Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Analysis of Dual Terminal Inverter Topologies

In this study, the dual terminal inverter is used for controlling two independent AC loads. Conventionally, separate inverters are used to control these AC loads. This results in increasing the cost, size and volume of the system. To overcome these drawbacks, a dual terminal inverter topology with reduced switch count has been proposed in the literature called Six Switch Dual Terminal Inverter (SSDTI). The conventional Six Switch Dual terminal inverter and boost derived SSDTI is considered for analysis. The inverter topology is simulated and their performance is investigated for different modulation indices. The carrier-based pulse-width modulation (PWM) technique for two distinct modes of operation (constant frequency and variable frequency) is developed. Simulation study of boost derived SSDTI is carried out and the results are presented.
Nondestructive Inspection of an Airport Pavement by MIMO Array GPR YAKUMO

In this paper, an efficient and objective method to detect the occurrence of layer de-bonding in asphalt pavement layer has developed. This method evaluates the lateral wave amplitude of CMP gathers by a multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) GPR system YAKUMO. The system operates in the frequency range from 50 MHz to 1.5 GHz. It consists of 8 transmitting antenna array and 8 receiving antenna array. Each antenna has 24 cm separation spacing, both transmitting and receiving antenna array. Considering the antenna configuration and designing survey lines spacing, amount of CMP gathers could extract out in a large survey area. After the amplitude correction, the lateral wave amplitude of each CMP gather was analyzed. In particular, this method allows us to distinguish the multiple echoes contribution which was generated by the stripping phenomenon occurred between asphalt layers. The real application demonstrated this method at Tokyo International airport taxiway. The method shows a high consistency of the traditional sounding method. It provides an innovative way for the stripping detection of the partially damaged pavement while were hard to be observed by the reflected signals.
The dual effect of C‐peptide on cellular activation and atherosclerosis: Protective or not?

C‐peptide is a cleavage product of proinsulin that acts on different type of cells, such as blood and endothelial cells. C‐peptide biological effects may be different in type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Besides, there are further evidence for a functional interaction between C‐peptide and insulin. In this way, C‐peptide has ambiguous effects, acting as an antithrombotic or thrombotic molecule, depending on the physiological environment and disease conditions. Moreover, C‐peptide regulates interaction of leucocytes, erythrocytes, and platelets with the endothelium. The beneficial effects include stimulation of nitric oxide production with its subsequent release by platelets and endothelium, the interaction with erythrocytes leading to the generation of adenosine triphosphate, and inhibition of atherogenic cytokine release. The undesirable action of C‐peptide includes the chemotaxis of monocytes, lymphocytes, and smooth muscle cells. Also, C‐peptide was related with increased lipid deposits and elevated smooth muscle cells proliferation in the vessel wall, contributing to atherosclerosis. Purpose of this review is to explore these dual roles of C‐peptide on the blood, contributing at one side to haemostasis and the other to atherosclerotic process.
Role of Capsid Anchor in the Morphogenesis of Zika Virus

The capsid anchor (Ca) is a single-pass transmembrane domain at the C terminus of the capsid protein (C) known to function as a signal for the translocation of PrM into the ER lumen. The objective of this study was to further examine the role of Ca in Zika virus life cycle, whether involved in the formation of nucleocapsid through association with C or in the formation of viral envelope. In this study, we show that Ca has a function beyond the one of translocation signal, controlling protein E stability and therefore its availability for assembly of infectious particles. ABSTRACT The flavivirus capsid protein (C) is separated from the downstream premembrane (PrM) protein by a hydrophobic sequence named capsid anchor (Ca). During polyprotein processing, Ca is sequentially cleaved by the viral NS2B/NS3 protease on the cytosolic side and by signal peptidase on the luminal side of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). To date, Ca is considered important mostly for directing translocation of PrM into the ER lumen. In this study, the role of Ca in the assembly and secretion of Zika virus was investigated using a pseudovirus-based approach. Our results show that, while Ca-mediated anchoring of C to the ER membrane is not needed for the production of infective particles, Ca expression in cis with respect to PrM is strictly required to allow proper assembly of infectious particles. Finally, we show that the presence of heterologous, but not homologous, Ca induces degradation of E through the autophagy/lysosomal pathway. IMPORTANCE The capsid anchor (Ca) is a single-pass transmembrane domain at the C terminus of the capsid protein (C) known to function as a signal for the translocation of PrM into the ER lumen. The objective of this study was to further examine the role of Ca in Zika virus life cycle, whether involved in the formation of nucleocapsid through association with C or in the formation of viral envelope. In this study, we show that Ca has a function beyond the one of translocation signal, controlling protein E stability and therefore its availability for assembly of infectious particles.
Path Tracking of a Bi-steerable Mobile Robot: An Adaptive Off-road Multi-control Law Strategy

