Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
PHYSICO-CHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF HUMAN ARTICULAR CARTILAGE

Cartilaginous tissues such as articular cartilage and the intervertebral disc are called upon to function under very high pressures which they can do, thanks to the very special properties of their two major components, viz., the proteoglycans (PG) and collagen. The PG, a flexible polyelectrolyte of high fixed charge density has a high osmotic pressure and therefore a tendency to imbibe water and maintain tissue turgor while the collagen mesh, with its good tensile properties, prevents undue swelling, thus enabling the proteoglycan-water mixture to exist as a concentrated solution. Moreover, by resisting instantaneous deformation, the collagen network ensures the dimensional stability of cartilage. The combination of the two components enables a cartilaginous tissue to exhibit flexibility and to withstand tensile stresses as well as high compressive loads. Moreover, cartilage is an avascular tissue, hence the transport of nutrients and different substrates is controlled by the properties of the matrix. In addition to common nutrients, various regulatory substances, such as growth hormones and cytokines, also have to reach the cell. These substances are often required in extremely small amounts which, however, need to be rigorously controlled. This again, depends on transport through the extracellular space. At the same time, metabolic waste products are secreted by the cells into the matrix and have to pass through the latter in order to reach the synovial fluid for removal from the joint space. The same must happen to matrix macromolecules degraded in the course of normal turnover, whether the degradation happens intra- or extracellularly. Finally, macromolecules, newly synthesized by the cells, are secreted into the matrix and must move through it before being assembled at some distance from the cell. The concentration of a solute within the matrix, apart from being an important factor in determining the rate of transport, is also able to modify the properties of the matrix itself. Thus, ionic concentrations are largely responsible for determining the level of the osmotic pressure within the cartilage matrix in general, and in the immediate environment of the cell in particular. The osmotic pressure of the matrix, in turn, is responsible for the resistance of cartilage to fluid loss and hence to compressive stresses. Together with the hydraulic permeability of the pore space, it is also an important determinant of the rate of fluid movement out of and into the tissue. In addition, the high ionic concentration and osmotic pressure in the immediate environment of the chondrocyte have been shown to affect their synthetic processes.
Measuring the Quality of Observational Study Data in an International HIV Research Network

Observational studies of health conditions and outcomes often combine clinical care data from many sites without explicitly assessing the accuracy and completeness of these data. In order to improve the quality of data in an international multi-site observational cohort of HIV-infected patients, the authors conducted on-site, Good Clinical Practice-based audits of the clinical care datasets submitted by participating HIV clinics. Discrepancies between data submitted for research and data in the clinical records were categorized using the audit codes published by the European Organization for the Research and Treatment of Cancer. Five of seven sites had error rates >10% in key study variables, notably laboratory data, weight measurements, and antiretroviral medications. All sites had significant discrepancies in medication start and stop dates. Clinical care data, particularly antiretroviral regimens and associated dates, are prone to substantial error. Verifying data against source documents through audits will improve the quality of databases and research and can be a technique for retraining staff responsible for clinical data collection. The authors recommend that all participants in observational cohorts use data audits to assess and improve the quality of data and to guide future data collection and abstraction efforts at the point of care.
The Power of Choice in Priority Scheduling

Consider the following random process: we are given n queues, into which elements of increasing labels are inserted uniformly at random. To remove an element, we pick two queues at random, and remove the element of lower label (higher priority) among the two. The cost of a removal is the rank of the label removed, among labels still present in any of the queues, that is, the distance from the optimal choice at each step. Variants of this strategy are prevalent in state-of-the-art concurrent priority queue implementations. Nonetheless, it is not known whether such implementations provide any rank guarantees, even in a sequential model. We answer this question, showing that this strategy provides surprisingly strong guarantees: Although the single-choice process, where we always insert and remove from a single randomly chosen queue, has degrading cost, going to infinity as we increase the number of steps, in the two choice process, the expected rank of a removed element is O(n) while the expected worst-case cost is O(n log n). These bounds are tight, and hold irrespective of the number of steps for which we run the process. The argument is based on a new technical connection between "heavily loaded" balls-into-bins processes and priority scheduling. Our analytic results inspire a new concurrent priority queue implementation, which improves upon the state of the art in terms of practical performance.
Pedestrian intention recognition by means of a Hidden Markov Model and body language

