Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Glycoprotein IIb/IIIa receptor and its inhibition: A platelet-directed therapeutic strategy

Platelets play a key role in atherosclerosis, thrombosis and acute coronary syndromes. Drugs that dissolve blood clot (thrombolytic agents) and that prevent clot propagation (antiplatelet and anticoagulant agents) are used to treat a broad array of cardiovascular diseases. Therapeutic manipulation of platelet function has focused principally on the use of aspirin which has proved effective in many clinical situations, despite its relatively weak antiplatelet action as compared to newer agents like ticlopidine, clopidogrel and more recently, platelet glycoprotein (GP) IIb/IIIa receptor inhibitors. The platelet GP IIb/IIIa receptor has been identified as a pivotal mediator of platelet aggregation, making it a logical target for the control of the platelet response to vascular injury. The primary mechanism of GP IIb/IIIa antagonists is the inhibition of the final common pathway of platelet aggregation: fibrinogen binding to the GP IIb/IIIa complex. Various antagonists of the GP IIb/IIIa receptor are currently receiving considerable attention and are being investigated for various clinical settings including angina, myocardial infarction and interventional cardiology.
MODFLOW/MT3DMS–Based Simulation of Variable‐Density Ground Water Flow and Transport

This paper presents an approach for coupling MODFLOW and MT3DMS for the simulation of variable‐density ground water flow. MODFLOW routines were modified to solve a variable‐density form of the ground water flow equation in which the density terms are calculated using an equation of state and the simulated MT3DMS solute concentrations. Changes to the MODFLOW and MT3DMS input files were kept to a minimum, and thus existing data files and data files created with most pre‐ and postprocessors can be used directly with the SEAWAT code. The approach was tested by simulating the Henry problem and two of the saltpool laboratory experiments (low‐ and high‐density cases). For the Henry problem, the simulated results compared well with the steady‐state semianalytic solution and also the transient isochlor movement as simulated by a finite‐element model. For the saltpool problem, the simulated breakthrough curves compared better with the laboratory measurements for the low‐density case than for the high‐density case but showed good agreement with the measured salinity isosurfaces for both cases. Results from the test cases presented here indicate that the MODFLOW/MT3DMS approach provides accurate solutions for problems involving variable‐density ground water flow and solute transport.
Investigation into Tangential Force and Axial Stress Effects on Fretting Fatigue Behavior

Fretting fatigue behavior of a titanium alloy was investigated using a dual actuator test setup which was capable to apply the pad displacement independent of the applied cyclic load on specimen. Fretting fatigue tests were conducted using this setup with a phase difference between cyclic load on the specimen and tangential force on the fretting pad with cylinder-on-flat contact configuration under partial slip condition. Two axial stress ratios were used. The relative slip range and tangential force range were related to each other and this relationship was not influenced by phase difference, axial stress ratio, and contact load under the partial slip condition. Change in the phase difference caused the change in relative slip as well as tangential force for a given applied pad displacement and axial load. However, there was no effect of phase difference on fretting fatigue life at a given relative slip level. Fretting fatigue tests with a fully reversed axial stress showed longer fatigue life than tension-tension counterparts at a given relative slip, tangential force range, and axial stress range. Finite element analysis was conducted by including the complete load history effects, which showed that stress distribution on the contact surface stabilized after the first fatigue cycle. Unlike relative slip and/or tangential force range, a critical plane-based parameter appears to take into account the stress ratio effects to characterize fretting fatigue behavior.
A Longitudinal Study of Long-Term Change in Contamination Hazards and Shallow Well Quality in Two Neighbourhoods of Kisumu, Kenya

Sub-Saharan Africa is experiencing rapid urbanisation and many urban residents use groundwater where piped supplies are intermittent or unavailable. This study aimed to investigate long-term changes in groundwater contamination hazards and hand-dug well water quality in two informal settlements in Kisumu city, Kenya. Buildings, pit latrines, and wells were mapped in 1999 and 2013–2014. Sanitary risk inspection and water quality testing were conducted at 51 hand-dug wells in 2002 to 2004 and 2014. Pit latrine density increased between 1999 and 2014, whilst sanitary risk scores for wells increased between 2002 to 2004 and 2014 (n = 37, Z = −1.98, p = 0.048). Nitrate levels dropped from 2004 to 2014 (n = 14, Z = −3.296, p = 0.001), but multivariate analysis suggested high rainfall in 2004 could account for this. Thermotolerant coliform counts dropped between 2004 and 2014, with this reduction significant in one settlement. Hand-dug wells had thus remained an important source of domestic water between 1999 and 2014, but contamination risks increased over this period. Water quality trends were complex, but nitrate levels were related to both sanitary risks and rainfall. Given widespread groundwater use by the urban poor in sub-Saharan Africa, the study protocol could be further refined to monitor contamination in hand-dug wells in similar settings.
Poster: an implementation of the fully homomorphic smart-vercauteren crypto-system

