Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of accelerated weathering on tensile properties of kenaf reinforced high-density polyethylene composites

In this study, a high-density polyethylene composite reinforced with kenaf (Hibiscus Cannabinus L.) bast fibres (K-HDPE) was fabricated and tested for durability with regard to weather elements. The material consists of 40% (by weight) fibres and 60% matrix. Other additives, such as ultraviolet (UV) stabiliser and maleic anhydride grafted polyethylene (MaPE) as a coupling agent were added to the composite material. The biocomposite was subjected to 1000 hours (h) of accelerated weathering tests, which consisted of heat, moisture and UV light, intended to imitate the outdoor environment. The tensile properties of the K-HDPE composite were recorded after 0, 200, 400, 600, 800 and 1000 h of exposure to the accelerated weathering. Compared with neat high-density polyethylene (HDPE), the K-HDPE composite has 22.7% lower tensile strength when produced but displays a less rapid rate of strength deterioration under weathering (After 1000 h of exposure the tensile strength of K-HDPE drops 29.4%, whereas, for neat HDPE, it falls rapidly by 36%). Due to better stiffness, the Young’s modulus of the K-HDPE composite is much higher than that of neat HDPE. The fibres on the surface of the K-HDPE composite gradually start to whiten after 200 h of exposure and become completely white after 600 h of exposure. For neat HDPE, micro-cracking on the surface can be observed after 200 h of exposure and the stress-strain curve obtained from the tensile test indicates its increase in brittleness proportional to the amount of weathering time.
Observer design for a class of singular stochastic nonlinear systems

In this paper, we deal with observer design for a class of nonlinear stochastic singular systems with multiplicative noises. The dynamics of the considered systems is described by a stochastic differential algebraic equation (SDAE) driven by a brownian motion. The nonlinearities of the dynamics are assumed to be one-sided Lipschitz. Based on the adaptation of Itô calculus for SDAE, we derived the conditions to obtain the almost surely exponential stability of the equilibrium point of the observation error. It is shown that the almost sure exponential convergence of the observation error could be treated by decoupling the state from this error. This is done by using a new theorem dedicated to triangular stochastic systems.
Accelerated titration designs for phase I clinical trials in oncology.

BACKGROUND Many cancer patients in phase I clinical trials are treated at doses of chemotherapeutic agents that are below the biologically active level, thus reducing their chances for therapeutic benefit. Current phase I trials often take a long time to complete and provide little information about interpatient variability or cumulative toxicity. PURPOSE Our objective was to develop alternative designs for phase I trials so that fewer patients are treated at subtherapeutic dose levels, trials are of reduced duration, and important information (i.e., cumulative toxicity and maximum tolerated dose) needed to plan phase II trials is obtained. METHODS We fit a stochastic model to data from 20 phase I trials involving the study of nine different drugs. We then simulated new data from the model with the parameters estimated from the actual trials and evaluated the performance of alternative phase I designs on this simulated data. Four designs were evaluated. Design 1 was a conventional design (similar to the commonly used modified Fibonacci method) using cohorts of three to six patients, with 40% dose-step increments and no intrapatient dose escalation. Designs 2 through 4 included only one patient per cohort until one patient experienced dose-limiting toxic effects or two patients experienced grade 2 toxic effects (during their first course of treatment for designs 2 and 3 or during any course of treatment for design 4). Designs 3 and 4 used 100% dose steps during this initial accelerated phase. After the initial accelerated phase, designs 2 through 4 resorted to standard cohorts of three to six patients, with 40% dose-step increments. Designs 2 through 4 used intrapatient dose escalation if the worst toxicity is grade 0-1 in the previous course for that patient. RESULTS Only three of the actual trials demonstrated cumulative toxic effects of the chemotherapeutic agents in patients. The average number of patients required for a phase I trial was reduced from 39.9 for design 1 to 24.4, 20.7, and 21.2 for designs 2, 3, and 4, respectively. The average number of patients who would be expected to have grade 0-1 toxicity as their worst toxicity over three cycles of treatment is 23.3 for design 1, but only 7.9, 3.9, and 4.8 for designs 2, 3, and 4, respectively. The average number of patients with grade 3 toxicity as their worst toxicity increases from 5.5 for design 1 to 6.2, 6.8, and 6.2 for designs 2, 3, and 4, respectively. The average number of patients with grade 4 toxicity as their worst toxicity increases from 1.9 for design 1 to 3.0, 4.3, and 3.2 for designs 2, 3, and 4, respectively. CONCLUSION Accelerated titration (i.e., rapid intrapatient drug dose escalation) designs appear to effectively reduce the number of patients who are under-treated, speed the completion of phase I trials, and provide a substantial increase in the information obtained.
Evaluation of polymerization shrinkage of resin cements through in vitro and in situ experiments

