Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Alternative Concept for the Structure of an X-Ray Emitting $Z$ -Pinch

We propose a more nuanced view of the structure of the X-ray emitting plasma in a Z -pinch. There are four relevant observations. First, in K-shell emitting Z -pinches, K-shell pulsewidth and K-shell pinch diameter seem linearly correlated. Second, on a given generator, peak K-power is not strongly correlated with the K-yield. Third, we sometimes see very narrow ? filaments? (as small as 100-? m in diameter, using a camera based on digital imaging plates) of intense K-shell emission that can extend for over a centimeter axially. Yet, on most shots, the observed pinch structure is quite amorphous; pinches with large average diameter show the least structural detail. Fourth, power flow losses upstream of the pinch within 10 ns of the start of K emission correlate with reduced K-yield. These observations can be reconciled if apparent pinch ? diameter? is actually due to the transverse (radial) motion of the filaments. That is, the filaments are kink unstable, with transverse velocity on the order of ~ 40 cm/? s (in argon). Hence, a large pulsewidth pinch shows no filaments because time-integrated pinhole images are blurred by motion of the filament(s). Thus, the basic K radiating ? elements? of a pinch are a few thin (~ 0.1 mm), long (few millimeters), and high-density filaments that can propagate for many millimeters axially. Each filament radiates at a relatively fixed peak power. Implied ion densities in a filament are > 1020 /cm3 with actual temperatures that are well below values commonly reported (> 1.5 keV). Overall, yield will depend on the duration of the pinch which is due to the lifetime of the filament(s) rather than a transit time based on a ? sound speed. The continued push from the magnetic field controls the filament lifetime. Hence, late time power flow losses can reduce the field and hence the filament lifetime and the K-yield. This interpretation of a pinch is in contrast to the notion of a many-millimeter-wide column of hot plasma that simply radiates away the energy that was accumulated during the implosion.
Learning Monotonic Genotype-Phenotype Maps

Evolutionary escape of pathogens from the selective pressure of immune responses and from medical interventions is driven by the accumulation of mutations. We introduce a statistical model for jointly estimating the dynamics and dependencies among genetic alterations and the associated phenotypic changes. The model integrates conjunctive Bayesian networks, which define a partial order on the occurrences of genetic events, with isotonic regression. The resulting genotype-phenotype map is non-decreasing in the lattice of genotypes. It describes evolutionary escape as a directed process following a phenotypic gradient, such as a monotonic fitness landscape. We present efficient algorithms for parameter estimation and model selection. The model is validated using simulated data and applied to HIV drug resistance data. We find that the effect of many resistance mutations is non-linear and depends on the genetic background in which they occur.
Compatible Reward Inverse Reinforcement Learning

Inverse Reinforcement Learning (IRL) is an effective approach to recover a reward function that explains the behavior of an expert by observing a set of demonstrations. This paper is about a novel model-free IRL approach that, differently from most of the existing IRL algorithms, does not require to specify a function space where to search for the expert's reward function. Leveraging on the fact that the policy gradient needs to be zero for any optimal policy, the algorithm generates a set of basis functions that span the subspace of reward functions that make the policy gradient vanish. Within this subspace, using a second-order criterion, we search for the reward function that penalizes the most a deviation from the expert's policy. After introducing our approach for finite domains, we extend it to continuous ones. The proposed approach is empirically compared to other IRL methods both in the (finite) Taxi domain and in the (continuous) Linear Quadratic Gaussian (LQG) and Car on the Hill environments.
A Novel Power Converter Topology for Electrostatic Precipitators

In this paper, we introduced an improved transformer-based parallel-resonant converter, suitable for high voltage, high power dc loads. The resonant capacitors are connected in parallel with diodes of the high voltage rectifier, thus restraining dv/dt stress in high voltage circuits. The LC tank resonant frequency is well beyond the switching frequency, reducing in this way the VA rating of LC components. With rated load, the output current of the IGBT bridge is equal to zero at switching instants, and the switching losses are very low. Proposed subresonant circuit requires lower primary current for the given output power and it has reduced IGBT losses. Experimental setup delivers 79 kW with an efficiency of 96.78%. The paper explains the switching states of the devised topology, and provides the guidelines for designing the power transformer, the LC tank and controls. Analytical prediction of the performance curves is verified both in laboratory and by the field tests with an electrostatic precipitator plant.
Conceptual Design of a Mobile Application for Geography Fieldwork Learning

