Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Numerical simulations of aeroelastic instabilities to optimize the performance of flutter-based electromagnetic energy harvesters

The article presents a two-dimensional fully coupled fluid–structure interaction model for simulating aeroelastic instabilities to evaluate and optimize the performance of flutter-based electromagnetic energy harvesters. The flutter-type unstable vibration of T-shaped cantilever systems is investigated as a driving mechanism for small-scale energy conversion. A flow solver based on the vortex particle method and a structural solver based on a corotational finite element formulation are coupled in order to accurately account for the geometrically nonlinear effects of such very flexible elements. A reference harvester is simulated considering the damping effects arising from the electromagnetic transducer. The estimated flutter wind speed and the predicted energy outputs under different electrical resistances are found to agree reasonably well with reference wind tunnel experiments. The influence of physical parameters such as length, thickness, and cantilever tip height on the performance of the harvester is investigated up to an envelope volume of 42 cm3. The maximum power output is found to be 5.3 mW at 8 m/s. The optimized harvester shows a better performance under low wind speeds by producing 0.65 mW at 4 m/s where the reference harvester produced no power.
Redactable Blockchain – or – Rewriting History in Bitcoin and Friends

We put forward a new framework that makes it possible to re-write or compress the content of any number of blocks in decentralized services exploiting the blockchain technology. As we argue, there are several reasons to prefer an editable blockchain, spanning from the necessity to remove inappropriate content and the possibility to support applications requiring re-writable storage, to "the right to be forgotten. " Our approach generically leverages so-called chameleon hash functions (Krawczyk and Rabin, NDSS '00), which allow determining hash collisions efficiently, given a secret trapdoor information. We detail how to integrate a chameleon hash function in virtually any blockchain-based technology, for both cases where the power of redacting the blockchain content is in the hands of a single trusted entity and where such a capability is distributed among several distrustful parties (as is the case with Bitcoin). We also report on a proof-of-concept implementation of a redactable blockchain, building on top of Nakamoto's Bitcoin core. The prototype only requires minimal changes to the way current client software interprets the information stored in the blockchain and to the current blockchain, block, or transaction structures. Moreover, our experiments show that the overhead imposed by a redactable blockchain is small compared to the case of an immutable one.
Switchable and tunable multiwavelength erbium-doped fiber laser with fiber Bragg gratings and photonic crystal fiber

We propose and report on a novel multiwavelength-switchable-tunable erbium-doped fiber laser with excellent stability and uniformity based on four-wave mixing (FWM) in a highly nonlinear photonic crystal fiber. By adjusting the attenuators, the single, dual, or triple wavelengths can be lasing simultaneously. Under the influence of the FWM, the spectrum is stabilized and the uniformity is less than 0.6 dB.
A feasibility study of using CeO2 as a surrogate material during the investigation of UO2 thermal conductivity enhancement

A possible substitution of UO2 for research purposes is the cerium dioxide (CeO2) owing to its chemical and physical properties. Neutronic properties are different and fission is absent in the case of CeO2; however, similarities were studied recently to have a possibility to compare the neutronic influence of secondary additives into the matrix. This paper deals with increasing the thermal conductivity of UO2 nuclear fuel on surrogate material (CeO2); the main focus of the research is given on the sintering behaviour of CeO2. The incorporation of highly thermally conductive material (SiC) is the investigated concept of thermal conductivity enhancement. Conventional sintering and spark plasma sintering (SPS) were applied to compare the behaviour of CeO2 and UO2 reported in the literature. High temperature thermal conductivity measurements did not confirm the positive influence of SiC additive inside the CeO2 matrix mainly due to grain boundary disruptions. Similar behaviour was also previously reported for UO2 pellets with SiC.
Heart Rate Variability:

