Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Post-Ventricular Premature Contraction Phase Correction Improves the Predictive Value of Average T-Wave Alternans in Ambulatory ECG Recordings

<italic>Objective</italic>: We proposed and evaluated a method for correcting possible phase shifts provoked by the presence of ventricular premature contractions (VPCs) for a better assessment of T-wave alternans (TWA). <italic> Methods:</italic> First, we synthesized ECG signals with artificial TWA in the presence of different noise sources. Then, we assessed the prognostic value for sudden cardiac death (SCD) of the long-term average of TWA amplitude (the index of average alternans, <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$IAA$</tex-math></inline-formula>) in ambulatory ECG signals from congestive heart failure (CHF) and evaluated whether it is sensitive to the presence of VPCs. <italic>Results:</italic> The inclusion of the phase correction after VPC in the processing always improved estimation accuracy of the <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$IAA$</tex-math></inline-formula> under different noisy conditions and regardless of the number of the VPCs included in the sequence. It also presented a positive impact on the prognostic value of <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$IAA$</tex-math></inline-formula> with increased hazard ratios (from 17% to 29%, depending of the scenario) in comparison to the noninclusion of this step. <italic>Conclusion:</italic> The proposed methodology for <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$IAA$</tex-math></inline-formula> estimation, which corrects for the possible phase reversal on TWA after the presence of VPCs, represents a robust TWA estimation approach with a significant impact on the prognostic value of <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$IAA$</tex-math></inline-formula> for SCD stratification in CHF patients. <italic>Significance:</italic> An accurate TWA estimation has a potential direct clinical impact on noninvasive SCD stratification, allowing better identification of patients at higher risk and helping clinicians in adopting the most appropriate therapeutic strategy.
Cuticular hydrocarbons correlate with queen reproductive status in native and invasive Argentine ants (Linepithema humile, Mayr)

In insect societies, chemical communication plays an important role in colony reproduction and individual social status. Many studies have indicated that cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) are the main chemical compounds encoding reproductive status. However, these studies have largely focused on queenless or monogynous species whose workers are capable of egg laying and have mainly explored the mechanisms underlying queen-worker or worker-worker reproductive conflicts. Less is known about what occurs in highly polygynous ant species with permanently sterile workers. Here, we used the Argentine ant as a model to examine the role of CHCs in communicating reproductive information in such insect societies. The Argentine ant is unicolonial, highly polygynous, and polydomous. We identified several CHCs whose presence and levels were correlated with queen age, reproductive status, and fertility. Our results also provide new insights into queen executions in the Argentine ant, a distinctive feature displayed by this species in its introduced range. Each spring, just before new sexuals appear, workers eliminate up to 90% of the mated queens in their colonies. We discovered that queens that survived execution had different CHC profiles from queens present before and during execution. More specifically, levels of some CHCs were higher in the survivors, suggesting that workers could eliminate queens based on their chemical profiles. In addition, queen CHC profiles differed based on season and species range (native vs. introduced). Overall, the results of this study provide new evidence that CHCs serve as queen signals and do more than just regulate worker reproduction.
Exposure to phthalic acid, phthalate diesters and phthalate monoesters from foodstuffs: UK total diet study results

Phthalates are ubiquitous in the environment and thus exposure to these compounds can occur in various forms. Foods are one source of such exposure. There are only a limited number of studies that describe the levels of phthalates (diesters, monoesters and phthalic acid) in foods and assess the exposure from this source. In this study the levels of selected phthalate diesters, phthalate monoesters and phthalic acid in total diet study (TDS) samples are determined and the resulting exposure estimated. The methodology for the determination of phthalic acid and nine phthalate monoesters (mono-isopropyl phthalate, mono-n-butyl phthalate, mono-isobutyl phthalate, mono-benzyl phthalate, mono-cyclohexyl phthalate, mono-n-pentyl phthalate, mono-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate, mono-n-octyl phthalate and mono-isononyl phthalate) in foods is described. In this method phthalate monoesters and phthalic acid are extracted from the foodstuffs with a mixture of acidified acetonitrile and dichloromethane. The method uses isotope-labelled phthalic acid and phthalate monoester internal standards and is appropriate for quantitative determination in the concentration range of 5–100 µg kg–1. The method was validated in-house and its broad applicability demonstrated by the analysis of high-fat, high-carbohydrate and high-protein foodstuffs as well as combinations of all three major food constituents. The methodology used for 15 major phthalate diesters has been reported elsewhere. Phthalic acid was the most prevalent phthalate, being detected in 17 food groups. The highest concentration measured was di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate in fish (789 µg kg–1). Low levels of mono-n-butyl phthalate and mono-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate were detected in several of the TDS animal-based food groups and the highest concentrations measured corresponded with the most abundant diesters (di-n-butyl phthalate and di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate). The UK Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment (COT) considered the levels found and concluded that they did not indicate a risk to human health from dietary exposure alone.
Solid state bonding in superplastic Ti-6Al-4V

