Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Energy-based Routing and Cruising Range Estimation for Electric Bicycles

Electric bicycles offer a convenient transport alternative for short to medium distance travels. Due to their small size, low cost, and environment-friendly nature, the number of sold bikes is increasing steadily, not only for private use, but also for company fleets, free-floating mobility systems, and bike-sharing providers. This increment leads to an increased need for planning systems. On the one hand, people are interested in knowing which routes to take in order to maximize the distance they can drive with a certain battery charge. On the other hand, it is becoming increasingly important to predict the cruising range in a situational context, including road network properties, personal preferences and restrictions, or weather conditions. This information is not only valuable for individual users, but also for fleet managers, who need to recharge, move and replace bicycles. We propose a novel static energy model for electric bicycles, which allows us to compute energy requirements for arbitrary street segments, given contextual information such as the road network, a digital elevation model (DEM), and parameters like weight, desired speed, or the presence of a recuperation mechanism. This model is embedded within a routing application, which can be used to compute the route with the lowest energy demand or farthest cruising range estimations. We used this application together with data collected from several test rides to estimate and validate the model parameters.
Health care utilization among young Australian women with severe tiredness: Results from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health (ALSWH)

ABSTRACT In this article, we explore the use of health services and self-prescribed treatments among 8088 young Australian women with severe tiredness. Data were obtained from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health. The prevalence of severe tiredness was 49.2%. The frequency of visits to healthcare practitioners was greater among women who sought help for their severe tiredness, compared to women who did not seek help for their severe tiredness or who did not report severe tiredness. Given the impact of this health problem on Australian women, we call for further research on the optimal treatment for severe tiredness.
Quantitative Analysis of Long-Term Mass Rearing of Neoseiulus californicus (Acari: Phytoseiidae) on Almond Pollen

Abstract Long-term feeding effects of the almond pollen on the life table parameters of Neoseiulus californicus McGregor were assessed after 5, 10, and 20 generations after introduction in the rearing arena. Furthermore, to evaluate behavioral characteristics of the mass-reared predator (strain A) in face with the real prey, functional and numerical responses of the predator to different densities of the twospotted spider mite nymphs were determined, and the obtained data were compared with those reared on twospotted spider mite (strain T). Long-term rearing did not significantly affect total fecundity of N. californicus (ranged from 37.79 to 41.91 eggs). Nevertheless, preadult duration in the 5th generation was significantly longer than the 10th and 20th generations. The intrinsic rate of increase (r) in the 10th (0.2056 d–1) and 20th (0.2201 d–1) generations had not significant difference together. However, the r value slightly dropped in the 5th generation (0.1706 d–1) because of the irregular offering of fresh pollen to the rearing colonies before that. Both strains of N. californicus exhibited a type II functional response; however, the N. californicus reared on the almond pollen (strain A) had a higher attack rate (a) and shorter handling time (Th). The individuals reared on the almond pollen had a greater size than those reared on twospotted spider mite; its higher predation potential is probably due to this characteristic. Consequently, the rearing of N. californicus on the almond pollen positively affected its attributes including high survivorship, body size, and fecundity, and subsequently higher potential to control twospotted spider mite.
A fast implementation of near neighbors queries for Fréchet distance (GIS Cup)

This paper describes an implementation of fast near-neighbours queries (also known as range searching) with respect to the Fréchet distance. The algorithm is designed to be efficient on practical data such as GPS trajectories. Our approach is to use a quadtree data structure to enumerate all curves in the database that have similar start and endpoints as the query curve. On these curves we run positive and negative filters to narrow the set of potential results. Only for those trajectories where these heuristics fail, we compute the Fréchet distance exactly, by running a novel recursive variant of the classic free-space diagram algorithm. Our implementation is among the top 3 submissions to the ACM SIGSPATIAL GIS Cup 2017 (more specific standings will be available on the competition's website).
Aspect Ratio Effect of Functionalized/Non-Functionalized Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes on the Mechanical Properties of Cementitious Materials

Aspect Ratio Effect of Functionalized/Non-Functionalized Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes on the Mechanical Properties of Cementitious Materials. (August 2011) Ahmad Ibrahim Ashour, B.S., The Hashemite University Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. Rashid Abu Al-Rub The focus of this research was to investigate the use of functionalized/nonfunctionalized multi walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) as reinforcements for the Portland cement paste. The unique geometrical characteristics of the carbon nanotubes (CNTs), as well as its unique mechanical properties such as high strength, ductility and stiffness, were the vital motivation for this study. In this research, we combined this unique material (CNTs) with concrete which is the most used man-made material. When compared to other composite materials, a limited amount of research has been conducted on the CNTs/cement composites. In order to investigate how the aspect ratio of functionalized/non-functionalized MWCNTs affects the mechanical properties of cementitious composites, ten different mixes of the MWCNTs/cement composites were prepared and tested. The different batches had a fixed water/cement ratio of 0.4, and variations of MWCNTs length, concentration and surface treatment. The cement nanocomposites were cast in smallscale specimens (beams) for the three-point flexural testing. Four major mechanical
Design and implementation of PID controller based on orthogonal wavelet filter-banks in FPGA

