Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Gasification reactor engineering approach to understanding the formation of biochar properties

The correlation between thermochemical provenance and biochar functionality is poorly understood. To this end, operational reactor temperatures (spanning the reduction zone), pressure and product gas composition measurements were obtained from a downdraft gasifier and compared against elemental composition, surface morphology and polyaromatic hydrocarbon content (PAH) of the char produced. Pine feedstock moisture with values of 7% and 17% was the experimental variable. Moderately high steady-state temperatures were observed inside the reactor, with a ca 50°C difference in how the gasifier operated between the two feedstock types. Both chars exhibited surface properties comparable to activated carbon, but the relatively small differences in temperature caused significant variations in biochar surface area and morphology: micropore area 584 against 360 m2 g−1, and micropore volume 0.287 against 0.172 cm3 g−1. Differences in char extractable PAH content were also observed, with higher concentrations (187 µg g−1 ± 18 compared with 89 ± 19 µg g−1 Σ16EPA PAH) when the gasifier was operated with higher moisture content feedstock. It is recommended that greater detail on operational conditions during biochar production should be incorporated to future biochar characterization research as a consequence of these results.
The Transcription Factor REST Is Lost in Aggressive Breast Cancer

The function of the tumor suppressor RE1 silencing transcription factor (REST) is lost in colon and small cell lung cancers and is known to induce anchorage-independent growth in human mammary epithelial cells. However, nothing is currently known about the role of this tumor suppressor in breast cancer. Here, we test the hypothesis that loss of REST function plays a role in breast cancer. To assay breast tumors for REST function, we developed a 24-gene signature composed of direct targets of the transcriptional repressor. Using the 24- gene signature, we identified a previously undefined RESTless breast tumor subtype. Using gene set enrichment analysis, we confirmed the aberrant expression of REST target genes in the REST–less tumors, including neuronal gene targets of REST that are normally not expressed outside the nervous system. Examination of REST mRNA identified a truncated splice variant of REST present in the REST–less tumor population, but not other tumors. Histological analysis of 182 outcome-associated breast tumor tissues also identified a subpopulation of tumors that lack full-length, functional REST and over-express the neuroendocrine marker and REST target gene Chromogranin A. Importantly, patients whose tumors were found to be REST–less using either the 24-gene signature or histology had significantly poorer prognosis and were more than twice as likely to undergo disease recurrence within the first 3 years after diagnosis. We show here that REST function is lost in breast cancer, at least in part via an alternative splicing mechanism. Patients with REST–less breast cancer undergo significantly more early disease recurrence than those with fully functional REST, regardless of estrogen receptor or HER2 status. Importantly, REST status may serve as a predictor of poor prognosis, helping to untangle the heterogeneity inherent in disease course and response to treatment. Additionally, the alternative splicing observed in REST–less breast cancer is an attractive therapeutic target.
Smoking, alcohol and lipoprotein metabolism

Daily smoking and use of alcohol have a many-fold influence on lipid metabolism. The relations between HDL-cholesterol, alcohol use and smoking are well known. During recent years, the influence of smoking on postprandial lipid and glucose metabolism, and on insulin sensitivity in particular, has gained increasing attention. In addition, new data have emerged about the oxidative properties of alcohol use and smoking. As life habits tend to show clustering, isolating mechanisms responsible for the lipid changes induced by smoking or alcohol per se is difficult and is one factor causing contradiction in this study area.
Generalized transformed Hough: Segmentation of Contours in Angiographic Images

The morphologic and functional study of cardiovascular system is of vital importance because problems related to this system are one of the main causes of mortality in the world. It is important to mention that the left ventricle (VI) is the most susceptible to suffer severe damage, in diseases, such as arterial hypertension, mellitus diabetes or arteriosclerosis. This article presents a new methodology directed to segmentation of left ventricular contours, in angiographic images by using Generalized Hough Transform (TGH). It is important to obtain the ventricular edge, because analyzing processes of systole and diastole end, it is possible to calculate parameters of the cardiac functionality as the end-diastolic volume, end systolic volume, ejection fraction, cardiac output, Hyperkineticos, Hypokineticos segments, and normal; in this work we focus only on the removal of the same.
Secure login by using One-time Password authentication based on MD5 Hash encrypted SMS

