Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Safety and performance of TCI pumps in a magnetic resonance imaging environment *

Target controlled infusion (TCI) devices can be associated with significant safety concerns when used during magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). We tested the safety and compatibility of newer TCI systems in a 3‐Tesla MRI environment. Two Asena PK and two Agilia TCI pumps were used to administer TCI propofol (at target blood concentrations of 0.5 and 6.0 μg.ml−1) using the Marsh model under magnetic fields of up to 50 G with a T2‐weighted sequence. We assessed the devices for projectile risk, accuracy of drug delivery, alarm function and effects on MR image quality. Both devices did not demonstrate any significant deflection at the tested field strengths, and performed within acceptable limits (cumulative error in total delivered volume < 3%; maximum 10‐min interval error < 10%). The Asena pump caused minor artefacts on MR images. The TCI pumps tested perform well and safely implement pharmacokinetic software in a high magnetic field.
Silencers in abdominal‐B, a homeotic Drosophila gene.

Homeotic genes determine the developmental fates of cells. Restriction of their expression along the body axis is of prime importance for normal development. We searched for cis‐regulatory sequences within Abdominal‐B (Abd‐B), a homeotic Drosophila gene, by testing genomic Abd‐B fragments for their ability to confer beta‐galactosidase (beta‐gal) expression in transformed embryos. One of the Abd‐B fragments, called IAB5, mediates a beta‐gal pattern restricted along the body axis to the Abd‐B expression domain. Alterations of the IAB5 pattern in gap mutants provide evidence that the protein products of the gap genes hunchback, Krüppel and knirps act as repressors through IAB5. The anterior Abd‐B expression limit is apparently determined by Krüppel repression, whereas the knirps repressor may be responsible for the graded Abd‐B expression within the Abd‐B domain. IAB5 and two other fragments called MCP and FAB show region‐specific silencing activity: they suppress at a distance beta‐gal expression mediated by a linked heterologous enhancer. Silencing requires hunchback as well as Polycomb function and evidently provides maintenance of Abd‐B expression limits throughout embryogenesis. We conclude that transcriptional repression is a key mechanism operating at multiple levels to control Abd‐B expression. The striking similarities between the control of Abd‐B and of Ultrabithorax, another homeotic Drosophila gene, may point to a universal principle underlying homeotic gene regulation.
Transient exposure to echinacoside is sufficient to activate Trk signaling and protect neuronal cells from rotenone

Neurotrophins exert their physiological functions mainly through Trk receptors, and the neurotrophic signaling network is critical to the survival of neurons. However, therapeutic use of neurotrophins in treating neurodegenerative diseases is hampered by a number of pharmacological challenges, and the most significant challenge is their delivery into the central nervous system. Here, we reported that echinacoside, a small natural compound, elicits neuroprotection by activating Trk receptors and their downstream signal pathways. Echinacoside is the major active component of Cistanches Herba, a widely used Chinese herb with neuroprotective effects. We showed in this study that transient exposure to echinacoside is sufficient to protect neuronal cells and non‐neuronal cells over‐expressed with TrkA or TrkB against rotenone injury. Additional investigations on the mechanisms underlying suggested that transient treatment with echinacoside inhibits cytochrome c release and caspase‐3 activation caused by ensuing rotenone exposure via activating Trk‐extracellular signal‐regulated kinase (ERK) pathway in neuronal cells. As echinacoside is able to cross the blood–brain barrier freely, it may have a promising potential in neurodegenerative diseases treatment.
Dynamics in the dimerized and the high-field incommensurate phase of CuGeO3.

Temperature ($2.3<T<40$\ K) and magnetic field ($0<B<17$\ T) dependent far infrared absorption spectroscopy on the spin-Peierls coumpound CuGeO$_3$\ has revealed several new absorption processes in both the dimerised and high field phase of CuGeO$_3$. These results are discussed in terms of the modulation of the CuGeO$_3$\ structure. At low fields this is the well known spin-Peierls dimerisation. At high fields the data strongly suggests a field dependent incommensurate modulation of the lattice as well as of the spin structure.
Are Bond Markets Really Overpriced: The Case of the Us

In the present paper we analyse whether fundamental macroeconomic factors, temporary influences or more structural factors have contributed to the recent decline in bond yields in the US. For that purpose, we start with a very general model of interest rate determination in which risk premia are captured via the macroeconomic (policy) environment. The empirical part consists of a cointegration analysis with an error correction mechanism from the mid 80s until 2005. We are able to establish a stable long-run relationship and find that the behaviour of bond rates in the last few years may well be explained by macroeconomic factors. These are driven by core price developments, monetary policy reflected in short-term interest rates and the business cycle. A changed structural demand for bonds does not seem to be at work. The existing overestimation of bond yields is not unusual historically. Finally, our bond yield equation outperforms a random walk model in different out-of-sample exercises.
Sequential Effects in the Garner Tasks