According to several reports published by world-wide organisations, thousands of pedestrians die on road accidents every year. Due to this fact, vehicular technologies have been evolving with the intent of reducing these fatalities. Improving these technological advances is crucial since an early recognition of pedestrian intentions can lead to much more accurate active interventions in last second automatic manoeuvres. This paper proposes a method based on a Hidden Markov Model that recognises intentions by means of 3D positions and displacements of 11 joints located along the pedestrian body. The method is able to recognise the intention with an accuracy of 95.13%. It recognises starting intentions 125 ms after gait initiation with an accuracy of 80% and stopping intentions 291.67 and 58.33 ms before the event with an accuracy of 50% and 70% respectively. In addition, an approach based on point clouds and anthropometric constraints to extract the joints in realistic environments is proposed.
AFFECT , MEDIA AND EARTHQUAKES : DETERMINANTS OF CRASH BELIEFS FROM INVESTOR

Historical data suggest that the base rate for a severe, single-day stock market crash is relatively low. Surveys of individual and institutional investors, conducted regularly over a 26-year period in the United States, show that they assess the probability to be much higher. We examine factors influencing investor responses and test the role of media influence, finding evidence consistent with an availability bias. Adverse market events made salient by financial press are associated with higher subjective crash probabilities. Exogenous shocks related to earthquakes are also associated with higher probabilities. Finally, subjective crash probabilities are negatively associated with mutual fund flows.
Up-regulation of Human Herpesvirus 6B-derived microRNAs in the Serum of Patients with Drug-induced Hypersensitivity Syndrome/Drug Reaction with Eosinophilia and Systemic Symptoms.

Drug-induced hypersensitivity syndrome/drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms (DIHS/DRESS) is a life-threatening multi-organ hypersensitivity reaction. Reactivation of human herpesvirus 6B (HHV-6B), which typically occurs 2–3 weeks after its onset, has been implicated in DIHS/DRESS (1). Reactivation of HHV-6 has been reported to correlate with flaring of symptoms such as fever and hepatitis (2) and renal failure (3) in patients with DIHS/DRESS, indicating that virus reactivation could contribute to some symptoms or complications in DIHS/DRESS. However, it has also been reported that reactivation of HHV-6 could be merely a result of a strong drug-specific immune response and not contribute to DRESS symptoms and severity (4). MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play important roles in biological processes such as immune responses and cell differentiation. Herpesviruses express their own miRNAs and may regulate key viral genes (5). HHV-6A encodes miR-U86 that regulates viral lytic replication (6), while HHV-6B encodes at least 4 miRNAs: hhv6b-miR-Ro6-1, -2, -3 and -4 (7). However, the precise roles of these 4 miRNAs in the regulation of HHV-6B latency and reactivation remain largely unknown. Moreover, the roles of individual miRNAs in DIHS/DRESS have not yet been elucidated. The present study investigated the expression levels of the 4 HHV-6B miRNAs in the serum of patients with DIHS/DRESS during the acute and subacute stages.
Effects of lactation number and different stage of lactation on milk yield of Indigenous and Crossbred cows in Bangladesh

A total of 54 samples were collected from 18 milking cows from which nine were indigenous and nine were crossbred to evaluate the effects of different lactation number and different stage of lactation on the milk yield. The average daily milk yield of indigenous and crossbred cows at 1st, 2nd and 3rd lactation were 1.311, 1.633, 2.072 and 8.917, 9.567, 10.167 liter/day/cow respectively and represented the significant difference (p<0.01) within the daily milk yield of different lactations. Milk yield increased gradually from 1st to 3rd lactation. The highest milk yield was recorded in 3rd lactation and lowest was in 1st. The mean milk yield of indigenous and crossbred cows at early, middle & later stages of lactations were 1.617, 2.094, 1.306 and 9.389, 10.222, 9.039 liter/cow/day respectively that revealed stages of lactation had significant effect (p<0.01) on milk yield per day. It was observed that milk yield decreased after 2nd stage of lactation and decreased linearly up to the end of lactation. The highest milk yield was recorded in 2nd stage of lactation and lowest was in 3rd stage of lactation. The overall milk production in different lactation for indigenous cows was 1.672 liter/day and for crossbred cows was 9.550 liter/day that may be concluded as crossbred cows are superior to indigenous in concern of milk yield. Keywords: Indigenous cows; crossbred cows; lactation number; stage of lactation; milk yield. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.3329/ijns.v1i1. 8614 International Journal of Natural Sciences (2011), 1(1):31-34
Deployment of public bus HMI displays for intelligent junction safety: A field trial

The incidence of traffic violations caused by public transportation demonstrates the importance of investigating alternative forms of road safety intervention. In this paper, we report on a two-month field trial in which three HMI (human-machine interface) prototypes were evaluated with 47 bus drivers in Singapore. This was done to understand how warning messages might improve junction safety for public buses. Via semi-structured interviews and video analysis, the study evaluated driver perceptions of the HMIs, as well as whether the display of different warning messages had any measurable impact on driving behaviour. Overall, the results identified stronger preferences for more context-specific information, which aided the drivers by improving the road visibility around traffic obstructions and blind spots. An interpretation of these results, in addition to recommendations for future work is provided.
An efficient hybrid approach for optimal allocation of DG in radial distribution networks

