Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Study on design and simulation analysis of Electronic Hydraulic Brake system for vehicles

In this paper, a brake-by-wire system named Electronic Hydraulic Brake (EHB) System has been detail designed, which is capable of faithful reflection of driver's braking intention. Simulation experiments were performed in the designed system, which showed that the proposed system can established for smooth control of wheel cylinder hydraulic pressure. With this new brake system installed in the hybrid passenger car, the vehicle stability has been improved by controlling the braking torque of four wheel cylinders individually and smoothly.
Using accept() Strategies to Improve Server Performance by

This thesis evaluates techniques for improving the performance of three architecturally different web servers. We study strategies for effectively accepting incoming connections under conditions of high load. The experimental evaluation shows that the method used to accept new connection requests can significantly impact server performance. By modifying each server’s accept strategy, we improve the performance of the kernel-mode TUX server, the multi-threaded Knot server and the event-driven μserver. Under two different workloads, we improve the throughput of these servers by as much as 10% – 39% for TUX, 0% – 32% for Knot, and 39% – 71% for the μserver. This thesis provides and in-depth look at these results, including analysis of throughput, queue drops, response times, and other server statistics. Interestingly, the performance improvements realized by the user-mode μserver allow it to obtain performance that rivals that of an unmodified TUX server.
Flow cytometric and morphological characterization of platelet-rich plasma gel.

UNLABELLED BACKGROUND OF PROBLEMS: Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) gel is derived from an autogenous preparation of concentrated platelets and is widely used in implant dentistry as a vector for cell growth factors. However, limited data are available on its structure and composition. The present study was aimed at providing a flow cytometric and ultrastructural characterization of PRP gel. MATERIALS AND METHODS Twenty PRP gel samples were obtained from healthy volunteers. These PRP gel specimens were prepared for transmission (TEM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) examination of their morphological ultrastructure. Flow cytometry with CD41-PE monoclonal antibody was used to detect platelet cells, as this antibody recognizes human-platelet-specific antigen CD41. RESULTS Both SEM and TEM showed that PRP gel contains two components: a fibrillar material with striated band similar to fibrin filaments, and a cellular component that contains human platelet cells. Both techniques indicated that no morphological elements were bound between the cellular component and the fibrillar material. The cells were confirmed as platelet cells by flow cytometric study after incubation with specific monoclonal antibody CD41-PE. CONCLUSION PRP gel contains a fibrillar and a cellular (largely human platelet cell) component. This unique structure may be capable of acting as a vehicle for carrying of cells that are essential for soft/hard tissue regeneration.
Meta-analysis of skewed data: Combining results reported on log-transformed or raw scales

When literature‐based meta‐analyses involve outcomes with skewed distributions, the best available data can sometimes be a mixture of results presented on the raw scale and results presented on the logarithmic scale. We review and develop methods for transforming between these results for two‐group studies, such as clinical trials and prospective or cross‐sectional epidemiological studies. These allow meta‐analyses to be conducted using all studies and on a common scale. The methods can also be used to produce a meta‐analysis of ratios of geometric means when skewed data are reported on the raw scale for every study. We compare three methods, two of which have alternative standard error formulae, in an application and in a series of simulation studies. We conclude that an approach based on a log‐normal assumption for the raw data is reasonably robust to different true distributions; and we provide new standard error approximations for this method. An assumption can be made that the standard deviations in the two groups are equal. This increases precision of the estimates, but if incorrect can lead to very misleading results. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Alcohol Effects on Human Neurophysiology

Background: Alcohol exerts its behavioural and neurophysiological effects by acting on multiple neurotransmitter systems in the brain, including the excitatory glutamatergic and inhibitory GABAergic neurotransmitter systems. Alcohol’s actions on these neurotransmitter systems may, in turn, have important implications for alcohol’s effect on neuroplasticity. Objectives: First, to evaluate the effect of alcohol intoxication on paired associative stimulation (PAS)-induced neuroplasticity in the motor cortex up to a day following PAS. Second, to evaluate the effect of alcohol intoxication on PAS-induced neuroplasticity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). Third, to evaluate the effect of alcohol intoxication on N100 amplitude to transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) stimulation of the DLPFC, as an index of GABAB receptor mediated neurotransmission. Hypotheses: First, it was hypothesized that alcohol intoxication would impair PASinduced neuroplasticity in the motor cortex and that this impairment would also be evident the day following PAS. Second, it was hypothesized that alcohol intoxication would impair
Rapid Laser Annealing of Silver Electrodes for Printing Organic Thin-Film Transistors on Plastic Substrates

