Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
De-agglomeration Effect of the US Pharmacopeia and Alberta Throats on Carrier-Based Powders in Commercial Inhalation Products

The US pharmacopeia (USP) and Alberta throats were recently reported to cause further de-agglomeration of carrier-free powders emitted from some dry powder inhalers (DPIs). This study assessed if they have similar influences on commercially available carrier-based DPIs. A straight tube, a USP throat, and an Alberta throat (non-coated and coated) were used for cascade impaction testing. Aerosol fine particle fraction (FPF ≤ 5 μm) was computed to evaluate throat-induced de-agglomeration. Computational fluid dynamics are employed to simulate airflow patterns and particle trajectories inside the USP and Alberta throats. For all tested products, no significant differences in the in vitro aerosol performance were observed between the USP throat and the straight tube. Using fine lactose carriers (<10 μm), Symbicort® and Oxis™ showed minimal impaction inside the Alberta throat and resulted in similar FPF among all induction ports. For products using coarse lactose carriers (>10 μm), impaction frequency and energy inside the Alberta throat were significant. Further de-agglomeration was noted inside the non-coated Alberta throat for Seretide® and Spiriva®, but agglomerates emitted from Relenza®, Ventolin®, and Foradil® did not further break up into smaller fractions. The coated Alberta throat considerably reduced the FPF values of these products due to the high throat retention, but they generally agreed better with the in vivo data. In conclusion, depending on the powder formulation (including carrier particle size), the inhaler, and the induction port, further de-agglomeration could happen ex-inhaler and create differences in the in vitro measurements.
Convergence of Gradient Descent Algorithm with Penalty Term For Recurrent Neural Networks

This paper investigates a gradient descent algorithm with penalty for a recurrent neural network. The penalty we considered here is a term proportional to the norm of the weights. Its primary roles in the methods are to control the magnitude of the weights. After proving that all of the weights are automatically bounded during the iteration process, we also present some deterministic convergence results for this learning methods, indicating that the gradient of the error function goes to zero(weak convergence) and the weight sequence goes to a fixed point(strong convergence), respectively. A numerical example is provided to support the theoretical analysis.
PHYSIOLOGICAL AND LEUKOCYTE SUBSET RESPONSES TO EXERCISE AND COLD EXPOSURE IN COLD-ACCLIMATIZED SKATERS

We investigated physiological responses and changes in circulating immune cells following exercise in cold and thermoneutral conditions. Participants were short track skaters (n=9) who were acclimatized to cold conditions, and inline skaters (n=10) who were not acclimatized. All skaters were young, and skating at a recreational level three days per week for at least one year. Using a cross-over design, study variables were measured during 60 min of submaximal cycling (65% V.O2max) in cold (ambient temperature: 5±1°C, relative humidity: 41±9%) and thermoneutral conditions (ambient temperature: 21±1°C, relative humidity: 35±5%). Heart rate, blood lactate and tympanic temperature were measured at rest, during exercise and recovery. Plasma cortisol, calprotectin and circulating blood cell numbers were measured before and after 60 min of cold or thermoneutral conditions, and during recovery from exercise. Heart rate was lower in both groups during exercise in cold versus thermoneutral conditions (P<0.05). The increase in total leukocytes during recovery was primarily due to an increase in neutrophils in both groups. The cold-acclimatized group activated neutrophils after exercise in cold exposure, whereas the non-acclimatized group activated lymphocyte and cortisol after exercise in cold exposure. Lymphocyte subsets significantly changed in both groups over time during recovery as compared to rest. Immediately after exercise in both groups, CD16+ and CD69+ cells were elevated compared to rest or before exercise in both conditions. Acclimatization to exercise in the cold does not appear to influence exercise-induced immune changes in cold conditions, with the possible exception of neutrophils, lymphocytes and cortisol concentration.
Multimedia-based interactive advising technology for online consumer decision support

Multimedia technologies (such as Flash and QuickTime) have been widely used in online product presentation and promotion to portray products in a dynamic way. The continuous visual stimuli and associated sound effects provide vivid and interesting product presentations; hence, they engage online customers in examining products. Meanwhile, recent research has indicated that online shoppers want detailed and relevant product information and explanations [2]. A promising approach is to embed rich product information and explanations into multimedia-enhanced product demonstrations. This approach is called Multimedia-based Product Annotation (MPA), a product presentation in which customers can retrieve embedded product information in a multimedia context.
Demineralization of Sargassum spp. Macroalgae Biomass: Selective Hydrothermal Liquefaction Process for Bio-Oil Production

