Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Circulating HDL and Non-HDL Associated Apolipoproteins and Breast Cancer Severity

Plasma lipids are carried within lipoproteins with various apolipoprotein content. This study evaluates the interest of measuring the apolipoproteins of circulating lipoproteins in breast cancer. Patients with early-stage breast cancer (n = 140) were included. Tumors differed by the expression of estrogen and progesterone receptor (HR− and HR+ for negative and positive expression) and the proliferation marker Ki-67 (≤20% or ≥30%). Apolipoprotein concentrations were determined in plasma, HDL and non-HDL fractions, and results are given in mg/dL, median (25th–75th). Patients did not differ in their plasma and lipoprotein lipid concentrations. HDL apoC-I and non-HDL apoC-II were reduced (1.34 (1.02–1.80) vs. 1.61 (1.32–2.04), p = 0.04; 0.31 (0.18–0.65) vs. 0.63 (0.39–1.02), p = 0.01; respectively), in RH-/high Ki-67 patients in comparison to RH-/low Ki-67 patients, while plasma apoD and HDL apoD were higher (3.24 (2.99–4.16) vs. 3.07 (2.39–3.51), p = 0.04; 2.74 (2.36–3.35) vs. 2.45 (2.01–2.99), p = 0.04; respectively). When RH+/high Ki-67 patients were compared with RH+/low Ki-67 patients, HDL apoC-I and HDL apoC-III were higher (1.56 (1.20–1.95) vs. 1.35 (1.10–1.62), p = 0.02; 2.80 (2.42–3.64) vs. 2.38 (1.69–2.96), p = 0.02; respectively). The distribution of exchangeable apolipoproteins, such as apoC-I, apoC-II, apoC-III, apoD, between lipoproteins is linked to the severity of breast cancer.
CMOS building blocks for 10+Gb/s clock data recovery circuit

The design of a clock data recovery (CDR) circuit is the most challenging part of building a high-speed optical transceiver because of the complexity of this block. In this dissertation, the design of a half-rate high speed CDR is described, following a top-down design procedure. VHDL-AMS, which is the acronym of the VHDL (VHSIC Hardware Description Language) for Analog and Mixed-Signal, is used to implement the behavioral model of the whole system in the early and mid-stage of the design process. As both wireless and optical communications systems move towards high-data rate application, low noise high frequency voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs) are becoming more important in the design of the receiver and transmitter blocks. Ring oscillator has long been perceived as capable of permitting easy implementation and occupying smaller die area as compared with its inductor-capacitor (LC) counterparts. Ring oscillator is also well known to be able to cover a wide tuning range, and to generate quadrature signals, by simply using even-number of differential delay stages. In this dissertation, the design and experimental results of two novel ring oscillators are described. One of the proposed VCO attains the high speed and wide tuning range with acceptable noise level by using push-pull inverter as the secondary input of the multipleloop ring oscillator. Experimental results prove the capability of the VCO to operate at i ATTENTION: The Singapore Copyright Act applies to the use of this document. Nanyang Technological University Library
Stabilization control of quadrotor helicopter through matching solution by controlled Lagrangian method

This paper implements the controlled Lagrangian method on nonlinear quadrotor system with two degrees of underactuation. A Lagrangian system based on virtual angles is developed for the quadrotor. Based on the model, the matching conditions presented by nonlinear partial differential equations are explicitly solved for the nonlinear quadrotor system without decoupling or division. Besides, it is demonstrated that a constant controlled kinetic matrix could be utilized for energy shaping and simplify the matching conditions since gyroscopic force terms are omitted. Smooth state feedback control laws guaranteeing asymptotic stability of quadrotor system are obtained. Stability analysis and range of the control parameters are deduced based on the reshaped closed‐loop energy. Simulation for a quadrotor helicopter shows the feasibility and efficiency of the theoretical results.
Robotium Automated Testing for Android

