Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Personal values in soldiers after military deployment: associations with mental health and resilience

Background After military deployment, soldiers are at an increased risk of developing posttraumatic psychiatric disorders. The correlation of personal values with symptoms, however, has not yet been examined within a military context. Method Schwartz’s Portrait Values Questionnaire (PVQ), the Posttraumatic Stress Diagnostic Scale (PDS), and the 11-item version of the Resilience Scale (RS-11) were completed by 117 soldiers of the German Armed Forces who had recently been deployed to Afghanistan (n=40 undergoing initial psychiatric treatment, n=77 untreated). Results Logistic regression showed that the value types of hedonism (−), power (−), tradition (+), and universalism (+) were significantly correlated with the probability and severity of PTSD and whether the participant was in treatment or not. The effects were partially mediated by the RS-11 scale values. Conclusions Value types seem to be associated with psychiatric symptoms in soldiers after deployment. These results could contribute to the further development of therapeutic approaches.
An Evolutionary Gene Selection Method for Microarray Data Based on SVM Error Bound Theories

Microarrays have thousands to tens of thousands of gene features but patient samples are fewer or a few hundred. Identifying genes whose disruption causes congenital or acquired disease is the fundamental problem in microarray data analysis. In this paper, we propose an efficient evolutionary SVM-based classifier that can select smaller number of features with high accuracy. The proposed method uses SVM with a given subset of features to evaluate the fitness function, and new subset of features are selected based on several leave-one-out error bounds for the SVM classifier and the frequency of occurrence of the features in the evolutionary approach. We test our proposed method on different microarray data and find that the proposed method can obtain high classification accuracy with a smaller number of selected genes.
Darwin's mid-evening surge

The passage of the sea-breeze front can be a great relief when it is very hot as the temperature may fall by several degrees and typically the wind speed increases. However, the arrival of the sea-breeze air brings an increase in humidity. Whether a particular location is reached by a sea-breeze depends on a number of factors including the distance to the coast, the broadscale wind field and the surface-temperature difference between land and sea. The latter, in turn, depends on the insolation, on the local albedo, and on the soil moisture. During the dry season, Darwin frequently experiences what appear to be two distinct seabreezes. The first sea-breeze front passes around midday and the onset of what has been interpreted as the second sea-breeze occurs in the late evening. The ‘second seabreeze’ has been thought by forecasters to be caused by the small-scale shape of the coastline around Darwin. The results presented herein suggest that the name ‘second sea-breeze’ is a misleading description of the phenomenon, because the moisture increase that accompanies it is associated with the advection of maritime air by the broadscale wind field rather than by a local wind circulation driven by the temperature difference between land and sea. Nevertheless its passage is accompanied also by an increase in wind speed and a change in wind direction and for this reason we refer to the phenomenon here as a mid-evening surge. To investigate the regular sea-breeze and the mid-evening surge we performed high-resolution numerical simulations of six events that occurred in late 2006. Here we present calculations for two of these cases and compare them with available data from the automatic weather station (AWS) at Darwin Airport. We examine also a null event in support of the interpretations we present in the following sections. Finally we present two idealised calculations that serve to isolate the essential features of the mid-evening surge.
Intraindividual variation in urinary iodine concentrations: effect of adjustment on population distribution using two and three repeated spot urine collections

Objectives To determine the effect of adjustment for intraindividual variation on estimations of urinary iodine concentrations (UIC), prevalence of iodine deficiency and population distribution of iodine status. Setting Community-dwelling older adults from New South Wales, Australia. Participants 84 healthy men and women aged 60–95 years were recruited prior to introduction of the mandatory iodine fortification programme. Primary and secondary outcome measures UIC data were collected from three spot urine samples, each 1 week apart. Repeated measures analysis of variance were determined between-person (sb) and total (sobs) SDs. Adjusted UIC values were calculated as ((person's UIC−group mean)×(sb/sobs))+group mean, and a corrected UIC distribution was calculated. Results The sb/sobs for using three samples and two samples were 0.83 and 0.79, respectively. Following adjustment for intraindividual variation, the proportion with UIC <50 μg/L reduced from 33% to 19%, while the proportion with UIC ≥100 μg/L changed from 21% to 17%. The 95th centile for UIC decreased from 176 to 136 μg/L. Adjustment by taking averages yielded a lesser degree of contraction in the distribution than the analysis of variance method. Conclusions The addition of information about intraindividual variability has potential for increasing the interpretability of UIC data collected to monitor the iodine status of a population.
Hemispheric dominance during the mental rotation task in patients with schizophrenia

