Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Birefringence distribution in V-grooved optical parts by hot embossing process

For micro-optical products, hot embossing process seems to have more merits because of small thermal cycle that improves optical and mechanical properties and low material flow that reduces the internal residual stress. This study investigates the effects of processing conditions on the birefringence distribution, directly affecting optical quality, in V-grooved optical products. A hot embossing machine was designed and manufactured. Dimensional accuracy and low birefringence are strongly required with respect to the replication accuracy and optical quality.
Up-Regulation of Functional Kinin B1 Receptors in Allergic Airway Inflammation1

B1 receptors are known to be induced during allergic airway inflammation in animal models. However, little is known regarding in vivo B1 receptor expression in humans. We examined B1 receptor mRNA expression in nasal tissue samples from allergic rhinitis and normal subjects. Allergic rhinitis subjects displayed significantly higher expression of B1 receptor mRNA than did the normal subjects, and nasal allergen challenge increased B1 receptor mRNA expression at 8 to 24 h time points in allergic rhinitis subjects. No significant difference was found in B2 receptor expression. To confirm B2 and B1 receptor functional activity, subjects were challenged with kinin agonists. Nasal challenge with the B1 receptor ligand, Lys-des-Arg-bradykinin (BK), activated extracellular signal-regulated kinase in allergic rhinitis, but not normal, subjects. Nasal challenge with the B2 receptor ligand, BK, activated extracellular signal-regulated kinase in both allergic rhinitis and normal subjects. The consequences of B1 receptor activation were investigated using the human airway epithelial cell lines A549 and BEAS-2B. We demonstrated that Lys-des-Arg-BK activates the transcription factor AP-1. Taken together, these results show that functional B1 receptors are induced in the airway during allergic inflammation and suggest that they participate in the regulation of gene expression.
Arm Motion Recognition and Exercise Coaching System for Remote Interaction

Arm motion recognition and its related applications have become a promising human computer interaction modal due to the rapid integration of numerical sensors in modern mobile-phones. We implement a mobile-phone-based arm motion recognition and exercise coaching system that can help people carrying mobile-phones to do body exercising anywhere at any time, especially for the persons that have very limited spare time and are constantly traveling across cities. We first design improved k-means algorithm to cluster the collecting 3-axis acceleration and gyroscope data of person actions into basic motions. A learning method based on Hidden Markov Model is then designed to classify and recognize continuous arm motions of both learners and coaches, which also measures the action similarities between the persons. We implement the system on MIUI 2S mobile-phone and evaluate the system performance and its accuracy of recognition.
The Changing Role of mTOR Kinase in the Maintenance of Protein Synthesis during Human Cytomegalovirus Infection

ABSTRACT The mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) kinase occurs in mTOR complex 1 (mTORC1) and complex 2 (mTORC2), primarily differing by the substrate specificity factors raptor (in mTORC1) and rictor (in mTORC2). Both complexes are activated during human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection. mTORC1 phosphorylates eukaryotic initiation factor 4E (eIF4E)-binding protein (4E-BP1) and p70S6 kinase (S6K) in uninfected cells, and this activity is lost upon raptor depletion. In infected cells, 4E-BP1 and S6K phosphorylation is maintained when raptor or rictor is depleted, suggesting that either mTOR complex can phosphorylate 4E-BP1 and S6K. Studies using the mTOR inhibitor Torin1 show that phosphorylation of 4E-BP1 and S6K in infected cells depends on mTOR kinase. The total levels of 4E-BP1 and viral proteins representative of all temporal classes were lowered by Torin1 treatment and by raptor, but not rictor, depletion, suggesting that mTORC1 is involved in the production of all classes of HCMV proteins. We also show that Torin1 inhibition of mTOR kinase is rapid and most deleterious at early times of infection. While Torin1 treatment from the beginning of infection significantly inhibited translation of viral proteins, its addition at later time points had far less effect. Thus, with respect to mTOR's role in translational control, HCMV depends on it early in infection but can bypass it at later times of infection. Depletion of 4E-BP1 by use of short hairpin RNAs (shRNAs) did not rescue HCMV growth in Torin1-treated human fibroblasts as it has been shown to in murine cytomegalovirus (MCMV)-infected 4E-BP1−/− mouse embryo fibroblasts (MEFs), suggesting that during HCMV infection mTOR kinase has additional roles other than phosphorylating and inactivating 4E-BP1. Overall, our data suggest a dynamic relationship between HCMV and mTOR kinase which changes during the course of infection.
A triple-stage algorithm for optimal unit scheduling of thermal units

