Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Parental history of cardiovascular disease and risk of stroke. A prospective follow-up of 14371 middle-aged men and women in Finland.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Studies on risk factors for stroke have been less intensive than those for coronary disease. Only a few studies have addressed the question of the role of heredity in the occurrence of stroke. We analyzed whether a positive parental history of cardiovascular disease predicts the risk of stroke independently from other risk factors and whether the role of parental history varies by age and stroke subtypes. METHODS This study was a prospective follow-up of 14371 middle-aged men and women. A positive parental history of cardiovascular disease was defined as either stroke or coronary disease before the age of 60 years. The end point of the follow-up was an incident case of stroke. Multivariate analyses were performed with the Cox proportional hazards model. RESULTS The risk ratio of stroke after multifactorial adjustment (age, smoking, blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, and education) associated with a positive parental history of stroke was 1.89 (P = .004) in men and 1.80 (P = .007) in women. The association between parental history of stroke and the risk of stroke was stronger among subjects aged 25 to 49 years than among older subjects. Parental history of coronary disease was not associated with the risk of stroke in men, but in women it had a borderline significant association with the risk of ischemic stroke. CONCLUSIONS A positive parental history of stroke predicted the risk of stroke independently from the other risk factors.
Specifying and analyzing security automata using CSP-OZ

Security automata are a variant of Büchi automata used to specify security policies that can be enforced by monitoring system execution. In this paper, we propose using CSP-OZ, a specification language combining Communicating Sequential Processes (CSP) and Object-Z (OZ), to specify security automata, formalize their combination with target systems, and analyze the security of the resulting system specifications. We provide theoretical results relating CSP-OZ specifications and security automata and show how refinement can be used to reason about specifications of security automata and their combination with target systems. Through a case study, we provide evidence for the practical usefulness of this approach. This includes the ability to specify concisely complex operations and complex control, support for structured specifications, refinement, and transformational design, as well as automated, tool-supported analysis.
A Note on Topology-Transparent Scheduling via the Chinese Remainder Theorem

Topology-transparent scheduling (TTS) via the Chinese remainder theorem (CRT) has succeeded in providing guaranteed collision-free transmissions in each schedule without the need to know the maximum nodal degree of the graph representing connectivity of a mobile ad hoc network. Its main limitation is due to the restriction on the moduli imposed by the CRT. To address the shortcoming, this letter proposes an application of the general Chinese remainder theorem (GCRT) to TTS, which provides a unified framework for TTS that is developed via the CRT. The proposed GCRT-based scheme not only employs integer sequences to form the moduli, but also repeats the moduli to enhance TTS via the CRT. To determine how to repeat moduli in a systematic way, this letter formulates an integer programming problem, which is solved by the branch-and-bound technique. Numerical results are presented, demonstrating that the proposed GCRT-based scheme outperforms earlier works with much shorter schedule lengths.
Multihoming of Users to Access Points in WLANs: A Population Game Perspective

We consider non-cooperative mobiles, each faced with the problem of which subset of WLANs access points (APs) to connect and multihome to, and how to split its traffic among them. Considering the many users regime, we obtain a potential game model and study its equilibrium. We obtain pricing for which the total throughput is maximized at equilibrium and study the convergence to equilibrium under various evolutionary dynamics. We also study the case where the Internet service provider (ISP) could charge prices greater than that of the cost price mechanism and show that even in this case multihoming is desirable.
Oxytocin mediates atrial natriuretic peptide release and natriuresis after volume expansion in the rat.

Our previous studies have shown that stimulation of the anterior ventral third ventricular region increases atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) release, whereas lesions of this structure, the median eminence, or removal of the neural lobe of the pituitary block ANP release induced by blood volume expansion (BVE). These results indicate that participation of the central nervous system is crucial in these responses, possibly through mediation by neurohypophysial hormones. In the present research we investigated the possible role of oxytocin, one of the two principal neurohypophysial hormones, in the mediation of ANP release. Oxytocin (1-10 nmol) injected i.p. caused significant, dose-dependent increases in urinary osmolality, natriuresis, and kaliuresis. A delayed antidiuretic effect was also observed. Plasma ANP concentrations increased nearly 4-fold (P < 0.01) 20 min after i.p. oxytocin (10 nmol), but there was no change in plasma ANP values in control rats. When oxytocin (1 or 10 nmol) was injected i.v. , it also induced a dose-related increase in plasma ANP at 5 min (P < 0.001). BVE by intra-atrial injection of isotonic saline induced a rapid (5 min postinjection) increase in plasma oxytocin and ANP concentrations and a concomitant decrease in plasma arginine vasopressin concentration. Results were similar with hypertonic volume expansion, except that this induced a transient (5 min) increase in plasma arginine vasopressin. The findings are consistent with the hypothesis that baroreceptor activation of the central nervous system by BVE stimulates the release of oxytocin from the neurohypophysis. This oxytocin then circulates to the right atrium to induce release of ANP, which circulates to the kidney and induces natriuresis and diuresis, which restore body fluid volume to normal levels.
Cardiac autonomic imbalance in an overtrained athlete.