Background Mental rotation is a spatial representation conversion capability using an imagined object and either object or self-rotation. This capability is impaired in schizophrenia. Objective To provide a more detailed assessment of impaired cognitive functioning in schizophrenia by comparing the electrophysiological profiles of patients with schizophrenia and controls while completing a mental rotation task using both normally-oriented images and mirror images. Methods This electroencephalographic study compared error rates, reaction times and the topographic map of event-related potentials in 32 participants with schizophrenia and 29 healthy controls during mental rotation tasks involving both normal images and mirror images. Results Among controls the mean error rate and the mean reaction time for normal images and mirror images were not significantly different but in the patient group the mean (sd) error rate was higher for mirror images than for normal images (42% [6%] vs. 32% [9%], t=2.64, p=0.031) and the mean reaction time was longer for mirror images than for normal images (587 [11] ms vs. 571 [18] ms, t=2.83, p=0.028). The amplitude of the P500 component at Pz (parietal area), Cz (central area), P3 (left parietal area) and P4 (right parietal area) were significantly lower in the patient group than in the control group for both normal images and mirror images. In both groups the P500 for both the normal and mirror images was significantly higher in the right parietal area (P4) compared with left parietal area (P3). Conclusion The mental rotation abilities of patients with schizophrenia for both normally-oriented images and mirror images are impaired. Patients with schizophrenia show a diminished left cerebral contribution to the mental rotation task, a more rapid response time, and a differential response to normal images versus mirror images not seen in healthy controls. Specific topographic characteristics of the EEG during mental rotation tasks are potential biomarkers for schizophrenia.
How Much Do Locked Screws Add to the Fixation of “Hybrid” Plate Constructs in Osteoporotic Bone?

Background: Hybrid locked plating has become a commonly used technique for treating complex fractures and nonunions, but information is lacking to direct the specific application of this fixation method. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of the number and location of locked screws on the mechanical properties of hybrid plate constructs in an osteoporotic bone model. Methods: A synthetic commercial composite model of osteoporotic bone with a 5-mm simulated fracture gap was fixed with a 12-hole plate. Seven different constructs (n = 5/construct) were tested including 2 unlocked and 5 hybrid configurations. All constructs used bicortical screws tightened to 4 N·m torque. Cyclic (sinusoidal) testing was performed with a peak torsional load of ±8 N·m for 100,000 cycles. Torsional stiffness of each construct was measured in 10,000 cycle increments, and the maximum removal torque of each screw was measured at the conclusion of torsional testing. Results: Stiffness of the constructs at each testing interval was most affected by the number of screws; stiffness increased at least 33% when 4 screws were used on each side of the fracture versus 3 per side. Among the constructs with 4 screws in each fragment, no difference was observed when 1 or 2 unlocked screws were replaced with locked screws on each side of the simulated fracture. In contrast, replacement of 3 unlocked screws with locked screws increased the torsional stiffness of the construct by another 24% (P < 0.001). Compared with baseline (pretesting) values, postcycling screw removal torque was similar for locked screws at all positions (average 50% of peak removal), but removal torque of unlocked screws furthest from the fracture was increased by 274% if they were placed immediately adjacent to a locked screw (P < 0.001). Conclusions: At least 3 bicortical locked screws on each side of a fracture are needed to increase the torsional stiffness in an osteoporotic bone model. Locked screws placed between the fracture and unlocked screws protect the unlocked screws from loosening and may have some clinical utility in improving fatigue life of the construct. Level of evidence: Biomechanical level 1.
Thermo‐mechanical behavior of polyamide 12—polyamide 66 recycled fiber composites

Postconsumed polyamide 66 (PA66) short fibers derived from carpets were utilized as reinforcement in a commercial polyamide (PA12) matrix at different concentrations, ranging from 10 wt% to 30 wt%, in order to evaluate the effect of PA66 content on the mechanical and dynamic behavior of the resulting materials. DSC tests revealed that both melting and crystallization behavior of PA12 matrix was slightly affected by the presence of the fibers, showing a somewhat nucleation effect of PA66. Quasi-static tensile tests evidenced that the introduction of PA66 fibers provided a slight stiffening effect on the resulting composites, increasing the elastic modulus with the filler content, especially at testing temperatures above Tg. On the other hand, the presence of agglomerated fibers led to an embrittlement of polyamide composites, showing a significant reduction of the tensile properties at break increasing the PA66 fibers content. Tensile dynamic tests confirmed the stiffening effect provided by the recycled fibers, increasing both dynamic moduli (E′ and E″) with PA66 content over the whole range of considered temperatures. Glass transition temperature of PA12 was substantially increased by the presence of the fibers, while the coefficient of linear thermal expansion above Tg was progressively reduced with the filler content. Interestingly, isothermal creep compliance of the material above Tg was substantially reduced by the presence of PA66 fibers. Morphological analysis on the cryofractured surfaces revealed a quite good fiber-matrix interfacial adhesion, with the presence of some nucleating phenomena on the pulled out surfaces. POLYM. COMPOS. , 2011. © 2011 Society of Plastics Engineers
Endotoxin lethality and tolerance in mice: analysis with the B-lymphocyte-defective CBA/N strain