Since the discovery of a fully homomorphic cryptographic scheme by Gentry, a number of different schemes have been proposed that apply the bootstrap technique of Gentry's original approach. However, to date no implementation of fully homomorphic encryption has been publicly released. This poster presents a working implementation of the Smart-Vercauteren scheme that will be freely available and gives substantial implementation hints.
Weakening of one more alcohol control pillar: a review of the effects of the alcohol tax cuts in Finland in 2004.

AIMS To review the consequences of the changes in Finnish alcohol policy in 2004, when quotas for travellers' tax-free imports of alcoholic beverages from other European Union (EU) countries were abolished, Estonia joined the EU and excise duties on alcoholic beverages were reduced in Finland by one-third, on average. DESIGN A review of published research and routinely available data. SETTING Finland. MEASUREMENTS Prices of alcoholic beverages, recorded and unrecorded alcohol consumption, data on criminality and other police statistics, alcohol-related deaths and hospitalizations, service use. FINDINGS Alcohol consumption increased 10% in 2004, clearly more than in the early 2000s. With few exceptions, alcohol-related harms increased. Alcohol-induced liver disease deaths increased the most, by 46% in 2004-06 compared to 2001-03, which indicates a strong effect on pre-2004 heavy drinkers. Consumption and harms increased most among middle-aged and older segments of the population, and harms in the worst-off parts of the population in particular. CONCLUSIONS Alcohol taxation and alcohol prices affect consumption and related harms, and heavy drinkers are responsive to price. In Finland in 2004, the worst-off parts of the population paid the highest price in terms of health for cuts in alcohol prices. The removal of travellers' import quotas, which was an inherent part of creating the single European market, had serious public health consequences in Finland.
Cramér-Rao-Induced Bounds for CANDECOMP/PARAFAC Tensor Decomposition

This paper presents a Cramér-Rao lower bound (CRLB) on the variance of unbiased estimates of factor matrices in Canonical Polyadic (CP) or CANDECOMP/PARAFAC (CP) decompositions of a tensor from noisy observations, (i.e., the tensor plus a random Gaussian i.i.d. tensor). A novel expression is derived for a bound on the mean square angular error of factors along a selected dimension of a tensor of an arbitrary dimension. The expression needs less operations for computing the bound, O(NR6), than the best existing state-of-the art algorithm, O(N3R6) operations, where N and R are the tensor order and the tensor rank. Insightful expressions are derived for tensors of rank 1 and rank 2 of arbitrary dimension and for tensors of arbitrary dimension and rank, where two factor matrices have orthogonal columns. The results can be used as a gauge of performance of different approximate CP decomposition algorithms, prediction of their accuracy, and for checking stability of a given decomposition of a tensor (condition whether the CRLB is finite or not). A novel expression is derived for a Hessian matrix needed in popular damped Gauss-Newton method for solving the CP decomposition of tensors with missing elements. Beside computing the CRLB for these tensors the expression may serve for design of damped Gauss-Newton algorithm for the decomposition.
Musings on relevance and rigor of scholarly research in marketing

Questions pertaining to the relevance and rigor (or lack thereof) of scholarly research in business disciplines have been the focus of numerous articles in academic journals (Ruback and Innes 1988; Shrivastava 1987; Thomas and Tymon 1982; Wells 1993a) and commentaries in the business press (Byrne 1990; Jennings 1994). Assessments of academic research in the business disciplines that have appeared in the business press have been particularly critical, characterizing most published research as lacking managerial relevance. Business school professors are often exhorted to engage in managerially relevant research and chastised for pursuing research endeavors that apparently lack such relevance (Byrne 1990; Jennings 1994). 1
Bayesian motion blur identification using blur priori

This paper presents a new approach to motion blur identification based on Bayesian paradigm and maximum a posteriori (MAP) method. To represent general spatial-invariant motion blurs, especially those caused by nonuniform and nonstraight motions, a new blur model is proposed by incorporating the knowledge of blur type or partially known motion shape as a blur priori. Based on this model, an iterative method is adopted for the MAP blur identification. Experimental result shows that the proposed method offers an efficient way to precisely estimate the motion blur and to generate better restoration result, especially for the widely existing motion blurs caused by complicated motions and cannot be simplified as straight-and-uniform motion blurs.
Recombinant vaccinia viruses expressing hepatitis A virus structural polypeptides: detection of an anti-VP0 response in convalescent-phase sera

