Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Elevated Serum Uric Acid Predicts Chronic Kidney Disease

Introduction:The question of whether elevated serum uric acid is an independent risk factor for chronic kidney disease in a longitudinal manner was assessed in Japanese subjects undergoing a health checkup. Methods:A total of 14,399 participants (8,161 men and 6,238 women) without medication for hyperuremia in both 2000 and 2005 were included. After exclusion of participants taking treatments influencing serum uric acid and having chronic kidney disease defined as estimated glomerular filtration rate <60 mL/min/1.73m2, in 2000, multiple logistic regression analyses were performed for 6,887 men (48.4 ± 9.9 years) and 5,340 women (49.9 ± 9.0 years) to identify independent factors for newly diagnosed chronic kidney disease in 2005. Adjustment was made for age, body mass index, elevated blood pressure or hypertension, hypertriglyceridemia, impaired fasting glucose, either urinary protein or occult blood, alcohol drinking and smoking. Results:The prevalence of chronic kidney disease and the values of body mass index, systolic and diastolic blood pressure and triglyceride were significantly higher in the participants with elevated serum uric acid quartiles. Chronic kidney disease was newly diagnosed in 4.1% of men and 3.7% of women, within the 5-year period. In multivariate models, the higher quartiles of serum uric acid were associated with increased risk of chronic kidney disease in both sexes. The odds ratio and 95% confidence interval for 1 increment of serum uric acid were 1.42 and 1.28 to 1.58 in men and 1.32 and 1.12 to 1.56 in women, respectively. Conclusions:Elevated serum uric acid predicts chronic kidney disease in subjects undergoing a health checkup.
Workload, time-on-task, and learning outcome in online learning for beginning students

Online learning offers great potential for higher education in terms of scalability, flexibility and instructional design. However, the suitability of open online formats for beginning students is open for discussion. In this paper, we thus describe beginning students' learning processes in an open online course within a longitudinal workload study. All in all, 238 students were surveyed continuously over one semester via diary method, which led to an overall collection of 10,540 individual activities. Results indicate that the students' actual workload was consistently lower than the intended target workload, and that it was also unevenly distributed. In line with existing research, a weak positive association between time-on-task and learning outcome was found. Implications for the course design and follow-up research are discussed. 16.12. 2015 | Tobias Karner, Marc Egloffstein, Florian Binoder, Clemens Frotschl & Thomas Schley (Bamberg, Mannheim)
Water and temperature effects on photo-selective catalytic reduction of nitric oxide on Pd-loaded TiO2 photocatalyst

Photo-selective catalytic reduction (photo-SCR) of nitric oxide (NO) was studied in the presence of water. The incipient wetness impregnation was applied to prepare 1 wt% PdO/TiO2 photocatalyst. Steady-state photoreaction was carried out in a continuous-flow photoreactor with 0.55–1.6 v% water at 30–120°C under UV-light intensity of ∼ 200 mW/cm2. The C3H8/NO molar ratio in the feed ranged from 0.8–16.8 at a volume hourly space velocity (VHSV) from 330–1090 h−1. The result indicates that the increase of temperature has played an important role in inhibiting NO transformation to NO2 under the humid condition. Another important factor for maximizing denitrification (reduction of nitrogen oxides, DeNOx) efficiency was C3H8/NO ratio. An increase of temperature at a suitable C3H8/NO ratio can minimize NO2 formation, which can lead to high NO removal efficiency of more than 90% at a temperature of 70–100°C. In addition, the mechanism of palladium transformation during photoreaction is proposed, to explain the influence of Pd on the improvement of NO removal.
Evaluation of the Analgesic and Anti-inflammatory Activities of Some Thiazolo[4,5-d]pyrimidines

Summary Some thiazolo[4,5-d]pyrimidine-7(6H)-one derivatives were evaluated in vivo for their analgesic and anti-inflammatory activities. The results were compared with that of acetyl salicylic acid and phenylbutazone. Compounds 3b and 3h were the most active in the anti-inflammatory paw edema inhibition test. In terms of the analgesic activity (acetic acid writhing test), the most active compound was 2a followed by 31. The most active members of the series were investigated for their ED50 values and ulcerogenic potential.
Evolution of a Plasma Plume From a Shower Anode in a Vacuum Arc With a Black-Body Electrode Configuration

