Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Viability of Porcine Corneal Epithelium Ex Vivo and Effect of Exposure to Air: A Pilot Study for a Dry Eye Model

Purpose To explore the use of an ex vivo, in situ porcine cornea as a model for dry eye (exposure keratitis). Methods Twenty-seven porcine eyes were obtained from freshly killed animals at the local abattoir. The viability of 9 corneas (control-baseline group) was assessed within 5 minutes after enucleation on site. A further 18 eyes were transported to the laboratory, where they were exposed to ambient conditions for 4 hours (experimental group A, 6 eyes), for 6 hours (experimental group B, 6 eyes), and for 4 hours with wetting with Dulbecco Phosphate-Buffered Saline every 5 minutes (exposure control group, 6 eyes). All corneas were assessed by trypan blue exclusion for cell viability. Results The number of dead cells in the central region was significantly greater than those in the peripheral region (P < 0.05) in all groups. The number of dead cells in both corneal areas increased significantly (P < 0.05) in the experimental groups with time of exposure, but there was no significant increase in the exposure control group. Conclusion Preliminary data on the number of dead cells in porcine corneal epithelium after enucleation and the effect of exposure were obtained. It was found that after exposure to air, the corneal cells were maintained well by regular wetting, but there was progressively greater cell damage with exposure without wetting. These baseline data will be useful for the further development of the porcine dry eye model to investigate exposure keratitis.
The AGN contribution to deep submillimetre surveys and the far-infrared background

A great deal of interest has been generated recently by the results of deep submillimetre surveys, which in principle allow an unobscured view of dust-enshrouded star formation at high redshift. The extragalactic far-infrared and submillimetre backgrounds have also been detected, providing further constraints on the history of star formation. In this paper we estimate the fraction of these backgrounds and source counts that could be explained by active galactic nuclei (AGN). The relative fractions of obscured and unobscured objects are constrained by the requirement that they fit the spectrum of the cosmic X-ray background. On the assumption that the spectral energy distributions of high-redshift AGN are similar to those observed locally, we find that one can explain 10–20 per cent of the 850- μ m SCUBA sources at 1 mJy and a similar fraction of the far-infrared/submillimetre background. The exact contribution depends on the assumed cosmology and the space density of AGN at high redshift (z>3), but we conclude that active nuclei will be present in a significant (though not dominant) fraction of the faint SCUBA sources. This fraction could be significantly higher if a large population of AGN were highly obscured (Compton-thick) at X-ray wavelengths.
Git4Voc: Git-Based Versioning for Collaborative Vocabulary Development

Collaborative vocabulary development in the context of data integration is the process of finding consensus between the experts of the different systems and domains. The complexity of this process is increased with the number of involved people, the variety of the systems to be integrated and the dynamics of their domain. In this paper we advocate that the realization of a powerful version control system is the heart of the problem. Driven by this idea and the success of Git in the context of software development, we investigate the applicability of Git for collaborative vocabulary development. Even though vocabulary development and software development have much more similarities than differences there are still important differences. These need to be considered within the development of a successful versioning and collaboration system for vocabulary development. Therefore, this paper starts by presenting the challenges we were faced with during the creation of vocabularies collaboratively and discusses its distinction to software development. Based on these insights we propose Git4Voc which comprises guidelines how Git can be adopted to vocabulary development. Finally, we demonstrate how Git hooks can be implemented to go beyond the plain functionality of Git by realizing vocabulary-specific features like syntactic validation and semantic diffs.
NOW based parallel reconstruction of functional images

