Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Quantum Confinement in High Electron Mobility Transistors

Modulation-doped semiconductor nanostructures exhibit extraordinary electrical and optical properties that are quantum mechanical in nature. The heart of such structures lies in the heterojunction of two epitaxially grown semiconductors with different band gaps. Quantum confinement in this heterojunction is a phenomenon that leads to the quantization of the conduction and the valence band into discrete subbands. The spac- ing between these quantized bands is a very important parameter that has been perfected over the years into device applications. Most of these devices form low- dimensional charge carriers that potentially allow optical transitions between the subbands in such nanostructures. The transition energy differences between the quan- tized bands/levels typically lie in the infrared or the terahertz region of the electromagnetic spectrum and can be designed according to the application in demand. Thus, a proper understanding and a suitable external control of such intersubband transitions (ISTs) are not only important aspects of fundamental research but also a necessity for optoelectronic device applications specifically towards closing the terahertz gap.
Hyperspectral Image Classification With Markov Random Fields and a Convolutional Neural Network

This paper presents a new supervised classification algorithm for remotely sensed hyperspectral image (HSI) which integrates spectral and spatial information in a unified Bayesian framework. First, we formulate the HSI classification problem from a Bayesian perspective. Then, we adopt a convolutional neural network (CNN) to learn the posterior class distributions using a patch-wise training strategy to better use the spatial information. Next, spatial information is further considered by placing a spatial smoothness prior on the labels. Finally, we iteratively update the CNN parameters using stochastic gradient decent and update the class labels of all pixel vectors using $\alpha $ -expansion min-cut-based algorithm. Compared with the other state-of-the-art methods, the classification method achieves better performance on one synthetic data set and two benchmark HSI data sets in a number of experimental settings.
Parallel Querying with Non-Dedicated Computers

We present DITN, a new method of parallel querying based on dynamic outsourcing of join processing tasks to non-dedicated, heterogeneous computers. In DITN, partitioning is not the means of parallelism. Data layout decisions are taken outside the scope of the DBMS, and handled within the storage software; query processors see a "Data In The Network" image. This allows gradual scaleout as the workload grows, by using non-dedicated computers.A typical operator in a parallel query plan is Exchange [7]. We argue that Exchange is unsuitable for non-dedicated machines because it poorly addresses node heterogeneity, and is vulnerable to failures or load spikes during query execution. DITN uses an alternate intra-fragment parallelism where each node executes an independent select-project-join-aggregate-group by block, with no tuple exchange between nodes. This method cleanly handles heterogeneous nodes, and well adapts during execution to node failures or load spikes.Initial experiments suggest that DITN performs competitively with a traditional configuration of dedicated machines and well-partitioned data for up to 10 processors at least. At the same time, DITN gives significant flexibility in terms of gradual scaleout and handling of heterogeneity, load bursts, and failures.
The Production of Secondary Metabolites with Flavour Potential during Brewing and Distilling Wort Fermentations

Ethanol, carbon dioxide and glycerol are the major products produced by yeast during wort fermentation but they have little impact on beer and spirit flavour. It is the type and concentration of secondary metabolites that can determine overall beer flavour. These compounds are (but not only) primarily: higher alcohols, esters, carbonyls and sulphur compounds—inorganic and organic. There are a number of factors that can modify the balance of these compounds most of which are discussed in this review paper.
UA-DETRAC 2017: Report of AVSS2017 & IWT4S Challenge on Advanced Traffic Monitoring

The rapid advances of transportation infrastructure have led to a dramatic increase in the demand for smart systems capable of monitoring traffic and street safety. Fundamental to these applications are a community-based evaluation platform and benchmark for object detection and multi-object tracking. To this end, we organize the AVSS2017 Challenge on Advanced Traffic Monitoring, in conjunction with the International Workshop on Traffic and Street Surveillance for Safety and Security (IWT4S), to evaluate the state-of-the-art object detection and multi-object tracking algorithms in the relevance of traffic surveillance. Submitted algorithms are evaluated using the large-scale UA-DETRAC benchmark and evaluation protocol. The benchmark, the evaluation toolkit and the algorithm performance are publicly available from the website http://detrac-db.rit. albany.edu.
Pectin nanocoating of titanium implant surfaces ‐ an experimental study in rabbits