AbstractThe time taken to produce a bond between two sheets of superplastic Ti-6Al-4V has been calculated using existing theories of high temperature cavity growth and of sintering. The predicted conditions for bonding have been compared with those determined experimentally, and a theory based on the Chen and Argon model of creep cavity growth has been developed to take into account the effect of a material grain size which can be substantially smaller than either the cavity size or the original surface roughness. It has been found that high integrity bonds can be produced at 927°C with pressures between 0.7 and 2 MPa (100–300 lb in−2), and within a time scale of the order of 0.5–4 h.
Effects of In Situ and Physical Mixing on Mechanical and Bioactive Behaviors of Nano Hydroxyapatite–Chitosan Scaffolds

Nano hydroxyapatite (HAP) was employed to intensify chitosan (CS) scaffolds by two methods. The first one is nano HAP crystallized in situ from the CS matrix by a biomimetic method (in situ scaffold). In the second method the sol–gel nano HAP powder was added directly to the CS solution (physical mixing scaffold). The distribution status of nano HAP was examined by scanning electron microscopy. The compressive performance was measured by a universal material testing machine. The in vitro study in stimulated body fluid was performed to evaluate the biological properties of both scaffolds. MTT testing and alkaline phosphatase activity from human bone mesenchymal stem cell culture showed differences in biocompatibility and bioactivity between the scaffolds. The results indicated that the in situ scaffold possessed more excellent mechanical and bioactive behaviors than that of the physical mixing scaffold.
Cross-VM side channels and their use to extract private keys

This paper details the construction of an access-driven side-channel attack by which a malicious virtual machine (VM) extracts fine-grained information from a victim VM running on the same physical computer. This attack is the first such attack demonstrated on a symmetric multiprocessing system virtualized using a modern VMM (Xen). Such systems are very common today, ranging from desktops that use virtualization to sandbox application or OS compromises, to clouds that co-locate the workloads of mutually distrustful customers. Constructing such a side-channel requires overcoming challenges including core migration, numerous sources of channel noise, and the difficulty of preempting the victim with sufficient frequency to extract fine-grained information from it. This paper addresses these challenges and demonstrates the attack in a lab setting by extracting an ElGamal decryption key from a victim using the most recent version of the libgcrypt cryptographic library.
Memcomputing: Leveraging memory and physics to compute efficiently

It is well known that physical phenomena may be of great help in computing some difficult problems efficiently. A typical example is prime factorization that may be solved in polynomial time by exploiting quantum entanglement on a quantum computer. There are, however, other types of (non-quantum) physical properties that one may leverage to compute efficiently a wide range of hard problems. In this perspective we discuss how to employ one such property, memory (time non-locality), in a novel physics-based approach to computation: Memcomputing. In particular, we focus on digital memcomputing machines (DMMs) that are scalable. DMMs can be realized with non-linear dynamical systems with memory. The latter property allows the realization of a new type of Boolean logic, one that is self-organizing. Self-organizing logic gates are "terminal-agnostic", namely they do not distinguish between input and output terminals. When appropriately assembled to represent a given combinatorial/optimization problem, the corresponding self-organizing circuit converges to the equilibrium points that express the solutions of the problem at hand. In doing so, DMMs take advantage of the long-range order that develops during the transient dynamics. This collective dynamical behavior, reminiscent of a phase transition, or even the "edge of chaos", is mediated by families of classical trajectories (instantons) that connect critical points of increasing stability in the system's phase space. The topological character of the solution search renders DMMs robust against noise and structural disorder. Since DMMs are non-quantum systems described by ordinary differential equations, not only can they be built in hardware with available technology, they can also be simulated efficiently on modern classical computers. As an example, we will show the polynomial-time solution of the subset-sum problem for the worst case.
Effects of predatory ants within and across ecosystems in bromeliad food webs