The combination of One Time Password (OTP), SMS Gateway, and MD5 Hash encryption algorithm are used to develop a more secured login procedure to access the web-based Academic Information System. The code to be encrypted consists of Student ID, phone number, and access time. The System needs three minutes for security login with SMS-based OTP. The constraint is narrowing the time for hackers to tap and infiltrate. This delay time is an average obtained from the survey among several service providers in Indonesia. The code generated from the system is better than Pseudo Random Number Generator (PRNG) in that the resulting code is never the same.
ASSESSMENT OF SELECTED RHEOLOGICAL PROPERTIES OF POLYMER MODIFIED BITUMENS APPLIED IN POLAND

The research described in this paper attempted to extend the present state of knowledge on rheological properties of polymer modified binders. The focus was on the influence of base bitumen type and polymer content on the phenomenon of creep and elastic recovery of bituminous binders. D70 and D200, two domestic Polish penetration grade road bitumens were used in the laboratory tests. Three types of polymers were used to modify these polymers, with amount of polymer added was either 4%, 6%, or 8%.
Joint part-of-speech and dependency projection from multiple sources

Most previous work on annotation projection has been limited to a subset of IndoEuropean languages, using only a single source language, and projecting annotation for one task at a time. In contrast, we present an Integer Linear Programming (ILP) algorithm that simultaneously projects annotation for multiple tasks from multiple source languages, relying on parallel corpora available for hundreds of languages. When training POS taggers and dependency parsers on jointly projected POS tags and syntactic dependencies using our algorithm, we obtain better performance than a standard approach on 20/23 languages using one parallel corpus; and 18/27 languages using another.
Markovian primary traffics in Cognitive Radio networks

In this paper, we propose a solution to the multimedia transmission problem over Cognitive Radio networks in lossy environments. For a Cognitive Radio network where the spectrum is owned by Primary Users (PUs) that have a Markovian traffic, Secondary Users are allowed to share these spectral resources using the Time Division Multiple Access method based on the Opportunistic Spectrum Sharing. Each Secondary User (SU) is assigned one time slot where he usually transmits. The given model allows each SU to transmit in the remaining slots if he has data to transfer and has missed his own slot. Therefore, packets are not only lost by reason of Primary traffic interruptions, but also we consider losses caused by collisions between several SUs due to our specific time slot allocation. We use a duplication-based approach to setup up many Secondary User Links (SULs) in order to minimize the collision effects. Numerical simulations, in view of the Spectral Efficiency, show that the system still exhibit good secondary traffic robustness despite of the presence of primary interferences and secondary collisions.
The Effect of Age and Gender on Pressure Pain Thresholds and Suprathreshold Stimuli

Objectives: The study investigates the impact of age and gender on (1) experimental pressure pain detection thresholds (PPDT) and pressure pain tolerance thresholds (PPTolT) and (2) participants' self-reports of pain intensity and unpleasantness at suprathreshold and subthreshold levels. Methods: twenty young (20–34, mean age = 24.6 ± 3.6 years, ten female) and twenty elderly (65–88, mean age = 73.6 ± 6.6 years, ten female) healthy volunteers were compared. Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE 28–30) assessed intact cognitive functioning. Pain thresholds were assessed together with the sensory intensity ratings to 1.3 x PPDT (pain) and 0.2 x PPDT (no pain). Results: PPDT and PPTolT significantly decreased with age and were lower in young females as compared with young males. No gender differences were observed in the elderly group. PPDT decreased significantly with age in males but not in females. Conversely, the intensity and unpleasantness of the pain stimulus were significantly rated lower in the elderly as compared with the young. No gender differences were observed in the report of intensity and unpleasantness of the stimulations. Discussion: a mismatch in pain sensitivity, tolerance, and pain self-reports was observed. Findings suggest that pain experiences in the elderly differ from the experiences in the young on multiple dimensions: sensory, affective, and cognitive. Findings may also indicate that the elderly appraise pain experiences using different psychological strategies.
Effective degrees of freedom : a flawed metaphor

