Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Wideband Cloaking of Objects With Arbitrary Shapes Exploiting Adjoint Sensitivities

We propose an effective approach for optimal wideband cloaking of objects with arbitrary shapes exploiting adjoint sensitivity analysis. Our method optimizes the voxel-by-voxel constitutive parameters of an anisotropic cloak resulting in a large number of optimizable parameters. The associated sensitivities of a wideband cloaking objective function are efficiently estimated using our in-house anisotropic adjoint variable method (AVM) simulator. Only one adjoint simulation is needed regardless of the number of required sensitivities. A gradient-based optimization algorithm utilizes the available sensitivity information to iteratively improve the wideband cloaking objective function and to determine the constitutive parameters of the optimal cloak.
FEDRP Based Model Implementation of Intelligent Energy Management Scheme for a Residential Community in Smart Grids Network

In the framework of liberalized deregulated electricity market, dynamic competitive environment exists between wholesale and retail dealers for energy supplying and management. Smart Grids topology in form of energy management has forced power supplying agencies to become globally competitive. Demand Response (DR) Programs in context with smart energy network have influenced prosumers and consumers towards it. In this paper Fair Emergency Demand Response Program (FEDRP) is integrated for managing the loads intelligently by using the platform of Smart Grids for Residential Setup. The paper also provides detailed modeling and analysis of respective demands of residential consumers in relation with economic load model for FEDRP. Due to increased customer’s partaking in this program the load on the utility is reduced and managed intelligently during emergency hours by providing fair and attractive incentives to residential clients, thus shifting peak load to off peak hours. The numerical and graphical results are matched for intelligent energy management scenario.
Reconstructing Earth's surface temperature over the past 2000 years: the science behind the headlines

The last quarter century spans the publication of the first assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 1990 and the latest report published in 2013–2014. The five assessment reports appearing over that interval reveal a marked increase in the number of paleoclimate studies addressing the climate of the last 2000 years (the Common Era). An important focus of this work has been on reconstruction of hemispheric and global temperatures. Several early studies in this area generated considerable scientific and public interest, and were followed by high‐profile and sometimes vitriolic debates about the magnitude of temperature changes over all or part of the Common Era and their comparison to 20th‐ and 21st‐century global temperature increases due to increasing levels of atmospheric greenhouse gases. Behind the more public debates, however, several consistent themes of scientific inquiry have developed to better characterize climate variability and change over the Common Era. These include attempts to collect more climate proxy archives and understand the signals they contain, improve the statistical methods used to estimate past temperature variability from proxies and their associated uncertainties, and to compare reconstructed temperature variability and change with climate model simulations. All of these efforts are driving a new age of research on the climate of the Common Era that is developing more cohesive and collaborative investigations into the dynamics of climate on time scales of decades to centuries, and an understanding of the implications for modeled climate projections of the future. WIREs Clim Change 2016, 7:746–771. doi: 10.1002/wcc.418
Epidemiology and molecular characterization of co-circulating influenza A/H3N2 virus variants in children: Houston, Texas, 1997–8

Co-circulating variants of influenza A/H3N2 viruses in children were studied in Houston, Texas between October 1997 and March 1998 to assess the effects of a new variant strain on the severity of clinical illness. Influenza A virus was isolated from the nasal wash or nasal aspirate specimens collected from children at two tertiary care hospitals, and 271 isolates were available for variant-specific subtyping using RT–PCR and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis. We classified 124 (46%) influenza viruses as A/H3N2/Wuhan/359/95-like and 137 (50%) as A/H3N2/Sydney/05/97-like. Ten (4%) virus isolates could not be classified. Ill contacts in the household were reported more frequently in patients infected with A/Sydney-like viruses than in those infected with A/Wuhan-like viruses (85% vs. 71%, respectively, P=0·02). There were no differences in other demographic variables among children infected with these strains. This study found no increase in illness severity in children infected with a newly emerging strain.
Benzene Exposure Monitoring of Tunisian Workers

To monitor benzene exposure and to check reliability of urinary trans,trans-Muconic Acid (t,t-MA) as a bio-marker of benzene exposure in local conditions, a study was conducted on 30 Tunisian exposed workers (20 tanker fillers and 10 filling station attendants). The analyses were carried out on environmental air and urinary t,t-MA before (t,t-MAA) and at the end of work shift (t,t-MAB). 20 nonoccupationally exposed subjects were also investigated. The average value of environmental benzene concentration was 0.17 ppm. The differences between t,t-MAA and t,t-MAB concentrations and between t,t-MAB and t,t-MA measured in controls (t,t-MAC) were both significant (p < 0.001). Benzene air concentrations were well correlated with t,t-MAB: R = 0.76. In the nonexposed group, average t,t-MA concentrations is significantly higher among smokers than nonsmokers (P < 0.02). Analysis of urinary t,t-MA offers a relatively simple and suitable method for benzene exposure monitoring.
Audio Informational Services and the Electronic Media Environment

Recent developments in technology have transformed the telephone from an exclusively interpersonal medium to an interactive electronic mass medium. The diffusion of innovations framework was applied to examine whether adoption of audiotext and 1–900 services is related to use of functionally similar entertainment media. Findings suggest that adoption of audio information services was more powerfully explained by media use patterns than demographics.
Assessment of Quality of Life in Adolescent Patients With Orthopaedic Problems: Are Adult Measures Appropriate?

