Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Angular power distribution and mean effective gain of mobile antenna in different propagation environments

We measured the elevation angle distribution and cross-polarization power ratio of the incident power at a mobile station in different radio propagation environments at 2.15 GHz frequency. A novel measurement technique was utilized, based on a wideband channel sounder and a spherical dual-polarized antenna array at the receiver. Data were collected over 9 km of continuous measurement routes, both indoor and outdoor. Our results show that in non-line-of-sight situations, the power distribution in elevation has a shape of a double-sided exponential function, with different slopes on the negative and positive sides of the peak. The slopes and the peak elevation angle depend on the environment and base-station antenna height. The cross-polarization power ratio varied within 6.6 and 11.4 dB, being lowest for indoor and highest for urban microcell environments. We applied the experimental data for analysis of the mean effective gain (MEG) of several mobile handset antenna configurations, with and without the user's head. The obtained MEG values varied from approximately -5 dBi in free space to less than -11 dBi beside the head model. These values are considerably lower than what is typically used in system specifications. The result shows that considering only the maximum gain or total efficiency of the antenna is not enough to describe its performance in practical operating conditions. For most antennas, the environment type has little effect on the MEG, but clear differences exist between antennas. The effect of the user's head on the MEG depends on the antenna type and on which side of the head the user holds the handset.
The community seismic network and quake-catcher network: enabling structural health monitoring through instrumentation by community participants

A new type of seismic network is in development that takes advantage of community volunteers to install low-cost accelerometers in houses and buildings. The Community Seismic Network and Quake-Catcher Network are examples of this, in which observational-based structural monitoring is carried out using records from one to tens of stations in a single building. We have deployed about one hundred accelerometers in a number of buildings ranging between five and 23 stories in the Los Angeles region. In addition to a USB-connected device which connects to the host’s computer, we have developed a stand-alone sensor-plug-computer device that directly connects to the internet via Ethernet or wifi. In the case of the Community Seismic Network, the sensors report both continuous data and anomalies in local acceleration to a cloud computing service consisting of data centers geographically distributed across the continent. Visualization models of the instrumented buildings’ dynamic linear response have been constructed using Google SketchUp and an associated plug-in to matlab with recorded shaking data. When data are available from only one to a very limited number of accelerometers in high rises, the buildings are represented as simple shear beam or prismatic Timoshenko beam models with soil-structure interaction. Small-magnitude earthquake records are used to identify the first set of horizontal vibrational frequencies. These frequencies are then used to compute the response on every floor of the building, constrained by the observed data. These tools are resulting in networking standards that will enable data sharing among entire communities, facility managers, and emergency response groups.
Is there a role for multislice computed tomography in aortic stenosis?

Over the recent years, a number of papers have addressed the use of multislice computed tomography (MS-CT) in patients with aortic stenosis (AS). The ability of the technique to detect and quantify calcifications was the first reason for its application to calcific AS. Indeed, quantification of valvular calcification first by electron-beam tomography1 and later on by MS-CT2,3 has been well validated by studying patients prior to surgery and comparing the results with examinations of the pathological specimen. The methods have been shown to be reasonably accurate although examination may require special care.4 The question is whether this quantification of calcification has any clinical impact. Several studies reported a significant relation between the extent of calcification and the severity of the stenosis as defined by transvalvular gradient, aortic valve area (AVA) or both,3,5–7 whereas other investigators could not find a close association.8 It is obvious that such a relation can only be expected for calcific AS but not for other aetiologies such as congenital or rheumatic. Although some relation would make sense in the calcific form, it is of course highly unlikely that a certain cut-off can allow to distinguish between severe and non-severe AS with reasonable accuracy and that there could be any clinical relevance of quantifying AS by calculating the amount of calcium in an aortic valve. Nevertheless, the increase in calcification reflects the progression of the disease in an individual patient with AS. Therefore, such techniques have been used to study the effect of statines9 and ACE-inhibitors10 on the progression of AS and they certainly will continue to be a valuable tool for research … Corresponding author. E-mail address : helmut.baumgartner{at}meduniwien.ac. at
Efficient Square-Root and Division Free Algorithms for Inverse LDLT Factorization and the Wide-Sense Givens Rotation with Application to V-BLAST

