Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Estudo de novas estratégias para identificação de danos estruturais a partir de dados vibracionais.

The paradigm of structural health monitoring is based on the development of reliable and robust indicators able to detect, locate, quantify and predict damage. Studies related to damage detection in civil engineering structures have a noticeable interest for researchers in this area. Indeed, the detection of structural changes likely to become critical can avoid the occurrence of major dysfunctions associated with social, economic and environmental consequences. Recently, many researchers have focused on dynamic assessment as part of structural diagnosis. Most of the studied techniques are based on time or frequency domain analyses to extract compressed information from modal characteristics or based on indicators built from these parameters. These indicators have shown their potentialities, but the problem of their sensitivity, the necessity of a reference state, and their reliability in terms of detection probability and false alarm, still remains. In this context, it is important to use techniques capable of dealing not only with raw data but also modal parameters in a practical and relevant way. In order to give some insights to this problem, appropriate representations have been developed to improve both manipulation and storage of data. These representations are known as symbolic data. The development of new methods capable of dealing with this type of dat a is the goal of Symbolic Data Analysis (SDA). This work has as its main interest the use of different methods coupled with the SDA to detect structural damage. The idea is to employ clustering procedures (e.g., hierarchyagglomerative, dynamic clouds and fuzzy clustering) to discriminate different structural states. In this thesis, SDA is applied to dynamic measurements obtained on site (accelerations) and to the identified modal parameters. In order to attest the efficiency of the proposed approaches, several sensibility studies considering numerical applications and an experimental investigation are carried out. It is shown that SDA coupled with classification methods is able to distinguish structural conditions with adequate rates.
Comparison of biomarkers in exhaled breath condensate and bronchoalveolar lavage.

RATIONALE Exhaled breath condensate (EBC) is increasingly studied as a noninvasive research method of sampling the lungs, measuring several biomarkers. The exact site of origin of substances measured in EBC is unknown, as is the clinical applicability of the technique. Special techniques might be needed to measure EBC biomarkers. OBJECTIVES To assess biomarker concentrations in clinical disease and investigate the site of origin of EBC, we compared EBC and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) biomarkers in 49 patients undergoing bronchoscopy for clinical indications. MEASUREMENTS We measured exhaled nitric oxide, 8-isoprostane, hydrogen peroxide, total nitrogen oxides, pH, total protein, and phospholipid (n = 33) and keratin (n = 15) to assess alveolar and mucinous compartments, respectively. EBC was collected over 10 min using a refrigerated condenser according to European Respiratory Society/American Thoracic Society recommendations, and BAL performed immediately thereafter. RESULTS 8-Isoprostane, nitrogen oxides, and pH were significantly higher in EBC than in BAL (3.845 vs. 0.027 ng/ml, 28.4 vs. 3.8 microM, and 7.35 vs. 6.4, respectively; p < 0.001). Hydrogen peroxide showed no difference between EBC and BAL (17.5 vs. 20.6 microM, p = not significant), whereas protein was significantly higher in BAL (33.8 vs. 183.2 microg/ml, p < 0.001). Total phospholipid was also higher in EBC, but keratin showed no difference. No significant correlation was found between EBC and BAL for any of the biomarkers evaluated either before or after correction for dilution. CONCLUSIONS In clinical disease, markers of inflammation and oxidative stress are easily measurable in EBC using standard laboratory techniques and EBC is readily obtained. However, EBC and BAL markers do not correlate.
Calcium Signaling through Phospholipase C Activates Dendritic Cells To Mature and Is Necessary for the Activation and Maturation of Dendritic Cells Induced by Diverse Agonists

ABSTRACT Calcium is an important second messenger in the phospholipase C (PLC) signal transduction pathway. Calcium signaling is involved in many biological processes, including muscle contraction, cellular activation, and cellular proliferation. Dendritic cell (DC) maturation is induced by many different stimuli, including bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS), bacterial toxins, inflammatory cytokines, prostaglandins, as well as calcium mobilization. In the present study, we determined the role of the PLC signal transduction pathway in the activation and maturation of human monocyte-derived DCs (MDDCs) induced by diverse agonists. We found that signaling through PLC activates MDDCs to mature and is necessary for LPS, cholera toxin, dibutyryl-cyclic AMP, prostaglandin E2, and the calcium ionophore A23187 to induce MDDC maturation. The results of the present study along with the results of other studies indicate that multiple signaling pathways are involved in the activation of DCs and that inhibition of any of these pathways inhibits the maturation of DCs.
Metabolic MR imaging of regional triglyceride and creatine content in the human heart

