Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Design and Fabrication of a Custom-Dielectric Fresnel Multi-Zone Plate Lens Antenna Using Additive Manufacturing Techniques

Dielectric flat plate lens antennas fabricated using 3D printing offer several attractive designs features including volumetric efficient geometries, beam-steering capabilities, and relative ease of fabrication. This paper seeks to synthesize and optimize a lens design for microwave applications utilizing additive manufacturing techniques to implement custom-tailored dielectric materials that overcome the inadequacies of commercially available dielectric resources. Starting with a multi-dielectric Fresnel zone plate lens geometry previously reported in this paper, techniques are implemented to achieve customized dielectric properties. A study of 3D printing materials is conducted to identify commercially available supplies that offer appropriate dielectric properties. Measurement techniques are reviewed to verify the accuracy of the material characteristics (both dielectric constant and loss tangent). Finally, three inhomogeneous concentric-ring lens designs are manufactured using the proposed methods and evaluated to assess the overall performance of the antenna gain patterns and beam-steering capabilities. The result is a low-profile antenna configuration, offering simple, and low-cost fabrication, which can be integrated into compact microwave wireless system applications.
Understanding and Evaluating the User Interface Design for Creative Writing

Recent decades brought us technological advances which have been able to significantly improve the writing activity. Everyone writes, and everyone has a wide variety of creative writing tools for that. In this paper, we present a study with 23 user experiences and interviews, regarding four different writing environments in a within-subject design. We obtained a deep understanding of which tool promotes higher levels of satisfaction and creativity during the process of creative writing. First, we compared the creative writing Dimensions (Serendipity, Haven, Evolution and Shuffle), combined with the Technology Acceptance Model dimensions. Through distinct evaluation methods, we discuss the results about how the usage of different creative writing environments can produce results that allow a better understanding of the user interface design process for users.
Pushing the limits: The need for a behavioural approach to equality in Civil Engineering

Diversity within civil engineering has been limited by the sector’s failure to recruit and retain minorities. A contributing factor to this disproportionate turnover of out-group members is hostile and discriminatory treatment from peers and managers. When evaluated critically, equality approaches intended to reduce discrimination within organisations have been found to have either no impact, or even a negative impact. It is posited that employee perceptions of organisational fairness influence employee attitudes towards equality approaches and must be considered before undertaking further work in this area. Regression analysis is used to evaluate survey data from 700 employees of large civil engineering main contractor organisations (MCOs) in order to determine if a relationship between employee perceptions of organisational fairness and attitudes towards equality approaches exists. The analysis found a significant correlation between the two variables. Although causality cannot be established from this research alone, the findings suggest that perceptions of fairness may shape employee responses to equality approaches, which in turn may impact on their behaviour towards minority group members. These findings imply that failure to implement such a behavioural approach to issues of equality—one that considers the organisational perceptions of employees—may limit diversity within organisations.
Assessment of inflammatory response to transfemoral transcatheter aortic valve implantation compared to transapical and surgical procedures: a pilot study.

AIMS Surgical aortic valve replacement (AVR) has been associated with systemic inflammatory reactions. Yet, the role of inflammation following transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) has not been fully elucidated. METHODS AND RESULTS In a total of 40 patients evaluated by the 'heart team,' this retrospective study assessed levels of high-sensitive C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) and leukocyte counts following 'uneventful' AVR and TAVI. Four groups of matched patients were compared (AVR; transapical and transfemoral Edwards SAPIEN [TA ES and TF ES, respectively]; and transfemoral Medtronic CoreValve [TF CV]). A postprocedural increase of both hs-CRP levels and leukocyte counts was observed (P<.001) with peak levels 48 hours after the procedures. Comparing treatment groups, hs-CRP levels at 48 hours were significantly higher following AVR and TA ES compared to TF ES and TF CV (P<.04). Leukocyte counts at 48 hours were higher following TA ES compared to TF ES and TF CV (P<.03). Multivariate analysis incorporating both hs-CRP levels and leukocyte counts confirmed significant differences for all measurements over time (P<.001). Furthermore, the treatment group significantly influenced postprocedural hs-CRP levels and leukocyte counts (P<.001). CONCLUSION Both AVR and TAVI evoke a postprocedural inflammatory response. Higher hs-CRP levels and leukocyte counts following AVR and apical TAVI suggest less inflammation following femoral procedures.
CSI 2264: CHARACTERIZING YOUNG STARS IN NGC 2264 WITH SHORT-DURATION PERIODIC FLUX DIPS IN THEIR LIGHT CURVES