The aim of this study was to evaluate the behavior of two types of resin cements , conventional dual and dual self adhesive, through in vitro and in situ experiments. For the in vitro assay were selected two resin cements that were handled and dispensed over a mylar strip supported by a glass plate. The Bragg grating sensors were positioned and another portion of cement. was placed, covered by another mylar strip. For the in situ experiment 16 single-rooted teeth were selected who were divided into 2 groups: group 1 - conventional dual resin cement Relyx ARC and group 2 - dual self adhesive resin cement Relyx U200 ( 3M/ESPE ). The teeth were treated and prepared to receive the intracanal posts. Two Bragg grating sensors were recorded and introduced into the root canal at different apical and coronal positions. The results showed that the in vitro experiment presented similar values of polymerization shrinkage that the in situ experiment made in cervical position; whereas Relyx ARC resulted lower values compared to Relyx U200; and cervical position showed higher shrinkage than the apical.
Biomedical applications of polypeptide multilayer nanofilms and microcapsules

The past few years have witnessed considerable growth in synthetic polymer chemistry and physics, biomaterials science, and nano-scale engineering. Research on polypeptide multilayer films, coatings, and microcapsules is located at the intersection of these areas and are promising materials for applications in medicine, biotechnology, environmental science. Most envisioned applications of polypeptide multilayers have a biomedical bent. This dissertation on polypeptide multilayer film applications covers key points of polypeptides as materials, means of polymer production, film preparation, film characterization methods, and key points of current research in basic science. Both commercial and designed peptides have been used to fabricate films for in-vitro applications such as antimicrobial coatings and cell culture coatings and also microcapsules for drug delivery applications. Other areas of product development include artificial red blood cells, anisotropic coatings, enantioselective membranes, and artificial
Macrophage oxysterols and their binding proteins: roles in atherosclerosis

