Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Beat the Deviations in Estimating Maximum Power of Thermoelectric Modules

Under a certain temperature difference, the maximum power of a thermoelectric module can be estimated by the open-circuit voltage and the short-circuit current. In practical measurement, there exist two switch modes, either from open to short or from short to open, but the two modes can give different estimations on the maximum power. Using TEG-127-2.8-3.5-250 and TEG-127-1.4-1.6-250 as two examples, the difference is about 10%, leading to some deviations with the temperature change. This paper analyzes such differences by means of a nonlinear numerical model of thermoelectricity, and finds out that the main cause is the influence of various currents on the produced electromotive potential. A simple and effective calibration method is proposed to minimize the deviations in specifying the maximum power. Experimental results validate the method with improved estimation accuracy.
Effectiveness of golimumab for rheumatoid arthritis in patients with an inadequate response to tocilizumab

Abstract Objectives: Several biological disease–modifying antirheumatic drugs (bDMARDs) are currently available for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Increasing evidence indicates that second-line bDMARDs are effective for inadequate responders to first-line bDMARDs. However, all previous studies investigated the use of tumor necrosis factor inhibitors (TNFi) as a first-line bDMARD, while investigated the efficacy of second-line bDMARDs after the use of tocilizumab (TCZ), a non-TNFi, as a first-line bDMARD. Thus, we investigated the efficacy of golimumab (GLM) as a second-line bDMARD after treatment with TCZ as a first-line bDMARD. Methods: The final study population consisted of 26 patients (inadequate responders to TCZ; TCZ group) with moderate or high disease activity (DAS28-ESR ≥3.2) at week 24 of treatment with TCZ as a first-line bDMARD or whose DAS28-ESR score worsened after starting TCZ treatment. These patients could be followed for another 52 weeks or more after the subsequent switch to GLM treatment. For comparison, 19 patients treated with TNFi as a first-line bDMARD and inadequate response to TNFi (TNFi group) were included. Results: The DAS28-ESR score at week 52 after the start of treatment with GLM improved significantly compared with baseline in the TCZ and TNFi groups. However, the TCZ group showed significantly better improvement. Patients in both groups had significantly improved treatment outcomes according to European League Against Rheumatism response criteria, but there was no statistically significant difference among them. The retention rate at week 52 after the start of treatment with GLM was significantly higher in the TCZ group than in the TNFi group (81% vs. 68%, respectively). In addition, no difference was found in the progression of bone destruction determined by the change in van der Heijde modified total Sharp scoring system scores between groups. Conclusions: GLM was an effective therapeutic option for inadequate responders to TCZ.
Influence of Gap Distance on the Arc Modes Transition of Cup Type AMF Electrode

In this paper the influence of gap distance on arc modes transition of cup type AMF electrode is investigated by a CCD at different gap distance 10 mm to 20 mm. The arc keeps diffuse arc modes while the amplitude of arc current reaches 22.0 kA at gap distance 10 mm. With the gap distance increasing to 20 mm, the concentration of arc column near anode occurs while the amplitude of arc current is 14.0 kA. With the amplitude of arc current increasing, the duration time of the concentration of arc column near anode also increases at the same gap distance
Image-Grounded Conversations: Multimodal Context for Natural Question and Response Generation

The popularity of image sharing on social media and the engagement it creates between users reflect the important role that visual context plays in everyday conversations. We present a novel task, Image Grounded Conversations (IGC), in which natural-sounding conversations are generated about a shared image. To benchmark progress, we introduce a new multiple reference dataset of crowd-sourced, event-centric conversations on images. IGC falls on the continuum between chit-chat and goal-directed conversation models, where visual grounding constrains the topic of conversation to event-driven utterances. Experiments with models trained on social media data show that the combination of visual and textual context enhances the quality of generated conversational turns. In human evaluation, the gap between human performance and that of both neural and retrieval architectures suggests that multi-modal IGC presents an interesting challenge for dialog research.
Evaluation of the effects of subgingival injection of Simvastatin on space re-opening after orthodontic space closure in adults