This paper deals with the parallel implementation of reconstruction algorithms for functional imaging on a network of workstations (NOW). Algorithms which provide the best image quality are not used in clinical routine, because they have a runtime of up to 60 hours with real clinical data sets of several hundred megabytes. After giving an overview of currently used image reconstruction algorithms, we describe a general parallel implementation of these algorithms with almost linear speedup and high efficiency which cuts down the runtime to a feasible limit. The high load which is caused by the parallel application conflicts with the predominantly interactive usage of clinical workstations, therefore we address load balancing with an application oriented, adaptive mechanism in order to preserve the ownership of workstations. Furthermore we explain how the integration of MATLAB and IDL based applications with a conventional distributed queuing system (DQS) can be achieved and why this significantly improves usage in clinical routine.
COLO: COarse-grained LOck-stepping virtual machines for non-stop service

Virtual machine (VM) replication provides a software solution of for business continuity and disaster recovery through application-agnostic hardware fault tolerance by replicating the state of primary VM (PVM) to secondary VM (SVM) on a different physical node. Unfortunately, current VM replication approaches suffer from excessive overhead, which severely limit their applicability and suitability. In this paper, we leverage the practical effect of networked server-client system that PVM and SVM are considered as in the same state only if they can generate the same response from the clients' point of view, and this is exploited to optimize performance. To this end, we propose a generic and highly efficient non-stop service solution, named as "COLO" (COarse-grained LOck-stepping virtual machine) utilizing on-demand VM replication. COLO monitors the output responses of the PVM and SVM, and rules the SVM as a valid replica of the PVM according to the output similarity between PVM and SVM. If the responses do not match, the commit of network response is withheld until PVM's state has been synchronized to SVM. Hence, we ensure that the system is always capable of failover by SVM. Although non-determinism may mean a different internal state of SVM from that of the PVM, it is equally valid and remains consistent from external observations. Unlike earlier instruction level lock-stepping deterministic execution approaches, COLO can easily support Multi-Processors (MP) involving workloads with the satisfying performance. Results show that COLO significantly outperforms existing approaches, particularly on server-client workloads such as online databases and web server applications.
Interviewing to detect deception

DePaulo et al.’s (2003) meta-analysis of verbal and nonverbal cues to deception showed that cues to deception are faint and unreliable. If liars do not spontaneously display diagnostic cues to deceit, a logical step is to make sure that investigators elicit or enhance such cues in interviews through specific interview technique. Such interview techniques were scarce in the nonverbal and verbal cues to deception domain, but recently researchers have developed alternative protocols that have their roots in cognition and are based on the assumption that questions can be asked that are more difficult for liars to answer than for truth tellers. They will be discussed in the first part of this article. Traditionally, lie detection in a forensic context concentrated on police-suspect interview settings. However, in the wake of high-profile international terrorist attacks, the importance of identifying terrorist networks and gathering intelligence about the activities of such groups has become paramount. Deceptio.
Les acheteurs, « modérateurs » de la financiarisation. L’échange social pour pallier le sentiment d’injustice

Au moyen d’une etude qualitative, cet article s’interesse a l’impact de la financiarisation sur le travail des acheteurs et la gestion des relations avec les fournisseurs. L’analyse se base sur les theories de la justice organisationnelle et de l’echange social et montre que les acheteurs ne sont pas neutres face aux dispositifs et au systeme de significations imposes par la direction pour financiariser les relations d’achats. Les resultats indiquent que cette financiarisation cree chez eux des sentiments d’injustice distributive, procedurale, interpersonnelle et informationnelle qui les amenent a mobiliser des strategies d’action pour developper des relations d’echange social avec les fournisseurs.
Function-Based Haptic Interaction in Cyberworlds

We seek to further expand the shared collaborative potential of cyberworlds by using haptic forcefeedback in shared virtual scenes. We propose how to define density of the objects, together with their geometry and appearance, by using mathematical functions. We illustrate this concept by developing software which allows us to touch and feel surfaces of VRML and X3D objects, convert them to solid objects as well as create any other solid objects using the function-based extension of VRML and X3D. We define geometry, appearance and density of the solid objects by implicit, explicit and parametric functions straight in the VRML/X3D code or in dynamic-link libraries. Since the function-based models are small in size, it is possible to perform their collaborative interactive modifications with concurrent synchronous visualization at each client computer with any required level of detail. We illustrate the proposed with several application examples.
Off-path leakage power aware routing for SRAM-based FPGAs