An optimized echo‐planar spectroscopic imaging sequence is proposed to facilitate spatial mapping of triglyceride and total creatine content in the human heart. The sequence integrates local‐look field of view reduction, cardiac and respiratory gating, and dedicated reconstruction steps to account for gradient channel delays, field inhomogeneity, and phase incoherence due to residual motion. The technique is demonstrated in 12 volunteers in comparison to single voxel point‐resolved spectroscopy in the septal wall at 1.5 T. Triglyceride‐to‐water and total creatine‐to‐water ratios derived from echo‐planar spectroscopic imaging (0.48 ± 0.18% and 0.06 ± 0.03%) and point‐resolved spectroscopy (0.52 ± 0.17% and 0.07 ± 0.02%) were found to agree well. In the septal region, intraclass correlation coefficients ranging from 0.67 to 0.72 were estimated. A relatively weak agreement (intraclass correlation coefficients: 0.34 and 0.52) was found for sectors in the lateral wall due to field gradients induced by the posterior vein and limited sensitivity of the receive coil array in this area. On the basis of the findings, it is concluded that fast spectroscopic imaging of both cardiac triglyceride and total creatine content is feasible. Shimming and sensitivity challenges in the lateral region remain, however, to be addressed. Magn Reson Med, 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Deep Learning-Based Telephony Speech Recognition in the Wild

In this paper, we explore the effectiveness of a variety of Deep Learning-based acoustic models for conversational telephony speech, specifically TDNN, bLSTM and CNN-bLSTM models. We evaluated these models on both research testsets, such as Switchboard and CallHome, as well as recordings from a realworld call-center application. Our best single system, consisting of a single CNN-bLSTM acoustic model, obtained a WER of 5.7% on the Switchboard testset, and in combination with other models a WER of 5.3% was obtained. On the CallHome testset a WER of 10.1% was achieved with model combination. On the test data collected from real-world call-centers, even with model adaptation using application specific data, the WER was significantly higher at 15.0%. We performed an error analysis on the real-world data and highlight the areas where speech recognition still has challenges.
The impact of buyer-supplier relationships’ social capital on bi-directional information sharing in the supply chain

The purpose of this paper is to understand how the development of social capital can promote buyer’s bi-directional (inflow and outflow) information sharing. The authors examined buyers’ perceptional differences in information sharing: when they receive information from suppliers and when they provide information to suppliers, and how such inequivalent perception in information sharing can be resolved by the level of social capital and its’ sub-dimensions. ,Theoretical model and the hypotheses were developed through literature review. Data were collected from Korean manufacturers in supply chains and structural equation modelling was used for analysis. ,The results show that each dimension of social capital has a different effect on bi-directional information sharing. For the information inflow, all of the facets of social capital were significant; for the information outflow, however, only relational capital was significant. That is, with cognitive and structural capital, buyers perceive that they can receive appropriate information from suppliers yet be reluctant to provide information to suppliers. ,Given that relational capital is essential for the balanced information sharing in buyer-supplier relationship, firms should pay attention to having social interactions with partners to promote trust in the relationship for efficacy in information sharing. ,This is one of the first studies to explore the role of social capital in facilitating equivalent information sharing. This study develops a framework that social capital can provide valuable guidance in achieving equivalency of bi-directional information sharing.
Palmprint identification and verification based on wide principal lines through dynamic ROI

In this paper, a novel palmprint identification and verification algorithm is proposed based on wide principal lines through dynamic ROI. Region of interest ROI extraction is an important task for palmprint identification. Earlier reported works used fixed size ROI for the recognition of palmprints. When the fixed size ROI is used the palm area taken up for recognition is less compared to dynamic ROI extraction. The proposed algorithm focuses on extraction of maximum possible ROI. A set of wide principal line extractors are devised. Later these wide principal line extractors are used to extract the wide principal lines from dynamic ROI. A two stage palmprint identification algorithm is proposed based on wide principal lines. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed approach extracts better ROI on the PolyUPalmprint Database when compared to the existing fixed size and dynamic size ROI extraction techniques. The experimental results for the verification and identification on PolyUPalmprint Database show that the discrimination of wide principal lines is also strong.
The Failure of Eco-Neighborhood Projects in the City of Madrid (Spain)

