Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A hybrid nonlinear model for the annual maximum simultaneous electric power demand

As far as the electricity market is considered, both governments and private sector are interested in energy supply industry and so consider it essential to predict energy demand. Solution of the problem depends on availability of a model. This paper proposes a systematically developed model. It is based on a previously performed exogeneity investigation of various quantified variables. A certain nonlinear model among a collection of 100 models with different inputs is chosen as the most appropriate model. Structure of all nonlinear competing models is established according to logical conjunctive and disjunctive relationships between variables. Different combinations of the exogenous variables generate these models. At first, unacceptable models are put away applying coefficient sign significance criterion and error validity. An automated fuzzy decision-making process determines the winner model, which is a hybrid nonlinear model, among the other remaining models
Switching between Plasmonic and Fluorescent Copper Sulfide Nanocrystals

Control over the doping density in copper sulfide nanocrystals is of great importance and determines its use in optoelectronic applications such as NIR optical switches and photovoltaic devices. Here, we demonstrate that we can reversibly control the hole carrier density (varying from >1022 cm–3 to intrinsic) in copper sulfide nanocrystals by electrochemical methods. We can control the type of charge injection, i.e., capacitive charging or ion intercalation, via the choice of the charge compensating cation (e.g., ammonium salts vs Li+). Further, the type of intercalating ion determines whether the charge injection is fully reversible (for Li+) or leads to permanent changes in doping density (for Cu+). Using fully reversible lithium intercalation allows us to switch between thin films of covellite CuS NCs (Eg = 2.0 eV, hole density 1022 cm–3, strong localized surface plasmon resonance) and low-chalcocite CuLiS NCs (Eg = 1.2 eV, intrinsic, no localized surface plasmon resonance), and back. Electrochemical Cu+ ion intercalation leads to a permanent phase transition to intrinsic low-chalcocite Cu2S nanocrystals that display air stable fluorescence, centered around 1050 nm (fwhm ∼145 meV, PLQY ca. 1.8%), which is the first observation of narrow near-infrared fluorescence for copper sulfide nanocrystals. The dynamic control over the hole doping density and fluorescence of copper sulfide nanocrystals presented in this work and the ability to switch between plasmonic and fluorescent semiconductor nanocrystals might lead to their successful implementation into photovoltaic devices, NIR optical switches and smart windows.
Effect of sprint interval versus continuous cycling on postprandial lipaemia

Abstract The present study compares the effect of a single bout of sprint interval cycling against continuous cycling on postprandial lipaemia. Participants were nine healthy volunteers (five male), aged 20–26 years. Each participant undertook three 2-d trials in a random order. On day 1, participants rested (control), undertook a single 20 minute bout of continuous cycling at 70% of maximum oxygen uptake or completed four 30-second bouts of sprint interval cycling on a cycle ergometer, separated by 4.5 minutes of recovery. On day 2, participants rested and consumed a test meal (75% fat). Triacylglycerol concentrations were measured fasting and for 6 hours after the meal. The total area under the triacylglycerol concentration against time curve was similar among trials (mean (SD): control, 9.51 (3.50) mmol · l−1 compared with continuous cycling, 8.58 (3.08) mmol · l−1 compared with sprint interval cycling, 9.28 (1.89) mmol · l−1; P = 0.517). There was no difference in the pattern of TAG response to the test meal among trials (trial × time interaction, P = 0.637). The present study found no effect of sprint interval or continuous cycling on postprandial lipaemia, with the reason for this finding unclear. Future studies need to more precisely determine the relationship between exercise and postprandial lipaemia across different types of exercise.
Epoetin Alfa for Treatment of Anemia in HIV-Infected Patients: Past, Present, and Future

Despite the availability of highly active antiretroviral therapy and the resulting reduction in severe anemia associated with HIV infection, epoetin alfa has continued to play an important role in the management of HIV-infected patients. Mild-to-moderate anemia remains common, and its correction with epoetin alfa has resulted in significant improvements in quality of life, physical functioning, and possibly prolongation of survival. New research has demonstrated that epoetin alfa may have therapeutic potential beyond its ability to stimulate erythropoiesis due to its neuroprotective and antiapoptotic properties. Current and future research will further clarify the role of epoetin alfa in the clinical management of the HIV-infected population.
Long-Term Evaluation of Patients with Hydatidosis Treated with Albendazole and Praziquantel