Background. This clinical trial evaluated the effect of Simvastatin on space re-opening after orthodontic space closure and its effect on the gingival index (GI) and clinical attachment loss (CAL). Methods. 16 females, 25-40 years old, with spaces between anterior mandibular teeth due to chronic periodontitis were participated in this study. The patients were randomly divided into control and experimental groups. In the experimental group, 1.2% Simvastatin gel and in the control group, 0.9% sodium chloride as a placebo was injected into the pocket depth of the six anterior teeth. The amount of space reopening, GI and CAL were measured. Results. No serious complications were observed during interventions and follow-up periods. Space re-opening was significantly reduced in patients receiving Simvastatin (P < 0.001). Moreover, GI reduction was significantly greater in Sim-vastatin group compared to the control group (P < 0.001). However, CAL did not demonstrate a significant difference between the groups. Conclusion. Simvastatin may decrease space re-opening after orthodontic space closure in human anterior teeth.
Belimumab in systemic lupus erythematosus

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is one of the most challenging autoimmune disorders with a complex pathophysiology and diverse clinical presentation. Many drugs have been used to treat SLE with suboptimal results, especially in patients with moderate-to-severe disease. Belimumab is the first biological drug to be approved for the treatment of SLE in more than 50 years. This monoclonal antibody blocks B-cell activating factor, a cytokine important for B-cell differentiation and survival. In this review we focus on the activity of belimumab in patients with SLE and discuss the controversies of its use.
The diameters of commuting graphs of linear groups and matrix rings over the integers modulo m

The commuting graph of a group G, denoted by Gamma(G), is the simple undirected graph whose vertices are the non-central elements of G and two distinct vertices are adjacent if and only if they commute. Let Z_m be the commutative ring of equivalence classes of integers modulo m. In this paper we investigate the connectivity and diameters of the commuting graphs of GL(n,Z_m) to contribute to the conjecture that there is a universal upper bound on diam(Gamma(G)) for any finite group G when Gamma(G) is connected. For any composite m, it is shown that Gamma(GL(n,Z_m)) and Gamma(M(n,Z_m)) are connected and diam(Gamma(GL(n,Z_m))) = diam(Gamma(M(n,Z_m))) = 3. For m a prime, the instances of connectedness and absolute bounds on the diameters of Gamma(GL(n,Z_m)) and Gamma(M(n,Z_m)) when they are connected are concluded from previous results.
Effect of Stress Ratio and Loading Frequency on the Corrosion Fatigue Behavior of Smooth Steel Wire in Different Solutions

In this work, the effects of loading condition and corrosion solution on the corrosion fatigue behavior of smooth steel wire were discussed. The results of polarization curves and weight loss curves showed that the corrosion of steel wire in acid solution was more severe than that in neutral and alkaline solutions. With the extension of immersion time in acid solution, the cathodic reaction of steel wire gradually changed from the reduction of hydrogen ion to the reduction of oxygen, but was always the reduction of hydrogen ion in neutral and alkaline solutions. The corrosion kinetic parameters and equivalent circuits of steel wires were also obtained by simulating the Nyquist diagrams. In corrosion fatigue test, the effect of stress ratio and loading frequency on the crack initiation mechanism was emphasized. The strong corrosivity of acid solution could accelerate the nucleation of crack tip. The initiation mechanism of crack under different conditions was summarized according to the side and fracture surface morphologies. For the crack initiation mechanism of anodic dissolution, the stronger the corrosivity of solution was, the more easily the fatigue crack source formed, while, for the crack initiation mechanism of deformation activation, the lower stress ratio and higher frequency would accelerate the generation of corrosion fatigue crack source.
Indefinite Proximity Learning: A Review