Scheduling the economic generation of thermal units is a critical task in a large scale power system because it significantly reduces annual production cost. This study presents a novel triple-stage algorithm to solve the problem of combining unit commitment and economic dispatch of the thermal units while minimizing cost. The proposed algorithm divides all the units into five groups and finds potential combinations with a redundancy factor in the first stage. Then, employ a simplified economic dispatch method and a look forward method to obtain the optimal unit scheduling in the second stage. Lastly, a look backward method is applied to refine the optimal solution in the third stage. When the discontinuous cost function of unit is considered, a zero cost power method is also used. Finally, two test cases are simulated and the results compared with existing methods. Simulation results demonstrate the outstanding performance of the proposed method.
A multicenter comparison of cognitive-behavioral therapy and interpersonal psychotherapy for bulimia nervosa.

BACKGROUND Research suggests that cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is the most effective psychotherapeutic treatment for bulimia nervosa. One exception was a study that suggested that interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) might be as effective as CBT, although slower to achieve its effects. The present study is designed to repeat this important comparison. METHOD Two hundred twenty patients meeting DSM-III-R criteria for bulimia nervosa were allocated at random to 19 sessions of either CBT or IPT conducted over a 20-week period and evaluated for 1 year after treatment in a multisite study. RESULTS Cognitive-behavioral therapy was significantly superior to IPT at the end of treatment in the percentage of participants recovered (29% [n=32] vs 6% [n=71), the percentage remitted (48% [n=53] vs 28% [n = 31]), and the percentage meeting community norms for eating attitudes and behaviors (41% [n=45] vs 27% [n=30]). For treatment completers, the percentage recovered was 45% (n= 29) for CBT and 8% (n= 5) for IPT. However, at follow-up, there were no significant differences between the 2 treatments: 26 (40%) CBT completers had recovered at follow-up compared with 17 (27%) IPT completers. CONCLUSIONS Cognitive-behavioral therapy was significantly more rapid in engendering improvement in patients with bulimia nervosa than IPT. This suggests that CBT should be considered the preferred psychotherapeutic treatment for bulimia nervosa.
LSA-X: Exploiting Productivity Factors in Linear Size Adaptation for Analogy-Based Software Effort Estimation

SUMMARY Analogy-based software e ﬀ ort estimation has gained a considerable amount of attention in current research and practice. Its excellent estimation accuracy relies on its solution adaptation stage, where an e ﬀ ort estimate is produced from similar past projects. This study proposes a solution adaptation technique named LSA-X that introduces an approach to exploit the potential of productivity factors, i.e., project variables with a high correlation with software productivity, in the solution adaptation stage. The LSA-X technique tailors the exploitation of the productivity factors with a procedure based on the Linear Size Adaptation ( LSA ) technique. The results, based on 19 datasets show that in circumstances where a dataset exhibits a high correlation coe ﬃ cient between productivity and a related factor ( r ≥ 0 . 30), the proposed LSA-X technique statistically outper-formed (95% conﬁdence) the other 8 commonly used techniques compared in this study. In other circumstances, our results suggest using any linear adaptation technique based on software size to compensate for the limitations of the LSA-X technique.
Electrical properties of transition-metal carbides of group IV.