This paper analyses the performance of a PID controller for a servomotor system which is based on Wavelet as opposed to conventional PID controller. First, the orthogonal wavelet filter bank has been obtained. For decomposing the error signal(difference between reference and actual speed of servomotor system) at different sub-bands, wavelet filter bank is used. These sub-bands have been scaled by selecting optimized gains in order to minimize the error. After adding the resultant sub-bands together and the control signal is generated for the servomotor system. The simulation results show the superiority of the wavelet-based PID controller over existing PID controller for different conditions and also the Multiresolution (MRPID) controller is implemented on FPGA and the filter characteristics is compared with the MATLAB simulation.
Taurine Protects Mouse Spermatocytes from Ionizing Radiation-Induced Damage Through Activation of Nrf2/HO-1 Signaling

Background/Aims: The increasing prevalence of ionizing radiation exposure has inevitably raised public concern over the potential detrimental effects of ionizing radiation on male reproductive system function. The detection of drug candidates to prevent reproductive system from damage caused by ionizing radiation is urgent. We aimed to investigate the protective role of taurine on the injury of mouse spermatocyte-derived cells (GC-2) subjected to ionizing radiation. Methods: mouse spermatocytes (GC-2 cells) were exposed to ionizing radiation with or without treatment of Taurine. The effect of ionizing radiation and Taurine treatment on GC-2 cells were evaluated by cell viability assay (CCK8), cell cycle and apoptosis. The relative protein abundance change was determined by Western blotting. The siRNA was used to explore whether Nrf2 signaling was involved in the cytoprotection of Taurine. Results: Taurine significantly inhibited the decrease of cell viability, percentage of apoptotic cells and cell cycle arrest induced by ionizing radiation. Western blot analysis showed that taurine significantly limited the ionizing radiation-induced down-regulation of CyclinB1 and CDK1, and suppressed activation of Fas/FasL system pathway. In addition, taurine treatment significantly increased the expression of Nrf2 and HO-1 in GC-2 cells exposed to ionizing radiation, two components in antioxidant pathway. The above cytoprotection of Taurine was blocked by siNrf2. Conclusion: Our results demonstrate that taurine has the potential to effectively protect GC-2 cells from ionizing radiation- triggered damage via upregulation of Nrf2/HO-1 signaling.
DUHO image segmentation based on unseeded region growing on superpixels

In this paper, we present a general-purpose segmentation algorithm that works for a large variety of natural scene color images. This DUHO algorithm contains two main steps. First, we generate K superpixels from a given image. Second, we implement an unseeded region growing algorithm to iteratively group these superpixels into appropriate regions to obtain the final segmentation result. Our proposed method preserves the detailed edges and spatial structure in the image. It has three main advantages compared with other region-growing-based segmentation techniques: (1) reduce computational time and depress noise, (2) works on color images, and (3) improve performance. The effectiveness of the DUHO method will be quantitatively evaluated and compared with other published, state-of-art segmentation methods. Our method produces good results from real datasets and requires substantially less computational time.
Theory and Experiment of Two-Section Two-Resistor Wilkinson Power Divider With Two Arbitrary Frequency Bands

In this paper, a novel design theory of two-section two-resistor Wilkinson power divider (WPD) is introduced. By selecting two different physical lengths of two-section transmission lines (TLs), two arbitrary frequency band WPD can be achieved. Compared with the former work, the designable frequency ratio range <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$u$ </tex-math></inline-formula> can be extremely extended from <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$1 < u < 3$ </tex-math></inline-formula> to <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$1 < u < \infty$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, general design equations for characteristic impedances, physical lengths, absorption resistors, and frequency ratio ranges are newly derived and proved from even- and odd-mode analysis. Because of no capacitors or inductors, the proposed WPD can be used for high-frequency applications. Spurious band of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$S_{21}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> appears between two passbands under the condition of two different physical lengths; therefore, a <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\Pi$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-type dual-band transformer is newly introduced to replace single TL for spurious band suppression. We proved that <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\Pi$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-type structure could effectively suppress spurious band of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$S_{11}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, maintain two arbitrary frequency passband of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$S_{21}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, and provide an extra isolation band of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$S_{32}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> at center frequency. Finally, three proposed WPD examples with <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\Pi$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-type structure are selected with different frequency ratios, where frequency ratio <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$u = 4$ </tex-math></inline-formula> in Example A, <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$u = 6$ </tex-math></inline-formula> in Example B, and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$u = 20$ </tex-math></inline-formula> in Example C are designed and fabricated in the experiment. Measured results show good agreement with the theoretical results.
Stemness Is Enhanced in Gastric Cancer by a SET/PP2A/E2F1 Axis

