Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A differential delay line for optical coherence domain polarimetry

We propose an optical delay line based on differential structure for improving measurement accuracy and extending scanning length of optical coherence domain polarimetry (OCDP). The differential delay line is composed of two independent graded refractive index lenses (GRIN) and a double-faced mirror. The OCDP measurement model with loss coefficient and measurement error caused by the GRIN-lens-based delay line is discussed. Compared to the general optical delay line based on a single GRIN lens, the fluctuation of the loss coefﬁcient of differential delay line is reduced to ± 0.1 dB with scanning range of 0.8 m, which corresponds to 80% improvement.
Application of genetic algorithmbin an active noise control system

An active noise control (ANC) system utilizing a genetic algorithm for reduction of noise in duct is described. A continuous genetic algorithm with a heuristic crossover method was applied in the controller of the system. The ANC system was tested on a laboratory stand. Measurements of the efficiency of the system related to basic parameters of the genetic algorithm were performed. A comparison of the effectiveness of ANC system based on the genetic algorithm to the system based on the LMS algorithm is presented.
Finite sample properties for the semiparametric estimation of the intercept of a censored regression model

Financial support for this paper was provided by a C.A. Anderson Fellowship of the Cowles Foundation. I wish to thank Donald Andrews, Moshe Buchinsky, Oliver Linton, and Peter Robinson for helpful discussions. I also wish to thank three anonymous referees for their comments and suggestions. I am, of course, responsible for any remaining errors. A popular two‐step estimator of the intercept of a censored regression model is compared with consistent asymptotically normal semiparametric alternatives. Using a root mean squared error criterion, the semiparametric estimators perform better for a range of bandwidth parameter choices for a variety of distributions of the errors and regressors. For error distributions that are close to the normal, however, the two‐step parametric estimator performs better.
Alzheimer's disease detection using 11C-PiB with improved partial volume effect correction

Despite the increasing use of 11C-PiB in research into Alzheimer's disease (AD), there are few standardized analysis procedures that have been reported or published. This is especially true with regards to partial volume effects (PVE) and partial volume correction. Due to the nature of PET physics and acquisition, PET images exhibit relatively low spatial resolution compared to other modalities, resulting in bias of quantitative results. Although previous studies have applied PVE correction techniques on 11C-PiB data, the results have not been quantitatively evaluated and compared against uncorrected data. The aim of this study is threefold. Firstly, a realistic synthetic phantom was created to quantify PVE. Secondly, MRI partial volume estimate segmentations were used to improve voxel-based PVE correction instead of using hard segmentations. Thirdly, quantification of PVE correction was evaluated on 34 subjects (AD=10, Normal Controls (NC)=24), including 12 PiB positive NC. Regional analysis was performed using the Anatomical Automatic Labeling (AAL) template, which was registered to each patient. Regions of interest were restricted to the gray matter (GM) defined by the MR segmentation. Average normalized intensity of the neocortex and selected regions were used to evaluate the discrimination power between AD and NC both with and without PVE correction. Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves were computed for the binary discrimination task. The phantom study revealed signal losses due to PVE between 10 to 40 % which were mostly recovered to within 5% after correction. Better classification was achieved after PVE correction, resulting in higher areas under ROC curves.
Conically similar swirling flows at high Reynolds numbers

A new class of both inviscid and boundary layer self-similar solutions for conical swirling flows at high Reynolds numbers is analysed. For the case of one-cell solutions, the flow consists of an inviscid, but in general rotational, core with a velocity field, in spherical polar coordinates, of the form u = r m-2 V(θ), where m is any real number. Due to the known existence of two integrals to Euler's equations, the vector function V(θ) is obtained by the integration of a second-order ordinary differential equation, containing the two integration constants K and K 1 associated with the intensities of the swirl and the meridional motion, respectively. This inviscid flow is, however, singular at the axis and must be regularized through a thin viscous layer, which also has self-similar structure. A variety of flow regimes are obtained for different ranges of m, all of them exhaustively analysed. In particular, for 0 < m < 2, the solution to the near-axis boundary layer equations has the interesting property of losing existence when a certain inviscid swirl parameter, D ∼ K 1 /K 4 , is either larger or smaller than a critical value, depending on m
Statistical Validation of Surrogate Endpoints: Problems and Proposals

Prentice proposed a definition of surrogate endpoints and operational criteria for their validation. Freedman supplemented these criteria with the proportion explained, which is supposed to represent the proportion of the treatment effect upon the true endpoint which is mediated by the surrogate endpoint. In this paper, we argue that the proportion explained should be replaced by other quantities, such as the relative effect linking the effects of treatment on both endpoints and an individual-level measure of agreement between both endpoints. The latter quantity carries over naturally when data are available on several randomized experiments, while the former can be extended to be a trial-level measure of agreement between the effects of treatment of both endpoints. This approach suggests a new definition of surrogacy, and allows one to predict the effect of treatment upon the true endpoint, given its observed effect upon the surrogate endpoint.
Cross Helicity Correlations in the Solar Wind