Heart rate and blood pressure represent the integrated response to ongoing and dynamic changes in autonomic, cortical, environmental, and other inputs. The relatively “coarse” quantification of heart rate and blood pressure nevertheless is invaluable in predicting and treating cardiovascular disease and in understanding disease mechanisms. As part of an approach to better understanding cardiovascular physiology and possibly provide even earlier predictions of risk and progression of cardiovascular disease, a myriad of approaches have been taken to dissect out the finer points of blood pressure and heart rate regulation, and to understand the mechanisms and implications of the shortand long-term dynamics that regulate their change. Unprecedented software sophistication and computer processing power, and the availability of relatively simple measures for evaluating RR interval, have made analyses of changes in heart rate, or heart rate variability, widely accessible to physiologists and clinicians. For practical purposes, heart rate variability may be understood as the magnitude of “sway” or flexibility that is spontaneously inherent in cardiac rate control. Much as the sway inherent in a bridge or skyscraper will impart resilience to external stress, the magnitude of variability in the beat-to-beat changes of RR interval are generally a sign of sound cardiovascular health. This is demonstrated by visual inspection of the ECG of a young fit individual compared to that of someone with severe heart failure. The slower heart rate and marked sinus arrhythmia in a young athlete contrast markedly with the tachycardia and relatively fixed RR interval in a patient with heart failure in sinus rhythm. Approaches to study and quantify the variability of heart rate include measurements in the time and frequency domains, and application of these methods to short-term (several minutes) and long-term (24-hour Holter) measurements.1-7 Frequency-domain analysis seeks to quantify the magnitude of RR fluctuations at specific frequencies, whereas time-domain analysis quantifies the absolute variability of RR interval, measured, for example, as standard deviation, over a given period of time, varying from 5 minutes or up to 24 hours or longer. Other approaches include variations on these themes, such as wavelet transform analysis8 and fractal scaling.9,10 In patients with overt cardiovascular disease, abnormalities in heart rate variability, perhaps reflecting autonomic dysregulation or baroreflex impairment, may be linked to
Numerical Methods for Coupled Reconstruction and Registration in Digital Breast Tomosynthesis

Digital Breast Tomosynthesis (DBT) provides an insight into the fine details of normal fibroglandular tissues and abnormal lesions by reconstructing a pseudo-3D image of the breast. In this respect, DBT overcomes a major limitation of conventional X-ray mammography by reducing the confounding effects caused by the superposition of breast tissue. In a breast cancer screening or diagnostic context, a radiologist is interested in detecting change, which might be indicative of malignant disease. To help automate this task image registration is required to establish spatial correspondence between time points. Typically, images, such as MRI or CT, are first reconstructed and then registered. This approach can be effective if reconstructing using a complete set of data. However, for ill-posed, limited-angle problems such as DBT, estimating the deformation is complicated by the significant artefacts associated with the reconstruction, leading to severe inaccuracies in the registration. This paper presents a mathematical framework, which couples the two tasks and jointly estimates both image intensities and the parameters of a transformation. We evaluate our methods using various computational digital phantoms, uncompressed breast MR images, and in-vivo DBT simulations. Firstly, we compare both iterative and simultaneous methods to the conventional, sequential method using an affine transformation model. We show that jointly estimating image intensities and parametric transformations gives superior results with respect to reconstruction fidelity and registration accuracy. Also, we incorporate a non-rigid B-spline transformation model into our simultaneous method. The results demonstrate a visually plausible recovery of the deformation with preservation of the reconstruction fidelity.
Comparing the Efficiency of Two Carrier Types on Drum Drying of Tamarind Juice

The main purpose of this work was to study the effect of carrier agents on the drying capability and the qualities of tamarind powder produced by a drum dryer. Two popular carrier agents, namely maltodextrin and modified starch, were applied to tamarind juice at juice-to-carrier-agent ratios of 1:0.3, 1:0.4, 1:0.5, 1:0.6, 1:0.7 and 1:0.8 (w/w). A double drum dryer was employed in this work at a drying temperature of 140oC, drum rotational speed of 0.50 rpm and gap between drums of 0.15 mm. The efficiency of carrier agent was evaluated by the capability of drying and product qualities such as product recovery, bulk density, total solid, moisture content and color difference. The results of the experiment indicated that the ratio of the carrier agent affected the drying capability. The tamarind powder were easily removed from the drums by doctor blades without sticking at the lowest ratios of moltodextrin and modified starch of 1:0.6 and 1:0.4, respectively. Furthermore, when considering the qualities of tamarind powder, as a carrier modified starch led to better tamarind powder qualities than maltodextrin.
Quality of care for patients diagnosed with diabetes at screening.

