Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Building End-to-End IoT Applications with QoS Guarantees

Many industrial players are currently challenged in building distributed CPS and IoT applications with stringent endto-end QoS requirements. Examples are Vehicle-to-X applications, Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems (ADAS) or functionalities in the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). Currently, there is no comprehensive solution allowing to efficiently program, deploy, and operate such distributed applications. This paper will focus on real-time concerns, in building distributed CPS and IoT systems. Thereby, the focus lies, on the one hand, on mechanisms required inside of the IoT (compute) nodes, and, on the other hand, on communication protocols such as TSN and 5G connecting them. In the authors’ view, the required building blocks for a first end-to-end technology stack are available. However, their integration into a holistic framework is missing.
The relationship between serum 25‐hydroxy vitamin D, parathormone and bone mineral density in Indian population

Vitamin D deficiency (VDD) is a global problem. Not all patients with VDD have clinical manifestations or secondary hyperparathyroidism. We studied the interaction between serum 25‐hydroxy vitamin D (25OHD), parathormone (PTH) and bone mineral density (BMD) in Indian adolescents and adults.
Hybrid Deep Discriminative/Generative Models for Semi-Supervised Learning

Most methods in machine learning are described as either discriminative or generative. The former often attain higher predictive accuracy, while the latter are more strongly regularized and can deal with missing data. Here, we propose a new framework to combine a broad class of discriminative and generative models, interpolating between the two extremes with a multi-conditional likelihood objective. Unlike previous approaches, we couple the two components through shared latent variables, and train using recent advances in variational inference. Instanti-ating our framework with modern deep architectures gives rise to deep hybrid models, a highly ﬂexible family that generalizes several existing models and is effective in the semi-supervised setting, where it results in improvements over the state of the art on the SVHN dataset.
Identifying Schizophrenia and Other Psychoses With Psychological Scales in the General Population

We study the predictive power and associations of several psychopathology and temperament scales with respect to schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders. Measures of psychopathology (Physical and Social Anhedonia Scales, Perceptual Aberration Scale, Hypomanic Personality Scale, Bipolar II Scale, and Schizoidia Scale) and the Temperament and Character Inventory were included in the 31-year follow-up of the prospective Northern Finland 1966 birth cohort (N = 4926). The Perceptual Aberration Scale was the best scale for concurrent validity in psychoses, and also the best psychopathology scale in terms of discriminant validity. Participants scoring high in hypomanic personality were at the highest risk for developing psychosis during the 11-year follow-up. Harm avoidance was a dominant temperament dimension in individuals with psychosis compared with participants without psychiatric diagnoses. These scales are useful as vulnerability markers in studying psychoses.
Driving with homonymous visual field loss: a review of the literature

Driving is an important rehabilitation goal for patients with homonymous field defects (HFDs); however, whether or not people with HFDs should be permitted to drive is not clear. Over the last 15 years, there has been a marked increase in the number of studies evaluating the effects of HFDs on driving performance. This review of the literature provides a much‐needed summary for practitioners and researchers, addressing the following topics: regulations pertaining to driving with HFDs, self‐reported driving difficulties, pass rates in on‐road tests, the effects of HFDs on lane position and steering stability, the effects of HFDs on scanning and detection of potential hazards, screening for potential fitness to drive, evaluating practical fitness to drive and the efficacy of interventions to improve driving of persons with HFDs. Although there is clear evidence from on‐road studies that some people with HFDs may be rated as safe to drive, others are reported to have significant deficits in skills important for safe driving, including taking a lane position too close to one side of the travel lane, unstable steering and inadequate viewing (scanning) behaviour. Driving simulator studies have provided strong evidence of a wide range in compensatory scanning abilities and detection performance, despite similar amounts of visual field loss. Conventional measurements of visual field extent (in which eye movements are not permitted) do not measure such compensatory abilities and are not predictive of on‐road driving performance. Thus, there is a need to develop better tests to screen people with HFDs for visual fitness to drive. We are not yet at a point where we can predict which HFD patient is likely to be a safe driver. Therefore, it seems only fair to provide an opportunity for individualised assessments of practical fitness to drive either on the road and/or in a driving simulator.
Therapeutic activity of a killer peptide against experimental paracoccidioidomycosis.