This paper proposes a hybrid method to determine the optimal locations and sizes of renewable Distributed Generation (DG) sources in radial distribution system (RDS). The proposed method is based on Moth-Flame Optimization Algorithm (MFO) and the loss sensitivity factor (LSF). The most candidate locations for incorporating of DG are determined using LSF while MFO algorithm is employed to find the optimal locations and sizes of solar (PV) and wind (WTG) based DG from the candidate buses for minimizing the power loss, improving the voltage profile and enhancing the voltage stability, simultaneously. The proposed method is tested on standard radial distribution system. The obtained results using the proposed method are compared with those obtained from different reported optimization techniques in literature. Numerical results show the superiority of the proposed method over the other reported techniques in term of the objective function. Moreover, incorporating the renewable DG optimally can enhance the system performance.
Compressive stress dependence of electrical tree growth characteristics in EPDM

To ensure a certain interface electrical strength resistance, the cable accessories are densely coated onto the main cable insulation. Compressive stress is generated in the normal direction of high voltage cable by the spring clamp device or the banding force after the expansion of EPDM (Ethylene Propylene Diene Monomer) stress cone. This paper presented a compressive stress experimental study considering electrical treeing propagation in EPDM by employing a needle-plane electrode system. The results indicate that compressive stress affects the electrical tree inception and propagation characteristics. The inception time of electrical tree becomes longer as compressive rate increases from 0 to 30%. Tree length and accumulated damage become smaller with increasing the compressive rate. Electrical tree structure is also depended on compressive stress, and branch tree structure becomes the main electrical tree morphology at higher compressive rate. For better understanding the effects of compressive stress on electrical tree propagation characteristics, FFV (fractional free volume) and CED (cohesion energy density) were calculated and analyzed through molecular dynamics simulations under different compressive rates. Results show that the FFV becomes smaller at higher compressive rate, which shortens the free path of the hot electron and weakens the collision with the molecular chain during the treeing process. While CED tends to be lager under higher compressive rate, which improves the cohesion strength for the crack to grow in the tree channel tips and restrains the propagation of electrical tree.
Motion and production of microparticles in vacuum interrupter

Vacuum circuit breakers are widely used in medium-voltage class. In vacuum circuit breakers, restrikes and non-sustained disruptive discharges sometimes occur after current interruptions. It is said that these late breakdowns are triggered by the microparticles. This paper aims to investigate the relationship between the motion of microparticles and subsequent late breakdown phenomena. It does by artificially injecting microparticles into the vacuum gap and observing their motion using a highspeed video camera. We focused on the sputtering of the electrode material during the current interruption and the mechanical stress of the switching operation as being the origin of these microparticles. We found that the motion of microparticles can be grouped into two distinct patterns: bouncing and attaching. Bouncing microparticles seem to be made of metal, while most of the attaching microparticles attached themselves to the cathode, and their charge was about five times greater than that of the bouncing microparticles. The attaching microparticles seem to be positively charged by secondary electron emissions from the surface under electron bombardment due to the field emission current from the cathode. From these results, we believe that the surfaces of the attaching particles are covered with an insulating layer. From our observations of the production of microparticles by mechanical stress, we have found that the breakdown voltage of the gap drastically drops after a mechanical switching operation where microparticles are produced. The breakdown voltage is restored with repetitive mechanical switching operations and subsequent voltage application. However, the breakdown voltage drops again when the operating speed of the electrode is increased. We also found that microparticles are scattered from the cathode spots on electrodes that have not been current-conditioned, and they are hardly produced from electrodes that are current-conditioned. From these results, we believe that controlling the speed of the mechanical switching operation and the current conditioning are effective ways to prevent the microparticles from being produced.
On the degree of groups of polynomial subgroup growth

Let G be a finitely generated residually finite group and let an (G) denote the number of index n subgroups of G. If an(G) < nr for some a and for all n, then G is said to have polynomial subgroup growth (PSG, for short). The degree of G is then defined by deg(G) = lim sup 1log an(G) Very little seems to be known about the relation between deg(G) and the algebraic structure of G. We derive a formula for computing the degree of certain metabelian groups, which serves as a main tool in this paper. Addressing a problem posed by Lubotzky, we also show that if H < G is a finite index subgroup, then deg(G) < deg(H) + 1. A large part of the paper is devoted to the structure of groups of small degree. We show that an(G) is bounded above by a linear function of n if and only if G is virtually cyclic. We then determine all groups of degree less than 3/2, and reveal some connections with plane crystallographic groups. It follows from our results that the degree of a finitely generated group cannot lie in the open interval (1, 3/2). Our methods axe largely number-theoretic, and density theorems A la Chebotarev play essential role in the proofs. Most of the results also rely implicitly on the Classification of Finite Simple Groups.
Determining the Diet of Larvae of Western Rock Lobster (Panulirus cygnus) Using High-Throughput DNA Sequencing Techniques

