Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dynamic Moduli and Damping Ratios in Fiber-Reinforced Composites

Measurements of elastic moduli and damping ratios are reported for glass fiber reinforced, unidirectional composite beams when they are vibrated over a frequency range of 5.0-10,000 Hz. The elastic moduli show little tendency to change within this frequency range, except when the fibers make an angle of 45° with the beam axis, in which case the modulus is raised about 15 percent above its low frequency value. The low frequency values are 7-27 percent higher than the static values. The damping ratios are typically of magnitude 10-2 but exhibit both frequency and amplitude dependence. At high frequencies, the damping ratio for a 0° beam is almost five times that of an aluminum beam, while for a 22.5° or 45° beam it is over thirty times as large. The increase in ratio magnitude with change in fiber orientation angle usually occurs in the order 0°, 22.5°, 90°, 45°. The damping ratios transform as the imaginary parts of complex moduli. If the damping ratios are known for three fiber orientation angles, they may be predicted for any other angle. In this respect, the composite exhibits anisotropic, linear viscoelastic behavior when undergoing small oscillations.
Comparative Analysis of Conventional and Statistical Design Techniques

We explore the power benefits of changing a microprocessor path histogram through circuit sizing based on statistical timing analysis and optimization (STAO) versus a deterministic timing approach that uses statistical design to establish a global guardband followed by conventional optimization (SDGG). Using an analytical modeling approach, we quantify the differences in total power between the two approaches while maintaining an equivalent performance distribution. For a relative1sigma random WID stage delay variation of 5% and representative microprocessor critical paths, the analysis indicates that the STAO approach enables ~2% power reduction over the SDGG approach. To achieve a 4% and 6% power reduction through the STAO approach, the process variation needs to increase by a factor of 2x and 4x, respectively.
Impact of Technical Sources of Variation on the Hand Microbiome Dynamics of Healthcare Workers

We assessed the dynamics of hand microbial community structure of 34 healthcare workers from a single surgical intensive care unit over a short (3 week) time period, whilst taking into account the technical sources of variability introduced by specimen collection, DNA extraction, and sequencing. Sample collection took place at 3 different time points. Only the sampling collection method appeared to have a significant impact on the observed hand microbial community structure among the healthcare workers. Analysis of samples collected using glove-juice showed a slightly more similar microbial composition within individual hand samples over time than between the hands of different individuals over time. This was not true for samples collected using a swab, where samples from a single individual were no more similar to each other over time than those among other individuals over time, suggesting they were essentially independent. DNA extraction techniques (lysozyme only versus enzyme cocktail) and sequencing (replicate set 1 versus 2) using Ion Torrent Personal Genome Machine, were not influential to the microbial community structures. Glove-juice sample collection may likely be the method of choice in hand hygiene studies in the healthcare setting.
High Sensitivity of Late Gadolinium Enhancement for Predicting Microscopic Myocardial Scarring in Biopsied Specimens in Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy

Background Myocardial scarring can be assessed by cardiac magnetic resonance imaging with late gadolinium enhancement and by endomyocardial biopsy. However, accuracy of late gadolinium enhancement for predicting microscopic myocardial scarring in biopsied specimens remains unknown in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. We investigated whether late gadolinium enhancement in the whole heart reflects microscopic myocardial scarring in the small biopsied specimens in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Methods and Results Twenty-one consecutive patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy who were examined both by cardiac magnetic resonance imaging and by endomyocardial biopsy were retrospectively studied. The right interventricular septum was the target site for endomyocardial biopsy in all patients. Late gadolinium enhancement in the ventricular septum had an excellent sensitivity (100%) with a low specificity (40%) for predicting microscopic myocardial scarring in biopsied specimens. The sensitivity of late gadolinium enhancement in the whole heart remained 100% with a specificity of 27% for predicting microscopic myocardial scarring in biopsied specimens. Quantitative assessments of fibrosis revealed that the extent of late gadolinium enhancement in the whole heart was the only independent variable related to the microscopic collagen fraction in biopsied specimens (β = 0.59, 95% confident interval: 0.15 – 1.0, p = 0.012). Conclusions Although there was a compromise in the specificity, the sensitivity of late gadolinium enhancement was excellent for prediction of microscopic myocardial scarring in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Moreover, the severity of late gadolinium enhancement was independently associated with the quantitative collagen fraction in biopsied specimens in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. These findings indicate that late gadolinium enhancement can reflect both the presence and the extent of microscopic myocardial scarring in the small biopsied specimens in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
Optimal software pipelining of nested loops