The plasma plume extracted from a shower anode of a vacuum arc with a black-body assembly (VABBA) was imaged in various development stages. In the VABBA, cathode erosion products fill a closed chamber formed by the cathode and a refractory anode. The anode is heated by the arc and reevaporates any cathode material incident upon it. An expanding metallic plasma plume is extracted through small apertures in the shower anode. The plasma plume was utilized to deposit a Cu thin film on a relatively large substrate.
A novel interline DC power flow controller for meshed HVDC grids

Power flow control ability of meshed high voltage direct current (HVDC) grids can be improved by inserting DC power flow controller into the grids. Based on the study of existing DC power flow controllers, this paper proposes a novel interline DC power flow controller (IDCPFC) which has the benefit of less active switching devices, simpler control, little side effect on meshed grids, no external power source needed and wide application occasions. The performance of the IDCPFC is validated by simulation and experiment tests. The results show that the proposed IDCPFC can achieve stable power flow control in different conditions.
A modified invariance principle and gain convergence in adaptive control

In spite of successful implementations of simple adaptive control systems, the convergence of the adaptive control gains has remained an open question for more that 30 years. Moreover, the customary opinion is that the control gains do not actually converge and instead they may continue wandering without reaching any limit at all. Recently, this open question, that may give pause to practitioners and potential users of adaptive control, has recently been solved. The paper shows how a modified LaSalles invariance principle in combination with Gromwall-Bellman Lemma have finally allowed solving the gain convergence problem. It is shown that the control gains do reach a constant value at the end of a process of steepest descent error minimization, thus allowing the conclusion that simple and robust adaptive control systems can successfully be implemented in real-world systems.
Tracking and removal of suspended matter from underwater video images

We propose a method for obtaining clear underwater images by tracking the motion of suspended matter from video images captured in water and by separating the images into foreground and background. We assume that input images are the superposition of a foreground and a background, and constructed a transition model and the observation model. An input image is divided into patches and tracking of the foreground in each patch is performed while applying Kalman filter to separate the input images into the foreground and the background. From the result of the experiment using simulated images, we confirmed that the background images were successfully estimated and a region that was moving slowly was also recognized as a part of the background.
Controlling the Cellular Organization of Tissue‐Engineered Cardiac Constructs

Abstract: There are currently no effective treatments to restore the cardiac muscle lost because of ischemia for the millions of people who suffer heart attacks annually. Cell therapy procedures have emerged as novel therapeutic strategies for treatment of heart failure after myocardial infarction but have been hampered by the lack of adequate cell sources of cardiomyocytes and by the inability to integrate cell grafts into cardiac muscle. A cardiac patch composed of organized and functional cardiomyocytes could drastically enhance the efficacy of this important clinical approach. Here, we report our ongoing efforts to develop a bioartificial cardiac muscle capable of synchronized multidirectional contraction within a three‐dimensional hydrogel scaffold. Neonatal rat cardiomyocytes, smooth muscle cells, and reconstituted polymeric collagen enriched with growth factors and hormones are used. A bioreactor system is used to impart precise strains onto the developing tissue constructs in vitro. The results demonstrate that cell‐mediated collagen compaction is significantly enhanced by strain preconditioning, resulting in a more favorable cellular organization. Furthermore, the results demonstrate that strain stimulation guides cellular orientation in the direction of applied strain (i.e., in the circumferential direction). Hence, we demonstrate the importance of mechanical preconditioning as a means of promoting the in vitro development of engineered cardiac muscle for use with myocardial regeneration therapies.
Mining and managing user-generated content and preferences