Efficiently automate test cases for Android applications using Robotium Overview Integrate Robotium with Maven to perform test case execution during build Learn different steps to connect to a remote client from an android using Robotium Understand the benefits of Robotium over other test frameworks In Detail Automation testing on mobile devices has been around for a number of years, although it has really taken off with the advent of the Robotium Framework. With the help of automating test cases, business components are extensively reused and complex test cases are executed. Due to a number of different key features added to the Robotium Framework, it has become the world's leading Android test automation framework and most of the industry experts and professionals are using this framework for testing their Android business applications. This practical guide will help you to create and execute automated test cases. You will also learn how to take advantage of the real power behind the Robotium Framework and all of its features, while being provided with a good grounding in how to use it in your Android test project. Starting with learning how to set up an Android environment for using Robotium, this book will then look at the various features of the Robotium framework, and take you through numerous examples that will help you to take advantage of the new features in Robotium, quickly and painlessly. This book will guide you through setting up the Android environment that is necessary to create a test project. You will also learn the benefits of using Robotium over other test frameworks, as well as solutions to the most common issues faced by users in this domain. What you will learn from this book Get to grips with the Robotium Framework Create a test project using Robotium Get acquainted with Robotium API calls and their usage Access web views in Android via Web Support in Robotium Compare Robotium with other testing frameworks Utilize the remote control feature in Robotium Implement different Robotium utilities Use Robotium with Maven Approach This is a step-by-step, example-oriented tutorial aimed at illustrating the various test scenarios and automation capabilities of Robotium. Who this book is written for If you are an Android developer who is learning how to create test cases to test their application, and are looking to get a good grounding in different features in Robotium, this book is ideal for you. It's assumed that you have some experience in Android development, as well be familiar with the Android test framework, as Robotium is a wrapper to Android test framework.
Study on the Weakening Law and Classification of Rock Mass Damage under Blasting Conditions

To study the effects of declining mechanical parameters caused by blasting excavation on slopes, we introduced the damage degree index Ds, and established a relationship between Ds and the disturbance factor D in the Hoek–Brown criterion, along with a basic quality index BQ for the rock mass. We then explored the change law for the degree of rock damage Ds as a function of the disturbance factor D. We also used a phosphate mine slope in Guizhou Province for reference, and analyzed the process of damage evolution of the slope based on the RHT (Riedel-Hiermaier-Thoma Constitution) in LS-DYNA (Yunnan, China). Results showed a direct relationship between the GSI value in the Hoek–Brown criterion and the initial damage degree of the slope. As Ds increases, D increases exponentially. However, the compressive strength, elastic modulus, cohesion, and internal friction angle decreased nonlinearly, and the tensile strength of the rock mass decreased linearly. Among these parameters, the compressive strength decreased the most rapidly, while the internal friction angle decreased slowly. We also established a new grade for rock self-stabilization with Ds as the evaluation standard. Thus, these results may provide a theoretical basis for determining the mechanical properties of rocks for future slope protection and stability evaluations.
Stability of Nonisothermal Poiseuille Flow in a Fluid Overlying a Highly Porous Domain

The present article examines the stability of nonisothermal Poiseuille flow in a highly permeable porous domain underlying a fluid domain. A two domain approach with the Newtonian fluid’s flow being governed by Navier-Stokes equations in the fluid domain and Darcy- Brinkman model in the porous domain is adopted. The impact of depth ratio (ratio of fluid domain’s depth to porous domain’s depth), Darcy number, Reynolds number and Prandtl number are analyzed with the aid of linear stability analysis. The neutral stability curves characterize unimodal (either porous or fluid) or bimodal (both porous and fluid) behavior depending on the parametric variation. A decrease in depth ratio and increase in Darcy number, Reynolds number and Prandtl number instigates the instability in porous domain. A qualitative comparison with the existing results on Darcy’s law is also presented.
Plasma and Urinary Levels of Nerve Growth Factor Are Elevated in Primary Hypertension