New pressures of accountability brought on by a rapidly evolving system of health care financing have underscored the need for standardized, valid measures of patient outcome that reflect the effect of clinical intervention on all aspects of quality of life. In response, there has been a burgeoning interest in the area of outcomes assessment and measurement of quality of life after orthopaedic intervention in adults, but less attention has been focused on the assessment of broadly defined outcomes in children. In an effort to borrow from the broader adult experience in this area, the authors sought to examine whether the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form 36 (SF-36) or the EuroQol questionnaire, widely accepted adult health status measures, would be valid in this setting. These two measures were administered to 196 adolescent patients (10–18 years old) seeking orthopaedic evaluation. Tests of scale properties and construct validity show that these properties are maintained in this population, but neither instrument reflected known differences in health status among this cohort. Most importantly, both the SF-36 and the EuroQol exhibited serious ceiling effects (most respondents scored at the top of their scales), despite evidence indicating those patients often had suboptimal health status. Thus, neither the SF-36 nor the EuroQol is valid for use in this population. The assessment of pediatric health status demands outcomes measures specifically designed to reflect the unique needs of this population.
Purification of neuronal inclusions of patients with Huntington's disease reveals a broad range of N‐terminal fragments of expanded huntingtin and insoluble polymers

Huntington's disease resulting from huntingtin containing an expanded polyglutamine is associated with aggregates largely confined to neuronal inclusions, and with neuronal death. Inclusions are thought to originate from discrete N‐terminal fragments of expanded huntingtin produced by specific endopeptidases. We have now purified the neuronal inclusions of Huntington's disease brain. When incubated in concentrated formic acid, purified inclusions release a polymer, an oligomer and a broad range of N‐terminal fragments of expanded huntingtin. The fragments and the polymeric forms are linked to each other by non‐covalent bonds as they are both released by formic acid, whereas the polymeric forms themselves are presumably stabilized by covalent bonds, as they are resistant to formic acid. We also demonstrate the presence in affected areas of the brain but not in unaffected areas of a broad range of soluble N‐terminal fragments of expanded huntingtin not yet associated with the inclusions and which are likely to be the precursors of the inclusions. Fragmentation of expanded huntingtin in Huntington's disease must result from the operation of multiple proteolytic activities with little specificity and not from that of a specific endopeptidase; subsequent aggregation of the fragments by covalent and non‐covalent bonds leads to the formation of the inclusions.
Investigation on introducing qubit convergence measure to QEA in maximum cut problem

The quantum-inspired evolutionary algorithm (QEA) and QEA with a pair-swap strategy (QEAPS), where each gene is represented by a quantum bit (qubit), and the qubit is updated by a unitary transformation in both algorithms. QEA and QEAPS can automatically shift from a global search to a local search and have shown superior search performance to the classical genetic algorithm. However, it is important to appropriately manage the convergence speed of qubits. In this study, we have proposed a measure that can confirm convergence state of qubits, and applied the measure to a method for keeping diversity. From the results of the computational experiment in the maximum cut problem, we have clarified that the proposed measure can confirm the state of the qubit, and the discovery rate of the optimal solution improves with to apply the method for maintenance of diversity.
A Packaged Ultrawideband Filter with High Stopband Rejection [Application Notes]

In recent years, the promises of ultrawideband (UWB) technology have sparked the interest of the research community, and since 2002, when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved the commercial use of the frequency band between 3.1 GHz and 10.6 GHz for UWB systems, research in this field has gained momentum. The first years after the FCC's release have seen an almost exponential increase in publications on this topic, as is shown in Figure 1.
Spatially adaptive HOS-based motion detection for video sequence segmentation

In this paper an adaptive procedure, based on a coarse-to-fine scheme, for the segmentation of a video sequence into background and moving objects, aimed at supporting content-based functionalities, is presented. The coarse stage provides a pixel-based motion detection based on non Gaussian signal extraction using Higher Order Statistics (HOS). The fine motion detection phase refines the coarse classification by introducing some topological constraints on the segmentation map essentially by means of simple morphological operators at low computational cost. The background model takes explicitly into account the apparent motion, induced by background fluctuations typically appearing in outdoor sequences. Spatial adaptation of the algorithm is obtained by varying the threshold of the HOS based motion detector on the basis of the local spectral characteristics of each frame, measured by a parameter representing the local spatial bandwidth. Simulation results show that, the introduction of local bandwidth to control the segmentation algorithm rejects the large apparent motion observed in outdoor sequences, without degrading the detection performance in indoor sequences.
Sleep Disturbance in Children With Migraine