Gastric cancer is the fifth most common malignancy and the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Chemotherapies against gastric cancer often fail, with cancer recurrence due potentially to the persistence of cancer stem cells. This unique subpopulation of cells in tumors possesses the ability to self-renew and dedifferentiate. These cancer stem cells are critical for initiation, maintenance, metastasis, and relapse of cancers; however, the molecular mechanisms supporting cancer stemness remain largely unknown. Increased kinase and decreased phosphatase activity are hallmarks of oncogenic signaling. Protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) functions as a tumor-suppressor enzyme, and elevated levels of SET/I2PP2A, an endogenous PP2A protein inhibitor, are correlated with poor prognosis of several human cancers. Here, it was determined that SET expression was elevated in tumor tissue in a gastric cancer mouse model system, and SET expression was positively correlated with poor survival of human gastric cancer patients. Mechanistically, SET knockdown decreased E2F1 levels and suppressed the stemness of cancer cell lines. Immunoprecipitations show SET associated with the PP2A–B56 complex, and the B56 subunit interacted with the E2F1 transcription factor. Treatment of gastric cancer cells with the SET-targeting drug OP449 increased PP2A activity, decreased E2F1 protein levels, and suppressed stemness of cancer cells. These data indicate that a SET/PP2A/E2F1 axis regulates cancer cell stemness and is a potential target for gastric cancer therapy. Implications: This study highlights the oncogenic role of SET/I2PP2A in gastric cancer and suggests that SET maintains cancer cell stemness by suppressing PP2A activity and stabilizing E2F1. Mol Cancer Res; 16(3); 554–63. ©2018 AACR.
Findings of Vascular Brain Injury and Structural Loss from Cranial Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Elderly American Indians: The Strong Heart Study

Background: The Cerebrovascular Disease and its Consequences in American Indians study conducted cranial MRI examination of surviving participants of the Strong Heart Study, a longitudinal cohort of elderly American Indians. Methods: Of the 1,033 recruited participants, some were unable to complete the MRI (n = 22), some scans were unusable due to participant motion or technical errors (n = 13), and one community withdrew consent after data collection (n = 209), leaving 789 interpretable MRI scan images. Six image sequences were obtained in contiguous slices on 1.5T scanners. Neuroradiologists graded white matter hyperintensities (WMH), sulci, and ventricles on a 0- to 9-point scale, and recorded the presence of infarcts and hemorrhages. Intracranial, brain, hippocampal, and WMH volumes were estimated by automated image processing. Results: The median scores for graded measures were 2 (WMH) and 3 (sulci, ventricles). About one-third of participants had lacunar (20%) or other infarcts (13%); few had hemorrhages (5.7%). Findings of cortical atrophy were also prevalent. Statistical analyses indicated significant associations between older age and findings of vascular injury and atrophy; male gender was associated with findings of cortical atrophy. Conclusions: Vascular brain injury is the likely explanation in this elderly American Indian population for brain infarcts, hemorrhages, WMH grade, and WMH volume. Although vascular brain injury may play a role in other findings, independent degenerative other disease processes may underlie abnormal sulcal widening, ventricular enlargement, hippocampal volume, and total brain volume. Further examination of risk factors and outcomes with these findings may expand the understanding of neurological conditions in this understudied population.
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Overweight, and Obesity: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

AbstractPrevious reports have suggested a high prevalence of overweight and obesity among individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Few studies, however, systematically analyze the relationship between PTSD and body mass index (BMI). We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis aimed at estimating the association between PTSD and BMI. Fifty-four articles were reviewed, 30 of which (with 191,948 individuals with PTSD and 418,690 trauma-exposed individuals or healthy controls) were eligible for inclusion in the meta-analysis. The pooled standard mean difference, based on a random-effects model, was 0.41 (95% confidence interval, 0.28–0.54; z = 6.26; p < .001). Statistical heterogeneity between the included studies was high (p < .001; I2 = 99%). Despite limitations, the findings of this systematic review and meta-analysis suggest an association between PTSD and BMI. Furthermore, longitudinal studies tentatively indicate that PTSD may lead to an increase in BMI and, as such, to the development of overweight/obesity, particularly in women. Further prospective studies and research elaborating the nature and etiology of the association are required.
Not All Samples Are Created Equal: Deep Learning with Importance Sampling