OBJECTIVES To evaluate whether an engineered synthetic decapeptide (KP) derived from the sequence of a recombinant anti-idiotypic antibody, that represents the internal image of a Pichia anomala killer toxin, could be fungicidal in vitro and therapeutic in vivo against Paracoccidioides brasiliensis and paracoccidioidomycosis (PCM). METHODS Fungicidal activity of KP was assessed in vitro and in vivo by inhibition of colony forming units and by histological examination, 8 days after infection, of organs from mice intravenously injected with a virulent strain of P. brasiliensis (3 x 10(6) yeast cells) and intraperitoneally treated with KP (3.3 microg/g body weight, three doses), in comparison with control animals equally administered with a scrambled decapeptide (SP). RESULTS KP but not SP was fungicidal in vitro at 39 ng/multiply-budding yeast cell and less efficiently in its D-isomeric form (0.31 microg/multiply-budding yeast cell). It was also able to markedly reduce the fungal load in organs (liver, lung, spleen) of infected animals. CONCLUSIONS The therapeutic effect observed opens the way for using the antifungal peptide as an alternative control of PCM in association with conventional antifungal drugs.
Automated bone removal in CT angiography: comparison of methods based on single energy and dual energy scans.

PURPOSE To evaluate dual energy based methods for bone removal in computed tomography angiography (CTA) images and compare these with single energy based methods that use an additional, nonenhanced, CT scan. METHODS Four different bone removal methods were applied to CT scans of an anthropomorphic thorax phantom, acquired with a second generation dual source CT scanner. The methods differed by the way information on the presence of bone was obtained (either by using an additional, nonenhanced scan or by scanning with two tube voltages at the same time) and by the way the bone was removed from the CTA images (either by masking or subtracting the bone). The phantom contained parts which mimic vessels of various diameters in direct contact with bone. Both a quantitative and qualitative analysis of image quality after bone removal was performed. Image quality was quantified by the contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) normalized to the square root of the dose (CNRD). At locations where vessels touch bone, the quality of the bone removal and the vessel preservation were visually assessed. The dual energy based methods were assessed with and without the addition of a 0.4 mm tin filter to the high voltage x-ray tube filtration. For each bone removal method, the dose required to obtain a certain CNR after bone removal was compared with the dose of a reference scan with the same CNR but without automated bone removal. The CNRD value of the reference scan was maximized by choosing the lowest tube voltage available. RESULTS All methods removed the bone completely. CNRD values were higher for the masking based methods than for the subtraction based methods. Single energy based methods had a higher CNRD value than the corresponding dual energy based methods. For the subtraction based dual energy method, tin filtration improved the CNRD value with approximately 50%. For the masking based dual energy method, it was easier to differentiate between iodine and bone when tin filtration was applied. The CNRD value decreased only with 4% in that case. Compared to the dual scan based methods, the dual energy based methods had the advantage that only a single scan was made without the need of image registration. This might be easier to implement in clinical practice. Vessel preservation was better with bone subtraction than with bone masking. Smaller vessels were completely occluded by the bone mask. None of the bone removal methods was dose neutral. CONCLUSIONS In general, dual scan based methods that use the lowest tube voltage available, have a higher CNR than the dual energy based approaches at the same dose level. Tin filtration improves the ability to differentiate between iodine and bone for the dual energy based masking method. In clinical practice, the advantages of the dual energy masking method might outweigh its disadvantage of a slightly higher dose penalty compared to the conventional dual scan masking method.
Effect of Calcium Carbonate Particle Size on Calcium Absorption and Retention in Adolescent Girls

