Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Recent Advances in Traditional Chinese Medicine for Kidney Disease.

Because current treatment options for chronic kidney disease (CKD) are limited, many patients seek out alternative therapies such as traditional Chinese medicine. However, there is a lack of evidence from large clinical trials to support the use of traditional medicines in patients with CKD. Many active components of traditional medicine formulas are undetermined and their toxicities are unknown. Therefore, there is a need for research to identify active compounds from traditional medicines and understand the mechanisms of action of these compounds, as well as their potential toxicity, and subsequently perform well-designed, randomized, controlled, clinical trials to study the efficacy and safety of their use in patients with CKD. Significant progress has been made in this field within the last several years. Many active compounds have been identified by applying sophisticated techniques such as mass spectrometry, and more mechanistic studies of these compounds have been performed using both in vitro and in vivo models. In addition, several well-designed, large, randomized, clinical trials have recently been published. We summarize these recent advances in the field of traditional medicines as they apply to CKD. In addition, current barriers for further research are also discussed. Due to the ongoing research in this field, we believe that stronger evidence to support the use of traditional medicines for CKD will emerge in the near future.
Wavelet based fault analysis in HVDC system

HVDC system has become practically mature over the years but it is still met with some protection issues which should be discussed, for example, the circuit breaker (CB) should be selective to not trip if the transient is temporary, such as overcurrent due to load change. This paper addresses the problem with identifying the type of faults in a HVDC system using wavelet transform (WT). The wavelet transform is proven to be able to capture the distinctive feature of the fault pattern, specifically fault current rising time and oscillation pattern, which are helpful to form a basis for the tripping decision. Three phase-to-ground fault and DC fault are of concern in this paper as their effects are the most detrimental to the system. The point-to-point HVDC system is simulated using PSCAD, and the simulation result is subsequently processed in MATLAB to perform the wavelet transform.
NetSovle: A Network Server for Solving Computational Science Problems

This paper presents a new system, called NetSolve, that allows users to access computational resources, such as hardware and software, distributed across the network. The development of NetSolve was motivated by the need for an easy-to-use, efficient mechanism for using computational resources remotely. Ease of use is obtained as a result of different interfaces, some of which require no programming effort from the user. Good performance is ensured by a load-balancing policy that enables NetSolve to use the computational resources available as efficiently as possible. NetSolve offers the ability to look for computational resources on a network, choose the best one available, solve a problem (with retry for fault-tolerance), and return the answer to the user.
Recombinant clotting factors

Summary The recombinant era for haemophilia began in the early 1980s with the cloning and subsequent expression of functional proteins for both factors VIII and IX. Efficient production of recombinant clotting factors in mammalian cell culture systems required overcoming significant challenges due to the complex post-translational modifications that were integral to their procoagulant function. The quick development and commercialization of recombinant clotting factors was, in part, facilitated by the catastrophic impact of viral contamination of plasma-derived clotting factor concentrates at the time. Since their transition into the clinic, the recombinant versions of both factor VIII and IX have proven to be remarkable facsimiles of their plasma-derived counterparts. The broad adoption of recombinant therapy throughout the developed world has significantly increased the supply of clotting factor concentrates and helped advance aggressive therapeutic interventions such as prophylaxis. The development of recombinant VIIa was a further advance bringing a recombinant option to haemophilia patients with inhibitors. Recombinant DNA technology remains the platform to address ongoing challenges in haemophilia care such as reducing the costs of therapy, increasing the availability to the developing world, and improving the functional properties of these proteins. In turn, the ongoing development of new recombinant clotting factor concentrates is providing alternatives for patients with other inherited bleeding disorders.
The Role of Venture Capitalists in Monitoring Portfolio Companies

Does the role played by venture capitalists add value to their portfolio companies? How do they add value? What are the characteristics of those venture capitalists? Does financial leverage matter for VC-backed companies? All of these questions are researched in this dissertation. The manuscript specifically explores two cases. The first is the role of U.S. venture capitalists after the IPO of their troubled portfolio companies, while the second examines the role of venture capitalists in international investments. The findings detailed in the first part of the study show that a higher level of monitoring and involvement is a significant factor in being a successful company, but characteristics such as the age and reputation of VCs are not. Moreover, and as expected, financial leverage is shown to be an insignificant factor for a troubled VC-backed company. However, those characteristics of venture capitalists are useful in extending the life a VC-backed bankrupt portfolio company. The second part of the study reveals that U.S. venture capitalists prefer to cooperate with a foreign counterpart in order to delegate monitoring responsibilities. Also, international investments tend to have many more foreign venture capitalists and fewer non-managing board members than domestic investments. This manuscript is divided into five chapters. Chapter 1 gives an overview of the venture capital industry. Chapter 2 discusses the problems of the VentureXpert database, its limitations and remedies. Chapter 3 investigates the role of venture capitalists in troubled portfolio companies following an IPO. Chapter 4 looks into the role of U.S. venture capitalists in their international portfolio companies. Finally, Chapter 5 summarizes the conclusions of the investigations and research.
Synthesis and characterization of phenol–formaldehyde microcapsules containing linseed oil and its use in epoxy for self-healing and anticorrosive coating

