Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Additional prognostic value of echocardiographic follow-up in pulmonary hypertension-role of 3D right ventricular area strain.

AIMS Outcomes in pulmonary hypertension (PH) are related to right ventricular (RV) function and remodelling. We hypothesized that changes in RV function and especially area strain (AS) could provide incremental prognostic information compared to the use of baseline data only. We therefore aimed to assess RV function changes between baseline and 6-month follow-up and evaluate their prognostic value for PH patients using 3D echocardiography. METHODS AND RESULTS Ninety-five PH patients underwent a prospective longitudinal study including ESC/ERS guidelines prognostic assessment and 3D RV echocardiographic imaging at baseline and 6-month follow-up. Semi-automatic software tracked the RV along the cycle, and its output was post-processed to extract 3D deformation patterns. Over a median follow-up of 24.8 (22.1-25.7) months, 21 patients died from PH or were transplanted. Improvements in RV global AS were associated with stable or improving clinical condition as well as survival free from transplant (P < 0.001). The 3D deformation patterns confirmed that the most significant regional changes occurred within the septum. RV global AS change over 6-month by +3.5% identifies patients with a 3.7-fold increased risk of death or transplant. On multivariate COX analysis, changes in WHO class, BNP, and RV global AS were independent predictors of outcomes. Besides, the combination of these three parameters was of special interest to identify high-risk patients [HR 11.5 (1.55-86.06)]. CONCLUSION Changes in RV function and especially changes in 3D RV AS are of prognostic importance. Our study underlines that assessing such changes from baseline to follow-up is of additional prognostic value for PH patients. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02799979.
Energy Shaping Control for Stabilization of Interconnected Voltage Source Converters in Weakly-Connected AC Microgrid Systems

With the ubiquitous installations of renewable energy resources such as solar and wind, for decentralized power applications across the United States, microgrids are being viewed as an avenue for achieving this goal. Various independent system operators and regional transmission operators such as Southwest Power Pool (SPP), Midcontinent System Operator (MISO), PJM Interconnection and Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) manage the transmission and generation systems that host the distributed energy resources (DERs). Voltage source converters typically interconnect the DERs to the utility system and used in High voltage dc (HVDC) systems for transmitting power throughout the United States. A microgrid configuration is built at the 13.8kV 4.75MVA National Center for Reliable Energy Transmission (NCREPT) testing facility for performing grid-connected and islanded operation of interconnected voltage source converters. The interconnected voltage source converters consist of a variable voltage variable frequency (VVVF) drive, which powers a regenerative (REGEN) load bench acting as a distributed energy resource emulator. Due to the weak-grid interface in islanded mode testing, a voltage instability occurs on the VVVF dc link voltage causing the system to collapse. This dissertation presents a new stability theorem for stabilizing interconnected voltage source converters in microgrid systems with weak-grid interfaces. The new stability theorem is derived using the concepts of Dirac composition in Port-Hamiltonian systems, passivity in physical systems, eigenvalue analysis and robust analysis based on the edge theorem for parametric uncertainty. The novel stability theorem aims to prove that all members of the classes of voltage source converter-based microgrid systems can be stabilized using an energy-shaping control methodology. The proposed theorems and stability analysis justifies the development of the Modified Interconnection and Damping Assignment Passivity-Based Control (Modified IDAPBC) method to be utilized in stabilizing the microgrid configuration at NCREPT for mitigating system instabilities. The system is simulated in MATLAB/Simulink using the Simpower toolbox to observe the system’s performance of the designed controller in comparison to the decoupled proportional intergral controller. The simulation results verify that the Modified-IDAPBC is a viable option for dc bus voltage control of interconnected voltage source converters in microgrid systems.
A REVIEW ON DRUG DISCOVERY AND DEVELOPMENT FOR THE TREATMENT OF POLYCYSTIC OVARIAN SYNDROME

Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS), an endocrine disorder with the association of hyperandrogenism and anovulation, is the most common reproductive disorder in women. The condition further generates a constellation of different metabolic abnormalities worsening the situation more. The current treatment strategy for PCOS is rather symptomatic including drug therapy like anti-diabetic, anti-hirsutism, ovulation-inducing agents and others. However, in the past few years, there had been extensive studies on finding exact pathogenesis of PCOS and developing drugs that are curative rather than just being symptomatic. A few drugs which act as GnRH antagonist are under clinical trials for PCOS treatment. Also, NK3 receptor, extrasynaptic GABAA receptors are few other novel targets that are under investigation. An overview of pathogenesis, symptoms, treatment strategy and some novel targets has been presented in this paper.
G-protein Signaling Regulating Opioid-induced Respiratory Rate Depression

