Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Femtosecond dynamics of electronic states in the Mott insulator 1T-TaS2 by time resolved photoelectron spectroscopy

Photoexcitation of the Mott insulator 1T-TaS2 by an intense laser pulse leads to an ultrafast transition toward a gapless phase. Besides the collapse of the electronic gap, the sudden excitation of the charge density wave (CDW) mode results in periodic oscillations of the electronic states. We employ time resolved photoelectron spectroscopy to monitor the rich dynamics of electrons and phonons during the relaxation toward equilibrium. The qualitative difference between the oscillatory dynamics of the CDW and the monotonic recovery of the electronic gap proves that 1T-TaS2 is indeed a Mott insulator. Moreover the quasi-instantaneous build-up of mid gap states is in contrast with the retarded response expected from a Peierls insulating phase. Interestingly, the photoinduced electronic states in the midgap spectral region display a weak resonance that is reminiscent of a quasiparticle peak.
Staphylococcus aureus native valve infective endocarditis: report of 566 episodes from the International Collaboration on Endocarditis Merged Database.

BACKGROUND Staphylococcus aureus native valve infective endocarditis (SA-NVIE) is not completely understood. The objective of this investigation was to describe the characteristics of a large, international cohort of patients with SA-NVIE. METHODS The International Collaboration on Endocarditis Merged Database (ICE-MD) is a combination of 7 existing electronic databases from 5 countries that contains data on 2212 cases of definite infective endocarditis (IE). RESULTS Of patients with native valve IE, 566 patients [corrected] had IE due to S. aureus, and 1074 patients had IE due to pathogens other than S. aureus (non-SA-NVIE). Patients with S. aureus IE were more likely to die (20% vs. 12%; P < .001), to experience an embolic event (61% [corrected] vs. 31%; P < .001), or to have a central nervous system event (21% [corrected] vs. 13%; P < .001) and were less likely to undergo surgery (26% vs. 39%; P < .001) than were patients with non-SA-NVIE. Multivariate analysis of prognostic factors of mortality identified age (odds ratio [OR], 1.4; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.1-1.7), periannular abscess (OR, 2.4; 95% CI, 1.0 [corrected] -5.6), heart failure (OR, 3.9; 95% CI, 2.3-6.7), and absence of surgical therapy (OR, 2.3; 95% CI, 1.3-4.2) as variables that were independently associated with mortality in patients with SA-NVIE. After adjusting for patient-, pathogen-, and treatment-specific characteristics by multivariate analysis, geographical region was also found to be associated with mortality in patients with SA-NVIE (P < .001). CONCLUSIONS S. aureus is an important and common cause of IE. The outcome of SA-NVIE is worse than that of non-SA-NVIE. Several clinical parameters are independently associated with mortality for patients with SA-NVIE. The clinical characteristics and outcome of SA-NVIE vary significantly by geographic region, although the reasons for such regional variations in outcomes of SA-NVIE are unknown and are probably multifactorial. A large, prospective, multinational cohort study of patients with IE is now under way to further investigate these observations.
A Maximum Entropy Approach to Chinese Word Segmentation

We participated in the Second International Chinese Word Segmentation Bakeoff. Specifically, we evaluated our Chinese word segmenter in the open track, on all four corpora, namely Academia Sinica (AS), City University of Hong Kong (CITYU), Microsoft Research (MSR), and Peking University (PKU). Based on a maximum entropy approach, our word segmenter achieved the highest F measure for AS, CITYU, and PKU, and the second highest for MSR. We found that the use of an external dictionary and additional training corpora of different segmentation standards helped to further improve segmentation accuracy. 1 Chinese Word Segmenter The Chinese word segmenter we built is similar to the maximum entropy word segmenter we employed in our previous work (Ng and Low, 2004). Our word segmenter uses a maximum entropy framework (Ratnaparkhi, 1998; Xue and Shen, 2003) and is trained on manually segmented sentences. It classifies each Chinese character given the features derived from its surrounding context. Each Chinese character can be assigned one of four possible boundary tags: s for a character that occurs as a single-character word, b for a character that begins a multi-character (i.e., two or more characters) word, e for a character that ends a multi-character word, and m for a character that is neither the first nor last in a multi-character word. Our implementation used the opennlp maximum entropy package v2.1. 0 from sourceforge.1
Structuring the verification of heap-manipulating programs