Electrical resistivities of six single crystals of group-IV{ital B} transition-metal carbides are reported for temperatures between 4 and 1000 K. Hall coefficients of the crystals are reported for temperatures to 350 K. The chemical analyses of the ratio of carbon-to-metal atoms in the crystals (0.89 to 0.99) were verified by an inverse linear relationship between the carbon-vacancy concentration and the low-temperature Hall mobilities. Bloch-Grueneisen theory provides a fit to the temperature dependence of the resistivity data that passes the {chi}{sup 2} test for TiC{sub {ital x}} and ZrC{sub {ital x}} but not for HfC{sub 0.99}. The measurements reveal a tendency toward resistivity saturation at high temperature that is well described by a parallel-resistance model in which the saturation resistivity corresponds to a carrier mean free path roughly equal to the lattice constant. The measurements are compared to earlier experimental studies and to predictions of band-structure calculations. Theories of electronic transport are evaluated.
Design of a Cooperative ITS Architecture Based on Distributed RSUs †

: This paper describes a new cooperative Intelligent Transportation System architecture that aims to enable collaborative sensing services. The main goal of this architecture is to improve transportation efﬁciency and performance. The system, which has been proven within the participation in the ICSI (Intelligent Cooperative Sensing for Improved trafﬁc efﬁciency) European project, encompasses the entire process of capture and management of available road data. For this purpose, it applies a combination of cooperative services and methods for data sensing, acquisition, processing and communication amongst road users, vehicles, infrastructures and related stakeholders. Additionally, the advantages of using the proposed system are exposed. The most important of these advantages is the use of a distributed architecture, moving the system intelligence from the control centre to the peripheral devices. The global architecture of the system is presented, as well as the software design and the interaction between its main components. Finally, the process followed with the aim of testing the architecture functionality is described. This experimentation has been carried out in two real scenarios, in Lisbon (Portugal) and Pisa (Italy).
Automatically extracting summaries with a novel unsupervised framework

In this paper, we propose a novel approach to automatic generation of aspect-oriented summaries from multiple documents. We first develop an event-aspect LDA model to cluster sentences into aspects. We then use extended LexRank algorithm to rank the sentences in each cluster. We use Integer Linear Programming for sentence selection. Key features of our method include automatic grouping of semantically related sentences and sentence ranking based on extension of random walk model. Also, we implement a new sentence compression algorithm which use dependency tree instead of parser tree. We compare our method with three baseline methods. Quantitative evaluation based on Rouge metric demonstrate the effectiveness and advantages of our method.
The hsp150Δ‐carrier confers secretion competence to the rat nerve growth factor receptor ectodomain in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

When the extracellular domain of rat low‐affinity nerve growth factor receptor (NGFRe) was synthesized in Saccharomyces cerevisiae with the signal peptide of invertase, NGFRe was translocated to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and retained there. However, when NGFRe was fused to the C‐terminus of the hsp150Δ‐carrier, the hsp150Δ–NGFRe fusion protein was efficiently secreted to the growth medium with no apparent retention in the ER. The NGFRe portion was disulphide‐bonded and its single N‐glycosylation site was occupied. The hsp150Δ‐carrier is an N‐terminal signal peptide‐containing fragment of a yeast secretory glycoprotein. Hsp150Δ–NGFRe, harvested from the culture medium, inhibited the cross‐linking of [125I]NGF to authentic NGFR on the surface of human melanoma cells. Moreover, [125I]NGF could be chemically cross‐linked to secretory hsp150Δ–NGFRe, suggesting that the NGFRe portion had adopted a ligand‐binding conformation. However, inhibition of the cross‐linking by unlabelled NGF was less effective than in the case of the authentic receptor. The hsp150Δ‐carrier may have potential in the production of mammalian proteins, which require elaborate folding and disulphide formation in the ER.
Eradication of vancomycin resistant Enterococcus faecium from a paediatric oncology unit and prevalence of colonization in hospitalized and community-based children