We propose efficient square-root and division free algorithms for inverse LDL' factorization and the wide-sense Givens rotation, mainly for conventional multiply-add digital computers. The algorithms are then employed to propose a fast algorithm for vertical Bell Laboratories Layered Space-Time architecture (V-BLAST). The proposed inverse LDL' factorization avoids the conventional back substitution of the Cholesky factor, and then has the speedups of 1.19 over the square root and division free alternative Cholesky factorization plus the back substitution. The proposed wide-sense Givens rotation requires the same computational complexity as the efficient Givens rotation. The speedups of the proposed V-BLAST algorithm over the recursive V-BLAST algorithm are 1.05~1.4. The difference between the complexity of the proposed V-BLAST algorithm and that of the square-root V-BLAST algorithm is trivial and even negligible. However, the square-root V-BLAST algorithm requires many square-root and division operations, while the proposed V-BLAST algorithm requires no square-root operations, and requires only one division for each transmit signal, which can be postponed until the signal estimation is required.
Holographic Renormalization of Gravity in Little String Theory Duals

We perform a holographic renormalization of gravity duals to little string theories. In particular, we construct counterterms which yield a well-defined type II action for NS-sector linear dilaton backgrounds. Our methods are based on a similar recent construction in asymptotically flat spacetimes, and our work demonstrates in detail the parallels between asymptotically flat and linear dilaton boundary conditions. The counterterms guarantee that (i) the on-shell action is finite and (ii) asymptotically linear dilaton solutions are stationary points of the action under all boundary condition preserving variations. We use the resulting action to compute a boundary stress tensor and the associated conserved charges.
Superspreading and the impact of individual variation on disease emergence Supplementary Information

Supplementary Table 1 A summary of results from our statistical analysis of uncontrolled outbreaks, corresponding to the results shown in Figure 1a-c of the main article. Supplementary Table 2 Detailed results from our statistical analysis of uncontrolled outbreaks (elaborating on the summary shown in Supplementary Table 1), and from the analysis of data from four outbreaks before and after control measures were applied. Supplementary Figures Supplementary Figure 1. Prediction of SSE frequency. Supplementary Figure 2. Branching process results for Z~NegB(R 0 ,k). Supplementary Figure 3. Impact of control measures. Supplementary Figure 4. Estimation of the negative binomial dispersion parameter k from full datasets and from mean and proportion of zeroes. Here we summarize some of the known factors that contribute to differences in infectiousness among individuals, gathered from primary reports (including the SSE reports collected in Section 3.2.1, below) and from insightful discussions in the literature 1-8. This is a broad and complex topic and we do not intend this section as a complete review—we intend simply to delineate important issues and spur further research, which will be required to make practical use of the findings presented in the main text, particularly with regard to targeting more-infectious individuals for control. Variation in individual reproductive number arises due to a combination of host, pathogen and environmental effects. At the host level, distributions of contact rates are often skewed 9-13 and index cases in SSEs are often noted to have high numbers of occupational or social contacts 7,10,14. Increased transmission is correlated with host activities that facilitate pathogen dispersion, such as food handling 15 and singing 16,17. Transmission rates can exhibit strong age-dependence 10,18 , and previously vaccinated hosts often are less infectious 19,20. A recent experimental study documented substantial variation among human hosts in the amount of 'exhaled bioaerosols' (small droplets of airway-lining fluid) generated during normal breathing, suggesting a mechanism for variation in infectiousness for droplet-or aerosol-transmitted pathogens 21. (This study also demonstrated a potential means to reduce infectiousness by altering airway surface properties using inhaled saline solution.) Other relevant host factors may include hygiene habits, immunocompetence, norms regarding bodily contact, and tendency to seek treatment or comply with control measures. Host-pathogen interactions affect transmission rates via variation in pathogen load or shedding 15,20 and in symptom severity (which may increase transmission via greater shedding or decrease transmission due to reduced contact rate 10,15,19,20). Severe coughing, due either to pulmonary …
Influence of Vertebra Stiffness in the Finite Element Analysis of the Intervertebral Disc

Spine finite element models are an essential tool to study the degeneration of the intervertebral disc (IVD). Due to the complex geometry of the vertebras, the anisotropy and heterogeneity of the tissues, and the contact and material nonlinearities [1], spine models demand high computational resources. Considering the relatively low stiffness of the IVD compared to that of the vertebrae, we hypothesized that finite element stress and stress distributions of the IVD do not change substantially if the vertebras are modeled as rigid bodies. This simplification in spine models may considerably reduce the solution time when the interest is the analysis of the IVD.Copyright © 2012 by ASME
Making Classical Ground State Spin Computing Fault-Tolerant

We examine a model of classical deterministic computing in which the ground state of the classical system is a spatial history of the computation. This model is relevant to quantum dot cellular automata as well as to recent universal adiabatic quantum computing constructions. In its most primitive form, systems constructed in this model cannot compute in an error-free manner when working at nonzero temperature. However, by exploiting a mapping between the partition function for this model and probabilistic classical circuits we are able to show that it is possible to make this model effectively error-free. We achieve this by using techniques in fault-tolerant classical computing and the result is that the system can compute effectively error-free if the temperature is below a critical temperature. We further link this model to computational complexity and show that a certain problem concerning finite temperature classical spin systems is complete for the complexity class Merlin-Arthur. This provides an interesting connection between the physical behavior of certain many-body spin systems and computational complexity.
Nonlocal Transform-Domain Filter for Volumetric Data Denoising and Reconstruction