Most systems based on separation logic consider only restricted forms of implication or non-separating conjunction, as full support for these connectives requires a non-trivial notion of variable context, inherited from the logic of bunched implications (BI). We show that in an expressive type theory such as Coq, one can avoid the intricacies of BI, and support full separation logic very efficiently, using the native structuring primitives of the type theory. Our proposal uses reflection to enable equational reasoning about heaps, and Hoare triples with binary postconditions to further facilitate it. We apply these ideas to Hoare Type Theory, to obtain a new proof technique for verification of higher-order imperative programs that is general, extendable, and supports very short proofs, even without significant use of automation by tactics. We demonstrate the usability of the technique by verifying the fast congruence closure algorithm of Nieuwenhuis and Oliveras, employed in the state-of-the-art Barcelogic SAT solver.
Physical Modeling on Hydraulic Performance of Rectangular Bridge Deck Drains

This paper presents results from an extensive experimental study on hydraulic performance of new rectangular bridge deck drains developed by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) Bridge Division. It fits between the deck reinforcement with the top of the drain flush with the bridge surface and does not interfere with the structural connection of the bridge rail to the deck. Experiments have been performed by varying drain sizes, the number of open drains in series, approach discharges, cross slopes and longitudinal slopes. Measurements include a series of approach gutter flow depth and ponding width at different stations along the deck, and weir heights for capture and bypass discharges. An accurate prediction model has been developed for the captured discharge. The model reveals that the capture discharge is a function of the drain size, the number of open drains, the Manning’s roughness coefficient, the depth of approach flow, the longitudinal slope, and the cross slope. The rating curve for each individual drain in series is the same when the drain size is 10 cm by 20 cm; however, it decreases slightly along the flow direction when the drain size is 15 cm by 20 cm.
Development and Validation of a Sensitive Radioimmunoassay for Progesterone Estimation in Unextracted Mithun (Bos frontalis) Plasma

Abstract The objective of the study was to develop and validate a simple, reliable, and highly sensitive radioimmunoassay (RIA) for progesterone determination in mithun (Bos frontalis) plasma. The RIA was carried out in 20 µL unextracted mithun plasma. The progesterone standards ranging from 2 to 500 pg/20 µL/tube were prepared in charcoal‐treated hormone‐free plasma. The sensitivity of the RIA procedure was 2 pg progesterone/20 µL/tube, which corresponds to 0.1 ng/mL; the 50 percent relative binding sensitivity was seen at 32 pg/20 µL/tube. Plasma volumes for the RIA, viz. 10 and 20 µL, did not influence the shape of standard curve, even though a slight drop in the counts was seen with higher plasma volumes. For the biological validation of the assay, three cyclic, three in early pregnancy, and two in late pregnancy mithuns were used. Blood samples collected at weekly intervals for 42 days, from all animals, were assayed for plasma progesterone. The peak level of progesterone was registered at day 14 (day 21 of sampling) of the estrous cycle and the lowest at estrus; the progesterone concentrations increased and decreased gradually as sampling time advanced, in early and late pregnancy, respectively, which confirm the biological validation of the RIA. The RIA avoids the troublesome and laborious plasma extraction procedures. In conclusion, the RIA developed for progesterone determination in mithun blood plasma is sufficiently reliable, simple, and sensitive enough to estimate progesterone in all physiological variations in mithun.
Designing Effective CME—Potential Barriers to Practice Change in the Management of Depression: A Qualitative Study