Opioids are pain treatment mainstays, but present with potentially lethal respiratory depression. To develop safer opioid therapies, mechanisms underlying opioid-induced respiratory depression must be better understood. Opioids mainly bind to μ-opioid receptors (MORs), Gprotein-coupled receptors that activate heterotrimeric G-proteins, including Gβγ. There is significant debate around whether G-proteins or β-arrestins, proteins involved in receptor internalization/desensitization, directly regulate respiratory circuit inhibition. While Gβγ activates G-protein inwardly rectifying potassium (GIRK) channels, which are key mediators of respiratory rate depression, its direct role in opioid-induced respiratory depression is unknown. We investigated the contribution of Gβγ in opioid-induced respiratory rate depression and found Gβγ inhibition in respiratory circuits reversed opioid-induced respiratory rate depression, regulators of G-protein signaling 4 (RGS4) are co-expressed with MORs in respiratory circuits, and RGS4 inhibition in vivo potentiates opioid-induced respiratory rate depression. Our data suggest Gprotein signaling is key in opioid-induced respiratory depression and is not limited to β-arrestin
Comparative Genomic Analysis of Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. citrumelo F1, Which Causes Citrus Bacterial Spot Disease, and Related Strains Provides Insights into Virulence and Host Specificity #

Citrus Research and Education Center, Department of Microbiology and Cell Science, University of Florida, 700 Experiment Station Road, Lake Alfred, Florida 33850; Interdisciplinary Center for Biotechnology Research, 2033 Mowry Road, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611; Department of Plant Pathology, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611; and Virginia Bioinformatics Institute and Department of Computer Science, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia 24060-0477
An Assure Encroachment Sensing Scheme for MANET’S

— A mong all the contemporary wireless networks, Mobile Ad hoc NETWORK (MANET) is one of the most important and unique applications. On the contrary to traditional network architecture, MANET does not require a fixed network infrastructure; every single node works as both a transmitter and a receiver. Nodes communicate directly with each other when they are both within the same communication range. Otherwise, they rely on their neighbours to relay messages. The self-configuring ability of nodes in MANET made it popular among critical mission applications like military use or emergency recovery. However, the open medium and wide distribution of nodes make MANET vulnerable to malicious attackers. With the improvements of the technology and cut in hardware costs, we are witnessing a current trend of expanding MANETs into industrial applications. To adjust to such trend, we strongly believe that it is vital to address its potential security issues. In this paper, we propose and implement a new intrusion-detection system named Enhanced Adaptive Acknowledgment (EAACK) specially designed for MANETs. Compared to contemporary approaches, EAACK demonstrates higher malicious behaviour-detection rates in certain circumstances while does not greatly affect the network performances.
A Nuclear Factor ILike Activity and a Liver-Specific Repressor Govern Estrogen-Regulated In Vitro Transcription from the Xenopus laevis Vitellogenin Bi Promoter

A hormone-controlled in vitro transcription system derived from Xenopus liver nuclear extracts was exploited to identify novel cis-acting elements within the vitellogenin gene B1 promoter region. In addition to the already well-documented estrogen-responsive element (ERE), two elements were found within the 140 base pairs upstream of the transcription initiation site. One of them, a negative regulatory element, is responsible for the lack of promoter activity in the absence of the hormone and, as demonstrated by DNA-binding assays, interacts with a liver-specific transcription factor. The second is required in association with the estrogenresponsive element to mediate hormonal induction and is recognized by the Xenopus liver homolog of nuclear factor I.
An Experimental Evaluation of Vulnerability of Branchless Banking Application in Android Environment

— ranchless banking application, now a days, is very popular choice for money transfer, bill payments, online shopping and money splitting. People are fascinated to use branchless banking applications due to their attractive offers such as cashback and earned points. Branchless banking has their own applications that is used by users for e-commerce and different modes of transaction. These applications generally let users to register themselves by providing different informations that may be later used for verification and validation. Phone number and email id some of the mandatory informations that is used for the purpose of identification through One Time Password (OTP). Some other mechanism (like agents) may also be used for this purpose. Branchless banking application are totally different from traditional banking system in operation. Traditional banking involves physical currencies whereas branchless banking application uses the concept of virtual currencies. With the usage of branchless banking application, the payment of bills and transferring money is very easy, fast and 24 x 7. However, the security aspect of such applications are a concern. The present investigation is an attempt to answer the said concern by experimentally evaluating the vulnerabilities branchless banking application. For this purpose eight branchless banking applications from android play store has been selected. These applications are subjected to Mallodoid analysis to verify Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certificate. The various steps performed for this purpose are: reverse engineering to get the smali code and manifest file. Further Qualys test has been performed to grade different branchless banking application on various vulnerability parameters. The research has found that most of the branchless banking application are vulnerable in security.
Leal Filho, Walter and Shiel, Chris and Paço, Arminda and Mifsud, Mark and Ávila, Lucas Veiga and Brandli,

