Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bioactivity Determination of Native and Variant Forms of Therapeutic Interferons

The traditional antiviral assays for the determination of interferon potency are reported to have considerable variability between and within assays. Although several reporter gene assays based on interferon-inducible promoter activities have been reported, data from comprehensive validation studies are lacking and few studies have been conducted to analyze the variant forms of interferons, which could have undesirable clinical implications. Here, a reporter gene assay employing a HEK293 cell line stably transfected with luciferase gene under the control of interferon-stimulated response element promoter was developed and validated. The assay was found to be more sensitive, with a larger detection range than the antiviral assay. Several cytokines tested did not interfere with the test, suggesting the assay possesses a certain degree of selectivity. Moreover, the robustness of the assay was demonstrated by minimal variations in the results generated by different analysts and cell passage number (up to 52 passages). Finally, the method was employed to analyze several interferon variants (interferon-α 2a) and we found that the aggregated form has completely lost its potency; while a modest loss of bioactivity in oxidized interferon was observed (approx. 23%), the deamidated form essentially retained its activity.
Graphene Oxide Exoskeleton to Produce Self‐Extinguishing, Nonignitable, and Flame Resistant Flexible Foams: A Mechanically Tough Alternative to Inorganic Aerogels

The potential safety hazard associated to commonly used flame retardant chemicals generates a strong demand for new, sustainable, and high performing solutions to reduce the fire threats of widespread polymer foams. In this work, the production of self‐extinguishing, nonignitable, and flame resistant flexible polyurethane foams by means of simple layer‐by‐layer assembly of graphene oxide nanoplatelets is reported. The process builds a protective exoskeleton that completely wraps the complex 3D structure of the foam and is capable of stopping flame spread in flammability tests and preventing ignition when exposed to heat fluxes typical of developing fires. In addition, treated foams are found able to withstand the penetration of a flame torch, successfully protecting the unexposed side from thermal decomposition for more than 6 min. The outstanding temperature gradient greater than 500 °C cm−1 achieved through the foam thickness makes the performances of these foams comparable to those of a silica aerogel, while maintaining excellent flexibility and toughness. The results reported in this paper represent a tremendous opportunity for the production of a novel class of organic and flexible foams, capable of ensuring unprecedented fire safety properties while relying on an easy, green, and straightforward approach to material design.
Influence of coatings on the thermal and mechanical processes at insulating glass units

Different coatings on structural glass are used in the advances transparent facades and window systems in order to increase the thermal performance of the glass units and to regulate their optical properties. Coated glass has a higher absorptance in the solar spectrum which leads to correspondent higher temperature in the presence of solar load compared to the uncoated one. That process results in higher climatic loads at the insulating glass units (IGU) and in thermal stresses in the coated glass elements. Temperature fields and gradients in glass panes and climatic loads at IGU in window systems are estimated at different coating of glazed system. The study is implemented by numerical simulation of conjugate heat transfer in the window systems at summer time and presence of solar irradiation, as well as during winter night time.Different coatings on structural glass are used in the advances transparent facades and window systems in order to increase the thermal performance of the glass units and to regulate their optical properties. Coated glass has a higher absorptance in the solar spectrum which leads to correspondent higher temperature in the presence of solar load compared to the uncoated one. That process results in higher climatic loads at the insulating glass units (IGU) and in thermal stresses in the coated glass elements. Temperature fields and gradients in glass panes and climatic loads at IGU in window systems are estimated at different coating of glazed system. The study is implemented by numerical simulation of conjugate heat transfer in the window systems at summer time and presence of solar irradiation, as well as during winter night time.
A Statistical Approach to Language Translation

An approach to automatic translation is outlined that utilizes techniques of statistical information extraction from large data bases. The method is based on the availability of pairs of large corresponding texts that are translations of each other. In our case, the texts are in English and French.Fundamental to the technique is a complex glossary of correspondence of fixed locutions. The steps of the proposed translation process are: (1) Partition the source text into a set of fixed locutions. (2) Use the glossary plus contextual information to select the corresponding set of fixed locutions into a sequence forming the target sentence. (3) Arrange the words of the target fixed locutions into a sequence forming the target sentence.We have developed statistical techniques facilitating both the automatic creation of the glossary, and the performance of the three translation steps, all on the basis of an alignment of corresponding sentences in the two texts.While we are not yet able to provide examples of French / English translation, we present some encouraging intermediate results concerning glossary creation and the arrangement of target word sequences.
Energy of Intramolecular Hydrogen Bonding in ortho-Hydroxybenzaldehydes, Phenones and Quinones. Transfer of Aromaticity from ipso-Benzene Ring to the Enol System(s)

