Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Influence of slag composition on the hydration of alkali-activated slags

The hydration of different blast-furnace slags with sodium metasilicate or NaOH as activator was investigated. Sodium metasilicate shows poor strength after 1 day, but high strength after 7 days and beyond, whereas NaOH activation leads to high strength after 1 day , but only moderate strength development at later ages. At the same hydration degree, sodium metasilicate activation gives a much higher compressive strength than NaOH activation. This is due to the formation of a dense hydration product in the NaOH-activated system at the early age, which leads to a more porous microstructure than in the case of sodium metasilicate. A higher MgO content in the slags is beneficial with respect to faster hydration kinetics and a more rapid strength development. Increasing Al2O3 contents lead to slightly slower hydration kinetics and slightly lower compressive strengths. The best correlation between compressive strength and slag composition was found using the extended basicity (CaO + MgO)/SiO2 index.
Properties and Antimicrobial Activity of Nanosilver Deposited Cotton Fabric Coated with γ-Methacryloxypropyl Trimethoxysilane

The simple and industrially adjustable process of silver nanoparticles deposition on cotton fabric followed by coating with γ-methacryloxypropyl trimethoxysilane (MPS), as well as the properties of obtained nanocomposite has been investigated. Silver nanoparticles were prepared through the reduction of silver nitrate with sodium borohydrate and deposited on cellulose fabric. In order to stabilize obtained nanostructured material and improve its properties, the fabric was treated by immersion in cross linkable MPS. The morphology of the finished fabrics was characterized by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). It has been determined that process does not impair nanocharacter of silver particles and yield uniform distribution throughout the fabric surface. The concentration of Ag in the fabric samples was determined by Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectroscopy (ICP-MS). The average deposited amount of nanoparticles was found to be 63 ppm and 48 ppm for samples without and those with MPS, respectively. The character of obtained polysiloxane coating was examined using Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The presence of SiOSi bonds on the cellulose surface pointed out to self-condensation between silanol groups. Differential Thermal and Thermo-Gravimetric Analysis (DTA/TGA) revealed that MPS deposited on fabric provided modification of thermal properties. The change of the surface properties after the modification was ascertained by contact angle measurements. The antimicrobial activity of the antibacterial finish on the cotton fabric, expressed as bacterial reduction efficiency, has been determined. Bacterial reduction of at least 88.5% against both, Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli, has been obtained.
Mobile Ad Hoc Routing Protocols - A Comparative Performance Analysis by Diversifying the Nodes

Mobile Ad hoc network is self-organizing and adaptive in nature. An Ad hoc wireless network does not rely on any fixed network entities the network itself is essentially infrastructure less. However, due to the presence of mobility, routing information changes to reflect subsistence in link connectivity. This paper highlights the performance of routing protocols like AODV, DSDV, DSR and TORA based on various evaluating parameter metrics like routing overload, throughput, average end-to-end delay, Packet Delivery Fraction (PDF) etc., by increasing the number of nodes when nodes are in mobile and tend to route the packets from source to destination. The simulation analysis proves that these metrics vary with different values in different test scenarios by diversifying the nodes.
Notice of RetractionReal-time flow simulation on curved surface based on LBM

Flow motion on curve surfaces of arbitrary topology is an interesting visual effect but a complex dynamics to simulate. In this paper, we introduce a novel and effective way to modal such dynamics. We propose a technique that adapts a unstructured lattice Boltzmann model (Unstructured LBM). The whole algorithm consists of five aspects, including surface modeling with unstructured triangular meshes, unstructured LBM, mapping the surface to the plane, boundary conditions and body forces. The experimental results show that by this method we can implement the real-time and accurate flow simulation effects on curved surface in most of the curved surface models based on unstructured triangular meshes.
ABCD 2 Score Predicts Severity Rather Than Risk of Early Recurrent Events After Transient Ischemic Attack

