Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Recent Developments and Perspectives for Memristive Devices Based on Metal Oxide Nanowires

Memristive devices are considered one of the most promising candidates to overcome technological limitations for realizing next‐generation memories, logic applications, and neuromorphic systems in the modern nanoelectronics and information technology. Despite the continuous efforts, understanding the resistive switching mechanism underlying memristive/neuromorphic behavior still represents a challenge. Metal oxide nanowire‐based memristors appear suitable model systems for a deeper understanding of the involved physical/chemical phenomena due the possibility for localizing and investigating the switching mechanism. In practical aspects, nanowire‐based devices can be grown using a bottom‐up approach, thus being considered reliable candidates for going beyond the current scaling limitations of the top‐down approach by the standard lithography. In addition, taking into advantage of the high surface‐to‐volume ratio of these nanostructures, new device functionalities can be achieved by exploiting surface effects. In the literature, a variety of nanowire‐based devices such as single nanowires, nanowire arrays, and networks are reported to exhibit memristive behavior, explained by different switching mechanisms. This work provides a comparative review and a comprehensive analysis of device performances and physical phenomena responsible for memristive and neuromorphic behavior in such nanostructures. The analysis of the state‐of‐art of memristor devices based on nanowires and nanorods represent a milestone toward the development of nanowire‐based artificial neural networks.
Comparison Between Neurally Adjusted Ventilatory Assist and Pressure Support Ventilation Levels in Terms of Respiratory Effort

Objectives:To understand the potential equivalence between neurally adjusted ventilatory assist and pressure support ventilation levels in terms of respiratory muscle unloading. To compare the respiratory pattern, variability, synchronization, and neuromuscular coupling within comparable ranges of assistance. Design:Prospective single-center physiologic study. Setting:A 13-bed university medical ICU. Patients:Eleven patients recovering from respiratory failure. Interventions:The following levels of assistance were consecutively applied in a random order: neurally adjusted ventilatory assist levels: 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 4, 5, and 7 cm H2O/&mgr;volt; pressure support levels: 7, 10, 15, 20, and 25 cm H2O. Measurements and Main Results:Flow, airway pressure, esophageal pressures, and peak electrical activity of the diaphragm were continuously recorded. Breathing effort was calculated. To express the percentage of assist assumed by the ventilator, the total pressure including muscular and ventilator pressure was calculated. The median percentage of assist ranged from 33% (24–47%) to 82% (72–90%) between pressure support 7 and 25 cm H2O. Similar levels of unloading were observed for neurally adjusted ventilatory assist levels from 0.5 cm H2O/&mgr;volt (46% [40–51%]) to 2.5 cm H2O/&mgr;volt (80% [74–84%]). Tidal variability was higher during neurally adjusted ventilatory assist and ineffective efforts appeared only in pressure support. In neurally adjusted ventilatory assist, double triggering occurred sometimes when electrical activity of the diaphragm signal depicted a biphasic aspect, and an abnormal oscillatory pattern was frequently observed from 4 cm H2O/&mgr;volt. For both modes, the relationship between peak electrical activity of the diaphragm and muscle pressure depicted a curvilinear profile. Conclusions:In patients recovering from acute respiratory failure, levels of neurally adjusted ventilatory assist between 0.5 and 2.5 cm H2O/&mgr;volt are comparable to pressure support levels ranging from 7 to 25 cm H2O in terms of respiratory muscle unloading. Neurally adjusted ventilatory assist provides better patient-ventilator interactions but can be sometimes excessively sensitive to electrical activity of the diaphragm in terms of triggering.
Maybe holier, but definitely less evil, than you: Bounded self-righteousness in social judgment.