INTRODUCTION A major determinant of successful osseointegration of endosseous implants is the surface of the implant, which influences the cellular response of the surrounding tissues. A new strategy to improve osseointegration and bone healing is biochemical stimulation by surface nanocoatings that may increase adhesion of bone proteins, and bone cells at the implant surface. Nanocoating with pectins, plant cell wall-derived polysaccharides, is frequently done using rhamnogalacturonan-I (RG-I). AIM The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of nanocoating titanium implants with plant cell wall-derived rhamnogalacturonan-I, on bone healing and osseointegration. MATERIAL AND METHODS Machined titanium implants were coated with three modifications of rhamnogalacturonan-I (RG-I). Chemical and physical surface properties were examined before insertion of nanocoated implants (n = 96) into the left and right tibia of rabbits. Machined titanium implants without RG-I nanocoating were used as controls (n = 32). Total number of 128 implants was placed in tibias of 16 rabbits. Fluorochrome bone labels, calcein green and alizarin red S were given intravenously after 9 and 12 days, respectively. The bone response to the nanocoated implants was analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively after 2, 4, 6, and 8 weeks of healing using light microscopy and histomorphometric methods. RESULTS The RG-I coating influenced the surface chemical composition; wettability and roughness, making the surface more hydrophilic without any major effect on surface micro roughness compared to control implant surfaces. The different modifications of pectin RG-I did not significantly enhance bone healing and osseointegration analyzed after 2, 4, 6, and 8 weeks of healing compared to control implants. Although the qualitative analyses of the fluorochromes indicated a higher activity of bone formation in the mineralization front at the early stage, after 9 and 12 days at the RG-I nanocoated implants compared to the control implants although no significant quantitative difference was demonstrated. CONCLUSION The present study showed that nanocoating of titanium implants with pectin RG-Is did not significantly enhance bone healing and osseointegration when placed in rabbit tibia bone.
Spasmodic Dysphonia: A Review. Part 1: Pathogenic Factors

Objective The purpose of this review is to describe the recent advances in identifying possible factors involved in the pathogenesis of spasmodic dysphonia. Spasmodic dysphonia is a task-specific focal laryngeal dystonia characterized by irregular and uncontrolled voice breaks. Pathogenesis of the disorder is poorly understood. Data Sources PubMed, Google Scholar, and Cochrane Library. Review Methods The data sources were searched using the following search terms: (spasmodic dysphonia or laryngeal dystonia) and (etiology, aetiology, diagnosis, pathogenesis, or pathophysiology). Conclusions Several potential etiological factors have been proposed by epidemiological, genetic, and neuropathological studies. Spasmodic dysphonia is a rare disorder primarily affecting females beginning in their 40s. Vocal tremor co-occurs in 30% to 60%. Large cohort studies identified risk factors such as a family history of neurological disorders including dystonia and tremor, recent viral illness, and heavy voice use. As none are rare events, a complex interactive process may contribute to pathogenesis in a small proportion of those at risk. Consequences to pathogenesis are neurological processes found in spasmodic dysphonia: loss of cortical inhibition, sensory processing disturbances, and neuroanatomical and physiological differences in the laryngeal motor control system. Implications for Practice Diagnosis of spasmodic dysphonia usually includes speech and laryngoscopic assessment. However, as diagnosis is sometimes problematic, measurement of neurophysiological abnormalities may contribute useful adjuncts for the diagnosis of spasmodic dysphonia in the future.
Dilution Control of Weld Overlay Superalloys Using Taguchi Method

The objective of this work was to optimize the operational conditions aiming to deposit weld overlays with a minimal dilution and iron content as low as possible, and a thickness of weld higher than 3 mm just in a single layer. The alloys studied were Inconel 625, Hastelloy C276 and Inconel 686. The ASTM A516 Gr 60 steel was used as substrate. The welds were performed by GTAW cold wire feed process. The Taguchi method was applied to design the experiments and to evaluate the influence of the variables. The results showed that the arc oscillation (weaving) has a strong effect on the penetration and dilution of welds. The confirmation test for the optimal settings indicated that the additive model of the Taguchi method was not only confirmed the excellent reproducibility, but also provides sufficient confidence in the factorial effects.Copyright © 2012 by ASME
Genome-wide analysis of disease progression in age-related macular degeneration

Family- and population-based genetic studies have successfully identified multiple disease-susceptibility loci for Age-related macular degeneration (AMD), one of the first batch and most successful examples of genome-wide association study. However, most genetic studies to date have focused on case-control studies of late AMD (choroidal neovascularization or geographic atrophy). The genetic influences on disease progression are largely unexplored. We assembled unique resources to perform a genome-wide bivariate time-to-event analysis to test for association of time-to-late-AMD with ∼9 million variants on 2721 Caucasians from a large multi-center randomized clinical trial, the Age-Related Eye Disease Study. To our knowledge, this is the first genome-wide association study of disease progression (bivariate survival outcome) in AMD genetic studies, thus providing novel insights to AMD genetics. We used a robust Cox proportional hazards model to appropriately account for between-eye correlation when analyzing the progression time in the two eyes of each participant. We identified four previously reported susceptibility loci showing genome-wide significant association with AMD progression: ARMS2-HTRA1 (P = 8.1 × 10-43), CFH (P = 3.5 × 10-37), C2-CFB-SKIV2L (P = 8.1 × 10-10) and C3 (P = 1.2 × 10-9). Furthermore, we detected association of rs58978565 near TNR (P = 2.3 × 10-8), rs28368872 near ATF7IP2 (P = 2.9 × 10-8) and rs142450006 near MMP9 (P = 0.0006) with progression to choroidal neovascularization but not geographic atrophy. Secondary analysis limited to 34 reported risk variants revealed that LIPC and CTRB2-CTRB1 were also associated with AMD progression (P < 0.0015). Our genome-wide analysis thus expands the genetics in both development and progression of AMD and should assist in early identification of high risk individuals.
Optimal pyramidal decomposition for progressive multidimensional signal coding using optimal quantizers