Abstract Efficient learning of a data analysis task strongly depends on the data representation. Most methods rely on (symmetric) similarity or dissimilarity representations by means of metric inner products or distances, providing easy access to powerful mathematical formalisms like kernel or branch-and-bound approaches. Similarities and dissimilarities are, however, often naturally obtained by nonmetric proximity measures that cannot easily be handled by classical learning algorithms. Major efforts have been undertaken to provide approaches that can either directly be used for such data or to make standard methods available for these types of data. We provide a comprehensive survey for the field of learning with nonmetric proximities. First, we introduce the formalism used in nonmetric spaces and motivate specific treatments for nonmetric proximity data. Second, we provide a systematization of the various approaches. For each category of approaches, we provide a comparative discussion of the individual algorithms and address complexity issues and generalization properties. In a summarizing section, we provide a larger experimental study for the majority of the algorithms on standard data sets. We also address the problem of large-scale proximity learning, which is often overlooked in this context and of major importance to make the method relevant in practice. The algorithms we discuss are in general applicable for proximity-based clustering, one-class classification, classification, regression, and embedding approaches. In the experimental part, we focus on classification tasks.
Shear-wave elasticity measurements of three-dimensional cell cultures for mechanobiology

ABSTRACT Studying mechanobiology in three-dimensional (3D) cell cultures better recapitulates cell behaviors in response to various types of mechanical stimuli in vivo. Stiffening of the extracellular matrix resulting from cell remodeling potentiates many pathological conditions, including advanced cancers. However, an effective tool for measuring the spatiotemporal changes in elastic properties of such 3D cell cultures without directly contacting the samples has not been reported previously. We describe an ultrasonic shear-wave-based platform for quantitatively evaluating the spatiotemporal dynamics of the elasticity of a matrix remodeled by cells cultured in 3D environments. We used this approach to measure the elasticity changes of 3D matrices grown with highly invasive lung cancer cells and cardiac myoblasts, and to delineate the principal mechanism underlying the stiffening of matrices remodeled by these cells. The described approach can be a useful tool in fields investigating and manipulating the mechanotransduction of cells in 3D contexts, and also has potential as a drug-screening platform. Summary: Use of a non-direct-contact platform for measurement of the spatiotemporal dynamics of matrix elasticity when remodeled by cells cultured in three-dimensional contexts.
Long-term safety of tofacitinib for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis up to 8.5 years: integrated analysis of data from the global clinical trials

Objectives Tofacitinib is an oral Janus kinase inhibitor for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). We report an integrated safety summary of tofacitinib from two phase I, nine phase II, six phase III and two long-term extension studies in adult patients with active RA. Methods Data were pooled for all tofacitinib-treated patients (data cut-off: 31 March 2015). Incidence rates (IRs; patients with event/100 patient-years) and 95% CIs are reported for adverse events (AEs) of interest. Results 6194 patients received tofacitinib for a total 19 406 patient-years' exposure; median exposure was 3.4 patient-years. IR (95% CI) for serious AEs was 9.4 (9.0 to 9.9); IR for serious infections was 2.7 (2.5 to 3.0). IR for (all) herpes zoster was 3.9 (3.6 to 4.2); IR for disseminated or multidermatomal herpes zoster was 0.3 (0.2 to 0.4). IR for opportunistic infections (excluding tuberculosis) was 0.3 (0.2 to 0.4) and was 0.2 (0.1 to 0.3) for tuberculosis. IR for malignancies (excluding non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC)) was 0.9 (0.8 to 1.0); NMSC IR was 0.6 (0.5 to 0.7). IR for gastrointestinal perforations was 0.1 (0.1 to 0.2). Analysis of IR for serious infections, herpes zoster and malignancies by 6-month intervals did not reveal any notable increase in IR with longer-duration tofacitinib exposure. Conclusion This analysis of tofacitinib exposure up to 8.5 years allowed estimation of safety events with improved precision versus previous tofacitinib reports. AEs were generally stable over time; no new safety signals were observed compared with previous tofacitinib reports. Trial registration numbers NCT01262118, NCT01484561, NCT00147498, NCT00413660, NCT00550446, NCT00603512, NCT00687193, NCT01164579, NCT00976599, NCT01059864, NCT01359150, NCT00960440, NCT00847613, NCT00814307, NCT00856544, NCT00853385, NCT01039688, NCT00413699, NCT00661661; Results.
Arrival of Paleo-Indians to the Southern Cone of South America: New Clues from Mitogenomes

