Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Passive acoustic mapping of magnetic microbubbles for cavitation enhancement and localization

Magnetic targeting of microbubbles functionalized with superparamagnetic nanoparticles has been demonstrated previously for diagnostic (B-mode) ultrasound imaging and shown to enhance gene delivery in vitro and in vivo. In the present work, passive acoustic mapping (PAM) was used to investigate the potential of magnetic microbubbles for localizing and enhancing cavitation activity under focused ultrasound. Suspensions of magnetic microbubbles consisting of 1,2-distearoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DSPC), air and 10 nm diameter iron oxide nanoparticles were injected into a tissue mimicking phantom at different flow velocities (from 0 to 50 mm s−1) with or without an applied magnetic field. Microbubbles were excited using a 500 kHz single element focused transducer at peak negative focal pressures of 0.1–1.0 MPa, while a 64 channel imaging array passively recorded their acoustic emissions. Magnetic localization of microbubble-induced cavitation activity was successfully achieved and could be resolved using PAM as a shift in the spatial distribution and increases in the intensity and sustainability of cavitation activity under the influence of a magnetic field. Under flow conditions at shear rates of up to 100 s−1 targeting efficacy was maintained. Application of a magnetic field was shown to consistently increase the energy of cavitation emissions by a factor of 2–5 times over the duration of exposures compared to the case without targeting, which was approximately equivalent to doubling the injected microbubble dose. These results suggest that magnetic targeting could be used to localize and increase the concentration of microbubbles and hence cavitation activity for a given systemic dose of microbubbles or ultrasound intensity.
Effect of tiotropium on health-related quality of life as a primary efficacy endpoint in COPD

Clinical manifestations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), including airflow limitation, dyspnea, and activity limitation, ultimately lead to impaired health-related quality of life (HRQoL). This 9-month, randomized, double-blind, multicenter study compared the effect of once-daily tiotropium 18 μg and placebo on HRQoL, spirometric parameters, and exacerbations in 554 patients with moderate-to-severe COPD. HRQoL was assessed using the St. George’s Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) and the new 8-item Visual Simplified Respiratory Questionnaire (VSRQ), which is currently being validated. The primary efficacy endpoint was the proportion of patients achieving a reduction of at least 4 units in the SGRQ total score at study end (Month 9). Mean ± SD baseline SGRQ total score was 47.4 ± 18.1. Significantly more tiotropium-treated patients achieved a reduction of at least 4 units in the SGRQ score vs placebo at study end (59.1% vs 48.2%, respectively; p = 0.029). Tiotropium significantly improved spirometric parameters (forced expiratory volume in 1 second [FEV1]: 0.11 ± 0.02 L vs 0.01 ± 0.02 L; between-group difference: 0.10 ± 0.03 L, p = 0.0001) and reduced exacerbations vs placebo. Maintenance treatment with tiotropium provided significant and clinically relevant improvements in HRQoL, as measured by the SGRQ.
The hepatitis C virus internal ribosome entry site adopts an ion-dependent tertiary fold.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) contains an internal ribosome entry site (IRES) located in the 5' untranslated region of the genomic RNA that drives cap-independent initiation of translation of the viral message. The approximate secondary structure and minimum functional length of the HCV IRES are known, and extensive mutagenesis has established that nearly all secondary structural domains are critical for activity. However, the presence of an IRES RNA tertiary fold and its functional relevance have not been established. Using chemical and enzymatic probes of the HCV IRES RNA in solution, we show that the IRES adopts a unique three-dimensional structure at physiological salt concentrations in the absence of additional cofactors or the translation apparatus. Folding of the IRES involves cooperative uptake of magnesium and is driven primarily by charge neutralization. This tertiary structure contains at least two independently folded regions which closely correspond to putative binding sites for the 40 S ribosomal subunit and initiation factor 3 (eIF3). Point mutations that inhibit IRES folding also inhibit its function, suggesting that the IRES tertiary structure is essential for translation initiation activity. Chemical and enzymatic probing data and small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) experiments in solution show that upon folding, the IRES forms an extended structure in which functionally important loops are exposed. These results suggest that the 40 S ribosomal subunit and eIF3 bind an HCV IRES that is prefolded to spatially organize recognition domains.
New types of TLM nodes for the analysis of axially symmetric structures

The Transmission Line Matrix (TLM) method is a well-known numerical time-domain technique which has been widely used for solving electromagnetic field problems. Axially symmetric structures are frequently encountered in microwave engineering. For this purpose, a first memory-saving TLM algorithm was developed in the particular case of uniform guiding structures [1]. Based on the classical Symmetrical Condensed Node (SCN) [2], this approach leads to a 1D mesh array using 18 complex voltages. Low memory requirement and simple algorithm make this method a very versatile tool. Extension of this model to general axially symmetric structure (2D mesh array) is not memory competitive compared to other time domain methods as BoR-FDTD [3,4].
Nitric Oxide Sustains IL-1β Expression in Human Dendritic Cells Enhancing Their Capacity to Induce IL-17–Producing T-Cells