Algae biomasses are considered a viable option for the production of biofuel because of their high yields of oil produced per dry weight. Brown macroalgae Sargassum spp. are one of the most abundant species of algae in the shores of Puerto Rico. Its availability in large quantity presents a great opportunity for use as a source of renewable energy. However, high ash content of macroalgae affects the conversion processes and the quality of resulting fuel products. This research studied the effect of different demineralization treatments of Sargassum spp. biomass, subsequent hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) and bio-oil characterization. Demineralization constituted five different treatments: nanopure water, nitric acid, citric acid, sulfuric acid, and acetic acid. Performance of demineralization was evaluated by analyzing both demineralized biomass and HTL products by the following analyses: total carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, ash content, caloric content, metals analysis, Fourier Transform Infrared - Attenuated Total Reflectance (FTIR-ATR) Spectroscopy, Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and GCMS analysis. HTL of Sargassum spp. before and after citric acid treatment, was performed in a 1.8 L batch reactor system at 350°C with a holding time of 60 min and high pressures (5-21 MPa). Demineralization treatment with nitric acid was found the most effective in reducing the ash content of the macroalgae biomass from 27.46% to 0.99% followed by citric acid treatment that could reduce the ash content to 7%. Citric acid did not show significant leaching of organic components such as carbohydrates and proteins, and represented a less toxic and hazardous option for demineralization. HTL of untreated and citric acid treated Sargassum spp. resulted in bio-oil yields of 18.4±0.1 % and 22.2±0.1 % (ash free dry basis), respectively.
A survey on web news retrieval and mining

This article is a review on news retrieval and mining research areas in recent years based on a qualitative approach. It addresses news retrieval and mining in four main categories of News Retrieval and Extraction, News Content Analysis, News Propagation Analysis, and News Visualization. Each indicated category entails various research areas that have been investigated through several studies. This study depicts the immense extent of news retrieval and mining, the interconnected methods, tools, and theoretical foundations as well as the evaluation methods and the results. The study helps to gain a better understanding of news mining research areas.
Wild Bootstrap Tests

In this article, we have derived tests based on the wild bootstrap that allow checking for differences between two irregular signals observed with additive noise where the latter consists of independent but not necessarily identically distributed random variables. The signals are first denoised by kernel estimates and then compared by looking at the integrated squared difference. The bound between accepting and rejecting the hypothesis of equal signals are determined by the wild bootstrap and numerically calculated by Monte Carlo simulation. The test is applied to all pairwise rows and columns of two images, which results in an algorithm that allows detection of defects and additional information on their location and shape surface inspection problems. The idea and theory of the test may be straightforwardly extended to the direct comparison of two images. This is computationally less expensive than doing all the row- and columnwise tests, but it provides less information.
Ectodermal Influx and Cell Hypertrophy Provide Early Growth for All Murine Mammary Rudiments, and Are Differentially Regulated among Them by Gli3

Mammary gland development starts in utero with one or several pairs of mammary rudiments (MRs) budding from the surface ectodermal component of the mammalian embryonic skin. Mice develop five pairs, numbered MR1 to MR5 from pectoral to inguinal position. We have previously shown that Gli3Xt-J/Xt-J mutant embryos, which lack the transcription factor Gli3, do not form MR3 and MR5. We show here that two days after the MRs emerge, Gli3Xt-J/Xt-J MR1 is 20% smaller, and Gli3Xt-J/Xt-J MR2 and MR4 are 50% smaller than their wild type (wt) counterparts. Moreover, while wt MRs sink into the underlying dermis, Gli3Xt-J/Xt-J MR4 and MR2 protrude outwardly, to different extents. To understand why each of these five pairs of functionally identical organs has its own, distinct response to the absence of Gli3, we determined which cellular mechanisms regulate growth of the individual MRs, and whether and how Gli3 regulates these mechanisms. We found a 5.5 to 10.7-fold lower cell proliferation rate in wt MRs compared to their adjacent surface ectoderm, indicating that MRs do not emerge or grow via locally enhanced cell proliferation. Cell-tracing experiments showed that surface ectodermal cells are recruited toward the positions where MRs emerge, and contribute to MR growth during at least two days. During the second day of MR development, peripheral cells within the MRs undergo hypertrophy, which also contributes to MR growth. Limited apoptotic cell death counterbalances MR growth. The relative contribution of each of these processes varies among the five MRs. Furthermore, each of these processes is impaired in the absence of Gli3, but to different extents in each MR. This differential involvement of Gli3 explains the variation in phenotype among Gli3Xt-J/Xt-J MRs, and may help to understand the variation in numbers and positions of mammary glands among mammals.
Quasi-rectilinear (MSK, GMSK, OQAM) co-channel interference mitigation by three inputs widely linear fresh filtering