We identify nine young stellar objects (YSOs) in the NGC 2264 star-forming region with optical CoRoT light curves exhibiting short-duration, shallow periodic flux dips. All of these stars have infrared excesses that are consistent with their having inner disk walls near the Keplerian co-rotation radius. The repeating photometric dips have FWHMs generally less than 1 day, depths almost always less than 15%, and periods (3 < P < 11 days) consistent with dust near the Keplerian co-rotation period. The flux dips vary considerably in their depth from epoch to epoch, but usually persist for several weeks and, in two cases, were present in data collected in successive years. For several of these stars, we also measure the photospheric rotation period and find that the rotation and dip periods are the same, as predicted by standard “disk-locking” models. We attribute these flux dips to clumps of material in or near the inner disk wall, passing through our line of sight to the stellar photosphere. In some cases, these dips are also present in simultaneous Spitzer IRAC light curves at 3.6 and 4.5 microns. We characterize the properties of these dips, and compare the stars with light curves exhibiting this behavior to other classes of YSOs in NGC 2264. A number of physical mechanisms could locally increase the dust scale height near the inner disk wall, and we discuss several of those mechanisms; the most plausible mechanisms are either a disk warp due to interaction with the stellar magnetic field or dust entrained in funnel-flow accretion columns arising near the inner disk wall.
Genetic structure of populations of Porphyromonas gingivalis associated with periodontitis and other oral infections

One hundred isolates of the oral pathogenic bacterium Porphyromonas gingivalis were genetically characterized by determining the electrophoretic mobilities of 16 metabolic enzymes and the presence or absence of catalase activity. A total of 78 distinct electrophoretic types (ETs), representing multilocus genotypes, were identified, and cluster analysis placed them in three major phylogenetic divisions. Division I (71 ETs) included all 88 human isolates examined, most of which had been recovered from patients with periodontitis, together with 4 monkey isolates. The strains in division II (four ETs) and division III (three ETs) are strongly differentiated from those in division I and apparently represent two previously unclassified (cryptic) species. The mean genetic diversity per enzyme locus among the 92 isolates of division I (P. gingivalis, strict sense) was 0.321, and the strains were distributed among 14 phylogenetic clusters and single-ET lineages. The population structure is basically clonal, with some clonal genotypes being widespread, and even global, in distribution. There was no evidence of association between specific genetic lineages or clusters of ETs and the type of disease (periodontitis or root canal infections), invasive potential, serogroup, or fimbrial restriction fragment length polymorphism group. The finding that dental patients are infected by strains of a wide variety of chromosomal genotypes suggests that interstrain variation in pathogenicity is small. On the basis of the observed genetic structure of natural populations of P. gingivalis, we hypothesize that the role of this microorganism in the pathogenesis of periodontitis and other dental infections is largely opportunistic.
Reducing the Computational Complexity of Two-Dimensional LSTMs

