Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Antioxidants and diabetes

Hyperglycemia promotes auto-oxidation of glucose to form free radicals. The generation of free radicals beyond the scavenging abilities of endogenous antioxidant defenses results in macro- and microvascular dysfunction. Antioxidants such as N-acetylcysteine, vitamin C and α-lipoic acid are effective in reducing diabetic complications, indicating that it may be beneficial either by ingestion of natural antioxidants or through dietary supplementation. However, while antioxidants are proving essential tools in the investigation of oxidant stress-related diabetic pathologies and despite the obvious potential merit of a replacement style therapy, the safety and efficacy of antioxidant supplementation in any future treatment, remains to be established
Motion2fusion

We present Motion2Fusion, a state-of-the-art 360 performance capture system that enables *real-time* reconstruction of arbitrary non-rigid scenes. We provide three major contributions over prior work: 1) a new non-rigid fusion pipeline allowing for far more faithful reconstruction of high frequency geometric details, avoiding the over-smoothing and visual artifacts observed previously. 2) a high speed pipeline coupled with a machine learning technique for 3D correspondence field estimation reducing tracking errors and artifacts that are attributed to fast motions. 3) a backward and forward non-rigid alignment strategy that more robustly deals with topology changes but is still free from scene priors. Our novel performance capture system demonstrates real-time results nearing 3x speed-up from previous state-of-the-art work on the exact same GPU hardware. Extensive quantitative and qualitative comparisons show more precise geometric and texturing results with less artifacts due to fast motions or topology changes than prior art.
Simple randomized mergesort on parallel disks

We consider the problem of sorting a file of N records on theD-disk model of parallel I/0 [VS94] in which there are two sourcesof parallehsm. Records are transferred to and from diskconcurrently in blocks of B con-tiguous records. In each I/Ooperation, up to one block can be transferred to or from each ofthe D disks in parallel. We propose a simple, eficient, randomizedmergesort algorithm called SRM that uses a forecast-and-flushapproach to overcome the inherent difficulties of simple merging onparallel disks. SRM exhibits a limited use of randomization andalso has a useful deterministic version. Generalizing theforecasting technique of [Knu73], our algorithm, is able to readin, at any time, the right block from any disk, and using thetechnique of flushing, our algorithm evicts, without any I/0overhead, just the right blocks from memory to make space for newones to be read in. The disk layout of SRM is such that it enjoysperfect write parallelism, avoiding fundamental inefficiencies ofprevious mergesort algorithms. Our analysis technique involves anovel reduction to various maximum occupancy problems. We provethat the expected I/O performance of SRM is efficient under varyingsizes of memory and that it compares favorably in practice todisk-striped mergesort (DSM). Our studies indicate that SRMoutperforms DSM even when the number D of parallel disks is fairlysmall.
The role of suppression in amblyopia.

PURPOSE This study had three main goals: to assess the degree of suppression in patients with strabismic, anisometropic, and mixed amblyopia; to establish the relationship between suppression and the degree of amblyopia; and to compare the degree of suppression across the clinical subgroups within the sample. METHODS Using both standard measures of suppression (Bagolini lenses and neutral density [ND] filters, Worth 4-Dot test) and a new approach involving the measurement of dichoptic motion thresholds under conditions of variable interocular contrast, the degree of suppression in 43 amblyopic patients with strabismus, anisometropia, or a combination of both was quantified. RESULTS There was good agreement between the quantitative measures of suppression made with the new dichoptic motion threshold technique and measurements made with standard clinical techniques (Bagolini lenses and ND filters, Worth 4-Dot test). The degree of suppression was found to correlate directly with the degree of amblyopia within our clinical sample, whereby stronger suppression was associated with a greater difference in interocular acuity and poorer stereoacuity. Suppression was not related to the type or angle of strabismus when this was present or the previous treatment history. CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that suppression may have a primary role in the amblyopia syndrome and therefore have implications for the treatment of amblyopia.
Fully integrated sub-microWatt CMOS ultra wideband pulse-based transmitter for wireless sensors networks

This paper presents the design of a fully integrated sub-microWatt CMOS ultra-wideband (UWB) pulse-based transmitter, aimed for low data rate wireless sensors networks. The transmitter consists of a current starving clock, an all-digital pulse generator, and a 2nd derivative Gaussian pulse shaping network with 50 Omega driving capability. The design is implemented in a standard CMOS 0.18 mum process. A typical pulse width of 170 ps is achieved. Two commonly used modulation schemes are investigated. Namely, on-off keying (OOK) and pulse-position modulation (PPM). The complete design occupies an area of 0.14 mm2 and consumes an average power of 326.3 nW at 200 Kpps (pulse-per-second) with a 1.5 V supply. At a maximum pulse repetition rate of 100 MHz, the transmitter consumes no more than 82 muW in power, which is among the lowest in transmitter designs reported to date
Morphological and Structural Properties of Porous Silicon (PSi)

