Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Toward the compact design of a robotic waveguide for active line duplication

This paper presents a novel configuration for a robotic waveguide that duplicates an active optical line without disrupting communication services. The robotic waveguide is placed in a detour line, which is coupled with the active line. This duplication enables part of the active line to be replaced with a new line segment. The proposed robotic waveguide is compact and low loss, and it operates quickly. These features make it suitable for future applications such as multi-fiber tape replacement without service interruption.
Cascaded FSO-VLC Communication System

The proposed cascaded free space optics (FSO)-visible light communication (VLC) system consists of multiple VLC access points which caters the end users connected via a decode and forward relay to the FSO backhaul link. The FSO link is assumed to be affected by path-loss, pointing error, and atmospheric turbulence while the end-to-end signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of VLC downlinks are statistically characterized considering the randomness of users position. In this letter, the novel closed form expressions of the statistics like probability density function and cumulative distribution function of the equivalent SNR are derived. Capitalizing on these, the closed form expressions for various performance metrics such as outage probability and error probability are provided. The simulation results are provided to verify the functional curves of mathematical analysis.
Bridging Plant and Human Radiation Response and DNA Repair through an In Silico Approach

The mechanisms of response to radiation exposure are conserved in plants and animals. The DNA damage response (DDR) pathways are the predominant molecular pathways activated upon exposure to radiation, both in plants and animals. The conserved features of DDR in plants and animals might facilitate interdisciplinary studies that cross traditional boundaries between animal and plant biology in order to expand the collection of biomarkers currently used for radiation exposure monitoring (REM) in environmental and biomedical settings. Genes implicated in trans-kingdom conserved DDR networks often triggered by ionizing radiation (IR) and UV light are deposited into biological databases. In this study, we have applied an innovative approach utilizing data pertinent to plant and human genes from publicly available databases towards the design of a ‘plant radiation biodosimeter’, that is, a plant and DDR gene-based platform that could serve as a REM reliable biomarker for assessing environmental radiation exposure and associated risk. From our analysis, in addition to REM biomarkers, a significant number of genes, both in human and Arabidopsis thaliana, not yet characterized as DDR, are suggested as possible DNA repair players. Last but not least, we provide an example on the applicability of an Arabidopsis thaliana—based plant system monitoring the role of cancer-related DNA repair genes BRCA1, BARD1 and PARP1 in processing DNA lesions.
Measurements of HB photonic crystal fibers with low temperature sensitivity

We report on experimental studies of phase and group modal birefringence vs. temperature in two highly birefringent (HB) photonic crystal fibers, in which birefringence is caused by filling factor asymmetry. The sensitivity measurements were carried out at two wavelengths 633 and 834 nm. Our results show that temperature sensitivity in the HB photonic crystal fibers is two orders smaller then in traditional HB fibers. Simultaneously, our results exhibit weak dependence of group modal birefringence on temperature.
Analysis and design of a high-power electronic load controller for the fuel cell stack testing

Fuel cell(FC) stack is the power source of fuel cell electric vehicles. Its output current and power usually need to be controlled during testing. Electronic load controller(ELC) has often been introduced in FC testing system to control the DC bus. The desired characteristics of such loads include high power, high reliability, high speed of dynamic response and low cost. In this paper, a high performance ELC for FC stack testing was designed according to the test requirement of FC stack's output characteristics. To ensure continuous input current, the main circuit employed a dual-parallel buck with input LC filters. To suppress the resonance caused by input filters, the transfer function of input current to the duty cycle was obtained by using averaged model. Then the closed-loop control for variable-current mode was achieved. Based on FC stack's polarization curve, variable-power mode was also achieved, and the function of under-voltage protection was realized. This ELC had been successfully applied in 60kW FC stack testing system, and achieved good accuracy and dynamic characteristics.
Metabolite Antigens and Pathway Incompatibility

