Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
From 3D models to 3D prints: an overview of the processing pipeline

Due to the wide diffusion of 3D printing technologies, geometric algorithms for Additive Manufacturing are being invented at an impressive speed. Each single step along the processing pipeline that prepares the 3D model for fabrication can now count on dozens of methods, that analyse and optimize geometry and machine instructions for various objectives. This report provides a classification of this huge state of the art, and elicits the relation between each single algorithm and a list of desirable objectives during model preparation – a process globally refereed to as Process Planning. The objectives themselves are listed and discussed, along with possible needs for tradeoffs. Additive Manufacturing technologies are broadly categorized to explicitly relate classes of devices and supported features. Finally, this report offers an analysis of the state of the art while discussing open and challenging problems from both an academic and an industrial perspective.
Translational Research in Acute Lung Injury and Pulmonary Fibrosis Phosphatidylcholine kinetics in neonatal rat lungs and the effects of rhuKGF and betamethasone

Bernhard W, Gesche J, Raith M, Poets CF. Phosphatidylcholine kinetics in neonatal rat lungs and the effects of rhuKGF and betamethasone. Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol 310: L955–L963, 2016. First published March 4, 2016; doi:10.1152/ajplung.00010. 2016. —Surfactant, synthesized by type II pneumocytes (PN-II), mainly comprises phosphatidylcholine (PC) and is essential to prevent neonatal respiratory distress. Furthermore, PC is essential to lung tissue growth and maintenance as a membrane component. Recent findings suggest that the lung contributes to systemic lipid homeostasis via PC export through ABC-A1 transporter expression. Hence it is important to consider pharmacological interventions in neonatal lung PC metabolism with respect to such export. Five-day-old rats were treated with carrier (control), intraperitoneal betamethasone, subcutaneous recombinant human keratinocyte growth factor (rhuKGF), or their combination for 48 h. Animals were intraperitoneally injected with 50 mg/kg [D9-methyl]choline chloride 1.5, 3.0, and 6.0 h before death at day 7, and lung lavage fluid (LLF) and tissue were harvested. Endogenous PC, D9-labeled PC species, and their water-soluble precursors (D9-)choline and (D9-)phosphocholine were determined by tandem mass spectrometry. Treatment increased secreted and tissue PC pools but did not change equilibrium composition of PC species in LLF. However, all treatments increased specific surfactant components in tissue. In control rats, peak D9-PC in lavaged lung was reached after 3 h and was decreased at 6 h. Only 13% of this net loss in lavaged lung was found in LLF. Such decrease was not present in lungs treated with betamethasone and/or with rhuKGF. D9-PC loss at 3–6 h and PC synthesis calculated from D9 enrichment of phosphocholine indicated that daily synthesis rate is higher than total pool size. We conclude that lung tissue contributes to systemic PC homeostasis in neonatal rats, which is altered by glucocorticoid and rhuKGF treatment.
Prolonged Pregnancy:: When Should We Intervene?

The timely onset of labor and birth is an important determinant of perinatal outcome. Prolonged (postterm) pregnancy—defined as delivery at or beyond 42 weeks' gestation—complicates 10% of all gestations and is associated with increased risks to both fetus (stillbirth, macrosomia, birth injury, meconium aspiration syndrome) and mother (cesarean delivery, severe perineal injury, postpartum hemorrhage). The risk of routine induction of labor (failed induction leading to cesarean delivery) in the era of cervical ripening is lower than previously reported. For these reasons, the authors favor a policy of routine induction of labor for low-risk pregnancies at 41 weeks' gestation.
Stability properties of infected networks with low curing rates

In this work, we analyze the stability properties of a recently proposed dynamical system that describes the evolution of the probability of infection in a network. We show that this model can be viewed as a concave game among the nodes. This characterization allows us to provide a simple condition, that can be checked in a distributed fashion, for stabilizing the origin. When the curing rates at the nodes are low, a residual infection stays within the network. Using properties of Hurwitz Mertzel matrices, we show that the residual epidemic state is locally exponentially stable. We also demonstrate that this state is globally asymptotically stable. Furthermore, we investigate the problem of stabilizing the network when the curing rates of a limited number of nodes can be controlled. In particular, we characterize the number of controllers required for a class of undirected graphs. Several simulations demonstrate our results.
Remarks on isotropic extension of anisotropic constitutive functions via structural tensors