Objective: Increasing calcium bioavailability by decreasing calcium salt particle size in the supplement may be one way to increase calcium absorption. The aim of the study was to compare (1) large versus small particle size CaCO3 supplements and (2) small particle size CaCO3 supplement versus placebo on calcium absorption and retention in adolescent girls. Methods: Thirty-one adolescent girls, aged 11 to 14 years, participated in two 3-week calcium balance periods separated by a 1-week washout period. During both balance periods, the subjects consumed a controlled diet containing 804 mg/d calcium. Using a crossover design, one group (n = 19) received an additional ∼600 mg/d calcium of two ∼300-mg calcium doses as either large particle (18 μm; i.e., standard commercial form) or small particle (13.5 μm) CaCO3. A second group (n = 12) received ∼600 mg/d calcium from small-particle CaCO3 or placebo. Results: The parathyroid hormone suppression curve, following a challenge, from the first arm of the study indicated that calcium absorption from the small particle size CaCO3 was less than that from the large particle size CaCO3. The parathyroid hormone suppression curve from the small particle versus placebo arm indicated that calcium absorption from small particle size CaCO3 was greater than placebo. Calcium balance (Ca intake – [urine Ca + fecal Ca]) demonstrated that the small particle size CaCO3 supplement increased Ca retention nearly 2-fold compared with placebo (p < 0.05; 496 ± 213 and 256 ± 94 mg/d, respectively). However, there was no significant difference in Ca retention due to small versus large particle size of CaCO3 (p > 0.05; 349.1 ± 131.6 and 322.0 ± 194.2 mg/d, respectively). Conclusions: Dietary supplementation with CaCO3 is effective in increasing calcium absorption and retention compared with placebo. But there is no advantage of small compared with large particle size CaCO3 on calcium absorption and retention.
The PF4/PPBP/CXCL5 Gene Cluster Is Associated with Periodontitis

Periodontitis is a common dysbiotic inflammatory disease with an estimated heritability of 50%. Due to the limited sample size of available periodontitis cohorts and the underlying trait heterogeneity, genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of chronic periodontitis (CP) have been unsuccessful in discovering susceptibility factors. A strategy that combines agnostic GWAS with a well-powered candidate-gene approach has the potential to discover novel loci. We combined RNA-seq data from gingival tissues with quantitative trait loci (QTLs) that were identified in a F2-cross of mice resistant and susceptible to infection with oral bacterial pathogens. Four genes, which were located within the mapped QTLs, showed differential expression. The chromosomal regions across the human orthologous were interrogated for putative periodontitis-associated variants using existing GWAS data from a German case-control sample of aggressive periodontitis (AgP; 651 cases, 4,001 controls), the most severe and early onset form of periodontitis. Two haplotype blocks, one upstream to the coding region of UGT2A1 (rs146712414, P = 9.1 × 10−5; odds ratio [OR], 1.34; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.16–1.56) and one downstream of the genes PF4/PPBP/CXCL5 (rs1595009, P = 1.3 × 10−4; OR, 1.32; 95% CI, 1.15–1.52), were associated with AgP. The association of rs1595009 was validated in an independent cohort of CP of European Americans (1,961 cases and 1,864 controls; P = 0.03; OR, 1.45; 95% CI, 1.01–1.29). This association was further replicated in another sample of 399 German CP cases (disease onset <60 y of age) and 1,633 controls (P = 0.03; OR, 1.75; 95% CI, 1.06–2.90). The combined estimates of association from all samples were P = 2.9 × 10−5 (OR, 1.2; 95% CI, 1.1–1.3). This study shows the strength of combining QTL mapping and RNA-Seq data from a mouse model with association studies in human case-control samples to identify genetic risk variants of periodontitis.
Soft-x-ray tomography of sawtooth oscillations in the JIPP T-II tokamak.

