Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Use of an electronic tongue in the assessment of highly diluted systems

Introduction: ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã…â€œEletronic tongueÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã‚Â is a device commonly used in the analysis of tastants, heavy metal ions, fruit juice, wines and also in the development of biosensors [1-3]. Briefly, the e-tongue is constituted by sensing units formed by ultrathin films of distinct materials deposited on gold interdigitated electrodes, which are immersed in liquid samples, followed by impedance spectroscopy measurements [1]. The e-tongue sensor is based on the global selectivity concept, i.e., the materials forming the sensing units are not selective to any substance in the samples, therefore, it allows the grouping of information into distinct patterns of response, enabling the distinction of complex liquid systems [1]. Aim: Our aim was to use e-tongue system for the assessment the homeopathic medicine Belladonna at different degrees of dilution, in attempt to differentiate highly diluted systems. Methods: Ultrathin films forming the sensing units were prepared by the layer-by-layer technique [4], using conventional polyelectrolytes such as poly(sodium styene sulfonate) (PSS) and poly(allylamine) hydrochloride (PAH), chitosan and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT). Homeopathic medicines (Belladonna 1cH, 6cH, 12cH and 30cH) were prepared by dilution and agitation according to HahnemannÃƒâ€šÃ‚Â´s method [5], using ethanol at 30% (w/w) as vehicle. Experimental data acquisition was conducted by blind tests measurements involving Belladonna samples and the vehicle used in the dilutions. Five independent and consecutive measurements were taken for each solution at 1 kHz, which were further analysed by Principal Component Analysis (PCA), a statistical method largely employed to reduce the dimensionality of the original data without losing information in the correlation of the samples [3]. Results: Figure 1 shows that the five independent measurements are grouped quite closed each other for each solution analysed, with a clear distinction of them. Therefore, it was noticed a change in the observed pattern measured at different days, indicating a reduced reproducibility, although the groups of data could still be identified. Discussion: PCA is a powerful tool highly employed to extract relevant information in the correlation of data analysis of e-tongue systems. PCA plots showed a good statistical correlation of the systems (PC1 + PC2 Ãƒâ€šÃ‚Â³ 90%), with the solutions being straightforwardly distinguished each other and also from the vehicle used. Conclusion: Despite the differences of data obtained along distinct days of analysis, the e-tongue could detect differences among the samples tested, even considering the highly diluted cases studied.
The effects of varying levels of hemispheric activation on episodic memory

ABSTRACT Bilateral saccadic eye movements enhance episodic memory retrieval; however, this usually only occurs for consistent-handed, not inconsistent-handed, individuals. It was hypothesized that inconsistent-handers begin closer to the peak of a Yerkes–Dodson-type inverted-U curve and increasing activation pushes them along the curve eventually decreasing performance, while consistent-handers start at a lower baseline and therefore increasing activation increases their performance. The current study tested this hypothesis by using hand clenching (grip strength) to increase activation at 5 different levels for both consistent- and inconsistent-handers. A total of 316 participants were presented with a list of 36 words after which they squeezed a hand dynamometer to induce cortical activation, and then recalled as many of the words as they could. Results showed that, as predicted, both inconsistent- and consistent-handers demonstrated an inverted-U pattern of memory performance as the strength of squeeze increased with inconsistent-handers peaking at a lower level of grip strength than consistent-handers. These results may help explain past findings, not only with episodic memory but also a variety of other cognitive tasks. They may also have interesting theoretical and real-world implications, which are discussed.
Genetic Structure of Bluefin Tuna in the Mediterranean Sea Correlates with Environmental Variables

Background Atlantic Bluefin Tuna (ABFT) shows complex demography and ecological variation in the Mediterranean Sea. Genetic surveys have detected significant, although weak, signals of population structuring; catch series analyses and tagging programs identified complex ABFT spatial dynamics and migration patterns. Here, we tested the hypothesis that the genetic structure of the ABFT in the Mediterranean is correlated with mean surface temperature and salinity. Methodology We used six samples collected from Western and Central Mediterranean integrated with a new sample collected from the recently identified easternmost reproductive area of Levantine Sea. To assess population structure in the Mediterranean we used a multidisciplinary framework combining classical population genetics, spatial and Bayesian clustering methods and a multivariate approach based on factor analysis. Conclusions FST analysis and Bayesian clustering methods detected several subpopulations in the Mediterranean, a result also supported by multivariate analyses. In addition, we identified significant correlations of genetic diversity with mean salinity and surface temperature values revealing that ABFT is genetically structured along two environmental gradients. These results suggest that a preference for some spawning habitat conditions could contribute to shape ABFT genetic structuring in the Mediterranean. However, further studies should be performed to assess to what extent ABFT spawning behaviour in the Mediterranean Sea can be affected by environmental variation.
Thermal Transport in Graphitic Carbon Foams

