Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Intelligent material systems and structures: The interface

Advanced composite laminates containing optical fibers as sensors and fibers of shape memory alloys as actuators have been produced. Production techniques which have been used are filament winding or hand lay-up together with autoclaving or pressing. The processing conditions have to be carefully chosen so as not to degrade the sensor or actuator properties. The influence of protective layers on the optical fibers and of the method for introducing the larger diameter sensor or actuator fibers into the laminates is demonstrated for composites with either a thermosetting or a thermoplastic matrix. The properties, which can be monitored by an optical fiber sensor in the matrix are fundamentally dependent on the interface and will be commented on.
Optimization for Large-scale Statistical Modeling

Le centre Inria Sophia Antipolis Méditerranée compte 37 équipes de recherche, ainsi que 9 services d’appui à la recherche. Le personnel du centre (600 personnes environ dont 400 salariés Inria) est composé de scientifiques de différentes nationalités (250 personnes étrangères sur 50 nationalités), d’Ingénieurs, de Techniciens et d’Administratifs. 1/3 du personnel est fonctionnaire, les autres sont contractuels. La majorité des équipes de recherche du centre sont localisées à Sophia Antipolis et Nice dans les Alpes-Maritimes. Six équipes sont implantées à Montpellier et une équipe est hébergée par le département d'informatique de l'université de Bologne en Italie. Le Centre est membre de la Communauté d’Université et d’Établissement (ComUE) « Université Côte d’Azur (UCA) ».
Special Issue on Fracture Mechanics. Effects of Frequency and Temperature on Delamination Fatigue Crack Growth of Unidirectional CFRP under Constant .DELTA.K Conditions.

The effects of loading frequency and test temperature on the delamination crack growth under cyclic loading were investigated with unidirectional CF/epoxy laminates. Tests were conducted in air on double cantilever beam (DCB) specimens. Constant ΔK test were employed for the experiments. The interlaminar crack growth rate was almost constant with crack growth, and the effect of loading frequency was not observed. When the test temperature was changed from lower to higher temperature, the interlaminar crack growth rate was unaltered. On the other hand, the interlaminar crack growth rate drastically decreased after the variation from higher to lower test temperature. The intralaminar crack growth rate decreased with crack growth, and it was higher for higher temperature. In this case also the effect of loading frequency was not observed. The growth rate of an interlaminar fatigue crack was always higher than that of an intralaminar fatigue crack when they were compared at the same value of ΔK.
Is Cervical Sagittal Imbalance a Risk Factor for Adjacent Segment Pathomechanics After Multilevel Fusion?

Study Design. A biomechanical study using human spine specimens. Objective. The aim of this study was to assess whether the presence of cervical sagittal imbalance is an independent risk factor for increasing the mechanical burden on discs adjacent to cervical multilevel fusions. Summary of Background Data. The horizontal offset distance between the C2 plumbline and C7 vertebral body (C2-C7 Sagittal Vertical Axis (SVA)) or the angle made with vertical by a line connecting the C2 and C7 vertebral bodies (C2-C7 tilt angle) are used as radiographic measures to assess cervical sagittal balance. There is level III clinical evidence that sagittal imbalance caused by kyphotic fusions or global spinal sagittal malalignment may increase the risk of adjacent segment pathology. Methods. Thirteen human cadaveric cervical spines (Occiput-T1; age: 50.6 years; range: 21–67) were tested first in the native intact state and then after instrumentation across C4-C6 to simulate in situ two-level fusion. Specimens were tested using a previously validated experimental model that allowed measurement of spinal response to prescribed imbalance. The effects of fusion on segmental angular alignments and intradiscal pressures in the C3-C4 and C6-C7 discs, above and below the fusion, were evaluated at different magnitudes of C2-C7 tilt angle (or C2-C7 SVA). Results. When compared with the pre-fusion state, in situ fusion across C4-C6 segments required increased flexion angulation and resulted in increased intradiscal pressure at the C6-C7 disc below the fusion in order to accommodate the same increase in C2-C7 tilt angle or C2-C7 SVA (P < 0.05). The adjacent segment mechanical burden due to fusion became greater with increasing C2-C7 tilt angle or SVA. Conclusion. Cervical sagittal imbalance arising from regional and/or global spinal sagittal malalignment may play a role in exacerbating adjacent segment pathomechanics after multilevel fusion and should be considered during surgical planning. Level of Evidence: N/A
Modeling Bounded Rationality in Capacity Allocation Games with the Quantal Response Equilibrium