The rapid sintering of printable metal nanoparticle inks is vital for the industrial mass production of electronic devices. In this paper, we report a rapid laser annealing method for printed Ag nanoparticle-based inks. We also fabricate Ag circuits and organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs) on flexible plastic substrates through spontaneous patterning under deep ultraviolet (DUV) exposure. Compared to the conventional thermal annealing, laser annealing significantly reduces the processing time from 3600 to 10 s while preventing damage caused by excessive heat. The OTFT with laser-annealed Ag source/drain electrodes achieved good performance with saturated mobility of 1.68 cm $^{{2}}\cdot \text{V}^{-{1}}\cdot \text{s}^{-{1}}$ , high-reliability factor of 86.75%, and large saturated drain current resulting from the small channel resistance. This rapid laser annealing method is feasible for printing flexible electronics using metal nanoparticle-based inks in industrial mass production.
Sheffield University and the TREC 2004 Genomics Track: Query Expansion Using Synonymous Terms

In this paper we describe our approach to the Ad Hoc Retrieval task of the TREC 2004 Genomics Track. This is a conventional searching task based on a 10-year subset of MEDLINE (about 4.5 million documents and 9 gigabytes in size) and 50 topics derived from information needs obtained via interviews of real biomedical researchers. We will also discuss the results of our submitted runs. The hypothesis we want to test is whether the performance on this particular retrieval task can be improved by expanding queries with synonyms of the original query terms. We use the UMLS Metathesaurus, a comprehensive collection of controlled vocabularies in the biomedical domain, to identify query terms in topics and to determine their synonyms. Our approach is simple in the sense that we only consider synonyms of query terms and do not exploit hierarchical relations between terms such as hyponomy and hyperonymy. Synonymy-based query expansion generally increases recall, but decreases precision due to ambiguous terms. Word senses of ambiguous terms which are inappropriate with regard to the topic under consideration give rise to “polluting” synonyms. We hope that the use of a specifically biomedical term resource such as UMLS will limit the negative effects synonymy-based query expansion may have on precision.
Loneliness and mental health in a randomised controlled trial of a peer-provided self-management intervention for people leaving crisis resolution teams

BACKGROUND: Loneliness is more prevalent among people with mental health problems than in the general population. However, loneliness has not been a particularly prominent focus in recent research on outcomes of mental illness. Loneliness interventions have also received little attention. AIMS: 1) To review literature for the definition and conceptual model of loneliness and its closely related concepts, and for well-developed measures of these concepts. 2) To systematically review the impact of loneliness and perceived social support on mental health outcomes 3) To explore the severity of loneliness among people leaving Crisis Resolution Teams (CRTs), and identify factors cross-sectionally associated with loneliness. 4) To determine whether loneliness at baseline predicts poor outcomes at 4-month follow-up, including overall symptom severity, affective symptoms, self-rated recovery and health-related quality of life. 5) To examine whether there is any difference in loneliness at 4-month follow-up between a peer-provided self-management intervention group and a control group in a randomised controlled trial. METHOD: A conceptual framework of loneliness and related concepts was developed and measures identified of main concepts. A systematic review of longitudinal studies examining the effect of loneliness and perceived social support on mental illness prognosis was conducted. The sample (n=399) was taken from patients participating in a research trial from CRTs. Participants in the trial intervention group were offered up to ten meetings by a peer support worker and a self-management workbook. Participants in the control group were only provided a self-management workbook. Respondents (n=310) completed the follow-up measurement four months after baseline. RESULTS: A model with five domains was proposed to incorporate all terms relating to loneliness. Well-developed measures assessing each domain or covering multi-domains were identified. Perceived social support and loneliness were associated with mental health outcomes. The severity of loneliness was high among people leaving CRTs. Greater loneliness was significantly associated with small social network size, limited social capital, severe affective symptoms and long-term mental illness history. Greater loneliness at baseline predicted poorer health-related quality of life at 4-month follow-up. Loneliness was also a better predictor of clinical outcomes than objective social isolation and social capital. Loneliness at follow-up was not significantly different between the intervention group and the control group. DISCUSSION Loneliness is an important issue in mental health service users. It could be a promising target to improve recovery for people with mental health problems. The efficacy of peer-provided self-management intervention on loneliness was not confirmed. More research is necessary to explore beneficial loneliness interventions so as to aid the development of recovery-oriented mental health services.
A Neuronal Signaling Pathway of CaMKII and Gqα Regulates Experience-Dependent Transcription of tph-1

