Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Analysis of Acoustic Impulse Method for Determining Firmness and other Quality Parameters of 'Gloster' Apple

A comparative study regarding standard fruit quality measurements (fruit mass, firmness, soluble solids concentration, starch conversion rate and Streif index) and acoustic properties (resonant frequency, peak width, resonant frequency/peak width ratio and stiffness) were conducted in ‘Gloster’ apples during two seasons. The findings obtained indicate no significant differences between seasons in studied quality parameters as well as in acoustic properties. The fruits were characterized with unusual high mass and high variation in resonant frequency and peak width, especially in season-I. In about 50% of examined fruit, the acoustic signal was not typical with one clearly visible peak, and appeared with two or, in few cases, even three peaks that were sometimes of similar height. The fruit mass was negatively correlated with resonant frequency, but correlation coefficient was lower in season-I and less significant than in season-II. Correlation coefficient between fruit mass and peak width was the same in both seasons. Although positive correlation existed between fruit mass and resonant frequency/peak ratio in both seasons, correlation coefficient in season-I was higher and more significant than in season-II. Correlation between fruit mass and stiff ness existed only in season-II. Resonant frequency was positively correlated with peak width only in season-I. Stiff ness was positively correlated with Streif index and peak width only in season-II. Though not significant, higher variations in acoustic properties than standard quality measurements still indicate some usefulness of acoustic impulse method for determination of fruit quality of ‘Gloster’ apple. However, further research is needed to elucidate the significance of individual acoustic parameters and their relation to fruit quality.
Attachment, Social Support and Well-being in Young and Older Adults

The present study examined the link between attachment, social support and well-being in young and older adults. The results from multi-group path analyses showed significant between-group differences in the links between attachment, perceived support and well-being. Anxious attachment and well-being were inversely associated and this was stronger for the younger group than it was for the older group. Avoidant attachment was negatively related to perceived support satisfaction in the older age group only, and perceived support mediated the effects of avoidant attachment on mental health and loneliness in the older group. Generally, perceived satisfaction with support was more strongly related with well-being in older adults. The results point to differential links of insecure attachment styles with perceived support in different life-stages and to related cognitive, emotional and social processes.
Sensing Heavy Precipitation With GNSS Polarimetric Radio Occultations

This study presents, for the first time ever, occulting signals of the Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSSs) acquired at two polarizations from a Low Earth Orbiter, and it shows that they sense heavy precipitation. The data sets are obtained from early stages of the Radio Occultation and Heavy Precipitation experiment aboard the PAZ satellite, launched in February 2018 and activated in May 2018. Preliminary calibration algorithms are applied to remove other systematic effects, and the resulting vertical profiles of polarimetric phase shift observations are compared to precipitation information from other missions. The analysis of the data shows consistency between Radio Occultation and Heavy Precipitation experiment aboard the PAZ satellite polarimetric phase shift measurements and presence of hydrometeors, with strong signatures from heavy precipitation. The polarimetric measurements also capture vertical features consistent with the vertical structures of precipitation.
Surgical and Interventional Robotics: Part III: Surgical Assistance Systems.

P art I of this tutorial described two broad paradigms of interventional assistance: surgical computer-aided design (CAD)/computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) and surgical assistance. Part II focused on the underlying concepts of surgical CAD/CAM, with a particular emphasis on percutaneous procedures. This final installment of our three-part tutorial series discusses surgical assistance. In this section, we introduce the basic concepts of a surgical workstation and briefly review several core robotic technologies used in surgical workstations.
Comparison of lidoflazine and quinidine in prophylactic treatment of arrhythmias

