Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
On Designing the Transmission and Reception of Multistatic Continuous Active Sonar Systems

Multistatic continuous active sonar (MCAS) systems involve the transmission and reception of multiple continuous probing sequences and can achieve significantly enhanced target detection and parameter estimation performance through exploiting the advantages of continuous illumination and spatial diversity. The main focuses and contributions of this paper are: 1) spectrally-contained continuous sequence sets with low correlation sidelobe levels are designed for the MCAS transmission so that the so-generated sequences meet the spectral containment restrictions and the weak correlations among the received echoes can be exploited to improve the target detection performance; and 2) a decentralized target parameter (position and velocity) determination method is investigated since its conventional centralized counterpart lacks robustness if there is no fusion center (FC) or the FC fails. This paper casts the target position determination problem based on the range measurements and the directions-of-arrival information (RMDI) as a set of decentralized optimization subproblems with consensus constraints imposed on the target position estimates of the receivers. Based on the alternating-direction method of multipliers (ADMM), we introduce the distributed position estimation algorithm to improve the local estimates of each receiver via local computation and information exchange with its neighbors. A similar method is also applied to obtain enhanced target velocity estimation. The effectiveness of the proposed MCAS signal processing techniques is verified using numerical examples.
Rituximab for treatment of scleritis associated with rheumatoid arthritis

Inflammatory eye involvement often complicates rheumatological disorders. Conventional disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) are often not very effective in this situation. Cyclophosphamide or, more recently, tumour necrosis factor inhibitors (TNFi) have been used with some efficacy. In this report we present three cases where scleritis complicating rheumatoid arthritis (RA) was treated successfully by rituximab after inefficacy of cyclophosphamide or TNFi. A 74-year-old male with RA, maintained on hydroxychloroquine and sulfasalazine, presented with bilateral red eyes, a flare of synovitis in joints and high inflammatory markers. He was treated with six cycles of intravenous pulsed cyclophosphamide and methyl prednisolone but developed a severe pneumonia requiring hospitalisation for intravenous antibiotic therapy. However, his scleritis persisted. A cycle of two infusions of …
Demand for Redistribution and Party Fractionalization: How Does it Impact the Size of Government?

In this paper, we highlight the link between the political demand and social policy outcome while taking into account the design of the party system. More precisely, the political demand is based on individual preferences and the design of the party system is defined as the extent of party fractionalization. Our argument captures the claim made by Persson, Roland and Tabellini (2007), according to which the degree of fractionalization of political parties has a positive impact on the level of public expenditures. However, we account for an additional channel, so far neglected in the literature: The composition eect of the demand. Indeed, the heterogeneity of the demand, more than the level of the demand itself, is shown to have a positive impact on Welfare State generosity that increases with the degree of fractionalization of the party system. We run regressions on a sample of 18 OECD countries over 23 years, carefully dealing with the issues raised by the use of time-series cross-section data.
Effect of pulmonary tuberculosis on mortality in patients receiving HAART

Objective:To estimate the effect of ongoing treatment for pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) at time of initiation of HAART on subsequent risk of death. Design:Evaluation of an open cohort of 7512 patients who initiated HAART between April 2004 and March 2007 in the Themba Lethu Clinic in Johannesburg, South Africa. Methods:Mortality hazard ratios were estimated using marginal structural Cox proportional hazards models to control for bias due to both confounding and loss to follow-up. Extensive sensitivity and secondary analyses were performed. Results:Although the crude hazard ratio for mortality in HAART-treated patients comparing those with and without treated PTB was 1.71 (95% confidence interval 1.31–2.23), the adjusted hazard ratio was 1.06 (95% confidence interval 0.75–1.49), indicating no difference in mortality risk. Similar effects were found when we considered different durations of time between initiation of PTB treatment and HAART, and sensitivity analysis confirmed main results. Secondary analysis suggested that individuals with PTB and other risk factors for death might be at particularly high risk of death during HAART treatment. Conclusion:The increase in death that we observed among individuals with PTB at the time of HAART initiation appears not to be due to the to the presence of PTB, but instead to confounding factors such as low CD4 cell count, low BMI, and WHO stage IV disease. These results further demonstrate that initiation of HAART soon after initiation of PTB treatment is not likely to put patients at higher risk of death.
Effects of bazedoxifene/conjugated estrogens on endometrial safety and bone in postmenopausal women