Long Short-Term Memory Recurrent Neural Networks (LSTMs) are good at modeling temporal variations in speech recognition tasks, and have become an integral component of many state-of-the-art ASR systems. More recently, LSTMs have been extended to model variations in the speech signal in two dimensions, namely time and frequency [1, 2]. However, one of the problems with two-dimensional LSTMs, such as Grid-LSTMs, is that the processing in both time and frequency occurs sequentially, thus increasing computational complexity. In this work, we look at minimizing the dependence of the Grid-LSTM with respect to previous time and frequency points in the sequence, thus reducing computational complexity. Specifically, we compare reducing computation using a bidirectional Grid-LSTM (biGrid-LSTM) with non-overlapping frequency sub-band processing, a PyraMiD-LSTM [3] and a frequency-block Grid-LSTM (fbGrid-LSTM) for parallel time-frequency processing. We find that the fbGrid-LSTM can reduce computation costs by a factor of four with no loss in accuracy, on a 12,500 hour Voice Search task.
Biosensor Design through Molecular Dynamics Simulation

Authors : Wenjun Zhang, Yunqing Du, Steven W. Cranford, Ming L. Wang Abstract : The beginning of 21st century has witnessed new advancements in the design and use of new materials for biosensing applications, from nano to macro, protein to tissue. Traditional analytical methods lack a complete toolset to describe the complexities introduced by living systems, pathological relations, discrete hierarchical materials, cross-phase interactions, and structure-property dependencies. Materiomics – via systematic molecular dynamics (MD) simulation – can provide structure-process-property relations by using a materials science approach linking mechanisms across scales and enables oriented biosensor design. With this approach, DNA biosensors can be utilized to detect disease biomarkers present in individuals’ breath such as acetone for diabetes. Our wireless sensor array based on single-stranded DNA (ssDNA)-decorated single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT) has successfully detected trace amount of various chemicals in vapor differentiated by pattern recognition. Here, we present how MD simulation can revolutionize the way of design and screening of DNA aptamers for targeting biomarkers related to oral diseases and oral health monitoring. It demonstrates great potential to be utilized to build a library of DNDA sequences for reliable detection of several biomarkers of one specific disease, and as well provides a new methodology of creating, designing, and applying of biosensors.
Arthritis prevalence and symptoms among US non-veterans, veterans, and veterans receiving Department of Veterans Affairs Healthcare.

OBJECTIVE . Studies suggest arthritis and rheumatic diseases are common among military veterans, but prior research has not directly compared arthritis between veterans and the general population. This study compared arthritis prevalence and symptoms between veterans of the US Armed Forces and non-veterans, and between veterans who are US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) healthcare users and veteran nonusers. METHODS Study participants were 123,395 respondents from 36 states that completed the 2000 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System arthritis module. Analyses compared self-reports of doctor-diagnosed arthritis, chronic joint symptoms, and activity limitation according to veteran status. Analyses also compared relationships of demographic characteristics to arthritis according to veteran status. RESULTS US veterans were more likely to report doctor-diagnosed arthritis than non-veterans (32% vs 22%; p < 0.001), and VA healthcare users were more likely to report doctor-diagnosed arthritis than veteran nonusers (43% vs 30%; p < 0.001). Differences remained in analyses controlling for demographic characteristics. Among respondents with arthritis, veterans were more likely to report chronic joint symptoms and activity limitation than non-veterans, and VA healthcare users were more likely to report chronic symptoms and activity limitation than veteran nonusers. Demographic factors predicting doctor-diagnosed arthritis were similar among the 3 groups. CONCLUSION This study shows a significant burden of arthritis among US veterans, particularly VA healthcare users. Increased prevention of orthopedic injuries in the military may reduce the risk of arthritis in veterans. Within the VA healthcare system, self-management interventions may help to improve outcomes among the many patients with arthritis.
AIB1:ERα Transcriptional Activity Is Selectively Enhanced in Aromatase Inhibitor–Resistant Breast Cancer Cells