In their original formulation of the method of isotropic extension via structural tensors, which is meant for applications to the derivation of coordinate-free representation formulas for anisotropic constitutive functions, both Boehler and Liu start with the assumption that the invariance group of structural tensors is the symmetry group that defines the anisotropy of the constitutive function in question. As a result, the method (with structural tensors of order not higher than two) is applicable only when the anisotropy is characterized by a cylindrical group or belongs to the triclinic, monoclinic, or rhombic crystal classes. In this note we present a reformulation of the method in which the aforementioned assumption of Boehler and of Liu is relaxed, and we show by examples in finite elasticity and anisotropic linear elasticity that the method of isotropic extension via structural tensors could be applicable beyond the original limitations.
Study of Phlebotomine Sand Flies (Diptera: Psychodidae) Collected in a Leishmania-Endemic Area of the Metropolitan Region of Belo Horizonte, Brazil

ABSTRACT Phlebotomine sand flies are distributed across nearly all faunal regions of the world, represented by over 800 species, of which many are important vectors of human pathogens. Brazil is currently faced with the expansion and urbanization of leishmaniases, with an increase in the numbers of human cases and seropositive dogs in various medium-sized to large cities. The objective of the current study was to survey the phlebotomine sand fly species in an area endemic for American cutaneous leishmaniasis (ACL) and American visceral leishmaniasis (AVL), i.e., the municipal district of Santa Luzia, lying within the metropolitan region of Belo Horizonte in the Brazilian State of Minas Gerais. Sand flies were collected monthly in 2004–2005 using modified Falcão light traps hung in the peridomiciles of houses and surrounding wooded areas in the district of Baronesa. A total of 1,552 sand flies belonging to seven species was collected, and an interesting pattern of the distribution of the most abundant species relative to the sampling locality was revealed. In the wooded areas Lutzomyia whitmani (Antunes & Coutinho) predominated, whereas in the urban area Lutzomyia longipalpis (Lutz & Neiva) was the most abundant species. These results indicate two possible epidemiological patterns of Leishmania transmission in Santa Luzia: one for American cutaneous leishmaniasis associated predominantly with wooded areas, and another for AVL, with transmission principally occurring around human habitations.
PDGF increases the expression of fos and jun in newly formed oligodendrocytes that have become resistant to the mitogenic effect of PDGF

Bipotential glial (O‐2A) progenitor cells give rise to oligodendrocytes on a predictable schedule in the developing rat optic nerve. The loss of mitotic responsiveness to platelet‐derived growth factor (PDGF) that is seen when O‐2A progenitor cells initially differentiate into oligodendrocytes seems to reflect blocks or deficiencies downstream to some of the early intracellular signalling events induced by PDGF. Here we show that PDGF increases the expression of the Fos and Jun nuclear proteins in newly formed oligodendrocytes in vitro, suggesting that at least one intracellular signalling pathway to the nucleus is activated by PDGF in these cells even though they do not synthesize DNA in response to PDGF. © 1992 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
On the Role of Personal Semantic Memory and Temporal Distance in Episodic Future Thinking: The TEDIFT Model

In the last two decades, the study of memory processes has been expanded to encompass the processes involved in foreseeing events in the future dimension. The mental time travel is a mental ability, which allows individuals not only to go back in time but also to foresee specific future events (Suddendorf and Corballis, 1997).
Ethnic Structure and Cultural Diversity around the World: A Cross-National Data Set on Ethnic Groups 1