Purpose of review To offer a comprehensive review on the roles that oxysterols synthesized or engulfed by macrophages, or oxysterol-binding proteins in these cells, play in the development and progression of atherosclerotic lesions. Recent findings Oxysterols abundant within the plaque have the capacity to potentiate macrophage proinflammatory signaling and to induce cell death. These activities may contribute to formation of the complex lesion, expansion of the necrotic core, and to plaque rupture. On the contrary, several endogenous oxysterols generated by cholesterol hydroxylases act as ligands of liver X receptors, stimulate macrophage cholesterol efflux, repress proinflammatory signaling, and promote macrophage survival, counteracting lesion progression. Cytoplasmic oxysterol-binding proteins represent a family of sterol and phosphoinositide sensors that may contribute to the regulatory impact of these bioactive lipids on processes relevant in the context of atherogenesis. Summary The generation and deposition of oxysterols within the developing plaque is envisioned to modulate macrophage lipid metabolism, to affect the delicate balance of proinflammatory and anti-inflammatory processes, and to impact cell fate decisions, thus, determining whether the lesion remains benign or whether it develops into a hazardous, vulnerable plaque.
Comparison of clinical characteristics of amebic liver abscess in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected and non-HIV-infected patients.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Amebic liver abscess is an emerging parasitic disease in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients. Clinical characteristics of this disease have rarely been compared between patients with and without HIV infection. METHODS This retrospective study included 24 patients who had been diagnosed with amebic liver abscess during a 17-year period. The demographics, clinical manifestations, radiographic findings, and outcomes were compared between HIV-infected and non-HIV-infected patients. RESULTS Among 24 patients with amebic abscess, 8 were HIV-infected and 16 were non-HIV-infected. The mean (+/- standard deviation [SD]) age of HIV-infected patients was 41.0 +/- 11.3 years (range, 27-62 years), which was younger than that of the non-HIV-infected group (58.5 +/- 14.6 years; range, 27-77 years; p=0.01). Compared with non-HIV-infected controls, patients with HIV infection had lower white blood cell counts (median, 17.2 x 10(9)/L vs 10.4 x 10(9)/L; p=0.01), neutrophil/lymphocyte (N/L) ratio (median, 12.1 vs 2.7; p<0.01), total bilirubin (median, 42.7 micromol/L vs 13.7 micromol/L; p=0.02), blood urea nitrogen (median, 7.9 mmol/L vs 4.1 mmol/L; p=0.04), and creatinine (median, 114.9 micromol/L vs 88.4 micromol/L; p<0.01). On multivariate analysis, low N/L ratio remained a significant predictor for HIV infection (odds ratio, 0.49; 95% confidence interval, 0.264-0.912; p=0.024). No significant differences were observed in clinical manifestations, radiographic findings, and indirect hemagglutination titer between the 2 groups. CONCLUSION HIV-infected patients with amebic liver abscess tended to have a lower N/L ratio than non-HIV-infected comparators.
Process Independent Design Methodology for the Active RC and Single-Inverter-Based Rail Clamp

RC and single-inverter-based rail clamps are widely used in semiconductor products for electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection. We propose a technology-node-independent design methodology for these rail clamp circuits that takes process, voltage, and temperature variations into consideration. The methodology can be used as a cookbook by the designer or be used to automate the entire design process. Tradeoffs between various design metrics such as ESD performance (Human Body Model), leakage, and area are considered. Simplified circuit models for the rail clamp are presented to gain insights into its working and to size the circuit components. A rail clamp for core power domain is designed using the proposed approach in 40nm low-power process and performance results of the design are also presented. The effectiveness of the design methodology is proven in three different technology nodes by comparing the obtained design with the best design from among 250,000 designs obtained by randomly sampling from the design space.
Mel-frequency cepstral coefficient analysis in speech recognition

Speech recognition is a major topic in speech signal processing. Speech recognition is considered as one of the most popular and reliable biometric technologies used in automatic personal identification systems. Speech recognition systems are used for variety of applications such as multimedia browsing tool, access centre, security and finance. It allows people work in active environment to use computer. For a reliable and high accuracy of speech recognition, simple and efficient representation methods are required. In this paper, the zero crossing extraction and the energy level detection are applied to the recorded speech signal for voiced/unvoiced area detection. The detected voiced signals are applied for segmentation. Further, the MFCC method is applied to all of the segmented windows. The extracted MFCC data are further used as inputs for neural network training.
A Constitutively Active Dioxin/Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor Promotes Hepatocarcinogenesis in Mice

