Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fabrication of Integrated Optical Devices in Fused Silica by Femtosecond Laser Direct Writing

In this dissertation, femtosecond laser direct writing is explored for the fabrication of several integrated optical devices in bulk fused silica. The fabrication of integrated optical devices was demonstrated by implementing a transversal writing geometry with a microscope objective focusing the femtosecond laser beam inside the substrate. To improve the quality of the integrated optical devices fabricated, a study on the waveguide and bend loss was made in order to optimize the fabrication parameters. The fabrication of waveguides with propagation loss values very close to the best waveguides reported was obtained. Using the femtosecond laser writing system, point-by point fabrication of first order uniform Bragg grating waveguides was demonstrated. To achieve this the laser beam modulation was controlled to yield a tight modulation of the refractive index profile along the Bragg grating. Furthermore, by changing the laser beam duty cycle and polarization orientation the spectral behavior of the devices was controlled. By controlled excitation of vertical and horizontal polarization modes an estimate on waveguide birefringence was also made. The fabrication of directional couplers was studied and the coupling ratio controlled by carefully choosing the interaction length and waveguide separation. Due to waveguide birefringence polarization beam splitters were shown to be possible at several wavelengths. Since the coupling coefficient increases with wavelength, the fabrication of wavelength division (de)multiplexers was shown to be possible for several wavelengths and demonstrated for a particular case. A method to fabricate symmetrical Y-junctions was devised. An asymmetry inherent to the fabrication process is created in the junction, leading to non uniform power splitting and wavelength dependent behavior. To overcome this limitation an initial arm separation was employed to reduce superposition on the splitting area; an uniform and broadband power splitter was demonstrated. Several approaches to fabricate multimode waveguides were tested and multimode interference devices fabricated. Simulations were used to design the devices width and length. One-to-four, one-to-three and one-to-two splitting was achieved, thus validating the simulations. The knowledge gained in the fabrication of the previous devices was later used to fabricate the first ever add-drop multiplexer using this technique. These add-drops were
Pan-resistant Acinetobacter infection in neonates in Karachi, Pakistan.

BACKGROUND Pan-resistant Acinetobacter infection has emerged as an important nosocomial pathogen in our inpatient neonates over the past few years. METHODOLOGY We performed a retrospective chart review during a five-year period (July 2003 - June 2008) of all neonates hospitalized in our neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) who developed Acinetobacter infection to identify mortality-associated risk factors in Acinetobacter neonatal infection. RESULTS During the five-year study period, 122 cultures from 78 neonates grew Acinetobacter. Source sites of positive culture were in the following descending order: blood (n = 57), trachea (n = 55), tissue/wound/body fluids (n = 4), eye (n = 4), urine (n = 1), and cerebrospinal fluid (n = 1). Twenty-four (31%) patients had Acinetobacter isolated from more than one site. At the time of admission the mean age was 2.08 +/- 4 days and mean weight was 1.77 +/- 0.88 kg; 75% were premature. Pan-resistance (87/122; sensitive only to Polymyxin) was present in 71% of Acinetobacter isolates. Crude mortality rate of this cohort was 47%, while 70% of patients died within four days after positive Acinetobacter culture. We identified weight of less than 1 kg on admission (p 0.06, adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR) 1.53), gestational age 28 weeks or less (p 0.011, AOR 2.88), poor perfusion (p 0.007, AOR 2.4), thrombocytopenia (p 0.01; AOR 1.6) and metabolic acidosis (p 0.01; AOR 1.67) as predictors associated with poor outcome. CONCLUSION Pan-resistant Acinetobacter infection is exceedingly fatal in newborns, particularly in premature and very low-birth weight neonates. Rational antibiotic use and vigilant infection control in NICUs are key to controlling multi-drug resistant Acinetobacter infection and improving clinical outcome.
Increased vessel density in psoriasis: involvement of lymphatic vessels in the papillary dermis