The objective of this article is to analyze the implementation of eco-neighborhoods in the city of Madrid. This is a new formulation that joins, within neighborhood scale, purposes of environmental sustainability with social and economic aims. First, we make a general approach reviewing the initiatives proposed in the capital city and then we will make an analysis of the eco-neighborhood of Vallecas, the only one still working. We have looked through the official approach, the present bibliography, the official statements, the interpretations of the technicians, the resident’s opinions exposed in websites, social networks and press. The field research and the collection of information through conversations with the agents involved were the keys to verify the real results of the projects. We consider that the development and the conclusion of these initiatives have been a failure. The reasons are in its origin and the process of realization, but mainly in the confused premises that were the foundation of its design and localization. The absence of dialogue with neighbors and associations turned the official speeches and plans in something strange to the citizen’s necessities of the southern area, with the lowest rents of Madrid.
Reflection the Level of Disclosure on the Accounting Information Relevant Using Standards and Poor's Indicators

The purpose of this study was to measure the commitment of companies to apply the standards of transparency in financial reporting and to determine the reflection of disclosure according to Standards & Poor's (S&P) on the relevant of accounting information, Was used the Bartov model to measure the relevant of accounting information through the regression equation. Was used A sample of five commercial banks from the banks listed in the Iraqi Stock Exchange was used for five years from 2012 to 2016. was used S&P indicators to measure the level of disclosure of the sample banks: (1) In the case of disclosure and zero in case of disclosure, (2) The most important results were that the four banks (the Iraqi Investment Bank, Al-Mansour Investment Bank, Middle East Bank, and Commercial Bank of Iraq) were the arithmetic mean for the disclosure of index indices less than 50% for all disclosure indices according to S&P. More than 50% disclosure of S&P. This study found that there are many factors that lead to the value of accounting information, including the market value of shares and book value, in addition to the application of international financial reporting standards, and the disclosure of banks according to the Standards and Poor's, they affect very little.
Differential Evolution enhanced by neighborhood search

This paper presents a novel Differential Evolution (DE) algorithm, called DE enhanced by neighborhood search (DENS), which differs from pervious works of utilizing the neighborhood search in DE, such as DE with neighborhood search (NSDE) and self-adaptive DE with neighborhood search (SaNSDE). In DENS, we focus on searching the neighbors of individuals, while the latter two algorithms (NSDE and SaNSDE) work on the adaption of the control parameters F and CR. The proposed algorithm consists of two following main steps. First, for each individual, we create two trial individuals by local and global neighborhood search strategies. Second, we select the fittest one among the current individual and the two created trial individuals as a new current individual. Experimental studies on a comprehensive set of benchmark functions show that DENS achieves better results for a majority of test cases, when comparing with some other similar evolutionary algorithms.
Seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii antibodies in clinically ill cats in the United States.

OBJECTIVE To determine regional seroprevalence estimates of Toxoplasma gondi-specific IgM and IgG in clinically ill cats throughout the United States. Sample Population-Sera from 12,628 clinically ill, client-owned cats. PROCEDURE Toxoplasma gondii-specific IgM and IgG antibodies were detected by use of ELISAs. Sera from clinically ill cats previously submitted for T. gondii antibody testing were sequentially selected from our serum bank and the sample submission paperwork reviewed. The country was divided into 12 geographic regions. Overall prevalence as well as prevalence for each region, age group, season, sex (male vs female), and breed (domestic shorthair vs other) was calculated. Data were analyzed by logistic regression analysis. RESULTS Overall, 31.6% of the cats were seropositive for T. gondii-specific IgM, IgG, or both. Percentage of cats seropositive for T. gondii antibodies ranged from 16.1% (southwestern United States) to 43.5% (northeastern United States). As age increased, odds of positive T. gondii antibody assay results (IgM alone, IgG alone, and any combination of IgM or IgG) increased. Males were more likely than females to be seropositive for T. gondii antibodies (IgG alone and any combination of IgM or IgG). Domestic shorthair cats were more likely than other breeds to be seropositive for T. gondii antibodies (IgM alone, IgG alone, and any combination of IgM or IgG). CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE Toxoplasma gondii-specific antibodies are common in serum samples of clinically ill cats from all regions of the United States. Seroprevalence increases as cats age and is higher in male and domestic shorthair cats, compared with females and other breeds.
Modeling of information quality management in malaysian public sector: A pls-sem approach

