Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Experimental Investigation of Exterior RC Beam-Column Joints Retrofitted with FRP Systems

Premature brittle failures because of seismic actions strongly affect the behavior of existing reinforced concrete (RC) structural systems. They commonly involve exterior beam-column joints of structures designed without transverse reinforcement. This paper investigates the behavior of unconfined joints that do not conform to current seismic codes and the effectiveness of externally bonded fiber-reinforced polymers (FRPs) as a strengthening technique. It presents an experimental program carried out on six full-scale RC corner joints under constant axial load and transverse cyclic loading in the as-built and FRP-strengthened configuration. After describing the specimen design strategy and test setup, seismic performance is compared. Particular attention is paid to comparing the experimental capacity of as-built joints and the capacity, which can be predicted on the basis of models available in the literature. Finally, a discussion on the effectiveness of different FRP-strengthening layouts is reported.
The changing balance of technology and process: A case study on a combined setting of model‐driven development and classical C coding

The increasing flexibility in industry leads to an ecosystem of change, affecting the balance of processes and technology as well as the developers who have to cope with the change. Furthermore, the change itself might impact the ability to use quantitative methods to learn from previous experience. The goal of this study is to better understand the ecosystem of mutual impacts and changes of process and technologies as well as how developers perceive a technology setting and deal with its change. Therefore, we conducted a case study at Ericsson, performing a series of interviews among 6 employees (senior developers and architects). We identified a time line of changes that happened over 7 years. A set of observations about the relation between processes and tooling, and observations about developer's perceptions of the technology settings, and their strategy to deal with these changing technology settings. We discuss how the observed change impacts the ability to perform quantitative evaluations of technology and processes. The findings show that a bad choice of technologies can lead to unexpected impact on team dynamics. Furthermore, change happens so regular that it needs to be considered when collecting data for a quantitative evaluation of, eg, productivity.
A “Starless” Core that Isn't: Detection of a Source in the L1014 Dense Core with the Spitzer Space Telescope

We present observations of L1014, a dense core in the Cygnus region previously thought to be starless, but data from the Spitzer Space Telescope show the presence of an embedded source. We propose a model for this source that includes a cold core, heated by the interstellar radiation field, and a low-luminosity internal source. The low luminosity of the internal source suggests a substellar object. If L1014 is representative, other "starless" cores may turn out to harbor central sources.
Physical performance and 13.5-year mortality in elderly women

Aims: To examine whether four modifiable physical performance-based measurements predicted 13.5-year mortality in 300 elderly women. Methods: This prospective observational cohort study followed 300 randomly-selected community-dwelling women, with a mean age of 80.9 years at baseline, for 13.5 years. Baseline physical performance measurements were: comfortable walking speed, Timed Up and Go (TUG), functional reach, and one-leg stance. Demographic and health measurements were recorded. Date of death was recorded from the national population registry. Cox proportional hazard models were fitted, with time from baseline assessment to death or censored date as the dependent variable. Results: At follow-up, 71% of the participants had died. All performance-based measurements except one-leg stance were significantly associated with 13.5-year mortality. Only walking speed remained significantly independently associated with mortality when the three significant performance measurements were included in the same multiple proportional hazard Cox model. Conclusions: Comfortable walking speed, TUG and functional reach predicted 13.5-year mortality, and walking speed was the strongest predictor of mortality. Screening elderly women with performance measurements may aid in identifying those at risk and thus targeted interventions may be applied.
Persistent organochlorines, sedentary occupation, obesity and human male subfertility.

