Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Flexural Response of Steel Beams Strengthened with Partial-Length CFRP Plates

This paper presents the flexural behavior of rolled steel beams that were strengthened with partial-length, adhesive-bonded carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) plates. The hybrid beams had two types of failure mode, depending on the length of the plate: (1) plate debonding in beams with short plates; and (2) plate rupture at midspan in beams with long plates. The flexural behavior that was investigated includes the development of tensile stresses in the plate, the moment-curvature of the strengthened section, and the load-deflection of the strengthened beam. The analytical methods used include shear lag analysis, section analysis, and application of the virtual work principle. Agreement between the experimental results and the analytical predictions is discussed.
Analysis of instability-related growth of a through-width delamination

SUMMARYWhen a laminated composite is subjected to compressive loads, adelaminated region may buckle. This causes high interlaminar stresses at thedelamination front and the delamination may grow. The effect of variousparameters on instability-relateddelamination growth was studied analyti­cally. The configuration studied consisted of a thick composite laminate witha single through-width delamination located near one surface. Both mechanicaland thermal loads were considered. All conclusions were based on the assump­tion that G r and G rr govern delamination growth. An approximate super­position stress analysis was developed which gives closed form expressionsfor GI and GIl' The simplicity of the analysis permitted examination ofnumerous configurations. Both G r and G Ir were found to be very sensitiveto delamination length and location through the thickness. The magnitude ofGI was also very sensitive to initial imperfection. Critical loads fordelamination growth were calculated based on three growth criteria. Largedifferences in the predictions highlight the need for a verified mixed-modedelamination growth criterion.
Quality and Composition of Red Wine Fermented with Schizosaccharomyces pombe as Sole Fermentative Yeast, and in Mixed and Sequential Fermentations with Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Summary This work examines the physiology of Schizosaccharomyces pombe (represented by strain 938) in the production of red wine, as the sole fermentative yeast, and in mixed and sequential fermentations with Saccharomyces cerevisiae 796. For further comparison, fermentations in which Saccharomyces cerevisiae was the sole fermentative yeast were also performed; in these fermentations a commercial lactic acid bacterium was used to perform malolactic fermentation once alcoholic fermentation was complete (unlike S. cerevisiae, the Sc. pombe performs maloalcoholic fermentation and therefore removes malic acid without such help). Relative density, acetic, malic and pyruvic acid concentrations, primary amino nitrogen and urea concentrations, and pH of the musts were measured over the entire fermentation period. In all fermentations in which Sc. pombe 938 was involved, nearly all the malic acid was consumed from an initial concentration of 5.5 g/L, and moderate acetic acid concentrations below 0.4 g/L were formed. The urea content of these wines was notably lower, showing a tenfold reduction when compared with those that were made with S. cerevisiae 796 alone. The sensorial properties of the different final wines varied widely. The wines fermented with Sc. pombe 938 had maximum aroma intensity and quality, and they were preferred by the tasters.
Microglial Activation by Citrobacter koseri Is Mediated by TLR4- and MyD88-Dependent Pathways1

Citrobacter koseri is a Gram-negative bacterium that can cause a highly aggressive form of neonatal meningitis, which often progresses to establish multifocal brain abscesses. Despite its tropism for the brain parenchyma, microglial responses to C. koseri have not yet been examined. Microglia use TLRs to recognize invading pathogens and elicit proinflammatory mediator expression important for infection containment. In this study, we investigated the importance of the LPS receptor TLR4 and MyD88, an adaptor molecule involved in the activation of the majority of TLRs in addition to the IL-1 and IL-18 receptors, for their roles in regulating microglial activation in response to C. koseri. Proinflammatory mediator release was significantly reduced in TLR4 mutant and MyD88 knockout microglia compared with wild-type cells following exposure to either live or heat-killed C. koseri, indicating a critical role for both TLR4- and MyD88-dependent pathways in microglial responses to this pathogen. However, residual proinflammatory mediator expression was still observed in TLR4 mutant and MyD88 KO microglia following C. koseri exposure, indicating a contribution of TLR4- and MyD88-independent pathway(s) for maximal pathogen recognition. Interestingly, C. koseri was capable of surviving intracellularly in both primary microglia and macrophages, suggesting that these cells may serve as a reservoir for the pathogen during CNS infections. These results demonstrate that microglia respond to C. koseri with the robust expression of proinflammatory molecules, which is dictated, in part, by TLR4- and MyD88-dependent signals.
Molecular and clinical epidemiology of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecalis.