Aim: The main aim of the current study is to explore GPs’ micro level obstacles of behavior change which affects diagnosis and management of Depressive Disorders following attendance at a Depression CME event. Methods: In this qualitative study, semi-structured interviews exploring GPs’ perceptions and experiences regarding the diagnosis and treatment of depression were done. A purposeful sampling to obtain a broad range of views was carried out among GPs that had participated in an educational intervention study three years earlier. Eleven GPs were interviewed and their views were probed in depth to get rich descriptions to ensure trustworthiness of the data. The data were analyzed by using qualitative content analysis. Results: GPs’ beliefs regarding micro level barriers emerged as two important themes individual and workplace factors. The individual themes included: educational and professional, and the contextual themes included: psychological disorders and work place categories. The results showed different perceptions on the barriers between the two groups of GPs, those who did change and had a positive perception of the CME program they participated in three years ago, and some who did not change. Conclusion: The results of this study imply that a number of micro level obstacles were of great importance when managing patients with depression disorders. In order to improve the effectiveness of CME events they should be tailored for the individual and address workplace issues i.e. both individual and contextual factors need attention.
A Review on Video-Based Human Activity Recognition

This review article surveys extensively the current progresses made toward video-based human activity recognition. Three aspects for human activity recognition are addressed including core technology, human activity recognition systems, and applications from low-level to high-level representation. In the core technology, three critical processing stages are thoroughly discussed mainly: human object segmentation, feature extraction and representation, activity detection and classification algorithms. In the human activity recognition systems, three main types are mentioned, including single person activity recognition, multiple people interaction and crowd behavior, and abnormal activity recognition. Finally the domains of applications are discussed in detail, specifically, on surveillance environments, entertainment environments and healthcare systems. Our survey, which aims to provide a comprehensive state-of-the-art review of the field, also addresses several challenges associated with these systems and applications. Moreover, in this survey, various applications are discussed in great detail, specifically, a survey on the applications in healthcare monitoring systems.
Modeling and Calibration of Inertial and Vision Sensors

This paper is concerned with the problem of estimating the relative translation and orientation of an inertial measurement unit and a camera, which are rigidly connected. The key is to realize that this problem is in fact an instance of a standard problem within the area of system identification, referred to as a gray-box problem. We propose a new algorithm for estimating the relative translation and orientation, which does not require any additional hardware, except a piece of paper with a checkerboard pattern on it. The method is based on a physical model which can also be used in solving, for example, sensor fusion problems. The experimental results show that the method works well in practice, both for perspective and spherical cameras.
Comparison of Lyophilized Glutaraldehyde-Preserved Bovine Pericardium with Different Vascular Prostheses for Use as Vocal Cords Implants: Experimental Study

This study compared the use of lyophilized glutaraldehyde-preserved bovine pericardium (LGPBP), polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and Teflon felt (TF) as implants for vocal cords (VC) medialization and aimed to assess the endoscopic, macroscopic, and microscopic VC changes after medialization in a canine model. In 18 mongrel dogs, the right VC were medialized with LGPBP and the left were implanted as follows: Group I (n = 6): LGPBP and PTFE; Group II (n = 6): LGPBP and PET; Group III (n = 6): LGPBP and TF. Surgical handling of the implants was compared. Three months after surgery, macroscopic and microscopic changes of VC and implants were evaluated. LGPBP offered the best surgical handling (p = 0.005, Kruskal-Wallis). TF implants showed extrusion (p = 0.005, Kruskal-Wallis) and severe inflammation. All VC formed fibrous capsules around the implants; the ones developed by LGPBP implants were thinner (p = 0.001, ANOVA, Tukey). VC implanted with synthetic materials showed eosinophilic infiltration (p = 0.01, Kruskal-Wallis). We concluded that the LGPBP could be used as an implant for VC medialization because it is biocompatible, easy to handle and remove during surgical procedures, and nonabsorbable or extrudable and produces an inflammatory reaction similar to PTFE and PET.
Recurrent PRDM10 Gene Fusions in Undifferentiated Pleomorphic Sarcoma