As the feature size and threshold voltage reduce, leakage power dissipation becomes an important concern in SRAM-based FPGAs. This work focuses on reducing the leakage power in routing resources, and more specifically, the leakage power dissipated in the used part of FPGA device, which is known as the active leakage power. We observe that the leakage power in off-path transistors takes up most of the active leakage power in multiplexers that control routing, and strongly depends on Hamming distance between the state of the on-path input and the states of the off-path inputs. Hence, an off-path leakage power aware routing algorithm is proposed to minimize Hamming distance between the state of on-path input and the states of off-path inputs for each multiplexer. Experimental results on MCNC benchmark circuits show that, compared with the baseline VPR technique, the proposed off-path leakage aware routing algorithm can reduce active leakage power in routing resources by 16.79%, and the increment of critical-path delay is only 1.06%.
Preliminary report of outpatient weekly adjuvant chemotherapy for high-risk nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

Distant metastasis has become the most frequent failure site-more so than locoregional relapse-after adequate radiotherapy in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). A prospective study was initiated to test the role of postradiation adjuvant chemotherapy using a weekly schedule for selected patients with high-risk NPC (N3, T4N2b-2c, and N2b-2c, with one of nodal size > 4 cm, or residual disease after radiotherapy). Through July 1993 to August 1994, a total of 20 patients were entered into the study: 16 men and four women, with a median age of 49 years and age range of 27-75 years. Pathology showed WHO type I:II:III = 2:13:5. Previous treatment consisted of concurrent chemoradiotherapy (16 patients), radiotherapy alone (two), and neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by radiotherapy (two). Postradiation adjuvant chemotherapy was usually started 2 months after radiotherapy, using a weekly FP schedule (5-fluorouracil 1,250 mg/m2 + cisplatin 25 mg/m2, mixed in 100 ml saline, 24 h continuous i.v. infusion) for 18 weeks. The treatment of five patients was at 5, 6, 10, 14, and 15 weeks because of leukopenia-induced mortality, sudden death unrelated to adjuvant chemotherapy, a patient's refusal, and distant metastasis (the last two cases) during adjuvant chemotherapy. The major toxicity was leukopenia (grade I, 20%; grade II, 45%; grade III, 15%; and grade IV, 10%). Ten patients (50%) developed distant metastasis after a median follow-up time of 20 months. Our preliminary data indicate that postradiation adjuvant chemotherapy with a weekly FP regimen at our dosage is not recommended for high-risk NPC.
Development and characterization of graphene-enhanced thermal conductive adhesives

According to Moore's Laws, complexity and power densities of electronic devices are increased during the last decades, moreover their dimensions are shrinking to nanometers causing hot-spot temperature escalation. Thermal management, therefore, becomes a critical issue for next generation of electronics. This scenario motivates development of novel thermal conductive adhesive (TCA) with enhanced thermal conductivity. Conventional TCAs use polymers as the matrix (base material) and utilize large loading weight fraction of the filler, usually silver particles, to achieve the thermal conductivity of 1–4 W/ m K at room temperature [1]. Lately it was discovered that graphene exhibit superior thermal conductivity [2] even when they are incorporated with matrix materials [3], which offers a potential to develop high thermal conductive graphene-filled compound. In this paper, a new functionalized graphene and its filled TCA have been developed and characterized. Starting from pristine graphite flakes, graphene was prepared through chemical exfoliation and functionalized with a nano silver layer to form a special metal/graphene hybrid material. Moreover, an efficient method to uniformly disperse the nano-scaled graphene hybrid material in silver-epoxy matrix was developed. Cross-section view of SEM has shown a homogeneous component structure, and TGA analysis of hybrid material is given. The developed compound is based on a commercial TCA which is composed with epoxy matrix and micro-sized Ag flakes. Thermal characterization through Laser-flash equipment has indicated that a significant thermal conductivity improvement was achieved through adding functionalized graphene into the material. Different TCA samples with different weight percentages of functionalized graphene ranging from 0 % (reference) to 11.5 % were prepared and tested to study thermal conductivity change. Data show that a thermal conductivity value of 7.6 W/ m K is reached when the graphene/silver percentage is 11.5 % that is almost 4 times higher than our reference.
On Whether we Can See Intentions

