Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Thermal comfort properties of Viloft/cotton and Viloft/polyester blended knitted fabrics

Viloft is a special regenerated cellulosic fiber with a flat cross-section and crenulated surface that maintains air gaps in the yarns that help to improve the thermal properties of the fabrics. This fiber is mainly used for underwear, socks and sportswear fabrics and blends of Viloft with polyester or cotton are commonly preferred in the market. In this study, thermal-related characteristics, such as the thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity, thermal absorptivity, thermal resistance, moisture and air permeability, of Viloft/cotton and Viloft/polyester blended knitted fabrics were investigated. For this purpose, 100%–0%, 67%–33%, 50%–50%, 33%–67% and 0%–100% blends of Viloft/cotton and Viloft/polyester slivers were produced and spun as 19.7 tex on a ring spinning system. In addition, single-jersey and 1 × 1 rib fabrics were produced and the comfort properties of these fabrics were measured using the Alambeta, sweating guarded hotplate, Permetest and air permeability testing devices. A simplex lattice design for the blended fabric properties was also developed and statistical analyses were carried out. According to the results, Viloft-rich blends, in general, improved the thermal properties of the fabrics. However, the relative water vapor permeability of Viloft/polyester blended fabrics was found not to be significant and only small significances were present for cotton blended ones, statistically.
Cognitive task demands and discourse performance after traumatic brain injury.

BACKGROUND Social communication problems are common in adults with traumatic brain injury (TBI), particularly problems in spoken discourse. Social communication problems are thought to reflect underlying cognitive impairments. AIMS To measure the contribution of two cognitive processes, executive functioning (EF) and theory of mind (ToM), to the communication of adults with TBI, and to investigate the relationships between discourse performance and potential communication partners' perceptions. METHODS & PROCEDURES Twenty-one adults with moderate-to-severe TBI and 23 uninjured adults completed a discourse task in which EF and ToM demands were manipulated across three conditions: baseline, high-EF and high-ToM. Dependent variables were fluency (for EFs), number of mental state terms (MSTs; for ToM) and speech rate. Discourse from high-EF/ToM conditions was judged by naïve raters for social acceptability. OUTCOMES & RESULTS The TBI group produced significantly fewer MSTs than the comparison group across conditions and also spoke at a slower rate, and there were significant effects of condition on both measures (MST: high-EF < baseline = high-ToM; speech rate: high-EF < high-ToM < baseline). There were no significant between-groups differences in fluency or interaction of fluency with condition. MST use and fluency were associated with social acceptability ratings. CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS Results added further evidence of social communication problems in adults with TBI and demonstrated that discourse behaviours may negatively affect how a speaker is perceived. Results also indicated that task manipulations can affect discourse performance, suggesting that general cognitive demands may influence social communication after TBI.
Vulnerability of glia and vessels of rat substantia nigra in rotenone Parkinson model

ABSTRACT Background: Astrocytes have been implicated as potentially exerting both neurotoxic and neuroprotective activities in Parkinson’s disease (PD). Whether glial cells negatively impact the neuron integrity remains to be determined. We aimed to assess the vulnerability of glia and vessels in rat substantia nigra in a rotenone PD model. Material and Methods: Twenty adult male albino rats were divided into two equal groups: vehicle-control group (received dimethylsulfoxide + polyethylene glycol (PEG)-300, 1:1 v/v) and rotenone-treated group (received six doses of rotenone, 1.5 mg/kg/48 h s.c.). Using histological, ultrastructural, biochemical, and morphometric techniques, astrocytes, microglia, vessels, and total antioxidant capacity have been assessed. Results: The rotenone-treated group revealed an increase in the number of astrocytes compared to the control, conformational changes of the immature form, disruption of the outer mitochondrial membrane, and no increase in glial filaments. Dark microglia appeared in close vicinity of blood capillaries. The blood capillaries displayed an increase in number compared to the control, degenerated apoptotic endothelium, and pericytes and an increase in string vessels. The total antioxidant level significantly increased in rotenone-treated group (p < 0.001) compared to the control group. Conclusion: Our results demonstrated that oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction involved nigral cellular elements other than dopaminergic neurons. These included astrocytes, microglia, vascular endothelial cells, and pericytes, which might result in promoting damage to the neurons.
Glucosylsphingosine is a reliable response biomarker in Gaucher disease