Purpose: Undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma (UPS) is defined as a sarcoma with cellular pleomorphism and no identifiable line of differentiation. It is typically a high-grade lesion with a metastatic rate of about one third. No tumor-specific rearrangement has been identified, and genetic markers that could be used for treatment stratification are lacking. We performed transcriptome sequencing (RNA-Seq) to search for novel gene fusions. Experimental design: RNA-Seq, FISH, and/or various PCR methodologies were used to search for gene fusions and rearrangements of the PRDM10 gene in 84 soft tissue sarcomas. Results: Using RNA-Seq, two cases of UPS were found to display novel gene fusions, both involving the transcription factor PRDM10 as the 3′ partner and either MED12 or CITED2 as the 5′ partner gene. Further screening of 82 soft tissue sarcomas for rearrangements of the PRDM10 locus revealed one more UPS with a MED12/PRDM10 fusion. None of these genes has been implicated in neoplasia-associated gene fusions before. Conclusions: Our results suggest that PRDM10 fusions are present in around 5% of UPS. Although the fusion-positive cases in our series showed the same nuclear pleomorphism and lack of differentiation as other UPS, it is noteworthy that all three were morphologically low grade and that none of the patients developed metastases. Thus, PRDM10 fusion-positive sarcomas may constitute a clinically important subset of UPS. Clin Cancer Res; 21(4); 864–9. ©2014 AACR.
Microsaccades Keep the Eyes' Balance During Fixation

During fixation of a stationary target, small involuntary eye movements exhibit an erratic trajectory—a random walk. Two types of these fixational eye movements are drift and microsaccades (small-amplitude saccades). We investigated fixational eye movements and binocular coordination using a statistical analysis that had previously been applied to human posture control. This random-walk analysis uncovered two different time scales in fixational eye movements and identified specific functions for microsaccades. On a short time scale, microsaccades enhanced perception by increasing fixation errors. On a long time scale, microsaccades reduced fixation errors and binocular disparity (relative to pure drift movements). Thus, our findings clarify the role of oculomotor processes during fixation.
Improved bounds on the throughput efficiency of greedy maximal scheduling in wireless networks

In this paper, we derive new bounds on the throughput efficiency of Greedy Maximal Scheduling (GMS) for wireless networks of arbitrary topology under the general k-hop interference model. These results improve the known bounds for networks with up to 26 nodes under the 2-hop interference model. We also prove that GMS is throughput-optimal in small networks. In particular, we show that GMS achieves 100% throughput in networks with up to eight nodes under the 2-hop interference model. Furthermore, we provide a simple proof to show that GMS can be implemented using only local neighborhood information in networks of any size.
Effective removal of organic pollutants using GeO2/TiO2 nanoparticle composites under direct sunlight

TiO2 and GeO2/TiO2 nanoparticle composites were synthesized from titanium tetraisopropoxide, germanium oxide, dry ethanol, and diethanolamine using a solution combustion method. The synthesized catalysts were characterized using powder X-ray diffraction, UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller surface area analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, Fourier transform Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. The photocatalytic degradation of rhodamine B (RhB) dye in aqueous solution (2.06 × 10−5 M) was achieved using synthesized pristine TiO2 (P-T) and GeO2/TiO2 (GT) nanoparticle composite catalysts under direct sunlight. Among the synthesized catalysts, 1-GT afforded 100% RhB degradation in aqueous solution within 180 min. Furthermore, 85, 87, and 83% degradation was achieved using P-T, 2-GT, and 3-GT nanoparticles, respectively. RhB degradation was confirmed by chemical oxygen demand and total organic carbon analyses.
Myocardial interstitial Cajal-like cells (ICLC) and their nanostructural relationships with intercalated discs: shed vesicles as intermediates