Background and Purpose—The ABCD score predicts the early risk of stroke after transient ischemic attack (TIA). However, data on the severity of recurrent events would also be useful. Do patients with high scores also have more severe early recurrent strokes, perhaps further justifying hospital admission? Do patients with low scores have a low early risk of recurrent TIA as well as recurrent stroke? Methods—We completed a prospective, population-based study in Oxfordshire, England, of 500 consecutive patients presenting with TIA from April 1, 2002, by using multiple methods of case ascertainment (Oxford Vascular Study). Recurrent TIA, minor stroke, and major stroke (National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score 3 at the time of first assessment) were identified by face-to-face follow-up. Predictive value was expressed as the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve. Results—Of 500 patients with TIA, 55 had a recurrent TIA (11.0%; 95% CI, 8.3% to 13.7%) and 50 had a recurrent stroke (10.0%; 95% CI, 7.5% to 12.0%) within 7 days. The ABCD score was highly predictive of major recurrent stroke (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve 0.80; 95% CI, 0.72 to 0.87, P 0.0001), weakly predictive of minor stroke (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve 0.57; 95% CI, 0.43 to 0.71, P 0.26), and inversely related to risk of recurrent TIA (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve 0.37; 95% CI, 0.29 to 0.44, P 0.001) (overall heterogeneity, P 0.0001). The score predicted stroke-related disability, length of stay for recurrent stroke, and hence, overall acute hospital care costs. Conclusions—The ABCD score predicts severity of recurrent events after TIA, high scores being associated with major recurrent stroke and low scores with high rates of recurrent TIA. These findings have implications for cost-benefit analyses of policies on hospital admission for patients with high scores and for the advice given to patients with low scores. (Stroke. 2010;41:851-856.)
Dosimetry for lasers and light in dermatology: Monte Carlo simulations of 577 nm-pulsed laser penetration into cutaneous vessels

The role of skin optics in planning proper dosimetry for radiant energy delivered by lasers and conventional light sources is presented. The optical properties of the epidermis, dermis, and cutaneous blood are summarized. The ability of laser pulses at 577-nm wavelength to penetrate into and around a large blood vessel is studied using Monte Carlo simulations. The variation in laser penetration for variable beam diameters and variable vessel depths in presented. The distinction between TOTAL PULSE ENERGY versus PULSE ENERGY DENSITY is illustrated. The topic of this paper is especially pertinent to laser therapy for portwine stain lesions.
Joint network-channel coding for the asymmetric multiple-access relay channel

In this paper we consider the time-division multiple-access relay channel (MARC). We propose a low-complexity compress-and-forward-based transmission scheme that consists of a scalar quantization of log-likelihood ratios (LLRs), followed by a suitably defined network code. This scheme is well suited also for asymmetric source-relay channel conditions. We use the information bottleneck method (IBM) for designing the LLR quantizers and we propose a modified IBM algorithm with more favorable numerical properties. Finally, we assess the performance of the proposed scheme in AWGN and fading channels using numerical simulations, including a comparison with existing transmission schemes.
A binary shape coding method using modified MMR

Content-based coding is the important feature of MPEG-4. This paper provides a detailed description of a binary shape coding method using modified modified modified READ (modified MMR), which is to realize content-based coding for arbitrary shape objects. The main features of this method are: (1) MMR coding is modified for creating macroblock-based coding, (2) inter-frame correlation is utilized, (3) lossy coding is enabled. Simulation results for several sequences show that this method is very effective for binary shape coding.
RV Function in Stable and Unstable VT: Is There a Need for Hemodynamic Monitoring in Future Defibrillators?