OBJECTIVES With the recent emergence of vancomycin-resistant (VR) Staphylococcus aureus, subsequent to the suggested transfer of the vanA resistance gene from Enterococcus faecalis, we sought to determine risk factors for acquisition of VR E. faecalis and to evaluate the molecular epidemiology of this less-prevalent and less-studied species of VR enterococcus. METHODS We compared clinical isolates of VR E. faecalis from 71 patients, collected over 12 years in a large community teaching hospital, with isolates from 126 patients with vancomycin-susceptible E. faecalis. RESULTS Risk factors for VR E. faecalis acquisition by multivariate analysis were nursing home residence (P = 0.0005), haemodialysis (P = 0.009), decubitus ulcers (P = 0.03) and receipt of parenteral vancomycin (P = 0.0002). Twenty-one percent of VR E. faecalis demonstrated vanA and 79% vanB resistance. The number of VanA isolates increased over time. Molecular analysis showed vanA or vanB in multiple PFGE groups. CONCLUSIONS The results of this study suggest gene dissemination among some isolates and intra-hospital spread of other isolates. The risk factors identified clearly suggest that VR E. faecalis is a nosocomial pathogen and should be considered in infection control practices. Further surveillance of VR E. faecalis is warranted, due to the potential spread of vancomycin resistance among enterococci and staphylococci.
Prevalence and Trends of Obesity and Association with Socioeconomic Status in Thai Adults: National Health Examination Surveys, 1991–2009

We determined the prevalence of obesity in Thai adults aged 20 and over in 2009 and examined trends of body mass index (BMI) between 1991 and 2009. Data from Thai National Health Examination Survey for 19,181 adults in 2009 and 64,480 adults between 1991 and 2004 were used to calculate age-adjusted mean and prevalence. Logistic regression was used to examine the association of obesity with education level. In 2009, age-adjusted prevalence of obesity classes I (BMI 25–29.9 kg/m2) and II (BMI ≥30 kg/m2) in Thai adults aged ≥20 years were 26.0% and 9.0%, respectively. Compared with primary education, the odds of obesity class I were highest in men with university education. For women, the odds of obesity classes I and II were highest in those with primary education. BMI significantly increased from 21.6 kg/m2 in men and 22.8 kg/m2 in women in 1991 to 23.3 kg/m2 and 24.4 kg/m2 in 2009, respectively. The average BMI increases per decade were highest in men with secondary education (1.0 kg/m2, P < 0.001) and in women with primary education with the same rate. There were increasing trends in BMI with slight variation by SES groups in Thai men and women during 1991–2009.
Contests versus Norms: Implications of Contest-Based and Norm-Based Intervention Techniques

Interventions using either contests or norms can promote environmental behavioral change. Yet research on the implications of contest-based and norm-based interventions is lacking. Based on Goal-framing theory, we suggest that a contest-based intervention frames a gain goal promoting intensive but instrumental behavioral engagement. In contrast, the norm-based intervention was expected to frame a normative goal activating normative obligations for targeted and non-targeted behavior and motivation to engage in pro-environmental behaviors in the future. In two studies participants (n = 347) were randomly assigned to either a contest- or a norm-based intervention technique. Participants in the contest showed more intensive engagement in both studies. Participants in the norm-based intervention tended to report higher intentions for future energy conservation (Study 1) and higher personal norms for non-targeted pro-environmental behaviors (Study 2). These findings suggest that contest-based intervention technique frames a gain goal, while norm-based intervention frames a normative goal.
A Survey on Two Dimensional Cellular Automata and Its Application in Image Processing

algorithms for solving any image processing task is a highly demanded approach in the modern world. Cellular Automata (CA) are the most common and simple models of parallel computation. So, CA has been successfully used in the domain of image processing for the last couple of years. This paper provides a survey of available literatures of some methodologies employed by different researchers to utilize the cellular automata for solving some important problems of image processing. The survey includes some important image processing tasks such as rotation, zooming, translation, segmentation, edge detection, compression and noise reduction of images. Finally, the experimental results of some methodologies are presented.
Blend Sign on Computed Tomography: Novel and Reliable Predictor for Early Hematoma Growth in Patients With Intracerebral Hemorrhage