The distinction between integral and separable dimensions is of central importance to understanding how humans integrate information from multiple stimulus sources. One approach to characterizing stimulus integrality is through a set of speeded categorization tasks most closely associated with the work of Wendell Garner. These tasks demonstrate that integral dimensions result in marked speed up or slow down in responding when there is correlated or irrelevant variation, respectively, compared with a baseline task. Little, Wang & Nosofsky (2016) recently found that the slow down or interference can be largely explained by a reduction in the number of direct repetitions in a modified Garner filtering task. In this paper, we examine a large sample of subjects tested on either separable or integral dimensions to determine the extent of and individual differences in the overall and sequential effects in the standard Garner tasks.
Molecular Diversity of Partial-Length Genomic Segment 2 of Human Picobirnavirus

Objectives: This study was carried out in order to evaluate the efficacy of the recently developed picobirnavirus (PBV) sets of primers and to establish the phylogenetic relationships of Argentine strains with PBV strains isolated in China and the USA. Methods: Thirteen fecal specimens tested as positive for PBV by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis were analyzed by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction assays using primers target to the genomic segments 2 of PBV strains isolated in China and the USA. The amplicons were sequenced and analyzed. Results: Primers derived from the China strain produced amplicons in only 4 of the 13 specimens (30.76%). No sample was revealed as positive with the primers derived from the US strain. DNA sequencing of polymerase chain reaction products differed in nucleic acid and amino acid sequences by 13.9–42.28% and 18.1–51.1%, respectively. Despite this strain diversity, three domains of conserved nucleotide sequences as well as the amino acid motif D-S-D typical of RNA-dependent RNA polymerase gene of double-strand RNA viruses were identified. Comparatively, these conserved regions were also identified in homologous PBV strains from the USA and China. Phylogenetic analysis showed no time or geographic clustering. Conclusions: These findings provide evidence that PBV may represent an emerging heterogeneous group of viruses.
Comprehensive comparative evaluation of single- and multi-stage three-phase power converters for photovoltaic applications

For utility-scale photovoltaic (PV) power plants, the trend goes towards larger installations with reduced levelized costs of electricity. Further cost reductions can be achieved by modular and redundant inverter topologies, which enable higher reliabilities and a better overall system availability. In this paper, a comparative evaluation of selected three-phase single-and multi-stage voltage source inverters with rated power of 50kW for modular utility-scale PV plants is presented. Based on detailed loss, volume and thermal models, the inverter systems are designed according to a variety of constraints and standards covering a wide range of practical issues, such as grid codes, EMI requirements and lifetime considerations. Finally, for different operational switching frequencies, the optimal topologies are identified by means of an analysis regarding achievable efficiencies, power density and required semiconductor chip areas.
Impact of Public Health Emergencies on Modern Disaster Taxonomy, Planning, and Response

ABSTRACT Current disaster taxonomy describes diversity, distinguishing characteristics, and common relations in disaster event classifications. The impact of compromised public health infrastructure and systems on health consequences defines and greatly influences the manner in which disasters are observed, planned for, and managed, especially those that are geographically widespread, population dense, and prolonged. What may first result in direct injuries and death may rapidly change to excess indirect illness and subsequent death as essential public health resources are destroyed, deteriorate, or are systematically denied to vulnerable populations. Public health and public health infrastructure and systems in developed and developing countries must be seen as strategic and security issues that deserve international public health resource monitoring attention from disaster managers, urban planners, the global humanitarian community, World Health Organization authorities, and participating parties to war and conflict. We posit here that disaster frameworks be reformed to emphasize and clarify the relation of public health emergencies and modern disasters. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2008;2:192–199)
The research on supporting stiffness of LP rotor of ultra-supercritical turbine

For a given structure, rotor's natural frequencies are closely related with the supporting stiffness of the rotor. To some extend, the supporting stiffness determines whether the rotor can avoid resonance phenomenon. Using the ANSYS, this paper studied the rotor's vibration characteristics and the characteristics of bearing instability by changing the LP rotor supporting stiffness of an ultra-supercritical turbine. The results obtained in this paper could be used as reference for the units commissioning.
Fast direct solution of dielectric array using adaptive cross approximation with Sherman-Morrison-Woodbury formula

In this paper, the fast direct method, Sherman-Morrison-Woodbury formula-based algorithm (SMWA) with adaptive cross approximation (ACA), is extended to solve the volume integral equation (VIE) for analyzing electromagnetic scattering from dielectric materials. Numerical results are given to prove the benefits of the SWMA for speeding up calculation.
Choice of effective messaging protocols for IoT systems: MQTT, CoAP, AMQP and HTTP