The fact that the world community is engaged in pursuing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) means that an unrivalled opportunity is provided to universities, both in respect of teaching and in research, on individual SDGs, as well as in pursuing their "third mission" linking up with external stakeholders and society. However, not many universities have realised that and many are falling behind. This paper explores the many advantages of the introduction of the SDGs into teaching and suggests that it can catalyse the engagement of students in Higher Education Institutions (HEI) with the concepts of sustainability. The paper fills in a research gap by surveying the current state of the art regarding the theme, presenting current data outlining the extent to which HEI are using SDGs to support their sustainability work. The reasons why some institutions are currently not engaging is also shown. The paper, which consists of a worldwide survey deployed to collect data on the SDGs and sustainability teaching at universities, concludes by providing some recommendations aimed at encouraging further engagement of HEI in incorporatingSDGs as part of their teaching programs. This research is unique in the sense that it provides for the first time offers an overview of the level of emphasis selected universities currently place on the SDGs. Finally, it provides a contribution to current state of knowledge by 2 outlining some actions universities may take, to move forward with their implementation.
Kantini, Ebrahim and Cassaday, Helen J. and Batty, Martin J. and Hollis, Chris and Jackson, Georgina M. (2011) Associative learning in ADHD: improved expression

Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is characterised by developmentally inappropriate levels of inattention, impulsivity and hyperactivity. As might be expected of a disorder in which inhibitory deficits form part of the diagnostic criteria, deficits in response inhibition in ADHD have been evidenced in a number of studies. To date, the tasks used in such studies have required participants to inhibit the learned stimulus-response associations that result in unwanted behavior. However, no research has examined the inhibition of stimulus-stimulus associations, formally ‘conditioned inhibition’. The present study used video game style conditioned inhibition procedures, developed for children and adolescents with a clinical diagnosis of ADHD and suitable for typically developing matched controls. Two computer-based tasks (‘Mission to Mars’ and ‘Weapon-X’) required participants to predict the occurrence of an outcome based on the stimuli presented. We selected 12 male participants with ADHD on medication (methylphenidate), but without comorbid Tourette Syndrome, pervasive developmental disorder, learning disability or psychosis. This group showed overall normal inhibition of stimulus-stimulus associations, measured repeatedly over trials and with two task variants. There was no correlation between inhibitory learning and symptom severity ratings. However, participants with ADHD on higher dosages of methylphenidate, or longer duration of treatment with methylphenidate, showed improved ability to anticipate outcomes following the different stimulus presentations on non-inhibited versus inhibited trials. This effect was most clearly demonstrated on the Weapon-X task. Thus, methylphenidate dose-relatedly improved the expression of associative learning. This action may contribute to its therapeutic effects in improving cognitive function in ADHD.
Temporal and spectral cloud screening of polar-winter aerosol optical depth (AOD): impact of homogeneous and inhomogeneous clouds and crystal layers on climatological-scale

We compared star photometry-derived, polar winter aerosol optical depths (AODs), acquired at Eureka, Nunavut, 15 Canada and Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard with GEOS-Chem (GC) simulations as well as ground-based lidar and CALIOP retrievals. The results indicate significant cloud and/or low-altitude ice crystal (LIC) contamination which is only partially corrected using temporal cloud screening. Spatially homogeneous clouds and LICs that remain after 18 temporal cloud screening represent an inevitable systematic error in the estimation of AOD: this error was estimated to vary from 78% to 210% at Eureka and from 2% to 157% at Ny-Ålesund. Lidar analysis indicated that LICs appeared to have a disproportionately large influence on the homogenous coarse mode optical depths that escape 21 temporal cloud screening. In principle, spectral cloud screening (to yield fine mode or sub-micron AODs) reduces pre-cloud-screened AODs to the aerosol contribution if one assumes that coarse mode (super-micron) aerosols are a minor part of the AOD. Large, low frequency, differences between these retrieved values and their GC analogue 24 appeared to be often linked to strong, spatially extensive planetary boundary layer events whose presence at either site was inferred from CALIOP profiles. These events were either not captured or significantly underestimated, by the GC simulations. High frequency AOD variations of GC fine mode aerosols at Ny-Ålesund were attributed to 27 sea-salt (SS) while low frequency GC variations at Eureka and Ny-Ålesund were attributable to sulfates. CALIOP profiles and AODs were invaluable as spatial and temporal redundancy support (or, alternatively, as insightful points of contention) for star photometry retrievals and GC estimates of AOD. 30
Building a high-performance and long-term maintainable web application

