Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Hydraulic Mechanisms of the Deterioration of Concrete Sleeper Rail Seats

Based on the results of a 2008 railway industry survey on concrete sleepers, rail seat deterioration (RSD) is the most critical problem with concrete sleeper performance on North American freight railroads. RSD is the degradation of the concrete underneath the rail and results in track geometry problems and loss of fastening toe load. Currently, mechanisms behind RSD are not sufficiently understood to allow for effective solutions. RSD is considered to have five potential mechanisms, and this research investigates three of them: hydraulic pressure cracking, hydro-abrasive erosion, and abrasion. In order to investigate the two hydraulic-driven mechanisms, a laboratory test setup and procedure were developed to measure the surface water pressure in a laboratory rail seat using rail pads of differing material composition and surface geometry. To evaluate hydraulic pressure cracking, a model of the effective stress in a concrete-sleeper rail seat was created to determine which water pressures on the rail seat surface could lead to damaging pore water pressures in the concrete. To estimate the potential for hydro-abrasive erosion, the measured surface water pressures were used to estimate the potential water velocity. Both hydraulic pressure cracking and hydro-abrasive erosion appear to be feasible mechanisms of RSD. The focus of this paper is to summarize the results from laboratory tests undertaken at UIUC to obtain greater insight into the potential hydraulic-driven failure mechanisms associated with RSD and to introduce a laboratory test that will be used to evaluate the parameters that affect the abrasion mechanism.
Extending Differential Privacy for Treating Dependent Records via Information Theory

Differential privacy is a strong privacy notion based on indistinguishability of outputs of two neighboring datasets, which represent two states of one’s information is within or without of a dataset. However, when facing dependent records, the representation would lose its foundation. Motivated by the observation, we introduce a variant of differential privacy notion based on the influence of outputs to an individual’s inputs. The new notion accurately captures the the weakening of the dependent records to the privacy guarantee of differential privacy. Our new privacy notion gets on well with the differential privacy. When the individuals are independent, the differential privacy model would be one spatial case of our model. When the individuals are dependent, the group privacy method to achieve differential privacy in dependent case can be used to achieve new privacy model. This fits in well with the results of differential privacy. Finally, our new privacy model fits in well with the information theory. We prove that if one mechanism satisfies the new privacy notion, the mutual information of one individual to the mechanism’s outputs would be upper bounded by a small valued. This implies that the rationality of our new model is based on the information theory.
The Effect of Early Initiation of Antiretroviral Treatment in Infants on Pediatric AIDS Mortality in South Africa: A Model-based Analysis

Background: Guidelines for treatment of pediatric HIV have recently changed to recommend that all infants who are identified as HIV-infected should start antiretroviral treatment (ART) immediately, regardless of their immunologic or clinical status. This study aims to assess the likely impact of this change in guideline in South Africa. Methods: A mathematical model was developed to simulate mother-to-child transmission of HIV, disease progression, and death of HIV-infected children <15 years of age. The model is calibrated to South African data sources, including prevention of mother-to-child transmission program coverage data, pre-ART survival data, ART program statistics, and pediatric HIV prevalence studies. Results: Relative to what would be expected in the absence of early ART initiation, the number of infant AIDS deaths over the 2010–2025 period is expected to drop by 23.6% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 22.5–24.5%) at current levels of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) diagnosis, and by 34.2% (95% CI: 32.7–35.6%) if PCR diagnosis increases to 80% of perinatally infected infants at 2 months. However, the pediatric HIV disease burden has shifted toward older children in recent years. The effect of early ART on total pediatric AIDS mortality during the 2010–2025 period is therefore modest: a 9.8% reduction (95% CI: 7.9–12.6%) at current levels of PCR diagnosis, and a 14.2% reduction (95% CI: 11.4–18.2%) if PCR coverage increases to 80% of perinatally infected infants. Conclusion: The changes in ART guidelines for infants will have a significant impact on pediatric AIDS mortality at young ages, but further efforts are required to reduce the substantial growing AIDS mortality in older children.
The Role of the Novel Exopolyphosphatase MT0516 in Mycobacterium tuberculosis Drug Tolerance and Persistence