BACKGROUND Studies have suggested that the quality of human semen has been declining over recent decades, presumably because of lifestyle or environmental factors. METHODS Polychlorinated biphenyls and organochlorine pesticides were analysed in the plasma of 25 men with poor semen quality, 20 men with normal semen quality and idiopathic subfertility and 27 men with normal semen quality and female factor subfertility. Samples of seminal fluid were also analysed to assess the relationship between the levels in blood and semen. RESULTS The results indicate no difference in the levels of organochlorines between the groups. The levels of organochlorines in seminal fluid were proportional to the levels in plasma, but approximately 40 times lower. Men with poor semen quality were three times more likely to be obese than men with normal semen quality. There was also a significant negative correlation between semen quality parameters and body mass index among men with normal semen quality. The prevalence of sedentary work was lowest among men with the best semen quality. CONCLUSIONS Poor semen quality was found to be associated with sedentary work and obesity but not with plasma levels of persistent organochlorines. More research is needed to assess whether sedentary lifestyle and obesity are causal factors in the decline of semen quality.
CERTAIN SUFFICIENCY CONDITIONS ON GAUSSIAN HYPERGEOMETRIC FUNCTIONS

The author aims at finding certain conditions on a, b andc such that the normalized Gaussian hypergeometric function zF (a, b; c; z) given by F (a, b; c; z) = ∞ ∑ n=0 (a, n)(b, n) (c, n)(1, n) z, |z| < 1, is in certain subclasses of analytic functions. A particular operator acting on F (a, b; c; z) is also discussed.
Risk factors and causative organisms in microbial keratitis in daily disposable contact lens wear

Purpose This study investigated independent risk factors and causative organisms in microbial keratitis in daily disposable contact lens (CL)-wearers. Methods A multisite prospective case-control study was undertaken. Cases were daily disposable CL-wearers attending Moorfields Eye Hospital with microbial keratitis and those reported through a one-year surveillance study in Australia and in New Zealand. A population-based telephone survey identified daily disposable CL-wearing controls. Subjects completed a questionnaire describing CL-wear history, hygiene and demographics. The sample used for risk factor analysis was weighted in proportion to the CL-wearing population at each location. Corneal scrape results were accessed. Independent risk factors were determined using multiple binary logistic regression. Causative organisms in different CL-wear modalities were compared using a chi-squared test. Results 963 daily disposable CL-wearers were identified, from which 67 cases and 374 controls were sampled. Independent risk factors were; wearing CLs every day compared with less frequent use (OR 10.4x; 95% CI 2.9–56.4), any overnight wear (OR 1.8x; 95% CI 1.6–2.1), less frequent hand washing (OR 1.8x; 95% CI 1.6–2.0), and smoking (OR 1.3x; 95% CI 1.1–1.6). Certain daily disposable CLs (OR 0.2x; 95% CI 0.1–0.2) had protective effects. Environmental organisms were less frequently recovered with daily disposable CLs (20%), compared with other modalities (36%; p<0.02). Conclusion Overnight wear, increased exposure in daily wear, smoking and poor hand hygiene are significant risk factors for microbial keratitis with daily disposable CLs. Risk varied with daily disposable CL type. The profile of causative organisms is consistent with less severe disease.
Dysfunctional Astrocytic and Synaptic Regulation of Hypothalamic Glutamatergic Transmission in a Mouse Model of Early-Life Adversity: Relevance to Neurosteroids and Programming of the Stress Response