The article presents an approach to software pipelining of nested loops. While several articles have addressed software pipelining of single (non-nested) loops, little work has been done in the area of applying it to nested loops. The article solves the problem of finding the minimum iteration initiation interval (in the absence of resource constraints) for each level of a nested loop. The problem is formulated as one of finding a rational quasi-affine schedule for each statement in the body of a perfectly nested loop which is then solved using linear programming. This allows us to treat iteration-dependent statement reordering and multidimensional loop unrolling in the same framework. Unlike most work in scheduling nested loops, we treat each statement in the body as a unit of scheduling. Thus, the schedules derived allow for instances of statements from different iterations to be scheduled at the same time. Optimal schedules derived here subsume extant work on software pipelining of non-nested loops, in the absence of resource constraints. <<ETX>>
Finite action principle for chern-simons ads gravity

A finite action principle for Chern-Simons AdS gravity is presented. The construction is carried out in detail first in five dimensions, where the bulk action is given by a particular combination of the Einstein-Hilbert action with negative cosmological constant and a Gauss-Bonnet term; and is then generalized for arbitrary odd dimensions. The boundary term needed to render the action finite is singled out demanding the action to attain an extremum for an appropriate set of boundary conditions. The boundary term is a local function of the fields at the boundary and is sufficient to render the action finite for asymptotically AdS solutions, without requiring background fields. It is shown that the Euclidean continuation of the action correctly describes black hole thermodynamics in the canonical ensemble. Additionally, background independent conserved charges associated with the asymptotic symmetries can be written as surface integrals by direct application of Noether's theorem.
Clinical shorts

CONTEXT Evidence to support antibiotic treatment for acute rhinosinusitis is limited, yet antibiotics are commonly used. OBJECTIVE To determine the incremental effect of amoxicillin treatment over symptomatic treatments for adults with clinically diagnosed acute rhinosinusitis. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS A randomized, placebo-controlled trial of adults with uncomplicated, acute rhinosinusitis were recruited from 10 community practices in Missouri between November 1, 2006, and May 1, 2009. INTERVENTIONS Ten-day course of either amoxicillin (1500 mg/d) or placebo administered in 3 doses per day. All patients received a 5- to 7-day supply of symptomatic treatments for pain, fever, cough, and nasal congestion to use as needed. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES The primary outcome was improvement in disease-specific quality of life after 3 to 4 days of treatment assessed with the Sinonasal Outcome Test-16 (minimally important difference of 0.5 units on a 0-3 scale). Secondary outcomes included the patient's retrospective assessment of change in sinus symptoms and functional status, recurrence or relapse, and satisfaction with and adverse effects of treatment. Outcomes were assessed by telephone interview at days 3, 7, 10, and 28. RESULTS A total of 166 adults (36% male; 78% with white race) were randomized to amoxicillin (n = 85) or placebo (n = 81); 92% concurrently used 1 or more symptomatic treatments (94% for amoxicillin group vs 90% for control group; P = .34). The mean change in Sinonasal Outcome Test-16 scores was not significantly different between groups on day 3 (decrease of 0.59 in the amoxicillin group and 0.54 in the control group; mean difference between groups of 0.03 [95% CI, -0.12 to 0.19]) and on day 10 (mean difference between groups of 0.01 [95% CI, -0.13 to 0.15]), but differed at day 7 favoring amoxicillin (mean difference between groups of 0.19 [95% CI, 0.024 to 0.35]). There was no statistically significant difference in reported symptom improvement at day 3 (37% for amoxicillin group vs 34% for control group; P = .67) or at day 10 (78% vs 80%, respectively; P = .71), whereas at day 7 more participants treated with amoxicillin reported symptom improvement (74% vs 56%, respectively; P = .02). No between-group differences were found for any other secondary outcomes. No serious adverse events occurred. CONCLUSION Among patients with acute rhinosinusitis, a 10-day course of amoxicillin compared with placebo did not reduce symptoms at day 3 of treatment. TRIAL REGISTRATION clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00377403.
The Immunodominant T-Cell Epitopes of the Mycolyl-Transferases of the Antigen 85 Complex of M. tuberculosis