Development economists have recently focused on ethnic diversity, or “fractionalization,” as a possible cause of corruption, political instability, and poor economic performance. Political scientists have argued for years over possible links between ethnic diversity (or structure) and civil violence, democratic stability, and party systems. For its empirical evaluation in a cross-national setting, all such research requires data on ethnic groups across countries. This paper tries to do a better job of conceptually grounding, operationalizing, and constructing a list of ethnic groups across countries than is currently available. After addressing conceptual and practical problems involved in enumerating “ethnic groups,” I present a list of 820 ethnic groups in 160 countries that made up at least 1% of country population in the early 1990s. I compare a measure of ethnic fractionalization based on this list with the commonly used fractionalization measure based on the Atlas Narodov Mira (1964). Finally, I construct an index of cultural fractionalization that uses the structural distance between languages as a proxy for the cultural distance between groups in a country. This latter measure may be more appropriate when testing hypotheses that assume that ethnic groups “matter” because they have diverse preferences and cultural differences that pose obstacles to cooperation.
Distributed Tracking of Nonlinear Multiagent Systems Under Directed Switching Topology: An Observer-Based Protocol

This paper deals with a consensus tracking problem for multiagent systems (MASs) with Lipschitz-type nonlinear dynamics and directed switching topology. Unlike most existing works where the relative full state measurements of neighboring agents are utilized, it is assumed that only the relative output measurements of neighboring agents are available for coordination. To achieve consensus tracking in the considered MASs, a new class of observer-based protocols is proposed. By appropriately constructing some topology-dependent multiple Lyapunov functions, it is theoretically shown that distributed consensus tracking in the closed-loop MASs equipped with the designed protocols can be ensured if each possible topology contains a directed spanning tree rooted at the leader and the dwell time for the switchings among different topology is less than a derived positive quantity. Interestingly, it is found that the communication topology for observers’ states may be independent with that of the feedback signals. The derived results are further extended to the case of directed switching topology with only average dwell time constraints. Finally, the effectiveness of the analytical results is demonstrated via numerical simulations.
Lower Bounds on van der Waerden Numbers: Randomized- and Deterministic-Constructive

The van der Waerden number W(k,2) is the smallest integer n such that every 2-coloring of 1 to n has a monochromatic arithmetic progression of length k. The existence of such an n for any k is due to van der Waerden but known upper bounds on W(k,2) are enormous. Much effort was put into developing lower bounds on W(k,2). Most of these lower bound proofs employ the probabilistic method often in combination with the Lovasz Local Lemma. While these proofs show the existence of a 2-coloring that has no monochromatic arithmetic progression of length k they provide no efficient algorithm to find such a coloring. These kind of proofs are often informally called nonconstructive in contrast to constructive proofs that provide an efficient algorithm. This paper clarifies these notions and gives definitions for deterministic- and randomized-constructive proofs as different types of constructive proofs. We then survey the literature on lower bounds on W(k,2) in this light. We show how known nonconstructive lower bound proofs based on the Lovasz Local Lemma can be made randomized-constructive using the recent algorithms of Moser and Tardos. We also use a derandomization of Chandrasekaran, Goyal and Haeupler to transform these proofs into deterministic-constructive proofs. We provide greatly simplified and fully self-contained proofs and descriptions for these algorithms.
A Chinese question answering system based on web search

With the rapid development of search engine technology, the massive information on the internet becomes increasingly easy to search and utilize. However, Reading a large number of web pages of search engine results is also a hard work for users. Therefore how to conveniently and directly get the answers is a recent research focus. In this paper, we put forward a Chinese question answering system which uses the real-time network information retrieved by search engines. By inputting a natural language question, users can get an accurate answer. There are three main steps to extract the answers in our system. First is the question analysis, extract keywords and type of the question. Then the second step is to retrieve relevant pages through web search engines. The last and most important step is answer extraction, evaluate all extracted candidate answers, and the final answer will be the one with highest score. In addition to the system implementation, we also evaluated the performance of our system with an artificial building question-answer dataset. And the results obviously proved the feasibility of our system.
Energy-efficient scheduling for memory-intensive GPGPU workloads