The dioxin/aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) functions as a ligand-activated transcription factor regulating transcription of a battery of genes encoding enzymes involved in drug metabolism. Known ligands include polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, certain polychlorinated biphenyls, and the polyhalogenated dioxins including 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin. Both polyhalogenated biphenyls and 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin are potent promoters of rodent hepatocarcinogenesis in two-stage initiation-promotion experiments. Although several lines of evidence indicate the involvement of the AhR in toxic effects mediated by polyhalogenated biphenyls and dioxins, its involvement in tumor promotion has not been unequivocally proven. In the present study, a transgenic mouse line expressing a constitutively active AhR (CA-AhR) has been used to investigate the role of the AhR in hepatocarcinogenesis. Male AhR wild-type and CA-AhR-transgenic B6C3F1-mice were treated with a single injection of the hepatocarcinogen N-nitrosodiethylamine at 6 weeks of age and were subsequently kept untreated on control diet. Thirty five weeks after carcinogen treatment, mice were sacrificed, and the prevalence and multiplicity of liver tumors were determined. Whereas only 1 small liver tumor was observed in 15 AhR-wild-type mice, 19 tumors (two >1 cm in diameter) were present in 18 CA-AhR-transgenic mice. This result demonstrates the oncogenic potential of the activated AhR and implicates an important role of the receptor in promotion of hepatocarcinogenesis. A microarray-based gene expression-profiling analysis revealed down-regulation in the liver of CA-AhR-transgenic mice of a cluster of genes encoding heat shock proteins, including GRP78/BiP, Herp1, Hsp90, DnaJ (Hsp40) homologue B1, and Hsp105, which are important for protein folding and quality control.
Vapor contribution to the time dependence of the effective diffusion coefficient in partially filled porous glasses

NMR microscopy of silica glasses with micrometer pores (Vitrapor#5) partially filled with water reveal heterogeneous distributions of the liquid on a length scale much longer than the pore dimension. This heterogeneity, which is not observed in MRI of saturated samples, is attributed to the spatial variation of the granular microstructure. As a consequence of the inhomogeneous filling degree, the effective transverse relaxation time varies, which in turn leads to NMR imaging contrasts. Since the spatial distribution of the transverse relaxation time prevents reliable measurements with the standard pulsed gradient stimulated echo technique (PGStE), a combination of the fringe field stimulated echo method (FFStE) on the one hand and the magnetization grid rotating frame imaging technique (MAGROFI) on the other was employed in our investigations. Using this combination four decades of the diffusion time from 100 μs to 1 s could be probed. The comparison of the experimental data with Monte Carlo simulations on a model structure has shown that the vapor phase contribution to the effective diffusivity is particularly efficient on a diffusion time scale corresponding to root mean squared displacements of the order of pores dimension.
DIVERSIFY: Ecology-inspired software evolution for diversity emergence

DIVERSIFY is an EU funded project, which aims at favoring spontaneous diversification in software systems in order to increase their adaptive capacities. This objective is founded on three observations: software has to constantly evolve to face unpredictable changes in its requirements, execution environment or to respond to failure (bugs, attacks, etc.): the emergence and maintenance of high levels of diversity are essential to provide adaptive capacities to many forms of complex systems, ranging from ecological and biological systems to social and economical systems; diversity levels tend to be very low in software systems. DIVERSIFY explores how the biological evolutionary mechanisms, which sustain high levels of biodiversity in ecosystems (speciation, phenotypic plasticity and natural selection) can be translated in software evolution principles. In this work, we consider evolution as a driver for diversity as a means to increase resilience in software systems. In particular, we are inspired by bipartite ecological relationships to investigate the automatic diversification of the server side of a client-server architecture. This type of software diversity aims at mitigating the risks of software monoculture. The consortium gathers researchers from the software-intensive, distributed systems and the ecology areas in order to transfer ecological concepts and processes as software design principles.
The expression of complement protein 4 and IgG3 in luminal secretions.

BACKGROUND Factors regulating proximal small-intestinal luminal concentrations of IgG3, the predominant IgG subclass at this site, are unclear. This study determined whether luminal IgG3 concentrations are related to those of complement protein 4 (C4), an acute-phase reactant predominantly derived from local mucosa. METHODS Proximal small-intestinal luminal and peripheral blood IgG subclass and C4 concentrations were measured by radial immunodiffusion in 30 adult subjects without predisposition to disturbed mucosal immunity. Mucosal C4 immunoreactivity and the presence or absence of small-intestinal bacterial overgrowth were determined in all subjects. Caecal luminal concentrations of IgG3 and C4 were measured in a separate cohort of eight asymptomatic subjects. RESULTS Proximal small-intestinal luminal C4 and IgG subclass concentrations were not significantly influenced by the presence of absence of small-intestinal bacterial overgrowth (P > 0.2). Nor did plasma C4 levels significantly influence C4 concentrations in small-intestinal luminal secretions (P > 0.2). Mucosal immunoreactivity for C4 was present in every subject. A significant correlation was found between C4 and IgG3 concentrations in proximal small-intestinal luminal secretions (P < 0.0005) and also in caecal secretions (P < 0.05) but not in peripheral blood (P > 0.1). CONCLUSIONS Common factors, not including the presence or absence of small-intestinal bacterial overgrowth, regulate luminal concentrations of C4 and IgG3. Local investigation is mandatory when assessing mucosal immune mechanisms.
A k-hyperplane-based neural network for non-linear regression