ABSTRACT Objectives Bazedoxifene/conjugated estrogens (BZA/CE) has demonstrated efficacy in improving vasomotor and vulvar/vaginal atrophy symptoms in postmenopausal women. This study evaluated the endometrial safety of BZA/CE and effects on bone mineral density (BMD) compared with CE/medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA) and placebo. Methods The Selective estrogens, Menopause, And Response to Therapy (SMART)-4 trial was a 1-year, multicenter, double-blind, randomized, placebo– and active-controlled, phase-3 study in non-hysterectomized, postmenopausal women (n = 1061; aged 40 −< 65 years). Subjects received BZA 20 mg/CE 0.45 or 0.625 mg, CE 0.45 mg/MPA 1.5 mg, or placebo daily. Primary endpoints were the incidence of endometrial hyperplasia and the change in lumbar spine BMD at 1 year. Secondary endpoints included the change in total hip BMD and rates of amenorrhea and breast pain. Results At 1 year, no cases of endometrial hyperplasia were identified in the BZA 20-mg/CE 0.45-mg group, while three cases (1.1%) were confirmed for the BZA 20-mg/CE 0.625-mg group (95% one-sided confidence interval upper limit < 4%). Both BZA/CE doses significantly increased lumbar spine and total hip BMD versus placebo (p ≤ 0.001) and showed low incidences of bleeding and breast tenderness, similar to placebo and significantly lower than for CE 0.45 mg/MPA 1.5 mg (p < 0.05). BZA/CE treatment was generally safe and well tolerated. Conclusions BZA 20 mg/CE 0.45 and 0.625 mg significantly improved BMD while maintaining endometrial safety and showed a favorable safety/tolerability profile over 1 year. BZA/CE may be a promising therapy for treating menopausal symptoms and preventing osteoporosis in non-hysterectomized, postmenopausal women.
Ultrasound based dosimetry for radiotherapy: In-vitro proof of principle

Advances in radiotherapeutic treatments and the ability to detect accidents due to equipment mishandling or malfunctioning require the development of on-line in-vivo dosimetry systems. Here, we propose to use ultrasound contrast agents (UCAs) as a possible candidate for such a system, based on the hypothesis that irradiation of UCAs will modify their visco-elastic and/or their geometric properties and consequently their ultrasonic response. The aim of this study is to provide a proof of principle in-vitro. Solutions of saline with several commercially available lipid-shelled UCAs were investigated and the agents were characterized using a through transmission set-up, before and after irradiation. Although the agents were not yet optimized for radiation sensitivity, Targestar-P showed a noticeable dose dependency of the magnitude of the jump in phase velocity and amplitude of the attenuation at resonance. These results confirm the hypothesis that the ultrasonic readout of UCAs can be correlated with the ionizing radiation dose delivered to the agents. This supports the concept of using ultrasound and UCAs as a potential tool for in-vivo dosimetry.
A prediction method for deck-motion of air-carrier based on PSO-KELM

Prediction for deck-motion is a practical measure to improve the landing/taking off safety of carrier-based aircraft when those deck-motions in six-degree freedoms cannot be effectively controlled/restrained. Deck-motions excited by waves and winds own characteristics of randomness and nonlinearity. It is generally believed those classical feed-forward neural networks, such as back propagation networks have excellent nonlinear fitting ability but suffers from slow training speed and local optimum falling which cannot satisfy those real-time and high accuracy requirements for deck-motion. In this paper, a prediction method based on extreme learning machine, support vector machine and particle swarm optimization (PSO-KELM) is introduced to fulfill deck-motion. In this method, the fundamental structure of extreme learning machine is used but the hidden function is substituted the kernel function from support vector machine. Further, aiming to select optimal parameters including penalty coefficient and kernel parameter, auto-adaptive particle swarm optimization is adopted. Simulation results indicate that the prediction method based on PSO-KELM owns advantages of simple structure, fast training speed and good generalization ability, and can obtain high accuracy prediction results when used for deck-motion prediction of air-carrier.
Collaborative E-Learning for Remote Education; An Approach For Realizing Pervasive Learning Environments

Remote education in developing countries is a challenging task. Pervasive learning is "always on" education that is available anywhere, at any time. It is a social process connecting learners to communities of devices, people, and situations, so that learners can construct relevant and meaningful learning experiences, that they author themselves. Collaborative learning is one of the components of pervasive learning, the others being autonomy, location and relationship. It is an umbrella term for a variety of approaches in education that involve joint intellectual effort by students of similar caliber. Groups of students work together, to understand concepts, share ideas and ultimately succeed as a whole. Students of similar caliber can be identified by a formative assessment of their abilities. In a traditional learning system, students are graded using summative assessment based on marks by which the similarities of student can be identified. But using marks alone is fairly insufficient to evaluate the caliber of students. We make this possible by using formative assessment considering the factors such as prerequisite knowledge, memory capacity, interestedness, read amount, reading speed in addition to the marks scored by the students in their previous semester. We suggest using Web-mining techniques to evaluate students and use their results as inputs to clustering techniques. We derive various attributes of students from their browsing patterns. The link analysis Web mining technique is used for calculating the scores of the features proposed. The categorization of students having similar caliber is done using k-means clustering technique.
Modeling of pervaporation process for the dehydration of bioethanol