To most applied statisticians, a fitting procedure’s degrees of freedom is synonymous with its model complexity, or its capacity for overfitting to data. In particular, it is often used to parameterize the bias-variance tradeoff in model selection. We argue that, on the contrary, model complexity and degrees of freedom may correspond very poorly. We exhibit and theoretically 10 explore various fitting procedures for which degrees of freedom is not monotonic in the model complexity parameter, and can exceed the total dimension of the ambient space even in very simple settings. We show that the degrees of freedom for any non-convex projection method can be unbounded.
Use of Positron Emission Tomography for Real-Time Imaging of Biodistribution of Green Tea Catechin

The aim of this study was to achieve real-time imaging of the in vivo behavior of a green tea polyphenol, catechin, by positron emission tomography (PET). Positron-labeled 4″ -[11C]methyl-epigallocatechin gallate ([11C]Me-EGCG) was orally administered to rats, and its biodistribution was imaged for 60 min by using a small animal PET system. As the result, images of [11C]Me-EGCG passing through the stomach into the small intestines were observed; and a portion of it was quantitatively detected in the liver. On the other hand, intravenous injection of [11C]Me-EGCG resulted in a temporal accumulation of the labeled catechin in the liver, after which almost all of it was transferred to the small intestines within 60 min. In the present study, we succeeded in obtaining real-time imaging of the absorption and biodistribution of [11C]Me-EGCG with a PET system.
Programming Scalable Cloud Services with AEON

Designing low-latency cloud-based applications that are adaptable to unpredictable workloads and efficiently utilize modern cloud computing platforms is hard. The actor model is a popular paradigm that can be used to develop distributed applications: actors encapsulate state and communicate with each other by sending events. Consistency is guaranteed if each event only accesses a single actor, thus eliminating potential data races and deadlocks. However it is nontrivial to provide consistency for concurrent events spanning across multiple actors. This paper addresses this problem by introducing AEON: a framework that provides the following properties: (i) Programmability: programmers only need to reason about sequential semantics when reasoning about concurrency resulting from multi-actor events; (ii) Scalability: AEON runtime protocol guarantees serializable and starvation-free execution of multi-actor events, while maximizing parallel execution; (iii) Elasticity: AEON supports fine-grained elasticity enabling the programmer to transparently migrate individual actors without violating the consistency or entailing significant performance overheads. Our empirical results show that it is possible to combine the best of all the above three worlds without compromising on the application performance.
Meals with similar energy densities but rich in protein, fat, carbohydrate, or alcohol have different effects on energy expenditure and substrate metabolism but not on appetite and energy intake.

BACKGROUND It has been suggested that the satiating power of the 4 macronutrients follows the oxidation hierarchy: alcohol > protein > carbohydrate > fat. However, the experimental evidence for this is still scarce. OBJECTIVE The goal was to investigate the effects on appetite, energy intake and expenditure, and substrate metabolism of meals rich in 1 of the 4 macronutrients. DESIGN Subjective appetite sensations, ad libitum food intake, energy expenditure, substrate metabolism, and hormone concentrations were measured for 5 h after breakfast meals with similar energy density and fiber contents but rich in either protein (32% of energy), carbohydrate (65% of energy), fat (65% of energy), or alcohol (23% of energy). Subjects were normal-weight, healthy women (n = 9) and men (n = 10) studied in a crossover design. RESULTS There were no significant differences in hunger or satiety sensations or in ad libitum energy intake after the 4 meals. Diet-induced thermogenesis was larger after the alcohol meal (by 27%; P < 0.01), whereas protein produced an intermediary response (17%; NS) compared with carbohydrate and fat (meal effect: P < 0.01). After the alcohol meal, fat oxidation and leptin concentrations were greatly suppressed (meal effects, P < 0.0001 and P < 0.05) and triacylglycerol concentrations were as high as after the fat meal. CONCLUSION Intake of an alcohol-rich meal stimulates energy expenditure but suppresses fat oxidation and leptin more than do isoenergetically dense meals rich in protein, carbohydrate, or fat. Despite differences in substrate metabolism and hormone concentrations, satiety and ad libitum energy intake were not significantly different between meals. Our data, therefore, do not support the proposed relation between the macronutrient oxidation hierarchy and the satiety hierarchy.
VICO: A framework for configuring indoor visible light communication networks

