Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Investigation of thermal and dielectric properties of Fe3O4/high-density polyethylene nanocomposites

High-density polyethylene nanocomposites containing Fe3O4 nanoparticles were prepared by employing melt mixing process. The amorphous Fe3O4 nanoparticles with average size about 50 nm were prepared by the conventional coprecipitation method from iron (ΙΙ and ΙΙΙ). Thermal and dielectric properties of high-density polyethylene and its nanocomposites were investigated via differential scanning calorimetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The crystalline structure of high-density polyethylene and Fe3O4/high-density polyethylene nanocomposite were studied by wide-angle X-ray diffraction, which confirmed orthorhombic crystalline structure. The results of thermal and dielectric analysis indicated that the addition of Fe3O4 nanoparticles to high-density polyethylene matrix leads to decreasing degree of crystallinity and improvement of dielectric constant.
Technologic Advances for Evaluation of Cervical Cytology: Is Newer Better?

Among those women who have cervical cancer and have been screened, 14% to 33% of the cases represent failure to detect abnormalities that existed at the time of screening. New technologies intended to improve detection of cytologic abnormalities include liquid-based, thin-layer cytology (ThinPrep, AutoCyte), computerized rescreening (PAPNET), and algorithm-based computer rescreening (AutoPap). This report combines evidence reviews conducted for the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, in which we systematically identified articles on cervical neoplasia, cervical dysplasia, and screening published between January 1966 and March 2001. We note the challenges for improving screening methods, providing an overview of methods for collecting and evaluating cytologic samples, and examining the evidence about the diagnostic performance of new technologies for detecting cervical lesions. Using standard criteria for evaluation of the diagnostic tests, we determined that knowledge about the sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values of new technologies is meager. Only one study of liquid-based cytology used a reference standard of colposcopy, with histology as indicated, to assess participants with normal screening results. Lack of an adequate reference standard is the overwhelming reason that test characteristics cannot be properly assessed or compared. Most publications compare results of screening using the new technology with expert panel review of the cytologic specimen. In that case, the tests are not independent measures and do nothing to relate the screening test findings to the true status of the cervix, making determination of false-negatives, and thus sensitivity, specificity, and negative predictive value, impossible. We did not identify any literature about health outcomes or cost effectiveness of using these tools in a system of screening. For the purposes of guiding decision making about choice of screening tools, the current evidence is inadequate to gauge whether new technologies are “better” than conventional cytology. Target Audience: Obstetricians & Gynecologists, Family Physicians Learning Objectives: After completion of this article, the reader will be able to list the various new technologic advances for evaluation of cervical cytology, explain how each of the new advances functions, and list the potential problems with each of the new methods.
Exploring the Switchgrass Transcriptome Using Second-Generation Sequencing Technology

Background Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) is a C4 perennial grass and widely popular as an important bioenergy crop. To accelerate the pace of developing high yielding switchgrass cultivars adapted to diverse environmental niches, the generation of genomic resources for this plant is necessary. The large genome size and polyploid nature of switchgrass makes whole genome sequencing a daunting task even with current technologies. Exploring the transcriptional landscape using next generation sequencing technologies provides a viable alternative to whole genome sequencing in switchgrass. Principal Findings Switchgrass cDNA libraries from germinating seedlings, emerging tillers, flowers, and dormant seeds were sequenced using Roche 454 GS-FLX Titanium technology, generating 980,000 reads with an average read length of 367 bp. De novo assembly generated 243,600 contigs with an average length of 535 bp. Using the foxtail millet genome as a reference greatly improved the assembly and annotation of switchgrass ESTs. Comparative analysis of the 454-derived switchgrass EST reads with other sequenced monocots including Brachypodium, sorghum, rice and maize indicated a 70–80% overlap. RPKM analysis demonstrated unique transcriptional signatures of the four tissues analyzed in this study. More than 24,000 ESTs were identified in the dormant seed library. In silico analysis indicated that there are more than 2000 EST-SSRs in this collection. Expression of several orphan ESTs was confirmed by RT-PCR. Significance We estimate that about 90% of the switchgrass gene space has been covered in this analysis. This study nearly doubles the amount of EST information for switchgrass currently in the public domain. The celerity and economical nature of second-generation sequencing technologies provide an in-depth view of the gene space of complex genomes like switchgrass. Sequence analysis of closely related members of the NAD+-malic enzyme type C4 grasses such as the model system Setaria viridis can serve as a viable proxy for the switchgrass genome.
Detection, Synchronization, and Doppler Scale Estimation with Multicarrier Waveforms in Underwater Acoustic Communication