Over the last decade, several magnetohydrodynamic models of the solar wind proposed a two component structure for the fluctuations: a "slab" (Alfvenic) component with wavenumbers parallel to the ambient dc magnetic field and a quasi two-dimensional (turbulent) component with wavenumbers mostly perpendicular to the magnetic field. Initial support and motivation for these models was given in part from the study of three dimensional correlation functions for the magnetic field from solar wind data (W.H Matthaeus, M.L. Goldstein and D.A. Roberts 1990, JGR 95, 20673). We extend here this study to the analysis of the cross-correlation between the velocity and the magnetic field. The cross-correlation function is simply related to the cross helicity power spectrum, a quantity of great interest for solar wind models. This quantity provides, on one hand, a measure of the relative importance of outgoing and incoming Alfvenic fluctuations. On the other hand, the turbulent properties of the system are greatly influenced by the amount of cross helicity present in it. We analyze ACE data and present preliminary results for the three dimensional cross-correlation function. Special emphasis is given to the implications for solar wind models.
Near infra-red and optical colour gradients in E-type galaxies - Inferences on dust content

Colour gradients are considered for a sample of circa 50 E-type galaxies in the Local Supercluster. The new data includes isophotal colour profiles in J - H, J - K, V - J and V - K, measured using 2MASS frames mostly from the Large Galaxies Atlas, V frames from previous work and V profiles from the literature. This is supplemented by U - B, B - V, B - R, V - I colour gradients obtained anew from published photometric data. Colour gradients in E galaxies show remarkably large variations from object to object and do not correlate with other properties. Metallicity gradients are the primary cause as shown before. Age gradients with opposite effects are possibly needed to explain objects with small colour gradients. Some empirical evidence of such age effects has been found for a subset of objects with morphological peculiarities and younger stars mixed. Dust has only modest effects on colour gradients, as shown by the fact that objects with zero IRAS 100 μ flux have the same average values of the gradients, except in V - J and V - K, as those with non zero flux (cf. Table 7). This last subsample however exhibits poor but definite correlations between IRAS flux and gradients, which might be caused by the presence of a few relatively dusty galaxies in the sample. Given the absence of a correlation between any gradients and galaxy velocity dispersion (and hence mass), the observations do not agree with the predictions of the monolithic scenario for the formation of E galaxies. Simulated datasets of dummy objects mimicking the hierarchical scenario have been obtained, and used to test a technique for estimating the dust content of E-galaxies from the comparison of the V - K (or V - J) colour gradients with the U - B (or B - V) ones: the contents of diffuse dust, gauged in terms of published models, are obtained for a dozen objects.
Green's-function formalism of band-to-band Auger recombination in semiconductors. Correlation effect

A general theory of band-to-band Auger recombination in semiconductors is developed on the basis of the Green's-function formalism. Starting with the density operator we obtain the excess-carrier lifetime in terms of the four-particle Green's function. This allows us to incorporate electron correlation effect as well as phonon, impurity, and some other scattering effects into the theory in a coherent way. It is shown that the correlation effect, which has never been considered in the earlier theories, can be important under some conditions for the electron-hole-hole collision process. In contrast the effect is negligible for the electron-electron-hole collision process without any restrictions.
Metatranscriptomic insights into the microbial electrosynthesis of acetate by Fe 2+ /Ni 2+ addition

As important components of enzymes and coenzymes involved in energy transfer and Wood-Ljungdahl (WL) pathways, Fe 2 + and Ni 2 + supplementation may promote the acetate synthesis through CO 2 reduction by the microbial electrosynthesis (MES). However, the effect of Fe 2 + and Ni 2 + addition on acetate production in MES and corresponding microbial mechanisms have not been fully studied. Therefore, this study investigated the effect of Fe 2 + and Ni 2 + addition on acetate production in MES, and explored the underlying microbial mechanism from the metatranscriptomic perspective. Both Fe 2 + and Ni 2 + addition enhanced acetate production of the MES, which was 76.9% and 110.9% higher than that of control, respectively. Little effect on phylum level and small changes in genus-level micro - bial composition was caused by Fe 2 + and Ni 2 + addition. Gene expression of ‘Energy metabolism’, especially in ‘Carbon fixation pathways in prokaryotes’ was up-regulated by Fe 2 + and Ni 2 + addition. Hydrogenase was found as an important energy transfer mediator for CO 2 reduction and acetate synthesis. Fe 2 + addition and Ni 2 + addition respectively enhanced the expression of methyl branch and carboxyl branch of the WL pathway, and thus promoted acetate production. The study provided a metatranscriptomic insight into the effect of Fe 2 + and Ni 2 + on acetate production by CO 2 reduction in MES. Graphical Abstract Highlights
Design and analysis of isostatic mounts on a spaceborne lightweight primary mirror

