Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Polystyrene-grafted graphene nanoplatelets with various graft densities by atom transfer radical polymerization from the edge carboxyl groups

An initiator and hydroxyl containing modifier, 4-hydroxybutyl 2-bromopropionate (CBr), was synthesized through the coupling reaction of 1,4-butanediol and alpha-bromoisobutyryl bromide. Subsequently, graphene oxide (GO) was functionalized with CBr from the edge carboxyl groups by an esterification reaction to yield initiator-anchored graphene nanoplatelets (GCBr). Then, GCBr was used in different amounts as the precursor for atom transfer radical polymerization of styrene for evaluation of the effects of graphene loading and graft density on the kinetics and properties of the products. Successful edge-functionalization of GO with CBr and polystyrene was also proved by FTIR. A carbon to bromine ratio of 21.92 from the results of XPS shows that about 1 molecule of CBr was attached to every 3.65 aromatic rings of GCBrH. GPC results show that molecular weight and PDI values of the attached chains are higher, and molecular weight and conversion values increase with increasing grafting density. The amount of modifier and polystyrene attachment to the graphene edge was evaluated by TGA. The relaxation behavior of chains in the presence of graphene layers and also the effect of graft content on the chain confinement were studied using DSC. The ordered and disordered crystal structures of carbon were evaluated using Raman spectroscopy. The same XRD angle for the high and low graft densities at 7.5° shows that expansion of the graphene interlayer is independent of the population of attached chains on the graphene edge. Finally, an opaque and wrinkled morphology of graphene nanoplatelets was observed by scanning and transmission electron microscopy.
Completely Distributed Guaranteed-Performance Consensualization for High-Order Multiagent Systems With Switching Topologies

The guaranteed-performance consensualization for high-order linear and nonlinear multiagent systems with switching topologies is respectively realized in a completely distributed manner in the sense that consensus design criteria are independent of interaction topologies and switching motions. This paper first proposes an adaptive consensus protocol with guaranteed-performance constraints and switching topologies, where interaction weights among neighboring agents are adaptively adjusted and state errors among all agents can be regulated. Then, a new translation-adaptive strategy is shown to realize completely distributed guaranteed-performance consensus control and an adaptive guaranteed-performance consensualization criterion is given on the basis of the Riccati inequality. Furthermore, an approach to regulate the consensus control gain and the guaranteed-performance cost is proposed in terms of linear matrix inequalities. Moreover, main conclusions for linear multiagent systems are extended to Lipschitz nonlinear cases. Finally, two numerical examples are provided to demonstrate theoretical results.
Reminders improve oral hygiene and adherence to appointments in orthodontic patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND Reminders are implemented in healthcare services to increase compliance with treatment and to decrease the rate of failed appointments. Their effects in the provision of orthodontic care are not yet fully understood. OBJECTIVES The main objectives of this review were to assess the effectiveness of reminder systems in improving oral hygiene (OH) and adherence to appointments in orthodontic patients. SEARCH METHODS An unrestricted search was conducted in six electronic databases and was supplemented by an extensive manual search up to January 2018. SELECTION CRITERIA Only randomized controlled trials (RCTs) evaluating the effectiveness of reminders in orthodontics were included. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS Two authors were independently involved in study selection, data extraction, and bias assessment. A random-effects model with its corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI) was generated for comparable outcomes. Periodontal parameters were evaluated in the short term (1-3 months) and in the long term (>3 months). Cochrane risk of bias tool was utilized for bias assessment and the quality of the resultant evidence was graded. Additional subgroup and sensitivity analyses were implemented. RESULTS Fourteen RCTs involving 2078 participants met the inclusion criteria; five studies were excluded from the quantitative synthesis due to high risk of bias. Small but statistically significant standardized mean differences in the plaque index scores were recorded favoring patients receiving reminders in the short-term (-0.38; 95% CI: -0.65 to -0.10) and in the long-term (-1.51; 95% CI: -2.72 to -0.30). Patients receiving reminders were less likely to miss their appointments with a relative risk of (0.39; 95% CI: 0.22 to 0.70) and less likely to develop white spot lesions (0.45; 95% CI: 0.31 to 0.65). CONCLUSIONS There is moderate-to-high quality of evidence that reminders have a positive effect on OH and adherence to appointments in orthodontic patients. These effects were demonstrated in the short- and long-term. Future high-quality RCTs should be designed with longer follow-up periods. REGISTRATION PROSPERO (CRD42017084479). CONFLICT OF INTEREST None.
Assessing Mucoadhesion in Polymer Gels: The Effect of Method Type and Instrument Variables