Hydatidosis is a usually asymptomatic chronic disease. In most patients who undergo surgery, hydatidosis is not resolved due to high recurrence rate. However, long-term treatment with albendazole has been found to have a significant efficacy that has been further improved when albendazole is combined with praziquantel and fat-rich diet. In this study a retrospective evaluation of the outcome of hydatidosis in 70 patients, was performed. In group A, a combined chemotherapy of albendazole plus praziquantel was given after surgical removal of cysts. In group B chemotherapy alone was administered without surgery. Sera of all patients were assayed for IgG, IgM, IgA and IgE antibodies by ELISA. In addition, ultrasonography (US) and/or computerized tomography (CT) scans were performed every 3 months for 18 months, and then, each year until the end of follow-up. The difference between the two kinds of treatment used in the present study was found to be not significant, nor was the difference of the shrinkage and extended calcification of the HCs between the two groups. However, the difference of the shrinkage of the HCs of more than 80%, as well as the extended calcifications of the cysts between the two groups were found to be statistically significant. In all patients high levels of IgG and IgA were detected, while IgE in group A and/or IgM in group B were marginally detected above the background level throughout the study. Level of IgG was strongly fluctuated and significantly decreased at 11.7 years after the end of chemotherapy, or at 8.5 years after relapses in group A, while was dramatically decreased at 3.6 years after the termination of chemotherapy in group B. Relapses occurred in 11.4% of patients within the first six months after end of chemotherapy. After additional chemotherapy with albendazole for 3–6 months, all of them were considered cured at 8.5 years of follow up.
Information Theory and the Finite-Time Behavior of the Simulated Annealing Algorithm: Experimental Results

This article presents an empirical approach that demonstrates a theoretical connection between (information theoretic) entropy measures and the finite-time performance of the simulated annealing algorithm. The methodology developed leads to several computational approaches for creating problem instances useful in testing and demonstrating the entropy/performance connection: use of generic configuration spaces, polynomial transformations between NP-hard problems, and modification of penalty parameters. In particular, the computational results show that higher entropy measures are associated with superior finite-time performance of the simulated annealing algorithm.
Radiation-Induced Human Endogenous Retrovirus (HERV)-R env Gene Expression by Epigenetic Control

It is commonly accepted that ionizing radiation induces genomic instability by changes in genomic structure, epigenetic regulation and gene expression. Human endogenous retroviruses (HERV)-R also are often differentially expressed between normal and disease tissues under unstable genomic conditions and are implicated in the pathogenesis of several human diseases. To understand the influence of ionizing radiation on HERV-R expression, we performed quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analyses using γ-irradiated normal human cells. Compared to nonirradiated cells, HERV-R expression was up-regulated in γ-irradiated cells. The regulatory mechanism of HERV-R expression in irradiated cells was investigated by methylation analyses of HERV-R 5′LTRs and treatment with garcinol. These data indicated that the up-regulated transcription of HERV-R may be regulated by radiation-induced epigenetic changes induced by histone modification, and thus could be of great importance for understanding the relationship between radiation-induced biological effects and transposable elements.
Reactive and proactive aggression differentially predict later conduct problems.

This study tested whether proactive and reactive aggression were differently predictive of later externalizing problems such as delinquency and DSM-related disruptive behaviors (i.e. oppositional defiant and conduct disorders). It also tested whether these two subtypes of aggressive behaviors interacted in predicting externalizing problems. A community sample of low SES boys participated in the study. Proactive and reactive aggression were rated by teachers when boys were 12 years old. Delinquency, oppositional disorders, and conduct disorders were assessed during mid-adolescence. Proactive but not reactive aggression predicted delinquency and disruptive behaviors. Moreover, high levels of reactive aggression weakened the link between proactive aggression and delinquency. Reactive aggression, however, did not moderate the link between proactive aggression and disruptive behaviors. We conclude that reactive and proactive aggression are two types of aggressive behaviors with different predictive abilities. We also offer tentative explanations to account for the present findings.
National Institutes of Health public access policy assistance: one library's approach.

Over a year ago, on April 7, 2008, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) public access policy became mandatory. The policy directs NIH-funded researchers to: submit or have submitted for them to the National Library of Medicine's PubMed Central an electronic version of their final, peer-reviewed manuscripts upon acceptance for publication, to be made publicly available no later than 12 months after the official date of publication. [1] At that time, the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) Biomedical Library, along with many other academic health sciences libraries, began to strategize about how it might help its NIH-funded researchers comply with the policy. Now, a year later, seems like a good time to reflect on the steps that this library took to offer policy assistance and to consider the benefits to the library of doing so.
Do Ophthalmology Training Programs Affect Corrective Procedure Rates After Cataract Surgery?

