Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Intrinsic Flame-Retardant and Thermally Stable Epoxy Endowed by a Highly Efficient, Multifunctional Curing Agent

It is difficult to realize flame retardancy of epoxy without suffering much detriment in thermal stability. To solve the problem, a super-efficient phosphorus-nitrogen-containing reactive-type flame retardant, 10-(hydroxy(4-hydroxyphenyl)methyl)-5,10-dihydrophenophosphazinine-10-oxide (HB-DPPA) is synthesized and characterized. When it is used as a co-curing agent of 4,4′-methylenedianiline (DDM) for curing diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA), the cured epoxy achieves UL-94 V-0 rating with the limiting oxygen index of 29.3%. In this case, the phosphorus content in the system is exceptionally low (0.18 wt %). To the best of our knowledge, it currently has the highest efficiency among similar epoxy systems. Such excellent flame retardancy originates from the exclusive chemical structure of the phenophosphazine moiety, in which the phosphorus element is stabilized by the two adjacent aromatic rings. The action in the condensed phase is enhanced and followed by pressurization of the pyrolytic gases that induces the blowing-out effect during combustion. The cone calorimeter result reveals the formation of a unique intumescent char structure with five discernible layers. Owing to the super-efficient flame retardancy and the rigid molecular structure of HB-DPPA, the flame-retardant epoxy acquires high thermal stability and its initial decomposition temperature only decreases by 4.6 °C as compared with the unmodified one.
Stress and Puerperal Psychosis

Eighty-eight in-patients admitted to a psychiatric mother-and-baby unit and 80 randomly selected recently delivered women in the general population were interviewed using the LEDS. Only five of 33 patients (15%) with puerperal psychosis had provoking agents, which is less than the figure for women in the community (36%). Provoking agents were present in only 8 of 25 patients with post-natal depression, but they were present in seven of nine patients with pre-natal depression and eight of nine women in the community with pre-natal depression.
Method-specific dynamic compilation using logistic regression

Determining the best set of optimizations to apply to a program has been a long standing problem for compiler writers. To reduce the complexity of this task, existing approaches typically apply the same set of optimizations to all procedures within a program, without regard to their particular structure. This paper develops a new method-specific approach that automatically selects the best optimizations on a per method basis within a dynamic compiler. Our approach uses the machine learning technique of logistic regression to automatically derive a predictive model that determines which optimizations to apply based on the features of a method. This technique is implemented in the Jikes RVM Java JIT compiler. Using this approach we reduce the average total execution time of the SPECjvm98 benchmarks by 29%. When the same heuristic is applied to the DaCapo+ benchmark suite, we obtain an average 33% reduction over the default level O2 setting.
HadoopToSQL: a mapReduce query optimizer

MapReduce is a cost-effective way to achieve scalable performance for many log-processing workloads. These workloads typically process their entire dataset. MapReduce can be inefficient, however, when handling business-oriented workloads, especially when these workloads access only a subset of the data. HadoopToSQL seeks to improve MapReduce performance for the latter class of workloads by transforming MapReduce queries to use the indexing, aggregation and grouping features provided by SQL databases. It statically analyzes the computation performed by the MapReduce queries. The static analysis uses symbolic execution to derive preconditions and postconditions for the map and reduce functions. It then uses this information either to generate input restrictions, which avoid scanning the entire dataset, or to generate equivalent SQL queries, which take advantage of SQL grouping and aggregation features. We demonstrate the performance of MapReduce queries, when optimized by HadoopToSQL, by both single-node and cluster experiments. HadoopToSQL always improves performance over MapReduce and approximates that of hand-written SQL.
Paraphrase Generation from Latent-Variable PCFGs for Semantic Parsing

One of the limitations of semantic parsing approaches to open-domain question answering is the lexicosyntactic gap between natural language questions and knowledge base entries -- there are many ways to ask a question, all with the same answer. In this paper we propose to bridge this gap by generating paraphrases of the input question with the goal that at least one of them will be correctly mapped to a knowledge-base query. We introduce a novel grammar model for paraphrase generation that does not require any sentence-aligned paraphrase corpus. Our key idea is to leverage the flexibility and scalability of latent-variable probabilistic context-free grammars to sample paraphrases. We do an extrinsic evaluation of our paraphrases by plugging them into a semantic parser for Freebase. Our evaluation experiments on the WebQuestions benchmark dataset show that the performance of the semantic parser significantly improves over strong baselines.
Stereological investigation of the effect of Elaeagnus angustifolia fruit hydroalcoholic extract on osteoporosis in ovariectomized rats