We consider a supply chain with a single supplier and two retailers. The retailers choose their orders strategically, and if their orders exceed the supplier's capacity, quantities are allocated proportionally to the orders. We experimentally study the capacity allocation game using subjects motivated by financial incentives. We find that the Nash equilibrium, which assumes that players are perfectly rational, substantially exaggerates retailers' tendency to strategically order more than they need. We propose a model of bounded rationality based on the quantal response equilibrium, in which players are not perfect optimizers and they face uncertainty in their opponents' actions. We structurally estimate model parameters using the maximum-likelihood method. Our results confirm that retailers exhibit bounded rationality, become more rational through repeated game play, but may not converge to perfect rationality as assumed by the Nash equilibrium. Finally, we consider several alternative behavioral theories and show that they do not explain our experimental data as well as our bounded rationality model. This paper was accepted by loana Popescu, guest editor, operations management.
Validation of a method for in vivo 3D dose reconstruction in SBRT using a new transmission detector

Abstract Stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) involves the delivery of substantially larger doses over fewer fractions than conventional therapy. Therefore, SBRT treatments will strongly benefit patients using vivo patient dose verification, because the impact of the fraction is large. For in vivo measurements, a commercially available quality assurance (QA) system is the COMPASS system (IBA Dosimetry, Germany). For measurements, the system uses a new transmission detector (Dolphin, IBA Dosimetry). In this study, we evaluated the method for in vivo 3D dose reconstruction for SBRT using this new transmission detector. We confirmed the accuracy of COMPASS with Dolphin for SBRT using multi leaf collimator (MLC) test patterns and clinical SBRT cases. We compared the results between the COMPASS, the treatment planning system, the Kodak EDR2 film, and the Monte Carlo (MC) calculations. MLC test patterns were set up to investigate various aspects of dose reconstruction for SBRT: (a) simple open fields (2 × 2–10 × 10 cm2), (b) a square wave chart pattern, and (c) the MLC position detectability test in which the MLCs were changed slightly. In clinical cases, we carried out 6 and 8 static IMRT beams for SBRT in the lung and liver. For MLC test patterns, the differences between COMPASS and MC were around 3%. The COMPASS with the dolphin system showed sufficient resolution in SBRT. For clinical cases, COMPASS can detect small changes for the dose profile and dose–volume histogram. COMPASS also showed good agreement with MC. We can confirm the feasibility of SBRT QA using the COMPASS system with Dolphin. This method was successfully operated using the new transmission detector and verified by measurements and MC.
Effects of exogenously applied salicylic acid and putrescine alone and in combination with rhizobacteria on the phytoremediation of heavy metals and chickpea growth in sandy soil