Visible light communications (VLC) are gaining popularity and may provide an alternative means of communications in indoor settings. However, to date, there is very little research on the deployment or higher layer protocol design for VLC. In this paper, we first perform channel measurements using a physical layer testbed in the visible light band to understand its physical layer characteristics. Our measurements suggest that in order to increase data rates with VLC (1) the beam width of a communicating link can be shrunk, and (2) the transmission beam can be tuned to point towards the target recipient. We then perform Matlab simulations to verify that the human eye is able to accommodate the changes brought by shrinking a beam or by tuning the beam direction appropriately. As our main contribution, we then design a configuration framework for a VLC indoor local area network, which we call VICO; we leverage the above features towards achieving the highest throughput while maintaining fairness. VICO first tunes the beamwidths and pointing angles of the transmitters to configurations that provide the highest throughput for each client. It then tries to schedule transmissions while accounting for conflicts and the VLC PHY characteristics. Finally, it opportunistically tunes the idle LEDs to reinforce existing transmissions to increase throughput to the extent possible. We perform extensive simulations to demonstrate the effectiveness of VICO. We find that VICO provides as much as 5-fold increase in throughput compared to a simple scheduler that does not exploit the possible variations in beamwidth or beam-angle.
Development of a multiplex assay for genus- and species-specific detection of Phytophthora based on differences in mitochondrial gene order.

A molecular diagnostic assay for Phytophthora spp. that is specific, sensitive, has both genus- and species-specific detection capabilities multiplexed, and can be used to systematically develop markers for detection of a wide range of species would facilitate research and regulatory efforts. To address this need, a marker system was developed based on the high copy sequences of the mitochondrial DNA utilizing gene orders that were highly conserved in the genus Phytophthora but different in the related genus Pythium and plants to reduce the importance of highly controlled annealing temperatures for specificity. An amplification primer pair designed from conserved regions of the atp9 and nad9 genes produced an amplicon of ≈340 bp specific for the Phytophthora spp. tested. The TaqMan probe for the genus-specific Phytophthora test was designed from a conserved portion of the atp9 gene whereas variable intergenic spacer sequences were used for designing the species-specific TaqMan probes. Specific probes were developed for 13 species and the P. citricola species complex. In silico analysis suggests that species-specific probes could be developed for at least 70 additional described and provisional species; the use of locked nucleic acids in TaqMan probes should expand this list. A second locus spanning three tRNAs (trnM-trnP-trnM) was also evaluated for genus-specific detection capabilities. At 206 bp, it was not as useful for systematic development of a broad range of species-specific probes as the larger 340-bp amplicon. All markers were validated against a test panel that included 87 Phytophthora spp. , 14 provisional Phytophthora spp. , 29 Pythium spp. , 1 Phytopythium sp. , and 39 plant species. Species-specific probes were validated further against a range of geographically diverse isolates to ensure uniformity of detection at an intraspecific level, as well as with other species having high levels of sequence similarity to ensure specificity. Both diagnostic assays were also validated against 130 environmental samples from a range of hosts. The only limitation observed was that primers for the 340 bp atp9-nad9 locus did not amplify Phytophthora bisheria or P. frigida. The identification of species present in a sample can be determined without the need for culturing by sequencing the genus-specific amplicon and comparing that with a reference sequence database of known Phytophthora spp.
Predicted HST FOC and broad band colours for young and intermediate simple stellar populations