Intramolecular hydrogen bonding (HB) is one of the most studied noncovalent interactions of molecules. Many physical, spectral, and topological properties of compounds are under the influence of HB, and there are many parameters used to notice and to describe these changes. Hitherto, no general method of measurement of the energy of intramolecular hydrogen bond (EHB) has been put into effect. We propose the molecular tailoring approach (MTA) for EHB calculation, modified to apply it to Ar-O-H∙∙∙O=C systems. The method, based on quantum calculations, was checked earlier for hydroxycarbonyl-saturated compounds, and for structures with resonance-assisted hydrogen bonding (RAHB). For phenolic compounds, the accuracy, repeatability, and applicability of the method is now confirmed for nearly 140 structures. For each structure its aromaticity HOMA indices were calculated for the central (ipso) ring and for the quasiaromatic rings given by intramolecular HB. The comparison of calculated HB energies and values of estimated aromaticity indices allowed us to observe, in some substituted phenols and quinones, the phenomenon of transfer of aromaticity from the ipso-ring to the H-bonded ring via the effect of electron delocalization.
Study on Pressure and Viscosity of Ferrofluid Film in a Spiral Groove Mechanical Seal

The viscosity relationship of ferrofluid in external magnetic field was deduced in a spiral groove mechanical seal. Based on Muijderman narrow groove theory, the pressure distribution of ferrofluid film was calculated with the trial method by trapezoid formula. It has been found that the pressure between the end faces increases at first and then decreases from outer diameter to inner diameter along the radial direction, and reaches the maximum value at the root of the spiral groove. It increases with the increase of the rotating speed, spiral groove angle, and groove depth, increases at first and then decreases with the increase of the ratio of groove length, and decreases with the increase of the film thickness. The pressure reaches the maximum value when the ratio of groove length is about 0.6. The film thickness has less influence on the film pressure when the film thickness is bigger than 6μm. The viscosity of ferrofluid changes with the change of the pressure.
Relating stochastic roughness to friction in lubricated contacts

The aim of our work is to understand the role of surface topography on the friction force for lubricated contacts. Since the friction force varies with different lubrication regimes (elastohydrodynamic, mixed, boundary), we focus on the way roughness shifts the transitions between these regimes, in terms of speed and load. Mots clefs : lubrication, stochastic roughness, Stribeck.
Effect of prefrontal repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation in obsessive-compulsive disorder: a preliminary study.

OBJECTIVE Prefrontal mechanisms are implicated in obsessive-compulsive disorder. The authors investigated whether prefrontal repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation influenced obsessive-compulsive disorder symptoms. METHOD Twelve patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder were given repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (80% motor threshold, 20 Hz/2 seconds per minute for 20 minutes) to a right lateral prefrontal, a left lateral prefrontal, and a midoccipital (control) site on separate days, randomized. The patients' symptoms and mood were rated for 8 hours afterward. RESULTS Compulsive urges decreased significantly for 8 hours after right lateral prefrontal repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, but there were nonsignificant increases in compulsive urges after repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation of the midoccipital site. A shorter-lasting (30 minutes), modest, and nonsignificant reduction in compulsive urges occurred after left lateral prefrontal repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation. Mood improved during and 30 minutes after right lateral prefrontal stimulation. CONCLUSIONS These preliminary results suggest that right prefrontal repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation might affect prefrontal mechanisms involved in obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Comparison of complication rates and clinical outcome between tibial plateau leveling osteotomy and a modified cranial closing wedge osteotomy for treatment of cranial cruciate ligament disease in dogs.

OBJECTIVE To report complication rates and clinical outcomes after tibial plateau leveling osteotomy (TPLO) and a modified cranial closing wedge osteotomy (mCCWO) for treatment of cranial cruciate ligament disease in dogs. STUDY DESIGN Prospective cohort study. ANIMALS Dogs weighing 20-60 kg with unilateral cranial cruciate ligament disease treated by either TPLO (n = 97) or mCCWO (n = 74). METHODS Clinical and radiographic assessments including lameness score, morphometric measurements and tibial plateau angle (TPA) were made before surgery and 8 weeks after either TPLO or mCCWO. Long-term outcome assessment by owner questionnaire or interview was undertaken at ≥6 months postoperatively. RESULTS Significant differences in lameness scores between groups were not identified at short- or long-term follow-up. Major complication and reoperation rates did not differ significantly between groups (TPLO 7.2% and 6.1%; mCCWO 9.5% and 5.4%). Median postoperative TPA did not differ significantly between groups (TPLO group 5.5°; mCCWO group 6.5°). At >6 months owner assessed lameness, disability, quality of life and satisfaction were not different between groups and were good in 90-97% of dogs. CONCLUSIONS In dogs weighing 20-60 kg, TPLO and mCCWO are associated with similar complication rates and clinical outcomes when performed by surgeons experienced with the surgical techniques.
On the upper bound on undetected error probability for LDPC code

This paper deals with the method of undetected error probability estimation for a low-density parity-check (LDPC) code under any given iterative decoding algorithm. We propose such modification of a given iterative decoding algorithm, that almost preserves a decoding failure exponent and decoding complexity of this algorithm. We obtain the upper bound on the undetected error probability for the modified algorithm. We show how to use the proposed method to estimate the undetected error probability of LDPC code under the belief propagation (BP) algorithm at the end of this paper.
Serial change in airway lumen and wall thickness at thin-section CT in asymptomatic subjects.