The Western Australian rock lobster fishery has been both a highly productive and sustainable fishery. However, a recent dramatic and unexplained decline in post-larval recruitment threatens this sustainability. Our lack of knowledge of key processes in lobster larval ecology, such as their position in the food web, limits our ability to determine what underpins this decline. The present study uses a high-throughput amplicon sequencing approach on DNA obtained from the hepatopancreas of larvae to discover significant prey items. Two short regions of the 18S rRNA gene were amplified under the presence of lobster specific PNA to prevent lobster amplification and to improve prey amplification. In the resulting sequences either little prey was recovered, indicating that the larval gut was empty, or there was a high number of reads originating from multiple zooplankton taxa. The most abundant reads included colonial Radiolaria, Thaliacea, Actinopterygii, Hydrozoa and Sagittoidea, which supports the hypothesis that the larvae feed on multiple groups of mostly transparent gelatinous zooplankton. This hypothesis has prevailed as it has been tentatively inferred from the physiology of larvae, captive feeding trials and co-occurrence in situ. However, these prey have not been observed in the larval gut as traditional microscopic techniques cannot discern between transparent and gelatinous prey items in the gut. High-throughput amplicon sequencing of gut DNA has enabled us to classify these otherwise undetectable prey. The dominance of the colonial radiolarians among the gut contents is intriguing in that this group has been historically difficult to quantify in the water column, which may explain why they have not been connected to larval diet previously. Our results indicate that a PCR based technique is a very successful approach to identify the most abundant taxa in the natural diet of lobster larvae.
Development of statistical design models for concrete sandwich panels with continuous glass-fiber-reinforced polymer shear connectors

This article proposes a statistical framework for the development of design models for concrete sandwich panels with glass-fiber-reinforced polymer shear grids. The framework is developed by integrating the Bayesian parameter estimation method and the Eurocode-based capacity reduction factor calibration method. In the first part of the framework, probabilistic and deterministic shear flow prediction models are proposed based on 32 experimental data. It is seen that the contribution of glass-fiber-reinforced polymer grids is dominant, although parameters on the geometrical and material properties of insulation and concrete wythes also contribute. Different constant terms for bias correction of the proposed models are proposed according to the insulation type, and the prediction error of the developed model was reduced. In the second part of the framework, the capacity reduction factor for the proposed deterministic formulas is calculated for design purposes. Statistical calibrations for capacity factors are carried out to meet a target reliability level, and the value is estimated to be approximately 0.75 for all proposed models. Further data collection will improve the applicability of the proposed models and clarify quantification of the contribution of parameters.
Neurobiological Mechanisms of Stress Resilience and Implications for the Aged Population

Background: Stress is a common reaction to an environmental adversity, but a dysregulation of the stress response can lead to psychiatric illnesses such as major depressive disorder (MDD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and anxi-ety disorders. Yet, not all individuals exposed to stress will develop psychiatric disorders; those with enhanced stress resili-ence mechanisms have the ability to adapt successfully to stress without developing persistent psychopathology. Notably, the potential to enhance stress resilience in at-risk populations may prevent the onset of stress-induced psychiatric disorders. This novel idea has prompted a number of studies probing the mechanisms of stress resilience and how it can be manipulat-ed. Methods: Here, we review the neurobiological factors underlying stress resilience, with particular focus on the serotoninergic (5-HT), glutamatergic, and γ-Aminobutyric acid (GABA) systems, as well as the hy-pothalamic-pituitary axis (HPA) in rodents and in humans. Finally, we discuss stress resiliency in the context of aging, as the likelihood of mood disorders increases in older adults. Results: Interestingly, increased resiliency has been shown to slow aging and improved overall health and quality of life. Research in the neurobiology of stress resilience, particularly throughout the aging process, is a nascent, yet, burgeoning field. Conclusion: Overall, we consider the possible methods that may be used to induce resilient phenotypes, prophylactically in at-risk populations, such as in military personnel or in older MDD patients. Research in the mechanisms of stress resilience may not only elucidate novel targets for antidepressant treatments, but also provide novel insight about how to prevent these debilitating disorders from developing.