We previously reported an outbreak of vancomycin resistant enterococci (VRE) in a paediatric oncology unit in December 1995 which was associated with widespread environmental contamination of the unit with VRE. We undertook this study to evaluate the effectiveness of the infection control policy instituted subsequent to the outbreak and to investigate the underlying prevalence of VRE colonization in hospitalized, outpatient and community-based children. We sought to establish the molecular similarity of VRE isolates from the study. Stool specimens were obtained from outpatients at risk of VRE, hospital inpatients and from healthy community-based children. VRE colonization was eradicated from the inpatient unit within 11 months, but in outpatients, 16 months after the outbreak, 4 of 137 (2·9%) attending oncology outpatients, 5 of 65 (7·7%) with cystic fibrosis and 1 of 12 (8·3%) with liver disease were found to be colonized with VRE. The isolates were all Enterococcus faecium, Van A phenotype except one E. casseliflavus of the Van C phenotype. All were unique in SmaI DNA macrorestriction patterns with the exception of two isolates, which were similar to the original outbreak strain and three further isolates of a single strain but which differed from the outbreak strain. Of 315 hospital inpatients, 2·5% were colonized with VRE of the Van C resistance phenotype but VRE was not detected in 116 healthy, community-based children. We conclude that effective strategies can successfully control spread of VRE but despite a low prevalence of VRE colonization in hospital patients and in community-based children, outbreaks can occur when infection control practices are not optimal. Continued vigilance to detect VRE and limit spread within hospitals is therefore necessary.
Recanalization of extracranial internal carotid artery occlusion: A 12-year retrospective study

This study aimed to summarize therapy experience of carotid endarterectomy, carotid endarterectomy combined with Fogarty catheter embolectomy, and hybrid surgery for the treatment of extracranial internal carotid artery occlusion. The study included 65 patients with extracranial internal carotid artery occlusion who underwent carotid endarterectomy, carotid endarterectomy combined with Fogarty catheter embolectomy, or hybrid surgery in the Department of Neurosurgery, Xuanwu Hospital, Capital Medical University, China between January 2006 and December 2012. Prior to surgery, all patients underwent perfusion CT or xenon CT to evaluate the occlusion. The procedure for each patient was chosen according to digital subtraction angiography data. The carotid artery was successfully recanalized in 46 of 51 patients who underwent carotid endarterectomy, 9 of 10 patients who underwent carotid endarterectomy combined with Fogarty catheter embolectomy, and 3 of 4 patients who underwent hybrid surgery. In patients with symptomatic carotid artery occlusion, the carotid artery can be recanalized by choosing a treatment procedure based on imaging examination findings.
A noise-shaping SAR ADC with dual error-feedback paths and alternate DACs

This paper presents an opamp-free solution to implement noise-shaping technique in successive-approximation register (SAR) ADCs. With delayed quantization error applied to both comparator and sample-hold circuit through dual feedback paths, effective noise-shaping is achieved using a passive loop filter. Two identical switched-capacitors DACs are employed to perform voltage approximation and to maintain the quantization error alternately. A SAR ADC adopting the proposed opamp-free noise-shaping solution is designed in a 0.18-μm CMOS process. Post-layout simulation exhibits 10.6-bit accuracy at 48MS/s sampling frequency based on 8-bit DAC when the oversampling rate is 4. The proposed ADC dissipates 451μW from a 1.5-V supply and achieves a Walden FOM of 24.2 fJ/conversion-step.
Emerging multi-level architectures and unbalanced mismatch calibration technique for high-efficient and high-linear LINC systems

Linear amplification with nonlinear components (LINC) provide excellent linearity with high efficiency by adopting switch mode power amplifiers. One of the issues regarding LINC is the efficiency degradation due to wasted power at the power combiner when phase difference is large. In this paper, two efficiency enhancement architectures are presented: multi-level LINC (MLINC) architecture improves transmitter efficiency compared to a conventional LINC system, and the proposed uneven multi-level LINC (UMLINC) can further improve the efficiency. Another problem of LINC is the amplitude and phase mismatches between the two signal paths degrading the linearity performance. To address the problem, an unbalanced mismatch calibration technique for the proposed LINC system is introduced.
Intravenous calcium and magnesium for oxaliplatin-induced sensory neurotoxicity in adjuvant colon cancer: NCCTG N04C7.