OBJECTIVE Screening for diabetes has the potential to be an effective intervention, especially if patients have intensive treatment of their newly diagnosed diabetes and comorbid hypertension. We wished to determine the process and quality of diabetes care for patients diagnosed with diabetes by systematic screening. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS A total of 1,253 users of the Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center aged 45-64 years who did not report having diabetes were screened for diabetes with an HbA(1c) test. All subjects with an HbA(1c) level > or =6.0% were invited for follow-up blood pressure and fasting plasma glucose (FPG) measurements. A case of unrecognized diabetes was defined as HbA(1c) > or =7.0% or FPG > or =126 mg/dl. For each of the 56 patients for whom we made a new diagnosis of diabetes, we notified the patient's primary care provider of this diagnosis. One year after diagnosis, we reviewed these patients' medical records for traditional diabetes performance measures as well as blood pressure. Follow-up blood pressure was also ascertained from medical record review for all subjects with HbA(1c) > or =6.0% who did not have diabetes. We compared blood pressure changes between patients with and without diabetes. RESULTS Among patients diagnosed with diabetes at screening, 34 of 53 (64%) had evidence of diet or medical treatment for their diabetes, 42 of 53 (79%) had HbA(1c) measured within the year after diagnosis, 32 of 53 (60%) had cholesterol measured, 25 of 53 (47%) received foot examinations, 29 of 53 (55%) had eye examinations performed by an eye specialist, and 16 of 53 (30%) had any measure of urine protein. The mean blood pressure decline over the year after diagnosis for patients with diabetes was 2.3 mmHg; this decline was similar to that found for 183 patients in the study without diabetes (change in blood pressure, -3.6 mmHg). At baseline, 48% of patients with diabetes had blood pressure <140/90, compared with 40% of patients without diabetes; 1 year later, the same 48% of patients with diabetes had blood pressure <140/90, compared with 56% of patients without diabetes (P = 0.31 for comparing the change in percent in control between groups). CONCLUSIONS Patients with diabetes diagnosed at screening achieve less tight blood pressure control than similar patients without diabetes. Primary care providers do not appear to manage diabetes diagnosed at screening as intensively as long-standing diabetes and do not improve the management of hypertension given the new diagnosis of diabetes.
Scurfin (FOXP3) Acts as a Repressor of Transcription and Regulates T Cell Activation*

We have recently identified and clonedFoxp3, the gene defective in mice with thescurfy mutation. The immune dysregulation documented in these mice and in humans with mutations in the orthologous gene indicates that the foxp3 gene product, scurfin, is involved in the regulation of T cell activation and differentiation. The autoimmune state observed in these patients with the immune dysregulation polyendocrinopathy, enteropathy, X-linked syndrome, or X-linked autoimmunity-allergic dysregulation syndrome also points to a critical role for scurfin in the regulation of T cell homeostasis.FOXP3 encodes a novel member of the forkhead family of transcription factors. Here we demonstrate that this structural domain is required for nuclear localization and DNA binding. Scurfin, transiently expressed in heterologous cells, represses transcription of a reporter containing a multimeric forkhead binding site. Upon overexpression in CD4 T cells, scurfin attenuates activation-induced cytokine production and proliferation. We have identified FKH binding sequences adjacent to critical NFAT regulatory sites in the promoters of several cytokine genes whose expression is sensitive to changes in SFN abundance. Our findings indicate that the ability of scurfin to bind DNA, and presumably repress transcription, plays a paramount role in determining the amplitude of the response of CD4 T cells to activation.
Computational technique for improvement of the position-weight matrices for the DNA/protein binding sites