Phenol–formaldehyde microcapsules with linseed oil as an active agent were produced by applying in situ polymerization method. The anticorrosion and self-healing efficiency of the synthesized materials were studied. Characteristics of these synthesized capsules were studied by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and surface morphology was analyzed by using scanning electron microscope. Controllable particle size was estimated at different rpm of stirrer and particle size was checked under microscope and also by using particle size analyzer. The anticorrosion performance of encapsulated microcapsules coated with epoxy resin was carried out in 5% NaCl aqueous solution. The effectiveness of linseed oil filled microcapsules was investigated for healing the cracks generated in paint films or coatings. It was found that the cracks were successfully healed when linseed oil was released from ruptured microcapsules. Further, linseed oil-healed area was found to prevent effectively the corrosion of the substrate in immersion studies. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2010
Real-time continuous gesture recognition for natural human-computer interaction

Our real-time continuous gesture recognition system addresses problems that have previously been neglected: handling both gestures that are characterized by distinct paths and gestures characterized by distinct hand poses; and determining how and when the system should respond to gestures. Our probabilistic recognition framework based on hidden Markov models (HMMs) unifies the recognition of the two forms of gestures. Using information from the hidden states in the HMM, we can identify different gesture phases: the pre-stroke, the nucleus and the post-stroke phases. This allows the system to respond appropriately to both gestures that require a discrete response and those needing a continuous response. Our system is extensible: in only a few minutes, users can define their own gestures by giving a few examples rather than writing code. We also collected a new gesture dataset that contains the two forms of gestures, and propose a new hybrid performance metric for evaluating gesture recognition methods for real-time interaction.
Performance analysis of image smoothing methods for low level of distortion

Image enhancement is an initial and basic preprocessing step in image processing. The success of this primary module determines the accuracy rate of higher level of image processing task. This module is application specific in nature. So determining a suitable image enhancement for real time images is a challenging one. Common distortions that are found in the real time images are contrast variation, blur, salt and pepper noise and so on. It is a challenging task to enhance the low level of blur distortion in an image. Hence in this paper the existing image smoothing methods (mean filter, Gaussian filter, anisotropic diffusion, median filter, adaptive median filter, conservative smoothing, and alpha trim mean filter) suitable to enhance low level distortion in images are evaluated in detail. Images of low distortions along with its ground truth image were taken from the CSIQ dataset. Performance of the existing image smoothing methods was measured using Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR) and Structural Similarity Index Measure (SSIM). Results showed that PSNR and SSIM were higher for conservative smoothing method followed by the adaptive median filtering method. Hence, this study concludes that conservative smoothing technique and adaptive median smoothing among neighborhood processing techniques could be deployed as a suitable image enhancement algorithm for blur effect removal.
Automatic assessment of developmental dysplasia of the hip

Developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH) refers to a spectrum of hip joint abnormalities that may lead to significant adverse consequences if not detected and treated early in infancy. Clinical exam with selective ultrasound (US) imaging is the current standard used for early detection and diagnosis of DDH in infants up to 6 months of age. However, current US systems require specialized training and have considerable between-center variability, which raises concerns of missed early diagnoses and subsequent complications from late treatment. We propose a novel, automatic, and near real-time image analysis approach that extracts bone contours in US images of the neonatal hip and calculates image based dysplasia metrics (alpha and beta angles). We present quantitative validation on 54 US scans of femoral head flexion collected from 10 infants under age of 3 months.
A prospective study of cytomegalovirus, herpes simplex virus 1, and coronary heart disease: the atherosclerosis risk in communities (ARIC) study.