Inorganic polyphosphate (poly P) has been postulated to play a regulatory role in the transition to bacterial persistence. In bacteria, poly P balance in the cell is maintained by the hydrolysis activity of the exopolyphosphatase PPX. However, the Mycobacterium tuberculosis PPX has not been characterized previously. Here we show that recombinant MT0516 hydrolyzes poly P, and an MT0516-deficient M. tuberculosis mutant exhibits elevated intracellular levels of poly P and increased expression of the genes mprB, sigE, and rel relative to the isogenic wild-type strain, indicating poly P-mediated signaling. Deficiency of MT0516 resulted in decelerated growth during logarithmic-phase in axenic cultures, and tolerance to the cell wall-active drug isoniazid. The MT0516-deficient mutant showed a significant survival defect in activated human macrophages and reduced persistence in the lungs of guinea pigs. We conclude that exopolyphosphatase is required for long-term survival of M. tuberculosis in necrotic lung lesions.
Descriptive biogeography of Tomicus (Coleoptera: Scolytidae) species in Spain

Aim, location Tomicus (Coleoptera, Scolytidae) species are some of the principal pests of Eurasian forest and are represented by three coexisting species in Spain, Tomicus piniperda (Linnaeus, 1758), Tomicus destruens (Wollaston, 1865) and Tomicus minor (Harting, 1834). The distribution of two taxa are unknown as they have until recently been considered separate species. Therefore, we model the potential distribution centres and establish the potential distribution limits of Tomicus species in Iberia. We also assess the effectiveness of different models by comparing predicted results with observed data. These results will have application in forest pest management.
The Effects of Creativity and Flow on Learning through the STEAM Education on Elementary School Contexts

This study aims to examine the effects of STEAM education on elementary school student`s creativity (creative problem solving, creative personality) and flow on learning. STEAM education is composed of 5 strands: Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics. The STEAM education provides convergence education to explore diverse thinking and achieve future convergence human resources. Previous studies on STEAM education have been done on the model development and concept formulation. There was very little application research. In addition, test subjects were usually middle school and high school students. Therefore, this study focused on the elementary school students to investigate the effect of STEAM lessons. This study made STEAM lesson plans that strengthen the linkages themes among the subjects. It helps students acquire the creative design and emotional experience. Based on this purpose of study, there are two research hypotheses. First, STEAM education Improves creativity (creative problem solving, creative personality) on elementary school students. Second, STEAM education enhances the flow on learning on elementary school students. The subjects in this analysis were 6th graders, two classes from elementary schools. Each class was taught for 45minutes during 8weeks by the same teacher and performed 3tests as time goes by. After the test, we examine the changes in student`s creativity and flow on learning. Creativity was measured by two aspects; cognitive aspect and emotive personality. Applied statistical methods were two independent samples t-test. As the result, there were significant differences in creativity (creative problem solving, creative personality) and flow on learning through the STEAM education. The result indicates that STEAM education was helpful to improve creativity (creative problem solving, creative personality) and flow on learning.
Recent results concerning the influence of hydrogen on the bias temperature instability

Alongside the intensive debate concerning the influence of hydrogen on NBTI we present several details which have received little or no attention in the past. We show experimental evidence that hydrogen does not only passivate interface traps but also positive oxide charges or border traps. Besides passivation, hydrogen increases the overall drift capability of a device under NBTS, thereby increasing the sum of both precursors and activated defects. Furthermore hydrogen passivation has a positive effect on PBTI, presumably through the passivation of pre-existing oxide traps.
Epidemiology and risk factors for invasive candidiasis