The process of mucoadhesion has been widely studied using a wide variety of methods, which are influenced by instrumental variables and experiment design, making the comparison between the results of different studies difficult. The aim of this work was to standardize the conditions of the detachment test and the rheological methods of mucoadhesion assessment for semisolids, and introduce a texture profile analysis (TPA) method. A factorial design was developed to suggest standard conditions for performing the detachment force method. To evaluate the method, binary polymeric systems were prepared containing poloxamer 407 and Carbopol 971P®, Carbopol 974P®, or Noveon® Polycarbophil. The mucoadhesion of systems was evaluated, and the reproducibility of these measurements investigated. This detachment force method was demonstrated to be reproduceable, and gave different adhesion when mucin disk or ex vivo oral mucosa was used. The factorial design demonstrated that all evaluated parameters had an effect on measurements of mucoadhesive force, but the same was not observed for the work of adhesion. It was suggested that the work of adhesion is a more appropriate metric for evaluating mucoadhesion. Oscillatory rheology was more capable of investigating adhesive interactions than flow rheology. TPA method was demonstrated to be reproducible and can evaluate the adhesiveness interaction parameter. This investigation demonstrates the need for standardized methods to evaluate mucoadhesion and makes suggestions for a standard study design.
Effect of initial body orientation on escape probability of prey fish escaping from predators

ABSTRACT The kinematic and behavioral components of the escape response can affect the outcomes of predator-prey interactions. For example, because sensory perception range can have spatial bias, and because turn duration before the initiation of escape locomotion can be smaller when prey is oriented away from predators, the prey's body orientation relative to a predator at the onset of the escape response (initial orientation) could affect whether prey successfully evade predators. We tested this hypothesis by recording the escape responses of juvenile red sea bream (Pagrus major) to the predatory scorpion fish (Sebastiscus marmoratus). Flight initiation distance tended to be small when prey were attacked from behind, suggesting that prey have spatial bias in detecting attacking predators. An increase in flight initiation distance increased escape probability. An increase in initial orientation decreased turn duration and increased escape probability when the effect of flight initiation distance was offset. These results suggest that initial orientation affects escape probability through two different pathways: changes in flight initiation distance and turn duration. These findings highlight the importance of incorporating initial orientation into other studies of the kinematics of predator-prey interactions. Summary: Our predator-prey experiments reveal that prey's initial body orientation relative to a predator affects the flight initiation distance and turn duration of prey and consequently affects escape probability.
Southeast Atmosphere Studies: learning from model-observation syntheses

Concentrations of atmospheric trace species in the United States have changed dramatically over the past several decades in response to pollution control strategies, shifts in domestic energy policy and economics, and economic development (and resulting emission changes) elsewhere in the world. Reliable projections of the future atmosphere require models to not only accurately describe current atmospheric concentrations, but to do so by representing chemical, physical and biological processes with conceptual and quantitative fidelity. Only through incorporation of the processes controlling emissions and chemical mechanisms that represent the key transformations among reactive molecules can models reliably project the impacts of future policy, energy and climate scenarios. Efforts to properly identify and implement the fundamental and controlling mechanisms in atmospheric models benefit from intensive observation periods, during which collocated measurements of diverse, speciated chemicals in both the gas and condensed phases are obtained. The Southeast Atmosphere Studies (SAS, including SENEX, SOAS, NOMADSS and SEAC4RS) conducted during the summer of 2013 provided an unprecedented opportunity for the atmospheric modeling community to come together to evaluate, diagnose and improve the representation of fundamental climate and air quality processes in models of varying temporal and spatial scales. This paper is aimed at discussing progress in evaluating, diagnosing and improving air quality and climate modeling using comparisons to SAS observations as a guide to thinking about improvements to mechanisms and parameterizations in models. The effort focused primarily on model representation of fundamental atmospheric processes that are essential to the formation of ozone, secondary organic aerosol (SOA) and other trace species in the troposphere, with the ultimate goal of understanding the radiative impacts of these species in the southeast and elsewhere. Here we address questions surrounding four key themes: gas-phase chemistry, aerosol chemistry, regional climate and chemistry interactions, and natural and anthropogenic emissions. We expect this review to serve as a guidance for future modeling efforts.
Is the diurnal variation in muscle force output detected/detectable when multi-joint movements are analysed using the musclelab force–velocity encoder?