This study includes the effect of the etching time on the morphology of the surfaces produced using the electrochemical method of silicon ( p-type), where it was found that the etching leads to increase the porosity layer of silicon. The production of nanocrystalline structures and control of their production conditions is the first step to control the properties of the devices. These are very important applications for the etching of renewable energy.
MASON: A New Multi-Agent Simulation Toolkit

We introduce MASON, a fast, easily extendable, discreteevent multi-agent simulation toolkit in Java. MASON was designed to serve as the basis for a wide range of multiagent simulation tasks ranging from swarm robotics to machine learning to social complexity environments. MASON carefully delineates between model and visualization, allowing models to be dynamically detached from or attached to visualizers, and to change platforms mid-run. We describe the MASON system, its motivation, and its basic architectural design. We then discuss five applications of MASON we have built over the past year to suggest its breadth
Building the Slovene Wordnet: First Steps, First Problems

We report on the prototype Slovene wordnet which currently contains about 5,000 top-level concepts. The resource is based on the Serbian wordnet which has been automatically translated with the help of a bilingual dictionary, the literals ranked according to the frequency of corpus occurrence, and results manually corrected. The paper also discusses some problems encountered along the way and points out some possibilities of automated acquisition and refinement of synsets in the future.
Young Children Reorient by Computing Layout Geometry, Not by Matching Images of the Environment

Disoriented animals from ants to humans reorient in accord with the shape of the surrounding surface layout: a behavioral pattern long taken as evidence for sensitivity to layout geometry. Recent computational models suggest, however, that the reorientation process may not depend on geometrical analyses but instead on the matching of brightness contours in 2D images of the environment. Here we test this suggestion by investigating young children's reorientation in enclosed environments. Children reoriented by extremely subtle geometric properties of the 3D layout: bumps and ridges that protruded only slightly off the floor, producing edges with low contrast. Moreover, children failed to reorient by prominent brightness contours in continuous layouts with no distinctive 3D structure. The findings provide evidence that geometric layout representations support children's reorientation. What are the origins of human geometrical intuitions (e.g., Plato, 380/1949)? For centuries, psychologists and neuro-scientists have proposed that geometrical concepts arise from the representations that guide navigation (e.g., von Helmholtz, 1885/1962). The cognitive map hypothesis posited that navigating animals form a coherent Euclidean representation of the environment and the objects within it by computing the geometric structure of their own movements (O'Keefe & Nadel, 1978; Tolman, 1948). This idea has been undermined, however, by evidence that suggests that rather than encoding Euclidean relationships, animals and humans learn routes between locations and recognize goal locations by matching stored, viewpoint specific, two-dimensional "snapshots," of In the past few decades, however, the thesis that truly geometrical representations underlie navigation processes has been reinvigorated by studies of animals' spontaneous encoding of the geometry of the surrounding, extended surface layout. In one set of studies, rats discovered the location of food in a geometrically distinctive environment, then were disoriented by slow turning, and finally were allowed to reorient and search for the food. These animals, and other species including ants, fish, birds, and humans, reestablished their sense of orientation by relying wholly or in part on the metric shape of the surrounding surface layout When the layout was rectangular, they divided their search between the correct corner and the geometrically equivalent opposite corner, consistent with the lengths and sense relationships between the room's borders. Other studies, using neurophysiological and neuroimaging methods, provided evidence that oriented rats and humans automatically encoded both their own position and the positions of objects relative to the borders of the navigable layout, largely irrespective of the presence of freestanding objects or distinctive surface colors …
Nanotechnology for Single Crystalline Silicon Solar Cell Applications

Solar cells are receiving a lot of attention due to the ongoing climate debate and attempts to implement more green energy sources to reduce the CO2 emissions in the atmosphere. Single crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cells with better stability over a long time period compared to other silicon based solar cells have taken a main position in the solar cell market. As new solar cell technology continually develops, the disadvantage of the relatively high cost of electricity generated related to low cell efficiency becomes one of top issues with c-Si solar cells. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the effectiveness of nanotechnologies, in particular plasmonic metal nanoparticles (MNPs), black silicon (b-Si) nanostructures and horizontally-grown silicon nanowires (SiNWs) structures, for cell efficiency enhancement of c-Si solar cells through numerical simulation and experimental demonstrations.
The clotting system – a major player in wound healing