REFERENCES [1] Soucie JM, Evatt B, Jackson D; The Haemophilia Surveillance System Project Investigators. Occurrence of haemophilia in the United States. Am J Hematol. 1998;59(4):288–294. [2] Nuss R, Soucie JM, Evatt B; Haemophilia Surveillance System Project Investigators. Changes in the occurrence of and risk factors for haemophilia-associated intracranial hemorrhage. Am J Hematol. 2001; 68(1):37–42. [3] Soucie JM, Nuss R, Evatt B, et al.; The Haemophilia Surveillance System Project Investigators. Mortality among males with haemophilia: relations with source of medical care. Blood. 2000;96(2):437–442. [4] UDC reports: https://www2a.cdc. gov/ncbddd/htcweb/UDC_Report/ UDC_Report. asp [5] Manco-Johnson MJ, Soucie JM, Gill JC; for the Joint Outcomes Committee of the Universal Data Collection, U.S. Haemophilia Treatment Center Network. Prophylaxis usage, bleeding rates and joint outcomes of hemophilia, 1999 to 2010: a surveillance project. Blood. 2017;129:2368–2374. [6] Miller CH, Boylan B, Shapiro AD, Lentz SR, Wicklund BM; for the Hemophilia Inhibitor Research Study Investigators. Limit of detection and threshold for positivity of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention assay for factor VIII inhibitors. J Thromb Haemost. 2017; 15(10):1971–1976.
Nitrate in drinking water and colorectal cancer risk: A nationwide population‐based cohort study

Nitrate in drinking water may increase risk of colorectal cancer due to endogenous transformation into carcinogenic N‐nitroso compounds. Epidemiological studies are few and often challenged by their limited ability of estimating long‐term exposure on a detailed individual level. We exploited population‐based health register data, linked in time and space with longitudinal drinking water quality data, on an individual level to study the association between long‐term drinking water nitrate exposure and colorectal cancer (CRC) risk. Individual nitrate exposure was calculated for 2.7 million adults based on drinking water quality analyses at public waterworks and private wells between 1978 and 2011. For the main analyses, 1.7 million individuals with highest exposure assessment quality were included. Follow‐up started at age 35. We identified 5,944 incident CRC cases during 23 million person‐years at risk. We used Cox proportional hazards models to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) of nitrate exposure on the risk of CRC, colon and rectal cancer. Persons exposed to the highest level of drinking water nitrate had an HR of 1.16 (95% CI: 1.08–1.25) for CRC compared with persons exposed to the lowest level. We found statistically significant increased risks at drinking water levels above 3.87 mg/L, well below the current drinking water standard of 50 mg/L. Our results add to the existing evidence suggesting increased CRC risk at drinking water nitrate concentrations below the current drinking water standard. A discussion on the adequacy of the drinking water standard in regards to chronic effects is warranted.
Pyruvate cycle increases aminoglycoside efficacy and provides respiratory energy in bacteria