We have generated a number of recombinant vaccinia viruses which expressed the hepatitis A virus (HAV) structural polypeptides VP1, VP2, VP3, and VP4, either alone or in combination. The relevant sequences encoding these polypeptides were amplified from cloned cDNA by PCR and then cloned into the insertion vector pGS62. The presence of the HAV structural polypeptide-encoding sequences in the recombinant viruses was confirmed by Southern blot analysis, whilst their transcription and translation were demonstrated by Northern (RNA) blot analysis and immunodetection, respectively. Immunoprecipitation studies using these constructs have detected the presence of an anti-VP0 response in human convalescent sera following HAV infection. The significance of this finding and the usefulness of these constructs in studying cell-mediated immunity during recovery from HAV infection are discussed.
News talk-show chaptering with journalistic genres

Modern TV or radio news talk-shows include a variety of sequences which comply with specific journalistic patterns, including debates, interviews, reports. The paper deals with automatic chapter generation for TV news talk-shows, according to these different journalistic genres. It is shown that linguistic and speaker-distribution based features can lead to an efficient characterization of these genres when the boundaries of the chapters are known, and that a speakerdistribution based segmentation is suitable for segmenting contents into these different genres. Evaluations on a collection of 42 episodes of a news talk-show provided by the French evaluation campaign REPERE show promising performance.
Building environmental assessment as a knowledge management tool driving society

Green construction is gaining an increasing attention in the global context. However, green involves different meanings and different perspectives. Therefore, it is not a rudimentary task to manage green housing and green building project. Utilization of building environmental assessment tools has some benefits to achieve the projects. In this paper, we discuss the benefits and limitations of such an approach. Comprehensiveness, design guideline, signaling, and communication are indicated as major benefits of it, while we have remaining issues including mixture of quantitative and qualitative measures, ambiguity of weighing, and lack of financial aspects.
Measuring b-Cell Function Relative to Insulin Sensitivity in Youth Does the hyperglycemic clamp suffice?

RESULTSdInsulin sensitivity and first-phase insulin from hcDI showed a hyperbolic relationship. The hcDI correlated significantly with 2cDI in the groups combined (r = 0.85, P, 0.001) and within each group separately (r$ 62, P, 0.001). Similar to 2cDI, hcDI showed a declining pattern of b-cell function across the glucose-tolerance groups. Overall, hcDI values were 27% greater than 2cDI, due to the hyperglycemic versus euglycemic conditions, reflected in a positive bias with Bland-Altman analysis.
Birth weight in relation to sex steroid status and body composition in young healthy male siblings.

CONTEXT Sex steroid concentrations have a strong genetic determination, but environmental factors and body composition play an important role. From studies in children with intrauterine growth restriction, low birth weight has been associated with altered gonadotropin concentrations. OBJECTIVE We aim to investigate sex steroid concentrations in healthy young brothers in relation to birth weight (normal gestational age), body composition, and parental steroid concentrations. DESIGN AND SETTING We conducted a cross-sectional, population-based sibling pair study with inclusion of parental data. PARTICIPANTS A total of 677 men (25-45 yr old) were included in this study, with 296 independent pairs of brothers and 122 fathers. MAIN OUTCOMES We measured testosterone, estradiol, leptin, adiponectin, IGF-I (immunoassays), and free steroid hormones (calculated) in relation to birth weight and changes in body composition (dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry). RESULTS Birth weight was associated with serum testosterone (P = 0.0004) and SHBG (P = 0.0001), independent from weight, age, or fat mass, whereas no association with (free) estradiol, LH, or FSH was found. Paternal testosterone (P = 0.02), estradiol (P = 0.04), and SHBG (P = 0.0004) were associated with the respective sex steroid concentrations in the brothers. Weight increase (population rank) during life, was associated with lower testosterone (-15%; P < 0.001), independent from current weight and with higher free estradiol concentrations (+8%; P = 0.002), whereas weight decrease was associated with higher testosterone (+13%; P < 0.001). CONCLUSION Birth weight and paternal steroid concentrations are associated with testosterone concentrations, independent from adult weight. These findings support the concept of in utero programming across the range of birth weight.
Convergence Analysis of Gradient EM for Multi-component Gaussian Mixture

In this paper, we study convergence properties of the gradient Expectation-Maximization algorithm \cite{lange1995gradient} for Gaussian Mixture Models for general number of clusters and mixing coefficients. We derive the convergence rate depending on the mixing coefficients, minimum and maximum pairwise distances between the true centers and dimensionality and number of components; and obtain a near-optimal local contraction radius. While there have been some recent notable works that derive local convergence rates for EM in the two equal mixture symmetric GMM, in the more general case, the derivations need structurally different and non-trivial arguments. We use recent tools from learning theory and empirical processes to achieve our theoretical results.
Two‐flux method for transient thermal analysis in a layer of polymer fiber