Summary. Wound healing involves a complex series of interactions between coagulation, inflammation, angiogenesis, and cellular migration and proliferation. Our laboratory has developed an excisional dermal wound model in mice in order to study some of these processes and to determine how coagulation defects affect wound healing. In contrast to wild type mice, haemophilia B mice typically show delayed healing, signs of bleeding into the wound, and significant wound expansion. The difference in wound size may result from limited fibrin deposition in haemophilic animals and the subsequent inability to anchor the platelet plug to the surrounding tissues, thus allowing wound expansion through oedema. Haemophilic mice also demonstrate impaired wound healing times. However, while pre‐treatment with factor IX or human activated factor VII improves some wound characteristics in haemophilia B animals, the time to wound healing is still delayed and signs of ongoing bleeding are evident. Haemophilic mice also show a deficient initial inflammatory response and increased angiogenesis, which, in turn, leads to increased bleeding: in the absence of robust haemostasis, these fragile, newly sprouted vessels have a tendency to bleed. Taken together, these observations suggest that ongoing haemostasis is necessary for normal wound healing. If this is correct, then optimal wound healing in haemophilia would require therapy until at least the point that vessel formation is stabilized. The goal of such treatment would be to avoid a feedback cycle in which bleeding tends to lead to further bleeding. Once initiated, this cycle may be difficult to control.
Dimensioning of Elastic Adhesive Joints with Complex Geometries?

The current European standard for dimensioning silicone adhesive joints in structural glazing applications is defined in the ETAG 002. Although there are several decades of field experience with this standard it still has some major limitations and mainly uses an empirical concept based on an average force by area engineering approach. In addition there are a number of other restrictions for example the limitation of specific substrates and rectangular shaped joints with defined aspect ratios as well as the exclusion of joints with non‐coplanar surfaces. The presented investigations are based on a combined numerical and experimental concept and demonstrate that appropriately designed elastic adhesive joints with complex geometries excluded by common standards can be evaluated and validated in a systematic and reliable way. The experimental test may easily be combined with well‐established and proven aging test schemes, for which long‐term reliable field experience is available. In addition any desired safety factor can be added.
Screening mammography utilization in Tennessee women: the association with residence.

CONTEXT Approximately 70% of US women over age 40 report mammography screening within 2 years. However, rates are likely to vary by age, income, educational level, and residence. PURPOSE To describe the prevalence of screening mammography and associated factors in women living in rural and urban areas of Tennessee. METHODS Using pooled data from the Tennessee Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS; 2001 and 2003), utilization of screening mammography within a 2-year period was examined for a sample of 1,922 women, 40 years and older. Demographic, behavior, and health-related variables were used to examine associations with utilization. FINDINGS The prevalence of screening mammography utilization (71.3% 95% CI 67.4-75.2) in women living in rural areas of Tennessee was significantly lower than utilization among women living in urban areas (78.3% 95% CI 75.9-80.7). Higher utilization was associated with having attained at least a high school education, having health insurance, identifying a personal health care provider, being a nonsmoker, recent use of alcohol, having had a recent clinical breast exam or Papanicolau (Pap) test done, and meeting the Healthy People 2010 (HP 2010) recommendation for physical activity. After controlling for all other factors, rural residence was not associated with utilization. For rural women, identifying a personal health care provider was significantly associated with increased likelihood of utilization. CONCLUSIONS Lower income and lower education, each associated with lower screening utilization, were more common in rural Tennessee women. The significance of a personal health care provider for utilization in rural women is meaningful for service providers.
Consistency Checking of Basic Cardinal Constraints over Connected Regions

In this paper we study a recent formal model for qualitative spatial reasoning with cardinal direction relations. We give an O(n4) algorithm to check the consistency of a network of basic cardinal constraints with variables ranging over the set of connected regions homeomorphic to the closed unit disk (which includes a wide variety of irregular-shaped regions). To the best of our knowledge, this was an open problem. A previous algorithm for a domain that includes also disconnected regions works in O(n5), but, for the problem we consider here, such an algorithm cannot be used. Using the new algorithm we also show that the problem of deciding the consistency of a network of disjunctive cardinal constraints with variables ranging over the set of connected regions is NP-Complete. Our main contribution is based on results from the field of combinatorial geometry.
A Critical Role for Phosphatidylinositol (3,4,5)-Trisphosphate–Dependent Rac Exchanger 1 in Endothelial Junction Disruption and Vascular Hyperpermeability