Purpose: The use of aromatase inhibitors (AI) in the treatment of estrogen receptor (ER)-positive, postmenopausal breast cancer has proven efficacy. However, inappropriate activation of ER target genes has been implicated in the development of resistant tumors. The ER coactivator protein AIB1 has previously been associated with initiation of breast cancer and resistance to endocrine therapy. Experimental Design: Here, we investigated the role of AIB1 in the deregulation of ER target genes occurring as a consequence of AI resistance using tissue microarrays of patients with breast cancer and cell line models of resistance to the AI letrozole. Results: Expression of AIB1 associated with disease recurrence (P = 0.025) and reduced disease-free survival time (P = 0.0471) in patients treated with an AI as first-line therapy. In a cell line model of resistance to letrozole (LetR), we found ERα/AIB1 promoter recruitment and subsequent expression of the classic ER target genes pS2 and Myc to be constitutively upregulated in the presence of both androstenedione and letrozole. In contrast, the recruitment of the ERα/AIB1 transcriptional complex to the nonclassic ER target cyclin D1 and its subsequent expression remained sensitive to steroid treatment and could be inhibited by treatment with letrozole. Molecular studies revealed that this may be due in part to direct steroid regulation of c-jun-NH2-kinase (JNK), signaling to Jun and Fos at the cyclin D1 promoter. Conclusion: This study establishes a role for AIB1 in AI-resistant breast cancer and describes a new mechanism of ERα/AIB1 gene regulation which could contribute to the development of an aggressive tumor phenotype. Clin Cancer Res; 18(12); 3305–15. ©2012 AACR.
The Cardioprotective Actions of Leptin Are Lost in the Zucker Obese (fa/fa) Rat

Protection against myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury, including that induced by leptin, involves activation of the reperfusion injury salvage kinase pathway and inhibition of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore. In the current study, we explored the mechanisms underlying leptin-induced cardioprotection further with reference to the leptin receptor (OB-R) and obesity. We examined hearts from Wistar and Zucker lean rats that express functional OB-R and Zucker obese (fa/fa) rats with nonfunctional OB-R. In Langendorff experiments, leptin (10 nM) caused significant reductions in infarct size in hearts from Wistar (leptin treated, 32.4% ± 3.9% vs. control, 53.2% ± 3.2%, P < 0.01) and Zucker lean animals (leptin treated, 25.2% ± 3.7% vs. control, 53.9% ± 11.3%, P < 0.01). By contrast, hearts from (fa/fa) did not exhibit significant decreases in infarct size. Leptin increased p44 and p42 phosphorylation in Wistar rat hearts by 103.9% (P < 0.05) and 157.3% (P < 0.001), respectively, and by 97.0% (P < 0.05) and 158.1% (P < 0.05) in hearts from Zucker lean rats. Akt/serine-473 phosphorylation was increased in Wistar hearts by 96.7% (P < 0.05), whereas Akt/threonine-308 phosphorylation was elevated by 43.9% (P < 0.05) in Zucker lean rat hearts. Leptin did not influence Akt or p44/42 phosphorylation in (fa/fa) animals. On leptin treatment, mitochondrial permeability transition pore opening was delayed by 43% (P < 0.01) and 30.9% (P < 0.01), respectively, in cardiomyocytes from Wistar and Zucker lean rat hearts but not in cardiomyocytes from (fa/fa). This study provides the first evidence that myocardial sensitivity to the tissue preserving actions of leptin is influenced by adiposity and OB-R status.
Oxidative stress and apoptotic events during thermal stress in the symbiotic sea anemone, Anemonia viridis

Symbiosis between cnidarian and photosynthetic protists is widely distributed over temperate and tropical seas. These symbioses can periodically breakdown, a phenomenon known as cnidarian bleaching. This event can be irreversible for some associations subjected to acute and/or prolonged environmental disturbances, and leads to the death of the animal host. During bleaching, oxidative stress has been described previously as acting at molecular level and apoptosis is suggested to be one of the mechanisms involved. We focused our study on the role of apoptosis in bleaching via oxidative stress in the association between the sea anemone Anemonia viridis and the dinoflagellates Symbiodinium species. Characterization of caspase‐like enzymes were conducted at the biochemical and molecular level to confirm the presence of a caspase‐dependent apoptotic phenomenon in the cnidarian host. We provide evidence of oxidative stress followed by induction of caspase‐like activity in animal host cells after an elevated temperature stress, suggesting the concomitant action of these components in bleaching.
Extracellular proteases from Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris, the black rot pathogen