Adverse early-life experiences, such as poor maternal care, program an abnormal stress response that may involve an altered balance between excitatory and inhibitory signals. Here, we explored how early-life stress (ELS) affects excitatory and inhibitory transmission in corticotrophin-releasing factor (CRF)-expressing dorsal-medial (mpd) neurons of the neonatal mouse hypothalamus. We report that ELS associates with enhanced excitatory glutamatergic transmission that is manifested as an increased frequency of synaptic events and increased extrasynaptic conductance, with the latter associated with dysfunctional astrocytic regulation of glutamate levels. The neurosteroid 5α-pregnan-3α-ol-20-one (5α3α-THPROG) is an endogenous, positive modulator of GABAA receptors (GABAARs) that is abundant during brain development and rises rapidly during acute stress, thereby enhancing inhibition to curtail stress-induced activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis. In control mpd neurons, 5α3α-THPROG potently suppressed neuronal discharge, but this action was greatly compromised by prior ELS exposure. This neurosteroid insensitivity did not primarily result from perturbations of GABAergic inhibition, but rather arose functionally from the increased excitatory drive onto mpd neurons. Previous reports indicated that mice (dams) lacking the GABAAR δ subunit (δ0/0) exhibit altered maternal behavior. Intriguingly, δ0/0 offspring showed some hallmarks of abnormal maternal care that were further exacerbated by ELS. Moreover, in common with ELS, mpd neurons of δ0/0 pups exhibited increased synaptic and extrasynaptic glutamatergic transmission and consequently a blunted neurosteroid suppression of neuronal firing. This study reveals that increased synaptic and tonic glutamatergic transmission may be a common maladaptation to ELS, leading to enhanced excitation of CRF-releasing neurons, and identifies neurosteroids as putative early regulators of the stress neurocircuitry.
Speaker Diarization and Linking of Meeting Data

Finding who spoke when in a collection of recordings, with speakers being uniquely identified across the database, is a challenging task. In this scenario, reasonable computing times and acoustic variation across recordings remain two major concerns to address in state-of-the-art speaker diarization systems. This paper extends prior work on diarizing large speech datasets using algorithms that scale well with increasing amounts of data while compensating for across-recording variability. We follow a two-stage approach performing speaker diarization and speaker linking, the former focusing on local within-recording speaker changes and the latter focusing on global speaker changes across the database. In this study, we explore how these two modules interact with each other, while proposing a diarization fusion approach that prevents diarization errors from propagating to the linking stage. We further explore the diarization fusion for speaker linking using different linking strategies and speaker modeling variants. Evaluation is performed on single distant microphone data from the augmented multiparty interaction corpus show the effectiveness of the fusion approach after speaker linking and intersession variability modeling via joint factor analysis.
Clinical benefit in recurrent glioblastoma from adjuvant NovoTTF-100A and TCCC after temozolomide and bevacizumab failure: a preliminary observation

The NovoTTF‐100A is a device that emits alternating electric fields and it is approved for the treatment of recurrent glioblastoma. It works by perturbing tumor cells during mitosis as they enter anaphase leading to aneuploidy, asymmetric chromosome segregation and cell death with evidence of increased immunogenicity. Clinical trial data have shown equivalent efficacy when compared to salvage chemotherapies in recurrent disease. Responders were found to have had a lower dexamethasone usage and a higher rate of prior low‐grade histology. We treated a series of patients with NovoTTF‐100A and bevacizumab alone (n = 34) or in combination with a regimen consisting of 6‐thioguanine, lomustine, capecitabine, and celecoxib (TCCC) (n = 3). Compared to the former cohort, the latter cohort exhibited a trend for prolonged overall survival, median 4.1 (0.3–22.7) months versus 10.3 (7.7–13.6) months respectively (P = 0.0951), with one experiencing an objective response with a 50% reduction in tumor size on magnetic resonance imaging despite possessing a larger tumor size at baseline and more severe neurologic dysfunction than the median for either group. These observations illustrate the possibility of improving survival and achieving a response in patients with end‐stage recurrent glioblastoma by biasing the tumor toward anti‐tumor immunologic response with a combination of NovoTTF‐100A and TCCC, as well as the continuation of bevacizumab in order to limit dexamethasone use due to its global immunosuppressive effect on the patient.
The effect of combined glutamate receptor blockade in the NTS on the hypoxic ventilatory response in awake rats differs from the effect of individual glutamate receptor blockade