The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) plays a major role in training surgeons in the United States. This study examined the rates of corrective procedures after routine cataract surgery stratified for VHA institutions according to the presence or absence of ophthalmology training programs. There was a wide range of rates of corrective surgeries in the 111 centers that performed cataract surgery. VHA medical centers affiliated with training programs had nearly twice the rates of corrective surgery after cataract extraction than those institutions without such programs. Variation in secondary procedure rates has implications for the development of quality improvement in ophthalmology.
Framing Matters : Sanctioning in Public Good Games with Parallel Bilateral Relationships ∗

Public good games are used to study whether and how people can achieve cooperative behavior in the face of immediate incentives to behave more selfishly. Specifically, they are often used to study emissions reductions, where there can be incentives to keep emitting and free-ride on others’ reductions. Decisions about reducing greenhouse gas emissions are often modeled as a public good game, in which everyone benefits when everyone reduces emissions, but individual countries have an incentive to free-ride on others’ reductions. In reality, these decisions do not occur in a vacuum: a country that refuses to cooperate may, for example, pay a price in its bilateral trade relationships. We extend public good games with such bilateral relationships. In our experiments with human subjects, the actual ability to use pairwise relationships to sanction defectors does not matter nearly as much as how the situation is presented, and emphasizing the possibility of such sanctioning in fact leads to less cooperation.
Populus species from diverse habitats maintain high night-time conductance under drought.

We investigated the interspecific variability in nocturnal whole-plant stomatal conductance under well-watered and drought conditions in seedlings of four species of Populus from habitats characterized by abundant water supply (mesic and riparian) or from drier upland sites. The study was carried out to determine whether (i) nocturnal conductance varies across different species of Populus according to their natural habitat, (ii) nocturnal conductance is affected by water stress similarly to daytime conductance based on species habitat and (iii) differences in conductance among species could be explained partly by differences in stomatal traits. We measured whole-plant transpiration and conductance (G) of greenhouse-grown seedlings using an automated high-resolution gravimetric technique. No relationship was found between habitat preference and daytime G (GD), but night-time G (GN) was on average 1.5 times higher in riparian and mesic species (P. deltoides Bartr. ex Marsh. and P. trichocarpa Torr. & Gray) than in those from drier environments (P. tremuloides Michx. and P. × petrowskyana Schr.). GN was not significantly reduced under drought in riparian species. Upland species restricted GN significantly in response to drought, but it was still at least one order of magnitude greater that the cuticular conductance until leaf death was imminent. Under both well-watered and drought conditions, GN declined with increasing vapour pressure deficit (D). Also, a small increase in GN towards the end of the night period was observed in P. deltoides and P. × petrowskyana, suggesting the involvement of endogenous regulation. The anatomical analyses indicated a positive correlation between G and variable stomatal pore index among species and revealed that stomata are not likely to be leaky but instead seem capable of complete occlusion, which raises the question of the possible physiological role of the significant GN observed under drought. Further comparisons among closely related species that occupy ecologically diverse habitats may provide a better understanding of the genetic versus environmental regulations of nocturnal water loss.
The Complete Guide to Six Sigma

ductory methods and are just enough material to constitute a semester-long course. In addition to the text, the authors maintain a Web site from which one can download datasets, calculator programs, instructional hints, and answers to problems. Instructors will benefit from studying the datasets that are reused in later topics. They will also benefit from reading the brief suggestions about conducting the activities for each topic. As a last note, Workshop Statistics is intended for a very general audience, and the data range from personal data gathered in class, to medical data, to data on ESP testing and on the space shuttle O-ring failures. One of us (Ipiiia) has used a portion of this book (the one using a graphing calculator) to successfully teach a group of middle-school and high-school teachers. Her reason for using graphing calculators was their accessibility for teachers, who already used graphing calculators with algebra students. The TI-83, commonly used in high schools, has many built-in features for statistics instruction, The reader considering calculators as the technology platform for a statistics course may select the TI-85 over the more algebraically sophisticated models. The text reviewed here is exposition of the same material using Minitab as its technology platform. It contains instructions for both the command version and the Windows version of Minitab. Whichever platform is used, Workshop Srutistics is a highly interactive book that requires in-class access to the appropriate technology. To quote the preface, “Students work toward (topic) goals through the analysis of genuine data and through interaction with one another. with their instructor, and with technology. ”
Maximum-Sized Matroids with No Minors Isomorphic to U2,5, F7, F−7 or P7