The role played by lung dendritic cells (DCs) which are influenced by external antigens and by their redox state in controlling inflammation is unclear. We studied the role played by nitric oxide (NO) in DC maturation and function. Human DCs were stimulated with a long-acting NO donor, DPTA NONOate, prior to exposure to lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Dose-and time-dependent experiments were performed with DCs with the aim of measuring the release and gene expression of inflammatory cytokines capable of modifying T-cell differentiation, towardsTh1, Th2 and Th17 cells. NO changed the pattern of cytokine release by LPS-matured DCs, dependent on the concentration of NO, as well as on the timing of its addition to the cells during maturation. Addition of NO before LPS-induced maturation strongly inhibited the release of IL-12, while increasing the expression and release of IL-23, IL-1β and IL-6, which are all involved in Th17 polarization. Indeed, DCs treated with NO efficiently induced the release of IL-17 by T-cells through IL-1β. Our work highlights the important role that NO may play in sustaining inflammation during an infection through the preferential differentiation of the Th17 lineage.
Distance-learning receptivity differences between American and Korean graduate students

Distance-Learning Receptivity Differences Between American and Korean Graduate Students. (May 2004) Jungil Kim, B.S., Republic of Korea Naval Academy; M.A., Yonsei University Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. Lloyd Korhonen The purposes of this study were to determine if differences exist in distancelearning receptivity and perceived technology usefulness between American and Korean graduate students as well as Individualists and Collectivists. Results indicated that the two groups differed in distance-learning receptivity and perceived technology usefulness. However, cultural value tendency did not influence either receptivity or usefulness. Recommendations based on this study: 1. Researchers who are interested in cross-cultural field of distance learning should find what potential factors influence the differences in the receptivity and perceived usefulness between American and Korean group. 2. Administrators and decision makers who want to implement or adopt distance learning for their employees or students need to understand that cultural value, at least individualism and collectivism, is not a significant factor in distance learning. Instead, they should understand the importance of prior experience because people feel that distance is better than they’ve ever thought possible once they experience.
Pulp and Paper Mill Effluent Management

This is a review of literature published in 2016 related to the prevention of water pollution by or recovery of beneficial materials from wastewater produced in the pulp and paper industry. This review includes the following sections: pulp and paper wastewater management, pollution avoidance, process modelling, physical and chemical treatment, biological treatment, phytoremediation and value added materials.
3D Textured Surface Modeling

Because object geometry varies at many scales, it is often convenient to distinguish shape from texture. While shape is a deterministic macroscopic description, texture is a finer scale geometric description with some repetitive or random component. The distinction between texture and shape is important when developing object recognition systems. Acquiring fine scale geometry is difficult due to local occlusions and limited resolution of imaging systems. Also, the complexities in geometric detail make geometric modeling of texture particularly challenging. Consequently, appearance is a convenient description for surfaces. A useful integration may entail geometry-based recognition for shape and appearance-based recognition for surface detail. We discuss our work on investigating and modeling surface detail using the framework of the BRDF (bidirectional reflectance distribution function) and the BTF (bidirectional texture function).
MDL transduction

Transduction takes a set of training samples and aims at estimating class labels of given examples in one step as opposed to the traditional induction, which involves an intermediate learning step. The background philosophy of transduction is that one should not reduce an easier task (estimating labels of given examples) to a substantially more complex problem (learning a model). This paper proposes new scheme for transductive inference, which we call MDL transduction. It labels the given examples so that the stochastic complexity of the whole data is minimized. In the sense of minimum description length, MDL transduction outperforms induction in both generative and discriminative methods. A key property of MDL transduction is that it learns nothing about the model. This highly agrees with the afore-mentioned philosophy. Relation to transductive SVM (TSVM) is also discussed. We show that TSVM is an approximation of MDL transduction with discriminant models.
Positive polynomials and robust stabilization with fixed-order controllers

Recent results on positive polynomials are used to obtain a convex inner approximation of the stability domain in the space of coefficients of a polynomial. An application to the design of fixed-order controllers robustly stabilizing a linear system subject to polytopic uncertainty is then proposed, based on linear matrix inequality optimization. The key ingredient in the design procedure resides in the choice of the central polynomial. Several numerical examples illustrate the relevance of the approach.
Characterization of a Facultatively Psychrophilic Bacterium, Vibrio rumoiensis sp. nov., That Exhibits High Catalase Activity