Dynamic serotonin biosynthesis is important for serotonin function; however, the mechanisms that underlie experience-dependent transcriptional regulation of the rate-limiting serotonin biosynthetic enzyme tryptophan hydroxylase (TPH) are poorly understood. Here, we characterize the molecular and cellular mechanisms that regulate increased transcription of Caenorhabditis elegans tph-1 in a pair of serotonergic neurons ADF during an aversive experience with pathogenic bacteria, a common environmental peril for worms. Training with pathogenic bacteria induces a learned aversion to the smell of the pathogen, a behavioral plasticity that depends on the serotonin signal from ADF neurons. We demonstrate that pathogen training increases ADF neuronal activity. While activating ADF increases tph-1 transcription, inhibiting ADF activity abolishes the training effect on tph-1, demonstrating the dependence of tph-1 transcriptional regulation on ADF neural activity. At the molecular level, the C. elegans homolog of CaMKII, UNC-43, functions cell-autonomously in ADF neurons to generate training-dependent enhancement in neuronal activity and tph-1 transcription, and this cell-autonomous function of UNC-43 is required for learning. Furthermore, selective expression of an activated form of UNC-43 in ADF neurons is sufficient to increase ADF activity and tph-1 transcription, mimicking the training effect. Upstream of ADF, the Gqα protein EGL-30 facilitates training-dependent induction of tph-1 by functional regulation of olfactory sensory neurons, which underscores the importance of sensory experience. Together, our work elucidates the molecular and cellular mechanisms whereby experience modulates tph-1 transcription.
Metastatic Prostate Cancer T Cell Responses in Patients with + CD4 and + Cells Stimulate Antigen-Specific CD8 Telomerase mRNA-Transfected Dendritic

Telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) represents an attractive target for cancer immunotherapy because hTERT is reactivated in most human tumors. A clinical trial was initiated in which hTERT mRNA-transfected dendritic cells (DC) were admin-istered to 20 patients with metastatic prostate cancer. Nine of these subjects received DC transfected with mRNA encoding a chimeric lysosome-associated membrane protein-1 (LAMP) hTERT protein, allowing for concomitant induction of hTERT-spe-ciﬁc CD8 (cid:1) and CD4 (cid:1) T cell responses. Treatment was well tolerated. Intense inﬁltrates of hTERT-speciﬁc T cells were noted at intradermal injection sites after repeated vaccination. In 19 of 20 subjects, expansion of hTERT-speciﬁc CD8 (cid:1) T cells was measured in the peripheral blood of study subjects, with 0.9–1.8% of CD8 (cid:1) T cells exhibiting Ag speciﬁcity. Patients immunized with the chimeric LAMP hTERT vaccine developed signiﬁcantly higher frequencies of hTERT-speciﬁc CD4 (cid:1) T cells than subjects receiving DC transfected with the unmodiﬁed hTERT template. Moreover, CTL-mediated killing of hTERT targets was enhanced in the LAMP hTERT group, suggesting that an improved CD4 (cid:1) response could augment a CTL response. Vaccination was further associated with a reduction of prostate-speciﬁc Ag velocity and molecular clearance of circulating micrometastases. Our ﬁndings provide a rationale for further development of hTERT-transfected
The scale of the evidence base on the health effects of conventional yogurt consumption: findings of a scoping review

Background: The health effects of conventional yogurt have been investigated for over a century; however, few systematic reviews have been conducted to assess the extent of the health benefits of yogurt. Objective: The aim of this scoping review was to assess the volume of available evidence on the health effects of conventional yogurt. Methods: The review was guided by a protocol agreed a priori and informed by an extensive literature search conducted in November 2013. Randomized controlled trials were selected and categorized according to the eligibility criteria established in the protocol. Results: 213 studies were identified as relevant to the scoping question. The number of eligible studies identified for each outcome were: bone health (14 studies), weight management and nutrition related health outcomes (81 studies), metabolic health (6 studies); cardiovascular health (57 studies); gastrointestinal health (24 studies); cancer (39 studies); diabetes (13 studies), Parkinson's disease risk (3 studies), all-cause mortality (3 studies), skin complaints (3 studies), respiratory complaints (3 studies), joint pain/function (2 studies); the remaining 8 studies reported a variety of other outcomes. For studies of a similar design and which assessed the same outcomes in similar population groups, we report the potential for the combining of data across studies in systematic reviews. Conclusions: This scoping review has revealed the extensive evidence base for many outcomes which could be the focus of systematic reviews exploring the health effects of conventional yogurt consumption.
Association of C-Reactive Protein With Carotid Atherosclerosis in Men and Women: The Framingham Heart Study