This paper proposes a path tracking control algorithm dedicated to off-road mobile robots equipped with two steering axles. Four wheel steering mobile robot allows to enhanced motion capability with respect to classical car-like mobile robot, while reducing the friction induced by the skid-steered architecture. In particular, such a kinematic structure makes it possible to independently control the robot heading and its position, or to increase turning capabilities. In this paper, a strategy is developed in order to reduce the space required when achieving manoeuvres around a desired trajectory. Contrarily to classical point of view, expressing a relationship between the front and rear wheels, the control laws here proposed aim at following the same path for the front and the rear centre of the axle. The robot is then split into two subsystems, regulating two lateral deviations with respect to a desired trajectory.
Solid-Liquid Interdiffusion Bonding Based on Au-Sn Intermetallic for High Temperature Applications

This paper covers one of the aspects of solid-liquid interdiffusion (SLID) bonding of semiconductor structures to substrate for high temperature operation. Investigations were focused on Au/Sn intermetallic compounds formed at the interface between Au metallization on the chip and Sn metallization on the DBC (Direct Bonded Copper) substrate. Two version of SLID were applied: one stage process at 350°C and two stage process short time at 280 °C + long time at 180°C. Second process is divided into two steps: short high temperature (280°C) step for melting Sn and initial intermetallic compound formation and long low temperature (180°C) step for solid state diffusion process. Design of experiments technique was used for process optimization. The best process parameters were obtained and they were applied for monocrystalline GaN chips assembly to DBC substrates. In the long-term stability tests at 300°C it was proven that both versions of investigated SLID technique can be applied for monocrystalline GaN chips assembly. Critical condition for this assembly operation is high enough pressure applied on the chip to initiate diffusion process.
Retinal Blood Vessels Segmentation using Gabor Filters

Blood vessels are important parts of the anatomy of the human retina, any change in the structure of the vessels can be an indicator of retinal disorders. Early detection of such disorders can affect the treatment procedure, avoiding severe side effects like blindness. In this paper, a retinal eye blood vessels segmentation algorithm is proposed to aid the process of retinal screening. The proposed algorithm applied pre-processing techniques including noise removal followed by contrast stretching. Gabor filter is used to enhance the appearance of blood vessels using the directional field method. After that, segmentation using a global threshold applied followed by morphological post-processing techniques. The performance of the proposed technique was evaluated using a publicly available database (DRIVE) and proved to be a match for the state-of-art algorithms as the results were promising.
Negative Predictive Value of NI-RADS Category 2 in the First Posttreatment FDG-PET/CT in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: FDG PET/CT has a high negative predictive value in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma who responds completely to non-operative therapy. However, the treatment failure rate in patients with a partial but incomplete response is unclear. Our aim was to investigate the negative predictive value of the first posttreatment FDG-PET/CT in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma with incomplete response interpreted as Neck Imaging Reporting and Data System (NI-RADS) category 2. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively identified patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma treated with chemoradiation or radiation therapy with curative intent in our institution between 2008 and 2016. We included patients whose first posttreatment FDG-PET/CT was interpreted as showing marked improvement of disease but who had a mild residual mass or FDG avidity in either the primary tumor bed or lymph nodes (NI-RADS 2). The negative predictive value of FDG-PET/CT was calculated, including the 95% CI, using the Newcombe method. Two-year disease-free survival was the reference standard. RESULTS: Seventeen of 110 patients (15%) experienced locoregional treatment failure within 2 years of completing treatment, yielding a negative predictive value of 85% (95% Cl, 77%–90%). The most common location of tumor recurrence was the cervical lymph nodes (59%). The median time interval between completion of therapy and treatment failure was 10 months (range, 5–24 months). CONCLUSIONS: In patients with an incomplete response after treatment of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, the negative predictive value of the first posttreatment FDG-PET/CT was 85%, which is lower than the 91% negative predictive value of FDG-PET/CT in patients with an initial complete response. Patients with an incomplete response (NI-RADS 2) should undergo more frequent clinical and imaging surveillance than patients with an initial complete response (NI-RADS 1).
Cancer Risks for PMS2-Associated Lynch Syndrome.