Ventilatory acclimatization to hypoxia (VAH) increases the hypoxic ventilatory response (HVR) and causes persistent hyperventilation when normoxia is restored, which is consistent with the occurrence of synaptic plasticity in acclimatized animals. Recently, we demonstrated that antagonism of individual glutamate receptor types (GluRs) within the nucleus tractus solitarii (NTS) modifies this plasticity and VAH (J. Physiol. 592(8):1839–1856); however, the effects of combined GluR antagonism remain unknown in awake rats. To evaluate this, we exposed rats to room air or chronic sustained hypobaric hypoxia (CSH, PiO2 = 70 Torr) for 7–9 days. On the experimental day, we microinjected artificial cerebrospinal fluid (ACSF: sham) and then a “cocktail” of the GluR antagonists MK‐801 and DNQX into the NTS. The location of injection sites in the NTS was confirmed by glutamate injections on a day before the experiment and with histology following the experiment. Ventilation was measured in awake, unrestrained rats breathing normoxia or acute hypoxia (10% O2) in 15‐min intervals using barometric pressure plethysmography. In control (CON) rats, acute hypoxia increased ventilation; NTS microinjections of GluR antagonists, but not ACSF, significantly decreased ventilation and breathing frequency in acute hypoxia but not normoxia (P < 0.05). CSH increased ventilation in hypoxia and acute normoxia. In CSH‐conditioned rats, GluR antagonists in the NTS significantly decreased ventilation in normoxia and breathing frequency in hypoxia. A persistent HVR after combined GluR blockade in the NTS contrasts with the effect of individual GluR blockade and also with results in anesthetized rats. Our findings support the hypotheses that GluRs in the NTS contribute to, but cannot completely explain, VAH in awake rats.
Explorations of Honeycomb Topologies for Network-on-Chip

Rectangular mesh and torus are the mostly used topologies in network-on-chip (NoC) based systems. In this paper, we quantitatively illustrate that the honeycomb topology is an advantageous design alternative in terms of network cost which is one of the most important parameters that reflects both network performance and implementation cost. Comparing with the rectangular mesh and torus, honeycomb mesh and torus topologies lead to 40% decrease of the network cost. Then we explore the NoC related topological properties of both honeycomb mesh and torus topologies. By transforming the honeycomb topologies into rectangular brick shapes, we demonstrate that the honeycomb topologies are feasible to be implemented with rectangular devices. We also propose a 3D honeycomb topology since 3D IC has become an emerging and promising technique. Another contribution of this paper is the proposal of deadlock free routing algorithms. Based on either the concept of turn model or the logical network, deadlock free routing for all the discussed honeycomb topologies can be achieved.
Anatomy, Histologic Features, and Vascularity of the Adult Acetabular Labrum

Acetabular labrum tears have been implicated as a cause of hip pain in adult patients. Few studies describe the anatomy, histologic features, and microvasculature of the acetabular labrum and labral tears. Fifty-five embalmed and 12 fresh-frozen adult hips with a mean age of 78 years (range, 61–98 years) were studied. Of these, 96% (53 of 55) of the hips had labral tears, with 74% of the tears located in the anterosuperior quadrant. Histologically, the fibrocartilaginous labrum was contiguous with the acetabular articular cartilage through a 1-to 2-mm zone of transition. A consistent projection of bone extends from the bony acetabulum into the substance of the labrum that is attached via a zone of calcified cartilage with a well-defined tidemark. Two distinct types of tears of the labrum were identified histologically. The first consisted of a detachment of the fibrocartilaginous labrum from the articular hyaline cartilage at the transition zone. The second consisted of one or more cleavage planes of variable depth within the substance of the labrum. Both types of labral tears were associated with increased microvessel formation seen within the tear. The acetabular labrum tear appears to be an acquired condition that is highly prevalent in aging adult hips. Labral tears occur early in the arthritic process of the hip and may be one of the causes of degenerative hip disease.
UvA-DARE ( Digital Academic Repository ) Diabetes and sepsis outcomes-it is not all bad news

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Does a blanking period after pulmonary vein isolation impact long-term results? Results after 55 months of follow-up.