The objectives of this study were to determine if (1) children with migraine experience greater sleep disturbances than their siblings, (2) those with more severe migraine have greater levels of sleep disruption, and (3) these sleep disturbances lead to greater behavioral problems and more missed school. Children aged 6 to 18 years with a diagnosis of migraine for > 6 months, who had at least one sibling without migraine in the same age range, were identified through our neurology clinic database or at the time of the clinic visit. Parents completed the (1) demographic, general health, and migraine information questionnaire; (2) Child Sleep Habits Questionnaire; and (3) Behavior Assessment System for Children: Second Edition (BASC-2) Parent Rating Scales for each child. Cases with migraine had higher total sleep (P < .02), sleep delay (P < .03), and daytime sleepiness scores (P < .001) than controls. Cases with more severe migraines had higher total sleep (P < .01) and sleep duration scores (P < .03) than those with milder headaches. In cases, higher total sleep scores predicted greater behavior problems on all four composite scales on the Behavior Assessment System for Children: Second Edition (Externalizing Problems, P < .05; Internalizing Problems, P < .005; Behavior Systems Index, P < .003; and Adaptability Skills, P < .006). We conclude that children with migraine are prone to greater sleep and behavioral disturbances than children without headache. Sleep disorders should be routinely queried and appropriate advice on sleep hygiene provided. (J Child Neurol 2006;21:761—766; DOI 10.2310/7010.2006.00191).
Three‐dimensional tailored RF pulses for the reduction of susceptibility artifacts in T*2‐weighted functional MRI

A three‐dimensional tailored RF pulse method for reducing intravoxel dephasing artifacts in T *2‐weighted functional MRI is presented. A stack of spirals k‐space trajectory is employed to excite a disk of magnetization for small tip angles. Smaller disks with a linear through‐plane phase are inserted into the disk to locally refocus regions which are normally dephased due to susceptibility variations. Numerical simulations and imaging experiments which use the tailored RF pulses are presented. Limitations of the method and improvements are also discussed. Magn Reson Med 44:525–531, 2000. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Analysis of Influencing Factors in Predicting Students Performance Using MLP - A Comparative Study

In recent years, Educational Data Mining has put on a massive appreciation within the research realm and it has become a vital need for the academic institutions to improve the quality of education. The quality of education is measured by the academic performance of students and the results produced. In higher education institutions a substantial amount of knowledge is hidden and need to be extracted using Knowledge Discovery process. Data mining helps to extract the knowledge from available dataset and should be created as knowledge intelligence for the benefit of the institution. Many factors influence the academic performance of the students. The study model is mainly focused on analyzing the prediction accuracy of the academic performance of the students using only influencing factors by Multi Layer Perceptron algorithm and to compare it with the prediction accuracy of the academic performance of the students using a dataset that comprises of all academic, personal and economic factors of the students using Multi Layer Perceptron algorithm.
Human experimental pain models: A review of standardized methods in drug development

Human experimental pain models are essential in understanding the pain mechanisms and appear to be ideally suited to test analgesic compounds. The challenge that confronts both the clinician and the scientist is to match specific treatments to different pain-generating mechanisms and hence reach a pain treatment tailored to each individual patient. Experimental pain models offer the possibility to explore the pain system under controlled settings. Standardized stimuli of different modalities (i.e., mechanical, thermal, electrical, or chemical) can be applied to the skin, muscles, and viscera for a differentiated and comprehensive assessment of various pain pathways and mechanisms. Using a multimodel-multistructure testing, the nociception arising from different body structures can be explored and modulation of specific biomarkers by new and existing analgesic drugs can be profiled. The value of human experimental pain models is to link animal and clinical pain studies, providing new possibilities for designing successful clinical trials. Spontaneous pain, the main compliant of the neuropathic patients, but currently there is no human model available that would mimic chronic pain. Therefore, current human pain models cannot replace patient studies for studying efficacy of analgesic compounds, although being helpful for proof-of-concept studies and dose finding.
A Survey on the Internet of Things Software Arhitecture

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a concept and a paradigm that considers the pervasive presence in the environment of a variety of things/objects through wired or wireless that are uniquely addressed and are able to interact with each other and cooperate with other things/objects in order to create new applications/services and to achieve common objectives. IoT defines a new world where the real, the digital and the virtual converge to create an environment that makes the energy, transport, city, and many other areas to become more intelligent. The IoT purposed is to validate the connection type: anytime, anywhere, and everything and everyone. IoT may be considered as a network of physical objects with embedded communication technologies that 'feel' or interact with internal or external environment. This paper presents a survey on the Internet of Things software architectures that meets the requirements listed above.
Quality of life after gastroplasty is normal: a controlled study.