The use of mobile applications on smartphones has a vast potential to support learning in the field. However, all learning technologies should be properly designed. To this end, we adopt User-Centered Design (UCD) to design a mobile application, called GeoFARA (Geography Fieldwork Augmented Reality Application), for university geography fieldwork. This paper is about the conceptual design of GeoFARA based on its use and user requirements. The paper first establishes a review of selected existing mobile AR applications for outdoor use, in order to identify the innovative aspects and the improvements of GeoFARA. Thereafter, we present the results of use and user requirements derived from (1) an online survey of the current use of tools in undergraduate geography fieldwork, (2) a field experiment in which the use of paper maps and a mobile mapping tool were compared, (3) investigations during a human geography fieldwork, (4) post-fieldwork surveys among undergraduates from two universities, (5) our use case, and (6) a use scenario. Based on these requirements, a conceptual design of GeoFARA is provided in terms of technical specifications, main contents, functionalities, as well as user interactions and interfaces. This conceptual design will guide the future prototype development of GeoFARA.
Numerical analysis of multiple red blood cells in capillary vessels

Blood flow in a capillary vessel with the hematocrit about 24% is simulated numerically. The immersed boundary method is used for the fluid-red blood cells interaction. The membrane of the red blood cell is modeled as a hyper-elastic thin shell. The numerical results show that the increase of the shear coefficient results in an increase of the pressure drop in the blood flow in capillary vessels in order to sustain the same flux rate of red blood cells.
The Role of Prostanoids in Atopic Dermatitis

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a common pruritic and chronic inflammatory skin disease, with a prevalence of up to 3% among adults and up to 25% among children (Bieber; GuttmanYassky et al.; Odhiambo et al., 2009). The clinical features of AD are varied, with patients generally having dry skin, but wet eczematous lesions in the acute stage and lichenification lesions in the chronic stage (Guttman-Yassky et al., 2011). In terms of histology, an increased number of lymphocytes, eosinophils, and mast cells in the dermis are detected. A barrier defect with decreased cornification and epidermal hyperplasia are also characteristic features of AD (Elias and Schmuth, 2009; Guttman-Yassky et al., 2009). AD is a multi-factorial disease that arises from complex interaction between genetic and environmental factors. As for its pathogenesis, two models have been proposed: the outside-in model and the inside-out model (Bieber, 2008). In the outside-in model, the decreased skin barrier function caused by genetic defects, such as mutations in filaggrin, allows for the penetration of large immunogenic proteins, which subsequently cause T helper type 2 (Th2) deviated immune activation (Elias et al., 2008; Elias and Schmuth, 2009). In the inside-out model, activation of Th2 cells results in reactive epidermal hyperplasia (Nograles et al.; Ong and Leung, 2006). It has been proposed that the lack of environmental antigens during childhood lead to reduced T helper type 1 (Th1) cellmediated immunity and increased activation of Th2 cells (hygiene hypothesis). In recent reports, involvements of T helper type 17 (Th17) cells and T helper type 22 (Th22) cells have also been proposed (Koga et al., 2008; Nograles et al., 2009). As for the treatment of AD, various therapies have been employed, and the use of topical steroids plays a major role in therapies (Guttman-Yassky et al.). Although the use of topical corticosteroids is the first-line therapy and provides rapid relief of symptoms, prolonged use can cause severe side effects such as skin atrophy. Therefore, alternative therapies with fewer and less extreme side effects are needed.
On the design of the ROBO-PARTNER Intra-factory logistics autonomous robot