Widely linear (WL) filters have the capability to perform single antenna interference cancellation (SAIC) of one rectilinear (R) or quasi-rectilinear (QR) co-channel interference (CCI). The SAIC technology for QR signals is operational in GSM handsets but requires enhancements for both VAMOS standard, an evolution of GSM/EDGE standard, and FBMC-OQAM networks, which are candidate for 5G mobile networks. For this reason, we propose and analyze in this paper, for QR signals, a SAIC/MAIC enhancement based on the concept of three inputs WL FRESH filtering, exploiting almost exhaustively both the non-circularity and the cyclostationarity of QR signals, contrary to classical approaches which only exploit very partially these properties.
System study of a 60 GHz wireless-powered monolithic sensor system

State-of-the-art batteryless wireless sensors have separate modules for sensing and energy scavenging. Such separation increases the size and cost of sensors and limits their robustness. To overcome these limitations, we propose a 60 GHz wireless sensor system, which we call the PREMISS system, based on monolithic sensors with on chip sensing, tranceiving, integrated antenna and energy scavenging. In the PREMISS system, a high-power central controller transmits RF energy and information to many low-power low-cost sensors via pencil beams and receive and detect the information from these sensors. In this paper, we present a system study on the PREMISS system highlighting design challenges and practical implementation considerations. From the link budget calculation, we show that in the PREMISS system, a signal to noise ratio of 17 dB at the central controller receiver may be achieved from a sensor 5 meters away. In addition, we also identified that one key challenges in the PREMISS system is the design of good efficiency rectifiers for input power and voltage levels far below those in state-of-the-art 2.4 GHz systems.
p-norm-like Constraint Leaky LMS Algorithm for Sparse System Identification

This paper proposes a new leaky least mean square (leaky LMS, LLMS) algorithm in which a norm penalty is introduced to force the solution to be sparse in the application of system identification. The leaky LMS algorithm is derived because the performance ofthe standard LMS algorithm deteriorates when the input is highly correlated. However, both ofthem do not take the sparsity information into account to yield better behaviors. As a modification ofthe LLMS algorithm, the proposed algorithm, named Lp-LLMS, incorporates a p norm penalty into the cost function ofthe LLMS to obtain a shrinkage in the weight update equation, which then enhances the performance of the filter in system identification settings, especially when the impulse response is sparse. The simulation results verify that the proposed algorithm improves the performance ofthe filter in sparse system settings in the presence ofnoisy input signals.
Visualizing large hierarchies with drawer trees

Enclosure partitioning approaches, such as Treemaps, have proved their effectiveness in visualizing large hierarchical structures within a compact and limited display area. Most of the Treemaps techniques do not use node-links to show the structural relations. This paper presents a new tree visualization approach known as Drawer-Tree that can be used to present the structure, organization and interrelation of big data. By utilizing the display space with traditional node-link visualization, we have developed a novel method for visualizing tree structures with high scalability. The name "drawer" is a metaphor that helps people understand the visualization.
A Comparison between Microblog Corpus and Balanced Corpus from Linguistic and Sentimental Perspectives

While microblogging has gained popularity on the Internet, analyzing and processing short messages has become a challenging task in natural language processing. This paper analyzes the differences between Internet short messages (or "microtext") and general articles by comparing the Plurk Corpus and the Sinica Balanced Corpus. Likelihood ratio and the tongyicicilin ("? ") thesaurus are adopted to analyze the lexical semantics of frequent terms in each corpus. Furthermore, the NTUSD sentiment dictionary is used to compare the sentiment distribution of the two corpora. The result is also applied to sentiment transition analysis.
Analysis on audio watermarking algorithm based on SVD

Many audio watermarking schemes based on singular value decomposition(SVD) have been proposed in these years. Original data is usually processed as follows in existing literature. First, original data is rearranged into 2-dimensional matrix, then, SVD is applied on it, and watermark information is embedded by modifying singular values. Analysis is performed on the embedding method described in an existing literature, and the law on modification of original data during embedding procedure is deduced. The computational complexity in embedding and extraction procedures is also discussed. Our work is helpful to find the deficiency of watermarking algorithm based on SVD, and propose better watermarking scheme which may maintain high audio quality.
Connexin 43 hemichannels and intracellular signaling in bone cells

Cell function and survival are controlled by intracellular signals, and modulated by surrounding cells and the extracellular environment. Connexin channels participate in these processes by mediating cell-to-cell communication. In bone cells, gap junction channels were detected in the early 1970s, and are present among bone resorbing osteoclasts, bone forming osteoblasts, and osteocytes - mature osteoblasts embedded in the mineralized matrix. These channels are composed mainly by Cx43, although the expression of other connexins (45, 46, and 37) has also been reported. It is now believed that undocked Cx43 hemichannels (connexons) formed in unopposed cell membranes facing the extracellular environment participate in the interaction of bone cells with the extracellular environment, and in their communication with neighboring cells. Thus, we and others demonstrated the presence of active hemichannels in osteoblastic and osteocytic cells. These hemichannels open in response to pharmacological and mechanical stimulation. In particular, preservation of the viability of osteoblasts and osteocytes by the anti-osteoporotic drugs bisphosphonates depends on Cx43 expression in vitro and in vivo, and is mediated by undocked hemichannels. Cx43 hemichannels are also required for the release of prostaglandins and ATP by osteocytes, and for cell survival induced by mechanical stimulation in vitro. Moreover, they are required for the anti-apoptotic effect of parathyroid hormone in osteoblastic cells. This review summarizes the current knowledge on the presence and function of undocked connexons, and the role of hemichannel regulation for the maintenance of bone cell viability and, potentially, bone health.
Pacer: fine-grained interactive paper via camera-touch hybrid gestures on a cell phone