BACKGROUND Conflicting evidence exists implicating infectious disease in the pathological processes leading to coronary heart disease (CHD). The objective of this article is to describe the relationship of previous infection with cytomegalovirus (CMV) and herpes simplex virus 1 to incident CHD in a population-based cohort study. METHODS Using a nested case-cohort design from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study, antibody levels to CMV and herpes simplex virus 1 were determined in serum samples that had been frozen at the baseline examination in participants free of CHD. Determinations were made in those who developed incident CHD (n=221) during follow-up of up to 5 years from baseline and in a stratified random sample of all participants (n=515). RESULTS The population with the highest antibody levels of CMV (approximately the upper 20%) showed an increased relative risk (RR) of CHD of 1.76 (95% confidence interval, 1.00-3.11), adjusting for age, sex, and race. After adjustment for additional covariates of hypertension, diabetes, years of education, cigarette smoking, low-density lipoprotein and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels, and fibrinogen level, the RR increased slightly. Based on a priori hypotheses, the RR of CHD at the highest antibody levels in individuals with diabetes was particularly large but with wide confidence intervals (RR, 9.2; 95% confidence interval, 1.8-47.0), and the interaction between high levels of antibody to CMV and diabetes was statistically significant (P=.05). There was no association of CHD with the highest herpes simplex virus 1 antibody levels (adjusted RR, 0.77; 95% confidence interval, 0.36-1.62). CONCLUSIONS High levels of CMV antibodies are significantly associated with incident CHD. Infection with CMV, particularly in more susceptible disease states such as diabetes, may be an important risk factor for CHD.
Chemosensory Ca2+ Dynamics Correlate with Diverse Behavioral Phenotypes in Human Sperm*

In the female reproductive tract, mammalian sperm undergo a regulated sequence of prefusion changes that “prime” sperm for fertilization. Among the least understood of these complex processes are the molecular mechanisms that underlie sperm guidance by environmental chemical cues. A “hard-wired” Ca2+ signaling strategy that orchestrates specific motility patterns according to given functional requirements is an emerging concept for regulation of sperm swimming behavior. The molecular players involved, the spatiotemporal characteristics of such motility-associated Ca2+ dynamics, and the relation between a distinct Ca2+ signaling pattern and a behavioral sperm phenotype, however, remain largely unclear. Here, we report the functional characterization of two human sperm chemoreceptors. Using complementary molecular, physiological, and behavioral approaches, we comparatively describe sperm Ca2+ responses to specific agonists of these novel receptors and bourgeonal, a known sperm chemoattractant. We further show that individual receptor activation induces specific Ca2+ signaling patterns with unique spatiotemporal dynamics. These distinct Ca2+ dynamics are correlated to a set of stimulus-specific stereotyped behavioral responses that could play vital roles during various stages of prefusion sperm-egg chemical communication.
Polymorphisms of the IL-8 and CXCR2 genes are not associated with Behçet's disease.

OBJECTIVE Genetic susceptibility to Behçet's disease (BD) is well documented for HLA-B51; however, contribution of other genetic polymorphisms is estimated to be substantial. Interleukin 8 (IL-8), a potent chemoattractant for neutrophils, has been found to be elevated in BD serum, and the serum concentrations correlate with disease activity. Novel polymorphisms in IL-8 (CXCL8) and in one of its receptors, CXCR2 gene, may have a role in enhanced IL-8 activity in BD. METHODS Three single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP; -353 A/G, +1530 T/C, +3331 A/G) of the IL-8 gene and 2 SNP (+785 C/T and +1208 T/C) of the CXCR2 gene were screened in 100 patients with BD (61 men, 39 women, mean age 42.1 yrs) and 100 healthy controls (50 men, 50 women, mean age 36.8 yrs) by genotyping with PCR-RFLP and PCR-SSP methods. RESULTS No differences were observed between BD patients and controls for the allele and genotype frequencies of the screened IL-8 and CXCR2 gene polymorphisms. Distribution of these polymorphisms revealed no significant differences between clinical subgroups of BD patients. Each pair of the SNP -353/+1530, -353/+3331, and +1530/+3331 of IL-8 and +785/+1208 of CXCR2 showed strong linkage disequilibrium in both patients and controls (p < 0.001 for all). The distribution of the estimated IL-8 and CXCR2 haplotypes revealed no association with BD or any of its clinical subsets. CONCLUSION These results suggest that the IL-8 gene -353 A/G, +1530 T/C, and +3331 A/G and the CXCR2 gene +785 C/T and +1208 T/C polymorphisms have no role in the increased expression of IL-8 in BD.
Robot-assisted gait training for stroke patients: current state of the art and perspectives of robotics

In this review, we give a brief outline of robot-mediated gait training for stroke patients, as an important emerging field in rehabilitation. Technological innovations are allowing rehabilitation to move toward more integrated processes, with improved efficiency and less long-term impairments. In particular, robot-mediated neurorehabilitation is a rapidly advancing field, which uses robotic systems to define new methods for treating neurological injuries, especially stroke. The use of robots in gait training can enhance rehabilitation, but it needs to be used according to well-defined neuroscientific principles. The field of robot-mediated neurorehabilitation brings challenges to both bioengineering and clinical practice. This article reviews the state of the art (including commercially available systems) and perspectives of robotics in poststroke rehabilitation for walking recovery. A critical revision, including the problems at stake regarding robotic clinical use, is also presented.
Springback in v-bending: a finite element approach