Vγ9Vδ2 cells, which constitute a small portion of peripheral blood T-cells (∼ 5%), are known to be the biggest subset of human γδ T-cells (∼ 70%) in circulating blood. The Vγ9Vδ2 T-cells expressing Vγ9Vδ2 T-cell receptors have an ability to recognize non-peptide antigens directly or indirectly, for example, phosphorylated metabolites referred to as phosphoantigens, synthesized aminobisphosphonates used for therapeutic purpose such as pamidronate, and alkylamines. These chemical compounds recognized by Vγ9Vδ2 T-cells are produced by many prokaryotic and eukary-otic organisms. Previous works show that the phosphoantigens recognized by Vγ9Vδ2 T-cells are found as the intermediates in the pathogens' pathway producing IPP. In this paper, we show that the other compounds recognized by Vγ9Vδ2 T-cells are found on the pathogens' biosynthetic pathways leading to production of shared compounds with human. In addition, many compounds having high structural similarity with alkylamine antigens are also found only in pathogen's biosynthetic pathways or produced only by non-human enzymes.
A double‐blind, placebo‐controlled birch allergy vaccination study: inhibition of CD23‐mediated serum‐immunoglobulin E‐facilitated allergen presentation

The clinical efficacy of specific allergy vaccination (SAV), previously called specific immunotherapy is well documented. The working mechanism of this treatment is not completely known at present. Allergen‐specific CD4+ T lymphocytes are activated at extremely low allergen concentrations in vivo possibly as a result of serum IgE‐facilitated allergen presentation (S‐FAP). Previously, we have shown that this process can be inhibited by long‐term birch SAV sera.
Improving Flow Balance during Filling a Multi-cavity Mold with Modified Runner Systems

Abstract Multi-cavity injection molding has been regarded as low cost mass-production method for producing plastic products such as optical elements. However, the flow imbalance during filling a multi-cavity mold using symmetrical runner system is a serious problem. This paper is devoted to improving the flow balance by modifying the runner system design. For this purpose, four eight-cavity molds with four modified symmetrical runner systems are designed, constructed and tested. They are tapering H-type runners, pinned H-type runners, curved A runners, and curved B runners. The flow imbalance in each runner system is observed and measured with the aid of short-shot experiments. The experimental results indicate that the tapering H-type runner system can improve flow balance. The pinned H-type runner system fails to improve flow balance. The curved A and B runner system can reverse the imbalance trend, but the stability of the curved systems is poor at high melt temperature.
Action potential duration and endocardial modulation of myocardial contraction in the ferret.

OBJECTIVE Endocardial endothelium releases substances which modulate myocardial contraction. Selective endocardial removal abbreviates contraction by removing a contraction prolonging substance "endocardin". The aim of the study was to investigate whether changes in action potential duration underlie these contractile effects. METHODS The contractile effects of shortening the action potential were first characterised, using a potassium channel "opener" cromakalim (3 microM). Transmembrane action potentials were then recorded in isolated ferret papillary muscles before and after endocardial removal. RESULTS Cromakalim-induced action potential abbreviation reduced contractile twitch duration. Endocardial removal itself however did not alter action potential duration. CONCLUSIONS Endocardial modulation of cardiac contraction does not involve changes in action potential duration.
Use of an In Vitro Pharmacodynamic Model To Derive a Linezolid Regimen That Optimizes Bacterial Kill and Prevents Emergence of Resistance in Bacillus anthracis