Time evolutions of the soft-x-ray tomography of a tokamak plasma have been obtained during sawtooth oscillations by use of the Fourier-Bessel expansion technique. The colder plasma is carried to the center by a hydrodynamic flow, and becomes a new hot spot during the crash phase. The old hot core is pushed out and the new hot spot remains at the center after the crash. The observed sawtooth crash is consistent with neither the Kadomtsev model nor the Wesson model. The crash time is shorter as the current profile is broader.
Modeling and control of grid-connected photovoltaic power plants utilizing a simplified model of the modular multilevel converter

The intent of this paper is to implement a simplified model for a modular multilevel converter (MMC) to be used as an interface between a photovoltaic power plant and the ac grid. MMC-based topologies as well as photovoltaic (PV) arrays feature a large number of components, and therefore difficult to be simulated in detail. Because of this, researchers have developed simplified models for both the MMC and PV arrays to account for their terminal behavior. This paper makes use of terminal behavioral modeling techniques for MMCs and PV arrays proposed in the literature, developing a full model for a single-stage grid-connected PV power plant. The paper demonstrates via computer simulations the ability of the MMC to perform maximum power point tracking while injecting adjustable reactive power, similar to that of conventional two-level voltage source converters.
Relations among Socioeconomic Status Indicators and Health for African-Americans and Whites

This investigation explored the relationship of socioeconomic status (SES) to physical and mental health in two nationally representative samples of whites and African-Americans. We examined the interrelations among SES variables and assessed their contribution to health for the two racial groups. Throughout, we assessed the contribution of a less traditional indicator of SES—wealth—in the SES–health relationship. As we expected, African-Americans had lower levels of education, household income, and wealth than whites. Unexpectedly, however, the strength of the interrelationships among the three SES indicators did not differ for African-Americans and whites. In addition, we found that SES operated to affect health in a very similar fashion for African-Americans and whites. We found that wealth, in addition to more traditional indicators of SES (education and household income), made a unique and significant contribution to explaining both physical and mental health. Examining relations of different SES indicators to health across groups is critical to eliminating persistent social inequalities in health.
The effects of an intensive lifestyle modification program on sleep and stress disorders.

BACKGROUND To determine if a lifestyle change program can modify behavior to reduce sleep and stress disorders. METHODS Analyses are based on 2,624 individuals aged 30 to 80 years from the Rockford, Illinois metropolitan area who completed a lifestyle evaluation at baseline and again after four weeks, following participation in a 40-hour educational course given over a four-week period. Participants receive instruction on the importance of making better lifestyle choices related to making long-term improvements in nutrition and physical activity and they learn ways to improve sleep and reduce stress in their lives. RESULTS Significant percent decreases were observed in the number experiencing selected sleep or stress disorders from baseline to four weeks later for "sleeps restlessly" (-59%), "suffers from insomnia" (-64%), "feels under pressure" (-37%), "easily emotionally upset" (-52%), and "feels fearful or depressed" (-61%). Experiencing a selected sleep or stress disorder after four weeks among those who had the disorder at baseline was significantly more likely in those not physically active and/or not having lowered their BMI after four weeks. Changes in alcohol consumption and smoking did not significantly contribute to changes in the disorders. Those who failed to lower their coffee/tea use after four weeks were significantly more likely to have a sleep disorder and be easily emotionally upset. CONCLUSIONS Changes in lifestyle behaviors after attending an educational program significantly reduced sleep and stress disorders in as little as four weeks, primarily explained by decreasing BMI and/or increasing exercise.
Human antibody responses to bovine (Newbury‐2) norovirus (GIII.2) and association to histo‐blood group antigens