The efficacy of quinidine versus lidoflazine therapy was compared in the maintenance of sinus rhythm after electrical cardioversion for atrial flutter or fibrillation in a group of 35 patients. Both quinidine and lidoflazine were relatively ineffective in maintaining sinus rhythm after cardioversion. Lidoflazine was also used to prevent supraventricular and ventricular tachycardias in a miscellaneousgroup ofpatients; one of these with paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia developed runs of ventricular tachycardia soon after starting lidoflazine. The trial was stopped after 4 patients died while receiving lidoflazine, on the suspicion that their deaths may have been related to drug-induced arrhythmias. The arrhythmogenic potential of lidoflazine when used in patients with supraventricular arrhythmias contrasts with reports of its apparent safety in large numbers of patients with angina pectoris.
Interpretation of the DMT in Silts

This paper describes a proposed testing procedure and interpretation method for the characterization of silts using the flat dilatometer test (DMT). This method aims to compensate for errors that are introduced by the partial-drainage conditions that take place around the DMT blade. In transient soils, the after-installation DMT readings change continuously with time because excess pore pressure dissipation. By monitoring the variation in A-readings, it is possible to extrapolate the results back to the origin to estimate an equivalent undrained A0 value. In addition, in seeking to obtain a closed-form solution for the membrane expansion problem in the elastic regime, a simple correction is introduced in the analysis where the B-reading is expressed in terms of average mean stresses that take place prior to expansion. Preliminary results in clay demonstrate that the method is effective and can be introduced in practice with minimal costs by considering simple adaptations to procedures originally developed for clay.
Fat Thickness as a Risk Factor for Infection in Lumbar Spine Surgery.

Body mass index does not account for body mass distribution. This study tested the hypothesis that subcutaneous fat thickness is a better indicator than body mass index of the risk of surgical site infection in lumbar spine procedures performed through a midline posterior approach. Charts were reviewed for previously identified risk factors for surgical site infection (age, diabetes, smoking, obesity, albumin level, multilevel procedures, previous surgery, and operative time) in 149 adult patients who underwent lumbar spine procedures through a midline posterior approach. Subcutaneous fat thickness was measured with a novel automated technique. Regression analysis was used to determine associations between risk factors and fat thickness with surgical site infection. In the study group, 15 surgical site infections occurred (10.1%). Bivariate analysis showed a significant association between surgical site infection and body mass index (P=.01), obesity (P=.02), and fat thickness (P=.002). With multivariate analysis, body mass index and obesity did not show significance, but fat thickness remained significant (P=.026). For every 1-mm thickness of subcutaneous fat there was a 6% (odds ratio, 1.06; 95% confidence interval, 1.02-1.10) increase in the odds of surgical site infection, and patients with fat thickness of greater than 50 mm had a 4-fold increase in the odds of surgical site infection compared with those with fat thickness of less than 50 mm. Body mass index and fat thickness were moderately correlated (r2=0.44). These results confirm the hypothesis that local subcutaneous fat thickness is a better indicator than body mass index of the risk of surgical site infection in lumbar spine procedures. [Orthopedics. 2016; 39(6):e1124-e1128. ].
Pronounced Hypoxia in Models of Murine and Human Leukemia: High Efficacy of Hypoxia-Activated Prodrug PR-104

Recent studies indicate that interactions between leukemia cells and the bone marrow (BM) microenvironment promote leukemia cell survival and confer resistance to anti-leukemic drugs. There is evidence that BM microenvironment contains hypoxic areas that confer survival advantage to hematopoietic cells. In the present study we investigated whether hypoxia in leukemic BM contributes to the protective role of the BM microenvironment. We observed a marked expansion of hypoxic BM areas in immunodeficient mice engrafted with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) cells. Consistent with this finding, we found that hypoxia promotes chemoresistance in various ALL derived cell lines. These findings suggest to employ hypoxia-activated prodrugs to eliminate leukemia cells within hypoxic niches. Using several xenograft models, we demonstrated that administration of the hypoxia-activated dinitrobenzamide mustard, PR-104 prolonged survival and decreased leukemia burden of immune-deficient mice injected with primary acute lymphoblastic leukemia cells. Together, these findings strongly suggest that targeting hypoxia in leukemic BM is feasible and may significantly improve leukemia therapy.
Detecting Malicious Java Code Using Virtual Machine Auditing