Few biases in human judgment are easier to demonstrate than self-righteousness: the tendency to believe one is more moral than others. Existing research, however, has overlooked an important ambiguity in evaluations of one's own and others' moral behavior that could lead to an overly simplistic characterization of self-righteousness. In particular, moral behavior spans a broad spectrum ranging from doing good to doing bad. Self-righteousness could indicate believing that one is more likely to do good than others, less likely to do bad, or both. Based on cognitive and motivational mechanisms, we predicted an asymmetry in the degree of self-righteousness such that it would be larger when considering unethical actions (doing bad) than when considering ethical actions (doing good). A series of experiments confirmed this prediction. A final experiment suggests that this asymmetry is partly produced by the difference in perspectives that people adopt when evaluating themselves and others (Experiment 8). These results all suggest a bounded sense of self-righteousness. Believing one "less evil than thou" seems more reliable than believing one is "holier than thou. " (PsycINFO Database Record
Crowdsensing the speaker count in the wild: implications and applications

The mobile crowdsensing (MCS) paradigm enables large-scale sensing opportunities at lower deployment costs than dedicated infrastructures by utilizing today¿s large number of mobile devices. In the context of MCS, end users with sensing and computing devices can share and extract information of common interest. In this article, we examine Crowd++, an MCS application that accurately estimates the number of people talking in a certain place through unsupervised machine learning analysis on audio segments captured by mobile devices. Such a technique can find application in many domains, such as crowd estimation, social sensing, and personal well being assessment. In this article, we demonstrate the utility of this technique in the context of conference room usage estimation, social diaries, and social engagement in a power-efficient manner followed by a discussion on privacy and possible optimizations to Crowd++ software.
Mobile Phones in the Bedroom: Trajectories of Sleep Habits and Subsequent Adolescent Psychosocial Development.

Mobile phones are an essential part of an adolescent's life, leading them to text, phone, or message into the night. Longitudinal latent growth models were used to examine relations between changes in adolescent night-time mobile phone use, changes in sleep behavior, and changes in well-being (depressed mood, externalizing behavior, self-esteem, and coping) for 1,101 students (43% male) between 13 and 16 years old. Both night-time mobile phone use and poor sleep behavior underwent positive linear growth over time. Increased night-time mobile phone use was directly associated with increased externalizing behavior and decreased self-esteem and coping. Changes in sleep behavior mediated the relation between early changes in night-time mobile phone use and later increases in depressed mood and externalizing behavior and later declines in self-esteem and coping.
Synchronization of low‐ and high‐threshold motor units

Introduction: We examined the degree of synchronization for both low‐ and high‐threshold motor unit (MU) pairs at high force levels. Methods: MU spike trains were recorded from the quadriceps during high‐force isometric leg extensions. Short‐term synchronization (between −6 and 6 ms) was calculated for every unique MU pair for each contraction. Results: At high force levels, earlier recruited motor unit pairs (low‐threshold) demonstrated relatively low levels of short‐term synchronization (approximately 7.3% extra firings than would have been expected by chance). However, the magnitude of synchronization increased significantly and linearly with mean recruitment threshold (reaching 22.1% extra firings for motor unit pairs recruited above 70% MVC). Conclusions: Three potential mechanisms that could explain the observed differences in synchronization across motor unit types are proposed and discussed. Muscle Nerve 49:575–583, 2014
General Dynamic Scene Reconstruction from Multiple View Video

This paper introduces a general approach to dynamic scene reconstruction from multiple moving cameras without prior knowledge or limiting constraints on the scene structure, appearance, or illumination. Existing techniques or dynamic scene reconstruction from multiple wide-baseline camera views primarily focus on accurate reconstruction in controlled environments, where the cameras are fixed and calibrated and background is known. These approaches are not robust for general dynamic scenes captured with sparse moving cameras. Previous approaches for outdoor dynamic scene reconstruction assume prior knowledge of the static background appearance and structure. The primary contributions of this paper are twofold: an automatic method for initial coarse dynamic scene segmentation and reconstruction without prior knowledge of background appearance or structure, and a general robust approach for joint segmentation refinement and dense reconstruction of dynamic scenes from multiple wide-baseline static or moving cameras. Evaluation is performed on a variety of indoor and outdoor scenes with cluttered backgrounds and multiple dynamic non-rigid objects such as people. Comparison with state-of-the-art approaches demonstrates improved accuracy in both multiple view segmentation and dense reconstruction. The proposed approach also eliminates the requirement for prior knowledge of scene structure and appearance.
Effectiveness factor and diffusion limitations in collagen gel modules containing HepG2 cells