PURPOSE Cumulative sensory neurotoxicity (sNT) is the dose-limiting toxicity of oxaliplatin, which commonly leads to early discontinuation of oxaliplatin-based therapy in the palliative and adjuvant settings. In a nonrandomized, retrospective study, intravenous (IV) calcium/magnesium (Ca/Mg) was associated with reduced oxaliplatin-induced sNT. METHODS Patients with colon cancer undergoing adjuvant therapy with infusional fluorouracil, leucovorin, and oxaliplatin (FOLFOX) were randomly assigned to Ca/Mg (1g calcium gluconate plus 1g magnesium sulfate pre- and post-oxaliplatin) or placebo, in a double-blinded manner. The primary end point was the percentage of patients with grade 2 or greater sNT at any time during or after oxaliplatin-based therapy by National Cancer Institute Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (NCI CTCAE; version 3) criteria. An oxaliplatin-specific sNT scale and patient questionnaires were also used to assess sNT. After 104 of 300 planned patients were enrolled, the study was closed. This was due to preliminary reports from another trial that suggested that Ca/Mg decreased treatment efficacy; these data were subsequently found to be incorrect. RESULTS Overall, 102 patients were available for analysis. Ca/Mg decreased the incidence of chronic, cumulative, grade 2 or greater sNT, as measured by NCI CTCAE (P = .038) and also by the oxaliplatin-specific sNT scale (P = .018). In addition, acute muscle spasms associated with oxaliplatin were significantly reduced (P = .01) No effect on acute, cold-induced sNT was found. No substantial differences in adverse effects were noted between Ca/Mg and placebo. CONCLUSION Despite early termination and decreased statistical power, this study supports IV Ca/Mg as an effective neuroprotectant against oxaliplatin-induced cumulative sNT in adjuvant colon cancer.
Metabolomic Profiling Reveals Biochemical Pathways and Biomarkers Associated with Pathogenesis in Cystic Fibrosis Cells*

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a life-shortening disease caused by a mutation in the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene. To gain an understanding of the epithelial dysfunction associated with CF mutations and discover biomarkers for therapeutics development, untargeted metabolomic analysis was performed on primary human airway epithelial cell cultures from three separate cohorts of CF patients and non-CF subjects. Statistical analysis revealed a set of reproducible and significant metabolic differences between the CF and non-CF cells. Aside from changes that were consistent with known CF effects, such as diminished cellular regulation against oxidative stress and osmotic stress, new observations on the cellular metabolism in the disease were generated. In the CF cells, the levels of various purine nucleotides, which may function to regulate cellular responses via purinergic signaling, were significantly decreased. Furthermore, CF cells exhibited reduced glucose metabolism in glycolysis, pentose phosphate pathway, and sorbitol pathway, which may further exacerbate oxidative stress and limit the epithelial cell response to environmental pressure. Taken together, these findings reveal novel metabolic abnormalities associated with the CF pathological process and identify a panel of potential biomarkers for therapeutic development using this model system.
Natural Variants of ELF 3 Affect Thermomorphogenesis by Transcriptionally Modulating PIF 4-Dependent Auxin Responses

Perception and transduction of temperature changes result in altered growth enabling plants to adapt to increased ambient temperature. While PHYTOCHROME-INTERACTING FACTOR4 (PIF4) has been identified as a major ambient temperature signaling hub, its upstream regulation seems complex and is poorly understood. Here, we exploited natural variation for thermo-responsive growth in Arabidopsis thaliana using quantitative trait locus (QTL) analysis. We identified GIRAFFE2.1, a major QTL explaining ~18% of the phenotypic variation for temperature-induced hypocotyl elongation in the Bay-0 x Sha recombinant inbred line population. Transgenic complementation demonstrated that allelic variation in the circadian clock regulator EARLY FLOWERING3 (ELF3) is underlying this QTL. The source of variation could be allocated to a single nucleotide polymorphism in the ELF3 coding region, resulting in differential expression of PIF4 and its target genes, likely causing the observed natural variation in thermo-responsive growth. In combination with other recent studies, this work establishes the role of ELF3 in the ambient temperature signaling network. ELF3-mediated gating of PIF4 expression during nightly growing periods seems to be affected by a coding sequence quantitative trait nucleotide that confers a selective advantage in certain environments.