ABSTRACT The present attempt was made to study the role of exogenously applied salicylic acid (SA) and putrescine (Put) on the phytoremediation of heavy metals and on the growth parameters of chickpea grown in sandy soil. The SA and Put were applied alone as well as in combination with plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR). The PGPRs, isolated from the rhizosphere of chickpea, were characterized on the basis of colony morphology and biochemical traits through gram staining, catalase and oxidase tests, and identified by 16S-rRNA gene sequencing as Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus thuringiensis and Bacillus megaterium. The chickpea seeds were soaked in 24 h old fresh cultures of isolates for 2–3 h prior to sowing. The growth regulators (PGRs), SA and Put (150 mg/L), were applied to the seedlings as foliar spray at three-leaf stage. The result revealed that plants treated with SA and Put alone or in combination with PGPRs, significantly enhanced the accumulation of heavy metals in plant shoot. PGPR induces Ni accumulation in sensitive variety and Pb in both the varieties, the PGR in combination augment the bioremediation effects of PGPR and both sensitive and tolerant variety showed significant accumulation of Ni, Cd, and Pb. SA was more effective in accumulating Ni and Cd whereas, significant accumulation of Pb was recorded in Put. PGPRs further augmented the PGRs induced accumulation of heavy metals and macronutrients in chickpea shoot and in rhizosphere. SA increased the proline content of tolerant variety while decreasing the lipid peroxidation and proline content of the sensitive variety but decreased the stimulating effect of PGPR in proline production. Interactive effects of PGPR and PGRs are recommended for inducing phytoremediation in chickpea plants under drought stress.
Clinical efficacy of oral administration of finasteride at a dose of 2.5 mg/day in women with female pattern hair loss

Female pattern hair loss (FPHL) presents with diffuse thinning over the mid‐frontal scalp, for which various treatment modalities have been tried. Although currently, oral 5 α‐reductase inhibitors such as finasteride are being used, their clinical efficacy remains controversial. We retrospectively investigated 544 premenopausal or postmenopausal patients with FPHL who were prescribed finasteride at a dose of 2.5 mg/day. Our study excluded patients with a follow‐up period of < 3 months and patients who were prescribed other FPHL treatment modalities including topical minoxidil. Finally, 112 patients were evaluated based on their medical records and clinical photographs. Based on assessment using the Ludwig scale at the time of their initial visit, among 112 patients studied, 59 patients were classified as belonging to grade I, 47 were grade II, and 6 were grade III. Using global photographs, we found that 33 (29.5%) of the 112 patients studied showed slight improvement, 73 (65.2%) showed significant improvement, whereas no change was recorded in 6 (5.4%). We could demonstrate efficacy of administration of finasteride at a dose of 2.5 mg/day for patients with FPHL and also found that finasteride has a better effect on hair growth when patients had a lower Ludwig score and an older age at onset
A Proposal for Incorporating Programming Blunder as Important Evidence in Abstraction-Filtration-Comparison Test

This paper investigates an unexplored concept in Cyber Forensics, namely, a Programming Blunder. Programming Blunder is identified as a variable or a code segment or a field in a database table, which is hardly used or executed in the context of the application or the user’s functionality. Blunder genes can be found in many parts of any program. It is the contention of this paper that this phenomenon of blunders needs to be studied systematically from its very genetic origins to their surface realizations in contrast to bugs and flaws, especially in view of their importance in software copyright infringement forensics. Some suggestions as to their applicability and functional importance for cyber forensics are also given including the vital need and a way to incorporate programming blunders into Abstraction-Filtration-Comparison test, the official software copyright infringement investigation procedure of US judiciary.
The effect of instruction on the study behaviors and academic achievement of community college students

OF THE DISSERTATION THE EFFECT OF INSTRUCTION ON THE STUDY BEHAVIORS AND ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF COMMUNITY COLLEGE STUDENTS by Zoraya Maria Cuesta Florida International University, 2007 Miami, Florida Professor Leonard B. Bliss, Major Professor The purpose of this study was twofold. It was designed to determine (a) the efficacy of an intervention designed to increase the frequencies of appropriate study behaviors on the part of community college students who were preparing for academic mathematics activities and (b) whether any increase in appropriate study behavior frequency was accompanied by increased academic achievement in college preparatory mathematics classes. A total of 126 Miami Dade College students participated in this study. Two developmental (remedial) mathematics classes were randomly assigned as the experimental group, and two others were assigned as the control group. All students also took a College Survival (SLS) class. The Study Behavior Inventory (SBI) and the Computerized Placement Test (CPT) were administered to the four classes. The SBI was used as a preand post-test. The SLS curriculum and classroom time were the same for both groups. However, students in the treatment groups received instruction designed to increase the frequency of effective study behaviors associated with the three factors
Learning to generate classifiers