ABSTRACT A novel facultatively psychrophilic bacterium, strain S-1, which exhibits extraordinarily high catalase activity was isolated from the drain pool of a fish product processing plant that uses H2O2 as a bleaching and microbicidal agent. The catalase activity of the isolate was 1 or 2 orders of magnitude higher than those of Corynebacterium glutamicum,Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas fluorescens, and five other species tested in this study. The strain seemed to possess only one kind of catalase, according to the results of polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of the cell extract. The optimum temperature for catalase activity was about 30°C, which was about 20°C lower than that for bovine catalase activity. Electron microscopic observation revealed that the surface of the microorganism was covered by blebs. Although the isolate was nonflagellated, its taxonomic position on the basis of physiological and biochemical characteristics and analysis of 16S rRNA sequence and DNA-DNA relatedness data indicated that strain S-1 is a new species belonging to the genus Vibrio. Accordingly, we propose the nameVibrio rumoiensis. The type strain is S-1 (FERM P-14531).
Psychiatry in Britain, c. 1900

At this period, British psychiatrists practised in a climate of opinion that was deeply pessimistic, influenced by the views of Henry Maudsley and by the accumulation in asylums of incurable patients. The inflexible Lunacy Act of 1890 tended to encourage chronicity. The terminology both of mental illness and of the doctors who dealt with it was uncertain. Management of these disorders was intimately involved with the operation of the Poor Law. Neurology, on the other hand, carried high prestige and advanced clinically; many patients with neurotic disorders came under the care of neurologists. Postgraduate education and training in psychiatry was practically non-existent, as was academic psychiatry, in contrast notably to Germany, though there was a small professional organization.
Remote laboratories: enhancing accredited engineering degree programs

Remote laboratories have been subjected to considerable scrutiny, as to their place in educational programs, since their original use in the early 90's. Since this time they have been the focus of academic research, and subsequent reviews, which show that they have potential advantages over traditional laboratories when correctly used. While these advantages are generally understood and agreed on, there is still some concern as to the impact they might have on the accreditation of existing programs. The body responsible for accreditation in Australia, Engineers Australia, takes a holistic approach to the accreditation of academic programs. In order to receive accreditation a program must satisfy all criteria within Engineers Australia's categorical assessment. This paper uses a criterion-by-criterion analysis to show that remote laboratories have no negative impact on any of these criteria and in some cases actually have a positive impact. Therefore the accreditation of academic programs containing remote laboratories are just as likely to have a positive outcome, assuming the laboratory is designed to embody the guiding pedagogical principles of the program in question.
Choice of Wavelet from Wavelet Families for DWT-DCT-SVD Image Watermarking

achieve the copyright protection in digital images, watermarking is identified as a major technology to protect digital images from illegal manipulation and geometric distortions. In this paper we discuss a digital image watermarking algorithm based on Discrete Wavelet Transform - Discrete Cosine Transform -Singular Value Decomposition (DWT-DCT-SVD). Here in this paper we examined and compared various wavelet families such as Haar, Daubechies, Biorthogonal and Coiflets for the watermarking algorithm. The difference in this method, from other traditional methods is that the watermark is embedded in high frequency band. Traditionally it is assumed that for having good robustness, a watermark should be embedded in low or mid frequency.DWT provides scalability, DCT provides compression and SVD offers minimum or no distortion. Choice of wavelets depends on the choice of wavelet function as DWT can be composed of any function that satisfies requirements of multiresolution analysis. In each of these wavelet families we analyzed effects of wavelets on image quality. The simulation results show good performance with respect to robustness against various image processing operations.
Computational aspects of astrophysical MHD and turbulence

The advantages of high-order finite difference scheme for astrophysical MHD and turbulence simulations are highlighted. A number of one-dimensional test cases are presented ranging from various shock tests to Parker-type wind solutions. Applications to magnetized accretion discs and their associated outflows are discussed. Particular emphasis is placed on the possibility of dynamo action in three-dimensional turbulent convection and shear flows, which is relevant to stars and astrophysical discs. The generation of large scale fields is discussed in terms of an inverse magnetic cascade and the consequences imposed by magnetic helicity conservation are reviewed with particular emphasis on the issue of alpha-quenching.
Understanding Avatar Sentiments Using Verbal and Non-Verbal Cues

With the increased popularity of virtual worlds, hundreds of thousands of people from different physical locations can join virtual worlds. In this computer-based simulated 3D environment, avatars can both interact with each other and the environment. This new type of world has important implications for business, education, and society at large. In order to fully use the benefits of virtual worlds, it is important to know how the residents (i.e., avatars) behave, such as how they express sentiments. This research in progress seeks to study avatar sentiments in virtual worlds to examine whether and how sentiments are conveyed by avatars. Both verbal and non-verbal cues will be utilized in the sentiment analysis. To conduct the study, an advanced data collection method is leveraged to obtain various types of avatar data from a large number of real virtual world residents in Second Life in an effective and efficient way.
Voluntary vs . Mandatory earnings management in IPOs