The standard and real-time communication technology is an unalloyed inevitability for the development of Internet of Things (IoT) applications. However, the selection of a standard and effective messaging protocol is a challenging and daunting task for any organisation because it depends on the nature of the IoT system and its messaging requirements. Copious messaging protocols have been developed and employed by various organisations based on their requirements in the last two decades. Though, none of them is able to support all messaging requirements of all types of IoT systems. Messaging protocol is an ongoing dilemma for the IoT industry; consequently, it is important to understand the pros and cons of the widely accepted and emerging messaging protocols for IoT systems to determine their best-fit scenarios. Therefore, this paper presents an evaluation of the four established messaging protocols MQTT, CoAP, AMQP and HTTP for IoT systems. Firstly, it presents the broad comparison among these messaging protocols to introduce their characteristics comparatively. Afterwards, it performs a further in-depth and relative analysis based on some interrelated criteria to gain insight into their strengths and limitations. Thus, based on this detailed evaluation, the user can decide their appropriate usage in various IoT systems according to their requirements and suitability.
Second-order kinetic Kohn-Sham lattice model

In this work we introduce a new semi-implicit second order correction scheme to the kinetic Kohn-Sham lattice model. The new approach is validated by performing realistic exchange-correlation energy calculations of atoms and dimers of the first two rows of the periodic table finding good agreement with the expected values. Additionally we simulate the ethane molecule where we recover the bond lengths and compare the results with standard methods. Finally, we discuss the current applicability of pseudopotentials within the lattice kinetic Kohn-Sham approach.
Impact of burrowing crabs on C and N sources, control, and transformations in sediments and food webs of SW Atlantic estuaries

The intertidal burrowing crab Chasmagnathus granulatus is the dominant species in soft bare sediments and vegetated intertidal areas along the SW Atlantic estuaries (southern Brazil, 28° S, to northern Patagonia, 42° S). C. granulatus creates burrows that can reach densities of 60 bur- rows m -2 , and its burrowing activities increase water and organic matter content of sediments. To evaluate the long-term effect of burrows on the origin and transformation of accumulated organic matter within sediments, we compared C and N stable isotope signatures of sediments, plants, and consumers within areas with and without crabs. 15 N signatures of sediments and primary producers were enriched by 3 to 7‰ in areas with crabs. The enrichment was present in 4 different Argentine estuarine environments (Mar Chiquita coastal lagoon, 37° 46' S, 57° 19' W, Bahia Blanca, 38° 50' S, 62° 07' W, San Blas, 40° 33' S, 62° 14' W, San Antonio, 40° 48' S, 64° 52' W). Enrichment owing to crab activity appeared to overwhelm possible different N loads, anthropogenic influence, and other prop- erties. Crab activity thus uncoupled the nitrogen dynamics in sediments from external controls. Enrichment of the heavier isotope of N could be the result of an increase in denitrification rates in areas with burrows. Crabs therefore forced faster transformation of available to unavailable nitrogen, making less inorganic nitrogen available to deeper waters. Food webs in areas with and without crabs were similar in shape, but less mobile benthic organisms (nematodes, fiddler crabs and the polychaete Laeonereis acuta) showed enriched N isotopic signatures. The benthic food web seemed separate from that of suspension feeders or water column consumers. Benthic microalgae were an important source for infauna, and marsh plants were particularly important for burrowing crabs.
Leveraging Equality Generating Dependencies for Chase Termination

Tuple-and equality-generating dependencies have a wide range of applications in knowledge representation and databases, including ontological reasoning, data exchange, and data cleaning. In such settings, the chase is a central tool for many reasoning tasks. Since the chase evaluation might not terminate and it is undecidable whether it terminates, several termination criteria have been proposed, that is, (decidable) suﬃcient conditions ensuring termination. One of the main weaknesses of current approaches is the limited analysis they perform on equality-generating dependencies (EGDs). In this paper, we show that an explicit analysis of EGDs can yield signiﬁcant beneﬁts and discuss a novel approach along this line.
Detection of antibodies to respiratory syncytial virus attachment and nucleocapsid proteins with recombinant baculovirus-expressed antigens