PURPOSE In order to investigate overtraining-related adaptations in the autonomic nervous system, cardiac autonomic activity was examined in a junior cross-country skier who presented with reduced performance in competitions, early breathlessness during training sessions, and accumulated central fatigue. METHODS Power spectral analysis of heart rate variability (HRV) was performed before, when overtrained (OT), and after recovery (Rec). RESULTS In the overtrained state, high frequency (HF) and total powers in the lying position were higher compared with before and after. In normalized units, the increased HF in OT was even more prominent and clearly higher than in any control subject, and it was reversed in Rec. Resting heart rate was slightly reduced in OT and returned to baseline in Rec. CONCLUSIONS The shift toward increased heart rate variability, particularly in the HF range, together with a reduced resting heart rate suggest a cardiac autonomic imbalance with extensive parasympathetic modulation in this athlete when overtrained.
Harmful Study Habits in Online Learning Environments with Automatic Assessment

Learning activities are increasingly performed in online learning environments. Automatic assessment is used in many systems to give students immediate and personalized feedback allowing them to solve exercises regardless of time and place. However, this creates new challenges for students because they are required to independently regulate their own learning. Because of the lack of direct guidance, it is easy for students to resort to bad study habits. In this paper, we investigate what kinds of harmful study habits can be observed in online learning environments that utilize automatic assessment. We study data from two computer science courses with programming exercises and algorithm simulation exercises. The results are in line with earlier findings that starting to study near the deadline is linked to inferior performance. This is also observed in a within-subject comparison which suggests that the relationship is causal. Furthermore, signs of trial-and-error problem solving are observed in some students and they are also correlated with inferior performance in the exercises and the exam.
3D printing of smart materials: A review on recent progresses in 4D printing

ABSTRACT Additive manufacturing (AM), commonly known as three-dimensional (3D) printing or rapid prototyping, has been introduced since the late 1980s. Although a considerable amount of progress has been made in this field, there is still a lot of research work to be done in order to overcome the various challenges remained. Recently, one of the actively researched areas lies in the additive manufacturing of smart materials and structures. Smart materials are those materials that have the ability to change their shape or properties under the influence of external stimuli. With the introduction of smart materials, the AM-fabricated components are able to alter their shape or properties over time (the 4th dimension) as a response to the applied external stimuli. Hence, this gives rise to a new term called ‘4D printing’ to include the structural reconfiguration over time. In this paper, recent major progresses in 4D printing are reviewed, including 3D printing of enhanced smart nanocomposites, shape memory alloys, shape memory polymers, actuators for soft robotics, self-evolving structures, anti-counterfeiting system, active origami and controlled sequential folding, and some results from our ongoing research. In addition, some research activities on 4D bio-printing are included, followed by discussions on the challenges, applications, research directions and future trends of 4D printing.
High burden of palliative needs among older intensive care unit survivors transferred to post-acute care facilities. a single-center study.

RATIONALE Adults with chronic critical illness (tracheostomy after ≥ 10 d of mechanical ventilation) have a high burden of palliative needs, but little is known about the actual use and potential need of palliative care services for the larger population of older intensive care unit (ICU) survivors discharged to post-acute care facilities. OBJECTIVES To determine whether older ICU survivors discharged to post-acute care facilities have potentially unmet palliative care needs. METHODS We examined electronic records from a 1-year cohort of 228 consecutive adults ≥ 65 years of age who had their first medical-ICU admission in 2009 at a single tertiary-care medical center and survived to discharge to a post-acute care facility (excluding hospice). Use of palliative care services was defined as having received a palliative care consultation. Potential palliative care needs were defined as patient characteristics suggestive of physical or psychological symptom distress or anticipated poor prognosis. We examined the prevalence of potential palliative needs and 6-month mortality. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS The median age was 78 years (interquartile range, 71-84 yr), and 54% received mechanical ventilation for a median of 7 days (interquartile range, 3-16 d). Six subjects (2.6%) received a palliative care consultation during the hospitalization. However, 88% had at least one potential palliative care need; 22% had chronic wounds, 37% were discharged on supplemental oxygen, 17% received chaplaincy services, 23% preferred to not be resuscitated, and 8% were designated "comfort care. " The 6-month mortality was 40%. CONCLUSIONS Older ICU survivors from a single center who required postacute facility care had a high burden of palliative care needs and a high 6-month mortality. The in-hospital postcritical acute care period should be targeted for palliative care assessment and intervention.
HEVS: A hierarchical computational model for Early stages of the Visual System