The number of immunosuppressive patients has increased significantly in recent years. These patients are at risk for opportunistic infections, especially fungal infections. Candidiasis is one of the most frequent fungal infections determined in these immunosuppressive patients and its epidemiology has changed over the last two decades. Recently, new antifungal agents and new therapy strategies such as antifungal prophylaxis, secondary prophylaxis, and preemptive therapy have come into use. These changes resulted in the alteration of Candida species causing invasive infections. The incidence of Candida albicans was decreased in many countries, especially among patients with immunosuppressive disorders, while the incidence of species other than C. albicans was increased. In this review, incidence, risk factors, and species distribution of invasive candidiasis are discussed.
Characteristics of abnormal oral glucose tolerance test in GDM diagnosis and clinical correlation

Abstract Objectives: To describe the characteristics of abnormal oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) values at gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) diagnosis and their associations with clinical characteristics, and to evaluate the effect on GDM diagnosis if any OGTT value was omitted. Materials and methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in 415 women diagnosed with GDM. The OGTT results were recorded and analyzed. Results: Of the 415 included women, mean gestational age at GDM diagnosis was 19.2 weeks and 57.6% were diagnosed before 20 weeks. The highest proportions of abnormal values were found at the 1st and 2nd hour (85.3% and 96.6%, respectively). If the 3rd hour OGTT value was omitted, 16.7% of GDM cases would be missed. Number of abnormal OGTT values and abnormal FPG were significantly associated with obesity. Only pre-pregnancy overweight and obesity independently associated with insulin requirement (adjusted OR: 2.28, 95%CI: 1.02–5.06; p = .044; and adjusted OR: 6.29, 95%CI: 2.67–14.85; p < .001, respectively). Conclusions: Over half of the GDM women had three or four abnormal OGTT values. Omission of the 3rd hour OGTT value would result in 16.7% of patients not being diagnosed with GDM. Number of abnormal OGTT values and abnormal FPG were associated with obesity, and insulin requirement was associated with pre-pregnancy overweight and obesity.
Generation of Functional Inhibitory Neurons in the Adult Rat Hippocampus

Several thousand new neurons are produced each day in the adult mammalian hippocampus, among which only excitatory granule cells (GCs) have thus far been identified. In the present study, we used mutant Semliki Forest Virus vectors to express enhanced green fluorescent protein in the hippocampus, and observed that ∼14% of newly generated neurons in the dentate gyrus of adult rats are GABAergic basket cells (BCs). With the use of double whole-cell patch-clamp recordings from BC–GC pairs in hippocampal slices, we demonstrate that newly generated BCs in the dentate gyrus form inhibitory synapses with principal GCs. These data show for the first time that functional inhibitory neurons are recruited in the dentate gyrus of adult rats.
Canonical quasilocal energy and small spheres

Consider the definitionE of quasilocal energy stemming from the Hamilton-Jacobi method as applied to the canonical form of the gravitational action. We examine E in the standard ‘‘small-sphere limit,’’ first considered by Horowitz and Schmidt in their examination of Hawking’s quasilocal mass. By the term small sphere we mean a cut S(r), level in an affine radius r, of the light cone Np belonging to a generic spacetime point p . A s a power series in r, we compute the energy E of the gravitational and matter fields on a spacelike hypersurface S spanning S(r). Much of our analysis concerns conceptual and technical issues associated with assigning the zero point of the energy. For the small-sphere limit, we argue that the correct zero point is obtained via a ‘‘light cone reference,’’ which stems from a certain isometric embedding of S(r) into a genuine light cone of Minkowski spacetime. Choosing this zero point, we find the following results: ~i! in the presence of matter E5 4 3 pr 3 @T mnu m u n #u p1O(r 4 ) and ~ii! in vacuo E5 1 90 r 5 @T mnlku m u n u l u k #u p1O(r 6 ). Here, u m is a unit, future-pointing, timelike vector in the tangent space at p ~which defines the choice of affine radius ! ; Tmn is the matter stress-energy-momentum tensor; Tmnlk is the Bel-Robinson gravitational super stress-energymomentum tensor; and u p denotes ‘‘restriction to p.’’ Hawking’s quasilocal mass expression agrees with the results ~i! and ~ii! up to and including the first non-trivial order in the affine radius. The non-vacuum result~i! has the expected form based on the results of Newtonian potential theory. @S0556-2821~99! 02904-5#
Multi-protocol and Multi-platform Traffic Generation and Measurement