The ability to measure antibodies against individual respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) proteins is important in the analysis of immune responses to RSV. We expressed the nucleocapsid (N) protein and the group A and B RSV attachment (G) proteins from recombinant baculoviruses. The three recombinant RSV proteins were used individually in an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA; bac-ELISA for results from assays of all three proteins). The bac-ELISA results were compared to the results obtained by a whole-virus ELISA (RS-ELISA for results from assays of both group A and B viruses). Antibody samples from 113 children were tested. The determination of seronegative or seropositive status by the bac-ELISA was compared to the same determination by the RS-ELISA; the sensitivity of bac-ELISA was 87% (95% confidence interval [CI], 78 to 93%), the specificity was 82% (CI, 59 to 94%), and the positive and negative predictive values were 95% (CI, 86 to 98%) and 60% (CI, 41 to 77%), respectively. The group specificity of the G-protein ELISA was confirmed by testing antibodies from experimentally immunized animals. Thus, the bac-ELISA was shown to be comparable to the whole-virus ELISA in detecting antibody responses to RSV, while it offered the advantage of measuring specific antibody responses to individual RSV proteins.
Structure and Function of Tracheary Elements in Amborella trichopoda

Recent phylogenetic analyses have placed the root of flowering plants near Amborella trichopoda, a woody plant restricted to cloud forest habitats in New Caledonia. A distinctive feature of A. trichopoda is its reported lack of xylem vessels. Here we present observations of pit membrane structure and end wall morphology for primary and secondary tracheary cells of A. trichopoda as well as field measurements of stem hydraulic properties of A. trichopoda compared with five cloud fforest species from New Caledonia. Observations of stem radial sections revealed that the primary wall material in the protoxylem and metaxylem elements was intact. No large porosities (such as those that have been observed in the pit membranes of Nymphaeales) were observed. However, a few elliptical pits of tracheary cells in the secondary xylem appeared to lack pit membranes. These observations are consistent with our measurements of functional conduit length, which indicate that the longest open conduits are equal to the length of two secondary xylem elements joined end to end. Thus, the xylem of A. trichopoda appears to be functionally vesselless, with the caveat that connections between individual vascular elements may occasionally be open (i.e., lacking in at least one pit membrane). Sapwood area and leaf area–specific hydraulic conductivities of A. trichopoda are similar to those of conifers and angiosperms, with and without xylem vessels, growing in understory cloud forest environments. These findings bear on discussions of the morphology and ecology of the first flowering plants as well as on the possible causes of their diversification.
Extracranial carotid artery flow measurement during carotid endarterectomy using a Doppler ultrasonographic flowmeter

A study was performed to evaluate immediate changes in carotid artery blood flow after carotid endarterectomy using a Doppler ultrasonographic flowmeter. Forty‐seven consecutive patients aged 49–78 (median 64) years with symptomatic internal carotid artery (ICA) stenosis underwent carotid endarterectomy. Volume flow, resistance and pulsatility index were measured in the common carotid artery (CCA) and ICA both before and after operation. ICA flow increased by 54 per cent (P<0.01) and resistance decreased by 58 per cent (P = 0.01). CCA flow rose by 17 per cent (P = 0.1) and resistance fell by 21 per cent (P = 0.02). The pulsatility index did not change significantly. The Doppler ultrasonographic flowmeter offers a simple, non‐invasive and convenient means of improving understanding of the immediate haemodynamic effects of carotid endarterectomy. It is useful in everyday practice to confirm the adequacy of endarterectomy, particularly in the absence of other methods of quality control. Duplex ultrasonography might still be necessary after surgery if the flowmeter does not demonstrate an increase in flow compared with the preoperative value.
Optimal techno-economic selection of the optical access network topologies

Optimal techno-economic selection of optical access network topologies involves finding the key techno-economic criteria that will be used for the topology selection. We have developed an analytical method for calculating optimal techno-economic selection of topologies. The proposed method determines the required number of optical fibers of certain characteristic segments of the access network, taking into account the density of users per 1 km2, guaranteed bandwidth for each user, and the possible topology of optical access networks. The results show that the increase in density of users, with a constant guaranteed bandwidth, isn't the determining factor for the optimal choice of topology. On the other hand, the same results show that increasing the guaranteed bandwidth, with a constant density of users, represent critical elimination factor for optimal techno-economic selection of topologies. Under the same conditions, results show that the initially favorable topology, in terms of techno-economic feasibility, after a few iterations in bandwidth increase may become unfavorable compared to competing considered topologies.
Stable Gaussian process based tracking control of Lagrangian systems

High performance tracking control can only be achieved if a good model of the dynamics is available. However, such a model is often difficult to obtain from first order physics only. In this paper, we develop a data-driven control law that ensures closed loop stability of Lagrangian systems. For this purpose, we use Gaussian Process regression for the feedforward compensation of the unknown dynamics of the system. The gains of the feedback part are adapted based on the uncertainty of the learned model. Thus, the feedback gains are kept low as long as the learned model describes the true system sufficiently precisely. We show how to select a suitable gain adaption law that incorporates the uncertainty of the model to guarantee a globally bounded tracking error. A simulation with a robot manipulator demonstrates the efficacy of the proposed control law.