Bending is one of the processes frequently applied during manufacturing of components. The bending operation involves springback, which is caused by the elastic recovery of bending deformation in metal sheets upon unloading. In the manufacturing industry, it is still a practical problem to predict the final geometry of the part after springback and to design the appropriate tooling in order to compensate for springback. In this article, a commercially available finite-element software is used to analyse bending and springback of different stainless steel grades. The amount of springback, the total equivalent plastic strains and the equivalent von Misses stresses are presented. The comparison of the FEA results with experimental finding has indicated the reliability of the finite element model proposed.
Learning STRIPS Operators from Noisy and Incomplete Observations

Agents learning to act autonomously in real-world domains must acquire a model of the dynamics of the domain in which they operate. Learning domain dynamics can be challenging, especially where an agent only has partial access to the world state, and/or noisy external sensors. Even in standard STRIPS domains, existing approaches cannot learn from noisy, incomplete observations typical of real-world domains. We propose a method which learns STRIPS action models in such domains, by decomposing the problem into first learning a transition function between states in the form of a set of classifiers, and then deriving explicit STRIPS rules from the classifiers' parameters. We evaluate our approach on simulated standard planning domains from the International Planning Competition, and show that it learns useful domain descriptions from noisy, incomplete observations.
ORFcor: Identifying and Accommodating ORF Prediction Inconsistencies for Phylogenetic Analysis

The high-throughput annotation of open reading frames (ORFs) required by modern genome sequencing projects necessitates computational protocols that sometimes annotate orthologous ORFs inconsistently. Such inconsistencies hinder comparative analyses by non-uniformly extending or truncating 5′ and/or 3′ sequence ends, causing ORFs that are in fact identical to artificially diverge. Whereas strategies exist to correct such inconsistencies during whole-genome annotation, equivalent software designed to correct subsets of these data without genome reannotation is lacking. We therefore developed ORFcor, which corrects annotation inconsistencies using consensus start and stop positions derived from sets of closely related orthologs. ORFcor corrects inconsistent ORF annotations in diverse test datasets with specificities and sensitivities approaching 100% when sufficiently related orthologs (e.g., from the same taxonomic family) are available for comparison. The ORFcor package is implemented in Perl, multithreaded to handle large datasets, includes related scripts to facilitate high-throughput phylogenomic analyses, and is freely available at www.currielab. wisc.edu/downloads.html.
Constrained optimal attitude control of a quadrotor helicopter subject to wind-gusts: Experimental studies

A Constrained Finite Time Optimal Controller (CFTOC) for attitude set-point maneuvers of an Unmanned Quadrotor Helicopter (UqH) operating under severe wind conditions is the subject of this article. The UqH's nonlinear dynamics is linearized in various operating points resulting in a set of piecewise models. The CFTOC is designed for set-point maneuvers taking into account the switching between the linear models and the constraints of the actuators. The control scheme is applied in experimental studies in a prototype UqH operating in harsh weather conditions resulting from wind gusts. The UqH rejects the induced wind-disturbances while performing attitude set-point maneuvers.
A brief review of dynamics and control of underactuated biped robots

Graphical Abstract Abstract Humans as bipeds enjoy certain advantages over other terrestrial systems, which motivate us to study and develop biped robots. Underactuated biped robots adopt the energy efficient gait of the biological counterparts and passive walkers. However, the control design for such robots is challenging due to lesser controllable joints, non-linear hybrid system dynamics and the goal of utilizing the natural dynamics. This paper summarizes various designs, models and control strategies used to enable stable walking and running for the underactuated biped robots. It gives a brief about how the mechanism of such bipeds evolved to incorporate the design variations which significantly improved the system performance. The few basic mathematical models which are used to simulate, analyze and predict the system dynamics and test control designs, are described, highlighting the difference in walking and running models. An introduction to the various stability criteria and control methods, successful in enabling stable walking for the robots on flat or uneven terrains, is provided. This paper gives a brief of the significant achievements in this field and ends with the highlights of the abilities inherent to humans but lacking in underactuated bipeds, and adopting or improving which should be the focus of the future research.
Updating a cracked database

A cracked database is a datastore continuously reorganized based on operations being executed. For each query, the data of interest is physically reclustered to speed-up future access to the same, overlapping or even disjoint data. This way, a cracking DBMS self-organizes and adapts itself to the workload. So far, cracking has been considered for static databases only. In this paper, we introduce several novel algorithms for high-volume insertions, deletions and updates against a cracked database. We show that the nice performance properties of a cracked database can be maintained in a dynamic environment where updates interleave with queries. Our algorithms comply with the cracking philosophy, i.e., a table is informed on pending insertions and deletions, but only when the relevant data is needed for query processing just enough pending update actions are applied. We discuss details of our implementation in the context of an open-source DBMS and we show through a detailed experimental evaluation that our algorithms always manage to keep the cost of querying a cracked datastore with pending updates lower than the non-cracked case.