Objective—The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between C-reactive protein (CRP) and carotid atherosclerosis. Background—Levels of CRP, a nonspecific marker of inflammation, predict risk for cardiovascular events. However, the association between CRP and direct measures of atherosclerosis is not well established. Methods and Results—Subjects (n=3173, 52% women, mean age 55) in the offspring cohort of the Framingham Heart Study received a CRP measurement and then underwent carotid ultrasonography 4 years later. Carotid stenosis (≥25%) was present in 24% of men and 14% of women. Age-adjusted odds ratios for carotid stenosis were 1.62 (95%CI 1.12 to 2.36) for men and 3.90 (CI 2.44 to 6.44) for women in the fourth quartile of CRP compared with those in the lowest quartile. After further adjustment for traditional cardiovascular disease risk factors, the odds ratio remained significant for women (2.97, CI 1.72 to 5.25) but not for men. Similarly, after multivariable adjustment, women in the fourth CRP quartile had a higher mean internal carotid intima-media thickness than those in the lowest CRP quartile (P ≤0.001). There was no association between common carotid intima-media thickness and CRP. Conclusions—There is a graded association between CRP and carotid atherosclerosis in women but not in men. The significance of this difference between sexes merits further investigation.
Integration of Computational Techniques for the Modelling of Signal Transduction

A cell can be seen as an adaptive autonomous agent or as a society of adaptive autonomous agents, where each can exhibit a particular behaviour depending on its cognitive capabilities. We present an intracellular signalling model obtained by integrating several computational techniques into an agent-based paradigm. Cellulat, the model, takes into account two essential aspects of the intracellular signalling networks: cognitive capacities and a spatial organization. Exemplifying the functionality of the system by modelling the EGFR signalling pathway, we discuss the methodology as well as the purposes of an intracellular signalling virtual laboratory, presently under development.
Calculating critical temperatures of superconductivity from a renormalized Hamiltonian

It is shown that one can obtain quantitatively accurate values for the superconducting critical temperature within a Hamiltonian framework. This is possible if one uses a renormalized Hamiltonian that contains an attractive electron-electron interaction and renormalized single-particle energies. It can be obtained by similarity renormalization or using flow equations for Hamiltonians. We calculate the critical temperature as a function of the coupling using the standard BCS-theory. For small coupling we rederive the McMillan formula for Tc. We compare our results with Eliashberg theory and with experimental data from various materials. The theoretical results agree with the experimental data within 10%. Renormalization theory of Hamiltonians provides a promising way to investigate electron-phonon interactions in strongly correlated systems.
Design and modeling of a torsion spring-based actuator (TSA) with valid straight-arm length adjustable for stiffness regulation

This paper presents the design and modeling of a novel torsion spring-based actuator (TSA) with variable stiffness. The mechanical structure of stiffness regulation contains two opposite-handed torsion springs and two cam bearing followers (CFs). The operational principle is by changing the contact point of the torsion spring and the CF to regulate the stiffness. The proposed design allows for the improvement of an actuator with a wide range of stiffness and a low friction of transmission mechanism. Wire-rope drive is used to avoid the backlash in a rack and pinion transmission system and low-response in a ball screw drive system. Only one contact point for each CF to torsion spring exists to replace the sliding friction while moving in a sliding groove with the rolling friction. Small size, compact structure and modular design are considered preferentially for the application on multi-dof (degree of freedom) robotic system. Simulation experiment results are presented to demonstrate the wide range of stiffness, the fast response and the excellent tracking performance achieved by the proposed TSA.
The Development of Arithmetic Gamification Using Digital Dice

Due to the importance of arithmetic abilities for elementary school students, this research aims to develop games using digital dice.This games will be used in gamification in math education. This research method is research and development, while the game development process using the waterfall model of system development life cycle. Based on the results of development, the system is built so that the students are emotionally engaged through digital dice games, they didn’t only tap the screen or answer the exercise. The results of functional testing and compatibility also show that the system has excellent functionality and compatibility.
Send Orders of Reprints at Reprints@benthamscience.net Hepatitis C Virus Envelope Protein E1 Binds Perk and Represses the Unfolded Protein Response

Unfolded protein response (UPR) is a cellular adaptive response which functions to reduce stress caused by misfolded proteins in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). We and others have previously shown that infection with hepatitis C virus (HCV) or expression of the viral proteins can trigger the UPR. HCV is a single-stranded positive-sense RNA virus causing chronic diseases in humans. Its genome encodes two envelope proteins E1 and E2 that mature in the ER to form non-covalently bound native complex and disulphide-bonded aggregates. Apart from the ER targeting proteins, cytosolic forms have been documented. We have previously shown that the ER-targeting E1 and E2 are capable of eliciting the UPR whereas others have shown that the cytosolic-targeting E2 can bind to the ER stress kinase PERK to dampen the UPR. In this report, we further show that the other envelope protein E1, in its cytosolic form, can also bind PERK and dampen the UPR. Using GST-pulldown assay, we show that E1 binds to the cytoplasmic domain of PERK, suggesting interaction of E1 and PERK takes place in the cytoplasm. Using reporter gene assay and Western blotting, we show that cytosolic E1 can repress UPR-induced BiP and CHOP promoter activity and reduce UPR-induced CHOP expression level. Altogether these results suggest opposing functions of ER-and cytosolic forms of HCV envelope proteins depending on their subcellular localization.