D-ITG is a software platform for traffic generation and active measurements which presents several features that make it a robust and flexible tool for networking researchers and developers. In this demo we will show how it is possible to perform several experiments under a variety of network scenarios, which will include usage of novel network protocols and appliances (i.e. Intel network processors )
Coherent concepts are computed in the anterior temporal lobes

In his Philosophical Investigations, Wittgenstein famously noted that the formation of semantic representations requires more than a simple combination of verbal and nonverbal features to generate conceptually based similarities and differences. Classical and contemporary neuroscience has tended to focus upon how different neocortical regions contribute to conceptualization through the summation of modality-specific information. The additional yet critical step of computing coherent concepts has received little attention. Some computational models of semantic memory are able to generate such concepts by the addition of modality-invariant information coded in a multidimensional semantic space. By studying patients with semantic dementia, we demonstrate that this aspect of semantic memory becomes compromised following atrophy of the anterior temporal lobes and, as a result, the patients become increasingly influenced by superficial rather than conceptual similarities.
Characterization of oscillatory changes in hippocampus and amygdala after deep brain stimulation of the infralimbic prefrontal cortex

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a new investigational therapy that has generated positive results in refractory depression. Although the neurochemical and behavioral effects of DBS have been examined, less attention has been paid to the influence of DBS on the network dynamics between different brain areas, which could contribute to its therapeutic effects. Herein, we set out to identify the effects of 1 h DBS in the infralimbic cortex (IL) on the oscillatory network dynamics between hippocampus and basolateral amygdala (BLA), two regions implicated in depression and its treatment. Urethane‐anesthetized rats with bilaterally implanted electrodes in the IL were exposed to 1 h constant stimulation of 130 Hz of frequency, 60 μA of constant current intensity and biphasic pulse width of 80 μsec. After a period of baseline recording, local field potentials (LFP) were recorded with formvar‐insulated stainless steel electrodes. DBS of the IL increased the power of slow wave (SW, <1.5 Hz) and theta (3–12 Hz) frequencies in the hippocampus and BLA. Furthermore, IL DBS caused a precise coupling in different frequency bands between both brain structures. The increases in SW band synchronization in hippocampus and BLA after DBS suggest that these changes may be important for the improvement of depressive behavior. In addition, the augmentation in theta synchrony might contribute to improvement in emotional and cognitive processes.
Cutting Edge: Unusual NK Cell Responses to HIV-1 Peptides Are Associated with Protection against Maternal-Infant Transmission of HIV-11

Most infants exposed to HIV-1 in utero and at delivery do not acquire infection. We show that mothers and infants who have CD3-negative cells that respond to HIV-1 peptides are substantially less likely to transmit and acquire infection, respectively. The CD3-negative cells, shown to be NK cells, respond with remarkable specificity and high magnitude to HIV-1 peptides from Env (envelope) and Reg (regulatory) protein regions, as measured by a whole blood intracellular cytokine assay only in the context of HIV-1 infection or exposure. These findings identify an important new measure of protective immunity to HIV-1 that highlights the importance of innate immunity in preventing the establishment of HIV-1 infection.
Ultraviolet through Far-Infrared Spatially Resolved Analysis of the Recent Star Formation in M81 (NGC 3031)