Rationale: The small GTPase Rac is critical to vascular endothelial functions, yet its regulation in endothelial cells remains unclear. Understanding the upstream pathway may delineate Rac activation mechanisms and its role in maintaining vascular endothelial barrier integrity. Objective: By investigating phosphatidylinositol (3,4,5)-trisphosphate–dependent Rac exchanger 1 (P-Rex1), one of the Rac-specific guanine nucleotide exchange factors previously known for G protein–coupled receptor signaling, we sought to determine whether Rac-guanine nucleotide exchange factor is nodal for signal integration and potential target for drug intervention. Methods and Results: Using gene deletion and small interference RNA silencing approach, we investigated the role of P-Rex1 in human lung microvascular endothelial cells. Tumor necrosis factor &agr; (TNF-&agr;) exposure led to disruption of endothelial junctions, and silencing P-Rex1 protected junction integrity. TNF-&agr; stimulated Rac activation and reactive oxygen species production in a P-Rex1–dependent manner. Removal of P-Rex1 significantly reduced intercellular adhesion molecule-1 expression, polymorphonuclear leukocyte transendothelial migration, and leukocyte sequestration in TNF-&agr;–challenged mouse lungs. The P-Rex1 knockout mice were also refractory to lung vascular hyperpermeability and edema in a lipopolysaccharide-induced sepsis model. Conclusions: These results demonstrate for the first time that P-Rex1 expressed in endothelial cells is activated downstream of TNF-&agr;, which is not a G protein–coupled receptor agonist. Our data identify P-Rex1 as a critical mediator of vascular barrier disruption. Targeting P-Rex1 may effectively protect against TNF-&agr;– and lipopolysaccharide-induced endothelial junction disruption and vascular hyperpermeability.
Mass spectrometric characterization of protein structures and protein complexes in condensed and gas phase

Proteins are essential for almost all physiological processes of life. They serve a myriad of functions which are as varied as their unique amino acid sequences and their corresponding three-dimensional structures. To fulfill their tasks, most proteins depend on stable physical associations, in the form of protein complexes that evolved between themselves and other proteins. In solution (condensed phase), proteins and/or protein complexes are in constant energy exchange with the surrounding solvent. Albeit methods to describe in-solution thermodynamic properties of proteins and of protein complexes are well established and broadly applied, they do not provide a broad enough access to life-science experimentalists to study all their proteins' properties at leisure. This leaves great desire to add novel methods to the analytical biochemist's toolbox. The development of electrospray ionization created the opportunity to characterize protein higher order structures and protein complexes rather elegantly by simultaneously lessening the need of sophisticated sample preparation steps. Electrospray mass spectrometry enabled us to translate proteins and protein complexes very efficiently into the gas phase under mild conditions, retaining both, intact protein complexes, and gross protein structures upon phase transition. Moreover, in the environment of the mass spectrometer (gas phase, in vacuo), analyte molecules are free of interactions with surrounding solvent molecules and, therefore, the energy of inter- and intramolecular forces can be studied independently from interference of the solvating environment. Provided that gas phase methods can give information which is relevant for understanding in-solution processes, gas phase protein structure studies and/or investigations on the characterization of protein complexes has rapidly gained more and more attention from the bioanalytical scientific community. Recent reports have shown that electrospray mass spectrometry provides direct access to six prime protein complex properties: stabilities, compositions, binding surfaces (epitopes), disassembly processes, stoichiometries, and thermodynamic parameters.
Secure and energy efficient prefetching design for smartphones

Energy efficient prefetching systems for smartphones can greatly reduce energy consumption and data transmission, and maintain the timely response when information is prefetched. However, the proxy structure of the system can cause security problem to reveal private information to the third party. The end-to-end encryption (SSL) in traditional prefetching systems cannot solve the security problem in this new, complex energy efficient prefetching system. In this paper, we propose Secure and Energy Efficient Prefetching (SEEP) to meet the security requirement of HTTPS connections and to save smartphone’s energy consumption and data transmission. The new design of SEEP includes two parts: the local proxy on the smartphone to verify the validity of prefetched responses, and the remote proxy (e.g. on the cloudlet) to store encrypted prefetched responses. SEEP is transparent to both smartphones and web servers, which does not need to change today’s Browser/Server framework. Security analysis shows that SEEP protects the confidentiality of requests and responses, and is able to resist replay attack from malicious proxy. Experimental results show that the proposed system consumes 25% less energy and 95% less data when prefetching 10 outbound webpages than the traditional prefetching system in Wi-Fi networks.
Overlapping Domain Decomposition Methods for Numerically Thin Reissner-Mindlin Plates Approximated with the Falk-Tu Elements

The Reissner--Mindlin plate theory models a thin plate with thickness $t$. The condition numbers of finite element approximations of this model deteriorate badly as $t$ approaches $0. $ An overlapping domain decomposition method for the Reissner--Mindlin plate model discretized by the Falk--Tu elements is developed. A modern overlapping method which uses the subdomain Schur complements to define coarse basis functions is used and it is shown that the condition number of this overlapping method is bounded by $C(1+\frac{H}{\delta})^3(1+\log\frac{H}{h})^2$ if $t$ is smaller than or comparable to the element size $h$. Here $H$ is the maximum diameter of the subdomains and $\delta$ is the size of overlap between the subdomains. Numerical examples which confirm the theory are provided.