HEGBOM, F. , et al.: RV Function in Stable and Unstable VT: Is There a Need for Hemodynamic Monitoring in Future Defibrillators? During electrophysiological investigation of 22 patients with VT or aborted sudden cardiac death, arterial and RV pressures were measured. The time courses of mean arterial pressure (MAP), RV pulse pressure (RVPP), RV pulse pressure integral (RVPPI), and maximum right ventricular dP/dt (RV dP/dtmax) were followed during the first 15 seconds after VT induction. Compared to basal (preinduction) conditions, the RVPPI decreased by 41 ± 10% (mean ± SD) after 10–15 seconds of VT in 11 patients with stable VT and by 75 ± 8% in 11 patients with unstable VT (MAP < 60 mmHg 15 s after VT onset). RVPP decreased by 13 ± 11% after 10–15 seconds of VT in the stable VT group and by 50 ± 16% in the unstable VT group. For RV dP/dtmax, these decreases were 4 ± 22% in the stable VT group and 37 ± 24% in the unstable VT group. There was a good correlation between percent decrease in MAP and percent decrease in RVPPI, RVPP, and RV dP/dtmax at 5–10 seconds (r = 0.86, 0.81, and 0.73, respectively) and 10–15 seconds (r = 0.84, 0.82, and 0.69, respectively) after VT onset. There was hardly any overlap of distributions of the individual values with the RVPPI parameter between the two VT groups. Comparing and correlating the percent decrease in mean arterial pressure with the RVPPI, RVPP, and RV dP/dtmax during induced VT, RVPPI demonstrated the most significant and specific changes in discriminating stable from unstable rhythms. However, by comparing RVPPI and RVPP using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curves, there was no significant statistical difference between the two parameters. By integrating rate criteria, electrogram signal analysis, and RVPPI or RVPP as a hemodynamic criterion, detection and treatment algorithms could improve the performance of future implantable defibrillators and avoiding shocks in VTs that can be terminated by antitachycardia pacing.
Hydrolysis of caseins and formation of hydrophilic and hydrophobic peptides by wild Lactococcus lactis strains isolated from raw ewes’ milk cheese

Aims: To investigate the hydrolysis of αS1‐, αS0‐, βB‐, βA1‐ and βA2‐caseins by 32 wild lactococci of different randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) patterns, isolated from raw ewes’ milk cheese, and the production of hydrophilic and hydrophobic peptides from whole casein by those strains.
Multilayer iterative solutions of large-scale electromagnetic problems using MLFMA

We present multilayer solutions of large-scale electromagnetic problems using the multilevel fast multipole algorithm (MLFMA). With the conventional algebraic preconditioners based on the available near-field interactions, the cost of iterative solutions may exceed the linearithmic complexity, particularly for ill-conditioned systems, despite the efficient matrix-vector multiplications by MLFMA. We show that, using a multilayer approach employing approximate and full versions of MLFMA, the complexity can be reduced to the desired levels without deteriorating the accuracy. The proposed approach significantly accelerates iterative solutions also for well-conditioned system, while it does not require any extra memory as opposed to memory-hungry algebraic preconditioners. Numerical results of scattering problems involving both canonical and complicated structures are presented to demonstrate the efficiency of the multilayer strategy.
A Novel Partial Dynamic Reconfiguration Image Sensor Node for Wireless Multimedia Sensor Networks

Wireless multimedia sensor networks (WMSNs) develop rapidly in recent years. Compared to traditional wireless sensor network (WSN), the WMSN is image-based and processing intensive. Such image-based WSN node normally has a serious conflict between the limited resource and the large amount of image data to be processing and transmitting. Additionally, the security is also a big problem when transmitting sensitive images. This paper presents a novel partial dynamic reconfiguration (PDR) image sensor node prototype for WMSN to solve the problems above. Firstly, reconfigurable hardware such as FPGA (Field-programmable Gate Array) is adopted to accelerate data processing and JPEG image compression algorithm with less power consumption in the WMSN sensor node. Secondly, a partial dynamic reconfiguration system is designed for the sensor node to acquire multiple compression ratios and to enhance the safety by working with AES encryption which is proposed for the first time.
Gross Cystic Disease Fluid Protein-15(GCDFP-15)/Prolactin-Inducible Protein (PIP) as Functional Salivary Biomarker for Primary Sjögren’s Syndrome