A major obstacle in tissue engineering is overcoming hypoxia in thick, three‐dimensional (3D) engineered tissues, which is caused by the diffusional limitations of oxygen and lack of internal vasculature to facilitate mass transfer. Modular tissue engineering is a bio‐mimetic strategy that forms scalable, vascularized and uniform 3D constructs by assembling small (sub‐mm), cell‐containing modules. It was previously assumed that mass transfer resistance within the individual modules was negligible, due to their small size. In the present study, this assumption was tested using theoretical analysis of oxygen transport within the module (effectiveness factor) and experimental studies. Small (400 µm diameter post‐contraction) and large (700 µm diameter post‐contraction) HepG2–collagen modules were made for a range of seeding densities (2 × 106–1 × 107 cells/ml collagen). Cell density, distribution and morphology within the modules showed that the small modules were capable of sustaining high cell densities (8.0 × 107 ± 4.4 × 107 cells/cm3) with negligible mass transfer inhibition. Conversely, large modules developed a necrotic core and had significantly (p < 0.05) reduced cell densities (1.5 × 107 ± 9.2 × 106 cells/cm3). It was also observed that the embedded cells responded quickly to the oxygen availability, by proliferating or dying, to reach a sustainable density of approximately 8000 cells/module. Furthermore, a simple effectiveness factor calculation was successful in estimating the maximum cell density per module. The results gathered in this study confirm the previous assumption that the small‐diameter modules avoid the internal mass transfer limitations that are often observed in larger constructs. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Normoaldosteronemic aldosterone-producing adenoma: immunochemical characterization and diagnostic implications.

BACKGROUND A high aldosterone-renin ratio (ARR) is commonly used to identify primary aldosteronism, but the ARR is high when renin is low, even if plasma aldosterone concentration values are normal, suggesting the existence of 'normoaldosteronemic' primary aldosteronism. However, most such cases did not undergo adrenalectomy; moreover, because of the lack of antibody for the human CYP11B2 (aldosterone synthase), conclusive demonstration of a normoaldosteronemic aldosterone-producing adenoma was not possible thus far. METHOD In 2003, a lady presented with severe hypertension a right adrenal nodule, low renin, high ARR, but normal plasma aldosterone concentration. As adrenal vein sampling showed lateralized aldosterone secretion, she underwent left adrenalectomy, which consistently normalized blood pressure (BP) and renin during 11-year follow-up. RESULT AND CONCLUSION The development of a novel monoclonal antibody for the human CYP11B2 in 2014 allowed immunochemically identification of a CYP11B2-positive adenoma in the resected adrenal. Moreover, this case unequivocally demonstrates for the first time the existence of normoaldosteronemic aldosterone-producing adenoma, which suggests that many cases of 'low renin-essential hypertension' might instead have a surgically curable form of primary aldosteronism.
Aberrant Pulmonary Vascular Growth and Remodeling in Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia

In contrast to many other organs, a significant portion of lung development occurs after birth during alveolarization, thus rendering the lung highly susceptible to injuries that may disrupt this developmental process. Premature birth heightens this susceptibility, with many premature infants developing the chronic lung disease, bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), a disease characterized by arrested alveolarization. Over the past decade, tremendous progress has been made in the elucidation of mechanisms that promote postnatal lung development, including extensive data suggesting that impaired pulmonary angiogenesis contributes to the pathogenesis of BPD. Moreover, in addition to impaired vascular growth, patients with BPD also frequently demonstrate alterations in pulmonary vascular remodeling and tone, increasing the risk for persistent hypoxemia and the development of pulmonary hypertension. In this review, an overview of normal lung development will be presented, and the pathologic features of arrested development observed in BPD will be described, with a specific emphasis on the pulmonary vascular abnormalities. Key pathways that promote normal pulmonary vascular development will be reviewed, and the experimental and clinical evidence demonstrating alterations of these essential pathways in BPD summarized.
Thermal Conductivity of Frozen Sediments Containing Self-Preserved Pore Gas Hydrates at Atmospheric Pressure: An Experimental Study

The paper presents the results of an experimental thermal conductivity study of frozen artificial and natural gas hydrate-bearing sediments at atmospheric pressure (0.1 MPa). Samples of hydrate-saturated sediments are highly stable and suitable for the determination of their physical properties, including thermal conductivity, due to the self-preservation of pore methane hydrate at negative temperatures. It is suggested to measure the thermal conductivity of frozen sediments containing self-preserved pore hydrates by a KD-2 needle probe which causes very little thermal impact on the samples. As shown by the special measurements of reference materials with known thermal conductivities, the values measured with the KD-2 probe are up to 20% underestimated and require the respective correction. Frozen hydrate-bearing sediments differ markedly in thermal conductivity from reference frozen samples of the same composition but free from pore hydrate. The difference depends on the physical properties of the sediments and on changes in their texture and structure associated with the self-preservation effect. Namely, it increases proportionally to the volumetric hydrate content, hydrate saturation, and the percentage of water converted to hydrate. Thermal conductivity is anisotropic in core samples of naturally frozen sediments that enclose visible ice-hydrate lenses and varies with the direction of measurements with respect to the lenses. Thermal conductivity measurements with the suggested method provide a reliable tool for detection of stable and relict gas hydrates in permafrost.
Effects of Beetroot Juice on Recovery of Muscle Function and Performance between Bouts of Repeated Sprint Exercise

This study examined the effects of beetroot juice (BTJ) on recovery between two repeated-sprint tests. In an independent groups design, 20 male, team-sports players were randomized to receive either BTJ or a placebo (PLA) (2 × 250 mL) for 3 days after an initial repeated sprint test (20 × 30 m; RST1) and after a second repeated sprint test (RST2), performed 72 h later. Maximal isometric voluntary contractions (MIVC), countermovement jumps (CMJ), reactive strength index (RI), pressure-pain threshold (PPT), creatine kinase (CK), C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), protein carbonyls (PC), lipid hydroperoxides (LOOH) and the ascorbyl free radical (A•−) were measured before, after, and at set times between RST1 and RST2. CMJ and RI recovered quicker in BTJ compared to PLA after RST1: at 72 h post, CMJ and RI were 7.6% and 13.8% higher in BTJ vs. PLA, respectively (p < 0.05). PPT was 10.4% higher in BTJ compared to PLA 24 h post RST2 (p = 0.012) but similar at other time points. No group differences were detected for mean and fastest sprint time or fatigue index. MIVC, or the biochemical markers measured (p > 0.05). BTJ reduced the decrement in CMJ and RI following and RST but had no effect on sprint performance or oxidative stress.
Decreased hydrophobicity of iridescent feathers: a potential cost of shiny plumage