PURPOSE To retrospectively analyze serial changes in airway lumen and wall thickness (WT) at multi-detector row computed tomography (CT) in asymptomatic subjects. MATERIALS AND METHODS Institutional review board did not require its approval or informed patient consent. Airway dimensions were analyzed in 52 patients (30 men and 22 women) without known cardiopulmonary disease. Contiguous 2-mm CT sections were obtained after reconstruction, extending from origin of right posterior basal segmental bronchi to posterior subsegmental bronchi. Following parameters were determined with semiautomatic image-processing program: luminal area (LA), total airway area (TA), short axis of lumen (LSD), and short axis of total airway (TSD). In airways in which adjacent vessel or branching of small bronchus abutted boundary of airway, extrapolated line was traced by one radiologist. Airway wall area (WA) was calculated as TA - LA, and WT was calculated as (TSD - LSD)/2. Relative WA (WA% = [WA/TA] . 100) and ratio of airway WT to total diameter (D) (WT/D = WT/TSD) were calculated. Linear regression analysis and Spearman rank correlation were used to evaluate relationship between airway parameters (LA, WA%, and WT/D ratio) and distance from origin of segmental bronchi. RESULTS LA decreased as CT proceeded from hilum to periphery (r = -0.765, P < .001). In 308 (32.7%) of 943 bronchi, however, LA increased as CT proceeded from hilum to periphery. LA increased by 10% or more in 101 (10.7%) of 943 bronchi. Mean changes in WA% and WT/D ratio between two contiguous sections were 0.66 +/- 5.05 (standard deviation) and 0.003 +/- 0.024, respectively. WA% changed by more than 5% between two contiguous sections in 274 (29.0%) of 943 bronchi. WT/D ratio changed by more than 0.02 between two contiguous sections in 338 (35.8%) of 943 bronchi. CONCLUSION Variation of airway lumen and WT is found in asymptomatic subjects without known cardiopulmonary disease.
Communication Networks Measurement of IPTV traffic from an operative network

In this paper, we present measurement results of IP TeleVision (IPTV) multicast traffic collected from real of the FastWeb network. FastWeb is an ISP provider, which is the main broadband telecommunication company in Italy. The network relies on an IP architecture and, besides television channels, delivers to the user services such as data transfer and VoIP over a single broadband connection. The traffic we focus on consists of 83 high-quality digital TV channels encoded using different MPEG-2 encoders. The results show that, depending on the encoder and based on the bitrate, flows can be classified as being: 1-VBR, i.e. with one typical value of the mean bit rate, 2-VBR, i.e. two typical bitrate values are observed, and VBR. Measurement of the packet loss, jitter and inter-packet gap show that, independently from the class, packet generation process of the flows can have various degrees of burstiness. Despite the packet level burstiness, average jitter is limited to few milliseconds and no packet loss was ever observed in the backbone. Moreover, the evolution of inter-packet gap over time remains basically unchanged when observing a flow in different time periods. Our results prove that the FastWeb network is properly carrying IPTV traffic, and that today technology is mature to make TV over IP feasible and of good quality. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
MR Image Reconstruction via Sparse Representation: Modeling and Algorithm

To reduce acquisition time in magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, compressive sensing and sparse representation techniques have been developed to reconstruct MR images with partially acquired data. Although this has been a hot research topic in the field, it has not been used clinically due to three inherent problems of its current framework: potential loss of fine structures, difficulty to predefine model parameters, and long reconstruction time. The aim of this work is to tackle these problems. We propose to minimize the total variation of the underlying image, together with the `1 norm of the coefficients in its representation using a trained dictionary, as well as a fidelity term. Using a trained dictionary can take the advantage of prior knowledge and hence improve accuracy in reconstruction. Our data fidelity constraint is derived from the likelihood estimator of the recovering error in partial k-space to improve the robustness of the model to parameter selection. Moreover, a simple and efficient numerical scheme is provided to solve this model faster. The consequent experiments on both synthetic and in vivo data indicate the improvement of the proposed model in preserving fine structure, reducing computational cost, and flexibility of parameter decision.
Dense correspondence finding for parametrization-free animation reconstruction from video