High performance for a GPGPU workload is obtained by maximizing parallelism and fully utilizing the available resources. However, this is not necessarily energy efficient, especially for memory-intensive GPGPU workloads. In this work, we propose Throttle CTA (cooperative-thread array) Scheduling (TCS) where we leverage two type of throttling - throttling the number of actives cores and throttling of warp execution in the cores - to improve energy-efficiency for memory-intensive GPGPU workloads. The algorithm requires the global CTA or thread block scheduler to reduce the number of cores with assigned thread blocks while leveraging the local warp scheduler to throttle memory requests for some of the cores to further reduce power consumption. The proposed TCS scheduling does not require off-line analysis but can be done dynamically during execution. Instead of relying on conventional metrics such as miss-per-kilo-instruction (MPKI), we leverage the memory access latency metric to determine the memory intensity of the workloads. Our evaluations show that TCS reduces energy by up to 48% (38% on average) across different memory-intensive workload while having very little impact on performance for compute-intensive workloads.
Rotator cuff tendinopathy: a model for the continuum of pathology and related management

Background Pathology of the soft tissues of the shoulder including the musculotendinous rotator cuff and subacromial bursa are extremely common and are a principal cause of pain and suffering. Competing theories have been proposed to explain the pathoaetiology of rotator cuff pathology at specific stages and presentations of the condition. This review proposes a model to describe the continuum of the rotator cuff pathology from asymptomatic tendon through full thickness rotator cuff tears. Conclusions The pathoaetiology of rotator cuff failure is multifactorial and results from a combination of intrinsic, extrinsic and environmental factors. Recently a new and generic model detailing the continuum of tendon pathology has been proposed. This model is relevant for the rotator cuff and provides a framework to stage the continuity of rotator cuff pathology. Furthermore, it provides a structure to identify the substantial deficiencies in our knowledge base and areas where research would improve our understanding of the pathological and repair process, together with assessment and management. The strength of this model adapted for the rotator cuff tendons and subacromial bursa will be tested in its ability to incorporate and adapt to emerging research.
Effects of different carbohydrate sources on fructan metabolism in plants of Chrysolaena obovata grown in vitro

Chrysolaena obovata (Less.) Dematt. , previously named Vernonia herbacea, is an Asteraceae native to the Cerrado which accumulates about 80% of the rhizophore dry mass as inulin-type fructans. Considering its high inulin production and the wide application of fructans, a protocol for C. obovata in vitro culture was recently established. Carbohydrates are essential for in vitro growth and development of plants and can also act as signaling molecules involved in cellular adjustments and metabolic regulation. This work aimed to evaluate the effect of different sources of carbohydrate on fructan metabolism in plants grown in vitro. For this purpose, C. obovata plants cultivated in vitro were submitted to carbon deprivation and transferred to MS medium supplemented with sucrose, glucose or fructose. Following, their fructan composition and activity and expression of genes encoding enzymes for fructan synthesis (1-SST and 1-FFT) and degradation (1-FEH) were evaluated. For qRT-PCR analysis partial cDNA sequences corresponding to two different C. obovata genes, 1-SST and 1-FFT, were isolated. As expected, C. obovata sequences showed highest sequence identity to other Asteraceae 1-SST and 1-FFT, than to Poaceae related proteins. A carbon deficit treatment stimulated the transcription of the gene 1-FEH and inhibited 1-SST and 1-FFT and carbohydrate supplementation promoted reversal of the expression profile of these genes. With the exception of 1-FFT, a positive correlation between enzyme activity and gene expression was observed. The overall results indicate that sucrose, fructose and glucose act similarly on fructan metabolism and that 1-FEH and 1-SST are transcriptionally regulated by sugar in this species. Cultivation of plants in increasing sucrose concentrations stimulated synthesis and inhibited fructan mobilization, and induced a distinct pattern of enzyme activity for 1-SST and 1-FFT, indicating the existence of a mechanism for differential regulation between them.
The Di-Leucine Motif Contributes to Class A Scavenger Receptor-Mediated Internalization of Acetylated Lipoproteins