Ο παγκόσμιος ιστός εξελίσσεται διαρκώς, καθώς νέες τεχνολογίες έρχονται στο προσκήνιο. Για την καλύτερη εξυπηρέτηση των αναγκών των χρηστών είναι σημαντικό να λαμβάνουμε υπόψη τις προτιμήσεις τους. Για το λόγο αυτό, στην παρούσα διατριβή προτείνουμε διαφορετικούς τρόπους για να λαμβάνονται υπόψη οι προτιμήσεις των χρηστών, είτε σε περιπτώσεις προ-χρήσης ή μετά-χρήσης (ενός προϊόντος). Τα ερωτήματα κορυφογραμμής είναι ένα χαρακτηριστικό παράδειγμα όπου ο χρήστης μπορεί να δηλώσει τις προτιμήσεις του προ-χρήσης. Το πρόβλημα αυτών των ερωτημάτων είναι ότι το μέγεθος του αποτελέσματος μπορεί να είναι πολύ μεγάλο. Για την αντιμετώπιση αυτού του προβλήματος, προτείναμε τεχνικές για την διαφοροποίηση του αποτελέσματος ενός ερωτήματος κορυφογραμμής. Η διαφοροποίηση της κορυφογραμμής απεικονίζεται σε ένα NP-Hard πρόβλημα. Συνεπώς, προτείνουμε αποδοτικές προσεγγιστικές τεχνικές για την επίλυσή τους. Ως σενάριο μετά-χρήσης, οι χρήστες μπορούν να δώσουν την ανατροφοδότησή τους μέσω διαδικτυακών κριτικών. Οι κριτικές περιγράφουν την εμπειρία του χρήστη με το προϊόν / υπηρεσία και ποια χαρακτηριστικά του προϊόντος τους άρεσαν (ή όχι). Χρησιμοποιώντας αυτή την πληροφορία, προτείνουμε τεχνικές για την εύρεση ανταγωνιστικών προϊόντων. Τα ανταγωνιστικά προϊόντα είναι εκείνα τα οποία μπορούν να καλύψουν παρόμοιες ανάγκες από παρόμοιες ομάδες χρηστών. Πραγματοποιήσαμε μια εκτενή αξιολόγηση της μεθοδολογίας μας και δείξαμε ότι το μοντέλο μας μπορεί να συλλάβει αποδοτικά την ανταγωνστικότητα μεταξύ προϊόντων. Τέλος, μπορούμε να συλλάβουμε τις προτιμήσεις χρηστών και των ενδιαφερόντων τους μέσω πληροφοριών που υπάρχουν στο διαδίκτυο, σε πλατφόρμες κοινωνικών μέσων. Τα δεδομένα από κοινωνικά μέσα μπορούν να χρησιμοποιηθούν για την αναγνώριση συμβάντων που προκύπτουν στον φυσικό κόσμο. Δυστυχώς, δεδομένων των ιδιαιτεροτήτων των κοινωνικών μέσων, οι απλές τεχνικές δεν αποδίδουν καλά. Για την αντιμετώπιση αυτού του προβλήματος, καταφεύγουμε σε θεωρίες συναισθημάτων από την ψυχολογία, σύμφωνα με τις οποίες τα εξωτερικά ερεθίσματα (δλδ., γεγονότα) επηρεάζουν την συναισθηματική κατάσταση ενός ατόμου και τους ωθούν να εξωτερικεύσουν τις σκέψεις τους. Αξιοποιώντας αυτές τις θεωρίες ως σημείο έναρξης, παρακολουθούμε την συλλογική συναισθηματική κατάσταση μεγάλων ομάδων ατόμων, γεωγραφικά διασκορπισμένων, και αναγνωρίζουμε απότομες μεταβολές με αυτοματοποιημένες διαδικασίες. Η υπόθεση μας είναι ότι οι απότομες μεταβολές στην συναισθηματική κατάσταση της ομάδας οφείλονται σε εξωτερικά ερεθίσματα. Για να επιτύχουμε αυτό το στόχο, αναπτύξαμε τεχνικές γεωπληροφόρησης που μετατρέπουν κείμενο σε συντεταγμένες GPS, ένα πλαίσιο κατηγοριοποίησης δεδομένων από κοινωνικά μέσα σε συναισθήματα, ένα επιγραμμικό αλγόριθμο αναγνώρισης ακραίων τιμών ο οποίος λειτουργεί με την συνάρτηση πυκνότητας πιθανότητας των συλλογικής συναισθηματικής κατάστασης, και μία τεχνική οπτικοποίησης για την διευκόλυνση της παρουσίασης των γεγονότων που αναγνωρίσαμε.
A task-focused literature recommender system for digital libraries

– The scientific literature has played an important role in the dissemination of new knowledge throughout the past century. However, the increasing numbers of scientific articles being published in recent years has intensified the perception of information overload for users attempting to find relevant scientific information. The purpose of this paper is to describe a task‐focused strategy that employs the task profiles of users to make recommendations in a digital library. , – This paper combines information retrieval, common citation analysis, and coauthor relationship analysis techniques with a citation network analysis technique – the CiteRank algorithm – to find relevant and high‐quality articles. In total, nine variations of the proposed approach were tested using articles downloaded from the CiteSeerX system and usage logs collected from the authors' experimental server. , – The results from the authors' experimental evaluations demonstrate that the proposed Content‐citation approach outperforms the Relevance‐CiteRank, Relevance‐citation count, and Relevance‐only approaches. , – This paper describes an original study that has produced a novel way to combine information retrieval, common citation analysis, and coauthor relationship analysis techniques to find relevant and high‐quality articles for recommendation in a digital library.
Modeling Early Stem-Cell Fate Declaration Using Single-Cell Gene Expression Data