Early stages of the human visual system consist of retinal cones, retinal ganglion cells(RGC), lateral geniculate nucleus(LGN) and V1. Modeling early visual stages is conducive to reveal the mechanism of visual signal preprocessing and representation inside brain, as well as settle challenges artificial intelligence confronts. However, a majority of previous work often models RGC/LGN or V1 separately, seldom modeling them together hierarchically. In order to be consistent with the biological results, we propose HEVS (a Hierarchical computational model for Early stages of the Visual System), a feedforward neural network composed of three layers, which represent receptor neurons, RGC/LGN and V1 successively. Exactly as the visual system, the proposed locally connected model is derived in the unsupervised scenario on natural images and trained in the bottom-up order. In order to learn the two connection weights among three layers, we formulate two optimization problems based on the reconstruction error and sparse learning. Unlike traditional models on RGC/LGN, we perform weighted similarity measuring as a regular term to simulate the strong correlations among nearby neuron spikes in the same stage. Different from existing researches on modeling V1 neurons from image pixels directly, we transmit the signals represented by the ganglion cells in the second layer to the V1 neurons in the third layer. Moreover, solutions to these objectives are provided as well. Experimental results demonstrate that the characteristics of HEVS are consistent with those of the corresponding biological stages. The results further verify the performance of HEVS on dealing with the de-blurring and de-noising tasks.
Epitaxial growth of p+ silicon on a backside-thinned CCD for enhanced UV response

We have used low temperature molecular beam epitaxy to grow p+ silicon on a backside-thinned Reticon 512x5 12 CCD. The techniques for preparing the CCD for the growth and the processing conditions are discussed. A 50 A layer of silicon doped with 3x102 B/cm3 was grown at a substrate temperature of 450C. The ultraviolet quantum efficiency of the modified CCD was significantly higher than that of a CCD with an untreated back surface. Charging the back surface of the modified CCD with a Uv flood did not affect the quantum efficiency indicating that the bands were pinned by the added p+ layer. Gold contamination measured by secondary ion mass spectrometry to have a concentration of 1 x 1 0 18 cm3 near the back surface caused the UV quantum efficiency to be lower than optimum by reducing the minority carrier lifetime. 2.
Evaluating battery energy storage systems: An analysis of their adoption with photovoltaic plants in Italy

The integration of intermittent and non-programmable renewable energy sources (RES), especially photovoltaic and wind, in the energy system is today a major challenge for most developed countries, due to their widespread diffusion. Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) are a promising option to overcome the problems resulting from this integration. The Italian market for BESS is characterized by a relatively low amount of installed capacity, even though the penetration of RES in the energy system is remarkable. This paper aims to analyse the profitability of adopting BESS in a specific context, i.e. in association with photovoltaic (PV) plants in Italy, which strongly influence the further diffusion of such systems. The profitability of investing in a BESS in association with a PV plant is evaluated for three different application fields (each one characterized by different types of BESS and different sizes of the PV plant) located in two areas of the country (i.e. North and South of Italy). The indicators used for calculating the profitability are net present value (NPV) and discounted payback time (DPBT). The simulations show that such investments are not competitive compared to the adoption of PV plants alone, mainly due to the high BESS investment cost compared to the benefits that they ensure. In some cases, the investment has a good economic performance, strongly influenced by the BESS technology adopted. A subsequent sensitivity analysis brings into light the main variables influencing the profitability of investing in BESS associated with a PV plant in Italy, such as the level of energy self-consumption rate with BESS for residential plants and the BESS technology and the relative investment costs for industrial plants.
Physicochemical and biological aspects of Nitinol as a biomaterial

Abstract The rapid increase in the development of medical devices using nearly equiatomic Ni–Ti alloys (Nitinol) provides evidence of their advantages as biomaterials. Two generic properties of Nitinol, thermally induced shape recovery and superelasticity, are successfully employed for medical uses. However, several aspects of the alloys' short and long term efficacy have yet to be comprehensively determined, especially parameters relating to surface and corrosion performance. The present review surveys studies carried out internationally over about the past 10 years aiming at an improved understanding of Nitinol's surface, corrosion, and biocompatibility features. A critical survey is given of the surface condition of alloys modified using various advanced techniques, oxidised in air–water–steam mixtures, and passivated using chemical–electrochemical procedures. Surface parameters and their importance to the improvement of Nitinol's corrosion resistance and biological performance are discussed on the basis of XPS, Auger, SEM, and BSEM studies. In vivo and in vitro corrosion studies using potentiodynamic, potentiostatic, and scratch tests on as cast alloys, wire, and actual devices are surveyed. The effects of stress, strain, heat treatment, microstructure, precipitates, and alloy composition on corrosion are evaluated and compared with data for stainless steels, cobalt base alloys, and titanium. Release of nickel, observed in vitro and in vivo, is also surveyed. Biocompatibility aspects are briefly discussed with emphasis on their possible correlation with surface condition.
Generation of Emotion Control Vector Using MDS-Based Space Transformation for Expressive Speech Synthesis