We propose a novel method for detection, synchronization, and Doppler scale estimation for underwater acoustic communication using orthogonal frequency division multiplex (OFDM) waveforms. The method involves transmitting two identical OFDM symbols together with a cyclic prefix, while the receiver uses a bank of parallel self-correlators matched to different Doppler scaling factors on waveform dilation or compression. We characterize the receiver operating characteristic in terms of probability of false alarm and probability of detection, and analyze the impact of Doppler scale estimation accuracy on the data transmission performance. We have tested the proposed method with real data from an experiment at Buzzards Bay, MA, Dec. 15, 2006. Using only one OFDM preamble, the proposed method achieves performance similar to an existing method that uses two linearly-frequency-modulated (LFM) waveforms, one as a preamble and the other as a postamble. Avoiding the need of buffering the whole data packet before data demodulation, the proposed method enables online receiver operation.
A Continuous Max-Flow Approach to Cyclic Field Reconstruction

Reconstruction of an image from noisy data using Markov Random Field theory has been explored by both the graph-cuts and continuous max-flow community in the form of the Potts and Ishikawa models. However, neither model takes into account the particular cyclic topology of specific intensity types such as the hue in natural colour images, or the phase in complex valued MRI. This paper presents \textit{cyclic continuous max-flow} image reconstruction which models the intensity being reconstructed as having a fundamentally cyclic topology. This model complements the Ishikawa model in that it is designed with image reconstruction in mind, having the topology of the intensity space inherent in the model while being readily extendable to an arbitrary intensity resolution.
Weighted sum-rate based power allocation for the uplink of nonregenerative cooperative multi-user MIMO communication system

Amplify-and-forward (AF) is one of the most popular and simple approaches to transmit information over a cooperative multi-input multi-output (MIMO) relay channel. In this paper, we propose a novel power allocation method for the uplink of multi-user MIMO AF cooperative system, which is designed to optimise the weighted sum-rate of the cooperative system. This method provides similar sum-rate performance than algorithms that are designed to solely maximise the sum-rate of the system, and at the same time it increases the fairness of the rate distribution amongst the users. The performance of our method has been assessed against a sum-rate criterion based method, and results have shown clear improvement in terms of the fairness of the user rate distribution.
Markers of achievement for assessing and monitoring gender equity in translational research organisations: a rationale and study protocol

Introduction Translational research organisations (TROs) are a core component of the UK's expanding research base. Equity of career opportunity is key to ensuring a diverse and internationally competitive workforce. The UK now requires TROs to demonstrate how they are supporting gender equity. Yet, the evidence base for documenting such efforts is sparse. This study is designed to inform the acceleration of women's advancement and leadership in two of the UK's leading TROs—the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centres (BRCs) in Oxford and London—through the development, application and dissemination of a conceptual framework and measurement tool. Methods and analysis A cross-sectional retrospective evaluation. A conceptual framework with markers of achievement and corresponding candidate metrics has been specifically designed for this study based on an adapted balanced scorecard approach. It will be refined with an online stakeholder consultation and semistructured interviews to test the face validity and explore practices and mechanisms that influence gender equity in the given settings. Data will be collected via the relevant administrative databases. A comparison of two funding periods (2007–2012 and 2012–2017) will be carried out. Ethics and dissemination The University of Oxford Clinical Trials and Research Governance Team and the Research and Development Governance Team of Guy's and St Thomas’ National Health Service (NHS) Foundation Trust reviewed the study and deemed it exempt from full ethics review. The results of the study will be used to inform prospective planning and monitoring within the participating NIHR BRCs with a view to accelerating women's advancement and leadership. Both the results of the study and its methodology will be further disseminated to academics and practitioners through the networks of collaborating TROs, relevant conferences and articles in peer-reviewed journals.
Physical performance, depression, immune status and fatigue in patients with hematological malignancies after treatment.