ABSTRACT Simulating the average non-protein-bound (free) human serum drug concentration-time profiles for linezolid in an in vitro pharmacodynamic model, we characterized the pharmacodynamic parameter(s) of linezolid predictive of kill and for prevention of resistance in Bacillus anthracis. In 10-day dose-ranging studies, the average exposure for ≥700 mg of linezolid given once daily (QD) resulted in >3-log CFU/ml declines in B. anthracis without resistance selection. Linezolid at ≤600 mg QD amplified for resistance. With twice-daily (q12h) dosing, linezolid at ≥500 mg q12 h was required for resistance prevention. In dose fractionation studies, killing of B. anthracis was predicted by the area under the time-concentration curve (AUC)/MIC ratio. However, resistance prevention was linked to the maximum serum drug concentration (Cmax)/MIC ratio. Monte Carlo simulations predicted that linezolid at 1,100 mg QD would produce in 96.7% of human subjects a free 24-h AUC that would match or exceed the average 24-h AUC of 78.5 mg·h/liter generated by linezolid at 700 mg QD while reproducing the shape of the concentration-time profile for this pharmacodynamically optimized regimen. However, linezolid at 700 mg q12h (cumulative daily dose of 1,400 mg) would produce an exposure that would equal or exceed the average free 24-h AUC of 90 mg·h/liter generated by linezolid at 500 mg q12h in 93.8% of human subjects. In conclusion, in our in vitro studies, the QD-administered, pharmacodynamically optimized regimen for linezolid killed drug-susceptible B. anthracis and prevented resistance emergence at lower dosages than q12h regimens. The lower dosage for the pharmacodynamically optimized regimen may decrease drug toxicity. Also, the QD administration schedule may improve patient compliance.
Creatine supplementation and the total work performed during 15-s and 1-min bouts of maximal cycling.

Nine untrained male subjects participated in a placebo (Pl)/creatine (Cr), single-blind study conducted over a 5-wk period. Placebo and Cr treatments were presented in a sequential manner because muscle Cr washout time after supplementation is unknown. The mean ( +/- SE) age, height, and initial body mass for the subjects was 25.7+/- 1.2 yr, 177 +/- 2 cm, and 78.5 +/- 3.8 kg, respectively. Each subject performed five 15-s bouts of maximal cycling (1-min rest periods) after 7 d of Pl (6 g glucose X 5 doses daily) and again after ingesting Cr for 7 d (5 g creatine plus 1 g glucose X 5 doses) with a 2-wk intervention period. Only 6 of 9 subjects were able to complete five 1-min bouts of maximal cycling (5-min rest periods) after an additional 2 d of Pl and Cr treatment. Cr ingestion resulted in a significant increase in the work performed during each 15-s bout of maximal cycling compared to Pl trials. Moreover, the total work completed during five 15-s bouts of cycling increased significantly from 47.5 +/- 2.3 kJ with Pl treatment to 50.6 +/- 2.3 kJ after Cr supplementation (P < 0.05). Peak blood lactate concentrations determined 4 min after the fifth 15-s work bout were 14.4 +/- 0.5 mmol.L-1 and 14.3 +/- mmol.L-1 for Pl and Cr trials, respectively (P < 0.05). Total work completed during five 1-min bouts of maximal cycling was not significantly increased after Cr supplementation (P > 0.05). Additionally, Cr supplementation did not slow the rate of decline in the work accomplished during repeated bouts of maximal cycling. These findings suggest that Cr ingestion may augment the rate of ATP resynthesis from phosphocreatine during exercise in untrained subjects.
Large-volume static compression using nano-polycrystalline diamond for opposed anvils in compact cells

In order to extend the pressure regime of intrinsically low-sensitivity methods of measurement, such as neutron scattering and NMR, sample volume to be compressed in compact opposed-anvil cells is desired to be significantly increased. We hereby conducted a series of experiments using two types of compact cells equipped with enforced loading mechanisms. Super-hard nano-polycrystalline diamond (NPD) anvils were carefully prepared for large-volume compression in these cells. These anvils are harder, larger and stronger than single crystal diamond anvils, so that they could play an ideal role to accept the larger forces. Supported and unsupported anvil geometries were separately tested to evaluate this expectation. In spite of insufficient support to the anvils, pressures to 14 GPa were generated for the sample volume of > 0.1 mm3, without damaging the NPD anvils. These results demonstrate a large future potential of compact cells equipped with NPD anvils and enforced loading mechanism.
Exploring Coverage and Distribution of Identifiers on the Scholarly Web