Optimal hierarchical coding is sought, for progressive or scalable multidimensional signal transmission, by minimizing the variance of the error difference between the original image and its lower resolution renditions. The optimal, according to the above criterion, pyramidal coders are determined for images quantized using the optimal vector Lloyd-Max quantizers. A rigorous general statistical model of a vector Lloyd-Max quantizer is used, consisting of a linear time-invariant filter followed by additive noise uncorrelated with the input. Given arbitrary analysis filters, the optimal synthesis filters are found. The optimal analysis filters are subsequently determined, leading to formulas for globally optimal structures for pyramidal multidimensional signal decompositions. These structures produce replicas of the original image, which at lower resolutions retain as much similarity to the original as possible. This is highly useful for the progressive coding of two- or three-dimensional (2-D or 3-D) images needed in applications such as fast browsing through image databases. Furthermore, the minimization of the variance of the error image leads to minimization of the variance of the quantization noise for this image and, hence, to its optimally efficient compression. Experimental results illustrate the implementation and performance of the optimal pyramids in application for the coding of still 2-D images.
Screening for carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae: Who, When, and How?

ABSTRACT The global spread of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) has been fostered by the lack of preemptive screening of patients in healthcare facilities that could prevent patient-to-patient transmission. Outbreaks of CRE infections have led some institutions to implement rigorous screening programs, although controlled comparative data are frequently lacking. Resource limitations and uncertainty regarding the optimal approach has kept many facilities from enacting more active routine surveillance policies that could reduce the prevalence of CRE. The ideal population to target for screening, the frequency of testing, and the preferred test method are components of surveillance programs that remain open to debate. This review discusses the rationale for different screening policies in use and the performance characteristics of laboratory methods available to detect CRE carriage.
Workability and mechanical properties of crumb-rubber concrete

The addition of crumb-rubber aggregate has a significant effect on concrete mix apparent porosity which affects both the plastic state workability and hardened state mechanical properties. New experimental data are presented and analysed to better understand this behaviour. Crumb-rubber-modified concrete exhibits reduced slump while maintaining a high compaction factor in the plastic state. Structural rubber-modified concrete (fcu > 17 MPa, ρd = > 2000 kg/m3) can be designed with crumb-rubber substitution up to 20%wt fine aggregate replacement or up to approximately 15%wt coarse aggregate or coarse + fine aggregate replacement. The dynamic modulus of elasticity can be predicted reliably using the empirical equation Ed = 0·524fcu + 15·5 which allows the ultrasonic pulse velocity test to be used as an indicative assessment of mix quality. ‘Good’ quality rubber-modified mixes can be produced using 10%wt fine aggregate and coarse + fine aggregate replacement mixes, and up to 20%wt coarse + fine aggregate .
Molecular Lymph Node Status for Prognostic Stratification of Prostate Cancer Patients Undergoing Radical Prostatectomy with Extended Pelvic Lymph Node Dissection

Purpose: Molecular lymph node (LN) analysis using quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) detects LN metastases with higher sensitivity than histopathology. However, the prognostic role of molecular LN status in prostate cancer patients treated with radical prostatectomy (RP) and extended pelvic LN dissection (ePLND) is unclear. To investigate the association of molecular compared with histopathologic LN status with biochemical recurrence. Experimental Design: Patients with intermediate and high-risk prostate cancer were prospectively enrolled and underwent RP with ePLND, including the obturator, internal, external, and the common iliac region. LNs ≥3 mm were bisected and examined by standard histopathology and qPCR for Kallikrein3 (KLK3) expression. Biochemical recurrence was defined by confirmed postoperative PSA > 0.2 ng/mL. Results: In 111 patients, 2,411 of 3,173 removed LNs were examined by both methods. Histopathology detected 68 LN metastases in 28 (25%) patients. Molecular analysis confirmed elevated KLK3 expression in 65 histopathologic LN metastases of all 28 pN1 patients (pN1/molN1) and additionally reclassified 224 histopathologic negative LNs and 32 (29%) pN0 patients as LN-positive (pN0/molN1). At a median follow-up of 48 months, 52 (47%) patients developed biochemical recurrence. Median biochemical recurrence-free survival was 9 months [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.0–20.1] in pN1/molN1 patients, 24 months (95% CI, 1.7–46.3) in pN0/molN1 patients and was not reached in pN0/molN0 patients (P < 0.001). On multivariable Cox regression analysis, molecular LN status [HR 4.1 (95% CI, 1.9–8.8), P < 0.001] but not histopathologic LN status [HR 1.5 (95% CI, 0.8–3.0), P = 0.198] was confirmed as independent predictor of biochemical recurrence. Conclusions: Molecular LN analysis identified pN0 patients with a high risk of biochemical recurrence and provided superior prognostic information in comparison with histopathology alone. Clin Cancer Res; 24(10); 2342–9. ©2018 AACR.
Managing uncertain location with probability by integrating absolute and relative location information