Background Gross cystic disease fluid protein-15(GCDFP-15)/prolactin-inducible protein (PIP) is a secretory acinar glycoprotein of 14 KDa which we have recently described as significantly lower in salivary samples of patients with primary Sjögren’s syndrome (pSS) in comparison to healthy volunteers by proteomic analysis. Aims of the study (1) to validate our previous data on the decrease of GCDFP-15/PIP protein in a larger number of subjects with pSS (2) to integrate the proteomic results with complementary immunoassays in order better clarify the pathophysiological relevance of GCDFP-15/PIP in pSS exocrinopathy (3) to assess both the glandular expression of the GCDFP-15/PIP and the levels of glandular GCDFP-15/PIP mRNA in the patients’ minor salivary gland (MSG) biopsies in order to verify whether the observed reduction of GCDFP-15/PIP in saliva may be related to a decrease in the protein production. Patients and methods A total of 123 salivary samples from patients affected by pSS, no-SS sicca syndrome and sex- age-matched healthy volunteers were analyzed by different proteomic techniques (SELDI-TOF-MS, 2DE, MALDI-TOF-MS). The expression of GCDFP-15/PIP was then validated by western blot analysis. Real Time PCR and immunohistochemistry for GCDFP-15/PIP in the minor salivary glands (MSG) biopsies were then carried out. Results By using complementary proteomic analysis we found that a putative peak of 16547 m/z was among the best independent biomarkers for pSS able to discriminate between patients and healthy controls with a sensitivity of 96 % and a specificity of 70%, with a global cross validated error of 29%. We identified the peak as the GCDFP-15/PIP protein and verified that the intensity of GCDFP-15/PIP was significantly lower in pSS patients when compared to both no-SS sicca subjects and healthy controls (p<0.0001). GCDFP-15/PIP expression also correlated with both the salivary flow rate (r=0.312, p=0.023) and MSG biopsies focus score (r=−0.377, p=0.04). Finally, immunohistochemistry confirmed that GCDFP-15/PIP staining was faint in mucus acini and Real Time PCR showed that GCDFP-15/PIP mRNA was significantly lower in pSS patients when compared to both no-SS sicca subjects and healthy controls (p=0.023) thus supporting the hypothesis that the observed reduction of GCDFP-15/PIP in pSS saliva may be related to a decrease in the protein production. Conclusion In this study by different complementary-omic techniques we confirmed the potential role of GCDFP-15/PIP as a novel biomarker for pSS. This finding might also be functionally important as GCDFP-15/PIP has previously been shown to bind to Aquaporin 5 (AQP5), a salivary gland water channel, critical to saliva formation that is known to be downregulated in pSS. It is likely that exploring the GCDFP-15/PIP/AQP5 axis will help better understand the mechanism of salivary gland dysfunction in pSS.
Combining topic models and string kernel for deep web categorization

Online databases maintain a collection of structured domain-specific documents dynamically generated in response to users' queries instead of being accessed by static URLs. Categorizing deep webs according to their object domains is a critical step to integrate such sources. While existing methods focus on supervised or post-query methodologies, we propose a more practical pre-query algorithm operating in an unsupervised manner. Given the domain number, our two phase approach firstly investigates the hidden domain distribution for each query form using topic models and each query form's object domain can be identified preliminarily. In this phase, we construct our training set composing the query forms deemed to have already been categorized correctly, and beside, the deep webs needed to be reclassified are also selected in this phase. In the second phase, we train a classifier with String Kernel methods to reclassify the uncertain deep webs to improve the overall performance. The advantage of our algorithm over previous ones is that we capture the semantic structure for each query form. Based on the two phase architecture, our framework works in an unsupervised manner and achieves satisfactory results. Experiments on the TEL-8 dataset from the UIUC Web integration repository1 show the effectiveness and efficiency of our algorithm.
Enhanced MILSA Architecture for Naming, Addressing, Routing and Security Issues in the Next Generation Internet