In a scientific publishing environment that is increasingly moving online, identifiers of scholarly work are gaining in importance. In this paper, we analysed identifier distribution and coverage of articles from the discipline of quantitative biology using arXiv, Mendeley and CrossRef as data sources. The results show that when retrieving arXiv articles from Mendeley, we were able to find more papers using the DOI than the arXiv ID. This indicates that DOI may be a better identifier with respect to findability. We also find that coverage of articles on Mendeley decreases in the most recent years, whereas the coverage of DOIs does not decrease in the same order of magnitude. This hints at the fact that there is a certain time lag involved, before articles are covered in crowd-sourced services on the scholarly web.
The Efficacy of Ergogenic Agents in Athletic Competition Part I: Androgenic-Anabolic Steroids

OBJECTIVE: To summarize the literature describing the epidemiology, pharmacology, efficacy, and adverse effects associated with androgenic-anabolic steroid (AAS) use among athletes. DATA SOURCES: Relevant articles were identified from a MEDLINE search using the search terms “Doping in Sports,” “Anabolic Steroids (exploded),” and “Androgens (exploded). ” Additional references were found in the bibliographies of these articles. STUDY SELECTION/DATA EXTRACTION: We reviewed studies of AAS use among professional athletes. Interpretation of these studies is difficult because of poor research design. The efficacy studies lacked adequate placebo control. Much of the literature describing adverse effects consists of anecdotal reports. All of this literature was considered for review. DATA SYNTHESIS: Of all ergogenic drugs, AASs are the most widely abused. Abuse of AASs among high school students is estimated at five to ten percent. AASs are hypothesized to produce ergogenic effects during periods of concomitant positive nitrogen balance via antagonism of the catabolic effect of glucocorticoids released during intense exercise. Despite years of study, the extent of the ergogenic effects associated with AASs remains unclear. This may be because most studies have failed to approximate athletes' AAS usage patterns. The primary toxic effects of AASs are divided into four areas: hepatic, reproductive, cardiovascular, and psychiatric. Athletes do not consider these effects severe enough to refrain from using these drugs. CONCLUSIONS: Athletes view AASs as an essential component for success. Without adequate intervention measures, AAS abuse is likely to continue unchecked.
Jointly Embedding Relations and Mentions for Knowledge Population

This paper contributes a joint embedding model for predicting relations between a pair of entities in the scenario of relation inference. It differs from most stand-alone approaches which separately operate on either knowledge bases or free texts. The proposed model simultaneously learns low-dimensional vector representations for both triplets in knowledge repositories and the mentions of relations in free texts, so that we can leverage the evidence both resources to make more accurate predictions. We use NELL to evaluate the performance of our approach, compared with cutting-edge methods. Results of extensive experiments show that our model achieves significant improvement on relation extraction.
Making an accurate classifier ensemble by voting on classifications from imputed learning sets

Ensemble methods often produce effective classifiers by learning a set of base classifiers from a diverse collection of the training sets. In this paper, we present a system, voting on classifications from imputed learning sets (VCI), that produces those diverse training sets by randomly removing a small percentage of attribute values from the original training set, and then using an imputation technique to replace those values. VCI then runs a learning algorithm on each of these imputed training sets to produce a set of base classifiers. Later, the final prediction on a novel instance is the plurality classification produced by these classifiers. We investigate various imputation techniques here, including the state-of-the-art Bayesian multiple imputation (BMI) and expectation maximisation (EM). Our empirical results show that VCI predictors, especially those using BMI and EM as imputers, significantly improve the classification accuracy over conventional classifiers, especially on datasets that are originally incomplete; moreover VCI significantly outperforms bagging predictors and imputation-helped machine learners.
The apparent discrepancy of ouabain inhibition of cation transport and of lymphocyte proliferation is explained by time‐dependency of ouabain binding