ABSTRACT We have investigated the magnitude of diurnal variation in back squat and bench press performance using the MuscleLab force velocity transducer. Thirty resistance-trained males (mean ± SD: age 21.7 ± 1.4 years; body mass 80.5 ± 4.5 kg; height 1.79 ± 0.06 m) underwent two sessions at different times of day: morning (M, 07:30 h) and evening (E, 17:30 h). Each session included a period when rectal temperature (Trec) was measured at rest, a 5-min standardized 150 W warm-up on a cycle ergometer, then defined programme of bench press (at 20, 40 and 60 kg) and back squat (at 30, 50 and 70 kg) exercises. A linear encoder was attached to an Olympic bar used for the exercises and average force (AF), peak velocity (PV) and time-to-peak velocity (tPV) were measured (MuscleLab software; MuscleLab Technology, Langesund, Norway) during the concentric phase of the movements. Values for Trec at rest were higher in the evening compared to morning values (0.48°C, P < 0.0005). Daily variations were apparent for both bench press and back squat performance for AF (1.9 and 2.5%), PV (8.3 and 12.7%) and tPV (−16.6 and −9.8%; where a negative number indicates a decrease in the variable from morning to evening). There was a main effect for load where AF and tPV increased and PV decreased from the lightest load to the heaviest for both bench press and back squat (47.1 and 80.2%; 31.7 and 57.7%; −42.1 and −73.9%; P < 0.0005 where a negative number indicates a decrease in the variable with increasing load). An interaction was found only for tPV, such that the tPV occurs earlier in the evening than the morning at the highest loads (60 and 70 kg) for both bench press and back squat, respectively (mean difference of 0.32 and 0.62 s). In summary, diurnal variation in back squat and bench press was shown; and the tPV in complex multi-joint movements occurs earlier during the concentric phase of exercise when back squat or bench press is performed in the evening compared to the morning. This difference can be detected using a low cost, portable and widely available commercial instrument and enables translation of past laboratory/tightly controlled experimental research in to main-stream coaching practice.
Unveiling the semantic structure of text documents using paragraph-aware Topic Models

Classic Topic Models are built under the Bag Of Words assumption, in which word position is ignored for simplicity. Besides, symmetric priors are typically used in most applications. In order to easily learn topics with different properties among the same corpus, we propose a new line of work in which the paragraph structure is exploited. Our proposal is based on the following assumption: in many text document corpora there are formal constraints shared across all the collection, e.g. sections. When this assumption is satisfied, some paragraphs may be related to general concepts shared by all documents in the corpus, while others would contain the genuine description of documents. Assuming each paragraph can be semantically more general, specific, or hybrid, we look for ways to measure this, transferring this distinction to topics and being able to learn what we call specific and general topics. Experiments show that this is a proper methodology to highlight certain paragraphs in structured documents at the same time we learn interesting and more diverse topics.
Signal‐averaged electrocardiography: Past, present, and future

Signal‐averaged electrocardiography records delayed depolarization of myocardial areas with slow conduction that can form the substrate for monomorphic ventricular tachycardia. This technique has been examined mostly in patients with coronary artery disease, but its use has been declined over the years. However, several lines of evidence, derived from hitherto clinical data in patients with healed myocardial infarction, indicate that signal‐averaged electrocardiography remains a valuable tool in risk stratification, especially when incorporated into algorithms encompassing invasive and noninvasive indices. Such an approach can aid the more precise identification of candidates for device therapy, in the context of primary prevention of sudden cardiac death. This article reappraises the value of signal‐averaged electrocardiography as a predictor of arrhythmic outcome in patients with ischemic heart disease and discusses potential future indications.
How Do Static and Dynamic Test Case Prioritization Techniques Perform on Modern Software Systems? An Extensive Study on GitHub Projects

Test Case Prioritization (TCP) is an increasingly important regression testing technique for reordering test cases according to a pre-defined goal, particularly as agile practices gain adoption. To better understand these techniques, we perform the first extensive study aimed at empirically evaluating four static TCP techniques, comparing them with state-of-research dynamic TCP techniques across several quality metrics. This study was performed on 58 real-word Java programs encompassing 714 KLoC and results in several notable observations. First, our results across two effectiveness metrics (the Average Percentage of Faults Detected APFD and the cost cognizant APFDc) illustrate that at test-class granularity, these metrics tend to correlate, but this correlation does not hold at test-method granularity. Second, our analysis shows that static techniques can be surprisingly effective, particularly when measured by APFDc. Third, we found that TCP techniques tend to perform better on larger programs, but that program size does not affect comparative performance measures between techniques. Fourth, software evolution does not significantly impact comparative performance results between TCP techniques. Fifth, neither the number nor type of mutants utilized dramatically impact measures of TCP effectiveness under typical experimental settings. Finally, our similarity analysis illustrates that highly prioritized test cases tend to uncover dissimilar faults.
Open the Black Box Data-Driven Explanation of Black Box Decision Systems

Black box systems for automated decision making, often based on machine learning over (big) data, map a user's features into a class or a score without exposing the reasons why. This is problematic not only for lack of transparency, but also for possible biases hidden in the algorithms, due to human prejudices and collection artifacts hidden in the training data, which may lead to unfair or wrong decisions. We introduce the local-to-global framework for black box explanation, a novel approach with promising early results, which paves the road for a wide spectrum of future developments along three dimensions: (i) the language for expressing explanations in terms of highly expressive logic-based rules, with a statistical and causal interpretation; (ii) the inference of local explanations aimed at revealing the logic of the decision adopted for a specific instance by querying and auditing the black box in the vicinity of the target instance; (iii), the bottom-up generalization of the many local explanations into simple global ones, with algorithms that optimize the quality and comprehensibility of explanations.
On the Impact of Interhemispheric White Matter: Age, Executive Functioning, and Dedifferentiation in the Frontal Lobes