The Java Virtual Machine (JVM) is evolving as an infrastructure for the efficient execution of large-scale, network-based applications. To enable secure execution in this environment, industrial and academic efforts have implemented extensive support for verification of type-safety, authentication, and access control. However, JVMs continue to lack intrinsic support for intrusion detection. Existing operating system auditing facilities and host-based intrusion detection systems operate at the process level, with the assumption that one application is mapped onto one process. However, in many cases, multiple Java applications are executed concurrently as threads within a single JVM process. As such, it is difficult to analyze the behavior of Java applications using the corresponding OS-level audit trail. In addition, the malicious actions of a single Java application may trigger a response that disables an entire execution environment. To overcome these limitations, we have developed a thread-level auditing facility for the Java Virtual Machine and an intrusion detection tool that uses audit data generated by this facility to detect attacks by malicious Java code. This paper describes the JVM auditing mechanisms, the intrusion detection tool, and the quantitative evaluation of their performance.
Surface accumulation Layer transistor (SALTran): a new bipolar transistor for enhanced current gain and reduced hot-carrier degradation

We report a new surface accumulation layer transistor (SALTran) on SOI which uses the concept of surface accumulation of electrons near the emitter contact to improve the current gain significantly. Using two-dimensional process and device simulation, the performance of the proposed device has been evaluated in detail by comparing its characteristics with those of the previously published conventional bipolar transistor structure. From our simulation results, it is observed that depending on the choice of emitter doping and emitter length, the proposed SALTran exhibits a current gain enhancement of 10 to 70 times that of the compatible bipolar transistor. We also demonstrate that the presence of the surface accumulation layer does not deteriorate the cut-off frequency as observed in the high-low emitter junction bipolar transistors. Our simulations also indicate that when the emitter is lightly doped, the SALTran is immune to hot carrier injection problems due to the reduced electric field in the emitter. The effect of surface states at the emitter contact and temperature on current gain have been examined.
INFLUENCE OF ROOT TEMPERATURE ON PHYTOACCUMULATION OF As, Ag, Cr, AND Sb IN POTATO PLANTS (SOLANUM TUBEROSUM L. VAR. SPUNTA)

Three consecutive years of field experiments were carried out to investigate the effect of root temperatures induced by the application of mulches for phytoextraction of As, Ag, Cr and Sb using potato plants (roots, tubers, stems and leaflets). Four different plastic covers were used (T1: transparent polyethylene; T2: white polyethylene; T3: white and black coextruded polyethylene; and T4: black polyethylene), taking uncovered plants as control (T0). The different treatments had a significant effect on mean root temperatures (T0 = 16°C, T1 = 20°C, T2 = 23°C, T3 = 27°C and T4 = 30°C) and induced a significantly different response in the As, Ag, Cr and Sb phytoaccumulation. The T3 treatment gave rise to the greatest phytoaccumulation of As, Ag, Cr and Sb in the roots, leaflets and tubers. In terms of the relative distribution of the phytoaccumulated metals (with respect to the total of the plant), As accumulated mainly in the roots and leaflets whereas Ag, Cr and Sb accumulated primarily in the tubers, establishing a close relationship between biomass development of each organ and phytoaccumulation capacity of elements in response to temperature in the root zone. With regard to phytoremediation using the potato plant, it is necessary to ascertain the influence and include the control of the thermal regime of the soil to optimize the phytoextraction of pollutants.
Macular thickness assessment in healthy eyes based on ethnicity using Stratus OCT optical coherence tomography.