Mitogenesis of human blood lymphocytes in culture is inhibited by concentrations of ouabain that are approximately one order of magnitude lower than those that block Na and K transport. For example, the 50% inhibition (ID50) of Na‐K transport, 280 nM, is seven‐fold greater than the ID50 for RNA synthesis, DNA synthesis, or blastogenesis, ˜40 nM. Yet, inhibition of transport and consequent reduction in cell K is considered responsible for the effects of ouabain on mitogenesis. Since synthetic processes are assessed at least 24 hours after lymphocyte stimulation, this discrepancy could be explained by either 1) a progressive increase in K leak, or 2) a progressive inhibition of Na‐K transport by ouabain during 24 hours of PHA treatment. We found that the lymphocyte membrane leak rate of K increased immediately after PHA treatment but did not increase further from 4 to 24 hours. In contrast, the ouabain sensitivity of 42K uptake was markedly increased with time: ID50 for 42K uptake of 35 nM at 24 hours as compared to 280 nM at 30 minutes. Measurement of ouabain binding revealed a seven‐fold increase in the lymphocyte‐associated ouabain after 24 hours compared to binding at 1 hour. These data indicate that the dose response of ouabain inhibition of active K transport and lymphocyte proliferation are closely correlated if one considers the slow membrane binding of ouabain at low concentrations.
Laser Cleaning of Neutral Attenuator Plate Based on Low Power Laser Diode

Laser cleaning is a non-contact, green and environmental cleaning method, which can effectively remove particulate contaminations of sizes as small as 0.1 μm without damage to the optics. But most laser cleaning devices are large and heavy, also expensive due to using large lasers such as CO2 laser, YAG Laser etc. In this work a low power LD was tried to clean fingerprint and dust contaminated on the surface of the attenuator glasses plates. In the laser cleaning experiment with low power diode the fingerprint grease can be efficient to be cleaned, but there is no evident effect for cleaning inorganic dust. The cleaning different degree of fingerprint contaminations was investigated at the variable laser parameters, including laser power and irradiation time. An optical microscope was used to analyze the cleaning effect. The results show that low power LD can effectively remove the fingerprint on the surface of absorptive-type attenuator glass plates. On the premise that the attenuator optics glasses are not damaged, the cleaning area increases with the increase of radiation time and laser power. The cleaning area doesn't change much with the variation of laser frequency when the other parameters are the same.
Psychometric Comparisons of 3 Functional Ambulation Measures for Patients With Stroke

Background and Purpose— We compared the test-retest reliability, validity, and responsiveness of the Dynamic Gait Index, the 4-item Dynamic Gait Index, and the Functional Gait Assessment for assessment of walking in patients with stroke. Methods— Forty-five outpatients participating in the validity and responsiveness study were tested using the 3 walking measures as well as the 10-m walk test, Barthel Index, and Postural Assessment Scale for Stroke Patients. We tested them during the first week, then again after 2 months and 5 months of therapy. Another 48 chronic patients completed the 3 measures twice, 1 week apart, in the test-retest reliability study. Results— Thirty-five participants completed 3 time-point assessments. The Functional Gait Assessment showed the least floor and ceiling effects, indicating it has the best discriminative ability for patients with stroke with high walking function. We found the 3 measures were highly correlated with each other, indicating excellent concurrent validity, and all measures at the first week of therapy were moderately to highly correlated with the Barthel Index scores at 5 months, indicating good predictive validity. Responsiveness of the 3 measures was moderate during a 5-month period, and all showed good test-retest reliability. The minimal detectable changes between tests indicate acceptable random error. Conclusions— All 3 measures showed sufficient validity, responsiveness, and reliability for assessment of walking function in patients with stroke undergoing rehabilitation, but the Functional Gait Assessment is recommended for its psychometric properties.
Simulation of biomass gasi ® cation with a hybrid neural network model

Gasi®cation of several types of biomass has been conducted in a ̄uidized bed gasi®er at atmospheric pressure with steam as the ̄uidizing medium. In order to obtain the gasi®cation pro®les for each type of biomass, an arti®cial neural network model has been developed to simulate this gasi®cation processes. Model-predicted gas production rates in this biomass gasi®cation processes were consistent with the experimental data. Therefore, the gasi®cation pro®les generated by neural networks are considered to have properly re ̄ected the real gasi®cation process of a biomass. Gasi®cation pro®les identi®ed by neural network suggest that gasi®cation behavior of arboreal types of biomass is signi®cantly dierent from that of herbaceous ones. Ó 2000 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.