Location information is expressed by various formats that depend on services. Location information is divided into two categories: absolute location information (such as latitude/longitude and address), and relative location information (such as distance and direction). Each service that utilizes location information defines location information system individually. Therefore, sharing location informations between the services is difficult. Consequently, reusability of location information decreases. Then, we consider new common location information system, which can be converted from location information of various systems and expresses location more flexible. In this study, we propose probabilistic location information, which expressed as a combination of area and existence probability. Moreover, we propose the algorithm which calculates probabilistic location information based on geographic coordinate information and pass-by information (PLPA-GP).
User Adoption and Acceptance of Enterprise Resource Planning ( ERP )

This paper explains a planned study of variables and their relationships in the adoption and acceptance of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. This potential research would then investigate the role of culture, resistance, involvement, satisfaction, software quality and acceptance of ERP, where user perception is the means to gain in-depth understanding of the role of these variables. This study would also look into factors influencing the process of ERP acceptance among users as a model to assess the role of each variable which is proposed.
The 2017 EACTS guidelines on perioperative medication in adult cardiac surgery and patient blood management.

a Department of Cardiac Surgery, Hospital de Santa Cruz, Carnixade, Portugal b Departamento de Cirurgia e Fisiologia, Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal c Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, Netherlands d Department of Molecular and Clinical Medicine, Institute of Medicine, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
Health Behaviour among Nurses Working in Public Hospitals in Kakamega County, Kenya

Health behaviour refers to actions undertaken by a person who perceives self to be ill for the purpose of finding an appropriate remedy. Nurses as gate keepers of health are expected to seek formal treatment when they are taken ill because this is what they teach their patients. Nurses' working conditions all over the world are described as squalid with long working hours and workload. This scenario predisposes them to occupational health hazards and at the same time denies them time for self-care. Although nurses are knowledgeable about disease and its treatment and have access to health care, they engage in self-treatment in contrast to what they teach patients. Health behaviour among nurses in Kakamega County was investigated using a cross-sectional design. Data was collected using self-administered questionnaires and subjected to bivariate and logistic regression analyses. The study found that health behaviour of nurses in Kakamega County is below expectation, as 33% (n = 61) engaged in voluntary screening services. Further, 34.8% (n = 65) said that their health would improve if they engaged in health promotion activities. The study recommends empowering nurses to engage in positive health behaviour through education. The county should also provide affordable screening services to its nurses.
Clinical and gender differences in heart transplant recipients in the NEW HEART study

Background: Little attention has focused on gender differences in cardiac comorbidities and outcomes in patients undergoing orthotropic heart transplant. Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate gender differences at baseline and during follow-up among heart transplant patients. Methods: An observational cohort within the NEW HEART study was evaluated to determine gender differences in relation to age, coexisting cardiac comorbidities, and outcomes. Differences were assessed by t-test, Fisher’s exact test, and logistic regression analysis. Results: Male transplant recipients (n = 238) were significantly older than female recipients (n = 92), with a greater percentage over 60 years of age (45% vs. 24%, p = 0.0006). Males were more likely to have hypertension (63% vs. 49%, p = 0.034), dyslipidemia (62% vs. 45%, p = 0.006), a history of smoking (52% vs. 35%, p = 0.009), and diabetes (42% vs. 21%, p = 0.0002). Analysis of endomyocardial biopsies obtained during the 1-year follow-up period demonstrated that women averaged more episodes of acute rejection than men (3.9 vs. 3.0, p = 0.009). While most episodes of rejection were mild, women were more likely than men to have episodes of moderate or severe rejection (14% vs. 5%, p = 0.012) and to be hospitalized for acute rejection (15% vs. 6%, p = 0.013). There were no significant differences in mortality. Conclusions: Men were more likely than women to be older and to have diabetes, dyslipidemia, hypertension, and a history of smoking. Women were more likely to experience moderate or severe allograft rejection and to be hospitalized for acute rejection. Future investigation of the reasons for these gender differences is warranted and may improve clinical care of women undergoing cardiac transplantation.