Immune-defective and immunologically normal F1 mice derived from the CBA/N strain were used to study the influence of anti-endotoxin antibody on the lethal effects of endotoxin. Immune-defective F1 male mice were unable to make specific responses to purified preparations of E. coli O111:B4 endotoxin, whereas their immunologically normal F1 female littermates made excellent responses. The ability to form antibody to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in these F1 mice did not influence either their natural resistance to endotoxin challenge or the effects of pretreatment with sublethal amounts of endotoxin on subsequent challenge with higher normally lethal doses. Furthermore, transfer of sera with high titers of anti-LPS antibody to mice prior to challenge with LPS failed to protect. Thus, anti-LPS antibody does not appear to play a critical role in protection of immune-defective (CBA/N X DBA/2) F1 male mice to the lethal effects of endotoxin or to the protective effects of a single sublethal dose of endotoxin on subsequent endotoxin challenge.
A component-based approach for embedded software development

The rapid growth in the demand of embedded systems and the increased complexity of embedded software pose an urgent need for advanced embedded software development techniques. Software technology is shifting toward semi-automated code generation and integration of systems from components. Component-based development (CBD) techniques can significantly reduce the time and cost for developing software systems. However, there are some difficult problems with the CBD approach. Component identification and retrieval as well as component composition require extensive knowledge of the components. Designers need to go through a steep learning curve in order to effectively compose a system out of available components. We discuss an integrated mechanism for component-based development of embedded software. We develop an On-line Repository for Embedded Software (ORES) to facilitate component management and retrieval. ORES uses an ontology-based approach to facilitate repository browsing and effective search. Based on ORES, we develop the code template approach to facilitate semi-automated component composition. A code template can be instantiated by different sets of components and, thus, offers more flexibility and configurability and better reuse. Another important aspect in embedded software is the nonfunctional requirements and properties. In ORES, we capture nonfunctional properties of components and provide facilities for the analysis of overall system properties.
On the Resolution Probability of Conditional and Unconditional Maximum Likelihood DoA Estimation

After decades of research in Direction of Arrival (DoA) estimation, today Maximum Likelihood (ML) algorithms still provide the best performance in terms of resolution capabilities. At the cost of a multidimensional search, ML algorithms achieve a significant reduction of the outlier production mechanism in the threshold region, where the number of snapshots per antenna and/or the signal to noise ratio (SNR) are low. The objective of this paper is to characterize the resolution capabilities of ML algorithms in the threshold region. Both conditional and unconditional versions of the ML algorithms are investigated in the asymptotic regime where both the number of antennas and the number of snapshots are large but comparable in magnitude. By using random matrix theory techniques, the finite dimensional distributions of both cost functions are shown to be Gaussian distributed in this asymptotic regime, and a closed form expression of the corresponding asymptotic covariance matrices is provided. These results allow to characterize the asymptotic behavior of the resolution probability, which is defined as the probability that the cost function evaluated at the true DoAs is smaller than the values that it takes at the positions of the other asymptotic local minima.
Analysis of a Coupled Fluid-Structure Model with Applications to Hemodynamics

We propose and analyze a simplified fluid-structure coupled model for flows with compliant walls. As in [F. Nobile and C. Vergara, SIAM J. Sci. Comput. , 30 (2008), pp. 731--763], the wall reaction to the fluid is modeled by a small displacement viscoelastic shell where the tangential stress components and displacements are neglected. We show that within this small displacement approximation a transpiration condition can be used which does not require an update of the geometry at each time step, for pipe flow at least. Such simplifications lead to a model which is well posed and for which a semi-implicit time discretization can be shown to converge. We present some numerical results and a comparison with a standard test case taken from hemodynamics. The model is more stable and less computer demanding than full models with moving mesh. We apply the model to a three-dimensional arterial flow with a stent.
Towards context-aware semantic web service discovery through conceptual situation spaces