Objective: Postmenopausal osteoporosis is characterized by increased fracture risk. However, each approved treatment has specific side effects. Therefore, foods with plant origins have increasingly attracted attention as an alternative treatment. Studies have shown that Elaeagnus angustifolia (EA) has antioxidant properties. The present study aimed to investigate the effects of EA hydroalcoholic extract on ovariectomy-induced osteoporosis in rats using stereological methods. Material and Methods: 55 female Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly assigned to control, sham operated (normal saline), ovariectomized (OVX), OVX + EA fruit extract (600 mg/kg BW/day), and OVX + estradiol benzoate (3 mg/kg BW) for 16 weeks. Blood samples were collected to measure calcium, phosphorus, and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) plasma levels. Then, specimens from tibia and fifth lumbar vertebra (L5) bones were prepared and stereological analysis was done. Results: Ovariectomy significantly decreased the calcium level and increased the ALP level in the OVX group. In spite of improvement in calcium hemostasis in groups treated with estrogen and EA fruit extract (p<0.05), only treatment with estrogen was able to reduce ALP levels. Moreover, treatment with EA fruit extract and estrogen caused a significant increase in the number of osteoblasts in vertebra and tibia compared to the OVX group (p<0.05). Estrogen and EA fruit extract were also able to reduce the number of osteoclasts in tibia of the treated OVX rats (p<0.05). Conclusion: The results showed that EA extract exerted more effects, markedly, on osteoblastogenesis in the OVX rats. Thus, it could be considered as a potential agent to treat patients with osteoporosis.
The measurement of microbial carbohydrate exopolymers from intertidal sediments

Measurements of microbial extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) of natural field populations are required to understand the processes of biogenic stabilization and the microbial ecology of intertidal sediments. EPS in sediments can be measured by the phenol-sulfuric acid assay to measure carbohydrate concentration in sediment samples. We conducted comparative studies of storage and extraction methods for carbohydrate fractions on intertidal estuarine sediments. Measurements of both total and colloidal (material remaining in suspension after aqueous extraction and centrifugation) carbohydrate concentrations were highly dependent on storage conditions, sample size, extraction media, and time. Precipitation (in 70% ethanol) of EPS from saline (25 permill extractions of colloidal carbohydrate (colloidal S) from four different sediment microbial assemblages showed that 20% of colloidal carbohydrate present in extracts consisted of EPS. Concentrations of colloidal S were highly correlated with diatom biomass as determined by chlorophyll a concentrations. Extractions that used 100 mM Na-2EDTA as the extracting medium (colloidal EDTA) increased the concentrations of colloidal carbohydrate obtained and, in sediments dominated by bacteria and cyanobacteria, increased the percentage of EPS in the material to 38%. Uronic acids comprised 20% of the total amount of carbohydrate measured in both total sediment and colloidal-S extracts but increased to 65% in colloidal-EDTA extracts. suggesting that colloidal-EDTA extractions remove bacterial capsular EPS and EPS more closely associated with sediment particles.
No identifi able Hb 1 Ac or lifestyle change after a comprehensive diabetes programme including motivational interviewing : A cluster randomised trial