Background and Purpose— Early hematoma growth is not uncommon in patients with intracerebral hemorrhage and is an independent predictor of poor functional outcome. The purpose of our study was to report and validate the use of our newly identified computed tomographic (CT) blend sign in predicting early hematoma growth. Methods— Patients with intracerebral hemorrhage who underwent baseline CT scan within 6 hours after onset of symptoms were included. The follow-up CT scan was performed within 24 hours after the baseline CT scan. Significant hematoma growth was defined as an increase in hematoma volume of >33% or an absolute increase of hematoma volume of >12.5 mL. The blend sign on admission nonenhanced CT was defined as blending of hypoattenuating area and hyperattenuating region with a well-defined margin. Univariate and multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed to assess the relationship between the presence of the blend sign on nonenhanced admission CT and early hematoma growth. Results— A total of 172 patients were included in our study. Blend sign was observed in 29 of 172 (16.9%) patients with intracerebral hemorrhage on baseline nonenhanced CT scan. Of the 61 patients with hematoma growth, 24 (39.3%) had blend sign on admission CT scan. Interobserver agreement for identifying blend sign was excellent between the 2 readers (&kgr;=0.957). The multivariate logistic regression analysis demonstrated that the time to baseline CT scan, initial hematoma volume, and presence of blend sign on baseline CT scan to be independent predictors of early hematoma growth. The sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values of blend sign for predicting hematoma growth were 39.3%, 95.5%, 82.7%, and 74.1%, respectively. Conclusions— The CT blend sign could be easily identified on regular nonenhanced CT and is highly specific for predicting hematoma growth.
Preattentive Binding of Auditory and Visual Stimulus Features

We investigated the role of attention in feature binding in the auditory and the visual modality. One auditory and one visual experiment used the mismatch negativity (MMN and vMMN, respectively) event-related potential to index the memory representations created from stimulus sequences, which were either task-relevant and, therefore, attended or task-irrelevant and ignored. In the latter case, the primary task was a continuous demanding within-modality task. The test sequences were composed of two frequently occurring stimuli, which differed from each other in two stimulus features (standard stimuli) and two infrequently occurring stimuli (deviants), which combined one feature from one standard stimulus with the other feature of the other standard stimulus. Deviant stimuli elicited MMN responses of similar parameters across the different attentional conditions. These results suggest that the memory representations involved in the MMN deviance detection response encoded the frequently occurring feature combinations whether or not the test sequences were attended. A possible alternative to the memory-based interpretation of the visual results, the elicitation of the McCollough color-contingent aftereffect, was ruled out by the results of our third experiment. The current results are compared with those supporting the attentive feature integration theory. We conclude that (1) with comparable stimulus paradigms, similar results have been obtained in the two modalities, (2) there exist preattentive processes of feature binding, however, (3) conjoining features within rich arrays of objects under time pressure and/or long-term retention of the feature-conjoined memory representations may require attentive processes.
Cardiorespiratory Fitness and Classification of Risk of Cardiovascular Disease Mortality