The trends of manufacturing have now begun to call for a more adaptive and dynamic shop floor in the automation industry. The advancements in mobile robotics of recent decades have inspired and cemented a belief that multiple autonomous mobile robotic agents, often cooperatively sharing the workspace with humans, will significantly contribute to a truly flexible shop floor of the future. This article reports on the design specifications for one such robotic agent, the Intra-factory Mobile Assistant Unit (IMAU), able to carry material boxes between supermarkets and assembly stations, dynamically avoiding obstacles, throughout the shop floor. The solution will make shop floor logistics more flexible, reduce the allocated space for buffers, and, also, ease the human workload. The article will cover the sensing, actuation, communication, software architecture, and the seamless integration into the plant's execution system, which shape the autonomous logistics robot to be deployed into a working automotive shop floor during the ROBO-PARTNER project.
Malignant osteopetrosis manifested as juvenile chronic myeloid leukemia.

Juvenile chronic myelogenous leukemia (JCML) is a clonal panmyelopathy associated with an elevated leukocyte count with a relatively high proportion of myelomonoblasts, normoblasts, lymphocytes and monocytes, splenomegaly, and a decreased or normal LAP score. Bone marrow shows erythroid and myeloid hyperplasia. JCML is distinguished from adult chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), both clinically and by laboratory tests. Clinically, the patients suffer from typical rashes, organomegaly, including the liver, spleen and lymph nodes, bleeding phenomena, and a relatively rapid course. The typical laboratory findings are elevated fetal hemoglobin, immunodeficiency, thrombocytopenia, and leukocytosis with prominent involvement of the monocytic series and an absence of Ph chromosome or bor rearrangement.1,2 A selective increased response to granulocyte macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) by hematopoietic cells appears to be involved in the pathogenesis of the disease.3
Crystal structure of the noncompetitive xylanase inhibitor TLXI, member of the small thaumatin‐like protein family

Crystal structure of the noncompetitive xylanase inhibitor TLXI, member of the small thaumatin-like protein family Elien Vandermarliere, Willem Lammens, Jan Schoepe, Sigrid Rombouts, Ellen Fierens, Kurt Gebruers, Guido Volckaert, Anja Rabijns, Jan A. Delcour, Sergei V. Strelkov, and Christophe M. Courtin* 1Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Laboratory for Biocrystallography, Leuven 3000, Belgium 2Department of Biology, Laboratory of Molecular Plant Physiology, Leuven 3001, Belgium 3Department of Biosystems, Laboratory of Gene Technology, Leuven 3001, Belgium 4Department of Molecular and Microbial Systems, Laboratory of Food Chemistry and Biochemistry, Leuven 3001, Belgium
Schur complement of general H‐matrices

It is well known that the Schur complement of some H‐matrices is an H‐matrix. In this paper, the Schur complement of any general H‐matrix is studied. In particular, it is proved that the Schur complement, if it exists, is an H‐matrix and the class to which the Schur complement belongs is studied. In addition, results are given for singular irreducible H‐matrices and for the Schur complement of nonsingular irreducible H‐matrices. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
ICTV Virus Taxonomy Profile: Secoviridae

Members of the family Secoviridae are non-enveloped viruses with mono- or bipartite (RNA-1 and RNA-2) linear positive-sense ssRNA genomes with the size of the RNAs combined ranging from 9 to 13.7 kb. They are related to picornaviruses and are classified in the order Picornavirales. The majority of known members infect dicotyledonous plants and many are important plant pathogens (e.g. grapevine fanleaf virus and rice tungro spherical virus). This is a summary of the current International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) report on the taxonomy of the family Secoviridae available at www.ictv. global/report/secoviridae.
Multi-way classification for large scale visual object dataset