Position-weight matrices (PWMs) are broadly used to locate transcription factor binding sites in DNA sequences. The majority of existing PWMs provide a low level of both sensitivity and specificity. We present a new computational algorithm, a modification of the Staden–Bucher approach, that improves the PWM. We applied the proposed technique on the PWM of the GC-box, binding site for Sp1. The comparison of old and new PWMs shows that the latter increase both sensitivity and specificity. The statistical parameters of GC-box distribution in promoter regions and in the human genome, as well as in each chromosome, are presented. The majority of commonly used PWMs are the 4-row mononucleotide matrices, although 16-row dinucleotide matrices are known to be more informative. The algorithm efficiently determines the 16-row matrices and preliminary results show that such matrices provide better results than 4-row matrices.
Mucosal C-terminal maltase-glucoamylase hydrolyzes large size starch digestion products that may contribute to rapid postprandial glucose generation.

SCOPE The four mucosal α-glucosidases, which differ in their digestive roles, generate glucose from glycemic carbohydrates and accordingly can be viewed as a control point for rate of glucose delivery to the body. In this study, individual recombinant enzymes were used to understand how α-glucan oligomers are digested by each enzyme, and how intermediate α-amylolyzed starches are hydrolyzed, to elucidate a strategy for moderating the glycemic spike of rapidly digestible starchy foods. METHODS AND RESULTS The C-terminal maltase-glucoamylase (ctMGAM, commonly termed "glucoamylase") was able to rapidly hydrolyze longer maltooligosaccharides, such as maltotetraose and maltopentaose, to glucose. Moreover, it was found to convert larger size maltodextrins, as would be produced early in α-amylase digestion of starch, efficiently to glucose. It is postulated that ctMGAM has the additional capacity to hydrolyze large α-amylase products that are produced immediately on starch digestion in the duodenum and contribute to the rapid generation of glucose from starch-based meals. CONCLUSION The findings suggest that partial inhibition of ctMGAM, such as by natural inhibitors found in foods, might be used to moderate the early stage of high glycemic response, as well as to extend digestion distally; thereby having relevance in regulating glucose delivery to the body.
A new operation for the treatment of communicating hydrocephalus; report of a case secondary to generalized meningitis.

p ATIENTS suffering from severe purulent meningitis may survive with the aid of modern antibiotic therapy only to face an equally disastrous complication, namely, obliteration of the subarachnoid fluid pathways by an adhesive process involving particularly the cisternae at the base of the brain and the subarachnoid spaces over the cerebral and cerebellar hemispheres. This chronic adhesive process may prevent access to, or virtually destroy, the normal absorptive surface provided by the vascular bed of the pia-arachnoid. The circulation of spinal fluid is therefore interrupted and progressive hydrocephalus ensues. Hydrocephalus of this origin may or may not be of the so-called "communicating" variety, depending upon where interruption of the subarachnoid fluid pathways occurs. Several locations are involved commonly, and treatment varies accordingly: (1) If one foramen of Monro is occluded, unilateral hydrocephalus may occur; this has been successfully treated by making an opening through the septum pellucidum. (~) If the Sylvian aqueduct becomes blocked by scarring, but the subarachnoid cisternae remain open, subfrontal or subtemporal 3rd ventriculostomy may be performed, or even more satisfactorily, a shunting procedure of the type introduced by Torkildsen 9 which connects the lateral ventricle with the cisterna magna. (3) If obstruction occurs in the posterior fossa alone with obliteration of the cisterna magna and occlusion of the caudal and lateral recesses of the 4th ventricle, then suboccipital craniectomy with lysis of these adhesions and removal of the thickened membrane which seals the 4th ventricle may be sufficient to re-establish normal fluid circulation. (4) If, however, a more extensive adhesive process has taken place, causing obstruction of the basilar cisternae or the subarachnoid bed generally over the cerebral and cerebellar hemispheres, either alone or in addition to the locations already mentioned, then treatment becomes much more difficult. The operative procedures mentioned are of no avail since they fail to provide access to an absorptive surface. The problem becomes essentially the same as in congenital idiopathic communicating hydrocephalus where no
Continuous Image Writer: a new approach to fast direct writing