We train a network to generate mappings between training sets and classification policies (a 'classifier generator') by conditioning on the entire training set via an attentional mechanism. The network is directly optimized for test set performance on an training set of related tasks, which is then transferred to unseen 'test' tasks. We use this to optimize for performance in the low-data and unsupervised learning regimes, and obtain significantly better performance in the 10-50 datapoint regime than support vector classifiers, random forests, XGBoost, and k-nearest neighbors on a range of small datasets.
Opinion mining in social media: modeling, simulating, and visualizing political opinion formation in the web

Affordable and ubiquitous online communications (social media) provide the means for flows of ideas and opinions and play an increasing role for the transformation and cohesion of society - yet little is understood about how online opinions emerge, diffuse, and gain momentum. To address this problem, an opinion formation framework based on content analysis of social media and sociophysical system modeling is proposed. Based on prior research and own projects, three building blocks of online opinion tracking and simulation are described: (1) automated topic and opinion detection in real-time, (2) topic and opinion modeling and agent-based simulation, and (3) visualizations of topic and opinion networks. Finally, two application scenarios are presented to illustrate the framework and motivate further research.
Impact of Working Memory and Cognitive functioning on Specific Language Impairment (SLI)

Purpose: The main purpose of this research was to investigate the functioning of working memory of children with Speech and Language Impairment (SLI). Method: Two groups of children were selected for the purpose; Children with Speech and Language impairment (SLI) and Typically Developing (TD) children. The SLI group consisted of 15 children (10 male and 5 female) with an age range of 75-154 months. The TD children consisted of 23 children (12 male and 11 female) with an age range of 48-190. All children were assessed on the intelligence test followed by a computerized assessment of Short Term Memory (STM) and Working Memory (WM). The assumption was that children with SLI would demonstrate impairments on tasks of working memory compared to typically developing children. Data was analyzed using MANCOVA and t-test by SPSS statistical package. Results: The results indicate that the SLI group showed impairment on the verbal working memory tasks as there was no difference observed between the TD and SLI group on the visual-spatial working memory components. Conclusion: The SLI group showed their weaknesses on tasks measuring phonological short term working memory; whereas no difference was noted on tasks of visual-spatial working memory. These findings may help in the application of intervention strategies for children with SLI.
Anxiety prior to breast biopsy: Relationships with length of time from breast biopsy recommendation to biopsy procedure and psychosocial factors

This study investigated how time from breast biopsy recommendation to biopsy procedure affected pre-biopsy anxiety (N = 140 women), and whether the relationship between wait time and anxiety was affected by psychosocial factors (chronic life stress, traumatic events, social support). Analyses showed a significant interaction between wait time and chronic life stress. Increased time from biopsy recommendation was associated with greater anxiety in women with low levels of life stress. Women with high levels of life stress experienced increased anxiety regardless of wait time. These results suggest that women may benefit from shorter wait times and receiving strategies for managing anxiety.
The Impact of Current Smoking and Smoking Cessation on Short-Term Morbidity Risk After Lumbar Spine Surgery

Study Design. A retrospective review of prospectively collected data. Objective. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of current smoking or prior smoking cessation on 30-day morbidity risk following lumbar spine surgery. Summary of Background Data. Prior studies have reported conflicting data regarding the impact of smoking on morbidity risk, and few studies have investigated smoking cessation. Methods. A large, multicenter, prospectively collected clinical registry was queried for all adult patients undergoing lumbar spine surgery in 2012 and 2013, and 35,477 cases were identified. Morbidity data are collected by on-site clinical personnel for 30 days postoperatively. Patients were divided into categories of “never-smoker,” for patients with no reported cigarette use (n = 27,246), “former smoker,” for patients who quit smoking more than 12 months before surgery (n = 562), and “current smoker,” for patients still using cigarettes (n = 7669). A univariate analysis was conducted to identify un-adjusted differences in morbidity risk, and a multivariate analysis was conducted in an attempt to control for confounders. Results. In the multivariate analysis, current smokers had a significantly higher risk of both superficial surgical site infection and overall wound complications, than never-smokers (P < 0.05 for each). Current smokers also had a significantly higher risk of total 30-day morbidity (P = 0.04). There was a trend toward former smokers also having an increased risk, but this did not reach significance in any category. Patients with a pack-year smoking history of 1 to 20 pack-years and more than 40 pack-years both had a significantly higher risk of superficial surgical site infections (P < 0.05 for each). Conclusion. Current smoking is associated with a small but significant increase in systemic morbidity and wound complications following elective lumbar spine procedures. Increasing pack year history was also associated with wound complication risk, suggesting a dose-related effect. The data provide preliminary support for future studies on smoking cessation. Level of Evidence: 3
Taxes and the Fed: Theory and Evidence from Equities