This paper presents theoretical HST and broad band colours from population synthesis models based on an homogeneous set of stellar evolutionary tracks as com- puted under canonical (no overshooting) assumptions, covering the range of cluster ages from t =8 Myr to t= 5 Gyr for three dierent metallicities (Z =0 :02, 0:006, and 0:001). Statistical fluctuations in the cluster population have been investigated, assessing the predicted fluctuations of the various colours as a function of the clus- ter integrated absolute magnitude. We show that the red leak in HST UV lters deeply aects the predicted fluxes and colours. However, we nd that for F152M F307M 0.5 and for F170M F278M 0.5 (which means ages lower than 1 Gyr) the HST UV colours can still be used to infer reliable indications on the age of dis- tant clusters. Moreover, one nds that the age calibra- tion of these colours is scarcely aected by the amount of original helium or by the assumed IMF. On this ba- sis, we present a calibration of the HST UV two-colours (F152M F307M vs. F170M F278M) in terms of clus- ter ages for the three above quoted metallicities. We sug- gest the combined use of HST UV colours and IR colours (V K in particular) to disentangle the metallicity-age eect in integrated colours of young stellar populations (t 1G yr).
Acute exacerbation of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis associated with air pollution exposure

Acute exacerbations of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis are associated with high mortality and are of unknown cause. The effect of air pollution on exacerbations of interstitial lung disease is unknown. This study aims to define the association of air pollution exposure with acute exacerbation of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and corresponding air pollution data were identified from a longitudinal cohort. Air pollution exposures were assigned to each patient for ozone, nitrogen dioxide, particulate matter, sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide based on geo-coded residential addresses. Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate the association of air pollution exposures and acute exacerbations. Acute exacerbation was significantly associated with antecedent 6-week increases in mean level, maximum level and number of exceedances above accepted standards of ozone (hazard ratio (HR) 1.57, 95% CI 1.09–2.24; HR 1.42, 95% CI 1.11–1.82; and HR 1.51, 95% CI 1.17–1.94, respectively) and nitrogen dioxide (HR 1.41, 95% CI 1.04–1.91; HR 1.27, 95% CI 1.01–1.59; and HR 1.20, 95% CI 1.10–1.31, respectively). Increased ozone and nitrogen dioxide exposure over the preceding 6 weeks was associated with an increased risk of acute exacerbation of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, suggesting that air pollution may contribute to the development of this clinically meaningful event. Acute exacerbation of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is associated with increased ozone and nitrogen dioxide exposure http://ow.ly/t1vzw
Biocompatibility of two commercial forms of mineral trioxide aggregate.

AIM To examine the biocompatibility of two commercial forms of mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA), by evaluating the morphology of an established cell line. METHODOLOGY The two cements were cast on glass cover slips and cured for 1 or 28 days. Saos-2 osteosarcoma cells were trypsinized and seeded at a density of 1 x 10(5) cells and were then placed in medium over the material-coated coverslips for 1, 5 and 7 days. After these time intervals the media were discarded and the cells fixed. Cell morphological investigation was performed by scanning electron microscopy at various magnifications ranging from x 250 to x 500. The biocompatibility of cement constituents, alusilicate flux and bismuth oxide was also investigated. RESULTS All cement samples cured for 1 day showed a confluent cell monolayer after 5 and 7 days. The response to both materials was similar. Materials cured for 28 days showed incomplete cell confluence after 1 and 5 days. Alusilicate flux and bismuth oxide did not demonstrate biocompatibility. CONCLUSIONS The 1-day cured samples of two commercial forms of MTA showed good biocompatibility. However, the 28-day cured samples were less biocompatible after 1 and 5 days.