Introduction In middle age, declines in executive functioning (EF) are associated with decrements in the quality and/or quantity of white and grey matter. Recruitment of homologous regions has been identified as a compensatory mechanism for cognitive decline in later middle age, however research into neural substrates of EF has yet to be guided by dedifferentiation models. We hypothesized that frontal-parietal grey matter volume, interhemispheric white matter and intrahemispheric white matter fractional anisotropy (FA) will be predictive of EF. Further, we hypothesized that the comparative association between interhemispheric white matter and EF will increase with age, because of compensatory recruitment. Methods Neurocognitive test data, DTI, and T1 MPRAGE scans (n = 444) were obtained from the NKI-Rockland Sample. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the relationship between age, EF, interhemispheric white matter (forceps minor; FM), intrahemispheric white matter (superior longitudinal fasciculus; SLF), and a frontal-parietal grey matter network. EF and grey matter were modelled as latent variables, with EF examined as the criterion. Additionally, a subsample of participants aged 55-85 (n = 168) was analyzed to examine the influence of age related compensatory mechanisms. Results There was a significant relationship between FM, grey matter, and EF, which was fully mediated by age. There was a significant relationship between SLF and EF, which was not mediated by age. For older adults, only the age-mediated pathway from FM to EF was significant. Discussion Using structural imaging data, support was found for age-related interhemispheric mechanisms of compensation, but not intrahemispheric mechanisms. Key points (1) Neural substrates of executive functioning are not static across the lifespan. (2) In older adults, white matter becomes more salient as a structural correlate of executive functioning, as recruitment needs increase. (3) While the importance of interhemispheric white matter is mediated by age, intrahemispheric recruitment remains consistent across the lifespan, and is not the primary mechanism of age-based compensation in community dwelling older adults.
Best Practices for Testing the Predictive Validity of Ideal Partner Preference-Matching

Many psychological hypotheses require testing whether the similarity between two variables predicts important outcomes. For example, the ideal standards model posits that the match between (A) a participant’s ideal partner preferences, and (B) the traits of a current/potential partner, predicts (C) evaluative outcomes (e.g., the decision to date someone, relationship satisfaction, breakup); tests of the predictive validity of ideal-matching require A × B → C analytic strategies. However, recent articles have incorrectly suggested that documenting a positive samplewide correlation between a participant’s ideals and a current partner’s traits (an A-B correlation) implies that participants pursued, selected, or desired partners with traits that matched their ideals. There are at least six alternative explanations for the emergence of a samplewide A-B correlation; A-B correlations do not provide evidence that ideals guide the selection/evaluation of specific partners. We review appropriately rigorous A × B → C tests that can aid scholars in identifying the circumstances in which ideal-matching exhibits predictive validity.
Chromatin Binding of c-REL and p65 Is Not Limiting for Macrophage IL12B Transcription During Immediate Suppression by Ovarian Carcinoma Ascites

Tumors frequently exploit homeostatic mechanisms that suppress expression of IL-12, a central mediator of inflammatory and anti-tumor responses. The p40 subunit of the IL-12 heterodimer, encoded by IL12B, is limiting for these functions. Ovarian carcinoma patients frequently produce ascites which exerts immunosuppression by means of soluble factors. The NFκB pathway is necessary for transcription of IL12B, which is not expressed in macrophages freshly isolated from ascites. This raises the possibility that ascites prevents IL12B expression by perturbing NFκB binding to chromatin. Here, we show that ascites-mediated suppression of IL12B induction by LPS plus IFNγ in primary human macrophages is rapid, and that suppression can be reversible after ascites withdrawal. Nuclear translocation of the NFκB transcription factors c-REL and p65 was strongly reduced by ascites. Surprisingly, however, their binding to the IL12B locus and to CXCL10, a second NFκB target gene, was unaltered, and the induction of CXCL10 transcription was not suppressed by ascites. These findings indicate that, despite its reduced nuclear translocation, NFκB function is not generally impaired by ascites, suggesting that ascites-borne signals target additional pathways to suppress IL12B induction. Consistent with these data, IL-10, a clinically relevant constituent of ascites and negative regulator of NFκB translocation, only partially recapitulated IL12B suppression by ascites. Finally, restoration of a defective IL-12 response by appropriate culture conditions was observed only in macrophages from a subset of donors, which may have important implications for the understanding of patient-specific immune responses.