Deep neural network training spends most of the computation on examples that are properly handled, and could be ignored. We propose to mitigate this phenomenon with a principled importance sampling scheme that focuses computation on "informative" examples, and reduces the variance of the stochastic gradients during training. Our contribution is twofold: first, we derive a tractable upper bound to the per-sample gradient norm, and second we derive an estimator of the variance reduction achieved with importance sampling, which enables us to switch it on when it will result in an actual speedup. The resulting scheme can be used by changing a few lines of code in a standard SGD procedure, and we demonstrate experimentally, on image classification, CNN fine-tuning, and RNN training, that for a fixed wall-clock time budget, it provides a reduction of the train losses of up to an order of magnitude and a relative improvement of test errors between 5% and 17%.
On the choice of blind interference alignment strategy for cellular systems with data sharing

A cooperative blind interference alignment (BIA) strategy is considered for the downlink of cellular systems. The aim is to reduce intercell interference in order to protect users, especially at the cell edge. The strategy consists of appropriately splitting the available bandwidth and is shown to be well-suited to scenarios where the number of cell-edge users is considerable. For a system comprising two cells each with a base station of Nt antennas, it is shown that, compared to a previous augmented code approach where transmission to all users occurs in the same frequency band, the proposed strategy leads to better rates over a wide range of signal-to-noise ratios when the number of cell-edge users in both cells exceeds 2Nt -1.
EMC3 coordinates surfactant protein and lipid homeostasis required for respiration

Adaptation to respiration at birth depends upon the synthesis of pulmonary surfactant, a lipid-protein complex that reduces surface tension at the air-liquid interface in the alveoli and prevents lung collapse during the ventilatory cycle. Herein, we demonstrated that the gene encoding a subunit of the endoplasmic reticulum membrane complex, EMC3, also known as TMEM111 (Emc3/Tmem111), was required for murine pulmonary surfactant synthesis and lung function at birth. Conditional deletion of Emc3 in murine embryonic lung epithelial cells disrupted the synthesis and packaging of surfactant lipids and proteins, impaired the formation of lamellar bodies, and induced the unfolded protein response in alveolar type 2 (AT2) cells. EMC3 was essential for the processing and routing of surfactant proteins, SP-B and SP-C, and the biogenesis of the phospholipid transport protein ABCA3. Transcriptomic, lipidomic, and proteomic analyses demonstrated that EMC3 coordinates the assembly of lipids and proteins in AT2 cells that is necessary for surfactant synthesis and function at birth.
Wear Characteristics and Volume Loss of CAD/CAM Ceramic Materials

PURPOSE In the field of prosthodontics, patients often require complex and extensive restorative care. This can involve the use of dental restorations to restore teeth on both the maxillary and mandibular arch. Current literature has evaluated the wear properties of different dental ceramics against enamel, but studies regarding dental ceramics opposing one another are limited. The purpose of this study was to assess the wear potential and wear behavior of CAD/CAM zirconia (ZR) and lithium disilicate (LD) materials against a similar ceramic material, and how the surface finish of these dental ceramics might affect patterns of wear. MATERIALS AND METHODS Using a sphere-on-plate tribometer system, different surface finishes (glazed-G and glazed then polished-GP) of ZR and LD were evaluated following wear simulation. Artificial saliva of physiologic pH was used as a lubricant during wear simulation at 37°C. The coefficient of friction (COF) was calculated during the wear simulation. After wear simulation was complete, volume loss, surface roughness, and surface characterization of the specimens were analyzed using white-light interferometry and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Statistical significance between materials and surface finish was established with two-way ANOVA and Bonferroni post hoc test (α = 0.05). RESULTS Based on the 2-way ANOVA, material (p = 0.002) significantly affected the COF. LD showed a higher COF (p = 0.002) than ZR. Material (p < 0.001) and surface finish (p = 0.004) significantly affected the surface roughness inside the scar. ZR had significantly lower surface roughness compared to LD (p < 0.001). For outside scar, surface finish (p < 0.001) significantly affected the surface roughness. Polished specimens showed significantly higher roughness compared to glazed specimens for both inside (p = 0.004) and outside scar (p < 0.001). For volume loss, material (p < 0.001) and the interaction between material and surface finish (p < 0.001) were statistically significant. LD had higher volume loss than ZR (p < 0.001). For both glazed and polished finished, LD-G and LD-GP had significantly higher volume loss than ZR-G (p = 0.028), and ZR-GP (p < 0.001), respectively. SEM analysis indicated particle build-up and a grooving mechanism of wear for the LD-GP specimens. This suggested a three-body wear phenomenon occurring for LD-GP specimens, which was not visible in SEM imaging for other specimen types. CONCLUSIONS This study demonstrated the resistance to wear and low abrasiveness of ZR when compared to LD in a simulated masticatory environment. This can be best explained by the increased strength of ZR, and the introduction of three-body wear to LD specimens from the accumulation of embedded wear debris onto its surface. Wear data and comparison of SEM images following wear simulation confirmed this interpretation.