Predation is one of the most fundamental ecological processes affecting biotic communities. Terrestrial predators that live at ecosystem boundaries may alter the diversity of terrestrial organisms, but they may also have cross-ecosystem cascading effects when they feed on organisms with complex life cycles (i.e. organisms that shift from aquatic juvenile stages to terrestrial adult stages) or inhibit female oviposition in the aquatic environment. The predatory ant Odontomachus hastatus establishes its colonies among roots of Vriesea procera, an epiphytic bromeliad species with water-filled tanks that shelters many terrestrial and aquatic organisms. Ants may impact terrestrial communities and deter adult insects from ovipositing in the water of bromeliads via consumptive and non-consumptive effects. Ants do not forage within the aquatic environment; thus, they may be more efficient predators on terrestrial organisms. Therefore, we predict that ants will have stronger effects on terrestrial than aquatic food webs. However, such effects may also be site contingent and depend on the local composition of food webs. To test our hypothesis, we surveyed bromeliads with and without O. hastatus colonies from three different coastal field sites in the Atlantic Forest of southeast Brazil, and quantified the effect of this predatory ant on the composition, density and richness of aquatic and terrestrial metazoans found in these bromeliads. We found that ants changed the composition and reduced the overall density of aquatic and terrestrial metazoans in bromeliad ecosystems. However, effects of ants on species diversity were contingent on site. In general terms, the effects of the ant on aquatic and terrestrial metazoan communities were similar in strength and magnitude. Ants reduced the density of virtually all aquatic functional groups, especially detritivore insects as well as metazoans that reach bromeliads through phoresy on the skin of terrestrial animals (i.e. Ostracoda and Helobdella sp.). Our results suggest that the cross-ecosystem effect of this terrestrial predator on the aquatic metazoans was at least as strong as its within-ecosystem effect on the terrestrial ecosystem, and demonstrates that the same predator can simultaneously initiate cascades in multiple ecosystems.
Emotion Recognition Using Multiple Kernel Learning toward E-learning Applications

Adaptive Educational Hypermedia (AEH) e-learning models aim to personalize educational content and learning resources based on the needs of an individual learner. The Adaptive Hypermedia Architecture (AHA) is a specific implementation of the AEH model that exploits the cognitive characteristics of learner feedback to adapt resources accordingly. However, beside cognitive feedback, the learning realm generally includes both the affective and emotional feedback of the learner, which is often neglected in the design of e-learning models. This article aims to explore the potential of utilizing affect or emotion recognition research in AEH models. The framework is referred to as Multiple Kernel Learning Decision Tree Weighted Kernel Alignment (MKLDT-WFA). The MKLDT-WFA has two merits over classical MKL. First, the WFA component only preserves the relevant kernel weights to reduce redundancy and improve the discrimination for emotion classes. Second, training via the decision tree reduces the misclassification issues associated with the SimpleMKL. The proposed work has been evaluated on different emotion datasets and the results confirm the good performances. Finally, the conceptual Emotion-based E-learning Model (EEM) with the proposed emotion recognition framework is proposed for future work.
Forty five percent of the Israeli population were infected with the influenza B Victoria virus during the winter season 2015–16

While infection with influenza A viruses has been extensively investigated, infections with influenza B viruses which are commonly categorized into the highly homologous Victoria and Yamagata lineages, are less studied, despite their considerable virulence. Here we used RT-PCR assays, hemagglutination inhibition assays and antibody titers to determine the levels of influenza B infection. We report of high influenza B Victoria virus prevalence in the 2015–16 winter season in Israel, affecting approximately half of the Israeli population. We further show that the Victoria B virus infected individuals of all ages and that it was present in the country throughout the entire winter season. The vaccine however included the inappropriate Yamagata virus. We propose that a quadrivalent vaccine, that includes both Yamagata and Victoria lineages, should be considered for future influenza vaccination.
Neuroimmune Regulation in Immunocompetence, Acute Illness, and Healing

Adaptive immunocompetence is maintained by growth hormone (GH), prolactin (PRL), and vasopressin (VP). Innate or natural immunocompetence depends on cytokines, hormones (especially of the hypothalamus–pituitary–adrenal axis), and catecholamines. The acute phase response (APR, or acute febrile illness) is an emergency defense reaction whereby the adaptive, T cell–dependent, immune reactions are suppressed and the innate immune function is dramatically amplified. Infection and various forms of injury induce APR. Cytokines [interleukin (IL)‐1β, tumor necrosis factor‐α, and IL‐6] stimulate corticotropin‐releasing hormone (CRH) and VP secretion and cause a “sympathetic outflow. ” Colony‐stimulating factors activate leukocytes. CRH is a powerful activator of the pituitary adrenocortical axis and elevates glucocorticoid (GC) levels. Cytokines, GCs, and catecholamines play fundamental roles in the amplification of natural immune defense mechanisms. VP supports the APR at this stage. However, VP remains active and is elevated for a longer period than is CRH. VP, but not CRH, is elevated during chronic inflammatory diseases. VP controls adaptive immune function and stimulates adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) and PRL secretion. PRL maintains the function of the thymus and of the T cell–dependent adaptive immune system. The ACTH–adrenal axis stimulates natural immunity and of suppressor/regulatory T cells, which suppress the adaptive immune system. VP also has a direct effect on lymphoid cells, the significance of which remains to be elucidated. It is suggested that VP regulates the process of recovery from acute illness.
“I remember”, “I thought”, “I know I didn't say”: Silence and memory in trauma narratives