The Ag85 complex is a 30–32 kDa family of three proteins (Ag85A, Ag85B, and Ag85C), which all three possess enzymatic mycolyl-transferase activity involved in the coupling of mycolic acids to the arabinogalactan of the cell wall and in the biogenesis of cord factor. By virtue of their strong potential to induce Th1-type immune responses, important for the control of intracellular infections, members of the Ag85 family rank among the most promising TB vaccine candidate antigens. Ag85A and Ag85B, initially purified from Mycobacterium bovis bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG)/Mycobacterium tuberculosis culture filtrate respectively, induce strong T-cell proliferation and IFN-γ production in most healthy individuals latently infected with M. tuberculosis and in BCG-vaccinated mice and humans but not in tuberculosis patients. Members of the Ag85 complex are highly conserved in other mycobacterial species. Mice and humans infected with Mycobacterium ulcerans or cattle infected with M. bovis or Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis also show strong T-cell responses to this protein family. Using synthetic overlapping peptides, bio-informatic prediction programs and tetramer-binding studies, a number of immunodominant CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell epitopes have been identified in experimental animal models as well as in humans, using proliferation and Th1 cytokine secretion as main read-outs. The results from these studies are summarized in this review.
Introduction to Evidence-Based Medicine: a student-selected component at the Faculty of Medicine, King Abdulaziz University

Background Evidence-based medicine (EBM) involves approaching a clinical problem using a four-step method: (1) formulate a clear clinical question from a patient’s problem, (2) search the literature for relevant clinical articles, (3) evaluate (critically appraise) the evidence for its validity and usefulness, (4) implement useful findings into clinical practice. EBM has now been incorporated as an integral part of the medical curriculum in many faculties of medicine around the world. The Faculty of Medicine, King Abdulaziz University, started its process of curriculum reform and introduction of the new curriculum 4 years ago. One of the most characteristic aspects of this curriculum is the introduction of special study modules and electives as a student-selected component in the fourth year of study; the Introduction to Evidence-Based Medicine course was included as one of these special study modules. The purpose of this article is to evaluate the EBM skills of medical students after completing the course and their perceptions of the faculty member delivering the course and organization of the course. Materials and methods The EBM course was held for the first time as a special study module for fourth-year medical students in the first semester of the academic year 2009–2010. Fifteen students were enrolled in this course. At the end of the course, students anonymously evaluated aspects of the course regarding their EBM skills and course organization using a five- point Likert scale in response to an online course evaluation questionnaire. In addition, students’ achievement was evaluated with regard to the skills and competencies taught in the course. Results Medical students generally gave high scores to all aspects of the EBM course, including course organization, course delivery, methods of assessment, and overall. Scores were also high for students’ self-evaluation of skill level and EBM experience. The results of a faculty member’s evaluation of the students’ achievement showed an average total percentage (92.2%) for all EBM steps. Conclusion The EBM course at the Faculty of Medicine, King Abdulaziz University, is useful for familiarizing medical students with the basic principles of EBM and to help them in answering routine questions of clinical interest in a systematic way. In light of the results obtained from implementing this course with a small number of students, and as a student-selected component, the author believes integrating EBM longitudinally throughout the curriculum would be beneficial for King Abdulaziz University medical students. It would provide a foundation of knowledge, offer easy access to resources, promote point-of-care and team learning, help students to develop applicable skills for lifelong learning, and help the faculty to achieve its goals of becoming more student-centered and encouraging students to employ more self-directed learning strategies.
Is Slower Early Growth Beneficial for Long-Term Cardiovascular Health?

Background—Accelerated neonatal growth increases the later propensity to cardiovascular disease (CVD) in animals, whereas slower growth is thought to have a beneficial effect. To test this hypothesis in humans, we measured flow-mediated endothelium-dependent dilation (FMD) in a population subject to slower early growth and in healthy controls. Methods and Results—High-resolution vascular ultrasound was used to measure the change in brachial artery diameter in response to reactive hyperemia in adolescents age 13 to 16 years who were either part of a cohort born preterm and followed up prospectively (n=216) or controls born at term (n=61). Greater weight gain or linear growth in the first 2 weeks postnatally was associated with lower FMD at adolescence (regression coefficient, −0.026-mm change in mean arterial diameter per 100-g increase in weight; 95% CI, −0.040 to −0.012 mm; P =0.0003) independent of birthweight and potential confounding factors. Mean FMD in the half of the preterm population with the lowest rates of early growth was higher than in both the half with the greatest growth (P =0.001) and subjects born at term (P =0.03). Conclusions—FMD was 4% lower in adolescents with the highest compared with the lowest rate of weight gain in the first 2 weeks after birth, a substantial negative effect similar to that for insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus or smoking in adults. Our findings are consistent with the adverse effects of accelerated neonatal growth on long-term cardiovascular health and suggest that postnatal growth patterns could explain the previously reported association between birthweight and later CVD.
Graphical LASSO based Model Selection for Time Series