Two proteases (PRT1 and PRT2) were fractionated from culture supernatants of wild-type Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris by cation-exchange chromatography on SP-5PW. Inhibitor experiments showed that PRT 1 was a serine protease which required calcium ions for activity or stability or both and that PRT 2 was a zinc-requiring metalloprotease. PRT 1 and PRT 2 showed different patterns of degradation of beta-casein. The two proteases comprised almost all of the extracellular proteolytic activity of the wild type. A protease-deficient mutant which lacked both PRT 1 and PRT 2 showed considerable loss of virulence in pathogenicity tests when bacteria were introduced into mature turnip leaves through cut vein endings. This suggests that PRT 1 and PRT 2 have a role in black rot pathogenesis.
Mobile robots trajectories with continuously differentiable curvature: an optimal control approach

We consider the problem of generating smooth trajectories for a fast moving mobile robot in a cluttered environment, when online path updating is performed. The well-known smoothing methods using clothoids, cubic spirals or polynominal curves are extended by taking into account the conditions for a continuously differentiable path update. We use the Hamilton-Jacobi framework to create a continuously differentiable interpolation of an existing path of straight lines and arcs of circles. The smoothing approach is combined with the generation of an appropriate velocity profile along the path. The results are compared to those obtained by more classical smoothing methods and to the polynominal approach implemented on the car-like robot MoViLaR of our institute. Finally an embedding of this method into the robot's hierarchical control structure is presented.
Understanding Space - An introduction to astronautics, Jerry Jon Sellers (Contributions from William J. Astore, Robert B. Giffen, Wiley J. Larson) : book review

Books on astronautics and space flight often fall into one of two categories; they are either aimed at advanced undergraduate or post-graduate level, or they are very basic and non-mathematical descriptions of the subject that feel somewhat hollow to the more mathematically inclined reader. This book fills the vacuum between these two extremes and provides one of the most enjoyable and accessible introductions to astronautics that I have yet come across.
Physician Communication in Pediatric End-of-Life Care

Objective: The objective of this exploratory study is to describe communication between physicians and the actor parent of a standardized 8-year-old patient in respiratory distress who was nearing the end of life. Methods: Thirteen pediatric emergency medicine and pediatric critical care fellows and attendings participated in a high-fidelity simulation to assess physician communication with an actor-parent. Results: Fifteen percent of the participants decided not to initiate life-sustaining technology (intubation), and 23% of participants offered alternatives to life-sustaining care, such as comfort measures. Although 92% of the participants initiated an end-of-life conversation, the quality of that discussion varied widely. Conclusion: Findings indicate that effective physician–parent communication may not consistently occur in cases involving the treatment of pediatric patients at the end of life in emergency and critical care units. Practice Implications: The findings in this study, particularly that physician–parent end-of-life communication is often unclear and that alternatives to life-sustaining technology are often not offered, suggest that physicians need more training in both communication and end-of-life care.
Space-sharing AR interaction on multiple mobile devices with a depth camera

In this paper, we propose a markerless augmented reality (AR) system that works on multiple mobile devices. The relative positions and orientations of the devices and their individual motions are estimated from 3D information in real space obtained by depth cameras attached to the devices. The system allows multiple users to share the AR space and to interact with the same virtual object. To estimate the relative positions and orientations of the devices, the system generates 2D images by looking down from above at the 3D scene obtained by the depth cameras, performs 2D registration using template matching, and obtains a transformation matrix that transforms the coordinate system of one camera to that of another camera. The motion of a camera is estimated using the ICP algorithm to realize markerless AR. Using the proposed system, we created an application that enables multiple users to interact with the same virtual object.