The paper is aimed at obtaining the optimum isostatic mount configuration for a ZERODUR® primary mirror with a predesigned lightweight configuration on the back for a space Cassegrain telescope. The finite element analysis and Zernike polynomial fitting based on the Taguchi method are applied to the whole optimization process. Under the integrated optomechanical analysis, three isostatic mounts are bonded to the center of gravity of the mirror. Geometrical control factors and levels have been selected to minimize the optical aberrations under self-weight loading. The optimum isostatic mount with the least induced astigmatism value is finally attained under the Taguchi method.
Laser-assisted welding of transparent polymers for microchemical engineering and life science

In this contribution experimental studies on the laser-assisted welding of transparent polymers with diode laser (wavelength 940 nm) are presented to discuss their potential for the fabrication of micro-devices for micro-chemical engineering and life science. Micro-channel devices such as capillary electrophoresis chips, heat exchangers or static mixers for liquids and gases consist of different micro-patterned sheets with structural details in the range of a few μm. In micro-chemical engineering, in general the sheets of micro-devices are made of metals. In our approaches the use of transparent and micro-patterned polymers such as polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) is investigated. For the development of micro-devices in life science the use of sheets made of transparent polymers such as polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) is presented, e.g., in capillary electrophoresis chips. Devices are built up by stacks of micro-patterned sheets which have to be joined. These sheets are patterned by micro-milling, CO2-laser cutting or hot embossing. Laser-assisted polymer welding of transparent and opaque materials is well established. But the welding of only transparent components is still a challenge in micro-system technology, especially if micro-structures are included. For this purpose very thin absorbing layers with a thickness of about 5nm to 20nm are used in order to establish a welding process between transparent and micro-patterned polymers. The strength of the bonding is characterized by tensile tests as function of absorbing layer thickness, temperature, laser scan velocity and laser scan overlap. The topography is investigated with atomic force microscopy and low voltage scanning electron microscopy.
Supporting family members requested to donate hematopoietic stem cells to a relative: development and pilot testing of a psycho-educational resource

Supplemental Digital Content is Available in the Text. Abstract Background: In light of the increased demand for related donors in allogeneic stem cell transplantation, recognition of the psychosocial issues has also emerged. While resources supporting unrelated volunteer donors exist, none address the emotional issues specific to being a related donor. Providing related donors with preparatory information could help improve the overall donation experience and donor's outcomes. Objective: The objectives of this study were to develop and pilot test a print-based psycho-educational resource to support donors in coping with the physical and emotional aspects of donating to a relative. This article describes the development and pilot testing of the resource. Methods: Seventeen related donors and eight transplant nurses and physicians (transplant professionals) completed a survey and provided quantitative and qualitative feedback on the acceptability of the resource and preferences regarding the ideal distribution time. Results: Respondents endorsed the resource and found it useful and appropriate for the information needs at different stages of the donation and transplant process. The most useful reported components of the resource were testimonials from previous donors and explanations of blood cancers and the stem cell donation process. Most donor respondents indicated that the resource should be distributed as soon as possible while transplant professionals felt this should be after tissue typing, once the donor is confirmed as suitable. Respondents requested additional information on the side effects of donating and the possibility of being asked to repeat donation if the recipient relapses. More donor testimonials were also desired. Conclusion: The resource appears to be acceptable to donors and transplant professionals and helpful for developing confidence about coping with the physical and emotional aspects of donation. Findings from this study are currently being used to further refine and deliver the resource in additional formats.
Effect of Laryngoscope Blade Size on First Pass Success of Tracheal Intubation in Critically Ill Adults