With analyses of entire mitogenomes, studies of Native American mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variation have entered the final phase of phylogenetic refinement: the dissection of the founding haplogroups into clades that arose in America during and after human arrival and spread. Ages and geographic distributions of these clades could provide novel clues on the colonization processes of the different regions of the double continent. As for the Southern Cone of South America, this approach has recently allowed the identification of two local clades (D1g and D1j) whose age estimates agree with the dating of the earliest archaeological sites in South America, indicating that Paleo-Indians might have reached that region from Beringia in less than 2000 years. In this study, we sequenced 46 mitogenomes belonging to two additional clades, termed B2i2 (former B2l) and C1b13, which were recently identified on the basis of mtDNA control-region data and whose geographical distributions appear to be restricted to Chile and Argentina. We confirm that their mutational motifs most likely arose in the Southern Cone region. However, the age estimate for B2i2 and C1b13 (11–13,000 years) appears to be younger than those of other local clades. The difference could reflect the different evolutionary origins of the distinct South American-specific sub-haplogroups, with some being already present, at different times and locations, at the very front of the expansion wave in South America, and others originating later in situ, when the tribalization process had already begun. A delayed origin of a few thousand years in one of the locally derived populations, possibly in the central part of Chile, would have limited the geographical and ethnic diffusion of B2i2 and explain the present-day occurrence that appears to be mainly confined to the Tehuelche and Araucanian-speaking groups.
The Generalized Shape Distributions for Shape Matching and Analysis

This paper presents a novel 3D shape descriptor "the generalized shape distributions" for effective shape matching and analysis, by taking advantage of both local and global shape signatures. We start this process by generating spin images on meshes. These local shape descriptors are then quantized via k-means clustering. The key contribution of this paper is to represent a global 3D shape as the spatial configuration of a set of specific local shapes. We achieve this goal by computing the distributions of the Euclidean distance of pairs of local shape clusters. Because of the spatial, sparse distribution of local shapes defined over a 3D model, an indexing data structure is adopted to reduce the space complexity of the proposed shape descriptor. The technical merits of our new approach are at least two-fold: (1) it is robust to non-trivial shape occlusions and deformations, since there are statistically a large number of chances that some local shape signatures and their spatial layouts are unchanged and users can easily identify those unchanged parts; (2) it is more discriminative than a simple collection of local shape signatures, since the spatial layouts of a global shape are explicitly computed. Our preliminary experiments have shown the effectiveness of this new approach for shape comparison and analysis
Therapeutic Bonding in Group as an Explanatory Variable of Progress in the Social Competence of Students With Learning Disabilities

This study, conducted in Israel, explores the efficacy of an expressive-supportive group psychotherapy in helping adolescents with learning disabilities (LD) and attention deficits (ADD and ADHD) to increase social competence and friendship. Bonding with the therapist and group members was tested as an explanatory variable of outcomes. The study included 87 students with LD from seven different schools who had been referred to school counseling centers because of social, emotional, and behavior difficulties. The students in each school were randomly divided into experimental and wait-list conditions. Children in the experimental conditions (n 42) participated in seven small groups, in 15 weekly sessions of group therapy conducted by trained school counselors. Results indicated gains on the social competence measure, but not on the friendship-intimacy measure. Therapist-related bonding was more frequently related to outcomes than member-related bonding.
Nanostructured carbon electrode modified with N-doped graphene quantum dots–chitosan nanocomposite: a sensitive electrochemical dopamine sensor

A highly selective and sensitive dopamine electrochemical sensor based on nitrogen-doped graphene quantum dots–chitosan nanocomposite-modified nanostructured screen printed carbon electrode is presented, for the first time. Graphene quantum dots were prepared via microwave-assisted hydrothermal reaction of glucose, and nitrogen doping was realized by introducing ammonia in the reaction mixture. Chitosan incorporation played a significant role towards the selectivity of the prepared sensor by hindering the ascorbic acid interference and enlarging the peak potential separation between dopamine and uric acid. The proposed sensor's performance was shown to be superior to several recently reported investigations. The as-prepared CS/N,GQDs@SPCE exhibited a high sensitivity (i.e. ca. 418 µA mM cm−2), a wide linear range i.e. (1–100 µM) and (100–200 µM) with excellent correlations (i.e. R2 = 0.999 and R2 = 1.000, respectively) and very low limit of detection (LOD = 0.145 µM) and limit of quantification (LOQ = 0.482 µM) based on S/N = 3 and 10, respectively. The applicability of the prepared sensor for real sample analysis was tested by the determination of dopamine in human urine in pH 7.0 PBS showing an approximately 100% recovery with RSD < 2% inferring both the practicability and reliability of CS/N,GQDs@SPCE. The proposed sensor is endowed with high reproducibility (i.e. RSD = ca. 3.61%), excellent repeatability (i.e. ca. 0.91% current change) and a long-term stability (i.e. ca. 94.5% retained activity).
Oxygen sensing by the prolyl-4-hydroxylase PHD2 within the nuclear compartment and the influence of compartmentalisation on HIF-1 signalling