We present an extension of the BM3D filter to volumetric data. The proposed algorithm, BM4D, implements the grouping and collaborative filtering paradigm, where mutually similar d -dimensional patches are stacked together in a (d+1) -dimensional array and jointly filtered in transform domain. While in BM3D the basic data patches are blocks of pixels, in BM4D we utilize cubes of voxels, which are stacked into a 4-D “group. ” The 4-D transform applied on the group simultaneously exploits the local correlation present among voxels in each cube and the nonlocal correlation between the corresponding voxels of different cubes. Thus, the spectrum of the group is highly sparse, leading to very effective separation of signal and noise through coefficient shrinkage. After inverse transformation, we obtain estimates of each grouped cube, which are then adaptively aggregated at their original locations. We evaluate the algorithm on denoising of volumetric data corrupted by Gaussian and Rician noise, as well as on reconstruction of volumetric phantom data with non-zero phase from noisy and incomplete Fourier-domain (k-space) measurements. Experimental results demonstrate the state-of-the-art denoising performance of BM4D, and its effectiveness when exploited as a regularizer in volumetric data reconstruction.
Growth Rate of and Gene Expression in Bradyrhizobium diazoefficiens USDA110 due to a Mutation in blr7984, a TetR Family Transcriptional Regulator Gene

Previous transcriptome analyses have suggested that a gene cluster including a transcriptional regulator (blr7984) of the tetracycline repressor family was markedly down-regulated in symbiosis. Since blr7984 is annotated to be the transcriptional repressor, we hypothesized that it is involved in the repression of genes in the genomic cluster including blr7984 in symbiotic bacteroids. In order to examine the function and involvement of the blr7984 gene in differentiation into bacteroids, we compared the free-living growth/symbiotic phenotype and gene expression between a blr7984-knockout mutant and the wild-type strain of Bradyrhizobium diazoefficiens USDA110. The mutant transiently increased the cell growth rate under free-living conditions and nodule numbers over those with the wild-type strain USDA110. The expression of three genes adjacent to the disrupted blr7984 gene was strongly up-regulated in the mutant in free-living and symbiotic cells. The mutant also induced the expression of genes for glutathione S-transferase, cytochrome c oxidases, ABC transporters, PTS sugar transport systems, and flagella synthesis under free-living conditions. bll7983 encoding glutathione S-transferase was up-regulated the most by the blr7984 disruption. Since redox regulation by glutathione is known to be involved in cell division in prokaryotes and eukaryotes, the strong expression of glutathione S-transferase encoded by the bll7983 gene may have caused redox changes in mutant cells, which resulted in higher rates of cell division.
Fatty acid binding protein 4 in circulating leucocytes reflects atherosclerotic lesion progression in Apoe−/− mice

Discovery of novel biomarkers for atherosclerosis is important to aid in early diagnosis of pre‐symptomatic patients at high risk of cardiovascular events. The aim of the present study was therefore to identify potential biomarkers in circulating cells reflecting atherosclerotic lesion progression in the vessel wall. We performed gene arrays on circulating leucocytes from atherosclerosis prone Apoe−/− mice with increasing ages, using C57BL/6 mice as healthy controls. We identified fatty acid binding protein 4 (FABP4) mRNA to be augmented in mice with established disease compared with young Apoe−/− or controls. Interestingly, the transcript FABP4 correlated significantly with lesion size, further supporting a disease associated increase. In addition, validation of our finding on protein level showed augmented FABP4 in circulating leucocytes whereas, importantly, no change could be observed in plasma. Immunofluorescence analysis demonstrated FABP4 to be present mainly in circulating neutrophils and to some extent in monocytes. Moreover, FABP4‐positive neutrophils and macrophages could be identified in the subintimal space in the plaque. Using human circulating leucocytes, we confirmed the presence of FABP4 protein in neutrophils and monocytes. In conclusion, we have showed that cellular levels of FABP4 in circulating leucocytes associate with lesion development in the experimental Apoe−/− model. The increased expression is primarily localized to neutrophils, but also in monocytes. We have identified FABP4 in leucocytes as a potential and easy accessible biomarker of atherosclerosis which could be of future clinical relevance.
Broad-spectrum antibiotics in Norwegian hospitals.