In every organization, the importance of information is undeniable since it exerts prominent effects on all internal activities, ranging from strategy-devising to operational exercises. In the absence of high-quality information, an organization will not be able to adopt sound resolutions, which in turn squander opportunities and augment business risks. For decision-making processes, efficient and effective management of information is needed in order to make the same readily accessible as well as up to date. The aim of this research was to devise a model on information quality management with respect to the factors that had an impact on the quality of information. As such, there was a need to first evaluate the relationship of the aforementioned factors with information quality. A questionnaire was utilized to obtain quantitative data from Malaysian public organizations. There were 273 respondents (response rate: 63.5%) responses for which the data was assessed via partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The findings show that top management commitment, policy, training, record and information management, employee involvement, continuous improvement, teamwork, customer focus, innovation, and information supplier management are capable of acting as a predictor for the information quality products managed in organization. However, benchmarking, employee empowerment, and reward are found incapable to act as a predictor for information quality. Apart from being suitable for use as a source of guidance in organizational implementation and evaluation of information quality, these results could improve the information quality management measures as well, which in turn enhances service-delivery, particularly in public organizations.
Using Light to Control Dynamic Surface Tensions of Aqueous Solutions of Water Soluble Surfactants

We report the use of UV light to control the dynamic surface tensions of mixed surfactant systems containing sodium dodecyl sulfate, SDS, and 4,4‘-bis(trimethylammoniumhexyloxy)azobenzene bromide, BTHA. The light influences the dynamic surface tension of these solutions by driving the isomerization of the azobenzene moiety from cis to trans. By combining use of the du Nouy ring, maximum bubble pressure, and Wilhelmy plate methods to measure dynamic and equilibrium surface tensions, the dynamic surface tension of an illuminated aqueous solution of these surfactants is demonstrated to be up to 25 mN/m lower than the dynamic surface tension of a solution not previously exposed to UV light. In contrast, the equilibrium surface tensions of these solutions change by less than 2 mN/m upon illumination. Measurements of quasi-elastic and static light scattering from these mixed surfactant solutions support our hypothesis that illumination influences the dynamic surface tension through its effect on the state of ag.
Hsp90 Maintains Proteostasis of the Galactose Utilization Pathway To Prevent Cell Lethality

ABSTRACT Hsp90 is a molecular chaperone that aids in the folding of its metastable client proteins. Past studies have shown that it can exert a strong impact on some cellular pathways by controlling key regulators. However, it is unknown whether several components of a single pathway are collectively regulated by Hsp90. Here, we observe that Hsp90 influences the protein abundance of multiple Gal proteins and the efficiency of galactose utilization even after the galactose utilization pathway (GAL pathway) is fully induced. The effect of Hsp90 on Gal proteins is not at the transcriptional level. Moreover, Gal1 is found to physically interact with Hsp90, and its stability is reduced in low-Hsp90 cells. When Hsp90 is compromised, several Gal proteins form protein aggregates that colocalize with the disaggregase Hsp104. These results suggest that Gal1 and other Gal proteins are probably the clients of Hsp90. An unbalanced GAL pathway has been known to cause fatal growth arrest due to accumulation of toxic galactose metabolic intermediates. It is likely that Hsp90 chaperones multiple Gal proteins to maintain proteostasis and prevent cell lethality especially in a fluctuating environment.
Clinical impact of thrombectomy in acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction: an individual patient-data pooled analysis of 11 trials.

AIMS Thrombectomy in patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is associated to better myocardial reperfusion. However, no single trial was adequately powered to asses the impact of thrombectomy on long-term clinical outcome and to identify patients at higher benefit. Thus, we sought to assess these issues in a collaborative individual patient-data pooled analysis of randomized studies (study acronym: ATTEMPT, number of registration: NCT00766740). METHODS AND RESULTS Individual data of 2686 patients enrolled in 11 trials entered the pooled analysis. Primary endpoint of the study was all-cause mortality. Major adverse cardiac events (MACE) were considered as the occurrence of all-cause death and/or target lesion/vessel revascularization and/or myocardial infarction (MI). Subgroups analysis was planned according to type of thrombectomy device (manual or non-manual), diabetic status, IIb/IIIa-inhibitor therapy, ischaemic time, infarct-related artery, pre-PCI TIMI flow. Clinical follow-up was available in 2674 (99.6%) patients at a median of 365 days. Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that allocation to thrombectomy was associated with significantly lower all-cause mortality (P = 0.049). Thrombectomy was also associated with significantly reduced MACE (P = 0.011) and death + MI rate during the follow-up (P = 0.015). Subgroups analysis showed that thrombectomy is associated to improved survival in patients treated with IIb/IIIa-inhibitors (P = 0.045) and that the survival benefit is confined to patients treated in manual thrombectomy trials (P = 0.011). CONCLUSION The present large pooled analysis of randomized trials suggests that thrombectomy (in particular manual thrombectomy) significantly improves the clinical outcome in patients with STEMI undergoing mechanical reperfusion and that its effect may be additional to that of IIb/IIIa-inhibitors.