Objective. To study the effectiveness of a comprehensive diabetes programme in general practice that integrates patientcentred lifestyle counselling into structured diabetes care. Design and setting. Cluster randomised trial in general practices. Intervention . Nurse-led structured diabetes care with a protocol, record keeping, reminders, and feedback, plus training in motivational interviewing and agenda setting. Subjects. Primary care nurses in 58 general practices and their 940 type 2 diabetes patients with an HbA1c concentration above 7%, and a body mass index (BMI) above 25 kg/m 2 . Main outcome measures . HbA1c, diet, and physical activity (medical records and patient questionnaires). Results. Multilevel linear and logistic regression analyses adjusted for baseline outcomes showed that despite active nurse participation in the intervention, the comprehensive programme was no more effective than usual care after 14 months, as shown by HbA1c levels (difference between groups 0.13; CI 0.8 – 0.35) and diet (fat (difference between groups 0.19; CI 0.82 – 1.21); vegetables (difference between groups 0.10; CI-0.21 – 0.41); fruit (difference between groups 0.02; CI 0.26 – 0.22)), and physical activity (difference between groups 1.15; CI 12.26 – 9.97), or any of the other measures of clinical parameters, patient ’ s readiness to change, or quality of life. Conclusion. A comprehensive programme that integrated lifestyle counselling based on motivational interviewing principles integrated into structured diabetes care did not alter HbA1c or the lifestyle related to diet and physical activity. We thus question the impact of motivational interviewing in terms of its ability to improve routine diabetes care in general practice.
Manufacture of Ceramic Bricks Using Recycled Brewing Spent Kieselguhr

In the brewing process, kieselguhr performs as a filtration medium and one generated by-product is a sludge containing kieselguhr, which is mainly composed of fragmented diatom frustules associated to organic material retained during the clarification process. The physic-mechanic tests were performed on assemblages with brick composition and brewing spent kieselguhr containing 3, 9, and 15 wt% incorporation levels of sludge, being extruded and dried (105°C) before being submitted to slow firing at 900°C, 950°C, and 1000°C. The obtained results showed that, even when at its maximum incorporation level, the spent kieselguhr for all firing temperatures do not cause important losses on the properties exhibited by the clay paste without kieselguhr incorporation and the best incorporation levels are 4.2 wt% when fired at 900°C, 9.8 wt% when fired at 950°C, and 13.4 wt% when fired at 1000°C. When fired at 950°C, 15 wt% addition of spent kieselguhr increased by 27% the open porosity and decreased by 10% the bulk density of the brick paste. Furthermore, physic-mechanic tests and ecotoxicity evaluation on semi-industrial brick manufactured with 9 wt% of brewing spent kieselguhr were accessed. The results do no show any constrain concerning mechanical properties, and the ecotoxicity evaluation shows the safety of the brewing spent kieselguhr incorporation in ceramic products.
Topical versus peribulbar anaesthesia for cataract surgery.

BACKGROUND To assess and compare the efficacy and safety of topical versus peribulbar anaesthesia in patients undergoing routine cataract surgery. METHODS The unicentre, prospective, randomized, clinical interventional trial included 140 consecutive patients undergoing routine cataract surgery performed by one of two surgeons. The patients were randomly distributed to either peribulbar anaesthesia or topical anaesthesia. To assess intraoperative pain, each patient was asked immediately after surgery to quantitate his/her pain using a 10-point pain rating scale. RESULTS The study groups did not differ significantly in pain score (p=0.54), duration of surgery (p=0.52), anaesthesia-related intraoperative difficulties (p=0.17), postoperative visual acuity (p=0.94), overall intraoperative surgical complication rate, blood pressure rise (p=0.16) or blood oxygen saturation (p=0.74) CONCLUSIONS Patient comfort and surgery-related complications did not differ between topical anaesthesia and peribulbar anaesthesia. As there are no significant differences between the two techniques in terms of subjective pain experienced by patients, intraoperative complications and postoperative visual outcome, and in view of the minimally invasive character of topical anaesthesia compared to peribulbar anaesthesia, the present study suggests the use of topical anaesthesia for routine cataract surgery.
Performance Analysis of Hybrid Codecs G.711 and G.729 over Signaling Protocols H.323 and SIP

Due to the rapid growth of the internet, customers request more applications over internet such as telephony and video. VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is an emerging technology for voice communication which deploys many techniques to produce a high-quality service. Signaling is one of success keys of Voice over IP; the two most promised approaches in this case are H.323 and SIP. This paper draws a comparison between the four combinations of H.323 and SIP (Session Initiation Protocol), G . 711 and G.729 (each combination includes one protocol and one hybrid codec) using a powerful network simulation tool (OPNET Modeler) which enables network simulation by employing various protocols. The combination H.323 and G.729 proved to be the most appropriate one in the connection process.
Delphinidin, One of the Major Anthocyanidins, Prevents Bone Loss through the Inhibition of Excessive Osteoclastogenesis in Osteoporosis Model Mice