We report on the development of a production tool of a new system for fast submicron lithography by optical direct wring. The Continuous Image Writer (CIW) combines the advantages of direct writing by using a programmable mask with the advantages of conventional optical lithography by using the same lithographic processes for image formation in photoresists. The CIW can write faster than conventional direct writers and it is more flexible than wafer steppers or scanners. The CIW is designed for maskless patterning of wafers and substrates down to 0.60 micrometers feature size. It reaches a maximum writing speed of 1,250 mm2/min. Our system uses a Lambda Physik KrF excimer laser as light source. The CIW includes all the components necessary for the fully automated exposure of wafers or substrates including automated substrate handling and alignment.
Human glioblastoma cells persistently infected with simian virus 40 carry nondefective episomal viral DNA and acquire the transformed phenotype and numerous chromosomal abnormalities

A stable, persistent infection of A172 human glioblastoma cells with simian virus 40 (SV40) was readily established after infection at an input of 450 PFU per cell. Only 11% of the cells were initially susceptible to SV40, as shown by indirect immunofluorescent staining for the SV40 T antigen at 48 h. However, all cells produced T antigen by week 11. In contrast, viral capsid proteins were made in only about 1% of the cells in the established carrier system. Weekly viral yields ranged between 10(4) and 10(6) PFU/ml. Most of the capsid protein-producing cells contained enormous aberrant (lobulated or multiple) nuclei. Persistent viral DNA appeared in an episomal or "free" state exclusively in Southern blots and was indistinguishable from standard SV40 DNA by restriction analysis. Viral autointerference activity was not detected, and yield reduction assays did not indicate defective interfering particle activity, further implying that variant viruses were not a factor in this carrier system. Interferon was also not a factor in the system, as shown by direct challenge with vesicular stomatitis virus. Persistent infection resulted in cellular growth changes (enhanced saturation density and plating efficiency) characteristic of SV40 transformation. Persistent infection also led to an increased frequency of cytogenetic effects. These included sister chromatid exchanges, a variety of chromosomal abnormalities (ring chromosomes, acentric fragments, breaks, and gaps), and an increase in the chromosome number. Nevertheless, the persistently infected cells continued to display a bipolar glial cell-like morphology with extensive process extension and intercellular contacts.
Implementation research to improve quality of maternal and newborn health care, Malawi

Abstract Objective To evaluate the impact of a performance-based financing scheme on maternal and neonatal health service quality in Malawi. Methods We conducted a non-randomized controlled before and after study to evaluate the effects of district- and facility-level performance incentives for health workers and management teams. We assessed changes in the facilities’ essential drug stocks, equipment maintenance and clinical obstetric care processes. Difference-in-difference regression models were used to analyse effects of the scheme on adherence to obstetric care treatment protocols and provision of essential drugs, supplies and equipment. Findings We observed 33 health facilities, 23 intervention facilities and 10 control facilities and 401 pregnant women across four districts. The scheme improved the availability of both functional equipment and essential drug stocks in the intervention facilities. We observed positive effects in respect to drug procurement and clinical care activities at non-intervention facilities, likely in response to improved district management performance. Birth assistants’ adherence to clinical protocols improved across all studied facilities as district health managers supervised and coached clinical staff more actively. Conclusion Despite nation-wide stock-outs and extreme health worker shortages, facilities in the study districts managed to improve maternal and neonatal health service quality by overcoming bottlenecks related to supply procurement, equipment maintenance and clinical performance. To strengthen and reform health management structures, performance-based financing may be a promising approach to sustainable improvements in quality of health care.