Nerve growth factor (NGF) is the main neurotrophic factor that can control sympathetic nerve innervation and sympathetic neural activity in cardiovascular organs. Although NGF overproduction and its influences on the sympathetic nervous system have been shown in hypertensive animals, NGF status and its association with sympathetic nerve activity have not yet been explored in human hypertension. In the present study, therefore, plasma and urinary levels of NGF and those of catecholamines (i.e., indices for NGF status and sympathoadrenal activity, respectively) were compared between 83 untreated primary hypertensives without apparent cardiovascular damages and 81 healthy normotensive subjects. Plasma and urinary levels of NGF were significantly greater in the hypertensive group (311 ± 158 pg/mL and 72.7 ± 54.0 ng/g of Cr) than in the normotensive group (168 ± 188 pg/mL and 54.5 ± 38.8 ng/g of Cr) (p < 0.05 for each measurement), even if the baseline differences of age and gender between the groups were adjusted. Similarly, plasma and urinary levels of catecholamines were significantly higher in the hypertensive group than in the normotensive group except for plasma noradrenaline. In addition, despite no significant correlations between plasma levels of NGF and catecholamines in both groups, urinary NGF significantly correlated positively with both urinary noradrenaline and urinary adrenaline in the hypertensive group (r = 0.259, p=0.018 and r = 0.232, p=0.035), but not in the normotensive group (r = 0.115, p=0.307 and r = −0.018, p=0.871). On the contrary, plasma and urinary levels of NGF as well as those of catecholamines did not associate with any systemic hemodynamic indices such as blood pressure and pulse rate in either group. Thus, primary hypertension was characterized by the enhancements of both NGF status and sympathoadrenal activity and the positive relationship between them. Our data indicate that enhanced NGF status and subsequent NGF-induced sympathoadrenal overactivity could occur in primary hypertension.
Risk of Heart Failure in Patients with ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction Receiving Drug-Eluting Stent Implantation and Undefined Duration of Antiplatelets

It remains unknown as to whether the use of new-generation drug-eluting stent (NG-DES) in patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) who receive an undefined duration of dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) reduces the risk of hospitalization for heart failure (HHF). In this population-based retrospective cohort study, we applied propensity score matching to select 6831 pairs of patients with STEMI who had similar baseline characteristics and received either NG-DES or bare-metal stent (BMS) implantation between 1 January 2007 and 31 December 2016. The risk of stent-associated HHF was evaluated, wherein death was considered a competing risk. Rates of cumulative incidence competing risk for HHF at the 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 year follow-up were lower in the NG-DES group (3.79%, 5.21%, 6.15%, 7.01%, and 8.29%, respectively) than in the BMS group (4.51%, 6.21%, 7.32%, 8.33%, and 9.83%, respectively). NG-DES implantation was associated with a lower risk of HHF than BMS implantation after 5 years, with an adjusted subdistribution hazard ratio of 0.82 (95% confidence interval 0.72–0.92, p = 0.001). These results accord with those of patients who received DAPT for >6 months. Our findings highlight that NG-DESs may reduce HHF risk in patients with STEMI receiving an undefined duration of DAPT.
Maternal nutrition altered embryonic MYOD1, MYF5, and MYF6 gene expression in genetically fat and lean lines of chickens

Objective The objectives of this study were to evaluate the effects of daily feed intake during the laying period on embryonic myogenic differentiation 1 (MYOD1), myogenic factor 5 (MYF5), and myogenic factor 6 (MYF6) gene expression in genetically fat and lean lines of chickens. Methods An experiment in a 2×2 factorial design was conducted with two dietary intake levels (100% and 75% of nutrition recommendation) and two broiler chicken lines (fat and lean). Two lines of hens (n = 384 for each line) at 23th week of age were randomly divided into 4 treatments with 12 replicates of 16 birds. The experiment started at 27th week of age (5% egg rate) and ended at 54th week of age. Hatched eggs from the medium laying period were collected. Real time polymerase chain reaction analysis was used to analyse the MYOD1, MYF5, and MYF6 mRNA levels of E7, E9, E11, E13, and E15 body tissues and E17, E19, and E21 chest and thigh muscle samples. Results The results indicated that there were significant effects of line, dietary intake, and interactions between them on MYOD1, MYF5, and MYF6 gene mRNA expression levels in embryonic tissues. Low daily feed intake did not change the expression trend of MYOD1 mRNA in either line, but changed the peak values, especially in lean line. Low daily feed intake altered the trend in MYF5 mRNA expression level in both lines and apparently delayed its onset. There was no apparent effect of low daily feed intake on the trends of MYF6 mRNA expression levels in either line, but it significantly changed the values on many embryonic days. Conclusion Maternal nutrient restriction affects myogenesis and is manifested in the expression of embryonic MYOD1, MYF5, and MYF6 genes. Long term selection for fat deposition in broiler chickens changes the pattern and intensity of myogenesis.
A Human In Vitro Model to Study Adenoviral Receptors and Virus Cell Interactions