Objective—The di-leucine motif exists in the intracellular domains of certain cell surface receptors, participating in the receptor-mediated endocytosis. The present study was aimed at determining the role of the di-leucine motif in class A scavenger receptor (SR-A)-mediated ligand endocytosis. Methods and Results—cDNA coding for a mutant (SR-A mutant N3132LM) with deletion of the di-leucine structure was transfected into Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells. Compared with wild-type SR-A–expressing cells, the cells expressing the SR-A mutant N3132LM showed a significant decrease in uptake but almost no change in binding of the SR-A ligand acetylated low-density lipoprotein (AcLDL). Western blot analysis revealed coimmunoprecipitation of SR-A mutant and clathrin from the lysates of the mutant but not wild-type CHO cells, suggesting that AcLDL-bound SR-A mutant N3132LM is associated with the clathrin-coated pit of cellular membrane. Removal of the first 27 amino acid residues from the SR-A N-terminus further reduced AcLDL uptake by the cells with the di-leucine motif mutation. Conclusions—The di-leucine motif of SR-A intracellular domain contributes to the SR-A–mediated cellular internalization of AcLDL. Di-leucine pair exists in the cytoplasmic domain of class A scavenger receptor. The cells expressing di-leucine mutants showed decreased uptake and unchanged binding of AcLDL. The di-leucine pair was not associated to coated pits. It suggests that di-leucine motif acts as a signal sequence to mediate SR-A into cell.
Pathophysiological aspects of acute experimental allergic encephalomyelitis

Traditionally, research in experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE) has focussed on immunological and histopathological aspects. The present review introduces a physiological approach to EAE. As EAE is characterized by many small, focal lesions in the central nervous system (CNS), methods with a high spatial resolution should be used to conduct studies on regional pathophysiology in the condition. Quantitative autoradiography seems an ideal method as it offers, 1) high regional resolution (approximately 50 um), 2) precise quantitation and, 3) a direct correlation between regional histopathology and pathophysiology. By the use of this method, the author has performed studies on 1) regional blood-brain barrier (BBB) permeability, and 2) regional metabolism of energy substrate and related subjects, (i.e. regional cerebral blood flow, regional cerebral glucose metabolic rate and regional pH). Corresponding to the EAE lesions (lymphocytic accumulations), there is a considerable increase in BBB permeability. Metabolism of energy substrate at the lesion sites is severely deranged, which is expressed in a CBF/CMR ratio of 3 ml/mumol compared to the normal 1.5 ml/mumol. No changes in regional pH are seen in the lesions. Unrelated to the lesion sites there is a 50% decrease in blood flow in cerebral cortex. This observation probably reflects a functional decrease in cortical flow due to sensory motor impairment.
Pemuisi: a constraint satisfaction-based generator of topical Indonesian poetry

Pemuisi is a poetry generation system that generates topical poems in Indonesian using a constraint satisfaction approach. It scans popular news websites for articles and extracts relevant keywords that are combined with various language resources such as templates and other slot fillers into lines of poetry. It then composes poems from these lines by satisfying a set of given constraints. A Turing Test-style evaluation and a detailed evaluation of three different configurations of the system was conducted through an online questionnaire with 180 respondents. The results showed that under the best scenario, 57% of the respondents thought that the generated poems were authored by humans, and that poems generated using the full set of constraints consistently measured better on all aspects than those generated using the other two configurations. The system is now available online as a web application.
Finite-time convergence control for acyclic persistent formations

In this paper, we propose a distance-based control law for acyclic persistent formations of mobile agents. The proposed normalized gradient law, which can be implemented distributively by using local measurements, allows agents to achieve their desired formation shape specified by inter-agent distance constraints in finite time, with local but not global con-vergence. We show some local finite-time convergence properties including an upper bound for the convergence time. Further the existence of attractive incorrect equilibrium formations is demonstrated. Simulation results are provided for illustration.