Intercalated discs (ID) are complex junctional units that connect cardiac myocytes mechanically and electrochemically. However, there is limited information concerning the cardiomyocyte interaction with interstitial non‐muscle cells. Our previous studies showed that myocardial interstitial Cajal‐like cells (ICLC) are located in between cardiomyocytes, blood capillaries and nerve fibres. Typically, ICLC have several very long, moniliform, cytoplasmic processes which establish closed contacts with nerve fibres, as well as each other. We report here ultrastructural evidence concerning the relationships of ICLC processes with ID. The ICLC cytoplasmic prolongations (tens micrometers length) preferentially pass by or stop nearby the ID. Transmission electron microscopy emphasized three distinct connecting features between the tips of ICLC extensions and myocytes at the ‘mouth’ of ID: free or budding shed vesicles, exocytotic multi‐vesicular bodies and direct contacts. In the last case, electron‐dense repetitive nanostructures (‘pillars’) (35–40 nm high and 100–150 nm wide, similar to adhesion molecules) fasten the ICLC to the myocytes. All these features suggest a juxtacrine and/or paracrine intercellular mutual modulation of ICLC and cardiomyocytes in the microenvironment of ID, possibly monitoring the cardiac functions, particularly the electrical activity.
Lossy Mode Resonance Generation With Indium-Tin-Oxide-Coated Optical Fibers for Sensing Applications

Surface plasmon resonances and lossy mode resonances (LMRs) can be generated with indium tin oxide (ITO) coated optical fibers. Both phenomena are analyzed and compared. LMRs present important advantages: they do not require a specific polarization of light, it is possible to generate multiple attenuation bands in the transmission spectrum, and the sensitivity of the device to external parameters can be tuned. The key parameter is the thickness of the ITO coating. The study is supported with both theoretical and experimental results. The main purposes are sensing and generation of multiple-wavelength filters.
Detection of Human Papillomavirus DNA in Urine Specimens from Human Immunodeficiency Virus-Positive Women

ABSTRACT Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive women may represent one of the fastest-growing populations at risk for acquiring cervical cancer and thus require frequent screening. The purpose of the present studies was to validate a PCR-based urine assay by comparing detection and genotyping of human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA in urine samples and matching cervical swab specimens of HIV-positive women. Despite a difference in amplifiability, the prevalence of any HPV genotype (58% for the cervical swab specimens and 48% for the urine specimens) was not significantly different in this population. The levels of concordance were 70, 71, and 78% for detection of any HPV type, any high-risk HPV type, or any low-risk HPV type in the two specimen types, respectively. While instances of discordant detection were greater for the cervical swab specimens than for the urine specimens, this was not statistically significant. The distributions of HPV genotypes were similar in the cervix and the urine for the majority of types examined. Importantly, detection of HPV DNA in urine was associated with an abnormal Papanicolaou smear to the same extent that detection of HPV DNA in a cervical swab specimen was. These data provide preliminary support for the proposal to use urine testing as a primary or secondary screening tool for cervical cancer in HIV-positive women or as an epidemiological tool. Additional studies with larger sample sizes must be conducted in order to further verify these findings.
Radar Measurement of Human Polarimetric Micro-Doppler

We use polarimetric micro-Doppler for the detection of arm motion, especially for the classification of whether someone has their arms swinging and is thus unloaded. The arm is often bent at the elbow, providing a surface somewhat similar to a dihedral. This is distinct from the more planar surfaces of the body which allows us to isolate the signals of the arm (and knee). The dihedral produces a double bounce that can be seen in polarimetric radar data bymeasuring the phase difference between HH and VV. This measurement can then be used to determine whether the subject is unloaded.
CAD/CAE for stress–strain properties of a wide range of multifilament twisted man-made filament yarns

In a previous paper, the computer aided design (CAD)/computer aided engineering (CAE) approach was presented and compared via the stress–strain curves of high-tenacity rayon yarn and the energy method. The maximum stress–extension curves showed very good agreement with experimental results and were more accurate than the previous methods. In this paper, the CAD/CAE method is considered in relation to multifilament yarn, which is equally applicable to a wide range of man-made filament yarns from nine material types. The results of this prediction model were compared with the stress–strain curves of experimental results and the energy method. The maximum stress–extension curves showed very good agreement with the experimental results except for the high-tenacity Terylene and Fortisan. The reasons for the poor agreement between the experimental and predicted curves are discussed. The breaking points obtained with this method are also compared with experimental results and discussed.