SUMMARY Honest advertisement models posit that sexually selected traits are costly to produce, maintain or otherwise bear. Brightly coloured feathers are thought to be classic examples of these models, but evidence for a cost in feathers not coloured by carotenoid pigments is scarce. Unlike pigment-based colours, iridescent feather colours are produced by light scattering in modified feather barbules that are characteristically flattened and twisted towards the feather surface. These modifications increase light reflectance, but also expose more surface area for water adhesion, suggesting a potential trade-off between colour and hydrophobicity. Using light microscopy, spectrometry, contact angle goniometry and self-cleaning experiments, we show that iridescent feathers of mallards, Anas platyrhynchos, are less hydrophobic than adjacent non-iridescent feathers, and that this is primarily caused by differences in barbule microstructure. Furthermore, as a result of this decreased hydrophobicity, iridescent feathers are less efficient at self-cleaning than non-iridescent feathers. Together, these results suggest a previously unforeseen cost of iridescent plumage traits that may help to explain the evolution and distribution of iridescence in birds.
Levels of α7 integrin and laminin-α2 are increased following prednisone treatment in the mdx mouse and GRMD dog models of Duchenne muscular dystrophy

SUMMARY Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a fatal neuromuscular disease for which there is no cure and limited treatment options. Prednisone is currently the first line treatment option for DMD and studies have demonstrated that it improves muscle strength. Although prednisone has been used for the treatment of DMD for decades, the mechanism of action of this drug remains unclear. Recent studies have shown that the α7β1 integrin is a major modifier of disease progression in mouse models of DMD and is therefore a target for drug-based therapies. In this study we examined whether prednisone increased α7β1 integrin levels in mdx mouse and GRMD dog models and myogenic cells from humans with DMD. Our results show that prednisone promotes an increase in α7 integrin protein in cultured myogenic cells and in the muscle of mdx and GRMD animal models of DMD. The prednisone-mediated increase in α7 integrin was associated with increased laminin-α2 in prednisone-treated dystrophin-deficient muscle. Together, our results suggest that prednisone acts in part through increased merosin in the muscle basal lamina and through sarcolemmal stabilization of α7β1 integrin in dystrophin-deficient muscle. These results indicate that therapies that target an increase in muscle α7β1 integrin, its signaling pathways and/or laminin could be therapeutic in DMD.
Minimal Span Weighting Retrieval for Question Answering

Current question answering systems rely on document retrieval as a means of providing documents which are likely to contain an answer to a user’s question. Recent research has shown that taking into account the proximity between question terms is helpful in determining whether a document contains an answer to a question. In this paper, we propose a novel proximity-based approach to document retrieval, which combines full-document retrieval with proximity information. Experimental results show that it leads to significant improvements when compared to full document retrieval. Our approach also proves to be useful for extracting short text segments from a document, which contain an answer to the question. This allows answer selection to be focused on smaller segments instead of full documents, and experimental results confirm that it leads to improvements in an existing question answering system.
Batch based cancellation: a rollback optimal cancellation scheme in time warp simulations

An efficient cancellation scheme is essential to the performance of time warp simulations. The pitfalls of rollback echoes, chasing hazards and cascading rollbacks can be identified as being attributable to the inefficiency of the conventional per-event based cancellation scheme. Instead of capturing the happen-before relation between events, which is used by the range based cancellation scheme, the batch based cancellation scheme proposed in this paper utilizes a modified paradigm of vector time, namely, state vector, to capture the dependence of events. We prove that with conformance to specific rules regulating the advancement of LPs (logical processes), the events to be cancelled by a straggler message can be determined using a range of the state vector. Thus, knowledge of the range enables any LP to recover from the receipt of a straggler message at the cost of at most one rollback (i.e., rollback optimal). The results of preliminary experiments conducted using a manufacturing model show that the proposed scheme is successful in reducing the number of antimessages and increasing the ratio of the number of committed events to the number of processed events.
A review of post-nuclear-catastrophe management

The purpose of this paper is to make radioactive risk more generally understandable. To that end, we compare it to smoking tobacco. Further, we show that the concept of loss of life expectancy permits a quantitative comparison between various aggressions. The demystification of radioactive risk should lead to basic changes in post-catastrophe management, allowing victims to choose whether or not to leave contaminated areas. A less emotional appreciation of radioactive risks should lead to the adaptation of legal practices when dealing with probabilistic situations.