Direct Perception is the view that we can see others' mental states, i.e. that we perceive others' mental states with the same immediacy and directness that we perceive ordinary objects in the world. I evaluate Direct Perception by considering whether we can see intentions, a particularly promising candidate for Direct Perception. I argue that the view equivocates on the notion of intention. Disambiguating the Direct Perception claim reveals a troubling dilemma for the view: either it is banal or highly implausible.
Effect of estrogen on brain activation patterns in postmenopausal women during working memory tasks.

CONTEXT Preclinical studies suggest that estrogen affects neural structure and function in mature animals; clinical studies are less conclusive with many, but not all, studies showing a positive influence of estrogen on verbal memory in postmenopausal women. OBJECTIVE To investigate the effects of estrogen on brain activation patterns in postmenopausal women as they performed verbal and nonverbal working memory tasks. DESIGN Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover trial from 1996 through 1998. SETTING Community volunteers tested in a hospital setting. PATIENTS Forty-six postmenopausal women aged 33 to 61 years (mean [SD] age, 50.8 [4.7] years). INTERVENTION Twenty-one-day treatment with conjugated equine estrogens, 1.25 mg/d, randomly crossed over with identical placebo and a 14-day washout between treatments. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Brain activation patterns measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging during tasks involving verbal and nonverbal working memory. RESULTS Treatment with estrogen increased activation in the inferior parietal lobule during storage of verbal material and decreased activation in the inferior parietal lobule during storage of nonverbal material. Estrogen also increased activation in the right superior frontal gyrus during retrieval tasks, accompanied by greater left-hemisphere activation during encoding. The latter pattern represents a sharpening of the hemisphere encoding/retrieval asymmetry (HERA) effect. Estrogen did not affect actual performance of the verbal and nonverbal memory tasks. CONCLUSIONS Estrogen in a therapeutic dosage alters brain activation patterns in postmenopausal women in specific brain regions during the performance of the sorts of memory function that are called upon frequently during any given day. These results suggest that estrogen affects brain organization for memory in postmenopausal women.
Aging Effects on the Activation of the Auditory Cortex during Binaural Speech Listening in White Noise: An fMRI Study

The functional significance of age-related pathology of the auditory cortex is not well established. The purpose of this study was to elucidate the activation pattern of the auditory cortex in aged subjects in response to speech signals. Functional magnetic resonance imaging was performed on 12 elderly subjects with normal hearing acuity during selective listening with both ears to speech sounds in quiet and in white noise. Twelve young, normal-hearing subjects served as controls. Our results showed that activation of the auditory cortex during selective listening to speech decreased in elderly subjects compared to young subjects, especially in noise. Reduced activation occurred in the anterior and posterior regions of the bilateral superior temporal gyrus (STG), but mainly in the posterior part of the left STG. In addition, background noise had a greater masking effect on speech perception in the elderly subjects than in the young ones. These findings suggest that early functional changes associated with central presbycusis occur mainly in the posterior part of the left STG.
Right ventricle segmentation using a 3D cylindrical shape model