Significance Exogenous metabolites have been documented to potentiate antibiotics to kill multidrug-resistant pathogens, but the mechanisms are largely unknown. The work presented here shows that intermetabolites from the TCA cycle and the phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP)-pyruvate-AcCoA pathway have the potential to improve targeting of these resistant microorganisms. The enzymes that connect the PEP-pyruvate-AcCoA pathway to the TCA cycle are essential for this potentiation, indicating both pathway and cycle can be merged to be considered a pyruvate cycle (P cycle). The P cycle operates routinely as a general mechanism for energy production and regulating the TCA cycle in Escherichia coli and Edwardsiella tarda. The results reported here provide insights into metabolite-facilitated targeting by antibiotics as well as bacterial energy metabolism and homeostasis. The emergence and ongoing spread of multidrug-resistant bacteria puts humans and other species at risk for potentially lethal infections. Thus, novel antibiotics or alternative approaches are needed to target drug-resistant bacteria, and metabolic modulation has been documented to improve antibiotic efficacy, but the relevant metabolic mechanisms require more studies. Here, we show that glutamate potentiates aminoglycoside antibiotics, resulting in improved elimination of antibiotic-resistant pathogens. When exploring the metabolic flux of glutamate, it was found that the enzymes that link the phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP)-pyruvate-AcCoA pathway to the TCA cycle were key players in this increased efficacy. Together, the PEP-pyruvate-AcCoA pathway and TCA cycle can be considered the pyruvate cycle (P cycle). Our results show that inhibition or gene depletion of the enzymes in the P cycle shut down the TCA cycle even in the presence of excess carbon sources, and that the P cycle operates routinely as a general mechanism for energy production and regulation in Escherichia coli and Edwardsiella tarda. These findings address metabolic mechanisms of metabolite-induced potentiation and fundamental questions about bacterial biochemistry and energy metabolism.
Capacity of Ad Hoc wireless networks

Early simulation experience with wireless ad hoc networks suggests that their capacity can be surprisingly low, due to the requirement that nodes forward each others' packets. The achievable capacity depends on network size, traffic patterns, and detailed local radio interactions. This paper examines these factors alone and in combination, using simulation and analysis from first principles. Our results include both specific constants and general scaling relationships helpful in understanding the limitations of wireless ad hoc networks. We examine interactions of the 802.11 MAC and ad hoc forwarding and the effect on capacity for several simple configurations and traffic patterns. While 802.11 discovers reasonably good schedules, we nonetheless observe capacities markedly less than optimal for very simple chain and lattice networks with very regular traffic patterns. We validate some simulation results with experiments. We also show that the traffic pattern determines whether an ad hoc network's per node capacity will scale to large networks. In particular, we show that for total capacity to scale up with network size the average distance between source and destination nodes must remain small as the network grows. Non-local traffic-patterns in which this average distance grows with the network size result in a rapid decrease of per node capacity. Thus the question “Are large ad hoc networks feasible? ” reduces to a question about the likely locality of communication in such networks.
Rendering volumetric haptic shapes in mid-air using ultrasound

We present a method for creating three-dimensional haptic shapes in mid-air using focused ultrasound. This approach applies the principles of acoustic radiation force, whereby the non-linear effects of sound produce forces on the skin which are strong enough to generate tactile sensations. This mid-air haptic feedback eliminates the need for any attachment of actuators or contact with physical devices. The user perceives a discernible haptic shape when the corresponding acoustic interference pattern is generated above a precisely controlled two-dimensional phased array of ultrasound transducers. In this paper, we outline our algorithm for controlling the volumetric distribution of the acoustic radiation force field in the form of a three-dimensional shape. We demonstrate how we create this acoustic radiation force field and how we interact with it. We then describe our implementation of the system and provide evidence from both visual and technical evaluations of its ability to render different shapes. We conclude with a subjective user evaluation to examine users' performance for different shapes.
Perturbation Theory for Scattering from Multilayers with Randomly Rough Fractal Interfaces: Remote Sensing Applications

A general, approximate perturbation method, able to provide closed-form expressions of scattering from a layered structure with an arbitrary number of rough interfaces, has been recently developed. Such a method provides a unique tool for the characterization of radar response patterns of natural rough multilayers. In order to show that, here, for the first time in a journal paper, we describe the application of the developed perturbation theory to fractal interfaces; we then employ the perturbative method solution to analyze the scattering from real-world layered structures of practical interest in remote sensing applications. We focus on the dependence of normalized radar cross section on geometrical and physical properties of the considered scenarios, and we choose two classes of natural stratifications: wet paleosoil covered by a low-loss dry sand layer and a sea-ice layer above water with dry snow cover. Results are in accordance with the experimental evidence available in the literature for the low-loss dry sand layer, and they may provide useful indications about the actual ability of remote sensing instruments to perform sub-surface sensing for different sensor and scene parameters.
Solid predominant histologic subtype and early recurrence predict poor postrecurrence survival in patients with stage I lung adenocarcinoma