OBJECTIVE To assess the quality of life of patients 1 1/2-5 1/2 years after vertical banded gastroplasty for morbid obesity. DESIGN Retrospective study by questionnaire. SETTING University hospital, Sweden. SUBJECTS 102 of the 127 patients (80%) operated on for morbid obesity between January 1989 and February 1993 responded to the questionnaire. 74 patients who underwent routine cholecystectomy were matched for age and time of surgery, of whom 55 (74%) responded to the questionnaire and acted as controls. INTERVENTION Standardised questionnaire of 112 items, 28 of which referred to problems with eating (Gothenburg Quality of Life Scale). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Differences in scores between the groups. RESULTS Gastroplasty caused profound changes in patients' lives, cholecystectomy did not. This was reflected in self esteem, relations with partners, and social networking for both sexes. There was no difference between groups in overall quality of life, the mean (SEM) scores for women being 5.32 (0.09) compared with 5.33 (0.07) and for men 5.32 (0.17) compared with 5.40 (0.14). CONCLUSION Vertical banded gastroplasty seems to offer morbidly obese patients not only reduction in weight but also improved quality of life.
Toolkit for extracting electrocardiogram signals from scanned trace reports

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death throughout the world. Since electrocardiogram-reports (ECG) have a great CVD predicting potential, the demand for their real-time analysis is high. Although algorithms are present to perform analysis, most countries still use analogue acquisition systems that can only output a printed trace. It is necessary to extract the signal from these printouts to perform analysis. With time, as the reports pile up and the trace fades from the printout, the task becomes increasingly difficult. The method presented specifically focuses on extracting signals from faded traces. Due to the large variability of scans, it is difficult to automate this task completely. In this paper, we propose several tools for ECG extraction while maintaining a minimum user involvement requirement. The proposed method was tested on a dataset of 550 trace snippets and comparative analysis shows an average accuracy of 96%.
A ConArg-Based Library for Abstract Argumentation

We present ConArgLib, a C++ library implemented to help programmers solve some of the most important problems related to extension-based Abstract Argumentation. The library is based on ConArg, which exploits Constraint Programming and, in particular, Gecode, a toolkit for developing constraintbased systems and applications. Given a semantics, such problems consist, for example, in enumerating all the extensions, and checking the credulous or sceptical acceptance of an argument passed as parameter. The goal is to let programmers use the library to quickly develop programs on top of it, as, for instance, implementing decision-making procedures based on the strongest arguments, or comparing two frameworks by looking at the differences between their (e.g., stable) semantics.
Hypoattenuation in unenhanced CT reflects histological graft dysfunction and predicts 1‐year mortality after living donor liver transplantation

Early postoperative graft function assessments are essential after living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) to predict patient and graft outcome. Computed tomography (CT) is usually used to evaluate various complications and parenchymal abnormalities after LDLT. Here, we attempted to determine the prognostic values of CT attenuation changes of grafts for predicting 1‐year patient survival. Liver attenuation indices (LAIs), derived from differences between hepatic and splenic attenuations, were calculated on unenhanced CT images obtained 10 days after LDLT in 62 adult LDLT recipients between September 2002 and August 2004. Patients were assigned to 1 of 2 groups according to LAI value on the 10th postoperative day, as follows: group L (LAI ≤ 5, n = 14) or group H (LAI > 5, n = 48). Parenchymal dysfunction scores, summed parameters for histological dysfunction including both portal tract and centrilobular features, were also assessed on the 10th postoperative day using liver biopsy specimens. Histological parenchymal dysfunction, especially in the centrilobular area, in terms of cholestasis, centrilobular necroinflammation, central vein fibrosis, steatosis, mononuclear infiltrates, and hepatocyte ballooning, was more prominent in group L than in group H, while that in the portal area was similar between the 2 study groups. Significant negative linear correlations were observed between LAI and parenchymal dysfunction scores (r = 0.486, P < 0.001). Group L patients showed lower 1‐year survival (69.7%) than group H patients (95.8%; P = 0.0002). Moreover, group H patients died with a functioning graft (n = 3), whereas group L patients died of graft failure (n = 6). After multivariate analysis, LAI alone remained independently associated with 1‐year mortality (P = 0.014; odds ratio = 0.845; 95% confidence interval, 0.739‐0.967). The sensitivity and specificity of LAI were 84.6% and 75%, respectively, and LAI outperformed MELD score as a predictor of 1‐year mortality after LDLT by receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. In conclusion, LAI, as determined by unenhanced CT 10 days after LDLT, well predicts 1‐year patient survival after LDLT. Liver Transpl 12:1403‐1411, 2006. © 2006 AASLD.