Summary Hypoxia-inducible factors (HIFs) regulate more than 200 genes involved in cellular adaptation to reduced oxygen availability. HIFs are heterodimeric transcription factors that consist of one of three HIF-&agr; subunits and a HIF-&bgr; subunit. Under normoxic conditions the HIF-&agr; subunit is hydroxylated by members of a family of prolyl-4-hydroxylase domain (PHD) proteins, PHD1, PHD2 and PHD3, resulting in recognition by von-Hippel–Lindau protein, ubiquitylation and proteasomal degradation. It has been suggested that PHD2 is the key regulator of HIF-1&agr; stability in vivo. Previous studies on the intracellular distribution of PHD2 have provided evidence for a predominant cytoplasmic localisation but also nuclear activity of PHD2. Here, we investigated functional nuclear transport signals in PHD2 and identified amino acids 196–205 as having a crucial role in nuclear import, whereas amino acids 6–20 are important for nuclear export. Fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) showed that an interaction between PHD2 and HIF-1&agr; occurs in both the nuclear and cytoplasmic compartments. However, a PHD2 mutant that is restricted to the cytoplasm does not interact with HIF-1&agr; and shows less prolyl hydroxylase activity for its target HIF-1&agr; than wild-type PHD2 located in the nucleus. Here, we present a new model by which PHD2-mediated hydroxylation of HIF-1&agr; predominantly occurs in the cell nucleus and is dependent on very dynamic subcellular trafficking of PHD2.
Rethinking Gender and Youth Sport

Much writing on gender and sport is focused upon the negative impact of girls' exclusion from the arena, suggesting by inference that current practice in sport and physical education offers an uncomplicatedly positive sport experience for boys, and that gender, in and of itself, offers a simple starting point for research into young people's experience of sport. Rethinking Gender and Youth Sport seeks to articulate certain themes which, it is suggested, might contribute to broadening and furthering discussion in the area of gender, youth sport and physical activity. This collection considers a number of themes relating to gender in sport, including: * the body * competence, ability and school physical education * cultural change and diversity * gendered spaces * human rights and well-being. Authoritative writers have contributed thought provoking chapters which will prompt the reader to re-think the ways in which gender is understood within the context of youth sport.
Seroepidemological Survey for Antibodies against Infectious Bovine Rhinotracheitis and Bovine Herpes 4 Viruses among Cattle in Different Provinces of Iran

Summary To determine neutralizing antibodies against infectious bovine rhinotracheitis (IBR) and Bovine herpes 4 (BH4) viruses 9,968 serum samples in different parts of Iran were examined. Of these samples 33.97% and 4.75% detected IBR virus and BH4 virus antibodies, respectively. The results indicated that IBR virus infection is widely distributed among the bovine population but the cattle are less infected by BH4, and the coinfection with the both viruses are considerably common (3.4%) in indigenous cattle.
Religious experience in London

This paper, and the presentation which led to it, represents a trace of our experiences in 1998 when we undertook research into multicultural religious experience in London. We were delighted to have had the opportunity to share our findings with members of the Alister Hardy Society. What follows is a selection of viewings which offer insights into our methodology and practices, both ethnographic and analytical. We would encourage readers to explore the appendix, which consists of the raw data of our study, before reading what we have to say about it. Our analysis is highly tentative, and, if used as a lens through which to view the data, may obscure more than it reveals.