rapid identification of TMA cores from digital slides. The result of this de-arraying algorithm allows the easy partition of each TMA core for further processing. Based on a test group of 19 TMA slides (3129 cores), 99.84% of cores were segmented successfully, 99.81% of cores were gridded correctly and 99.96% of cores were mapped with their correct names via TMAMaps. The gridding of TMA cores were also extensively tested using a set of 113 pseudo slide (13,536 cores) with a variety of irregular grid layouts including missing cores, rotation and stretching. 100% of the cores were gridded correctly.
Genetic testing for Bietti crystalline dystrophy

Abstract We studied the scientific literature and disease guidelines in order to summarize the clinical utility of the genetic test for Bietti crystalline dystrophy (BCD). The disease has autosomal recessive inheritance, a prevalence of 1 per 67 000, and is caused by mutations in the CYP4V2 gene. Clinical diagnosis is based on clinical findings, ophthalmological examination, electroretinography and optical coherence tomography. The genetic test is useful for confirming diagnosis, and for differential diagnosis, couple risk assessment and access to clinical trials.
EphA 2 silencing promotes growth , migration , and metastasis in salivary adenoid cystic carcinoma : in vitro and in vivo study

EphA2 is associated with tumor growth and distant metastasis in numerous human tumors. Considering the controversial effects of EphA2 in different tumors and the lack of reports in salivary adenoid cystic carcinoma (SACC), we evaluated the effects of EphA2 inhibition by short hairpin RNA on SACC through in vivo and in vitro researches for the first time. Real-time reverse transcriptase-PCR and western blot analysis were conducted to verify the interference effect on SACC cells. Using Cell Counting Kit-8, wound healing, Transwell and Matrigel adhesion assays, we confirm that inhibition of EphA2 promotes the migration, invasion and adhesion ability of SACC cells. In vivo research, we prove that silencing of EphA2 significantly accelerates tumor growth and lung metastasis ability by establishing xenograft models in mice, including subcutaneous inoculation and tail vein injection. In addition, immunostaining of EphA2, E-cadherin and Slug from 40 specimens and in vitro simulation of perineural invasion (PNI) assay imply that suppression of EphA2 partially contribute to epithelial-mesenchymal transition and enhancement of PNI in SACC. In conclusion, all the data suggest that EphA2 may act as a tumor suppressor in SACC progression.
Price dynamics on a risk-averse market with asymmetric information

A market with asymmetric information can be viewed as a repeated exchange game between an informed sector and an uniformed sector. The case where all agents in the market are risk neutral was analyzed in De Meyer [2010]. The main result of that paper was that the price process in this risk neutral environment should be a particular kind o Brownian martingale called CMMV. This type of dynamics is due to the strategic use of their private information by the informed agents. In this paper, we generalize this analysis to the case of a risk averse market. Our main result is that the price process is still a CMMV under a martingale equivalent measure.
Inhibition of biofilm formation on the surface of water storage containers using biosand zeolite silver-impregnated clay granular and silver impregnated porous pot filtration systems

Development of biofilms occurring on the inner surface of storage vessels offers a suitable medium for the growth of microorganisms and consequently contributes to the deterioration of treated drinking water quality in homes. The aim of this study was to determine whether the two point-of-use technologies (biosand zeolite silver-impregnated clay granular (BSZ-SICG) filter and silver-impregnated porous pot (SIPP) filter) deployed in a rural community of South Africa could inhibit the formation of biofilm on the surface of plastic-based containers generally used by rural households for the storage of their drinking water. Culture-based methods and molecular techniques were used to detect the indicator bacteria (Total coliforms, faecal coliform, E. coli) and pathogenic bacteria (Salmonella spp., Shigella spp. and Vibrio cholerae) in intake water and on the surface of storage vessels containing treated water. Scanning electron microscopy was also used to visualize the development of biofilm. Results revealed that the surface water source used by the Makwane community was heavily contaminated and harboured unacceptably high counts of bacteria (heterotrophic plate count: 4.4–4.3 Log10 CFU/100mL, total coliforms: 2.2 Log10 CFU/100 mL—2.1 Log10 CFU/100 mL, faecal coliforms: 1.9 Log10 CFU/100 mL—1.8 Log10 CFU/100 mL, E. coli: 1.7 Log10 CFU/100 mL—1.6 Log10 CFU/100 mL, Salmonella spp.: 3 Log10 CFU/100 mL -8 CFU/100 mL; Shigella spp. and Vibrio cholerae had 1.0 Log10 CFU/100 mL and 0.8 Log10 CFU/100 mL respectively). Biofilm formation was apparent on the surface of the storage containers with untreated water within 24 h. The silver nanoparticles embedded in the clay of the filtration systems provided an effective barrier for the inhibition of biofilm formation on the surface of household water storage containers. Biofilm formation occurred on the surface of storage plastic vessels containing drinking water treated with the SIPP filter between 14 and 21 days, and on those containing drinking water treated with the BSZ-SICG filter between 3 and 14 days. The attachment of target bacteria on the surface of the coupons inoculated in storage containers ranged from (0.07 CFU/cm2–227.8 CFU/cm2). To effectively prevent the development of biofilms on the surface of container-stored water, which can lead to the recontamination of treated water, plastic storage containers should be washed within 14 days for water treated with the SIPP filter and within 3 days for water treated with the BSZ-SICG filter.
The perirhinal cortex modulates V2 activity in response to the agreement between part familiarity and configuration familiarity

Research has demonstrated that the perirhinal cortex (PRC) represents complex object‐level feature configurations, and participates in familiarity versus novelty discrimination. Barense et al. [(in press) Cerebral Cortex, 22:11, doi:10.1093/cercor/bhr347] postulated that, in addition, the PRC modulates part familiarity responses in lower‐level visual areas. We used fMRI to measure activation in the PRC and V2 in response to silhouettes presented peripherally while participants maintained central fixation and performed an object recognition task. There were three types of silhouettes: Familiar Configurations portrayed real‐world objects; Part‐Rearranged Novel Configurations created by spatially rearranging the parts of the familiar configurations; and Control Novel Configurations in which both the configuration and the ensemble of parts comprising it were novel. For right visual field (RVF) presentation, BOLD responses revealed a significant linear trend in bilateral BA 35 of the PRC (highest activation for Familiar Configurations, lowest for Part‐Rearranged Novel Configurations, with Control Novel Configurations in between). For left visual field (LVF) presentation, a significant linear trend was found in a different area (bilateral BA 38, temporal pole) in the opposite direction (Part‐Rearranged Novel Configurations highest, Familiar Configurations lowest). These data confirm that the PRC is sensitive to the agreement in familiarity between the configuration level and the part level. As predicted, V2 activation mimicked that of the PRC: for RVF presentation, activity in V2 was significantly higher in the left hemisphere for Familiar Configurations than for Part‐Rearranged Novel Configurations, and for LVF presentation, the opposite effect was found in right hemisphere V2. We attribute these patterns in V2 to feedback from the PRC because receptive fields in V2 encompass parts but not configurations. These results reveal two new aspects of PRC function: (1) it is sensitive to the congruency between the familiarity of object configurations and the parts comprising those configurations and (2) it likely modulates familiarity responses in visual area V2. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.