Being mentioned on social or public media at the right time can lead to short load peaks that could bring web applications to their limits. This master thesis shows the design and implementation of a high performance system that is able to quickly scale to adapt to changing loads. As a running example, the rebuilding of wahlkabine.at is explained in detail, which has the additional requirement of remaining long-term maintainable. To achieve performance, scalability and maintainability, these qualities have to be considered in every step of development. This work elaborates on the architectonic choices and the influences of specific requirements to them. The implementation as a Single Page Application is explained with emphasis on actual and perceived loading times. Another focus is placed on hosting the application and corresponding ways of reducing the amount of transmitted data a client needs to load from the server. This work addresses developers seeking for ways to increase their websites performance or to those in the midst of planning a new project with the same qualities. In the case of wahlkabine.at a performance improvement can be achieved which eliminates the need of external servers altogether, even when being mentioned at primetime on national television.
Original Contribution Cervical Screening and Cervical Cancer Death Among Older Women: A Population-Based, Case-Control Study

Recent research suggests that cervical screening of older women is associated with a considerable decrease in cervical cancer incidence. We sought to quantify the efficacy of cervical cytology screening to reduce death from this disease. Among enrollees of 2 US health plans, we compared Papanicolaou smear screening histories of women aged 55–79 years who died of cervical cancer during 1980–2010 (cases) to those of women at risk of cervical cancer (controls). Controls were matched 2:1 to cases on health plan, age, and enrollment duration. Cytology screening during the detectable preclinical phase, estimated as the 5–7 years before diagnosis during which cervical neoplasia is asymptomatic but cytologically detectable, was ascertained from medical records. A total of 39 cases and 80 controls were eligible. The odds ratio of cervical cancer death associated with screening during the presumed detectable preclinical phasewas 0.26 (95% confidence interval: 0.10, 0.63) after adjustment for matching characteristics, smoking, marital status, and race/ethnicity using logistic regression. We estimate that cervical cytology screening of all women aged 55–79 years in the United States could avert 630 deaths annually. These results provide a minimum estimate of the efficacy of human papillomavirus DNA screening—a more sensitive test—to reduce cervical cancer death among older women.
Distributed game-based pricing strategy for energy sharing in microgrid with PV prosumers

In recent years, many traditional energy consumers are transforming to prosumers with photovoltaic (PV) installations. Thus, energy sharing among prosumers has become a research focus. In this study, the energy sharing problem in a microgrid is formulated as a Stackelberg game. The microgrid operator (MGO) is the leader of the game setting internal buying and selling prices for energy sharing and balances the power mismatch of microgrid by trading energy in day-ahead and real-time market. PV prosumers are the followers of the game deciding their energy sharing profiles in response to internal prices. Each participant of the game makes its best decision to maximise its utility or profit. The Stackelberg equilibrium (SE) is a set of decisions of internal prices and energy sharing profiles, and in SE each participant cannot increase its utility or profit by changing its decision. The existence and uniqueness of the SE have been strictly proved by showing the utility function of MGO is unimodal and has a unique optimal solution. The heuristic algorithm is presented for MGO to achieve the SE in a distributed way, where prosumers get to protect their privacies. Simulation cases have verified the effectiveness and feasibility of the energy sharing strategy.
Spatiotemporal chronographical modeling of procurement and material flow for building projects

Planning and management building projects should tackle the coordination of works and the management of limited spaces, traffic and supplies. Activities cannot be performed without the resources available and resources cannot be used beyond the capacity of workplaces. Otherwise, workspace congestion will negatively affect the flow of works. Better on-site management allows for substantial productivity improvements and cost savings. The procurement system should be able to manage a wider variety of materials and products of the required quality in order to have less stock, in less time, using less space, with less investment and avoiding multiple storage stations. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate the advantages of using the Chronographic modeling, by combining spatiotemporal technical scheduling with the 4D simulations, the Last Planner System and the Takt-time when modeling the construction of building projects. This paper work toward the aforementioned goal by examining the impact that material flow has on site occupancy. The proposed spatiotemporal model promotes efficient site use, defines optimal site-occupancy and workforce-rotation rates, minimizes intermediate stocks, and ensures a suitable procurement process. This paper study the material flow on the site and consider horizontal and vertical paths, traffic flows and appropriate means of transportation to ensure fluidity and safety. This paper contributes to the existing body of knowledge by linking execution and supply to the spatial and temporal aspects. The methodology compare the performance and procurement processes for the proposed Chronographic model with the Gantt-Precedence diagram. Two examples are presented to demonstrate the benefits of the proposed model and to validate the related concepts. This validation is designed to test the model’s graphical ability to simulate construction and procurement.