Accurate segmentation of the right ventricle is a necessary precursor for the assessment of cardiac function. However, the large shape variations exhibited by the right ventricle make automated segmentation a difficult problem. In this work, we explore the ability of a cylindrical shape model to compactly represent and accurately segment this wide range of morphologies. The novelty of this method lies in the design of the fitting function which incorporates learned shape information into a Markov Random Field formulation. Furthermore, the shape model is integrated with a 2D image-based segmentation method, further refining the accuracy of the extracted regions. To evaluate our method, we applied it to the independently evaluated MICCAI RV Segmentation Challenge dataset. Our method performed as well as, or better than, the state-of-the-art methods, validating its suitability for this difficult application.
Detection of malicious payload distribution channels in DNS

Botmasters are known to use different protocols to hide their activities. Throughout the past few years, several protocols have been abused, and recently Domain Name System (DNS) also became a target of such malicious activities. In this paper, we study the use of DNS as a malicious payload distribution channel. We present a system to analyze the resource record activities of domain names and build DNS zone profiles to detect payload distribution channels. Our work is based on an extensive analysis of malware datasets for one year, and a near real-time feed of passive DNS traffic. The experimental results reveal a few previously unreported long-running hidden domains used by the Morto worm for distributing malicious payloads. Our experiments on passive DNS traffic indicate that our system can detect these channels regardless of the payload format.
THE QUALITY OF FINANCIAL REPORTING AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO AUDIT QUALITY VIA AN EXPANDED RISK MODEL

This paper proposes a framework for audited financial reporting that is intended to address major perceived limitations in current quality reporting principles. The paper thus addresses the potential decoupling problem between financial statement audits and what is being audited identified by Power (1997). Using an extended risk model, the framework not only identifies principles of quality financial reporting and their audits, but also adds new insights to some important anomalies in recent empirical research.
Speciation on a conveyor belt: sequential colonization of the hawaiian islands by Orsonwelles spiders (Araneae, Linyphiidae).

Spiders of the recently described linyphiid genus Orsonwelles (Araneae, Linyphiidae) are one of the most conspicuous groups of terrestrial arthropods of Hawaiian native forests. There are 13 known Orsonwelles species, and all are single- island endemics. This radiation provides an excellent example of insular gigantism. We reconstructed the cladistic relationships of Orsonwelles species using a combination of morphological and molecular characters (both mitochondrial and nuclear sequences) within a parsimony framework. We explored and quantified the contribution of different character partitions and their sensitivity to changes in the traditional parameters (gap, transition, and transversion costs). The character data show a strong phylogenetic signal, robust to parameter changes. The monophyly of the genus Orsonwelles is strongly supported. The parsimony analysis of all character evidence combined recovered a clade with of all the non-Kauai Orsonwelles species; the species from Kauai form a paraphyletic assemblage with respect to the latter former clade. The biogeographic pattern of the Hawaiian Orsonwelles species is consistent with colonization by island progression, but alternative explanations for our data exist. Although the geographic origin of the radiation remains unknown, it appears that the ancestral colonizing species arrived first on Kauai (or an older island). The ambiguity in the area cladogram (i.e., post-Oahu colonization) is not derived from conflicting or unresolved phylogenetic signal among Orsonwelles species but rather from the number of taxa on the youngest islands. Speciation in Orsonwelles occurred more often within islands (8 of the 12 cladogenic events) than between islands. A molecular clock was rejected for the sequence data. Divergence times were estimated by using the nonparametric rate smoothing method of Sanderson (1997, Mol. Biol. Evol. 14:1218-1231) and the available geological data for calibration. The results suggest that the oldest divergences of Orsonwelles spiders (on Kauai) go back about 4 million years.
International Journal of Pure and Applied Sciences and Technology Mechanical Properties of Angle Ply Laminated Composites-a Review

The purpose of this study is to review many of the available guidelines for Polymer composite materials. Guide lines for failure mode, laminates orientation, winding angle, water absorption, as they strongly influence the mechanical properties of composite materials. The present review is focused on composite laminates made of glass, carbon, graphite, hybrid and natural fiber composites, since these types are ideal for aerospace applications. Object of this review is to gather the guide lines & explain their range of applications.