Stem cell fate differentiation is a complex biological process with important applications. Among other use cases, certain types of multipotent stem cells play a critical role in cancer treatment. Advancements in cellular assays over the past decade have provided researchers with comprehensive datasets for single-cell gene expression analysis, where one can isolate specific cells in a heterogeneous set of stem cells and elucidate genetic factors responsible for varying states of differentiation. Using network models, we attempt to show optimal fate differentiation paths for stem cells by modeling each cell as a state to predict fate progression solely through genetic markers. We successfully implemented a uniform cost search and a random walk over the Erdos Renyi and Kleinberg network models, finding sophisticated network-based models for mapping cell differentiation.
The effects of xylose treatment on rumen degradability and nutrient digestibility of soybean and cottonseed meals

Two trials were conducted to evaluate the effect of xylose treatment on rumen degradability characteristics of DM, OM and CP and in vivo digestibility of DM, OM, CP and crude fiber (CF) of soybean meal (SBM) and cottonseed meal (CSM). In Trial 1, three ruminally cannulated Merino rams were used. Xylose treatments at both levels, 0.5 and 1%, decreased effective degradability of DM, OM and CP of SBM, whereas 0.5 and 1% xylose treatment of CSM did not show any effect on effective degradability of DM, OM and CP. By contrast, maximum potential degradabilities of DM, OM and CP of CSM seemed to be increased by 1% xylose treatment. It was concluded that xylose treatment was effective in protecting SBM proteins from degradation in the rumen, but the same treatment was not so effective for CSM protein. In trial 2, three Merino rams were used. With treatments, DM, OM, CP and CF digestibilities of SBM and CSM were not changed. Crude fiber digestibility was numerically increased by the treatments of 0.5 and 1% xylose of both SBM and CSM compared to untreated SBM and CSM but differences were not significant. In conclusion SBM proteins can be effectively protected from degradation in the rumen by xylose treatment, without negatively affecting in vivo digestibility of protein, whereas xylose treatment appeared to be less effective on protecting of CSM proteins.
Child Temperament and Father Involvement 1 Identifying the Associations between Child Temperament and Father Involvement : Theoretical Considerations and Empirical Evidence

Using a sample of resident fathers (either married or cohabiting) from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 2,213), this study assessed the relationship between child temperament and father involvement. The direct effects of child temperament on father involvement, as well as its moderating effect on the association between other predictor variables and father involvement were measured. A two-equation model was estimated, using a two-stage least squares (2SLS) regression procedure. Findings suggest that fathers are less involved with temperamentally difficult children than with temperamentally easy children. Further, temperament moderated the strength of the association between parental relationship quality and father involvement for married fathers. Implications for intervention programs targeted at increasing paternal involvement are discussed.
Impacts of Salmonella enterica Serovar Typhimurium and Its speG Gene on the Transcriptomes of In Vitro M Cells and Caco-2 Cells

Microfold or membranous (M) cells are specialized intestinal epithelial cells responsible for host immunity. The speG mutant of Salmonella Typhimurium (S. Typhimurium) is a nonreplicating strain within human cells to be a candidate vaccine vector for interacting with M cells. We conducted this study to identify the genes are differently expressed between in vitro M cells and Caco-2 cells, and to determine whether S. Typhimurium and speG affect the transcriptomes of both cell types. In vitro M cells and Caco-2 cells were infected with wild-type (WT) S. Typhimurium, its ΔspeG mutant, or none for 1 h for RNA microarrays; the transcriptomes among the 6 pools were pairwisely compared. Genetic loci encoding scaffold (e.g., HSCHR7_CTG4_4, HSCHR9_CTG9_35), long noncoding RNA, membrane-associated protein (PITPNB), neuron-related proteins (OR8D1, OR10G9, and NTNG2), and transporter proteins (MICU2 and SLC28A1) were significantly upregulated in uninfected M cells compared with uninfected Caco-2 cells; and their encoding proteins are promising M-cell markers. Significantly upregulated HSCHR7_CTG4_4 of uninfected in vitro M cells were speG-independently downregulated by S. Typhimurium infection that is a remarkable change representing an important but unreported characteristic of M cells. The immune responses of in vitro M cells and Caco-2 cells can differ and reply on speG or not, with speG-dependent regulation of KYL4, SCTR, IL6, TNF, and CELF4 in Caco-2 cells, JUN, KLF6, and KCTD11 in M cells, or speG-independent modulation of ZFP36 in both cells. This study facilitates understanding of the immune responses of in vitro M cells after administering the S. Typhimurium ΔspeG mutant as a future vaccine vector.
Dual polarized wide-band aperture stacked patch antennas