1 Saurat JH, Stingl G, Dubertret L et al. Efficacy and safety results from the randomized controlled comparative study of adalimumab vs. methotrexate vs. placebo in patients with psoriasis (CHAMPION). Br J Dermatol 2008; 158:558–66. 2 Heydendael VM, Spuls PI, Opmeer BC et al. Methotrexate versus cyclosporine in moderate-to-severe chronic plaque psoriasis. N Engl J Med 2003; 349:658–65. 3 Flytström I, Stenberg B, Svensson A, Bergbrant IM. Methotrexate vs. ciclosporin in psoriasis: effectiveness, quality of life and safety. A randomized controlled trial. Br J Dermatol 2007; 158:116–21. 4 Piaggio G, Elbourne DR, Altman DG et al. Reporting of non-inferiority and equivalence randomized trials. JAMA 2006; 295:1152–74. 5 Garattini S, Bertelé V. Non-inferiority trials are unethical because they disregard patients’ interests. Lancet 2007; 370:1875–7.
Integral equation solution of scattering by general bi-isotropic bodies

A combined field integral equation method based on the equivalent principle is presented for the solution of scattering by a general bi-isotropic body. The resulting combined equations are established through splitting given fields into two wavefields, each of which corresponds to respective isotropic mediums. For the modeling of arbitrarily shaped surfaces, the triangulated patches are employed and the Rao-Wilton-Gllison function is selected as the basis function and testing function when the moment of method is applied to solve the resulting integral equations numerically. Numerical results for Pasteur-type bodies are compared with the existing data and good agreements are obtained. Also, the Tellegen-type bodies are calculated. The effects of constitutive parameters on the bistatic cross section are investigated and discussed.
Real-world cardiovascular disease burden in patients with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease: a comprehensive systematic literature review

Abstract Objective: Based on randomized controlled trials (RCTs), non-fatal myocardial infarction (MI) rates range between 9 and 15 events per 1000 person-years, ischemic stroke between 4 and 6 per 1000 person-years, CHD death rates between 5 and 7 events per 1000 person-years, and any major vascular event between 28 and 53 per 1000 person-years in patients with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD). We reviewed global literature on the topic to determine whether the real-world burden of secondary major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs) is higher among ASCVD patients. Methods: We searched PubMed and Embase using MeSH/keywords including cardiovascular disease, secondary prevention and observational studies. Studies published in the last 5 years, in English, with ≥50 subjects with elevated low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) or on statins, and reporting secondary MACEs were included. The Newcastle–Ottawa Scale (NOS) was used to assess the quality of each included study. Results: Of 4663 identified articles, 14 studies that reported MACE incidence rates per 1000 person-years were included in the review (NOS grades ranged from 8 to 9; 2 were prospective and 12 were retrospective studies). Reported incidence rates per 1000 person-years had a range (median) of 12.01–39.9 (26.8) for MI, 13.8–57.2 (41.5) for ischemic stroke, 1.0–94.5 (21.1) for CV-related mortality and 9.7–486 (52.6) for all-cause mortality. Rates were 25.8–211 (81.1) for composite of MACEs. Multiple event rates had a range (median) of 60–391 (183) events per 1000 person-years. Conclusions: Our review indicates that MACE rates observed in real-world studies are substantially higher than those reported in RCTs, suggesting that the secondary MACE burden and potential benefits of effective CVD management in ASCVD patients may be underestimated if real-world data are not taken into consideration.
Clinical improvement and immunological changes in atopic dermatitis patients undergoing subcutaneous immunotherapy with a house dust mite allergoid: a pilot study

Background House dust mites (HDMs) represent significant indoor allergen sources for patients with atopic dermatitis (AD). Subcutaneous allergen‐specific immunotherapy (SCIT) has been shown to be successful in patients with allergic rhinitis and mild asthma and might represent an attractive therapeutic option for the long‐term treatment of HDM sensitizations in AD patients. However, only a few studies have been conducted on the effectiveness of HDM SCIT in AD, resulting in controversial clinical results. Data on immunological changes induced by SCIT in AD patients are rare.
Vibration Characteristics of Axially Moving Titanium- Polymer Nanocomposite Faced Sandwich Plate Under Initial Tension