Background— Cardiorespiratory fitness (fitness) is associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality. However, the extent to which fitness improves risk classification when added to traditional risk factors is unclear. Methods and Results— Fitness was measured by the Balke protocol in 66 371 subjects without prior CVD enrolled in the Cooper Center Longitudinal Study between 1970 and 2006; follow-up was extended through 2006. Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate the risk of CVD mortality with a traditional risk factor model (age, sex, systolic blood pressure, diabetes mellitus, total cholesterol, and smoking) with and without the addition of fitness. The net reclassification improvement and integrated discrimination improvement were calculated at 10 and 25 years. Ten-year risk estimates for CVD mortality were categorized as <1%, 1% to <5%, and ≥5%, and 25-year risk estimates were categorized as <8%, 8% to 30%, and ≥30%. During a median follow-up period of 16 years, there were 1621 CVD deaths. The addition of fitness to the traditional risk factor model resulted in reclassification of 10.7% of the men, with significant net reclassification improvement at both 10 years (net reclassification improvement=0.121) and 25 years (net reclassification improvement=0.041) (P<0.001 for both). The integrated discrimination improvement was 0.010 at 10 years (P<0.001), and the relative integrated discrimination improvement was 29%. Similar findings were observed for women at 25 years. Conclusions— A single measurement of fitness significantly improves classification of both short-term (10-year) and long-term (25-year) risk for CVD mortality when added to traditional risk factors.
miR-139-5p regulates proliferation, apoptosis, and cell cycle of uterine leiomyoma cells by targeting TPD52

Background Uterine leiomyoma is one of the most common benign tumors in women. It dramatically decreases the quality of life in the affected women. However, there is a lack of effective treatment paradigms. Micro-RNAs are small noncoding RNA molecules that are extensively expressed in organisms, and they are interrelated with the occurrence and development of the tumor. miR-139-5p was found to be downregulated in various cancers, but its function and mechanism in uterine leiomyoma remain unknown. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of miR-139-5p and its target gene in uterine leiomyoma. Methods By using a bioinformatic assay, it was found that TPD52 was a potential target gene of miR-139-5p. Then, expressions of miR-139-5p and TPD52 in uterine leiomyoma and adjacent myometrium tissues were evaluated by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction and Western blot. Proliferation, apoptosis, and cell cycle of uterine leiomyoma cells transfected by miR-139-5p mimics or TPD52 siRNA were determined. Results It was observed that the expression of miR-139-5p in uterine leiomyoma tissues was significantly lower (P<0.001) than that in the adjacent myometrium tissues. Overexpression of miR-139-5p inhibited the growth of uterine leiomyoma cells and induced apoptosis and G1 phase arrest. Dual-luciferase reporter assay and Western blot validated that TPD52 is the target gene of miR-139-5p. Furthermore, downregulation of TPD52 by siRNA in uterine leiomyoma cells inhibited cell proliferation and induced cell apoptosis and G1 phase arrest. Conclusion Data suggested that miR-139-5p inhibited the proliferation of uterine leiomyoma cells and induced cell apoptosis and G1 phase arrest by targeting TPD52.
Polyethylene glycol (PEG) embedding and subsequent de-embedding as a method for the structural and immunocytochemical examination of biological specimens by electron microscopy

A simple and reliable method to make resinless sections for electron microscopy was recently developed by using polyethylene glycol (PEG) as a transient embedding media. In this paper the practical procedure of this PEG method is described in detail. Normal ultrastructure of several types of in-situ cells in resinless sections is demonstrated. The cytoplasmic matrix of all in-situ cells examined is revealed to consist of the microtrabecular lattice. A result from application of this technique to immuno-electron microscopy is also illustrated. This method is shown to have potential in overcoming the problem of intracellular penetration of macromolecular antibodies. Several artifacts caused by failures in specimen preparations are displayed. The real or artifactual nature of the microtrabecula is briefly discussed.
High incidence of ADH2*1/ALDH2*1 genes among Japanese alcohol dependents and patients with alcoholic liver disease