To develop adenoviral cell- or tissue-specific gene delivery, understanding of the infection mechanisms of adenoviruses is crucial. Several adenoviral attachment proteins such as CD46, CAR and sialic acid have been identified and studied. However, most receptor studies were performed on non-human cells. Combining our reporter gene-tagged adenovirus library with an in vitro human gene knockout model, we performed a systematic analysis of receptor usage comparing different adenoviruses side-by-side. The CRISPR/Cas9 system was used to knockout CD46 and CAR in the human lung epithelial carcinoma cell line A549. Knockout cells were infected with 22 luciferase-expressing adenoviruses derived from adenovirus species B, C, D and E. HAdV-B16, -B21 and -B50 from species B1 as well as HAdV-B34 and -B35 were found to be CD46-dependent. HAdV-C5 and HAdV-E4 from species E were found to be CAR-dependent. Regarding cell entry of HAdV-B3 and -B14 and all species D viruses, both CAR and CD46 play a role, and here, other receptors or attachment structures may also be important since transductions were reduced but not completely inhibited. The established human knockout cell model enables the identification of the most applicable adenovirus types for gene therapy and to further understand adenovirus infection biology.
A Study on Automatic Latent Fingerprint Identification System

Latent fingerprints are the unintentional impressions found at the crime scenes and are considered crucial evidence in criminal identification. Law enforcement and forensic agencies have been using latent fingerprints as testimony in courts. However, since the latent fingerprints are accidentally leftover on different surfaces, the lifted prints look inferior. Therefore, a tremendous amount of research is being carried out in automatic latent fingerprint identification to improve the overall fingerprint recognition performance. As a result, there is an ever-growing demand to develop reliable and robust systems. In this regard, we present a comprehensive literature review of the existing methods utilized in latent fingerprint acquisition, segmentation, quality assessment, enhancement, feature extraction, and matching steps. Later, we provide insight into different benchmark latent datasets available to perform research in this area. Our study highlights various research challenges and gaps by performing detailed analysis on the existing state-of-the-art segmentation, enhancement, extraction, and matching approaches to strengthen the research.
Two‐stage‐neighborhood‐based multilabel classification for incomplete data with missing labels

In recent years, it has been difficult for multilabel classification to obtain complete multilabel data in real‐world applications, and even a large number of labels for training samples are randomly missed. As a result, the classification task of incomplete multilabel data with missing labels faces formidable challenges. This paper presents a two‐stage‐neighborhood‐based multilabel classification method for incomplete data with missing labels in neighborhood decision systems. First, to solve the problem of selecting the neighborhood radius manually, as well as balancing the samples in the neighborhood, the neighborhood radius based on the feature distribution function is defined, and the differences and similarities between samples through the identifiable and indiscernible matrices are, respectively, computed. Then, a restoration method for missing feature values is proposed for use in the first stage. Second, to consider the nonlinear relationship among features, a neighborhood‐based fuzzy similarity relationship between samples is investigated based on the Gaussian kernel function. By integrating the fuzzy similarity relationship matrix, label‐specific feature matrix, and label correlation matrix, an objective function based on the regression model is presented, the optimal solutions to the label‐specific feature and label correlation matrices based on the gradient descent strategy are provided, and a new multilabel classification method with missing labels is developed during the second stage. Finally, two‐stage multilabel classification algorithms are designed. Experiments on 18 multilabel data sets demonstrate that our designed algorithms are effective not only for recovering missing feature values, but also for improving the classification performance of data with missing labels.
Extracting Disaster-Related Location Information through Social Media to Assist Remote Sensing for Disaster Analysis: The Case of the Flood Disaster in the Yangtze River Basin in China in 2020