BACKGROUND The aims of the study are 1) to assess antiarrhythmic prophylaxis efficacy during the first 2 months after radiofrequency ablation (ARF) due to AF; 2) to define risk factors for early AF recurrence (EAFR) after ARF; 3) to determine the long-term follow-up results and risk factors for late AF recurrence (LAFR). METHODS A total number of 210 consecutive patients who had undergone ARF due to AF were analyzed. Patients were randomized into three groups: Group 1 (G1), without any anti-arrhythmic drug (AAD); Group 2 (G2), with amiodarone or sotalol; Group 3 (G3), with last ineffective AAD. The study was designed to analyze two periods: short-term observation, the first 2 months after ARF; and at least 2 years of long-term follow-up. RESULTS After 2 months, clinical data were collected from 171 patients (123 males, mean age of 50.3 years; persistent AF in 19.8%; lone AF in 36.6%). Sinus rhythm (SR) was maintained in 84 (49.1%) patients; 35 (20.4%) patients presented with a single episode of AF, 39 (23%) patients experienced a reduction in number of AF episodes, and 13 (7.5%) patients showed no improvement. No predisposing factor for early recurrence was found. After a mean follow-up of 55 months, clinical data were collected in 137 patients, of which 47 (34%) maintained SR. Those more likely to sustain SR were: males (82.9% vs. 62.2%; p = 0.018), younger patients (44.8 ± 12.7 vs. 52.5 ± 9.9; p = 0.0001), patients with smaller left atrium diameter (4.05 ± ± 0.49 cm vs. 4.25 ± 0.51 cm; p = 0.04), and those without any AF recurrence during the first 2 months after ARF (78.7% vs. 35.6%; p < 0.0001). In the multivariable analysis, the independent risk factors for LAFR were hypertension (p < 0.001) and persistent AF (p = 0.014). CONCLUSIONS Antiarrhythmic prophylaxis does not affect the number of AF recurrences during the first 2 months after ablation. SR maintenance during a blanking period after AF ablation is a positive prognostic factor in long-term follow-up. Persistent AF and hypertension are independent risk factors for late AF recurrence after pulmonary vein isolation.
Human Müller Glia with Stem Cell Characteristics Differentiate into Retinal Ganglion Cell (RGC) Precursors In Vitro and Partially Restore RGC Function In Vivo Following Transplantation

Müller glia with stem cell characteristics have been identified in the adult human eye, and although there is no evidence that they regenerate retina in vivo, they can be induced to grow and differentiate into retinal neurons in vitro. We differentiated human Müller stem cells into retinal ganglion cell (RGC) precursors by stimulation with fibroblast growth factor 2 together with NOTCH inhibition using the γ‐secretase inhibitor N‐[N‐(3,5‐difluorophenacetyl)‐l‐alanyl]‐S‐phenylglycine t‐butyl ester (DAPT). Differentiation into RGC precursors was confirmed by gene and protein expression analysis, changes in cytosolic [Ca2+] in response to neurotransmitters, and green fluorescent protein (GFP) expression by cells transduced with a transcriptional BRN3b‐GFP reporter vector. RGC precursors transplanted onto the inner retinal surface of Lister hooded rats depleted of RGCs by N‐methyl‐d‐aspartate aligned onto the host RGC layer at the site of transplantation but did not extend long processes toward the optic nerve. Cells were observed extending processes into the RGC layer and expressing RGC markers in vivo. This migration was observed only when adjuvant anti‐inflammatory and matrix degradation therapy was used for transplantation. RGC precursors induced a significant recovery of RGC function in the transplanted eyes as determined by improvement of the negative scotopic threshold response of the electroretinogram (indicative of RGC function). The results suggest that transplanted RGC precursors may be capable of establishing local interneuron synapses and possibly release neurotrophic factors that facilitate recovery of RGC function. These cells constitute a promising source of cells for cell‐based therapies to treat retinal degenerative disease caused by RGC dysfunction.