PURPOSE To assess the variation in macular thickness measurements in healthy Caucasian and African American men and women through Stratus OCT optical coherence tomography (OCT-3). METHODS One hundred sixty-six eyes of 83 healthy patients underwent complete ophthalmologic examination in this prospective study. Exclusion criteria included a diagnosis of diabetes mellitus, hypertension, intraocular pressure (IOP) greater than 21 mm Hg, history of eye surgery or trauma, or evidence of eye disease. For analysis purposes, the authors excluded those participants in whom OCT signal strength was <7 in each eye. A fast macular thickness protocol consisting of a 6-mm radial scan centered on the fovea was used for the analysis, and the data were analyzed using the t-test for independence and linear regression. Both eyes of each patient were analyzed using the OCT-3, and analysis showed a statistically significant correlation between right and left eyes. Therefore, only one eye from each patient was randomly selected for final correlation and analysis. RESULTS Mean foveal thickness (MFT) for Caucasians was 32 microm greater than for African Americans (217 vs. 185 microm, respectively; P < 0.001). The MFT was significantly thicker in males than in females (220 vs. 197 microm, respectively; P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS The fovea is significantly less thick in African Americans and females than in Caucasians and males. Racial and sexual differences should be considered when interpreting an OCT scan.
CHLOROPHYLL ESTIMATION OF LAKE WATER AND COASTAL WATER USING LANDSAT-8 AND SENTINEL-2A SATELLITE

Abstract. Chlorophyll-a is an optically active compound (OAC) commonly used as a proxy for phytoplankton biomass in an aquatic environment. Retrieving the concentration of chlorophyll-a remains a challenge due to the presence of several OAC particularly in water bodies which are in proximity to the land-based activities. In this study, an effort has been made to estimate the chlorophyll-a concentration of both the freshwater Lake Biwa and the coastal water of Wakasa Bay in Japan. A spectral decomposition algorithm was used to determine the chlorophyll-a using the satellite images. The algorithm was applied to the satellite images from two different sensors namely Landsat-8/OLI and Sentinel-2A/MSI. The satellite-derived chlorophyll-a concentration for the lake and coastal water from two different sensors were compared to assess the performance of both the sensors. The accuracy of the chlorophyll-a results derived from the images was evaluated with the in-situ measurement data of the chlorophyll-a for the Lake Biwa and the coastal water of Wakasa Bay. Both satellite sensors appear to give the best results for the coastal water (R2 > 0.80) with an RMSE < 0.3 μg/L. However, slight underestimation of chlorophyll-a noted for the Landsat-8 image with an increase in chlorophyll-a concentration. For the lake water, Sentinel-2A results were relatively better (R2 > 0.70) than Landsat-8, with an RMSE of < 1.0 μg/L. The obtained results will be useful to evaluate the primary productivity of both freshwater and coastal water body.
The Distribution Genetic Algorithm: Evolving a Population of Distributions

We propose an alternative to the traditional representation used for real coded genetic algorithms (GA): here chromosomes consist of a vector of distributions instead of values. Two systems have been devised: one using a version of blended crossover along with uniform mutation, the second using binary crossover with a "directed" mutation-like change in the distributions through a weighted aggregation of samples from the population. These systems are merged using a novel two-population approach. Our experimental results show that the proposed system improves a GA's performance on most of the 17 functions used in our test suite.
Enterococcus faecium bacteremia: does vancomycin resistance make a difference?