Social media texts spontaneously produced and uploaded by the public contain a wealth of disaster information. As a supplementary data source for remote sensing, they have played an important role in disaster reduction and emergency response in recent years. However, social media also has certain flaws, such as insufficient location information, etc. This affects the efficiency of combining these data with remote sensing data. For flood disasters in particular, extensively flooded areas limit the distribution of social media data, which makes it difficult for these data to function as they should. In this paper, we propose a disaster reduction framework to solve these problems. We first used an approach that was based on search engine and lexical rules to automatically extract disaster-related location information from social media texts. Then, we combined the extracted information with the upload location of social media itself to construct location-pointing relationships. These relationships were used to build a new social network, which can be used in combination with remote sensing images for disaster analysis. The analysis integrated the advantages of social media and remote sensing. It can not only provide macro disaster information in the study area but can also assist in evaluating the disaster situation in different flooded areas from the perspective of public observation. In addition, the timeliness of social media data also improved the continuity and situational awareness of flood monitoring. A case study of the flood disaster in the Yangtze River Basin in China in 2020 was used to verify the effectiveness of the method described in this paper.
Detection of Vulnerable Coronary Plaques Using Invasive and Non-Invasive Imaging Modalities

Acute coronary syndrome (ACS) mostly arises from so-called vulnerable coronary plaques, particularly prone for rupture. Vulnerable plaques comprise a specific type of plaque, called the thin-cap fibroatheroma (TFCA). A TCFA is characterized by a large lipid-rich necrotic core, a thin fibrous cap, inflammation, neovascularization, intraplaque hemorrhage, microcalcifications or spotty calcifications, and positive remodeling. Vulnerable plaques are often not visible during coronary angiography. However, different plaque features can be visualized with the use of intracoronary imaging techniques, such as intravascular ultrasound (IVUS), potentially with the addition of near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), or optical coherence tomography (OCT). Non-invasive imaging techniques, such as computed tomography coronary angiography (CTCA), cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging, and nuclear imaging, can be used as an alternative for these invasive imaging techniques. These invasive and non-invasive imaging modalities can be implemented for screening to guide primary or secondary prevention therapies, leading to a more patient-tailored diagnostic and treatment strategy. Systemic pharmaceutical treatment with lipid-lowering or anti-inflammatory medication leads to plaque stabilization and reduction of cardiovascular events. Additionally, ongoing studies are investigating whether modification of vulnerable plaque features with local invasive treatment options leads to plaque stabilization and subsequent cardiovascular risk reduction.
The ATLAS Tile Calorimeter performance and its upgrade towards the High-Luminosity LHC

The Tile Calorimeter is a hadronic calorimeter covering the central region of the ATLAS experiment. The signals are read-out by wavelength shifting fibres coupled to the photomultiplier tubes. The front-end electronics process those signals from which the energies are inferred. Each stage of the inference is calibrated using the calibration systems of the Tile Calorimeter. The performance of the calorimeter has been measured and monitored using calibration data, cosmic ray muons and the collision data acquired during LHC Run 1 and Run 2. The High-Luminosity phase of LHC (HL-LHC), is expected to begin in 2028. The electronics of the calorimeter will be replaced to cope with the higher trigger rate, radiation level and pile-up conditions. Prototypes of this new electronics were tested within a demonstrator module both in test beam and calibration runs. The performance and calibration of the Tile Calorimeter are summarized, as well as the results obtained from the test of the new electronics prototypes.