PACER is a gesture-based interactive paper system that supports fine-grained paper document content manipulation through the touch screen of a cameraphone. Using the phone's camera, PACER links a paper document to its digital version based on visual features. It adopts camera-based phone motion detection for embodied gestures (e.g. marquees, underlines and lassos), with which users can flexibly select and interact with document details (e.g. individual words, symbols and pixels). The touch input is incorporated to facilitate target selection at fine granularity, and to address some limitations of the embodied interaction, such as hand jitter and low input sampling rate. This hybrid interaction is coupled with other techniques such as semi-real time document tracking and loose physical-digital document registration, offering a gesture-based command system. We demonstrate the use of PACER in various scenarios including work-related reading, maps and music score playing. A preliminary user study on the design has produced encouraging user feedback, and suggested future research for better understanding of embodied vs. touch interaction and one vs. two handed interaction.
Dietary Energy Density for the Close-Up Dry Cow - Postpartum Performance

The transition period for dairy cows is generally defined as the time period from three weeks prior to parturition through three weeks after parturition. It is now recognized that defining and meeting the nutritional requirements of the transition dairy cow can greatly impact animal health, production in the ensuing lactation, overall longevity, and animal well-being (NRC, 2001). Nutrition and management during the transition period are essential in determining the profitability of the cow for the rest of her lactation. An inadequate transition program may result in cows having inconsistent feed intakes after calving, and metabolic diseases during the transition into lactation. Inadequate nutrients provided to the transition cow can result in increased costs for veterinary treatment and loss of production potential. Problems during the transition period often result in the loss of 10 to 20 lbs of peak milk, which translates into economic losses up to $600 for that lactation. To maximize productivity and ensure successful reproduction, rations fed during this time need to be nutrient dense and allow for proper transitioning of the diet to the lactating cow ration. Maximizing prepartum and postpartum dry matter intake is an important key to successful transition cow management.
Bayesian nonparametric estimation via Gibbs sampling for coherent systems with redundancy

We consider a coherent system S consisting of m independent components for which we do not know the distributions of the components’ lifelengths. If we know the structure function of the system, then we can estimate the distribution of the system lifelength by estimating the distributions of the lifelengths of the individual components. Suppose that we can collect data under the ‘autopsy model’, wherein a system is run until a failure occurs and then the status (functioning or dead) of each component is obtained. This test is repeated n times. The autopsy statistics consist of the age of the system at the time of breakdown and the set of parts that are dead by the time of breakdown. We develop a nonparametric Bayesian estimate of the distributions of the component lifelengths and then use this to obtain an estimate of the distribution of the lifelength of the system. The procedure is applicable to machine-test settings wherein the machines have redundant designs. A parametric procedure is also given.
A service-level action research intervention to improve identification and treatment of cannabis and related mental health issues in young Indigenous Australians: a study protocol

Introduction Regular cannabis use is associated with negative mental health impacts including psychosis, depression and anxiety. Rates of cannabis use have increased in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in northern Australia within the last two decades, presenting a significant increased risk to young people's mental health in these regions. Improved screening, early detection and treatment for cannabis-related mental health issues are urgently required. This paper describes a service-level action research intervention and evaluation protocol for use in the few services where it is possible to engage young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. Methods/Design The protocol is being developed in two services where youth mental health is core business: a primary healthcare centre and a youth service in the Cairns and hinterland region, far north Queensland. The protocol calls first for baseline data to be collected using staff and client surveys; network mapping; and analysis of screening, treatment and referral rates. The protocol's intervention phase is driven by service needs identified from baseline data. Intervention strategies focus on implementing/enhancing cannabis screening instruments and processes in line with current best practice; enhancing networks with external drug and mental health services; developing culturally acceptable training and resources; developing activities aiming to reduce cannabis use in young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clients using the services. The protocol requires implementation of the multilevel intervention within each service for 1 year, with follow-up data then collected and compared to baseline. Process evaluation identifies the more effective intervention strategies and documents the challenges to be overcome for full implementation. Ethics and dissemination Ethics approval was provided by The James Cook University, Human Research Ethics Committee. Ethics Approval Number H5322. Peer-reviewed publications will also be used to disseminate the finding. Results will also be discussed with stakeholder organisations.