BACKGROUND Fatigue is a frequent and severe problem after treatment of patients with hematological malignancies. This symptom has been associated with anemia, reduced physical performance, mood, endocrine disorders and impaired nutritional status. Recently, it has been suggested that fatigue can be related to a persistent activation of the immune system with increased production of proinflammatory cytokines. However, there is no conclusive evidence regarding the role of the immune system in the origin of fatigue in cancer patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS We evaluated the correlation of fatigue with thyroid function, markers of immune activity [interleukin (IL)-1alpha, IL-1 soluble receptor, IL-6, C-reactive protein and neopterin], liver and kidney function, mood and physical ability in 71 patients with hematological malignancies. All patients had been free of relapse and not received treatment (chemotherapy, radiotherapy or immune modulators) for at least 3 months. RESULTS Fatigue was related to depression (r=0.84; P<0.0001) and reduced performance status (r=-0.61; P<0.0001). However, there was no correlation between fatigue and thyroid, liver and kidney function, anemia, albumin concentration or markers of immune activity (all r-values <0.20; P>0.05). CONCLUSIONS We conclude that fatigue in relapse-free patients with hematological malignancies is associated with depressive mood and reduced physical performance, but not with impairment of thyroid function, anemia or persistent activation of the immune system.
Effects of Dietary Protein Source and Quantity during Weight Loss on Appetite, Energy Expenditure, and Cardio-Metabolic Responses

Higher protein meals increase satiety and the thermic effect of feeding (TEF) in acute settings, but it is unclear whether these effects remain after a person becomes acclimated to energy restriction or a given protein intake. This study assessed the effects of predominant protein source (omnivorous, beef/pork vs. lacto-ovo vegetarian, soy/legume) and quantity (10%, 20%, or 30% of energy from protein) on appetite, energy expenditure, and cardio-metabolic indices during energy restriction (ER) in overweight and obese adults. Subjects were randomly assigned to one protein source and then consumed diets with different quantities of protein (4 weeks each) in a randomized crossover manner. Perceived appetite ratings (free-living and in-lab), TEF, and fasting cardio-metabolic indices were assessed at the end of each 4-week period. Protein source and quantity did not affect TEF, hunger, or desire to eat, other than a modestly higher daily composite fullness rating with 30% vs. 10% protein diet (p = 0.03). While the 20% and 30% protein diets reduced cholesterol, triacylglycerol, and APO-B vs. 10% protein (p < 0.05), protein source did not affect cardio-metabolic indices. In conclusion, diets varying in protein quantity with either beef/pork or soy/legume as the predominant source have minimal effects on appetite control, energy expenditure and cardio-metabolic risk factors during ER-induced weight loss.
OneChip: an FPGA processor with reconfigurable logic

This paper describes a processor architecture called OneChip, which combines a fixed-logic processor core with reconfigurable logic resources. Using the programmable components of this the performance of speed-critical can be improved by customizing OneChip's execution units, or flexibility can be added to the glue logic interfaces of embedded controller applications. OneChip eliminates the shortcomings of other custom compute machines by tightly integrating its reconfigurable resources into a MIPS-like processor. Speedups of close to 50 over strict software implementations on a MIPS R4400 are achievable for computing the DCT.
Mimicry: developmental genes that contribute to speciation