A wide-band, dual polarized printed antenna is designed and developed in this paper. The antenna is based upon an aperture stacked patch layout and incorporates a simple dual-layered feeding technique to achieve dual-polarized radiation. The printed antenna has a measured 10 dB return loss bandwidth of 52% and an isolation between the excitation ports of greater than 39 dB over this frequency range. The gain of the antenna is 7.4 dBi /spl plusmn/ 0.4 dB and the typical issues associated with incorporating an aperture excited solution are resolved by using a cross-shaped reflector patch to ensure the front-to-back ratio is greater than 20 dB.
Optimization of LC voltage-controlled oscillators in 90-nm CMOS technology for 3G transceivers

This paper describes the design and optimization of LC voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs) for 3G transceivers in 90-nm, 1.0-V CMOS technology. The proposed technique is illustrated by optimizing eight different MOS LC VCOs in the uplink band of 2500 to 2570 MHz. The best optimized VCO exhibits a maximum in-band phase noise of -90 dBc/Hz and -145 dBc/Hz, respectively, at 10 kHz and 10 MHz offset from carrier, 0.16 mW power consumption, and suppression of the second and third harmonics better than -40 dBc in the tuning range.
A HISTORY OF THE LOUISA TRAINING SCHOOL FOR NEGROES IN LOUISA, VIRGINIA, 1926-1953

The purpose of this historical case study was to document the history of the Louisa Training School. The study focused on the period from 1926, when the Louisa County School Board established the Louisa Training School as a county-owned and operated school, through 1953, when the division’s school consolidation plan was implemented (Despot, 1963). Subsequently, the building was used as an elementary school from 1953 to 1970. The history of Louisa Training School was documented primarily through an analytical inquiry into the experiences and perceptions of former students, teachers, and others familiar with establishment, operation, and closure of the school. The study participants were initially identified through gatekeepers who were associated with the school during its operation. The participants were interviewed as primary sources. Their personal experiences and perceptions formed the basis of oral histories upon which this study was framed. Their recollections not only provided basic information, but also added rich meaning and depth to the study. Other primary sources were used to triangulate, verify, and augment the participants’ accounts. Primary sources included minutes from the Louisa County School Board and the Louisa County Board of Supervisors, the Virginia Board of Education, newspapers, artifacts, and personal possessions. Secondary sources included general histories, commentaries, and documents used to situate the study in historical context. The major findings of this historical study present the challenges that Louisa County faced trying to provide an education for its Negro citizenry in a dual segregated school system. These challenges included but were not limited to any transportation, textbooks, and facilities.
Dopant-dopant interactions in beryllium doped indium gallium arsenide: An ab initio study

We present an ab initio study of dopant-dopant interactions in beryllium-doped InGaAs. We consider defect formation energies of various interstitial and substitutional defects and their combinations. We find that all substitutional-substitutional interactions could be neglected. On the other hand, interactions involving an interstitial defect are significant. Specially, interstitial Be is stabilized by about 0.9/1.0 eV in the presence of one/two Be_Ga substitutionals. Ga interstitial is also substantially stabilized by Be substitutionals. Two Be interstitials can form a metastable Be-Be-Ga complex with a dissociation energy of 0.26 eV/Be. Therefore, interstitial defects and defect-defect interactions should be considered in accurate models of Be-doped InGaAs. We suggest that In and Ga should be treated as separate atoms and not lumped into a single effective group III element, as has been done before. We identified dopant-centred states which indicate the presence of other charge states at finite temperatures, specifically, the presence of Be_int^+1 (as opposed to Be_int^+2 at 0 K).