In the present research, vibration and instability of axially moving sandwich plate made of soft core and composite face sheets under initial tension is investigated. Single-walled carbon nano-tubes (SWCNTs) are selected as a reinforcement of composite face sheets inside Poly methyl methacrylate (PMMA) matrix. Higher order shear deformation theory (HSDT) is utilized due to its accuracy of polynomial functions than other plate theories. Based on extended rule of mixture, the structural properties of composite face sheets are taken into consideration. Motion equations are obtained by means of Hamilton’s principle and solved analytically. Influences of various parameters such as axially moving speed, volume fraction of CNTs, pre-tension, thickness and aspect ratio of sandwich plate on the vibration characteristics of moving system are discussed in details. The results indicated that the critical speed of moving sandwich plate is strongly dependent on the volume fraction of CNTs. Therefore, the critical speed of moving sandwich plate can be improved by adding appropriate values of CNTs. The results of this investigation can be used in design and manufacturing of marine vessels and aircrafts.
Replication of hepatitis C virus.

Infection with the hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a major cause of chronic liver disease. HCV is an enveloped plus-strand RNA virus closely related to flavi- and pestiviruses. The first cloning of the HCV genome, about 10 years ago, initiated research efforts leading to the elucidation of the genomic organization and the definition of the functions of most viral proteins. Despite this progress the lack of convenient animal models and appropriate in vitro propagation systems have hampered a full understanding of the way the virus multiplies. This review summarizes our current knowledge about HCV replication and describes attempts pursued in the last few years to establish efficient and reliable cell culture systems.
Type III restriction endonucleases translocate DNA in a reaction driven by recognition site‐specific ATP hydrolysis.

Type III restriction/modification systems recognize short non‐palindromic sequences, only one strand of which can be methylated. Replication of type III‐modified DNA produces completely unmethylated recognition sites which, according to classical mechanisms of restriction, should be signals for restriction. We have shown previously that suicidal restriction by the type III enzyme EcoP15I is prevented if all the unmodified sites are in the same orientation: restriction by EcoP15I requires a pair of unmethylated, inversely oriented recognition sites. We have now addressed the molecular mechanism of site orientation‐specific DNA restriction. EcoP15I is demonstrated to possess an intrinsic ATPase activity, the potential driving force of DNA translocation. The ATPase activity is uniquely recognition site‐specific, but EcoP15I‐modified sites also support the reaction. EcoP15I DNA restriction patterns are shown to be predetermined by the enzyme‐to‐site ratio, in that site‐saturating enzyme levels elicit cleavage exclusively between the closest pair of head‐to‐head oriented sites. DNA restriction is blocked by Lac repressor bound in the intervening sequence between the two EcoP15I sites. These results rule out DNA looping and strongly suggest that cleavage is triggered by the close proximity of two convergently tracking EcoP15I‐DNA complexes.
Cyber Physical Systems (CPSs) – Opportunities and Challenges for Improving Cyber Security

With increasing global reliance on the Internet as a medium, to make transactions and transmit information comes with an increased risk of cyber-attacks. Today‟s Internet is using by various societies of all available sectors. It is implemented by rapid changes in computing technology and expanded internet prevalence. But in opposite of this, malicious activities are growing rapidly and the technique to protect internet is becoming very critical. Every country‟s cyber infrastructure is interconnected with and instrumental to economic prosperity and national security. However, most of the cyberinfrastructures are not secure and are vulnerable to severe attacks. Several malicious actors potentially leading to failure of critical infrastructure, exploitation of sensitive information, and loss of intellectual property (for e.g. US White House 2009, US Senate 2010, and Iran 2010 etc.). This paper introduces the idea of cyber physical system (CPS). Cyber-Physical Systems are integration of computation and physical processes. A cyber-physical system is a system of collaborating computational elements controlling physical entities. Today‟s benefits of virtualization technology are that can obtain high resource utilization through dynamic sharing of physical resources. Today‟s this virtualization technology has become a key technology for the next generation computing which can easily get information technology (IT) infrastructure anytime, anywhere and expand. This work introduces various essentials opportunities and future challenges to improve cyber security and building a CPS system more secure and powerful.
XXXVI 4 . 5 Naïve Bayes , J 48 , LogitBoost , ADTree , BFTree and Decision Stump Tree Classification in WEKA Tool Figure 14 : Naïve Bayes Classification