We propose a novel graphical model selection scheme for high-dimensional stationary time series or discrete time processes. The method is based on a natural generalization of the graphical LASSO algorithm, introduced originally for the case of i.i. d. samples, and estimates the conditional independence graph of a time series from a finite length observation. The graphical LASSO for time series is defined as the solution of an l1-regularized maximum (approximate) likelihood problem. We solve this optimization problem using the alternating direction method of multipliers. Our approach is nonparametric as we do not assume a finite dimensional parametric model, but only require the process to be sufficiently smooth in the spectral domain. For Gaussian processes, we characterize the performance of our method theoretically by deriving an upper bound on the probability that our algorithm fails. Numerical experiments demonstrate the ability of our method to recover the correct conditional independence graph from a limited amount of samples.
Kinetic characterization of malate dehydrogenase in normal and malignant human breast tissues

Malate Dehydrogenase (MDH), as a critical enzyme in cancer metabolism, can be the main foundation for NAD, along with the well-known LDH, which allows the prolonged process of glycolysis, even in the absence of oxygen. The kinetic characteristics of the enzyme are related to the surrounding environment of the enzyme. In this regard, the tumor microenvironment has noticeable properties, in connection with the neighboring normal tissues. The goal of this research is to elaborate the kinetic parameters of MDH in human breast cancer by taking into account two major perspectives as follows: 1. the possible role of MDH in supporting the NAD pool; 2. the impact of different tumor microenvironments on the kinetic characteristics of the enzyme. For this purpose, the MDH activity was measured from the normal and malignant crude human breast tissues, which were directly collected from the operating room. The Michaelis-Menten constant (Km) and the maximum velocity (Vmax) were determined in the crude extracts. It was realized that the affinity of cancerous MDH in the forward reaction was identical to the normal MDH, while the Vmax of cancerous MDH was higher than the normal MDH. In the reverse reaction, the affinity of cancerous MDH for malate and NAD+ was less than the normal MDH. The increasing affinity of MDH for malate and the decreasing MDH activity and expression in the forward reaction may be an acceptable molecular target for eliminating its possible impact on tumorigenesis. Therefore, the kinetic characteristics of MDH can be demonstrated as a novel diagnostic parameter for human breast cancers. However, further research seems necessary to validate this proposition. In addition, various kinetic parameters of different cancer cell lines should be investigated in the culture conditions, where both oxygen and nutrients are limited, similar to the tumor microenvironment.
Development of Rabbit Meat Products Fortified With n-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids

Rabbit meat is a highly digestible, tasty, low-calorie food, often recommended by nutritionists over other meats. Currently research in the rabbit sector is interested in developing feeding strategies aiming to further increase the nutritional value of rabbit meat as a “functional food” by including n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFA), conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), vitamins and antioxidants in rabbit diets and assessing their effects on both raw and stored/processed meat quality properties. Our recent studies indicate that the dietary inclusion from 3 to 6% of linseed might be considered as a way to achieve the enrichment of the meat with α-linolenic acid and to guarantee satisfactory product stability during further processing and storage. Considering that 6% dietary linseed corresponds to a n-3 PUFA content of 8.5% of the total fatty acids and a lipid content of 4.7 g/100 g of leg meat, a content of 396 mg n-3 PUFA/100g meat can be estimated, which represents about 19% of the recommended daily allowance (RDA) for n-3 PUFA.
Fabrication of a silver-ragwort-leaf-like super-hydrophobic micro/nanoporous fibrous mat surface by electrospinning

Inspired by the self-cleaning silver ragwort leaf, we have recently fabricated a biomimetic super-hydrophobic fibrous mat surface comprising micro/nanoporous polystyrene (PS) microfibres via electrospinning. The rough surface of the silver ragwort leaf fibres, with nanometre-sized grooves along the fibre axis, was imitated by forming micro- and nanostructured pores on the electrospun fibre surface. The solvent composition ratios of tetrahydrofuran (THF) to N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) in PS solutions were proved to be the key parameter to affect the fibre surface structures due to the various phase separation speeds of the solvents from PS fibres during electrospinning. The combination of the hierarchical surface roughness inherent in electrospun microfibrous PS mats and the low surface free energy of PS yielded a stable super-hydrophobicity with water contact angles as high as 159.5° for a 12 mg water droplet, exceeding that (147°) of the silver ragwort leaf. Moreover, the hydrophobicity of the porous PS mat surface was found to increase on increasing the surface roughness of the microfibres.