OBJECTIVES: Tracheal intubation (TI) is a common procedure in critical care, often performed with a Macintosh curved blade used for direct laryngoscopy (DL). Minimal evidence informs the choice between Macintosh blade sizes during TI. We hypothesized that Macintosh 4 blade would have higher first-attempt success than Macintosh 3 blade during DL. DESIGN: Retrospective analysis using a propensity score and inverse probability weighting of data from six prior multicenter randomized trials. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Adult patients who underwent nonelective TI at participating emergency departments and ICUs. We compared the first-pass success of TI with DL in subjects intubated with a size 4 Macintosh blade on the first TI attempt to subjects with a size 3 Macintosh blade on the first TI attempt. MAIN RESULTS: Among 979 subjects, 592 (60.5%) had TI using DL with a Macintosh blade, of whom 362 (37%) were intubated with a size 4 blade and 222 (22.7%) with a size 3 blade. We used inverse probability weighting with a propensity score for analyzing data. We found that patients intubated with a size 4 blade had a worse (higher) Cormack-Lehane grade of glottic view than patients intubated with a size 3 blade (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 1.458; 95% CI, 1.064–2.003; p = 0.02). Patients intubated with a size 4 blade had a lower first pass success than those with a size 3 blade (71.1% vs 81.2%; aOR, 0.566; 95% CI, 0.372–0.850; p = 0.01). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: In critically ill adults undergoing TI using DL with a Macintosh blade, patients intubated using a size 4 blade on first attempt had a worse glottic view and a lower first pass success than patients intubated with a size 3 Macintosh blade. Further prospective studies are needed to examine the optimal approach to selecting laryngoscope blade size during TI of critically ill adults.
CARE: A Concurrency-Aware Enhanced Lightweight Cache Management Framework

Improving cache performance is a lasting research topic. While utilizing data locality to enhance cache performance becomes more and more difficult, data access concurrency provides a new opportunity for cache performance optimization. In this work, we propose a novel concurrency-aware cache management framework that outperforms state-of-the-art locality-only cache management schemes. First, we investigate the merit of data access concurrency and pinpoint that reducing the miss rate may not necessarily lead to better overall performance. Next, we introduce the pure miss contribution (PMC) metric, a lightweight and versatile concurrency-aware indicator, to accurately measure the cost of each outstanding miss access by considering data concurrency. Then, we present CARE, a dynamic adjustable, concurrency-aware, low-overhead cache management framework with the help of the PMC metric. We evaluate CARE with extensive experiments across different application domains and show significant performance gains with the consideration of data concurrency. In a 4-core system, CARE improves IPC by 10.3% over LRU replacement. In 8 and 16-core systems where more concurrent data accesses exist, CARE outperforms LRU by 13.0% and 17.1%, respectively.
MICROSCOPY SLIDE IMAGE SEGMENTATION OF INVASIVE MELANOMA

Melanoma is an aggressive form of skin cancer, where survival rates are high when caught early. Breslow thickness is a measure of the depth of tumor into the skin, which provides a metric on how far the melanoma has metastasized into the deeper regions of the skin. Traditionally, the Breslow thickness measurement is used to determine the stage and sever-ity of melanoma even though it does not take into account cross-sectional area, which has been shown to be more use-ful for prognostic and treatment purposes. In this paper we develop methods to estimate cross-sectional area of invasive melanoma by segmenting it out in whole-slide images (WSIs) from microscopes. We present two transformer-based methods to segment invasive melanoma. First, we design a custom segmentation model from a transformer backbone for classification pretrained on breast cancer WSIs, and adapt the architecture accordingly to segment melanoma. Second, we utilize a segmentation backbone pretrained on natural images and finetune it for the melanoma segmentation task. These approaches outperform existing work in terms of mean inter-section over union by up to 9% and 12% respectively, while also being more memory efficient and easier to train.
Computer analysis of multiple measurements with the sensor's quadratic transformation function

The object of research is multiple measurements. The research aims to improve the accuracy of multiple measurements with a non-linear and unstable sensor transformation function. It is proved that the redundant measurement equation ensures the independence of the measurement result from the parameters of the transformation function and their deviations from the nominal values. It was found that the result of redundant measurements is affected by the reproduction errors of normalized temperatures T1 and T2. It is shown that the best accuracy results are obtained with a reproduction error of normalized temperature T2 within ±1.0 % and temperature T1 within ±0.1 %. This makes it possible to reduce the accuracy requirements for the source of reproduction of normalized temperature Т2. The possibility of processing the results of multiple measurements by two approaches is presented. Computer modeling using the first approach found that with a reproduction error of normalized temperature T2 within ±0.5 %, the relative measurement error is 0.003 %. When modeling the second approach, the relative error is 0.05 %. It was also found that with an increase in the reproduction error of normalized temperature T2 to ±1.0 %, the value of the relative error is 0.04 %. Due to this, when applying the second approach, it becomes possible to choose a non-high-precision source of reproduction of normalized temperature T2. In addition, the sensitivity of the second approach to the digit range of measuring devices was found, which leads to the dependence of the measurement result on their accuracy. There are reasons to assert the possibility of increasing the accuracy of multiple measurements by processing the results of intermediate measurements according to redundant measurement equations using two approaches