Anthocyanins, one of the flavonoid subtypes, are a large family of water-soluble phytopigments and have a wide range of health-promoting benefits. Recently, an anthocyanin-rich compound from blueberries was reported to possess protective property against bone loss in ovariectomized (OVX) animal models. However, the active ingredients in the anthocyanin compound have not been identified. Here we show that delphinidin, one of the major anthocyanidins in berries, is a potent active ingredient in anti-osteoporotic bone resorption through the suppression of osteoclast formation. In vitro examinations revealed that delphinidin treatment markedly inhibited the differentiation of RAW264.7 cells into osteoclasts compared with other anthocyanidins, cyanidin and peonidin. Oral administration of delphinidin significantly prevented bone loss in both RANKL-induced osteoporosis model mice and OVX model mice. We further provide evidence that delphinidin suppressed the activity of NF-κB, c-fos, and Nfatc1, master transcriptional factors for osteoclastogenesis. These results strongly suggest that delphinidin is the most potent inhibitor of osteoclast differentiation and will be an effective agent for preventing bone loss in postmenopausal osteoporosis.
A 120-W Boost Converter Operation Using a High-Voltage GaN-HEMT

A boost converter with a 940-V/4.4 A GaN-HEMT as the main switching device was demonstrated to show the possibility of using high-voltage GaN-HEMTs in power electronic applications. The demonstrated circuit achieved an output power of 122 W and a power efficiency of 94.2% under a drain peak voltage as high as 350 V and a switching frequency of 1 MHz. The dual field-plate structure realized high-voltage switching operation with high power efficiency as dynamic on-resistance was suppressed by an increase of the current collapse phenomena.
In vivo indirect measurement of cytochrome P450‐associated activities in freshwater gastropod molluscs

The cytochrome P450 (CYP) system is widely distributed across phyla and plays a key role in the metabolism of xenobiotic compounds. However, most studies on CYP system were developed on vertebrates and among invertebrates, gastropod molluscs are rarely used. In this context, ethoxycoumarin‐O‐deethylase (ECOD), ethoxyresorufin‐O‐deethylase (EROD), and pentoxyresorufin‐O‐dealkylase (PROD) activities, which are indirect measurements of CYP system, were characterized in two freshwater gastropod molluscs, Potamopyrgus antipodarum, and Valvata piscinalis, to ascertain their potential interest as biomarkers of exposure to chemicals. Activities were measured using an in vivo non lethal method based on the measurement of formed product (resorufin or hydroxycoumarin). This in vivo assay allowed to measure the three activities in P. antipodarum and two of them (ECOD and PROD) in V. piscinalis. The detection of activities and the optimization of experimental design were carried out first and allowed to measure the selected activities for one individual. The modulation of the detected activities was secondly assessed using a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (Benzo(a)pyrene). Based on this non destructive measurement, effect of BaP exposure could be detected on ECOD and EROD activity in P. antipodarum, as well on PROD activity of V. piscinalis after 96 h of exposure. Such an in vivo assay must be further developed to be valuably used to screen the exposure of gastropod species to CYP inducer chemicals and its consequences in terms of fitness of the organisms and of the population. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Environ Toxicol 25: 545–553, 2010.
Dynamic Pricing of Limited Inventories When Customers Negotiate

Although take-it-or-leave-it pricing is the main mode of operation for many retailers, a number of retailers discreetly allow price negotiation when some haggle-prone customers ask for a bargain. At these retailers, the posted price, which itself is subject to dynamic adjustments in response to the pace of sales during the selling season, serves two important roles: (i) it is the take-it-or-leave-it price to many customers who do not bargain, and (ii) it is the price from which haggle-prone customers negotiate down. To effectively measure the benefit of dynamic pricing and negotiation in such a retail environment, one must take into account the interactions among inventory, dynamic pricing, and negotiation. The outcome of the negotiation (and the final price a customer pays) depends on the inventory level, the remaining selling season, the retailer's bargaining power, and the posted price. We model the retailer's dynamic pricing problem as a dynamic program, where the revenues from both negotiation and posted pricing are embedded in each period. We characterize the optimal posted price and the resulting negotiation outcome as a function of inventory and time. We also show that negotiation is an effective tool to achieve price discrimination, particularly when the inventory level is high and/or the remaining selling season is short, even when implementing negotiation is costly.
Collective Search for Concept Disambiguation