BACKGROUND Enterococcus faecium has received increased attention, primarily due to the emergence of vancomycin resistance. The purpose of this investigation was to study the epidemiological characteristics of vancomycin-resistant E faecium (VRE) bacteremia and to determine the clinical impact of vancomycin resistance on the outcome of patients with this infection. METHODS We retrospectively analyzed the clinical features and outcome of 53 patients with E faecium bacteremia. RESULTS From January 1992 until December 1995, there were 32 episodes of bacteremia caused by vancomycin-susceptible E faecium (VSE) and 21 caused by VRE. An intra-abdominal site was the most common source of bacteremia in both groups. All of the VRE and 78% of VSE bacteremia cases were nosocomially acquired. Previous administration of vancomycin was associated with VRE bacteremia (P<.001), as were indwelling bladder catheters (P=.01). Fifty-nine percent of the patients with VSE bacteremia survived vs 24% with VRE (P=.009), despite similar severity-of-illness scores. In 62% of the patients with VRE sepsis, death was related to the bacteremia (P=.01). Patients infected with VRE had longer hospitalizations than those with VSE (34.8 vs 16.7 days, respectively) (P=.004), were more likely to be on the medical service (P=.03), and on the average, had hospitalization costs of more than $27,000 per episode than did patients with VSE bloodstream infection ($83,897 vs $56,707, respectively) (P=.04). CONCLUSIONS Vancomycin-resistant E faecium bacteremia is a complication of prolonged hospitalization in debilitated patients. Vancomycin resistance has a negative impact on survival in patients with E faecium bacteremia and leads to higher health care costs.
Prevention of Atrial Fibrillation by Renin-Angiotensin System Inhibition

2010;55;2299-2307 J. Am. Coll. Cardiol. E. Kjeldsen, and Roland E. Schmieder Markus P. Schneider, Tsushung A. Hua, Michael Böhm, Kristian Wachtell, Sverre Meta-Analysis Prevention of Atrial Fibrillation by Renin-Angiotensin System Inhibition: A This information is current as of May 31, 2010 http://content.onlinejacc. org/cgi/content/full/55/21/2299 located on the World Wide Web at: The online version of this article, along with updated information and services, is
Spatial Characterization of Radio Propagation Channel in Urban Vehicle-to-Infrastructure Environments to Support WSNs Deployment

Vehicular ad hoc Networks (VANETs) enable vehicles to communicate with each other as well as with roadside units (RSUs). Although there is a significant research effort in radio channel modeling focused on vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), not much work has been done for vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) using 3D ray-tracing tools. This work evaluates some important parameters of a V2I wireless channel link such as large-scale path loss and multipath metrics in a typical urban scenario using a deterministic simulation model based on an in-house 3D Ray-Launching (3D-RL) algorithm at 5.9 GHz. Results show the high impact that the spatial distance; link frequency; placement of RSUs; and factors such as roundabout, geometry and relative position of the obstacles have in V2I propagation channel. A detailed spatial path loss characterization of the V2I channel along the streets and avenues is presented. The 3D-RL results show high accuracy when compared with measurements, and represent more reliably the propagation phenomena when compared with analytical path loss models. Performance metrics for a real test scenario implemented with a VANET wireless sensor network implemented ad-hoc are also described. These results constitute a starting point in the design phase of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) radio-planning in the urban V2I deployment in terms of coverage.
Nonlinear dynamical feedback for motion control of magnetic levitation system

For fast, nonlinear and unstable dynamical systems, such as magnetic levitation, high quality of control is essential. Such control can be generated by different feedback structures, most of which require measurements of velocities or derivatives of the system output. In case of magnetic levitation the velocity of levitating object (a ferromagnetic sphere) is not measured. That is the reason for application of state observers which along with different controllers will create a nonlinear dynamical feedback structure. In this paper we will consider two such structures - PID controller with a nonlinear feed-forward and a cascade linearising feedback using two nonlinear state observers: high-gain observer (HGO) and an observer with reduced, linear error dynamics (abbreviated as RO). Operation of these control algorithms will be compared with a classical PID structure, derivative part of which will be realised either as a finite difference or with an observer.
Ammonia Levels In Different Kinds Of Sampling Sites In The Central Iberian Peninsula

A study conducted in the city of Madrid with the aim of characterizing levels of ammonia took place in 2011. A 10-11 days sampling was performed in two periods - winter and summer, and allowed to make a first estimation of the main contributing sources. Passive samplers were used, obtaining a measurement integrated over the exposure time period. Madrid campaigns formed part of a larger study conducted in 6 Spanish cities: Barcelona, A Coruna, Valencia, Huelva and Santa Cruz de Tenerife. The results obtained in Barcelona were presented by Reche et al (2012).