SUMMARY Despite renewed interest in the role of natural selection as a catalyst for the origin of species, the developmental and genetic basis of speciation remains poorly understood. Here we describe the genetics of Müllerian mimicry in Heliconius cydno and H. melpomene (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae), sister species that recently diverged to mimic other Heliconius. This mimetic shift was a key step in their speciation, leading to pre‐ and postmating isolation. We identify 10 autosomal loci, half of which have major effects. At least eight appear to be homologous with genes known to control pattern differences within each species. Dominance has evolved under the influence of identifiable “modifier” loci rather than being a fixed characteristic of each locus. Epistasis is found at many levels: phenotypic interaction between specific pairs of genes, developmental canalization due to polygenic modifiers so that patterns are less sharply defined in hybrids, and overall fitness through ecological selection against nonmimetic hybrid genotypes. Most of the loci are clustered into two genomic regions or “supergenes,” suggesting color pattern evolution is constrained by preexisting linked elements that may have arisen via tandem duplication rather than having been assembled by natural selection. Linkage, modifiers, and epistasis affect the strength of mimicry as a barrier to gene flow between these naturally hybridizing species and may permit introgression in genomic regions unlinked to those under disruptive selection. Müllerian mimics in Heliconius use different genetic architectures to achieve the same mimetic patterns, implying few developmental constraints. Therefore, although developmental and genomic constraints undoubtedly influence the evolutionary process, their effects are probably not strong in comparison with natural selection.
Using Multilingual Topic Models for Improved Alignment in English-Hindi MT

Parallel corpora are often injected with bilingual dictionaries for improved Indian language machine translation (MT). In absence of such dictionaries, a coarse dictionary may be required. This paper demonstrates the use of a multilingual topic model for creating coarse dictionaries for English-Hindi MT. We compare our approaches with: (a) a baseline with no additional dictionary injection, and (b) a corpus with a good quality dictionary. Our re-sults show that the existing Cartesian product approach which is used to create the pseudo-parallel data results in a degradation on tourism and health datasets, for English-Hindi MT. Our paper points to the fact that existing Cartesian approach using multilingual topics (devised for European languages) may be detrimental for Indian language MT. On the other hand, we present an alternate ‘sentential’ approach that leads to a slight improvement. However, our sentential approach (using a parallel corpus injected with a coarse dictionary) outperforms a system trained using parallel corpus and a good quality dictionary.
Segmentation of 3D meshes through spectral clustering

We formulate and apply spectral clustering to 3D mesh segmentation for the first time and report our preliminary findings. Given a set of mesh faces, an affinity matrix which encodes the likelihood of each pair of faces belonging to the same group is first constructed. Spectral methods then use selected eigenvectors of the affinity matrix or its closely related graph Laplacian to obtain data representations that can be more easily clustered. We develop an algorithm that favors segmentation along concave regions, which is inspired by human perception. Our algorithm is theoretically sound, efficient, simple to implement, andean achieve high-quality segmentation results on 3D meshes.
Formyl-Peptide Receptor 2/3/Lipoxin A4 Receptor Regulates Neutrophil-Platelet Aggregation and Attenuates Cerebral Inflammation: Impact for Therapy in Cardiovascular Disease