The comparison of the different dewatering processes of bioethanol in basing on the literature showed that the pervaporation is very promising for the separation of azeotropes, reducing the consumption energy and protect the environment. Despite these advantages, this method has limitations concern the bioethanol production capacity and type of membrane used. In this work, we sought to develop a model that can be used to improve its production and study its performance optimization. This model is based on diffusion equations, mass and energy balance. The use of these equations requires knowledge of the thermodynamic properties such as heat capacity and enthalpy of vaporization of each component in the mixture and the excess enthalpy and the density of the mixture. For the prediction of the latter, Peng-Robinson equation of state was used for ethanol/water mixture. For other properties, we have shown that they can be calculated using simple empirical correlations based on experimental data. For simulation equations, a computer program was developed with Scilab 5.5. 2. The simulation results for the dehydration of bioethanol show that output data of pervaporation unit are very sensitive to the inlet ethanol composition.
Development of a multicomponent method for Fusarium toxins using LC-MS/MS and its application during a survey for the content of T-2 toxin and deoxynivalenol in various feed and food samples

A reliable, sensitive and selective method was developed to determine different Fusarium mycotoxins (trichothecenes Type A and B, zearalenone) simultaneously in cereals and cereal-based samples using liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS/MS). Sample preparation is based on a standard solvent extraction step followed by two different kinds of solid-phase clean-up procedures: using a multifunctional MycoSep® material for trichothecenes and zearalenone. The average recoveries for trichothecenes ranged from 65% for nivalenol (NIV) up to 96% for deoxynivalenol (DON) and 89% for zearalenone (ZON). The limit of quantification varied between 0.02 and 10 ppb for each substance. In addition, a screening survey with 685 samples was carried out to compare contents of T-2 toxin and deoxynivalenol and to investigate potential coherence in contamination pattern.
Genetics of Vascular Dementia: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

BACKGROUND Vascular dementia (VaD) is the second most common type of dementia. So far, little is known about the contribution of genetic polymorphisms to the risk of VaD. Many candidate genetic polymorphisms have been examined in a large number of studies. However, due to the conflicting results, the genetics of VaD is still behind the shadow. OBJECTIVE We conducted a comprehensive meta-analysis on associations between genetic polymorphisms of any gene and VaD to investigate the genetics of VaD. METHOD We sought the published studies of associations between any genetic polymorphism and VaD and critically appraised them. We assessed the effects of genetic models by calculating pooled odds ratios (ORs), investigating the origin of heterogeneity by subgroup analysis, and testing the robustness by random effect model and sensitivity analysis. RESULTS 69 studies with 4,462 cases and 11,583 controls were included. We identified APOE ɛ2/ɛ3/ɛ4 and additional four genetic polymorphisms including MTHFR C677T, PON1 L55M, TGF-β1 +29C/T, and TNF-α -850C/T associated with VaD. Tested by random effect model and sensitivity analysis, the pooled results show nice robustness. CONCLUSIONS Our comprehensive meta-analysis highlighted the genetic contribution to sporadic VaD. Because of the small amount of data on associations between genetic polymorphisms, except for APOE, and VaD, more studies are needed to test the existing genetic polymorphisms and detect other related genetic variants.
Anion permeation in GABA- and glycine-gated channels of mammalian cultured hippocampal neurons

Single-channel currents through GABA- and glycine-activated chloride channels of post-natal tissue-cultured hippocampal neurons were measured to determine their anion selectivity and their concentration dependence of permeation. Current—voltage relations for both agonists displayed rectification with single-channel conductance increasing at positive potentials. Permeabilities determined from reversal potentials were maximal for anions with a diameter of about 4 Å †. Larger diameter anions had lower permeabilities, consistent with an approximate pore diameter of 6 Å for both agonist-activated channels. The permeability for anions of similar size was greatest for those ions with a more symmetrical charge distribution (e.g. NO 3- > Bicarbonate- ). The permeability sequence was SCN- > NO3- > I- > Br- > Cl- > Formate - > Acetate- > Bicarbonate- > Gluconate- > F- > Phosphate-, whereas the conductance sequence for anion efflux was Cl- > Br- > NO3- > I- > SCN- > Formate- > Acetate- > Bicarbonate- > Gluconate- > F- > Phosphate-. These results suggest that the ions interact with sites within the channel, with hydration forces contributing an important component to the barrier for ion entry into the channel. The spherically symmetrical halides displayed an exponential relation between relative permeability and hydration energy. Concentration dependence of conductance for Cl- channels in symmetrical Cl- solutions with agonist in the pipette showed an increase at positive potentials and a decrease at negative potentials. GABA- and glycine-activated channels also exhibited anomalous molefraction effects in a mixture of Cl- and SCN-. These results suggest that both agonist-activated channels act as multi-ion pathways and have similar permeation characteristics.
Perspectives on threat management.