Companies making initial public offerings in Greece were obliged to include next year‟s profit in the new issue prospectuses until the regulations changed to voluntary status. This study takes advantage of these two regulatory regimes and compares the accuracy of earnings forecasts under both mandatory and voluntary disclosure environments. Findings indicate behavioural change, as pessimistic earnings forecasts during the mandatory era turn optimistic in the voluntary period. The comparison of these two regimes suggests that mandatory earnings forecasts can force firms to forecast that have neither the incentives nor the ability to do so. Instead, the results imply that regulations penalizing IPOs for providing highly inaccurate forecasts appear to be a more appropriate regulatory strategy. Accuracy of earnings improves after the introduction of voluntary disclosures where firms that provide forecasts are characterized as mature, with high demand multiple and low retained ownership.
The Impact of Health Problems on Behavior Problems in Adolescents and Adults With Autism Spectrum Disorders: Implications for Maternal Burden

Recent research on individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) highlights that they may be at increased risk for health problems when compared to the general population, and that these differences appear to increase with age. Relatively little research has examined the psychosocial impact of poorer health in this population, even though the clinical literature suggests that health problems put individuals with ASD at risk for elevated behavioral problems and their mothers at risk for elevated caregiving burden. This study examined the associations of physical health and behavior problems, as well as the associations of these factors with maternal burden, using longitudinal data. Results indicated that prior ratings of physical health problems predicted subsequent levels of behavior problems. Further, behavior problems partially mediated the effect of health problems on maternal burden. Implications for policies and interventions that focus on health promotion in conjunction with treatment of behavior problems are discussed, along with directions for future research.
MODIFICATION OF KHOJA STEMMER FOR SEARCHING ARABIC TEXT

N-gram model could be used to provide searchers with morphological variants of search terms for improving searching performance. Implementation of automated affix removal to simplify morphological variants into its stem is known as stemming algorithms. This paper discussed about n-gram model of size two called digram which is used in searching process with Arabic text. Since stemmer usage could enhance searching performance, we have observed performance of Khoja Stemmer. As a result, in this paper we also introduced addition of morphological rules correspond to terms which are not well recognized by Khoja stemmer. Our experiments showed that additional rules for Khoja Stemmer gave better reduction rate of indexed terms. We also showed that Khoja Stemmer and our additional rules as stemming algorithm in preprocessing can really enhance performance of Arabic text searching with digram model for similarity calculation.
Exact Simulation of the SABR Model

The stochastic alpha-beta-rho SABR model becomes popular in the financial industry because it is capable of providing good fits to various types of implied volatility curves observed in the marketplace. However, no analytical solution to the SABR model exists that can be simulated directly. This paper explores the possibility of exact simulation for the SABR model. Our contribution is threefold. i We propose an exact simulation method for the forward price and its volatility in two special but practically interesting cases, i.e., when the elasticity β = 1, or when β < 1 and the price and volatility processes are instantaneously uncorrelated. Primary difficulties involved are how to simulate two random variables whose distributions can be expressed in terms of the Hartman-Watson and the noncentral chi-squared distribution functions, respectively. Two novel simulation schemes are proposed to achieve numerical accuracy, efficiency, and stability. One stems from numerical Laplace inversion and Asian option literature, and the other is based on recent developments in evaluating the noncentral chi-squared distribution functions in a robust way. Numerical examples demonstrate that our method is fast and accurate under various market environments. ii When β < 1 but the price and volatility processes are correlated, our simulation method becomes a semi-exact one. Numerical results suggest that it is still quite accurate when the time horizon is not long, e.g., no greater than one year. For long time horizons, a piecewise semi-exact simulation scheme is developed that reduces the biases substantially. iii For European option pricing under the SABR model, we propose a conditional simulation method, which reduces the variance of the plain simulation significantly, e.g., by more than 99%. The e-companion is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/opre.2017. 1617 .
Kinect Unleashed: Getting Control over High Resolution Depth Maps

The wide availability and economic price of Kinect popularized the concept of RGB-D cameras, which are increasingly used in a wide range of applications ranging from Human Computer Interfaces to Structural Analysis, Health Care and even Art. With over 20 million units sold, it is by far the most popular depth camera, although, being closed source, its internals are not entirely known. In this paper we focus on the PS1080 chip that executes the depth extraction algorithm inside Kinect and related devices. We propose an algorithm that can estimate the output of Kinect from the raw infrared camera data. Using this algorithm, the internal reference calibration image from Kinect can be obtained. This image allows us to model Kinect as a standard stereo camera, where alternative stereo algorithms can be used increasing the versatility of Kinect.