In an attempt to clarify the genetic factors in alcoholism among the Japanese, polymorphism of alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) and aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) genes has been investigated. Genetic polymorphism of ADH2/ALDH2 in 66 cases of normal subjects, 90 cases of alcohol dependent, and 31 patients with alcoholic liver disease among Japanese has been analyzed using a polymerase chain reaction assay followed by a direct sequencing method, because ethanol is mainly catabolized by ADH and ALDH and less by cytochrome P450IIE1 and catalase. The incidence of both ADH2*1/*1 and ALDH2*1/*1 was significantly higher in patients with alcohol dependence and in patients with alcoholic liver disease when compared with that in control subjects. In addition, the incidence of ALDH2*1/*2 and ALDH2*2/*2 was significantly reduced in alcoholics compared with control subjects. Genetic polymorphism of ADH2/ALDH2 in patients with alcoholic liver disease was not different from that of alcohol dependents. According to these results, not only ALDH2 gene, often claimed to be responsible for alcohol dependence among Japanese, but also ADH2 gene polymorphism, which modulates the metabolism of ethanol, play important roles in habitual alcohol intake behavior in Japanese patients and in some patients leads to alcoholic liver diseases.
Bottom-Up Relational Learning of Pattern Matching Rules for Information Extraction

Information extraction is a form of shallow text processing that locates a speciﬁed set of relevant items in a natural-language document. Systems for this task require signiﬁcant domain-speciﬁc knowledge and are time-consuming and difﬁcult to build by hand, making them a good application for machine learning. We present an algorithm, R APIER , that uses pairs of sample documents and ﬁlled templates to induce pattern-match rules that directly extract ﬁllers for the slots in the template. R APIER is a bottom-up learning algorithm that incorporates techniques from several inductive logic programming systems. We have implemented the algorithm in a system that allows patterns to have constraints on the words, part-of-speech tags, and semantic classes present in the ﬁller and the surrounding text. We present encouraging experimental results on two domains.
Space-time tradeoffs for approximate spherical range counting

We present space-time tradeoffs for approximate spherical range counting queries. Given a set <i>S</i> of <i>n</i> data points in R<sup>d</sup> along with a positive approximation factor ε, the goal is to preprocess the points so that, given any Euclidean ball <i>B</i>, we can return the number of points of any subset of <i>S</i> that contains all the points within a (1 - ε)-factor contraction of <i>B</i>, but contains no points that lie outside a (1 + ε)-factor expansion of <i>B. </i>In many applications of range searching it is desirable to offer a tradeoff between space and query time. We present here the first such tradeoffs for approximate range counting queries. Given 0 < ε ≤ 1/2 and a parameter γ, where 2 ≤ γ ≤ 1/ε, we show how to construct a data structure of space <i>O</i>(<i>n</i>γ<sup><i>d</i></sup> log (1/ε)) that allows us to answer ε-approximate spherical range counting queries in time <i>O</i>(log(<i>n</i>γ) + 1/(<i>εγ</i><sup><i>d</i>-1</sup>). The data structure can be built in time <i>O</i>(<i>nγ</i><sup><i>d</i></sup> log (<i>n</i>/ε)) log (1/ε)). Here <i>n</i>, ε, and γ are asymptotic quantities, and the dimension <i>d</i> is assumed to be a fixed constant.At one extreme (low space), this yields a data structure of space <i>O</i>(<i>n</i> log (1/<i>e</i>)) that can answer approximate range queries in time <i>O</i>(log<i>n</i> + 1/(<i>e</i><sup>d-1</sup>) which, up to a factor of <i>O</i>(<i>n</i> log (1/<i>e</i>) in space, matches the best known result for approximate spherical range counting queries. At the other extreme (high space), it yields a data structure of space <i>O</i>((<i>n</i>/<i>e</i><sup><i>d</i></sup>) log(1/ε)) that can answer queries in time <i>O</i>(log<i>n</i> + 1/ε). This is the fastest known query time for this problem.We also show how to adapt these data structures to the problem of computing an ε-approximation to the <i>k</i>th nearest neighbor, where <i>k</i> is any integer from 1 to <i>n</i> given at query time. The space bounds are identical to the range searching results, and the query time is larger only by a factor of <i>O</i>(1/(εγ)). Our approach is broadly based on methods developed for approximate Voronoi diagrams (AVDs), but it involves a number of significant extensions from the context of nearest neighbor searching to range searching. These include generalizing AVD node-separation properties from leaves to internal nodes of the tree and constructing efficient generator sets through a radial decomposition of space. We have also developed new arguments to analyze the time and space requirements in this more general setting.