We present a dense 3D correspondence finding method that enables spatio-temporally coherent reconstruction of surface animations from multi-view video data. Given as input a sequence of shape-from-silhouette volumes of a moving subject that were reconstructed for each time frame individually, our method establishes dense surface correspondences between subsequent shapes independently of surface discretization. This is achieved in two steps: first, we obtain sparse correspondences from robust optical features between adjacent frames. Second, we generate dense correspondences which serve as map between respective surfaces. By applying this procedure subsequently to all pairs of time steps we can trivially align one shape with all others. Thus, the original input can be reconstructed as a sequence of meshes with constant connectivity and small tangential distortion. We exemplify the performance and accuracy of our method using several synthetic and captured real-world sequences.
On the large spin limit of twist operators in N = 4 SYM

The long range Bethe Ansatz solution of the mixing problem in N = 4 SYM allows to compute in a very efficient way multiloop anomalous dimensions of various composite operators. In the case of sl(2) twist operators it is important to obtain closed expressions for the anomalous dimensions in terms of the Lorentz spin. Conjectures are available altough analytical proofs are missing beyond one-loop. In this paper, we will present a method to expand at large spin the solution of the long range Baxter equation in twist 2 and 3. We will also propose sum rules for special singlet states at higher twist.
Large scale near-duplicate image retrieval using Triples of Adjacent Ranked Features (TARF) with embedded geometric information

Most approaches to large-scale image retrieval are based on the construction of the inverted index of local image descriptors or visual words. A search in such an index usually results in a large number of candidates. This list of candidates is then re-ranked with the help of a geometric verification, using a RANSAC algorithm, for example. In this paper we propose a feature representation, which is built as a combination of three local descriptors. It allows one to significantly decrease the number of false matches and to shorten the list of candidates after the initial search in the inverted index. This combination of local descriptors is both reproducible and highly discriminative, and thus can be efficiently used for large-scale near-duplicate image retrieval.
Consensus-based distributed optimal power flow algorithm

Optimal power flow (OPF) is a well known challenging optimization problem for power systems engineering. There have been a myriad of works dedicated to solving OPF problems in a centralized way, i.e. using a centralized solver, which necessitates for a central control center to receive and transmit a large amount of data. Recently, few attempts have been done to solve OPF problems in a distributed way, which means that the computations are distributed over the whole network, reducing the need for communications (with a central control center) and increasing the robustness of the control to loss of communications and to unexpected faults in the network nodes. Furthermore, a decentralized solution to the OPF problem has the advantage to be flexible to the network topology and size, since the computations are distributed over the network. In this paper we propose some preliminary results on a distributed OPF algorithm, to solve the original OPF problem, i.e. without any convexification steps. We propose a consensus-based distributed OPF algorithm, which uses consensus algorithm to estimate the optimization variables between neighboring nodes in a given network. We test the performance of this algorithm on the IEEE 14-node test-case.
Cylindroma of the Breast: A Rare Case Report

Cylindroma is a benign adnexal tumor, which occurs as solitary dermal nodules on the scalp and forehead. Cylindroma of the breast is a rare lesion. Fine-needle aspiration is often the first line of investigation. In this communication, we illustrate the cytomorphological feature of cylindroma in a 61-year-old female patient who presented with a breast lump. Fine-needle aspiration cytology in this case reveals the islands of tumor cells formed a “jig-saw” pattern, along with the bland, basaloid cells associated with globular, extracellular material. These features are typical of cylindroma, but differential diagnosis of adenoidcystic carcinoma should always be kept in mind as the management of both tumors are different.
A Morphological Correlate of Synaptic Scaling in Visual Cortex

We studied the response of dendritic spines in the thalamic-recipient zone of rat visual cortex to simple manipulations of the visual environment. We measured the morphologies of a total of 3824 spines located on the basal dendrites of 60 layer 3 pyramidal cells. As expected from previous studies, we found a significantly lower spine density in dark-reared animals at postnatal day 30 (P30) compared with light-reared controls. Additional analysis revealed that the spines in dark-reared animals were significantly shorter and more bulbous than in light-reared animals. When these two results were combined, we found that the total synaptic area per unit length of dendrite was conserved, compatible with the phenomenon of " synaptic scaling. " We also found that the increase in average spine head diameter is reversed by 10 d of light exposure (starting at P20), but surprisingly, the decrease in spine density is not. Thus, not all effects of dark rearing can be reversed by subsequent visual experience, even when the experience occurs during the third postnatal week.
Know-Why Extraction from Textual Data for Supporting What Questions

This research aims to automatically extract Know-Why from documents on the website to contribute knowledge sources to support the question-answering system, especially What-Question, for disease treatment. This paper is concerned about extracting Know-Why based on multiple EDUs (Elementary Discourse Units). There are two problems in extracting Know-Why: an identification problem and an effect boundary determination problem. We propose using Naive Bayes with three verb features, a causative-verb-phrase concept set, a supporting causative verb set, and the effect-verb-phrase concept set. The Know-Why extraction results show the success rate of 85.5% precision and 79.8% recall.