In control vector-based expressive speech synthesis, the emotion/style control vector defined in the categorical (CAT) emotion space is uneasy to be precisely defined by the user to synthesize the speech with the desired emotion/style. This paper applies the arousal-valence (AV) space to the multiple regression hidden semi-Markov model (MRHSMM)-based synthesis framework for expressive speech synthesis. In this study, the user can designate a specific emotion by defining the AV values in the AV space. The multidimensional scaling (MDS) method is adopted to project the AV emotion space and the categorical (CAT) emotion space onto their corresponding orthogonal coordinate systems. A transformation approach is thus proposed to transform the AV values to the emotion control vector in CAT emotion space for MRHSMM-based expressive speech synthesis. In the synthesis phase given the input text and desired emotion, with the transformed emotion control vector, the speech with the desired emotion is generated from the MRHSMMs. Experimental result shows the proposed method is helpful for the user to easily and precisely determine the desired emotion for expressive speech synthesis.
High-speed trajectory tracking based on model predictive control for omni-directional mobile robots

In dynamic environments, mobile robots sometimes are required to perform accurate and stable tracking of high-speed trajectories, but rare researches are reported, which specifically deal with high-speed tracking problem. When tracking high-speed trajectories, mobile robots usually approach the top speed and acceleration limits, which indicates that the kinematic constraints can not be ignored. In order to cope with such situations, a novel trajectory tracking controller using model predictive control has been studied. Where it differs from other control strategies lies in that this control law is generated based on predicating the evolution state of mobile robots and it is able to handle hard constraints directly in the optimization process, so that mobile robots can track trajectories both quickly and safely. In order to cut down the computational cost for on-line applications, Laguerre polynomials are used in the design of model predictive control to reduce the number of parameters for optimization. The proposed algorithm is applied on a real soccer robot, and the experimental results show that the robot can track high-speed trajectories effectively with small tracking errors and tiny computation time.
Equivalence of low frequency stability conditions for multidimensional detonations in three models of combustion

We use the classical normal mode approach of hydrodynamic stability theory to define stability determinants (Evans functions) for multidimensional strong detonations in three commonly studied models of combustion: the full reactive Navier-Stokes (RNS) model, and the simpler Zeldovich-von Neumann-Doring (ZND) and Chapman-Jouguet (CJ) models. The determinants are functions of frequencies (‚;·), where ‚ is a complex variable dual to the time variable, and · 2 R di1 is dual to the transverse spatial variables. The zeros of these determinants in 0 correspond to perturbations that grow exponentially with time. The CJ determinant, ¢CJ(‚;·), turns out to be explicitly computable. The RNS and ZND determinants are impossible to compute explicitly, but we are able to compute their first-order low-frequency expansions with an error term that is uniformly small with re- spect to all possible (‚;·) directions. Somewhat surprisingly, this computation yields an Equivalence Theorem: the leading coecient in the expansions of both the RNS and ZND determinants is a constant multiple of ¢CJ! In this sense the low-frequency stability condi- tions for strong detonations in all three models are equivalent. By computing ¢CJ we are able to give low-frequency stability criteria valid for all three models in terms of the physical quantities: Mach number, Gruneisen coecient, compression ratio, and heat release. The Equivalence Theorem and its surrounding analysis is a step toward the rigorous theoretical justification of the CJ and ZND models as approximations to the full RNS model.
Indications for Surgical Management of Osteochondritis Dissecans of the Knee in the Pediatric Population: A Systematic Review

Abstract Several case series have been published exploring the surgical management of osteochondritis dissecans (OCD) of the knee in pediatric patients. This systemic review was performed to identify the surgical indications for this condition. A search of the Embase and Ovid Medline databases was performed to identify clinical studies reporting outcomes of surgical management of OCD in the knee in this patient population. A quality assessment of the included articles was conducted independently by two reviewers using a quality assessment tool developed by Yang et al. A total of 25 articles met the eligibility criteria and were reviewed; 40% of studies did not clearly describe their surgical indications. The remainder of the studies had a failure of nonoperative management with or without the concomitant use of imaging as their indication for surgery, or used lesion stability itself as the indication for surgery. This review outlines several surgical indications presented in the literature for the treatment of OCD lesions of the knee in the pediatric population. The most common indication for surgery was a failure of a trial of nonoperative treatment with or without the concomitant use of serial imaging. Although the quality of the case series was high, inconsistencies in reporting radiographic and arthroscopic classification of the OCD lesion were common.