Introduction This study investigated the correlation between histologic predominant pattern and postrecurrence survival (PRS), and identified the clinicopathologic factors influencing PRS in patients with completely resected stage I lung adenocarcinoma. Methods A total of 136 stage I lung adenocarcinoma patients who experienced tumor recurrence after completely resection were included in this study. To analysis the association between histologic predominant pattern and PRS, invasive adenocarcinomas with mixed histologic components were divided into 2 groups: solid and nonsolid group (including lepidic, acinar, papillary, micropapillary) based on the histologic predominant pattern. PRS was analyzed to identify the prognostic predictors using the Kaplan-Meier approach and multivariable Cox models. Results For all stage I invasive adenocarcinoma patients, the majority of postsurgical recurrences occurred within 2 years. Patients with solid predominant histological pattern were associated with unfavorable PRS (HR, 2.40; 95%CI 1.13-5.08, p=.022). There was a significant difference for poor PRS for patients who diagnosed tumor recurrence shorter than 12 months after surgery (HR, 2.34; 95%CI 1.12-4.90, p=.024). Extrathoracic metastasis was associated with poor media PRS in univariable analysis (p =.011), however, there was no significant PRS difference in multivariable analysis (HR, 1.56; 95%CI 0.65-3.73, p=.322) compared with intrathoracic metastasis. Conclusions Solid predominant histologic subtype and recurrence free interval less than 12 months predict worse PRS in patients with stage I lung adenocarcinoma.
Second malignancy risk among pediatric, adolescent, and young adult survivors of fusion‐positive and fusion‐negative sarcomas: Results from the SEER database, 1992 through 2012

The current study builds on the hypothesis that cancer‐predisposing germline mutations are less common among patients with fusion‐positive (F+) sarcomas compared to those with fusion‐negative (F‐) sarcomas, resulting in a lower risk of developing second malignant neoplasms (SMNs) in those with F + sarcomas.
Magnetism, X-rays and accretion rates in WD 1145+017 and other polluted white dwarf systems

This paper reports circular spectropolarimetry and X-ray observations of several polluted white dwarfs including WD 1145+017, with the aim to constrain the behaviour of disc material and instantaneous accretion rates in these evolved planetary systems. Two stars with previously observed Zeeman splitting, WD 0322–019 and WD 2105–820, are detected above 5σ and Bz > 1 kG, while WD 1145+017, WD 1929+011, and WD 2326+049 yield (null) detections below this minimum level of confidence. For these latter three stars, high-resolution spectra and atmospheric modelling are used to obtain limits on magnetic field strengths via the absence of Zeeman splitting, finding B∗ < 20 kG based on data with resolving power R ≈ 40 000. An analytical framework is presented for bulk Earth composition material falling on to the magnetic polar regions of white dwarfs, where X-rays and cyclotron radiation may contribute to accretion luminosity. This analysis is applied to X-ray data for WD 1145+017, WD 1729+371, and WD 2326+049, and the upper bound count rates are modelled with spectra for a range of plasma kT = 1–10 keV in both the magnetic and non-magnetic accretion regimes. The results for all three stars are consistent with a typical dusty white dwarf in a steady state at 108–109 g s−1. In particular, the non-magnetic limits for WD 1145+017 are found to be well below previous estimates of up to 1012 g s−1, and likely below 1010 g s−1, thus suggesting the star-disc system may be average in its evolutionary state, and only special in viewing geometry.
Use of Vegetable Fibers for PRB to Remove Heavy Metals from Contaminated Aquifers—Comparisons among Cabuya Fibers, Broom Fibers and ZVI