Transient radiative and conductive heat transfer in a translucent medium with isotropic optical properties is investigated. The radiative two-flux equation is coupled with the transient energy equation and both equations are solved simultaneously. Transient solutions are obtained for a plane layer with refractive index equal to or larger than one, and with external convection and radiation at each boundary. Illustrative results obtained with the two-flux method show the effects of changing parameters such as optical thicknesses, refractive index, conduction–radiation parameter, and scattering on the transient temperature distribution within the layer. Results are given at different instances during the transient, and the distribution for the largest time is at or very close to steady state. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 101: 2277–2283, 2006
The Independence of Fairness-Aware Classifiers

Due to the spread of data mining technologies, such technologies are being used for determinations that seriously affect individuals' lives. For example, credit scoring is frequently determined based on the records of past credit data together with statistical prediction techniques. Needless to say, such determinations must be nondiscriminatory and fair in sensitive features, such as race, gender, religion, and so on. The goal of fairness-aware classifiers is to classify data while taking into account the potential issues of fairness, discrimination, neutrality, and/or independence. In this paper, after reviewing fairness-aware classification methods, we focus on one such method, Calders and Verwer's two-naive-Bayes method. This method has been shown superior to the other classifiers in terms of fairness, which is formalized as the statistical independence between a class and a sensitive feature. However, the cause of the superiority is unclear, because it utilizes a somewhat heuristic post-processing technique rather than an explicitly formalized model. We clarify the cause by comparing this method with an alternative naive Bayes classifier, which is modified by a modeling technique called "hypothetical fair-factorization. " This investigation reveals the theoretical background of the two-naive-Bayes method and its connections with other methods. Based on these findings, we develop another naive Bayes method with an "actual fair-factorization technique" and empirically show that this new method can achieve an equal level of fairness as that of the two-naive-Bayes classifier.
On the Impact of RLC Layer Configuration Parameters in UMTS Internet Access

The main goal of this paper is the analysis of the interaction between TCP and the UMTS link-level layer (RLC) to determine an optimal configuration for the parameters of both protocols. For this purpose, a Web browsing simulation framework has been considered. This framework includes a Web client accessing to remote HTTP servers through the UTRAN and Internet. The impact of the RLC configuration parameters on the behaviour of the multiple TCP connections simulated under this framework is analysed, showing their effect on Web traffic performance.
Group III nitride semiconductor compounds : physics and applications

1. Beyond silicon: the rise of compound semiconductors 2. Deposition and properties of III-nitrides by molecular beam epitaxy 3. MOVPE growth of nitrides 4. Structural defects and materials performance of the III-V nitrides 5. Modulation spectroscopy of the group III nitrides 6. Optical properties and lasing in GaN 7. Defect spectroscopy in the nitrides 8. Electronic and optical properties of GaN based quantum wells 9. Transistors and detectors based on GaN related materials 10. III-V nitride based short-wavelength LEDs and LDs 11. Cubic group III nitrides
Sensor fusion of physical and social data using Web SocialSense on smartphone mobile browsers

Modern smartphones offer a rich selection of onboard sensors, where sensor access is typically performed through API calls provided by the phone's operating system. In this paper we evaluate the viability of implementing sensor processing entirely in the Web browser layer with Web SocialSense, a JavaScript framework for Tizen smartphones that uses a graph topology-based paradigm. This framework enables programmers to write personalized, context-aware applications that can dynamically fuse time-series signals from physical sensors (such as the accelerometer and geolocation services) and social software sensors (such as social network services and personal information management applications). To demonstrate the framework we implemented components for physical sensing and social software sensing to drive two context-aware applications, ActVertisements and Social Map.
Weighted Local Least Squares Imputation Method for Missing Value Estimation

Missing values often exist in the data of gene expression microarray experiments. A number of methods such as the Row Average (RA) method, KNNimpute algorithm and SVDimpute algorithm have been proposed to estimate the missing values. Recently, Kim et al. proposed a Local Least Squares Imputation (LLSI) method for estimating the missing values. In this paper, we propose a Weighted Local Least Square Imputation (WLLSI) method for missing values estimation. WLLSI allows training on the weighting and therefore can take advantage of both the LLSI method and the RA method. Numerical results on both synthetic data and real microarray data are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed method. The imputation methods are then applied to a breast cancer dataset.