Context-awareness is highly desired across several application domains. Semantic Web Services (SWS) enable the automatic discovery of distributed Web services based on comprehensive semantic representations. However, although SWS technology supports the automatic allocation of resources for a given well-defined task, it does not entail the discovery of appropriate SWS representations for a given situational context. Whereas tasks are highly dependent on the situational context in which they occur, SWS technology does not explicitly encourage the representation of domain situations. Moreover, describing the complex notion of a specific situation in all its facets is a costly task and may never reach semantic completeness. Particularly, following the symbolic SWS approach leads to ambiguity issues and does not entail semantic meaningfulness. Apart from that, not any real-world situation completely equals another, but has to be matched to a finite set of semantically defined parameter descriptions to enable context-adaptability. To overcome these issues, we propose Conceptual Situation Spaces (CSS) which are aligned to established SWS standards. CSS enable the description of situation characteristics as members in geometrical vector spaces following the idea of Conceptual Spaces. Semantic similarity between situations is calculated in terms of their Euclidean distance within a CSS. Extending merely symbolic SWS descriptions with context information on a conceptual level through CSS enables similarity-based matchmaking between real-world situation characteristics and predefined resource representations as part of SWS descriptions. To prove the feasibility, we apply our approach to the domain of E-Learning and provide a proof-of-concept prototype.
On the use of small wind turbine in design and innovation education

In this paper, we propose to use small wind turbine in design education. The aim is to integrate the TRIZ theory (Theory of Inventive Problem Solving) as an innovation support tool in the classical design process of Pahl and Beitz. The new proposed methodology is confronted to the design problem of regulation system. The proposed process enhances creativity in the concepts research activity and improves ideation spirit of engineering students.
A Framework of a Model-Based Simulation System for Prediction of Surface Generation in Fast Tool Servo Machining of Optical Microstructures

The fabrication of high-quality optical microstructural surfaces is based on fast tool servo (FTS) machining. It makes use of auxiliary piezo-electric driven servos to rapidly actuate the diamond tool with a fine resolution and a sufficiently high bandwidth for machining optical microstructures with submicrometer form accuracy and a nanometric surface finish without the need for any subsequent post processing. However, the achievement of a superior mirror finish and form accuracy still depends largely on the experience and skills of the machine operators, acquired through an expensive trial-and-error approach to using new materials, new mircostructural surface designs, or new machine tools. As a result, this paper, a model-based simulation system is presented for the optimization of surface quality in the FTS machining of optical microstructures. Preliminary experimental work and the results are also presented.
Detectors of the impulsive noise and new effective filters for the impulsive noise reduction

As it is known, the impulsive noise appears on the image in the form of randomly distributed pixels of random brightness. Impulses themselves usually differ much from the surrounding pixels in brightness. The main topic of the paper is the introduction of the new impulse detection criteria, and their application to such filters as median, rank-order and cellular neural Boolean. Three impulse detectors are considered. The Rank Impulse Detector uses such property of impulse that its rank in variation series is usually quite different from rank of the median. Exponential Median Detector uses the exponent of the difference between the local median and the value of pixel to detect the impulse. Combination of these two detectors forms the Enhanced Rank Impulse Detector and integrates advantages of both of them. In combination with filter it allows iterative filtering without further image destruction.
Introduction to Nanoscale Thermal Conduction

where the thermal flux, Q, is related to the change in temperature, T, along the direction of thermal propagation, z, through the thermal conductivity, κ. The thermal conductivity is a temperature dependent material property that is unique to any givenmaterial. Figure 1 shows the measured thermal conductivity of two metals Au and Pt and two semiconductors Si and Ge (Ho et al., 1972). In these bulk materials, the thermal conductivities span three orders of magnitude over the temperature range from 1 1,000 K. Temperature trends in the thermal conductivities are similar depending on the type of material, i.e., Si and Ge show similar thermal conductivity trends with temperature as do Au and Pt. These similarities arise due to the different thermal energy carriers in the different classes of materials. In metals, heat is primarily carried by electrons, whereas in semiconductors, heat moves via atomic vibrations of the crystalline lattice. The macroscopic average of these carriers’ scattering events, which is related to the thermal conductivity of the material, gives rise to the spatial temperature gradient in Eq. 1. This temperature gradient is established from the energy carriers traversing a certain distance, the mean free path, before scattering and losing their thermal energy. In bulk systems, this mean free path is related to the intrinsic properties of the materials. However, in material systems with engineered length scales on the order of the mean free path, additional scattering events arise due to energy carrier scattering with interfaces, inclusions, grain boundaries, etc. These scattering events can substantially change the thermal conductivity of nanostructured systems as compared to that of the bulk constituents (Cahill et al., 2003). In fact, in any given material in which the physical size is less than the mean free path, the carrier scattering events will only occur at the boundaries of the material. Therefore, there will be no temperature gradient established in the material and Eq. 1 will no longer be valid. Typical carrier room temperature mean free paths in metals and semiconductors are about 10 100 nm, respectively (Tien et al., 1998). Clearly, with the wealth of technology and applications that rely on material systems with characteristic lengths scales in the sub-1.0 μm regime (Wolf, 2006), the need to understand thermal conduction at the nanoscale is immensely important for thermal management and engineering applications. In this chapter, the basic concepts of 13