BACKGROUND One of the objectives in the action plan to reduce antimicrobial resistance in the health services in Norway is to reduce the use of broad-spectrum antibiotics in Norwegian hospitals. This study describes the use of certain broad-spectrum antibiotics mentioned in the action plan in Norwegian hospitals, and assesses prescribing practices in relation to the Norwegian guidelines for antibiotic use in hospitals.MATERIAL AND METHOD Data were analysed from a nationwide non-identifiable point prevalence survey in May 2016 where all systemic use of antibiotics was recorded.RESULTS Broad-spectrum antibiotics accounted for 33 % of all antibiotics prescribed. Altogether 84 % of all broad-spectrum antibiotics were prescribed as treatment, 8 % were for prophylactic use, and 8 % were classified as other/unknown. Lower respiratory tract infections were the most frequent indication for treatment with broad-spectrum antibiotics, involving 30 % of all broad-spectrum treatment.INTERPRETATION This point prevalence survey in Norwegian hospitals in spring 2016 indicates a possibility for reducing the use of broad-spectrum antibiotics in the treatment of lower respiratory tract infections and for prophylactic use. Reduction of healthcare-associated infections may also contribute.
Comparison of approaches to correct intake–health associations for FFQ measurement error using a duplicate recovery biomarker and a duplicate 24 h dietary recall as reference method

Abstract Objective To illustrate the impact of intake-related bias in FFQ and 24 h recall (24hR), and correlated errors between these methods, on intake–health associations. Design Dietary intake was assessed by a 180-item semi-quantitative FFQ and two 24hR. Urinary N and urinary K were estimated from two 24 h urine samples. We compared four scenarios to correct associations for errors in an FFQ estimating protein and K intakes. Setting Wageningen, The Netherlands. Subjects Fifty-nine men and fifty-eight women aged 45–65 years. Results For this FFQ, measurement error weakened a true relative risk of 2·0 to 1·4 for protein and 1·5 for K. As compared with calibration to duplicate recovery biomarkers (i.e. the preferred scenario 1), estimating a validity coefficient using this duplicate biomarker resulted in overcorrected associations, caused by intake-related bias in the FFQ (scenario 2). The correction factor based on a triad using biomarkers and 24hR was hampered by this intake-related bias and by correlated errors between FFQ and 24hR, and in this population resulted in a nearly perfect correction for protein but an overcorrection for K (scenario 3). When the 24hR was used for calibration, only a small correction was done, due to correlated errors between the methods and intake-related bias in the 24hR (scenario 4). Conclusions Calibration to a gold standard reference method is the preferred approach to correct intake–health associations for FFQ measurement error. If it is not possible to do so, using the 24hR as reference method only partly removes the errors, but may result in improved intake–health associations.
Analysis of Performance on Cognitive Test Measures Before, During, and After 6 Months of Hearing Aid Use: A Single-Subject Experimental Design.

PURPOSE The present study examined the effect of hearing aid use on cognitive test performance using a single-subject treatment design. METHOD Six participants 54 to 64 years old with sensorineural hearing loss were fitted with hearing aids. Participants used the hearing aids for approximately 8 hr each day for the duration of the study. A battery of cognitive tests was administered to participants during baseline (pre-hearing aid fitting), treatment (hearing aid use), and withdrawal (post-hearing aid use) study phases over a period of 6 months of hearing aid use. RESULTS All participants showed significant improvements in performance on the cognitive test measures with hearing aid use. The most significant treatment effects were evidenced at 2 to 4 weeks of hearing aid use on the Listening Span Test and an auditory selective attention task. In many cases, cognitive performance scores returned to baseline levels after the participant stopped using the hearing aids. CONCLUSION The findings from this study are consistent with the hypothesis that hearing aid use may improve cognitive performance by improving audibility and decreasing the cognitive load of the listening task.
Effective fabrication method of 3D ceramic photonic crystals with diamond structure

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a novel and effective fabricating method of 3D ceramic photonic crystals with diamond structure.Design/methodology/approach – The reverse diamond‐structure resin molds are fabricated by stereolithography (SL), then ceramic slurry is prepared and injected into the molds under vacuum condition. Subsequently, ceramic photonic crystals are obtained after vacuum freeze‐drying and sintering.Findings – The combination of SL, gel‐casting and freeze‐drying could be used to fabricate the 3D ceramic photonic crystals with diamond structure which have intact structure and minimal shrinkage. The samples have been tested and the experimental results indicate that their band gap is in the range of 10.14‐12.20 GHz, consistent with the simulation results.Research limitations/implications – The influence of fabrication process on the photonic band gap needs further study.Originality/value – This paper presents a novel fabricating method of 3D diamond‐structure ceramic photo.