Serum antibodies to bovine norovirus have been found recently in about 22% of humans. Whether this prevalence reflects limited virulence properties of the virus or that inherited host factors provide protection against bovine norovirus infection in humans remains to be established. To investigate whether histo‐blood group antigens correlate with the presence of bovine norovirus (GIII.2) antibody, plasma (n = 105) from Swedish blood donors, genotyped and phenotyped for secretor, Lewis and ABO, were tested and compared for the frequency of IgG antibody and antibody titer to Bo/Newbury2/76/UK. In total, 26.7% (28/105) of Swedish blood donors were antibody‐positive. Two non‐secretors (2/21, 9.5%) were antibody‐positive compared with 26/84 (31%) secretors (P = 0.047). While no statistically significant correlation was found between the frequency of antibodies to bovine norovirus and different ABO blood groups, individuals with blood type B presented the highest frequency of antibodies (37.5%) compared with 0–30% among other blood groups. Individuals with Le(a−b+) had not only higher frequency of antibodies (31.3%) compared with Le(a+b−) (11%) (P = 0.068) but also higher antibody titer (P = 0.085) although this was not significant statistically. No detectable cross‐reaction between bovine GIII.2 and human GII.3 NoV VLP was found with human and animal sera. The results of this study suggest that bovine norovirus infections occur in Sweden and that secretor status but not ABO blood groups is a possible risk factor for infection. J. Med. Virol. 82: 1241–1246, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Predicting the Contribution of Rat Cytochrome P-450 3A1, 3A2 and Human Cytochrome P-450 3A4, 3A5 to Territrem a 4beta-C Hydroxylation Using the Relative Activity Factor

The relative activity factor (RAF) was used to predict the contribution of different cytochrome P-450 (CYP) 3A isoforms (3A1 and 3A2 in rat liver microsomes and 3A4 and 3A5 in human liver microsomes) to 4beta-C hydroxylation of territrem A (TRA). Seven recombinant rat and eight recombinant human CYP450 isoforms, five rat liver microsomes, and seven human liver microsomes were assessed. In liver microsomes from five male Wistar rats, TRA 4beta-C hydroxylation activity significantly correlated with CYP3A1/2 activity, while, in liver microsomes from seven humans, there was marked correlation with CYP3A4 activity. Immunoinhibition confirmed that CYP3A2 and CYP3A4 were responsible for the hepatic metabolism of TRA 4beta-C hydroxylation. Using RAF, the percent contributions of CYP3A1 and CYP3A2 to 4beta-C hydroxylation of TRA in rat liver microsomes were estimated as 5 to 6 and 94 to 96, respectively, and those of CYP3A4 and CYP3A5 in human liver microsomes as 70 to 72 and 28 to 30%, respectively. These results suggest that CYP3A2 and CYP3A4 are the main form involved in the 4beta-C hydroxylation of TRA in rat and human liver microsomes.
A Tire Gasification Senior Design Project That Integrates Laboratory Experiments and Computer Simulation.

203 Marco J. Castaldi is an Assistant Professor in the Earth & Environmental Engineering Department at Columbia University. He received his B.S. ChE from Manhattan College and M.S. and Ph.D. ChE from the University of California, Los Angeles. Prior to joining Columbia University, he worked in industry for 7 years researching and developing novel catalytic reactors. His teaching interests lie in thermodynamics, combustion phenomena and reaction engineering. His research is focused on beneficial uses of CO2 in catalytic and combustion environments, Waste-to-Energy processes and novel extraction techniques for methane hydrates. Marco J. Castaldi is an assistant professor in the Earth and Environmental Engineering Department at Columbia University. He received his B.S. ChE from Manhattan College and M.S. and Ph.D. ChE from the University of California, Los Angeles. Prior to joining Columbia University, he worked in industry for seven years researching and developing novel catalytic reactors. His teaching interests lie in thermodynamics, combustion phenomena, and reaction engineering. His research is focused on beneficial uses of CO2 in catalytic and combustion environments, waste-to-energy processes, and novel extraction techniques for methane hydrates.
AODV ( Ad-Hoc on Demand Distance Vector Routing Protocol )

One of the most promising and exciting areas of communication technology is Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs). It enables vehicles to communicate among and between each other and fixed infrastructures, and, to provide a safe and enjoyable driving experience. However, VANETs are very susceptible to attacks that could easily be evasive due to its dynamic topology, and, resulting in very dramatic results in traffic. To develop a suitable security solution for VANETs, it must first be understand how such attacks could affect the network. Therefore, this study analyzes four different types of attacks against two popular routing protocols (AODV, GPSR) in VANETs. All attacks, blackhole, dropping, flooding, and bogus information, were implemented on two real maps having low and high density. The results clearly show how attacks could severely affect communication and, the need for security solutions for such highly dynamic networks.