Background— Platelet activation at sites of vascular injury is essential for hemostasis, but it is also a major pathomechanism underlying ischemic injury. Because anti-inflammatory therapies limit thrombosis and antithrombotic therapies reduce vascular inflammation, we tested the therapeutic potential of 2 proresolving endogenous mediators, annexin A1 N-terminal derived peptide (AnxA1Ac2–26) and aspirin-triggered lipoxin A4 (15-epi-lipoxin A4), on the cerebral microcirculation after ischemia/reperfusion injury. Furthermore, we tested whether the lipoxin A4 receptor formyl-peptide receptor 2/3 (Fpr2/3; ortholog to human FPR2/lipoxin A4 receptor) evoked neuroprotective functions after cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury. Methods and Results— Using intravital microscopy, we found that cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury was accompanied by neutrophil and platelet activation and neutrophil-platelet aggregate formation within cerebral microvessels. Moreover, aspirin-triggered lipoxin A4 activation of neutrophil Fpr2/3 regulated neutrophil-platelet aggregate formation in the brain and inhibited the reactivity of the cerebral microvasculature. The same results were obtained with AnxA1Ac2–26 administration. Blocking Fpr2/lipoxin A4 receptor with the antagonist Boc2 reversed this effect, and treatments were ineffective in Fpr2/3 knockout mice, which displayed an exacerbated disease severity, evidenced by increased infarct area, blood-brain barrier dysfunction, increased neurological score, and elevated levels of cytokines. Furthermore, aspirin treatment significantly reduced cerebral leukocyte recruitment and increased endogenous levels of aspirin-triggered lipoxin A4, effects again mediated by Fpr2/3. Conclusion— Fpr2/lipoxin A4 receptor is a therapeutic target for initiating endogenous proresolving, anti-inflammatory pathways after cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury.
A Fully Unsupervised Texture Segmentation Algorithm

This paper presents a fully unsupervised texture segmentation algorithm by using a modified discrete wavelet frames decomposition and a mean shift algorithm. By fully unsupervised, we mean the algorithm does not require any knowledge of the type of texture present nor the number of textures in the image to be segmented. The basic idea of the proposed method is to use the modified discrete wavelet frames to extract useful information from the image. Then, starting from the lowest level, the mean shift algorithm is used together with the fuzzy c-means clustering to divide the data into an appropriate number of clusters. The data clustering process is then refined at every level by taking into account the data at that particular level. The final crispy segmentation is obtained at the root level. This approach is applied to segment a variety of composite texture images into homogeneous texture areas and very good segmentation results are reported.
Independent Pathways Downstream of the Wnd/DLK MAPKKK Regulate Synaptic Structure, Axonal Transport, and Injury Signaling

Mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase signaling cascades orchestrate diverse cellular activities with common molecular players. To achieve specific cellular outcomes in response to specific signals, scaffolding proteins play an important role. Here we investigate the role of the scaffolding protein JNK interacting protein-1 (JIP1) in neuronal signaling by a conserved axonal MAP kinase kinase kinase, known as Wallenda (Wnd) in Drosophila and dual leucine kinase (DLK) in vertebrates and Caenorhabditis elegans. Recent studies in multiple model organisms suggest that Wnd/DLK regulates both regenerative and degenerative responses to axonal injury. Here we report a new role for Wnd in regulating synaptic structure during development, which implies that Wnd is also active in uninjured neurons. This synaptic role of Wnd can be functionally separated from the role of Wnd in axonal regeneration and injury signaling by the requirement for the JIP1 scaffold and the p38b MAP kinase. JIP1 mediates the synaptic function of Wnd via p38, which is not required for injury signaling or new axonal growth after injury. Our results indicate that Wnd regulates multiple independent pathways in Drosophila motoneurons and that JIP1 scaffolds a specific downstream cascade required for the organization of presynaptic microtubules during synaptic development.
The Effect of Feature Representation on MEDLINE Document Classification

This work explores the effect of text representation techniques on the overall performance of medical text classification. To accomplish this goal, we developed a text classification system that supports the very basic word representation (bag-of-words) and the more complex medical phrase representation (bag-of-phrases). We also combined word and phrase representations (hybrid) for further analysis. Our system extracts medical phrases from text by incorporating a medical knowledge base and natural language processing techniques. We conducted experiments to evaluate the effects of different representations by measuring the change in classification performance with MEDLINE documents from the OHSUMED dataset. We measured classification performance with information retrieval metrics; precision (p), recall (r), and F1-score (F1). In our experiments, we achieved better classification performance with the hybrid approach (p=0.87, r=0.46, F1=0.60) compared to the bag-of-words approach (p=0.85, r=0.44, F1=0.58) and the bag-of-phrases approach (p=0.87, r=0.42, F1=0.57).