Let [Mscr ] be the class of simple matroids which do not contain the 5-point line U2,5, the Fano plane F7, the non-Fano plane F−7, or the matroid P7 as minors. Let h(n) be the maximum number of points in a rank-n matroid in [Mscr ]. We show that h(2) = 4, h(3) = 7, and h(n) = (n+12) for n [ges ] 4, and we also find all the maximum-sized matroids for each rank.
ACCOMMODATIVE RESPONSES TO SMALL CHANGES IN DIOPTRIC STIMULUS*

ABSTRACT The accommodative response of the eye to low power spherical and sphero‐cylindrical step stimuli having the same spherical equivalent was measured using a modified Allen‐Carter infrared optometer. It was demonstrated that a subject's response to as little as 0.1 diopter could be detected directly. The subject, fixating a 20/20 letter, triggered a 1 sec photographic exposure of the oscilloscope trace when he achieved optimum focus. The level of response was obtained by measuring the difference in oscilloscope trace height of two successive exposures, the first with no lens and the second with the randomly presented step stimulus in place. The pattern of response was similar for the two subjects measured, with natural and artificial pupils. In general, for both —0.25 D and —0.50 D, a statistically significant lower response level was obtained for sphero‐cylindrical lenses than for their spherical equivalents.
Coherence loss in phase-referenced VLBI observations

Context. Phase-referencing is a standard calibration technique in radio interferometry, particularly suited for the detection of weak sources close to the sensitivity limits of the interferometers. However, effects from a changing atmosphere and inaccuracies in the correlator model may affect the phase-referenced images, and lead to wrong estimates of source flux densities and positions. A systematic observational study of signal decoherence in phase-referencing and its effects in the image plane has not been performed yet. Aims. We systematically studied how the signal coherence in Very-Long-Baseline-Interferometry (VLBI) observations is affected by a phase-reference calibration at different frequencies and for different calibrator-to-target separations. The results obtained should be of interest for a correct interpretation of many phase-referenced observations with VLBI. Methods. We observed a set of 13 strong sources (the S5 polar cap sample) at 8.4 and 15 GHz in phase-reference mode with 32 different calibrator/target combinations spanning angular separations between 1.5 and 20.5 degrees. We obtained phase-referenced images and studied how the dynamic range and peak flux-density depend on observing frequency and source separation. Results. We obtained dynamic ranges and peak flux densities of the phase-referenced images as a function of frequency and separation from the calibrator. We compared our results with models and phenomenological equations previously reported. Conclusions. The dynamic range of the phase-referenced images is strongly limited by the atmosphere at all frequencies and for all source separations. The limiting dynamic range is inversely proportional to the sine of the calibrator-to-target separation. Not surpriseingly, we also find that the peak flux densities decrease with source separation, relative to those obtained from the selfcalibrated images.
Use of proton pump inhibitors and risk of osteoporosis-related fractures

Background: The use of proton pump inhibitors has been associated with an increased risk of hip fracture. We sought to further explore the relation between duration of exposure to proton pump inhibitors and osteoporosis-related fractures. Methods: We used administrative claims data to identify patients with a fracture of the hip, vertebra or wrist between April 1996 and March 2004. Cases were each matched with 3 controls based on age, sex and comorbidities. We calculated adjusted odds ratios (OR) for the risk of hip fracture and all osteoporosis-related fractures for durations of proton pump inhibitor exposure ranging from 1 or more years to more than 7 years. Results: We matched 15 792 cases of osteoporosis-related fractures with 47 289 controls. We did not detect a significant association between the overall risk of an osteoportic fracture and the use of proton pump inhibitors for durations of 6 years or less. However, exposure of 7 or more years was associated with increased risk of an osteoporosis-related fracture (adjusted OR 1.92, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.16–3.18, p = 0.011). We also found an increased risk of hip fracture after 5 or more years of exposure (adjusted OR 1.62, 95% CI 1.02–2.58, p = 0.04), with even higher risk after 7 or more years exposure (adjusted OR 4.55, 95% CI 1.68–12.29, p = 0.002). Interpretation: Use of proton pump inhibitors for 7 or more years is associated with a significantly increased risk of an osteoporosis-related fracture. There is an increased risk of hip fracture after 5 or more years exposure. Further study is required to determine the clinical importance of this finding and to determine the value of osteoprotective medications for patients with long-term use of proton pump inhibitors.