A number of carbon foam products are being developed for use as insulator, heat spreaders, and compact heat exchanger cores. Such foams have voids that are typically of the order of 100 μm, and the pore walls are about 10 μm. The carbon in the foam may be graphitized by heat treatment during processing. The arrangement of graphene planes in graphitic foams is a function of position within the structure of the foam. Therefore, the thermal transport process is highly dependent on the microstructure. This results in bulk conductivities that range from 1 to 200W/mK. The bulk properties of such a porous medium are difficult to determine analytically, particularly in the case of high concentration of nonspherical pores, or when the porous material is anisotropic or nonhomogeneous. A finite element analysis has been developed to calculate the bulk thermal conductivity of carbon foams with anisotropic microstructure. The effective thermal conductivity is then evaluated by comparing the results of the analytical and numerical models.
Bites‘n’Bits

We collect and analyze mobile data about everyday eating occasions to study eating behavior in relation to its context (time, location, social context, related activities and physical activity). Our contributions are three-fold. First, we deployed a data collection campaign with 122 Swiss university students, resulting in 1208 days of food data, 3414 meal occasions, 1034 snacking occasions, 5097 photos, and 998 days of physical activity. Second, we analyzed the collected data and report findings associated to the compliance, snacks vs. meals patterns, physical activity, and contextual differences between snacks and meals. Third, we addressed a novel ubicomp task, namely the classification of eating occasions (meals vs. snacks) in everyday life. We show that a machine learning method using time of day, time since last intake, and location is able to discriminate eating occasions with 84% accuracy, which significantly outperforms a baseline method based only on time.
The PLATINO study: description of the distribution, stability, and mortality according to the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease classification from 2007 to 2017

Background The Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) report provides a framework for classifying COPD reflecting the impacts of disease on patients and for targeting treatment recommendations. The GOLD 2017 introduced a new classification with 16 subgroups based on a composite of spirometry and symptoms/exacerbations. Methods Data from the population-based PLATINO study, collected at baseline and at follow-up, in three sites in Latin America were analyzed to compare the following: 1) the distribution of COPD patients according to GOLD 2007, 2013, and 2017; 2) the stability of the 2007 and 2013 classifications; and 3) the mortality rate over time stratified by GOLD 2007, 2013, and 2017. Results Of the 524 COPD patients evaluated, most of them were classified as Grade I or II (GOLD 2007) and Group A or B (GOLD 2013), with ≈70% of those classified as Group A in GOLD 2013 also classified as Grade I in GOLD 2007 and the highest percentage (41%) in Group D (2013) classified as Grade III (2007). According to GOLD 2017, among patients with Grade I airflow limitation, 69% of them were categorized into Group A, whereas Grade IV patients were more evenly distributed among Groups A–D. Most of the patients classified by GOLD 2007 remained in the same airflow limitation group at the follow-up; a greater temporal variability was observed with GOLD 2013 classification. Incidence-mortality rate in patients classified by GOLD 2007 was positively associated with increasing severity of airflow obstruction; for GOLD 2013 and GOLD 2017 (Groups A–D), highest mortality rates were observed in Groups C and D. No clear pattern was observed for mortality across the GOLD 2017 subgroups. Conclusion The PLATINO study data suggest that GOLD 2007 classification shows more stability over time compared with GOLD 2013. No clear patterns with respect to the distribution of patients or incidence-mortality rates were observed according to GOLD 2013/2017 classification.
Study of stimuli responsive behaviors and functional properties of TiO₂and other oxide-based nanomaterials

I PUBLICATION . IV PATENTS . V CONFERENCE PAPERS.V ACKNOWLEDGEMENT . IV LIST OF TABLES.XIV LIST OF SCHEMES.XIV LIST OF FIGURES.XV CHAPTER
Stereovision-based integrated system for point cloud reconstruction and simulated brain shift validation

Abstract. Intraoperative soft tissue deformation, referred to as brain shift, compromises the application of current image-guided surgery navigation systems in neurosurgery. A computational model driven by sparse data has been proposed as a cost-effective method to compensate for cortical surface and volumetric displacements. We present a mock environment developed to acquire stereoimages from a tracked operating microscope and to reconstruct three-dimensional point clouds from these images. A reconstruction error of 1 mm is estimated by using a phantom with a known geometry and independently measured deformation extent. The microscope is tracked via an attached tracking rigid body that facilitates the recording of the position of the microscope via a commercial optical tracking system as it moves during the procedure. Point clouds, reconstructed under different microscope positions, are registered into the same space to compute the feature displacements. Using our mock craniotomy device, realistic cortical deformations are generated. When comparing our tracked microscope stereo-pair measure of mock vessel displacements to that of the measurement determined by the independent optically tracked stylus marking, the displacement error was ∼2 mm on average. These results demonstrate the practicality of using tracked stereoscopic microscope as an alternative to laser range scanners to collect sufficient intraoperative information for brain shift correction.
BAC Transgenesis in Human Embryonic Stem Cells as a Novel Tool to Define the Human Neural Lineage

Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) have enormous potential for applications in basic biology and regenerative medicine. However, harnessing the potential of hESCs toward generating homogeneous populations of specialized cells remains challenging. Here we describe a novel technology for the genetic identification of defined hESC‐derived neural cell types using bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) transgenesis. We generated hESC lines stably expressing Hes5::GFP, Dll1::GFP, and HB9::GFP BACs that yield green fluorescent protein (GFP)+ neural stem cells, neuroblasts, and motor neurons, respectively. Faithful reporter expression was confirmed by cell fate analysis and appropriate transgene regulation. Prospective isolation of HB9::GFP+ cells yielded purified human motor neurons with proper marker expression and electrophysiological activity. Global mRNA and microRNA analyses of Hes5::GFP+ and HB9::GFP+ populations revealed highly specific expression signatures, suggesting that BAC transgenesis will be a powerful tool for establishing expression libraries that define the human neural lineage and for accessing defined cell types in applications of human disease. STEM CELLS 2009;27:521–532
High precision handedness detection based on short input keystroke dynamics

Handedness is one of the soft biometrie attributes that can be employed for profiling anonymous authors. In this study, we present handedness detection by typing differences. We collected free form keystroke data from 504 people, 101 reported left hand as their writing hand and 403 were right handed. Using machine learning we discriminated left and right handed people over 99.5% accuracy with balanced dataset. Finally, we reduced feature set to a single feature which still yield to 98% classification accuracy.
FullLength Research Article STUDIES TO DETERMINE THE EFFECT OF STORAGE ON EXTRUSION STABILIZED RAW AND PARBOILED RICE BRAN

Rice mills are leading in one of its most significant by -product “rice Bran” mostly used for animal feeding. Now days it is gaining high level interest and attraction because of its nutritional value and potential applications in human diet. Rice bran preservation for s afe use is still a challenge so this process is a big step towards stability of rice bran by heating immediately after milling. The major objective of this study was to determine the distinguishing features that enhance the quality of rice bran samples on commercial scale. Rice bran samples are exposed to heat treatment in order to promote its stability during storage under room temperature. For further verification different raw and parboiled rice bran samples were collected from various industries. All samples were evaluated for lipase enzyme activity during 60 days of storage. For this purpose an extrusion cooking procedure was adopted that leads to the production of stable rice bran showing no significant increase in free fatty acids (FFA) contents for m inimum 60 days of storage. Extruded rice bran was in the form of small flakes or pallets containing 2 -3 % moisture contents. During experimental storage extrusion heating method was proved efficient to enhance lipase inactivation by detecting free fatty ac id value and crude oil contents.
Existence and almost everywhere regularity of generalized minimizers for a class of variational problems with linear growth related to image inpainting

We continue the analysis of some modifications of the total variation image inpainting method formulated on the space $BV(\Omega)^M$ in the sense that we generalize the main results of [32] to the case that a more general data fitting term is involved. As in [32] we deal with vector-valued images, we do not impose any structure condition on our density $F$ and the dimension of the domain $\Omega$ is arbitrary. Precisely we discuss existence of generalized solutions of the corresponding variational problem and we will also pass to the associated dual variational problem for which we show unique solvability. Among other things, our results are the uniqueness of the absolutely continuous part $\nabla^a u$ of the gradient of $BV$-solutions $u$ on the entire domain $\Omega$, where outside of the damaged region $D$ we even get uniqueness of $BV$-solutions. Imposing stronger assumptions on our density $F$ and an $L^{\infty}$-condition on our partial observation $f$ we are going to prove a maximum principle for each generalized minimizer and deduce partial $C^{1,\beta}$-regularity of solutions on the entire domain $\Omega$ for all $0<\beta\leq\frac{1}{2}$.
Pre- and post-bronchodilator airway obstruction are associated with similar clinical characteristics but different prognosis – report from a population-based study