ImageNet dataset [1] with more than 14M images and 21K classes makes the problem of visual classification more difficult to deal with. One of the most difficult tasks is to train a fast and accurate classifier. In this paper, we address this challenge by extending the state-of-the-art large scale classifier Power Mean SVM (PmSVM) proposed by Jianxin Wu [2] in three ways: (1) An incremental learning for PmSVM, (2) A balanced bagging algorithm for training binary classifiers, (3) Parallelize the training process of classifiers with several multicore computers. Our approach is evaluated on 1K classes of ImageNet (ILSVRC 1000 [3]). The evaluation shows that our approach can save up to 82.01% memory usage and the training process is 255 times faster than the original implementation and 1276 times faster than the state-of-the-art linear classifier (LIBLINEAR [4]).
Tunable Photonic Microwave Notch Filter With Negative Coefficient Based on Polarization Modulation

A novel tunable photonic microwave notch filter with negative and positive coefficients is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The coefficients can be achieved by polarization modulation along with an electrical signal. The two polarization-modulated signals, which have a relative time delay, are combined, and detected by a photodetector. The transfer response of the filter shows a very stable operation irrespective of the coherence length of the source used. Moreover, the free spectral range of the filter, which shows a sharp notch, can be changed by using a tunable differential group delay generator over the range of 3.16-4.31 GHz
Spray drying of a poorly water-soluble drug nanosuspension for tablet preparation: formulation and process optimization with bioavailability evaluation

Abstract Spray drying experiments of an itraconazole nanosuspension were conducted to generate a dry nanocrystal powder which was subsequently formulated into a tablet formulation for direct compression. The nanosuspension was prepared by high pressure homogenization and characterized for particle-size distribution and surface morphology. A central composite statistical design approach was applied to identify the optimal drug-to-excipient ratio and spray drying temperature. It was demonstrated that the spray drying of a nanosuspension with a mannitol-to-drug mass ratio of 4.5 and at an inlet temperature of 120 °C resulted in a dry powder with the smallest increase in particle size as compared with that of the nanosuspension. X-ray diffraction results indicated that the crystalline structure of the drug was not altered during the spray-drying process. The tablet formulation was identified by determining the micromeritic properties such as flowability and compressibility of the powder mixtures composed of the spray dried nanocrystal powder and other commonly used direct compression excipients. The dissolution rate of the nanocrystal tablets was significantly enhanced and was found to be comparable to that of the marketed Sporanox®. No statistically significant difference in oral absorption between the nanocrystal tablets and Sporanox® capsules was found. In conclusion, the nanosuspension approach is feasible to improve the oral absorption of a BCS Class II drug in a tablet formulation and capable of achieving oral bioavailability equivalent to other well established oral absorption enhancement method.
Diagnostic assays with monoclonal antibodies for the human serum parvovirus-like virus (SPLV)

SUMMARY Monoclonal antibodies to the serum parovirus-like virus (SPLV) were prepared by the hybridoma technique. They provided an antibody reagent which was used to develop solid phase antibody-capture assays for anti-SPLV IgM and IgG and for SPLV antigen. These assays were more sensitive than those based on human convalescent antibody as a reagent, and were more economical in the use of SPLV antigen. Their use enabled the serological responses to SPLV to be studied more fully and their sensitivity revealed the extent of SPLV infection. SPLV antigen was detected in four patients by both counter-immuno electrophoresis (CIE) and radioimmunoassay (RIA) and in two others by RIA alone. Parvovirus particles were seen in all six by electron microscopy. The anti-SPLV IgM response was measured in patients infected by SPLV. It was strong 5–18 days after the onset of illness, then declined and was only detectable in trace amounts after 6 months. Anti-SPLV IgG was also formed early, and persisted for at least 6 months. In a survey of 310 blood donors anti-SPLV was detected in 134 (43%) by CIE, but in 190 (61 %) by IgG antibody capture RIA.
Zelda Foster

For nearly her entire career, Zelda Foster provided stellar leadership nationally and internationally in the areas of palliative and end-of-life care. As Chief of Social Work Service at what was then known as the Brooklyn VA, not only was she a strong advocate of the role of social work in health care practice, education, and research, but she was determined to prepare the next generation of social work leaders to expand and intensify the scope of social work practice in service to veterans and their communities. She took her role of “mentor” (although early in her career, she may not have called herself that) very seriously throughout in her tenure as a social work leader. Indeed, she received her own start as a mentor through her relationships with several professionals whom she readily credited helped secure her development as a clinician, manager and visionary (Foster & Corless, 1999). Her efforts to mentor social workers continued even more fervently after her retirement from
Reliability-Enhanced Separated Pre-Charge Sensing Amplifier for Hybrid CMOS/MTJ Logic Circuits