PURPOSE Lynch syndrome due to pathogenic variants in the DNA mismatch repair genes MLH1, MSH2, and MSH6 is predominantly associated with colorectal and endometrial cancer, although extracolonic cancers have been described within the Lynch tumor spectrum. However, the age-specific cumulative risk (penetrance) of these cancers is still poorly defined for PMS2-associated Lynch syndrome. Using a large data set from a worldwide collaboration, our aim was to determine accurate penetrance measures of cancers for carriers of heterozygous pathogenic PMS2 variants. METHODS A modified segregation analysis was conducted that incorporated both genotyped and nongenotyped relatives, with conditioning for ascertainment to estimates corrected for bias. Hazard ratios (HRs) and corresponding 95% CIs were estimated for each cancer site for mutation carriers compared with the general population, followed by estimation of penetrance. RESULTS In total, 284 families consisting of 4,878 first- and second-degree family members were included in the analysis. PMS2 mutation carriers were at increased risk for colorectal cancer (cumulative risk to age 80 years of 13% [95% CI, 7.9% to 22%] for males and 12% [95% CI, 6.7% to 21%] for females) and endometrial cancer (13% [95% CI, 7.0%-24%]), compared with the general population (6.6%, 4.7%, and 2.4%, respectively). There was no clear evidence of an increased risk of ovarian, gastric, hepatobiliary, bladder, renal, brain, breast, prostate, or small bowel cancer. CONCLUSION Heterozygous PMS2 mutation carriers were at small increased risk for colorectal and endometrial cancer but not for any other Lynch syndrome-associated cancer. This finding justifies that PMS2-specific screening protocols could be restricted to colonoscopies. The role of risk-reducing hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy for PMS2 mutation carriers needs further discussion.
Fast and accessible first-principles calculations of vibrational properties of materials

We present example applications of an approach to first-principles calculations of vibrational properties of materials implemented within the Exabyte.io platform. We deploy models based on the Density Functional Perturbation Theory to extract the phonon dispersion relations and densities of states for an example set of 35 samples and find the results to be in agreement with prior similar calculations. We construct modeling workflows that are both accessible, accurate, and efficient with respect to the human time involved. This is achieved through efficient parallelization of the tasks for the individual vibrational modes. We report achieved speedups in the 10-100 range, approximately, and maximum attainable speedups in the 30-300 range, correspondingly. We analyze the execution times on the current up-to-date computational infrastructure centrally available from a public cloud provider. Results and all associated data, including the materials and simulation workflows, are made available online in an accessible, repeatable and extensible setting.
Continuous invasive hemodynamic monitoring using steerable guide catheter to optimize mitraclip transcatheter mitral valve repair: A multicenter, proof‐of‐concept study