Introduction According to guidelines, the diagnosis of COPD should be confirmed by post-bronchodilator (post-BD) airway obstruction on spirometry; however, in clinical practice, this is not always performed. The aim of this population-based study was to compare clinical characteristics and prognosis, assessed as mortality, between subjects with airway obstruction divided into pre- but not post-BD obstruction, post-BD airway obstruction (COPD), and subjects without airway obstruction. Materials and methods In 2002–2004, four adult population-based cohorts were reexamined with spirometry and structured interview. Subjects with airway obstruction, with a ratio of forced expiratory volume in 1 s to (forced) vital capacity <0.70 (n=993), were identified together with sex- and age-matched referents (n=993). These subjects were further divided into subjects with pre- but not post-BD airway obstruction (pre- not post-BD obstruction) and subjects with post-BD airway obstruction (COPD). Mortality data were collected until December 31, 2014. Results Out of 993 subjects with airway obstruction, 736 (74%) had COPD and 257 (26%) pre- not post-BD obstruction. Any respiratory symptoms, allergic rhinitis, asthma, exacerbations, and comorbidities were equally common among subjects with COPD and pre- not post-BD obstruction, but less common among nonobstructive subjects. Mortality was highest among subjects with COPD and higher in men than in women. In both sexes, COPD, but not pre- not post-BD obstruction, was associated with an increased risk for death compared to those without airway obstruction. When COPD was divided into Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) stages, GOLD 2 and 3–4 had an increased risk for death when compared to the nonobstructive group, also when adjusted for common confounders and comorbidities such as heart disease, diabetes, and anxiety/depression. Conclusion Even though subjects with COPD and pre- not post-BD obstruction had fairly similar presentation of clinical characteristics, only those with COPD, specifically GOLD stage ≥2, had increased risk for death when compared with nonobstructive subjects.
The Shape of Things

(The exhibition gallery) (A small studio space painted blood red. Several tables scattered about with various "supporting data" on them.)(EVE/EVAN) standing all alone, punch in one hand, cookie in the other. After a moment, takes a nibble. Crosses to a box of photos and browses. ADAM/AMY) enters and stares) ADAM/AMY): . not a big "modern art" crowd, I guess, huh? EVELYN/EVAN): Hey. (Beat) Glad you stopped by. ADAM/AMY): Yeah, well, I didn't really have anything to do.plus, I can't show my face in the streets, so it seemed logical.
Multi‐Component Protein – Protein Docking Based Protocol with External Scoring for Modeling Dimers of G Protein‐Coupled Receptors

In order to apply structure‐based drug design techniques to GPCR complexes, it is essential to model their 3D structure. For this purpose, a multi‐component protocol was derived based on protein‐protein docking which generates populations of dimers compatible with membrane integration, considering all reasonable interfaces. At the next stage, we applied a scoring procedure based on up to eleven different parameters including shape or electrostatics complementarity. Two methods of consensus scoring were performed: (i) average scores of 100 best scored dimers with respect to each interface, and (ii) frequencies of interfaces among 100 best scored dimers. In general, our multi‐component protocol gives correct indications for dimer interfaces that have been observed in X‐ray crystal structures of GPCR dimers (opsin dimer, chemokine CXCR4 and CCR5 dimers, κ opioid receptor dimer, β1 adrenergic receptor dimer and smoothened receptor dimer) but also suggests alternative dimerization interfaces. Interestingly, at times these alternative interfaces are scored higher than the experimentally observed ones suggesting them to be also relevant in the life cycle of studied GPCR dimers. Further results indicate that GPCR dimer and higher‐order oligomer formation may involve transmembrane helices (TMs) TM1‐TM2‐TM7, TM3‐TM4‐TM5 or TM4‐TM5‐TM6 but not TM1‐TM2‐TM3 or TM2‐TM3‐TM4 which is in general agreement with available experimental and computational data.
Dynamic fracture toughness of fiber reinforced concrete

The technique of instrumented drop-weight impact testing is often adopted to perform impact tests on cement-based materials. However, to date, no uniformity in the testing methods exists, which makes it difficult to enable reasonable comparisons between data emerging from different laboratories. Test machines come with widely varying hammermass systems, different ranges of drop-heights and various release mechanisms. As the University of British Columbia houses three such machines yielding a wide range of impact possibilities, one of the objectives for this research was to conduct a parametric study of drop-weight impact testing to study the effect of drop-height and hammer mass on the impact response of plain concrete. It was found that the test machine significantly influences the apparent stress-rate sensitivity. For the same incident energy, a heavier mass simulates a flatter pulse (i.e. a slower impact rate) but a higher drop-height (or approach velocity) simulates a sharper pulse (and consequently, a higher rate of impact). It is established that drop-height is the most important and critical parameter for a comparison of data across machines. Any future standard for impact testing of cementbased materials should emphasize drop-height of impact and not the hammer mass. Fiber reinforced concrete (FRC) is a heterogeneous material comprising of distinct components so that the mechanical properties of this composite are in effect, a sum of individual responses, which are affected by their mutual interactions. Many applications demand from FRC, an enhanced resistance to impact loading. Designing for impact involves understanding the impact response of each of the various phases within the material, viz. the concrete matrix, the fibers, and the fiber-matrix interface, the last one being the most critical component. Although plain concrete and, to a lesser extent, steel fiber reinforced concrete have been the subject of high stress-rate testing, limited data exists on the impact response of polymeric fiber reinforced concrete. Given that both the matrix (plain concrete) and the fibers (metallic or polymeric) depict widely varying