We provide a critical theoretical and empirical analysis that suggests a key driver of fiscal effects on equity markets is the Federal Reserve. For the Post-1980 era, tax cuts lead to higher cash flow news and higher discount rates. The discount rate news tends to dominate such that tax cuts are associated with lower equity returns. This result is flipped for the Pre-1980 era. Our results are confirmed across multiple measures of tax shocks (narrative, SVAR, municipal bonds, etc.) at different frequencies (daily, quarterly, annual). We motivate our empirical findings with a standard New Keynesian model (in addition to the FRB/US model) that exhibits a shift in the aggressiveness of monetary policy. Moreover in our theoretical framework, downward nominal wage rigidities account for observed asymmetries in the response to tax cuts versus tax increases.
Towards quantum machine learning with tensor networks

Machine learning is a promising application of quantum computing, but challenges remain for implementation today because near-term devices have a limited number of physical qubits and high error rates. Motivated by the usefulness of tensor networks for machine learning in the classical context, we propose quantum computing approaches to both discriminative and generative learning, with circuits based on tree and matrix product state tensor networks, that could already have benefits with such near-term devices. The result is a unified framework in which classical and quantum computing can benefit from the same theoretical and algorithmic developments, and the same model can be trained classically then transferred to the quantum setting for additional optimization. Tensor network circuits can also provide qubit-efficient schemes in which, depending on the architecture, the number of physical qubits required scales only logarithmically with, or independently of the input or output data sizes. We demonstrate our proposals with numerical experiments, training a discriminative model to perform handwriting recognition using a hybrid quantum-classical optimization procedure that could be carried out on quantum hardware today, and testing the noise resilience of the trained model.
Patronus: Augmented Privacy Protection for Resource Publication in Online Social Networks

On-line social networks are playing an important role in our daily lives in the modern society. It is becoming much more frequent and convenient for individuals to communicate with others by publishing data such as photos and videos over on-line social networks. As plenty of personal information is usually contained in these data, privacy leakage has become a more serious problem. However, current privacy protection mechanism, which is built on the group-based access control model (GBAC), are typically owner-centric. It means that the privacy requirements of data involvers, whose privacy information is also contained in the corresponding resource, are typically overlooked and ignored. In order to provide augmented privacy protection for social data publication, this paper proposes a new data access model named Patronus to provide better privacy protection during social data publication. With Patronus, the privacy requirements of the data owner and its involvers are both taken into considerations. In order to automatically recognize the corresponding involvers and enforce their privacy polices, Patronus provides a simplistic specification based on the format of ``when-where-who-what'' to describe the features of a resource and the privacy preferences of an individual user. We implemented a prototype of Patronus for photo sharing on Android, and demonstrated its feasibility and effectiveness with several case studies.
Simulation on Self-focusing Laser Transducer Component

Based on theoretical analysis of a GRIN lens, with aimed at different wavelengths of laser and axial offset on optical fibers and lens, the ray paths simulation in optical fiber and a GRIN lens was carried out with ZEMAX, the optical spot size and peak power density has been gotten, advantages of a self-focusing lens as a laser initiation device transducer component has been discussed. The results showed that a GRIN lens can be an excellent and potentially cost-effective laser transducer element.