OBJECTIVES We report our multicenter experience on continuous hemodynamic monitoring using exclusively the steerable guide catheter (SGC) during MitraClip repair. BACKGROUND Left atrial pressure (LAP) and V-wave are useful to evaluate MitraClip repair but no simple method of continuous monitoring exists. METHODS From 11/2016 to 8/2017, 74 patients from four centers with symptomatic moderate-severe to severe mitral regurgitation (MR), underwent MitraClip NT repair with continuous hemodynamic monitoring via the SGC. Real-time LAP/V-wave changes were compared with transesophageal echocardiography (TEE). When mitral stenosis was suspected, transmitral gradients were verified by invasive hemodynamics. Clinical and echocardiographic outcomes were determined. RESULTS Mean age was 78 ± 10 years and STS score 9.1 ± 11.0%. Pathology included leaflet prolapse/flail (45%), restriction (35%), and mixed (20%). Number of clips averaged 1.7 ± 0.7 per case. There was a significant reduction in LAP (21 ± 10 to 15 ± 7 mmHg, P < 0.0001) and V-wave(37 ± 19 to 24 ± 10 mmHg, P < 0.0001) post MitraClip, but the decrease was less in patients with atrial fibrillation (P < 0.05). Transmitral gradient significantly increased from 2.0 ± 1.2 to 4.0 ± 1.7 mmHg (P < 0.0001). Paradoxical increases in LAP and V-wave despite MR reduction were observed in three cases requiring MitraClip repositioning or retrieval to avoid stenosis. Follow-up averaged 5.0 ± 2.9 months and was 100% complete. KCCQ improvement was significant and MR reduction to <1+ was 67% and <2+ was 93% at 30 days. CONCLUSIONS Continuous hemodynamic monitoring using the SGC complements TEE to assess and optimize MitraClip repair in real-time. Further validation is necessary but this feature may be part of future MitraClip and other transcatheter mitral repair systems.
Bacterial Strategies to Preserve Cell Wall Integrity Against Environmental Threats

Bacterial cells are surrounded by an exoskeleton-like structure, the cell wall, composed primarily of the peptidoglycan (PG) sacculus. This structure is made up of glycan strands cross-linked by short peptides generating a covalent mesh that shapes bacteria and prevents their lysis due to their high internal osmotic pressure. Even though the PG is virtually universal in bacteria, there is a notable degree of diversity in its chemical structure. Modifications in both the sugars and peptides are known to be instrumental for bacteria to cope with diverse environmental challenges. In this review, we summarize and discuss the cell wall strategies to withstand biotic and abiotic environmental insults such as the effect of antibiotics targeting cell wall enzymes, predatory PG hydrolytic proteins, and PG signaling systems. Finally we will discuss the opportunities that species-specific PG variability might open to develop antimicrobial therapies.
Influence of Calcium and Vitamin D Intakes on Body Composition in Children and Adolescents

Identifying nutritional strategies to maintain a healthy body weight and reduce the comorbidities associated with obesity is extremely important. We aimed to investigate whether calcium and vitamin D intakes are associated with body composition measurements in a population of children and adolescents. A cross-sectional study was conducted involving 1,060 children and adolescents (65.8% females; 34.2% males) aged 9 to 19 years. Fat mass, percentage of fat mass, and fat-free mass were measured using a body composition analyzer (TANITA BC-418MA®). The mean dietary calcium and vitamin intakes were 829.66 ± 328.34 mg/day and 200.78 ± 400.91 IU/day. Linear regression analysis revealed a lack of significant association between daily calcium and vitamin D intakes and body composition measurements, after adjusting the model for age, sex, maturation status, and energy intake. Dietary calcium and vitamin D intakes do not appear to be associated with higher adiposity measurements in children and adolescents.
Review article: Best practice management of neck pain in the emergency department (part 6 of the musculoskeletal injuries rapid review series)

Neck pain and whiplash injuries are a common presentation to the ED, and a frequent cause of disability globally. This rapid review investigated best practice for the assessment and management of musculoskeletal neck pain in the ED. PubMed, CINAHL, EMBASE, TRIP and the grey literature, including relevant organisational websites, were searched in 2017. Primary studies, systematic reviews and guidelines were considered for inclusion. English‐language articles published in the past 12 years addressing acute neck pain assessment, management or prognosis in the ED were included. Data extraction was conducted, followed by quality appraisal to rate levels of evidence where possible. The search revealed 2080 articles, of which 51 were included (n = 22 primary articles, n = 13 systematic reviews and n = 16 guidelines). Consistent evidence was found to support the use of ‘red flags’ to screen for serious pathologies, judicious use of imaging through clinical decision rule application and promotion of functional exercise coupled with advice and reassurance. Clinicians may also consider applying risk‐stratification methods, such as using a clinical prediction rule, to guide patient discharge and referral plans; however, the evidence is still emerging in this population. This rapid review provides clinicians managing neck pain in the ED a summary of the best available evidence to enhance quality of care and optimise patient outcomes.
Theoretical Linear Convergence of Unfolded ISTA and its Practical Weights and Thresholds