MILSA (Mobility and Multihoming supporting Identifier Locator Split Architecture) [1] has been proposed to address the naming and addressing challenges for NGI (Next Generation Internet). we present several design enhancements for MILSA which include a hybrid architectural design that combines "core-edge separation approach" and "split approach", a security-enabled and logically oriented hierarchical identifier system, a three-level identifier resolution system, a new hierarchical code based design for locator structure, cooperative mechanisms among the three planes in MILSA model to assist mapping and routing, and an integrated MILSA service model. The underlying design rationale is also discussed along with the design descriptions. Further analysis addressing the IRTF (Internet Research Task Force) RRG (Routing Research Group) design goals [9] shows that the enhanced MILSA provides comprehensive benefits in routing scalability, traffic engineering, mobility and multihoming, renumbering, security, and deployability.
Hardness Testing: Principles and Applications

Hardness testing is of immense importance for quality assurance in industry. Although the most widely used hardness test methods for metals--Rockwell, Brinell, and Vickers--were developed between 1900 and 1925, numerous technical innovations have been made in recent years, leading to an increase in productivity and the accuracy of hardness tests. This publication provides an overview of the hardness testing of metals, plastics, rubber, and other materials based on current standards and practices. It reports on technical developments such as the introduction of image processing in the Brinell and Vickers methods, the adaptation of hardness testing machines to process-oriented testing conditions, and the development of highly accurate and efficient calibration methods.
Information-theoretic compression of pose graphs for laser-based SLAM

In graph-based simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM), the pose graph grows over time as the robot gathers information about the environment. An ever growing pose graph, however, prevents long-term mapping with mobile robots. In this paper, we address the problem of efficient information-theoretic compression of pose graphs. Our approach estimates the mutual information between the laser measurements and the map to discard the measurements that are expected to provide only a small amount of information. Our method subsequently marginalizes out the nodes from the pose graph that correspond to the discarded laser measurements. To maintain a sparse pose graph that allows for efficient map optimization, our approach applies an approximate marginalization technique that is based on Chow–Liu trees. Our contributions allow the robot to effectively restrict the size of the pose graph. Alternatively, the robot is able to maintain a pose graph that does not grow unless the robot explores previously unobserved parts of the environment. Real-world experiments demonstrate that our approach to pose graph compression is well suited for long-term mobile robot mapping.
How to Build an Embodiment Lab: Achieving Body Representation Illusions in Virtual Reality

Advances in computer graphics algorithms and virtual reality (VR) systems, together with the reduction in cost of associated equipment, have led scientists to consider VR as a useful tool for conducting experimental studies in fields such as neuroscience and experimental psychology. In particular virtual body ownership, where the feeling of ownership over a virtual body is elicited in the participant, has become a useful tool in the study of body representation, in cognitive neuroscience and psychology, concerned with how the brain represents the body. Although VR has been shown to be a useful tool for exploring body ownership illusions, integrating the various technologies necessary for such a system can be daunting. In this paper we discuss the technical infrastructure necessary to achieve virtual embodiment. We describe a basic VR system and how it may be used for this purpose, and then extend this system with the introduction of real-time motion capture, a simple haptics system and the integration of physiological and brain electrical activity recordings.
Molecular identification of a component of delayed rectifier current in gastrointestinal smooth muscles.

Kv2.2, homologous to the shab family of Drosophila voltage-gated K+ channels, was isolated from human and canine colonic circular smooth muscle-derived mRNA. Northern hybridization analysis performed on RNA prepared from tissues and RT-PCR performed on RNA isolated from dispersed and selected smooth muscle cells demonstrate that Kv2.2 is expressed in smooth muscle cells found in all regions of the canine gastrointestinal (GI) tract and in several vascular tissues. Injection of Kv2.2 mRNA into Xenopus oocytes resulted in the expression of a slowly activating K+ current (time to half maximum current, 97 ± 8.6 ms) mediated by 15 pS (symmetrical K+) single channels. The current was inhibited by tetraethylammonium (IC50 = 2.6 mM), 4-aminopyridine (IC50 = 1.5 mM at +20 mV), and quinine (IC50 = 13.7 μM) and was insensitive to charybdotoxin. Low concentrations of quinine (1 μM) were used to preferentially block the slow component of the delayed rectifier current in native colonic myocytes. These data suggest that Kv2.2 may contribute to this current in native GI smooth muscle cells.