The Zero Valent Iron (ZVI) is the material most commonly used for permeable reactive barriers (PRB). For technical and economic reasons, hoter reactive substances usable in alternative to ZVI are investigated. The present study takes into account a vegetable fibers, the cabuya, investigating its capacity to retain heavy metals. The capacity of the cabuya fibers to adsorb heavy metals was verified in laboratory, by batch and column tests. The batch tests were carried out with cabuya and ZVI, using copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb). The results obtained by the cabuya fibers showed a very high adsorption capacity of heavy metals and resulted very similar to those obtained for the broom fibers in a previous study. The high value of the absorption capacity of the cabuya fibers was also confirmed by the analogous comparison made with the results of the batch tests carried out with ZVI. Column tests, using copper, zinc and cadmium, allowed to determine for the cabuya fibers the maximum removal percentage of the heavy metals considered, the corresponding times and the time ranges of the release phase. For each metal considered, for a given length and three different times, the constant of degradation of cabuya fibers was determined, obtaining values very close to those reported for broom fibers. The scalar behavior of heavy metal removal percentage was verified. An electron microscope analysis allowed to compare, by SEM images, the characteristics of the cabuya and broom fibers. Finally, to investigate the chemical structure of cabuya and broom fibers, the FTIR technique was used, obtaining their respective infrared spectra.
Plasma treatment of polymeric fibers for improved performance in cement matrices

The surfaces of collated fibrillated polypropylene fibers and monofilament polyolefin fibers were treated by low-temperature cascade arc plasma with different gases to study the effect of interface treatment on the mechanical performance and toughening in fiber-reinforced concrete composites. Results from static flexural tests conducted in a four-point configuration on 17 concrete mixes including one unreinforced control mix, 4 mixes with untreated fibers (two volume contents for each of two fiber types—fibrillated and monofilament), and 12 mixes with plasma-treated fibers (two volume contents, above two fiber types, and three plasma treatments) are presented and discussed. It is concluded that plasma treatment of polymeric fibers is effective in improving the flexural performance and toughness of fiber reinforced concrete composites. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 76: 1985–1996, 2000
Efficiency of Executive Function: A Two-Generation Cross-Cultural Comparison of Samples From Hong Kong and the United Kingdom

Although Asian preschoolers acquire executive functions (EFs) earlier than their Western counterparts, little is known about whether this advantage persists into later childhood and adulthood. To address this gap, in the current study we gave four computerized EF tasks (providing measures of inhibition, working memory, cognitive flexibility, and planning) to a large sample (n = 1,427) of 9- to 16-year-olds and their parents. All participants lived in either the United Kingdom or Hong Kong. Our findings highlight the importance of combining developmental and cultural perspectives and show both similarities and contrasts across sites. Specifically, adults’ EF performance did not differ between the two sites; age-related changes in executive function for both the children and the parents appeared to be culturally invariant, as did a modest intergenerational correlation. In contrast, school-age children and young adolescents in Hong Kong outperformed their United Kingdom counterparts on all four EF tasks, a difference consistent with previous findings from preschool children.
Microvasculature segmentation of arterioles using deep CNN

Segmenting microvascular structures is an important requirement in understanding angioadaptation by which vascular networks remodel their morphological structures. Accurate segmentation for separating microvasculature structures is important in quantifying remodeling process. In this work, we utilize a deep convolutional neural network (CNN) framework for obtaining robust segmentations of microvasculature from epifluorescence microscopy imagery of mice dura mater. Due to the inhomogeneous staining of the microvasculature, different binding properties of vessels under fluorescence dye, uneven contrast and low texture content, traditional vessel segmentation approaches obtain sub-optimal accuracy. We consider a deep CNN for the purpose keeping small vessel segments and handle the challenges posed by epifluorescence microscopy imaging modality. Experimental results on ovariectomized — ovary removed (OVX) — mice dura mater epifluorescence microscopy images show that the proposed modified CNN framework obtains an highest accuracy of 99% and better than other vessel segmentation methods.