Parkinson Disease (PD) occurs due to the loss of dopamine in the brains thalamic region that results in involuntary or oscillatory movement in the body. Normally Doctors diagnosis the PD disease clinically with their expertise and experience. But most of the time wrong diagnosis and treatment are reported. For this, patients need to take number of tests for diagnosis, but most of the time, these all tests still not sufficient to diagnosis Parkinson Disease effectively. Firstly, this paper is proposed to apply some data mining technique to select the best attributes to increase the classification performance (according to the voice measurement datasets). In second step, Ada-Boost algorithm is applied to classify the Parkinson disease on the basis of Voice measurements data of PD patients. Then, Support vector Machine with Sequential Minimal Optimization classifier, is used to make the comparison with the result of Ada-Boost classifier to find out the best classifier. In addition, six other best classifiers ex: Naïve bayes, J48 Tree, LogitBoost, ADTree, BFTree, and Decision Stump Tree are used to make comparison with Parkinson dataset and to select the best classifier. KeywordsData Mining, Parkinson data, Classification algorithm, Association algorithm Weka tool —————————— � —————————
Automated system for annotating and retrieving images

Automated annotation of digital images remains a highly challenging task being used for understanding of large collections of image data. Indexing and retrieval are better achieved when using the histogram as an efficient technique for content-based image retrieval domain. This paper presents an automated system that can be used for three distinct tasks: image annotation, semantic based image retrieval and content based image retrieval. The system is using an efficient annotation model called Cross Media Relevance Model for the annotation process. Image's regions are described using a vocabulary of blobs generated from image features using the K-means clustering algorithm. Using SAIAPR TC-12 Dataset of annotated images it is estimated the joint probability of generating a word given the blobs in an image. Semantic based image retrieval is performed using two models provided by the annotation model. For content based image retrieval the system is using a combination of two types of histograms: a spatial color histogram and a texture histogram based on Local Binary Pattern descriptor. Both histograms are computed in the HVC color space. The computation of the binary code associated to a Local Binary Pattern descriptor is made using the NBS distance instead of using a simple difference between colors' components.
Modelling shear-induced platelet aggregation in general flow

Blood-contacting biomedical devices are ubiquitous in current medical practice. Blood is very sensitive to non-physiological conditions, and it can be harmed by the biomedical device in a number of different ways. A very common and frequently fatal consequence of blood damage is thrombosis, which occurs when platelets and fibrin aggregate. Thrombosis occurs after intricate processes involving proteins of the coagulation and immune systems, thrombogenic surfaces, platelets, lymphocytes, and blood flow. This thesis is concerned with mathematical modelling of one aspect of the thrombosis process, namely the aggregation of platelets in shear flow. Yet, most of those models represented the growth of thrombi on thrombogenic surfaces, ignoring the possibility of thrombi forming in the bulk of flowing blood. A mathematical model for shear-induced platelet aggregation (SIPA) was derived using aggregation and breakup rate equations controlled by shear rate. In this model, activated platelets adhere due to mutual collision caused by the flow of blood. On the other hand, viscous forces of flowing blood can also break up platelet aggregates, which might limit the aggregate growth. The aggregation and breakup effects form a mass-conservative population balance equation (PBE), which transforms cluster mass distribution (CMD) of platelets in time. Model parameters were determined by fitting experimental results from the literature, whose dynamics is determined by a dimensionless number called aggregation-breakup ratio. The aggregation-breakup ratio number is unique for the steady-state CMD, and it depends on shear rate, the total concentra-
Trade , Turnover , and Tithing 1

This paper develops a political economy model to test the proposition that the effect of international trade on the distribution of income is systematically related to the extent of labor-market turnover. The model reveals that trade benefits the abundant factor and hurts the scarce factor regardless of where those factors are employed if turnover is high, but benefits factors in exporting industries and harms those in import-competing industries when turnover is low. We test these predictions using data on campaign contributions given by industry-specific political action committees to congressional representatives who subsequently voted for or against trade-liberalizing legislation. We find empirical evidence in favor of the model’s predictions. 1 We thank Daniel Hamermesh, Steve Magee, Keith Maskus, two anonymous referees and Jonathan Eaton for helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper. * Department of Economics; Bucknell University; Lewisburg, PA 17837; e-mail: cmagee@bucknell.edu. ** Department of Economics; Michigan State University; East Lansing, MI 48824; email: Davidson – davidso4@msu.edu; Matusz – matusz@msu.edu.
Can Sticky Prices Account for the Variations and Persistence in Real Exchange Rates