Benefitting from its non-volatility, low power, high speed, nearly infinite endurance, good scalability, and great CMOS compatibility, magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) embedded in conventional CMOS logic circuits has been proposed as one potentially powerful solution to introduce non-volatility in today’s programmable logic circuits, which is envisioned to extend Moore’s law. However, a critical issue in such hybrid CMOS/MTJ logic circuit is the reliable transmission of MTJ electric signals to the CMOS electronics, i.e., the requirement of nearly zero read/write error for logic applications. In this paper, a reliability-enhanced separated pre-charge sensing amplifier (RESPCSA) is proposed for hybrid CMOS/MTJ logic circuits. By adding two feedback paths with only two transistors between its discharge and evaluation terminal, such proposed RESPCSA can achieve a more and more larger dynamic resistance difference between its two discharge branches with the MTJs during the discharge phase, thereby obtaining a large sensing margin. By using a commercial CMOS 40 nm design kit and a physics-based MTJ compact model, hybrid CMOS/MTJ transient and Monte-Carlo statistic simulations have been conducted to demonstrate its functionality and evaluate its performance, respectively.
Phylogenetic analysis of hepatitis C virus strains and risk factors associated with infection and viral subtypes among Iranian patients

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) has infected approximately 170 million people worldwide. While the seroprevalence of anti‐HCV antibody among Iranian blood donors is 0.13%, HCV infection is prevalent in 59–80% of Iranian injecting drug users. One hundred seventy‐eight anti‐HCV positive patients were referred to the Gastroenterology Department at the Taleghani Hospital (Tehran, Iran) between June 2007 and June 2012. Out of 178 samples, 142 were positive for HCV‐RNA. HCV subtypes were determined using phylogenetic analysis of the NS5B or 5′UTR/core regions. Of 142 viremic patients, 71 (50%) were infected with HCV subtype 1a, 43 (30.3%) with subtype 3a, 20 (14.1%) with subtype 1b, 3 (2.1%) with subtype 4d, 2 (1.4%) with subtype 4a, 1 (0.7%) with subtype 2b, and 1 (0.7%) with subtype 6a. Interestingly, genetic analysis of a sub‐genomic fragment from one patient identified a non‐subtypeable HCV genotype‐3 strain. There was a significant association between HCV subtype and a history of injecting drug use (P = 0.003). Subtype 3a was predominant among patients with such a history. Injecting drug use was associated with younger age (P < 0.001). HCV subtype was also significantly associated with a history of upper gastrointestinal endoscopy (P = 0.02). Subtype 1a was more frequent among patients with such a history. In addition, history of upper gastrointestinal endoscopy was significantly associated with older age (P = 0.002). In conclusion, while HCV subtype 1a is predominant among infected Iranian individuals, subtype 3a is predominant among Iranian injecting drug users. J. Med. Virol. 86:1342–1349, 2014. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Secure and robust audio watermarking system for copyright protection

Transform-domain digital audio watermarking has a performance advantage over time-domain watermarking by virtue of the fact that frequency transforms offer better exploitation of the human auditory system (HAS). In this paper, an innovative watermarking scheme for audio signal based on double insertion of the watermark image in DWTDST domain of the host signal is proposed. Subjective and objective tests reveal that the proposed watermarking scheme maintains high audio quality and is simultaneously highly robust to different attacks, including MP3 compression, lowpass filtering, amplitude scaling, additive Gaussian noise, reacquisition, cropping, sampling, high pass filtering. Comparison of the proposed algorithm with similar techniques such as Cox et al and Dhar et al, shows the superiority of the proposed scheme in term of robustness and imperceptibility.