Society's interest in sexual abuse waxes and wanes in ways that mirror the fluidity of memory narrated by trauma survivors. Although a great deal of research explores memory processes, including the neurophysiology of trauma, little considers the ways in which disclosure delays and socio-cultural pressures for silence appear in narratives of childhood sexual abuse survivors. This qualitative study examines the narratives of four female survivors and illustrates the importance of listening with an ear towards the various layers of silence held within them. The analysis draws attention to the potential limitations of memory research, including the importance of considering relational aspects when examining trauma narratives.
Stochastic Stability of Perturbed Learning Automata in Positive-Utility Games

This paper considers a class of reinforcement-based learning (namely, perturbed learning automata) and provides a stochastic-stability analysis in repeatedly played, positive-utility, finite strategic-form games. Prior work in this class of learning dynamics primarily analyzes asymptotic convergence through stochastic approximations, where convergence can be associated with the limit points of an ordinary-differential equation (ODE). However, analyzing global convergence through an ODE-approximation requires the existence of a Lyapunov or a potential function, which naturally restricts the analysis to a fine class of games. To overcome these limitations, this paper introduces an alternative framework for analyzing asymptotic convergence that is based upon an explicit characterization of the invariant probability measure of the induced Markov chain. We further provide a methodology for computing the invariant probability measure in positive-utility games, together with an illustration in the context of coordination games.
Multiple Looks of Auditory Empty Durations Both Improve and Impair Temporal Sensitivity

Discrimination of two neighboring empty durations that are marked by three successive sounds is improved when the presentation of the first (standard, S) duration is repeated before that of the second (comparison, C), as SSSSC. This improvement in sensitivity, called the multiple-look effect, has been explained by a statistical model regarding variability. This model assumes that the perceived duration of the standard is averaged across observations (within a trial within an individual). The increasing of the number of observations thus reduces the standard error of the mean perceived duration. Alternatively, the multiple-look effect is attributed to the listener’s prediction based on regular rhythm. Listeners perceive regular rhythm during the repetition of the standard, predict the timing of subsequent sounds, and detect a sound that is displaced from the predicted timing. These models were tested in the present experiment in which the main factor was a temporal separation between the standard and the comparison; i.e., these durations were adjacent to each other as SSSSC or separated by a temporal blank as SSSS_C. The results differed between stimulus structures. First, the multiple-look effect was replicated in the SSSSC condition (yielding a higher performance than SC), but disappeared in SSSS_C (having no difference with S_C). Second, no multiple-look effect occurred in CSSSS (no difference with CS), and moreover, an impairment effect was observed in C_SSSS (a lower performance than C_S). Finally, discrimination was improved in SSSS_CCCC compared with SSSSCCCC, the effect being kept even when sounds were aligned at irregular intervals. These findings are not consistent with those expected from the statistical model because the temporal separation should have produced no effects if the number of standards had been a sole parameter determining the multiple-look effect. The prediction-based model can explain the first finding; inserting a blank between the standard and the comparison violates the listener’s prediction based on regular rhythm, thus reducing the multiple-look effect. However, it did not expect the other findings and required revisions. Notably, the second finding indicates that the formation of regular rhythm can impair temporal discrimination. In other words, an inversed multiple-look effect occurs.
UV-laser-inscribed fiber Bragg gratings in photonic crystal fibers and sensing applications

We report about fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) inscribed in two different types of small-core Ge-doped photonic crystal fibers with a UV laser. Sensing applications of the FBGs were systematically investigated by means of demonstrating the responses of Bragg wavelengths to temperature, strain, bending, and transverse-loading. The Bragg wavelength of the FBGs shifts toward longer wavelengths with increasing temperature, tensile strain, and transverse-loading. Moreover, the bending and transverse-loading properties of the FBGs are sensitive to the fiber orientations. The reasonable analyses for these sensing properties also are presented.
Indocyanine Green-lactosome and Near-infrared Light-based Intraoperative Imaging and Photodynamic Therapy for Metastatic Bone Tumors

Toshinori Tsukanishi, Toru Funayama, Eiichi Ozeki, Isao Hara, Tetsuya Abe, Shinzo Onishi, Masashi Yamazaki and Masataka Sakane 1 Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, University of Tsukuba, 1-1-1 Tennodai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8575 Japan 2 Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Kempoku Medical Center Takahagi Kyodo Hospital, 1006-9 Ageho-cho, Kamitetsuna, Takahagi,Ibaraki 318-0004, Japan 3 Technology Research Laboratory, Shimadzu Corporation, 3-9-4 hikaridai Seikacho, Sarakugun, Kyoto 619-0237 Japan sakane-m@tsukuba-seikei.jp