This paper provides an empirical assessment of the importance of sticky prices in accounting for the variations and the persistence in real exchange rates Vector autoregressions with five variables from two countries that always include the United States are estimated Restrictions are imposed to identify a global shock and two sets of country specific output shocks One set of shocks is associated with instantaneous price adjustments while the other has delayed effects on prices Data from the G7 countries reveal that US sticky price shocks are the dominant source of real exchange rate variations But these shocks have reasonably short half-lives and cannot account for the observed real exchange rate persistence Non-sticky price shocks can induce very persistent real exchange rate dynamics even though they account for little of the historical real exchange rate variations
Buffer Insertion for Delay Minimization using An Improved PSO Algorithm

This paper considers the problem of interconnect wire delay in digital integ rated circuits. The correct wire sizing and buffer insertion/sizing can reduce the interconnect delay. The interconnect wir e is divided into segments and to optionally buffers are inserted between two adjacent segments. But it is important to select appropriate values for the size of buffers as well as the lengths and widths of segments to minimize the delay. Since the delay is a multi-dimensional function, its optimizing process is complex and time-consuming. In this paper we introduce an improved particle swarm optimization for delay minimization. The aim is to reduce the interconnect wire delay. This work is performed in 3 case studies. Sizing a chain of buffers without considering the wire delay is done in case study 1. Wire sizing alone and buffer insertion/sizing with wire sizing are dealt in ca se study 2 and case study 3 respectively. In these case studies, the our improved PSO results are matched with theoretical results while the proposed technique is very fast and more accurate than standard techniques.
Recruiting for addiction research via Facebook.

INTRODUCTION AND AIMS This study aimed to examine the feasibility of recruiting participants to addiction research via Facebook. DESIGN AND METHODS Participants were recruited via an advertisement on Facebook, a local research register and university psychology courses. Participants completed a self-report survey regarding substance use, history of mental health issues and current psychological distress. RESULTS The 524 participants recruited via Facebook cost $1.86 per participant; and 418 participants were recruited via more traditional methods. There were significantly fewer women in the Facebook sample compared with the non-Facebook sample (χ(2) = 196.61, P < 0.001), but no differences on age. Significantly more Facebook participants reported current use of tobacco (women: Facebook = 57%, non-Facebook = 21%, χ(2) = 39.71, P < 0.001; men: Facebook = 62%, non-Facebook = 21%, χ(2) = 32.429, P < 0.001) and cannabis (women: Facebook = 26%, non-Facebook = 7%, χ(2) = 14.364, P < 0.001; men: Facebook = 46%, non-Facebook = 24%, χ(2) = 6.765, P < 0.01). They also reported significantly more harmful use of tobacco [women: F degrees of freedom (d.f.) = 6.07, P < 0.05; men: F(d.f.) = 9.03, P < 0.01] and cannabis [women: F(d.f.) = 11.00, P < 0.01; men: F(d.f.) = 6.40, P < 0.05]. The Facebook sample contained a higher percentage of high-severity cannabis users (women: Facebook = 24%, non-Facebook = 4%, χ(2) = 18.12, P < 0.001; men: Facebook = 43%, non-Facebook = 16%, χ(2) = 10.00, P < 0.01) and reported significantly more severe depressive symptoms [women: F(d.f.) = 26.38, P < 0.001; men: F(d.f.) = 7.44, P < 0.05]. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS Through Facebook, we were able to capture a greater proportion of people with high-severity substance use and mental health issues and were able to capture a greater and more severe range of substance use behaviours. This suggests social networking sites are efficient, cost-effective ways to recruit large numbers of participants, with relevant behaviours and conditions, to addiction research. [Thornton LK, Harris K, Baker AL, Johnson M, Kay-Lambkin FJ. Recruiting for addiction research via Facebook. Drug Alcohol Rev 2016;35:494-502].