In recent years, unfolding iterative algorithms as neural networks has become an empirical success in solving sparse recovery problems. However, its theoretical understanding is still immature, which prevents us from fully utilizing the power of neural networks. In this work, we study unfolded ISTA (Iterative Shrinkage Thresholding Algorithm) for sparse signal recovery. We introduce a weight structure that is necessary for asymptotic convergence to the true sparse signal. With this structure, unfolded ISTA can attain a linear convergence, which is better than the sublinear convergence of ISTA/FISTA in general cases. Furthermore, we propose to incorporate thresholding in the network to perform support selection, which is easy to implement and able to boost the convergence rate both theoretically and empirically. Extensive simulations, including sparse vector recovery and a compressive sensing experiment on real image data, corroborate our theoretical results and demonstrate their practical usefulness. We have made our codes publicly available: https://github.com/xchen-tamu/linear-lista-cpss.
iCAN: Instance-Centric Attention Network for Human-Object Interaction Detection

Recent years have witnessed rapid progress in detecting and recognizing individual object instances. To understand the situation in a scene, however, computers need to recognize how humans interact with surrounding objects. In this paper, we tackle the challenging task of detecting human-object interactions (HOI). Our core idea is that the appearance of a person or an object instance contains informative cues on which relevant parts of an image to attend to for facilitating interaction prediction. To exploit these cues, we propose an instance-centric attention module that learns to dynamically highlight regions in an image conditioned on the appearance of each instance. Such an attention-based network allows us to selectively aggregate features relevant for recognizing HOIs. We validate the efficacy of the proposed network on the Verb in COCO and HICO-DET datasets and show that our approach compares favorably with the state-of-the-arts.
Effect of the H1-antihistamine clemastine on PACAP38 induced migraine

Objective To investigate the effect of the H1-antihistamine clemastine on the migraine-inducing abilities of pituitary adenylate cyclase activating peptide-38. Methods We conducted a double-blind, randomized, placebo controlled two-way cross-over study. Twenty migraine without aura patients were randomly allocated to receive bolus clemastine 2 mg (1 mg/ml) or bolus saline 2 ml intravenously over 2 min on two study days. Following each bolus injection, 10 pmol/kg/min of pituitary adenylate cyclase activating peptide-38 was administered intravenously over 20 min. We recorded migraine/headache characteristics every 10 min until 90 min after the start of infusion, and collected blood to investigate mast cell degranulation and the inflammation markers tryptase and tumor necrosis factor-alpha before and after infusion of pituitary adenylate cyclase activating peptide-38. Results After clemastine pretreatment, five out of 20 participants developed a migraine-like attack in response to a pituitary adenylate cyclase activating peptide-38 infusion compared to nine out of 20 after placebo pretreatment (p = 0.288). Following clemastine pretreatment, 15 out of 20 participants reported headache in response to a pituitary adenylate cyclase activating peptide-38 infusion, whereas 19 out of 20 participants did so following placebo pretreatment (p = 0.221). We found no difference in area under the curve 12 h for headache intensity between the two experimental days (p = 0.481). We found no difference in area under the curve 180 min for tryptase (p = 0.525) or tumor necrosis factor-alpha (p = 0.487) between clemastine and placebo pretreatment days. Conclusion H1-antihistamine, clemastine, failed to prevent migraine or headache after pituitary adenylate cyclase activating peptide-38 infusion, thus making a role for histamine release or mast cell degranulation in pituitary adenylate cyclase activating peptide-38-induced migraine less likely.