For the time series prediction problem, the relationship between the abstracted independent variables and the response variable is usually strong non-linear. We propose a neural network fusion model based on k-hyperplanes for non-linear regression. A k-hyperplane clustering algorithm is developed to split the data to several clusters. The experiments are done on an artificial time series, and the convergence of k-hyperplane clustering algorithm and neural network gradient training algorithm is examined. The dimension of inputs affect the clustering performance very much. Neural network fusion can get some compensation in performance. It is shown that the prediction performance of the model for the time series is very good. The model can be further exploited for many real applications.
Several Types of Residuals in Cox Regression Model: An Empirical Study

There are several methods for calculating residual in survival analysis, especially in Cox regression model by which each method has specific use, such as goodness-of-fit, to identify possible outliers and influential observations, or in general to check necessary assumptions. In this article, we study four methods of residuals, namely Schoenfeld, Martingale, deviance, and score residuals and we applied those methods on cardiovascular data.
Robust Recursive Estimation in the Presence of Heavy-Tailed Observation Noise

A first-order approximation is derived for the conditional prior distribution of the state of a discrete-time stochastic linear dynamic system in the presence of ? -contaminated normal observation noise. This distribution is then used to derive a first-order approximation of the conditional mean (minimum-variance) estimator. If the observation noise distribution can be represented as a member of the e-contaminated normal neighborhood, then the conditional prior is also, to first order, an analogous perturbation from a normal distribution whose first two moments are given by the Kalman filter. Moreover, the perturbation is itself of a special form, combining distributions whose parameters are given by banks of parallel Kalman filters and optimal smoothers.
Interaction of Microbiome and the Innate Immune Response in Chronic Wounds

Microbes colonizing and/or infecting chronic wounds undoubtedly play a major and interactive role in impaired healing, especially in amplifying and perpetuating the host innate immune response. The development of molecular techniques to identify and quantify microbial organisms has revolutionized our view of the microbial world. These less-biased, high throughput methods greatly enable investigations regarding host-microbe interactions in the chronic wound environment. This review focuses on the mounting evidence implicating microbes and excessive inflammation in chronic wounds, as well as the challenges associated with understanding how microbes modulate wound healing and the innate immune response.
Pixel-Planes 4: A Summary

We describe the current state of the Pixel-planes research project, whose goal is to develop powerful raster graphics systems for the next generation of workstations, The first full-scale prototype has been in regular use in our department's computer graphics laboratory since its first demonstration at SIGGRAPH '86, more than a year ago, We describe the final hardware configuration of the prototype system, filling in some of the engineering details heretofore unpublished, Next we outline the programming environment for the machine and summarize the major algorithms that have been developed, Finally we discuss our progress towards a new generation of the Pixel-planes architecture, Pixel planes 5.
Selberg's zeta function and the spectral geometry of geometrically finite hyperbolic surfaces

For hyperbolic Riemann surfaces of finite geometry, we study Selberg's zeta function and its relation to the relative scattering phase and the resonances of the Laplacian. As an application we show that the conjugacy class of a finitely generated, torsion-free, discrete subgroup of $\SL(2,{\mathbb R})$ is determined by its trace spectrum up to finitely many possibilities, thus generalizing results of McKean [20] and Muller [23] to groups which are not necessarily cofinite