Name ambiguity is a major problem in information retrieval: The name "Metropolis" may refer to a movie, a physicist, or Superman’s hometown. Recent work resolves ambiguity in natural language text by linking name mentions against the corresponding Wikipedia concept (Wikification). Standard methods comparing a single mention with the corresponding Wikipedia concept can potentially be improved by simultaneously considering all mentions in the input document. We propose a novel multiple assignment process based on a collective search over an inverted index that exploits the coherence of Wikipedia concepts. Based on this coherence, we compute the best fitting candidate concept for each mention and combine it with context information in a second search step. Using additional attributes an SVM then re-ranks the result of this search and estimates if a concept is not covered in Wikipedia. We give a unified view over the different performance measures used in other state-of-the art approaches and evaluate our approach on five benchmark corpora. On these corpora, our method has the most stable performance yielding similar or better results compared to other approaches.
The Liverpool Bay coastal observatory

The pilot coastal observatory in the eastern Irish Sea integrates (near) real-time measurements with coupled models in a pre-operational coastal prediction system. The aim is to develop the underpinning science for marine management, focusing on the impacts of storms, eutrophication and the relative importance of events viz-a-viz the mean. Real time current measurements are obtained from a seabed mounted acoustic Doppler current profiler; deployment started in August 2002, via acoustic modems and the Orbcomm satellite e-mail system, and from a shore based HF radar via telephone landlines. There are also real time measurements from a surface buoy and a directional wave buoy and from an instrumented ferry, all via Orbcomm. The measurements are integrated with a suite of nested 3-dimensional hydrodynamic and ecological models run daily, focusing on the Observatory area by covering the ocean/shelf of northwest Europe (at 12 km resolution), the Irish Sea (at 1.8 km) and Liverpool Bay (at 200-300m resolution). All measurements and model outputs are displayed on the Web-site (http://coastobs.pol.ac.uk).
Randomized Comparison of Sevoflurane Versus Propofol to Reduce Perioperative Myocardial Ischemia in Patients Undergoing Noncardiac Surgery

Background— Volatile anesthetics provide myocardial preconditioning in coronary surgery patients. We hypothesized that sevoflurane compared with propofol reduces the incidence of myocardial ischemia in patients undergoing major noncardiac surgery. Methods and Results— We enrolled 385 patients at cardiovascular risk in 3 centers. Patients were randomized to maintenance of anesthesia with sevoflurane or propofol. We recorded continuous ECG for 48 hours perioperatively, measured troponin T and N-terminal prohormone of brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) on postoperative days 1 and 2, and evaluated postoperative delirium by the Confusion Assessment Method. At 6 and 12 months, we contacted patients by telephone to assess major adverse cardiac events. The primary end point was a composite of myocardial ischemia detected by continuous ECG and/or troponin elevation. Additional end points were postoperative NT-proBNP concentrations, major adverse cardiac events, and delirium. Patients and outcome assessors were blinded. We tested dichotomous end points by &khgr;2 test and NT-proBNP by Mann–Whitney test on an intention-to-treat basis. Myocardial ischemia occurred in 75 patients (40.8%) in the sevoflurane and 81 (40.3%) in the propofol group (relative risk, 1.01; 95% confidence interval, 0.78–1.30). NT-proBNP release did not differ across allocation on postoperative day 1 or 2. Within 12 months, 14 patients (7.6%) suffered a major adverse cardiac event after sevoflurane and 17 (8.5%) after propofol (relative risk, 0.90; 95% confidence interval, 0.44–1.83). The incidence of delirium did not differ (11.4% versus 14.4%; P=0.379). Conclusions— Compared with propofol, sevoflurane did not reduce the incidence of myocardial ischemia in high-risk patients undergoing major noncardiac surgery. The sevoflurane and propofol groups did not differ in postoperative NT-proBNP release, major adverse cardiac events at 1 year, or delirium. Clinical Trial Registration— URL: http://www.clinicaltrials. gov. Unique identifier: NCT00286585.