The recent star formation (SF) in the early-type spiral galaxy M81 is characterized using imaging observations from the far-ultraviolet to the far-infrared. We compare these data with models of the stellar, gas, and dust emission for subgalactic regions. Our results suggest the existence of a diffuse dust emission not directly linked to the recent star formation. We find a radial decrease of the dust temperature and dust mass density, and in the attenuation of the stellar light. The IR emission in M81 can be modeled with three components: (1) cold dust with a temperature = 18 ± 2 K, concentrated near the H II regions but also presenting a diffuse distribution; (2) warm dust with = 53 ± 7 K, directly linked with the H II regions; and (3) aromatic molecules, with diffuse morphology peaking around the H II regions. We derive several relationships to obtain total IR luminosities from IR monochromatic fluxes, and we compare five different star formation rate (SFR) estimators for H II regions in M81 and M51: the UV, Hα, and three estimators based on Spitzer data. We find that the Hα luminosity absorbed by dust correlates tightly with the 24 μm emission. The correlation with the total IR luminosity is not as good. Important variations from galaxy to galaxy are found when estimating the total SFR with the 24 μm or the total IR emission alone. The most reliable estimations of the total SFRs are obtained by combining the Hα emission (or the UV) and an IR luminosity (especially the 24 μm emission), which probe the unobscured and obscured SF, respectively. For the entire M81 galaxy, about 50% of the total SF is obscured by dust. The percentage of obscured SF ranges from 60% in the inner regions of the galaxy to 30% in the outer zones.
Spectral slopes of the absorption coefficient of colored dissolved and detrital material inverted from UV-visible remote sensing reflectance.

The spectral slope of the absorption coefficient of colored dissolved and detrital material (CDM), Scdm (units: nm-1), is an important optical parameter for characterizing the absorption spectral shape of CDM. Although highly variable in natural waters, in most remote sensing algorithms, this slope is either kept as a constant or empirically modeled with multiband ocean color in the visible domain. In this study, we explore the potential of semianalytically retrieving Scdm with added ocean color information in the ultraviolet (UV) range between 360 and 400 nm. Unique features of hyperspectral remote sensing reflectance in the UV-visible wavelengths (360-500 nm) have been observed in various waters across a range of coastal and open ocean environments. Our data and analyses indicate that ocean color in the UV domain is particularly sensitive to the variation of the CDM spectral slope. Here, we used a synthesized data set to show that adding UV wavelengths to the ocean color measurements will improve the retrieval of Scdm from remote sensing reflectance considerably, while the spectral band settings of past and current satellite ocean color sensors cannot fully account for the spectral variation of remote sensing reflectance. Results of this effort support the concept to include UV wavelengths in the next generation of satellite ocean color sensors.
Syllable recognition using integrated neural networks

For the purpose of syllable recognition, the integrated neural network (INN), which consists of a control network and several subnetworks, is proposed. To train INN, the recognition targets are partitioned into several groups. The control network identifies the group to which the input speech belongs, and the subnetworks recognize the syllables in each group. INN has the following advantages over a conventional backpropagation (BP) network: (1) training time is reduced by half, (2) greater recognition accuracy is obtained with fewer training samples, and (3) new vocabulary entries can be easily added to an INN by adding new groups. Two kinds of methods for partitioning syllables into groups are proposed. One is based on a priori phonological knowledge and the other on the hidden-layer-activation patterns of a network that has learned to recognize all syllables. Using INN, consonant recognition accuracies of 96.2% and 96.0% are obtained for each grouping method, respectively. A new training method that is capable of generating new data from given data is introduced. Using this method, the INN's training time is reduced by 85%. For conventional BP networks the reduction in training time is 90%. <<ETX>>
Enhanced adaptive skin detection with contextual tracking feedback

Skin detection in computer vision is the basis of many novel human-computer interface applications. The goal of skin detection is to accurately highlight skin pixels in an input image, while discarding all non-skin pixels. This makes it possible to accurately locate regions pertaining to a user in an input frame. A number of approaches to skin detection have been proposed over a number of years, with varying degrees of success. One computationally efficient method that provides the ability to dynamically adapt to users is based on histogram back-projection. This paper proposes a modified skin detection method based on histogram back-projection with key improvements that provide for improved skin detection results in a specific skin detection context.