This article describes Calhoun and Weston’s blue-collar approach to threat management. It defines seven concepts for an effective threat management program, including identifying hunters versus howlers, situation need to knows, situation dynamics and intervention synergy, and ways to avoid bunkers, silos, and myopic management strategies. The article also details 10 guidelines drawn from the authors’ experiences managing both hunters and howlers. It looks back over the last 25 years to offer advice to the next generation about the profession’s future after achieving professionalization.
Eating pathology before and after bariatric surgery: a prospective study.

OBJECTIVE The objectives of the study were (1) to determine the prevalence of eating pathology in patients before bariatric surgery and at follow-up; (2) to assess the relationship of presurgical eating pathology to various measures of psychopathology; and (3) to assess the relationship between presurgical eating pathology and outcome. METHOD One hundred sixteen patients were evaluated prior to surgery and at follow-up an average of 5.5 years after surgery. RESULTS Preoperative binge eating occurred in 52% of patients, 16% met criteria for binge eating disorder, and 10% had the night eating syndrome. All three forms of presurgical eating pathology were statistically associated with cognitive distortions. At follow-up, 33% of patients were vomiting at least weekly. There was no relationship between presurgical eating pathology and weight outcome or presence of vomiting at follow-up. DISCUSSION Although postoperative vomiting usually does not represent purge behavior, it may represent failed attempts to binge.
Fault detection in inverter-fed induction motors in transient regime: State of the art

Fault detection in induction motors operating in non-stationary regimes has become a need in today's industry. Moreover, the number of fed induction motors has significantly increased in recent years Therefore, several fault detection techniques have been lately proposed based, mainly, in an adequate input signal processing to obtain some fault signatures in the time and/or frequency domains. In this paper, a review of time-frequency techniques applied to fault detection in inverter-fed induction motors in a transient state is presented. The strengths and weaknesses of these techniques are discussed with the goal of providing guidance for future developments in this field.
Resource allocation and transmission optimization for MIMO cognitive femtocells

This paper considers resource allocation and transmission optimization for femtocell networks, where the orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) strategy is used to cope with the multi-user communication. In an attempt to mitigate cross-tier interference and optimize multi-user network performance, a two-layered beamforming scheme is proposed, facilitated by the multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) transmission. Two different operation models are discussed, namely open and closed access. It is shown that the beamforming design problem for closed access turns out to be convex and can be efficiently solved, whereas a non-convex optimization has to be treated when adopting the open access. For the latter non-convex problem, we propose an iterative algorithm, which has ensured convergence and closed-form solutions for subproblems of each alternating step. Numerical results validate the efficiency of the proposed approach.
Risk Leveling of Network Traffic Anomalies

Summary The goal of intrusion detection is to identify attempted or ongoing attacks on a computer system or network. Many attacks aim to compromise computer networks in an online manner. Traffic anomalies have been an important indication of such attacks. Challenges in the detections lie in modeling of the large continuous streams of data and performing anomaly detection in an online manner. This paper presents a data mining technique to assess the risks of local anomalies based on synopsis obtained from a global spatiotemporal modeling approach. The proposed model is proactive in the detection of various types of traffic related attacks such as distributed denial of service (DDoS). It is incremental, scalable and thus suitable for online processing. Algorithm analysis shows the time efficiency of the proposed technique. The experiments conducted with a DARPA dataset demonstrate that compared with a frequency based anomaly detection model, the false alarm rate caused by the proposed model is significantly mitigated without losing a high detection rate.
Pose-estimation and reorientation of pistons for robotic bin-picking

Purpose – Picking up pistons in arbitrary poses is an important step on car engine assembly line. The authors usually use vision system to estimate the pose of the pistons and then guide a stable grasp. However, a piston in some poses, e.g. the mouth of the piston faces forward, is hardly to be directly grasped by the gripper. Thus, we need to reorient the piston to achieve a desired pose, i.e. let its mouth face upward, for grasping. Design/methodology/approach – This paper aims to present a vision-based picking system that can grasp pistons in arbitrary poses. The whole picking process is divided into two stages. At localization stage, a hierarchical approach is proposed to estimate the piston’s pose from image which usually involves both heavy noise and edge distortions. At grasping stage, multi-step robotic manipulations are designed to enable the piston to follow a nominal trajectory to reach to the minimum of the distance between the piston’s center and the support plane. That is, under the design i.